Disclaimer: I don't own what I don't own.
A/N: Our chapter today is a tad longer than usual, somewhere around 25% more. Some of the overarching plot begins to come into play in this chapter, and I just had to give it a little extra love.
Pour a little out for Hellblazer, which concludes its original run today with its 300th issue. It's getting ported to the "New 52" under the title Constantine, but I have my doubts on how well they'll treat the book.
As usual, thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows.
Enjoy.
Papers crinkled and shuffled as Naruto shifted in his bed. He'd been confined to the hospital for a week, even though he was essentially healed the day he woke up. The only thing that had taken more time was his chakra network. Since they had him trapped in one place for an extended period of time, Guren and Tsunade had dropped all the sealing work they could on him. Guren's work he could easily deal with, she only needed single, specific seals because he'd bolstered her reserves of the regulars before the exam finals had begun, but Tsunade's work was much more intensive, both physically and in terms of research. It irked him a little, Guren probably didn't know, but Tsunade definitely knew that he had to work on isolating the accidental connection he'd created between Anko and himself.
Maybe I should take up wearing glasses over my blindfold. It just feels right with all the paperwork they're making me do, and it would just be amusing. Once he'd had a moment to think about it, he'd realized what a poor decision it was to try to use that medical seal on Anko. It wasn't that he didn't want her healed, or that he even cared about the new set of scars he was sporting; it was just really stupid to try and hand draw a seal in that situation. Well, I'll only have to look in a mirror to remind myself not to make stupid decisions I suppose.
The seal, correctly drawn, was supposed to draw and filter his chakra so that the recipient could use his regenerative chakra like their own. His messed up version seemed to have taken all the energy from his body, specifically where Anko had been injured; it essentially transferred all her injuries to him as his cells died, leaving him with lines of necrotic tissue all over his body. Kurama had used what freedom Naruto gave him to destroy those cells immediately, which left him in just as bad a state as Anko.
A shadow clone poofed into existence next to his bed with only the smallest amount of pain in his chakra network. The annoying thing was that the more he used chakra the quicker his pathways would heal, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell when he started pushing it through just after the accident. His doppelganger cleaned all the papers off his bed and sealed them into a scroll sitting on the end table.
The door to his room clicked open, and Anko entered. "Perfect timing Ko-chan," Naruto greeted as his clone disappeared. "Get assigned to do anything fun this morning?"
"Tch, no," she replied tersely. Naruto's bed protested with a small squeak as Anko clambered onto it. She made herself comfortable by lowering the back of the bed and burrowing under the blankets to snuggle up next to him. "Everyone chunin and below is getting tasked with the rebuilding, so they made me pull guard duty."
"Oh? Guess I'm the lucky one then, all I need is a hundred memories of moving rubble or building fences." Anko remained silent, and Naruto mentally berated himself. For the first few days Anko hadn't been able to look at him without watery eyes and a wince, and he had to go and remind her of why he was in the hospital. She'd told him the entire story the first night he'd been conscious. Apparently, she sought out Orochimaru and was outclassed except for a small advantage when he tried to activate her curse seal and nothing happened. After that, it had been nearly all swordplay, and as awesome as Naruto's trench coat had been, it couldn't stand up against the assault of a Sannin for long. The only reason she was alive when Naruto arrived was because Itachi intervened and moved the battle elsewhere.
"Anko, we've been over this," he said tiredly. "I saved you at the cost of pain and a few beauty marks, that's a trade I'll make all day. Just forget about it."
"No!" she practically yelled. "It was... No one's ever done anything like that for me before. I'm not just going to forget it," Anko promised.
"Alright, then lavish me with your praise, and by 'praise', I mean 'medicinal blow jobs'."
"So what would you call the ones I've been giving you?" she wondered.
"Damn, you're right. I guess I wasted my reward," Naruto grinned.
Anko sighed, "That was terrible. Why am I the only one who has to hear shit like that?"
