Konoha's Dark Prince

by Our hero

At the age of Four Naruto ate the Kage-Kage no mi, and has been working on a plan to give himself what he's always wanted, a family, unfortunately his plan is ruined by Orochimaru trying to Kill Sarutobi, thus he must intervene and even if it's ahead of schedule reveal whom he really is, Devil Fruit Naruto,

5. Chapter 5

The True Chapter Four, A Dark Prince Rises,

Our hero here, I rewrote this chapter because the original was an abridged version of what I originally planned, I abridged it for a variety of reasons that don't matter now so consider what you saw earlier as a taste of this chapter, after a while I'll update the story so this erases the original chapter four, btw the original chapter Four 8,235k words, this chapter? over thirty thousand,

Also I added in new reviews and responded to them as always, in one of the reviews I reveal why Yakumo has her devil fruit, It's in UnlawfulGentleman Second comment: use the find command (Ctrl F) to skip if you just wanna know that bad,

Anyway enjoy,

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The trip was long, at least two hours long before they'd reached their destination, and would split off into groups,

And Kakashi had to be the one to tell Naruto how the groups had been arranged,

Now it seemed like Naruto's shadow had gone rampant,

"Pardon?" Naruto asked darkly, his shadow seemed to writhe and wiggle under his feet, "I must've misheard you Kakashi-sensei," Naruto stated, "It almost sounded like I heard some fools notion that I would trust Yakumo Kurama to any of you,"

Kakashi knew He'd react like this, hell Kakashi didn't care if Yakumo was by Naruto's side, but those old councillors had been strict, Naruto stepped closer to him to stare Kakashi down, eye to eye, "Now feel free to repeat what you actually said, Sensei,"

"Naruto I have no power here, it was ordered," Kakashi stated,

"Then I regret to inform you, you'll all be walking home," Naruto spat, "Yakumo, Syo, we're done here," he ordered and turned back to the carriage,

Kakashi put a hand on Naruto's shoulder, "Naruto list-," And dodged a blade made of Naruto's shadow,

"No," Naruto said, "You listen!" he stated grabbing Kakashi's jacket, "Before it was just me there to make sure nothing bad happened to your team, but now you want to separate me from my family, put Yakumo on the same team as the woman who abused her and then you want me to listen?!" he asked, "What trust have you inspired in me?" he asked, "Why do you think that I would be inclined to listen to your orders?"

"Naruto!" Kakashi barked, taking the blonde's hand off his jacket, "I am your squad leader," he stated, "I will not handle disrespect,"

"Then you'll learn to handle it," Naruto stated, "Because you lost my respect the day I waited in class for six hours for my teacher to bother showing up," Naruto spat,

Then he looked past Kakashi and raised an eyebrow, "Perhaps we should talk elsewhere," he stated, "There's lighting in the distance,"

Kakashi and Kurenai's eyes widened, they both turned and stared in shock at the storm,

"He's coming," Kurenai said, "So soon?"

"Who's ''he'' Kurenai-sensei?" Hinata asked, her stutter gone as she was just happy to get rid of the awkward situation of Naruto and Kakashi arguing,

But Naruto was the one who answered, "We've been riding for hours and we'd never seen hide nor hair of any such storm," he said, "There's only three people on the planet who can do that," he turned to his teacher, "And only two of them were ex-mist swordsmen,"

Kakashi nodded and turned back to his student, "Three years ago Ameyuri Ringo was one of the three most deadly people alive," he stated, "She was Swordsman of Mizu, her weapon was the twin Kiba swords, said to be able to cut through anything, and when you had a strong enough lighting nature," he pointed to the storm that appeared out of nowhere, "and she was dying, so an up-and-coming Mizu swordsman tried to take the blades from her,"

"Raiga" Kurenai said, "And he half succeeded, taking one of her sword while she was trying to recover from a fight," she crossed her arms, "But now aware of his presence Ameyuri wiped the floor with him, it took everything he had to keep the sword he'd stolen and run with his life, now he's waiting for her to die while trying to lure her into traps to help speed it along,"

"Isn't that the war of blades?" Sakura asked, "That's what Iruka called it,"

"More importantly," Naruto stated, "Who are we looking for? because if that's Ameyuri then we all need to leave,"

"We're here for Raiga," Kurenai stated,

Naruto let out a breath, "That's still bad but he's the easiest to handle I suppose,"

Suddenly Anko doubled over in pain,

Naruto watched as Kurenai grabbed her, "Anko," she called, "What's wrong?"

"Muh, my head," Anko groaned, gasping for air,

Naruto walked over to the two, studying Anko, "Looks like a fever," he said, gently he placed a hand on her head, "But it does not feel like one," he said, "Get her into the carriage we'll put it by the water, while I sort this out,"

Kurenai looked like she wanted to argue but Naruto snapped back, "I've trained as a Doctor, and I'm talking to you as a Doctor so help me move her,"

They'd set up camp while Naruto looked over Anko, after twenty minuets he came out, "I have no idea what's wrong with her," he stated, "She has no symptoms beyond a growing and intense headache, the best I can assume is that she's suffering some sort of. . . repressed trauma, we'd need an experienced mind healer for her,"

Ino stepped forward, "I'll do it, it's not like I haven't been in people's heads before,"

"No you won't" Naruto and Kurenai stated together, they looked at the other, Kurenai in surprise, and Naruto in annoyance,

"And why not?" Ino groaned,

"Because Anko is a grown woman, one who works in torture and interrogation," Kurenai stressed, "Anything that causes her to groan on the floor would snap most minds like they were twigs,"

"She's too sick to move so we're all stuck here anyway," Naruto said,

"Isn't this lake where people went missing?" Sakura asked,

"No," Kakashi said, making her sigh in relief, "It's the ocean where people went missing,"

"Th-there I-isn't r-really a sea m-m-monster in there," Hinata turned to Kurenai, "I-is there?"

"There are monsters out here," Yakumo stated from on top of the carriage, "Why not in the ocean?"

"Yakumo!" Kurenai hissed as Hinata squealed in fear, "Don't scare her,"

Syo grabbed Kurenai's arm, "Don't be mean to Syo's big sister," she said, Kurenai tried to take her arm from Syo,

But Syo lifted Kurenai with the arm she held and threw her at the water,

Kurenai flipped in the air and landed perfectly on the water, Syo's tongue whipped around wildly,

"STOP!" Naruto demanded, his shadow rising between the two pushing them apart,

Syo looked sadly at Naruto, "But maaaaster," she whined lightly, "Syo was trying to protect her sister,"

"And I appreciate you doing so my dear, but assaulting Kurenai will have consequences for our entire family," Naruto told her,

Syo's eyes widened, "Oh no," She sat on the floor and hugged her knees, "Syo's a bad girl," she sobbed rocking back and forth, "A bad girl, master is displeased with her,"

Naruto sighed and turned to Kakashi, "Tell me sensei, do you still think it's a smart idea to take these two without me?" he asked, "Syo is a Psychopath and Yakumo will push Kurenai's buttons incessantly,"

Kakashi sighed, "Think she'd attack her?"

"Yes," Naruto said seriously, "But only out of panic, but considering she now has a maul..."

"Can she swing it?" Kakashi asked,

Naruto pointed to Yakumo holding the hammer with one of her tails while she stretched,

"And considering she has nine of them," Kakashi groaned, "And eventually she's going to say something Kurenai will have to react to,"

Naruto nodded, "It's almost like the orders are a recipe for disaster, eh sensei?"

Kakashi sighed, "Seems so," He looked at Naruto, "But we still have a job to do," he looked at the shaking carriage and frowned, "Anko's not gonna be much help like this and you're the only medic we have,"

"Not exactly," Kurenai said as she walked over to the two, "While it isn't much I have medical training, mostly the basics but it should be enough,"

"You're a Jonin though," Kakashi said, "And considering," he gestured to Anko and Yakumo, "Those two, we're gonna have to split the teams differently," he looked at Naruto, "Yakumo doesn't like me but will she listen to me?"

Naruto thought about it for a second, "Possibly, she might call you a few names but she likely won't try to hurt you so long as you don't touch her,"

Kakashi rubbed his head, "Fear of being touched eh?" he asked, "And what if I need to touch her?"

"Let her go and dodge the hammer while backing away, try to explain to her that you were just trying to help her," Naruto said, "She should calm down after a while,"

Kurenai gave a glance to Yakumo who hissed at her, "Is she really that bad?"

"She scratched me earlier for touching her," Naruto answered, He noted Kurenai seemed to bite her lip slightly,

"Okay So Yakumo comes with me to intercept Raiga," Kakashi said,

Kurenai looked at Naruto, "Will Syo stop throwing me If she goes with me?"

Naruto leaned back, "Syo!" he called making the pink haired girl rush over to him,

"Yes master! what can Syo do to redeem herself?!" She asked,

"Can you go with Kurenai and do what she says without hurting her?" Naruto asked,

Syo nodded, "If it would make master happy Syo could lift up the world on her shoulders!" she said, then she frowned, "But," she said sadly, "Syo has nothing to defend herself with," she frowned deeply, "Syo can't fight without her weapons,"

Naruto nodded, "I see,"

"Well you can use a kunai" Kakashi said, "Here have two of mine," he said holding them to her,

Syo looked over them and frowned, "Syo thinks they're a little... small," despite her words she took them, "She'll go practice," she announced before she turned and walked a little further from the group,

"Okay," Kurenai said, "That's those two decided where to go, what about the others?"

"No idea," Kakashi stated,

"Why split at all?" Ino asked stomping over, "Raiga's the priority right? just bum-rush him with everyone first, then investigate the monsters,"

"I was wondering that myself," Naruto admitted,

"It's simple logic," Kurenai said, "If you all are there we'll have to work overtime to keep you all safe,"

"I don't understand why bring us at all, it's not like... any.. of... us," Sakura stopped and looked at Naruto, "Could beat A Swordsman of the Mist,"

"Well, we're not trying to fight Raiga, we're intercepting him," Kakashi said, "Rumour has it he's been killing smaller villages as he travels this village is in the land of fire so Konoha is responsible. . ." Kakashi noticed Hinata staring off into the distance,

Naruto noticed Yakumo doing the same thing, "Syo come over here!" he called,

She ran over to the group, "Masteeeer~" She whined, "Syo hasn't started practicing with-,"

Naruto handed his sickle to Syo, "This should be better for you," he said,

Syo tentatively laid her fingers on the handle, "B-but,"

"We'll have to split into two teams," Kurenai stated, "Hinata, Sakura, Ino, Naruto, and Syo will take Anko to a doctor and look into the Kaima rumours,"

Kakashi nodded, "That leave me and Yakumo to deal with Raiga,"

Naruto gritted his teeth, it was clear the odds against Kakashi and Yakumo,

"Th-," Anko groaned, having apparently regained consciousness and stumbled out the wagon, "That's suicide!" she spat,

"A-Anko?!" Kurenai gasped, "Are you...?"

"Jus-" she held her head for a second, "Just a little hung over Nai-chan," she said with a weak sheepish smile, "But I'm fine now," she stated putting her hands on her hips,

"Take the strong brats with you two, me and the others will go investigate the Kai whatever," Anko said, "Promise I won't teach them anything weird,"

Kakashi narrowed his eye, he knew what Anko was doing, "Are you sure you're okay Anko?" he asked suspiciously,

"Fine and dandy Mr one eyed perv," she grinned and gave him a sultry look, "Why, wanna look me over again?"

Kakashi switched his gaze to Naruto who nodded, "I'll stay with Anko," he said, "Make sure her hangover doesn't get too bad,"

"Aw, thanks brat, could really use a genin's help here," Anko said as she wrapped an arm around Naruto, who quickly realised she was actually just trying to steady herself,

'Her condition is horrible, she's barely on her feet,' he thought, 'but she's lucid again so she should be fine,' Naruto thought wrapping an arm around Anko, "Seriously go, I've got her,"

"You certainly do handsome," Anko cooed,

Kurenai and Kakashi shared a look, but they had little choice, "Alright," Kakashi said, "Let's go," Yakumo and Syo followed the two sticking closer to Kakashi then Kurenai,

When they were gone Anko pushed off of Naruto stayed by her, "Okay so," she rubbed her head, "Er what's the mission?" she asked,

The three girls gave worried looks to each other, "Great test Anko-sensei," Naruto stated, "How can we grow as Ninja if we weren't paying attention," and after he spoke he somewhat put them at ease,

"Y-yeah," Anko grinned, "Good ear kid," she said slapping him on the back,

"W-well..." Hinata said, "W-we're h-here to f-f-find out rumours of these K-kaima monsters," she said,

Anko clapped, "That's right," she said, "Extra points for you..."

"Hinata" Naruto loudly whispered,

"Hinata," Anko said, "Well the Kaima are rumoured to drag people off into..." she took a few breaths, "the water, so we're already half w-way there," she grinned, then she poked the blonde boy's cheek, "So let's use chauffer boy here to get us over to the village where we can listen for rumours," she gestured over to the wagon,

"Yes the village isn't far allow me to take you all there," he said with a bow,

"So polite~" Anko fake swooned, "Thank the simp ladies," Anko said elbowing him in the ribs,

"Thanks?" Sakura said as she walked by him and stepped into the wagon,

"Thanks Simp," Ino smirked as she walked past him,

Hinata walked up and played with her fingers, "Th-th-THANK YOU!" she cried and ran past him slamming the door shut,

Naruto quickly caught the now falling Anko who held onto him, "Th-thanks kid," she coughed, she whispered to him, "Listen I haven't eaten or drank anything for a while, would that help?"

"Yes" Naruto said, "If I get them to the village I should be able to find some stuff for you there,"

Naruto helped Anko onto the front part of the carriage, and handed her a hip flask, "Dr," she smirked, "You drink?"

"Water? yes," he stated, "I always come prepared,"

Anko opened the flask and chugged the water, "Ah," she smiled, "I could kiss you doc," she said as Naruto hooked up the carriage to his shadow steed, before he sat next to Anko, and took the reigns, "Yah!"

And they were on their way to... whatever the village was called, but as the storm grew louder Anko seemed to cuddle with Naruto, and in his presence slowly she was lulled to sleep,

As she dreamed she saw flashes of her past,

The rain,

Crying,

Her old master's smirk,

Her waking up face down in the mud,

And then she was helped up by a red haired purple eyed beauty,

She gave the young sobbing girl the kindest prettiest smile and put her at ease in an instant,

And then she awoke, the beauty was in front of her again, "Kushina-sensei!" she smiled and wrapped her arms around the woman,

"It's soo good to see you again," she said holding her close,

"Anko-Sensei" ''Kushina'' said, "Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Anko released Kushina and rubbed her eyes, Kushina vanished and Naruto sat in front of her, "What?" Anko asked shaking her head,

Naruto patted her back lightly, "Must be an old memory," he said, "Have you been here before?" he asked catching sight of an odd faded tattoo on her neck,

Anko looked around, after a while she shook her head, "Doesn't seem familiar," she stated,

Naruto didn't seem to sure, nevertheless he helped her off and they opened the doors and Hinata stepped out barely looking at Naruto, followed by Sakura and Ino,

"So what now?" Ino asked,

While Naruto sealed up the carriage Anko pointed over to a village in the distance, "Well that place there is our target ladies," she said, "Somewhere in there is info about Kaima," she stated pulling the three girls close to her, "And your gorgeous sensei is gonna teach you three on how to gather info the right way,"

"J-just us?" Hinata asked,

"That's right mumbles," Anko nodded, "Because you three... suck," she patted them on the back,

"What?" Ino demanded,

Anko smiled at her, "You heard me ponytail," she grinned, "You, Mumbles, and Diet queen over there," she said pointing at Sakura who blushed, "barely passed the real test, and haven't showed much improvement since, that's why you three are here, for training."

Ino's face turned red, "What about him?!" she said pointing at Naruto, "Why is here here?!"

Anko pulled Ino's ponytail over her face, "Your friend already figured that one out, to help dissuade Raiga from fighting, quick changes had to be made because beer tastes good," she grabbed Ino's arm, "Now Doc whiskers we're going for some girl time, try catching us some fish or something," she said tossing some ninja wire to him, which he fumbled with, but his shadow caught it,

Naruto watched the girls go before he figured he'd find a place to sit and fish,

'Anko seems to be doing better, maybe she really had just dehydrated herself too much?' he shook his head and decided it was better to be safe then sorry, he raised his arm and a small orb came out of his shadow which formed into a bat, "Follow them, and if anything happens call me," the bat flew of and then stealthily merged with Anko's shadow,

He was about to leave to start fishing, but then he stopped, and repeated the motion, "Find Yakumo and Syo," he instructed, "If anything happens pull me to them," he released the bat which flew off to find his family,

'If only I could switch myself with smaller shadows,' he thought, by the bats pulling him, his shadow would be pulled towards the bat, of course due to making two bats Naruto wouldn't be able to switch with his shadow until it was entirely back together,

The plus side was he'd know if anything happened to either team now,

'If only I'd sent one after Yakumo and Syo earlier,' he cursed himself internally, if only he hadn't been so concerned with Anko he'd have thought to send a bat after them, Naruto sighed and looked around, there were trees around him and some reeds by the water, chances were he could make a usable fishing rod, and maybe even a basket using something around here,

Thus he gathered some sturdy looking sticks, and walked over to the water where he'd sit and start catching dinner,

Meanwhile Anko showed the girls how to gather information without arousing attention, first she showed them how to do it, she ordered several dango and when she left the plate and the table she'd used the sticks to resemble certain words, and then hung around nearby to see if the owner said anything,

The first was taken, which the shop keeper responded was odd but left, the second place she'd spelt the word drowned, which made the owner scowl but said nothing, the third was demon, which got an interesting result, the owner glared at the plate for a few seconds before he growled, "That bloody girl" he spat, before he took the plate and threw the whole thing away,

Then she sat down with the girls and asked, "Can anybody tell me why I did that?"

Sakura shook her head, "No ma-am," earning a sigh from Anko,

"B-because you like d-dango?" Hinata asked,

"Bzzt, wrong," Anko said crossing her arms,

Ino rolled her eyes, "Because you wanted to see if the Kaima was a secret without drawing attention to yourself?"

"Yep, that's right," Anko smiled, "Good job ponytail points for you,"

"So are we supposed to do that?" Sakura asked,

"No, what I did was motivated out of a love of dango and messing with people," Anko stated, "You three are going to get crash courses in genjutsu, using it you can lightly influence people's minds and hang around nearby, they'll spill shit and you'll not get caught, of course I'll be around to bail you out if you do something stupid that might get yourselves caught,"

"Why not just have two of us knock people out so I can read their minds?" Ino asked,

"One I have no idea if you three could take a plastic bag without me here," Anko said making two of the girls seethe and the third just feel ashamed, "And two because Ninja are supposed to be stealthy, knocking people out just draws attention to us," she explained standing up, "Besides You three need to work on your stealth skills," she popped her neck and looked down on her students, "so let's go find somewhere quiet where I can teach you," she said with her trademark sadistic grin,

OCTOPUS-Meanwhile-OCTOPUS

Yakumo and Syo were bored, according to Kakashi the best way to dissuade Raiga was find the path he was traveling down and then take formation and find him, Kurenai led the group to track the Swordsman,

They'd been leaping through trees for hours looking for anyone, and had yet to find even a single person,

"Are we sure he's using this path?" Yakumo asked,

"There's only three bridges to the land of waves, this path leads to the only bridge on this side of the island," Kurenai stated, "It's the only place Raiga could be for that storm to make any sense,"

". . .Does anyone hear an old useless cow?" Yakumo asked, "Cause I swear I can hear, MOOO I'm a GIANT CUUUUUNT, nearby,"

"Yakumo," Kakashi gave her a glance, "Uncalled for,"

"You can think that," Yakumo nodded, "But I'll only listen after she's convinced your mum to cripple you, locked you in your room, and you've had to starve yourself for weeks since you know she's put pills in every piece of food that's brought to you,"

Kakashi didn't respond, he did however jump forward hard enough to put him at Kurenai's side,

The hard stare she gave the road ahead told him everything he needed to know,

Kakashi frowned, 'Note to self, keep Yakumo and Kurenai two countries apart,' he thought as he fell back to his old place behind Kurenai, 'Starting to think those orders I was given were supposed to get Yakumo and Syo killed,'

Kakashi shook his head, "We should be nearing the bridge soon, let's take a quick break,"

"Right now?" Kurenai asked, "But we're so close,"

"And that storm hasn't moved in the slightest for the past five minutes," Kakashi stated, "We'll still be there in time to find Raiga, if he leaves the bridge we'll just see him faster,"

"No we should push a little further," Kurenai argued,

Yakumo hissed, "Yeah you're so great at push-,"

"BREAK NOW!" Kakashi ordered, before he leapt off the tree branch he was on,

Syo grabbed Yakumo and dropped off the branch like a log, "Break sounds good to Syo, she was hungry anyway," she said setting Yakumo down,

Kurenai frowned, but sighed, and leapt off the branch, landing away from Yakumo who crossed her arms and pouted at Syo, "Little sisters shouldn't pick up their big sisters,"

"What?" Kakashi asked, "How old are you two?"

