Sorrrrryyyyyy lol I almost forgot to update this... I was too busy being in Lala land to even realize that it was Monday...

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"Ugh… it has been so long since we've been here!" Naruto shouted, stretching before he bolted around Konoha. "It's like nothing has changed!" he turned around and grinned at me before jumping up on the buildings.

"Hey now wait up!" I said, jumping after Naruto as he tried to reach higher to view the village better. "Don't you think he's a little too excited to be back in Konoha?" I glanced over to Kyuubi who was perched on my shoulder.

"Well… if you trained for 3 years away from your home town… wouldn't you be happy to see it?" I watched as Kyuubi fell silent and closed his eyes. "Hn."

"Hey Naruto! We should head to the Hokage Tower! I'm sure Tsunade and the Old man would love to see us!" I watched as Naruto debated then nodded. "I wanna show them how much stronger we got!" Naruto shouted, smiling.

We bolted off to the Hokage tower, to avoid the crowded streets. We entered inside from one of the windows then walked down the hall calmly before reaching the door we wanted. I lifted my hand to knock. "Come in you two." I looked over to Naruto, who nodded to me. We opened the door and entered, closing the door after us.

"My my… you both look different." Tsunade said, leaning back in the chair. "I am curious to your capabilities… so you will be fighting someone…" Tsunade nodded over to the window. We bolted over and tackled Kakashi, throwing him off guard, and nearly throwing him off the roof tiles.

"Why if it isn't my two trouble makers." He said, doing his normal eye smile. "So we are fighting you Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked. He nodded, folding his book and placing it into his pocket. "Oh! Kakashi!" Naruto dug through his pouch then held out a book. "You always read these things… I wasn't too enthusiastic about it but I thought you might like it! It's an original copy, not yet released!"

We watched as Kakashi made a dramatic scene over receiving the new Icha Icha Tactics series. "Kakashi, knock it off." Tsunade said, not amused. Kakashi nodded, placing the book into his pouch.

†Break†

We both stood in front of Kakashi as he read his book. "This was your first training area, wasn't it?" Kakashi said, looking up at us after realizing Naruto's faint smile as he stared at the logs. "A three man cell…" Naruto said, looking down.

"Back then, we had Sasuke with us…" Kakashi said.

"There is no back then." I looked over to Naruto. "We will always be a team… Sasuke is still our teammate!" I smiled as Naruto gave Kakashi a hard look. "We aren't a team without Sasuke!"

"Hm…" Kakashi said, pulling out something from his pouch. At hearing the ringing of the bells, our faces fell into a serious expression.

"Well, I'm going to see just how much you've improved. Since you haven't given up on Sasuke yet." Naruto grinned. "That's why I've been training!" Kakashi nodded, tying the bells to his pants. "The rules are the same as when we first did this. You can use whatever tricks you like, as long as you can get these bells from me. Come at me…"

"…like we're going to kill you, or else we won't be able to get them." Naruto said, smirk present on his face. "You have until tomorrow to get these bells from me." Kakashi closed his book, as Naruto tightened his headband. I reached to the bandages wrapped around my arms. "So, shall we begin?"

Naruto grinned as he laughed "You aren't going to fight while reading the book this time, Kakashi-sensei?"

"I'm going to put that hobby aside… Besides, it kinda feels like I'm going to have to be serious this time." He reached up for his headband, lifting it up. We stared at each other in silence before Naruto glanced over to me.

"Here I go!" he threw out a batch of shuriken towards Kakashi, who ducked and threw his own set of Shuriken. Naruto jumped up, dodging them with ease. Kakashi threw another batch of shuriken at Naruto. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto's clone grabbed onto Naruto and pulled him out of projectile range.

"Not bad." I could hear Kakashi say from his position on the ground. Naruto landed gracefully onto the ground "Henge!" the one Naruto transformed into a shuriken as Kakashi bolted towards Naruto. Kakashi grabbed Naruto's hand and placed his hand on Naruto's head. "Okay, that's enough of that." Kakashi said.

