Title: New Future of the Legends
Author: Nakora-chan
Email: nakora(dot)chan(at)gmail(dot)com
Series: Naruto
Rating: T (may end up M later on)
Pairings: None (If I have time later on, I will create an alternate version with pairings)
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Summary: Three years have past since Naruto has left Konoha. It is about time that he returns, but when he does, he reveals things about himself and Konoha that has never been known to the public. Despite what he has become, he strives to break free from all bonds.
Warnings: AU, OC, OOC, blood, abuse, mutilation (last three will occur later on)

Chapter 6: Confrontation Following Reunion

He didn't expect to see Tsurugi Tenkou so soon after their last meeting. Merely remembering their last confrontation caused his collarbone to throb, and he briefly wondered if Tsurugi still ached from his hit to the solar plexus. All of their meetings together ended in pain for both of them.

Controlling his face, he casually replied, "Hishashiburi, Tenkou-kun."

Tsurugi was smiling, the calm smiling façade he always wore when they met. Nothing ever changed that expression on that face; Tsurugi wore that expression, even as his own fist smashed his face. For the smallest moment, he could believe that Tsurugi was truly the insane mass-murdering shinobi that everyone called him. Ironic.

Judging by the looks that Tsurugi was receiving from the other members of his team, none of the Konoha ninja knew about the long-haired boy's reputation, and he inwardly acknowledged Tsurugi's skill in keeping Konoha and the rest of Fire Country from knowing about his identity. But how much longer could Tsurugi keep it secret from them?

The old hag glanced at Tsurugi with mild confusion but subtly relented with a silent demand for answers. Narrowing his eyes somewhat, he noted that she wasn't from Konoha, meaning she came from Suna, and he immediately concluded that she was the grandmother of his fellow Akatsuki associate, Akasuna no Sasori. She would be a hassle to deal with if she joined the fight against him. With Tsurugi, Hatake, and—what was her name? Chiyo?—against him, he wouldn't last too long.

"How are you, Itachi-kun?" Tsurugi asked, tactfully moving his body in front of the rest of the group.

Unwittingly, an eyebrow twitched in amusement. Tsurugi clearly didn't want to involve the others of his group in their spat, but that didn't really matter.

Ignoring Tsurugi's question, he asked in kind, "Where is Uzumaki Naruto?"

Tsurugi's companions looked at his opponent in shocked confusion. Schooling his face, he succeeded in keeping a smirk from his lips. So, Tsurugi hadn't told anyone anything about his connection to his target, but more likely, Tsurugi had only told two people, the Hokage and Jiraiya, and they deemed that it was too dangerous for anyone save those aforementioned three to know the whereabouts of Uzumaki Naruto.

That was how Itachi met Tsurugi. Between him and Kisame, they had been tracking down the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki when Uzumaki Naruto literally disappeared off the face of the earth a week after he and Jiraiya left Konoha for the three-year training trip, and up popped, in his place, Tsurugi Tenkou, an unknown shinobi with no origins and no past. Absolutely no one knew where Uzumaki Naruto disappeared to, and no one knew where Tsurugi Tenkou came from.

The pair had immediately assumed that Tsurugi Tenkou was in truth Uzumaki Naruto, the one and the same. But the moment they confronted Tsurugi, they were forced to realize that Tsurugi Tenkou was never Uzumaki Naruto and that Uzumaki Naruto could never be Tsurugi Tenkou. Even with months of practice, which was exactly how much time they had noted between Uzumaki Naruto's disappearance and Tsurugi Tenkou's appearance, there was no comprehensible way that a shinobi's style of fighting could, down to the basic katas and footwork, change so dramatically and drastically. As said, there was no way that Uzumaki Naruto could have changed his entire fighting style to fight on par with him, Uchiha Itachi.

Tsurugi's answer was "He's not here, Itachi-kun."

No matter in what manner he appeared in front of this young man, he had never been able to receive a straight answer. All the words came from Tsurugi's mouth directed towards him were all convoluted and half-truths. There was never a straight truthful answer, but that didn't really matter at all. He longer confronted Tsurugi for the truth, something he realized two years into their continual fighting. To Tsurugi, truth never existed. Those were Tsurugi's exact words.

Still, after so many years, he had asked the same question, and Tsurugi gave the same answer, though it was phrased differently every time. Then, there would be no more words between them.

Low murmurs emanating from Tsurugi drifted lightly across the space between them, but he could still make out the conversation.

"Hatake-san, Haruno-san, Chiyo-baasan, please close your eyes."

"What about you?" asked Hatake, while looking at him and especially not looking into his eyes.

"I will be fighting Itachi-kun, but I do not want you getting trapped a genjutsu if you accidentally look into his eyes while I am fighting."

"You're fighting him alone?" the pink-haired girl asked with a look of incredulity.

Tsurugi, not facing them, nodded. To keep his muscles tense and chakra consistently moving, Tsurugi shifted himself to align himself with the opponent across the field. "I know Itachi-kun's fighting style. Even if I were to fall in this fight, I hope that my loss will not affect the outcome of our mission."

