Title: The Brother

By: The Right Stop

"Humans Speaking"

'Human Thinking'

"Human Telepathy"

Jutsu in Use

"Bijū/Non-Human Talking"

'Bijū/Non-Human Thinking'

"Bijū/Non-Human Telepathy"

AN: Hello and welcome back to my story, this is the ninth chapter.

To start things of I just have to ask, what the hell gave everyone the impression that Naruto was going to be staying in Konoha permanently? I know that Kurama remained in Konoha after he was sealed but that doesn't mean that Naruto is going to stay in Konoha. I know that
I didn't say that Naruto staying in Konoha was temporary but please cut me some slack, I know how not to ruin a story...At least I think I don't.

NOTE: Any Jutsu that I make up will be in English as I can't find a suitable translator for English to Romaji.

On to chapter nine.

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Chapter Nine

The room was silent at Naruto's offer of trade for the Nine-Tails. Four of the room's five occupants were reeling in shock, that a person would trade themself for a bijū, what was essentially a large mass of demonic chakra. At least as far as they knew.

The thought of someone exchanging themself for a bijū was completely foreign to them, it was something that they would think only a crazy person would do. Yet here was someone, perfectly sane, offering themself in place of a bijū.

Tobirama was the first to regain his bearings after Naruto's offer of himself for the Kyūbi.
The man's stoic demeanour snapping back into place, Tobirama looked straight at Naruto, trying to gleam whether Naruto was lying. "You would essentially sacrifice yourself for a monster that had killed untold numbers? A being that is known as a 'Walking Natural Disaster', you would trade places with it? Forgive me if I find that hard to believe." The Hokage's voice was full of scepticism, it made Naruto clench his jaw. He already didn't like what he was doing but Hashirama's brother was making his decision that much harder.

"I would," Naruto responded. "It was mostly my fault for what happened to the Kyūbi and now I am here to make things right. If this is the price I must pay for rectifying my mistake then so be it. Besides, humans and bijū aren't so different when you think about it." Naruto held out his hand to stop the vocal disagreement that he knew was coming, and spoke after lowering his hand. "Do any of you feel remorse for stepping on an ant as you walk? Do feel any different for the fly you squat when it annoys you? If you don't then how can you expect a bijū to feel remorse for killing humans?"

"Perhaps because we are sentient being capable of words?" Tobirama said sarcastically.

"Are you?" Naruto countered. "In my life time, I have rarely seen humans speak with the bijū as equals, it has always been with hate and scorn, or used to lure the bijū into traps. I once saw an entire village hold a festival to honour the bijū, it turned out to be a trap in order to lure one closer to the village so that could be ambushed." Naruto's mouth formed a smirk as he remembered that event. "They got more than they bargained for when the Hachibi and Nanabi turned up."

Tobirama scowled. "And what about the times that the bijū have attacked without reasons? The Ichibi is a prime example of this."

Naruto's smirk turned into a frown when Tobirama mentioned Shukaku, Naruto missed his 'nephew'. The ancient man knew that Shukaku used to attack without reason to get his attention and that the One-Tails method of gaining attention were... a little strange, but he wouldn't admit that to Tobirama. "The bijū have been hunted by humans for millennia, do you really expect that they wouldn't have started to attack humans on site?"

The scowl on Tobirama's face increased, Naruto idly noted that it seemed to fit his face. "What about at the Valley of the End? Hashirama told me that the Kyūbi attacked you when it had possessed Mito? Why would you defend something that attacked you?"

Naruto simple rolled his eyes at Tobirama's now desperate ploys to poke holes in his logic. "First off, I attacked first, not the Kyūbi so I think that it was justified. Secondly, the reason that the Kyūbi went ballistic is basically Mito's fault." Naruto poked a finger in the red-head's direction. That startled many in the room, unsurprisingly; it was Hashirama that came to his wife's defence first.

"Wait, how was that Mito's fault?" Naruto could see that anger that Hashirama felt at his wife being accused of something that he didn't think she did, so the ancient man quickly explained to Hashirama before the man popped a vein.

"Hashirama, when Mito sealed the Kyūbi inside of her, she did something that is only meant to be done by those extensively trained in the Sealing Arts. It was something that usually requires specialist training or for someone to have prodigious skill in fūinjutsu, and even then it takes years for someone to be able to seal a being of the Kyūbi's power. I have no idea what sort of skill Mito has in fūinjutsu but it was obviously not enough, a skilled practitioner would have known that the kind of seal that Mito used strong enough to restrain something like the Nine-Tails." Here, Naruto gave Mito a piercing look, causing the woman to squirm a bit in her seat. "What level of practice were you at when you tried to seal the Kyūbi inside yourself?" Naruto's voice demanded an answer, and the man's eyes could see that the Uzumaki-Senju woman was reluctant to give it. "What level were you Mito?" Some anger started to leak into Naruto's voice, he didn't like that Mito wasn't answering the question. By now, Hashirama, Tobirama and Haru were now looking at Mito as well, this finally caused the red-headed woman to sigh.

"Twenty-three, High Seal Expert, I'd had four years of experience with containment seals prior to sealing the Kyūbi." She murmured, her face was looking towards the floor to avoid Naruto's gaze, the man would surely be angry with her.

"That's good Mito," Hashirama tried to reassure his wife who was looking ashamed of herself, his hand was on her back, trying to give her comfort. "You told me that people usually reached that level when they were in their thirties, that makes you good right." Mito didn't answer her husband and Hashirama was about to talk again before Naruto stopped him by speaking before the Senju clan head could.

"Hashirama," Naruto's voice was tightly controlled, like the man was trying to restrain something. "While Mito's level in fūinjutsu is advanced for her age, someone trying to restrain something like the Kyūbi would need to be at least level fifty-three, an Exotic Seals Novice, with at least seven to eight years of experience before they even theorised about how to seal something like the Kyūbi." Naruto narrowed his eyes as he looked at the Uzumaki. "What Mito did would have gotten you killed had I not been there to subdue her. Not only did she not have enough experience to perform what she tried, but even if she somehow did have the experience, it would have still gotten both herself and you, Hashirama, killed."

Hashirama turned to Naruto, a confused and slightly angry expression on his face. "What do you mean she wouldn't have been able to do it even if she had the right skills?"

"That's quite simple." Naruto said, facing Hashirama. "While the base of the seal that Mito used was correct, she didn't factor in how much power the Kyūbi had, this caused much of its chakra to leak out as the seal wasn't large enough to contain all of the chakra and the seal wasn't strong enough to hold all of it back. This alone was a problem, but one that could be easily solved if Mito had the necessary skill and experience, the real problem was the barrier that separated the two consciouses." Here, Naruto turned back to Mito, who still had her head down. "A bijū's mind is different from a human's, because the barrier was so thin, you were able to send a massive amount of raw emotion down it, it caused the Kyūbi's mind to go haywire and revert to primal instinct. Had I not been there to subdue you Mito, you would have rampaged across the world killing anything in your path until you were brought down." Naruto turned to Tobirama. "That is why it attacked me, its primal instinct was to attack anything that attacked it and I did, so it attacked me in response." After this, Naruto shook his head. "Anyway, we're getting off track, we need to talk about the deal." Naruto really didn't like what he was about to do, it would be a hell of a lot easier to simply kill Mito and let Kurama reform but the Uzumaki woman hadn't done enough yet to truly draw upon Naruto's ire. Naruto then added more words. "We also need to talk about the conditions to accompany this deal." That made Tobirama sit up straighter with narrowed eyes.

"In this village, everyone answers to me, I decided what happens, I decided what goes on. I tell them what to do and they do it, if you want to make a deal with-" That was as far as he got before the Nidaime found himself pinned to the wall, hand around his throat and cold white eyes burning their way into his skull. Tobirama and the rest of the room's occupants felt a heavy feeling settle over their beings, like an oppressive cloak had been pulled over their heads. Tobirama felt the worst of it, he felt like there was mountain on top of his chest, combined with the hand around his throat and Tobirama was having trouble staying conscious, his vision was getting blurry and black spots danced across his eyes.

