Chapter 11: Shukaku

Naruto took a squad of BOLT, Tsukiya, Jiraiya, Fu, and Misakiushi. Misa he took, not because he had planned to take her, but because she had latched onto his back and refused to let go. The BOLT squad were ones that specialized in missions that involved recovering captured shinobi and all had good medical-jutsu at their disposal, one of them being a fully-trained medic-nin. The captain of this hand-picked bolt squad was Yugito Nii, in case they ran into any trouble and the others would need protecting while he finished off the enemies.

With the Land of Lightning being the most north-easterly of the countries and the Land of Wind being the most south-westerly, the only logical course to follow was to cut through the Land of Fire. Without Konoha, the land of fire had become weak. The Daimyo of the country had been having trouble maintaining peace in the land. Several small ninja villages had sprung up, some out of the ninja who survived the Konoha massacre, and others from the larger groups of brigands and missing-nin who wanted funding for their operations. The different groups were constantly fighting and had turned the country into a war zone. It now lived up to its name not because of the will of fire its residents had, but because of the fires that could be seen on the horizon every night as villages and forests burned.

The distance from Kumogakure to the former site of Sunagakure would have been an eight day journey for a cell of ninja traveling at high speed. With a baby, a recovering girl, and an old man, it was taking much longer. The constant bandit attacks only slowed them down.

"Identify yourselves. You have entered protected territory." The voice seemed to come from all directions, a genjutsu to confuse travelers and set them on edge to be slaughtered if the mysterious voice's words were not heeded.

"You have no authority over me. Identify your own self or I will make sure that nothing in the area survives."

"You are a threat to the root of the new Konoha. Your party is to be immediately executed." Kunai began to fly, aiming for vitals with deadly accuracy. The BOLT operatives defended the others while Naruto walked calmly into the woods.

Whoever was hiding was an expert. Naruto could not see, hear or smell them. Naruto turned around slowly, making sure to give all angles a chance at his back and pretending that he was nervous. He did not expect the hidden ninja to take very good advantage of his purposeful weakness and was surprised when a blade pierced between his third and fourth ribs and jammed into his heart.

"Ow. That stings," Naruto cursed as his tails lashed out, sending his stealthy attacker flying while screaming curses in a distinctly feminine voice. Naruto turned on his heel and sauntered casually up to the woman. She was holding her gut where a line of seared and bruised skin was apparent. "You seem familiar."

"Shut it, before I rip out your guts and strangle you with them!" She was wearing a completely nondescript ANBU uniform. Even the mask was blank. She had purple hair and generous curves and combined with her sadistic personality, Naruto could only think of one person who could fit her description. Naruto Placed a foot on her arms, pinning them to her injury.

"Anko Mitarashi, Proctor for the second stage of the chunin exams, right?" Naruto flicked her mask up, revealing a rebellious scowl.

"And, who the hell are you?" Anko spat.

"I was a very tasty genin, or don't you remember me Anko-chan?" Naruto whipped out a kunai and made a shallow slash across her cheek, then licked the blood from the blade.

"You! You released the Kyuubi and destroyed Konoha!"

"Fun times. I bet you wish it had been you. I suppose you were on a mission when that happened?"

"The majority of people may have been self-righteous bastards, but I didn't want the whole damn village destroyed!" Anko shouted, struggling to release herself from under his foot.

"Perhaps it is time for a reintroduction. My name is Uzumaki Naruto, the number one unpredictable ninja of the former village hidden in the leaves, the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the destroyer of Konohagakure, and Amegakure, the six tailed bijuu who will soon have nine tails, and the current Raikage of Kumogakure." Naruto, using her body as a springboard flipped backwards and posed. "So, are you impressed?"

"So, you have an impressive resume, like I give a damn." Anko struggled to her feet.

"Yes, you should give a damn, because this is the choice you have. You can come with me, become my mate and be turned into a demon. Or I can rape you, torture you and eat you for attacking me when I have important business to attend to in Suna."

"Fuck you!"

"Is that an invitation. It's so much more fun when the victims are uncooperative."

"Sen'eijashu!" Snakes leapt from Anko's hands and wrapped themselves around Naruto, anchoring themselves with their fangs and pumping their venom into him.

"You know," Naruto said, beginning to feel a little tipsy, "That venom is surprisingly effective." He flared his chakra, stumbling for a moment as the snakes were burned and fell dead to the ground. "That actually made me kind of dizzy." He stumbled forward and grabbed Anko for support. "You know, I only offered because you remind me of me. But if you refuse, I'll have to kill you and Jiraiya gets upset when I kill Konoha nin."

"Jiraiya, as in the Sannin Jiraiya?" Anko asked, startled as she felt something pointy slide along her chest, cutting the tight shirt open between her breasts.

"Crap... Knew I should have taken that out first."

Naruto woke up in a pitch black prison cell. He could feel shackles that were chained to something and suspended him in the air by his wrists and ankles. He tried to breathe out a flame to light the room, but instead was filled with pain as seals on the walls, ceilings and floor lit up, pouring lightning chakra into his body. It hurt like hell, and it kept hurting. He tried channeling chakra into his limbs to give him strength to rip the chains from the walls. Once again, the seal arrays lit up and Naruto was bombarded with lightning chakra.

There was a brief column of light as a steel door swung open and then slammed shut.

"Ingenious design, isn't is. We didn't get to use the feedback in the interrogation squad, it was too easy for prisoners to commit suicide. Danzo is a little more flexible on questions of morality though. "

"I bet you could have even more fun working for me, Anko-chan." Naruto could not see, but he could feel than the clothes and ninja tools he had brought were all missing.

"You know, I really wish I could. But, it's not happening. Danzo places seals on all of his ninja. If I try to betray him, my head explodes."

"So, If I kill this Danzo, you will join me?"

"If my head would not explode for treason, I'd join Orochimaru himself to get away from this bastard. He has hidden bases underground all over fire country. They are all filled with dozens of ANBU level shinobi. I'm actually considered a failure because Danzo's training did not turn me into a mindless puppet." Anko barked out a harsh laugh. "Once an outcast, always an outcast."

"If people can't accept you, kill them until there's no one left who doesn't. Look how well it's worked out for me."

"You're in prison, being bombarded with electricity every time you try to manipulate chakra. If only I could trade placed with you," Anko muttered sarcastically.

