A/N: I'm back and it seems my return has come with some mixed results. I know a year has passed between chapters 15 and 16 but I wanted to update it badly, so I came back to put it up. Because of it, a few of you have been concerned about the story, even believing you have to return back to the beginning just so to catch up to it – which is something a writer probably should never aim for. I'm sorry about that. Truly.

I can't exactly promise to always be with a new chapter every two or three days, but I'm going to aim for one every week. With all this stuff happening in our nations with the coronavirus, I want to dedicate more time to A Nugget Of Advice and get a chunk of it done. One of my reviewers pointed out to me that this story hasn't gone much anywhere in five years and I marveled at that. It has been five years, hasn't it? And they are perfectly right in what they are saying. Yet, I guess the reason why it hasn't gone much because this was originally a project that was on the back burner when I was trying to do something with my other series: Stop The Future. Now, it has become the main story I have been doing.

My mission for this story now is to pick up the pace, get to the main objective of this story, and finish it up soon however I can, in between work and home life.

Note: I showed my hand too early with Shiro a bit. Lol But, yeah, it wasn't going to be a secret for long anyway. Plus, I left a lot of clues anyway.

A Nugget Of Advice, Chapter 17

"Katon: Zukokku."

The bounty hunter had his mask firebomb Tsunade, but the woman had already moved away as soon as she saw the charge up. In her stead, the grassland became ashes. Then, it detonated the land – thousands of pieces of earth flew in the air, as she jumped onto whatever slabs of ground she could in an escape from her opponent. Despite the smokescreen of dirt, the other mask attempted to shoot a massive dome of air towards her. She heard it before it came, and she again dodged with deftness.

The ninjutsu assault wasn't over yet. After that last attack, Tsunade then had to contend with the lightning mask, as it made itself known again. She was getting quite annoyed with her situation. Such spamming of ninjutsu and her hitman was nowhere near looking taxed.

Meanwhile, this entire battle was starting to strain her a bit physically. She hated to admit that being retired and seeing little to no combat/usage of her skills over the decades of her no longer being a shinobi of Konohagakure had done that to her. Regular jōnin would be winded, and the only thing that kept her okay was due to her Uzumaki and Senju background that was counterbalancing her rustiness. Nevertheless, she had kept herself from getting completely being hit. That, however, was of little comfort to her as the battle was still going on and neither side had gotten in any meaningful attack on the other.

The blonde woman, heiress to the almost-extinct Senju Clan, could not get near him anyway, with her would-be assassin's masks playing the long-range game and bombarding her with their devastating attacks. Continuously, he kept sending a mask her way to spam an attack her way, while he stood there, stoically. She had wondered if, in order to do this technique of his, the bounty hunter had to stand still to use it. She had even tried to test that theory when she shot a lightning bolt from her fingertips at the man but he moved without worry and his masks did not suddenly disappear or even seize in their actions against her.

She would have marveled at what kind of technique this could be, if not for the fact she was perplexed more at him still being alive.

"My Ranshinshō technique should have been precise enough to stop his heart from beating. How in the hell is he still up?" She wondered if it had to do something with those strange masked creatures he had conjured up before if they somehow were linked to his lifeforce somehow.

"Hm, perhaps I might need to rely on the seal-"

Her thoughts were cut short. Tsunade winced as the green-eye mercenary calmly incanted that familiar Wind Release technique – Fūton: Atsugai – that sent a tornado-like mass towards her that howled angrily, seeking to kill her with cutting blades of wind. She moved.

Before the blonde Senju knew it, the missing-nin with the Takigakure symbol on his head was in the back of her when she jumped in the air to avoid the gale. She twisted quickly in the air, avoiding any further elemental attack, quickly approaching him with taijutsu. The missing-nin only weaved between some of her blows; she managed to slug him once in the right side of his ribcage, straight to the liver.

With enough force, one could cause excruciating pain to a target. She applied enough to rupture it. He flew up in the air, probably too breathless to scream. She tracked his descent with her eyes as she ran after him again, looking at how she could kill him.

And then one of the missing-nin's masks came again. The lightning mask already started charging up an attack, trying to defend its master, but she moved out of its path, summoning chakra into her right hand once again. Unfortunately, she had to abandon all plans of her destroying the mask as the red masked one hovered over both her and the lightning mask, shooting a smaller, more condensed version of that Fire Release technique.