The hand around his throat seemed to realise this and eased off on the pressure, though it wasn't by much, it was enough to make a difference to Tobirama. As Tobirama tried to gulp down mouthfuls of air, a voice found its way to his ears.

"Let me get one think clear right now Tobirama, I. Am. No ones. Weapon." The words were hissed into Tobirama's ear, the grey-haired man could hear the anger in the tone and the venom in the words. "If you think of me as such, in anyway, I will annihilate you and everything that tries to stop me." Naruto, to put it mildly, was livid. Never in his long life had someone said that he was a weapon, Tobirama might have phrased it differently but in the end, the words meant the same thing.

Tobirama had just crossed a line that he would never be able to uncross, not only had he been rude to Naruto, insulting his memory of his brother, but he had the guts to look him straight in the eye and say that he was owned by Konoha, and subsequently, Tobirama. While Naruto was willing to use violence, to fight in wars, to use his abilities to harm, he did so knowing why he acted, he did so knowing that his actions were going to help make the world a better place or when he was protecting his family. The war that Naruto could sense on the horizon did have any reason, it was simply a reason for corrupted people to grasp at more power, something that Naruto despised.

If Naruto wasn't adamant on getting Kurama unsealed then he would have tried to think of another way, giving up his freedom was a hard thing for Naruto, someone who had spent millennia doing as they pleased and simply living their life as they pleased. Naruto was not planning on trading places with Kurama but he could see that it was the only way for him to be able to secure Kurama's freedom and ensure that he wouldn't be hunted down by Konoha after he is freed from the seal.

Releasing his grip around Tobirama's neck, Naruto allowed the man to slide to the ground and begin to take deep breaths, Naruto just rolled his eyes at the over exaggeration, he wasn't squeezing that hard. He then took a step back to allow Tobirama more room to regain his breath. Naruto waited for Tobirama to begin breathing regularly before speaking, a frown marred his face as he spoke and narrowed eyes pierced through Tobirama as the man lay on the ground.

"I think you need to be reminded of the other ways that this conversation could be going Tobirama." Naruto was starting to reach his limit with this man, Hashirama's brother or not, if this child was going to continue to try and order him around then he would find out just how powerful the brother of the Sage of Six Paths was. Naruto could tell that Tobirama wasn't necessarily a bad person, that he truly did want what was best for Konoha, but what made Naruto dislike Tobirama, he didn't hate him yet, was that the man only saw the forest, not the trees that made up the forest, sometimes this was a good way to see things but at the moment it wasn't. There was also the fact that Tobirama thought that being Hokage made him the smaller version of Kami, in which everyone obeyed his law, probably because he let the power he wielded as Hokage to go to his head, it didn't help that the man was incredibly militaristic. "First condition of this deal," Naruto began with his arms crossed over his chest. "After this upcoming war between the Hidden Villages is over, I'm leaving." Unfortunately, instead of waiting for Naruto to finish, Tobirama acted in anger and frustration and tried to provoke Naruto, fortunately for him, he didn't press the right buttons for that.

"So you plan on not honouring our deal?" The Nidaime spat up at Naruto, the gray-haired man managed to get his feet underneath him and stand up, albeit he was leaning against the wall. "Why am I not surprised."

Naruto only narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists behind his folded arms but restrained himself from punching the now obviously stupid man in the head. "My power will be sufficient enough to repel any attack that target Konoha, more so than the Nine-Tails ever could so I believe that you should just shut up and take what you can get. If I wanted to, I could have simply taken Mito and forcefully extract the Kyūbi that way, so I suggest that you let me talk because you're lucky I don't take the Kyūbi and leave." Naruto waited for Tobirama to speak but the Second Hokage had apparently learned his lesson and kept his mouth shut. "Good, the second rule is that Konoha makes no attempt to recapture the Kyūbi after it is released." This would be the hardest rule for Naruto to keep intact, the Ōtsutsuki knew that Kurama wouldn't want to be around him for a while after he was released and it would be hard to keep the Nine-Tails safe if he didn't want him around, he could only drop in every year or so and make sure that Kurama was okay and pray that the bijū knew how to lay low.

"Third rule," Naruto continued. "I will only be ordered to attack in the defence of Konoha, not for anything more. If you do, I'll take it as a breach of the deal and leave, remember that this war shouldn't have anything to do with me, I want to stay out of it as much as possible. Is there any problem with that?"

"No." Tobirama grounded out. The man obviously wasn't happy with the way this was going, wanting to be in control of the situation instead of being an observer like he was now. "What restrictions do I get to place on you? I can't be the only one with conditions to for this deal." Naruto reluctantly conceded that point, if this was going to work in any way then Naruto needed to have some restrictions as well.

"If you have something within reason then by all means, tell me." Tobirama tried to open his mouth to say something, a condition for Naruto but nothing came. What could he ask of Naruto? The man had already said that he would only attack in Konoha's defence and he couldn't get Naruto to join Konoha's shinobi corps, the brother of the Sage of Six Paths had made it clear that he wasn't going to be staying here for long. That only really left-

"Train someone." The words didn't come from Tobirama but surprisingly Haru, who had remained quiet for most of the conversation. Even so, Tobirama couldn't help a small smile that wormed its way to his face, he had just been thinking along the same lines as Haru and had come to the conclusion that this was the best condition that he could give Naruto that gave him something in return.

"I agree with Haru," Tobirama said. "In addition to being restricted to the grounds of Konoha, you must train someone in your skills." While training multiple people would have been better, Tobirama knew that he wouldn't be able to get more than one person. 'Hm... More than one highly trained shinobi... A group perhaps?... Only taking in the prodigious or highly skilled ... I'll think on this more later.'

Tobirama knew that shinobi, especially powerful shinobi, were very protective of their personal skills so it was easy to theorise that Naruto was the same as them, perhaps he was even more protective considering how powerful the man is, if Hashirama's reports on his powers were to be believed. Though Tobirama knew that those reports were truthful, having sensed the man's power when Naruto had released his hand from his neck, when Tobirama slumped to the floor he used his contact with the ground to sense the man's chakra.

Tobirama could safely say that Naruto had the most chakra he had ever felt, bijū included.

Naruto quite annoyed at this turn of events, he hadn't anticipated the possibility that Tobirama would make him transfer some of his skills to someone else. Though Naruto didn't actually have much he could teach as most of his abilities were similar to today's 'Kekkei Genkai', and therefore couldn't be taught to anyone unless they already had the ability. Though that still left his enhanced strength, his healing ability, fūinjutsu skills, taijutsu skills, what little 'genjutsu' he knew and possibly his chakra constructs, though Naruto was not sure if this was a bloodline or not.

"I will train someone," Naruto relented; he knew he would have to agree to a condition. "In ONE of my skills." It didn't mean that he would agree so easily. Seeing Tobirama frowning, Naruto prevented a fight by giving Tobirama more ground. "Two then, but you can't force me to teach at a certain pace, I'll teach at the rate that I think that the student can handle. I also get to chose what I teach them." Tobirama narrowed his eyes at Naruto, thinking the man was going to try and teach his soon to be student nothing, but the man quickly waved off Tobirama's worries. "I get to chose what I teach them because I know what abilities I can teach and which ones a unique to me, I'm not going to place all my abilities on the table so you can pick and chose which ones you want your student to learn." Tobirama finally gave a nod of agreement, and both men them moved back to lounged area and sat down on their original spots, much of tension in the room draining out with the deal's conditions finally being solidified. However, there was still a kind of tension between Naruto and the Second Hokage that remained, but it was no longer the kind of tension that appeared when two enemies were in the room, more like when it was two people who didn't like each other that much.

The room remained silent for several minutes as everyone tried to relax and let the rest of the tension naturally leave the room, but that was until Naruto asked a question to Tobirama that hadn't really occurred to the Nidaime.

