44

Chapter 43: The Man Who Would Be King

(Naruto – Age 7)

In the rather dark underground bunker of the Konoha-based Root hideout, the training of a young operative could be seen taking place. Though it was a very subtle practice it was still clear from the sweat dripping down the boy's face that he was hard at work.

'Come on.' Naruto thought to himself as he stared intensely at the leaf in his hand, 'Just split the leaf. It can't be as hard as Danzo-jiji made it sound. He isn't going to teach you anymore wind jutsu until you can do this.' Naruto kept focusing on the leaf as hard as he possibly could, 'Thinner, sharper… separate your chakra into two and grind them together.' He then felt eyes on his from across the room and noticed that his masked partner Maki had stopped training with hand-seal speed to stare at him working on his elemental training.

"Focus kit." Kyuubi rumbled in his mind. It had been around a year since Naruto had first met with the Kyuubi, and while the fox was rather ornery and ill-tempered more often than not, he surmised that things could have been worse. Danzo wanted him to establish a rapport of sorts with the demon before he could actively begin trying to train with the chakra, and in order to establish a relationship of sorts Naruto went ahead and came to a series of compromises with the massive being. One was that it would be aware of Naruto's surroundings and could actively communicate with him, which it did from time to time, "So your partner wants to watch you train, who cares? You are working on a rather high-level task at the moment. It must seem rather impressive."

'Yeah right…' Naruto said mentally as he tried to get back to cutting the leaf in his hand with his chakra, 'I would agree with you if Maki ever said more than one sentence to me a day. Does the guy really hate me that much?'

"I hate you that much." Kyuubi said to him in a helpful tone.

'You hate everyone that much.' Naruto replied dryly, 'If I have to hear how you would eat Minato Namikaze and shove those Hiraishin kunai of his up his ass again I swear I'm going to mute you. I'm busy.'

"I suppose you have a point." Kyuubi replied with a heavy sigh, "After all, I don't want my container to be so weak that taking over his body would be child's play… no pun intended." The Kyuubi whipped its tails around inside of its destroyed Konoha mindscape, "I expect a challenge out of you when the time comes."

'Whatever.' Naruto thought to the beast inside of him, 'Danzo-jiji gave me this exercise to complete. It's been three months since he told me to do it. I will finish it even if I blackout trying.' He then returned his focus to his work at hand, 'Come on, grind the chakra together, sharper, thinner…'

"*gasp*"

Naruto turned around when he heard Maki gasp, looking back at his leaf he saw what had prompted that uncharacteristic outburst. He had actually cut it the way he had been trying to for months prior to this. A smile came to the boy's face that he quickly rid himself of as he picked up another leaf and proved that it wasn't a fluke by cutting that one as well, and again, and again, each time faster than the last.

After repeating the process twelve times he finally turned to Maki who turned away from him and continued working on hand-seals, "Maki." Naruto said, not getting a response at first, "Maki." He said louder this time, finally getting the plain masked shinobi to turn around, "I'm going to go tell Danzo-jiji that I finished the exercise he gave me. Do you want to spar with swords when we get back? You need to get more melee training anyway."

Maki simply stared at him from behind the white mask before looking away slightly and nodding. Naruto rolled his eyes, "I wish you weren't so weird that you won't talk to me Maki. It gets boring in here with no one to talk to. We're too old for emotional conditioning anyway so they can't do anything to us anyway." He moved closer and tried to look through Maki's mask's eyeholes, "They didn't break you like everybody else did they?" Maki didn't give him a reply, "Fine…" He said in defeat as he left the room, "Time to get back to work. I'll be back in a minute and then we can fight."

Maki simply watched his back as he left before turning to the pile of leaves he had been working with. Picking one up, Maki tried to recreate what Naruto did, only succeeding in pushing plain chakra through it, "Why are you so strong senpai? You make the rest of us look so weak."

(End Flashback)

Naruto, still sitting against the wall of their safehouse with Maki, looked at her strangely, "That's it? That's why you believe in me so much, because I split a leaf when I was 7?"

"No Naruto-senpai." Maki said rather irritably before settling down, "It's because you were always the best, you were always ten steps ahead of every single one of us, and it never seemed like you could fail at anything. And even when you did you always got up and did it anyway, as if you were trying to stick it to the world or something."

Naruto looked at Maki before sighing, "I felt that way because of how people treated me Maki-chan." Maki tilted her head in confusion, "I lived outside of the hideouts and bases Maki. I had to keep up appearances around Konoha so that the Sandaime wouldn't know what I was doing. Well I had to interact with people too, and I learned really quickly that no one believed in me." He looked at his hands before clinching them into fists, "I could beat the shit out of a genin when I was six, I was going on missions that they wouldn't see for a year at least when I was six, but no one thought anything of me. To them I was a nuisance, a waste of space. They thought I was a nobody, and I couldn't show them that I wasn't."

"So why did you work so hard?" Maki wondered. She had been asking herself that for years.

"Because there was one person who believed in me." Naruto said, "Danzo-jiji believed in me. And I know that I was just a pawn to him, just a piece in the overall game that was keeping Konoha safe and strong, but he never sugar-coated it and tried to manipulate me. All I wanted was for someone to know that I was a good ninja, and he knew that I was by the time that I was sealed. That was why I fought Maki-chan, because he believed in me enough to train me, enough to give me the ninjutsu that I still use today, enough to put me in charge of you even though we were both just kids."

