Out of the Unknown

by axellon2008

Naruto discovers a crashed starship outside his village and his life is forever changed. Under the unorthodox tutelage of a Sith Lord's spirit, he will learn the technology and history of a larger galaxy that he, and no one else from his planet, ever knew existed.

14. Chapter 14

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

x-x

36.6 BBY – Current Year (Naruto is twelve and two week has passed since the last chapter, so there is one week before the chunin exam finals)

Chapter XIV: Leaving

x-x

Two weeks had passed since the incident at the hot springs. Naruto's clones took care of all of his duties and other needs while he stayed in the hideout. His clones performing his duties were being followed and monitored by ANBU twenty four hours a day. He knew this because Karin had sensed them.

It wasn't that difficult to constantly switch out the clone when it got low on chakra but there was always the chance that something could happen and one of his clones would get dispelled. He was lucky that he was being kept in the village and on guard duty so the clones were in no danger of being dispelled

Getting the information from the library was done at night now. He would send a clone that would use an earth jutsu to move through the rock of the Hokage mountain and enter the library when it was closed. He learned enough about the security measures and the patrols to not get caught but couldn't send more than one clone without the risk of getting noticed.

Currently he was focusing on getting everything ready for leaving the hideout. He was removing and sealing all of the scrolls and information that he had into two large scrolls that he would seal on his body. He planned to leave everything else how it was in the hideout, except for the Sith runes, so he had the hideout to use later on.

Karin was had just finished enough of her training to perform the necessary changes to the corpse in order to make the face look like him. While Karin was doing that, he would be placing the seal on the corpse. They would also have to modify his hospital records which would have to be stolen from the hospital and altered before the chunin exam finals. With these changes to the body and what he had planned for his 'death', he would likely fool the entire village into thinking that he was dead.

There would likely still be people that would suspect him of something, such as Danzo, but even if the corpse was discovered as not being his, he would be long gone by that time.

Getting out the scroll with the body, he would have Karin start working on it later that day, however there was something he had to do first.

He had ANBU, Jiraiya, the Sandaime and his viewing orb, and even a member of Danzo's Root ANBU tailing him nearly all the time. Unfortunately he needed to get supplies as well as do things within the village. The protection of the hideout stopped the viewing orb from finding his real body but he had a feeling that the Hokage was watching in on his shadow clone from time to time.

This was a problem because his clones probably couldn't escape the notice of everyone that was after him, which meant that he couldn't use them effectively to finish the plan in the next week. With the number of methods and sensors that were monitoring him, he had to be more careful than ever. He was working on something to help him escape chakra sensor detection but it was still a work in progress and he could only delegate the work to a clone while he dealt with the many other problems that he had been experiencing.

The only thing that he had going for himself was that none of the people that were after him had ever seen, met, or knew anything about Karin.

She could move through the village without question. Should she be caught, he could easily falsify anything that they needed to make her appear to be a current academy student and even a member of the village. He could place fake records of her in the archives, put the same files inside the ninja academy file room, and he could always 'persuade' a chunin teacher to acknowledge the fact that Karin was his student. This could all be done extremely quickly because of the closeness of the academy and the archives to his hideout. He would only need to send a clone using a rock jutsu to get to these locations.

This plan seemed feasible to him and he intended to implement it. In preparation and as a test, he had let Karin go to lunch with Tenten two weeks ago. The decision was foolish but he needed to test her loyalty and determine if she could be trusted to act semi-independently inside the village and perform the needed tasks.

Waiting for her to return to the meeting place he had designated, which was the main entrance to the hideout at the top of the Hokage monument, she had returned without incident and told him that she would be meeting Tenten for lunch again in a couple of days.

He let the lunch meetings go because he needed Karin to help him with much more than he originally planned. Letting her have some freedom would give him leverage to get her to go on a mission for him and work on the corpse. It was a compromise and done to get her to cooperate. Forcing her to do things may only go so far before she tried to subvert his plans.

He had talked with his Master the previous week but had mentioned nothing about the events that had happened at the hot springs. Right before the transmission, he had a foreboding feeling through the Force concerning what he was going to talk about with his Master. He wasn't sure where it came from but it was enough to worry him and rethink what he had been going to inform Plagueis about.

He pushed the memories and information as deep as he could before contacting his Master and giving Plagueis an update of his progress. He informed him that things were still proceeding but he was having trouble because Jiraiya had showed up in the village and Danzo was getting more suspicious. He also mentioned nothing about the Kyuubi, his parents, or using the drain knowledge technique on Jiraiya. He still wasn't sure his Master would even believe the story of knocking the legendary ninja out while the man was peeping on the woman's hot springs. Even he himself still had trouble believing it.

Currently he was walking to the room that Karin was practicing medical ninjutsu in.

He watched what she was doing for a few moments before he said anything. Karin was just finishing up an exercise with one of the fish he provided and would move on to more advanced training soon. This would be enough for his purposes and he watched as she healed a fish that he had purposefully injured.

Medic-nin needed real training on real injuries in order to become better and he couldn't let her go to the hospital or get any experience on real people, except for himself, but he wasn't about to let her use any medical ninjutsu on him. It wasn't that he didn't think her skill was good enough but that he still didn't trust her completely nor really trust anyone to heal him besides the medical droid and bacta tank on the ship.

Once Karin finished, he spoke, "Since you've completed the exercise, I have something else for you to do."

Karin looked up a little startled as she was so focused on the task that he she didn't feel him enter the room or standing near her. "What kind of exercise is it?" she asked and was eager to learn anything he could offer.

"It won't be an exercise per say. You will be going out into the village and procuring something for me." stated Naruto and he felt and watched for her reaction.

Her eyes widened at what he said and she thought about what it could be. It was good that he was willing to trust her more and give her a bigger role in whatever he was planning. She was very curious what his plans actually were as it had never been explained to her and succeeding in some kind of mission would only put her on his good side.

"So...what is it?" she questioned and he proceeded to tell her about the short mission.

Karin absorbed the information he was telling her about breaking into the hospital and procuring his medical records. He pulled out plans for the building that were taken from the archives as well as a village map and made sure she knew where she was going.

