章 866: 43
Chapter 42: Diplomatic Vulnerability
Naruto and his support, Maki and Sai, sat in a waiting room inside of what Naruto deemed as the building that the office of the Mizukage was situated. While they were all being watched like hawks by a squad of Kiri ninja, he couldn't be bothered to be offended or unnerved by that fact. They were strange foreigners who were all shinobi and one of them was a known jinchuuriki. It would be suspicious if they weren't watched at all.
Sai was simply drawing to pass the time and Maki was simply sitting patiently with her cheeks in her hands. Maki turned her grey eyes to Naruto and decided to try and engage her captain in a conversation, "So Naruto-senpai, what was it like? Having all of your skills sealed away. I couldn't imagine it." She said miserably as she thought about it, "You were nothing like the senpai that worked with me after it happened."
Naruto looked at his hands and flexed his fists, "In the Academy I was never able to focus… because I had already learned all of that stuff. My brain knew that I knew all of that stuff already, it just wasn't able to access that knowledge properly and it tuned it out. That's why it was so hard for me to learn the basic ninjutsu in the Academy. Well there was also the fact that I had too much chakra for the Bunshin." He noticed her raptly listening to his every word, "It isn't really a big deal Maki-chan… did you really miss me that much?"
A frown crossed her face as she turned away from him, "You were the only constant I had in my life when I was a little girl, period. Even though you don't think so I felt really close to you. I knew you better than anyone even though you don't think you knew me. And then you were gone, and then you come back, only I can't see you, let you know who I am… It felt terrible. You were the only person I knew."
"You didn't need me anyway." Naruto said confidently as he put a hand on her shoulder, "Look at you. You turned out to be a great ninja. Even without me there you still became awesome."
"It was still all you…" She said bitterly, "I kept training and got stronger so that by the time we became genin I could destroy you in the chunin exams and see if I could bring the old senpai back. After the exams that led to the invasion when you unsealed yourself I kept training so that I could work with you one day after finding out how strong you were and how far ahead of me you still were, but you never came back to Root, and then I learned that you couldn't return."
Sai took this moment to cut in, "Naruto-senpai's mission and responsibilities kept him from returning Maki-san. If he had returned, chances are he would have returned to being your partner, but you didn't get promoted to chunin until senpai began taking the mission to sack Orochimaru's bases. I had to meet with him in secret until recently."
The door to the office opened up to reveal a man with blue hair and an eye-patch over his right eye. He had earrings of talismans in each ear and wore striped brown pants and shirt with a long green robe over them. He looked over at the three teens from Konoha and motioned them over, "The Mizukage is ready to see you now. Please follow me."
The three young Root ninja all stood and followed him inside of the office where the doors shut behind them. The man that had allowed them entrance took his place on one side of the fully robed Mizukage. On the other side of the fully concealed figure stood a boy that seemed around the age of the Konoha ninja in attendance. He had short blue hair, glasses, and headphone looking appendages on his ears. He wore a blue striped shirt and white and black camouflaged pants with a holster across his chest holding a bandaged sword on his back.
Naruto and his entourage bowed to the Mizukage until a feminine voice spoke, "Please rise Konoha ninja. I'm honestly curious as to why you came all this way unannounced like this, and to be a well-known jinchuuriki. It's quite a surprise to see Naruto Uzumaki here." The Mizukage removed the hat, actually getting the two visiting males Naruto and Sai to blink. While most people wouldn't have figured their single blinks for much, to Maki that was the equivalent of both of their jaws hitting the floor, "I am Mei Terumi, the Godaime Mizukage."
'She's hot…' Naruto thought to himself, keeping his game face on and keeping his eyes from wandering lest he start an international incident before he even got to say anything, 'She's really hot. And she isn't pulling the Tsunade-baachan Henge either.' Naruto stepped forward and bowed to her once again, "It's an honor to meet you Mizukage-sama. I have to say, it's kind of strange for people to know who am I before I ever meet them, I don't know if I really like it yet."
The Mizukage gave him a pleasant smile, "Well you'll have to get used to it. The stronger you get, the more famous you get. It seems as if Konoha is always producing high-caliber quality shinobi, no matter what age it is, one of peace or strife."
The man that had led them into the office scoffed at that, "And they send up three babyfaced brats for a diplomatic mission… I have to wonder if you three even have what it takes to follow through with any arrangement you get into with Mizukage-sama. Kami knows how flighty you kids are about things like this, don't waste her time with some spontaneous engagement."
"Ao…" Mei said, turning to him with a pleasant smile on her face, "Shut up or I'll kill you." The man went slack-jawed and began to stammer before going silent.
'Okay…' Naruto thought to himself, 'I'll believe that this is the Mizukage. I could feel that she was actually serious about that one.'
Turning back to the three Konoha ninja standing in front of her desk, Mei got back on topic, "I'm certain that these three wouldn't be here if they weren't able to carry out whatever purpose they came here with. Now, I was told that you requested an audience with me. What can I do for you?"
Naruto cleared his throat before finally getting down to the crux of the reason they were there, "Well Mizukage-sama, I'll just get right to the point. You know that I'm the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. Every hidden village should know by now." He got a nod from her, "What do you know about the group called Akatsuki?"
The boy at her side spoke up, "That Kisame-senpai is one of the members… just that fact alone makes them dangerous."
