Akuma Sannin

by VOLLUNDAESIR913

Dark/Grey Naruto, Jiongu, Hanyou, Half-demon, Santoryu, Harem, Multi-Harem, slight gender bender, fem. Hidan. After only a few days after the Kyuubi attacked Konoha and was defeated, Hiruzen Sarutobi shows the civilian and shinobi councils their new resident Jinchuuriki. After almost being murdered, Naruto isn't even human anymore, and no matter what some one WILL snap...

4. Chapter 4

Akuma Sannin

Hey yall just as a heads up someone asked a good question about when would I be posting new chapters, well I'll be posting one up every 10-20 days(IT MAY TAKE LONGER SOMETIMES). It takes time for me to write out each chapter because I need to plan ahead how each chapter will go and what will be in each one to begin with. I mean I've got the entire outline for the story written out so I know how it will go overall it's just a matter of actually writing out the entire story, that and I'm trying to keep the whole thing as fluid and concise as possible. Don't want any inconsistencies to pop up or anything, now on to what this chapter will be about. This chapter will shift the focus from Naruto and his interactions with Kakuzu and Hitome, so now we will see how he gets along with Konan when it's just the two of them. I'm going to do a brief overview and flashback from Naruto's perspective on what the last 3 months have been like for him, as well as some of the shit he's been doing. Then it will be him and Konan for the next 4 months while Kurama teases the hell out of him, which Konan will notice and will eventually ask about after a couple of months. Also keep an eye out for the part about Konoha because things are going to be finally 'taking off' so to speak with what I plan to have happen, alot of the events where Itachi kills off the Uchiha Clan at the age of 13 will still happen. BUT I'm doing things my own damn way, also I'm going to be slipping in something special that will be happening in Kiri while Naruto is training with 'Konan-chan' that will have a fairly large impact on the story in the later chapters. I must say that while this story is going at a 'good pace' right now, it won't really take off until the Wave Arc where my story FINALLY catches up with OS….and vice versa. Till then I expect these chapters to get a little longer for a while so Enjoy!

It was the morning that Konan was supposed to arrive and Naruto was excited, he couldn't wait to see the blue haired woman again. After everything he had learned about Raiton, Katon and Doton he was stoked about learning Fuuton and Suiton from her. He had already spent the last 3 months learning all of the ins and outs of his Shadow Clone Jutsu so that he could make the most of it during training, which just meant that he'd probably be able to pick up the last two elements just as fast. Granted Naruto knew that he'd have definitely learned them from Kakuzu like he had the others if it wasn't for this mission, but it was damn refreshing to know he'd be learning from someone else for a change. It was going to be nice to be able to hang around somebody besides those two, especially after these past two years of only seeing their faces, and of course the faces of whoever he was torturing to death.

With that thought in mind Naruto thought back to all of the training he was able to get in by abusing the Shadow Clone Jutsu, with all of those clones working for one month straight on mastering the basics of chakra control and elemental transformation. Not to mention all the others that were either going through and learning his new kenjutsu style Tetsu no Ryu, and the ones that practiced the Chameleon Jutsu which he now had mastered. By the time the second month had come his two senseis had to switch it all up so that way they could teach him actual ninjutsus, something that would eventually lead to entire parts of the surrounding forest being destroyed.

Mini Flashback

"Alright gaki listen up." Kakuzu barked out getting the attention of one overly excited pupil.

"Hai Kakuzu-sensei!" Naruto cried out, standing at full attention with what appeared to be small flames in his eyes.

Sighing to himself Kakuzu muttered "Well at least he's paying attention…" Looking around him at where they were he was suddenly VERY glad that he had decided to move Naruto's ninjutsu training over to the side of a river, especially since he was going to be teaching him Raiton, Katon and Doton ninjutsus. Two of the most destructive elements of nature with the third allowing the hyperactive Hanyou the ability to rearrange the landscape…...greeeaaat. Not.

"Now as you know by now your control over your chakra is by now at Chunin level, which is impressive given your age and especially how large your reserves are. And thanks to your Shadow Clones doing all of the work you have even managed to get past the second stage of elemental transformation, so for now we will stop there and begin teaching you jutsus. But remember to still send out around a hundred clones or so to keep up with your chakra control exercises, your reserves will only increase and so should your control." Kakuzu lectured as he looked down at Naruto, who appeared to be absorbing what he was saying.

"I will begin first with explaining to you about the different natures and why they are used so differently from one another, this will even tie into one of the requirements for becoming a Jounin anywhere in the elemental nations." he explained as he saw a little black notepad appear in Naruto's hand with a pen in the other, where he got them from Kakuzu could only guess.

"The Five Elements of Nature are all unique in their own special ways and are strong against, weak against or neutral to each other. Raiton beats Doton, Doton beats Suiton, Suiton beats Katon, Katon beats Fuuton, and finally wrapping it up, Fuuton beats Raiton. If you are a Katon specialist then your worst nightmare is naturally going to be a Suiton user, for obvious reasons. But if that Katon specialist knew Doton as well, then he would have an advantage over Suiton users as well as a sure fire way of being able to properly deal with them." Kakuzu explained as Naruto wrote everything down before he looked up at him.

"Ohhhh so that way you can cover your weakness to water attacks right?" Naruto asked gaining a nod. "But what if that Katon specialist decided to learn Fuuton instead? He could just use his Fuuton abilities to make all of his Katon attacks stronger, you said so yourself that mixing Katon and Fuuton is one of the best combinations around a couple of weeks ago." Naruto said getting a chuckle from Kakuzu.

"Yes I did but at that point you would literally be all offense with practically no defense what so ever, a shinobi must ALWAYS have multiple ways to defend himself. If you have no defense at all then what are you going to do when you can't dodge out of the way from an incoming attack?" Kakuzu asked.

"That's why it's normally best to learn an element that can cover the weakness of your primary element so that way you won't be caught at a disadvantage. And THEN learn another element that you could use to bolster your main element, this is why so many Katon users will try and pick up Fuuton jutsus. Or why a Suiton specialist will take up Raiton, which is another if not more perfect combination because both of those elements work so damn well together. If you combine Raiton with your Suiton jutsus you can drastically increase the power of the Suiton jutsu, giving it the ability to pierce almost as well as Raiton, AND it would electrocute whoever is hit with thousands of volts of electricity. Plus you could combine Riaton into any defensive Suiton jutsu you create which would make the shield even stronger, creating a duel elemental attack or defense." explained Kakuzu as he watched Naruto write so fast a little smoke had begun to come off of the page he was writing on.

Grabbing the notepad from Naruto's hand and ignoring an indignant "HEY!", he quickly looked at it seeing that it had most of what he had already told him. Till he flipped to some of the earlier pages to see Konan's and Kurama's names both surrounded by little hearts, looking back up he saw how Naruto was blushing up a storm as he tried to snatch the notepad from Kakuzu's grasp. Prompting him to simply raise his hand up higher out of the young Hanyou's reach, Kakuzu was actually somewhat amused by this little discovery. The gaki doesn't even understand what a crush is and he has one for an all powerful demoness that's thousands of years old, and one of his colleagues who's in her twenties. "Well thE gaki knows how to pick them I'll give him that much, jeez if this is how he is now I don't want to know what he'll be like when he finally hits puberty…." Kakuzu thought as he decided to just get back to the lesson at hand, there would be plenty of time to tease him over this with Hitome later.

Tossing it back to Naruto he spoke " I'm not even going to comment on that, back to the lesson. Now as I was saying each element has their own characteristics and when you combine them you can get fantastic results. But in order to truly utilize them to your best you need to first understand them properly and what all of their own characteristics are. Then you need to build up an arsenal of of jutsus spanning not JUST the elements you're aligned with, but the rest as well. All shinobi should have jutsus under their belt that they can use to defend themselves against whatever element beats their primary affinity, that way even if you don't even have a secondary affinity for it you will have something else to fall back on. A rule of life to remember gaki is that variety is the key to survival, which is why I've made sure to master all five of the elements." Kakuzu said as he took a few steps back and released his Raiton, Katon and Doton Mask Creatures from his back. "Now watch this and learn, because one day you will be doing the same thing." Turning around to face the stream he made the hand sign for control and called out the names of three jutsu. "Raiton: False Darkness!, Katon: Searing Migraine!, Doton: Earth Dragon God Blast!" Naruto could only watch in amazement as each of Kakuzu's Mask Creatures simultaneously performed their respective jutsus, first the Raiton Mask spat out an incredibly long beam of lightning that cut down dozens of trees in the span of half a second. While the Katon Mask spat out an incredibly large mass of flames that spread along the ground and burned everything in its path, the result was an unbelievably large bonfire. Looking over Naruto saw that the Doton Mask had slammed its fists deep into the ground, the answer to what it was doing was revealed as a huge bronze dragon head sprouted up out of the ground and roared revealing it's large stone body. It then dived back down into the earth only to spring up from the ground in the very center of the mass of flames, kicking up tons of rock and earthen debris that covered most of the flames. Thrashing around for a few moments destroying much of the landscape on the other side of the river where the other two jutsus had struck, the mighty dragon then roared a final time before exploding leaving a large crater in the aftermath.

