Naruto blinked, and just stared at the fifth hokage, speechless. 'Could she be like the elders too..?' Tsunade glared hard at Naruto, then let out a hearty laugh, looking at a confused Tayuya and Naruto.
"I'm just fucking with you both. That was the jaded report from a root member and Danzo himself. I believe you let him go, but if it's anything like Naruto I've come to know, then you must have had some reasons." She continued, smiling.
"Yes, of course. I for one was protecting Tayuya and fighting the sound members responsible for kidnapping Sasuke. I gave them a run for their money." Naruto said with a simple grin, before looking away as his companion glared at him.
"I expect nothing less Naruto. Now then, as it stands I've been ordered to order you to retrieve Sasuke. But from what you told me, and I imagine this girl here too, is that you wish to remedy the cause of your current stress, right?" She asked raising her eyebrow expectantly.
Receiving a nod, she continued. "And to fix this problem I allow you to make a new team seven. I will assign a commander. It won't be three of you since there are no genin who could keep up anyway. From seeing the both of you interact I expect solid teamwork.
"And one last thing Naruto.. I want to ask you a question. How do you plan on fighting orochimaru if it comes down to it?" Tsunade asked tentatively.
"Absolutely destroy every last trace. Kurama and I came up with a move designed for him. and for Sasuke. "We call it the Nuke Wind Rashurikan."
Tayuya got the chills from this, starting at the Uzumaki. "What the hell does that do?"
"You'll see it soon enough Tayu." Naruto replied with a smile at her.
Clearing her throat, Tsunade spoke directly to Tayuya. "So your name is Tayuya.. do you have a surname?"
Tayuya shook her head, "My mother died when I was little and my father is somewhere out there."
"I'm sorry to hear that, however we need to get some official business out of the way before I can sanction this mission. Tayuya, I am offering you a position in Konoha's ranks as a Shinobi. You will be tested on your fighting abilities and be ranked accordingly. Do you accept?" Tsunade challenged the redhead, who looked uncertain.
Looking at Naruto, who was smiling gently back, she turned to the Hokage, saying, "I accept."
"Welcome to the Village hidden in the leaf Tayuya.
Dismissed!" Tsunade said before Tayuya and Naruto disappeared.
30 minutes later, deep underneath Konoha.
Two men knelt in front of a decrepit looking geezer with bandages over one eye and using a cane to keep upright. He commanded a respect in his subordinates, and did not tolerate failure.
"Fu, Torune, the mission regarding Sasuke Uchihas successful retrieval has fallen on your shoulders. He is not to be harmed, nor is he allowed to be orochimarus grasp for any longer. You two are charged with the elimination of any threat to your success, and bringing Sasuke back here alive."
Danzo emphasized.
"Yes, sir!" Both root members replied without hesitation.
"Leave tomorrow, and expect a team from Konoha too. If they endanger the mission, eliminate them too." Danzo added with a smirk.
"Yes sir!" They replied before disappearing.
Hidden Village of the Sound
A charred black body lay on its back, with multiple IVs sticking into various regions. A single medical attendant, great haired and wearing glasses, poured over books and charts.
"What's taking them so long Kabuto..?" The burnt body asked weakly.
"Konoha might have been able to stop them before retrieving Sasuke.." Kabuto replied nervously.
"We should have sent Kimmimaro too.. he's of little use to me now.." Orochimaru spoke cruelly, while one of his lips split open from being scorched.
"You need a new body Orochimaru, and fast. The Ninetails Chakra continued to assault you after separation and it took 4 weeks just for the flames to finally die. Your body has run out of Chakra, cannot produce any more Chakra and the room smells of bacon flavoured leather." Kabuto added with a chuckle.
"Are you patronizing me.. Kabuto?" A weak voice layered with killing intent surrounded the grey haired Shinobi.
Playing along, Kabuto staggered back, sweating a bit and satisfying the piece of charcoal disguised as a snake.
"At any rate, we can still send out kimmimaro to speed things up." Kabuto added without a hint of fear.
As if on cue, a small creak can be heard from across the hall. Looking out the door, Kabuto smiled at a haunted looking man, solid white hair and multiple cords trailing him. Kimmimaro was on the hunt, and there was nothing that could stop him. Except for the multiple machines still hooked up to him and were being stopped at the door.
'What a pain in the ass." Kabuto thought with a frown.
Konoha Training grounds Midday
"What a pain in the ass." Thought Tayuya as she dodged multiple punches and kicks from Naruto.
They were getting used to each other's fighting style and the best way was to beat each other sensless. Or try to anyway.
"Come on Tayu my clone is barely trying, at least attempt to hurt him." Naruto teased while chilling on top of a tree branch.
"Fuck off asswipe!" Was Tayuya's only good response, her mind and body occupied from the flurry of punches.
