Chapter 5

"What are you doing?"

Tobi turned his head slightly, barely acknowledging the presence of the only truly living Uchiha left. "I am doing what I always said I would. I managed to tire out the container of the nine-tails enough to capture him, and I will be starting up the extraction process shortly."

"What? We had a deal! Naruto was my target!"

"You took too long. I was not going to wait for you to defeat the boy while I sat around twiddling my thumbs. My patience with you has grown thin." Sasuke stood there, glaring at the aged faux-Uchiha, but said nothing further. Tobi turned his masked face to look at the only other member of Akatsuki still alive.

"Zetsu, begin the extraction. I will join you after a moment. It will take us awhile, but not as long if Sasuke decides to grow up and join us."

The moment he turned around, his instinct began screaming at him that something was wrong. Making himself intangible, he watched as a chidori lance pierced right through where his heart was barely a second ago. Instead of getting angry, Tobi sighed. That was the biggest liability about Sasuke – he was unstable. The young man was useful at first, but now he had become an annoyance. It seemed as though he really would be the last of his clan.

"Want help, boss?"

"No, Zetsu, proceed with what I asked you. It would appear that I need to teach this -child- a lesson."

The space around Tobi warped, and he was no longer there. A noise of surprise and perhaps pain came from Sasuke, and then he warped as well, to who knows where. Deciding to do what he was told, Zetsu brought his hands together in a sign and began the extraction process. The Gedo Mazo glowed briefly, then a white aura surrounded the unconscious Naruto.

The minutes passed uneventfully other than the occasional rumble and shake that came from above the cavern. Whatever the two men were fighting about, Zetsu did not know, or really care. Sasuke was boring... insanity was only fun to watch for so long, then it just became stupid. As for his boss... he knew better than to cross the man. Somehow he had eyes and ears everywhere, and could warp to your location no matter where you were, at any time.

Zetsu had considered sending a clone to go watch their pissing contest, but with his chakra split the extraction would just take longer and probably anger Tobi in the long run. That was something he really had no desire to see, let alone face.

Zetsu was brought out of his musings as he noticed that the chakra streaming from Naruto into the Gedo Mazo seemed to be shrinking, but it was way too soon for the job to be done. Focusing his chakra through the statue, the amount of Kyuubi's chakra being pulled away seemed to slow to a trickle, which was the exact opposite of what was supposed to happen.

Suddenly there was a blast of golden-orange chakra that shot away from Naruto, directly towards the statue. A loud groaning noise filled the cavern, and several cracks began to appear on various places across the surface of the Gedo Mazo. Startled, Zetsu's concentration faltered, and the statue let out another groaning noise as it stopped taking in the Kyuubi's chakra. Actually, it reversed... the reddish chakra was somehow being pulled out of the statue, back into the blond jinchuuriki!

Things happened quickly at that point. There was another rumble and shake, and then an explosion near the entrance of the cavern. As he turned around to investigate, another force came up from behind him, somehow grabbing him by the neck and both sides, and pulling him out of the ground in which he had partially hidden himself. He heard footsteps start to walk around him, and quickly discovered that it was Naruto. Apparently he was being held in place by the teen's clones. He tried to drain chakra from them through his spores and skin contact, but found them to be surprisingly resistant.

"W-What? How did... you should be exhausted!"

"A risky gamble to find the Gedo Mazo."

"But still! None of the other Jinchuuriki were able to stop the bijuu from being pulled out of them. It's supposed to be impossible."

Naruto smirked, "Nothing is impossible. I didn't want to let go of the Kyuubi, and he didn't want to leave me. Our wills combined were stronger than that of the Gedo Mazo. I let myself get captured so that I could find it and release the other bijuu."

Before Zetsu could say anything further, Naruto had formed a Rasengan and shoved it into the plant-like person's face, killing both his light and dark halves immediately. Or at least that's what it seemed like... one could never be too certain with that shinobi. Unlike previous times he had hit Zetsu with his Rasengan, however, this time greenish-red blood and brain matter was scattered about, so it may very well have been the real one.

"So it looks like your gamble paid off?"

Naruto sighed in relief as he heard the familiar voice, "Yes, baa-chan. I told you."

Tsunade let out a 'hmph' as she moved closer to the younger blond, inspecting him carefully. Naruto quickly noted that she was in her Hokage battle gear, something he had only seen her in once or twice previous. "Your job is done. Shizune and Ino are outside waiting to check your vitals and then escort you along with the Tsuchikage to the base camp."

