Naruto Shippuden - part 20

Danzo listened attentively as Torune narrated, word for word, the events that had transpired in Tsunade's office a short while ago. It had been wise to have the spy bug present for that meeting.

Truthfully, Danzo wished that he could have Torune on constant spy duty, but that was unfortunately not possible. The only bug that was suitable as a spy was a queen type, as it had a six hour lifespan and queens were predictably rare. The queen's offspring only lived on average for about ten minutes, making them unsuitable as spies. It took most of that time for the bug just to get into that well hidden hiding spot, which made them worthless for the purpose.

The accursed Kyuubi Jinchuuriki had nearly ruined even that spying session by being almost four hours late. Danzo had been paranoid enough to think that the infuriating blond had known about his spying and done it on purpose before hearing the explanation for it. The old warmonger could hardly believe he'd almost been foiled by the Uzumaki's libido.

His paranoia was well justified though, as there had been no less than five attempts on his life recently, not counting the one in the council chamber. The fact that those events had abruptly stopped as soon as the Uzumaki had gone to Myobokuzan for training in Senjutsu was not missed.

None of these attempts had been as flashy as the first one, but they had often involved some kind of clever seal that had rather inconveniently self destructed as soon as its work was done, thus leaving no evidence. All of the seals had carried that unknown chakra signature, leaving nothing to tie Uzumaki to it. The only thing that actually cast any suspicion on the Jinchuuriki was the sudden cessation of attempted murder. But of course, he couldn't use that because he didn't have any proof that there had actually been any assassination attempts and Tsunade would instantly assume he was lying if he tried to pin blame on the blond, because the woman was well aware of his attempts to get the Jinchuuriki under his thumb.

In truth, the assassination attempts had been rather inane, such as placing an incredibly obvious seal tag in his mail. He had to give him credit for creativity though...the expendable root agent that had opened that letter had nearly been killed by having his hands removed by a miniature Reverse Four Symbols Sealing Technique. The only reason he was still alive was due to the fact that Danzo had ordered him to open it with some ninja wire.

The last one had been the worst though, because it was more of an insult than anything else. The Jinchuuriki had apparently gotten bored of making attempts on his life with Fuinjutsu and had sent him a cake. The delivery man hadn't known what was going on, nor had he known who the sender was, only describing him as being a brown haired man of average height, clearly a transformation technique.

The cake had been wrapped in a completely ordinary box that they had spent an unnecessary amount of caution opening, only to discover that it was not booby trapped at all. Inside the box was a card that said 'For Shimura Danzo' in elegant handwriting. Throwing kunai into it and later testing revealed it to be a perfectly ordinary chocolate cake.

It was in fact not an assassination attempt at all, but blatant mockery. That was the only 'attempt' that might have turned up any evidence if it was reported and investigated, but it would just make him look like a paranoid old lunatic that was throwing kunai at a cake that was obviously meant as a get well present after his near death in the council chamber. Even if the investigation did end up leading to Uzumaki, the man could just blow it off as one of his usual tasteless jokes. The assassination attempt hadn't been publicized but it hadn't been secret either, so anybody could have sent it.

But Danzo knew better, he knew exactly who had sent it. It had been the damned Uzumaki brat and his woman had no doubt been the one to sign the card. He had burned with the desire to strike back somehow, but no opportunity had readily presented itself and he didn't actually want to kill the blond anyway.

After hearing what had transpired in Tsunade's office though, he knew that he would need to put the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki down. It was a shame that a powerful weapon like that would be lost to Konoha, but it was better than having a loose cannon running around, constantly being a danger of going off and betraying the village.

Tsunade and Jiraiya were clearly aware of the fact that Uzumaki had displayed some worrisome behavior, but planned to deal with it by doing nothing. Of all the asinine ideas...the fools just intended to hope that things were going to turn out alright.

The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki was clearly too powerful and too unstable to be left alone. If nobody else had the guts to do it, then Danzo would take care of it. All he needed was to very carefully manipulate things so that he could maneuver the blond into a situation that would get him killed, since he was far too powerful to be simply assassinated.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto crashed back first into the wall, the unexpected assault from what should have been a severely weakened Hidan catching him completely off guard. The silver haired man had bum rushed him with his shoulder and was pulling away a bit to do it again.

Reacting quickly, he smashed an elbow down on Hidan's back, expecting the man to crumple to the ground like a sack of potatoes and was once again surprised when it didn't happen. It gave Hidan the opening he needed to shoulder slam him into the gut again, driving the air out of his lungs for a moment. But he was in Sage Mode, so the impact was much less damaging than it would have been otherwise.

The next elbow smash was much stronger and it was immediately follow by a knee, which finally dislodged the Jashinist enough that Naruto was able to kick him across the room.

Now at last able to get a good look at him, Naruto realised that he had perhaps dismissed Hidan as a threat a bit too quickly. The Jashinist's eyes were glowing a baleful red, with no pupil or iris, just a solid mass of crimson. His new sense of smell was also telling him that there was something wrong about Hidan, but he had no experience with a powerful sense of smell to help him figure out what exactly.

"Hidan?" Naruto asked carefully, never letting his guard down.

"Guess again human." Was the mocking answer, accompanied by a similarly mocking grin. Naruto could see his teeth becoming visibly sharper just from that brief look at them.

A memory of a relatively recent conversation with Xanna went through his mind.

Flashback

"Hey Xanna, Do you know anything about the order of Jashin?"

"Those demon worshiping morons? The only thing I know about them is that they're all retards." The demoness said disdainfully.

"Jashin is a demon?" He asked incredulously.

"He was a demon." She corrected. "Some human hero or other killed him over 400 years ago. It may interest you to know that this hero wielded the Kusanagi at the time."

"But why would anyone worship him?" He asked, setting aside the interesting tidbit about the Kusanagi.

"Well, Jashin was one of a handful of demons born of the Juubi's cast off flesh during it's battle with the Sage of Six Paths to have survived long enough to develop sentience. Unfortunately for everyone, it was a predictably evil and power hungry sentience. Jashin wanted to somehow take the Juubi's place and become the second coming of the ten tailed demon god. Naturally the fool was so arrogant that he created a religion for himself and found a group of hopelessly stupid people to worship him in the belief that he would make them immortal."

"Did you ever meet him?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Unfortunately." Xanna aswered sourly. "He approached me and tried to convince me to go along with this plan of his. Of course he tried to sell it as if he wanted to make me the new ten tails, but his obvious lust for my power betrayed him. I burned one of his arms off and left him screaming in the mud."

Naruto was quiet for a moment before another bit of information came to mind.

"Wait, didn't you say that demons could only become sentient if they had massive amounts of chakra, like you?"

"That only really applies for the Bijuu. Jashin and demons like him had true physical bodies from the very start, while us Bijuu need to create our own from raw chakra. Since they don't need to divert any of their power into the creation of their bodies, they only need time for sentience to emerge. Though sentience seems wasted on them, as all the ones I've encountered were slaves to their own hatred and hunger for power. Jashin was actually the only one that ever developed some kind of cunning."

End Flashback

"Jashin?" Naruto asked suspiciously.

"Well well well, the human is smarter than he looks!" The now revealed Jashin confirmed with the same mockingly superior tone he had been using before, his teeth now fully fanged, though not in the same way that he and Xanna had them. These fangs were crooked and looked as if they weren't sure which way they should be growing, giving a distinctly grotesque appearance.

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" The blond asked, fishing for information. He was operating blind here and he did not like it.

"I see that the fox bitch has been keeping you well informed." Jashin said with a sneer, his silver hair starting to fall out.

Naruto's face tightened at what was obviously an insult aimed at Xanna, but he didn't react beyond that. No matter how much he wanted to pulverize that ugly face into paste, this was not the time to be flipping his lid.

"Suffice to say that I've found ways around inconveniences such as death." The demon continued once he saw that the blond wasn't going to react to the insult.

"So Hidan was immortal only because you were possessing him?" Naruto asked, taking careful note of the changes happening to what used to be Hidan's body. Aside from losing hair, the muscles were also becoming bulkier and if he wasn't mistaken, Jashin was also becoming taller.

"Ah yes, Hidan. My most fanatical and most idiotic follower. So eager to serve that he accepted my spirit easily, never even stopping to question what would happen to him afterwards." Jashin said almost fondly before continuing. "I really must thank you. If it wasn't for that chakra nullifying seal of yours, it might have taken me decades more before I was able to completely devour him."

Naruto's mind raced feverishly to figure out what was going on and how to put an end to it.

Jashin had somehow separated his spirit from his original body and developed an ability to possess humans and consume their bodies from within. If the chakra blocking seal had helped him do this, then that could only mean that chakra slowed this down somehow.

He didn't have time to think it over though, as Jashin saw his momentary lack of attention and charged at him.

Naruto reacted fast enough to catch the demon's arms with his own, noting that his strength was still considerably greater. He was once again taken off guard though as Jashin lunged at him with his teeth, using their clenched hands as a point of leverage to sink his jagged fangs into Naruto's bare chest and rip out a chunk of flesh.

Naruto roared in pain at the unconventional attack and threw the demon away from him, pressing a hand into the ragged wound, glad that it regenerated quickly.