I smiled as Naruto held a kunai to Kakashi's back, grinning. "You've matured, Naruto. But… it looks like you're as impatient as ever. I haven't even said start yet. Well then… let's begin."

I cracked my knuckles as I waited. "Ready…. Start!" Kakashi disappeared in front of us. "Damn! I've been tricked!"

"Calm down Naruto… we got this." Naruto nodded to me as I looked around. "He's below us. Let's use a little old Tsunade trick." I cracked my knuckles again then slammed it into the ground. In an instant the ground shook and exploded up, exposing Kakashi. "Go!" Naruto nodded as he suddenly appeared behind Kakashi, a Rasengan in hand.

"Rasengan!" Kakashi's eyes went wide as he looked up to see Naruto coming down with a Rasengan in hand. "S-shit!" he quickly bolted off as Naruto's rasengan hit the ground, leaving a huge hole.

"That rasengan… was stronger." I grinned over to Kakashi as he stared in horror. "That isn't all that is stronger." "Formation B." Naruto nodded, making several clones. "Hey Kakashi… you know how you always wanted us to join together?" he nodded over to me. "Well we did in a way…"

I once again punched the ground as Kyuubi flipped off me, forming a flame, which hit the rocks, while Naruto formed several hand seals. In an instant a powerful wind blew the flaming rocks towards Kakashi, like little meteors.

"S-Shit!" he formed several hand seals, creating a water dragon which was instantly destroyed by the attack. His eyes went wide as he quickly used substitution to get away from the damage.

"Damn it he got away again!" Naruto said. I grinned, turning towards him. "Don't worry… we burned a little of his outfit… so unless he wants to run around pantless…" Naruto nodded. "Kyuubi." He nodded up to me. "Find his scent." He nodded again and took off into the woods.

Kakashi's POV

My eyes went wide as a ball of water and a ball of lightning came towards me. 'S-shit!' I quickly formed hand seals, letting the earth wrap around the ball, only for the water to turn the earth into mud. 'They've improved…'

"That lightning ball looked almost like my Chidori…" I watched as a grin formed on Akuma's face while Naruto cracked his knuckles. "What's wrong Kakashi-sensei? Can't your eye keep up with us?" I watched as Naruto disappeared. 'His speed… it's just like sensei's!' I slowly turned around to see Naruto getting ready to land a kick.

I lifted my arms, blocking his attack. "You forget there are two of us." My eyes went wide as a lightning orb was aimed at my side. I glanced up to see Kyuubi coming in, ready to shoot out some flames. 'The only way to dodge is down!' I quickly switched myself with a log and hid myself into the ground.

"Silly Kakashi… that trick doesn't work." My eyes went wide as the ground was torn apart by that lightning spear, causing the ground to shake violently. 'Jiraiya couldn't have taught these guys all this!' I dodged another attack from Akuma while Naruto formed several clones.

'At the rate this is going… I could get injured… maybe I shouldn't have said attack with the intent to kill…' I watched in horror as they formed another combined attack. 'First Wind Fire and earth for a meteor effect… Now they are combining more elements! Fire… wind… Lightning… and… ice?'

I tried to dodge the attack but was quickly stopped by the ice spikes holding my clothes down. Soon they were melted by the heat of the oncoming fire attack, but before I could move the lightning attack hit the newly created water, causing electricity to go through my body. The wind attack clashed into the fire, causing the force of the fire to become stronger. 'Such a team combo… if Sasuke was here…' I mentally shuddered at the thought.

I reached over to one of the boulders, grabbing onto it, then pulled myself under it to dodge the blow of the dangerous attack. I quickly took off while the explosion around the boulder began to happen.

'Think Kakashi… how can you stay alive while fighting them… Akuma has Tsunade's strength… Naruto can do wind… Kyuubi is doing the fire… Akuma just proved she can do Lightning and Naruto proved he can do water…' I watched as the three huddled together, as if they even needed to speak out loud to each other.