She moved again, but she fell into another trap of the man. The blonde almost yelped, as the missing-nin was upon her. The man's arm shot out of its socket, being connected to his body by threads and grabbed onto her neck. He lifted her up, staring coldly at her. She was prepared though, ready for a counterattack.

He raised a kunai and went into slit her throat-

-Only to have a blade of water slice through his arm and she dropped to her feet. Then, another blade of water sliced cleanly into the dark-blue wind mask, as the face cracked and the black monster became no more. The bounty hunter grimaced and turned to see the newer face – well, a person behind an ANBU mask. The missing-nin growled, "I have no quarrel with you, ANBU. Turn back."

"Bounty hunter, you will do no harm to this woman," the brown-haired ANBU operative answered back. He then did a hand seal and put the would-be assassin of Tsunade on the defensive again as pillars of wood went his way. "Tsunade-sama, are you alright?"

She scoffed in annoyance, anything but thankful. ANBU. Who the hell called them here? It was not like she needed to be tended to here. And who the hell was this shinobi of Konoha who could use the Shodai Hokage – her grandfather's – famed ability? "Who the fuck are you? And is that the-?!"

"Tenzō, I am called," the ANBU interrupted pointedly.

Clearly, the Wood Release discussion had to wait until later. Tsunade grunted unfemininely. "Those brats from earlier must have gotten you here."

"Hokage-sama figured they would run into trouble. It's good that he had such foresight, otherwise."

Tsunade sent a suspicious glance at Tenzō. "I don't need your help with this man. Go protect the brats."

The ANBU agent shook his head. "They do not need my help right now. You, on the other hand, need it with this man." The ANBU then flipped through an entire sequence of hand seals, "Especially when you are fighting against Jiongu no Kakuzu."

Tenzō then released a wave of water to help extinguish the fiery storm unleashed by Kakuzu's fire mask, who sent the attack as they were talking.

Tsunade was unperturbed. Instead, she focused on Tenzō, frowning. "Kakuzu… Why does that sound familiar?"

"He's the man who fought Hashirama-sama many decades ago." Tsunade's eyes widened.

"Yeah, that's who that is, isn't it? But I thought he was dead." Kakuzu was a name she remembered when her grandfather was still around. He should have been dead or even if so, incredibly old. She could remember the tales of the famous battle between Kakuzu of Takigakure versus her grandfather, Hashirama Senju, the Shodai Hokage.

With that usage of the Wood Release, she felt some sort of irony about this battle, like it was a sequel fight between a stand-in for her grandfather and Kakuzu himself. "Fine. ANBU, what's your codename again?"

"Tenzō, ma'am."

"Tenzō, do you know how to defeat this guy?" They both dodged Kakuzu's blue Lightning Release technique that licked the ground like it was a laser.

"According to my knowledge of the Jiongu technique, he has the ability to use four masks corresponding to four hearts."

The buxom blonde widened her eyes again at that piece of information. "Four hearts, huh? No wonder why he is still alive. The bastard has four spare hearts and I only managed to destroy his real one," Tsunade deduced, narrowing in concentration. "It seems like he can summon them to use as… things to fight for him or bring them back to him."

That could be it. After all, that usage of the Ranshinshō should have killed a normal opponent. This guy was completely troublesome. As much as she hated to admit it, but with two people here, they could kill Kakuzu much easier. Otherwise, this could have gone on for more than she liked.

That is, if she kept fighting without her Strength of Hundred Seal activated. She was about to bring up a tiger hand seal when she saw the two masked creatures – the fire and lightning one – race over their heads and back to their masters. Then, they fused with him and Kakuzu changed into something more horrifying.

Kakuzu's limbs – stapled together crudely – busted open with a lacking spray of blood, which something Tsunade was perfectly fine with anyway. Grey threads held his aged body together and his body lengthened. The grey threads in his mouth and back looked like a tarantula's hairy body. His face mask was blasted away, and now, threads were hanging out. He was far from being a human.

"You destroyed two of my hearts today," the missing-nin hissed. Tsunade wondered how this eldritch abomination of a man could even talk with all those grey threads coming from his mouth. "I am going to enjoy using yours as a replacement, Wood Release user. As for you, Tsunade, while your heart may not be useful for me, I'll be glad to eviscerate you all the same."

With a twitch of his hand, threads came from the ground and grabbed at them. Tsunade, however, summoned her chakra, applied the wind element's cutting ability, and wrapped her around her body. The threads cut cleanly off. Tenzō had done something similar, using water release to slice the threads.

