The truth
"It's only lethal against normal humans..." Thinking for a moment, Naruto continued "In this gigantic ninja world, there are many near-immortal beings that could easily survive this attack, and if you consider that this is currently my strongest technique and in a way my secret card... it's clearly still not enough."
"I don't even want to imagine the bloody mess you'll cause when you use your technique in its final phase."
"No shit" Remembering with disgust the time he used this technique for the first time and recalling the putrid smell of blood and the chilling sensation of flesh and brain colliding with his face, Naruto shook his head and turned away "I'll keep training, let me know if you need help with anything"
"Mn"
Walking towards his place, Naruto stopped for a moment and turned his gaze towards Sasuke "Do you happen to know the flickering body jutsu?"
"It's simple, I learned it when I was about 8 years old" Nodding, Sasuke continued "You have to make the chakra flow throughout your body and keep in mind where you want to go, then you run and that's it."
"Just that?" frowning slightly, Naruto asked "We do that every time we use a technique and I never increase my speed."
"When we use a technique, the chakra is directed towards a specific area in order to perform the technique, whether it's throwing it or whatever. Instead, by flowing your chakra and keeping it in the body, the muscles in your body will be nourished by this and give you a boost in strength and speed, although the boost in strength I don't recommend that you use it"
"Why?"
"Because it takes up a lot of chakra, I literally empty almost half of my reserves just with one hit and really the strength is not that much increase either... I think it's a thousand times better the internal gates no matter that this one brings side effects"
"And the speed?"
"It all depends on how high or how far away the place you want to go is, but generally it's hard to do it many times in a row since you lose your sense of direction easily to begin with and your stability is severely affected... it's also particularly hard to control your speed to get where you want to go without overshooting or hitting something on the way. That's something that took me about 3 months to get under perfect control."
"It doesn't damage your muscles?"
"Just chakra" Shaking his head, Sasuke replied.
"I see... thanks" Nodding with understanding, Naruto turned and walked to his place while thinking 'Shisui became particularly strong by mastering this technique by being able to use it many times without problems... but if it requires as much chakra as Sasuke says, I don't understand how he managed to use it in combat considering his reserves shouldn't even be close to mine... maybe mastering the technique achieves the same result with less chakra?'
Stopping while thinking deeply about the technique, Naruto looked up at the thick tree branch in front of him and made his chakra flow, then leaping over there and opening his eyes wide as he saw himself quickly reach far beyond the branch and slam directly into the trunk of a tree a few meters away.
Pa
Quickly flowing chakra into his hand, Naruto quickly placed it on the trunk and managed to hang on with ease, looking directly at the several meter fall and muttering as blood trickled down his nose "Interesting... although my vision and senses were greatly improved thanks to my new ability, I still failed to discern my surroundings and didn't even manage to react before I crashed."
Slowly climbing down from the tree, Naruto reached the ground and muttered "I didn't spend as much chakra as I expected and the distance was around 5 meters with a height of around 7 or 8 meters... I think I could do the same about 100 more times before I run dry, maybe more".
'It'll be tricky something tricky to learn it, but it's too useful to pass up' Crossing his fingers, Naruto formed hundreds of clones around him and they quickly ran into the forest to train 'I'll spend more than half of my chakra to train my element and this, but it's worth it.'
***
[3 days after leaving the team]
Wearing a dark cloak with a hood covering his face, Kakashi looked around carefully and stopped in front of a bar, then looked up at the dark sky above him and sighed.
Entering the bar, Kakashi ignored the bustling surroundings and instantly focused on the voluptuous blonde with the alcohol flushed face while a slender young woman with dark hair sat next to him with an attentive and alert look.
Approaching towards the duo, Kakashi stood in front of the young woman and turned his gaze towards the blonde, then sat down in front of them and remained silent.
"Who are you!?" Instantly pulling out a medical knife, the dark-haired young woman stood up and asked aggressively.
Raising his hands in a sign of peace, Kakashi brought a hand towards his hood and took it off "Long time no see, Shizune-san."
Opening her eyes a little wider, Shizune turned her gaze to Tsunade and seeing no reaction from her, she put away her scalpel and sat quietly as she hugged her little piggy.
"What do you want child?" without looking away from her glass of alcohol, Tsunade asked with boredom "If you come by order of the old man, tell him I won't come back."
"I'm not coming on someone's orders, and I had to call in a lot of favors to find his location..." Shaking his head while sighing deeply, Kakashi continued "I need your help... correction, the village needs your help."
"I told you kid, I'm not going back to the village" Frowning slightly as she raised her teasing eyes towards Kakashi, Tsunade continued "I don't care about anything you say, so get the hell out"
"Tsunade-sama...it's really serious" Without losing his calm, Kakashi continued "If you don't help, the village could end up being destroyed...believe me, if I had another choice, I would take it"
Frowning even more, Tsunade asked "If it's that important, you should have looked for Jiraiya, not me."
