From ninja to shinigami

by jacke44

Returning to Wave after being snubbed by his sensei for his teammate, Naruto explores a secret structure he found on the way to the bridge confrontation, opening the door to a new world of possibilities for his future, gaining something once lost, and many allies in the wake of revelations a forgotten past, enemies close than you think, and the teaching owed to him from the beginng

38. Showdown

From Ninja to Shinigami

Chapter 38: Showdown

By: jacke44

Beta'd by: Scheffinator

[Land of Lightning compound]

Darui shakes his head and says "if Atsushi is involved, things just got complicated." Both Darui and Asuma suddenly look to the left as they can hear Naruto call out "Shadow Clone Jutsu" creating a small army of clones they then hear him say "find me all the information we need and watch" as he makes his sweeping motion with his hand and look in amazement as the Army turns into random forest animals and take off running or flying.

Darui looked at Asuma saying "correct me if I am wrong but isn't that a Jonin level technique?"

Asuma takes his cigarette out of his mouth and says "due to him having the nine-tailed fox inside of him, he is unable to use the regular clone jutsu, due to it messing up his chakra control because it makes his reserves so large. Add into the fact that he's already got a massive boost from his Uzumaki family, that also makes the Shadow Clone Jutsu perfect for him because it relies on a large amount of chakra."

Asuma looks at him and says "I have no problem saying this, give that kid 20 to 30 years and I guarantee you there will not be a single Shinobi in the Elemental Nations that will be able to stand against him and that's not even factoring in the power he will get once he masters the Nine-Tails. I am pretty sure you guys know about the invasion that happened but what you probably do not know is Naruto played a major role in our victory due to his ability to make so many Shadow clones he had them fighting on every front from protecting the civilians and transporting all the wounded, he was also protecting several of the main buildings along with engaging the enemy. What is more shocking is he did all that after fighting three different rounds in the tournament one of which was fighting a Hyuuga prodigy, one of the Hidden Sand's strongest kunoichi and then he had to fight the Jinchuuriki of One-Tails Shukaku and then he went to fight Orochimaru without succumbing to chakra exhaustion.

The group looked as they can hear laughter coming from the children and see Naruto and Tenten were now juggling kunai knives like circus performers with one of the children standing in between them. With Shikamaru using his shadow possession Jutsu to make sure the child did not move.

Naruto then looks up and heads over to both of them and says "my shadow clones are in the fraternity of the manor they will be spending the night doing what they can to get us some numbers and basic layout of the mansion. I also have them systematically killing off any of the small bandits out on Patrol and replacing them with a new clone transformed into looking like them. How we are going to tell them apart is my clones are painting one of their fingernails with a black x."

Darui's eyes go wide as he realized the secret to the shadow clone and in almost a whisper says "so it's true they can send the information back to the original. We've always thought there was something strange about that technique."

Asuma then says "good job Naruto. By utilizing your clones to both take out some of the enemy and gather information at the same time. This will also give us eyes inside the building."

Kakashi was standing off to the side with a hidden scowl underneath his mask while thinking to himself 'this damn Fox Brat is becoming too much of a nuisance.'

Naruto says "my clones will relay all their information tomorrow at sunrise along with a drawn map of the area if they are able to. But for now, I believe we should just rest and wait for information to come to us." He received a group of nods from all of the Jonin with Darui saying "you are right. Trying to attack them at night without any information would be suicide especially if Atsushi is at the mansion."

[Next morning, Courtyard]

As the group heads out to the courtyard from waking up both Ino and Tenten who basically had to pull the children out of bed and guide them out to the chairs for breakfast who was grumbling to themselves about being pulled away from the softest bed they've ever been in. Which had many of the adults laughing to themselves.

Naruto walks up to the table that the children are sitting at and says "I know that you are still tired and worried about your friend so to make up for that I got a special treat for you today." He then reaches into a bag and pulls out a brightly colored box of cereal which instantly had all five of the children eyes going wide with large smiles on their faces.

Ino and Sakura, who upon seeing this, both start yelling at him saying you can't give the kids that and that it was pure sugar but if you had looked closely, you would see the look of longing in their eyes as their parents would never let them have it. In response to this they were met with a group of raspberries blown at them by the children.

Suddenly the voice of Sara says "I sincerely hope you are planning on giving them some fruit to go with that Uzumaki?"

Naruto nods his head and says "yes. I've got some grapes and watermelon and some strawberries and bananas I was going to give them along with some vitamins to help them."

Botan upon seeing Sara says "how is Yua? Is she going to be ok?"

Sara who can see the children beginning to get worked up says "she is just fine. We were able to remove her appendix safely. You may all visit her once you are finished with your breakfast."

One of the boys looks at her and says "were you able to keep it? Can we see it?" With a majority of the other boys in the area nodding their heads. Sakura shakes her head and says "I do not understand you boys. Why do you always want to see something that is gross?"

Naruto, who was still cutting up some fruit, says "this coming from the girl who wants to be a medic?" Sakura crosses her arms and looks at him and says "this is different. Being a medic is one thing, but keeping organs in glass jars so you can see them is weird and gross and only something a boy would be interested in."

One of the girls looks at her and says "that's because boys are made of snakes and snails and puppy dog tails along with everything gross. While we girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice." This comment made all the girls in the area giggle.

