24

Chapter 23: Last of a Dying Breed

Once again, Kakashi sat aboard a ship, however the ship wasn't bound for the mainland, this ship was going elsewhere for the time being. It had been a week since he had let Naruto go on an excursion that should have taken him five days at the most. Kakashi was needless to say worried. He had no idea where Naruto was, other than the fact that he was somewhere on Nami no Kuni, and he knew he couldn't go home without Naruto anyway, not that he would if he could. Naruto was his comrade and after his monumental failure with Sasuke he was going to keep that boy safe. However he also had to consider the fact that the boy was fully capable of going toe-to-toe with him by this point and would have a better than fleeting chance of winning if they were to ever face off, especially if Kakashi was still deluding himself into thinking that Naruto wasn't as powerful as he carried himself as these days.

The idea of him fighting a few of the jounin of Konoha to prove a point seemed rather appealing to the masked man. He wondered who would end up having a good match with him and who would end up getting destroyed. A few of the thoughts of potential Naruto vs. Konoha Jounin face-offs made Kakashi nod his head and a few made him snicker.

"So we're finally going to get the blonde idiot are we?" Kakashi was brought back into focusing on the task at hand by Tayuya, "It took long enough."

Kakashi sighed, she seemed angry, but honestly she was way happier than she had been all week that they were finally going to look for him. Now that the chances of actually seeing him were well increased she was way more manageable. Kakashi shook his head at that. He had heard from Genma about what Naruto had gotten up to in Kumo, it was common knowledge among quite a few elites due to Gai heading to his house three days straight while he was on medical leave that he had shared a bed with the Kazekage's daughter during their stay in Konoha following the retrieval mission. Did that kid even openly recognize the caliber of women he was attracting to him?

Kakashi thought it best to play the responsible adult and burst Tayuya's bubble somewhat before they got there, "Now Tayuya. It may be far more difficult to find him than you know. It's been a few days since he's landed here so chances are his trail has long since gone cold, and that's if it didn't rain."

Tayuya visibly deflated while Shikamaru groaned at the prospect of actually having to work on this mission, "So what are you saying we have to do Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi scratched his hair sheepishly, "If I can't pick up Naruto's trail I'll have no choice but to have us wait for him here to return. There's not much else we can do if we can't even find him."

Tayuya raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Wait. If we can't find him and he ends up getting whatever he needs to do done, what makes you think you can wait him out? Won't we just end up missing him. His dumb ass will probably end up heading back towards Mizu no Kuni, or even Hi no Kuni once he's done with whatever he's doing."

Kakashi gave her a knowing eye smile, "Ah, but there's one place that I'm certain he'll end up making his way to at some point. Either he already has, or he will at some point and if he's already been there it's all the better for us. That can be a jump-off point for us to search for him."

Shikamaru was intrigued, Kakashi was talking like Naruto had been there before, "Where exactly are you talking about Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi simply smiled at Shikamaru and Tayuya, "I guess you'll both find out when we get there."

XxX

(Uzushiogakure – Underground Catacombs)

Naruto and Sai had allowed Hamako to sleep after telling her the entire story about what had occurred during the destruction of Uzu. They had refrained from telling her exactly what it looked like up there… well Naruto did. He had to elbow Sai in the face to keep him from blurting it out. Not exactly the most subtle in social situations that Sai. After telling her all that they knew and had found out about what happened they let her cry herself to sleep, and after coming to the conclusion that letting her rest was the best plan all around, they both took up positions against the stone walls and got some rest themselves.

During this time period, Naruto almost grabbed Hamako and dislocated her shoulder when she startled him in the middle of the night. Sheer willpower kept him from doing so, as all she was attempting to do was just lay against him. Instead of pushing the distraught girl off of him rudely, like Sasuke Uchiha would have, he wrapped an arm around her and let her stay with him. He was obviously the closest thing to her old life that she had, and the only person showing any empathy to her situation, as Sai's face stayed as plain as a brick wall the entire time they explained the situation to her. The only thing he simply could not get used to was her calling him 'Uzumaki-sama'. That was just weird.

So the next morning (They were taking a guess as to the exact time of day seeing as how they had spent an undisclosed amount of time underground.) Naruto gently shook Hamako awake and looked across the room to see Sai simply staring at the two of them blankly… pretty creepy thing to wake up to, "Um, good morning Sai-kouhai."

Sai took that as his cue to stand up, "I believe it's time we exit the premises Naruto-senpai."

Naruto nodded and let Hamako adjust her eyes to being open before he let go of her and stood up to start stretching, "I agree. But what are we going to do about Hamako?" He looked to her as she yawned and rubbed her eyes, "What are you going to do when we get out of here?"

Hamako immediately woke up properly upon having that question sprung on her, "I'm not really sure Uzumaki-sama. I don't have anywhere to go." The massive statue that seemed more akin to her pet now walked up to her and kneeled down. Hamako gave it a sad smile and patted it, "It will be okay Komainu-kun. We'll be fine." She then made a few hand-seals and placed her hand on the statue, "Kai."

