I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters. I suspect quite a few people will support my change to this chapter.

Trip Home

"What do you mean we're heading home?" Naruto questioned.

"Lady Tsunade says there is an urgent matter that must be attended to," Yamato stated.

"She's awake?" Naruto questioned.

"Yes," Yamato nodded. "Apparently she woke up about an hour before the message arrived."

"Okay," Naruto sighed. "Then why are we still here?"

"We're waiting for the ship that will take us to the mainland," Aoba stated. "For the sake of time and Guy not being sick too long again, we're taking a slightly more direct route."

"And by that he means, we'll be crossing land rather than water," Honoka stated. "We're apparently stopping by the Hidden Rain Village."

"But that's on the far side of the Land of Fire," Fu stated.

"Not exactly," B spoke up. "This here island is really a giant turtle. It's been movin' around makin' findin' it a massive hurdle. We're close to the Land of Earth now fools, ya fools."

"Quit rhyming!" Yamato snapped. "Anyway, he's right. It won't be that much longer to stop by the Hidden Rain Village."

"Then let's just run out to the boat," Naruto suggested. "We're all ninja. Besides, I like our chances of avoiding the Giant Squid on foot than on a slow-moving ship."

"He has a point," Aoba stated. "And Guy isn't as bad when running on the sea."

"Fine," Yamato sighed. "We'll go and meet the ship."

They all sprinted out of the building, Gaara included, and onto the water, quickly leaving the island behind. The squid didn't bother them like they had expected so within minutes they reached the ship and it turned around taking them to the port. Gaara split off, heading home to see what had become of it in his absence while Naruto led his own group at a painful pace toward the Hidden Rain Village. They needed to get home quickly but he was excited to see one of his very few living relatives. After about three days of constant travel, they reached village in time to see a section of the lake around Ame explode and continue to as they stood rooted to the spot watching in. Then, the same multi-headed dog Nagato had used to attack Konoha darted out of the trees to attack them but skidded to a stop upon seeing Naruto.

"Hey it's that dog," Naruto stated. "What's going on?"

The dog quickly drew a circle on the ground with a claw then put three dots in a triangle inside of it.

"Sharingan?" Naruto questioned before his eyes widened. "Madara!"

"Damn!" Yamato swore. "He must be after the Rinnegan."

"Over my dead fucking body," Naruto growled tapping into Kurama's chakra and darting forward.

Even running at a blinding speed, it would still take well over ten minutes to reach the explosions that could only be Konan. The others all climbed onto the dog that sprinted after Naruto. Finally, Naruto arrived to see Nagato pinned through the shoulder to a piece of pipe sticking out of the ground by a small metal bar that looked like it was broken off of a bridge and Konan impaled through the heart by Madara by a short pipe. Konan staggered forward toward Naruto forcing herself off the pipe and Naruto darted forward, catching her and healing her with a pulse of chakra through his Gelel Stone. She straightened up and hugged him then rushed over to Nagato to help him as best she could. Naruto turned to Madara and saw that the piece of his mask over his eyes was open and one was closed.

"You used Izanagi to survive the ten minutes of explosions didn't you?" Naruto guessed.

"Five minutes," Konan stated. "He can be intangible for five minutes. It won't be recharged for at least another four."

"Plenty of time," Naruto grinned drawing his Crow Blade and Temujin's sword.

Madara looked at the pipe in his hand then tossed it aside and a katana dropped from his sleeve.

"Why didn't you use that?" Naruto questioned.

"Never use something if you don't have to," Madara stated.

"Good point," Naruto grinned putting away his crow blade and extending Temujin's sword, now in his right hand to its usual sword length channeling chakra through it in the form of green flames. "Raging Thunder!"

He suddenly appeared behind Madara driving his sword forward but Madara spun aside sweeping Naruto's sword to the side with his own. The force of the blast still launched him sideways, his robes smoking and his flesh burned severely.

"The Rinnegan belongs to Nagato," Naruto stated. "You will leave or you will die. Do you understand?"

"It will be mine," Madara vowed. "Whether now or later, I will take those eyes."

"No," Naruto growled appearing in front of him and grabbing him by the throat, his sword falling into the water. "You won't. I don't care who you have on your side. Without you, there will be no war. We will crush the others within seconds. I will personally probably kill five or six while the rest are being slaughtered. Now give me a reason to not crush your throat right now."

Madara planted both feet in Naruto's chest with no effect but instantly Naruto's body began to swirl around and into Madara's right eye. Naruto quickly flicked a kunai toward Konan and teleported to it, allowing Madara to escape using the same jutsu he had almost caught Naruto with. Naruto sighed in annoyance but turned to Nagato as he separated from Kurama's chakra.

"You have control over the Nine-tails," Nagato noted as Naruto wrenched the metal out of his shoulder and healed him.

"Yes," Naruto nodded. "Since you've got a massive target painted on your back and a second on Konan's back, I'm going to have to suggest you relocate yourself and your villagers to Konoha. Soon. I doubt Madara will be so easy to stop now that he knows what we're capable of. How many did you have?"

"Six hundred billion," Konan stated.

"Right," Naruto nodded. "Next time try eight hundred billion and place a few on the surface where you can get him if he uses his Izanagi to get to the surface."

Konan nodded and then turned to the village.

"I'll get the villagers," Konan stated. "You go ahead and head back with them. You'll be safer that way. He won't try to get to you through me unless he has to. He doesn't need to."

"You'd be surprised," Naruto growled. "Hurry. Leave for Konoha within three days."

Konan nodded and sprinted to the village. Naruto and the others all sprinted the other direction, heading toward Konoha. After about a day, they stopped to rest and Naruto took watch, sitting in the trees with several clones spread around the camp.

"Why are we stopping?" Nagato questioned.

"You need to rest, we've been traveling for three days nonstop now, and we are actually a day early getting here so we're going to stop and rest for the night," Yamato explained. "We'll be back at Konoha a half day early and we'll be able to rest."

Nagato nodded then turned in for the night. Yamato followed and one by one everyone left until only Naruto and Hinata were awake. Hinata climbed up to sit by Naruto and he smiled wrapping an arm around her.

"We'll be home sometime tomorrow," Naruto stated. "Wanna take bets about what Tsunade wants?"

"No idea," Hinata stated. "But I doubt we should just be resting here. It feels like we're waiting to be captured."

"...You're right," Naruto admitted after a moment. "You get to tell them that."

"Great," Hinata laughed as Naruto's clones dropped to the ground picking up the tents and running along the ground with them, Naruto and Hinata following. "That works too."

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