Chapter Twenty-One: Action and Reaction

Seeing Naruto and everyone around her suddenly start yawning and falling asleep on their feet, Sakura knew something was wrong. The fact that the urge to lie down and take a short nap was nearly overwhelming didn't help at all. Staggering over to where Naruto had collapsed, she shook him, slapped his face, and did everything she could think of to wake him up. Realizing she was running out of time as she was starting to yawn herself, placed a hand on Naruto's stomach and pushed what little chakra she could gather into him.

"Yah!" Naruto jerked upright in the blink of an eye. "Whoa, what is going on?"

Struggling to keep her eyes open Sakura slapped herself in an attempt to wake herself up. "Some kind (yawn) of genjutsu is being (yawn) over everyone here. Gotta get rid (yawn) of it."

Nodding slowly, Naruto carefully formed the rat seal and began gathering chakra in his hara. It took about a minute because of the genjutsu interfering, but Naruto held as much of his chakra in that one spot as he could before releasing the technique. Jolted out of their chakra-induced sleep, the few Sound and Sand operatives that had been infiltrated into the audience were quickly overmatched and either died or fled.

When Naruto finally got to take a look outside, Shiranui Genma was closely engaged with the Sand genin's jounin-sensei, a sickly purple cube covered the Kage's box, unaffected by his chakra wave and what was unmistakably demon chakra was radiating from where Gaara was, hidden from view by a spherical wall of sand.

Taking this all in an instant, Naruto called to the remaining genin in the fighters box. "Konoha genin, to me!" Leaping over the rail, he was quickly followed by Shikamaru, Sasuke, Sakura and Kiba. The others were surprised when Sora followed him also. As he fell, Naruto threw his hands together in the cross seal, grabbing every iota of his own chakra he could and forced it all into the Shadow Clone Technique. Drawing Kitsune, shinigami garb flapping as he fell, Naruto raced to support Genma, shadow clones splitting up. Three hundred clones headed directly for the massive three headed snake that had smashed through the wall, four hundred went for the hospital and the civilian evacuation bunker built into the Hokage Rock each, intent on guarding those two places, as they were prime targets for the enemy. Another five hundred were simply tasked to seek and destroy, to kill any enemy they found. Fifty went to guard the stadium's infirmary where Tenten was and an equal number headed out to find Hinata. The final batch of shadow clones stayed with the original, about a hundred and fifty in total.

Landing in the dirt of the arena, Naruto was beaten to Genma by a number of jounin, Anko, Kakashi, Gai and Asuma among them.

Baki was a skilled jounin, but there were few nin alive that could take the group arrayed against him. Glancing back to where Gaara was, he gritted his teeth. He had to buy enough time for Gaara to release Shukaku, and if his life was the price required, he was prepared to spend it.

"Now, before you do anything really stupid, take a moment and think. There are three of the most powerful jounin in Konoha standing not ten feet from you. Your ninjutsu has been nullified. The snake that has been summoned outside of Konoha will be dealt with shortly. Surrender now and you will not be mistreated."

"You seem to know a lot about our plan, Proctor-san. But you have to know that I cannot surrender. My Kazekage had ordered that Konoha be razed to the ground, so I have to put my utmost effort to making that happen. But you seem to have missed something. Please allow me to introduce Sabaku no Gaara, Jinchuuriki of the Ichibi no Tanuki, Shukaku."

The moment he stopped speaking, the ball of sand that had surrounded Gaara exploded, revealing a human-sized Shukaku, human legs sticking out of the bottom. Releasing a roar, Gaara raised his hand to the sky and slammed them down, causing a wave of sand to leap forward. The jounin each grabbed a genin or two and dodged, except Naruto who had been able to flash step out of the way.

Landing next to Kakashi, Naruto drew his blade once more, but directed his words to the jounin. "Kakashi-sensei, I need you to get everyone out of here. Go find Jiraiya and tell him what has happened."

"Hold on Naruto-san, we-"

"Kakashi, you will have to forgive my insubordination, but there is nothing you can do here. You are neither a Jinchuuriki nor are you a sealing expert. If you go up against Gaara right now, there is a more-than-likely chance you will die. Please leave this fight to me. As the Jinchuuriki of Konoha, this is the kind of battle I was created for. If you want there anything to be left of Konoha after this battle, do as I say and go to Jiraiya. He will most likely be up by the barrier on top of the Kage's box or dealing with the snake summon. Now GO!"

Jerked out of his stunned immobility, he quickly gathered everyone else up and headed to do as Naruto had ordered him to.

OoOoO

Glancing back at the stadium as he left Naruto to battle the raging tanuki demon, Kakashi left Gai in charge of the group as he sought Jiraiya out. Keeping to the roofs, Kakashi raced to where the three headed snake was. As he sped toward his target, Kakashi marveled at the fact that he, and not Naruto, was the one who had been ordered out of the stadium. There had only been one other person that had possessed that force of command, and he had been dead for over thirteen years. When Naruto had ordered him to gather the others up and leave, his first instinct was to obey first, and then ask questions. Shaking his head to clear them of extraneous thoughts, Kakashi narrowed his exposed eye and focused on his objective.

OoOoO

The battalion of Narutos tasked to eliminate enemy ninja had quickly split up into fifty squads of ten clones. One such squad had been roof hopping toward the east gates, thus far having been irritatingly unable to find any enemies. That drought was quickly ended when he came upon a group three Konoha ninja facing down a group of Oto-nin more than twice their number.

The Naruto-primary, the clone that led the group, led the charge against the enemy. Having used flash steps to approach, the Oto-nin were caught wholly unaware when close to a dozen clones fell on them from (what seemed to them) out of nowhere. Suddenly caught by a second and much more powerful force, the nine Sound-nin were cut down almost instantly.

"You and you," he pointed to a pair of secondaries, "grab him and get him out of here." The two clones did as they were told and carefully lifted a heavily wounded and unconscious ninja in a chunin flak vest and headed to the hospital. "Who is in charge here?"

"I am," a bald chunin carrying a pair of curved kunai in his hands said. "Who are you?"