She watched as he pulled out what looked like a fuinjutsu brush and then formed a handseal she had come to recognize as the one that created his clones. The clone stood next to him as the smoke cleared and then it performed the henge and turned itself into a small metal pyramid like object. She watched in curiosity as she wondered what he would do and then he said something.

"Let me see your arm."

x-x

Calmly, or as calmly as possible under the conditions she was in, Karin walked through the village and towards the Konoha hospital. The building was several stories tall and it was now in her view as she casually walked to it.

She was under a henge to make her look like a nurse and one of the hospitals regular staff. From the information that Naruto had told her, she would be sneaking in through one of the back entrances of the hospital and making her way to the records room.

Getting into the hospital wouldn't be that hard as it really wasn't a very secure building. There were many ninja in the building but the majority were either visitors or patients. Few ninja seemed to be patrolling the building and she could feel them as well as evade them with her sensor abilities.

Watching over one of the service entrances, she waited for an opening and then went in to pick the lock on the door. With the door opened, she made her way through the maintenance area of the hospital and to the stairwell. The main records room was on the middle floor of the building so as to be better accessible to all floors.

Stopping in the stairwell before she entered the correct floor, she sensed the entire floor for chakra signatures that belonged to ninja. She only detected a few signatures that were larger than a civilian but it was hard to tell whether they belonged to ninja or just medical-nin.

Once the hallway was clear, she entered through the stairwell door and closed it behind her without making much noise. Casually walking down the hall, she headed to where Naruto indicated the records room was.

Passing several locked rooms, she eventually came to the correct room. Reaching out, she checked the door and found it locked which she already assumed it would be. Kneeling down, she pulled out her lock picking tools and went to work on the door.

It didn't take very long before the lock clicked to tell her that the door was open and she proceeded to enter the room. Looking around at the numerous filing cabinets, she thought about where to start first and realized that she didn't know one key piece of information.

'My surname is Uzumaki.' stated a disembodied voice from inside her head.

Karin jumped slightly at the intrusion of the voice into her thoughts but then calmed down and absently touched her arm that had the seal on it. When Naruto had created the storage seal on her arm, she had no idea what his thought process was when he sealed a henged clone into it. She thought perhaps he was sending backup for her but it was really so that he could extend whatever thought projecting abilities he had and communicate with her while they were separated.

She had questioned whether it was necessary and suggested a wireless radio but he told her that their conversation could be picked up by other radios that the ANBU used.

Opening file drawers until she came upon the U's, she quickly skimmed the names until she found what she was looking for. Pulling it out, she noticed that it was rather thin. Putting the file under her arm, she closed the drawer to the cabinet and made her way out of the room. Before she left, she sensed the floor she was on and found a ninja or medical-nin walking down the long hallway right towards her. Panicking, she looked around the room for somewhere to hide as she wouldn't be able to leave the room without being spotted and she couldn't be sure that her henge of a random nurse would be able to pass scrutiny in a place where everyone knew each other. She looked everywhere in the room but found nothing.

'Stop panicking.' came Naruto's voice in her head and she calmed down slightly, 'If you can't find a hiding place then you'll just have to make one.'

x-x

A shadow appeared, blocking the light of the slit at the bottom of the door. The handle turned and the door opened to reveal a nurse. The nurse walked in rather frustrated as someone had again forgotten to lock the records room door and then proceeded to organize the files she was carrying into the correct cabinets. It took a few minutes to finish and once she was done, she headed back to the door of the room. Along the short path to the door, she noted a filing cabinet that was much shorter than the rest. She stopped to look at it briefly as she wondered if it had been there when she was in the room earlier that day. She continued walking to the door a moment later and ignored the small oddity as she had other work to do. Closing the door on her way out, she headed back to tend to her patients.

A moment elapsed before the filing cabinet the nurse had been looking at went up in smoke. The smoke cleared to reveal a crouched and relieved Karin. Before she stood up, she sensed the chakra signatures in the area to make sure no one else was coming and that the coast was clear.

She exhaled when she found no one in the immediate area and left the records room with the file in hand. Closing the door soundlessly behind her, she moved quickly back the way she came and exited the hospital.

x-x

Karin handed the file to Naruto and waited with her arms crossed as he leafed through the pages. Sifting through his own medical records, which he had never looked at before, he glanced at all of the information and numbers just in case there was something he missed or didn't know about himself.

A good portion of the file needed to be altered because it was too difficult to change the body to match the file. The last physical he had indicated that he was a few inches shorter and actually a little heavier then the corpse he had acquired but that physical had been months ago so all he needed to alter was the blood type and a few other parts of his records. Besides that, the corpses face needed to be changed to match his.

Pulling out the scroll with the corpse in it, he motioned to an earthen operating table nearby that he had created while Karin was getting the file.

Karin walked to it and watched with some interest as Naruto set down a scroll on the flat rock surface and then proceeded to unroll it. What she didn't know was that it contained the corpse of her teammate that had been preserved inside the scroll for about a month.

They had a short window in which to alter the body and Naruto wanted it as 'fresh' as possible so he had used a special preservation scroll. The bodies time of death could be determined by a medical examiner but with careful planning and preservation, the bodies time of death would nearly fit with his supposed death when the battle started. There was unfortunately some error but it couldn't be helped and was unavoidable for his plans.

Putting his hands in the ram seal he unsealed the scroll. Karin leaned forward to see what it was and when the smoke cleared she screamed and then fainted.

Frowning Naruto sighed and then sealed back up the body since Karin obviously wouldn't be doing anything until she gained consciousness.

'Perhaps I should have warned her first?' Naruto wondered and small smile formed on his face.

x-x

Karin regained consciousness several minutes later and Naruto explained to her everything that he wanted her to do to the corpse before he unsealed it again.

The operation proceeded better than expected. While still squeamish about working on the body of her former teammate, Karin managed to create an exact replica of Naruto's face. Everything was finished in less time than Naruto thought it would take. He spent several minutes inspecting the body and the seal he had placed before he determined that it was as good a replica as it could be. The body was then sealed up.

While Karin was changing the face and he was applying the seal to the stomach, one of his clones had gone about altering the medical records to reflect the new body before him.

