The Hope of the Senju Clan

by Aragon Potter

What if instead of Kushina being Naruto's mother and through a trick of fate Naruto's mother was Tsunade after a drunken night with Minato in which Naruto becomes both the heir and hope of the Senju clan. Find out what life would be like now for Naruto

34. Chapter 34 Akatsuki

Naruto: The Hope of the Senju Clan

Chapter Thirty-four: Akatsuki

This story was inspired by the Story Senju Naruto by Baal of Yarns

"Thinking/Writing"

"Jutsu"

"Animal talk/Thinking Jutsu/Snarling"

In celebration of my Nations National Holiday, I have decided to upload this Chapter.

Hope everyone enjoys it and Happy St Patrick's Day!

Previously on Hope of the Senju Clan

Once the others had gone the leader and his partnered turned to the dark corner of the cave.

"Do you have any objections to what I have planned?" asked the leader as he looked towards the dark corner, where another dark Shadowy form appeared.

Like the other Akatsuki members astro forms, the figure was cloaked in darkness, where all one could make out was the red clouds on his black cloak and a singular eye, which held the Sharingan.

"I have no objections, in fact I am rather interested in the boy myself and would like to meet the descendant of my old rival Hashirama" replied the dark figure. "Also tell Itachi and Kisame to be cautious with him, the line of the Senju line should never be underestimated."

"Understood…Madara-sama."

-Konoha ANBU Headquarters-

Currently walking through the underground passages of Konoha's ANBU headquarters underneath the village, one Senju Naruto silently made his way down the dark hallways.

It had been two weeks since the invasion had ended, and after a long stay, Naruto was finally allowed to leave the hospital. But not before a thorough medical check by his mother, who wanted to make sure that he was in perfect health.

But despite passing all the examinations, Tsunade had ordered Naruto to not get into any strenuous activities, stating that he still needed to take it easy.

Remembering his mother's orders, the young Senju could only sigh, since after his near-death experience, his mother had become even more protective of him than before, something he didn't think was possible until now.

After finally leaving the hospital, Naruto expected to move back into the apartment he had been living in since he came to Konoha. But to his surprise he found he had been moved to a large house not far from the Hokage's mansion.

It was only later that he learned that this was to be his new family home, which the Sandaime had built specifically for when Tsunade returned to Konoha, since Naruto's apartment was too small for the entire family.

Originally the Sandaime had planned to let Naruto stay in his apartment. But after the invasion Tsunade insisted that Naruto was to stay with her in the new Senju family home, so that she could keep an eye on her son. (1)

Sighing again at his mother overprotectiveness, the blonde haired boy began to wonder if he would ever be allowed to leave the village again, without his mother hovering over him.

After a few minutes of walking Naruto finally arrived at his destination, which was the ANBU holding cells. In front of the doorways Naruto saw two masked ANBU flanking the doorway to the holding cells.

When Naruto reach them, an ANBU wearing a wolf-like mask, the ANBU looked down at him and spoke, "You are not cleared to be here, identify yourself."

"My name is Senju Naruto and I am here to see one of the prisoners here."

Upon learning who Naruto was, both ANBU stiffened slightly.

"Our apologies Naruto-dono, but I'm afraid you're still not permitted here" spoke the other ANBU who wore a badger shaped masked.

"You guys are aware of who my mother is?" asked Naruto, where he received a nod from the two ANBU. "And you're also aware that my mother is about to become the Godaime Hokage."

"We are aware of that Naruto-dono, but even so…" said the Wolf masked ANBU but before he could finish he was interrupted by Naruto.

"Come on guys, I wouldn't be here if I didn't have permission, How else do you think I got here?"

"That may be true, but still we cannot let you in without proper authorisation from the Hokage-sama" said the Badger masked ANBU.

"Fine then" sighed Naruto, "But you guys should know that Jiji is pretty busy right now going over the paperwork for being Hokage with my mom. So if you guys really want to waste time by following proper procedure and interrupt both Jiji and Kaa-chan while they're at work. Then you better be prepared for the consequence, since Kaa-chan is in a pretty bad mood right now over having to go over all that paperwork."

At the mention of a pissed off Tsunade, both ANBU silently gulped, since it has been a long standing unspoken rule among the ANBU never to get on Tsunade's bad side.

This rule came into effect about thirteen years ago, when Tsunade hospitalized two ANBU who unfortunately got in her way when she was in a bad mood. By the time she was done with them, the two ANBU were basically human pretzels, with their arms and legs all tied up in one nice big bow.

Even now a team of ANBU were currently in hiding from Tsunade. After the granddaughter of Hanzo was able to get by them and have her way with Naruto, or at least that what the rumours say among the ANBU.

After turning to one another and looking at each other, both ANBU silently reached an agreement and turned to Naruto.

"Very well Naruto-dono, you may enter but I will accompany you" said the Badge masked ANBU.

"Fine" replied Naruto, before the ANBU opened the door and he and the ANBU walked in.

As they entered the holding area Naruto could not help but silently congratulate himself on a perfectly played bluff.

Although he did feel little bad for lying to the two ANBU, since he didn't really have permission to be here and only knew about it from his Kushina. Who being the blabber mouth that she was, inadvertently mention some things about the ANBU over Ramen.

"I guess being the son of the next Hokage does have its advantages" Naruto thought as he and the ANBU down the long roll of cells that flanked them.

-Flashback Two Weeks Ago-

"ME HOKAGE?!" cried a surprised Tsunade who had just finished checking Naruto's vitals and was now talking to Sandaime, who had just entered Naruto's room a few minutes ago with Jiraiya.

"Yes" replied the Sandaime calmly as took his pipe from his mouth.

"Forget it" said Tsunade before turning back to Naruto to test his reflexes.

"Tsunade, please reconsider."

"I said no, I'm not interested, besides the village doesn't need me, it has you. So why are you even bothering me about it, I thought you said you stay on for at least another five years."

"I'm afraid things have changed Tsunade" replied the old Hokage as he took a nearby empty seat.

"What do you mean?" asked Tsunade asturning to her former teacher.

"After our battle, the Fire council was called into session where many of the fire Daimyo's advisors criticised some of my pervious decisions."

"Are they trying to force you out?" asked Tsunade.

"Not exactly, despite his advisors criticism the Fire Daimyo stated that he trusts my judgement. But he did mention that it might be time for me to look for a successor after someone remarked that my fighting ability was not what it used to be."

"Danzo" said Tsunade with a frown.

"Yes, Danzo argued that I am no longer capable of defending the village properly. He even stated that due to my diminished strength, had you and Jiraiya not been there to help me, I likely would have died in the battle."

"Tsk…He's probable trying to push you out so he could manoeuvre himself as your replacement."

"He was, in fact he even tried to nominate himself as my replacement."

"Heh! Danzo was never afraid to say want he wanted" Jiraiya remarked with a sneer.

"That's a load of bull, that guy is probable as old as you are jiji…!" said Naruto, who decided to voice his opinion, as he was aware of Danzo. "How does he expect to do any better?"

"Danzo was not only just criticising my age, he also criticised my way of running the village, stating that Konoha had become too lax during my rule. He also went on to say that it was because of my teachings that we did not see Suna's betrayal coming."

"That a load of horse shit" said Naruto, before he received a clip on the ear.

"Naruto, watch your mouth" scolded Tsunade before turning back to her sensei.

"But still you can't listen to him sensei; Danzo is only saying that stuff because he wants to make himself Hokage. The damage done to the village is Orochimaru's fault no-one else's."

"I am well aware of that Tsunade, but even so, some of the things Danzo said are true. I have gotten too old; our recent battle with Orochimaru has proven that, and that is why I believe it's time for me to retire. Given the damage done to the village and our forces, Konoha is vulnerable and no doubt some of the other villages will start probing our defences to see how weak we have become. If Konoha is to rebuild and survive, it needs a new leader who everyone acknowledges...it needs you Tsunade."

"Why me? There are plenty other Shinobi who are strong enough, better yet why not the pervert over here?" said Tsunade as she pointed to Jiraiya who was leaning against the widow.

"Me Hokage…hah!" laughed Jiraiya at the idea. "Sorry hime, but I'll probably go stir crazy after the first week. I'm no good behind a desk; I'm of better use to Konoha out in the field."

"What about Hatake, he's more than powerful enough or maybe even Kushina, hell she probably jump at the chance."

"Although Kakashi is a fine Shinobi, he is not suited for the position, like Jiraiya he would be of better use in the field on missions, than he would be as Hokage. As for Kushina, although she is one of our strongest and most valuable Kunoichi, she is still not you Tsunade."

"Pff…Well tough, since I'm still not interested" Tsunade replied stubbornly.

"Come on hime don't be like that, you're obviously the best choice, you're a natural leader given the way you've organised the Hospital staff after the invasion. You're also more than strong enough and popular enough with both the civilians and the Shinobi populace. Not to mention you have the lineage to back it up as well, which would almost guarantee you the position."

"Agreed, you already have many of the qualities that would make you a fine Hokage Tsunade, and you would be able to help rebuild the village. The Fire Daimyo himself said that he would support your candidacy as Godaime Hokage if you wanted it. When I mentioned possible successors to him at the end of the meeting" said the Sandaime where he continued.

"Also if you become Hokage you will be able to protect Naruto from certain groups inside the village who are already on the move."

"What do you mean?" asked Tsunade with a frown, although she already had an idea what the Sandaime was getting at.

"As you know, Naruto was already the target of many factions and groups both inside and outside the village. But now that Naruto has revealed that he has Mokuton, he has become an even bigger target, especially to certain influential families and Clans. Who will no doubt try to get close to Naruto or try to put political pressure on both you and him, since there is a possibility that Naruto could pass on his Mokuton Bloodline limit to his children."

"Does anyone standout?" Tsunade asked, since this was exactly what she was afraid would happen when Naruto revealed he could use Mokuton.

"The Hyuga Clan."

"Tsk figures" muttered Tsunade, ever since the end of the First Great Shinobi World War the Hyuga Clan had been slowly gaining influence in Konoha. When most of her Clan was wiped out in the First and Second Great Shinobi World Wars, the Hyuga Clan took advantage of the void left by the loss of her Clan to manoeuvre themselves in Konoha's government. They then used their influence and their fame from the previous wars to make them one of the leading Clans in the village, where only the Sarutobi or Uchiha's Clans could challenge them. But when the Uchiha Clan was wiped out, the Hyuga Clan took the mantle as the strongest Shinobi Clan in Konoha, increasing their influence and status further. But now that Naruto had returned and revealed he had Mokuton like her grandfather, he threated everything.

Even though her Clan was all but gone, the Senju name still held enormous influence in the village, more than the Hyuga could ever hope to claim.

Naruto also had the potential to not only revive the Senju Clan, but also make it even stronger than it ever was before. Since it was possible he could turn Mokuton into an actually Bloodline limit.

If this indeed happen, the Hyuga Clan would lose much of the influence and power they had gained, including their status as the strongest Clan in the village, after a couple of decades.

That was why the best possible solution to this problem was to form a union with Naruto before he rebuilt the Senju Clan; more specifically form a union through marriage. By doing this, not only would they secure their Clan's high status. They would also increase it, since the new Senju Clan would be built upon a member from their Clan.

"Damn bastard" muttered Tsunade.

"I'm afraid they may have already begun to move Tsunade, no doubt they will try to use Naruto-kun's friendship with Hiashi's daughter Hinata to try and arrange a marriage between the two of them."

"Wait are you saying that Hinata-chan is part of this?" Naruto asked since he refused to believe that Hinata only became his friend so that she could get close to him.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I doubt it, since young Hinata does not seem the type to do such things. Although I would not be surprised if the Hyuga Clan elders were pressuring the girl to get close to you."

"Can they do that?"

"I'm afraid so, although officially the Hyuga elders' act as advisors to the Hyuga Clan head" said the Sandaime. "…They can overrule his decision when the Hyuga Clan as a whole is affected, for example during the incident with the Kumo ambassador, Hinata's father Hiashi planned to sacrifice himself. But before he could, the Hyuga elders overruled him and had Neji's father Hizashi substitute him."

"In other words" said Jiraiya, "They'll try to pressure the girl to get closer to you."

"Tsk they can try" growled Tsunade, since she wouldn't stand for anyone trying to use her son for their own petty means.

"Do not underestimate the power and influence of the Hyuga Clan Tsunade, they can bring up a great deal of political pressure on you. That is another reason why I am asking you to be Hokage, since with you at the head of the village, their attempts to pressure you or Naruto will be made even more difficult. You will also be able to see and political movements that they or others may try against you and Naruto and stop them.

After hearing this Tsunade frowned again, as she thought everything over, although she didn't really want the job. Being Hokage would allow her to monitor her son's safety more and at the same time watch for any attempts made against them. Not to mention there was a chance that if she didn't, Danzo could force the Sandaime out. Given the strong resentment in the village against Suna for their recent attack, he could use his militaristic policies to gain support with the the Shinobi and the people and then position himself as Hokage.

That was of course something Tsunade could not afford to happen, since she did not want to even think what Danzo would plan to do with her son once he became Hokage.

"What do you think of it Naru-chan?" asked Tsunade as she turned to her son after a few minutes of heavy thinking.

"I'm okay with it" replied Naruto, "In fact I think you'd make a great Hokage Kaa-chan, it would also be pretty cool, since this way I can become Hokage right after you."

Smiling at this, Tsunade just nodded and turned to the Sandaime, "Fine I'll take the job."

-End Flashback—

As he and the ANBU walked down the long roll of cells that flanked them, Naruto could see that some of the cells were occupied with peopled dressed in prison clothing and wearing specially designed handcuffs, which prevented the person from using their Chakra.

Seeing the people, Naruto notice that most of them were very pale looking, indicating that they had not been out in the sun for a very long time.

This of course made the blonde boy wonder what the prisoners did to deserve to be down here. But before he could put anymore thought into what the prisoners had done, they arrived at a small steel door.

"This is the maximum security cell, he is being held inside" said the ANBU.

"Thanks, also if you would, could you stay out here I would like to talk to him alone."

"I believe that would be unwise, since this person is highly dangerous and…" said the ANBU but was stopped when Narutp interrupted him.

"I know exactly how dangerous he is, because in case you have forgotten, "I" was the one who defeated him."

"Ahem…eh yes of course" replied the slightly embarrassed ANBU, since that part had slipped his mind. "But still I believe it would be unwise for you to enter alone."

"Look even if he somehow breaks free, I can handle him with my Mokuton techniques and I can call for help."

"Very well" said the ANBU after a few minutes. "But I will remain here outside should anything happen."

"Fine" said Naruto before the ANBU opened the door and let him into the room.

After Naruto entered the room, the ANBU closed the door behind him.

The room was large, dully lit, with only a single light shining down from the ceiling onto a large cage in the middle of the room, where it held a single person inside.

This person was none other than Sabaku no Gaara (Gaara of the Sand Waterfall).

As Naruto walked closer, he could see Gaara was sitting on the floor without his gourd, covered in a special seal drawn up by Kushina, preventing him from accessing his Biju's Chakra.

He had shackles on both his legs, which were nailed to the floor preventing him from moving far as well as the same special handcuffs that Naruto saw the other prisoners wearing.

Once Naruto reached the cell, he saw a large scale seal surrounding the cell, which he guessed was a special barrier seal that kept Gaara from leaving the cell in the event he broke free from his restraints.

After Naruto reached the edge of the barrier around the cell, he took the seat directly in front of Suna boy, which was left for integrators when they were conducting interviews.

Hearing the sounds of someone entering the room, Gaara opened his eyes and frowned when he saw Naruto sitting down in the seat in front od him.

"Senju Naruto" said Gaara in a slow dull voice, "…Have you come to gloat?"

"Sorry no, that isn't my style."

"Then why have you come?"

"I came to talk"

"Talk?" asked Gaara, who although maintained the same blank expression, showed a slight sign of surprise

"Yea, talk."

"I have no wish to talk, let alone see you, so leave."

"Heh, sorry, but I've just freed my schedule for the next few hours, and I'm on medical leave, so you're stuck with me whether you like it or not."

Frowning at this, Gaara just glared coldly at the blonde boy, who just smirked back at him.

After a few minutes of silence, Naruto spoke again.

"In case you are interested, your brother and sister are fine and are being held in Konoha's correctional facility."

"I care little what happens to them" Gaara replied coldly.

"But they are your brother and sister, doesn't that meaning anything to you?"

"No" answered Gaara. "They are simple lumps of meat linked together, who just happen to share the same blood as I do."

"What kind of messed up stuff happen to this guy, to think so little about his own brother and sister?" Naruto thought with a frown, before continuing.

"You should know…your father the Yondaime Kazekage-sama is dead."

Upon hearing this, Gaara stared intently at Naruto, "Did he die during the battle?"

Thinking he might have gotten to the Sand wielding boy, Naruto answered.

"No, he was already long dead by then."

"How?" asked Gaara.

"He was killed about two months ago, shortly before the Chunin exam even started, by Orochimaru. Who then disguised himself as him, so that he could get your village to help in his attack on Konoha."

"I see" replied Gaara slowly, "…pity, I had hoped to have the pleasure of killing him myself one day."

"You wanted to kill your own father?" Naruto asked in shock, since he couldn't understand why anyone would want to kill their own father. "But why?"

At first Gaara did not answer and just stared at Naruto, but after a few minutes he spoke.