Jashin didn't charge back into the attack, but instead chewed on the piece of ripped off flesh and swallowed it.

"What a powerful life force! My strength will increase tenfold once I eat you." Jashin said with pleasure, licking the last of the blood from his lips.

Naruto glared at the demon, seeing that the transformation had picked up speed as soon as Jashin had swallowed that chunk of his flesh. That had certainly been a sight he could have done without. Deciding that he couldn't afford to screw around anymore, he took out the Kusanagi, remembering that the weapon was supposedly created to destroy demons and that it had destroyed this one in particular once before, though he was somewhat doubting that right now.

"That will not help you human, I have evolved beyond that sword." Jashin sneered.

"We'll see about that." Naruto retorted, channeling chakra into the blade and making it glow bright blue.

He moved towards the demon cautiously, not wanting to get surprised again. In response, Jashin seemed to tense and concentrate hard, causing a blade of bone to shoot out from his forearm, forming a makeshift sword.

Naruto narrowed his eyes and lunged into an attack, smashing his sword into the bone blade, damaging it only slightly. He had a feeling that he had made a mistake when he had engaged in a conversation with the demon. It had given the creature more time to change Hidan's body into whatever it was now.

A short exchange of blows followed that only confirmed his suspicion that Jashin was stalling. The demon was fighting completely defensively, prolonging the fight but nothing more.

"Tsuyo no Fuin: Hatsudou(Seal of Power: Activate)!"

With his strength now greatly increased, Naruto continued smashing the Kusanagi into Jashin's bone blade, causing significant damage, until it finally broke. Giving the demon no respite, he cut right through his arm and then his neck for good measure. The now severely ugly looking thing crumpled to the ground, seemingly dead.

Naruto remained tense, not trusting that it had really been that easy.

He was proven right as the severed arm and head disintegrated and reformed back on the body in a display of rapid regeneration.

"I told you that it wasn't going to help you." Jashin mocked with a sick parody of a grin.

A concentrated blast of chakra slammed into his face, blowing his now headless body back against the table where Hidan had spent the final portion of his life chained down. Naruto noted that unlike Hidan, Jashin bled just like anyone else, though loss of blood didn't seem to bother him much.

"Well if it isn't the self titled queen of demons. Have you come to defend your latest toy, your majesty?"

"Naruto is not a toy, worm. I'll do more than just burn your arm off this time." Xanna replied coldly, her tails out and waving around in agitation. Her hands were already glowing with the heat of her Agni Schiwatas technique.

"So you've lowered yourself to belonging to this human? You've certainly fallen far, first you're stupid enough to get yourself sealed and then you become a whore to your Jinchuuriki. Do you pay for your freedom with your mouth or your ass?"

This time, Naruto wasn't able to keep control of his anger and flew into an attack, intending to cut the demon to pieces. Unfortunately for him, Jashin had been counting on that and easily smacked him out of the air, the attack being far too obvious. Instead of trying to attack the blond though, Jashin lunged at the redheaded demoness.

Xanna knew that Naruto wouldn't even be particularly damaged by something like that and simply aimed her palms at Jashin, expecting him to disintegrate into nothing as soon as he came close to her. She had no idea how he was managing to regenerate like that, but figured that he'd die if his body was completely destroyed.

Her eyes widened in shock when he grabbed onto her arms, seemingly unaffected by the heat. Her shock was not lessened when she felt her chakra being drained through the point of contact, though it did explain why he had been able to walk through a technique that should have reduced him to ash. She tried to pull away, but somehow wasn't able to muster the strength to do it, even though she should have been stronger than him.

"I'll make much better use of your power than you ever did." Jashin said with a pleased sneer, a crimson chakra cloak forming around him.

A chain suddenly speared through his chest and dragged him away, forcing him to release her.

Jashin was by now completely bald, bulging with muscle and almost as big as Naruto, along with being cloaked in a shroud of red chakra that he had stolen from Xanna.

The two of them engaged in a vicious fight, Jashin trying to get back to Xanna to keep stealing chakra from her, while Naruto stayed firmly in his way, preventing him from reaching her. He had lost the Kusanagi during his flight and was fighting with his claws and fists.

"Use Senjutsu Naruto! It should work on him!" Xanna called out from where she was leaning against the wall. Having her chakra forcibly drained like that had shaken her badly and she had nearly lost control of her human form due to the disruption.

The blond didn't question her and started trying to charge his claws with Senjutsu chakra. He had no practice with it, having spent most of his time since becoming a sage having sex rather than training, but hopefully it would be simple enough.

Fortunately it was, as he noticed that the wounds he inflicted with his Senjutsu enhanced claws took a considerably longer time to heal. It clearly still wasn't enough to kill the ugly demon, but at least they were on the right track.

There was a lull in the fighting as the two of them locked hands in a contest of strength. Naruto knew that he was still stronger, even though the demon's strength had increased considerably from draining Xanna's chakra. Worse still was the fact that the skin and muscle on his hands was being burned off from the corrosive chakra.

"It's no use human, you can't kill me. I'm going to drain your whore dry and then I'm going to eat you." Jashin taunted. "isn't it wonderful that your healing factor will keep you alive while I'm ripping your flesh off?"

"You won't be doing anything anymore." Naruto replied grimly, chains shooting out from his shins to wrap around Jashin's legs. As soon as they were tightly bound, he stopped hiding his strength and snapped the demon's arms like twigs, chains instantly reaching out to restrain them and force them behind his back before they could regenerate.

Now that he had Jashin restrained, he shoved his right hand into the demon's chest and began shaping as much Senjutsu chakra as he could safely manipulate into a Rasengan. He had no idea what would happen, but he knew that he would almost certainly survive even if it blew up on him.

Jashin roared in pain as the chakra orb ripped his chest apart, the natural energy inside it causing him true injury. Despite the hole in his chest however, Jashin was still alive and healing, just much slower than before. Fortunately, his control with Senjutsu seemed better than just regular chakra for some reason, so the Rasengan didn't blow up on him.

Seeing that not even Senjutsu inflicted injuries seemed to work, Naruto resorted to something that was a very bad idea to do in the middle of combat. He once more stabbed his hand into Jashin, though into the stomach this time since his chest wasn't finished regenerating yet and went perfectly still.

Drawing the somewhat warped but still raw natural energy out of his seal, he directed it to flow through his arm and into Jashin. This was dangerous because the only safe way to manipulate natural energy was to be still, even if the one in his seal happened to have become surprisingly helpful and cooperative. Had he tried to do this with natural energy drawn from the environment, it would have ended badly.

Jashin convulsed and slumped bonelessly onto his back immediately afterwards, a kind of dark mist flying out of his mouth and going through the wall as if it wasn't there.

Naruto retracted the chains and locked eyes with his opponent, surprised to find himself looking into normal brown eyes instead of the completely crimson gaze of Jashin or even the pink of Hidan.

"You're still a fucking asshole Uzumaki, but thank...you..." The words spoken in a hoarse whisper trailed off and the deformed body stopped breathing. A faint misty glow left the body immediately after.

"Hidan?" Naruto breathed out in surprise, but received no answer as the already dead body rapidly turned to stone. That cursing was quite familiar, though the thank you definitely threw him for a loop.

He still wasn't quite sure what exactly had been going on here, but Hidan's occasional desire to die finally made some kind of sense. If he had to guess Hidan's soul had somehow been kept prisoner in his body by Jashin's spirit, thus preventing him from dying. No doubt the pink eye color had been a sign of the possession. The raw natural energy had forcibly removed Jashin and Hidan had died right afterwards.

The desire to die had probably been Hidan's only lucid moments, the moments when he realised that something terribly wrong was happening to his body and soul.

His moment of contemplation was interrupted when he saw the tell tale red of Xanna's chakra leaving the stone body and returning to the demoness in question.

"Are you alright?" He asked in worry, holding her hands and generally fussing over her, making something of a nuisance of himself.

"I'm fine!" She snapped irritably, her temper frayed over the fact that a maggot like Jashin had somehow gotten the better of her and now being fussed over as if she was some helpless girl in need of rescue.

Naruto flinched away slightly and looked hurt at her harsh tone. "I'm sorry, I was just worried."

Xanna took a deep breath to calm down, using the mind link to make a quick assessment of her lover's emotions and finding only an almost desperate need to make sure that she was alright mixed with hurt at her tone.

With a sigh she gave him a hug, feeling him settle down almost immediately. "I'm sorry for snapping at you beloved." She said without offering any explanation for it. Naruto simply held her tighter without saying anything.

They stayed that way for a short while before Naruto broke the silence with a teasing tone."So...self titled queen of demons huh?"

"I was much younger and rather drunk on my own power at the time. It's not as if there is actually any demon kingdom to rule over." She grumbled with her face in his chest. The reminder of just how full of herself she had once been was not something she was happy about.

Naruto only gave a small grin and picked her up bridal style. "Well royalty shouldn't be so dirty, so please allow this humble human to bathe you." They were both rather messy due to the Rasengan's propensity to splatter blood everywhere.

She snorted out a short laugh at his over the top acting and spoke with a haughty tone."You may proceed."

Unknown to Naruto, there was a small frown on her face as he carried her out of the basement and towards the bathroom. Aside from the disturbing implication of Jashin being able to steal her chakra, she was also concerned over something that she had sensed in her blond lover just now. She would need to do some investigating in order to get to the bottom of it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

One month later.

