Chapter 4

Two years later, Konoha Hokage Tower, Morning

'I'm getting to old for this.' The Sandaime thought to himself as he listened to yet another complain from Uchiha Mikoto. Ever since Sasuke had entered the Academy six years ago, his mother had been complaining that Sasuke had not been receiving enough special training. The worst parts were when she would bring it up during the counsel meetings. Thanks to being the only adult Uchiha she had taken her husband's seat and had continually call for the necessity of furthering Sasuke's training, as in her words he was, "The future of the Uchiha Clan and that if he was weak it would be a major blow to Konoha in general." And to make matters even worse for Hiruzen, the counsel agreed with her. They felt that the sharingan was to important of a bloodline to let go and by not making Sasuke more powerful and loyal to the village they could lose him. And so as much as he hated it, the Third was forced to grant special benefits to one person in his village. As Hiruzen zoned out of today's rant by Mikoto, he thought about how much he hated being the Hokage lately. There was so much paper work, be had to deal with all the complains, and the counsel continued to press its will upon him, even though they were only supposed to have a advisory role.

He was torn from his musing as Mikoto brought up something he had really hoped to never actually permit in Konoha, "Also, as Sasuke is getting older I have began looking around for possible wives for him in the future. Because he falls under the criteria of the Clan Restoration Act I feel that it is best to fight strong women to help him bring our clan back to its prestigious position."

"Very well, but remember that he cannot actually take any wives until h turns sixteen, and you cannot force anyone to marry him. They have to do it on their own will, or under an arranged marriage. Other than that, is there anything else you would like to talk about?" the elder Sarutobi asked as politely as he could manage.

"Yes, I have taught Sasuke all that I can, I want a private instructor for him so that he can continue advancing his skill." Mikoto demanded.

"And where do you mark his skills at right now? If you have taught him everything you know, then he must be quite powerful in his own right." The third inquired.

"Well, already has a fully developed sharingan as you know. His taijutsu is on par with many jonin when he uses it. Though he lacks experience with a variety of different opponents and styles. He is very proficient in his affiliations, fire and lightning. In a few years, I'm sure he'll have mastered them. Also his chakra supply in on chunin level. He already has all the graduation jutsus down. He has copied around a dozen techniques in each element. Also, just earlier this year he started on kenjutsu which he is becoming quite good with, though it will be many year before he masters it to any level. As you know he is top of his class and has quite a few friends. He could probably have graduated last year and been fine." She informed the Hokage.

"If he could have graduated already, then why didn't you push for him to do so?" Hiruzen asked.

"I want him to connect with others his age. If he had graduated early he would have been cut off from social interaction with his pears that he needs to develop. It is quite important in my opinion for him to have as many friends as possible." Said Mikoto.

For the first time in this conversation the Third smiled. He had to agree, it is very important to have friends and a life other that being a shinobi. Of all the thing his mother had done for him, Hiruzen felt that this was the best, though he felt the real reason that she didn't have him graduate early was because she didn't want him to be like Itachi, whom she feared and hated greatly. The Sandaime was worried that Sasuke was being conditioned by his mother to enact revenge for his clan from his brother, but worrying about that was still years away. "Well if you want him to have an instructor, he is going to have to graduate. His instructor will be jonin sensei. Until he graduates, you will have to be the one teaching him. While I have made many exceptions from the rules in order to help Sasuke get stronger, he will have to wait in order to have another shinobi instruct him and that is a final decision I will not budge on." Hiruzen spoke with an edge in his voice.

"But Hokage-sama, the benefits of giving Sasu…" she started to argue, only to be interrupted by the Hokage.

"I will not fight you on this point. You will either have him graduate now or wait until his class's time." Sarutobi said as he slammed the door on that conversation. "Now I have work to do, if you would be so kind as to leave I need to get on it."

Mikoto simply stood up with a little 'hmpf' and exited the room. As she walked into the hall, she was met by her son Sasuke who jumped up from his seat and grabbed her hand before leading her out of the tower. "Can we go back to sword practice Okasan?" Sasuke asked right away.

"Not yet, I have a few errands to run first." Mikoto replied.

