"Asura, can I have some of your time?" Natsu called out to Asura as he walked into the workshop inside the Academy for the use of students.

Classes were finished but not every student left the premises as they were allowed to stay with permission.

Asura was working on improving his puppets and working on new designs along with improving his fighting style. Now that he understood the threat, he didn't feel confident in any of his powers.

He had always been proud of his strength but now that power didn't give him any safety. Even last night he had passed time with Byakuya and watched the starry skies while having a short talk.

Both of them were best of friends and preferred a peaceful atmosphere.

But that peaceful time hadn't saved him as his mind had conjured up nightmares. It was the curse of having such a strong mind that could completely imagine things to the finest detail.

For the first time in a long time, Asura had slept with his parents. Kaguya and Naruto's clone looked over him through the night and helped him rest.

His father even sang him a lullaby to keep away the nightmares. It wasn't something he would share with others because they would look down on him but Asura felt happy that it happened.

He didn't complain that his parent's treated him like a child.

At the moment he was in the workshop with Byakuya and Shun, who were giving him their views on the things he planned.

He had also impressed the danger on them without telling them the truth.

Hearing Natsu's voice, Asura stopped working on his reaper puppet and looked back.

"There isn't anyone here except us, speak." Asura didn't see anyone with Natsu, not even Benimaru. It was rare since Natsu liked company and wasn't one to roam around alone.

Natsu looked at Shun and Byakuya, and waved at them as he got closer.

"Well, I was wondering if I could join your team." Natsu asked as he rubbed the back of his head. He never thought he would do something like this so it made him feel awkward.

"I thought you will join Benimaru and make a team. What happened?" Asura asked in a curious tone, he never expected this either.

Natsu wasn't the follower type.

"I want a strong team so it would be impossible with just Benimaru. I have informed him as well and he will agree with my point." Natsu replied as he told them the truth. The teams were now made by the student themselves, though the teachers could change them if they thought they weren't compatible.

The teams weren't made of three, three was the minimum and a team could consist of up to seven people.

Even if the team was made, members did rotate with other teams so they didn't become rigid and dependant on one team.

"Why not go with Sarada?" Byakuya asked as he looked at his hyper active brother.

They were clear opposites of each other in almost every way. But they had respect for each other and helped each other out when needed.

None of the Uchiha siblings had bad blood with each other and were tightly knit like the Uzumaki family. Though, they didn't have the active life style of the Uzumaki family since Uchiha were genetically serious people most of the time.

"Sis got the flame kitty. She is good enough and my addition would only reduce her contributions." Natsu replied as he sat down beside Byakuya. Wasabi and Natsu were close friends, and both of them specialized in flames.

"Watch what you say, Wasabi might claw your face off." Shun commented hearing those words as Wasabi didn't like being called a kitty.

"That's why I am saying it here, or are you going to snitch on me?"

"I am not bored enough for those games."

"See, nothing to worry about. So, what do you think?" Natsu turned to Asura

"I don't mind but you will have to follow my commands. I like things that are in order." Asura really didn't trust Natsu's ability to adapt to them. The guy was chaotic and loved fighting while his team was the calm type that did everything with patience and order.

"You might get bored with us." Byakuya also agreed with Asura's assessment.

"I don't care about that. I believe Asura is the strongest and has the leadership capability to fully utilize my talent. Plus, isn't Hima in your team?" Natsu considered Asura to be the strongest person in their generation when not counting Shuten and his leadership skills were above anyone else.

He had blessed multiple people with his powers and commanded them. Byakuya and Shun followed him, so there was nothing to complain about.

"Don't regret it." Asura said as he accepted his request and went back to his work.

"When do you guys practice team work?" Natsu asked as the teams usually practiced together to know each other and build up group combos.

"We will practice soon but for now just watch these to understand the team." Byakuya operated the equipment inside the workshop to activate holograms for Natsu to watch the team's battle strategy.

They didn't want him go with no idea. Natsu had some idea since there were team battles at the academy but he wouldn't have completely grasped it.

For that reason, Byakuya explained things to him while watching the practice session.


While Natsu spent time with Team Asura, Naruto was once again the research department where the members were gathered around Nue.

This time it wasn't just Orochimaru, Kabuto, Sakura, Tsunade and Karin but even Choji, Shino and Ino were present.

