Chapter 7

The coming weeks were hectic for Konoha and its people. Minato discovered that the Kazekage had been murdered by Orochimaru and so decided not to declare war on the Hidden Sand, instead he had them pay full reparations for all damage caused but otherwise released all their shinobi back into service, including the Sabaku siblings.

All Oto shinobi were interrogated and then killed, they found out very little as all higher ranking shinobi had either been killed or the few that remained ingested a poison which killed them within second. As a result Konoha couldn't really launch a counterattack on Orochimaru because they had no idea as to where he was.

Shikamaru, Shino, Neji, Sasuke and Natsumi were all promoted to Chunin status, giving them much praise amongst the younger shinobi, particularly the other rookies.

As Naruto was heading out one day he heard Kushina calling him, "Naruto wait there."

Curious about why she would ever call him Naruto turned to face her, "What is it?"

"Your sister and Sasuke will be having a fight today to emulate the Chunin Exam Finals, despite how both were already promoted they want to see who is stronger so the rest of the Genins from your year and a few others will be watching. You will come as well."

Naruto resisted the urge to scowl at the command in the woman's voice, he hated being treated like this but had to acquiesce lest she get suspicious, "Hai, kaa-san," the small suffix would please her and let the idiot think she was in command.

"Good, go to the arena, it'll be held there." With that the red head walked away, presumably to meet Natsumi and go over how she would beat 'Sasuke-teme'.

So Naruto made his way through Konoha fairly slowly, knowing that he had to keep up the façade of the weak son who could barely use his chakra.

A half hour later saw Naruto sitting inside the arena, separate from the other rookies, many of whom had looked at him disdainfully as they came in.

After them many other shinobi started filtering in, excited to see how strong the two prodigies had become. The stadium was soon was filled with Uchiha who desired their member to triumph over the Hokage's daughter and prove their own superiority.

Last to arrive were the direct relations of the two combatants, Natsumi came with Kushina and Minato. As Minato and Kushina left for the box where Jiraiya and Tsunade were already seated; Fugaku, Mikoto and Itachi came in with Sasuke.

"Welcome everyone to this match between Sasuke Uchiha and Natsumi Uzumaki-Namikaze! This will be a single fight between the two, proctored by my own sensei, Jiraiya," at this point the white haired Sannin jumped down from where he was sat and landed between Sasuke and Natsumi, his usual jovial expression in place.

"This match is just a fight between two shinobi who desire to see who is the strongest, as such nothing will be won by the victor except bragging rights," laughter arose from the crowd at this knowing that both shinobi would milk it for all it was worth over the other.

"Okay then little gakis here's the rules: fight as though you are actually aiming to kill but don't maim or severely injure each other. Number two if I tell you the fight is over or to stop or whatever you stop otherwise you'll be fighting me next time got it?" Two nods from the rivals showed their understanding, "Good and finally don't actually kill each other and enjoy the fight! Ready? Hajime!"

With that both of them leapt back throwing shuriken at each other, Sasuke flew into his first set of hand seals.

"Prepared to lose Namikaze Katon: Gouryuuka no jutsu"

"Not on your life teme Suiton: Suijinheki"

As fire dragon and water wall collided Sasuke activated his Sharingan to see through the steam which was obscuring his vision and found his opponent just finishing a set of hand seals and moulding a phenomenal amount of chakra.

"Take this Fuuton: Atsugai"

"Shit Katon: Hidora no jutsu"

The massive blast of wind was countered by a small hydra with three heads, each exhaling a stream of fire at his opponent who was forced to stop her technique and retreat to the side, away from the long streams of fire.

Sasuke wouldn't let her get him on the defensive again "Raiton: Hachidori no Mure no Jutsu"

Hummingbirds formed from static electricity in the air and charged at Natsumi, colliding with what turned out to be a kage bunshin.

Natsumi internally cheered as she deceived her opponent and had managed to get behind the Uchiha. Just as she was about to hit him her rival turned, engaging her in a fierce bout of taijutsu.

The crowd was thoroughly impressed by the skills these two were showing, seeing the hidden potential for both to become even stronger in the future. They were clearly fighting at a good Jounin level, lighting a fire in the Chunins who had been surpassed and the Jounins who were feeling threatened as well as the rest of the rookies who could see how far away their former classmates were getting in terms of skill and power.

Natsumi started to feel that something was wrong about this situation, like it wasn't all adding up. Sasuke was always a step ahead, always better, how was he doing it? Then she realised she had felt this before from Kakashi-sensei when he…genjutsu!