Hatake visibly frowned but offered no other emotion on his face for anyone to decipher his inner thoughts. After giving Tsurugi a long searching gaze, a tension in Hatake's shoulders relented. "You are a jounin, and you know your limits."

Itachi almost smirked in amusement. Konoha ninja; most of their attitudes were upbeat and optimistic, and most had never seen the worst of battles. He knew that Hatake had; Hatake, after all, had been through the Third Great Shinobi War, even though the older man had only seen the last of that war. The mentality that wars forced on people was all the same, and that mentality caused Hatake to say those words to Tsurugi.

In response to the unspoken questions and the acknowledgement, his opponent nodded, eyes never leaving him for a moment. The three other shinobi stepped back, all of them looking anxiously between the two.

FWOOSH…

Dodging the open hand strike aimed to the left shoulder, then the one to the right shoulders, he was forced to keep evading, all of Tsurugi's strikes restraining him from moving from the defensive to the offensive. The well-aimed strikes kept coming, and he had to rely on his instincts because Tsurugi's hits were too fast for his Sharingan to accurately predict the movement.

He ducked as Tsurugi aimed a double-handed strike and crouched, swinging his body into a full-out body sweep. The sweep worked, but Tsurugi bent back and used the downward momentum to twist his body to kick the other's side as Itachi's body moved away from the completion of the body sweep.

Noting the kick, he let his hands slid against the ground, moving away from Tsurugi and gaining distance between them, his momentum pushing him away from the tremendous impact that Tsurugi's feet would have made with his body. With wary eyes, he watched as Tsurugi's feet indeed collided with the ground and created a small crater. From experience, he knew that Tsurugi's limbs were like mountains; the fact that the two-foot downward kick had only created a small crater reinforced his small aggravation of Tsurugi not fighting at his fullest. But then, who was he to complain?

Again, Tsurugi was in his face. Right hand, left kick, left hand, right kick, step back, step forward, left foot, step back, right hand. And the fight kept on going. He had to pay close attention to the vibrations in the air in order to actually know what the next move on his opponent's part would be; there were no bodily ways that he could predict Tsurugi's motions. He barely had time to prepare an adequate defense in retaliation to the attacks.

Out of nowhere, Tsurugi's leg shot out and nailed him in the gut, the force pushing him back and away. His hand immediately went to his stomach even though he knew that it did him no good. He then thanked his last minute body adjustment that saved his life. If he hadn't moved at the last second, he would have turned around to see his stomach there.

Buddha no Zen'in was truly a formidable taijutsu style. Compared to most taijutsu styles, Buddha no Zen'in required little to no chakra expenditures, and in that aspect, it was similar to the Goken style. Otherwise, there are no equals to this style. He wasn't too sure about the method of training, but he assumed to truly use the style to its fullest potential, Tsurugi had to have extensively enhanced his strength. The strength of one hit, even by a singular kick, was enough to push a human heart out of someone's chest without any damage to the place of impact.

The small crater that Tsurugi had made earlier was a testament to the strength of Buddha no Zen'in. Glancing a moment to the pink-haired girl of the retrieval group, he noted the gloves and concluded that she was probably that apprentice Tsunade picked up. Quickly drawing a comparison between Tsurugi's strength and the strength that this girl had surely received from her master, he concluded that Tsurugi had the advantage though it was only slight. But honestly, he admitted he couldn't truly compare the two methods of gaining the type of strength that Tsunade had.

Tsunade's strength was not based on chakra, though many thought it was. Tsunade's strength was an inherited trait, something that came about physically without any help of chakra, something that was not a chakra-aided strength. The girl's strength, on the other hand, was completely and totally aided by chakra. Tsurugi and Tsunade's strength were more alike that he would have wanted, but he would have had it no other way.

Feeling blood well up from inside his throat, he forced it back down. He would not let Tsurugi have the pleasure of knowing that first blood was his. He removed his hand from his stomach as soon as he was sure that he could stand upright without hunching over in pain. Putting slight pressure on the area and realizing that it was fine though very sore, he shifted his stance to adequately fend off Tsurugi's attacks.

FWOOSH!

Eyes widening just the slightest, he inwardly cursed the men that gave his opponent the speed and power to effectively injure him. Tsurugi pulled one arm back to give a powerful clenched blow, but his hand shot out, grabbing the offending limb with more strength than necessary but still effectively immobilizing the limb.

Tsurugi still smiled. Never once in the fight did Tsurugi not smile. That smile annoyed him. Rolling his fingers before clenching his hand in a fist, he pulled his arm back and sent a chakra-enhanced blow at Tsurugi's face. Though he normally didn't charge his hits with chakra, doing so would better his odds and besides, all is fair in love and war.

The blow didn't connect however. Tsurugi ducked, to his irritation, and pulling his hand free, twisted his hands and arms in a well-known open double-handed strike to his chest.