"I'm sixteen, 17 next month," Yakumo stated,

"Syo's 16, her birthday is next year,"

Kakashi's eyes went wide, "Y-you're seventeen soon?" he asked Yakumo,

The brown haired teen who looked like a child looked at Kakashi, she sighed and then her body erupted into pink smoke, when it was gone, a large moulting Nine Tailed fox woman stared back at him, there where patches in her fur where pale skin could be seen, her claws were chipped, her teeth were dull, and looking closely enough you could see her skeleton in certain places, "This is what I really look like," she said hoarsely, before the pink cloud came back and she was once again appearing as an eight year old, "Before you ask, it's the oldest I can remember being before I looked like a cheep Halloween decoration,"

Kakashi's expression hardened, as did Kurenai's and Syo's, the latter of which got up and started walking down the path,

"Syo?" Yakumo asked, "where are you going?"

Syo stopped and looked at her sister, "To kill something," her hand holding Naruto's sickle trembled,

"Syo our mission isn't to-,"

Syo turned pointing the sickle at Kakashi, "Raiga or Kurenai?" she asked, then she lowered the sickle, "At least that's what Syo would usually say, but she promised Master not to hurt Kurenai, she'll just bring Raiga's sword back with her to Konoha, they'll be happy with that,"

Then she grabbed a bar from out her dress, stuffed it in her mouth and sliced her long dress just above her knees, as she took the bar in her mouth again she chomped right through the wrapper and turned and ran,

Kakashi and Kurenai shot off like a rocket after the pink haired teen, "We shouldn't have taken a break," Kurenai stated,

The two felt a familiar presence behind them, evil and malicious, it shot past them as a red blur, freezing the two in place as they saw Nine fox tails drifting in the wind, "Syo you need to calm down," Yakumo stated as she easily caught up to Syo using her four legged form, "This Raiga is an S-ranked missing ninja we can't hope to just overpower him,"

"Syo doesn't plan to outpower him," Syo said, "She's gonna slit his throat,"

Kakashi resisted the urge to pull of his headband, 'This is Yakumo' he reminded his trembling body, yet the presence and appearance was too similar to the very demon that took his mentor and his mentor's wife, Kakashi's urge to grab Kurenai and run, was subsided as he realised how small the fox was,

Much smaller then the mountain sized demon that nearly wiped out their village, and thinner too,

Kurenai stood in shock, the presence to her wasn't simply a grim one, but also a sad one, the smell in the breeze reminded her of Shizuku, one of, if not her greatest of the many mistakes she'd made in her life, she almost swore she could see the disapproving face of Shizuku Kurama, glaring at her from beyond the pale,

She shook her head, trying to regain herself,

And the two saw Yakumo wrapping her tails around Syo, "Listen to your big sister, we go together and calmly, or we die,"

Syo struggled against the tails holding her, but not enough to hurt Yakumo,

Kakashi and Kurenai ran over to the two,

"I got her," Yakumo stated, "Syo's strong, but that's her best strength, and since she doesn't want to hurt me, she's stuck wrapped in my tails,"

As both Kakashi and Kurenai stared at Yakumo they saw her patches in her fur, the thin fur and skin, the sunken in eyes,

She... didn't look well at all,

Yet she easily held Syo in her tails and maintained her balance,

But to Kurenai there was something Kakashi couldn't see,

A skeleton hung over Yakumo's shoulder, it was draped in a familiar blue and white kimono, the bushy brown hair that seemed to be deep rooted in the withered skull, it seemed to be holding Yakumo up,

The skeleton turned to Kurenai, and raised it's pointer finger bone over it's teeth, "Shhhh," it...spoke, it's eye holes boring into her wide red eyes,

Kurenai shook her head, Syo was down on the floor and Yakumo was back to her child disguise, though her clothes had now changed into samurai looking armour, and the skeleton had vanished,

"You okay?" Kakashi asked,

Kurenai shook her head, "F-fine," she said, "just zoned out,"

"You zone out?" Kakashi asked,

"We're near the bridge, and we need a plan," Kurenai said ignoring Kakashi, "Just incase talking him down doesn't work, which it likely won't,"

Syo sat down, "Syo's not good at plans," she said, "She'll just go with whatever you think is good,"

"Well, can either of you two wall walk?" Kakashi asked,

Yakumo frowned, "I used to be able to, I haven't practiced it in a while though,"

"Eh! people can actually walk on walls?" Syo asked,

Yakumo smiled at Syo, "And on water too if you've got the chakra for it,"

Syo blinked, "Chakra?" she asked, "What's that?"

The two Jonin and the fox girl stared at Syo,

"Chakra," Kurenai said, "The life energy that flows through all life?" she explained, "Didn't they teach you about that in school?"

Syo looked confused, "What's school?"

Kakashi studied Syo for a few seconds, "Syo, where'd you learn to fight?"

Syo smiled happily, "Syo taught herself when she was protecting her little brother,"

"You have a little brother?" Yakumo asked,

Syo shook her head, "Not anymore," she said sadly, "She left him when she realised how fun it was hurting others, since Syo wasn't ''right in her head'' as the village said, he might learn from her to do bad things, so she left her home and had been on the road since," she sad sadly, "Then kind master found Syo and let her join him,"

Kurenai kneeled down to Syo's level, "And how long have you been on the road for?"

Syo held up her fingers and counted on them, "Since little brother was eight," she said, "Syo was... uh," she counted her fingers again, "... Eleven?" she nodded after a while, "Syo was eleven when she left her home,"

Kakashi and Kurenai shared a look, "Right," Kakashi sighed, "So blitzing him from all sides won't work,"

"A one sided assault won't do much better either," Kurenai said,

"Maybe we could sneak past him while you two go under the bridge?" Yakumo asked,

"Syo has a bounty," Syo stated, "She's killed a lot of bandits,"

"Alright!" Kakashi stated, "New plan," he stood up, "I have one or two low ranked wind Jutsu, Kurenai and I will do a combo fire and wind justu to start the engagement, luring him onto the path where we can all take a shot at him,"

"That's as good a plan we're going to get," Kurenai said, "But if you two get winded fall back and leave Raiga to us,"

"Right we have a plan, let's still take that break though,"

This time, nobody had any objections,

And with Naruto,

Naruto had found a disused dock that seemed to be teeming with fish, and yet in need of repair, regardless it seemed nobody would bother him here thus he'd sat and began fashioning a crude reed... well he was aiming for a basket, yet he'd over done it and now it more resembled a misshapen bucket that kinda looked like a foot and ankle, it held what he'd caught just fine so he continued to use it, his makeshift rod was better, it was actually straight and managed not to break when he caught something,

So far he'd caught a few crabs and some fish, but all he'd really discovered was he really hated fishing,

"Good haul Mr?" a young cynical voice asked from behind him,

Naruto turned and there was a purple haired girl wrapped in bandages behind him who looked like she was in a pose made to scare him, and she had,

Quickly he sprang to his feet and placed his hands on her, "Are you okay?" he asked as his hands glowed green as he held them against her bandages, "Where does it hurt?" he asked checking her head,

"Wha?" The girl blushed and quickly she pushed him away,

Naruto fell off the dock and into the seawater below,

He felt his strength sapped from his body as the water enveloped him in it's cold embrace, the fall to the bottom wasn't a long one, but it was to far down for the tide to give him some air, the crabs still down their pinched his body, 'shit' he thought, as he looked upward, 'it seems I failed' he thought as the girl stared down at him, likely wondering why he wasn't moving,

Naruto closed his eyes and reached out with his shadow trying to feel the other bits of his, but he felt nothing, 'So there's no escape' he thought, 'I always thought I'd have more to... declare? to state? but these are my final moments and... I'm at a loss of words, or thoughts,'

Naruto Uzumaki, the young chunin who made Orochimaru flee in disgrace, was dying because he saw a bandaged girl and couldn't help himself but to try and heal her, and she of course reacted by shoving him back,

'An Accident succeeded where Zabuza Momochi, Orochimaru of the Sannin, and even the leaf's own citizens failed,' he thought, 'Kind of ironic, I acted so important, yet died so pathetically,'

And yet before his vison could even darken a small hand grabbed Naruto's shirt and pulled him up,

As his face exited the water Naruto took a few quick and deep breaths as he looked around, the young girl who pushed him held his shirt, "C'mon" she said dragging him out of the water surprisingly quickly for someone who was slightly smaller then him, she dropped him on the dock where he continued trying to catch his breath,

The girl grabbed his terribly crafted foot bucket and held it securely under her arm, "You're acting a bit dramatic aren't you?" she asked,

"You saved my life," Naruto stated standing up,

She gave him an looked at him as if he'd grown two heads, "look just because you can't swim doesn't mean you couldn't have sat up,"

Naruto kneeled in front of her, "My lady, I and the Uzumaki family owes to you a debt not easily repaid," he said bowing his head to her,

"Wh-what?" She asked,

Naruto looked up to her, "I am Naruto Uzumaki, Patriarch of the Uzumaki family," he said, "and I owe you my life,"

She looked at him for a few seconds, "Can I have your food?"

"I owe you that much at least," he said, "Would you like me to cook it for you?"

"I have a pot at home," she stated, "I'll cook it,"

Naruto stood up, "Allow me to carry that for you," he said,

She turned and held up a hand to him, "That's really not necessary," she stated,

"I owe my life to you," Naruto insisted, "I must repay my debt,"

"Can't you just leave?" she asked backing away from him,

"Not at all" Naruto stated, "When you saved me you also saved my dream," Naruto said, "And spared my family the pain of mourning my passing," he stated,

The girl rubbed her chin for a few seconds, "Fine you can help me," she stated, "go into town and get me... some..." she studied him as she thought for a second, "tampons, and menstruation pads, and underwear," she said, "Now go," she said,

Naruto nodded, 'She must be embarrassed about asking this, it's best I get her a few of each' he thought, thus he turned and ran,

The girl on the other hand smirked, 'He'll get all the way there and then realise he doesn't know my size, or he'll get embarrassed and try to come back and ask for a different task,' she thought, 'I'll be long gone when he comes back,'

She turned and started leaving, not noticing the Bat that flew into her shadow,

When Naruto was finished he'd received a few odd looks, either from how he dressed or what he was buying, he however told a lie that he was a travelling doctor and his patient required some things from the shop, after a quick demonstration of his healing prowess, and a few quick check ups of people who insisted their bones ached, or had pains, he did what he could and was quickly on his way,

As he walked back toward the beach he realised he should stealthily check up on Anko's condition, and using his the bat hidden in her shadow quickly located her,

She was on a building watching the others, she seemed fine, and thus he decided to leave her to it, but as he was leaving he bumped into a semi familiar face, "Excuse me," Naruto said politely,

The masked ninja Naruto couldn't help but recognise gave him a surprised expression, "Uzumaki?" he asked stepping back,

"...You were at the chunin exam" Naruto stated,

Naruto's fellow leaf ninja composed himself, "What are you doing here?" he asked,

"A mission," Naruto stated, "Same as yourself no doubt,"

Misumi adjusted his glasses, "Right, but what's the mission?" he asked,

"A complex one I'm afraid," Naruto said, "Raiga is on his way you see-"

"He is?" Misumi asked, "And that means Ameyuri is..." he nodded, "I'd better go inform my superior of that," he waved at Naruto, "We should catch up some time," he said backing away, he turned and started walking away,

Meanwhile a paper bag drifted down from on top of the building, 'He's been watching me for a while, thinks I have no idea he's there, also there aren't supposed to be any other Konoha ninja teams for miles, check it out Doc, -Anko'

Naruto nodded at the hidden message and followed the masked teen, quietly he followed the ninja, and quickly he realised something was wrong,

The villagers knew his fellow leaf ninja's name, Misumi, usually that meant that the ninja had been in the area for a while, and it wasn't just one or two of them,

They way they talked to Misumi it was like he was some sort of hero,

Another thing Naruto had gathered, Misumi was apparently on a mission to 'keep the kaima away' they thanked him for his hard work, and offered him free stuff out of gratitude, but Misumi would decline it before continuing on his way,

After he got to an alleyway Misumi looked around, then he put his back to a wall and pulled out a communicator, "Yoroi come in," he spoke quietly, "There's a problem,"

Naruto silently observed as Misumi listened to his teammate, "Listen!" he hissed after a while, "Uzumaki and the snake whore are here," he stated, "You know the one who sent our lord running?"

Naruto knew only one lord he'd sent running, and now he was certain Anko was right to have sent him,

"Exactly, and some clan heiresses are with them, and more importantly Raiga is on his way, so call for reinforcements, and meet me at the spot later," he said, "I'll continue my recon," he turned his communicator off and nodded, "If we pull this off we won't be simple foot soldiers anymore," he said standing up, "Maybe Lord Orochimaru will hand one of us Uzumaki's devil fruit?" he grinned under his mask,

Misumi started walking away, but was stopped by a bright light, he turned back to the wall where a large shadow was, "Oh n-," and that was as far as he got before Naruto's cape dropped on him, and Naruto's shadow grabbed it like it was a sack and started beating him against the walls and floor, Naruto walked into the alleyway and removed Misumi's shadow, "Got you," Naruto said, it tried to escape from him but Naruto forced it into himself, as he did he saw Misumi's skills in his mind, he popped his joints, feeling them dislocate then he stretched his arms and wrapping it around Misumi's leg before he dragged him over to where he was, next he sealed away the body, and his spotlight, his shadow draped his cape over his shoulders before returning to his feet,

Naruto's joints went back together before picked up the plastic bag filled with things for his mystery saviour, and lots dinner for Anko's group in case they hadn't eaten, and returned to Anko,

Before he could say a word she led the others and him out of the village, back to where the wagon had stopped, "What have you got Doc whiskers?" she asked,

"A large problem," Naruto stated, "Misumi and his partner are Traitors to Konoha," he said, "and they've fallen in with Orochimaru,"

Anko spat on the floor, "Is that right?" she asked, "Where's four-eyes now?"

"Shadow-less and sealed away," Naruto stated, "But he's made a call for reinforcements, likely due to the high bounty of us all combined,"

"High bounty?" Sakura asked, "What do you mean?"

Anko frowned, "Well, there's me Orochimaru's ex-student, the kid who fucked up Orochimaru's master plan to kill Hiruzen Sarutobi, and two clan heiresses," She explained, "And of course another clan heiress and Kakashi, but..." she looked at Naruto, "They don't know about that yet, do they?"

"Let's not forget that Kurenai would be a high value target as well since she is the best Genjustu expert in Konoha, if not the land of fire,"

Anko frowned, she looked around, "We need a plan,"

"We should regroup with the others and get back to Konoha," Naruto suggested, "Re-arm ourselves and-,"

"That'll take too long," Anko stated, "They'll be gone by then and we need to shut down that Sake fucker now!" she ordered, she looked around, "forget the Kaima, we're hunting snakes,"

"We're nowhere near strong enough for that!" Sakura said,

"Yes we are," Anko said, "Or, we will be," she looked at Naruto, "Right?"

Naruto scrunched his eyes together, "I don't-"

"You know!" she stated, "I heard from Kakashi about your shadow whatever," she said, "You putting the First's shadow into the Hyuga head's body?" she asked, "We need that!"

"-Have enough shadows for everyone here," Naruto continued, "Not ones around the same strengths as the others," he informed her, "Without using the Shadows of the First or Second since I'm not sure anyone here is a good fit here for either of them, while I have other shadows, non that would really help us much," he said,

"Well what have you got?" Anko demanded,

"I have four including Misumi, A sickle user who had a few water jutsu, An eccentric explosion master who loved making traps, and..." he frowned,

"Naruto," she gave him a hard expression, "Who's the third one?"

Naruto shook his head, "We can't use the third shadow," he stated, It's too dangerous,"

"Naruto" Anko said as she grabbed his shoulder and dragged him away from the group, "We will die without this,"

"Anko when people take the shadow of someone else the first few hours have the bodies acting like the shadows they've took on, two of three of the shadows I have are violent and deranged, the third is a sneaky prick and the last is a guy who fights with a sickle almost exclusively," he pointed at the group, "No shadow I have will fit any of these girls, or even us for that matter," he said, "Say we just you and me take the shadows of Lord First and Second right?" he said, "The first few hours they'll be using your body like it was theirs, and without all the training they've gone through all you'll really have is Taijutsu to rely on, since a single Jutsu could exhaust your chakra killing you,"

Anko lifted Naruto, "Then use your shadow powers to back me up,"

"I can't," Naruto stated, "My shadow is fractured, it's not useable like this,"

"What?!" Anko growled,

Naruto reached towards Anko's shadow, and a small black orb came out of it that reformed into a bat, "Like this," he said, "I need all three pieces of my shadow back to regain my powers," he lied, 'In truth my doppleman is just much weaker while fragmented, but if I tell her that, she might assume we can handle this alone,' he thought,

"Where are they?" Anko demanded,

"With the other group and a girl I need to pay back," Naruto said,

"What?" Anko asked,

"She saved my life while I was on the dock," Naruto explained,

"So we're stuck here!" She growled, "Letting that bastard escape again?" she tossed Naruto down, "I don't think so," She stated, "Girls!" she called "we're official-," she stopped as pain shot through her head again, "Starting... training...noooow," she swayed,

Quickly the group grabbed her, "Naruto! what did you do?!" Sakura demanded,

"She didn't eat did she?" he asked calmly, then he opened his scroll, and summoned his carriage, "Let's get her inside and go find the girl who helped me," he said, "I'll get the piece of my shadow from her, drop her stuff off and then we'll go find the others,"

Ino pointed at him, "Yeah I'm gonna stop you right there," she said, "Anko-Sensei said our mission was to find Orochimaru, not to flee,"

"That, Ino is why we're going to give her some time to wake up," Naruto stated, "hence why we're going to remove ourselves off the board," he said, "Perhaps the words haven't set in yet but whoever comes here will likely be trying to kill me, and kidnap you and Hinata,"

Ino paled at his words, "Wh-what?"