"So who do I train, when do we begin and when do I stop?" That brought Tobirama up short, he hadn't really given any thought as to who Naruto would train. His first thoughts went to Hiruzen, one of his pupils and the one that was being groomed to be Hokage in Tobirama's place, but he instantly tossed that idea aside, Hiruzen was part of a team, and special training might create jealousy between him and his teammates, it was already bad enough with all the attention Tobirama and Hashirama paid the young Sarutobi. Other than Hiruzen, Tobirama didn't really know anyone else in the village that stood out, there were several highly skilled ninja in the shinobi corps but no one that stood out in Tobirama's eyes that would constantly improve the skills taught to them by Naruto. Both himself and Hashirama were too old to be taught anything at their age, both of them were begin to near the period where instead of training to improve, they would train to simply keep their skills at the same level.

That only left the younger generation, someone who Tobirama knew had the potential to be a great shinobi, someone that Tobirama had faith in. None really came to mind, it was quite hard to tell potential shinobi in children, it was usually easier as they grew up, but with the younger ones, those below five, it was like finding a needle in a haystack. He also needed someone that could use the skills that Naruto would teach them, or could be moulded to use them, there was no point in getting Naruto to teach a medic-nin only to find out that the medic-nin wouldn't or would rarely use the skills they were taught. Tobirama had to choose this person wisely as either Naruto would promise them to never share the skills Naruto taught them or the shinobi would become protective of them, like the well known shinobi become possessive of their signature jutsus. Tobirama was so wrapped up in his decision on who to choose for Naruto's student that he almost missed the grin that appeared of Hashirama's face.

Looking at his brother, Tobirama immediately question him on why he was smiling. "What? Why are you smiling like that?"

Hashirama kept the grin and said a single word. "Tsunade."

"What?" Tobirama questioned. "What does your granddaughter have to do with this?"

"Naruto will teach Tsunade." Hashirama said it as if it was obvious, it took Tobirama a second to process what Hashirama had actually said.

"What?" Tobirama said incredulously. "Hashirama, I can understand that you have trust in Naruto but putting your granddaughter's training in the hands of Naruto it too much. Besides, what would the rest of the clan think? Putting the training of an heiress in the hands of a foreigner is not something that many will like."

"I agree," Haru spoke up, feeling quite annoyed with his father for putting his daughter's name forwards without consulting him first. "Father, while you may trust Naruto with Tsunade, you have to understand that I do not. Besides, she is my daughter," Haru put special emphasis on the word, my. "And therefore, I get to ultimately decide who trains her and who doesn't. Not you father."

"I know that you don't trust him," Hashirama said waving off their concerns. "But it doesn't matter, if we did agree on Tsunade being taught by Naruto, it would be five years away, giving you more than enough time to trust each other. Besides," Here, a devious grin appeared on Hashirama's face, one that Tobirama only saw when his older brother felt that something funny was going to happen. "It would only be fitting for a godfather to train his goddaughter."

It took a whole minute for the words to set in before anyone reacted, and when they did, Hashirama had to strain himself to not fall of his spot on the couch. Tobirama was looking at him liked he'd grown and extra head... and arm... and leg. Haru just stared at him with an incredulous expression on his face, his mouth partly opened allowing flies in and out of his mouth. His own wife was also part of Hashirama's amusement, she had simply put her head into her hands and let out a sigh, being around Hashirama for several years had desensitised her to most of the stupid things he did, Mito didn't know why Tobirama still reacted like he did.

But Hashirama's favourite reaction was Naruto's by far, when the man had heard what Hashirama had to say, he immediately began choking on air and coughing as if he swallowed something incorrectly. Eventually, Naruto finished choking on whatever he was supposed to be choking on and simply looked at Hashirama before looking towards the ground while sighing and rubbing the side of his head with one hand.

"There's no way that I was Hashirama when he was younger. I wasn't that much of an idiot." The Senju clan head heard him mumble. Hashirama didn't know whether to take what he heard to be an insult or an complement so he pretended like he hadn't heard it.

"What?" Haru exclaimed, rising to his feet. "Father, this is going beyond the line, appointing someone as Tsunade's godparent is something that Miki and I are supposed to do as her parents. Besides, while I can't speak for Miki, I can safely say that I don't fully trust Naruto." Hashirama could now see that he had crossed the line with his son by appointing Naruto as Tsunade's godparent and that Haru was angrier with Hashirama now than he had been in a while.

Seeing that this was starting to get out of hand, Hashirama tried to placate his son by explaining his actions, perhaps announcing the Naruto's new status as Tsunade's godparent the way he did wasn't the best idea. Getting off the couch and standing on his feet, Hashirama immediately tried to explain. "Haru, look, I was just trying to look out-"

"For who, for Tsunade!" Haru cut Hashirama off. "Don't you get it father, I wanted to choose who Tsunade's godparents were! You just tried to take that away from me and hand me someone that I have only known for a day!" Hashirama's son had his hands clenched into fists, and Naruto idly noticed that the knuckles were white. There was obviously more to why Haru was blowing up at Hashirama than simply because Hashirama chose Tsunade's godfather without asking.

"I was only trying to look out for Tsunade, as any grandparent would do." Hashirama's voice was starting to rise to match his son's voice which was quite loud already. "I wasn't trying to do anything without your permission."

"But it's the fact you tried that matters, it shows that you don't trust me and my judgement over whoever I would pick as godfather." Haru yelled at his father. Naruto noticed that Mito and Tobirama were now trying to actively defuse the situation, Mito placing hands and trying to get him to sit down, while Tobirama did the same for Haru.

"And who would you pick!" Hashirama's voice had now reached the level of Haru's. "Who would you pick instead? Oh wait, that's right there is no one else! You barely know anyone inside or outside the clan because you train so much! Who is there that you would trust enough to put as Tsunade's godfather?"

"I could put Tobirama as her godfather, or Miki's father, you don't have to decide everything for me father, I am a grown man!" Both Hashirama and Haru had red faces, based on how quickly this was heating up, both Haru and Hashirama had been repressing this for a while now. From what Naruto could tell, Hashirama still thought of Haru as a child and didn't trust him as a man. This had obviously been slowly boiling over and was now finally spilling over the side. Deciding that this was now a more family moment, Naruto silently stood up, drawing attention from those in the room, before making his way to the entrance of the room where he stopped for a moment.

This is obviously something that you need to sort out as a family; I'll be back tomorrow to remove the Kyūbi from Mito." With that, Naruto left, quickly making his way out of clan head house. Even as he made his way from the building, Naruto could hear heated whispers coming through from the thin walls.

Naruto simple shook his head and quickened his pace, wanting to get out of range of the voices.

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Once again walking through the streets of Konoha, Naruto could not help but let a small smile appear on his face as he watch people walk the streets as if nothing was wrong with the world. He saw people casually chatting on the side of the road, parents walking down the street in order to get to the markets with children by their side, some of the children were dragging their parents. All the while Naruto could spot ninja stalking the roof tops, many of them travelling to other places while others leaped from building to building at a more casual pace.

It was quite refreshing being able to see people relax out in the open, something Naruto rarely saw in the Elemental Nations. The threat of bandits, fighting shinobi or the odd rampaging bijū caused many people to fear the outdoors, but here, in Konoha, Naruto could see that many of these people felt completely safe within the city walls under the protection of shinobi.

Naruto could make out what could only be the Hokage Tower in the distance along with what appeared to be two faces carved into the side of the cliff face that the village hugged. One was complete and looked surprisingly like Hashirama while the other looked to be nearing the end of its construction period and resembled Tobirama, the unusual forehead protector giving away the Second Hokage easily.

Looking away from the faces of rock, Naruto then began to make his way towards the more forested regions of Konoha, wanting to secure a place before nightfall arrived. Naruto made his way through the streets of Konoha by weaving through the crowded streets, dodging in between people with ease, his training having more than one benefit. As he made way towards the forest, Naruto noticed the building begin to thin out, becoming less and less numerous until the only reason Naruto knew that the way he was going wasn't abandoned was because of the path that he was travelling on was manmade and looked slightly worn.