"Unlike you, I did not grow up in a nice environment; I was born to take life away. When I took my first breath in this world, I took the life of the woman who gave birth to me. I was born into this world, so that I could become the ultimate Shinobi… the perfect killer" Gaara said before continuing.

"After I was born, my father, the Yondaime Kazekage, had Shukaku sealed into me…from that very moment I was a monster."

After Gaara said this he looked right into Naruto eyes, with a cold empty look in his eyes, which worried the blonde boy.

"So that's what happened to him, like me, his father sealed a Biju into him. But unlike mine, who did it to protect our village, his did it so that he could become a human weapon to be used" Naruto thought. "What kind of messed up village is Suna, to have a father do something like that…it's crazy!"

Before Naruto could comment of what Gaara had told him, the Suna Genin spoke again.

"Once I was old enough, my father then taught me the secrets of my abilities, but not once did he ever show me love or showed that he care about me. He had me raised away from my siblings and from him, but despite that I still believed he cared for me and that I was loved, at least until that incident.

"What incident?" Naruto asked who was almost afraid to ask.

"The incident, where when I was six, my father tried to have me assassinated" replied Gaara where he once again looked right into Naruto's eyes, with a slightly crazed look in them.

When Naruto heard this, the blonde boy's eyes widened in shock, as he couldn't believe any father, let alone any parent would order their own son's to be killed.

"Why would he do such a thing?" Naruto asked, still not believing what he had heard.

"A being that is too strong eventually becomes the embodiment of fear and since I was constantly harassed by my Biju, my mind was unstable. So when the idiots of my village finally noticed that my emotions were unpredictable they began to attack me" answered Gaara. "To my father the Kazekage, I was our village's trump card when needed. But at the same time, I was a monster…a threat to the village. So when I turned six, he and the Suna council classified me as a dangerous being and tried to have me eliminated."

"After I learned what my father had ordered, I began to ask myself what was my purpose, what was my reason for existing? It was then that I discovered my reason for existing in this world…

"What did you discover?" Naruto asked, almost wishing he hadn't.

"I discovered that I exist to kill everyone around me, everyone other than myself" answered Gaara. "After I learned that, I found relief inside the fear of being assassinated at any time and by killing my assassins I was able recognise my reason for living in this world. That is why I fight only for myself and live for only myself. For as far as I am concern the people in this world exist only for me to kill."

After hearing this Naruto just stared at the red headed boy with a look of complete horror and shock.

"How can anyone, even think of living like that…? It's nuts!" Naruto thought, not understanding how anyone could believe in such a wrap view on life.

"So this is what happens to most jinchuriki?" Naruto thought sadly, where he could not help but pity Gaara for his harsh and cruel life.

At the same time Naruto was also thankfully for having his mother, Shizune and Jiraiya to take care of him when he was growing up. Otherwise, he might have ended up like Gaara, especially if he lived in Konoha and people knew he was a jinchuriki and treated him in the same manner.

"His father and village really did a number on him, if he actually believes in all this?" Naruto thought before steeling his resolve. Since if he wanted to help Gaara, he needed to learn more about the Suna jinchuriki and try to understand him better.

"Wasn't there anyone, who you ever cared about…someone you loved?" Naruto asked.

At first Gaara did not answer, where he then held his head in pain at the mention of the word "love," but after a few minutes he settled and then answered Naruto.

"There was one…my Uncle, who took care of me and raised me, but like everyone else in my village. He secretly hated me, and when I was six he told me how he truly felt and tried to kill me. It was after that, that I learned the truth of this world and my existence."

After hearing this Naruto could not help but pity his fellow jinchuriki even more, since he could only imagine what Gaara went through. To be so alone, and be betrayed so many times by the people who should have loved and cared for him.

"Now that I have answered your questions, you will answer my questions. Why have you come here, and why are you so interested in my life?"

Hoping the keep Gaara talking, Naruto decided to answer "I want to try and understand you, I want to know how anyone can be filled with so much hate and loathing for everyone around them? Since it is the very least I can do, given how my family is partially responsible for what happened to you."

"What do you mean?" asked Gaara not fully understanding what the blonde was talking about.

"Before the Shinobi villages were formed, my ancestors the Shodai Hokage and his wife used their combined skills and powers to capture and seal away eight of the nine Biju. Later when the Shinobi villages were formed, they gave the Biju to the other nations, hoping to create a power balance and prevent a war from breaking out. The Biju that my ancestors gave your village was Shukaku, so in a way, my family is partly at fault for your cruel life."

After hearing this Gaara frowned and just stared at the blonde for a few minutes before speaking.

"I see, so are you here to ask for my forgiveness?"

"No, I'm here because I want to try and help you."

"Help me…?" asked Gaara with some measure of surprise before frowning again. "How pitiful…By just saying that, my desire to kill you grows, and mark my words Senju Naruto, I will. For this prison will not hold me forever and once I have freed myself, you shall be the very first person I will kill…and I will relish it."

Hearing this Naruto just sighed, since he knew getting through to Gaara would be a long uphill battle.

"You can try, but you'll fail, not just because of my Mokuton powers or because I'm strong, but because you're alone and regardless of what you think, being alone does not make you strong, in fact it makes you weak."

Annoyed by Naruto's reply, the Suna Genin frowned and stared coldly at Naruto.

After a minute or so Gaara finally gave up staring at Naruto and closed his eyes.

"Leave me, the sight of you has sickens me more than I can bare."

"I told you I have no intention of leaving yet" Naruto replied stubbornly.

"Go!" Gaara said in a harsh voice, where he then glared coldly at the spikey haired blonde. "You have said what you've come to say, now leave. You're only here to ease the guilt you feel for your ancestors' action, you do not care about me, nor can you ever understand me…now leave!"

Naruto of course wanted to argue and deny what the redhead had said, but he was partially right for Naruto's reason for being here. But it was only ONE of the reasons why he had come to see Gaara, and why he wanted to help him.

After about a minute or so of heavy staring, Naruto finally relented and let out a tired sigh, knowing that he wouldn't get any further with Gaara today.

"Fine, I leave, but I'll be back tomorrow" said Naruto, causing Gaara to frown again.

Once he lifted himself up off his seat, Naruto prepared to walk back to the door, but before he leaving. Naruto took out a small book from his inner coat pocket and threw inside the cage, where in landed on the ground right in front of Gaara.

"What is it?" the Suna jinchuriki asked, when he looked at the book, where the cover read "The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi"

"It's a book; I thought you would be bored, since you're here by yourself with nothing to do or anyone to talk to."

"I do not want anything from you" Gaara replied coldly, where he left the book on the ground.

"That's your choice, but you should know, its actually a pretty good book and it was written by my Godfather."

Scoffing at it, Gaara just closed his eyes and ignored the blonde, who just sighed again and left the room.

After leaving Gaara, Naruto was accompanied out of the ANBU holding arena by Badger, where they then met up with Wolf.

But before Naruto could leave, Wolf suddenly spoke.

"Naruto-dono, I've just received word from the Sandaime Hokage-sama."

At the mention of his surrogate grandfather, Naruto froze.

"Oh really?" asked a nervous Naruto, as he started to sweat a little.

"Yes" answered Wolf, "He would like to "talk" to you and is waiting for you in his office as we speak.

Knowing the jig was up, Naruto let out a defeated sigh, where he then allowed Wolf to lead him out of the ANBU headquarters back to the Hokage's mansion.

---

After emerging from the underground base, Naruto and Wolf quickly made their way to the Hokage mansion and to his office.

Once they had arrived, Wolf knocked on the double doors of the Hokages office, where they then heard the Sandaime say "Enter."

Hearing the Hokage's voice, Wolf opened the door and allowed Naruto in, before following after him.

"Senju Naruto, as requested Hokage-sama."

"Thank you Wolf you may leave us" said the Sandaime as he waved the ANBU off, who nodded and closing the door behind himas he left.

"I suppose I don't need to explain to you why I called you hear Naruto-kun?" said the Sandaime with a slightly stern look.

"Eh, not really" replied Naruto with a guilty smile, "I guess I was hoping for too much that they would buy my bluff."

"I will admit it was a rather good bluff using the ANBU's fear of your mother to keep them from informing me. But sadly for you, there are some like Wolf who are not only loyal to me but still follow procedure regardless of consequence."

After the Sandaime said this, a nervous looking Naruto began to look around the office. "By any chance is Kaa-chan here?"

"No, she still at the hospital, since I thought it best to keep this little incident to ourselves" answered the Sandaime with a small amused smile.

After hearing this, Naruto let out a sigh of relief, since he could handle the Sandaime, but not his mother.

"So Naruto, perhaps you can tell me why you entered Sabaku no Gaara's holding cell, without permission?"

"I wanted to talk to him and I knew if I had gone to you, Kaa-chan would hear about it and she would try to stop me."

"And why do you want to talk to him?"

"Because I want to understand him, and help him."

"Help him, but why? The boy was determined to kill you when you fought him and from what Ibiki and the other interrogators have told me, he still is."

"He's not the first to try, look at Mai-chan and Haku-chan."

"True, but that boy is different Naruto."

"You mean because he is a jinchuriki?" Naruto asked with small frown.

"Ye-No…! No of course not?" the Sandaime said before raising his hand in denal, since he could see the anger slowly appearing on Naruto's face, and realized how his comment could be taken. "What I mean Naruto is that the boy is not mentally stable, and he probably does not what your help."

"I know, but I still feel that I should at least try?"

"Why?" asked the Sandaime, who could still not understand Naruro's reason for wanting to help.

"Because, I feel that I should, both of us are jinchuriki, but we lived completely different lives. Unlike him, I had people like Kaa-chan, Shizune-nee and Ero-sennin to look after me and care for me" said Naruto, who then went on to tell the Sandaime what Gaara a told him about his life in Suna.

When Naruto finished telling Gaara's story, even the Sandaime could not help but pity the young jinchuriki for what happened to him. But sadly he was not surprised by it, since he knew that this was not an uncommon practice in most Shinobi villages. With the exception of Kumo, most Shinobi villages that had jinchuriki, feared them, which often resulted in jinchuriki to be mistreated and hated by their own people.

"As much as it pains me to say this, not everyone can be saved Naruto-kun. Believe me, I know the feeling of wanting to save someone from their own darkness" Sarutobi said sadly as his mind lingered back to Orochimaru.

"Maybe, but I have to try!" replied Naruto. "I was luckier than him or most jinchuriki, I was able to live without being persecuted by the people around me. I lived outside Konoha and had people who loved and cared for me. If I had lived in Konoha and didn't have Kaa-chan or the others, and people knew that I was a jinchuriki. Chances are I would probably have been treated just as badly as Gaara was in his village and I might have turned out just like him."

"Naruto, you don't know that" the Sandaime argued.

"Don't I? Can you say with one hundred precent certainty jiji, that if people knew I held the Kyubi. They would treat me the same, especially after the Kyubi attack?"

At this remark, the Sandaime remained silent, which was all Naruto needed to confirm what he already believed.

The old Hokage of course knew it was pointless to argue with Naruto, since he knew what would have happened to Naruto if he had stayed in the village after the attack, and if people knew that the Kyubi was sealed within him.

Although he would be immune from harm, due to people's fear of Tsunade's wrath. It did not mean they would not scorn him and make him feel like an outcast, regardless of his heritage, due to their fear of the Kyubi.

This was of course one of the very reasons why he supported Tsunade's decision in leaving the village with Naruto. Since Sarutobi knew the affects an environment like that would have on a young boy when growing up, if people learned he carried the Kyubi within him.

"I also want to help him, since it's my responsibility" Naruto said, gaining the Sandaime's attention again.

"Your responsibility...? What do you mean my boy?"

"I mean, Gaara probably wouldn't have gone through want he did if it wasn't for my family, since it was Shodai who gave Suna Shakuku, resulting in Gaara becoming a jinchuriki."

"Naruto, that is not your family's fault, the Shodai gave Suna and their villages the other Biju, because he wanted to create a balance of power between the other Shinobi nations and maintain peace. How the others villages used them and threated their jinchuriki isn't your fault nor is it your responsibility.

"Well it didn't work, since war still broke out and besides, isn't it my responsibility? Like everyone in the village is saying now. I'm the Shodai's Hokage-sama's heir, meaning it my responsibilities to at least try to fix his mistakes" Naruto replied. But before the Sandaime could respond to his remark, Naruto continued.

"Look I'm, not saying that he was wrong in his idea in trying to keep peace. I just believe that the Shodai didn't realize the effect it would have, especially later on. If he had known what kind of suffering it would cause to those who became jinchuriki, I'm certain would have tried things differently."

After hearing this, the Sandaime closed his eyes and began to puff his pipe, showing he was in deep thought.

As he thought over everything Naruto had to said, he had to admit his surrogate Grandson made several valid points. But still he was naturally wary of Gaara and was unsure if Naruto could actually get through to the boy, since they were opposite in almost everything.

"Naruto what exactly makes you think you can even reach the boy?"

"By talking and listening to him since from what I have gathered, I don't think anyone has really ever tried to understand him, let alone talk to him. They've all been too scared of him to even try" answered Naruto.

"If I can just have a little more time with him, I know I can get to him" Naruto continued. "I can show him that not everyone in the world is out to get him, and that he doesn't need to be alone. I can show him that there can be a place for people like us, if he is just willing to open up."

When Naruto finished the Sandaime just closed his eyes and thought on it.

Now normally he wouldn't even consider something like this. But from watching Naruto these past few months and seeing the effect he had on certain people like Neji, Konohamaru, the fire Daimyo's granddaughter and others.

The Sandaime was also encouraged by Naurto's knack in turning his former enemies into allies, people like Momochi Zabuza, Yuki Haku, Hattori Mai, Killer Bee and his Genin team. Hence if anyone had a chance in getting through to the mad jinchuriki, it was Naruto.

As the Sandaime continued to ponder the matter further, he could not help but remember something the Shodai once told him, back when he was a young Genin.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

The Sandaime knew he could easily say no and do nothing and have Gaara remain alone in solitary until the eventual prisoner handover, which had been agreed upon after Konoha accepted Suna's surrender. But to do so would be a tragedy to an already sad life, since Sarutobi knew it would be only a matter of time before one of two things happen.

One was that Gaara finally went wild, resulting in either Suna's destruction or Gaara's death with the loss of many lives.

The other was that he and Naruto would eventually face one another again, only this time, one of them would kill the other. These possibilities were of course not something the Sandaime wanted. If there was a chance that they could be averted, he wanted to take it. If Naruto could somehow get through to Gaara. Not only would he have prevented a tragedy from happen. It was possible that Gaara could become a powerful ally to Naruto and help him against the Akatsuki, (who would also be after Gaara) and other groups.

After a minute or more of heavy thinking, the Sandaime finally decided to take a chance and roll the dice on Naruto, hoping that he was right.

Opening his eyes, the old Hokage looked directly into Naruto's eyes and spoke.

"Very well Naruto, I will allow you to continue to visit Gaara in his cell until he is released back to Suna. But there are some conditions, first you are not to enter the cell under any circumstances, nor are you allowed to release him from his chains or seals. Second an ANBU guard will be stationed at all times outside the room when you're visiting and thirdly. You're not permitted to walk around alone in any other part of the ANBU headquarters, am I understood."

I understand…and thanks jiji, I won't let you down."

Smiling and nodding at times, the Sandaime decided to move on to the other matter that he had called the spikey haired blonde here for.

"Good" replied the Sandaime before he hit the intercom on his desk, calling his secretary and telling her to "let them in."

Curious Naruto was about to ask what the Sandaime was talking about. But before he could, he heard the double doors behind him open and saw Kiba, his sister Hana and their mother Tsume, along with their canine partners enter the room.

Before Naruto could even greet them, Naruto was knocked to the ground by a brown blur, which preceded to luck his face.

"Hahahahaha…Come on Kurimaru…hahahhaha…are you going to do…hahahha...do this every time you see me…hahahhaha" laughed Naruto as the young half wolf continued to lick him.

"He's just happy to see you brat" replied Tsume as she smiled at the scene, "…poor pup has been moping around the compound ever since it heard you got hurt."

After a few minutes Kurimaru finally settled down and allowed Naruto to sit up, who was then helped up by Kiba who offered him a hand.

Since the invasion, Naruto and Kiba's relationship had improved a lot in the past few months, where the young Inuzuka was a lot friendlier to the blonde and criticised him less.

"So why are you guys here?" Naruto asked, once he was back on his feet.

"We're here to see you and to give you something or should I say Naku here has something to give you" a smiling Hana said, where she took a step back and allowed Naruto to see the young girl who was standing behind her.

When Naruto saw her, he immediately recognised the girl from one of his clone's memory, who saved the girl, her pup and Kurimaru from and Oto Shinobi.

Naku had brown eyes and short brown hair that fell as just below the back of her neck and wore a small head band around her head. Like all members of the Inuzuka Clan she had two read fang markings on each of her cheeks, with a third on her forehead.

She wore a simple white sleeveless top, with dress underneath and purple armbands around each of her arms. She also wore a simple looking necklace with a small green stone tied around it and a pair of oval shape earrings. (2)

"Hey Naku, how are you?" greeted Naruto, when he saw the girl, who was also accompanied by her pup, who barked in greeting, while also telling Naruto to remember her. This of course made Naruto smile, and quickly said hello to the young pup.

"I am fine thank you Naruto-san" replied Naku slightly nervously, where she then held out a small black box to Naruto. That she had been holding his her hands, "This is for you."

