A/N- DAYUM! One new chapter, and the hits doubled! Can't say the same about the reviews tho'... Anyway, if you read the A/N from the end of the last chapter, you'll have seen that this was originally supposed ta be a part of that chapter (a majority of it actually), but I'd decided to split the chapter in two, ending the last one on a happy tone. Anyway, hope ya like the new chapter! But first... cackles madly, rubbing hands together like a generic mad scientist.

-The Naru/Bleach lowbrow comedy hour presents; Ah Needs More power! Or a Cup! Yeah, a cup would be nice too...-

Sasuke stood on the field of battle, opposite his latest opponent, his Sharingan spinning madly. "I need more power! I'll defeat you, and I'll be one step closer towards my ultimate goal!" He yelled, charging a Chidori as his opponent observed him, a bored expression on his face as he studied Sasuke with indifferent eyes.

Byakuya Kuchki was NOT having a good day. He'd woken up on the wrong side of the futon this morning, it took him longer than usual to get his hair just right, he'd been sent on a lame-assed mission, he hadn't been laid in over a century, and now this... Yeah, he was annoyed. As the pissy little avenger charged at him, one hand thrust out, Byakuya waited until the last second...

...Then he lifted one foot, kicking the little pansy right square in the nads, causing the boy to fall forward in pain, clutching his bruised danglies as he lost all thoughts of battle, rollng over onto his back in a futile effort to ease the pain.

Byakuya looked at the boy unemotionally, wondering what he'd do with the punk when he noticed that they were not alone. Looking up, he saw a pair of men dressed in identical black cloaks with red clouds on them. One was a short man who bore a passing resemblence to the boy he'd just felled, while the other... Looked like a blue fish, oddly enough. "Can I help you?" He asked coldly.

"Did you just kick my little brother in the giblets?" Itachi asked in an equally uncaring tone.

"Why yes, yes I did. What is it to you?" Byakuya retorted.

Itachi shrugged as he and Kisame walked over to join the shinigami captain. "No reason. Mind if we join?" He asked.

Byakuya nodded, and he and Itachi both began to take turns stomping on Sasuke's baby batter makers, causing the last 'faithful' Uchiha to start singing high soprano.

Kisame grinned and started kicking Sasuke in the ribs. "Give us yer lunch money wuss, I know yer sugar-daddy Orochimaru is loaded." He chuckled darkly.

And that's how it went for poor Sasuke...

-End-

A/N- Now that that's over with, on with the actual story!!

-Chapter 3, The End of a Hero-

-Konoha Hospital, medical examination room 13-

Tsunade was not a happy Slug Sannin. In fact, at the moment, she was about as far from happy as one could get. She'd just lost the second man that she'd given her heart to, and the only thing that his death had turned up was a vague message burned onto the back of an old toad and a body, one of apparently six that the current leader of the organization known as 'Akatsuki' controlled. It wasn't that the clues that she'd been given were bad ones, quite the opposite actually, as that normally they had far less to go on when dealing with enemies, but... Jiraiya was dead, and Tsunade couldn't see that any amount of information could have been worth his life...

Just as Tsunade was abount to continue the autopsy of the body that had been brought to her, the door to the medical room burst open, a wounded and frightened chunin rushing in. "Hokage-sama! Akatsuki are headed this way from the East! And the missing Uchiha boy is with them!" He exlaimed, holding his profusely bleeding stomach.

"What?! Are you sure about this?" Tsunade asked, a dread feeling settling in the pit of her stomach, rushing oer to the wounded man to give him a hand.

"H-hai, Hokage-sama, my patrol team ran into them, and my comrades sacraficed their lives so that I could get here to warn you..." He said weakly as Tsunade began to heal him.

"Shizune, get in here now!" Tsunade yelled, helping the man to a chair.

In a few short seconds, Shizune came running in, on guard for what ever trouble she might find. "Reporting, Hokage-sama!" She exlaimed, seeing that her master was all business.

"Gather all ninja and prepare, Akatsuki is coming! Have all of the genin, most of the chunin, and a handful of jonin gather the villagers and evacuate out of the West gate of the village. Have the rest of the chunin and jonin prepare for war, because if we don't stop that organization now, then no one will be able to. Now go!" She ordered.

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" Shizune replied, bowing quickly before she disappeared in a rush.

