"I'll fucking kill you all! You fucking bastards!"

Hidan yelled, his head bouncing around as it hung from a long rope from the ceiling. Letting himself hang as three chains anchored themselves into the ground, making his head stable as it thrashed around in his dark prison cell.

"I'll rip you're fucking heads off!"

He yelled again, thrashing around as he attempted to bite the chains holding him. Hoping for a feeble escape as he seethed in anger. This had never happened before, he had never been forced into submission by anyone before. Not even Kakazu could contain the Jashin worshipper no matter how hard he tried.

But this was just embarrassing and demeaning. He didn't even have his body anymore, or his trusty scythe! He swore the second he escaped out of here he would hunt down those two stupid girls that did this to him and mutilate them. Cut them up into tiny little pieces and make sure Jashin-sama was pleased with his sacrifice, even if that meant cutting up his own body in the process.

"Jashin-sama will not rest until you all fucking die-"

"Jeez you're so loud, can't you cool it for one second?"

Hidan stopped his screeching as a mysterious voice echoed itself in the dark room. The akatsuki member felt his blood boil just thinking about who was here to see him. He followed the sound of the voice to see a tall silhouette standing right behind his prison cell, his arm through one of the bars as he put his hand to his cheek, a large grin playing across his darkened face making Hidan even more furious. Hidan scoffed loudly, almost foaming at the mouth as his grey eyes flared to life in pure adulterated animosity

"And who the fuck are yo-"

"Please, I said can you stop."

The voice said again, his voice dropping with amusement as he cut Hidan off mid speech. The grey haired akatsuki member felt his eyes go wide as he felt a hand grip his mouth shut. Looking down to see that the man was now inside his cell with his palm flat against his mouth making him go dead silent. He followed the arm of his visitor with his eyes to finally get a good glimpse of the man, his shining blue eyes almost seemed to illuminate the room with its bright nature. Spiky blonde hair that seemed to defy the laws of gravity as he brought his free hand up to his mouth, closing it into a fist as he placed his index finger over his mouth covering his grin.

"Now can you please be quiet? I promise I'll make it worth your while." The man said, closing his eyes as he smiled wide.

Hidan scoffed into the man's palm. His eyes narrowing dangerously as he tried to scream again, only for it to come out muffled as he thrashed around roughly, making the blonde visitor just keep his smile up as he waited for the man to finish.

Hidan, noticing that his attempts weren't getting him anymore finally eased up. Stopping his thrashing as he glared at the blonde. Brooding, he slowly nodded his head pushing down his anger at the man's smile.

The blonde nodded in satisfaction at seeing the man comply, slowly removing his hand from the grey headed man's mouth, waiting for a moment to see if he would start his yelling again.

…

…

…..

…

Happy to see that Hidan wasn't going to be screaming again he nodded his head again happily. "So, you're willing to hear me out huh?"

Hidan glared, clicking his tongue in his mouth as he bit his cheek drawing a small drop of blood to fall down to his chin. Hidan's eyes glowed dangerously, rethinking his decision entirely as he stared deeply into the man's cocky expression. Sadly for him, he didn't really have much of a choice in the matter. Whoever this blonde was, he seemed to know exactly what he was doing, like he was following a plan. Hidan could fight back, but in his condition it would get him nowhere and probably make his stay here in Konoha much worse than it already was. He already had several interrogation people come to see him and they were just plain annoying, since pain didn't really affect him, their plans were more or less worthless.

Hidan just scoffed again, anger bubbling in him even more than usually. "What the fuck do you want blondie?"

The blonde smiled again, taking a step back from the head as he skipped around the room happily. Hidan watched with annoyance as the blonde disappeared from his peripheral vision and walked behind him. The blonde's voice was oozing with confidence and arrogance as he spoke.

"Well I have a little proposition with you Hidan~~"

The blonde said happily, almost singing his words as he pushed his face next to Hidan's, getting way too close to the severed head. Hidan squirmed at the closeness, anger once again seething within him as he could barely see the blonde.

"What if I could promise you anything you wanted. Like let's say." He whispered, getting close to Hidan's ear making the akatsuki member shudder at the sensation, "the promise to kill anyone that you wanted, with no drawbacks?"