Naruto shakes his head and says under his breath "that ain't true. Girls are made of fangs and claws and everything mean." Instantly every female in both the Leaf and Cloud group turned to look at him and says "what was that Uzumaki?"

Naruto's face drained of all color as he begins to back up as the women approach him. But before the women could get to him a sound coming from a nearby bush drew their attention. Coming out from underneath it was a skunk. Karui, who upon seeing the skunk, let out a very girlish scream and jumped into the arms of Choji. Both of the groups watch as the skunk walked up to Naruto and drops a scroll then disappeared in a puff of smoke. After seeing this, the group turns back to see Karui, who's face had gone to the color of red to match her hair. She then looks at Choji, grabs him by the shirt and says "if you ever tell anybody about this, I will make your life hell." Choji for his part had gone red as well as he quickly put her down and nods his head.

And due to everybody laughing at the redhead no one noticed that Naruto had taken a picture of it but Yugito, who had a cat-like grin on her face as she leans over and says "I'm going to want a copy of that."

Although Yugito said it softly, everybody in the group still heard what she said. But when they did not hear a response coming from him, everybody looked to see he was reading the scroll. Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba instantly recognized his face as the one where he's about to erupt.

Sara also notices and recognizes the look on his face from the several times he had been helping out at the hospital when an abused wife or child came in and quickly looks back at the children and sees that they are done with their breakfast and quickly decided to take them to see their friend, knowing that it would not be good if they saw Naruto erupt.

Asuma slowly begins to approach Naruto, having dealt with him several times in this mood. But to the shock of everybody that grew up with him, they saw him slowly take a deep breath.

Naruto, after a few minutes of having his eyes closed and taking several breaths, he says "ok I think I'm calm enough to talk now." Ino slowly approaches him and wrapped him in a hug and says "I'm proud of you and that you remember the lessons my father gave you to control in your anger."

Naruto replies "I have recently noticed that I become more aggressive when I get agitated and I recently learned this is due to the fact that I am a Jinchuuriki. When I get mad, I can tap into Kurama's anger which can be like a drug to me."

Yugito nods her head and says "he is correct, most of the tailed beasts are filled with anger and hate and it takes a lot of training to not succumb to their anger and hate."

Darui cut into the conversation and says "can I ask what got you so angry?"

Naruto replies "according to my notes here, it would seem that Atsushi likes to throw parties with little girls and his buddies." Everybody in the group looks at this in shock. Kiba and Akamaru begin to growl and both of their hair and fur become agitated and they began looking more feral.

Naruto then looks at Cee and Darui and says "where are the nobles at right now?

Cee replies "I believe they're in one of the dining rooms having breakfast." Naruto nods his head and says "show me the way. I just found out there's a rat inside this house."

Naruto looks at Asuma and says "take all the teams and lock down this compound. No one in and no one out until I say otherwise." Asuma doesn't even bother to argue with him and begins to dictate orders to the teams.

Naruto then follows Cee as he leads them to the dining room. As Darui opens the door, the group sees the mother and father sitting at the table eating breakfast with a few security guards standing around the room. The moment Naruto walks in the room, he begins to scan the guards. When he locks eyes with one of them, the man begins to sweat and then turns tail and begins to run.

Naruto was moving so quickly that only those trained as Shinobi were able to see him move as he grabs one of the stools from the side of the room and throws it at the back of the man's legs making him fall to the ground. As he walks up to him, he says "and where are you going? The fun is just getting started?" Then grabbing a fistful of the hair on the back of his head, he lifts him off the ground and drags him back to the table and slammed his head on the table.

Cee, who had had taking up a defensive stance in front of the mother and father, says "what's going on?" Naruto replies "last night one of my shadow clones was able to get information from one of the bandits that were on patrol. He thought by giving me this, I would let him live. It turns out our little friend here has a large gambling debt and owes money to some people who you do not want to owe money to. It would seem that he made a deal with one of the nobles to the west who has a son roughly the same age as your daughter."

The father nods his head and says "I know who you're talking about his son is always hitting on my daughter." Naruto then says "his deal was, he would give information of how to get into your house and your daughter would be sold to him so he could give her to his son as his pet and in exchange he would pay off his debt."

Naruto can see the look on both of the parents faces and says "do not worry your daughter's fine. While I was not able to get your daughter out of the compound, I was able to remove a good portion of the bandits around her and replace them with Shadow clones."

Naruto then says "the deal was not supposed to be finished until tonight." He then looked at Cee and says "that was when your team was supposed to go back to the Hidden Cloud Village to report if you could not find anything, which would have made it easier to do the trade. They knew when you were going to be leaving because they have their own spy in your village in your mission records department."

Darui says "I don't suppose you got me the spies name, did you?" Naruto nods his head and says "we can deal with that when you get back to the Village." Cee looks at the parents and says "what do you want us to do with this prisoner?" The father replies "do whatever you want with him."

Naruto reaches into his pocket and pulls out a prisoner sealing tag making him become as stiff as a board. He then says "I don't suppose you have a place where we could put him." the father shakes his head and says "sorry we don't really have any place that could contain him." Naruto gave a nod of his head then bites his thumb, drawing blood and does a few hand signs then says "summoning Jutsu." To everybody in that room, the air in front of him seemed to shimmer then suddenly a black hole opened up.

