Chapter 3

Naruto and his team were rushing through the thick Hi no kuni forests to get to Suna as soon as possible , they were now on the outskirts of the forest and were about to enter the desert area soon , they had picked up Temari from the way , she was horrified to hear about the abduction of her younger brother , Naruto was frustrated about not having to remember where the Akatsuki hideout was located , the first time he just followed Pakkun's direction through the desert then into the forest and had no clue how to reach there as he was so much in emotional turmoil the other time that he paid no mind to the route they took , much like he is now .

Sakura saw the look on his friend's face and understood what the young Jinchuriki was going through, she came close to him to have a talk . "Naruto are you alright you haven't spoken a word since we picked Temari up , I know what you must be going through but you know you can talk to me right ."

Naruto turned to her friend and gave her a small smile "I know , arigato Sakura chan it's just that there are a lot of things on my mind right now ."

"I know you see I have not just been training these last 3 years , I have also been doing some research , these Akatsuki they have Uchiha Itachi amongst them right ?" Naruto nodded to confirm he was not surprised this time that Sakura had learned about these things like he was last time . "So it is true , he is the man we need to get to in order to save Sasuke kun from that snake monster , he is also the one after you and at first I didn't know why until 3 months ago you see me and Ino were there when you sent that message that you'll return home and you have opened the seal and befriended the kyubi Tsunade sama was so overjoyed she pulled us in a hug and ended up telling us the whole thing , I believe the sake played a role in it but she was so proud of you . I was shocked at first but then a little sad that you hid this from us but when Tsunade sama sobered up and told us about the importance to keep this a secret I understood ."

"Huh so that's new " thought Naruto

"I promise Naruto I won't hold you back this time I will protect you and Sasuke kun and we will defeat this evil in our life by the name Itachi and bring Sasuke kun home ."

Naruto sighed internally "Only if you knew Sakura chan you would wash Itachi's feet with water . Oh boy that reminds me how the hell would I react to Itachi we will most probably run into his clone or whatever it was ."

Ino and Sai were a couple of paces behind , Ino knew about the kyubi and that fact blew her sleep away for almost a week but she was in almost complete darkness about anything else and it was for this newfound interest that she had in Naruto that she couldn't explain to herself for the love of god , she wanted to hear what the two former team 7 members were talking about , she initially thought that Sakura was comforting Naruto and decided to keep her nose out of it she knew that Sakura knows Naruto for long but when she heard random words like 'Kyubi' , 'Akatsuki , 'Itachi' and 'Sasuke' she couldn't help but wanting to know more . Especially that last part , she may have grown out of her fan girl faze but she was still in love with the said Uchiha , or at least she thought she did .

She decided to confront Sai , after Tsnuade told the two females to keep an eye out for him as he was a root member , Ino thought that maybe because of his root ANBU training he had better hearing skills " Hey Sai what do you think those two are talking about ."

Sai looked at her for a few seconds with his curious dead pan face and then responded with a fake smile "You know I read something like this recently that people , especially women indulge in gossip to fill the gap in their romantic life , basically a mechanism to cope with loneliness ."

A tick mark appeared on Ino's head "You know what never mind my bad should've known better than asking an emotionally stunted creature for help ."

The Konoha team along with Temari journeyed for more hours before reaching Suna , Ino and Sakura immediately went for Kankuro , Sakura being the better trained amongst the two took the lead role and with Ino's help the procedure went much more smoother than the first time Naruto remembered , he was proud of both the kunoichis . Just when Naruto thought that this time he would save Gaara as he had saved a lot of time on journey and Kankuro , a horrible realization finally hit him and his optimism turned into panic .

"Fuck I forgot about something very important how would we find Gaara without Kakashi sensei and Pakkun , fuck fuck fuck !" Panicking he turned to his squad to calm himself down and look for the best option at hand , it was no time to panic Kakashi cant help him he has to handle this himself they did not even ask for backup this time so no way that Kakashi might be coming as a backup like guy did . He turned to Ino who was tired after the procedure and resting . "Ino I know how tired you must be , I am proud how you and Sakura handled Kankuro but I have a very important task that only you can perform can you handle it ?"

