AN: Chapter title: The Search Interrupted: Sidetracked Part 3.

The truce was over. The remaining members of both the Grass Fruit and Grass Flower groups had departed the camp with their wounded and their dead. Both would return to their leaders with news of what had happened, of the interest of the Akatsuki in their decades-long battle.

Jiraiya watched the two groups of Shinobi depart, kept his eye on them long enough to judge if one was going to attack the other.

'Looks like they're tired of fighting. At least for now.' He spared the two caravans one last look before turning away. He still had his own mission to deal with. 'Well, missions now.'

He met the dark blue eyes of the 'Medical-nin' that Naruto had gotten into an argument with a few days ago. It had nearly blown up into chaos if not for Fu being with him. Instead of the elder Shinobi having to rush from Iba's tent to stop what would assuredly be a massacre with a third of the world's Tailed Beasts involved, Fu had been the one to separate the two.

'She's definitely a clever one.' Jiraiya had arrived in time to see Fu defuse the situation, convince Naruto to find a better use of his time. 'I didn't think anyone could stop that and then convince Naruto to donate his Chakra to the Medical-nin all day.' He didn't know if Fu had framed it as a challenge or a favor or a promise but it had worked in the end.

Naruto's temper had cooled and, once the blonde's charisma had a moment to work, he had won over the patients and the group of Medical-nin over the next few days.

The injured had recovered ahead of schedule and Naruto hadn't lost it and given the Hidden Grass Village reason to declare war on the village.

"Iba will be busy with Naruto for at least another hour." Jiraiya found a decent enough seat on an abandoned crate across from the Medical-nin. "If you want to talk, now's the time."

She may had been fighting to keep the scowl off her face but she stalked over and joined him on the empty crate.

The white haired Shinobi said nothing, content to let the silence between the two stretch.

Smoke drifted off of Yugito as she dismissed her disguise. Blonde hair had replaced black and dark blue eyes had become black. The Hidden Cloud Kunoichi bothered to glare at Jiraiya for a moment longer before she simply sighed and leaned forward.

"Why are you here?"

"Traveling of course." Jiraiya's answer brought a near hiss from Yugito. It was impressive just how annoyed the Jinchuriki had become at the wrench he had thrown into her mission, how his and Naruto's presence had turned the situation upside-down in more ways than one.

"Of course." Yugito moved on. "Whose the girl with green hair traveling with you?"

"A Shinobi from the Hidden Waterfall. She's more of a tagalong than a traveling partner."

"Alright." Yugito made a point to close her eyes, take in a deep breath. "Let's try something else." She breathed out and the temperature around the two rose. "You know who I am. I know who you are. And I am tired." When she opened her eyes again, they were different. A clear influence from the Nibi in her left eye having turned green and her right eye to yellow. "It's useless to lie to each other, to play these little games of half-truths. How about we just spend the next few minutes being honest with each other?"

"Aren't you bold." Jiraiya wasn't intimidated by the Jinchuriki or her rage. "And what do I get from being honest with one of Hidden Cloud's agents?"

"Fine. I'll go first." Yugito tightened her hold on the Nibi's Chakra, lowered the temperature around the two back to normal. "I was here investigating the Grass Fruit and Grass Flower groups. The Hidden Cloud's leadership is concerned that they openly clashed after decades of solely political maneuvers. I came here to discover why. So far, all I managed to uncover was that it started over finding something."

"There's no excavation sites around here." Jiraiya pondered on what exactly the splinter fractions from the Hidden Grass were after out here. "So it's something hidden." Yugito gave him a look of annoyance at stating something so obvious. He ignored her. "And something old. There's a few myths worth digging into but only one of them deals with the Hidden Grass specifically."

"You aren't talking about that ridiculous Box are you?" Yugito had to shake her head at what the old man was suggesting. "That's ridiculous. The Box is a myth, something made up to scare children who don't listen." She found it so ridiculous that the power of the Nibi fully bled away from her, retreated into the seal once more. "You've drunk too much if you believe a wishing box is real."