That piqued Hidan's interest, he felt his eyebrow raise upwards. Turning his head as much as he could to meet the sapphire blue eyes looking at him with promise. Jashin-sama would in fact like that, his whole life has been devoted to the God after all.

"What do you mean?" Hidan asked, losing his snarky tone and replaced it with pure curiosity.

"I have a dream Hidan. I've had this dream for a couple of years now." The blonde said, moving away from the akatsuki member as he walked around to the front of the head again. With his back to Hidan, he raised his both arms outwards, his eyes shut as Hidan looked at him quizzically. "To create a world where people who needed a home, could go and live peacefully. And this plan involves you Hidan. If you agree to help me then I could make your dream become real." The blonde said. Keeping his arms outstretched as he snapped his fingers.

The snap echoed in the dark room for a moment and Hidan widened his eyes as the room around them started to change slowly. He blinked in surprise as the dark prison cell disappeared completely, now they were both standing in an open field looking down at a peaceful village from a tall mountain. Hidan looked on in awe at the scenic view, feeling the soft breeze gently tickle his face as he raised one of his arms and brushed it across his face.

Hidan shrieked and looked at his arm in shock. His eyes went wide as dinner plates as he ran his now fixed arms across his reformed body. Hidan snapped his head over to the blonde, watching his yellow locks sway in the wind with a peaceful expression on his face.

"If you agree to help me I will promise you a new body. And allow you to live out your own dream to dedicate your life to Jashin-sama. You would have authority to kill anyone outside of a select group, in any way you see fit. So Hidan." The blonde said, lowering his arms and turning around to meet Hidan's conflicted expression.

"What will it be?"

Hidan froze at the blonde words, looking down and moving his feet in the soft blades of grass beneath his feet. It was a strange situation he found himself in. Even though the blonde's words were vague, Hidan found himself entranced and hanging onto each word as he spoke to him. Completely enthralled, Hidan felt something in his body wanting to accept the offer. He didn't know what he had to do, but it couldn't be worse than what he had already done with the akatsuki.

And it wasn't like he cared about the group, he was only in the organization to kill for Jashin-sama.

Hidan felt himself start to smirk as he looked across the scenery. He didn't give a rats ass about the blondes dream, honestly he didn't even care what all of this ment. But it was enticing, the blonde was making it seem intoxicating.

"What would you need me to do?"

The blonde just grinned.

"Tou-san you have to hear me out-"

"Natsu I've told you already. This all just seems a little ridiculous." Minato Namikaze said, sighing as he ran a hand through his blonde hair.

Natsu on the other hand was beginning to get irritated, he groaned loudly and tightened his arms around the hospital file he was holding, clutching it tight to his body.

After his father returned from helping Narumi with the akatsuki members, Natsu wanted to talk to him immediately but Minato had put it off until the next day. Saying he had important things to worry about regarding the akatsuki and what their plans were for the severed head of Hidan and hasn't had time for anything else.

Natsu wasn't even sure if Minato had gone to see Naruto since he got back, which was more than odd considering Minato always seemed to brood whenever Naruto was brought up.

And honestly it was starting to piss Natsu off more than anything.

Something was up with Naruto. Natsu couldn't place it exactly but he could tell. In the past he was always able to read Naruto like a book, it was easy to tell what he was thinking and bank off of it. But now he was more closed, more aloof and shielded off. Natsu no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't get their talk out of his head.

And that's what led Natsu to his father's office the first thing in the morning. Natsu had not slept at all last night in anticipation. He stalked outside of Naruto's hospital room for a few hours before returning home deep into the night after realizing his brother was in fact, fast asleep. He waited anxiously for the sun to rise and set off immediately to the Hokage tower the second he saw the all too familiar yellow flash of his father light up through the window. But now, Minato was pissing him off.

Natsu growled, stalking closer to his father's desk, "Tou-san, look I even have proof-"

"Natsu stop!"

Minato yelped, cutting off his son. Natsu felt his eyes go wide in shock at his father's outburst as the blonde Kage stood up abruptly in his seat, looking at Natsu with a slightly annoyed expression.

"Naruto isn't up to anything! As you know he was left severely injured and on the brink of death! It's even a miracle that he's still alive and you're coming at me, trying to accuse your own brother of scheming something?!" Minato asked incredulously, giving his son an annoyed look making Natsu scowl.

