I used to like this story quite a bit, now I don't really like it. So, why is it getting updated more as of recently? Well, my thoughts on the idea haven't changed. I still like the idea of Naruto becoming a Bijuu and being against both the other ones and his former village. Yet, I feel as though this story has had the weakest characterization of anything I've written, including the very early chapters of Amenaza.

Chapter 16: Mist Scab

"Ughhhhh..."

The ANBU Captain wearing the bird-like mask flopped to the ground with a burning hole in his torso, surrounded by three other dead Konoha shinobi. Naruto scratched his reptilian head; it had been clean and painless compared to the other three ANBU.

The man should've counted himself lucky, as Naruto stared at his own festering golden chakra that was eating away at the wound and creating a larger hole.

Like nothing had happened, Naruto pulled the first scroll he had pilfered from the secret archive of Konoha. The one with the deceased Jinchuuriki, Yagura, who apparently was also the Yondaime Mizukage.

The team of ANBU had followed him as Naruto wandered through the forests of eastern Hi no Kuni, about halfway between Konohagakure and the coastline.

Of course, Naruto wasn't about to let them go back and report to his father what they found, even if there was no allegiance or any group, village, or organization to speak of with Naruto. He obviously couldn't let them be privy to his search for the Sanbi.

As the forest became field, Naruto's thoughts drifted. He would no doubt be on Konoha's radar at this point. Especially once those ANBU didn't report back. He doubted he had seen the last of them, however. And as long as he was weaker than the Kyuubi, Konoha had the power to seal him.

He ran a few fingers through the tall grass as he wandered throughout the countryside. Being alone in that cell gave him time to reflect upon himself, but there was something about moving through a grassy field on a windy day that made him think.

Most of his life had been spent as a Bijuu at this point, with eleven of his eighteen years behind that cage. Naruto wasn't human, so why was it that remnants of his human feelings had carried over with him so long?

His Bijuu mind had rang true when he killed those ANBU, he had felt nothing for the humans as they were poisoned by his chakra. It was like hunting; like the owl disregarding the mouse after killing it. A predator did not feel anything for its prey.

So, why... ten minutes later, was he starting to feel something for those dead Konoha ANBU? That had once been his village after all. He had marked himself as a traitor when he broke into the archives, and he was irredeemable in the eyes of Konoha after killing their shinobi.

"That's not your village anymore, is it? Bijuu don't swear allegiance to villages... villages don't seal away one of their own... those ANBU considered you the enemy and would've struck you down at any time if they were ordered to..."

Naruto was also of the opinion that pretty much all ninja were terrible people. Spending so much time in the seal had given him a deep distaste for ninja, and their ways, and the ANBU units filled him with even more disdain.

He put the thoughts out of his mind as he grew closer and closer to the coastline. The sooner Naruto could get out of Hi no Kuni territory, the better. Nevertheless, while the ANBU eventually slipped his mind, what the Nibi had told him rang true even as he moved through the ocean in his full Bijuu form.

In this form, crossing the sea only took a few hours, and he could see the large island that was the Mizu no Kuni just a few minutes into the voyage across the sea.

Once he finished crossing the sea and was in shallow waters, Naruto morphed back from his large true form to his more manageable humanoid form and stepped onto the beach.

True to its hidden village's namesake, the Mizu no Kuni was misty. A sun-drenched, tropical beach this place was not, as the water was as cold as the beach rocky.

Naruto wasn't there to sight-see however; he was there to investigate the Kirigakure no Sato and see if there was any information on the deceased Yagura and the potential whereabouts of the Sanbi.

Despite the island being relatively large, Mizu no Kuni was tiny compared to the other four great nations on the continent. There was only a town or two on the way to the hidden village, and it wasn't long before Naruto was standing on a hill overlooking Kiri.

Compared to Kumo, this village was relatively easy to travel to, but the name of the village still implied that it was relatively hidden. A mountain range hung in the backdrop of the village, shielding it from anyone who would want to enter it from that side. The area Naruto was in were the forested foothills where most people entered.

The architecture was different from Kumo in that most of the business and administrative buildings were cylindrical in shape. That wasn't the only thing Naruto noticed about the village however. He didn't know if it was just a feeling, but he got a somber feel from the place that wasn't present in Konoha or even Kumo. This village seemed to hold more dark secrets and bloody history than both of them.

