Welcome back, another Ten chapters in two weeks coming your way. So lets get started. Where we last left our four friends they were on their way to one of the bases of Orochimaru but will any of them find what they seek or find something they'd never wanted to?

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto then…. FAIL! Just as well I don't own it

Chapter 11 : Findings

The sun had risen into the sky signifying the middle of the day, walking across an open plain Jiraiya, Naruto, Sai and Kimimaro were almost at the base which, they sought. Along the way the Sanin had taken a look at the scrolls and let out a brief smile when he knew what one of them was, he also told Naruto he'd hold on to them for now since on of the seals was very interesting. Also since he was here he decided to hand the boy a very special piece of paper.

"What's so great about this?" he was a little confused by the paper he held

"Add your chakra to it." explained Jiraiya and so the boy did causing the paper to split into two making him a little more confused.

"Its chakra element paper. The paper split in two so your wind natured." further explained the adult.

"That's meant to be rare." added Sai.

"Cool I can literally blow people away." a now impressed Naruto said.

"Slow down kid we'll work on that after we're done." cut in Jiraiya, there were other things that needed to be done first.

"We are very close now, you are sure?" the only reason Kimimaro asked this was due to the chance of them running into Orochimaru. He would be able to return to his lord but the other would be in danger, for some reason he was unwilling to place any of them in harms way. As he received a resounding nod they entered a forest.

Meanwhile inside a darkened room underground somewhere the young Uchiha was lost in thought his sharingan blazing through the darkness. For some odd reason there was a sense of approaching familiarity. Then the door opened slowly revealing Yakushi Kabuto whom merely sighed before saying "Ready?"

"Obviously." was the blunt reply he expected and got from Sasuke.

An hour passed and outside one of the bases of Orochimaru, three certain shinobi were waiting for one to return after checking the area. Jiraiya popped up behind them nearly ending up with a kick to face from making them jump. They slowly approached closer until they saw a hill with double doors signifying the base was underground and stopped under the cover of bushes..

"The guards light, draws less attention I guess. Stay alert though." explained the Sanin.

"I may have knowledge of this place but the location of personnel and so on I don't know." added Kimimaro as he glanced towards Naruto and Sai. With that said they made it to the entrance, as soon as they were inside Naruto had gone ahead just a little but was suddenly yanked back by the collar courtesy of Kimimaro. Just as he had done this a hail of kunai flew out exactly were the boy had been standing, imbedding themselves on the ground. The young blond went a little pale, sweating a little since he knew that if he didn't pay attention that something like that could happen again.

"New traps have been set up. Be careful." summed up and warned the Kaguya. As they continued down the wide tunnel they came across the odd few traps which, were either badly made or set up and were easily disabled. If a certain Snake Sanin found out about this heads would literally roll closely followed by their bodies. While Sai was aware of his surroundings he certainly didn't look it, something was clearly on his mind. It hadn't been noticed yet, Naruto patted him on the back before pointing forwards. They had now made it into a somewhat large sized circular area with a marble floor but the same old dirty rocky walls. On the opposite side of where they were two other tunnels went obviously in two different directions.

"We may have to split up." simply stated Sai.

"It could be either way…down!" said Kimimaro before sensing an attack. Fire filled the upper part of the cavern, as soon as it had dissipated Jiraiya jumped to his feet throwing a kunai to the right causing a body to fall down onto the ground dead. Seven others clad all in black jumped down surrounding them. However, they had severely chosen their opponents badly. The so called battle barely lasted two minutes, considering Jiraiya and Kimimaro absolutely beat them. Naruto and Sai managed to hold their own too although not good enough since they needed the other to strike their foes down..

"Aww man did I suck." sighed the young blond, he was a little bit ashamed.

"They were a cut above the standard guard. You did ok." plainly said Kimimaro.

"That's the first compliment you've given." pointed out Sai.

"Regardless… we have to split up." interrupted the Kaguya.

"I'll go left you kids go right." plainly said Jiraiya as he disappeared into the left tunnel. The three young shinobi went through the other tunnel which, was rather nicely lit up considering. As they continued down the straight route they came once again to parting in the tunnel. The Kaguya simply stated "It's better to go right."

But as they walked down the right route they heard a strange sound making them snap to full attention. They looked around and could see many explosive tags around the walls which, matched the colour of the walls. As the tags were about to ignite Kimimaro did what he though best and grabbed the other two and threw them as far backwards as possible. Then that section were he stood exploded causing the walls to cave in around him.