Gritting her teeth she activated her level one curse mark and punched the ever living hell out of the clone, causing Naruto to wince from the memories and hop down.
"Let's go Tayu-Chan." Naruto said playfully which only caused the redhead to get more aggravated.
"I will wreck you!" Tayuya roared before unleashing her state 2 curse mark, her skin turning dark brown, horns protruding from her head and launching herself at Naruto with such speed and intensity that scared the jinchuriki.
"Holy shit that's just like Lee's technique!" Naruto commented before getting kicked in the gut hard, doubling over in pain. Wheezing, he grabbed Tayuya's foot and brought her down to the ground, pushing her face into the dirt and twisting the redheads arm behind her back.
"I gotch-" Naruto celebrated happily before getting smashed in the face with the back of Tayuya's head. Clutching his nose, Naruto backed away as she flew at him with a fist almost reminiscent of himself in nine-tails mode.
"Shit!" Was Naruto only response as he prepared to fight for his life.
1900 hours, Somewhere between Konoha and Otogakure.
"So we are way behind schedule, because of two dumbasses who picked a fight and lost hard. Even the supposed invincible technique of Ukon got him fried." Kidomaru complained to Jirobo.
Looking over at the blackened body of Ukon and Sakons useless arm, Jirobo shrugged, saying,
"There's nothing we can do about them getting their asses kicked, or the fact that Tayuya betrayed us, or the fact that Orochimaru-sama will not be happy. Let's just get him this kid and cut our losses at this point." Jirobo said with a frown.
Sasuke Uchiha groaned, still heavily injured from last night, laying facedown on the ground next to them.
"Aren't we forgetting something?" Kidomaru asked Jirobo.
"I don't think so, let's just get some rest." He replied.
"Agreed, I'll just lay some webs out to be safe." Kidomaru said with a yawn.
Village Hidden in the Leaves, 1900 hours
Multiple craters litter the ground, trees shattered in varying positions, two battered bodies laid in the middle of a large hole in the middle of the training grounds. Naruto Uzumaki fought for his life harder than he ever did against orochimaru. At least orochimaru wasn't directly attempting to kill him, Tayuya on the other hand destroyed any clone he sent at her, her punches left long lasting dents in his body and her kicks broke trees in half.
Getting up gingerly, he peered over to the heavily breathing form of Tayuya, a very satisfied grin on her face. Holding out his hand, she took it and stood up just fine, brushing herself off while looking at him.
"What's wrong pansy? Did I hurt you too much?" She taunted on the outside, but on the inside she felt much different. Muscles were torn to shreds, her Chakra was down to nil, and she might have broke a nail.
Naruto laughed and pulled her close, getting a winced look from the redhead as well as a blush.
"It looks like that curse mark is really something else. Can your teammates do the same thing?" He asked looking straight in her eyes.
Tayuya shook her head, not backing away from him or breaking the stare. "The curse mark is powerful, sure, but it was nothing until I combined it with another technique. My mother taught it to me at a very young age."
"What's that technique called? It looked like the 8 hidden gates form used by taijutsu specialists." Naruto asked inquisitively, taking this moment to feel Tayuya's torn arm muscles gingerly.
"My mother called it Meteor. She would send Chakra to these special points in her body and after opening them she would get exhausted and her body trashed." Tayuya winced again at both her arm muscles being touched but more at his touch in general."
"Meteor huh? Well I can see where the name would make sense, because I couldn't tell if you were Tayuya or a damn comet flying at such speed." Naruto mused, smiling softly at a blushing Tayuya.
"How many points can you activate?" He added.
Closing her eyes in deep thought, she said, "Only one point so far. That's all I ever needed."
Tayuya used this moment to shift her body so that she wasn't in his grip, but close to him all on her own. She was only half aware of this movement, as the other half was drowned out in a lot of physical pain mixed with anticipation. Opening her eyes, she notices how close they were but decided to roll with it.
Naruto immediately noticed this and stared at Tayuya speechlessly. She didn't back down from his stare and kissed him on the cheek, surprising the both of them. Tayuya widened her eyes in shock, while Naruto touched the place she kissed and smiled the widest grin Tayuya had ever seen.
Any shock she had was immediately dispersed as a warm feeling enveloped both of them, so much that Tayuya lost any sense of the screaming muscles she had. She closed her eyes to try and identify everything happening to her but found it impossible. She gasped slightly and realized her consciousness was being sapped away, until everything went dark.
Naruto didn't have any indication his companion had gone unconscious, until her body went limp against his. Anxiety shooting up to 100, he called out her name immediately but got no response. Picking her up and running for the hospital, He knew the warm feeling as the nine tailed fox, but it wasn't the nine tailed fox. 'What the fuck happened Kurama?' He asked his inner demon.
If crickets could be heard inside of Naruto, at least he would hear something.