"What? I can help-"

"No. That's an order. It was already a risk letting yourself get captured. The Raikage is here with me, and with the forces we've brought we can take care of the statue and hopefully scatter the bijuu - even destroy them as a last resort so Tobi has to wait for them to reform. That will give us about another eight years to take him down."

Tsunade looked around the cavern briefly, "Where is Tobi, anyway?"

Naruto simply pointed upward. "Probably somewhere outside. I heard them talking while pretending to be unconscious. Sasuke threw a tantrum because apparently Tobi went behind his back and captured me. They're likely still fighting about it. If you destroy the statue, I wouldn't be surprised if Tobi kills Sasuke because of the distraction."

"I hope you're not going to try and stop us from destroying the Gedo Mazo, if that's the case."

Naruto waved his hand. "I stopped caring when he tried to kill me for what, the fifth time? I won't actively seek him out, but if Tobi doesn't kill him and he manages to cross my path again I'll kill him this time. Both Sakura-chan and Kakashi agree, they have for a while now."

Tsunade nodded at the other blond, then turned to look at the Gedo Mazo. "Alright. Get out of here. That's an order."

"See you back at camp, baa-chan."

"Brat."

Naruto was currently crouched behind the checking booth, observing his apparent support team. He had only gone to collect one of them, and the Sandaime said that he would surprise the blond with the rest.

He decided to reveal himself a little later so that he could be prepared in case there were any surprises on his team – which there was. Mikoto was easy enough to spot, since he had grabbed her for the mission just yesterday. His future father, Minato was there as well, and he had to admit that he was completely blindsided by that addition. He thought that the other blond would have been tapped for more important missions than this. His mother was there as well, but she didn't seem to be part of their team, as she had no backpack or gear that he could see on or near her, so she was likely just saying goodbye.

The other member that caught him completely unawares was Hatake Kakashi. The silver hair was a dead giveaway, but the boy couldn't have been more than eight or nine years old. The teammates he had heard about, Rin and Obito were nowhere to be seen, so their team likely hadn't been formed yet. He didn't know why the Hokage put a chunin on the team, but perhaps Sakumo wanted Kakashi to get to know him now? He'd have to ask when he got back. There was another male present that he didn't know, but likely an Akimichi based on his stature. He would find out soon enough, though, as he listened in on their conversation.

"... packed enough? You really need to pack more than a few ration bars and spare kunai..."

That was his mother, likely berating his father on what seemed to be bad packing habits. Now he knew which side of the family he inherited that from.

"... to have our old team back together. I thought stuff like this was pretty rare. Do you have any idea..."

That was the larger male, talking to Mikoto. Apparently he had been on a team with her before, and since most genin teams had three members and a sensei, that means Minato would be the third person of their team. What was the Sandaime thinking?

"... any later, I'm going to report it to the Sandaime. We were supposed to have left fifteen minutes ago..."

Crap. That was Mikoto. Perhaps trying to be late on purpose wasn't such a good idea. How did Kakashi manage to get away with it so often in the future? Entering a shunshin, he moved quickly to the top of the nearest building, then down into the alleyway where it connected to the main street leading to the exit. Speeding up into a jog as he rounded the corner, he noticed as Minato spotted him, then nudged Mikoto and pointed in his direction.

If the scowl on Mikoto's face was any indication, he was in for it. Unfortunately, he didn't think to come up with an adequate excuse. Perhaps he'd just have to 'borrow' one from the future.

Sure enough, it was Mikoto who opened fire with a 'You're late!' as soon as he was within earshot. Naruto simply offered her a small smile, immediately thinking back to the days of his own genin team... so he couldn't resist waving his hand and nonchalantly explaining his reason. "Sorry about that. A black cat crossed my path, so I had to take the long way around."

The person Naruto believed was an Akimichi promptly barked out a laugh, and Kushina had mirth in her eyes as she held her hand up to her mouth, evidently to cover the smile on her face. Minato was smiling openly, while Kakashi simply rolled his eyes. Mikoto on the other hand - she looked like she wanted to cut his head off, right then and there. Naruto knew he had to nip this potential issue in the bud before it became a problem later. While it was true that they were little more than acquaintances, he didn't want to give her a totally wrong impression of himself. She had opened her mouth to start talking again, but Naruto spoke up first, cutting her off.

"First of all, I'm sorry for being late, but at the same time it was a bit of a test. It's been a while since I've had to lead a small team, and I don't know any of you that well. This was just so I could see what your personalities were like. I was here five minutes before Kakashi arrived, observing you all."

