Memory lane part two

'My first day as a member of the 3rd regiment...it was hot, sandy, chaotic, nothing at all like the training in Iwa. Of course, that's pretty much the way it was for all of us, wasn't it? All that preparation, all those years of training... it doesn't really prepare you for all the screaming or the blood, does it? Frankly I'm still amazed we ever made it through the first hour in Suna, never mind the first day.'

Exerpt from journal of Ozawa Daisuke, Jonin of Iwagakure, 3rd regiment, First Shinobi War, Suna theatre of operations.

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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything that I make references to in this story. This is a fanfiction that I make no profit off of. I'm just doing this for fun.

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Inoichi POV:

Inoichi had just returned home from interrogating a missing nin that had been tracked down and captured just a week prior. He was in his kitchen, kissing his wife passionately, when he heard pounding on the door.

"Again?" He growled, pulling away from her.

"It might be important." Kauri said, her brown hair tussled from their activities just a moment ago.

Growling under his breath about 'shit timing', Inoichi walked over to the door and stretch out his senses. What he felt had him running to the door.

He felt Asuma's chakra and he felt his daughter's chakra and her most prevalent emotions.

Fear and shame.

Pulling the door open harshly, he saw Asuma holding Ino, blood coming from her nose, and she was crying uncontrollably.

"Ino," he gasped, looking at his sobbing daughter, "What happened?"

"I didn't mean to," She cried, "I'm sorry." she sobbed.

Inoichi looked at Asuma desperately, his look begging him to tell him what happened.

"She jumped into Naruto's mind." He said softly.

Inoichi froze, his thoughts grinding to a halt.

'Please no. There's too many dangerous things in there.'

Ino would have had her mind shredded if she encountered the Kyuubi. Even he wouldn't have escape completely unscathed if he came across it in Naruto's mind unless he broke the connection quickly.

Ino, based upon her bleeding nose, had been violently driven from Naruto's mind, something Inoichi experienced first hand when mind jumping as a teenager, learning to pierce someone's defenses.

'Naruto has the strongest mind I've ever seen for someone his age. Ino would have been totally unprepared for how vicious the bite back would be. How the hell did she even get into his mind in the first place? Her chakra isn't potent enough yet, nor is her control good enough.'

Cursing himself for not telling her to never jump into Naruto or Rin's minds, he walked towards Ino and engulfed her into a hug.

"It's ok, sweety," He caressed her hair softly, trying to help calm her, "Tell me what happened?" he asked softly.

He felt his daughter's shaking lighten some, before she looked up to his eyes.

"I w-was sparring with Naruto and h-he beat me," She said slowly, trying to keep her voice steady and failing, "He said I was getting better, but that I was six years too late to beat him."

Inoichi just nodded and continued to look down at her, still holding on to her.

"He said no Ninjutsu, but he used them against Asuma-sensei. So I did it too. He said 'If you ain't cheating, you ain't winning'."

Truer words aren't often spoken amongst Shinobi.

Ninja weren't Samurai. The samurai had a code of honour, but a Shinobi's ethics derived from one of two things. Will it help me survive, and will it help my friends survive?

"He turned his back and I jumped into his mind." She started shaking again.

Inoichi just held her tighter to let her know he was here, that she wasn't alone.

"What did you see?" he asked, worry leaking into his tone.

Ino started breathing shallowly, her left hand rising up to her chest.

"It hurt so much. I couldn't breathe." She choked out.

Inoichi stiffened.

'Naruto's feeling when the Kyuubi attacked was a paralysing terror at being unable to breathe. The sealing felt like my tenketsu had been lit on fire, and that was when I insulated my mind from the memory, something Ino isn't as well versed in doing.'

Inoichi knelt down to Ino and looked directly into her eyes.

"What else?" he asked gently, concealing his fear, "What else did you see?"

Ino's eyes were slightly glazed, a very bad sign.

"So much Killing Intent." she whispered.

Inoichi felt an icy dagger work it's way into his heart, his worst fear becoming a reality right in front of him.

"Ino," He said, trying to keep his voice steady, "I need to look into your mind. I can make it go away. Do you trust me?" he asked.

Ino seemed to snap out of her trance slightly, her eyes refocusing on his face, before she nodded.

"Yes, daddy." she said weakly.

Inoichi smiled softly and stood up.

"Are you ready?" he asked softly.

Ino simply nodded, her eyes bloodshot from crying, and her nose having stopped bleeding.

Inoichi looked directly into her eyes and made a handsign to enter his daughter's mind.

He felt his consciousness jump forward, his living room disappearing from his view. He looked around his daughter's mind, looking for the most recent memories of today.

The way his daughter structured her mind was like the flower shop, each row where flowers should be were memories.

He 'walked' down a row and found the training memories from today, amused by what Naruto did to irritate Sasuke. He felt distinctly uncomfortable when he noticed how Ino's thoughts drifted to a more mature kind as she eyed the last Uchiha, as well as remembering Uzumaki Naruto several weeks ago without his shirt after sparring against Hatake.

'I don't need this now, move forward.'

He slowly sped up the memories, feeling the anger at Rin and his daughter's feeling of inadequacy at seeing herself as the weakest of her team. He got to the surprise she felt when Naruto requested to spar with her. Naruto had Henged to look like her and limited himself to the speed and strength she displayed when she first graduated. Inoichi felt the discomfort Ino felt at Naruto being in her personal space, her arms restrained in Naruto's grip. Inoichi focused on what Naruto said and did after that.

'He wants her to know that she shouldn't compare herself to him and Rin.'

Naruto seemed to understand why Ino was worked up over being beaten, wanting to let her know she was getting better, even if it didn't look like it at first.

Inoichi felt Ino's mischievous thoughts as Naruto turned his back. The thought of getting one over the boy who always seemed to have a comeback, some little quip that didn't have a counter.

She made the handsign, jumping into Naruto's mind. Inoichi felt her shock when she heard Kakashi and Asuma shouting. But she was even more so when she felt the terror coming from Naruto.

'He might have been too shocked or frightened to make his mind focus against an intruder.'

Naruto had been guarded whenever Inoichi had done follow-up appointments following him nearly being killed six years ago. He assumed it was because Naruto was more sensitive to foreign chakra after his Yin chakra was freed from his seal. He'd never mentioned his sensory abilities until after the incident. It was strange, but not impossible, that Naruto's sensing ability was blocked by the detachment of some of his Yin chakra.

'Naruto had trouble letting me in afterwards. The logical reason I could think of is that he could actually feel me enter his mind.'

Naruto would try and steer Inoichi away from certain parts of his mind, those parts causing terror to Naruto.

'Probably the Kyuubi attack and him nearly being killed.'

Those sections almost appeared to have a seam run through them, like they hadn't completely rejoined, but the seams faded over time until they couldn't be seen.

Inoichi focused back to why he was here, to see what Ino had seen.

Inoichi recognized the first memory. The memory being a very private one. Naruto was screaming at Rin, demanding why she had betrayed him.

His emotions and thoughts were flailing around.

Inoichi felt pained at the thought of Ino struggling to insulate her mind from Naruto's anguished thoughts of being alone, the person he held most precious seemingly abandoning him.

"I don't know you."

The next memory Ino was pulled into was what happened that very night, in an alley by a hospital.

Inoichi had already seen this memory, but it almost seemed more tortuous this time because he knew his daughter had experienced it almost as intensely as Naruto had.

'I should have told her to never do a mind jump into Naruto or Rin.'

It was an oversight. An idiotic oversight that had bit them in the ass.

The Genjutsu took hold, Naruto's thoughts drowning in despair at what he repeatedly saw, screaming words that weren't understandable. The blast of chakra that caused a burning feeling in his tenketsu. The kunai piercing his chest.

But that was when the memory felt different.

There hadn't been a nauseating level of Killing Intent when this happened and the difficulty breathing seemed worse.

'Did Ino almost stumble across an echo of the Kyuubi memory? Did I miss it the first time I saw this? It could be possible, this memory here was seen by her years after it happened. Naruto might have seen this as a part of the Kyuubi attack in his psyche, polluting the sensations in this memory with another.'

The inability to breath was still there, although worse now. Naruto had been blindly grabbing at something, probably the blunted kunai he had dropped when the Shinobi had driven a knee into his gut.

Again, the memory was slightly different than before.

An individual with a lightning affinity stood above him, chakra radiating from his hands. The hands grabbed ahold of him and lifted him up. That was when Ino was blasted from Naruto's mind, the connection breaking.

'The signature felt similar to Kakashi's, but different. Did Ino's jump mess with Naruto's memory unintentionally?'

A torture method the Yamanaka had thought of to get information out of strong willed individuals during the Warring States period involved something like that. When they couldn't get information, the Yamanaka would splice individual memories or strings of emotion and put them together. It was easier to cut apart and 'glue' together faces and emotions that were already entrenched in the prisoners mind than it was to falsify memories for the sake of torture.

Giving a false memory of killing your children was easier to see through if you didn't have a good memory template. 'Shiny' was what the false ones were described as when they were tested on Yamanaka volunteers.

But putting the face of the prisoner's daughter, who would preferably resemble her mother, onto the mother's body in a memory of the prisoner making love to his wife was more effective. No father wants a memory of them sleeping with their daughter forced into their heads, being nearly unable to differentiate it from reality. Any memory that involved the father hugging or embracing his daughter would have the feelings of desire he had around his wife sewn into it to further fortify the terror in their minds. Henging an aide to look like the daughter would be the final step of the mind game.

The accuracy and the near inability to see through the false memory was reliant upon the individuals in the target memories and the content source. Memories that involved killing enemy Shinobi that surrendered could never work when you want a false memory of a man killing his brother. The enemy nin meant nothing to him, he had no love for them, in contrast to the love he has for his brother. But memories of those you love could and did work. Even if love of children and love for lovers were very different, they were still located in the same part of someone's mind.