Cee looks at it and says "what is that?"

Naruto replies I have a very unique Summoning contract. This is called a Garganta (N/A "Black Cavity"), it allows me to enter my summons Realm." As he says this, a creature that looks like an octopus with a bone white mask appears and with a large hole in the middle of its chest. Naruto then shoves the prisoner towards the creature and says "keep an eye on him until I say otherwise, but do not kill him unless he tries to run." The creature gives a loud shriek and wrapped its tentacles around the prisoner, dragging him into the Garganta. Once the creature had the prisoner, the Garganta closed.

Naruto then looks at Cee to say "I have a basic layout of the base along with a general number of remaining enemies. Let's get together with the Jonin and I would also suggest that we grab Shikamaru so we can begin to plan how we're going to do this."

Darui gave a nod of his head and says "I'm glad to hear it but I would still like to have a name of that spy so I can send a letter back to Mabui. She knows how to be discreet and will be able to select a team that specializes in stealth to spy on them."

Naruto along with all of the Jonin and Shikamaru had all gathered in one of the rooms. Naruto was reaching into his pocket. He pulls out the scroll, releasing a storage seal releasing a stack of papers and begins to hand them out. He then says "according to my intel, there are a total of 78 remaining bandits along with 14 Chuunin level Shinobi most of them are from the former Hidden Hot Springs Village there are also 7 Jonin and then Atsushi himself."

Darui and Cee both look at the papers seeing the list of Shinobi, seeing that none of them are above C-rank besides Atsushi who is an S-rank. Naruto pulls out a large piece of paper and rolls it out to revealing a map of the base then says "one of my clones was able to get a copy of this." He then pointed out several areas of heavy security. "They have a patrol that goes both counterclockwise and clockwise around the base constantly. These are done by the Chuunin. The 7 Jonin are stationed inside next to the prisoners along with the vault containing all of the spoils. Atsushi mostly stays up in this area of the mansion and the remaining bandits are roaming the forest looking for intruders. There is no power to the base so they are using candles to light the hallways which is making a lot of shadows which makes it good for my shadow clones disguised rodents to be able to move through them."

Darui who was shocked at all the information being given to them says "how many enemies did your clones take out?"

Naruto shrugs his shoulders and replies "I'm thinking they took out at least 130 to 150 and now are disguised as one of the bandits. I have also still got several clones wandering around inside the base gathering more intel."

Cee looks at him and says "and they are not aware of what is happening?" While wondering just how good at stealth this kid is.

Asuma lets out a chuckle seeing the look on their faces and says "have any of you ever been to the Hidden Leaf Village?" Both male ninjas nod their head and said yes. Asuma points his thumb at Naruto and says "he put graffiti all over the monument in broad daylight in a neon orange jumpsuit and wasn't noticed until he was done."

Naruto looks at Shikamaru and says "so what do you think?" Shikamaru mutters under his breath "it is troublesome but given all of this intel, our best bet is to put Kiba, Shino, and Choji as one team. Ino, Sakura, Tenten, and lee as a team and have them focus on clearing out the bandits from the outer forest. I will go with the team of Genin from the Hidden Cloud Village to clear out the Chuunin. You mentioned that there is a lot of Shadows in the base which would help me. I would be able to get the drop on them and they could take them out."

Asuma gives a nod of his head and says "good planning that would leave us the 7 Jonin and according to what we have here both Kakashi and Gai should be able to take out those. I also think it would be best if we have Kurenai and Sara both stay as security guards." Getting a round of nods of the head.

Naruto then says "and while they are doing that, the rest of you could get to the prisoners and Yugito and I will get the attention of Atsushi. He might be an S rank but going up against two Jinchuuriki, one of which who has already mastered her tailed beast mode and I've still got a few surprises I haven't released yet."

Cee says "are you sure you can get his attention long enough?"

Shikamaru let out a chuckle and says "trust me. If there's one thing Uzumaki's are good at, it is getting the light shined on them and drawing attention to themselves"

Naruto looks at his friend and says "we are not that bad." Shikamaru replies "do I need to bring out the list of all the things you did when we were in the academy like the time you reverse the flow of the toilets?"

Naruto crosses his arms and says "that was never proven that it was me."

Shikamaru then says "I'm just glad you finally got with Hinata, who will nag you and keep you out of trouble and has you whipped just like my old man and my mom."

Kurenai, who had remained silent, was laughing inside her head as she nodded, understanding that Shikamaru had made a good point. She had noticed how her surrogate daughter had a way of controlling Naruto.

[Ino POV]

Ino, Karui, and Samui had been assigned one of the gates. As Samui turned and looked at Ino, she says "I have to say, I'm rather impressed with this new seal of Uzumaki's. I have always had problems with my chest killing my back. But I am curious why he decided to make one of these and if he did it just so he could examine woman's chests."

