“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.

Fu started crying again.

I stared at the ground at my feet, unable to look at her; I didn’t know what I was supposed to do now; I’d fucked this up badly. Takigakure was still burning to the ground, and neither of us had any water techniques to deal with this amount of fire. It had already spread to the rest of the village, and we had been forced to evacuate because of the heat and smoke.

The conflagration had also dropped burning debris from the enormous tree on the surrounding areas and started multiple fires through the forest. We had needed to move several hundred meters away from Takigakure to avoid getting caught in the flames.

I didn’t know what to do now; there were things I needed to check on, things that I couldn’t ignore, but what if I messed up again? What would go wrong if I fucked up even worse than I had here? But If I just stopped and didn’t do anything, the world might end.

I was stuck between a rock and an even bigger rock.

I knew that the timeline for Shippuden was about to start because this shit had been one of Akatsuki’s opening moves along with capturing the Steam guy. I was fairly sure that Gaara was next in line; I most likely had less than six months at most. Which meant that the Land of Demons shitshow was going to start straight afterward, if not during or before.

Should I attempt to interfere with that as well? Deidara had kicked Gaara’s ass before abducting him. Deidara had even gotten away from the events mostly unscathed, or maybe down a limb or something? But he had still gotten away, to later fight Sasuke.

That old puppet lady and Sakura had managed to somehow take Sasori down originally, but Gaara had still been killed and his tailed beast taken. The old puppet lady had then revived him at the cost of her life.

It was a pretty weak summary of events, but I couldn’t remember all the finer details.

If I tried to help and everything went well, I could keep Gaara from having the tailed beast taken in the first place, I might also be able to keep the old lady alive, and she was pretty strong, from what I remembered, another strong ninja available to help stop the end of the world.

But what if I fucked it up as I did here?

What if I tried to help Gaara and Deidara blew up the village with his suicide technique or something? Did I let bad things happen, to avoid the chance of worse things happening? What were you supposed to do in situations like these?

It was a warped version of the trolly problem in a way.

Did I let the train run over Gaara, and one of the others ends up sacrificing her life to save him, or did I try and derail the train while desperately hoping I wasn’t sending it straight towards Sunagakure to potentially murder tens of thousands.

Okay, maybe the comparison had fallen apart entirely, but it made sense to me, at least.

We had to move again a few days later because the fire had started taking more of the forest. Fu followed me towards the border of the Land of Fire because she didn’t have a home to return to, and we stopped just short of it by several miles, to set up a temporary camp.

There was a hive of activity along the border, ninja being sent out to investigate the massive fires in the Land of Waterfalls. I don’t know if many had managed to escape Takigakure or if any had at all, but if they had, the news would spread quickly. If the circumstances had been different, I would have probably gone straight over the border and spun some bullshit story to get through, but I couldn’t do that with Fu here.

“Why did they-” Fu whispered, “What was the point?”

I let out a long breath.

“Fu,” I said quietly, “I suck at this kind of thing, so I’m just going to say it bluntly, they were after you because you’re a Jinchuriki.”

“Why? And how do you know what I am?” Fu whispered, “You’re not from Taki.”

“They want to extract all of the tailed beasts and kill all the hosts,” I said evenly. “I know who you are because I know who all of the Jinchuriki are.”

“I wasn’t even in the village!” Fu said heatedly before she suddenly started crying again. “Shibuki told me I shouldn’t have left.”

“You did what you wanted to do; there’s no shame in that.” I said easily, “You had no idea you were even being hunted; it’s not your fault.”

It’s mine; I didn’t say.

It was, at least partially, I could have gone here first, told them about the Akatsuki perhaps, instead of going off on an adventure to find a stupid sword that I hadn’t even used because I was too scared to get close to either of them, couldn’t even track them properly in close combat.

I could have engaged Kakuzu and Hidan outside the village, even though I probably would have died. I had let them attack them first, so I had a better chance to fight them and live.