Little time to prepare a stable defense, he had to resort to blocking the strike with both arms before flying off in the direction of Tsurugi's attack.

CRACK!

Biting the insides of his mouth, he could feel and taste more blood welling from his insides. The pain was nothing he hadn't dealt with before, but Tsurugi's hands had the strength of mountains. That loud crackhe knew was the sound of his bones braking and shattering into thousands of pieces. He let his arms hang free at his sides; his arms were no use at this point.

From the very beginning, he had been on the losing side. Out of all the shinobi arts, Tsurugi truly excelled in taijutsu even though, from what was known about the shinobi, he only knew the Buddha no Zen'in. The Buddha no Zen'in truly was a formidable style, but those that learned the style rarely used it and when they did, they didn't show a great proficiency or mastery of the style. In Tsurugi's hands, the style flourished and became what it was truly designed to be: a monstrously strong, bloody, feral art.

The first time they had fought, Tsurugi had engaged him in solely taijutsu, which surprised him. Traveling and training with Jiraiya the Sennin automatically led him to believe that the long-haired boy engaged more in ninjutsu since the Sennin specialized in ninjutsu, but Tsurugi pulled out Buddha no Zen'in and effectively fought on par with him. For someone to fight on par with him in merely taijutsu, he had no choice but to acknowledge Tsurugi's abilities. Back then, he had no idea that Tsurugi had held back; both of them were shinobi. Why did they not resort to other shinobi arts?

He often asked himself that question once he and Tsurugi parted ways; yet every single confrontation between the two, they never got past only using one shinobi art. This time, it was taijutsu, similarly to their first meeting; if he had the first to attack, it would have been genjutsu. From past experiences and past fights, Tsurugi had floundered when he was attacked with genjutsu. He had no idea why since the boy had an excellent control over his chakra, but nevertheless, Tsurugi never fought back well when confronted with genjutsu.

It was an unspoken rule between them that they would not resort to other shinobi arts other than the one used in the first attack by either side. He doubted that Tsurugi even knew why they did such.

"Pay attention, Itachi-kun."

Immediately, he retaliated with a kick. His instincts reacted though his reaction time was so much slower than what it normally was. Tsurugi blocked the kick, but the boy was already in the final stance of a kata. There was no way that he could get out of this one.

He smirked as a warm feeling seeped out of the corners of his lips.

Kakashi looked down expressionlessly, Chiyo doing the same right beside him. The scene was relatively clean except for the limited area of combat. The area of most damage was where the corpse lay. With his eye still firmly planted on the corpse in front of him, he watched Tsurugi's actions.

Tsurugi stood a little distance off away from the rest of the group, and with his back turned away, he couldn't decipher the emotions or thoughts running through the young boy's mind. Certainly, the boy had killed before, right? He could never be too sure with the abundance of young prodigies nowadays. The skill that Tsurugi had displayed against his opponent spoke of countless battles and confrontations, but he wondered just how far the enemies pushed Tsurugi. Push Tsurugi far enough and he might push back, but Tsurugi's tolerance was extraordinary.

The boy stood away absolutely still, the breeze flapping his clothes and his hair. Not a breath or a twitch of a muscle escaped Tsurugi's stillness. If he didn't know that Tsurugi was a living human, he would have mistaken the boy for a statue or illusion designed to throw him off kilter. The absolute stillness seemed to be a way for Tsurugi to deal with the death of his opponent apparently, and even the violently strong muscles wrapped by bandages paid homage to the dead.

Returning his full attention to the corpse laying on the ground and sprawled out in front of them, he mentally sent a prayer asking for the forgiveness of the soul sent to the gods. Even though this man had been tricked and died not a man, he deserved some sort of honor or redemption for staying loyal.

Quietly, he said to no one in particular but directed the statement towards Chiyo, standing beside him. "We need to move."

Chiyo nodded. Her face was blanker than usual though her lips curled into a frown. Her eyes on the corpse avidly, she murmured, "It's Yuura."

He then looked at Chiyo. "Yuura?" He hadn't expected Chiyo to recognize the corpse, but to recognize this corpse spoke volumes about the actions of the Akatsuki.

"He was a jounin on the Kazekage's council."

Kakashi nodded. Yuura's actions apparently had been a plant by the Akatsuki; for a plant to sneak as far as into the Kazekage's council and not be detected for years terrified him. Was there a plant in Konoha? There probably was, but exactly how far did the plant reach in the shinobi hierarchy? Did the shinobi even know that he or she was being used by Uchiha Itachi, Konoha's member in the Akatsuki? Just how much was Konoha's safety compromised by the actions of a single shinobi?

He avoided gritting his teeth; he knew that Chiyo and maybe the others would notice it. His worry would only cause the mission to fail, and with their progress so far into the mission, it wouldn't do any good for Suna-Konoha alliance, Suna, or the Kazekage.

"How is it possible for someone – anyone to be so…"

His eyes shifted towards the light voice not marred with age. Sakura stood a little bit away from him but not as far away as Tsurugi. Her eyes were wide with some emotion – he couldn't tell which one, terror or surprise or some obscure emotion that he only attributed to someone that had never truly experienced the true horrors of the life of a shinobi.