The statue, or Komainu, shrunk to the size of a 4 inch doll that she wrapped a rope around and placed around her neck. She looked at Naruto and Sai, one who seemingly didn't care, however his eyes lied on that front, and the other, who just stared in awe, "What?"

Naruto pointed, "You can control that damn statue and shrink it? How the hell are you doing this stuff?"

Hamako shook her head, "Don't you know anything about fuuinjutsu? Your clan are the best fuuinjutsu users in the entire world."

Naruto rubbed his neck sheepishly, "I guess it skipped a generation… or several." He noticed Hamako staring at him, "What's the matter?"

"How old are you Uzumaki-sama?" Hamako asked, her voice deadly serious, "And what level of seal mastery would you say you were at?"

Naruto and Sai looked at each other, "Um, fourteen? And I don't know. I can't tell all of the seals that go into Komainu, but I was able to stop him for a bit. What does that make me?"

Hamako's jaw dropped, "You're not even level three yet! You're fourteen and you aren't even at level five?"

Naruto shrunk under her yelling, "Yeah, I guess so. Is that a bad thing Hamako?"

Hamako grabbed him by his collar and pulled him close to her face, "Everyone in your clan can at least say that they were level seven before they were fifteen! And you mixed overlapping seals without knowing all that went into one of them? What kind of Uzumaki isn't good at fuuinjutsu?"

Naruto sweatdropped, "An Uzumaki that wasn't even introduced to the art until a few months ago. Give me a break Hamako. I'm better than pale and listless over there." He said while pointing at Sai.

Hamako palmed her forehead, "Kami… There's an Uzumaki out there, a real true Uzumaki… And he can't even do fuuinjutsu."

Naruto took offense to this, "Hey! I can do stuff! I can make tons of stuff! I make sealing scrolls, customized explosive tags, and check it out!" He pulled out the seal he used to control the statue, "I even made this temporary control seal that helped us beat your statue when we first ran into it."

"Those things are beginner stuff." Hamako took the seal note away and inspected it, frowning more and more the longer she looked at it before balling it up and tossing it aside, "It's completely shoddy. How can you be proud of that?"

Naruto's jaw dropped, "What? Do you know how hard that was to come up with?"

Hamako pointed at the statue on her necklace, "Compared to what I did to animate Komainu-kun you might as well have scribbled your name in crayon and handed it over to me. Your seal has so many deficiencies I'm surprised it didn't kill you. First of all, simply using it puts you in an internal struggle against your target, the only guaranteed way that you could ever use it was if you tried it on something with no will whatsoever, and even then you could still lose. Although it would be utterly hilarious to see someone lose a battle of wills to an end table."

She laughed slightly at the thought before reassuming lecture mode, "Second of all, it's so temporary that even if you won the initial struggle there isn't much you could do with the control you just fought for. And finally and most important, it's a mimic array, did you know that? Instead of having the target's movements be an extension of your thoughts you had it so that the only way they could do anything was if you did it first. That's so stupid!"

Naruto visibly deflated, "Well you don't have to put it like that. I've been basically teaching myself after Ero-sennin pounded the basics into my head. I thought I was doing rather well until now…"

Hamako sighed before walking up to Naruto and winking at him, "Well at least I know what I'm doing now." Upon seeing Naruto's questioning look she elaborated, "There's no way that I can in good conscience leave an Uzumaki to their own devices with such shoddy seal work. So until you actually become passable at fuuinjutsu I will be your teacher Uzumaki-sama!"

Naruto stared at her for a few seconds, "You're going to train me?"

Hamako nodded, "Yes because basically… you're not very good at fuuinjutsu at all. If anyone told you that you were they were either lying to make you feel better, or they never saw an Uzumaki from Uzushiogakure at work."

Naruto looked at his hands, "Well when you put it that way-."

Hamaki clasped her hands together, "So it's my responsibility to teach you the right way of going about with your sealing techniques. I owe the Uzumaki clan a debt that I can't repay them now that… well you know. So I'll have to pay it off through you!"

"That makes me feel so special…" Naruto said sarcastically as his eye twitched, "But Hamako, I don't want you to do anything that you don't have to."

Naruto could see the benefits of having Hamako with him. Yes, he had the scrolls from Uzu that pretty much would make him jump up in skill, but simply looking through the stuff that was listed the other day had him a little hesitant to try them out. Some of them were ridiculously absurd sounding. Other than the chakra draining seal that would have been a boon in battle there was a seal that could store chakra. STORE CHAKRA! Store chakra and transfer it between people to recharge their reserves, like an adrenaline shot of chakra, and he didn't even want to know what could happen if he screwed that one up.

Hamako frowned and walked closer to him, "Uzumaki-sama, there is nowhere else for me to go." She said as her natural bangs from her white hair somewhat shadowed her amber eyes from his full view, "What would I do? I'm completely out of place here, I know nothing of this current world I now find myself in, and you are the closest thing to my masters that have been so kind to me for my entire life since they found me and taught me everything I know." She bowed to him, "I would be honored if I could go with you."

