Chapter 2
The Loss of a Shinobi
"So what'd the hell'ya knock me out for?", asked a still dazed Naruto whilst massaging the back of his head. Nero looked down from the sky and into his eyes before smiling,
"I felt like it.", he responded.
'I guess when you're strong you can do whatever you want. Hmph', the redhead academy student thought to himself before crossing his arms and shooting an annoyed look at his older kin.
Nero laughed at Naruto's expression then pulled out a scroll.
"I assume you know of our ability, yes?", he said while he unraveled the scroll.
"What, the chains? Well, kinda. I know that the most powerful Uzumaki of Uzu had adamantine chakra chains for a hidden technique and that it probably died out when our homeland was destroyed.", Naruto wondered why Nero was asking such a weird question.
"Died out, huh? Is that what people say or is that what they teach at the academy?"
"Neither that's just what I assumed, why?"
"Truth is Naruto, it did not die out, neither is it a hiden technique."
"Oh really. Well then explain why no one has 'em."
They both stared at each other for a moment before Nero stood up. Suddenly, his body began to slightly glow and emit chakra. Then, two chains that looked as though they were completely chakra shot out of his torso and wrapped around his arms.
"Woah! You- you have them!"
"Naruto, the Uzumaki chakra chains are not dead. Nor are they a hiden technique. These chains are our kekkei genkai!"
Then it was silent. For only a few moments.
"Why do none of the others have them? Why are we ignorant of our own bloodline?!", now Naruto looked angry. He wanted to know why he was kept in the dark.
"It's not that no one has them. Just very few. And we had to keep them a secret from the youngest generation until you all were ready to know. Now you are. You see,
Back in Uzushiogakure, it was almost 80% Uzumaki. And the only way you can have the chains is if you are majority Uzumaki. If any of your grandparents were not Uzumaki, no chains. Same with parents. Great grandparents, though, the Uzumaki blood would cleanse itself by the time you'd be born. Once Uzu fell and we came here, many children were born impure, having non-uzumaki parents or grandparents. And so the chains became rare. The reason for this mixing? The Hokages. They encouraged men and women of the leaf to marry Uzumakis so that our blood would become impure and we would lose our ability! WHY?! BECAUSE THEY FEAR US NARUTO. THEY FEAR OUR POWER.", noticing that he was gripping Naruto's wrist a little roughly, he let go and apologized.
"So..Am I impure? Why don't I have the chains?", questioned a slightly ashamed Naruto.
Nero laughed. He laughed hard. For a second Naruto thought about punching him but decided against it.
"No Naruto. Not at all. In fact your chains'll probably be the strongest in the clan. You see, both your parents had the chains. And both of theirs did too. The purer, the stronger, and yours might be the purest in who knows how long."
His eyes widened. 'The strongest?', he thought. 'If this is true then..'
"Nero-kun, where are they?"
Again Nero laughed. He laughed a laugh of good spirits before placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder and motioning for him to sit. He then picked up the scroll again.
"You see, even though it's our kekkei genkai, we still have to unlock them. Much like the Uchiha. Only more complicated and less depressing.", he jested.
Naruto let out a light chuckle as he knew the Uchiha's had to watch someone close die to unlock their eyes.
"In order to unlock your chains, you have to unseal them from your body. Then you'll be able to call upon them naturally."
"Unseal?"
Nero chuckled once more before chucking Naruto the scroll and turning away.
"Ya' see, it's the Uzumaki custom for you to figure all that out on your own. Have fun. See ya'!", he threw up a peace sign before shunshining away.
"GAHH THAT DAMN ANBU BASTARD HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THIS ON MY OWN!", Naruto shouted in frustration. He sat there for a moment in anger and confusion before come to a realization, "If I want to be one of the strongest in my clan, I need to figure this out."
Unknown Location
"GAHHHH", cried out the man in standard Chunin attire as he fell from the trees unto the ground. Another saw this and quickly sprang to give orders,
"Yeno! Go! Alert Jiraiya-sama! The leaf has been-", he couldn't finish his sentence because his head was no longer on his shoulders.
Landing next to the severed head and body was a tall man with dark red hair.
"Wha- why?! What do you gain from this?!", Yeno said slowly backing away from the fear-inducing man.
"It will all make sense. In due time of course. It is truly sad that you will not be alive to see the greatness I shall make.", he laughed as he stabbed the man through his heart, ending his life in an instant.
