Ninja of the Spiral

Chapter Three - Battle in the Hospital!

[Hospital ICU wing, Konoha]

Current Time...

"Nice to be out of here, isn't it?" Chouji asked as he got into the hall along with the others who had been on the retrieval mission. Thanks to Tsuande's help and very well detailed medical records from the Akimichi clan, he and the others were back to normal now. Except for Shikamaru, mainly because his broken finger wasn't as much a priority as the wounds of the rest of the team, but he'd be fine in a couple of days.

Neji did some stretches, his body feeling stiff. "We should be grateful we have the best medic in the known world here in our village. Without her, we might be in critical condition for the next week or so."

"Yeah, we should be sure to thank Naruto again for bringing the hokage here." Kiba commented, remembering Hinata telling him the only reason Tsunade came back to Konoha was because Naruto got through to her, even though she wasn't entirely sure of the details. "You know, did we ever thank him for that when he actually did it?"

"I... I can't speak for the rest of you, but I don't recall ever thanking him." Neji admitted, feeling a bit bothered now.

The others thought about it, and realize they too had failed to express gratitude to the blonde. It saddened them, their comrade had delivered tot hem the very thing that had saved their lives, and yet they, along with possibly the rest of the village, hadn't even thanked him for it. And if it weren't for a single idle comment, they likely never would have thought about it.

"Where is he anyway? Isn't he being released too?" Chouji asked, looking around and not seeing the whiskered blonde.

"He should, he heals better than the rest of us." Shikamaru noted. "He was probably released first."

"No, because then he'd be checking up on us now." Kiba theorized.

"Unless he's getting ramen." Chouji suggested.

Kiba nodded. "Yeah, dude loves ramen more than life itself."

"We should check his room first." Neji suggested.

Shikamaru sighed. "It's on the next floor up."

Neji frowned. "Your foot isn't broken is it? Then you can't complain."

"Watch me." Shikamaru remarked, but nonetheless followed the Hyuuga branch member to the stairs up.

As soon as they got to the next floor, but before any of the boys got off the steps themselves, they saw Hinata dart past them, followed by Sakura. The pinkette however saw them, whereas Hinata didn't, thus she stopped.

"Can you fight?" She asked.

"What?" Kiba asked.

"Can? You? Fight?" Sakura pressed, getting impatient.

"We're not supposed to, but I suppose if we have to-" Chouji started.

"Then be ready for it." Sakura warned, then went back after Hinata.

Shikamaru groaned then frowned at Neji. "This is YOUR fault you know."

"Hey, you want to leave, no one's stopping you." Neji hissed before following Sakura, which Chouji and Kiba were already doing.

Shikamaru sighed, knowing he could just leave, yet his body and morals and the voice in his head that sounded like his mother just would not let him. "Dammit, why can't the world just go on pause?" Despite his reluctance, he followed.

There was some fighting in the halls, mostly between masked Anbu and medical nin, so the younger ninja were being overlooked and allowed to follow Hinata, who ran like she was the only one who knew where to go. Unfortunately, before she could get there, she was swarmed by some masked ninja who decided they had gone far enough.

"Get out of my way!" Hinata practically screamed as she began hitting the hell out of them. But she could only hit them one at a time and not fully effectively since had to stop each attack before changing target, so the enemy nin were able to get around her and hit back, and hard.

"Getsuga!" Kiba yelled, doing his clan's spinning attack without his more injured companion to defend his teammate. Luckily the attack was designed to work when the user was outnumbered so he didn't have to put in extra effort to make it have the intended effect. But it hurt him to use nonetheless.

Now the group decided Hinata wasn't their only target, and took out ninjato and kunai to show they meant business. Fortunately, the younger nin weren't intimidated by opponents that carried weapons, it kind of came with the job.

"Human Boulder." Chouji said, getting in front of the rest and blimping up into a giant meatball, making him hard to hurt with most weapons. He rolled forward, and since they were in a hospital the enemy ninja had only one direction to go. Unfortunately, Hinata was in his way as well.

She had to run down the hall too since Chouji was incapable of seeing where he was going or rolling over. Up ahead on the right side of the wall there were two doors, one belonging to a door and one belonging to an elevator. The masked ninja had pasted them both, hoping to take advantage of an Akimichi's weakness in handling sharp turns by going down some stairs. Hinata however close to hide in the available room and just let him pass her.