Naruto for the most part was completely at a loss for words as he watched his sensei just decimate what appeared to be about 10-12 acres of dense forest in the span of a minute, looking over he saw that his sensei wasn't even tired from it. Naruto now looked on at his sensei with a new respect as he now began to truly see just how large of a gap there was between them and also, just how much he had been holding back. "So this is Ninjutsu? Those jutsus were so powerful, and Kakuzu-sensei doesn't even look like he's tired!" Naruto thought as he looked at the now rearranged landscape that was just on the other side of the river, seeing the destruction Naruto quickly resolved to one day surpass what he had seen there today. He would learn everything he could from both of his senseis and become the very best, besides, he owes them both that much at least.

Looking back at his young charge Kakuzu noticed the determined look in his eyes as he stared at the area that used to be filled with trees, grinning underneath his mask he knew that this would give Naruto the drive he needed to learn. Clearing his throat to gain Naruto's attention he spoke "Now…...let's begin."

End of Flashback

What would happen from that point on would be many grueling hours that Kakuzu would subject 300 of Naruto's clones to, having made plenty of Shadow Clones himself Kakuzu would have them police the horde of little Narutos as they all practiced Raiton, Katon, and Doton. Having them all break up into three groups of 100 Kakuzu would make five of his own Shadow Clones to police each of the 3 groups, meaning at any point and time there was always 15 equally scary clones of the man there to supervise. Then Kakuzu would take Naruto to another clearing beside a river where Naruto would again have to make 150 clones to practice the Water Walking Exercise, this time with only 5 of Kakuzu's clones supervising them. And while all of Naruto's clones were busy learning cool things like Ninjutsus or WALKING ON WATER!...he was stuck with the original learning the Taijutsu style Kanjo Tekina Ikari.

Meanwhile Hitome on the other hand was busy with her own group of 150 of Naruto's Shadow Clones, and was teaching them more about the Kenjutsu style Tetsu no Ryu. Having already drilled all of the basics into Naruto's head over the last month with his clones, she had decided to 'up the ante'. She had decided that it was boring to just teach him a Kenjutsu style so while she had 100 of them learning more of Tetsu no Ryu with a couple of her own clones, she herself was teaching the last 50 of the group other things. Telling them that it was always important to take in all of your surroundings in a fight, to use the very terrain to your own advantage, what she knew about Battoujutsu, 'The Art of the Drawing Sword.' Something that all samurai from the Land of Iron study, so as to be able to kill opponents in the same motion that they draw their blades, in the shortest time possible. She even taught this last group even more advanced forms and techniques for close quarters knife fighting, when one of Naruto's clones had asked why she was going to teach them that when they're already learning a sword style her answer surprised them all.

Flashback

"Ok jackass why do you think that all of those Samurai from Iron Country like to wear a Wakizashi Short sword and a Tanto knife, on top of the Katana that they always carry?" Hitome asked gaining a confused shrug from him and the rest of his fellow clones.

"It's because the Samurai know that they won't always be able to rely on their swords in every single fight, they know that sometimes they won't ever even be able to draw them in certain fights. What if they had to fight indoors in a confined space? Those Katanas are normally 28-36 inches in blade length alone, do you know how much of a pain it would be to fight with something that big in a small space? Or what if they have to take on two opponents at the same time? Then they could simple draw their Wakizashi out and would have two swords in their hands to parry and block from multiple angles and sides. Samurai train to be able to fight in multiple Taijutsu styles, several different forms of knife fighting, all on top of their primary school of Kenjutsu. They even use various forms of Shurikenjutsu and Kyujutsu or archer, so that they can fight opponents from any ranged distance possible. They train to fight in any situation, in any environment, and from ANY RANGE. Sometimes you won't be able to draw your sword, sometimes you won't even be able to draw a knife…..that's why we're making you learn all of these things, so that way you know how to defend yourself in any situation like we can." Hiome said finishing her lecture, it felt weird for her as she stood there like some kind of actual sensei. The Naruto clones didn't know where all of THAT had come from and simply chalked it up to Hitome going into some sort of 'sensei mode', but what she said really did stick with them. There really WILL be a time when cool Ninjutsu, or Kenjutsu won't be on the table for him, no wonder Kakuzu-sensei keeps pushing him so hard in Taijutsu.

End of Flashback

It had certainly been interesting all of the things that Naruto had learned as he thought of all of the things that his Kenjutsu style offered him, it was really something and after the first two weeks it really started to click with him. With all of those clones working from 7 am to 5 pm every day he had managed to master every E and D rank jutsu in his Kenjutsu scroll, even a couple C rank ones as well. For some reason he had really taken to the Kenjutsu style finding that he really enjoyed how natural the various katas and jutsus felt whenever he went through them, he still remembered how just last week one some of his clones were able to skewer his Hitome. All of his clones needed to do the Chakra Scabbard jutsu with their boken just to withstand their sensei's onslaught, a few of them had went ahead and kept their sensei busy while several others performed the Drying Pole and Pressure Wave techniques from multiple angles. The Drying Pole jutsu allows one to coat their chakra along the weapon and with a piercing thrust they can EXTEND the reach of their weapon almost like a beam of energy, by almost 10 feet. While the Pressure Wave jutsu involved taking the chakra channeled along your sword and swinging it in a slashing manner, creating a crescent moon shaped blade of energy that can travel up to 100 feet and is capable of cutting boulders. Both are equally powerful cutting and piercing techniques that are a labeled as C rank jutsus, that Hitome was able to block with ease. What she wasn't expecting however was the last clone that had been hiding the whole time, that came crashing down on her from up above and behind her performing a brutal impaling attack. Having formed a Chakra Scabbard over his boken the clone had jumped high into the air while Hitome's back was turned, turning the now dangerous weapon over so it that the point was aimed towards earth the clone let gravity do the rest of the work. Hitome didn't actually know what had hit her till the tip of the clone's now fairly sharp chakra boken pierced her heart and stuck out of her chest at a downward angle. While at the same time she felt a force send her face first into the dirt with the full weight of the clone crashing down on her back, the Dragon Hammer Strike: Tragedy certainly lived up to its name that morning. What had all of the clones there shocked was that Hitome wasn't even angry when she got back up, she even congratulated the clone that managed to get her. Saying that if he had done that on any other person it would have been an instant kill, she continued to pat the clone's head till she looked down after noticing a draft. Seeing that her chest wraps had been destroyed by that last attack it had also destroyed her chest bandages, which allowed anyone that was looking at her a full view of her breasts. Seeing how most of the clones were now blushing and trying to look away Hitome did the only thing she could at that point…...she slaughtered every….single….clone….and then beat the shit out of the real Naruto for 'being a little pervert'.

This wouldn't be the end however, as this had sparked a brutal campaign on Kakuzu's and especially Hitome's part to mercilessly tease poor Naruto. Both of them and every single one of their clones would jump at any chance to tease him, for 'trying to get a peek at his Hitome-sensei's goodies', or worse yet teasing him over Konan or Kurama. And Kurama was no help either as she had jumped in on it with a sick and twisted gusto, that was matched only by Hitome's enthusiasm to make Naruto miserable. They had openly wondered just WHAT he was up to in the mindscape for so long every night, questioning his integrity to not take advantage of 'his Kurama-chan' while she's 'all locked up and at his mercy'. THAT especially was made worse when Kurama had 'suddenly', decided that there was one part of Naruto's education that was lacking. And had taken it upon herself to teach Naruto all about the 'birds and the bees', and all about the differences between men and women and worst of all…..where babies come from. What made it worse was that Kurama had gone ahead and made sure in advance that they would have a whole month in the mindscape that night to have 'the talk', an entire topic that left the poor boy scared for life. Especially the parts about Shibari and bondage, seriously what the fuck is wrong with adults?!

Shuddering Naruto quickly shook his head to clear his mind of those thoughts as he sensed something coming from the North East, looking up he squinted his eyes as he looked at what was coming. Naruto's eyes widened as he saw thousands of slips of paper fly through the air towards their position only to stop a few dozen feet in the air in front of them. Gathering together they a humanoid shape started to form, as more and more of the papers fused together to become one the clearer the form became. Naruto could only stare gobsmacked as the humanoid revealed itself to be none other than Konan, who was floating there in the air with what looked like angel wings made out of paper on her back. She was wearing the the same Akatsuki cloak as before which obscured most of her features, as she softly touched down Naruto could only gulp as he was once again speechless. "She really is an angel…." Naruto thought as Konan walked over to him.

