Author's Note: This took me a while. Not to write, but to find the time to write it. Sorry for taking so long. My next update won't be so long. I'm going to try to finish this story by the end of July. This chapter is more of a teaser. I couldn't finish it before resuming summer classes, but I wanted to give you guys something. So here you go. Enjoy and don't forget to review. A longer chapter will follow this one to make up for it.
"Naruto…why did you bring the youngling down here?" Kurama said. He flicked his great eye to the tired young man beside him.
"He discovered who you were." Naruto said. Then shrugged at the intense look the great fox gave him. "I aim to hold no secrets from my kids."
Naruto started pacing back and forth, kicking up sewer water with each pass he made in front of Kurama. "Stop that brat, you are getting water all over my fur."
"Sorry about that." The blonde stilled, with his back turned away from his longtime partner. He sighed deeply and mumbled to himself.
"Naruto…." Kurama said calmly. There was no response. "Naruto…" he spoke more forcefully. The blonde continued to ignore his callings. "Naruto Uzumaki!" He bellowed.
The young man whipped around and glared at his friend. "What?" He said tersely. Kurama frowned and blew his hot breath on Naruto's neck, making his spikey hair whip around. Naruto calmed down and spoke softer, "Sorry. I was thinking. Didn't mean to snap at you."
"I have not seen you this tense in a long time. I understand your outburst." Kurama stretched his back and added nonchalantly, "Just remember that I am here to help you as well. Do not burden yourself needlessly."
"Right. Sorry again Kurama. I just hate feeling so helpless." Naruto leaned against the red gate and crossed his arms. "What can I do to fix this with the state my body is in? I can't stay awake for more than ten minutes at a time and even those times of awareness are becoming less frequent."
Kurama hesitated, not wanting to agitate the brash young man further. He quickly brushed those feelings aside and forged on with what he needed to tell his partner. "Naruto, I believe there is more than one source taking our chakra." The young man snapped to attention once more, regaining his full posture. "How many, I cannot say for sure."
"Can you distinguish the areas at least?"
"Yes. They are not too far from Konoha actually."
"Well let's go take care of them." Naruto said gesturing impatiently to his partner.
"The closer we get to them the weaker you will be. That's probably the reason these criminals are so close to Konoha." Kurama's claws retracted. He closed his eyes and double checked the chakra flowing out of Naruto. "There's only three sources I know of for sure. There could be more around the perimeter of Konoha. It's hard to distinguish them with that much chakra swirling around."
Naruto nodded and rubbed his chin. "We should send Anbu led by Shikamaru, Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke." A devious smile adorned his face. "My son could accompany Sasuke and see just how cool I am." He joked.
"How do you figure that, ya Knucklehead."
"Hey no names." Naruto resumed a starry eyed gaze to the sky. "If my son sees Sasuke fight and thinks he is awesome, he will flip out when he finds out I am stronger." His devious grin returned. He started jumping up and down in excitement whispering, "Son worship, son worship."
"He might believe that, but I doubt it." Kurama said with a feral grin. "He might forget about you entirely and hero worship Sasuke. He might even beg to become his student."
Naruto grabbed his shirt tightly above his heart and mocked a hurt expression. "Ah, Kurama. No faith. None at all." The blonde man's countenance morphed into a gleeful grin once again. "I know my son will see who the true hero is. I am the boy's father after all."
"Whatever you say, Knucklehead. If you are basing this on your experience of how a boy views his father I would ask around for more opinions rather than relying on your own hero dad complex as proof." Kurama stiffened as he felt a sudden change in the atmosphere of the mindscape. "Naruto what was that?"
The fun interrupted, the blonde man quieted and concentrated. Trying to relax, Naruto breathed in and out slowly to get deeper into the meditation and wheedle his way under his mindscape. When he connected with Kurama their mental link was flawless. This would have been a difficult task for his younger self, but he was less brash and hyper than he was as a child. "They are trying to enter the mindscape."
"That's not possible. I will not allow them to." The great fox growled out his words. It was a tone reminiscent of his vengeful blood seeking days and almost made Naruto shiver.
"Give them hell my friend. I will kick my feet up and watch." Naruto said taking a seat on a chair that appeared out of his thoughts.
"With pleasure." Kurama growled. His aura grew bigger and more malevolent. His red chakra swirled madly in the confines of the sewer, looking for the intruders. "There." He said.