Inoichi had no doubts whatsoever that a highly skilled Yamanaka would be able to twist Naruto's memories of a friend into that of a lover if there was a reason to, if they had a stronger will than him in the first place. The only method that was found to potentially break through it involved intense Genjutsu torture that caused implanted memories, no matter how well crafted, to unravel.

'Thank Kami there's only a few who have the skill to do that.'

Inoichi, as the clan head, and his father and a few cousins knew how to do it. It was one of the most dangerous memory techniques they had, as it ran the risk of melting the targets entire mental state if done incorrectly.

'I need to check on Naruto to make sure that wasn't what happened accidentally when Ino jumped in his mind.'

Inoichi prepared to leave his daughter's mind, but before he did, he grasped ahold of the memories she witnessed and pulled. The terror and anguish that went unfiltered into her mind was muted to the degree that Inoichi himself had felt when his insulation was active.

His vision changed back to normal, and his living room and his daughter came back into view.

He saw that Ino's eyes were no longer unfocused and she was no longer shaking. But her emotions still showed that she felt shame for what she did.

"Feel better?" He asked her, his hands on her shoulders.

She nodded to him, her face relaxed.

"You'll have a headache for some time," he explained, "Sleep is the most helpful for me when something like this happens." he finished.

Ino nodded again, her eyes downcast.

"Will Naruto be okay?" She asked quietly.

"I'll need to see him to be certain." He replied kindly, "But I don't think he will have lasting damage if he has any."

Ino didn't seem to care though. "I felt everything in the memories I saw," she whispered, "He's terrified of losing Rin and anyone close to him. He's scared of being weak." she whispered.

"And I hurt him."

Inoichi continued to hug her. "Your mother will be here with you," he said gently, "Where is Naruto right now?" he asked Asuma, looking towards the other man.

"Hospital on the east side." he replied.

Ironic.

Inoichi let go of Ino, kissing the top of her head.

"He won't blame you," Inoichi told her, "You didn't know what would happen. I should have told you to never enter his or Rin's minds, they have traumatic memories."

Ino seemed to slump at the last part, but nodded her understanding.

"I'll be back." He promised, before following Asuma to the hospital.

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Sasuke pov:

Rin had practically dragged him to the hospital to check on Naruto, Hinata right behind them. He could tell she was frantic about seeing her brother, something that seemed over the top, even for her.

'What the hell even happened to Naruto?'

He didn't know the details of the Yamanaka's mind Jutsus, but he was pretty certain it wasn't supposed to cause the user to get a nosebleed and the target to start rambling in another language, blindly grabbing at something and then attacking someone.

He felt Rin's hand tighten around his own as he walked/was dragged through the streets to the hospital, his hand beginning to hurt. He noticed a few of the civilians doing a double take at the 'Precious Uchiha heir' holding hands with the 'demon bitch'. He still had no damned clue why the two were hated so much.

The only clues he had going was that according to something he overheard Kiba say, Naruto, and Rin even more so, smelled like a fox. Both Rin and Naruto had birthmarks on their faces that looked like whiskers, both of them had slightly longer canines than anyone but the Inuzuka, and Naruto, Rin, and Kakashi flinched when he jokingly called Naruto 'Fox' that one time.

Maybe their mother or father was something like what the Inuzuka are, except for foxes instead of dogs.

The Inuzuka had more 'feral' behavior and looks compared to others. Most of the reason was because their chakra was more attuned to their ninken, which seemed to, at least what his grandparents' generation of Uchiha theorized in the journals he came across in the clan library, imprint on the Inuzuka's chakra. The chakra imprint would cause them to adopt slight physical similarities to their ninken, mainly enhanced hearing, sense of smell, and their canines becoming more prominent.

'I've never heard of a clan similar to the Inuzuka with a connection to foxes though.'

It might have been a small clan that their mother or father was a member of and had fled the war, finding refuge in Konoha. Sasuke didn't know, and he wouldn't pressure the two to tell him. His teammates knew when to not press him on certain subjects. They'd force him to talk, but not about things he didn't want to. He was fine with them dragging him into a conversation, but not one that involved his family or what happened that night. Those things were private, only to be brought up on his own terms, which they thankfully knew.

They finally reached the hospital and he was able to pry his hand out of Rin's grip. Looking towards Hinata, Rin voiced her thoughts.

"What room is he in?"

Hinata activated her eyes, the veins expanding around her eyes.

"Room 17," she said, "He doesn't look happy."

The way she said it made Sasuke slightly worried. It sounded uncertain and borderline fright.

'Naruto does things that are considered almost cruel when he's bored. What the hell would he do when he's pissed or not in his right mind?'

Sasuke remembered all too well what Naruto did and said to him during the bell test, the memory sticking with him.

"Come on." Rin demanded, grabbing ahold of his hand again.

Sasuke swore he heard the bones in his hand pop slightly.

He was dragged towards the room, hearing shouting from the other side of the hallway.

"If you tie me down, I'm gonna shit in your fucking bed and piss all over your fucking toilet seat, bitch! I'm gonna pull this bedsheet up and around your head and proceed to Skullfuck you!"

'What the hell is happening?' Sasuke would deny a thousand times that he was nervous, more like guarded about entering the room.

The three of them entered the room and saw two nurses and a doctor right next to the bed Naruto was in, Kakashi watching the spectacle.

"You need to calm down, young man," The doctor said, trying to put what looked like a chakra suppressant tag on Naruto, "your chakra is constantly flaring. I need to put this on you."

"I'm flaring it on purpose," He snarled, sparing Sasuke and his teammates a glance, "I got mind fucked by a Yamanaka and I can still feel her fucking chakra in me."

Naruto's Killing Intent made the air feel thick to Sasuke and he hid his discomfort.

"There's nothing in your system," The doctor countered sharply, "You're not thinking clearly. The mind jump might have addled your thoughts."

The red haired Uzumaki's face twisted into a feral one and Sasuke could swear he heard him actually growling.

"I'm perfectly fine," Naruto stated, "Kakashi," He turned to their Sensei, "Tell this fucking muppet I'm fine. I don't want a damn tag put on me that will burn out in seconds."

Naruto then trailed off into growling several words under his breath that Sasuke didn't understand, but Rin evidently did based on her reaction.

Kakashi just rolled his eye. "Naruto, you're not thinking reasonably," he said simply, "I don't know whether Ino's chakra is still in your system or not, but you need to stop flaring your chakra, it's scaring people."

"Well fuck them and fuck you," Naruto raised his hand to flip off his Sensei, his expression still wrathful, "I can't even sense you properly because her fucking chakra is still in my tenketsu. It's worse than Kurenai."

Kakashi seemed to lose his patience with the red haired boy and stepped forward, the air crackling sharply. "Your eyes are violet and slanted, Naruto." he said firmly.

Naruto seemed to still for a moment, before forcing himself to take a deep breath, leaning into the bed.

The Killing Intent subsided, his fists still clenched.

"Don't put a tag on me," he glared at the doctor, "I'll stop flaring my damn chakra."

The doctor nodded, him and the nurses stepping away.

The three went to leave and the doctor looking at Kakashi.

"Make sure he behaves," he whispered, "Two children were born today and they were screaming when he flared his chakra."

Sasuke saw Naruto twitch in the bed.

'He heard that. I could barely hear it and I was several feet closer. It has to be a bloodline, nothing else makes sense.'

After they left, it was just Team 7, Kakashi, and Naruto.

"Why'd you get angry out of nowhere?" Kakashi asked, requesting the answer.

Naruto closed his eyes, the normal blue visible after he opened them.

"You know how I act when that gets brought up," he said, giving a knowing look, "My sensing is off, my head is pounding, and I feel like I'm dying."

Rin decided to step in.

"What happened?" she asked, "What did Ino see?" she spat the other girls name like it left a foul taste.

Naruto's face was twisted in a grimace, before answering.

"She saw the memory of what happened in the alley." he said quietly, his hands scratching at his temples.

Sasuke heard Rin and Hinata gasp audibly, the two evidently understanding what he meant by that.

If he reacted this badly, it had to have been a bad memory.

What Naruto said next surprised him and everyone else in the room.

"Sasuke, can you leave the room?"

Sasuke raised a brow.

"Why?" he asked.

Naruto was avoiding making eye contact with him.

"I think Ino pushed some of her thoughts and feelings into my mind. I keep thinking of random types of flowers and how hot you look."

Sasuke almost choked on his spit from the abrupt intake of air he took at what the hell he just heard.

'What!?'

"You," Sasuke trailed off, having clue what to say to that.

"Actually," Naruto continued, "Could the three of you leave? There's too many different chakra signatures and it's hurting my head." he finished, his eyes shut and his voice tight.

Rin looked at Naruto sadly, but nodded and turned to leave.

"I'll tell you what's going on once I'm out." Naruto said softly, looking at his sister.

Sasuke and Hinata turned to leave as well, following Rin who seemed to know her way around the hospital.

They made a couple turns and found their way to a waiting room, where Rin made a beeline to a chair near one of the free tables and sat down, her head dropping onto the table with a soft thud.

"Ino," He heard her growl quietly, "I knew she was a dumb bitch, but I didn't think she'd be this stupid."

The anger Rin had almost seemed like Naruto's, but directed at one person. Sasuke had no idea what to say and hoped that Hinata could calm the girl down.

"Rin," Hinata scolded her, "Don't say that. Ino didn't realize that Naruto had traumatic memories. She probably didn't know what to do when she came across it."

Sasuke was even more curious on what the memory was.

"What memory did she see?" He asked, looking towards Rin.