Ino shakes her head and says "that's not it. I have known him since we were kids and if there is one thing, I know about him is he would never disrespect a woman like that. Yes, he is a man and he has his moments of being a pervert, especially with one of his jutsus which he calls his Sexy Jutsu which is basically him turning into a female form of himself and naked with clouds around him. But what most people do not know is, I along with my mother and several others helped him make it when he explained what it was supposed to do. He uses it to distract the enemy so his comrades can have time to attack because let's face it, on a battlefield if a man suddenly sees a naked woman, he will most likely freeze."

Ino then says "as to the seal my mother and several other women have talked to him and he sincerely made this to help women and yes, he technically did have to examine a few chests and ask a few questions but he has been trained as a medic so I'm sure he was very respectful about it and all of the women who he did have help him volunteered for it."

Samui then says "I noticed that you have not had to change out your seals while I've had to use the second set you gave me."

Ino nods her head and replies "that's because I gave Naruto one of my bras and he embroidered it on it for me along with a few other women, including my mom. Each have at least one now but those have to be specially ordered and he's not advertising that because he doesn't want women to bring in large piles of their bras."

Ino then put on a sly smile and says "don't let this get out but I know he's working on a seal to help keep our breasts cool so we won't get sweaty boob rash."

Samui put on a small smile herself and says "that's definitely going to get him appreciation from women."

Ino looks at Karui who says "can we stop talking about breasts? Some of us are not as developed and it's not fair." Ino says "well okay since we are going to be going to the Hidden Cloud Village are there any good clothing stores?"

[Sakura POV]

Sakura and Lee had been told to stand guard over one of the courtyards as she was in the process of explaining her new weapon. With a large smile on her face, she says "it's called Muteki Tekkon (N/A "Invincible Iron Staff")." Telling him how Naruto gave it to her during The Invasion.

Lee gives her his signature thumbs-up and with a large smile saying "I am sure your flames of Youth will burn brighter now Sakura-chan."

Sakura then suddenly remembers that she also owed him an apology as well for the way she treated him and says "Lee, I want to apologize for the way I treated you during the Chuunin Exams." She then makes a snap decision and says "if that offer for the date is still open, I would be willing to go with you when we get back to the Village."

Lee seems to explode with happiness saying he accepts her apology and that he will make sure that the date is as spectacular as he can.

Sakura thinks to herself maybe she should have Naruto talk to him to make sure he doesn't go overboard due to the fact that she had noticed Lee would constantly listen to Naruto.

[Later that day, outer Forest perimeter]

[Asuma POV]

Asuma was standing on a branch of a tree using the glasses Naruto had shown them, using the thermal vision to look at the base to get an idea where everybody was. He looked at Cee and Darui and says "it looks like the prisoners are still in the area of the building. Once we see the signal, we move in." reaching up to his ear he says "this is rescue team in position."

[Ino POV]

Ino had been put in charge of the bandit teams. She reached up to her own ear and says "this is bandit removal team, we are in position." she then says "we are just waiting for our signal from Naruto." As she then looks at Shino and Kiba "you two are going to lead us to the bandits once we see the signal."

Tenten speaks up and says "what was the signal again? I don't think he told us." Both Sakura and Ino, along with the rest of the group, look at her and say "trust me if it's anything to do with Naruto it would be very big and very loud."

Shikamaru reaches up to his ear and says "this is strike team, we are in position waiting for the signal." No sooner had he said this, then all of a sudden, the sky was lit up with fireworks in the direction of the base. One of the fireworks that went off in a flurry of colors and when it faded it showed a picture of someone mooning. Shikamaru was reaching up to his ear again as he uses the radio and says "Ino, remind me to smack your boyfriend upside the head." Only to get a short message back saying "get in line."

Ino then reaches up to her ear again and says "this is why we never invite you to parties Uzumaki and I am so telling mom and all the others about this."

[Naruto and Yugito POV]

Naruto who was looking up at the fireworks display with a large grin on his face while thinking to himself 'I got to remember to send a thank you gift to Kakuzu.' As he was standing there, he could hear the sound of Kurama laughing inside his head. Between his laughs he makes a comment about how it was worthy of a Kitsune. When he heard that comment from Ino, he looks at his companion and says "quick question, what is the immigration laws in the Hidden Cloud Village?"

Yugito was also having a large grin on her face. She had to admit to herself that this was one of best ways to get someone's attention and also seeing the way that Naruto's face turned white due to the threat and the fact that Matatabi was also roaring with laughter.

[Atsushi POV]

Atsushi had been sitting at his desk going over some paperwork when suddenly he hears the sound of fireworks going off and as he runs to the office window to lookout of the window and sees the firework display of someone mooning. As he is gritting his teeth, he looks at one of the other men in the room and says "prepare for an attack!" Only to see the man go up in a puff of smoke signaling that it was a clone making his eyes go wide. He can then hear someone yelling from the courtyard.

"Hey Atsushi get out here and face me! I'm here to crash your party! They say you're the titan! I say you're the chicken because you didn't get what you wanted and ran away."

Atsushi jumped out the window into the courtyard and comes face-to-face with two individuals. He instantly recognizes Yugito as the two tailed Jinchuuriki, drawing a little bit of caution. Even though he was one of the strongest ninjas from the Hidden Cloud Village, even he had to respect the power of a Jinchuuriki.

As he then looks the second individual and not recognizing him but taking a guess that he's the one that yelled at him and says "just who the fuck are you supposed to be?"

