42

Chapter 41: Where There is Shadow There is Light

Sasuke stared at Orochimaru impassively as he held his jutsu puncturing the man's arms that he had placed up as a defense, "Orochimaru you're weaker than me. There's no point in sacrificing my body to you anymore."

"Big words from the leftover Uchiha." Orochimaru taunted as he glared dangerously at Sasuke, his own blood staining his face.

Sasuke smirked, "Hm. If I hadn't been so weak I never would have come to you in the first place now would I? The only reason you wanted me was because you couldn't take Itachi, right Mister Sannin? The world might have considered you a genius, but you're nowhere near the level of an Uchiha. Before us, the greatest genius in the universe barely comes off as average."

Orochimaru laughed maliciously, "The only thing you're good for are your eyes boy. If you truly believe that you're my equal then go back and fight Naruto-kun again and prove your skill. Oh that's right, you lost to him once and ran away from him without even fighting the second time."

"My eyes huh?" Sasuke said, narrowing his eyes at Orochimaru's jab at him, "As someone that carries the famous name Uchiha, from my point of view your attempts to obtain our power are so disgusting they're almost funny. The way you keep saturating yourself with drugs and switching bodies… your methods are pointless. Do you even have a true goal anymore? You claim to seek the reason behind existence and yet all you do is make petty attempts to play God with people's lives." He drew his sword, "You sicken me." He moved in at the disabled Orochimaru to finish him off with his blade.

However when he got close, the snake-summoning shinobi opened his mouth as a long white figure burst from his body that turned out to be a massive white snake comprised of smaller white snakes.

Sasuke turned around and faced off with the grotesque figure, "So your true form is a scaly white serpent. You experimented on your own body because you wanted to take over others so badly… and now you're a pathetic shell of your former self."

"Sasuke-kun…" Orochimaru hissed threateningly, "Give me your body!" He dove at Sasuke as the young Uchiha jumped over his first attack, allowing the bed Orochimaru had been in to be rendered to splinters. Some of the smaller snakes lunged at the airborne Sasuke, however he cut through them and slid along the ground upon landing, his back against a wall. Orochimaru turned on him with a hiss and sent an entire wave of snakes at Sasuke as an attack.

Sasuke immediately pulled the top of his shirt back, freeing his upper body and activated the level two transformation of his cursed seal, "Though the snake dreams of soaring through the sky, it is forever doomed to crawl on its belly." Sasuke was surrounded and engulfed by the attack as his skin color turned dark brown and the star marking appeared on his face. But immediately upon being overwhelmed, the snakes exploded in blood revealing the fully transformed Sasuke, complete with his wing-like hands fully grown from his back, "You'll have your chance to fly snake… In the talons of a hawk."

Orochimaru simply lunged at his young quarry once more, "Sasuke!"

XxX

(With Naruto and Company)

Naruto, Maki, and Sai stood back to back as all of the shinobi of the Prajna Group were radiating killing intent. "So…" Naruto said, directing his eyes at Maki, "If me and Sai were to break out of this and get some space away from these guys could you keep up with us?"

"Don't patronize me senpai." Maki said with some aggravation in her voice, "If you're going to go then go. I wouldn't be here if I couldn't keep up."

With that, all three teens utilized their own Shunshin to escape being boxed in by the enemy. Naruto in a gusty cyclone, Sai in a swirl of ink, and Maki in a burst of light. The Prajna Group shinobi all turned to pursue the split up force of 3 Root ninja, however a trio of kunai corralled four of them, separating them from their comrades who ran off into the forest to chase the younger opponents who threw the weapons.

"Raiton: Denkai (Lightning Release: Electric Field)!" A dome of electricity formed around the grounded kunai that trapped the four separated Prajna ninja, "Checkmate, Raiton: Denki Hokai (Lightning Release: Electric Implosion)!" The electric prison brightened and began crackling loudly before the entire dome receded, revealing the burned, blackened remains of the four men. Naruto appeared from a hiding place and confirmed his kills, "You all shouldn't have made that so personal. Missions with more destruction are carried out all the time for stupider reasons. You shouldn't have allowed it to consume you. With as many of you as there were left you all should have tried to simply live instead of trying to take revenge against us." He stood up shaking his head, "Killing us wouldn't have done anything anyway. So long as there is light, erasing shadows will do no good. Four more down, thirteen to go." He took off back into the woods to assist the rest of his team.

XxX

(With Sai)

The seven Prajna Group ninja bearing down on Sai turned their long kunai downwards and leapt through the air, three landing in front of him to cut him off, four landing behind him, and all impaled him with their kunai. The twisted look of pain on Sai's face began to melt as he turned to ink, revealing himself to be an ink clone.

"Sumi Nagashi (Ink Flush)."

