49

Chapter 48: Better Than Your Best

Naruto and his team continued on towards Kumogakure, having recently passed over into the mountainous terrain of Kuminari no Kuni, and Naruto had finally summoned Gamakichi to confront him while they travelled, "So… were you ever going to, you know, let me know about the whole summoning familiars thing?"

"I kept forgetting…" Gamakichi admitted sheepishly as he moved alongside Naruto and Sai with Maki taking a seat on his back. They had gotten off of Sai's ink birds so that he could take a rest and get his chakra back, "Better late than ever eh Naruto-nii?" He said with a hesitant chuckle, "Please don't cut me."

"What?" Naruto asked incredulously, "Why the hell would I cut you? I'd never cut you. Who told you I'd cut you?" Yes he and Gamakichi had beaten the crap out of each other since Gamakichi got big enough to actually fight him back, but that was mostly them playing or training. He'd have never hurt Gamakichi for real. He wasn't sure if Gamakichi was actually afraid of him or not from the sounds of things though.

And the answer was obviously a resounding 'no' from the grin that crossed the toad's face when he heard the concern in Naruto's voice, "Nobody told me you would, I just wanted you to stop chewing me out about the whole familiar contract thing. You signed it so I just wanted you to shut up about it. It's in the past."

"Naruto-senpai would never cut any of us, he's a softie like that." Maki said to the toad that was giving her a ride for the time being with a smile.

Naruto grabbed the sword on his back before he stopped himself from unsheathing the weapon at the expense of his comrades, "Yeah… I'd never cut any of you." He said in a way that didn't convince any of them that he wouldn't.

"Yeah…" Gamakichi said hesitantly, stopping to let Maki down, "Anyway, I'm going to go tell the elders that you're my familiar so they'll get off my back for not getting you to sign my contract way back when we knew we were cool with each other. Later aniki, tell the Hamako girl I said hi when you see her. I always liked her."

"Because she fed you and let you stay in the apartment that one night after we were done training." Naruto said, explaining Gamakichi's reasoning, "Good reasons I'll admit. You're lucky Hamako-chan's so sweet."

Gamakichi then let off an involuntary shiver, "Better than the other one that lived next door to you that cursed me out when I stepped outside the next morning."

Naruto smirked, "That was just Tayuya-chan, and you scared her. You're lucky she only kicked you off the balcony and didn't follow up." Didn't follow up because Naruto grabbed her and kept her from jumping down on top of the downed toad afterwards, but hey if she stopped she stopped, "Later Gamakichi."

Gamakichi stuck his tongue out at Naruto before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Sai took that moment to check in on their fearless leader, "Are you alright Naruto-senpai? Any problems from your injuries or from anything else?"

Naruto shook his head, "No, I'm good. My left arm still burns a little bit, but it's more than manageable by now. I almost forgot about it until you said something to be honest." His injury to that arm wasn't really medical since there was nothing Maki could do for it other than keep him lit up out of his gourd with painkillers, and a stoned Naruto would be next to useless. Apparently keeping the fires hotter than hell stored in a pocket dimension centered in your left arm hurt, go figure. That was something that needed to go into fuuinjutsu notes the second he got a free moment; sealing certain things that weren't weapons inside of your body hurt. Good to know.

Maki moved up next to him and grabbed his arm that had saved him from being burnt to ashes and checked it over, seeing nothing outwardly wrong with it after running a diagnostic jutsu, "Why don't you just get rid of the Amaterasu fire Naruto-senpai?"

"And label myself retarded?" Naruto said in an amused voice, "I have Amaterasu stuck inside of my arm. If I can't deal with the little burning feeling and find something cool to do with that then I don't deserve to be anywhere near my rank." He could unseal it whenever he wanted to. Yes it hurt like a son of a bitch, but with his mastery of wind chakra and with Amaterasu being fire that would be amplified by that element along with the fact that he could reseal Amaterasu and even a tiny spark of it would be enough to create more with his wind he had himself a new weapon straight from the eyes of Itachi Uchiha. So he didn't know what that would do to his arm in the end, nerve damage or whatever, so what? He had two arms, he could deal with one being useless, Jiraiya only had one.

Sai looked over at Maki examining Naruto's arm as they walked to let him regain his chakra, "So you're willing to keep the most dangerous fire ninjutsu in the world stuck inside of you for fighting?"

Naruto gave Sai a dry look, "You say that like it's not a good idea."

"It's not a good idea." Sai said, narrowing his eyes at the seal tattooed on Naruto's arm that signified where the black flames were held.

"You're right…" Naruto said, getting looks of surprise from Maki and Sai, "It's not a good idea, it's a great idea." Naruto made Maki let go of his left arm so that he could hold it up, "There's a chance I could learn how to control this, and then what? Face it, we need every little cheap trick or extra tactic I can muster up for us right now and learning how to use the Amaterasu is right up there."

Maki's grey eyes widened at the prospect of him doing as he was suggesting, "Could you really control it?"

"Control it? No." Naruto answered honestly, "But I don't need to control it, all I need to be able to do is direct it and restrain it. Hell I can do that pretty easily. Want to see?" He offered, holding his left arm straight out ahead of them while holding onto the forearm of it with his right hand.

"No!" Maki and Sai both jumped at Naruto and grabbed his arm to hold it down. The last thing they needed was for the countryside of a foreign country to be engulfed in black flames just for a demonstration, even though both of them would be lying if they said that they weren't at least a little bit interested in seeing such a potentially powerful jutsu. Still, setting off a mountain fire right before heading to the hidden village of the country wasn't really worth it.

Naruto frowned as they let go of his arm like it was a loaded weapon. Well it technically was, but that wasn't the point, "I could seal the flames right back up you know." He didn't know if doing that would hurt like hell the way it did the first time though… oh well, he'd have to find out eventually. Man, he had lots of stuff to handle once he got to Kumo. At least he wouldn't have to work on getting them onboard with the alliance against Akatsuki, he had already handled that.

