A/N: holla holla to y'all, how y'all doin'? 'neways, since it's nearin' da 14th, n y'all kno wat dat means, juz wanna shout out a happy Valentine's Day to y'all, be youse single or already have someone's precious. hahaha. next wanna thanks Anttolas fo pointin' out a lil mistake i did in the last chapter, but ey, wat can i say? i'm just a victim of misguiding information,, or maybe i was just dreamin' of Temari being the 2nd child, ya know coz it's cute, her callin' Gaara 'otouto' n Kankurou 'onii-san/nii-san/onii-chan' lool! also fo shadowshock12, well if it'll make ya feel better, i do all tha shit by myself, meanin' i write, proofread, n edit by myself, so yeah, but wat can i say? English ain't my mother tongue language but i sure am polishin' up by writin' n readin' fics, so yeah... speakin' of which, anyone wanna proofread my shit? juz buzz me aite, holla!

Disclaimer: aite aite, y'all kno da drill, i only own da plot yo, so don't ask me bout 'em characters n shit, holla!

Chapter V- 2 Threats, 1 Revelation

Somewhere, in some dark cave, a total of nine people were rounded up together. Dark cloaks with red cloud patterns filled the surrounding. Then someone who seemed to be the leader spoke.

"How is the last preparation going?" the man asked, looking at Kakuzu.

"Everything is going according to plan. We all had our share of Jinchuuriki, and we've also prepared all the necessary things…"

"Very good… I expect everyone to be ready for the last Jinchuuriki… He isn't like any others that we've extracted so far… Isn't that right, Itachi?" He asked Itachi who stayed indifferent.

"…Yes"

"But hey, even though he might be different, but as long as you're the one to catch him, it would be an easy job, hn?" Deidara smirked.

"We'll see about that, Deidara, we'll see… just don't underestimate him and don't let your guard down… now dismiss!"

"Ha! Don't worry… we're going to get him alright, hnn!" Deidara snickered and disappeared, along with the rest.

In the meantime, Jiraiya was running through the thick forest of the Fire country toward Otogakure. He'd received news that Akatsuki was on the move, once again. Knowing he can't sit back and relax, he was about to meet with his spy near the outskirts of Otogakure.

"Jiraiya-sama!" A cloaked man with a bandaged face approached him cautiously, behind the shadows.

"How's the status?" Jiraiya asked him not wasting any time, stopping only to catch his breaths.

"Really bad, Jiraiya-sama. I couldn't get too near because one of them was guarding the outside really well but I managed to gather some information." The spy replied, stopping solemnly just for the suspense.

"And? What did you get?"

"They're on the move…" He said solemnly but Jiraiya smacked his head in irritation.

"Well duh, you've already told me that, you dumb spy…" He retorted at the spy, who rubbed his head in pain.

"Well yeah, what I meant was that they are after Uzumaki Naruto… It seems that he's the last Jinchuuriki, sir…" he said, upon hearing his report, Jiraiya had his mouth gapped open.

"Are you… sure?" He asked hesitantly.

"Positive, Jiraiya-sama… also it seems that the leader himself is going to capture Uzumaki Naruto…" he continued.

"The leader!? Do you know who he is?"

"My apologies, I didn't catch any mention of his name nor his face, sir…"

"Darn… Well, any other information that you've got for me?"

"Mm, I don't know if it's important to the mission or not but…" the spy stopped hesitantly.

"What is it? Spill it out already…" Jiraiya replied impatiently.

"Jiraiya-sama… it seems that…" He started, hanging his phrase.

"What?!" Jiraiya became irritated, he has never been the serene kind of person when it comes information gathering.

"It seems that the selling rate of your novels is dropping tremendously, sir…" The spy finished his sentence but he didn't expect Jiraiya to react like he thought he would.