From the ground, ink snakes formed and caught the men around their legs and arms, trapping them from using their kunai to escape, "Now then, Choujuu Giga (Super Beasts Imitation Picture)." A roar from an area of surrounding trees preceded a group of three ink lions coming from the woods intent on attacking the trapped men. Two of them were able to get loose, freeing their arms enough to cut themselves loose, however their comrades were not so lucky, as they wound up being caught and brutally mauled by the lions.

Two men were killed as the lions went right for their throats and ended it there while the third lion began clawing and biting at the other trapped men, wounding them too heavily to allow them to keep fighting. One of the wounded had the bone of their arm around the elbow exposed from the attack.

The two able-bodied Prajna Group members took advantage of their partners distracting the lions with their own bodies to cut them down, however this allowed Sai to move from the shadows and cut one of them down with his tanto.

The other man angrily attacked Sai with his elongated kunai that was blocked by the pale teen, "Die you Root scum! For all of my comrades!" He attempted to poke Sai in his vulnerable eyes while they were up close and wound up getting his two fingers blocked down the middle by the back knife edge of Sai's hand, "You probably don't even feel anything!"

"That's not true." Sai stressed plainly, moving his own hand so that he could grasp a hold of the man's extended fingers and quickly break them, allowing him to power through the man's weaponized attack and cut into the side of the masked man's neck, killing him and dropping him to the ground in a heap, "I feel annoyance for having my team be sidetracked by you." With that, he looked back at the men that were still wounded and let out a sigh.

They weren't going to be able to get anyone to treat their wounds. One of them had their guts falling out a belly wound for Kami's sake. Sai walked over to them with his tanto still brandished, "I am sorry for your misfortune. I would not have killed you had you not attacked my team, but my mission is to protect Naruto-senpai from all threats, and you are threats." He lifted his tanto overhead and began finishing them off.

XxX

(With Maki)

Maki was actually very fast, faster than Sai on foot truthfully. The trouble they had in catching up to her forced the six attacking Prajna Group members to split up, half to continue the pursuit, the other half to find a way to cut her off.

Eventually this plan seemed to work as they found themselves gaining on the girl who looked back over her shoulder at them as she continued to run away through the elevated branches of the woods. A sun glare through the treetops hit them in the face and almost immediately it appeared that Maki had been rejoined by Naruto and Sai as they were all running side by side in the same direction in front of them.

Seeing all three in one place inspired the pursuit team of three to push harder and catch the seemingly slower group all at once, which they did. Attempting to finish them off from behind, all three turned in the air and blocked the strikes before they all fell to the ground and rolled, breaking away to a standoff against each other, three-on-three with blades all drawn, staring at each other, although for some reason the Root kids had looks of fear and confusion on their faces.

"What the hell are you doing?" Naruto yelled at them, "What's your problem?"

"Our problem is you three brats!" One of the Prajna Group yelled, "Everything that we've been through is your fault and now you're all going to die out here!" With that, the two groups began fighting one another, though one side seemed rather reluctant to do so.

XxX

Maki moved back through the foliage as she heard the sounds of the fighting ringing out, "Watashi no Yuujin no Teki (Enemy of My Friend)." Her genjutsu was used to fool the lagging pursuit force into thinking that their faster allies that had broken off and tried chasing her from the side was herself, Naruto, and Sai, allowing her to escape undetected. If everything worked out properly they would kill each other and she wouldn't even need to draw her sword. Maybe she could use this as an opportunity to find Sai and Naruto-.

"Raiton: Kaksen no Jutsu (Lightning Release: Livewire Jutsu)!"

Visible lines of electricity flew over the ground towards the clashing Prajna Group fighters, catching the enchanted members of the group off-guard, something that was also fatal for their other partners as they were in direct contact with them.

The jutsu hit them and electrocuted them all, finishing them off as Naruto and Sai landed nearby, "And that's seventeen of seventeen. Maki!" He called out, "That's all of them, you can come out."

Maki did as instructed and looked over at the corpses of the deceased assailants, "You could have been more subtle about it Naruto-senpai." She said, almost pouting at how he finished things off, "I put all of that effort into constructing that genjutsu for them to do damage to themselves and you just swoop in and take them out while they're not looking." She crossed her arms over her chest, "No respect for the more restrained shinobi arts. Same as always." A small smile came to her lips.

Naruto shook his head as he confirmed the kills, "Only a Root ninja would be able to smile at me after we just got through doing something like this…" He said, though a smile of his own started peeking through, "Actually not really, because he's not smiling about anything." He finished, pointing at Sai.

"Should we begin travelling faster now Naruto-senpai?" Sai asked, prepared to draw a bird or two to fly them away, "Or would you like to risk being attacked again by random enemies?"

