What it do y'all it's your favorite author Jay back with a new chapter… What do you mean I'm not your favorite? *Sniffs* Why you gotta be so mean?
Jokes on you because none of y'all is the reason why I'm updating right now. It's Fuyoshi-chan, who's awesome review guided my fingers… hehe.
Well it's time for the usual…
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any characters in the series… exact Taifu, that mofo is mine.
Betrayal Chapter Thirty-Six: A Break Before Destruction
(Kumogakure)
In the village hidden in the Clouds, rested a familiar masked Jonin. He had his relatively new Kumo headband slanted across his right eye for old times sake. Of course he had mastered the eye to the point where he could deactivate it on command, but sometimes that notion slips his mind.
He was wearing the village's one customary Jonin flak jacket with its single strap over his left shoulder. Under that was a long sleeved dark grey shirt that was also apart of his mask that covered the bottom half of his face. He wore a matching pair of dark grey pants with the ankles tapped over. He was also wearing a pair of black ninja sandals.
He wasn't wearing a proper Kage cloak, instead he opted to keep his Kage-Ho cloak, which was opened and displaying his attire.
He was currently sitting in a large, and quite comfortable, chair with his feet propped on the table. A book was in his hand and he was giggling uncontrollably.
He wasn't the only occupant in the large office as, not even five feet away from him was Kimiko. She wasn't standing there with a straight face, she was absolutely livid. This man has been in this chair reading porn since he's got the temporary job some odd days ago.
Kimiko was dark skinned like many others native to Kaminari no Kuni. Though her skin wasn't as dark. Her hair was light grey, but shined like it was silver, and it was always tied into a bun. Though she left two large locks to frame her face, beautifully accenting her green eyes.
She wore a dark green long sleeved, high collared, dress shirt that was open enough to show a decent amount of cleavage and a red lined mesh shirt. She also wore a matching skirt that nearly went to her ankles. She wore a regular pair of ninja sandals.
In her arms, she held a small stack of papers. She was on the verge of slapping the silver headed Jonin with the stack if he didn't get serious.
"Kakashi-san, if you don't stop reading that smut right now I swear to Kami I'm going to rip off your manhood." she seethed through clenched teeth.
The copycat Jonin kept the book in front of his face, making sure the only thing Kimiko could see was the hair poking from behind the book. "Tsk tsk tsk, now Kimiko-san, you know you have to address me as Raikage-sama."
At the remark her eye twitched and a large tick mark appeared. His response has been the same the entire time, as has been her threat and her response. "Now you know you don't deserve such a honor until you actually do some work."
Kakashi sighed with a nod. "You know what you're right, I'll do some work." he said closing his book and sitting up straight.
Kimiko sighed in relief and stepped forward. "Thank you, now its important that you look over these documents." she said extending the stack with a temporary Raikage stamp on top of it.
He nodded and she set the stack down. It was then that he started to do the paperwork with his menial skills. He was lucky that Kimiko was there to assist him, telling him where to stamp and what not to stamp.
(Somewhere in Kaminari no Kuni)
Minato skidded along the dirt, making sure not to trip on a rock. His arms were in the guarding position, as he had just blocked A's initial punch. If he had tried to dodge he would have suffered more than bruised forearms. "Kami, I forgot how much force he could dish out." the former Hokage thought out loud wincing at the slight pain.
"Impressive, you've managed to cover your arms in chakra fast enough to cushion most of the force of my punch." A said cracking his neck.
Minato chuckled, "Your little punches cant hurt me, my son hits harder." Minato boasted/goaded making A smirk.
"Enough with the chit chat. Lets finish this thing quickly. I've been away from my village far too long, that student of yours might have driven it to the ground for all I know."
Minato grunted as he pushed off the earth, dodging to his right, narrowly escaping a lightning covered punch from the muscled Yondaime. "I told you, you were slow without your Hirashin. Scared to use it, because I've figured it out years ago?" A questioned twisting and dashing toward the smaller Yondaime.
"Not at all." Minato said fusing his fist with chakra and ducking underneath A's punch. After the punch was thoroughly dodged, he sent his own which connected. "I just wanted to see if I could hit you without resorting to it."