Rin's head jerked up and she leaned towards him, her violet eyes glaring at him.

He leaned back slightly, shocked by the amount of anger in her gaze. Gone was the girl that intentionally poked and harassed him, this was the girl that could actually kill him if she tried to.

Thankfully, she seemed to calm down, her features softening.

"I don't think Naruto would have a problem with you knowing." She mumbled.

Sasuke waited patiently as Rin seemed to ready herself to tell him.

"When we were six," She said quietly, "We had a fight and Naruto ran away," She took a deep breath, "Someone told him I'd been taken to the hospital and Naruto believed it."

Sasuke just sat there quietly, entranced by how completely different Rin seemed compared to when he was normally around her.

The last near few months caused him to start seeing Rin and Hinata as more than just simple teammates. The forced interactions Kakashi had Rin and him do also helped him to see her as more than the blonde terror at the Academy. He was close to the point of tossing his caution aside and confide in them as friends.

He didn't tell Naruto one of the reasons why he was disgusted when he did his female Henge. One, he knew it was Naruto, a guy, under the Henge and was acting like that. The second reason was one that frightened him.

Naruto reminded him of Rin.

Even if they were fraternal twins, they still had similar mannerisms and the inflections in their voices. Naruto's female voice could have almost passed as Rin's if you weren't paying attention. He didn't want to think of Rin doing any of the things Naruto joked about or doing something more than jokingly flirting with him.

Even if he didn't show it and despite the relentless tormenting from Naruto, he considered Rin to be very pretty. Hinata was as well, but Rin was different. She seemed to positively glow when she was happy. She felt like the sun, she could be warm and bright, but you could get burnt if you weren't careful when she was angry.

She was just as strong as he was, if not more so, she was pretty, and she was kind. She was everything he could ever want in a girl. But he was frightened by how easy it would be. Easy to let go of the armour he put around his heart.

But he couldn't.

He overheard Ino's father talk of what Itachi did to Izumi the day after he woke up from the Genjutsu Itachi put on him. Her mind had been nearly melted by the ame Genjutsu that was used on him. Inoichi couldn't even decipher what the genjutsu even was due to the damage done.

'If he was willing to do that to someone who loved him, what would he do to Rin, Hinata, and Naruto?'

Sasuke remembered how Shisui acted around Itachi. Shisui would always make light of a situation, always remaining upbeat but professional when needed. Itachi almost seemed to be a different person when his 'best friend' was around.

'Naruto almost seems to act like Shisui...What would that make me?'

Sasuke shuddered at that. He didn't want to think of his own reclusive behavior as the same as his. Rin had managed to continue what she was saying, her eyes shining slightly.

"Naruto was led to an alley, by this hospital, and the person tried to kill him."

'Six? Six years old when this happened?'

Sasuke wasn't looking forward to hearing what was next, memories he tried to suppress were letting him know they weren't gone.

"He was put under a Genjutsu," she said, her voice shaking slightly, "An ANBU tried to help, but he was too late. The man threw a kunai at Naruto...it hit him in the chest." She finished.

:No wonder he was gasping for air.'

Naruto had almost been killed in a way that was a nightmare to Sasuke. Not being able to breathe as everything faded to black.

"That's why he reacted that way." He said softly.

He had wondered what could have possibly rattled Naruto so much that he looked at Kakashi with such raw vulnerability after regaining consciousness, like how a small child would look at a parent.

'Or an older sibl- no. Don't think of that.'

He didn't want to think of those memories or comparisons. This had been a productive and daresay good day. He didn't need it stained with his nightmares.

Rin just looked away from him, not wanting to talk further.

"He'll be fine," he said awkwardly, not exactly knowing what to say to help his blonde teammate, "He's strong enough to argue and shout at the doctor's. He'll probably be out within an hour."

Rin just snorted slightly, "Probably." she said simply. "There's a cafeteria not far, you guys want food? I'm buying." She added, looking at him and Hinata.

"Yes," Hinata answered, "That sounds nice."

Rin turned her gaze towards him, requesting an answer.

"Sure," he said, "I could use some food."

Rin seemed to get back some of her exuberance as she smiled and stood up, walking towards the hallway, probably heading to the cafeteria.

Sasuke and Hinata both followed, letting Rin guide them.

'If Naruto is Shisui, I won't be him. I'd rather die than end up like that. I won't kill Naruto. I won't kill Hinata. I won't kill Rin.'

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Naruto POV:

'I'm going to give Inoichi and Asuma a rash of shit for this.'

My head was pounding and my emotions felt like they were barely in my control, especially towards Sasuke. I don't know why, but I had the instinctive need to punch him, all the while Ino's thoughts about him and me were clashing with the feeling in a constant whiplash.

I didn't blame Ino. She didn't know better. She never thought that jumping into my mind would be like swan diving onto a landmine. Her idiotic father and chain-smoking, dipshit Sensei should have fucking told her not to mind jump me or Rin under any circumstance.

My chakra started responding to my rage again and I dug a canine into my tongue to force my mind to focus on not giving in to being angrier.

'Deep breath. Calm down. No point in getting worked up again.'

My sensing was messed up and Kakashi's chakra felt weird now. When I was trapped in the memory and when he shocked me, it felt almost foreign. Whatever he did evidently corrected it partially, as it didn't feel completely different now. It felt like I was looking through a dirty window, unfocused and discoloured.

I didn't care what Kakashi or the damned doctor said, Ino's chakra was in my system. Whenever Inoichi did a mind walk, there'd be a faint echo of his chakra, sometimes having a nearly imperceptive emotion tied to it, normally muted focus. Ino's felt like the equivalent of a bass boosted Soviet National Anthem being blasted point blank into my eardrums. Ino obviously didn't know what to do when jumping into the mind of someone who had such a staggering ratio difference of chakra strength to her.

I'd tried to flush her chakra out in the way I did with Hinata's when she'd tag me with a Juken strike, but it wasn't working. Ino's, for lack of a better term, felt slippery. Hinata's and Neji's chakra burned when it lingered in my tenketsu, likely from them having a fire affinity.

'It would make sense that fire would be countered by my water affinity. Water trumps fire, and my chakra is significantly more potent than a Hyuga's.'

If I had to guess, Ino had a water affinity, which made it a pain in the ass for me to rinse my system out with chakra blasts. Her lingering chakra had some of her sensations and emotion in it. I freely admit that I'm self-confident in my ability, along with a noticeable amount of arrogance, but I wasn't so narcissistic to think how hot I looked without a shirt.

I wanted Inoichi to get his ass here so I could mess with him. Once I had my pound of flesh, I'd call it even. But he wasn't here yet, only Kakashi was.

"So," Kakashi prompted, the door closing as Rin, Hinata, and Sasuke left, "How are you feeling, really?"

I winced at his tone.

"Sorry for being a dick," I replied, trying to avoid eye contact right now, "I'm not exactly comfortable having a girl's feelings in my damn head. It would be like you wanting to get screwed by Asuma if Kurenai's feelings got pushed into your head."

Kakashi cringed at that, not wanting to imagine the thought.

"And not even you doing the screwing," I continued, "you'd be getting screwed, or you screwing yourself, given that Ino evidently can't decide who's better looking, me or Sasuke."

"Inoichi probably won't like hearing that." Kakashi said to himself.

"Yeah, well, he and Asuma can fuck off for now."

Kakashi raised a brow in question.

"Care to be more tactful in your clarification?" He asked politely, sitting back in a chair and focusing on me.

"Neither thought it was important to warn Ino to not do any mind shit to me or Rin." I said simply.

"They probably overlooked it." He said, trying to probably prevent me from staying pissed.

"The same way I overlooked cooking my brain with lightning chakra?" I asked rhetorically.

Kakashi shot a look at me.

"That's different."

"Not really," I said, "I didn't realize exactly what would happen if I wasn't careful... Inoichi and Asuma know precisely what would happen if an inexperienced Yamanaka tried to do what Ino did. Do you know how close she was to stumbling across Mr. Big, pissed, and furry?" I asked.

Kakashi's glare turned into worry when I mentioned the last part.

"How close?" he asked.

"Enough to rattle the tightenings." I said, before seeing his eye widen further, "She didn't damage anything," I added, trying to prevent him from assuming the worst, "Her ham-fisted jump caused more of its chakra to get dumped into my system, probably why I'm pissed right now, too much anger."

Even with the tightenings, the Bijuu chakra that leaked through was still enough to elevate my anger or frustration to borderline rage. I wouldn't have been shouting at everyone with as much venom if I'd had a clear head.

Kakashi seemed to relax slightly at my clarification.

"How bad was the memory?" He asked quietly, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"Almost as bad as it was when it first happened." I whispered softly.

Again, the Genjutsu was the worst part. I don't know what the hell Ino accidentally did, but the part where I couldn't breathe seemed different. I didn't experience Killing Intent when I hadn't been able to breathe during that memory. The Kyuubi attack was different. I remembered that one. It poked at one of the terrors I had of being somehow unmade.

My memories were precious to me and anything that involved mixing them together or damaging them was nearly sacrilegious to me. Something that was inconceivable to me in my past life.

"I think she did something to the memory," I said, looking to Kakashi's visible eye, "I didn't feel Killing Intent when I got stabbed."

Kakashi was about to say something, when my head tilted to the left. Even with my muddled sensory ability, I felt a wind and water affinity coming towards the room, the water one almost feeling like what was currently refusing to get purged from my system.

'I'm going to be an asshole to let Inoichi know how pissed I am that I had to relive that memory and how close his daughter got to being severely hurt or killed from an avoidable oversight.'

Inoichi and Asuma entered the room, Inoichi looking mildly uncomfortable.

"Naruto." He said, shifting uncomfortably.