"Just one of the perks, Love."
"Whatever, the nurse at the front desk said you get to get out of here this afternoon," Naruto whooped, interrupting her. "So, let's take a quick nap, then we'll get you out of here and grab some real food." His arm tightened around her as his thoughts ground down. Truthfully, he had been relieved when Anko still wanted to see him. There were so many variables to take into account that he'd let the scared little kid inside of him inject doubt. He doubted he'd ever be getting rid of it, but it felt incredibly nice every time his trust in her was reaffirmed; so, maybe he could deal with it.
"I just got out of the hospital you know," Naruto pointed out, annoyed. He'd only gotten a single night at home before he'd been called to the Hokage's office.
"If I recall correctly, you were trying everything you could to get out before now, so that argument isn't carrying a lot of weight with me right now. Besides, you're the one who opened negotiations with them in the first place, without my authorization I might add," Tsunade argued.
He sighed, "Why isn't Anko here? She's the team leader."
"I already talked with her about it while you were indisposed."
"And she couldn't tell me about it?"
"I wanted to see you before you had to leave," she admitted. "I also wanted to get some ideas from you, so I could get a birthday present together for you by the time you get back."
Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, "Sorry for being snippy. It's just that I don't enjoy the idea of spending my birthday in a simultaneously cold and incredibly humid place." He tapped his chin with a finger, "Your present could be telling me what Orochimaru was doing here during the invasion."
"He tried to get his hands on Sasuke again. Thankfully, Anko distracted him long enough for Itachi to take over," she explained. Naruto's anger peaked during her explanation. Anko's fight was just a distraction? She could have died! He took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Ah, I didn't mean it like that," she appended.
"I know. So, who's coming with us?"
"Shikamaru Nara, Hana Inuzuka, and Yugao Uzuki. You're leaving in three days."
Naruto laid on the roof of the guard post at the gates. The sun was barely up, and the structure was cooling his back nicely. Myriad thoughts ran through his head, there were so many loose ends he dealt with to prepare for his departure in an hour or two. Karin had proven herself competent medical personnel during the invasion, Tsunade had let him know that she would taking her on as an apprentice immediately. He'd dropped two scrolls off with Guren, one contained an enormous amount of her regular seals, and the other high powered shadow clones; they were for any back up of special orders, or if she just needed to talk. Kurenai had understood, being a ninja long enough to become a jonin. His thoughts trailed off.
Did I really only need to inform three people about my leaving? I guess five if you add in Tsunade and Anko. God, that's depressing. He stopped that train of thought there. Wait a minute, Anko, Kurenai, Tsunade, Karen, and Guren. Why are they all women? I don't think I'm friends with any males. The closest would be, what, like Sasori or Itachi? Even more depressing. Alright! It's time to make some dude friends.
Once he thought of Sasori, his mind turned to the scroll, and the hastily scribbled note, he'd found in his lab when he went to seal everything up for the trip. Sasori praised his performance, but lamented the lack of puppetry. The scroll contained the instructions on how to make human puppets. Naruto hadn't made it past the very beginning, because he wasn't sure he would be able to not use it. With his use of shadow clones, puppetry's greatest weakness, the fact that you had to tie up your hands to control them, was eliminated. As it was, there wasn't a real reason to use full sized puppets, since his clones could do a better job, aside from their durability. But puppets that had chakra networks, and possible Kekkei Genkai on top of that, would be worth his trouble.
Kurama, you up in there? After he didn't receive a reply after a few minutes, he let it drop. Recently, the Biju had been sleeping more and more, but he didn't have anything concrete on why. He'd wanted to run the idea of Kurama occupying a human puppet as a middle step in releasing him.
Someone landed next to him on the roof. His newly opened eyes recovered from the glare just in time to catch Anko leaning over him.
"You're hanging out of your new coat there, Love."
