CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

A Mole!

XXX

86 Days Since Sasuke

Naruto was awoken by a ray of sunlight hitting his face. He'd forgotten to close the blinds again, so as the sun rose over the Kumo Homebase, its rays pierced his eyelids and forced him awake.

He let out a soft groan as he tried to get up. Something was holding him back. He looked down at his stomach. An arm. He followed the arm up to its shoulder with his eyes before landing on Hinata's soft, sleeping face.

Had she spent the night there?

Oh yeah, they'd heard news of the Akatsuki launching attacks on Han, Roshi, Fuu, Hotaru, Yugito, and Shizune, so Hinata had come to his room to wait and listen for more news from the battlefields. They must have fallen asleep together after all that stress.

Then again, he didn't mind. Naruto rolled over to face her.

Hinata's skin glowed as the sun's rays bounced off her pale skin. Even in a deep sleep, she had a vice grip on Naruto's waist, so all he could do was snuggle up closer and feel her warmth surge through him.

With her soft and constant breathing tickling the hairs on his neck and the movement of her chest on his own as she slept, Naruto felt like he was in heaven. Every second he spent in her presence felt like an eternity. The roles had been reversed completely since the day they admitted their feelings towards each other. Everything Hinata did around Naruto felt so perfect, she could do no wrong in his eyes. Even her sleeping sent butterflies through his stomach. He could've stayed in that position for years.

But of course, someone had to knock on his door.

Hinata's eyes creaked open.

"Who is it?" Naruto asked.

"I bring word from Lady Tsunade. She's asked to see you immediately, it's urgent."

Naruto groaned once more, "Tell her, I'll be there in ten minutes," he yelled before turning to Hinata. She'd fallen back asleep, so Naruto stealthily snuck out of bed and left her there to rest a little longer.

XXX

Naruto walked into the war room with a mix of panic and confusion written across his face. The only people sitting in the main room under the giant translucent globe were Tsunade, Kakashi, and Jiraiya. Tsunade sat on her assigned seat as Hokage, whilst Jiraiya stood behind her and Kakashi sat on the table just in front of her. Naruto looked up at the globe to confirm the nightmare he'd heard on the way up here.

The Akatsuki was on the move.

The white dots were spread out across the world as usual. There was a cluster in Yugakure, another cluster in the Otogakure, a third cluster leaving Kirigakure, and the main cluster in the Mountains' Graveyard, with a few more dots here and there. That was to be expected. What surprised the Uzumaki though was the presence of red dots in and around the different battlefields. What was going on? A week ago, they were all gathered in Ame or the Iron Administrative Capital, but now there were some in Kiri, some in Yu, some roaming through the Land of Fire, some in Iwa, and some in Suna.

"Oi! The Akatsuki?" Naruto yelled from across the room.

"Come here and sit down," Tsunade said. Her voice sterner and more serious than usual, "We need more minds on this than ever."

"More minds?" Naruto shrugged. "What's up?" he asked, approaching the group.

"The Akatsuki has launched the second wave of attacks," Jiraiya informed him, "Their biggest campaign since the Battle for Konoha."

Tsunade continued, "We'd sent a team to try and take back Suna and aid Onoki in taking back Iwa whilst Temari and Gaara tried to take Yu, but the Akatsuki intercepted both teams before they even passed Ame and Kusa. The Akatsuki sent a pair of their own to the Tsuchigumo Village to try and capture our jinchuuriki but luckily, we managed to contact Shikamaru in time to help aid them. Another pair was spotted in the Land of Water, they managed to destroy two whole villages before Roshi and Han got to them, we also had to diverge some shinobi and Mei to defend Kiri."

"Unfortunately, the attacks seem to have been a diversion," Kakashi said, "Orochimaru snuck into Konoha."

Naruto perked up, "He snuck into Konoha? How?"

"He abused the fact that our map only updates once every 24 hours. By the time we noticed his movements, he was already outside the village."

