Disclaimer: Naruto and all associated characters are property of Masashi Kishimoto

Jutsu: Original (Translation)

Bijū/Summon Speaking

Bijū/Summon Thoughts

Naruto mental reply

! - dattebayo

Warning: There will be graphic depictions of violence in this chapter.

Edited 4/22/16

Chapter 35

Act 2: Battle of Sand and Root

With B and Naruto – Outskirts of Konoha

Naruto and B continued on after circling around the Suna-nins and sped through the trees advancing towards Gaara.

Before they could catch up to Gaara, a group of three Root Anbu jumped into their path, forcing them to halt their advance. Naruto frowned when he recognized the trio in front of him.

"These guys with you, little nine?" B asked in an oddly serious tone. He could tell that something was off about this group, even if they were wearing Konoha uniforms.

"No, they are probably here for me, not with me, if you know what I mean," Naruto grumbled.

"Shall we lay the smack down and show them this isn't a game to be playing without paying?" B rapped as he prepared to pull some of his swords out.

"Can you maintain the link for Kurama without me if I remain here? I... I have to face these guys on my own." Naruto said with a slight waver in his voice.

"Shukaku isn't far from here so as long as you remain within 80 yards of here, it should be fine," B said seriously "Handle your biz and deal with these villains, after all this, we be chilling."

Naruto nodded towards B before dropping down from the trees in front of Ren, Taro, and Makoto.

"So any lies or bullshit you want to feed me this time, guys? Or can we just cut to the chase and fight because I won't be going with you." Naruto said in a stern tone.

"Danzō-sama has requested that we retrieve you and return you to the base. You will come with us, or we will be forced to inflict harm until you are subdued." Ren said in a robotic tone.

"Heh. Just like old times, eh? You telling me what to do and following up with a threat." Naruto said with a bitter laugh before he scowled at Ren. "Well, I'm not that weak little kid trying to cling to any semblance of companionship so that I won't feel so alone anymore. I'd rather deal with being lonely instead of your form of friendship." Naruto snapped.

"Naruto-kun, please listen! We were fools before! We didn't mean to cause you such pain, but I need you. Ren and Taro are just mindless tools, and I'm afraid Naruto-kun. I should have known better that I can't escape. If we don't do what they tell us to we will all die." Makoto said with teary eyes.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at her. He didn't sense any deceit from her, but he did sense hostility from Ren and Taro towards him, even if they were just mindless tools now.

"Tch. Like I'm going to believe you. I can sense the hostility coming from you guys." Naruto said with a sneer.

"No, Naruto-kun, I don't want to attack you. I don't want to hurt you! I never did. It's just... Danzō he promised so much to us, and when you didn't come back, he punished us so harshly. I thought we were going to die for sure. I already felt so bad for how much I hurt you, Naruto-kun, but I didn't have a choice! Please believe me." Makoto said as she began sobbing.

Naruto looked away from Makoto and eyed Ren and Taro. Looking at Makoto while she was crying, hearing her sobbing, and smelling her tears affected Naruto more than he would like and it was almost painful for him to see her so sad.

'Why do I feel like this even after she hurt me so badly?' Naruto thought before he cast another glance towards Makoto, who was now hugging herself as she cried.

'I did say I would forgive them if they asked for it and I didn't sense anything bad coming from her. She seems to be genuine, but can I really trust her? Naruto turned his focus back to Taro and Ren, who had both began to draw their tantō.

"We have a mission, Makoto. Will you disobey Danzō with this foolish display of emotions?" Taro said in an emotionless tone.

"Why shouldn't I disobey him!? If I obey, I'll just end up brainless as you two are now! You aren't even my friends anymore your just tools for Danzō!" Makoto shouted

"If you won't complete the mission as directed then we must eliminate you," Ren said before he launched himself towards Makoto.

Makoto pulled out her ninjato and began parrying attacks from Ren's tantō.