Curious about what was inside the box, Naruto took it from the nervous girl and opened, where he saw a handmade bracelet. The bracelet was simple, made out of beads and different coloured leather robe, with a large dogs tooth on top. (3)

"A bracelet?" said Naruto in surprise.

"Naruto my boy that is no ordinary bracelet" said the Sandaime when he saw the bracelet. "...That is a pack bracelet, a rare honour that is only given to certain members outside the Inuzuka Clan,."

"A Pack bracelet?" asked Naruto not understanding what his surrogate grandfather was talking about, since he had never heard of such a thing.

Seeing Naruto's confusion, Tsume decided to explain what the bracelet meant.

"A Pack bracelet is something that is only given to certain people outside our Clan and is not something that is given often. It is only given to those who have either done a great service to our Clan or risked their lives to save one of our own. This bracelet symbolise our friendship with you, where you're considered honorary members of our Clan."

"Wow, thanks Tsume-san" said a surprised Naruto, who didn't expect anything like this.

"Don't worry about it pup, it's the least I can do after you saved my niece" said the female Inuzuaki head, where she then placed her hand on top of Naku, who blushed from embarrassment.

"Your niece?!" cried Naruto in surprise, since he had been unaware that Naku was Tsume niece, which meant that she was Kiba's cousin.

"Yea, she's my kid brother's daughter, and she's been in my care ever since her parents died on a mission" Tsume said with a mournful expression, since she never got over the loss of her younger brother.

Shortly after, Tsume thoughts moved away from the loss of her brother when she heard Kurimaru braking, which reminded her of why else they were here.

"Oh before I forget, tell me pup, what would you think in having Kurimaru stay with you."

"Huh? You mean you want me to keep Kurimaru" Naruto said in shock, who was not the only one, since the Sandaime was also stunned by the news. Since never in the history of the Inuzuka Clan was one of their dogs given to someone outside their Clan. The Inuzuka Clan valued their dogs like they would any other member of their Clan. They were like a brother or sister to their partners and would never abandon them. And to allow someone to have one of their dogs was unheard of, yet by doing this, it indicated that they trusted Naruto without question.

"A-Are you sure?" Naruto asked, since he also knew what this meant.

"We're sure" answered Hana with a smile, "Inuzuka dogs only pick one person to partner up with in their entire lives. Kurimaru has clearly showed that he likes you, and I don't think he would be willing to partner up with anyone else."

After hearing this Naruto then turned to the small pup and asked him if he would like to stay with him.

In response the small half-wolf jump up into Naruto's arms and began to lick his face and bark loudly, while wagging his tail.

"Well I guess you got your answer pup" said Tsume smile.

"I guess" replied Naruto with a smile. "But would it be okay if I brought him to visit, in case he starts to miss the other dogs."

"Of course, you're always welcome at our place pup…and I'm sure Naku would enjoy seeing her "hero" as well."

"Tsume-obasan!" cried the now red girl, which caused most people to laugh, seeing that the girl had developed a crush on her blonde saviour.

Kiba and Naruto of course remain oblivious, believing that Naku was just embarrassed over Naruto saving her, and Tsume teasing her about it.

As the group continued to talk amongst themselves, the Sandaime could not help but smile over how history could repeat itself.

Long ago, just before Konoha was founded, a group of Inuzuka were ambushed by a large group of Shinobi from Kusa no Kuni (Grass Country).

During the first few minutes of the attack several members of the group, along with their canine partners were badly wounded. Leaving the rest to defend not only themselves, but also their wounded

But just when the group was about to be wiped out, Naruto's ancestor Hashirama appeared and singlehandedly defeated the enemy Shinobi.

Once the enemy was defeated, Hahashirama used his advance medical skills to treat the injured members, saving their lives.

Later, after learning what Hashirama had done, the Inuzuka Clan head of that time met with Senju Clan head and like with Naruto, presented him with the Pack bracelet, as a sign of gratitude. Not only for saving his Clan members lives, but also the life of his son, who had been with the group.

It was thanks to this incident that the Senju and Inuzuka Clans became strong friends, and when Konoha was first built. The Inuzuka were among the first Shinobi Clans to join Konoha.

With this new development, Sarutobi knew that Naruto had gained powerful allies, since the Inuzuka were a proud and fierce Clan of Shinobi. Who not only remembered their enemies, but also their friends, and were always loyal to them. This was a trait that had earned them much fame and respect, not only in Konoha, but in other Shinobi villages as well.

"Just make sure take good care of him, otherwise we'll come after you" said Kiba with a teasing smirk, knowing that Naruto would never hurt the young pup.

"Don't worry I will" replied Naruto with his own smile, as he scratch the back ear of his new friend. Although at the same time, Naruto also began to wonder how another friend of his was doing, with her new friend.

---

Currently walking through the village of the Hidden Cloud, one Nii Yugito was slowly making her way back home after accomplishing an escort mission.

As she neared her family home, the blonde girl could not help but feel quite pleased with herself, since it had been her first official solo mission as a Chunin.

After a few minutes Yugito arrived at her home, which was a small one story house that had belonged to her family.

When she opened the door she immediately took off her sandals and said "I'm home!"

Shortly after she said this, a small white blur made its way over to her.

When Yugito looked down, she saw a kitte rubbing and purring against her leg.

The kitten was small with white fur and dark brown eyes and a miniature headband around its neck with the symbol of Kumo on it.

"Hello girl, how are you today? Did Samui take good care of you while I was away?" asked Yugito in girly voice, as she lifted the small kitten up.

In response the small kitten meowed, indicating that it was fine, where is soon started purr when Yugito began to scratch behind its ear.

Hearing the kitten purr loudly, the blonde girl could not help but smile and remember when she first brought the kitten home.

-Enter Flashback Fortnight Ago-

Two days after returning to her village, a still recovering Yugito walked into her kitchen to get a glass of milk, as she made her way through her living room. She noticed a small scroll on the table, which she had left there after returning home and had forgotten about.

Seeing the scroll, Yugito quickly remembered the scroll as the one Naruto gave her before leaving Konoha and told her not open until she returned home.

Deciding to see what was inside it; the blonde girl picked up the scroll and opened it up.

After opening the scroll, she quickly recognised the summoning seal written inside the seal, which began to let out smoke.

Unsure what was about to appear, Yugito immediately dropped the scroll onto the floor and a small cloud of smoke appeared.

When the smoke dissipated, Yugito saw a familiar white kitten standing in front of her with a small white ribbon around it.

Upon seeing the kitten Yugito recognised it as the same one she and Naruto had saved. (4)

At the same time, the small kitten looked up at the blonde girl and meowed and purred against her leg, indicating she recognised Yugito as well.

After picking the small kitten up, Yugito noticed a small piece of paper stuck inside the small ribbon around the kitten's neck and took it out to read it.

"Dear Yugito-chan, as I promised this kitten now has a good home."

"P.S. She doesn't have a name yet, since I thought you should be the one to name her."

"Tsk, sneaky as ever, I beat this was what he had planned from the very beginning" Yugito thought with an amused smile, before she lifted the kitten up to her face and looked right into her eyes.

"Well girl I guess this is your new home, you okay with that?" Yugito asked, where the kitten meowed back indicating that it was.

"I guess you're going to need a name" Yugito said as she stared down at the white kitten.

After a minute or so of heavy thinking, Yugito suddenly came up with the perfect name for the kitten, (Author's Note: In her Mind).

"Okay girl, from this day onward your name will be Kumo, in honour of our village and because of your soft white fur…"

"… what do you think girl?" Yugito asked with a smile, where the kitten just meowed again, which Yugito took as okay from the small cat. After which she then brought the kitten over the kitchen and get her something to eat.

-End Flashback-

After thinking back to how she came to have Kumo, Yugito decided to relax a little by playing with Kumo and made her way over to the living room, where she kept some of Kumo's toys.

As she made her way over to the living, the blonde haired girl could not help but wonder what another certain blonde was doing now.

At the same time inside her seal, the Nibi no Bakeneko (Two-tailed Monster Cat) quietly chuckled to herself after she heard Yugito last thoughts.

"Fufufufu…I've got to hand it to that Senju boy, he knows how to win girls affection" the Nibi said to herself with a smile, knowing all the fun she would have with this.

---

One week after the events in the Hokages office, Naruto once again made his way down to Gaara's cell.

This had now become a daily routine, where every day for a few hours, Naruto would sit in front of Gaara and talk to the Sand wielding boy, or at least try to, given how he was the one who mainly did the talking.

After a week of trying to get Gaara to open up to him and seeing how little progress he was making, Naruto decided it was time to take a risk.

When he arrived at the room he saw Gaara staring at him with his usual blank stare.

"Back again, I see" said Gaara with dull tone.

"Yep"

"Why do you continue to come here? I had thought would've given up by now?"

"I'm just the stubborn type" replied the smirking Naruto before sitting down.

"I still do not understand why you continue to try, since someone like you could never understand someone like me. We both live in completely different worlds and have nothing in common."

"We may live in different worlds, but that doesn't mean we can't come to some sort of understanding, especially since we have more in common than you think."

"What do you mean?"

"This!" Naruto said as he pulled up his shirt to show his stomach and released some of his Chakra, causing the seal on his stomach to reveal.

"What is that?"

"A seal, which keeps a Biju similar to yours sealed inside me."

"You're a jinchūriki like me?" Gaara asked whose eyes widened in surprise, where Naruto just nodded in confirmation.

For minute Gaara just stared at Naruto, unsure of what to think, but shortly after his surprise turned to anger.

"You'll lie! I do not believe you, that seal does not prove that you are like me."

Realizing he would have to go a step further Naruto summoned a small portion of the Kyūbi's Chakra and had it cover his body.

When Gaara saw the red Chakra cover Naruto's body, the Suna jinchūriki eyes widened in shock again. But before he could say anything, Gaara held his head in pain and heard Shukaku's voice.

"Kyubi! Kill him, kill the bastard fox!"

As Gaara held his head in pain, he could feel the Sand demon trying to push through and take control, but was prevented by the seal that Kushina placed on Gaara's body.

After a few minutes Gaara began to settle and stared at Naruto.

"You are the jinchūriki for the Kyūbi no Yōko (Nine-tailed demon fox)"

"I am" replied Naruto who figured Gaara learned who he held from his Biju.

"Like I said Gaara, you and I may have lived different lives, but we have more in common than you might think. Not only are we both jinchūriki, but we are also both sons of Kages, since like your father my father was the Yondaime of my village."

Upon hearing this, a look of shock once again appeared on Gaara's face.

"You're are the son the of Yondaime Hokage?" Gaara asked in surprise, since like most Shinobi he was familiar with the famed Hokage, whose reputation was well known. In fact now that Gaara compared the two, he could see the strong resemblance between the two and could easily believe the two were father and son.

"Pretty much" answered Naruto. "But listen Gaara, I know I can never fully understand the kind of things you went through when growing up in your village. But I can understand what it is like to carry something inside you and be afraid of it and if you let me, maybe I can help."

"Why should I trust, regardless of the fact that we are both jinchūriki, we are from two separate villages and I tried to kill you."

"I told you before, you're not the first one to try and you certainly won't be the last. Besides that was then and this is now it doesn't mean we can't become friends now" replied the Senju heir.

"Friends?" repeated Gaara as he looked at Naruto like he was crazy.

"Yeah, you saw my matches with Mai-chan and Yugito-chan, like you when I first met them, they were my enemies. But afterwards we became friends, the same for Haku-chan, who I fought against on a mission but later became friends with."

"I do not need friends" Gaara replied with a hint of anger.

"Everyone needs at least one friend Gaara and you definitely need one, you may pretend to be a cold hearted monster. But the fact is you're a scared and lonely person, you're afraid to let people in, after the number of times you be betrayed by those around you."

"I fear nothing!" Gaara hissed angrily, as the red haired boy began to lose his composer.

"Really?" Naruto asked, "The fact that you surround yourself in your sand proves that, you use it not only to protect yourself from physical harm. But from emotional harm as well, you're afraid to trust people, so you use your sand and heartless demeanour to keep people at bay. But deep down you're just afraid and lonely, you cover yourself in your sand to try and fill the gap you feel inside yourself from being alone all the time. But it doesn't always have to be like that, no-one deserves to be alone all their life, I can help you, if you just give me the chance."

"And why should I trust?"

"Because I have just told you my two greatest secrets, you know who my father is and you know that I hold the Kyūbi no Yōko. So can you imagine the effect it would have if other people outside my village knew that along with everything else they now know about me?"

"Who would I tell, I am a prisoner here?"

"Not for too much longer, our villages are in the process or negotiations, in a little while you and your brother and sister will be returned to your village. So you can tell your entire village if you want to."

"If you knew this, why did you tell me?" a confused Gaara asked, since the Suna Genin knew the kind of affect this news would have if he told anyone from his village and if it was then leaked to other villages.

"Because I want you to trust me, I want to prove to you that not everyone will betray you and that you do not have to become a monster" Naruto replied. "Right now you know more about me than any of my friends and you have information that could cause half the entire Shinobi nations to come after me. So if that doesn't earn your trust, then I don't know what will."

After hearing this Gaara closed his eyes and remained silent and thought about everything Naruto said. After a few minutes the red haired boy spoke.

"Would you mind leaving, I would like to be alone, as I have much to think about."

"Sure" said Naruto, deciding to give Gaara his space.

As Naruto walked away, he suddenly and turned when he heard Gaara call out to him.

"Will you be returning tomorrow?"

"Yea if that is okay with you?"

"Yes, I believe by then I will be ready, for there are some things I would like to know about you."

"Sure I would be happy to tell you anything you want to know" said Naruto who then saw Gaara nod.

Not long after Naruto left the room, Gaara slowly reached over to the book that Senju heir gave him and began to read it.

---

The following week after Naruto revealed his full heritage and status as a jinchūriki to Gaara, things between him and the red haired boy began to move forward. In fact Naruto saw a strong steady improvement in the Suna Genin's demeanour, where Gaara actually conversed with Naruto and asked him things about his life.

Over the week the two jinchūriki continued to talk to one another about everything and anything. Naruto even brought in Kurimaru in an attempt help Gaara become less awkward around people or at the very least animals.

Naturally the young pup was a little nervous in walk through the bars and up to Gaara. But with Naruto's encouragement, the small half-wolf slowly moved over to Gaara. Who was also a little nervous and hesitantly petted the little pup.

Eventually though the two became more comfortable with one another, where Kurimaru even licked Gaara's face, causing the boy smile a little when felt the pup's tongue against his face.

As the week moved on, Gaara slwoly began to enjoy Naruto's company and having someone to talk to, he even enjoyed the book Naruto gave him, since for some strange reason if gave him hope.

By the end of the week Naruto learned that Gaara and his siblings would be sent back home.

Wanting to bid farewell to his new friend, Naruto met Gaara and his siblings at the gates of Konoha, who were being escorted to the Hi no Kuni (Fire Country) boarder by Kushina and two other Jonin.

"I guess this is goodbye… for now at least" said Naruto.

"Yes" replied Gaara, before he took out the book Naruto gave him and handed it to him. "Thank you for the book, I found it enjoyable."

"Keep it" Naruto replied as he handed the book back to Gaara and smiled. "Consider it a gift from a friend."

Surprised by this, Gaara took the book and smiled.

This of course shocked both Temari and Kankuro, since not only had Naruto referred to himself as their brother's friend. But their brother had smiled, which was something neither sibling had ever seen their younger brother do.

The closest thing they had ever seen to a smile on their brother's face was a bloodthirsty grin when he saw someone he wanted to kill.

But the difference from that smile to one he had now, was that there was no malice behind the smile, it was a genuine smile, something they never expected to see on their brother's face.

"Thank you" said Gaara before he hesitantly raised his hand to Naruto, who quickly took Gaara's hand and shook it before smiling.

"Not a problem."

Seeing this, both the two Sand siblings eyes widened in shock again, not believing what they were seeing, making them wonder if they were under some sort of Genjutsu, or if Konoha had done something to their brother during interrogation.

Kushina on the other hand just smiled, although like the two elder Suna sibling she was surprised by Gaara's sudden change in personality. But she quickly got over it and realized that Naruto had somehow gotten through to the boy, since she had heard from some of her friends in ANBU that Naruto had been visiting Gaara.

"You never fail to surprise me Naruto" a smiling Kushina thought, before signalling the two other Jonin and the three Sand Siblings to follow her, leaving the gate and Konoha.

---

It was a typical peaceful day in Konoha. The sun was shining and the village was abuzz with activity with both the civilians and the Shinobi busy repairing the village.

In just a month and a half the people had already made good progress in repairing the damage done to the village from the invasion.

Everyone was working hard to repair the damage done and restore their village to its former glory.

But one specific Shinobi was working hard for a completely different reason; this Shinobi was none other than Uchiha Sasuke, one of the last surviving members of the famed Uchiha Clan.

Unlike most of the other Shinobi in the village, who were busy either with missions or with repairing the village. Sasuke was busy training himself in his Clan private training ground.

For the past month, Sasuke had been pushing himself even harder than he had before in his training.

The reason for this was because Sasuke had become frustrated with his lack of strength when compared to certain other Shinobi he had met during the Chunin exam.

After several hours of intensive training, a sweating Sasuke, finally decided to take a break.