"Hello Naruto-kun, it's good to see you again." Konan said she looked Naruto right in the eyes.

"H-Hello Konan-sensei." Naruto stammered out as he tried to keep from saying something stupid, "What is wrong with me? I don't get like this unless I'm around Kurama-chan, I need to get my shit together." Naruto thought to himself as he looked at his new teacher.

"Hey Konan-chan!" Hitome chirped to her fellow female, honestly glad to see another person besides her pain in the ass partner, or Naruto.

"Hello Hitome, how've you been?" replied Konan.

"Meh, can't complain. Sooooooo anyways while you're here you should know that Naruto here is a little card sharp, and you shouldn't get into a poker game with him. The liquor cabinet is locked right now but if you want something just ask Naruto he has a spare key, and also he knows everything about his elements up to C Rank. If you want to pop his cherry by teaching him a B Rank or three then the scrolls are in the usual spot, oh and you never did answer my question about you and the leader." Hitome said getting a sly smirk on her face near the end.

Not letting that get to her Konan answered. "Good, I'll make sure he gets Suiton and Fuuton up to the same level as his three affinities. As well as teach him a B Rank jutsu for each element such as the Elemental Dragon Jutsu, by the way Kakuzu you should know that the person you will be facing wields the Vollund." she said gaining a look of interest from the much taller man.

"The Vollund? Huh…..so the idiot really did steal it afterall…" Kakuzu mused as he thought about what that could mean for him and Hitome on their mission. "This will certainly make things interesting…." he thought to himself.

"Uhhhh what's the Vollund and why is it important?" Naruto asked now curious.

"It's an artefact of immense power that was wielded by the first Tsuchikage himself, a man who could easily fight on par with Hashirama Senju or Madara Uchiha without having to use the weapon. It's a large two-handed Warhammer with a spike on the back end of the head, as well as another spike at the end of the haft. The man we're after is one of his descendants who stole it from Iwagakure when he defected, a man by the name of Kanetora Kusoyaro. We've been trying to get at him for the last couple of years, I can't wait to sacrifice him to Jashin!" Hitome explained as a crazed look started to form on her face, she had crossed paths with that asshole before and she REALLY wanted 'catch up' with him.

Konan quirked an eyebrow at this. "You certainly know a lot about him and his weapon in particular….an old friend of yours perhaps?" she asked.

"Ha! No that asshole just got away from me the last time we crossed paths and I've been meaning to finish what I started with him since then." came Hitome's reply as everyone could see a VERY evil Oni start to appear behind her. The 'one that got away' was in for a very bad reunion with Hitome…..

"Anyways we need to go now, Konan, if there's anything you need it's in the base and if you have any questions then you know how to contact us. Hitome let's go." And with that Kakuzu turned around and started to walking away, giving a quick wave Hitome followed suit and caught up to Kakuzu. Naruto for one was glad that Hitome had at least waved goodbye before leaving, he knew it wasn't going to happen with Kakuzu because that man just wouldn't do something like that. He had a sad smile of acceptance cross over his face till he saw Kakuzu do something that was very out of character for him, while he was walking away he simply raised his hand and waved without looking back. As if to say 'See you around', after getting over most of his shock Naruto let out a genuine smile as he watched his two senseis disappear. "Huh, I guess I'm finally starting to get through to him. Who knows in another ten years he might actually say good morning to me…...Naaaah." Naruto thought to himself as he chuckled, he'd never admit it but he would miss those two while they were gone. Deciding to get things over with he looked back to Konan, he couldn't help but feel excited at learning from her. He already was having a blast from practicing all of his Raiton, Katon and Doton jutsus as it is, now he got to learn about the most offensive and the most versatile of the elements!

Clearing his throat Naruto spoke "So Konan-sensei ready to get started? Or would you like to unpack first?" he asked trying to be polite.

Konan who had been watching Naruto the entire time that he had interacted with Kakuzu and Hitome was honestly surprised, by Naruto's reactions she could tell that the boy really cared about them. Enough to want their approval for sure which would probably shift over to herself as well, given how he appeared to have a little 'crush' on her. Something she actually found to be rather amusing and sweet, he's definitely a sweet little boy for sure. Those fox ears and tale just make him look that much more adorable. It made Konan wonder though just how soft his fur must be. Not many people would know this but Konan had always had a love for animals, finding them to generally be much more pure and kind than most people. It never ceased to amaze her how compassionate some animals can truly be at times, like how a lioness will take care of a baby monkey till it's all grown up. Or how a mother wolf will protect even a human child from danger, such acts of compassion are rarely seen from humans nowadays, and almost never as profound. From watching Naruto she could tell that the boy had a lot of love to give, and deep down probably saw Kakuzu and Hitome as some form of surrogate parents.

"Yes we can start right now, I can unpack later but for now let's go over to the river to begin your lessons." she said walking in the direction of what she knew had recently become Naruto's personal training grounds.

"Ok!" Naruto responded happily as he walked besides his new sensei in somewhat comfortable silence.

Upon reaching their destination Konan turned around to Naruto and spoke. "Alright Naruto-kun first before we begin I want you to explain to me the natures of the different elemental transformations. I wish to know if you truly understand them." she said gaining a shrug from Naruto.

"Well ok, each element has it's own unique properties and can be used to produce different results. Each element is strong against and weak to another element, while remaining neutral to the rest. Likewise each element can be used to attack and defend differently, Katon is the most destructive element and could be described as a flamethrower or a bomb. It will generate intense amounts of heat, you can also create certain substances that allow you to spread flames in different ways all over the place. Suiton is the most versatile element of them all, due to its every changing nature it can be used in more ways than the other elements. Be it offense or defense, supplementary or even healing jutsus and when it is used to attack it will deal internal concussive damage and could characterized as a shield and flail. Doton is the stubborn and defensive element, it is the most neutral element there is which is why it is the easiest for anyone to learn. It could be described as a Tetsubo or a hammer, because Doton is the crushing, pulverizing element which deals all blunt force damage. Raiton is easily the fastest element that there is, with the natural ability to pierce its way through anything and any defense. While also electrocuting whatever you strike with it, it can pierce right through your targets, it can be transferred through many different mediums such as water, metals, your weapons, your fists, or the ground to your targets allowing you many different ways to get at your enemies. And finally Fuuton is the most offensive element that there is as it has almost no defensive qualities or capabilities to speak of, it's almost all offense. Fuuton is the cutting element creating razor sharp and thin blades that can cut damn near anything to ribbons, the best part is that they're incredibly difficult to see. You can use Fuuton to blow away your enemies or cut them in half from almost any range, and when you use it with Kenjutsu you can sharpen and lengthen the reach of your blades. And the best part is that your opponents won't be able to see it unless they have a doujutsu active, hell from what I've read most Fuuton attacks are almost invisible because of their nature made up of air." Naruto said having finished the rather long explanation, he might not have needed to say all of that but he wanted to make a good impression on his new sensei.

And indeed Konan was in fact impressed by Naruto's explanation, not many of the Jounin back in Ame could give her as good as an explanation as Naruto just gave. It wasn't surprising however given who his teachers have been for the past two years, and even after receiving weekly reports from Kakuzu on Naruto's progress these past 3 months she still found it unreal. The boy was only about a week or so away from mastering every jutsu for his three affinities all the way up to C Rank, she would have to force him for this month to get Fuuton and Suiton up to the same level. Then she would have him spend their second month truly mastering each jutsu he knew till they only required a handsign, which would be easy since none of his known jutsus are even B Rank…

"Very good Naruto-kun, now we can begin. First off I want you to make 300 Shadow Clones and have them break up into groups of 150, then each group is going to practice learning how to change their chakra into either Suiton or Fuuton chakra. I'll have some of my own clones keep an eye out on them and help them wherever they can, meanwhile you and I are going to keep up with your Tai and Kenjutsu. I know from Kakuzu's reports that you have been apparently enjoying your Kenjutsu lessons immensely, even Hitome said you showed a great aptitude for it. So leave however many clones you want to continue practicing and come with me." and without saying another word Konan turned and left for the spot where she had last seen Naruto practicing his Taijutsu.

The walk to Naruto's taijutsu field was silent as neither said a word, internally however was a different story for the both of them. Naruto was wondering if Konan was just naturally a bit of a stiff or some kind of robot, and Konan was wondering how far along Naruto had truly come with his Taijutsu. As they arrived at the clearing Konan's eyes briefly widened as she saw just how ruined the place was, there were scorch marks and destroyed trees everywhere, boulders that looked like they had been eaten away by acid, and dead grass. It looked more like a couple of Chunins had decided to put this area through hell instead of a little 7 year old learning Taijutsu, Konan was now starting to wonder just what Kakuzu had really been teaching Naruto.