"But Okasan, I wanna go home and train. Please?" he asked, as he tried to do puppy dog eyes. His mother couldn't help but giggle at his antics. He was just so darn cute.

"Ok Sasuke, I can run my errands later lets go." Mikoto gave in, but received a shout of joy from Sasuke who started dragging her along faster. She just smiled as she was dragged along.

Meanwhile back inside back in the Hokage's office, the Third was going over some reports. The one he was looking at currently was one about a new freelance shinobi that was starting to make a name for himself. He went by the name Kitsune and had been doing quite a few A and B rank missions and insanely cheap prices. And while this normally wouldn't be a problem, all of the mission he was taking would normally be done by Konoha. They had already lost a few big clients to his single rouge shinobi.

Right now Sarutobi was considering this report that gave a very interesting description of the man's physical appearance. Just three days ago, he had gone up against one of his squads that consisted of three low jonin. Konoha had been contracted to protect a single man on his way to a small village north of the village. On the way they had been confronted by Kitsune who claimed the man Konoha's squad was protecting had stolen a sacred scroll from another village and that he was here to return it. Needless to say, regardless of the situation the Konoha squad had to protect their clint and so that what they did, only to be brutally beaten by Kitsune, who only used taijutsu. While he didn't kill any of the shinobi, he did kill their client and steal a few of his possessions and escape. When the Konoha squad came to they made there way back and were quickly admitted to the hospital on their arrival. There, they gave their report to a chunin who had written it up for the hospitalized men and brought it to the Hokage. Now Hiruzen had to make a decision for which he had three options. One, he could label Kitsune as a criminal in the Bingo Book. If he was going to go with this option then he had to decide now because the Bingo Book for Konoha were being updated today. Two, he could try and contact Kitsune and get him to join the village. Three, he could do nothing. While the third option was attractive to him as it would require the least paper work, he knew that this was important enough to act on. So pulling out a piece of paper, he began writing up the page for Kitsune in the Bingo Book. When he finished he wasn't overly satisfied, as there was a define lack of information, but that couldn't be helped.

Kitsune

Rank: A

Know to have fox like features including tail and ears. Wears blacks clothes and mask covering lower part of face. Yellow and red hair mix. Eye patch over left eye. No photo.

Ninjutsu: Unknown

Taijutsu: A

Genjutsu: Unknown

Kenjutsu: Unknown

Chakra Reserves: Unknown

Speed: A

Bloodline: Unkown

Notable Accomplishments: None

Wanted For: Attacking and injuring squad of Konoha Shinobi.

Bounty: 50,000 yen

Warning: Jonin and up engage.

Chunin and below flee.

Having finished righting it up, calling in his secretary, he had her add the page to the other additions to the Bingo Book. Sighing, he noticed a two new presence outside his window, whom he immediately recognized. "Come in Jiraiya, Kakashi. What can I do for you two today?" the Third asked, but he already knew what they were here for.

"Has there been any report on what happened to Naruto?" Jiraiya asked his sensei.

With a sigh Hiruzen began explaining again, the situation, "Jiraiya, like I have told you, we don't have the time or resources, or even will for that matter to search for the boy. From when he stopped showing up around town two years ago, you know as well as I do that most people have been celebrating his supposed death. We can't go out and blab about his heritage either because that would cause distrust of the government. Very few of our shinobi would be willing to even look for him and that's only so that they could have the pleasure of killing him themselves."

"Then why didn't you let me take him when he was younger. You are the Hokage and yet you lat the counsel push you around. You even let them order me to not contact the boy in anyway shape or form even though you knew he was my godson." Jiraiya argued. He knew this wasn't going to go anywhere, but it made him feel better about his failure to his godson.

"You know as well as I do that my hands were tied on that. If I had given him to you, questions would have been asked and we would have had to indulge the populace with knowledge of his heritage. It would have been to dangerous for the boy, as his father's many enemy would have targeted him, and even you can't be by his side twenty-four seven." Sarutobi countered.

"Surely, though you could have at least assigned him some protection that wouldn't have been hateful towards him. There must have been someone." Kakashi said, adding his two-cents to the conversation.