"Inoichi-san," I greeted him with mock cheer, "I must congratulate you on such an amazing daughter you made. Even when she isn't even in the room, I can't seem to get her off my mind. I yearn for her." I finished desperately.

Inoichi's eyes shot straight to mine, his shock visible at what I just said about his little girl.

"Wha-"

"She left her wetness all over me," I continued with a lecherous tone, not hiding the venom in my voice either, "And I left something so dirty in her."

Kakashi looked to be trying to not say something at how I was framing my words.

Inoichi's face was turning a distressing puce colour, his expression twisted into one of disgust.

"Are you finished?" He demanded.

"Funny," I said, "I think she said that as well."

Kakashi let out a snort. Whether it be from amusement or resignment at my intent to piss of Inoichi, I didn't care.

Inoichi glared daggers at me.

"I'm not in the mood for your jests," He said angrily, "I had to console my daughter, find out she likes both you and Sasuke, and I had to pull your emotions from the memories she saw," his breathing had deepened, "I don't want to hear any of your juvenile attempts at angering me."

Inoichi evidently realized he might have said too much about Ino liking me, because he grimaced uncomfortably.

I just shrugged, glaring at him a moment later.

"This could have been avoided if you two jackasses had made sure she knew to not mind jump into Rin or me."

Both Inoichi and Asuma flinched at that, looking down at the floor for a moment.

"It was an oversight." Inoichi whispered, shame in his tone.

I just shook my head.

"Doesn't matter. I got to relive a shitty memory, and Ino got a front row seat." I said, taking a deep breath to try and calm down.

I needed to control this. I needed to be in control of my emotions.

'Focus on Ino. Is she okay?'

"How is she?" I asked, genuinely worried that I hurt her.

"She didn't know how to filter out the intensity of the emotions you were feeling in those memories." Inoichi said, "I had to remove the emotions from them myself." he flinched, "It wasn't pleasant."

At that, I thought of something to ask.

"Does she have a water affinity?"

Inoichi looked up at me.

"I do," he said, "but I'm not sure about her. Why do you ask?"

"I can feel her chakra in my system," I said, "I can't flush it out like a Hyuga's."

Inoichi tilted his head and thought about it.

"Hmm," Inoichi nodded, "How does it feel?"

"Like I'm trying to staple Jell-O to a tree." I deadpanned.

Inoichi nodded again.

"That sounds like what happens when a mind jump is interrupted," he muttered, "Some leftover chakra remains in the target for a little while."

"How long is a little while?" I asked, almost demanded.

"Depends on the affinities of the caster and the target," He answered, "It would be prolonged if you had the same affinity, which it sounds like it does."

'No. I'm not dealing with thoughts of 'Sasuke-kun' and his sweaty muscles for however the hell long it takes for this to end.'

"Tell me it can be fixed with something other than 'wait'?" I asked, begging for anything.

"There is," Inoichi nodded, "But it's not pleasant."

"I don't care if it's unpleasant," I said irritably, "I don't like the thought of a doppleganger of myself shirtless and sweaty with Sasuke right next to it, not being able to decide which one looks better." I shuddered.

Inoichi seemed to cringe as well, knowing that it was a thought that originated from his daughter.

"You'll need to flare your chakra slightly when I tell you to," he said, "I'll pull Ino's chakra from your tenketsu, as it's mostly residual Yin chakra. It will be very uncomfortable." he warned.

I nodded and readied myself.

Inoichi stepped forward and put up three fingers to count down. As his last finger dropped, I flared my chakra.

He wasn't lying when he said it was uncomfortable. Imagine the feeling of a feeding tube being removed from your stomach and out your throat, now imagine that feeling all around your body. My eyes ended up rolling up into my head and I spasmed so violently for a split second that I almost fell out of the bed.

Inoichi held me steady as I almost fell over.

"Your fine. Your fine," He said, holding me firmly, "It's over now."

I just groaned and dragged my nails across my scalp.

"You weren't lying," I grimaced, "Kami, I hated that."

"You should be fine within the hour now." he said letting me go and stepping back.

"Are you going to need to have a look?" I asked, gesturing towards my head.

"Was there any issue with your train of thought or emotions?" he asked.

"She almost stumbled into the part of my mind where the Kyuubi is." I stressed the almost part to let him know she didn't, "I blindly grabbed out and evidently dragged her into a couple memories, which you'd know which ones if you checked her mind." I then went on to answering this question, "I have more of its chakra flowing temporarily in my tenketsu, so I'm on a hair trigger right now. Hopefully It'll probably go away by the end of the day like it has before."

I'd overdone it before when I tried to push out more of Kurama's chakra than I was used to. The tightenings pretty much guaranteed that I wouldn't be able to channel or control much, but the amount I did screwed with my emotional restraint.

"I think she screwed up one of my memories." I added, the worry I had lacing my tone.

Inoichi's face betrayed his concern.

"How so?" he asked.

"I didn't feel Killing Intent when I was struggling to breathe when I almost got killed. It was only during the Kyuubi attack that I felt that much. I don't know why." I trailed off at the end, being at a loss at understanding why. Inoichi adopted a look of thought, before speaking.

"I have a theory," He said, "But first, I have a question for you."

I looked at him, waiting for the question.

"How much do you relate the memory of the Kyuubi attack with what happened in the alley?" he asked.

'What?'

"Huh?" I was confused, not knowing what he meant.

"You relate eating at Ichiraku's with spending time with the Hokage, right?" at my nod, he continued, "When you think of what happened in the alley, do you also think of the Kyuubi attack?"

'Ah, so that's what he meant.'

"Yes," I answered, "I do."

Inoichi relaxed at my answer.

"I think Ino accidentally stumbled between the memories and her presence carried the emotions and feelings from the Kyuubi attack into your memory in the alley. That's the best explanation for why the memory felt different. It was a partial blend of the two. It's happened before when I was learning to shift between memories when I was younger."

I nodded at his theory, it making the most sense out of everything else.

Kakashi stepped into the conversation, looking at Asuma.

"Did you let the Hokage know what happened?" He asked.

Asuma nodded. "I made a clone to relay a message." He said.

We waited there for nearly 10 minutes before the Hokage arrived. He barged into the room, his posture showing his worry.

"Naruto." He said.

"Jiji." I replied simply.

"What happened?" He asked.

I repeated what I'd said to Inoichi, Asuma, and Kakashi, the Hokage giving me a look of understanding.

Exhaling deeply, the Hokage pulled out his pipe, lighting it and putting it to his mouth.

"Inoichi. Asuma," He started, "May you give us some privacy?"

Inoichi and Asuma both nodded, exiting the room.

Hiruzen stepped towards the doorway and dropped a tag, a sound suppressant one by how it felt.

"Was there anything left out?" he asked.

I shook my head, not remembering anything else that would be important.

"Sir," Kakashi said, "There was something."

I turned sharply towards Kakashi, a look of confusion on my face.

'Did something happen when I was out of it?'

Hiruzen gestured for Kakashi to clarify.

"He used a golden chakra blade to try and cut my head off." he said simply.

What?

"What golden chakra? What the are you talking about?" I asked, being completely lost.

Hiruzen turned towards me, his eyes unreadable.

"I think you have an ability that existed in the Uzumaki clan," He started, "One of your grandfathers had what I think you have."

I frowned at that.

"You didn't think to tell me more about my clan's abilities until now?" I raised a brow.

"You and Rin would have been told this week," Hiruzen replied, "But this incident moved the necessity of it forward."

I was contemplative for a moment, before looking back to him.

"What is the ability?"

Hiruzen pulled his pipe out of his mouth, exhaling some smoke.

"Bear with me," he started, "As I only have some knowledge on it. Any knowledge I have came from comments by your mother and her great grandfather, Uzumaki Ashina."

This was something I'd wanted. Very little detail was given about the Uzumaki clan or any family of mine that went further back than one generation.

"What do you know of sealing chains?" Hiruzen asked.

I raised a brow.

"Not much," I said, "Kakashi mentioned something in passing about how they could be used to bind someone and their chakra when I asked about my mother."

I asked under the guise of him being decently knowledgeable on Fuinjutsu, being the student of the Yondaime and all that. He brought up my mother, saying she was extremely skilled in Fuinjutsu as well.

Hiruzen nodded at what I said.

"That was an extremely rare ability that almost always manifested with female Uzumaki only. Ashina mentioned how there was an offshoot version that he considered 'lesser'." Hiruzen added, using air quotes at the end.

I've never heard of an offshoot version of Adamantine chains.

"What's the ability?" I asked.

"He demonstrated it to my Sensei, Senju Tobirama and myself once," he replied, before he adopted a look of deep thought, "Although my Sensei already knew about it. It was done for my sake, as I was around 16 or 17 when he did. He would project what looked to be a shell of golden chakra that he could shape into armour, as well as simple blades or rods of chakra."

This was completely new terrain for me.

'Sounds like a bootleg version of Susanoo, if even that.'

"How effective was it?"

"It could stop a focused wind blade, but would leave cracks in it. It could be channeled through chakra conductive metal and was effective at piercing defenses."

'Definitely a bootleg Susanoo at best. It's probably worse though.'

"Did he ever explain how it was an offshoot version?" I asked.

"He explained that there was a malformation in how the chakra would exit his tenketsu," Hiruzen said, "One of his sisters could make chains, and she discovered that she could do what Ashina could by intentionally making her chains incorrectly."

"Couldn't he have just worked on his control to make chains?" I asked, confused by such an oversight.

Hiruzen shook his head, "No, Ashina said something about how neither he or a son of his, who had the same ability, could focus the chakra. Something along the lines of 'A false leg, no matter how refined, can never replace a real one'."

'Who the hell is Ashina in the hierarchy of Uzumaki?'