"Umm okay what is it Naruto ." said Ino although she was tired but Naruto was her new captain and also don't know why but a guy she low key wanted to impress and was not going to look like a weak girl in front of him .

"I need you to use Shintenshin in a desert bird to look for Gaara , don't ask me how but my instincts tell me that you should start with North east direction , you don't need to start right away anyways its night time you wont see anything but try to recuperate overnight and do this first thing in the morning ." Naruto at least remembered the direction they went to last time .

"Dont worry leave it to me Naruto Taichou " Ino said with a mocking smirk . Naruto couldn't help but get embarrassed at that statement afterall he had spent his whole life with all those jokes of him being a genin .

"Hey please don't call me that it sounds odd " Naruto said eyes down with a slight blush rubbing the back of his head .Ino laughed at that antic "Hahaha he actually grew up to be really cute though seriously "

The next day Ino did exactly what Naruto said as she tapped into a desert hawk , she searched the area and found the sand marks that lead into the jungle , the vision of the hawk came usefull here as she flew lower to spot Gaara's sand as a trail and followed it to a large boulder on a river bank , when she reported this to Naruto he knew that was it although this delay not only nullified his time advantage but also set him behind , the Konoha team left as soon possible and Chiyo offered her help once more knowing that her grandson was involved in attacking yet another Kazekage .

Ino was in a lot of confusion this whole time , she knew nothing about the Akatsuki or why did they apparently steal a kage also she was confused why Sakura did not want Naruto on this mission afterall they had seen Naruto's strength first hand and that wasn't even him being serious , she finally could not take it anymore and spoke up addressing the group "So who exactly are these Akatsuki people anyways ?"

Naruto and Sakura looked at each other and Naruto then turned to Ino to explain "They are a group of 8 kage S rank villains each of whom is kage level strong ." Ino gulped at that , she knew the stakes of this mission but this was just beyond ridiculous how are a jounin 3 chunin and an old hag suppose to fight that she thought "But why did they kidnap the kazekage ?"

Lady Chiyo spoke up "Because he is the jinchuriki of the ichibi " Ino questioned her " What's a Jinchuriki ?" before chiyo could respond Naruto spoke up " A Jinchuriki is a person who has a bijuu sealed inside him like me and gaara , you already knew about the kyubi as Sakura told me that makes me the Jinchuriki of the kyubi , Gaara has ichibi sealed inside him and your next question would probably be that why are the Akatsuki collecting them then the answer is that they want to collect all the bijuus which would provide them with the strongest power in the world and they can use for anything like world domination ." Naruto said "Or Infinite Tsukuyomi " he said to himself the last part .

Sakura then spoke up and asked the question which had been on her mind for long " What happens if they extract the bijuu from the Jinchuriki ?" Naruto just gave her a look then turned ahead without saying anything but it was enough everyone knew what that meant and Ino and Sakura were even more worried now , the group did not say anything else and carried on until a wave of tsunami crashed into them .

All the shinobis were caught off guard by this and recomposed themselves to face the man standing in front of them . "Oh you have indeed grown Kyubi gaki I must say I am digging that cloak of yours I like it better than ours " said Kisame standing on a rock . " wait why him where's Itachi ? thought Naruto "Oh I get it no team guy this time "

"If I were you I'll get out of the way Kisame Hoshigaki " Naruto said drawing his katana

"Oh looks like you've taken a new hobby , well you are lucky to be facing the master of it " Kisame said drawing the samehada

Naruto's katana started glowing purple as both swordsman leapt at each other in blistering speed , the two swordsmen connected in with a bang noise as the water below them flew outwards , as soon as they came in contact Naruto realized his mistake as his raiton chakra got absorbed by the samehada .