"I couldn't do that. That would have been showing favoritism towards a citizen of Konoha and that I cannot do." Replied Hiruzen.

"Just like you do for Uchiha Sasuke?" Jiraiya returned. He knew it was a low blow, but felt the need to throw it out anyways. Jiraiya understood the situation with the counsel and that his sensei was getting to old for his job. 'He just doesn't have the energy he used to.' Jiraiya thought to himself.

"Yes, I have shown him favoritism, but it can't be helped. I'm not as young as I used to be. I can't keep this up forever. But I haven't come up with a worthy successor, unless you change your mind or you can get Tsunade to come back and take up the position. Please don't argue with on this you two, I feel just as guilty as you do, but their isn't anything I can do. Jiraiya, what is the latest reports from your spy network?" the Third finished as he returned to business talks.

Letting out a sigh, Jiraiya decided not to try fight his sensei anymore and began his report, "From what I have gathered, there is a new group out of mercenaries out there that have taken to doing the most difficult jobs at the lowest cost, effectively out bidding every village. They are all S rank missing-nin. Orochimaru was a member until recently when quit to go back to his experimenting. They could cause some economic hurt to all the villages if they expand to much. Also the reports about there being a new hidden village in the Land of Rice Fields are officially true. Though the location of the actual village and their leader are unknown. As from what I can tell, they are of no threat for the time being, but may try and expand in the future, which could cause some problems on a more international scale. Next, Iwa and Kumo are finally at full strength since the Third Shinobi War. Suna is still have difficulty and from what I can tell, only about at three quarters their prewar numbers, but they also seem to be working to quality over quantity, so it is difficult to decide their position. Kiri is still an unknown. I haven't been able to infiltrate their village because of the huge paranoia there. I believe they are isolated and will stay that way for a while now. Finally, Gato now has virtually complete control of Wave Country now. You know sensei, just the fact that you are participating in this, I have lost a lot of respect for you. I know the counsel is all for it, but couldn't you have done something to stop them, I mean what he is doing is just wrong." Jiraiya said ask he finished his report.

"Like I said Jiraiya, I am getting to old for this. The counsel wants to participate in the auction that will be taking place in a few years and also, with the decrease in mission we have been getting lately, Gato's protection money has been very helpful." Sarutobi urged.

"What is this auction you two are talking about?" Kakshi questioned.

"Gato has been buying bloodline users from Kiri. For the Mizukage it is a win-win situation, he can get rid of the bloodline users and make money while doing it. Gat began doing this from when the Bloodline wars started, so he has quite the collection. But not only that, in order to make even more money he has been breeding them in order to have more people to sell. And the actual sale is going to take place in a few years. We have already been asked to provide security for the even, in exchange for a single free first pick." The Third explained. Kakashi just stared at Sarutobi. While he did understand why Konoha was participating, he felt ashamed that they would be buying human being for the sake of breeding them. Jiraiya felt the same way, but being a shinobi of Konoha he couldn't do anything about it. "Okay, thank you for your report Jiraiya, keep up the good work. I just have one thing I would like you to look into for me. I just added a new entry into the Bingo Book for a man that goes by the name Kitsune. I need you to look into this man. He has been taking quite a few missions for a single man and we are starting to feel it, if only a little. If you could get on that it would be appreciated." Sarutobi finished and waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. Both Jiraiya and Kakashi took the hint and jump out the window, leaving the old man to his paper work. With a sigh, he began.

One week later, Konoha Outpost twenty miles north of Konoha, Around one o'clock

A shadow moved through the small outpost. It was a two story building that sat upon a hill with a large observation tower. It had a garrison of two jonin and six chunin. Currently only two chunin on duty, but they were busy chatting in the kitchen and not paying attention to their surroundings.

As this shadow observed the relaxed shinobi, it spotted it's objective. Sitting of the counter behind the two chunin was a little black book. Casting a quick genjutsu over himself, The shadow disappeared. A few seconds later the book was gone with the chunin none the wiser. With that the figure disappeared from the outpost.