Choji was the tallest and the most buff person in the lab. His body was 3 m tall with long orange hair tied in a pony tail and a beard.

He didn't look a day over 30 and this shape made him look very appealing. It was the result of his research on food and proper consumption methods.

Over time he had let go of his immature feelings about people judging his body and he had become confident in himself. He didn't rely on Shika or Ino to pull him up.

He was the current Leader of the Akimichi clan and the third strongest person in the world, physically.

He had created techniques that went beyond the giant form and butterfly mode. Choji could become the size of the moon and compress his body to 5 m tall along with usage of butterfly mode. This compression boosted his powers to unbelievable degrees.

His consumption method also allowed him to take part of the foods ability into his body and adapt.

He was present because of his expertise on the body make up.

Following that was Shino, he was just like usual. He wore a long grey coat that covered him his mouth and wore black shades. He was tall as Naruto and stoic like always.

He had come a long way and learned social qualities that had escaped him at a young age. He wasn't talkative but now he wasn't hard to converse with and even knew how to lead a conversation.

He was the current head of the Aburame clan and the reason for their rise in power. Shino was from the clan with mastery over insects that poisoned and sucked chakra.

But these insects were easy to kill and couldn't handle targets with large reserves. The fighting style became limited and outright useless against people like Naruto.

Shino saw the problem and decided to change everything. He travelled the world to find powerful insects and added them to his family's collection.

They stopped limiting the size of the insects. Shino put the insects through various dangerous situations and forced them to adapt.

He used help from Kiba and Choji as well to grow. Finally, there was contribution from his wife. His wife was Fuu, the vessel of the seven tailed beast.

With her help the insects became even stronger and changed to have different qualities.

Shino was a tamer type and a research type as he understood how things changed with different circumstances and how to provide the ideal environment.

Finally, Ino was there to get any information from the mental plane of the beast. She was the best at what she did, and that was having mastery over memory manipulation and mental domination.

The group was gathered to find the secrets of the Nue.

The beast was a fountain of knowledge for them as it interacted with emotions and has high level stealth ability that could bypass Naruto's senses.

Even now he was unable to sense it and could only see it with his eyes.

He wasn't the only one since none could feel its presence. This was an opportunity for them to find a way to locate Ishiki before it was too late.

It was a path to bring change to the field of stealth and emotion manipulation.

"The body structure of this thing is unique. It has the property of changing into energy and absorbing that comes into contact with it.

It remains alive somehow even when the body hasn't adapted to the level of energy it absorbs. I can't wrap my head around this, how were they able to create it and its exceptional stealth." Sakura commented after going through a thorough analysis of Nue for several hours since yesterday night.

The real bodies had been relaxing while their clones had been working on this thing since yesterday and in that time they had gone through so many tests that something should have come out, but they barely had any idea of its working.

"Even going through its mental plane, I was unable to find any memories about its source. There is only its programming of devouring energy from others and growing in power. I have looked at it for so long but nothing." Ino followed up as she massaged her head. It had been a very long time since she had trouble in this field.

It wasn't common for Naruto to ask for help and it was annoying that she was unable to satisfy his need.

"The only thing I can add is that this thing is a mixture, not a natural creature. My insects were able to find traces of the process and it seems to have also gone through the forced evolution process. For more information, I will need more time and I will need samples to work with." Shino added as he adjusted his shades and looked towards Naruto who was sitting while looking at them.

"The meat is very harmful. It is poisonous and it causes insanity while giving nothing useful. The energy from it is harmful and it costs more energy to convert it into anything useful." Choji also gave his verdict.

Naruto heard their words and saw the report. It was as he expected. It wasn't going to be easy or Ishiki would have done something so that he couldn't capture it.

This was their only clue to finding him.

"Focus on this project. I want the solution to its stealth capabilities soon or we will be in a difficult situation when more of these come into play." Naruto said calmly with no disappointment in his voice or any negative feeling. He understood that things took time and didn't pointlessly throw around words.

"Whatever they used for it shouldn't be available in large quantity. So, I don't think we have to worry about large numbers." Tsunade commented so that none of them would get too stressed by the possibility.

"Indeed, the possibility is very low for mass production. We will have to take some drastic steps for a better analysis." Orochimaru muttered with a smile as he looked at the beast.

"What do you have in mind?" Naruto understood that he was asking for permission.

