Wave

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything I make references to. This is a work of fanfiction that I make no money off of.

Anyway, here's another chapter.

Warning: The last part of this chapter has some really vicious stuff at the end. Just a heads-up.

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When we arrived in the land of Rice, things were just as bad as we'd feared. The tree huggers had us and Kumo overwhelmed, outmaneuvered, and outmanned by a five-to-one margin. What none of us had counted on was Kumo's Jinchuriki. We'd all heard the stories, of course, but we'd never fought next to them, never seen them rip apart an enemy with their bare hands. They were magnificent. Even so it was still a suicide mission, at least it was until Roshi and his forces arrived. Then it became a battle; a winnable battle."

Exerpt from journal of Ozawa Daisuke, Jonin of Iwagakure, 3rd regiment, Second Shinobi War, Battle of Green plains.

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Naruto POV:

The time had come. In a short while, the Wave arc would begin. I had no idea how my presence would have changed things for the world outside of Konoha, but I needed to assume that it had changed for the worse. It would do me no good to hold on to the hope that everything would be all fine and dandy because it happened in canon.

The evening before involved over 100 of my clones Henging in different disguises with most of the money I'd gotten from selling exploding tags to purchase food to be stored in several storage scrolls. Unfortunately, it would be some time before any potential return of profit might occur from the book I wrote.

I always woke before Rin did, and today wasn't any different. I got dressed and armoured up, grabbed some easy to fix breakfast, and left a note on the fridge, letting her know that I was headed to where the two teams would meet up.

With all my equipment and the scrolls full of food, I made my way out of our apartment and towards the memorial stone, before I'd head to the gate.

Whistling a familiar tune to myself, I walked through the village and got to the stone.

Nobody was here but me, which suited me just fine. I pushed out my chakra sensory to make sure there was no one. Feeling nothing, I approached the stone and looked at two names.

Uzumaki Kushina. Namikaze Minato.

"Hey Mom. Hey Dad." I whispered quietly, a soft smile on my face.

"Sorry for not visiting for awhile. Things have been getting more hectic now." I paused for a moment, trying to gather my thoughts.

"Sorry I haven't talked to you, Dad. I don't want anyone knowing that I know. If you're somehow watching, don't blame Kakashi or Jiji. They're trying the best they can."

Kakashi and Hiruzen didn't know how to broach the subject of who our father was to me or Rin. I didn't have much problem with what had to be done. We were the only ones that would be able to contain the Kyuubi without it running the risk of killing the Jinchuriki and causing a repeat of the attack.

Rin wasn't though. I could see how her face would tighten when our father would be mentioned. When she'd bring up something about seals, she'd avoid mentioning him, preferring to mention the work of our mother, Mito's notes, or even Tobirama.

I understood the importance of what was done. I didn't hold it against Minato for what he did, but Rin did. She saw it as the reason for why we were subjected to the hatred we were. To find out our own father did it would not go well with her.

She'd take it even worse if, or more like when, she finds out he's our father and finds out how her being a girl complicates things.

There were two reasons I wanted to hold off on the Uzumaki clan getting recognized in Konoha. Discreetness was the first one. The second involved us being the best suited to be Jinchuriki. There was a reason why the CRA was written with males in mind. It could technically apply to females, but males were most definitely preferred.

Throw a dozen women and girls at me, and you'll get about a dozen children within a year. Throw 100 men at one girl, and you'll only get one kid, perhaps two in the case of twins, within a year.

Rin was automatically untouchable on the merit of her being a Jinchuriki. She hadn't connected the dots on what that really meant when it concerned having a family.

Our mother's seal weakened when we were born, and Rin didn't make the connection that something of that nature could happen to her years down the road when she would want a family one day.

I couldn't bring myself to tell her. And to make sure it wouldn't get brought up, I didn't push to have us recognized as a clan yet.

Remembering why I came to the stone, I pushed the thoughts away.

"I know who did it, Dad." I whispered, "You trained him and mom liked him the most. Hmm," I scoffed slightly at a thought that went through my head.

"Your son, if me and Rin weren't born, was obsessed with an Uchiha, Mom liked the Uchiha on your team the most, and Karin, an Uzumaki, loved Sasuke-kun. We Uzumaki can't seem to get enough of the Uchiha."

At least me and Rin didn't catch the disease, especially Rin.

"He's in pain," I continued, thinking of Obito, "He hurts so much. I know why he hurts. I know he needs someone to talk to him. Put sense into him and pull him back. But I can't forget it," I clenched my fists, "So many innocents died when he attacked you. So many died when he controlled the Mizukage. Entire clans were victims of genocide when the purges happened." My voice dropped even lower.

"And their deaths will mean nothing," I managed to force out, my voice shaking slightly, "He tried to kill you so he could be free from pain. His dream will never happen. I'll do what you did and seal myself and both halves into the Shinigami after I destroy the mask before I'd let him win, if only it wouldn't kill Rin."

I didn't want to feel weak and grief stricken, so I decided to let some anger out.

"He killed what is real for a dream," I spat, "He can't deal with losing what he wanted and lashed out like a child. He had you, Mom, and Kakashi still left. But he killed that out of selfishness. I'll never forgive him." I growled out, pinging my chakra to make sure I was still alone when speaking.

"I'll kill him and never look back," I said firmly, "Sasuke got my one mercy card, and I'm not charitable."

I looked straight towards my mother's name.

"I know Mikoto was your friend, mom," I said, trying to calm my voice, "But you don't know what he'd have done if I wasn't here."

I started shaking slightly.

Sasuke wasn't a terrible person, but I felt all my senses scream at me that he was. He was more open and he wouldn't have Orochimaru sinking his claws into him if I could help it...

But my conscience still practically thirsted for violence against him.

"He'd kill her," I whispered, trying to not visualize the choked gasps of Rin from the Genjutsu, "I tortured him without hesitation. I compared him to the thing he hated most. Kakashi taught him the Chidori," I looked towards my father's name, "Rin has your hair and mom's temperament...Just like another person."

"He'd put a Chidori through her chest if I wasn't here," I whispered, hating the thoughts that were in my head.

It would have been so easy.

Sasuke's chakra, even when he was 8, was easy to spot. I'd never felt chakra like it, following what Itachi did. Only Kakashi, when I first met him, had a similar touch to his chakra, but it wasn't even close to how Sasuke's felt.

It felt like how a smashed windshield looks. Everything is shattered underneath, with only flimsy material keeping it together.

Even with the thousands of chakra signatures in Konoha, ranging from civilians to the Hokage, I could feel Sasuke's. I had more than one chance to make things simple and kill him. It would have been easy. An eight year old would be killed without issue. I'd killed before without much difficulty, squeezed a trigger and ended another human's life. It only offered the possibility of saving my own life.

But killing Sasuke would have saved many.

Orochimaru wouldn't attack the village to get Sasuke. A dead Uchiha won't try and kill his Sensei and teammates. A dead Uchiha won't join the Akatsuki and destroy my home.

A dead Uchiha can't defect and try to kill Rin.

But two things stayed my hand and filled me with revulsion that I even seriously considered it.

Itachi was thirteen. It was difficult to think of him as a kid at the time, given how much everybody commented on how strong he was as a Shinobi, but it didn't change that he was a kid in over his head, having to shoulder the burden of his elder's mistakes.

Killing Sasuke would break him. Break him in a way Rin's death would break me. Itachi would undoubtedly kill me if he discovered I did it, possibly even driving him over the edge enough to capture me and have my half ripped out and sealed.

But the second reason was the biggest one. Sasuke was broken. Broken in a way that I've never felt. The only part of Obito that felt human when I sensed him when I was born was the same type of shattered Sasuke was. But that was a tiny fraction of how he felt. Everything else felt unnatural.

Obito had already chosen to try and kill thousands of people. But Sasuke was a little boy who had everything taken from him.

Just as I had everything taken when my lungs filled with blood and my life ended on the floor of the place that sheltered me and my family for years.

Sasuke wouldn't make those choices now. I couldn't travel back in time to prevent Obito's fall though.

So I'd be merciful and give him his wish and settle on freeing him from his pain.

"I wish I could forgive him," I mumbled, "But I can't let go of what he's done. I can't sacrifice the innocent of the world for the sake of the guilty."

This wasn't a show where the protagonist can talk it out with his enemies. This is the real world. A world where one well placed kunai would kill me, and enemies won't conveniently let me live from me not being seen as a threat.

I was far more dangerous than anyone knew. I had no doubts that the likes of Orochimaru and Danzo were watching me and monitoring me. Better to be seen as obviously skilled and prodigious compared to being capable of being the next Kami no Shinobi.

Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself and switched subjects to something less painful.

Seals.

I just talked and talked about Fuinjutsu. About how the notes from Tobirama and Ashina were very helpful. I also mentioned how I think one of the parts of the Hiraishin functioned now.

The seal that acted as a lightning rod acted like an anchor in a rough similarity to a Hiraishin marker, with a certain type of chakra nature becoming linked to it. That particular seal was one that was in Mito's notes.

Tobirama had evidently studied under Ashina for some time. It's possible that some of the things he was taught helped inspire some of his later ideas to some degree, although Tobirama's notes were difficult for Rin to understand, given that he seemed to jump from one thing to the next when the subject was faintly linked to the previous subject in his notes.

After about an hour of me standing there and talking, I felt a familiar presence at the edge of my senses.

Kakashi.

I stopped talking and just stood there, waiting for Kakashi to close the distance. He eventually did, standing right beside me and looking at a few different names on the stone.

"Just visiting?" I asked.

Kakashi just nodded.

"Same." I responded, "Just wanted to talk to Mom."

I could tell that Kakashi smiled slightly under his mask when I mentioned her.

"And what did you talk to her about?"

I just grinned.

"About how proud she'd be of Rin." I said simply.

"Not you?" He asked.

I just shrugged.

"I'm good," I admitted, "But Rin grasps seals better than me on most of them."

"You're better at everything else by miles though," Kakashi stated, "I know how you explained it yesterday, but I know that's not all. It would serve you, Rin, and Hinata better for them to know how capable you are. You're at Jonin level of fighting, the four of us just happened to have gotten used to how you fight."