"Hehe thanks for that gaki that was some stong chakra " Naruto jumped back panting " DamnI forgot he could do that , I guess its normal kenjutsu "

Naruto came back at him with his katana , the two then shinobis engaged in a kenjutsu duel that had the others standing theirs with their jaws on the ground , the speed and precision of Naruto's clearly had that Samurai edge to it he was responding 1 attack of samehada with 3 or 4 , but it was equally canceled out by Kisame's raw strength , they would jump and slash and block at such high speeds that it was almost difficult for the others to see what was happening , Naruto slowly started getting the advantage his speed was dominating Kisame now as he was on the backfoot , the fact that he knew it was a clone with less than half of Kisame's skill helped dawn in a corner Kisame evaded an attack from Naruto and with a couple of handsigns made a large wave crash onto Naruto .

"Alright you wanna do it that way lets do it ." "Okay he is nowhere close to full strength so no point stretching I can end it with 1 jutsu "

Naruto did his famous hand 2 clones appeared in front of him to protect him , he then started to make a Rasengan in his hand and started focusing kaze chakra into it , it was more difficult to do this with one hand compared to the war in kyubi chakra mode but he had practiced this for 2 years to avoid depending on clones although it required much much more concentration . As the wind chakra started to develop a huge storm started brewing around Naruto , in his hands it could be seen , the rasengan in the centre and rotating around it was a high density chakra making it look like the planet Saturn and it was radiating massive energy . ( There is still the core of the rasengan in centre as only around 50% is changed to wind nature .)

Everyone around were stunned including Sai who hardly showed any emotions . "W..What what is that ? do you know Sakura ?" "No Ino that is nowhere similar to the rasengan he used to make ."

"What unbelievable power that thing is radiating I can feel it in my bones , such a long life yet I have never seen a jutsu so strong and that to coming from this kid . That is why I despised you Konoha people you always keep producing these shinobis out of nowhere" said a startled Chiyo

"What is that jutsu it looks strong I need to stop it with my Samehada " as Kisame redied for Naruto's attack the two clones in front of who dropped their defensive stance and attacked " Futon : Daitoppa " the two clones blew gusts of winds out of their mouths , mixing with the water it created a tornado like gust hitting kisame , Kisame used his samehada to cut the gusts and when the gust settled immediately behind it followed the nasty shuriken . The reasenshuriken flew into Kisame's gut sending him flying back at speed before engulfing him in a massive explosion . The explosion shot the surrounding water off in all the directions hitting the group like a tsunami . After recovering from the impact the group ran to check on Naruto who was panting a little but alright , all of them were stunned at the display of strength from their friend after simply glaring him for a few seconds Ino spoke up .

"W..Wow Naruto that was … Awesome ! How fucking strong was that I have never seen something that strong in my life ."

"Naruto did you just kill an Akatsuki ?" asked Sakura still shaken

"No while fighting him I sensed his chakra its nowhere close to Kisame , it was probably some sort of jutsu , you can check the body but it would be hardly recognizable anyway we are already late lets hurry up ."

The group left the sight and reached the hideout to find a sealing tag on the rock , Knowing what it does Naruto send his clones to deactivate the sealing tags at the same time and dispel immediately and they did the same . "Now Sakura chan ." Naruto gave Sakura the signal . " Shannaro !" Sakura smashed the boulder into pieces . The group lined up in the entrance as they saw the sight before them , there they stood Sasori and Deidara with Gaara's body in front of them lying on the ground .

"No … I … Gaara ….." Naruto just stood there with expressionless eyes , seeing something for the second time in his life which he never wanted to see , his friend , the one who is one of those rare people who had suffered more in life than even him and whose strength , whose resolve , whose ability to rise so high after being put down his whole life has always inspired him was lying dead in front of him , the man who led an entire army to the face of death just to protect him was dead , yet again and he could do nothing for him , yet again he knew what will happen and he still could do nothing .

Naruto balled up his fist tightly in order to control his emotions but he was on verge of tears, not of anger like they were the first time this time they were tears of disgust towards himself . Ino saw the look he had , she knew that he was close to gaara so she grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly , Naruto was brought back he looked at her and without any words the look she gave her said everything , that look had 'pull yourself together its not the right time' written all over it .