"Hyuuga Naruto, genin. How are you and your other man? Are you still fit to fight?"

"Yes," the bald man replied carefully.

"Hatake Kakashi is going to be fighting that snake summon and he is going to need help. The Hokage had been incapacitated for the moment and the Ichibi has been released in the arena. Right now I believe that Hatake is the highest ranking officer already not too heavily engaged, so go and report in to him."

"And who the hell are you to be ordering me around? If anyone should be heading away from the fighting, it should be you."

"Negative. I have fifty hunter-killer teams of shadow clones combing Konoha, directing everyone to head to where Hatake is and get a command post set up. I am just a clone, so I would be best used to gather everyone in one place and try to kill any enemies I come across. Forgive my insubordination, but you will be of the most use at the command post."

Meeting the blond genin's steely gaze, the bald chunin found himself bowing slightly and motioning for his teammate to follow him almost without thinking. Looking back at the leader of the group of clones he asked one more time, "Who are you?"

As one all eight Narutos smiled slightly and replied, "We are Legion."

OoOoO

At the arena, Naruto was panting heavily, wavering slightly as Gaara almost effortlessly slaughtered his clones. He had thrown every bit of chakra that he could into his Mass Shadow Clone Technique, creating two thousand clones and was reaching his limit without dipping into the Kyuubi's chakra.

Forcing his hands together, Naruto created another fifty clones to replace those that Gaara had killed and went to one knee, gasping. He was saved from further ignominity by Sora who pulled him upright by his shoulder. "Careful there. Save some chakra for yourself, okay?"

"I will if I can. Sora, see if you can tie down any of his sand with some of your water techniques."

"I am not sure that will work. He could simply compact his sand into stone to wring the water out."

"Probably, but just try it. I think I might have a plan."

"Might have a plan?"

"Just try it would you? I am running out of clones again." Although any unspent chakra was returned to him when a shadow clone died, the strain of repeatedly creating so many clones was starting to tell. Not to mention the burns on his arms were interfering with his concentration.

Tightening her mouth into a thin line, she stepped away from Naruto. "Water Release: Violent Water Wave!" Puffing her cheeks out, Sora spat a large column of water at Gaara. Gaara raised his hands over his head to block the move, only to have his sand stripped from him completely from the force of the flow. Narrowing his gaze, he didn't have time to summon his sand to protect him as Naruto flash stepped in close, driving a Rasengan into his face. Gaara was hurled back into the stadium wall by the force of the blow, the right side of his face a bloody mess, his skintight Armor of Sand having absorbed the greater part of the blow before being stripped away.

Stumbling forward, touching the blood dripping from his face he gave the other two Jinchuuriki a wild-eyed stare before throwing his head back and screaming as loud as he could. When the sand that Sora had stripped away came rushing at them, it was all Naruto could do is grab Sora and flash step out of range. When the sand started reforming on him Naruto winced. When the sand covered his legs and he started growing, Naruto swore.

"We have to get out of here Sora. I think that is Gaara going into full one-tail mode. We have to get him out of Konoha before he starts causing too much damage."

"You know, that sounds like a really good idea. There will be less sand for him to absorb out in the forest too, so we might be able to prevent him from getting too big."

"Between the two of us, I am the faster one, so I am going to carry you."

"Can you do that teleportation thing with another person?"

Naruto hesitated before answering. "Probably. Only one way to find out." And with that, he scooped Sora up bridal-style and fled.

OoOoO

Shikamaru and his team had quickly evacuated the stadium once it became clear that they were way out of their league. Once Jinchuuriki started to brawl, it was long past time to be gone. Shikamaru and the others had been heading towards the Hokage's Tower to report into whoever had taken charge, but he had been separated from Choji and Shino. Currently, he was lurking in a narrow alley, examining the empty street. It looked clear, but he decided to wait another two minutes just to make sure. The decision was taken from him when a young woman with an infant tied to her chest dashed across the street.

Her way was impeded instantly when a dozen ninja in urban fatigues rounded the corner. Sighting the civilian, they paused to examine their prey. Shikamaru grimaced and eased a kunai into his hand, preparing himself to attack. In all likelihood, he wouldn't be able to buy the woman more than a handful of seconds before he was overwhelmed. But she was a citizen of Konoha and it was his duty to defend her with his life.

Crouching in preparation to strike, he was arrested by the sight of a figure in black materializing between the woman and the enemy. Shikamaru was forced back a step and the woman was forced to her knees by the malevolence radiating from Naruto. He had felt the chakra that Naruto had used against Neji in the stadium, but this was different. This was not chakra, but something more. The thought of killing intent passed through his mind, but that wasn't it either. This was like Naruto had gathered all his negative emotions and released them into the atmosphere.

His mouth dropped open in horror when Naruto charged the group, silvery gladius held in one hand, point pointing at the blue sky. Shikamaru blinked and the next thing he saw was Naruto in the center of the group, killing. The Sound shinobi barely had a chance to flinch in terror before Naruto had cut three of them down in a single stroke. That was all that was required to break them, turning to flee as fast as they could. But Naruto killed them anyways, stabbing fleeing men in the back, lopping off arms, legs, heads. Eviscerating a man as he turned to try to block a cut, leaving him to writhe in agony, unable to decide whether to clutch the bloody stump of an arm that had gotten in the way of Naruto's cut or try to hold in his bowels. Small as his blade was, it had not problem cutting through anything.

Shikamaru quickly turned away vainly trying to suppress his rising gorge. When he looked back, Naruto stood in the middle of the killing field, laughing. "Shikamaru-kun! Come out from your hidey hole and join me! This is fun!"

Shikamaru jerked violently as the young man called out to him. Slowly pushing himself to his feet, he walked into the street. "Shikamaru, why were you hiding? You missed out on the fight. I was going to leave you a few, but I got a little carried away."

"Y-yes, I can see that Naruto-kun." He tried to block out the sounds of the dying and the smells of the dead. "I think I had better escort this woman to one of the shelters though."

