Rain: No time for fancy opening or "I'm Sorry for being so god awfully late. I deserve the worse punishment imaginable" speech, Let's just get started.

Mario: Here we go!

Reaper's Blood: Reincarnation

Chapter Thirty-Seven

"Um…Was this always here?" Naruto asked, blinking slowly at the very large grey stone palace that was a few miles away from Tazuna's bridge, a look of disbelief on his face…The same look that was on Anko's face as they stood side-by-side with Haku, who looked amused by this.

"Well yes…Gato employed a large amount of shinobi who managed to keep a genjutsu over his fortress but with him dead, it seems they abandoned it," Haku explained while chuckling slightly at the two Konoha shinobi before dashing away from the two and heading towards the fortress.

After sharing a brief glance, Naruto and Anko darted after the Hyōton user, wanting to keep up with her just in case she was going to pull something. Sure, she had been very truthful with them but they would not rule out that it could be a trap either way.

After the two caught up with Haku, the three shinobi stopped at the drawbridge of the fortress and eyed it for a moment in surprise. before Naruto asked to both his teacher and his friend "Well…Now what do we do?" while looking at both Haku and Anko for answers.

"Well…Gato had to be a man captured by fear because look how far the castle is from the ledge…." Anko said while crossing her arms, a frown written on her face. "We wouldn't be able to make that jump, even with using our chakra. Not from the range of the fortress…"

Noticing the thoughtful shared look from student and teacher, Haku chuckled and pointed down at the moat beneath the ledge they were staying there, causing the two to look down to see the moat. All was quiet then until Naruto said "No…freaking way….There is no way I'm going down there…" with a cross of his arms and a pout, his body faintly trembling.

Anko glanced at her student and asked "Why not? You're not afraid of water…Are you?" Seeing Naruto's pout deepening, causing his cheeks to puff out lightly caused Anko to guffaw in surprise. "Oh my god…You're afraid of water," Anko said with a light, teasing tone in her voice, her body leaning back with her hands on her hips.

"What?" Naruto asked defensively. "I'm not afraid of water! I just don't like a large amount of it!" Haku watched as Naruto huffed with his arms crossed.

"Oh really now? What kind of experience could have you large amount of water?" Anko asked with a teasing tone in her voice, causing Naruto's pout to deepen.

"I just…It's a…Thing…I just don't like it!" Naruto spluttered out with heat on his cheeks before turning away from Anko with a stomp of his foot. Naruto didn't need to tell her something as personal as his fear of large bodies of water. It was extremely personal to him and he didn't need her to know about it.

Anko tilted her head in thought with her arms crossed and said "But you didn't show this fear when we were going across that large lake on the way here and you didn't show that fear while we were on the bridge…"

"Because I was too worried about Hinata on the boat and I was fighting for my life on the bridge to be concerned about it," Naruto countered with a small frown. "My fear doesn't bother me when I'm in a fight or deep in thought but I can't handle large bodies of water outside of it."

Anko merely stared at Naruto for a moment before shrugging and turning to Haku to ask "Girl, Is there another way into this damn place?"

Haku nodded but had a grim look on her face as she replied "There is but the issue is that its nearly at the top of the fortress at that window up there."

It was then that Haku pointed near the top of the building to where a large window was located. It wouldn't have been an issue for a shinobi to get up there but considering the fact that there was such a large gap between them and the fortress, even a chakra infused jump wouldn't be able to reach it.

"Damn…It's like a shinobi built this place…" Anko scowled while balling her fist, completely annoyed by the circumstances of entering this place.

Haku crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side and chuckled softly, causing Anko and Naruto to glance at her in confusion.

Seeing their confused faces, Haku smiled lightly and said "That is because shinobi did help build this place. You see, Gato was a man that many shinobi had contracts to kill so after the last assassination attempt, he decided to hire the best builders and shinobi alike to build this place. Every weakness all shinobi have was exploited to make this place…."