I could tell that the Jonin had improved from what they were at the beginning. Kakashi had a few years of motivation and training me and Rin to help get him to be operating at a higher level, while the other Jonin probably were kicked into high gear by the need to group train the genin to the best of their ability.

Sighing, I decided to throw him a bone and explain more of my reasoning.

"The two of us are good at sealing," I started, looking straight towards him, "I wouldn't be mistaken for anything but an Uzumaki because of this," I gestured towards my hair, "What do you think Rin would be mistaken for because of her hair, her skill in Fuinjutsu, and the fact that you are her Sensei?"

Kakashi straightened up and blinked at the last part.

"I didn't think that you'd think of it that way."

Kakashi still didn't realize I knew. Of course someone as supposedly intelligent as me would notice a potential risk of mistaken identity from the fact that my twin sister had blonde hair and was skilled with seals.

"Yeah," I said, "There's several reasons why I'm trying to not get as much attention as I would have gotten."

I knew I'd still get more attention than I was comfortable with. But there was no point in drawing even more than what was necessary, if it could be avoided.

Kakashi nodded and dropped the subject, looking at the stone more a little bit.

He eventually looked away and started to turn and leave.

"It's about time for us to go or we'll be late." He said.

I just snorted.

"Who are you and what have you done with Hatake Kakashi?" I joked, "The Kakashi I know would have his Icha Icha out and be at least an hour late."

Kakashi just rolled his eye.

"I'm only late when it's not an important mission." He grinned, ruffling my hair to my irritation.

I didn't notice until he was up close and right next to me, but he smelled different.

I sniffed slightly and jumped back with disgust.

"Don't touch me with your hand." I said, disgusted that he actually touched me.

"What?" He asked confusedly.

"Have fun with Anko this morning?" I asked, wanting to scrub my hair.

Kakashi stiffened in shock.

"How did you know that?"

"I can smell her on you," I shot at him, "Yo- aaghhh," I growled, not wanting to have to deal with my hair smelling like that.

I opened one of the storage seals on my bracer and dumped the water out, made it into a sphere, and pushed half my head into it.

After scrubbing my hair as best as I could, I let the water drop to the ground. I was not going to reuse it.

"I don't get the issue," Kakashi said, "I showered."

"With Anko?" I practically demanded and answer.

"I don't care what you guys do," I added, "You're both friends and can do what you want, but please don't be right next to me right after you guys sleep together. It's disgusting to smell it."

"Is it really that bad?" Kakashi asked.

"I can smell blood, remember?" I asked, continuing even after I saw Kakashi cringe at the memory, "Asuma and Kurenai are bad enough when I spar with them after they 'Definitely haven't done anything'." I pitched my voice in a mock imitation of Kurenai's, "I've known you and Anko for years. I don't want to think about the two of you naked." I finished.

Kakashi looked somewhat uncomfortable.

"Noted." He said flatly, "Rin won't react well either, will she?"

"She'll be worse." I said honestly.

Shrugging, Kakashi started to walk away and I followed.

"I'm heading home," He clarified, "I don't need your sister complaining, so I'll just take another shower."

"You're going to be late." I said simply.

"Don't care." Kakashi said without any care in his tone before he lifted his Hitai-ate and Shunshined away.

I just shook my head and walked towards the gate.

Rin's gonna be pissed.

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Hinata POV:

She had everything ready. Her equipment was packed in a couple of scrolls that Rin and Naruto had made for her, anything else was on her person, mainly kunai and a few knick knack things. She pulled on her jacket and was ready to leave her home.

She remembered being asked by Naruto about her jacket. He'd looked genuinely perplexed by why she chose to wear this specific type of jacket. Rin knew why, but Hinata definitely wasn't going to share with Naruto of all people why she wore a thicker jacket.

She was an early bloomer amongst the girls her age and it was embarrassing enough when she had that explained to her. The boy she liked asking why she wore a thick jacket made it even worse. She saw and heard some of the boys at the Academy talk of how they liked girls with big "Assets".

She didn't like thinking of such things. The only boy she liked now was Naruto. Rin might be her best friend, but Naruto was the one that helped her to see what she could be if she believed in herself. Her father had seemed to become a different person ever since Naruto and Rin had begun to be her friends, becoming less harsh and judgemental, and instead being patient and understanding.

Without the atmosphere of not knowing if she or Hanabi would be marked, she didn't need to be frightened that her progress would possibly hurt her little sister. She didn't believe Naruto for quite some time when he said he saw himself in her. But she finally saw what he meant after some time. Hanabi looked up to her almost how Rin looked up to Naruto, trying to be kind and understanding to even those who weren't Hyuga. Hanabi had a habit of accidentally sounding rude or arrogant towards others when she had tried to make friends at the park. She still smiled at the memory of Konohamaru making a quip at her that almost sounded exactly like something Naruto would say.

But she didn't know why Naruto didn't seem to be interested in girls. He'd make jokes and flirt to make them lose their composure during sparring until they were able to shrug it off, but he didn't actually look at girls like the other boys did. She'd sometimes see how Kiba would look at her, other times, she thought Shikamaru looked at her and Rin, but she couldn't be sure.

Naruto never seemed to look at any girl that way. She sometimes saw him glance at Anko or Kurenai, but that was only when they were sparring and right in front of him. Any time she'd see him look at the two Jonin, he seemed to force himself to look away, almost like he didn't like looking at them. She couldn't understand his behavior at times.

But as he himself said, all Shinobi have their own brand of peculiarities.

She finished getting ready and left her room. She passed by her sisters room and smiled softly, before exiting the main building and headed towards the compound's gate.

She spotted her father who had woken earlier to see her off.

"Hinata." He nodded, a faint smile on his face.

"Father." She smiled, always liking to see him smile. It made him look less stern.

He stepped forward and gave her a hug, not caring that the guards and the few civilians awake in the village could see them.

"Good luck on your mission, Hinata. Listen to your Sensei, he knows what he's doing, and take care of your teammates and yourself."

"I will." She smiled.

Hiashi stepped away from her and looked straight into her eyes.

"I will always be proud of you. Never forget that."

"I won't." She promised.

Hiashi gestured for her to go.

"You'd best go now," He chuckled lightly," You don't want any comparisons to your Sensei."

Hinata giggled and nodded, walking out of her clan's compound, the gate closing behind her.

She walked towards the village gate where the two teams were to meet. Kakashi had given her, Rin, and Sasuke a heads-up that the mission might change at some point and to be on guard. Activating her Byakugan, she saw that Naruto was there, along with everyone else except for Kakashi.

"Where's Kakashi-sensei?" Hinata heard Rin demand, her tone full of irritation,"He's supposed to be here early and we're all here."

"Patience, Padawan," She heard Naruto say sagely, "It shall do no good to waste your ire on such a fiend."

Rin glared at Naruto.

"Stop with the book references and quit defending the pervert."

"I will give one or the other," He offered, "You can't have both." He grinned.

Sasuke seemed be glancing between the two and grinned slightly.

Rin just grumbled under her breath and quit speaking.

Kakashi showed up about 20 minutes later, his hair looking slightly damp.

Naruto quirked a brow.

"Had another round?" He asked sarcastically.

Kakashi twitched slightly.

'What did he mean by that?' Hinata thought.

"Why are you late?" Rin snapped at him.

Kakashi looked to speak but Naruto spoke first.

"He got attacked by a cat and he went to clean himself up."

Rin just stared at Naruto with an "are you serious?" look.

"Really?" She asked unconvinced.

"I smelled cat on him." Naruto shrugged.

Kakashi twitched again.

"It was a wild and ferocious cat. Wasn't it, Kakashi?" Naruto asked with a slight grin.

Kakashi twitched again and seemed to glare at Naruto for a moment, before nodding.

"Yeah." He said simply.

Rin just sighed and dropped it, not wanting to try and dig for more details.

Kakashi looked towards Asuma.

"Where's your client?" He asked.

"Hungover and coming towards here with one of my clones." He said, looking slightly annoyed.

The client, who Hinata thought was named "Tazuna", showed up reeking of alcohol several minutes later. She couldn't imagine how much it bothered Naruto, who wrinkled his nose at the man standing near him.

"We ready?" The man asked Asuma, his eyes squinting from the sunlight.

"Yeah," Asuma sighed, his clone dispelling, "See you later, Kakashi." He nodded towards the silver haired Jonin.

Hinata saw Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji leave with Asuma-sensei, Naruto right behind them.

Naruto turned to look at them with a grin, but she thought she saw something flash in his eyes.

She might have mistaken it for worry if she thought Naruto would show that emotion for a routine mission escorting a drunkard back home.

She looked towards Kakashi, a questioning look on her face.

" I already informed you, but no harm in repeating it," He said, looking at the three of them," We'll be taking this message," He pulled out a sealed scroll, "To an important merchant in the region near Nami no kuni."

'That's near where Naruto is going.' She reminded herself.

"Now my precocious little genin," He eye smiled, "Let's go."

The four of them walked out of the gate and out of Konohagakure, to the outside world as Shinobi.

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Naruto POV:

Within 30 minutes of us leaving, I made several dozen clones and sent them out to randomly sense for anything within a certain radius to get a clear picture of the environment. I wasn't taking any risks or any trust in shit going the canon route.

Nothing of importance happened within the first few hours.

I could see the others were looking at me strangely from how tense I was.

"Naruto," Ino asked softly," Are you ok?"

"Yeah," I said, waving her off," Just...this is the first time I've been out of the village."

Ino seemed to understand, her look of concern seeming to lower.

"If you do need someone to talk to, Uzumaki," She grinned, "You got us."

"Uzumaki?" Tazuna stepped in, giving me, and more so my hair, a speculative look, "You're an Uzumaki?"

I tensed visibly, which Ino didn't see as she turned to Tazuna.

"His name's Uzumaki," She shrugged, before she turned back towards me when I felt my chakra sharpen from irritation.

Her face betrayed her worry at my glaring at her.

"No," I said tightly," I'm not an actual Uzumaki." I said firmly.

"Really?" The old man asked, unconvinced," You have red hair though and your name's Uzumaki. I knew a few."

"She's got blonde hair," I gestured to Ino, who seemed to shrink at the glare I shot her, "That doesn't mean she's a Namikaze."

