Chapter 58 - Chapter 57

The door to Naruto's apartment opened as the grimly black-clad blond walked in and shut the door behind him. Moving to the first chair in the dwelling he could reach, he sat down and put his hands over his eyes, elbows on his knees.

Upon returning to Konoha, the first news he was hit with was extremely dark. Umino Iruka, the man that had been his first sensei and given him his foundations as a ninja, the man that had taught him the sensor technique Chakura Hankyouteii no Jutsu (Chakra Echolocation Jutsu) and the useful trap-barrier ninjutsu Fuubaku Houjin (Sealed Bomb Square Release), he was now gone.

There was good news that the spy that had been plaguing Konoha intelligence for years had been finally exposed as Yakushi Kabuto. But that news was extremely bittersweet, as it was only learned after he was already gone, having taken Iruka's life before leaving.

That little portion of intel hit some of Naruto's other comrades harder than it did him. He didn't know Kabuto that well, but Kabuto had hung around Team 7 quite extensively over the years. He'd taught Sakura and Ino Shousen Jutsu (Mystical Palm Jutsu), he'd treated them when they went to the hospital for minor injuries, he'd worked under them on routine missions when they were gaining experience as chunin.

Chouji, Sasuke, Sakura, and Ino all felt betrayed. They'd been the closest to Kabuto.

Neji, Lee, and Tenten kept kicking themselves because they'd missed it. It had gone right over their heads as they'd been on the task force to locate the spy.

Kiba couldn't believe that his instincts hadn't tipped him off. With Shino it was hard to tell what he was thinking about it all. Hinata had been moved to tears to have to say goodbye to their sensei in the manner that it occurred.

Naruto just felt pissed.

Going to the funeral and seeing all of his Academy classmates and many others that had been close to Iruka over the years mourning just pissed him off more. He didn't cry. He couldn't. Not because it wasn't cool, or because he didn't feel sorrow, but because he was seeing so much red for the entire service that any tear of sadness that would have come to his eye would have evaporated before it rolled down his cheeks.

It was all the more terrible because they knew who'd killed him. They knew him in what they thought was personal manner.

They befriended that bastard. They made him one of them after the chunin exam in Tetsu no Kuni. It didn't matter to them that he was a low-level genin, or that he was eight years their senior. His team had been slaughtered by Gaara during the competition and he'd been left alone.

Nobody else cared after the initial pity wore off. No one in his Academy grad class gave a damn. No one did except for the twelve of them, and it was more than likely a part of his ruse the entire time.

"Don't look back in anger boy." Naruto could hear Jiraiya's voice in his head even right then. The man would oftentimes try to talk him down whenever he saw Naruto getting angry about something, "Hate is a cycle Naruto. Someone wrongs you, so you do the same to them in return. Even if you kill them, that person will have someone that will feel you wronged them by taking the life that you took. Where will it end?"

He heard it off and on for three years while Jiraiya taught him. Jiraiya's words had a point. He had plenty of reason behind them, but adhering to them was something else altogether. He couldn't do it, Jiraiya couldn't do it, no one he knew that was a ninja could do it.

He had hate in him. Hell, he had a big old fox comprised mostly of hate sitting right in his belly. Did he have the propensity to forgive to that extent though? To forgive someone like Kabuto?

If he saw Kabuto in the desert, dying of thirst, alone, with no visible method of survival available, and he asked Naruto for one drink of water, would he be able to give it to him, would he keep walking on without stopping, or would he stop, stand, and wait for Kabuto to die off so that he could see it in person before moving along?

And Naruto couldn't answer that question. Hell, saving him wasn't even an option in that scenario when Naruto first thought of it.

His head lifted up when he heard a quiet knock at his front door and found Ino standing there dressed back in normal clothes, "Hey there stranger." Holding a melancholy smile on her face as she looked over and down at the seated Naruto, "I figured you would have changed by now. The funeral ended three hours ago Goldie."

"I just got back. I stayed there for a while after… at his grave. Went to see mom and dad for a bit too, talked to them." Naruto said, looking up at her as she took her sandals off at the door and headed on in, "You're never gonna give that key to this place back are you?" He didn't really want her to give the key back. He was just busting her chops a bit, or trying to at least.

She just shook her head and walked over to him to set a hand on his shoulder, "How are you feeling? You were closer to Iruka-sensei than any of us so…"

"You don't want to hear how I'm feeling." Naruto said in return. Seriously, he still held the man in high esteem. When he first came back one of the earliest things he did was seek out Iruka to show off how much he'd improved on the first personal jutsu the man taught him, and now as far as he knew he was the only one left that knew how to perform the damn thing.

Hands on her hips, Ino just kept looking him over before she started tugging at him to get out of the chair, much to his confusion, "Come on, up. Go get changed, you're coming to spend some time with everyone else today. You're not staying by yourself like this. It's not good for you."

It caught Naruto by surprise at first, but to his nature he had to act the ass about something like this just to be a bother. Digging his heels in, he significantly slowed Ino's pushing of him to his room, "Oi, are you asking me or telling me?"

"Telling you obviously. Sometimes you're not smart enough to make your own choices because if I hadn't shown up you'd have sat here by yourself for three days straight."

"… Wait, no I freaking wouldn't have!" He wasn't some charity case that had to get his ass kicked out of funks when he was in them. And with that being added on to the fact that he hated being told what to do in any and all circumstances, it didn't make him very cooperative.

"Yes you would have. You do the same thing whenever you're super-sad or really put-off about something." Ino argued in return, "It doesn't happen very often with you but when you sulk, you sulk hard." Naruto harrumphed as they eventually did make it to his room and Ino gave him one last shove past the doorframes.

"So damn bossy." Naruto grumbled, shirking off his black formal-wear shirts before realizing that Ino was still standing there with her arms expectantly crossed, "Are you gonna ogle me while I change Miss Bossy?"

"You don't seem that bothered by it 'Sergio.'" Freezing just as he got his shirt off, Naruto slowly turned back around to a grinning Ino, "I know what I want for my birthday~." She said in a singsong voice before putting her hands on her hips, "You thought Shino could keep a secret like that from me?"

"…Yeah, I did."

"Why? It's not national security."

"He's Shino!" Naruto's continued tirade about how someone like Shino seemed like they'd never talk about any secret that they found out ever was cut off when Ino stepped forward and put a hand on his cheek, "Ah, what? What'd I do?"

"You see?" Ino said, smiling up at him while rubbing his whisker-marks, "That's why I want you to hang out with the rest of us on a day like today. Even if was just for a little bit, I made you think about something else didn't I?" She planted a kiss on his cheek and backed off out of the room, shutting the door upon departing, "Now be good and get dressed."

Naruto just stared at the shut door before he finally blinked and snapped back to normal. This time he did indeed choose to do what was requested of him without a fuss, throwing on his normal clothes and equipment to go out. Grieving with people would be more helpful than doing it alone… especially since he wasn't much of a drinker, which was the method of solo grieving that most self-destructive people took.

Did she just mind-screw him? Nah. Nothing chakra related even happened. They just talked, and she was persuasive… and soft… and smelled really good. Kami, that scent lingered. Definitely not a mind-fuck though. He felt fine.

"I don't need chakra to mess with your mind Goldie-kun."

"Get out of my head woman!"

XxX

(A Few Days Later – Hyuuga Clan Compound)

Hanabi was a Hyuuga through and through. Quiet, respectful, polite, yet rather prideful in her status as a clan head's child and her skills, making her at times a bit haughty. She was a fierce top genin of Konohagakure no Sato, and a lethal kunoichi.