"Nothin' you haven't seen," she said, cupping breasts only covered by chakra armor mesh. He'd finished an upgraded coat for her after the end of his hospital stay and lots of clone hours. Guren and her engineer had also been nice enough to upgrade her mesh armor before he sealed that too.
"True, but I don't think we have time to fuck before everyone else gets here."
She slunk down, so she was lying across his chest. One hand pulled down his mask, so her tongue could trace his jawline; the other was snaking its way under his belt as she asked throatily, "Wanna race the clock?"
"As much as we're all interested in hearing your activities, we should probably get ready to leave," a voice said from the ground. Naruto wrapped an arm around Anko and used careful wind chakra expulsion to flip them off the roof.
"Let's do it again!" Anko squealed.
Naruto coughed, "How about we do a quick introduction?"
A woman with long, straight, purple hair and a sword on her back began, "Yugao Uzuki, kenjutsu, fire natured." She wore the standard ANBU attire, gray armor over tight black clothing.
"Shikamaru Nara, thinking, shadows."
"Hana Inuzuka, medic, clan techniques."
"Anko Mitarashi, dango, Whiskers-chan," she said, wrapping her arms around Naruto's neck just before she jumped off the ground. He, by dint of not wishing to topple forward onto the ground, caught her in a princess carry. "This is Whiskers-chan, he's smart, sexy, and he will probably be filling all my holes up every night for the duration of this mission. So, this is my formal invitation for all of you to feel free to join us anytime! Even Lazy-kun!"
"Even Shikamaru?" Naruto wondered absently. Everyone seemed to have been previously inoculated with Anko's personality, so none of them reacted beyond a raised eyebrow or a slightly more open mouth.
"A hole's a hole right?" she chirped as she set her feet back on the ground.
"I guess?" Naruto sighed. Sometimes Anko's boisterous, overly sexual persona got on even his nerves. He felt a little guilty every time, but he supposed it was expected. No one ever got along perfectly right? The varied sexual adventures did do a little to salve that at least. "Naruto Uzumaki, ninjutsu, sealing," he introduced. "Who's lead on this by the way?" Everyone's gazes centered firmly and disturbingly on him. "Seriously?"
"I think Tsunade said something to the effect of 'He started it, it's his problem' and then something about leadership skills," Anko informed cheerfully.
"Awesome," he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright, let's get out of here then." As they began to leap through the trees toward their destination, Naruto caught a signal from Anko to hold back.
After taking the rearguard and letting the other gain a little distance, she cleared her throat, "Sorry."
"It's alright Ko-chan. If it was a big deal I would've mentioned it." Naruto absently wondered if anything he did annoyed her. Maybe when he got excited about a jutsu? It worried him slightly that she never really spoke out about that sort of thing. "Just make sure you tell me if you've got something to get off your chest, okay?"
After a few days of travel, they'd found the abandoned island that was to the north and west of Wave. They followed the course of a river through forested hills and finally came upon the ruins. A valley was dominated by the stone ruins, ruins that appeared to be the remnants of extremely tall buildings. As they reached the edge of the village proper, Naruto ran his fingertips over the swirl engraved into a partially collapsed pillar. Tsunade's true birthday present. Their orders were to construct an outpost so funneling materiel to the rebels would be that much easier. Of course, she'd suggested that the island might make a good place for it, and she'd even made him team leader.
I'm going to have to find some way to thank her when we get back. The chance to explore his ancestral home and even the possibility of restoring some portion of it, were things that he had no idea how to repay. "Alright, let's sweep the ruins and find a good place to bed down for tonight." He doubted very much that there was anyone on the island, it was a little high profile for a base that wasn't sponsored by a hidden village, and it seemed like a poor decision to use it if you weren't from Konoha. Naruto wasn't really sure where the property sat at present in terms of ownership, but Konoha had been the last ally of Uzushio before its destruction and seemed to retain a sense of obligation towards it. At least, the Uzumaki swirl was still present on the majority of flak jackets.