Naruto looked at Sai who didn't have any helpful facial expressions to help him out… or any facial expressions at all. Thus Naruto was forced to go with his gut on this one, that and Hamako seemed like a good girl, although the sooner he could break her of that Uzumaki-sama crap the better. Naruto picked her up by her shoulders to get her to stand again, "Hamako, no bowing. I'm not noble, I'm just some guy with the last name Uzumaki. But I have a question; why were you stuck inside that vault?"

Sai came forward, finally speaking, "I would like to know that as well Hamako-san. Naruto-senpai and myself were very surprised to find you in there."

Hamako took up a thoughtful look, "I don't know. Sensei said that he was going to leave the future of our village up to me. I thought he was going to let me head up with him to fight, but then I ended up unconscious, and when I woke up I saw you two."

Naruto shifted his new sword on his back and turned to head down the corridor, "We can figure this stuff out later. We still need to get to the surface. Hamako, can you get us out of here?"

Hamako smiled and nodded, "Yes, I remember my way through here like it was just yesterday."

Naruto sweatdropped, "Technically for you, it was just yesterday." Hamako growled at him lowly as he backed off, "Okay, bad attempt at situational humor. Let's just go."

XxX

As the platform in the first tower rose back to the ground floor once more, Naruto and Sai felt déjà vu as this had been the place they had fought Hamako's statue Komainu. Naruto looked around and saw that the door was still sealed off, "How are we going to get out of here Hamako?"

Hamako walked towards the door and started writing a seal on the door before biting her finger and adding her blood, "Fuuin kai!"

The walls all shimmered before the wall in front of the entrance dropped. She looked back at Naruto and Sai before sighing heavily, "I guess it's time for me to see what's left of Uzu." She frowned as she looked around the destroyed tower, "If this is any indicator I'd better prepare for the worst, huh?"

Naruto and Sai walked behind her as she headed outside. She stopped and looked around at the battle scarred village. She sighed deeply but did not shut her eyes or look away. Naruto put a hand on her shoulder, "You want to take a minute for yourself Hamako?"

She shook her head, "No… There's nothing more that can be done here. Uzushiogakure was my home, well this isn't Uzu anymore. It's nothing but ruins now. Even if I stayed, what would I do? Live like a hermit on the grounds of a destroyed village? I'll go with you instead Uzumaki-sama, my entire life has been to serve your clan, it's all I know, thus it is all I'm willing to do."

Naruto looked at her strangely, 'She's kind of like Haku… only knowing how to really serve. Doesn't she have her own dreams and goals? The way she's talking it's as if as long as there is an Uzumaki about she can move along.' "No Uzumaki-sama Hamako."

Sai walked out ahead of both of them, "Let's go then. Naruto-senpai, I think it best if Hamako-san travels with you. I cannot take her with me into Konoha, and even if I could I couldn't get her set up as a citizen."

Naruto nodded, "At the very least I'll see you out of Nami no Kuni. I need to re-up with my squad though. Kakashi's going to chew my butt out once I get back. This wasn't supposed to take this long to do."

Sai shrugged, "It could not be helped senpai. If you tell him of your encounter with the Akatsuki he should understand completely, but do remember to keep my involvement a secret."

Naruto watched Hamako pick through some of the rubble nearby, "Understood. Though how in Kami's name I'm going to explain Hamako to him and everyone else is beyond me. But I'm not leaving her here. No way in hell I'm doing that. I'll come up with something by the time we meet back up with the others, don't you worry." He called out to the white-haired girl, "Hamako, are you ready to leave?"

Sai nodded as she came back over, "I wasn't worried at all senpai. If nothing else you could actually tell the truth about where she came from. I don't think that would matter too much if you did."

Hamako made it over to Naruto, "I'm ready to leave master."

Naruto palmed his face, "Master? Really? Hamako come on. You're not my servant, you're not under my command. You're a girl that's my age, aside from owning any person, owning you would be strange." 'Strange and Ero-sennin and Kakashi-sensei would never let that fact die.'

Hamako shook her head vehemently, "That is highly inappropriate master. You won't let me call you Uzumaki-sama and now you dislike being called master. Your clan are my retainers, how else am I to show you your proper respect… master?" She finished with a smirk.

Naruto grumbled and turned to Sai, "Sai-kouhai, help me out here. Talk to this girl for me."

Sai gave him one of his trademark smiles, "She is apparently your property now Naruto-senpai. That would make that your job."

Naruto gave Sai a dry look, "You sure don't treat me like a senpai Sai. Aren't you supposed to listen to me?"

"Kit shut up and pay attention!"

Naruto's eyes snapped to attention as he began to look around for any sign of trouble. Sai caught on to Naruto tension as he quickly followed suit and began looking around, back to back with Naruto. Naruto's fingers drifted up to his sword that he was grateful to have as his last one had been pieced apart during his last confrontation, 'Can you tell me where they're coming from Kyuubi?'

A growl came from within his mind, "Whoever it is, they are doing a great job of keeping themselves concealed. All I know is what you know; that there is someone's presence around here. Be careful, you're not getting us killed in this wasteland."

