Naruto
-320-
By Geor-sama

Tsunade had grown to hate the lounge that adjoined her office, not because of the room itself, but because the only time she went in there, it was to deal with the advisors. They were the former team mates of her sensei, so she tried to respect their opinion and listen to them. Sadly, she couldn't because they had become more or less mouthpieces for the village council.

Today there was no denying that they had lost any semi-balance of respectability, they had sought a meeting so that they -read the council- could slander Naruto and the Kumo Jōnin Yugito. Apparently they -the council! - did not approve of those two spending time together especially since she also happened to be a Jinchūriki. Even more worrying in their esteemed opinion was the fact that he had given her a guided tour of Konoha without worry and concern about the consequences.

For this, they wanted his status as a ninja revoked and to keep the boy securely within the village -preferably an ANBU cell-. As for Yugito, they simply wanted to make her disappear. The apparently agreed upon method for this disappearance would be to hand her over to Root and Danzou who would lock her away forever.

They argued, with their unique logic, that Kumo would be weaker without her and that Akatsuki would have less incentive to visit them. Danzo of course seemed utterly uninterested in discussing what would happen to her after Yugito was handed over. Nor did the advisors seem duly interested in her eventual fate; indeed them seemed more interested in awaiting her agreement.

Tsunade had tried to keep the village running smoothly, she had correct things but left others unaddressed, but this was perhaps the largest problem she faced. These 'advising sessions' had started innocent and slowly, they had built to this point. A point where if she agreed, if she compromised, then she might as well just get on her knees and open wide -like a few whispered jokes hinted that she did to maintain the peace with any Kage that visited-.

So she sat on the plush couch, staring at the two wrinkly and expectant faces, aware of the bandaged Cyclops hovering in the corner. How could she respond to this order, for there was no other term for how they had approached this conversation. Finally, without preamble, Tsunade smiled addressing their suggestions with all the concern of swatting a gnat.

"No."

"No?"

"No." Tsunade confirmed with a tiny nod "Naruto can fraternize with whoever he wishes, he can give her a tour all he wants. She stays where she's at and she goes back to Kumo as soon as we can arrange it."

"Tsunade, this isn't like with the team-" Haruo started until Tsunade cut her off.

"What part of 'no' don't you understand?" Tsunade asked blandly and then seeing they're surprise sighed "Everyone seems to have forgotten but this is a military dictatorship. I am the supreme leader, the strongest ninja in this village."

Tsund-"

"I want you to listen to the words I am saying," Tsunade barked, interrupting them coldly "I'm not playing nice anymore. I don't have time for it and Konoha doesn't have time for it."

"Tsunade, this isn't-"

"You refer to me as Hokage-sama," Tsunade said, standing with all the grace of an empress before striding across the room as she continued "listen to me very clearly, I have a group of insane S-rank criminals running around and they won't stop just because we lock up two brats. So dealing with that group takes precedence over power-plays and the politican's you've whored yourselves to."

"We are the voice of the council! You must list-"

"What I must do," Tsunade said stopping halfway across the room, but not turning to address any of them "is my job. My job says that the council has no authority in decisions concerning the safety of this village. Despite what you think, your authority is limited to civilian matters."

"Hmph, arrogant as the rest of her family," came Danzo's dry, wasp like voice.

"One more word," Tsunade said, turning to fix him with a glare that would have made lesser men faint "and I'll have your fuckin head for treason old man."

Then turning she continued on her way.

Yugito would never understand Konoha, but then nobody really understood Konoha. Not even the ninja that lived there, well maybe the Hokage understood it but they were pretty much the only ones. They were very lax on security, after her little trip with Naruto yesterday she'd been roaming around the village without supervision.

Hence, her current attempt to familiarize the streets and buildings. She'd been out of her room for most of the day and nobody had even bothered hunting her down. Mainly she was trying to find that ramen place Naruto had taken her, but that proved impossible so she had to settle for locating other business.

Odd thing was, all day yesterday she'd received glares or had people hurry away upon sight of her. Today nobody gave her a second glance, though a few guys had given her appreciative looks. It was a complete one-eighty from her previous experience and combined with the fact that they didn't know her status as a Jinchūriki it was nice.

In Kumo she'd have never been treated so casually, or so kindly. A fruit stand vendor, an old woman had given her a free pear 'just because' and one guy had even asked her out. Both were new experiences, she was used to being treated impersonally or ignored. Still, without money, one grew bored quickly and so she hit up the local library.

The place was large, nicely furnished and filled with rows of bookcases. Tables dotted the floor, with only a few people scattered about and Yugito felt a nice sense of calm. She roamed briefly, then selecting a Konoha History book settled into a table. It did not, however, take long for her to get bored and snap the book shut.

