Naruto: The Unwoven Threads of Fate

The Land of Sound, Orochimaru's Office, One Week After Alvarcus' Departure

"Sasuke, good. Come in, come in." Orochimaru quickly opens the door wide and ushers in his next body. Such a shame that things have progressed they way they have, he'd much rather already have the flesh suit instead of doing what he's about to. "We have a problem."

"What did Alvarcus do this time?" Sasuke sighs out in resignation and regally sits down across Orochimaru. Orochimaru himself doesn't sit, he starts pacing back and forth in front of the huge map on his wall. "I swear we never got into too much trouble when it was the two of us, but now that he's got this 'going solo' streak in him I really start to worry."

"It's… bad." Orochimaru winces as he comes to an abrupt stop, staring at a spot on the map he'd gladly see go up in ironic flames.

"You're calling it bad?" Sasuke raises a perfect eyebrow. "The man who fought against Tsunade, Kakashi, Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai - the best of Konoha - and seemed only mildly off put by how bad it was going? The man who had part of his soul swallowed by the Shinigami of all things and still managed to murder his target? The man who casually infiltrates Hidden Villages on a whim? The man who has hundreds if not thousands of 'test subjects' hidden away simply because you can't be bothered to go out and kidnap someone in the heat of the moment? And you say it's bad?"

"Yes." The Snake Sannin monotonously replies.

"Should I go get a shovel to help dig the idiot out of the mountain of shit he's under?" Sasuke groans in resignation as idle thoughts swim through his mind. Just what did Alvarcus do this time?

"You certainly seem to grasp the severity of this situation." Orochimaru swivels to focus his attention back on Sasuke once more. "I'm glad to see you're committed. The plan with the highest chance of success comes at a great cost. It's something only you and I can do. Tell me Sasuke, how far are you willing to go to save Alvarcus?"

"He means more to me than anything or anyone else." Sasuke dramatically leans forward, his eyes bleed red, and he smiles borderline sadistically. "I'll do whatever it takes. What is the plan?"

"I need to get in contact with an old acquaintance."

The Past

"Temari!" I bark out as I step out of the cave, dusting the soot of a S-rank missing nin off my hands. I had to dig around in the little of him that was left for his ring. I'm not sure if it's important, but I don't want to risk it. So I'm taking it with me, that makes two of them. "I need you to take this. It's very important."

I whip out a small scroll and launch it at her. Like the good kunoichi she is, she reflexively catches it.

"And what's this? Sasori's head?" Temari eyes the scroll suspiciously.

"I roasted him in an oven." I inform both of the women. It was a hell of a way to go, especially for my first S-rank kill. But a kill is a kill, no matter how you get it. "There isn't a head left."

"You… you what?" Chiyo's jaw drops open as she stares at me in horror. "You melted my grandson to death?!"

"Got a problem with that?" I boldly stare at the old woman. "Need I remind you that you were sent on this mission to kill him? One that you would have probably failed if I hadn't shown up."

"You are one of the most infuriating people I have ever met." Chiyo growls out at me. "Just because I was sent to handle him does not mean I can't grieve over him, or be mad at the man who did it."

"As long as you don't try to kill me, I don't really care how you think of me." Not like she has long to live anyways, that is if things progress accordingly. "Now, might I suggest heading after the other two? For either reinforcements or to help with their wounds?"

The Present

"So you decided to go assist the other half of the rescue team." There is an infuriating click of a pen and the soft scratch of it on paper. "How did that go over?"

"About as well as you're imagining." I grunt out. This idiot is trying my patience. Though I loathe to admit it, that damn pen is fucking good at getting me unnerved. "How do you think a masked, foreign shinobi suddenly appearing next to the body of a Kage goes over? It's a miracle no one died."

"I also hear that wasn't the only miracle that happened there." He states in a thinly veiled attempt to get me to speak more. "Gaara still breathes despite having his biju removed."

"Yep. Ask Chiyo about that one. Oh wait." I smirk to myself. Don't get me wrong, it was a very impressive and honorable thing to do. I'm not making light of that. I'm making light of the fact that my interrogator will never get to ask her about what happened.

"No need, Kakashi was more than forthcoming with information. Amazing what an activated Sharingan can accomplish. Oh wait," I can just feel him returning my smirk here, "you'd know all about that already."

"Okay, you win that round Sir Pancake the Seventh." I concede defeat in my own backhanded way.

"I have one more question for today's session." He ignores the new title - maybe he adjusted already? Damn, that would suck - and I hear the rustle of his clothing as he leans forward. "Why didn't you let him die?"

The Past

The surprisingly large number of shinobi that came to save Gaara took a bit to warm up to me. It definitely helped that Temari, Chiyo, Kakashi and Naruto all seemed to be at ease in my presence. I just want to go home, but I need to make sure that I orchestrate one more thing before I depart.