"I understand…" Maki said, grabbing a hold of his hand, "That's kind of why I worked so hard too." She said with a smile, "I wanted you to believe in me the way I believed in you. I wanted to be of use to you. You were the only person I knew senpai. And I didn't want to be as much of a burden as I was when I was assigned to be your partner. I almost got you killed so many times."

"You were six years old and my trainee." He reasoned to her while thinking to himself about something he had never questioned back when it happened, 'Why the hell did Danzo give me a damn trainee that was my age when we were both kids? Were his forces that depleted?'

"You were seven, and the most dangerous of our generation by far. No one else even came close at the time." She replied, "I couldn't even beat a regular genin when I was six, but when you left for that year I had never trained so hard before in my life. I was going to challenge you to a spar when you came back and surprise you, and then we could have been friends the way I always wanted to be once I knew that I was close to your level." She let out a small laugh, "Honestly, you scared me when we were kids senpai."

"How the fuck did I scare you?" Naruto asked her incredulously, "I didn't scare anybody, not even the people I was meant to kill."

"Yeah…" Maki said, "And then you killed them… and it didn't matter what they thought of you anymore. Do I need to bring up the textbook clusterfuck that we both know as simply 'Kuminari no Kuni' again as reference?" She said as she started to explain, "A lone noble's manor on the top of an isolated mountain. You go in alone to retrieve a Kumo hijutsu scroll and reparations that were part of an ongoing operation to take monetary compensation that Konoha wasn't given for the Hyuuga Incident. You get caught by the lord of the manor himself and you fight your way out through over fifty armed samurai and leave not a single one of them alive." She gave him a deadpan look with her cloudy grey eyes, "I watched you do it firsthand through binoculars, but I still saw it all. It was scary. You were a very scary person Naruto-senpai."

"Were?" Naruto asked, raising his scarred eyebrow.

"When you left I missed you more than I was scared of you." Maki said softly before narrowing her eyes, "And then when I first saw you again I don't think I was ever so angry in my entire life. I saw red. All I wanted to do was beat the hell out of you. The only reason I didn't was because I was enrolled in the Academy under Danzo-sama's influence and backing, and if I had gotten in trouble it would have reflected on him and I would have been punished."

(Flashback – Naruto – Age 8)

Iruka stood at the front of the classroom going over a lecture on the board, "-And that's the principle behind the ranking system in the hidden villages. Some villages may have special squads and whatnot, but every ninja is labeled with these rankings." He looked around to find that everyone in the class was paying rapt attention and writing down notes on what he had written and had been saying with the exception of one sleeping little blonde boy. With a tick mark formed on his head, Iruka broke off a small piece of chalk in his hand.

Maki, sitting not far at all from Naruto, one row back and four seats down, clinched her fists under the desk as she watched Iruka toss the chalk up and down in his hand, 'You aren't going to let him do this are you senpai? Wake up. Catch it. Let him know you're not really sleeping. For Kami's sake throw something at him when he throws it at you, do something!'

"Wake up Naruto!" Iruka yelled as he let fly with the chalk, bouncing it off of the forehead of the sleeping whiskered boy. Naruto's head snapped up as he looked around in a confused manner, "Welcome back, glad you could join us. Now could you please tell me what you'll be ranked in the ninja system after you graduate the Academy?"

Naruto grinned widely and spoke up loudly, "Hokage of course! I'm going right to the top Iruka-sensei, what else would I be?" The exuberant little boy was confused at the snickers and whispers of the other children around him, "What? I will be!"

"You have to be a genin first Naruto." Iruka said, shaking his head at the boy, "Honestly. This stuff is important. Please stay awake in class, I'm teaching you all of these things for a reason."

Naruto tilted his head, "What? I don't get it Iruka-sensei, how can any of this help us when it's time to kick ass?"

"Watch your mouth." The chunin teacher warned him, "And being a ninja isn't just about 'kicking ass'. There's a time and a place for that, and the rest of the time you need to use your head. How are you going to be any kind of ninja if you don't even know how the ranks work?"

Maki couldn't even stomach looking at Naruto. Whatever had happened to him after his last mission had really messed him up. Danzo wasn't saying anything and he was the only one that could have possibly known, still she was told not to approach him. All she knew was that this wasn't her Naruto-senpai. He wouldn't have played at being this stupid on his worst day. He would have caught that chalk in his hand without even lifting his head. And he damn sure wouldn't have sounded so stupid trying to answer a question that both of them learned the answer to on the first day of their training.

But there was nothing she could do. The most she was allowed to do was to observe him, and if this is what Naruto had become then she was certain that she wouldn't even do that unless she was actually forced to. Maki didn't pay attention to the rest of Iruka's lecture, she knew all of that anyway, she simply spent the rest of class glaring at Naruto and wishing that he would just come to her after class and say he was joking and he was playing a part of some sort.

He never did. And it continued along the same vein for the next four years.