She got to it and went it, thankful it was an unlocked medical supply closet. She got in safely, but Chouji broke off the door before she could close it.

"Hinata-sama?" Neji asked once he came by the closet.

"I know what you're going to ask. We think someone's attacking Naruto-kun." She told him as she went back into the hall. Looking down it she saw Chouji had to come to a stop.

"Why?" Shikamaru asked.

"Does it matter?" Hinata asked back, frowning at the shirker.

Chouji returned to normal size. Ahead of him was a wall that split the hall to either left or right but not forward, and he couldn't see the masked ninja anywhere. He did see some stairs going down, and concluded that's where they escaped to. "Everyone! Follow me!"

Right away the group tried to dart to him, except Hinata who stopped them by getting in front of them. "They're not the priority, getting to Naruto-kun's room is."

Sakura nodded. "Right. We need to get to the next floor up. Before they do."

Not bothering with the elevator, which would have taken too long even in a ninja hospital, the group, Chouji included, went to the stairs leading up, to the floor Naruto was one.

On this floor it was even more of a battlefield. Apparently the entire hospital from the fourth floor up was in a fight consisting of masked ninja, Anbu, and combat-trained medical ninja. Doors were closed and all the non-combat medical ninja were trying their best to keep the patients out of harms way.

None of the young ninja knew what to immediately do. They had not expected a battle of this magnitude. This was almost like a portion of the Oto-Suna Invasion all over again.

No time to speculate, Hinata went for Naruto's room down the hall, not caring in the least about joining the fight until she knew what his current state of being was. Once she moved, the others followed.

"Stop right there!" One of the masked nin ordered, but was completely ignored. Occupied with a fight against an Anbu, all they could do was thrown some kunai, which all missed and hit the wall instead. This didn't even faze the rookies, who continued following Hinata.

Outside Naruto's room the hospital seemed to have taken the worst damage, implying that this is where the fight started and it escalated to emcompass a lot more of it. There were burn marks and holes in the wall and even some slashes on the plaster as well. On the floor there were two down bodies, clearly dead since they were unmoving and on fire, with one man by the door with red-orange hair none of them recognized.

"Who are you?" Hinata asked in a threatening tone that could become more than just a threat depending on his answer.

"Someone who's on your side, kid. My name's Rea, memorize it."

"Why should I believe you?" She hissed.

"If you're a good ninja, you shouldn't." Rea replied.

"Where's Naruto then, if you're on our side?" Sakura asked.

Rea pointed behind himself with his thumb. "He's right in there..." He said as he turned around to see Naruto for himself before he paused mid-sentence. To the genin's surprise Rea's hands suddenly were suddenly enveloped by small fiery tornadoes.

Since they couldn't see, Hinata and Neji activated their byakugans and saw what he saw. Someone in a mask came in through the window. Naruto was already out of his bed, but it looked like the wires on him had only recently been disconnected, and judging by his chakra network, he wasn't at his normal health standards just quite. Close, but maybe about 90% there. But regardless, he was clearly ready to fight.

Without a word, both young Hyuuga rushed into the room, almost pushing past Rea to do so.

"Hinata...? Neji...? What are you guys still doing here?" Naruto told them.

"The hospital is a war zone, Naruto, did you expect us to leave in the middle of this fight and leave you alone?" Neji asked.

"No, and I'm glad you didn't. I was just surprised that you guys were still here, that's all." The blonde replied.

The masked nin had to pause for a moment, he looked like he was armed with some kind of fuinjutsu since he held a scroll in his hand but nothing else. He opened it quickly and placed it on the floor, a seal drawn across the paper. Despite how fast he might have been, Rea was faster and already armed with an attack, and blasted the masked nin with two flaming flurries. The attack must have been designed to burn rather than overpower, for it didn't push the masked nin back or show any signs that it had force behind it. Rather it set the uniform and scroll ablaze, and unless they acted quickly, the person inside would burn with them.

The threat no longer imposing, Hinata immediately went to Naruto and couldn't resist hugging him to confirm he was safe. "Naruto-kun, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, still in a lot of pain though." He said. "It feels like something is preventing my injuries from completely healing but I don't know what it might be."