Mikoto and Minato seemed shocked to hear that, exactly why, he wasn't sure. Even Kakashi seemed a bit startled.

"Aniki... how could you have been here all this time? I didn't sense you at all, and I've always been told that I'm pretty good at sensing chakra signatures."

Naruto nodded at Kushina, and decided to show them. "Give me just a second, and you'll see. You can all feel my presence now, correct?"

After getting nods from everyone, he closed his eyes and concentrated. Standing completely still and letting his breathing calm down, he focused on nature, and called its energy to him, and let it surround him like a warm blanket. It was just enough to coat him slightly, but not enough to give him his full range of Sage powers.

The startled gasp he heard made him open his eyes, and he focused on Kushina, who seemed to be staring at him with more shock than any of the others. "You... you disappeared! I can see you standing right in front of me, but your chakra is gone! That should be impossible, I can even sense the small amounts of chakra that civilians have, but I can't even get that. It's like you're invisible."

Naruto nodded slowly. "I have a way of masking my chakra and making myself completely invisible. That's one of the reasons why Hokage-sama used me for some of his hardest missions... because I couldn't be detected." That was a complete lie, of course, but they didn't know that. Unless he told any of them the truth, they never would know either.

"So now that I'm here, we'll hit the road. Hokage-sama tells me that you guys are going to be my backup and support in case anything goes wrong. That means you'll just be on standby, so if all goes well, you may not even need to see any action at all. First, however..." Naruto turned his head to look at the person who he believed was an Akimichi. "I don't know who you are. My name is Uzumaki Naruto," he stated, offering his hand.

The other young man gave him a smile and a quick nod, meeting him for the handshake. "Akimichi Taichi. It's nice to meet you, Uzumaki-san. I didn't realize there were any Uzumaki in the village other than Kushina-san."

Naruto grinned, "No one else did either until the other day. I have been a very well-kept secret, but with another war potentially looming on the horizon, Hokage-sama can't afford to keep me hidden anymore. That's part of the reason why I'm leading this mission. I'll explain our objectives as we get moving. Everyone - say your goodbyes to Kushina-san, because we're moving out in five."

After the small chorus of affirmatives, Naruto watched with detached interest as Kushina made her rounds, saying goodbye to everyone. She gave Taichi a nod and rubbed Kakashi's head – which he didn't seem to mind, surprisingly – and gave Mikoto a big hug. Minato took a little longer as she pampered him as usual, though either his father was playing it cool or was used to her behavior, because he took it all in stride and kept a smile on his face the entire time.

Thinking everyone was done, Naruto called for the group to head out, only to be stopped as his arm was grabbed, he was turned around, and pulled into a hug that caught him completely by surprise. So much surprise, in fact, that he went completely rigid.

A small giggle caused him to look down slightly at a mane of red hair pressed against his chest. "You know, you're supposed to hug back when a girl hugs you. You didn't seem to have this problem last time."

"Errr... yeah," Naruto managed to stutter out before slowly wrapping his arms around Kushina's back in an awkward manner. This only caused Kushina to laugh again as she broke the impromptu hug, and stuck her tongue out at him."We're going to have to work on that when you get back, Aniki."

Naruto simply offered a sad smile, and nervously scratched at the back of his neck. "Yeah... I haven't exactly had much practice in showing or receiving stuff like that. I can probably count the number of times I've been hugged on both hands."

Kushina seemed strangely crestfallen at that, but then seemed to get a gleam of determination in her eyes and shouted for him to 'Just wait until he gets back!'. Not quite sure what to make of it, he offered her a simple nod, then stiffly walked towards the exit, his team following behind him.

"It looks like Kushina has found her next victim, eh Minato?"

"I don't know, Taichi. She hasn't hit him yet, so maybe it will be different."

"At least Kushina-oneesan didn't leave him in a bloody mess on the ground. She even hugged him first. What's up with that?"

"I don't know, Kakashi. But judging from how stiff Naruto's back looks, I don't think he was expecting the hug he got."

Naruto listened to them ramble on as they took to the trees, unsure if they were trying to goad him into speaking or warn him about what Kushina was capable of. Interestingly enough, Mikoto was completely quiet throughout the entire exchange, and Naruto wasn't too eager to look over his shoulder to see what expression was on her face after she looked like she wanted to kill him before.

"Uzumaki-san."