"That can easily be arranged," Naruto growled, "Just turn your back on me for five minutes and we will see what happens."

"I'll be back later." As the light briefly revealed her, Naruto could see her trembling. The Anko he remembered would have probably cut him good and promised him torture for the things he had said. He did not like what was going on. If Danzo got a big enough army of skilled and powerful shinobi that were broken to only serve his will, he could potentially pose a threat.

Naruto lifted up a tail. It was not agile enough to try to open his restraints, nor strong enough to free himself with brute force, but it was not restrained. His tails were longer than his other appendages and could reach the walls of his cell. He brought it to his mouth and bit down hard until blood began to soak his fur. His seal training had been slacking in favor of perfecting his ninjutsu and chakra control, but he knew enough to draw a simple explosive seal with his blood. He covered the floor, ceiling, walls and shackles with the seals. It took him a little over five minutes to be satisfied since he was drawing from memory and could not afford mistakes in the seals he could not see. He hoped that, rather than activating the seals with his own chakra, the lightning seals would ignite the seals for him when he tried.

Naruto grit his teeth and focused chakra in an attempt to activate the seals. The walls floor and ceiling glowed blue for a moment before there was a red glow followed by a series of explosions that burned Naruto all over and buried him under falling concrete – but his arms and legs were now free and his chakra no longer suppressed. He decided the best course of action would be to take a nap. Buried under the rubble, it would take time for enemy ninja to find him and that would give his injuries a chance to heal.

"You're back, ungrateful trash," Kyuubi hissed angrily. A metal spike retracted from her body and another impaled the same location from a different angle.

"Is that all you have you say to me?" Naruto asked, "Where's the 'Please let me free Naruto-sama!' and the 'Allow me to earn your trust with my body.'?"

"As if I'd stoop to your pathetic level. Soon enough, you'll devote yourself to my will. You'll say 'Beat me, oh Kyuubi-sama. I don't deserve to even bow before your greatness.'"

"You are bound, you cannot attack me with intent to kill. I, on the other hand, control the environment and I am more than willing to use whatever force is necessary."

"You're a fool. You don't even lean the lessons your enemies teach you," Kyuubi taunted.

"And you've learned something useful from those bastards? There is nothing to learn from the weak!"

"I learned this!"

Kyuubi's head launched forward and her teeth sunk into Naruto's neck, her neck stretched out impossibly behind it. He could feel his chakra draining out of him as blood was sucked out rapidly. The spiked fleshy appearance of the world faded back into the dark volcanic cave it had been while Kyuubi had controlled this section of his mindscape.

"What did you do to me?" Kyuubi's teeth ripped out of his neck and blood sprayed across her body.

"I took back what was mine, kit. It's it my power to give and take and now if you want any of it back again, you'll have to beg. What will you do now that you're weak?"

Naruto flicked his three remaining tails. "You didn't take it all."

"Only because I refuse to let that neko-slut be more powerful than you. I will not be a servant to another demon. Now get out of my sight, weakling." She kicked him hard and he was sent flying and slammed painfully into the wall on the other side of the lava flow. The impact was not nearly as crushing to him as his guilt as human emotions once again began to saturate his body.

The first thing Naruto noticed was fear. He hadn't felt fear since he had gotten his fourth tail. He was fully healed, but he could not burst out of the rubble because he could hear people moving around above and around him.

"How could he have escaped!" A man shouted angrily.

"I don't know Danzo-sama. He was only left alone for five minutes. He was still subdued by the seal array and the chakra suppression restraints." He recognized this voice as Anko. She sounded fearful. "He had been attempting to turn me against you. I had to leave before I became tempted to betray you."

"Sir, the debris is consistent with the use of explosive tags," another voice said, "It is likely the demon destroyed itself in the blast."

"I don't care what is likely. If he is dead, bring me an arm or a leg or a skull. Remember, this is the monster that destroyed your homes and killed your families. We cannot allow him any chances."

Naruto cursed under his breath.

"I heard something!"

Naruto bit his lip, fearing that he had been discovered. Then he heard the sound of metal striking stone.

"It's just a rat."

"Find him and kill him. If you even find a shred of his clothing, shave it into dust. I don't want anything left except his face, just to be sure he's dead."

It was better to take them by surprise than wait for them to find him. Naruto activated the Kyuubi cloak with all three tails and burst out of the rubble. He didn't pause to consider anything, instead releasing a wave of chakra to stun his captors before racing off down the darkened stone hallway.

He was around a corner moments before a jutsu exploded against the wall. Whenever he came across a ninja, he would shove them out of the way before they could react. He didn't know the layout of the base, but he guessed that the most trodden path should probably lead to the surface. He followed his nose, searching for passages where people came and went often. Twice it lead to a dead end. Once it passed through a large chamber which he guessed was used when Danzo had to talk with all his shinobi at once. Finally, after what seemed like many kilometers of running, Naruto came upon a spiraling staircase.

Up the stairs and an odama rasengan through a heavy wooden door and its two guards later, Naruto burst into the sunlight. He was in the middle of a small clearing in the forest. He heard the creak of wood and the rustling of grass and leaves and knew he wasn't alone. He ran across the open area, dodging most of the hail of projectiles that the sentries in the forest threw at him.

"Mokuton: Mokusatsu Shibari no Jutsu!" Straight ahead of Naruto, wooden tendrils snaked out of the forest, aiming to bind him. Naruto dodged by cartwheeling to the right, but the wood turned and slipped behind him to block his escape.

"Don't let this catch you. Mokuton techniques can suppress demonic chakra!" Naruto stumbled for a moment when Kyuubi invaded his consciousness to relay this information.

"Kitsune-Bi: Furiya!" Naruto sent the bright blue fox fire out in a wide area blast, severing the wood that surrounded him from its source and lighting it on fire. "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto swerved off at an angle as he was obscured by smoke and fifty copies of himself raced in all directions.

Naruto reached the forest and heard one of his clones call out, "Fuusha Rasengan!" It was a good idea on the clones part. Naruto suppressed his chakra and continued, hearing a series of humming sounds followed by the crashing of falling trees off in the distance. The ninja nearest to him actually ran right past him and towards the noise, probably thinking that only the original would make a ruckus to defend himself.

