Disclaimer: How many times must I repeat myself?! I own NOTHING!
Last time: The package given to Neji turns out to be Orochimaru's head. A retired hunter-nin later verifies the identity of the head as being the real thing. Jiraiya returns to Konoha and tells Tsunade and Sakura that he lost Naruto's trail two years before. Kakashi tells the sannin about his encounter with the rumored Sound missing-nin and also reveals the face of the new leader of Otogakure as being Uchiha Sasuke.
This time: Kakashi and Jiraiya finish their meeting, some charachters make some appearances. Sasuke launches a foolish plan to wipe out Konoha. Kabuto begins to plan to overthrow Sasuke. Akatsuki continues its search for our favorite blond, and the blond himself enters the picture. Now ENJOY!
Jiraiya just stared at the Copy-Cat ninja as he fell silent, evidently done with his story. He sighed just before he spoke, all of his usual lightheartedness gone,
"Naruto is gonna be pissed." Kakashi just nodded at the statement before he asked a question he had feared since his student and friend had vanished without so much as a good-bye,
"You think he's dead?" the masked ninja asked, almost afraid to hear the answer. Jiraiya shook his head slowly,
"No. I haven't managed to find much of a trail, but all evidence I have has pointed to the strong probability that our favorite pain in the ass is still out there," the older ninja replied. He really hoped so. To lose both Arashi and Naruto? That would make him pull a Tsunade and leave the village.
"How long ago did you lose his trail?" Kakashi inquired. The Hokage had told him that the Toad Hermit had lost the trail two years ago, but something told the masked ninja that Jiraiya was hiding something. His suspicions were confirmed by Jiraiya letting out another sigh and looking at him with guarded eyes,
"I told Tsunade-hime and Sakura-san two years ago," he said slowly. Kakashi had a feeling that the old ninja was about to tell him something so big that he'd even lied to his oldest friend and leader to avoid disclosing it. Kakashi realized that Jiraiya was speaking again, "but the truth is, I lost the trail two and a half years ago. I told the other two just two years because I didn't think that they could handle it."
"That was the wrong thing to do and you know it, Jiraiya-sama," Kakashi told him sternly. "You know that Tsunade-sama will have your hide for wallpaper if she ever finds out." The look Jiraiya gave him told the Copy-Nin that the older man had already thought about all of this. Kakashi shrugged and returned his focus to the memorial stone, focusing on the name of Namikaze Arashi.
Jiraiya, for his part, noticed the lapse of the other shinobi's attention and knew that he was done here. Kakashi was reliving his past again, but the sannin didn't bother to bring him out of it again. He had what he needed. Now his next task would be to try and find this Sound missing-nin and see if he couldn't try and convince him to come to Konoha and tell little Morino Ibiki all he knew. Willing or not didn't matter much to the old ninja and he knew the sadist Ibiki just wouldn't give a damn.
Far away from these transpiring events, deep in the Rice Country, Uchiha Sasuke, mighty and great leader of the Sound, was busy torturing a poor Leaf ninja who had foolishly wandered into his domain. The man screamed again, a horrible sound that brought a truly evil and insane-looking grin to the avenger's face.
"Now will you tell me of Konoha's defenses?" the Uchiha asked, his voice sickly sweet as he interrogated the writhing shinobi. "If you do, I may make your death quick and painless." Chidori blazed to life in his hand to illustrate his point. It was that annoying pervert Kakashi's only original justu and had been copied by Sasuke and his Sharingan. Ah yes, the almighty Sharingan. The lone Uchiha had long since mastered the bloodline, but had yet to attain the purest form of his kekkei genkai, the Mangenkyou Sharingan. He'd had the Uzumaki bastard in his grasp not too long ago, but somehow, the annoying dead last had somehow survived. And no matter how many of his former allies he captured, tortured, or killed, none could tell him why. So now he was going to break Konohagakure's walls down and raze the only link to his past he had left. The weak Leaf shinobi looked him straight in the eye,
"Go…to….h-hell…Uchi..ha" the man gasped out at him, spitting at him after he had breathed his last, defiant, statement. Sasuke's rage erupted and the Chidori chirping in his hand blazed so bright, the dark room the two were in was dimly illuminated in a pale, flickering, blue light. Next moment and the walls were coated with a dark fluid as the former Konoha-nin slammed his lightning-enhanced fist through the man's stomach. The poor shinobi screamed long and loud. Louder than he'd ever done in the two weeks or so he'd been the Uchiha's plaything. Once the awful sound had died down, Sasuke removed his hand and let the man collapse, his blood dripping off the Uchiha's hand and pooling on the floor.