Naruto turned his head slightly, acknowledging Mikoto's presence. They had set up camp for the night in the middle of the forest, since they all agreed that they were perhaps another day away from the eastern coast. Their mission was taking them to Water Country, and getting there would probably take about four days total.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping, Mikoto-san? We have an early start tomorrow."

Naruto had volunteered for first watch, and Minato had volunteered for second. Each watch would be about three and a half hours, so the rest of the team would get approximately seven hours of sleep. They would alternate watch shifts each day. Naruto had left a clone in the camp, while he had moved to a nearby stream to meditate.

"I'm having a hard time sleeping. I admit that it upset me you left a single clone to guard the camp. What would you do if we were attacked?"

Naruto pivoted himself slightly so that he could look directly at the woman, his piercing blue eyes boring directly into hers. He mentally applauded her when she didn't flinch or look away, but met his challenge openly. In the future he had perfected his stare, making many people flinch and second-guess themselves. It wasn't something he liked to do, but during a war you learn the hard way that there is a certain discipline that must be maintained, lest everything fall apart around you.

"Three things. First, we're still in the middle of Fire Country, so any attacks by anything or anyone other than a dumbass bandit group is highly unlikely. Second, my clones are Shadow Clones, so any time one of them is dispelled their memories come to me immediately. I could be back in camp in a few , you probably didn't notice that there were a few extra stones and logs around the camp. I made eight clones, and seven of them transformed into other objects. So in case anyone did try anything, they would be in for a nasty surprise."

If Mikoto was in any way upset, angry, or emotionally changed by what he said, she did a marvelous job of hiding it. There was a slight shift in her eyes that he barely noticed in the darkess around them, but that was it. The woman simply nodded her head towards him and spoke in a low tone, "I see. I apologize for distracting you during your watch, Uzumaki-san. I shall try to be more mindful of my surroundings in the future."

That said, she promptly turned back around and headed back towards the camp. Naruto listened to her footsteps until they disappeared, and only then did he let the confusion show on his face.

Was she always like this? Talk about hard to read...

Five days later...

Naruto sighed as he dodged the bone projectiles, yet again wondering why he was even bothering with this mission. For the umpteenth time he had to remind himself that it was because it was what Sarutobi wanted, it was one of the missions that Sakumo may have failed in the future that got him to kill himself, and he needed to prove he was trustworthy.

Oh, he knew that Minato was on the team to observe him, and Mikoto probably was too. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if that was the reason for their entire team being here. Kakashi was probably just added as a distraction, of sorts – even if he was a skilled distraction. Kakashi also referred to Minato as 'senpai' or 'san' and not as 'sensei', which again reminded Naruto that they likely didn't have the relationship yet that Naruto knew they had later on.

"Stay still, Konoha scum!"

Naruto snorted, then quickly formed a low-powered Rasengan in his hand and sped up close to the Kaguya clan member, pressing the spinning ball of chakra directly into the man's torso. From what little he remembered about fighting Kimimaro, their clan had a blood limit that allowed them to use bones in quite creative ways. It wasn't as hard to locate their clan as he thought it might be, since they had entered the Bloody Mist's Civil War, everyone without a bloodline knew exactly where to find them and they were perpetually on high alert.

Of course always being on alert would eventually tire them out and lead to their eventual demise. No matter how skilled one was, you couldn't win when you weren't well rested. The blond recalled that Kimimaro was notoriously difficult to injure and even Gaara and Lee had a hard time killing him. Then there was also the fact that Orochimaru had likely been experimenting on him for a while. However, it must have been him alone that had a high tolerance to pain.

Unlike Kimimaro, the person that Naruto hit with the Rasengan screamed and went flying, landing hard on his back several meters away. Several members of the clan ran over to him as the man laid on the ground, groaning and clutching his chest.

"What did you do to Nobu? Are you here to kill us all?"

Naruto turned to look at a woman who was standing nearby in a defensive posture, her eyes remaining on him even though they occasionally twitched towards her fallen clan member. She didn't have the two pale dots above and between her eyes like some of the other members and the Kimimaro from his future did, and she wasn't preparing to attack him with bones either. He guessed she was from outside the clan, but was now with them through marriage or other means.

"I asked to talk to your leader and he attacked me. I heard the Kaguya clan was bloodthirsty, but this is a little ridiculous."

"We're in the middle of a Civil War, in case you didn't know, since you're not from around here. Asking to see or speak to the leader of a bloodline clan when you aren't a member of one is tantamount to declaring war against the clan."