Naruto's eyes panned over to Hamako who was looking around in confusion, "Master, what's going on? Is there something wrong?"

Naruto's eyes widened. Couldn't she sense the intent rolling around the area? The way she handled seals she had to have been a ninja, right? "Hamako, what ranking were you?"

Hamako gave him an odd look, "I wasn't a registered ninja master. I had basic training like a lot of people did but everything I did was focused on seal making. I was trained alongside the Fuuinjutsu Corps. I don't really know any other ninja arts."

Naruto would have sighed deeply in grief at that moment. If it was Deidara again, the only advantage they would have in the fact that Sai now had enough strength to fight all out and the fact that the entire village was now their playground would be negated by the fact that they now had to protect someone.

Naruto quickly made a dozen Kage Bunshin and sent them over to Hamako, "Keep her safe, no matter what! I don't care what you have to do. He looked over his shoulder at Sai, "Let's take this elsewhere."

Sai nodded as the two disappeared in a leaf and ink shrouded Shunshin.

Hamako tried running out to find them, but were kept back by the Kage Bunshin, "I need to go with Sai-san and Master! Why are they leaving?"

The Kage Bunshin in charge shook its head, "I can't let you go after the boss Hamako. Things are about to get ugly out here."

XxX

Appearing elsewhere in the village, Naruto drew the blade from his back with a loud ring of steel, "If it's Deidara again I promised Kyuubi I would cut his arms off. I really hope it's Deidara."

Sai pulled out his scroll, "How will we go about fighting him this time senpai?"

Naruto grinned, "That's going to be the easy part. We have tons of space. You can try to take it to him from the air if you like while I have my own method of reaching him."

Sai nodded, "That will do for now senpai."

Upon both coming to an agreement on how this was to be handled, they were both caught in a fiery explosion. Deidara watched from a distance laughing loudly, "And there you go! What happened to that strategy of yours boys, un?" He then blinked blankly, "Oh… I wasn't supposed to kill the jinchuuriki, un."

Deidara was then bound by ink snakes that emerged from around him. As he struggled to escape, a sword was driven through his chest, freezing his face in an expression of pain and horror. Naruto smirked as he buried the sword through him up to the guard before the blade stuck fast as he tried pulling it out.

Deidara quickly lost his color and turned to the color of clay. Naruto panicked and channeled wind chakra to his blade to pull it out and get distance as the clay figure of Deidara exploded.

As Naruto landed from his evasive action, Sai came to his side, "That was a nasty little surprise. It looks like he has a clone technique of his own as well." Naruto looked around, "Where is he now? He isn't flying above us, so where could he be?"

Sai didn't speak, instead drawing on his scroll as snakes came off and burrowed underground. After a moment of waiting, Deidara came out of the ground a good distance away from the two boys, launching his clay explosives at the snakes. Naruto rushed in, trying to stay close with the long-range expert, but despite the speed that he came at his opponent with, Deidara saw him coming and dashed away, reaching into his pouch for more clay.

As Naruto cursed at the speed that Deidara had, simply running backwards he noticed that both of his hands spit out clay sculptures. Naruto shook his head as if he had been seeing things, 'I must have been underground too long.'

Naruto closed the distance enough that he was finally able to engage Deidara up close. Deidara avoided a thrust of the blonde teen's sword and maneuvered out of the way of a spinning slash. When Naruto spun for his attack however, Deidara was fast enough to plant one of his explosives on Naruto's back. The little clay spider crawled on Naruto's back while Deidara jumped away from him and made his hand-seal, "Katsu."

The explosion rocked Naruto and sent him to the ground. Naruto grit his teeth in pain as he could feel the damage he had just taken rip at his nerve endings, "I'm so tired of you." His eyes flashed red as he started leaking Kyuubi's chakra, "You've turned this entire trip into a massive headache!" One tail of chakra formed behind him.

Deidara had a small grin on his face, "Fighting two of you, with one of you being the Kyuubi jinchuuriki… not exactly my design of an ideal battle, un."

Naruto growled at him and rushed at him, gripping his sword double-handed, "Don't you run from me!"

Deidara had another clay figuring that so happened to be a bird in his other hand and expanded its size before taking off on it, leaving Naruto to miss his swipe. Naruto growled in anger and leapt into the air to cut down Deidara's ride. The missing-nin paled at seeing him leap at his bird and quickly formed another clay spider that he threw down at Naruto.

The enraged jinchuuriki cut right through it, forcing it to explode on contact and pushing him back to the ground where he landed on his feet, smoking from the blast. He then noticed which way he was going, "Sai! He's going back towards Hamako! Cut him off!"

Sai nodded and immediately took off on one of his ink birds while Naruto kept up and pursued from the ground.

XxX

"Well it looks like the jinchuuriki left me a way to get him to cooperate."

Hamako jumped at the sound off the gruff voice suddenly calling out. The clones took a defensive perimeter around her, but most were cut down by an iron tail extending from a blind spot and running right through them. The initial attack left two of Naruto's Kage Bunshin remaining and they picked up Hamako before jumping away from the scene of the mass clone slaughter.