"Fuuton: Daitoppa(Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)."

Naruto grinned as he saw the powerful wind uprooting several trees. He could finally use some Ninjutsu!

Alright, so it was the most absurdly simple Ninjutsu he was able to find, requiring nothing more than blowing out a chakra infused wind in a desired direction, but it was more than he had been able to do before. It was also not something that could be called subtle or precise. That last attempt was done at the weakest power he was capable of using and it had still turned out stronger than what most people were capable of achieving.

It was one of the two pure elemental Ninjutsu that he was capable of using at the moment, the other one being the Water Release: Water Encampment Wall. Though in his case it was more like spitting out a river, because he couldn't control it enough to actually make a wall out of it.

Unfortunately, his ability with hand seals sucked...real bad. He hadn't made more than maybe four hand seals in nearly ten years. He didn't even remember most of them! It had been a pain in the ass to learn those damn things again and he was still seriously slow with them due to lack of muscle memory, but there was nothing else to do besides work on it.

It wasn't really anything to get excited about, but after years of being unable to use Ninjutsu because his chakra was simply too damn dense to flow properly it was a nice change. Not that his chakra was any less dense now, it was simply getting some help moving by the natural energy that he now had circulating through his coils on a pretty much permanent basis.

That was a particularly funny situation for the blond, as the enhanced intimidation factor of his near permanently active Sage Mode seemed to be driving most of the civilians and a good bit of the shinobi crazy. The Inuzuka in particular gave him a wide berth, as their nin dogs tended to whimper in terror or run away whenever he was close. Actually, all the animals in Konoha were doing that...cats, mice, rats, dogs and any other critter that happened to be around. Only smallish things such as insects seemed to ignore him, probably figuring that the big two legged meat eater wouldn't try to snack on them.

Seeing animals running away from him in droves whenever he crossed a street certainly hadn't helped make his reputation any better and the general consensus in the village seemed to be that he was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to show up in their homes in the middle of the night and eat their children.

Jiraiya, Tsunade, Hinata, Tenten and Sakura had all tried to convince him to drop out of Sage Mode when he didn't need it in order to stop causing panic attacks with just his presence, but Naruto didn't care. He had no plans to go on a murderous rampage and if people were too stupid to see that, then they could keep shitting their pants for all he cared, he wasn't going to play along with their phobias.

Naruto couldn't honestly see any downsides to keeping Sage Mode up at all times. It improved everything and he had yet to find any disadvantages aside from a more volatile temper, which he had already mostly conquered anyway. The only slight oddity was that the natural energy seemed reluctant to leave his coils the few times that he had actually dropped out of Sage Mode. He wrote it off as just another side effect of having it contained in his body all the time instead of allowing it to return to nature.

It was probably sort of like the way that natural energy behaved when sages tried to draw it from the world. It was comfortable right where it was and didn't want to leave. Well that was fine with him either way. If it wanted to stay melded with his chakra, he wasn't going to bother forcing it back into the seal. Xanna found his Sage Mode to be a turn on anyway.

Speaking of Xanna, the demoness had been acting a bit odd for the past month. Every so often she would go to the library for a couple of hours and apparently read something. She hadn't wanted to tell him what she was reading so he hadn't pried.

He and Xanna hadn't been able to figure out anything about how exactly Jashin had managed to steal her chakra or separate his spirit from his original body or anything else really. They both had a feeling that the demon wasn't dead yet though, so they might end up running into him again. Now that Naruto knew what worked on him, he wasn't overly worried. Jashin had been dangerous to be sure, but mostly because he had pulled so much weird shit. Now that he didn't have the element of surprise anymore, they would only need to be wary of his ability to steal a Bijuu's chakra. They both very much doubted that he could take a Bijuu's chakra from it's Jinchuuriki, so Xanna was really the only one he could go after and she already knew that it would be better not to attack him. It made her angry that she had to avoid someone that was beneath her, but she understood.

The first week after the incident with Jashin, he hadn't felt comfortable leaving her out of his sight even though he knew that she would be fine. She seemed to understand and had sent simply sent a pulse of presence through their mind link. It was almost like a mind hug and it had let him know that she was alright, so he had refrained from making a nuisance out of himself.

He had still asked Tsunade for a month away from duty though. Ostensibly it had been because he wanted to get used to fighting in Sage Mode, but in truth it was because he didn't want to be away from Xanna right now.

That month was over now and it was time to report to Tsunade for a mission.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

For the umpteenth time, Naruto wondered to himself what was the point of sending him on this mission and why with Team Asuma of all people. Not that he had anything in particular against them, but out of all the teams that he was familiar with, he was the least familiar with them.

The mission in question was a rather simple thing, just escort some travelling rich guy to Hot Water Country, where he was apparently going for a vacation. The man seemed to think he was important and had paid for an A-rank mission. Or maybe he was just fidgety over the fact that Rice Country and consequently Otogakure, was relatively close.

Either way, Naruto really felt that having him as part of this mission was overkill to the ninth level. Team Asuma, who was now back to full strength with the recovery of their sensei, would have been able to handle this one on their own just fine.

As ti was, things were tense. The client, whose name Naruto hadn't really paid attention to, looked like he wanted to make small talk but he kept twitching nervously every time he caught sight of Naruto's gold-orange eyes.

Ino, usually a constant source of inane chatter, was silent. Either similarly perturbed by his Sage Mode or perhaps still giving him the cold shoulder after getting molested by Xanna.

Chouji, Shikamaru and Asuma seemed to be relaxed enough, but Shikamaru and Asuma smelled tense.

Everyone was forced to throw themselves to the ground due to the sudden onslaught of shuriken, With Asuma tackling the client.

Naruto examined the one shuriken he had caught in his hand. He hadn't been able to see it well while it was in flight, but had assumed it was a regular shuriken. That had been a false assumption as the shuriken were shaped like snowflakes and they were viciously sharp, sharp enough that they had made a very small cut on his palm when he had caught it. Considering the fact that his skin was iron tough while he was in Sage Mode, that was quite significant.

They were also quite clearly not made of metal but some sort of crystal.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Do you think we're doing the right thing Jiraiya?" Tsunade asked, nursing a bottle of sake.

"I don't know." Jiraiya admitted. "I don't think he would betray us, but I can certainly understand that it looks bad. He's scaring the village half to death with that Sage Mode of his and he's not even doing anything noteworthy."

"If only he would just agree to turn it off." She said in frustration. "The village almost seemed to have gotten over it's irrational fear and hatred of him and now he's being deliberately antagonistic."

"I don't think he is, I think he just doesn't care." Jiraiya refuted. "They scorned him when he was young, but now that he's powerful and they know that he's the son of two of Konoha's most revered shinobi, they start treating him with respect. People that fickle are simply beneath his notice."

Tsunade sighed despondently, well aware of that already.

"I was thinking of making him Hokage you know." She said idly, swirling the leftover sake in the bottle.

"Didn't he tell you already that he has no interest in that?"

"Yeah, but I was sort of hoping he would come around." She admitted ruefully.

"I'm don't think I've ever seen Naruto 'come around' for anything." Jiraiya responded dryly.

"Yeah me neither."

The two lapsed into silence for a few moments before Jiraiya spoke again.

"You said you were thinking of making him Hokage?"

"Yeah, before this whole fiasco with the toads and his Senjutsu training, but now people are simply too scared of him to accept him as Hokage. It's really too bad, because I think he would have been a perfect candidate for Rokudaime with some training, if a slightly strange one."

"Slightly?" Jiraiya asked incredulously.

"Alright, a very strange one." Tsunade grumbled.

"I'm so glad that Minato's eccentricities never became known to the public." The toad Sannin said with a chuckle.

Tsunade snorted out a laugh at the reminder of the Yondaime and his particular brand of strangeness. "What did he originally want to name the Rasengan again?"

"The...Flash Dance Howling Spiralling Sphere Crashing Through The Earth." Jiraiya answered reluctantly, facepalming the whole time.

Tsunade guffawed at the absurd and overly long name. Hearing some of that brat's ideas for technique names just never got old. "It's a good thing he had Kushina around to put her foot down about any of those ridiculous names."

"Yeah, or else he might have been the most dangerous laughing stock in the Elemental Nations."

They lapsed into silence again, the moment of levity over as their thoughts once again turned towards Naruto.

"It feels as if we're betraying him and his parents by doing this." The slug Sannin said, slumping over her desk.

"I know, but it wasn't an unreasonable request. Besides, we're not doing anything major, all we did was ask Asuma and Shikamaru to keep an eye on him and report any suspicious behavior." Jiraiya reasoned.

"We also sent him on that bogus mission for the sole purpose of doing this and you know that the stupid council is going to keep making requests like this until something happens to give us some definite proof one way or the other."

"Yeah I know." Jiraiya replied.

"And no matter what they might think, Naruto isn't stupid. He's going to figure it out eventually and I have no idea how he's going to react once he does. He might blow it off or it might make him angry." Tsunade continued.

"I know that too, but no matter how much I hate it, the council is justified in asking for something this minor when there is suspicion about a shinobi's loyalty."