"Well your going to have to keep trying." a voice said behind the blonde as the muscled man above him blew away with the wind.
Minato smirked as he rose to his full height. "I knew you were going to do that."
A shared the smirked, "Oh you did? Then why didn't you even bother with the attack?" A asked.
The blonde dropped into a basic Taijutsu stance, "I have my reasons." he vaguely replied.
"I know what you're trying to do. You're trying to tag me with a secret tag or something. Well I can tell you now, that's not going to work for shit." A said jumping in the air with his leg raised.
Wanting to test something, Minato charged up a Rasengan. After that he jumped in the air with the Raikage and thrust his Rasengan forward.
The ball of swirling chakra impacted the lightning covered leg. A battle of dominance ensued, only for gravity to decide the winner. The force of A's leg was too much for the Rasengan and the ball promptly dissipated.
But Minato thought fast and quickly rotated in the air, letting A pass him.
Unfortunately A had anticipated the action and grabbed the Namikaze's cloak. "You're not going anywhere." he said quickly positioning the younger blonde into the power bomb position. "RAIGA BOMU (LIGER BOMB)!"
Minato panicked when things started heading south, and quickly. "Damn" he cursed sensing the ground getting closer by the millisecond. He had no choice but to quickly get a tri-pronged kunai, but he quickly found out that A's large hands were around his waist, and thus, his pouch was unreachable. 'Wait my emergency seal tag.' he quickly thought reaching into his shirt and pulling out the tucked seal tag. He snapped the weak cord and released it into the air, hoping he still had time as the ground approached.
The resulting explosion shook the very earth and also destroyed said earth.
A stood in the large crater of charred earth and released a large bellow of laughter. "You never cease to amaze me Minato. Though I am disappointed that you resorted to the Flying Thunder God."
Minato panted as he dropped down from the earth, his seal tag in hand. "Well did you really think I was going to purposely handicap myself. After all I am facing a fellow Kage." Minato said replacing the seal tag with one of his special kunai. "I think it's time we really started this fight."
"Yes I second that motion." A said shedding his Raikage cloak and hat. At that more lightning seemed to encase his body.
(Somewhere in Fire Country)
Currently the group of ten were caught in the rain in their endeavor to find Naruto.
"Are you sure you can find him in this rain?" Jiraiya asked Akane, who continued to lead the group at a quickened pace.
"Yes I can find him. Right now, he's not moving anywhere, meaning that he's resting and waiting for the storm to subside." Akane replied while countless water droplets stung her face.
"How do you know all of that?" Nagato questioned from his position in front of Konan and behind Jiraiya.
"Demons are always linked to their mates. They have a bond deeper than any human marriage." Haku answered quickening her pace, as she too could feel her link with Naruto growing stronger with the closing distance.
"Mate? Demon? Naruto?" Sasuke said surprised as he hadn't truly witnessed the results of the Invasion. So he hadn't seen Naruto's true appearance, the death of the Sandaime, or when Naruto left the village without him. When the next time he had woken up it was in a dimly lit room, that acted as Kabuto's workspace and his wounds nearly fully healed.
Taifu chuckled at the Uchiha's obliviousness. "You're more oblivious than I've previously thought. I'm sure you would've learned something from Orochimaru."
The Uchiha seethed in anger, activating his Sharingan in said anger and causing it to spin. "I've learned plenty, before I killed him. I could show you if you want me to."
Taifu didn't have to look back to see Sasuke's activated Doujutsu. The KI trying to pierce his skull was enough. He let out a laugh, careful not to get any water in his mouth. "You're years to early to try to intimidate me Uchiha-san."
"Hey ease off Sasuke." Suigetsu said defending his leader.
Though the water user defended the other two members of Hebi remained quiet for different reasons. Jugo, because he was trying to properly control his murderous mindset and Karin, because she didn't want a repeat of earlier.
"Can you two please shut up? It's getting a little annoying listening to you two." Haku nearly yelled.
"I agree, we're only a few kilometers away from Naruto-kun. Lets pick up the pace people." the vixen said vanishing in a shunshin, followed by the others.
(Naruto's Cave)
Naruto's eyeballs fluttered in his eyelids for a few minutes before he opened them. The hanyou sat up and looked around. He found himself in a cave.