(End Flashback)

Naruto frowned at having the memories of his Academy years drudged up. If his seven year old self had met his eight year old self he would have kicked his own ass into gear, it was embarrassing and still pissed him off to this day. He could only imagine how Maki felt. The only person she knew, someone she basically looked up to for years, turned into a remedial wreck and there was nothing she could do. She couldn't even try to help him even if she could stomach being around that shadow of himself because of orders. Looking at his face every single day and watching him do nothing but screw up again and again must have been akin to laughing in her face for four years straight. She was conditioned damnably good if she could take that for as long as she did.

"And that's when you definitely weren't scared of me anymore?" Naruto asked, getting a nod out of Maki, "I guess you wouldn't have been. You could have killed that version of me with one hand tied behind your back."

"I thought about stabbing you with a pencil about three times a month." She said, getting a strange look out of Naruto, "What? You and I both know that no one would have caught me if I did it. And I didn't say I'd have killed you, just stabbed you."

"Because that's so much better." Naruto said sarcastically, getting a pout out of Maki, putting a smile back on his face, "Well that's over. As much as I'd love to admit that none of that ever happened it did, and I've had to live it down ever since. I had to beat 8 of my classmates' asses back-to-back along with 2 more experienced genin to get people to start taking me seriously."

Maki giggled, "I saw that too. You were angry that day Naruto-senpai. Have an axe to grind did you?" Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Honestly that's when I believed that you were back, and as strange as it sounds, when you finished beating them all I couldn't get the smile off of my face for the rest of the day. My genin squad didn't understand why and they thought I was weird, but then again I never bothered to explain, I couldn't. And that's when I truly started believing in you."

"Then?" That sounded strange to Naruto, "All I did was fight. How did that make you believe in me?"

"Because you actually came back." Maki explained to him, "I thought you were gone and that the Naruto Uzumaki that was there through the Academy was going to be there for life. And then you just popped back in and didn't miss a beat. You actually seemed ridiculously stronger than you were when you left, and I figured, if you could return from having every aspect of your personality, skills, and overall memory forcefully sealed away then there wasn't anything that could stop you if you wanted something done." She lay her head on his shoulder and allowed herself to close her eyes happily when he didn't push her off or complain.

Naruto just smiled at the younger girl and set his head on hers as he decided to drift off to sleep along with her, 'Maybe you're right Maki-chan. I'm not sure which choice is the right one, or even if there is a right and wrong in this case. There never really is. As a ninja everything we do is a shade of grey. What may be good to one person could be downright demonic to another elsewhere. I just have to trust my gut on this one and hope that it's not the wrong choice for me, you, and all of us. *laughs* And if you believe in me that much then I can't let my sweet little kouhai down by being a flake now can I?'

XxX

(Later that Night – Naruto's Mindscape)

Naruto entered to a rather familiar scene, the Kyuubi lying down in the middle of a completely eradicated Konoha. Every single time he came inside of his mindscape and saw this it only inspired him to get stronger. There was no way he was going to allow this to happen to his village for real. If the Kyuubi knew how much seeing this actually encouraged him, it would probably stop doing it, but when Naruto was actually in front of him trying to speak it never seemed to pick up on how Naruto was trying to keep himself from becoming angry at the sight of the ruined village. After seeing it a few hundred times over the course of his life Naruto had come to develop a rather black humor over the subject, but all he wanted to do was shove a Fuuton: Rasengan right down the Kyuubi's throat each time he had to watch it eradicate a sector of the village with one of its powerful Imari attacks.

As Naruto neared the beast it stopped in its destruction to tower over Naruto. The two simply locked eyes for the longest time, not saying a single word. The Kyuubi honestly had more respect for Naruto than any other human it had ever come across. None of its previous jinchuuriki had taken to the process and the responsibility the way Naruto had. He didn't bother trying to be something he wasn't, normal, he didn't bother trying to hold the power at bay and simply hold it inside, no he intended to use it as an advantage over his enemies instead of looking at it as a curse. This was the purest incarnation of a shinobi that it had ever been forced to be around, though he would never tell Naruto this to his face.

The Kyuubi sat down on its haunches, laying its head down on the ground to get itself as close to eye level as it possibly could. Naruto finally spoke up to the demon that made him look like nothing more than an insect in comparison, "I'm guessing that you already know why I'm here. Before I make a final decision I just want to hear what you have to say. Say what you will about how you want to devour me, but you've always been my closest confidant, you've always been my closest ally. You helped keep me from breaking when I was in Root."

The Kyuubi bared its teeth in a rather chilling smirk that would have unnerved any other shinobi and paralyzed them with fear, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend boy. I needed you to keep me alive, and fighting your will to survive would have been the same as fighting against myself. Besides, no host of mine would ever possibly be allowed to be the mindless drone of another." The amused look then dropped from the creature's face, "Yes I know why you are here. I have to say, I'm surprised you came to me. I fully expected you to simply take the eye and then come in here with intent to yoke me into submission."

Naruto chuckled humorlessly, "Come on now. Do you really think that me with a Sharingan would make that much of a difference with my genjutsu that I could just flat out beat you with it? I wake Maki up and could put that eye in right now and tomorrow morning when I woke up I would still be laughable at it."