It didn't take long for his nose and ears to lead him to the rest of his group. Jiraiya and Yugito looked a little roughed up, but otherwise everyone seemed to be in as good condition as when he'd left them. Everyone went silent and stared at him in shock, that is everyone but one. Misakiushi leapt from her mother's arms and slammed into Naruto's chest, wrapping her tentacles around Naruto and latching on.

"It's alright, Misa-chan, I am back," Naruto wrapped his arms around the young girl as she nuzzled him. He suddenly felt warm and happy. For the first time in his life, he had a family. A faint smile appeared on his lips. It was the first real smile he'd made since he had been attacked in Konoha by Akatsuki. His demonic eyes glossed over with tears of joy. He couldn't believe the feelings that wanted to burst from his chest. He wrapped his three tails protectively around her and kissed her forehead. "I love you Misa-chan."

"Umm, Naruto..." Jiraiya interrupted his tender moment.

"Yes, yes, I love you too Jiraiya, but only as a friend," Naruto replied, "And I love Nari chan, and Neko-chan!" Naruto raced forward, catching his two mates in what seemed to be more of a double lariat than a bone-crushing hug.

"Raikage-sama..." Tsukiya whimpered.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot," Naruto released her and laughed, "Anyway, you're the mother of my daughter, I think you at least should feel free to use my name."

"What happened to you?" Jiraiya asked, forcibly spinning him around to get his attention.

"I was captured by some ninja who was working for Danzo-teme whose going to die a very violent and painful death if I have anything to say about it."

"Naruto-sama, I believe the pervert is referring to your lack of demonic chakra and your reversion to a mere three tails," Yugito told him. Naruto snickered at Jiraiya being referred to as a pervert. He had ordered Yugito to refer to Jiraiya like that whenever around other women so that they would be wary of his habits and research.

"Oh! That's because I did something stupid and pissed her off. She can be quite a bitch when she's angry. I didn't even know she could take it back until she did it."

"You're acting strangely as well," one of the BOLT dared to say.

"No, he's acting normally. I haven't see him do that since the first time he had three tails," Jiraiya contradicted the BOLT, looking slightly worried, "And he wasn't anywhere near this close to normal then."

"I'm used to it now. It's as if I've been fed six bowls of ramen for every meal and then being asked if I have the stomach to be able to handle a single bowl," Naruto explained in his own unique way."

"Be that as it may, I think you probably answered the most important question first. Who did you say was in charge of the ninja that kidnapped you?"

"I didn't really see him. I only heard him talking after I woke up after blowing myself up."

"Perhaps you'd like to start at the beginning," Fu suggested, "that way we'll no longer be interrupting with our questions as you add more details."

One of Naruto's clones dispersed and Naruto gained its memories. The clones were wreaking havoc around Danzo's base, but it wouldn't be long before they were destroyed or out of chakra.

"I'll tell you guys everything, but we'd better get moving before those guys come back, my clones won't hold them off forever."

After a few hours of explanations, the party understood Naruto's story well enough to make intelligent conversation about the experience.

"So this Danzo used to be a Konoha nin?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, he was a member of the council. He secretly created a group of ninja that he called root. They were all ANBU level and unwaveringly loyal to him. He disagreed with Sarutobi's peaceful way of doing things and wanted to force the other villages into submission. His ways would have led to another great ninja war. He would have been executed years ago for treason if his operatives weren't so good. We never managed to take a single one of them alive."

"They have seals on them. They will kill any one of them that even thinks of betraying Danzo."

"That shouldn't even be possible. There must be more behind the seals," Fu pointed out.

"Maybe it is a long distance targeting jutsu used in conjunction with some of the Yamanaka jutsu. Or something similar to that," Jiraiya guessed.

"Once Shukaku is sealed, we'll come back with an army and kill Danzo. I told Anko-chan that I was Raikage, so Danzo knows where to find me, and he definitely wants me dead."

"Anko-chan, eh? Is that why you didn't just blow the entire place sky high?" Jiraiya winked at Naruto, nudging him with his elbow conspiratorially.

"Of course, Ero-sennin." Naruto smiled softly as he reminisced. "Snake-bitch was the only one who ever got treated as badly as I did. I feel like we have a connection."

"Like a sword through the heart."

"A painful connection is still a connection."

"Are you going to turn her into a demon too?" Jiraiya asked, beginning to drool as he imagined the possibilities, unconsciously groping the air ahead of him.

"Remember what happened to Neko-chan, there might not be anything left for you to drool over." Naruto reached out and groped Yugito's chest to demonstrate. "Tsukiya, you've been awfully quiet."

"I've not had anything to add, Raikage-sama."

"Are you feeling alright? Is it still painful?"

'"I'm doing fine."

"I don't like this. We're making camp for the night," Naruto ordered.

Naruto couldn't sleep. He could smell a faint scent of blood around Tsukiya and that worried him. When she began to turn pale, he couldn't wait any longer and ordered the BOLT to examine her with their medical skills. He remembered when he had been traveling with Jiraiya and had almost killed him while trying to heal him. He decided that upon his return, he would always spare some of his clones to learn healing jutsu. Even medic-nin could use their skills in battle, so there was no reason that he should have neglected in training that aspect... except that at the time he hadn't cared whether his allies lived or died as long as it amused him.

"Her body is breaking down. It's as if it is tearing itself apart from the inside," the medic interrupted Naruto's brooding.

"Can you heal her?" Naruto asked.

"Most of the damage is internal and is focused around high concentrations of chakra. We fear that the demonic chakra from bearing the child has corrupted her chakra coils and she can no longer live without demonic chakra to sustain her."

"If I give her some of my chakra?"

"It will kill her even faster. Your chakra is too potent."

"And, Yugito's?"

"She is only human. She is not made to harbor demonic chakra. The only chance she has is sealing another demon into her body to complete the transformation of her chakra coils into those of a jinchuuriki."

"I'm heading off ahead. I'll get there by noon and seal the demon. Meet me at the former location of Sunagakure."

Naruto took his daughter and held her to his chest. Despite the fact that she was sleeping, the tails curled around him and latched onto his flesh. Then he picked up Tsukiya and hefted her onto his back and began to run with impossible speed, forcing massive amounts of chakra into his legs and leaping through the air.