"KABUTO!" he raged and the traitor poofed in right next to his furious leader. Like he'd done with Orochimaru, Kabuto kept a mask of calm and level-headedness around Sasuke no matter what the man's mood. Yes, man. Five years had aged the Uchiha from just a teenager wanting power, to a man who had it and was going to use it to get what he wanted.
"You called Sasuke-sama?" Kabuto inquired, his voice gentle and subservient. As much as he wanted to kill the arrogant bastard and take the leadership of the Sound for himself, Kabuto knew that it was no longer possible. Sasuke was potentially even stronger than his twisted one-time master had been. If that was true, the Leaf and the fool who led them, Tsunade, wouldn't be able to withstand the destruction the spoiled missing-nin so desperately wanted to unleash on them.
"Mobilize our army!" the brat growled. He would do what the cowardly snake couldn't do and raze the Leaf from existence! Then, once the last connection to his past had been utterly destroyed and stricken from history, Sasuke would hunt down his brother and turn that smirk into a small pile of lightning-crisped ash! "We will march on the Leaf as soon as we can!"
Shock coursed through Kabuto. Was the brat so eager to lead them all to their deaths? All the Leaf shinobi that Sasuke had personally tortured had told him nothing! Marching on Konoha would be a suicidal endeavor!
"Sasuke-sama, I must protest!" the med-nin exclaimed, "You know nothing of the Leaf village's defenses! We will be exterminated by the ANBU like so many annoying mosquitoes!" He quailed under the furious gaze of the Sharingan.
"That is why I will kill the Hokage in a one-on-one duel. Then the Leaf will be forced to retreat into their own demise where we will KILL THEM ALL!" Kabuto mentally shook his head at the foolish, insane, plan, the Leaf would be galvanized by the death of Tsunade and fight back even harder! That didn't even take into account the villages usual tanks, like the Hyuugas, especially that damn brat Neji, Jiraiya-sama and Kakashi, the fashion-challenged fool Maito Gai and his equally powerful student Rock Lee! Plus, even though Tsunade was old, she had two loyal students, one who had learned her inhumanly powerful strength! They would be the ones who would be wiped out, not Konohagakure!
"You will mobilize all our forces." Sasuke said in a low voice. "We move in three days. No less." He gestured with a blood-coated hand and Kabuto bowed low before using Shunshin no Jutsu to get the various balls rolling. He would have to come up with a strategy, since their supposedly great leader had none. Kabuto smiled evilly as he sprinted through the halls of their underground haven. Maybe he could use this as a way to catapult himself to the top and wipe out Konohagakure no Sato in one fell swoop!
Deep within the barren and dry Wind Country, a panda-eyed man with teal eyes and red hair stopped and turned to face the wind that was howling across the sand dunes.
'There is a foul scent on the wind. Something is about to transpire that will shake the world,' he thought, his mind blissfully free from any adverse pressure from the demon who used to reside within him. Now, Shukaku was gone, taken by the Akatsuki, leaving Gaara of the Desert in full command of his body, mind, and sanity for the first time in his life. His two companions, his puppet-using brother Kankuro and his wind-manipulating sister, Temari, both stopped walking and turned to look at their younger brother, who had abruptly stopped walking and was staring into the hot and gritty wind with no real outward sign he noticed the fine sand grains in the wind peppering his skin.