Following the trail, Naruto found himself face to face with a large metallic fence that seemed to surround the forest; gates were posted in regular intervals from what Naruto could see. Looking at a sign posted next to the gate, Naruto could make out the writing on the board, albeit barely. The sign was poorly maintained, only attached to the gate at a single point and was barely attached, whether this place was abandoned or simply poorly maintained, Naruto didn't know. Either way, Naruto found out where he was staying for time that he was staying in Konoha.

Naruto hadn't actually slept on a bed in several hundred years, having found that using his 'Mokuton' abilities that he could force grass to grow at an incredible rate and could control what kind of grass grew. Using this, Naruto made a certain type of grass grew where ever he wanted to sleep, this grass was always incredibly soft and was quite comfortable to sleep on. Since then, Naruto had never slept in a bed, not only preferring nature over the boxes that people were starting to call houses but also finding that the grass was more comfortable than most beds.

Looking closely at the hanging sign, Naruto could just read the words. "'Training Ground Forty-Four, the Forest of Death'." Naruto read to himself. "Huh, cosy." Choosing to avoid breaking down the gate to get in, Naruto simple leapt over the tall fence using chakra to assist in his jump.

Landing with a small thump on the ground, Naruto then made his way further into the forest to try and find a suitable spot to sleep. Keeping his senses opened, Naruto entered the forest. The ancient man wasn't stupid enough to disregard the name of the place he was in. While he doubted that there was anything that could damage him, let alone kill him, it would be best to keep his guard up just in case.

This turned out to be a wise thing to do, as in less than a hundred meters in, Naruto felt a chakra signature moving towards his position. The chakra signature was relatively small, the body that it was housed in was not, it was easily five times larger than Naruto and seemed quite long. Readying himself, Naruto looked towards direction he felt the signature coming.

As it got closer, Naruto was able to get a view on just what he was up against. It was large, long, having a relatively flat body and hundreds of scuttling legs that propelled it forward along with twin antenna that protruded from its head. Naruto lazily leapt to the side to avoid the creature's charge, this was nowhere near fast enough to startle him. Seeing that it missed, the giant centipede turned around and tried again.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the centipede's choice of attack, not knowing whether to feel insulted that the large creature thought that he would be taken out by the same attack, or curiosity at how it got as big as it did and not be Summon.

The giant centipede didn't have enough chakra to be even considered as a Summon, nor did it have the intelligence either, yet it was as large as many of the 'boss' or clan head Summons. Quite strange for it to be found out here, Naruto could only theorise that it was the environment that affected its growth.

Naruto simply jumped over the creature's charge and, with a small amount of concentration and chakra, raised a spear of compressed earth that pierced the skull of the centipede, causing the long insect to collapse onto the ground as its brain instantly died.

Landing on the forest floor without a sound, Naruto simply brushed his cloak off and continued walking further into the forest, leaving the only evidence that he was there being dead centipede and a spear of rock.

The centipede wouldn't be the last thing that Naruto encountered in the forest, several minutes later, Naruto encountered several large tigers that tried to have him for a meal. Needless to say, those tigers found out the hard way that they weren't at the top of the food chain.

The further in Naruto got, the more annoyed he began, it seemed that there was no end to the amount of creatures that he would encounter. Finally having enough, Naruto let out a pulse of chakra through the ground, allowing him to get a mental image of the forest as his chakra spread around the forest. It was then that Naruto found what he was looking for, in the centre of the forest, about ten kilometres from the forest's edge was a tower that looked to be unoccupied, it would make a fine place to stay.

Turning towards the direction of the tower, Naruto set of in the direction of the building that was now unofficially his home. Thankfully, it was only a kilometre away so it didn't take that long to get there and by sprinting, Naruto was able to bypass all of the creatures that were in between him and his abode.

Stopping just in front of his home, Naruto took the time to get a better picture of where he would be staying.

It was in quite good condition considering the condition of the gate of the training ground, large, pointed building that towered over the trees of the forest, surprising considering that the trees were some of the larger ones that Naruto had seen in the world. A maroon-brown, the tower was essentially a bunch of circle rooms on top of each other, with the one on top always being smaller than the one below it. Multiple windows were located around the building on each level allowing light to penetrate inside the tower.

Looking around the tower and Naruto noticed that the tower was built in the centre of a clearing, none of the trees showing any sign of growing inwards. That got Naruto curious about the purpose of the tower and the forest.

The forest was manmade, meaning that Hashirama most likely grew it using his Mokuton, but even then it still didn't explain the reasoning of the tower or the forest or even why no one came here.

Hearing a loud roar of some kind of flesh eating animal made Naruto sweat drop, cancel that last thought, he did know why no one came here. Why would anyone go to a forest that is stocked with animals that size of houses? Though that brought up another question, why were all these animals so large?

Shaking his head, Naruto put that in the back of his mind as something to think about later. Entering the tower, Naruto quickly travelled to the top of the tower to find some rooms that he could use, finally occupying on near the very top. Looking around the room, Naruto could see that the room might have once had an occupants but the only remains that Naruto of what had once been in the room was rotting wood, after removing all of the rotting wood and clearing all of the spider webs and dust from the room, he began to secure the room. He inscribed various seals, around where he was sleeping from simply arrays that prevented people from opening doors to seals that would alert him if something above a specific size or a certain amount of chakra was around the premises.

Naruto then sprouted grass from the floor but made sure to do it slowly, not knowing the integrity of the floor and if it could cave in. Taking off his layers of clothing until he was bare-chested and clad in long pants, Naruto then when to bed on the soft grass, wondering what tomorrow would bring.

He could only hope that it had less surprises than today.

XxXxXxXxX

It was in the late morning that Naruto found himself walking back through Konoha towards the Senju compound with his hood up once more. The streets were beginning to crowd as many people began shopping from the various stalls and businesses that lined the street. Naruto could hear the cries of vendors as they tried to sell their products to a passing customer and casual chatter of people as they went about their day.

Walking past the citizens of Konoha with purpose, Naruto was idly aware of several ninja observing him from the roof tops. They were quite good, having better stealth skills than most but to a man who had lived longer than twenty men combined, they may as well have been babies trying to spy on an adult. Even so, Naruto made no sign that he sensed their presence, believing that they were most likely sent by Tobirama to watch him and report back.

Naruto made it to the Senju clan's compound without a fuss and strolled through the front gates, the guards on duty making no move to stop him, whether on orders from Tobirama or because they realised that they couldn't do anything, Naruto didn't know. He made his way leisurely past the various homes of the Senju with a few people looking at him as he made his way towards the clan head's house.

Stopping at the front door, Naruto raised his hand and knocked on the wood of the door before waiting for someone to answer his knock. Surprisingly, it was Miki who did, coming to the door with his supposed 'goddaughter' in one hand, she gave him a smile as she stepped to the side to let him into the house.

"Good morning Naruto," She said with a smile on her face. "Did you sleep well? Haru told me that they never found you a place to sleep in yesterday?" Her face twisted from a smile into a worried frown. "Where did you sleep?"

Naruto gave her a small smile to ease her worry. He had to admit that he was slightly impressed with this woman, Naruto could tell that she trusted him to an extent that was surprising considering that they had only met the day before. "I'm fine Miki, don't worry. I found a place to sleep in a forest."

"Are you sure?" The blond haired woman insisted. "It would be no trouble at all to find you a place to sleep." Her face broke into a small smile again as Tsunade started babbling excitedly and reached out to Naruto. "It appears that Tsunade would like to have you around."

Naruto had a happy smile appear on his face as he looked at the child in the woman's arms, looking at Tsunade reminded him of his own children, Kazama and Mushia. They both were the same at her age, looking around, wanting to grasp at everything, it was something that annoyed
Naruto to no end, especially when they began to pick things up off the ground and put it in their mouth.