'If I take out Kyuubi… that seems next to impossible… even with his one tailed miniature form he's proven that his fire is strong… to think if he was bigger… he'd be more of a danger… I know…' I jumped away from the group, immediately being followed my Kyuubi. 'Knew he'd scout my scent.'

I formed several hand seals then turned to Kyuubi, trapping him into a dome of sand just as he was about to use fire on me. I could hear his cursing as he was trapped inside the dome of thick glass. I walked over to him, smirking behind my mask. "I learned that trick from Akuma." I could see him glaring at me as I took off.

'The major problem is gone… now I am left with major wind users in which one can use water the other can use lightning.' I bolted behind a tree as I waited for the twins to attack me. 'They both know I can read their movement… so what do they have planned now?' I glanced around as both Naruto and Akuma did a high-five before turning towards the tree I was behind.

Akuma bolted for the tree, slamming it with her Tsunade like strength while Naruto came in front of me. "Hey Kakashi-sensei, want to know what happens in Icha Icha Tactics?" my eyes went wide as Naruto began to tell me about the story I so dearly wanted to read.

"No!" I covered my ears then realized I could still read his lips. I closed my eyes as I slammed down against another tree. 'Wait…' I opened my eyes to see Naruto and Akuma holding a bell in their hands. "I would say… that had to be an embarrassing way to go down." Akuma said as Naruto nodded.

"Why did you two stop fighting and go through that tactic?" I asked. Both turned to me and grinned. "You trapped our teammate, and we knew when your guard was down, that the glass dome around Kyuubi would weaken enough for him to break." I looked down at my feet to see Kyuubi sitting there.

"So the reason I fell against the tree was due to him bouncing off me while grabbing the bells?" they nodded.

"Why did you three stop in all on the intent to kill though?" I asked once again. "We did come at you with an intent to kill." Naruto began. "But we ended it towards the end because you are a teammate."

"And these two feel that they inflicted enough fear and damage to you with little of their strength." My eye twitched. 'Little?'

"Well with Kyuubi as your fire… and with such strength with one tail… it makes the combo nice. However… if Kyuubi is fire and Sasuke comes back… what would he be?" Akuma glanced over to Naruto.

"He'd be our speedy fiery lightning!" Naruto said, laughing as he gave a thumbs up. "How do you know what he's good at?"

"Well… before he left… I remember Akuma telling him what he'd be strengthened in… and knowing Sasuke, he'd listen to her. So he'd be strong in his speed… probably faster than our current speed but still."

"You two… never cease to amaze me." I smiled at them as then laughed together.

"So Kakashi." I looked over to Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Shizune as they walked towards us. "What would you grade these guys?" I rubbed my fingers against my chin. "Well judging by them striking fear into the enemy and leaving them with little to no action time… I give them…" I watched as the sweat formed on their faces as they waited in anticipation.

"A S. They both have truly improved… and for Kyuubi to join in on the fighting… they become a perfect three man there… and to think of the possibility with Sasuke… I would say they all would be outstanding."

I turned to Jiraiya as he smiled at Naruto and Akuma. "What did you teach them?" I asked, he laughed. "Akuma did most of the teaching… teaching Naruto tricks I would never have thought to teach the boy myself. Akuma had his speed reach close to Rock Lee's speed in half a year. He should be a little faster than you now." I nodded, remembering his fast movement.

"How about Akuma?" he glanced over to Akuma. "She did training herself… to think that she would still have things for herself to learn… the scary thing though… it appeared as though when she was asleep, that she was training then too."

"To hear Akuma do this… sounds odd to me since I know Naruto was always a rough sleeper… he'd hit people… from a rasengan while asleep…" I watched as a horror filled expressed crossed Jiraiya's face. "I see that it never left him either…"

Akuma's POV

"Why did Sakura-chan have to come with us for this mission?" I smiled at Naruto as he sat down in the hall, pouting. "Because… she has medical training under Tsunade."