Looking over to Naruto she decided to test him to see what he was REALLY capable of, knowing Kakuzu she just knew that this boy was capable of more than he had let on. Without warning she grabbed Naruto by the front of his shirt and through him through the air, she watched impassively as he caught himself and turned in midair. As Naruto landed in a crouching position his body subtly tensed as he started to sharpen his senses and focus, having gone into his own little battle mode he was now hyper aware of everything around him. "Kakuzu told me she might try to 'test me'...hehehehehe this is going to be fun…" Naruto thought as a grin split his face wide open. Sliding into the appropriate stance he focused as he prepared to attack, his face now changing from a grin.

Konan meanwhile was wondering what was going on with Naruto as she saw him go from having an ear splitting grin to a look of pure hate, which was unexpected given his rather chipper demeanor until now. She looked on as Naruto charged her at some rather impressive speeds for a seven year old, certainly Chunin level speed but not enough. Deciding it would be best to fight at a level that would be just out of his reach, she quickly moved to dodge, after all she needed to see what he could do. As Naruto's kick made contact with the tree that was behind her Konan narrowed her eyes as she watched the trunk explode from the impact, "That can't be normal at all…" she thought to herself. She being a sensor decided to expand her senses to study just what Naruto was really doing, as her senses touched Naruto she could feel the rolling chakra that was coming off of him. Konan had to keep on the move as Naruto was not letting up in the slightest throwing elbows, punches and kicks at her that seemed to just destroy whatever they came into contact with. As she analyzed what she was seeing with her eyes and her 'mind's eye', she could tell almost immediately that Naruto was overloading each of his attacks. But what had her stumped for the first few seconds was that he didn't seem to be trying, that was till she realized that he was trying, trying to hold back from using too much chakra. As the realization set in Konan's eyes briefly widened as it dawned on her that it was simply a matter of chakra control versus total reserves, Naruto simply has so much chakra that he can't control it at all. Even with the training the past two years and all of those Shadow Clones working round the clock to up his control there's only so much one can do in three months, with reserves as massive as his it will probably take Naruto years to gain proper control over it. "It's no small wonder now how he's able to get those types of results while he's been training, he's pumping too much of that volatile chakra of his into each attack…...no wonder his attacks have been corroding away trees and boulders." Konan thought to herself as she witnessed another change come over Naruto. Studying his face and sensing his emotions she was able to discern only one thing that was rolling off of him now, as opposed to earlier where the only thing he seemed to be feeling was just pure hatred. Now she could tell that Naruto was feeling absolute envy, something that had her wondering how Naruto was able to switch between feeling SO MUCH of two completely different emotions.

Disappearing from view Naruto appeared directly behind Konan and let loose a punch to the back of her neck, Konan having easily sensed him spun around to block only to see that it was a feint as Naruto dropped to the ground and spun around attempting to sweep her feet from under her. Jumping up Konan decided go on the attack as she let off a kick at Naruto's face, who responded by placing his right palm on her incoming ankle to deflect it. While moving forward he spun around Konan using their close proximity, and then slammed his elbow into her back. Konan for one was actually impressed by Naruto's ability to adapt and improvise, even though she was holding back to a level a little bit above his. She still wasn't expecting him to land any real hit on her, that being said she still wasn't going to give him an easy time. Whipping around Konan promptly dropped Naruto with a spinning side kick, as Naruto landed on the grass with a groan he quickly kipped back onto his feet. As Naruto began to attack again Konan noticed that once again his emotions had changed to that of pure rage, as he neared her he thrust his palm out at her left knee. As expected Konan moved her leg out of the way avoiding the burst of chakra he had sent from his hand, bringing her left leg back she then kicked Naruto across the chest sending him flying back. It wasn't too hard of a kick as she was reminding herself to tone it down against a little kid, looking back at where she had felt the boy's chakra travel she saw a crater in the ground about the size of her head and roughly 3 inches deep. "Hmmmm, that last attack must be centered around bypassing armor or blocks from weapons…..Kakuzu said that Naruto had mastered the first two stages of his Taijutsu style. He must have had clones practicing somewhere else as well to have mastered the first two stages this fast….and it would appear Kakuzu went ahead and taught him a bit about the third stage as well. Well he certainly wasn't lying when he said that Naruto had mastered the first two stages, every one of his katas were flawless. He obviously doesn't have the third stage down yet, his stance going into that stage was sloppy compared to how he fought earlier…..still it was a 'good' attack." She thought to herself as she watched Naruto get up slowly while holding his stomach, Konan would have to help him perfect his technique with the Third Stage as well as see what else he had learned.

Holding up a hand to get Naruto to cease Konan spoke. "Enough Naruto-kun, I've seen all that I need to for now. While I didn't know that you had begun to learn about the Third Stage I can tell you obviously don't have any mastery over it yet, which is something we will be working on. While you do have the first two stages mastered you should refrain from attempting techniques in a fight that you haven't mastered, only the desperate or the foolish do such things." Konan lectured getting an affirmative nod from Naruto who appeared to have reverted back to his usual self.

"Hai Sensei!" Naruto said rather pleased to be recieving any sort of praise from her.

"While we were fighting I noticed that for each stage that you used you were only experiencing one particular emotion at a time, and to extreme degrees. Do you mind explaining that to me? Because from what I have been able to gather your fighting style seems to be based solely off of your emotions." she asked genuinely curious about the particulars of his Taijutsu style, Kakuzu had never really gone into any great detail about it.

"Well Konan-sensei you're right about it being based off of my emotions, each stage is dedicated to one particular emotion. And with it a different set of moves to perform very specific functions, some are more defensive or offensive than others, while others can allow me to attack from a distance. I can only feel one emotion at a time when I'm using a specific stage of fighting, and it's always to the extreme so that way that one emotion will always act like a fuel for my Taijutsu." Naruto explained gaining an understanding look from Konan.

"Makes sense that someone like Kakuzu would know a Taijutsu style like this…." she thought as she looked Naruto up and down. "Alright well while we improve your Taijutsu were going to make sure that you master your third stage so that way you can move onto the fourth. I'm not familiar with the various stages however which is why you will be learning from a scroll that Kakuzu left for you, it should have everything you need to know about the third and fourth stages." she said as she took off her Akatsuki trench coat.

Looking at her as she took her coat off Naruto couldn't help but feel a slight blush come up as he was finally able to see what she was wearing underneath it. She was wearing a revealing navy blue robe for a top that had a very large hemline in the front and left her arms and back exposed. Naruto could see the lateral part of her breasts and belly from thanks to the hemline as well as her navel which was surrounded by four piercings, she had her headband hanging off of her right hip and wore a pair of blue pants that also functioned as her shoes with high heels.

All in all she was stunning to see and Naruto was doing all he could not to stare at her, "Gah! What the hell is wrong with me?! Why do I keep blushing every time something like this happens with women around me?" he thought furiously as he tried to keep his blush under control, something that irritated him to no end over having to do in the first place.

"Ooooooooo….does someone have a crush?" came the sing song voice of Kurama in his head.

"Oh Kami no…." he thought in horror as he heard his inner demoness speak to him.

"Naruto and Konan sitting in a tree…." she began to sing.

"Nooooooo….nonono…"

"K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

"Stoooopp!" he thought desperately as he plugged his ears in attempt to 'mute her out'.

Meanwhile Konan was watching this go on with a sweatdrop as she wondered what his demon 'Kurama' was saying to him, deciding to get things back on track she cleared her throat to get his attention. "Now Naruto-kun I'm going to be training you a little differently from Kakuzu, I won't be flinging boulders at you….." she said.

"Wha?! REALLY?! That's awesome you're the best Konan-sensei!" he said happily, while he may have enjoyed how strong he had become from the training but that didn't mean he liked dealing with all of those boulders.

"Thankyou….because I'm going to be sending Suiton bullets at you." Konan said with a smirk as she watched Naruto's face take on a look of pure horror, meanwhile Kurama was laughing her ass off.

"Muahahahahahahaha! Ohhhhh she...is...GOOD!" she cackled as she hugged her sides from inside the seal, this woman had only been around for not even an hour and she already liked her.