"Naruto would have been justified in leaving the village after the way he was treated as a child and yet he's still here, but those buzzards still think they've got the moral high ground." Tsunade said bitterly.

"I'm honestly not sure why you even keep them around when all they seem to do is cause you problems." Jiraiya answered.

"The thing is, that they do have the best interests of the village in mind and for the most part they do good work as councilors. It's just that whenever Naruto is involved they start being stupid."

"Even Danzo?" Jiraiya asked sarcastically.

"He's barely let out a peep since that assassination attempt. This was entirely Koharu and Homura's idea."

"It does seems a bit too...minor to be Danzo's idea. That old mummy's ideas usually involve people dying."

"That's why I think that Danzo probably wasn't involved." Tsunade said in agreement.

"And you sent Team Asuma with him just in case there was more to it, so that they could back him up." Jiraiya said, realising his old teammate's plan.

"Pretty much. I couldn't send a team that he was too familiar with because no doubt someone would claim that the observing shinobi weren't being objective. But I didn't want to send him out without proper backup either and Asuma is one of our strongest."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Kukuku, it's been a long time Naruto-kun." Orochimaru greeted as if he was talking to an old friend.

"I was actually kind of hoping you'd crawled under a rock and died somewhere."Naruto replied blandly.

"Now is that any way to talk to the man that gifted you with your sword?" Orochimaru scolded.

"That's funny, the way I remember it, you tried to kill me with it and ended up having to leave it buried in my chest."

"Perhaps, but in this world that is as close to a gift wrapping as you're likely to get."

The two stared at each other silently for a few moments longer, the two pairs of slitted eyes guarded and cautious.

"I'm assuming that this entire mission was a setup of some kind so that you could get at me." Naruto stated. It hadn't escaped him that Orochimaru didn't seem surprised by the fact that he was a sage now. Nor did he seem surprised that he wasn't a Toad Sage.

"Well you certainly figured it out quick. Yes, Konoha has betrayed you as it often does to those they are unable to control."

Team Asuma had remained silent so far, knowing that none of them could match the snake Sannin. Now however, Shikamaru felt that he had to speak up or else risk Naruto thinking that Konoha had set him up to die.

"That's not true Naruto! Hokage-sama only asked us to keep an eye on you and report any suspicious behavior! The mission was supposed to be-" He was silenced by Naruto raising his fist without taking his eyes away from Orochimaru, a universal gesture to stop.

"I know that Tsunade didn't do this, it isn't her style. But she was manipulated into sending me here, while this particular manipulator informed Orochimaru of where I'd be."

"My my, you're certainly much smarter than they give you credit for." Orochimaru hissed, with his tongue extending out of his month far beyond what was normal. "Why not join me Naruto-kun? Konoha is clearly unworthy of you and we could do great things together."

Team Asuma tensed in expectation of the answer. They didn't really believe that Naruto would do that, but if he did for some reason, then they were as good as dead.

"Nice try, but Tsunade has a much better set of tits than you, so I'm going to have to decline." Naruto said, his lips pulling into a grin. He didn't doubt that this was going to turn to violence soon and he was actually looking forward to it.

"Considering that she is a woman and I am not, that would indeed be the case." Orochimaru responded easily.

"Yes you are a woman Orochi-chan, at least right now. There's no need to lie to me, I can smell it." Naruto refuted with a wide grin, tapping his nose.

"I see. A most useful ability, though not quite as good as being able to taste the emotions in the air." Orochimaru said back and went still for a moment.

Four horns grew from the top of his head and the purple markings that were previously only around his eyes thickened until they went down to the bottom of his nose.

"I see I'm not the only one that's been upgrading." The blond said, mostly to himself.

"Indeed, I've finally found a body strong enough to handle the use of Senjutsu and it was ironically enough under my very nose for years." Orochimaru said relish, his tongue once more stretching out of his mouth, exulting in the empowerment given to him by the Snake Style Senjutsu.

"You know...there is actually something I'd love to learn from you." Naruto admitted.

"Really? Do tell." The snake Sannin said, thinking that perhaps he would be able to sway Naruto over to his side after all.

Team Asuma started sweating nervously. The air seemed charged with the threat of impending violence and this sudden turnaround from Naruto was not settling their nerves at all.

"That extending thing you do with your tongue, I really want to learn it." The blond revealed.

Orochimaru blinked in surprise. People usually called that ability disgusting if they commented on it at all. To hear that someone actually wanted to learn it was pretty surprising. "Dare I ask why you want to learn it?"

"I don't know, do you dare?" Naruto mocked.

The snake Sannin almost felt like rolling his eyes at the rather juvenile response. This was the kind of thing he might have expected from Jiraiya when they had still been friends.

"Why do you want to learn it?"

"Because I've always wanted to shove my tongue deeper into my woman." Naruto answered with a leer.

Team Asuma facepalmed in unison, wondering to themselves why they were surprised.

"Well since it appears that you won't join me, we might as well get this battle started. I do want my sword back after all." Orochimaru said with a small frown, dismissing the crude humor, not realising that Naruto had been completely serious.

"Guys, get out of here." Naruto said to Team Asuma without looking at them.

"You can't be serious!"

"You can't fight him alone!"

"We won't abandon you!"

"Don't be so troublesome."

The four responses rang out in answer to Naruto's command and they prepared themselves for a battle to the death.

Before they could so much as take another step forward, Naruto half turned his head and pinned them with a single burning, gold-orange eye.

"This is a battle between sages, if you get involved you'll just get in the way and become collateral damage."

Asuma pressed his lips together in consternation. As much as he would like to deny it, Naruto had a good point. Despite the fact that he was older and more experienced, there was no denying the fact that the blond was much stronger than him. If they tried to get involved they would more than likely get swatted aside like flies or killed by accident as the two combat monsters fought.

Enough information had gone around about Senjutsu recently to let him know that fighting a sage in melee was nothing short of suicide unless you had some kind of trump card of your own.

He and Chouji specialised in close combat, while Shikamaru and Ino were support with low direct combat power. Considering the situation, that was a terrible team composition.

"He's right. We need to get back to Konoha as fast as possible and summon reinforcements."

"But sensei...!" Ino protested.

"It's troublesome, but we really would be just collateral damage in this kind of battle." Shikamaru backed up his sensei and Naruto's logic. He was willing to stay and back the big blond up, but he had been dubious as to how useful they might have been even before Naruto had told them to leave.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Should we kill those weaklings Itachi?" Kisame asked.

"No, they do not matter." Itachi replied.

The Akatsuki duo were hidden a great distance away, staying safely out of the range of the supposed sensing abilities of sages.

Zetsu had come to inform them that Naruto had finally left Konoha with minimal backup and the two of them had set out to confront him.

They were disobeying Pain by doing this, but Itachi didn't care and Kisame felt that the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki was his prey. Neither one knew why Zetsu had come to tell them about this instead of Pain, but neither cared.

The Yonbi and Gobi had already been sealed, though the two Iwa Jinchuuriki had led them on a merry chase all over earth country. Additionally, Pain had also captured the Rokubi by himself, leaving only four Bijuu left to capture. The fact that the Sanbi was still apparently taking a nap at the bottom of the ocean was a problem that none of them knew how to get around, but they were sure it could be done.

Moreover, Itachi didn't care about their plans for the Bijuu, he was here to kill Uzumaki Naruto. With his little brother dead, all of the sacrifices he had made were worthless. The only thing he had left was his loyalty to Konoha and he could perform one final act before the disease claimed his life. By killing Naruto, the Kyuubi would go with him and Konoha and the world would be safe for however many years it would take for the beast to reform. Additionally, he would also be able to avenge his little brother by doing this.

"If they're going for reinforcements, the only one that would come to fight Orochimaru would be Jiraiya of the Sannin." Kisame warned. Usually he was the one being reckless, so it felt very strange for him to be warning Itachi about possible danger.

"It will take them too long to return to Konoha. By the time Jiraiya-sama gets here, it will all be over." Itachi replied monotoneusly.

In truth, Itachi felt that it would be ideal if Jiraiya could arrive just in time to finish off a weakened Kisame and Orochimaru, that way many of Konoha's strongest enemies would be disposed off in one swoop. Itachi knew that he would already be dead by then.

"If you say so." Kisame shrugged. "Do we attack them now?"

Itachi considered it for a moment and replied in the same dull monotone he always used. "No, let them wear each other out first, once they are weakened we will attack."

Kisame shrugged again, feeling a bit disappointed. He had really wanted to test himself against one or both of them.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You know, I'm actually looking forward to this. I haven't had a proper fight to test out my new Senjutsu style yet." Naruto said with a grin. He limbered up his clawed fingers in preparation, the digits making cracking sounds at the motion.

"Yes, I've been wondering about that..." Orochimaru said slowly as he too prepared himself. "...how did you manage to create an entirely new Senjutsu style."

"Oh, just some Fuinjutsu awesome." The blond answered, tapping a finger against the large seal on his chest and stomach.

"Most impressive," Orochimaru hissed. "I should not have dismissed you so easily that time in the Forest of Death."

"It seems that I'm not the only one using a seal to stay in Sage Mode though." Naruto commented, noting the fact that the short moment of stillness shouldn't have been enough for Orochimaru to stay in Sage Mode that long.