Once everything was completed, Karin was sent back to the hospital to put his records back. He would only need to wait a few more days before the chunin exam finals and then he would be able to leave the village.

x-x

Plagueis' eyes once again moved over a group of scientists that were now working for him. He inspected what they were working on and moved on to another area of the facility.

He currently had several groups of Snow Country scientists working on multiple projects for him. One group was making several chakra armor devices based on Dotou's advanced prototype. He added in a bit of his own knowledge to the devices but with the facilities and resources he had, he wasn't able to do much to the devices or make them much better than the original design.

Another group was finishing up synthesizing the ship sealant in another part of Dotou's castle. A small chemical factory had been constructed with the materials brought to the island that Naruto had sealed onto the boat. Production of the sealant would begin shortly.

The final group was working on analyzing a strange device in the mountains that Dotou was interested in. The dictator was positive that the device was a weapon but upon inspection and testing, it turned out that the notion was mistaken and the device built by Dotou's brother was not a weapon. It was actually some type of climate control device that required a specialized key to activate. The device itself was not yet completed but Plagueis managed to get his hands on detailed plans for it from records as well as from what the scientists had put together.

The device was supposed to drastically alter the snow covered island and keep it stuck in a single season of the year. He, as well as the scientists, were still not completely sure of how the device worked as despite his vast knowledge, he could not completely determine how several key components function from just a set of blueprints, though he could guess. Accessing these components for further study would require dismantling portions of the device as the plans did not explain what they did or how they functioned. In order to get a better idea, he would either have to dismantle the entire device, find the key and activate it for study, or construct his own similar device.

He currently had other things to worry about though and needed most of the scientists for other endeavors, so the he would have to wait and perhaps construct a device once they were back in the known galaxy. It wasn't a big loss however as he currently had no need for a climate control device but it was something of interest and he would look into it at a later date.

His last transmission with his student was also still stuck in his thoughts. He had the feeling that Naruto was keeping information from him but wasn't sure what that information was. His thoughts were filled with notions of what that information could be and he had thoroughly analyzed each possibility. They ranged from his student being influenced by the kunoichi that was now working for them, to his student plotting against him. It seemed more likely that Naruto was being influenced by the redheaded girl than plotting against him but he had no way to be sure. He planned to investigate into the matter once his student arrived in Snow Country.

x-x

The morning of the chunin exam finals arrived and Naruto hadn't slept at all the night before. He spent most of the night meditating and going over everything that he would be doing and what would be happening.

The plan had been adjusted slightly as Karin could now be trusted and so she was given a larger part in the days events. He already sent the girl outside of the village with all of her possessions in a single scroll attached at the back of her waist and with exact instructions on what she was supposed to do as well as when she was to do it.

Now all that was left was to complete the final stage of the plan and leave the village. It was a shame that he never managed to find his parents house or any other information on where they had lived or where any of their possessions were. That kind of information was likely only in the minds of a select few individuals in the entire village and it was possible that only the Hokage knew, so he wasn't able to get it. It was unfortunate but before the battle was over that day, he would have much more information to make up for it.

Sitting safely inside the top entrance to his hideout, he created several shadow clones that would be needed later when Orochimaru's surprise attack started. He had a very large scroll next to him which he would use in a little while and he had a shadow clone heading to his duty station at the outer wall that had the scroll with the corpse in it. He would wait as long as possible before releasing the preserved corpse inside the scroll and taking control over it in order to fake his death.

According to Kabuto's memories, Orochimaru would give a signal which would alert the Suna forces outside of the wall to summon a large snake summon that had been provided for them. That signal would also start an attack in the stadium and with both events happening, it would give him plenty of time and a good enough distraction for what he had planned.

Waiting was problematic but it was inevitable and he sat down in a meditative position to better control the clone heading toward the wall.

x-x

Sitting with a frown on her face, Karin absently adjusted her glasses while waiting for the exact moment to use the scroll next to her. She wasn't completely sure what she was doing by this large lake or what the special scroll she had been given would do, but she knew that when the exact time came, she was to add chakra to it.

Glancing at the new and expensive watch, she smiled slightly at the gift she had been given. Part of her knew that it was only given to her for this specific task but she liked it nonetheless. It was disconcerting though that all of her other possessions managed to fit in a single scroll that she was carrying with her. It did have numerous storage seals in it but the scroll itself was so small. She still hadn't been completely informed on what was going to happen but she definitely knew that they were leaving the village and that it would be attacked in some way by an outside force.

She was glad that she wouldn't be inside the village when the attack that Naruto had mentioned would be occurring but she did have some concern for her friend Tenten. They were getting along well but she hadn't been told about the attack early enough to warn her friend about it and she couldn't help but wonder if Tenten would be alright. There was no telling how destructive the battle would be and she had no idea if the village would survive or not. Part of her wanted to stay in the village as she found it much nicer than her previous one but that was not her decision.

Her mind moved from those thoughts to her current location. Something told her that the lake wasn't randomly chosen by Naruto and that it had some significance to him. However, she had no idea what that significance was.

x-x

While the noise from the beginning match filled the stadium and part of the village, Danzo's Root ANBU headquarters heard none of the fighting or celebration. In his underground location, Danzo sat at his desk in his small spartan office and once again viewed through the many reports that he had at his disposal and that had been collected over the course of several years. He was sure that all of the files in front of him concerned the Kyuubi container and was just finishing drawing possible conclusions from them.

His red eye looked through all of the documents and he reviewed everything he had. He needed to make a decision and the chunin exam finals, when most of the village was distracted, would be an opportune time to perform any unsanctioned and illegal action.

The only decision that he had made was that he could no longer take the 'wait and see' approach as he felt he could not gain any more information from monitoring the jinchuuriki.

The information seemed to begin with the memory erasing of a jonin, followed by the assassination of a genin, and then the memory erasing of a chunin. From what he could tell, the container had discovered two plots to steal items from the village and had intercepted or used the two ninja as scapegoats and walked away with three items of great value to the village. He also knew that the genin had been killed in order to get a spot on a seasoned genin team and achieve a higher ninja rank at a faster pace during peacetime in the village.

Though these events were of concern, the events after that were what he was focusing on. After Uzumaki Naruto had been placed on the genin team with Yakushi Kabuto and Akado Yoroi was of interest to him. At the end of the second stage of the chunin exams, both genin were determined to be spies for Orochimaru.