"Gaara?" Temari asked, exchanging a puzzled glance with Kankuro. Temari had matured in recent years. She no longer got so pissed off during a battle and wore a loose white top that showed her cleavage, covered by a fishnet under layer. A blue sash kept her shirt from blowing around too much and also held her massive fan. Her loose skirt came to mid-thigh and was functional enough for her to wear it and not have it restrict her movement so much. She knew that all the jumping around shinobi did would give the eager watcher many chances to observe her underwear so she wore her old black compression shorts under the skirt to take away the flashing issue.
"What's up?" Kankuro prodded, trying to get an answer out of their stoic little brother. He was a puppet master now and so no longer painted his face. He also had quit wearing his Suna hirai-ate like a hood, instead wearing it the standard shinobi way, around the forehead, allowing his shaggy brown hair to spill over it in a way that didn't look that bad all. At least that's what the girls of the village kept telling him. He himself didn't really care. So he said.
"We're returning to Suna," Gaara said tonelessly, turning his back on the other two and beginning to walk back towards Suna, nearly three-and-a-half days away.
"Gaara!" the two other Sand siblings yelled, shocked and outraged that their Kazekage would drag them all the way out to this Kami-forsaken area of Wind Country to train only turn back, when their destination was just coming into view; a little oasis that was far off the beaten path so no one would interrupt. Gaara had even gone as far as to leave Baki in charge so he could get away from his Kazekage duties long enough for the trio to spend some time beating on each other.
The Godaime Kazekage had been actually learning other jutsu and was getting to be quite proficient with them, and was also starting to pick up some decent taijutsu moves to boot. Since Gaara's demon had been extracted, his sand, while still powerful, wasn't nearly as effective as before and his sand shield didn't respond to attacks automatically. On the plus side though, all of the former Jinchuuriki's dangerous and deadly sand justu were still usable, so the man wasn't completely starting over.
"Why are we going back!?" Kankuro howled at his little brother's retreating back. "We're nearly there now and Baki has things handled back home! This is the first time you've had time off for months and you're just going to go back?" Temari couldn't understand it either but then Gaara seemed to be in one of his moods, so it would be would be tough getting a straight answer out of him. He also had a tendency to revert to his old kill-first-ask-later personality.
"Careful, Kankuro," Temari warned, "He's in one of his moods. You know how he gets." Kankuro paled visibly and started watching Gaara for signs of swirling sand grains near that massive gourd on his back. Gaara, for his part, didn't do anything, but just kept walking, but his voice did manage to reach them, even if he was almost out of earshot,
"I have a bad feeling. Something's about to happen. We need to prepare," the red head replied simply as he continued his trek back to Suna.
The other two exchanged glances and sprinted to catch up with him. Even if Gaara was acting on a hunch, his hunches about stuff like this generally turned out to be right. Temari could only hope that Uzumaki Naruto wasn't in trouble, because if he was, then whoever had messed with Gaara's best and first friend would feel the wrath of one very pissed Jinchuuriki.
"All forces are ready to move on your signal, Sasuke-sama," Kabuto said in his usual arrogant voice. Sasuke nodded curtly as he strapped on Kusanagi and a black, pocketless flack vest. He adjusted the vest and stepped to the edge of the balcony that overlooked the huge room that was serving as the staging area for his glorious invasion of Konohagakure. At the sight their leader, the entire army burst out into chants and cheers.
"We move in two hours, not a minute later," Sasuke said icily as he acknowledged the cheers. It was important for the troops to be psyched up, otherwise they would falter and fail the moment Tsunade set foot on the battlefield. "Make it happen or I will end your miserable life."
Kabuto fought hard to avoid gnashing his teeth at the brat's misplaced arrogance as he responded with a submissive "Yes Sasuke-sama," and departed to find the commanders of the army so they could get this doomed show on the road.