When he first landed in sand after a powerful leap forward, Naruto wasn't prepared for the lack of friction from the loose particles. Had he not been carrying Tsukiya, he would have just allowed himself to tumble and regain his feet afterward. As it was, he knew it was too dangerous to pull such reckless maneuvers with a deathly sick girl on his back and an infant on his chest. He leaned back and dug his heels into the soft ground, digging deep trenches until his feet dug up a rock that sent him sprawling face first into the sand. He spayed out his arms and legs to stop himself from crushing Misakiushi, though he felt that she would probably survive the ordeal with no ill effect if he didn't. He crouched there on hand and knee, blinking furiously for several minutes as grains of sand dripped from his skin along with tiny rivulets of blood. He swore that he would sand paper the eyes of the next person he could take his anger out on.

"Raikage!" The voice called out before a shinobi shunshinned in front of him in a burst of vapor.

"Where's the damn raccoon?" Naruto asked. He wasn't sure he would be able to handle Akatsuki ninja and Shukaku now that he had so few tails. Hopefully he could deal with Shukaku without them interfering.

"I lost him when Akatsuki took out my team. I've been keeping an eye on them from a distance, so he should be close."

"And what of the Akatsuki abilities?"

"There were two of them. We couldn't kill either of them. No matter what attack they were hit with, they both kept coming. Gashuma-taicho decapitated one of them, and his head fell off as well. That man just picked up his head and continued as If nothing had happened until his partner sewed it back on."

"It wasn't some sort of puppet jutsu?"

"No, he couldn't see when his body went behind his head."

"Where are they?" Naruto asked. He would have to deal with them first. He couldn't risk them interfering with his sealing. He turned his head from left to right, sniffing and and twitching his ears.

"About a kilometer and a half that way." The ninja pointed and Naruto found the sweet stench of rotting death.

"Look after these two and wait here. The rest of my group should catch up by nightfall." He was rather glad that Shukaku and the Akatsuki had strayed almost upon the border of the Land of Fire. The others were sure to come at least this far before making camp, so he would have help when it came time to seal Shukaku.

He gave Tsukiya to the man, and lay Misa upon the sand.

"If anything should happen to them, you'll wish you had died trying to prevent it," Naruto warned.

"Yes, Raikage-sama!" The ninja saluted as Naruto took off in the direction of Shukaku and the unkillable monsters he was about to decimate.

Naruto approached from downwind with the sun at his back, but by the way the bulkier one continued to stiffly converse with his scythe-wielding partner, and the way his hearts sped up, Naruto knew he had been noticed.

"Jashin-sama needs more sacrifices. We aren't allowed to kill anyone worthy of the honour."

"We don't have time to waste on your time-wasting rituals, Hidan," the man with four beating hearts grumbled at his partner. Despite his young looks, this one smelled disgustingly like a very old man. He was healthy though, and strong. And pretending to cross his arms angrily while secretly performing hand seals.

Naruto leapt aside as a burst of lightning chakra burst from the man's back. "Kitsune-Bi: Furiya!" Naruto answered with a blast of wind-enhanced flame that seemed to be on target until simultaneous water and lightning jutsu combined to counter it.

"Not bad for someone so young."

"If you're just going to toy with him, Kakuzu, at least let me sacrifice him."

"No, this is a bounty we can't afford to lose. Do you not recognize a jinchuuriki when you see one?"

"Which is he? The eight-tails? But I only see three, and he doesn't look like a turtle."

"I can't believe you haven't heard of me... I single-handedly wiped your base off the face of the earth, as I did with Konoha."

"Proud to have betrayed your friends?" Kakuzu asked, "And they called me a monster."

"I do my best, but it's still a sore subject. There were a couple girls I'd have wanted to spare if I could do it over again." Naruto licked his lips as he thought back to the dream after the incident. If only Hinata had told him sooner, the he wouldn't have been alone, and maybe...

Hidan's triple-bladed scythe bit into his side while Naruto had been distracted. He leapt back, landing in a seal that had been drawn upon the ground and looked like a triangle within a circle.

"Jashin will have your blood." Hidan licked Naruto's blood from his scythe. His skin darkened until it was black except for a pale white pattern that looked as if a skeleton had been tattooed across his body. He began to chuckle and stabbed himself with his scythe. "Let Jashin-sama hear your screams!"

Naruto was surprised when he felt a sharp stab in he same spot as Hidan had stabbed himself. He glanced up to see Hidan do it again. The smell of blood began to affect him and his eyes glowed red.

"Heh... Hah, Ha!" Naruto began to laugh and dragged his claws across his own chest. He licked his fingers, tasting the blood as Hidan gazed at him. Naruto mimicked the design that Hidan was standing on, then slashed across his own thigh, once again lapping up the blood, laughing more and more crazily as his demonic instincts began to take over.

"Take his blood!" Kyuubi's voice blasted through the blood craze and Naruto listened, leaping towards the immortal and forgetting about Kakuzu. A doton jutsu slammed into him from below and rather than tackling Hidan, he flew over him and tumbled into the sand.

"It's been a while since I fought someone fun. It's always over so quickly. They die, or give up before I can really get into it." Naruto's demonic voice rasped as he spat out a mouthful of dry desert sand.

"Kakuzu, let me use the long ritual on this one. Jashin will be so pleased with a sacrifice like this."

"I told you that we can't afford to kill this one. Don't underestimate this one either. He gives me the creeps, and that's saying something considering who my partner is." Kakuzu replied, his eyes darting around by reflex to make sure no one was going to come to the jinchuuriki's aide.

"You shouldn't take your eyes off your opponent." Naruto chuckled. This caused both of the immortal pair to turn their faces towards him as he slashed at the air with his claws. A blast of unfocused wind chakra burst forth, spraying granules of sand into the air. Hidan covered his eyes, but Kakuzu was too close and began blinking furiously as his eyes became irritated and blurred.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!" One Naruto leapt at each of the S-class criminals while the others scattered, burrowing into the sand or henging into piles of it. The real Naruto's fangs slammed into Hidan's face, sinking deep into his cheeks and nose. He was surprised when he didn't feel any pain. He looked around and saw that his wind had blown the symbol that Hidan had used away.