This was the second time that he had come across the Sannin's name in relation to the Kyuubi container and this greatly concerned him. From what he could tell, there was no evidence that the container was ever involved with Orochimaru until joining that genin team. 'Uzumaki most likely read the mind of the genin that he replaced and found out that the entire genin team were spies for Orochimaru. However, he said nothing and was put on the team without any problems and never once tried to implicate either genin as spies.' Danzo concluded from the information he had.

When followed to Wave Country, Orochimaru's name came up again in a 'coded' talk with the deceased shipping mogul Gatou. This information put several theories into his mind that the Kyuubi container started working for Orochimaru and that Gatou was also connected to the Sannin. Orochimaru had stayed well hidden and having someone like Gatou with his shipping business would definitely have helped the Sannin stay hidden and move things without anyone noticing.

However, other recent events had disproved this theory. While Kabuto had escaped and then later tried to kill Uchiha Sasuke, Akado Yoroi had not escaped and was captured by Sai. Interrogation was only able to get a small amount of information out of the genin spy before he was killed between interrogation sessions in the Intelligence and Interrogations Division's building. The death was made to look like a suicide but everyone suspected that someone infiltrated the secure building and assassinated the genin.

The entire ninja council had been worried that both genin being spies meant that the container was also a spy, but Yoroi did reveal that his former teammate was not a spy or had any connection with Orochimaru. This information contradicted his earlier assumptions. Other information taken from the genin hinted that Orochimaru was planning something during the chunin exam finals but the genin was not informed of what that something was. The village was now on high alert but no one knew what would happen or what Orochimaru was planning and only the ninja council knew the full details of this information.

The theory he had now was that the container was working by himself and for his own interests.

He liked this theory much less than his previous one as it implied that the container had somehow learned to read minds by himself without any help or was somehow being influenced by the Bijuu sealed inside. There was no evidence that the boy was influenced or had ever used the Kyuubi's chakra but the incident a month ago spoke differently. It also implied that the container was far more devious, skilled, and calculating than he originally assumed.

With such a confusing and troubling situation, the best that he could come up with was that Uzumaki Naruto was a very worthy opponent in terms of working from the shadows and had accomplished a great deal and grown very powerful without much scrutiny. This was a very problematic conclusion and was the reason that he could not simply 'wait and see'.

During the month break for the chunin exam finals, he done everything he could to learn more about the jinchuuriki and try to find any incriminating evidence. He had his own ninja try and keep tabs on the boy and his activities, looked through all the files he had, and tried to find any information from sources inside or outside the village. He called in favors with ANBU members that he had personally trained and the boys apartment had been thoroughly and illegally searched for any of the stolen items that the village was still looking for. Nothing was found except numerous empty hiding places created throughout the entire apartment.

This led Danzo to believe that the boy had a secret hiding place elsewhere for the stolen items. Without any idea where it could be and after a month of monitoring the container's activities without finding anything, he was forced to consider other possibilities and look for anything that stood out.

The patience required to be followed for over a month and not make a single mistake or do anything of note stuck out as something very odd. What little he had on the container suggested that the boy was impulsive and didn't like to wait. This was the complete opposite of the patient person that had only performed their duty for an entire month and had done nothing of note nor any extracurricular activity. The boy hadn't even trained in the training grounds for an entire month and he had trouble finding any information that the container had ever used the training grounds for personal training. This made little sense for a ninja of special jonin status that had risen through the ranks so quickly.

The notion of a small hiding place had therefore been changed to a larger hiding place that could accommodate room for a single person to train in. From Fu's monitoring, a discrepancy was noted in the early mornings with the amount of chakra that the boy had. Fu thought it was lower than what he had noted in the past when following the boy.

He now suspected that the boy was using shadow clones to perform his duties within the village. There was little chance of a clone being found out or dispelled while performing standard guard duty and with the boy's chakra reserves, the clones could last for a long time. This supported the idea of a large hiding place but didn't consider how the switch between real and fake was being made or where the shadow clones were coming from because they never seemed to go anywhere else but guard duty, out to eat, and the apartment building. This implied that the hiding place was at one of these locations and a seamless switch could be made between clone or original or a new clone could switch with an old one without anyone seeing.

Looking through the papers once again for anything that stood out, he also glanced at the plans for the buildings that the container passed on his routine trips from the apartment and finally noticed something. On one of Fu's early reports, he noted that a strange chakra disruption when the boy entered the stairwell that lead to his apartment. This had been noted on several reports but stopped occurring in more recent reports and Danzo's eyes narrowed as he pulled out the blueprints for the container's building.

It wasn't an apartment building but a storehouse that had an apartment on the roof. Finding the stairwell, Danzo found that it was completely closed off and no one from the outside, those following the container, could see inside. The container disappeared from view while in the stairwell and was only visible while entering or exiting it. That left many seconds unaccounted for and several floors of stairwell were a switch could be made. The building plans did not indicate any rooms right by the stairwell that could be used for such a hidden area but everything else fit.

Sitting back in his chair, Danzo thought about what he should now do with the knowledge that he had. The village had a rogue jinchuuriki that was erasing and reading the minds of ninja in the village, stealing village secrets, using the Kyuubi's chakra, and that had an unknown agenda. Something needed to be done and he decided to take both Fu and Torune with him.

x-x

The controlled clone was standing in the watchtower along the eastern wall of the village with the other ninja that were on guard duty. Looking out over the forest where he knew several hundred ninja were hiding and possibly looking back at him, the clone pulled out the scroll.

He needed to unseal the body as close to the attack as possible but he had no idea when exactly that was. There was no decided time like he had made with Karin but only a rough estimate. Using the Force, he made the motion of throwing something in a direction but didn't actually send anything flying.

The guards were all on their feet as they just had a strong feeling that something was happening in the direction that Naruto indicated. While the guards were all distracted, the clone unsealed the body and then used the dead soul technique on the corpse. The technique was quickly completed and the heart restarted which let him control the body. It stood and the clone dispelled. The control he was using on the shadow clone was switched with the corpse. The dead body stood and then walked over to see what the other ninja were looking at.