Naruto put on his grin and shrugs his shoulders and says "allow me to introduce myself and the party pooper." As Naruto got his first real look at Atsushi, he had to give the man some respect. He was as big as Ay and Killer Bee in both height and muscle mass. He also carried a large twin bladed axe on his back.

Atsushi noticing his Leaf headband says "you are from the Hidden Leaf Village huh. I am surprised at that worthless ape Ay agreed to accept help from them." As he reaches back and grabs his twin bladed axe and says "it doesn't matter anyways because I'm going to kill you both anyways."

Naruto quickly reaches back and grabs his blade calling out the name of his sword and in a blinding flash of light making both of them shield their eyes. Atsushi was rapidly blinking his eyes to get rid of the spots and through his blurred vision he sees Naruto is now holding a set of butterfly swords with the right blade glowing a soft blue. He then sees as he raises the blade above his head and with a downwards slashing motion calls out. "Water Arc Wave Cutter!" And to the shock of both Cloud Village Ninja, a massive, blade-like arc of water was racing towards him.

Atsushi quickly dodges to the left only to have Naruto suddenly appear next to him, swinging one of his butterfly swords which he counters with his axe, then jumps backwards. Both Cloud ninja are looking at the blond in a new light and at the sight of his speed while thinking to themselves 'he moves almost as fast as Ay.'

Naruto quickly uses Flash Step to appear behind Atsushi while thinking to himself he was glad that he got to the point where he didn't need the incantation anymore for this.

While holding his right palm flat, pointed at Atsushi with his left hand on his right wrist. He then says "Hado Number 31 Shakkaho!" (A/N: Way of Destruction Number 31 Red Fire Cannon). Before anybody could blink a red orb quickly appeared on his palm and fired at Atsushi's back sending him flying forward.

Yugito stood there blinking, thinking that she had never seen an attack like that before.

[Yugito mindscape]

Matatabi had a puzzled look on her face as she could feel the spiritual energy in the attack while also thinking 'I'm going to have to have a conversation with my Idiot Brother Kurama-Baka.'

Atsushi, after getting himself back on his feet, turns back and looks at him and says "I'm going to enjoy ripping you apart but only after I have captured everyone you care about and love and kill them in front of you."

Naruto takes up a new battle stance and says "one of these days I'm going to find the stupid bad guy school or book and destroy it. Every single bad guy I've come across lately does a stupid monologue like you. It's always "I'm going to kill your loved ones" or "I'm going to make you feel pain". Do me a favor and shut up. You're lowering the IQ of everybody around you by talking."

Both Cloud ninja look at him in disbelief, along with both the tailed beasts. Then suddenly both of the tailed beast's breakout laughing inside the mindscapes, while Yugito was fighting not to giggle.

Atsushi suddenly disappears in a flash of lightning similar to Ay only to suddenly stop when he got close to Naruto looking as if he was struggling to move. He was then suddenly blasted backwards by an invisible force, smashing through one of the concrete walls of the outer barrier of the compound. Naruto looks at Yugito and says "let's get him into the forest where he won't be able to move as fast." As they both quickly jumped through the hole after him.

[Ino POV]

Ino, along with her group, had met the bandits head on, making quick work of them. As she dodges underneath one of the bandits swinging a sword at her, she uses the motion of his body to deliver a body blow to his chest using her new boots that sent him flying through the air and into a tree making it fall over.

As she looks around for her next opponent, she sees Kiba and Akamaru fighting two enemies. Kiba having his opponent in a headlock, punching him in the face while Akamaru had bitten his opponent on the butt and he was running around screaming like a girl. She then looks around and sees the whole team is making quick work, whether it be Tenten shooting the enemy from her standing point up in the tree with her arrows or Choji using his new fist to punch his enemies along with Lee. She suddenly Hears a noise behind her. As she looks, it turned out two of the bandits was able to use chakra and was using it against Sakura.

[Sakura POV]

Sakura had easily been using her oversized Club to diminish her opponents. She then came up on a set of twins that are now using Earth Style Jutsu. As the set of twins look at her, they say "let's see how you can handle this little girl." Then both of them do a set of hand signs and call out "earth style: hiding like a mole Jutsu." With both of them diving in the ground and disappearing.

Kiba, who was a short distance away, manages to hear what was happening and stops punching his opponent in the face and says "your friends are about to get their butts kicked." Despite having his face being punched in, the bandit looks up at him and says "what do you mean?" Despite having a bloody lip and a broken nose. Kiba lets out a small laugh and says "they picked the wrong technique to use against her. She is the number-one high-scorer of whack-a-mole at the arcade next to the Academy. No one can even get close to her high score."

Sakura had taken up a better stance in prepared to swing Muteki Tekkon. She also increased her hearing, waiting for the sound of the earth to move. Not even a few seconds later, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye as one of the twins tried to jump out of the ground at her. But before he could even fully emerge, Sakura was bringing down the bat in a downward motion, smashing it into his head. Due to her increase strength, she makes a massive crater and created a small earthquake. Then she spins on the ball of her feet and swings the bat like a golf club and nails the second one who tried to come up behind her making him shoot into the air until he disappeared.

[Sakura mindscape]

Inner Sakura pops up behind her and starts going "who's number one? Who's number one? Still reigning champ Cha!"