"Indeed, this was the ultimate purpose of my cursed seals after all." The snake Sannin confirmed.

"I've seen and deconstructed that seal of yours and I have to say that it sucks. I could make a better one if I wanted to." Naruto taunted. All this talking was getting to be a bit much.

"Are you sure that you will not ally with me Naruto-kun? Together we could unravel the truth of this world and become true immortals." Orochimaru tried one last time, not truly believing that his offer would be accepted.

He had been angry when the blond had killed Sasuke and deprived him of the Sharingan, but he got over it. Things didn't always go according to plan after all and there was no use in staying angry about it.

Naruto's achievement in creating a whole new Senjutsu style fascinated him endlessly and he would have loved to work together with Naruto in finding the truth of the world and the secrets of immortallity. He had every intention of betraying the blond in the end and taking it all for himself of course, but he was sure that with the aid of such a skilled Fuinjutsu master, he could have found what he sought.

"While that does sound tempting, I don't trust you and the world isn't big enough for both of us anyway." Naruto said back and lunged at the snake Sannin, swinging his claws with every intention of tearing the pale man to shreds.

Orochimaru dodged back and flung a volley of crystal shuriken at the blond. The crystal weapons struck him in the chest but failed to penetrate his iron flesh, causing only tiny cuts before they fell to the ground.

In response, Naruto sent his chains to chase after his opponent but Orochimaru dodged them easily, contorting his body in ways that shouldn't be possible. Apparently having enough of the chains pestering him, the pale Sannin spat a stream of water at them, drenching them.

This odd move confused Naruto, who couldn't think of any reason for doing that. It wasn't as if the chains were any less dangerous because they were wet.

The mystery was solved when Orochimaru grabbed the chains out of the air and pink-ish crystals immediately started forming over them. In no time at all, the chains had become trapped in a crystal prison, making them stiff and unwieldy.

Giving the blond no time to figure out a counter-measure, the snake sage formed a crystal blade on his arm and lunged forward in a stabbing motion.

Given no choice, Naruto severed the captured chains, sacrificing a considerable amount of chakra due to their loss. He only just barely managed to avoid the lunge and bring out the Kusanagi to block the following slash.

They engaged in a brief Kenjutsu battle, finding themselves about evenly matched, which told Naruto that Orochimaru didn't have any formal training with a sword either.

He swung the Kusanagi in such a way that it forced Orochimaru into a blade lock, where Naruto had the advantage due to his much superior strength. He did note with alarm however that there was a crystal growth creeping up the Kusanagi's blade.

Quickly overpowering Orochimaru and scoring a shallow gash on his arm, he watched with dismay as the crystal encased over half of the blade, forming blunt edges insted of sharp ones and turning one of the finest blades in the world into a rather ugly pink club.

"Kukuku, the Crystal Release is a truly wondrous bloodline is it not?" Orochimaru asked with taunting amusement.

Naruto simply glared back at his opponent, becoming frustrated with the way this battle was going. From what he was able to deduce based on the battle so far, Orochimaru could crystallize anything physical. He had drenched the chains in water because the chains themselves were a chakra construct. This also meant that he needed to avoid using anything water based as the snake Sannin would easily be able to turn it to crystal. He would need to use only raw chakra or wind techniques, of which he had few.

Still, he figured that the Kusanagi wouldn't be disabled so easily considering who had created it, so he smashed it against a nearby rock as hard as he could.

His assumption was disproven quite dramatically as the legendary blade shattered, leaving only the hilt and a jagged shard of broken metal.

Both sages stared dumbly at the broken sword, one not believing that the blade had simply broken like that and the other not believing that the blond had actually done that.

The dumb staring continued when Naruto felt a pull on his chakra and the Kusanagi regrew back to its original state .

"I guess it's time for round two." Naruto said with a grin at the frustration he could smell coming off his opponent. He hadn't known that his sword could do that.

The blond realised that he had been rather lucky so far. If Orochimaru could crystallize anything physical, then that meant he could crystallize him and if even the Kusanagi broke, then he didn't like his chances of survival in that situation. He would need to be more cautious and avoid any physical contact with the other sage. Had Orochimaru foregone his usual self assured arrogance at the beginning of the match, then he would probably be dead already.

With this in mind, he created a large Rasengan in his left hand, while infusing the Kusanagi held in his right with sharp wind.

Orochimaru said nothing, instead forming another weapon out of crystal.

"Shōton: Kyodai Rokkaku Shuriken(Crystal Release: Giant Hexagonal Shuriken)!"

He flung the oversized, snowflake shaped projectile at the blond with as much force as his Senjutsu enhanced strength allowed.

Naruto decided not to dodge, but instead used the Rasengan as a shield. The incredibly sharp crystal slammed into the Rasengan but couldn't cut through it since it wasn't physical. The powerful orb of spinning chakra caused the huge shuriken to ricochet off into the distance, slicing through rocks and trees until it finally plowed into the ground and kept going for an unknown distance.

The two sages glared at each other with narrowed eyes, knowing that the warm up was finished.

Naruto had no ranged abilities that would be of any use in this battle so he needed to get in close.

Orochimaru did not want to go into close range, as the blond was much too deadly there, but his ranged attacks would be repelled by the Rasengan or blocked by the apparently indestructible Kusanagi.

This meant that he would need to use overwhelming or indirect Ninjutsu.

One of the more interesting of Guren's techniques came to mind and he wasted no time in using it.

"Shōton: Hashō Kōryū(Crystal Release: Tearing Crystal Falling Dragon)!"

Naruto stared at the large dragon made of pink crystal that Orochimaru was now riding on, wondering just what the deal was with the pink anyway.

Quickly jumping out of the way as the dragon slammed into the ground where he had just been standing, Naruto let the Rasengan go. If he tried to destroy that thing up close, it could not possibly end well.

"Tsuyo no Fuin: Hatsudou(Seal of Power: Activate)!"

Instead he extended the Kusanagi, keeping it sheathed in razor sharp wind chakra and swung it at the dragon's body, intending to cut it in half.

Unfortunately, he had underestimated just how tough that crystal was and the sword got stuck less than halfway through the dragon. Orochimaru pounced on the advantage instantly, directing the dragon to once again charge at the blond, manipulating the crystal so that it grew over the Kusanagi, keeping it firmly stuck.

Instead of letting the sword go and escaping as would have been logical, Naruto braced himself and gave the blade a mighty heave, sending the dragon crashing off to the side, being thrown thoroughly off balance. As soon as it did however, he heard the snapping of steel as the Kusanagi broke again.

Another pull on his chakra and the blade regrew again, though Naruto could swear that it hummed at him irritably. If he didn't know better, he would say that the sword was getting angry at him for breaking it twice in less than ten minutes.

The dragon raised itself back up and prepared to slam into the ground again. Naruto knew that he really needed to get rid of that thing so he resorted to something a slight bit dangerous, considering that the last time he had tried something similar it had landed him in the hospital.

He created a heavily Senjutsu reinforced Rasengan and threw it at the dragon.

His last attempt at something like this had been with infusing water into the Rasengan, but now that he was a sage, he could actually pull it off. Natural energy was a stabilizing force and it kept the chakra orb together for a short while even after he tossed it.

The very moment that it touched something solid however, it blew up as the delicate balance of energy was disrupted.

A large chunk of the dragon's body was blown off and the crystal construct collapsed.

The two combatants once more assessed each other and considered their options, Orochimaru with narrow eyes and Naruto with a grin. He couldn't help grinning to himself really, Orochimaru had become much stronger since their last encounter and he was fighting against the man on even footing. He was quite pleased with his own progress, not to mention that his attempt at a thrown Rasengan had actually been a success.

Orochimaru meanwhile was not so pleased at how things were going. They were basically in a stalemate and a battle of attrition. With Naruto's dangerous arsenal of close combat abilities he didn't dare engage him in a Taijutsu battle and his Ninjutsu so far had either failed to cause any damage or been repelled.

It was time to take things up a notch.

"Mandara no Jin(Formation of Ten Thousand Snakes)!"

Naruto stared incredulously at the veritable ocean of shifting serpents that Orochimaru spat out, clearly relying on his lack of wide area Ninjutsu to be a hindrance. It would no doubt have been quite a problem to take care of this many snakes without Ninjutsu, but it could have been done. He'd probably have thrown trees or boulders at them and squashed them, not to mention that he doubted the ability of their fangs to pierce his skin.

Deciding that it was a good a time as any to use one of his newly learned wind Ninjutsu, Naruto stabbed the Kusanagi into the ground and started making hand seals, somewhat awkwardly as his hands still weren't completely used to it.

"Fuuton: Daitoppa(Wind Release. Great Breakthrough)!"

The hurricane level wind easily swept the snakes aside, along with blowing away everything else, rocks and trees included.

"Shōton: Omiwatari no Jutsu(Crystal Release: The Gods' Crossings Technique)!"

The stream of extremely sharp crystals rushed towards Naruto from the side, blindsiding him and piercing through his legs and chest. Had they been simply thrown, the damage would have been much less, but the fact that they were braced against the ground as they grew had allowed them to pierce through his extremely durable body with only slight difficulty.

With a pained roar, the blond sage used his towering physical strength to smash the crystals impaling him or outright ripping them off in the case of those in his legs.

