The boy of the happuri was ready to blow the girl's ears up, but he suddenly realized he was unable to. He tried to shake his arms, and that's when he noticed he had lost control over his own body.

"Hey." Said Shikamaru, his usual emotionless tone returning to him.

Zaku finally glanced to his side and saw the two new leaf-nin that arrived. His shadow had been connected to the boy of the ponytail's, and he almost immediately recognized the technique.

Sakon and Ukon had also noticed their presence, but as they were about to react, Neji rushed for the boy of the happuri with his two open palms aimed at him. The member of the Sound Four knew what was coming for his companion, but he was unable to interfere.

"Eight Trigrams Sixty Four palms!" Yelled Hyuga before hitting his opponent with his palms multiple times. On the neck, on the chin, on his abdomen. Many key zones of his body were hit.

When the last palm, the sixty fourth one, was landed, Nara released his signature jutsu. As Zaku was released, he fell down to the floor, unconscious. Tenten sighed as she felt the pressure on her head finally cease. She nodded at her teammate, to thank him for his help, while completely ignoring Shikamaru.

"Ah, that wasn't a bad plan." Sakon admitted.

"But not enough, you are dead!" Added Ukon, yelling furiously.

In the blink of an eye, the two-headed shinobi appeared right in front of the genin of the ponytail, his skin slowly being covered with black seals. He landed a powerful punch on his chest, throwing him back several meters.

Neji quickly moved behind his back, aiming to land several hits. However, he noticed that the second head was directly placed behind the other one. As a third leg came out of his back, Ukon kicked the Hyuga back, throwing him at a similar distance as the previous leaf-nin.

Having jumped back as the short confrontation happened, Tenten managed to summon from one of her scrolls a big log. It had several papers attached to it, each of them containing what seemed to be seals. To be more specific, explosive seals.

Seeing that her teammate was thrown away with a kick, she hurried and grabbed the log. Her opponent quickly approached her, but she managed to throw the log in time, and it landed perfectly on Sakon's head. As the seals started to burn, Tenten hurried to the small Akamaru, who was still pulling its owner away from the battlefield. She grabbed Kiba and threw him away, while she grabbed the puppy on her arms and ran away as fast as she could.

In a matter of seconds, the log caused a huge explosion, that reached the brown-haired girl and burnt her back. However, as the explosion was about to reach her completely, Hyuga helped with one last pull that got both her and the puppy in a safe place.

Tenten pushed the dog a bit further as she fell with her shoulder on the floor, rolling a bit before finally stopping. She was gasping for air, not even sure how she had survived. The pain on her back was made clearer to her as sand got inside her burn wounds.

"Where did you get that thing?!" Asked Neji, who was checking his body for any burns.

"Ah, well, I make my own weapons too sometimes." She explained as she stood back up. "I got creative that time. Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah, we apparently are." Answered Shikamaru, who finally walked back to the rest.

Tenten glanced at him with clear disappointment, before moving to check on the puppy. "How are you so easily defeated? Are you not shinobi from the Leaf?! Are we really getting this weak? I thought each generation was supposed to be better than any before it."

"He helped me save your life, and he just lost his friend so, maybe you are being unfair." Explained Neji, as he took his beige shirt off and handed it to his teammate. "Your shirt is falling off, so use this."

Kiba was scared at this reaction, but he knew he had been pathetic without much excuses, unlike Nara. He looked away, and noticed a golden explosion not too far from them.

She blushed slightly seeing Neji shirtless, but she accepted the shirt. She put it on, and nodded as a way to show her gratefulness. Then, the girl walked towards the boy of the ponytail.

"Look, get used to this. There is no shinobi that reaches the age of twenty without having lost most of his friends." She explained, shocking Nara. "It's better to assume it now, that'll make dealing with it easier."

The desert was clear for the most part, in the Land of Wind. However, there some exceptions in the form of caves, mostly near the mountainous border. These had been catalogued by the Feudal Lord of the country as potentially dangerous, as they were historically used by rebels and foreign armies as military bases or hideouts. For the past few years, though, this had stopped being the case, as the country stabilized somewhat.

In one of the bigger caves, once again someone was hidden. A duo of shinobi, using the same black cloaks, and similar masks. The first one, of black hair, wore an orange one, while the second one used a blue one. They had been sitting for a while around a small fire they had made. However, their calm had been interrupted as they both noticed someone else had entered the cave.

The man of the orange mask stood up and put the fire out, while his partner copied his exact movements. The former was slightly uncomfortable as his partner even emulated him putting out the fire.

