Hey guys,

I know it's been a long time coming, but it's finally here. Chapter 21.

Also, here's slight recap of what Naruto looks like. Take it or leave it.

Naruto has permanent red eyes, akin to what he get's when he used the Kyuubi chakra cloak when he tried to bring back Sasuke the first time. He keeps his hair long, and the yellow spikes reach down past his shoulders. He has an Akatsuki cloak and wears flat plain black clothes underneath. The sword Kisame gave him is basically a shorter version of The Dragon Slayer that Guts uses in Berserk.

Now, on to the good stuff!

The bright light ended as quickly as it started.

Shukaku had expected to take as much damage as he dealt. After all, huge beam attacks like that tended to make a big splash when they hit. "Well, I better see just how much of a smudge in the dirt this guy-" The smoke and dust swirled and was blown away in an instant, "Huh?"

There was a circle of unblemished ground in the center of a shallow crater, and standing in the circle was the armored figure. Where the smooth plates of his armor once shined like brilliant blue jewels, it crackled and sputtered with an angry red like the molten surface of an active volcano. He looked at his hands, "Huh, that's new." He tapped his forearm a few times, "Guess I'd better turn off the self-sustainment chakra absorption system. It'd just explode if I didn't drain it at least a little bit before turning it off. All that energy has to go somewhere after all, and I am not sleeping with this on."

Shukaku stared as the armored figure continued to mumble to himself, "He's ignoring me." That was a first for Shukaku, "This random human is ignoring me and talking to himself." Shukaku watched him continue to tap his forearm, "And he's unharmed."

"Alright, that's the last adjustment I need." The crackling in the armor had calmed slightly and settled into a tentative purple color. He pointed up to Shukaku, "I hope you're ready to change your occupation from giant sandbag to giant punching bag!"

Shukaku threw his arms up in the air space.

"My memory is a little hazy, but it was a child who did this. Saru-chan held some sort of emotional attachment to the boy. They knew each other, but the boy was hellbent on Orochimaru's destruction."

"A child did this?" Jiraiya cast his gaze around the barren meadow, "He probably made that flash too. What have I even been doing?" Then his eye caught the big black ball sitting a ways away, "What is that?"

Hashirama looked, "Hm, he called it," He wrinkled his nose, "A multiple explosion time bomb?"

"Huh, sounds like it packs a punch."

The undead first hokage nodded, "Apparently it was some kind of insurance," He thought for a moment, "When he brought it out, he said the first explosion would take out the whole village."

"Well shit." Jiraiya didn't sound too worried, but he eyed the hokage, "The first?"

"Multiple explosions. Apparently it get's stronger each time." Hashirama shrugged, "Something about recycling the force of each blast?"

Jiraiya whistled, "That's an impressive bit of fuinjutsu." He moved to stand up, "Might as well take a look at it before we're all blown to hell."

"Be careful, he mentioned a fail safe that'll detonate it early if anyone tries to tamper with it."

Jiraiya's eyes were dull, "Wouldn't make any difference. Die now or die later, it's all the same."

Hashirama narrowed his undead eyes, "Keep in mind all of those who have yet to live out their lives before you dismiss them. I would hope that Saru-chan had passed my will of fire on to his students."

Jiraiya barked out some kind of laugh, "You wouldn't be here to lecture me if one of his other students hadn't shown up to destroy the village. Maybe that mystery kid wouldn't have had the chance to stick in his two cents if Tsunade hadn't left."

"Tsunade? Did something happen to my granddaughter?"

"War, what else?" Jiraiya shook his head and a bitter look wormed it's way onto his face, "It took one too many of the people she cared about. It was the last straw for her, so she left."

Hashirama raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean 'left'?" No one could actually walk away once they'd been inducted to the way of the ninja.

Jiraiya glanced down at his teacher's dead body, "Sensei let her go. Whether it was out of gilt, or kindness, or pity, I could take a guess, but now there's no way to know for sure."

Hashirama, the first hokage, harrumphed at Jiraiya, "I'll let it go for now, but we are going to continue this conversation later. Now in order for that to happen, we need to make sure that this thing," He jerked a thumb at the smoking, ominous black ball, "Does as little damage as possible."

Jiraiya eyed the undead hokage for a moment, then he sighed, "Fine, I'll help you. Just let me get a look at what we're dealing with."

Hashirama smiled slightly at Jiraiya's back before moving to help him.

Naruto pointed up at the giant sand monster, "I hope you're ready to change your occupation from giant sandbag to giant punching bag!"

Before the sand monster had even lifted it's arms, Naruto had punctured though it's body and was trying to slow himself. He broke through more than a few trees before he slowed down enough to snap out of the tunnel vision.