For some reason, Orochimaru didn't press his advantage, but instead elected to watch with open fascination as Naruto pulled the crystals out, allowing the wounds to heal rapidly.

Once he was done removing the crystals, Naruto turned a pissed off glare on Orochimaru, his lips twisted into a snarl and a deep, threatening growl rumbling out of his throat constantly.

At this point Orochimaru realised that he would likely not be winning this battle. He could already feel his body becoming strained from the prolonged use of Senjutsu. He could passively absorb natural energy for as long as he needed thanks to the cursed seal, but the body he was using wasn't strong enough to handle it indefinitely. Guren had been his most powerful subordinate and he had made alterations to her body both before and after taking it for himself, but there was simply no way that he could compare to Naruto in that regard.

The blond was a true born Uzumaki and he had obviously done everything humanly possible, along with some things that weren't, to strengthen himself further. The longer the fight lasted, the more it would turn in Naruto's favor, not to mention that he simply refused to die. One of those crystal spears had damaged his heart, Orochimaru was certain of it, yet the blond had simply ripped it out and healed as if it were a flesh wound.

Either way, Orochimaru knew that he had to finish it very soon, either by winning or by running away.

As Naruto grabbed his sword, the snake Sannin flew through a rapid string of hand seals and called out one of his most powerful and most recently developed techniques.

"Shōton: Senpō: Kesshō-rin no seichō(Crystal Release: Sage Art: Growth of the Crystal Forest)!"

Naruto's eyes widened in alarm when he saw the entire ground turning pink, small spikes already forming and growing larger by the second. He tried to get to somewhere safe, but everywhere he looked there was nothing but pink. Mere seconds after the technique came into effect he made a wrong step and his face twisted in pain as the crystal spikes growing under him pierced through his feet.

Left with no choice, he jumped into the air as high as he could, hoping to avoid the dangerous technique that way, but to his dismay found that the technique had turned every possible sanctuary into a deathtrap. The spikes on the ground were by now at waist level and to make it worse, their density had thickened. If he hit them, he would be torn to shreds.

To prevent himself from falling back down he extended the Kusanagi at the ground and stabbed it as deep as it would go and proceeded to balance on top of the hilt. He was lucky that the Kusanagi's blade didn't bend, or else he wouldn't have been able to do this.

If he wanted to ever get down, then he would need to do something about the pink garden of doom that was waiting for him below.

Well...he did have that one technique that would probably help him get out of this and it was as good a reason to use it as any.

His chains shot out and formed a platform to stand on, which two shadow clones occupied immediately.

One of them created a Rasengan, while the other started spitting a steady stream of water on it and the original used Senjutsu to keep the whole thing stable. Once enough water had been focused into it, the two clones released the technique so that the original held it alone, but they weren't done yet.

The final touch was for both clones was to forcibly solidify some of the water into containment seals, which would activate soon after being thrown.

Naruto had sweat pouring down his face from the effort of containing the pressure of the water and he knew that if this blew up in his hands, then he was dead, Sage Mode enhanced toughness or not.

Finally it was ready and Naruto wasted no time in throwing the dangerous thing down into what was now a true crystal forest. It was actually quite beautiful if you ignored how viciously spiked everything was. He aimed it at the general area where he recalled Orochimaru being.

"Suiton Hijutsu: Senpō: Rasendama(Water Release Secret Technique: Sage Art: Spiralling Bomb)!"

The super dense ball of water crashed through the crystal canopy, easily breaking the thin branches due to it's weight. Moments before it crashed into the ground, the containment seals activated and crushed the ball of water and chakra into the size of a grape.

The Rasendama didn't appreciated being compressed even further and expanded violently in all directions. Since the seals had expended all of their power to force that one moment of compression, there was nothing stopping it.

With the sound of thousands of breaking windows, the crystal forest was shattered as millions of tiny water needles smashed into it. A single water needle wouldn't have done much, merely cracked the extremely tough mineral growth, but so many were more than enough to rip apart everything in the vicinity.

Naruto hadn't wanted to take any chances and extended the Kusanagi further, making it carry him upwards and hopefully away from the blast radius. He sighed in relief when he only felt a few splatters of water on him, gravity and air resistance having stolen most of the power from the technique before it could reach him.

Down on the ground, Orochimaru was less fortunate, missing an arm along with having many holes in his chest and legs. Truthfully that technique would have killed him if he hadn't moved from the spot where he had been before, not to mention the dense wall of crystal he had erected as a defense.

Despite all of that though, he was in bad shape, as the water needles hadn't taken long to rip through his crystal defense. He had lost the arm when he had thrown himself on the ground, knowing that standing up was the worst possible thing to do in such a situation. If he had remained standing he would have likely been reduced to chunks.

The snake Sannin quickly regurgitated a new body for himself and fled the battlefield. His body was already rebelling and he wouldn't be able to keep fighting the younger sage in his current condition, no matter how chakra intensive and exhausting that technique had to have been. He had thought that he would be able to overcome the younger man, but he had clearly underestimated him...again. This kind of growth in only a few years was nothing short of staggering.

What a marvelous power Naruto-kun. Your talents are wasted in Konoha.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kisame whistled, seriously impressed with the destruction that the battling sages had inflicted on the area.

"Kisame, it's time."

The swordsman grinned at his partner's words and drew Samehada. The sword would have quite a feast today.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto was back on the ground, breathing hard and guesstimating that about half of his chakra reserves were gone. His pants and coat were ripped, there were bloody holes in his shoes and he was just about ready to rip Orochimaru's head off with his bare hands. He held the Kusanagi in a tight grip and searched for his opponent, wary of sneak attacks.

He hated sneak attacks.

"Hello again, Naruto-san." A monotone voice greeted just a moment after he felt a flare of chakra that signaled the use of the Body Flicker.

Spinning around, he came face to face with the blank face of Uchiha Itachi and the grinning one of Hoshigaki Kisame.

"...I don't suppose you two are here to help me kill Orochimaru?" Naruto asked blandly. Normally, he wouldn't have any problem picking a fight with these two, but the battle with the snake sage had already taken a good chunk of his strength and he just wanted to go home and cuddle a certain redhead.

Kisame's grin widened and he unwrapped Samehada while Itachi did nothing at all.

At this point, Naruto was seriously considering just using Hiraishin to get out of here, but that would require him to focus for nearly a full minute before he could lock on to a particular beacon. He very much doubted that he would be given that much time.

"Lets see how good you are with that sword kid." Kisame said and swung his huge sword towards the blond.

Naruto easily blocked the attack and pushed the shark man away with his much greater strength. The surprised look on Kisame's face told him that the Akatsuki swordsman was used to being the bigger and stronger man when he was fighting. That would work to his advantage.

A kunai thrown by Itachi hit him in the chest, directly over his heart, but failed to do anything other than prick his skin.

"...aren't you supposed to be trying to take me alive?" Naruto asked sarcastically.

"We've been watching your little scuffle with Orochimaru, so we know that you won't die that easily." Kisame answered for his partner and lunged into another attack.

Naruto, wanting to end it quickly, used his own sword to block and swiped his claws as Kisame, missing by only a small margin as the man showed impressive speed in avoiding his attack. He wanted to follow up but found himself having to dodge a volley of flaming shuriken.

The blond started to grind his teeth together in anger and frustration. The battle with Orochimaru had been exciting, but this one was just plain pissing him off. He just wanted to go home already but these two assholes were in his way and they were covering each other to make sure that he couldn't just kill one and be done with it.

He couldn't use his chakra chains against them either, because Samehada would be able to just eat them. In fact, there wasn't a whole lot that he could use against them because of that stupid sword. It wasn't even a sword damnit! Swords were edged weapons and Samehada definitely didn't have any edges. If that thing was anything, then it was a spiked club.

The infuriating pace of the battle continued for a while longer, Kisame harassing him with Samehada and Itachi covering for his partner whenever the blue skinned man got overpowered. Their intention was to wear the blond down by having Samehada eat away at his chakra, along with any wounds they could inflict.

Things changed when Itachi let out a bloody cough and Naruto smelled it. Taking a deeper whiff, he realised that he didn't just smell blood.

"You smell like a dying man Itachi." Naruto said to the last living Uchiha with a grin. At least Naruto assumed he was the last living Uchiha and that there weren't anymore of them hiding in the woodwork, plotting revenge because someone stole their candy when they were five years old.

Both Akatsuki members hid their surprise as well as they could, not wanting to give anything away, but it was useless. Naruto could clearly smell the reek of death on Itachi's breath. "That's why you're fighting so conservatively, exertion must worsen your condition."

With this in mind, Naruto advanced on the Uchiha at a run, with every intention of escalating the fight until the young Sharingan master croaked of his illness or at the end of Kusanagi's blade.

Kisame interposed himself between the two, but Naruto didn't even bother to stop and just swung his sword with unstoppable force. Kisame instinctively put Samehada up in a block, years of experience telling him that blocking was better than dodging. It was only an instant before the two swords clashed that he realised that he was for once physically weaker. Against the Senjutsu and Fuinjutsu enhanced power behind the blow, his block was useless and the shark man was swatted aside like a child and Samehada wailed in pain from the blow.

