Takigakure: Four Months, Thirteen Days Ago:
"Isn't it our lucky day? Not only is the Nine-Tails here but so is my foolish little brother."
"Itachi!" Sasuke growled at his older brother, "I'll kill you." Sasuke activated the Raijin no Ken, and charged his older brother. Sasuke was so enraged he didn't notice Itachi's partner swing his large bundled object at the back of Sasuke's head.
"Sasuke!" Activating his right eye, Naruto pulled the bandaged weapon out of Itachi's partner's hand.
"What the hell was that? Careful Kisame!" Itachi shouted a warning to his partner. However he was too late, Naruto had followed up wit his eye's other power, blasting Kisame away.
Itachi looked Naruto in the eyes, "That power is dangerous, Tsukuyomi." As Naruto collapsed, Itachi easily dodged Sasuke's neck high swipe. "It's time out for you, Sasuke, Tsukuyomi." Itachi began to stalk towards Hinata and Shibuki; the only two that he thought were left standing. Therefore he was surprised when a kunai hit him in the back.
"I…WILL…NOT…BREAK!" Tears streaming down his face Sasuke had helped Naruto back to his feet. "You're a monster Itachi. I will have my vengeance. Naruto, I'm still not strong enough, I need your help."
Nodding weakly Naruto activated his fox shroud. Grabbing his staff sword Naruto charged Itachi from the left, while Sasuke charged from the right with the Raijin no Ken. 'Where's Kisame? He couldn't have been blown that far away.' Itachi thought as he dodged the flurry of blows Sasuke and Naruto threw at him. He was surprised when a water whip wrapped around his ankle and Naruto and Sasuke's blows caught him from opposite sides.
"Nice move Hinata. Did we get him?" Naruto panted.
"No," Itachi's body burst into crows, "You did not get me." Itachi was impressed with the teamwork these three showed, but it wouldn't be enough to stop him.
"Come on guys, even if we can't actually kill him, we drive him off." Naruto said as Team Seven began to circle Itachi. "Formation Seven-B guys."
"Doton: Doryū Taiga (Earth Release: Earth Flow River)/ Fuuton: Daitoppa/Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu" Hinata turned the ground under Itachi to mud at the same time as Naruto and Sasuke launched their attacks at Itachi. Once again Itachi burst into crows, avoiding the attack completely.
"You'll have to do better then that if you want to beat me."
Once again all three attacked him, once again Itachi disappeared in a burst of crows, "Is that all you have, Sasuke? You're still weak! What did you do with the time I gave you?"
"Stop toying with us you bastard!" Naruto shouted.
"Fine," Itachi's voice came from everywhere, "Katon: Hōsenka Tsumabeni" (Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson/Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Shuriken Jutsu) A burst of flaming shuriken rained down on them most of them headed towards Hinata, Naruto leapt in front of her just before the shuriken impacted.
"Naruto-Kun!" Hinata caught Naruto before he fell.
"I have no choice I hope this works," Naruto Growled, with his left eye glowing, Naruto slammed his palms on the ground Naruto summoned five toads, including Gamabunta.
'How did he do that with out using blood?' Itachi thought to himself, worried about the powers Naruto was using. 'More importantly how am I supposed to beat five boss level summons by myself?"
"Gamabunta, I need you to reverse summon Jiraiya!"
'Well, crap.' Thought Itachi, 'If he can reverse summon Jiraiya then we're seriously outmatched.'
Just then Kisame staggered out of the woods, missing his hat and his cloak, with leaves in his hair, and covered in small scratches, mumbling to himself, "Two miles! Two bloody miles!" Kisame blinked at the sight of the three giant toads and two smaller though no less dangerous looking ones, "Alright, what did I miss?"
"Kisame we need to do something abut the boss summons, if he's allowed to finish his technique I think we might be in trouble…"
"What am I supposed to do charge the giant frog and punch it to death? Use Amaterasu, that'll take care of it."
"If I do that I'll be functionally blind and out of chakra for the rest of the fight, I used Tsukuyomi twice already."
