I do not own Naruto no matter how much I wish I did.

Yo, long time no see folks. Im glad I had time to finish this, was in kind of a rush.

My bf said that she wanted to post my other story from wattpad on this sight as well. So you might get a new story from me. Wattpad is really depressing with the lack of reviews, but its probably because of the too common plot. Well if she does do it, i would be very happy if you read and commented.

INARI BLESSED

Naruto and Sasuke stood across from each other. With a silent signal, they began to move through a fluid dance of taijutsu. Sasuke's taijutsu was high genin level at best, while Naruto far exceeded Sasuke even with his gravity and resistance seals on, reaching high chunin level.

The spar lasted for some time, in then end the both of them decided to take a break, though Naruto was far from tired.

"You seem worried, Naru." Sasuke muttered as he gazed at his unusually quiet friend.

"I am."

"Is it because of what Kakashi sensei said?" Sasuke and the other two had already been informed about the conclusions arrived by the jonin.

"Yes…. I knew that there was someone behind the incident seven years ago… but the thought of meeting that man unsettles me. It is not as much fear as it is anxiety. That man did cause a major turn of my life after all…" Naruto said as he silently stared at the flowing water of the stream nearby.

Sasuke nodded in understanding. "I know there is more that you are not telling me. I respect your secrets, so I will not pry. Regardless, I want you to know that as your friend, I will always stand by you…"

Naruto looked at Sasuke with a grin, "Getting sappy with me now, are you Sasu chan!"

Naruto was very much relieved by Sasuke's words.

Sasuke's eyebrows twitched in irritation; "Dobe"

"Teme" Naruto countered with a grin.

"You know that my parents were married before my birth." Sasuke clarified.

"And you know that I am not really a dead last."

"Hn"

With that both of them turned silent. Relishing the comfort in their usual banter. For Naruto, it was an anchor to further convince his mind of who he is and for Sasuke it was confirmation that Naruto still valued him as a friend.

"So what have you decided?" Kakashi asked the two rouge ninja in front of him. Uzume stood next to the wall silently.

Haku was the one who spoke, "We do not want to fight you."

Uzume and Kakashi nodded.

"And…" Zabuza spoke up, "We want to help you take down Gato."

"And what is your reason for that?" Kakashi asked although he already knew the answer.

"Gato betrayed us and for that, that midget will pay. And it is obvious that you need help from how banged up you are from fighting whoever it was that Gato hired."

"The added muscle will help us." Uzume said, "So welcome to the group then."

Haku and Zabuza was surprised at their sudden acceptance.

"Are you not worried that we might deceive you?" Haku asked honestly confused. What would've they done had this been a trap set by Gato?

Kakashi gave his patented eye smile, "We would've been worried about you deceiving us, if it had been possible."

Zabuza narrowed his eyes at the silver haired man, "What do you mean?"

"What he means is that, one of those seals on you renders you incapable of lying to us."

Both Haku and Zabuza's eyes widened.

"So, shall we discuss our next course of actions?" Kakashi asked cheerfully.

"Do I really have to do this?" Kyoshiro knew it was unbecoming of a thousand year old spirit guardian to whine, but he was in a twelve year old body, so give him a break.

"Sorry Kyo, you're the only one capable of helping him." She was sympathetic for her friend. But her situation was not really that much better so it was hard to be sympathetic.

The three of them had been asked to train the three from Kakashi's team. They had allowed Naruto to train Sasuke, as it would help both of them. And now the result of their sacrifice was standing in front of them annoyed… at them… what right does have the bubblegum and emo have to be annoyed? Kyoshiro felt like growling.

"Sakura, you will be training with me." Yumiko said.

"Why should I be training with you? As if you know anything! Ha! What a joke! I should be training with Shin kun, because he knows a lot more than all of you." There goes the bubblegum ranting on and on about the greatness of her Shin kun.

"Well… I tried talking." Yumiko stepped back with a sigh, and then a downright devilish smile bloomed on her beautiful face.

Sakura and Shin shivered as the killer intent rose, suffocating them like a viper coiled around their lungs.

Sakura looked at Yumiko terrified. Yumiko's long raven hair split apart into nine 'tails' bat-like clawed wings erupted from her back, horns protruding from her head and silver eyes turned red, blood dripped from her elongated fangs.