"I'm incredibly busy Natsu. I'm trying to see if there is anything I can do to help Naruto so he could stay in the village. The council is already breathing down my neck in regards to Naruto AND we just took down two akatsuki members, with one being headless and currently kept captive in a holding cell. I know you always had a grudge against Naruto for some reason reason but this isn't time for such childlike pettiness!" Minato yelled, making Natsu take a step back in slight shock.

Minato himself felt sorry as soon as the words left his mouth. He has been under a lot of stress since he returned from helping Kurenai with Kakaza, with the council and his son returning. He could already feel some of his hair turning grey from the stress and with Natsu acting the way that he was, it was making things a lot more chaotic.

"Oh yeah? Childlike pettiness? Then fucking explain this." Natsu scoffed. Slamming his hospital file onto his father's desk with barely contained rage making Minato narrow his eyes at his son's sudden rudeness. He opened his mouth to scold his son for using such language but couldn't get the words out in time when Natsu flipped open the file roughly, making the pages flutter from the force.

Natsu pointed to the file, drawing Minato's attention as the Kage looked down.

"This is Naruto's hospital file, I was the one looking after him when he got back. From what I was told, and from what I have seen, Naruto has lost almost two gallons of blood over these past few weeks. And that's not even counting the five months he has been unconscious." Natsu scowled out, making sure his father was listening before flipping the page again angrily.

Minato blinked at that info, surely someone losing that much blood would have already died from blood loss long ago. He drew his attention to the spot Natsu was tapping with his finger impatiently.

"As I was checking him over I found these. Naruto has been walking around with three heavily concealed seals on his body. One of them was a weight seal, that wasn't too surprising to see, but this was." Natsu said, moving his finger upwards to show the picture Natsu had taken when Naruto was unconscious.

"This seal was resting just above his eyelid, it was almost impossible to see and I stumbled across it by sheer dumb luck. This seal is blocking any access to his eyes and nervous system. Half of these arrays I can't even decipher myself." That drew Minato's attention. He sat back down into his chair and grabbed the file from the desk. After a small once over he nodded his head.

"Yes you're right. It seems this seal is rather intricate since it also has a bunch of defense seals placed around it." Minato mused aloud, looking back to his son with a raised brow. "But this doesn't mean that Naruto is up to something."

"No, but it does mean he's hiding something. And we haven't even scraped the surface." Natsu responded bitterly, making Minato frown. His son did have a point. Natsu asked his father to turn the page over, Minto agreed, turning it over to see an even larger picture of a seal placed neatly on his youngest son's stomach, and Minato felt his heart drop in his chest.

"Then what do you have to say about this then? Doesn't this seal remind you of anything Hokage-sama?" Natsu vocalized, his voice oozing with his own annoyance at his father for still feigning ignorance to the signs placed in front of him.

Minato on the other hand felt his hand go numb, barley catching the paper as it slipped in his grasp. His mouth went completely dry and he was sure his heart had stopped beating for several seconds. With a frightened expression he snapped his head over to Natsu's, gulping slightly.

"T-this...is this real?"

"As real as it gets."

Minato gulped again, staring down at the abundance of sealing arrays on his youngest son's chest. Minato didn't even know what he should be feeling at this moment. He couldn't pinpoint a singular emotion as it tore itself all throughout his body. "B-but this doesn't make any sense. This looks almost identical to the seal holding the Kyuubi at bay. There's even an array for chakra concealing, and even tenketsu concealing and array concealing." Minato said, leaning back into his chair with a disturbed look on his face. His mind was in the middle of running a marathon and he couldn't even think straight anymore.

This was the last thing he expected when Naruto returned from wherever he went after abandoning the village. It just didn't make any sense, it was almost impossible for his son to have a seal holding a Bijuu at bay on him. Minato knew for a fact that he didn't seal any of the Kyuubi's chakra within Naruto. But what was even more horrifying was if Naruto was holding a Bijuu, just how did it happen? A Bijuu couldn't be sealed into someone over the age of 12, since there chakra was officially done maturing at that age and if you tried to seal the demon away the host would most likely die from either chakra poisoning, or a chakra overload. And not to mention that demonic chakra was already like a poison, if not sealed correctly the chakra could easily burn away the chakra coils and make it impossible to mold chakra altogether.