Naruto gave a disappointed frown but then shrugged. "Oh well. More for me then, I guess." Shikamaru didn't precisely cringe at his next smile, but it was close. There was blood on his pointed teeth, and he doubted it was Naruto's. Closing his eyes for a second he opened them and pointed down the street. "There is a hunter-killer squad about two blocks that way, you can go meet up with them if you want." The black-haired boy nodded mutely. Bringing his blade to his mouth, Naruto licked a spot of blood from it and started to walk past Shikamaru and the terrified civilian.

"Please, sp-spare us Shinigami-sama! I-I ha-ave a daughter!" The woman's words were nearly impossible to make out from her uncontrolled sobbing, but there was enough to make out what she had said.

"Don't worry, my lady. Only those who are my enemy have reason to fear me. This man is going to take you to one of the shelters now. Go with him and you will be safe."

Helping the trembling woman to her feet, Shikamaru couldn't stop seeing those blood-colored eyes, even after Naruto was long gone and the slaughtering field was far behind them. 'Shinigami? Yes, I can believe it.' And that was what scared him the most.

OoOoO

Sarutobi Konohamaru was quickly coming to the realization that his boss was neither a nice person, nor someone to mess with. As soon as the teachers started to realize what was going on, they had quickly evacuated the school. Unfortunately, they had run across a squad of Narutos on the way to the nearest bunker. There were four of them, and were engaged in the process of slaughtering a mixed bag of Sound and Sand ninja. Almost as one, the teachers jumped to the front of the group to physically block the sight from the children. But even from what little Konohamaru had seen, it was bad. The metallic odor of blood was overpowering, and the scent of voided bowels did not make it any more appetizing. The Sandaime's grandson was far from the only one collapsing in terror and throwing up, although from the sights and scents or from the evil chakra and the malicious aura pouring from Naruto was up for debate.

As quickly as they could, the instructors were herding the students away from the carnage, down a side street to loop around back towards the shelter they were heading for. The group was halted for a second time when the four Naruto's simply appeared, no blur of motion, no swirl of leaves or wind to signal his appearance, in front of the group. One of the four, probably the least bloody of the group, stepped forward. The teachers either armed themselves or slid into taijutsu stances. "Whoa, hold on there, I'm one of the good guys. Leaf hitai-aite, see?"

"I see you Naruto-kun. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I assume you are heading toward one of the bunkers?"

"Yeah, we are."

"I will escort you there then. There are some large groups of invaders roaming about. I've lost six clones from this group to ambushes so far."

"This group? The real one isn't here?"

"Nah, the original is out fighting the One-Tailed Demon in the arena. There are about five hundred clones, probably a little less now, out hunting down the invaders and escorting anyone we find to one of the shelters or ordering them to the command post."

Iruka almost wondered at Naruto ordering anyone around, but chose not to question him too much, as they were still in the middle of a street. "Okay, then, let's go." The group continued forward, with a Naruto at each of the cardinal directions. Iruka didn't have to tell any of the other instructors to keep a close eye on the boy. He seemed to be under control now, but he had been slaughtering those other shinobi with utter abandon not two minutes ago.

Naruto flashed a grin at Konohamaru, unmindful of his slit-pupiled, red eyed gaze, nor his blood-drenched garb. Konohamaru for his part offered a hesitant and fearful smile back at his former hero, wondering at the changes in him.

OoOoO

Naruto was pretty good at flash stepping, but carrying another person while doing it was quite a bit harder. It was more than the increased weight and wind resistance, it was like Sora didn't want to move, and he had to drag her after him. That was why he and Sora were able to keep just ahead of Gaara. Despite the fact that he was over ten feet tall, in increased mass didn't seem to hinder him much. Naruto created a handful of clones to hang back slightly and continue to harass Gaara with kunai and shuriken, making sure that he didn't decide to wander off to find easier prey. Once they passed the wall, Naruto only went another thousand yards before halting. He let Sora down and went to one knee, panting while Sora threw up. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she muttered, "Remind me never to ride the Uzumaki Express again."

Naruto didn't get the chance to reply as they had to dodge a hail of sand shuriken. Using the surrounding foliage as cover, Naruto and Sora were able to avoid anything really nasty. "Naruto, we are going to have to break out our demons as well as if we are going to beat him. His size alone has us at a major disadvantage!" While Gaara had been pursuing Sora and Naruto he had gained another twenty feet, at least, starting to peak the trees.

"No problem Sora. Just be careful. I am not sure how well I am going to be able to control myself."

"Fine then! I am going two tails, gimme some cover for a second." Sora did not dare go three tails, because while the third tail would give her more strength, it would require turning control over to Leviathan, and she really doubted that he would be able to keep up with Gaara's lightning fast strikes.

Mustering what he could of his dwindling chakra, Naruto summoned three or four dozen shadow clones and swarmed the behemoth tanuki.

Given his burned arms, the fifteen hundred or so shadow clones remaining in Konoha, the extended flash stepping and now the all the jumping about he was having to do, Naruto was reaching the bottom of the barrel. He could only hope that he could control the Kyuubi.

His internal rambling was cut off when a wave of chakra washed over him. Looking over to where Sora was, he saw Sora floating in the center of a translucent three-tailed turtle. The edges seemed somewhat malleable and he saw bubbles suspended around Sora, so he realized that her demon was made of water. Made sense, given that the Three-Tails was a turtle. Leaping onto the back of the shell as Sora charged Gaara, he was only slightly surprised when he was able to stand on it.

Sora and Gaara started exchanging blows while Naruto, charged with Kyuubi-chakra created a double handful of shadow clones. Ordering them to charge Gaara, he was only slightly surprised when they exploded with more force than was usual. Gaara roared at the glassed craters his clones had created, and suddenly redoubled his efforts. Naruto had to dance a bit as Gaara's Sand Shuriken started to pierce his chakra cloak. Although with Gaara's attention divided between trying to catch his clones and dealing with Sora, the sand was not as fast as it otherwise might have been. He had to retreat back onto Sanbi-Sora when Gaara emerged from where ever he had been inside Shukaku. Sora had been able to fight Gaara to a standstill as it was, if Gaara got any stronger, things could get sticky. Unlike before, this form of Gaara's was fairly impervious to water techniques which negated her main strength.