Naruto began walking the path down from the hill he was on, moving to the southwest entrance of the village. As he got closer, he noticed that the village's cylindrical administrative buildings were intact, but the smaller residential district was fairly ramshackle.

Naruto grabbed the fabric of his black cloak in his claws, pulling the hood over his head as he pulled the hood over his head. He wasn't desperate to avoid detection in this village like he was in Konoha, but it would still pay to not be discovered.

Naruto sauntered up to the village gates with his hood up; the setup was similar to the Konoha gates, but there was an extra Chuunin guard there to bring the count up to three.

"State your business!" one of the Chuunin guards in the blue flak jacket said.

Well, Kiri shinobi were certainly a lot more blunt and rude than Konoha shinobi, but this village had a reputation. It wasn't as corrupt as Suna or as hardline as Iwa, but it was known as the most violent and oppressive of the five largest ninja villages.

Time to use the same tired excuse he always thought to use when he entered these villages.

"I'm just a traveler, here to visit some family in Kiri..." he said as if recited.

"Do you have a passport?" the Kiri guard asked.

"Fuck it..."

"Yeah, it's called passport deez nuts!" Naruto shouted, turning to face the Chuunin guards. The guards tensed but didn't necessarily take out weapons. Rowdy civilians weren't an uncommon affair.

Naruto had been banking on that, however. For when they hesitated was when Naruto thrust his arms. At first, it didn't seem like he didn't anything, but the poisonous gas he had created with his golden chakra seemed to perfectly blend in with the mist surrounding them.

The three Kiri Chuunins dropped to the floor within seconds, their faces rapidly turning right as they convulsed and vomited up blood, ichor, and mucus. Dead or unconscious Naruto didn't care. Like the outburst never happened, the Bijuu returned to being somewhat reserved and entered the village before someone noticed what had happened.

The interior of the village was just as slummy as it seemed on the outside. Mist and rainwater covered the village like a soulless fog, with heavy mold growing out of houses, and small leafy plants growing out of cracks in the pavement.

The citizens walked around with mostly dreary looks on their faces. All of them either just stared ahead blankly with little regard for their surroundings, or looked ready to look over their shoulder at any given moment.

Naruto gained a contemplative look at the dreary looks on their faces, and subconsciously pulled his hood tighter around his head. With his face concealed, Naruto moved closer to a random villager off the streets.

"Uh... excuse me?" he said to a random man. The man turned to him and squinted lightly at the concealed figure that was talking to him, and hummed lightly in both acknowledgement and dismissal. His face was emaciated and gaunt, and his clothes hung limply off his skinny frame. He reeked of poverty and misery.

"I'm a traveler who is new to the area, and I couldn't help but notice the dreary atmosphere in this village and its people. Why is everyone seemingly do depressed?"

"The Village of the Bloody Mist..." he muttered. The man was trying to lock eyes with Naruto and fix him with an intense stare. "Civil war, oppression, tortures, executions, rampant poverty. We got out of that period a mere number of years ago; it will take decades to fix the damage and heal the heartache brought about."

"The Village of the Bloody Mist. Would this reign of terror have anything to do with the Yondaime Mizukage?" Naruto asked. Apparently to ask that question triggered intense emotion in the civilian. Naruto could practically smell the fear oozing off him.

"T-The Yondaime Mizukage! That demon!"

Guess that answered that question.

"Do you know what happened to the Yondaime. Perhaps how he died?"

The man shook his head.

"We just know that he died one day. Us civilians didn't really even know who the Yondaime was, much less how he died. We just know he was the one responsible for this reign of terror... And ever since the Godaime took over, she's been trying squash any memory of those horrible events, but the people are still scared, y'know..." the civilian said to the hooded stranger.

"And what about the Bijuu inside him? Where is the Sanbi now?"

"Eh? Sanbi?"

Naruto didn't even bat an eyelash at the look of confusion that washed over the man's face. It just confirmed to him that the ordinary civilians did not know anything about the Bijuu in their former Kage.