Then that only meant that Naruto, if he was truly holding a Bijuu at bay. Then it had to be sealed in him when he was still a young child.

Minato physically shuddered at that thought. Then did something infiltrate the village without his knowledge and seal a Bijuu in Naruto? Or did Naruto get taken away from Konoha and that's where the sealing was done? Minato already hated himself enough for not being there for his son, but this, this was like the cherry on top for being the worst father he ever could have imagined him being. How could he not know this about Naruto? If he was hiding something so monumentally massive a secret, what else could he be hiding?

Natsu felt himself sobering up from his annoyance as he watched the ignorance fade from his father's eyes. Crossing his arms over his chest he took a step back from the desk, looking away from Minato as he clenched his fists as his amethyst eyes narrowed.

"Still have any doubts now?"

Minato hesitatingly shook his head, dropping the page back into his desk as he ran his hands over his face. He could physically feel more and more stress get piled onto his back with each passing second.

"I have no doubts that Naruto is in fact hiding something. And who knows what else he is hiding, but that still doesn't mean he is against us."

Natsu snapped his head to Minato with such speed it almost looked like his head would have soared off his body. Natsu glared at his father, his nails digging into his skin as his eyes flashed with irritation.

"How can you be so sure? Don't give me this shit just because you feel bad about the way you treated him in the past like this would make amends for what you did."

Minato narrowed his eyes at Natsu, matching his son's glare head on as he pushed down the guilt that snuck its way back into his body. A snarl escaped free from the Kage's lips as he spoke.

"Far from it. There is no way I could make amends for what Kushina and I did to Naruto. I accepted that long ago, and I don't need my very own spoiled son to remind me of a time that I regret dearly." Minato bit back with just as much force, both getting more and more heated.

Natsu wanted to laugh at his father's words, finding it completely ironic.

"Oh yeah? And who's fault was it to spoil me. I sure as hell didn't see you or kaa-san complain about it once until after Naruto-nii abandoned us!" Natsu replied, venom weeping into his words as the cut Minato.

"Watch your tone with me Natsu. I don't care that I am your father, but I am still the Hokage of this village and you will show me the respect I deserve." Minato snarled out, he hasn't felt this angry in years and he couldn't believe it was to his very own son.

"Even if you are right about why Naruto left us, you have no right to act like the victim when you were just as much responsible for why he left in the first place. We all pushed him away. Take responsibility for your actions for once." Minato said cynically, his blue eyes darkening as they bounced off his down sons purple.

Natsu's hands clenched tighter around his body as he stared at his father. He had to bite the inside of his cheek in order to stop himself from screaming back a retort to his father. He was more than mad at this point, he was downright furious.

"How dare you lump me in with the likes of you. I never abandoned my brother. I was pushing him to grow stronger cause you wouldn't!"

The red head turned his back to his father, he couldn't even stand to look at his father anymore than he already had too. He was pissed, he was annoyed, his very core was burning red hot and he didn't know how much longer he had before he let the damn get broken down. No one knew Naruto like he did, Natsu was the one who pushed him around for him to grow. He was responsible for his brother's growth, he's the reason why Naruto was strong. It was always him.

Only fools couldn't see that.

"Whatever, you are a fool for not noticing." Natsu muttered, not sure what he was even commenting on anymore. "Think what you want. But I know that my dear little brother is up to something. I know him better than anyone. Ignore the signs for all I care, you'll only get hurt again if you do."

And with those final words Natsu left the room, slamming the door behind him with a loud bang. Minato ignored the rudeness of his son as he let out a frustrated groan. He looked back down at the file of his son, freezing for a moment as he tried to gather all of his thoughts together.

After a few long agonizing minutes he folded the files into fourths and placed them in his coat pocket before vanishing in a flash of yellow.

Later

Kurenai was not happy, in fact she doesn't remember a time where she had felt so angry and betrayed before in her entire life. It has been one day since she had returned from visiting Naruto from the hospital, where they shared a tender moment after being years apart.

But, now Kurenai regretted asking the blonde about his plan.