'Enjoy your puffed up power play while you can you bastard,' he though, smiling as he envisioned Sasuke getting his ass handed to him by the kunoichi sannin. 'You're death will be my chance to rise to the head of this rats nest and make it a true fighting force!' He began to laugh to himself as he walked down the halls, continued daydreams of a dead Sasuke and a conquered world dancing in his mind's eye.
An hour and fifty minutes later, the massive army of Otogakure spewed forth from the concealed entrance to the underground fortress like so many locusts, setting a course for Fire Country with the intent on seeing it live up to its namesake and burn.
On the plains of Grass Country, two men with slashed hirai-ates and black jacket-like cloaks with red clouds all over them stopped walking and stared at the dark blur in the distance that marked where the Grass Country ended and Fire Country began. The dark blur was where the huge redwood forests of western portion of that nation and covered the whole nation. The shorter of the two stopped and squinted as the wind blew his long black bangs into his face. The other one looked unusually like a shark that had decided to leave the sea and walk on land. His real defining feature was the giant, bandage-wrapped, sword strapped to his back. Hoshigaki Kisame watched his partner within the Akatsuki carefully. It was hard to read him on the best of days, and today was no different. He wanted what they would do about the Oto army headed for Konoha, but asking Itachi when he was like this was like asking for him to run his hand through your chest, but Kisame hadn't gotten where he was by being timid and not taking chances so he asked,
"What are we gonna do about that army, Itachi?" he asked, "If Sasori's spy is telling the truth, then there's a good chance that Konoha will be destroyed and we'll never find the fox brat." The dead Akatsuki's spy had continued to provide good information to them, so they had allowed him to remain in his current station. Now the shark man was wondering if the red-eyed prodigy from Konoha was going to kill him for interrupting his thoughts.
"You truly are a fool," Itachi murmured in his usual monotone. "The Sound is marching straight into their own demise. My extraordinarily stupid little brother is going to die and Konohagakure will endure to fight another day." He resumed his walk, his Sharingan flitting in the direction he knew his former village to be and turned his back to it and headed off in another direction. "Come Kisame, we must find Naruto-kun sometime before the turn of the next century."
"You're not kidding Itachi. Where the hell did that brat go?" the other cloaked man wondered to himself. The last thing he had expected out of the stoic Uchiha was a response.
"That is what we must find out," he said in his soft voice. "If he can fool even that pervert sannin, he must have improved his skills immensely over the past five years. We must be cautious or he may find a way to kill us." Kisame blinked owlishly, shocked that he'd actually be answered and lived to tell about it, before taking a couple bounding steps to catch up to his partner before Itachi left him behind.
A few miles south of the two missing-nins, a border patrol was moving near the road that divided the two countries. One of them had a massive white dog the size of a horse. It let out a booming bark and the patrol halted. Akamaru started to sniff into the wind and let out a softer yip than his body should have allowed.
"What do you mean you smell Sasuke?" Inuzuka Kiba asked his pet, tool and partner. "He hasn't been seen in Fire Country since he left!" Akamaru whimpered and nudged his master with his nose. Kiba absently scratched his massive dog's muzzle as he sniffed the air himself, putting his famed nose to work.
The twenty-year-old hadn't changed much since Naruto had left, but he had lost his jacket in exchange for a sleeveless black tee-shirt and black pants with the standard shinobi accessories. He hated border patrol, but Kurenai had insisted on getting her old team together for a mission to relive the old days when they had been newbie genin just starting out on the path of the ninja.
"What is wrong with Akamaru?" Aburame Shino asked, his voice giving away nothing. The man had kept the same outfit he'd had five years ago. No surprise, seeing as Shino himself rarely did anything that was radical. The only change to him was his sunglasses. Now they were streamlined and sleek, but Kiba privately thought that they were even darker that the other two pairs, if that was even possible.
"Dunno. He says he smells Sasuke, but I don't smell anything at all," the other shinobi answered. Kurenai came over to see what the two boys were talking about.