In Konoha

Hiruzen sighed as he looked over at the clock on the wall, it was 6:30 in the afternoon and his meeting with the Inuzuka Clan Head was supposed to happen right now. It had been a couple of weeks since Naruto's seventh birthday, the pain had lessened considerably over the years but it still hurt every now and then to think about it. His time with Koharu and the rest of his family had certainly helped him to recover to a point where he could be at peace, but there was still the occasional sleepless night where all he could do was stare at the ceiling and count the minutes till his alarm went off. As the door opened Hiruzen looked to see the man who had entered, he was a tall man standing at a burly 6'5". He had very spiky and unruly brown hair which he kept tied back in a ponytail that reached his lower back, save for the two large bangs that framed his face reaching down to his chest. He he had a mustache and goatee that he had grown out to reach his chest, all throughout his facial hair and the bangs framing his face were beads. Some were made from bone with Kanji symbols carved into them, while others were made of metal or silver and in the shape of skulls or three-headed dogs. He wore a simple short sleeved black shirt as well as Anbu style cargo pants with black combat boots, on his shins and forearms were large greaves and bracers. All which had the design of a large 3-headed dog adorning them, he wore a tactical utility belt with 2 medium sized shinobi pouches strapped to it at the small of his back. At each of his hips were a total of 3 scrolls in their own individual carrier pouches, over his shirt he wore a much more heavily armor plated version of a Jounin Tactical Vest. It also had large rounded dark metal shoulder pauldrons with 3 starling dogs' heads embossed onto the front of them, the vest offering almost complete protection for the large man's entire upper torso. On the back of his vest was a fur lining that was almost identical to the Nindaime Hokage's only the fur was pitch black, and strapped to the very back were two large hook bladed chain weapons, that appeared to almost glow with their own pale purple light. Hiruzen knew very well what those weapons were, The Claws of Cerberus were infamous throughout the shinobi world for being blessed by both the Shinigami and the legendary beast Cerberus itself.

As Hiruzen looked at the man he had been waiting to meet with he could only wonder at just why the man had never even attempted to become the next Hokage, only ever giving vague answers about why he wouldn't take the position. Hiruzen knew full well that if there was no other option only then would he step up and take the title, nothing would change the fact that he would absolutely HATE having the position though. It's almost funny when he thought about it, here was a man whose' very presence was both inspiring and also terrifying. Okami Inuzuka had always been a very different individual, he had always wanted to do things his way and come up with his own methods for doing things from a very young age. Hiruzen had always known when he had first laid eyes on him that he was someone who would become VERY powerful, Hiruzen never thought that he would become a powerful S Rank shinobi at such a young age however….. It just happened one day out of the blue back before Hiruzen had even given Minato the title of Hokage, Okami had simply walked up to all three of his students, Jaraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru and challenged them all to a duel. The fight was a three on one that took up one of the largest training grounds that Konoha had to offer, it was a massive fight that had completely rearranged the field permanently. It had drawn the attention of most of the Shinobi populace and many of the civilians as well, at the end of the day Okami had won the duel. That was the day he became the new Clan Head of the Inuzuka Clan and was officially recognized as a S Rank shinobi, that was also the first time he demonstrated his mastery over all five of the elements and even incorporating all of them into all of his clan jutsus.

From that moment on he had begun to drastically change all of his clan's original laws as well as teaching his mate Tsume and many of his chief lieutenants as much as he could, within a two year time period their clan scroll had easily tripled in size. As Hiruzen looked at him he wondered what it was that he wanted, Okami had never in his life personally asked for a private meeting with him before. And Okami Inuzuka was never a man to speak unless it was actually important, a trait that had many people heeding his advice whenever he seldom gave it.

"Ah Okami-san how good to see you, punctual as ever I see. So what can I do for you? You've never requested a meeting with me before now, so it must be important." Hiruzen said with a small smile.

Quirking his lips into a small smile of his own the larger man nodded his head, he had always enjoyed the company and conversations that he shared with the elder shinobi. Sitting down with a small chuckle he responded. "It's good to see you too Hokage-sama, and it's true I've never requested a personal meeting with you till now because I never saw the need for one until now." he said looking his leader square in the eyes. Briefly flicking his eyes across the office from side to side he looked back at his leader, as if answering to an unspoken request Hiruzen nodded and made a very subtle signal for his ANBU to leave. Once they had gone the air seemed to crack around them as unseen security seals activated around the office, the looks on both mens' faces having lost all of their humor as they looked at one another.

"Now" Hiruzen said as the last of the seals was activated. "What is this about?" he simply asked as his face took on the mask of the 'God of Shinobi'.

"It's been three years old man…" Okami said now speaking plainly. "It's been almost three years since all of these rapes first started to happen, I think we both know by now that our mysterious little 'phantom' was most likely practicing for those first seven months before Naruto was lost."

"Hai…. I believe that that man, whoever he is, was indeed preparing for that horrible night as well. Why else would we have found his semen there along with everyone else's?" Hiruzen asked confirming what Okami had already suspected.

"Yes but that's the problem, not only that but the sheer length of time that he has been able to walk scott free, old man, no one is that good….."

"What do you mean exactly?" Hiruzen quarried now truly curious as to what Okami was getting at.

"What I mean is that after almost 3 years, you, the ANBU, my Hunter nins, and all of the Military Police Force have not been able to find this one man. A man who has been able to elude capture in the very heart of the strongest Major Hidden Village of all, whom not even the entire Inuzuka or Uchiha clans are able to find. Hiruzen…." Okami said, stressing the importance of what he was about to say. "No one is that good. I believe that our 'phantom rapist' is somebody who is in a position of power here within the village, someone who is knows the entire system of this village inside and out. Someone who also has access to all of the Military Police files pertaining to the rapist, if a police force made up entirely of Sharingan users are incapable of finding one man within this village...then someone is tampering with evidence. It must be either one of the higher ups within the police force, or their leader."

Hiruzen froze at this, those were some incredibly bold words to speak even to imply. One does not just spout such things like that off without some concrete evidence to back the theory up, the problem however is that Okami was right. Nobody has been able to get a single lead on this man for almost 3 years, and given all that has happened in that time Okami was once again right in saying, 'no one is that good'. "Hell I doubt even I am that good, even if I was committing all of these rapes I still would have been caught by now…." Hiruzen thought to himself.

"But what of his these past two years? He has laid low till recently picking back up again-"

"Sigh, Hiruzen you know as well as I do that ANYONE who is smart enough to elude capture here for longer than 6 months, while committing dozens of rapes….is certainly smart enough to figure out when to lay low. ESPECIALLY with you turning the entire village upside down and inside out for an entire year, that would scare anyone into hiding. Those five rapes he committed throughout his two year hiding were merely for him to let off some steam, and to reward himself for not getting caught." Okami interrupted knowing full well what Hiruzen might have said in response, it's a hard pill for anyone to swallow. Hell it was hard for him when he finally came to the realization in the first place, and that was when his memory had decided to kick in.

"Yes yes, you make a very good point. This will not be an easy thing to prove at all, if what you're saying is true then Fugaku has been abusing his power and position this entire time, constantly staying ahead of us all. And what's worse he has been right there in the perfect position to get away with all of it…" Hiruzen spoke, though mostly to himself.

"There is one more thing however Hokage-sama….that day two years ago when you held the emergency meeting for Naruto's disappearance."

"Yes, what of it?"

"I remember smelling hormones and light amounts of semen coming off of Fugaku, I didn't give it a lot of thought because of the meeting we were in. And with everything that has happened that year alone, I just forgot about it all together." Okami said, looking down in shame. "It wasn't until just last night when I was thinking about how the rapist could have eluded capture for 3 years, that's when it hit me…" he said looking back up into the eyes of his leader.

"I see…." Hiruzen replied whilst closing his eyes, trying to take in all that the man was saying. That one year alone saw more executions than in all of the village history, he himself had personally sent Okami and some of his most trusted men such as Kakashi or Gai after more criminals than he could count. How could anyone remember such a small detail in the wake of the storm that hit the village?

"What do you think we should do then about this Okami?"

"We will need the help of the Aburame, and we will need to be very careful about how we do this. Fugaku has had these past three years to perfect his methods and come up with more alibis than we can count, there is a reason he was made head of the Military Police Force after all. If we are going to catch him then we will need to do it while he is in the act, it is the only way. If it is not him or even one of the others within police force than so be it, no harm done and we were able to cross all of them off of the list for good. And at least we were able to play it safe….but Hiruzen….." Okami spoke, his eyes now hard. Leaning forward he looked his Kage in the eyes.

"When we capture him….he's mine…." Okami growled out as his canines instinctually lengthened.

"Done." Hiruzen honestly didn't want to know what horrors Okami had in store for Fugaku, but one thing for sure was that it was going to be messy. "If that's the case, then I wonder if there will even be anything left of Fugaku once Okami is done with him."

