50

Chapter 49: Take What You Want

(Ta no Kuni – Remnants of Otogakure Base)

Kabuto looked over at Karin as Suigetsu and Juugo flanked her on both sides. The lab they were in was now a wreck, but it didn't matter to Kabuto, there wasn't much there worth fretting over, "You asked me what I think about your team?" He asked, surprised at their appearance, but not very concerned with them. Sasuke was their knockout power, and without him they were still pretty dangerous, but he could still handle them on his own, cornered though he was, "I think you should all just get out of my way before I shove one of you back into a test tank and put two more of you six feet under. Do you really think this was a good idea?"

"I think it's a pretty good idea." Suigetsu said in amusement, "Three of us against one of you seems like a brilliant idea to me."

Kabuto laughed and pushed the glasses up on his face, the side influenced by Orochimaru in clear view, with more of his body having assimilated his remains, "It normally would be, if you three didn't suck so bad without Sasuke. What do you think you're going to do to me?"

"You're the reason… the reason that Kimimaro went off to die and the reason that Kimimaro's will, Sasuke Uchiha is gone as well." Juugo allowed the cursed seal to take over part of his body, notably his right arm, as he turned it into a piston, "You aren't leaving this room alive."

Kabuto pretended to shake in fear, "Ooh, I'm not leaving this room alive. Please no… spare me." He then quickly lifted his hands up at them with a smirk on his face, "Not. Sen'eijashu (Hidden Shadow Snake Hands)!" Kabuto shot snakes from his sleeves at the wayward team opposing him, forcing them to dodge out of the way of the door, allowing him to sprint towards it and begin making his exit, "So sorry! Maybe next time!" He taunted as he began running away.

Karin growled and got her team in order, "You can't run forever Kabuto… No matter where you go I can find you, and you won't be getting very far anyway." With that they pursued Kabuto through the seemingly endless hallways and corridors that was the hallmark of any Otogakure base. Right before they turned a corner, Karin picked up a new chakra signature that wasn't human, although the hissing noise also gave away what it was, "Juugo!"

"Got it!" As Juugo ran ahead of the rest of his team, his arm still in its piston form only now jets had formed on the back of it, a massive snake that encompassed the entire hall turned a corner and came right towards them, its mouth wide open, ready to swallow them whole, "Get out of the way!" From the jets he had formed, chakra emitted from them to quickly boost him towards the snake, punching it in the head hard enough to slam it through the wall and clear a space for his teammates to get through.

Suigetsu chuckled at the motionless snake they ran past as they continued after Kabuto, watching as it cancelled its own summoning and returned to its own realm, "Sorry, but all of you snakes are just cannon fodder anyway. You're lucky that Juugo was being nice… or that it wasn't me she asked to get you out of the way."

Karin snapped at Suigetsu and his gloating, "Would you stop preening and get a move on! I'd like to catch up to Kabuto today you know!"

"Juugo's got him damn it." Suigetsu insisted, as Juugo used the jets he had formed to speed himself forward towards the surface of the base to cut Kabuto off from escaping. As they reached near the entrance the sounds of booming and the slight shaking they could feel told them that he had managed to catch up, "Told you. And what good are you going to be in a fight anyway?"

"I'm not sitting this out!" Karin said resolutely narrowing her red eyes as they gazed upon the sunlight of the upper world once more, "This bastard is a part of the reason that Sasuke-kun was killed."

As they reached the surface they saw Kabuto avoiding a punch from Juugo that hit the ground with enough force to leave a crater, "My, my Juugo. All of that power and absolutely no finesse to go with it. What a shame." He then noticed the others coming out to face him as well and began to laugh, "It's so pathetic, you think you can just walk up to me and kill me? I've taken down ninja that were five times better than all of you, you could never take me on, especially now!"

Suigetsu looked around and cursed, 'Fuck! There's no water nearby! Not even a rice paddy's worth to use! I don't even have a sword either!' Either a sword or water would have been enough for him to want to fight, but he had neither to work with.

"Poor Suigetsu." Kabuto said sarcastically as he still kept himself out of the way of Juugo's attack. He could see that Suigetsu wanted badly to jump in and attack him as well, but with no water for his better ninjutsu and no sword to engage with he had to pick his spots to say the very least. Having gained enough distance away from his enemies, Kabuto made a come hither motion with his hands, "Come on, I have other things to do besides humiliate all of you."

Karin grit her teeth, 'He's just toying with us.' She moved forward as if she had an answer for Kabuto making child's play of them before Suigetsu grabbed her by the arm to keep her back, "Let go of me Suigetsu!" She said angrily until she saw how intently he was looking at Kabuto.

Suigetsu moved forward in front of her, still staring at Kabuto, "This isn't even the real Kabuto is it?" The grin that came across 'Kabuto's' face was all the answer he needed.

"Sorry, Kabuto's been long gone. I told you I had better things to do than humiliate all of you." 'Kabuto' said before his body changed appearances to the form of one of the deceased Oto ninja that he had done away with inside of the base. The corpse then dropped to the ground, lifeless once more.

Juugo allowed himself to turn completely back to normal as Karin and Suigetsu stared at the dead ninja that had been required to masquerade as Kabuto posthumously, "So now what do we do?"

Karin took a moment to actually think about that, 'Even if we caught Kabuto again what would we manage to do against him? He made this look easy the entire time… I wish that Sasuke-kun was here.'

Suigetsu just grunted irritably, as it wasn't like there was anything else they could do. They couldn't even touch a corpse reanimated by Kabuto, what would they do against the actual Kabuto if he had been forced to actually fight. In this case it was a good thing for them that Kabuto was so willing to cut and run and wasn't so bloodthirsty, "I need a sword… I need some kind of sword. Any kind of sword until I can get to a Seven Swordsmen weapon." He then snapped to the defensive as something emerged from the ground in front of them.