"KAI!"

Natsumi was just in time to deflect a sword strike which would have ended the match between the two.

"Damn you Sasuke-teme for using a genjutsu on me!"

"So my Genjutsu: Sharingan failed then, I must become more proficient in utilizing it then."

In her anger Natsumi made use of her chakra chains against Sasuke who had to use the full power of his Sharingan to dodge or deflect the chains using his sword and kunai.

Sasuke was both pleased that he was being challenged so much but at the same time angry at being kept on the defensive so much, his clan was watching this and he couldn't fail.

"Enough Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu"

A torrent of fire erupted from Sasuke's mouth as Natsumi called out "Uzumaki chakra chains: defensive formation," her chains wrapped her in a cocoon which shielded from most of the fire but wasn't able to hold up to the explosion afterwards as Sasuke switched from exhaling fire to forming a fireball and launching it at his opponent.

As Natsumi got up from the explosion she was panting just as hard as Sasuke who was starting to run low on chakra after using so many powerful techniques.

"Let's end this baka," the Uchiha started a familiar set of hand seals that he had used during his fight against Gaara.

"Fine teme," a spiralling ball formed in Natsumi's hand as she ran towards Sasuke who did the same, both calling out their technique at the same time.

"CHIDORI/RASENGAN"

As the pure elemental technique and pure shape manipulation collided a huge explosion erupted in the epicentre of the attack from which two bodies flew out and crashed against the walls of the arena.

Naruto looked on, grudgingly but nonetheless impressed by the two as Tsunade and Shizune checked them, Jiraiya stopping anyone else from interfering.

Itachi was the first to speak up, "Tsunade-sama how are they?"

"Both have cracked ribs but are otherwise okay, give them a day with me and they'll be as right as rain."

A sigh of relief was heard throughout the stadium at the calm assessment from the legendary medic nin. Jiraiya stepped back into the middle of the arena at this point, attracting everyone's attention.

"Both the gakis are unconscious so I guess I'll have to call it a draw folks!"

As everyone sweat dropped at the man's attitude and name calling Naruto pondered on the abilities of his sister and her rival, he was confident that despite their impressive repertoire he could beat the two, potentially without using a single bloodline technique.

He saw that even though the Uchiha were slightly disappointed with not having a complete win, they looked content at being able to match the Hokage's daughter; it showed that they were still powerful and prominent within the village.

After being healed both Natsumi and Sasuke expressed their disgruntlement at not beating the other and pressed their respective family members to train them harder to beat the baka/teme. Who reprimanded them for getting up so soon and already demanding training before they had even been fully healed by Tsunade, who had a rather sickly sweet smile aimed at the two of them as she promised a nice stay in the hospital.


It had been two months since the invasion as one could once again found Naruto training in all aspects of the shinobi arts making prolific use of kage bunshin to do so as he concentrated on being able to mould each of the elements he had affinities for and using some collaboration jutsu to make them more powerful.

He had made good headway with his Sharingan research and was confident that he could implant the blood of Sasuke Uchiha to get said dojutsu within the next month or two. The very idea made Naruto giddy internally as he desired to see what made those eyes so special for himself, to actually experience what they did and adapt it into his own fighting style.

Partway through his training Naruto sensed some people approaching the training ground, an unusual occurrence seeing as it had never happened before in the many years he had been training there.

The people who came into view were unexpected, Minato, Kushina, Jiraiya, Kakashi and Shisui emerged from the foliage and he could detect a further four shinobi within the bushes nearby 'ANBU then' he thought, but why would Minato need a guard to see him?

Noticing that Minato was wearing his Hokage outfit, Naruto decided to be formal when addressing the man, another deception so as to appear weak and subordinate to him, "To what do I owe the pleasure Hokage-sama?"

Naruto did not flinch or even blink at the hard gaze which observed him, trying to stare into him and ferret out his secrets. Oh he was worried about their intentions, after all by tracing him to this training ground they must have been spying upon him for quite some time, therefore they knew he wasn't weak anymore, the question was whether they knew why.

"Naruto it has come to my attention that you have been engaging in… unusual activities over the past several months, care to explain?" Despite sounding like a request, Minato was clearly giving out an order, the dark look in his eyes expressing his intentions.

Naruto stiffened at the accusing tone, which activities was the man referring to? He had done so many illegal things he simply didn't know which one the man was talking about, he had to clarify the situation.

"Hokage-sama I don't know what you mean by 'unusual activities', I have merely been training like usual in an attempt to make my body stronger."