Elsewhere Kabuto was going over a scroll about dissection in what looked like a library before being broken from his reading when he felt the room shake. He stood up and calmly walked out into a hallway, he tilted his head to the right seeing a lone Oto shinobi wearing nothing but black. The ninja came to a stop when Kabuto turned towards him politely asking "What was that sir?"

"Not sure myself but lets go see." the spectacled youth simply replied before the Oto shinobi darted in front of him while he lazily walked in that direction.

As the dust cleared where the explosion had happened it was obvious that the tunnel had been sealed off by the collapse. The three of them had been split, Naruto shook his head getting his bearings back while Sai merely got to his feet. The blond quickly got to his feet too before shouting towards the other side of the cave in "Hey! You ok?"

On the other side one of the boulder's was on Kimimaro's left leg but aside from that he was unscathed. Pulling off that boulder he sighed seeing his leg was broken before bone cracking noises could be heard, he had no broken bones now.

"I'm fine, now you have to go left since going right isn't possible anymore." he shouted back.

"We could blast our way through here." quietly pondered the blond.

"That would collapse this section on us." explained Sai while he shook his head in disagreement.

"Go left and keep going straight. You'll reach an area of pillars I'll meet you there." said Kimimaro projecting his voice so they could hear.

"Ok see you there!" Naruto bellowed back.

Ten minutes had passed and Kimimaro was walking down a brightly lit hallway, he stopped as he came to a turn. A few seconds later several of the bases guard rushed towards where the explosion was, the Kaguya nowhere to be seen. As soon as they were out of sight he dropped down from the rocky ceiling and continued.

'I must explain myself to Lord Orochimaru. Yet I must not risk any of my… friends lives.' pondered Kimimaro, he frowned he actually classed those two as friends, comrades still he was trying to come up with something as to not get them killed.

A few more minutes passed until he found himself in a small circular room with white marble flooring but the same old rocky walls there were five doors. He lent backwards a little before throwing his arms out firing bone shrapnel from his fingers into the doors. Two simply vanished while the other two exploded which, left just one with a small hole through it. He remembered this room but had forgotten which, door was the genuine article. As he started to pick up the pace he came to another turn then came to a sudden halt when he nearly passed a white door to his left. While what he was up to was pressing for some reason he just couldn't ignore it, as if it was calling out to him. The moment he took a step into it, he knew that it was 'that' room.

As Sai and Naruto made their way further and further down the tunnel it was quickly becoming darker and darker. Which, was a little frustrating for a certain blond whom sighed "Oh man is it dark, I can barely see."

"Poor visibility." agreed Sai whom then broke into thought 'The Sanin must be right if that's the case then…'

A bit more walking and the bright side was it wasn't getting any darker. But on the downside they came to a three way parting in the tunnel. Obviously this made Naruto annoyed he nearly shouted but managed to keep it quiet "He must've forgotten about this part!"

"Give me a second." plainly said Sai as pulled out a scroll and a brush before drawing several ink snakes then lay the scroll on the ground. The snakes came to life and separated down the three different directions.

"What are they?" a curious Naruto asked.

There was a pause as the ink snakes came back then just sat there in front of Sai doing some weird un-snakelike movement, he explained "For scouting we go left but I need to re-seal them you go ahead."

As Naruto took the left route several minutes past and he was starting to get impatient not to mention a little worried. Just as he was about to turn around Sai came into view jogging towards him then came to a stop as he caught up.

"I was held up. It took a while." explained Sai.

"Well you're here now. Lets go." a relived Naruto nodded as they began picking up the pace .

Elsewhere a certain toad sage exited a door slamming it shut behind him, his face was red and there was lipstick on his neck. He chuckled in the most perverted of ways before quickly composing himself.

"That woman was almost scarier than Tsunade and almost as hot…" said Jiraiya before breaking out in another round of old pervert giggles. After finishing his peculiar moment he began to pick up the pace down a tunnel, he literally darted across some of the traps effortlessly avoiding setting them off. Until pretty soon he came to what looked like a dead end, he knocked on it and found that it was hollow. He swung his arm round and round before punching the 'dead end' causing the wall to collapse revealing a new route. Just as he stepped into the new area he heard rumbling then his eye twitched when he saw a massive boulder flying down the tunnel towards him. He groaned before turning around and legging it away from that oversized hunk of rock. Thinking on his fast moving feet both of his hands formed balls of chakra; the Rasengan in them spun around and rammed them into the boulder causing it to fragment into many piece. He made a mental joke about them not making rolling rocks like they used to before once again going into the newly opened area.