'Jiraiya, am I going to be able to avenge your death already?' Tsunade wondered to herself as she made sure that the chunin was fully healed before dismissing him, she had her own preperations to attend to. Taking one last look back at the body of Pain laying on the table, Tsunade exited the room to get ready.

-Outside-

It was general panadmonium outside as villagers rushed around in an attempt to get ready for the evacutaion, the ninja that were ordered to help them trying to make some orer of the chaos as they herded the civilian population towards the West Gate.

All the ninja that had been chosen to fight Akatsuki were busily preparing for battle, outfitting themselves for battle as various teams ran through last-minute drills. The ANBU, Konoha's elite shinobi, were busy setting various traps and getting into preplanned positions, their duty being to funnel enemy forces and to attack said enemies flanks in case of invasion, as was about to happen.

On top of the Hokage's tower, several shinobi in particular had gathered, Tsunade, Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura, what was left of the rookie nine, their sensei, and team Gai, all of them looking grim. Sighing, Tsunade looked at the gathered ninja before her. "Listen up, Akatsuki is headed this way, and they have Sasuke with them, and apparently he has joined them." She said grimly, most of the shinobi around her gasping in surprize.

Naruto stepped up to Tsunade, his eyes blazing with anger."Hey Baa-chan, what the hell are you talking about, huh?! There's no way Sasuke would ever join those bastards!" He exlaimed venemently, waving his hands in front of himself, as if to push the very notion of Sasuke joining the organization that was after him away. "Sasuke may be messed up at the moment, but he'd never join those bastards for any reason!" He continued, only to be stopped as Tsunade reached out and grabbed the front of his jacket, pulling Naruto in close and up to her eye level, glaring at the young demon container.

"Haven't you learned anything you stupid brat? Just look at mine, Jiraiya's, and Orochimaru's pasts! Orochimaru didn't have good reasons either, but that doesn't change the fact that he betrayed us, now does it?! Get it through your thick skull Naruto, Sasuke betrayed this village, and now he's once again allying with our enemies, our enemies who are after you dammit! He could have joined them simply to prove once and for all that he is better than Itachi by taking Itachi's place in that organization, or for any number of other reasons!" She yelled into Naruto's face, shoving him back a bit as she released his jacket. "Let me ask you this Naruto, if he has joined them, and it comes down to it, whose life is more important, huh? I know you want to save him, just like Jiraiya wanted to save Orochimaru, but if you die trying to get him back, how can you keep any of your promises?" She asked, crossing her arms.

Naruto hung his head, not having a good argument for what Tsunade said.

Tsunade sighed, stepping forward, wrapping Naruto in a hug. "Listen, I love you gaki, and while it hurts, I'd rather see you suffer a little emotional pain than watch you die for some misguided cause. Your far too important to too many people to just go throw your life away needlessly like that." She said quietly.

Naruto nodded weakly in Tsunade's grasp, unable to say anything.

After Naruto regained his composure and rejoined the group,Tsunade turned to them. "Alright, Akatsuki is coming, and it's most likely for Naruto. I don't know why they'd attack us so openly in order to get him, but the fact that they're being so bold is a bad sign." She said gravely.

"Couldn't it be that they're desperate though, and they're just coming like this because they've just about run out of time for whatever it is they're planning?" Sakura asked.

Shikamaru, one of the few who hadn't reacted to hearing the news, deided to take this one. "That may be Sakura, but the troublesome thing is that even if they are out of time, there's no way that they'd risk an all-out attack like this unless they were sure that they could win. They can't just bluff this sort of thing, there's far too much at stake for such a risky maneuver. This is the real deal, they're coming for Naruto, and they've more than likely got the means to do it, even if it means destroying this whole village in the process." He stated, taking a drag from the cigarette dangling in his mouth "Our problem is that Naruto is one of our best fighters and probably the best suited for a situation when it comes to force versus force, this group is specifically targeting him, and they've more than likely have the abilities to take him out specifically. I'd say the best that we could hope for if it's Naruto taking them on is a stalemate, and at worse they'll counter him completly, and he'll not even be able to do anything. Our problem is figuring out how to use Naruto as effectivly as possible while minimizing the risk of him being captured. This is a chess game, and Naruto is our king, but the stakes are all too real if we lose, which we can't afford to." He bew a long plume of smoke, looking at the gathered people to make sure he had their attention and understood the true scope of what was about to happen.

Naruto didn't look too pleased as he squinted and looked at his lazy comrade. "Hey hey hey! What the heck are you sayin' Shikamaru? That I can't fight or somethin'?" He asked, crossing his arms.