'Just when I think I have this puny human child all figured out…' The Kyuubi thought to itself as it looked at its diminutive host, "You obviously know what I want to say. I want you to crush that eye and do a primitive war dance on it, or better yet I would love for you to find one of the last remaining Uchiha and force-feed it to them personally, but we both know that even if you didn't take the eye you wouldn't simply destroy it." Naruto gave it a nod agreeing with its statement. The Kyuubi growled lowly in thought as to what it wanted to say about the topic at hand.

"I want an honest answer from you." Naruto said firmly, eyes reflecting nothing but the pure seriousness that his voice conveyed, "None of your goddamn mind-game shit, no more ducking my questions and blowing me off. If you never answer anything else I ever ask you until the day we kick the shit out of each other for full control over the other you're going to answer this question right now." He could feel the ill intent just flickering off of the Kyuubi like heat from a flame, but to hell with that at the moment, it could be as angry and pissy as it wanted to be after they were done, "As a matter of me defeating the enemies after me, Gaara, Yugi-chan, and Kirabi… as a matter of me defending Konoha the way I swore I would to Danzo-jiji when I took his last mission to me, do you think I should take the Sharingan for myself?"

"No." It said plainly, looking away from Naruto in a bored manner, "Now leave."

"Don't give me that bullshit!" Naruto snapped at the Kyuubi defiantly as a crack of thunder and lightning signified Naruto's mood and mental state. The wind began to pick up as well, representing his two elements, "This isn't about you and me. This isn't even about you and the Uchiha Clan that you seem to have a gripe with. Pretend that we didn't have to fight. Pretend that you only knew me in passing and knew what I was up against and what I had to deal with in my miserable, battle-filled life. I want you to fucking tell me, in your honest opinion and I really want you to think as hard as your fuzzy-wuzzy cutesy-wutesy head can. If you were me… Is it… a good idea… for me to have the Sharingan. Yes or no."

It should have just turned around and slapped him with its tails, it wouldn't have done a single thing to him but still, it might have worked in theory. It should have told him to get the fuck out again, it should have started a fight right then and there and tried to forcibly influence him the way it hadn't tried to in almost ten years. But the Kyuubi did none of these things. It simply stared at Naruto for the longest time, taking all that Naruto had said and truly taking the time to answer his question "I can't answer that question for you ningen. It is your choice in the end. If you really are to be Hokage the way you intend to be then you need to be able to answer these questions on your own because the decisions for you will only grow harder and harder in the future, if you survive that long."

Naruto nodded and turned to leave the mindscape when he heard the Kyuubi speak again, "When you and I fight… no Sharingan. No matter what you decide in the end. This is my only request to you."

Naruto didn't even bother turning back around as he kept walking away and fading out of the mindscape, "I'll think about it." He said off-handedly, not hinting one way or the other on the matter.

Kyuubi smirked again as Naruto disappeared from his mind, "Damn brat."

XxX

(The Next Day – Gates of Konohagakure no Sato)

Kakashi stood ready to leave on his mission at the gate with Jiraiya, Shizune, and Tsunade there to see the squad off. Jiraiya walked up to his fellow white-haired male and set his only existing hand on his shoulder before speaking in a still rather gravelly voice, "It's still going to be a little while before I'm ready to do anything like train the gaki. I've only been rehabbing for around a few weeks. Just make sure that you keep him safe when you find him okay?"

Kakashi nodded, "You've got it Jiraiya-sama. Heh, if anything I'm certain he'll probably find us somehow when he's in the most trouble. Don't worry about it. If he told you all of these things then he's not hiding anymore, he shouldn't be that hard to find now."

Tsunade stepped forward next, "Good luck Kakashi. Keep Sakura safe and make sure she doesn't try anything stupid on this mission. Kami knows that if Naruto really is searching for an Uchiha he'll probably end up running into one or the other somehow. I don't want her losing her head over this." She said, sneaking a glance at the pink-haired medic who looked ready for anything.

Nodding again to his leader, Kakashi turned to his squad, "Alright everyone. There are reasons I picked all of you for this mission, but now's not the time to dwell on that." The squad he selected of Neji, Kiba (with Akamaru), Tayuya, Sakura, and Shikamaru stared at him, all each with their own determination for the mission, "The primary mission is to find Naruto Uzumaki, the secondary mission is to assist him in whatever matter currently has his attention at the moment. He is not an enemy, however be prepared for combat against anyone he has deemed his target to be. There is also a very good chance that we will be facing off against Akatsuki on this mission. You've all been informed about who these people are and any further questions can be answered by Naruto himself once he is found. Any questions?"

He got a unanimous shake of heads in the negative from everyone, "Right then. Let's go find ourselves a blonde kid." He said before rushing off in a blur to be followed by everyone else.

Tsunade looked down the road where they had set out before turning to Jiraiya, "You know that foreboding feeling I had before you and Naruto went off to Amegakure?" She asked him, getting Jiraiya to look at her curiously, "I think I'm getting it again."

"I didn't know you were clairvoyant Tsunade-hime." Jiraiya said with a grin, getting a glare out of the large chested blonde woman, "It'll be fine. Even if you have that feeling he's still going to make it back. Since that sense of yours only seems to work on men you care and about and look at me, I made it back just fine, and the brat is tougher than me. The kid might wind up a little banged up, but when is he not getting put in the hospital for something?"