"You should listen to your own advice!" A kunai Hidan had tried to stab into Naruto's throat glanced off his jaw bone, twisting and piercing through the soft flesh under his chin. The blade jutted into his mouth where he caught it between his back teeth. Naruto brought his arm rapidly across his chest. It slammed into the back of Hidan's elbow which locked as his arm was caught unable to release the kunai before his elbow bent backwards with a sickening crack and Hidan screamed. Naruto grunted and his head twisted to the side as Hidan's arm reached its limit and whipped the kunai out of Naruto's jaw, the snapped elbow becoming dislocated as well as broken from the force of the blow.

Kakuzu was faring no better. Attacks were launching at him from all sides. Some were feints. Some were combo attacks, and others were just suicide runs to keep him on his toes. No matter where he turned another Naruto was leaping towards him, prepared to launch some kind of attack. He stepped backwards to avoid a particularly nasty swipe of wind coated claws only to have a pair of hands wrap around his ankles.

"Rasengan!" A lone cried out as it leapt towards Kakuzu's back, a ball of spiraling purple energy extended in front of him.

Kakuzu turned one of his masks to face behind him and launched a great fireball attack towards where he'd heard the attack coming from. He didn't have time to take that in though, another Naruto had leapt at him from the side, preparing to launch a stream of fox-fire. Another mask came forth to raise a wall of water, but this had only been a diversion. The claws released his ankles and he stumbled backwards to have a bloody claw burst out of the front of his chest. He coughed up blood and stabbed the hand with a kunai. The clone dispersed in a puff of smoke.

"Doton: Domu!" Kakuzu announced, performing a snake seal. His skin turned black as he was covered in a solid stone armor. A clone's fist cracked against the armor and then the clone disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Meanwhile, Naruto had grabbed Hidan's good arm. He grinned wickedly as he held the hand firmly with the index finger outstretched and the rest forming a fist. He let his tongue slowly creep out of his mouth and trace around the tip of Hidan's finger. Hidan's eyes went wide with fear and surprise as Naruto gently brought his lips down and lightly sucked on the tip.

"What are you doing?" Hidan struggled, bucking his hips, but with one arm currently unusable, it was not enough to dislodge Naruto.

Naruto leaned forward more, sliding the finger even deeper into his mouth. Hidan became uncomfortably aware that Naruto was getting excited. Naruto brought his mouth down to the base of the knuckle, the flesh of the finger beginning to swell from the suction he was applying to it.

"Sto-o-o-o-p!" Hidan cried out. Then, with a crunch, his finger was gone.

A rush of blood seeped out of the finger and into Naruto's belly. He leaned forward and whispered seductively into Kakuzu's ear, "You are so delicious, I could just eat you up." His voice was slightly muffled as he spoke and his teeth ground audibly against the bone.

"Jashin will have you. I swear!" Hidan said, trembling.

"That look in your eyes is beautiful. The way your eyes tremble as they spread wide in fear. I love that look. I am going to love this in a way you can't even imagine."

"You're a monster." Hidan whimpered as Naruto brought his lips to Hidan's and dropped the remains of the severed finger into his mouth. Hidan gagged as the finger lodged in the back of his throat. His body shook with a violent spasm and his eyes watered and he screwed them tightly shut. He had no choice but to swallow the severed flesh. His body felt strange.

"If you think that was good, you should feel this." Naruto brought down a single claw and gently pierced Hidan's flesh like a needle. It barely passed below the skin before it popped out again. The tiny prick on its own was barely noticeable... but it wasn't alone. Before the pain of the prick fully registered with Hidan, he felt it again, and again, and again. It was like a machine poking him with a needle several times a second – so fast he could barely distinguish one prick from another.

"What did you do to me?" His head twisted to the side to see lines drawn in the sand. The symbol shined as the sun glinted off of the newly made trough of glass created with Naruto's tails.

"It's your technique. You should know what happens when you use your own blood for the catalyst." Naruto gave Hidan another light piercing. It didn't even draw blood. Almost instantaneously, his technique duplicated the damage. His body healed almost instantly from such a trivial wound, just fast enough for his technique to kick in and repeat the damage on the freshly healed flesh in an infinite loop of pain. Naruto pricked more and more holes until he had covered the immortal's whole body.

"What does it feel like?" Naruto asked, "Is your skin on fire? Does the pain burn?"

"Make it stop..." Hidan begged, but Naruto did not listen. Instead, he began to carve 'kyuu' into each of the man's fingertips. He had heard once that the most nerves in a person's body were gathered at the finger tips. Then, to top it off, Naruto leaned heavily on the man's testicles until the scream became high enough to hurt his ears.

Naruto stood up just in time to have a clone slam into him then disperse when lightning lanced out from a mask into him. Naruto was blown backwards by the energy. He flew through the air, flipping backwards and and landing in a crouch. He skidded back ten feet, his legs digging into the sand up to his shins. He looked up in time to see Kakuzu slaughter the last of his clones with a wind style great breakthrough.

"I guess its it's time for me to deal with you now." Naruto straightened up and and stretched, arching his back until he was facing in the opposite direction, taking in a deep breath. "Kitsune-Bi: Furea!" He shot the fire in a wide angle, bringing it down as a great waves of fire from the sky.

"Doton: Moguregakure no Jutsu!" Kakuzu dropped into the sand and it became a thick sheet of boiling glass on top of him. Naruto thought he had burned the man to a crisp until black thread-like tendrils shout out of the ground, sewing his feet together before beginning to travel up his legs.

"Fuusha Rasengan!" Naruto's technique sliced through the threads with ease, but that had only been a distraction.

"Raiton: Gian!" Several spears of lightning impaled him from behind.

"Damn, that hurt..." Naruto coughed up blood and turned around. The lightning mask was already charging for another attack. Naruto, instead of trying to dodge, raced straight towards the mask and charged his claws with wind chakra. His claws pierced through the lightning and embedded themselves in the mask. He then ripped out a heart that had been beating inside.

"Jinchuuriki or not, I'm going to kill you for that." Kakuzu growled as he brought his other three masks to point at Naruto.

"Luckily for you, I need to conserve chakra to fight Shukaku. So I am going to end this right here." The holes from the lightning were troubling him. He coughed up a great glob of blood then wiped his lips on his sleeve. "Why don't I show you a new technique I've been working on. It's not perfect yet, but..." Naruto crouched on all fours and raised his tails above his head.