Tazuna was a drunk, and drunks tend to have loose lips. I don't need stuff being leaked about an actual Uzumaki being in Konoha, the village with the best non-Uzumaki seal users this early on.

I tensed when one of my clones popped with a single sentence etched in its mind as memories entered my mind.

Two signatures. 2 o'clock. 200 yards.

I turned to warn Asuma, pinging my chakra to feel for them myself, but they vanished from my "Sight", almost like they had already prepared to leave.

"Asuma," I said firmly, the man turning towards me," Two signatures 200 yards away. They just disappeared."

Asuma had his knives out instantly, his stance a ready one with his eyes looking out for an attack.

"Formation 3, now!" He said sternly.

Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji swiftly moved together around Tazuna, Ino and Shikamaru pulling out kunai and Choji readied himself to engage for a taijutsu fight.

I made a clone and dispelled it instantly to relay a message to my clones, ordering them to converge back here.

I then pulled out a kunai and had my off hand in position to make a hand seal if needed.

We stood there for several minutes, me pushing my sensing to its furthest range. I felt nothing. Either the nin were gone, or they were damn good at hiding their chakra signatures, neither being a good omen.

I felt a surge of chakra and saw two silhouettes come from the treeline, charging straight towards Tazuna.

I flung a shuriken that I pulled out and used a Jutsu that Hiruzen taught me when he had the time to. Kage bunshin made it damn easy to learn it.

Shuriken Kage bunshin no Jutsu.

One shuriken turned into almost fifty of them. One of the nin avoided it completely, the other took one to his left arm, a small burst of blood and torn sleeve visible.

Asuma prepared to charge them, but my clones had gotten into position. Several balls of water and lightning came blasting out of the trees towards them before they even reached us. They managed to avoid most, but they weren't expecting to get that volume of Jutsu flung at them.

They got pinned before they even knew it. A kunai with an exploding tag flung by me exploded right next to one, the blast either killing him or knocking him out. The other one tried to get up from the concussive force, but Asuma already made his way towards the man and drove one of his knives through the man's shoulder and punched him into the realms of unconsciousness.

"Everyone," Asuma ordered, his head on a swivel," Stay ready for another attack. Naruto, sense anything?"

I made another clone and dispelled it to order my clones to ping their senses and to dispell if they find anything.

After a few seconds, one of them popped. I felt the memories come in and felt one chakra signature at the very edge of my range, only for it to move away from us and vanish.

"One presence," I said," But went away from us and left."

Asuma nodded, still tensed and prepared.

He stepped forward and dragged the two nin, who appeared to be the demon brothers, towards a tree and tied them to it with ninja wire.

"Your buddy isn't in any shape to talk," Asuma said flatly to the one who didn't get my exploding tag to the face," Tell me who you work for and I'll treat him so he doesn't die."

"Go to hell," The man spat," We're dead men anyway. No point in helping you."

Asuma backhanded the man harshly, causing blood to fly from the man's mouth.

"You tried to kill my client and my genin," Asuma said harshly, "Be thankful you have all your fingers."

Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji looked visibly uncomfortable at the interrogation being carried out by Asuma. I didn't particularly care, I knew how the game was played. Asuma wouldn't actually cut fingers or other extremities, it was simply bluffing.

"Ino, Shikamaru, Choji," He said quietly," step away. You too, Naruto."

"I'll stay." I replied simply.

"That wasn't a request." He said, turning back towards the two nin.

"I know how to get information out of him," I said simply.

Asuma looked at me distrustfully.

"Really?" He asked skeptically.

I nodded and pulled out a blank scroll and a seal brush from one of my storage seals.

"I have a seal I need tested anyways." I said, lifted up the blank paper.

I shot Asuma a discreet wink, hoping he'd get the message.

Asuma seemed to understand and gestured for me to step forward.

I did and knelt down next to the two, drawing a seal on the paper.

"I'd tell you this won't hurt a bit," I grinned sadistically, "But that would make me a liar."

The one scoffed.

"Nice try, kid, but you don't scare us. You think you're scary? Our boss is a whole lot scarier than you."

"I know you're from Kiri," I said shortly, giving the seal one final spiral twist on the outside to stabilize the absorption part," They tell stories about red haired seal masters?" I asked quietly, grin still on my face.

I saw him and the other flinch.

'Good. They still tell horror stories about us.'

The nin tried to wave off his worry by chuckling at what I said.

"You're not one of them. You're bluffing."

I just smiled and lifted the scroll off the ground and placed it on his chest.

He genuinely started shaking now.

"Tell us who your boss is and you won't be my first test subject." I ordered.

I was completely lying. The seal was similar to the one Rin used on me, which wasn't fair when I found out why I didn't feel it when she put it on me. Your mind fills in the blind spot in your vision where your nose is, the same goes for my own chakra or hers. I'm so used to feeling her chakra around me that I have to actually focus to feel it.

But anyway, the seal absorbs and redirects lightning chakra to not exit the body, causing a constant loop of being electrocuted.

The nukenin spat at my feet.

I just shrugged.

"Hope you survive." I said, channeling lightning chakra in my hands and flinging it outwards.

The lightning struck the seal and dumped most of the lightning into him. He started screaming and spasming from the arcs of energy hitting him and dancing through his nervous system

I stopped it for a moment to give him a moment, my fingers flexing to shut off the seal. His head fell forward and his breathing was audible, coming in loud gasps from the pain.

"Care to talk now?" I asked sweetly.

"G-go to hell." He gritted out, voice shaking from him twitching.

I shot another blast of lightning chakra, getting caught by the seal again.

Que another round of screaming and profanity.

I could feel the other's chakra shifting at what they were hearing, even from a distance. Ino's was the worst. Her's felt like she was concerned.

"Naruto," Asuma cut in over the screams, "That's enough."

I kept it up for a few seconds longer, then dropped it.

"I can do this all day," I growled, walking towards my target," Tell me who you're working for!" I demanded, pulling out a kunai.

Now I was angry. I was at risk, Rin was at risk, and all my friends were at risk so long as we were flying in the dark.

I won't let squeamishness stop me from prying the information from him.

The man responded with no answer. He simply twitched and glared at me.

I forced Kurama's chakra into my tenketsu, feeling the rush from the extra chakra. I then drove the kunai into the man's leg and spiked my Killing Intent as high as I could, hearing him howl in pain.

"You want to see a demon," I snarled, my canines feeling too large for my mouth," I'm a fucking demon. Tell me who you work for!"

"Please," He begged, "Stop, please."

"Answer me!" I shouted, pulling out the kunai and driving it into his other leg.

"Zabuza," He screamed, his breathing ragged from the pain, "Momochi Zabuza."

I pulled back on my Killing Intent and yanked out the kunai. I then looked to Asuma.

"He'll talk now." I said simply, wiping the blood off the kunai.

The look Asuma shot me promised we'd be talking later, but I didn't care. I needed them to tell me about Zabuza so I'd have an excuse to know certain things. I had access to an up to date Bingo book and was aware who Zabuza was, even without meta-knowledge. The same went for the demon brothers.

"Go." He said simply, pointing towards where Tazuna and the others were.

I just shrugged and walked towards them.

I'll get a dressing down from him for not stopping, but I don't care.

Tazuna was looking at me in a different light while the three genin had different expressions.

Choji looked slightly disturbed, while Shikamaru looked a little surprised at how far I took it. Ino looked concerned, possibly from her feeling my chakra. Even with me loosening my hold on Kurama's chakra, it still lingered for a little while in my tenketsu. She probably picked up the difference.

"Hey," I said quietly, looking at them apologetically, "Sorry you had to see that."

Shikamaru responded with a sigh.

"This was bound to be something we found out eventually," He said, "The Shinobi world is a harsh one and we sometimes need to do troublesome things."

'Good.' I thought. 'He understands.'

Sometimes people needed to do harsh stuff to pursue a greater good, the greater good being the liberation of Wave in this situation.

Shikamaru gave me another strange look.

"How much have you been holding back?" He asked.

At my raised brow, he shot me an irritated look.

"Don't play coy," He muttered, "You took those two down like it was child's play. I barely saw them and you took them down."

"Asuma-sens-" I started, only to be interrupted by Shikamaru.

"Don't," He glared, "I'm not an idiot. You're hiding things and I don't like it when a supposed friend keeps secrets."

I shot a look towards Tazuna, then looked back at Shikamaru.

"Not here, Shika," I said quietly, "Too many ears."

Shikamaru looked aggravated, but nodded and grumbled under his breath.

"Troublesome." He shook his head.

"Par for the course with me." I shrugged.

I felt Asuma come towards us, a glare fixed on Tazuna.

"This isn't a C-rank," He said, looking at us, before turning back towards Tazuna, "Those two were C-rank missing nin from Kirigakure and they were working with Momochi Zabuza, an A-rank."

I saw the other three flinch at the last part. Asuma was an A-rank himself. To hear that there was a possibility of facing off against someone like Asuma in a life or death situation would be frightening to most.

But I wasn't most.

If Kakashi and Gai were any measurement on my skill, I'd make the shark toothed prick bleed if it was one on one. But I had Asuma to back me up, and any Suiton user would be in for a shitty day against me specifically.

"Explain now or I'm taking my team and leaving you here." Asuma said sharply.

And Tazuna did. Talking of how Wave was being oppressed by the business tycoon Gato and that his home and friends were starving from the economic stranglehold that Gato had on Wave. His bridge was the only hope to help his home.

Asuma seemed to think it over, before turning to us.

"This is dangerous," He warned us, "and I won't make this decision without you. We'll either move forward together, or I take us back and I'll get reinforcements."

"You won't have time," Tazuna said desperately, "I've lost far too much time trying to draw together enough money to pay for a C-rank, any more time and people will start dying."

"If you hadn't been underhanded and tried to lie to us, we might have worked out a deal." I glared at him.

Deals had been made with those that didn't have immediate funds when certain time sensitive missions were underway. Sometimes, Konoha had made deals on a case by case basis when slight delays would render the mission pointless, such as the current situation.

"I know what your kind do when you don't get paid, boy." He said icily, "I have family I don't want killed."

Before I could say something else, Asuma stepped in.

"Naruto," He ordered sharply, "be quiet and don't interrupt."