"Temari, may I have a word?" I ask the blonde as everyone is openly marveling at the re-alive Kazekage. Is that the right way to describe that? Re-alive? Or does undead apply here? He's not a rotting corpse, so maybe not. Wait, am I technically undead? Ew, gross. I really need to look up a definition of that later. Okay, okay I'm distracted. Back on topic. "It's about the scroll."

She stares at me hard for a few seconds, weighing something in her head, before giving in and leading me to an out of the way area. "Speak."

Well isn't that incredibly friendly.

"I just want you to wait until you're back with your brothers to open the scroll." I placatingly say. "It's a gift for the three of you."

She visibly winces at that and her eyes dart guiltily to her brother.

"Temari?" There's confusion in my voice. "Gaara's fine, there's only one drawback to the jutsu Chiyo used. It costs the user's life to restore anothers. There's no need to worry about him."

"It's… Kankuro." She softly admits. Her eyes never leave Gaara, as if she's assuring herself that he's still there. "He got hit with Sasori's poison. I'm still losing a brother today, now it's not both of them."

"That's what I missed." I harshly whisper. How did I miss that? It was a huge thing in the original plot, Sakura and Chiyo battled against Sasori and won. Sakura made the antidote to Sasori's poison. Sakura was the one who saved Kankuro. She's not here to do it. Fuck. "Temari! Listen to me, I might be able to save him. Where is he?"

"Suna's General Hospital." Gotta love shinobi and kunoichi, they never bother with things like 'what? Why? There's no point.' They just answer the question. "What do you plan on doing?"

Okay, maybe I spoke too soon.

"The world's only benelevent kidnapping." With that last sentence, I take off for Suna.

"Wait. WHAT?" Temari shouts after me.

Suna's General Hospital

"Kankuro, buddy, you look like shit." I friendly say to the bedridden shinobi. "No wonder you wear so much makeup."

"Warpaint." He wheezes out as he cracks one eye to look at the speaker. "I look like shit? You look like shit. Get into a fight with a blender and lose?"

I look down at myself. He's not wrong either, my once pristine outfit is ruined. Not only is the arm gone from where Sasori pinned me, but it's been turned into long strips that are barely clinging together. It looks like I let a five year old go crazy with a pair of scissors.

"I'd like to see you non-lethally fight your way through a shinobi village." I scoff out at him. "If I still bleed then I'd have died from blood loss a long time ago. I just tanked all the shit your village threw at me and made liberal use of my daggers. There shouldn't be too much damage, but you never know. Dosuke's poisons are finicy at best. Thankfully anyone who is worth a shit is over with Gaara, so that's about the only reason I made it here."

"So he's okay?" Kakuro croaks out. "Good. I was worried about my little brother."

"Yeah, he's fine." I reach down and pick up Kankuro piggy back style. "Now it's time to save you. Hope you don't mind a bumpy ride, I'll be as gentle as possible."

"Okay." He's surprisingly together considering everything that's happening. "Who are you again? The docs have me on some good shit."

Or he's high as a kite. Whatever works.

"I'm the ice cream man." I snort to myself in amusement. Let's see him try to logic out if this is real or not if he lives. When he lives. "By the way, how do you feel about needles?"

"Needles? Don't like them much. Why?"

"I'm going to be giving you a continuous blood transfusion the entire ride to your savior. I don't know how Sasori's poison works, but I don't think fresh blood will hurt anything."

"Alright here." He sticks his arm straight out, offering me full access. "Do your worst, vile needle man."

"If you insist."

A very, very manly scream echos down the hallways of the hospital. It definitely wasn't high pitched, or ridiculously long, or reminiscent of a young girl at all. No, definitely not. It was as manly as it could possibly be.

In his defence, having a few hundred needle like threads stab you in chest would make just about anyone scream like a bitch.

"You said do your worst."

~Alvarcus, this is a terrible idea.~

"You mean like taking my mask off so we didn't get attacked on sight?"

~Yes! You forsook anonymity for a much larger force coming for you! Why would you do that?~

"Because they would attack an unknown on sight, but me? They'd wait for back up and just keep a very close eye on me."

~This is still a terrible idea.~

"Yeah but I don't have any other ideas to save Kankuro. Do you?"

~No, but that doesn't mean this is a good idea.~

"You're right. It means it's our best idea."

~THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT A GOOD IDEA!~

"I'm waiting for alternatives."

~It's too late, we're committed. We've passed the point of no return half an hour ago. And it's almost over.~

"Oh good." I continue my merry run towards my destination and call out to the people who have me surrounded. "Just let me drop him off then I'll be ready for you all! No need to cause a scene! I'll give you all a fair shot at me! I'll even willingly go to a training ground or something so there's no civilian casualties! See how nice I am!"