"I see. Thank you for your time..." Naruto said, bowing to the man before turning and leaving him there confused. It looked like if he wanted information, he would have to shake down a Kiri-nin for it.

Easier said than done however, his abilities weren't exactly suited for interrogation and information gathering. That kind of work was too human for the likes of Naruto, but he had resorted to it several times already after his freedom.

Nevertheless, he didn't like staying long in this gloomy village. The Godaime Mizukage seemed to be doing everything in order to recover from the Bloody Mist era, so she no doubt knew everything that occurred in the downfall of Yagura.

Naruto scratched his chin with a claw as he wandered throughout the village, crossing into the business district as he did so. Where to start looking? Those guards he killed/knocked out at the front gates wouldn't go unnoticed forever, and he DID look fairly suspicious.

Well, he could make his way to the Mizukage tower... but that was only if he wanted a repeat of what happened in Konoha. Kiri may not have files on the current location of the Sanbi, anyway.

After hours of wandering through the village, Naruto hadn't made any recognizable leads.

"Hey! Hey, over here!"

"Huh?"

Someone was calling out to Naruto. A shadowy figure within the back alleyway in the business district was gesturing to him, and very clearly to him considering the way he was pointing directly at him.

Now, Naruto was a Bijuu, so the rules of "don't talk to strangers" or "never follow shady figures into back alleys" didn't exactly apply to him. Which is why he decided to throw the mysterious figure a bone and walk near the similarly cloaked individual.

"Word on the street is there's some strange fella wanderin' around the village... That wouldn't happen to be you now, would it?" the cloaked figure said, both him and Naruto seemingly trying to outdo each other in the "mysterious hooded figure" contest.

"So, tell me... why oh why... were there three Chuunin dead at the village gates after a slow day of no unauthorized personnel entered the village? Why were this giving off residual chakra that was colored gold? And why do you seem to nothing more than a bundle of that same golden chakra?" the figure's voice had taken on a distinct edge.

Naruto growled, realizing that someone was onto him. He didn't throw off his cloak, but the man across from him did, revealing a middle-aged man with blue hair and an activated Byakugan eye.

"The Byakugan?!" Naruto roared.

Naruto backed up out of surprise, the hood falling off his head as he did so. While he recoiling from the shock of being found out, he heard noises from behind him as he was surrounded by Kiri nin.

He had just walked directly into a trap, and was now surrounded.

If it were simply a couple platoons of ordinary Chuunin or Jounin, then it probably wouldn't be a cause for concern. It would just be Konoha all over again, which the disguised Bijuu could deal with.

The middle-aged man before him reeked of an elite Jounin. Still not a big deal, but the woman that had just descended upon their group wore the characteristic garb of one of the five Kage.

The Mizukage had personally gone to find him after his stunt near the entrance.

The woman who appeared to be in her thirties looked down upon him as if he were a piece of dung, her nose almost pointed high. The young male with the sword standing next to her was glaring lightly at him, but it was clear he was too timid for it to have any effect on him.

Damn it. As a Bijuu, it wasn't exactly within his nature to be subtle like a ninja. But he should've found another way into the village that didn't involve attacking those guards and leaving a residual chakra signature.

Still, maybe this situation could turn out in his favor?

The Mizukage took a step forward off the roof, her step breaking one of the panes just by being near it. The ANBU and Jounin surrounding him gave her a wide berth.

If she was going to try diplomacy, it wouldn't kill her to smile...

"For this unmitigated attack and horrible waste of life, I hope you're prepared to suffer the consequences..." she said. Despite the vitriol behind her words, she didn't look anywhere near ready for combat.

Naruto noted that she used the words "horrible waste of life", which wasn't exactly a very ninja thing to say. She really wanted this village to get over the reign of terror, he supposed.

"Normally, we would have you executed on the spot. Unfortunately, we have yet to determine your ulterior motives. That, and your power seems to indicate that you are in some manner... a Jinchuuriki," Mei said.

Naruto knew where this was going. Stupid human village politics. Showing off his abilities at least had some merit; the hidden villages seemed more reluctant to engage in a lethal battle with him, at the risk of pissing off another village.

Interrogation... what a joy.

So, now it was himself the Nibi versus the Mizukage and a bunch of Chuunin and Jounin. Yet, Naruto began to think to himself that perhaps there was a way for him to turn this situation in his favor even if he lost the battle.