I glared at him and kept my mouth shut, vowing to not take it lying down.

"What do you three think?" Asuma asked his genin team.

Shikamaru answered first.

"If we deliberate too long, people will die. But waiting would be safer. I think we should move forward with caution and have Naruto scope the area in front of us the entire way." He finished.

Asuma nodded then looked to Choji.

"I think we should go forward," He said firmly, "They need our help."

Ino was last up.

She glanced towards me for a moment, looking at me strangely, before turning back to Asuma.

"I think we should help them," She said firmly, glaring at Tazuna, "You shouldn't have misled us Tazuna-san, but I understand why."

Asuma nodded after hearing their answers. He then turned to me with a serious expression.

"Walk with me, Naruto." He said, walking towards where the Demon brothers were tied up.

I followed him, not looking forward to whatever the hell he was going to say.

We got to the two of them and I noticed something.

I couldn't hear either one's breathing.

"The one died from the explosion next to his head, nothing particularly terrible. Things like that happen," He said, before glancing towards the other, "This one would have died from bleeding to death."

"And," I raised a brow, "We needed information and they were going to be killed either way, "My tone changed to a firm one, "We aren't in a situation where we can take them prisoner."

"That's not what's bothering me, Naruto," He said my name tightly, "You didn't listen to orders," He stared straight at me, "You kept at it and he ended up dying because I gave the mercy of killing him quickly. You didn't pace it at all." He finished sharply.

"Shit happens," I said dismissively, "I didn't expect him to not give in until I pulled my kunai."

"You electrocuted him," Asuma deadpanned, "You didn't build it up."

"You hear what the drunk said?" I asked, "We're on a tight schedule."

"Do you even care about their plight?" He asked, noticing me glare at him, "You seem more occupied being angry at getting lied to. Do you care about innocent people in Nami getting hurt?"

My chakra tensed with my emotions shooting up.

"Don't," I growled, "Even think I don't care. The drunk lied to us and could have gotten us killed."

"You and I both know that's a lie," Asuma said, "Nothing short of a Jonin could potentially kill you if you weren't trying to act weaker."

At my raised brow, he continued.

"You're not as discreet as you think," He said, "Kakashi talks with us, so does Anko, when you do 'stupid shit'." He used air quotes, "You explained some yesterday, but it's stupid. You being better motivates them," He gestured towards the three out of earshot, "Why pretend to be weaker?"

I didn't need everyone digging over and over again. Kakashi, Hiruzen, and Anko get a pass for asking me personal things without me lashing out, but Asuma, while being someone I got along with, wasn't any of them.

"I'm an Uzumaki," I said stiffly, letting my irritation bleed into my tone, "My sister has blonde hair. I'm not a naive child that doesn't know about what Iwa nin sometimes do to blonde kunoichi from Konoha."

Intellectually, I knew that Iwagakure as a village wasn't responsible for the disgusting actions of a few Shinobi, but logic and reason go out the window the moment your imagination runs riot with images of your baby sister left dead and scalped.

"Why hide though?" Asuma asked.

"Why is this important to know?" I asked as a response, starting to actually get angry.

"It's important when I have a possible liability when I expect you to keep up with me, but second guess whether you'll leave me hanging to save yourself." He said harshly.

That stopped me dead in my tracks.

'Does he really think so little of me?'

Did Asuma really think I'd be selfish enough to completely hold back if a life or death situation came up? Holding back when training was one thing, living or dying was another.

"I won't get any of you killed by holding back." I said harshly, shooting him a death glare.

"You promise not to hold back to hide your skill?"

"Yes." I answered stiffly.

"Good," Asuma said, "Now, I need you to make a storage scroll for their heads," He gestured towards the two bodies, "I'll burn the bodies and you'll get the bounty on the one."

I nodded and pulled out a sheet of paper from a seal and started to write a seal on it to seal biological material.

There was a big difference in sealing animate or inanimate objects. Animals and humans would die if you sealed them in a scroll for more than a couple seconds. Clones, which I tried out myself like an idiot, would be caught in a memory feedback that would feel like an eternity passed. But food and body parts could be sealed without damage, which was what my couple dozen scrolls were stuffed to the brim with.

Just as I finished the seal, Asuma had come back from the trees where he beheaded and burnt the bodies. I then took the heads, which made me slightly uncomfortable, and sealed them into the scroll.

"I'll need to message Kakashi." Asuma sighed, pulling out the message scroll, "We'll make our way forward and I'll message Kakashi later on a meeting point."

We turned back to head towards the rest of the group who were looking at me differently, likely concern. I just shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.

"Nevermind," Asuma muttered to himself, pulling out the message scroll, "It needs done now."

I saw Asuma open up the scroll, knick his finger with his knife to draw some blood, smeared it on the edge of the paper, and it opened up. He looked at the brush in my hand, which I handed to him with a frown, it was a Fuinjutsu brush and they weren't cheap.

He wrote out a message I couldn't see, pushed some chakra into a seal array at the bottom of the paper, then closed it up and put it back into his jacket.

"We need to get going now, Naruto," He turned to me, "We'll need some clones to scout out in front of us."

I nodded and made one clone to tell my others to dispell. The clone dispelled to relay the message to the others. I got a large flow of memories in my head that gave me a slight headache that faded in seconds.

Shaking my head slightly, I stepped forward some to make room. Then made the hand seal for Kage bunshin and made close to one hundred with orders to scout everything in front of us.

After they took off into the trees, I turned to Asuma.

"We move forward now," He turned to look at us, "Stick together and be ready for anything." He finished firmly, before we moved forward to our destination.

//////////

Kakashi POV:

They were on their way to deliver a message as a guise for possible reinforcements. The plan was simple, use Asuma as bait, and Kakashi would be there to reinforce if there was any issue. Kakashi just hoped that Naruto wouldn't try to hold back on fighting. He understood the paranoia Naruto had over being seen outside of the village as a huge threat, but that was par for the course of being an Uzumaki Jinchuriki, his intelligence not included.

If he didn't know better, Kakashi would have thought that Naruto was preparing for something on the horizon. Something big. But nobody could see the future, so Kakashi just had to wait and see if Naruto would be honest with why he behaved in such a way.

But Kakashi wanted to think of something more positive. He turned to look at Rin, who was talking very animatedly with Hinata, with Sasuke actively listening.

Rin was easily Chunin level in skill, possibly higher, a big part of that being training and Naruto helping to instill an understanding of the importance of studying, especially Fuinjutsu.

She wasn't a 'genius' in the conventional sense, but that didn't matter when you can make mass Kage bunshin to work on chakra control or Jutsu learning while studying and working on physical fitness.

Hinata was close to Chunin level, her taijutsu was truly her best skill, being noticeably above average compared to the Hyuga he'd served and fought alongside at that age.

Sasuke was the problem student that he was pleased had improved his behavior and skill. He was more driven in his training since he had seen Naruto spar with the Jonin, even more so than any of the other Genin. He, and Naruto as well, had spoken with Sasuke and helped him to see what harm he could cause to himself if he wasn't careful.

The book he had Sasuke read, that was reserved for Jonin normally, was made mostly by Yamanaka psychologists that had to treat veterans that suffered trauma in the wars Konoha participated in. Nearly half of the portion concerning the danger of using the Sharingan throughout combat was written personally by Jiraiya, who had talked with and stopped more than one Uchiha from killing themselves.

Kakashi had done his best to be to Sasuke what Jiraiya and Minato were to him following Obito and Rin's deaths.

Inoichi had helped by speaking with him, but he wasn't the only one. Jiraiya wasn't a shrink in how he spoke. He was like the sagely, but perverted, uncle that would talk with you about things you weren't conformable speaking about with others. Minato was like a second father.

Sasuke didn't have any of that. A person truly alone is either a tragedy, or a disaster in waiting.

Sasuke had all the textbook behavior that plagued previous Shinobi, especially Uchiha, that endured terrible trauma. Except he didn't have a safety net to catch him.

Thankfully, he and Naruto were able to get to Sasuke about it. Sasuke had apologized to Rin and was no longer bothering her about having more alone time with her that was more than what friends normally did.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he felt the scroll in his jacket heat up and vibrate.

'Uh oh.' He thought.

"Everyone," He said loudly, hearing them stop talking, "Stop here." He then pulled out the scroll.

He pulled out a kunai and pushed the tip into the pad of his thumb and smeared some blood on the seal lock on the scroll to open it.

What he read had him on alert.

'Attacked by two C-rank missing nin. Momochi Zabuza is confirmed to be here. Urgent assistance needed. We're a couple hours from Wave.

P.S. Naruto is not pleased. Need you to talk with him.

End message.'

'Damnit.' Kakashi thought. 'An A-rank missing nin, with other missing nin as well.'

Momochi Zabuza's presence was initially unconfirmed, along with multiple missing nin from Iwa. If Zabuza was here, there was a chance that the Iwa 'Look alikes' were the real deal.

'Just what I need.' He grumbled to himself. 'Naruto is pissed about something and there's possible Iwa nin on this mission, not including the other small assortment of small fish nin.'

He didn't know what Naruto was pissed about, but for Asuma to request help in a message meant that he personally would need to talk with him.

He turned to his Genin who looked at him curiously.

"Change of plans," He said, looking at their surprised looks, "Asuma's team needs help and we're the closest."

"What's going on?" Rin asked quickly, her expression betraying her worry.

"They were attacked by missing nin from Kiri and will need help." He said.

At their looks of shock, he continued.

"There is a confirmed A-rank missing nin," he put up a hand when Sasuke looked ready to speak, "Me and Asuma will take care of him. But I need you three," He pointed at them, "To be on guard and prepared. Hinata," He looked towards the quiet girl, "I'll need to have your eyes active most of the time. Can you handle it?"

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei." She said firmly, but he could still hear the slight tremor in her voice.

"Sasuke. Rin," He looked towards the two of them, "I'll need you two to be on guard for any medium range attacks. Make bunshin in the event of an ambush, Rin." He looked towards her, to which she nodded and made several Kage bunshin that ran into the forested area.

"I have faith in all of you," he said sincerely, "Keep a clear head, work together, and we'll be fine."

The three nodded at what he said, seeming to relax slightly.