"What's wrong?" She asked, her crimson eyes flicking from one to the other. Kurenai hadn't changed her look at all. Kiba knew it was one of her ways of holding on to Asuma's memory. She had even given her little boy his shirt with the kanji for fire on it.
"Akamaru claims to have scented Uchiha Sasuke," Shino stated. "Kiba smells nothing." Kurenai allowed her skepticism to show on her face. Kiba usually could pick up the smells Akamaru found with no real problem.
"Are you sure, Akamaru?" She asked, questioning the dog directly. She had learned long ago that the dog was nearly human. And given that one of Kiba's relatives had a dog that could talk, Kurenai believed that dogs were more human than they appeared. Just look at one of Kakashi's ninken, Pakkun. The dog whimpered and barked again.
"He says he's sure of it," Kiba translated, clearly puzzled by his lack of being able to pick up the scent. The Inuzuka really wished that Hinata was there right at that moment, but the shy girl had been married off to some minor, but wealthy, lord by her father in order to bring more revenue into Konoha so they weren't as dependent on missions so, even if they lost a lot of shinobi like during the invasion, they could still function.
Just thinking about what the Hyuuga's head had done made his blood boil. But, if the rumors were true, that had been nothing compared to her cousin Neji's fury. The rumor said that Hiashi had been forced to activate Neji's seal to keep the Branch member from killing him during a vicious sparring match.
"It is unfortunate that Hinata is not here right now," Shino murmured softly, the stoic boy unknowingly voicing Kiba's unspoken wish. Kiba started to agree with the bug user, but Akamaru suddenly started growling in a low, tense, tone. That didn't need any translation by Kiba. In a flash, all three were in a defensive stance with weapons in their hands, straining to see the enemy. Kiba's nose suddenly twitched. His eyes widened as he caught the scent of too many people to count.
"SHIT!" he yelled, finally picking up what Akamaru had been so insistent on. "We gotta get outta here now!"
"Why?" Kurenai demanded, her hands already moving, making seal after seal as she set up genjutsu traps all around them to slow down whatever was coming.
"There's an army coming!" Kiba cried, "That's why I couldn't pick up Sasuke-bastard's scent. It was hidden by nature and by all the other smells!" The patrol wasted no time in shooting back to Konoha as fast as they could, Kiba flipping his teammates soldier pills so they would be able to keep up the pace.
As they ran, Kurenai scribbled down a hasty message, addressed it directly to Tsunade-sama, and tossed it to Akamaru, who caught it in his mouth and sprinted on ahead, moving faster than any of the three humans could have managed.
Deep within the inhospitable mountains of the aptly named Mountain Country, a tall man with long, shaggy, spiky blond hair and haunted blue eyes stared out the flimsy window of the ramshackle shack he had been living in for the last year. There was currently a whiteout blizzard going on, but the man didn't even feel it, probably because of the fire that blazed in the field stone hearth behind him. He reached up and scratched an itch on his cheek. When his hand lowered, it revealed three whisker-like marks on his cheek, which matched the other three on the other side.
Yes, this was Uzumaki Naruto, after five years of being away from his friends. Well, almost all. He'd made a new friend, if one really stretched the definition. More like a trustable ally, but the Jinchuuriki knew that the fox was just happy to get out of its cage.
'I resent that,' came from inside his mind, dripping with pretend hurt. 'Why don't you like me? Do you want me to leave?' The corner of Naruto's mouth quirked upward a hair. Being away from his friends had really stolen a lot of the light that the formerly hyper and rambunctious blond used to radiate. The fox seemed to have taken it upon himself to try and make him laugh, even if Naruto would become much more cheerful when he was surrounded by people.