"Choujuurou is right." Mei said, "And then there is the rumor that Akatsuki was created in Kirigakure as well… And I am well aware of their goal of obtaining biju for some reason. They have taken the Sanbi and the Rokubi from our nation already."
Naruto nodded grimly, "So they definitely have the Sanbi, the Rokubi, the Nanabi, the Gobi, and the Yonbi… only four of us left now." He said as he mentally broke down the scenario before returning to the conversation, "Recently I fought the leader of Akatsuki. A man named Pein."
Mei was listening with immersed interest, "You fought the leader of the group?" This also got the attention of the two men in the room slated to protect her, "What happened? What can you tell me?"
Heaving a deep sigh as he remembered his most crushing defeat, Naruto ran a hand through his hair, "He destroyed me. He absolutely took me apart and wounded Jiraiya of the Sannin in the process. He beat us both. And I know what they want all of the biju for." He looked the Mizukage in the eye as he recited the next part, "The biju are to be used as a massive kinjutsu that will be given, sold, or whatever to a village who will use it to attack another. This will go back and forth… people who suffered the attack will fear the power that was used against them for years until the same power becomes available to them, which they'll use in retaliation due to their hatred against the ones that attacked them. And this is how the world will be forever. I don't think I have to tell you what a stupid idea that is."
Mei frowned thoughtfully. It was a terrible idea. She knew firsthand due to Kiri's history that fear of power only makes people retaliate violently against the prospect of it being used. That kind of fear is what fanned the flames of the bloodline extermination times, "Do you know where this person 'Pein' is?"
Naruto nodded, "Amegakure no Sato. But I'm not strong enough to fight him myself. Jiraiya wasn't strong enough to fight him himself. He has a strange technique and nothing but raw power and skill. I've never come face to face with anyone like him ever. I don't know of anyone that can stand against him… and the shinobi under his command are fanatical. Fighting him in Ame is the same thing as fighting pretty much the whole village, and the village is a deathtrap. I wouldn't fight there again if I could help it, it's not suitable terrain that most of us would be used to."
As she mulled over everything that Naruto had just told her she leveled her gaze on the blonde scar-faced shinobi, "So would I be right to assume that you're lobbying for an alliance of sorts to invade Amegakure no Sato and end the Akatsuki threat Uzumaki-kun?"
Naruto shook his head, "No, we don't have any plans to go to war directly with Amegakure, we just have the issue with Akatsuki. If we can cut off the head so to speak then the organization will fall. Unless you actually want to help I'm not going to suggest that, but we already have a loose alliance against them with Suna and Kumo."
"And Iwa?" She asked, "Do you have any arrangement with them yet?"
"No." Naruto said, frowning as he remembered the old man that had turned it down, "He shot it down as soon as we brought it up after they attacked during the latest chunin exams held in Suna. He said something like, 'These affairs need to be handled domestically.' He wasn't open to any kind of communication past what we already had, and then we don't have any reason really as to why you'd join us either. You already lost yours, so unless you want revenge or anything I don't think you'd want to get into this as well."
Mei smiled at Naruto apologetically, "I want to thank you for the information you gave us on Akatsuki and their leader, but you're right. A war or an alliance of this sort right now for no real gain or purpose wouldn't be in Kirigakure's best interest. I'm sorry."
Naruto returned her smile with one of his own, "That's okay. I didn't really expect you guys to just be willing to step into this like that, but maybe there's another way you can help me. If I'm going to be fighting Pein again when he finally decides to come for me himself I'm going to need to be better than I am. Is there any way that you could point me towards the method that your jinchuuriki used towards getting better control?"
Ao sighed, "That would be impossible kid. Utakata, the last jinchuuriki of the Rokubi, fled from the village and took the secrets of how to control his biju with him. We never found him and apparently he's been captured because the trail had never been as cold as it currently is."
"A total loss on all fronts then…" Naruto said mostly to himself, "You guys don't have anything to help?"
Mei answered him, "The only person that could possibly train a jinchuuriki in how to harness their power is another jinchuuriki. Each biju is also different. I don't believe any kind of process we had would have been useful for you Uzumaki-kun. Your biju is by far the most dangerous and powerful. Compared to the Kyuubi, the Sanbi and the Rokubi are remarkably docile in nature. I can only imagine what you feel when you begin to use its power."
Apparently what she was saying was that each village had their own way to train their own jinchuuriki. Understandable, except for the part where he was never given any damn set way to train his control with the Kyuubi. The only way he had managed to enact and gain more control was to meditate and gain a rapport of sorts with the creature stuck inside of his body. Through years of hard-nosed physical training and mental conditioning Naruto had tempered his body and spirit to withstand the harmful effects of the Kyuubi's caustic chakra cloak up to a 4-tailed level, but this was apparently his glass ceiling of sorts since he could go no further after two years of hard work, and nothing seemed to be able to give him the answer… except for that way. The way Jiraiya told him he would have to use to get complete control.
'So I really am going to have to fight the Kyuubi to get full control.' He thought to himself grimly, 'I guess there's no workaround this time.' Naruto shook off his bitter thoughts of how nothing he did could ever be easy and bowed to the Mizukage, "Well thank you for allowing us to speak with you Mizukage-sama. Sorry that in the end we weren't able to get anything done… we'll be on our way at first notice."