It didn't take longer than a minute for the two pairs to meet, since the cave wasn't too deep. Two men of silver hair, one with half his face covered with a facemask, while the other one was more recognizable due to his long blue haori, which he wore over his green vest.

"Greetings." Said the man of the orange mask, who hid a wide smile behind it.

"You really are everywhere..." Yuichi was starting to get tired of finding someone wearing that cloak at every place he went. This, however, would corroborate a recent report that informed of the widespread presence that organization had in the Shinobi World.

"Just where we need to be, Senju."

"And you also know a lot." Added Kakashi, immediately after they guessed his companion's clan. "What is it that you need to be here for?"

"Oh, the copy-nin, what an honor!" Once again, the man of the orange masked was the one to reply. "You see, it wouldn't be fun if I just gave you the answer, would it?"

"This isn't about fun, so I don't mind that." Hatake replied, his fingers moving slowly.

"Hey hey, don't try anything weird! I could have killed you already and I haven't, so you better return that friendliness!" The cloaked man pointed at the hands of the masked jounin, while talking as if he tried to imitate a child.

Yuichi raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "Stop the bullshit and spit everything you know out, you don't have a chance."

The man lowered his head, holding back his laughter. Then, he took a step forward, and the two jounin immediately got into their fighting stances. He glanced up to check if the two men had moved, and as he confirmed his suspicions, he took another step.

Immediately, Kakashi's hand was surrounded with blue sparks, as a sound that resembled that of birds singing started to bounce all over the cave. In the blink of an eye, the masked jounin had already ran past the cloaked man. But where the two leaf-nin expected blood or a big wound, there was nothing. The man was intact.

Yuichi immediately grabbed his kunai of three blades and rushed at him. However, he crossed right through him. For some reason that Senju didn't know, they couldn't touch him.

"Surprise, surprise!" Said the man of the orange mask, in a strangely enthusiastic tone. He sighed, however, as he turned around. "It would be so fun to end it here and now, but I'm afraid I have to deal with more important issues. And for now, you two are irrelevant."

Kakashi attempted one more attack, as his Raikiri was still raging around his hand. However, this time the man of the blue mask appeared out of nowhere to block the attack. This speed, or technique, seemed familiar for Yuichi, who widened his eyes.

That hair... That speed...

"Kakashi, I would advice against trying to provoke people so superior to yourself." His voice adopted an unusually deep tone. He then shook his head, before giggling a bit. "Time to go."

The man of the blue mask let the hand go once the technique finally disappeared, and then he followed his companion, who was calmly leaving the cave. Hatake was about to attack once more, but this time Senju grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.

"We aren't here for them, and they aren't here for us." Yuichi explained. "We have a mission."

"I guess you are right."

The pair of jounin headed for the same and only exit of the cave, since the cloaked men had already left. Yuichi took one last look at his memories to the scene of Kakashi's second attack being stopped. The moves, the technique, the hair. It was the same. He was now sure.

I guess it's time to call Hishiro back, huh. He said inside his mind, as both him and his companion went back on track.

Now left alone with Naruto, Gohan continued to punch the floor and yell. He was being tortured by his own mind, his own memories flashing through. He had failed once again, one of his friends had died when he could have avoided it.

"You truly are something unique, kid!" Orochimaru's face switched from awe to his previous wide smile. "I might even take your body after I defeat you!"

"You..." He raised his head and stared directly at the snake. "You... "

His raging blue aura finally gave in, and a golden, even bigger aura was given place after yet another explosion of pure energy. The crater grew bigger, nearly reaching Sasuke and his new master.

As the Sannin's smile was interrupted, the saiyan rushed towards him. From the perspective of the rest, it took less than a second for him to reach Orochimaru, who received a punch directly to the abdomen. The snake vomited blood after the punch, that completely destroyed his internal organs. Only then he realized the magnitude of the kid's power.

Not wanting to give him any space, Gohan kicked him with all his strength, sending him flying kilometers away. He flew behind the flying body, and after reaching it within 5 seconds, he kicked it down. Orochimaru crashed on a nearby dune, as he felt the several internal hemorrhages of his body drain his blood. But he wouldn't have the chance to stand up, as the saiyan immediately fell down from the sky at full speed, and landed with his two feet on his chest.

Orochimaru's body was cut in half with the blow. It was a miracle he didn't completely explode. Gohan threw a ki blast at the lower half of his body, completely disintegrating it. The Sannin desperately tried to crawl away, looking for space to do anything.

However, the boy wasn't done. He hadn't even started. His previously gentle eyes were now barely present, as all the saiyan could see was red. He grabbed the man by his two arms, and then ripped them apart, leaving only a damaged torso and a head.