Hiruzen was speaking of him as if he was an esteemed elder, which given that he was mine and Rin's great great grandfather, he was probably very old when he was killed.

"Who was he exactly?" I asked.

Hiruzen's look flashed to that of melancholy.

"He was the head of the Uzumaki clan, and was Uzushiogakure's first and only Uzukage."

My eyes rose at that.

If Uzu was around for almost as long as Konoha, he had to have been Kage for decades.

"What happened?" I asked, wanting to know more.

Hiruzen was probably the only person alive who knew about mine and Rin's clan in depth. He had lived through all three wars and was Kage for two of them.

Hiruzen's face darkened.

"It was the later stage of the Second War," he started, his voice distant, "Konoha was stretched thin. My students and Hatake Sakumo were the ones keeping us still in the war. Iwa and Kumo were slowly driving towards Hi no Kuni's borders, and Kiri betrayed us."

I was listening with rapt attention, not knowing any objectively accurate details of the Second Shinobi War.

The series didn't give detail, and the history books in the Academy were riddled with misleading or vague information.

The books didn't talk of the barbarity of the wars. The things mentioned about the Sannin were how strong and heroic they were when they supposedly drove back Hanzo the Salamander from the battlefield.

Can't let civilians and kids know about what kind of Hell is unleashed when morally ambiguous individuals with near god-like power go at it with each other.

"Ashina told me to expect something big to happen," Hiruzen continued, "He had agents across the the region between Kumo and Uzu. He'd said a coalition was forming to invade either us or his Village. It turned out to be Uzu."

"How did Uzu fall?" I asked, wanting to know this more than anything else.

Uzushiogakure's fate was never expanded upon, nor was the clan given as much time to be understood as the Uchiha had been.

'I can name half a dozen Mangekyo abilities in my sleep, but not Uzumaki exclusive techniques.'

This was my family. This was Rin's family. This was a clan that was seen as dangerous enough to warrant extermination. I needed to know what happened.

Hiruzen took a deep breath. "This is information that has many gaps and a fair amount of speculation based upon the interrogation of captured nin over the following 10 years," he said, "But from what was gathered, we know that Ashina had been preparing his village for a massive battle."

"How many invaded?" I asked, wanting to know how feared my clan had been.

"Thousands." Hiruzen whispered, looking down.

"And how many were killed?"

"Thousands."

I was silent. I hadn't known it was that bad.

The visuals of such a mass of forces wiping out one clan had my chakra burning, my teeth clenching.

"Why wasn't help sent?" I asked, my voice shaking.

"Believe me, I tried." Hiruzen said, his voice faltering slightly, "My students and the force under their command were less than two days away when the village fell. They had been ambushed by Kiri Hunter nin and Kumo ANBU, delaying them."

"More could of been done." I spat, my emotions slipping from my control.

Hiruzen's shot towards mine. "And you would know?" He almost demanded, "You, who is by all accounts a child in my eyes, thinks he knows more than I, the Hokage?"

I could feel his presence growing in my vision, my body involuntarily tensing like I was staring at a predator.

I didn't mean to poke at something.

"Ashina tutored my Sensei when he was a boy," He said sharply, " I suffered the loss of a man I had a great deal of respect for. The Shodai's wife, Mito, a woman who was precious to me in many ways, lost her father, her siblings, and her nieces and nephews. The granddaughter of my other Sensei and my student lost the other half of her family then. Don't pretend like you don't know what I mean," he scolded me, when he saw me scoff at the mentioning of Tsunade, "The Senju clan only had her left by then. Her grandmother was Ashina's daughter, and the both of them lost them all."

My head shot straight to his.

'What the fuck did he say? Tsunade is my cousin?'

Rin and I had a living relative. A relative that didn't take care of us. A relative who decided to traipse around, drinking her sorrows away.

"We have family?" I growled, "Family that didn't care for us?" I demanded.

"Tsunade had already left the village to fight when your mother arrived in Konoha," He said, "She hadn't been back from the front and her grandmother's death caused her to ignore your mother."

I just snarled under my breath.

'She probably didn't even fucking know that my mom was her cousin. Mito died when Kurama was transferred to mom.'

I'd definitely not want to speak with or be around the girl who 'replaced' your grandmother when you already had most of your family dead.

I managed to calm myself with immense effort, before looking back at Hiruzen.

"Sorry," I said, trying to calm myself, "Please, continue."

Hiruzen reined in his presence, before continuing.

"The fighting lasted for 7 days. The streets of the village had been turned into a death trap. Some of the seals the Yamanaka saw when they interrogated prisoners were unexplainable, even for me." He said softly.

"What else?" I asked.

"Ashina evidently personally fought the Nidaime Raikage over the course of the last twelve hours," Hiruzen said, "Along with one of Iwa's Jinchuriki and one of Kumo's."

How?

"How old was he?" I asked.

"Around 90." Hiruzen stated.

"And he fought 3 S-ranks?" I asked incredulously.

"No," Hiruzen said simply, " He didn't just fight them. He killed the Raikage, both Jinchuriki, and hundreds of Shinobi. That doesn't include however many he killed in the first six days."

'This man was a living nightmare.'

I couldn't imagine an old man doing that, even an Uzumaki.

Hiruzen said he expected a fight. Maybe he had been preparing for a siege in the previous weeks. That would make sense. Even a slight heads up, let alone weeks, would help massively.

"And me and Rin are all that's left." I mumbled, not wanting to mention Karin, as it would be difficult to explain how I knew her.

"The time between the Second and Third War were terrible," Hiruzen said, "Far too many times, we arrived too late to stop an Uzumaki survivor from being hunted down and killed by Iwa or Kumo."

'They hunted us like vermin, fearing what even children could grow up to do to them.'

I was silent for a moment, still trying to keep my emotions stable. I was barely functional right now. I didn't just want to break something, I wanted to kill. I needed to kill something to force my rage to vent into something else from what I'd just been told.

'Fuck you, Kurama.' I thought.

The extra amount of his chakra was still messing with my emotions.

"Can we talk more later?" I asked, "I have too much of its chakra in my system and I feel like I want to break something. I can't think clearly enough about this. It hurts."

A futile battle. Killing so many people, only to lose everything anyway

.

Hiruzen saw how desperate I was to end the conversation, and nodded.

"I can have Kakashi and Inoichi fill me in on anything else," He said, his tone soft, "We can talk more about your ability and clan when you're thinking more clearly."

I nodded gratefully and leaned back into the bed, closing my eyes to center myself.

"Can I have some time to myself?" I asked, looking at Kakashi and Hiruzen.

The two nodded and left the room, leaving me to my own thoughts.

//////////////////////

Hiruzen POV:

Hiruzen collapsed into his bed, bringing an end to an already stressful day before he heard what happened to Naruto. He'd been thinking over what his grandson had said about the old man who gave him the letter to be given to him.

Konohamaru was a child. A relatively bright child, but a child nonetheless. He hadn't been trained to look for certain features or remember a face. He was a child after all. Hiruzen was told the man looked almost as old as him.

"Older than dirt." He says. Hiruzen had chuckled.

But it was the small little detail that his grandson happened to notice that Hiruzen had heard him say when Rin and Naruto happened to visit him when Konohamaru was there.

"The old man had eyes like Rin's."

Konohamaru said that after the two had left, having been looking at Rin for quite some time. He thought that his grandson was too young to be looking at girls, and it seemed he was sort of right. Konohamaru had looked at Rin and asked Naruto if she was his girlfriend.

The twin looks of disgust on their faces brought constant mirth to him whenever he thought of the memory.

Konohamaru took a shining to Naruto, and Naruto indulged him. He saw that his grandson could sometimes irritate Naruto, but the older of the two didn't seem to care too much. He'd play ninja with Konohamaru and his friends, even when he didn't have much free time on his hands.

His grandson hadn't come across Rin until recently, surprisingly enough. But his grandson had gotten quiet after he had asked whether Rin and Naruto were a couple and Rin got in his face, loudly saying that they were twins and to stop making jokes about them, her eyes blazing.

Anko had made more than one joke about how Naruto was everything a girl could want in a guy. He was smart, strong, handsome, and one other thing that both disgusted and embarrassed both Rin and Naruto.

Unlimited stamina.

Naruto had immediately understood and had been embarrassed. Rin took a moment before she turned a shade of green and loudly yelled 'gross' and stomped away, not wanting to imagine what Anko was saying.

Kakashi had been laughing as he told Hiruzen the second part. Anko had looked at Naruto and mentioned how there was something else that being an Uzumaki was good for when wanting to have 'fun'. She said two words.

Kage bunshin.

Kakashi could hardly speak clearly from laughing when he was trying to describe how Naruto's face twisted into disgust, and how he stomped away, muttering something about 'Rule 34' and 'The most cursed gangbang on Kami's green Earth.'

'That sounded like a comment Jiraiya would make to drive his godson up the wall.'

Naruto was fine with making dirty jokes at people, but Anko seemed to go to the next level to mess with him. Hiruzen had brought it up to Naruto in order to tease him some, which he regretted later that day. He got complaints of him and a white haired man gawking and giggling at women at the hot springs, obviously being Naruto's clones Henged as the two.

But back to what his grandson had said. The old man had recognized him as the Sandaime's grandson, saying how he looked similar to his grandfather when he was a boy. Hiruzen remembered what Konohamaru had said the man's first words were.

"Hello there. Come here my little friend. Don't be afraid."

Konohamaru had said how the man had white hair, but it had traces of what looked like red in it.

Hiashi also said what the infiltrator had said when asked who he was by the elder."Someone who should have died long ago."

He had no doubt that this "Hurin" was an Uzumaki survivor, someone who had likely been hunted for years and had hid the fact that he was perhaps the last remaining seal master from Uzu.