"Of course it's not real." Jiraiya wasn't surprised at her disbelief, at the jab at him. "But the toads of Mount Myoboku have records dating back centuries and a box matching its description shows up a handful of times in relation to the Hidden Grass Village, or at least the lands that would become the Hidden Grass Village." The Shinobi didn't like any of what it said. "The box is called the Box of Ultimate Bliss, said to grant a wish to whoever manages to open it. Of course, nothing comes easy. It requires an incredible amount of Chakra to even dream of opening the damn thing."

"An incredible amount of Chakra…" Yugito put the pieces together rather quickly. "And this Box…Can it really grant a wish?"

"Of course not. I said it wasn't real. The Box opens once enough Chakra is sacrificed to it but it doesn't grant a wish. All the records I found only point to a monster of some kind being unleashed, a creature that consumes the world unless returned to the Box." He thought back to his many long hours of studying ancient scrolls, of what he had uncovered. "It's not a Tailed Beast if you're curious. The creature seems to have battled a Tailed Beast or two over the centuries but it always lost."

"…This can't be real." Yugito would look into the myths of the Box more thoroughly later, confirm or deny what Jiraiya told her before she returned to the Hidden Cloud. "A creature like it…it must be a demon."

"That's what some of the scrolls called it." Jiraiya didn't enjoy spreading such awful knowledge but the situation here was too risky. 'If the Hidden Grass had their schism over the Box, if one group wants to use it…That's a recipe for disaster. And just another reason to get back to my training in the Sage Arts.'

"Do you think the Akatsuki came here for something like that?" Yugito's question had merit. For two Akatsuki mercenaries to be here, to decimate both groups, and then flee? There had to be a plan, a deeper meaning.

"…The Akatsuki is a strange group by it's very nature. It's the only mercenary organization formed exclusively from S-Rank Missing-nin, can claim to be as powerful as they are and back it up. I think it's safe to say that no one knows what their true goal is. To be honest? I don't have any idea what they could be after." Jiraiya's admission made Yugito curse.

"So they could be insane enough to use it if it was ever found?"

"They could just as easily want to use it as they are to try to destroy it. Fools are unpredictable when given power."

"There's nothing to worry about. It's a myth. A fantasy. It can't be real. It can't be." Her words were only for herself and Jiraiya allowed her the time to come to grip with the truth of the Box's existence. "No. If anyone knows, it would be B. He can ask It."

'Killer B. The Jinchuriki of the Hachibi. He and the current Raikage clashed with Minato back during the Third Shinobi World War.' Minato had spoken of the battle he had met the Jinchuriki in only once, had praised him as a true Shinobi.

"We have other reports about the Akatsuki as well. A pair of them were spotted moving through the Land of Wind, heading towards the Hidden Sand village." She forced her thoughts away from the Box, of the catastrophe it seemed to be. "Our agent only managed to identify one of them: Itachi Uchiha."

"Not unsurprising. He's been a member since he took out the Uchiha Clan. And he had a number of missions in the Land of Wind before his betrayal, he may be serving as a guide for his unknown partner. If he's looking for work, I doubt the Akatsuki will find much of it in the Hidden Sand. One of the reasons they allied with the new Hidden Sound Village to attack was because of the Land of Wind's Daimyo sending so many contracts to the Hidden Leaf. They've been in an economic slump since then. The Akatsuki has to be there for another reason but what?"

"The only other information we have is another pair being spotted entering the Land of Demons. But you know how insular the region as a whole is, they very rarely allow Shinobi inside their borders. And you know the policy of the Five Great Shinobi Countries when it comes to that place."

"It's for the best." Jiraiya had made it a point to avoid the Land of Demons during his travels, would continue to do so. He focused on the matter at hand. "So, the Akatsuki's taken to traveling?" It was a puzzle for the white-haired Shinobi to piece together. 'What could a group like this be after? Hiruzen's going to want to know about this. Especially Itachi Uchiha's movements in the Hidden Sand. Could they be just as interested in Naruto's clone technique as well? Did his mission there already leak out?'