"Hey, we caught the kids before Kabuto killed them!" The white half of Zetsu said cheerfully as he fully stood up and the black half spoke, "Pssht, he probably left because he didn't feel like getting his hands dirty here." Zetsu then looked at the remnants of Team Hebi, "Anyway, there's work for you all that needs to be done. You were allowed to roam on your own to handle your own affair and as I can see you failed. You have orders to head towards Kirigakure and wait for orders. We'll be watching."

Zetsu then descended back into the ground, leaving the team alone once again. After a moment, Suigetsu let out a chuckle, "Well doesn't that just fall into line with what I wanted. I wonder if I can make a detour… it's been so long since I've been home."

(With Naruto – Mt. Myouboku)

Naruto looked around his new surroundings and took it all in. He and Jiraiya now stood in an area that seemed to be flush with nature; all kinds of rivers and other bodies of running water abundant, lots of plant life, more than he would say that Konoha had, both in variety and in quantity, and in front of the two stood Gamakichi and Fukasaku, "Welcome to Mt. Myouboku Naruto-chan. This is where we'll be training you for the time being."

Jiraiya took a deep breath, inhaling the mountain air and patting his chest with his one arm, "Smell that mountain air gaki. Fresh, clean… this is nature. Savor that… because this is all you've got until you finish your training."

The mountain wasn't a bad place to be at all. Naruto actually quite liked his new surroundings, it was pretty quiet and a more peaceful area than he was used to. The kind of nature he was accustomed to was the Forest of Death… and as long as there weren't any man-eating spiders conditioned to hunting down and killing shinobi here he had to say that things were infinitely better on Mt. Myouboku.

After getting his fill of looking around, Naruto turned towards Fukasaku with an expectant look on his face, "Not that I want to seem ungrateful for the opportunity or seem like I'm in a rush… but I'm in a rush. What am I going to be doing while I'm here?" His answer to that was Jiraiya putting a hand on his shoulder, when Naruto turned to look at him he saw a huge grin on his face, "What's the matter?"

"How about you and I have a spar for old times' sake Naruto?" The frown that crossed the teen shinobi's face at hearing the tone that Jiraiya asked him with was obvious. Jiraiya never asked Naruto to fight, it was always the other way around. He had only asked Naruto to fight him once, the first time they did. It had been years since then, "It's really just to show you what you're going to be learning, but I wanted to see how you could do now anyway."

Naruto thought about it, 'What if he sees the Sharingan? Meh, who says I have to use the Sharingan? I'll just fight him without it, I don't need to turn it on.' A smirk came to Naruto's face, "If you want it you've got it Ero-kyofu. Lead the way." Jiraiya let outa chuckle and did just that, leading Naruto along through the wildery home of the toad summons, "You know that I'm not going to take it easy on you even though you lost your arm right?"

"Take it easy on me if you want to and see if you don't wake up staring at the sky." Jiraiya quipped before looking back at Gamakichi and Fukasaku who were following the two humans, "We're going to need Shima-sama for this one to get the point of what we're going to be doing across to him."

Gamakichi quickly threw up a webbed hand in salute, "I'll go get her. I already know enough about how Naruto-nii fights. The elders don't so they should watch the entire thing." With that, Fukasaku sprang from Gamakichi's back onto Jiraiya's shoulder as the larger orange toad went off to complete his self-imposed task.

Eventually, they made their way to a piece of land surrounded by what appeared to be a steadily flowing stream that accentuated the peaceful feeling that the place kept overall. With the place for their battle found, Fukasaku jumped from Jiraiya's shoulder onto a large lily pad that was on the water, "Well Naruto-chan, let's see whatcha got. I'm expectin' a show from ya."

"And a show you'll get." Naruto said, shaking his arms out along with his neck as well as kicking his legs loose, "Rules?"

"Same as always whenever I decided to go and beat your ass gaki." Jiraiya said, standing at the ready, "Now bring it on."

Naruto let out a laugh as he set himself in a ready stance, "I've gotten more than a few new moves down pat since we last fought. Hell, I've gotten new moves since you were with me in Amegakure, just like this!" Naruto launched himself at Jiraiya using his unrefined form of Haretsu Seigan (Burst Limit), the refined version being him using his Sharingan, but there was no way he was revealing his implanted doujutsu without just cause.

Jiraiya was barely able to register Naruto actually leaping on nothing more than air as he came at him in a serpentine pattern, 'That's… new to say the least.' He lifted his single arm in defensive preparation, but in a strictly hand-to-hand sense not having an arm against Naruto's onslaught was not to be advised as Jiraiya quickly found out.

Naruto's offense was fast and accurate, so much so that Jiraiya had to prioritize what he wanted to be hit by Naruto's flurry of fists and feet, deciding to take the hits to the body instead of his face. Time obviously hadn't dulled the force behind Naruto's physical attacks as Jiraiya could have attested to whenever Naruto landed a rib-rattling blow. Deciding to get the boy off of him by any means necessary, Jiraiya rolled through the one-handed seals he had memorized, "Hari Jizou (Needle Jizou)!" Without the Sharingan active, Naruto wound up punching the steel-hardened hair follicles and punctured his fist allowing Jiraiya to get back and gain some distance, "Hari Jigoku (Hell Needles)!"