The Hokage was now scowling at his 'son', "Don't try and deceive me boy, Kakashi spoke of when you took the ice user's blood as well as Zabuza Momochi's in Nami and Shisui has recently informed me that you collected samples of his own blood after the invasion. I grew very suspicious after hearing these reports and have had multiple shinobi tailing you since and yet they all curiously got diverted one way or another. Experienced Jounin and ANBU deceived by a below average Genin made me even more wary of you so I had Kakashi and Shisui start looking into you and they found you practicing abilities way above you. So what have you done with the blood samples, why have you collected them, who else have you took the blood of? How long have you been hiding your abilities for and why? Answer me now or I will be forced to send you to interrogation!"

Naruto looked down, blonde hair covering his features from view, he started shaking and before anyone could ask what was wrong he threw his head back in laughter at being caught out in his own game.

"So you finally caught on, I had wondered how long I would be able to stay under your radar but I suppose taking the blood of an Elite Uchiha was going too far eh? To be honest you caught me earlier than I would have liked but I can still fit this into my plans fairly nicely.

Jiraiya spoke up "What have you done Naruto? Where is the DNA of these three people?"

The boy raised his eyebrows "Three? You think I only have DNA from three people, oh I have done a lot more than that but it doesn't matter to you simpletons, I will tell you nothing; instead I'll take my leave I think."

He leapt back from his position as a golden chain tried to restrain him and his chakra, his 'mother' spoke up, "You're not going anywhere Naruto until you have answered our questions. Don't try to resist, you can't beat so many S-rank shinobi at once."

A dark look that none of the people there had seen before entered the boy's eyes, a look that spoke of darkness, confidence and hatred, "We'll see about that fake Uzumaki." A confused look marred Kushina's face at being called a fake and wondered why the words resonated with her and made klaxons ring inside her head, she dismissed the thought for now and focused on detaining her son.

With that Naruto backhanded the ANBU who had just attempted to slice the Achilles tendon of the boy to incapacitate him. What surprised everyone there was the strength behind the attack which caused the nose to crack and some teeth to fall out of the now bloodied ANBU's mouth.

What alarmed them even more was when the ANBU didn't get back up, despite the powerful strike they should still be able to move. That was when they all spotted the black fuuinjutsu lines which were now showing up on the ANBU's face, lines which indicated their chakra was bound and forcing them to stay unconscious.

"So you're a fuuinjutsu master then, on par with Mito-obaasan. Don't allow him to touch you, he could apply a fuuin on you at any moment with a single touch of his finger!" Kushina warned everyone there of the dangers of a master of Naruto's level.

The next thing they saw was Naruto engaging Kakashi with a fist aimed at his sternum, the Elite Jounin only just managed to deflect the fist, wincing at the strength as he did so.

"He's strong sensei, too strong, it's like fighting Tsunade."

Eyebrows raised at this but Minato sped towards the son he cared little for, a Rasengan charging in his hand when the boy he was about to launch said technique into appeared back in the middle of the field with five chakra chains weaving themselves between Kushina's five which had attempted to restrain their son the moment he appeared.

"Hiraishin…"

"It was fairly easy to decipher in the end, about the only useful thing I got from you father, well except for your blood of course. What's it like fighting your own technique mother, I got this from your blood."

As the majority there halted in their footsteps to digest what Naruto had said, the shinobi there so shocked they didn't bother to press the attack baring Jiraiya who was used to such insanity through knowing Orochimaru and having been in numerous bases of his former teammate. Instead he had continued with his hand seals.

"Doton: Yomi Numa"

Naruto jumped up straight away and faced Shisui Uchiha who had already finished some hand seals,

"Fuuton: Shinkuuha"

As waves of super sharp wind rapidly approached Naruto he rapidly produced a scroll from seemingly nowhere and opened it out, allowing it to absorb the fuuton jutsu much to the shock of all present.

Naruto then whipped out a kunai to clash against the sword of an ANBU with the Tora mask on, his speed was unable to overwhelm his skilled opponent, leaving him open to a rather powerful kick from Minato which sent Naruto into the ground and the awaiting Kushina who was also ready with a blade of her own.

As Naruto rolled onto his feet he unsealed his own blade from a scroll he kept on him at all times. The treacherous boy then engaged the powerful kenjutsu user in a short fight of swords, but Naruto wasn't an experienced kenjutsu user and accumulated a variety of cuts on his legs and torso in their short bout before he heard a loud chirping behind him.

