"W-Wait, what do you mean by 'testing my abilities'?" asked Naruto confused.
"Well, I'm curious about the abilities that ninjas have in your world and since you're a jinchuriki, I'm sure you're powerful, right?" asked Rimuru.
"Heh. Not to brag, but I'm the most powerful in my village and possibly the world." said Naruto with a toothy grin.
"Clearly you're bragging." said Kurama with a bead of sweat.
"Is that so? Then you won't have any trouble proving it to me." said Rimuru.
"Of course not, what do I have to do? If necessary, I'd even fight you." said Naruto.
"I like that enthusiasm, but it's not me you're going to face." said Rimuru.
"Ah no? Then who will I fight?" asked Naruto.
"You'll fight him." said Rimuru just as a man in horn and ninja attire suddenly appeared.
"I came as soon as you called me, Lord Rimuru." said the man with a horn.
"What? When did you call him?" asked Naruto.
"I did during our conversation. One of my abilities allows me to communicate with certain people telepathically." said Rimuru.
"Wow. He looks a bit like the hidden jutsu of the clan of Ino." began Naruto remembering that, when he fought in the war, they used a mental technique to communicate from a distance. "And who is he?"
"He's Souei, the leader of the Shadow Squad. An intelligence group in charge of information gathering and espionage." explained Rimuru.
"So, there are ninja here too?" asked Naruto in surprise.
"Souei, I would like you to test our guest's skills." said Rimuru.
"As you wish." said Souei focusing his gaze on the jinchuriki.
"Geez. He reminds me a bit of Kakashi-sensei." thought Naruto.
"If you're going to fight him, be careful. I can feel that he's very strong." said Kurama.
"I know. I feel it too." thought Naruto.
"Well, we'd better go somewhere else." said Rimuru getting up from his seat.
Later, the three found themselves in a training area, with Naruto and Souei on either side of the area while Rimuru stood to the side to watch the bout.
"Well, whenever you want, you can start." said Rimuru kicking off the bout.
"Since you are a guest of Lord Rimuru, I'll let you be the one to attack first." said Souei.
"Really?" asked Naruto in surprise before smiling in excitement. "Alright. I'm coming for you." said Naruto before making a seal with his hands. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" shouted Naruto causing several clones of him to appear around him through bursts of smoke.
"Mmm. They seem to be able to perform the copy technique, but it looks like they need to perform seals. It's probably due to the difference between chakra and magic." thought Rimuru.
"Attack!" shouted Naruto as he and his clones went on the attack.
"Interesting move, but let's see if you can handle this." said Souei drawing his swords before moving quickly between the clones, slashing at them with his swords in the process, causing them to disappear in bursts of smoke.
"Damn. He's so fast." thought Naruto.
"We shouldn't underestimate him." said Kurama.
"I won't. I have an idea." thought Naruto with a smile.
As Souei finished off several clones, he found himself surrounded by a smokescreen.
Suddenly, more of Naruto's clones came out of the smoke, but Souei was able to block and dodge their attacks while cutting them down with his swords.
"Try to overwhelm him with your numerical advantage. Good thinking, but that won't be enough to finish him off." thought Rimuru.
"Enough games." said Souei before spreading several threads around him, trapping all the clones whose arms, legs, torsos and necks became entangled in the threads.
With a small tug, he made the threads squeeze tightly, causing the clones to disappear in bursts of smoke.
Using his detection ability, he tried to locate the original, but, to his confusion, he was nowhere to be found.
"Hmm. That's odd. Where could it be?" asked Souei.
Suddenly, the ground near him began to crack and before he could react, Naruto came out of the ground with a clone by his side, but most notably, the original had a blue energy sphere in his hand as the clone ripped the air over the sphere.
"Rasengan!" shouted Naruto directing the sphere towards the kijin who managed to raise his arms to shield himself from the attack.
The attack ended up succeeding in getting Souei pushed backwards.
Needless to say, Rimuru was surprised by this.
"He hid underground to catch him by surprise and has managed to push him back with that attack. He's quite strong and cunning." thought Rimuru.
"I congratulate you. You managed to hit me. It didn't hurt me much, but I could feel how powerful it was." said Souei.
"And there's still more where that came from. Come on, let's keep fighting." said Naruto.
"I was thinking the same thing." said Souei before charging full speed towards him.
Reacting quickly, Naruto pulled out a kunai with which he managed to fend off a sword attack from the kijin, but was dragged back seconds before moving quickly to block another sword strike.
Naruto moved from side to side at great speed in order to protect himself from the sword attacks that didn't stop.
That's when, in another sword attack, he managed to cut Naruto's kunai and before he could react, Souei kicked him that made him roll a little before stopping.
"At this rate, we'll lose." thought Naruto.
"I never thought I'd say this, but take my power. Beat that guy up for me." said Kurama.
"Heh. I will, rest assured." thought Naruto.
After that, Naruto was surrounded by a reddish orange aura and then, Rimuru and Souei saw that his pupils sharpened and had changed from blue to red; his nails and teeth had become sharper and the whisker marks thickened.
"Warning. He's using the power of the being inhabited within him." said Raphael.
"So it's using Kurama's power. That's more interesting than I thought." thought Rimuru.
"Interesting. Let's see if that strange energy does more than just change the appearance." said Souei.
"Oh, of course it does and I'll prove it to you." said Naruto with a toothy grin before charging full speed towards the kijin.
As he was running, he started throwing kunais that Souei easily repelled with his swords, but then, with everything going in slow motion, he saw that one of the kunais he repelled had a tag of some kind on it and before that kunai could get any further away, the tag caused a loud explosion.
