"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" The black haired boy called out as a hailstorm of fireballs tore through the air and unleashed all hell upon their targets.

Naruto flashed a quick smile at the boy, getting a smirk in return, before his face set into a neutral look. There were a total of 4 puppets rushing at him with incredible speed.

'Nothing I can't handle though.' Naruto thought, gripping the handle of his blade, the familiar feel of the snowflake guard resting against the side of his hand.

Right when the puppets go within suitable distance, Naruto raised his right palm and sent a strong blast of wind that threw them into the air. From there, Naruto had no trouble channeling chakra into his blade and cutting the strings that controlled the puppets.

A flash of pink hair, and a sudden explosion to his left alerted both boys to Sakura's location.

"Mukade ran into the tower, let's go." Sasuke announced calmly, red eyes piercing through the cloud of sand around them.

"Right on it, Princess." Naruto replied as the quick use of an Ice Mirror put him ahead of his teammate.

Sasuke looked slightly put off by the new nickname, but ultimately followed after his teammate, Sakura appearing not too long after.

"Look he's gone after the 4th's Sealing Formula." Sakura informed.

Sure enough, one look to the center of the room, just beyond the short bridgeway, their target stood.

"Looks like you're too late to stop me," Mukade called out, his voice easily carrying through the cavernous chamber. "Now I can fuel my puppet army. And then I wont only rule over the 5 Great Nations, but the entire universe!"

"You're delusional if you think you're little army of sex toys could take over the entire universe." Naruto called out, Sasuke breaking out into a small grin, and Sakura letting out a short fit of laughter. "Not to mention, you won't get past the 4ths Sealing Formula."

"Oh yes I am well aware of that."

"That your army of sex dolls WON'T be enough to rule over the universe?"

"No, you fool!" The missing nin finally lashed out, his face a small snarl due to the kid finally getting on his nerves.

"I can't break the sealing formula, but…" Bending down now and grasping the hilt of the kunai holding the whole formula together.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing." Sakura called out in concern, Sasuke biting his lower lip in tense wait.

"I sure can absorb it!" He yelled out, a short foreign spell recited before a purple light enveloped him.

"Fuck, I need to get to him fast." Naruto muttered under his breathed as he rushed forward, his feet swallowing the distance between him and Mukade at the end of the bridge.

The blonde could only watch as purple lines raced up the man's body, forming a complex grid across his skin.

'Ice Style: Ice Mirror.' Naruto said in his mind, a mirror appearing before him, and above the body of Mukade ahead.

Jumping through the mirror, Naruto reached out and tried to stop the man from yanking out the kunai holding the whole formula together, however he was far too late as Mukade succeeded in pulling the weapon out.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled out as she watched her teammate get swallowed up by an intense purple light, Sasuke grabbing her and rushing out the exit.

"We have to go and find Kakashi, he'll know what to do." Sasuke reasoned, the halls and corridors rushing past them in a blur as the purple light followed them, swallowing everything in it's path.

Sasuke didn't actually know if Kakashi would be able to do anything, but it was the only real hope he had, and the boy clutched onto it like a lifeline.

"A light rises above the tower"

"Bursting with emotion~"

'Whoevers singing, she has a really nice voice.' Naruto appreciated.

Of course he didn't really appreciate waking up on the hard ground like this.

"The path of a dragon which must be protected"

"Looks to the sky reflecting itself onto the blade~"

Pushing himself off the ground, his eyes were treated to the sight of a really pretty young girl with exotic red hair, and even more exotic purple eyes.

"Even if the sands and winds turn violent"

"The bright sun roams proudly as flowers dance as they fall~"

"Hey, Im kinda lost, could you tell me where we are-" Naruto didn't even get to finish his sentence before the girl ran off.

"Well that wasn't very nice." Naruto commented sourly as he watched the girl from before run off into a stairwell.

Now just where was he?

Spotting an opening at the top of- wherever the hell he was, Naruto used a couple chakra enhanced leaps to get him to the top and break through the glass ceiling. Once he got to ground level, Naruto took note of the large towering buildings that made up the city he found himself in.

Leaping over a wall and into a plaza, the boy had to let out a whistle at the sight.

He didn't know of any city with architecture like this.

Suddenly a trio of puppets that oddly resembled the ones he had fought before flew down from the skies and came onto the scene.

"Good to know Mukade hasn't gone far." Naruto muttered under his breath, jumping high into the air and landing on a bridge connecting two adjacent buildings.

The 3 puppets immediately took chase, racing after the blonde who weaved through the buildings at high speed. Taking a chance and landing on another bridge, he was met by 3 more puppets.

"I really don't have time for this." Naruto said with a glare, shuffling towards the end of the platform and creating an ice mirror far below near a large vent.