Naruto twitched a bit, "Wait, Orochimaru's back on the globe? Does that mean you guys know where Sasuke is too?" Jiraiya shook his head. "Damn, is the village okay at least?"

"Yeah, he didn't cause any damage, but he did steal something," Jiraiya explained.

"And that is?"

"The Shinigami Mask. He snuck into the Uzumaki Clan's old Mask Temple and stole a mask that allows you to control the God of Death."

"You just had a mask that controls the Shinigami lying around and you didn't think to protect it?" Naruto asked.

"The Uzumaki Clan's Mask Shortage Temple is an old Konoha secret. No one outside of a select list of Konoha's most trusted shinobi know of its location," Tsunade explained.

"So, is Orochimaru on that list?" Naruto wondered.

Jiraiya shook his head again, "I suspect that means we have a mole in our ranks."

"A mole?"

"Yeah. The problem is that it could be anyone," Kakashi sighed, "It could be a Suna or Iwa shinobi whose family is stuck behind enemy lines and, in order to secure their family's safety, have struck a deal with the Akatsuki…"

"Or it could be someone who's been with the Akatsuki this whole time and we've carelessly invited them into our ranks."

"Whoever it is has to be a high-ranking Konoha shinobi though, right, how else would they know about the Mask Temple?" Naruto turned to Tsunade, "Who's on that list of trusted Konoha shinobi?"

"Myself, Jiraiya, Kakashi, and Danzo."

"Speak of the devil," everyone turned to the open doorway as a new party joined the conversation. The elderly man, wrapped in bandages from head-to-toe, slowly made his way up the stairs and into the large hall, "… and he will appear. Lady Tsunade, still figuring out ways to waste village funding on this stupid war?"

The blonde woman rolled her eyes before putting on a professional face for her council member, "Lord Danzo, what's brought you here?"

"I'm the leader of the ANBU Root, as long as my shinobi are out there dying in your war, it's my job to be here," he explained before looking around at the other parties, "Sakumo's boy. Good to see you haven't drunk yourself into a stupor and sliced your stomach in half, like your father."

Kakashi held a straight face.

"Jiraiya-kun, good to see that degenerative filth you've been writing hasn't caused too much brain rot. You still know how to look presentable."

Jiraiya just sighed in response, "Good to see you too, Lord Danzo."

"Ah, it's the traitor," Danzo finally locked in on Naruto. The spiky-haired Uzumaki side-eyed the old man, "The stars must have aligned for you to grace us with your presence. You know, back in my day, if a missing-nin spoke to the Hokage of the Hidden Leaf with their head held high, they would've been beaten within an inch of their life, stripped naked, and dragged through the streets whilst the whole village spat and laughed… but I know Lady Tsunade doesn't have a stomach as strong as her grandfather's and granduncle's, so I don't expect much from her anymore."

"And who are you?" Naruto asked.

"Oh, you can call me Danzo, traitor," the older man said, holding his hand out.

Naruto paused before taking Danzo's hand in his own, "You can call me Naruto Uzumaki."

"I'd much rather call you a traitor," he smiled before turning to the others, "A meeting of Konoha's greatest minds, and I wasn't invited. Is it anything that concerns me?"

Tsunade pushed herself up off her chair, "Not at all, in fact, we were just about to conclude the meeting," she said, "If I have any updates, I'll have someone sent to your rooms."

XXX

87 Days Since Sasuke

"What happened yesterday?" Hinata asked as she walked through some shrubbery with her new boyfriend. He looked back at her and just shrugged with a confused expression on his face, "When I woke up you were gone. I waited in your room for hours, but you never came back. Where did you go?"

"Oh yeah… I… I was just worried about the others, you know, Fuu, Yugito, and them," Naruto said. He could see the doubt on Hinata's face, "I only came back later… around eight in the evening."

She still had that look of 'sure' on her face, but she went along with it, "You should've at least said something. You know where my room is."

They both stopped in front of a weird seal in the middle of a clearing, that had tendrils running along the ground and up a few trees. Naruto stuck his pinkie out, "I know. Okay, I promise I won't disappear like that, without telling you, ever again."