'You and I both know you can't do that,' the blond replied, turning his attention inward on himself. He found himself standing in a large room with pipes snaking all over the ceiling and a view of the outside world floating in the air in front of him. He looked to his right and saw the massive Kyuubi no Yoko watching him with one massive red eye. Red and blue chakra swirled around their feet, making a transparent haze that showed the ankle deep water that rippled when it met the pair's bodies.
'Hmph,' the nine-tails snorted, 'I could break out, now that I'm not locked in that cage like some pathetic puppy.'
'Yeah, and kill us both in the process.' Naruto answered. He knew that the fox wouldn't try to escape due to their inner coils being as meshed together as they were. That was how the fox had gotten out in the first place. Their coils had merged, strengthening them both and rendering the Yondiame's seal unnecessary because now Naruto was the seal. So now Kyuubi was able to walk through his body at his leisure and take control whenever he wanted, though the two had worked out an agreement that made them both happy.
The agreement was that Kyuubi would lend Naruto his considerable chakra in return for being able to control Naruto occasionally. That had led to the duo watching their surroundings when the other was in control. That wasn't a foolproof solution to the ambush as it was only as effective as Naruto's senses and they couldn't stare out the back of Naruto's skull. No, they had to rely on the other senses, like smell and hearing. Which were almost as good as Kiba's now. Naruto could still be ambushed, but it was very hard to do and, with his ally and stamina, could fight for a very long time.
In an attempt to keep making themselves stronger and also to strengthen their bond, the pair had created a few jutsu that were very powerful and could only be pulled off by another Jinchuuriki. Kyuubi had even shown him a few of the demon's jutsu. Turns out that demons had their own version of the ninja arts. A lot of it depended on the demon's own power and skill, but they did have them. The Tenma Fuu had to be the most dangerous. They were demon seals that could do anything within the crafting demon's abilities. An example would be saying that Kyuubi was a master seal crafter and, with his stupendous power, could get the seals to do damn near anything.
Shukaku, for a comparison, could have the same skill level as Kyuubi but, being weaker than the Nine-Tails, wouldn't be able to do nearly as much. Or the opposite could be true, a demon could have the same amount of power as Kyuubi, but not have the skill. It made Naruto's head hurt and he generally let the fox handle the seals, but the demon had insisted that Naruto learn one or two simple ones so his host could give himself an advantage in combat. No use in having that much power and having one of them unable to use it. Conversely, when Kyuubi was in control, he needed Naruto's chakra to make human jutsu work. He could use his own youki, but the more potent demon chakra tended to overstress their shared body.
To Kyuubi's great delight, the two had discovered that human and demon chakra repelled each other. Their coils had merged, but their chakra had remained two very different, distinct entities. They had also discovered that while, Kyuubi was normally in the back of Naruto's mind, he still had control over his chakra. The same held true when Naruto was in the passenger seat. In other words, even though one was dominant, the other could control their own chakra.
A deadly effective jutsu they had developed was for Naruto to make his chakra hold itself very tightly against his skin while Kyuubi put his ontop of the human chakra layer. The result was Naruto's complete access to all of Kyuubi's chakra, even though the more chakra Kyuubi supplied, the more he was in control. It all depended on who's chakra was dominant. When Naruto's chakra was dominant, Naruto was in charge. When the youki was dominant, Kyuubi was in command. They could switch back and forth willingly, and so that kept that unpredictability. You could be fighting Naruto one moment, then be torn apart by Kyuubi's vicious assault the next.
The overall effect of these changes on Naruto and Kyuubi was almost incomprehensible. The foolish little boy of years past was gone, and in his place had come a very dangerous, powerful, and competent shinobi.
'So what do you want to do now?' the demon asked now. 'The Uchiha brat is on the move. We saw that when we were at the hideout a couple of days ago.' The primary reason Naruto had even chosen this piece of crap hut was because Mountain Country had a great location. It bordered both Rice and Fire Countries, allowing him to intercept any Oto nins deciding to make trouble for Konoha.