Getting up, with a stretch, she returned to the books and found the fiction section. Much to her surprise, she found the complete Icha Icha series, amused but uninterested, she moved on. An hour later, she finally found something worth reading and returned to her table, only to discover it now filled with young kids.

A quick glanced confirmed that the entire place had steadily filled while she had been on her hunt. It didn't take a genius either to realize that they were all ninja academy students, mainly because there were two ninja that screamed 'instructors'. After all, only ninja academy instructors would have that bored look.

Looking at the book in hand, Yugito grimaced. There was no way she could check it out, she'd have to put it back and come back tomorrow to read it. Turning to do just that Yugito found an older woman smiling kindly behind her.

"Would you like to check that one out?"

"Well, uh, I would but..." Yugito stammered a little put off by the helpful woman.

"Its ok, I know how it is," the woman said, taking Yugito's arm, leading her toward the counter "new in town, don't know anyone. Probably staying in some motel, books are definitely your friend but you just make sure to meet a nice young man. Young woman like you, can't go around with her nose in a book for too long."

"Ah, well, I've already got a friend..." Yugito offered, mind whirling from the unusual situation. They reached the counter in a few moments and the woman plucked the book out of her hand and began stamping it.

"Oh? Who would that be dear?"

"Uh, Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto." Yugito said, and then watched as the woman fumbled with her stamp and looked up at her in surprise. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, not really I suppose," the woman said, her friendly attitude replaced by the typical librarian role "Where are you staying?"

"Room 306 in Konoha Hospital," Yugito offered taking the book as it was offered curtly, confused by the dour look on the womans face.

"Due back in a week."

"Right." Yugito said, unnerved by the change in attitude. Leaving the library quickly, the book 'Clay' in hand, she wondered about such a reaction. She had mentioned Naruto and the woman's attitude had changed completely. The nurse she'd asked, now that she thought about it, seemed the same way. Frowning she slowed to a stop, her mind flashing to the difference in looks she had received today.

Naruto.

Everything revolved around Naruto and the way this village viewed him. Why did people in this village seem to loath his existence, he seemed nice enough. Yugito could see no reason for Naruto to be anything other than well liked.

No answers came, which annoyed her and what was worse she couldn't remember him even hinting at anything. Yugito was a very observant person after all, and she was only now realizing just how big an enigma Naruto was. He never talked about himself; Hokage this, ramen that, what his friends were doing, hinted at training, but never talked about his personal life.

Apparently, there was something in his past, something dark, that he was keeping secret from her and more impressive was the fact that he was doing a damn good job of it.

Two hundred Kage Bunshin, put to a single task for one day, equaled forty-eight hundred hours of solo training. Averaged out, that equaled the better part of a year. Impressive, but even more so was the fact that Naruto had been at this training roughly two days, which multiplied the earlier numbers by two.

Uzumaki Naruto could feel every single one of those hours, every single second, as he struggled with a technique that his sensei Kakashi had told him might truly be impossible. By taking the Rasengan and then trying to add his element chakra to it, he was attempting to climb higher than even the Yondaime and as Kakashi had confided in him, Naruto could be the only person to do so.

The only problem, as far as Naruto could see, was that essentially they asked him to look left and right at the same time. Not a feat normally feasible and it was proving impossible already. Yamato had said it took an incredible amount of skill to combine element and form together, or a type of sense, but it was the fact that neither Kakashi nor the Yondaime had been able to do that kept hammering into Naruto's head.

"Damn!" Naruto hissed, bringing his attention back to the task, namely stabilizing the chakra of the Rasengan while a clone attempted to insert the needed 'wind' chakra. His arm was trembling, it felt like the muscles were beginning to rip and tear, it took every ounce of concentration he had, trying to ignore as the increased sensation as other groups exploded from the exertion.

"A little...more," the current clone hissed, sweating heavily.

"C-come on," Naruto mumbled, sweating heavier and feeling as if his arm was about to rip apart. Then with a loud 'thoom' he lost control, destroying several nearby clones and collapsing to his knees. Fingers digging into the ground he felt his breath come in sharp, painful stabs, his mind trying to handle the strain of so many Kage Bunshin suddenly disappearing.

"Damn it!" One of a nearby pair of Kage Bunshin shouted at the other "Concentrate, try to rub the two chakra together!" Looking up, Naruto saw the whisker marks darken and the red chakra beginning to bubble and form one, two and finally three tails.

"Yamatao!" Naruto cried hoarsely, watching as the fourth tail started to form, at least until several of the surrounding suppression statues suddenly exploded into action grasping the red chakra while slamming the clone into the ground. There was a loud pop and the clone disappeared, causing the real Naruto to wretch dryly.