Somewhere in a land of mists and great sorrow

It was unusually cold tonight as a shadow made its way through the village, a thin layer of frost was covering the village tonight. Stopping to look up the shadow of a man saw the full moon out tonight, he couldn't help but stop to admire its beauty. It was so large tonight that it illuminated the entire village, The Hunter's Moon, a sight he had rarely had the pleasure of seeing. Shaking his head he pressed on as he made his way to the building at the center of the village, he had business tonight with the Mizukage. As he made his way to the Mizukage Tower he thought about what had been going on in the most recent years, he couldn't figure out why his friend had changed the way that he did. Yagura was one of the most peace loving saps he had ever known and the way he used to talk about reforming Kiri, it had even had him convinced that Kiri could become so much more than just being 'the Bloody Mist Village'. He remembered how Yagura was so passionate about helping everyone within the village, saying how he wouldn't rest until everyone was happy. It had all started that day 4 years ago when he had at the last second changed his mind about doing away with the old graduation method for the Shinobi Academy, he should have questioned him right then. He should have kicked up a fuss and raised hell forcing Yagura to undergo some sort of test, looking back it was so clear to him now that at some point somebody had gotten to his best friend. Somebody had been controlling Yagura, and he was going to put a stop it all tonight even if it meant killing his best friend.

Stopping on top of one of the buildings surrounding the Mizukage Tower the masked man took stock of the way that the patrols were going, since that day Yagura had become a monster. Taking away more and more basic rights from those with bloodlines, all the while poisoning those around him into hating and discriminating against them. Until he had enacted his 'final solution' to the problem 'plaguing Kiri', he had created the Bloodline Purges. Scores and hundreds of men, women and children were being slaughtered in front of him and all he would do was smile and laugh, the peaceful man he once knew was long gone and dead. And over the past year he had started to surround himself with those who were loyal only to him, with those who took as much pleasure in killing innocents as he did. Steeling himself he stood up and went about his task, he couldn't afford to let anyone inside interfere with what he was about to do. He would simply have to kill them all, can't afford to have anyone get in his way.

As the clouds briefly covered the moon a large shadow passed over him just as one of the Kiri patrols looked his way, the two of them waited till the moon was back out and only saw an empty roof. That would be the last thing they would see in this world before a long blade was thrust through the backs of their necks, severing their spinal cords and killing them instantly. They never even hit the ground as they were instantly sealed into a small but incredibly powerful Stasis/Storage Seal that was tattooed on the man's left arm, but not before adding a slip of paper onto the their chests. He went throughout the entire compound slaughtering all that he came across, he was Yagura's right hand man so he knew everyone who was there that night and there rounds. He knew what these men had all done within the past couple of years, bullying and oppressing people with bloodlines, destroying homes, raping and murdering women on their wedding nights and slaughtering entire families. Oh yes he knew very well who all of these men were and had gone to great lengths over the last few weeks to get the absolute worst of them all here tonight, tonight was a night of blood and punishment and they were being judged.

As the man swept through the area he made sure to leave no trace of his presence, not even a drop of blood had been spilled on the ground as he silently cut his way through the Jounins and ANBU patrolling the Mizukage Tower. After having finally finished off the last of them he stopped to look up at the Hunter's Moon, it had been his ally this night and looking closely he could see a blood red tinge along e the edges. "Hmmmm….how...fitting…" he thought to himself as he made his way into the tower itself from the roof, knew very well where Yagura was going to be. The Tower had a very large training area at the top floor above the Mizukage Office, that provided a view of the entire village from all directions. Something that he was going to make use of tonight, if anyone heard anything they would most likely chalk it up to their leader doing some late night training. Now that he was inside he made his way across the ceiling weaving in between the many surrounding pillars, using chakra to stick to the ceiling. He could see his target in sight as he made his way up to him, Yagura had just been standing there looking up at the moon. As the masked man dropped 50 feet to the ground, landing behind Yagura without making a sound he stood up, he knew that Yagura was aware of his presence, he could tell by the way that his posture had changed. Yagura had briefly tensed as he had put his hand on the rail in front of him, he had seen it just after he had entered the room.

"Hello Zabuza…" Yagura said as he turned around to face his assassin. Yagura was an incredibly short man who barely reached 5 feet in height, he had messy grey hair and pupiless pink eyes. He had a stitch scar running down from his left eye to his chin, he wore a sleevelss grey shirt with a Kiri Hitae-ate on the front. He had short sleeved mesh armor over which he also wore a poncho and a turquiose sash around his waist and a green apron around his pants with brown boots. Strapped across his back was a large pole with differently sized hooks and a large green flower on next to the larger hook, his gaze was impassive as he looked up at the man who towered over him. Looking over his old friend Yagura honestly couldn't imagine a worse opponent to come and attempt to assassinate him, Zabuza knew all there was to know about him. They had been friends for years and if there was one person who had ever been able to beat him then it was none other than Zabuza, Yagura had only ever been able to contend with him in close quarters due to his own weapon being just as large. Especially when he made use of the hooks on his staff against Zabuza's sword, but he just couldn't hope to stand up to him in a contest of sheer power. And what was worse was the fact that while they were both masters of Suiton ninjutsu, Zabuza was also a master of Raiton ninjutsu though that was a little known fact. Thankfully he had mastered Fuuton ninjutsu so he could still hold an advantage over Zabuza, it would appear that he couldn't even trust his closest friends after all.

Stepping out from the shadows Zabuza revealed himself, he stood at a towering 6' 6" with with a very muscular build. With pale skin, short spiky black hair and small eyebrows, he wore a sleeveless black shirt with matching black ANBU cargo pants, complete with a waist guard. Over that was a black leather utility belt with a skull themed buckle, at each of his hips were what appeared to be two bone daggers in sheaths made out of bone and cast iron. At the back of his belt was a very large shinobi pouch, and sitting strapped across his back attached to a single magnetized belt was his primary weapon the Kubikiriboucho. Easily one of the largest swords in the world, and was known to be one of the only other blades in existence to match the Samehada. On his legs and arms were demon themed shin and arm bracers that came up to his knees and also protected his knuckles, as Yagura looked his old friend up and down he noticed something different. Zabuza's eyes were no longer dark brown but instead seemed to be glowing in the dark with a their own steady purple light, his pupil now a small tiny dot in the center.

"So….." Yagura sneered. "You're one of them after all? I must say this is a surprise to be sure, I never thought that my own best friend was just another freak!" he exclaimed, yelling at the end. Gripping his staff he twirled it around off of his back before settling into a more ready position, though still relaxed Yagura was not going to be taking any chances.

"Please…..let's not stand on ceremony here. Old. Friend." Zabuza replied not seeing any reason to waste time. It hurt like hell what he was about to do, but he hadn't gone through all of that trouble just to talk or walk away. They were both well past the point of no return.

Staring at each other they both eyed each other up as they slowly began to circle one another, their eyes combing over one another as they slowly readied their weapons. One of them was going to die tonight, and that was all there was to it. With a roar both of them dashed forward exchanging a vicious series of blows, neither of them giving an inch as they both tried to kill the other. Yagura seeing an opportunity used the smaller hook on his staff to 'grab' the hole in Zabuza's sword to gain leverage, twisting around he then attempted to gut Zabuza with the larger of the two hooks. Only for Zabuza to plant his size 13 combat boot in Yagura's side, as Yagura flipped in the air to land safely on the ground Zabuza had jumped into the air. Channeling Suiton and Raiton chakra into his blade he then swung his weapon sending a crescent shaped blade at Yagura, Yagura thinking quickly dodged by backflipping away from the attack. Just as Zabuza had wanted as he brought the full power of his sword down on Yagura when he landed, only to be barely intercepted by Yagura's staff. The sheer force of the attack sending the Mizukage onto one knee as he held off the massive sword that seemed to want to cut him, thinking quickly Yagura then spat out a blast of water into Zabuza's chest sending him flying back several feet. Standing back up Yagura quickly put away his staff before he began to do a few handsigns, finishing he then called out. "Suiton: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu!" Opening up his mouth an obscene amount of pressurized water shot out in the form of a Chinese dragon, after forming it then raced towards Zabuza.

Thinking quickly he channeled chakra into his sword forming a coat of it around the blade like a skin, protecting it and reinforcing it. "Kenjutsu: Break Off of Energy!" he growled as he then cut the incoming water dragon in half, causing the the water to then disperse onto the ground. Zabuza then surprised Yagura as he appeared in front of him in a burst of pure speed and decked him in the face, as Yagura tried to recover from the attack he was then hit again by a blast of Raiton powered water. The effect was almost instantaneous as not only was he sent flying to the other side of the room but he was also covered in water, and electrocuted. The foreign Raiton chakra now making his body twitch as stood back up, forming a single hand sign Yagura snarled. "Fuuton: Assassin's Rush" pointing his staff behind him a powerful burst of wind chakra sent him flying at intense speeds towards Zabuza, not finished however Yagura made one more hand sign as he neared his target. "Suiton: Water Decapitation" he muttered as he slammed his staff into Zabuza's sword, as their weapons pushed against one another Yagura then spat out a very thin stream towards face. Ducking out of the way Zabuza didn't even bother to look back at stone pillar that had been cut in half, holding Yagura's staff at bay with his left hand his right then made its way to one of the daggers on his belt. Drawing one of the blades resting on his left hip he then attempted to slash at Yagura, who wisely disengaged and jumped back avoiding them the blade by centimeters. Spinning his staff around above him he then channeled Fuuton Chakra into it to create some type of disk of Fuuton chakra, smirking Yagura then threw the entire thing at Zabuza. "Fuuton: Destructo Disk!" he called out as he then immediately began to do even more handsigns as he spat out even more water which took the form of an incredibly large water shark. "Suiton: Great Shark Missile Jutsu!" he yelled as the gigantic shark rocketed towards Zabuza who responded in kind with his own jutsu. Doing a single handsign then brought his sword up in front of him with the point down, using the flat of the blade as a type of shield he then channeled chakra into his blade and then outwards. As Yagura's Destructo Disk neared its target, it was met by a blue barrier that was originating from the Kubikiriboucho and extending out to surround Zabuza. With the disk now stalled he then forced the barrier to repel it back towards Yagura, right through the path of the incoming Great Shark Missile. Opening up its mouth it promptly chomped down on the disk absorbing the chakra surrounding the staff, before it continued on and struck down Zabuza in a great explosion of water.