As he took in deep breaths, he stared angrily at the training post in front of him, where the faces of Haku, Mai, Yugito, Samui, Gaara appeared on the pole. But when he saw Naruto's face appeared, Sasuke lost his composure and threw the Kunai he had been holding in frustration and imbedded it deep into the post.

"Damnit" Sasuke thought angrily, "Why… Why? Am I so weak?"

This frustration had been building up for a while now, ever since the invasion ended. After seeing Naruto defeat Gaara, a person that not even "he" could defeat, Sasuke had become even more determined to get stronger. Especially when he compared himself to other such Shinobi like Gaara, Yugito and Naruto, whose strength clearly surpassed his own, despite the advancement he had made recently.

Even other certain Shinobi like Haku and Mai and possibly Samui possessed strength greater than his.

"What the hell do I need to do?" Sasuke thought angrily. "At the rate I'm going I'll never be strong enough!"

After a few more minutes of deep breaths, Sasuke began to calm down a little, where he then made his way over to a small water bottle underneath the shadow of the post.

After taking a few deep gulps of water, Sasuke placed the water down and suddenly thought "I need to find Naruto, if I am ever to get stronger I need to find out where exactly I stand to him and the others."

Once he had decided that he was going to find and challenge Naruto, Sasuke left the training ground and made his way around the village in an attempt to find the Senju heir.

After a couple of minutes Sasuke heard someone call out to him, when he turned he saw his team-mate Sakura smiling and waving as she ran over to him.

"Hey Sasuke-kun…I'm so happy to see you" the pink haired girl greeted, where she attempted to hug the raven haired boy, but missed when he sidestepped her.

"I don't have time to deal with you Sakura, I'm busy."

Unaffected by Sasuke's rather blunt and rude remark, Sakura almost immediately offered her help.

"What is it, maybe I can help?" the young girl asked, hoping to earn some praise from her crush.

"Not unless you've seen or know where Naruto is?" Sasuke replied as he began to turn away from the girl and move along.

"Actually I think I do?"

"Where?" asked Sasuke in an authoritative voice and snapped his head back to Sakura.

"Well I was talking to Ino a little while ago and she told me she saw Naruto leaving the hospital earlier and heading to training ground two.

After hearing this, Sasuke quickly took off in the direcftion of the training ground, without even thanking the girl, who called out to him, but was ignored.

---

Currently in training ground two, Naruto was busy with his own training, since after recovering from his injuries he felt like he needed to get back into fighting form as soon as possible.

But as he was training he suddenly felt an odd feeling, as if he was being watched, despite the fact he saw no-one and sensed no other presences nearby.

Not sure if he was being watched or not, Naruto gathered his Chakra and used his Chakura no Parusu (Chakra Pulse) technique to find out if he was.

After using the technique, Naruto learned that he was indeed being watched by two people, who were hiding inside the nearby forestry, and from judging their Chakra levels. He could tell that they were both very strong.

From what Naruto could tell, the first one had Chakra levels comparable to Kakashi, while the other had an enormous amount of Chakra, more than even his mother or Jiraiya. The only person Naruto could think of, who could possibly match the person's Chakra level was Killer Bee.

Unsure of who the two individual were, Naruto raised his guard up and yelled "I know you there, so there's no point in you hiding, come out now…"both" of you."

Surprised by how Naruto knew that they were watching, the two Shinobi decided to comply with Naruto's order and appeared in the open field in front of the young blonde.

No sooner had the two figures appeared, Naruto instantly regretted calling the two Shinobi out and wished he had made a run for it. Especially when he saw the black cloaks with the red cloud designs.

"Well isn't this a surprise, looks like our information has a few holes in it" spoke the large figure in an amused voice. "We weren't told that he was a sensor-type as well."

"Indeed" replied the smaller figure, "…But that only proves that we should not underestimate the boy."

Realizing the situation he was in Naruto quickly channelled some of his Chakra into his chain neck-lace and called for help, knowing he stood no chance against the people in front of him. (5)

-In the Hokage's office-

Currently sitting in the Hokage's office, Tsunade was busy going over the different forms and classified folders that she would need to know about before she official became Hokage.

"Here's another set Tsunade-sama" said Shizune as she carried another large load of folders and forms."

Seeing this, the female blonde just groaned in annoyance and glared at her teacher who was sitting in front of her. "God dammit how the hell did you talk to me into this job again?"

"Now, Now Tsunade, you know why, so don't complain, no-one said being Hokage was going to be easy" replied the Sandaime with a small smirk.

"Hmph, if you ask me I think you just made me Hokage so you could get out of doing all this paperwork" the annoyed Tsunade said.

The Sandaime of course did not respond and just smirked, which made Tsunade think that she wasn't far off from the truth.

"Heh, well this is exactly why I didn't want the job" spoke a familiar voice, where when Tsunade turned she saw Jiraiya, who appeared through an open window behind her.

"Tsk, as if I didn't have enough trouble" grumbled the irritable Tsunade.

"Aw hime, you say the meanest things" said Jiraiya as he feigned hurt at Tsunade's words.

Shaking her head, Tsunade turned her back to the Toad Sage and was about to start back reading when the double door opened again with Shizune carrying yet another load of folders in her hands, along with Kurimaru and Tonton who were pulling a small cart full of papers as well.

"Shizune are you trying to bury me in all this work?!" Tsunade cried in disbelief when she saw all the work. "You've even gotten the Tonton and the damn dog to help you!"

"I'm sorry Tsunade-sensei but you are required to read all these" Shizune replied with a cheeky smile as he placed the small tower of paper on the Hokage's desk.

"And don't be mean to poor Kurimaru, he just wants to help" the dark haired woman cooed as she kneeled down to the small pup a petted him.

Shizune had of course fallen instantly in love with the small pup when Naruto brought him home, where she would often coo over how cute the half-wolf cub was.

Both she and Tsunade had of course been shocked when they had heard that the Tsume had allowed Naruto to keep Kurimaru, since they knew how much the Inuzuka Clan valued their dogs.

At first Tsunade had been a little sceptical, but soon warmed up to the pup when he caught Jiraiya using the Hokage's crystal ball to spy on some girls in the hot's spring, and bit him in the rear.

Needless the say, after that incident, Kurimaru official became part of the family.

Tonton had been a bit resistant to the young pup when she first met it, believing that they were trying to replace her with it. But after some assurances that no-one could ever replace her from Naruto and Shizune. The female pig quickly warmed up to Kurimaru and took it upon herself to act as Kurimaru's senpai and give the young pup some guidance on how things worked in the Senju family and how to behave.

It was of course a funny sight when Tsunade and the others saw Tonton oinking out orders to the pup, as if she was its teacher.

As the Sandaime and the others chuckled at Tsunade annoyance over the amount of paperwork she was doing, the female Senju suddenly felt the ring on her hand heat up.

At the same time Jiraiya and Shizune also felt the rings on their hands head up, indicating that Naruto was trouble.

"What's wrong?" asked the Sandaime suddenly when he saw the concern looks on Tsunade and the others faces.

"Naru-chan is in trouble…!" said Tsunade, but before she could say anymore, Wolf suddenly appeared in the room.

"Report!" ordered the Sandaime when he saw the ANBU appear in the room.

"Hokage-sama, a few hours ago my squad and I notice a pair of suspicious individuals appear in the village and began to monitor their movements. But shortly ago we lost sight of them and cannot find them anywhere.

"Do you know what they look like, are they from any of the other villages?" the Sandaime asked, fearing that one of the other Shinobi villages were making a move on Naruto already.

"We were unable to identify them as they were able to hide their faces, all we do know is that are wearing conical straw hats and dark chin-high cloaks with red clouds decorating them.

At the mention of the cloaks, Tsunade and the others faces all turned chalk white and thought the exact same thing.

"Akatsuki!"

Quickly getting over her shock, Tsunade immediately took charge of the situation.

"Wolf! I want you to gather every available ANBU you can get and have them join up with us as soon as possible!"

"Hai!" replied the ANBU before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Once the ANBU had left Tsunade immediately turned to her former apprentice.

"Shizune I want you to gather as many Jonin as you can find and have them meet with us!"

"Hai Tsunade-sama" the dark haired woman replied before racing out of the room at top speed.

After Shizune had gone, Tsunade then turned to Jiraiya, but before she could say anything the Toad Sage spoke.

"No need to say anything hime, let's just go!"

Nodding to this the two were about to take off when they were stopped by their former teacher. Who took off his Hokage robes and revealed his battle armour and stated he was coming to help as well.

Accepting the help, the two Sannin and their former teacher quickly jumped out the window and headed straight for Naruto's location at top speed, all the while thinking, "Hold on Naru-chan/Brat/Naruto, we're coming."

-With Naruto-

"Hmph, he's not exactly what I expected" spoke the taller of the two Shinobi, who then took off his straw had, revealing his blue shark-like face. "…he's a lot punier than I imagine, it hard to believe a brat like him defeated two jinchūriki."

"Do not underestimate him Kisame, although he is young, he has proven himself to be a capable opponent" spoke the other Akatsuki member. Who also took off his straw hat, revealing his raven hair and face, which Naruto recognised from a picture he had seen of him before.

"Yea okay" replied blue skinned man with a shark-like grin.

"Senju Naruto…" spoke the raven haired youth, "If you would, please come with us peacefully,"

"Sorry no can do" Naruto replied as fell into a fighting stance, "I have no intention of surrendering myself...especially to the Akatsuki."

After saying this, Naruto saw both men's eyes widen very slightly in surprise.

"You know of us?" asked the raven haired Shinobi with hint curiosity.

"Yea, I've heard of you," replied Naruto as he stared at the shorter Shinobi, "Your Uchiha Itachi S-class nuke-nin,and former captain of Konoha's ANBU division, wanted for the massacre of your Clan."

"And you…" continued Naruto as he turned to the still grinning man. "Are Hoshigaki Kisame, better known as the Kirigakure no Kaijin (Monster of the Hidden Mist), and former member of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū (Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist), just like Zabuza. You're S-class nuke-nin wanted for plotting to overthrow the Mizu Daimyō and for being involved in number of assassinations that include another country's Daimyō."

"I also know that as members of the Akatsuki, which is an organisation made up of nine S-class nuke-nins, that you're after the nine Biju which reside in the nine jinchūriki."

When Naruto finished both men's eyes widen slightly again, as they had not expected Naruto to know so much about them, let alone their organisation and their objective.

Naruto of course knew a bit about the Akatsuki, since before he left for Konoha. His mother and Jiraiya told him about the nuke-nin group on the chance that he might encounter members of the group when they weren't with him.

Naruto also knew about Kisame and Itachi since when growing up, Jiraiya gave Naruto his own personal Bingo book, which had information a various different Shinobi who could come after him.

"Well, well, aren't we the smart one" said Kisame whose grin got even bigger "Although you should know that punk Zabuza is nothing compared to me."

"It would seem that you are well informed, Naruto-san" commented Itachi as he stared intently at young blonde. "Perhaps you would tell us where you gained your information?"

"Sorry, no can do, a good Shinobi should away have a couple of secrets" Naruto replied with a smirk.

"Heh, cheeky little brat" Kisame remarked with another grin, where he then pulled out a massive sword which was covered in bandages. "But you should know that one way or the other you will answer our questions."

"Kisame remember our orders, we are to take him alive, with as little harm as possible. Otherwise he will be of no use to us" Itachi said calmly, as she saw the bloodthirsty look on his partners face. "Also we must interrogate him and find out the source of his information."

"Don't worry Itachi, I'm only going ruff him up a little" replied the tall man. "Besides I want to see if this kid is worth all the hype."

At this Itachi said nothing and just stared at Naruto again with a blank look.

Taking this as a sign of approval, Kisame prepared to charge forward, but before he could do anything, Naruto suddenly shouted "Wait!"

"Before we begin, I want you to confirm something."

"What is it that you wish to confirm?" Itachi asked calmly.

Knowing that he stood no chance what's so ever against the two S-class nuke-nins, Naruto decide to try and keep them talking and buy some time, knowing that his mother and the others were on their way.

"Obviously you're after jinchūriki for their Biju, so would I be correct in assuming that you want me because of my Mokuton Bloodline limit? Given how it allows me to suppress and control a Biju."

"Yes you would be correct; your Mokuton powers would be highly beneficial to our organisation's goal in obtaining our targets…" Itachi answered.

Upon hearing this, Naruto let out a small sigh of relief, since when he first saw the two Akatsuki members, he had been fearful that they had somehow learned that he held the Kyubi inside him.

But before he could respond to Itachi's answer, the young Uchiha spoke again.

"You're also key to our objective in gaining the Kyubi."

At the mention of the Kyubi, Naruto suddenly flinched slight, "Shit, do they know?!"

Seeing Naruto flinch at the mention of the Kyubi, the young Uchiha prodigy frowned slightly, as if something bothered him.

"What do you mean gaining the Kyubi? It was destroyed by the Yondaime Hokage-sama" a now worried Naruto said, feigning ignorance about the Kyubi.

Before Itachi could respond to this, Kisame intervened.

"Heh, wrong…Biju's are creatures comprised entirely by Chakra; they cannot be destroyed by normal means, only sealed away. The Yondaime Hokage-sama more than likely sealed it away into someone, which is the other reason why we want you, since we can use you as a hostage where Konoha would have to offer up the Kyubi jinchūriki to get you back."

"Huh, so that's their plan!" Naruto thought while sighing slightly in relief again, but quickly masked it and smirked.

"Well you'll be out of luck, there's no way that Konoha will hand over the Kyubi jinchūriki to you, just to get me back."

"You undervalue your importance Naruto-san" said Itachi. "We are well aware that your mother Tsunade-sama is about to become Konoha's Godaime Hokage-sama, and will no doubt do anything to get you back."

"A mother will do anything to get back her child" Kisame said with an evil looking grin.

Angered by this Naruto narrowed his eyes and glared at the two. "I doubt you would actually trade me, like Itachi said earlier, you want to use me for my Mokuton. More than likely you'll double-cross my mother and the others"

"Heh, right again brat" Kisame remarked with another large grin.

Frowning, Naruto decided to keep the two talking, since the longer they talk the more time he gave for help to come.

"Fine, I get that you want to use me as a hostage to get the Kyubi jinchūriki, but there is one other thing that I don't get?"

"And what is that?" Itachi asked.

"Why do you even need me, when they have you" Naruto replied as he looked at Itachi. "Obviously having me makes your plans for capturing the other jinchūriki easier, but the problem with that plan is that I'm still inexperience and haven't fully developed my Mokuton abilities. During my battle with Yugito-chan I was barely able to suppress her Biju's Chakra and that was only a fraction of its power, and I don't know how to control them either. So I wouldn't be of much use to you until I mastered my Bloodline limit, especially against more powerful jinchūriki like Killer Bee. You on the other hand have fully mastered your Sharingan, if what the rumours I've heard about you are true, and the Sharingan is the only other Bloodline limit that has the power to suppress and control Biju."

"If I were to guess…" continued Naruto. "I would have to say that you want me because there is something limiting you from doing this, a lack of strength or skill perhaps…? Or more likely a physical handicap, like low Chakra reserves…or even an illness?"

As Itachi listened to the blonde's theory, the young Uchiha kept his face void of any expression and calmly stared at the Senju heir, telling Naruto nothing of his thoughts.

Seeing that he wouldn't get anything out of Itachi, Naruto decided to continue, hoping to buy more time.

"Whatever reason that limits your ability in controlling and suppressing Biju by yourself. I'm guessing that you guys are hoping that by having the two of us working together and using our two Bloodline limits in conjunction, we can make up for our individual weakness and suppress any Biju's power, making it easier for you guys to capture the jinchūriki, am I right?"

"He's quite astute" Itachi remarked to himself, as he was impressed with how accurately Naruto had figured out their reason for wanting him.

As the young blonde had guessed, due to his illness, Itachi's abilities were limited, where it would be extremely taxing for him to supress a Biju's power by himself, since it took a great deal of mental strength and Chakra to do so. But if he were to combine his efforts with Naruto's Mokuton abilities, it would considerably lessen the toll in the task and make capturing the jinchūriki much easier. That was one of the main reasons why the Akastuki wanted Naruto, where their plan was to capture and then later have Itachi control him with his Sharingan. After which they would then train the boy in using his Bloodline limit better until the Akatsuki were fully ready to capture all the jinchūriki.

"Well am I right or not?" Naruto asked, hoping to keep the two talking.

"I'm afraid whether you're right or wrong matters little Naruto-san, as the time for talking as come to an end" replied Itachi. "Your delaying tactics are pointless as help will not arrive."

"Shit he figured me out!" Naruto thought angrily as he prepared himself.

No sooner had he done this, Kisame raced towards the blonde boy and swung his massive sword at him, forcing Naruto to duck under the swing and then roll to Kisame's left side.

Following Naruto's movements, Kisame immediately turned around and swung his massive sword at the blonde.

At the same time Naruto formed a single hand seal and made a clone of himself, where the clone then threw him away toward a large tree behind them, right before it was destroyed by Kisame's sword.

As Naruto flew through the air, the blonde flipped himself over, so that his feet would hit the trunk of the tree first. He then used the tree to propel himself towards Kisame and channelled a large amount of strength into his right fist.

Seeing this Kisame quickly brought up his massive sword up and blocked the powerful punch, where he skidded back a few feet, before coming to a stop, where he then pushed Naruto back. Who immediately flipped himself in the air so that he would land back on his feet, a few meters away from the former Kiri swordsman.