Hokage Tower
"Are you sure Hokage-sama? That's not how the usual teams go..", Iruka said while raising an eyebrow.
"Yes I'm sure, Iruka. Now we're in a time of war. You know very well that the Iwa shinobi have provoked us. We don't need to focus on tradition, but effectiveness. Should I have to send a team of Genin on a war mission, I need to make sure they come back alive. That's why.", the fourth Hokage said as he lined up a stack of papers.
Iruka nodded, "Yes I get that. But the top three prodigies all on one team?"
"They will be the elite team of their generation. Not only are they the best in their class; the team also makes sense. The Hyuga a sensor, Uchiha ninjutsu, and Uzumaki the brawler. In a way, they'll act as the anbu of their class. Taking on the things too miniscule for Chunin and higher, but too dangerous for regular Genin."
The finality in the kage's voice signaled for Iruka to take his leave and so he did after a bow.
Iwagakure
"What the hell do you mean Konoha has declared a war of retaliation?!", Onoki, the sandaime Tsuchikage yelled in anger.
"Apparently, some of our shinobi killed theirs in a border dispute.", responded his granddaughter, Kurotsuchi.
"Gah! Nonsense! I gave no such order! Damn that yellow flash! Damn him! Argh! Anbu!"
Two Iwa Anbu appeared in the middle of the room kneeling,
"Yes, Tsuchikage-sama?"
"Contact that sleazy daimyo!"
"At once."
And they disappeared just as fast.
A Few Days Later
"Can you believe it? We're finally getting out of this stupid academy and graduating.", Karin said as she walked with Naruto to the academy on their last day.
Naruto shared a big sigh of relief before looking at Karin, "Who do you think you're gonna get paired with?"
Karin raised an eyebrow at his question, didn't he know the standard procedure for team-making?
"Well that's a dumb question, don't you know how they make teams?", she chuckled to herself for being able to call something Naruto said dumb. He stared into the sky for a moment before responding, "Yeah, but now we're at war. They could prioritize something else in teams and it could be switched up."
Karin laughed heartily at his suggestion, "You really believe that we're at war just 'cuz Nero told you? He's obviously pranking you. No one in their right mind would go to war with the Uzumaki clan let alone Konoha AND the Uzumaki clan!"
Naruto only shook his head, "You're too prideful. A lot of our chain users died in the fall, plus we only have a quarter of the people we used too."
Karin gained a serious look, "It doesn't matter. The three of us, me, you, Yunen, we all have our chains. We will rebuild the clan ourselves. Not to mention a handful of other kids in our generation have them as well. Our clan'll be back in no time."
At this, Naruto gave Karin a smirk, "Rebuild the clan huh? Y'know what you gotta do to rebuild a clan of pure chain users?", he instantly regretted his words as he tried and failed to dodge a flurry of punches from Karin whilst she screamed obscenities about Naruto being a pervert.
Academy
Naruto sat in the back of the classroom with Karin and Yunen on both sides of him. Iruka was giving his final lesson about being a ninja and the will of fire.
He, however, had stopped listening when Iruka confirmed Nero's words about Konoha being at war with Iwa.
"Oh mah, when is he gonna get on with the teams?", he said impatiently,
"Yeah now I wanna know who I'm paired with 'cuz of the war.", Karin said while staring out a window in boredom.
The graduation exam was a few days ago and no one had a problem passing except for this one clanless kid named Ruya.
After finally finishing his one last yap session, Iruka announced the teams. Many were surprised to find that the top three of their class were put on the same team, but after the initials exclamations, no one said anything after that.
(All teams canon with Karin and Yunen replacing Naruto and Sasuke on team seven, and filler character going with Lee and Tenten)
The one last surprise was that the top three weren't given to any Jonin sensei, they were assigned to a team called Team 0 and were instructed to report to the Hokage tomorrow.
Hokage Office
The freshly made Genin reported to the Hokage office after a day of musing the possibilities of what this could mean for them. As they walked through the door of the office, they noticed a blonde boy their age talking to the Hokage.
"Hokage-sama? You wanted to see us?", Neji said whilst respectfully kneeling. The other two followed suit next to him. Whilst they were kneeling the Hokage began to speak,
"Ah yes, the three clan-rooted prodigies.", he greeted with a grin.