"Raikiri!" Kakashi thrust his hand into the chest of Naruto, who dissolved into mud. He had used a Kawarimi with an Iwa Bunshin he had prepared the moment he felt the chakra signatures approaching his training ground.

The real Naruto emerged on the other side of the clearing away from the group attempting to restrain him, "You're starting to become lethal eh? That would put me out for quite some time you know. I suppose I should respond in kind then Doton: Chikyū-jō no jigoku."

Naruto was now flashing through a long set of hand seals at an incredible speed, Jiraiya had seen these hand seals before in the Second Shinobi War.

"Damn Kuchiyose no jutsu, everyone get on 'Bunta!"

As all those on the ground began leaping to get on top of the boss toad, said toad was rather surprised when hundreds of earth spears were rising several feet from the ground which then turned into an enormous swamp that he was beginning to sink into.

"Darn it what have you gotten me into this time Jiraiya!"

It was Minato who replied, saving his sensei's neck in the process, "Sorry Gamabunta-sama but my son is causing some trouble, could you help us?"

"Oh hey Minato-gaki sure thing. Light me up!"

As Jiraiya sweat dropped at Gamabunta's abrupt change in attitude when addressing Minato, the Yondaime started some hand seals as the boss toad started to pour oil from his mouth.

"Katon: Endan"

"Katon: Gamayu Endan" intoned the massive summon as his oil caught fire and streamed towards Naruto until Shisui added a final mix to the already overwhelming technique.

"Fuuton: Daitoppa"

The formerly large amount of flames now tripled their size and intensity making everyone flinch at the raw heat which seared them even from behind.

Naruto knew that a simple doton technique would no longer hold that back and was forced to use something he hadn't yet wanted to reveal.

"Mokuton: Jukai Heki"

A sea of trees emerged from the ground to intercept the powerful jutsu and successfully held it at bay as the people there stood in silence as someone used the legendary Mokuton.

"Naruto you…you defiled the grave of the Shodaime, have you no respect for the dead?"

"Not when they serve my plans for the future, now despair!"

"That chakra, Yondaime-sama, prepare yourself! Mokuton: Jukai Kotan." This came from a third ANBU member who had formerly been a part of ROOT and was one of Minato's most trusted agents, Tenzo.

"Mokuton: Jukai Kotan"

The two sets of jutsu collided, Tenzo's technique was soon overtaken by the significantly larger trees of Naruto. However his experience with the jutsu allowed him to delay Naruto's technique long enough for Gamabunta to leap back from the approaching mass of angry looking trees.

"It's time to see if this new technique works then," as Minato said this and started making a Rasengan, Kushina's eyes widened in fear,

"No Minato, last time you used that you almost tore your own arm off!"

"So I'll have a kage bunshin do it for me, Kage Bunshin no jutsu". A single clone appeared next to Minato as the two formed an unusual Rasengan which started to get blades like a shuriken.

"I wanted to name this technique Fuuton: Fuuryoku Hatsuden Bureedo no Ninbasu Geiru Rasenshuriken but then I realised the name sounded rubbish and was way too long so I renamed it to Fuuton: Rasenshuriken"

As the kage bunshin launched the attack at the branches which had nearly caught up to them it popped instantly due to the damage caused by the technique which exploded the moment it made contact with the Mokuton jutsu, engulfing the whole area which forced everyone to shut their eyes.

A few moments later and everyone looked in shock at what Minato had wrought, the training ground was devastated. The earth was completely upturned, no trees remained in a several kilometre radius and in the midst of it all they could see Naruto who was rapidly panting.

They were confused as to how he hadn't been killed by the technique, instead he had blood dripping down his form from multiple lacerations across his arms, legs and chest. It didn't take long for Minato to point out the remains of some powerful barrier seals fading away and his chakra chains were gradually being reabsorbed back into him. All of them deduced that his fuuinjutsu and his chakra chains were just enough to stop Minato's Rasenshuriken from killing him.

Naruto was once more forced on the defensive as Minato appeared next to him in a flash of yellow, another Rasengan already in hand, ensuring that Naruto to moved backwards to where Jiraiya and Shisui were both waiting for him to move in order to use a powerful fuuton/katon collaboration, producing a swirling tornado of fire.

To avoid this Naruto used a Kawarimi, yet even this outcome had been predicted and so Kakashi was waiting with a raiton enhanced kunai in hand to attack Naruto, who replied in turn with a kunai of his own. He was soon rapidly pushed back by Kushina who arrived with both her katana and all nine of her chakra chains which he was unable to tie down with his own, having only five and as such four chains got past his own five and wrapped around his arms and legs, restraining him.