"Shit!" Naruto started backstepping in full retreat as the needles impaled the ground in front of him. Naruto created a quick Kage Bunshin behind himself to assist his evasion by throwing him into the air just as needles hit it and dispelled it. Naruto made three hand-seals as he inhaled deeply and exhaled harshly, "Fuuton: Shinkuugyoku (Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere)!" Several small bullets of wind flew from Naruto's mouth at Jiraiya, forcing him to put a stop to his own offense to avoid them.

Jiraiya thought that they would be at a stalemate, as he would be waiting for Naruto to land on the ground to begin their battle anew, but he had yet to truly receive the memo that Naruto didn't need to be on the ground to fight any longer. Naruto rolled his body upside down in the air and formed air bubbles under his feet that both burst simultaneously, shooting him at Jiraiya forcefully, 'The damn kid's like a pit bull!' He thought as he kept his hair as sharp as ever as a defense.

Naruto linked his fists together at the thumbs and shoved both of them out at Jiraiya, "Fuuton: Fuujin Seiken (Wind Release: Divine Fist of the Wind God)!" Naruto fired off his jutsu and knocked Jiraiya back off of his feet harshly in a show of force. The momentum of him already flying towards the toad sage coupled with him unleashing a faster projectile jutsu was an effective combination of moves.

Landing on his feet in a forward slide, Naruto came to a stop as he saw Jiraiya fall into the stream, 'I got him… I actually got him, and got him good at that! All right! That's for three years of humiliation and there's more where that came from!'

Jiraiya's head popped out of the water with him taking a deep breath, 'Little punk is probably thinking he's hot stuff right now.' Instead of seeing Naruto in the midst of a premature victory dance that even he admittedly would be doing if he had managed to nail his sensei the way Naruto just had, his blonde student was watching his every move with an appraising eye, looking ready to fight at the next prime moment. He wasn't even rushing in to follow up, expecting Jiraiya to have a counter prepared, '…Or maybe not.'

'If he's going to stay in that water I guess I have to show him that he's not safe there.' Naruto thought as he formed five Kage Bunshin to protect him, 'My second element is perfect for that.' He thought to himself right before his clones grabbed him and threw him directly into the air without warning, "What the hell?" Naruto exclaimed, not understanding until he saw a Jiraiya behind them that had emerged from the water from there with his palm on the ground.

Underneath the clones still on the ground, they quickly sank into what was turning into a dark bog, drawing them in up to their necks. Jiraiya narrowed his eyes, 'Those clones are his eyes and ears when he doesn't have them on himself.' With that thought shoved to the back of his mind, Jiraiya took aim at Naruto who was still hanging in the air, "I'd love to see how you block this one!" He said as he began making hand-seals.

'I'll tell you how I'll block it!' Naruto thought furiously as he used his aerial specialty to boost himself higher into the air, 'You don't let it happen in the first place!' Naruto threw a shuriken from his supply pouch at Jiraiya and with a practiced speed, knocked out his hand-seals faster than Jiraiya could with his one arm, "Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"

The single shuriken turned to dozens of metal stars flying through the air that Jiraiya dodged by jumping back into the water, taking cover to avoid them, never letting go of his hand-seal until he jumped back out of the water and made his final one, just in time for him to see Naruto back on the ground, rushing at him with his sword drawn, "Katon: Endan (Fire Release: Flame Bullet)!"

"Bunshin Daibakuha (Clone Great Explosion)!"

Naruto's sword-wielding clone glowed and blew itself to smithereens just as Jiraiya fired off his own jutsu, the two respective forces sending the white-haired man flying back away from the explosion, blunting the damage, 'Kami, he's relentless. No mercy for a poor old man it seems.'

Naruto had been keeping himself in the air with his air bubbles, hopping out of Jiraiya's field of vision as he sent down a clone in his place. Naruto smirked as he finally decided to land back onto the ground, 'Thank you Itachi and thank you Sharingan for that beautiful clone jutsu. And that's why I only used seal-less jutsu in that fight against you guys and your copy-eyes. Suckers.'

Jiraiya stood back up and chuckled, "You've grown strong Naruto. You're not just some advanced kid anymore, you're top of the line for sure now." He said with a smile on his face, "But you've still got room for improvement. I haven't even gotten started yet!"

Glad but somewhat perturbed that his sneaky new Kage Bunshin move didn't wound Jiraiya, Naruto could only return the sentiment, "I know you haven't! Kick it up a notch why don't you, or are you finally saying that I'm better than you?"

"That'll be the day!" And as Jiraiya felt two weights settle on both of his shoulders he almost immediately felt the tide of the battle turn, "Unfortunately for you that day isn't today…" Suddenly Jiraiya's nose grew larger and formed warts, he grew a goatee that hadn't been there previously, his eyes turned toad-like, and the lines under his eyes grew to encompass most of both sides of his face, "Kid I want to introduce you to Sage Mode."

Shima smirked at Naruto from her place on Jiraiya, "Giving your tadpole a crash course in what senjutsu's all about eh Jiraiya-chan? I guess we'll have to help ya with that won't we?"

Naruto was confused when he saw Fukasaku and Shima take their places on Jiraiya's shoulders and was even more so when he saw how this had bolstered Jiraiya's confidence, seeming to take him immediately out of a defensive state of mind. Still, Naruto knew not to underestimate anything, especially anything that Jiraiya did. He also didn't feel like testing Jiraiya's offensive capabilities in this form, choosing to launch his own attack.

Naruto held his sword in his hands and rushed directly at Jiraiya who wasn't moving at all, 'He's not dodging. He's not doing anything but waiting for me.' Naruto had his sword poised to strike as he closed in, 'You'd better do something now Ero-kyofu, I'm not stopping for you! I'll split you clean in two if you let me here!' And then he actually swung the blade, and watched in shock as Jiraiya blocked it with the back of his forearm, "Huh? Who blocks that with their arm?"