Kakashi walked up, laying a hand on on Naruto's shoulder. "That's not what he's saying at all Naruto, he's just saying that we need to do this the smart way, not just going in blindly swinging." He replied casually.

Naruto nodded in understanding, and was about to answer when a series of explosions announced that Akatsuki had arrived. Looking in the direction that the noise was coming from, they all gasped in surprize as an impossibly huge plume of smoke, more than was produced than even when the great bosses were summoned, began to flow up over Konoha's protective wall.

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Madara Uchiha smirked as he and the others approached Konoha, the five remaining bodies of Pain and Konan flanking his left, while Zetsu, Sasuke and his 'Hawk' group flanked his right, following just behind him like an honor gaurd as he returned to Konoha, intent on being a mighty conquerer. They'd found a group on partrol earlier, and had let one of the men go to warn of their coming, because what fun was there in conquering if your enemies wern't properly afraid when you arrived?

Madara couldn't supress the chuckle that escaped his throat as they approached close to the wall surrounding Konoha, and were subsequently surrounded by a huge group of just over twenty jonin. Madara scanned around, looking at the grim-faced men and women. They were all powerful to be sure, and every one had probably earned their rank through hard work and even harder battles, but he sensed that none of them posessed that spark, that gift that, if nurtured properly, could propell one from greatness to the status of legend. He knew that these people would be no problem, Pain could take them all by hs fivesome if he so needed, but Madara loved to make an enterance, so he signaled to Pain, Zetsu, and Konan, and they in turn nodded, each starting to go through a complex set of handseals.

The jonin, who had been on a razor's edge alertness, started going through their own handseals as well, and unleashed a devesating salvo of highly destructive jutsu that ran the entire elemental guantlet just as the members of Akatsuki finished their own set of seals and slammed their hands into the huge cloud of debries, obscuring everyone's vision, so they leapt back up onto the wall, away from the ever-expanding clud to better assess the situation.

Much to their shock and dismay it was then, when the smoke cloud continued to expand beyond what their jutsu should have kicked up, dwarfing the wall that they were standing on. The first things to emerge from the smoke were two gigantic obsidian hands, turned upwards as if in reverence. Soon, a strong gust of wind blew, slowly dragging the smoke away as it fully revealed the thing those hands were attached to. It seemed to be a statue of sorts, in the shape of a man, but of a size greater than any other that any of the ninja had ever seen before, save for mountains, whose size could not be surpassed. The arms of the statue were bound together, leaving only enough leeway for it's hands to be held the way they were, and it's head was possesed of nine eyes eight of which had pupils in them, gazing about the town before it. In it's mouth was a great seal, held by a chain that circled the head of the titanic statue. On the right shoulder of the thing stood Akatsuki and Hawk, seemingly unharmed by the barrage of jutsu that had been aimed at them. Swearing loudly, several of the jonin set loose another number of offensive justu, only to despair as the attacks connected with a shimmering, translucent barriar and stopped, though showing that the barriar covered the entire statue as it rippled over the thing before becoming invisible again. "Damn it all! How are we going to break through?!" one of them asked as the group from the tower landed on the wall as well, staring up at the statue.

Naruto looked up at the group standing on the thing's shoulder, seeing Sasuke standing there beside that freak in the orange mask that had delayed them earlier. He was about to say something when...

"HEY!! Tobi sees his friends that he played with in the forest! Hullo friends! Are you all ok? How are you icky bugs Shino-kun?" Madara asked as he adopted his Tobi persona, causing the tension to crack as almost everyone facefaulted, with only a few exceptions, such as the members of the Aburame clan that were present, including Shino.

"They are well, thank you for asking." Shino replied stoically, causing everyone to facefault again, including a few Aburame this time.

Naruto jumped to his feet, rubbing a bump on his head as he pointed at Madara. "HEY! Shut it asshole! We're gonna kick your ass this time!" He yelled. That said, he turned his gaze on Sasuke, who was dressed in the black and red cloak signifying that he was a member of Akatsuki. "Sasuke... Have you really betrayed us this time? Are you really going to help them kill me and every one we know?" He growled.

