Ch. 14

Red eyes glowed in annoyance once Zetsu finished giving his report. Kobun always was an idiot; the only good that came out of the incident was that at least he would not have to deal with killing Kobun himself. He turned his attention to the little girl that Itachi and Kisame brought back, as per their mission. At least some people are competent.

"Well little girl, it seems that you get to live longer just yet." He chuckled when the girl tried to attack him. She was held back by the staining chains that were fastened to the sacrificial wall and her voice was silenced by the cloth binding her mouth. The sight was just pathetic.

"How long do you think it will be before they arrive?" Kisame asked.

He hummed as he walked away from the tied up girl and headed to his throne. "They are injured so it may be a while before they get here." He glanced at Kisame before ordering, "Tell everyone to gather in the chamber. It will take a while to gather the necessary chakra amount for the extraction and the summoning. While our little friends are looking for us, we will store our chakra into the behemoth. "

He gazed up to the demon like statue that was straight across from his throne. Within eight of its nine arms that were spread like a peacock's tail feathers were glowing spheres that would emit pain filled cries from its prisoners. The statue's large mouth stood viciously open above the struggling girl.

"How will we corral them to where we want them if everyone will be in the chamber?" Itachi asked monotonously.

"Orochimaru's experiments will finally be useful for something. Though even a genin could easily defeat them, they could be used like bread crumbles for them to follow." The man snorted. "From what I gather we may not even need to extract the Kyuubi. Zetsu has told me that the fox has been weaving its chakra within its host as a means for it not to be used." The man smiled a sinister smile. "If that is the case all we have to do is put the host in the correct spot and we can use what chakra we have stored as a safety net for the greatest summoning that ever will be done!"

Itachi looked to the empty hand on the statue as their boss began to laugh maliciously.

Who is the bigger fool, the vessel or you?

xXxXx

"Kagome are you sure you heard the guy right? Considering what the Akatsuki has been doing, wouldn't they need a bigger space than someone's house?" Sakura asked.

Shino decided to answer, "While in a normal home it would be considered odd, you have to take into account whose home it was. Hanzo of the Salamander was a very paranoid person. When you look at the measures he took to keep himself safe, why not have those same precautions for his home?"

"Plus, while the Akatsuki's base may not be there they want us there for some reason." Kagome said as she shifted her weight to try and lighten the load on Naruto. "We have what they want and they already know we are more than willing to walk into their hands." Kagome gestured the area around them. "If you haven't noticed for the past two days we have yet to sense a spy or have some sort of attack on us. Either they have gotten cocky or they are preparing for something."

Silence took hold for the rest of the day as everyone took in the information that they heard.

Two days had passed with no attack forth coming so the group had decided to walk at a leisurely pace so that everyone could recover from their injuries. Though Sakura healed the most fatal and crippling wounds she had to save chakra and could not heal everyone's soreness. Kagome was the one with the more fatal wounds, so even with Sakura helping the healing Kagome had to take it easy and heal what she could on her own. It would not be to the group's advantage if Kagome and Sakura almost die from chakra exhaustion. Though there was no rush to save Hitori officially, they did not want her to be in the enemy's hold any longer. While they were pushing a bit harder than they should, they could not help the need to conserve their strength.

It did not help matters when they had received word by messenger hawk that their back up was not following them as planned and that the hidden ANBU accomplices were called back to the village. It was very discouraging news but they had to go on and finish the mission. This meant that any movement or attack had to be done with the thought in mind that they were on their own.

Kiba sighed in depression. This mission was just getting worse and worse. Was it too hard to ask for the enemy to just face them head on so they could get this over with? Oh wait we are ninja, that not in our nature. Damnit!

xXxXx

That night after a few hours after the sun had set; Sasuke relieved Sakura of her guard duty. Watching her nodding off and not even taking in the environment made him feel unsafe. He remembered from the old days what Sakura's limit was during guard duty and it seems even after all these years, back when it was just Team Seven and Sakura was still in her fan-girl phase, some things had not changed. He was just grateful that she had matured from the fan-girl phase and grew into the woman she was now today. If only he could fall for her…

Sasuke sighed as he leaned back into the tree's trunk. Everyone in the village thought that it was her that allowed for him to return to "normal" but really it was just the interactions between Sakura and Naruto that reminded him how it was to be amongst friends. Sakura just happened to act like gum and not leave him alone so everyone assumed she was the cause.

Sasuke looked around to see if he could spot anything abnormal before his eyes landed on Naruto's sleeping face.

He huffed and folded his hands behind his head. He remembered the last time he was in this position and hoped that what happen last time did not happen again. Sasuke's eyes soften as he fondly thought; There are only so many surprises I can take outside of a battle field Naruto.

xXxXx

Naruto sighed his imaginary sigh in his imaginary world. Though he had been in here so many times before, he could not wrap his mind around this being how a person's mind really looked like. It might be just a way for him to envision a representation of his mind. Because he sure as hell was sure that his mind is not this empty and it would be a lot harder for Ino and her father to take over someone's body.

Why was he thinking about this?

Because it was a lot better than thinking about the mission he was on. So what if Kagome defeated the bad guy, what would have happen if she wasn't here? No one would have noticed the guy's escape until it was too late or that not one of the clones they were fighting was the real one. And he couldn't do anything about it! How was he going to handle the Akatsuki?

"Don't worry brat, this is why I am allowing my chakra to fuse with yours."

"But that is the whole point! Why do I have to rely on someone else's strength?" Naruto waved his arms and stomped around, "Why are you even doing this in the first place? Wouldn't your very existence disappear?"

Kyuubi sighed as he rested his snout on his forepaws. "Yes, in a sense my identity will disappear, but if you haven't notice my personality is being infused with yours."