The Force technique he used had distracted the ninja enough that they were unaware of the noise he was making behind them and completely focused on the direction he indicated. Eventually they decided that whatever it was that had attracted their attention was no longer of interest or even important in the first place and went back to playing cards.

With the switch completed, Naruto controlled the corpse and waited for the attack to commence.

x-x

Despite having his eyes watching the fight between Uchiha Sasuke and Subaku no Gaara, the Sandaime's thoughts were elsewhere.

He was still not sure what was happening with Naruto or what the boy was up to. Nothing made sense and even though his ninja had been secretly monitoring the boy for nearly a month, they had not found anything notable or that would indicate Naruto had some kind of agenda.

Even Jiraiya had checked in on the boy from time to time and not found anything out of the ordinary. His apartment had been searched and everything that Naruto did was closely monitored but nothing came up.

He also acknowledged the fact that Naruto may know about the ANBU following him and made sure to not do anything suspicious. Something was definitely going on but he still could not determine what that something was or how Naruto was involved.

Another concern was Orochimaru as his former student was definitely planning something and he couldn't help but wonder if Naruto was somehow involved in his former student's plans for the village. With Naruto's former genin teammates turning out to both be spies for Orochimaru, anything was possible. The genin Yoroi had not given them much to go on before being assassinated, and it was still difficult to believe that the village could be so easily infiltrated by spies and that an assassination could occur in such a secure facility.

The likely culprit was Naruto's former teammate Yakushi Kabuto who was far more competent and skilled than any report or archived file revealed. The former Konoha genin had gotten past numerous Anbu with ease.

He was still questioning whether Naruto had any knowledge of either of his teammates being spies but it didn't seem that likely as even the Jonin sensei was oblivious to the genin's involvement in espionage for Orochimaru.

He desperately wished he could answer any of the questions and concerns that had been constantly on his mind in the last month but the answers continued to allude him as he looked down at the battle between the two boys.

x-x

Through what little Force connection he had in the revived and controlled body, Naruto could feel the tension starting to build which told him that something would happen soon. It seemed to swell from the forest and the arena as well as a few other places so he decided that the battle was imminent and he should start the plan.

The guard towers were placed at intervals along the top of the thick village wall and a person could walk between them. The area that Naruto needed to be was slightly off from the guard tower he was in. The snake summoning ritual was placed within a hundred feet or so from that general area and the snake would likely come right through the area.

Moving out of the tower, he started walking along the wall for a short distance. A few of the stationed ninja asked where he was going and he replied that he thought he saw something and was going to investigate.

Not twenty feet from tower, smoke started rising from the stadium and then right after that kunai peppered the watch tower he was just in. He maneuvered the corpse to dodge the kunai and didn't have to wait a few more seconds before smoke filled the section of forest in front of him. The smoke bulged out and a giant three headed snake emerged that charged the wall right where he was standing.

As it charged for his position he had to stop himself from trying to dodge it. He made it seem like he froze in shock and surprise at the coming summon. Only a moment passed before the snake reached the wall and instead of letting himself be hit, he used the Force to gently push the body away from the snake and fell off the wall as the snake slammed through it. The force of the snake's impact sent debris everywhere while he was falling and he was struck by the belly of the snake as it fell but used the Force to limit the amount of damage to the body. Despite being hit, the body was caught with the debris and ended up buried while the snake stopped for a moment to attack the ninja in the area.

Being conscious while your body was hit by a snake and then crushed under debris was a very strange experience and Naruto waited for a few more moments before stopping the technique. He made sure that the corpse was buried as deep as possible and would not be found until after the cleanup started.

With the rubble and the fighting, it could be days before that body was discovered. After that, it could take a few more days before it was properly identified depending on the damage done to it and the fact that the priority of the Konoha Hospital was for the living. With all of the injured people as a result of the battle, the hospital would be flooded with patients and everyone would be attending to them, including any doctors or examiners that normally work on autopsies.

The minimum amount of time before his body was discovered was at least several days. An autopsy would inevitably be done to make sure it was him as the council would call for it. The forged records would match up with the discovered body and everything would match. It would likely be determined from the autopsy that he was instantly killed when the summons broke through the wall and all of the other injures were caused right after death because of the debris.

No one had been left alive that had seen him die as the ninja in the watchtowers had all been killed by the kunai or the summon. Therefore, no one would be actively looking for his body until it was discovered that he was missing or the debris was cleaned up and the corpse was found. They had other priorities and he didn't have any friends or people that would be worried about him, save for perhaps the Sandaime.

It was likely that by the time the body was confirmed as his own, he would already be on his way to or in Snow Country.

x-x

A pair of blue eyes opened back in the top entrance to the hideout and Naruto turned to his shadow clones while pulling out the large scroll he had.

He unrolled the scroll and unsealed multiple smaller storage scrolls that were filled with empty storage seals and a few items that the clones would need for their mission. Each clone picked up a scroll and upon the mental command from the creator, they henged into Sound ninja and then used an earth technique to meld with the rock of the mountain and moved to complete their missions.

Naruto left the scroll where it was and then went about destroying the Sith runes on the entrance to the hideout as he had done with the runes inside of the hideout. He left most of the fuinjutsu but it wasn't a good idea to leave the Sith runes once he left because they could be discovered and it was not something he wanted anyone else to know about.

He then removed several small square pieces of parchment from his cloak. Each had a seal on it with the kanji for 'suppress'. Lifting up his shirt, he put one on his stomach and another on his chest, then stuck one on each of the upper parts of his arms. Forming the ram seal, he activated the seals and completely suppressed his chakra network.

Picking up the large and now empty scroll, he walked out of the entrance to the hideout and to the edge of the Hokage monument above the faces of the Hokage.

Looking over the village as he had done many times in the past, he had a good view the battle currently happening in the village. His eyes roamed the village walls and then peered at the stadium where a large dark purple barrier had been created.

Reaching up to his forehead, he pulled down his goggles and zoomed in on the area to see what was happening.

x-x

While battles took place over the village, groups of Naruto's clones went to three locations in the village. One group went to the Hokage tower to copy down any information or techniques that could be of use to him. The Hokage tower, specifically the Hokage's library and study had numerous books and other information that could definitely be useful to him. A second group went to the library to finish getting the information there. The final group went to infiltrate Root ANBU headquarters and take anything that they could find.