"Clone-sama who's attacking us?" Hamako asked, clutching at the Komainu necklace tightly.

The clone she had spoken to stood in front of her while the other was behind, keeping a watchful eye out for any movement that could be perceived as hostile, "I don't know Hamako, but if I had to guess it would probably be Deidara's partner because that's who boss and Sai-kouhai went off to fight."

"It seems this one isn't as much of a musclehead as most are prone to being." The voice said once more, "Or maybe his clones are just smarter than him, but if that were the case they would have just dispelled and saved themselves the pain of death that they're about to feel."

The clones reached on their backs for their swords, "As if we'll just let you hurt Hamako like that." Her eyes widened upon catching sight of markings that ran all along the blade in the clone's hands, but she couldn't bring herself to speak quickly enough.

"I guess it's easier to just kill you than to try and talk to a clone that has standing orders." With that, senbon came flying at the clones and Hamako, forcing her two protectors to burst into smoke, but as it cleared there was no sign of the girl.

"I thought my clones said that I wasn't just going to let you hurt Hamako like that." Came Naruto's voice from a short ways off. He was shrouded in the Kyuubi's chakra, holding Hamako close to him, "Sai!"

Sai's bird landed behind Naruto, who placed her on its back alongside him, "Naruto-sama?"

Naruto gave her a small smile, "It's okay Hamako." He looked at Sai, "Take her with you. She'll be safer than if she were down here with me. This fight is more along my alley anyway, you take Deidara, just remember to sever his arms from his body somehow for me." He gave him a questioning look, "Can you take Deidara all on your own?"

"Absolutely." Sai looked at the figure who had appeared while they were talking. A hunched, grotesque looking man wearing the Akatsuki robes, "But are you sure senpai?"

Naruto followed Sai's line of sight and narrowed his eyes upon seeing what his Root comrade saw, "I'm absolutely sure. If you can, get her somewhere you know will be safe and keep her there while you deal with Deidara. I know you'll be way better equipped to fighting him this time, but she could still get hurt up there with you two going at it."

Sai nodded, "Understood. Good luck senpai." Sai then took off and left Naruto to his own devices amid the ruins of Uzushiogakure.

Naruto faced down his opponent and drew his sword from his back, "Well you must be Deidara's partner. It sucks for both of you, because you're obviously strong or else you wouldn't be here. And now you're going to die, a long way from home or away from anyone that would even care in the slightest."

The gruff laughter from his would-be opponent raised the hackles on the back of Naruto's neck… man using Kyuubi's chakra made him super aggressive. It was taking everything he had to not rush him blindly like he had with Deidara, which was the main reason he was happy that there was another person to fight. The man began to speak, "I would say the same thing to you Uzumaki, except I can't. You technically are home. That and I'm not going to kill you, I'm going to drag your subdued carcass to have your demon extracted… then you'll die."

"Ha ha. Morbid humor, how quaint." Naruto lowered himself, "Not that I actually care, since I'm going to kill you and everything, but as I said to your friend when we first met; I try to make it a habit to learn the names of the people after my biju."

Naruto's Akatsuki opponent sighed in reminiscence, "You know, I don't remember doing most of this. I actually didn't. This village was mostly eradicated by the time I had gotten here, there were just still many of Uzu's ninja out and about. A remarkable amount come to think of it. It just goes to show how dedicated they were… but I can't believe I missed one… again. Tell me, how did you escape Deidara?"

"Not that it matters at this point, but we fell into the whirlpool where there were hidden underground chambers." Naruto's grip on his blade tightened, "Who the hell are you and what do you mean you missed one 'again'?"

He laughed deeply, "Underground chambers of course! I wondered how those last defenders popped up like cockroaches last time! How ingenious to use the whirlpool, a certified deathtrap, to escape ruin. And I mean I missed one again because the girl is obviously an Uzu survivor. Where else would you have gotten her?"

"Who the hell are you? I won't ask you again before I stop being so cordial and start cutting things off!" Naruto yelled at the man.

He laughed at Naruto's anger, "From the way you're yelling at me and gripping your weapon so hard, I think you know already."

Naruto bared his elonged canines at him, "You're right, I do. I just want to hear it from you."

"Very well then. I am Akasuna no Sasori."

Naruto smirked, "That's who I thought you were." Before vanishing in a blur of red, "Now die!" Naruto reappeared right in front of him, his sword drawn back to cleave him into two.

XxX

(With Sai and Hamako)

"I have to go back to Naruto-sama!" Hamako tried to reason as she held on to Sai's ink bird tightly out of fear of falling off, "I have something he needs to know!"

Sai kept his eyes peeled for any sign of Deidara. The man was a right bastard when it came to sneaking up on them and attacking from a distance. He didn't spare the girl a glance as he kept guiding his ink bird, 'The only reason Naruto-senpai would tell me to leave the area is if he was planning on drawing on the Kyuubi's chakra. If that is the case then allowing her to return to him would do more harm than good, for everyone.' "I cannot let you go back to senpai Hamako-san. It would be best if you stayed with me for the time being."