Naruto just stood there uncertain at the turn of events. Something didn't seem right about all of this, but his senses told him she was genuine.

Naruto was forced to react when Taro joined Ren and began to overwhelm Makoto's guard. He just couldn't watch her get cut down in front of him, what if she was telling the truth?

Naruto threw a handful of shuriken towards Taro to draw him off Makoto before he created six clones.

Naruto then pulled a kunai and charged towards Taro with one of his clones, while two of his clones assisted Makoto against Ren.

Naruto clashed with Taro using his kunai to block the low slash from Taro's tantō before spinning and trying to drive the kunai into Taro's back.

Taro countered by blocking with his sword flat across his back before spinning out with his leg causing Naruto to jump back. Taro was then forced to parry a kunai strike from Naruto's support clone and tried to counter by slashing the clone across his stomach.

The clone evaded the attack by leaping backward before throwing a handful of shuriken at Taro forcing him to block the projectiles with his sword. This move gave Naruto an opening to slap a gravity seal and a chakra draining seal on Taro before he had to Kawarimi with a nearby branch to avoid Taro's retaliatory slash towards his chest.

Taro began to run through hand seals that Naruto was familiar with so he prepared a counter jutsu while his clone started his own hand seals.

Taro finished his hand seals and called out Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu (Phoenix Fire Jutsu) before he started spitting a series of fireballs towards Naruto.

Naruto finished his counter jutsu Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu (Water Bullet) and countered each of the fireballs with the geyser of water from his mouth causing steam to appear in the clearing.

Taro tried to charge at Naruto but found himself barely able to move and the chakra drain from that single jutsu he cast was highly unusual. Before he could figure out why he couldn't move, however, he felt a drilling sensation on his back before his intestines began to shred apart from the Rasengan the clone had driven into his torso.

Naruto watched with cold eyes as Taro was practically ripped apart by his clone's Rasengan before letting out a breath he was holding. He looked up from the corpse of one of his first friends and headed off towards the sounds of battle between Ren and Makoto.

'Those bastards hurt me so badly, and I thought a small part of me would be glad to return the favor, but, in the end, I still have the void they left me with and only more sadness to fill it with.' Naruto thought.

Naruto landed near where his three clones were watching the fight closely and observed the struggle for a moment as well.

Ren had eliminated one of the support clones with a fast sword strike that severed through his kunai. The other clone was engaging Ren currently alongside Makoto.

Makoto had a few injuries and from what the other clones signaled to him with hand signs, she would have been killed by Ren if the other clones had not intervened.

Naruto was still uncertain, but a small part of him hoped Makoto had been genuine. In truth, Makoto's deception had been the biggest source of pain for him. He had been more fond of Makoto then Ren or Taro and had been more willing to do anything she wanted.

Makoto also defended or sided with Naruto every time there was a dispute when they were younger and the memories of those times brought back some of the pain he had felt.

Naruto sighed with resignation. If there was a possibility that Makoto could be redeemed somehow, he would have to try. It was the right thing to do after all.

Naruto smelled another squad of Anbu approaching and waited a moment to see who they were. In a few moments, another unit of Root entered the clearing.

"Operative Ren, what is the situation?" One of the Root members said.

Ren disengaged from a fearful Makoto, who huddled near the Naruto clone who was in a defensive stance in front of her.

"Operative Makoto betrayed Root and has been fighting alongside our designated target. Danzō ordered that Naruto is to be detained and brought to Root for re-education." Ren said.

"Operative Makoto, you were already under sanctions for emotional outbursts unfitting of a Root operative. You will be terminated, and the target will be detained." The new Root squad drew their swords at that command.

Naruto gave a mental command to the remaining clones to engage Ren and the four new Root members.

Naruto then created one regular and two charged clones and sent a mental command to hit the entire group with a large combination attack to finish them off while he maneuvered around to grab Makoto and move her out of the blast radius when the time came.