That would be a problem he would need to solve. So far, he was sure only the Clan Heads and trusted Shinobi knew about the Hokage's plan. If one of them proved to be a leak, if such a revelation came after the invasion, it could further destabilize the village still in the midst of recovering from the attack.

"I guess it's my turn now." Jiraiya continued their 'honest' conversation. "The kids with me are the Jinchuriki of the Kyubi and the Nanabi, Naruto and Fu."

Yugito's eyes actually widened.

"That's why I recognized him!" In the haze of exhaustion and the stream of endless work, she had only dimly recognized the blonde she had bumped into. She grabbed at her hair with near claws. "You've got to be kidding me! Half the Council's been at our Intel Corp's throat over that brat for months now. And I run right into him?"

"Yeah. He's got that effect on most people." Jiraiya chuckled despite the dire news Yugito had just dropped. 'So things haven't calmed down. Unsurprisingly. Enough foreign Shinobi probably reported what they saw during the invasion to their leadership.' He held back a grimace, forced the laughter to remain instead. 'I'm going to have to tell Hiruzen.' "And, before you ask, I'm not talking about the clones."

"I don't need to ask about the clones. A Jinchuriki ability is a Jinchuriki ability." Yugito eyed Jiraiya. "You need to deal with that brat before he starts a fight he can't finish." She looked to the tent the blonde had stepped inside of to speak with the samurai leader. "That kid's attitude is going to get him in trouble. I just spent the past few days listening to that kid prattle on and on about conquering the whole world. And he had most of the idiots in that tent believing him by the end."

"I guessed as much." Jiraiya's smile wasn't fake in that moment, wasn't forced. 'Not even Minato could gather people like you can Naruto. Being Hokage is going to be easy with that kind of charisma.'

"Did you not hear me? The kid said he wants to conquer the world." Yugito's words fell on one pair of deaf ears.

Fu frowned at what she was hearing.

'A Jinchuriki ability?' She had already discarded that possibility but had she been wrong to? Too hasty? 'Does she know something I don't?'

There were a few reasons to trust her. Yugito Nii was an older Jinchuriki, could claim to have truly mastered the power of her Tailed Beast, and had something she didn't: A fellow Jinchuriki.

Killer B, the Jinchuriki of the Eight-Tails. The fabled Perfect Jinchuriki.

'Maybe that's the secret? The Kyubi is remarkably powerful. Even when compared to the other Tailed Beasts. Could the secret of his clones be something as simple as extremely potent Chakra? It's not unlikely. It could multiply the strength of any technique, perhaps even exponentially. That could explain why neither of the other two Jinchuriki engaged in combat. They couldn't control their enhanced strength. Could this be a workaround? Dilute the potency by vastly shrinking the available pool of Chakra through these clones. So that means his army is serving as a limiter? But then why risk losing control by spreading them so far? If enough are wiped out, wouldn't that make his power uncontrollable. Is the Kyubi so powerful that no amount of training can help him control the power?' Fu remained hidden as she tried to reconcile the new information with the old. She needed a better theory to work on, to present to Hisen or Shibuki when she returned to Takigakure.

No matter what avenue she tried to approach it from, a Kekkei Genkai or a Jinchuriki Ability, it simply didn't make sense.

'I can figure it out more later. I can keep examining him, maybe try to get something out of him. There's other things I can focus on here. Hisen and Shibuki will want to know about the Box more than anything. If either group is actively looking for it again, maybe even looking for sacrifices, we need to find where it's hidden. Move it if we can, secure it for the village if possible.'

Both were manageable goals: Uncover the secret behind Naruto Uzumaki's clones and investigate Kusagakure.

But they didn't distract her from the hurt of the unknown: the Akatsuki.

'They didn't brief me about the Akatsuki being seen here.' She didn't want to think that it was intentional. It had to be a rare slip up, a lapse with how quickly she had been given this assignment. Hisen was under plenty of stress with how things had been changing, their new investigation into Otogakure after learning Orochimaru was the power behind it. Shibuki was still in training to take over, could be expected to make mistakes.

'Or were they hoping I'd run into them?' It was no secret that she was a point of contention, that plenty of people didn't like her.