Hamako's eyes darted back to where she had been placed on the bird from, "But he needs to know something, something important. I need to tell him how to use his sword!"

Sai peered back at her slightly, "His sword? The one he picked up inside of the vault? Why didn't you tell him about it when he first took it?"

Hamako frowned, "I didn't know he had taken it. I wasn't paying attention to Naruto-sama's weapons when you first found me, but when his clone drew the sword and I was able to see the markings on the blade I realized what he had. How did he even get it anyway?"

Sai remembered the events that lead up to Naruto getting the blade, "He pulled it from the wall. That triggered the entrance that led us to you. What is it anyway?"

Hamako sat up straight on the bird's back, "It is the Sen'nenki no Ken (Millennium Sword). It's an heirloom of Uzushiogakure. And-. Wait, what are you doing drawing?"

Sai looked back at her and gave her his forced smile, "Don't worry about it. Now please, continue."

XxX

(Naruto vs. Sasori)

Naruto's blade was blocked by an iron tail appendage stretching from Sasori's back within his robes. As Naruto struggled against the tail, it proceeded to stretch and maneuver over his head swiftly in an attempt to impale him. Naruto rolled aside and lashed out once again, the blade once more blocked his sword strike and pursued him in an effort to pierce him.

"You're a fast little bastard aren't you?" Sasori taunted as his tail retracted back within his robe.

Naruto set his sword in a defensive stance, staring Sasori down. So much of him was covered by that damn robe he couldn't tell what other nasty surprises he might have under there. What did this man have that could have possibly taken down the bulk of an entire shinobi village all alone? He rushed at Sasori again, slashing at him from any side he could get a favorable angle at. Each time he was blocked by Sasori's iron tail. For a guy that didn't move his body… at all, he had damn good reflexes with such an obscure appendage of his body. Was it even a part of his body in the first place? Damn that cloak.

Naruto got upset at his lack of any progress whatsoever even using his Kyuubi-boosted speed, "Block this. Raiton: Kaksen no Jutsu (Lightning Release: Livewire Jutsu)!" After making his hand-seals and placing his hands on the ground, a speedy stream of arcing lightning ripped across the ground at Sasori. Sasori finally found it prudent to move as he jumped away from Naruto's attack, lest he find himself with a few thousand volts of electricity running through him.

Naruto smirked, 'I finally got him to move. He's got some pep in his step when I actually get him to jump out of the way of something.' Naruto rushed in with his sword primed to strike at the oddly built enemy when Sasori gave him another surprise.

Sasori blasted senbon at him in a rapid spray from his mouth. Naruto thought about trying to use his sword to deflect them, but settled on that being a stupid idea the moment he realized he couldn't even count them all and rolled out of the way, 'What the hell? Did those things fly out of his mouth? Who does that?'

Naruto didn't have long to ponder this as Sasori threw his tail out at Naruto again, missing repeatedly in his attempts to finish the boy off. The foot of the young jinchuuriki caught itself in the rubble that they were fighting on. Naruto saw the metal tail fly at him and clasped his fists side by side before thrusting them out, "Fuuton: Fuujin Seiken (Wind Release: Divine Fist of the Wind God)!" The wind projectile barely held the blade off as Naruto frantically tried to lift his foot out and evade before he ended up being a human shish-kabob.

The wind based attack eventually died off and the tail shot at Naruto as quick as ever, however he found it in him to evade by the skin of his teeth, although the leg of his pants did get cut when he got his foot free. Naruto now had the back of his shirt blown open by the explosive attack from Deidara and his pants leg shredded from the unstable surface of rubble that he and Sasori were fighting on.

Naruto inspected himself. The wounds on his back had long since healed and the cuts and scratches he got pulling himself free were mere trifles. Sasori's tail swung menacingly around him, "You must have an extra life to go with each tail of your biju."

Naruto flipped him off and started running circles around Sasori, making him appear as a blur while a red trail left behind was the sign of his wake. Sasori sighed in annoyance as he tried to use his tail to swap (see: stab) the annoying fly. All he hit was nothing, as simply penetrating the red haze that settled in Naruto's path while he continued running around him, "You're really beginning to work my nerves boy."

Naruto's response was a reasonably sized chunk of debris flying from his shroud that he was running around Sasori at a high speed. Sasori's tail moved swiftly to intercept it. Soon thereafter even more debris flew at him at an even higher pace, the speed steadily increased, forcing Sasori to give his iron tail a good workout to block them. This pattern continued until Sasori tired of blocking chunks of building and stuck his tail directly into the circle, getting a series of rapid popping sounds for his trouble. The shroud disappeared, confusing Sasori as to Naruto's whereabouts.

"Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu (Earth Release: Inner Decapitation Jutsu)!" Naruto emerged from the ground directly behind Sasori and slashed his body up repeatedly before landing a distance away and sheathing his sword, "And that's how you do that."