"Wait a moment…" Mei said as Naruto looked up from his bow, "There could be something you could do that would allow us to broker an alliance with Konoha, to prove that you all are trustworthy if nothing else. I'll be sending to your village and informing them of this if you choose to accept." Naruto looked at his team and got a pair of nods from them both, "I assume you all accept."
If it could get them another ally against the Akatsuki then Naruto would at the very least have to listen. A single request could ensure a powerful bond for years to come against a powerful enemy, "If it's something we can do then we'll hear you out before we decide."
"Wonderful." Mei said, "As you are aware, out village is famous for housing the seven most powerful swordsmen in the world. Well the only sword we have in our possession today is the one held by Choujuurou here, Hiramekarei. I'm well aware of your Team 7 taking on and defeating Zabuza Momochi years ago, surely you know of what happened to his sword Kubikiribouchou."
Naruto nodded, "It should still be where we left it. We placed it to mark his gravesite. No one else but one of our team should know where it is. Do you want me to get it for you?" That seemed like a simple enough task for them to do. It belonged to them anyway, and Naruto had already beaten the guy that used it once, it would take training for anyone else to use that weapon… besides, it was to make an ally out of an entire hidden village.
The brightly smiling Mizukage motioned for the boy standing next to her to come forward, "That would be wonderful, and if you could take Choujuurou with you to verify the weapon's authenticity." She looked up at Choujuurou, "Can you do that for me please?"
The boy blushed brightly at her and stammered out a reply, "Uh y-yeah, of course Mizukage-sama you can count on me."
"Alright then we have a deal." Naruto said, looking at his team, "We're going back to Nami no Kuni to grab Zabuza's sword for the Mizukage as a good faith gesture." He turned back towards her and extended his hand, "It was nice speaking with you Mizukage-sama, I hope this begins something great between our villages." He then lowered his hand and bowed, "Oh, I'm sorry… trying to shake your hand like I'm a kage."
Mei giggled and stood up, pushing Naruto's head up with her finger, "That's okay Uzumaki-kun. It's nice to see a shinobi like you that has no problem with foreign ninja. And you didn't even bring up this village's dark past like other diplomats have. I thank you for that."
"It's no problem." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "Now if it'll get our villages in a better relationship I'll get you Zabuza's old sword back. That's a promise."
XxX
(Elsewhere – Orochimaru's Northern Hidden Base)
"Just forget it!" A man shouted inside of a prison behind a great iron door, "I'm not going with you. The only person that could keep me under control when I had the urge to kill was Kimimaro. I'm not going anywhere without him!"
Sasuke, Suigetsu and Karin stood outside of the door as the figure from within that was speaking had run inside and shut the door behind himself. Suigetsu spoke up, "Kimimaro was from the Kaguya Clan right?"
Karin nodded, "Yeah, he and Juugo were Orochimaru's favorite subjects. They stayed here as subjects for human experimentation from the day this place was built. Kimimaro was the only subject I had ever dealt with that I could work on without fear of resistance or violence. And he was so strong, I heard he was the only one that could stop Juugo's rampages without getting hurt."
"Yeah…" Suigetsu said before looking over at Sasuke, "But isn't he-?"
"Juugo…" Sasuke said to the man behind the door, "Kimimaro is dead. He died fighting for my sake three years ago, so that I could escape from a powerful shinobi and continue on my own path."
"Then that means…" There was silence from Juugo before the iron door slowly opened and he saw Sasuke standing there staring at him, "You're Sasuke Uchiha." He stood for a moment before walking outside of the cell. Juugo was a young man that towered over everyone standing there. He had spiky orange hair and wore the prison garb of the others; a plain grey shirt and pants. "You said that Kimimaro died fighting against someone for you, who was this person?"
XxX
Outside of the base, Sasuke had the three people he had amassed systematically standing in a line in front of him, "Getting all three of you here completes the first part of my plan. It's time I actually explained what I've gathered you all for. I'm going to kill Itachi Uchiha of Akatsuki and I want you all to help."
Suigetsu raised his hand, "I don't want to stop you while you're on a roll, but I totally knew it."
Ignoring her, Sasuke turned to the female of the group, "Karin, you said that you had other business to attend to. So what are you going to do?"
"W-Well now that you mention it, it's nothing urgent." Karin said, pushing her fingers together shyly, "I can deal with it at any time."
"Ugh… cut the bullshit and be honest for once." Suigetsu said before smirking at her, "Say something more along the lines of, 'I want to be at Sasuke's side forever and ever.' Something like that."
Karin defensively snapped at him while adjusting her glasses, "That's not it at all! Why would you even suggest something like that?"
"Because I'm right." The young swordsman said, continuing to tease the girl, "Look at you, you're so flustered you just want to rip my mouth off to keep me from talking right now don't you? I know the truth anyway. A long time ago you did something to Sasuke-." He was cut off when a punch from Karin destroyed his head.
Sasuke shook his head, "Suigetsu stop messing with Karin. I told you cooperate with everyone."
Suigetsu chuckled as his head reformed from its watery state to normal, "My bad. Sorry Karin, but for the record I plan on sticking close to Sasuke here. One of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, Kisame Hoshigaki, is with Itachi and I plan on taking his sword for myself too."
The red-haired girl shook her head, "All you're doing is gathering swords? That's so lame."
Suigetsu glared over at her, but held his tongue before turning to the largest member of the team, "So Juugo, now that you're free what are you going to do now?"