"You've forgotten one thing... what makes you think you even have the power to execute me on the spot!" Naruto roared, as his body began to rumble with chakra.

Apparently Kirigakure wasn't overly fond of the talking and theatrics that Konoha was more accustomed to. As soon as his chakra was out, two squads of Jounin attacked with kunai and shuriken from all sides.

Naruto's twin-tailed cloak had finished forming around him though, and the usual trick of halting the speed of the kunai and corroding them down to nothing almost instantly worked here as well.

"Stand back... most of you. Choujurou and Ao... back me up if things begin to look bad..." the Mizukage said, stepping forward.

"But Mizukage-sama, we should..." Ao began to argue, before the Mizukage turned to him and smiled sweetly.

"Shut up or I'll kill you!"

Ao sweatdropped. He hadn't even said anything related to marriage or anything that could've been mistaken for the word marriage. The Mizukage was tense, and he couldn't blame her.

Her outburst seemed to be enough to make Ao and the rest of them back off, giving her ample space to do her thing. Naruto and Mei stared each other down, the Godaime's eyes scanning all over to see the melting slag from the kunai metal.

"So I see. If I recall correctly, you use the same abilities as Konoha's Reibi. I have heard that the Reibi has disappeared from Konoha under dubious circumstances. So... some shady organization or village out there tried their hand at Jinchuuriki creation? Who are you working for?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

For what it was worth, Terumi Mei stood in front of the disguised Bijuu with a steadfast confident, even taking her time when she brought her hands up into some seals.

"Corrosive poison... that matches the Reibi. Unfortunately for you, you're not the only one with such an ability..." When she was finished with her seals, the Mizukage opened her mouth and sprayed a clear, yet shiny mist into the air.

Naruto narrowed his eyes as it moved quickly toward him. It had a gaseous quality to it that his viscous liquid chakra lacked, but that didn't stop the mist from heating the air and corroding any object in its way.

His own acrid chakra was also reacting violently to the Mizukage's acidic mist. When the acidic mist made contact with his toxic chakra, it began to bubble and froth over while also dispelling the mist.

Naruto hissed when the mist was creating a large spree of issues with his chakra defense. Breathing in deeply, he slowly concentrated to draw more chakra from his system, to make it more concentrated... more volatile.

He succeeded partially, managing to keep the corrosive mist from destroying his cloak. Yet, the Mizukage was bound to have more up her sleeve than some corrosive mist, and the confident smirk on her face told him exactly that.

"Hmm, you don't seem very handsome. I'm afraid I can't give you a kiss of death this time... then again, I still need you alive in the first place, so there's that..." Mei commented.

Now, Naruto wasn't particularly perturbed about being shot down by human women, but that second comment really irritated him. Nevertheless, Mei seemed to realize that as a Bijuu, she didn't exactly have to take it easy on him to not kill him.

Naruto was so focused on the Mizukage that he hardly noticed the young kid with the sword appear right beneath him in his blind spot. He clutched the hilt tightly, pulling the massive sword off its back and unwrapping it in a split-second.

The familiar glow of chakra coated the deep blue blade of the strange sword, before the weapon began to shift. Naruto squinted his eyes, the sword seemed to be getting bigger by the second, and the chakra surrounding it was getting stronger.

Choujurou swung his giant sword, and for such a scrawny kid, it was fast and accurate. Naruto managed to leap over the slash from the material blade, but the young Kiri shinobi was unperturbed.

Choujurou fell to his knees and pointed his sword to the left as a chakra blade extended from the tip of his blade, bounced off one of the walls in the alley and sliced through Naruto.

Naruto's chakra cloak managed to lessen the blow somewhat, but he still had a wound on his left hip that was leaking the golden chakra that was a substitute for blood.

Choujurou meanwhile was just determined to keep slashing, as he took the fight to Naruto's close quarters and began a flurry of sword and chakra slashes with that oversized blade.

Naruto slashed at him back with his two claws, kicking Choujurou between his own attack's recoil. Pushing the Jounin off him, he launched a blast of Bijuu chakra in his direction, but before he could, his back was on fire.