"Damn it Itachi! That's three times today are you trying to kill yourself?" Gamabunta was almost finished with his jutsu and Kisame didn't have enough time or water to pull off a jutsu capable of stopping Gamabunta in time. So he leapt straight at Gamabunta's head hoping to land in his eye. Unfortunately for Kisame, Gamaken hopped in front of him and deflected him back into the woods with a bash of his shield. "Noooooooot aaaaaaagaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiin…" came Kisame's cry as he sailed through the air once again.
"I stand corrected," Itachi said watching his partner sail through the air, "It's our unlucky day."
Gamabunta finished his summon and Jiraiya appeared in a poof of smoke. "What's going on here?" Jiraiya asked.
Once again Kisame came crashing through the undergrowth, this time he appeared to have landed in a thorn bush. "Alright next person to do that is dead, I don't care who it is or how long it takes but I'm going to kill them slowly and painfully. Now where the hell is Samehada." He groused, while looking around for his sword, finally tripping over it in the undergrowth.
Watching Sasuke, Naruto and Hinata prop each other up. Jiraiya said, "Good job lasting as long as you did against these two."
"Kisame grab the girl, we need to make a tactical retreat." Itachi and Kisame had used a lot of chakra trying to bring the Seven-Tails down, and then Itachi had tried to end the fight quickly with Tsukuyomi, now he was almost empty, and strong as he was Kisame was no match for Jiraiya by himself.
"Problem, Itachi, she's over there." Kisame pointed to the unconscious Fu whose injuries where being tended to by Shibuki. In between her and them were five Toads ranging from large to giant and the man who was often hailed as the strongest ninja alive. "I think we lost Itachi…The boss ain't gonna be happy."
"Kisame jump!" Itachi shouted and dived out of the way. He had seen Naruto's right eye begin to glow and he remembered what it did to Kisame last time it connected., this time however it wasn't a directed blast Naruto simple blew everything in a sixty degree arc away from him, before collapsing completely.
When the too of them finally came to a stop, Kisame was the first to speak. "I hate that kid."
"We need to inform Leader-sama of the boy's abilities. He's stronger than expected." Itachi tried to stand before collapsing in a heap, "Note to self: never fight two Jinchuriki back to back. Help me up Kisame, I did all the hard work today, you just got thrown around like a rag doll."
Picking Samehada up in one hand and slinging Itachi over his shoulder with the other Kisame staggered off towards their base in Taki. "Shut up Itachi, we all have bad days. So…Janken to decide who has to tell the boss?"
"You're on."
Back with Naruto and Team Seven Jiraiya was busy tending to Team Seven's wounds. "Why didn't you try that sooner Naruto?"
"I did, sent Kisame flying. He came back though." Naruto said tiredly, unable to really move after using so much chakra. "I used as much chakra as I could this time hopefully they're far away enough to not want to come back and fight you."
Jiraiya picked Naruto up, "Come on you two we need to get back to Konoha."
"Wait! Jiraiya-sama!" Shibuki shouted at them as they turned to leave, "Please take Fu with you, we can't protect her if those two come back for her here."
Jiraiya nodded and slung the still unconscious girl over his shoulder. As they turned to leave Sasuke reminded Shibuki, "You know you'll have to pay for at least one D-rank, One C-Rank, One A-Rank, and probably an S-Rank?"
Shibuki slumped, "Please don't remind me…"
Laughing Jiraiya reassured the leader of Takigakure, "Don't worry, Konoha as payment plans for missions the go this far south unexpectedly."
"They do? Thank Kami, I thought I might have just bankrupted Taki in one day…" Shibuki sighed in relief, "Thanks for your help but, please don't take this the wrong way, if I never see you lot again it'll be too soon."
Naruto laughed weakly from Jiraiya's arms, "I feel the same way Shibuki, but make sure you take care of yourself. That was a brave thing you did fighting a guy who outmatched you like that." They left in silence Hinata helping the exhausted Sasuke walk, Jiraiya carrying the two Jinchūriki. "Why don't we summon Gamabunta, and have him carry us back?" Naruto asked sleepily.