Her byakugan still active, Hinata looked but couldn't see the problem. "Naruto-kun, I wish I knew what was wrong, but I can't see anything I recognize as a problem. For now, I would try to avoid pushing yourself if you can help it."

"But there's a fight going on." He objected.

She nodded. "That's why we're here. Since you can't fight right now we'll fight for you. You help us all the time so please let us return the favor."

At this point Rea entered the conversation.

"For now, stay here and fend off any newcomers." Rea ordered. "I'm going to go check on where that guy came from." Before any of the young Konoha-nins could say anything Rea went out the window and was headed up to the roof of the hospital.

On the wall, he could see a body sent flying off the roof and fall down to the street below, with a brief glow to one part of it and blood around the same area. 'Kikyo's already up there. I better not show up unannounced or else I'll be the one with an arrow in my gut...'

Getting close to the top, but still over the edge, Rea saw some other masked nin trying to surround someone, and got an idea. 'I gotta time this right.' Once he felt a familiar chakra surge, he jumped and immediately moved to behind one of the enemies.

This was a good idea, since almost right away the enemy became his human shield, taking roughly twenty chakra arrows for him then fell over.

'I'm glad Kikyo values accuracy over raw power, or else those would have skewered me too.' He thought, then made his fire chakrams, hoping Kikyo wasn't shooting her targets before determining who they were first. In the heat of battle, Uzumaki did sometimes have an 'attack first ask questions later' mentality.

Kikyo shot another enemy then turned to Rea, the familiar sight of his fire jutsu staying her hand, but she kept her bow ready.

"I come in peace." He said, just to ensure she didn't shoot him. She then fired an arrow that passed his head but pierced the skull of the masked nin behind him.

"I'd prefer it if you came to fight." She stated.

Rea nodded then spun in place for a moment, then suddenly his fire chakrams were released. Once freed, the rings of fire spun around him like a horizontal vortex, the circumference expanding quickly with him as the epicenter. The chakrams themselves were mowing down all the enemies that were left on the rooftop and didn't flee, while Rea cancelled the jutsu before Kikyo was at risk from it.

"Where is Naruto?" Kikyo asked now that she had a chance.

"Right where we left him. But we should get him somewhere secure."

"You know the layout of Konoha the best of us all, where do you recommend?" Kikyo asked.

"I had hoped we could go to the old Uzumaki embassy, but it's been torn down and repurposed as a shopping center expansion in our public absence. Plus, whoever's behind this attack would expect us to go there anyway. We can't go to the Suna embassy without causing a lot of legal backlash, but I do know a place virtually barren that no one can complain about us being there in."

"Then just say it." Kikyo insisted, not wanting a discussion.

"Better yet, I'll take Naruto and his friends there, then come get you and the others." Rea said before jumping back over the ledge of the building.

"Good." Kikyo said, then readied her bow again for any new threats; as she shot a couple of masked men part of Rea's sentence suddenly registered in her mind.

"Wait, his friends too?"

[Hospital, Naruto's Room]

Meanwhile...

While Rea had been out, another masked ninja took the opportunity to sneak in. When they did, all of Naruto's friends were there in the room keeping him from going right to his target. The ones closest to Naruto were Hinata and Shikamaru.

"What do you want with Naruto?" Sakura asked, holding a taijutsu stance as best she could, knowing if push came to shove she'd be outmatched but she was never one to go down without a fight.

"What I want is none of your concern, little girl. Now there are two ways this can end." The masked ninja said, his voice monotone but stern, like he was either giving an order or paraphrasing an objective. "You either hand me the jinchuuriki, or die before he does. I have no problem killing all of you, so if you want to live, give up the boy now."

"What did you just call Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, familiar with the terminology this man had used, even though the others weren't. 'If he goes into detail here there's no telling how they will react. Oh great, I shouldn't have called attention to it and given him a reason to go into detail. Smart thinking Hinata.' She berated herself.

Thankfully thee masked nin seemed to have no interest in answering her, much to her relief. At that moment, however, Naruto suddenly grimaced and hissed in pain, clutching his side like something inside him was being hurt. A little bit of blood starting dripping out of the corners of his mouth, and some sweat formed on his forehead.