Both Jinchuuriki had a 'what the hell' moment when Gaara executed the Feigning Sleep Technique. For whatever reason, as soon as he fell asleep, his speed and dexterity increased several times over. Where Sora had been able to match Gaara in brute strength before, she was now struggling to keep up with his speed. Simply put, she was out of her element. Her demon was a turtle, and while she would be running laps around him were they in water, they weren't. Were they battling on a big enough pond or lake, she would have gone three tails and let Leviathan tear him apart. The best she could do was try to tank him and hope that Naruto was either able to pull enough Kyuubi-chakra out or come up with a plan to take him out.

Seeing an opportunity in Gaara's exposed body, Naruto once again boarded Shukaku. But he quickly got bogged down by Gaara-shaped sand clones that were faster and even more durable than the original was when Gaara, who had been sticking out of Shukaku's head like some kind of weird pimple was zipped away.

Naruto had to abandon ship yet again when Shukaku started to destabilize. Looking past the impeding sand clones, he saw a dazed and groggy Gaara get struck in the chest by a large ball of water, knocking him out of Shukaku. Looking from where the ball of water came from, he saw a person perched at the tippy-top of a tree from less than thirty yards away, unmistakably Tenten because of the rifle she had pointing in their direction. However she had gotten there, he wasn't going to question good luck when he saw it.

Making back to Sora just in time, he jumped to the ground and approached an unconscious Gaara. Digging him out of the sand that was partially burying him was a bit of a chore, but as soon as he did, he slung him over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and started staggering to Konoha.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at Sora when she approached him with her kodachi bared. (He made a mental note to ask where the hell she kept it when he had a chance.)

"Put him down Naruto-kun."

"Like hell I will. There is no way you are going to kill him Sora."

"Naruto, he is an enemy of Konoha, and what is more, he can barely control his demon. You take him into Konoha and the first thing he is going to do is start killing again."

"How can you say any of that Sora? You are a Jinchuuriki too, you should understand a little of what he is going through at least!"

Sora shook her head. "Trust me Naruto. While I have never been treated as badly as you have, I can do what is necessary even so."

"No, Sora, he is coming with me. I will take responsibility for anything he does while in Konoha if I have to. Besides, I don't even know why we are having this conversation. We are in Konoha, and he is my prisoner, so what I say goes."

She shrugged. "If you insist then. I am telling you that you are going to regret it though."

OoOoO

Orochimaru was mad. No, strike that, he was pissed. Things were not going as they were supposed to be going at all. And he had a good idea of who was the source of his misfortune. When Kabuto had initiated the Temple of Nirvana Technique, it had been dispelled a minute later by a wave of chakra. In addition, that chakra wave had disrupted the Four Violet Flames Battle Encampment long enough for four ANBU to leap through before the Sound Four had been able to stabilize it. Had it just been him and his former teacher, he had no doubt who would have come out on top. As it was though, he was having trouble getting any of his forbidden techniques off. He had tried to activate Summoning: Impure World Resurrection, but had been forced to break it off midway through the hand seals or lose his head.

If it wasn't for the heavily modified body he was inhabiting, he probably would have died several times during the fight. His second heart increased the amount of adrenaline and other performance-enhancing hormones he could run through his body at one time. His multi-lung let him breath despite getting a lungful of poison gas blown in his face. The oolitic kidney processed what poison he inhaled. He thoroughly enjoyed the looks of shock he received when he shrugged off what should have been lethal attacks. It was hard to tell through the mask, but he nearly laughed at the stunned surprise one ANBU must have had on his face when his sword snapped when he tried to stab him in the chest. The ossmodula in his chest had fused his ribs into a harder-than-steel natural breastplate.

All was not bad though. He had killed one of the ANBU with the Kusanagi almost right off the bat and tagged Sarutobi across the shoulder, but after that they had been careful to avoid it after that. The ANBU's death had been neither short nor pleasant.

Growling as he dodged a thrust from Enma in his staff form, he struck out with the Kusanagi, which was parried in turn. Letting one of the ANBU pierce his hand with his sword, Orochimaru lashed out with a side kick and blasted the ANBU off his feet toward the purple luminescent wall. Annoyingly, the ANBU caught himself in time and managed to avoid a grisly death.

Seeing his three headed snake summon be desummoned and not seeing Gaara at all, Orochimaru snarled. It seemed that the battle outside the purple wall was dying down, more and more Konoha shinobi gathering outside, Orochimaru was forced to conclude that if he lingered here much longer the chances of his escape grew slimmer.

"Damn you Sarutobi-sensei, but it seems that we have gained quite the audience. Unfortunately, I have a pretty bad case of stage fright, so I am afraid that, as much as I might wish otherwise, I will have to cut our reunion short. Fire Release: Solar Flare!"

Focusing his chakra to his forehead, Orochimaru created a blinding flash of light so bright that even those watching through the twin barriers were struck blind. Orochimaru motioned for his Sound Four to drop the barriers and having each of them grab hold, teleported away from the battlefield with a series of body flickers.

Groaning in pain as he felt the poison from the wound in his shoulder burn, he gasped as he was laid on his back. "Get... Tsunade... only she... heal me..."

Gently letting Sarutobi's head fall back, the ANBU captain, along with three other ANBU swiftly carried the unconscious Hokage to the hospital. When they arrived, they were greeted by several hundred Narutos. Passing by their worried stares, the ANBU captain entered the chaos of the hospitals lobby. Despite the efforts of Naruto's hunter-killer squads, over a hundred ninja hand been killed, with a little under three times that wounded.

So when the Hokage was carried in, it was a few seconds before anyone had the chance to find out what was going on. Of course, once they realized who he was, everything just stopped for a few seconds, before erupting back into activity. Once he was safely ensconced in the ICU, it was determined that Sarutobi had placed himself in a sort of hibernation trance, slowing his bodily functions so that the poison's spread was nearly halted.