He yawned before he started coughing. "Finally your up. I was getting a little worried." a voice said behind Naruto.
The crimson haired teen looked behind him to see the spirit of his sword, Jigoku. He was sitting against the wall of the cave with his sword leaning against his shoulder. He was wearing a simple armor attire. Red shirt, red pants, black torso armor, entire arm length vambraces, greaves, boots, and crimson colored gloves.
The crimson haired hanyou groaned as he returned his back to the cave floor. "Why do I feel like I got hit by a train?"
"Well you would know the feeling." the phoenix demon said chuckling as he watched Naruto rub his forehead. "Its really because it took way more chakra to heal Itachi, than you previously thought. His disease was far more complicated and it had progressed more than Kimimaro's. I'm surprised he hadn't died earlier. Not to mention I couldn't help at all with the healing process, I'm not one for healing. You should've summoned Akane to help you. But I am proud you managed to accomplish it." Jigoku said standing to his feet causing the armor to make sounds.
Naruto chuckled at the memory in Yuki no Kuni before he glanced at the demon again. "Why do you look like you're dressed for war?"
The older demon rose an eyebrow in confusion before he looked down at his attire. "Oh yeah, well since you're about to destroy Konoha, I was thinking I could materialize outside and aid you in your endeavor. Plus I've been taking it easy for a long time and I might be a little rusty. You didn't even use me against Kimimaro and my fury needs to be rekindled. So this might be the perfect time to have our little rematch."
Naruto chuckled "You waited until I was weak from healing Itachi to say you want a rematch." Naruto said slowly with a hand over his amethyst eyes. He heard a chuckling yup behind him. "Okay I accept." he said uncovering his pure crimson eyes along with a, more pronounced, slitted pupil.
"Allow me to begin." Jigoku said doing a dozen hand seals. "Katon: Kazan no Ikari (Volcanicc Rage)." it was then that the mountain they were in started rumbling.
"Oh yeah we're inside of a volcano." Naruto said slowly as he remembered how he envisioned his mindscape.
The volcano exploded outwards sending Naruto's body tumbling outside of the cavern. He looked down at his body to see himself topless. "What the hell happened to my shirt?" he muttered seeing singe marks across entire torso. "Oh yeah, stupid lava."
He wiped his chest and his ears, seven fox tails, and phoenix wings sprouted forth in their respective positions. "Lets take this fight in the air." Naruto said flapping his wings a little, before he started lifting off the ground.
"You may be better at swordplay than me Naruto, but I'm still the king of the sky." Jigoku said as his own wings sprouted from his back and he joined Naruto in the air.
Naruto shook his head, "Not anymore, I've spent years sparring with Taifu in the air, training for this very moment." Naruto said as he spread his wings out wide. "Katon: Unmei no Hono no Umo (Flaming Feathers of Doom)."
He flapped his wings a total of five times, sending down dozens of feathers that were burning.
The phoenix demon stared at the approaching feathers as he continued to gain altitude. He veered to the left and dodged some, did a barrel roll to dodge more, and flapped his wings to dive upward faster flying in a large circle to keep dodging the flaming feathers.
Naruto watched the aerial acrobatics in silence as he did a set of hand seals. "Raiton: Gian (False Darkness)." he said performing the technique more than once, as pairs of lightning bolts flashed down toward Jigoku.
Naruto was pleased to see that even though the demon was still dodging his techniques, he had more difficulty incorporating the lightning bolts into it. He grunted and dove quickly meeting Jigoku the rest of the way. He sent a punch and cursed silently when it missed. His anger was short lived when he quickly spent and kicked Jigoku in the chest.
Though that small victory was short lived, when a burst of fire surprisingly burst out of the demon's mouth.
Quickly he flapped his wings, slowing down the fireball just enough for him to fold his wings and drop to the earth. He tried to open his wings, but found them clasped tightly shut as Jigoku appeared with his arms wrapped around them. "That was dirty." Naruto said glaring back at the demon.
"Why thank you. I'm surprised you didn't see through it." he replied with a smile as the lava covered ground approached closer and closer.