The next morning, the group sat just inside the tree line on the eastern side of the island. They were supposed to be receiving a group to "liaison" between themselves and the rebel forces, it wouldn't do the rebels much good if Konoha couldn't deliver the right stuff he supposed.
A skiff slowly floated out of the mist blanketing the water. Four figures stood in boat. Two he knew, Haku and Zabuza were dressed the same as when he saw them during the finals, but the others were a mystery. At the prow of the vessel was a slender woman with striking red hair held in a top knot. She wore a blue dress over a mesh top, and as they got closer, he could see hair trailing down her back all the way to her waist—not to mention the dress showing some impressive cleavage. He wasn't looking forward to all the comments Anko was going to make. Next to her stood a man with blue hair styled up into a point. Paper tags hung from his ears, and a patch sat over his right eye.
One of Naruto's clones walked out of the trees to wait along the coastline. As the skiff grew closer, it waded out into the water to guide the boat to the shore. The bottom of the vessel scraped up onto the rock strewn beach. Naruto's group walked out of the trees just in time for him to offer a hand to the red head as she was disembarking.
"Well, it's always nice to meet a gentleman when one has to do these things," she commented, with a bit of a purr.
"My pleasure Miss."
"How about we go somewhere a little more comfortable to discuss our relationship?" the red head suggested.
"My, my, I find you remind me of someone," Naruto said while they walked toward the Konoha group. He wasn't looking forward to having her and Anko together, at least she used double entendres instead of being explicit about it. "How about we move to the staging area?" he proposed when they joined the others. The walk into the woods was quiet and tense, presumably the Kiri ninja were worried about an ambush. Only five minutes passed before they walked into a small clearing where a table and chairs were set up under a tent.
Naruto very much wanted to tune out, but since Tsunade had given him the double edged sword of leadership, he felt obligated to smooth the process along.
"I don't suppose you'd happen to know if you have any Uzumaki in you?" Naruto asked the red head after everyone was seated.
"The name's Mei Terumi, and I'm not sure..." she trailed off.
"Would you like some?" Anko quipped.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, I guess I walked right into that one. "Naruto Uzumaki. Trench coat is Anko Mitarashi, straight hair is Yugao Uzuki, face tattoos is Hana Inuzuka, and pineapple head is Shikamaru Nara."
"Oh, I think I can get behind that game," Mei responded cheerfully. "Eye patch is Ao, no brows is Zabuza Momochi, and pretty boy is Haku."
"So now that we've gotten that out of the way, who's liaising and what do we have to order?"
"I would've liked to leave Zabuza here with you, but I fear he would be underutilized," Mei explained. "I think Haku would be a better fit." Ao reached into a pouch and handed a sealed scroll across the table. "Our requests. Also, I'm told you're a seal master."
"I'm a reasonable facsimile."
"Good. I've left Haku with a list of things to talk with you about. You know, explore some possibilities." Naruto nodded to the young man. "Unfortunately, we'll have to cut this short," Mei informed them, rising from her seat. "As much as I'd like to explore the possibilities of the Uzumaki, I fear we'll be missed if we linger here too long. Haku will keep in touch with us."
"Sorry we couldn't accommodate you further, please be careful on your return trip," Naruto bowed as they left the clearing. He viewed it as a sign of trust that they didn't escort them back off the island. Of course, that didn't mean that there weren't shadow clones henged as animals randomly observing. "Well, that wasn't awkward or anything." The chair creaked as he slumped into it. "Hey Haku, how've you been these last, what, two weeks?"
"It's been quite hectic. Though, I'm glad to see you have recovered Naruto-san," he said politely.
"Thanks. So Anko-chan, do you happen to have a summon that can get to the Hokage with this?"
"Hmm," she groped her chin with a hand, "Water or land is easy, but the two together not so much."