"Note to self: light movements with the supercharged chakra armor." Naruto glanced up. He could still see the form of that sand monster towering over the treetops in the distance, "Ok, let's try something different."

The chakra armor was Naruto's personal sealing masterpiece. It multiplied his strength and speed, completely nullified chakra based attacks, and it could sustain itself indefinitely(The longest he'd worn it had been 54 hours without any drain on his reserves and he had to stop there because he was dying of thirst) for all intents and purposes. But while he had it on he couldn't use any jutsu either. The chakra would just flow into the seals and strengthen the armor further. He couldn't pull ninja tools from anywhere either because the armor couldn't reach through itself. With it on, Naruto was forced to fight up close.

Not that that was any kind of problem for the boy, but he liked to keep his options open, so he'd come up with a seal based long range attack that he could use with the armor. It was a seal that would absorb active chakra and release it in a straight, steady stream. Slapped on your average ninja, the seal would light them up for a moment before the ninja died of chakra exhaustion. But when Naruto activated the same seal on the armor it would draw on the armor's power and release a concentrated beam of chakra with enough power to pierce through most defenses. That was when he used the armor at it's regular capacity.

Naruto grinned maniacally as he lined the sand monster up in his sights and prepared to activate the seal on the suit's chest. Symbols swirled to life and shined brightly on Naruto's ruby chest plate. As his vision was swallowed by the light, he said, "Get glassed."

Together, team seven hobbled through through the woods outside of the village.

Sasuke glanced behind them, he could still see the giant sand monster through the foliage, "I'm still mad at you two."

"Save it for when we're hospitalized with each other, Sasuke." On Sasuke's right side, Haru laughed, "For now we need to focus on not getting stomped on."

"Hn."

They trudged for a while, just listening to the sand monster grunt and roar as it fought something. There was a bright flash, and the forest shook. When it stopped, Sakura said, "So, are we not going to talk about it?"

"What? You mean that stupid strong masked guy?" Haru giggled, "Unless you want to compare outfits then no, we're not saying nothin'."

"Hn." Sasuke huffed, "He was annoying." Then he laughed lightly.

Sakura nodded and let out a little laugh of her own, "He was pretty full of himself."

Haru waved his arm that wasn't supporting Sasuke, "Hey! Guys! No! That's not sayin' nothin'! That's sayin' somethin', and I'm not gonna stand fer it!"

Sakura laughed a bit harder, "Haru, your accent's coming out."

"What?" Haru put a hand on his hip and posed, "Ah don' know what yer talkin' 'bout!" He shook his head with a big grin, "No idear!"

They all had a laugh at that, and when it died down Sakura's shoulders were still shaking, "You guys felt it too, right?" She sniffed, "It was like Zabuza all over again. Times a hundred." Her eyes glistened.

Haru hunched forward to look at Sakura, "Man, don't talk about that guy either. We won in the end, didn't we? And this guy wasn't even against us. Cheer up, Sakura." He sniffed, "If you start crying, then I'm gonna start crying, and Sasuke will be wet and salty," His voice cracked, but Haru had to finish what he was saying, "And it's gonna suck." He waved his finger at all of them, "For all of us."

"Aw jeez." Pakkun padded closer to the group, "Listen, (insert ninken life advise here) and I'll even let you guys feel how soft my pads are."

Haru's bottom lip quivered, but he nodded, "Okay, just gotta keep it together." Sakura and Sasuke echoed the sentiment. Haru wiped his face on his sleeve, "Hey Sakura, can we pick up the pace? I think I'm starting to feel my leg." He took another step and nearly fell, dragging Sasuke and Sakura to the ground with him, "Yep," He managed to choke out, "Definitely starting to feel it."

As Sasuke and Sakura de-tangled themselves from each other, a loud whoosh echoed between the trees, and a jonin landed in front of team 7, "You tykes need to get out of here."

Haru was still on the ground, and he groaned, "We're workin' on it."

Sasuke looked at the jonin, "You're Asuma-sensei, right?"

"Indeed. You three did quite well to make it this far. Especially you, Sasuke, for having chased that sand boy so far out after your," Asuma inhaled, "Intense battle."

Sakura quirked an eyebrow, "Uh-huh." She pointed at Haru's mangled foot, "Look, we've got an injured teammate here. Can you save the review until after we're out of danger?"

Asuma nodded, "Yes, of course. There are certain priorities to maintain conscious of, after all." In a moment, Asuma summoned two clones who picked up Haru and Sakura, "It'll be faster like this." Asuma scooped Sasuke off of his feet, and before any of them could protest they were flying through the trees.

"Hey!" Sakura yelled over the wind in her ears, "The village is the other way!"

"It's not safe anymore." Asuma responded, "The are spies among us who would love nothing more than to put an end to the Uchiha line once and for all. So I'm taking you all to a safe house where you can recover in peace. There's food, medicine, and even beds."

