Author's note: Well we're back with another chapter. I won't lie this will kind of be a little all over the place, but things are about to start moving a little fast now I won't lie. I just hope you all enjoy what I have to give, I won't lie life is a little hard because of work and so I apologize if this chapter isn't that good, but I will still try to do my best for all of you, so please enjoy!
"Are you sure?" Jiraiya was skeptical of Naruto's plan, of course he wanted Naruto to get as strong as possible but he didn't know why now.
"It's time to throw caution to the wind and attack Akatsuki now with everything I've got. Yes I have sage mode and am incredibly strong and everything. But they are no longer underestimating me, and when they actually work in their tag teams attacking me, they are strong. I don't know what's different but I should have absolutely destroyed Kakuzu and Hidan, instead they were able to hold off my sage mode and fight me evenly. They were calculated and precise; they didn't underestimate me in the slightest and put up a fight good enough to stop me in sage mode. I can evenly fight you if not beat you in sage mode. Which means either they're scary strong or the only thing I managed to learn was how to fight specifically you." Naruto said, making the man stop and think.
"You're plenty strong Naruto, trust me. With or without sage mode you are probably one of the strongest ninja around. But you pose a strong point, S rank ninja or not they should not have been able to be that strong, let alone hold you off that well. If they're this strong, then how much stronger is everyone else?" Jiraiya sat pondering this, he was extremely worried about the answer. Something must have changed when Naruto came back in time, these guys shouldn't be anywhere near this strong to fight. It actually explains a lot of anomalies about some of the Ninja Naruto's faught or met in the past. Who else has changed than? And how much… "Naruto, can you talk to the Kyuubi, see what all he knows about the time travel jutsu you two used. Maybe he might know more about this, ask him to tell you everything he knows" Jiraiya said.
Naruto shook his head as he sat down in a meditated form. "Kurama, do you have any answers?" Naruto looked up at his friend who was sitting down.
"Unfortunately I do not, everything I knew about the jutsu I told you before we used it. There isn't really anything to be told, I'm sorry." The fox stated as Naruto sighed, he feared that was gonna be the answer.
"Thanks friend, I'll be back momentarily, get ready for me to release the seal. I need to make sure everyone else is ready out there" The fox nodded his head as Naruto opened his eyes and stood up in front of his master.
"So what did you talk about? What did you learn?" Jiraiya wasn't sure how long Naruto was in his mindscape for since time worked differently in there.
"Nothing, the jutsu is so rare there is no information on it, so anything is possible" Naruto said, Jiraiya cursed when he heard this. "Anyways we need to be ready, it's time to take the seal off, meet mom and dad." Naruto said, Jiraiya nodded.
"So where are we going to do this?" Jiraiya asked, making Naruto sweat drop.
"I figured we could do it here, away from civilization where you could watch over me and the influx of chakra wouldn't scare anyone."
"That sounds like a good idea, but it can't happen, we need to find somewhere else for us to do that, I'll get in contact with killer B, and get back to you. For now return to the village" Naruto turned his head really quick, his eyes going wide.
"HUH? What do you mean? Why can't I just do it now?" Naruto asked confused and upset.
"Well that's because the Kyuubi's chakra still scares people, even summoning animals, it's just easier this way, I'm sorry but we still have to follow social norms, and you having the biggest baddest Bijuu brings along some fear unfortunately. Don't worry I'll find B, and we'll get this thing sorted out." Jiraiya said. He felt relieved to know that the boy wasn't seriously hurt, but it was uncomfortable knowing now that he was saying the Akatsuki were stronger than before, and they have no information on the jutsu. Jiraiya knew just from his espionage that the Akatsuki were strong, they had to be, to all be S rank ninja. Nagato as their leader, with the Rinnegan and an absurd level of control over it too.
Jiraiya waved off Naruto as the boy left and he sat down pondering everything. His mind was racing as he tried to figure out things, from what he saw in Naruto's life to what has happened in this life. There were some major changes going on. Nothing started to get noticed until the Chunin exams, what with Orochimaru, and then the boy from Cloud who worked under Killer B. Though he mentioned that because he had a second chance he was going to do things right but still. Then there was Sasuke… that alone is an entire fucking book, the boy was able to convince the boy to stay in Konoha and he was able to find love! Instead of becoming a horrible, destroy the world sociopath, he now has healthy relationships. It's insane what all has happened, people are stronger and different, and there's entirely new people around.
Jiraiya had some research to do and a lot to figure out, he made a shadow clone to go find B, he had a mission to do, and Tsunade wasn't going to be happy about him being MIA for a while.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Long story short, I left after we disposed of two Akatsuki members and due to unforeseen circumstances I'm back early" Naruto said as he scratched his cheek lightly laughing hoping he didn't get hit.
