Chapter 25: Searching for the Old Hag

## Otogakure ##

Orochimaru was cursing every single fiber of Naruto's being. Orochimaru was considering if he should keep Naruto alive for his purposes or kill him for destroying the chakra network on his arm.

The moment his chakra network was destroyed he lost the ability to mold chakra in that arm preventing him from doing hand seals and as such preventing him from doing any type of jutsus that required any hand seals.

Kabuto had studied his arm and tried to heal it but you can't heal something that doesn't exist. With his level of knowledge Kabuto didn't stood a chance at doing anything to heal his master.

Of course Orochimaru had a solution which was to swap bodies but he wanted to wait for a very special body that he felt was getting closer and closer. He could feel all of Sasuke's hate and hunger for vengeance and soon enough he would belong to Orochimaru.

"I'm sorry Orochimaru-sama but this type of wound is beyond me" Kabuto replied sadly and Orochimaru cursed the blonde. Everything was good until he showed up and the barrier he placed didn't even slow him down but above else he has the eyes Orochimaru always wanted the Mangekyo Sharingan.

"It can't be helped…there is only one person that might be able to heal me" Orochimaru said sweating. Losing the chakra network in his arm placed him in constant pain as his cells weren't properly fed.

"And who might that be?" Kabuto asked as he pushed the glasses in his face up.

"My former teammate Senju Tsunade" Orochimaru replied with a glint in his eyes. He knew exactly what it would take to convince her. "Contact our spies, we are leaving now" Orochimaru ordered.

## Konoha's Dango Stand ##

A few days had passed since Naruto, Hinata and Jiraya left in search for Naruto's grandmother, Senju Tsunade, so she could return to the village to become the Sarutobi's successor as Godaime Hokage.

The constructions around the village were progressing very well as they didn't receive much damage. The most important buildings were protected by Naruto's barrier seals allowing the hospital and other buildings to remain working non-stop.

In the middle of Konoha, more precisely in the Dango Stand that Anko spends most of her time in, were two cloaked persons inside drinking a bit of tea and eating dango since it was a dango stand.

Both of them had long, high collared black cloaks with red clouds in them, on top of their heads, straw hats with a small bell hanging by a small red wire. These two unknown members actually belonged to an organization called Akatsuki that were after the bijuus like the one in Naruto but no one knew that.

"Have you heard the news?" one civilian asked and both Akatsuki members focused on the conversation. Believe it or not, listening to civilians talk is a very good way to scout for information.

"About what?" one other civilian replied.

"That brat, Uzumaki Naruto, is now Senju Naruto. Apparently is the heir of the Senju clan and great grandson of the first hokage" the civilian said.

"Did you hear that Itachi-san?" the Akatsuki member asked his partner now identified as Itachi. Uchiha Itachi the prodigy of the Uchiha Clan and the one that butchered all of them except his little brother a few years ago.

"Yes Kisame. This is new revelations, we must inform our leader" Itachi replied in his monotone voice and Kisame nodded.

"You don't say but I thought he was an Uchiha since he as the sharingan" the civilian replied and Itachi's eyes widened revealing a pair of blood red eyes with three tomoes in it.

"I think you missed one a couple years ago" Kisame said chuckling. It was fun to see at least some emotion coming off from Itachi since he was always stoic and didn't say much.

"Interesting…How can Naruto-kun have the sharingan?" Itachi mused in thought. "I know for certainty that I killed all of my clan minus my foolish little brother. Neither Kushina-senpai nor Minato had the sharingan... is it the Kyuubi?" Itachi thought as he ran through all the various scenarios on his head to explain.

"What are you thinking so hard about?" Kisame asked in an amused tone.

"I don't understand how could Naruto be an Uchiha…it doesn't add up" Itachi replied.

"Well if you listened to what they were saying you would know…apparently the brat is the grandson of Uchiha Madara" Kisame said and Itachi froze.

"He never said anything about having a grandson… if he had a grandson he would most likely use him to achieve his goals. Kushina-senpai didn't give off chakra similar to an Uchiha which only leads me to conclude that it was Minato" Itachi thought. "Minato never showed his sharingan and yet he was a force to be reckoned with…deception, the true way of the shinobi" Itachi thought chuckling to himself. He was considered a genius among genius, a prodigy that appears once every hundred years, very similar to Minato but it appears that Minato won the pool.