"Don't worry about it, I'll just send a clone." One poofed into existence next to him. He tossed the sealed scroll, and four more strips of paper he pulled out of his hip pouch. The clone nodded, changed his clothes to camouflage as much as he could, and sprinted off in the direction of Konoha. "Chakra storage seals, never leave home without 'em. Also not a bad way to heal your chakra network if you have to run chakra through to do it." Hopefully his chakra control would be maintained, or even get a nice little boost, when his clone water walked all the way to the mainland.
Two weeks later, Naruto walked through a corridor covered in dust and cobwebs. The door to the outside had grated open when he swiped his blood over the Uzumaki swirl carved into the center of it. After a few dozen feet, the stone corridor turned into a spiral staircase. There were no built into light fixtures, the only way he could see through the darkness was the small flame sitting on the palm of his hand. He didn't know how long it took to descend into the infinite darkness, but he soon started counting steps. The deeper he went, the more dense the musty air got. When he came upon the landing, his count stood at two-thousand one-hundred and ninety-seven.
Another short, darkened hallway lead him to a thick, metal banded, wooden door. His hand wrapped around the handle and quickly retracted, throwing a stream of red droplets against the wall and floor. Naruto cursed the thing, but he stopped as the door creaked open on its own. Another blood seal? How paranoid were these people? The room beyond the doorway was dark as well, but as soon as he passed over the threshold, seals lit up all over the floor and ceiling.
His jaw nearly unhinged as his head craned upwards. Eight levels of nearly twenty foot tall bookcases ran a ring all the way around the octagonal room. Each side had to be at least forty feet long, and every piece of bookshelf visible from the bottom floor was filled. I wonder why there weren't more blood seals. The bottom level's walls were packed with sundry items: weapons, scrolls, armor, and precious metals and gems. In the center of the room, four translucent, crystal obelisks sat at the corners of a raised, stone dais. At the center of the square platform was a large, irregular chunk of crystal.
He walked slowly up the stairs. The platform was only raised a few feet off the ground. As he approached an obelisk, he could make out incredibly small engravings. They were so small and dense that the clear crystal only appeared translucent from a distance. Seals? What in the hell takes this many seals? Another obelisk showed nearly the same kinds of seals. Four points... Maybe a barrier?
The more he looked at the center crystal, the more it started to look like a flame. It was only two-dimensional, but the sheet was still nearly a foot thick. However, the main attraction for him was the enormous swirl carved into the front. More seals were carved into the bottom of the channel that made up the swirl. What the hell is this? Some sort of plaque wouldn't have gone amiss. Sixteen shadow clones popped into existence, and each took up studying a side of an obelisk.
Some time later the clones disappeared. Fuck, did they just run out of chakra? He staggered back from the center crystal slightly as he was barraged with information. Space-time seals? Around two hours of studying gave him barely anything solid. All the obelisks appeared to have slightly different, giant, space-time sealing arrays. As far as he could tell, the flame crystal was the controller and power source. For the arrays that he saw, though, a massive power source would be required. It made him wonder exactly what type of energy the crystal harnessed or contained. I should get back. Before he left, he made one more clone to the touch the center crystal as he stood in the doorway. The clone disappeared. Naruto didn't receive any memories, and his blood ran just a little cold. Great idea Naruto! Just go around molesting the incredibly complex sealing arrays.
He didn't count steps on the way back up. Anko was relatively easy to find, even with their joining seal locked, Naruto could still suss out her general direction. It didn't seem like he'd get around to finding a way to remove it anytime soon after his discovery. Thirty clones had stayed in the room to peruse the books, and that put him in a volatile position. Keeping his chakra levels fairly high was a necessity, just in case Yagura's men found them.
"Hey," Anko greeted casually. She apparently had decided to take her dango to eat while reclining in a tree.
"We need to talk alone."Anko's expression immediately shifted from carefree to concerned, and she jumped down as Naruto set up a privacy barrier. The discoveries he'd made, the questions he had, they all came spilling out in a torrent. She gamely remained quiet until he'd exhausted his energy in the explanation, but his mind was still sprinting and splitting down random tangents. Not to mention the frantic energy he was exuding.