Eyes flicking back to the corpse, he answered quietly, "We are shinobi. We are killers."

Sakura looked at him with wide unbelieving eyes, and he didn't dare look back. She needed to learn that trained assassins were just that, and her medic-nin status did not matter in the overall scope of life. A medic-nin is a shinobi, and shinobi are killers. And in order for her to be successful later on in her career, she needed to fully understand and accept it.

Abruptly, Chiyo looked away from the corpse and focused all their attention on her. Her eyes carefully scanned the area. "We better leave."

Kakashi nodded but stood for a moment longer looking at the corpse. He wasn't sure if they should leave the corpse where it was. Despite the fact that Yuura was Uchiha Itachi's substitute, Yuura had been a shinobi of Suna, and there could be antagonistic shinobi out there that could have a jutsu that could extract information from the dead. He just couldn't leave the corpse out there as prey for vultures.

Tsurugi turned around. There was still blood splatter scattered across his face, but the blank expression that spread across his face unnerved him even more. Deep down, as he looked into those cerulean eyes, he couldn't help but feel as if those eyes weren't meant to be blank or emotionless. Blue, to him, was a color that he always associated with the great illustrious sky.

With the same lack of emotion in his eyes, Tsurugi told them blankly, "I will seal the body."

Sans a response from the rest of the team, especially from the team leader, Tsurugi took out a scroll, a brush, and an inkwell from the depths of his sleeves. He unfurled the scroll, dipped the brush in the inkwell, and started a seal. The brush literally flew across the paper outlining the conditions of the sealing and all other parameters. As Tsurugi drew the seal, Kakashi grew more and more intrigued by Tsurugi's skills.

Depending on the conditions of a mission, shinobi usually had scrolls prepared to collect dead bodies, and few to no shinobi had the ability form or alter an existing seal. Shinobi that usually go on missions that concern dead bodies usually can write out a seal based on a premade seal foundation, but only seal masters could create a brand new seal without any foundation at all for an on-the-spot sealing.

Tsurugi set the brush down and his hands blurred as he performed the necessary hand seals to apply chakra to the ritual. His lips moved but no sounds issued out. Straining his ears, Kakashi tried to make out any sound coming from Tsurugi's mouth but even with his acute sense of hearing, he could make out no words.

Merely watching a sealing ritual is a spectacle on its own. The ink characters moved out from the scroll and reached over to grab the corpse's stiff form before yanking it into the depths of the seal; as the corpse disappeared into the scroll, the ink characters slowly moved back into their original position before Tsurugi activated the ritual.

Most sealing rituals had a style depending on the seal master that originally created it, but most styles include placing the body on top of the seal so not to expend so much chakra. The chakra consumption needed to form malleable and realistic ink characters had to be enormous, but as Kakashi thought about it more and more, he realized that Tsurugi probably had enough chakra to bring even the Hokage to her knees just by bringing it all out to bear upon her, not that he would ever do it considering the fact that she was his last relative alive.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts mentally, he calmly watched Tsurugi roll up the scroll, tie it off, and slip it back into the endless sleeves of his kimono. With his mind still mulling over the mystery that was Tsurugi, he finally recognized that Tsurugi had put multiple seals on the insides of his sleeves for storage; so back at the village when Tsurugi had presented his arms for inspection, he was supposed to inspect the supplies that were inside seals. Apparently, Tsurugi had thought that he would automatically assume that there would be seals all over the sleeves since Tsurugi was a seal master, and it was his own folly that he did not wrap his mind around the abilities and capabilities of a seal master when his own teacher was one.

Tsurugi got to his feet and stopped moving. He stood absolutely still just like how he was before he announced that he would be sealing Yuura's body; his absolute control was a way to keep anyone from deciphering his secrets, especially his emotions.

He blinked, and blinked again. He blinked hard, just to make sure that he wasn't seeing things again. For the slightest moment before he blinked, he thought he saw Naruto again.

In that moment, Naruto stood where Tsurugi was currently standing, and there was a hard glint in his eyes that only came from the sad guilt of killing someone. But Naruto wasn't here. Tsurugi was here.

He shook his head to force his mind off of the image of Naruto and his guilt. He looked at Tsurugi just to make sure that it was really Tsurugi there and not Naruto. Nodding more to himself than anyone else, he looked around signaling everyone's attention. "Okay. Let's move out."

Kakashi realized as he moved. He had to stop thinking about Naruto and when he would return. If Naruto was ready to return, he would have returned already.

They had only just arrived minutes before the rest of the rescue team arrived. Their fight with Hoshigake Kisame had ended in a disappointing victory since they had not actually defeated the nuke-nin but a mere substitution. The victory irritated him. The moment Hoshigake Kisame appeared in front of his team, he had a feeling that they had already started whatever they were doing to the Kazekage a long time ago.

