Naruto: The Unwoven Threads of Fate

Lee's House

"How unyouthful." Lee looks at the new marks on his hand. "To label such a sinister thing as 'The World's Best Training Regime' is unthinkable! Who would do such a thing?"

Dear Lee,

Blame Ino for your fancy new seal. I trusted her and she betrayed that trust. I've taken matters into my own hands, or technically yours. You'll find that speaking about what she told you just got a lot more difficult. Painfully difficult. Don't bother trying to find a workaround. There isn't one.

Alvarcus

"I shall do five hundred situps and then five hundred pushups to make up for my failure!" Lee clenches a fist in determination. "Actually… maybe I should see about getting this removed first. Gai-sensei would be upset with me if I left it alone."

Tenten's House

"A… A love letter?" Tenten stares at the slip of paper with a heart on it that has been slid under her door. "OH THIS IS SO EXCITING I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO GET A LOVE LETTER!"

"Please be from Neji!" She eagerly bends down to scoop it up. "Please be from Neji OW!"

The sudden jolt of pain causes her to drop the letter.

"That's no love letter!" Tenten glares at the letter, ignoring the sensation on her hand for now. "How repulsive! Vile creation! Once I find out who did this I'll - Alvarcus."

Dear Tenten,

Blame Ino for your fancy new seal. I trusted her and she betrayed that trust. I've taken matters into my own hands, or technically yours. You'll find that speaking about what she told you just got a lot more difficult. Painfully difficult. Don't bother trying to find a workaround. There isn't one.

Alvarcus

"What a dick! Playing with a fair maiden's heart like that. How rude!" Tenten takes this moment to look at the back of her hand. "Whoa. That's one hell of a seal. I have no idea how to even begin to start unraveling that. I wonder if everyone else got one too?"

Kakashi's Apartment

"How does he not have any ramen?" Naruto whines as he's raiding Kakashi's cabinets. "Stupid stupidface wouldn't let me go to Ichiraku's Ramen."

POOF

Naruto whirls at the unexpected sound with a kunai in hand. He's ready to deal with whatever decided to sneak up on him.

"Oh it's you." Naruto lowers his kunai but doesn't put it away. "Shirokumo right?"

"Yes. Nice to see you again Naruto." Shirokumo climbs up the table to help even out the height difference. "I've been making rounds through your friends on behalf of Alvarcus."

"Careful." Naruto warns the summon. "I cherish my friends above all else. If you hurt them there will be hell to pay."

"They're Alvarcus' friends too moron." Shirokumo sighs as one of his many legs scratches his underbelly. "He'd never go out of his way to hurt them."

"Really?" Naruto sarcastically stretches the word out for a few seconds.

"Okay good point. Al's an ass. We all know that." Shirokumo admits. "But I haven't been going around hurting them. I've been making sure that they can't talk about him. You're my last stop. I've dropped off every other letter but you need a more personal touch."

"How'd you manage to get them to stay quiet?" Naruto innocently asks but his grip on the kunai tightens.

"I was just a messenger. It was Alvarcus that made the seal that prevents them from sharing certain information about him."

"You put a seal on all of my friends?" Naruto snarls out in rage.

"Yep." Shirokumo easily ignores the irate genin. "I would put one on you too but you have one that no one wants to see react badly. So I'll have to use a different method to keep your mouth shut."

"You don't have anything on me. You can't keep me quiet." Naruto boasts. "It won't matter if they can't talk. I will. Tsunade will see reason, she'll let him come back. She has to. You can't threaten me."

"Of course I can threaten you." Shirokumo snorts out in dark amusement. "If you so much as attempt to pass a single piece of information to anyone about Alvarcus that the general public does not already know I'll tell them all about the Kyuubi."

Naruto freezes and his eyes are as wide as saucers. All the blood drains from his face.

"Told you I can threaten you." Shirokumo smirks. "You keep Alvarcus hush hush I'll keep the furry fox in your gut hush hush. Do we have an accord?"

"Raikiri!" Kakashi's fistful of lightning spears its way through the table where Shirokumo once stood. "Naruto. What did he say?"

A lone piece of paper flutter to the ground. Naruto picks it up and quickly reads it.

Dear Naruto,

Blame Ino for what I have done. I trusted her and she betrayed that trust. I've taken matters into my own hands because she forced me to. I don't want to tell anyone about the Kyuubi. That's your secret to share or keep, not mine. But you've learned of my own secrets. I needed insurance that those won't be shared either so I've had to resort to this. I am sorry but Ino forced my hand. You keep quiet and I'll keep quiet. Don't think that because I'm in Oto I won't find out. I have eyes and ears everywhere. It's only a matter of time. So be smart and don't say anything.

Alvarcus

"We're going to the Hokage." Kakashi says from behind Naruto. He was reading over his shoulder. "Right now."

The Yamanaka Clan Compound

Ino is alone in her room, in fact she's the only one in her house. She managed to get home while both of her parents are out. She's staring uncomprehendingly at her left arm, like it's a foreign entity that just latched onto her.