Juugo reflected for a moment before talking, "Kimimaro said Sasuke's existence was like his own being reborn. Kimimaro sacrificed his life in battle to protect him. I need to see for myself how strong of a shinobi he is for myself… and I need to confront the person strong enough to take Kimimaro down."
"Well then it's settled." Sasuke said, getting things all centered together, "From now on we all move as one, and from now on our group will be known as 'Hebi'. This team only has one purpose, we're to search for Itachi Uchiha, and we will find him by any means neccesary."
XxX
(Nami no Kuni – Zabuza's Gravesite)
Naruto stood still as a statue with his squad and Choujuuruu with him, staring at the groove in the ground that used to house Zabuza's blade, "I know exactly where it is…" He said coldly. Only three other people besides him knew of this place without a shadow of a doubt, and two of them were in Konoha, neither of them would come all the way out there to take the sword even if they were able to leave.
"Where?" Choujuurou asked him. He had followed them all this way, and Naruto seemed to believe that they would just grab it here and he could return it to the Mizukage, no sweat. From the way Naruto just spoke it was clear that this wasn't what he had expected and he wasn't happy about the surprise whatsoever.
Naruto touched the tattoo on his arm, "I got some news from my dear sweet helper Hamako the other day while we were on the ship coming here. Orochimaru is dead." That got a gasp from Maki and a look of surprise from Sai, "Apparently Sasuke killed him and freed some prisoners on an island not far from here. That's what Ero-sennin's spies told him and he told Hamako-chan. He was here and he took the sword."
Sai moved forward and took a good look at the pair of graves, "So what do we do now Naruto-senpai?"
Naruto frowned, "I made a promise… and I can't just leave the Mizukage waiting like this. That's bad politics to set a treaty and an alliance to." Naruto shook his head, "Okay, we're making a detour. I know exactly what he's going to do and I'm going to go kick his ass and get the sword back."
Sai raised an eyebrow at his leader's seemingly gung-ho attitude towards getting this done. He could see his point though, he had made a promise to deliver something to the leader of a powerful nation. This was actually a very precarious situation. Sai now had to start respecting Danzo's ability to make politics seem so effortless now. Naruto hadn't done a bad job at all, it was just that now he was backed into a corner because of a circumstance beyond his control, and that was why he was angry. This was supposed to be simple.
"Sasuke Uchiha beat Orochimaru by himself…" Maki said to herself as if she was trying to comprehend the information, "Senpai you're going to go after him after knowing that he could defeat a powerful shinobi like Orochimaru alone?"
Naruto looked at Maki and smiled at her. It wasn't that she didn't believe in him. It was common knowledge that Orochimaru was a bad, bad man. Jiraiya even believed to the day of his injury that if he and Orochimaru fought the end result could only have been them killing one another at best for him.
But due to the hellish mission that left him sealed seven years ago, Naruto knew more about Orochimaru's weaknesses than any man alive, a weakness he had shared in the past with those he felt needed to know; Anko, Tenzo when he was on the mission to attack Orochimaru's bases, Jiraiya, and Tayuya… so that she could get a laugh out of it, "He didn't beat the Orochimaru that got famous throughout years of war and beating the greatest shinobi of his era Maki-chan. Sasuke beat Orochimaru when he was sick and dying. He needed to switch bodies or he would have been dead very soon, and apparently he was weak enough that Sasuke could put him down without much effort. I could have beaten Orochimaru like that just as easily, and he couldn't take my body either, the Kyuubi would have happily seen to that."
A look of understanding came across the raven-haired female's face, "So the Uchiha isn't overwhelmingly strong… he's just lucky or he's very good at picking his spots."
"Either or." Naruto said, "But he has to be strong too even to pull that much off since he was able to just waltz on out of there afterwards." He looked towards Choujuurou, "I know it's a pain, but if you could return to the Mizukage and tell her we don't have the sword, but we're going to get it very soon. I promised I'd bring her back one of your village's swords and I plan on doing that."
Choujuurou gave Naruto a reassuring smile, "I will. And I'm sure she'll understand, the Mizukage is a very kind person. The swords are national treasures of Kirigakure. If you can return even one I'm sure she'll be ecstatic to set a treaty with Konoha."
Naruto nodded, "Tell her to send a message to my Hokage to tell her what's going on and I'll send a message to my helper to do the same. I don't need to keep moving under the radar anymore, as a matter of fact, if Akatsuki can find me that would be all the better now, it would keep me from having to look."
"Look for what?" Sai asked.
"The person Sasuke's looking for." Naruto said as he started walking away from the gravesite, "Sasuke's real target is coincidentally someone that's going to be looking for me once he realizes I'm out and away from Konoha with no real guard since the knowledge of you two is sparse. Itachi Uchiha and his partner Kisame Hoshigaki."
Choujuurou looked at Naruto with slight fear in his eyes, "You're going to intentionally look for Kisame-senpai? You do know how strong he is don't you?"
"Yeah." Naruto said, before he tried to calm the Kiri ninja down, "But we're not looking to pick a fight with them, we're going to wait until Sasuke finds them and then I'm going to take Kubikiribouchou, and maybe Kisame's sword too afterwards. Besides, you know how important the Sharingan is. We can't just leave Sasuke to roam, Itachi either. If it comes down to it we'll have to take them both out."