The newly created regular clone joined the other three clones that had leaped out of the trees and bushes and engaged the four new Root operatives while the clone that was guarding Makoto engaged Ren.

Using volleys of shuriken and kunai combined with a few Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone), the clones drove most of the Root operatives into a tighter cluster to set them up for the combination attack to finish them all off.

One charged clone prepared Katon: Gōryūka no Jutsu (Great Dragon Fire) while the second prepared Fūton: Daitoppa (Great Breakthrough).

As the shuriken volleys ended, the clones charged in to keep the group together while Naruto leaped out and grabbed Makoto from behind. Clapping a hand over her mouth to silence her scream of surprise, he wrapped his arm around her waist before using Shunshin to move away from the clearing.

"Shh. It's me, Makoto, don't be afraid. I won't hurt you." Naruto whispered into her ear.

Makoto stopped struggling and nodded as she watched the light blue fire dragon crashed into the clearing incinerating the Root team and Ren. Their cries of pain ended abruptly as their bodies were mostly cremated, leaving behind only partial skeletal remains and melted metal from their swords and kunai.

Naruto and Makoto approached the clearing cautiously, and Naruto reached out with his senses to make sure they were in the clear. As soon as Naruto relaxed his guard, Makoto burst into tears again and latched onto Naruto's chest.

Naruto returned the hug to comfort Makoto and found that despite her betrayal of him before, it still felt really nice to hold her like this. Her sobbing became quieter when he held her and after a few moments she stopped.

"Naruto-kun, I'm so glad I found you. Ever since that day that you walked away from us things have been terrible. I have never forgiven myself for what we did to you, and you were right about Root. They make you feel accepted and that you will become something of worth when they take you from the orphanage. It's all a cruel joke, though." Makoto sniffled.

"What do you mean, Makoto?" Naruto said.

"They come to the orphanage and adopt us like they will be our real parents, but it's just a lie. Torune picked us from the orphanage because we knew you and wanted us to get you to join, but all the others are lead to believe that they will finally have real parents and a home. Then you find yourself trapped underground fighting for survival." Makoto said before she began to sob again.

"They throw you away like trash, literally. I've seen them drop failed trainees down this pit, and they say it is practically bottomless so that all the bones of the failures don't stink up the place." Makoto said as she squeezed Naruto harder.

Naruto didn't sense any deception from her, and it made him sick to think that Danzō had been doing this for Kami knows how long. How many like him had been alone and hoping for real parents, only to find that their greatest dream was only the start of a cruel nightmare?

Naruto squeezed Makoto tighter with the thought. She could have been thrown in that pit because he hadn't joined Danzō willingly. She had to suffer through all that because she had been his friend.

He had just thought they were all willing in the whole plot and hadn't even considered that their lives could have been threatened if they didn't succeed in luring him into Root. Naruto felt guilty when he realized that thought. He couldn't have known for certain since he was so unfamiliar with how negative emotions worked back then. Ren and Taro might have just been resorting to what they knew had always worked in the past in order to save their lives.

They were still not real friends. He wouldn't be so foolish to think that how they treated him in the orphanage was under duress, but they could have been that dreadful day in the park. Makoto had never treated him that way at all, though and he could see she had simply been desperate for him to join her.

"I'm sorry you had to suffer because of me, Makoto-chan. If Danzō hadn't been after me, none of this would have happened to you." Naruto said as he rested his head on hers.

"N-no, Naruto-kun. It's not your fault. Danzō would have claimed us from the orphanage anyways. All the kids who show the most potential in the Shinobi side get adopted by Root members." Makoto said in between sniffles as she leaned back slightly to look Naruto in the eyes.

"If it wasn't for you, Naruto-kun. I would have been killed a long time ago because I resisted that emotional training for so long. Your smiling face is what saved me, Naruto-kun." Makoto said with a small blush on her face.

"You've grown so much since then Naruto-kun, and you are so much stronger now. I think you could save us all from him." Makoto said in a whisper.