Sasuke slightly smirked at the praise.
"What exactly are we doing here?", Naruto asked, looking up from the floor. He received a quick elbow on the left from Neji before he corrected him.
"What my friend means to say, what have we, mere academy graduates, done to deserve an audience with the Hokage?"
Minato chuckled a little before answering, "Please, let out a breath Hyuga. No need to be so formal. Your parents are my lifelong friends after all."
At this, both Naruto and Sasuke looked up at the Hokage with raised eyebrows.
"Well..they were..sorry." After a brief moment of awkward silence Minato cleared his throat and upped his posture. Meanwhile the three prodigies were eyeing the blonde boy.
"Alright. Now, the reason you three have been asked to come here is very simple. As you've all probably heard, we've recently been plunged back into war with Iwagakure.", at this all four youngin's in the room nodded knowingly.
"This fact is frightening to some people but only because they don't know what war truly is. Once war is declared, shinobi don't just start mindlessly killing each other. Not immediately at least. The first few years usually have relatively few casualties. Although the casualty count is much higher than peace times, it usually doesn't-"
"What are you talking about?", Naruto abruptly said, cutting off Minato. Both Neji and Sasuke looked at him alarmed but that didn't stop him from continuing.
"It was both. Both of my parents died in the aftermath of the last war. Both of them died and both of them were Jounin. Why are you selling us false information about the brutality of war?"
In return, Naruto felt a surge in killing intent that made him want to reach for a kunai and slit his throat.
"Don't do that again, Naruto.", was all the fourth said. Naruto stared at him for a moment before lowering his head in reluctant respect after Minato tilted his own.
"You three will complete a starting mission to make sure you're ready to be Genin. Afterwards you will be assigned to work with a Jounin led Chunin squad and you will go on war-missions. The rest of your classmates will join in on these war-missions when I see fit. Dismissed."
"Hai.", they all responded before getting up and leaving through the door. Once they were out of earshot, both Neji and Sasuke smacked the back of Naruto's head.
"AH HEY WHAT'RE YOU DOIN?!", he said in annoyance.
"You idiot! The Hokage praises us and awards us with special mission but you decide you wanna piss him off?! The hell were you thinkin?!", said the pale-eyed Hyuga.
"Man I don't care! My parents're dead 'cuz of the last war, you think I wanna fight in one too?!"
"Naruto, even though bad things can happen in war, that doesn't mean good can't come from it too. I could even unlock the next level of my eyes.", Sasuke said.
"Yeah? And just how do you think you'll unlock that next level of yours? Wait no, I've read about it so I can tell ya. People die. People close to you die and that's how you unlock your eyes. The only thing that'll come out've this war is death. My clan members're gonna die for a village they weren't originally from! Fuck that!". The three of them walked in silence for a bit. They walked without a destination. Eventually they landed on the street of Ichiraku's ramen stand and Naruto proposed they get ramen, to the other two's agreement.
On the way there, Sasuke noticed a lot of glares from the villagers directed towards Naruto.
"Hey Naruto,", he started as they took seats at the stand, "Why do the villagers look at you like that?"
It took a moment for Naruto to respond as he was staring down into the counter,
"Meh. Something 'bout 'bein a demon. Who cares?", he shrugged as he ordered himself seven bowls of miso ramen.
"Demon?", Neji said with a raised eyebrow. After another careless shrug Naruto saw that they weren't going to leave the matter alone so he reluctantly elaborated.
"Well my clan said that I'm the jailer of a demon fox that attacked Konoha. It's called Jinchuriki or 'sumthin. I'm not really supposed to talk about it.", looking up from his ramen he saw both his teammates wide eyes. 'Great. More demon-haters.', he thought in anger only to be surprised by the hand on his shoulder from Neji.
"Well we won't tell anyone. Your secret is safe with us. Right Sasuke?"
"Of course. These stupid villagers don't know shit anyways if they can't tell the container from the kunai."
Naruto was taken aback for a few seconds at their easy acceptance. It was one of the first times he'd been fully accepted by anyone outside of his clan. It made him feel happy.
"You think the fourth knows?", Sasuke said. "Course he does. He's the one who did it.", Naruto responded with suppressed loathing in his tone.
"I always thought it was the third that beat the beast. That's how they say he died.", Neji thought aloud, receiving a nod from Sasuke. "Well they say it was the third to honor him but it was really the fourth that did this to me.", Naruto said in between gulps of ramen.
