Title inspired by "Attack! Fury of the Rasengan!" from Part One. XD When Naruto defends Tsunade against Kabuto - with his father's technique.

I wanna say thank you for all the support this has received, but as for those who say that because this is femNaruto: I chose to keep Naruto in the filter because this character is essentially SHORT for Naruto, due to her being born a girl in this timeline. Also, Naruko sounds weird to me even though it's feminine form. Sorry, but that's just the way it is to me.

If anyone is happy with the Naruko name, you can also check out my modern oneshot "The Brightest Star Will Come Out". :)

Chapter Four

Attack! Spice of the Skirmish!

He wasted no time having the results brought to him personally, and it turned out that the traces left behind contained none other than C1. He narrowed his eye as the conclusion was under their noses only to come before their eyes.

The Akatsuki member Deidara, formerly of Iwagakure.

Which meant the Akatsuki now had Uzumaki, to no doubt extract her tailed beast. It was a greater threat to his power than before. That also meant...Itachi will return once again.

If they had the Kyuubi, that left one more tailed beast. This wasn't going to play for his advantage, unless the first Allied Shinobi Force would come into play against the terrorists led by Itachi Uchiha, as well as Otogakure under his younger brother, and during a new Five Kage Summit that he would have to call on his own. There had been none before when he first became Hokage, as the other villages kept their Jinchuuriki locked away for measure, except the Godaime Kazekage who was the youngest in their history was a former vessel himself. His village should have kept him on the leash if to prevent the Akatsuki from taking him before.

If Itachi would be back, then there was one thing he could do without having the need to ask any of the Jounin's permission, since they did not make such decisions. He would leave it to his Black Ops to seek out the one he needed for his plans.

Sai did not yet have Naru's location; the boy sent a clone and ink animals in his own place, which was a nuisance in itself. But perhaps this could benefit as there was three of them and the girl, so a surprise attack once the location was spotted was enough.

On the other hand, he wasn't going to take any chances.

He was at his desk when he was finished with his letter that he would get his bat to deliver - to the one he would pit against Itachi and Naru when the time was right. Danzo was prepared for resistance firsthand if it came to that.

~o~

Naru and his subordinates conversing while he got the fire ready - it was a sight that made him secretly smile. But he couldn't afford to spill his secrets except to her, in order for them to move forward with understanding, since she reminded him of Shisui.

Only she would have to be persuaded that she could not breathe a word to anyone without any solidarity. He wouldn't be surprised if Danzo destroyed the evidence in ANBU ever since taking office, and that was for the best, perhaps. Once he helped Naru, he would return to exile for the rest of his days. The Akatsuki needed a purpose.

The group was camped underneath a great tree steered clear from the forest of the border they crossed. However, as he listened to them - especially Kisame - he wished that he could have said something that didn't expose everything, but his partner was the closest of a friend he could have called if they warned each other to watch their backs.

Deidara he could have, but the bomber was too single-minded. But here we have Naru working her magic...

"What has been going on since I was locked up?" she asked.

Now Itachi would speak for all of them. "Many things. But with the Akatsuki, ever since Great Leader Pain died, it has been only the three of us - and one more who is only our eyes and ears. Tomorrow we have to rendezvous with him before we arrive at the Sand Village." He smoothed out the front of his cloak as he took his place across her and Deidara, Kisame alongside the Uchiha. "However, I have also done the job of keeping tabs on the Leaf Village with my crows, and what I have to tell you is precarious and devastating."

Her gaze hardened. "You don't have to say anything much. I know my fellow Shinobi are split up, but I don't want to know who among who -"

"The Hyuuga sided with Danzo," he interrupted, "but did you know that?"

Her face was frozen in shock, but she said nothing. Not that she needed to. He went on. "However, the majority are quietly planning to overthrow him, but it won't be easy as long as he has his Root foundation at disposal - as well as the Hyuuga. And he won't hesitate to eliminate any of your friends if he found they were meeting in secret. So now that we have you, and if the Kazekage gets his people to accept, we have an advantage."

It could look up, but now isn't the time to be lax.

"Yeah, you're right!" Naru said, smiling, though her brows were in that scowl. "I'm out of there, and wait till that crazy old man see us when Gaara gets everyone with him."

Kisame shifted, stretching his arm out with Samehada as a small means to exercise his muscle. "I would watch what I say, because we haven't reached the Sand Village yet." She rolled her eyes at him.

"You think I don't know that? I know Gaara, and he can do just what I did to him when he attacked us at the Chuunin Exams."