A blue jet of lightning and a gout of fire shot towards them, but they had already moved to dodge each elemental attack. They were sure to return the favor. The ANBU operative in return created hardened stone that were shaped like gigantic skewers to stab at Kakuzu from behind. Kakuzu did move, and moved again as Tsunade comically jumped to catch the skewers that missed him and throw it back at him, as if she was playing a game of darts. Moving out of the spears' ways weren't easy but he gotten it done.

Until the Wood Release user had him cornered inside a wooden trap. Tsunade had gathered a skewer and threw it at him, before opening her mouth, and a wave of fire and flame came, turning the skewer into a searing spear of death.

He, almost frantically, tried to use flame to burn the wood away, until he realized how sturdy it was. If it wasn't for being nearby a discarded piece of earth uprooted in their battle, he might have not escaped. Seeing the ANBU operative approach him, he shot out threads at him to bind him, only to see the man struggling became nothing but wood, a wooden pillar threatened to crush him from above.

Tsunade herself raced towards him. The lightning mask shifted and blasted at the wooden pillar being driven down by the ANBU, while a fiery wave blasted at Tsunade. Tsunade threw a fist, and water counterbalanced his fire. The wooden pillar splintered, and rained down on him. He swatted away whatever he could with his threads, while moving away from whatever he could not reflect.

When that failed to kill him, Tsunade and her ANBU companion approached again. Neither of them looked tired, while Kakuzu was starting to feel his chakra getting beaten down by the constant usage of chakra.

Kakuzu growled. He was pissed. He had used nearly half of his pool of chakra to fight in line with Tsunade, and now had to contend with another person who worked in great tandem with her. Before he could think of something else that he could do, he balked as a booming sound was heard. It almost sounded like… a roar.

Tsunade looked in confusion, unconsciously looking at her would-be assistant in this battle, until she realized what happened as she felt a wave of massive, almost oppressive chakra unfurl.

Naruto Uzumaki.

She glared at the ANBU operative. "I thought you left them where they are safe. Why the hell is Naruto using the Kyūbi?"

Tsunade and Tenzō were just close enough to hear Kakuzu swear to himself. "Fucking Shiro…" Nevertheless, he continued trying to kill his adversaries.

Minutes Earlier…

…

"Wake up, brat."

Naruto's surroundings of green fields lit by the pale moonlight were now replaced by a sickly yellow-lit sewer, waterlogged, with a familiar, malevolent presence he could only feel.

Oh, the Kyūbi's prison. Yes, of course, he was down here in the seal. Splendid.

Groaning, he got up from the water and started walking towards the giant bars that housed the nine-tailed beast, feeling just as heavy as he did before he got knocked out by that possible Akatsuki member. Whatever that missing-nin did to him, Naruto did not feel all that good. It felt it took eons to get to the front of the Kyūbi's cell.

"It is about time you woke up from your nap, buffoon," the malevolent figure in the cage mocked, its red eyes looking down at him balefully.

"Shit."

"Indeed." A snort came, and Naruto felt hot air flush over him. "I would have thought in that pea-sized brain of yours that you would remember that lowering your guard and turning your back on an enemy means certain death."

"I thought he was dead! I slit his throat. We freakin' watched him fall to the ground in a heap!" Naruto yelled defensively, trying to ignore the burning feeling of shame. They weren't prepared for that at all. "We got played."

"Yes. I supposed it is fortuitous for us that he was not trying to kill you. Just merely disable you."

So, the demon came to the same conclusion as he did, huh? He had little doubt now that Kakuzu and the redhead were affiliated with Akatsuki. "But if they are after me, why are they also after that old hag? She got a demon inside her too?"

"No. I would have felt it, even down here where almost every sensation of the outside world is muted." The monster snarled, clearly getting agitated after what it said. "Why they are after her is simply because she has a bounty on her head. You just showed up here at the wrong time. You and your little friends from that putrid village of yours should have run away a long time ago."

"And allow Tsunade to escape or die?" The blond snapped irritably back at his demonic counterpart.

The demon made a sound akin to one sucking their teeth. "Now, they all will die. You are far too weak to do anything, let alone fight on my, the others, or even your behalf."

The blond growled, "I didn't come here to be lectured or insulted, stupid fox! We're going to die!"

"No, your friends will die." The gigantic fox monster corrected with a contemptuous snort, chuckling for a bit. "The only misfortunate you will have is watching that ninja piece apart your friends like they were nothing," coldly stated the nine-tailed fox.