Scowling, Kurenai tightened the bathrobe around her body as she looked deep into her bathroom mirror. Her hair was completely disheveled, looking like she hasn't brushed it in months and she could faintly see black under bangs starting to form under her eyes from lack of sleep.

The genjutsu master sighed, running her fingers down her face and her under eye bags. In all honestly she felt like a fool, she held onto the vision of Naruto when he was still a young kid. Where he was the small frail little boy with a gung-ho attitude. But she was wrong, he had changed, and she wasn't sure if she liked what she saw.

His plan...his plan scared her a bit and she didn't know what she should do about it. Kurenai knew he didn't tell her the whole thing, she could see the faint hint of hesitation in his eyes as he spoke. He didn't even want to tell her, and he probably would have never told her if she hadn't insisted on knowing.

After he finished explaining everything she slapped him, she had never seen Naruto look so shocked before in her whole entire life. She was lent up after that, she was still a little upset that he made her an accomplice in the beginning, and now that she learned more she regretted it. She couldn't help it though, it was totally insane.

She was broken out of her train of thoughts when a loud banging reached her ears. She raised her head up from the mirror and towards her front door where the knocking sound grew more frantic. Kurenai fought back a sigh, she could already feel the persona chakra signature behind her door and for a split second, she thought about pretending that she wasn't home.

"Kurenai come on open up please."

This time Kurenai did sigh deeply, pushing off her bathroom counter and making her way slowly to her front door, not even bothering to make herself presentable as she swung the door open to look face to face with the exact person she was thinking about.

"What? It's still early and you should still be at the hospital."

Naruto frowned, scratching his arm as he looked into Kurenai's cold red eyes with his own blue.

"Uhh yeah I snuck out, just used a small henge to get over here." Naruto responded, glancing into her apartment and back to her, hoping she understood what he was silently trying to say to her.

Unfortunately for Kurenai, she did know what he was saying. Sighing in frustration she moved to the side, gesturing for him to come inside with her arm. Naruto smiled thankfully as he walked past the raven haired beauty and into her apartment. The second he walked in he was invaded with the all too familiar scent of Kurenai. The smell of vanilla and strawberry was very strong as well as the faint smell of coffee that she made earlier in the morning.

Hearing the door click closed behind him he turned around, trying to put in his coolest expression as he saw a very annoyed Kurenai looking at him. The beauty walked past him and into her connecting kitchen, folding her arms under her breasts as she sighed again.

"What do you want Naruto-kun?"

"I wanted to come and see you, things are starting to be put into motion now. I know you don't really wanna hear this right now b-"

"Your right I don't. I don't want to hear anything about it." Kurenai said, cutting him off, her voice raising in volume as she tightened her arms around herself. "This is outrageous, and I don't want to even hear about it for even a second more."

"Look Kurenai, I'm sorry I came to you for this. I just thought you would understand."

Kurenai glared darkly at Naruto, "Understand?" She started, feeling her body start to tremble with rage as she took a large step towards the blonde. "Understand what?! Do you really think any sane person would just go along with you on this? Did you really think you could get me to betray-"

"I wasn't asking you to do anything! I only needed you for the scroll! You're the one who insisted on knowing in the first place!" Naruto retorted, trying to keep his cool but failing as he felt his sharingan eye pulse to life. Kurenai didn't falter at seeing the doujutsu, she met his look head on and scowled.

"Oh, only needed me for the scroll? Was that all I'm fucking good enough for?" Kurenai felt like she was on fire, she was practically pulsating with anger as she tried to stop herself from doing something she would regret. She hates to admit it, but those words hurt more than any injury she had ever had. She always thought Naruto wouldn't do that to her, that he was different.

Naruto lost his glare as he watched a singular tear roll down Kurenai's cheek. His expression softened confidently and he raised his hand to scratch the back of his head, looking away from the obviously hurt woman in front of him.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean that."

Kurenai wiped any trace of tears away from her eyes with a huff. Bringing up her hand and clutched it around her heart, her nails digging into the soft fabric of her robe. "I thought you were different. What your planning- I just can't get behind it. No matter how much I care about you." She muttered, looking down as she traced her bare foot across the sodden floor. Finding that to be much more interesting than anything else as the two of them basked in the awkward tension. After a few painstakingly silent seconds she continued.