"This is very interesting indeed" Itachi said as they continued to listen to their conversation. A few minutes later another civilian said something that caught their attention.

"It's a good that the Sandaime is retiring. He did so much for our village, he deserves to rest" the civilian said.

"Yes and the chosen to the Godaime Hokage was Senju Tsunade" the civilian said.

"Looks like the hokage title falls into the Senju once again" the civilian replied.

"I know" the other replied chuckling. "Jiraya-sama left with Naruto-sama so they could find her and bring her back" the civilian said.

"Looks like we lucked out, the Kyuubi just left town" Kisame said sadly. He was hoping to feed a good portion of chakra to his Samehada.

"Yes, let's leave before we are discovered" Itachi replied and both of them stood up and left the stand.

Both members were walking through the village making their way out of the village when they came across with two familiar faces, to Itachi at least.

"You aren't from the village right?" Asuma asked weary of the unidentified males in front of them. "Why are you here?" Asuma asked.

"Long time no see Asuma-san, Kurenai-san" Itachi said in his monotone voice.

"If you know who we are then you must be a shinobi from this village" Asuma said. Itachi simply raised his hat slightly to allow them to see his blood red eyes. The moment they saw his eyes they both tensed.

"Uchiha Itachi?" Asuma asked and Itachi dropped his hat and let his hair flow with the wind locking eyes with the two jonins in front of them.

"You know these people Itachi-san?" Kisame asked and also dropped his hat. "Then I'll present myself. Hoshigaki Kisame, a pleasure to meet you" Kisame said.

"You dare show your face after what you have done?" Asuma asked as he kept his guard up. Even with Kurenai he didn't know if he could take him on and his companion wouldn't help at all. "I'm going to end you both" Asuma said.

"Itachi-san, it looks like you are hated in this village" Kisame said chuckling.

"I know who you are" Kurenai said eyeing Kisame. "Hoshigaki Kisame, former member of the seven swordsmen of the mist" Kurenai informed.

"You are in a lot of trouble for coming here Itachi" Asuma said.

"Don't get involved in my work, I have no intention of killing you" Itachi said.

"You aren't the type of person to return here without a goal. What is it that you want from the village?" Asuma asked.

"You are annoying" Kisame said and took his sword out and hit the ground making chunks fly and a bit of dust to rise. "Should I kill them?" Kisame asked Itachi.

"It appears we aren't leaving without a fight" Itachi said.

The moment Itachi said that Kisame picked his sword and tried to hit Asuma who jumped back to avoid. Asuma took out his trench knives and blocked the next sword swing.

Kurenai used the cover that Asuma gave her and went through hand seals disappearing into thin air.

"Genjutsu?" Itachi thought as he used his sharingan to analyze the battle.

Asuma was starting to sweat as he was being pushed by the sword. Kisame was a lot stronger then he let on and that with only a single hand.

"My Samehada doesn't cut…it shreds" Kisame said and pulled his sword back shredding through Asuma's skin and drawing blood, making him wince in pain. Meanwhile Kurenai had her genjutsu ready.

"You are late Kurenai" Asuma said nursing his arm.

The moment Asuma said that the ground around Kisame started to melt and he was trapped and unable to move. Behind Itachi a tree suddenly sprouted from the ground and snared him in place. Kurenai emerged from the tree with a kunai at hand getting ready to kill him.

"This is the end for you" Kurenai said and moments later she realized that she was the one pinned to the tree and was watching Itachi ran towards her with a blade at hand.

Kurenai bit her lip and used the pain to break the illusion. The moment she broke it, she ducked under a horizontal slash from Itachi's blade. Itachi saw Kurenai duck and gave her a kick that she blocked but she was sent towards a nearby river nonetheless.

"Kurenai" Asuma shouted concerned with her.

"You don't have time to look away" Kisame said.

Meanwhile on top of the river. "That was very good Kurenai-san" Itachi said as he quickly appeared next to her at the river. "But…" Itachi said but was interrupted.

"But this is the end for you" another voice said from behind Itachi. He turned around to come face to face with Kakashi himself.

Asuma was dodging swing after swing until he saw an opening and tried a slash with his knives that gave Kisame a small cut through his cheek. As a reply Kisame started going through hand seals and said "Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu (Water Dragon)" Kisame said and from the river a water dragon erupted and went towards Asuma.