The thing about her was though, was that when she liked someone it was extremely easy for her to open up to them. And when it was around someone she really liked, especially back when she was a little girl, she might as well have been seven or eight years old again right then and there.

Which was why a beaming Hanabi sat casually in the lap of Naruto who was visiting his Hyuuga Clan friends on their home property. Her beloved Naruto-oniisama didn't drop by the rigidly stuffy Hyuuga Clan premises often since returning to the village, but he had on this day to visit her and his friends, including her cousin and her sister.

Neji sat calmly by Naruto on a slight hillside slope that rested right by a gently moving stream, but other than biding a nervous hello, Hinata then became conspicuous by her absence. She greeted him well enough, but then excused herself.

Her face had progressively been getting redder and redder as they conversed, and Neji and Hanabi had given her rather pitying looks as she departed, so she might have had allergies to whatever was down by the riverside.

The jounin of the younger Hyuuga members had his eyes closed as he patiently listened to the sound of the running water, "You seem very troubled Naruto." He said, though he could figure why. It got to him as well. Even though Iruka hadn't been his sensei in the Academy, he was still a Konoha ninja and it had been part of his job to catch the spy when this incident occurred, "I am sorry for what it's worth."

"You didn't do anything wrong Neji." Naruto insisted with a slight smile, as much of one as he could muster given the topic material anyway, "It wasn't just you or Lee or Tenten. It was all of us. We all knew who Kabuto was… or we thought we did anyway." Neji nodded, but still didn't like it. Either way, Naruto looked down at the smaller girl in his lap and got her attention, "How are you holding up since the funeral Little Firecracker?"

Hanabi squirmed uncomfortably at the mention of the most recent funeral that she had been present for. She had been in Iruka's class for the previous school term before she'd graduated and become a genin, "I've been training Naruto-oniisama. I still have to make a strong showing at the chunin exams even though I'm a rookie."

Naruto did. Hell, Hinata had made it to the finals. Neji had as well and had even dominated an entire round of the proceedings before being forced to bow out in the quarterfinals. Maybe being put in a life-threatening situation or several would be just what she needed to cheer up. That or getting the chance to beat Kono-baka into the dirt.

"Make it to the finals and I'll show you something good in the month you'll have to train for them." Naruto bribed her, developing a big grin when he saw her eyes go wide. The chibi-Hyuuga planted a big kiss on his cheek and ran off to go train just in case she wasn't quite ready and needed a bit more before the time for the exams came. Anything from Naruto would have to be good.

"Hiashi-sama would probably thank you for motivating her." Neji said with a smile as he could see Hanabi still running off to find a place to get to work with his Byakugan, "But I thought you were a mentor to the boy that happens to be her rival."

"I kind of am." Naruto replied, lying back on the grass to stare up at the sky, "I made the same deal with Konohamaru. It cheered him up too after all of the stuff that happened around here."

Neji nodded before his smile turned into a smirk, "…If they both make it to the finals you're going to try to teach them the same jutsu aren't you?"

"Oh Kami, the thing about it is that I was actually thinking about doing that." Naruto admitted with a chuckle, "It'd be amazing."

This was good. He needed a laugh nowadays. First with the mission to Mizu no Kuni where they managed to lose the jinchuuriki Yukimaru, and then on the last mission with Tsunade which was a success for the most part, but upon returning they were met with quite a bit of tragedy.

Not quite the glorious return home to past normalcy that Naruto had expected and dreamt of while toiling away as a Guardian Ninja, just waiting for that chance to come back home and show everyone what he was made of.

"Hey Neji." Naruto started to say, "Do you ever wonder at what point you've got to stop living up here… and start living down here?" He expressed this physically by moving his hand from an elevated position in the air to a significantly lower one.

In return, Neji just gave him the driest look he could with his featureless eyes, "Naruto, neither of us have had an actual day off in weeks until now and your first mentor was just killed by a spy that I was responsible for finding. Would you mind saving the introspective comments for another time? You're not good at them. What say you Hinata-sama?" He asked, raising his voice at the end to make sure he was heard.

"Eep!"

"Yeah, seriously." Naruto said, turning in the direction that he knew she was hiding in just at the top of the grassy slope, "I can sense stuff, remember? I know you're there Hinata. Come on over already. Come on."

Hinata poked her head up from the crest of the little hill and laughed a bit nervously, forgetting that Naruto was technically a sensor ninja to an extent before walking down and sitting down a little bit higher than Naruto and Neji in the grass, "H-Hello Naruto-kun. I didn't mean to make it look like I was avoiding you, I… I just didn't know what to say when I saw you."

"Meh, you don't have to say anything." Naruto insisted as he lay back in the grass and faced the sky, "I know you're a good girl, and it'd probably be uncomfortable to try and act like what happened a while ago didn't happen. Thanks for taking on the Akatsuki the way you did too."

Neji wasn't very happy with Naruto about that one, until it was explained that it was totally unavoidable.

On the way back, Naruto had explained it to anyone that hadn't already known yet amongst his crew of friends that he was the container of the Kyuubi. The only ones that hadn't known were Hinata, Sakura, and Shino, and two of them had basically deduced that there was something strange about Naruto's chakra ever since the chunin exams.

"You know." Naruto commented idly, a small smile growing on his face, "I had a joke with Iruka-sensei. I told him that when I became Hokage I had a good way to help lower the pressure with some students. I was gonna give him my progress report and he was going to read it to the kids, and then when they started making fun of it and asking whose it was I was gonna show up and scare the hell out of them."

He used to drop by for a few minutes and just chat and joke around with Iruka. He had tons of stupid little anecdotes like that about how what he was going to do. He would do this and that when he got promoted, and he would do this and that with the Academy when he finally became Hokage.

It was now that he realized that he had sorely taken for granted the fact that he always just assumed that Iruka would be around to see these things happen.

He'd taken for granted the people around him, as if they would always be there.

His thoughts were interrupted when he found a delicate hand resting itself on his shoulder. A comforting gesture, and it came from Hinata of all people. When Naruto turned to look over at her he saw that her face was as red as a cherry, but she still managed a legitimate if not very hard to maintain smile.

"Thanks a lot." Naruto said earnestly, grabbing her hand and giving it several pats, "You're a really good girl you know?" She fell backwards into the grass and Naruto just shrugged before returning to his own idle thoughts, "Yeah, that's the spirit. Relax."

The poor thing's face was awfully red. She was so nice for hanging out with him and Neji even though she was allergic to… whatever was around there making her face that color to begin with.

Neji just shook his head and followed everyone else's lead in laying back on the grass and staring up at the sky as the gathering lapsed into silence, "…I don't see what Shikamaru sees in this." The Hyuuga genius commented.

"Yeah, I know. This is so boring." Naruto said in agreement before bringing up an option, "Wanna spar or something?"

"Naruto, I'm on a team with Maito Gai and Rock Lee. Don't you think I get enough of that already?"

"Yeah but I haven't fought you in three years! Come on, don't you want a rematch?"

"Not today."

"…"

"…"

"Your cousin is totally adorable by the way."

"Yes, I guess Hanabi-sama is rather-."

"No, I meant Hinata this time. Look at her." Naruto said, not even needing to direct his attention over to Neji to tell that he'd turned his head in his direction so fast that his neck was probably sore, "I could go over there and cuddle up with her right now."

To his credit, Neji did not allow the veins around his eyes to bulge and place the Byakugan into use. That genius label might have applied to the battlefield more than anything else, but he wasn't a slouch anywhere else, "You're trying to goad me into a fight aren't you?"