'Why would he not reveal himself though? I was Hokage when Uzu fell.'

Hiruzen knew how guilty Tsunade and Jiraiya felt when they didn't get there in time. Orochimaru had broken off with some Konoha forces to harass and eliminate the Kumo ANBU and Kiri Hunter nin that had plagued them the entire way to Uzu. Sakumo had stumbled across a group of Uzumaki Shinobi that had broken out of the ring of enemy nin surrounding Uzu and formed up a unit to ambush one of Kiri's elite forces. Sakumo had been disturbed by how vicious and suicidal the Uzumaki had been. The leader of their band had been Ashina's last grandson, one of his more skilled ones.

Hiruzen had made sure to tighten the security around the Uzumaki mask temple after Sakumo told him what Ashina's grandson had done. He had pulled out a mask and put it on. The mask was probably designed to enhance the wearer's chakra, but at a steep price. Sakumo described how the mask started cracking within seconds, and the Uzumaki forces promptly charged into the heart of the withdrawing Kiri forces. Sakumo said that Ashina's grandson had described his mask as a 'pale imitation of the ones grandfather made'.

Hiruzen didn't want to think of what the hell Ashina had cooked up in the decades he had lived. The 'pale imitation' had given the wearer the strength to kill over a hundred Shinobi, before he burned to ash from the sheer level of chakra it was driving into him. His fellow survivors had killed the remaining Kiri nin that had survived the initial suicide charge, before breaking off from Sakumo's forces and going to launch attacks on Iwa's forces to the west.

'Does this man hold Konoha responsible for his clan dying? Is that why he does not speak in person?'

The man had shown he was capable of reaching children and the vulnerable, even with the Byakugan. He'd threatened to kill the entire Hyuga clan to get a letter to the Hokage to help the village. The next letter involved his grandson being used as the messenger boy to show that the man had the means to reach the Hokage's only grandchild.

His thoughts had been plagued by that when a clone of his son had barged into his office, telling him what happened to Naruto. That made the day even worse for him. Naruto had already commented on how paranoid he was about someone messing with his head. He hated the fact that he had another entity inside of him. He didn't like the thought of being influenced.

Hiruzen had gone to Naruto, only to be confronted with something he still had misplaced guilt for. Naruto was obviously not thinking clearly. His emotions were too close to the surface for what they should have been. He'd looked prepared to jump at anything that could be an excuse to get angry. His eyes kept flickering to violet as what he assumed was the Kyuubis' chakra kept flaring slightly with his anger. His eyes looked similar to Rin's, but not the same. They were still close enough to make him keep thinking of what his grandson said, as well as Hiashi.

Naruto had tried to blame him for not saving Uzu. He'd then gotten angry when Tsunade was brought up and that was when Hiruzen had snapped at him to stop.

Naruto only knew of these people as characters of Hiruzen's stories, not as the living breathing people they were. Naruto knew that Jiraiya and Tsunade were close to Hiruzen's heart, but he didn't know them as anything more than that. The same went for the events of the Second War. The history books didn't describe the fear, the terror at the thought of invasion. Word had leaked of a coalition preparing for invasion. The clans and civilians were certain it was aimed at Konoha, even when Hiruzen was receiving word from Ashina's agents that they were headed to Uzu.

The delay was what sealed Uzu's fate. Hiruzen still wondered what would have happened if he decided to defy the clan heads of the village, along with a majority of the Village, and personally led a force to reinforce Uzushiogakure in their darkest hour.

It was a rarity for a Kage to leave his nation's borders during a war. It seldom occurred and always was when desperate measures were required. Hiruzen knew he could have aided Ashina. The two of them could have broken through the blockade and made a fighting retreat all the way back to Hi no Kuni with the Shinobi and civilians of Uzu in tow. Many would have died, but the Uzumaki clan would have lived on, even in a diminished state.

But because of hesitation and fear, the clan that was cousins to the Senju, a clan that safeguarded Konoha by training Senju seal masters, giving birth to most of Konoha's sealing knowledge, was reduced to two children.

Hiruzen shook himself from his thoughts, realizing he would be up all night if he kept going on about 'What ifs'.

'Tomorrow, I'll explain more to Naruto about the ability he shares with some of his relatives, I think I might know why it's so rare in the Uzumaki clan.'

The Uzumaki almost always had a stronger yang alignment. Tobirama-sensei had mentioned how he felt Ashina's chakra, and that it was odd for an Uzumaki to have more Yin chakra. Ashina had waved it off and said how he, and a son of his, had more Yin chakra than normal.

There might have been a hereditary factor on top of exposure to Bijuu chakra prenatally.

Hiruzen now thought.

'Ashina had mentioned how his ability might have been because he had 'freaky chakra', and that he had a couple relatives who had long passed away that had a similar peculiarity.'

Shutting off his light, he pulled his blanket close and closed his eyes, hoping to get some much needed sleep.

//////////////////

3 days later.

"Kauri-san." I greeted Ino's mom politely, glancing around the flower shop, "Is Ino here?"

I was starting to get worried after a couple days when I didn't see Ino at all, including when I went to the shop yesterday to get flowers for my mom's grave.

Ino hadn't been doing any training outside of her clan related stuff, according to Shikamaru. The possibility that she was avoiding me had me nervous enough to come to the store to try and encounter her father or her mother.

"Hello, Naruto," The brunette replied with an equally polite tone, but her voice had a curious lilt to it, "A bit strange that you didn't buy anything yesterday, but turn up again today."

I frowned for a moment, but realized that she was a Yamanaka as well, mind and psychological stuff being part and parcel for them.

"I assume you wish to speak with my daughter about what occurred a few days ago?" She asked, humming as she inspected the register from behind the counter.

"Uh." I was distinctly uncomfortable by how she said that. I could see where Ino got some of her air of foreboding when a comment about her was made by Shikamaru. "Yes, I do. I don't want her to blame herself for something I don't."

Kauri's eyes, despite not being the same colour, had the same look Ino had when she was trying to dissect a comment I made.

A bit unnerving.

"I know few details of what you've experienced, Uzumaki Naruto. My husband speaks highly of your resilience, but my daughter has mentioned your propensity towards comments and actions that are designed to manipulate."

I went to protest that, but she cut me off.

"Don't try to lie to a Yamanaka. I can see it clear as day. Ino has been holed up in her room, ashamed of herself after what happened. She can't bring herself to talk with my husband, but she tells me that she blames herself for the hatred you radiate when you do a certain secret jutsu. Being an empathic sensor is problematic around your kind."

Given that Kauri was a Yamanaka, I should've expected some type psychological manipulation, but that last part ticked me off enough to get a reaction.

"Care to elaborate, Yamanaka?" I asked coldly, narrowing my eyes.

"You see," Kauri replied, acting like nothing happened, "My husband requested that Ino try and be friends with you after what happened to you when you were six. A child shouldn't be without friends after all."

"What?" I was shocked. Ino had tried to be friends then? She always seemed a bit nervous around me or didn't seem to make an effort.

"She claimed that you were rude and insulted her," Kauri continued with a deceptively polite voice, "I'd like to know if she embellished, or if the supposedly intelligent and brilliant boy that my husband and the jonin speak about is simply a well crafted lie by you. She told me of the threat you made towards the clothes salesman."

Yamanaka Kauri was scaring me. She didn't scare me in the way the thought of fighting Kakashi to the death or Hiruzen, but it was still fear.

"I..." I tried to think of what to say, but I steeled myself and decided to be honest, "I wasn't serious about hurting the salesman. And I was aggravated with her liking Sasuke."

Kauri's eyes widened, looking at me in a different light.

'What is she thinking?'

"Are you jealous of Sasuke?" She asked incredulously, "Do you like Ino?"

'What?!'

I choked on an intake of breath and started coughing, my face reddening in embarrassment.

"No no no," I waved my arms wildly, feeling the heat on my face, "It's not like that."

"It would make sense though," Kauri hummed, planting her hand on her chin in thought, "I can see how young Sasuke would be the target of your ire. Inoichi-kun said you don't like him."

"No," I repeated, wanting to shrink into the earth from how embarrassing this was, "That's not why. Sasuke's annoying, nothing more."

"Then why be annoyed with Ino?" She sounded genuinely confused, now that the obvious, note sarcasm, answer wasn't the case.

I was just going to be honest, bluntly.

"My sister and Ino have blonde hair," I sighed, furrowing my brow, "And I'm aware of how blonde Konoha Shinobi are treated near the Land of Earth. I don't want my classmates to concentrate on looking pretty for a boy and end up being another statistic."

Kauri was silent for a long moment, the silence deafening.

Eventually, she spoke.

"It would have been better for you to be honest instead of trying to show a type of tough love to her. Not everybody responds like you perhaps would to it."

That was a thing I had reflected on over the last several days and it made me feel sick to my stomach. I could've hurt people without even meaning to. Sasuke responded to harshness with more drive to improve, as did I. But I ended up seeing Ino as just like us, and that only succeeded in causing issues.

"I told her I was sorry a few days ago," I mumbled, clearing my throat, "Can I please talk to her? I don't want her blaming herself for not knowing about the... you know." I trailed off at the end, pointing at my gut, "It's not my rage that she's sensing."

Kauri understood what I was getting at and she stepped away from the register, walking around the counter and gazing at me intently.

"I remember the day that you were nearly killed, Uzumaki Naruto," She said softly, her eyes showing pity, "My husband did not share what he saw, but I know it effected him deeply."

I swallowed, knowing it was bad for me, let alone someone who could see it as well.

"My instinct as a mother is to blame you for hurting my daughter," She closed her eyes, exhaling through her nose, "But you didn't ask to have terrible memories or carry a particular burden. She should have been warned to not use our clan jutsu on you."