"No chakra flow through it gaki?" Jiraiya asked, standing in a defensive stance and blocking Naruto's sword swing as if it had been a kick, "Oh that's right, you can't do that with your sword. You might have worried me if there had been something in that." He then proceeded to rap Naruto hard in the face one time with his fist, something that sent Naruto flying back away from him, forming a small trench. He then turned his attention to the toads on his shoulders, "So now that you've seen him what do you think?"

Fukasaku answered Jiraiya's question, "He's as talented as they come. If he can master Sage Mode then there's no tellin' what he'll be able to accomplish."

Shima on the other hand took to scolding Jiraiya, "Did ya have to hit him so hard Jiraiya-chan? Look at him." Naruto had yet to even try to pull himself up to continue yet, "Ya really rattled that tadpole's brains with that one."

"He's fine." Jiraiya insisted, "He's just milking it."

On the other hand, Naruto was sitting in the trench that his body formed with blood coming from wounds on his face after just one direct punch, 'What the fuck just hit me? Did he summon Tsunade-baachan for a one-hit special or something? Kami, that was terrible! And he blocked my sword with his arm!' Naruto finally stood up albeit shakily, and after wobbling around for a few moments he pointed at Jiraiya accusingly, "Okay, what the fuck just happened?"

Jiraiya smirked, "What, the punching you in the face part or the blocking your sword part?"

"Both!" Naruto shouted back. The only thing he thought of that could do that was his four-tailed cloak. As a matter of fact he could probably keep on fighting if he tried drawing on that, but he'd be damned if he was going to go crawling back to the Kyuubi like that, especially over a spar with his sensei. Hell even the Sharingan would be a boon, though it wouldn't get him past a defense like that. Would he really have to step it up that much to do Jiraiya damage now?

Jiraiya merely laughed boisterously, "Are you done yet?"

"Not yet…" Naruto muttered, looking at his left arm, in particular the seal tattoo around his left forearm, "I've got one more thing I want to try and I'm sure you can survive it Ero-kyofu." Jiraiya looked confused until Naruto charged towards him again, "Well… maybe you'll be able to survive! I've never tried it out to see how powerful it could be!"

"A straightforward attack against a superior opponent?" Jiraiya expressed in disappointment, "You know better than that. I guess it's time to check that attitude of yours one more time gaki."

"I'm not trying to get the drop on you, this is just a test!" Naruto shouted back as he made a set of hand-seals ending in the half-tiger seal with his right hand and cocked his left hand back to strike, "Fuuka Houin: Kai (Fire Sealing Method: Release)!" Jiraiya wondered what Naruto thought unsealing a few measly flames would do until the boy spoke up again as his seal tattoo glowed, "Flames of Amaterasu!" Naruto's left arm up to his forearm was immediately covered in pitch black flames.

Jiraiya's eyes widened, remembering that fire from Itachi's escape away from him three years ago, "How the hell did he get that!" He yelled in shock rhetorically as the other two with him had no way of knowing themselves, "Did he seal that into his own arm? You crazy little piece of-! Kami what's wrong with your head?"

'It doesn't hurt.' Naruto thought to himself, as he saw that the flames were being restrained by the seal around his forearm, keeping it in place and restrained from spreading or even affecting his body physically, 'I can't even feel it. It isn't even burning me.'

'I've got nothing on me to seal that into!' Jiraiya thought furiously as he clocked Naruto incoming, 'I'm not sure I can take that, even in Sage Mode. But we're about to find out because here he comes!' He then noticed Naruto suddenly stop in his tracks as he stared at his flaming fist, "What's the matter? Why'd you stop?"

Naruto scratched his head as he looked at his black-fire hand, "Well the thing is, I don't know what to do with this thing except punch you with it." As he stared at his hand he didn't even notice Jiraiya facepalm, "If that's all I can do… I mean it would make one hell of a punch for sure but still… there's got to be some way to use it differently, in a more useful way."

"Okay, that's enough then." Jiraiya said, sighing in relief when Naruto resealed the Amaterasu flames back into his arm. The two toad elders hopped off of his shoulders, returning him to his normal appearance, "You only saw just one advantage of what you're going to be learning here. You will be learning Sage Mode." He said in a gravely serious voice, "I hope that little spar loosened you up, because this training will be harsh."

XxX

(Hi no Kuni – Route back to Konohagakure)

Sai and Maki took Naruto's instructions to heart and kept a watchful eye on Naruto's very cheerful servant Hamako. She seemed in bright spirits as far as Maki could see, but to Sai who knew her significantly better by way of his interactions with Naruto for years prior he could see that something was amiss with her, "Hamako-san is there something wrong? You've been different since we've set out from Kumogakure."

Hamako turned to Sai and her bright smile returned, although there wasn't much behind it, "It's nothing Sai I promise, it's just… things are getting rather, I don't know how I should put this, scary? The things that we know are very chilling and Naruto-sama has to face them down all by himself. There's nothing that I can do in the end."

"Naruto-senpai isn't alone." Maki asserted, crossing her arms and looking away. She had attracted Hamako's attention with her comment thus she continued speaking, "He has Sai-senpai, Danzo-sama, Jiraiya-sama, Hokage-sama… he has so many people that are willing to help him. You are one of them as well, and there are things you can do that no one else can."

Hamako thought about it and moved over to Maki, giving the raven-haired Root kunoichi a hug that caught her off-guard. People didn't hug her, ever, "Thank you for that Maki-san. And I'm very happy that there are people like you around to ensure that Naruto-sama's safe. How do you know him? He never told me how he managed to meet you."