"My chakra feels fine Naruto-senpai." Sai informed him, pulling him from his thoughts, "Should I create rides for us to reach Kumo with?"

Naruto shook his head, "No, Kumogakure are notorious hard-asses with their security, especially after the time when Akatsuki came for Yugi-chan and almost got away with her. They're going to be all up in arms, so us flying right over them, even from this far away would get us in more trouble than if we just walked the rest of the way."

"What if your clone pops while we're still heading up there?" Sai asked, storing away his drawing scroll at Naruto's behest.

Naruto shrugged as he took the lead once more, "I don't know. You guys are both strong young shinobi, between the two of you I'm sure you can get us to Kumo if I end up blacking out. It's just one clone though so I should be fine."

XxX

(With Naruto-clone – Konohagakure no Sato)

Much to the Naruto-clone's amazement, he made it the absurdly long distance to Konoha in one piece. A two day trek only to stop and eat to recharge his energy was what it had taken to get there, and now all he had to do was get to Naka Shrine and see what he could find.

As much as the clone wanted to stop and see how everyone was doing, especially the people he had been forced to more or less have his team ditch on his last mission, he had to keep moving. He couldn't afford to get caught up in a mountain of questions at the moment, and he especially couldn't get himself caught while he was at Naka Shrine itself. He needed his Sharingan out in order to even read anything and to do that he would need to cancel the contact lens over his eye.

It really sucked having to sneak around his own village, but orders were orders and he had clear ones from the original Naruto to not get caught and to dispel right after he got what he thought he needed and offloaded what needed to be done. Hence why he was walking around in a Henge at the moment as he made his way onto the island in the middle of a lake where the shrine was set.

The shrine was on the grounds that used to lay in the Uchiha Clan District, and Naruto-clone knew full well that he would be by himself in this area of the village, as after Sasuke left there was no one around at all that would have frequented the place. It seemed like a waste of land to keep it like it was. It was like a museum; nothing had been touched since the massacre. He didn't even think Sasuke touched anything past what he needed to train himself. He hated to say it as he moved through it, but it was just an ugly reminder of years past to the rest of the village now. At least he would probably be getting some use out of it.

Quickly making his way out to the shrine on the island, Naruto-clone followed the directions that had been provided to him by both Sasuke and Itachi during their little talk while the battle raged, and in the main meeting room found the tatami mat that needed to be lifted to find the secret area with the tablet necessary for him to inspect.

Naruto-clone lit himself a torch and made his way through the tunnel to find his way into a room. Lighting the other torches in the room, he saw the tablet intended for doujutsu eyes at the back. 'Okay, here we go.' Dropping the Henge to save chakra, Naruto-clone channeled chakra to his right eye and deactivated the seal on his contact lens to begin to read. Not even Kakashi had seen this tablet, and here he was getting to read it himself first-hand.

He didn't need the information on how to get more tomoe for his Sharingan, since his already had three when he received it. He didn't want the information on the Mangekyou Sharingan, he was never going to kill anyone that close to him for the power. But as he read, he discovered something rather important to a problem he had been having that he couldn't get the answer to.

Naruto-clone began to read out loud quietly to himself, "Sharingan is the embodiment of the physical gifts of the Rikudou Sennin's that have been passed down to our clan. By virtue of this, our eyes hold the power to yoke even the mighty biju to our will if the user is powerful enough and has a stronger enough will to impress their own onto said tailed beast. Among certain clan members their eyes possess the power to do this, and even beyond, with the ability to plant powerful subliminal messages that the recipient never even suspects. This is different from the hypnotism aspect of our eyes as it is more akin to mind-control. The victim never suspects a thing, even after the fact. This is one of the single-most dangerous powers the Sharingan has the potential to bring, even by Mangekyou standards. Those that can even read this portion of the tablet have the potential to use the mind-control technique."

And that came as a surprise to the clone even though it shouldn't have. There were so many parts of the tablet that it couldn't read, so why wouldn't there be another part that only certain people could read, "Whose eye did I get? Man I've got a good one." He said to himself, rather pleased at his turn of events as he continued to read what he could. But then he thought to himself about the events that had transpired recently since he had gotten the eye, in particular during his battle against Itachi and Sasuke.

"Never again! I would rather you die here than fall prey to those eyes!"

"Goddamn it Kyuubi give me enough fucking power to live through this, that's all I want!"

Naruto remembered his last words to the Kyuubi before it went silent. He hadn't had a chance to go into the mindscape and see exactly what the problem was, but he knew that there was nothing wrong with it. There was nothing holding its power back it just wasn't speaking to him. And now he could begin putting the pieces together over what had happened, "Oh shit…"

In the middle of the battle when Sasuke called down the single most powerful lightning technique Naruto had ever seen in his entire life to kill both he and Itachi in one shot Naruto had requested that the Kyuubi to give him more power than his tenant figured he could handle. The Kyuubi refused to give him the power on the grounds that Naruto would go berserk, and a berserk Naruto wouldn't be able to use the Sharingan as a defense against either Itachi or Sasuke's attempts to control him. And then Naruto had snapped at the massive beast in anger and desperation, demanding the chakra he needed to survive.

And he had gotten it. Looking back on it he had actually been given enough chakra to survive the horribly destructive attack even if it had only lasted for a second, which was all that he needed it for. Though he had never stopped to question just how he managed to get the power now he had an idea, he had somehow forced the Kyuubi with his Sharingan to give him what he wanted out of instinct.