"Perhaps some other time Miki, but right now I have something urgent to do." Naruto said the words with a smile but his tone told Miki that he needed to leave without seeming rude. Miki picked up on this and pulled Tsunade back to her as the baby kept reaching out to Naruto , with a smile, Miki directed Naruto to the room in which Mito, Hashirama, Haru and Tobirama were in.

"They are in the clan head's study; it's to the end of the hall with a wooden door at the entrance."

Naruto took several steps towards the hall before looking back and asking Miki a question. "Are you coming?" Naruto questioned. Miki shook her head.

"I have no place in shinobi related affairs, and while I could be in the room, I don't think that Tsunade would be able to be quiet and sit still long enough for the meeting to finish." She finished her sentence by looking down at her daughter and tickling her exposed belly, causing the child to giggle and squirm in her mother's grip.

Naruto said goodbye to Miki with a smile before he moved off down the hall, Naruto truly liked the woman, she had a motherly look around her that reminded him of Rina, it was a look that said that she would do anything for her children even if it was beyond her capabilities, and that was something that Naruto could respect.

The door to the study was easy enough to spot, a brown wooden door just like Miki said, with a knock and hearing a 'come in' from the inside, Naruto opened the door and entered the room.

It wasn't a very large room but it wasn't small either, having enough room to fit in two bookcases that lined the walls, a desk and chairs that faced each other along with several decorations located on the walls and desk. A window on the far wall, opposite to the wall with door, allowed light to stream in and bath the room. The bookshelfs had many books, and scrolls as well, Naruto didn't try to read any of the titles that were displayed on the spines of the books, but caught several words that were mostly related to the shinobi arts. Several of the scrolls and books looked quite old, some looked like they were only being held together by glue while Naruto could see the remains of several books and scrolls that had fallen to time and broken apart. There were also several scrolls on non-shinobi related subjects like politics and business, even some subjects like maths or science. If Naruto were to hazard a guess, he would say that this was the Senju clan head library or something similar to it.

The chair behind the desk was occupied by Hashirama, he sat there with his arms resting on the desk and an uncharacteristically serious look on his face, the former Hokage looked troubled and worried, most likely thinking about the process his wife was about to go through, so it was natural that Hashirama would be worried. Tobirama stood to the side of Hashirama clad in what Naruto could only assume to be the Hokage's uniform, or some sort of official wear that Tobirama owned but it was most likely the Hokage's robes. Naruto had to with hold a small snicker as he looked at the clothes though, Naruto had to admit that the robes looked incredibly unpractical; Tobirama seemed to agree with Naruto's thoughts as he looked quite uncomfortable in the robes. Haru was standing on the other side of Hashirama and seemed a bit uncomfortable being in the room, but Naruto could tell that it had more to do with being in such close proximity to Hashirama, there was obviously things that have yet to be resolved between the two. Mito stood behind Hashirama's chair and looked nervous though that was definitely expected, the woman was about to have a bijū removed from her gut, not an everyday occurrence. Even so, she looked remarkably composed, it was only her eyes that betrayed her, showing the world just how vulnerable she felt.

Moving towards the desk, Naruto sat down in the chair that faced Hashirama on the opposite side of the desk. Wanting to get through this quickly, Naruto decided to start the conversation. "So, when are we going to leave?"

"In a minute," Hashirama replied. "But before you do, I'd like to know just exactly how you're going to remove her bijū without killing her." Naruto could see that the Senju clan head was quite worried about his wife and was asking this for some assurance that Mito would be okay. Naruto nodded towards Hashirama and then looked past him to Mito.

"What I'm going to do is essentially heal you as I remove the Kyūbi from your stomach, I plan to remove it slowly at first and then either increase or decrease the pace at which I remove based on how fast your body heals." Naruto explained but almost immediately Tobirama had to put in his say.

"That won't work, we've already heard rumours of other hidden villages trying that and failing, they couldn't heal the jinchūriki fast enough and the extraction killed them." Naruto looked at Tobirama with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Could you not take down my ideas without hearing them out completely please?" The tone was sarcastic and told Tobirama and Hashirama that Naruto was not in the mood right now. Naruto had put up with Tobirama and his pride but today he wasn't going to take it. When Tobirama let out a slow nod, Naruto continued. "Thank you, as I was saying, I will heal you as I extract the Kyūbi using methods that are only available to me." Here, Naruto shot a pointed look to Tobirama. "If you hadn't interrupted me, it would have been at this point that I would have told you that my rate of healing is far superior to yours, if I wanted, I could make someone regrow an arm or leg within seconds, or I could cure madness. My explanation to Mito was just a simply overview, what I'm actually doing is far more complicated." Naruto honestly thought that if he tried enough that he could theoretically bring back the dead. Naruto had never really tried to bring back the dead, believing that those dead should remain dead, enjoying whatever was after death. That didn't mean that Naruto had never thought about bring the dead back to life, it was something he had always dreamed of, bringing back Hagoromo, Rina, Kazama, Mushia and even his mother. But there was always a little voice at the back of his head that stopped him, that told him that they would all be disappointed in him if he did that. So all Naruto could do was dream of a time when his family was together, when there was no Jūbi, no arguments about peace, simply his family living their lives. It was something that would always haunt Naruto in his dreams, forever out of reach.

"Be that as it may, how do we know that your method would work?" This time it was Hashirama trying to poke holes in his abilities, if Naruto wasn't sure that the man was simply worried about his wife's health, he would have been annoyed.

"I once healed a person who had lost the use of their legs and both arms within seconds, I think I can do this." Naruto's voice was starting to become annoyed, people doubting his abilities, especially when he had centuries to know what he couldn't do and what he could do.

"What is your method specifically?" Questioned Mito speaking for the first time since Naruto had entered to room. Naruto looked at her for a second before launching into his explanation but keeping it short and to the point.

"I will manipulate your body to a point, forcing your body to heal while combining it with my own healing ability. This will support your body, keeping your body from being destroyed as the Kyūbi's chakra exits your body." Naruto's face then changed to a slightly angry look. "However, this will not stop the pain you will feel, because you changed the seal that was keeping the Kyūbi sealed within you, you made the process all the more painful for both you and the Kyūbi. Had you left it alone then all that would have needed to happen was to place the counter seal on the seal on your stomach, but your seal makes it so that in order for the Kyūb's chakra to be removed it must come out through your chakra pathways. Normally this would kill you as too much chakra will travel through your pathways and cause them to rupture which would lead to your eventually death, however instead you will use as much of your chakra as possible before I remove the seal, this will make your pathways empty and allow the easy removal of the Kyūbi's chakra from your system. However," Naruto then got a pointed look on his face as he looked at Mito. "Your chakra coils will be incredibly strained for some time afterwards so you can't use chakra until they have fully healed from the strain. Putting the tinniest amount of strain on your coils could damage them irreversibly during the healing period."

"Why couldn't you simply let us do that then, it doesn't sound so hard." Tobirama's voice held a bit of an accusation in it and it tick Naruto off quite a bit. Turning to look at the Hokage, Naruto's voice held a distinctively annoyed edge.

"Unless you can heal the damage of bijū chakra on pure flesh before it kills someone, have the ability to smoothly remove one source of chakra from the other and are someone that the Kyūbi won't kill on sight as well as be able to react in case something goes wrong then of course you could of done it." Naruto's sarcastic tone wasn't lost on anyone. "Look Tobirama, face the fact that I might not be here to ruin your precious village because believe me, if I wanted to, there would be nothing left and neither you nor anyone else would be able to stop me." Naruto was giving Tobirama a narrow eyed stare, waiting for the Senju clan member to respond. After a look to Hashirama, who gave him a pointed look, Tobirama spoke to Naruto through gritted teeth.

"I am sorry, Naruto, for my behaviour yesterday." The apology was reluctant, half-assed and didn't say what Tobirama was sorry for exactly, but Naruto didn't point that out, at least verbally. While he wouldn't be his friend anytime soon, Naruto could sense that Tobirama was will to put what happened yesterday in the past if Naruto was willing. It wasn't ideal for Naruto, but he could tell that it was the best he was going to get from the man.

