Madara glanced at Naruto, raising an eyebrow at him. Purple, ringed eyes stared forth. "That is the first thing you're going to say, confronted with this?"
"I'm not a drama queen, like some people I know." Naruto said, flatly. "Gaara died and came back, the Kyuubi figured you already had, too, so, really, this isn't surprising. The only real question is why you're not an old prune."
Madara hummed, turning to face him fully. "Even these eyes?"
"The Kyuubi knows all about that." Naruto clicked his tongue, running the idea through his head. "Is that how you came to know about it, too? Taking control of him and making him divulge it?" Naruto frowned, before shaking his head. "No. Timeline and reasoning doesn't fit. Or, at least, not the beginning of it. You learned it from another source."
Madara smiled. "Clever boy."
Naruto ducked just as Madara's Kama was sliced by Sasuke's sword. Sakura went over him with a fist already raised to unleash hell.
It didn't reach; as fast as he moved in the first place, Madara whipped out his war-fan, and released a blast of wind that sent all three of them whirling backwards.
All three landed with the other Ninja and Samurai.
Naruto sighed as the wind died down, the snow beginning to fall more gently.
Madara was examining his Kama, which had been cut clean in two. He seemed impressed, despite that.
"You're not the real ones." Naruto called, looking back with yellow eyes. "Took a moment to figure it out, but those bodies... those aren't yours. They're corpses."
On the ground, the other half of the Kama's blade began to dissolve, breaking down into dust. Madara looked curiously at Sasuke's sword, but nodded at Naruto's words. "Very clever boy."
"You can't win." Onoki interrupted. "Not against us all, not like that."
"He didn't intend to." A stated, severely. "This was his opening shot, a way of gathering information."
"Indeed." Hiruzen stared at Madara, before his eyes flicked over to the other two.
Obito and Kisame stared back.
"But it was an opportunity." Hiruzen continued. "You... you were after the Chakra of a Bijuu, weren't you?"
"The Juubi was awakened too early." Madara stated. "A move of desperation, though a necessary one."
"Nothing about this is 'necessary'." Naruto said. "Death, destruction, sealing Bijuu... None of it. What are you even after? Ultimate power?"
"Power is a means to an end." Madara looked to him. "And our end is a world of truth and peace."
"You sure got a funny way of showing it." Naruto shot back. "Truth and peace, from you? That guy -" Naruto pointed his Kunai at Obito. "- has been going around, lying to everybody, telling them he's someone he isn't. You, on the other hand, just tried to drop a meteor on us, which could have killed who knows how many." Naruto paused for a moment, waving the Kunai around. "That was your meteor, right?"
"Was it so obvious?"
Naruto shrugged.
"They're about to leave."
"Who else would it have been?" Naruto asked. "Was it the Rinnegan, or something you came up with? I know there was a space-time aspect to getting it here, but..."
Madara chuckled. It was an unexpected sound, one that had everybody there suddenly far more alert. "Uzumaki Naruto, was it?"
"That's my name." Naruto said. He pointed behind himself. "That's my friend, Sasuke, who's an Uchiha if that wasn't obvious, and she's Sakura Haruno, who's the best."
"I don't care." Madra shrugged. "You're interesting, Naruto. I do hope you'll be fun."
There was a shift, and the three began to fall, bodies warping and changing.
Mifune darted forwards, catching them, as armour made itself apparent.
Three dead Samurai.
Naruto frowned as the Kage began to move forwards, speaking with each other in quick, sharp tones.
"Naruto?" Sakura stepped beside him.
"Ah, don't worry about me, Sakura." Naruto shook his head. "Just going to have to change some plans. We're lucky they decided not to fight. We would have won, but that guy..."
Naruto briefly looked back at the body that Madara's form had shifted into.
"He's on another level entirely."
Sasuke's hand clasped onto Naruto's shoulder, offering wordless reassurance. Naruto just smiled, shaking his head.
It had not taken the Kage very long to come to an agreement. It was more than what had previously been decided on; Madara was just that much of a threat.
Not surprising. Depending on who you asked, Madara and Hashirama had been two of the most powerful Shinobi to ever exist. Having seen him in person, Naruto didn't really doubt that, anymore.
Which meant... that things had to change. Fact 1: Madara was after the Kyuubi, and Naruto didn't particularly feel like letting them have him.
Fact 2: Naruto was pretty strong, but not strong enough to comfortably take a bet on winning against Madara, even without the rest of the Akatsuki coming into the equation.
This... was a solvable problem, given time. Naruto could train until he was strong enough.
But then Fact 3 butted in with the major problem; Naruto did not have that time.
Which ultimately left methods that he... had been reluctant to explore.
"What are you planning?" Yangkura eventually asked.
"I'm surprised it took you this long to say anything about it." Naruto said aloud, slowly and carefully ruffling through his book of seals. "As for what I'm planning... Well, it depends on two things. And those two things are two questions that I need to ask you, Kura."
Yangkura shifted, the lack of the ever-present honorific catching his attention. "And what would those be?"
Naruto smiled, pausing his examination of the book as he found what he was after. A complex, incredibly, ridiculously complex seal was shown on the page. Naruto brushed his hand over it, and smiled. "You remember the things I said about setting you free? Well, this is related, and it all comes down to this."
"First; can I trust you?" Naruto said, and reached out to grab a pot of ink. "Second, and far more importantly, can you trust me?"