Shisui shunshined right in front of Naruto and cast one of his strongest Sharingan enhanced genjutsu on him. This gave Minato and Jiraiya enough time to create a strong chakra supressing seal, which they applied to Naruto's forehead, after which he collapsed onto the floor, beaten.

"Heh, so you win, well what are you gonna do now?"

Minato glared hard into the eyes of the boy who he was just realising had stolen the DNA of many and he may be forced to execute if he couldn't let him off with incarceration.

"You will tell me when you started taking the DNA of others and exactly what you have done with the DNA. You will tell me how you got the bloodlines of others in your body, why have you done so and when you started. You will tell me all of your plans for the future and how you were going to implement them unless you want me to send you off to Ibiki Morino."

Naruto let out a small chuckle, "Now you seem to be under the impression that torture will actually force information from me, well I hate to inform you but it will do absolutely nothing."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed at the son of his sensei, at how arrogant and stupid the boy was being, he hated the superiority in his tone, "You don't seem to understand the situation you find yourself in, Ibiki's the best interrogator in the shinobi world and you won't be able to resist his methods. Even if you somehow do miraculously then we'll have Yamanakas waiting for you afterwards to rip that mind of yours open."

"Ooooo nasty threat but the Yamanakas will find nothing just like the torture expert. They'll get nothing from me, just ask the ANBU over there."

Naruto was pointing at Tenzo who had been fed a chakra pill by one of the other ANBU after collapsing from chakra exhaustion because he put everything he had into fighting Naruto's more powerful use of Mokuton.

Minato immediately turned to question his ANBU, "Tenzo what does Naruto mean by not being able to gather any intelligence from him?"

The man shakily stood up with help of his fellow ANBU and narrowed his eyes at the blonde-haired boy who looked as if he had not a care in the world as his eyes widened in realisation.

"H-he is not N-Naruto Hokage-sama, he is a Moku bunshin."

They all turned to face Naruto as he slowly started turning brown and began seeping into the ground, speaking some final words.

"Let's see if you can catch me then Yondaime. Don't bother trying to find traces of what I have done, I've removed all traces of everything I did from here, in fact you should hear an explosion from an abandoned house in the red light district quite soon."

As an explosion sounded off in the distance Kushina confronted the boy she had given birth to "Why have you done this Naruto, what is your end goal?"

"Why? Well at first to prove that I was better than Natsumi but that changed after I found a certain something you had abandoned in the fuuinjutsu section of the library at 'home'. Can't remember, well then I'll give you some clues before I disappear, Mito would have certainly talked about us to you, we were separate from the rest of Uzushio and are the reason for its destruction."

As Kushina puzzled on these clues the wood clone's eyes glazed over for a moment before smiling at everyone standing before him.

"A final message before I go. I'd check on Natsumi and Sasuke if I were you, it looks as if they have just had an encounter with the Akatsuki, ja ne."

With that the bunshin was completely absorbed back into the ground as Minato looked stunned for a moment before flashing off to the Hiraishin seal he had on Natsumi as the others rushed off to catch up with him, Kushina informing them of his whereabouts.


The group caught up with Minato when they found him talking to Tsunade who was healing both Natsumi and Sasuke as Shizune and Sakura healed Asuma Sarutobi, Kurenai Yuuhi and Maito Gai who all looked extremely drained.

Standing next to the two unconscious Chunin was Itachi Uchiha who had blood streaming from both his eyes, an indication of overuse of his Sharingan.

Jiraiya was shocked to find out from Tsunade that an old friend of their former team, Hiruko and a Kiri missing nin called Kisame Hoshigaki, had attacked Sasuke and Natsumi. They had quickly beaten the two, making them fall unconscious as the three Jounin engaged the two nukenin after being alerted of a fight happening nearby.

As the three fought the two powerful missing nin they were crushed through a combination of Kisame's chakra intensive water jutsu and the multiple kekkei genkai that Hiruko somehow used to devastating effect when Itachi had intervened using his Tsukuyomi to knock the bloodline wielder out and forced Kisame to take the man as he used Amaterasu against the water user who could not combat the black flames.

Hearing this Shisui made his way to his fellow Uchiha and forced the man to get his eyes checked; knowing that those techniques came from the Mangekyou Sharingan and each usage would cause his best friend's eyes to deteriorate until he was blind.

"This is bad, first Naruto and now this. Do you think he'll join up with Akatsuki Minato?"