"Because Gamabunta will kill me if I ask?" Jiraiya scoffed.
"Put me down for a second, Ero-Sennin. Gamabunta said that he has to obey me." Seeing the worried look on Jiraiya's face Naruto continued, "Don't worry I'll ask nicely." Sighing resignedly Jiraiya lowered Naruto to his feet. Once more, with his left eye glowing, Naruto summoned Gamabunta. "Gamabunta-sama I have a terrible request to make of you."
"Kid your creeping me out what do you want?"
"Mighty Gamabunta! I humbly request that you carry us poor, tired Shinobi back to Konoha."
"You know I have to obey you anyways, why ask like that?" While mildly creeped out by Naruto's sudden politeness, Gamabunta enjoyed the flattery.
"When asking someone to do something unpleasant, especially when they have no choice, it helps to be polite. After all you're my partner, I wouldn't want to offend you."
"Who are you, and what have you done with my summoner?" Gamabunta joked, "Alright you lot, climb on all have you back to Konoha in no time at all." The five of them climbed tiredly on to Gamabunta's head, Naruto and Sasuke fell asleep almost immediately, instead of sleeping Hinata began to tend to Naruto's wounds.
"Do you want me tell him?" Jiraiya asked Hinata.
"W-w-what d-d-do you m-m-mean?"
"Naruto is a special kind of dense; I doubt he'll ever figure out how you feel on his own. If you're to shy to tell him yourself I can tell him for you."
"P-P-Please d-d-don't…I n-n-need t-to do it m-m-myself…"
"If you say so girlie. I hope you work up the courage to do it soon. Someone else might beat you too it." Jiraiya warned her.
"Th-Thank y-you Jiraiya-sama…"
"No problem girlie, just make sure you treat him right, he's my godson after all."
After she was done with Naruto she bandaged Sasuke's wounds, not that he had many, after all he didn't jump in front of a volley of flaming shuriken to save her. They rode the rest of the way to Konoha in companionable silence. When they finally got there they were met by the Hokage and Kakashi, Gamabunta after all was hard to miss. And Jiraiya had disappeared quite suddenly during a meeting.
"Jiraiya what happened to my students?" Kakashi asked Jiraiya as soon as he was in earshot.
"I don't know all of it actually. Hey, Naruto! We're here wake up!" Jiraiya shook Naruto awake.
"Bwah? Was' goin' on?"
"Tell us what happened after I left, please."
"Um… a Taki missing-nin hired a bunch of Ame ninja to steal something, one of them had a weird sword, Sasuke show the Hokage please." Sasuke activated the Raijin no Ken.
"That belonged to the Nidaime! Rokushō Aoi had it stolen before he defected!"
"Aoi? Huh, maybe I should have killed him."
"What did you do to him to get him to give up the Raijin?"
"Cut his arm off…Anyways, after we defeated Suien, the missing-nin, we went to check on Taki's Jinchūriki, Fu." Naruto pointed to the still unconscious girl. "She was being kidnapped by these two guys in black cloaks with red clouds on them. One was Hoshigaki Kisame," The Hokage's eyebrows raised Kisame was a famous and deadly Ninja, "and the other was Uchiha Itachi."
"Itachi!" The Hokage interrupted, "how did you survive?"
"Luck mostly he…used a Genjutsu on us…but how Sasuke got back up after it I don't know. I had Kurama to protect me form the worst of it, but it was still really bad…I don't want to talk about it…" Naruto drifted off for a moment before shuddering and continuing telling the Hokage what happened, "He toyed with us for a bit, but I summoned a bunch of toads and had them summon Jiraiya to us and that basically scared them off."
"I…see…"
"So what was the meeting about Kakashi sensei?"
"I don't know how to say this, but someone assassinated Haruno Umeko last night. They used the same weapon she used against you."
"That's terrible! Poor Sakura I hoped her mother would get better…who did it? Do you know?"
The Hokage was silent for a moment, before speaking, "All evidence we've found so far points to one person, and one person only."
"Who? Are you going to arrest them? I hope they get what they deserve, she already got her punishment."
"The person is you, Naruto."