Maki recovered quickly after Hamako let go of her, curious as to how she knew Naruto, "Naruto-senpai trained with me when we were children and he was my partner in my earlier missions, then he disappeared." She finished on a slightly somber note before cheering up, "He always looked out for me and made sure I was safe in the field. I always wanted to work with him again."

"My guide on relationships labels that as hero worship." Sai chimed in for Hamako's benefit, getting a mortified look from Maki, "Maki-san missed Naruto-senpai desperately after his departure from Root. She barely left his bedside after we recovered him from Amegakure after his battle with Pein." Sai ignored Maki's glare on him as she tried to mentally bore a hole through his head.

"It was not hero worship!" Maki snapped back before reining herself in, "I mean, he was sort of my hero, but all I wanted was really to repay him for all of the things he's done for me. He doesn't even register any of it as favors. Like protecting me was his duty. I never even got to prove to him that I could stand on my own two feet."

Sai turned towards her with his smile on his face, "And what part of anything you just said is not hero worship?"

Hamako chose to interject at this point in order to possibly save Sai's life, as she saw Maki's hand creeping towards her tanto, "Alright that's enough Sai." She said in a calming manner, "If Maki-san claims that it is not hero worship then it is not hero worship." Maki gave a grateful smile towards Hamako right until the seal mistress spoke again, "It's quite clear to me that she has a crush on my master." This elicited an indignant squeak from Maki who couldn't find her voice at the moment.

Before Maki could get her voice back, Sai pounded his hand into his palm in understanding, "Oh so that's why she would oftentimes refer to things she had done with Naruto-senpai, or reference some kind of advice that senpai gave her back when he was sealed. Relationships are extremely complicated…" Maki turned her head towards Sai fast enough to whip her braids violently, "But what about your relationship with him Hamako-san?"

Maki tried to weakly insert herself in the conversation, "Now wait a minute you guys-."

Hamako merely waved Sai's question off, "I may love Naruto-sama but I am his servant first no matter how much he tried to get me to renounce such a thing once upon a time. I am meant to look out for his well-being and act in his best interest. If other girls care for him then they'll have to show him and get him to accept them. Yugito-san does, I can see that. There are others that do as well."

Maki's cheeks began to redden, "Hold on, I never-."

Sai began writing something down in a small notepad that he carried with him and reading it back to himself, "Women are usually very indirect with how they feel. Case in point, Naruto-senpai's relationships with several of them including my teammate. Side-note to self: If there ever is a woman that I feel something for I must be the one to initiate contact because she more than likely will not." Sai snapped his notebook shut and tucked it back with his belongings, "Good information to have." He said.

Maki gave a deadpan look at Sai and Hamako as they both kept walking with smiles on their faces, "There's nothing I can say to dispute that I like Naruto-senpai is there?" Both Sai and Hamako immediately shook their heads eliciting a sigh from Maki, "I didn't think so…" She said, hiding her face with her hands.

XxX

Naruto stared at a waterfall and a fountain that had been producing some kind of oil as Jiraiya, Gamakichi, and the two elderly toads stood ready to explain, an explanation that was headed up by Fukasaku, "Alright Naruto-chan. This is where your training will be taking place. In order for you to learn Sage Mode you will have to learn how to balance your physical and spiritual energies of your own chakra with the energies of nature."

Naruto blinked after hearing the explanation, "Okay… well how do I do that?" Jiraiya then planted his hand firmly on Naruto's shoulder.

"You have to learn how to be still." He said with a huge grin on his face.

Naruto's eye twitched as a frown formed on his whisker-marked face, "I already know how to do that. I've staked out spots for days before Ero-kyofu. If I'd have moved I'd have blown my cover."

Jiraiya then switched to grabbing Naruto's cheek and pulling it comically, "Really? I mean perfectly still. Like a stone statue… you can't move anything for even a moment. If you don't… well I probably shouldn't say."

Shima then cut in, feeling that he had to know if he was going to do this, "If ya can't learn to be still an' control the nature chakra then you'll take in too much and turn to a toad an' then a stone statue." She saw Naruto's jaw drop, "Yep, that certainly changes things up a bit, don't it?"

Naruto didn't like how this was sounding. When he messed things up he usually did it by going overboard. Going overboard in this instance would turn him into a statue, "So I only get one shot at this? Get the way to do this down or turn into a toad statue? That sucks."

Gamakichi moved towards his human familiar and got his attention, "Nah Naruto-nii it's not like that. If the elders figure that you're about to turn then they can get you out of it before you wind up like that. Everything'll be fine."

Fukasaku hopped onto Naruto's shoulder and pointed at the fountain, "That there oil will help you feel the natural energy so that you can eventually learn to draw on it by yourself. Jiraiya-chan'll be right here with ya to help out."

Nodding to affirm that he would be doing just that, Jiraiya gave Naruto a confident grin, "This was my idea in the first place. I know that you'll have this down in no time gaki."

"What do I have to lose?" Naruto said eventually, shrugging after he actually thought about it for a second, "Well I could turn into a stone statue, but worst case scenario on that one is that I die alone and Akatsuki can't get the Kyuubi out of me." He then stroked his chin in thought, "Hey maybe I should botch the training on purpose just to end all of this? Not that it really matters to me but does turning into a statue hurt?" His answer was a hard shot to the head from three toads and his one-armed godfather that knocked him to the ground, "Right… so I won't be doing that."

"Good." Jiraiya, Fukasaku, Shima, and Gamakichi said simultaneously, still glaring at Naruto for his stupid suicidal comment. There was no way in hell Jiraiya was leaving that mountain if Naruto purposefully turned to stone under his watch, not as long as he knew all the ways he'd die once he returned home.