"Th...this is impossible! I mean...the amount of concentration needed to just make Rasengan is already extremely high." Naruto muttered after getting his heaves under control and looked around at the Kage Bunshin "but to add 'elemental recomposition' to that is..."

No. Naruto thought, eyes hardening as he struggled his way upright. He would not give up, he'd never give up, he had too much to prove and too much ahead of him waiting. He had already disappointed one sensei, he wasn't about to disappoint another.

However, there was no denying that this task seemed utterly impossible, even for him and he had to give it serious consideration.

"Look left and right at the same time," Naruto muttered, his mind sluggishly trying to solve the problem before him and ignoring the wounded feelings as he instead thought of the fact that Kakashi had known the Rasengan and never thought to teach it to him. Didn't Kakashi trust him, or was it that he couldn't see why Naruto needed to know it?

It took a lot of effort but he managed to focus on the task once more, relegating those previous thoughts for later. Right now, he had to figure out how to look left and right at the same time...same time...left and right...look...

Then suddenly he had it.

"TAJUU KAGE BUNSHIN!"

It wasn't impossible, it was just insanely improbably. There was a huge difference and as Naruto smiled, taking two Kage Bunshin as the others scattered to join the pre-existing ones, he remembered that at one point Jiraiya had said that for Naruto 'the realm of the improbably was his playground'.

Jiraiya of the Sannin, he was an expert at gathering information and as well as a highly skilled ninjutsu user. His secret weapon, besides the insanity he was noted for, was the use of Toad jutsu. He was also something of a ladies man, which sadly had been a trait that neither of his students ever picked up.

Most of that had nothing to do with is current mission.

There was still some time for the Konoha messenger birds to contact Kumo, so instead he had headed out for a little fun while trying to gather more information on the two newest Akatsuki agents. His only lead were the headbands they had wore, yet the first one seemed nonsensical as it didn't belong to a hidden village that he knew of. Nor had the symbol that 'Hidan' bore been recognizable, no religion or country had such a symbol which meant he would do further investigating later, after he finished his check out of Taki where 'Kakuzu' had apparently been from.

Gaining entry into Taki and their cooperation was simple, all he'd to do was give his name and sign a copy of Icha Icha for the head Jōnin. Sitting across from the man who looked just old enough for his voice to have changed recently, Jiraiya felt a little guilty as he handed the book back to him. The boy beamed happily at that and then setting it aside looked at Jiraiya eagerly "So what can we do for you?"

"Well, I recently encountered a Taki ninja...a missing one. But I checked the bingo books and he's not listed, I wouldnt normally come all this way-"

"But its kind of a personal matter." the boy said with a knowing nod. "I figured it would be something like that to bring you all the way up here to our waterfall. The last missing-nin we had was about ten years ago and he was hunted down shortly after that, so..."

"Well, does the name 'Kakuzu' mean anything to you?" Jiraiya asked, then at the incredulous look on the boys face, wondered what there was to that name.

"Y-you mean Kakuzu of the Five Hearts?" the Jōnin managed after a moment looking uneasy "He's over, well he's older than you. Sweet kami, no wonder you didn't find him in any Bingo Books, we dropped the listing for him about thirty years ago when he disappeared completely."

"So he is from this village," Jiraiya said, eyes widening "what can you tell me about him?"

"Not much, he was a very greedy man. Powerful though, he was able to fight against Konoha's Shodai and escape. We all know how difficult that was reputed to be."

"What about the 'of the Five hearts' bit?"

"He, well, he has five heart," the Jōnin said with a shrug "far as we know its not a bloodline. He has five hearts, taken from those he's defeated in battle. They allow him to use the element chakra of his enemies that much we know. Uhm, he was also noted for a jutsu that could turn his body to metal."

"Great, just great," Jiraiya muttered slumping slightly in his chair before sighing "well thanks. Now I just gotta find out about his partner Hidan."

"Hidan?" The Jōnin asked, raising an eyebrow "funny that was the name of the man Kakuzu abandoned the village to try and collect a bounty for. From some weird ass country, they all worshipped some 'Jashin' if I remember the records from that time period."

"What happened to the country?" Jiraiya suddenly asked sitting forward, worried that he was now dealing with two ninja very close to immortality.

"Don't know, the name and locations were never detailed. Its only mentioned vaguely during the missing-nin report for Kakuzu; I'd imagine it doesn't exist anymore. It's been at least sixty years after all, a lot of countries have disappeared during the wars between villages."

"Yeah," Jiraiya agreed heavily, a knot forming in his stomach.