Last time


"NANI!?!?!?!" Naruto yelled, feinting from using so much energy after such a fight.

Minota scratched the back of his head. "Uh… oops?"

Now


Some time later, Naruto opened his bleary eyes to stare at an unfamiliar ceiling and lying in an unfamiliar, though comfy, queen size bed. Looking around, the blond jinchuriki took in the un-ornate room. His bed lay in one corner of the room a small nightstand was next to his bed that had his hitae-aite on it, a desk was directly in the corner to his right, the other corner was empty with a window showing what looked to be mid-day sun light.

'Where the Hell am I?' Naruto thought, pushing the covers off him and flinging his legs over the edge of the bed as he sat up. ''Cause it sure as Hell ain't the hospital…'

'Probably your room in the Namikaze estate.'

Naruto nodded, Kyuu-hime's suggestion making sense. 'That would make the most sense.' Standing up, Naruto began to stretch, his muscles stiff. 'Who changed my clothes?' The blonde was solely in orange silk pajama bottoms. 'And how long have I been out?' The question just kept coming, until his stomach growled, which presented a question and brought Boushoku's voice into his head. 'Where's the kitchen?'

'Not in the bedroom, that's for sure.' Shitto muttered.

'No, really? I had no idea.' Naruto retorted, rolling his eyes at his slightly emo personality, Naruto picked up his hitae-aite and wrapped it around his right bicep he opened the door.

Closing the door to his room, the young jinchuriki looked around. The hard wood floors seemed to be the mode for the house, as the polished surface from his room continued out into the rest of the house.

He stood on the catwalk around an open view of the bottom floor, looking up Naruto saw the ceiling, so he was on the second floor of the two story building called the Namikaze estate house. Doors lined the walls every couple dozen feet, one clearly the door to the master bedroom. On the side directly opposite the doors for the mater bedroom was a spread staircase leading to the floor below.

Naruto grinned, grabbing the railing, he leaped over it. He landed with a light thud on the ground, looking a round he saw that he had been wrong; the wood floor was the mode for upstairs, the greeting area was done in a finely polished marble.

'Food that way!' Boushoku rejoiced in his head.

Naruto relaxed his body, allowing the Sin of endless hunger to guide him to the food; he needn't go so far as to use Mihiraku to allow the glutton that much control.

Boushoku's natural ability to find food led him through one of the side doors, which put him in the empty formal looking dinning room. 'Must be where formal meeting and such are held.' Going through the door at the other end of the formal dinning room, he walked into a much more relaxed looking eating are that was separated from a large kitchen only by a counter.

'Much better, I'd go nuts if I had to eat dinner in that stuffy formal dinning room every day!' Naruto snickered, not realizing he had spoken out loud until a voice responded from behind him.

"My thoughts exactly, Naruto." The aforementioned blonde spun to face what could be one of his Kage-Bunshin put through a time speeding up jutsu and wearing the standard issue jounin uniform with a white haori with fire licking the bottom and the kanji for fire written on the back in red.

Minota leaned against the doorframe as he observed his son. "We were starting to wonder if you'd wake the Hell up, Gaki, you were out for a week."

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. "A whole week? Normally I only need one or two days... who the Hell are you any way?"

Minota sighed dramatically. "Are you retarded? I already answered that question…Sochi."

Naruto froze in place as he remembered the last few seconds of consciousness he had before he feinted. "T-t-t-tou-san?"

Minota smiled a happy grin the rest of the rookie-kyuu would relate to Naruto's real smile. "You have no idea how good it feels to be called that. Oh sure, Kakashi and Rin both took to calling me father, but it's a totally different thing to hear from your blood son…!" He trailed of, noticing Naruto's trembling and bowed head.

"What?" The older blond asked, squatting down to be at eye level with his son, though it made no difference in eye contact because Naruto's own blonde hair covered his eyes. "Not happy to see yo-"

He was cut off as Naruto tackled him, crying into his chest. "Tou-san…" Minota smiled lightly, patting his son's spiky blond hair he had inherited from himself.

"It's ok to cry, Sochi, cry and let the pain be washed away…" Minota whispered. "I'm here now and I'm not leaving any time soon."

Naruto looked up his father, overjoyed cerulean meeting calm ice blue. "D-did K-k-kaa-san…?"