"Naruto," she said, settling her hands on his shoulders. Anko yanked him down, and pressed her lips against his. Her tongue slipped into his mouth, and they enjoyed each other for a few minutes. Pulling away, she asked, "How do you feel now?"
"Better."
"You just needed to calm down." She patted him on the chest, "You know I'm with you for anything you want to do. Just be careful."
"Thanks, Love."
"If you really want to blow off some steam, I think I've got an idea." Anko's hands were clasped behind her back, showcasing her not unexceptional bust as she leaned forward.
"And what's that?"
"Well, it would really turn me on to watch you dominate Trap-kun," she purred.
"Dominate him?"
"Get a little rough with him, make him deep throat your cock, just hammer into him relentlessly while he eats my pussy."
"I didn't know you were into boys' love Anko-chan," Naruto teased. Can I really do that?I guess, I should really be asking myself, how will I feel about doing that?
"Not particularly. I'm not sure why, but watching you stretch mouths and throats and feeling them moan into my pussy as you fill them up..." she practically shivered and let out a little moan. "So, I wanted to try it with a guy. I know you haven't tried a guy before, so I figured we could start out with a real twink."
"This is something you really want, huh?"
"I don't want to pressure you, 'cause then it wouldn't be fun, but Haku looks like a girl. Plus, you get to watch me while you fuck him, and I think the only thing that would be different than fucking my ass, would be that you get to go doggy style and see my tits at the same time."
"Convince him and we'll do it." He couldn't say no. There was some amount of obligation there, but even if there wasn't, it was something she'd explicitly asked him for. She never explicitly asked him for anything. Well, maybe dango and sake, but he'd been enjoying the fruits of her open mentality, so if she really wanted to expand their sexual horizons, who was he to deny it? Maybe they could do it mostly clothed? The blow job wasn't worrying, Haku's face was extremely effeminate, but there was a difference between the body of a male and female, in the hips especially. I should just quit worrying. I told her I would do it, so I'll do it. I could always end up enjoying it, right?
"How do you feel now?"
"Huh?" Then the realization hit him, "Oh, that was sneaky." He'd completely forgotten about anything that wasn't a potential, impending, two male threesome. Maintaining his composure around the library and weird crystal would be a challenge, but it was necessary. They didn't have the safety net of Konoha to fall back on while they were at the outpost. "So, do you really want to do that?"
"I'd like to, if you think you can handle it."
"If it's Haku, I can probably power through for you, even if I find it not to my liking, so go ahead and try to get it going, Love."
"Awesome, how about a nooner?"
A little over a week later, Naruto sat at a table in one of the temporary houses his clones had constructed. Five sticks of dango were stacked in front of him. They were part of his birthday present from Anko. She sat across from him, her elbows propped up on the table and her head resting in her hands. He bit into one and pulled it off the stick. Chewing slowly, he drew out the process for as long as he could.
"They're delicious," Naruto smiled. She'd asked him what he wanted, and his half joking answer was simply: something that she'd made herself. Now that he'd tasted her cooking, he had to wonder why she didn't cook more often; it was pretty good—fairly comparable to a stand, and it was surprisingly nice to eat something she'd made. As Anko's grin stretched across her face, her hand dipped into one of her trench coat pockets. The thin box that slid across the table was simple and square, about half a foot to a side.
He set aside his dango for a moment. The bottom of the container thudded softly onto the table as he lifted off the top. Sitting on a bed of dark cloth was a necklace. Thick braided wire threaded through a rectangular leather pad on one end; on the other, it passed through three equally spaced stone beads. His fingertips brushed across the polished, dark gray stones in the shape of commas. They were polished to such a degree that they had a sheen and felt completely smooth, except for the swirls carved into the body. The beads didn't move as he picked up his gift; they remained in position, with their tails curving downward.