"Just don't do it again." Was Naruto's reply to the apology, Tobirama looked like he was going to argue but another look from Naruto made him stop, before reluctantly nod. The message in Naruto's eyes was clear, 'Yesterday is behind us, so start acting like it'. "So are Mito and I going to get leave already?" Naruto asked looking around the room, impatient to get going, he wanted to get the 'un-sealing' over and done with.

"Wait, is it just you and Mito going?" Hashirama seemed startled, as if he was expecting to go along. Based on the matching expressions on Tobirama and Haru's faces, they expected to be going as well.

"Yes." Naruto said simply. When had he said that anyone else was going?

"I thought that it would be all of us going?" Hashirama asked with a furrowed brow. Naruto almost face palmed at the stupidity of the question.

"Oh I'm sorry," Naruto said sarcastically. "Of course you get to come to see me unseal a powerful being that you helped seal, of course. It's not like the Kyūbi wouldn't be happy to see you and won't simply kill you and anyone else you bring along as soon as he lays eyes on you or something similar."

"No need to be sarcastic about it." Hashirama grumbled.

"Then don't ask to do stupid things." Naruto said to Hashirama. "The presence of Mito will rile it up enough, having you there Hashirama, might set it off on a rampage." After a moment of pause, Naruto continued. "So, can I get Mito somewhere safe and release the seal on the Kyūbi? Or is there something else that needs to be talked about?" The possibility of something else to talk about at this point was going to seriously piss Naruto off.

"Nothing that can't be said after you get back." Hashirama said. Great, there was stuff to talk about after. "You and Mito can go."

With that, Naruto stood up and made his way towards the door with Mito giving a quick kiss to her husband, a kiss on the cheek to her son and hug to Tobirama before following Naruto out the door. The two made their way out the out of the Senju compound and before Naruto then began to lead Mito towards the Forest of Death. Halfway there, Mito apparently realised where they were going.

"Naruto," She said as she walked beside him. "Are we going to the Forest of Death?"

"Yes, why?" Naruto replied as he continued to stride forward.

"You do realise that it was called the Forest of Death for a reason right?" Mito asked.

"Yeah," Naruto said offhandedly. "Giant carnivorous creatures, met them, killed them."

"If you know that then why are we going there? Wouldn't you need a place without distractions to release the Kyūbi?"

"Yes I would, we're only going there so that we can leave Konoha without a fuss." Naruto explained.

"Why?" Mito asked. It was at that moment that Naruto swore that Hashirama was rubbing off on her. He stopped and turned to look at Mito with a blank expression on his face.

"I don't think that neither the citizens of Konoha nor the ninja would find getting assaulted by the bijū chakra that will be released when I open the seal pleasant." Naruto then turned back around and kept walking.

It was like that for several minutes as the two kept walking down the abandoned trail towards training ground forty-four. Naruto then asked a question as they neared the gates that caught Mito a bit by surprise.

"Why is this place abandoned? I understand that it's dangerous but that isn't a good enough reason for it." Naruto's question broke the silence that had surrounded the two. Mito looked at the training ground before answering Naruto's question.

"Originally, it was supposed to be a training ground to help simulate forest combat, but when Hashirama made the trees grow here he added too much chakra to the technique which caused chakra to saturate the area." Mito explained as she gestured to the large trees. "This caused rapid growth in everything within the forest boundaries, including the creatures. The area was abandoned after the jōnin, or elite ninja, found the forest too tough for their skills, occasionally a ninja will enter to try and prove themself but it usually results in them running out of the forest after an hour or two." Naruto nodded along with Mito's explanation as they approached the gate, as they did, Naruto jumped over the high fence with a chakra enhance leap, with Mito followed after him using chakra to run up one of the metal poles that held up the fence.

As Mito landed on the other side, she found Naruto giving her a hard look, like he was trying to figure something out, several seconds of silence resulted in Naruto asking a question just as Mito was getting uncomfortable.

"Will the Uzumaki get involved in the coming war?" The question caught Hashirama's wife off guard but she recovered quickly and answered Naruto.

"Yes, Konoha is their ally so the Uzumaki clan, or Uzushiogakure, will fight on the side of Konoha." Naruto raised an eyebrow at her answer.

"The Uzumaki clan have an entire hidden village made up of their clan members? I didn't know they had that many members."

"They don't," Mito replied. "The Uzumaki made alliances with several smaller clans that banded together to create Uzushio."

"And the reason that other Uzumaki are here is because of the coming war?" Naruto inquired regarding the other Uzumaki chakra signatures that he sensed yesterday when searching for Mito's.

"Partly," Mito said, starting to get a bit nervous. "In order to keep alliances strong, Konoha and Uzushio agreed to swap shinobi. Some Konoha shinobi go to Uzushio and some Uzushio shinobi got to Konoha." Mito paused for a moment before continuing but she was a bit hesitant. "Why are you so interested in the Uzumaki clan?"

"Every once or twice I got to the Uzumaki clan had help them with their process with seals or simply to see how they're doing. I like how they valued family over all and were peaceful, or at least they used to be peaceful." The last part Naruto muttered to himself. While he couldn't fault the Uzumaki, Naruto couldn't help but feel a burst of anger at the fact that the Uzumaki would be fighting in the pointless war. Though Naruto couldn't say that he wouldn't do the same in their position, if one of Naruto's friends were fighting in a war that they didn't start then Naruto would help them, it was for this reason that Naruto didn't know whether to feel proud of his descendants or ashamed. Proud for helping their allies in the face of potential war or ashamed for fighting in a war that was simply a bid for power.

"Let's get going." Naruto said, gesturing towards the forest. "We'll go in there for cover before I take us somewhere isolated." Mito nodded and the two of them walked into the tree line until gate and fence weren't visible. Naruto made a motion for Mito to get on his back, which she did after a bit of coaxing.

"Do I have to stay like this?" Mito complained from her position on his back. Naruto had to refrain himself from smacking head on something. Had people gotten stupider in the last millennium?

"Unless you'd rather we walk for a day or two." Naruto offered to Mito, though the Uzumaki could tell that Naruto was showing his annoyance and wisely kept quiet. "Like I thought."

Naruto then channelled sub-elemental chakra through his pathways, his body then being bathed in a yellowish glow as the advanced nature transformation took into affect. Mito watched open mouthed as Naruto's body glowed, having never seen something like this happen before, she was about to ask what was going on before Naruto offered her one last piece of advice.

"Hold on tight."

With a flash of yellow, they were both gone, with no evidence that they were even there to begin with.

XxXxXxXxX

When the world finally stopped spinning and her surroundings finally came into focus, Mito fell backwards, off Naruto's back, and onto the grass covered earth with a groan. Sitting up with her hands supporting her back, Mito took the opportunity to look around and maybe make sense of where Naruto had taken her.

The first thing that was obvious was that they were on a hill, surrounded by forest in all directions with several rivers that snaked off in several directions around her. Konoha wasn't visible in any direction that Mito looked, the familiar Hokage Monument not even a speck on the horizon, this unsettled Mito as the Uzumaki had come to find the atmosphere of Konoha comfortable since she had first visited after she had married Hashirama.

Turning back to Naruto, she found the ancient man looking around at the forest below with a critical eye, most likely sensing to see if there were any people or animals that might interfere with the unsealing of the Kyūbi. When Naruto turned to look at Mito he gave her a nod.

"Good, you're up. You should get started, start performing your most draining techniques to empty your coils then we can begin." He said, not wasting any time on idle chit-chat. Mito, however, didn't feel the same way.

"Hang on a minute, what was that? What did you just do to transport us here, and where is here?" Mito's questioned irritated Naruto more than she'd ever realise, the man just wanted to unseal Kurama and then hurry up and spend as long as he had to in Konoha's walls, train whoever he had to train and then leave. If people were going to keep asking questions every step of the way, Naruto was going to get incredibly irritated.