"You say it with such hate in your voice.", said Sasuke, recognizing Naruto's hate as the hate he himself has for his brother who killed the majority of the Uchiha.
"How could I not hate a man that's condemned me to a life of hatred? If it weren't for my clanmates and my teammates, I'd live a life of loneliness.", Naruto scowled as he gulped down his last bowl.
"You shouldn't say things like that aloud. There are anbu everywhere in the village.", warned Neji.
"No where in being a ninja does it say I have to like my Kage. So long as I follow orders, who cares about my personal feelings?", shrugged a careless Naruto receiving a chuckle from both his teammates. "Guess you're right about that. But Hokage-sama isn't all that bad. He is working to find Itachi so I'm fine with 'em.", Sasuke added after finishing his three bowls of ramen.
"True.", was all Neji said after finishing his two. The two dojutsu-gifted boys had begun eating more ramen ever since they'd been hanging out more with Naruto. They knew they were going to be top three of the class and had been regarded as the, "Next Sanin". Rather high expectations.
Undisclosed Location at an Undisclosed time
"Itachi, it's been a while.", said a familiar voice. "Minato.", responded the cloud robed shinobi.
"I trust you will persist in your duties to Konoha..", he trailed off with a calculating stare.
Itachi nodded, confirming that he was still following their agreement. Releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding, he looked around.
"It was truly a shame that your clan had to be..watered down. I assure you that the Uchiha pride lives on in the younger generation I let you spare."
Itachi nodded at this while musing over some of his own thoughts.
"What of their loyalties?", he finally asked. "They're loyal to the leaf according to my anbu. They assume that you alone destroyed 3/4ths of the clan solely to test your power. And with my assurance to track you down, they see me as the only way to get their revenge."
Itachi grunted with pleasure. He wouldn't want to have to eliminate the rest of the Uchiha as only children who were unaware of the plans were spared.
"There are even some Uchiha chunin now, seeing as the massacre was four years ago and anyone that wasn't a Genin was unaware of the plans.", Minato said with excitement.
"My brother?"
"Ah yes, Sasuke. He has just graduated as the top two in his class. He and the other top three students are so talented they're known as the 'Wakaki tensai-tachi'"
"Hm, 'The Young Prodigies', huh? That's good but titles like that hardly mean anything if they aren't given by the enemy. It serves to bloat their egos before they see combat."
"Yes. That's actually what I'm here to talk to you about, Itachi. Iwagakure has provoked us into war. I've decided to use the top three as a special team to go on slightly more dangerous war-missions."
"Hm. You do remember what I said about harm coming to my brother?"
"I do. But I want you to know that even if something grave happens, I will not let you attack the leaf."
It was tense silence for almost a full minute. One prodigy of their time staring at the other.
"Don't let my brother die."
Before Minato could respond Itachi had left in a flock of crows.
"Dammit.", he said to himself before leaving the area.
Uzumaki Compound
"Have you summoned them since you unlocked 'em?", Nero asked, stretching after a light spar between the two. "No. Haven't had the chance.", responded a worn out Naruto.
"Alright then, let's see 'em.", Nero said in a cheerful tone. It had been nearly two weeks since he'd last seen Naruto due to being on a dangerous war-mission.
Wasting no time, Naruto channeled chakra to his now unsealed chains, summoning five red chains from his back.
"GHHH.", he grunted in exertion.
'Five chains for his first time?! Most I've ever heard of was three at the first time and that was from the King himself! They're red due to the kyuubi no doubt. Also, the fact his chains are coming out of his back is pretty rare. Definitely easier to fight with as opposed to them obstructing you while coming from your stomach. He truly is the prodigy of the Uzumaki.', he mused in his mind.
"Alright, that's enough. Five, huh? That's pretty good. I have seen better of course.", he said aloud while scratching the back of his head.
"Do we get to spar with chains now? How many chains do you have? Who had the most chains on their first summon ever?", the red head prodigy shot question after question like an excited seven year old. Nero sweat dropped at all the questions, especially at the one about the most chains on the first summon, but he waved Naruto's questions off with an exasperated,
"I'll tell you all of that in due time."
An excited Naruto seemed to catch himself and calm down before taking a deep breath and lunging at Nero. He sent two punches that Nero easily dodged before dropping down and trying to sweep Nero's legs with a sweep kick.