Sakura sighed, "That sounds nice after the day we've had." Then she blinked and looked around, "Hey, where's Pakkun? He was right with us."

An effeminate voice answered directly in Sakura's ear, "Don't worry, child. He's been well taken care of."

A shiver went down Sakura's spine as she looked into the yellow golden eyes of the person who was carrying her and her team, a person who was decidedly not her friend's teacher. She gulped, "Where are you taking us?"

"Don't worry child," Sakura glanced at Sasuke just in time to see not-Asuma sink a pair of fangs into his neck, and she screamed. The man chuckled as his skin changed from a sun-kissed shade of tan to a painted white color, "It's just as I said." Haru was already unconscious, having succumbed to the pain of his wound, "I'm taking you somewhere safe."

Then Sakura knew no more.

Sweat beaded on Jiraiya's brow as he furiously painted intricate designs on the tendrils of wood that the first hokage had summoned. He used his sleeve to wipe the sweat off his face, "We don't even know when this thing will blow." He glanced at the undead hokage, "Are you sure it wasn't just a bluff?"

Hashirama shrugged, "If it is, then Orochimaru completely fell for it. But the village can't afford the chance that it isn't." He summoned another tendril of wood around the ominously smoking black ball, "How is the seal work coming along?"

Multiple heads of white hair bobbed as Jiraiya's clones answered with various degrees of completion. Jiraiya himself had just finished the one he was working on and moved to the newest section, "This idea of yours is crazy, do you know that?" He shook his head, "Using a three dimensional seal array to redirect the blast upward with your wood as the base? I only ever dream of this stuff after a week of binge drinking." He dipped his brush and hunched at the bottom of the curling pillar, "Even if we did have an earth style user with fine enough control for the right kind of funnel shape, they would've needed to give it a steady supply of chakra. Otherwise the whole thing would have been too brittle to work, and even then, the active flow of chakra would've disrupted the seal before I could finish it." Jiraiya scoffed, "As much as I hate to say it, if Orochimaru hadn't brought you back from the dead, there wouldn't have been any chance to save the village."

"Heh, don't thank me yet." Hashirama strained to grin, "If I hadn't been brought back then maybe that boy wouldn't have felt the need to pull this thing out at all. And besides, my power is diminished from what it was when I was alive." Hashirama shook his head, "That is weird to say."

"You're telling me."

"Anyway, I'm pretty confident that if I was alive I would've been able to grow seals directly into the bark."

Jiraiya shook his head, "Only you could say that and not sound crazy."

"Heheh, cheeky brat." Hashirama glanced at the black orb, "I recon this thing's gonna blow soon." His inverse colored eyes rested on the true Jiraiya, "You take them and get out of here. Your clones can finish here, I'll take care of things." There was a look on Jiraiya's face, so Hashirama reiterated, "I'll take care of things."

"...Fine." When Jiraiya slung Guy and Kakashi over his shoulder, he stopped and looked at his teacher's body. His face was blank.

Hashirama summoned a few wood clones, and together they surrounded the twisting wood monument, "Do what you need to, and take him too." He didn't look back to see if Jiraiya had followed the order. He flexed his fingers, "Now then, let's see if this works." Together with his clones, Hashirama formed a handseal and summoned a multi-layered wall of wood all the way around the wood tendrils Jiraiya's clones were painting.

As Jiraiya fled Hashirama's forest emergence, he saw a beam of light pierce through the raging Shukaku. He landed on a roof and watched as the beam cut it's way upward and flail around before it dissipated completely. The beam had cut the bijuu from it's gratuitous belly out of it's shoulder, and it looked like the sand monster was having trouble reattaching it's arm. A curling line of slag cut across the country, and half the landscape was aflame. Jiraiya grit his teeth, and the flames were reflected in his eyes, "Dammit."

Naruto groaned as he sat up from where he'd crash landed at the base of a tree with it's top half sheared off, "Note to self, anchor myself a little bit more before trying that again." He patted the dust off of his Akatsuki robe and shook his wild blond hair, "Looks like it depleted itself completely."

"The battlefield is no place for untested jutsu and theories. You know better."

When Naruto heard that familiar voice, his back stiffened. Haltingly, he looked to the speaker, "K-K-K-Konan! What are you doing here?"

Konan descended in front of her student with her paper wings flared to the sides, and her expression was shadowed. She spoke softly, "That's what I should be asking you."

"Um, well- You see," Naruto's eyes darted around, and Konan flew forward while he was distracted. Naruto was grabbed up and his face was buried in Konan's chest, "Huh?"

"I was worried." Konan's voice was laced with emotion as she held her student close.

"I thought you'd be mad at me." Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "Ya'know, for the whole running off and going AWOL thing?"