The next day around noon, Naruto could be found cooking three fish over a fire with his left hand, while reading a small black book in his right. The savory smell of cooked fish perforated through the camp sight and his tail swished back and forth slowly. Flicking from page to page Naruto was trying to find a mission that he could take that would be interesting to take on. Since he started taking missions about a year ago he had only taken missions where he would be fixing some wrong and downing the right thing. He had decided to use himself for to better society as best he could. While still spending most of his time training, he would take missions where people were in need of help.

As he turned another page, his fangs appeared as a fox grin appeared on his face. He was officially in the Bingo Book. While he had figured this would happen sooner or later, he had hoped it would be later. Shrugging it off, he placed the book down and began snacking of his fish lunch while consulting his tenants on his upcoming plans. 'So now that I'm a wanted criminal, I can either stay and risk being found out or leave.' He thought.

"I vote traveling. I am getting bored of sticking to The Land of Fire. You completed your training last month, I think it's time to go." Kurama spoke up.

'I agree, there is a whole world out their and I have but interacted with a small portion of it, I'm limiting myself so much.' Naruto concurred.

"As much as I wish you had been treated better and could be a shinobi of Konoha, I understand that that is not a possibility. After that, traveling does sound nice. I never got the opportunity to travel for leisure, it was always work, work, and more work. Though if you are going to be going around I still think that you should continue to do high rank jobs to keep your skills intact." Minato said.

"That's ok with me, just be careful, now that you are in the Bingo Book , hunter-nin and bounty hunters will he after you." Kushina added with a hint of worry in her voice. Though it may have been misplace due to the fact that Naruto was now easily one of the most powerful shinobi in the world. Since he had trained for two years straight with thousands of shadow clones everyday Naruto had acquired skills beyond compare to most others in the world. Also considering he was trained by the Kyubi, the most powerful of the nine demons, the fourth Hokage, the greatest shinobi of his time, and one of the last of the Uzumaki, one of the greatest clans of all time, you can bet that he made progress, especially when there were thousands of him. And to think he wasn't even in his teens yet, well mentally anyways. Kurama had explained that when they had mixed he had become immortal, at least in a limited sense. While he could live forever he could be killed in combat, though that's has considerable difficulties due to the fact that he regenerated so fast thanks to his incredible control of Kurama's chakra.

As he thought about his options, Naruto couldn't help but smile. He had so many of them. He had nothing holding him back, and with all the time in the world he could accomplish anything. With this in mind he decided to begin his traveling. Opening the Bingo Book to the very last page, he looked over the map to figure out where his first destination would be. Finding his location on the map he looked to the closed country and frowned slightly, Land of Rain. Last he had heard they were isolated due to some civil war stuff. Shrugging his shoulders he, began sealing this sleeping bag and other equipment up. Using a simply water jutsu, he gathered water from the air and put out the fire. Before leaving, he put his fingers together in the cross seal. Molding his chakra, he called out "Multiple Shadow Clone Technique." Around him one thousand shadow clones appeared, divided into groups and went to work on various different training exercises. Due to the fact that Naruto had huge supplies of Chakra, he had to have half his clones practice advance chakra control in order to maintain his high level of control.

Turning, the real Naruto began making his way through the trees on his way to the Land of Rain.

Three days later, Small village a few miles inside of Land of Rain, Afternoon

As he approached a small village, Naruto couldn't help but feel that this was a sad land. Since he had crossed the border, the had not seen the sun once. Clouds were an ever-present item here. Because of this and the fact that the place is call Land of Rain, Naruto had decided against sleeping out doors like he normally does. Hence why he was heading to the town. Around noon he had stopped at a small restaurant and had probably the spiciest food in the world. The curry was literally red and Naruto had trouble finishing it, though in the end he did to make the old lady that lived their happy. After that the old lady had given him direction to this mining town where she though a inn was and so Naruto was currently making his way down the road towards the village.

Upon entering the town and looking around, Naruto found that everyone seemed to be in a foul mood. As he began looking about for an inn, he felt himself receiving looks from the locals that he had not gotten since living in Konoha. Steeling his nerves, he walked up to a group of three men in black cloaks, "Excuse me, I'm looking for an inn where I can stay the night. Do you know where one is?" He asked the men politely.