Sai and Maki nodded before locking eyes and agreeing on the same thought, 'We need to send a message to Danzo-sama as well about this.'
Naruto sighed and shifted the sword on his back as he looked over the two ninja on his team, "Are you two ready for this? Sorry, I didn't really want to drag you into any Akatsuki business like this."
Sai gave Naruto a smile that actually seemed genuine, "Naruto-senpai anything involving you until you feel you can return to Konoha is our business. Anything that you feel is appropriate is our job to assist you with."
Naruto's eyes locked with Maki who blushed lightly at being looked at so intently by her senior, "What Sai-senpai said. Anything that you think we should do, we'll be with you all the way… I won't back down on supporting you so soon after finding you again." She said with the utmost sincerity, "I've been working all this time so that you don't have to carry me the way you did when we were kids, I'm not going to let you down." She blinked when she found Naruto's hand atop her head.
"Good." Naruto said to the most junior member of the team, "I know you won't. Now let's get go work this out. One Uchiha or another… we're going to have to find and fight one of them."
XxX
(Konohagakure no Sato – Hokage Tower)
"He's going to what?" The yell that echoed through the Hokage Tower was shared by both Tsunade and Sakura who had been there working in the office with her sensei that day. Tsunade slammed her hands on the desk, "Ugh… damn it brat. I think now would be the appropriate time to send Jiraiya out to get him, if he wasn't still working through his injuries." If Jiraiya found himself catching up to Naruto while the boy had actually found Itachi Uchiha or Sasuke and his team, Jiraiya would be hard-pressed to defend himself against them at the moment. He was still getting one-handed seals down for his jutsu.
Sakura had a rather hopeful look on her face after hearing the news from Hamako, "Naruto's going to look for Sasuke-kun?"
Hamako nodded, "Sasuke or Itachi. Whichever one he believes it will be easier to locate. He says that it doesn't matter if anyone can find him now, but he said that if anyone plans on searching for him make sure that they can take care of themselves. He said he doesn't feel like being a hero and getting himself killed over someone meant to 'protect him'."
Sakura looked over from the girl that had deemed herself as Naruto's servant to Tsunade, "Tsunade-shishou I have to go. If Naruto can find Sasuke-kun then this is a chance to bring him back isn't it?"
Tsunade didn't answer, she just looked over at Hamako who was using her tattoo to speak with Naruto through their code, "He says he's very, very confident that he can find either one of them. And if he can get Itachi it would only be a matter of time before Sasuke came for his brother if he didn't get Sasuke first."
"And he's doing this because?" Tsunade asked the white-haired girl, "Is this an opportunity that he sees, or is it because of something else."
Hamako smiled wryly at the Hokage, "Honestly, it's more of a three-birds-with-one-stone kind of thing… four if he plays his cards right." She walked over to the Hokage's side, "Naruto-sama is an opportunist. He's an opportunist that takes advantage of the tiniest opening that the world gives him and he attacks it with enough crushing force to make it work for him."
Sakura frowned as she tried to put together what Hamako was talking about, "I'm not sure I follow you."
A small laugh came from Hamako as she thought of a way to explain things, "Okay, Naruto-sama can't come back to Konoha because he believes that if he is here the village will be attacked sooner or later. While he's been gone he's been trying to find a way to get better control of the Kyuubi, he's been trying to strengthen and set up new alliances for Konoha, and now he's going after two of the most important nuke-nin in Konoha as well as attempting to obtain one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist's swords to solidify a relationship with Kiri. And you know he's been training too."
Tsunade's eyes widened as she remembered hearing reports about how Naruto had taken to training, and she had also experienced how he trained firsthand in Suna. A smirk came to her face, "So tell me if there's been any significant improvement since the last time we've heard from him."
Hamako began to walk out of the room and stopped at the door, "He says that it's done. It's been done since before he fought Pein, it just damages his arm too much to use. I need to tell this to Jiraiya-sama as well now. Goodbye Hokage-sama, Sakura-san. And Naruto-sama says, 'Hello Tsunade-baachan!'" She said with a giggle as she saw Tsunade.
As Hamako then left the office in a poised and elegant fashion, Sakura turned to Tsunade, "So what do we do now Tsunade-shishou? Are we going to go find Naruto now?"
Tsunade thought about it for a moment before coming to a decision on the matter. She had been uneasy about allowing Naruto to roam from the start, but now that he was about to stir up a hornet's nest of attention it was best that there were allies somewhere around him when it all started going down, "Get me Kakashi. He's not going with Jiraiya, but tell him he's going to need to get a team together that should be ready to move quickly once he gives Hamako his general location, and tell him what it's for. And make sure to assert the fact that you're going with him no matter what Sakura." She said with a smile, "Kakashi won't be that hard to convince if you're adamant about it."
Sakura returned the smile to the female Hokage, "Yes shishou." She said before eagerly setting out to find the old sensei of the now fractured Team 7.
XxX
(Undisclosed Location)
Inside of a cave, Deidara stood up shaking himself out after the sealing of yet another biju that had been captured by Akatsuki, "So let's see. What's next? Should I go after that Kyuubi jinchuuriki brat that I owe a receipt to, or should I go after that Sasuke Uchiha kid for taking away my shot at Orochimaru?"