"A final showdown? It's over-dramatic, but if it will save me time, it earns me money." Kakuzu agreed.

Naruto ran towards Kakuzu on all fours as a rasengan formed at the tip of his tails.

"Katon: Zukokku!" A small glob of fire shot out of one of the masks and straight towards Naruto.

Naruto leapt, flipping over the fire to see it hit the ground and explode outward. The rasengan grew, almost destabilizing as Naruto began to pump wind chakra into it. He landed behind Kakuzu and shoved the rasengan into his back just as it formed four whirling blades that made it resemble a shuriken.

"Fuuton: Rasengan!" Naruto called out. The wind styled rasengan exploded around Kakuzu, sending Naruto shooting off into the the nearest sand dune. His tails and butt were full of sharp stinging pain. He turned to see the result of his technique. The globe of spinning wind chakra was expanding, slicing everything within it. He could see Kakuzu almost seem to melt as he disintegrated under the assault. As if that wasn't enough, the expanding fire of Kakuzu's attack met with the globe of wind from Naruto's and the whole thing ignited and Naruto found himself flying backwards, blown away for a second time by the raging conflagration. "I have got to learn how to throw that..." Naruto thought before falling unconscious.

"How many times do I have to tell you that you're an idiot before you stop trying to kill yourself?" Kyuubi asked the dazed Naruto.

"Jut give up on me ever being smart enough to think that far ahead. Hard work and brute force are more my style."

Naruto shook the blurriness from his vision before letting himself tumble into the glowing warmth of the lava flow that accentuated Kyuubi's habitat, doing his best to ignore the scents that Kyuubi was not so subtly fanning towards him with her tails. Naruto let himself sink down until only his nose and eyes were above the molten rock.

"You think real lava would feel this nice?" Naruto asked. He knew that his demon body resisted heat and fire to the point that only the highest level fire jutsus would even slow him down.

"Not with three tails it won't," Kyuubi replied, stretching seductively, "And since you're probably dumb enough to try it, it will burn you to a crisp so don't even try it."

"You know that's not going to work. I have a lot more control since you took half my tails away."

Naruto tilted his head to look at the ceiling as Kyuubi stretched like a cat, raising her naked hindquarters into the and wriggling it at him and puffing out her fur.

"Hell, if you at least tried looking human like usual, I'd be all over that ass in a second."

"If it's so easy to resist, then why are you looking away? You're half fox now, I bet you're hotter than the lava right now." Kyuubi teased.

"Just keep pushing. You know I can tame you if I try," Naruto threatened.

"You can't do anything to me," Kyuubi laughed. She leapt over to him and playfully nipped at his ears, scrambling away before he could retaliate.

"What the hell is wrong with you? You like forever years old, act your age." The next nip was not so playful and Naruto found himself missing the tip of his ear.

"Raikage-sama? Are you alright?" It was the shinobi that he had left Tsukiya and Misa with. Tsukiya was laying next to him near the evening fire and Misa seemed to be trying to tear his ear off with her teeth.

"You look kind of pale," Jiraiya said from just outside of Naruto's field of view.

"Just remember one thing," Naruto said, "If you see a demon acting playful, run as if it was trying to kill you, then run faster and farther." He shuddered. "I think Kyuubi was taking Ideas from what Misa was doing to me." Naruto grabbed the aforementioned girl by the tails and pulled her off of him. "How is Tsukiya?" Naruto asked, gently running the back of his hand along the side of her face.

"She's getting worse." the team's medic replied, "If she does not have the demon within her tomorrow, I doubt she'll live long enough for another chance.

"Rest then. We move out at dawn. I want her filled with a bijuu before lunch." He was well rested, but he could tell the others were tired from their journey. They only had one chance to do this, and he wanted it done right. "You, what happened to the Akatsuki?" he asked.

"The one you hit with your technique... there is nothing left of him. The other survived. I saw him heading towards the Land of Fire. He looked frightened."

"Heh..." Naruto chuckled, then slowly began to laugh. "I guess immortality is not so great when you run into a real demon. I wish I could make all my most hated enemies immortal. I could eat them and they would live through it all, only to be eaten again and again. I could torture them whenever I wanted without holding back!" Naruto bit his lip in excitement, tasting the fresh coppery scented blood.

"Naruto!" Jiraiya laid a hand on his shoulder and Naruto calmed down, slightly.

"I didn't mean to use so much chakra against them, though. I'm going to be cutting it close," Naruto sighed as he noticed his chakra reserves were at less than half capacity, "Do we know where Shukaku is?"

As if to answer Naruto's question, there was a roar and a cloud of sand rising on the wind to the north-west.

"I believe he is that way," Jiraiya stated with a sagely nod. Naruto scowled and stood.

"Yugito, you're in charge of distracting him. Big fire attacks to melt as much sand as possible while Jiraiya and Fu help me set up for the sealing. The rest of you are on defense. This is the Ichibi, so we should come out of this with no injuries."

"Hai, Raikage-sama," the BOLT operatives and Yugito replied simultaneously then began racing towards the demon.

"It looks like we won't be getting that rest after all," Naruto stood up, gathering Tsukiya into his arms. He grabbed Misa with a tail and attached her to his back and headed towards Shukaku. Fu and Jiraiya followed.

"Are you ready for this?" Jiraiya asked.

"I'm low on chakra." Naruto admitted, "I may need some help if Shukaku is uncooperative."

"So, you need help." Jiraiya responded.

"Just make sure that the sealing is ready. Hopefully Yugito-chan will be weakened enough by the fight with Shukaku that she won't try anything afterward. I am going to be in no condition to fight her." Naruto sighed and closed his eyes, checking his chakra reserves again.

"Kyuubi may give you back some of your tails if you are endangered," Fu suggested.

"I'm not ready to have them back. I am not strong enough yet," Naruto admitted, "You've seen what happens to me." He wondered what would happen if he got all nine tails. Would anyone be safe? Even at six, his loved ones were in danger from his uncontrolled rage and blood lust. He knew he had to learn to control it before...

"Naruto, look out!" Jiraiya called out in warning as a massive pillar of sand slammed down on where Naruto had been walking, thinking to himself. "Naruto!"