"…Is it working?"

XxX

(Kumogakure no Sato – Raikage's Office)

Samui and Karui had expected the furniture to fly after they made it back to Kumo and reported not only the failure in their mission to bring Tsunade back to the village with them, but of the death to both Omoi and Darui.

It had been a sobering trip back for the two women. Even with Samui's injured leg that Ino had treated enough to send her off to the next stop, the pain didn't matter much to her. She was mostly numb in mind and body except for when she thought about the scroll that contained the bodies of her longtime teammate and their team leader who was one of the most important men in Kumo.

Well… had been one of the most important men in Kumo.

But once they'd actually gotten to the Raikage and delivered to him the news, and the scroll that neither of them had tried to open since Samui had watched Ino seal it away while in Karui's body, the man took the news with an unnerving silence.

A simply sat at his desk, hands clasped together in front of his mouth pensively as he stared down at the scroll lying there on the surface before him. He had been that way for nearly an hour, and neither of the girls, nor the Raikage's lovely assistant Mabui, had said a word.

"How did they die?" A asked. His voice boomed even though it was the quietest any of them could remember hearing him speak before, "What killed them?"

From their report, the mission had been a complete mess that had devolved into a free-for-all involving more than one village. Hell, the only major village that didn't get involved in this was Kirigakure, but that was probably because Konoha and Kiri were getting along on increasingly better terms recently for some reason.

"It was this guy from Konoha. Uzumaki Naruto." Karui answered first, fists shaking at her side as she remembered seeing him polish off Omoi, "He already had Omoi beat, but then he shot Omoi with some ash grenade thing that blew him out of the water before he could get himself together."

She neglected to mention that Naruto had been provoked into retaliation by Darui's attack against a person that wasn't even involved in the direct conflict at hand between them.

Was it tactically a good move for him to take a shot at Ino? Of course it was. She wouldn't have seen it coming, it would have freed up Samui and Karui to come and help him with a more difficult opponent, and would have given them a three or four-on-one advantage.

Still though, that all mattered if he'd hit her, and the third guy that could control his shadow was sweet at picking his spot when he did to step in because he saved her from that fate. Thus the only thing he did was piss off Naruto who responded in kind by attacking their vulnerable teammate.

Jinchuuriki were kind of a nasty lot for the most part, notorious for rather violent outbursts, and that manifested itself during the mission in the straightforward, brutal way that Naruto disposed of Darui and Omoi. His temper had clearly been lost.

"Darui was killed by the most powerful wind ninjutsu I think I've ever seen." Samui said as she had been the only one between herself and Karui that saw the end come for Darui, "It stripped a twenty foot trench into the ground at least a quarter of a mile away."

A scoffed in return, "That's all?" It was more than Darui could muster, but Darui had never been a battlefield-warping kind of ninjutsu specialist. He was finesse and speed, winning battles with versatility. From the sounds of things, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki just chose to flat out overpower him, and even that wasn't a small feat as Darui still had more raw power in his techniques than most Kumo ninja could muster.

There was no way he was going to make his right-hand man anything other than someone that was significantly heavy-handed in how they attacked. With Darui's Ranton and Black Lightning… there shouldn't have been anyone in Kumo other than Yugito, Killer B, and himself that could take Darui out and be able to walk away with any kind of ease afterwards.

But that didn't take into account fighting the Kyuubi jinchuuriki.

A had seen Naruto before. He'd seen him several times. He was rather underwhelming and not very impressive for all of the potential that he had. But then again he'd been a young teenager, so what could he really have been expecting?

Last time he'd seen him, Naruto had been one of the Guardian Ninja meant to protect the Daimyo during Kumo's last chunin exam that they had hosted, and the last he'd heard of him during that event was that he and the Nara kid that seemed to be joined to his hip had fled like rabid dogs back into the village gates after taking some kind of walk to the Valley of Clouds and Lightning; Killer B's training ground.

He could easily guess why they'd been sprinting back as fast as they could when he knew that the site was Killer B's training ground of choice. He'd made a point to get his share of laughs out of the Kyuubi jinchuuriki running away from the Hachibi jinchuuriki when he'd been behind closed doors and could do so freely.

It wasn't very funny now.

He vengefully wished that the little punks had been dumb enough to start a fight with Killer B that day so that they'd have been killed or scarred (mentally or physically) for life. None of this would have happened if they had been.

And now the yellow-haired loudmouth was strong enough to kill Darui and Omoi by himself in battle.

The thought caused a quick burst of lightning chakra to layer A's body for a split-second, getting the others in the room to flinch involuntarily.

"What do we do now Raikage-sama?" Mabui asked. She was a pretty, dark-skinned woman with green eyes and light grey hair done professionally in a bun, two bangs framing the sides of her face and wore a very professional high collared dress shirt and skirt.

"What we do is refrain from letting this slip to Killer B until I can call him here and tell him myself." A ordered, trying to run damage control. Times when he was the most even-tempered person in the room were few and far between, but he would definitely take the news of Darui and Omoi's demise better than his little brother would.

Killer B was unpredictable. But the one thing you could always count on was thinking of the worst possible option that he could take in any given situation… and then multiply it by five. That was to be the expected response from the 'Guardian of Kumogakure' when it came to anything that could rile him up.

Which was why he felt a pending sense of dread when he saw the pensive looks on the faces of Karui and even Samui.

"We ran into B-sensei on the way to the tower." Karui said guardedly, bracing herself for A's anger, "…He already knows."

"And he was on the way to the Valley of Clouds and Lightning when he left." Samui added to try and give her lone remaining teammate a bit of backup in explaining things to their leader, "But he's never to leave the village Raikage-sama. Do you really think he would?"

To his credit, A did not fly off of the handle immediately. He simply took a deep breath and heaved a sigh before his massive hands took hold of his desk from the underside. With no movement more complex than standing, A flung the desk through the nearest wall with a loud bellowing yell that could be heard from end-to-end in the village, "GODDAMN IT!"

XxX

(Meanwhile – Konohagakure no Sato)

When you had a weakness you had to work to make it as unnoticeable as possible. It wasn't Naruto's favorite way to train, but when everyone kept making fun of you for having a glaring Achilles' Heel in regards to genjutsu and genjutsu defense, you had to do something to remedy that.

Sasuke wasn't one to help with that even though his optically activated genjutsu was the kind that he was most afraid of facing (see: Itachi). It was one definite advantage he had over Naruto before they would have their inevitable pissing contest of a rematch and he wanted to keep that edge. Naruto couldn't blame him really.

Sakura wouldn't do for this kind of thing. She was better than Sasuke at genjutsu, true, but most of her genjutsu required a trigger of some sort, and Naruto already knew how to deal with that.

He wasn't so terribly hopeless at genjutsu. It was just that the only person he'd fought that used it extensively just so happened to be the genjutsu boogeyman.

Luckily, he did have someone to go to that had probably forgotten more about genjutsu than he'd probably ever learn.

"I've never been to Kurenai-sensei's place before." Naruto remarked, hands up behind his neck as he allowed Ino to lead the way and show him where to go, "I thought that she lived in an actual house or something, not an apartment, and I… learned something new from Hinata, so I owe her one."

"You didn't know where Kurenai-sensei lived because you were so scared of her you didn't bother to find out." Ino pointed out, bumping Naruto with her hip as they came up on an apartment complex, "Luckily, I know where everybody lives, because it was my job to know everything about everybody all the time."