Naruto glared at the beast, knowing it didn't do anything to intimidate the fox in the cage. "Are you going to help me or not?! What if they decide to capture me – us – today, huh? Then we're next on the chopping block. Stop fucking with me!"

More peals of mocking laughter erupted from the cage of the beast. "Ohohoho! That is quite funny. You need my help now?"

"If I could do it on my own, I wouldn't even need your stupid chakra." Naruto gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, his anger already boiling over. He needed to calm down. "Just give me the chakra already. Whatever that guy did to me, it stopped me from using my chakra correctly."

"He placed a seal on you." A snort again. Naruto was hating how this monster was sounding so amused by this. "Of course, he did; his accursed kind always had such love for seals."

The blond blinked owlishly. "Wait, what?"

The Kyūbi did not elaborate any further. "Shut up, monkey child. Just channel my chakra to break that little pissant's seal. My grand power can easily break any pathetic seals."

Naruto, needing some petty revenge on the annoying bastard who dwelled inside him, couldn't help his next comment from flying out of his mouth. "Oh? If your power is so goddamn grand, how come you haven't found a way to break the seal you're currently in?"

In response, the Kyūbi slammed against its bars. Killing intent started to leak from the beast and Naruto almost wilted in fear. "Just. Start. Channeling. My. Power."

The blond started to feel it. The powerful chakra of the Nine-Tailed Fox started coursing through his body, down from his veins to the layers of his skin. Orange wisps of power started to rise from every pore on his body.

Back to reality, as the jolt of power woke him up like smelling salts, he woke back up. The blond, now glowing with red chakra growled as he tried sitting up but he still could not move. The seal kept him anchored to the ground.

'More. You need more of my power.'

'More?' Naruto thought back. 'How much more?'

A dark snarl began at the back of his head. 'Do you want to free your friends or not? Stop questioning it and let my power take control.'

The Uzumaki teen balked, his mind racing. Even now, there was no telling what the hell was that redhead freak doing now against his peers. Then, when he heard a shriek from Shikamaru shouting, "Chōji, no!" he finally made up his mind in a panic. 'Give me your power…!'

The Kyūbi's influence started to beat down on him more and more. He certainly felt stronger but his mind started to slip away from him. Using the Kyūbi's chakra was, like his master, Jiraiya, said, more of a mental battle than physical. Constantly, the tailed beast inside him was telling him, through its massive chakra, to crush, kill, and destroy everything without worry – even if it was a friend in his path. And he couldn't let it.

But the power was ever so seductive and whispered sweetly into his head like a poison with a saccharine taste. To stop its calling, he tried to direct it to their enemies instead.

His power tripled, the aura around him became more condensed. The orangey wisps became an inferno before it finally "solidified" into a cloak, shaped like a fox. His teeth and nails lengthened further, his muscles became stronger, and he became closer to a beast than a man.

He stood up, feeling stronger than all.

Shikamaru watched hopelessly as his best friend jump in an attack made from him. Impaled right in his abdomen, Chōji had taken the blow that was meant for him from the missing-nin. The rogue ninja had managed to freeze Shikamaru in place with some sort of technique. Maybe it was merely killing intent, which the man had in spades, or some sort of other paralysis technique, Shikamaru didn't know.

The redhead carelessly threw Chōji away after planting his foot in the boy's body and ripping the sword away from him. Shikamaru heard his scream, and in terror knew that he too was next if he didn't do anything. This was one clone doing this. Like Naruto, this guy had some sort clone technique he used that was solid and could inflict damage on people, unlike the rudimentary Bunshin no Jutsu they taught in the Academy. Was this the Kage Bunshin, or maybe some sort of other clone technique variant that other hidden villages specialized in? He didn't know because he and Chōji had yet to destroy it.

Shikamaru tried spiking up his chakra, something, anything, to get him moving. Was his team going to just die here?

But before the missing-nin could even finish off Shikamaru, the redhead was thrown to the side by an orange blur, and Shikamaru felt his legs working again. He turned, relieved that Naruto had somehow found himself free from the bounty hunter's technique before he balked and froze again. Now, Naruto was the one who was exuding immense amounts of killing intent.

More than that, Naruto's chakra was visible, which meant tons of chakra was pouring from him. The amount of chakra he had been drawing from himself must have been immense; chakra was not visible unless a large amount of it was channeled. He knew Naruto had huge amounts of chakra, but this was ridiculous.