"You are pretty strong yourself, Makoto-chan. I saw your battle against Ren. You are really good with your sword." Naruto complimented.

Makoto had really grown up, and Naruto had to admit she was gorgeous. Naruto had always liked her emerald green eyes. They reminded him of the trees around Konoha. Her jet black hair always had a tinge of blue in it and now it was long and luxuriously shiny in a high ponytail. She was wearing a standard Anbu outfit that clung to her shapely body.

"I will help you, Makoto-chan. I promise, but I have to take care of some other things first. The village has been invaded, and I need to stop the Suna Jinchūriki. I have a friend who wants revenge against Danzō also. I can convince him to help us as well, but I can't face Danzō just yet." Naruto said as he rubbed Makoto's back.

"No! Please don't leave me, Naruto-kun! He's going to put those seals on me and make me just like Ren and Taro soon; I just know it!" Makoto started to cry again.

"Come with me, Makoto-chan. I'll keep you safe from him." Naruto squeezed her for a moment to emphasize it.

"I-I c-can't. There is a seal on me that he can activate to kill me at any time. If he finds out I even spoke to you without capturing you he will kill me for sure." Makoto sobbed.

Naruto felt his heart sink at the thought. She would die for sure if he didn't return with her or somehow kill Danzō, but Shukaku needed his help, and there was no way he could face Danzō and an entire Root base on his own.

"It's okay, Makoto-chan, we will think of something." Naruto said seriously before giving Makoto a small smile to try and comfort her, "Don't worry. I'll find a way to save you from all this pain. I promise!."

Naruto just held onto Makoto while he racked his brain for something, but all of the plans he could think of were stupid or too risky for Makoto.

"I have to go back soon and check in, or Danzō will get suspicious," Makoto said with a sniffle before she took out a canteen and poured some water into her hand to wash her face off.

"Are you sure it will be safe?" Naruto said in a worried tone.

"I was supposed to report back in anyways if we didn't establish contact with you yet. I will just go back and say that Ren, Taro, and the ambush squad haven't encountered you yet." Makoto said as she pulled her disheveled appearance together.

"Here, this is a map that is provided to all Root trainees it will help you navigate the base. I will report in and try to get the others who haven't been conditioned yet to rally together. It should be safe since Danzō is supposed to be leaving the base to escort the Daimyō to safety." Makoto said.

"Are you sure he is going to leave? If he is, maybe I can help you lead the others out?" Naruto said as he accepted the map.

"Well. The secret entrance is not far from here at all, but it is too risky to go right now, Naruto-kun. I don't want you to be in danger," Makoto said with a concerned tone.

"How about I wait here for you and if Danzō leaves, you come back, and I will sneak in with you using a Henge," Naruto said.

He couldn't leave all those other orphans to suffer, and if he was close enough to Shukaku, he wouldn't interrupt the link Kurama needed.

"I don't know about this, Naruto-kun. If something goes wrong and he gets his hands on you, I might lose you forever," Makoto whispered into his ear as she clung to him tightly once more.

Naruto felt that strange feeling in him when her breath teased his neck and ear, and he couldn't stop the shiver that went through him.

'Gyūki, will our connection be threatened if I have to go underground?' Naruto asked.

"It should be fine. We are almost done subduing Shukaku anyways. It shouldn't take Kurama more than an hour to finish calming him down enough for the jinchūriki to be subdued. It will require a seal master to fix the problem as someone decided to put a seal to trigger pain when he uses his chakra or a hand sign." Gyūki replied in a disgusted tone.

'That is just... I can't even begin to imagine someone being so cruel. Shukaku and Gaara must have been tormented for years.' Naruto said angrily

'Most places don't see us as human, Naruto. Only Kumo treats its jinchūriki like real people instead of dangerous beings.' B said

"It is likely that the jinchūriki has not slept more than an hour or two at night for most of his life since the body will access chakra in your sleep to heal and restore cells in your chakra pathways and tenketsu," Gyūki said sadly.