It was then all three of them glanced at the large castle as Haku said "The ultimate shinobi defense….And even if we manage to get inside…There are traps everywhere…" Now the two Konoha shinobi was openly gaping. How the hell did she ever leave this damn place?

"How the hell did you ever leave this damn place?" Naruto asked with wide eyes.

Haku merely pointed at the bridge, which was currently pulled up against the fortress before saying "I simply walked out. See, our living quarters and the mess hall weren't bugged but every hallway outside of those zones are deathtraps…Especially the closer you get to Gato's throne room."

Anko quirked her brow at this.

"Throne room?"

Haku nodded and gave a small sigh before saying "Yeah. He would host his daily meetings in there with his men as well as have his maids feed him there. It's almost encased in full gold. Gold throne, gold scepter, gold crown. It's like imagined himself a damn king."

"Just how much ego did this asshole have?!" Naruto asked with a large frown on his face.

"One like you wouldn't believe…" Haku answered with a shake of her head but then she smirked and suddenly, Naruto was reminded of the smirk he had seen Zabuza give him during their battle, despite his mask. "But Otou-san took care of that for us…Now all we have to do is get his scroll to complete his last wish."

Naruto and Anko nodded in agreement but then Naruto looked towards dark blue water beneath them again and was about to say "If there's no other way to get in, then down we go,' despite his fear of the water beneath him but then he heard Kyūbi suddenly yell "No Kit! We need to get up there!"

Wondering what Kyūbi was yelling that for, Naruto crossed his arms and shut his eyes, letting his mind go to the mindscape.

Naruto's Mindscape

When he opened them, his ethereal form was standing before Kyūbi, who had a hint of concern on her face. "Kyūbi, what's going on? Why do need to get up there?"

Kyūbi held the left side of her head with a wince, causing Naruto to think that she may have had a headache and before he could comment on this, she asked him "Don't you sense something coming from that room up there?" Naruto tilted his head for a moment and was about to tell her that he didn't sense anything but then she turned away from him and said "Of course, I never really taught you to sense these kinds of things since you're not smart enough to learn it…."

Naruto gnashed his teeth together at the demon's insult but without warning, Kyūbi appeared before him and without any warning, her hand enveloped his entire face and began to squeeze slightly to keep his face in her grasp.

Alarmed, Naruto grabbed her wrist and tried to pull it off of him but as he did, he heard Kyūbi say "…But now is the time I teach you!" And then he could feel a large burst of her chakra force itself into his head, causing a pain that surpassed his battles with Zabuza and Yukimura combined before a small amount of her chakra shot out of his entire body.

Then everything went black.

Real World

Anko didn't know what had happened to him.

One minute, Naruto was standing there with his eyes close and his arms crossed while she and Haku were talking about getting inside of the fortress and the next minute, a burst of crimson chakra left his body, causing Anko and Haku to fall on the ground but before the two of them could get up, Naruto's body fell forward, nearly causing him to fall into the water beneath him.

Swiftly, Anko rose to her feet and appeared before Naruto and placed her arm in front of his falling body, stopping the shinobi's descent. "What happened to Naruto-san? Is he ok?" Haku asked in concern, staring at the unconscious blond as Anko lowered the teen on the ground with a deep scowl on the older woman's face.

"I don't know…" Anko started as she stared at Naruto's face, which was in the shape of a pain filled grimace. "But I'm going to find out…" And with those words, Anko smacked Naruto's face hard while yelling into his face "Wake up!"

Nothing.

"Gaki, wake up!" Anko yelled again as another smack sent his head going to the right. When he didn't wake up, Anko continued to smack his face while "Gaki, wake up!" or "You dumbass, get up!" escaped her lips harshly. After the tenth slap, Naruto groaned out in pain, causing her hand to stop when it was inches from impact.