"Ok now I need a longer story before you get sent through that damn wall."
Naruto sighed and described to her the events of meeting up with Kakashi and Sasuke, ditching them with a clone to go after Kakuzu and Hidan by himself and then the battle. His epiphany after the battle and then going to Mt. Myoboku, his talk with Jiraiya and coming back here. Tsunade was less than pleased with a lot of the boy's actions of course, there were slight breaks for her to flip out and yell at the boy, but he told her everything nonetheless. Besides the parts that would lead back to his past life of course, he didn't need to give more away.
"So you plan to leave the village once the 8 tails jinchuuriki accepts to take you on as a student to help you get full control over the Kyuubi?" Tsunade asked, making sure she understood completely.
"Yes, B and myself became really good friends bonding over both being Jinchuriki brothers, and told me when I'm ready to master the Kyuubi's power to find him and he would do what he could." Naruto said, bluntly lying to the woman, who seemed to believe him surprisingly.
"Ok then, for now go relax, if I need you I'll call you back here, first I need to find Jiraiya's ass and talk with him, that'll be a pain in the ass and a half." Tsunade was already rubbing her temples thinking about how hard it would be to find the village's spymaster.
Naruto decided now was the best time to leave, but he wasn't sure what to do, he was so hyped to just go and do his own thing now he had to sit and wait. He was tempted to go back and ask for a mission, but he knew better than to do that. Maybe he could find Hinata, he was very unsure of what to do and before he knew it he was at Ichiraku's.
"Hey guys" Naruto said as he walked in and took a seat, ignoring the two and thinking to himself still. It wasn't until he had Ramen in front of him that he realized how much time had passed, he looked up and saw Teuchi smiling at him. "Thank you, sorry I'm kind of in my head right now" Naruto said as he scratched his head.
"I can tell, usually by now the bowl would be empty, what's on your mind?" Teuchi asked, sincerely hoping the boy would open up.
"Just a lot with my last mission, some things happened that shouldn't have and now I'm second guessing a lot of things. I just feel a little lost, I never thought about it before and now I don't know if I messed up big time or not" Naruto chuckled to himself as he ate a little of his ramen, "Sorry I know I'm not giving you all the details, but there's only so much I can say" Naruto said, Teuchi just smiled and nodded.
"It's okay my boy, I understand how it can be sometimes." Teuchi held off on talking as Naruto ate his food some more before speaking up again, "No one ever has the right answers. No matter what we do, life will throw obstacles to circumvent us from reaching our goals. But that doesn't mean giving up, you think when my wife passed away I gave up? God no I had Ayame here to raise, I left the life of a ninja and built this ramen stand. Life wasn't easy and a lot of things happened, but you can't give up because things get hard. It doesn't matter that bad things happened, or that life threw something unexpected at you. Take the hits and keep going, you of all people should know that."
Naruto smirked before slamming the rest of his ramen. "You're right old man, I got so caught up with having known everything that I forgot things can change" He got up to leave before he was stopped.
"I never said that bowl was free" Teuchi said, Naruto sweat dropped as he scratched his head and pulled out some cash giving it to the man. "If you ever need to talk just know I'm always here for you my boy" Teuchi said, Naruto nodded his thanks before exiting the stand.
Naruto decided to walk around for a while, he had a lot to think about and how to start making his next move. He couldn't just attack the Akatsuki himself, that would end badly, and if he and Jiraiya tried attacking Ame, even in sage mode he was sure Obito would step in and they would most likely lose that fight. He didn't want to admit it, but Obito right now is stronger than him, even if he knew how to fight him, his Kamui was too strong. Kakashi was strong though, so maybe tag team they could take him on, but that was a stretch, one on one though, he didn't know if Kakashi would be able to beat him though. There were just too many unknowns, all he knew was that he had to be stronger and he couldn't afford to waste anymore time.
Naruto found himself at home, 'Huh, I guess this is home' Naruto thought to himself as he opened the front door and walked inside. It felt weird to call this place his home, in the future this house didn't even exist because Pein's attack destroyed it. Now it was his, even if he hadn't spent much time in it because he just recently acquired it. Naruto was in a daze as he moved about the house, he could tell that Hinata had been making it feel more like home. He saw pictures of him and Team 7 on the wall, the pictures of his parents had also been rearranged to seem more normal. It was a nice gesture from her, he looked around more and saw Pictures everywhere, with him and Jiraiya, him and Iruka, all the teams and their sensei's together, Sasuke and him staring at each other. It made him laugh to see how much had changed.