Around Naruto, an aura wavered angrily. It looked like it was shaped, maybe, like an animal, since it looked like Naruto had a… the tail on his backside and… ears(?) on top of his head like some sort of feline or canine. It didn't look normal.

Also, a person's chakra was blue, not red. Was this some sort of bloodline that no one knew about? Why had Naruto not said anything about it before? He had thought of the boy as a braggart; why not tell the team about this ability?

Shikamaru tried shaking everything off, knowing he was thinking way too much. It was all that he had though was thinking because he could not move at all – like he had been struck by his clan's signature Kagemane no Jutsu. Three clones of Shiro came racing towards Naruto, clones that had all given the boys trouble. But Naruto seemed to have it just under control.

Naruto puffed his chest up, like one doing a Fire Release technique and ended up blowing the enemy's clones back with one thing: a roar that was so deafening, he wouldn't be surprised if everyone heard it. Most of the clones exploded and became nothing but water shooting in the air before it came back down and hit the ground.

After Naruto's roar, the killer intent came in waves. Shikamaru again felt like he had been frozen by ice. Naruto howled and snarled and roared and screeched not unlike a rabid animal, waiting to kill and destroy anything in his path. It was only a glimpse, but Shikamaru saw Naruto's appearance and a lightning bolt of fear struck inside him. Naruto's eyes were glowing blood-red in the night sky, unlike the pure blue he had before.

As the bounty hunter – the real one, Shikamaru presumed – came from out of nowhere, sword in hand, and dashed past Shikamaru without preamble. As Naruto pursued after the redheaded missing-nin, the Nara teen found himself able to move. Immediately, he went towards Chōji and reached to his back pocket, trying to ignore Chōji's loud groans of pain. He grabbed a white towel – which quickly became red – trying to stymie the bleeding and held it tightly to the Akimichi boy.

"Don't worry, bud. We're going to get you out here soon," Shikamaru tried to smile but he was finding himself really hard to believe it.

His best friend moaned, "I'm sorry, Shika. I should have done more, but I guess I panicked when I-"

"Save your strength, Chōji. We'll be okay." He stated, looking at his teammate's stab wound. It was a deep puncture wound on the left side of his abdomen. It looks like the missing-nin got him in the spleen. Regretting they came out here in the first place now, all he could do was hold that towel and try his best to stop the bleeding from occurring.

They would make it out of this. He had to keep hoping that they would.

Shiro groaned, frustrated quite a bit at himself. He descended from the trees, sword in his hand. How foolish was he to think that a simple gravity and a chakra suppression seal could stop a jinchūriki? He should have just put him down with a stronger seal. And he should have been able to sense the Kyūbi's chakra building up in him too. He hated how his bloodlust sometimes clouded his sensor abilities.

Now, he had to put down Naruto again. And the children would probably still try to interfere. If he made more clones, he should be able to kill or at least stall them a bit, while he prepared another seal for Naruto. Killing them was fine but Naruto was not on the chopping block. Getting to him now when he was much faster and stronger now would be tough.

And he was hoping that that Tenzō guy would be too busy helping Tsunade against Kakuzu. He already sensed the chakra on that one and whoa, was it pretty hefty, rivaling his own reserves. Of course, both didn't even have a candle on Kakuzu or Tsunade's reserves, which was the largest of them all.

You know, outside of the kid who was currently drawing upon dangerous amounts of chakra from one notorious tailed beast.

Naruto hissed at him, not unlike a rabid animal. Shiro's only saving grace was Naruto wasn't just fighting him; he was fighting his inner demon, the Kyūbi. Still, Naruto seemed to be conscious enough to throw ninjutsu at him. A rainfall of stones and boulders appeared from the night sky with such speed, Shiro had to perform the Kawirimi with the last clone that survived Naruto's roar attack from before it turned into water.

And then as he reappeared, he saw no Naruto. He wondered where the boy went. Cautious, he tried concentrating, sensing chakra before he realized Naruto's chakra was coming from under him.

Itachi's intel on the boy did say the kid knew Earth Release ninjutsu.

Naruto tried an open-palm uppercut as he rose from the Earth. Shiro, in response, attempted to do like before against Naruto: subdue him with a seal after impaling him with his Bloodletter sword. The sword missed its mark and Naruto tried slashing his face off. He ducked and swung at Naruto with a fist to the face.