For all intents and purposes it is. Not even five minutes ago it was blemish free. Now an intricate pattern takes up the back of her hand and all of her forearm. A few tendrils even sneak past her elbow. It's a very extensive seal array, the likes of which she's never seen.

Then she forces her eyes off of her tattooed arm to the letter that caused it.

You fucked up.

I trusted you. I shared things with you about me that no one else knows. I confided in you. I let my guard down around you, let you into my fortress. I showed you a kindness that I have never shown anyone else. Not even Sasuke.

This is how you repay me? You tell everyone else about those things. You tell them everything I explicitly told you to not share. You betrayed me. I extended a hand of trust and you slapped it away. This is your punishment. You told them everything about me so I took that away.

You can no longer speak about me. You can no longer share my secrets. You can no longer join in plans to plot my downfall. You can no longer happily reminisce about the good times we all had together with your friends. You can't even speak my name.

Should you attempt to go against those rules you will experience pain beyond your wildest dreams. Pain so severe and so all encompassing that the brief moment the Jiongu showed you when you first invaded my mind will seem like a pleasant summer breeze. You've seen first hand how depraved I can be when properly motivated. I'd advise not risking it but feel free to find out for yourself. I know now how little you value my word.

I didn't want to do this. I hated every moment I spent crafting that seal. It pained me. You forced my hand. Not only did I have to put a seal on you, your actions forced me to put a much less severe seal on each person you told. That's right, you made me place a curse seal on everyone. Shikamaru. Choji. Kiba. Shino. Hinata. Neji. Tenten. Lee. Naruto. Hell I even put one on Akamaru. That is the extreme that you forced me to go to.

This is your fault.

"Ino!" Inoichi happily calls out to his daughter. "Come down and say hi! I want to hear all about your mission!"

Ino doesn't respond. Her eyes are bouncing back and forth between her arm and the letter. She can't accept it even though it's right before her.

"Ino?" Inoichi calls out from the bottom of the stairs this time. "You okay?"

She still doesn't respond.

"Ino I'm coming up." Inoichi quickly climbs the stairs at shinobi speeds. It took less than a second.

Ino remains silent.

"Ino what's -" Inoichi cuts himself off from speaking. He's doing the same thing his daughter is, staring uncomprehendingly at her arm and its new artwork.

"D-dad?" Ino shakily says as she loses her grip on the letter and it falls to the ground. Then she throws herself at him and crushes him in a hug.

"Shh." Inoichi tenderly returns her embrace and speaks in quiet soothing tones. "Shh. Tell me who did this."

"I-I can't. Dad I can't say. That's what it does." Tears start to run down her face. "C-can you get rid of it?"

"I don't know." Inoichi regretfully admits to his daughter and her sobs get worse. "But I know plenty of seal users. I'll even drag Jiraiya kicking and screaming to look at that if I have to. We can start with Tsunade, she was his teammate. I'm sure she picked up a couple of tricks, if not she's the one person who will know where he is."

"O-okay." Ino doesn't loosen her grip on her lifeline.

Inoichi scoops his daughter up into his arms and starts carrying her to the Hokage Tower. "It'll be okay. We'll get through this together."

"B-but what if we can't?" Ino says between sobs. "What if it's there forever?"

"Then be thankful it looks pretty."

"Haha." Ino softly giggles between chest shaking jolts of tears. Then she holds her arm up again. "I s-suppose it does look kinda p-pretty."

The Hokage's Office

"I need to get a bigger office." Tsunade sighs out at the crowd of people before her. "So let me get this straight. That one," She points at the very visibly shaken Ino, "found out stuff about Alvarcus and shared it with you all. Instead of me. The Hokage. I'm going to overlook that for now. Then somehow Alvarcus found that out and managed to get a curse seal on each of you using letters and… a teleporting spider? You all hear how ludicrous that sounds, right?"

"He even got Akamaru." Kiba whines while stroking his dog. "Ruined his perfect white fur and everything."

"Ino's is much more extensive than the other's." Inoichi says. "They simply can't speak about what she told them. They're more than welcome to share general information and reference him. She, on the other hand, cannot even utter his name now."

"And this all happened in what?" Tsunade looks at a clock. "Six hours?"

"It would seem so." Shibi gently places a hand on Shino's shoulder. "Most everyone was at home when it happened, their guards were lowered. No one expects to be attacked in their home, and through a letter no less."

"We're not here to talk about how they got it!" Tsume cuts in. "We're here to get rid of it! When's Jiraiya coming back?"

"I don't know. Could be years if he manages to sneak Naruto out from under my nose." Tsunade rubs her brow in defeat.

"For the record I can't be blamed for that." Naruto cuts in. "He has this nasty habit of throwing me over his shoulder then running like hell. Basically it's kidnapping."

"We don't have anyone else that can look at them?" Shikaku pointedly looks at Tsunade. He damn well knows that there's at least one other person who is a very good seal user. He also knows that Tsunade hates his guts.