"But why are you allowing that to happen? Didn't you want to get out of me and be free?"

"Brat, I have been alive for a very long time and these dreams or memories or whatever the hell we are seeing have made me realized something. That something has led to my decision of fusing with you even with the cost of my very existence." The fox pushed Naruto to fall on his butt and then he laid part of his snout on Naruto's lap. "Don't take this as I am suddenly a nice demon who will not kill you at a moment's notice. This is just me accepting what I was fated to do and getting it over and done with. Who knows, the next life might have sultry vixens just waiting for me to take them."

"Ok, that is just disgusting when you are saying that while you are on my lap." Naruto wrinkled his nose in disgust as Kyuubi just foxily smirked. "Will your chakra be like mine, only more unlimited or something?"

"Hmm, not really. You will most likely lose all sense and go on a rampaging killing spree." Naruto groaned in disappointment. "If that does happen just make sure that before you go on your killing spree that you are near Kagome, she will probably be the only one that can bring you back from that state."

Naruto was startled, "What do you mean?"

"She stopped me the first time remember?" At Naruto's nod Kyuubi continued, "Well what makes you think she can't stop you?"

"Gah! That is the point! Why do I have to rely on someone else? I should be strong enough to handle my own chakra and defend everyone!" Naruto stood up and began to pace back and forth. "I have all this power, all this potential, only for me to lose control of it all? This is bull crap!"

"At least now you know how I felt when I decided to leave Konoha with Orochimaru."

Naruto and Kyuubi turned their attention to their unexpected visitor. "Bastard! What are you doing here?"

Sasuke sighed as he shifted his weight on his feet. "Your chakra was fluctuating so much that it was bound to signal someone of our location. So I woke up Neji to keep an eye out while I came in here to see what was going on."

"Nothing is going on." Naruto sniffed.

"What you can do is mind your own fucking business Uchiha." Kyuubi spit out Sasuke's family's name with such venom it was not hard to see that the fox did not care for him much.

"As fun as that would be I need to make sure Naruto does not chicken out on us when we start fighting."

"What was that bastard?" Naruto seethed at Sasuke.

Sasuke sighed again. "What you can't hear now? Are you that frighten?" Naruto appeared in front of Sasuke and threw his fist at Sasuke's face. Sasuke quickly dodged the strike and put some distance between Naruto and him.

"Shut up! You don't know anything!"

Now Sasuke was pissed.

"Oh, so I don't know how it feels like to face someone who is stronger than you." Sasuke disappeared and reappeared in front of Naruto. Sasuke quickly threw a kick that hit Naruto on the side.

"I don't know how it feel like to be given power greater than my own but not from my hard work or training." Sasuke's curse seal unleashed as his Sharigan swirled rapidly in his eyes. He easily dodged Naruto's attacks.

"I don't know how it feels like to be wanted by someone with evil intent and no matter how much I try to save my friends they get hurt anyways." Sasuke wasted no time in beating Naruto onto his back on the floor. He swiftly pulled out his long katana and held it against Naruto's throat.

"I don't know anything?"

Naruto and Sasuke glared at each other with all of their frustrations and anger towards the outside world. They both had been in the same situation and Naruto realized it was not fair of him to accuse Sasuke of not knowing what he was going through. When Sasuke was dealing with Orochimaru he felt that Naruto did not understand what was going on and in some level Naruto didn't, but if Sasuke had only been more open to speaking to others he may have not even gone with the sick bastard.

Naruto sighed as he dropped his head on the floor. "Ok, I get it. I am being a dumbass."

"So good of you to notice." Sasuke moved his katana away from Naruto and sheathed it. He offered his hand to Naruto and when Naruto took his hand Sasuke lifted him up. "Do you feel better now?"

"What this? Uchiha asking someone if they are ok?" Kyuubi huffed in amusement. "Where is your aloofness at?"

"Kiss my ass stupid fox."

"Oooh, feisty. You are going to have one hell of a time trying to mount that ass Naruto." With that Kyuubi gave the blushing duo some space and laid down facing away from them.

"Ok, that was disturbing." Naruto shivered.

"Aa." Sasuke agreed.

Naruto folded his arms behind his back as he turned to look at Sasuke. "Do you think everything will be ok?"

Sasuke glanced at him from the corner of his eye and replied, "Yeah, we are from the Rookie Nine. None of us have died while all others have. Plus Team Azuma is a day behind us; they should be catching up tomorrow and just stay hidden until we need them."

Naruto dropped his arms in surprise, "What? But I thought the messenger hawk said that…" Sasuke interrupted him, "Naruto we are ninja. We are supposed to hide things from the enemy. You think we are going to give out our real information just like that? Think about the role you are playing now."

With that Sasuke disappeared from Naruto's inner world. Naruto could not hide his joy at the news that they were going to have some form of back up. He began to jump and holler with all his might.

Kyuubi relaxed at the boost in Naruto's confidence. At least now he could move on without worrying for the stupid brat. By noon the next day all of Kyuubi's chakra would have fused with Naruto's and his consciousness would be no more.

Good luck kit.

xXxXx

In one of the halls within Naruto's mind a child with a fox tail and feet was skipping and humming around to one of the rooms. The room that he entered was covered with drawings of all kinds. It was obvious that there were two characters who were consistently drawn. In his hands he had crayons and a piece of paper with two figures draw on it. Above the smaller figure the word Me was written. On the larger figure a pink star burst surrounded it and above the burst was the word Mom.

AN:

Next up date will take awhile because I want to make sure you can visualize the battles that are going to take place. If you wanna see any particular attack or interaction between characters don't be afraid to leave a review with your suggestion. Or a review in general, I don't bite. Right Hanzo of the Salamander? ;)