Hinata giggled, "A pinkie promise?"

"What? A pinkie promise is the most sacred form of promise," Naruto assured her, with his head held high, "If I break my promise, you get to break my pinkie."

"I don't think that's how pinkie promises work."

"Come on, pinkie promise."

"I'm not gonna pinkie promise, Naruto-kun, I'll just take your word," Hinata said before crouching over the symbol in the middle of the seal. She weaved through some hand seals before vanishing. Naruto did the same.

When their eyes opened, they were standing in front of the Falls of Truth. Naruto and Hinata were the only two jinchuuriki who hadn't achieved perfection yet. Gaara, Yugito, Roshi, Han, Fuu, and Killer B were all perfect jinchuuriki with perfect control of their tailed beasts and transformations, but Naruto and Hinata were still lagging behind. Hinata because of fear and Naruto because he didn't believe he deserved it.

Hinata didn't want to admit it, but she feared letting go. Everything she'd heard and felt about being a jinchuuriki was so alien to her. Giving up your existence to this creature that at any point could choose to separate itself and kill you. Plus, the pain. The overwhelming pain. Even when she tried using the chakra cloak, it felt like needles under her skin. A pain the other jinchuuriki were already familiar with, but one she was still foreign to.

Kurama had given up on Sasuke. He was still a little pissed off at Naruto for stealing control away from him when he had the chance, but he had given up on Sasuke after he saw him flee from battle. Kurama was used to dealing with warriors like Madara Uchiha, so seeing an Uchiha flee in the face of death made chasing Sasuke useless in his eyes. Naruto, on the other hand, had fallen off the deep end. In his eyes, Sasuke didn't run, he just failed to kill him. If only he could get a second bite at the cherry, he'd grab on and never let go, but Sasuke was far too gone. He didn't know where he was… if only.

Naruto looked up at the waterfall. He was sitting on the island in the middle of the Falls. The Falls parted to reveal a second Naruto, one with black sclerae and bright red eyes. The Dark Naruto began chuckling, "Oh, it's you again? How many times must I kick your ass before you finally admit that I am simply better than you? See, while you took the hate that you've had to endure for the past seventeen years and trapped it deep within yourself, I embraced it, and I am much more powerful for it."

Naruto charged his inner darkness with the Rasengan. Dark Naruto countered with his own Rasengan. He grabbed the original by the throat and lifted him. "You've doomed yourself, you know. Even worse, you doomed Uzushio. You failed to save Utakata. You've failed to save Kaede. You've failed to save Sasuke. And now, when the Akatsuki attack the Kumo Homebase and wipe out the shinobi, you would've failed to save Uzushio."

"Shut up, dattebayo!" Naruto went for a kick but the Dark Naruto blocked. He threw the original across the water.

"You can't shut me up, I'm you… I'm the real you. I'm the you that should exist. The you who would've killed Pain. The you who would've got to Kaede in time. The you who would've killed Sasuke Uchiha. I'm the you that you wish you were."

"I said shut up," Naruto rolled onto his back and got up. He created a mass of shadow clones. The Dark Naruto did the same. The clones countered each other and dispelled in a cloud of smoke. The Dark Naruto launched through the cloud to knee to the original in the chin.

Naruto collapsed.

"Have you given up already? That has to be a new record or something! You're letting me down, Naruto. Almost as much as you let your fellow Konoha shinobi down when you left them to rot. You let the Third Hokage die, Naruto… he's probably rolling in his grave right now seeing the child he nurtured for so long turn on his shinobi, become a missing-nin, and create some stupid… what is it called? Uzushio? You narcissistic piece of shit, you named it after yourself? For what? You of all people don't deserve that kind of praise."

"I didn't name it after myself. That's what it was called to begin with."

"Nah, your stupid little village needs to be named after someone more legendary, someone much stronger than you. Sasugakure, maybe. After all, Sasuke deserves a village far more than you do. You've never even defeated him in battle before. You might as well, give everything you have to him. I'm sure Hinata would be far happier with an Uchiha like Sasuke than some no-name loser like yourself."