Out of nowhere came another dragon of equal strength that clashed with the one from Kisame destroying each other.

"The same jutsu?" Kisame asked surprised.

"Why are you here?" Asuma asked.

"I thought you might need a hand" Kakashi replied.

Suddenly Itachi's hand flew out of his jacket with shurikens ready to throw. Kakashi jumped back and said "Suiton - Suijinheki (Water Wall)". A water wall rose up around Kakashi blocking four water drills. Apparently the shurikens were a mere a distraction from Itachi.

"He's fast. I barely saw the hand seals" Kakashi thought as he analyzed the powerful opponent in front of him.

"Very good…you are skilled with that eye of yours" Itachi right before a shadow clone from Itachi come behind Kakashi and stabbed him with a kunai, Kakashi bursted into water revealing it to a simple water clone.

"Water clone?" Kisame asked amazed. "He knows so much jutsus from my village" Kisame thought.

Itachi was looking for Kakashi when something caught his attention. He looked down only to see Kakashi giving Kurenai a kunai. But, the moment Kurenai was about to attack one of the Itachis in the river, Kakashi tackled her just before the clone exploded.

"Kakashi! Kurenai!" Asuma yelled as he also jumped into the river.

The water was coming down from the explosion and showed a lightly scorched Kakashi and an unharmed Kurenai and Asuma.

"Be careful with him. He became an ANBU captain at thirteen years old." Kakashi explained.

"I didn't expect him to be so strong" Asuma said surprised.

"No…he has yet to show his true strength" Kakashi explained.

"You are really skilled with your sharingan even though you aren't an Uchiha" Itachi said.

"He's right I tire easily" Kakashi thought.

"Sharingan…the true power of the sharingan…I'm about to show you why the Uchiha clan was feared and unparallel in power" Itachi said just before his eyes opened very slowly.

"This is bad…if his powers are what Naruto told me about then we are in big trouble" Kakashi thought. "Guys…close your eyes, no matter what happens don't open them" Kakashi yelled stressing every word.

"Only a sharingan user can fight him" Kakashi explained.

"It's true that a sharingan user can resist it but…you can't counter this technique with it" Itachi explained just before he locked eyes with Kakashi.

"Tsukuyomi"

## Tsukuyomi World ##

The moment Itachi pronounced that single word Kakashi was drawn into another world. The sky was red and the clouds and sun were black. Kakashi was pinned to a cross trying his best to break the illusion.

"Don't overexert yourself, this technique is unbreakable. In here I'm god and control everything. Three day in here are but three seconds in the real world" Itachi explained as he had a sword on his hand and was clear what he was going to do to Kakashi.

Suddenly Itachi stabbed Kakashi in the gut and he yelled in pain. Itachi suddenly multiplied and all of them had swords and started stabbing Kakashi as well.

"71 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds remaining" Itachi said as Kakashi was healed and he started stabbing again.

## Real World – Three Seconds Later ##

"What happened?" Asuma asked as he felt Kakashi wince in pain but didn't know what happened.

"His mind held on?" Kisame asked surprised to see Kakashi still standing but taking hard breaths, it seemed a miracle that he yet managed to stand. "But Itachi-san it's dangerous to use those eyes" Kisame said.

"By the looks of it, Naruto was right" Kakashi thought.

"Are you after Sasuke?" Kakashi asked, his voice strained by the genjutsu he just suffered.

"No" Itachi replied. "We are looking for the Yondaime's legacy" Itachi relied in his traditional monotone voice.

"You are from the Akatsuki aren't you?" Kakashi asked surprising everyone in there.

"Kisame we are taking Kakashi with us" Itachi suddenly said and Kisame dashed towards him only to intercept by a fierce kick from Konoha's Green Beast Maito Gai.

"Who are you?" Kisame asked as he regained his footing.

"Konoha's Green Beast Maito Gai" Gai replied with his teeth sparkling as he took his goken stance.

"Look at you…perhaps you meant to say fool" Kisame taunted but Itachi cut him off saying "Don't underestimate him".

Suddenly Kakashi fell to the water and started sinking only to be caught by Gai.

"Open your eyes" Gai said to Asuma and Kurenai.

"But Kakashi…." Kurenai said but was cut off.