So he had reached the heart of that issue. "Crap…" The clone thought as it decided to continue reading on, still having a mission to complete even after it read what it needed, "Boss is going to be pissed at himself when he finds out why Kyuubi's been ignoring him." He sighed and turned his eyes back to the tablet, "Oh well, it's not my problem."

XxX

(With Naruto, Sai, and Maki – Kumogakure no Sato)

As usual, when Naruto showed the scroll detailing his mission to the guards at the front of the village stamped with seals from the Hokage, Kazekage, and Mizukage, he and his team were all let right into the village. And from there it didn't take much wandering around for someone familiar to find them, or in this case just Naruto.

Maki stood beside Sai as she stared at the ongoing scene with a twitching eye, "Why am I so mad right now Sai-senpai?"

"I couldn't tell you Maki-san." Sai responded as his eyes were locked on the same thing.

As they wandered through the village on their way to the Raikage's office, Naruto found himself swiftly and surprisingly swept up in a massive hug and a kiss that almost knocked him out by surprise. Who knew Yugito was so strong? Wait… he did know that. Everyone knew that.

Naruto had refrained from fighting back because why in the hell would he do something like that? And instead decided to wait out the beautiful older jinchuuriki's public display of affection, which took about two minutes for her to finally break for breath, "Man Yugi-chan, miss me?" Naruto said, stumbling slightly on his feet.

"Sorry." Yugito said, looking uncharacteristically sheepish with a blush on her face, "…I'm just so happy you're okay. Everyone was told that you went missing in Amegakure, and then we got news that it was a false alarm and that you were fine and travelling all over." She stopped before she started to ramble too much and then noticed the two others dressed in similar attire as Naruto, "And is this your team?"

Naruto nodded, "Yep, the guy is Sai, the girl is Maki. They're my kickass underlings." He smiled as he looked over his fellow jinchuuriki, "You look good Yugi-chan. It's nice to see you again after last time. Did your hands heal up?" He could still remember how messed up her hands were from their run-in with Kakuzu and Hidan.

Yugito grinned and showed him her palms that other than a faint mark in the centers of them as a scar had no injury, "It wasn't anything a little physical rehab couldn't fix Naruto-kun." She slowly sauntered over to him and began walking around him, "I see you've got tattoos now. They look like they serve a purpose though, and by the way I like the new clothes." She looked at the similarly dressed Sai and Maki, "You guys look like a well-oiled unit I have to admit. I hope you all fight as well as you look like you can." Though it was well ceiled her words were directed mostly at Maki whose eyes had yet to leave her since she appeared.

Maki narrowed her eyes at Yugito, "I can assure you we can take care of ourselves just fine Yugito-san. Naruto-senpai trusts me with his body and his life, and I won't let him down." A frown crossed her face as she continued her statement as a thought, '-Again. I won't let you down again senpai.'

Yugito just stared at the younger girl before turning back to Naruto, "Well it's a good thing you're here. There are people that wished to see you. They came here expecting you to show up sooner or later and Raikage-sama let them stay until you got here."

Naruto looked at her thoughtfully before punching into his palm as realized what was going on, "Ero-sennin and Hamako-chan beat us here. Wow, I didn't expect that. How'd they do that? Ero-sennin's handicapped and Hamako-chan isn't even a ninja."

"So that's why I didn't feel the girl with Jiraiya-sama to be a threat…" Yugito said quietly to herself. Due to the fact that she knew Jiraiya, she was the one that elected to lead them to their place to stay while they were in Kumo and during this time she attempted to gauge the character of the girl that introduced herself to those that knew Naruto as his 'assistant', "Your assistant is a very good-natured person Naruto-kun."

"That's what she's calling herself now, my assistant?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow as they began to walk again, now with Yugito in tow, "I guess it's better than what she called herself when she first started introducing herself to people." Having her introduce herself as his servant and then as his concubine for the first six months was not as on the level as the sweet girl thought it was.

Yugito nodded in response to his question. She had quite a little interesting talk with the female seal-master while she had been showing Hamako and Jiraiya to the place they would be staying. But now wasn't the time or the place for her to go into any kind of talk with Naruto over what she wanted to say, instead electing to make small talk with Naruto and his team. As usual, Naruto was very warm to her, and the way she had found herself doing the last few times she had seen him felt her heart skip when he smiled at her. Sai was polite but was rather dull, still he would chime in and contradict Naruto whenever he launched into some kind of hyperbole. Maki still kept a rather cool attitude towards her, but she knew why the girl was acting that way. Either she was suspicious of a foreign kunoichi being so familiar with her team captain or something more personal… probably a combination of both.

Eventually she led them to the hotel that Naruto stayed at the last time he had come to the village and took them to the floor that Jiraiya and Hamako were on when Naruto had a thought, "Wait, did the Raikage only give them one room?" Yugito looked at him strangely but nodded, "Well then I'm sorry about the noise I'm about to make." Naruto stood outside of the room that housed Jiraiya and Hamako and cleared his throat before cracking the door slightly, "Ero-sennin I swear if you perved on Hamako-chan even a little bit while I've been gone I'll take your other arm and beat you to death with it!"

A panicked yell and a happy yell followed by tons of rapid footsteps followed, some to another place inside of the hotel room, the other set to the front door where it flew open and Naruto was greeted by the eager smile of his lovely helper, "Naruto-sama!" Naruto opened his arms and let the civilian girl crush herself against him in a tight hug, "You're alright! Kami… having you here in person is so much better than having to sense your lifeforce and talk to you through the seal."

'Have her boobs gotten bigger since I've been gone? Kami, she's going to be a big as Tsunade-baachan at this rate!' Naruto laughed a little bit at having her nuzzle against his chest, "It's alright. Everything turned out the best that we could have hoped for with all that happened. And thank you for the gift."