Naruto plopped down on the couch and looked at the ceiling after he saw the fridge was still empty, he would need to shop later. Naruto started to toss a Kunai as he lay there bored beyond comparison, his thoughts drifting all over the place. No matter what he thought of though, his thoughts kept going back to his fight with the Akatsuki, nothing he thought of could have changed the outcome. He can't think of any scenario in which he doesn't destroy them, so how is it that two of the weakest members were strong enough to be on par with him. What could have changed to give them this boost in power? Was it that the jinchuriki were now stronger, and so to make up for that they were stronger? Or did something change when he came back. "FUCK" Naruto threw his kunai through the ceiling he couldn't help but be upset as he screamed that word. He was pissed, and he couldn't help it, nothing seemed to make sense anymore, and he knew that he said 'Fuck it' and threw caution to the wind, but it was like the first time around. He felt completely worthless no matter how strong he got he couldn't match them. What more would he need to do in order to protect everyone.
Naruto got up from the couch and grabbed some duct tape to put over the hole in the ceiling he made, he would have to patch that up later… or at least pay a genin team to do it for him. Naruto couldn't get out of his head, he knew what he had to do, and with that Naruto left his house. He needed to train.
"Ok here's as good of any place to take a break, Sasuke do you wanna try interrogating the enemy? You can use it better than I can" Kakashi said stressing the word 'it.' Sasuke nodded in agreement as they grabbed the sealing scroll. "Shikamaru, set up a perimeter for us"
"Hai, Kakashi-sensei" Shikamaru said, surprisingly without a groan.
"Ok Sasuke, do it," Kakashi said.
"Don't rush me," Sasuke said before closing his eyes. After half a second he reopened his eyes, his mangekyou showing, 'Tsukuyomi' Sasuke thought as he activated his most powerful genjutsu.
"Huh, what's this place?" Hidan was surprised to see he had his body back and could tell it was some kind genjutsu. The man smirked, "Genjutsu or not, you gave me my body" He went to attack the boy but was shocked when a second later he was by himself and now in his childhood. 'Here I am a god, now relive your past, when you are ready to talk the nightmare will end' Hidan was confused but walked around, on alert curious at what the boy meant.
Hidan's screams could be heard outside the genjutsu, it only lasted 3 or 4 seconds in real time, but for Hidan it was days. Sasuke's eyes returned to normal and he looked at the man, "If you're not ready to talk we can go again. There's a lot more trauma stored in that head of yours I saw" Sasuke stated in a monotone voice.
"Bring it on, that was nothing I couldn't handle, hell I'm sure even Itachi could have done worse" That struck a chord obviously. For the next half hour, Sasuke kept making Hidan relieve horrible traumatic events over and over again until he didn't have the chakra to sustain using the Tsukuyomi anymore. Hidan's head was covered in sweat somehow, no one knew really what supernatural power was keeping Hidan alive but here he was.
"You done yet, or do you want more?" Sasuke threatened even though there wasn't enough chakra in his system to do it again.
Hidan's response was to spit on Sasuke, the man couldn't actually even speak anymore he was doing all he could to stay conscious. The mental toll of reliving everything that he had ever repressed was actually doing a lot of damage to him, Sasuke though punched the man in the face. Hidan laughed at the punch, thankful to be feeling something real.
"Sasuke calm down, let me try," Kakashi said as he moved his headband to show his Sharingan that showed his Mankeygou. Kakashi focused on Hidan and in no time attacked the man with his own version of Tsukuyomi. In this version Kakashi was in his Anbu uniform and his sharingan was flashing through the eye hole. He walked up to Hidan, "This is going to suck for you" he stated in a very 'matter of fact' kind of way before he pulled out a kunai and got to work. For the next three days he physically tortured Hidan's head in every single possible way he could think of. He didn't stop for a breather, or to see if the man wanted to talk, no he just went all out. In the end it didn't really matter. So he tortured the man because he needed results, once they were back in the real world, Hidan tried to puke only to realize he no longer had a stomach to puke with.
He was breathing heavily, Kakashi moved the head up and stabbed the man through the cheek, "Happy yet? You said you like pain right? I can keep going, we can do that all over again I promise I'm not done." Kakashi said as he removed the Kunai from the man's face in order to let him speak.
"Fuck you, you goddamn fucking psychopath, do you-"
"Oh I can see we're not done yet" Kakashi started it again since the man cussed him out.
A week went by in this world, while in reality it had been ten seconds. When they came back Kakashi did the same thing, he stabbed the man through the cheek again, this time on the opposite side and said once more, "I'm gonna ask you real slow like. Are you happy yet? Because I promise you this can keep going forever" Kakashi said before he removed the Kunai from Hidan's face.
Hidan spit out some blood on the ground, "What do you even want to fucking know" Hidan said panting between each word.
Kakashi gave an eye smile to Sasuke before turning back to Hidan, "That wasn't so hard now was it?" Hidan stared down the man before Kakashi returned, "Just tell us everything you know about Akatsuki and we'll leave your head right here for anyone to grab" Kakashi said with an eye smile.