A man wearing an Akatsuki cloak and an orange spiral mask stood up and chimed in at that point, "Why would you want to go after the guy that beat you down so bad last time and killed my predecessor Deidara-senpai? He seems like he would be scary strong."
"He didn't beat me down badly Tobi." Deidara said with a slight growl in his voice, "And it's because he beat Sasori no Danna that I want to fight him, him and the guy that was with him… the artist. He shouldn't be too difficult to find. After his failed little mission against Leader-sama we know a few places where he isn't."
XxX
(Southern Area of Hi no Kuni)
After being flown from Nami no Kuni by Sai and departing from Choujuurou to allow the young man to send word to the Mizukage about the current plan of action, Naruto, Sai, and Maki found themselves in a small safehouse hidden in a deeply forested area of a rather remote part of the country in the dark of night.
"So…" Maki started as the small fire in the single room in the center of the house kept the trio warm and moderately comfortable, "Do you think we'll be able to find one group or the other easily enough?"
Sai nodded, "Yes. When we were in Nami no Kuni we were able to get news that Sasuke Uchiha and a companion were sighted heading south towards the coast. Then we heard from some prisoners that had been freed from Orochimaru's southern island base that he had gone north. We need to start heading towards the center of the country."
Naruto looked over at the deeply pale-skinned Root operative across the fire, "Why do you say that Sai?" Naruto asked, honestly wanting to know why Sai felt this way, "Wouldn't he want to go further away from the village he left than hang around it?"
Sai smiled and wagged his finger at the commander of the squad, "It may not be my specific specialty but I'm better at tracking than both of you, and the thing about tracking is to know your target. Itachi Uchiha was slated to be the one sent after you for the same reason that Sasuke will stay around this country for the time being. Especially if he's looking for Itachi. The Uchiha Clan had a number of hideouts and strongholds in Hi no Kuni."
A smirk came to Naruto's face, "So he'll stay here since there are so many places for him to base his search off of."
Maki looked between the two who seemed to be on the same page, "Naruto-senpai what do you know about Sasuke Uchiha. I only know what everyone knows from when he was in the Academy, which is nothing relevant."
Naruto took on a thoughtful pose as he tried to explain his view on who Sasuke was, "Well… He's angry, I don't really blame him after what happened to his clan. But he's got a lot of darkness in him, more than all of us I would say. As of now I'd say he still has morals and he is still redeemable, that's why I didn't shoot down Sakura's dreams of bringing him back after he left, but his mind isn't right, and the second that things break down around him he'll go off the deep end." Naruto then muttered lowly with an angry look on his face, "And he'll take a good chunk of the world with him. At first I wanted to kill him, because if Orochimaru got his body we would all be screwed, but now I might be able to drag him home alive. I will still kill him though if I have to, those eyes of his are too dangerous to be left to roam."
Maki and Sai nodded in agreement. The Sharingan was the single most dangerous eye-based kekkei genkai in all of the ninja world. Everyone knew it, there was no need to deny it, everyone was aware of the simple fact that the Sharingan could turn a mediocre shinobi into a high-level force. Danzo had drilled them endlessly on the Sharingan after Itachi Uchiha went rogue. It was required learning for all of Root.
Raising her hand, Maki spoke softly to the others, "Well then I think I'll be next to useless against either Sasuke or Itachi. My strongest suit is genjutsu, and nothing I have is really that good to go up against the Sharingan, especially Itachi's Tsukuyomi."
"That's okay." Naruto said, "I'll be fighting whichever Uchiha we come up against myself. I need you two to be able to neutralize either Itachi or Sasuke's escort." He then heaved a deep sigh, "I am going to hate fighting either of them, but I can't make you two do it…"
Maki moved over to Naruto with a worried look on her face, "Senpai you aren't the best at genjutsu, and the Sharingan is kind of going to be you coming face to face with your Achilles heel so to speak."
"Yeah…" Naruto said with a humorless smile, "I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to work that one out yet. But I know I can beat Sasuke or Itachi. I've beaten Sasuke before and I've only gotten stronger, and I'm not nearly as weak as I was when I last met Itachi. Don't you worry about me Maki-chan. I've got a few new aces for them… even though we've been moving all over I never stopped training."
"Don't you underestimate the power of those wicked eyes boy." The Kyuubi warned Naruto suddenly, "If you're going to fight the older brother, even the younger one, you do not activate my power, do you understand?"
'You're going to be stingy at a time like this?' Naruto questioned his demonic tenant, 'I know you're pissed about the fight with Pein in Ame, but I'm about to possibly go toe-to-toe with one of the stories that Danzo told me when I was a kid to try to scare me shitless, Itachi Uchiha, and you're telling me that you're not going to help-?'
"Shut up boy!" The Kyuubi snapped back in return, getting Naruto to visibly cringe, alarming his teammates, "You will shut up, and you will listen to me. If you fight the elder Uchiha and use my chakra you will be more susceptible to falling under their influence. I have been remiss to tell you this in the past, but I have been under the control of those with that wretched eye before… Madara Uchiha, the patriarch of the clan in your village."
Naruto listened to the short explanation of Kyuubi's past with Madara Uchiha and his battle against the Shodaime Hokage, which led to his sealing inside of Naruto's ancestor Mito Uzumaki. He finally addressed his team after hearing everything and the Kyuubi went silent, "Apparently, I'm screwed against Sharingan-based genjutsu because of the Kyuubi. I can't use its chakra and make eye contact or I'm as good as done… even against Sasuke. It looks like I need to find a workaround…"
"And until then?" Sai asked, "We can't just stay here for too long. If we're to hunt after the Uchiha then we need to move soon."