Hamako pulled away from him and placed both hands on the sides of his face, pulling him down towards her to get a good look at his eyes, in particular his right eye as she looked past the scar she had grown used to due to the cut from Kimimaro powered by foul cursed seal chakra. The blue eye she saw she knew was not true, and she just couldn't imagine the actual Sharingan eye that lay behind it. However, she kept it hush due to Naruto's instruction. No matter how morbid it seemed it was necessary for him to survive, and if he didn't want anyone to know about it she sure wouldn't be the person to tell.

Jiraiya cleared his throat, getting Naruto and Hamako's attention, "Kid haven't you learned anything from me? If you're going to get all kissy-face with the girl then at least get your own room and take her there first. Amateur."

Naruto looked past Hamako into the room to glare at Jiraiya before his eyes softened, "Good to see you not all hooked up to machines Ero-sennin."

Jiraiya raised his single good arm in a fist, "You can't keep a good man down gaki. I'm glad you're here, we have work to do."

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he walked into the room and turned around to face everyone else, "You're damn right we do. There's some things that you guys need to know, and the Raikage does too."

Yugito nodded, not asking any questions yet, just figuring that she would bring them in to the Raikage to skip having him repeat himself to the man later, "Come with me. He expected to see you once word reached him from the gate that you got here. That's the real reason I found you so fast."

"What about Tsunade?" Jiraiya asked him. With their normal method of communication between Naruto and the Hokage here with them how was she to get this news that he knew she didn't have?

"It's covered." Naruto said, "I'm everywhere Ero-sennin."

XxX

(Konohagakure no Sato – Hokage Tower)

Tsunade stood on the observation deck of the tower that gave a fantastic view of the Hokage Monument. As she looked at the face closest to hers she smirked while thinking about the person that would more than likely be filling in the space on the other side.

"Man my face is going to look good up there."

Tsunade didn't abruptly turn around despite her surprise, but when she did she caught sight of the very person she had been thinking about since his completed mission that had opened full correspondence between Konoha and Kiri… if only Danzo didn't screw it up while he was there. Bah, that old fogy knew how to play the diplomat game. Things would be fine, "Not that I'm not thrilled to see you in one piece, but brat why are you here? I thought you were heading to Kumo."

"I'm a clone Tsunade-baachan." Naruto-clone said as he walked up next to her and stood beside her, looking at the monument for a moment, just letting himself feel at ease in her presence before he said what he needed to say in accordance to his final mission. He could take a few moments of comfort around someone he cared for when part of his mission was centered around the person in question.

"Nice new threads." The female Hokage said with a smirk, getting Naruto to smile, "And tattoos to boot. You trying to make a statement or something?"

Naruto-clone shook his head, "I think the statement was made a long time ago." He said, crossing his arms over his chest with a smile on his face.

Tsunade took the time to notice that Naruto was officially significantly taller than her. As far as she was concerned it was still almost like yesterday since Naruto had barely come up to just over her bust when they first met. He sure shot up like a weed, as he now stood 5'8, 'And he's only 16…' Tsunade placed her arm around him. Even though it was just a clone it was still Naruto.

Naruto-clone shut his eyes and allowed himself to lean against her for a moment to enjoy the presence of his mother-figure in the place of his original self. After a moment he decided that enough time had passed, he needed to tell her what he had revealed himself to say, "There's something really big you need to know Tsunade-baachan." Tsunade let off a hum to let Naruto-clone know she was listening, "So on the last mission I wound up taking out another Akatsuki member, Deidara. His body… it's gone though. There's not a scrap of him left for any kind of bounty."

Tsunade nodded but didn't say anything. It wasn't that big of a deal at all that he wasn't getting this bounty. He had more than enough money, but that wasn't what he wanted to tell her, she was certain about that.

"Then I fought Sasuke and Itachi Uchiha… at the same time." Wow. She thought he fought one of them since Hamako never told her exactly who he fought, only that he recovered from whatever it was that he did. He fought both of them though, "I don't know what happened to them after the fight since I passed out when I got knocked away, but I was told that they were taken away and I know who took them. Madara Uchiha." Tsunade's eyes widened, something Naruto immediately noticed, "I figured you'd know who that was."

"He's dead Naruto." Tsunade said, trying to assure him of this fact, at least it was a fact to her. Her grandfather had beaten him into the ground years ago, way before her time even.

"No he's not." Naruto replied, "I've got a whole lot to tell you Tsunade-baachan, are you willing to listen to me, because it's all going to take a while."

Tsunade frowned and let out a sigh. She could be stubborn about it and assure him that Madara Uchiha was dead, but from the way he was talking he had hard evidence to the contrary to back up his own claims, and Madara's body was never found after the battle that had formed the Valley of the End so there was always a chance in their line of work that he managed to live, "Alright brat, I'm all ears."

XxX

(Kumogakure no Sato – Raikage's Office)

Naruto stood in front of the Raikage with everyone else in tow as he finished telling him everything that he felt they needed to know, "And that's all I've got on that."

Maki and Sai already knew everything he did at the moment so they didn't show any surprise towards anything. On the other hand Jiraiya, Hamako, and A all had their jaws open after hearing what Naruto said. Jiraiya recovered first, "Are you kidding me? Madara Uchiha?"

"Yep. The one that everybody knows about. Itachi said so."

Hamako spoke next, "I swear Naruto-sama can't you ever make anything easy for yourself?"

"Apparently not."

Yugito put a hand on her hip and whipped her ponytail back before looking to her village leader, "So what do we do about this? Naruto-kun's beaten more than half of the Akatsuki by now. Are we still just going to hang back and be reactionary? Iwa is out their jinchuuriki and Kiri is too. Not to mention Taki lost theirs before anyone else."

Naruto nodded, "The only ones left are Yugi-chan, Gaara, Kirabi, and me."