"Just don't look at his eyes, focus on his legs and arms and fight from there" Gai explained as they both opened their eyes but it seemed that they were always drawn to lock eyes with Itachi.

"Easier said than done" Asuma said.

"Kisame we are leaving, we didn't come here to start a war" Itachi said and they both disappeared in a blur.

"They are gone, I'm taking Kakashi to the hospital" Gai said and disappeared as well.

## With Sasuke ##

Sasuke was currently in the Uchiha compound in one of the many training grounds taking out his frustrations on some unlucky wooden dummy. He was frustrated from everything he learned during the council meeting. That Naruto just seemed to have everything.

"Sharingan" Sasuke remembered as he drove a fist through the wooden dummy destroying the right arm.

"Uchiha Madara" Sasuke remembered and gave an open palm strike and severed the dummy's head.

"Senju" Sasuke remembered and gave it a spin kick and destroyed both legs leaving only the torso left.

"Pure-blood" Sasuke seethed and charged a chidori and completely obliterated the dummy leaving nothing but bits and chunks on the ground. The once mighty wooden dummy was no more.

Sasuke took a couple of deep breaths trying his best to calm himself. He went towards his house to take a bath to clean the sweat from the 'training session' until he remembered something.

"When you awake your sharingan go to the main house and look beneath the seventh tatami mat from the far right. That is where our clan used to meet, in there you will find your answers" Sasuke remembered. One of the last things Itachi ever said to him just after he massacred the clan leaving only him behind.

Sasuke quickly made his way towards the main hall. Since his clan demise he only used his house and the other buildings were just gathering dust. He quickly arrived at the main house and made his way towards the meeting hall.

He counted seven tatamis from the far right. He removed the seventh and beneath it was a small staircase that seemed to go in deep beneath the main building. He quickly made his down but it was pitch black. He scanned his surroundings and used a small fire jutsu to light the torches.

He suddenly came face to face with a big stone wall and, by the looks of it, it seemed very sturdy and heavy but Sasuke noticed the Sharingan design in the middle of it and quickly activated his.

What seemed to be an empty wall now had writing in it. He quickly performed the hand seals instructed in the wall and stone moved to the side allowing entrance to the chambers. Apparently only someone with the sharingan was allowed entrance to such place.

Sasuke entered the new room and as he expected was empty and dark but the sharingan enabled him to see better at night so he found the torches and lit them. The moment the torches flared to life Sasuke saw a big room with a tablet in the middle.

Behind the tablet a wall with the Uchiha fan in it. Sasuke used his sharingan and looked very carefully at the tablet. It seemed that he could only read bits and pieces but from what he could read it clearly stated that there was another level above the sharingan and it was the mangekyo sharingan.

"Maybe the more advanced the eyes, the more I can read" Sasuke pondered in thought as he was using the sharingan to read what was written in the tablet.

Everything the tablet said was exactly like Itachi had said about his eyes. Sasuke knew he needed to achieve the next level of eyes so he could go up against his brother and defeat him. Interesting enough the tablet said nothing about the half blood and pure blood Uchihas so Sasuke wondered just how old this tablet was.

"I will need every bit of power I can get to defeat him"

## With Naruto, Hinata and Jiraya ##

A few days had passed since they left Konoha as they were going towards the town Jiraya had received info from his spy network. According to his spies Tsunade was last seen in a small town in the land of fire called Tanzaku.

One interesting fact is: don't for a moment think that Jiraya won't be a pervert around you, even when you sleep. This particular fact was a surprise to Naruto and Hinata, since both of them got a room for them and Jiraya was left with one to him.

Jiraya, being the pervert that he is, thought that Naruto might be getting some action with his girlfriend and as such used his infiltration jutsu and infiltrated Naruto's room with his notepad ready to write.

Not a good idea to try and spy on someone who has the sharingan and byakugan that can spot anyone using chakra. As such he was once again in the receiving end of Hinata's juuken techniques and Naruto defense seals zapping the poor pervert.

They were approaching the town Jiraya heard about. They have been walking a couple of hours now and they were starting to see the town on the horizon. This town was famous for having a huge castle in the middle.

"So Naruto are you working on some new technique?" Jiraya asked wanting any juicy details. If he had the same mind as his father's than any technique would be worth learning.