A sample of his blood was taken so the poison could be analyzed and an antidote formulated. But the poison was nothing that anyone, doctor, medic or lab technician had ever seen. The poison was constantly altering itself, so that any antidote that was created would be rendered obsolete before it could be finished.

Remembering what Sarutobi had told him as he had fallen unconscious, he ordered that the Council be assembled, by force if necessary.

OoOoO

By the time that he and Sora reached the tree that Tenten had been using as a snipers platform, she had reached the bottom and was sitting against the trunk. Tenten was wearing her black coat buttoned closed over her torso, but judging from her how she was a little pale and breathing as if from mild exertion, something was wrong. Setting Gaara aside, he barged through the dozen clones that surrounded her. Carefully opening her coat, Naruto saw that the medics had removed her shirt, preserving her modesty by binding her breasts with the same bandages that were wrapped around her stomach. There was a thin line of red staining the bandages over where Sakura had cut her.

"What in the world are you doing here Tenten-chan?"

"Looking after you, duh."

"You really shouldn't have. It looks like you opened your wound a bit again."

"I'll be okay. I woke up a just as you started drawing Gaara away from Konoha. It took me a while to find a tree tall enough to shoot out of, and then I had to wait for Gaara to pop up. I didn't dare use anything lethal, in case I missed and hit you."

Naruto sighed. There really wasn't much use in berating Tenten, as she had not done anything that he would have. "That was great shooting too."

"It should be. I have spent months practicing. At least I finally got to use it in combat, even if it was a less-lethal cartridge." Jerking his head to where he had dropped Gaara, he gently scooped Tenten up, trying to jostle her as little as possible to avoid agitating her wound. He didn't think it looked too bad, but while she wasn't a vanilla mortal, she did not have his regeneration either.

He started shifting uncomfortably when he reentered the village when he noticed some of the looks that the civilians and shinobi were giving him. The hospital had taken some damage, but his clones has prevented it from taking much more than the superficial. A broken window here, a few pockmarks there. The moment that he entered the lobby, three nurses descended on him and relieved him of both Gaara and Tenten.

It turned out that Gaara suffered from a couple of fractured ribs and mild concussion from the fall, his Armor of Sand absorbing the brunt of the impact. He stood watch over the unconscious boy until Jiraiya arrived. The older man quickly inscribed a chakra-suppressing seal over the cuffs that he wore and an IV was inserted in his arm, giving him enough sedatives to knock out a horse. Jiraiya eventually guided Naruto out of the room and to the one that Tenten was occupying, where Naruto flopped down in one of the cushioned seats and passed out.

When he woke up, it was early evening, judging from the sunlight slanting through the window. Tenten was awake and glaring at the wall he saw as he rubbed the sleepies from his eyes. Yawning and stretching the kinks from his body, he blinked in surprise when he realized that he and Tenten were not the only ones in the room as he heard some loud whispering cut off as soon as he started moving. In fact, the lion's share of the Genin Twelve were present. The only people who were not in attendance were Neji, Sasuke and Lee.

Wincing slightly as his back popped loudly, Naruto sat up. "Yo," accompanying the single syllable with a lazy wave of his hand. Nobody said anything as he pushed himself into a proper sitting position, everyone just looking at him with carefully blank stares as Hinata stepped forward.

"How are you feeling Naruto-kun?"

"Like crap. My back is killing me, my head is splitting and I feel like I could sleep for a week." Everyone chucked slightly at that.

"Given some of the stuff you pulled off during the invasion, you should be thankful that you got off lightly." Shikamaru was leaning against the opposite wall, with his hands folded over his chest. He had a frown on his face that said he had something to say, but he wasn't sure how to say it. "I mean, how many shadow clones did you make? From all the reports from people seeing sizable groups of your clones just about everywhere, last count had somewhere between fifteen hundred and two thousand."

"Eh, that sounds about right." Scanning the group and seeing how all of them wore the same carefully neutral expression, he asked "what?"

"You know, we should be asking you the same question Naruto. What happened to you during the invasion?"

"What do you mean? I am fine."

Shikamaru paused, gathering his thoughts before he spoke again. "I am talking about your clones, Naruto. Some of them were pretty... violent out there, and it has a lot of us worried."

Naruto did not respond at first, and Hinata tensed up, Tenten balling her fists in her sheets. "What did you see?" Naruto asked quietly.

"I saw you, or more likely a clone, slaughtering a group of Sound shinobi. It was absolutely merciless, fighting without regard for itself. It was enjoying the slaughter, killing even after they started to run. And the aura it was exuding, even that guy from Sand didn't come close to the feeling of pure malice it was giving off. There was a woman and her child watching and I am afraid that she might have gone mad from watching the massacre. She is here in the hospital, heavily sedated because whenever she wakes, she starts screaming about how you were the Shinigami in the flesh, come to kill us all. Right now, I am not sure which nickname has become more popular, Shinigami no Naruto, or the Lightning Legion. That one came from a pair of chunin that were rescued by one of the main gates by one of your hunter-killer teams apparently. But in any case, I am not the only one who saw some of your clones seemingly out of control. And Naruto, it has us worried. So I ask again, what happened?"

Naruto ducked his gaze and balled his fists, letting his bangs fall forward and obscure his eyes. "I suppose it was only a matter of time before everyone else found out. Do you know what my birthday is? No? It is October tenth, the day that the Yondaime Hokage died to destroy the Kyuubi no Youko. Except that that isn't quite true. While the Yondaime did die that day, the Kyuubi is a being comprised purely of chakra, possessing no physical form, so it cannot be killed, much in the way that a tsunami or hurricane cannot be killed. The Yondaime used the last of his life to seal the Kyuubi away, seal it in such a manner that it could not harm the village again. The result of that sealing is me."

Several of the genin gasped in horror. "So that is why our parents... You are the Kyuubi!"

"NO!" Hinata snarled, whirling between him and the group, jabbing a finger at the group. "Naruto-kun is NOT the Kyuubi," she was baring her teeth and furrowing her brow in anger. "Naruto-kun is the vessel that contains the Kyuubi, nothing more!"