"I'll be setting the pace," He warned, "It will be fast. Try to keep up."

With that, Kakashi pushed chakra into his legs and shot forward, his team right behind him.

___________

'There's more to that kid than meets the eye.' Zabuza thought to himself.

He recognized Sarutobi Asuma as the Jonin commander of the Genin team, but it was the red haired Konoha Shinobi that had him pause to think about.

Sarutobi was an A-rank, just as he was. Zabuza felt confident enough that he could likely kill the man and his genin team protecting the bridge builder with all the cheap fodder he had as underlings.

Konoha's increased activity over the last several months had Gato worried. Worried enough where he didn't spare expense and had contracted out several C-rank missing nin, mostly on the run from being rapists or murderers that got caught doing it or were ratted out.

He'd probably kill them himself once they served their use.

But he wasn't expecting a possible threat that would take the form of a Genin that was better than the other Genin. Noticeably better.

The Demon brothers were C-ranks, fodder by an A-rank's standard. But the kid reacted faster and could have dispatched them without the help of Sarutobi.

The kid was also a sensor. Zabuza used a tried and tested trick to fool sensors into thinking you left the area. Kiri learned it from having the most sensors of any village. It only worked when you were able to conceal your signature to a high degree.

Which users of the Silent Killing Technique were very skilled at.

He'd bought a chakra storage seal on the black market weeks prior in case he had to assassinate a target with a sensor for a guard. He placed the decoy a distance away and set it to ping out the chakra he put in it to act as a distraction so he could continue to spy on the group.

Unfortunately, the kid made several bunshin and he had to be extremely careful and not get close, even having to leave when he was stressing his tenketsu slightly from forcefully suppressing his chakra. He hadn't been able to hear the conversations, but he could tell by the body language what was somewhat going on.

He thought of this as he made his way to meet with Gato and get reinforcements.

"Did you kill the bridge builder?" Gato demanded, having his two stooges behind him.

"I'll need more men," He said simply, "There's a whole genin team with an A-rank Jonin."

Gato scoffed.

"And you call yourself a demon." He sneered, "Did I pay too much to hire you?"

Zabuza, with speed that belied the weight of his blade, shifted Kubikiribocho and brought it down right next to Gato, cleaving a deep gash into the ground next to him.

He spiked his Killing Intent where even Gato's guards froze from it.

"You hired me because you want a killer," he growled, "And I'm one of the best. Give me some of those scum you hired, and you won't have to pay them. Dead men don't get paid."

He reined in his Killing Intent and Gato stopped shaking.

"You paid me to kill a bridge builder," He glared, "Not a Jonin. I'm taking the scum you hired and use them as the fodder they are and you can keep the damned money you paid them."

Before he could continue, he heard shouting from outside the room.

"Zabuza-san," Haku rushed in, mask on but looking tense, "Something has happened."

"I'm telling you," He heard a voice shouting, "The blonde is his! Hatake is the damn Jonin!"

The missing Iwa nin that were the only ones aside from Zabuza that could be considered something other than meat shields entered the room, trying to calm down their enraged comrade.

"You said the same damn thing when you killed that Yamanaka," One of the others said, sounding angry, "We have a death sentence if we go back because of the stunt you pulled."

'What the hell do they mean Hatake?' Zabuza thought. 'Sarutobi is the Jonin.'

"What the hell are you on about?" He demanded spiking his Killing Intent.

This group was halfway sufferable, at least compared to the other scum Gato hired.

The angry one just glared back at him, while the others stepped back from their comrade.

"There's a Konoha Shinobi team enroute to here," He growled, "And they have a little blonde bitch in their team."

'Is he talking about the team I encountered? Idiot, it's not Hatake.'

Hatake Kakashi was a known Shinobi of Konoha. There was no possibility that anyone in their right mind would mistake anyone, let alone Sarutobi Asuma, for Hatake. The man had silver hair and wore a damn mask!

"Describe the Genin." Zabuza demanded.

"One's a boy with black hair," One of the other Iwa nin stepped in, "Then there's the blonde girl, and then a girl that might be a Hyuga."

Zabuza growled under his breath.

Another team then.

He wouldn't be able to kill the both of them. He'd need to stop them from meeting up. Kill one, before going after the other.

'But how to keep them separate,' he wondered.

He turned to Gato.

"Where's the other ones you hired?"

"In the village having fun." He replied dismissively.

Zabuza knew what he meant by 'fun'.

"I need them here," he said, "There's 2 A-ranks and I'll need them."

Gato just shrugged.

"Less people to pay, sure."

He then left with his guards, ordering them to round up the hired help.

Zabuza then turned to the other Shinobi.

"You four," He pointed at the Iwa nin, "Will be coming with me. We'll need to blitz one team while the cheapies distract the other."

"I don't care what is done," The one spat, "I just want the girl dead."

"I'm not dealing with a loose cannon because someone pissed you off, "Zabuza glared at him, spiking his chakra in challenge, "What the hell has you acting like an animal?"

He needed the damn money Gato offered to get back to Kiri. He heard of the resistance movement lead by Terumi Mei, and had pondered simply joining up instead of his previous plan.

But unstable and idiotic Shinobi could screw things up in a dozen ways.

Before the angry one could speak, his friend stepped in.

"Namikaze happened," He started, shooting a warning look at the idiot, "There's been rumours that Namikaze had a kid."

Zabuza scoffed at that.

'Bedtime stories to frighten Iwa genin.' He thought. 'The rumours of the Uzumaki were a hell of a lot scarier than jumping at a bunch of blonde shadows.'

The Boogeyman stories about the Uzumaki clan in Kiri centered around bullshit tales of them eating kids and bathing in their blood to restore their youth and giving them red hair.

'That and some bullshit about raising the dead.' He snorted.

"And there's rumours that the Tsuchikage has a love child with a dwarf." Zabuza shrugged in response.

He felt the Killing Intent of each of the Iwa nin spike.

"You see shadows everywhere and jump at them," He continued, "Namikaze doesn't have a kid, and your Kage isn't a freak. Understand?"

The rumours of Namikaze having a kid was probably spread by Kumo or another nation to stir up hatred in Iwa. Merchants and other customers don't exactly enjoy doing business with a village that has a handful of lunatics linked to killing blondes.

The Iwa nin that was probably in charge of the four put his fingers against the bridge of his nose like he was trying to stave off a headache.

"How will we do this?" He asked, shooting another glare at the hot head, "None of us can kill Hatake on our own."

"Our 'boss' will come back with weaklings that will be used for bait," He answered with a grin, "Send them at Hatake's team to give us time to kill the other."

"I still want her dead." The idiot gritted out.

"Kill her. Capture her. I don't give a damn what you do, but you will not mess this up to get what you want." He snarled, "Understand?"

The man glared at him, but relented.

"Crystal." He muttered.

Gato's guards came back nearly half an hour later with the 'bait' in tow.

They could barely be considered Shinobi. Hardly more than the scummy liquid that sinks at the bottom of a barrel. These fools would have probably been sent to clear out a field of explosive tags by foot in a war.

'Useless trash.' Zabuza thought.

He counted 14 of them. And by the state of dress of some of them, they'd been taking advantage of the financial hardships in Nami no kuni.

"Gato tell you what you're needed for?" He asked, demanding no nonsense.

"Kill some tree huggers?" One of them asked.

"Yes," He said flatly, "5 will be going with me," He pointed at the 5 that had their clothes hastily put on, "The rest will be going towards where they tell you," He then pointed at the Iwa nin.

"All of you need to come with me." He looked towards the 4 Iwa nin.

The leader of the four stepped forward and pulled the sleeve of the idiot.

"We'll go." He answered.

The next half hour involved Zabuza telling them how the plan would go. He left out the fact that the distraction team would be facing off against Copycat Kakashi and would likely not be coming back.

Assuming everything went without a hitch, any of the 5 going with him that survived weren't coming back with their heads attached.

After telling them to form up and meet outside, he looked towards Haku and gestured his helper to come closer.

After the others left, he leaned to speak so as not to be overheard.

"You'll be coming with me," He muttered, "Don't step in unless it goes bad. Stick to the plan."

The plan he was referring to was where Haku would be disguised as a Hunter nin and would 'kill' him if he was close to getting killed.

Haku nodded.

"Was there more, Zabuza-san?"

"Avoid the red haired Genin," He warned, "He's not soft like Konoha Genin usually are. If Sarutobi hadn't stepped in, he'd have killed the Demon brothers himself."

Being able to kill a Chunin level threat as a Genin was very uncommon. Two was even more so. But the kid reacted even faster than he should have, even for a sensor. The Killing Intent sent out when he was torturing them wasn't something to laugh at, Zabuza had fought and killed dangerous Shinobi that had less.

Konoha's always had a habit of popping out dangerous Shinobi.

Soft they may be, but Konoha was the strongest village for a reason.

"Why didn't you warn the others?" Haku asked.

Zabuza just grinned.

"I want to see how he does against them. It'll be fun."

//////////

Naruto POV:

We'd made progress towards our destination, and I was back to being antsy.

There was a large body of water beside us, which brought memories that were definitely unwelcome.

'It's here.' I thought.

Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji were in a tight formation around Tazuna, while I was at the rear and Asuma at the front.

My clones were constantly checking for any enemies, but came up short. I thought there was something in my sensing range, but it kept shifting in the same pattern, making me think it was a decoy.

I felt something shift to my left and being as tense as I was, flung a kunai.

Asuma heard the whistle and prepared for action, along with the other three.

I pinged my chakra and felt a faint presence where my kunai hit.

'Did I kill something?' I thought.

I rushed to my kunai, another in my hand from the storage seal by my wrist. I got to the kunai and saw what I hit.

It was a rabbit.

A white rabbit.

I felt it before I heard it whistling through the air.

"Hit the deck, now!" I shouted towards the InoShikaCho team and Tazuna.

The 4 barely ducked in time from Kubikiribocho tearing through the air, burying itself into a tree, a figure with dark hair, no shirt, and a mask standing on the massive blade.

'Stay calm. Stay calm.' I kept repeating in my mind.

Momochi Zabuza just announced himself in a pretty theatrical way, and I was shivering as I glanced at my friends.

Zabuza's chakra was feral. He wanted us dead and was going to try his damned best.