All around them, all the bandits had stopped and looked at this with a look of shock on their faces. The bandit that was in a headlock by Kiba says "I feel sorry for the poor bastard who has her as a wife when she's pregnant or going through the changes." Along with a few of the other bandits making a comment here or there. Sadly, he had said this loud enough that Sakura managed to hear him and slowly turned around looking at him. Kiba quickly released him and slowly started backing away knowing what was about to happen was not something he wanted to be in the middle of.

Sakura raised Muteki Tekkon above her head and gave a battle cry as she then charges at them, making several of them run away. Ino slowly shakes her head and says "some things never seem to change," and says "not only is she the reigning champ of whack-a-mole but that's also the reason why she was banned from the miniature golf course. That poor robot clown never stood a chance against her anger."

Tenten jumps down next to her as they look at her laying a beatdown on a group of bandits and says "you think we should help?" Ino, with a small smile on her face, says "yeah but who should we help, them or her?" Suddenly one of the bandits' yells "please, please, no, no, time out, time out." Then they can hear Sakura say "what? You think is the schoolyard beatdown? There're no timeouts in battle."

[Naruto and Yugito POV]

Having made it into the forest, they were quickly able to find Atsushi. As the two of them approached him, Naruto let out a chuckle and says "poor little titan couldn't become Raikage, so you ran away, hid like a chicken and became a big bad Rogue Ninja." As he began to circle him, he says "just face it. You were never meant to be Raikage."

Atsushi goes through a series of hand signs, calling out "lightning style: lightning pulse" sending out a wave of lightning from his body. Yugito, who had managed to jump back far enough to not get hit, watched as it hit Naruto creating a big dust cloud.

Atsushi begins to laugh seeing this and says "not so tough now are you, you little brat?" But stopped laughing as a voice from the cloud says "water style: water Arc Gavilan." From out of the dust cloud, a javelin of both water and chakra came flying at him at high speed. Luckily, he was able to dodge it but looking behind, he sees a row of trees destroyed.

Once the dust settled, they can see Naruto as he has some singe marks on his body from the attack. He laughs and says "if that's really the best you got, it is no wonder why Ay beat you to the title. I have seen him in action and compared to him, you're nothing but a second-rate act. He's got more talent and power in his pinky than you ever have in your body."

Atsushi dashes forward while charging lightning chakra into his axe and bringing it down. When he gets more than two steps from Naruto, he is suddenly stopped by an invisible force. He then quickly finds himself blasting backwards into a tree.

Yugito, who was off to side watching this with a shocked expression on her face, then hears the voice of Matatabi in her head saying "kitten, I have been watching the fight. I believe I figured out his ability. His right blade allows him to manipulate the water around him and channel it into an attack and I noticed right before the last attack his left blade gave off a pulse of energy and a second later Atsushi was stopped then thrown backwards. This leads me to believe it allows him to affect gravity around him. When he has both of those blades in his hands, he's virtually unapproachable. If and when we ever have to attack him and fight him, I would suggest long range."

Yugito decides to enter the fight, quickly going through a set of hand signs and calling out "Fire Style: Mouse Hairball." Gathering some spit in her mouth, she spits it out which quickly takes the form of a flaming blue mouse which quickly charges at Atsushi. Once they got close enough, instead of attacking, it exploded making him jump back farther. When he looked up, he noticed that Yugito had transformed her fingernails into long claws. He then had to quickly go on the defensive as she appeared in front of him swiping. As she manages to land a blow on his chest, both she and Naruto noticed that there was not even a scratch on him from the attack.

Atsushi begins to laugh at them and says "my skin is as hard as the Third Raikage. Your little blade won't have an effect on me."

Naruto quickly calls out "Shadow clone Jutsu" sending in the Clones to attack from different angles while simultaneously increasing and decreasing gravity to throw him off balance. As the fight went on, he noticed that none of his attacks were working on him. Naruto, who had suddenly appeared behind him to attack from behind, was shocked when Atsushi coated his entire body in lightning and spun around so fast that he did not have time to counter it and delivered a punch to his chest, sending Naruto crashing through several trees.

Naruto managed to get back up with a hand to his chest due to the pain, thankfully due to the healing factor of the Nine-Tails, it was already healing. As he thinks to himself 'okay we have tried attacking him directly and none of our attacks even leave a mark on him.' He then began to evaluate what they have on their side 'let's see what we have. I can manipulate the water in the air and transform it into attacks, along with manipulating the gravity around me and Yugito has her Taijutsu along with her tailed beast but that's not going to help us if they cannot leave any damage on his body. What else can we do?" He is snapped out of it by the voice of Kurama saying.

"And just when I thought you were starting to show intelligence brat. If you cannot hurt him from the outside, hurt him from the inside. You have the ability to manipulate the water around you including the absorbing of water in the air. What do you think would happen if you start to absorb all the water in the air around him?"

Naruto says "how can I do that and not hurt Yugito?" To which he got a reply saying "do not worry about her. I can send a temporary message to her through a connection to my sister due to us being close proximity."

Yugito, who had activated her first tailed beast mode and engaged Atsushi in Taijutsu hoping that it would be enough to damage him, suddenly jumps back having heard the voice of Matatabi telling her to get out of the way because of her Idiot Brother and his host we're about to do something stupid.