Naruto gave Sai a dry look, "Again, we're going all over the Hi no Kuni countryside to get to the east coast. The entire point of this is to not get caught moving around by anyone so that no one knows where we are. You can fly when we get to the coast… maybe." He looked between Sai and Maki, "Is anyone hurt? Tired? Anything?" Both shook their heads in the negative, "Well then let's get moving again."

The team took off through the woods following behind Naruto as Maki eventually decided to ask a question, "So Naruto-senpai, where is it that you want us to head to? Any destination on the coast in particular?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, we're going to Nami no Kuni since Sai doesn't have the chakra to have his creatures take us all the way across the ocean straight out from here." He furrowed his brow at that point, "Maybe I should call Hamako-chan too. While we're there in Nami no Kuni, there might be something in Uzushiogakure that we missed in our combination of bad to worse situations or something that she wants."

Sai almost felt like cringing at the memory of the incident, "Are we going to have to fall off of a building into a whirlpool or fight another giant statue and Akatsuki members?" He asked.

"Kami I hope not…" Naruto said in response, "Don't even make jokes like that Sai-kouhai, it's hard to tell if you're serious or not and I don't need you jinxing us."

Maki raised a delicate eyebrow in interest, "I'm going to see your ancestral home? You're actually going to show it to me?"

Naruto nodded and grinned back at her, "Well you were going to see it eventually if I remained in Root, so why not show you now? My life is in your hands and yours is in mine. We should be able to trust each other." He turned back ahead, and continued to lead, "And I trust you Maki, I always did."

Grey eyes looked at Naruto's back before a smile came to Maki's face. Before she could say anything to Naruto, Sai abruptly spoke, "I trust you as well Maki-san."

Maki blinked in confusion before responding, "Um… thank you Sai-senpai?"

XxX

(Sasuke vs. Orochimaru)

Sasuke stood over the bloody, segmented body of Orochimaru's serpent form as he allowed his cursed seal level two form to recede, "That was too easy." He said to no one in particular, "I guess it's time to go get Suigetsu now…" As he turned to leave, he doubled over as a sudden foreign feeling entered his system.

"Finally feeling the effects are we?" Orochimaru said as his body reformed and he rose back up, "The fumes of these white snakes can even taint the air with their paralyzing venom." Sasuke took note of the horrid stench that came from the blood staining the floor, "I am undying, and you're just a whelp with jutsu too weak to kill me… and now you're mine!" He dove at Sasuke and swallowed him whole just as he activated his Sharingan.

Instead of finding himself in Orochimaru's stomach he found himself in some wide area with walls that seemed an eternity away and a fleshy floor, "What is this place?"

"An alternate dimension inside of me." Orochimaru said as his form emerged from the flesh covered floor, "And the place where I carry out my soul transfer ritual. It has already begun."

Snakes began emerging from the ground and began immersing Sasuke among them. He looked around and saw the bodies of others. Orochimaru grinned victoriously as Sasuke became less and less visible within the fleshy cocoon that his ritual was creating. Sasuke however, was still as calm as ever, his Sharingan active and seemingly staring a hole right though him. He could feel himself caught in a paralysis genjutsu.

'It's happening again. Just like before.' He thought, getting more and more excited at the prospect of taking Sasuke's body to the point of laughing maniacally, "Those eyes… Those eyes will be mine!" He moved towards Sasuke and began merging bodies until Sasuke effortlessly broke free of his bonds, still with an impassive look on his face, "This can't be happening! I created this dimension, there's no way! This can't be, this is my-!"

Sasuke cut him off coldly, "Orochimaru against my eyes, none of your jutsu…" He stopped and let out a short laugh, "Actually you know the rest. After all, you've heard it before." The entire dimension began to collapse around them both, even Orochimaru himself found himself being eaten away at.

"I refuse to let this happen! I will not die here! I am Orochimaru! I am immortal! Destined to discover the true meaning behind everything, to take control of everything in the world!" He roared at Sasuke as the entire dimension went dark.

XxX

The sounds of combat from Orochimaru's room stopped. After a few moments of no sound whatsoever, Suigetsu peeked his head into the room and saw Sasuke standing over the dead corpse of Orochimaru's serpent form, "Uh yo… Is it over?" Sasuke didn't answer and after getting fed up with the silence he walked into the room, not really caring one way or the other, "Yeah, it's over. It looks over." He said, stepping over Orochimaru's dead body.

Kabuto appeared at the doorway and looking into the room, stunned into silence before Sasuke and Suigetsu left, Suigetsu taking the stunned look on Kabuto's face with much humor. As they began walking away down the hall he had to ask the question he had running through his head, "Which one are you?"

Sasuke and Suigetsu stopped, both turning around with smirks on their faces as Sasuke spoke, "Which one do you think?" Sasuke used his Sharingan to place Kabuto in a genjutsu and replay the scenes of the conflict.