Sensing an opportunity, the masked nin rushed to Naruto, moving too quickly to be blocked by the other genin. In fact, those in front of him were hit hard and thrown to the side, but on pure reflex Hinata, the one closest to Naruto, threw out her hand with a juuken strike and the masked nin ran right into it. The juuken strike hit his torso and stunned him, and if it weren't for the chakra reinforcing the hand Hinata might have broken a few bones from the impact. Unfortunately, her attack didn't really stop him.

Instead the enemy lashed out and backhand-slapped her in the face, trying to knock her down. She fell, but she countered with an uppercut kick to his jaw as she fell. The enemy was momentarily dazed, but otherwise in no way unable to continue his objective.

"You'll never get what you want from me." Naruto said angrily yet quiet, struggling to ignore his internal agony, which was beginning to pass.

"I don't want anything, I have no wants or needs. I am merely the one ensuring the wants and needs of my superior are fulfilled." The masked nin said, taking out chakra suppressors.

There was a glow behind him and before Naruto knew it this masked man jerked as if hit, then his body just split in half, cut diagonally from the right shoulder to the left hit, with the wounds looking burned. "What the heck?"

"Man, leave for one minute and look what happens." Rea says, standing by the window. His right index finger was pointed up but twirling with a small disc of fire only a tiny bit bigger than a shuriken rotating above it. "I think it's time we get you somewhere less violent, kid."

Rather than respond to Rea, Naruto knelt down to check on Hinata, who was already sitting up, as were the others knocked down. "Hinata-chan? Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine, I've been hit with worse." She said, rubbing her sore hand then saw the dead body. "Who did that?"

"That would be yours truly, girl." Rea said with a smile. "With something I'm sure you'd appreciate, the Hinata Jutsu."

"Hinata Jutsu?" The entire room repeated.

"Yeah, but it's written as 'Fire Knife' instead of 'Place in the Sun'. Here, watch it." He twirled his finger faster and the fire disc got brighter, then pointed forward and stopped moving his finger. The fire disc immediately morphed into a gigantic whip of flames that sliced through the wall of the hospital like a large sword. It even left the same kind of damage, like a sword made of fire had cut through the wall.

"Neat." Naruto said. At the same time the fire weapon retracted back into a disc and Rea twirled his finger, as if the motion helped suppress it.

At that moment the hospital was filled with the sound of a loud scream.

"Did anyone else hear a scream?" Sakura asked.

Rea shrugged. "Maybe there was someone else trying to sneak in from outside. It's not our problem. Naruto, since these guys are after you, we need to take you somewhere they can't find you. That way your wounds can finish healing and we can draw out the ring leader. Let's get going."

Naruto frowned. "I'm not going anywhere with a complete stranger!"

"Then take your friends along. I don't mind."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. Something about this man was telling him to trust him, but after everything that had happened he wasn't sure if he should. "How do I even know I can trust you?"

Rea sighed. "You don't. But, like it or not, it's either that or wait for one of those guys to come in and try to kill you here. At least with this, we can get you somewhere safer and draw out the guy responsible for all of this."

All of the Rookies looked at each other, silently asking themselves if this was a good idea. None of them had a clear answer, not even Shikamaru.

"Time's not something we have a luxury of wasting kids." Rea pointed out.

"I'm not going anywhere with you, end of story." Naruto said. "You and the others say I'm part of your clan, and yet you weren't there for me when I was growing up. And now you expect me to trust-"

"His clan?" Hinata repeated, not liking the sound of that one bit. The look she gave the fire-using Uzumaki was one no one had ever seen Hinata give, it was one that could be best described as 'You're dead to me'.

The other genin reacted a bit differently, however, as they were surprised by what they just heard as Rea tried to talk his way out of this.

"Naruto, we told you why that was the case. I never agreed to it, and I'm really sorry that I didn't come to see you sooner... but what's done is done. We'll make it up to you somehow but I can't do that if you die here." Rea said.

At this point Sakura placed her hand on Naruto's shoulder. "This man has a point, Naruto. It's too dangerous for you to be here in your condition. I think it would be best if we left. Besides this guy doesn't seem like he's going to betray you."

"And even if he is, it's not like we can't put up a hell of a fight all together." Kiba added.