Sasuke looked down at the one person that he'd always felt closer to than anyone else, save his brother before the massacre of their clan, his gaze locking with Narutos. After several seconds of silence, Sasuke began to smirk, the smirk growing into a full-blown malicious grin as he started to chuckle darkly, the chuckle turning into full-blown laughter as he turned to the other members of Akatsuki, who were looking at him stoically, as if he'd lost his mind. "You've all fallen into my trap!" He exlaimed, pointing at them. "I joined you and came here with you, knowing that you would bring this weapon with you! Now the tables have turned though, and now I've got you exactly where I want you! I shall kill you all, who are enemies of Konoha, and I shall take this weapon! I wll be hailed as a hero greater than any other for having not only slain Konoha's greatest enemies, but also single-handedly making her the undisputed most powerful of the elemental countries! There will be a world peace, one ruled by Konoha with me at the head! The other countries will have to agree to peace, or be crushed by the new might of a Uchiha controlled Konoha!" He looked back at Naruto briefly. "Sorry dobe, but the place of Hokage is mine, and I will claim it now!" He exlaimed, his eyes turning Mangekyo as his gaze shifted back towards Madara and the others, his Atomic-shaped Sharingan spinning wildly as two fairly large, blinking, green dots appeared on Madara's chest, becoming smaller and smaller, the blinking becoming more rapid until both dots were solid pinpricks.

The explosion was so great that it rocked that section of Konoha, a huge gout of debries filling the air and spreadng outwards away from Sasuke and team Hawk, Sasuke smirking arrogantly.

That smirk soon disappeared however, as the smoke began to clear away,revealing that the entire group was standing there unharmed behind a lagre, translucent shield the color and shape of Madara's Mangekyo, which could be seen in the one eye hole his mask had. "What a twist, eh? Did you really think it would be so easy Sasuke-kun?" Madara asked, glaring at the younger Uchiha. "The Uchiha will be at the top, but it won't be under you with this pathetic excuse for a village. No, it shall be I and Akatsuki who shall rule in peace. Since you are obviously against me, I have no more use for you Sasuke, but I will let you live long enough to see my dreams come true, but you really do need to be moved out of the way." He said dispassionatly, snapping his fingers.

Sasuke tensed, ready for an attack by any one of the Akatsuki, only to gasp in surprize and pain as Suigetsu's sword erupted through his midsection, the massive cleaver sticking more than a foot through, barely missing Sasuke's spine. Suigetsu pulled the sword back out, causing a gyser of blood, and Juugo grabbed Sasuke, roughly throwing him against the neck of the statue, where Karin quickly subdued him.

"Wh-what th... the hell? A... are yuh-you gus betaying me?!" Sasuke asked, coughing blood as more spouted from the wound in his midsection. Looking into the eyes of his team, he saw that they were all blank. "Nuh... No... you're un-under his con... trol... arn't you?" He said weakly as Madara threw back his head and laughed.

"SASUKE! NO!" Naruto screamed.

Turnng before anyone could react one of the bodies of Pain, the large muscular one, aimed his right arm at the whiskered blond, the forearm disconnecting and shooting at Naruto at high speeds, connected by a thick cable as the fingers wrapped around the boy's throat, pulling him through the barriar and up towards them.

As Naruto was being pulled passed the hands, he managed to pry the fist clenched around his throat loose and dropped back onto the left palm, looking at the group with hate-filled eyes. "You bastards! You all wanna take me on? FINE, I'LL KILL YOU ALL!" He screamed as his chakra began to flare, the normal blue starting to shift into red as he began to draw on the Kyuubi's power.

Madara looked down at him, staring into Naruto's red slitted eyes. "Tobi says no foxy power for you!" He exlaimed, and suddenly he and Naruto were standing in front of the Kyuubi's cage, the red chakra retreating back through the bars, leaving Naruto standing there, blinking. "It has been a long time, Kyuubi." He said conversationally.

Two blaeful red eyes opened from deep within the recesses of the cage. "That it has, Madara Uchiha. And if I have any say about it, this will be the last time we ever meet. My container shall destroy you and scatter your remains to the four winds!" Kyuubi roared, smashing against the cage, but unable to push any chakra through as Madara's own flared and stopped it.

"Yes, this shall be the last time, for you are about to become my weapon." Madara sneered, and suddenly Naruto was back in the real world, surrounded on all sides by the five bodies of Pain.

Naruto immedatly reacted by forming the seal for Kage bushin no jutsu, creating twice as many shadow clones as there were bodies of Pain. "I know who you are you bastard! You're the one who killed Jiraiya Sensei! Prepare to die!" He yelled, each of the clones paring up and forming Oodama Rasengans, each aiming for a different body of Pain.