'Thank you for your help, Gyūki. I want to help but if I don't take care of this problem I might end up worse then Gaara.' Naruto said sadly

'We got you covered little nine. Do your thing; we can handle this and if everything goes south for you today, just know you have a home in Kumo.' B replied.

'Thank you, B, that means a lot to me.' Naruto replied sincerely.

"Makoto-chan, go and report like you need to, then come back here when Danzō leaves. I'll help you get everyone out." Naruto said with conviction.

"Oh, Naruto-kun. You are such a wonderful person; I never deserved your friendship. I can't help but worry, though. Promise me that if things go bad, you will escape no matter what." Makoto replied.

"I promise, Makoto-chan. Be careful and, hopefully, I will see you soon." Naruto replied with a soft smile.

Naruto watched as Makoto began to leave. She turned back to look at him one more time before she continued jumping through the trees.

Naruto sighed to himself and jumped up into a tree and henged into a cat. Kurama was going to be pissed once he completed subduing Shukaku.

He had a bad feeling about all this, but he just couldn't leave those children alone to suffer if he could help it. If things got dangerous, he would draw on Kurama's chakra and tear everything apart if necessary. 45 minutes should be enough to tear a bloody path through the base, he hoped, and he wouldn't feel bad about killing those Root bastards for what they have done.

With Sasuke and Hinata

Sasuke and Hinata looked on as their combination attack finished off a large portion of the Suna distraction team while Naruto and B took off around the clearing.

Sasuke used hand signs to direct two of the four clones Naruto had left to incorporate them into his strategy. He knew the blonde kunoichi was a wind user, so his primary element was out, but he was an Uchiha, so using fire was no big deal to him. He had just the plan to take care of this bitch so he could catch back up with Naruto and make sure he was safe.

The clones nodded and henged into birds and flew around to create a flanking opportunity and execute Sasuke's plan.

Sasuke then looked at Hinata and pointed towards Kankuro.

Hinata nodded and activated her Byakugan before used some hand signs to direct her pair of clones.

Her clones henged into cats and crawled off into the bushes to set up her plan. She had to smile at that since Naruto's clones would always use cats around her since she loved them so much.

Sasuke leaped out of cover and threw a hail of shuriken before using Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu (Phoenix Flower Jutsu) to lace them with fire chakra and prevent the wind user from trying to blow them back in defense.

One of the Suna ninjas was unable to block them all and cried out in pain as the fiery shuriken embedded themselves into his torso and legs. Sasuke charged in and stabbed him in the chest with his lighting charged chokuto.

He had to Kawarimi with a branch quickly as slicing winds attempted to cut into him from Temari's tessen.

"You bastard! You're going to pay for that," Temari yelled out.

Sasuke merely smirked at Temari before he gave a slight hand signal to the two clones behind Temari.

One silently went underground using Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu (Headhunter Jutsu) while the other remained perched on a branch above, waiting to perform the combination jutsu Sasuke had instructed.

"Tch. Suna is the one that will be paying for foolishly siding with Orochimaru in this invasion. We knew all along you were going to betray us and trust me when I say your home will burn for it, sand whore." Sasuke taunted.

Temari gritted her teeth in anger. No wonder everything was falling apart! Konoha knew all along, and somehow they did something to Gaara to make him run. Gaara never ran from anything, but yet he ran away, in fear!

Temari prepared her tessen "Let's see if you can back up that talk, boy. Eat this!" she called out before she launched Fūton: Ōkamaitachi no Jutsu (Great Sickle Weasel) towards Sasuke with a swing of her massive fan.

Sasuke used Shunshin onto a tree branch above Temari, near the bird clone, and went through the hand signs for Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu (Phoenix Fire Jutsu). The clone unhenged and waited for Sasuke to launch the fireballs before using Fūton: Reppūshō (Gale Palm) to increase the speed of each fireball until the clone expended all its chakra and had to dispel.