XxX

(Sometime Later – Kaze no Kuni)

Inside of a cool cave that protected them from the blazing environment of the arid deserts, Itachi began pulling his bandages away from his eyes, "Kisame it's time. One of our targets is near at last."

The shark-like man looked over at his partner curiously, "But the Ichibi jinchuuriki is still miles deeper in the desert, we just stopped here so you could let your eyes heal from the surgery. There's no way we'd catch him outside of his village."

Itachi finished disposing of his bandages, keeping his eyes closed as he made his way toward the exit of the hideaway, "I know that Kisame, I said our target, not Madara's target. Now let's go."

Kisame put his predator-esque grin on his face as he quickly followed behind, "Okay I gotcha. Heh, whatever you say Itachi-san. I'm right behind you."

XxX

Having just entered the desert on their way doing the follow-up for Naruto's initial diplomacy mission, Danzo, Fuu, and Torune made their way over the sands at the pace of their bandaged leader, "Fuu, Torune." Danzo said suddenly.

"Danzo-sama." Both men said simultaneously as they had long since been conditioned to do.

"I hope that you two are prepared for conflict." Danzo said, alerting them prematurely as they looked around at nothing, "Not here… later. Not too much longer though."

Fuu narrowed his eyes over the desert wasteland, "Do you expect some sort of treachery from Sunagakure? Do you believe there are some of their ninja hiding in wait to attack us?"

Danzo shook his head, "No. Naruto-kun has done a fine job in establishing a relationship between our two villages. The Kazekage would not allow an attack on a Konoha diplomat by his own shinobi. That's not the type of trouble I'm anticipating."

On the other hand Torune was confused. If not the shinobi inhabiting the nation that they were in then who would possibly be willing to attack them? He couldn't think of anyone willing to come after them at the moment, "Who do you expect to attack us Danzo-sama?"

"I do not know." Danzo said, still not able to shake a foreboding feeling that had settled over him, "But I do know that it will be a threat worth taking notice of to say the very least. We should begin to speed our efforts to travel towards Sunagakure. Perhaps the trouble will pass us over in that case."

XxX

(Konohagakure no Sato – Hokage Tower)

Tsunade sat in her office thinking over the information that Naruto's clone gave her a few days ago. According to him and his team, Madara Uchiha was alive and spearheading the entire Akatsuki operation, not Pein. He was the figurehead leader, while Madara had been the benefactor for his schemes. Now it was more important than ever for the villages to come together in response to this threat.

Kirigakure was eager to finish negotiations and served to be very receptive to the idea, surprising since Tsunade had switched out Naruto, a very affable young man that showed he had the skills to communicate with higher-ups with Danzo, someone perceived to be very prickly to say nothing of his cold subordinates he chose to have with him. The last thing that a village recovering from an outright civil war wanted or needed was a group plotting to take over the world, nor did an alliance of villages not including them appeal whatsoever. Sunagakure was a given to go along with things. Going there to finalize discussions was merely a formality at this point. Tsunade's rapport with Gaara, Naruto not even being involved, was nothing less than cordial to say the least.

Iwa was still a problem, what with Onoki refusing to budge on the matter of the villages teaming up, but eventually the pressure would ensure that he would fall in as well. It would be foolish not to. He wasn't the only nation in the alliance without any jinchuuriki. Takigakure had lost theirs as well as Kiri, having extracted the Sanbi from their last Mizukage Yagura and with the Rokubi having been captured from their rogue host; however both of those villages still wanted to take part.

"There's something we're missing about all of this though." Tsunade said to herself out loud as she drummed her fingernails on the surface of her desk before letting out a sigh, "And so much of this could have been avoided with a better perspective from people like Sarutobi-sensei… but hindsight is 20/20." She looked over at Tonton who was sleeping on the couch against the wall, "You think I could have handled things better?" She asked, half-jokingly, not receiving an answer, "Heh, maybe the Yondaime could have… especially the whole Uchiha Clan thing."

She stretched her arms above her head and stood up, alerting Tonton as the small pig could hear the chair sliding back to break the calm of the office. Tonton hopped down and followed behind Tsunade, oinking a question as the Hokage opened the door to leave, "Well…" Tsunade said in response, "I'm going to get some training in… maybe some hands-on work in the hospital. I doubt things are going to stay quiet for long, and I have to be ready for whatever happens don't I?"

XxX

()

"Ow goddamn it!" Naruto cried out in pain as he found himself smacked with Fukasaku's staff for what seemed like the umpteenth time this day alone. It had been a few days, almost a week since he had begun to train, and his training consisted of trying to harmonize himself with nature. To keep him from turning into a toad statue when his balance with nature was off Fukasaku took to nailing Naruto with his staff to 'knock the nature chakra out of his system'. Needless to say Naruto was inspired to get this down quickly as he was sick of getting hit by a stick by some grandpa toad… not that he would say that out loud lest he take a few more whacks for his trouble.

"Again Naruto." Jiraiya said, observing from nearby as Naruto sat back down in a meditative position, "This is the way that it has to be until you get it down pat. When you can properly balance the nature chakra in your system then we can move on to the next thing." He got a nod from Naruto who understood and got right back to work doing so as he closed his eyes to begin his meditation process again, 'He's getting this far faster than even I could have anticipated, he isn't even using his clones. Well it's not like he isn't used to meditating. Trying to synch with the Kyuubi for so many years must have given him experience… I wonder what happened between them, because in Kumo he seemed to be angry with it, angrier than I've seen him in quite a while.'