No doubting the truth and wisdom of those words. "I've met with your friend to know you are right," Itachi said, looking into the flickering amber of the flames. "In fact, he was distrusting because he had every right to be. As were his brother and sister. Though I convinced them we had better intentions to amend the mistakes of the past."

She looked at him with something akin to suspicion. "Yeah, elaborate on what you meant when you said Akatsuki was rectifying."

"He means that we don't collect the tailed beasts anymore," Deidara answered, wrinkling his nose and then softening it. "They are going to be given back in the future, but something else to worry about. I didn't even sign up for this hero stuff. Not like we've been treated like this for years, remember?"

Itachi closed his eyes to the word hero.

Hissing, Naru spat, and it caused the fire to flash brighter. "That's gonna change. I promise to all of you." With that, she picked up a kunai that was laying on the ground - it was one of Deidara's, as he was polishing them - and she did the one thing a sane Shinobi would never do at an inopportune time.

She ran the sharp point across her palm, drawing dark red blood that dripped onto the earth. "I swear on my blood that we're all going to make this together - no matter any promises of death - and we avenge ourselves as well as my village...and those who died under Danzo's rule!" She closed her fingers into a fist and raised it as the final nail to the coffin.

Kisame looked upon her declaration with a mixture of stun and admiration. Deidara was no different than he was that day Itachi had him under the genjutsu.

The Uchiha himself felt his own blood boil with mixed reaction as he watched the woman cut herself for the oath in her life's fluid which continued to flow across her fair skin and onto the ground at her feet.

It was then that another voice cut through the air, startling all four of them to alert and assuming the position. Itachi activated his eyes, standing before all of them. Kisame put his hand on Samehada's handle, Deidara slapped both his hands and then showed off the gaping jaws in the palms, and Naru raised that still-bloodied knife in her hand - as I thought, her eyes! She's mastered Sage Mode! I'm impressed more than I was before - but then she lowered her stance when she recognized who stepped out and called her name.

"Do you always cut yourself when you make a promise? I don't recall you doing that when we were a team."

"S-SAI?!"

~o~

Danzo sent him, so be on your guard. Her hand stung a little from the cut, but it was nothing.

Well, at least let me heal that up for you, runt.

Go on ahead. She felt the skin pull together and seal. "That snake sent you," she stated through her teeth. He looked at her with a sad expression - guilt? He couldn't even act against his superior if he wanted to, but here he was.

He nodded. "He did...but I'm not here to bring you back. I've made the choice on my own. I did come to warn you once I found where you were." Then his attention shifted to the boys, Fish Face grinning at him but ready to cut him to pieces if he wanted to, Deidara not trusting him in the slightest, but Itachi eyed him inquisitively to see whether or not he could be trusted.

Though Naru saw that he meant it. She knew him long enough, and she could see those extras coming, but they were far behind him. He had no idea, did he? "They're not going to take me for devious measure," she assured her old teammate. "In fact, they proved it so far without trying too much."

"Un, so what use would she be dead?" Deidara huffed. Sai only looked at him without a blink before looking back at her.

"I suppose if she trusts you, then I will for her sake. Naru, I want you to go wherever you are now and to come back so you can save our village. You moralized our people," he went on, "so they need you more than ever now that they know you have gotten away."

There was that smile - the smile which he still had no idea how to feel about, but he meant it because he knew its symbolism based on his reading. "You got it, Sai," Naru said, turning to look at Itachi and the others. "We're going to Gaara."

"If you could, you must tell your fellow Jounin, but only those you trust," Itachi said sternly. "Think of this as a covert operation between loyalists."

Sai nodded. "Understood."

By this time, the backup ANBU were coming in, and she thought of an idea that could work which didn't involve killing any of them. Even though they were under Danzo's wing, she didn't believe in killing fellow Konoha ninja. "Step aside, boys, and let me do the work," she declared, and so weaved the hand signs, shouting the transformation and focusing all her chakra to burst into the puff of smoke around herself...

...and when it cleared, what was left was none other than Naru Uzumaki in her glory, except it wasn't like she actually stripped down to show her body. Because where would she have the time now?

This jutsu brought back the good memories of when she pranked Iruka-sensei, then Ebisu and Pervy Sage - sometimes others who would smack her back to the reality, because not every man would fall for the trick - and this time felt refreshing, because now she used it without the need for blood. And to see how the boys get a load of this!

Then she was twelve years old, finished puberty, but the Sexy Jutsu had a mature, curvaceous version of herself; now at her age, it was advanced to her real liking that no man got to see, but they were welcomed to guess without knowing how TRUE it was.