Temari cursed and strafed away from the fast moving fireballs. She was barely able to avoid the fireballs because of the speed added by the wind jutsu. Only a small spark of sunlight glinting off of Sasuke's blade as it approached from above warned Temari of an even greater danger. It took all of Temari's strength and experience to twist her body to build up enough momentum to swing her heavy tessen up to stop the strike in the knick of time. Unfortunately for Temari, this proved to be a mistake as Sasuke had channeled Raiton chakra into his blade expecting the kunoichi to block his strike, or die after his sword removed her head from her shoulders.

The lightning chakra in Sasuke's blade traveled through her tessen and up her arms causing some muscle and skin damage. Temari managed to ignore the pain and pivot to dislodge the lightning blade before the electricity could travel to her torso and fry her organs. She quickly lashed out with a thrust kick to Sasuke's stomach, launching him backward and giving her some space to counter with her fan once more. Temari's kick was not very strong because her balance was off and Sasuke was quickly able to land and dash forwards to try and shut her jutsu down and render her tessen useless.

Just like Sasuke expected, Temari tried to heft her fan for another Fūton: Ōkamaitachi no Jutsu but Sasuke was too fast for her. He lashed out with a series of strikes, forcing Temari to stop her swing and block or dodge the attacks. Temari growled in frustration before trying to push Sasuke away from her.

As Sasuke and Temari struggled to overpower their opponent's guard, Sasuke charged himself with Raiton: Bakurai (Depth Charge) causing Temari to cry out as voltage traveled through her body and began to burn her muscles, tendons, and veins.

She managed to Kawarimi with a log before she had any severe damage and countered with Fūton: Ōkamaitachi no Jutsu carving up the trees and kicking up dust with sharp cutting wind blades.

Sasuke cursed to himself as he had to Kawarimi with an object farther from her. He needed to lure the sand whore to Naruto's hidden clone in order to trigger the trap, but she was being difficult. He couldn't communicate with the underground clone to readjust the plan since it was underground. All the other clones had run off to support Hinata, so he was only left with one. He wanted to finish her off in close range, but since she wanted to play the ranged game, he would oblige her.

Sasuke slipped a few of Naruto's chakra seals under his forearm warmers and prepared to show that Suna bitch why the Uchiha were feared.

Sasuke readied another grip full of shuriken and threw them at here while he finished Katon: Hōsenka Tsumabeni (Phoenix Flower Jutsu) sending the fire laced shuriken after Temari, who had to evade the attack so her tessen wouldn't become inoperable.

Sasuke finished his hand seals and launched another series of fireballs from Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu driving Temari towards the underground clone then used a chakra seal before he ran through the hand seals for Katon: Gōryūka no Jutsu just to make the bitch sweat a little.

Temari was sweating while she ran from the smaller fireballs and saw the giant fire dragon flying towards her. 'Fuck I thought he was primarily a Raiton user.' she thought as she used Shunshin to escape the concussive blast of the fire dragon.

Before she could try and signal Kankuro and his support-nin for a target switch, however, she found herself trapped.

Something grabbed onto her feet and pulled her partially into the ground. Before she could dig herself out, she heard the sound of birds chirping and saw Sasuke charging towards her with that same lighting attack he used on Gaara.

Temari cursed and only had enough time to put her tessen up and hoped she wasn't about to die.

Sasuke's Chidori drove through the first thick steel leaf of the tessen and quickly burned through the cloth fan before it began to melt through the second steel leaf. Suddenly, he broke through, but the fan had slowed his momentum down enough to reduce a fatal attack to a severe one instead.

Temari screamed as the lighting laced hand drilled partially into her shoulder. Her skin began to blister as the localized lightning started to burn into her.