"WHHAAAAAAAATTTT??!!!" Jiraiya was so shocked he strangled his spy. "YOU ASS! THAT'S A VERY IMPORTANT PIECE OF INFORMATION! YOU SHOULD'VE TOLD ME THAT BEFORE YOU TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT THE AKATSUKI, YOU DUMB SHIT!!! FUCK! NOW I'LL HAVE TO WORK TWICE AS HARD ON MY NEXT NOVEL, DAMN IT!!" Jiraiya shouted and hyperventilated as he strangled his spy and rocked him forward and backward.

"A-ah…Jiraiya…-sama… t-there's… mo-…more…" the spy managed to say as he struggled for his life.

"WHAT?! And it better be a good one! Coz I'm fuckin' pissed right now!"

"Y-yes… it seems that uhm (coughs)… Orochimaru's dead, sir…"

Jiraiya looked at him and froze. "… What?"

"Um, yes… my men haven't confirmed if he's really dead yet but last thing I heard was that Uchiha Sasuke the traitor killed him."

Jiraiya was even more surprised as he still froze in place. "What?"

Meanwhile somewhere near the border of the Fire Country, a group compromised of four people was preparing themselves.

"So, tell me again what are doing?" Suigetsu asked as he put some clothes on.

"Mou… How many times does Sasuke-kun have to tell you, dumb ass?! Don't you ever listen?!" Karin retorted but Sasuke stopped her.

"It's alright, Karin… This will be the last time I say it, so you'd better remember, Suigetsu. Our group is meant to kill Itachi. In order to find him, we need a sure trump card. That's why we need Naruto. We're going to Konoha and kidnap him, that way Itachi must be coming for us, or all the Akatsuki for all I care…" he said calmly as he tied his black cloak.

"Now let's move…" Sasuke ordered, turning toward the door and walked off with his new companions following behind him.

Naruto and Temari were sparring in the meantime. So far it has been Temari's defeat as Naruto's stamina was as good as infinite. She panted and sat on the ground, leaning back with her hands acting as support.

"Jeez, how much is your stamina anyway? We've been sparring for a few hours and yet you only managed to break a single sweat, while I'm already beat…" Temari pouted.

"Hahaha… don't know… but we did work up a good sweat, ne?" Naruto replied smilingly at her.

They've been training together ever since that day, it's been three days since. Temari had already forgotten about that evening on top of the sand dune, thinking that it must've been just a dream. Naruto took a towel and sat next to Temari, who flushed in surprise. Naruto handed her a towel as he leaned on his back, crossing his arms and supported his head.

"Aah… I'm tired… what shall we do now, Temari?" Naruto asked casually, turning his head to her.

"Mmm, I don't know… might as well get something to eat, no? I'm starving…" She said, putting a finger on her cheek, pondering.

"Sounds good to me! What are we going to eat then? Ramen? Miso Ramen? Pork Ramen?!" Naruto asked in excitement, even his eyes were sparkling.

"Naruto… we're not going to eat ramen!" Temari replied in a big sisterly manner, her eyes twitched.

"Eh?! Why'ttebayo?! Why??" Naruto asked sadly. (A/N: yeah u kno how he always or rather frequently says dattebayo, dattebayo n shit? well sometime he'd even say it 'ttebayo if ya hear it carefully in the anime so yeah...)

"Because! We've been eating ramen everyday, and thanks to you, I've gained some fat!" She retorted.

"But, if you train everyday, won't that fat go away?" Naruto asked innocently.

"Aho… Every time after training we always used to eat more than just a few bowls, remember?! The training sessions aren't enough to burn all that fat!" She practically yelled at Naruto, who sweat dropped.

"Ah uh, yeah… I think you're right… but you know what, Temari? I don't think you're fat at all… I think you're slim and you look great!" he grinned sheepishly yet innocently as well.

"W-wha…??!" Temari blushed at Naruto's compliment, although he was pretty dense about it. She then only muttered "... baka..." softly but Naruto didn't hear it.

"So, where shall we go?" Naruto asked, his stomach growled already.