"Momochi Zabuza," Asuma said simply, "fancy seeing you here. Haven't fought an A-rank in a while."

"Same," Zabuza grinned, "But I'm here for the bridge builder. Wanting to see how well your little genin can dance is a plus." He then whistled loudly.

I felt them at the edge of my range. Several Shinobi of different levels were racing towards us.

Damnit.

Zabuza wasted no time and jumped down and dashed towards the body of water, Asuma in pursuit.

I made the hand seal for a shadow clone and promptly popped it to order my clones to fight the incoming Shinobi.

"Stick together and guard Tazuna," Asuma ordered, trying to stop Zabuza from getting to the water.

"Too late." I heard Zabuza shout with a grin, reaching the water and making hand seals.

Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu.

Thick mist covered the entire area and drowned out most of my sensing.

I started getting flashes of memories coming from my clones, the feedback painting a grim image.

There were 4 Shinobi that were sticking together and were holding off most of my clones, using Mud walls to stop my Suiton jutsu.

The other ones that I could no longer sense were still charging at us.

"More are coming in," I shouted to the three, "Stay together!" I then made a hand seal and made two clones.

I broke open the seals on my bracers holding the water laced with my chakra, then formed a Rasengan and had the two clones feed water chakra into it.

Screw subtlety.

I needed something that would have an area effect to hold them off. Asuma needed help killing Zabuza. I didn't care about his intentions, I wasn't getting my friends killed because the Wave arc was considered one of the best.

I lifted up the Rasengan over my head and forced it to spin even faster. I then compressed it to build up more pressure. I felt my fingers go numb from the level of chakra I was forcing in the ball to keep it stable while feeding water into it.

My hand started shaking and decided it was time to launch it since I could see the first couple of nin in the treeline 100 yards from me.

"Eat this!" I growled.

Suiton: Maelstrom bomb.

It was a more refined version of what I used when sparring with Rin. I was certain her Earth Wall wouldn't hold up to it if I used it in the way I'm doing it now.

I based it on how a Rasengan and a Bouncing Betty landmine worked. The Rasengan would swirl at a rapid rate, and the water that was forced into it would give it physical mass to make it throwable and act as shrapnel. It helped that my chakra was extremely dense and I didn't need to thicken it to make the water sharp.

I spun and flung the beach ball sized spinning ball towards them, feeling the slight spike of chakra from shock.

It didn't quite reach the whole group, but it still impacted the ground and exploded in a blast of chakra and water, much larger than any exploding tag in existence.

The closest one of them was completely ripped to shreds by the water blasting out, while a second was left with a shattered and torn up leg from the blast.

I wasted no time and Shunshined towards them, taking advantage of their shock.

I made quick hand seals and made a Chidori that tore its way through the chest of one, killing him instantly.

The other two shook off their shock and charged at me with swords drawn.

I pulled my now blood soaked arm and sleeve out of the man's chest and dropped two kunai into my hands, engaging the two.

Either the two were terribly slow fighters, or I was use to fighting Jonin. Their strikes seemed to go in slow motion. I diverted ones swing and drove a kick into his chest, knocking him to the ground.

The other stabbed at my chest and I twisted to the side and flipped over him, swinging my kunai at his head.

He didn't block it in time and got half his face opened up by the slash. He nearly dropped his sword and screamed in pain, only to go silent when I flung a lightning coated kunai through his throat before I touched the ground.

Before his friend could try and aid the obviously dying man, a charged back towards him, quickly grabbing the dying ones sword from his grip.

3 moves. Only three moves were needed to kill him. Overhead swing blocked, then a quick slash to the arm that made him drop his sword.

And finally a blade driven through his chest.

I kicked him off the stolen sword, turned and Shunshined towards Asuma to help him.

The mist was still a pain in the ass. I had to rely on my hearing to find them.

I heard a clash of steel and felt a slight spike of chakra.

The mist got blasted away by a wind jutsu from Asuma, revealing the two men.

Asuma looked worse for wear, but still seemed capable of fighting, much to my relief. He had several superficial cuts and was breathing a little heavily, but was otherwise fine.

Zabuza had a couple cuts on his chest that bled somewhat, but still seemed fine.

I needed to get there fast. Ino and the others would probably get killed or accidentally distract Asuma if they tried to help.

I felt the last of my clones get killed. The other 4 nin were probably Iwa nin based on their preferred use of Earth jutsu.

"You've got skill, Sarutobi," Zabuza laughed, hefting his sword back into position, "But you won't keep up with all of us. You can't even match me."

Without saying a word, I went through several hand seals and focused water chakra in my gut.

Suiton: Water Severing Wave.

A compressed blade of chakra was blasted from my mouth and whistled through the air, straight at Zabuza.

A slight widening of his eyes was all I saw before he raised Kubikiribocho to take the hit, the impact driving him back several feet.

"Who's us!" I shouted, as I Shunshined towards him with the borrowed sword.

Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji were still in position around Tazuna, making sure Zabuza couldn't try anything with a Mizu bunshin.

Zabuza looked slightly surprised that I dispatched the others so quickly, but he charged at me, Kubikiribocho lifted high as he flicked the residual water from it.

Asuma charged to intercept, and the two of us clashed with Zabuza.

He wasn't exactly broader or noticeably larger than Kakashi or Asuma, but the former Kiri nin had strength in his swings. I diverted his downward swing that would have cut me in half, but the force of it still made me stumble slightly. He tried to exploit the opening, but he had to continue the momentum in his swing to ward off Asuma.

'I have to be quick. Those reinforcements will be here.'

I swung my blade in a diagonal slash to kill him, but was dodged when he shifted to his right and lashed out with a kick at Asuma.

A pattern of slashing and parrying ensued between the three of us, a couple hits getting through to him, leaving several more cuts.

I pressed forward and caught one of his swings in a bind, giving me an opening to land a kick to his ribs.

He jumped back with the momentum and sent a blast of unfocused water chakra out of his mouth at Asuma.

The younger Sarutobi took the hit broadside and was sent back several yards and stumbled from the landing.

I charged at Zabuza to make sure he didn't have time to make hand seals and I drove my blade towards him. He blocked and leaned in to leverage my blade to the side.

I just stepped back and weathered his attacks, redirecting what I could and straight blocking others, with several counters mixed in.

I was keeping pace with him and actually managed to twist his blade up with mine and got rewarded with opening up a sizable gash in his sword arm.

I couldn't press further as I used a Kawarimi when I felt a spike of something fly straight at me.

It was ice.

'Haku.' I growled, charging back at Zabuza and Asuma, who had Shunshined straight at Zabuza, and were now in a blade lock.

I needed a critical hit landed on Zabuza. I couldn't have him still fighting when the other 4 arrived from killing my clones.

I decided to do away with subtlety again and spiked my chakra to form a golden blade of chakra in my off hand.

Zabuza and Asuma turned towards me as I re-engaged, the former with a look of wariness.

Zabuza broke the lock and kicked out at Asuma to make space, ignoring the cut Asuma left with a wind blade emanating from one of his knives. He then lifted his blade to block my two.

Both my blades came down on his with a clang. I let a spike of ice from the trees hit my back, my armour barely stopping it.

The borrowed blade struck his own, while I let my chakra blade fade away at the point of contact, my hand dropping below Zabuza's with the blade shooting out of the tenketsu in my fingers again.

Straight into his side.

Zabuza shouted in pain and leaned into the stab, kicking me in the chest to stagger me.

He swung in an arc to block Asuma's stab that almost got inside of his guard and swung 360 degrees to try and cleave me in half.

I was too close and put the borrowed sword into a hanging guard to stop me from getting cut in half.

The swing, and the force behind it, drove Kubikiribocho through the obviously weaker steel blade, breaking it, and getting through my armour partly and biting into my ribs.

The force of it made feel like I had the air forced from my lungs, my breathing stopping for a second.

Then the pain hit.

I barely grasped ahold of his blade to keep it tucked into my chest as I tried to breathe, giving Asuma an opening to land another hit.

Zabuza received a slash that opened up a gash from his right shoulder to his left hip. If he'd been any slower backing up, he'd have been bisected.

Zabuza yanked on his sword to pry it out of my grip. He ended up dragging me down to the ground and caused him to lose his grip on the sword.

I curled up involuntarily in pain as Zabuza backed away, avoiding a whistling slash from Asuma, while I clutched my burning chest.

Without his sword, but still dangerous, Zabuza rapidly retreated back, trying to escape into the forest.

"Where are those idiots?" He growled to himself, trying to use taijutsu to hold Asuma off.

I pried the damn meat cleaver out of my chestplate, feeling blood flow freely from the wound as I gritted my teeth from the burning feeling in my ribs.

I was willing to let Asuma finish him. I didn't want it on my record that I landed the killing blow on an A-rank nin on my first ever mission out of the village.

But I wouldn't sit back either.

Hefting up the blade, I ignored the protest of the pain on the right side of my chest and charged to help Asuma.

Asuma was expertly landing multiple hits or blocking strikes from Zabuza, having the upper hand.

Zabuza barely had time to make a Kawarimi with a different rabbit that was left out before Asuma's wind blade almost tore through him.

I turned slightly to where he switched to. He was at the treeline and had a tree behind him, breathing heavily and bleeding from several wounds.

I couldn't use Suiton because I'd probably end up puking from the pain of expanding my chest, and I couldn't trust myself to keep a stable leash on Raiton right now.

Growling, I charged straight at him and planned to let him feel how it felt getting hit by this hunk of steel.

Even over my breathing and my heartbeat thundering in my ears, I heard the soft whistle of senbon flying through the air.

Zabuza was struck in the neck and collapsed to the ground in a boneless heap.

'I'm too late.' I thought.

I could feel where the 4 Iwa nin were, and my clone's memories showed me what they looked like.

They were disguised to look like Hunter nin.

Asuma nearly skidded to a halt while I was forcing Kurama's chakra out to try and heal the gash and couple broken ribs faster.

My mind cleared up and was working much faster, giving me more time to think of a plan.

Haku, I assume, emerged from the treeline. The other nin just out of eyesight.

"Thank you for giving me an opening," The Hyoton user said, "I've been hunting him for some time with my team."

At the word "team", the others appeared next to Haku.