"The braided wire is actually chakra wire that I may have borrowed from your supplies," Anko began to explain. "I put the leather strap on the back so, even if someone grabbed and yanked on it, it wouldn't cut into your spine or anything. I made the beads from pieces of stone I picked from the ruins while we were dicking around in there, and it just didn't feel right not to give them an Uzumaki swirl."
Naruto was nearly speechless, "Wow, I don't know what to say other than I love it." He dropped it over his head and began adjusting it so it rested just so.
"If I were as cheesily romantic as you, I might say that it's so, wherever you go, you'll always have a piece of your clan with you."
Just as Naruto was about to launch, what he was sure would be, a witty rejoinder, a boom suddenly sounded. The door slammed open as they both rushed out of the building. Quickly dispersing plumes of smoke could be easily seen over the hills to the north. Their chakra flared as they began a hurried sprint to the location of a probable battle.
Only three minutes passed before they let their momentum carry them down from the canopy and into an area where the vegetation had been burned away and was still smoldering. Dark blue, volatile chakra covered someone who stood in the middle of the cleared area. Wisps of chakra flowed off of them like flames, and fires sprung up around their feet. Yugao was hunched at the edge of the treeline, panting. Most of her armor was charred black, and the skin of her left arm was red and puffy. The sword in her right hand trembled slightly, but a fierce look of determination was plastered across her ash covered face.
A barrage of translucent senbon shot from the trees to the right of Naruto, forcing the chakra person back. The thin black line that connected to their shadow as they landed broke almost immediately.
"Get them stationary for me. I have an idea," Naruto decided. Anko just gave a quick nod and leapt forward to join the fight. He concentrated on the air, humid as it was, and a globe of water began to form from tiny droplets being pulled out of the air around it.
Ten seconds later the ball was twice as large as his head. While it was forming, Anko had engaged the enemy in bursts of taijutsu, only avoiding burns because of her reinforced coat. Naruto, and the clones he'd summoned, fired the condensed water at the enemy as everyone disengaged. Clods of earth sprayed everywhere as the closest five underground clones shot up right around where the chakra enemy dodged to. The chakra laced liquid sprung up from the ground to wrap tendrils around them. Quickly, the rest of the water coalesced into a large sphere, completely encasing the chakra thing. "Water Style: Water Prison," a clone spoke, with an arm lodged in the water. Only one other clone survived the quick counter attacking the monster had done before getting captured.
… Matatabi... Kurama mumbled.
What was that? He waited a few seconds before yelling into his mind, Kurama? Kurama! Damn! Four clones landed around the water prison, marking the corners of a square. The thing in the prison started to struggle more valiantly.
"It's heating the water," the clone maintaining the prison warned. The four posts of the square were already flying through the fifty-nine hand seals his technique was currently stuck at.
"Four Post Chakra Sealing!" the clones shouted in unison as the prison lost its shape and the clone inside disappeared. The chakra monster tried to leap out, but only succeeded in slamming itself against the translucent, blue-white box that sprung up around it. Eight chains, the same color as the barrier, shot out from the corner's of the box. Its speed and maneuverability were very high, but eventually it was caught in the tangled web of chains. They pulled taut, suspending the thing in the center of the box; chakra was constantly being pulled out through the chains and used to reinforce the barrier and give the clones energy. He was really happy he'd included soundproofing in the jutsu, because the way its mouth was stuck open since it'd been caught lead him to believe the racket would be enormous.
"Jutsu dry run, success," Naruto said as walked up to Anko. Three of his clones were using some basic medical jutsus on a pained looking Yugao, while another searched for their medic. Shikamaru and Haku moved in from their respective positions to stand guard near the injured ANBU.
"So how long do we have to wait for this thing to work," Anko wondered while she studied his handywork.
"No idea." Kurama, you up yet? He didn't get a response. "Does this, whatever it is, look like a jinchuriki to you?"
"I wouldn't even know where to begin identifying one," she said flippantly.