I nodded, having never blamed her.

"She's in her room," Kauri said, pulling out a note from her pants pocket, "Hand this to the guards at the front of our clan compound. They will take you to our house."

Taking the note, I looked at Kauri with gratitude and left, hearing the bell cling as I pushed the door open.

Turning right, I traced my way to the compound by memory and got there, spotting two different guards compared to last time.

Approaching them, I noticed one with a kunai peaking out of his sleeve, the other stepping a little closer.

"Hello, kid," He greeted me politely, but he still had a guarded stance, "You need something?"

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto," I introduced myself, noticing the one looking a little antsy, "Kauri-san told me I could enter."

The lead guard, a man in his thirties, hummed and nodded.

"Do you have a note or password?" He asked.

It was similar in security protocol to the Hyuga. Something I could respect.

"Yeah." I nodded, handing him the note.

The guard grabbed it and opened it, glancing at the writing on the paper.

He then made a half seal and pulsed fire chakra into it, burning the note to ash.

"Come on in." He turned on his heel, walking into the compound.

I took that as a signal for me to follow, so I did.

Since I hadn't actually gotten a good look at the compound before, I drunk in the sight. The scent of flowers was all around and each house had what looked like a small garden. And the houses themselves looked well lived in and cozy.

All in all, a relaxing environment that conceals how freaky the Yamanaka are with mind abilities.

The guard led me to a specific house, a familiar chakra signature in a specific room.

"You can find your way in yourself." The guard didn't treat me like a child, turning around to leave.

I gave him a quick thank you and walked through the front door, preparing myself to speak with Ino.

////////////////////////

Ino was sequestered in her room, not wanting to talk with anyone still.

Even after her father had cleaned Naruto's chakra out of her system to blunt the potency of the emotions, it didn't remove the detail she saw.

She hurt him, even if her father said Naruto didn't blame her. She still caused him to be a mess that was screaming and attacked Kakashi.

Not even her team could convince her she wasn't to blame. She knew she caused him to hate and be vicious. If only she'd been a good person and befriended him like her father wanted her to.

But, something decided to disturb her isolation.

A certain board in her hallway would creak when stepped on.

Which she just heard.

'Tousan's is supposed to be on a mission with Shikamaru's and Choji's, and Kaasan is at the flower shop.'

She used her sensing to try and recognize the signature, but it felt muted, like the person was hiding.

Her heartbeat quickened and she frantically went to her closet, grabbing a kunai.

Slowly creeping to her door, she felt the outline of the person, his chakra still massive and warm despite him trying to conceal it.

Gritting her teeth, she kicked the door forward before he could do anything, charging and jumping, wrapping her legs around his head to pull him to the ground.

With a yelp of surprise, the red haired intruder fell to the ground, a clunk sounding out from his head hitting the ground.

Twisting herself around to point the kunai at his head, Ino paused when she saw who it was.

"Naruto?" She asked, the kunai slackening as she looked at him in shock.

Still groaning, the boy blinked several times, his eyes looking around.

"Didn't expect that. I probably should've announced myself."

Ino jumped off of him, suddenly uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry," She mumbled, trying not to squirm in discomfort, "I thought someone broke in."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, hissing when he touched a certain part.

"Like I said," He muttered, pushing his hair back a bit, "I probably could've called out instead of knocking on your door."

Now that she'd gotten over her shock, Ino managed to voice a question that was fairly obvious.

"What are you doing here?"

Naruto clicked his tongue as he got off the floor, grimacing a bit.

"I talked with your mom at the store an-" She cut him off as she shot him a glare.

"No," She turned away from him, "I'm not going to let you be a messenger boy for her."

Whatever her mom did to manipulate Naruto, she wasn't going to go along with it.

"I'm not," Naruto said coldly, taking a step to the left to be in her line of sight, "I wanted to talk with you because I haven't seen you since you saw those memories."

Ino felt cold at the reminder, fighting the urge to shiver at the memory.

"I don't want to talk," She mumbled, ashamed of herself, "I shouldn't have done it."

She didn't expect him to press his hand on hers.

"What are you..." She flinched when he stepped towards her, staring directly into her eyes.

"It's not your fault that I'm a vicious little bastard, Ino," He said clearly, "I've always been that way. Your mom explained a bit about empathic sensing, particularly how it feels when you'd sense chakra."

He was still in her personal space.

"I'm naturally distrustful of people and you were basically a stranger to me at the academy, so I was already distrustful."

"But..." She tried to say, but he shook his head.

"The rage you sense from me is from a type of ability Rin and I have that we inherited from our mother," Naruto's chakra shifted into a feeling of discomfort, even if his face didn't show it.

"Like your, you know..." She lifted up her hand, gesturing like she was cutting her forearm.

"Yeah," He nodded in understanding, "The Uzumaki clan had some really weird abilities."

Ino tilted her head and frowned at that.

"You're from a clan?"

Naruto nodded.

"You wanna sit down?" He asked, looking around, "I'd rather not just stand here."

Ino blinked and realized they were still in the hall.

"Okay," She walked towards her living room, Naruto awkwardly walking behind her, "Grab a chair if you want to."

Naruto did just that, grabbing two chairs from the table and set one next to his before sitting down.

Ino went to the other chair and sat down, looking at Naruto nervously.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled, not being able to keep looking at him. She was about ready to say she needed to do something, but he'd call her out on the lie.

"Ino," Naruto said clearly, "You're not at fault. I have an issue with my Yin chakra that you weren't told about, and that's what caused this. Your dad said it isn't your fault, Asuma-sensei says it isn't, and I'm telling you it isn't."

Ino got the message, sighing in resignation.

"Okay, I admit I was wrong." She mumbled, "But I don't think I've heard of a Yin chakra issue that would cause something like that."

A grimace from Naruto and his chakra dimming clued her into how touchy that was.

"Basically," Naruto explained quietly, "Rin and I come from a clan that has a greater amount of Yang chakra than the Akimichi."

Ino's eyes widened in shock at that. She'd never heard of any clan having more than that Akimichi.

"Wow." Was all she managed to say about it at the moment.

"Yeah," Naruto muttered, setting his hands on the table, "I happen to be an outlier, having a more balanced out chakra alignment, but it's still Yang dominant. My Yin chakra just happens to be extremely dense."

"But what does that mean?" She asked, noticing his jaw tense.

"It means my mental state was fragile when I was younger," He said bluntly, "Genjutsu messes with me if I'm not prepared and your clan jutsu is much more invasive than a Genjutsu."

Ino remembered that, the thought still bothering her.

"If it isn't personal," She mumbled, looking away, "What was that memory I saw?"

Naruto's eyes shifted towards her, his chakra sharpening.

"I'll ask once," He said firmly, eliciting a flinch from the girl by the unfamiliar tone, "Do you want to know?"

Ino swallowed nervously and nodded, needing to know what happened.

"Well," Naruto leaned back in the chair, tapping his fingers against the table lightly, "The Yin chakra issue I had made it necessary for your dad to oversee my talking sessions with him," The redhead used air quotes around the term, "Which involved him skimming my thoughts and checking to see if my chakra instability would correct itself."

Ino was focusing on Naruto's face and the subtle change of his chakra, reading his body language as well.

"I had memory issues," He continued, looking suddenly uncomfortable, "Constant feelings of recognition of things I've never seen, names, people. It was scary because I couldn't trust my own perception of reality to be accurate."

Ino's thoughts instantly went to Naruto's unflinching tendency to go straight to hurting himself to break out of Kurenai's Genjutsu.

"Is that why you hate Genjutsu?" She asked gently, hoping she was right.

Naruto nodded his head, scratching at his ear.

"I don't like my head being messed with," He muttered irritably, "And it doesn't help that I almost died after getting hit by a really bad one."

"I saw." Ino's voice softened even more so, her eyes flicking to Naruto's. He seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, his eyes not looking at anything in particular.

Acting out of instinct, Ino put her hand on top of his, causing him to twitch back to attention, eyes wide and focused.

"Sorry," He said sheepishly, "I was... remembering it."

Naruto explained the context of what happened, of how he'd been secretive about some things and Rin had been worried, eventually deciding to talk with the Hokage.

"You guys and the Sandaime are close?" Ino asked curiously.

"He was close with our mother," Naruto nodded, "He's basically like a grandfather to us."

He continued explaining what happened, including the context of the argument and how he was almost killed, followed by the aftermath.

"So, it actually fixed most of the Yin imbalance I had," Naruto laughed sardonically, "And you're mind jump clued me in to a kekkai genkai I have."

At Ino's unspoken curiosity, Naruto lifted his hand up, his chakra shifting and his face contorted in concentration.

After a few seconds, Naruto's fingers glowed a soft golden colour, something that resembled a blade exiting his index.

"I have no idea how effective it is," He admitted, the golden chakra fading away as he set his hand down, "But it's just another thing I've learned."

Ino was still looking at his hand, her mind running through different thoughts.

"So, you were guarded around people because of what happened?" She asked quietly, forcing herself to look at his eyes.

Naruto nodded stiffly. "I'm slow to trust people because I'm fairly private about stuff. I knew you were Inoichi's daughter, but it was right after I almost got killed. You trying to be friendly made me suspicious."

'Fair enough.' Ino thought to herself, tapping her nails against the table.

"Do you want to start over?" Naruto asked simply, his chakra seeming to still in its regular flow, "Blank slate and try to be friends?"

Ino gasped at the offer. It was one thing to be told it wasn't her fault, but for Naruto to offer a fresh start and to become friends, it astounded her how willing he was to let it go.

"Yes," She managed to say, blinking suspiciously quick, "I would like that very much."