Naruto, once he saw that she had jumped far enough back onto a tree branch and was out of the danger zone, begins to concentrate on his Zanpakuto and says "ok Lunetta, I hope you can help me on this." He can feel the blade in his right hand give a small vibration and can hear the small voice say "don't worry about this Naruto-kun, you just focus on the water around him. I will focus on the water around your head to make sure you can breathe."

Naruto quickly made some Shadow clones and once again charges at Atsushi while his clones begin to attack with some of their Jutsu in their arsenal, keeping him in the field that they had brought into in the middle of the forest.

[Yugito POV]

Yugito looks to her left as Cee and Asuma had arrived on a branch next to her. Cee looks at her and says "what is the situation here and why are you not in there helping?" Yugito replies "none of our attacks were working. Somehow Atsushi managed to recreate the third Raikage's technique to increase the strength of his body, so none of our attacks were working. I had engaged him again after activating my first tailed beast mode when Matatabi told me to get out of the way and that she had gotten a message from her brother that his host was about to start absorbing all of the water in the air around us to try and suffocate him." As the three Jonin turn back to the battle, they can see a giant crimson barrier in the shape of an eight-point star go up around the clearing.

[Naruto POV]

Atsushi, who had managed to destroy all the shadow clones, looks at Naruto and says "these clones of pathetic." Naruto, with his trademark foxy grin, vanished, appearing at his left side while throwing a kunai only to quickly vanish again, appearing again on his right and doing this six times in six different directions. When he stopped at the 8th time, Atsushi, who managed to dodge all seven kunai, begins to laugh at him and says "your aim sucks worse than an Academy student brat."

Naruto, who was still holding an eighth kunai, looks at him and says "who said I was aiming for you?" He then he threw the kunai down on the ground in front of him which suddenly begins to glow red along with all seven of the other kunai. He then quickly began to make hand signs, calling out "Uzumaki Style: Crimson Octagram death cage Barrier jutsu."

Atsushi upon hearing the name Uzumaki, his eyes went wide and then a sadistic grin spread across his face and says "so you're a part of that family. Your family just doesn't know how to die, does it? It's been a long time since I had a chance to kill one of you." He begins to channel lightning into his axe before vanishing in a bolt of lightning, bringing the lightning cover axe down on Naruto who manages to parry the blade with a scissor block. He then focuses all of his chakra into his leg and delivers a kick to Atsushi's stomach, sending him back.

Atsushi, after stopping to get his bearings, goes through a set of hand signs and calls out "lightning Style: Dragon Fist." Giving a punch forward, a dragon made of lightning flew out of his hand.

Naruto quickly uses Flash Step and appears on a different side of the barrier only to have to block another strike from the axe blade. Jumping back and getting some distance again, he then notices that Atsushi is beginning to look a little pale in the face, losing color and breathing hard. Realizing that his plan is working, he quickly dashes forward and begins unleashing a fury of swipes at him.

Naruto, after stopping his latest attack, watches as Atsushi dropped to one knee. Breathing hard, he looks up at him and says "what did you do?" Naruto reseals his Zanpakuto before replying "it's simple. First, I made a barrier to contain us in an area, then I took most of the water out of the air. Making the air too thin for people to breathe in. It's like standing on the tallest mountain on the planet. The air is so thin you can't breathe and the fact that you were running around using so much energy which made your energy drop and breathing hard but you do not need to know anymore because I am about to finish this." He then reaches into his pocket and pulls out a handful of stealing tags. He then throws them at Atsushi. Placing them all over his body, he then makes the ram hand sign and makes them begin to glow. Within seconds Atsushi's skin begins to turn a dull gray and moments after that his entire body had been turned what look to be stone.

Yugito looks up when she hears the voice of Matatabi saying to brace themselves as the barrier is about to come down as there is no air inside the barrier it's going to have to be filled quickly. She then notified the others to brace themselves. As they watched the barrier disappear, the winds quickly moved forward towards the empty space.

Cee and Asuma jump down and begin to walk towards Naruto. When they get close enough, they manage to spot what looks to be a statue of Atsushi in a kneeling position. Cee looks at the statue and says "is that really Atsushi and if so, how did you turn him into stone?"

Naruto replies "yes, it's really him and as to how I managed to turn him into stone, I used one of these." As he holds up one of the stealing tags. "These are one of my new inventions. I made each one of these that holds a special branch of chakra from nature, known as Senjutsu chakra. If you do not mold it correctly, you would be turned to stone. I used these to flood his body with Senjutsu chakra which turned him into stone."

While he was thinking to himself how funny it was when he came up with the idea and mentioned it to his parents. When he first learned about it, both of them along with both elder toads had been explaining what Sage chakra was and about both the strengths and weaknesses of it. When they mentioned that you had to stay perfectly still to gather it and he just blurted out "why don't you just put some of it in a storage seal and activate it when you need it and you can instantly go into Sage Mode?" The look on all four of their faces was hilarious. Ma turned and looked at her husband and started to hit him on the head along with Minato with a rolling pin saying "why didn't you think of that years ago?" While both of the Uzumaki were rolling on the ground laughing.