"Why didn't you tell me then when I asked?"

"Is it so wrong to ask for a favor for things?"

"I asked for an address."

"Payment is usually required for goods or services rendered Goldie-kun."

Shikamaru kind of got tired of hearing the ongoing spiel and rolled his eyes, "If you knew everything about everybody like you said you'd know that while we were gone Naruto got a fian-."

Cue a quick grab around the waist from a chain before Shikamaru found himself flung up onto the second level of the apartment by Naruto. He expected something like that though, so Shikamaru's feet planted themselves on the railing, safely getting him up to the next floor.

"Hey thanks Naruto." Shikamaru said with an infuriatingly calm smile for just getting thrown twenty yards across and at least fifteen feet into the air by a chain that had come out of his friend's arm, "I didn't even have to do take those troublesome stairs."

Ino just stared up at Shikamaru wondering what the hell had just happened while Naruto gave the lazy genius a death stare of warning, mouthing, 'If you tell her about that I'll-.' Complete with dragging his thumb across his throat slowly and pointing at him for emphasis.

Either way, the moment died down and all three members of Team 10 found themselves up in front of the door that was meant to be Kurenai's. A few knocks on the door and they received no answer.

Which was annoying since Team 8 apparently didn't have practice today, nor a mission, and even if they did have one, Kurenai hadn't been on a mission in a month or so.

"Maybe she's out?" Ino wondered, flipping back her ponytail as the continued to stand outside, "Goldie?"

"On it." Naruto drew a lockpick set from his supplies and got to work on the door before Ino snapped his goggles on his forehead, "Ow! What?"

"I meant sense inside for her, not break into her place!" Ino complained. Breaking into the homes of ninjas traditionally wasn't the best idea.

"Hey!" Naruto replied with a sharp look her way, "Sensing into people's houses is rude! That's like unwritten sensor rule number two. Why do you think Hyuugas don't turn their Byakugan on every two minutes?"

"What's the first rule then?" Shikamaru asked.

"I don't know, they're not written down remember?"

The three way argument would have continued, but a series of hard bumps from inside caught their attention. Remembering the events of the past few weeks that had not endeared Naruto to be very trustworthy of the safety of his loved ones inside of the village he quickly undid the lock, no one dissuading him to do so, before all of them sprang into the house silently.

The living room was a mess, and all three spread out to search for danger or an attack. Ino headed for the kitchen, Shikamaru watched the door at the ready with his shadow jutsu, and Naruto took his machete and his ability to use clones into the back where the rooms were.

He could sense life in one of the rooms just around the corner and positioned himself in a place to retaliate. He then dropped his jaw and then his machete on the floor with a clang, because he'd found Kurenai. She had been with Asuma... without clothes… doing adult things.

"Naruto what are you doing here?!"

"Naruto, get the fuck out of Kurenai's apartment!"

What Naruto had just seen could never be unseen.

XxX

(Ten Minutes Later)

After coming across Asuma and Kurenai in the midst of copulation, Naruto slowly exited the back and went back into the living room to sit down, looking pale and lifeless with a haunted look in his eyes.

Shikamaru's face had been red and even Ino had slowly walked back into the living room, guessing what must have happened from the sounds of things and the hushed tones coming from the back even then.

The teenage team of chunin just sat there like scolded children in silence until Asuma walked out from the back in the black pants of his usual uniform, looking rather displeased at the lot of them… and the fact that he couldn't smoke while he was inside of his girlfriend's place.

He tried to be cool about it though, "I figured that if this was going to happen it would have happened back when you were twelve or something. You see, at least then I'd have had some remorse for you seeing that." Asuma explained as he stood in front of the trio, "You're sixteen going on seventeen now, and that ship has sailed. What the hell did you break into Kurenai's apartment for?"

"Loud bumps." Naruto said, not willing to piss off his jounin mentor any further by beating around the bush, "We were outside, it sounded like something was happening inside…" And with the way that Iruka had been killed less than a week ago by the traitorous Kabuto, it stuck in Naruto's craw, "We came in."

"Knock next time."

"We did knock." Ino defended in an embarrassed huff, "Loud. Maybe if you weren't making that headboard bang against the wall so hard that we thought a fight was going on in here you would have heard it. And why's the living room trashed?"

"Because this is where we started, but that's not the point." Asuma hurriedly dismissed, ignoring the suspicious glance that Naruto, Shikamaru, and Ino gave the couch they were sitting on, "What do you want?"

"Naruto sucks at genjutsu, Kurenai doesn't suck at genjutsu. He wants to pick her brain for a bit." Shikamaru summed up their reason for being there in the most basic terms he could, "Naruto, is this worse than the time at the capital where you caught Jiraiya in your room with those three-?"

"No, that one was way worse." Naruto interjected before Shikamaru could finish that statement, "It was my bed and we just got back from a mission. But at least Tsunade-baachan beat his ass after she found out about it."

That and aforementioned incident aside, Naruto had always wanted to see Kurenai-sensei naked anyway… and she'd been on top when he walked in, so that made it more tolerable. There was something off though.

"Why did I sense three chakra sources from outside though?" Ino's eyes widened and Shikamaru's nose began to bleed a bit at the question until Naruto cleared it up after seeing them, "No! Not that, there were only two people in there! Jeez, you guys are messed up."

Kurenai walked into the room at the point, wearing a clean robe that she was able to find after cleaning up from the extracurricular activities of her and Asuma. Upon hearing what Naruto had said, she walked over to Asuma and let him wrap an arm around her waist, "I didn't think your sensor jutsu was that strong Naruto."

"Well yeah." Naruto said, smiling at remembering Iruka teaching him the jutsu, "Iruka-sensei said I'm better at it than he is. I can sense through walls if I put enough chakra into it."

It still hurt a bit to talk about Iruka, but he could still swell with pride when it came to his first teacher and what he learned from him. Bragging made him feel much better about bringing him up, even in passing like this.

"People too apparently."

"Huh?"

"People too." Kurenai repeated with a motherly smile, "Because you sensed through me, or inside of me actually." She placed a hand on her stomach and everyone got the reference… mostly because Asuma was grinning like an idiot until Kurenai elbowed him.

Rubbing the sore spot where he'd been hit, Asuma couldn't lose his grin though, "So kids, questions? Concerns?"

"How far along is she for Goldie-kun to sense a baby?" Ino asked, bewildered at the news. She knew that Asuma and Kurenai hooked up, but she didn't know that it was that serious between them, "This is just… wow."

"Two and a half months." Kurenai answered, figuring that now was as good a time as any for people to find out about her pregnancy. She wouldn't be able to hide it for that much longer anyway.

Shikamaru just held up a finger and alternated pointing at the two of them before giving up on coming up with anything snarky to say. What was there?

Naruto just got up and shook Asuma's hand with a blank expression on his face before grabbing Kurenai and giving the surprised older lady a big hug, "I'm gonna be somebody's godfather! Sweet!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What the hell makes you think you're going to be my kid's godfather?" Asuma asked, amused at Naruto's reaction.

"Who else would be better to look out for your kid than a badass jinchuuriki?" Naruto asked before listing off other reason why he'd be great for it on his fingers, "Kids love me, I spent the last three years as a bodyguard for the most trouble-prone noble ever, the floors of my apartment smell of rich mahogany, and aside from that… who else ya got lined up for the job?"

Dead silence.

The to-be parents really hadn't thought that far ahead. Their jounin acquaintances weren't really the best choices for such a thing, for various reasons. Kakashi, Gai, Anko, take your pick. All of them had something seriously wrong with them. But their students weren't nearly as screwed up as the full-grown adults were. At least not yet.