"Shit! When did that get there?" he asked. While he was busy with the swordsman, the Mizukage had created a wall of lava that Choujurou had invariably backed him into.

Naruto snarled, but Choujurou had already sheathed his sword and fallen back into line with the other ANBU, when a thick corrosive mist filled the air around Naruto. Through burning eyes and a searing face, he looked up onto the roof by his left, seeing the Mizukage perched up there expelling the mist from her mouth at a constant stream.

"Damn it!" Naruto thought, as his wounds piled up.

Then, he lost consciousness.

Namikaze Minato pinched the bridge of his nose as he pieced together what had happened. His former student and Inuzuka Kiba had cornered an intruder upon the Konoha rooftops, one that had apparently broken into the Hokage Tower.

The report stated several things. One, Inuzuka Kiba had bumped into the intruder in the wee hours of the morning that day, apparently having exited the tower's library. Two, the intruder had exhibited signs of being a Jinchuuriki, and not just any Jinchuuriki, but the Reibi's Jinchuuriki. Three, despite being the Reibi's Jinchuuriki, the intruder used two tails of chakra in cloak form, something that should be impossible. Four, the ANBU sent out to track the intruder had not returned.

Days later, and they were still trying to piece together what had happened. The intrusion upon the village could not have come at a more inopportune time. If this new Jinchuuriki really held the Reibi, then it came right after Haruki and Yukiko left on their long mission with the elder toads to search for said Bijuu.

"Skree!"

Minato's ears perked up when he heard the unmistakable cry of a messenger hawk. Opening his window, he looked out to the familiar species of bird heading not to the decoding department, but straight to his office.

He held an arm out to receive the bird, who landed on it as if it was a perch. He untied the note on its leg, while noting that this was Kumogakure's fastest messenger bird. Kumo and Konoha were currently tentative allies, but Minato knew that anything could've set the two of them off, so he never really liked dealing with them as a fellow ninja village.

When he looked at the note, his heart sunk. It was a demand. Though more specifically, it was a demand for an explanation. It seemed Konoha and Kumo's relationship was going to be hostile at best if he didn't sort this out as soon as possible.

The contents of the letter were even more disturbing. Nii Yugito had passed away, and the Nibi had disappeared without a trace after her death. This comes only a little while after the Ichibi goes missing and its Jinchuuriki dies. It couldn't be a coincidence.

Worst of all, the Raikage claimed that his shinobi saw the perp, the one who killed Yugito and somehow stole the Bijuu. The intruder of Kumo apparently very much resembled the Reibi, in Bijuu form.

Of course, the Reibi was well known throughout the Elemental Countries to be within the control of Konoha. From the perspective of Kumo, it would seem that Konoha just lead a blatant attack on one of their village's most important shinobi, and succeeded.

Hence the threat of war if Konoha and Kumo couldn't negotiate their way out of this.

"Izumo! Kotetsu!" Minato barked, his mind going to other places. The intruder that had invaded their village seemed strikingly similar to the intruder that killed Nii Yugito.

At Minato's beck and call, the two Chuunin in his service entered the Hokage's office and saluted in tandem.

"Izumo!" Minato held out the letter, "I'm calling a summit with the Raikage! Get over to the Decoding Department and have them begin drafting a response to this letter!" he handed over the letter.

"Kotetsu! You go to the Intelligence Division and find three qualified shinobi to begin research on the mysterious intruder from the other day. See if you can find out what he took from the secret files!"

"Yes, Hokage-sama!"

As the two Chuunin left, Minato swiveled his chair around and sighed.

"I've gotta call in sensei. We seem to have a Jinchuuriki of an indeterminate village on our hands, using a power stolen from Konoha. Yet, this individual apparently has a means to extract Bijuu from their Jinchuuriki and contain them for his own benefit. Is that intruder working for someone else? This has Akatsuki written all over it..."

The Akatsuki...

The man he had fought all those years ago claimed to lead an organization called the Akatsuki, but even with his soul trapped within the Shinigami, the corrupt organization appeared to be going strong still.

If anyone knew the whereabouts of Akatsuki... or any other Konoha undesirables for that matter, it would be Jiraiya.