He scowled inwardly; that fight with Hoshigake Kisame just proved how far his power ranked against an S-ranked nuke-nin. He knew right away that Hoshigake had only been there to stall for time. They had already stopped for the previous night; otherwise, they wouldn't have been as rested as they were today.

"Gaara is inside these rocks."

Neji looked at the summoned Pakkun. He was only slightly surprised at how long Pakkun had stayed with them, considering the little summon only had a certain amount of chakra to sustain him in the real world, but he knew that since Pakkun was Hatake's more often used summon, Pakkun innately knew how to manage his chakra usage.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he briefly looked up at the larger boulder that blocked the entrance into the infamous Akatsuki lair. He clapped his hands together in the Ram seal and focused. "Byakugan!"

Extending his sight, he frowned lightly, wondering whether he was really seeing what his eyes were telling him what he was seeing.

"How does it look, Neji?" Tenten's voice brought his mind back to telling the team.

Eyebrows furrowing, he vocalized his confusion. "Wh... What is that?"

His confusion alerted the rest of his team, and Lee spoke up. "Neji… what's happening inside the cave?"

He hesitated. The scene beyond the boulder barring their entrance was too… out there to explain, so he put his brain in his mouth. "Words can't explain…" He trailed off. There were no words to describe the scene that he had seen, and there was no accurate way of describing what was going on. In the first place, he wasn't really sure of what was exactly going on inside the cave.

The others looked at him in confusion, confusion that mirrored his own.

With his Byakugan still active, he noticed movement in their direction and mentally prepared himself. Focusing his attention on the movements, he only slightly calmed. He turned his head to the others, and informed them. "We have company."

His sensei's lips turned up into a small smile. "You're late, Kakashi."

"Eh… Well, we ran into some trouble along the way."

As the rest of his team turned to greet the rest of the rescue team, Neji noticed Tsurugi stare up at the paper seal stuck on the boulder barring their entrance into the Akatsuki lair. Tsurugi ignored all the greetings and continued to stare at the seal as if just by staring at it, it would reveal all the secrets of the life itself.

It was obvious that Tsurugi would be interested in the barrier that blocked their entrance. Tsurugi, after all, was a seal master, though he hadn't taken the proper tests to officially, in Konoha's standards, state that he was one. His mind overlooking all those technicalities, only Tsurugi's skill in sealing mattered in determining mastery of the subject.

That seal that Tsurugi had presented several days ago to the Council was proof enough of his skill. As a jounin, he had a passable amount of knowledge regarding sealing, and he could tell from the start that the level of that seal was far beyond his ken. Only those that truly knew sealing would know the full ramifications of what Tsurugi produced; he knew that Hiashi-sama knew.

His attention to the situation at hand returned when he heard Pakkun speak once more. "Well, I think I'll disappear, since I'll just be in the way if I stay. I wouldn't really be any help."

Neji turned to look at the rest of the team as Kakashi nodded to his dog summon. "Good work, Pakkun."

And a small POOFdisappeared Pakkun back to whatever place he came from.

"Right! First off, this barrier, eh, Kakashi?" Gai gave a passing glance to their resident seal master before directing his question to the group in general. "How do we take it out?"

Immediately, he noticed Hatake hesitate. He never was one to think Hatake to hesitate; in fact, Hatake would be someone who would answer the question with promptness. Hatake's eyes drifted to the side, in the direction of a member of his team, in Tsurugi's direction. Even with Tsurugi's presence, it should impede him in answering Gai's question.

That split second of hesitation left just as soon as it came. "This particular 'Five Seal Barrier' is created by seals with 'Kin' written upon them placed in five places in the vicinity." He looked up at the seal on the boulder as he explained further. "The 'Kin' token you see in front of you, and other seals are in four other places. To remove the barrier, all of them must be detached."

Neji noted a slight hitch in Hatake's breath as the one-eyed jounin turned to the silent seal master, who was still staring at the 'Kin' token on the boulder. "Is there any way that you can remove it, Tsurugi?"

No answer came, but a small emphatic shake of the head answered their question. After a small moment of silence, Tsurugi started speaking. "Anything I do has to be done to all five seals, and that would take more time than just removing them."

He heaved a small yet weary sigh; obviously with Tsurugi stating that there was nothing the seal master could do about the situation, then the job of dealing with the seal went to him. There was no trouble with locating the seals; it was just the mere thought that he wouldn't be able to participate much in the Akatsuki battles. He knew that Gai and they would go off to find the seals since they were, after all, the faster team, speed-wise. Even if the tokens weren't far away, he doubted that Akatsuki would leave the seals unattended.

Just as he moved his hand to form the Ram seal, he heard a soft "Wait."

Turning to the voice, he was only mildly surprised when he realized that Sakura had spoken. He frowned at her. Sakura wasn't one to stop him from using his Byakugan; in fact, she usually wouldn't stop many actions of the team if she agreed with them. He heard no protest from her, yet she stopped him.

She looked down at her twisting and fidgeting hands. She bit her lip before taking a deep breath and turned to Tsurugi, who still stared at the seal. "Who are you?"