With the path now to the Uchiha now clear, Naruto continued his charge, glaring into Itachi's eyes with murderous intent the entire time. This allowed him to easily see as they morphed into the Mangenkyo Sharingan.

"Tsukuyomi(Moon Reader)."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto blinked in confusion at finding himself suddenly tied to a cross in a strange world where a red moon was shining, bathing everything in a crimson light. He himself was in an inverted gray scale.

It didn't take him long to figure out that he'd gotten trapped in Itachi's ultimate illusion, remembering Kakashi's description of it.

"Welcome Naruto-san, to the world of Tsukuyomi." Itachi spoke in his usual monotone that gave away nothing.

He was staring into Naruto's eyes, confused as to why they had retained their burning gold-orange color. He tried to will them to change into the same inverted gray scale as everything else, but they refused to change.

"For killing my little brother, I will stab you with a sword for 72 hours."

"Maybe you should stab yourself with a sword, considering that you were the one who killed his entire family and tortured him with this very illusion right afterwards." Naruto quipped back. If Itachi thought that his little spiel was intimidating then he had another thing coming.

He had already tried to access his chakra, but couldn't get anything. Though he did have a faint feeling for the natural energy in his seal, which meant that this illusion wasn't perfect. He wasn't completely cut off from his power.

The words cut Itachi just as deep as a sword would, because he knew that he had caused his brother a lot of misery and it had all been in vain. There was nothing else to do about it now though, except for killing Sasuke's killer and then dying himself.

Naruto grunted as the sword was stabbed into his leg. Alright, so it felt just like a real sword, but he could endure it. In the meanwhile, he might as well try to screw with Itachi's head and see if he could make his old classmate drop the illusion.

"I wonder if that hurt as bad as what Sasuke felt when I cut him open?" Naruto mused, seemingly to himself.

Itachi flinched slightly and the next sword stab was harsher.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hey Itachi, did you know that Sasuke kept screaming your name while he was trying to kill me? You drove him crazy man." Naruto said to his torturer, aiming a fanged leer at the man despite the pain he was in.

According to Itachi, they still had about 70 and a half hours left, though apparently Itachi defined a second as a long fucking time while in this illusion. The pain from constantly getting stabbed wearing on him, but he wasn't going to be brought down by some stupid illusion, even if it was very powerful.

His constant taunting and refusal to show any pain seemed to be getting to Itachi, which was good. His attempts to draw on the natural energy in his seal were mildly successful. It seemed to take forever to get it to do anything, which he guessed was because of the time dilation aspect of the illusion, but at least something was happening.

Itachi meanwhile decided to try something different, since physical pain didn't seem to be working.

The world warped and Naruto found himself looking at Xanna.

"I'm not even going to ask how you know what my woman looks like, but the view is certainly an improvement." Naruto commented idly. He had a pretty good idea what Itachi was intending to do.

Zetsu had provided pictures, but that wasn't important right now. "Since you seem to care nothing for your own pain, you will watch as your lover is tortured."

Naruto looked on impassively as the illusionary Xanna cried out in pain as she was repeatedly stabbed with a sword. The sound tore at his heart, but he couldn't help thinking that Itachi was being seriously uninspired with this 'stabbed-with-a-sword' crap.

"Maybe you'd like to set her on fire next, or perhaps have her gang raped?" The blond suggested and then burst out laughing at the stunned look on Itachi's face.

"Are you truly so heartless?" The Uchiha couldn't help but ask.

"No, but we're in an illusion you twit. I know that's not her, so nothing you do to that fake means a damn thing. You've spent too much time using this crappy illusion to torture helpless seven year olds Itachi, you're losing your edge." Truthfully, seeing something like that would in fact be very hard to take, but he knew that Xanna was safe right now, so Itachi's attempts to get to him this way were pointless.

The Uchiha's heart clenched again as he remembered how Sasuke had screamed at him to stop when he had been trapped in this illusion and forced to watch the entire clan be killed over and over again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Another fifteen 'minutes' on the Itachi scale(once again getting stabbed) and Naruto had managed to direct the natural energy into his chakra network and deliberately balanced it poorly, causing a disruption of his chakra. This was once again something that would end up being fatal for any other sage, but his personalized natural energy would only ever turn him to stone if he flooded it into his coils in too large amounts.

"What are you doing?" Itachi demanded, feeling his control of the illusion diminishing.

"I'm breaking out of this thing, that's what I'm doing." Was Naruto's answer, rapidly regaining color.

Itachi tried to reassert control over the illusionary world, but encountered the same block as when he had tried to forcibly change Naruto's eye color.

A crack opened in the sky, tearing apart the red moon and the Tsukuyomi broke.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

As soon as he came to back in the real world, the pain from the illusionary world carried over and he slumped over from the phantom pain. He was given no time to recover as Samehada slammed into his back, cutting through his coat and skin, along with stealing a considerable amount of his remaining chakra.

"You hurt Samehada you bastard, but it seems to like your chakra a lot. It's already healed up." Kisame siad, starting angry and then pleased when he saw that the damage inflicted to his sword had repaired itself.

Getting up from the ground, Naruto had completely lost his patience with these two and that sword in particular. Insulating his coils with a thick layer of Senjutsu chakra, he pulled raw natural energy out of his seal, which was something he had been practicing in case he ever came across Jashin again. Gathering it into his hand, he swiped his claws towards Kisame.

Predictably, Kisame put Samehada in the way, thinking that the sword would get to absorb some more chakra because the angry Jinchuuriki wasn't thinking straight due to being tortured in Itachi's Genjutsu. Instead, Naruto smashed his hand deliberately onto one of the spikes and forced the natural energy into the sword.

He watched with satisfaction as the annoying sword cried out in seeming fear and began turning to stone. Soon, Kisame was staring in horror as his prized sword turned completely to stone.

"What the hell did you do?!" The swordsman yelled at him in anger.

"I killed your sword obviously." Naruto replied, smirking even as he moved to keep both Akatsuki members in sight.

He was breathing heavily and there was a sheen of sweat on his brow. All the fighting and healing had taken it's toll on him. No matter how great his endurance and stamina were, he couldn't keep going indefinitely and he was approaching his limit. He had about half as much chakra as the Ichibi by now, which was his version of 'running out', so he turned off the strength seal.

Kisame clenched his fist and ground his teeth together angrily, wanting nothing more than to tear the blond bastard that had killed his precious Samehada apart. Itachi had by now also recovered from having his Tsukuyomi forcibly broken, though his left eye was bleeding and nearly blind.

Overcome by his rage, Kisame started making rapid handseals.

"I'm gonna kill you bastard! Suiton: Bakusui Shōha(Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave)!"

Naruto jumped away from the massive amount of water that Kisame had just spat out, turning the entire field into a lake.

The blond sage felt no particular need to fight on a battlefield that Kisame had prepared for himself, so he simply ran away a short distance until the land was dry again.

Kisame ran after him, further angered by the blond's escape, ignoring Itachi when his partner tried to tell him not to go. It also helped that the Uchiha started hacking out blood, his illness worsened by the strain that the casting and forced breaking of the Tsukuyomi placed on him.

Kisame grinned with anticipation when he saw the blond slow down and lean against a tree, clearly exhausted. He raised his right hand, fully intending to smash the blond's head into a pulp with a running punch.

In his enraged state, he failed to consider the possibility of a trap, so the chain that shot out of Naruto's back and speared through his chest caught him completely by surprise.

"Sorry fish man, but I intend to live forever." Naruto said as he turned around and drove his claws into Kisame's heart just to make sure he was really dead.

The blue skinned man spat out a torrent of blood onto his killer's face and chest and then collapsed to the ground.

Naruto leaned back against the tree, taking a moment to rest but keeping a wary eye out for Itachi. He knew that this wasn't over yet, but at least his only remaining opponent was a sick and dying man.

Unfortunately, Itachi had decided to circle around and come from behind. He could only see the blond's left leg from behind the tree, right next to Kisame's corpse.

"Amaterasu(Heavenly Illumination)."

Naruto roared at the unexpected agony of his leg being set ablaze by the cursed black fire. Grabbing a scroll out of his coat as fast as he could while his leg was on fire, he unrolled it and used the technique inscribed on it as fast as possible.

"Fūka Hōin(Fire Sealing Method)!"

The scroll sucked the black flame into itself, but Naruto's leg was still screaming in a symphony of burned pain receptors. His leg was badly damaged despite the relatively short exposure, refusing to obey his commands and twitching spasmodically as his healing factor worked overtime to repair it, and he was seriously starting to run out of chakra.

He quickly lobbed the scroll in the direction where he figured Itachi was, knowing that the explosion from that kind of powerful fire technique was going to be big. He really wished that he could be more accurate with things like this, but unfortunately, one major sacrifice of losing the Toad Style Senjutsu was the loss of the powerful sensory abilities it granted.

His own Senjutsu style granted very short range sensing in comparison, no doubt another side effect of not being exactly 'connected with nature' because he didn't draw natural energy from the environment.

Itachi didn't hesitate to activate Susanoo when he saw the object approaching, even though his eyesight was too poor to tell what it was, which saved him when the powerful explosion ripped apart everything around him. If he had tried to run, he would still have gotten caught in it, even though the scroll hadn't been exactly on target.

Naruto limped out from behind the tree he had used as cover, seeing Itachi wreathed in what appeared to be a giant, flaming red skeleton.