I was hardly any better than they were.

“Fu,” I said evenly, “I’m trying to do a lot of important stuff, and one of those things is to try to stop Akatsuki from doing things like this.”

I was trying and failing pretty badly, though, given the current state of the Land of Waterfall. Fu couldn’t know how depressing my thoughts were, too buried in her own grief, but I’d managed to drag out her of her sorrow for a moment, at least.

“Do you want to help me stop them?” I said quietly.

Fu didn’t even wait a moment before she spoke up.

“Yeah,” Fu whispered. “I do.”

We stayed at the border for a few more days, and then I finally felt a strange chakra signature appear on the edge of my range. Small, powerful, fast, and definitely not human, it was also going the wrong way.

“Fu,” I said suddenly, “Time to go.”

“What?” Fu yelped, “Where are we going?”

I didn’t reply, already angling to intercept the stupidly fast-moving creature; it was bouncing off of trees and the ground with ninja-level agility. When we got within perhaps a hundred meters of it, it abruptly stopped, possibly having heard us, it remained perfectly still on the side of a tree.

I cleared the last of the trees and landed directly in front of the creature, to find that absolutely nothing was there.

“Yo,” I said easily, “I’m Sora.”

Fu landed beside me, looking confused.

The Chameleon suddenly appeared on the side of the tree with no transition; it was just there as if it always had been.

“How’d you find me, though?” The Chameleon whined.

Fu made an alarmed noise at the sudden appearance of the dog-sized lizard, but I just crossed my arms.

“You’re supposed to introduce yourself first, you know.” I said dryly, “Besides, a wizard never reveals his secrets.”

“Oh, I’m Shirokuto,” Shirokuto said curiously, “What the heck is a wizard?”

I just grinned at the creature.

“Hi, Shirokuto!” Fu said excitedly, “I’m Fu!”

Fu’s eyes were wide as she took in the strange creature.

“Hi.” Shirokuto said bemused.

“You guys were pretty late,” I said honestly, “The fighting is already over.”

Shirokuto groaned.

“It took me so long to get here, too,” Shirokuto whined.

“Where were you when they called?” I asked curiously.

“Land of Tea,” Shirokuto huffed. “Anyway, I’d better go, or I’m going to get yelled at.”

I just nodded.

“Nice meeting you, Shirokuto!” Fu said happily.

It was the brightest I’d see her since everything had happened; then again, I wasn’t exactly somebody who was good at cheering anybody up. I was a master of pissing them off and distracting them with anger, but it didn’t feel right to pull my normal crap on someone who had just had their family, friends, and home taken from them.

Huh, I guess I knew what that was like after all.

“You too, Fu.” Shirokuto said bemused.

Shirokuto abruptly exploded into a wave of smoke that obscured the tree from sight, a shadow appeared in the smoke, and when the wind brushed the smoke to the side, they were revealed.

Karenbana looked much the same as when I had last seen her over a year ago; she was still remarkably short, definitely still under five feet, her eyes were still large, and pastel pink. The long hair was different though, falling in a spiky brown mess between her shoulders, not unlike the white wig she had used to wear, her clothing was different too, so at some point, she must have gotten new stuff to wear.

Karenbana still wore her white overcoat, but the pink battle dress was gone, replaced by a pale green shirt that went all the way to her thighs. One sleeve was long, all the way to her wrist, while the other was non-existent, stopping just after the shoulder, a stylistic choice of some sort, small tight shorts of the same pale color could just barely be seen peeking out beneath it.

Karenbana was smiling brightly.

“Hey dumbass,” I said drily, “Did you leave one of your sleeves behind? Want to call Shirokuto back up to go find it?”

Karenbana’s smile immediately turned into anger.

“It came like this,” Karenbana said angrily, “Idiot!”

“Wow, I hope you got a discount for the missing sleeve, at least,” I said easily, deliberately misunderstanding. “I could probably tear a sleeve off one of my old shirts if you want?”