Hinata took a few steps back,

"Exactly," Naruto said, "And now, remember that I can't use my shadow to cover us," the girls paled further,

"Y-you'll keep us safe right?" Sakura asked,

Naruto nodded, "I promise that I will do my utmost best to make sure you all return home in one piece," he said, "That is why we're retreating for now," he said, "Now help me lift Anko," he said,

OCTOPUS-Meanwhile-OCTOPUS

The Raiga interception group finally made it to the bridge, there sat halfway across the the bridge were two people, they appeared to be two brothers, the younger one had neck length purple hair wore a light-purple shirt with black stripes on each side, and had a sash around his waist, he also had a slightly feminine appearance, and seemed to be bored, the other had waist length green hair and his torso seemed to be wrapped in bandages and over them he wore a black vest, he seemed to be excited, both appeared to be fishing,

"...?" the purple haired one turned to them, "Raiga" he said standing up, "They're here,"

Raiga sighed, "Ranmaru this is important," he said, "You need to learn patience,"

Raiga's ...brother? looked at the green haired swordsman, and threw his own fishing rod over the bridge,

Raiga sighed and stood up, he turned and smirked at the group of Leaf Ninja and Uzumaki Family members, "Kids, am I right?" he said with a shrug,

"We're not here to fight Raiga," Kakashi stated,

"Then continue cross the bridge," Raiga stated drawing his stolen Kiba blade, "Otherwise a fight is all you'll get Copy Ninja,"

"Why didn't we just sneak attack him again?" Yakumo asked,

"Cause this can still be peaceful," Kurenai stated stepping forward, "Raiga consider that Ameyuri is hot on your tail, it is in your best interest to move quick-,"

"To Konoha," Raiga said happily stunning the Jonin, "What?" he asked, "Figured it might be better at stomping out that wrinkly old bitch then these tiny little villages were,"

"Yeah despite being a shell of her former self that dumb hag is somehow still kicking," Ranmaru laughed,

"Well," Kakashi and Kurenai both quickly went through handsigns, 'Wind style: Air bullets,'

"Fire style: Phoenix flower jutsu," Kurenai spoke quietly,

The two Jonin's jutsu combined, sending multiple torrents of fire toward Raiga and Ranmaru,

Ranmaru looked gleefully at the massive fire balls heading toward him and Raiga and was about to dash toward them, 'I can see that path to the-,'

But Raiga grabbed his shoulder and tossed him behind himself, He tossed the single Kiba blade up and weaved through hand signs, "Water style: Liquid bullets," he said spitting countless globs of water at the fires, then he caught the blade and lightning danced along the blade, he swung the blade making several lightning slashes that hit his own ninjutsu making them faster,

Kakashi leapt upwards, "Earth style!" he said spinning his maul around, he landed and slammed the hammer down, "Shower of stone," he said smashing the ground and making stones fly up, then he swatted them away making them fly toward the bridge, some hit Raiga's own jutsu and dulled the lightning slightly,

"Impressive copy ninja," Raiga said as the two combined jutsu clashed, creating a large mist,

Just then Ranmaru pulled Raiga back, just as Kakashi burst from the ground kunai in his hand, aimed just where Raiga's neck had been, Ranmaru stepped forward, "This is way better then fishing!" her grinned hitting Kakashi's shoulder,

And ''Kakashi'' burst into smoke, "Shadow clone eh?" Raiga asked, three more Kakashi leapt high above the bridge, each just finishing their jutsu,

"Water style: Water dragon justu," one cried making a large dragon spawn form the water underneath the bridge, simply waiting for it's chance to strike,

"Fire style: Phoenix flower justu," Another said and from his mouth spewed a torrent of small fire balls that flew toward Raiga, who cackled madly as his blade sliced through the fireballs as they approached him,

The last pulled up his headband, "Lightning blade," he said as the sound of chirping birds filled the area,

Ranmaru grinned, "Really?" he asked with a laugh, "Raiga one's below us it's hiding in the wat-"

The Kakashi with the maul hit Syo with the maul sending her flying, she made to grab Ranmaru who dodged and struck her shoulder sending her tumbling across the ground, "Owwie" she whined, before she got up, the arm Ranmaru had struck hung limply, "Huh?" she grabbed her arm and raised it up, but when she let it go it dropped, "Huh?" she asked,

"Like it?" he asked pointing to his glowing red eyes, "I can see every pressure point in your body," he said gleefully, "and I can make you even more of a drooling idiot then usual," he pulled a box of thumbtacks out of his pocket, "Also I'm gonna put these in your mouth, down your tits and up your nose!" he laughed with a spin pulled a water pistol out and tried blasting her in her eyes,

Syo raised her arm and took a stance, "Violent" she leaned back and had one leg in the air, she spun it around as she brought the blade back,

Ranmaru laughed, but after she reached her furthest point he saw her entire body tense, "Wha-,"

Kakashi a large wind jutsu came from below the bridge shaking it and everyone on it off balance, Ranmaru fell over, as did Syo but she rolled back into her previous stance still readying an attack, Raiga leapt over it and landed with no trouble,

Kurenai sent a plume of flame toward Raiga,

The Maul wielding Kakashi sent a torrent of mud sliding across the bridge,

Raiga raised his lightning covered blade to the sky, "Lightning style: Roar of the skies!" he grinned, a giant lightning bolt fell from the sky hitting the water dragon evaporating it, then he sent six lightning slashes at the three dragon flame bombs,

Kurenai's flame hit him dead on, "Ah!" he cried, then the mudslide made him slip over,

As he hit the ground Syo grinned, her tongue hung out of her mouth as she brought her hand down, "Swing!"

Ranmaru turned and pulled up Raiga throwing him out of the way of Syo's slash leaving only a deep gash in the wood,

"Oow," Syo stomped her foot, "Syo would've killed you if she had her cleavers!"

"Lightning blade!" Two Kakashi's roared, one dropped onto the bridge, the other sliced through the bridge, they both held twin lightning blades, they charged forward at blinding speeds,

"Massacre flurry!" Syo growled swinging her master's sickle wildly, sending a multitude of slashes everywhere,

"Fire Dragon Bullet!" Two Kakashi's and Kurenai cried, after they all sent three flames torrents of flames at the Raiga hardening the mud on his clothes,

"Damn it!" Raiga growled as Both Kakashi's and Syo's slashes closed in on them, he took his sword with both hands, "Great Lightning Hero!" he cried slashing through the plank of the bridge he was on dropping him and Ranmaru below both Kakashi's attacks, yet one of Syo's wild slashes cut his shoulder leaving blood staining the bridge,

Both Kurenai and maul Kakashi watched as Raiga vanished into the water below, "Oh waffles he's goooooooOoOoOoOone!"

"Why are you still disguised as me Yakumo?" Kakashi asked,

Yakumo in her Kakashi disguise grinned, "Cause I like your voice, makes everything I say sound way cooler," she turned and pointed Dramatically, "Naruto!" she cried, "Fetch my batter, I keep it under my sink!" she smiled "I also Like Hiruzen's voice, and after she poofed into Pink smoke Hiruzen Sarutobi stood where Kakashi stood before, "Quick Ebisu, It's time for the hunt, Crumpets, badgers, the full mile," A large smile spread across her face, before she burst out laughing, and then back to her childlike form,

"Can you do that for anyone?" Kakashi asked,

Yakumo nodded, "Yeah, I just need to study a person before I can impersonate them well, for example,"

Another pink plume of smoke and standing tall, towering over the leaf ninja was A, the Raikage, "Where are my bloomers?" he asked hands on his hips, his voice and stance a perfect mimic, from as well as Kurenai, Kakashi, and Syo could tell, the only difference would be the grin splitting his face, "Has anyone seen my bloomers?" he roared, "I like wearing woman's undergarments if that was not very clear!" and then turned back to Yakumo,

She grinned up at them, "It's literally endless amusement,"

"Well we should get back to the others," Kurenai said,

Yakumo crawled up to Syo's head and nodded, "Imma nap while we travel, kay?"

"Sure," Kurenai stated,

Whether Yakumo was too tired to think of a response or was just ignoring Kurenai they'd never know, a shadowy bat landed nearby and pointed with it's wing back down the path they came,

"Guess Master sent that out to find us?" Syo wondered, the bat nodded and lightly flew up slowly leading them away from the bridge, it was going to be a long trek,

OCTOPUS-Meanwhile-OCTOPUS

Misumi groaned as his eyes opened, the sounds of hissing filled his ears, "Where-," A pot hit him hard, he turned and glared, atop the head of the Jinjuriki of the Nine tails was that bandaged failure Isaribi,

"Morning traitor," she said with a glare, being handed another pan by Naruto,

Misumi looked around, the two heiresses and the pink haired genin were sat on the shack's floor, Anko was there too she glared up at him when she wasn't eating food,

"What is this?" he asked,

"Hinata already shut your chakra off," Ino told him, "There's no point trying to run,"

"And even if she hadn't," Anko grinned, "I've wrapped you in poisonous snakes," she mimed a snake bite with her hand, "Even just one bite could cause mass hallucinations,"

He turned to Isaribi, "Really?" he asked, "And why would you be on their side?"

"A Simple trade," Naruto stated, "I show her how to use a few justu I have, she allows us to use this shack for the time being,"

"Also I really want this idiot out of my life," Isaribi said pointing to Naruto, "and hey I hate you too, win win for me yeah?"

"You're making a big Mistake Isaribi" he said, "Your new friends-,"

"I think that's the furthest you've ever stretched there," Isaribi said dryly,

"Will like you when they know what you are," he stated,

"Then they'll leave faster," she retorted,

"Really?" he asked, "why not-," Ino cut him off by slapping him, "Okay how about we stop playing pyche student bullshit with kids and instead focus on the threats in the room?" she asked,

"Ninja?" he asked with a chuckle, "There's only one in this room," he said, "Me" he looked to Ino, "You for example, hit like a flea, and you look closer to a doll then a capable ninja, for a heiress that's... well," he chuckled, "You at least make the Hyuga look like she's trying,"

Naruto stepped forward, "Shush" he said, "Unless you want me to thrash you again,"

"You're the most pathetic of them all, de-," Naruto leaned down and stared at him in his eyes, he took Isaribi off his shoulders and handed her to Ino, then he grabbed Misumi and pulled him over to the door which he then opened, letting a large amount of sunlight in, Naruto held Masumi's hand into the light and most of the occupants of the cabin, there eyes went wide as Misumi's arm turned to dust,

"What the-?"

Naruto threw Misumi back into the cabin, "You are under the misconception that you are worth something Misumi-san," Naruto stated, "That you are in no danger because we are the nice ninja," He kneeled down and stared down at the Konoha traitor,

"You are very mistaken" Naruto stated putting his foot on Misumi's neck,

"The only reason Anko isn't standing over you is because Isaribi requested for no blood to stain her home," he said as his shadow loomed over the trembling Misumi, "now you have two options Misumi," Naruto stated, as the lack of oxygen started to effect Misumi, "Option A: Tell us everything you know about Orochimaru willingly, and we will take you back to Konoha and have you locked away where he'll never get you, Or Option B:" he pointed to Ino, "Yamanaka-san here will burrow into your weak, pathetic, excuse for a mind, and tell us exactly what we want to know making your existence. . . redundant,"

He glared daggers at Misumi, "So what will it be?" he asked, "A? or B?"

Misumi looked panicked, "I ch-,"

Naruto smirked, "B it is," he said before he jumped and elbow dropped Misumi knocking him out,

Naruto stood up, then took Isaribi off Ino, placing her back onto his head,

"Wh-what was that!?" Sakura cried,

"Fear," Naruto stated, "It's a useful tool for ninja,"

"We didn't need him afraid for me to enter his mind," Ino stated, "or unconscious for that matter,"

Naruto nodded, "Oh, I assumed it would make things easier," he said before he bowed, "Forgive me Ino-san,"

"Don't apologise Doc," Anko said, "You worked that guy like a pro," she smiled,

"B-but that was p-pretty s-s-scary," Hinata said,

Naruto frowned, he slowly approached her, "Did I scare you?" he asked gently, "Know Hinata-chan it wasn't my intention to do so,"

Hinata blushed at him, "H-Hinata-Ch-chan?" she asked,

"Well we've been friends for a while haven't we?" he asked, "It only seemed appropriate," he smiled at her,

"Doc stop charming Mumbles," Anko stated, "Especially not with a kid on your shoulders,"

"Charming?" Naruto asked, "I am simply stating-"

"Yeah yeah, how about you start being a good guest and teach our host ninja stuff?" Anko stated waving him off,

OCTOPUS-Meanwhile in Oto-OCTOPUS

The Sound... three, sat in front of the throne of their Master, Orochimaru glared, whether it was at them or just in general they'd never know, "You three likely wonder why you're here," he asked, "Why I've called you so soon since your last mission,"

"..." They knew better to speak when he was like this,

"You remember the last mission don't you?" he asked, "When some brat from Konoha robbed us of our victory, of Jirubo's life, and of his devil fruit," he stated, "You all remember the trouble I went through trying to get the Yami Yami no mi, right?"

He looked at them, "Well the answer is simple," he stated, "I've called in a few of my forces and found two replacements, one for Kimimaro and one for Jirubo," he stated, he studied their faces, "And lucky you, there are some great targets to go for today," he stated, "First are the low priority targets, two to three young genin, some clan heiresses among them, Alive or not at all,"

"Mid priority, Anko Mitarashi, she's my old student, she likely has a lot of knowledge about Konoha, and her curse seal is still intact after all these years, I'd like to study it up close and personal, and there's also Isaribi, you'll know her because she's a small brat that is covered in bandages, she's an old experiment that i'm interested in studying, try to convince her to come, but I'm sure I could learn anything about her through dissection,"

The room turned deathly quiet as he stalked over to them, "And finally the High priority targets, first Raiga, dead, and you kill him and his Kiba blade and his bounty is yours, Second Ameyuri, if you actually manage to kill her her blade, bounty, and anything within my power to give you, I will bestow with pride," he said, "Third Dr Amachi's research on Kaima, the doctor himself has long outlived his usefulness and I already have another doctor ready, willing and able to continue his work, no reward dead or alive, fourth, I've heard that the ''good'' doctor has acquired a few devil fruit and hidden them from me, get them, test them on the villagers, document them, and then kill their hosts and bring them back here, if you could not bring back one You'll be severely punished, unless Ameyuri got in your way, she's old but dangerous and I doubt the entire team I've assembled for this mission combined have enough in you all to even make her flinch, so unless you see her coughing up blood don't engage her,"

He stared down at them, "And finally," he said, "Highest value target of them all," his voice brimmed with glee as he asked, "can anyone guess who it is?"

Tayuya raised her hand, Orochimaru's entire head snapped to look at her, his mouth's razor sharp fangs bled toxins as he grinned at her, "Yes Tayuya?"

"N-Naruto Uzumaki?" she asked,

"And" he vanished and reappeared behind her, "What condition should he be brought in?"

"D-dead,"

"Not alive?" he asked gleefully,

"N-no sir,"

Orochimaru chuckled, "That's right," he stalked around her, "he's too dangerous for that isn't he?"

"Yes sir" she nodded,

Orochimaru stared down at the village of Oto, he stood there for a few minutes, before he spoke again, "After Naruto Uzumaki is dead," his head turned to face them even though his body hadn't moved an inch, "And he will be killed by you or you will all be severely punished, I want his devil fruit and corpse on my desk to confirm his death," he said,

He smiled at them, "Those are your orders,"

Quickly the three sound ninja left the office, and without a word to one another they walked to the entrance of Oto,

Outside waiting for them was a blue haired woman in a green kimono, and a red haired teen with glasses,

The red haired teen glared at them, "Could you three have moved any slower?" she demanded, "We're on a mission here,"

"Everyone ready?" Sakon asked,

"It's best that we handle the travel," Ukon added, "Faster that way,"

And without another word the two brothers turned into a two headed and long legged scaly bird,

The blue haired studied their body for a moment "I've heard stories about your transformation, is it truly as fast as I'd heard?"

The brothers smirked "We'll be at the lab looking for that bastard Uzumaki faster in about thirty minutes," Ukon stated with pride,

"Might be a bit faster if the wind is blowing right,"

Kidomaru grinned, "Who gets dibs on the blonde rat anyway?"

"Who gets to him first gets to kill him," Guren said getting onto the brothers back, "Now get on, I'm not waiting here all day,"

The others got on, with Karin whining as Kidomaru helped her up before clutching to Sakon and Ukon's side, "We're on," he said,

"Hold tight," Sakon warned while Ukon got ready to sprint,

Then they shot off like a rocket faster then most things could move, briefly they'd stop running and fly before they'd start sprinting again,

OCTOPUS-Meanwhile-OCTOPUS

Anko felt terrible as she and the three kunoichi went off into the night, 'They aren't ready' she thought, 'But this plan is the best we've got,'

Ino had got the meeting place from out of Misumi's mind and now was disguised as the traitor while Anko watched her, she'd left Sakura and Hinata to look for the others while Naruto Watched the prisoner,

Ino walked up to the spot, it was a simple tea restaurant, the best reason they could figure out why it was the meeting spot was because Yoroi liked staring at the waitress assess, they had a table that was apparently reserved for the two of them outside, Ino sat at the chair Misumi usually did, placing her arms on the table and looked around as she waited,

Anko watched from above, feeling quite a bit better now that she'd eaten, though her head still pounded,

The plan was simple, all they had to do was wait for Yoroi to sit down, then Ino would use her stealthily prepared mind transfer jutsu to walk his ass back to Isaribi's cabin while Anko carried her body, and though it was also pretty similar to a plan Anko had made, this plan was entirely Ino's, though she had noted that most of Asuma's notes about her hadn't really been a problem, her being bossy and enthusiastic about any type of work,

And Anko had a theory about why Ino had been more eager to train, Naruto, before this trip Naruto Uzumaki in Ino's mind was the dead last ninja who barely even passed his own test and nothing more, A ninja she probably liked to compare her lack of growth with since to her, he was much, much worse then she could ever be, and now reality set in, not only was the real Naruto competent, he was on an entire different league to her, A ninja who was skilled in medical arts which were very difficult for even skilled chunin to dabble in, and he had special powers that further increased his combat prowess,

Anko had seen Ino's face when Sakura realised why he'd been brought here, disbelief and shock, she hadn't even considered him as anything more then as the one with with a carriage,

When Naruto and Kakashi were arguing, Ino was the only one who smiled, likely thought of a dead last ninja talking back to his much more experienced teacher,

And now her world had been shattered,

The dead last Ninja, one she likely thought would never amount to much, was now respected by people who outranked him,

Anko smirked as the idea of telling Ino why Naruto had earned the respect of people above him, she imagined Ino's jaw dropping,

Anko scanned the crowds as she thought, 'Next was Sakura,' she thought, Unmotivated, yet intelligent, quick to explain, but her actual ninja prowess... in Kakashi's words left much to be desired, in Anko's She and the other two girls she'd been instructed to train were insults to her very profession, though the Pink haired girl was actually the best example of the three,

Her skills were much much worse then Hinata and Ino's, but the difference was, they were clan heirs, they got trained by their clans before they were at school, and likely bonus training at home, the fact that Ino and Hinata were so weak was shameful, if she believed in such a concept that was,

Sakura just had no real drive to train her body, she'd heard the term fan girl and in a way she brought it, but to her Sakura was just a pre-teen with a crush, she clearly had no skill in combat or stealth so she focused on what she knew and hoped the rest would come, but the reason that girl was so bad was because of Kakashi,

She liked the guy well enough, but... he was an old dog, he'd seen too much, lived too long, at this point Anko was surprised he could get out of bed in the morning, let alone train three students, She hadn't seen Sasuke but from what she'd seen from Naruto she doubted anything he was good at was because Kakashi pushed him, Sasuke and Sakura were likely the same, anything they knew was because they worked hard and drilled themselves into the ground to get it,

She knew the type, they focused on their dreams and pushed through regardless of any pain they felt, hell if Sakura saw them do this she'd either quit, or try extremely hard to get somewhere near their levels, but she couldn't watch them, because they both likely just saw Kakashi's training as a chore and went back into their more rewarding solo training,

Sakura didn't stand a chance, she was a regular pre-teen and on either side were monsters, people who could train until their bones broke because they had something to fight for,

Honestly, Anko pitied the girl, she was the least interesting in her own team smart sure, but she lacked ambition, drive, experience, and worse, her goal was to be her squadmate's girlfriend, and nothing more, but she wasn't the one Anko liked the least,

Anko took a deep breath as she made sure Yoroi still hadn't shown up,

Anko loved Kurenai, the woman was her best friend and sometimes more, but Hinata, and how Kurenai had just... not trained her, baffled her, Kurenai was a woman who earned her spot as one of the strongest Jonin In Konoha, she clawed her way to that spot and nobody could say she hadn't earned it,

