Hey guys, Murayama Tsuru here. Here is the 24th chapter of this story, yay! I know that it's a week and a day late, but I've been on spring break, so keeping up my usual schedule was hard for me. Also, last Friday, I wrote a oneshot about Naoki Urasawa's Monster. If you want to go read that, I'd be happy ^_^ well anyway, here's the chapter, I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto; it belongs to Kishimoto Masashi-Sensei.

Kouryu, Naruto and Tsunade were growing tired of fighting Madara. Even three-on-one, the older Uchiha was more than a match for the three other Ninja. Even with Kouryu dispelling any Genjutsu that Madara tried to send upon the three, Naruto could tell that she was beginning to tire; even with the dragon's chakra coursing through the girl's chakra networks.

But Madara, on the other hand, didn't seem to be tiring at all. If anything, as the battle got longer Madara seemed to be getting stronger (but that was probably just because the other three were tiring). Since the sounds from Kakashi's, Sasuke's, and Obito's battle had died down, Naruto was beginning to wonder what was taking the other two so long to join this battle.

Unfortunately, Naruto's Kage Bunshin were little help against Uchiha Madara. Probably because Madara was a Sharingan user, he could see that any clone Naruto tried to use to sneak up on him was both not the real Naruto and a decoy for the real Naruto to sneak up on Madara and punch him out. With Naruto's Kage Bunshin rendered pretty much useless, Naruto felt pretty much powerless in this battle, even though he and Kouryu were probably the two Ninja who really stood a chance against Madara in this fight.

And then something seemed to change. Naruto summoned a shadow clone just to see if this strategy would work this time (even though it hadn't been working before) and it for some reason the shadow clone actually managed to land a punch on Madara before the Uchiha turned around and poofed the Kage Bunshin away with a punch of his own. Naruto shared a quick glance with Kouryu, who seemed to be just as confused as to how the shadow clone actually got an attack in on the Uchiha.

Soon after the look, the information that the Kage Bunshin could share with Naruto once it disappeared came into Naruto's head. Apparently, despite the combination of Sharingan and Rinnegan being probably the most powerful ocular Jutsu combination out there, there was a small blind spot that the clone somehow managed to find.

Naruto, through the Kurama, told Kouryu about this blind spot (the two imagined that Madara probably wouldn't be able to figure out their plans if they talked through their Bijuus in Bijuu space). Kouryu seemed to think that there might be a way to manipulate this blind spot to their advantage, but until she (or he) could come up with a solid plan, Naruto should probably just keep using the occasional shadow clone to see if there were any other blind spots.

And so that's what Naruto did, he summoned a whole bunch of Kage Bunshin to see if Uchiha Madara had any other blind spots. Sure Kouryu had said to make the occasional shadow clone, but doing anything half way was just not Naruto's style. If he was going to look for a blind spot, he may as well really look for it. As the various shadow clones tried to attack Madara, he could almost hear the dragon laughing heartily at Naruto's antics. He also heard Tsunade groan just a little. Then yelled to him, "Naruto, don't waste your chakra, the shadow clones didn't work before, so why would you think they would work now?"

Naruto, slightly annoyed that Tsunade-baa-chan thought he was just wasting chakra, told the Hokage, through Katsuyu the slug, that Madara had a blind spot and that by summoning all the shadow clones he was trying to see if Madara had any other weaknesses.

Tsunade, understanding what Naruto was trying to do now, seemed to think that his plan wasn't as bad as she had originally thought. And then, somehow Tsunade was distracted by what Naruto said to her earlier or she was looking for another blind spot herself and she was nailed by a Jutsu that Naruto didn't see and Kouryu didn't have time to deflect.

With open mouthed, wide eyed, horror, Naruto watched as Tsunade fell onto the ground with a hard, painful sounding thud. Naruto, chakra growing red as he let Kurama feed his rage, turned toward Madara, a feral growl on his lips. Other Naruto clones seemed to be influenced by Naruto's rage as well and were also turning into mini Kyubis as well.

Then, all the red Naruto clones and Naruto himself lunged at Madara, fangs bared and chakra claws extended. But as the clone Narutos smashed into Madara, Naruto felt himself being pulled to the ground. He looked up, angry tears seeping from his eyes, to see Kouryu, shaking her head sadly.

Just then, Kakashi and Sasuke arrived in time to see the clone Narutos attempt to rip Madara's throat out, but fail and explode into a cloud of red, bubbly chakra. Kakashi, slightly confused, asked, "What happened?"

Naruto, voice chocked and cracking, growled, "Madara killed her before my eyes…and I couldn't do anything about it…!"

Kakashi, looking even more confused, turned to Kouryu, but before he could ask anything, Kouryu turned and pointed to the point where Tsunade had fallen. But it wasn't Kakashi who seemed upset by who was there, but Sasuke seemed to go rigid. After a minute, he whispered, "Nii-san…"

Naruto, blinking in confusion, turned back to Kouryu, the question plain in his eyes, "Where's Tsunade-baa-chan?"

"Back in Konoha."

"What?" Naruto asked in confusion, "But, she left the village with me this morning, how could she be back in Konoha?"

"Because I had the Uchiha Itachi Genjutsu I created turn into Tsunade that morning so in the case that things went south, Tsunade wouldn't be in any danger."

Naruto, sighing in sort of relief, turned to see Sasuke and the Genjutsu version of his brother saying almost silent last words to each other. Itachi, though Naruto couldn't really see his face, sounded apologetic, "I'm sorry Sasuke, I know I'm not your real brother…I'm sorry he couldn't be here…"

"Shut up," Sasuke growled, "you may not be my real Nii-san, but losing you again is…hard."

Smiling slightly, Itachi said, "Thank you Sasuke. I think, though, that this will be the last time we meet like this." And he faded away, some sort of energy flowing from the place where Itachi was into Kouryu, making her hair a darker hue than it was before.

Interrupting Sasuke's slight mourning, Madara said, "Are you done yet? I didn't kill your Hokage, so I don't see what the big deal is. Obito was right, you people talk too much."

Kouryu stood up then and glared at Madara, "If it's a fight you want Madara, it's a fight you'll get. With my full powers back, the four of us should be more than a match for you."

And that is the end of that chapter. Yep, so next week I will get back to my regular update schedule. So, yeah, I don't really have anything else to say this time. As always, if you'd like please leave a review, I love to know what you guys think. Until next Friday then, guys.

-Murayama Tsuru