Karenbana bared her teeth angrily for a moment.

“Hi, I’m Fu.” Fu said curiously, “Who are you?”

Karenbana turned to study her for a moment.

“Karenbana,” Karenbana said thoughtfully, “Are you the green-haired-girl?”

“Sora called me that once,” Fu said honestly.

“Are we taking her back to Takigakure then?” Karenbana asked curiously.

I stared at her for a long moment before finally speaking.

“They were early,” I said simply. “Takigakure is gone.”

It sounded a great deal less accusatory then telling her that she was late. Fu turned to stare up at the sky, while Karenbana just fell silent. I could already see her putting the pieces together, and she would definitely have more questions, but I had finally decided what I was going to do.

I spun on my heel and headed for the Land of Fire.

“Where are we going?” Fu yelped at my sudden departure.

I could feel them both moving to follow.

“The Land of Fire,” I said cheerfully.

“You’re going the wrong way, idiot!” Karenbana said incredulously. “The Land of Fire is that way.”

I corrected my course immediately.

“Just testing you, shitty bodyguard,” I said cheerfully.

“Wait for me!” Fu yelped.

“I can’t believe I actually missed you,” Karenbana muttered wryly. The Land of Fire had a lot less fire in it, then the Land of Waterfalls did, but the temperature was definitely warmer here. Nowhere near as bad as the Land of Wind, if it were a bowl of porridge, it would be just right.

But it wasn’t a bowl of porridge; it was a country teeming with people and Shinobi.

Crossing the border had been interesting; we had all changed from our current clothes into some of the spares I had stuffed into my inventory over a year ago. Fu had struggled into one of Karenbana’s tiny shirts, which was hilarious, while my own was far too large on either of them.

When we crossed the border, I had tried to lead us around the patrols while sticking to the ground like a civilian. It didn’t work out very well, and we were found by a patrol only a couple of hours into the journey. It was a squad of Konoha chunin, and they seemed rather happy to see that someone had made it out of Waterfall alive, taking us all for refugees.

They even set us up with an escort to take us towards Konoha after I told them I knew a few people there, some of which I only knew of. Apparently, everyone knew of Might Gai and his students, a lot of people knew about the Hokage apprentice Haruno Sakura, and I didn’t think that a single person in the land of fire hadn’t heard about Kakashi of the Sharingan.

I actually went a bit overboard and made sure to name every single Konoha shinobi that I had run into. Especially the ones who had ‘saved’ me in Land of Vegetables, the year prior, particularly Choji Akimichi, Hinata Hyuga, Naruto Uzumaki. I’m not sure if it helped them decide on actually helping us out, or if they would have done it anyway.

It didn’t really matter anyway; the result was the same.

The trip to Konoha was probably the easiest traveling I’d done since I woke up here because we ended up on the back of a small cargo carriage headed for Konoha, that left from one of the border towns.

Our escort had a vaguely familiar name, but I honestly couldn’t place what he had done in the source material.

“Not too long now,” Hayase said pleasantly. “You should be able to see the walls of Konohagakure soon.”

“Awesome!” Fu said excitedly, “Hayase, what’s it like living in Konoha?”

Hayase scratched at the stubble on his chin for a moment.

Hayase was fairly young at nineteen, a chunin level ninja who said that he enjoyed helping to organize the exams whenever they came back to Konoha, he was friendly enough, and even if he wasn’t, Fu was friendly enough for two people despite the recent tragedies she was doing her best to keep up a brave face.

I still heard her cry herself to sleep every night in the back of the wagon.

Fu seemingly would try to make friends with everyone she met, and it somehow came off as endearing rather than annoying. Karenbana and Fu had actually gotten along better then I had expected, probably because Karenbana had been starved for human contact for over a year, and Fu made a continuous effort to befriend her.

Karenbana flat out hadn’t believed that I had managed to kill both of the ninjas that had destroyed Takigakure. I had needed to take the bodies out of my inventory for a moment to prove it; I made sure to do it while Fu was asleep for obvious reasons.