Yagura could only watch as his opponent disappeared from his sight after his last attack struck home, causing waves and waves of water to crash in all directions and covering most of the floor with a couple of inches of water. When everything died down the entire place had been soaked and where there wasn't large puddles of water, there was about two inches of standing water and right there in the middle of it was an unconscious Zabuza.

Walking over to him Yagura couldn't help the smirk that came over him. "Well Zabuza you had a good run, buuuuut it looks like this time I'm going to be the winner." he said as he picked up his staff from the ground, standing over Zabuza he channeled some Fuuton chakra into his staff coating the tip in a large blade of wind. Raising it up over his head head he brought it down hard to decapitate his assassin, with a satisfying 'slick' Zabuza's head was separated at the neck. "Tch…...just another dead freak."

Yagura's victory was cut short as a deep voice spoke from behind him, "Raiton: Shima's Touch!". Yagura whipped around just in time to see Zabuza rise out from a puddle behind him and strike him with an open palm thrust to the chest, the sheer force of the blow sending him flying back. After landing on his back Yagura looked over to see the body lying on the ground dissolve into blood and water, something that shocked Yagura. "So that's how…..I thought the Blood Clone Jutsu was lost forever…" he thought as he looked back up at his old friend.

Looking down on him Zabuza could only stare at the scene in front of him. "It wasn't easy you know, it took me months to figure that Kinjutsu out. It took me many months but luckily for me you provided me with plenty of bodies to supply the necessary amounts blood, I spent so long making sure this night would happen the way that it did." he said as he watched Yagura pick himself back up off of the ground.

Holding his chest as he leaned against his staff Yagura was weezing as he glared at Zabuza, "Wh…...what did you do to me?!" he snarled out as he started to feel pain course its way throughout his entire body. It was strange because at first the only thing he had felt was the initial force of the blow and him landing on his back, but now that he had started to move around he could feel a type of stiffness growing in his body that was quickly giving way to pain. "That wasn't a normal attack…." he thought to himself.

"It's not surprising that you wouldn't know of it, it is a Raiton Jutsu after all. Do you remember when we both made that raid on a Kumo intelligence base? Some 7 years ago?" Zabuza asked as he watched Yagura now struggle to even stand.

"Yes….y-you and I had hit a gold mine with so many scrolls. Not just intel but jutsu scrolls as well, it wasn't long after that that you told me you had finally mastered Raiton to the same level as your Suiton….. That's where you got that jutsu isn't it?" he said as he felt his body slowly began to give out on him.

"Yes…...its a S Rank Raiton Jutsu that ensures death by targeting the heart. We all have our secrets right? Well here's one of mine….it took me many years to master it. What really helped was that I was constantly going on all of those ANBU and Hunter missions, did you really never wonder why someone like me was returning with almost untouched dead bodies? Did you never muse upon the fact that a swordsmen with a sword that's larger than himself was bringing in dead men, that looked like they simply dropped dead?" he asked stressing the importance.

Yagura collapsed as heard this his body now starting to shut down, "He's right, now that I think about it he's been doing that for the last two and a half years! I always wondered what he had been doing but I never really gave it any serious thought, if this is what he's been doing ever since that raid…..then just what else has he learned?!" Yagura thought desperately as he tried to fight through the effects of the jutsu as clawed at life.

Standing over Yagura, Zabuza looked down with something akin to pity. "You'll be passing out soon into a coma….and then your heart will stop all together and you will die Yagura. But that is not going to be your fate, you will die by my blade tonight." he said as he hefted up his sword with one hand. "Good bye Yagura." And with that Zabuza brought his sword down hard.

*swish….*

*Cling!*

Zabuza widened his eyes as his sword was stopped by a very large Gunbai, protecting Yagura from being decapitated. Looking down he saw a long Ninjato stabbing into his chest, right into his heart, looking up he saw what appeared to be a man wearing a spiral orange mask. Time seemed to stop for a moment before Zabuza's body dissolved into water, and the real one walked out from behind a pillar. Staring at the newcomer Zabuza could see that he wore a black cloak that went down to his feet and covered his neck, he wore black gloves and shinobi sandals with white stirrups. Over the cloak was a large shinobi belt/waist guard that held a sheath for his Ninjato on his left hip and three standard shinobi pouches were seen on the back. On his right hip were two scroll carriers and his mask had only one hole on the right side revealing only his right eye, a Sharingan Eye.

"An Uchiha…..so….this is starting to explain certain things.." Zabuza growled out as he glared at the man. "So I take it since you're interceding that you're the one responsible?" he asked as his KI steadily began to rise on its own, Zabuza had always had a rather short fuse his whole life. But he was always one of those people whose anger never interfered with what they were doing or their decision making, instead it simply made him more focused and MUCH more dangerous. Because then whoever had angered him had his complete and undivided attention, and coming from an S Rank shinobi that was NEVER a good thing.

Staring at the man as he came out from behind the pillar he couldn't help but recognize the threat that this man presented, this was a true killer standing in front of him. Too bad for Zabuza he wasn't an ordinary shinobi, and he was going to find that out the hard way soon enough. Chuckling to himself he couldn't help but laugh as 'The Demon of the Mist' glared at him, looking him up and down the masked man had to admit that his opponent really did look like something out of a nightmare. "Too bad for him it won't matter when all is said and done….all of that strength and power and he won't even be able to touch me…." he thought as he immediately rushed the larger man.

"Oh….so he want's to play too? Alright I'm game…." thought Zabuza as he brought down sword and readied it for battle.

In River Country

It had been a month since Naruto and Konan had began his training in Suiton and Fuuton ninjutsu, it had also been a month since they had slowly began to get to know one another. There hadn't really been a lot of complications in that area since Naruto had spent over two years constantly being around Kakuzu and Hitome, which had lead to Naruto developing a focus and work ethic that could put some ANBU to shame. For both of them it had taken the longest for Naruto to get the hang of Fuuton since he didn't posses a heart or affinity for it at all, and while Konan was expecting Naruto to become frustrated she had instead been surprised to see the little seven year old take it as a challenge. Switching out with her own paper clones so she could watch the progress of Naruto's Shadow Clones, she was surprised to see how all of them that were working on Fuuton shared a look of pure determination as they tried over and over again to cut their leaves. It appeared Naruto just did NOT have it in him to give up, and based off of what she had been told and now was seeing for herself, she now knew for a fact that he would learn everything it was that she had to teach him. And while she had still had reservations that Naruto wouldn't be able to do it, he had once again surprised her earlier that day after lunch, when he showed her that he had mastered turning his chakra into Suiton and Fuuton. They had been in the middle of finishing up their lunches when Naruto had frozen for a few seconds, before he started to laugh and cheer to himself. Without even bothering to give her an explanation he ran over to a nearby tree and plucked two leaves off of a low hanging branch before running back to her, holding them in either hand he concentrated for a second before grinning. Opening up his hands he showed Konan a leaf in his left hand that had been split cleanly in half while in his right hand was a soaking wet leaf, an act that had caused her jaw to slightly drop.

Sighing to herself she made her way up the stairs so she could go to her room, she needed the sleep if she was going to be teaching a blonde hyperactive little kid how to do do ninjutsu. "Hmmmm, that's something I never thought I would have to think of….I'm starting to see why Kakuzu and Hitome always appear to be worn out. How have they been able to do this for the last two years?" she thought to herself as she walked down the hall to her quarters. As she passed by Naruto's room she stopped as she heard a soft whimper come from his door, "Hmmm?". Standing still for a moment she listened as she heard another whimper and some rustling come from the other side of his door, slowly opening it up all the way Konan looked in to see what was going on. As she looked in she could immediately spot Naruto on his bed tossing and turning, a thin sheen of sweat covering him as he slept. As she stepped into the room she noticed that the desk light by his bed was on, the next thing that he noticed was that covering almost every square inch of space on the walls were paintings and drawings of different men. The most frequent being that of Fugaku Uchiha, widening her eyes at what she was seeing she saw now what they all really were. They were all of the men who had tortured and raped him, he must have done all of them over the past two years in an attempt to 'face his demons'. She could tell from some of them that they were very crude paintings and as she looked around she could almost track the time by the improvement of skill in each of the paintings.