Shizune picked up Tonton from the ground and held the small pig tight to her chest, "I really hope that you're right and Tsunade-sama is wrong about this Jiraiya-sama."

"We all do Shizune." Jiraiya said before turning around to head back inside of the village.

XxX

(With Team Kakashi)

Tayuya looked around to all of the people she had been dispatched on this mission with before choosing to speak up to Kakashi, "So can I ask you why you decided to pick all of us for this mission. Not that I care about it too fucking much, but I'm a new tokubetsu jounin so why would you want me?" Tayuya still wore her black hat with bandages on the sides, but her clothing itself was now different. She wore a tight mesh bodysuit like Anko, only hers had long sleeves and went all the way down her legs to her black sandals. Over that she wore a sleeveless tan top that was cut to show her cleavage and short to show her stomach, and a light-purple skirt.

"You all have your roles on this squad." Kakashi said with an eye-smile as he turned around and looked at her, "For example, you have genjutsu expertise that the others don't have which will be important if we come across the Sharingan, and in case we find anyone with the whereabouts of either Naruto, Sasuke, or Itachi, and they don't feel too forthcoming with the information you can persuade them. I hear that you're Anko's favorite pet project at the ANBU Torture and Interrogation Department."

"Crazy bitch…" Tayuya muttered rather miserably, "I had to kickstart learning a jutsu that I didn't know just so I could keep her the fuck away from me. Training my ass, that was pure torture."

Kakashi smiled at her and continued his explanation, "Sakura is our medic of course and being that she has been on a team with both Naruto and Sasuke she has personal stake in this. She knows them better than anyone else-." He stopped when he heard Tayuya scoff and smirk, "-Well she knows them better than most people. " He gestured towards Kiba, "Kiba is our tracker and he has a personal stake in this as well. Naruto is his friend and Sasuke escaped from their squad when he left Konoha, same for Neji, except he will be our eyes and basic sensor. Shikamaru has personal stake in this as well, and in case of combat his battle plans will be second-to-none and invaluable to us."

"Understood." Tayuya said, now figuring how this all tied together, "So where is Uzumaki?"

Kakashi answered her question brightly, "We have no earthly idea." Tayuya almost tripped and fell at the cavalier tone of how Kakashi had said that, "All we know is that he's in Hi no Kuni. But we know that no matter where he is he's going to be causing some fireworks soon. He said he was done hiding which means he's going to start something soon. Once we catch wind of him he won't be too difficult to locate."

Kiba chuckled slightly, "I'm not too sure about that actually. The guy can hide from us inside of Konoha if he really wants to hide. Now he has the entire country as his playground."

Neji shook his head, "He can hide from you because you're afraid to go into the Forest of Death."

"S-Shut up!" Kiba said turning his gaze away from the others as Akamaru let out a few canine snickers of amusement, "But yeah. Even when he goes in there… he made me try to look for him in there once. Akamaru and I looked for almost twelve hours. All we found were tons of his clones all over the place, and then he turned up at that Ichiraku Ramen stand he's at all the time. It's maddening when you want to find the guy. He's never around. This might be tough."

Shikamaru took that moment to add his own input to the situation, "What do we do if we come across Sasuke first?"

"That's simple." Kakashi said as he pulled out Sasuke's old hitae-ate that had been scratched out when he left to go to Orochimaru, "We defeat him ourselves and save Naruto the trouble since that's one of the reasons he's still in Hi no Kuni to begin with."

Tayuya looked and noticed the look on Sakura's face, "You'd better be focused on this pinky. I'd really like this to be the last time I have to deal with the Uchiha prick. The last time wasn't very delightful if you would fucking recall the beatdown that Uzumaki put on me."

Sakura looked over at her fellow kunoichi's scrutinizing gaze and gave a firm nod, "I'm ready for whatever happens. I've been training for this for years."

XxX

(With Naruto and Company)

With the new day ahead of them, Naruto once again led his team north into Hi no Kuni in search of Sasuke or Itachi, "The next town we reach we need to start searching around for intel. I'll drop some clones here, have them Henge, and we'll keep going. We'll have a dragnet of sorts over the region by the end of the day."

"I will leave behind some of my ink creatures as well Naruto-senpai." Sai said helpfully to the blonde leader, "They can help your Kage Bunshin with gathering information and speed up the process."

"Good idea." Naruto said, acknowledging how helpful that could be to narrowing down a general area faster, "Make some and I'll make some clones and then we can take to the air and look from up there."

After both shinobi had made their amount of scouting entities, Sai formed a pair of large ink birds and once again the trio flew above the forests of Hi no Kuni.

Maki held on to Naruto from behind as Sai flew next to their bird on his own, leading the two of them along, "What are we looking for exactly Naruto-senpai?"

Naruto grinned back at her as he sat down firmly on the bird and allowed Sai to steer them both with his own will, "We're looking for a lot of things in particular Maki-chan. Kubikiribouchou is a very specific sword. People will know if they've seen it. Akatsuki attire is very specific, people will also know if they've seen it. And then Kisame Hoshigaki himself is very specific. He's blue and has those gill markings on his face. If someone saw him they'd damn sure remember where it was."