Her question was honestly surprising, and whomever they confronted out there yesterday only increased her suspicion and doubt of the seal master. She had a right to do so, though; her doubt and anxiety would only hinder the rest of the team if she were to keep doubting herself.

"Haruno-san, if you can't handle yourself simply because you are unaccustomed to a team member, then I suggest that next time, you request to remain solo."

Tsurugi's words were harsh and caustic, but they were blunt and to the point. His words pointed out the flaws in Sakura's logic of asking her question. Even though the young man hadn't been on a team for a while, there was still an inherent trust that he held for his teammates, a trust that came from the knowledge that loyalty to teammates formed the basis of Konoha's creed.

Sakura shook her head vehemently and furrowed her brows. Taking a firmer stance, she demanded, "I want to know how you know Uchiha Itachi. I want to know if your acquaintance with him jeopardizes our mission. I need—"

"You don't need to know, Haruno-san."

Since Neji and his team fought Hoshigake Kisame, it was given that the other half of the rescue team had to confront Uchiha Itachi, but no one knew that Tsurugi knew the estranged Uchiha. Just what did Tsurugi do to garner the attention of the infamous nuke-nin? There were so many questions in his mind that he wanted to blurt out and ask, but now wasn't the time or place. He inwardly frowned at Sakura's lack of respect for protocol and procedures.

Sakura ignored Tsurugi's words. "You haven't been honest with us, Tsurugi. When we go back to Konoha, I will bring all this to the Hokage's attention."

Those words apparently caught Tsurugi's attention, and the long-haired brunette finally turned away from his staring at the seal on the boulder. His face was still, passive, absolutely blank. His cerulean blue eyes held no trace of emotion and oozed an otherworldly feel from their emptiness. With a voice as empty of feelings as his eyes, he said, "You know who I am, Haruno-san. I am of Konoha's founding blood, and there is nothing that would make me turn my back to the land I call home."

Neji, seeing a slight movement, looked at the medic-nin with the slightest amount of disbelief. She had taken a step back away from Tsurugi in fear; she sensed and saw something that no one else did. What did she sense that no one else could? With Sakura's sensitivity to chakra developed from her training as a medic-nin, she may have felt a chakra pattern that caused adverse effects, but why would only she be feeling them? As a Hyuuga, he also had a sensitivity to chakra but there was nothing strange around them.

He momentarily glanced at Tsurugi, whom Sakura was staring at in fear, but received no warning signals from the seal master. The indifferent yet peaceful aura surrounding the newcomer had only intensified several moments ago, but nothing had happened to cause a great alarm as Sakura signaled it should be.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he observed Hatake's actions only to not that one-eyed man was also watching the ongoing scene with calculating interest.

After a long silence, Sakura took a deep breath and snarled openly at Tsurugi. "Then where the hell is Naruto?"

Neji looked at Sakura then to Tsurugi in surprise. Naruto? Tsurugi knew where Naruto was? After years of no information, in front of him is a person that knows where Naruto was.

Everyone's eyes were riveted on Tsurugi's still form; his blank eyes slowly and strangely regained a bit of shine that showed that the person inside was human and had a heart. For the smallest second, he thought that Tsurugi's eyes were darting back in forth in panic, but it was probably a trick of the mind.

A slight shifting caught his eyes since his mind was already in a state of high suspense. Just the mere thought that this stranger knew where his friend was brought out the adrenaline, and his eyes, though not actively using chakra, flickered over to the movement. He was caught by surprise when the old woman Chiyo shifted uneasily.

Chiyo's eyes flew back and forth in some sort of panic, a subdued and barely noticeable panic but a panic nonetheless. She held herself unnaturally still, but her stillness gave her away. Just by the guessing at her shifting during the conversation, he concluded that she knew something about the relationship between Naruto and Tsurugi. Just how Chiyo knew eluded him, and he restrained himself from asking. To ask now would only be asking more trouble than was necessary at the moment.

The old woman's eyes finally stopped on Tsurugi's unnaturally still form. Tsurugi's still form differed from Chiyo's unnatural stillness; Chiyo's immobility contrasted her entire character while Tsurugi's seemed almost like he was a person meant to have absolute control over all his bodily functions. He decided then that he would demand all the answers later, and he looked back at the young man that knew the whereabouts and information about his friend.

Suddenly, Tsurugi smiled. "I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Itachi-kun." He paused. "He's not here."

His eyes hard on the seal master, he grit his teeth. This bastard wasn't telling them anything; Naruto was still out there and this bastard wasn't telling them anything about Naruto! That goddamn &!#)(∧≠ bastard! The tension was palpable and sharp enough to stab that bastard's heart, not that he had one.

"&!#) that! You know where he is! Tell us!" screamed Sakura, her rage overcoming her senses.

He couldn't blame her for her anger; Naruto was supposed to have been back half a year ago. He hadn't come back though. There had been no news or information about him for years, and they, especially Sakura, suffered from the silence that surrounded them.