It hit but he immediately regretted it. He yelped, realizing that the trade-off was a lot worse for him. Punching a jinchūriki with all that vile chakra bubbling around them? Fucking stupid, because it acting like he was putting his hand through fire and acid.

Naruto, in return, while skidding back from Shiro's hard punch, threw his right hand out at Shiro, and created the most ridiculous thing ever: an arm made out of the malevolent chakra of the Kyūbi. The chakra arm grabbed onto him by his leg as the boy landed on his feet. Being pulled, Shiro saw a devilish smirk bloom on Naruto's face as he rocked Shiro with a bone-crunching fist of his own-

-Or at least would have, had he not made a water clone and it suffered the fate that he would have had. He winced at his sizzling leg, the necrosing effect of Naruto's demonic chakra burning him. He jumped back, and bit hard into his right arm, hoping that would help both his right hand and left leg. It did – somewhat. The chakra of the jinchūriki was still very potent and it still fought to beat his body's healing factor. His chakra pools were taking a beating from all this chakra he was using.

Naruto roared again, this time it was out of frustration of not outright killing Shiro. For his part, Shiro didn't know whether or not to laugh. The boy was clearly fighting a losing battle with controlling the tailed beast inside him, but not wanting to maim or completely kill the boy made it incredibly hard to subdue him. He needed to put Naruto down fast, or else he was in trouble.

More chakra arms and hands were created, as Naruto attempted to squish him, almost comically, like a bug. Shiro used the Shūnshin to flicker left, and then right, attempting to dodge any sort of crushing. No matter what kind of healing he could do, his entire body being crushed wouldn't fix that.

He had one other technique that could subdue opponents, even a powered-up jinchūriki. He wasn't completely great with it, but that was his only chance. He tried focusing, gathering his chakra for one last move.

However, he found out that Naruto was no longer the only person he had to worry about. Not closing his eyes and activating his sensing technique, Shiro had not seen Naruto's teammates coming. He had barely dodged the Inuzuka's spinning drill of death before being assaulted with sixty-four blazingly fast palm strikes from his left. "Hakke Rokujyūgon Shō!" The Hyūga had gotten him.

He staggered, growling out, "Fuck." Even though his water clones were made of 1/10 of his power, they should have been able to handle these shinobi. Somehow, they got the better of them. He had underestimated them severely.

Shiro peered from his side of the battlefield, looking on helplessly at the blond demon carrier rush towards him, completely ignoring his friends as a now glowing purple chakra ball spun in Naruto's right hand, as a red chakra arm made of pure demonic chakra flew at him. Shiro grimaced. He could not use the Mizu Bunshin/Kawirimi trick now. He could not escape.

He had allowed genin to defeat him. He would not hear the end of it from Kakuzu.

He felt himself being pulled to the boy, and he was aware he was yelling loudly, the pain of the chakra sizzling against his skin. The missing-nin braced himself, gnawing at his arm in an attempt to start his technique, fighting with the Hyūga's technique affecting his chakra nodes. It was half of a second but he had done it, which saved him from sure death.

"Rasengan!" Naruto roared half-demonically.

The Rasengan ground at his skin like a buzzsaw and then after seconds of the excruciating cutting and burning effect of the spherical attack, it exploded on Shiro and he was flung back.

He had become a human bouncing ball. Naruto had successfully sent him flying back into the forest, bouncing vigorously on the grassy floor until he slammed into one large tree that almost didn't stop him from flying back into more. He was pretty sure he already had sustained some massive damage already. But his head was still screwed on, and his heart was okay too, so probably would be just fine.

Thank God for small mercies, huh?

The explosion was heard easily on the other side of the field. Tsunade had barked something to that ANBU fellow over the loud explosion and pursuing sound of something being launched into a tree. Quickly after, the ANBU had fled from the battle. Kakuzu had half of a mind to believe that he went to go check on those Konoha brats from early who had followed the ANBU here. He looked down and saw the collapse of a tree in the forest that led to the lowlands here and said the first thing that came to his mind. It was a very similar thing to what he said before to himself.

"Fucking Shiro."

Kakuzu landed far away from Tsunade. He grunted as he took time to stop feeding his two remaining masks, the fire and lightning ones, chakra and returned himself back to normal. It was time to leave.