The look on Karenbana’s face when she realized I had managed to do it somehow was the funniest thing I had seen in a long time. I made sure to give her shit about not needing a bodyguard that was weaker than me, and that had set off an instant fight to establish dominance, exactly like I thought it would, but without going lethal or spamming Jaunt, I got my ass kicked horribly.

I could almost pretend that I hadn’t spent an entires year all alone.

Oh, Hayase was right; you could see the walls from here. Hayase left us at the gate before heading straight into the village, presumably to report to the Hokage. The cargo was checked over quickly, and the owner was let in without much issue, but when it came to our turn, we weren’t as lucky.

A ninja with purple hair and a white pattern mask arrived partway throughout our long discussion with the chunin on gate duty. Definitely an Anbu of some kind, with a level in the low two-hundreds, they spoke with the guards privately for a moment before agreeing to allow us into the village, on the condition that we were escorted to see the Hokage first.

It was most likely because of Fu; they had literally just had the joint exams, in which she had participated publicly. If I remember correctly, a random ninja had tried to steal both Fu and Gaara’s tailed beasts, Konoha would be aware of who the Taki Jinchuriki is now if they hadn’t been already.

It wasn’t surprising that when Land of Waterfalls was burning and the Jinchuriki had arrived in Konoha, we would be met with some caution.

“Sure,” I said cheerfully, “Think you can show us where a hotel is afterward? We are going to need somewhere to stay while we’re here.”

The masked ninja simply nodded in answer before leading us into the village.

It was interesting being in such an iconic place; the buildings were patchwork but strong, circular, and multi-floored; the outer wall towered over the city, with only the enormous monument being taller. The Hokage tower stood out easily, with its strange circular design and white stone top.

The number of chakra presences in the village was staggering, and the high chakra of the ninja population was both terrifying and amazing; being surrounded by so many powerful people was quite daunting. I could also feel the massive chakra signature that could have only been the Hokage, and beside her was two other much smaller, but still powerful signatures.

The ANBU led us into the building, up to several flights of stairs before stopping in front of the door to the office, before slipping inside for a moment. Karenbana, Fu, and I all stayed out in the hall until she returned.

“Hokage-sama will see you now.” The ANBU said evenly.

I couldn’t help but noticed that the ANBU stayed by the door to stand guard. I also couldn’t help but noticed just how god damned young the Hokage looked. That genjutsu of hers was putting in work goddammit, she didn’t even look like she had hit thirty yet. It certainly didn’t help that she was super model-tier attractive as well.

Wasn’t she like fifty or something? I probably shouldn’t ask her that one, so I observed her instead.

Name: Tsunade Senju

Title: Hokage, Sanin

Gender: Female

Age: 68(54)

Level: 365

Next Level: 12.32%

Health Points – 3000/3000

Chakra Points - 6000/6000

Vitality 300

Strength 300

Speed 350

Perception 125

Intelligence 150

Chakra 600

Status Effects: Accelerated Aging.

Emotions: Curiosity, Suspicion.

History: Tsunade Senju is the Hokage of Konohagakure; she was born in the Land of Fire and is a descendant of the Senju and Uzumaki Clans; she is also one of the three Sannin, known as the world's strongest kunoichi and its greatest medical ninja.

Accelerated aging? It wasn’t something I would have expected to be considered a status effect. Was it because it was inflicted by her technique and not a natural process?

“Welcome to Konohagakure.” Tsunade said pleasantly, “What brings you to our village?”

The two with her were obviously Sakura and Shizune, but I didn’t have the time to observe them.

“You!” Sakura yelped, staring at Karenbana.

I ignored her.

“I’ve come to teach you how to heal people properly,” I said immediately. “Sakura told me you needed the help.”

Karenbana turned to stare at me with wide eyes, her face already going red at my complete inability to interact like a normal human being. Sakura was also bright red, but probably from embarrassment, given what I had said.

