Naruto had to admit that helping with the heavy lifting had definitely had positive effects on his body. Of course, the fact that he had managed to use his bunshin to improve his other skills meant that he was generally getting stronger at an unbelievable pace.

Tayuya on the other hand was sporting a few new bruise's courtesy of slipping up and swearing in front of Inari on a few occasions. While Naruto was busy helping out around town and training with his bunshins, Tayuya had proceeded to practice her skills in an attempt to make herself stronger. She realised that by now the blond was beginning to learn how to use his chakra as a radar, which in turn made her think over what she was contributing to the 'team'… not a lot.

It was because of this realisation that she had been working harder than she ever had before, if he decided to ditch her, then she ran the risk of not being capable of surviving against stronger enemies that might come after her.

Taking deep breathes due to her training, she quickly got her breathing and pulse back under control, at which point she decided to rest for awhile before resuming her training… however her plans changed when she heard a pair of voices in the distance.

"So how are we going to find it?"

"We make as much noise as we can… the Kyūbi is both weak and foolish, it will come to rescue the civilians, then we will capture it."

"Alright Itachi," Tayuya froze. She recognised that name and it scared her even more than Orochimaru, after all, she knew full well that Itachi was the name of the person that defeated him with a single glance… there was no way they could stand against him.

Moving as quietly as she could, the young redhead proceeded to make her way towards Tazuna's residence, where she was sure the blond would be found.

XXX XXX XXX

"NARUTO WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW!" the genjutsu user shouted as she barged through the front door of the house turned inn.

"I'm sorry but Naruto isn't here," Tsunami said as she came from the kitchen, "I ran out of noodles and he offered to go into town and get some."

"SHIT! OWW! DAMMIT DON'T DO THAT!" the former Oto nin shouted upon receiving a hit to the skull courtesy of the dark haired mother.

"And why should I?" she never received an answer as the young girl ran full speed out of the door in an attempt to reach Naruto before the enemy.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto was pissed. A flash flood had occurred out of nowhere, sweeping countless innocents away as he managed to jump just in time to avoid the wall of water which he was now standing on.

Now the main reason he was angry was simple, they were FAR too high to suddenly flood, leaving only one alternative, an attack.

"Well, well Itachi, looks like the jinchūriki was here after all," came a mocking call from a voice he recognised all too well.

"Hoshigaki Kisame," the blond growled out as he looked onto the roof of a store and immediately noticed the black robed forms of the Akatsuki duo.

"So you remembered my name huh, then again I doubt you'd forget me after the last time we met," the shark like man stated with a malicious grin stretching across his face.

"Before we do anything else, we will give you a choice Uzumaki Naruto, either come with us willingly, or this town will be exterminated after we subdue you," came the calm call of the traitorous Uchiha.

Naruto wanted to be angry, but he knew that against enemies like these two, doing so would only get him killed.

"Do you really think I'd believe you wouldn't destroy this town either way?" the Kyūbi's jailor asked before putting his fingers together and forming his signature attack.

Sensing chakra usage, both of the Akatsuki members dodged on reflex, their eyes widening when the roof they had just been standing on was sliced into several pieces.

Landing on opposite sides of the blond, Kisame hefted his chakra absorbing greatsword over his shoulder and in front of him while the Uchiha proceeded to activate his sharingan.

"Kisame, be careful, that attack is nothing more than chakra strings composed of Fūton type chakra," the genius Uchiha called over to his comrade in arms.

"Chakra strings made out of Fūton chakra? I see, the cutting ability of wind combined with the flexibility of puppetry, aren't you a smartass," the former Kiri nin stated as he estimated the threat level of the technique, eventually only getting the simple answer of 'it depends on the user'.

Both missing nin reacted with incredible speed when they noticed the blond flick his fingers, dodging the incoming attack as they regrouped above the blond, who jumped back and redirected his strings behind the red cloud members.

"Kisame, behind us!" the normally stoic Uchiha ordered, before grasping his partner and redirecting him to the large strings, which the chakra devouring greatsword easily cut through as the two were once again separated.

Itachi was shocked when he felt a pair of feet hit him, as the strings rejoined much closer to him.

"Goodbye Itachi," was the cold statement that left the blonds mouth as he kicked the genius of the Uchiha clan into his razor wire, slicing the red eyed ninja into several pieces… which suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke, "Kage Bunshin," Naruto muttered with wide eyes as he landed on the water, before immediately being dragged under by a hand that erupted from under the surface.

Looking at his assailant, Naruto noticed the cold sharingan of the legendary Uchiha and immediately did what his instincts told him to.

Kisame was shocked when he saw the chakra made canal twist into a whirlpool, before the surface exploded, ejecting a soaking wet jinchūriki and a dark haired Uchiha. The biggest difference between the two however was that while Naruto was gasping for air, Itachi was clutching the right side of his chest in agony as blood flowed through his fingers.

"Itachi, what the hell happened?!" the shark like man asked as he landed next to his stronger partner.

"It turns out that Uzumaki knows the Rasengan… if I had known I wouldn't have attempted to drag him under," the genius Uchiha informed the blue skinned man, "with the water restricting my movements, I was dragged directly into the attack, I was just lucky he hit the opposite side to my heart."

"Wow, looks like we might have to take him seriously after all," the sharp toothed criminal stated, earning a nod out of his partner.

"Tsukoyomi," came the quiet call of the family murderer as he opened his eyes, revealing the black, three pointed shuriken on a red background that represented his legendary Mangekyou Sharingan.