Naruto grunted in his unconsciousness as he was thrown unceremoniously into a holding cell. It took a great deal to truly keep a Bijuu unconscious, even in their human form.

The three ANBU who threw the sleeping Naruto into the cell sneered as the did so, before their leader applied a special seal to the door of the cell, that which was probably similar to the methods used to keep Bijuu in Jinchuuriki. A glow of chakra burned over the lock, which spread to both the bars and the stone interior of the cell.

It was designed to create a chakra barrier, as well as drain any chakra of those inside. Not even a Jinchuuriki could've escaped that cell. Naruto cracked an eye open as his began to regain consciousness, just quick enough to see the three ANBU walk away. The seal had already been put in place.

"Well, great..." Naruto sighed. Two tails of power, and it still wasn't enough to defeat a Kage. Hell, he had gotten his ass kicked by the Mizukage when it came down to it.

In the end though, Naruto was now going to have to make the best of a tough situation. The information he had on the Sanbi was still not in his favor, but he was probably being held in an area where there were more than a few political prisoners.

Some of them may have even served underneath the previous Mizukage, the Jinchuuriki in question who had orchestrated the infamous "Reign of Terror" talked about in the village.

"When the Kages are away... the Bijuu will play!" Naruto snickered to himself, but he still didn't know much about the layout of the prison he was in. Considering his status as a Bijuu (Jinchuuriki to Kiri) and the precautions they took, he was probably in a maximum security prison.

He needed to get out of that cell first, though. Naruto got to his feet and stretched out, looking around to get an analysis of his cage. The chakra seal was strong enough that he couldn't break through the walls with force, but the drain on his chakra was not perfect.

It would be tough, but Naruto could get out of the cell with the impression that he was known as a Jinchuuriki instead of a bonafide Bijuu. So, Naruto sat down and concentrated, drawing on the chakra of his surroundings and probing for any flaws in the design of the seal that he could exploit.

His eyes snapped open when he found one, directly below the paper seal where the chakra barrier was at its weakest. Naruto grinned to himself, years of probing around Yukiko's seal and finding no weaknesses was paying off now.

Changing from his human to Bijuu form was reliant on breaking his body down into chakra and then reforming it into any shape he wanted. And with that in mind, Naruto slipped through the crack in the chakra barrier while in his normally temporary incorporeal form.

As he drifted outside of the cage, he stopped the transformation into a full Bijuu and halted himself in his human form. By doing so, Naruto was essentially able to phase himself out of the cell and into the hallway.

He wasn't the only one in this cell block however, and by phasing out, he had gained the attention of a few other political prisoners along his row.

Dark murmurings came from within each individual cell, but it wasn't like the inmates had cellmates to talk to, as they were all isolated. Most of the cells were making noise, but there were a few that were just silent in the darkness.

"Boy... what was that? How did you get out?" a wheezy voice resounded from the shadow of the nearest cell, cracked and groggy with age and disuse. Naruto ignored the man in the cell, not even bothering to look at him. Several of the political prisoners managed to get a good look at his face, and let out a loud gasp when they realized he was hardly human.

Curiosity piqued, Naruto took a look into one of the cells that had remained silent upon his escape. It was occupied.

"May I help you?" a male voice said from within the cage. It sounded decently young and was polite, but there was a cold, steel edge to its quality. When Naruto peered in, he saw two lifeless eyes staring back at him.

Inside the cell was a tall, near emaciated young man who was probably a little older than Naruto, in his late teens or early twenties. His white, yet dim hair stood out behind the cell bars.

Whatever the case, he seemed to be unperturbed by Naruto's physical appearance.

"Not unless I think you can. Who are you?"

"Kaguya Kimimaro..."

"Kaguya... never heard of it. Anyway, that doesn't matter. All that really matters is that I find someone who can help me. You look well-informed, so I might as well ask you!"

For what it was worth, Kimimaro did not look amused by the random questioning. Yet, he didn't shoot Naruto down and demand that he leave him, so the Bijuu assumed that this conversation was at least going somewhere.

"What can you tell me about the Sanbi?" Naruto asked.

Kimimaro raised an eyebrow.

"You picked me in particular to ask that? The Sanbi is one of Kirigakure's possessed Bijuu, or at least it was. Anyone on the streets of the village could have told you that."