"You are going to pay!" Gohan screamed, as he charged another ki blast with one of his hands.

"Heh, thank you." Said Orochimaru, struggling to even speak without spitting blood. Before opening his mouth in ways that would be impossible for any other human being.

An exact copy of his body emerged from his mouth, covered in a green liquid. Immediately, he reacted and jumped away from the blast, which was launched anyways. Gohan has noticed this new move, so he immediately flew to his foe's back. However, the Sannin used a substitution jutsu with a nearby rock, gaining some valuable distance, and therefore time.

Once again, his mouth widened in an inhumane way, and using his left hand, he took a long sword out of it. As the saiyan approached him, he countered with his sword, which the former dodged easily.

Gohan jumped back, and stared coldly at the snake, who once again smirked.

"I'm not gonna lie, kid, that was impressive." Said the Sannin, holding back his frustration, and a certain emotion he hadn't felt in a long time, so long ago in fact, that he had even forgotten the name of it. "But once you give me some space, the battle is over."

As Orochimaru was launched at the sky, Naruto and Sasuke remained alone in the plain desert. Being so late at night, both of them were freezing, and their breaths were visible.

"Why did you join him?" Asked Uzumaki.

"You wouldn't understand." Replied Uchiha, crossing his arms.

"Well, whatever."

The two remained in silence for a couple of minutes. Only the blowing wind produced any noise powerful enough to be caught by their ears. Sasuke remembered having to knock Sakura out, while Naruto remembered seeing her worried about the Uchiha. The two of them wondered what Kakashi would say.

"Come back, Sasuke, stop this."

"You idiot, there's no going back from this!" Replied Sasuke.

"I don't care." Naruto said, holding his closed fist forward. "You will come back, either by your own will, or because I forced you to!"

Sasuke grunted. "You are no match for me, idiot."

"I don't care, I'll beat your ass anyways!" He finally made several hand seals, summoning hordes of shadow clones.

As the hordes of clones rushed for him, Sasuke put his own hands together and then gestured different hand seals. He breathed in, and then released an enormous fireball. It wasn't enough, though, as one Naruto kicked his back, while several others punched him from every possible direction.

With little other option, he let the cursed seal of his neck finally take over. He felt his skin burning intensely, while he tried to focus his chakra flow, in a similar manner to how Gohan had taught him. He put his hands together and aimed at his front.

"Ki Style: Masenko!" He yelled while covered in sweat, and with his veins showing on his forehead. A small blast was released, but its explosion was enough to destroy a big portion of the clones.

Uchiha took advantage of the newly opened space, and ran away through it. He saw two Narutos standing further from the rest of the horde, charging what seemed to be a blue energy ball. However, his previous technique had made them aware of his presence.

"Hey, wasn't that Gohan's jutsu?!"

Sasuke immediately gestured different hand seals, this time resulting in his hand being covered with blue sparks. Naruto remained still as his teammate approached him, but in the last minute, he took his own blue energy sphere and clashed it against the opposing jutsu.

"Rasengan!" Yelled Naruto, as he pushed with everything he had.

"Chidori!" Replied Sasuke with another yell, also pushing with all his strength, as black seals started to cover his skin.

In the end, a small explosion was all that resulted from the clash of jutsu, which pushed both boys backwards. The two of them breathed heavily while staring at each other. Then, they ran back at each other, yelling.

Sasuke landed the first punch, on the blonde's face. Then, Naruto landed another punch on his opponent's abdomen. The latter then attempted to punch his adversary on the face, but Uchiha easily dodged and then nailed his knee on his opponent's belly. The black-haired boy low-kicked the other, and finally threw him away with another kick.

Naruto quickly recovered and stood back up, running back at his teammate almost instantly. He grabbed one of his kunai, while Sasuke did the same. They clashed both weapons several times. Never were they close to wounding each other, but the first kunai that broke was Uzumaki's. This forced the boy to dodge several lethal attacks before disarming his opponent with a kick.

Uchiha charged against his opponent, while the blonde boy emulated his decision. However, this time only the black-haired one landed punches, and many. One of those broke his nose, and the last one finally made him spit out blood.

Uzumaki fell to his knees, trying to stop the bleeding from his nose. He glanced up, and saw Sasuke taking several steps backwards, while putting his hands on his forehead. His Sharingan had been activated for a while now, and the veins of his neck were visible, as well as his body completely covered by black seals.

Run, imbecile, or we'll both die. A deep voice said from within Naruto's mind, which caught him off guard. However, he decided to ignore it and shook his head.