~Was that wise? Offering them a chance to attack later?~

"Probably not, but this way I don't have to dodge with all this dead weight on my back." My eyes bounce around all of the ANBU members that's keeping pace with me. "Besides, the further in I go the more twitchy they'll get."

~He still breathes. He's not dead weight.~

"You know what I mean." I round a corner, weave between a throng of civilians, and start the final stretch of a full day of mad dashing. "Oh, look at that. The finish line is closer than expected."

Four whole teams of ANBU - technically five since one is tailing/surrounding me - are standing in my way. All those civvies I just dashed through draw weapons that were hidden on their persons, so they're not civvies. That makes six ANBU teams. That settles it, I'm fucking awesome. But it's not them my eyes settle on, it's the pair of people leading them.

"Hey! Long time no see!" I skid to a stop about ten meters away from them. "How ya been? Oh wait, I brought you a present! He needs some medical attention, but I figure you of all people could sort that out. After all, you are the world's best medic nin and it would look absolutely terrible if the Hokage allowed the Kazekage's brother to die."

"Alvarcus Mar." Tsunade Senju, the Fifth Hokage, growls out menacingly at me. "Unhand the Kazekage's brother."

"You want me to cut his hands off?" My brow furrows in confusion. "Is this some new technique to remove poison from someone's system? I know he got poisoned by Sasori of the Red Sands so only you probably know how to fix him, but damn does that seems a little extreme. Man, if Konoha's medical procedures have changed this much I really have been gone a long time. Tell ya what, I'll just give him to you then you do it. Your hands are a lot steadier than mine."

I chuck Kankuro at her. Thankfully he's unconscious so he's missing all of this and very easy to throw. Tsunade experly catches the rag doll body and immediately hands him off to Shizune. She flies into dozens of diagnostic jutsu to assess what the hell is going on.

If I had to guess, Shizune is thankful for the distraction. She alone appeared to be conflicted upon seeing me. Obviously the ANBU are wearing masks and are the best of the best at keeping emotions hidden. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if a few of them are ROOT too. Even more emotionless. Tsunade herself seems unbelievably pissed off and ready to pummel me into the ground. Repeatedly. Or she's livid because she can't publicly execute me, it'd look bad on Konoha. Either way I'll find out soon.

Now I'm standing in little better than rags, surrounded by the best that Konoha has to offer times twenty or more, the Hokage, Shizune, and probably soon to be more. At least I somehow managed to beat Kakashi and Naruto back, boy would that be something.

~I told you bringing Kankuro here was a terrible idea. I don't care how good of a healer the Hokage is, this is A TERRIBLE IDEA! How do you plan on getting out of this one?~

I've got one idea, but I know we're both going to hate it. Sadly, it's the best one we've got.

~It's another terrible idea, isn't it?~

"No need to stab me!" I cheekily shout out to everyone as I hold my hands up. "I surrender!"

~Yep. Another terrible idea.~

The Present

"You mean was saving Kankuro and then surrendering to my original village that has put a generous bounty on my head worth it?" I rhetorically ask my interrogator. "Probably not. It was the only idea I had at the time. Oh, did you know I'm the only one who is triple the reward if returned alive? Guess you all really did miss me."

"Then why would you do it? Why save him at the cost of your freedom?" Asks my interrogator. "You could have stayed a free shinobi for a while longer. You could have easily just gone back to the hole you and Orochimaru call home. You just had to let one young man die. It would have been easy. Like adding a drop to a bucket of water. You've killed so many people already, what's one more?"

"It wouldn't have been the right thing to do." I casually admit and shrug one more time. "And I felt strangely responsible."

Considering that it is directly my fault for Kankuro not receiving the cure that Sakura would have gone on to make if I didn't exist, I am responsible for his condition. I know it's a ridiculously high standard to hold myself to and wasn't even close to a logical choice but it was something I needed to do. It's only one life, but it's one I saved instead of ruined.

"The right thing to do?" There's a tinge of emotion in the Interrogator's voice now. Very, very little, but it's there regardless. Just a spark of anger. How interesting. "You talk as if you consider yourself a good person."

"Are you prompting me for an ethical debate about what constitutes good and evil?" Unseen by him due to the blindfold, I furrow my brow in mild confusion. "Don't get me wrong, I'm willing to. I rather enjoy those kind of talks to be frank. I find that I usually have a different view than most others."

I pause for a moment to let him reply. He doesn't. He doesn't even click his pen, or write something down. Whatever, I'll just keep going then.

"I suppose we should start by defining what good and evil is." I tilt my head to the left. I don't know why, I just find that I think better that way. Weird right? Or weird left in this case. Right? Whatever. "Or better, in what context? Is it for the good of humanity as a whole? Using me as an example, do we weigh all my actions and their intents and see how they have steered humanity? Is it for the better or worse? If that's the context we use, then I'd wager I'm one of the most good people out there."