"Nothing's changed you guys." Naruto said, assuaging Sai's fears to losing a trail, "We're still going after them. We still have to. I just have to come up with something on the fly to fight them. And I can't use the Kyuubi, but then I wasn't really planning on that anyway." He then narrowed his eyes, "…And now my crack team of Kage Bunshin sentries have an intruder." All drawing their respective swords, the team left the house to engage whoever it was that was trespassing.
Once they were outside they kept their eyes on the darkened wilderness as Sai tried to get some more information, "Who is it senpai?"
"I don't know." Naruto responded, "Whoever it is, they're taking my Kage Bunshin down before they can be identified, but the trail they're moving in is coming this way." Naruto stepped forward, his heirloom sword at the ready to fight, "Whoever you are you can either leave now or we'll just put you down here."
"Naruto-kun is that any way to greet someone you haven't seen in so long?" A hooded Kabuto emerged from the shadows, moving towards Naruto and his group, "I thought we were friends."
"Kabuto Yakushi." Naruto said, not relinquishing his stance in case of aggression, "I should probably kill you to mop up any last dregs of leadership to Orochimaru's forces here and now… it would save me the trouble of hunting you later, or having Anko do it, but you're here for a reason. What do you want?"
Kabuto smirked at Naruto through his hood, "To help you out. You're searching for Sasuke Uchiha, I want Sasuke Uchiha dead. He destroyed Orochimaru-sama, the only person that I've ever respected completely in this world of ours-."
"-And I should shake his hand for that reason." Naruto said, interrupting Kabuto, "You're really not convincing me to stay my blade Kabuto… get to the reason you're here already."
"You can't beat Sasuke-kun…" Kabuto said, laughing slightly, getting Maki to bristle at how he was trying to belittle Naruto like this, "No matter how good you are, Sasuke-kun can match anything you're capable of, and of course he has the Sharingan. You know you can't beat him, and yet I hear you're going after him and Itachi. Death wish maybe?"
"That should be what I'm asking you." Naruto said carefully, "You know that I'm here and you came here anyway. I don't know how you found me, I don't know how you found out what I'm after, and I don't know how you think insulting me and trying to get into my head is going to end well for you, but if this is the only reason you're here I might as well make your trip worth someone's while and kill you."
"I didn't come to fight you Naruto-kun…" Kabuto said, as he slowly walked forward, "I came here to offer you the same thing that Orochimaru offered your first benefactor so many years ago. Danzo Shimura's greatest treasure and power… of course this was before he attempted to betray us by sending you into our base afterwards. Do you know what I'm talking about?"
'Not really surprising…' Naruto thought to himself as he kept his eyes firmly on Kabuto, 'Danzo-jiji always was a pretty underhanded dealer and had reputations over his backdoor agreements with others… and Orochimaru was our enemy, of course he sent me in after getting whatever he wanted from him. I probably destroyed whatever he got when I ran away from Oto.' He then spoke up, "Not really, but why make a deal with me when you know I can just kill you here. Do you really think that anything you have can keep me from wanting to extract my pound of flesh from you spy? You don't have enough leverage in the world to get me to grant you any kind of amnesty."
Kabuto chuckled slightly, "I know that. You know everything about Akatsuki I know, and everything about Otogakure's forces have been splintered and fractured upon Orochimaru-sama's death, all you have to do about them is cut off the loose ends. I'm not going back to them however, there's no more reason. I've simply come to give you something, something I've kept since Orochimaru's run-in with Danzo eight years ago… and probably the real reason he sent you in to infiltrate." Kabuto reached into his cloak and pulled something out.
The shock and surprise on the faces of all three Root teens couldn't have been covered up, "How?" Naruto said in disbelief, "How could you-? Why did you-? If Orochimaru had this then why did he-?" In Kabuto's hand was a jar containing a preserved Sharingan eye.
Kabuto set the jar on the ground, "Surprised I see. This is something left over from the surgery I did on Danzo years ago. I never showed this to Orochimaru-sama, if he had known of this he would have tried to implant it into his body. The risks were too great for me to do so… but he wouldn't have cared, which is why I kept it from him and why he pursued Sasuke-kun so intently, but that risk wouldn't have as great of an effect on you Naruto, if it would affect you at all."
Naruto's eyes widened as he remembered someone else rather close to him with a Sharingan eye and realized what Kabuto was talking about, "Are you telling me that you want me to-?"
"I didn't tell you anything Naruto-kun." Kabuto said as if he had won a game of wits or something of the sort, "I merely made a suggestion to you. It's up to you what you do with this. I'm simply providing the goods, I can't tell the recipient what to do once the goods are in their possession. Just make sure that Sasuke-kun suffers if you see him… and thank you."
Naruto found a reason to look up from the Sharingan eye on the ground as he watched Kabuto slink away into the shadow of the trees, "You're thanking me? For what?"