"Actually yes. I'm working on recreating the Lightning Armor since I saw the basics during the battle against Orochimaru. I can already channel lightning chakra through my synapses to further increase my reaction time but the outer shell is a bit tricky." Naruto explained and Jiraya was stunned.

"You do realize that is an S-rank jutsu right?" Jiraya asked.

"I know. That's why I'm trying to recreate it. I think i'm rather good with lightning jutsus. I'll get it down eventually" Naruto said and Jiraya nodded. His father was the same when he got some jutsu idea on his head it would stay there until solved.

"How about in the meantime you improve the Rasengan" Jiraya said and Naruto got confused look.

"Improve?... My father's notes didn't say anything about a better Rasengan" Naruto asked and Jiraya nodded.

"Your father created the Rasengan intending to add his elemental affinity to it but it might be a jump to do that yet. So why don't you try to make a bigger Rasengan by pumping more chakra into it." Jiraya said and Naruto pondered. The Rasengan was by itself an A-rank jutsu, if he created a bigger one it would go towards S-rank and adding elemental affinity it would most likely be a one-shot kill.

"An Oodama Rasengan (Big Rasengan)?" Naruto asked for confirmation and Jiraya nodded. "So I just pump more chakra into it?" Naruto asked and Jiraya nodded again. "How much more?" Naruto asked.

"How about you try with twice the chakra and go from there" Jiraya said and Naruto nodded. As they were walking Naruto decided to try and do a big Rasengan.

They were walking and Naruto was focusing chakra to his hand. He started spinning the first round of chakra and immediately created a layer to compress it and easily reached the normal Rasengan.

He started pouring more chakra into it and the ball started glowing even more. Sensing no strain in containing it, he continued to add chakra and was easily reaching the double the normal Rasengan. He was about to tell Jiraya he managed twice the amount when the Rasengan suddenly destabilized and exploded in his hand.

The result of the explosion created a shockwave that sent everyone tumbling to the ground as they didn't expect the backslash from the jutsu. His Rasengan seemed just fine a few moments ago.

"Dammit brat" Jiraya said.

"How about you train it away from us" Hinata asked and she got up and dusted off her clothes.

"My bad" Naruto said chuckling and rubbing the back of his head.

"We are almost at town, how about you keep the training for later" Jiraya said. "Away from us" Jiraya stressed and Naruto sweat dropped, it was a little shock wave after all.

"Fine" Naruto said pouting as he couldn't train this new technique right away.

"He might be strong but he's still a brat" Jiraya said shaking his head. "But he isn't strong enough to take on kage level shinobi alone though he has techniques to run away" Jiraya thought as was thinking on what should he teach Naruto.

They arrived at the gates and entered the city. Hinata and Naruto were marveled by all the activity going on and all the people having fun in the various stands available. They didn't leave the village much and only started after they became gennin.

"Let's go to a hotel and sleep the night. We will start searching tomorrow" Jiraya stated and they both nodded.

They were calmly walking through the town completely unaware of two presences after them. They were keeping their distance and suppressing their chakra levels so they wouldn't be detected.

"Looks like the information was accurate, he did leave the village with Jiraya but I don't know the girl" Kisame said as he watched the three of them check into a hotel.

"The girl's name is Hyuuga Hinata and she was the Hyuuga's heiress but was expelled from the clan" Itachi calmly explained.

"She doesn't seem like much" Kisame said as he watched her, she seemed to fragile like a doll.

"We are shinobi, don't underestimate her. She was promoted to chunnin along Naruto-kun. We don't have much info on her so tread carefully even if she seems weak" Itachi explained. He was always the prudent one while Kisame tended to jump in, guns blazing.

"Fine but even we can't take on Jiraya" Kisame said.

"Indeed. Let's find some girls" Itachi said and Kisame's jaw dropped.

"You want to get laid?" Kisame asked and Itachi got a tick mark.

"I heard about Jiraya's obsession for women. It's our best choice to distract him long enough for us to get to Naruto-kun" Itachi explained and Kisame nodded.

"What about the girl?" Kisame asked.

"She is irrelevant although it appears that Naruto is very close to her. Notice how he walks close to her yet he's slightly ahead of her as if shielding her and he's ready to jump into action at anytime." Itachi analyzed. "He seems close to her so we might use it for our advantage" Itachi said and Kisame nodded.

"Let's go" Kisame said and they both disappeared in a blur.