Once again, he summoned a shadow clone, who started moving his hands above his open palm. His clone was channeling the air around his own hand, which would give place to the technique his master, Jiraiya, taught him recently: the Rasengan.

A sphere of blue energy once again appeared from Sasuke's hands, but this time it was bigger. It was coming. The blonde boy hurried up, and summoned yet another clone to speed up the process.

In exactly 30 seconds, both techniques were ready. Naruto's clones disappeared as he was left alone with the Rasengan, which he took on his hand as he ran towards his teammate.

In the case of Sasuke, he released the blast of energy as the blonde boy approached him. The yellow wave was launched at great speed, clashing with the blue sphere in no time. But surprisingly for the Uchiha, Naruto didn't dodge it. He faced it head on, and was even pushing it back.

"I'll bring you back, even if I have to defeat you in the process!" He yelled. "Because that's the least I can do as a future Hokage!"

Sasuke pushed even more energy to the wave, causing him to feel pain on every spot of his body. But even then, Naruto continued to push the attack back. Uzumaki continued yelling, and moving forward. Slowly, but surely.

To the Uchiha, this was unbelievable. Was he really that weak? He started to question himself while pushing harder and harder, not knowing that the Rasengan was becoming unstable.

With a final push from the black-haired boy, the blue sphere finally collapsed in itself and exploded. This not only hurt Uzumaki, but left him vulnerable to the attack, which hit him directly and consumed his body. As smoke now covered most of the battlefield, Sasuke was left exhausted and gasping for air.

He glanced forward, wanting to confirm his former teammate had been killed with the energy wave. However, a standing silhouette was revealed. And as the smoke dissipated, that form turned into a shirtless Naruto, holding his open hand forward, and still standing. His remaining clothes were burnt, as was his exposed skin. But his smirk was intact.

"Was that it, Sasuke?"

Uchiha growled in anger and started running at his teammate, who crossed his two arms forward, attempting to block whatever was coming. But as the black-haired boy was about to land the hit, he did a feint and reached the blonde's back.

All Uzumaki heard was the sound of birds singing before feeling his chest be pierced through, and then electricity spreading through his body, burning his nerves. The arm was removed, but the pain continued. His knees gave up, and he fell down to the ground, as his sight became blurrier every second that passed.

He saw the Uchiha walking away, before also collapsing to the ground. Using the Masenko twice was far more than his body could take.

"You imbecile really killed us both." The deep voice said from behind prison bars.

Naruto felt strangely light and noticed he didn't have any wounds. The floor was filled with water, while there was no smell. The room he was in was weirdly dark, the only light coming from two torches hanging just above the prison bars in front of him. He then stood up and glanced at what was behind what seemed to be a cage.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"The fox, the creature that was sealed inside you as a baby." The creature explained, as a giant red claw emerged from the shadows that covered the cage.

"So that's why..."

"I normally would not call you here, but if I don't I will die alongside you. And that's not an option." It explained, hiding its paw back in the shadows. "So there is just one thing I can do, and I need you to let me do it."

"What?" Naruto was skeptical at anything this creature would tell him, so it was really irrelevant if he knew what it wanted.

"Let me take over, and not only will I heal your wounds, but I will give you the power to kill that guy."

"No way, do you really think I am that dumb?"

"Die then, idiot." Replied the Fox calmly. "I'll eventually be reborn, but my guess is you won't! I don't care anyways, not like it's the first time I die."

Naruto's eyes snapped open. "What do you mean die?! Stop trying to trick me, there is no way I die!"

"If you let me take over, you won't die."

"Look, what's going on?! I don't even know what to do for you to take over!"

"It's not that complicated kid. You lost, got stabbed by that lightning jutsu and here you are, given a last chance by a nice fox! And it's simple, you just have to shake your hand with mine, and that'll transfer enough of my chakra to save you."

As the fox once again revealed one of his paws, and put it closer to Naruto, through the bars, the boy hesitantly got close to it.

"If I don't, I die, right?"

"Right, and not being reincarnated or whatever."

Uzumaki sighed. "I can't just die here..."

He put his hand on the considerably bigger hand of the giant fox, who revealed part of his long nose before saying one last thing.

"Good decision, kiddo."

And that was Chapter 50! Made it longer than usual as it's a special number for me, really gone a long way with this fic. Thank you so much for everyone that's been following the story!

I'll now reply to a couple of reviews that have come in from the last couple of chapters:

Elchico 64

Good to know you enjoy the story! And yes, there will be stronger villains ahead, just not those you mentioned specifically. And regarding your second question, that's already started being explored. Maybe with time.

Whiteserpent119

Really appreciating your reviews! Very complete and all, love reading them!