But Hinata... made no sense, not because she stuttered or lacked confidence, Anko knew that was entirely from her bastard of a father, she made no sense because Kurenai hadn't tried to weed it out of her,

Ino was bossy and stubborn, Anko understood why Asuma had trouble getting her to train,

Sakura had a teacher who, while a fantastic ninja, sucked as a teacher,

Hinata admired Kurenai, no Hinata idolised Kurenai, and they had a type of sister relationship if Kurenai's constant talk about the girl was ever to be believed,

Yet for the ebony haired red eyed woman who got drunk and admitted she wanted to adopt the Hyuga heiress as her own daughter, who constantly remarked that she was 'getting better with her confidence issues' and doted on her like a mother hen, and likely a mother bear should anyone mess with her, to never try and instil confidence in the girl, was what left Anko confused,

Asuma and Kakashi, despite their faults with their students accurately summed up what their students were about, she remembered Asuma telling her to be ready for Ino to forget who was the teacher and start making orders, that it was his fault for not pushing back at her and to try and gently remind her who the teacher was,

She remembered Kakashi telling her what he'd been trying to help Sakura with recently and that she should keep training her with those skill but to also show her new ones and to encourage her to learn,

Kurenai said all Hinata needed was better chakra control and to deal with pressure a bit better, Anko doubted if she were to lean on the Hyuga heiress that her spine wouldn't fracture, and Anko had no idea how to help Hinata,

Kurenai had told her she had a crush on Naruto, and Anko was planning to have the little brat play along with her that he liked strong confidant girls and then Hinata would seek Anko out for tips, using the boy as an incentive to do better while she was training,

Now Anko was worried that if Naruto even hinted he wasn't interested in shy girls that Hinata would just walk into the ocean and drown herself in shame and self loathing,

Worse were the two girls he'd been forced to bring with him, Syo was had a body most women would kill for and Yakumo had two positives to her, one she had a tail, two she had eight more tails, and as Anko knew from some wild nights, certain devil fruits could enhance pleasure, in a way Hinata had lost the battle before it had even started,

Or at least she'd resigned herself to such, Anko had no idea if that blonde shadow brat was preceptive, psychic, or what, but back in the cabin after he'd scared that traitor Misumi, he in his own way reassured Hinata, and she seemed much livelier then before,

As if his words had given her some small hope to cling onto,

Anko watched as Yoroi approached the table, and then Ino smirked, she tapped the table twice and Anko leapt off the rooftop and landed just in time to catch Ino's body,

Ino now in Yoroi's body stood up, "Oh no" she said, "We'd better get him back to the boss," she stated, "Quick lady, to the boss!" she said,

And without incident her and Anko escaped with none of the villagers any wiser, they met Sakura and Hinata on the way back, since apparently Naruto's shadow bat had been leading the Raiga interception group back to Isaribi's cabin,

But the cabin was empty, a note was left inside that Naruto had taken Isaribi off to teach her ''ninja stuff,'' and that he'd be back soon enough, there was also a note in case Yakumo and Syo came back telling them he'd catch them some food for their long trip,

And with Naruto he'd and Isaribi had already finished learning the transformation justu, and now she was learning from him how to heal,

He'd caught a few fish and let them die, at fist she simply thought he was being cruel, but gently he laid his hands on the still body of the fish, "Healing is one of the single greatest ninja arts ever made, yet it is also highly complex," he said as his hands glowed green, "you've not an easy path ahead of you, but it's much easier then the one I went through to learn," he said,

A few minutes passed before he placed both hands on the fish and gently lifted it up,

Isaribi watched in amazement as it opened it's eye and started moving in his hand, Naruto took the fish and lowered it into the water where it would swim away, "Yet it was worth it," he stated, Naruto took out a kunai and made a small cut with it on his arm, "With medical ninjutsu one can ease pain, close wounds, erase scars, and continue supporting life," he said with a smile as his glowing hand closed the cut easily,

Isaribi, for the first time in a while, looked at something with wonder, "Why'd you learn it?" she asked,

Naruto frowned, he took a deep breath, and looked at her, his eyes flashing to her bandages, "I..." he said, "Wasn't popular at home, the people there hated me," he watched as she sat straight, "I was an orphan, I don't know anything about my parents, but I figured if people needed me around, they'd eventually start liking me,"

"That's nothing too bad," she murmured as she fiddled with her bandages,

"They beat me too,"

Isaribi's eyes went wide,

Naruto kept his gentle smile up, "Yes," he stated, "They treated me, not too differently then these people treat you,"

Isaribi glared at him, but he still smiled back, "Guess that makes us buddies huh?"

"Not at all," he said, "could make us fami-"

"How'd you know?" she asked,

Naruto looked at her, "You, my dear, are a young child wrapped in bandages, and act like the whole world is trying to get you," he shook his head, "not how a young lady should act,"

She glared harder at him, "Young child?" she asked, she stood up ripping her bandages off of herself, "Do I look like a child!?" she spat,

Naruto's eyes filled not with fear, but sorrow, as he looked at her, "..." his expression soft he spoke, "You are a child,"

She flinched, this wasn't how he was supposed to act, he took her arm, and gently ran his finger over the scales on it, "Let go!" she demanded pulling her arm free of his grasp, quickly she wrapped her arm in bandages, "I'm going home," she stated,

"Yes, that may be for the best," he said solemnly, "take the bucket of fish back so you can eat,"

She didn't respond but did take the fish,

"And Isaribi," he said stopping her in her tracks, "You're beautiful, scales don't change that,"

She bit back her response to him and just left,

Naruto watched her leave, then he noticed his fractured shadow flying over to him, "Perfect timing," he said as it latched onto his arm, he scratched it's chin and smiled, before his expression again grew cold, "back in you go," he said pushing it back into his shadow,

His shadow flexed, "Ready to go?" he asked,

It grinned back at him and prepared to shoot off into town,

Then from above a massive shadow was cast over the young chunin, he looked up and saw a large bird type...thing, flying through the air, though right now it more seemed like it was gliding,

And though it was far away Naruto doubted the giant bird had nothing to do with the call for reinforcements,

He looked toward the town, aiming a dark glare at it's every existence,

It was fortunate he was here, he straightened his shirt, "Well... desperate times," he turned back to Isaribi's cabin,

When Naruto arrived back at the cabin he was pulled into a tight hug from Syo, "Welcome home master," she cheered,

"This isn't his home," Isaribi stated,

"Why did you take some time?" Yakumo asked,

"We have a problem," Naruto stated, "I believe Orochimaru's back up has arrived,"

The attention of the room was brought to him,

"What did you see?" Kurenai asked,

Naruto rubbed his chin, "I'm not sure how to even explain it," he stated, "I'm certain that it was some sort of... prehistoric bird," he pulled Shizuku's notes on the devil fruit out of his cape, and idly flipped through it, "According to these notes the Zoan type has additional classifications added to it," he said, "Carnivorous, Mythical, ah Ancient Zoan," he cleared his throat and began to read, "Some accounts of certain creatures that still seem to leave a presence has led me to believe that some Zoan type actually has the power to bring ancient creatures such as dinosaurs and other such long dead behemoths back in the forms of these users, their powers are at least in rumours and hushed whispers, among the top level of Zoan types, I wonder if they possess hidden powers like the Mythical Zoan types, these users should be treated with caution, since as far as I know I/You are holding the largest known devil fruit encyclopaedia that does not bode well should you come up against one," he shut the book, "Well that was..."

"Terrible?" Yakumo asked angrily,

Kurenai wanted to speak, but the words came just as she decided not to say them, "Yakumo, your mother, despite her faults was the biggest/only devil fruit expert," Naruto chided, "You're mother was horrible to you, that's true, but never forget the last act she committed was out of love and regret,"

Yakumo scoffed, "Doesn't mean I have to revere her,"

Kakashi raised an eye at Naruto's conflicted expression, "Something wrong Naruto?"

Naruto looked like he wanted to rebut the question, but nodded, "Shizuku is an odd one to me, she tormented her daughter, yet I can't allow myself to hate her, likely due to how she chose to die,"

"We're getting off topic," Ino said, "you guys can gush on about who ever this woman was back at home, we need a plan right now,"

"We have one," Anko stated glaring at Naruto, "The question is, will you let us have them?"

Naruto sighed, "Anko I'm still afraid that most of my shadows are still too unruly, but," he said, "I have thought hard and come to a conclusion,"

Anko crossed her arms, "Well?" she asked,

"We don't use them" he stated,

"Great plan," Anko said with a clap,

Naruto looked at Isaribi, "This village you live by, it has a cemetery yes?"

Isaribi nodded, "It does, why?"

Kakashi stood up and Sakura gave Naruto confused frown, "You're not going to..." she swallowed nervously, "You know"

Naruto looked at Sakura, "We have no choice,"

"There's always a choice," Kakashi stated,

"What are we talking about?" Kurenai asked,

"Syo knows this," she said giddily, "Plan two right?"

Yakumo patted Syo's shoulder, "Silly little sister, you mean phase two,"

Naruto sighed, "Using cor-," he cleared his throat, "bodies and shadows together I can make an army,"

"Really?" Anko asked with a chuckle, "Now we're talking,"

"And you want to what? dig graves to..." Ino's eyes widened, "bodies?" she asked shaking her head, "Wh-what do we mean by bodies?" she asked,

Naruto looked at Ino, but didn't respond,

"Naruto, what do you mean by bodies?" she demanded,

"You shouldn't think about it too much Yamanaka-san," Naruto advised,

"W-wait," Hinata said meekly, standing up herself, "D-don't you only h-h-have four sh-shadows Naruto-kun?"

Naruto smiled at her, "Yes,"

Anko's expression dimmed, "No army?" she asked,

Naruto chuckled warmly, "There'll be an army," he bowed deeply, "You can rely on me for that,"

Kurenai glared at him, "You can't just-,"

Yakumo glared at her and took her hammer in both arms, Syo noticed this and stepped forward holding Naruto's sickle out,

Then Naruto's shadow rose and grabbed both girl's shoulders,

"Ladies I need a special favour from you both," he said, they quickly turned to face him, "Help Sakura, Ino and Hinata train would you?" he asked,

"Syo can help,"

"Sure you don't want our help?" Yakumo asked, "Digging is lonely work,"

"You know what would be a big help?" he asked pulling the two close and whispering something to them, after he released them, they both nodded to him, then he took his scroll out of his cape, unsealed a strange tool roll, and then an almost new spade that only had some dirt along it's tip, he took them both in one arm and draped his cape over Isaribi, "I'll be back soon," he said leaving the cabin,

"Alright," Kurenai said, "We should all split off into scouting teams, try to figure out where Orochimaru's base is before we make a plan,"

"I'll handle that," Kakashi said, "something like a prehistoric bird will lead a trail that I can follow, besides It's not just a plan we need," he said casting his lone eye to the three genin,

"Nai-chan and I'll handle the kiddies eyepatch," Anko said wrapping her arm around Kurenai, "you go hunting,"

"Thanks guys," Kakashi said pulling the door open, "I'll be back soon,"

He walked outside and looked around, there were several islands off in the distance, "Wish I knew which one to search," he said, he studied them for a bit, the door opening again after him, the soft footfalls told him it was someone small and frail, the lack of shoes meant it had to be Isaribi, "You like the beaches here?" he asked,

Despite the question she walked past him without a word, she stared at the tree islands in the distance, " Taro, Demon, and Jiro," she said pointing at each and naming them, she just stared at them for a bit, "...Names like that you'd probably think to look at the demon island first,"

Kakashi gave her a suspicious look, "..."

Isaribi barely glanced back at him, "What's the deal with the blonde guy?" she asked,

"Naruto?" Kakashi asked, "Well he's a ninja of Konoha who has a few weird dreams,"

"Dreams huh?" she asked bitterly,

Kakashi smiled and Naruto's request to Yakumo and Syo echoed inside his mind, 'Isaribi's like us, try to convince her to come home with us,'

Kakashi shook his head, 'Might as well help him a little,' he thought, "Yeah, get this, he wants to find all the ''freaks'' in the world, and take them to Konoha,"

"Freaks?" Isaribi asked tightening the bandage on her arm, "W-what does he mean?"

Kakashi shrugged, "Well I'm not really sure honestly, best guess is people who are treated like freaks, people who have nowhere else to go, people hated where they are,"

"Why does he want to take them?"

"Cause... he's an orphan" Kakashi said, "His greatest desire is to have a family, and what better then a family that knows what he's been through?"

"Like he's had it that bad," she stated venomously,

"Why do you think that?" Kakashi asked,

"Look at him!" Isaribi stated, "He's handsome, no bruises, no scars, nothing that sets him apart from the world,"

"Handsome eh?" Kakashi asked, Isaribi just glared at him, "Yeah I get what you really mean," he said with a sigh, "but not every freak in the world has deformities, take Syo for example, she's psychotic,"

"She is?"

Kakashi shrugged, "Apparently she only acts on her Psychotic urges when people harass her,"

"...And Yakumo?" she asked, "What's wrong with her? the tails?"

"Too weak to move," Kakashi stated, "She has a disease that's weakened her body to the point she can barely move, she uses her devil fruit to give her the strength to stand on her own, also to hide what she really looks like,"

"How does she look?"

Kakashi shook his head, "Sorry, you'll have to ask her yourself, but... it's pretty bad," he stated sadly,

"You've seen her?" Isaribi asked,

Kakashi just nodded, "Why do you want to know so much?"

"...No reason," she stated,

Her cheeks flushed red for a bit, "H-," she frowned looking away, "How sincere is he?"

"...What did he say?"

She crossed her arms, "That I was beautiful,"

Kakashi thought for a second, "Well I'd say he was probably being sincere, but Yakumo would know him better then me, try asking her,"

Isaribi frowned, she nodded and just stared off for a few seconds, "...Jiro, by the keep by the water, and don't bother checking the island, the current is what's important," she turned to go back home,

"Why do you know that?" Kakashi asked,

She looked back at him, "Why were you all here?"

"Well," Kakashi rubbed his head, "I was here to lead an interception team against Raiga, he's an missing ninja from Kiri, Anko was here to train those girls inside using the rumours of the Kaima,"

"What... would they do if they found he-... it?" she asked,

". . ." Kakashi shrugged, "Depends on the kaima I guess, if it was violent and aggressive take it down, but at this point, it could probably reveal itself and if Naruto wasn't around to defend her, Yakumo and Syo certainly would,"

"H-her?" she asked, she frowned, "How many of you know?"

"For me and Kurenai? the second we saw you lived here" Kakashi gestured to the shack, "The girls likely have their suspicions, but Naruto and Anko probably knew it when they met you,"

"...That island," she said, "That's where I was changed," she said and turned to go inside,

"Thanks Isaribi," The girl just turned and nodded at the Jonin who looked around for a boat,

When she re-entered her home she found it was mostly empty except for Yakumo who seemed to be cooking something to eat, "Where's everyone else?" she asked,

"Anko and slutbag went off to train the Sakura, Ino and Hinata for... whatever plan we come up with when Kakashi comes back, Syo left with them to train with the sickle, and to be a training dummy for them,"

"Didn't want to help?" Isaribi asked,

"No real point for me to help" Yakumo said, "Y'see I have this condition, it makes my bones weak and because of it I get tired really easily, I've been working on it for a while but," she let out a breath, "I haven't been practicing with my ninjutsu for a while, and that and my new super sweet maul has been kinda tiring me out faster then usual, so I'm just gonna rest up till I'm needed,"

"Shouldn't that all make you want to train more?" Isaribi asked as she sat in one of the few chairs her hut actually had, "since you could get hurt if you do all that later?"

"Wouldn't matter later," Yakumo said, "When it's going down Naruto'll stick by me, he'll boost my stamina with medical ninjutsu, and fix anything that gets broke or pulled," she answered flipping the fish, "It's actually be kinda bad for me to train when he isn't around since he's the only medical person I trust, if anyone else tried touching me and I could move, I'd probably try to take their head off,"

Isaribi nodded at her,

"W-" Yakumo swallowed nervously, "Would you like to s-see me without the disguise?"

Isarbi looked at the brown haired girl who took the pot off the fire, "You'd let me see?"

"You'll understand better if you do," Yakumo said, she stood up and walked over to Isaribi's bed, "Do you mind if I sit here?" she asked, "It's kinda hard for me to move without my fruit,"

"Sit wherever," Isaribi said,

She watched as Yakumo lightly sat on her bed, "Are you hungry?" she asked, "I wouldn't want you to lose your appetite,"

"Not hungry," Isaribi said,

Yakumo nodded, "Right," and then pink smoke, when it was gone Yakumo sat on her bed, no hybrid form, just a weak looking teen, pale skin, very thin body, frayed hair, she looked like a ghoul, "Here I am," she said hoarsely,

Isaribi looked over her, "That's what you really look like?"

Yakumo nodded, "This is me, the real me," she said,

"...How?"

"Locked away by my mum, and starved myself out of fear," she said before giving her a curious expression, "You?"

"Don't ask," Isaribi pleaded,

Yakumo nodded, "That's fine," she said, "In case you were wondering, Naruto thinks I'm pretty like this,"

Isaribi flinched, "Wh-what's wrong with him?"

Yakumo smiled taking no offence at the hash words, "Maybe he's crazy, maybe we all are,"

Meanwhile in the dark Naruto leading an army of himself their paths lit only by an oil lantern he'd stolen from the town had finally found the cemetery,

He stood, lantern forward, shovel and tools ready, as they simply studied the graves,

Hundreds were lit even if only dimly from his lantern, and yet there were hundreds more,

"Only dust to judge me here," he said as he approached the nearest grave, his clones doing the same, despite his intentions here he took great care not to step on the dirt in front of the stone, instead he kneeled down, placing his tools on the floor before he gently wiped away the dirt covering the name, "Li Anasi, Beloved brother and friend, died tragically at sea, it took sixteen to pull his body back to shore," Naruto stood up, shovel in hand, "Forgive me Li-kun, I swear you will be returned to your rest," he promised sadly as he stood over the grave, "I'll ask no forgiveness~" he sang spearing the dirt with his shovel, "hate me if you must~" he moved the dirt off the grave and continued to dig, "If you were to ask me this job is a bust~"

"We all must do our duties, no matter how we feel~" he sang as the hole slowly got deeper, "you're still just a human, don't turn yourself to steel~"

"Guilt is a graveyard, don't let this one be yours~" As Naruto worked diligently to the solemn tune he soon struck wood, "dig it for the soldier, then march on back to war~"

The sound of the shovel hitting wood was a dull reminder of exactly what Naruto was about to do, his eyes flashed to the grave stone again, a name of a man he'd likely not even remember in a month,

'For my own war this dead man has no stake in,' Naruto thought, but he shook his head, again the question came to mind, 'was it more moral to spare the dead or the living?' Naruto already despised the village enough,

Part of him, a part he buried a lot deeper then a mere six feet, wanted to fill the grave and use the living villagers instead, he wanted them to suffer as his pawns in a battle they had no stake in, he wanted to see their confusion as he explained to them what was expected of them, to hear their screams and complaints only to gleefully send them off to die against their wills,

The satisfaction he'd feel after they knew the reason it happened was because of their own treatment of a little girl,

Their reasons for doing so would fall on deaf ears,

But, he took a deep breath, 'Easy Naruto,' he thought to himself, 'I am not them, not the snarling beasts in Konoha, nor these ones in sea,'

He couldn't allow himself to take his darkest desires,

Though during this mission the temptation to act on them had grown over time,

To lock Kurenai into Isaribi's shack for the rest of her life, to have it out with Kakashi over who dictated what his family would do, It had been why he'd ignored Misumi's unique ninjutsu, for after gaining it Naruto felt a strong desire to stretch and wrap his arms around both their necks, choking life out of them like a cobra would do,

Then he'd leave Anko to battle Orochimaru alone,

But Naruto couldn't, not simply because Orochimaru was obviously a threat to the leaf as well, not simply because killing the two would significantly weaken Konoha, and not just because then he'd be acting just as monstrous as those who led him down alleyways as a child before savagely starting to beat him,

But, If he did it, harmed Kurenai for hurting Yakumo, killed Kakashi for ordering his family around, what message did it send for his family?