Fukasaku watched with his staff at the ready for any signs of Naruto attempting to turn into a toad so that he could jump in and stop him from transforming into a statue. Still, Naruto had taken to this training better than anyone thought he would have. As he noticed that it had been more than a few minutes and he hadn't had to hit Naruto yet, 'And this is without the oil too, so quickly…' A smile came to the old toad's face, "I think it's time to show ya just what you're capable of with the use of senjutsu." He pointed his stick over at a large stone toad statue five times a human's size that Naruto was sitting right under, "I want ya to lift that."

Naruto quickly hopped to his feet without any complaints about the seemingly insurmountable order and hoisted it right off of the ground, "Whoa…" He said in surprise at himself, "I feel great. Better than I've ever felt in my life. This is what I can do when I use senjutsu?"

"Yep." Fukasaku said with a smile still on his face as Naruto held the statue up in the air with ease, "But there's something ya need to know about getting the nature chakra into your system…" And Naruto found out what it was when he had to drop the statue and jump away from it or risk crushing himself underneath it.

"What the hell?" Naruto asked in bewilderment as Jiraiya laughed and extended a hand to help him up to his feet, "What just happened? I thought I had it."

Jiraiya wiped a tear of humor from his eye as he began to explain, "The thing about it is, you use your sage chakra up when you move or do anything. You only had a few moments worth when Fukasaku-sama asked you to lift the statue. You break the connection with nature when you move and you can't draw anymore in while you fight. It has to be done while you're still."

Naruto scratched the side of his face as he looked at the stone statue he had just lifted clean off of the ground, "Well… I mean, it's super-useful and all but I have to stay still to even initiate Sage Mode don't I? So how will I ever use it?" He wanted to use Sage Mode so badly after he had felt just a hint of what he could be capable of with nature chakra backing up everything he already had. He wondered how strong he was in comparison to Tsunade when he used that.

Fukasaku calmed Naruto down, "Now, now Naruto-chan, we have a way for that to work. Jiraiya-chan wouldn't have made ya learn how to do this if there wasn't a way for it to work." That made enough sense to get Naruto to wind down as he was still jazzed up from the statue lift, "Now to make sure ya can actually do it and that it wasn't a fluke I want ya to gather nature chakra again."

Naruto sat on the ground and meditated for a few more minutes until he finally felt the feeling he had felt when he lifted the statue. Standing up, Naruto smirked at Jiraiya and Fukasaku, "So how's that? Is that good enough for you guys?"

They both looked at Naruto in confusion as Jiraiya pointed at him and voiced the question on both of their minds, "Naruto why is only one of your eyes showing the effects of Sage Mode?"

"What?" Naruto asked, as he couldn't see that one of his eyes had the bar-like pupil while the other scarred eye was still the same as it always had been. Naruto reached up and pointed at the unchanged eye and got a nod telling him that it was the one that hadn't taken on the mark of using senjutsu. It was the Sharingan eye that was covered by his contact lens, "Um… is it supposed to show in both eyes?"

Fukasaku and Jiraiya both nodded, "What's going on? You've got the basic process down, ya have the nature chakra flowing through ya. What's the matter?"

Jiraiya gave Naruto a stern glance. There were too many strange things going on with Naruto lately. He was keeping something from them and now it was something he needed to address, "Naruto, what's wrong with your eye? Everything legitimately organic about your person is affected by Sage Mode. Both of your eyes should have the mark."

Naruto let out a sigh. What possible lie could he concoct for this one? And lying to the man that was teaching you his secret techniques and the elder of your summoning creatures had to be a total no-no. Fine, if he had to know then he would. No one else would, "Okay the thing about that is, I lost my right eye when I was looking for Kubikiribouchou for Kiri." He saw the skeptical looks on their faces as he didn't fight like a man with only one eye, "This isn't my real eye." He channeled chakra to his lens to deactivate it and show them the real eye, "This is now."

He heard Jiraiya and Fukasaku gasp once they saw it. Yeah, it must have been pretty shocking to see his Sharingan out and active like that, "Naruto why is your eye like that? What's it supposed to be?"

Naruto gave him a strange look, "It's supposed to be the Sharingan. Can't you see? You've seen the Sharingan before haven't you? I got a hold of a Sharingan eye and implanted it into my empty socket."

Jiraiya squinted as if he were trying to get a better look at Naruto's eye, "Sharingan? That's not what it looks like gaki."

"What do you mean that's not what it looks like?" Naruto said, somewhat alarmed at hearing that his Sharingan might not be, "What does it look like then? I know what it looked like when I had Maki-chan put it in. I know what it looked like when I saw it after my fight with Itachi and Sasuke. What's wrong? I can't see it."

Jiraiya pulled out a kunai and started scribbling out what Naruto's Sharingan eye looked like to him on the ground. He stepped aside so that Naruto could get a good look at it, "Just so you know half of it is red and the other half is yellow." He then watched as the blonde boy scrutinized it. Naruto's central pupil was a horizontal bar surrounded by three tomoe. Half of his eye was red while the other half was yellow in a yin-yang pattern. Due to Naruto feeling stressed out over the loss or mutation of his Sharingan it was currently spinning, both the tomoe and the yin-yang red-yellow combination of his eye.

"Holy crap how'd this happen!" Naruto exclaimed in shock right before his nature chakra faded, returning his Sharingan to its normal three tomoed state, "Wait, it's back to normal now."

"Can ya tell the difference?" Fukasaku asked, curious as no one with a doujutsu had ever been able to use Sage Mode before, "Between your regular Sharingan and that one?"