This forced Nero to jump into the air when Naruto formed a hand sign and summoned his chains to go after him in the air. Seeing that he was going to be caught in the air, Nero summoned his own blue chains without hand signs to combat Naruto's red ones.
While each chain user tried to get to the other using their chains only to swat a chain down that was coming for them, they both failed to notice someone watching them.
Even though they hadn't noticed, someone else did and both Nero and Naruto were forced to stop their chain spar when each of them were grabbed by purple chakra chains, restraining and lifting them in the air.
"Huh?", could be heard from both confused Uzumaki as they were bound and lifted in the air.
When they finally looked to see where the chains were coming from, they were both surprised to see granny Unyu standing there with a much disappointed look on her face.
"Uh- Unyu-sama!", Nero exclaimed respectfully. "Hey granny Unyu.", said a smiling Naruto.
"I do not know how not either of you managed to notice the Iwa anbu watching you. Perhaps you were too locked into your combat?"
Hearing that he'd been found out, the anbu attempted to leave quietly, only to be stopped by a bloodlust stronger than his commander.
"Don't you dare move.", said Unyu, giving the anbu a glare. "Come out now.", after she said that the anbu revealed himself slowly with his hands in the air.
"I..I..", he tried to stammer out, almost kneeling to Unyu's killing intent. "Silence.", she ordered.
"I couldn't sense him at all even when you mentioned him! Maybe he's a special infiltration shinobi?", Nero said whilst taking out rope to tie the man up.
"Doesn't matter. Who knows how long he's been watching or how much he knows.", she responded with a dark look. Before Nero or the anbu could say another word, Unyu stabbed him through the heart with a chakra chain.
"Unyu! We could've questioned him with Ibiki!", cried out a surprised Nero
"He knew secrets. Uzumaki secrets. Secrets not even this village know. Secrets they can't know.", Unyu said in a cold tone. Seeing that Nero was still hesitant, she continued, "Nero, I understand that you directly serve the Hokage, but I don't think I need to remind you what happens to those in the clan that spread our secrets about our chakra chains."
Nero's eyes widened for a second then looked down at the floor as he inclined his head with a reluctant, "Yes Unyu-sama."
Four Days Later
Naruto, Sasuke, Neji and the chunin squad they were assigned were all jumping through trees on their way to a village named Haru that was on the outskirts of fire country.
They'd introduced themselves and learned that the squad leader was a chunin man named Nara Juneto and the three Chunin he was leading along with the addition of three Genin were what Naruto considered 'clanless nobodies'.
Only a few hours after they'd left the leaf village, they arrived in Haru and one of the three Chunin named Atsuburo Riki immediately noticed something was off.
"Hamanagi, Amewa, stay with the Genin real quick.", he said as he pulled out a kunai and slowly crept towards a door of a nearby house.
"Riki, wait, look.", Juneto said as he motioned towards the tree line.
"Can you feel them?", Hamanagi said, slowly unsheathing his wakizashi.
"Wait what's going-", Naruto was cut off when a kunai suddenly lodged itself into his right shoulder. "GAH!", he cried out as he stumbled backward before regaining his footing.
"Shit! I missed!", said a voice from the tree line.
"It's alright, they're only Chunin and Genin.", said another voice. Before any of the leaf ninja could say anything, the two voices slowly emerged from the darkness of the tree line, revealing two Grass village Jounin.
Juneto and the other Chunin quickly jumped infront of the Genin weapons in hand.
'Dammit, this is not good at all. We were supposed to be dealing with the unrest of war in the village not fucking Jounin!'
"Why are you here?", Juneto managed to say calmly, considering he was anything but.
"Well, that's simple. We are allied to the Rock village which makes us at war currently. Therefore, we're here to kill all you Chunin, steal the eyes of the Uchiha and Hyuga brats, and take the Uzumaki's blood cells.", responded the taller and older Jounin.
"How the hell do they know so much about us?!", Amewa said angrily.
"Something isn't right here, I don't see any villagers in the village at all.", Neji said with his byakugan active.
"Hmm. Perhaps we were given up by the client.", Juneto mused aloud.
"Damn, damn, damn! You fuckers talk way too damn much!", exclaimed the shorter, younger Jounin as he rushed Juneto with a kunai in hand, locking in combat.