To him it only meant that there was no helping them,

That Yakumo didn't need therapy for her trauma or treatment for her body so she could live a normal life and pursue the dreams she thought she had to abandon, no, what she needed was revenge, a revenge that in the end would make her feel hollow and numb, because she focused so hard on hurting Kurenai, that after Kurenai was gone, so was Yakumo's purpose,

That Syo shouldn't restrain herself from hurting anyone, what did it matter if everyone was bound to die anyway? might as well slice everyone up, she's certain to have a fulfilling life after that right?

What about Pakura? from his act of kindness, found bleeding to death by a little boy, Pakura accepted her fate then, 'He'll call the village and they'll save me, and then I'm breeding stock for strong ninja,' she'd never told him, but he'd seen the expression of disgust on her dying face, then she woke up in a shitty apartment, and it was obvious she barely trusted anyone, poured away any drink he made for her, checked everything he had extensively, and was as quiet as a mouse when for the first few years after they'd met,

And then to the girl he'd only just met this morning, Isaribi, it wasn't hard to figure out she was the ''monster'' the village reviled, upon touching her bandages he felt odd sturdy things he know knew to be scales underneath them, and then with one arm she pulled him out of the water, but any doubt she was the village's scapegoat vanished when he walked into town, the talks of freaks in bandages made Naruto's stomach twist, but also certain he was right,

And he could see underneath all the cynicism that she really was just a sweet girl, she looked so worried when he almost drowned, she tried hard to hide it, but he could tell,

And when he walked in with free lunch and what she asked for, she had the cutest blush, surprised obviously that he'd actually gotten that kinda stuff for her,

He'd already resigned to taking her with him, whether she wanted to go or not,

It sounded cruel, but this environment would just tear her apart until she became the monster they made her out to be, then again, he could already see guilt behind her eyes, maybe she already had done things,

Maybe the grave he was digging right now was due to Isaribi,

Maybe Li hated her and beat her, so she got her own back in the end,

Naruto would never know, and if he were honest, he'd prefer not to,

Soon he'd cleared the grave he was working on, and used his shadow to pull the coffin out,

He opened it and took a look inside, "Pretty old," he said, but Naruto having no time to knit flesh together knew a trick for that, he laid his hands upon the corpse and his hands glowed green, his fix wouldn't last long, but hopefully, it would last long enough,

Took twenty minuets but Li looked almost like he could just climb out of his coffin alone, and he wasn't the only one who looked that way, Yumi-chan, Ven-kun, Ryuji-san, Junko-chan, Junpei-kun, all looked like they could just stand up, Naruto nodded and moved on, it'd take time but the army was coming along,

When he returned to Isaribi's hut his army was 100 shadow clones strong, and behind them 300 zombies armed with improvised weapons, it had taken him some time and now he needed to rest, after all the chakra pills he'd taken just to make enough shadow clones for the zombies to have the shadow of at least a competent fighter,

Or at least he hoped so,

Combining Naruto's skills and fruit powers might make him somewhat of a threat, but... these zombies, unlike Patchwork they'd been dead for a while, not a trace of chakra was in them, and Naruto's clones couldn't use his shadow powers, the only advantage his clones had was they retained the weapon training Pakura had given him, problem was, he didn't know many of them, and only really got the basics with most of what he did know,

The army was perfect for cannon fodder or as a distraction, Naruto stared at the zombies, for their sakes he hoped that their target had no army of their own,

He pushed open the door and walked inside, "The army is finished, but there wasn't much I could do,"

"Really?" Anko asked, "How many?"

"300 zombies, 100 shadow clones," Naruto said, "how's the plan?"

"Well" Kurenai stated, "We've ''found'' a few boats we'll use to us and what you've got over to Jiro island where Kakashi has found the lab,"

"Wasn't that hard, there's no door anymore," Kakashi stated, "Looked like there used to be one, but it was... burned through," he stated, "Guessing whoever that lab belonged to is now wanted dead by Orochimaru, and his crew just decided to make their intentions obvious from the start,"

"Well hopefully if there were any traps our targets have taken them out," Anko said,

"Anyway for the plan," Ino said, "The jonin will split into two groups," she explained,

"Kurenai and Anko leading the charge against the lab," Kakashi stated, "While me and you Naruto will be-," Kakashi stopped and stood up, he glared at the door, "Outside!" he ordered,

Quickly the group left the shack and followed Kakashi as he glared at the water,

Across it, leading to Jiro island purple crystal bridge had formed,

A large fire in the foliage spelled out a name,

"Guess you're wanted doc," Anko said as she stared at the flames,

'Naruto Uzumaki' was spelt out, after a few seconds the fire changed, 'Come to die shadow coward!'

"Did that fire just change?" Ino asked,

"It was obviously a genjustu Ino," Sakura said rolling her eyes,

"No it wasn't," Kurenai said,

"Not from this range," Yakumo agreed,

Naruto walked forward to the bridge, "Hinata-chan," he spoke keeping his calm, "this bridge, was it made from chakra?"

Hinata blushed, but activated her Byakugan, "I-it w-w-was," she said,

Naruto let out a sigh of relief, "Good," he said, "The fire changing has to be the work of a devil fruit, unfortunately it's a logia type,"

"Which means whoever has it can't be hurt by us," Anko said,

"That's not entirely true," Naruto stated, "Water justu might be incredibly effective against it, and it's user," He stepped onto the bridge, "The real problem is that now we're facing off with at least two devil fruit users,"

"Two users, plus a swordsman and his kid sidekick," Kakashi stated as a bolt of lighting was seen approaching the island,

"No way Ameyuri's too far behind now him now," Anko said,

"Then we'd better hurry," Kurenai stated running onto the bridge,

"Forward charge!" Naruto cried making his army bellow as they charged behind the ninja,

OCTOPUS-Meanwhile-OCTOPUS

Kidomaru grinned as he saw the approaching ninja, "Leaf scum coming across the bridge," he said into the lab's mic, who want's them?"

"Since we're already in the corridor," Sakon said, "We'll handle them,"

"Stick to the plan," Guren stated, "I still want you two looking for those devil fruit," she ordered, "Besides against that shadow you'd have no chance,"

"Like you would do better?" Ukon spat,

"I don't have the time," Guren stated, "I'm trying to get into Amachi's safe room door,"

"Isn't he low priority?" Karin asked from next to Kidomaru,

"Not if he's squirreled those fruit away with him," she responded,

"I got the shadow fag," Tayuya said cracking her knuckles as she waited on one side of the crystal bridge, she watched as a bunch of people approached her,

"Try to let some pass Tayuya," Ukon said, "I wanna kill some this time too,"

"Fuck off lizard boy," Tayuya spat, "I'll kill as many as I want," as she spoke her entire fist turned into fire, "You want some come get them,"

She cocked her arm back and grinned, the flames lighting up the dark bridge,

As they tried to cross the bridge leaf ninja noticed the light,

"Anyone got a water jutsu ready?" Sakura asked,

Tayuya grinned, "FIRE FIST!" she roared punching sending a massive fireball forward,

Naruto frowned and stretched his legs forward leaping ahead of everyone, yet he simply stood stalwart even as the fire came closer and closer,

"NARUTO MOVE!" Kakashi roared,

Then as the flame drew closer Naruto's shadow grew, and he pointed forward, "Horn point shadow!" he cried, his shadow turned to a blade and shot forward slicing through the large fireball, the sheer size and speed of the blade snuffed out the fire, which in turn made the blade much smaller, "As I expected," he said,

"WOO!" Anko cheered, "TAKE THAT YOU FIRE FUCK!"

"Whoever this is, they're likely fixated on me," Naruto said taking out a lantern, he swung it lightly drawing the attention of the person on the other side, he beckoned them closer,

"What are you doing?" Kurenai asked,

"We'll make no progress at this rate, go around them I'll keep them here," Naruto instructed,

"We'll help," Yakumo said as she and Syo stepped next to him,

"No," Naruto stated, "This person and I seem to have fruits that counteract each others, as long as they can only hit me from one side I'll be fine," he stated, "besides we have no idea who else is past this person, we'll need every last combatant here to fight,"

"But Syo-,"

"You two will be needed inside, see if you can find any notes about the kaima for me," Naruto said,

"Come on guys," Kakashi said lowering down so Yakumo could climb onto his back,

She pouted, "You'd better be fine," then she jumped onto Kakashi's back,

"Oof," he groaned, "that's a heavy hammer," he said as he stepped onto the water, before he ran off,

"Oh yeah leave us with Syo!" Anko groaned, "Well come he-,"

Syo hugged Naruto, "Be safe master," she said, then dove into the water and swam surprisingly fast after Kakashi,

Anko and Kurenai took the remaining three between themselves, meanwhile Naruto turned to the zombies, "To the boats!" he ordered, "Double time!" then turned back to face his opponent, she was a red haired girl,

"So you're Naruto Uzumaki," she said with a scoff as she looked him over, "You look like a bitch," she stated,

"That's an odd remark," he said, "How does one look like a bitch?"

"Look at you, you look like a someone cosplaying as a prince," she grinned,

"I cosplay nothing dear, I am a prince,"

She scoffed "Prince of freaks maybe,"

Naruto flicked his hair, "See? you even recognise my official title,"

Tayuya grinned as her hand ignited, "Look at you being all funny," then her expression changed, "Then you died,"

Naruto flipped his cape, "We'll see Fire-San,"

Her arm snuffed out and she grinned then she spun around and her left and right pointer fingers ignited, "Cross fire!" she cried creating a cross with her fingers and thrusted them forward, creating a large cross of fire where Naruto was,

He stretched his legs backward dodging the strike and thrusted his hands towards her legs, aiming for her shadow but she ignited her entire body burning his arm, "Ah!" Naruto cried sending his arm into and out of the water quickly dousing the fire, but also temporarily sending him to his knees,

"Trying to go for my shadow eh shady?" Tayuya asked with a grin, she crossed her arms, her legs ignited and she blasted forward, "Cross cutter!" her arms burned bright as she came close to Naruto,

Naruto regained his strength just in time to regain control of his shadow, "Dopplesteed" his shadow turned to a horse and he clutched to it and it galloped out of Tayuya's attack range,

"What's wrong Uzumaki? can't take the heat?" She asked stopping, and skidding across the bridge then she raised her hand upwards, "Try this, FLAME COMMANDMMENT FLAME EMPRESS!" she roared with glee creating a mini sun in her hands, which considering the size of the sun was still pretty massive, she cocked her arm back and tossed it toward the fleeing ninja,

Naruto looked back and saw the quickly approaching sun, "I'm not gonna out run that," he thought and focused on the shadow horses legs, extending them, seeing as it wouldn't be enough then he stretched his legs out and leapt off the horse, over the sun, turning the horse back into the shadow and then after it past him his shadow grow covering Tayuya, "DoppleTitan: strike!" he said as his shadow's arms took shape and tried to smash the fire woman, but the shadow shrunk and now ended up in a melee with Tayuya,

Not realising Naruto now ran though handsigns, "Water style liquid bullets," he said quietly, he crouched taking aim at the red head who to hit doppleman, but her strikes slipped right through the shadow, just as the shadow's strikes went through her,

Naruto fired three gobs of water from his mouth at the back of the fire woman,

She turned and opened her mouth sticking her tongue out letting loose a stream of flame which was doused by Naruto's attacks, but she was fine, "Nice try dickhead, but anything you've got I'll counter,"

Naruto frowned, "You're a competent ninja Fire-San"

Tayuya ignored Doppleman's strikes and stepped closer to Naruto, her fingertips turning to fire,

Naruto started slowly backing away from her, her grin growing wider as he did, "What's wrong dipshit? out of water?" she mocked,

"Perhaps I have found a way to beat you madam, yet I need you closer to me," Naruto retorted,

OCTOPUS-Meanwhile-OCTOPUS

As the leaf ninja found themselves on the shores of Jiro, Anko seemed to groan in pain, "My head," she gasped, "It feels like it's on fire"

"Just as soon as the medic stays to fight a fire woman," Kurenai stated,

Hinata looked back at the fight Naruto was in, only Tayuya's flames could be seen from this far, "C-can't we d-do something?" she asked,

"She's out of my range" Kakashi said, "And unless one of you or Yakumo has any water jutsu then I'm the only one here with anything that could in theory hurt her,"

"Earth only with me," Yakumo said, "And I can't even use most of them anymore,"

"Me too, got any advice for learning?" Sakura asked,

"Yeah, become stone-" Yakumo stated,

"I don't get what you mean," Sakura said,

"Cause you're not listening," Yakumo retorted, "When you do an earth jutsu you have to become immovable, you have to take the mindset that whatever comes your way, will not move you,"

"How does that work?" Ino demanded,

"If you can be pushed over so easily, how are you supposed to keep your feet steady when you push the earth?" Yakumo asked,

"W-would that mean-," Hinata started, "T-that being w-water, is b-being flexible?"

Yakumo shrugged, "No idea, heard the mindset helps with earth justu, so maybe?"

Hinata nodded, "I-I see," she looked at the water, no, at the bridge, she focused her chakra into her eyes, 'Byakugan' she thought,

Three intense chrakra signatures lit up, two on the bridge, one in the boats slowly rowing over to where they were,

Hinata had been practicing the handsigns for the water gun justu, it wasn't a powerful jutsu, but it was all she could find, she aimed her hand and breathed, 'Be flexible, be like water,'

"Hinata?" Kakashi asked, then he realised what she was doing, and he drew closer, "Deep breaths," he coached, slightly adjusting her hands, "Imagine you're laying on the water, being rocked back and forth,"

She nodded, "Move the chakra in your body in time with the rocking of the waves," Kakashi explained, she nodded again, "Now while keeping the motion, bring the water up to your hand,"

Water slowly encased her finger, "Good," Kakashi said as the water slowly encased her finger, "Now increase the pressure," the water rocked back and forth quickly, "focus the pressure at the top of your fingers,"

She nodded and the top of her jutsu got faster as it swirled while the rest stayed the same, "Now gently rock the pressure up and down," and she did, "Slowly increase the speed as you move the pressure,"

Hinata's jutsu dipped up and down along the length of her finger, Kakashi watched her justu and copied her stance, "FOCUS ON THE TIP!" He roared scaring her, but despite her fear she fired the shot, as did Kakashi,

Tayuya grinned as she got closer to Naruto, who'd stopped moving on the bridge, quickly prepared a Ninjutsu, "Water style:"

"Firefly" Tayuya said sending hundreds of tiny fire balls slowly flying towards him,

Naruto switched places with his shadow which, due to Tayuya being a logia user she'd not noticed the lack of it's attacks,

Naruto stretched out his neck over the water, "Rampaging water!" he roared sending a high powered jet of water at the section of water near where Tayuya was standing,

Tayuya growled and raised her hands which ignited trying to put something in between her and the water, "Sh-shit!" but a large water gun jutsu flew over to the middle of where he had previously been standing and where Tayuya was before it was 'popped' by another smaller water gun, splashing Tayuya in the water dousing the fire she had tried to block his attack with, and then she got doused by the sea water,

Naruto knew he should've watched a few seconds to see if she went over the bridge, but a large wave, no handrails on the bridge, he assumed she was doomed to a watery fate, thus he wasted no time, "Dopplesteed!" he called as his shadowy steed cleared the bridge just in time to see the zombies land, and Kurenai lightly congratulating a blushing Hinata while Anko clutched her head, quickly Naruto walked over to Anko, "Your head again?" he asked,

She nodded,

Naruto reached a hand to his stomach and a shadow came out, "This might help for a while," he said sticking it into her,

"Wha-," she doubled over, then she grinned, "Woah-hohoho!," she said shaking her head, "What a rush!" she cried dropping to start doing push ups, "My pains gone, and I'm fulla energy" she said hopping back to her feet,

"Naruto that's impressive," Kurenai stated,

"Congratulations later, the army's pulling up now," Ino said, As the zombies stepped onto the shore Hinata looked at them, yet she couldn't see the massive chakra that was with the armies before,

"Right well, storm the lab!" Kakashi cried,

"Ooorah Brother!" Anko cried,

Kurenai leaned over to Naruto, "What have you lost?"

"The two water jutsu and my sickle skill," Naruto stated,

She nodded, "Right, march on!"

As Kakashi led the group around to where the lab entrance was, on the bridge Tayuya growled, the crystal bridge had grown a support to catch her before she fell into the water, her skin was covered in strange black cracks in her skin, "Hah!" she groaned getting to her feet, "Uzu-," she took a few sharp breaths as she stood to her feet, "Uzumaki" she growled,

"Tayuya you still alive?" Kidomaru asked with a laugh,

"Almost went over the bridge," she said, "Thanks Guren,"

"Get after them," Guren demanded, "They'll be weak in the wat-,"

"Cancel that," Kidomaru stated interrupting Guren, "A bunch of them just smashed through the rocks covering the water to the entrance," he said, "They just leaped over the water and are already past the door,"

"I'm not through the door yet," Guren stated, "Tayuya get here and help me with this doo-," Guren stopped as the lab started shaking, the cries of what were happening were almost deafening to her, but she spun back and suddenly the wall next to her exploded with a flash of lightning,

Raiga and Ranmaru walking in through the hole in the wall, "This a private party?" Raiga asked his lone blade flashing with lightning,

"Even if it is we're not leaving empty handed," Ranmaru stated,

Guren put a hand on her communicator, "Tayuya? cancel that order, get after Uzumaki instead, Karin take over for Kidomaru, and twins kill the intruders," she ordered making a crystal staff,

"Hell of a party," Raiga said,

"Leave or die," Guren stated pointing her staff at Raiga,

"Strong silent type, eh?" Raiga asked, "I like that in a woman,"

"I'll enjoy your death more," She retorted,

OCTOPUS-Elsewhere-OCTOPUS

Isaribi stood outside her home, she watched as a large lightning bolt cleaved through part of Jiro island's mountain,

And she flopped down, for the first time in years she didn't feel like a monster,

The villagers now awakened by the loud thunder stormed out of the village, though only few of them had anything resembling a weapon, they came over to her hut, likely more to investigate the bridge then to bother her,

When they did notice her they seemed angry, but they never said a word, behind her a a large portion of the forest had been turned to ash, they quickly looked around and started panicking,

Isaribi just continued to stare at Jiro Island, then she noticed something on the bridge, sparks, but the were so far away she barely noticed them,

Trembling she stood up, her first thought, 'That Idiot, he forgot to take out his enemy,' she'd known it was Naruto, she'd heard all about his strange shadow powers, and when those zombies of his ran back they all moaned about 'the boss fighting some fire girl,' so she was sure this was the whiskered doctor's fault, 'What is wrong with him?'

She remembered Yakumo's smile as she spoke, 'Maybe he's crazy,'

Why was she remembering that now, she just wanted to know what the deal with him was,

'Naruto?' Kakashi's voice flashed into her mind, 'Well he's a ninja of Konoha who has a few weird dreams,'

"Dreams huh?" she yet again asked bitterly, "Like dreams even matter," she spat, "He let her go, he's gonna get himself killed!" she raged,

She remembered as he cut open his own hand and then closed it, 'With medical ninjutsu one can ease pain, close wounds, erase scars, and continue supporting life,' he said with a smile,

Isaribi, she remembered how amazing it looked as she asked, 'Why'd you learn it?'

She watched as he frowned, he took a deep breath, and looked at her, his eyes flashing to her bandages, 'I...Wasn't popular at home,' he stated, 'the people there hated me,' she remembered sitting straight up at that, 'I was an orphan, I don't know anything about my parents, but I figured if people needed me around, they'd eventually start liking me,'

'That's nothing too bad,' she murmured, not because she was hoping he hadn't heard her, but because it just kinda slipped out as she fiddled nervously with her bandages,

'They beat me too,' he stated,

Isaribi's eyes went wide,

Somehow when she looked up at him again, that gentle smile was still present on his face, 'Yes,' he stated, 'They treated me, not too differently then these people treat you,'

Isaribi glared at him, 'He thinks he ''gets'' me, he thinks he ''understands'' me,' she thought and spat, "Guess that makes us buddies huh?"