Naruto took a deep breath and looked at the pair of Akatsuki he calmed down , he first of all needed to get gaara's body no matter how he cannot risk another wild goose chase with deidara specially without kakashi , he needed to separate them from gaara for chiyo to try and help him , as much as he hated this chiyo was the only one now who can save Gaara he wished he could be the one to give his life for his friend but he couldn't . He was still holding hands with Ino , he squeezed it and gave her a look which she understood.

"So which one of you is the kyubi jinchuriki , come on speak up so we can kill the rest , that Uchiha bastard said the first one to shout will be him but you are a quiet bunch huh Sasori no danna " Deidara was the first one to speak up.

"I am , Uzumaki Naruto give us gaara first then we can settle this between us then ."

"Huh so you are the one , well two jinchurikis is always better than one what say huh Sasori no danna ."

"Shut up deidara keep your eyes on the enemy , its Kyubi no Jinchuriki don't underestimate him ."

"Oe danna It doesn't matter who they are , they will all bend to my art !"

"I don't care about your stupid clay dolls you call art , if you cross me again I'll kill you "

"Oe oe danna don't you dare insult my art , you know what Ill take this Jinchuriki myself " Deidara created a clay bird and puts gaara in his mouth as he attempts to fly away while Naruto's group just watched him without acting .

Deidara just looked confused at them not looking ahead as he was flying out of the tunnel head but as soon as he reached it he hit a net of thin ninja wires knit around the tunnel mouth which completely evaded his attention , Deidara's clay bird got ripped apart as he and gaara's body fell to ground. Before deidara could react an ink brid flew in and took gaara in his paws and flew off with sakura , sai and lady chiyo on its back .

As the two akatsuki could fanthom what happened , Chiyo , Sakura and Sai that were standing in the tunnel poofed into smoke as a smirking Naruto and Ino stood there .

5 minutes earlier

He was still holding hands with Ino , he squeezed it and gave her a look which she understood . Ino immediately connected to everyone by mind control jutsu as Naruto explained his plan .

They waited as Deidara and Sasori got distracted amongst them Naruto used his experience of his assassin squad days as he used his stealth to replace Chiyo , Sakura and Sai with his bunshins and also created two bunshins which he sent out to put wires around the cave mouth .

"Dammit you bastard get back here how dare you insult my art with that ugly display !" growled Deidara as he made another clay bird to chase Sai .

" So I guess its you and me then kyubi its good you distracted that fool away , Id rather fight you alone now show me if you are worthy ." Said Sasori bringing out his iron tail " Let me just get rid of your girlfriend real quick so we can fight in peace " as he said that he launched his tail at Ino at speed faster that she could perceive but a purple flash appeared out of nowhere and slashed his tail off .

Naruto stood there in front of Ino with his sword extended glowing purple anger flowing in his eyes

"Don't touch her " his glare was enough to send Sasori the message . He then turned to Ino "Ino please stay aside let me fight him "

"No Naruto I will help you Im not leaving you alone to fight him ."

He turned his look into a serious glare " Ino I know you are strong but that is not his body , it's a puppet your jutsu wont affect him , if you stay here he will target you I cant let you get hurt please let me fight him ."

"But Naruto .."

"Ino" his tone left no room for argument Ino dropped her head she wanted to argue and help him but despite of him saying that she is not , she knew that she was weak he was just being nice not stating the obvious , she was absolutely livid at herself but the last thing she wanted was to get in Naruto's way so she listened and walked back her head held low and she promised herself that if she went out of this alive she will redeem herself .

"So lets settle this " Naruto said as he dropped his cloak to the ground ,he was now in his grey t shirt and black pants with his katana in hand staring at Sasori .

"So Konoha's Kyubi , you would make a nice addition to my collection ."

Sasori made the first move as he launched an assault of hundreds of senbons flying at Naruto , Naruto used his sword to deflectthe senbons " If I get hit by them the Im done , they must be laced with that poison " . Just as Naruto recovered from that barrage he was immediately hit by 4 guided missiles thet followed , Naruto jumped quickly but caught some of the damage but as soon as he landed he was facing another sembon barrage , on quick instincts he created a shadow clone that threw him out of the way to absorb the senbons before poofing out .