Shizune just looked surprised in general.

“I see,” Tsunade said, amused, “You would be the ninja she spoke of, from the Land of the Moon?”

I grinned; she had heard of me; I was a god damned famous person, after all. Sakura looked like she was about to interject, so I spoke up quickly.

“Yep, my name is Sora,” I confirmed, “it’s a pleasure to meet you, Tsunade. This is Fu, the Jinchuriki of the Seven Tailed Beast, and this is Karenbana, one of the ninjas that tried to gank Kakashi’s squad back at Kakeru’s place; she was so embarrassed to have gotten her ass kicked by a pink Genin that I took pity on her and let her be my bodyguard, but she is honestly so terrible at it, I’ve been thinking of replacing her with someone better, do you have any recommendations?”

Karenbana made a strangled noise in the back of her throat that was barely audible but carried with it her intent to beat the absolute shit out of me the second we were out of the office. Fu just looked like she couldn’t believe what I was saying to the Hokage.

Sakura opened her mouth to try and interject again, but I immediately continued.

“Another time then, anyway,” I said cheerfully, “Hidan and Kakuzu, two guys from Akatsuki, that’s the organization that’s running around stealing all the tailed beasts if you didn’t already know, turned up in Takigakure and pretty much set the country on fire while trying to capture Fu here.”

Tsunade just stared at me.

“We are pretty much just passing through here, there’s a couple of things I want to track down in the area, but I thought we could stop in, use it as a stopping point for a few months and say hello to Naruto,” I smiled pleasantly, “Say, is he back from his training trip yet?”

“Naruto won’t be back for another five months,” Sakura said weakly.

I hummed thoughtfully; five months was a decent amount of time, long enough to get some serious training in. I also wanted to drop by the Land of Waves to yoink Zabuza’s old sword; if it were still there, that would take a month, maybe?

Then a quick trip to the land of rivers and back here, before we would be set to head off towards Sunagakure.

“Kakuzu, the missing-nin from Takigakure? The one who tried to kill my grandfather?” Tsunade said seriously, “How is he still alive after all this time?”

“He’s not,” I said, amused. “I killed him.”

“How was he still alive before you killed him?” Sakura tried to clarify.

“He and his partner had this immortality thing going on. It was super interesting from a medical standpoint; you would have loved it.” I gestured vaguely, “You had to be there, I guess.”

Sakura just looked annoyed at the answer.

“Konoha has been looking for information about Akatsuki for several years,” Tsunade said evenly.

Tsunade leaned forward and steepled her hands in front of her mouth; she was clearly testing the waters to see if I would be willing to tell them what I know, I could work with that.

“In return for my incredibly generous offer of telling you all about the Akatsuki and their weaknesses,” I said thoughtfully.

I tried my best not to look down her top and immediately failed; I really had zero self-control.

“I’ll need Might Gai or Sarutobi Asuma or Hatake Kakashi, or uh, Kurenai? To train my two apprentices here in the art of not being terrible ninjas,” I said cheerfully. “For like two or three months anyway, they both suck, especially Karenbana.”

“Hey!” Fu yelped indignantly.

“I fucking swear as soon-” Karenbana started angrily, but I cut her off.

“We also want free food and somewhere to stay while in Konoha for the period that they are trying their best not to be terrible failures,” I said happily.

Tsunade stared at me for a long moment, as if waiting to see if I continued.

“How’s that sound, Tsunade?” I said pleasantly. “Pretty good deal, huh?”

Wait, I knew how to sweeten the deal.

“I’ll also bet you a thousand moon dollars that I can fix a single person of your choice that you haven’t been able to heal.” I grinned.

Tsunade twitched, and Shizune looked at her mentor in resignation.

“I agree to your terms, Sora,” Tsunade said evenly. “Now, please stop looking down my shirt.”

“I’m fucking trying, dammit,” I said honestly.

“Sora-kun!” Sakura said, outraged.