But wait. Naruto and Shikamaru had just come back from the Guardian Ninja. Damn it. They were already too far gone to salvage sanity-wise. Naruto definitely was. He should know. But in a pinch… if he had to choose.

Asuma stared at Naruto before turning to Shikamaru, "Shika. Godfather. How about it?" Lesser of two evils.

"What?" Shikamaru reacted immediately. He didn't want anything to do with kids right now. That was bad news for a guy like him. Responsibility? Ick, "Hell no. Let Naruto do it. He wants to do it."

"I want to do it so bad." Naruto confirmed, looking eager to have the ceremonial title bestowed upon him, "Do I get a hat like if I become Hokage, or a sash like my Guardian one? Or maybe being godfather is how Ero-sensei got his kickass horned headband? Is that thing ceremonial? Because it damn sure ain't practical and he never told me how he got it."

"If it was for being your godfather why would it say 'oil' on it dumbass?"

"Shut the fuck up if you don't have a theory Shika. You don't know how he got it either."

And these were the two front-running candidates that would take care of Asuma and Kurenai's unborn child in case something bad happened to the two of them. God help them.

Ino raised her hand idly as if she were in school, "I call godmother." She said with a brilliant smile.

Kurenai just gave Team 10 a strange look while Asuma palmed his forehead hard, "You can't call godparent status Ino. It doesn't work like that. We have to pick you and then you can accept if you want."

"Oh." The blonde Yamanaka said in understanding before blinking several times in thought, "Well in that case I'm with Goldie-kun. Who else do you have lined up for the job? Team 8?"

"That's actually a great idea." Kurenai pointed out, now feeling significantly better about the whole idea of the kids they trained being godparents as long as they were the kids that she trained, "Why don't we go that route?"

"What's wrong with my kids?" Asuma asked, not recalling that only thirty seconds ago he was dreading all of the ways that Naruto would be a horrendous influence on his kid. He'd seen what Naruto had done with Konohamaru, and while it was funny when it was his nephew and not really his problem it wouldn't be so funny when it was his actual son or daughter, "…Aside from the obvious."

"Naruto smokes-." Kurenai flatly stated.

"-I smoke." Asuma replied while cutting her off.

"Yeah, Asuma-sensei smokes and you fucked him." Naruto said before quickly covering his mouth in embarrassment, "No! I mean-! Well I don't know how to put it any differently and you did. I'm sorry."

Kurenai didn't flip out on him for the extremely blunt comment. She just looked over at Naruto with a raised eyebrow before getting back to Asuma, "-And Naruto's tact is a bit lacking." She added to her previous statement, "Naruto honey, I love you but I really can't trust you to be responsible around a child."

Naruto just nodded in understanding. If he had kids he probably wouldn't want 16 year-old him raising them either… which was kind of weird to think about actually.

Ino got up and latched onto Naruto's side in a big hug, "Oh, it's okay Goldie-kun. You'd be like the fun uncle. You know, the one that the kids love but the parents secretly hate because he's got no concept of productive child-rearing whatsoever. It's not your fault."

Asuma snorted at Ino's cheering up of Naruto, "Kurenai, you think Naruto's bad? What do you think Kiba would do? Hana or Tsume would have to look over his shoulder every five minutes to make sure everything was alright. Kiba's like Naruto, but without the child-friendly traits."

"He's got Akamaru. Kids love dogs."

"Big dogs eat little babies."

"There's always Shino."

"Repeat what you just said and keep a straight face."

She was unable to do so. Nobody could. Imagining Shino taking care of a child that was not supposed to be raised to be an Aburame was just a priceless sight. He wouldn't know what to do.

"I'm just gonna throw this out there and point out that none of this has anything to do with genjutsu. Just saying." Shikamaru said, relaxing down on the couch, 'I am not getting involved in this talk. At this rate I'll be godfather to two couples' kids… and both couples are standing together.'

Even if one of the two couples hadn't hooked up yet. It was only a matter of time.

"Genjutsu later, godparents now." Ino said before turning her attention back to her sensei, "Now gimme godmother. Come on." She wanted a little godson or goddaughter to spoil in the very near future.

"If I'm not godfather you're sure not gonna be godmother Ino-chan." Naruto said, "They'll probably get Hinata to do it or something if she wants to." Ino growled to herself at the thought of her rival in romance getting the completely meaningless title of godparent over her. Let it be known that Yamanaka Ino could get petty when the mood struck her.

Ino just cut her eyes at her jounin sensei and his pregnant girlfriend, "This isn't over. I'm going to make you realize just what a perfect choice I'd be. I've got so much love to give!" Her grip steadily tightened on Naruto who started looking around a bit fearfully for something to Kawarimi with just in case, "I'd give that baby so much love it'd drown in it! Drown in it!"

"So you'd spoil our kid rotten just like you were."

"Of course I would! That'd be my job."

XxX

(Some Time Later – Akatsuki Hideout)

"Orochimaru eh?" A thick, hunched figure in an Akatsuki robe commented as the communication jutsu that had previously been linking all of the Akatsuki members together ended, "He's turning into a real nuisance." The puppeteer of the S-rank organization thought aloud.

Heh." Sitting on a rock nearby, Deidara spun his straw hat in his hands idly with a smirk on his face, "Taking billions from the Gato Company after Gato was killed in Cha no Kuni… getting his hands on a jinchuuriki with a natural affinity for controlling the Sanbi. It looks like old snake face is building himself a legit fighting force here. Why'd you let him do as he pleased for so long?"

"Because he wasn't a threat Deidara." Sasori commented, cutting his eyes at the explosives specialist, "There were more important things to tend to after Itachi sent him running off with his hand missing and his tail between his legs."

"Ah, ah, ah." Deidara replied, wagging a finger chidingly, "Sasori no Danna, the guy was your partner before me. Are you seriously telling me that you didn't think Orochimaru was dangerous enough to recover and rebuild without Akatsuki backing him?"

Not enough to form a hidden village, that was actually hidden by the way, that was growing in strength to the extent that it was. But that was what had happened. Then again, that was why they had been slated with the mission to locate Orochimaru's most important chess piece in the Sanbi jinchuuriki, Yukimaru.

Who better to try and find Orochimaru's ace in the hole than the only member of Akatsuki that had partnered with him before his attempt to take Uchiha Itachi's body?

"We need to find him quickly." Sasori said as he began making his way to the exit of the hideout impatiently, "I know what he's going to do. And if we're too late in finding the brat with the Sanbi I don't think I want to face off with the person that'll have it when we get there."

"So are you just going to foreshadow or are you actually going to tell me what that means, un?"

"Shut up and lead the way Deidara. You know this country better than I do."

XxX

(Konohagakure no Sato – Ichiraku Ramen)

"So you spent the whole day with him yesterday? Alone this time?" Tenten asked, swirling around the food in her bowl with her chopsticks, "You've been spending a lot of time with Naruto-chan since the funeral." She grinned at bringing up the old nickname she referred to Naruto by back when they were genin. He hated that, "Why don't you just make your move on him already?"

Ino blew her blonde bang out of the way of her eye with a huff as she moved her own bowl out of the way, "It's not like it's that easy. This isn't just any regular guy I can woo with a wink and a pretty laugh. This is Goldie-kun. He's different. And I don't want to get him right now anyway. With Iruka-sensei dying recently, that'd hang over the relationship the whole time if I could even hook up with him right around now."