"No, freaking way!" a wide eyed Naruto thought in shock. "I hit him full force, he should have been sent flying by my punch and his sword should have been shattered …how the hell did he block it?!"

"Heeee, that was a nice punch their brat" Kisame said with a large grin. "Guess the reports of you having the same crazy strength as your mother were true, my arms are actually feeling a little numb.

"In fact it seems that Samehada likes you Chakra" continued Kisame where the top portion of the sword burst out of its bandages, revealing scales instead of blades.

"So that's how he blocked my punch, his sword can absorb Chakra" Naruto thought after seeing the sword, while also thinking "What kind of sword is that thing?" when he saw that instead of a blade, the sword had scales.

Realizing that he was his superhuman strength was worthless against Kisame, Naruto decided to change tactics where he released the Shishi Omomizuke Shīru (Four Limbs Weighting Seals) on his arms and legs and drew his Katana.

Once he was ready Naruto disappeared in a blur and reappeared behind Kisame and attempted to slash him.

But no sooner had he reappeared behind the former Kiri swordsman, Kisame spun around and blocked the slash with his sword.

"You have some decent speed kid, but it's still not good enough!" said Kisame who pushed the blonde boy back and the moved forward and tried to slash him again.

Acting fast, Naruto quickly jumped back to avoid the horizontal slash, but was unable to evade it fully, where the large sword shaved his arm, tearing through the sleeve of his new coat and causing his shoulder to bleed.

"He as good reactions" Itachi remarked silently, since if Kisame slash had hit it would have done serious injury to his arm.

"Damnit!" Naruto hissed in pain as he held his bleed shoulder to bleed.

"Heh, as you can see my sword isn't like most, instead of cutting my opponents it shreds them and absorbs their Chakra at the same time, making fighting that much more fun" said Kisame with another sadistic grin.

"Bastard!" growled Naruto as he glared at the grinning nuke-nin. "I thought that if I could use my high speed to get close to him, I could keep him from using the massive sword of his. But he's too goddamn fast and swings that massive sword around like its nothing."

Realizing he needed to change tactics again, Naruto formed a single one handed hand-seal and created several shadow clones of himself.

After creating the clones, Naruto had them circle around Kisame, who was unafraid of the clones and signalled them to come at him.

Needing no other invitation, the clones attacked from multiple different directions, hoping to overwhelm the Akatsuki member with their superior numbers.

Smirking at the pitiful attempts by Naruto and his clones, Kisame raised his oversized sword to deal with clones.

After a brief skirmish that lasted barely twenty seconds, Kisame had dealt with most of the clones with little effort. But just as he destroyed the last clone, the real Naruto appeared underneath Kisame and attempted another horizontal slash across the blue skin man's stomach.

Acting fast, Kisame quickly jumped back to avoid the sword slash, but misjudged Naruto's attack, where the blonde switch his Katana from his right hand to his left at the last seconds.

Although Kisame was able to avoid any injury from the slash, he did receive a large horizontal cut across his cloak and clothing, revealing his stomach slightly.

"That was Mizu no Atsuen (Rolling Water)" Itachi thought, who recognised the sword technique. (5)

"Whoa, not bad kid, you nearly got me there" said a slightly impressed Kisame as he landed a few meters away from Naruto. "This might actually be a little fun."

"I told you not to underestimate him Kisame" said Itachi in an emotionless tone. "If you're not careful your overconfidence will be your undoing."

"Heh, don't worry Itachi I won't" Kisame replied, who grinned again and readied his Katana. "Besides, things have just gotten more interesting now and I might actually have a little fun with him."

Before Itachi could respond to this, the three Shinobi suddenly felt a new presence appear several meters behind Itachi.

Without even looking back, Itachi already knew who this person was.

"It's been a long time…Sasuke."

"Uchiha…Itachi" Sasuke said slowly, as he glared angrily at the elder Uchiha with his Sharingan activated.

"The Sharingan…And he looks a lot like you Itachi, who is he?" Kisame asked who glanced back at the younger Uchiha and had an intrigued look.

"My younger brother" Itachi replied without even looking at either Sasuke or Kisame.

"Brother?!" thought Naruto in shock, although he had notice the strong similarity between Sasuke and Itachi. He had never figured that they were brothers, since he had believed that the strong resemblance between the two was because they came from the same Clan.

"So it was Sasuke own brother who wiped out their family and Clan. Geezes no wonder Sasuke is so messed up" Naruto thought, as he now understood the young Uchiha a little better now.

"Oh…so you didn't kill everyone in your Clan after all" Kisame remarked

"Uchiha Itachi, today is the day you will pay for your crimes!" Sasuke said angrily as he glared at his elder brother, who slowly turned to face him. "Just as you told me on that night, I've hated you, detested you…and lived solely for the day when I would kill you!"

After saying this, Sasuke then brought up his left hand and activated his Chidori (One thousand Birds), which Itachi immediately recognised from his time in ANBU when he saw Kakashi use it.

"NOW DDIIEE!" roared Sasuke as he charged at his brother with startling speed and tore up the ground with the excess energy from his Chidori.

As he neared Itachi, Sasuke brought up his Lightning covered hand, intending to pierce Itachi's chest with it. But just before Sasuke's attack could hit him, Itachi effortlessly grabbed hold of Sasuke's wrist and pushed the attack aside, causing the Lightning to fly harmlessly into the air.

"Now freaking way!" thought a wide eye Naruto, "He just deflected Sasuke's Chidori like it was nothing…just how strong is this guy."

After deflecting Sasuke's attack, Itachi continued to hold onto his brother's wrist, where the Lightning surrounding Sasuke's hand slowly died down.

As this was happening the two brothers stared directly into each other's eyes, while Itachi's eyes were calm and void of any emotions, Sasukes eyes were filled with hatred and anger.

"Damn you!" growled Sasuke as he glared at his older brother and brought his right fist up.

But before he could do anything Itachi broke his wrist with one quick motion, causing Sasuke to scream out in pain and fall to his knees as he held his now broken wrist.

"Damnit!" cursed Naruto, where he then tried to run over to help Sasuke.

"Too slow!" yelled Kisame who moved in front of Naruto, blocking his path and then forcing the blonde back when he swung his sword at Naruto.

After being forced back by Kisame Naruto prepared to make another go at getting by Kisame and helping Sasuke. But before he could do anything he suddenly heard Sasuke yell "Don't interfere!"

Looking to Sasuke, Naruto saw the young raven haired boy slowly standing up, "This is my fight! And I am the only one who is going to kill him."

"Damnit Sasuke don't be an idiot, can't you see we're outmatched here?" Naruto thought angrily, as he couldn't believe how stubborn Sasuke was being.

"Stay down, I have no interest in you right now" said Itachi coldly. "The only one I have any interest in his Senju Naruto, who's strength is clearly above yours."

"SHUT UP!" yelled a furious Sasuke who was angered by his brother's words and threw his right fist at Itachi. Who quickly side stepped the punch and then kicked Sasuke in his right side, sending the younger Uchiha flying across the field and into a nearby tree.

"Sasuke!" cried Naruto, when he saw the crashing into the tree and was about to try and go over to him.

"STAY OUT OF THIS!" yelled Sasuke, he slowly got up again and used the tree behind him as support. "I told you not to interfere, he's mine and mine alone, no-one else is allowed to kill him!"

Once he was back on his feet, Sasuke raced towards his brother and attempted to hit him with his right fist.

But again, Itachi easily defeated Sasuke, by slapping away his fist and then sending him flying into the same tree again with a strong punch to the face.

After crashing into the tree, Sasuke struggled to get back onto his feet again.

"Sasuke stay down, you can't beat him, he's too strong…you can't even form any hand-seals with your wrist broken like that!" Naruto thought as he stared at the injured Uchiha. Who was slowly getting back onto his feet again.

"I'm not done yet!" spoke Sasuke he made his way back onto his feet. "This is my battle and my battle alone

"Very well then" said Itachi as he slowly walked over to his injured brother.

Having seen enough of this Naruto prepared to perform a justu.

But before he could even form a hand-seal Kisame appeared in front of him and swung his sword down on him, forcing the Senju heir back even further away from the two Uchiha brothers.

"Ah, Ah, Ah, you heard your friend; this is their fight, so no interfering."

Once Itachi had reached him, Sasuke made another attempt to attack Itachi, but was once again easily defeated by a strong punch to the stomach, which caused Sasuke to spit out some blood. After which Itachi preceded to beat Sasuke mercilessly with a serious of kicks and punches

As this was happening, all Sasuke could only think "Nothing, has changed…the difference between us hasn't shrunk in the slightest. What have I've been doing until now, what the hell am I doing wrong?"

"Heh, Itachi going easy on him" Kisame thought with a smirk as he glanced at the two Uchiha again, all the while keeping his other eye on Naruto. Who was becoming more and more frustrated and angry over not being able to do anything to help Sasuke.

When Itachi had finally finished pummelling Sasuke, he picked his brother up and slammed him against the trunk of the tree so that they would be at eye level.

"You're still weak Sasuke, and do you know why you're still weak?" Itachi asked before he leaned in on his brother and whispered. "It's because you still lack hatred."

After saying this, Itachi then looked right into his brother's eyes activated his Mangekyō Sharingan and used Tsukuyomi (Moon Reader) to force Sasuke to relive the massacre of their Clan over and over again for what seemed like days to him.

After only a few seconds to everyone else, Sasuke screamed out in horror before finally losing consciousness.

Hearing this Kisame just smiled, since as far as he was concern it was music to his ears, "You sure are a cruel one Itachi, doing that to your own little brother of all people."

"You damn bastards!" yelled a now furious Naruto who channelled a large amount of Chakra into his fist and slammed it into the ground, pulverizing it into minute pieces by the excess shock of the punch."

"Shit that brat, really is like a miniature monster" Kisame thought as he leapt into the air to avoid being caught in the destruction.

With Kisame now out of the way, Naruto quickly raced toward the elder Uchiha at frightening speed with his sword thrust forward in a stabbing motion.

"Tachioyogi (Treading Water)" commented Itachi, recognising the sword technique from his ANBU days under Kushina.

Like with Sasuke and his Chidori, Itachi waited until Naruto was about to stab him and then effortlessly sidestepped the sword thrust. He then grabbed Naruto's left wrist and kicked the blonde's feet from under him and then spun him around and threw him into the same tree as Sasuke.

Screaming in pain, Naruto slouched over and held his now injured left side, but before he could try to move, Itachi kicked him in his stomach and sent him crashing into another tree nearby.

After crashing into the tree, Naruto slowly looked up and saw Kisame appear next to Itachi.

"Crap, there's no way I can beat these guys by myself, let alone hold them off long enough for Kaa-chan and the others to arrive. I've got no choice, I need to make a run for it, that way I can at least buy some more time and at the same time get Itachi away from Sasuke, since they're after me, not him."

"Hmph, that wasn't so hard, although I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed, I had hoped he would have put up a little more of a fight" Kisame remarked after he re-joined Itachi.

"Let us not waste anyone time than he already have…" replied Itachi.

But no sooner had he said this, Naruto threw several smoke pellets, that he had discreetly taken out while Itachi and Kisame were talking with one another, and threw them at the two missing-nins.

Acting fast Kisame quickly brought up his bandage sword, believing they were projectiles.

But no sooner had he done this the pellets exploded and covered the surrounding area in smoke.

Shortly after the smoke dissipated, Kisame and Itachi discovered that both Naruto and Sasuke were gone.

"Their gone!" said Kisame.

"It would seem so" Itachi replied.

"Do you know where they went?" Kisame asked, since Itachi still had his Sharingan activated.

"Yes" replied the elder Uchiha, "It would seem that Naruto-san created a clone of himself and had it take my brother away, while he went a different direction."

"So he ran off?"

"More likely he using himself as bait, given how he knows we're after him. He also probably sent his clone, not only to take my brother to safety but to also find help."

"Well then, I guess we should hurry" replied Kisame with an amused tone, who was actually looking forward to the "hunt".

Itachi of course did not reply and together the two Akatsuki members took after the blonde boy.

---

Shortly after going after Naruto, Itachi and Kisame caught up with the blonde boy in a small clearing.

"Heh, looks like this is where it ends brat" said Kisame after he and Itachi caught up.

At this Naruto just smirked and said, "Your right" just before he exploded into a puff of smoke revealing he had been a clone. The next thing the two Akatsuki members knew, they found themselves unable to move, when they looked around they saw several seal tags, which were hidden under a Genjustu.

Upon seeing the seal tags, Itachi quickly realized that Naruto had caught them in Kekkai Kotei Fūin (Four-Corner Immobilization Seal).

At the same time Itachi also noticed several exploding notes underneath him, which had also been hidden under the same Genjustu as the seal tags.

Before he or Kisame could do anything to escape the trap, the exploding notes activated and the two nuke-nins were enveloped in a large explosion.

"Did I get them?" Naruto thought to himself as he hid in a nearby tree and waited for the smoke to dissipate.

As the smoke faded away, Naruto saw the bodies of the two Akatsuki members lying in a small shallow crater.

Remembering his battle with Orochimaru in the Forest of Death and how the Snake Sannin had tricked him, Naruto remained suspicious and stayed hidden in the tree.

Naruto's instincts of course proved to be right on the money, as moments after the smoke from the explosion dissipated, "Itachi" and "Kisame" faded away, revealing that they had been illusions.

"Shit Genjutsu, I knew it!" Naruto thought, but before he could do anything a Kunai with an exploding note tied to it flew past his right ear and imbedded itself to the trunk behind him.

Acting fast, Naruto quickly jumped out of the tree and into the clearing, right before the note exploded and destroyed the tree.

After Naruto landed on the one the ground the real Kisame and Itachi appeared in front of him, a few meters away.

"Fuck, I should have known they wouldn't fall for a trick like that" Naruto thought angrily as he eyed his opponent carefully while at the same time wondering when help would arrive.

As the two Shinobi stared down at Naruto, Kisame prepared to move forward but was stopped by Itachi, who held out his arm in front of the former Kiri Shinobi.

"Wait Kisame, I will handle this…alone."

Surprised by this, the swordsman turned to his partner.

"This isn't like you Itachi, why the sudden interest?" Kisame asked, since it was unusual for Itachi to get involved like this. Who would normally stay and watch from side-lines and let his partner take on their opponent/s by himself.

"I wish to test the boy's calibre myself" replied Itachi without taking his eyes off Naruto. "Before Konoha was founded, and during the great Shinobi Clan wars, the Senju Clan was the only Clan who possessed the power and skill to oppose mine. I want to see for myself the boy's ability."

"Heh, well if you're so interest, why not?" replied Kisame, who smirked since he thought it would be interesting to watch.

As Itachi slowly walked towards, Naruto did not know if he had lucked out or if things had gotten worse, as he had heard that Itachi was good.

"Come Senju Naruto, show me if you're indeed worthy of being the heir of your Clan."

Knowing he had no choice in the matter, Naruto drew his Katana, once Itachi was close enough he moved forward to attack an attempted a series of high speed sword slashes. But each time, Itachi would calmly avoid his slashes by a small margin, without any effort, as if the blonde was moving slow.

"Is this all you're capable of?"

Becoming frustrated with how easily Itachi was avoiding all his attacks, Naruto decided to try something else.

He then used his Nagareru Mizu (Following Water) technique to switch his katana from his right hand to his left at high speed, behind his back.

Unfortunately, the elder Uchiha saw the attack coming and jumped back, evading the slash.

Undeterred Naruto moved forward and swung his katana in a diagonal slash and used his Mizu no Atsuen technique and switched his sword from his left hand to his right in mid swing, hoping to catch Itachi off-guard. But again the raven haired teen saw what Naruto was doing with his Sharingan and easily evaded his slash by jumping back.

After successively evading the sword slash and landing several meters away from Naruto, who had also jump back, increasing the distance between the two of them. Itachi performed a series of high speed hand-seals and thought "Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique)!" before spitting out a massive ball of fire.

With no time to waste, Naruto quickly channelled his Chakra into his Katana and converted it into Wind. He then swung his sword in a downward slash and yelled "Surasshu-fū (Wind Slash)!" creating a crescent shape blade of Wind, which sliced right through the massive Fireball, causing it to dissipate.

Before Naruto could even capitalize on his advantage, he was immediately put on the defensive again by Itachi. Who after evading the deadly Wind attack counter with his Hōsenka no Jutsu (Phoenix Sage Fire Technique) and shot out a volley of small fires.

Surprised by how quickly Itachi counterattacked and by the speed of his Ninjutsu, Naruto knew he couldn't avoid all the fireballs, given how he only had seconds to act.

With no time to waste, Naruto prepared to perform the only technique he knew that could successfully block the fireballs in time.

As the Fireballs drew closer, Naruto turned his blade sideways, and began to channel his Wind Chakra into the blade. He then proceeded to spin around at high speed in a clockwise direction, creating a large swirling dome of Wind around himself, and blocked the attack.

No sooner had Naruto used his Kaze no Bōseki (Spinning Wind) technique to block Itachi's Fireballs. A large blade of Wind erupted from the spinning Wind dome, and expanded outward, nearly severing both Itachi and Kisame from their lower halves. Who only managed to avoid the Wind blade by jumping up into the air.

After releasing the Wind blade, a now dizzy Naruto began to slow down.

"UUUhhh mmaann, not again, I think I'm going to hurl" Naruto thought, who was now standing in a small crater created by his Jutsu, and tried to steady himself.