They just looked at him with a funny look at then one of them stepped forward. "Of course, the inn is actually a little bit further out of town. If you come with us, we with show you the way." The man offered. Why Naruto was thinking about what the man had just said, he couldn't help but notice a smirk appear on the faces of the other two men. Tossing that aside for now, Naruto nodded his head and followed the men as they began leading him out of the town and towards the cliffs about a mile away.

Meanwhile, Jiraiya was making his way to Ame to try and find a lead on the new organization know as Akatsuki. His spy network ha picked up a pair of their members on making their way to Ame and had decided to investigate. But as of now, he was distracted by a certain fox tail shinobi. Had was in the same town as Naruto and had noticed him as he was making his way into the local whorehouse. Sighing to himself, he made the decision to come back after quickly investigating what Kitsune was up to the land of Rain. After about five minutes of following from a distance, Jiraiya felt a drop of water land on his shoulder. Looking up his face was immediately assaulted by a down pour that had picked up in seconds. Instantly regretting his decision to investigate, Jiraiya pressed on until his quarry disappeared over the chest of a hill. Hurrying, as to not fall behind, he came over the hill and was met by a the sight of a graveyard.

Horrifyingly a group of six men were carrying a casket from which screams were being produced. Horrified by the sight, but wanting to discover what was going on, Jiraiya hid himself with a genjutsu and watched from atop the cliffs that surrounded the box canyon.

As Naruto was walking with the men, he felt slightly uneasy as the rain began to fall. Before the downpour started, he had noticed that they were being follow, but unfortunately, the rain was making it impossible to keep track of his pursuer's movements. Keeping this in mind, Naruto walked over the top of a hill and instantly felt there was some sort of trap a foot. Before him was a large graveyard. A procession was currently making it's way towards an open grave. There were seven men in total, Six carrying a casket that had a large amount of screams coming from it, while the seventh was leading the procession.

The three men leading Naruto walked right up next to the empty grave and stod with there heads down. As the man leading the procession approached Naruto had noticed a oddity. The man seemed to be genuinely crying and mumbling about beautiful funerals. Not sure exactly what was going on, Naruto just stood back and watch. Slowly the funeral procession approached. The six men set the casket down beside the grave and took their places beside the three men that had taken them here. All of who now bowed there heads and stood their in silence.

As they stood there the only sounds that could be heard were the falling of rain and the screams for help, from inside the casket. Right when naruto was about to step forward and inquire as to what was going on, The leader of the procession step forward and began to speak, "Today we celebrate a beautiful funeral for this man. He has lived an honorable life and in fit to receive such an honor as this funeral. He shall always remember his happiness in life and the sacrifices he made. As his finally honor, let us Bury him and finish this beautiful funeral." The man finished. Naruto noted that it was probably the worst eulogy ever and wasn't very fitting of the man, though he was still confused as to why the man in the casket was alive. And so decided to let his curiosity speak.

"Excuse me, but is there a man who is clearly alive inside a casket? Are you practicing for an upcoming funeral or is this come cult thing?" He asked, but instantly regretted it as every head in attendance spanned around and glared at him.

The man how had just given his speech was the first to speak up, "Who is this man that would dare dishonor our beautiful funeral?" He asked the others in attendance.

Stepping forward, the man how had let Naruto here replied to the question given, "He is a foreigner who was looking for a place to stay the night. I figured that we would be able to find an adequate resting place here, Raiga-sama." The man said. Everyone in attendance, including Naruto caught the double meaning. Though Naruto was more occupied on the name given. Searching his memory, he found where he had heard the name before and cringed. If he was to get in a fight with one of the Seven Swordsmen of Kiri it would definitely be a good test of his abilities, but quite dangerous in the same respect.