Konan's grip tightened, "I am."

Naruto let out a small, "Oh."

Her lips curled upward as she flew them over the tree line and back toward Ame, "I'm so mad I can hardly contain myself. I saw your little light show all the way from Pain's tower. It was Tobi of all people was the one who came to us regarding where you were. Why did you even go there? For a field test? We're not ready to start capturing Biju yet. Killing one now without a plan for the fallout would just put the plan in jeopardy."

"Tobi? Who's that?"

"Don't change the subject."

"Fine." Naruto mumbled, "I killed Orochimaru."

Konan glared at the top of her student's head, "You left for that snake? He left. He is nothing." She gave Naruto a shake, but her eyes softened. She patted her student's golden head, "I know it bothers you that we let him go, and we're okay with anyone taking their pound of flesh if they cross paths with him." Naruto looked up and his ruby eyes betrayed his objection. "Shush. But that doesn't mean that anyone is allowed to seek him out for any reason." She shook him again, "Don't you ever do that again. You're the future of the Akatsuki, remember that before you run off without telling backup next time."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah. Pain's always going on about that, don't you start too." Then he smiled with his teeth, "Besides, how can I? Snake Face is dead!"

Konan sighed, "I wouldn't count on it. That snake has always been slippery, he'll turn up again when he's least wanted."

"But-!"

"No buts." Konan looked Naruto in the eye, "You're grounded. No training until I say so."

"Grounded?! You can't ground me!"

"I just did." Naruto squirmed and hollered at the top of his lungs. He only stopped when Konan gave him a particularly hard shake, "Throw a tantrum on your own time. You're not getting out of it."

"Fine." Naruto huffed, "Well, if Snake face did somehow survive me popping his head like a pimple, at least he won't survive the blasts from my MET-B."

Konan stopped and held Naruto by the shoulders at arms length, "What did you just say?" Naruto shrugged, "You seriously used that thing? For him?" Naruto nodded and Konan rubbed the bridge of her nose, "How long do we have until it goes off? Maybe we still have time to recover it."

"Well, that's the thing." Naruto watched Konan's expression as a shock wave rattled the forest below. He winced, "We don't have any time."

"Is it supposed to do that?"

"Do what? Explode?" Konan turned Naruto in time for him to see the pillar of destruction shrink into nothing before another blast rocked the world and another pillar shot higher into the air. Naruto blinked, "It's supposed to blow out, not up." His face twisted, "Who the hell said anyone could mess around with my stuff!"

Konan watched as the blasts repeatedly shot through the clouds and descended before shooting even higher, like some kind of geyser of mass destruction."You're the one who left it out where it could be tampered with."

"What? No way, the village should've been destroyed! I had fail-safes to stop anyone from trying to stop it." Naruto's arms dangled and his lip quivered, "It took me years to make that, and someone stopped it!" He ran a hand through his hair, "I have to at least see how they did it."

"No you don't." Konan's fingers dug into Naruto's shoulder, "I don't care if they recreated your bomb and wanted to give it back to you. You're still grounded mister." Then she continued her flight back to their village.

"But-!" A thought struck Naruto, "But we left the sword Kisame gave me! We have to go back!"

Konan didn't even glance at him, "Just make a shadow clone get it."

Naruto grumbled, "Fine." He summoned a clone and watched it plummet through the air before it disappeared among the trees, "Whoever screwed with my bomb sucks."

Konan smacked Naruto with one of her wings, "No complaining."

"Hmph."

Hashirama sneezed. He rubbed his nose, "It is pretty dusty."

He was standing in a crater. All of his clones and walls had been blown away along with most of the trees he'd summoned before. He watched as the last of the seals on the wooden funnel he and Jiraiya had made burned away and left the branches to burn away into ash. There was nothing left of the bomb either.

"Still, that was impressive. And a little scary too. Even with it diverted like that, if I'd been alive that blast might've killed me." He rubbed his nose again, then he left. There was still work to be done.

The last of the sand holding Shukaku together crumbled away, leaving Gaara tired and exposed. Silently, his siblings picked him up and fled. They were terrified, but the invasion had failed and they knew they couldn't leave the Sand's biggest asset for enemy forces to pick up. It wasn't over as long as they lived.

And that's a wrap!

I bet you guys thought I wasn't ever going to continue this story. Well that shows all of you, doesn't it? Ha!

Seriously, though, I had a hard time putting all of my ideas together so they were coherent and consistent with what's happened so far. I like this story, and how it's turned out so far.

Also, Orochimaru's still alive. Why? Because I said so. Also, he never stays dead. He hardly stays mostly dead. One way or another he'll have Sasuke(In his mind at least).

Don't forget, Tsunade's still out there too.

See ya!