"ENOUGH!" Naruto broke out of his mindscape and collapsed on his little island.

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata rushed over the water to kneel next to the exhausted Uzumaki. Naruto shook his head. "Are you okay?"

"I… I don't think I can do it. I don't think I can become a perfect jinchuuriki."

"What's wrong? What happened in there?"

A third party joined the pair, "You better start thinking you can become a perfect jinchuuriki very soon," Kakashi said, "Because we've found Sasuke again. A new dot appeared on our Global Tracking System, and Karin confirmed that it's Sasuke's chakra."

Naruto sat up, "Really? Where is he?"

XXX

Onoki was on the verge of death. With his dying wish, he demanded that Akatsuchi and Kurotsuchi made a run for it while he tried to buy as much time as possible. He had arrived in the Hidden Stone Village with 1 500 Iwa shinobi. Only 3 remained.

"Lord Tsuchikage, we can't just leave you here," Akatsuchi pleaded, "Rather die here alongside you for the sake of Iwagakure, then return to the Kumo Homebase with our tails between our legs."

"Listen to me, the only one dying for Iwagakure today is me. From here on out, you're the new Tsuchikage," Onoki explained, removing his Kage hat from his head, and placing it in Kurotsuchi's hands. "The Iwa shinobi will need someone to unite under when I'm gone. Tell them I died fighting to liberate the village we call home. Tell them although I failed, the rock-hard fighting spirit of the Hidden Stone will live on forever."

"But Lord Tsuchikage…"

"Quickly!" he yelled. They both stood up. He reached into his pocket and said, "Oh, and one last thing, I entrust the secrets of the Particle Style to you. In my quarters, in the fourth compartment under my desk, is a scroll. For your eyes only," he said, handing them a key.

"Yes, grandpa," Kurotsuchi replied.

"Oi, it's still Lord Tsuchikage to you," the old man grinned, "Now go, hurry. I can only hold them off for so long."

Akatsuchi and Kurotsuchi flickered away just in time to avoid three shadows landing around Onoki. Breaking through the White Zetsu army would've been easy enough if the Iwa shinobi had managed to spring an ambush on them, but someone had alerted the Akatsuki to their movements, and now they'd been revere-ambushed and wiped out by a thousand White Zetsu and three powerful shinobi.

Tayuya and the Fated Brothers of the Uchiha Clan, Itachi and Sasuke.

"We should go after the other two," Sasuke said, looking out at the treeline Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi had disappeared into.

"The man who chases two rabbits catches neither," Itachi warned.

"Why the fuck can't your brother just speak English, like a normal human being," Tayuya asked.

Itachi turned to her, "We have the Third Tsuchikage right in front of us, he was our target, chasing after two shinobi we might not even catch may compromise the object of our mission."

"It's a dying old man, what's he gonna do, run away?" Tayuya asked.

"Never underestimate a Kage, regardless of age."

"I agree with Itachi."

"Of course you fucking do, you little bitch boy! Make your own decision for once, huh!"

"Be on guard, he has a trick up his sleeve. The last thing you'd want to do is get caught in his Particle Style." Itachi said.

"You're a smart one. After all, you are the prodigal son of the Uchiha Family. The one who wiped out every member of the Uchiha Clan, including his parents and his lover, but couldn't bring himself to kill his own brother," Onoki taunted. "I'm surprised you had the guts to work with a traitor, Sasuke. Did you actually see any of the Uchiha members die? Shisui? Fugaku? Mikoto? Izumi? Did you hear any of them gargle on their own blood? Did they look you in the eyes as they breathed their last br…" Onoki was shut up by a Chidori Lance through the throat.

Both Itachi and Tayuya turned, in shock, to Sasuke, who had one hand in his pocket and his other hand extended to form a Chidori. "You're going senile, old man. Shisui? Fugaku? Mikoto? Izumi? Never heard those names in my life."