Right when the 6 puppets reached him, the boy let himself fall off the bridge, smirking slightly at the one foolish robot that jumped down after him.

'Ice Style: Ice Senbon.' With a quick pulse of chakra to his left hand, Naruto formed a small amount of water into long needles that he shot out at the puppet before him; the needles managing to stick in it's joints and stop it from moving all together.

Forming an ice mirror below him, Naruto lt his body fall through, instantly transferring to the one he had set up in the clearing below.

A back handspring against the lip of the tube sent him downwards and to the bottom of the tunnel.

Unfortunately, his escapade only landed him in even hotter waters as, now before him stood 20 or so of Mukades puppets.

'Fuck!' He cursed in his head, eyes widening at the sheer number of enemies.

He was completely surrounded now, and it seemed his enemy realized this as well as a large number of them rushed him at once.

'I've only got one chance at this, I can only hope my clones brought my control up enough.' Naruto blurred through a sequence of 8 hand seals, before smashing his palms on the ground and hoping for the best.

'Ice Style: Ice Dome.'

A circle of ice grew from the ground, about 2 inches thick, before quickly encasing the blonde shinobi in a dome.

"Now for the hard part." Naruto breathed out in a thin mist, creating two small circular mirrors of ice, one in his hand, the other outside the dome.

Looking through the lens of handheld mirror, Naruto was able to see the puppets closing in on hs ice construct. Placing one hand against the inside of is barrier, the boy peered through the lens and timed the attack from his opponents.

Once they were close enough that they couldn't escape his trap, Naruto sent a large pulse of chakra through his hand and into the dome.

The results were instantaneous, hs ice construct grew large icicles that pierced the multiple enemies numerous times.

Letting his chakra dissipate, Naruto looked on as the entire construct fell into a large puddle of water at his feet, his opponent falling to the ground lifelessly along with.

Crouching down to gather the water into the seal on his palm, Naruto was caught off guard when purple wires flew at him from out of nowhere.

'Damn, I got careless, I should have anticipated that not all of them would rush me at once.' Naruto berated himself for his mistake, quickly planning a way to escape this mess.

'No time for ice constructs, and neither will a Great Breakthrough have the coverage to get me from all sides, at least not the way I bastardized it.' Naruto had only one option left at this point.

Reaching his chakra out to envelop the closest puppet to him, Naruto got ready for a Substitution, however it seemed it wasn't needed as someone chose to interfere at that exact moment.

"Partial Expansion Jutsu; Secret Technique: Beetle Sphere." Naruto heard as a blonde man in a mask grabbed him.

Next thing he knew he was high above his original position, sitting atop one of the larger towers in the area.

"That wasn't a Body Flicker." He said almost immediately, looking at the masked man beside him.

And if he was correct, those two below were an Akimichi, and a Shiburame.

They all wore the same masks and worked in a unit of three; were they ANBU? And if so, what were they doing here?

"Where are we?" He asked again.

"Ouran." Was his one worded reply.

"That can't be right, Ouran's-" He cut himself off there, the evidence was right in front of his eyes. The puzzle pieces were lining up, and Naruto didn't think it was just mere speculation on his part.

A large shadow passed over him, looking up, he saw the two other agents from below.

"We can't stay here, follow us, we'll talk more."

"That hair, your Choza aren't you?" He said with a small frown.

The man he addressed stayed silent.

"How do you know that name, or better yet, what are you doing here?" The tall blonde operative asked, walking over to form a line with his teammates.

The place they currently stood in was an alleyway of sorts, located at the very perimeter, and farthest away from the city as you could get. The place seemed abandoned, as if no one had walked in this sector for a long time.

"I'm on a mission to capture missing nin, Mukade," Naruto replied, furrowing his brows slightly at having his questions dodged. "Unfortunately, I was seperated from my two teammates earlier."

The trio looked at eachother as if their masks held the answers, fortunately the blonde one seemed to have found what he was looking for as he regarded Naruto once more.

"Look kid, you should get out of here and search for your teammates, this mission is too dangerous," He suggested, him and his team taking a step back into the shadows. "Let us handle it, were from the Hidden Leaf as well, dont forget."

With that the three vanished in the most flawless, untraceable Body Ficker Naruto had ever borne witness to.

A sigh escaped his lips, and now Naruto had to make a serious decision.

"To obey or to disobey," Head upwards, and eyes closed, Naruto took a second to ponder. "That is the question."

The reverberating boom of fireworks sounded off, and when he opened his eyes, he could see the bright lights and signs of celebration occurring closer to the center of the city.

Seems he had found his answer.

"Ah, the girl from before." He breathed out, perched upon the ledge of one of the higher buildings in the area; Naruto did his best impersonation of a gargoyle.

No, literally, he had transformed himself as well as a clone into matching gargoyles in the hopes any passing puppets might pass him by.