"So what's your decision?"

Sakura turned to the redhead to speak to him. "We'll believe that you're not a threat and anywhere you take Naruto is better than here, seeing as how you saved his and Hinata's life." She then showed her fist while giving him a determined look. "But that doesn't mean that we trust you completely, so don't expect us to lower our guards until we know for sure that you're trying to help him."

"No problem. Now hurry and follow me." Rea replied.

"Hold on." Naruto proclaimed. "I didn't say I'd go anywhere. I still don't trust you to not try something."

"He can't take all of us with him too, Naruto." Shikamaru said. "If his goal was any more sinister, he wouldn't want us to follow."

Hinata patted Naruto's arm a bit to get his attention. "Naruto-kun, I think he really just wants to get you to safety right now. Let's at least follow him for now. If he tries anything, then we'll fight for you."

"But you guys could get hurt." He pointed out.

"C'mon man, have some faith in us." Kiba said. "You're not the only one who can take a hit."

Before this conversation could continue, however, another masked ninja appeared and unsheathed their blade as they tried to attack the group as their backs were turned, but was stopped when a hand infused with lightning pierced their chest.

"That's far enough."Aa voice said from behind the masked-nin before the traitor's lifeless body dropped to the ground, revealing the presence of one Hatake Kakashi as he deactivated the jutsu he just used.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura exclaimed to which Kakashi responded by waving her off.

The Copy Ninja then turned to face Naruto and Rea.

"Sorry I'm late, Naruto. I was planning to visit you earlier today but I was busy tailing a group of these ninja to see what they were up to. If I'd known that they were attacking this place I would've come much sooner."

Before anyone could respond to Kakashi's explanation everyone noticed that things had suddenly quieted down. Rea looked outside and saw that the remaining masked-nins retreating. The Uzumaki then turned to Kakashi.

"What's going on?"

"No idea, but I'm afraid we don't have time to think about that for now. I got an order from the Hokage to take you guys to the main lobby of the hospital via my wireless radio just a few moments after I saw this guy heading for this room. We've just captured one of these attackers and are about to interrogate him." Kakashi explained as he motioned for the group to head to the door.

At hearing this Rea, realizing that finding out what was going on might prove helpful in the long run, decided to go there first before getting Naruto to a more secure place. Rea merely nodded in response before motioning Kakashi to lead the way. As Kakashi walked out of the door leading into the hallway, Rea made a few shadow clones to act as scouts. He didn't make many many since he needed to save up his chakra, but he did make enough to give them a heads up if trouble was nearby. They went out, and Rea followed.

With Hinata and even Sakura's help, Naruto followed suit, having a hard time keeping up his speed. Everyone else followed as they wondered what had just happened.

[Hospital Lobby, Konoha]

A Few Minutes Later...

The fight had already ended, with medic nins moving the injured and the dead. None of the masked ninja were in sight at this point as they had either retreated or had all been slaughtered. The building itself was not unscathed, signs of Tsunade's super-strength was seen here and there with rubble and broken walls.

The lobby itself was the least damaged area of the hospital but, at that moment, was the most crowded. Standing attentively, as if waiting for them, were the other three Uzumaki, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Shizune, Shino, Ino, Tenten, Kurenai, Asuma, Gai, Lee, Ibiki, some Anbu, and even the Sand Siblings, much to the surprise of Naruto and his friends.

"Gaara?" Naruto said when he saw his fellow jinchuuriki. "I didn't expect to see you here. It's good to see you, man."

"Good to see you as well, Naruto, though it would seem that the situation looks pretty here."

"I guess so... anyways, what brings you here? I thought you headed back home by now." Naruto asked.

"We were, but we were asked to come back."

Rea nodded. "We felt it might be good to have someone outside the village who knew you testify if they thought this village was a good place for you. Plus they were tasked to bring a message to Konoha anyways so they had to come here anyways."

"And we're glad we came when we did. When we heard that there was an attempt on your life fight we were very concerned." Temari added. "Gaara got really pissed when he heard that these guys were after you."

While Naruto, the other Leaf genin, and the Sand Siblings were talking amongst themselves, Tsunade, Ibiki, and Kikyo went to their captive and took off their mask. They didn't recognize the ninja, a young male in his late teens, as he showed no signs or traits of belonging to a clan or organization. Though just to be safe Tsunade made sure he was "missing" both of his arms now and had his legs broken.