"We still can't find out where they are unless they're already moving. That's one advantage that they have over us being such a small force, they know how to disappear." A said to them, rather upset at the revelation of such a powerful shinobi still being alive in addition to the ones that they knew still roamed with the Akatsuki. And if Madara Uchiha had gone for this long without revealing himself to anyone that he didn't want to know of his existence then the chances of discovering him were low as well.

Sai then spoke up, "I actually fought this man for a short time while Naruto-senpai was attempting to locate the objective of our last mission. He didn't take me seriously for an instant. Every attack I launched that actually managed to hit him did no damage, as if I never touched him at all." The pale shinobi then narrowed his eyes as he tried recalling more useful information, "He could also seemingly teleport at will because this was how he left the area."

Jiraiya looked over at Naruto, "So what will you do now?"

Naruto let out a humorless laugh, "What else can I really do except for one thing? I'm going to train and then I'm going to beat his ass. Pein too. What do you expect me to do, let your crippled ass handle it?" Naruto gave everyone a grin, "Just leave it to me. I'll handle it. There's no way I can lose once I put a little work in." He threw his arms up behind his neck and sauntered out of the room in high spirits, "I'm going to go meditate for a bit and talk to the Kyuubi, maybe it has some kind of input on all of this." He said as he left the office, shutting the door behind him.

As she watched him go Hamako frowned. Once he left the room she let out a sigh and shook her head, getting everyone's attention at the subtle action. Noticing the eyes on her she explained herself, "You all saw that didn't you? That smile on his face when he said he'd handle it, it was fake. Naruto-sama was faking it the entire way out. "

Yugito blinked surprise, "He's not scared again is he?" They had gotten past that when he saved her, there was no way he was scared to fight again.

"He's not scared." Maki commented defensively, "Naruto-senpai isn't afraid of anyone. He just doesn't know what he's going to do." She looked down and held her arm, "It's complicated, but many things have happened. And now when we thought we were getting ahead this gets dropped on us. He just needs some time to think."

XxX

(Naruto's Mindscape)

Once again, due to him not stopping to change it during his battle with the Uchiha brothers, Naruto's mind was the same sewer it had been when he had first come into his head to confront the Kyuubi. As he walked through the shallow water pooling around his ankles, he couldn't help but think of his father, "My old man is actually proud of me. I guess it's time for me to actually give him a good reason to really be proud of me when I stomp Madara out."

How he was actually going to do that was beyond him at the moment. According to Sai he couldn't even touch him, and when he actually did start getting the advantage the man could just teleport away. In addition to that he still had Pein to deal with. When he beat the two of them then he could rest easy, but until then he needed to get his house in order so to speak, and the first place to do that was right inside of his own head.

Naruto eventually reached the large cage that always housed the Kyuubi and stood in front of it, "I know you're in there. Where else could you be?" He got no response, "You're not asleep. You haven't slept since I woke up in Kiri. I can always feel your presence you're just not saying anything, so just talk already."

Silence still reigned inside of the leaky sewer as Naruto gave the Kyuubi ample time to respond only to hear nothing. Preparing to lash into the biju with a barbed diatribe designed to get some kind of response from the creature, Naruto froze when the memories from the Kage Bunshin he sent to Konoha hit him all at once, and his mind had already processed the most urgent issue at hand to him at the moment. Naruto's mouth was stuck open as he continued to look at the Kyuubi.

"You kept your word for as long as you could didn't you." Kyuubi said, its eyes finally appearing in the dark, "I'm impressed. You only kept from controlling me with that eye of yours for… five hours. I'm impressed boy."

Naruto spoke in a low defensive voice, "I didn't do it on purpose. If you had just given me the chakra that would have saved us I wouldn't have done that by accident." Naruto took a step forward, "And it worked! I kept control for long enough to live through that fucking lightning strike didn't I!"

"You enslaved me against my will again!" Kyuubi bellowed, almost knocking Naruto back with the force of its voice, "I didn't give you the chakra because you would have gotten yourself hypnotized and then what would we have done? You would have been berserk, you wouldn't have been able to let the chakra fade, you would have been intoxicated by the power!"

"I turned it off after I knew I survived!"

"I turned it off after I knew we survived!"

"Goddamn it!" Naruto yelled, running up to the bars and punching them as hard as he could, letting out a harsh clang that echoed, "What the fuck do you want me to say huh? What exactly do you want to hear come out of my mouth, 'Oh, sorry I did what I had to off of instinct to save our miserable, useless fucking asses from being charcoal briquettes. Forgive me?'" Naruto said in a high, mimicky voice before flipping the Kyuubi off, "Fuck you! I don't care what your reason was, I don't care what you are, you were going to get us killed, and I am not dying because you're scaredy cat!"

The claws of the Kyuubi slammed through the bars, forcing Naruto to jump back to avoid them, however his glare on the Kyuubi never relented, "Watch your mouth runt before I-."

"-Before you what?" Naruto pestered back at it, "All I have to do is make eye contact with you since you're scared to death of anything with a fucking pattern in their eyes! 'Oh, don't look in their eyes!' Or how about, 'I will not be a slave to the Sharingan!' Or maybe that gem when I was getting my ass kicked by Pein, 'I will not allow this pretender to yoke me to his will, I will not be his slave!'" Naruto scoffed in disgust, "For something that talks like a boss you sure do cry like a bitch."

"I swear I'll destroy you…"

"Then do something about it right now. I'll let you try it." Naruto said with his arms outstretched. He could feel Kyuubi's chakra leaking from the cage and surrounding his body when Naruto unsealed the contact lens and revealed his Sharingan only for the chakra to creep back, "That's what I thought… I didn't even do anything. I can't do anything. You're just scared of the Sharingan."