With Jiraiya's knowledge of seals, he had a few better methods for copying down information than just doing it by hand and each clone had the supplies to do it. He periodically checked in on his clones to supervise what information they were taking. He only had a limited amount of time before Karin acted on his instructions and wanted to get everything he could but the clones still needed to get back to his position.

He couldn't be seen, felt, or tracked leaving the village and while having so many ninja fighting in the village was a distraction, it also put him at risk of getting spotted, attacked, or caught. He found a much better way to leave the village that left no trail.

Unnoticed by him or his clones, Danzo was already making his way towards his apartment building.

x-x

Despite a battle going on near the village wall, Danzo and his two best Root ANBU, Fu and Torune, made their way to the building where the Kyuubi container's apartment was. Each member was being extremely cautious to not get caught or spotted by Konoha ninja but most of the battle was away from where they were.

Stopping at the entrance to the stairwell of the building, Danzo glanced over at Fu who sensed the area to make sure no one was was around and then pulled off the wrappings on his face to reveal the sharingan. They then proceeded to enter the stairwell which did not have a door but merely an open entrance.

They didn't have to go far before Danzo's eyes spotted a disturbance behind the staircase on the ground floor. The wall itself appeared slightly different than the rest of the walls and his eye picked up the small differences enough to know that an earth jutsu had been used to seal something up.

Pulling out a kunai, Danzo charged wind chakra into it and elongated the blade then slashed the wall. Putting the kunai back beneath his robes, he kicked the wall and sent the thin material inward and into an open area. It seemed to be an entrance that was covered over and the floor in the tunnel steadily went downhill.

Torune examined the area for traps but found none and so the three moved through the hole and into the tunnel, unsure of where it would lead them.

x-x

Naruto's head jerked in the direction of his apartment building as he knew that someone had destroyed the thin wall that he had put up to hide the tunnel to his hideout. He had removed the Sith runes and illusion earlier that morning. The only thing that he had left was the fuinjutsu that prevented chakra signatures from being felt outside of the hideout and a makeshift earthen wall.

His heartbeat increased slightly as he realized that someone was likely heading to his hideout and he had removed the defenses. It puzzled him how it had been discovered and he wondered who had found his secret entrance.

Glancing at his watch, he saw that he had a several minutes before his time was up. The clones were nearly finished and the group from the library were already on their way back. It would take a while for whoever it was to explore his hideout but that didn't mean that they wouldn't go to the top entrance, which was the original entrance to the space behind the Hokage's faces, and find him there.

His clones were also safe from detection as the fuinjutsu that prevented chakra from being felt inside the hideout would also prevent any chakra sensors inside the hideout from feeling chakra signatures outside of the hideout as well. It was a caveat of the fuinjutsu he chose to place in the hideout. It was easier to use than other seals and since he couldn't feel chakra anyway, there was no point in worrying about it.

Despite the fact that he could have relocated his current position, the area he was in was the best place to be as he could see everything that was happening and no one would look at the Hokage monument when the fight was elsewhere.

It might be close, but he contacted his clones and told them to hurry up. He wanted to leave before anyone found him. With his chakra sealed, he would have to fight with the Force only and he wasn't sure who he would be facing or if it was multiple ninja or not.

x-x

The three ninja moved silently through the black tunnel. The light had faded and they were going by Danzo's sharingan which could partially pierce the darkness of the tunnel. Fu told the others that he could no longer feel any chakra signatures from the village as something was blocking his sensing ability.

Though Danzo didn't want to admit it, he was very interested where the tunnel would lead. He originally thought the secret area was just a hole in the ground but this was definitely more extensive and well planned. He instantly noticed the jutsu that was used to create the tunnel as he had used the very same, though modified, jutsu when his Root headquarters was created. There also appeared to be some other fuinjutsu active in the tunnel as well.

"How far do you think we've traveled?" inquired Torune to the group and Fu answered, "A couple hundred feet, we may be nearly under the Hokage monument by now. I still can't feel anything from the outside."

Danzo stayed silent until he stopped walking, "We've reached a dead end." he stated and glanced around the pitch black area. He thought at first that it was another wall but his eye was able to see that the ceiling above them was open.

"What do we do now?" asked Fu and Danzo responded, "We go up."

x-x

The clones from the library returned and several hands came up from the ground to deposit scrolls at his feet. He didn't want to risk having one of his clones sensed anymore and couldn't seal the scrolls into his large scroll because he had sealed off his own chakra.

Improvising, he took out ninja wire and attached the small scrolls to the strap of the larger scroll like a bandolier. The situation annoyed him greatly and it wasn't the best solution but he could do little else without the possibility of alerting someone to where he was. Other people could be looking for him as well and they might find him if he unsealed his chakra.

The clones from the Hokage tower had just finished but the clones from the secret base would take slightly longer as it was deep in the ground and farther away than the other locations. Danzo had placed his base next to the Hokage mountain and nearly up against the village wall. The base had a passage out of the village and was still technically inside the village.

He glanced at his watch again to see that he only had a few minutes before Karin would act. Looking back over the village, he saw trees form inside the barrier that the Sandaime and Orochimaru were fighting in. This intrigued him but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. Pulling down his goggles again, he tried to get a better look inside the purple barrier.

x-x

After running vertically for over two hundred feet, the three ninja emerged into a much lighter area. It was quite a large cave like area and they briefly wondered exactly where in the Hokage mountain they were before they turned around.

Looking at the wall behind them, they saw the reverse impression of the Hokage's faces. Danzo's eyes widened slightly as he realized just where he was and how extensive the hideout was. He signaled to both his ninja and they went about exploring the area for anything of importance.

It was possible that the room was filled with traps, contained a clone or more, or perhaps contained the hiding Kyuubi container. The last thing he wanted was a battle with a jinchuuriki that could access some of its bijuu's power. He knew that he did have the needed abilities, sharingan and mokuton, to suppress that power but he didn't want to have the confrontation get to that point.

He hoped to get the jump on the container but the hideout appeared completely empty. Evidently the size of the original cave had been increased and multiple smaller offshoots had been created for other rooms.

'Such an extensive area and right under the village's and Hokage's nose...or noses so to speak.' Danzo thought. He couldn't believe that the entire time the container had been hiding behind the faces of the Hokage monument and that no one had ever figured it out.