'Not at all," he said, "could make us fami-'

That's where he'd stopped,

Or rather, that's where she'd left,

At first she thought he was joking, but Kakashi's voice echoed 'His greatest desire is to have a family, and what better then a family that knows what he's been through?'

'Silly little sister,' Yakumo said to Syo before she corrected her,

The gentle way Naruto held them,

Isaribi hated to admit but she felt jealous,

Why... why couldn't she have had that? she asked,

Suddenly she realised the villagers were still there, and her anger grew, 'Why couldn't they treat me like that?' she wondered, 'I've done wrong to them now but they started it,' hunting her everyday, calling her a monster, stealing her food when she used to fish for it and then making her pay double for it back,

'Why couldn't anyone treat me like we're family?' surely she had to have someone, a grandparent, an uncle or aunt, a cousin, but they'd never come for her,

Then she remembered Yakumo's words before she left to help the other's train,

'Listen Isaribi, those villagers, they're scum, come with us, you'll have two mommies who WILL love you, two big sisters who will dote on you, a giant house to play in, and...' Isaribi blushed as Yakumo drew closer, 'You'll get closer to that handsome doctor,' she said wiggling her eyebrows,

'I...'

'I'm only teasing sis, you'll have to get used to that, but seriously it doesn't matter if you love him, or just want a place where you can walk around without those stuffy bandages and not be judged for how you look,' then Yakumo stood up, 'Think on it sis, but the choice is yours, think on what you want,' she said before she left,

'What I want?' Isaribi asked, for so long it was just to be cured and leave this village, but now, she remembered a dream she used to have,

'I...' she thought, reaching up to touch her bandages, 'I...' she gripped them, "I WANT TO SEE THE WORLD!" she roared taking her kaima form, which increased her height and her strength, her scales felt weird in all this sandy/ashy air, but that didn't matter, she fixated her eyes on the dim spark on the bridge as she stormed over to the water,

"And I will," she said, "I'm gonna go to Konoha with my family, and travel around and see new things and meet amazing new people, and..." she turned staring at the now terrified villagers, "And you know what I'm gonna do when I get to Konoha?" she asked, "NEVER WEAR THESE STUPID BANDAGES AGAIN!"

Then she turned and dove into the water and took off like a jet, taking mere minutes to reach the spark, Isaribi dove over the fire woman and landed on the end of the bridge,

Tayuya stopped, "You," she said, "You're that stupid monster thing right?"

Isaribi's gills throbbed as she reared her head back, she jumped and let lose an extremely powerful water jet, Tayuya smirked at the power, until it sliced through the bridge and was aiming at her, "Fuck, Shit shit shit shit," she chanted as she ran from the jet that sliced through the middle of the bridge, "Miss me fucker!" Tayuya cried, then she watched as Isaribi dropped into the water, and started speeding towards her, "Fuck that!" she cried holding up her hand, then she launched herself into the sky, when she reappeared her entire body had changed, five horns had grown onto her head somewhat resembling a crown, her skin turned to a dark brown, her pupils had become yellow, and horns had grown from out of her left arm, back, and legs, almost forming a type of armour, her mouth had grown wider and thinner, her neck had doubled, she gained a long tail that at the end seemed to turn to fire, her right arm looked closer to rock then skin, and her right hand looked akin to magma,

But more noticeably, her fire had turned blue, she glared down at the water, she uttered "Cruel sun" and the crafted a large blue sun in her hand, which quickly shrank, condensing in size, "Di-" She froze in the air and clutched her heart,

She dropped turning to fire as she hit the crystal bridge, and returned to her former state, "THE FUCK!" she screamed holding her neck, "WHY IS THIS HAPPENING!"

Isaribi pulled herself out of the water and glared at the suffering ninja, Isaribi readied another water jet, but Tayuya turned to fire throwing a fire fist at Isaribi and flew down the bridge,

The purple ha... uh scaled teen dodged easily, but when she leapt back onto the bridge Tayuya was gone, "I should get aft-," a loud boom came from the mountain behind her, she turned seeing a large creature not unlike Naruto's earlier description smashing out of the mountain, and starting to run down the bridge, it had two entirely different heads, in both mouths it carried two different people, one was a six armed guy who seemed to be bleeding, another was a stone skinned purple haired woman with crystals sticking out of her body out of her, the creature stormed down the bridge with it's two unconscious prey, barrelling toward Isaribi, she dove into the water dodging it, then dove back out and watched it continue to run away, she turned back to the now open mountain and an aura of evil slipped out, more frightening, were the flashes of lighting that shot in,

Isaribi gulped, she hated lightning, but she she was hopefully part of a family now, and she needed to know if they were alright, thus she swam toward Jiro island,

OCTOPUS-Not long ago-OCTOPUS

Naruto, the leaf ninja, and the army consisting of zombie/clones all came to a large room, inside were two boys who looked shockingly similar,

"There you are!" One growled at him,

"Where's Jirubo's devil fruit?" the other demanded,

"Ain't you a popular guy?" Anko said elbowing him, "Maybe you could work your charm and convince these nice ladies to let the rest of us through?"

"WE'RE MALE DUMBASS!" Ukon shouted,

"And while I have to admit you're rather handsome, I don't date or screw targets," Sakon stated calmly,

Naruto nodded, "I see, and though I am not sure whether I actually ''swing that way'' I appreciate your honesty,"

Sakon nodded back, "Such a polite young man," he stated, "It truly is a shame we're enemies,"

"Sakon we gotta do this now?" Ukon asked,

"He's just my type Ukon," Sakon stated, "He'll still die- no offense,"

"None taken," Naruto responded evenly, "You're simply doing your job,"

"It's a shame is all," Sakon frowned,

"RAAAAGH!" Ukon raged, "SCREW THIS!" he cried as his body started changing, his entire frame grew much larger and his legs grew green and scaly as did his arms, with both his feet and hands becoming short and stumpy, a large spikey tail formed behind him, and a large green spikey shell grew into his back, "Now you know fear Uzumaki" he growled, "Scared? my Ryu-Ryu No Mi, Model: Euoplocephalus will make short work of you all!" he roared taking a massive step forward,

"It seems you'll not escape this one unscathed," Sakon stated as he walked past Naruto taking his cape,

"What?" Naruto asked as Sakon draped it over himself,

Sakon smiled, "Sorry it's a habit of mine, It's a memento of you, perhaps one day you'll be reincarnated and you and I will meet again," then he stood straight and his body changed, feathers spreading all over his body, his height also increased slightly, blue plumage spread from his chest, his arms grew feathers and turned to wings, and sticking out from under the cloak were eyelike tail feathers, "Goodbye Naruto-Kun,"

The Konoha group stood ready to fight, unaware of the third sound ninja in the room,

Kidomaru grinned from his perch, he had a bow in hand and an arrow nocked, and took aim at Naruto's throat,

The blonde would die in pain, then while everyone was struggling against Sakon and Ukon, he'd sneak down and grab the fruit and body vanish unnoticed, 'A fitting end for the bastard who killed Jirubo,' he knew he was supposed to learn about the whereabouts of the fruit, but he figured it was in Konoha, probably where Naruto lived, hidden in his home, or maybe he'd even sold it, he didn't really care,

'But Lord Orochimaru is right, you're too dangerous to be left alive,' he thought glancing at the army the blonde had made, 'Four hundred strong, and you killed one logia user, and almost killed our second?' he grinned, 'Sorry Uzumaki, your game ends now,'

Ukon started stomping while Sakon walked around and started talking about Naruto and his possible relationship,

A great distraction, nobody could've heard the bow sting snap, or the arrow whizzing through the air,

Yet, both Kakashi and Yakumo turned and looked right at him, both instantly took defensive positions stopping the arrow, "There's someone else here!" Kakashi cried,

"Where?" Kurenai asked as she turned to look, but didn't see anything,

"Watch out lady," Syo cried,

"FOCUS ON US!" Ukon roared as he charged toward the leaf ninja,

He slammed his head into the ground where they'd been before dodging, then he swiped with his tail at those in the air as Sakon ran over his body, Naruto used his shadow to push Anko who held Sakura and Ino, and Syo out of the range of the tailwhip while he held Hinata, and tried to block the strike himself,

Fortunately Yakumo threw her maul at Ukon's face and grabbed Naruto with her tail pulling him out of range, though doing so seemed hard to her,

Ukon blocked the maul with his shell, "MY SHELL IS THE STRONGEST PART OF MY ENTIRE BODY!" He roared with glee shrugging off the tossed hammer with ease,

"Yakumo, Let's go find that sniper," Kakashi said,

"Right behind you," She called back breathing a little harder,

Naruto raised a glowing green hand, "Need help?" She nodded and gently he laid his hand on her wind pipe for a few seconds, "Better?"

She nodded, "Yeah," she nodded, "Thanks," she said leaping after Kakashi,

"These two are ours," Kurenai stated as she and the others landed,

"Charge!" Naruto ordered as the zombies entered the lab,

OCTOPUS-Meanwhile-OCTOPUS

Guren and Raiga found they weren't exactly evenly matched, lightning vs earth wasn't exactly turning out in Raiga's favour, sure first he'd had the advantage due to the Kiba blade, but then Ranmaru had tried his usual strategy of getting behind the distracted target and taking away their limbs,

But Guren wasn't a novice, or a nice person, and thus the purple haired brat was kicked back to Raiga who now had to work to protect the unconscious boy,

Raiga was breathing heavily and his clothes had been torn, where as only the fabric on Guren's shoulder had been torn, leaving her skin on show,

"Man should've learned more defensive ninjustu," Raiga groaned,

"Die" Guren spat raising her staff making rock spikes rise from the ground,

Raiga jumped and got hit in the shoulder and leg from a three burst of crystal shots from Guren's staff,

"Chill out lady" Raiga laughed as he landed on one of the earth spikes, "Let's just relax and enjoy our final moments together,"

Guren frowned, "I have lost my patience with you," she stated stabbing her staff into the ground, "But please allow me to educate you," she said, "I am Guren, and out of all of Lord Orochimaru's faithful servants, none are more loyal or stronger then me, allow me to show you a glimpse of the power he's bestowed upon me," Guren opened her top showing her naked chest,

Raiga grinned and took in the sight of her naked body, "I have to admit I like what I'm seeing,"

"Then you are not looking correctly," she said pointing to her left breast which had a small strange tattoo on it, it was three slightly curved lines which spread in a rip like pattern, "This is our Lord's cursed seal of Earth, it marks us as his equals," she said, "I am one of two able to withstand it's awesome power," she grinned, "Allow me to demonstrate," suddenly the :seal turned an odd orange-redish colour and began to spread across her body in lines of x's that as they grew seemed to be chains wrapping around her, as they grew her sclera changed to black, then she held out her hand, "Now I will tell you that my devil fruit, is the Ryu-Ryu No Mi, Model: Pachycephalosaurus," Then she held out her hand, and fire spread upon it, "This," she stated, "Is Tayuya's Devil fruit, The Mera-Mera No mi,"

"That's impossible!" Raiga cried,

Guren took her staff again, the flames spreading across it, "For Our Lord Orochimaru, Impossibility is a mere phrase, a claim of fools too stupid to understand a modicum of his brilliance," then her entire changed growing way bigger grew much larger and her legs grew green and scaly, her toes becoming more clawed, her fingers did the same growing longer and her nails sharper, a large tail formed behind her, and when she was done she stood tall far above Raiga, her staff having grown with her, and the fire claw growing as well, "Do you now see the truth Raiga?" She gleefully asked, "Of my strength over y-" A large water blast came from a now opened blast door that mere minutes ago Guren had been trying to smash through,

A large fish looking man ran out holding a pink fruit that seemed to get redder, he barrelled down the hallway, Guren watched him before she ran after him, "Get back here Doctor!" she roared,

"A doctor?" Raiga asked looking back to Ranmaru, "Hang on little buddy," he said as he ran after them,

Amachi couldn't believe his luck, at first he thought for sure he was doomed, he'd even almost eaten his greatest bargaining chip, but he was sure it's power was the only way away from Guren, but thanks to his patience an opportunity revealed itself, the second Guren used her first seal, and the Mera-Mera's power, he watched as Tayuya who looked as though she was about to evaporate the entire ocean with her blue fire sun, dropped to the bridge in massive pain,

She's only just managed to escape and pass out on the beach, now Amachi only had to make it pass the Melee near then entrance and he was free, he'd grab Isaribi and Tayuya and flee with them, the stomping behind him increased and soon as he made it he was unfortunately noticed,

But he ran past the lot of them, so close to his escape until a large barrier of snow stopped him, "Wh-" he turned glaring at the gathered Ninja, "Stay back!" he roared brandishing the fruit high, now drawing most of their attention, "I have done all Lord Orochimaru asked of me," he stated, "Why betray me now?" he asked, he noticed Orochimaru's old apprentice along with Konoha's ninja, "Anko!" he called, "Your seal was placed on you here, You know me," it was a trick to buy him some time, and surely she dropped like a stone in a pond,

The whiskered blonde and Kurenai shot to her side, the others all now glared at him, "I have perfected the kaima prosess, I have gathered an army of them!" he roared slowly making his way to a panel on the wall, he typed in a code and the floor opened up, "SEE THE LABORS OF MY WORK!" He laughed as they rose from behind him,

The entire gathered ninja showed immense fear, "That's right!" he roared, "I did this, Created an army that surpasses anything or anyone here, and gathered the devil fruit," he gleefully looked at the on in his hand, "Bato-Bato No Mi, Model: Vampire," he stated, "With it's power Orochimaru would've had nothing to fear from age, that's why I spent so much to obtain it, for him," he stressed, "But now I'm betrayed, so I will take it! I will use it's power! I WILL BECOME IMMORTAL!" he laughed, "AND OROCHIMARU WILL RUE THE DAY HE TURNED AGAINST ME!"

As Amachi leaned into the fruit to bite it he expected many things from the gathered Ninja,

Them just standing stairing at him looking terrified was not what he expected, never less he... bit into and swallowed. . .air? he looked at his arm, only to see air, then his shoulder,

Blood poured from out where his shoulder used to be,

An arm leaned on his shoulder, an aged, wrinkly arm, "Eh?" a nearly feral feminine voice asked, "What's that you say?"

Amachi turned to see the aged Ameyuri Ringo leaning on him, in her left hand was the kiba blade she'd managed to keep, in the other was his arm, and in that arm was the devil fruit he was about to eat, blood dripped from her wrinkly lips, her hair was white and frayed, yet her grin was as feral as ever, and her eyes gleamed with malice as she studied not him, not the devil fruit, but the gathered Ninja,

Then she turned to look to him, "I ain't a doc, so you'll have to explain to me," she held up the arm with the fruit on it and asked, "The hell d'ya plan ta eat this, when you don't got a head?"

The ninja watched as Amachi's head slid off his body as if her words were the blade Ameyuri had used to slice his head himself, she pushed over the body and then studied the gathered ninja, "Lotta interestin' meals here," she said as she stepped inside, despite her age, Naruto noticed she carried herself with power as she walked, instinctively he backed away himself, and his instincts had been shared by everyone in the room,

"Lemme see," she said as she looked around, "A few a' that snake fuckers playthings," she said nodding... approvingly, then her eyes widened as she noticed Kakashi "Zat you White fang Jr?" she asked walking over, "How's your girlfriend doing?" Kakashi's eye narrowed at her, "Whas her name again?" she asked rubbing her chin, then the grin split her mouth again, "Rin Nohara," she said, "bet you miss her, like a hole in the hear-" Kakashi raised his headband, showing his sharingan eye filled with fury,"

"DON'T YOU EVEN SAY HER NAME!" he roared charging in with a lightning blade,

The roar woke Naruto from his fear, and he roared, "S-STOP HER!"

And every ninja in the lab, all aimed at one woman, who grinned, "This'll be fun" she stated,

"HORN POINT SHADOW!" Naruto Roared,

"VILOLENT SWING!" Syo shouted,

"FIRE FIST," Guren growled sending Tayuya's attack at Ameyuri before she raised her staff, "ROCK WALL CRUSH!" she said making a seemingly defensive wall that then sped toward her,

"W-water gun!" Hinata muttered sending a small blast of water,

"Legendary hero!" Raiga cried slashing at her,

Sakon and Ukon turned back to normal, fused together and then again transformed combining into a strange Peacock/Euoplocephalus hybrid monster, that used it's wings to launch itself into the air and then dive bomb the woman,

Just As Kurenai was about to use her own Genjustu she froze, Ameyuri tossed the arm, catching the fruit with her teeth and ran through very familiar one handed hand signs, ones she'd just seen Kakashi himself use,

"Lightning blade!" Both Kakashi and Ameyuri cried,

But holding both the jutsu and the Kiba blade forward Ameyuri had forced Kakashi to dodge, as she charged straight to Raiga,

He held his sword up "Roar of the skies!" the impact pushed her back and she discarded the Lightning blade and swung at Raiga who blocked the pathetic strike easily, while the old woman gasped for air, "Ha!" Raiga laughed before he spat in her eye, "How are your lungs holding up hag?!" he asked pushing his electric blade closer to her neck, "How does it feel dying an old worthless carcass?" he asked,

"A-," she groaned, then grabbed his arm, "Actually," she swallowed something in her throat and smiled, "I'm feeling younger every second,"

"AH!" Raiga cried as he started to feel weak, it's like he was being drained, his hair started to turn grey and hers slowly started changing back to red, her wrinkles shrinking,

Raiga started kicking her, but she tossed him down, "Ah!" she moaned, popping several joints, "Much better," she said, then she reached down and ripped part of his shirt off, using it to wipe her mouth, then she dropped the scrap and turned back, to the other ninja, "I haven't felt this good in ages," she stated, "So-," she blinked out of existence, Suddenly Guren launched herself in front Kidomaru, when they both reappeared Guren had grown even larger, her skin changed to stone except for the dino bits, and Ameyuri had sliced right through her shoulder, wounding Kidomaru behind her, she grabbed them both and threw them onto the ground,

"Didn't mean to hit you lizard tits, kinda wanted to keep you around for later, but eh you blocked my shot so what can ya do?" she asked stretching herself, "Who's next?"

Yakumo appeared behind her, half beast form as her disguise had vanished, she tired swiping for Ameyuri's neck, "Nope," she said then dodging it, and the repeated strikes, Kakashi charged her next and Syo stepped after him but stopped, she watched as Kakashi and Yakumo were pushed back by the still grinning elder woman, "C'mon" she urged, "I thought me being this old would handicap me enough," she laughed,

Syo reached down her top, "MASTER!" she shouted, "Pl-please don't look," she begged, "Syo's about to become really ugly," she said pulling several bars out from her breasts, she dropped the sickle and to her knees and started eating the entire bars some times even the wrappers included, as she ate her stomach grew larger and larger, then when she stood up, she leapt forward and slashed down her strike barely blocked by Ameyuri,

"That's more like it fatso," she laughed, "Or should I call you power pudge?"

