Naruto opened his eyes, seeing the darkness of the guest room in the Land of Iron. With a quiet sigh, he shifted to the side, trying to get comfortable.
The mental disconnect of having moved around, but not having actually physically moved around was always a little bit irritating. Like a phantom itch, hiding deep inside of his brain.
Annoying, but not much more aside from that.
Easily fixed, too.
He stilled himself, breathing slowly, casting his senses out. Natural Energy gathered, mixed with Chakra, and then he could feel.
Sage Mode always an experience. The total awareness that came with it. Naruto was not a bad sensor to begin with, but that just made the difference more obvious. It was like having three new limbs, four new eyes, and more senses than he could shake a stick at.
He breathed out, slowly.
Sasuke was close, basically right next to him. His Chakra was smooth, flowing gently. The breaths he took were soft and slow, barely noticeable, but to Naruto... quite obvious.
Sakura was the same. Only slightly further away than Sasuke, Chakra softer, less dense.
Kakashi was over there, and Gramps there...
Beyond that...
The Chakra of the many Samurai in the Land of Iron was much like the famed land itself. Sharp, strong, perhaps not as flexible, but dangerous and controlled nonetheless.
The other Jinchuuriki were obvious. A fair distance away, but the Bijuu inside of them stuck out in roughly the same way that the sun stuck out. The kind of blinding obviousness that could not be missed.
Gaara... Was not like that, anymore. Gaara's Chakra had a unique... flavour to it. It didn't sit right. There was something missing, something that had been torn away from it, and only echoes remained.
Ichibi, of course.
Naruto frowned.
And... just before the edge of his range, there was a few sources of Chakra, each of which was odd. Three of them, one smooth, one utterly controlled, and one...
He wouldn't use dark, but it certainly seemed like it. It was a thick, cloying, oppressive Chakra, echoing with dangerous will and intent.
Naruto sat up, and deep within him, Yangkura stirred, coming to attention.
"That..." Yangkura growled. "That feels like him."
Naruto did not bother asking for clarification. There was only a single man that Yangkura used that tone for.
Naruto flared his Chakra, instantly waking up every single person in the entire compound, and putting the Land of Iron on alert.
Just in time, too. That dangerous, oppressive Chakra surged, and Naruto felt that strange twisting sensation always accompanied space-time Ninjutsu.
He'd ask forgiveness later. Right now, he needed to see what was happening, and so, with that in mind, he promptly jumped through the roof.
Above...
His eyes widened.
Above, the storm was dispersing, a rushing shockwave pushing away the clouds and revealing a massive chunk of rock, a wall of fire heralding its descent.
'Did they drop a meteor on us?!' He thought, incredulously.
"Naruto!" Hiruzen called, landing beside him, the rest of the Konoha group following quickly behind him. "Report!"
"Three enemies, eight kilometers that way, " Naruto pointed in their direction. "- and at least one is a space-time user! Might be related to Madara Uchiha!"
He didn't take his eyes off of the meteor. It was fast, coming down far, far too quickly. He ground his teeth, and pulled out one of the special Kunai. "I'm going to deal with that before we all die!"
The roof below cracked as he jumped upwards, flinging the Kunai as he did. With a puff of smoke, seven identical duplicates appeared, all of them moving at a slightly different angle, forming a wide area marked by the Kunai.
Right as he reached the apex of his jump, Naruto slammed his hands together, channeling his Chakra as he did.
Black seal-script immediately shot outwards from the Kunai, reaching each other to form an octagon, before shooting inwards to the center.
Just in time, too. Only a moment afterwards, the meteor hit the area marked by the Kunai, and the seal-script bulged outwards, as if it was a net.
The entire meteor passed through, and then-
The meteor, as well as the duplicate Kunai, all simply vanished.
A thunderous clap followed immediately, as air rushed to fill the gap. If, somehow, people had missed what had happened, now they would all be alert.
Naruto smiled, grimly, and let his senses expand.
No other surprises. Nothing else he could detect, at least.
Yangkura growled in the back of his mind.
He sighed as he landed in a crouch. He looked up to the Hokage, and nodded. "Nothing else I can sense."
"Good." Hiruzen turned around, where the other Kage, their attendants, as well as Mifune and a number of samurai had shortly appeared. "It seems our enemies were trying a decapitating strike."
Mifune, who had been staring at where the meteor had vanished, turned his attention back to Hiruzen. "Then we should meet them."
Hiruzen nodded. "It wouldn't do for the capital to become our battlezone. Have they moved, Naruto?"
Naruto shook his head.
"Lead the way, then." There was a note of something dangerous in his voice.
The area their enemy was in was relatively flat, for the Land of Iron. Which, truly, meant only that that it had slightly less snow than anywhere else.
It was perhaps a sign that their enemy truly had no fear; to work in such an open space with so little cover. Taken alongside the fact that they had not run away even in the face of five Kages, three Jinchuuriki, and the greatest Samurai known to man, it was more a sign of either total arrogance or complete confidence.
Given who had been waiting...
It was definitely the latter.
The moment they'd crested the hill and caught sight of who it was...
Yangkura's black rage had left no doubt.
"Man..." Naruto said, staring at the youthful face of Madara Uchiha. "Sure are a lot of dead people not staying dead."