"Dammit , this guy doesn't let up for a second" Naruto said as he landed .

"I must say you have quick reflexes kyubi "

"Now its my turn " said Naruto as he threw smoke bombs on the ground for cover , a second later donzens of clones came bustling out of the smoke each with purple ration katana charging at Sasori , Sasori dropped a rainstorm of sembons at the clones poofing them one by one as he stabbed the ones that managed to get close to him with his severed tail until there was no Naruto left .

"Where is the original " Sasori looked around to find Naruto , just then the ground under him started shaking , before he could react original Naruto came out with a Rasengan in his hand as he slammed it into Sasori breaking it into pieces before jumping back to his original position .

"You did it !" jumped Ino from her position in joy

"No , that was not his original body ." said Naruto still eyes on the cloud of smoke .

A chuckling sound started to come out of the smoke cloud , when it settled a red haired teenage boy could be seen standing there ." Ha ha ha , I must say you indeed are strong kyubi , its been a long time since I have been in this form but you still are no match for me . Since you managed to bring out my true form I shall honor you by showing you my finest collection ."

Naruto immediately went into a defensive stance , from the account by Sakura he had a pretty good idea what was coming , Kurama was also worried nor "Naruto be careful now , don't let yourself get hit by that sand or you are done ." "I know Kurama ."

"I present you Sandaime Kazekage ." said Sasori as he raised the Kazekage puppet , grey sand evolving around them , Ino's eyes widened at this her worry for Naruto was at its peak now

Naruto was instantly barraged with grey sand as he jumped and run trying to dodge it but the sand followed him like a guided missile . "Dammit " muttered Naruto not getting a moments peace trying to dodge the sand . He landed and made a few quick hand seals "Futon : Daitoppa " Naruto released a powerful stream of wind that collided with the sand in a powerful duststorm explosion , Ino covered her eyes as the sand came exploding out of the blast .

Before the dust could settle Naruto came charging out towards Kazekage puppet with his lightning katana , Sasori attacked with sand barrage which Naruto kept cutting with his blade . Feeling him comin close Sasori changed the shape of the sand into a solid cone and drove it right through Naruto's chest .

"Naruto!" Ino shouted seeing the sand pierce Naruto left her stone cold stunned but her breath came back to her as that Naruto puffed into smoke . "Oh thank god " Ino sighed

The real Naruto came out from behind the rock looking at Sasori with stern eyes . "This is more difficult than I thought , his sand can change shape and turn solid , how do I counter that . I wont have the time to make a rasenshuriken " Naruto's thoughts were broken with a barrage of thousands of sand senbons " Dammit" Naruto created a few clones to absorb some sembons as he Launched another Futon Daitoppa to launch away the remaining senbons .

"Why bother fighting when all you can do is defend , give up " said Sasori

"Don't give up on me yet its my turn to attack now " as he said Naruto ran through hand seals " Futon : Shinkujin " Naruto launched a continuous assault of wind blades as Sasori retaliated with sand sembons . Multiple sembons passed the array of wind blades as some of them pierced Naruto but most of Naruto's wind blades missed and hit the ground next to Sasori making the dust from previous attack rise up as the rest were dodged by the puppet and its master , "Useless , you cant even hit on target and here I thought you would be worth my time … What" Sasori's eyes widened as from the dust cloud a smaller version of Naruto's rasenshuriken came spinning out , " That bastard he intentionally hit those shots on ground to create diversion ." Naruto's rasenshuriken crashed into the Sasori's kazekage puppet smashing him into thousands of pieces .

"Nice thinking Naruto , but you have been damaged with those sembons be carefull Ill try to heal as much as I can " said Kurama " Thanks kurama that smaller rasenshuriken was quick to make but it did the job " said Naruto panting with his one knee on the ground as blood dripped from multiple wounds he suffered from the sembons.