Sai spoke up from where he was flying nearby, "It's all a matter of how secluded they're trying to be while travelling. Finding Sasuke Uchiha should be far easier than finding Itachi Uchiha by comparison though. Itachi would be used to concealing his movements and moving under the radar."

"I wish we had an Inuzuka though." Naruto said regretfully, "If Kiba were here we'd be making great time on this. Better than we would be right now."

Maki sighed into his back, "It can't be helped Naruto-senpai. Danzo-sama doesn't even have an Inuzuka to work with in Root, so unless you headed back to Konoha and asked for one you couldn't get one."

Speaking of Konoha, Naruto had a thought, "Wait, how am I going to explain you guys away when we go home? Sai I might be able to, but Maki-chan I don't think I'll be able to. Root's officially disbanded."

"I don't know." Maki said, "But we can't say anything about Danzo-sama anyway to someone not cleared to know anything." She stuck out her tongue and revealed a seal near the back of it taking the shape of three solid lines and two broken lines, "Sai-senpai has one too."

Naruto snapped his fingers as he remembered the seal, "Oh yeah, Danzo-jiji tried to put that thing on me three different times, but I just broke it each time. I was enough of a pawn at the time. Me having that seal didn't benefit me at all. Kyuubi's chakra overpowered it when I wanted it gone."

'Naruto-senpai really is strong.' Maki thought to herself, "So what are we going to do now?"

"I'm going to search the ground." Naruto said, getting Maki to let go of her grip around his waist before he stood up on the bird, "Sai, you're in charge of Maki. When you find anything and can't find me just head back to the first village we came to before and wait for me or look for me." Naruto then jumped off of the bird and fell towards the trees below.

"Naruto-senpai!" Maki and Sai both looked as their leader fell to the ground below. Before Sai could direct his birds to go catch him, Naruto yelled out a jutsu.

"Fuuton: Kaze Wakiokoru (Wind Release: Wind Burst)!" Naruto's body was upright as he seemingly stopped for a second in the air from an air bubble that formed under one of his feet before falling again and repeating the process until he safely fell through the canopy, "I'll see you guys soon!"

Maki stared at the area in the forests that he fell to with a twitch to her eye, "I'm going to put a horrible falling genjutsu on him once he gets back."

"He just did that to get a reaction out of us." Sai said as he had by now gotten over Naruto's attempt at rather dark humor, "Naruto-senpai believes that scaring his friends like that is funny. He tried to explain the concept of scaring his friends to me once, but I don't think I understood it right because he beat me up after I booby-trapped his apartment. That had to have been somewhat alarming, right?"

Maki turned and gave Sai a dry look, "Sai-senpai, Danzo-sama really should have put you on a genin squad after Shin-san passed away." She let out a sigh, "Don't worry. If Naruto-senpai is trying to teach you social things then I guess I'll have to help as well. My future boss can't be socially inept or we'd all be dead." She then saw Sai giving her his strange smile, "That smile is going to have to be the first thing to go…"

XxX

As soon as Naruto fell through the canopy of the trees he took off in a dead sprint through the ground level of the forest. All three of them shouldn't be in the air for something like this, and since he had the best stamina he was the one best suited for taking the ground route. The memories of a dispelled clone informed him that he needed to head northwest, and head northwest he did. One of Sai's smaller, faster birds was already en route to find its creator and Maki to inform them as well, thusly Naruto just had to head to the town indicated in the direction.

At the edge of the forest Naruto came to a stop at a massive gorge spanning an entire mile across, "My ass I have to cross this now!" He shouted angrily at nature… for sticking a damn gorge in his way, "Fuck it!" Naruto said before charging down the sheer cliff face. How dare a natural formation get in the way of him trying to get to where he was going, it was times like this that he was really jealous of guys like Sai that could fly.

At the bottom of the gorge lay a very wide river almost the entire span of the ravine. Running across it and beginning his ascent up the other side, there was no one there except for him and the few birds he could see flying in the distance. He ignored them until the sound of wings flapping grew abnormally close to him and that was when he was able to notice the plain white color of the avian animals that were coming right at him, "Son of a-."

"Katsu!"

The birds hit the wall that Naruto had been attached to at full speed and exploded on contact in fiery blasts. Chunks of the cliff wall fell to the ground with Naruto among them. Deidara flew above the crash site on a large clay bird with Tobi riding as well, "You found one, yeah! And you got him Deidara-senpai!"

"Be quiet Tobi." Deidara said, adjusting the scope on his left eye with a battle-hungry smile on his face, "He's not dead… I can't kill him anyway, but I can blow off a few limbs, he'll survive it. No, that wasn't nearly enough to put the Kyuubi kid down. He's way better than that." His smile grew larger as he saw the rocks at the bottom of the gorge shift about, revealing Naruto to his view once more, "You see?"

Naruto cast the last of the rocks off of his body and stood back up with a growl. Looking up in the air he saw Deidara and some weird guy in a mask with an orange spiral on it, "Fine. I guess I can kill one more of you before looking for Sasuke. Thin out the numbers so to speak."

Tobi pointed down at Naruto, "Ooh, Deidara-senpai he looks mad. Such a scary face."