At the same time Itachi and Kisame landed back on the ground and stared at Naruto with a mixture of surprise and fasciation. Before glancing around at the trees around them, where many of them had fallen after Naruto's Wind blade had cut through them.

"That must be the Wind Jutsu we heard about?" Kisame remarked. "…The one that he supposedly created and based on the Hyuga Clan's Kaiten (Revolving Heaven)."

"It would seem so…" replied Itachi who raised his left eyebrow with intrigued. "A remarkable technique, especially if what we've been told is true."

After a minute or so, Naruto finally steadied himself, but no sooner had the world stop spinning for Naruto. He found himself under attack from Itachi, who appeared in front of him and punched him in the stomach, and followed it up with a forward kick to the face that sent Naruto flying back.

Recovering quickly Naruto flipped himself back onto his feet, where he then saw Itachi moving towards him.

Acting fast Naruto tossed his Katana up into the air and then kicked the base of the hilt with his foot, sending the blade speeding towards Itachi. Who easily sidestepped the flying blade and continued towards Naruto, while the Katana stabbed itself into the trunk of a large tree.

Seeing that Itachi dodged his Katana, Naruto tried to punch Itachi with his right fist, only to have his arm caught by the elder Uchiha before being swung around and sent crashing into one of the fallen trees.

Intending to finish Naruto, a set of Shuriken suddenly appeared out of Itachi's right sleeve, who then threw the projectiles right at the blonde boy.

But just as the shuriken hit the Senju heir, "Naruto" reverted into a wooden log, revealing that he had replaced himself at the last second.

Realizing what Naruto at done, Itachi scanned the area for the blonde, where hail of Kuani erupted from the surrounding trees and converged on the Uchiha prodigy at high speed.

But just before they could hit him, Itachi disappeared within a blink of an eye and reappeared in mid-air.

As Itachi hung in mid-air, two more Kunai appeared out of one of the trees and flew straight for him. But before they could hit him, Itachi took out two of his own Kuani and threw them, hitting the flying projectiles with pinpoint precession and deflecting them.

After blocking the Kunai and landing back on the ground, Itachi immediately found himself under attack by another hail of Kunai, but again avoided them by flipping backwards.

After Itachi had avoided all the Kunai, had learned the locations of all his attackers in the trees.

Before any of them could even throw anymore of their projectiles, Itachi jumped into their air again and preformed a mid-air flip, where two more sets of Kunai appeared in his hands, which he then threw. After which he then took out two more Kuani and threw that at another pair of Kunai that he had thrown and sent them flying towards them, hitting the kunai dead on and deflected them, causing them to go in a different direction.

By the time Itachi had finished, all eight clones that Naruto had created and hidden in the trees were destroyed at almost exactly at the same time by Itachi's Kunai, which hit them all in the middle of their forehead, with frightening precision. (Image Itachi kunai training in Sasuke's flashback in episode 129 of the orginaly Naruto series)

Hiding behind a nearby tree trunk, Naruto watched with disbelief as Itachi destroyed all his closes a single move.

"MMaann, I gotta learn to do that" the blonde thought who could not help but be in awe of his opponent's skill. But before he could comment further, Naruto was forced to move when he heard the whistling sound of Shuriken flying through the air.

Acting on instinct, Naruto quickly jumped to his left and narrowly avoided the deadly Shuriken which imbedded themselves into the tree.

No sooner had he escaped the Shuriken attack, Itachi appeared in front of him.

Knowing he needed to do something, Naruto formed a single hand-seal, creating several earth clones and had them attack Itachi, hoping they would buy him enough time to attempt another Jutsu.

When the clones attacked, Itachi easily dispatched them in the space of only a few seconds with a series of well placed Taijutsu moves, but by the time he had destroyed the last clone, Naruto had finished his hand-seals and disappeared right before Itachi's eyes.

The next thing the Uchiha knew, a tree sprung out behind him, where it branches wrapped themselves around him, preventing him from moving. After which Naruto emerged from the trunk with a Kunai in hand and prepared to stab the elder teen.

"Magen: Jubaku Satsu (Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death)…impressive" Itachi thought, who was intrigued that Naruto could use such an advance Genjutsu.

But before Naruto could deal the finishing blow, the elder Shinobi used his Sharingan to see through the Genjutsu. He then used the Kyō Tenchi-ten (Mirror Heaven and Earth Change) technique on Naruto, resulting in the blonde being caught in his own illusion.

"What the…?" Naruto thought when he found himself caught in his own tree bind illusion and Itachi standing in front of him.

With only seconds to act, Naruto quickly cut himself with his own Kunai, causing enough pain to allow him to break free from the Genjutsu, and narrowly ducked under a punch from Itachi and rolled around behind him. But before he could try anything, Itachi preformed a reverse kick to Naruto, which Naruto barely blocked by raising his arms, but was still sent flying back into tree.

"Idiot!" Naruto thought angrily after he hit the tree. "Damnit, I forgot that Sharingan could see right through Genjutsu."

After recovering from crashing into the tree Naruto looked up as saw Itachi slowly walking towards him.

"That was very good Naruto-san, you have excellent reactions, but sadly such jutsu like the Jubaku Satsu are pointless against me."

"Well then try this!" cried Naruto where he performed three quick hand-seals and slammed his hands onto the ground before yelling "Mokuton: Mōkushōku (Wood Release: Wooden Tentacles)"

After yelling this six long wooden tentacles emerged from the round and flew straight towards Itachi.

Unafraid of the approaching wooden tentacles, Itachi calming jumped back and formed several high-speed hand-seals and spat out a gigantic ball of fire.

Within second the Fireball hit the wooden tentacles and exploded, destroying the wooden tentacles and created a small crater between the two Shinobi. But before the smoke from the explosion could die down, Naruto fired several wooden spikes from his hands which hit Itachi right in the chest.

Just when Naruto thought he had got the elder Uchiha, "Itachi" exploded into a murder of crows, revealing that he used Karasu Bunshin no Jutsu (Crow Clone Technique) to replace himself.

Once Naruto realized that he had hit the wrong Itachi, he began to search for the elder teen, but before he could even defend himself. The real Itachi appeared directly behind him in a mist-like fashion and kicked the blonde boy in the back, sending him flying forward.

As he flew throw the air Naruto flipped himself around and used his Banmuchi (Vine Whip) technique to create several vines, which appeared out his right arm and flew towards Itachi. Who actually looked slightly surprised when he saw the vines erupt from Naruto's arm.

Acting fast, Itachi sidestepped the vines and cut them with a Kunai, which appeared out of his sleeves and into his right hand.

After Itachi avoided and cut his vines, Naruto struck again, where the moment his feet touched the ground. He formed several hand-seals and yelled "Konoha Kamisori (Razor Leaves)!" causing hundreds of leaves from the surrounding trees to break off their branches and fly straight for Itachi, like a massive wave of spinning shuriken.

Surprised again by Naruto's technique Itachi formed a single hand-seal and exhaled a massive stream of fire, which incinerated the chakra enhanced leaves within seconds and flew towards Naruto.

Seeing the flames Naruto countered by using his Mokujōheki (Wood Locking Wall) technique, creating a wooden dome that protected him from the Fire technique.

Shortly after the flames from Itachi's attack died down, Naruto had his wooden dome retreat back into the ground, where he then saw Kisame standing next to Itachi.

"Just great out of the frying pan and into the fire" Naruto thought, as he tried to figure out what he should do next, now that Kisame was with Itachi again.

"Heh, looks like the kid is better than we thought?" Kisame remarked, since he had been watching the fighting and like Itachi was surprised that Naruto could use plant-like techniques.

"Indeed" replied Itachi, "It would seem that his Mokuton Bloodline limit is more advanced than even the Shodai Hokage-sama."

"Looks like the leader was right when he ordered us to take him" said Kisame.

"Leader?" Naruto thought in surprise.

"Yes" replied the former Uchiha heir before looking directly at Naruto's eyes.

"You've show remarkable skill for someone your age Naruto-san" spoke Itachi. "I dare say your skill rivaled if not surpassed even my own when I was your age. But the time for games has now ended and I will offer you one more chance to surrender peacefully"

"Thanks but no thanks, surrender isn't in my vocabulary" answered Naruto as he prepared to fight.

"Heh, I like this kid's guts" Kisame thought, who then grinned at Naruto.

"Very well then, you had your chance" replied Itachi.

Not wanting to give Itachi anymore of an advantage than he already had, Naruto made the first move and created a clone of himself. After which he then formed several hand-seals and thought "Suiton: Mizurappa (Water Style: Violent Water Wave)!" and spat out a massive stream of water, while the clone converted the Chakra in its hand into Lightning, electrifying the water.

With little time to spare, both Kisame and Itachi jumped away to avoid the electrified wave of water and covered the ground in a thin layer of water.

After jumping away from water attack, Itachi landed on branch of a nearby tree, looking over Naruto. Who stared right back at the Uchiha, and looked directly into his eyes.

After a moment or two of staring, Naruto made the first move and preformed several hand-seals, and spat out three large balls of water from his mouth.

Seeing the approaching balls of water, Itachi avoided the attack with little effort and then appeared right in front of Naruto. Who narrowly ducked under a forward punch from Itachi where his clone appeared on the former Konoha-nin's right and attempted a leg swipe in the hope of getting the Uchiha off his feet.

Reacting quickly, Itachi jump into the air and evaded the clone's leg swipe and then kicked the clone hard in the face, causing it to puff away.

No soon had he dealt with the clone, the real Naruto appeared behind him and attempted to hit him with a straight forward punch that was enhanced with his super human strength.

Seeing Naruto out of the corner of his eyes, Itachi easily ducked under the punch and then hit the blonde with a reverse elbow to the chest, followed by a reverse heel kick to the face. That sent the spikey haired blonde flying backwards.

But as soon Itachi had kicked him away, Naruto recovered and formed a single one handed hand-seal and cried "Kai!" activating a small seed below Itachi, which Naruto had dropped when the elder Uchiha kicked him away.

When Naruto activated the seed, the small seed burst opened and several dozen vines wrapped himself around Itachi, pinning his arms to his body and preventing him from moving.

After vines had wrapped themselves around him, Itachi noticed several buds around the vines, which began to bloom around him.

"What is this?" Itachi asked calmly as he looked up at Naruto, who hand landed back on his feet and was now smirking.

"A new Jutsu that I've been working on for a few months and have only just mastered" replied Naruto. "I call it Rīchi no Shushi (Leech Seeds)." (A)

"Rīchi no Shushi?"

"Just before you kicked me away, I drop a small seed, which I had created from my body" explained Naruto. "…When activated the vines from the seeds will wrap themselves around the nearest person to them and restrain them."

"Also…"continued Naruto, "Once an opponent is sufficiently subdued, the vines would siphon the person's Chakra and use it to fuel the buds on the vines, filling them with Chakra, causing the buds to bloom into flowers. This has the added benefit of weakening the person further and limiting their ability to fight back, your also the first person I've ever used it on."

"I see…an impressive technique, I can understand why people hail you as a gifted and talented Shinobi" replied Itachi, who showed no sign of concern. "But I would advise you to take a closer look at yourself Naruto-san."

"Huh?" said Naruto not fully understanding until he looked at himself and suddenly found himself wrapped up in his own vines, which were draining him of his Chakra and siphoning them into their buds, which were already blooming.

"What going on?" Naruto asked, who couldn't understand what had happened, since one minute Itachi was right in the front of him wrapped in his vines. The next, the teen was gone and now he was wrapped in the vines. "How did you do this?"

"Heh, it's simple brat, you were under one of Itachi's Genjutsu, which caused you to be caught in your own Jutsu"

"But when?"

"From the first moment you looked into Itachi's Sharingan, you were caught in his Genjutsu, which caused you to be captured in your own Jutsu" answered a grinning Kisame, who stood a few feet away from Naruto.

-Naruto OST Hidan Theme-

At that moment Naruto looked up at Itachi, who was still standing up on the tree branch from earlier, indicating that he had never moved from his spot.

As Naruto looked up at the elder Uchiha, the sun began to shine through the tree leaves, given Itachi a heavenly like appearance as the light shone around him.

"This battle is over" said Itachi as he looked down at him from the tree branch, "You've lost."

In that instant, Naruto fully understood the gap between him and Itachi, who seemed to tower over the Senju heir.

He also now understood what it was like to face against a true master of the Sharingan and why it and the Uchiha were so revered.

"Th-This guy…he's on a completely different level…I can't even touch him!" Naruto thought with fear. "It's as if he isn't even trying."

As Itachi looked down at him with his calm emotionless eyes, Naruto began to feel like an ant, who was looking helplessly up at a giant that was preparing to crush it, somthing that not even Orochimaru was able to make him feel .

Unlike the Snake Sennin, who toyed with Naruto in the forest of death and took some of his hits. Itachi avoided and blocked all of Naruto's attacks with ease, as if he wasn't even trying.

-End Naruto OST Hidan Theme-

After about a minute or two, Naruto collapsed onto the ground, as the vines continued to absorb his Chakra and siphon them off into the buds, which had nearly fully bloomed.

"Damnit, I need to do something, otherwise I'm finished" thought Naruto as he tried to struggled to free from himself from his binds, but was too weak to do anything.

Realizing what was happening to Naruto, Itachi quickly jumped off the tree branch and made his way over to the blonde and cut the vines off him, knowing that if the vines absorbed all of Naruto's Chakra, he would die.

But as soon as he freed the blonde from the vines, Naruto using the last of his remaining strength and tried to punch Itachi. Who caught effortlessly caught the punch and lifted Naruto up so that he was looking directly into the blonde's blue eyes.

"Enough, I've grown tired of this" said Itachi, who then activated his Mangekyō Sharingan and said "Tsukuyomi."

No sooner had Itachi said this Naruto immediately found himself in a completely different world with a red moon hanging over him casting a red light throughout the world, and a cloudy atmosphere, giving the world a blood-red appearance.

Moments after arriving in the world Naruto saw Itachi appear in front of him.

"What's going on, where am I, is this some kind of Genjutsu?"

"Yes, this is called Tsukuyomi which allows me to create an illusionary world where I can do almost anything to my opponent for however long I wish" explained Itachi. "In other words, in this world, I am god."

Before Naruto could respond, he quickly found himself bound to a cross, which seemly appeared out of nowhere.

"What are you going to do to me torture me?" Naruto asked as he tried to struggle from the binds, he even tried to summon the Kyuubi's Chakra, but for some strange reason could not.

"No, something much worse" Itachi replied.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked and immedtiately got his answer, when his mother suddenly appeared in front of Itachi.

"Kaa-chan?"

"Naru-chan…" replied Tsunade before Itachi brought up his Kunai and slit Tsunade's touch, causing her blood to spill out before Itachi dropped her on the ground.

"KKKAAAAA-CCCHHHAAANNN NNNOOO!" roared Naruto as he struggled against his binds, but could not break them.

"Starting now, I will kill everyone you care about for the next seventy-two hours straight."

After dropping Tsunade onto the ground Shizune appeared in front of Itachi who then slit her throat and dropped her to the ground like Tsunade.

"NNNEEEEE-CCCHHHAAANNN…! YOU BASTARD!" yelled Naruto who once again tried to break free of his binds.

After Shizune, Itachi continued with systematically killing everyone Naruto cared about, from Jiraiya, Kushina, Yamato, to the Sandaime and all his friends.

Once Itachi was finished a distraught Naruto looked down at the bodies of all the people he cared about. Who stared back at him with their dead eyes, asking him why he didn't protect him, and why he just stood there and watched.

"NO, NO, NO, PLEASE STOP IT, PLEASE!" pleaded Naruto as tears began to form in his eyes.

"What is wrong Naruto-san, there are still seventy-two hours and fifty-nine minutes left" said Itachi, before he started the process all over. "I wonder how much longer your mind will be able to last?"

"NNNOOOO!" cried Naruto as he watched everyone he cared about being killed by Itachi over and over again.

After what seemed like an entirety in the illusionary world, but was only a few seconds in the real world. Naruto let out a horrified scream, much like Sasuke did, before Itachi dropped him.

"First your brother, and now this kid… and people say I'm a sadist" Kisame thought with another shark-like grin.

"Please, Please, Stop!" begged Naruto as he grabbed hold of Itachi's leg, "…no-more."

"Well I'll be, the kid is still conscious; I thought for sure he would have been knocked out after experiencing Tsukuyomi?" commented Kisame as he walked over to his partner. "Guess he's tougher than we thought…Although you should be more careful Itachi, you know how dangerous it is if you use those eyes of yours too much."

Itachi of course remained silent and pushed his hair aside as the wind blew it into his face.

"Well, looks like we can finally leave with the kid" Kisame said, but before Itachi respond to Kisame statement. The surrounding Water suddenly erupted into a large swirling water sprout around Naruto, forcing both Akatsuki members to jump away from the Senju heir.

Moments after the water sprout erupted, several crescent shape blades of water erupted of the swirling vortex and flew towards Itachi and Kisame at high speed.

Acting fast, Itachi skilfully evaded the Water blades, while Kisame used Samehada to slice through the speeding Water blades.

"Senkai no Mizu (Swirling Water) and Bunkatsu Mizu (Splitting Water)" Itachi thought recognising the two techniques.

Once Water sprout died down and flooded the surrounding ground with Water again, the two nuke-nins noticed a new arrival standing between them and Naruto.

This person was a medium tall woman, with long red hair that fell down to her back and wore black Shinobi pants and a green Jonin jacket and carried a long Katana.