Kimimaro entered a room with bookshelves with very little books and some random bits of paper lying around. In the centre of the room was a surgical table with two small rectangular machines next to it. This medical room had clearly been abandoned for a while, any emotion he had dropped as he knew exactly where he was.

"The beginning of the end… where they strived to save me…"

He felt like he shouldn't be here but there was something he wanted to check now he was cured. Heading towards the shelves filled with books, there was one that caught his eye in particular. It was a notebook filled with his medical records since the illness had begun.

"Internal decay of the organs…lungs and heart dying…disease unknown." the albino continued to read out loud "Patient stabilized yet decay continues…death inevitable…at least three months to live…one week if not kept under medical status."

Shutting the book, he saw another one which was clearly Kabuto's notes on himself which, he thought odd that it would be here. Opening it he was slightly surprised to see information on his curse seal included in the medical condition, it basically said that the curse seal had accelerated the disease and that Kabuto had opened him up deliberately for research. That hacked him off that the spectacled youth had made it into an opportunity, to him he believed Orochimaru must've of not known of this. Further reading proved that it was in fact the curse seal which, had given him such a fatal disease.

Silence followed until he noticed a bookmark which, took him to the back of the book. So far he was unsure what to make of all this but then it hot him like a ton of bricks when he read that page. Almost dumbstruck he read that part out loud to make sure this wasn't a figment of fiction.

"Earth Seal has failed, Kimimaro is also a failure. Will be kept under medical status until termination. My Lord has agreed to this as the Heaven Seal does not carry any of the risks the Earth does."

Kimimaro noticed a note or memo at the bottom and could tell who wrote it.

"Sad really he was loyal but its not like he was anything to the lord. He has served his purpose as the Earth Seal experiment, once the Uchiha arrives I have that 'fun' job of destroying and disposing."

Oh how that made him furious he had always been a pawn to them a failed experiment. How could he have been so blind so naïve, what would he do now. All he could do was just stand there and drop the book.

Kimimaro continued to stand there, his face was a mixture of emotions sorrow, betrayal and almost completely wane loyalty. Something caught his eye and picked up an opened letter, it was the order to terminate him from Orochimaru himself. That tore it a fit of anger he kicked the surgical table over, then punched one of the machines causing it to fly into a bookshelf causing it to topple, a very thin folder flew towards him which, he caught effortlessly. He looked at the name on the file 'Tsuchi Kin'.

Just seeing the name calmed him down a little, he opened it up and saw that her status was not only deceased but in brackets it also said sacrificed. Kin was a woman he'd fallen in love with it was as if they were made for each other but after the failed destruction of Konoha he had been told that she'd been killed by the enemy. His heart had broke which, may have accelerated the disease since he'd given up with everything that was happening at that point.

"Why did I believe that bastard. He killed her." there was only hatred in Kimimaro's heart for Orochimaru now. The door suddenly opened and an Oto shinobi clad in black walked in, oh what bad timing for the Kaguya with rage writ on his face used his arm and impaled the shinobi killing him before he could even uttered a word. Kimimaro pulled his arm out of the dead man and felt something coming from his eyes, he gazed over towards a cracked mirror he was…crying.

As he walked down the tunnel he wiped the tears away and reflected once more 'I was… always expendable in his eyes. My life was prolonged by the Uchiha. That snake has taken everything… without me even Jugo must be…' Next time he met Orochimaru and his ilk there would be no mercy.

Where we left off with Naruto and Sai, they were continuing down the tunnel. Just then the blond felt something tugging at his ankle, letting out a curse he leapt back and just where he'd been standing shuriken had flown into that area. Sai grabbed Naruto's collar and leapt further backwards as more shuriken flew out of the walls, a very clever double trap. Luckily because of his quick thinking they'd managed to completely avoid the trap. The young blond let out a sheepish grin that was pretty close. After that mishap he was even more aware of the ground but that didn't matter now since they had reached the end of the tunnel, in fact it was blocked. He sighed then turned his head around to Sai in a 'what the hell' mood.

"Wall opens." was all the pale teen said.

Naruto pulled a confused face "That doesn't make any sense…"

"A switch." clarified Sai prompting the blond to look around, he found something and just as he knelt down to see what he was Sai had silently drawn his short sword. The Anbu root shin obi's eyes were completely devoid of emotion just as he was about to bring his blade onto the targets neck, he found that his arm would not move. Emotion flowed into his eyes that of shock, he battled to remove this feeling. But just as he'd started a large rock slammed into him pinning him to the wall. This made Naruto jump in surprise, another boulder flew towards him but he easily dodged it. Sai began melting into ink before completely liquidising briefly drawing Naruto's attention before focusing towards his attacker. An unknown ninja approached and sighed "Missed, guess I'll kill you the old fashion way."