Minota shook his head. "No… but I believe I know a way… there's an un-confirmed rumor of another Akatsuki member that I might appease the Shinigami with…"

Naruto's eyes widened both in surprise and confusion. "The Shinigami? 'Akatsuki'?"

The Yellow flash chuckled. "Come. I need to fill you in."


Minota, under a genjutsu making him look like a nondescript ninja; short with dark blue hair and brown eyes and the standard chunin uniform. And Naruto, after putting on some civilian clothes, a white wife beater khaki pants and normal shoes, ran across the rooftops towards the Hokage tower.

"Tou-san?" Naruto asked as they leapt from rooftop to rooftop.

"Yeah, Sochi?"

"Why put yourself under a genjutsu? The village would welcome you back gratefully…"

Minota sighed. "Naruto, don't you think they would demand that we use are enemies to bring back their lovers, as we're going to kill them anyway? But the method for the Edo-Tensei is more torture then it is killing, and the Shinigami would simply come and reclaim them. I can't go on a tirade on how the dead should stay dead, as that would make me a fuckin hypocrite; So, I'm going to restart my ninja career, under the name 'Futame Arashi'."

Naruto nodded. "I guess that makes sense. Now what was that 'Akatsuki' you mentioned earlier?"

"Wait 'till we get to my old office."

Naruto huffed. "Fine."

Minota grinned as he eyed the Hokage monument. "So, I here you got my prankster genes, painting the Hokage monument?"

Naruto smiled, his mood doing a 180. "Yeah…" With that as the topic starter, they spoke of pranking methods the rest of the way to Sarutobi's office.


Tsunade's eye twitched. She and Shizune had been waiting in the Hokage's since Minota had sent her a note via Gamakichi that Naruto was awake and he was bringing him to the old mans office to talk. She had come early so she could talk to Minota and his brat, but she had forgotten the perverted tendencies of her former sensei and former teammate. "WOULD YOU PUT THOSE AWAY?" She yelled, not leaving room for argument.

Sighing, the two aged perverts put away their orange covered porno, the personal work of the self dubbed 'Super Pervert' Jiraiya.

"You still read that trash, Jiji? And you still write it, Ero-sensei?" Minota questioned the old pervs as he opened the door, and he and Naruto stepping into his old office. "Hey." He greeted Tsunade as he dropped the genjutsu.

Jiraiya glared at his former student. "Not all of us can walk up to a woman, say 'let's fuck', and not only not get slapped but actually get laid, Minota; that trait is yours alone…"

Sarutobi looked at the clock hanging over one of his book selves, ignoring Jiraiya as he went on a rant about how unfair it was that Minota could have such ease with getting laid. "You're exactly twenty seconds early, as always, Minota."

The newly dubbed 'Futame Arashi' stuck his tongue at the reinstated Hokage. "Yep, and I predict Kakashi and Rin should be here in 3. 2. 1." When he said '1', Kakashi and Rin poofed into existence right behind him; Kakashi fixing his facemask and both smoothing out their clothes.

The Yellow Flash smirked. "Catching up, were you?" Minota's smirk broadened at Naruto's shocked look.

"Nani?! You're here on time?! Who are you and did you do to Kakashi-sensei?!" Naruto yelled, looking at Kakashi like he was an alien.

Minota snickered. "He won't dare be late to something I order him to; I have black mail that would make his life a living Hell." Minota reached into his right pocket and pulled out a sealed envelope. "These…" The blonde waved the envelope around, causing his silver haired student to sweat. "Are pictures of Kakashi, without his damn mask."

Naruto gaped. "How'd you get those? Me and my team spent a whole day trying to get that mask off him!"

The second oldest blonde, Tsunade being the oldest, in the room laughed heartily as he pocketed the envelope. "That's the difference between three genin and a Hokage. As for how I did it… that's a secret."

At this point Rin broke in. "You wanted to talk to us, sensei?"

Minota nodded, his expression returning to its serious self. "Yes. As you all know, I filled Naruto in on the way here, the Shinigami made me a deal; kill Orochimaru of the Sound village, Hidan of the Akatsuki, and Kakuzu of the Akatsuki within the next four years; and he'll allow me to remain alive. The catch being they have to be leaf's nin that kills them. Jiraiya?"