"That was a good move kid." Sasori's Akatsuki cloak was cut to ribbons, finally dropping off of his frame, "That might have worked if I was normal." On his back was what appeared to be a demon mask with the iron tail extending from the mouth of it.

Naruto palmed his forehead at the sight of this, "What are you? You barely look human!"

Sasori laughed, "That's because this is a puppet boy. My puppet armor, Hiruko."

Naruto's teeth made a loud clicking noise as he found himself undeterred by this news, "Well then I guess I'll just have to smash your puppet armor to get to the soft, squishy puppeteer underneath won't I?"

Sasori laughed again, "You can try boy!" Sasori raised the right arm of his puppet which looked like a torpedo and fired it at Naruto who easily dodged, however this was only the beginning. The torpedo rotated and launched tons of wooded cylinders from within. Naruto didn't like the looks of them whatsoever and tried to get more space when the cylinders broke open, launching a large amount of needles in all directions.

The boy crossed his arms in an 'x' pattern frantically, "Fuuton: Senpuu Kakasui (Wind Release: Whirlwind Pyramid)!" Naruto's defensive wall kicked up, violently pushing the deadly needles away and shrouding the area in dust and debris. As the battlefield cleared, Naruto was nowhere in sight.

XxX

Naruto had taken cover in a crater outside of the area that he and Sasori had been fighting. To get to Sasori he had to crack the puppet armor, but that damn tail. He couldn't cut it, and he had been trying to use his wind chakra through the blade the entire time, it was like it wasn't chakra conductive which made no sense; it was in a vault, in a ninja village. How could it not be chakra conductive?

A squeak alerted Naruto to some off-color looking mice down by his feet. Naruto looked at them curiously as they stopped in front of him, "What the-?"

The small mice turned into words that brought a smile to Naruto's face, "Sai-kouhai, you beautiful bastard… And Hamako too… I definitely think she's earning her –chan today."

XxX

(With Sai and Hamako)

Hamako gave Sai a worried look, "Are you sure that Naruto-sama will get your message about the sword?"

"Yes." Sai stated, still looking for somewhere to put Hamako, "Senpai will get the message, rest assured." Maybe back on the towers again? That would make her a target if Deidara ended up finding her, plus, she couldn't get herself down if she had to. Well, she probably could after seeing how she had basically sleepwalked through three of the previously impassible seals that kept him and Naruto from doing what they wanted, "Do you think it will let him use it?"

Hamako smiled at nodded, "Yes, I'm certain. If it wouldn't allow him to use it then he would never have been able to pick it up. Hopefully he's good at finding things out on his own, because I don't know enough about the Sen'nenki no Ken to really give him an idea on what to do."

"Naruto-senpai is very surprising." Sai stated before narrowing his eyes in the distance, "Here we go. Please hold on tightly and stay down Hamako-san, it seems I won't be able to let you off after all."

Deidara was watching with a smirk on his face as the scope over left eye was trained on Sai, "I thought I would have to go and interfere with Sasori no Danna's battle to get one of you. It's a good thing you decide to come to me, un. We're not all settled up yet are we?"

Sai didn't answer as Hamako looked between him and Deidara, "Sai, who is that?"

Sai pulled up his drawing scroll, "That man is the main reason we found you Hamako-san. Allow me to go over there and thank him for you." Sai attempted to strike first by drawing out bats from his scroll, "Choujuu Giga (Super Beasts Imitation Picture)!"

Deidara laughed as his hands coughed up sculptures for his use, "You have more fight in you this time I have to say, but you're still coming at me with that same lame excuse for art!" His birds left his hands and clashed with Sai's bats in mid-air as a few went around the clash, heading towards Sai and Hamako directly, "How many times do you need to hear it? True art is an explosion!" He made his half-tiger seal

Sai maneuvered the bird, amid Hamako's uncomfortable screams, through the mid-air explosions, "I won't be nearly as easy to subdue as I was the first time, I assure you of that." Sai cut through a bird that got close and continued towards Deidara, now actually having the chakra to attempt fancy evasive maneuvers and to boost his ink beast's speed in mid-flight.

"You weren't that fast the first time, un." Deidara stated before shrugging to himself and making more exploding birds for a long range attack. He let them fly with a devious grin on his face.

Sai narrowed his eyes in annoyance as he saw even more birds coming their way, "Sumigasumi no Jutsu (Ink Mist Jutsu)." Sai shrouded his bird and a decent area around it in ink as it sped towards Deidara. The clay sculptures went inside the shroud and exploded, trying to take Sai out without sight. The bird emerged from the mist still in flight and still generally coming at Deidara.

Deidara smirked to himself as he watched Sai come closer, "Now why would I send so many of my beautiful figures into there with little to no hope of hitting you? Because they weren't supposed to hit you fool, they were just supposed to locate you, un!" Deidara made his hand-seal again, "Katsu!"

Little clay insects appeared all over the bodies of Sai, Hamako, and the clay bird, glowing and exploding on them before they could react, "I have to keep the jinchuuriki alive. There's no such restrictions about fighting you, un." Deidara smirked before he realized that he wasn't seeing flaming corpses falling from the sky. Instead he saw melting ink bodies drop, no bodies whatsoever.