"Hunter nin?" Asuma asked skeptically, trying to catch his breath, "Convenient timing, don't you think?"

"The boy's bunshin delayed us," One of them said with a steady tone, "We would have arrived earlier if not for mistaken identity."

Looking closer, I noticed they were soaking wet, one was favoring their left leg, another had what looked to be a hastily applied bandage on her arm, and one of them, the one with the most chakra, was twitchy and seemed to stare at where Asuma's team was.

'What do I do?' I thought.

Based on my clones memories, these Shinobi were very skilled working together. Asuma wasn't at top form, I was starting to get twitchy from Kurama's chakra fixing my injury, possibly causing me to jump the gun, and I couldn't be sure that Kakashi would get here on time.

Would I gamble with the lives of my friends, or do I let Zabuza go?

Kubikiribocho felt much lighter when I had Bijuu chakra flowing through me, acting like a deliciously toxic steroid. I could possibly kill them all. Just let loose and unleash all my hatred and fury at them.

They were Iwa nin, based on the high level of Doton jutsu that every one of the four used.

'Yes.' I grinned to myself. 'Kill them. They'd kill Rin. But I'll stop it. Do to others before they do to you.'

I thought I faintly heard something, a voice maybe, but I didn't care. I made a plan. Offer Zabuza's blade, let one come closer.

Then I'll cleave them in half.

"Naruto!" Asuma shouted.

I blinked and looked towards Asuma in question.

"They're going to take Zabuza's body," he said, "They'd like the sword back."

I just snorted.

"Right of Conquest." I said simply.

"That blade belongs to Kirigakure," Haku argued, "Zabuza stole it and has no claim to it."

I wasn't wanting to let it go, even with Asuma looking at me like I grew a second head.

With this blade, Zabuza was much more dangerous. He was currently the greatest threat to my friends and I wasn't wanting to part with it.

"Naruto," Asuma said, giving me a wordless plea, "Give them the blade."

'He doesn't know.' I thought. 'I can end this here. Kill these bastards and drive this into Gato's head. No witnesses outside of my friends that know how dangerous I am.'

I grinned a feral grin and nodded, Asuma looking concerned.

Kurama's chakra was elevating my senses passed what they were usually. I could smell that the disguised nin were bleeding. My clones had wounded them, and one other thing could be smelled.

They feared me.

I was leaking bloodlust, and it wasn't entirely Kurama.

I wante- no, I needed them dead.

I turned to Asuma.

"I'll give it to them," I smiled, before turning to them, "But I'm sore and don't want to walk. You come and grab it," I looked at my enemies, "I don't feel up to chucking it."

I could see they were irritated, but one of them gestured towards another, the one stepping forward.

"Be ready," I muttered to Asuma out of the side of my mouth, before shifting my grip on the hilt to make it look like I was ready to give it up.

The Iwa nin closed in. 30 yards. 20. 10.

She got within range and reached out in a gesture for me to hand her the blade.

I merely smiled and with an action that I was certain would make the Uzumaki in the afterlife look down in nostalgia, I swung the blade down towards her with as much speed as I could.

She barely moved and had her arm nearly torn off completely.

Before she even started screaming, I Shunshined straight at the others, swinging the heavy blade again.

One had a sword, and blocked the strike. I violently channeled lightning chakra out of the sword to knock him down and charged at Haku, or more specifically Zabuza to kill him. Haku made an ice blade and blocked the hit, the ice cracking noticeably.

The Yuki made a hand seal and shot a blast of ice senbon at me from point blank.

I ignored it and didn't dodge, barely feeling anything and, when feeling a chakra presence behind me, swung the sword in an arc, taking the Iwa nin behind me's head off with a slink sound.

Asuma wasn't beside me helping. He hadn't moved. I had to precision Shunshin away from Zabuza's unconscious form to avoid the wagon sized rock flying at me from behind by the Iwa nin who stayed back.

I roared in anger and shot back towards Haku, Rasengan forming in my left hand.

But I didn't get there in time.

Haku had grabbed Zabuza and Shunshined away.

"Aarggghh!" I roared, charging straight at the one that robbed me of my target.

The Iwa nin tried to block my hit, but failed to do it completely. It was the one that was eyeing the others. Kubikiribocho smashed into his guard and drove the flat of his blade into his gut, driving the wind from him.

I then twirled my blade and drove it into his shoulder with a down swing, cutting deep into his shoulder.

He howled in pain and dropped his sword, unable to hold it when the main nerve in his arm just got destroyed.

The Iwa nin that I wounded and the other managed to escape using the Shunshin. Ignoring the whimpers of pain coming from the wounded man, I left Kubikiribocho in his shoulder and shot a look of hatred at Asuma.

"What the hell was that!," Asuma shouted, rushing straight towards me, "You may have caused a war with another village!"

"They weren't Hunter nin," I snarled, my tenketsu beginning to itch from the excess chakra, "These are probably missing nin from Iwa."

"How can you possibly know that?" He demanded, any and all friendliness he ever showed me completely absent.

"The one had the Hyoton bloodline," I said first, my voice more feral than normal, "None of them had a water affinity. It. Was. Earth." I stressed the last words.

"Why didn't you help," I demanded, "Zabuza probably isn't dead and three others got away."

"I didn't think you'd charge in and start swinging." Asuma glared, trying to rein in his own anger.

The urge to hurt him was screaming at me to give in, to punish him for impeding me.

'What am I thinking?' I asked myself in horror, taking a step back. 'I almost just attacked him. What's wrong with me?'

I blinked at him and started noticing an issue.

My gut started to feel numb.

I looked down and noticed that my entire front was stained red with blood that was lining up with where Haku's senbon had struck me.

It was my own blood.

"Ow." I muttered, trying push more of Kurama's chakra out to heal it.

It wasn't wanting to do it as much as I wanted to. I was getting a searing headache and my stomach started to itch and I started to feel nauseous.

I tried to rein in the chakra and noticed my chakra was fluctuating slightly.

'The damn tightenings.' I thought, staggering slightly.

I hit my limit at how much chakra I could pull out of the seal and it was about to kick my ass if I pressed it.

I tried to calm myself, but it was hard.

Asuma noticed something was wrong.

"Naruto," he asked, "What's wrong?"

"It hurts," I muttered, gesturing towards my gut and my head, "I hit my limit on how much I can channel."

The others were keeping their distance as their Sensei was trying to deescalate the situation.

Asuma realized what I meant.

"Relax and stop channeling it," he said, "No wonder you charged in." He muttered to himself.

It wasn't my brightest moment to charge in without giving Asuma a better heads-up than what I gave, but I wasn't giving Zabuza his best weapon back. I already died and had everything taken from me once, I wasn't going to let it happen again because I feared changing a canon plotline that held no sway over me.

Zabuza would either play ball, or he'd be killed. I didn't care what anyone from my first life thought. You make a choice and stick to it. Don't half ass it when you're halfway through.

With several calming breaths, I started to feel better, my head starting to clear.

Asuma and I turned to the Iwa nin when we heard him cough out a wet chuckle.

"Where the did you learn that Jutsu, kid?" He asked, "I'd have thought the blonde would have used that, being his daughter."

Everything froze in that instant. I couldn't hear anything, not even my own breathing.

'What did he say? What Jutsu?'

Before Asuma could tell me otherwise, I walked straight towards the wounded nin and grabbed his collar, pulling him close.

"Repeat that." I demanded, my chakra and pain in my gut flaring again.

"You used the Rasengan," The man spat the last part out, "I thought the blonde bitch would have used her daddy's jutsu."

"She's a Yamanaka." I growled, glancing at Ino who was with the others, staring at me with wide eyes.

"Not that girl there," He sneered, coughing out a bit of blood, "Your friends. The one with Hatake as the commander."

Asuma's chakra tensed at that, but I barely noticed.

'How could he know? God, how does he know?'

The air was too thick. It was painful to breath.

The Iwa nin gave another wet chuckle.

"I got the death sentence in Iwa for killing a Yamanaka," He grinned, "Thought she was Namikaze's little bitch. She screamed that she wasn't, even as I fucked her bloody."

My mind was in freefall as I heard him speak.

He knew about Rin.

'How does he know? How does he know?'

Kakashi would have been discreet. How could this monster know where they were?

Unless they'd already been attacked.

"What do you know?!" I screamed at him as I gripped his shirt so tight that I felt my knuckles pop, my chakra flaring even more and I could see a faint red outline dance in my vision.

I couldn't get it out of my head.

My fear. My greatest fear was not being strong enough to protect her. Did I already fail? Is she gone?

Is Rin gone?

"Another team was sent to kill them," He choked, trying to breath from the oppressive chakra, "Is. She. A. Friend?" He managed to force out with a pained grin.

I couldn't pull my thoughts together.

"She is," he choked out, "Girlfriend? Yeah, she is." he sneered, my grip loosening slightly, "Don't worry, once they're done, she'll be nice and loose for you, like the whore she is."

I barely felt Asuma's chakra shift in the way the truly fearful did.

I ripped Kubikiribocho out of his shoulder violently, before tossing it aside.

He howled in pain, falling to the ground.

"I hope she screams your name as they fuck her," the demon nearly wept in rage and pain, "I hope your little whore begs for death."

"Sister."

I didn't even recognize my own voice.

I was in a daze. I kept seeing a constant vision in my mind. It was one of the worst memories I experienced.

A mysterious figure taking my sister from me. An unfamiliar figure and me fighting. My blade finding its why into my opponents chest. The hood falls back. My little sisters violet eyes look back, a look of betrayal in them. "Why?", she begs, her eyes slowly fogging over, "you promised. We promised.".The words I heard next were in my own voice.

"I don't know you."

My chakra felt completely foreign to me. I could see the red outline around me grow more, my skin beginning to itch horribly.

A Rasengan formed in my hand.

"My sister."

The creature in front of me pissed himself in fear.

"No," He whimpered, "Not another."

The last word that came from his mouth described himself more than it could ever describe me.

Demon.

I drove the Rasengan into his chest, nearly killing him instantly.

His corpse hit the ground with a thud, a gaping hole drilled through his chest.

I looked down at my hand and saw how drenched in blood it was, but I didn't see it as his blood.