Kabuto stepped back in abject horror, "Orochimaru-sama is dead." He then looked intently at Sasuke, "No, it's more like-."

"I've taken over." Sasuke finished for him as he continued to walk away alongside Suigetsu.

Suigetsu had thought about killing Kabuto for keeping him trapped in that tank for so long, but figured that he would be nothing more than a simpering mark on his own. Without Orochimaru he would be swallowed up by the multiple enemies he had made since becoming Orochimaru's right-hand man. With that in mind he spoke to Sasuke, "So what's next? Where are we going now?"

"We need to get two more people." Sasuke answered him, "Juugo in the north and Karin in the south."

"Meh…" Suigetsu mumbled in complaint, "Do we have to? I kind of can't stand those two, I don't think we'll ever get along."

Sasuke scoffed and narrowed his eyes, "I just need the three of you to cooperate. I don't need you to like each other."

Suigetsu rolled his eyes, "Well you did save me, so I guess if that's what you want I'll go along with it. But why them? What do you think of them?"

"They need to learn how to shut up." Sasuke said plainly, "Just like someone else I'm speaking to at the moment."

Suigetsu laughed slightly before suddenly appearing behind Sasuke with a finger to the side of his head, "Alright leader-boy, let's get a few things straight. You're not in charge because you took Orochimaru down. Everyone was after him and the way that they kept moving me when that squad of Konoha ANBU kept finding us told me that he didn't have that much time left anyway. You taking him down is just a result of you having damn near unlimited free swings at him, you could pick your shot at any time."

"What's your point?" Sasuke asked impatiently.

Suigetsu stared at Sasuke who seemed to not be able to care any less about his predicament, "Ha, I'm just kidding. Man, your heart rate didn't even change. That's enough for me, that win was no fluke." He stepped away from Sasuke, "I've always heard rumors about how strong you were, your squad beat my old sempai Zabuza didn't they? But can I make a quick detour? There's somewhere I want to go before we get the others."

XxX

(Two Days Later – Konohagakure no Sato)

Jiraiya sat comfortably in the living room of Naruto's new home that he had yet to see yet. He had to say, Hamako had actually done a fantastic job in picking it out, and furbishing it as well. It was a very comfortable atmosphere to say the least. Of course that was probably because the perpetual ball of energy and kinetic motion Naruto was currently out. A semi-circle of large couches sat in a pit-like living room that was well lit. There would probably have been way more things than the few knickknacks and things that came from the old apartment, but she was probably waiting on him to get back before filling the place up.

Oh he would have loved the place. It was built on the side of the Hokage Monument mountain with a groove cut out by earth ninjutsu specialists. The entrance to the place was on the top of the mountain and descended to the actual building. He was sure that the vast majority of his bounty check and a few of his A-rank mission payments that he never spent went into the place, but it was worth it to the old toad sage. Maybe when the kid came back he could convince him to let him get a room. Yes, that would work. The kid would have to let his poor old handicapped sensei stay with him wouldn't he?

"I hope that the tea is not too strong or hot for your throat Jiraiya-sama." Hamako called out as she entered the room and set down a tray of tea with two cups on the coffee table in front of the couch, "How are your injuries?"

Jiraiya smiled gratefully as the girl poured him a drink. He spoke in a raspy, soft voice, "It should be fine. And I'm not dead, so I can't really complain about my wounds, they'll heal… I'll miss the arm though." He fake sniffled, "I miss that sweet arm of mine."

Hamako giggled and handed him his tea, "Well it's nice to hear that Naruto-sama's sensei is alright. I have asked you here for another reason though." She said as she took a seat nearby, "He's worried about fighting the person that defeated both of you. He says that the four tails of the Kyuubi's chakra he can draw on won't be enough to beat this Pein. I'm supposed to ask you about any way he can find to access more, because he cannot control anymore than he currently has been using." She took a sip and narrowed her eyes at him, "Also know that loosening his seal is not an answer, that was a terrible idea Jiraiya-sama."

Jiraiya gave a deadpan look at Hamako, "Hindsight is 20-20… I knew that roughly a day after I did it but I couldn't tighten it back up, even with the key."

"The key…" Hamako said in thought as she took another sip, "What exactly is the key Jiraiya-sama? I know that there is one but I don't know anything more than that." She frowned cutely, "It's puzzling, that I do not know about this 'key' when Naruto-sama's seal itself is so heavily based off of Uzushiogakure sealing styles. I cannot duplicate it even if I thought it would be a good idea to do so."