"Who says I didn't?" Naruto asked as he showed his smirk to the demon. "Piasu Tsume (Piercing Talon)." was heard above the duo as Naruto's clone burst in a cloud of smoke, just a spinning Naruto, resembling a classic Tsuuga, entered the fray.
Five quick seconds later he appeared on the other side of the smoke, but now he was on fire. He quickly stopped the spinning and shook the fire off of his skin.
"You planned that a little too well Naruto. It was too bad you blew it by warning me." Jigoku said flapping the smoke away and his body was revealed. Blood was dripping off of his right hand, from when he stopped the hanyou's claws from entering his chest.
Naruto smiled revealing his enlarged canines and his other sharpened teeth. "I couldn't help it. Can you blame me?" he questioned with a shrug of his shoulders. "Plus you countered by spinning out of the way and sending a blast of fire around me. It would have really hurt me, if I wasn't still spinning." he said rubbing his soft hair.
"Thanks, that was pure instinct." he responded flapping his wings and increasing his height. "I think it's time I end this aerial battle and drop you to the earth a burning mess." he said flapping even faster and flying through a cloud.
'Uh oh.' Naruto thought as burning feathers erupted from the cloud. "I guess its my turn.' he chuckled to himself as he flapped his wings to gain altitude as well.
He approached the first wave of arrows and was surprised to learned that they explode. It was too late to entirely dodge them as he was already heading towards the earth and rapid speeds.
He groaned as he looked up seeing more approaching feathers. His wings were badly singed, with most of the feathers being missing. Not to mention the ground was only half a mile away. 'This is going to hurt.' he thought as he quickly hit the ground and the feathers landed everywhere around and on him and exploded on contact.
Sending that many feathers through the cloud completely destroyed it and Jigoku was seen lazily flapping his wings. "There was no way that was a clone or he would be up here with me. I told him I'm the king of the sky, he should've listened." the demon said diving towards the ground.
Naruto groaned inside the crater filled with lava. He quickly changed the landscape of his mind and sighed when the burning feeling of the lava disappeared. "Lava hurts." he muttered
The flying demon looked on in surprise when the crater turned into a large house. Soon the demon appeared inside the room with the crimson haired teen. "Are you quitting?" he asked scratching his head.
Naruto's body was burned, but rapidly healing. He opened his blood red eyes and looked at the demon above him and shook his head. "No, the lava was too hot and this was the first thing I thought of."
"Well I think that's enough for now." Jigoku said stretching his arms backwards.
Naruto quickly rose to his feet in anger, "What, oh hell no. I've was just getting started." he said extending his arm and willed his sword to appear in his hand, already unsheathed.
"Now now, calm down. I won far and square. It was an air fight and you were the first to touch the ground. I told you I was the king." the demon said smugly.
"Fuck that, you got lucky." Naruto responded with a swipe of his hand, sending a crashing wind into Jigoku, which harmlessly passed by him, but destroyed everything behind him. "I want a rematch." the crimson haired hanyou added.
"Next time Naruto-kun. Now you have to wake up, cause you've been out for some time." the phoenix said as Naruto slowly started turning transparent.
Naruto looked down in surprise. "What the hell? You cant kick me out of my own mind. HEY STOP IT! YOU BASTARD!" Naruto yelled before he disappeared entirely.
"I don't think I'm going to help with the destruction of the leaf." the demon thought out loud, looking at the spot Naruto previously occupied. "Oops."
(Real Cave)
Naruto rose his head with a quick snap, shocking Itachi. Though it wasn't visible to the other occupant. "That bastard. He is so sitting this attack out." Naruto said looking around. "How long have we been here?" the crimson haired teen asked.
Itachi closed his eyes and leaned his head back into the cave wall. He exhaled a long breath and reopened his eyes. "We've been here for a few hours. It started raining shortly after arriving and hasn't stopped since." Itachi said as his eyes glanced at the falling droplets.
Naruto nodded and reached for the sword that had been resting at his side. "I estimate this rainfall will continue for another hour or so, or maybe more. I'm glad I didn't just rush into the village and attack without a plan. That would've been a big no-no." Naruto said clenching and unclenching his fist, gauging how much of his strength was still with him.
He wasn't back at full strength, but it wasn't anything a soldier pill or two couldn't fix. "What are you going to do about the barrier surrounding the village?" Itachi brought the hanyou out of his musings.