Perhaps he should have thought that plan out a bit more though, after crouching for several minutes his knees were really protesting being locked up in such a position.

It was times like these he wished he had his old pranking material on hand, that Ninja-Camo Sheet would've worked wonders at this time. After all, if they were enough to fool Chunnin, then a bunch of mindless bots wouldn't stand a chance.

As the seconds passed by he was growing increasingly aware of the aching joints in his knees, fortunately for him, he was soon given an excuse to leap out from the position he put himself in.

Stone crumbled and fell before the girl, dropping her down below; a large fall that would surely kill her. The hand he had seen pushing her forward told Naruto her assassin had been well aware of such facts.

It really was an ingenious plan, however plans never went well when Uzumaki Naruto was on the scene.

Not even bothering with ice mirrors, Naruto took a running leap and intercepted her mid air, landing beside an archway near a small green field.

Propping her against a pillar, the boy waited for her to get her bearings backs.

Her breath was caught in her throat, her eyes were looking around wildly, and he could actually see her heart beating erratically through her purple silk robes.

"Hey," He said softly, crouching down to her level with a compassionate smile. "You're all good now, it's over."

Her breath steadied and her eyes focused back on him; seems his words did the trick.

"T-Thank you," She started out with a small voice, however gaining traction as she went on. "You're the one who saved me right?"

"Yes." He replied, before getting down to what he really wanted to know. "You're the queen of this place, right?"

She stood up quickly, as if remembering her role in society, before regaining her composure.

"Yes, I'm the High Queen of Ouran, Sara." She said haughtily, Naruto just stayed in his crouched position as he analyzed her with an indifferent look.

Chest out and proud, back straight, the way she lifted her chin slightly so she was always peering down her nose; Her stance was meant to subconsciously convey that she was better than those around her. A way of calling attention to the differences between their roles in society, as well as command respect.

She was truly a Queen, probably groomed since birth for the position if the speed and ease that she fell into the persona was anything to go by.

A small smirk made its way onto the blondes face.

'You can't hide behind false airs though, not from me, not in the same way you do your citizens.' He could see it in the way her pupils wavered ever so slightly, the shallowness of her breath as well as the slight trembling of her hands and wrists, which she tried to hide beneath the long sleeves of her court attire.

Looking down, the significance of her statement hit him.

Placing his hands on his knees, and with a sigh, Naruto lifted himself from his couched position and back onto his feet, all the while this piece of irrefutable evidence bringing his earlier conclusions into more than just a theory based off of possibly false information and inquiries.

Now wasn't the time for that though.

Turning back around to the girl, Naruto was all smiles; a soft look overtook his face as he made introductions and tried to calm the girl down some more.

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki," He presented. "I'm a Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village."

Her mouth formed a cute o shape before she relaxed fully, apparently the information that she was in the hands of a trained shinobi helped her settle down, her shoulders relaxed, a small smile came onto her face and she lost her previous aura of nobility.

Then the crushing realization of why she was down there in the first place hit her. She looked up to where she had been previous with a troubled look on her face.

"It almost felt like someone had pushed me." Sara said quietly, not wanting to believe in such a thing.

"Someone pushed you." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. "I saw the hand."

"There's no way!" She immediately fired back. "I'm the Queen, who would dare! Not to mention, you saw how my people adored me!"

'But this isn't about your citizens, it's about the people closest to you, the high ranking who would profit from your death.' Naruto thought with a shred of pity.

"Didn't you say you felt like someone had pushed you."

She looked unsure of herself, a slight grimace crossed her face, her eyes wandered away, and her voice was quiet. Suddenly, catching herself in a moment of vulnerability, her regal mask came up once more, and her voice regained its haughty quality.

"I must have imagined it." She said, almost proud of herself.

Naruto just smiled bitterly.

'To have so little faith in yourself, to change your perception to mirror what those who follow you believe.' He couldn't help but think.

Suddenly his breath had become visible; out of nowhere a cloud of water vapor had escape his mouth, just like when temperatures dropped.

As if coming out of a genjutsu, the trio from earlier wavered into existence, scaring Sara enough into gasping.

"I thought I told you to go look for your teammates." The man's voice was cold and intimidating.

Naruto just grinned predatorily.

"Minato Namikaze." Naruto breathed out, having gotten a second look at the man, as well as that Not-Body Flicker he had used earlier to save him, all clues pointed to this man being the Fourth.

"Hold on just who are you!?" Sara questioned, standing protectively in front of Naruto, only serving to confuse the boy.

The Fourth just let out a sigh, before sharing a glance with his other two teammates.

"Look I think we need to talk."

"I'm in the past aren't I?" Was it even a question anymore, with everything he knew there was absolutely no way he could have been wrong.

"You're right, yeah." Minato answered solemnly as he and his team took off their masks.