"Syo will kill you!" The pink haired girl roared,

Naruto watched in awe as Syo, now fat actually seemed to be evenly fighting Ameyuri, and also it seemed easier for her to move strangely, but beyond that, she was still the same girl as before, he had no idea what she'd meant about becoming ugly,

Yakumo grabbed her hammer and charged forward the two girls trying to distract Ameyuri while Kakashi readied another lightning blade,

Then Sakon and Ukon stomped over to the woman, "DIE!" they roared together smashing their spikey feather whip like tail into Ameyuri, "HOW'S THAT-,"

Ameyuri grinned and sent a bolt of lightning at them which was blocked by a large snow hand that rose from the ground, A red headed woman ran inside, she leapt onto the back of Sakon and Ukon, "What are you doing? RUN!" she screamed, both heads seemed to consider her words before they charged out, grabbing Guren and Kidomaru before they ran,

The snow blocking the entrance vanished letting them pass easily,

"Aw seems there's less prey for me now," Ameyuri pouted leaning backwards dodging Syo's swing that would've beheaded her, and then back up dodging Yakumo trying to bring her maul down on her head, Kakashi with his Justu finished stormed forward ready to slice right through Ameyuri, He aimed to uppercut her, "Lightning-," buts she vanished and then put a sword though his ribs, which she then gleefully tore out, "Shoulda waited for me to finished the weaklings off," she said before smashing his head into the ground, Both Syo and Yakumo had her trapped between them, but she grinned and rolled past them, ran through the handsigns again, and Naruto watched in Horror, first Ameyuri dodged Syo then pressed the tip of her lightning covered sword to Yakumo's chest,

The young fox girl's mouth opened, but nothing came out as she was electrocuted, Syo dropped her sickle and tried to grab her sister, Ameyuri raised her leg and for a moment it was covered in fur, before she brought it down on Syo's head which smashed through the floor, and then she stopped moving, Then Ameyuri grinned, turning her attention to the three leaf girls, she shot forward like lightning towards Ino, who shut her sobbing eyes as death approached her, the Kurenai tried to get to her,

But Ameyrui moved faster then she had,

Ino opened her eyes after her back hit sand and something warm splashed over her face and chest, the image in front of her would be burned into her brain for a very long time,

Naruto was rising from the ground, he looked like he was in massive pain as his right arm flew off,

She stared up at him her eyes filled with shock as he dropped to his knees and held his bleeding arm nub,

He screamed out in pain, Ameyuri just grinned, she whistled at him, "Buddy, you still there?" she asked waving her hand in front of his face,

Naruto, held his bleeding stump and looked up at her with a glare,

The effect made her laugh again, "Damn," she said looking down at him, "That's some-," she dodged Kurenai's attacks before she kneed her in the stomach, "-resilience," she grinned,

She studied him for a moment then she kneeled down to him, "..." then she grinned,

"Here chief," she said grabbing his shoulder, "Something to remember me by!"

Ameyuri pulled Naruto to his feet, lifted up her own leg, and stomped down on Naruto's kneecap,

Naruto screamed again as his leg twisted at the wrong angle,

Kurenai drew closer and tried to hit Ameyuri, but she was gone in a flash,

Naruto dropped to the floor like a puppet that had it's strings cut, and promptly passed out,

.

..

...

Naruto gasped for air as he woke,

It was a horrid familiar sight that greeted him, the grey walls of Konoha's hospital room,

He groaned, trying to remember how he'd gotten here, but everything was a blur,

Even trying his hardest all he remembered was pain, lighting, and the sound of mocking laughter,

He gritted his teeth and tried to sit up,

Around the room were people, they were asleep,

Naruto remembered his family of course, Pakura had taken a corner and had Syo with her, she held her tightly in her arms as if trying to shield the pink haired girl from the world around them, two strange things were one Pakura seemed to have a shadow, but from where he was he couldn't really tell, and two Patchwork and Yakumo were nowhere in sight,

He continued looking around, Sakura, Hinata and Ino, were also present, the strangest was Ino who seemed to have blood splatter on her outfit, it looked like it led up to her face but she had no scarring and the outfit while torn, it looked more like it had gotten snagged on several branches rather then she had been stabbed,

Naruto shut his eyes, trying to think of what had happened to him, where had he been before ending up here,

Another flash, he remembered... the purple haired woman, what was her name again?

Then his door opened and his thoughts were interrupted,

The bun haired girl entered the room holding a vase filled with flowers, she looked surprised at him being awake, "Hey Naruto," she said gently, she gestured to the flowers, "Just figured I'd come visit," she said setting it down on his bedside table,

She looked down with him, "You're... one tough guy, you know that?"

Naruto's head buzzed, he had no idea what she meant,

She rattled off words, only one of them Naruto could hear over the growing buzzing in his ears,

"I'm sorry," he said interrupting her, "But what happened?" he asked,

Tenten frowned, "Well, uh," she glanced at his right arm,

Naruto turned to see what she was looking at, his right forearm was gone, his nub was covered in bandages, "wh-what?" he asked, "wh-," he looked around in a panic, "Where's my arm?" he asked, he started hyperventilating,

Tenten gently brought his head back to her, "Easy Naruto, eaaasy," she said gently, "breathe," she coached him,

Naruto tried as best as he could to breathe, but his arm was missing, he couldn't remember anything, Yakumo was gone, Patchwork wasn't here,

"Calm down," Tenten said bringing him back down from his thoughts, "I'll tell you what I can but it isn't much,"

Naruto nodded, "Y-," he tried harder to breathe, "Yakumo, where's Yakumo," he said,

"The girl you were with a few days ago? the one who brought the maul?" Tenten asked, "That's... yeah," she kneeled on the floor and met his eyes, "But don't freak out okay?" she asked,

Naruto nodded, "Okay," he said,

Tenten smiled as best as she could, "She's...in intensive care,"

Naruto used his shadow to get him out of his bed, his only thought was to help Yakumo, but the second he was on his feet, he screamed in pain and fell over, "Muh, my leg," he cried, "What's wrong with my leg!" he looked up at Tenten, not realising he'd woken everyone in the room up,

"It was broke!" she cried grabbing his arm, "Why did you do that?"

"Brat why the hell're you outta bed?" Pakura demanded,

"No time," Naruto grimaced, "Yakumo needs help," he hacked out some blood and pointed out the room, "G-go help her,"

Pakura frowned, "Naruto!" She shouted, she grabbed him and picked him up easily, putting him back into bed, after he was down she put a finger in his face, "Yakumo was electrocuted, you lost an arm and a leg," she stated, "You are both where you are needed," she stated, "get out of bed again and I will sit on you to keep you in bed,"

"Master!" Syo pushed past Pakura and grabbed him and sobbed, "Maaaaasteeeeeer~!" She cried, "Syooooooo thouuuuuuught sheeee looooost yooooou,"

But Pakura handled that as well, as delicately as he expected her to, by which he meant she covered Syo's mouth and hissed, "This is a hospital, pipe down brat,"

Next was Ino, who to Naruto's surprise just wrapped her arms around him as best as she could while crying much more quietly, Pakura picked her up as well, "Oh stop blubbering over him blondie,"

Hinata just stared at him sadly stuttering, he couldn't really tell what she was saying though,

Fortunately Tenten was there to help him, "She wants to know if you're okay,"

"A little in pain and I don't remember anything about how I got here, otherwise I'm fine," Naruto said,

He noticed that Sakura just stared at him from where she was,

"Something wrong?" he asked her,

"Y-your arm," she said, "Your leg," she shook her head, "you've been here for days," she said, tears welling up in her eyes, "not moving, not talking, just breathing,"

Pakura stared at her for a second, "Do you not understand that... he's a ninja?" she asked,

"Pakura drop it," Naruto said, "And them," he gestured to Syo and Ino who were both dropped to the floor still crying,

It had taken a while to calm them all down but eventually they had, when Kurenai came into the room, she actually smiled at seeing him awake and asked him if he needed anything,

He asked how long the girls had been here,

After getting an answer that shocked and surprised him he asked if she'd mind taking them home, to which she just smiled again and tried to convince them all to leave Naruto to get his rest, Pakura and Syo were of course not leaving, and after a while Kurenai just gave up on convincing them, Ino gave Naruto another tearful hug, Sakura held his hand firmly and told him she'd come see him tomorrow, and Hinata just awkwardly tried to think of something before she blurted out "Tomorrow See you I" blushed and covered her face as she mumbled, "not that order gah I'm so sorry,"

Tenten refused the walk home since this had been her first day here, she stayed and chatted to Naruto for a few minutes before she said she had to get back to work and then reminded him about his huge order, also that he had her personal number and she expected a call sometime after he got out,

Next in the Room was Sasuke and Kakashi, they seemed more awkward about their visit, Sasuke not saying much, but every so often giving his arm looks, the only thing Naruto really gleamed from them was that his arm was fine and he might be able to get it reattached, but the hospital would operate on his leg first, also the reasons that his leg was still not being operated on was because Pakura assured the nurses and doctors that if they helped Naruto before Yakumo he'd likely shove his semi broken leg up their asses, which he confirmed with Pakura and told her that she was right in her assumptions,

Next was Hiruzen, who was the one who finally answered a few questions Naruto had, first of all was how was Yakumo doing? apparently she would be okay, but required around the clock attention due to how her body was,

According to Sarutobi she was at times, more awake then he was, often demanding sweets she couldn't have, and when she got them just using the bags as toys and making them beat each other up, then was how they'd made it back, apparently Kurenai had been left mostly untouched by Ameyuri and who'd just left after Naruto passed out, but Isaribi hadn't, and she'd crossed the bridge full Kaima form and with her kaima strength had pulled Syo out of the ground, and the three women had carried the lot of them out of the village,

Isaribi however decided to stay at her new home, likely scared she'd never see him again anyway, and wanting to remember him and Yakumo as they were in Sea, not as bedridden vegetables,

Next was Patchwork,

Naruto was shocked to hear that she was helping with the furniture being delivered to the house when Pakura's shadow exited her and flew back into Pakura,

Haku also hadn't woken up while he'd been gone, but Ox had kept his word and gone around to make sure she was still breathing while Naruto was resting,

Then Naruto asked how he'd ended up in here and Hiruzen told him about his failed mission, which brought back a few memories,

Next was that he was suspended from active duty until his leg was at least good enough to stand on, it took a few days but eventually Naruto was operated on, and he was given a wheelchair to leave in and his arm in a jar that he rested on his legs, while Yakumo was given crutches,

Unfortunately Pakura did hear about how much rest Naruto would need before he and Yakumo should be taken out of bed,

Worse, for the next few days, they all shared the same bed, because the revived Patchwork gave him a choice, let them all snuggle, or she would make good on her promise to burn the village to ashes,

It had been a month since he'd recovered and since he'd left the house, using the time for Physiotherapy, Or that's what he'd instructed Patchwork to tell everyone,

In truth, he was waiting,

Since he could no longer go on missions he'd given his sickle, and his ''trainer's'' shadow to Pakura, since he needed a few. . .''things''

He simply stewed on how he'd been rendered unable to help his family, due to his fear and his uselessness,

He saw Pakura approach the manor, and his shadow carried him out of his darkened office and down the stairs,

When he got downstairs the vault door leading to the Zombie. Preparation. Room. was wide open and he could hear the two women walking down it, his shadow carried him after them, the door closing behind them,

As he entered the final level He was happy to know a table had already been chosen, the parts he needed and a few spares were all ready to go,

His shadow laid him down, his back facing the ceiling,

"My prince are you certain of this?" Patchwork asked,

Naruto nodded, as best as he could, "Yes," he stated, "I've spent as much of the last month as I could practicing on animals and reading up on the medical techniques that will, in theory make it all possible,"

"In theory he says," Pakura said, "As if it's gonna make us feel better,"

"It will work," Naruto said, "I just have to enter a trance and take over my shadow, if I'm right about the Nine Tails Regeneration, then this should be... simple, and excruciatingly painful,"

"Not helping your case brat," Pakura said,

But Naruto shut his eyes and focused on what he wanted, he opened them again and saw his own back, and then looked down at his shadow's hands, or hand rather, he twisted his shadow and forged another arm,

He tested it a few times, before he picked up a scalpel, "This is going to hurt quite a bit," he said nervously, it was weird watching himself talk as the words came from his body,

First was his nub, he cleanly sliced it open, Patchwork passed him his arm, just barely recovered and kept alive by medical Ninjutsu, he'd have to thank Kurenai for that, and then the stitching began,

When he could think much past his own pain Naruto pondered how he'd never had this idea before, it was strange sure, but if it all worked he'd be four times as effective as he was before, especially during his next surgery, and in combat he supposed,

And the pain was intense, the surgery in theory would take an hour, mostly just incisions in skin or flesh, finding the nerve clusters in the still living limbs and his own body, and connecting them, using needle, thread, medical ninjutsu, and a little help from his own personal demon,

The pain however drew out the process to the entire day, so many times he had to rest because of pain,

Sometimes he almost thought of bludgeoning himself just to end the pain, but he was stopped every time and after a short break was back to work,

He couldn't use anything that numbed his body either, he needed his pain to make sure the nerves were connected right,

A few hours later and he was done, his shadow returned underneath him, and he passed out, red chakra flowed over him and soon all wounds had closed making his surgery permeant,

The women carried him upstairs and put him on a bed next to the still comatose Haku, they put him on an I.V. and a heart monitor before Pakura yawned and left the room, eager to hug her kids, and get some rest,

When Naruto awoken inside a cold dark tower, he remembered the days he'd spent wandering it's halls before, though he still wondered if he was going up or down,

It again seemed to be cold and unending hallways that coiled around themselves, and still he couldn't tell if he was going up or down,

But he did continue walking,

At the end after hours and hours of walking he found the top of the tower,

And behind steel bars he saw what he could only assume was a beast princess and her large fox pet, they were separated by bars, and held apart by a chain, that when one moved forward the other would be pulled back, the chains were attached to collars that had little pieces of paper hanging from them,

The woman and the beast were both highly scarred, and both glared at him,

The woman had darker skin, and her hair was a deep red, almost carmine, she glared at him, "Finally found your way here have you?" she asked with a scoff, "So what do you think?" she asked, "Of your prisoners?"

The large crimson fox whined at her for a second,

"Oh shut it you!"

Naruto raised his hands to touch the bars, "What is this-," but the sunk into the floor, allowing him access to the cells,

"No!" the woman cried, "S-stay out!"

The Fox gnashed it's teeth at him, and only got fiercer as he entered,

Two shackles appeared out of the wall and held the woman's hands back, "No!" she shrieked, "S-STAY BACK!"

Naruto realised why she was so freaked out when her legs were forcibly spread and like her wrists restrained, "How horrid," he said, looking around, "Is there a way to... get you free?" he asked,

"Free?" she asked, the fox stopping it's threats to tilt it's head in confusion,

As Naruto looked around he realised there was a table... one he was almost certain had not been in the room before, he walked over to it and looked over everything,

"T-that's not how it works," the woman said, he looked at her, and she continued, "this is your mindscape, here you can will things into existence"

"Or out of existence?" he asked and She nodded,

Naruto stared at her, the shackles holding one of her legs vanished, and he dropped to one of his knees, "whuh, Why was that so hard?" he asked as red energy from the fox behind him started flowing into him,

"You're already injured," the woman said, "Try recovering and then make another vanish,"

Naruto fell to the ground, "Wh-" he looked up at the woman, "Who are you?" he asked,

"I am-," She stopped and shook her head, "Kurama," she said, "My name is Kurama,"

"I-," Naruto's eyes felt heavy, "I'll be back Kurama" he said with a groan as he passed out,

He vanished after, and the woman smirked, "I'm counting on it, my prince"

It was a two days before Naruto again awoken,

When he had, he rose from the bed, popped his neck, and left to go practice with his four new arms, and re-learn how to use his right hand,

It was two months before he left the manor, he hobbled outside his house held up on a cane, not that he even needed a cane to get by now, but appearances was everything, which was why he'd left the house without his cape, The people he once showed fear too, took one look at him and backed away in fear,

His eyes had changed, once a deep ocean blue they were now purple, but his pupils seemed sharper then before, his teeth were certainly sharper, looking closer to fangs, his nails seemed to become more like claws, with one arm on his cane as he walked, two arms linked with an arm and a tail of the girls walking by him, and one holding a lantern lighting the dark streets and more importantly, his face to those still out at the late hour, Syo grinned happily as she held onto one of his arms, but the re-forged cleaver swords at her hip dared anyone to come close, Yakumo prowled though the streets, full beast form, her tails whipping through the air, except for one that linked with one of Naruto's arms, Isaribi stood behind Naruto towering over him in her Kaima form, Patchwork walked, her face neutral, but her joints twisted, and finally there was Pakura, she flipped two of her scimitars with one hand while the other burned hot as if fire encased it,

When he finally got to the Hokage manor, Naruto smirked, the civilians would spread the word of what he'd become, he only hoped it would reach Ameyuri, that not only had Naruto Uzumaki bounced back from the ''battle'' he had with her, but he had also twisted his own body, now he was the biggest freak of them all, and he had no interest in blending in with so called, ''normal'' humans,

He turned off his lantern and entered the brightly lit room, delighted at the shadow he cast,

At first the receptionist didn't look at Naruto, too busy looking over some files he had, "Hello and what is yAHH!," but when he did look, he was afraid, in terror he fell off his chair and almost hit the wall behind him,

But Naruto's shadow caught him, freaking the receptionist out more, "My," Naruto spoke gently, "You look like you've seen an awfully frightening sight," he said as his shadow placed the trembling man back in his chair, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, with the Uzumaki Family," he said gesturing to himself and his family, "Here to tell Hiruzen Sarutobi that I'm ready for active duty,"

"H-h-he's in a m-m-meeting," The receptionist stated,

Naruto chuckled, "Oh I'm sure it'll will be alright, I'm only here to pop in and inform him my leg is doing better, surely it won't take too much of his time," Naruto said drawing closer to the desk, "But what do you think?" he asked turning his purple gaze to the receptionist, he stood over him and asked, "Do you think it would be too much trouble? I could come back tomorrow I suppose,"

"Pl-please!" The receptionist cried, "G-g-go right on in!"

Naruto smiled, "Very well, if you insist," he walked past the desk, "Thank you for the assurance," and then as he approached the stairs he turned into a shadow and vanished appearing at the top, of the stairs instead, he waited for his family to catch up to him, and when they were all together again they continued towards the meeting room, his new appearance spooking more then just the few civilians outside, yet he acted kind and surprised that those who saw him would be shocked, as if he had no idea why they were suddenly scared,

But internally he was glad, he was starting to strike terror in those who might otherwise be willing to harm his family,

As he came outside the meeting room, two of his arms worked to straighten his outfit, while a third knocked, "We're in a meeting," An old woman called from inside the room,

"I was aware of that madam," Naruto said finally getting the creases out of his new shirts sleeves, "But I am here to inform Lord Third of something,"

The doors opened and Naruto limped inside, making sure to look like he was reliant on his cane to stand,

The people inside gasped at his appearance, some looked intrigued as he moved his new limbs around as he performed a grandiose bow, others looked disgusted,

Naruto fought back his smirk as he raised his head, "Good evening Jiji," he nodded toward Hiruzen, "Councillors, Clan heads," he placed two hands on his cane while another seemed to fiddle with his collar, "As you can likely tell by my appearance here at this late hour, my physiotherapy has managed to allow me to stand again despite Raiga shattering my leg," he stated, "Though as you've all deduced T'is only due to this cane here that I can now stand, but rest assured I have done extensive tests on myself and I should be ready to return to active duty again,"

Hiruzen stared at him, "Naruto," he said, "What have you done to yourself?" he asked in shock and disbelief,

"Mmm?" Naruto rubbed his chin, "I'm afraid I don't follow,"

"The arms," Hiruzen stated, "Why?"

Naruto pretended to just realise what he meant, "Ah, I see what you mean now," he held up all but one of the arms, the last of which he kept on his cane, "Well, I was in my manor bedridden, wondering how I would recover with my leg in such a state when an idea struck me," he said, "I looked over at my... lack of an arm and thought, how many people have gone through this? how many have lost their limbs?" he said, "and then another thought occurred to me, I am making zombies, taking the bodies of slain foes and stitching them together to make zombies," he looked at the arm he'd been forced to re-attach, "what if I sewed them to a living body?" he asked, "What if instead of just improving the army, what if we improved ourselves,"

Naruto chuckled, "At first I thought the idea foolish, born of painkillers and boredom, yet the longer I laid there, the more I thought of it,"

His arms worked quickly, taking off the sleeves of one of his new arms, folding it down, showing them the skin, another arm removed Naruto's sickle and opened a cut on it,

They watched in horror as blood ran down the attached limb, before slowly red chakra enveloped the cut, and began closing the dripping wound,

"With them, I can feel, bleed, heal, and I've already tested myself with a few surgeries, I managed to deliver complex treatments needed to save lives all alone in moments," he said flexing or stretching most of the limbs, popping his joints, as he continued, "Imagine the lives that could be saved should others undergo this surgery," Naruto stated, "But also it proves a theory that with a bit more training I might be capable of other types of surgery," he said, "A lookout with more eyes, giving Taijutsu users more internal muscle or stronger bones,"

Danzo seemed to have his interest piqued, "Uzumaki-san, are you implying that it might be possible to what? make drastic improvements to not only any zombies you make, but also to our own Ninja?"