Not just the Sharingan, apparently the Rinnegan that Pein had as well. For all of its power, the Kyuubi only ever had to brute force its way through anything, it was all it knew how to do, overpower things. Then it ran into something that could control its own power and use it at a whim. Something like that would make even an overwhelming entity scared, especially since without a jinchuuriki a biju lost most of its skills of reason. Even though Naruto felt that he could protect the Kyuubi it didn't really matter in the end to the creature, it still believed that the Sharingan was the end-all, and that there was no escaping its grasp. If that wasn't fear then Naruto didn't know what to call it.

Naruto turned his head and spit on the ground before turning around and leaving down the hall he arrived from.

"Where do you think you're going you miserable punk?" The Kyuubi growled to Naruto's back, prompting Naruto to stop in his tracks, "You're just going to walk away from me?"

Naruto's shoulders shook once as he let out a laugh, "I was going to come in here and try to hash things out with you about what we were going to do next. There's a lot to get ready for, like Madara himself… but now that I think about it I don't want a scared little fox kit afraid of a pair of eyes watching my back. I don't need you if this is how you're going to be."

"Don't make me laugh." The Kyuubi replied derisively, "You know full well that you rely on my power to get you through any truly tough situation. You do need me."

"You're kind of right, but no I don't." Naruto said with finality, "You need me, because even though you're trapped in here, if you weren't in here you'd already be Madara and Pein's slave like the others that they caught." He turned around with his Sharingan still out before letting his blue contact re-settle over it, "So I'll drag you kicking and screaming with me all the way to the battlefield if I have to, because the only reason I need you is so I don't die having you get sucked out of my body." He then kept walking away, "I'm muting you and I'm not coming back in here until I'm sure you're not going to be a pussy anymore. I don't need a voice in my head doubting me while I'm fighting." Naruto finished as he faded out of his mind.

XxX

(Back in the Real World)

Naruto opened his eyes to find Hamako sitting directly across from him on his bed with her eyes closed. Once she heard his breathing shift, signifying he was done meditating she smiled at him and opened her own eyes, "Are you okay Naruto-sama?"

"I'm okay Hamako-chan." Naruto noticed her frown at him. She must have thought he was lying, "I'm serious Hamako-chan, I'm not hiding anything from you. I'm just thinking." He said as he got off of the bed and drew his sword from his back, confusing her as to what he was doing. He suddenly began to take swipes at the air with the blade, "Damn." He did it again and frowned, "Damn." He did it once more, furrowing his brow, "Damn it!"

"What's wrong?" Hamako asked him, not really concerned with him yelling. She had told everyone to give him some time to himself for a bit and she decided to stay with him to make sure no one bothered him by trying to pull a Jiraiya or a Kakashi and sneak in on him to intrude.

Naruto stared at his sword before speaking, "I had a clone go back to Konoha to decipher some things on a special tablet with the Sharingan… and I found out something. The reason why I can't channel wind chakra through this thing and why it eats so much of my chakra." He looked up at Hamako, "The reason this thing can turn into the gauntlet and grieves is because it naturally generates ying-yang chakra."

Hamako gasped, that explained why the released form of the sword was never the same for any two users. The yin portion had their thoughts take form and the yang portion made it real enough to become tangible, "So why would it take so much of your chakra?"

"The same reason that it generates yin-yang chakra in the first place." Naruto said, "You know how this was a gift given to Uzushiogakure?" Hamako nodded, "The Shodai Hokage gave it to them as a gift to the Uzumaki Clan for their alliance between their village and Konoha. He did it after he fought Madara Uchiha. This is how he beat Madara, he sealed away tons of his chakra into the sword, enough to cripple him and make him easy to finish so that his wife Mito could seal the Kyuubi into herself. That's why its sentient, it's full of his chakra."

"So what does that mean?" Hamako wondered. She had tried to study the sword for years, but the seals on it were impossible for her to decipher. She just never understood why she couldn't tell what the seals were meant for. At first she thought that they were how the sword had the power to transform and augment Naruto's power, "Wait, so every time you ever used the sword in its released form you had Madara's chakra running through you." It merged, making their chakra one. This is why Naruto was exhausted after using it.

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, that's pretty much what was powering the transformation." He then stared at the sword again, full of intent, "But there's something else. When it's in a regular state like this it can do something else. It can cut into time and space, but I can't see the tear."

Hamako tilted her head cutely to the side, "See the tear? You mean in time and space? Are you sure?"

"Madara can do it and the tablet said that the sword can too." Naruto said, voice full of belief, "Apparently the Sharingan is supposed to be able to see the ripple that the cuts cause when I try to generate chakra through it. That's the reason my wind won't go through the blade, because whenever I tried it I was just making the sword cut through time and space."

"I don't know what that means master." Hamako admitted. These ninja things went over her head sometimes, even though her sealing skills were damn near flawless.

Naruto looked over at her and smiled, "I don't either, but I guess we're going to find out very soon just what I can do."

Hamako then had something come to mind, "But what about the Kyuubi? Aren't you going to work on honing your skill with its power?"

"To hell with the Kyuubi right now." Naruto said, surprising her. He had never really openly cursed the Kyuubi before, "It's too timid for me to use right now. It'll just get me killed as it is. I can't believe that anything good would come of using it in a fight against Pein or Madara." Naruto ran a hand through his hair before heading towards the door, "I need to go see Ero-sennin. He's been talking about teaching me something for the longest time now."

"Got it Naruto-sama." Hamako said with a smile, "You can count on me to help you with whatever you need. I've been very busy since you left the last time making new seals for you to use."

Speaking of seals made Naruto widen his eyes as he fished a vial out of the inside of his Root top, filled with blood, "There's only one piece of the puzzle left to get Orochimaru's shitty seal off of Anko. I got his blood, now I just need to find his base that let him make the seal's original effects."