Jiraiya chuckled hoarsely with his injured throat and took a sip of his own tea before speaking, "Well I didn't design it as I'm sure you know. Do you know of Naruto's lineage?" Hamako nodded, "Of course you do. There's no way he would have failed to mention that to you. Well Minato was actually better than me at fuuinjutsu, he was closer to your level, beyond you I would say."

Hamako simply smiled at him, "Are you admitting I'm better than you?" She let out a short laugh when Jiraiya glowered at her, "I'm not surprised that Yondaime-sama was better than me. Master's seal is incredible. It used to be my favorite thing to do to just examine it until I learned all that I could from it." She noticed Jiraiya writing something down in a notebook that suddenly appeared on his lap, "Really? You're recording this?"

Jiraiya nodded with a lecherous grin on his face, "The gaki has been a treasure trove of potential research since the day I've met him. That 'examining his seal' thing has tons of potential in my next book."

Hamako's eye twitched, but she had to be a good host to her master's master, "Uh huh… well what do you surmise we should do? Master's coded description of the small conflict with Pein and what you've told me has me somewhat concerned."

Jiraiya's expression turned serious, "After I've fully recovered I'm going to find Naruto and have him proceed with the final thing I have to truly teach him. After this he truly will not need me anymore, for anything. We have the information necessary to beat Pein. I learned his secret during the fight and gave it to Tsunade. The body I brought has also been analyzed. All there is to do now is to tell Naruto himself and get him ready. He won't lose again." His eyes widened when he saw Hamako pull down the shoulder of one side of her kimono.

She ran her fingers over the tattoo she used to communicate with Naruto and looked up at Jiraiya, "I can give Naruto-sama this information now if you'll relay it through me." She narrowed her eyes when she noticed Jiraiya leering at her more exposed cleavage, "Jiraiya-sama!"

"Huh?" He replied intelligently before realizing that he had been caught staring. He regained his composure before speaking, "You know dear… technically you're closer to my age than the gaki's. Why not spend some time with me and we can reminisce over the good old days?" He finished, wagging his eyebrows at her.

She gave him a dry look that lasted over a minute before speaking, "There are so many reasons why I'm upset with what you just said, but there's really not much that I can do to you even with you missing an arm, so I'm telling Naruto-sama you said that and he can deal with you when he gets home." As she began to channel chakra to her seal she smirked when she saw Jiraiya's face pale.

XxX

(Nami no Kuni – Great Naruto Bridge)

Sasuke and Suigetsu stood on the mainland just before getting onto the bridge. It would have been a rush of nostalgia for Sasuke had he not seen what the bridge was called. Actually seeing it made him want to laugh a bit. Suigetsu noticed the young Uchiha staring intently at the name of the bridge and spoke after taking a sip from a bottle of water, "So what do you think Sasuke?"

Sasuke smirked and walked along the bridge, "I don't think I care. Now let's get moving."

XxX

(Zabuza and Haku's Grave Site)

Two simple unmarked graves were the only indicators of any importance to the area of the hill overlooking the Great Naruto Bridge. One of the graves had a massive cleaver behind it with a circle and a semi-circle cut into it, "I never thought it would be all the way out here." Suigetsu said as he walked over to the sword and grabbed a hold of it, "I'll be taking that Zabuza-senpai." He freed it from the ground and held it in a battle stance, "The blade once wielded by 'The Demon of the Mist' Zabuza Momochi… man it's heavy."

Sasuke watched as Suigetsu set it back into the ground and fixed a strap around it and unscrewed the long handle of the sword, "And you? Can you actually use that thing?"

Suigetsu smirked, "The swords used by the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist are passed down from one generation to the next. I trained my ass off to be able to stand among them. With a weapon like this I could probably beat even you." He shrugged and threw it over his back, "Well since Juugo's going to be joining us I figured I might need it." Sasuke had an amused look on his face, "Well let's go. I've got what I came for. We're still going south right?"

"Yep." Sasuke said as he turned to leave the gravesite, "Come on. We've still got a lot of ground to cover.

XxX

(Nami no Kuni – With Naruto, Sai, and Maki)

Naruto hadn't stopped in to see Inari, Tazuna, and Tsunami this time around in this country because it was really better that less people knew where he was and how to find him. Thus, Naruto and his fellow Root teens simply took to walking their way through the countryside with Naruto leading them. A quick runthrough of Uzushiogakure on the north side of the nation led to them finding nothing and wasting a day, which prompted Naruto to have them hustle to the eastern port, the closest one in the direction of Mizu no Kuni, so that Sai could fly them there.

Of course the most famous port was the once little town near the home of Tazuna and this led to Maki having many questions for him, "So you beat Zabuza Momochi as a genin? Even as your stupid self?"

"Hey…" Naruto said defensively as he and his team walked through the village heading to the port, "And Kakashi-sensei beat Zabuza, I beat Haku. For having all of my skills locked up I was still better than most genin."