Naruto then put the statue in a storage seal and put the large axe that had fallen to the ground on his back. He would either give it back to the Hidden Cloud Village or he would keep it as a trophy and hang it in his office. He was leaning towards the latter.

As their group meets up with the others, Naruto looks at the group of former prisoners and can see both Sakura and Tenten trying to talk to one of the little girls but not having much success. He quickly takes out a stuffed animal that he had taken from the little girl's room, he has in his storage seals and calmly walks over to the group. Squatting down, he calmly says "hello my name is Naruto. I was wondering if you could help me. You see I have this little friend," as he holds up the stuffed animal as he says "he is missing his friend and says he kind of needs his friend. You wouldn't have happened to have seen her, have you?" She quickly accepts the stuffed animal and hugs it with a big smile on her face. Naruto then says "you don't need to worry sweetie we're going to get you back to your mommy and daddy soon."

As Naruto stands up, Tenten can see the axe on his back and says "hey can you let me see that axe?" Naruto looks at her and says "no way. Just because you have a weapon fetish does not mean I'm going to let you have it. I have also heard those rumors about you and weapons." Tenten, whose face went red due to everybody laughing at her, then turns and looks at Ino saying "I am going to beat the snot out of your boyfriend." Ino calmly crosses her arms and says "that's fine just don't damage anything below his belt. As long as that is intact there's nothing more I need." Which had all of the men laughing at Naruto as his face went white.

Naruto slowly begins to backup. As she activated her bow and arrow, he calmly says "now come on, I was just joking. There's no reason to get mad." Quickly ducking as an arrow shot over his head, he then looked at Ino and says "two things. First, I'm going to get you back for this and second, remind me to thank your mother when we get back to the Village for all of those dancing lessons because I'm about to use a technique that was inspired by a dance that all men need to learn how to do."

Omoi scratches his head and says "and what dance is that?"

Naruto, with his foxlike grin, says "that's easy." As he does a little jog in place while pumping his fist forward and says "it's called The Running Man." He then takes off running with Tenten quickly giving chase while unloading a hellfire of arrows on him.

[At the compound]

As the group makes their way to the main gate, the group can hear the sound of a woman screaming out the girl's name. Both the mother and the father quickly come running up with their security guards, with the mother quickly taking her from Naruto. He stands there and watches as both her mother and father quickly hug the little girl. Soon the father manages to pull himself away, stands up and says "thank you" to both groups "for returning my daughter home."

Naruto then looks at Cee and says "would you mind if we travel back with you to the Hidden Cloud Village? I think I've had enough excitement here for a while." He received a nod of the head from Cee.

The end of ch38.

[Omake: This Means War]

[Uzumaki compound]

Naruto was currently sitting in his office going over some paperwork, while groaning to himself saying "now I know why the old man always complains about this." While he is reaching for his cup of tea, he notices that it is empty. Letting out a soft breath, he says "I should probably get some more and stretch my legs anyways." Slowly getting up, he takes the teapot that was sitting on the corner of his desk and heads toward the kitchen, trying to be as quiet as possible due to the late hour as to not wake any of the children.

He was quickly making himself a new pot of tea and breaking in his stash of ramen. As he was walking back down the corridor to his office, he starts to hear a sound coming from one of the large rooms. Letting out another breath, he realizes that some of the children must still be awake. Even though they should have been in bed. He then follows the sound, finding that it was coming from one of the large meeting rooms. He then quickly opens the door to yell at the kids to get back in bed. As quickly as he opens the door, something hits his face making him dropped a tray holding the new tea and the ramen. As he stands in the doorway, he looks at the group, seeing that it is all the girls standing in their pajamas, looking as if they were having a big slumber party, as there were bowls of snacks around the floor. He then notices that each of the girls are currently holding a pillow, looking as if he had interrupted a pillow fight. That is when he looks down at the object that had hit him in the face and sees that it is a pillow that has been designed to look like a cinnamon bun. That is also when he sees that his Ramen and tea are all over the floor. Quickly snapping his head back up, he manages to spy Hinata trying to sneak out a side door. He then quickly reaches down and grabs the pillow and says "this declaration of war will not go unanswered!" He then quickly runs off.

All of the girls look at Hinata and say "what are we going to do now big sister? Hinata quickly grabbed another pillow and says "prepare for battle" as the group can hear the sound of a stampede coming towards them knowing that Naruto must have recruited the boys.

And like she had predicted Naruto came running around the corner with an army of boys wearing pajamas and have pillows with the boys quickly attacking the girls with the pillows.

Naruto and Hinata slowly begin to circle each other. Naruto says "I never thought I'd have to face you on the battlefield but I cannot allow your betrayal to go unanswered." But before they could clash, Hinata is hit in the back with a pillow. Both turn to look and see who did it and see none other than Hanabi. Hinata looks at her sister and says "why? Why would you turn on me?" Hanabi, with an evil grin on her face, says "just trying to level the playing field to remove the competition."

Standing off to the side in the doorway, having been woken up by the loud commotion, was none other than Tsunade, who just shakes her head and was about ready to head back to bed when she was bombarded with a pillow herself. And that is how the children of the Uzumaki Clan learned never to upset a tired and cranky Tsunade Senju.

The End.