Everyone recoiled in dual shock, one from seeing Hinata yell at them, two from the anger in her voice. "But he just admitted..."

"He has admitted NOTHING! NOTHING except being the one thing that stands between us and destruction! He has been ignored and abused all his life for nothing he could control, for something that we should be honoring him for, yet most of you have spit on him for no better reason than 'Mommy said to!' You should be on your knees thanking him for saving each and every one of your lives, if not for today, then for yesterday, and the day before. For every day that he has lived, holding the Kyuubi away."

"Hinata-chan, it is okay," Naruto reached out and put an arm on hers, pulling it down and pulling her back a bit.

"No, Naruto-kun, it is NOT okay! You have done more to save this village than all of them combined, and they still hate you."

"Hinata-chan, it is okay. It is not their fault I have been mistreated. Their parents were the ones who told them to do so, so they did. You cannot blame them for only doing as their parents taught."

"Yes I can, I can and I do. I can because they do not deserve your sympathy or your forgiveness."

Naruto met her eyes with a look of sadness and said quietly, "then you are no better than they are, Hinata-chan."

Everyone looked on, shell-shocked, first at Hinata, soft-spoken, mumbling, blushing, fingertip-poking Hinata exploding in genuine rage at them, and then at Naruto, who couldn't deny her the least thing, for putting her down. Nobody said anything as he picked up his coat and slung the baldric to his sword over his shoulder, and left.

"You know the funniest thing about all of this?" Tenten asked from her place in the bed, "even Naruto is scared of the Kyuubi."

OoOoO

The first thing Hinata did after leaving the hospital was go straight home. She tucked her sandals in the cubbyhole set into the wall and headed towards his usual hangouts, Ichiraku's, the Academy, the Hokage Rock and finally her and Naruto's apartment at little short of a run. She surprised several people as she rushed by with barely a wave of acknowledgment. She flung the main door open and dashed to fling Naruto's open as well. Once she had ascertained that Naruto was not in their apartment, she sank to her knees in frustration. Her anger welling up again, she left the apartment and headed toward the dojo. If she couldn't explain herself to Naruto, maybe she could just work off some steam.

OoOoO

Hiashi was in his study writing a message when a soft knock sounded at his door. Shuffling his papers and tapping them against the desk, he set them down and called for the person to enter. "What is it?"

"Hiashi-sama, please, come to the dojo, it is Hinata-sama."

"What is wrong? Has she been injured?" Although why she would be in the dojo instead of the infirmary or hospital if she had been was a good question.

"Please, Hiashi-sama, just come." Hiashi nearly backhanded the man when he showed the audacity to actually tug at his sleeve. But the look on his face said that there was something seriously wrong, so he ignored the insult and just followed the man. As they drew close, Hiashi could feel chakra being expended, and a lot of it. When they rounded the corner, Hiashi was greeted with the sight of nearly a dozen Branch House members huddled around the open doorway to the dojo. Now that they were close, Hiashi could hear the sound of breaking wood. When he looked through the open door, he completely understood the man's urgency and the other Branch House members shock.

Hinata was in the middle of the dojo with just about all the wooden practice dummies in the dojo arrayed around her in a ring. But it was Hinata herself that was the center of attention. Hinata was leaping about, systematically destroying the target dummies. First of all was the shell of chakra encasing her, so thick and strong that it was visible to the naked eye. Next were her attack routines, highly advanced Jyuuken forms that she had most definitely not learned yet, attacking with her hands and her feet, even her elbows and knees. Finally was the fact that she was not using fingertip needle jabs, or even the less refined palm strikes, but curled fists, striking with almost explosive power.

He watched in surprise as Hinata turned on a dummy and lopped the head off with a reverse round house kick, following it up with a punch that went clear through the wooden torso, about where the heart was. But she was not finished. She lashed out with a knee to the groin, splintering the wood six inches deep and finished it off with a sweeping left-to-right elbow that snapped the pole the dummy was mounted on and sent it crashing into the next one in line.

Clearing his throat, he blinked in surprise at her looks. Hinata was sweating profusely from exertion, face redder than a tomato and fishnet-covered torso heaving wildly. He ignored the disapproval at her displaying her body in such an indecent fashion, instead seeing how her hair was sodden, strands glued to her forehead and cheeks with perspiration. Calmly surveying the destruction, her father slowly walked into the room.

He took his time before speaking, ignoring his daughter's glare. "I see that you have taken the initiative and decided to do some training on your own. Although I would say that you are being a little rough on the equipment." Hinata said nothing. "Tell me, what has gotten you so riled up? Has Naruto-kun said something to you?"

And almost without warning, Hinata struck with a high-pitched shriek. Chakra shell leaping up once again, she took a skipping back step and lashed out with a full-armed backfist which he blocked easily, although the power behind it caught him a little off guard. She barely reacted to his block, instead whirling the other way to attempt to hit him with a reverse elbow. He blocked that too, as well as the following straight punch, knee strike, roundhouse kick and the quick series of vertical kicks chambered from an upside-down tripod she went into after he blocked her roundhouse kick (something he would have expected from Naruto, not her.) Finally catching a foot, he lifted her off the ground, only to be caught completely off guard when she headbutted him between the legs. There was a collective gasp from the peanut gallery as Hiashi slowly collapsed to the floor, cupping his genitals in an attempt to retroactively block the attack. Hinata had been wearing her hitai-aite on her forehead for some strange reason, Hiashi absently noted as he crossed his eyes.

Shoulders slumping and head dipping to the ground suddenly, Hinata went to her knees. Several servants rushed to help the Clan Patron up, but he waved them off, tottering to his feet. Hinata certainly hadn't pulled any power on that attack. Trying to blink the tears of pain from his eyes, he barely managed to get to the bench built along the wall before he collapsed again, although he winced again as his battered genitals came to rest on the hard wood.

Clearing his throat he spoke once Hinata sat down on the bench next to him. "Care to tell me what is wrong?" His voice was a little higher than he was used to, but intelligible nevertheless.