"Start talking, you damned traitor." Tsunade started angrily. "Who are you working for? Who sent you to attack Naruto?"

"I will tell you nothing. It was my master's will that, for the good of the village, the boy be either captured or killed. That is all I will say." The shinobi droned, no emotion in his tone.

Kikyo readied her bow and pointed it down at his waste. "Is that so? Ok, then. Which one do you prefer? Left or right?"

"Left or right what?" The captive asked.

Kikyo answered his question when she released the arrow and it impaled one of his two 'fun parts', making him yell in pain rather loudly. Then she formed another arrow and then slightly shifted her bow's position. "I'm in no mood for your silence. Now start squealing."

"You can try all you want, but even if I wanted to I cannot tell you a thing." The captive replied, and even though he didn't sound afraid, there was some sweat starting to drop.

"You can't talk?" Jiraiya repeated, like something there stood out to him. "Open your mouth." He commanded.

As if to refuse, the captive shook his head, tightening his lips.

"Alright then." Jiraiya said before he grabbed the teen's cheeks then forcing the mouth open, looking in.

"You better have a good reason for this, Jiraiya." Tsunade warned.

Jiraiya looked closely and found what he was looking for. Then, using one hand to keep the teen's mouth open, Jiraiya reached into the teen's mouth and brought his tongue out for all to see. "See for yourself."

Kikyo narrowed her eyes when she saw what Jiraiya was showing them. "A fuinjutsu on his tongue, clearly the work of someone who doesn't want his subordinates to speak against him. And unfortunately, it likely has a failsafe to ensure removing it kills him, to guarantee any information dies with him."

"Most likely, but suppressing it should be safe." Jiraiya suggested, readying such a seal. The captive tried to resist so applying it was difficult, but this wasn't Jiraiya's first time putting a seal on the unwilling, so it wasn't much of a challenge.

Once the seal was applied, Jiraiya pulled away and glared down at the teen. "Now start talking."

The teen showed no expression. "I refuse. I will not betray my master."

"Boy, the other one is next. So unless you wish to lose more of your pride you had better cooperate," Kikyo asked, readying another arrow.

The teen seemed to pale ever so slightly at that, but retained his stoic look.

"If I may, I think I know how to get this handled in a less violent way." Kakashi offered, kneeling down to the captive's eye level.

"And that would be?" Ibiki asked, doubting even an ex-Anbu member could handle this better than him. The only reason he hadn't done much himself yet was because Tsunade wanted to be sure they couldn't get the boy to talk first, then he could try his luck. But he would give the jounin a chance to prove himself.

Kakashi pulled back his hitai-ate, revealing his sharingan. The tomoes began spinning rapidly, drawing the captive into a trance. "You will tell us who ordered this. You will tell us what they want."

Under the effects of the doujutsu, combined with Jiraiya's suppression seal, there was nothing to prevent the captive from confessing. "I obey the Hokage in theory only. I only follow Shimura Danzou-sama with complete obedience. His will is more than the law, it is far above the law."

Kikyo's eyes narrowed. "Shimura. I remember that name. Had to kill a few members of that clan in the past."

"Danzo hasn't been a ninja for a long time." Tsunade claimed. "Nowadays he's mostly a political shark, likes to believe he's a big fish in a small pond. He once formed a separate department of Anbu called Root that were disbanded when Sarutobi-sensei had reason to believe Danzou was training them to be his personal lapdogs, but I guess the old warhawk decided to go underground with his plans."

Though the captive heard them he couldn't reply, as Kakashi's genjutsu immediately forced him to answer the Copy Ninja's other question.

"Danzou-sama will not take the chance that the jinchuuriki might escape his grasp. He will not allow the jinchuuriki to even have the option of leaving Konoha. To ensure such an outcome, Uzumaki Naruto must remain here by force, and if the Hokage is willing to even consider letting the jinchuuriki leave, she must be removed from office by force."

Ino came to Shikamaru. "What does he keep calling Naruto?" She whispered.

"I don't know." The lazy chunin replied.