Sakura screamed terrified.

"Run little human RUN… RUN FOR YOUR LIFE…." The monstrous voice and Sakura began running like her life depended on it (which it did; from Sakura's point of view at least).

"That was easy." Kyoshiro said looking at Yumiko who stood calmly while Sakura was running under the influence of her genjutsu.

Yumiko just shrugged and calmly strode after a running Sakura, "Good luck. I have to go and check on the pinky to see if she needs some additional 'motivation'."

Kyoshiro and Shin was left alone in the clearing.

"So…" Kyoshiro drawled, "I am going to teach you how to keep the biju chakra under control."

Shin scowled, "I don't need any help for that. The sharingan is enough to keep it under control."

Kyoshiro snorted, "Oh really? If I heard right around hundreds of Uchiha with active sharingan was present at the time of the Kyubi attack, so why wasn't the Kyubi stopped?"

"Are you insulting my clan's abilities?" Shin growled.

"Where did you get that idea from? I was simply pointing out the fatal flaw in your argument. And while I do believe that it will be infinitely easier to keep the Kyubi's chakra under control since both the seal and sharingan are present; you still need proper training."

Seeing Shin's petulant scowl, Kyoshiro had to physically stop himself from smashing the Uchiha to the ground.

"In case you have forgotten, the one we're fighting happens to be a seal master; who already knows how the yondaime's seal works and have successfully tampered with it once. So there is a very high chance that your seal will fail. We have to be prepared for such a situation. Your sharingan won't be enough if the seal fails. By the way, what level is your sharingan?"

Shin smirks and activates three tomoe in each eyes. Two fully matured sharingan eyes. Kyoshiro was concerned. He knew that the abundant biju chakra will make his eye advance much more quickly and with the boy's attitude, such power will turn out to be a liability to them in the future. There is a high chance that if even one tail worth of chakra leaks out of the seal, his sharingan may go further.

On the outside, Kyoshiro kept his face emotionless and nodded.

"I want you to start by meditating and trying to further strengthen your mental barriers."

"That's all you are going to teach me?" Shin scowled. "To meditate?"

"You expected something else? My job is to make as less susceptible to the chakra's influence as possible, and that is what I am doing. If you have a problem, suck it up. Because both of were given an order by our superiors and insubordination is a crime."

With much reluctance, Shin tried meditating. While he meditated, Kyoshiro used his rather weak connection with the biju chakra to keep it calm to the best of his abilities.

Kyoshiro had a very bad feeling about the upcoming fight.

"What are you doing to my men?" Gato asked the strange missing nin that had quite forcefully offered help. He was placing some kind of seal on each and every one of Gato's men for unknown reasons; no one had the nerve to object; as the man was crazy and brutal.

"This will make them stronger." The man replied simply, still continuing to put the seal on another thug.

Gato was both surprised and pleased with this; so were the thugs who heard this.

"The seal gives them the power to drain chakra, increase their speed, strength and pain tolerance by four times. This will give you an edge on those Konoha shinobi and Zabuza."

Gato was confused, "Konoha shinobi? But why would I have any problem with them. The bridge builder is dead and they left, right?"

"Oh you poor fool… I am 99% sure that the bridge builder is still alive. The Konoha shinobi are still here and if I am right in my assumptions, Zabuza and Haku have joined them." He had paid a little visit to the bridge builder's house earlier. Being a seal master himself, he had immediately noticed the security and detection seals and had made sure to keep out of their boundaries.

He knew the two Konoha jonin was inside the sealed area, so it can only mean that the bridge builder was alive, or they were trying to protect the man's daughter and grandchild. Also the customized seal was the sign of a seal prodigy; one real close to mastery. He really hoped that the seal prodigy was the same child that had slipped past his plans last time. If that was the case, he would be a really happy man. Not that he was any less happy at the moment, he giggled. And even if it wasn't the Uzumaki kid, he'd still get to slaughter some Konoha shinobi.

He wished he could get the new jinchuuriki as well, that would be so fun. He grinned.

Gato growled, "So that Zabuza tried to trick me?" For a moment he had forgotten that the midget was still there.

"I have no idea about that, but I know that I'll be having some much needed fun in a few days." He giggled.