Just as suddenly as the smile appeared, it vanished from Tsurugi's face. Neji shivered but made no move to rub his arms to create more warmth. His anger was enough to keep him warm.

Narrowing his eyes on Sakura, he pondered on her next move before he noticed her skin formed goose bumps and calmly noted that the air wasn't cold at all. She also shivered and also made no move to rub her arms; her anger apparently was dissipating quickly under the sullen and aloof cerulean gaze.

Suddenly, Sakura's actions clicked in his head. The cold, the fear, the chakra sensitivity were all coming from Tsurugi. This awful feeling came from the bastard. He didn't dare take a step back away from the cold being, but oh how he so wanted to.

At that moment and maybe for a long time, he wanted to run as far away from this creature that stood in front of them and with them. But it was his fear that kept him rooted to the spot.

Just as suddenly as the cold came, it went away when Tsurugi started lost the cold expression and adopted a neutral one. Just by changing his expression, the atmosphere had changed so much, and he wondered just how much of this came from his chakra and how much from the bastard's personality and aura.

"We are losing precious time idling away."

They all looked at the seal master in a cautious respect, but they moved their direct attention away from him. Neji dearly wanted to punch the smile off the bastard's face, but held himself back. He had a job to do, and he would do a damn good job just to rub it in the smiling freak's face.

"Neji." He looked over to his sensei, and Gai nodded before quietly saying, "the seals."

As the team looked towards him, he formed the Ram seal, with hands that were almost imperceptibly trembling, and focused his chakra. "Byakugan."

His vision instantly started expanding away from their position, away from their location, and onto the area surrounding them. He found his job a bit tedious, though he knew how important his kekkai genkai was to his team. With all the thoughts swirling viciously in his mind, he forcibly pushed himself to concentrate of the duty set to him. Focusing on the task at hand, he searched for his four seals.

"Found them," he murmured as he concentrated on the distance that he had to stretch his vision to actually find them. "On top of a rock about five hundred meters northeast of here… on the trunk of a tree, on a river back, three hundred fifty meters southeast… on a wall of rock about six hundred fifty meters northwest… and inside a grove about eight hundred meters south west…"

Taking the bag off his back, Gai retrieved several radios from inside the bag and handed them out to his team. "If it's that range, we'll use these radios. While we're taking Neji's directions, we can keep in communication and we'll find the locations of the seals."

He casually took the radio from his sensei and wrapped it around his neck before putting on the earpiece. The mood was somber and completely different from what it was before Sakura had spoken up. A heavy weight burdened their shoulders, and he knew until the mission was over and until Tsurugi answered all their questions that they would still bear the tremendous weight.

Tenten stated, "Radio placement, ok."

Gai gave Kakashi a thumbs-up with a great grin typical of the hyped up jounin. "Speed-wise, my team is faster. The frequency is 174. Wait for our message."

The one-eyed jounin took the radio that his "rival" handed to him and fastened it to his neck. "It's up to you…" Apparently, even with the somber mood, Hatake was trying to crack a joke; it was quite evident that once Hatake said that, there would be an…

"TEAM GAI! LET'S GO WITH THE FULL POWER OF YOUTH! SCATTER!"

Just as Neji jumped away from his position, he closed his eyes and took in a shuddering breath. Did his sensei have to do that? The embarrassment.

With his Byakugan still active, for the next few minutes or so, he continued to guide his teammates and his sensei to the locations of the seals. In a way it was a hassle trying to determine just the exact distance that each member was away from a seal, but as a Hyuuga, it was essential that he knew how to use his kekkai genkai to the fullest. His mind was full of thoughts that kept trying to distract him, but with the constant noise coming from the radio and from his teammates, he was able to work towards his goal.

Just as he got to his destination seal, which looked no different than the seal placed on the boulder they had stood in front of not more than a few minutes ago, he radioed in. "A little further south, Lee."

"Ok! Got it!"

"Same here!"

His sensei's voice came over loud and clear. "Right, everyone! Remove the seals!"

Taking the edge of the seal in his hand, he briefly wondered what would happen in that split second before he tore the seal off the rock. Would some great disaster befall them, or would nothing happen at all? Knowing that Akatsuki was an organization comprised of nine S-ranked nuke-nin prepared him for the worst. He doubted that the infamous organization would leave their lair's primary barrier unprotected.

But that split second was over; he had ripped the seal off.

Hatake's voice came from over the radio. "We'll break in with a button-hook entry." The sound of paper ripping came from his earpiece and he heard the one-eyed jounin's cry of "Sakura!" before hearing the medic-nin's response of "Okay!"

BOOM!

The reverberating destruction of the boulder nearly deafened him. He felt no pity for his fellow teammates if their eardrums were blown out; he was lucky and glad that his own were ruined from the earsplitting noise.

Concentrating on the other half of rescue team, he saw the falling and crumbling remains of the great large boulder. His vision focused on the two characters that stood to the side and did nothing to aid the two active members of that half of the team. His mind sparked, his anger giving more precision to his concentration, but he forced himself to calm.