Before the others could rush in to help, the older Jounin blitzed in front of them and used an earth cylinder jutsu around them to separate Juneto from all of his allies. The unnamed Jounin then put his hand on the earth cylinder.
"Seeru, kill him quickly before his allies figure out my jutsu. Once he's dead morale plummets and the rest will fall as well.", the older Jounin ordered. "Right!", Seeru called back, still locked into combat with Juneto.
Swing after swing, Juneto narrowly dodged each of Seeru's kunai strikes before jumping back to create distance and flashing through hand signs.
"Wind Style: Wind Bullet Jutsu!", Juneto said before inhaling wind and shooting out seven wind bullets. While Seeru managed to dodge six of the seven, one lucky bullet grazed his right leg. "Dammit dammit dammit! Hey, that really, really, really hurts!", shouted an angry Seeru before flashing through hand signs of his own. Juneto rushed in with a kunai as to not give him a chance to finish whatever jutsu he was planning but before he could reach the Jounin, he was done.
"Grass Release: A Thousand Blades.", he said in a low, evil tone. He then clapped his hands together with his fingertips pointed towards Juneto. The cylinder was broken through by Naruto just in time for them to see Seeru's hands clap and Juneto standing in front of each him while the other Jounin was only a few feet away from them.
"Wha..What the hell?", Seeru managed through a clearly restrained body.
"My..My jutsu..And my body..", he said again. That's when Juneto began to chuckle. He chuckled for a moment before moving to a laugh then erupting into a cackle.
"You seem to have only done research on the Genin and not the ones tasked with protecting said Genin.", he said after his laughter died down. "You will see why I, Nara Juneto, will soon be a Jounin! Well actually, no you won't.", after said words, Juneto reached to a side of his waist that Seeru now noticed was missing a kunai pouch. The Jounin unwillingly mimicked his movements. Before he knew what was going on, Seeru pulled out a kunai from his pouch and slit his own throat.
"Seeru!", the old Jounin shouted in shock and horror, "No! How could you lose to- No!"
Before the last Jounin could move, however, he was being attacked by all five leaf ninja.
Neji landed four palm strikes, shutting down the man's left arm.
"Damn you Hyugas!", he said in a rage-filled tone as he signed a jutsu with one hand and made a barrier of grass around himself. "Damn! I'm outnumbered six to one and that Nara has some freaky possessing ability! Why didn't they tell us mere Chunin were so strong in Konohagakure?!", thrust out of his musings, he found that his grass barrier was on fire via Sasuke's fireball jutsu. "You fucking brats! I'll kill you all!", could be heard from inside the grass barrier.
"Grass Release: Ten Thousand Blades!"
"Shit! All of you get away!", said Juneto. His efforts were futile as the barrier surrounding the Grass nin suddenly began to point towards the Leaf nin and shoot at far speeds.
"AUGHH", the screams of Amewa who had jumped in front of everyone else could be heard. He screams then turned to gurgles as he choked on his own blood and died slowly.
"FUCK!", cursed Riki as he charged forward with his kunai, Naruto right beside him with his chains now fully active.
"Insolent fool! I, Yotoshi Genu, will murder all of you for what you've done to my brother!"
Genu then sent forth more grass blades, thousands at a time.
Naruto used his chains to block or redirect all of the ones aimed at lethal spots while others that simply grazed his legs he ignored. Riki and Naruto both locked Genu in combat and began to violently double-team him in hopes of cutting him down.
Seeing the opening, Hamanagi flashed behind Genu and tried to stab him, only for Genu to use a grass substitute and come behind Neji.
"You're the fucker that disabled my left hand. Die!", he said before stabbing Neji in the stomach with a grass sword. Despite Neji's byakugan being active, he couldn't react in time to the Jounin's superior speed and strength. "GURHH", he cried out as he fell to the floor.
"Oh shit! Neji!", Sasuke and Naruto called out in unison.
"I…I'm okay…", he said weakly. "Oh. You are, are you?", Genu began to laugh, "Then I will finish you off! D-", his words were cut short when his head left his body and rolled across the floor. "Nice save.", said Riki with a nod towards Juneto. "Yeah, he seemed to have been so enraged he didn't realize I had taken control of his body and cut off his head with his own jutsu.."
"We need to get Neji back to the Leaf now!", ordered an angry Naruto as he picked up his friend bride-style, much to Neji's dismay.