"So do you!" I shook my head. "My training wasn't the same as Sakura's… I copied Tsunade, didn't learn from her. Granted I could find the antidote to this poison before her… but both of us have our minds full on the safety of Gaara." Naruto sighed, nodding.

I ran my hand through Kyuubi's fur as I looked into the room Sakura was working in. "Don't tell Kakashi but… I sent a little Chakra Kyuubi out to hunt down the scent of who kidnapped Gaara." Naruto glanced at me. "How long do you think it will take him?" I looked down at Kyuubi. "Well… a Fox has a better nose than a dog… he should be able to find the area in less time than Kakashi's dogs."

I stared at Sakura as she picked up the batch of cleaning liquid with chakra, going to cleanse more of the poison.

"Ehhh! Naruto! Akuma! Will you BOTH slow down?" we both ignored Sakura as we continued going through the trees.

"Naruto, Akuma… what did we just say? Stick together-"

"I can't take this!" I shouted out, hearing Temari and Sakura make a small noise of shock.

"Me… and Akuma… I know why they're after Gaara and us." Naruto said, hands in tight fists. "Sakura... you know why, too don't you?" I asked, glancing back at her with a hard stare.

"Inside of us…" Naruto began. "The Kyuubi is sealed inside of us." Behind us, Temari gasped. At their silence, Naruto gripped onto his chest with a tight hold.

"Gaara… Akuma and I… we all have monsters inside our bodies. That's what those guys are after! I…" Naruto's foot landed on a branch before he pushed off it, breaking off the protective layer to the tree. "…hate it!"

I joined in with Naruto's frustration, keeping up at the same pace with him. "They just see us as monsters. I can't stand the way they view us!" I growled out.

"Gaara… he was just like we were." Temari once again made a shocked noise from behind us. "And he fought all on his own a lot longer than we did." I added to Naruto's comment.

"He's been targeted by the Akatsuki. We're all the same again!" I grit my teeth then added on. "Besides that… Why does everything bad always have to happen to him? It's always him!"

"That's why I can't waste a second! This time, I want to save him as fast as I can!" I could feel the joined sadness between both Naruto and myself.

I jumped when I noticed a small blanket being held out to me. I looked up to see Sakura smiling softly. "It's for the little fox… he looks cold." She opened up the folded blanket then placed it on Kyuubi.

"I don't get it… why doesn't Sakura-chan hate us? We are the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki!" I glanced over to Naruto, as he gave Sakura a confused look. "It seems off to me too… she hated us both because we were on the same team as Sasuke… and she blamed us for him leaving…"

"Well… we should all rest up." Kakashi said, looking down the hall. "I will send my dogs out to find the Akatsuki with the cloth that Kankuro managed to savage." Sakura nodded while Naruto and I stared at Kakashi in silence.

"We will move out tomorrow." Kakashi stated.

†Break†

"Akuma… are you awake?" I opened my eyes and rolled over to face Naruto. My eyes met into blue eyes that were filled with sadness. "Do you think… we'll make it?" I sighed. "Make it or not… we will be there. We both agreed that we will protect everyone… dead or alive."

"I don't want to bring him back dead though!" he stared at me with a hard look. "Well with the dogs trying to find the Akatsuki's trail… they will find it and be back possibly closer to morning."

"Kyuubi!" Naruto bolted up in his bed. "Did you find where they are at?" he glanced up to me then nodded. "Yes… however… even if we leave now, we have a problem." We both stared at him with confusion. "What… do you mean?" I asked.

"They already started pulling out the Bijuu from Gaara… I heard them say it will take three days to get the job done." Our eyes narrowed fast.

-AN-

So I corrected the spelling mistakes(Well from what I could see) in this chapter. Hopefully I didn't bypass everything(Since I was also reading it lol)

-Ja ne