"It is Naruto-kun. Some of the others from our Academy class were in the hospital when he woke up. One of them accused him of being the Kyuubi, and when I defended him, he said he was disappointed in me. How could he say that? I have always been there for him. I have always supported him in everything he has done. I was defending him! What was wrong with that?"

"What did you say?"

"I told them that they should be thanking him for having the Kyuubi sealed in him, and that they had mistreated him for no good reason. Naruto-kun said it was okay, but I told him they didn't deserve for him to forgive them."

"And that was when he said the he was disappointed in you?" Hinata just nodded mutely. "Well, have you thought that Naruto has already forgiven them for their past transgressions?"

"But why would he? They have done nothing to earn his forgiveness."

"Perhaps he would rather let their past behavior be forgotten rather than spend the energy to hate them?"

"Do you think?"

"I think that this is something that you have to figure out for yourself."

Hinata sighed. Picking a towel off the rack, she began mopping the sweat from her face and neck. Exiting the dojo, she saw that the Branch House members that had been watching her vent had drawn to each side of the open door. Naruto was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Na-Naruto-kun! How long have you been there?"

"Long enough." In truth, as soon as he had left the hospital, he had sought Jiraiya out, but the man had not been very helpful with what Naruto had wanted. Seeing Hinata leap to his defense and start screaming at the other genin had caught him by surprise. He had not realized that she had taken his mistreatment so badly, and he was sorry to see her acting just like the ones that she was berating. Eventually he had decided to head home and try to get some sleep. But he had been drawn towards the sight of everyone crouching in the door to the dojo. He had arrived just in time to see Hinata nail Hiashi and listen to their subsequent conversation.

Naruto jerked his head in the direction of their apartment and turned to head to it. "Come on. We can speak there." Naruto turned away and headed toward their apartment, letting Hinata trail him. He closed the doors to their apartment gently once they had arrived and turned around to find Hinata on her knees on the floor in the middle of the room, head lowered in shame.

Seating himself on the hard wood floor just in front of her after he hung his sword on a peg near the door, he waited until she peeked at him through her bangs before speaking. "Raise your head and look at me in the eye Hinata-chan. I am not angry at you, and I am not going to hit you."

"I deserve anything that you want to do to me, Naruto-kun."

Naruto sighed. This was not going to be easy. "Hinata-chan, you have done nothing for me to punish you for."

"B-but you said that you were disappointed in me. I deserve to be punished for letting you down!"

"Hinata-chan, I am not going to punish you," he repeated.

"Why not?" By now she was almost in tears, unable to understand what she had done wrong, and why he would not correct her. Her worst fear had come true, she had let Naruto down, and she did not know how.

"Do you know what you did wrong?" Hinata shook her head silently. "And that is why I will not punish you. You honestly thought you were doing right by me by acting as you did in the hospital. You thought that because they had hated me, that gave you the right to hate them." Naruto paused long enough for her to signal that he was on the right track before he continued. "The thing that makes me different from them is that even though they do hate me for something I have no control over, I do not hate them back. I found out a very long time ago that hating one person takes a lot of energy, and hating an entire village takes even more. I decided that I am going to win their respect and admiration in spite of everything that they held against me. I am going to be so awesome that they had no choice but love me." He paused again, organizing his thoughts before voicing them. "That is why I was disappointed in you Hinata-chan. I thought that you would be able to ignore their hate and try to prove them wrong."

"How? I know that you have never hated them, but how can you be so indifferent about it?"

"Because of my mother, the Sandaime, you, Tenten, Iruka, the Ichirakus, everyone that knows of the Kyuubi sealed in me and does not hate me for it. They prove that there is something in this village worth protecting, something worth loving. One day, I will prove to every single person in this village that I am not something to hate and fear, but someone to respect and admire."

Naruto wanted to growl when Hinata just lowered her head towards the floor again after he finished his speech. Sometimes he really wanted to shake Hiashi for giving Hinata such an inferiority complex.

"Forgive me Naruto-kun. You are a better person than I am to be able to forgive them for what they have done to you. I cannot help but dislike them for treating you so badly for no good reason. I don't deser-"

"Finish that sentence and I really will be angry with you." He waited a moment before he spoke again to see if she would finish her sentence. "Hinata-chan, I do not want to ever hear you put yourself down in front of me. You are not dumb or slow or weak or inconvenient or anything like that. You are strong, intelligent, fast, fun, beautiful, and most of all, mine. So don't you dare imply that you are in any way undeserving of me, because that means that you do not want us to be together, and I know that that is not true. So do not lie to me by saying that you are not good enough for me."

Despite everything he had said, Hinata still had her eyes on the floor and wouldn't meet his gaze. Suddenly growing angry, he lurched forward and seized her by the back of the head and pulled her close to him, mashing her lips with bruising force, snaking his tongue past her teeth and making her give him access to her mouth.

For her part, Hinata was shocked. She had been trying to convince Naruto that she wasn't good for him, but he wasn't having any of it. And when she couldn't meet his eyes, he snatched her and… kissed her. But it was not like the times they had kissed before. This time, Naruto was in control, completely and without doubt. He was much more demanding, much more forceful with her than he ever had been before.

When he finally released her, she was not quite gasping, but certainly red in the face. "You are mine, Hinata-chan. I do not like hearing that you disagree with me. I am telling you that you are worthy of me, that you are more than strong enough to be with me, and I will not hear otherwise. Alright?" Naruto had started out in a growl, but had softened to a murmur by the end. "Okay?" he reiterated when Hinata seemed slow on answering.

"Okay," she replied at last.

"Good. So we are not going to have this conversation again?"

Hinata shook her head, smiling a bit. "No, no we won't." Naruto and Hinata retreated to the low-slung couch with Hinata securely in Naruto's embrace. The silence stretched between them, completely free of any unease or tension. Finally, Hinata spoke again, a bit softer than normal, but not in the tone she had used before. "Where did you go when you left the hospital? I looked for you, but couldn't find you anywhere."