"Not me." Maki replied cheerfully, "I would have been in that chunin exam that year with you too, but my team wasn't that good." She lifted her arm and made a fist at him, "If I had been in that chunin exam I would have gone right after you because I would have been allowed to legally beat you up. I really disliked the sealed version of you. It made me so angry to see you like that." She shook her head pitifully, "I've said it before, you have no idea how much I missed you senpai."

Naruto grinned at her, "Sorry for almost dying Maki-chan. I got sealed, but wouldn't you have been more upset if I had died?"

She crossed her arms across her chest and looked down, "I should have been there, I could have helped you.

"You would have been killed." Naruto asserted firmly, "We were the same age but we were not built the same. You would have died if we had been caught. That run to the border is still the single most difficult thing I have ever done in my entire life. You wouldn't have made it, you didn't have the stamina."

"I was your support senpai." Maki said sadly, "I was the one that was supposed to be your assistance. I was the only ally you had in the middle of the most terrible conditions a ninja could be sent into and I was sitting at home while you were running for your life and losing your personality."

Sai hadn't said anything, but he knew that if anyone was going to cheer her up and bring some bright surroundings to his team it was going to be him… because Sai sure as hell wasn't going to do it, even if he had been making a concerted effort in Konoha to get along with Naruto's graduating class and friends.

Naruto put a hand on her shoulder, "I told you already not to worry about that. If me leaving you alone like that was really so lonely for you I'm sorry Maki-chan. But you can get to know me now. We can get to be friends now, the way we could have been when we were kids if you would have said more than five words at a time to me."

Maki turned away from her team leader with a rather sheepish look on her face, "I didn't know what to say to you. I was just a little girl, what did we have to talk about? All we did was train and fight and do missions."

Naruto laughed at the expression on her face, getting her to blush, "Aw… someone missed a few emotional conditioning classes didn't she?" Naruto tried to ruffle her hair, prompting her to take a swing at him, "Well I'm helping Sai get a life and I think that it's going to be way easier to help you get one. You're sweet and actually have a sense of humor that doesn't make me think I'm talking to a brick wall, Sai…" He turned towards the teen in question who didn't seem to even care about the conversation.

Sai turned towards Naruto with his forced looking smile, "I'm sorry senpai, did you say something?"

Naruto gave him a deadpan look and pointed at him, "You… Do not take personality pointers from Kakashi-sensei. That only works if you have boatloads of charisma to back it up with. You obviously don't." He then let off a sigh, "It's a shame that you don't respect your senpai Sai."

"I do respect you." Sai said admittedly, "Do you want me to go to the mission procedure way of addressing you?"

Naruto was quick to turn that option down, "No. Hell no. Speak the way you want to, this is fine, I was just messing with you Sai."

Sai actually gave him a real smile this time, "I was messing with you too Naruto-senpai."

Maki actually laughed a little at the stunned expression on Naruto's face as it morphed into a grin, "Did Sai just make a joke? A non-sarcastic, non-biting joke? I'm so proud of my kouhai! You're actually starting to come along a little bit." He placed an arm over his shoulder and whispered into his ear, "Now the next step is to attempt to actively hook you up with a woman." Sai simply blinked blankly in confusion.

XxX

(With Sasuke and Suigetsu – Seas South of Nami no Kuni)

Sasuke and Suigetsu were walking on the surface of the water at a rather leisurely pace for being in the middle of the ocean, "Mind if I ask you something?" Suigetsu said to Sasuke, a curious tint in his voice.

Sasuke shrugged, "Go for it."

Taking that as his cue, Suigetsu threw his question out there, "Why are you rounding all of us up anyway?"

Sasuke didn't really see the harm in letting him know what he needed him and the others for so he answered him, "I've got a certain plan I want to carry out. It would be way smoother if I had a full platoon because the targets are notoriously powerful."

"So why me?" Suigetsu wondered.

"I've been planning this for a long time." Sasuke admitted to his sword-wielding ally, "I had you all picked out a long time ago. You all have traits that can help me deal with the most irksome of the opponents I plan on going after."

"Heh. I got you." Suigetsu said as he took one of the multiple water bottles strapped to himself off for a sip, "So why Karin? She's totally devoted to Orochimaru unlike the rest of us. She's the last person I'd try convincing to go along if I were you. We were both experimented on a lot… and plus she's got a shitty attitude."

Sasuke looked over at his teammate for the time being, "I'll admit that there are plenty of strong shinobi that I could have recruited easily, but she's got unique abilities and I need her help."

Suigetsu chuckled as an island came into sight for them both, "Well she's unique, I'll give her that."