Fortunately, Souei jumped back in time to avoid the explosion.
A second after that, Naruto came out of the smoke with a clone by his side and both of them were holding a sphere of energy larger than the previous one with their hands.
"Odama Rasengan!" shouted Naruto directing the sphere towards him, but Souei used his swords to block it, which caused an explosion that sent them both backwards. "I'm not done yet!" shouted Naruto creating more clones around him that launched themselves at the kijin.
Just like before, Souei used his speed and agility to dodge the clones' attacks as he swiped at them with his swords and kicks, making them disappear in bursts of smoke.
Suddenly, out of the smoke came another Souei who tried to hit the first one, but he saw through the deception and hit him, undoing the transformation of another clone who disappeared soon after.
"He also has transformation abilities. He may come in handy to deceive the enemy." thought Rimuru.
By the time the smoke cleared, both Souei and Rimuru's eyes widened as they saw Naruto and a clone on either side of him, with the original holding, over his upraised open palm, a huge energy sphere with rapidly spinning blades.
"Wind Style: Rasen Shuriken!" shouted Naruto shooting the energy sphere towards the kijin.
When the attack hit the target, there was a huge explosion that formed a sphere of air.
The resulting wind wave from the attack was so large that even Rimuru had to raise an arm to defend himself.
"Unbelievable. How much power." said Rimuru in awe.
By the time the attack ceased, no trace of Souei was seen while Naruto was gasping for air as he returned to normal.
"It's… It's over now." said Naruto between gasps.
"I wouldn't be so sure."
Before Naruto could react, a sword was positioned inches from his neck courtesy of Souei standing behind him.
"B-But how did you…?" asked Naruto in shock at seeing someone survive one of his most powerful attacks.
"You're not the only one who knows how to make copies. Just before your attack hit me, I created a clone and let it take my place while I escaped." said Souei, surprising the jinchuriki to learn of the kijin's reaction and action skills.
"Alright. That's enough." said Rimuru stopping the fight, causing Souei to lower his sword and turn away from the jinchuriki who let out a sigh of relief.
Rimuru walked over to them and gave the jinchuriki a smile.
"Not bad, Naruto Uzumaki. I may not have seen what the other ninja in your world are capable of, but you really are strong if you made Souei go to that extreme." said Rimuru.
"Hehe. It's nothing. Actually, I didn't even use all of my and Kurama's power." said Naruto rubbing the back of his head.
"Really? Wow. You're even more impressive than I thought. In fact, I just had an idea, why don't you join the Shadow Squad?" asked Rimuru.
"What? Really?" asked Naruto.
"Totally. You won't mind, will you, Souei?" asked Rimuru.
"Not at all. In fact, I was thinking of suggesting it myself, since his skills could be of use, not to mention he could teach the others a thing or two." said Souei.
"Great, I'm looking forward to working with you!" said Naruto excitedly.
"Well then, I welcome you to the city of Rimuru, Naruto Uzumaki." said Rimuru extending his hand towards him.
"Thank you, Rimuru." said Naruto shaking hands with the human slime with a smile.
Meanwhile, in the Hidden Leaf Village, shortly after what happened with Naruto, Tsunade sent to gather a group of select ninja to inform them of the situation.
The group consisted of Kakashi, Sakura, Hinata and Shikamaru.
"What did you send us here for, Lady Tsunade?" asked Sakura.
"I'll get straight to the point. Naruto has disappeared." said Tsunade.
"Disappeared? What do you mean by that?" asked Hinata with concern.
"I don't know how it happened or who did it, but it seems Naruto was absorbed by some sort of teleportation technique." said Tsunade.
"Amazing. Even when he doesn't do anything, he's able to get himself into trouble." said Shikamaru rubbing his head.
"Is it known who the perpetrator might be?" asked Kakashi.
"No, but when Naruto disappeared, this appeared at the crime scene." said Tsunade showing the letter.
"A letter? Is it a ransom note?" asked Sakura.
"I thought so at first, but the contents of the letter seemed very strange to me." said Tsunade.
"What does the letter say?" asked Hinata.
"I will read it to you." began Tsunade opening the letter. "'Dear master Rimuru: How are you? I hope you are well. We are well and have improved a lot since you left. I know you may be busy with Federation matters and so on, but we would like you to come and visit us one day even for a moment. Yours truly and much love: Chloe, Kenya, Alice, Ryota and Gale.'"
"Mmm. It seems a bit affectionate to be a ransom letter or threat." said Kakashi.
"I know, that's why I want you, Shikamaru, to analyze the contents of the letter to see what you can find." said Tsunade handing the letter to the shadow ninja.
"Understood." said Shikamaru.
"What about us?" asked Hinata.
"I want you to be prepared. In case the letter was a hoax and Naruto has really been kidnapped, we must be prepared for any enemy attack." said Tsunade.
"And we can't let anyone but us know about this. If it were to get out, it would spread panic and could trigger a series of disasters that would cause another war." said Sakura.
"True. Also, it's possible that, in case there's no other way, we're going to need Kakashi's Kamui to travel to the place Naruto ended up." said Tsunade.
"It's a bit risky. Transporting myself is one thing, but transporting several people is another. Not to mention we don't know if we'll end up in the same spot Naruto is in." said Kakashi.
"We'll have to risk it if it means keeping the peace you've worked so hard to maintain. You may go." said Tsunade.
"Yes!" said the others before going their separate ways.
As she was leaving, Hinata couldn't help but be worried about her friend/love interest.
"Naruto, I hope that, wherever you are, you're okay." thought Hinata.