"Just great another nuisance" said Kisame with a slightly annoyed tone.

"It's been a while hasn't it Kushina-taicho, or would you prefer Kitsune-san?" Itachi asked when he saw his former ANBU captain who was glaring angrily at him.

Itachi had of course already guessed who it was when he first saw Senkai no Mizu and Bunkatsu Mizu, since Naruto did not have his Katana and was too weak to even use the techniques. Hence it could be only one other person, given how the sword style was only known by two people, counting Naruto.

"You know her Itachi?" Kisame asked.

"Yes, her name is Uzumaki Kushina, my former squad captain when I first joined ANBU, she was also an old friend to my mother."

"Oh, so this is the infamous Buraddi Shinku no Ikari (Bloody Crimson Fury)" Kisame remarked with an interested look, since Kushina was well known to the Shinobi of Kiri. Not only because she was one of the last remaining members of the famed Uzumaki Clan, but also because of her unique sword style.

"Itachi!" hissed Kushina angrily, "You've got a lot of nerve showing your face here after what you did!"

"Heh, looks like your village hates you about as much as my village does."

"Kushina-sensei" said Naruto who was struggling to stay conscious and glanced up at his teacher. "What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you, since I wanted to talk to you about something" answered Kushina without taking her eyes of the two Akatsuki members. "That's when I found your clone carrying an Sasuke, where it told me what had happen."

As Kushina stared at her opponents, the red head could not think of a worse situation, since as Itachi former captain, she knew how skilled the Uchiha teen was. Who became the youngest ANBU captain in the history of Konoha, at the age of only thirteen, something that had been unheard of until then. He was also a true master of the Sharingan, with few rivals even when his Clan was still alive, and she had no doubt that Itachi had only gotten stronger since then.

She was also very familiar with Kisame's reputation, given the couple of run-ins she had with certain Kiri Shinobi over the years.

From what she had heard, Kisame was easily the strongest member of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū and wielded Samehada, the strongest of the seven swords of Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū.

Also according to rumours she had heard, Kisame possessed superhuman Chakra levels, surpassing even Kage level Shinobi, which gave rise to his other moniker O o Motanai Bijū (Tailed Beast without a Tail).

All in all, given who she was up against, Kushina did not like her chances, even if it was one on one.

Originally she had gone looking after Naruto to talk to Naruto about her remarks back before the preliminaries and wanted to apologies for what she had said and tell Naruto that she had not meant what she said. But when she met with Naruto's clone when it was carrying Sasuke, she quickly raced over to help him.

"Kushina-sensei…B-Be careful…D-Don't look into his eyes" mumbled Naruto slowly who was fighting hard to stay awake.

"Don't worry I know" said Kushina, as she held her Katana up in a sideway angle over her head and used the side of the sword to act as a mirror and let her watch both nuke-nin.

It was a technique which Kushina had developed in the event that she ever came across her former subordinate. Since for the Sharingan to cast a person into a Genjutsu, they must have direct eyes contact.

It was of course difficult to fight like this, but with enough training and practice one could get use to fighting this way.

"You're going to pay for not only what you did to your Clan, but also for attacking my student!" Kushina spat angrily, while at the same time thinking. "His eyes are still the same as before, but then again he's a true heir of the Sharingan…" as she stared at Itachi.

"You should know that I've already sent word to the Hokage" said Kushina. "So you have two choices. Either you both leave now or stay here and fight, where it won't be long before your surrounded by ANBU, and believe me neither you will want to be here once Tsunade-sama arrives and finds out you attacked her son."

"Your concern is unneeded Kushina-san, for we will already have left Konoha by the time the ANBU arrive" replied Itachi. But then notice his partner lifting his massive sword from his back and walking towards Kushina.

"Kisame what are you doing?" Itachi asked when he saw his partner walk forward.

"Sorry Itachi, but you had your fun with the kid, now it's my turn"

"We should not waste any more time than we already have Kisame, you heard Kushina-sana, and we did not come here to fight a war."

"Heh, Don't worry so much Itachi, this won't take long."

"Do not underestimate her Kisame, if you fight her head on, it won't be without serious cost."

"Well let's just see how good she really is?" said Kisame and he raced towards Kushina, who also moved forward so to make sure that Naruto wouldn't get caught in the fight.

Within seconds the two Shinobi clashed sword, where a battle for dominance erupted between the two.

"I going to enjoy shaving you up" grinned Kisame as he used his superior strength to push the woman back.

"Shit, this guy's strength could rival Naruto's" Kushina thought as gnashed her teeth in frustration and struggled to hold Kisame back, where Kisame's sword began to shave her left shoulder.

Realizing that in a battle of strength she would lose, Kushina quickly decided to change tactics.

Using Kisame's own momentum against him, Kushina lifted her Katana in a diagonal angle and took a step to her right, causing Kisame to fall forward and his sword to slide down to the ground. After which she then kicked the former Kiri swordsman in the back of his leg, causing the blue skinned man to fall to his knees, where Kushina then head butted him in the nose, and breaking it in the process.

"Damn you…" growled Kisame before he was forced to leap back to avoid a lethal sword slash from the red headed Jonin.

"Tsk, not bad…" Kisame said as he wiped the some of the blood from his nose away with his right sleeve. "But then again, I shouldn't expect anything less from the famed Buraddi Shinku no Ikari. I even heard that you had a run in with two old friends of mine a while back, maybe you remember their names Kushimaru and Jinpachi?"

"I remember them, and they deserved what they got!" retorted Kushina as she narrowed her eyes angrily. Since this was not the first time she had gone up against a member of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū.

About a year ago, back when she was still in ANBU, Kushina had been assigned on a protection mission for the Fire Daimyo's son during a trade talk with the Daimyo of Umi no Kuni (Sea Country).

Not long after the talks began, they were interrupted by Munashi Jinpachi and Kuriarare Kushimaru, better known as the Hijō Konbi (Heartless Pair) due to their collective cruelty towards their targets and opponents.

The two had been hired by an unknown to interrupt the talks and kill the Fire Daimyo's son, preventing any new trade links between Hi no Kuni and Umi no Kuni. It was only recently that the learned that the now deceased shipping magnet Gato had been the one who hired them, in the hope of keeping the new trade links from happening, which would have reduced his shipping business with Hi no Kuni.

But the two Kiri-nin's attempt was halted by Kushina, where after a long hard battle; she defeated and killed the two infamous Shinobi.

Afterwards Kushina became recognized as a skilled and powerful Shinobi Swordswoman in Kiri and the rest of the Shinobi world. Not only because of her defeat of the two swordsmen, but also for her unique sword style.

"Oh I've no doubt they did, but still, I sort liked the two of them, they knew how to have fun, even if they were two idiots who spent most of their time arguing with one another."

"Enough talk" snapped Kushina, where she channelled her Chakra into the blade of her Katana and drew some of the Water around her. She then swung her blade in upward angle and yelled "Bunkatsu Mizu!" creating a crescent shape blade of Water, which travelled at phenomenal speed towards Kisame. Who split the speeding Water blade in half with his massive sword.

But as soon as he had done this, Kushina appeared right underneath him with her sword in mid-swing.

"What the…?" said Kisame, who was shocked by Kushina sudden burst of speed and realized that the woman had used the water vblade as a distraction so that she could catch him off-guard.

Acting on pure instinct, the former Kiri Shinobi jumped back and narrowly avoided the horizontal slash, which left a large horizontal cut on his cloak, directly above the one Naruto made earlier.

"Shit she's fast" muttered Kisame, before Kushina sped towards him and attempted a left handed slash, which Kisame narrowly blocked with his sword.

But no sooner had he done this, Kushina used her Nagareru Mizu (Following Water) technique and switched her sword from her left hand to her right behind her back with lightning fast speed, slashing Kisame left arm. Who avoided having his arm cut off, by moving to his right at the last second.

Seeing this, Kushina quickly spun around and preformed a spinning kicked, which Kisame somehow blocked with his injured arm and pushed the red haired woman back several meters away.

After landing back on the Water covered ground, Kushina saw Kisame racing towards her.

With only seconds to act, Kushina quickly dipped the tip of her blade into the Water and cried "Mizu no Kagayaku (Glittering Water)" as she swung it across the ground and created a small thin wall of Water in front of her.

Moments after Kushina created the wall of Water; Kisame swung his giant sword and slashed right through the Water wall and "Kushina" revealing that she had been a reflection created by the light and Water.

Realizing he had been tricked, Kisame quickly bescanned the field for the red headed Jonin, but as he turned around he suddenly saw a long blade burst out of his chest.

Glancing back, the former Kiri swordsman saw Kushina standing behind him, holding the sword.

But just when Kushina thought she had killed the former Monster of the Mist, "Kisame" reverted into Water, revealing he had replaced himself with a Water Clone.

Moments after realizing that Kisame had replaced himself, Kushina jumped backwards, allowing her to avoid a powerful down ward slash from Kisame. Who appeared directly above her.

After evading Kisame's attack, Kushina raced towards the shark-like man and used her Mizu no Atsuen technique in the hope of catching Kisame off-guard. But this time Kisame was ready and knew what to look out for from his scuffle with Naruto earlier on.

So when he got glimpse of Kushina switching her Katana from her right to her left hand, he knew what to do and stopped the attack by catching Kushina left wrist when she was in mid-swing.

"Heh, I gotcha now" grinned Kisame as he brought Samehada down Kushina.

"Don't be so sure of that!" Kushina retorted before she kneed the taller man hard between the legs, causing the man's eyes to widen slightly in pain before halting his attack and buckling over slightly.

"Hmph, Kushina-taicho has always been unorthodox when it comes to fighting" Itachi remarked, after seeing Kushina kneed his partner in the groin. Who then followed it up with another head-butt to Kisaime's face and a spinning heel kick that sent the former Kiri swordsman's skidding across the Water covered ground.

"You're going to pay for that" Kisame growled and he struggled to get back up onto his feet, while ignoring the pain from bewteen his lega and from his nose, which was bleeding again.

"Damnit this bitch is tougher than I gave her credit for, the speed of her attacks are on a completely different level from that kid. No wonder she was able to defeat both Jinpachi and Kushimaru?"

Before long though Kisame's frown turned into a grin and licked the blood from his bleeding nose, "Things have gotten a lot more interesting."

"For such a big guy, he sure moves fast" Kushina thought as she stared at her blue skin opponent, before glancing at Itachi and then the barely conscious Naruto.

"I need to finish this fast, as the longer this last the more likely Itachi might decide to intervene and there's no way I can take the both of them on by myself."

Wanting to finish this quickly, Kushina raised her Katana up to her face, so to have the flat side facing her. She then began to gather up the surrounding Water around her, creating a small whirlwind of Water droplets around her.

"This is where it ends" said Kushina with a deadly look, where she then brought her left middle and index fingers and ran them across the side of the blade.

"What's she up to?" thought Kisame who readied his bandage sword.

"Is this another move for the Arasuijin no Mai (Dance of the Raging Water Goddess)?" Naruto thought when he saw the whirlwind of Water droplets surround his teacher, given how he was unfamiliar with the technique.

"Could this be…?" thought a curious Itachi, who raised his left eyebrow.

But before he could warn his partner, Kushina raised her Katana over her head and yelled "Jinsoku Mizu (Swift Water)!" as she swung it down to the ground.

No sooner had she done this, a powerful invisible Wind-like vortex erupted from Kushina blade and flew towards Kisame at frightening speed.

Sensing danger from the attack, Kisame quickly swung his sword down and sliced through the attack, where the only thing Kisame felt from the attack was a gentle breeze that blew past him.

"Heh, nice try, but petty little attack like that won't work on me" said a grinning Kisame as he slowly walked towards Kushina.

"Are you sure about that?" Kushina asked.

"Huh?" said Kisame, who stopped in his tracks before his cloak burst into shred and a shower of blood exploded from his body hundreds of small cuts appeared around him. Causing the the former Kiri-nin to fall ground, where his blood mixed in with the Water.

"B-But how?" gurgled Kisame as more blood formed in his mouth before she spat it out.

"I believe I told you not to underestimate her Kisame" said Itachi, who appeared in front of his comrade and prevented Kushina from finishing him off.

"What was that attack?" asked the wounded Kisame.

"That technique she just used on you was Jinsoku Mizu" answered Itachi.

"You know it?"

"I've heard of it back when I was still in ANBU" replied Itachi. "The technique involves the user drawing the surrounding moisture in the air and any other Water source to create hundreds if not thousands of small spinning blades of Water, which are too small to see by normal eyes and can shred an opponent to pieces. From what I have heard of the technique, it comes in two forms, one for close quarters and one for long range, which is what she used on you. Given the width of the attack, and the number of Water blades, which makes the attack up, even your sword cannot protect you from harm."

"Heh, Guess she got me good with that one" replied Kisame, who then stood back up, shocking both Kushina and Naruto.

But what was even more shocking to the two was that all the cuts on Kisame's body were now healed, where were it not for his shredded clothes and the blood the covered his body. One would think that he hadn't been wounded at all.

"What the hell?" thought Naruto, "Did he use some kind of medical Ninjutsu?"

"I beginning to understand why they call him a monster" the red headed Jonin thought to herself as she stared at the former Kiri swordsman. Who had a large shark-like grin, as he heaved up his massive sword onto his shoulders. "But how on earth did he recover from his wounds so quickly, even though he didn't receive a direct hit from my Jinsoku Mizu. He should've been out of action from the wounds he received."

"You should consider yourself fortunate Kisame, from what I have heard, Kushina-san once used that technique to wipe out an entire platoon, made up of twenty Kumo Shinobi, shredding them into pieces" said Itachi. Who knew if it were not for Samehada's unique abilities, Kisame would either be dead or at the very least incapacitated from his wounds.

"Well you needn't worry I finish this quickly" replied the former Kiri-nin as he tore off his now ruined cloak, revealing a dark sleeveless shirt paired with matching pants, which were also torn up slightly from Kushina'a attack. With the shirt and pants, he also wore a simple waist guard, with striped arm and leg-warmers.

"No, we have no-more time to waste, we will take her together and end this quickly" stated Itachi. After which the two nuke-nins readied themselves.

"Just great back where we started?" muttered Kushina angrily as she too readied herself.

Not wanting to give her opponents anymore of an advantage Kushina went on the offensive first.

Once she was close enough, she attempted to remove Itachi's head from his shoulder with a horizontal slash, but missed when the Uchiha teen sidestepped the slash.

Seeing an opening Kisame brought up his own sword and swung it at Kushina's head, but before his sword could reach the red headed woman. Kushina ducked underneath the large sword and rolled forward. After which she then turned around and fired a Chakra Chain from her left free hand, which wrapped itself around the former Kiri swordsman.

"What the…?!" cried Kisame before Kushina pulled on the chain and off his feet and swung him around into a nearby tree.

Moments after doing this, Itachi appeared behind her and preformed several high speed hand-seals before yelling "Katon: Hōsenka Tsumabeni (Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson)!" After which he unleashed a volley of shuriken with one hand, and at the same time, exhaled a blast of fire, which infused with the shuriken.

With only seconds to act, Kushina quickly dipped the tip of her Katana into the Shallow Water and created a small wave of Water to extinguish the flames around the Shuriken and then deflected or dodge the projectiles with little damage.

But no sooner had she dealt the Shuriken, the red headed Kunoichi was sent flying by a strong double kick to the face.

Recovering quickly, Kushina preformed a mid-air flip to land on her feet, but was forced to move again when Kisame appeared above her, and tried to spilt her in half with a powerful downward slash from his sword.

Seeing that he missed the Konoha Kunoichi, Kisame looked over to where the former ANBU captain had landed and saw her kneeling in front of Naruto. She then stabbed her Katana into the ground and was started to form a series of high speed hand-seals before slamming both her hands into the ground.

"What she up to now?" Kisame thought with a frown and quickly got his answer, when several dozen Chakra Chains erupted from the ground and began to wrap themselves around him.

"Shit!" cried Kisame before he used his sword to cut through the Chakra Chains, but no matter how many he cut, several more would burst out of the ground to take their place.

Realizing he was in a hopeless situation, Kisame tried to move away from the Chains, which quickly followed after him.

At the same Itachi also found himself under assault from several Chakra Chains and was forced to move away.

"There's nowhere you can run" said Kushina where she had her Chains pursue the two nuke-nins wherever they went.

To make things even more difficult, they were confined to the clearing thanks to Kushina. Who used her Chakra Chains to create a barrier around them.

As the two Akatsuki members continued to dodged the various different Chakra Chains. They soon found themselves trapped with the backs to the barrier and facing several dozen Chakra Chains that were about to impale them.

Seeing the situation that they were in, Itachi activated his Mangekyou Sharingan, knowing of only one technique that could save him and Kisame in time.

"Kisame move back" warned Itachi before he said "Amaterasu! (Heavenly Illumination)" were a massive blast of pitch black flames erupted from his right eye.

"Within seconds, black flames enveloped Kushina's Chakra Chains and destroyed them.

"Impossible!" cried Kushina, before saw the black flames heading straight for her and Naruto.

Quickly realizing the danger she and Naruto were in, Kushina wasted no time in cancelling her few remaining Chakra Chains along with the barrier and took out a scroll from her pouch.

She then quickly opened it up, revealing it to be blank.

Placing the scroll on the ground, Kushina formed three quick hand-seals and slammed her hand onto the ground and yelled "Fūka Hōin (Fire Sealing Method)!"

