Interlude: The Other Naruto

The place where Kakashi and Deidara were fighting would make a great new training ground. All the explosions were smoothing it out, there were lots of fallen trees to use as training posts, and the undetonated explosives would keep it from getting too popular.

Deidara hovered on his grey bird a few yards above Kakashi. "Seriously, though, you can talk about some of your complaints. We're still in the planning phases, yeah. We might accept new ideas."

"Never!" Kakashi said. He grabbed Naruto and a handful of other kunai, and threw them at Deidara's face.

The missing ninja dodged to the side, but he wasn't expecting…"Naruto Uzumaki, coming through!"

"Huh. I guess that's why my kunai seemed so heavy," Kakashi said.

Naruto tried to grab the ugly pot with the demon inside, but Deidara threw it toward the ground. While Naruto soared above his head, the Akatsuki member flew down to catch it a couple feet before it landed.

Naruto stared down at the forest floor, preparing for death. But suddenly Tobi caught him by the armpits, holding the chuunin way out from his body like when Sasuke had to hold baby Mirai. Tobi stared at the Konoha ninja through the eyehole of his mask, and Naruto could see that his eye was bright red. Maybe he was Kurenai's cousin. That would explain why he came to see the baby.

The Akatsuki sighed really deeply. "Deidara-sempai is going to break Tobi's pot, which isn't fair because Tobi made it with his own two hands."

"Wait, is that why it looks like that?" Naruto said, squinting up at the badly-made pot.

"Kisame-kun said that it was very good for Tobi's first try! If Naruto is going to be mean to Tobi, then Tobi won't stay here and talk to him." Then, Tobi ran away into the forest, but he was still carrying Naruto.

Naruto thought he would probably want to know that. "You're still carrying me."

"Oh," Tobi said, "Tobi did not notice."

After a minute, he said sorry and put the chuunin down next to a river. "Tobi has a question for Naruto."

"Eh? What do you wanna ask me about?" Naruto said.

Tobi rubbed the back of his head, and Naruto was pretty sure his mask was blushing. "Well, Tobi knows that his friend Kisame-kun visited Naruto before, and Kisame-kun said that Naruto was happy in Konoha. But Kisame-kun doesn't know Konoha like Tobi knows Konoha. Tobi knows that everyone in Konoha is happy!"

"It's because Konoha is the best village in the whole world."

"Yeah!" Tobi shouted. "Tobi just wanted to make sure that Naruto was happy happy"— Tobi traced a little smile on his mask—"and not sad happy"—Tobi traced a much bigger smile on his mask.

Naruto knew what that meant. "Oh, you mean like Fuu!"

Tobi flung his body backwards and groaned loudly, then vaulted up with a cheerful, "Yes! Exactly like Fuu-chan. Fuu used to smile because she wanted to be happy, but now she smiles because she is happy."

"Why's that?" Naruto asked.

"Because she joined Akatsuki, of course! In the Akatsuki, everybody is best friends, and nobody is left out just because he worships a different god or is a shark person or is carrying a demon."

"That sounds a lot like Konoha," Naruto said.

"Of course it is! But"—Tobi leaned in close and whispered—"Can Tobi tell Naruto a secret?"

Naruto nodded and plunked himself on a rock that he was pretty sure was another him.

"Sometimes Akatsuki is better than Konoha."

That was when Naruto tried to punch Tobi in the face for telling lies.

Tobi suddenly was sitting in a tree, though. "Naruto needs to let Tobi explain."

Naruto charged after him, but then Tobi was on top of another tree. Naruto began to walk up it, but he'd never really gotten the hang of that. Instead, he made a chain of clones, and they swung themselves so that the last one reached out to grab Tobi.

Tobi appeared on the grass. "Tobi is just wondering…if Naruto is so angry at Tobi, why is Naruto still smiling?"

Three of the Narutos jumped down, dogpiling him. But he was standing on top of them.

"How do you keep doing that?" Naruto growled.

"Tobi can appear and disappear anyplace he likes," Tobi said. "Tobi's old sensei could do the same thing."

When Naruto went to grab him, Tobi appeared on top of the boulder. It turned back into Naruto, who activated his explosive tags and died heroically. An unhurt Tobi was suddenly lounging against a tree ten feet away.

"That isn't fair! That doesn't even make sense! You…wait a second"—Naruto brought his hands together into a seal. "Kai."

Tobi sat cross-legged several feet from the river, and he hopped up with a weak chuckle. "Heh, heh. Tobi doesn't know why Naruto would use a 'kai.' Tobi doesn't know any genjutsu. Tobi isn't even sure what genjutsu is."

He scrambled backwards as the Naruto team approached, until his back smacked against the stone handrail of the river's bridge. Tobi jumped a foot forward, "Waaah!"

A half circle of Narutos surrounded him.

"Tobi is cornered," he muttered to himself. "There is only one way to escape."

He jumped into the river, his arms flailing as the current swept him away. "Oh no! Tobi forgot that he never learned to swim."

"Why didn't you take the bridge?" Naruto yelled as he chased Tobi along the shore.

"Tobi is afraid of bridges!"

Naruto jumped in after him, but he forgot that he wasn't good at swimming, either.