Back at that three way parting down the central part was a figure cloaked by some of the darkness leaning against the rocky wall. The Anbu root member Sai frowned then lightly pushed himself off the wall and began walking forwards into a massive white pillared room.

'I…hesitated? I've never done that before so why? Wait that's who he reminds me of… Naruto stirs up memories of…' Sai quickly cut of what he was thinking after remembering his training, such thoughts was unbecoming of the sort of shin obi he was told to be. Yet now that thought was there, he dismissed it for now and continued down the cavern hall until he reached a room full of pillars. The pale skinned shinobi stopped as he made it to the middle of the room, as he predicted three ninja of Oto swayed from one pillar to another. One which, was male boasted about him being of the Fuma clan and how he will be given a glorious death. Sai narrowed his eyes in preparation he could tell this wasn't going to be easy.

With Naruto and the unknown they had engaged into a stare down. Quick analysis from the boy made him aware any mass shadow clones would make it a tight squeeze, not to mention make him an easier target. His opponent stepped into clearer view, the shinobi of Oto wore black shinobi pants, a crimson vest he had jet black hair and was barefoot. He commented on how as Fuma shinobi there would be joy in the kill. It didn't scare Naruto though. The Oto ninja walked closer causing Naruto to completely focus noticing his foe had no pigment in either eye which, to him was a little bit creepy.

The battle had now begun as the Fuma began making seals with his hands, in retaliation Naruto made a shadow clone. The enemy finished his seal and fired a jet of fire towards the blond. The flames tore through his clone and continued, out of instinct he made several clones and used them as a shield. Somehow this cancelled out the jutsu and the smoke that came off the clones obscured his foes view. Which, gave him the opportunity to use his favourite move. Calling forth yet another clone it began forming a sphere of chakra in his right hand. The smoke began to be blasted away as Naruto darted forward hold the Rasengan slamming it right into the chest of the Fuma ninja. What he didn't expect was the guy to suddenly crumble into rubble. He suddenly sensed something coming up from the ground and jumped onto the ceiling of the cave. Slightly angered that this kid was doing this well the Oto ninja began making several seals but never finished. For the dead end collapsed and out jumped a certain Toad Sage, taking him by surprise as he was completely knocked out by a blow to the stomach from the sage. Jiraiya looked up and saw Naruto. "You ok kid?"

"I was about to win too. Knew it wasn't a dead end." responded the blond as he jumped down onto the ground, he had summed up that the Sai he was with was a clone but didn't know why.

"Come on I know where to go." said Jiraiya.

"We need to go back, I think Sai is in trouble." explained Naruto just as he was about to go back the Fuma shinobi had somehow regained consciousness and threw a kunai into the ceiling above him. It had several explosive tags attached to it, the sage grabbed Naruto and darted away from it as they exploded causing that area to cave in on top of the Fuma ninja. They couldn't go and help Sai now which, frustrated Naruto.

"Don't worry that kids stronger than he looks." reassured the Sanin. They began darting up the unblocked tunnel noticing that the floor had suddenly become white tiles.

Sai's battle

The battle Sai had been forced into was not going so well, although he had managed to take one out with a well place explosive causing a pillar to fall onto the unfortunate foe. His remaining two opponents were far too quick for him to perform any drawn out jutsu. It was clear that the root ninja was on the defensive, one had drawn a katana and darted forward narrowly missing Sai. Using the terrain the boy vanished from their sight. There was very little he could do here, the fact is he is not skilled enough for close range battles like this and he had no knowledge of the Fuma ninja's of Oto so couldn't come up with a solid plan. As he was thinking the pillar he was standing behind collapsed causing him to leap into the open. Sai somehow deflected a slash with his short sword, he was becoming out of breath.

Be it luck or excellent timing, an explosion ripped a hole in one of the walls and amongst the cloud of smoke out stepped Kaguya Kimimaro. The Fuma wielding the katana charged him but as soon as he got near had both his arms broken with some very swift movements. The ninja was put out of his misery by having a bone which, shot out of Kimimaro's hand pierce his heart. The Kaguya slowly walked until he stood next to Sai. "Where is Naruto?"