Naruto sighed internally. Of all the stupid... "I see. I apologize then. Can you relay the message that I'm here with an offer to the Kaguya clan to join Konoha as a full clan, with all the rights that entails, so long as you swear loyalty to our Hokage. There is a greater war on the horizon, and we would like to offer an easy way out of the Civil War in Water Country."

"Fool, why would we want to leave one war only to enter another?"

Naruto looked to face another member of the clan, this time it was one who did have the pale reddish dots on his face. "Because you'd have the entire Fire Country behind your back, not just other bloodline clans. Konoha is also home to plenty other strong clans, some even without bloodlines that can match the strength of those with."

Another clan member snorted. "No clan can be stronger than one with a bloodline."

Naruto resisted the urge to slap his hand against his forehead. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, a member of the Uzumaki clan... or what is left of it. While many of us were experts at fuuinjutsu, our only talent in our blood was that of an extended lifespan. I'm sure you all know of us, and how our home was destroyed during the second war?"

There were a few scattered nods, enough to the point where Naruto was comfortable continuing with his speech. "Good, then you know we are nothing special as warriors. However, I've lived in Konoha all my life, and one thing Konoha has is the Will of Fire. The will to believe in others as much as you believe in yourself, that protecting what you care about only makes you stronger. I want to protect my home from the coming war. Bring your three strongest warriors, and I will beat them, proving that what is in your blood does not make you strong; It's what is in your heart."

Many of the members of the Kaguya clan looked amongst each other – Naruto noticed that quite a large group of them had gathered around to listen to him. One of the more elderly among them stepped forward, which caused a few of the other clan members to look at him in shock. Based on their expressions, this man must have been the leader of the clan.

"Young man, am I to assume that your Hokage has given you the authority to speak on his behalf?"

Naruto nodded, slowly reaching into a pouch on his vest and pulling out a small scroll. A few members of the Kaguya clan tensed in case he was going to pull a weapon, but none of them made any overt movements, to which he was grateful. He took a few steps forward and offered the scroll to the older man, palm facing up and open to show he was not hiding a weapon in his hands.

The older man must have noticed this, as he nodded and gave Naruto a small smile before grabbing the rolled scroll and opening it. The blond looked around the small compound as the man conferred with a few others as they read the scrolls contents. It wasn't much, really, possibly one fifth of the size of the Uchiha district back in Konoha, but that meant the numbers of their clan was probably even with one of the smaller clans in Konoha, like the Aburame or Kurama Clans.

However since they were in the middle of a Civil War it was also likely that this was a temporary hideout, many clans in Konoha had their own secret compounds that they could visit or use in emergencies, quite often they were simply left over from times before Konoha was formed.

"Uzumaki-san, how many days travel did it take you to get here?"

Naruto focused his attention on the older man again before speaking, "A little over four days, traveling at full speed with a small team."

"A small team? They let you come here alone?"

"I'm stronger than my entire team combined if I was to go all out. I don't mean to brag, but it's true and I could prove it should it be necessary. My Hokage knows this. They were sent as support so I could get rest while they keep a small camp as a... safe zone."

"Very well." The Kaguya elder rubbed at his chin as he eyed Naruto speculatively, "How long until you arrive back in Konoha?"

"My mission duration was set for two weeks. I will contact as many clans as I can before my time expires. Setting aside about four days for travel time, that gives me a little over four days to talk to as many clans as I can."

"Hm, so we aren't the only ones you are after? At least you're honest. I can appreciate that, not many know the value of honesty these days."

Naruto nodded and decided to toss another bit of information at them, "Hokage-sama also says that if you still have the blood plague that infects your clan, he will recall Tsunade of the Densetsu no Sannin to try to find a cure."

That particular comment got a few shocked gasps and exclamations from the small gathering. Apparently their little problem wasn't well known outside of the clan, or at least they didn't think it was. It didn't affect all of them, but it was crippling to those that it did. That was one of the larger reasons why their clan had died out by the time Naruto was growing up – the Civil War whittled down their healthy members while the disease claimed the rest.

"We were already prepared to travel to Konoha. But that just offered more incentive. Please give your Hokage our thanks, and expect the Kaguya clan in about one months time."

Naruto smiled in relief, that was one clan down, and they actually accepted to boot. As he turned to leave, a vague memory tickled at the back of his mind... was Kimimaro born yet? Perhaps when the clan arrived, he would have to investigate.

He could almost hear Kyuubi ranting to him about the Chaos Theory now...

Almost.