Just as the blonde-haired man was going to answer Kushina interrupted "No he won't, if I'm right Naruto's 'clues' were referring to a subsect of Uzushio who called themselves the 'True Uzumaki.'"

Everyone there looked at the woman with confused expressions of their faces, never having heard of them before "Who were they Kushina-chan, you've never spoken of a subsect before."

The red head looked down in shame, having hoped to never reveal this particular secret of her people, "Just as Konoha has many dark secrets the True Uzumaki were Uzushio's. They were a people who did anything to find answers to questions they had, advancing their use of fuuinjutsu during their research, all in order to discover the great mysteries of the world. The advancements they made were the only reason they were tolerated at all because it resulted in seals like the Shiki Fuuin being born from their madness.

"They formed a separate clan from the rest of us so to speak and committed horrible atrocities in the name of fuuinjutsu and knowledge, delving into things they never should have. In the end it was leaked that they had been experimenting on bloodlines from across the Elemental Nations; before the Uzumaki could quell the information Kiri, Kumo and Iwa had arrived to destroy us, specifically the True Uzumaki and prevent them from getting any stronger.

"When I ventured into the remains of my home I collected whatever scrolls I could of techniques, heritage and our fuuinjutsu knowledge. I found a single scroll inside an area which had been delegated to the True Uzumaki to stop their teachings permeating the rest of the village and I attempted to open it on multiple occasions but they had unusual methods of identifying people which stopped me from ever opening the scroll so I simply discarded it amongst the other scrolls Minato and I had collected, never imagining that someone would actually open it."

Tsunade's eyes lit up in recognition after the tale had ended and spoke up when everyone else had fell into a stunned silence at such a solemn tale.

"I remember now, Mito obaa-chan always said to avoid the Uzumaki that dressed in pure white robes, she would always say that they weren't like the other Uzumaki, that they were dangerous and bad. If Mito who had been a true genius in the fuuinjutsu arts called them dangerous then they must present a serious threat, but why talk about Naruto in reference to them?"

A tense silence hung in the air at the question which Minato reluctantly answered "Naruto is one of the True Uzumaki according to Kushina and looks to have been experimenting on bloodlines. When we confronted him about taking the DNA of certain people Naruto fought us and used Mokuton during the fight."

Tsunade's eyes darkened at hearing someone defile her beloved grandfather's grave as the rest of those not in the know gasped or in Itachi's case, widened his eyes to epic proportions.

"I don't care who he is Minato, I'm gonna kill that brat for defiling Ojii-san's grave."

Minato looked down for a moment and as his head came up a blazing fury bore down upon the shinobi he led, "I know, that is why I am labelling Naruto, formerly an Uzumaki-Namikaze as an S-rank nukenin of Konoha."

A gasp rang out amongst those within the clearing as Minato stripped Naruto's heritage from him and labelled Naruto as such a high ranking nukenin who would now have the entire Elemental Nations after him to collect his bounty and obtain his secrets.

In the nearby bushes a kage bunshin smirked before dispelling, letting Naruto know exactly what had transpired.

"For those not in the know, everyone will recover from their injuries and no permanent damage was done. Sasuke and Natsumi have a few fractures but they will be fine, I just want to monitor their health for the rest of the day, I'm not sure what effects Hiruko's bloodlines or Samehada will have on them and I don't want to risk anything." Tsunade reassured the worried relatives, sensei and friends of the injured parties.

Minato rubbed his forehead tiredly, considering everything that had to be done and prioritising things in his head before he spoke up, "We should send the injured back with Tsunade, Shizune and Sakura to the hospital. Meanwhile I need to know everything that you heard about these so called 'True Uzumaki' Kushina-chan so we can compile a potential list of everything he might have done. ANBU I want you to investigate that explosion and completely scour the building and its surrounding environs, leave nothing out of your search, Jiraiya-sensei could you go with them and keep a lookout for any unusual seals or any traps Naruto might have left us?"

Jiraiya gave a serious nod before vanishing with the ANBU who had accompanied them as well as some extras who had come to investigate the high chakra usage in the area. Tsunade had begun to transport the injured over to the hospital, leaving only a stubborn Itachi who refused to go to the hospital until he had heard everything that had happened alongside Kakashi, Shisui, Kushina and Minato as all the ANBU had either been injured by Naruto or were investigating the explosion from earlier.