"We came to a three way parting in the tunnel we decided to go left. Naruto ran ahead and these guys jumped me. They forced me down the middle and I ended up here." explained Sai, the Kaguya had forgotten about that parting and frustrated sighed. The remaining Fuma ninja began trembling as he realised just who he was now up against. The ninja took a step back prompting a hateful response from Kimimaro "You are right to fear me. For I am puppet to Oto no longer!"

He darted forwards as sharp bones shot out of his palms, enraged calmness was on his face as he performed Yanagai no Mai the dance of the willow. Despite how beautiful the name sounded the move was not, he cleaved the enemy nearly into two as he stabbed the target repeatedly until the Fuma ninja was clearly dead. Kimimaro stopped allowing the Oto ninja to fall to the ground in a bloody dead heap.

A few minuets of silence passed until Naruto and Jiraiya arrived where they were. The boy grimaced at the scene of the mutilated Fuma ninja. The Sanin could see bitterness in Kimimaro's eyes but didn't say anything.

"Glad to see your alright Sai what happened?" worriedly asked Naruto

"Those three attacked me when you went ahead. I managed to slip an ink clone to aid you. But I wasn't able to give it proper orders so it couldn't warn you merely act as support. I somehow ended up here." calmly replied Sai, it was as if he'd rehearsed those lines considering how there was no pauses.

"That explains the melting. At least we all got here." the young blond shrugged.

"From the amount of noise we've made it proves neither the Snake or Sasuke are here. One of them would've shown up otherwise." explained Jiraiya he knew Orochimaru would've made a grand entrance to entertain him by now.

"Aww man. Your right too what a waste." Naruto was clearly annoyed but this wasn't going to stop him. He won't give up.

The place violently shook suddenly, Jiraiya knew exactly what was going to happen "Well time to go. This place is starting to shake like its going to blow."

"Perhaps that is my bad. I left a few precautionary surprises." said Kimimaro as if he revelled in the destruction that was about to come.

"So did I. Well now we need to go children." added Jiraiya as part of the ceiling fell through opening up a way out. The four of them ran up the pillars leaping out of the hole.

Just as they'd made it to a safe distance a massive explosion ripped through the ground, making Kimimaro smirk. Jiraiya raised an eyebrow towards him seeing that the albino was happy about this. "You overdid it a little ya know."

"It was a necessity to purge this place." merely responded the older teen.

"Are you ok? What did you find?" queried Naruto.

"I'll explain later. Lets just say I am done with the scum of Orochimaru, I should never of put my trust in that monster." hatefully said the Kaguya causing Naruto to shuffle a little away from him. The Sanin had a very good idea what Kimimaro had found, maybe he could trust him more now yet the albino would have to earn it. But now Kaguya Kimimaro was free from the shackles of Orochimaru, he hadn't felt this alive for a very long time.

Where is Sasuke?

Somewhere in central Otogakure underground, the place trembled a little. Inside a large room a door opened and Kabuto entered sighing at the same time. Sasuke had overdone the Chidori blade again, he really needed to get the power balance right. At least the sword wouldn't explode in his face again since he now had a near indestructible sword to wield. The youth looked to his right and saw Orochimaru then instantly bowed.

"He may be a match for you eventually." mockingly said the Snake.

"My apologises." the teen held his bow.

"Dismissed Kabuto." commanded Orochimaru as he continued to observe Uchiha Sasuke. Yes he was coming along nicely at this rate he would become the perfect vessel.

Back with Naruto The Next Day

Jiraiya and the young boy were sitting on the roof of the inn they were staying. Now was the best time to reveal what the scrolls held the older man explained they were blood seals and told him what to do. Naruto pricked his finger with a kunai and placed it over one of the seals but nothing happened. The Sanin took it out of his hands and looked closer at the seal. "A very advance blood seal. I'll look into it further after you've opened the other one."

This time the other scroll opened without a hitch, the blond's eyes widened in disbelief. Jiraiya let a heartfelt smile escape his face, it was time for him to know. Naruto managed to compose himself as well as he could as he read the final letter of his father.

To my Son

This will be my last letter, to protect those precious I must stop the Kyubi. By the time you read this I will not be around, for that I am sorry. If you are reading this then you obviously know that the Kyubi no Kitsune is sealed in you and that Jiraiya has deemed it the right time. I am your father Namikaze Minato, yes that awesome Hokage. Your mother sadly died shortly after your birth, her name was Uzumaki Kushina she was a beautiful and caring woman. And loved you moment she saw you. I do not have long now… Two scrolls will be given to you when it is suitable this is one of them the other is one of my legacies… The fox is near my time has come… I will always be watching over you and be closer than you think. Remember I will always be proud of you.

Your Loving Father Minato