""What?" Naruto asked, appearing beside the old man and scaring him half to death.

"I thought you were dead," Jiraiya sighed in relief.

"Even if I hadn't done a replacement, that attack would not have finished me off, but I had better pay attention. Are we close enough for the sealing?"

Jiraiya nodded, keeping his eyes on the sand demon who was now being pelted by ball after ball of dark purple fire. He unfurled a large scroll revealing the complex sealing array.

Using demonic chakra to amplify his voice, Naruto called out, "Shukaku! Get your sandy ass down here and into this woman before I use that sand-paper ass to grind your balls off you stupid, idiotic, and totally outclassed tanuki!"

"Pathetic runt! Who are you to challenge the might of the great Shukaku!" The beast lowered its head, bringing its giant, madness-filled eye down to stare at Naruto.

"If I am pathetic, then what are you?" Naruto chuckled, allowing red chakra to flood his body. "I kicked your weak ass before I even had control over a single tail of chakra." Naruto stretched out his tails so that Shukaku could see them clearly. "Or don't you remember that."

"There is no boy to wake up this time runt. I will crush you in my sand and take your blood."

Naruto reached out and grabbed Shukaku by his nostrils. Using the chakra control he'd learned from the sand armor technique, he held the bijuu's head together as he slammed the great beast into the desert sand.

"Listen closely you dumb ass, I am the nine tails. You are the one tail. I can kill your pansy ass without breaking a sweat, but to do that I would need to use more than my current mere three tails. I don't like using more than three tails though because my demonic chakra is angry. The more of it I have flowing through me, the angrier I get. Believe me, you will not like me when I am angry. Now, you will sit quietly and become sealed into this woman. You will transform her into a demon like Kyuubi did for me and Nibi did for Yugito and Hachibi did for my cute little girl Misa. You will help Tsukiya to learn her new demonic powers. You will train her to learn all your techniques. You will help her raise my daughter to be one hell of a demon. And, you will sit back and enjoy it when I fuck her brains out. Are we clear?" Naruto stared menacingly at the giant sand demon, not budging as the much larger demon glared back.

"Fuck you fox bastard. Give me your blood!" Shukaku struggled, sending pillars of sand shooting out in all directions.

"Kitsune-Bi: Furea!" Naruto calmly intoned as he took a deep breath before launching a long, wire-like blue flame from his mouth, bringing it down diagonally across Shukaku's massive form. The sand that made up Shukaku melted instantly as the flame cut through him like hot butter. In its wake, the flame left a trail of white-hot glass. Shukaku screamed in agony. "Are you going to cooperate?" Naruto asked as he stopped his stream of fire after cutting from Shukaku's neck to the middle of his chest. Shukaku struggled to move, but a large portion of his torso was fused into a useless blob.

"I swear, I'll shove my sand down your throat and grind you into a bloody mist from the inside out!"

Naruto repeated his fox-fire attack at the other side of Shukaku's body, causing a V-shaped mass of torso and the sand-demon's head to slide off the sandy body. Naruto caused the chakra he was using to hold the head become heated by his anger, beginning to crystallize the beast's head.

"This is your last chance." Naruto said almost inaudibly, "Before I start having fun!" Naruto clenched his hand, shattering the thin layer of glass that had built up on the inside of Shukaku's nose. Shukaku whimpered in pain and began struggling in earnest, but struggling not from his anger, but from his pain.

"I surrender! I'll do whatever you want!" Naruto released the disembodied head and it tried to squirm away.

"Yugito, enough!" Yugito stopped pelting Shukaku with fire balls. The had been almost completely ineffective when compared to Naruto's own attack. Yugito immediately leapt to Naruto's side. "I will use your chakra for the sealing." Naruto said. While the fox-fire used very little chakra, if he used his own chakra, Yugito may consider trying something in his weakened state. Yugito held out her hand and smirked smugly towards Tsukiya when Naruto took it in his own. She was playing dominance games already and Tsukiya wasn't even a demon yet. It didn't matter. Tsukiya would likely be able to easily out think and out fight Yugito thanks to her perfect memory once she had the chakra to use her skills effectively. Naruto wondered which would win, before he began channeling chakra for the sealing.

"Smart choice, using your fox fire... Or should I say lucky choice?" Kyuubi pounced on Naruto from behind, slamming him face down into the hard rocks of the volcanic cave environment of his mind.

"I needed to conserve chakra, and that move barely uses any." Naruto said, explaining his reasoning."

"Water beats fire, fire beats wind, wind beats lightning, lightning beats earth, and earth beats water. Shukaku uses wind and earth. You use wind and fire. Your fire beats his wind, and both your wind and his own increases the power of your fire. You turned his strength into your own." She licked the back of his neck with her long vulpine tongue. She nipped playfully at him and he yelped in pain. Naruto tried to struggle, but she held him fast. That's when he smelled it. Her musk was stronger than usual, more erotic.

"Damn, you're in heat aren't you!" Naruto cursed.

"You say that like its a bad thing," she purred.

"At least switch to your half-demon form." Naruto sighed, then coughed as his shirt was pulled tight around his neck until he chocked from the pressure. He could feel Kyuubi panting on the back of his neck as she pulled at the tough, ninja-grade fabric. Then, the shirt tore and flew off of him in one sharp rip.

In the split second her weight lifted off of his back, Naruto pushed off the ground, sending her sprawling. Before she could recover, Naruto leapt wildly on top of her, his hips slamming roughly between her legs and she whimpered. For a second, Naruto thought she had somehow been hurt when he had tackled her, but quickly found that is was a whimper of desire. Her hips were gyrating, rubbing against his crotch as her back claws poked sharply into his pant legs and grasping a hold of skin. He found his body responding against his will. His hips ground back against hers.

Then, he saw the smug, self-satisfied smile on Kyuubi's face. It brought back a sudden memory of recent events. Yugito's smile had been the same when he had opted to take her chakra. She had smiled the same way when he had taken her hand.

"Damn! It's not just you is it?"

"You know... Saying I am in heat is kind of misleading... You're the one who is spewing pheromones screaming 'Come grab a piece of this hot blonde ass,'" Kyuubi replied. There was a loud rip as her paws made quick work of his pants and leaving parallel bloody trails down his thighs. His erect penis jumped out of the ruined pants, resting on the fury mound of the fox.