"Well, I can use a chakra cloak, and the information Mei gave us on Yagura said he could use one too. Plus, its got a ton of chakra." Before anything else could be said, the chakra receded to show a blond haired, petite woman. Her hair was held in a long ponytail, and she wore a black and purple shirt with black pants. Bandages were wrapped around her forearms and calves.
"We've got a Kumo forehead protector," Anko informed after a quick circuit around the suspended woman. "Hey. If she is a jinchuriki, wasn't this too easy?"
Naruto looked at Yugao, and caught Hana and the Triplets finally emerging from the treeline, "I wouldn't call it easy exactly. Yugao got it pretty bad, and the only reason we won was because I've been preparing to fight one specifically."
"Yeah, but still. They're supposed to be destroyers of armies."
"Four Post Chakra Binding!" the clones yelled as they clapped their hands back together. The chains pulled out of the corners and wrapped themselves around the still conscious woman. Watching the chains tighten around her independently of each other reminded him of constricting snakes. When the woman was completely bound, the barrier fell, but even though the actual barrier was down, the clones remained with their clapped hands still in place to keep the chains in existence.
"Anything to say now that we can hear you Darlin'?" Naruto asked when he walked a little closer. He was glad they'd decided to forgo their forehead protectors while they were on the island, it just didn't make sense if they were trying to be covert. The Kumo kunoichi remained tight lipped. "Are you a jinchuriki?" A sigh slipped out of his mouth when she didn't say anything. "Listen, I'm going to put some temporary seals on you, so if you're holding a Biju, shit could get real if the seals interact poorly. At worst, both of you would die, at best you would be crippled for life."
"Yugito Nii of Kumo," she said before rattling off a registration number that he didn't bother remembering. He really wished he'd pestered Jiraiya for a list of jinchuriki now.
"Anko?" Generally the jinchuriki of the villages were open secrets. How much each let out about the identity varied widely, but it was important to let the other powers know that they still had their weapons.
"Sounds familiar, not sure," Anko responded. He turned his head toward Yugao, if anyone else would know, it would probably be her, but she was currently asleep, or unconscious, or something while Hana healed her burns.
Naruto sighed and removed his blind fold. Two blue eyes gazed down at the bound kunoichi. Chakra pumped into his left eye, and the eye swirled and changed. In the place of his blue eye, there was a Mangekyo Sharingan in the shape of curved, four pointed shuriken—almost like a fuma shuriken. He used it to cast a genjutsu off the top of his head, Genjutsu: Sensory Deprivation. All of Yugito's senses, except for touch, were cut off for the moment. Sharingans really were just like cheating. By the way she started jerking around, it seemed to have worked.
"Well, what the fuck do we do now?" Naruto wondered aloud.
A/N the Latter: What are they going to do with Yugito? Why was Yugito on the island? What's with the Uzumaki library and time-space crystal? Why did Sasori just give him the instructions for making human puppets? Did Itachi kill Orochimaru?
Well, things are starting to shape up in the macro-plot.
If I had to do this over again, I would've picked someone who isn't Anko or toned her down, because every time they have a moment together, it becomes couched in sexuality—which can get a little tiresome. This isn't going to change for a while, not until Anko realizes she doesn't need that crutch when she's alone with Naruto. Their relationship is starting to balance out a bit at least, Anko is starting to move from focusing on Naruto in the relationship and letting some of her needs/wants be known. Also, what Anko said is true, she doesn't care if Naruto is banging a girl or a guy, but she wants some variety and they haven't had a MMF threesome. Give and take is something that is necessary in any relationship, and I felt like we just had to see Anko cash in on some of her goodwill here. Naruto isn't worried about "turning gay" here, for the record, just that if he isn't into it, it will make a crappy experience for everyone. For the curious, Anko's admitted fetish is called scopophilia.
Naruto's deliberate cheesiness is probably one of the things that are the most fun to write, and he's starting to progress into non sequitor territory.