"I'm not telling you anything, you can kill me if you want to try." Hidan said, he may have seemed dumb but he wasn't he knew leaking any information out would get him in trouble with Pein, and he wasn't that stupid. He'd rather die than have to deal with Pein when that man was angry, plus at the end of the day he was loyal to their cause.
Kakashi groaned out loud, pinching his nose and closing his eyes. "Fuck, ok Sasuke seal his head back up." Kakashi knew it would be easier for T&I to handle this, Ibiki was better handled for this and he knew it, but he wanted to at least try.
Kakashi looked at Shikamaru and Sasuke and knew that they may as well stop for the night. They were in a safe territory, it was good they were back in the land of fire, but the chance of a bandit attack was still there. "Shikamaru get a fire going, we're gonna stay here for the night, Sasuke get some food ready." Kakashi said, neither argued with the man as they did what they were told.
It didn't take long for the food to get ready, the group sat around a fire that Shikkamaru had prepared cooking the food Sasuke got. The three sat in silence until Shikamaru spoke up, "So Sasuke, what's up with the new Sharingan?" Sasuke and Kakashi both got wide eyed at the blatant way the boy asked his question. "I'm not sure what the secret was behind it but you guys were acting pretty secretive about it earlier, and I saw the shape of you sharingan earlier Sasuke, it was different than normal so does someone want to explain?"
Kakashi raised his hand stopping Sasuke, "Let me explain" Sasuke nodded letting Kakashi take over. "That's a new level of the Sharingan called the Mankeygou. Sasuke's brother Itachi has the same eye as him, it's the power that gave him the ability to do what he did, I'm helping Sasuke train in secret to use it's power correctly. No one, even the hokage knows about this power. The reason behind this is that we don't want to worry anyone, not everyone even knows what it is, but the higher ups will immediately become worried." Kakashi stopped to see if Shikamaru had any questions, but the man was of course waiting for Kakashi to say everything so he could analyze the situation before answering. "Sasuke has made a lot of progress, we've all seen him grow over the years, but this power is dangerous and Sasuke is doing all he can to properly control it."
"So to sum it up, it's like Naruto with Kyuubi?" Shikamaru said with an even face.
Kakashi blinked a few times before he chuckled, "Exactly, except he won't go on a murderous killing spree. He just may exhaust all of his chakra and kill himself, so I've been properly watching over his training, and he's been doing well. It's just not time to unleash this power just yet." Kakashi stated, Shikamaru closed his eyes and let out a sigh.
"God this is a drag, but don't worry I won't tell anyone. There's no reason for me to tell people anyways" Shikamaru said. He then turned to Sasuke, "Is there anything you need to get off your chest? I'm all ears."
"Don't tell anyone, not even Naruto. I want to wait until I'm prepared fully" Shikamaru was taken back by this, Sasuke was being humbled for once, he had a small smile but you could tell this was serious to him. "This power is unlike anything, and it is dangerous in its own way, but I know that Naruto is stronger than me. I don't like to admit it, but it's true, but with this I have opportunities I never had before. Even Sakura doesn't know about this. Just you, me and Kakashi-sensei. I would appreciate it if it stayed that way to" Sasuke said, it was clear to Shikamaru that this man in front of him, was a Sasuke that had wisen up more than anyone would have thought possible. It may be hard to see, but it was clear to him.
"Don't worry about it, we're friends aren't we? I have nothing to tell anyways, what would I tell people? 'Oh look, Sasuke has a sharingan' people would think I'm stupid." Sasuke actually chuckled at what Shikamaru said, Kakashi did as well. The voice Shikamaru used was actually kinda funny.
"Ok I think we're all set here, I will take the first watch tonight, Sasuke you'll take the second watch, Shikamaru you can get the last watch" Kakashi said as he stood up stretching. "Go ahead and finish eating and head on to bed guys, tomorrow we finish the run home."
The two boys nodded but what they didn't see was a plant like man sinking down into the ground. 'Hmm some very good information we learned tonight, you think we should tell Obito or Itachi?' 'Of course we should tell them both, they'll need to know, a lot seems to be happening.' 'You're right brother, Pein doesn't even need to be bothered by this, let's go to Itachi and let him know first, we'll just tell him that we already told Obito first. That'll set him off' the two laughed as they headed off back to Ame. it was going to be a fun night.
Author's note: Hey guys sorry for the long time for the update. With this pandemic going around I really hope everyone is staying safe. I'm an EMT for my day job, so I've been working insane hours helping 'fight' this. I say it like that because besides exposing this to myself all the time to help get people to the hospital there's not too much that I can do at the moment. Again though I truly hope that all of you have been staying safe and are doing good. I don't know when my next update will be, I'm hoping within the next month but I can't promise anything with all of this going on.