"How long, exactly, does a male demon's heat last?" Naruto moved his hips, teasing her entrance as he asked.

Kyuubi smirked, "Since this is your first time, I'd guess somewhere between fifty and a hundred years."

"Ah, crap!" Naruto cursed as he slammed his dick into her, completely forgetting that he had wanted her to transform first.

"How is she?" Naruto asked as soon as he woke up.

"She is stabilizing. There is no more degradation of her chakra coils and the decomposition of her body is being negated as her body changes. Naruto flinched. Misa had just latched onto his ear with fangs. He hadn't known she had fangs. With a quick growl, Misa released him.

"Changes?" Naruto asked.

"Her skin has jaundiced. Her eyes have turned to a sparkling amber color and here pupils have altered into impossible shapes, like plus signs. She has grown a tail which has puffy fur with rings of white upon a sandy tan which matches the rest of her hair now. Her nails have thickened and sharpened. Finally, she's become uncontrollably blood thirsty. She had to be sedated with a genjutsu while you slept."

"Who knocked her out?" Naruto's voice became feral with anger. There was no hesitation as all fingers swiveled to point at Yugito, who was still passed out from the chakra exhaustion of sealing the one tail. Naruto's eyes glowed red. Naruto's claws shot out and for a moment it seemed like nothing had happened, then the throat BOLT that had been reporting to him turned into a fine red mist and the head tumbled off as the body collapsed. "I do not like when my 'loyal' ninja lie in their reports."

"Naruto, she's waking up." Jiraiya's information turned Naruto from anger, for now.

"You all get out of sight, take Yugito with you. Watch for that immortal and see if you can track him." Everyone was more than glad to follow this order. "Jiraiya is not the one to carry her." Jiraiya's face fell, then bounced back into a nervous grin as he walked past the passed out twin-tail, allowing another to take her. Thirty seconds later, the entire camp was gone, as if no one had been there in the first place.

Naruto knelt beside Tsukiya, examining her. She opened her eyes as Naruto hovered, crouched over her. "Have you learned to control your demon yet?" Naruto asked.

"I have learned to separate my mind into multiple sections. I have closed off the section where the demon resides. It it possible he could escape later, but I plan to have more mental barriers set up by then." It surprised Naruto to nee her acting so normally, or at least as normal in comparison to the way she usually acted.

Tsukiya sniffed the air a couple times, and Naruto noticed the hungry look she gave to the corpse he had just created. The sand began to shift around it, seeming to be anxious as it waiting.

"You can have him. Unless you broke the genjutsu yourself, I am guessing he is the one who knocked you out. You began coming back when I killed him."

Naruto crouched there silently for a moment, examining the girl. Her young body with her fluffy tail reminded him of the form Kyuubi usually took when trying to seduce him. Naruto reached out and touched her cheek. To his amusement, she gasped and wriggled her hips as if trying to suppress the feelings his scent was drawing from her. His fingers slid down to her lips. To his surprise, she snapped at him, sinking sharp little teeth into his fingertips. Her fangs were much smaller than his and caused little damage, but the sudden pain surprised him and the smell of blood excited him. She grabbed his wrist then took his bloodied fingers into her mouth, sucking on them and licking away whatever crimson stain remained. Until she had done that, he had half considered biting her back, but as she sucked on his fingers, glancing at him with wide innocent eyes, he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Naruto cursed when he realized the innocence had been an act. Sand clamped around his ankles, holding him still while more sand reached out in snaking tendrils to latch onto his wrists. Of course he should have suspected this. Even if she had the one-tail under control, she was a demon now and wouldn't let him have his way before proving who was the dominant one. He was slammed hard down onto the sand and his shackles thickened and hardened.

That's when he realized his second mistake. He felt the tiny hands of his cute little Misa grab onto his hair while her tentacles wrapped snugly around his neck. Tsukiya, as Misa's mother, already had a bond with Misa because Misa had imprinted on her when she had been born. He, however, was just her father. He had spoiled her, letting her do anything she wanted. He had never established his dominance over the eight tailed girl, and now she was taking advantage of his distress.

The sand squeezed harder, causing blood to spill into the sand. Naruto winced in pain. Kyuubi would beat the hell out of him for allowing this to happen.

"Good girl, Misakiushi, helping your mother like that." Naruto did not like the crazed look on Tsukiya's face. He struggled, but he could not move his arms or legs. The struggling only made the sand dig deeper into his skin. Misa squeezed tighter, making it difficult to breathe. "Rai-ka-ge-kun..." Tsukiya leaned over him, tracing a finger along the center of his chest.

Tsukiya was acting playful. Naruto knew this would be a bad sign.

"You, belong to me now." Tsukiya slammed her hand hard against Naruto's chest, digging her nails into his skin and holding him down as he screamed in pain. Particles of sand were tearing through his body, scraping through his veins as they wormed their way from his ankles and wrists to strategic locations throughout his body. Naruto had never felt anything like it, and for the first time since he had turned into a demon, he was truly afraid.

Current Number of Tails: 3

Jutsu:

Foxfire Flare: Kitsune-Bi: Furea - Breathes out super hot flames of combined wind and fire chakra.

Foxfire Fox Demon Guardian: Kitsune-Bi: Yoko Goei - Creates a fox-like mass of wind and flame chakra controlled by chakra strings that explodes on impact when released.

Pinwheel Spiraling Sphere: Fuusha Rasengan: A rasengan with a ring of super-fine chakra whirling around it like a buzz saw that can cut almost as effectively as wind chakra.

Spiritual Pathway: Fuuin Jutsu: Mukei Tsuuro - Allows objects to pass through the area of the seal on a solid barrier without disrupting it.

Original Characters:

Tsukiya Nari: 11-year old BOLT with perfect mental and physical recall. Unparalleled genius. Her abilities make her an important tool in his duties as Raikage. Mother of Misakiushi.

Fu Shitzumo: A retired ninja who is the proprietor of the ninja library of Kumo and the resident seal master.

Uzumaki Tsukiya Misakiushi: The daughter of Naruto and Tsukiya Nari. Misaki means fox-messenger, and ushi means ox. Jinchuuriki of the Hachibi. Has horns, and fox-like features.

Cannon Stuff:

goto "naruto dot wikia dot com"