XxX

(Ta no Kuni – Remnants of an Otogakure Base)

Inside of the hidden underground base, Kabuto stepped over the bodies of a group of guardians that had been tasked with defending Orochimaru's secret experiments. Even after the man's death and final defeat they were still willing to attempt to stop him, "Didn't the fools get it when I said that I'm the only little piece of Orochimaru-sama left? Oh well, not like there's too much of a waste here." He said to himself as he walked into the leaky lab to begin looking things over to see if there was anything he could use.

His control over the parts of Orochimaru that he had placed into his own body was steadily getting better, still, he felt that he needed Orochimaru's own secret observations of experiments that the man had conducted over himself in his time to help him get better control faster, which led him back to a place that he himself had no more use for, an Oto base.

"You just couldn't keep yourself from coming back, could you? You useless waste of chakra."

Kabuto stopped and turned around to see Karin standing in the dimly lit doorway of the lab he had been perusing through, "Ah Karin. Are you through running all over the place now that Naruto-kun has dealt with Sasuke-kun?"

"Don't you say a fucking word about Sasuke-kun!" Karin snapped at him viciously, "And don't you bring up that demon-toting murderer that killed him either! You helped him do it!"

Kabuto chuckled, "Well I indirectly helped Naruto-kun, but I didn't rightly know if he would be able to actually pull it off. I guess I owe him some thanks for such a job well done." He barely registered the girl as a threat. So what that she found him? What could she possibly do to him as she was? With this in mind he returned to digging through the lab for anything of use to him, "He's such a reliable one."

"He's next." Karin said coldly, getting Kabuto to freeze.

"Next you say?" He said, his voice hiding a threatening undertone as he turned his head around to give her an even glance, "That's interesting. Next after whom I wonder?" He tilted his glasses up onto his face.

"Right after I fucking slaughter you for giving that bastard Uzumaki what he needed to fight and win." Karin asserted, moving from the doorway into the room where the better lighting allowed him to see her wearing an Akatsuki robe.

Kabuto stared at her for a moment before turning his body around fully, revealing that half of his body had been changed by the integration of Orochimaru's remains, "I see. Well those are certainly a pair of tall tasks you've set for yourself. Trying to kill not only little old me but Naruto-kun and the group he keeps with him as well." Kabuto laughed, "I'd like to say I'd love to see you try-." His laughter then suddenly stopped as he glared at her hatefully, "-But I'd rather you just drop dead and get out of my way. Leave or I'll kill you here."

"Hmm…" Karin voiced out loud in false contemplation, "That sounds reasonable, but I'd rather just leave with your head if you don't mind."

"You'd need a squad of the best to even lay a scratch on me." Kabuto quipped to her, ready to just kill her and get back to business, "You were always terrible at fighting." An explosion them rocked the far wall of the lab, forcing Kabuto to jump aside to avoid being injured by any debris, "What?" He said, covering his eyes and nose from taking in any dust or flying materials.

"Oh, yeah." Karin said off-handedly, "That's my squad. You know, the one that you said I would need to even lay a scratch on you." The dripping noises in the room stopped as Suigetsu formed in front of her and through the wall that had been destroyed walked Juugo, "So do you think this squad is good enough to shake you up Kabuto?"

XxX

(Kumogakure no Sato – Raikage's Office)

After an hour or so, Naruto returned to the office with Hamako in tow and found his team, Jiraiya, and Yugito still there waiting patiently for him. Smiling to himself at seeing the loyalty of the people around him, Naruto walked up to Jiraiya, "So Ero-sennin, you said before we fought Pein that there was something you wanted to show me how to do." He shrugged his shoulders, "Well now sure as hell seems as good a time as any to let me in on it."

"You sure?" Jiraiya said with a smirk, "You might not be up for this kind of thing Naruto. It's only one of the top level techniques that only someone as manly and as awesome as myself can learn or teach."

Naruto gave him a deadpan look, "I'm sure I'll do just fine with it Ero-sennin." He then returned the man's smirk, "So how do we get started?"

Jiraiya bit his thumb and began making hand-seals, "Like this. Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!" In a puff of smoke, Fukasaku appeared on Jiraiya's shoulder, "I'm sure you know one half of the Two Great Sage Toads."

Naruto looked at the small toad on Jiraiya's shoulder and smiled, "Yeah, this was the one that was with you when I woke up after the fight with Pein. How are you Gama-jiji?"

Jiraiya palmed his face, "Naruto could you show the toad elder some respect? Your training is up to him in all honesty." Jiraiya mumbled out something that sounded like stupid brat while Fukasaku just chuckled.

"It's alright Jiraiya-chan." Fukasaku said, hopping off of the man's shoulder as he stood in front of Naruto, seemingly looking him over in appraisement, "You are extremely talented, and quite powerful. Even stronger than the last time I saw you. As you are now, if you were to fight Pein you could possibly win." Hearing that raised spirits around the room. Hamako just smiled as did Sai, while Maki gasped almost in elation, remembering the way he looked after his defeat at the hands of the man, "Do you know the secret?"

Naruto nodded in seriousness, "Hamako-chan told me right after she found out about it. None of those bodies are the real one." Fukasaku nodded, confirming Naruto's information, "So then where would the real one be?"

"We couldn't tell you kid." Jiraiya said, never finding out that much, "But I'm sure it can't be too far from where the other bodies themselves are at any time, so he can keep control of them." He snapped his fingers on his single remaining arm, "So we don't need to do this then? We just need to hone what you already know. The Kyuubi is a good enough boost for you to fight Pein then."