He had failed spectacularly. In his conquest to kill Tsunade, thanks to her efforts and then that fucking ANBU who could – infuriatingly – use the motherfucking Wood Release bloodline that he had long gone thought dead, he had failed somewhere. He had tried but now, he was running out of chakra, and she seemed to be even more invigorated than before. In between the time Shiro was dicking around with the kids that he should have been able to stop with ease – even if one of the fucking brats was the Kyūbi jinchūriki.

Before Tsunade could smack him with an attack, he used the Shunshin, disappearing in a cascade of water, before reappearing nearby where he saw his partner laid at. As he walked to him, he did a diagnosis on his body.

Two of his hearts needed to be replaced today. Livers, he didn't need to worry about. He had an extra liver stored somewhere in his body, he believed. He just had to get rid of the ruptured one now. Hearts were still very annoying to pick up. He wasn't sure where he could pick up an Earth Release one, besides maybe going out to Tsuchi no Kuni. Getting a Wind Release heart required a trip to Kaze no Kuni, which would also be annoying to travel all the way out there and have to stake out some poor schmuck for their heart. Maybe if they put in a fake mission report in and lured them into a trap...

He wanted to hurt someone badly, and boy did Shiro seem like a tempting target. How could the moron get defeated by some snot-nosed, green-around-the-edges brats? He was lucky Shiro didn't have the right heart needed to replace his destroyed ones. No, no, he did say to his leader that he wouldn't kill any more of his partners anymore. Besides, Kakuzu himself was quite the moron himself, allowing two of his masks to be destroyed and his own regular heart as well. Maybe he shouldn't have told Shiro to split up and fight Shizune.

It would also be problematic to explain to Pein when they got back to a hideout because Kakuzu knew that Pein knew what happened. Somehow, someway, this transgression would get back to Pein. Whether it was through that lickspittle Zetsu who loved to follow his peers around, knowing their whereabouts, or with Pein's "All-seeing Eyes."

"Oh, hey, Kakuzu, I don't think I wanna do this mission anymore…" Shiro muttered from his awkward position on the ground.

"You just had to keep playing around, didn't you? Weaklings or not, you completely underestimated them."

"I could say the same about you. I could still feel Tsunade's chakra before that Wood Release guy came to help her. What happened to her not being 'half the shinobi her grandfather' was?"

"Hmph. We're retreating," Kakuzu declared, pointedly ignoring his partner. "Pick your ass up and get moving."

"Do you need some healing? I don't think I have the chakra to do so. I barely am healing my injures as it is."

"Can your healing shit get me two new hearts?" The older shinobi snapped.

"I… don't think so."

"Then, shut the fuck up already and move your ass."

Shiro chuckled, clearly in excruciating pain but Kakuzu wasn't feeling very sympathetic. "Wish I could, but I am currently healing back my severed spine, so if you could be a pal-"

"For fuck's sake, Shiro."

Kiba and Shino came up to the scene where Shikamaru looming Chōji shortly, running up to them. "Shit," Kiba said aptly, looking at the former squad leader holding a cloth to their fallen comrade's stomach. "Goddammit, this isn't good."

Neji came up to the group shortly afterward, his Byakugan activated. "The enemies are retreating."

"That's good for us, ain't it?" Kiba quipped.

Neji paused, seeing Chōji's state, suggested helpfully, "Tsunade-sama should be able to fix him up," As Tsunade started to approach them, the oldest teen of the group deactivated his family's dōjutsu. "Where is Uzumaki-san?"

"Over there," Shino pointed at the blond standing by himself in the small distance.

"Oh shit! Speaking of whom, did y'all see Naruto sending that guy packin'?! Where the hell did he get the power to do that?" Kiba commented, peering at the said boy, who still glared at the direction he sent their opponent flying at as if he was expecting the man to come back.

"Yeah, but look at him…" Shikamaru pointed at the boy, who cradled his head, groaning. That aura around him was still there, its chakra moving and bubbling unusually. "There's something wrong with him and that chakra…"

"What do we do now, leader?" Shino asked the Nara. Shikamaru was about to remind him that he was no longer the squad leader since Tenzō had taken over command but realized that, without him, he was still the original leader of this team.

He blinked. "I… don't know."

"Uzumaki-san's power is… unnerving," Neji struggled to say, his normal stoic expression was abandoned for a look of fear. "So much chakra is pouring from him. Chakra isn't usually visible."