Sasuke scowled when he saw that his Chidori failed again. It seemed like that attack was too easy to deflect or was too dependent on completely immobilizing the opponent for it to land successfully. He was about to finish Temari off by cutting her head off when Itachi landed next to her.

"Hold, Sasuke. She is the daughter of the Kazekage and will make a valuable prisoner," Itachi said.

Sasuke just grunted and flicked his sword clean before sheathing it. A rustle of bushes drew his attention to the right where Hinata emerged with Kakashi following after her. Kankuro was unconscious and slung over the shoulder of a Naruto clone.

"How did your fight go?" Sasuke asked Hinata

"It was quite short actually, with two of Naruto's clones as support it was no trouble," Hinata said in a casual tone before she began to relay the details to Sasuke and the others.

Flashback

Hinata charged into the clearing and dodged the hail of senbon from the puppet user as she advanced on Kankuro and his puppet. She hated to admit it, but Tsunade's training made dodging this guy's senbon a joke.

With her Byakugan, she could easily see the chakra strings used to control the puppet and decided to sever those first. She continued to charge in towards the puppet who moved to meet her head on. Apparently, the Suna guy didn't realize how stupid it was to face a Hyūga in melee when your whole basis of attack relies on heavily on chakra to control an inanimate object.

With a few quick Jūken strikes, she rendered the arms and legs of the puppet useless before she turned and charged toward Kankuro.

Kankuro used a quick Kawarimi to replace himself with Black Ant and reattached his strings to Crow and sent Crow back into attack Hinata.

Hinata stuck the puppet a few times causing some damage to the internal mechanisms before she used Hakkeshō Kaiten (Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation) to avoid the hail of senbon and a wind jutsu sent by the support Suna-nin with Kankuro.

Kankuro cursed as Crow was thrown backward into a tree and took heavy damage from the Kaiten and the impact against the tree. Crow was still good enough to use, however, so he rearranged his parts that were dislodged with strings and made him charge Hinata, who had begun to attack his support partner.

Hinata had dashed towards the Suna-nin, who began to engage her in taijutsu foolishly. Hinata was able to finish Hakke Sanjūni Shō (Eight Trigrams 32 Palms) on her target before having to back off to evade a slash from Crow's arm blades. She didn't need to worry about the Suna-nin anymore; she had shut off enough chakra points to disable him completely and hit a few vital organs for good measure. Without medical attention, he would die in less than fifteen minutes.

Kankuro was much better at taijutsu with Crow and had learned from his first mistake. He kept Hinata at a distance with Crow's poisoned blades and senbon launched from his chest whenever she attempted to close the gap and render his chakra strings useless.

Kankuro was thrown off guard when another Konoha-nin appeared and began to attack him directly. He recognized the blonde kid from the Chūnin Exam preliminaries as the one from Konoha, who got the bye.

Kankuro cursed as he redirected Crow to shoot senbon at the blonde before slashing at Hinata, who tried to dash towards him while he was distracted.

The blonde evaded the attacks and charged again swinging his kunai at his head before trying to kick Kankuro in the stomach when Kankuro managed to dodge the kunai strike.

Kankuro doubled over from the kick and was forced to send Crow dashing towards the blonde to take the pressure off himself while he threw a handful of shuriken at Hinata to keep her at bay.

The blond managed to close the distance and force Kankuro to strafe away before Crow moved in to engage the blond. While this was happening Kankuro kept tossing more shuriken at Hinata, who was slowly closing the distance.

Kankuro cursed when he saw a second blond kid Shunshin in next to Crow before he drilled Crow in the chest with a ball of chakra that shattered Crow into pieces.

He didn't have any time to react after that because he was too busy being hammered by Jūken strikes from Hinata's Hakke Rokujūyon Shō (Eight Trigrams 64 palms).

Hinata swiftly cut off all his tenketsu in his arms, legs, and torso for but decided to spare his organs from her chakra enhanced shots for now. He might prove useful as a prisoner. Both clones stood by and waited for Hinata's orders obediently.