Pulsing chakra caught his attention in all directions, more specifically near his teammates. It was strange; there was no pulsating chakra before they had reached their position and even after they had ripped the seal off, there was no immediate reaction. But this was Akatsuki; even if the reaction wasn't immediate, it would still be one.

In front of him, the ground shifted as a pile of compact dirt sprouted out of the ground.

"Neji…" came Gai's voice over the radio with the slightest hint of worry and concern.

"Yeah… Here too…" he replied.

The form that sprouted out from the ground slowly formed a humanoid shape, before detailing hair, facial features, and finally clothes. In the end, he faced something that he wished he would have never thought he could face, and even if he had thought this was possible, there was no possible way that he could believe he would ever encounter it. But he had come face to face with this opponent.

Using his Byakugan, he recognized the situation that all his fellow teammates were facing, and their respective problem mirrored his own.

"What the hell is this?" voiced an indignant Tenten.

Lee suggested over the communication device, "Perhaps, it's the enemy's trap."

Well, great thinking Lee. Hadn't they all already deduced that this was a trap designed to prevent the escape of those that removed the seal? Did Lee have to say the obvious? Neji pushed himself away from thinking bad of his teammates; he had come to respect Lee and his abilities during the time that he had known the taijutsu specialist.

"Indeed…" replied Gai as the jounin faced his own opponent. "It seems like even if the barrier is disabled, a trap activates to prevent the enemy's entry."

Quickly mulling over his sensei's words, Neji said, "Separating a four-man team into one each… Going this far to carefully secure the barrier… These are some people."

Akatsuki… They truly were a group to fear; an alliance of the world's most infamous and dangerous nuke-nin proved to be great threat. His team wasn't even facing Akatsuki, but the challenge they provided was probably no match to the one that the other half of the rescue team had to face. When they finished with the opponents standing in their way, they would rejoin the rest of the rescue team.

The only problem was the opponents standing in their way were themselves.

Neji honestly had half a mind to say hello.

To Be Continued…

Author's Notes: I'M DONE! I'm so proud of myself; after several months of working on this single chapter, I've finally finished this chapter. This chapter was freakishly hard to write. Let me rant; I have the need to rant about how hard it was to finish this chapter. First, at the end of summer last year, my computer broke down; after three years of serving me faithfully and efficiently (maybe not that efficiently but still enough), it broke down. I tried partitioning the drive, but that didn't work because it kept on shutting down just as it booted up. (Note: the central fan and the CPU fan didn't work that well so it didn't get cool fast enough and it got too hot too fast). So I tried to wipe the HDD completely after mourning for several minutes over a good start to this chapter that I couldn't save. When that didn't work, I didn't start crying but almost went catatonic… Haha… I convinced my parents to buy me a brand new customized laptop and they did! YAY NEW LAPTOP! That took 2 weeks to make and 2 more weeks to ship; by that time, I was back in school and furiously doing homework that wouldn't stop piling up. So even after I got my computer and installed all the software, I still had the problem of restarting the chapter. I did restart it and it looked really good… then I got sidetracked with all these anime that were begging to be watched. Finally, I got hooked on Katekyoushi Hitman REBORN (which I highly recommend to everyone!) and my mind went totally tangent… and then I started writing original fiction again. My friends then started yelling at me about not finishing a story before starting a new one. I ignored them, but it came back and bit me on the ass. I got bored of all the fanfiction I was reading, so I got into the mood of writing again. So I've finally finished after several months of not updating. I really hope that you like this chapter; it's my longest one as of yet.

The POV of this chapter are Itachi, Kakashi, and Neji. I initially wanted Sakura to end the chapter, but I couldn't get the POV to fit her so I decided to keep with Neji, so Neji has this long-ass POV that takes up half of the chapter. Half way through Neji's POV, I realized that there were a lot of things that I had to add in, and the words just kept on coming and wouldn't stop. You'll notice that this chapter isn't the standard 15 pages, but in fact 17 pages including the author's note (16 without).

I only realized something three-fourths the way into the chapter. I titled this chapter "Confrontation Following Reunion" with the whole idea focused on Itachi and Naruto's confrontation after their reunion (the greeting at the end of last chapter). I inadvertently made several situations reflect the title. When the rescue team reunited outside the Akatsuki lair, Sakura confronted Naruto/Tsurugi. I hadn't thought about this before, but what a coincidence!

I've hit and passed the 8,000 word mark on this chapter!

STATS:
Chapters – 7
Word Count – 47628
Reviews – 163
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It's been a long time since I've gone over all the small things that I include in the chapter, so if you have any questions, just review and ask about them. I will be putting up reviewer response next chapter; next chapter will be an intermission chapter focusing on Gaara. I thought that I needed a break from just writing about Naruto, so time to focus on another jinchuuriki.

This chapter hasn't been beta'd so I'll need someone to beta this chapter as well as the rest of this story for me. Please send me an example of your work.

REVIEW!