"I just used one of my abilities to transport us to an isolated spot in the Land of Rivers, far from any civilisation. Now if you don't have any more questions could you please start emptying your chakra coils." Naruto's thinly veiled annoyance dawned on Mito and she moved over to the other side of the hill before she started firing off the most chakra draining jutsus she knew.

Being an Uzumaki, Mito had incredibly large reserves. Being the jinchūriki of the Kyūbi made those reserves even larger, if she was simply firing off the average B to A rank jutsus she knew, it would take a while before she started to fell drained. However, if she fired off several of her clan's original jutsu, it should drain her within several minutes of performing each technique.

Uzumaki, considering that they had such large reserves, never really paid attention to how much chakra is used in every attack they do as the majority of Uzumaki can go on for hours casting jutsu that would leave other ninja drained in minutes. Their own, clan made, jutsu reflected this, consisting of many chakra heavy techniques that could cripple any lesser ninja.

It was now that Mito was thanking her clan and their chakra taxing jutsu as she fired several balls of water from her mouth into the sky. While many of the jutsu that originated from the Uzumaki appeared to be the same as the techniques they were based off, there were differences that only showed themselves when you were being hit by one.

With Uzumaki techniques, the water used was far more condensed, the fire was much hotter than other fire jutsu, rock techniques were more solid, wind jutsu were thinner which allowed for sharper cuts and lightning attacks were fast and stronger than their originals. Of course the trade off with these techniques was that they were more chakra heavy, but that mattered little to the Uzumaki clan.

Firing fūton jutsus into the air at a rapid pace, Mito felt her chakra start to drain as multiple, chakra heavy attacks started to takes its toll on her body. Shooting off another two jutsu in quick succession and Mito felt her chakra levels drop lower.

It took almost two dozen more jutsu but Mito finally brought her chakra levels to the point where she was running on empty. Turning around to face Naruto, she had enough time ponder why she didn't see him when she felt something collide with the back of her neck, causing her world to turn black.

As Mito's unconscious body hit the floor, Naruto simply looked at her downed form and felt a fair amount of satisfaction.

"Can't say that I haven't wanted to do that." Naruto murmured to himself. "At least now I can say that we're partly even, as long as you don't seal any other bijū away." Wanting to begin the unsealing now, Naruto dropped to his knees before rolling Mito over onto her back before opening her kimono, exposing Mito's stomach to the world. Channelling a bit of chakra on her stomach, Naruto let out a grunt at the sight of the seal that became visible. Naruto channelled a bit of chakra into his arm that contained miniaturised storage scrolls on his skin, a puff of smoke signalled that Naruto's sealing supplies, or more specifically, his brush and ink had been released from the sealing matrix. Grabbing both items, Naruto then began to draw rapidly over the exposed skin, various symbols that would be nothing more than gibberish to more than a hundred or so people.

Any other fūinjutsu specialist would take hours, possible more, to undo the seal that Mito placed on herself. When she placed it on herself she must have intended to either take the Kyūbi with her when she died, a stupid idea considering that it would simply escape as soon as the seal died, or for herself to be the only one to undo the seal in the first place. This mattered little to Naruto as compared to him, Mito was but a child, this went for sealing prowess as well, while Mito may have been a prodigy in sealing in her clan, Naruto had over three millennia to refine his fūinjutsu skills.

It took Naruto all of thirty minutes to draw up the counter-seal on Mito's stomach. Once he had finished drawing up the seal, Naruto then placed his brush and inkwell back into the storage matrix from which they came before he took a breath to centre himself. He had never done anything like this before, sure he had done far more dangerous things, but what he was doing now specifically? No, this was a first for Naruto.

What Naruto was about to do was actually several things at once, but essentially he was going to heal Mito at a faster pace than she was damaged by the removal of Kurama's chakra using what shinobi would call, a kekkei tōta. Using the combinations of Yin, Yang and Water and Yin, Yang and Earth, or the kekkei tōta Kenton (Health Release) and Kūton (Flesh Release), in conjunction with his own healing ability, Naruto hoped to be able to keep Mito in prime condition as he extracted Kurama, or at least keep her alive until he had extracted all of the Kyūbi and then heal her completely afterwards. Unfortunately, this wouldn't block out the pain that she would feel, dull it perhaps, but she would still feel pain, so Naruto knocked her out to help her cope.

Beginning the task, Naruto placed his hands on top of the seal that Mito used to hold back Kurama, as well as the counter seal and channelled chakra through the counter-seal. Immediately, both seals lit but in a bright blue, before both seals appeared to merge together, this is what Naruto wanted. Channelling Kenton, Kūton and his own medical chakra, Naruto began to heal the damage the slow removal of Kurama's chakra began to create in Mito's body.

As if on cue, Mito's back arched and her eyes flew open in pain. Naruto knew that her screams were most likely carrying for kilometres, unconsciousness doing nothing to help dampen the pain like Naruto thought. As Mito's body began to spasm in pain, Naruto summoned chakra chains from his body that emerged from the ground, wrapping around the limbs of the convulsing jinchūriki and restraining her against the earth so that Naruto could do his job. This did nothing to stop Mito's screams of agony as chakra was forced around her pathways before being extracted, if it wasn't for Naruto's healing ability and the Uzumaki having such a strong body and life force, Mito's body would have given up almost instantly.

Kurama's chakra began to emerge in the form of a fine red mist that slowly began to gain density as more of the chakra was released. Naruto saw that the damage caused by the extraction of Kurama was being healed almost instantly and began to up the rate at which the chakra was removed, drawing the bijū chakra out faster. The effect was immediately visible, the blob of red chakra that was gaining density did so at a faster rate and Mito's screams became more pain filled and louder, the increased rate of extraction causing Mito greater pain.

Naruto gritted his teeth as Mito's screams of pain were getting louder, her constant screaming and the feeling given off by bijū chakra was sure to attract attention, the oppressive feeling given off by the bijū couldn't be changed, it was something that would affect all beings in an area with the exception of him, Mito's screams, however, could be silenced. Increasing the extraction rate again, Naruto hoped his plan worked as Mito's screams increased in volume. Inside the head of the jinchūriki, Mito's mind began to register that the pain wouldn't stop anytime soon and that the signals sent by the nerves weren't going to stop and so, in the interest of preserving Mito's sanity, it made her lose consciousness and placed her in a mild coma.

In the outside world, Mito's body suddenly went slack, the thrashing and convulsing stopped as the brain stopped sending messages to the rest of the body other than the most vital organs. Naruto was at first worried that Mito's heart had given out from the pain or that her brain had shut down completely, however, his own medical chakra told him that Mito was still alive and that her brain had sent her into a coma, which was partially what Naruto was aiming for. He would be able to wake Mito up from it eventually but right now, it served its purpose in keeping Mito from feeling any more pain. Checking again at how much damage was being done to Mito's body, he found that once again, the combination of the three chakras was more than enough to prevent Mito's body from being damaged.

Wanting to speed this up even more, Naruto increased the rate of extraction again, already the amount of Kurama's chakra removed from Mito was reaching nearly fifty percent, so it was only a matter of time before the rest of it was removed and only an hour or two had passed since the start of the extraction.

However, it appeared that Naruto wasn't going to be able to finish the unsealing without interruption, as several chakra signatures appeared at the edge of his senses and began to move inward, towards Naruto's position. Naruto had to suppress a growl of irritation, they were most likely from the small hidden village that had taken up residence in the Land of Rivers, Tanki-or something or other. Naruto didn't really care, what did matter was the reason they were coming this way, they were most likely drawn to the feeling that Kurama's chakra gave off, thinking that it was a bijū that was missed and saw this as their opportunity to attempt to seal one way. Not that Naruto would let them, even if they actually could. The seal 'masters' in this squad of ninja were most likely making the same mistake as Mito had and didn't actually have the necessary skills to seal Kurama away.

Naruto focused back on Mito and keeping her alive, the deal had been that Mito was to be alive by the end of the sealing and he didn't think that a bunch of ninja attacking him mid-way through was a good enough excuse as to why Mito died. He was the brother of the 'Sage of Six Paths' after all.