Naruto was more than a little shocked at the similarities between them, to be honest a lot of theories that couldn't possibly be true started running through his head.

Yes, some extremely unlikely scenarios.

"I shouldn't be saying this but, were on a mission…"

Naruto was not paying the slightest bit attention, all he could see was this man's face who looked just like him.

It was almost funny the resemblance the two had; he probably would've laughed if the sickening feeling in his stomach wasn't growing in intensity the more his mind churned out possibilities.

"Mukade, a Missing Ninja that arrived 6 years ago."

His imagination was clearing getting out of hand; connecting dots that shouldn't be possible all to fabricate some disgusting vile explanation that was so wrong his frame shook.

The hair, the eyes, the shape of his jaw; it was right there in front of his eyes.

If Naruto would ever imagine what his father were to look like, it would be the man in front of him. No, not even that, because this man surpassed it. The boy was sure if tasked he would've screwed up somewhere along the design process.

Somewhere along the line, Naruto had closed his eyes in hopes of bringing his rapidly descending anger under control. He was doing a marvelous job of hiding it from his face and frame, but the way the air around them had plummeted 20 degrees showed to anyone privy of his bloodline.

Even under her ceremonial robes, Sara shivered under the cold assault. It had gotten to the point where she could see everyone's breath clearly.

"He's been using the leyline underneath the city to power his army of puppets."

Naruto was following the story with half an ear, his mind still in turmoil, but he did give a small sound of acknowledgement originating from the back of his throat.

"Enough, I demand you stop speaking such lies!" Sara demanded, fed up with all the bullshit the ninja before her had been spouting, not willing to listen to one more second of their conspiracies.

Whatever speech she delivered, Naruto tuned it out, his hold on his temper was very thin and he was doing everything to reign it in. A muffled voice in his head growing louder and louder; words unable to be understood, Naruto almost didn't hear the young queen stomp off.

Finally, as if the wall dampening her voice had collapsed, the scathing voice of The Nine Tails came through.

"To think I'd ever see you again! The same bastard who had the fucking gall to seal me into his own child! You should be rotting in the belly of the Death God! Let me out o this prison, I want my revenge on this pathetic excuse of a fucking-"

Her tirade did not end there, but Naruto's patience had.

His eyes flew open and he stared wide eyed at his father- holy shit he had a fucking father that was standing right in front of him!- while so many emotions ran through him at once. All too fast to get a hold of him, some he wasn't even able to register he was so conflicted.

Minato Namikaze had thought it might be possible, but he had quickly filed the idea as him just being a wishful thinker. Now though, as he was confronted with red eyes that only belonged to one person, the same exact kind he had seen in his fiance only once, he was forced to give the idea more credit.

The only way the child could have eyes like that was if he held the Nine Tails, and considering the boys striking resemblance to himself, Minato was absolutely positive this was his child. But if that was the case why the hell was his child a jinchuuriki! Kushina would have held onto the beast, He would have been around to check the seal still.

The only explanation his mind could supply was that Kushina had died, and boy what a doozy that thought was, Minato did not want to think about that anymore than in passing.

"You're my-" The simultaneously said, throats suddenly parched and finding it hard to finish that sentence.

Naruto backed away a couple steps, almost stumbling at the revelation, one hand held his head as he closed his eyes and scrunched his face up into an unreadable expression.

"I- I need to go follow the girl."

"Of course," Minato did everything to keep his voice steady but there were so many things running through his head that he couldn't keep his voice from wavering slightly. "We'll take care of Mukade, keep tabs on the Queen, we'll find you later and regroup."

Minato turned around and placed his mask back on with speed, he could not let his teammates see him like this.

Naruto stood there for a couple seconds after he watched the trio perform flawless Body Flickers away from the hallway.

Inhaling deeply Naruto let out a long sigh; now with his wits back about him, he turned around and began the search for Sara.

Funnily enough, the chakra he had unconsciously used to lower the temperature of the room seemed to have clung to the girl. Almost as if the water vapor had solidified into droplets and now acted as a beacon for him to follow.

Naruto walked down the hall at a sedate pace with that thought in mind.

His ice constructs were nothing more than his own chakra, so Naruto could feel them quite well, perhaps he could slip shards of ice here and there on people as a way to track them.

Naruto hummed happily to himself at the implications as he hopped out one of the windows, the only one that wasn't stained glass, and made his way towards his unruly charge.

A.N. It's been an extremely long time since I last updated, and I have no excuses, I'm just terrible at managing all the multiple projects I have so I threw this story on the backburner. Now though, I figured if I dropped my hefty 30 page chapter quota down to 10 pages, maybe then I could actually manage all these stories and create a solid update schedule.

And I must say, this is a lot more manageable, I do believe I can work with this.