She didn't want to get him while he was vulnerable emotionally. She specialized in the psychological states of people, and there was almost never anything healthy about a romantic relationship that began under tragic circumstances.

"Where is he right now?" Tenten asked, "This is kind of his spot, so should you really be talking about this when he can pop in any second?"

"He and Shikamaru had to show Asuma-sensei a jutsu or something." Ino answered, setting her chin down on her arms on the counter, "Some kind of Guardian thing, super dangerous, blah-blah-blah. I don't know yet."

Naruto had been training extremely hard since the funeral as well, and it was all Ino could do to make him take some sort of a break lately. She knew why he was doing it, but she couldn't rightfully say that it was healthy either.

"Sorry I'm late!" They were then joined by the pink-haired member of Team 7 as Sakura dashed underneath the curtain and took her own seat with her fellow kunoichi, "I got held up from practice. So what's going on?"

"Ino's trying to figure out how and when to bang her teammate." Tenten quipped, not balking when Ino fixed her with a glare, "Pretending that you're not isn't going to make doing it any easier."

A smile came to Sakura's lips as she threw an arm over Ino's shoulder, "Ino-pig is finally all grown up, switching her attention to a man she can actually get. Good of you to leave Sasuke-kun to the right woman." And by right woman she meant herself of course.

"Goldie-kun is ten times better than Sasuke." Ino replied, narrowing her eyes at her old friend and rival. They weren't fighting over the same boy anymore… but that didn't mean they couldn't fight over which boy was better, "I'm past the pretty boys with kekkei genkai. Yamanaka Ino needs a real man."

"And that real man is Naruto?" Sakura said dryly, "I'm going to actually give you a chance to amend that statement in any way you see fit before I actually jump on you for that. Outside of fights he's totally immature."

Tenten was just amused at the path of the conversation and wanted the flames to be fanned hotter, "Come on. Naruto-chan isn't that bad."

"Right? Listen to Tenten." Ino said as she mounted her counteroffensive against Sakura, "I'm not amending anything. He's totally responsible or else he wouldn't have been a Guardian Ninja. He's definitely more fun than Sasuke is. And I know that Goldie-kun would be into having a relationship with someone." Possibly with her due to their previous interactions.

Hell, just the prospect of someone getting in a cheap shot on her in a battle angered Naruto enough to go four-tails to make sure he got the people that did it back, damn the consequences. As scary as that thought was, it was kind of sweet. That meant something. It had to.

"And Sasuke-kun isn't?"

"You know he isn't." Ino began to preen, growing in confidence as she carried on boldly, "At least if I had sex with Naruto I know he'd definitely be into it. I'm pretty sure there's a good chance he'd break me before he was done too." A big grin spread across her face as Sakura's face reddened, "Jinchuuriki stamina don't you know?"

"Oooh, well that's always fun." Tenten chimed in from the sidelines, "Do go on. And Sakura? Do you have anything to say in Sasuke's defense?"

Sakura wanted to say that Sasuke wouldn't be a slouch when the time came for things to get physical… probably. The problem for her though was still trying to get Sasuke to see her as more of a woman, not just a teammate. A problem Ino didn't seem to share.

"Yes I do as a matter of fact." Sakura rose to the bait/challenge eagerly, "There's something to be said for a woman willing to wait for a man Ino-pig. It's not all about sex, it's about being faithful too."

Ino gave Sakura a dry stare once the topic of faithfulness was raised, "…I've been waiting for three years while Naruto's been off at the capital, surrounded by noble floozies, some insane chick with a shamisen, the worst adult influence I can possibly think of for a teenage boy, and Kami knows what else."

"-With only Shikamaru to keep him from doing something completely stupid." Tenten added, a smirk growing on her face, "That is pretty patient. You didn't even take any sucker dates with other guys in the meantime either. Someone cares."

A thoughtful expression presented itself on the Team 10 kunoichi's face as she tapped the side of her bowl, "If I read Goldie's mind to see if he banged anyone while he was a Guardian would that make me a bad person?" Ino asked innocently.

Sakura just recoiled in shock, "Yes." She said plainly, giving her an anxious look with her green eyes, "Yes it would."

Behind the counter, Ayame just shook her head while leaning on the surface a few feet away from the conversation, "You do know that I've heard everything you said this whole time, and that Naruto comes here all the time right?"

Ino's eyes widened at forgetting a cardinal rule of eating establishments and information; don't say anything in front of the staff that you were uncomfortable with being passed around openly. Looking around at her surroundings and then down at her almost finished food she then realized why Naruto constantly shot his mouth off after eating there since childhood, 'It's this place! It's so comfortable it makes you not care about the things you say!'

As if she could read Ino's mind herself, Ayame's smile just stretched a little bit further, "Does anyone want anything else to eat?" She asked, angel-eyed informant to the stand's most loyal patron that she was.

XxX

(With Naruto – Elsewhere in Konoha – Kabuto's Apartment)

He wanted to junk the place. The first thing Naruto wanted to do after he'd taken Shikamaru, Kiba, and Shiho over to Kabuto's place was to tear it apart. But they'd come there for a reason and they couldn't leave without finding something useful about the bastard.

Sadly, that was slow going. Even with Kiba and Akamaru's noses it was next to impossible to find anything useable when it came to tracking Kabuto down. If they could find him now, they would probably find some important Otogakure base or something, but they weren't even having any luck with step one of that plan yet, let alone steps two through infinity.

"It's like nobody even lived here." Kiba said, shaking his head after searching around for an hour. Akamaru whined and laid down on the floor at their lack of success thus far, "What the hell man? How long could a guy use a place and not leave any kind of ambient scent behind?"

It didn't make any sense. It went against everything he'd been taught about tracking. Everyone's home was supposed to have some sort of scent that was signature to them. It made tracking down missing-nin from one's own village much easier.

Unless Kabuto soaked everything he everything he owned in disinfectant or something every single day, there should have been some sort of distinguishable smell there.

"I wasn't expecting much, but this is annoying." Shikamaru said, looking over Kabuto's living room. The place seemed totally impersonal, "Kabuto was a genin for years before we'd met him and this is the only place he's had to himself." He thought deeply before turning to Shiho with an idea, "Wait, Kabuto doesn't have any family does he?"

Shiho had brought Kabuto's record and upon having some attention given to her by Shikamaru she endeavored to be of assistance as she flipped through what files on him they had. Most of it by now was more than likely bunk, but for reference's sake she'd brought it along in case there were any useful parallels, "Ah, let's see."

Naruto and Kiba even stopped searching around and waited to pay attention to see what Shiho had to say. That was a lot of pressure for her. Not only to try and look good in front of Shikamaru, but the others took her word seriously enough to closely listen.

"Well, it says here that Kabuto was found on a deserted battlefield when he was seven. The former captain of Konoha's Medic Corps who found him, Yakushi Nono, adopted him." She read, basically summarizing the info that she was flipping through, "He went into the Academy at nine, graduated at ten amazingly enough, and then he languished as a genin until the age of twenty-three until… well you know."

Shikamaru took all of that in before finally saying something, "That doesn't make any sense. I read those files." He took what Shiho had away from her to look through them and found a docket on Nono complete with a profile picture.

"No." Naruto said, shaking his head as he corrected Shikamaru once he got a good look at Kabuto's apparent adopted mother, "That doesn't make any sense because I know that lady. She used to run the goddamn orphanage at the edge of town I used to be in until I got the apartment!" He bellowed, remembering vague bits and chunks from his early toddler days.