There was a great explosion from atop the palm, a dust cloud covering the area as the sounds of a fierce battle erupted from within. A few seconds later, a single body was forcefully knocked from the smokescreen, and Naruto knocked against the chest of the great statue, his head cracking painfully against the obsidian. In an nstant, one of the close combat Pains was on top of him, pummeling the blond mercilessly before kicking him towards the right palm, on which Konan and Zetsu stood on two of the fingers. When the dust from the other hand finally settled, it revealed that the hand itself had been badly damaged, and three of Pain's bodies lay there, obviously dead, as one of them walked over to one of the fallen bodies and began pumping healing chakra into it, reviving it.

"So... I'm gonna have to kill you all at once then..." Naruto panted, getting to his feet as he wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. Closing his eyes, Naruto found himself back in front of the Kyuubi's cage. "HEY, fox! What are we gonna do? I don't think I can beat all of the Akatsuki by myself, and I can't use your power." He said grimly.

The Kyuubi nodded. "There is no way we can beat them normally by ourselves." He agreed. "However... there is one way, if we combine all of our chakra, my fire nature and your wind nature, into one single attack. This will mean that you'll have to tear off the seal though, and by using all of our chakra, we're both going to die... That will be unavoidable." He rumbled.

Naruto's eyes widened at what Kyuubi had said. "WHAT?! But I always thought you wanted to be free! What's with the change all of a sudden?" He asked in obvious shock.

Kyuubi lowered his massive head so that he was eye-level with his container. "I'd rather be dead than be a mindless peice of a weapon like that, and besides brat..." He looked away, as if ashamed of himself. "... Because my entire life has been nothing but evil deeds that hurt others, but since having met you... I've changed, and I would like to commit at least one good deed before I die, and I can think of no better deed than helping the one who changed me destroy those bastards and that monstrosity, saving your precious people in the process." He said quietly, though his voice was still loud.

A single tear threatened to roll down Naruto's cheek. "There's no other way to beat them, is there?" He asked.

Kyuubi shook his massive head, looking remorseful.

Naruto suddenly grinned, it was a smile full of pain and sorrow, but also one of hope. "Fine then you giant fuzzball, you've got a deal." He whispered, reaching up to grab the seal.

On the outside, Naruto had made two shadow clones, one on either side of him as they began to form a Rasenshuriken, pouring every ounce of chakra he had into it. "This is it you bastards! I'm going to destroy you all and save Konoha!" He screamed as the five Pains jumped to different fingers of the statue and Madara landed on the seal over the statue's mouth.

"Oh? How so?" Madara asked, amusement in his voice.

"NARUTO!! WHAHT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?!" Hinata screamed as she fell to her knees, everyone else watching in wonder as history was being made.

"LIKE THIS YOU ARROGANT BASTARD! FINAL SHINE RASENGAN!" Naruto screamed as he mentally ripped away the seal, Kyuubi's awsome chakra suddenly enveloping him as his Rasenshuriken took on the Kyuubi's fire element, the spinning ball of energy suddenly shooting out huge jets of super-heated flame, spinning in a spiral around Naruto as he leapt at Madara, his attack outstretched towards the man.

Madara grinned behind hs mask. "That is indeed an impressive attack, easily capable of doing what you claim Naruto-kun, but there's just one problem..." He released the seal and leapt away as the others began chanting, the eyes of the statue focousing on the in-coming Naruto. "... The fox was on my side this entire time! Normally it takes forever to remove the Bijuu from an unwlling host, but if that host removes the seal of their own free will, the sealing can be almost instantanious! Thank you for helping me achieve my dream Naruto-kun, I'll always remember your help!" He crowed as all of the Kyuubi's chakra suddenly bled from Naruto, flying into the open mouth, taking the blond's chakra with it.

His momentum stopped, Naruto began to fall backwards, his blue eyes opened wide in surprize as he watched the chakra disappear into the statues mouth. The last thing Naruto's mind registered was the grinning face of the fox as it manifested, and what looked like a man with long, black hair hovering just inside of the statue, staring back at him with the Rinnegan.

And so, Naruto died.

"NARUTOOOO!!" Hinata screamed, collapsing to her knees in horror.

-End-

A/N- Heh, arn't I evil? Don't hate me just yet tho', there's a silver lining!! R&R please!!