"Nor red," Shino commented and, like them, seemed just as worried. Naruto struggled audibly, grabbing his head. When he turned to look at them, it was the same as Shikamaru had seen before: burning red slits for eyes that looked more animalistic than Kiba's own transformation when he and Akamaru used their clan's family technique. A new wave of killer intent washed over the teens as if Naruto now was setting his sights on them.

The teens stayed still, pinned down by Naruto's heatedly glare until their squad leader came back from his battle with Kakuzu. "Naruto, Naruto," Tenzō appeared in front of the Kyūbi jinchūriki. "Are you all in there?"

Naruto struggled again for a few seconds. The blond boy bared his sharpened teeth at the ANBU until he passed as if he was trying to recognize him, "T…Tenzō-san?"

"Naruto, can you tell Kyūbi to cut the power off?"

Naruto blinked and tried focusing and blocking out the nine-tailed demon. The demon inside him was screaming at him, demanding that he attack Tenzō. The demon was pounding in the back of his head, and he could swear he could hear the demon slamming itself against its cage a million times. "Kill him, Naruto. Kill that man. Kill him, Naruto, kill, kill, kill, kill, killkillkillkillkill!"

The demon slammed into the cage, and babbled, and screeched, and hissed, and roared, and howled, and more and more, Naruto wanted to shut it up by just obeying what it had ordered him to do.

The answer was "No," no he couldn't stop Kyūbi. No, the Kyūbi was too strong, and he was making Naruto get ready to summon more chakra against the ANBU operative. However, Tenzō was already on it, and slammed a palm into him that managed to calm the Kyūbi's rage and return him back. A green glow was brought forth and all amount of energy was zapped from him, and he barely felt himself tumbling to the floor.

"Guh!" The boy croaked, but Tenzō sat him up and looked over him. Naruto averted his eyes, shamed. "…I'm sorry. It was…"

"I understand," the ANBU man simply said, and that was it. More than anyone, he knew Naruto's struggles with that chakra.

Naruto looked over and heard some shuddering. It wasn't Shikamaru, Neji, or even Shino, but Tsunade who was shivering and shaking, looking over at the fallen Chōji and Shizune, fear stark in her face.

Tenzō said nothing but it was obvious he heard it, as he too turned to see Tsunade. He helped Naruto stand up, who was the first to question this strange sight. "What's wrong with her?" Naruto queried loudly enough for everyone to hear it.

"Yeah, she should be coming over here, healing people…" Kiba noted, just as confused as everyone else, worried at the almost catatonic state the once very fiery woman was slipping into.

"Hey… Hey!" Naruto walked over to the blonde woman, who still stared forward. "Snap out of it and do something! My friend here is dying!"

"I…I can't," she responded finally in almost a whisper.

"The fuck does that mean?"

"I can't."

"Ain't you the best healer in the world? Something like this should be easy for you, right? Heal. Him." When Tsunade offered no response, Naruto growled in anger. "You old crone! What the-?!"

"Inuzuka-san, pick up Shizune-san," Tenzō finally interjected, in a stern tone. Sometime between Naruto confronting Tsunade, he had leaned over Chōji and placed something in his mouth. "Chōji, are you conscious?"

The large boy groaned, struggling with responding for a second. "I'm still here…"

"Stay with us, kid. You're going to make it." The large Akimichi boy did what he was said, and offering no resistance when the ANBU soldier lifted him up in a cradle. "Naruto, summon shadow clones and help them with Chōji and Shizune."

Naruto did as he was told, summoning clones to help carry his plump friend and Tsunade's assistant. The Uzumaki teen kept a heated glare on the blonde sannin, who avoided his look altogether when shame overcame her and brought her back to reality. "I swear to the gods, you fucking old bitch, if Chōji-"

"Naruto, please, for the love of the gods themselves, shut up and get moving." Shikamaru pinned his own glare on the blond. Naruto stopped any reply when he started to see tears slip out of his teammate's eye before he scrubbed them away furiously. "The sooner we get back to the village, the sooner we can get help."

Tenzō continued, "Hyūga-san, back position. Nara-san and Shino-san, to the side. I'll help Tsunade-san. It seems the battle with Kakuzu took a lot out of her."

Now, the race back to Konohagakure was on, and they were burning moonlight.

End.

Translation List:

Fūton: Atsugai – Wind Release: Pressure Damage

Hakke Rokujyūgon Shō – Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms

Jiongu no Kakuzu – Kakuzu of the Earth Grudge

Katon: Zukokku – Fire Release: Intelligent Work

Ranshinshō – Body Pathway Derangement