'Fu should have been able to sense the boy's chakra if he was hiding here, so he must have used something else to mask it.' he surmised and started examining the walls and fuinjutsu on them a little closer while his subordinates explored the rest of the area. They were under orders to find the container and then alert him first before engaging.

x-x

The clones from the tower had just given him the scrolls and now he was waiting on the clones from the secret base.

He could feel the life-signs of three individuals below him and wasn't completely sure he could defeat all three by himself without any of his chakra. He recognized one as Fu, the other as Danzo, but had no idea who the third one was. Danzou may have appeared as a crippled old man but Naruto knew otherwise and the other two would be difficult to face as well.

They had yet to make any motion to go to the top of the Hokage mountain and seemed to be exploring the area he had created behind the faces. This bought him some time but he wasn't sure which would happen fist; that Karin would activate the scroll, that his shadow clones would return, or that he would be confronted by the three ninja.

Trying to remain calm in the situation, he looked toward the finishing battle in the village. It seemed to be wrapping up as a giant toad had appeared to fight the snake summons and then he noticed the barrier coming down near the stadium.

He could see through his goggles that the Sandaime was on the ground and Orochimaru was jumping away. The snake sannin seemed to be having great difficulty moving his arms and Naruto was at a loss to what was causing it until he noticed the seal present on the exposed skin of the Hokage's stomach. It looked like his own seal and he remembered from the scroll of seal what the jutsu was that the Sandaime must have used.

'So he summoned a being that would remove the soul of his opponent.' he thought as he had been very suspicious of what the jutsu actually did. He had heard of the Shinigami but Plagueis had not believed in such a thing or that the jutsu worked that way.

From what he could tell, the jutsu didn't seem very powerful as Orochimaru was only not able to move his arms while the Sandaime seemed either dead or dying.

He watched the fleeing sannin with interest though. The man was practically being carried by the four guards that had created the barrier. Plagueis had told him that he couldn't face Orochimaru as he would likely be defeated but his Master's words were no longer true as it appeared that Orochimaru could not move his arms or hands. Not being able to use ninjutsu or fight with his arms would severely cripple his fighting ability and give a great advantage to any opponent.

He knew the location of Orochimaru's base in Sound Country from Kabuto's memories and the sannin was injured, possibly requiring a very long recuperation period. His instincts were telling him to follow the man back to Sound Country. With his chakra suppressing seals he could sneak up on Orochimaru to finish what the Sandaime started. The man's head was likely full of techniques and information that would be valuable to both he and Plagueis.

Coming back to reality, he made a decision about the situation and noted that the last of his clones were finished and heading back to him. Danzo and the other two ninja had also nearly finished going through his former hideout.

x-x

Fu and Torune returned but with nothing to show. Apparently the entire hideout was empty and everything that could be valuable had been removed. Quickly moving to the final path, which presumably was the exit, they headed down the darkening tunnel.

Fu could not detect the container because of the fuinjutsu but he could tell that the container had been inside the hideout not an hour before. The boy had such a large amount of chakra that he left traces wherever he went.

It appeared that the container was trying to leave the village during the battle. This was unacceptable to Danzo. The boy was a key piece in his plans for Konoha's conquest of the other villages and leaving the village would likely make the boy a target that other villages would want to get their hands on or perhaps that Madara would want to get his hands on.

The question was now, 'Where is the Kyuubi container?'

The fact that only a few moments ago the container had been inside the hideout, while he reported to duty hours ago and was in the midst of a battle, meant he was likely nearby and perhaps still inside the village. It also meant that they had been monitoring a clone. Fu should be able to find the boy if they got out of the hideout.

x-x

Naruto tried to calm his breathing as he felt the three ninja head to his location. 'Have they found me or are they just leaving the hideout to search?' he wondered but couldn't get an exact answer.

Glancing to his watch again, he noted that he only had less than a minute left.

At that moment, several hands came out of the ground and handed him scrolls. He decided to just hold onto the scrolls as he couldn't seal them anywhere and his body already had numerous ones attached to the strap of the large scroll on his shoulder.

The seconds counted down as the ninja reached the end of the entrance to his hideout. Looking again at the watch, he glared at it as it now indicated that several seconds had passed after the specific time he had given to Karin.

'What the hell is she doing?'

x-x

A beeping went off that caught the attention of several animals in the nearby forest. It also woke a redhead that was sleeping against a tree near the edge of the lake.

A bleary eyed Karin tried to find out what the beeping was and why it was disturbing her nap. It took a few moments to realize that it was coming from her watch and then her eyes widened as she saw that ten seconds had elapsed past the time she was given to use the scroll.

"Shit!" she yelled and looked frantically for the scroll that was still leaning on the tree she had been napping against.

Grabbing it, she opened the scroll and started pouring her chakra into it.

x-x

'I can't let them see me.' thought Naruto and he looked for anything that he could do to hide. There was no cover to hide behind and the only thing he could think of were the tops of the Hokage's heads which varied in height below the edge of the Hokage mountain. Jumping off the edge, he landed on the top of the Yondaime's head.

He couldn't use the tree climbing exercise so he couldn't get down the mountain unless he jumped and there was no guarantee that he wouldn't be seriously hurt if he couldn't brake or slow his fall with the Force.

x-x

Danzo and his two ninja exited the tunnel and found themselves on the top of the Hokage mountain. They quickly looked for any clues to where the jinchuuriki had gone. Fu informed him of the residual chakra in the area and his sharingan could pick a faint trace of the Kyuubi container's chakra but no real trail was left for them to follow.

Going on a hunch, Danzo walked to the edge of the Hokage mountain. For some reason he had the feeling that something was there.

He reached the edge but saw nothing but the tops of the heads of the Hokage faces.

x-x

The smoke cleared to reveal a glaring Naruto and Karin would not meet his gaze.

"You were late and I nearly got caught." he stated and she immediately started giving him different excuses ranging from the watch malfunctioning to his own watch being fast and numerous other explanations in between.

Naruto merely sighed and tossed all the scrolls to her so she could seal them up in the large scroll for easier travel. She was still far to useful for him to even think about killing her over falling asleep on the job.