Kushina heaved a sigh as she spoke again, "If I'm going to be talking about the True Uzumaki then we're going to need Shikaku, Fugaku and Hiashi as what I'm going to speak of concerns the Uchiha and Hyuuga clans and we'll need Shikaku's insight. You'd better treat me to some ramen after this Minato-kun." The red head looked at her husband who started to sweat and then glanced at Shisui, not wanting to strain Itachi any further, the young Uchiha nodded and vanished without a whisper of air to note his departure.

The remaining shinobi retreated to the council chambers located in the Hokage's tower and immediately erected all the seals on the chambers when the three clan heads had been brought there.

"What is this about Hokage-sama, I presume it involves the recent explosion in the red-light district?" This question as from Hiashi whose clan members had been able to use their eyes to see what had happened from the clan compound.

"Hai it has something to do with that." Here Minato launched into a tale as to what had happened with Naruto, starting with what Kakashi had seen in Wave to Shisui's report on the invasion and finally the recent confrontation with Naruto and what had happened to both Natsumi and Sasuke.

"It is good to know my son was able to survive against such opponents until backup arrived and it is gratifying that you were able to force them to retreat Itachi, well done." A nod towards the stoic Uchiha prodigy came from his father and clan head, Itachi responded in kind before Fugaku continued, "However I would like to know what these 'True Uzumaki' have to do with the Hyuuga and Uchiha clans Kushina-san."

Kushina's eyes fell to the table, she couldn't bear to see the expressions of those around her as she revealed the most terrible secret the Uzumaki had, "As I said earlier, the subsect which called themselves the 'True Uzumaki' initiated and conducted many experiments centred around bloodlines. They used the blood of the Hozuki and Yuki clans in Kirigakure, they attempted to gain the blood of the Nidaime and Sandaime Tsuchikages for their Jinton and they took the Shakuton from Suna but were unable to get the blood from any of the Sabaku bloodline.

"For years they experimented with these bloodlines and others as many of their number died in vile experiments, all kept secret from the rest of the village as any attempts to infiltrate their group was futile."

"Why not just eliminate them if they were a threat who didn't obey the rules the rest of your people adhered to?" The insightful question came from a curious Shikaku who had already theorised as to why they hadn't simply wiped them out but he wanted it confirmed.

"There were two reasons why they weren't destroyed I was told, the first is that despite their horrendous experiments a great deal of good and useful techniques were created by the True Uzumaki. Where do you think the ability to seal objects came from? It is no mean feat to seal something into a separate dimension which is bigger than the scroll which contains said dimension, but it has become so commonplace that everyone thinks the seals themselves are simple. Where did the ability to seal the Biju and supress their chakra come from, where did the Shiki Fūjin originate? All this and more was discovered by the True Uzumaki. However their experiments also scared the rest of Uzushio, they guarded their secrets jealously and we didn't know what fuuinjutsu they had developed, as a result we were too scared to confront them and they wouldn't dare to try and fight the rest of the village so an uneasy truce formed between our council and theirs."

"This is all very good and fascinating Kushina-san but what does this have to do with the Hyuuga and Uchiha clans?" A note of frustration could be heard in the normally cold voice of Hiashi as he wanted to know why he was called to this meeting.

"Apologies Hiashi-sama but Shikaku-san needed his question answered. As I was saying they conducted horrific experiments which disfigured and killed many of their own number. But what none of us knew until it was too late and the other villages had begun to find out was that they had been having some successes in transferring bloodlines from others into them, even the deceased were not beyond being exhumed and then used to gain lost bloodlines for their sake. More important however is the final missive Mito-obaasan received from the head of our village and clan before Uzushio was destroyed. The letter stated that the reason why they were being attacked is because it was leaked that their attackers were punishing the True Uzumaki for illegal bloodline experimentation, the thing is no one knew which bloodline they had experimented with and how anyone had found out.

"It was discovered that two of their number were wearing genjutsu when they weren't hidden away in their own complex, when it was released they found out why the genjutsu had been worn."

Kushina steeled herself as she raised her head to look in the eyes of the two clan heads as she spoke her final words, "One had a white eye containing the Byakugan and the other had a red eye with a fully matured Sharingan."

A stunned silence held the room for almost a minute as no one was able to comprehend what Kushina had just said. However the moment they had all fully understood what they had been told, the stony facades of Hiashi and Fugaku, facades which nearly none of them had ever seen past, completely shattered as the two men stood from their chairs, screaming in outrage as they alternated between calling Kushina a liar and demanding Naruto's head at the same time.

This continued for a few moments until Minato had enough of the vitriol being spouted at his wife and levelled a large amount of killing intent at the two men, quietening them down.