"Mm, I don't know… wait, why don't we eat at home? I'll cook something for you…" She mentally slapped her mouth and froze.

"Huh? You can cook, Temari? Wow, that's great! I want to try your cooking!" he replied excitedly, oblivious with Temari's reactions.

Upon hearing his reply, Temari brightened and gave Naruto a smile. After another minute of resting, they got up and went back home to the Suna sibling's house.

In Konoha, a lazy shinobi laid down on a random rooftop. He's been doing the same thing for the past few days now. His mind had been filled with things that happened three days ago.

Flashback…

Shikamaru and the guys stormed the Haruno residence. They made it easily to Sakura's bedroom. Shikamaru didn't get any trouble 'infiltrating' the house as he made his move right after Sakura's mother went out to get some groceries.

Shikamaru entered first followed by the rest of the boys. The girls inside the room jolted in surprise and some gasped, but sighed in relief after they saw the guys coming in.

"Shikamaru! What the hell are you doing?! Don't you know manners?" Ino shouted but Shikamaru ignored her, he set his eyes to the pink-haired girl.

"Neji? What are you doing here? And why is your Byakugan activated?" Tenten asked, pointing a finger at her teammate.

"Sakura… spill it out… What really happened that day?" Shikamaru asked in an orderly tone.

Sakura's eyes shot wide, she began to tremble violently as she clutched onto her blanket harder. Her lips were shaking nervously but Shikamaru just stood there, waiting for her story. While the girls were protesting for some reason, the boys held them in place.

"Sakura!" Shikamaru called out loudly enough to make her snap back.

Sakura shed a tear, she gulped and decided that it was time to tell the truth. She had feared that this day would come, although she also already knew that this day was bound to come.

"E-everyone… I… I am s-sorry… I've… I've deceived you, all these times… I'm so s-sorry…" she apologized, shaking and trembling as tears made their way down her cheeks.

Everyone became quiet; most of them were surprised except for Shikamaru who only had a saddened expression painted on his face.

"I… on that day… I… I've put Naruto in a genjutsu that sealed away his true memories… I've… I've set him up…" her voice was visibly shaking as well as her body. She dared not to look up, too ashamed to herself.

Shikamaru's expression turned from saddened, to serious to disbelief. He hadn't expected that kind of revelation. A sweat fell from his face toward the wooden floor, he could only mutter a word, "… What?"

End of Flashback...

Shikamaru has been feeling uneasy and restless for the past three days, unsure on how to respond and react to this, as well as everyone else.

"... What should I do? This village has been deceived… if I tell them the truth, she'll break even more… but if I stay quiet, Naruto will… Shit!" Shikamaru thought and frowned.

He would still be deep in thought if some noises weren't distracting him; he glanced toward the source of those noises and decided to take a look. He peeked down the roof to see a grey-haired, two brown-haired, and a black-haired shinobi. They were talking to each other and from the situation, he could sense the seriousness. He was about to leave them be, but soon changed his mind after one of them mentioned his friend's name.

When he took a closer look, he was surprised to see that they were none other than Kakashi, Yamato and Iruka. Since he couldn't see the fourth person very well, he shifted his position a little bit in order to see the fourth person's face.

"S-Sai?! What's that guy doing with them?"

"… So, that's what really happened…" the grey-haired ninja said, leaning his back against the wall.

"… " a man with a scar across his nose was speechless due to the shock.

"It's the truth. I just realized it a few minutes ago. Never expected her genjutsu to be this strong…" a brown-haired man said.

"Same here… I never detected such a simple yet strong genjutsu and we've been trapped ever since then…" a black-haired boy said.

"… So? Why did you tell us?" the copy ninja asked, looking up at his junior.

"Kakashi-sempai, this is a critical situation for Konoha. If I got away from the genjutsu, that means either she has dispelled it, or the genjutsu itself became weaker every day and it dispelled itself. If she put us all in a genjutsu, including Naruto that means the effect should apply to each of us…" the brown-haired man spoke again more critically.