"I know of another seal user, I hesitate to call him a seal master because I don't want to give him the satisfaction, but he knows seals pretty well. Curse seals in particular." Tsunade admits.

"Tsunade-sama." Hiashi speaks up. "Our Elders are baffled by this, they have no idea how to begin unraveling it."

"I'm not talking about one of the Hyuuga Elders." Tsunade heaves out a sigh of regret. "I'm talking about Danzo Shimura."

"Ah." Kakashi's one visible eye narrows in distaste. "Him."

"Hare!" Tsunade calls out and instantly there's an ANBU kneeling before her. On the ceiling. There wasn't any room on the floor.

"Yes Hokage-sama?" Hare professionally asks despite their awkward spot.

"Fetch Danzo. Tell him I… Tell him I need his expertise." Tsunade's face scrunches up in revulsion as Hare takes his leave. Or is it her? One can never tell with ANBU. "I hate relying on him."

An awkward silence falls onto the gathered group.

"So…" Choza drawls out. "Anyone know any good jokes?"

"Two of my clansmen - one of which is my very own daughter - have been infected with a curse seal and you're asking about jokes?" Hiashi seeths at the other clan head.

"Oh calm down." Shikaku draws Hiashi's attention to himself. "It's not like the Hyuuga's aren't used to having a seal branded on them unwillingly. You'd think you would be used to this by now."

"You dare -"

"SHUT THE HELL UP OR GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!" Tsunade roars, stopping the argument before it can begin. "YOU ALL CAME TO ME WITH THIS MESS SO WE'RE FIXING IT MY WAY! NOW BE QUIET!"

Courses of 'Yes Ma'am' come out of everyone's mouth.

"I can't help but admire whoever pulled this off." Danzo admits to the gathered shinobi. They've relocated to a bigger room, one that is also brightly lit and has various sealing utensils stocked. "Tagging various clan heirs and other prominent genin while they're at home? Perhaps we should consider acquiring whoever did this. If that fails then we must eliminate that threat. That kind of power..."

"Admire later." Tsume growls at the Councilman. "Fix now. Please."

"I shall need to examine it before I attempt to remove it." Danzo looks at each afflicted shinobi in turn. "Who would like to step up and let me look at their seal?"

"I got this." Choji says with a shrug and steps forwards. "Best I can tell it's a fancy square."

"Well my boy you're not wrong." Danzo gently takes Choji's hand in his one working hand. He pulls it closer to study it, twisting it this way and that way to get a full understanding. "Yet there's so much more to it than that."

"How much more are we talking?" Choji asks.

"Who was it that put this on all of you again?" Danzo conversationally asks Choji. "This might sting."

"Alvarcus did OW!" The black marks on Choji's hand start to expand. They expand too much to be contained to just his hand and spill onto the large sheet of sealing paper that Danzo prepared for exactly this. "That much more. Wow that's a lot. Alvarcus made that?"

"Alvarcus?" Danzo needlessly repeats as he turns his eye to Tsunade. "The same one that you won't promote to S-rank?"

"Correct. He doesn't deserve the satisfaction." Tsunade stiffly answers. "Now do you know how to remove it?"

"Just a moment please." Danzo looks down on the now expanded seal.

'Curious.' Danzo thinks to himself. 'This is eerily similar to my seal that I use to suppress my ROOT shinobi yet it appears to have been modified. No, not modified. Completely remade like Alvarcus knew the logic behind the seal but not how to craft it like mine. Interesting.'

Danzo pours over the expanded seal, taking in as much as he can and looking for a way to remove it.

'He's made his need a specific key to unseal. If the key isn't used to unseal them their chakra network in their hand will be devoured. Alvarcus Mar, you're quite the resourceful one. You've taken up fuinjutsu under Orochimaru. It's no wonder you can make a curse seal like this.'

"I know how to remove the seals but I lack the necessary tools." Danzo taps Choji on the back of the hand and the seal retreats to its new home. "Alvarcus has made a key for the seals, removing the seal without the key will have undesirable side effects."

"What happens if you removed it anyways?" Shikamaru asks. "I'm not a huge fan of this."

"It would destroy all of the tenketsu in your left hand rendering all ninjutsu and genjutsu inert." Danzo shares the bad news with everyone.

"And what of my daughter's?" Inoichi asks as Ino timidly pulls back her sleeve.

"Whoa." Kiba says in surprise. "That's a hell of a lot more intense."

"You poor child." Danzo says with a grandfatherly air about him. "Come here let me see if I can do anything."

Ino holds her arm out to Danzo and he gently starts maneuvering it about to study it.

'To think that Alvarcus is capable of such feats. He's designed this one to make her set off the seal. He's defined what will activate the seal, which is mentioning anything to do with him, but it is her that subconsciously decides whether or not what she says counts as mentioning him. He's outlined the rules and she's the one who enforces his will upon herself. I am truly impressed, by setting it up this way he's covered every possible venue she could use to try and get around the seal because in the end it is still her trying to communicate about him. Even writing about him is forbidden.'

Danzo allows himself a moment of admiration before returning to his usual self.