"Why'd you say used to?" Kiba asked, wondering why Naruto was flipping out so hard.

Naruto tapped his finger on her picture. Yes, he definitely remembered that woman. He could never forget a kindly smile like that back in the days when the ones he received were few and far between. But she always had one for him. There wasn't much to recall that far back, but that memory was prominent.

Then she just up and disappeared and no one ever saw her again.

He still remained at that orphanage though until he was old enough to be gifted his own place to stay by the Hokage. As much as it was a shame to realize nowadays, eventually the kindly caretaker that had only been in his life during the portions of his of it where memory was hard to come by slipped into the deep reaches of his mind.

"Kabuto's seven years older than us." Naruto said, "If Nono adopted Kabuto and put him in the Academy I think I'd remember him, or he'd remember me. I don't, he didn't, so that means that he wasn't in the orphanage when I was there."

Shikamaru gave Naruto a dead-severe look after his short tirade, "Are you sure?"

Naruto nodded, "If I'm wrong Kiba can shave my head with my machete and take pictures." The Inuzuka ninja's eyes lit up at the offer on Naruto's pride and honor. He was serious.

Shiho couldn't help but feel her face going redder and redder at what she was reading. This was horrible contingency. Who used to keep archive records before she got the job as a genin? They needed to be hanged and shot for negligence. She could have done, and did do, a better job back when she was a twelve year-old genin under apprenticeship.

The records said that Nono disappeared before Kabuto ever enlisted in the Academy. Either the person in charge of admissions was bribed or was just stupid.

"Complete incompetence!" She shouted, surprising the three chunin in the room with her, "If someone kept decent records, none of this would have happened to begin with! Iruka-sensei wouldn't have been killed, and our codes wouldn't have been leaked to the enemy for the last ten years!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Shikamaru walked over to her and set his hands on the back of her shoulders, rubbing them to calm her down before she strangled someone. The girl was certainly spirited about her job, "It's not your fault. It's none of our faults. It's just troublesome that we're the ones that are figuring this crap out when older people should have been on the ball. It's good that we got it now, so just calm down."

It took a few minutes, but the blonde bookworm's breathing did even out and she calmed enough to take her glasses off and wipe the fog off of them after she'd steamed them up out of her anger, "It's okay…" She said to herself, "It's alright. I'm fine. Thank you Shikamaru-kun."

"Well who was in charge of Academy admissions?" Kiba asked, feeling Shiho's anger for her, "If they're still alive I'll just bust their ass for you. I'm really pissed off about this. Who overlooks that on someone's entry forms?" Taking the files to look over Kabuto's Academy admission paperwork, he went wide-eyed, "Whoa, too late. One of us already busted his ass."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Shikamaru wondered. Kiba's outlook certainly changed in a hurry, "Admissions is an Academy grunt job. You're basically a male secretary and do paperwork all day."

It was one of Shikamaru's ideal jobs to have as a chunin. All he ever wanted out of life; minimal responsibility, little manual labor. A trained monkey could do that job, but they had people do it and they paid you for it. All you needed to work that job was the ability to read and thumbs. And not even thumbs on both arms, just a thumb on one hand, which was why it was an entry-level Academy position.

"Admissions is an Academy grunt job." Kiba explained with a smirk growing on his face. For once he knew something that smartypants Shikamaru didn't. He liked that feeling, "Back when Kabuto entered the Academy the guy in charge of admissions was…"

"Was?" Naruto asked, about to punch Kiba in the stomach and take the files to read them himself if he didn't give them the answer.

"Just wait, I'm letting it build for dramatic effect." Kiba said before yelping in pain when Akamaru bit down on his ankle, "Ow! Fine, traitor. The guy doing the job back then was Mizuki-sensei."

As in their former teacher Mizuki.

As in the guy whose ass Naruto beat ragged for tricking him into stealing the Scroll of Seals after he failed his grad exam and subsequently trying to murder him and Iruka.

Shiho just watched them all look at each other with similar bewildered expressions before venturing to say something, "…So I should probably get all of this written up and see if we can't get Mizuki transferred from prison to interrogation." She asked, getting unanimous nods from them all, "Should I request Yamanaka Ino-san to do it?"

Naruto was about to say yes until Shikamaru covered his mouth to stop him from talking, "No. Request Morino Ibiki."

Ino would just wind up reading his mind, no matter how upset she'd be while doing the interrogation. Ibiki on the other hand would break that son of a bitch first if he didn't cough up the intel on the spot.

Shikamaru could be remarkably vengeful and devious when he felt the motivation, and if Mizuki was what he thought that he was he felt entirely justified to be so.

XxX

(Outside of Konoha's Gates)

Hagane Kotetsu and Kamizuki Izumo were fairly talented shinobi. They had been promoted to chunin through the exam system when they were still teenagers which was pretty impressive at the time, and even though they weren't anywhere near getting promotions to jounin anytime soon they were still rather reliable.

They were experienced, they were both still very young at the age of 28, and they knew how to do most if not all necessary jobs that a ninja at their level would need to know how to do excellently.

Still though, it had been a while since they'd seen anything this weird happen at the front gate.

A quarter of a mile down the road they could see a figure sitting down in the middle of the dirt path, not moving an inch. He'd been there for a few hours now, but he wasn't doing anything. Entire teams of shinobi returning from missions and leaving on others had passed him, as did just regular visitors to the village, but so far no one had said a thing about him other than that he was just looking straight ahead and seemingly waiting for something while scribbling away in a notebook and muttering rhymes to himself.

"Go see what he wants." Kotetsu demanded of his partner as they stared at the man. He was far enough away that they couldn't make out any of his features, but they were sharp-eyed enough that they could clearly see he was there, "If someone higher up comes around and asks us why we didn't go check this guy out we're gonna get our nuts toasted."

"It could be a trap." Izumo responded, "What if he's just waiting for a Konoha ninja to get close to him and then BAM! Kidnapped, killed, used as breeding stock."

"Who would use us as breeding stock? We don't even have kekkei genkai."

"Neither does the Sandaime. Awesome in of itself is an inherited trait, and that's super-valuable you know!"

"Great, so that still means we're safe."

"…Why do you have to be like that man?"

"Screw this." Kotetsu said, "Even if he does kill us, if he's there doing wrong and we get in trouble for not doing anything about it Ibiki'll safety pin our scrotes." Both men looked at each other and shared sickened looks, "Well, if he does attack us look at it this way; we're within screaming distance of the village." Both of them fist bumped and sighed before heading out to get to the bottom of things.

Both walked down the path to reach their target with a paranoia in their bellies that can only take form after years and years of dodging death and dealing it right back. And it only got stronger as they got closer.

"Kotetsu if one of us dies, can I have your conch mace?" Izumo asked under his breath.

Ignoring that, the long-standing chunin finally reached the strange dark-skinned man in white. A Kumo ninja of all things from the looks of his flak jacket and headband, and man he was carrying a lot of swords.

"Uh, can we help you?" Kotetsu ventured to ask tentatively, "Is there any reason a Kumo ninja would be sitting right here in front of the gate? Do you want to come in or something?" There wasn't any word that anyone from Kumogakure was supposed to be on the way to Konoha. No messages or anything of the sort.

"Nope, nope. Killer B's just fine no doubt, waitin' here for Mr. Nine to come out."

Both Konoha chunin looked at each other strangely before Izumo just decided to speak up, "Who's Mr. Nine?" Because he knew pretty much everyone worth talking about inside of Konoha's gates, it came with the territory of manning the front door almost every damn day, and he hadn't heard of anyone that would go by that title.