"Naruto!" Ino came rushing to Naruto's side as she started to heal him . "Ino you shouldn't come –"

"Shutup , I will try to heal you no matter what you say , it's the least I could do ."

Meanwhile Sasori was livid , "You bastard do you have any idea what I had to go through for that puppet . This is it I will make you regret it , Ill show you my full power , power that can take out armies kyubiii ! Performance of a hundred puppets"

Sasori yelled as he released hundreds of puppets that covered the entire tunnel . Naruto looked at the sight with sweat dropping from his head "That .. that many … how did Sakura chan defeat this guy " He then looked at Ino's face who was besides her who was shaking with fear ,the look on her face made Naruto gain his composure back "No I cant loose my cool I have to protect her , I have to protect them all " Naruto put his hand on Ino's shoulder and squeezed it hard " Don't worry Ino I will not let him harm you ." The way Naruto said this blew all her doubts out somehow , somehow she knew that he would make it true a smile came to her face "And I will fight with you " Naruto returned her smile and nodded , both teenagers stood up in confidence facing the army of puppets ahead of them .

"DIE !" Sasori launched his army toward them , Naruto made an army of clones himself as they collided with the puppets . The entire tunnel became a battleground hundreds of Narutos fighting as many puppets , Ino was also fighting multiple puppets . This continued for some time as Naruto and Ino destroyed many puppets but Naruto's clones were all lost as well , Naruto who was exhausted now because of sembons , chakra use and was now severely damaged by Sasori's puppets , he was cut from several places and bleeding a lot now panting on ground .

"Naruto " Ino looked at him with a worried look she knew that he could not continue for long and there were still many puppets left. "Ino " Naruto called her still panting and breathing hard . "Yes Naruto" "Can you cover me for a few moments ?"

"Sure Ill try my best but what are you planning ? Naruto be careful you have lost a lot of blood "

"Don't worry just get out of here when I say "

"Oe Naruto that's bad Idea " said Kurama

"That's the only way Kurama "

"You don't have enough control over that jutsu if you put too much into it you can go into coma or even die of chakra exhaustion , you don't have that good control over my chakra yet , not to mention you are already low on chakra "

"Do you have any other idea ? I figured now shut up and let me concentrate "

Naruto created more clones to cover him as Ino readied a few explosive tags and joined the clones to protect Naruto .

Naruto stood up panting and bleeding still , he clapped his hands together as he started moulding chakra , Naruto's clones and Ino continued to fight the puppets as Naruto was still moulding chakra . A tornado of wind started developing around Naruto as he started to mix Kurama's chakra into the wind tornado turning it into crimson color , ground started to shake and the wind inside the tunnel was now smashing the rocks and cracking the tunnel walls " INO GET OUT !" Naruto shouted as Ino immediately got out of the tunnel .

"AAAAAHHHHH" the crimson tornado kept growing and growing , any puppet Sasori send towards him destroyed after touching the tornado . Sasori was horrified at the power flowing from that as he stood there trapped between the tunnel and Naruto " Un..Unbelievable … that is Kyubi's Jinchuriki's true power ?" Those would be the last words he would ever say .

"Futon : Shinku Taifu (Wind style : crimson typhoon) " Naruto yelled as he stretched his hands out towards Sasori . The gust of wind turned into a stream and the tsunami of wind crashed into Sasori creating a massive explosion .

Ino covered her face outside as she watched wide eyed at the damage Naruto's move caused , the entire tunnel was torn apart the walls and the roof blown off , the wall that was 20 metres from Naruto was blown back 50 more metres , even the ground was uprooted two feets basically all was left was a rectangular piece of torn apart land 20 feet wide and 70 metres long littered with thousands of tiny particles of Sasori's puppets as well as his original body and his heart everything was obliterated .

Naruto instantly fell to ground , Ino rushed to her as fast as her feet can carry her she reached him and put his head in her lap and started pouring chakra into him as his eyes were slowly closing . "Naruto ! Naruto ! please stay with me Naruto !" his eyes slowly closed as he saw her face before darkness .