"Clone-kun, can you please tie him up and carry him with us?" Hinata asked.

The clones looked at each other for a moment before the one on the right nodded and began to tie Kankuro up with ninja wire.

Kakashi appeared with two Anbu following behind him.

"Naruto?" Kakashi asked questioningly

"Nope. Boss went off with B after Shukaku a little while ago." The clone responded before slinging Kankuro over his shoulder.

"Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing here? Is something wrong?" Hinata asked.

"We got permission to hit the Root base, but we need to head out soon. We saw you guys and decided to see if you needed any assistance before you join us in the assault." Kakashi said.

"You don't want Naruto-kun to join us also?" Hinata asked

"He has to worry about the Ichibi more than Root at the moment. We don't have much time before Danzō sees through the ruse we set up with the Daimyō and either sends his forces to attack us or flees. We have to head out right away." Kakashi said.

"You two clones stick with us for now and don't dispel," Kakashi ordered the clones.

The clones merely looked at each other again before nodding and following after Kakashi and Hinata. The boss was not going to be happy about this, but they had their orders.

Flashback End

"Hn. So, what do we do about our prisoners if we are hitting the Root base now?" Sasuke said.

He was starting to get excited at the prospect of finishing Danzō off for good. Naruto would probably be pissed that he missed out, but he had an important job to do.

"We will have the clones here guard them until reinforcements arrive to pick them up," Kakashi said to the clones who nodded.

The clone holding Kankuro simply dropped him down next to Temari and decided to use Henge to disguise himself as a rock near the unconscious prisoners.

The second clone took up a position in the trees as a bird to ambush any Suna-nin, who might pass through on their retreat and free the prisoners.

The rest of Team 7 and Itachi leaped up into the trees to continue to the Root base entrance followed by the Anbu support team.

As they neared the entrance, they halted when they saw a cat leap towards them from a tree in front of them and deactivate its henge revealing Naruto.

"Naruto? What are you doing here? Is the Ichibi secured already?" Kakashi asked.

"Naruto" scratched his head sheepishly. "Actually, the Boss went into the Root base with his old friend from the orphanage. He just left me here to let anyone know who was in the area and give them this." The clone replied before handing a map to Kakashi.

"Why the hell did Naruto go into the Root base with his friend?" Kakashi asked as he looked at the map the clone gave him.

The clone began to explain how Naruto ran into Root, but his friend turned on her teammates and asked for his help to free the other orphans taken by Root. Then she came back, and Naruto left this clone with a copy of the map to help anyone else who wanted to infiltrate the base.

"Well, at least, he had the presence of mind to leave a clone behind to inform us that he was walking into a trap," Itachi said

"Do you really think it was a trap?" Hinata asked timidly. She was really hoping that Naruto hadn't fallen for such a ruse, but it sounded like something the blond would do.

"Yes." Kakashi, Itachi, and Sasuke all answered at the same time.

"This map may be false, but it seems genuine. Neko, take your squad and cover this entrance here to the North. If Danzō hasn't left yet, this is where he will flee if we launch an attack from this entrance here." Kakashi said as he showed Neko the map and pointed. "If there isn't an access point at that location, Pakkun will lead you to where we have entered the base, and you can run a sweep from there," Kakashi said with a glance at Pakkun.

Neko saluted, and her team took off towards the back entrance with Pakkun running after them.

"What about me, sensei?" the clone asked.

"You dispel so that Naruto knows that help is coming and that he is in a lot of trouble for pulling this stunt," Kakashi said seriously. "Tsunade is going to be very pissed at him for doing something this stupid."

The clone gulped before dispelling. He had seen Tsunade vent her temper on Jiraiya more than once and did not want to be on the receiving end.

Kakashi, Hinata, Sasuke, and Itachi moved towards the nearest base entrance marked on the map. Hopefully, they would find their wayward teammate and bring Danzō down for good.