"I… think so." Naruto said, still slightly freaked out. In reality he had only been paying attention to what Jiraiya said, not what he could or couldn't do with his Sharingan, "What now?" He asked.

Jiraiya shook his head and let the shock of Naruto having a Sharingan settle, "Now you're going to tell me and Fukasaku-sama how you wound up with a fully matured Sharingan eye in your right socket… and don't leave any parts out."

Naruto groaned and then planted himself onto the ground in a seated position. Jiraiya did the same and waited for him to explain, as did Fukasaku, "Grr, fine. It starts off after me and my team took the mission to take back one of Kiri's swords. We wound up in the southern part of Hi no Kuni…"

XxX

(Kaze no Kuni – Sunset)

Danzo and his escorting members of Root came to a complete stop, prompting Fuu to take up the ram seal and begin sensing around for any signs of danger. After finding a signature, his eyes widened in shock, "Danzo-sama. There's a massive chakra signature coming right towards us."

Danzo turned towards his subordinate and gave him a careful glance, "How massive a signature?"

"More chakra than I've ever felt from anyone in my life… except for maybe Naruto Uzumaki." Fuu said informatively, prompting Torune to assume a battle position in preparation for potential conflict, "Like I said it's heading straight for us. What do we do?"

Danzo answered in his usual reserved manner, "We make sure we're ready. Which direction is the individual coming from?"

Fuu pointed in the necessary direction and over the horizon of the sand dunes they could see something akin to a fin sticking out of the ground heading towards them, "What on earth is that?" He asked.

The answer from Danzo was quick and precise, "The enemy. I hope that you two are good enough to stand against the Akatsuki."

As he said that, from the ground burst Kisame, swinging Samehada in a manner that separated Torune and Fuu from Danzo. Instead of going after the brain of the three, Danzo, Kisame spent his efforts doing all he could to send Fuu and Torune further and further away, ignoring Danzo altogether, "Sorry. It's too bad for you guppies but the big fish belongs to someone else, so you and I will have to play for a while." Kisame said as he dashed after the two Root members retreating from his dogged pursuit.

Danzo narrowed his visible eye as he watched his Root shinobi struggle against Kisame, getting pushed further and further away. The reason being, there was only one person fighting against them, 'Akatsuki operates in pairs. And the partner to Kisame Hoshigaki is-.'

"Hello Danzo."

Danzo didn't even bother turning around to face his enemy as he already knew exactly who was standing there, "Hello Itachi. It has been quite a while hasn't it?"

Standing with his back facing Danzo's back, Itachi stood calmly by, "Yes it has."

They simply stood not moving for the longest time, Danzo subtly trying to undo the bandages on his right arm as he spoke, "So it's come to this? I thought that you were working towards Konoha's benefit, even now as a member of Akatsuki."

"I am." Itachi said, "I went out of my way to wait for you under the guise of healing my eyes instead of heading towards Sunagakure to attempt to take the Kazekage. But there are things that I want now. The status quo has changed. Your trained operative took away my salvation. You remembered our arrangement didn't you?"

Danzo felt like sighing. Of course he did, it kept his hands tied from running damage control on Sasuke's psyche after Itachi's killing of the Uchiha Clan. What a shame. If Danzo could have gotten to him then maybe Sasuke would have ended up being Naruto's partner the way Sai was now, "To keep away from your younger brother or you would reveal our secrets to the other countries."

Itachi let out a humming noise, "And yet who was it that interfered in our final battle? Naruto Uzumaki… a boy that you apparently trained. A boy that had the garb of your Root operatives. Tell me how that was keeping away from Sasuke?"

"You fool…" Danzo said lowly, "Naruto had no idea of what had transpired. He knew nothing other than that you were a member of Akatsuki, a group set on ending his life. When he saw Sasuke he didn't see someone to protect per our agreement, he saw a missing-ninja of Konohagakure, he saw both of you as missing-nin and threats to our village. And like the Konoha shinobi he was he did what he could to end that threat… though I thought he had finished you."

"Not me." Itachi said, finally opening his eyes, "My brother… Naruto killed Sasuke in our battle." His Sharingan now had the appearance of its usual three sided pinwheel with three intersecting ellipses overlapping the pinwheel around the center, "And now I carry his eyes as my strength. I'm not turning my back on Konoha, I've lost too much to do so now. But I can hold a grudge against Naruto Uzumaki… and I will end his life the way he did so to my brother. Killing him will end everything. It will save Konoha, it will avenge Sasuke." A kunai planted itself into Itachi's grasp subtly, "You should see this as the correct action to take. I will kill Naruto and grow in strength enough to defeat Madara myself."

"You can't boy." Danzo said, shaking his head pitifully, "You have been twisted by Madara even though you cannot see it. And you cannot defeat Naruto-kun either… he will grow far more powerful than either one of us. Even that 'leader' of yours… Pein. He will fall sooner rather than later."

Itachi remained silent for a second before speaking again, "You say that I cannot defeat Naruto as if I am going to make it out of this desert. Are we not about to fight ourselves? Do you believe that you're going to die here?"

"If that is what it comes to…" Danzo said, trailing off as he had nearly finished unlocking the bolts on the heavy braces that sat underneath his bandages. As if he would allow Itachi to finish him off here. If Itachi truly wanted to fight, truly wanted to destroy Naruto, Konoha's future, then he had to stop him here, "Do you truly plan to kill Naruto-kun?" He got no answer from the stoic Uchiha, "Then I cannot let you pass Itachi, no matter what it takes."

With that, Danzo's braces that were on his arm fell to the ground. As soon as they made contact with the sand, Itachi burst into a flock of crows and Danzo disappeared in a Shunshin.