"That is enough! Fugaku, Hiashi, remember that it is not Kushina's fault that this happened and she cannot change the past."

Both men felt slight guilt and gave Kushina a small bow of the head as an apology, however neither were satisfied as Hiashi began to speak of their concerns, the rival clans united for the first time in centuries, "We apologise for our outburst but it doesn't solve the problem that Naruto represents, the boy can effectively and may have already stolen our dojutsu. I'm sure Fugaku will agree that our eyes hold grave secrets which we would rather did not venture outside of our respective clans."

Fugaku gave a nod towards Hiashi as he expounded on their concerns, "Indeed the boy could not only have access to both of our dojutsu and unlock their secrets but he could also sell said secrets to any other village. If he were to go to Kumo and grant them all the knowledge he obtains then Naruto could live like a king for the rest of his life as Kumo would pay any price for our dojutsu."

Hiashi's fist clenched at the mention of Kumo, rage present in his eyes as he thought about the cloud finally getting their filthy hands on the Hyuuga's Byakugan. Seeing this, Minato immediately decided to try and placate the two powerful clan heads,

"I am well aware of both of your concerns as any secrets leaked about your bloodlines will also represent a threat to the village itself. Therefore I am going to label Naruto as an S-rank nukenin with both a capture and kill order in the Bingo book. I shall have Hunter-nin looking for him round the clock and I shall devote a few teams of ANBU to try and track him down.

"I shall not allow Naruto to give up any of Konoha's secrets for I have my own grievances with Naruto as he displayed use of both Kushina-chan's chakra chains and Mokuton when we confronted him."

The statement that Naruto had already begun to steal bloodlines worried the two clan heads, yet it also reassured them that their Hokage would do everything in his power to bring Naruto back, despite his status as his son due to the nature of the bloodlines he had already acquired.

The two slowly sat back in their chairs, their usual facades once more back in place, although everyone inside the room saw it for exactly what it was: a mask to hide their tumultuous thoughts and feelings.

"What now sensei?" A thoughtful silence permeated the room after Kakashi had asked the question. Minato sat in silence for a few moments, collecting his thoughts and considering the options available to him before he spoke up.

"Kakashi I want you to go to ANBU Headquarters as well as the Torture and Interrogation and Intelligence divisions to inform them of Naruto's new status, we can't afford for him to take advantage of our shinobi whilst it hasn't spread about his betrayal. Shisui I have to ask you to call an emergency council session, gather the elders and the clan heads, we'll inform the civilian council later. Itachi I want you to go back to the hospital, I know enough about the Mangekyou Sharingan to realise that overuse damages your eyes. Shikaku, your thoughts?"

As the respective shinobi went to their designated areas, Minato and the others remaining looked towards Shikaku, knowing that he had already planned several moves ahead of the rest of them.

"Tch, this is a troublesome situation, I'd suggest sending the Hunter nins and ANBU after Naruto immediately so that the trail doesn't go cold, no less than two squads should even attempt to track him. You might want to consider asking for Danzo's help in this situation Hokage-sama, his network might be able to locate Naruto before we can. I'll wait until the council is convened before saying anything else, it'll be less troublesome to tell everyone once."

After sweat dropping at the Nara's lazy attitude, they prepared for the arrival of the council and the meeting that would follow.


Author's Notes

Naruto has finally defected from Konoha! Next time we'll see where he decides to go now and what he intends to do next.

Here's a list and description of some of the jutsu:

Katon: Hidora no jutsu - Fire Release: Hydra Technique - The user is able to exhale three streams of white-hot fire which look like snakes. With sufficient chakra control, one can control the snakes to some small degree. B-rank.

Raiton: Hachidori no Mure no Jutsu - Lightning Release: Swarm of Hummingbirds Technique - The technique causes various sparks of lightning to appear in the air. Within moments they transform into humming birds, giving off a loud humming sound. The humming birds will then rush the opponent and can spread out to hit multiple targets. C-rank.

Doton: Chikyū-jō no jigoku - Earth Release: Hell on Earth - After a long series of seals, the user bangs their head on the ground. The field around the user then transforms into sharp pointy spears, jutting a meter up from the earth's original position. After a further set of handseals, the sharp spears then transformed into a swamp of mud, similar to Doton: Yomi Numa.

Fuuton: Fuuryoku Hatsuden Bureedo no Ninbasu Geiru Rasenshuriken - Wind Release: Nimbus Gale of Wind Blades Spiralling Shuriken - Minato's original name for the Rasenshuriken.

I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter so until next time, Ja ne!