Kabuto's voice was still clear as day as he stopped just short of completely shrouding his body in the dark, "Because watching the way you've found your own place in the world has inspired me Naruto-kun. The jinchuuriki… the former pawn of Root… the former dead-last idiot. And here you are now, in control of your own destiny and on the fast-track to the top of the shinobi world. You and me aren't so different, we both just wanted to know who we were, what we were meant to do in this life, and I've finally found out what I'm to do." He pulled his hood down, "I'm going to surpass Orochimaru-sama, and I'm starting by integrating his remains into my body."
Maki flinched as she saw the left side of Kabuto's face and his left arm. The arm was white and scaly and his left eye resembled Orochimaru's, "How? Why would you do something like that to yourself? I couldn't imagine…"
Kabuto laughed at her question, "Orochimaru-sama was a living symbol of reincarnation, and now he lives on inside of me, as a reminder of who I must surpass." Another laugh came from him as he looked at his own new features, "Still, I can feel the remains trying to take over my body even as we speak." He then slipped back into the darkness, "I'm counting on you Naruto-kun. Consider this a gesture of good faith between two representatives of the future."
In a matter of seconds, Kabuto's presence was gone and the attention of all three remaining ninja went back to the jar on the ground. Naruto walked forward and picked it up, "Danzo-jiji and I need to have another talk about a lot of things. A lot of things." He pulled out a sealing scroll and opened it, setting it on the open scroll to seal it up for storage and safety, "Until then-."
"Naruto-senpai…" Maki said, keeping him from putting the Sharingan eye away, "I can examine the eye for you to see if anything is wrong with it. I'm very skilled medically. In fact…" She started sounding nervous as she continued to talk, "If you want me to I can… implant the eye for you." She said lowly, "You should think about it if nothing else. It could give you just what you need as an edge against either of the Uchiha brothers, and with the sheer amount of raw chakra that you have there wouldn't be any non-Uchiha blooded user that could do the things you could with training. Even without training."
'Is she right?' Naruto thought to himself, 'A Sharingan… Danzo-jiji has one apparently. The Kyuubi said that the Sharingan was able to enact control over it. There are so many reason why I should do it. Plus the fact that I actually can get away with it… no one in Konoha has seen my injuries from fighting Pein. I'll keep it covered just like Kakashi-sensei does. But is it the right thing to do?'
Sai moved towards Naruto who had been as still as a statue since Maki spoke to him about implanting the eye and put a hand on his shoulder, getting Naruto to look at him instead of down at the eye on the sealing scroll, "Naruto-senpai are you okay?"
Naruto's eyes panned from Sai to down at the Sharingan eye as he finally sealed it in the scroll, rolled it up, and placed it in his pocket, "Everyone get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a very, very busy day. It's time to get moving soon." He said as he went back inside of the house, only stopping to make more Kage Bunshin to replace the sentries that had been dispelled prior to meeting Kabuto.
Sai watched his back as he retreated inside. Maki did as well with a worried look on her face. She turned towards Sai, "Did I say something wrong? Is he angry at me Sai-senpai? I just thought that it would help. If he had the Sharingan he would be so powerful, he knows that too."
"Yes he does." Sai nodded as he walked towards the door, "And he's not mad at you. He knows how good he would be with the Sharingan, but there are moral reasons along with all kinds of other reasons as to why he's hesitant. Maki-san. Just give him some time. The ideas in his head are swimming right now, along with everything else he's dealing with at the moment. Eventually too much is too much, for anyone. He needs time to rest and think."
The two underling Root shinobi went inside and saw Naruto sitting against the far wall just staring into space. Sai went off to prepare his sleeping arrangements for the night and Maki walked over to Naruto, plopping down next to him closely. She just sat quietly next to him as he kept looking off away at nothing. Maki eventually turned towards him and began to speak, "You know you were my hero when I just started in Root. I was an orphan like you, and you were so strong… I could never match anything you did, you were the best of our age, even a ton of the adults were wary of you. At first I didn't understand why Danzo-sama made me your partner and I kind of resented you for it. And when you would try to talk to me I thought you were trying to be condescending, that's why I never said anything more than I had to."
Naruto snorted in amusement but kept quiet as he still remained with his eyes staring ahead at nothing in particular. Maki took his silence as a sign to continue, "But I did wind up caring for you. How could I not? You ended up saving me and getting hurt so many times because I couldn't fight. When we went with all of the others and took out the Prajna Group you got so hurt." She put a hand on his arm, "I looked at the scars on your body when I patched you up after we got you out of Ame, most of them are because of me, because I was weak. But the point is, you were always right, and everything you ever told me to do as my senpai and as a ninja ended up being for the best, and the right thing to do."
Naruto turned his head towards her, "This is kind of different Maki-chan. I'm thinking of taking out my own eye and replacing it with the eye of a dead man from a near extinct clan, solely for the ability to win one fight. This is pretty huge, and there's no right answer here. Either way bad things are going to happen and I'm trying to think of whether or not it's worth it."
"The point is; I know that whatever you decide to do is going to be the right thing, for you, us, and everyone in Konoha." She smiled at him and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "You're Naruto Uzumaki, the future Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato."
Naruto let off a small laugh, "And just what did I do to make you believe in me so much Maki-chan?"
Maki pulled her knees to her chest, "You don't have the time to hear all of my reasons senpai."
Naruto gestured for her to continue speaking, "Well go ahead and try me. We've got all night, I'm not going to sleep with all of this stuff on my brain. Maybe you can calm me down? Come on…" He said to her considerately, "I'm pretty sure I could use the company right now."
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