XxX

(With Naruto, Sai, and Maki – Seas Heading Towards Mizu no Kuni)

"Why are we coming to this country Naruto-senpai?" Maki asked as she held on to Naruto's torso. She and Naruto were riding atop a single of Sai's birds as the artistic ninja himself led the way on his own ride, "Do you really think that coming here will help you learn anything about your biju?"

Naruto frowned, "It might and it might not. It serves two purposes, I need to keep moving and make it difficult to find me and track me down, and I need to find out what I can about controlling the Kyuubi." He looked back at the girl clinging to him tightly, "You know that the Yondaime Mizukage was Yagura, the jinchuuriki of the Sanbi no Kyodaigame (Three-Tailed Giant Turtle). Well he's dead, so now I'm going to try and speak to the Godaime Mizukage under the guise of my mission of diplomacy."

Sai turned around as he continued steering his bird, "So this is basically espionage?"

Naruto shook his head, "Hell no, we're not risking that here. We're miles away from home on a damn island, isolated from any potential safe haven by an entire ocean, what's wrong with you?" He asked indignantly to Sai who shrugged and turned back around, "We're just going to try to convince them to help us out and maybe even join the alliance against Akatsuki. No spying or any kind of underhanded activities. Sometimes being straightforward is the best way to get something."

Apparently Kirigakure had been extremely receptive when Konoha had reached out to them years ago. Naruto himself had never been to the village as that had been when he had diverted his own destination towards Uzushiogakure and had fought Deidara and Sasori. But the point was, the ground work had been laid down already for Naruto to attempt to finish building the relationship between the two villages.

He was very young, but as the recently revealed jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, the student of Jiraiya, and a jounin level shinobi, he should have had enough prestige to his name to warrant a meeting with the Mizukage. And if he didn't then he could always reveal that last little secret of himself that he had yet to expose, but he still couldn't care any less about it.

Maybe being the Yondaime Hokage's son would grease the wheels enough to get his foot in the door. He hadn't used his old man's fame since he found out about it and the people that actually knew about it could be counted on two hands, and they weren't exactly going to shout it from the rooftops themselves. No one in the Elemental Nations was aware of this yet. Maybe it was time for a little nepotism based from his lineage for once. Politics were a bitch… why did he want to be Hokage again?

Oh yeah, because Danzo entrusted it to him… damn it. He was a fighter not a politician. Tell him to storm a fortress, fine. Tell him to coerce information that could be construed as tightly kept with nothing more than his words and personality, he was going to have a little bit of a harder time with that one.

Oh well, at least during his stay he might be able to finish the next thing he was training on. Had he mastered it before his battle against Konan he might have been able to finish her off and get to Jiraiya faster, then none of this would have been necessary. If he had to abruptly leave this place then he knew he could hunker down in Kumogakure for a while since the entire village owed him some serious gratitude for how he saved Yugito and beat two invading Akatsuki members in the process.

Sai spoke up after hearing Naruto's plan of action, "Right, or we can grab a high ranking Kiri ninja, get the information from him, get Maki-san to make him think the entire interrogation was a dream, put him back where we got him and leave."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "There are about seven different problems that could start because of that, the least pressing of which being that we die and the shot of an alliance is screwed forever. Stop thinking like a black-op specialist and start thinking like Danzo-jiji. If I could get over to your bird without falling into the ocean I would slap you."

"What do you mean, 'think like Danzo-sama' Naruto-senpai?" Maki asked him.

Naruto smiled, "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. We're not going to do that, that's stupid when we could just talk to someone and get the same information that way, minus the torture and prolonged chase across the entire country. Maybe I can sweeten the deal for them too, give them an incentive to help us, a service for another. Danzo-jiji style diplomacy." The wheels in Naruto's brain were turning trying to come up with an argument to allow Kiri to assist them.

XxX

(With Sasuke and Suigetsu – Orochimaru's Southern Island Base)

The two young shinobi walked through the halls of the base, a prison where many of Orochimaru's more prominent prospects for experimentation were kept. As they walked, some of the prisoners took note of the clan crest on the back of Sasuke's clothing, "That's Sasuke Uchiha, what's he doing here without Orochimaru?"

"The rumor must be true!" Another prisoner said excitedly, "Yeah! He beat Orochimaru and came to free us!"

A more cynical prisoner shot the man's hopes down, "Get real you idiot. There's no way Orochimaru is dead."

Eventually the two were stopped by a girl their age with red eyes and red hair, one side rather short, pointy and unkempt, the other side long, straight, and combed. She had glasses, a zip-up lavender top with the bottom unzipped to reveal her belly button and short black shorts. She also wore long black thigh-level stockings and sandals, "I knew it." She said, "You're alone Sasuke, so it's true."