Naruto sensed the parasites in his mind and heard their screams as they came in contact with the burning chakra of the Nine Tails. He housed Kurama all of his life and still got burned by the dense chakra. He couldn't imagine what pain these foolish men must be in. "Huge mistake on their part."
"What? Coming into your mind?" Kurama said, shrinking back down to normal mountain size.
"No. Thinking they could take on you." Naruto chuckled. He paused for a second and his glee morphed into contemplation as bits of the intruders plans danced in confusing fragments across his mind.
"That is curious. Why would they think to come into your mind? The fact that they could enter is a little bit frightening." Kurama said.
"I know I act like an idiot sometimes and can be quite thick, but I am the Hokage. It is strange that they would try to come into my mind. Especially with you here. It's no secret what I house." Naruto said and started pacing again.
"I think we are missing something obvious Naruto. I just can't think of what it could be."
"Maybe this is bigger than we thought." Naruto said. "I need to think on this more. I need to let Shikamaru know of this new development."
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"This is not about Naruto. Whoever the culprits, they are targeting all of Konoha." Shikamaru's proclamation elicited shocking outcries from the members standing in the darkened bedroom.
"Just what do you mean by that?" Sakura asked crossing her arms across her chest.
Shikamaru glanced at each person before his gaze rested on Naruto. The blonde man nodded relinquishing the duty of the explanation to his advisor.
"Last night Naruto was attacked in his mind by intruders, and were dealt with by the Nine Tails." Everyone reacted. Sakura clenched her gloved fists. Tsunade and Kakashi narrowed their eyes. Sasuke, who was standing next to Naruto's bed, slipped his tight control on his chakra and let it sizzle in the room. Hinata merely sat by her husband's side on the bed, gently rubbing the back of his hand.
"That is unforgivable." Sasuke spat through clenched teeth. "It is a declaration of war."
"You have to admit it doesn't make sense. Why would they go into the mind of the most powerful ninja in the village? They must be stupid." Sakura said thoughtfully.
"My thoughts exactly." Shikamaru paced the room. "It's no secret our Hokage is a Jinchuriki. Any invader of his mind would be expelled without question. Why would they attack his mind?"
"An idiot breaking into the mind of an idiot. Sounds about right." Sasuke said in resigned thoughtful tones.
"They were going into Naruto's mind. They probably wanted information and thought it would take an idiot to understand an idiot." Sakura said in mock contemplation. "Kind of makes sense if you think of it in a roundabout way."
"Can we get back to the explanation please? Or would you two like to insult your Hokage some more?" Naruto spat looking at both of his former teammates with icy blue eyes. He raised the power in his gaze after he heard Kurama chuckle in his mind and remind him he too called himself an idiot not too long ago.
Sasuke and Sakura looked at each other and shrugged. "So they broke into the mind of a very powerful Hokage, known for his intellectual prowess." Sakura said.
"I hate you both." Naruto pouted while Sakura and Sasuke smiled good-naturedly.
Shikamaru sighed. "Yes it's entirely idiotic to enter the Hokage's mind. Unless they didn't know whose mind they were entering?" He said.
"That is still a bold accusation to make. What is your evidence that Naruto is not the target?" Tsunade asked mimicking Sakura's crossed armed stance.
"After Naruto told me of the encounter in his mindscape and his suspicions I had Anbu search the perimeter."
"What did they find?" Kakashi asked.
"Absolutely nothing." Everyone face palmed. "No one was found."
"Shikamaru." Sasuke's deep voice stilled the upset in a second. "Say it straight and to the point."
Naruto laughed and slapped Sasuke on the back. "That defeats the whole purpose of a good ninja old friend. Stop interrupting and listen to my esteemed advisor." Naruto smiled encouragingly and wagged his eyebrows at Shikamaru, who ignored the blonde man.
"However, one group I sent out said they detected chakra weakness in their limbs. They were near this area on the map." He marked it with a pen.
"That's the beginning stages of chakra exhaustion." Tsunade explained intently. "I'm sure you've all felt your muscles spasm after training. It's the same feeling."
"They patrolled the east border. Which is also where Kurama detected one of the sources of Naruto's exhaustion." He marked three more dots, making a circle of four red dots surrounding Konoha. "These other two sectors are confirmed by both Anbu and Kurama. This other mark is my own prediction of another possible source. It completes a perfect perimeter around Konoha, and is out of the way of any contact from ninja's who would feel the effects."