Hamako frowned, knowing what Naruto told her earlier, and it was only reinforced when he spoke up, "We're not using the Kyuubi for this." He said, surprising everyone except his assistant since they all knew that Naruto's capabilities when using the demonic chakra were nothing short of impressive, "I can't trust it, I can't rely on it to have my back for this, we're not using it." Besides, he had already been beaten once using the Kyuubi's chakra, effortlessly beaten. That meant that Pein could take him on even if he could use more tails of chakra. He left out the part where he figured that the Kyuubi was scared, allowing it to save face, but he still wasn't going to use it.

Everyone knew that Naruto didn't have Kirabi's range of control over the Kyuubi, he didn't even have Yugito's control, though what he did have control over could overpower Yugito if she went all out, especially since Naruto could still use a few ninjutsu while maintaining a chakra cloak when Yugito couldn't while using full power. From the way he was talking, the delicate truce that Naruto had with the Kyuubi on a regular basis was once again upset for some reason.

"Besides…" Naruto said, "There's still the whole Madara Uchiha thing to deal with. I know I can't beat him. No, if you thought I should have learned this before Pein made us both look stupid then I still need it now. Not much has changed with me to be honest." However he was not being honest. Quite a bit had changed with him since his first encounter with Pein.

Jiraiya looked at him and nodded, "It's worth you learning it…" He mused, even though he intended to get to the bottom of Naruto and Kyuubi's rift between them as for the most part they usually had a well-working relationship that was far more cordial than Jiraiya figured it to be when he first met the sealed off Naruto before the chunin exam finals, "Alright, we can start whenever you're ready."

"Let's go now." Naruto said, ready and sick of sitting around idly with all of the information swimming through his head. He wanted to get through this training, he wanted to catalogue a future plan of action, "We don't have any time to waste here. Not really."

Fukasaku cut in, "Are you sure Naruto-chan? For this training we're going to have to head up to Mount Myouboku. It will be a long process that will take time."

Naruto's lips quirked, "Well then we'd better do it now shouldn't we? To get it out of the way."

Yugito was slightly put off, wishing Naruto would have spent some more time in Kumo so that she could catch up with him. He hadn't even been there for a day and he was already going to head somewhere else. Still, she understood why he needed to. This wasn't a social call, he told them things that they needed to know, and now it was up to them to tell the others in what was shaping up to be an alliance. Maybe this kind of news would kick Iwa's ass into gear over the whole situation and get the Tsuchikage to stop being so archaic over the matter.

Even though Naruto was leaving so soon, Yugito still had a way to be proactive about things, "Naruto-kun when you decide that it's time for you to gain full control over the Kyuubi I want you to come back to Kumo. Me and Kirabi can help you out." She then looked over at the smirking Raikage, "If it's alright with you Raikage-sama."

"It's alright with me." A said, amused at Yugito trying to cover up her enthusiasm at helping Naruto out by using him as a buffer to the concept, "I'll keep you and Kirabi in reserve until Uzumaki finishes with whatever he needs done."

Jiraiya and Fukasaku were about to speak up and say that it would probably be a long while before he finished, but Naruto cut in beforehand, "You won't have to keep them waiting for long Raikage-sama. I'll wrap this up in no time."

"What about us Naruto-senpai?" Sai asked him, knowing full well that he and Maki would not be allowed on the personal land of the toad summons as they weren't linked to the creatures by contract.

Naruto looked over at his team, "I want you to go back to Konoha and take Hamako-chan with you so that she's safe. I'll need you guys to be ready since I have no idea what's going to be happening soon. Keep things safe while I'm away would you? And take care of her you guys" He said with a grin that showed him he was counting on them.

"Yes Naruto-senpai." Both Sai and Maki responded in stereo.

Jiraiya smiled at seeing the obedience that Naruto got out of his teammates when he needed it. Fukasaku then interjected, "Well if you're really all ready to go then I'll head back and tell Gamakichi to summon you so that we can begin." He disappeared in a puff of smoke, having sent himself back to his home to prepare for Naruto's arrival.

Jiraiya put his hand on Naruto's shoulder, "Anything you want to say gaki? Now would be the time to say what you need to say."

Naruto turned to his friends in the room and cleared his throat, "I'm going to be gone for a while you guys, but when I get back I'm going to kick the shit out of Madara Uchiha's dusty old ass and send him back to the stone age where he came from. So just believe in me okay? I'll come back with all kinds of cool moves, I guarantee it." He finished with a small smile.

Hamako smashed herself against him in another hug, getting Maki and Yugito to glower at her slightly, "I'll keep in touch with you Naruto-sama in case anything you need to know happens, so don't worry about anything. Just train hard."

"I will Hamako-chan." Naruto said as she pulled away again, having said her peace on the matter. He looked over at Yugito who shrugged.

"I'll wait and say what I need to say when you get back. I think you might think it's important." She said with a smile, "Keeping little mysteries like that in your head might keep you alive or help you do what you need to get done faster to get back to me, okay Naruto-kun?" She heard the Raikage chuckle slightly and had to refrain from glaring at the man.

Naruto nodded and turned towards his team expectantly, wanting to hear if either of them had anything to say. Sai spoke first, "Just don't die Naruto-senpai. That wouldn't look very good for you." He said with a smile, not even losing it when Maki smacked him on the shoulder.

Maki coughed into her hand and turned towards Naruto, her grey eyes meeting his blues, "Um, you can count on me Naruto-senpai. We'll be ready when you come back."

Naruto let out a small laugh, "I always knew I could count on you Maki-chan." He looked around the room one more time before sighing, "You know, I-." He then disappeared in a puff of smoke, alarming everyone in the room except for Jiraiya.

"Man that was fast." Jiraiya said before blinking in surprise, "Wait a minute why the hell am I still here? How the hell are they going to summon him before me? I've got seniority in this bi-!" Before he could finish ranting he also vanished in a puff of smoke.

Maki just looked at the fading smoke and scratched the side of her face, "I'm going to have an ulcer by the time I'm 19 if I even live that long in the first place aren't I?"