"Why would you obey a man? What makes you think he is above the Hokage?" Kakashi added.

"He is the only one who has the right to be Hokage. Anyone else is just stealing what is rightfully his. I would never truly obey a pretender to the title of Hokage." The captive, clearly a member of the should-be-gone Root organization, declared.

"He's been made completely obedient to Danzou Hokage-sama." Ibiki said. "I can tell from his tone and posture, he isn't just repeating what he's told even when he's under the control of the Sharingan. He honestly believes Danzou HAS to be hokage, for the same reason fire HAS to be hot."

That made Kakashi a bit uneasy, since it hinted at more sinister plans at play here. "What will Danzou do if he can't get Naruto today?"

"In the event of the failure of our mission, however it happens, Danzou-sama will have all ninja he's gathered rise up and revolt against the impostor Hokage before killing Uzumaki Naruto but not before the jinchuriki witnesses the deaths of those who support him including, but not limited to, Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura, Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, Rock Lee, and even Uchiha Sasuke if it comes to it. And of course the Uzumaki envoy will be slain before Danzou-sama takes his rightful place as Konoha's only true Hokage."

Everyone who heard this was either shocked or angry, and for some a mixture a both. Kakashi covered his sharingan, both to avoid using the Mangekyo Sharingan, which he had yet to reveal to anyone, in anger and to conserve his chakra.

Free from hypnosis, the Root agent realized what had just happened. Naturally he was less than pleased at this.

"You will regret what you made me say." Despite his training to have no emotions at all, he found himself feeling anger, and lacked the means to control it. With that he then turned to Tsunade. "And you will regret falling for the tricks of the worthless demon brat and the puppets of his accursed demon mother-"

All of a sudden, Rea darted to the Root and slugged him hard in the jaw. Hard enough to hear something crack.

"Rea!" The other three Uzumaki said in surprise.

Rea seemed to ignore them all. His fists were covered in fiery tornadoes but the flames barely looked controlled. He grabbed the Root nin and the flames spread all over his body, burning intensely and almost turned white in seconds. And then suddenly it stopped, the flames evaporated, leaving only steam and burns on the Root nin. A close look showed that Rea's hands and sleeves were burned too, though not as much.

"Rea stop!" Kikyo ordered.

The red-haired ninja ignored her still and clenched his burned fists, then proceeded to beat the living hell out of the armless captive. There was no taijutsu or form used, this was just a savage beating, plain and simple. The people in the room could only watch as if they can't believe it's happening. If this savage beating wasn't brutal enough Rea then added in more flames.

"REA!" Miya and Jun yelled, pulling him away from his victim by hooking his arms with their own. He resisted of course, and managed to use his legs to add in a stomp for good measure, but Jiraiya came in with a quickly-made low quality seal to stop his movements. It wouldn't last long, but enough to stop him for now.

Gaara leaned closer to Naruto. "This guy is rather vicious. Even I have to admit that was going a bit too far."

'Coming from Gaara, that's really saying something.' Naruto thought but knew not to say.

Some Anbu checked on the Root nin. "He's dead." One of them told Tsunade.

"There goes any chance to get more information." The blonde Senju said to herself. "But what we got puts things in perspective." She added, glancing at Naruto and the other Uzumaki.

"That what happens when you scumbags insult Kushina or her son in front of me! Remember that." Rea said when the blind rage left him, but not before spitting on the dead ninja's corpse.

Kikyo was less than happy. "Rea, what did I tell you about overdoing it?"

"Sorry Kikyo-sama, but can you blame me here?"

'Note to self: Don't provoke that guy.' Kakashi told himself.

Kikyo looked to Tsunade. "The soldiers of this man have pulled back, but it's clear they'll be back again. Naruto must be taken somewhere safe."

Tsunade nodded. "Yes, and I think I know a place where Danzou wouldn't think to look, while I have my soldiers search for him."

Tsunade then ordered everyone out of the hospital as they proceeded to follow her. Before leaving, however, Rea pulled out a small bag filled with ryo before turning to the person standing in the lobby.

"Sorry about the mess." Rea said before tossing the bag at the medic-nin who caught the bag. Rea then left, being the last to see the charred, bloodied, and now crumbling corpse of the man he killed.

He didn't even feel a shred a remorse.