Pulling out another scroll from his pouch, he had Karin open the contents. Confused, Karin watched as he started putting ink on a brush and drawing some piece of fuinjutsu on the parchment. When the drawing was complete, he handed the parchment to her and she accepted the still wet fuinjutsu.

"When I tell you, place this on the surface." said Naruto seriously and it took a moment for Karin to try and comprehend what he might be referring to but nothing came to mind. "What surface?" she questioned while looking around.

"You'll see in a moment." answered Naruto and he walked to the edge of the lake.

Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the object that he knew was still at the bottom of this particular lake. The Force flowed through him and the water surface began to bubble.

Karin starred at the new phenomenon on the surface of the lake and felt Naruto using that strange extra power that he had. 'So this lake was important but only for something in it.' she concluded and her eyes were fixated on the lake.

With both hands stretched out with open palm and fingers, Naruto concentrated as hard as he could on the object and making it rise to the surface. He would succeed and the seal would be placed on the hull of the ship as it was necessary for his plans and failure was not an option.

This was the only way he found to get the ship out of the water that didn't involve creating a gigantic thirty foot long or more storage scroll. He had only finished it a couple of weeks ago and was much more confident about the process now that he had most Jiraiya's seal knowledge in his head. He couldn't sneak out of the village or alert anyone to this location and hadn't visited the ship for months.

His efforts were rewarded with the sound of water churning and a large bulge forming on the surface. He couldn't see it as his eyes were closed in concentration but he knew it was happening.

The surface continued to bulge until the water gave way to reveal a muddy shape coming out of the water. Naruto stopped his progress as he only needed a small portion of the ship exposed for his plan. Waiting a brief moment he nearly dropped the ship as he realized that Karin was just standing there.

"Karin!" he yelled and she came back to her senses and remembered she was supposed to do something.

"Put it on that?" she questioned and received a nod of the head from Naruto.

As she ran across the lake surface, Naruto's arms started to shake from the exertion of holding the ship steady. He didn't have much time before he needed to let it go. He would have liked to use a shadow clone for this instead of Karin but he still couldn't let anyone feel his chakra signature because Danzo was likely actively searching for him and would definitely come after him.

Coming to the muddy object that was sticking out of the water, she noted that a very large shadow was beneath her and that whatever object it was, must be far larger than the little area that was showing. Stopping at the exposed site, she held the wet scroll in one hand and started scrapping off enough of the mud to find a hard and flat surface. She was greatly surprised that the surface underneath appeared to be completely made of metal.

Pushing the rest of the mud off the surface, she placed the parchment flat down and then added chakra to the paper to finish the seal. The moment the seal was set, she removed the parchment from the now set seal and the object started to sink back down.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto gently let the ship come to rest at the bottom of the lake once again. Falling to his knees he took in deep ragged breaths as the task had taken a great deal from him.

A few minutes passed before Karin spoke, "What was that thing?" she questioned as even from what little she saw of the object, it looked like nothing she had ever seen before.

"You'll find out soon enough." Naruto answered as he calmed his breathing and attempted to stand up on shaky knees. Pouting, Karin gave him a glare as she really wanted to know what it was. It was obviously important but she wondered why he was leaving it and what the fuinjutsu was for.

Naruto ignored the look and glanced in the direction he knew Sound Country to be. He should be heading to Snow Country at this point, but he wanted to go to Sound Country and had a feeling through the Force that this was what he should do. It would be best to get to Orochimaru's hideout before the man and entourage did in order to set traps or a surprise attack when they got back but that was unlikely to happen. Orochimaru had a lead on him and while the man couldn't use his arms, his legs didn't seem all that damaged and he had four ninja to help him back.

Though he had been told not to try and fight Orochimaru, his next step was to get to Sound Country as fast as possible.

"So where are we going?" asked Karin as she adjusted her glasses and then gathered her belongings.

"Sound Country for a brief period and then our final destination." responded Naruto and he jumped to the nearest tree.

Karin frowned slightly at the answer and what it would mean but followed him anyway. She was curious about what they were going to do and why his chakra was completely suppressed. The term he had used, 'final destination' wasn't giving her a very good feeling but she couldn't go back to Konoha as she never had any real business being there in the first place and wasn't a citizen but a former ninja from another village. Her best option was to keep following Naruto and her curiosity was already peaked over what had just happened.

x-x

A few hours later

x-x

The battle ended inside the village and Jiraiya had managed to stop the snake summon as well as the rampaging sand jinchuuriki. The first priority for the ninja was attending to the wounded but Danzo had already returned to his Root headquarters.

He was greeted by several of his ninja reporting that the hideout had been infiltrated and many documents and scrolls had been looked through or stolen. The news was troubling as not only was he sure that it was the jinchuuriki that was behind it but it meant that there had been a leak in information and the container was not only aware of him but his hideout and ninja as well. Even the Hokage didn't know about his operation or secret base, yet the container had managed to discover all of it without him knowing.

Fu had tried to find any other trace of the container's chakra signature but there was nothing within his range. He managed to pick up very faint traces in the Hokage tower, the ninja library, and confirmed that the boy was inside their base but no actual source of chakra was still in or around the village.

'He's been rather busy. While we were investigating him, he was helping himself to information and techniques.' thought Danzo as he sat at his desk in his room.

The disappearing act was extremely troubling as he wasn't sure how the container had managed it. 'Its possible he has another hiding place and is just waiting for a good chance to leave, or he managed to leave the village without anyone noticing during a battle.' were his current thoughts on the matter.

Looking through all that he knew, it seemed more likely that the container had already left. The boy was far more versatile and calculating than to stay in the village. He was now certain that the boy knew of the impending attack and had used everything to his advantage.

There were only a few places that the jinchuuriki might go outside of the village. Wave Country was at the top of the list as the boy had already been there and had some kind of dealings with Gatou before the man's death. A thought came to mind of what Fu and Sai had reported to him, that a ship had been hidden in Wave Country and ready to go at a moments notice. It was never determined if the ship belonged to Gatou and the container was definitely there loading it with supplies.

'So he may have had a ship prepared two months in advance.' he thought and summoned a few of his ninja. He needed to intercept the Kyuubi jinchuuriki before he got away in that boat.

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