"W-Wha? What happened?" Naruto asked in exhaustion, his face burning up for some strange reason. Haku and Anko let out a sigh of relief but then Anko's relieved look changed into a look of annoyance as she smacked him again, causing him to gasp out in pain of the hit.

"What the hell was that for?!" Naruto yelled out in surprise, clutching his right cheek in pain.

"That was for worrying us you dumbass!" Anko responded before standing up and looking away from him with a scowl. Naruto stood up a minute afterwards to yell at her then something stopped him.

Looking at the window of the fortress, he could see chakra flowing from the room but it wasn't regular chakra. It reminded him heavily of Kyūbi's chakra but there was something different about it but he didn't know what it was. All he knew was that he never sensed that before.

'Kyūbi…Mind explaining this to me?!' Naruto screamed out in his head while keeping his eyes on the window near the top of the fortress. "It's simple. You couldn't sense the demonic chakra so I had to force that ability open for you so you can see it."

'But why? Why would you do all that just to get me to go up there?' Naruto asked with frown on his face as he continued to stare at the window of the fortress. It didn't help that Kyūbi suddenly went quiet, causing Naruto get even more annoyed than before.

Regardless, Something up there and he was going to see what it is.

Damn curious Kitsune nature.

"Gaki…You've been staring at that window for a long while now…What's going on?"

Naruto snapped out of his trance when Anko addressed him and with a blink, a determined look appeared within his eyes as he said "You guys can swim in the moat to get inside, I'll go through the window!"

Haku glanced at the blond shinobi for a moment then said "That window goes near the throne room where the most dangerous of traps lie and not only that, the walls have traps on them as well. You'll get butchered almost immediately by them. Besides, getting Otou-san's scroll is our objective. Nothing more, nothing less."

Naruto shook his head and summoned two clones and smirked at the Hyōton user and said "There is for me!" Immediately after he said these words, the clones grabbed Naruto by the arm and launched him into the air towards the fortress.

"Naruto, you dumbass!" Anko yelled as she watched Naruto sailing towards the large fortress while the clones beside her dispelled in smoke.

Naruto could feel his momentum failing so summoning another clone, the clone grabbed Naruto by the arms and began to swing quickly before launching Naruto towards the window even faster and each time he would start to lose momentum, He would summon three more clones that would toss him towards the window at a faster rate.

After the last clone launched him towards the window, a yelling Naruto pulled out two kunai and with a yell, he slammed the two of them right into wall right beneath the window but the moment those kunai hit the wall, both of the kunai snapped and almost immediately did Naruto fall down the wall but as he did, he recovered in the air and grabbed the ledge of another window, causing his body to whip against the wall as well as dislocating his arm.

"Fuck! That shit hurt!" Naruto yelled out angrily as he placed his other hand on the ledge and pulled himself into the window where he fell on his back to pant heavily while holding his arm in pain.

He may have not been able to make it to the window he needed to make it to, but he was able to get inside the fortress all the same.

Haku could only shake her head in at the blatant risk Naruto took and the outcome of it and said to herself "Does he always take unnecessary risks like that?" with a hint of annoyance in her voice and with a sigh, Haku dove off the ledge and into the water below with a splash while Anko stared at the window Naruto had gone into with an angry look on her face.

Naruto was always known to take risks like that but the fact that Naruto had done it anyways had really made her mad. This was the second time he had just rushed off into an unknown area without her to have his back and considering the things Haku had told her about this place, he rushed off into a very dangerous place as well.

"The minute this mission is over, I'm going to teach that pig-headed fool how to follow orders…" Anko said to herself before diving off the ledge and sailing down to the water below.

Rain: Now this chapter is pretty much filler which I apologize for but I'm setting up a few things that will play itself out. The first is Naruto being too damn reckless. Even in canon, Naruto has this infuriating issue of being too reckless in places his unfamiliar with and the second is setting Naruto up to meet someone you all may know who it is within Gato's fortress. So until the next chapter…

Mario: See you next time