The pair had paid a visit to the hidden lair that Orochimaru had used before his demise and Sasuke had been dumb enough to keep using, only to find it completely and utterly deserted and signs of massive troop movement in the countryside immediately around the stronghold. The trail had pointed straight at Fire Country. Naruto didn't need to be a genius or have the Kyuubi's input to know that his former friend was planning on invading Konoha.
'We will move as well. I've done all I can to try and bring Sasuke back. I realize now that some promises cannot be kept,' Naruto answered. 'We'll kill Sasuke and I'll apologize to Sakura-chan.' His demon tenant rolled his eyes at that. The brat still held feelings for the pink-haired vixen. He should move on to a worthier mate, like the Shukaku vessel's sister.
'Gross. Why would I want to get it on with a girl like her?' Naruto asked, a look of true disgust on his face. Temari-san wasn't that bad, but if Naruto got into a relationship with her, then hurt her, Gaara would kill him, friendship or no.
'Admit it, Brat,' Kyuubi shot back, preparing himself for a rather enjoyable battle of wits with his host. 'She would be a much better mate than the pink-hair.'
'Yeah right,' Naruto snorted, 'You're forgetting that Baa-chan taught Sakura-chan how to use that damn strength of hers.' Kyuubi looked away. He had forgotten that little detail, but his pride would never allow him to acknowledge it.
'But the Sand girl would be able to blow your precious Sakura-chan all the way to Wave Country before she could get close.' The demon returned. Ha! Let's see his host get out of this one!
'Maybe the old Sakura-chan,' the blond host said with a small grin. 'But you've seen Sakura-chan fight since Baa-chan got through with her! And I'll bet the necklace that she's kept it up.' Ah crap, the brat found a way out of it. Kyuubi had to admit that the boy had gotten sharper in the five years they had been training and fighting. 'Look, we've gotta get going if we want to help Konoha stop Sasuke from wiping them out.'
'Are you sure you're ready to face him? He did nearly kill you last time. If it hadn't been for the cult humans and myself, you wouldn't be here.' All humor and banter was gone. It was time to be serious.
'I'm as ready as I can be, Kyuubi,' the blond missing-nin replied. Kyuubi's massive eye looked down at him, genuine concern for him clear in the crimson orb. He may hate humans in general, but his time within the brat had taught the demon lord that not all humans were just ants to be stepped on.
The fox had decided to defend Naruto's friends just as fiercely as the blond himself. Though only the brat's friends. All the rest had better get the hell out of his way when he was in control, or suffer Kyuubi's…displeasure.
'Naruto. You know you will have to kill the Uchiha brat,' the fox reminded, purposely using Naruto's name. That was one of the ways Naruto knew his tenant was serious. Usually the pair called each other names like furball or brat.
'Yeah. I know. I swore I would do that a while ago. Or did you forget?' Naruto's answer was sarcastic.
'FOOL! I forget NOTHING!' the fox demon roared, though his anger wasn't real. It was all part of the comedy routine that the two liked to engage in. After all, they were both fond of pranks and practical jokes.
Naruto clapped his hands over his ears, stammering something about headaches and demons who should be more considerate of their host's sanity, before becoming aware of the world around him once again.
He turned to the mound of belongings and shinobi gear sitting by the door. The blizzard had died out somewhat, allowing the Jinchuuriki to clearly see the cliff edge on which his little haven sat. Naruto strapped on the gear and pulled a little something on to keep him warm as he bounded out of the hut. As the snow began to kick up, the former Leaf shinobi bounced from lip to lip on the jagged cliff, his cloak rippling and snapping in the freezing wind.
CUT! PRINT! THAT'S A WRAP!
So now Naruto has entered the picture and is now on his way to stop the Sound army. No worries, he won't be evil. The reason for why he left will be explained either next chapter or in the following few. To all you Hinata fans out there, fear not! While she's not one of my favorites, I don't hate her like some people do. She will get her time. Just not right now.
Read and Review, as always. Also a big thanks to those who have put this story on their favorites/alert list.