"What the fuck is that supposed to be?" He asked incredulously at seeing the strange thing.

"This is Susanoo(He with the ability to help by all means), a technique only available to Mangenkyo wielders who have unlocked the use of Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu." Itachi explained and prepared the Totsuka no Tsurugi, intending to seal Naruto away forever, preventing the plans of Akatsuki from coming to fruition while simultaneously avenging Sasuke.

"Your eyes let you summon a giant flaming skeleton?!" The blond asked incredulously. "That's just fucking bullshit."

He was willing to believe that they could cast an unbreakable illusion, that didn't seem too hard to believe. The ability to set things on fire just by looking at them required some suspension of disbelief, especially since Amaterasu apparently burned for seven days and nights, even if it was underwater.

He drew the line at giant spectral skeletons though, there was simply no way for that to make any kind of sense.

Bullshit or not though, he did not like the look of the huge, blazing orange sword in the thing's hand, so he decided that it would be wise to advance in the opposite direction, hoping that Itachi couldn't move while that thing was active.

His leg was already much better, so he was capable of moving at a stumbling run. He would have used his chains to pull himself forward, but he didn't have enough chakra left to make even a single one.

Itachi blinked his bleeding eyes at seeing Naruto running away, trying to focus them so that he could see something aside from a blur of color. Unfortunately, he could only faintly see the blond's chakra and even that was fading as his already weak eyesight deteriorated rapidly from the use of Susanoo.

Having no choice, he deactivated Susanoo and chased after the man that had killed Sasuke, already feeling his body shutting down from the illness, his recent spree of powerful Mangenkyo techniques straining him fatally. He knew that he had only a few minutes to live, but if he could just get in one hit on Naruto with the Totsuka no Tsurugi or hit his head with Amaterasu, then his self imposed mission would be complete.

Naruto looked back, seeing that Itachi was just as bad off as he was, though for entirely different reasons since the Uchiha hadn't taken even a single punch during the whole fight. He might have been able to get the killing blow on him, but to hell with that, he was one screw up away from death and he wasn't willing to risk it. He just hoped that Itachi croaked from whatever disease was affecting him soon.

It had been a really long fucking day.

Finally, Itachi collapsed to the ground, whatever willpower had driven him no longer enough to stave off death. He tried to pull himself towards Naruto, blinking with bleary eyes that didn't seem to be seeing anything and then his head smacked into the ground and he stopped breathing.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief, panting for breath and feeling more exhausted than he could remember ever being.

His relief was cut short when a weird black and white guy with green hair seemed to just grow out of the ground and make his way over to Itachi. The fact that he was wearing an Akatsuki cloak was the reason for his worry.

Naruto pushed himself away from the tree he had been leaning on and prepared himself for a losing battle. And it would be a losing battle, because he had nothing left to fight with, most of his remaining chakra having been used to fully heal his leg. The Amaterasu had seared him nearly to the bone and cauterised the wound, which had only made it more difficult to heal. Along with that, he was physically exhausted, his chakra coils were strained to the breaking point from constantly having to move around that much chakra to heal him and for the fighting. He also suspected that he was running a fever, since it was pretty hard to think clearly and he was sweating like crazy. That was a new experience for him to be sure and he didn't like it.

And then the natural energy retreated from his coils, going back into the seal when he no longer had enough chakra to prevent himself from being turned to stone. Feeling even that bit of strength leave him, his legs buckled and he collapsed against the tree, his vision rapidly going dark despite his struggle to remain conscious.

I'm sorry Xanna...I'm dead. Immediately after thinking that, he felt a surge of fear through the link they shared but wasn't able to do anything about it because he blacked out right afterwards.

Zetsu looked at the unconscious Jinchuuriki, hardly able to believe that everything had turned out so conveniently. Itachi was dead, his valuable Mangenkyo ripe for the taking and the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki was exhausted to the point of death, making him easy to take.

His head snapped to the side when he sensed a powerful chakra approaching fast. Whoever this was, they were far too powerful for him to fight, especially as he didn't want to get the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki killed by accident. No doubt it was a Konoha shinobi, since that was the direction it was coming from and they were going to arrive any second.

Making a decision, Zetsu grabbed Itachi's corpse and made off with it. The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki could be taken later, but Itachi's Mangenkyo was far too valuable to lose. It was the only set of Mangenkyo left in the world and that couldn't be risked. Too much had gone wrong with the plan already and Zetsu wanted as many contingencies as possible in case anything else went wrong.

Jiraiya gaped at the devastation he could see everywhere. It looked as if everything short of the end of the world had happened on this battlefield. More worrying was the sweat and blood soaked form of his godson. The man looked as if he had walked out of hell and then been forced to go back because he forgot something in there, but at least he was alive.

The toad Sannin quickly picked up his battered godson and sped back towards Konoha. There was going to be hell to pay when he and Tsunade figured out who had set this up and the elders were at the very top of that list.

If anyone else ever tried to have Naruto placed under observation due to 'suspicious behavior', he would soak them in oil and set them on fire...if Tsunade didn't get to them first that was. The blond had stayed behind to fight while his team got to safety, there was absolutely no reason that anyone could possibly have to doubt him anymore.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Xanna kept a tight, but not too tight, grip on her lover as he lay unconscious in their bed, also having her tails wrapped around him, just as she had done when he had been a child.

She had only managed to tolerate allowing him to stay in the hospital for a few hours before she had taken him out of it and carried him home, snarling any protesters into submission and coming close to slashing several of them open with her claws.

She didn't trust anyone to be around him when he was so vulnerable. This village of backstabbers was full of enemies that would want to take advantage of his weakness.

She hadn't been paying attention to what was going on with him, so suddenly hearing his voice in her mind, giving her an apology because he was dead had been jarring in the extreme. She'd only just barely prevented herself from taking her fox form and racing to his last location and even that was only because she had felt that he was still alive and in no apparently immediate danger of dying.

But it had been so very close. Even his training accident a few months ago hadn't been this bad. He should have been awake already, but his critically low chakra reserves kept his healing factor disabled, prolonging his recovery. She couldn't lose him now, not now when it finally seemed as if he would actually succeed in finding a way to become immortal.

A knock on the door interrupted her somber thoughts and she stared towards the door, expecting an enemy. If it was anyone that she didn't know already, then she would kill them just to be safe. She wasn't going to be taking any chances right now.

"ummm, hello? Naruto? Xanna-san?" Ayame's voice called out nervously, moving into the room with as much grace as her heavily pregnant state would allow. Naruto never locked his door and she was always welcome, so she didn't think anything of just entering.

Xanna moved away from the bed and made her way towards Naruto's big sister, not bothering to hide her tails since the woman already knew what she was.

"Yes?" The demoness asked neutrally. This was one human aside from Naruto that she actually had some respect for, as the girl was remarkably accepting of things she didn't understand. A great rarity among their species.

"I just wanted to see Naruto for a bit. I heard that he got hurt." She'd never seen Xanna's tails before, though she had seen the demoness herself. Normally her fingers would have itched with the desire to pet them, but there were more important things on her mind right now.

"Yes, someone in the village has betrayed him and orchestrated a situation that was intended to kill him. He survived by the slimmest of margins." The redhead explained with her tails waving about in agitation, not sugar coating it the slightest bit.

Ayame covered her mouth in horror and her eyes teared up. She could hardly believe that even after all this time, there were still people in the village that were willing to go that far because of their pointless spite.

"Could I see him?" She asked.

Xanna hesitated for only a moment before nodding and leading the way towards the bedroom. A civilian girl in the final stages of pregnancy wouldn't have been any threat even if she wasn't someone that Naruto considered a sister.

In her preoccupation with Naruto's safety and her concern over him, she forgot about the fact that the curtains weren't drawn over the window and her tails were on full display, which was something she had always been careful about.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kiba sat on the roof of a neighbouring building in numb shock, his mind constantly replaying the sight of Naruto's hot girlfriend having nine distinctly foxy looking tails.

Now, Kiba knew that he wasn't all that smart a guy and that it was a bad idea to jump to conclusions, but he felt pretty safe in making the assumption that Naruto was apparently going out with the Kyuubi.

The problem was that he didn't know what the hell to do with this information. The redheaded apparent demoness didn't seem to be a rampaging monster bent on destroying the village and Ayame hadn't been the slightest bit surprised at seeing the tails, which meant that she probably knew all about it already.

He really wished that Masaru had asked someone else to shadow Ayame while she went to visit Naruto. The man had been concerned about Ayame going to that part of town alone, despite her assurances that nothing would happen to her, so he had asked him to discreetly trail her...just in case. Masaru himself had needed to report to the Hokage for a mission or he would have done it himself.

Kiba hadn't minded doing that for his clansman, especially since Ayame was very likable and he shared the same concerns about a pregnant woman going into that part of town alone.

But now that he'd seen it, there was no way that he could just ignore it. He could either keep his mouth shut and let things go on as they were, running the risk that there was some kind of unfathomable demonic plot going on. Or he could report it and risk causing a massive shit-storm when the information eventually got around.

He had no idea what to do, both options carried massive risks and terrible consequences if he got it wrong.

He needed a second opinion, or else his mind was just going to keep running in circles.