After shouting this, a large seal appeared on the blank page of the scroll.

Moments after the seal appeared, a large pale blue vapour emerged from the seal, and quickly enveloped the Itachi's black flames, (just as they were about to hit Kushina), and sucked the flames into the scroll.

Once flames had been sucked into the scroll, a symbol for seal appeared in the centre of the seal. After which, Kushina immediately rolled up the scrolls and tied up tightly so that it would not be unsealed.

"Well I'll be...! Never thought I'd see the day where someone actually stopped you Amaterasu!" Kisame remarked with an impressed look. "She's even better than you said."

"Indeed" the Uchiha prodigy replied, "But then again I would expect nothing less from someone of Kushina-senpai's calibre."

"That was too close" muttered Kushina, as she started to pant heavily, since her last attack had used up a lot of her Chakra and beginning to feel the strain of the battle.

Seeing that Kushina was nearing her limit, Kisame decided to move in for the kill and raced toward the red haired woman with remarkable speed.

After crossing half the distance between himself and the two Konoha-nins, Kisame lept into the air and swung his massive bandage sword down on Kushina's head. Who wasted no time in grabbing her student and Katana and jumped from their position, narrowly evading the large sword, which made a large hole in the muddy ground.

But moments after avoiding Kisame's attack, Kushina was hit in the chest by a kick from Itachi, causing her to drop Naruto, who finally lost consciousness.

Recovering quickly, Kushina brought up her Katana to block several Shuriken which had been thrown at her by Itachi. Who used them as a distraction to allow him to move in close on Kushina, who barely managed to block his Kunai stab, resulting in a battle a dominance between the two.

As the two continued to struggle with one another, Kisame maneuverered around Kushina and attempted to shave her across her back with his sword.

By using the flat side of her sword as a mirror, Kushina was able to see Kisame approaching her from behind and countered by creating several more Chakra Chains. That sprung from her back and shot at Kisame, forcing the nuke-nin back.

After which Kushina had the Chains maneuver around her and attack Itachi from both sides, forcing the former ANBU captain to leap back.

Once she forced the two Nuke-nins back, Kushina retracted her Chakra Chains and preceded towards Itachi, hoping to press her advantage and attack Itachi before he or Kisame could strike back.

Within moments Kushina was right in Itachi's face and after ducking under his Kunai slash, she sliced the raven haired teen in two with on clean slash, severing his lower body from his upper body.

But as soon as she had cut Itachi in half, "he" exploded into a murder of crows, which flew around her until they moved to attack her and turned into a dozen Shuriken at the last second and piercing her arms, legs, sides and back.

"Ack! Damnit somehow he was able to cast me under a Genjutsu when I accidently glanced into his eyes, right before I cut him" Kushina thought as she fell to her knees and pulled out the Shurikens from her body. But before she could pull them all out, the real Itachi appeared in front of her and attempted a reverse heel kick to her face.

Acting fast Kushina jumped back, avoiding the kick by a hairs breath.

But no sooner had her feet touched the ground, Kisame appeared behind her and shaved her back with his shark scaled sword.

"AAAgggaaaaa!" cried Kushina in pain as she felt the sword shred through her flak jacket and her skin.

After final hitting Kushina with his sword, Kisame followed through with a strong kick to her left side. That sent the red headed woman tumbling across the ground and landing in a small crumpled heap near the unconscious Naruto.

"Well it was fun while it lasted, but I guess this is where it ends" said Kisame with one of his trademark shark-like grins.

"It would seem so" said Itachi, who walked over to his partner.

"So what should we do with her?" asked the former Kiri swordsman as he glanced at his partner.

"Kill her" replied Itachi without any remorse, "Given her abilities she could pose a dangerous threat to our plans later on."

"Heh, my pleasure" replied Kisame as he heaved his sword back onto his shoulders

At the same time as the two Akatsuki members were talking, the barely conscious Kushina slowly dragged herself over to Naruto.

"I can't let them take him" thought Kushina, knowing she needed to protect her student at all costs.

Once she was close enough to Naruto, Kushina used the last of her strength to create several Chakra Chains, which sprung from her bleeding back.

Before either Itachi or Kisame could do anything to stop her, Kushina's Chakra Chains formed a small barrier around herself and Naruto, preventing them from getting to the two Konoha Shinobi.

"Shit we got sloppy, she's formed a barrier around herself and the brat" said Kisame with an annoyed frown. When he tried to push his hand through the small barrier, but was pushed back.

"It would seem so" replied Itachi while staring at the barrier with his Sharingan, "…And it would seem that she has erected a powerful barrier at that, it will not be easy to break."

But before either men could make any attempt to bring down Kushina's barrier. The two nuke-nins sensed a powerful presence above them.

Looking up they quickly saw a shadowy figure falling towards them like a meteor.

Acting fast, both Kisame and Itachi jumped away from the barrier, where as soon as they did a large explosion erupted, filling the clearing with a cloud of dust.

"What the hell is it this time?!" Kisame asked as he and Itachi landed on a large tree at edge of the clearing.

"Trouble" replied Itachi with blank expression.

When the dust cloud finally began to dissipate, the two Akatsuki members soon saw a large newly formed crater right in front of Kushina's barrier, with a single figure standing in the middle of it. One whom both Kisame and Itachi recognised instantly, since this person was none other than the famed Slug Princess of Konoha, Senju Tsunade.

"Tsunade-sama" said Kushina as she looked up to the elder woman.

"Kushina…how's Naruto?" Tsunade asked without taking her eyes of the two Akatsuki members, who jumped off their tree and stood in front of the female Sannin.

"He's fine, he's just unconscious…" replied Kushina, "But I think Itachi used some kind of Genjutsu on him."

Nodding to this, Tsunade then glared angrily at the two nuke-nins.

"You're going to regret what you did to my son!" snarled the furious woman.

At the same time, Jiraiya and the Sandaime appeared out of the forestry and flanked Tsunade.

Upon arriving at the scene, a large frown appeared on the Sandaime's face when he saw the Uchiha traitor. "Itachi…what are you doing here?"

"This could be trouble" thought Jiraiya, who knew how dangerous both Itachi and Kisame were, and that was just when they were alone.

"Well this certainly complicates things, the Sandaime Hokage and two members of the Densetsu no Sannin (Legendary Three Ninja)" Kisame remarked with a slight frown before griining a little.

"Agreed" replied Itachi as he stared calmly at the three Kage level Shinobi.

"You two sure have got a lot of guts showing your faces here" said Jiraiya with a serious look.

"Jiraiya-sama" said Itachi as he turned to the famed Toad Sage. "I'm assuming that you were the one who told Naruto-san of us?"

"Heh, Guilty as charged" the white haired man replied with a smirk.

"Looks like things have gotten a lot more interesting" said a grinning Kisame. Who looked eager at the chance in taking on three such famed Shinobi and lifted his sword off his shoulder and pointed it at the three Konoha Shinobi.

But before anyone could make a move, Itachi spoke.

"That's enough Kisame, we're leaving…We did not come here to start a war; any further fighting would be pointless."

"But what about the kid?" asked Kisame, since the only reason they had come to Konoha was to kidnap Naruto.

"We'll leave him…for now."

"Tsk, and just when I was to enjoying myself" Kisame remarked with a disappointed look as he hung his sword onto his back.

"Neither of you are going anywhere!" cried Tsunade as she charged at the two Akatsuki member with startling speed, and hit Itachi right in the face with an enhanced punch.

But as soon as her fist made contact with Itachi's face, the former Konoha-nin and his partner exploded into murder of crows, which quickly faded into nothing, revealing that the two had just been illusions.

"Genjutsu!" Tsunade thought in surprise, before it was replaced with an angry look, "…I was careless."

"Phff, that Itachi brat is good, he must have somehow caught us in his Genjutsu the moment we arrived" said Jiraiya with a frown, before galncing around for any trace of the two nuke-nins.

At that moment Shizune arrived with a large group of Shinobi, which included Gai, Kakashi, Asuma, Yamato and Kurenai, along with two four man teams of ANBU lead by Wolf.

"Hokage-sama, Jiraiya-sama, Tsunade-sama are all of you unharmed, where are the intruders?" Wolf asked

"We're fine, but the intruders are gone, all of you quickly, go after them, they couldn't have gotten far!" Tsunade ordered.

Nodding, the majority of other Shinobi quickly took after the two nuke-nins, leaving Tsunade Jiraiya, Shizune, Yamato and the Sandaime alone with the wounded Kushina and unconscious Naruto.

"They won't find them, those two aren't your run of the mill Shinobi and won't be caught so easily" Jiraiya commented. Who knew that even in the unlikely event that the pursuing Shinobi caught up to two Akatsuki members, they would be unable to capture them, they were just that good.

Once the other Shinobi left, Kushina lowered her barrier and allowed herself to fall into bliss oblivion, after finally losing consciousness.

After Kushina lowered her barrier, Tsunade raced over to her son to check on her vitals, leaving Shizune to tend to Kushina injuries.

"How's the kid?" Jiraiya asked.

"He's fine" said Tsunade after examining her son. "His injuries are mainly superficial, but what worries me is the mental state."

"What do you mean?" Yamato asked.

"He's in a coma" answered Tsunade who angry look upon her, "…Caused by mental strain from being under a powerful Genjutsu."

As Tsunade lifted up her unconsciousness son, she silently swore she would make Itachi pay, knowing he was culprit for her son's state.

"How is Kushina?" the Sandaime asked in concern.

"Not good I'm afraid" answered Shizune, as she continued to work of the former ANBU captain. "She received several injuries, the most serious in the back and is almost out of Chakra. I'm stabilizing her now, but she needs to get the hospital soon."

"Then you should go, Yamato and I will join the pursuit teams, the rest of you should bring Naruto and Kushina to the hospital" said the Sandaime. "We'll talk on what we should plan next later."

Nodding to this two Sannin and Shizune, took off with Kushina and Naruto, while Sarutobi and Yamato went off in the opposite direction after the pursuit teams.

---

Outside Konoha, the two Akatsuki members raced through the surrounding forestry, making sure that they left no tracks for the pursuing Konoha Shinobi to follow.

As they raced through the treetops, Kisame glanced over at his partner "Why did we have to retreat? We could've…"

"No we could not" interrupted Itachi. "If we had taken on all three of them on by ourselves, in all likelihood we would've lost. Even if we had somehow won, it would not have been without serious cost to us, especially when you consider the fact that more Konoha reinforcements were on their way and would arrive at any moment. The best course of action was to retreat."

"Besides…Naruto-san's capture is not essential to our plan as of this moment. So we can afford to leave him be for now and wait for another time to retrieve him, one that is more favourable to us."

"Also, I must rest myself somewhere for a while; I used Tsukuyomi twice and was then forced to use Amaterasu" Itachi replied, who looked a bit worn as he deactivated his Sharingan. "It was more tasking than I had anticipated."

---

Later that night after a long meeting with not only Jiraiya and Tsunade, but also the Konoha Elders, Homura, Koharu and Danzo, over the infiltration of Kisame and Itachi. The Sandaime Hokage finally arrived home.

After checking on Konohamaru, who was fast asleep in his bed, the elder Sartuobi entered his living room and took off his Hokage hat and sat in his soft armchair.

Enjoying the silence in the room, the old Hokage closed his eyes and went over everything that happened today in his head.

Thankfully both Naruto and Kushina would recover, but given her injuries, Kushina would have to stay in the hospital for a bit longer.

Naruto was still unconscious and wouldn't wake up for at least a day or so, since Tsunade wanted to give him time to rest and bring him out of his coma slowly, allowing her to treat the mental trauma.

As the Sandaime continued to go over everything that happened today in his head, he was suddenly brought out of his thoughts by the sound of tapping of something on glass.

Turning to where the sound came from, Sarutobi saw a small black crow tapping on the widow to his living room.

Cautiously, the Sandaime walked over to the window and opened it, allowing the small bird to fly into the room.

After circling the living room once, the small bird landed on the Sandaime's shoulder and dropped a small slip of paper, which it had been carrying in its beak.

When the Sandaime caught the slip of paper, the crow took off and flew out the window and disappeared into the night sky.

Once the bird had left, the Sandaime opened up the slip of paper and read what was on it.

When he finished reading the slip of paper, the Sandaime's face turned ghostly white and he found his hand shaking slightly and his knees going weak.

The note only had three words on it, and yet it had a paralyzing effect on the fabled Kami no Shinobi (God of Shinobi) and filled him with such fear and dread, that he needed to sit down.

As the Sandaime tried to digest what he had just learned, the old Hokage knew what this meant for Konoha and how it placed the village in far greater danger than anyone realized.

"Kami help us all" the Sandaime thought as he glanced down at the note again, which simply said

"Uchiha Madara lives."

N/A.

Well that's it for another Chapter of Hope of the Senju Clan; I hope everyone enjoyed, Naruto connecting with Gaara, the introduction of the Akatsuki and the Sandaime learning that "Madara" lives.

Now as some of you may know the next Chapter will finally reveal the pairing for the story, so people can finally stop bugging me about it after every Chapter.

Again I hope everyone has enjoyed the Chapter and please don't bother asking me to update quick. Quality Chapters for quality stories take time and I refuse to be rushed, so they will take as long as they will take.

Another note, the summon polls has been closed now before anyone asks me which polls won, I will tell you now that will not be reveal which summons won until Chapter forty, which is why I will I tell everyone now, not to bother asking me, since I will not tell. The only thing I will give you that the summons will be slightly different from what people guess, but will still be of the same species that won the poll.

Also please scroll down further if you wish to read the two Omakes I have come up with.

As always please read and review as I like to hear all your opinions on the Chapter or on the story in general. Please note that I will answer all your reviews since I believe that authors should reply to their reviewers. Also note that any suggestions for the story are welcome and will be listen to and I will tell you what I think of them.

Now in regards of my grammar and spelling mistakes, although they may be a problem for people, I'm afraid they cannot be helped and I'm doing the best I can with what I got.

Another thing to note is that flames are not welcome here, as I force no-one to read my stories and if you don't like them then don't read them. Also please note that all flames will be ignored, deleted or the flamers will be flamed back.

Author's Note:

(1). Go to my profile and to my Hope of the Senju Clan section for an image of what Naruto's new home looks like

(2). Go to my profile and to my Hope of the Senju Clan section for an image of what Naku looks like.

(3). Go to my profile and to my Hope of the Senju Clan section for an image of what the bracelet looks like.

(4). For information on this kitten go to Chapter twenty-five and for an image of the kitten go to my profile on the Hope of the Senju Clan section. There you will find the link for the kitten on number nine.

(5). Go to my profile and to my Hope of the Senju Clan section for an image of what Naruto's Chain earing looks like.

(6). For a more detail brief on this technique go to the bottom of Chapter thirty, this technique will be number one in the offensive section of the Arasuijin no Mai (Dance of the Raging Water Goddess) Sword Style section.

Custom Jutsu:

(A). Mokuton: Rīchi no Shushi (Wood Release: Leech Seeds): A special technique Naruto developed with the help of Yamato after leaving the hospital. The technique involves Naruto creating a small seed from his body and dropping it near an opponent. When activated the seed will burst open, creating several large vines, which move to grapple and ensnare an opponent. Once the opponent is sufficiently subdued the vines would siphon the person's Chakra and use it to fuel the buds on the vines, filling them with the opponent's Chakra and causing them to bloom into flowers. This has the added benefit of weakening the person further and limiting their ability to fight back, making it a very effective technique for capturing people. But if the person is left in the binds for too long, the vines will drain all of the person's Chakra and kill them.

Omake: 1

"Why me? There are plenty other Shinobi who are strong enough, better yet why not the pervert over here?" said Tsunade as she pointed to Jiraiya who was leaning against the widow.

"Me Hokage…hah!" laughed Jiraiya at the idea.

"He's right Kaa-chan, you would make a much better Hokage than him" said Naruto.

"Besides..." continued the boy, "Knowing Ero-sennin he'd probably make up a bunch of crazy ass laws, like having all the Kunoichi from the ages of eighteen to thirty-five having to wear scantily clad outfits and have the Icha Icha series become required reading for all Shinobi. Not to mention, spend all his time using the Hokage's crystal ball looking at girls in the hot's spring and the changing room."

"AAAHHHH! Why the hell didn't ever think of that?!" cried Jiraiya is disbelief, realizing what he could do as Hokage. "Hold on Old man, I change my mind I'll become Hokage!"

Two weeks later after becoming Hokage, Jiraiya was overthrown after a massive revolt of the Kunoichi populace. Resulting in the former Hokage and his followers in being beating to an inch of their lives and strung up on the Hokage momument by the leader of the female revolt, Tsunade, who replaced him as the new Hokage.

Thus marking the shortest ever reign of a Hokage in the history of Konoha.

Omake: 2

As Naruto walked away, he suddenly and turned when he heard Gaara call out to him.

"Will you be returning tomorrow?"

"Yea sure"

"Good, I believe by then I will be ready, for there are some things I would like to know about you."

"Sure I would be happy to tell you anything you want to know" said Naruto who then saw Gaara nod.

Not long after Naruto left the room, Gaara slowly reached over to the book that Senju heir gave him earlier, which read Icha Icha Paradise. Unaware that Senju heir had accidently picked up and given him the wrong book.

The next day Naruto was surprised to find and unconscious Gaara lying in a pool of his own blood with a perverted smile on his face.