"This is a situation where I think even he's compromised."
"..." Remaining silent for a moment while staring at Kakashi's eye, Tsunade suddenly expelled a small steam around her body and her eyes instantly gained clarity "You have a minute to explain yourself"
"The third and the council are destroying the village" Pulling out a thick wad of papers from between his clothes, Kakashi put it down on the table and continued seriously "Please see this."
With quivering eyebrows at hearing something she would never think to hear, Tsunade took the papers and leafed through them superficially "What is this?"
"Death certificates of the Uchiha."
"I don't understand your point."
"When the massacre of the Uchiha clan occurred, all the bodies were studied by the village medical staff for their causes of death, and after the investigation, they were buried" Looking at the papers, Kakashi continued "But unlike what was written in the reports, the corpses in the graves are in a very different state."
Looking at the details of the reports, Tsunade asked "The cause of death was different?"
"No, the cause of death was correct" Shaking his head, Kakashi continued "What's different is that every Uchiha corpse in that cemetery, has the same peculiarity."
Opening her eyes a little wider, Tsunade quickly looked up at Kakashi and asked "Don't tell me that..."
"Yes, all their eyes were gouged out, and I personally confirmed it" Nodding, Kakashi continued grimly "And after investigating the cemetery, I confirmed that other than me, no one had ever touched those graves before other than when they were buried."
"Are you insinuating that my master and the council stole them?" with a deep frown, Tsunade asked.
"This will take some time" Looking around, Kakashi commented.
Looking at the audience around her, Tsunade sighed and stood up with the papers in her hand "Follow me... and pay my bill."
Sighing while leaving a few bills on the table, Kakashi followed Tsunade and Shizune, arriving after a few minutes towards their hotel room and after taking a last look around, entering next to them.
Walking over to a small piece of furniture, Tsunade took out a bottle of liquor and sat down on the floor "Explain it to me from the beginning."
Nodding as she sat across from her, Kakashi thought for a moment and spoke "You remember my master's son?"
"The Jinchuriki?"
"That's right" Nodding, Kakashi continued "A few months ago he was put under my command and well, we had some discussion."
"Why?"
"Naruto... he's a bright kid, he has his father's intelligence and his mother's talent... including his personality" Remembering the half red-haired boy, Kakashi continued "But his life in the village hasn't been pleasant at all and unfortunately he has a lot of resentment in his heart... in a random argument, he almost ended up giving up on being a ninja and he told me certain things that made me think"
"You're telling me it was that kid who found out about the Uchiha affair?"
"Something like that" Nodding, Kakashi continued "He said that Konoha has always been adept at abandoning their allies and letting them die without protecting them."
"That's an interesting and dangerous thought" Frowning slightly, Tsunade continued "What foundation did he use?"
"Remember the Hyuga clan incident?"
"Sigh He has a point" Nodding while sighing heavily, Tsunade continued "Something else?"
"He... talked about how the village let their greatest ally, the Uzumaki clan, die."
"How could the village be involved in that?"
"He says that the village knowing what was going to happen, never sent help" Thinking for a moment, Kakashi continued "He talked about how it's practically impossible that the whole ninja world was mobilized to destroy them without the village not knowing, since it takes a lot of management to move an army. Food, resources, ships and much more, something that could easily be discovered by a common spy."
"That's... real" Lowering her gaze as her brow could no longer furrow, Tsunade asked "Did you investigate it?"
"I did... and indeed, we have several spies who reported it to the Lord Third" Pulling out another bundle of papers among his clothes, Kakashi continued "I had to use some friendships to investigate secretly, and I managed to contact some acquaintances who work as spies"
Taking the papers, Tsunade leafed through them carefully and muttered "Reports of abnormal purchases of supplies ninja weapons, report of abnormal purchases of food, massive mobilizations of the army, massive fabrications of ships... although nothing indicates that they will make an attack on the Uzumaki clan, it is more than obvious that they were going after them considering the ships were built in a port near them"
"In fact there were also reports that the direction of the attack was known, but I failed to find the files and as far as I know, they were given directly to Lord Third"
"This is... odd."
"But that wasn't all he commented, as when the discussion was starting, he brought up the name Uchiha" Recalling the moment, Kakashi continued "I had to shut him up quickly, as I have the last Uchiha of Konoha in our team and I didn't want to cause conflicts like that"
"What exactly did he tell you?"
"Then I sought him out personally and asked him what he was going to say... he told me that he found it particularly odd that a couple of days before the attack, just the Hokage had taken out the surveillance surrounding the Uchiha compound and his major rationale was that it was practically impossible for a single person to have killed everyone silently no matter how strong he was"
"Why?"
"You do know that the official version says that no one found out because there was an important event that the Uchihas hold every year and that security was nil, right?"
"Yes."
"Naruto commented that the Uchihas have been doing that same event in the times before the founding of Konoha, where the wars were eternal and the killing endless."