"W-what do you mean?" the man with a scar across his nose finally spoke.

"Yamato-taichou meant that if the genjutsu put in Naruto was broken, like it did to us, what would his reaction be? He's like a time-bomb, Iruka-san…" the black-haired boy explained.

"Wh-what?! That's impossible! I know Naruto! He's not like that!" Iruka nearly yelled, but Kakashi restrained him to do so.

"… Calm down, Iruka…" Kakashi said as he glanced upward for a split second before turning his attention back to his peers.

"So? You think that Naruto might break if he knew what truly happened?" Kakashi asked.

"Pretty much yes. He had been betrayed by Sasuke, another betrayal by Sakura, whom he had promised to bring Sasuke back, would… most likely cause him to break, I'm sure. You know how he did when he fought Sasuke back then… but, with Sakura? The girl he would least or never expect to betray him? There IS a high possibility that he'd snap and we're not just talking one or two tails, but nine-tails or the Kyuubi itself!" Yamato said with urgency.

"W-what…?! N-no way…" Iruka trembled slightly at the image of Naruto turning into Kyuubi and attacking the village.

"… I understand, but first… Shikamaru, come down already…" Kakashi raised his voice in the middle of his sentence, motioning Shikamaru to come down.

Sai and Yamato also seemed to realize that Shikamaru was up there, only Iruka, who was still trembling didn't notice, he was deep in thought which distracted his concentration and senses.

"Hrm… busted, huh? How troublesome…" Shikamaru said but came down in the end.

"So, I presume you've heard everything?" Kakashi asked, eyeing the lazy Nara.

"… More or less… although I just can't bring myself to one thing…" Shikamaru said.

"What?" Kakashi asked back, having a fair guess of what it would be.

"You said Kyuubi… I thought the nine-tailed demon was killed by Yondaime?" Shikamaru asked Kakashi, who closed his eye for a moment and sighed.

"Shikamaru… in fact, Yondaime didn't kill it, he sealed it…" Kakashi replied, looking away in sorrow.

Shikamaru's eyes widened after he quickly made links with everything. "S-sealed? Th-then that means that…"

"Yes, the Kyuubi is sealed within Naruto…" Yamato continued, Iruka just looked away in sorrow.

"… Now it all makes sense… Why everyone in the village loathed Naruto… His immense strength… His… loneliness and sadness… How much had he endured?!"

"…" Kakashi stayed silent, still looking away.

"…" Iruka looked down, his eyes closed.

"…" Yamato stared at Shikamaru sadly.

"…" Sai just stayed silent, not understanding the mixture of feelings surrounding him (A/N: ey, Sai is still dense about that kinda shit rite? so let him be dense bout it now, or at least for now lol).

Another minute of silence reined before Kakashi decidedly broke it. He looked at everyone and asked Yamato.

"So, what are you going to do? I'm going to look for Naruto... heard that he's with Jiraiya-sama, but just to make sure that he doesn't go on a rampage…"

"I'm going to report to Hokage-sama, she might already know but it would be best to report anyway." Yamato said, gulping.

"I'll see the situation with the former rookie 9 and Gai's team…" Sai started but Shikamaru cut him off.

"Wait. I'll do it… I want you to do something for me… I'm not that good with searching top secret information, so I want you to find something for me…"

Sai looked momentarily at Yamato and Kakashi before turning his attention back at the shadow master and nodded, "Very well, what do you want me to look for?"

"Look for the secret scrolls about the Kyuubi and counter-genjutsu arts in the kinjutsu section. I don't know where they put it, but it should be a piece of cake for you, right, ANBU ROOTS…?" Shikamaru said, putting an emphasis on the last two words.