Danger senses went off for Deidara as he jumped over Sai's low slash. He had hung off of the legs of the bird and taken his shot at the explosives artist. Deidara hung off of the other side as well and kicked at Sai, who swung himself up on the top of Deidara's bird to take a more advantageous position. He kept himself in a position to defend from whatever side Deidara would end up coming up from.

"What are you looking at, un?"

Sai turned his head and saw Deidara sitting on another clay bird. This surprised Sai, as he had never even felt Deidara's weight leave the bird. He looked on the underside of the bird to see that it was holding a clay clone of Deidara in its talons. Sai looked up and saw Deidara's hand's moving towards his hand-seal, "Katsu."

Before he could finish the word, Sai jumped off of the bird. He freefell to the ground as the fiery explosion of the clay bird sounded out over him. The sound of a bird's cry let Sai know he was saved as he found himself scooped out of the air gently by his bird. The pale Root ninja sighed to himself and patted the inky construct on its head.

XxX

Hamako shook herself off as she stood up from where Sai's bird had dropped her for his gambit of an attack on Deidara. She watched Sai's bird save him from a screaming, flaming death and clutched her Komainu necklace tightly, "Sai-san and Naruto-sama are fighting so hard… And I can't help, again. I can never help, all I'm good for is making seals." Her eyes widened before a small smile came to her face, "And what's wrong with that? Seals are the backbone of this village! And I'm the best!"

She reached into her pocket and frowned, "Sai-san didn't have much ink to spare me, but it's better than nothing! I just have to make do with what I have here, it has to be enough." She looked up at Sai, still in mid-air combat with Deidara, "I won't be useless here Sai-san."

XxX

(Naruto vs. Sasori)

Naruto stepped out of his crater of hiding with a serious look on his face, and his sword drawn. Sasori noticed him, "I knew you would come out eventually. You look like the type that wouldn't retreat in the face of insurmountable odds."

Naruto let a chuckle escape him, "Insurmountable odds? Again with the S-ranked superiority complex. I swear, it's like none of you fools get it." Naruto's amused face slipped, "I could have tried to run. Even if I didn't get away I could have tried. I am your objective after all, right? But if I ran I would be leaving Sai-kouhai and Hamako-chan alone to fight, and I won't do that."

Sasori gave the boy a cursory glance. Nothing had changed to give him such confidence, so why was he acting so braze? "Using them as a means for your escape would have been better. If any of Uzu's ninja had tried that then I might have spared one or two, but since they all had this need to rush to their deaths and fight me for their comrades I helped them out with that. It seems that trait passed down to you."

Naruto's face never changed, "Sai-kouhai is my comrade. Due to the way he was brought up and trained, much like myself he's something like a brother to me. Root may do anything to finish the mission, but we do not turn our backs on our comrades. He's fighting Deidara for me, for my safety, and I won't leave him to his death by running away from you. And Hamako-chan. I would never leave her either. I missed the opportunity to save someone like her before, I wasn't strong or smart enough to do so. But now I am, and I'll be damned if I'll let her be alone in this world just because one man is after my life."

Naruto held up his sword in front of his face, blade facing directly up as it began to glow, "Sen'nenki no Ken, I am your master whether you accept it or not. Now help me take this bastard down for your nation." The wind around Naruto began to kick up as a smirk came to his face, "I don't know what this is supposed to look like. All Hamako-chan said was that I had to exert my will over the sword for me to use this. Oh well, let's try it. Sen'nen Hakkei: Ichijiaraware (Millennium Release: Primary Materialization)!"

The sword dematerialized and reformed as grey/silver metal gauntlets around Naruto's forearms and ankles. A wicked blade came from the sides of each of the outsides of Naruto's arms. On his legs, surrounding his sandals there was also a blade along the outsides of his legs.

The Kyuubi found itself amused by Naruto's new find, "Do make sure that you don't end up ripping yourself apart while you use these blades boy. As entertaining as that is, having your body be eradicated by a powered sword would be a massive slap to my face."

Naruto stretched himself out and tested the feeling of his new weapon before grinning and looking up at Sasori, "This really doesn't have a name. I guess I'll have to come up with one won't I? I think I'll have to call them… Sen'nen Kougake (Millenium Gauntlets)."

Sasori scoffed, "So you got some pieces of metal and you think you can fight me boy?"

Naruto shrugged, "It's worth a try. Now let's see what these things have got! Hyakunen Tsukkakaru (Century Rush)!" Naruto circulated his Kyuubi chakra around him while pushing wind chakra into his blades and rushed at Sasori directly. In response, Sasori thrusted his iron tail at Naruto who slashed at the man with his bladed arms.

Naruto moved his body into a rapid motion and took on the appearance of a red, edged buzzsaw. The two clashed and moved past one another. Naruto simply stood straight up and stared at his hands blankly after the attack. Sasori meanwhile, felt his puppet armor fall around him. Un-useable due to the damage it had taken. As Naruto felt and heard the body of Hiruko collapse, a grin came to his face.