"Why aren't we feeling the effects right now? Why did the Anbu feel the exhaustion only when they were near the area of the chakra pull?" Kakashi asked.
"I believe that all of us are supposed to be experiencing the chakra exhaustion." Naruto spoke up. "The culprits were trying to confirm that the process of stealing the chakra was weakening the ninja's. I got this information from the intruders in my mind before they were burned by Kurama." He laughed without humor. "They were sent back to their bodies after that. Probably not all there in the head anymore, if you know what I mean."
"The reason the effects are felt so profoundly on Naruto is because he has the most chakra out of anyone of the village." Shikamaru looked at his captivated audience. "Whatever they are using has a design flaw. Instead of pulling chakra from all of us at once it pulls chakra from the biggest source it comes in contact with first. Hence the reason why there are many sources taking away from Naruto and why we haven't yet felt the effects."
"That would explain why Naruto has been feeling exhausted for the last month. It was probably planned out to be a slow process so that way the ninja's would not be aware until too late." Hinata mentioned.
"They have been draining Naruto these past few weeks. Once he runs out of chakra, the drain will start to affect us too." Shikamaru continued. Everyone contemplated the gravity of the situation. No wanted to imagine it could come to that.
"Shouldn't Sasuke feel the effects since he has comparable chakra to Naruto?" Sakura asked.
"Naruto has Kurama. Together they form a chakra blanket over all of us. Protecting anyone in Konoha from the threat."
"Wow Dobe." Naruto turned to look at Sasuke in confusion. "Without even trying you still sacrifice yourself for your village and friends. You are such a lazy Hokage."
"Shut up Teme."
"Now we know their plan." Shikamaru straightened considerably. "We can stop them. These miscreants have threatened Konoha. They have threatened our Hokage's life and we will not let them continue." The silence in the room was palpable. "So let's kick some serious ass."
Naruto stared at his advisor completely baffled. "Miscreants. Really Shikamaru? You couldn't find a better word that would make our enemy sound more like a gang of troubled teenagers." He commented.
Groans were heard all around the room. A thump was heard and Naruto yelped. "Hinata what was that for?" The blonde man rubbed his arm.
"Shikamaru was trying to inspire us to fight for you dear." Hinata said her cheek twitching into a smile.
"So bad timing with the joke?" Hinata nodded. "Very well. Continue inspiring us Shikamaru." Naruto commanded.
Shikamaru rubbed his eyes and mumbled. "Whatever. Sasuke, Kakashi, and Sakura. You will be heading squads to take out our enemy at one of these sectors on the map. I also will be heading a squad to this possible sector. Just to be safe."
Naruto moved to get up from the bed. He leaned heavily on Sasuke and had Hinata supporting him under his arm. He gathered his thoughts and breathed deeply before walking freely and confidently to the middle of the room to stand by his advisor. Acknowledging his ninjas he narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice. "We don't know their exact location or how many of them there are, but I trust that you can find them using your wits."
"Or our bodies. Since we will feel the chakra exhaustion when we get close enough to them." Sakura mentioned.
Naruto nodded and continued. "You are my friends." Naruto closed his eyes. "I would do anything to help you guys out there as your Hokage." He bit out angrily. "Since I can't, I want you to know that I trust in your abilities to protect Konoha. Do this for our home and your families. Dismissed."
Everyone but Hinata and Shikamaru shuffled out of the room. "That was quite a speech Hokage-sama." Shikamaru said.
Naruto faced away from them but they could see the tension in his shoulders. "I want to help Shikamaru. I need to help." His voice deepened and he suddenly punched the wall. Cracks spread around the indentation and pieces of dry wall crumbled to the floor.
"Naruto…"Hinata grabbed his shoulders and turned him so he faced her. "You have been helping. Intentionally or not. Right now you can work with Kurama to make sure that the sources are not moving." She stood on her tip toes and gave his lips a quick peck. He nodded and let her lead him back to the bed.
He laid down and prepared to enter his mindscape. "Shikamaru…we will get these guys. No matter what."
"Yes Naruto." Shikamaru chuckled. "Your nindo has inevitably found its way into our ranks of ninja. We will not give up and we will fight for Konoha and for you."
"Let's kick some chakra stealing ass." Naruto proclaimed. He closed his eyes and prepared for battle in his mind, just as his ninja's prepared for the physical fight.