It took barely an hour for the several signatures to reach his position on the top of hill, by that time, Naruto was wondering why people thought ninjas were so powerful, he could have travelled the exact same distance in less time than them. Naruto lazily raised an eye from his task to observe them as they appeared in front of him, several meters away.

The approaching shinobi wore amour similar to the kind worn by Konoha shinobi with long black pants that were tapped around the thighs where weapon pouches were placed. All of the seven shinobi that appeared where in their late twenties, early thirties from the looks of it, meaning that they were most likely the elite ninja of their village which only enforced Naruto's guess that they were here for the bijū that he was releasing. All in all, they looked incredibly similar to Konoha shinobi, with the only noticeable difference being the symbol on their forehead protectors, which, instead of being a leaf shape like Naruto had seen in Konoha, looked like a crude drawing of a house with two lines above it, showing their allegiance to the hidden village of the Land of Rivers.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" The man, who Naruto could only assume was the leader, said to him in what was supposed to be a demanding voice but the presence of Kurama's ever growing chakra seemed to take the wind out of his sails.

"Oh, nothing." Naruto said offhandedly. "Just minding my own business, but really I should be asking you that, after all I was here first." Naruto's focus was mostly on Mito right now, he was so close to removing all of Kurama's chakra that he could taste the finish.

"We are here to take that bijū for our village," Announced one of the ninja behind the 'leader', the one seemed to have the arrogance of a noble. "And nothing you do will be able to stop us." Naruto raised an eyebrow at the arrogance of the ninja, not that any of them saw it with Naruto's head facing Mito as he continued to extract Kurama. It appeared that there were about to be several less ninja in the Land of Rivers. He would not let anyone enslave his family again.

"Well then I'll have to kill you." Naruto said without looking up. A wall of earth formed out of the ground and made a barrier between Naruto and Mito and the ninja after Kurama. However, Naruto was correct when he guessed that the shinobi that were confronting him were the elites as they reacted immediately, all of them diving out of the way in case of a counter attack before four fired off wordless water jutsu, Naruto didn't really know what it was called, only that it condensed water into a ball before firing it out of the user's mouth.

The balls of water did nothing other than dissipate against the wall of earth before Naruto responded with small pellets of earth that shot out of the earthen wall that protected him. The pellets moved at high speed and were made of condensed rock to help penetrate objects, two of the ninja were killed immediately, a pellet straight through the head for a quick death, another was hit in the neck, he would bleed out within the minute. The other four managed to avoid the projectiles of condensed rock, their experience telling them a second earlier than their comrades allowing the, to escape the projectiles.

It was once again thanks to their experience that the four remaining shinobi managed to avoid the spears of earth that erupted from the ground in front of them, all of spears poised to kill the targets. Naruto wasn't exactly trying very hard to kill them, he knew that they would never have a chance at taking Kurama, he had all of them in range of his senses so there was no where they could hide from him. Naruto simply figured that Kurama might need someone to take out his anger on since Naruto couldn't let Nine-Tails take it out Mito, however, Naruto had no reservations with the four surviving ninja that were currently dodging earth spears from the ground.

"Damn it, Hiroku." The 'leader' swore. "Do something about these spears." The leader was apparently getting angry about not getting anywhere.

"On it boss." Hiroku said. The elite ninja avoided a spear and went through several hand-seals before slamming both hands onto the ground. "Earth Release: Earth Shaking Palm." The ground shook as the jutsu tore into the earth, upturning earth and destroying the land around the centre of the technique. The jutsu forced Naruto to drop his earth wall and focus on keeping the earth around his position stable, which although wasn't hard to do, was quite annoying for Naruto.

But as he focused on Mito again, Naruto broke into a smile, the last of Kurama's chakra was finally draining out of Mito. Naruto stopped healing Mito and watched as the last of the chakra drained out of Mito and into the now incredibly large blob of chakra that began to take shape into the infamous Nine-Tailed Fox. He could idly feel the ninja behind him beginning to panic at Kurama being free, most likely because he killed their seals expert with the rock pellets, just because he was confident that they wouldn't seal Kurama didn't mean that Naruto was going to take any chances. With a flick of his finger, a set of earthen pillars sprouted from the ground, slamming into the ground with speed that elite ninja couldn't predict, launching them way from Naruto and the released bijū. Kurama could find them later.

Finally, Naruto saw Kurama's head take form, along with his legs and tails, meaning that Kurama was finally free. Naruto couldn't force the smile off his face as he looked upon the strongest of the bijū, who was currently inspecting his body. "It's good to see you free Kurama." Naruto said to the Kyūbi, causing the bijū to pause in its inspection of its body and turn to Naruto. Naruto didn't honestly wonder how Kurama would react now that he was out of Mito, but whatever it was, Naruto was sure that he would most likely deserve it.

Kurama looked at Naruto with an unreadable expression before it broke into a small smile in his features which looked quite menacing on his features. "Thank you Naruto. You kept your promise." Even when he was talking in a kind voice, Kurama's voice sounded incredible deep, a side effect from being so large.

Naruto's smile turned sad. "I shouldn't have had to make that promise in the first place Kurama, you should have never been sealed in the first place." Naruto shook his head in self-loathing. "It is a mistake that I will carry with me for the rest of my life."

"While that may be true and I will hold you to that for while," Kurama grumbled, his eyes narrowing in anger at the reminder, that quickly turned back into a slight smile, though Naruto could see that it was slightly forced. "But you still kept your promise and freed me. I thank you for that," Here, Kurama's smile stretched that little bit wider and looked real, unlike before. "Uncle."

Naruto's face gained a tick mark and Kurama began to release a booming laugh at the facial expression. "What is it with you bijū and calling me uncle?" Naruto growled in faux annoyance. While the name was annoying, Naruto couldn't deny that he like being called uncle almost as much as he like being called father.

"Because we like the reactions," Kurama grinned at Naruto before his smile turned slightly sad. "And because I want to say it one last time before I leave." Naruto's head dropped forward at Kurama's words, he knew that the bijū would go into isolation, it's what Kurama did when something bad happened. It's what he did after Hagoromo died.

"Just," Naruto paused for second wondering if he was just wasting breath before he decided that it was better to be rejected then not ask at all. "Just promise that you'll visit me one day," Naruto asked. "You don't have to agree but just think about it."

"I will think about it," Kurama promised before he began growling. "In the mean time, I need to go find some stuff to destroy." At this, Naruto let out a little smirk.

"There are some people down the hill that thought they could seal you, you can destroy them as much as you want. Just remember to find a good place to rest afterwards."

"Yes mother." Kurama shot back as he leapt at the now retreating ninja. "Come back, I only want to play, I won't rip you limb from limb at all." The Nine-Tails footsteps shook the earth and only made the ninja run faster.

Naruto could watch with a small smile as Kurama ran off after the ninja, he was happy that Kurama was now free, he felt like a massive weight was lifted off his shoulders. Turning back to Mito, he picked her up bridle style before giving on last look at the rampaging Kurama before turning back to look at Mito's face, it was quite hard to forget that she was in a coma, he would he to rectify that when he got back to Konoha.

"Time to leave." He murmured before both himself and Mito vanished into flash of yellow, the both of them returning to Konoha.

If Naruto had stayed a little longer, he would have seen Kurama turn back too look at the hill that Naruto was just on. 'I'll see you again Naruto, just don't do anything stupid in the mean time.' With that he went back to chasing those ninja, a sadistic grin on his face the entire time.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Chapter End

That was quite a hard chapter to write and it was slightly shorter than my previous one. As always, like, review, and follow.

Any questions can be sent in a PM.

For information about the chakra natures mention in this chapter (Kenton and Kūton) go to the following website:

wiki/User:Omnibender/Elemental_recomposition_table

As to how Naruto moved so fast with Mito, he was using Swift Release.

Remember to review. I'll try and have the next chapter out within two weeks. It will most likely contain interaction with Hiruzen and his teammates and the beginning of the First Shinobi War.

The Right Stop