Gato mean while was thinking on how to further use the seals, if all his men had the seal; by the end of the battle and once the shinobi all were weak, he could use his men to kill them and collect all their bounties.

"Hey, you could give me one of those seals too?" Gato asked.

"Hmm…" the man looked thoughtful, the grinned, "I'll give you an even better one."

A cold chill ran down Gato's spine as the man chuckled coldly.

TWO DAYS LATER

Team 11 stood at the bridge guarding Tazuna as he worked.

The last two days had been disturbingly quiet. Not even Gato's thugs were seen. Paranoia was setting in. Since Tazuna had already started working at the bridge, it was obvious that Gato would know about him being alive.

The bridge workers were acting more confident, thinking that it was the presence of the shinobi that had drove away Gato. But Naruto almost had a sick feeling in his gut, like something terrible was going to happen. And he knew that both his friends shared the same feeling.

"What do you think is going to happen, sensei?" Yumiko asked quietly.

"Something terrible" Uzume spoke solemnly.

"And I have this feeling that somehow we are ill-prepared for whatever is coming." Kyoshiro said.

"Multiple chakra signatures approaching" Yumiko said. "Civilian level"

"I can sense their ill intent, probably Gato's thugs." Naruto spoke as he stood straighter.

"I wonder why he didn't send his mysterious shinobi." Uzume asked. "Evacuate the bridge. Although it is unnecessary, precautions are better than cure."

Naruto and Kyoshiro nodded and moved towards the workers. A few choice words had the workers warily moving towards the opposite end of the bridge.

Suddenly Naruto and Kurama tensed and both turned their attention in the direction to the village centre. Both their eyes widened as they felt it.

"Naruto? Kurama?" Uzume asked warily. Yumiko concentrated on sensing whatever had caught their attention.

"There is an erratic chakra usage going on in the direction of the village centre. A battle." Yumiko confirmed.

"Not just any battle, they got civilians involved. We can feel their fear." Naruto said.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Just as Kyoshiro stopped speaking Uzume had to block an incoming sword strike.

"Fast" Uzume said with narrowed eyes as the bandits moved in to fight. It wasn't too fast for a ninja of her caliber, but it was definitely faster than what these thugs should be capable of.

With the workers safely out of the way, the four ninjas engaged the bandits in fight.

Uzume used taijutsu on the bandits that she was facing and quickly found out that it was a very bad idea.

As soon as her fist had connected with the thug's jaw, her eyes widened and she jumped back away from the grinning thugs.

"Heh! The ninja bitch is afraid of us boys." One thug sneered.

Beside her, her three students had mimicked her actions by jumping back.

"They're draining our chakra." Yumiko stated.

"And they've somehow boosted their abilities." Uzume added.

"It's a seal. I have heard about those before." Naruto said.

The thugs chuckled mockingly once they heard the boy talk. Their laughter soon stopped as Naruto said the next sentence,

"Just don't touch them. Strike them down with projectiles." Naruto's nonchalant reply had the thugs fidgeting. One of the braver souls growled and stepped forward to finish of the brat. He didn't know what hit him, before he had a kunai sticking out of his throat; courtesy of Uzume.

"You're right. Strike them down my minions." Uzume said with a sadistic chuckle.

"Attack!" the thugs roared out and moved towards the ninja.

Uzume ducked under an out stretched fist and buried her kunai in the stomach of a thug, careful not to make contact. But even she was a little disturbed to see the man still fighting with his stomach torn open; as if he didn't feel any pain. Maybe a part of the seal. She mused and continued dodging the thug's more sluggish strikes. As she continued fighting, she slowly watched the man die from blood loss, she wasn't even sure whether he knew he was dying or not.

Kyoshiro was doing good work with Tamashi and Senshi. He had to release all of his resistance and gravity seals to get an edge on the improved thugs. Naruto and Yumiko had done the same. Naruto had Akaikaze out and Yumiko was busy throwing kunai after kunai at the thugs.

All of them froze as they felt the unmistakable evil aura that filled the air.

"Kyubi…" Kyoshiro uttered.

Sorry to kind of abruptly end it and all. But my muse kind of went to sleep, so... sorry. Well see ya later.

Review if ya like it.