Naruto smiled. "Good. So, the first thing friends do is tell each other their likes and dislikes, goals for the future, and things like that."

Ino laughed, a genuine one, and she started telling Naruto more about herself.

The two took turns sharing, Naruto being a little hesitant at first. But he seemed to get more comfortable as time passed and he was actively talking about how he absolutely loved Fuinjutsu and his enjoyment of cooking.

It wasn't until the sun started going down that Ino realized how long they had been talking.

"Wow, it's... been awhile." She glanced at the orange tinted light going through the blinds.

"I probably need to get going," Naruto admitted, standing up from the chair, "I need to eat and get home."

"You can eat here." Ino said suddenly, blinking when she realized what she just said and how it sounded.

"Eh," Naruto frowned, "I can't. Rin will be annoyed if I don't get her something."

Ino couldn't help but snicker at the visual.

"You make it sound like she's a pet."

"A very temperamental cat." Naruto snickered as well, "But if you want, I can swing by every now and then. I know your affinity is water."

"What does that matter?" Ino frowned, trying to think of why that mattered.

"I can help you out some," Naruto explained happily, "I know quite a bit of both small tier and heavy duty Suiton Ninjutsu. It helps that I can train for hours each day flinging jutsu."

'He'd really do that, take time out of his day to help me?'

"I..." Ino tried to say, floored by this offer even more than the previous one, "I don't know what to say."

"How about yes?" Naruto smiled, blue eyes gleaming.

Ino hummed under her breath for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip lightly.

None of the Jonin Senseis, aside from maybe Kakashi, could teach her how to do it effectively.

She also didn't want to ask her dad. The Yamanaka heiress wanted to find her own path outside of asking her father to bail her out.

"Yes, okay." She answered, barely hiding her excitement at getting hands on help with Ninjutsu.

"Great," Naruto grinned, starting to leave, "I'll pick you at 5:00 a.m. sharp on Saturday."

Ino gasped as that registered, the red haired boy's hand on her door.

"Wait," She said frantically, "5?" She almost whimpered.

Naruto's face was filled with mirth, his right eye giving a wink.

"You should see the look on your face."

Ino puffed her cheeks out in annoyance, glaring at her potential new friend.

"That's not funny."

"Then why am I laughing?" Naruto smiled, pushing on the door, "Would 9:00 are something like that be good?"

Ino nodded quickly. "That's a lot better."

"Alright, I gotta go now," Naruto pushed the door the rest of the way, "Bye, Ino."

"Bye." She said quietly, seeing him disappear behind the doorway.

Focusing her comparably novice sensory skill, Ino tracked Naruto's blazing inferno of a signature as the distance grew between them.

If she were honest, feeling chakra like that up close was almost like a drug. It made her feel warm and safe.

Naruto eventually disappeared from her maximum range and she sighed, curling up in the chair.

Now that she was alone, it clicked that she had talked with Naruto for hours.

She hadn't left her room for over two days and hadn't showered.

Letting out a groan, she stood up and marched to her bathroom, not wanting to be an example of what her terrible nickname was.

///////////////

"What did you do?" Inoichi asked his wife from their bed, staring at her bare back as she put on her nightgown.

"I'm not sure what you mean." Kauri adjusted her hair as she shimmied into the light purple gown, her face hidden.

Inoichi didn't need to see his wife's face to know she was smiling, her chakra was leaking smug happiness.

"The night I come back from a mission and our daughter is no longer despondent about Uzumaki Naruto," He commented lightly, seeing his wife turn and walk towards their bed, "What did you say to her?"

"I didn't say anything," She smiled knowingly, sprawling out on the bed, "But my plan worked."

"And that plan was?" Inoichi started taking a sip of water next to the desk.

Kauri gave him a Cheshire grin.

"Introducing Ino to a boy."

Inoichi did a spit take, coughing as water went down his front.

"What?" He asked, his voice raised a pitch in horror.

"Oh, you should see your face, Inoichi-kun," Kauri giggled, saying his name lovingly, "Naruto wanted to talk with our daughter and I invited him to the house."

Inoichi listened as she explained what she did, the subject not making him happy.

"You let a boy," Inoichi sighed, closing his eyes as took a deep breath, "A boy into the house? With Ino? All alone?"

"Oh hush, you," Kauri slapped his leg, "Ino is happy now. You don't have to pretend to be the overprotective father. And you won't have to worry about that for a few more years."

Inoichi muttered under his breath, but his wife kept talking.

"Don't think I don't know what you're doing, husband," She dragged herself to eye level, the way she said it sending a concerned shiver up his spine, "Naruto isn't like you. You don't have to worry about him sneaking into the house when he's sixteen."

Inoichi cringed at the reminder. He'd snuck into Kauri's house when they were sixteen.

Specifically, her room.

The groan that escaped him had the brunette looking at him giggling, her eyes shining with mirth.

"You are far too easy to rile up, Inoichi-kun." She practically purred his name, planting a kiss on his cheek.

"You know I can never speak or look at Naruto without having that in the back of my mind now, right?" Inoichi asked, knowing she did it on purpose.

Choza and Shikaku had both pointed out how much of an overprotective father he was, and Kauri was worse about it.

"It's always fun to play with your thoughts," Kauri said unrepentantly, snuggling close to him, "And our daughter is your weak spot. I help your precious little princess, prevented an awkward situation with the Uzumaki boy, and I managed to torment you." She grinned mischievously up at him, resting her hand on his chest, "You should be proud of your wife's achievements."

Inoichi grunted an acknowledgement, deciding to let her win this time. He then shut off the light next to him, holding his wife close.

///////////////////

'Incredibly, the 3rd regiment survived the crucible of Suna, emerging battle-hardened, and ready for whatever the war and wind would throw at us.'

Excerpt from journal of Ozawa Daisuke, Jonin of Iwagakure, 3rd regiment, First Shinobi War, Suna theatre of operations.

////////////////////////

End Chapter:

I'd been thinking of having an ability for the Uzumaki that wasn't exclusively the Adamantine chains. It will be expanded upon more so in the future, with Naruto testing it out to see how it works. It is not like the Susanoo. Naruto just happened to think of that as the best comparison because he's unfamiliar with it. It also won't be some magical fixer of all dangers. It's a chakra construct that can act like armour/weapon to be resistant (Not immune) to certain types of attacks. It was blasted out like a blade when he was almost killed in the alley and acted like a sort of armour when he'd been thrashing around when the nurses had held him down. It won't be a massive area effect ability, more like a personal shield that could partially bolster your defense against chakra based attacks, mainly chakra blades. I've left hints on how it gets pushed out and used, feel free to guess.

Naruto doesn't seem to be the only Uzumaki that had atypical chakra, but his previous relative's situation wasn't exactly like his, where he had more Yin because this isn't his first life. Hiruzen thinks it's possible that the reason Naruto even survived having misaligned chakra was because his ancestors had a rare off chance of it happening without it killing them.

I've put Sasuke's thoughts on Rin here for a reason. Even with the beatdown he received from Naruto, it will take him a great deal of time to pull himself together. He's not as far gone as he was at this point in canon due to being hounded by both Rin and Naruto, but he still has problems. (Side note: Even with the curse seal from Orochimaru, Sasuke was still not completely screwed up until Itachi put him in the Tsukuyomi again. Naruto and Sakura had managed to get through to him somewhat. Itachi is a beautifully tragic hero character, but I still can't reconcile how he inadvertently almost robbed his brother of even having a life if he would be driven to turn traitor.

I get doing it the first time, he was a thirteen year old kid that had just killed his family, I wouldn't be thinking clearly if I had that burned into my mind. But the second time was him wanting to work Sasuke up into a frenzy to make sure Sasuke would kill him, which is selfish of him. But I still see why Itachi would desire being killed over nearly anything else. I both love and hate how his character leaves me conflicted when I think of him.)... Sasuke sees that she is a kind and pretty girl, but even better still, she's strong. Sasuke sees her as a 'forbidden desire' of his. Being with her would symbolize his freedom from Itachi. He can only have what he wants most in the world, freedom to love without losing it all, if Itachi is dead. Rin would not take kindly to Sasuke seeing her as a fulfillment of what he wants in the world, rather than for who she really is, a person with her own likes, wants, and goals. Sasuke would still need a lot of exploration of his own motivations before Rin would even humour the thought of him being worthy of more than her simply looking at him. That's also why I've waited on putting more of the pov's from her perspective. I'm not certain whether they'll be together.

Last part: I've found myself in a precarious position. When I started this story, I'd been 95% certain that I'd pair the MC with Hinata, if I had decided to pair him with anyone. I'm now conflicted on Ino. I've started to enjoy writing her perspective, along with Inoichi. I'd realized how much I liked writing Inoichi after I wrote the part of him, Choza, and Shikaku getting drunk and trying to get Shikaku back home. (Rereading it, it now reminds me of the Witcher 3 when Geralt, Lambert, and Eskel got plastered.) Inoichi has been fun to write, and Ino was an unexpected surprise. I can see the story going in two different directions based upon who I pair the MC with post-timeskip. I'm now split on what I'll do. 49.9% chance it'll be Hinata, 49.9% chance it's Ino, 0.1% chance of someone else, and 0.1% chance of it being both. (I can go the route of the CRA trope if I want to, but I'd rather save that for a non-insert story, if I even do that at all. I don't see the MC I've written going for it without immense thought. "Outfoxed" by Hazeleyes180 is probably the best multi pairing with Hinata and Ino. ) Whichever one I go with, the other will probably be the pairing in a non-insert I'll do in the future. I like both characters and would consider it a tragic waste for me to not use one of them at least once in any of my future stories.

Anyway, sorry for the obnoxiously long Author's Note.

But here's another chapter. Reviews are welcome, and have a lovely day.

Raging.