As Naruto was mentally debating his best course of action in this situation, his decision was made for him by Raiga's next words, "Very well, kill him and then we shall have another beautiful funeral to honor his life." This was followed by a psychotic laugh. The men all turned on him and Naruto dropped into his taijutsu stance that Kurama had taught him. It utilized his tail in combination with quick attacks in order to speed past the defenses of opponents and through them off guard by adding an extra element being his tail. The man all threw off there cloaks in order to not restrict their movements. What was now facing Naruto was nothing more than a gang of thugs. On their hands thy all were wearing gloves that utilized retractable metal claws. Unsheathing these claws that charged Naruto in a mob, determined to overwhelm him with their numbers.

Waiting for the mob to reach him seemed like an eternity for Naruto. They were so slow and sloppy in their techniques that when they did arrive he simply ducked and dove through their blows. After a few frustrating minutes on the part of the mob, Naruto went on the offensive. Ducking under a clawed swipe from a man in front of him, Naruto swung a chakra enhanced fist into the man's stomach. It nailed him right of and senting him flying into the wall of the cliff that surrounded the graveyard. Before his opponents could recover from the shock of seeing one of there own being blasted to the other side of the canyon by a single punch, Naruto was upon them. Jumping between a pair of men, Naruto delivered a low swipe kick that knocked them off their feet and followed it up with a double punch to both their heads rendering them unconscious. Stepping to the side, Naruto dodged an attempt to stab him in the back, and dismissed this thug with a powerful punch to the back that sent him to join his friend in the face of the the last five, Naruto grabbed ducked a swipe from an opponent, grabbed his arm and began swinging him around as a meat club. Using this man as such, Naruto used his body to beat the last four men unconscious, before also throwing the man into the cliff face. Turning to Raiga, Naruto watched as the man removed his own cloak. Naruto noticed a large bundle on his back and was instantly curious about it when he didn't seem interested in removing before their fight. But Naruto's mind was quickly drawn off of this when the man drew out his swords, the Kibas. Bringing his hands together, Naruto cried release and instantly his resistance seals dropped from level eleven to zero. Drawing Demon Breath prepared to enter his toughest fight ever.

Taking the first move Raiga drew up both of his swords above his head and into an X and performed his first jutsu "Fangs of Lightning" he cried and instantly his swords began coursing with light chakra before shooting into the clouds above in the form of two fangs. After a few seconds the fangs faded away, but the clouds above them began swirling. In the whirlpool of clouds, the rain intensified and lightning was visible as it bounced around in the clouds. Bringing his swords back down, Raiga began to swing them and with each swing as thunderbolt would descend from the clouds and strike at Naruto. With his resistance seals now off, Naruto was able to evade the strike with ease. After one particularly quick dodge, Naruto vanished from sight and in a burst of speed appeared behind Raiga, though to Naruto's surprise, the man spun around and began a ferocious assault with his two swords. Again pumping with lightning chakra, Naruto was forced to bump wind chakra into his own blade to ward off the powerful blows from Raiga. Back flipping away, Naruto was forced on the defensive yet again as the man begun throwing lightning bolts at him from the clouds again. 'Damn, this guy must have a ton of control and chakra to be able to make this much lightning.' He thought to himself.'