Shikaku crossed his arms as he thought, "It's not too far fetched considering what he's done to himself," he said, "And I can't even imagine what this would do for Konoha's strength,"

"I-impossible!" One of the councillors cried, "You would take the word of this... this," she shook her head, "This freak!" she cried, "Just look at what he's done to his own body,"

Hiruzen glared at her, "Council woman Haurno!" he said, "Such disrespect should not be directed at any member of Konoha," he stated, "Least of all a Ninja who's entire duty is to make certain that you and your family have the privilege to sleep soundly at night,"

But Naruto just put a hand On Sarutobi's shoulder stopping him, "It's fine Jiji," he said, before turning to the councilwoman, "Miss Haruno, please," he said with a smile, "Calling me a freak is rather uncalled for," he said, "For you see I am not merely any freak," he said, "But rather, I am Naruto Uzumaki," he stated, "The Ruler of Shadows," he said, "The Jinjuriki of The Nine Tailed Fox," He stated, their terror grew, "But most importantly," He spread four of his arms out wide, "I am the Prince of Freaks."

Quickly he turned, "Well I've held you all up for long enough," he said, "Good evening," he said before he left the room,

He'd done everything he wanted to do tonight, now all he'd have to do, is wait.

OCTOPUS-End of chapter-OCTOPUS

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You know, I really like the Thriller Bark Arc in One Piece, it gives us so many interesting and weird characters, like Oda just decided to come up with a reason to make a bunch of odd characters, some that I absolutely love like Brook and Perona, Hell I even love Thriller Bark itself, it's a massive island with it's own castle and a pirate ship at the same time, like that is awesome, but every One Piece fan agrees, there's at least one major problem with the arc, Gecko Moria. his design, his personality, literally everything but his powers is off putting about him, but one thing has always bothered me personally,

Why was Absalom the only one of his living generals the only one who went under Hogbeck's knife? like he even explains that doing so made him much stronger then he was before, (nowhere near strong enough to beat Sanji without forcing him to hold up the Goddess Nami while Absalom attacked him,)

Why was Moria never one to go under the knife?, like imagine how big your shadow could be if you had fucking giant bat wings dude,(or dragon wings which I just remembered are a thing in one piece) and this guy who's all about becoming King of the Pirates with the least effort, never once did that, (then again he never even regularly carries anything that can make light, allowing him to cast a bigger shadow anywhere at anytime (except in the day, but then your shadow is already big enough) Anyway enough rambling,

Can you tell I've been wanting to do that with this Naruto for so long? can't have a freak family without being a freak yourself,

And he will become their Prince, the Prince of Freaks,

After all they deserve to live just as much as anyone else does,

I don't remember when I think it was when I first saw Susamaru when I realised how awesome it was just to add extra arms to a character, (Here's a list of things I saw before Demon Slayer, ahem, The animated Spiderman show with the Man-spider arc (don't look up Man-spider if you don't like spiders, back in the show it was fine, now it's more realistic) General Grievous, Doxxies (In the Harry Potter ps2 games), Kidomaru, Tetramands, Hachan from One Piece, Shokan, Asura, Muffet, Kurama's Asura form, Harry Partridge's Dr Bees Returns with Omnipitron, and probably more that I just don't remember,) The point of this is that I am dumb,

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Present Our hero: Okay I think that's it, I've basically been re-writing this since like halfway through august, there's likely some shit I need to change but they're minor things and I'll come back to them later, I have not been able to think about anything but this chapter for ages, but more on that below after the reviews where I also go into why I rewrote this,

As for now, I'm tired, I've been working on this for ages and I'm starved, So I'm gonna post this, and you guys hit me with any mistakes you notice and I'll have them fixed when this story replaces chapter four, okay? okay,

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Review corner: VVV

God of Wind 200, first comment: Eh haven't really thought about Hinata joining the harem much,

God of Wind 200, second comment: Okay brother I'm gonna have to stop you right there, first of all I'd like to state that beyond any baseline google searches I've done I have not studied the extremely interesting topic of human psychology, however even with my layman's understanding I know that when a person goes through intense trauma especially as it relates to a person they once trusted, that contact with said person will likely make their trauma worse, for example, just one I thought off the top of my head with no prompting, Kurenai being taken as breeding stock by Naruto who Yakumo both likes and lives with,

Kurenai living in the same house as Yakumo(even if it was against Kurenai's will) would cause Yakumo intense stress, and fear, (Fear is not a rational thing and even if Kurenai's limbs were removed and she could no longer do Yakumo any harm, Yakumo would still be afraid of her,)

This would cause Yakumo to now start distrusting Naruto, just because she has a crush on him doesn't prevent any negative emotions she might have, in fact due to her like of Naruto she would likely start treating him like she does Kurenai if not far worse due to having already thought she'd been rescued by him from Kurenai only for him to put her through the same thing, leading for her to treat him with fear and distrust, (It's almost like she was betrayed by two people she really trusted or something,)

Next is The Uzumaki family, Naruto's band of misfits would grow to hate him for putting Yakumo in a position where a person she fears and hates is living in her home, causing her stress, which causes her family stress, which they will then direct onto the person responsible, you know Naruto,

In short Naruto allowing/forcing Kurenai to live in his house would cause Yakumo stress, freak her out, make her suffering worse and in some cases drive her crazy and make her violent, (Consider if you will that she lives with a walking corpse, A trained shinobi, a literal psychopath, and a guy who can control shadows, and you might realise that she doesn't have the sanest moral support) and second, Yakumo would be up for Kurenai fucking off to the moon, not being tied up in a random room of her house to make babies,

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GameLover41529: I'm glad you think so bud, hope you continue to enjoy the story,

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UnlawfulGentleman First comment:

First of all thanks for the nightmare fuel, thought it does kinda remind me of a funny Spider-man comic moment where he's in a hostage situation and he just rises his arms and when the guy asks what he's doing he says, "I'm summoning spiders," and when the guy is like ''that's not your powers,'' looks at the woman he's holding, ''is it?'' and Spidey just responds, "I'm Spider-man" and the guy just gives up,

As for the train to Stompsville, Yeah, I'm trying to keep that stop from approaching too fast cause I'm not sure I got the talent to pull it off effectively, but... the first film with the land of snow/spring, well if that isn't where we finally arrive at Stompsville it'll be a stop near it,

I do have a few ideas for Sasuke's devil fruit, but I'm not sure which one I'll go for, but, I am so far leaning more towards Zoan,

Technically I did write a Yami Yami Naruto story, it was an Omake at the end of certain Grinning Ninja chapters, But I'll probs take them all and put them as a collection on the pat-r-eon, also it probably wasn't that good, and it was short lived, Thinking back on it, I kinda do want to take another crack at it,

I have to say you've got a good idea of where the story is going as well,

I actually have an omake ready for chapter five called ''The doctor is in'' where several leaf personal come to Uzumaki Manor for a quick surgery with the now multi-armed doctor,

Okay If I wrote notes rather then just keeping the story info in my brain I'd start to wonder if you'd found my notes on the story cause sometimes you and I are going the exact same place bud, I didn't think of the living trees though, but bud, I am now,

Brotha I have to be honest here Shadow Asgard, is gonna be hype, like imagine the Naruto we already have, but a giant and with the strength and skills of 1000 ninja, I'm also working on more forms with the intent for Shadow Asgard to be like Gear 5, but when we get it, It's not going away, just one thing, I don't think he's gonna be S-class at that point, I think he's gonna get a universal Flee On sight order,

Well I have a Naruto Story where he ate my personal favourite devil fruit the Yuki Yuki no mi(technically I did it twice, one is on the Pat-reon free to view at any time) and one in the works where a female Naruto Ate the Bari Bari no mi,(though that one has been getting worked on for ages,) though I do like a few of your story Ideas, I'll have to bookmark for whenever I actually finish a story,

I like your Big Mom Naruto story idea, It's another I'll have to bookmark for when I've finally finished a story, Not sure to make that one first or the one where Naruto becomes a skelly-boi,

Glad you had a good time reading brotha, I'm happy to know I got you to have fun while you read, and I will try,

Side note, The image of this Naruto sitting an adult ninja in a chair and wagging his finger disapprovingly at them because they got caught at night will now stick with me forever,

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UnlawfulGentleman Second comment:

I'd like to think part of the reason everyone in the council chamber treats Naruto with suspicion is in large part because he already has a zombie maid, sure he said it's made of enemy ninja, but it wouldn't have been that hard to dig up anyone would it? and then he admitted to talking a Jonin and a Clan Head into killing herself,

Was this Aimed at me or others? "Two, STOP. I get it. Sarutobi is GOAT Grandpa in canon. Canon also forgets gramps is a seasoned veteran of war who earned his place as Hokage and even as an old man, his reputation keeps the other villages in their place; fearful of what the Professor, the God of Shinobi might do. If you don't think that Sarutobi Hiruzen is capable of testing Naruto like this then you're in love with the shounen and not the concept, the world itself; where he might love the boy but also understands he could be a very real threat to the village and needed to be tested. I mean come on."

If it's aimed at me Sorry bro, I try to keep him as grandfatherly as I can, because I like that softer side of him, But Sarutobi isn't stupid, and Naruto did bring a Psychopath into the village, he's bound to want to test he isn't just pretending to be loyal,

To your third point I entirely agree, private practice might as well be entirely theoretical when compared to actual combat, for example, play a game Like Tf2 or Paladins, learn about the characters and what they can do without actually ever playing them, and then jump into a game, see how many people you get, and how many get you, the only real curb stomp Naruto has is an instant knockout/kill if he grabs someone's shadow, and the ability to buff himself up with shadows,

The next point I'm gonna leave here so I can explain something, "Finally, Yakumo, fox and clans. Odin, give me strength: it's an AU and reducing the age of a character is nothing, especially when she's no one important. Kitsune Devil Fruit. Possibly a SMILE Fruit. Maybe, just maybe, Naruto experimented on her. I mean holy shit guys. Finally, it's AN AU. DOZENS OF AUTHORS HAVE GIVEN LIFE TO RANDOM CLANS. As long as they eventually matter in some way, stop crying that they exist; it's not that bad and allows the author to play around and embrace fun shit, like world-building and all that."

Okay so I'm guessing people wonder why there's a Nine-tailed fox devil fruit when there's also a Nine Tailed fox, and honestly I'm confused, why did no one ask? or did someone ask and I was either being dumb and misunderstanding them? or trying to be mysterious? (Just checked no one asked,) regardless I'll answer it here because that storyline is so far off I can't just not answer, it's the same reason Shizuku Kurama always gets the Nine tailed fox fruit in all my stories where there are devil fruits in Naruto's universe,

Because the Kurama clan and their clan secret(The Nine Tailed fox devil fruit,) were both created By Kurama to serve her, basically they were a cult and their leader(who is always female) eats the devil fruit Kurama made specifically for her cult's leader, This is based on a head cannon I have due to the Clan and Kurama sharing the same name, Basically she created the devil fruit to turn it's eater into a watered down clone of herself in return for the clan's eternal loyalty and protection from other humans, now I haven't really worked much on the lore of the Kurama clan cult yet as that storyline was for waaaaaay down the line, so whether they were still serving her or not is entirely unknown even to me right now,

But keep it in mind cause it will be incredibly important to Yakumo's arc later on in the story,

Also and I'm only saying this as clarification, while my obsession with Yakumo Kurama is pretty well documented(Or at least my need to insert her into every Naruto story I write is), I uh, didn't make her or her clan, I made Shizuku Kurama because as far as I could tell Yakumo's cannon mother didn't have a name so I named her after a character in a game I was playing at the time and just kinda kept her around,
Seriously there was a filler arc in the anime about Yakumo, I just latched onto the character for some reason, (Though I am making more lore for them then Kishimoto did so I'll take the compliment) but seriously, she's real, look her up on the wiki guys, her Clan's Kekkie Genkai makes Illusions real,

Anyway there's the answer to that question, and guys, if you want to know something, don't be afraid to ask, the worst I'll do is pretend I have no idea what you're talking about,

...Or I might have a brain fart and actually have no idea what you're talking about, point is, if you wanna know, ask,

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Okay guys, remember that I have a P-A-T-R-E-O-N, I'll post the link here, patr-eon/OurheroFanWriterHaverOfDumbIdeas

Okay, good long chapter that I finally finished 3:03 am,

...

Listen you guys don't mind if rather then proof reading this to make sure it all makes sense, I go brush my teeth, get a nice mug of Tea, and try to get some sleep right?

You don't?

Aw thanks guys, you're the best,

Well, that's that I guess, uh thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed, always remember to like favourite and subscribe, and hit the bell,

Oh and don't forget to bookmark the pages,

...

Man I really am tired,

Night all,

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Ahem, Present Our hero here and I have a confession to make, The original chapter four was an abridged version of my original chapter four idea,

At first I thought it was fine, people will like it anyway,

And they did,

As far as I know the majority of the fans of the story liked the chapter,

But in the back of my mind there was a nagging feeling,

And after a certain comment that nagging feeling, turned to realisation, I failed this story,

Not because of this comment, "I'm out. fic turned into shit. It wasn't great to begin with, considering you just jumped into shit like Yakumo being 8 and a kitsune without anything like adequate explanation, and all the vague stuff about the Kurama clan.

But this entire mission, team make-up, etc. was just beyond stupid to begin with. If the Hokage signed off on it, then he's Naruto's enemy. If he didn't sign off on it, the mission is illegal, because ONLY the Hokage can approve missions and give orders.

Kakashi taking orders on the mission from ancient crone counselors, who don't have that authority, makes Kakashi the one breaking rules/laws. Then some rando little blonde kid I didn't have the patience to see who it is, utterly manhandles Syo and Naruto like their academy students? All so you can 'make Naruto a freak'? Yeah, i'm out."

At first The comment hurt because I saw truth in it, now though after the reflection I've been doing I realised something,

WHY THE FUCK DID THE GUY KEEP READING THE STORY IF HE DIDN'T CARE FOR IT?, LIKE YOU'RE GOING TO WASTE YOU'RE TIME ON MY STORIES WHEN THERE ARE WAY BETTER ONES OUT THERE? what sense does that make?

LIKE SERIOUSLY, ''Ooh Yakumo's eight now and A kitsune without an explanation,'' TRY PAYING ATTENTION SUCKA, IN CHAPTER ONE NARUTO SAYS "It was not how Shizuku wanted you to know how she'd died," Naruto said, "She hated what had happened to her daughter and after I... told her a zoan type devil fruit would give her the strength to walk again Shizuku claimed her own life, she entrusted me with her clan's secret and instructed me to give it to Yakumo,"

DOES THAT NOT SEEM LIKE AN EXPLAINATION OF HOW SHE BECAME A DEVIL FRUIT USER? READ BETWEEN THE LINES, THE HESITATION AFTER I, A ZOAN TYPE FRUIT RETURING YAKUMO TO A HEALTHY BODY, SHIZUKU TAKING HER OWN LIFE AND INSTRUCTING NARUTO TO ''GIVE HER CLAN'S SECRET TO YAKUMO'' LIKE BROTHA DO I HAVE TO FREAKING SIT THERE WHILE YOU READ THE STORY AND EXPLAIN EVERYTHING TO YOU?

HOW ABOUT HIRUZEN'S THOUGHTS RIGHT AFTER "I see," Hiruzen said, 'That explains how Yakumo has her mother's devil fruit The Inu-Inu No Mi: Model Nine Tailed Fox, her weak bones and the drugging she received mean she might need to remain in her half beast form,'

And yes I poorly explained Yakumo's age as well, In chapter two, Pakura stared at the scene, "Well new girl certainly went for that quick, I thought Fluffy'd have to show the girl her true form fore she accepted that she was the big sister," she said,

And In chapter three we have this description of Yakumo, ''She no longer looked like a child, instead she was much taller and thin, bordering on gaunt but not quite there, pale too, not that you could tell due to her constant need of her man-beast form even to move, you'd never know just by looking at her that she was actually older then Naruto by three years, she walked into the room, "I figured I'd explore for a bit,"

IN OTHER WORDS IT WAS EXPLAINED THAT YAKUMO IS OLDER THEN SHE ACTS AND LOOKS, IN FACT READING THE PHRASES AGAIN IT SOUNDS LIKE NARUTO AND SYO ARE YOUNGER THEN YAKUMO, MAYBE IF YOU'D WAITED YOU'D HAVE READ THE SCENE WHERE YAKUMO EXPLAINS THE REASON SHE PRETENDS TO BE EIGHT YEARS OLD IS BECAUSE IT'S THE AGE BEFORE SHE WAS LOCKED AWAY BY HER OWN CLAN AND HER CHILDISH ATTITUDE IS DUE TO HER SUBCONSCIOUSLY TRYING TO REGAIN HER CHILDHOOD, NAAAAAAW AUTHORS HAVING PLANNED ARCS FOR THE CHARACTERS THEY'RE TRYING TO WRITE, THAT'S UNHEARD OF! I'LL BET I WAS JUST REAAL BIG DUMB STOOPID,

Now I'm done with that guy's comment, and honestly, I payed it too much attention then and now, the only difference between it and kids typing KYS, or telling me that my story is the worst thing they've ever read is that this dude actually put in ten seconds of work, but no more,

And in my retort to him here, I put in way more effort, so I suppose in the end he won,

BUT, make no mistake readers, I'm not back here re-writing this chapter because a buncha people didn't like it, I'm here because I had so MUCH more for this story,

More I wanted to do with this chapter, and you know what? I'm sick of this fucking story taking up space in my brain, so I'm putting it to rest here!

I'm not writing this chapter because I'm sad Agny didn't like it, because Agny thinks my story turned out like shit, cause here's the bottom line Agnar(please don't harrass him/her) if you're reading this, I AM WORKING ON SO MANY FUCKING STORIES AT ONCE! IT'S INEVITABLE ONE IS GONNA TURN OUT LIKE SHIT, Like here's a quick challenge for all you right now, Go read my bio and find the part that says stories I haven't abandoned count them, and then know that I'm working on them right now, OH and I'm also writing a story called Never Trust an Uzumaki for a guy called BigInfurno, so don't forget to add that one to the total as well, (Also go check it out if you like dark Naruto stories,)

I'll assume you've done that and get to the point,

I'm not doing this chapter rewrite for Agnar(Again please no harassing, they're just a person who didn't like the story,), or anyone who even liked the last chapter, I'm doing this FOR ME!

Because the more time I've thought about the last chapter the more I've entertained quitting, and then I try to write something else to get my mind off it, but that nagging part of my brain that won't let me write anything else cause I failed the og chapter four, so I think about quitting again,

BUT when You read this I'll have this Chapter as close to my original idea for it as possible,

And whether you hate it, love it, or don't care, doesn't matter,

What matters is that I entertained you, whether you were laughing with and/or at me, doesn't matter in the slightest,

Ladies, Gentlemen, and those who can not even be defined as such,

I have been your clown today,

And hopefully you've enjoyed the performance,

This is Our hero, saying No bully others, signing off,

Oh and A quick recap unless you couldn't find out why, Yakumo's clan (In my head cannon at least) was a cult that used to worship Kurama, and Kurama made them a devil fruit that their leader ate, whether they're still a cult dor the giant demon, will be decided later,