"You should be relatively afraid of him Tobi." Deidara said, "This guy beat Hidan, killed Kakuzu and Sasori no Danna, he even fought Leader-sama and got away in one piece. He really is quite a spectacular jinchuuriki. Very powerful. I know from personal experience, he's incredibly dangerous, un."

Naruto stood at the ready as his brain worked out his current situation as quickly as it could, 'Okay, he's flying again. First order of business is to shoot that damn bird down for me to even have a fight chance of hitting him directly. I can handle that, but that other guy, I don't know the first thing about him. He could be even stronger than Deidara is.'

Deidara had the mouths in the palms of his hands eat more clay and form more bird sculptures, "It's been so long since we've seen each other. Let's catch up, un. I'll start off with C1, so you can remember the fear you felt at my art back in Uzushiogakure." The birds flew off at Naruto and grew in size, preparing for their suicide bombing attempts to take him out.

"Last time I didn't have the tools I needed to fight you, but this time I do!" Naruto said as he began running along the rocky area and atop the river in the gorge, 'I don't need to cut you down with my sword alone anymore, I have actual ranged ninjutsu that I can use now!' He thought to himself as he reached into his supply pouch and pulled out a single shuriken, throwing it at the birds as he made five hand-seals rapidly, "Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"

The aerial weaponry turned from one to over a dozen and cut through the clay birds, clipping their wings and bringing them down into the water where they detonated prematurely.

Deidara watched Naruto dispatch his feeling-out explosives easily, "It looks like someone's learned some new tricks since the last time we had it out, un." He looked at his mysterious partner, "Tobi get off the bird. This one is mine. You might get in the way if the fight gets as out of hand as I'm expecting. Go keep watch on the perimeter and make sure no one else interferes with the capture of the Kyuubi jinchuuriki."

"Are you sure Deidara-senp-?" Tobi tried to ask, unsure of Deidara's order.

"Just listen to me and leave before I explode some clay on you instead of him, un!" Deidara snapped at him, "This brat and I have a bone to pick. He remembers how he ran and hid in fear of my art the last time around."

Naruto pulled out even more long-range weapons and took aim at Deidara as he saw the other one jump from his bird to the top of the gorge, leaving the battlefield altogether. The young blonde shinobi was simply waiting for the opportune moment to make his next move on the dangerous nuke-nin, 'Be patient. Deidara isn't stupid, and fighting from a distance is his specialty. I still need to close the distance to put a hurt on him, but I can at least hold my own from here.' He thought analytically as he removed the plain white mask from his waist and placed it securely over his face.

"Strange mask, un." Deidara commented as he watched Naruto cover his scarred face with the rather plain piece of porcelain, "Pretty weird seeing something like that on a guy like you. What does it mean? ANBU?"

Fully decked out in nostalgic Root gear, Naruto scoffed and slowly drew the Sen'nenki no Ken from its sheath on his back as he spoke lowly, "You wish it meant just ANBU."

XxX

(Konohagakure no Sato – Hokage Tower)

Tsunade sat at her desk, going through her daily busy work as per usual. She barely had it in her to go out and train for her designated period of time so she decided that she might as well get Shizune off of her back for the time being by catching up with everything that required her attention. A knock on the door alerted her and seemed to be a welcome reprieve from the monotony of her day, "You may enter." That was until she saw who it was that had decided to pay her a visit, "Danzo."

The bandaged old man shut the door before he walked around her office, taking in the sights of the place where each Hokage had done their jobs dutifully even to this day, "I hope now isn't a bad time for a small conversation Tsunade-hime. If it is then I could always try to come back later."

"No, now is as good a time as any." Tsunade said, going straight into business-mode for this. She knew of Danzo's reputation prior to the Sandaime Hokage's death. Quiet. Always in the background, but his presence could never be missed. Nowadays she couldn't possibly comprehend where that line of thought had come from. These days it seemed more like Danzo was just waiting for something. He had made no noise whatsoever, he had refrained from vehemently opposing any of her policies, and he had been tremendously quiet about Naruto despite the past between them that she was well aware of at this point.

"Very well." He said taking a seat in the chair provided for guests in front of Tsunade's desk, "This is about Naruto."

'Again?' Tsunade thought to herself as she nodded and gestured for him to continue, "I see. What is it you would like to talk about?"

Danzo let silence settle over the room for a moment before speaking, "You are well aware of my past relationship with Naruto. In his childhood I was his first benefactor and I am the one that gave him the base of his shinobi skills that he still makes use of to this day."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes, "Yes, I'm fully aware of your attempts to turn Naruto into a drone, just like the rest of Root. You did go ahead and disband them like you were ordered to all those years ago, right?" She asked knowingly. She may have never verbally acknowledged it to the boy himself, but after Naruto realized exactly how far back his family roots went she eagerly claimed him as her own family, distant though he may have been. After that bit of truth came out, she was rather defensive over the fact that he had been in Root. She had heard hearsay of just how that group operated and she was amazed that Naruto wound up as well balanced as he was to go with the power he had at his disposal.

Danzo frowned visibly and shook his head, "I never once lied to the boy. I told him exactly what he was in for before we ever began training, and he never backed down. He took part of his own free will, he was never my pawn. I would dare say he was the greatest recruit I could have ever asked for. But if he stayed then he wouldn't have been as useful to Konoha as he is now."