Hisen would choose the village over her. Shibuki would choose the village over her.

And the village feared her, hated her for the beast inside. Certain parties hated her more than others, feared what she could do.

'Or was someone else hoping for it.' Plenty on the council disliked her. They only viewed her as a weapon and some called her lack of complete and utter obedience to them, to "the village", a problem. No matter what she tried, everything she did for Takigakure, they viewed her the same way. No matter what missions she accomplished, what enemy she defeated, she was never anything more than a weapon to them.

'Those old bastards have been trying to get rid of me for years.' She was certain at least Hisen knew about their attitude. She didn't know if Shibuki did. For all his talent, he was bad when it came to reading people. He still honestly thought she was as happy as she showed him. 'And they still have that kill team stalking me.' That discovery had been as heartbreaking as it had been infuriating. She had nearly taken out her anger on the Shinobi assigned.

They were lucky she had chosen to fly off that day, lose them for a few hours to calm down.

'Do either of them have one? Can we bond over our villages planning to kill us for 'safety'?' She couldn't stomp down on the hurt she felt, the betrayal still burning fresh inside her even after all these years. Hisen had labelled it "only a precaution". Shibuki had been angry but he hadn't tried to remove it, had told her to "prove them wrong" for thinking it was needed.

Chakra buzzed around her. A familiar red miasmal that she didn't want to stop.

Jiraiya and Yugito wouldn't care.

Naruto was occupied with the samurai.

The camp was all but empty.

She could release some of the fury she had been bottling up for so long.

But she couldn't.

'Not now.' She forced down her anger. She forced it all away. 'Later.' Even if later never came, it was her mantra. 'Not now. Later.'

The buzzing Chakra retreated. It left her as quickly as it had come, retreated once more from the world at large.

'I still have a job to do.' She wouldn't return to Takigakure empty-handed, with nothing to show from her travels. Jiraiya would let something slip, she would crack the mystery of Naruto's army open, she would bring back something of use. She couldn't waste this chance.

'Or give anyone reason to think I've gone traitor.'

"Now, with everything said, I wish to know what you think of it all."

"You've got a bold plan. Manageable, but bold. They'll be plenty of headaches along the way, plenty of roadblocks, but it's doable. I would call you crazy, write you off as some kind with an over-inflated ego but I've heard about your Legion. And now I've gotten the chance to see them in action. They're effective, capable, and loyal. If you're going to make your dream a reality, fine soldiers like them will help you with that. It'll still take work. Probably decades of it." The samurai spoke plainly to the blonde seated across from him. His injuries had been treated, his arm still bandaged but far more mobile than a few days ago. He had the blonde in front of him to thank for it even if the Shinobi didn't seem to know it. That debt was the only reason he hadn't excused himself to speak with Jiraiya, tell his old friend of what was to come. "Why go through all this trouble?"

The blonde remained reclined in his seat as he thought over the question.

The grin that took hold of his face didn't fit one so young.

"How else am I to make a legacy in this world?" The blonde's question was asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Now, on to why I sought you out. I've spoken with your samurai, they've mentioned many lands in their travels, in your contracts. I wish to assign a mission to you."

"We're not Shinobi." Iba's statement earned that same smile from the blonde.

"That is exactly why I can trust this to you. Shinobi would attempt to deceive me, extort me for more payment, seek to uncover some hidden goal of mine, or even use what they find against me. I trust a samurai to stay true to his word once its given, to follow the contract I give him to the letter. In that regard, I trust you far more than nearly any Shinobi I know." The blonde lifted an eyebrow. "Do you accept or will I have to find another samurai clan?"

"…You're a strange guy." Iba let out a sigh as he brought his good hand to his forehead. "You come all the way out here with Jiraiya, work some miracles, I get my men praising you every time I speak to them, and now you're here offering I and my men a new job. Despite seeing how far we've fallen after the Akatsuki's attack."

The blonde in front of him nodded at his words. "And you understand that I don't need your men for battle. My Legion is more than capable when it comes to matters of war. The task I have for you is something I know my Legion will find too great a difficulty in accomplishing. As much as it pains me, they lack the necessary skillset, the discretion for such a task."