The smoke eventually cleared away to show her ample breasts, her hourglass hips and of course the other part that made her female, which the men didn't get to see other than her heart-shaped backside, though when she turned to glance at them from the corner of her eye, Naru found she enjoyed every single one of their reactions:

Deidara got so pink and his eyes turned into white balls.

Kisame sniggered and commented that she was more of a bad girl than he thought she was.

Of course it was expected that Sai gave no reaction since he'd seen the jutsu before - that one time Konohamaru and a shadow clone of his formed the new edition - and Itachi of course turned his face to the side as a sign of respect. Doesn't want to see something best reserved for man and woman behind closed doors; he's not uninterested in the slightest.

And of course it resulted in two of them going down with nosebleeds, but the others - five in counting - resisted and came at them with swords unsheathed.

"Oh, brimming with chakra - but all too easy," Kisame said, brandishing Samehada against a man in a boar's mask. "We really should be going, but you are all nuisances."

"I'm going to get us out of here!" Deidara yelled, unleashing his giant bird once again and leaping aboard. "We're gonna get the hell away!"

Angrily, Naru reverted back to herself and unleashed Sage Mode. Her eyes turned yellow with the outer orange pigments, and the black minus-like pupil. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" she shouted, ignoring Itachi effortlessly dodging another man in a mask and Sai risking his own skin just to help them. When her clone came to being, it was time to form the greatest masterpiece that would disable the last of the ANBU so they could get away.

"GIANT RASENGAN!"

The great ball of whirling blue made its way to the ground, causing the earth to rumble and send everyone off their feet - but she jumped onto the bird with Deidara, shouting at Itachi and Kisame to come on. Shouldn't have stopped after all. But we're not wasting anymore time now. When we get to Suna, I'm going to have a long-day sleep after this!

"Take care of yourself and the others, Sai!" she shouted, and when the rest of the boys were with her, they were going off ahead while the moon was still shining. The fire made had been burnt out because the earth shattered its setup into pieces.

~o~

He knew they were all coming, yet he didn't alert them on his own. She had Sage Mode, so she made the move on her own even as her friend arrived and said he had no intention of revealing where she was, at the cost of his own life if he had to.

She really has matured, if I never say it enough.

Although he had no idea what to make of this...interesting jutsu of hers which caused her to appear naked and the sensitive parts covered with smoke - until they cleared to show those aspects which he had no business seeing at this time. He didn't deserve the pleasure of such treats for the eyes...especially when it came to her. The one who made it clear she hated him, blamed him for Sasuke, which she had every right to.

Why did it bother him so much?

"Damn, that was a hell of an explosion," Deidara said, his skin still flushed, "but why did you have to use a jutsu like THAT?! It should be classified as forbidden!"

She laughed and threw her hair behind her shoulders. "It's a technique I invented before I became a Genin. I had great times using it on Iruka-sensei, anyone who got in my way, and of course, Jiraiya-sensei," Naru answered, sitting down and resting on her knees as she looked over the landscape, perched beside Itachi. "I had many nosebleeds made from most of them."

"...hn."

Itachi wasn't laughing, but the grunt was as close as it could get, at the images conjured up as he envisioned young Naru being more reckless with the technique she called the "Sexy Jutsu". Unbidden, he wondered if she looked the same as the illusion...

Kisame always had a reason to laugh at something himself. "It's a shame it won't work especially on the ones with less of a drive. Your friend didn't seem to have a care, for one."

Her face fell. "Sai has been an underling of Danzo for as long as he could remember, and that's all I know about him. He also had a brother whom he lost, who he was forced to fight, and then he died because he was very, very sick." Her voice sounded tight as if her vocal cords were strained. But the talk of her pale friend - he looks too much like Sasuke - and his brother made the Akatsuki leader stiffen and turn to look at her from the corner.

Someone who didn't understand what it was like to have bonds, forgot what it was like, because that's Danzo's manipulation of his subordinates. I remember everything...what he made me and Shisui do...

So he understood the emotionless young man who promised that he wouldn't betray Naru, that he would go back and report to whoever left was loyal to the true Konohagakure until she would come back.

Maybe some hours passed by without anymore stops, and it wasn't long before they flew over none other than River Country - where Akatsuki hiding places were abandoned, their new one waiting for its occupants to return - and then serene earth and water gave way to dry, arid sand mass.

So, I have been brainstorming how to get Itachi and Naru to not only talk about Sasuke, but the truth about the massacre. The question is whether or not he and his fellow Akatsuki are allowed to temporarily stay with their girl before we get back to serious business...I would love a suggestion if anyone has any. :)

Feedback always appreciated!