The image of Rin was in my head.

I distinctly remember my knees hitting the ground. I remember my tenketsu burning. I remember the bone deep fatigue that struck me when Kurama's chakra disappeared, the gnawing ache in my gut turning into a stabbing agony.

I could hardly see Asuma catch me before I fell. I could only focus on what seemed to be some divine punishment for me disobeying orders.

I didn't see an Iwa nin.

I saw Rin.

The smell of blood was drowning me. I wanted it to end.

"God, please make it stop." I moaned pathetically in English, unable to think clearly.

"Naruto," Asuma asked desperately, "Please, tell me you can hear me."

"Please, make it stop." I begged, still trapped in my own nightmare.

I didn't know how long we were on the ground together, but I couldn't keep my thoughts steady at all.

I don't know when, but Ino and the others came up to me and Asuma.

I eventually was able to pull myself together enough to remember where I was and looked at Asuma.

"Can," I started, my voice shaking horribly, "Can you message Kakashi?" I asked, more like begged.

Asuma just nodded, placing his hand on my shoulder.

He pulled out the scroll and bit down on his thumb to draw blood.

He opened up the scroll.

He then wrote out a message that I had no hope of reading. My vision was swimming too much.

I'd never reacted this badly. My emotions were shifting from anger, to despair, to vindictive glee, then to guilt. I felt like I was at the tail end of a fever dream, and I didn't have anything to hold onto when my thoughts were adrift.

I blinked when I saw a slight flash of chakra.

Asuma looked down at the scroll and smiled softly.

"They're okay," He said, "They got attacked, but drove them off."

I felt like I had a spike removed from my head.

She was okay. They were okay.

My thoughts cleared up even more and I went to stand up.

Asuma kept ahold of me for a moment to make sure I didn't fall.

"What happened?" Ino asked worriedly, the three of them getting to where me and Asuma were, "We kept asking your name and you weren't answering."

I just looked at her, trying to think of something.

"My chakra alignment." I said quietly.

Ino stiffened at that.

"Oh," She said softly, "The memory?" She asked.

I just nodded.

She didn't probe any further for details, knowing it had to have been terrible for me to react the way I did.

But something worried me very much, even when I felt the comforting feeling of Rin, Kakashi, Hinata, and even Sasuke's chakra in my sensing range an hour or so later.

What caused me to fall apart? Kurama's chakra never did it to that degree. Could the tightenings have caused it?

It was something that I needed to know, but probably not figure out until much later.

////////////////

Kurama POV:

He didn't expect it to work so well.

The pain he felt when he was split in half was incomparable. He could hardly focus for the first couple years he had been resealed.

For decades, he'd been a prisoner for a crime he didn't commit. He'd washed his paws of the world. Every good thing that his father had talked of the world would be inverted by humans the moment they had the chance. Indra was brilliant like his father, but used it to become a destroyer and enslaver, his wretched descendant being the one to enslave him and cause him to be sealed.

The fight between Madara and Hashirama was terrible for him. Their chakra reminded him too much of two brothers that had loved each other more than anything in the world.

And they tried to kill each other.

How ironic that Indra's descendant controlled him, while a descendant of Ashura was the one that imprisoned him and acted as a jail for an innocent prisoner.

Even the family of the Sage forsook him in the end.

But that night, for a few short seconds, he was free. He was no longer caged, no longer at the mercy of those who saw him as a beast fit to only be sealed away and seen as a burden.

Those were seconds he now cherished.

Madara enslaved him to do something that he had no choice in doing. And when he was freed from it after he was removed from his second prison, he lashed out at the village instead of fleeing when the Genjutsu cleared.

He could have hidden. He could have ran. He could have gone back to his cave, leave the rest of the world to eventually forget him.

But he didn't.

He wanted the village to hurt. They took his freedom. Their "Beautiful and Saintly" leader that founded their wretched open sewer of a dwelling was the same one that captured and helped imprison his siblings.

He may have hated what his father charged him with, to help humanity and protect his siblings, but he tried to.

He tried to help his siblings.

But the Senju ensured he never could.

So he attacked the beautiful creation the man made. He wanted to kill as many Uchiha as he could, but few actually attacked him directly.

And when he failed to kill the yellow haired irritant that would flop around on top of his second prison like a fish at night, he knew he would be imprisoned again.

He had roared in anger and hatred at everything when he realized that they were trying to seal him again.

Precious few moments of freedom, only to be taken away.

Robbing him of his naive outlook of the world in his youth wasn't enough for humanity. They took everything from him.

His father died of old age, spending his final years trying to impart a better view of rightness in the world than what preceded it. His siblings were taken and used as nothing more than bargaining chips to fuel the flames of war. They were created by their father to help humanity, not carry them into Oblivion.

With all that hatred and indignation, he tried to destroy his prison. He sought to break his chains before he could be shackled.

The old man would be disappointed in him.

He tried to kill children. Babies. Newborns. He didn't see the most precious and vulnerable of all life. He saw the vessel of his pain and unjust torture.

And whatever gods may be punished him.

The Shinigami sheared his very being in half. The last coherent thing he saw and heard was the boy.

The child's eyes, blue as the sky, and hair like his mother's, looked straight at him.

His mother and father spoke to him in such a loving tone as they died.

A tone that Hagoromo used when the nine of them were but children, recently created.

The child cried as they died. He screamed as he had half a Bijuu sealed in him.

And Kurama screamed in pain right alongside him.

The Shinigami splitting him left him a wreck, unable to think clearly for some time, until a couple years later when he found himself in a completely chaotic mindscape.

Words and sentences that were jumbled in the most nonsensical way would be an understatement. He could feel his other half, just merely inches away most nights when everything was more calm.

Sometimes, he could shift his main point of consciousness into the other half.

The boy's mindscape was the worst he felt. It was nearly as tight as the previous one, but the other didn't have awful screaming and flashes of lights to go with it every few minutes.

It got much easier to handle after the twin prisons turned six and the one was almost killed. He wanted the little monkey to die. Even if it took him years to reform, it was better than staying imprisoned for potentially a century or more especially since Uzumaki lived for a long time.

But he had no such luck. He instead felt like he received another punishment. The Genjutsu and the emotional anguish the child felt was unwelcome. It brought back memories of his own. His own promise to the old man, to protect his siblings and to help the world.

"I don't know you."

The girl's emotions were easily felt. Her seal was not as tight. He had greater movement there when he projected his consciousness into that half of himself.

That one sentence caused anguish to both of his prisons, one from guilt and the other from self hatred and inadequacy.

But he kept getting dragged back towards the boy, no matter how much he forced himself towards the girl.

He finally managed it. The boy was in an elevated state of worry and tenseness, for reasons unknown, and he very carefully coaxed his chakra to be less emotionally caustic so the boy would draw on it more without realizing the danger.

Whenever the boy used his chakra, he could feel the world. The wind in his hair, the warmth of the sun, even the stabs and broken bones were welcome. He felt free when he felt things he hadn't in decades.

And he possibly weakened the tightenings.

The boy had used his chakra more liberally than before. The rush of being in a life or death fight was invigorating. He could see the fighting that occurred with the girl when they were ambushed, but it didn't compare to the boy.

He fought to kill. He tore into the others with gusto, not hesitating in the slightest.

He felt, for once, the boy's thoughts. The consideration, the decision to kill them.

It didn't help things that he gave him a little push with his chakra.

Too much anger gives you tunnel vision. Not even the greatest sensor would be able to feel something wrong with their chakra in that state.

More of his own chakra was swirling in the boys tenketsu than ever before, and he managed to push a little more out to try and stretch the tightenings to give him more room.

The stretching did work, the tightenings loosening some, but he didn't expect his jailer to almost fall apart. The repeat image of the Genjutsu he was struck with years ago was imprinted in his mind, getting brought up by the emotionally enhancing chakra.

He'd feel bad if he actually cared about people, given that the boy was undoubtedly driven and strong, only to have a crack in his armour whenever certain memories of his were brought back, even without Bijuu chakra intensifying the experience.

But, it was a win for Kurama. The seal was slightly looser, probably as best as it would get, and he was able to move most of his consciousness to the girl with much less difficulty.

Before he decided to relax and call it a day, he had one last thought that gave him malicious glee.

The girl felt a backlash from her brother, feeling an echo of his emotions.

If he could strengthen the link, he could have a little fun.

Uzumaki were known for making pranks, well, he could as well.

'Get a couple memories that bled through when the other two prisons did things.' He shuddered slightly.

The few times he could see the outside world in his previous jailers was when they were in a heightened state of mind, mostly anger.

But carnal acts were also heightened states of mind.

He didn't feel anything, thankfully, but he still would see from a first person perspective and had to deal with hearing the grunts and moans of the two insufferable mortals that imprisoned him.

There was more than one reason he enjoyed killing Namikaze.

But he laid down in the much more open cage in the girl's mind, enjoying the chance to stretch.

'I'll enjoy messing with the girl.' He thought. 'There's an Uchiha on her team, it'll be fun."'

With that, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

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"With the timely arrival of a fourth Jinchuriki in the form of Roshi, the 3rd were able to hold the line against the Leaf in Rice, sending the White Fang and his forces into a retreat. We left that battlefield as brothers and sisters with Kumo. Years later, we'd return as enemies."

Exerpt from journal of Ozawa Daisuke, Jonin of Iwagakure, 3rd regiment, Second Shinobi War.

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End Chapter:

So, Kurama has arrived, just not in the way you'd expect. In Twinfics with Kurama sealed in the both of them, I'm not sure if there are ones where he is able to shift his consciousness between the two halves, but I'll be doing that here. It's partly because I can think of some comedic things to write if/when he stops being a dick.

The MC has now had his first taste of an A-rank trying to kill him, and still came out standing.

Asuma and his team see first hand what Rin had to see at times, Naruto being incoherent for several minutes from too much Yin chakra in a short time.

Kurama wanted more room and ended up messing with Naruto's head unintentionally. Not exactly with malicious intent this time, but it still caused some bad memories to resurface.

Anyway, here's the longest chapter I've ever written, chock full of emotional things and a show of how the MC can take things too personally, with Mr. Grumpy and Furry making things even worse.

Reviews are welcome, and may you have a wonderful day.

Raging.