Suddenly, Naruto found himself in a strange world that almost looked like a photo's negative, with the older Uchiha standing in front of him.

"Do you really think I would let you do this Uchiha?" came a mocking voice that Naruto recognised as the fox that inhabited his stomach, before the world was flooded with the beasts red chakra and the red eyed ninja was forced out of the blonds mind.

Appearing back on the battle field, Naruto was surprised when he noticed the raven haired teen fall to his knees and clutch his eye with his free hand while the Zanbatou wielding nin looked on in shock.

"Dammit… and here I thought we would get an easy win when Itachi used that," the shark like man muttered as he kept an eye on the young blond, that is until he heard a large screeching, forcing him to turn around to look at the source of the noise and just succeeding in placing his bandaged sword in the way of an extremely dense ball of Fūton chakra.

Upon the blade being hit, the swordsman was thrown back as the bunshin carrying the attack dispersed in a puff of smoke.

Kisame couldn't believe the power of this attack, it was actually powerful enough to injure Samehada and get to him, the worst part however was that the sword was draining HIS chakra in order to repair itself, something it had NEVER had to do before.

Eventually the attack ceased, leaving a bloodied Kiri nin barely standing, while his once proud sword was literally whimpering in agony courtesy of the large chunk of missing flesh on its edge.

"D-Damn it…" the shark like Kiri nin managed to cough out as he felt his reserves reach genin levels for the first time since he got his hands on the sword.

"Sorry… but I can't let you leave here alive," the blue eyed blond stated calmly as he directed his wires around the duo of S-ranked criminals, before with a simple tug, both of the extremely dangerous individuals found themselves falling into several pieces, while the water that once flooded the area started to flow like it was supposed to.

Using regular chakra strings to retrieve the pieces of his opponents, Naruto couldn't help but marvel at his improvement since leaving Konoha, before he proceeded to seal the remains in a scroll using a Fūinjutsu that Kankurō had taught him in case he ever decided to get a puppet of his own.

"(sigh) well that went better than expected," the spiky haired blond muttered as he collapsed from exhaustion, after all, making two Kage bunshin the instant his Rasengan hit Itachi under the water was VERY difficult and using the upgraded Rasengan took its toll on him even if he only made one copy of himself.

"I can't believe you actually fought them," came a disbelieving voice that he recognised all too well.

"Sorry, but I couldn't let them kill everyone… but now, I think I need a nap," and with those words, the blond proceeded to fall asleep on top of the roof he had ended up on.

"Heh… you definitely are an idiot… but at least you live up to your title, little 'Shi no Tenshi'," Tayuya muttered to herself before picking up both the blond and his scroll up and taking him back to Tazuna's residence for some well deserved rest.

XXX XXX XXX

In the elemental nations, news spreads fast and within two days, every newspaper had the same story on the front cover, the death of Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame by the hands of the 'Shi no Tenshi'.

"WHAT!" came an enraged yell from within one of Otogakure's secret hideouts.

"My, my, what is all the racket about Sasuke-kun?" came the unconcerned question from a certain S-ranked traitor.

"What's the problem? WHAT'S THE PROBLEM! THIS IS THE PROBLEM!" the enraged Uchiha shouted as he shoved the newspaper in the Snake Sannin's face.

Orochimaru couldn't believe it, Uchiha Itachi had been killed, and not only that, but when he was fighting WITH his partner. Now Orochimaru might have been confident in his abilities, however he wasn't arrogant, he might of hated admitting it, but Itachi was stronger than him and if this 'Shi no Tenshi' character was capable of defeating him AND Kisame at the same time, then the snake knew that this person was more than deadly enough to kill him as well.

However that wasn't his most pressing concern at the moment.

"Well then Sasuke-kun, it looks like your revenge has been stolen from you by this stranger, so what will you do now?" the yellow eyed traitor asked, hoping that he receives the answer he wants.

"What will I do? That's simple… I will make this 'Shi no Tenshi regret stealing my vengeance… then I will kill him," the raven haired child stated as his eyes were flooded with hatred he had never felt before.

XXX XXX XXX

Sitting at the table within Tsunami's kitchen, Naruto couldn't help but think over the conversation he had had with the Kyūbi earlier.

To think that it feared being extracted and used like some pawn, then again, the fox did have a sense of pride and being extracted just to be put on a leash wasn't something it would do willingly… now breaking free on the other hand is a completely different matter altogether.

Regardless of the fact that the kitsune had saved his life, Naruto hadn't asked it to and as such told it straight up that he wouldn't do anything for it because of that… which really surprised him when it told him it did it for its own reasons and didn't expect him to pay it back.

"Naruto-kun, have you read the paper?" Tsunami asked the blond, knocking him out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, no I haven't," came his disorientated reply before he took the paper he was passed and looked at the front page, his eyes widening to comic proportions when he read the headline.

Quickly reading through the article, he blinked several times when he read the name of the killer.

"Hey Tayuya? Do you know why they said that Shi no Tenshi guy killed them?" he asked curiously.

"Huh? Because you did," she told him straight up.

"Yeah I know I did but why did they give the credit to that guy?" the blond asked.

"Uh, you do realise that the few bandits that escaped your first massacre called YOU that… right?" the red head asked him bluntly.

"…"

"…"

"YOU MEAN I'M THE SHI NO TENSHI!"

"Yeah."

"…"

"Dammit… I was really looking forward to fighting the guy."