"What do you mean?" Tsunade said to the wily old man, keeping her mental sensors ready for anything off about what he was saying.

Danzo tapped the bottom of his cane on the ground before speaking once more, "He not only has the strength and skill as a shinobi he's also a jinchuuriki, this naturally makes him a more powerful shinobi than those that are his equal. You must be aware of the proficiency of the Kazekage Sabaku no Gaara. I believe that Naruto is more powerful at this time, and he is only getting better and better, not only that but he has the support of many important nations."

Yuki no Kuni and Nami no Kuni, places he was seen as a hero. Sunagakure, Kumogakure, and now possibly Kirigakure, hidden villages that Naruto singlehandedly set up friendly rapports with. It was the truth. Naruto despite only being 16 years of age was by far one of the most influential shinobi that Konoha had to offer, and his strength was respected throughout the ninja world, as news of his victories over Kakuzu, Hidan, Sasori, and all of the other enemies he had managed to defeat had been spread throughout the continent. The boy had his own bingo book page to himself at this point in copies distributed in multiple hidden villages.

Not acknowledging how important Naruto was to Konoha and its financial and political relationships at large would have been foolish of Tsunade, of course she knew these things, they were contributing factors that led to his promotion to jounin, he had thoroughly earned it. Everyone that was aware of these things at large knew it and no one that had thought of him as a nuisance before could possibly justify keeping him back any longer, thus she gleefully stamped his promotion through.

Danzo continued making his point, "He has your support, Jiraiya's support, the support of many of the most powerful ninja in the village in many high-ranking positions, and he has the entire future generation of shinobi utterly enamored with his strength. I'm aware of the young Konohamaru telling his friends in the Academy stories that Naruto told him of his own battles and missions. They see him as a hero, and even the boy's own generation's most talented shinobi all consider themselves friends and allies of his."

Tsunade again nodded, "I see where you're coming from with all of this, but I don't know where you're going yet."

The man smirked, "You can't hold the seat forever Tsunade. Eventually you will have to hand over the hat, and I'm sure that you know just as well as I do who would make the best choice for a successor."

"Naruto." She figured he would say. Why else would he have led her here with his conversation points? She had to say, she couldn't see any problems with that. He had ANBU experience and Tenzo said that he showed the chops for an actual ANBU position after his mission with him, also Danzo wouldn't be endorsing him on this if he didn't see Naruto as the real deal. His mission completion rate was impeccable. Since his promotion to chunin he had been Tsunade's go-to-guy that wasn't named Kakashi Hatake. All of the lower C and B-ranked missions that she needed to find a quick fix to stick someone in she gave to Naruto and he always worked them out. The kid seemed to be untouchable, no matter who was paired with him, no matter if he was the squad leader or not. Even on higher level missions he never flinched, and he hadn't actually failed a mission in three years since being sent as backup to retrieve Sasuke Uchiha on that ill-fated clusterfuck. With a little more seasoning she could see herself grooming him to take over for her by the time he was 21 or so.

"Exactly." Danzo said, "I see the strength in that boy to do what is needed for our village, and that's why I'm here to tell you myself that I give my full support, 100%, to Naruto Uzumaki in the future case of his eventual bid for the position of Rokudaime or Shidaime Hokage… whichever happens for him first."

Tsunade blinked in confusion, "You're actually supporting someone that isn't yourself towards becoming Hokage?" Now she was suspicious, "What kind of game are you playing Danzo?"

Danzo shook his head as he stood up, "No game at all Tsunade-hime." He said plainly, turning to leave the office, "Is it that strange for a teacher to believe in their finest student and wish to support them."

"Not at all." Tsunade said. It was strange to consider Naruto as Danzo's student, but it was the truth and she knew it. He trained him first, before anyone else ever did.

Danzo turned back at the door right before reaching for the door, "No matter what occurs in the boy's career or life. No matter how far you and Jiraiya try to distance him from me and try to pretend that it never happened, the fact will never truly change. He was mine first. I taught him how to survive, I made him a splendid shinobi that you yourself even take pride in knowing, and he's growing into a man that you believe can protect this village the way a Hokage should. He has earned your trust through blood spilled for you and yours, he has worked his way up from the very bottom. I did this, I instilled his base values as a ninja in him. So whenever you think of me as some rogue element that you can't trust, remember one thing."

"And what would that one thing be?" She asked him rather tensely.

"I didn't do this for me." He said coolly, "And I never did this for Root. I looked at that little four year old boy that wanted to be acknowledged as someone great and I did what I could to fulfill that destiny of his, because he will be greater than all of us Tsunade-hime. I did this so that the future of Konoha was secured well in advance, before anyone was even thinking about the future ninja of our village. I'd like to think that I managed to succeed on that front. What do you think?" With that he grabbed a hold of the door handle and let himself out, "Good day Tsunade-hime."

As Danzo left and shut the door behind him, Tsunade put a rather good-spirited smile of defeat on her face, "Yeah Danzo… I'd wager that you succeeded as well. For what it's worth I really can't imagine him being this reliable and powerful without training with you." She said to no one in the empty room before resigning to return to her work. The day couldn't just end because of a conversation after all.