"Actually, he is using hardly any chakra what so ever. When he charged up the clouds earlier, he was preparing them for use now. He isn't using lightning chakra, but actual lightning. All he has to do is direct it, which is what those seords are allowing him to do. They allow for you to do high level lightning attacks with very little chackra." Kushina explained to her son. With this in mind naruto knew he wasn't going to be able to wait for the guy to run out of chakra. Disappearing again in a burst of speed, he again appeared behind Raiga, but this time, his enhanced hearing was able to make a small voice from the bundle on Raiga's back shout out, "Raiga, behind you." To which Raiga reacted to instantly and began another brutal attack, this time being able to clip naruto's right shoulder and though the wound heal quickly, the lightning that entered his nervous system from the blow made his arm go numb and hang of to his side. Jumping back again, Naruto focused chakra into the seal on the inside of his eye patch. THe seal, allowed him to use the basic properties of the sharingan with it was still hidden uder the eye patch. It had taken all four of them a year and a half to produce a single seal that worked properly, and that was only because Naruto made a mistake while writing out the character. As of yet, they had been unable to reproduce the seal, though Naruto was determined to do so. The seal allowed him to see chakra, through genjutsus, and attack predictability. Now observing his opponent with his eye, he was able to make out a secondary chakra source coming from the bundle on Raiga's back. Seeing this, Naruto decided to take this fight up a notch and began running though hand signs for a pwerful attack. But before he could finish, it seemed Raiga had been able to know what he was doing and began summoning bolts of lightning down upon him again. Analyzing his fight so far, Naruto realized that Raiga seemed to know exactly which way he was going to dodge and the only reason he wasn't hit was because of his incredible speed. Desiding on a new approach, Why diving out of the way of a lightning bolt, Naruto sheathed his Demon Breath and formed a cross seal and created six shadow clones. All seven of them quickly began circling Raiga, who was trying to hit everyone one of them. Naruto uickly realized that as long as Raiga had his thunder cloud, it was futile even attacking him. He was able to have an unlimited draw of natural lightning. Quickly making a plan, Naruto set it into action with his shadow clones. While four of the clones formed a square around Raiga, the other two, along with the original drew their katana and rushed Raiga. As the four began battling it out fith their swords, Naruto's shadow clones began running through hand seals. After all three of them ran through all twenty two seal they call out their technique, "Wind release: Great Vacuum!" Starting slowly, but speeding up as it went along, a funnel took shape around Raiga, the real Naruto and his two shadow clones. The funnel extended up to the clouds and began drawing them in. While drawing them in, the wind chakra dispersed the lightning rendering them not conductive.

Up on the cliffs Jiraiya watched the astounding display of control over the wind element. At the beginning of the fight, Jiraiya had performed an earth jutsu that gave him a little earth tent to sit under. In this dry environment, Jiraiya had begun taking extensive notes on both fighters. As his sensei had asked that he find out more about this Kitsune fellow, Jiraiya was now taking full advantage of this prime opportunity to acquire that information. Unfortunately, the clouds were being drawn into the wind vacuum baking the outside blackish-blue covering the battle from his sights. As he pondered what was going on inside the cloud vortex, he sensed four chakra signatures approaching on the other side of the graveyard. Seeing from there a black cloak with red clouds, Jiraiya instantly recognized that person as a member of Akatsuki. Seeing the other three in standard jonin uniforms from Ame, Jiraiya made the decision to take his leave. He already had completed two of his objectives, so there was no sense staying and possibly getting caught. Pocketing his notebook he released his earth tent and was once instantly soaked. Grumbling to himself he disappeared into the rain.

When her squad spotted a large thunderstorm occupying one point in space, Konan became intrigued as to what they would find. As they got closer, they were startled when a huge funnel began sucking in the clouds. When the finally arrived at the site of the funnel, all they could see was four identical men standing in a square around it, seemingly keeping the technique going. Konan watched in wonder and curiosity as blue flashes began appearing from inside the vortex.

Konan and her squad had been assigned a double mission. First, they were tocome to this small mining village and find out why the flow of gold from the mine had stopped and punish the populace accordingly to their god's will. Then they were off to Suna to perform an assassination mission for the Akatsuki. But here it appeared that there had been some sort of outside factors causing the disruption of the flow of gold to Ame and they would have to get to the bottom of it, along with killing off any intruders.

As they focused on the battle, they were surprised to see something that they had not seen in a very long time. The wind funnel had pulled all the clouds from within a few miles and left a bright blue sky revealed. The sun was visible as it descended towards the outer ring where there were still clouds. They could see that outside of their little sunny circle, it was still pouring rain. The members of the squad couldn't help but smile at the change in scenery, though they knew they would probably have to kill who ever it was that gave them this beautiful sight, they couldn't resist. Back now on the battle sight, they saw the four men, pop out of existence, proving that they were just clones. As they did so, they saw the vacuum also begin to waver, before dispersing all together.