Naruto snorted.

"I know that much. The Sanbi was under the possession of the Kiri and was sealed within the Yondaime Mizukage. What I want to inquire about is his current location? Most prisoners here are of the political kind, did you work under the Yondaime Mizukage?"

"No. The only person who I've ever been loyal to is Orochimaru-sama..."

That seemed to surprise.

"Orochimaru? Now why is someone loyal to Orochimaru rotting in a cell beneath Kirigakure?" Naruto had heard of the snake of course; it was impossible to grow up in Konoha and not.

"Orochimaru-sama... is dead. My clan... is extinct, but they once belonged to Kirigakure. I was born just outside the village, so after Orochimaru-sama's defeat, Kirigakure decided that it wanted me back," he said.

"How did they even know where you were?" he asked.

"Several villages launched an attack on one of Orochimaru-sama's bases two years ago and managed to find them. Kiri was one of them. Once he was defeated, important shinobi such as myself were taken back to their original villages for interrogation and imprisonment."

"You look defeated, like you have no purpose to live. Though I can't say that it would be uncommon in a situation likes yours..." Naruto said, knowing very well what Kimimaro was going through right now.

"Orochimaru-sama was the only one who acknowledged my existence. With him dead, there is no reason for me to exist..." Kimimaro said blandly, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Naruto sighed.

"Do you know where the Sanbi is now?" he asked.

"Orochimaru actually once had a boy in his custody who had the ability to control the Sanbi. Ever since the Yondaime Mizukage died and the Sanbi has been unsealed, Kirigakure has failed to reseal it within one of its own shinobi. Orochimaru-sama got a hold of the beast not long after Yagura's death. It is currently being held in a lake to the northeastern portion of the country. Kirigakure does not know of its whereabouts," Kimimaro explained all of this to Naruto without a care in the world.

Before Naruto could ask another question, there came footsteps.

"Oh dammit! I bet that's the Mizukage and her groupies coming to interrogate. Hey, you! If I let you out of here, will you fight with me out of her and guide me to the location of the Sanbi?" Naruto asked.

"I have nothing better to do, and this cell reminds me too much of my childhood. Fine, whatever..."

Naruto ripped the chakra seal off the bars of the door without any hesitation, eyes and ears still trained on the rapidly approaching footsteps. He pushed the door open quietly, and Kimimaro filed out of the cell casually, without any urgency in his step.

"Hey! I'll fight with you too, so let me out!" someone shouted. Some of the other prisoners seemed to come to life after seeing the display Naruto just did, motivated by the prospect of freedom.

Unfortunately, their rumblings only alerted their oncoming captors that something was going on down in the deepest section of the prison. Lo and behold, the footsteps down only hastened.

"Shut the hell up, you scumbags! Did I ask you?" Naruto roared, now that the cat was clearly out of the bag. Hiding and sneaking around like a ninja wasn't his style anyway, so it was time to fight his way out.

Naruto banged on a random door with a prisoner inside, causing the prisoner inside to back off as two figures appeared in his cell block's hallway. They were apparently taken aback to see him out and about.

One of them he even recognized.

"You. You're the guy with the Byakugan..." Naruto snarled. The grizzled man with the Byakugan didn't show any fear of him, but the two ANBU were apparently very uncomfortable that there was a Bijuu out on the loose again.

"How did you get out?" Ao snarled, subconsciously activating his Byakugan. The man turned and glowered at the ANBU behind him for showing weakness, instructing them to take charge and confront the escaped prisoner along with him.

"Doesn't matter," Naruto responded.

"I warn you right now, you are at the bottom of the multi-story underground complex far beneath the village. It is a labyrinth maze that even the most cunning would have a hard time breaking out of. Surrender and return to you cell right now and you will be saved the inevitable punishment later..."

"Is that supposed to intimidate me, human?"

"No, but this is..." Ao sneered at him before taking a deep breath.

"Hey, you scumbags! We have an escaped Jinchuuriki on our hands!" the man roared to all the political prisoners before putting his hands into a seal. "Whoever re-captures the Jinchuuriki will immediately become eligible for parole!"

When he finished saying those words, the chakra seals on every cell door disappeared.