She even noticed how the best ones were in actual frames and how there were some on the ceiling itself, looking back at Naruto her gaze softened as she looked at the still tortured boy in front of her. "I always thought it was strange how he seemed to be holding it together when we trained during the daytime…." she thought as she walked over him, reaching out she softly stroked his head in an attempt to calm him down. As she was doing this she felt a tug on her consciousness that was coming from the seal, before she could pull her hand away however she was forcefully brought into the seal. As her senses returned to her she began to look around at her surroundings, and what she saw was breathtaking. Wherever she looked there were seas of grass in all directions with mountains in the distance, looking up she saw countless stars and planets slowly moving in the sky despite it appearing to be 'daytime'.

"This place….." she thought. "It's so beautiful…...this must be the inside of his seal. His….Mindscape, yes Kakuzu mentioned this over a year ago." As she was lost in her musings she began to walk around inspecting everything she came across, she had a feeling after several minutes of walking that this place was much larger than she had originally believed it to be. Why? Because she had been walking towards an area that had a forest and a larger river and for some reason they didn't seem to be any closer. Sighing she trudged on wanting to get this over with, as she walked several minutes had turned into a half hour before she had finally reached her destination. Her suspicions were proven correct as she stared up at a forest of trees that were taller than the Amekage Tower, "As beautiful as this place is I've wasted too much time here, I need to leave." As she was thinking this she began to feel a slight rumble in the ground beneath her coming from the forest, looking over she witnessed the Kyuubi walking out from within the forest. Pressing herself against one of the trees Konan watched as the towering demon slowly laid down near the river with it's tails curled around it, a sight that had Konan panicking slightly. "What on earth?! How is it possible for the Kyuubi to be walking around so freely?" she thought as she continued to spy on the large demoness, all of her thoughts ground to a halt however as the Kyuubi turned its head and looked directly at her. Raising one of its clawed hands it pointed to her and silently made a 'come here' motion with it's finger. Steeling herself she walked over to where the Kyuubi was resting, her mind coming up with as many solutions as she could if things turned ugly.

As she stood face to face with the demon she could see that it seemed to be studying her, its intelligence was evident in its eyes as the Kyuubi carefully studied everything about her. Konan for herself had never felt like she was being put under a microscope before now as continued to stare down the demon, an act that seemed to briefly amuse it. Leaning back the Kyuubi opened up its mouth and let out a yawn, revealing its two rows of razor sharp teeth. Looking back towards Konan the Kyuubi finally spoke. "I suppose you have been wondering how and why you are here human, I can assure you it was no accident."

"So it was you who brought me in here….why?" she simply asked.

"I have been meaning to talk to one of you for some time now about the state of things, but unfortunately I had wait for a chance to present itself. Seeing how my options are limited I figured I would be in for a wait before I could get one of you down here, and we do have soooo much to talk about…" Kurama said as she eyed Konan.

"What do you want?" Konan asked suddenly feeling very uneasy.

Sliding one of her tails over Kurama revealed a sleeping Naruto who was currently using Kurama's tails as a bed, who was sleeping somewhat peacefully. He was still tossing and turning a little but it was not to the same degree as what she had seen in his room, looking up at the demoness Konan began to see what this was all about. "She's concerned for Naruto…..I wonder what she knows. Regardless we'll have to be careful from now on-"

Before she could finish her train of thoughts Kurama lashed out and slammed Konan into the ground with one of her paws, effectively pinning her down. Looming over the woman Kurama spoke, "I heard that mortal…..do not think that I can't hear your thoughts in here just because you are not the one I am sealed inside of. I have known from the beginning that you and your organization have had ulterior motives for helping Naruto, I know that you see him as a means to an end, and I know that you are most likely all criminals. I share senses with Naruto meaning everything that he sees, feels and experiences so too do I see and feel. I am aware of everything that goes on around him at all times, so I will say this only once. If any of you hurt my little kit…." she threatened bringing her large maw right in front of Konan's face, her eyes now glowing a malicious red. " I will kill you all and swallow your souls." she said as she backed up and removed her giant paw, allowing Konan to stand once more.

Getting up Konan had to admit that was easily the scariest moment of her life, worse than anything she had suffered at the hands of Hanzo. Taking a few moments to steady her breathing she looked back up into the glowing eyes of the Kyuubi, dusting herself off she spoke. "You must really care about him then to go through all of this trouble to bring one of us down here, I believe you when you say you'll kill us all…..I really do. Yes, we are comprised of criminals. And yes our intentions for helping Naruto originally were because he is a Hanyou and because he could become an incredibly powerful ally to us, especially when he grows up." she said in an even tone as she looked Kurama right in the eye.

Not sensing any lies Kurama nodded "I appreciate your honesty Konan, but know that I WILL be watching you. Naruto has suffered enough and I won't tolerate anyone hurting him and neither will the Jiongu." she stated as she looked over to a sleeping Naruto who was now curled up in her tails, a peaceful expression now on his face as he slept.

"I was wondering about him…" Konan stated gaining Kurama's attention. "I and the rest of the Akatsuki have been receiving regular reports on his progress over the past two years, I had always wondered on how he seemed to be doing so well with his recovery. You've been helping him this entire time haven't you?" she asked as she looked over to Naruto, and then back to Kurama.

"...Yes I have. I was there when he was…..attacked….everything he felt and experienced that night,I too was able to feel to a certain extent. I poured so much of my chakra through the seal that night just trying to keep his heart from giving out from the pain….what I felt through the seal was only a small portion of what Naruto went through. And afterwards I pulled him into the seal so that way I could try to heal his mind and help him recover, it was the least I could do seeing how I was ultimately responsible for what happened to him.." she said as her gaze softened.

Konan for her part could only stare in shock as she listened to what she had been told, having not expected the demoness to reveal something like that. "And the pictures and paintings on his walls?" she asked after finding her voice.

"That was something Naruto started doing some eight months ago, he just started to draw and then he moved on to painting teaching himself his own technique. He has a photographic memory so he was able to take to it fairly quickly, all of those that you saw were the best ones that he had done. The…..finished product that he put up all over the walls and ceiling of his room, it was just something that he felt he needed to do. He faced so many of his fears that now all they serve to do is…..motivate him for lack of a better word." answered Kurama, sighing she sat back down in a more comfortable position resting on her front legs. "You're wrong though about his recovery…..he hasn't been making near as good of a recovery as you would believe. The main reason why he isn't even a vegetable right now is because of this seal, time can go by much slower in here if either us desire it. To the point where an hour in here is more like an entire day, sometimes we will spend entire months in here together while he's sleeping in his bed. He comes here every night just to spend time with me, with all the time he's spent in here he's aged mentally and matured faster than his body has. He's a ten year old trapped inside of a seven year old's body essentially, that's why he's the way he is."

"I see….."

"Now I believe it's time you left, Naruto will be awake soon and I have nothing more to say to you." Kurama said as she sat up.

"Very well, goodbye Kyuubi." replied Konan as her body began to quickly fade away.

Back in Naruto's Room

Opening up her eyes Konan blinked rapidly before looking around, seeing she was back in Naruto's room she looked down at the sleeping boy in front of her. Seeing how he seemed to be sleeping just fine now she turned to leave before stopping, turning back around she pulled the blanket back over Naruto before exiting the room. As Konan headed back to her room she replayed the conversation she had with the Kyuubi in her head, that was easily one of her most uncomfortable conversations in her life. "If that's how the Kyuubi is it makes me wonder how the other Bijuu are, it would certainly be a much different fight indeed if we were having to deal with the Bijuu themselves instead of their Jinchuuriki. I will have to inform the others about this when I get the chance, we can't afford to slip up at all. Especially if what she said is true."

Aaaaaannnnnnddddd I'm done! Ok so that took alot longer than I had intended it to guys, and I'm sorry as hell for the wait but the last 3 weeks shit just kept popping up at the wrong time one right after another. This chapter was actually supposed to have been put up at least 2 weeks ago, talk about frustrating. So anyways I got the chapter and my shit taken care of so yeah go ahead and expect each chapter to come up every 10-20 days max from now on, tell me what you thought about the fight that I put in between Yagura and Zabuza(don't worry you will see what happens between him and Tobi), and feel free to share the story with others. Peace

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