Inside the vacuum, Raiga knew he was in trouble. The wind technique had effectively neutralized his lightning cloud, leaving him at a huge disadvantage. Also, the vacuum was applying a lot of pressure on his body, making it feel like gravity had increased three times over. He was having difficulty standing, at this point and his opponent was scoring blow after. Though each one, Ranmaru was giving him enough of his life force to heal it up. Letting out a deep growl, Raiga's resolved to finish this fight. He could not take many more hits or Ranmaru would be done for. Forcing chakra through his limbs to enhance his muscles, Raiga, following Ranmaru's instructions began to fight back. Quickly lunging forward, he could the opponent in front of him off guard and was able to defeat it, but when he slashed it across the chest, just poofed into smoke, signifing it was a clone. Turning, he engaged his two remain opponents.

Naruto was confused again. He had landed enough cuts and stabs to have killed the man by now. But all of them healed right away. The thing was that he didn't see any chakra doing it. He was brought out of his musing when Raiga suddenly lunged forward and destroyed one of his clones. Naruto, who's body was used to moved under large amounts of resistance didn't need to worry about using chakra to move about, but he saw hat his opponent did, and he had to use a lot of it. Smiling to himself, he knew he had the advantage. He just had to keep Raiga using chakra and he should tire very soon. As they reengaged in a two on one sword fight, Naruto was just biding his time. His clones had plenty of chakra, so he didn't have to worry about the vortex stopping. As the minutes passed Raiga's speed began to slow. Naruto just let him wear himself out and had his clone do most of the fighting. When Raiga finally stopped he was heaving from the exhaustion and starting to succumb to chakra loss.

Raiga's mind was running a hundred miles a hour. He was out of chakra and his opponent had yet to show any signs of tiring. His breathing hadn't even sped in frustration at the fact that he was going to die, Raiga was suddenly brought back to earth when his partner spoke. Ranmaru had been watching, and even though he tried all he could, Raiga was completely outmatched. If Ranmaru didn't do something soon, Raiga would die, and Ranmaru just couldn't let that happen. And so he spoke his last words to Raiga, "Raiga, I'm giving everything to you. Good luck I hope we can meet again." And before Raiga could stop him Ranmaru channeled the last of his chakra and life force into Raiga.

Raiga was horrified. His life partner Ranmaru had just given his everything and killed himself in the process. And though he felt his body being rejuvenated, he didn't pay attention. He was alone again. His only friend had just given his life for him. Raiga felt rage boil up inside of him. At that moment the man snapped. Any sanity left in his mind was gone as he now going to do everything he could two accomplish two things, go to meet Ranmaru again and give the two of them an absolutely beautiful funeral. Pulling all of hi remaining chakra into swords, he cried out his final words, "Lightening Release: Mighty Flash" and stabbed his swords into the ground.

Naruto watched with his sharingan as Raiga was bolstered at the cost of whoever was on his back. Naruto was disgusted that Riga would cast away another life to help try and ensure that his own when on. Distracted for that slight moment, Naruto was unable to stop Raiga from performing his last technique. When the swords cut into the earth, Raiga's body went limp, but before it reached the ground, it, along with Ranmaru's body disintegrated from the immense amount of energy released by the swords. Half a second later, Naruto's clone was destroyed, and the next half second, the technique reached the real him. The entire inside of the vortex was completely engulfed in blue lightning for a few second before dispersing. Naruto was left on his knees, as his nervous system began fixing itself after being scattered by the attack. Luckily, the distance between him and Raiga had made is so the attack wasn't very punishing. Standing up, he streched out his muscles and looked around. He had won. His first real high class opponent and he had won very easily. He wasn't tire in the slightest and he hadn't used very much chakra, thanks to his excellent control. Letting out a sigh of relief, he began walking over to the Kibas to claim them as his prize. While walking to them, the created the cross, hand seal and a shadow clone popped into existence, before quickly poofing into smoke, letting the other four clone know that the battle was over. Sheathing Demon Breath, Naruto Picked up the to swords in his hands. Pumping some lightning chakra into them he was rewarded with bright sparks of blue lightning playing up and down the blades. His smile was apparently interrupted as he received the memories of the clones holding the vacuum. Apparently he was currently being watched. Turning to where the people where, we waited until the vortex finished calming down to see what awaited him.

A/N- If you can please tell me what you thought of the fight scene.