Kakashi and Yamato were surprised to hear that a simple chuunin knew about the ANBU Roots, however, they also knew that they weren't dealing with just any simple chuunin. They're dealing with Shikamaru, the most intelligent and knowledgeable shinobi in his generation. Kakashi smiled and said, "Let's roll then?"

A/N: K there ya go, n as usual, R&R aite! sorry if it seems shorter than last chapter but 'fraid not, later chapters r goin' ta be longer, promise! then I'd also appreciate if y'all wish me good luck with shits I'm goin' thru rite now, k? thx a bunch y'all! oh yeah, before i'mma outtie, i decided to start on puttin another fic, it's so OOC so i suggest to Mr. Lee to not read it lol just messin hahaha.. anyway, here's a preview, be sure to check it out k? peace out! oh but first, of course, the translation n then the preview, now really i'm outtie, holla!

Japanese 101 (credits go all the way to Mr.Lee for always, always reminding me politely about translating stuffs lol):

-Jinchuuriki: demon beasts' vessel/container, ya know, like Naruto, he a jinchuuriki ya mean?

-Akatsuki: well literally aka means red and tsuki means moon, so akatsuki means red moon, ya mean? tho I'm not sure why they'd use red clouds on their cloaks, well maybe tsuki can mean clouds too i'm not sure, but hey, juz search wiki if ya interested...

-Otogakure n Konohagakure: sound village n leaf village or was it hidden sound and hidden leaf? mm, kinda confused lol...

- -sama: a suffix denoting the highest form of respect toward someone or something...

-Mou: an expression used when you're annoyed or shit, like when someone forgot something which bugged ya, n u'd say haaa shit! or s'thing hahaha...

-Ne: again another expression that's used to enforce wat ya sayin', equivalent to the expression 'right?' like 'ya understand what i'm sayin', right?'

-Aho: ahobakastupididiot, so if you're good in math and logic, then u shud dig this message rite? lol

-Ramen: noodle, c'mon, it's gotta be one of the many foods ya gotta try at least once in yo lifetime homey! WORD!

- Konoha and Oto: leaf and sound

-Shinobi: shinobininja

-Genjutsu: illusion technique

-Sempai: senior

-Taichou: captain

- -san: a suffix used to show respect to someone

- Kinjutsu: forbidden techniques.

Puberty is da shit... wait, maybe not...

As Tenten dragged Naruto to her house, he could only sweat drop. "Uuuh… Why do I have the feeling that it's going to be something REALLY bad? Oh God…"

"Okay, here we are… Naruto, could you wait for me? I've got some things to do first; you can sit on the couch over there… Just help yourself, alright?" Tenten winked at him before disappearing behind the hallway.

Naruto nodded timidly and took a good look at his surroundings. There are many weapons decorating the house, "Hmm, as expected from Tenten… Weapons all over…" he shook his thought and sat on the couch only to realize something strange.

Unfortunately he couldn't quite place it, so he just shrugged and waited for Tenten's presence, but at the same time Tenten was taking a quick shower without Naruto knowing. She smirked at the train of thoughts inside her head, with Naruto being unaware to them all.

She finished taking a shower and put on some fresh 'clothes', a very, very sexy one to say the least. Naruto was still unaware of what's coming at him, until Tenten got out of her room and Naruto noticed the owner of the house's existence. Instead of expecting something normal, Naruto's jaw dropped to the floor at the sight of Tenten in her underwear, correction: Sexy underwear.

Naruto's eyes went wide, he blushed like mad and he was speechless. "W-wha-what-wawawawa…WHAT THE HELL?! Am I seeing things?! Oh God, please tell me I'm dreaming!"

Naruto's eyes unconsciously trailed down Tenten's body, starting from her still half-wet hair to her face that was slightly pink, to her firm breasts that were covered in white yet quite (read: very) revealing bra, to her trained (read: sexy) stomach, to her white garner belt, to her once again quite (read: very) revealing white panties, and to her equally white pantyhose no less, then he finally reached his limits. A stream of blood spurted from his nose as he fell backward.