The longhaired inja pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning on. "Right. My information network has turned up some information on the last two, was well as some new Intel on Orochimaru and another person that we'll get to later. First; Hidan. Hidan is a follower of Jashin, an occult religion that allows him some form of immortality, no other information. Kakuzu; Hidan's partner and apparently another with some form of immortality jutsu, no other information. Orochimaru; we already know more then we really want to… And then there is 'Sasori', apparently he is yet another Akatsuki with a 'immortality' jutsu of some kind, no other info is known; we, Minota and I, believe we might be able pull another deal with the Shinigami if we kill this Sasori."

Room was silent, everyone thinking over what Jiraiya had said.

'Ask them what Akatsuki is, Baka.' Naruto nodded, not arguing with Taida. "What the Hell is Akatsuki?"

"They are a group of S-class nuke-nin. Their objective is unknown, but it some how includes the capture of the Nine Demon Lords, which would mean they'd be coming for you as you are Kyuubi's Jinchuriki." Jiraiya answered. "All we know about the group includes what we told you, that it has 9 members, and Orochimaru defected from the group." With that, the room went silent again.

'Let me speak to them.' Naruto blinked as Taida's lazy voice floated through his mind. Ignoring the odd looks he got from such abrupt out of place move, Naruto sat down in one of Sarutobi's more comfortable chair.

"Mihiraku; Taida." Naruto muttered, closing his eyes and letting his body slouch. When he opened his eyes again, the room was staring into sharp, though lazy, intelligent blue eyes with horizontal slit pupils. "Hello, name's Taida." He greeted, his voice dripping a laziness that shamed even Shikamaru. "The Strategist of the Seven."

The impossibly sharp eyes traveled over each of them, giving a wry smile when he met the lazy eye of Kakashi. "I like you, you're lazy..." That was all he said, and there was silence as they waited for the Sin to speak.

"You're an old bag, aren't you?" Taida dead panned at Tsunade, who wasn't even looking at the woman.

Everyone in the room gasped, wondering how he had seen through one of the most advanced genjutsu out there with no apparent effort.

"H-h-how?" Tsunade stuttered.

Taida shrugged, pointing a finger at his eyes. "Being lied to is bothersome, these eyes see through physical 'lies', or 'genjutsu', simply put; genjutsu doesn't work on me." Taida smirked at their shocked looks.

Kakashi got through his surprise first. "What do you need, Taida-san? As you are the Sin of Sloth, I doubt you came on a whim."

Taida nodded. "I came to talk strategy. Gather as much information on those four as possible, we need to keep Tou-san alive, he's a good asset, especially with Konoha in this state…" He looked around, they nodded their consent.

"That makes sense." Jiraiya conceded.

Taida scratched his chin thoughtfully. "You said they were after the Demon Lords?"

"Yes, we don't know why though."

"Hmm…" Taida hummed to himself as he planned. "We need to re-ally with Suna." That single statement caused everyone; yes even Arashi, to yell.

"NANI?!"

The lazy Sin nodded. "We both need the support of another strong village, and they have a jinchuriki, Subaku Gaara contains Shukaku; who has been driven insane by the Yondaime Kazekage's shitty seal. Allying with them gains support for the village, and brings a jinchuriki under guard. I assume you already have a mission to go there to talk about their terms of surrender?"

Sarutobi nodded. "Yes. In three days a team and I will be heading to Suna for that purpose."

Taida nodded again. "Good. I, or rather Naruto, will…" He accented the last word with enough Killer Intent to get the point through. "Be going with. Also, either Jiraiya or Minota-san must come as well."

"Why are we needed?" Jiraiya asked, though he had a guess.

"One of you is needed to fix Gaara's seal." Taida answered, proving Jiraiya's guess correct. "Hmm…? It seems Sakura-san and Hinata-san wish to speak to you, old-bag, they're waiting outside the door."

Everyone blinked. "So, now you're telling us that, like the Byakugan, you can see through walls?"

Taida nodded. "As well as the 360 view, both are helpful things for my position as the Seven's 'Strategist'." Suddenly Naruto's eyes returned to normal. "Let them in, Jiji."

Sarutobi nodded. "Come in."

With that, the two girls walked in, looking extremely nervous under the gazes of some of the leafs greatest ninja.


(A/N) Yo!

Tou-san – Father

Kaa-san – Mother

Sochi – Son

Futame – For a second time

Inja - Hermit

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