"Which is why you want my men and I to handle what exactly?" It was a question demanding an answer.

"A simple assignment. But one that will take years. You understand I intend to craft the greatest empire this world has ever seen, know I've already taken steps to secure the homeland of the Uzumaki Clan from the filth that had sullied it for so long. Uzushiogakure is free now but it lies empty save for my Legion. I wish for you to help me change that." The blonde didn't need to continue.

"The Uzumaki Clan scattered decades ago. Even with my contacts, with the rest of my clan once we reunite with them, it'll be like looking for specific trees within a forest. We're likely to go months with nothing, dozens of false leads for every dead-end we find. Even if we do manage to find survivors, there's no telling what state they'll be in, if they're willing to return to a place they abandoned decades ago."

"I'm well aware of the possible futility of this but I will have you undertake it nonetheless. The finer details will need to wait, will be discussed with my Legate upon my return to Konohagakure, but we can discuss the broader strokes now. Such as what I intend to pay you for your work."

As the blonde reached into the Flak Jacket he wore, Iba raised his bandaged hand.

"Stop. I won't accept your money, not now." Fury didn't color the blonde's expression, a question was silently asked as to why. "You saved a handful of my men's lives, helped us honor our dead with our traditional funeral pyres. In recognition of that, I'll accept a mission I normally wouldn't. Payment won't be needed. The way I see it, I owe you a personal debt. Consider this my first step in repaying it. I'll investigate what I can when I can and, if I find something, I'll let you know. I'll let the other bosses know as well, have them spread word to the right people. I'm not much of a tracker but Uzumaki are distinctive even if they try to hide it. Unique Chakra, the red hair they're famous for, I'll try to find more but those two are the best ways I know to find them."

"I only ask that you try. I'll speak with my cousin, Karin, when I return to the village and see if she can offer anything more to help you in your search." The blonde's eyes darkened for a moment. "Although, if you discover any who have been mistreated, abused, I wish to know with all haste."

Bloodlust tinged the air of the tint. The promise of what would be done was unspoken.

"I won't condone mindless slaughter."

"Then you can provide a list of names instead."

"…Agreed." Samurai or Shinobi, a Clan matter was a Clan matter. The mistreatment of one's blood was certainly that. "Is there anything else?"

The blonde waved his hand. "Minor things. As I said, they can be discussed later between you and my Legate. The only pressing matter left is my Legion. You will need a way to contact them, work with them at times as well, and avoid any possible conflicts if they suspect you are lying. I won't name you Tribune, the position was created by my Legate out of necessity but it is worthless, this task is too broad to list out in an order. You'll need something different, something that serves as a symbol of MY uncontested authority."

"What do you have in mind?"

That strange grin covered the blonde's face once more as he extended his hand.

Chakra consumed it and his arm.

"My brothers know my seal. I shall gift you a near-perfect copy. With it, my Legion shall answer to you as if your orders were my own. With the exception of myself, only my Legate will hold a higher authority than you."

The samurai didn't move to accept. Not yet.

Danger.

His instincts were all but screaming at him. Instincts that had saved his life from ambushes, from traps, from an opponent's deadly blow. They screamed at him at this moment more than ever before.

Danger.

The Chakra around his hand was unlike anything he'd ever felt before.

Danger.

It felt insidious. Not an ounce of bloodlust or malice but it disturbed him like nothing else ever had in his life.

Danger.

Nothing showed on his face as he shook his head.

"Forgive me if I don't accept. Like you said, Shinobi are hard to trust and I've never been good at Fuinjutsu. That seal of yours may end up going to waste if I can't figure out how to use it." The samurai's words didn't draw anger from the blonde across from him, only an amused smirk. He lowered his hand and the Chakra that had consumed it was gone. "When I've worked with Daimyo in the past, I was given a letter of mark. The same should work here."

"Of course." The blonde's smile showed too much teeth. "It shall take no time at all to provide such a thing."

'Naruto Uzumaki…just what kind of monster are you?'

AN: 2/4 for this update.