"Kabuto and I could inject pieces of the creature in our bodies and let them adapt to it. Our bodies as you know are excellent in adaptation and with it we will have better understanding of its creation. We will continue the normal analysis along with it and get things ready within a week or two." Orochimaru proposed and Kabuto didn't decline as it was the truth.

Both of their bodies had that genetic makeup where it could adapt to dangerous elements. His body could liquefy, split and heal without any problem.

Naruto could do it as well but he was already full at the moment so it could have an adverse affect on him. None of the others were as good as the duo.

The suggestion wasn't out of the field and it was normal for Orochimaru to test things on himself when he believed it was the best option.

"What are the chances of insanity and how severe can it get?" This was one of the dangers and the duo going berserk could lead to a lot of damage along with loss of personnel for some time.

"It shouldn't have much effect on them since the source still too weak. It is fortunate, or the process would have been dangerous if the beast was given more time." Tsunade replied as she watched her old childhood friend that turned into an enemy and now back to acquaintance level.

They weren't as close as they used to be but the relationship wasn't toxic anymore. Spending time in the lab with him had given her better understanding of him and made her appreciate his eccentric side.

"I allow it but keep close watch on them. I do not want anything averse happening to you." Naruto addressed all of them and put seals on their bodies just in case.

The duo getting messed up in the head could lead to a lot of trouble since they worked in such a delicate place.

"Thank you Lord Seventh, we will keep watch of our health and stop if anything goes wrong." Kabuto nodded and assured them. It was nice having a boss that actually cared for your health. It was fun with Orochimaru back in the day but there was always the problem of getting killed and used as experimental material.

Now they had the best resources and the best team in the world working together to find such marvelous solutions.

"Good, keep working and I look forward to a positive report soon." Naruto stood up and walked away, leaving the team to their research while Ino and Hinata followed him.

Shino also took samples to work with his insects on analyzing the structure to higher level and having his insects adapt to this beast. With proper adaptation, his insects could become mortal enemies for it and develop capability to locate it.

He had been using such a process to make his powers grow and now his insects were highly resistant to everything around them except for reality warping and time manipulation.

Choji also took some samples to work on using his specialty and find a weakness for the creature. He was a cook and a research expert on all kinds of beasts so it won't do if he couldn't find weakness in its structure and how it actually operated.

The duo left to their personal labs while the others worked in this current lab.


"This isn't our only problem. I was unable to find it. They seem to have a found a way to bypass the memory analysis." Ino said as she stood on his side in the elevator.

This was the other issue that came to mind because of this incident. Sumire had been checked before being allowed to live without supervision, so how did she hide such information.

Sumire was unaware of the reason and Ino hadn't found it either. With such a method at the enemies disposal, Naruto wouldn't even know if he let an enemy walk into his territory.

It was a big issue that had more problems than the Nue situation.

"What did the others say about it?"

"They didn't find anything weird with her body. What about the seal, couldn't it have been the reason for it?"

"No, the seal had nothing to do with memory. It was just a connection to the beast and a summoning. The thing used for the memory debacle could be a seal that disappeared later or it means that they have high memory manipulation than us or it could be some tech."

"I got similar results, so I will inform the security to have a full body check up and cut off the chakra of the people to see if they have seals on their body or not. As for the higher level of skills, we can only continue to improve." Ino said as she enjoyed being held by him and having his arm around her.

It gave her some comfort from these stressful solutions. Whenever she felt a headache coming, Ino loved to cuddle with Naruto. It made everything all right.

"Should we do a check up on everyone that is already here?" Hinata asked as Sumire's situation implied that the enemy might have also slipped through their security.

"Yes, we can't be sure that they aren't already here. Leave no one out of the test."

"I will go over it personally. Ino, why not try to see if you can bring back erased memories. It will solve our problem if we had that." Hinata turned to Ino and gave her suggestion. It seemed out of the field kind of thing. How do you get back erased memories? Shouldn't erased memories disappear?

Are memories truly gone or are they stored somewhere else?

These were the questions that came to Ino's mind. She didn't dismiss the suggestion as they had already done more ridiculous stuff that this was nothing in comparison.

"Thanks, I think I will go work on it. See you later." Ino decided to go and check it out. She left after giving Naruto a long kiss and give a hug to Hinata.

Hinata also didn't stay and left to get things started.


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A.N Hope you enjoyed and comment