"And the thing is, I don't even know why I care about you so much. I barely know you, you're still a kid for fucks sake. But all those years ago, when you put me under then genjutsu when you left us all alone in Roka town. I felt all of your emotions, everything you had ever gone through up until that point." She said, reaching out and grabbing his hand. Her soft hand gently caressed his, feeling safe in his larger ones as she placed his plan over her beating heart, feeling her stomach bubbling from the warmth. Naruto despite the situation and couldn't stop himself from blushing at the contact.

"I felt it all. Your heartbreak, your pain, your envy, your joy, and even...your love." More tears were starting to fall down Kurenai's milky skin as she took in a deep breath trying to stop her rapidly beating heart trim thundering in her chest, "These feelings I have for you aren't organic, but fabricated. Almost forced since I feel like I must have them cause I've seen yours, no, experienced yours."

Naruto looked away, not sure if he could look at Kurenai any longer. Naruto could feel her heart breaking like glass under his hand into a million tiny pieces. Guilt surged through his body and shot into him like a fire hose. He frowned, taking Kurenai's free hand into his with some hesitancy, not sure if he was allowed too. She snapped her hand back as he did so, like it was hot to the touch making Naruto's face contort in pain.

"I wanted to forget this feeling. But every time I did I felt like I was betraying you. That you did this to me so you could always have someone care about you, always have someone there. You said it yourself, you only see me as a mirror of the past. Reflecting on what you want to see, when you were happy. You want that back, so you did this to me. And I hate you for it." Kurenai finished. Trying to give her the harshest glare she could muster towards the stupefied blonde.

Naruto finally glanced back into Kurena's dead eyes. The exotic crimson irises that he spent countless nights dreaming of now seemed tainted, burning him up with a single look. Softly, he removed his hand from her chest, letting it drop down to his side as he took a step back. While usually he would have wished to be this close to Kurenai, now it just felt unbelievable wrong.

"I-I.."

Naruto stuttered, he was at a complete loss for words. His mouth opened and closed several times but no words escaped him. An awkward silence fell around the two of them, the tension growing thicker with each passing second. It was so thick that people walking the streets could feel something going wrong in this small room.

"If-if you want I can take them away. Make you forget everything. About me and the plan."

Kurenai gasped, eyes going wide as she looked at Naruto in shock. "Why? Why would you do that?"

Naruto couldn't bring himself to smile as the words flowed out of him without restraint. "Because I love you Kurenai. I have since I was a kid. You were on my mind almost constantly before and after I left Konoha. I won't deny what I did to you, but if I can reverse it and make you happy again. I'll do it in a heartbeat." Naruto said, not even feeling any happiness at his impromptu love confession like he thought he would be.

Kurenai looked away, balling her hand into a fist as she held it close to her chest. She shut her eyes before turning away from Naruto until her back was facing him.

"I don't want to forget you. Even though this is fake...or whatever this is I'm feeling. It meant something to me." She said sadly, turning her head to meet Naruto's broken sharingan eye as he looked at her in sadness. She gave a sad smile, so small that Naruto wasn't even sure he saw it in the first place.

"I think it's time you go, Naruto. Just go."

Naruto slowly nodded, not meeting Kurenai's eyes as he turned around, not wanting her to see the devastation reflecting on his face clear as day. Each step he took felt like a dagger piecing into his heart as he reached her front door, gripping the doorknob with a shaky arm.

"Can you promise me one thing?" Naruto said

Kurenai let her smile drop, hesitantly nodding her head as she noted the distance between the two of them. Whispering a quiet yes in response as she dug her nails into her skin, hoping the pain would help ease what she was feeling on the inside.

Naruto stopped, debating on turning around to meet her eyes again but decided against it. "Just in case, stay away from the Hokage tower tomorrow afternoon."

Kurenai kept her face blank, trying to imagine the expression that was on the blonde's face at this very moment. After a few harsh seconds she nodded again, she wanted so bad to go over to him and hug him from behind. To tell him it would be okay and that she was there for him. Yet, she couldn't. She could no longer tell that was her own desire, or if it was the desire Naruto implanted in her.

"I promise." Kurenai whispered quietly.

And as soon as the words left her mouth, Naruto was gone.