"I went looking for Jiraiya."

"What for? I assume you found him?"

"Yeah I did, on top of the Hokage Tower."

"What did you want with him, if I may ask?"

Sighing, he got to his feet before flopping down on the low-slung couch in the middle of the room. Cradling his head in his hands, he said. "I asked him to seal the Kyuubi away, permanently."

Flashback no Jutsu

Jiraiya was leaning on the rail looking over the snaking columns of grey smoke wafting over Konoha. "Evening brat."

"Evening Jiraiya-sensei."

Turning around to face Naruto, he raised an eyebrow. "The only time you call me Jiraiya-sensei is when you have something heavy on your mind. So what is up?"

"I have a request of you." Jiraiya waited for Naruto to continue, and made a 'let's get on with it' motion after a few seconds. Clenching and unclenching his hands, Naruto raised his gaze to look the old man directly in the eyes before he went on. I want you to modify the Dead Demon Consuming Seal for me, to seal the Kyuubi's chakra and mind away completely."

Straightening up from his relaxed slouch, Jiraiya returned Naruto's gaze without blinking. "No."

Naruto stared at Jiraiya in disbelief before shouting, "No?"

"No," he repeated.

"Why not?"

"Because Naruto, I am not going to seal away the most powerful weapon this village has."

"Bur what about me? What good is a weapon if it cuts the hand of the wielder as often as the enemy?"

"Then you have to learn how to control it so that it doesn't."

"But I can't."

"You have to Naruto. You are the Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails. It is what you were made to do."

Naruto shook his head vigorously in the negative. "I can't control it Jiraiya. Nobody can."

"Yes, you can Naruto, if you try hard enough. You have to."

"No, I am telling you that I can't control the Kyuubi. I just can't do it."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Jiraiya quirked an eyebrow in concern. "What is wrong Naruto? This isn't like you, giving up before you have started."

Naruto lowered his gaze, staring at the floor. "I... just can't. It is that simple."

"Naruto-"

"I can't control it! Okay? No one can! It is too big, too powerful, too much for any one man to handle! You do not know what it is like to be possessed by it! It is a high like you could not possibly imagine! With the Kyuubi in me, there is nothing I cannot do, nothing I will not do! The power, it, it is unbelievable. I am not alive when I am not channeling the Kyuubi's chakra, everything is a pale imitation of the real world. The Kyuubi chakra is better than the best ramen, sake and sex, all at the same time. And there is nothing in this world or out of it that could stop me if I were to embrace the Kyuubi completely. It is addicting, and may the gods forgive me, I want it. I want it more than anything I have wanted before."

"You are afraid of the Kyuubi."

"Afraid? Are you shitting? I am terrified. When I am holding the Kyuubi, there is absolutely nothing that matters to me more than the fight. I would not hesitate to try to kill you if you were to get in between me and the fight. I have not hurt anyone yet, but it is only a matter of time, I know it."

Jiraiya was silent for a long time, carefully studying the tears leaking out of the corners of Naruto's eyes. He could tell that Naruto honestly doubted his ability to hold the Kyuubi back when he needed to, and that almost convinced Jiraiya then and there. "I am sorry Naruto, but I won't seal the Kyuubi away. You have too much potential to seal away so much of your strength so casually."

"Casually? Have you not been listening to anything I have said?"

"Yes I have, but you have not convinced me that the Kyuubi is wholly beyond your control."

Naruto clenched his fist and glared at his mentor. "Well then, what would it take to convince you? Do I have to kill someone before you will believe me?"

"No you don't. And if the day comes that I do believe that you cannot control the Kyuubi, I promise you that I will do everything in my power to seal it away forever. But that day has not come, and I will not do it until it does."

"Thanks for nothing then." Naruto whirled and stalked out of the Tower.

"Hold on Naruto. I did not say I would help you. I can't teach you to control it, but I can try to help you. The Council has asked me to look for a woman called Tsunade to heal the Hokage. If you want, I can take you along and begin to try to help you to learn to control the Kyuubi."

"When would we leave?"

"Tomorrow morning, abt about nine a.m. by the east gate. It might take a month or so to find her, so pack accordingly."

"Alright then. Nine by the east gate. I just hope that you are not making a deadly mistake."

"Kid, I am one of the Sannin, I know what I am doing."

"For everyone in Konoha, I fervently wish you are."

Flashback no Jutsu KAI!

Hinata was silent for a long time after Naruto stopped talking. She wasn't sure what she should think of Naruto's recounting of his conversation. She did not like to hear about how Naruto doubted himself, how he was afraid of the power lurking within him. "I think you should follow Jiraiya-sama's advice. If he thinks he can help you learn to use the Kyuubi, then you should go with him."

"I'm going to. I just hope that he really can help me. Some of the things my clones did and the way they acted made me realize that the Kyuubi isn't as safe as I used to think. I am just glad that none of them went too far over. I don't know what I would do if anyone had been killed by one of my clones."

"You would never deliberately hurt another Konoha ninja, and that includes your clones."

Naruto shook his head. "You don't get what it is like to be channeling the Kyuubi. When I am, there is nothing more important than the fight. Anyone who gets between me and my enemy is also an enemy. I do not think that there is anyone I would not attack. The power, it is beyond belief. You know they say how power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, well I have a hard time thinking of a situation that fits that saying better."

"I don't believe that Naruto-kun."

"Doesn't make it any less true. I want you to promise me something: if you ever see me out of control, run as fast as you can the other way. I would never be able to live with myself if I injured you with the Kyuubi's chakra. Promise me," he insisted when Hinata did not say anything.

"If you are in danger, I won't. You say that you wouldn't be able to stand to see me hurt, how do you think I feel? I will do everything I can to stop you if I can."

Naruto leaned forward and cupped his face in his hands. "I figured as much. But then again, you wouldn't be the woman I love if you would do that." Hinata just smiled and hugged him from behind.

"I know. But I know that you can learn to control it, if you really try."

Naruto sighed again. "That is what Ero-sennin keeps telling me. I can only hope that he is right."