"That depends? Do you want to alert them and make things more exciting or do you want to surprise them in the dead of night?" Naruto asked with a smirk now eyeing the Uchiha's red clouded cloak.
Itachi closed his red eyes and shook his head. "That's not my decision, its yours. This is your quest, your vendetta. Personally, I don't want the village to be destroyed as I still hold love for it. But I guess I shouldn't, as my younger brothers are no longer inside of her walls. You two are the only ones I've ever loved and I've already failed one of them, I'm not failing the other." The Uchiha said opening his eyes, revealing his spinning Sharingan.
Naruto scoffed prompting Itachi to glance at him. "You didn't fail Sasuke, I did." Naruto said lowering his head.
Itachi rose an eyebrow in genuine confusion. "Explain." he simply spoke.
"I don't remember whether you told me to watch Sasuke or not, but I sort of left him in the village during the conclusion of the invasion. I wasn't really paying attention to him at that moment. I should have been, considering his relation to you and by extension, to me. To make a long story short, he ended up with Orochimaru, as he wasn't present during some of my previous attacks on Konoha, and I haven't seen him since. But that's all about to change." Naruto said physically bracing himself for what was to come.
As soon as he was set, a rocket blasted through the mouth of the cavern and into his arms. He skidded for a few seconds, wrapping his arms around the feminine body, before he tripped over a large stalagmite and they were sent tumbling further into the cave.
Their skidding bodies came to a stop and Naruto lifted his head to see Akane burying her head into his chest. "Why hello Aka-hime. I'm not surprised you're here." Naruto said to his vixen.
Soon after he sat up with Akane in his arms, another pair of arms wrapped around him from behind. "You surprised to see me Naru-kun?" Haku asked slowly exhaling into his ear.
Naruto groaned softly and his muscles loosened a little. "I'm never surprised to see you Haku-hime. I am surprised Yugi-hime and Mura-hime aren't here." Naruto said looking around the cave for the two felines.
Akane rose her head and captured Naruto's lips with her own. A few seconds passed with both parties enjoying the kiss, before Akane reluctantly removed her lips. "You know Yugito is still made you ruined her favorite outfit. And she cant because she got sent on a mission, after you, your father and the Raikage went to the meeting." she said plainly.
Naruto lowered his head in sadness. "She's still mad, I bought her a new one and said sorry." a sharp pain emanated from the back of his head from Haku.
"It's not that simple Naru-kun." Haku said playfully. "You have to apologize more romantically. You know, do something better than simply buying her an outfit she already had."
Naruto sighed and lowered his head again. "I'll never understand women." he said depressed.
The two chuckled and kissed him on the lips and neck.
Naruto removed himself from the kiss when he heard a mocking 'Aww.' in front of him. He seen Taifu jokingly wiping a tear from his cheek.
He glared at his brother, "I'm gonna kick your ass Taifu." he said before Akane grabbed his face and kissed him again.
Taifu chuckled and leaned against the wall of the cave. "Whenever you're ready." he said looking at the mouth of the cave as the rest of the large group appeared. "I hope you're ready for one hell of a meeting." he said making Naruto open his eyes and glance at the opening of the cavern.
There stood seven people, two were wearing Akatsuki cloaks like Itachi, one had red markings under his eyes, three were unknown to him, and the last one had a face mixed with confusion, anger, and happiness.
"Hello Sasuke-kun." Itachi said from his seated position.
"Itachi?" Sasuke said with his Sharingan meeting his brother's own Sharingan.
A/N: I spent a better part of a week, wondering if I should end the chapter when the two Uchiha brothers meet eye to eye. Of course I had to end it, why else, other than that it's a nice cliffhanger.
I am embarrassed that I stopped writing for like two weeks, with only a few hundred words remaining from the chapter. In my defense… I have no excuse, sorry.
For those that enjoyed the beginning of A's and Minato's fight, I thank you. For those that didn't, just know that I'm finishing it next chapter. It'll be the first thing you encounter next okay.
I had to have Jigoku make a return to the series, he had the longest hiatus ever. I realized that was unfair to him and so… that happened.
Please review… I'm out.