Suigetsu looked between Sasuke and the girl with an annoyed expression, "Oh so I guess I'm not here now or something. Anyway, Sasuke's got a proposition for you. Can we sit somewhere and talk? Walking all this way after so long stuck in a tank is murder on the legs and I don't feel like standing around while you two talk."

After she led them to her office and the two travelers were able to take a seat, Sasuke got right to the point, "Come with me Karin, I need you."

"What?" She said in shock, "Why do I need to go anywhere? I'm in charge of this place!"

Sasuke leaned back in his seat, "Orochimaru is out of the picture now. Who would you be keeping watch of this place for?"

Karin frowned, "Well what's going to happen to all of the prisoners?"

Sasuke gestured his head towards Suigetsu, "Suigetsu, go free all of the prisoners." He ignored the look on Karin's face.

Suigetsu stood up and walked out of the room, "Still acting like the boss eh?"

"Don't you dare!" Karin shouted at Suigetsu who was at the door, however he was ignoring her all the way.

"What possible reason would you have to keep them around?" Sasuke asked her, "There's no reason to keep them around."

"I still refuse!" Karin said vehemently, no willing to budge on the matter at all, "Besides, it's not like I'm under any obligation to follow you around. Why would I even go?"

Sasuke let out a sigh, "Fine, if you feel that strongly then I'll go get someone else."

Before he could get up to leave, Karin moved to shut the door as Suigetsu had since left the room, "I'll come." She said, her attitude doing a complete 180 from before. She took off her glasses in front of a confused, but still rather uncaring Sasuke and sat next to him, her face not too far from his, "If you really need my help, I'll go with you."

Sasuke turned towards her, "And this was brought on how? You changed your mind pretty quickly."

"I'm tired of standing guard over this place." She said rather breathily as the sounds of someone turning a locked doorknob let her know that Suigetsu was back. Knowing this she decided to go for the kill as she leaned her body against Sasuke.

"Will you back off damn it?" Sasuke said as he placed an arm between them.

Karin kept trying to scoot closer, "Come on, we don't have to take stupid Suigetsu either. All we need is each other."

Suddenly the door was slashed open, revealing Suigetsu with Kubikiribouchou, "Come on Sasuke let's go. Karin clearly doesn't want to go with us."

"Actually, she changed her mind." Sasuke informed him.

"I-I did not!" She frantically backpedaled, ""I just uh… I just need to go in the same direction you two are going. It's purely coincidental." Once again her change in demeanor forced Sasuke to raise an eyebrow in wonder.

"Lucky us then." Suigetsu quipped as he placed the large sword of his back onto his back, "I guess you'll be with us for a little while then. So that means that Juugo is the last one we need to get."

"Juugo?" Karin repeated in surprise, "You're taking him along too? He's in the north hideout."

"I know where he is." Sasuke said as he finally stood up, "It's time to go get him."

Karin shook her head, "You know that if that's where we're going we're going to be dead the second we walk in."

"I've only seen it on one of Orochimaru's maps." Suigetsu said as they both began following Sasuke outside, "Is it really that dangerous?"

Karin placed a hand on her hip, "The north hideout is no ordinary place. It was the main area for Orochimaru's experimentation, it's nothing more than a nest of horrible, unnatural monsters."

Suigetsu smirked and took one of his water bottles off, "Sounds like a blast to me." He said before taking a drink, "It doesn't matter what we think about it anyway. Sasuke here's already decided on who he wants and how he's going to get them. We're here aren't we?"

Karin shook her head again, "I really don't like this. Juugo is not a normal person."

"None of us are normal." Sasuke commented absently, "I don't care how off-balanced the guy is as long as he can do his job, and I can assure you he can do his job just fine."

XxX

(Kirigakure no Sato – Mizukage's Office)

A robed figure sat at the desk in the room as a Kiri ninja knocked and entered, "Mizukage-sama, there are guests waiting at the main gate. A group of ninja from Konohagakure are here for what the leader called a diplomatic meeting with you of great importance. What are your orders?"

"A diplomatic group from Konoha?" A female's voice said from underneath the robes and hat as a smirk came to a pair of lips covered with dark blue lipstick, "And we never even received a message from them this time, how rude." The Mizukage let out a small laugh, "It doesn't matter. I'll allow them in to see me, just send Ao and Choujuurou in just in case."

The Kiri ninja bowed to her before leaving the room swiftly, shutting the door behind him and leaving her alone, "I wonder what this could be all about?" She said to herself as she prepared for a meeting with the foreign shinobi.

Jutsu List

Watashi no Yuujin no Teki (Enemy of My Friend). B-rank genjutsu, supplementary. Using a diversion to activate the jutsu, the user will project an image to trick a shinobi into believing that another person has taken their form right down to the appearance, voice, even the weaponry if the scapegoat is carrying anything can be used as a template to work against the victim of the genjutsu.