"Well I didn't think I'd meet a person that could flat out beat a messenger hawk here all the way from Kumo!"

Turning around, Izumo and Kotetsu saw a man standing on the top of the gateway, obscured somewhat by the setting sun at his back as he jumped off and into the air. He was able to clear most of the distance between them in one mighty jump before landing on the ground with a crash of wooden sandals smashing into the earth.

They of course knew who this was and saw fit to move out of the way, "J-Jiraiya-sama."

"I'll take it from here." Jiraiya told them, shooing them back to their post as he walked up to Killer B, "The Hachibi jinchuuriki."

"Yeah? What's it to ya old man?" B said brazenly, still sitting stubbornly on the ground, apparently with no machinations on budging anytime soon, "If you ain't got Mr. Nine in that big-ass scroll you're totin', you should probably keep on moving and I ain't jokin'."

"B, this man isn't a weakling. This is Jiraiya of Konoha's Sannin. You've heard about this guy." The Hachibi warned Killer B from inside of his body, "Don't do anything hasty. The entire reason you're sitting out here and waiting on Konoha's jinchuuriki is because you didn't want to do something that would make too much trouble for Kumo with Konoha yet."

'I ain't gonna fight him Eight-O.' Killer B thought to his biju, 'Just lettin' him know what the drill is.'

With a sigh, Jiraiya sat down in front of Killer B, right there on the road with him, "Well you see, I can't let that just happen either, because if Naruto comes out here you'll challenge him, and he probably won't back down because he doesn't give a damn about his own wellbeing. And I can't just let you kill him. I won't just let you kill him."

Killer B just nodded and began sizing Jiraiya up. He was pretty mellow, but he was completely serious about staying there and not letting him get to Naruto. You heard enough about world-famous shinobi that you expected them all to be a certain way. It was always interesting to see what they were like up close and personal.

Jiraiya pulled out a notebook of his own and began flipping through it with a pen in hand as well. If he was going to be sitting there all evening he might as well do something productive and work on his next book, "And I've got to find some way to get you out of here because the longer we're here the more people will talk, and once this gets around to Naruto, short of Sarutobi-sensei himself ordering Naruto to back down he probably won't do it."

Luckily, Naruto's preoccupation with something unhealthy in trying to find some way to pursue Kabuto would keep him from getting involved in something even more unhealthy; a battle with the perfect jinchuuriki.

'He's not ready for that yet.' He was getting there, able to keep control when Jiraiya loosened the seal and forced Naruto to undergo the four-tails transformation, but from the way it hurt him and how he couldn't go any further than that, he still had quite a way to go, 'To take on a jinchuuriki that can unleash the full power of the Hachibi, he's definitely not ready.'

And honestly even if he was, Jiraiya didn't want that battle being fought anywhere near Konoha. The sheer amount of power that Naruto would need to clash with that beast of a man… if he ever gained it, that fight definitely wouldn't be taking place just outside of the gate.

"Is there any way we can handle this without all of the violence and the big explosions and the blood?" Jiraiya asked, perusing his own book notes while Killer B looked over his rhyme book, "I mean this whole thing is getting old with Kumo and Konoha going back and forth."

"What'chu talkin' bout fool? Don't talk history with me like I study the shit."

"Eh, Kumo ambushes the Nidaime Hokage and kills him, Konoha busts Kumo's ass for the rest of that war. Kumo kidnaps our last jinchuuriki Kushina, Minato gets her back and busts Kumo's ass again for the rest of that war. Kumo tries to abduct the little Hyuuga girl thirteen years ago during peace meetings to stop another war and your kidnapper gets offed, but you end up getting fooled in a switcheroo when you try to blackmail a Byakugan out of the deal anyway."

"It wouldn'a gone down like before though, not with Killer B on the battlefield yo!" Killer B boasted with a wide grin, "Even if we fought that war, Kumo woulda won fo' sho'."

They probably would have. Konoha had taken substantial damage during the prior war and the destruction that had occurred from when the Kyuubi had attacked just added onto that. Three years wasn't a good amount of time to recover from those things and fight a war.

…This was going to lead to another one of those if the world leaders hadn't learned from history, because small skirmishes at the borders and across the countryside in countries all over led to the last big one.

The quickest path to war that Jiraiya could think of was Kumo's jinchuuriki battling Konoha's jinchuuriki. If Naruto lost, that would let the entire world know that theirs was subpar to Kumo's and it would lead to no shortage of chest-puffing, even though Naruto was better than many elsewhere.

If Naruto won, compounded with the fact that Naruto had already killed the Raikage's right-hand man, it would piss A off even more and he probably would start a war to save face.

These stipulations weren't even taking into consideration the possibility that one or the other would die in battle. If one or both were killed during the fight all bets would be off and a war would definitely happen. And the one being killed would more than likely be Naruto unless Killer B was the type that was gracious in victory.

"So you think that you can just saunter on up here and challenge Naruto to an old-school moonlight duel?" Jiraiya asked, "…And you think I can possibly let that happen? Because he'd definitely accept."

"I ain't leaving 'till Mr. Nine comes out." Killer B repeated. And really there were no grounds to use force to remove him. He wasn't doing this inside of the village, he hadn't declared that his intentions with Naruto were to inflict harm on him, and he wasn't really doing anything. He was just sitting there. Attacking him first without the slightest grounds to do so would definitely lead to an international incident.

Nobody wanted to fight Killer B, period. That was just unintelligent, and not only for the political reasons

Jiraiya just sighed, "Yeah, we've already established that." This was going to be a long wait. That particular entrance and exit to the village was officially closed down for the time being and the entire road was locked down to divert travelers another way. No one was to go that way until the all clear was given, and word about what was transpiring there was to kept as low-key as possible.

At least Hiruzen was on the ball with this one for sure, but waiting out Killer B might be more difficult than anyone figured it would be.

XxX

(Konoha Intelligence Division HQ – Cold Interrogation Room)

Naruto stood behind the one-way mirror of the observation area and looked through it to see one of his former teachers, Mizuki, sitting in a chair while tightly shackled, arms behind the back of the furniture.

Time in prison had apparently done him good physically. He was ripped, and it could be seen even through the prison uniform he was wearing.

Kabuto was a spy that had been ferrying off Konoha information to Orochimaru, keeping the smaller Otogakure one step ahead of the competition long enough for them to build up substantial resources and power.

If Shikamaru's hunch was on, there was no way Kabuto would have gotten into the Academy without an inside man.

"You know, staring at him like that isn't going to magically get him to spill everything he knows." Ino's voice rang out in Naruto's ears before he felt her delicate weight drift over his back and the fabric of her Konoha T&I uniform, wrapping her arms around his neck fondly, "How are you doing Goldie?"

"I don't know." Naruto said, setting his head against hers and shutting his eyes, "Iruka-sensei's funeral was a week ago. Should I still be this mad? I've never had this happen before. Having someone close to me die I mean."

"It's not just that an important person to you died Naruto." Ino said, enjoying the close contact for as long as she could get it, "Someone that you thought was trustworthy did it, and he screwed us all over. Kabuto won't get away with it."

It wasn't Kabuto getting away with it that he was afraid of. Karma had a way of getting its knee up into the groins of others one way or another.

Jiraiya warned him about what hatred could lead to. Hatred was the thing that gave the Kyuubi influence over him. Naruto of all people couldn't allow himself to walk around with his anger stewing. But he just didn't know how to let it go.

His loved ones could dull it. Training could put it at the back of his mind for a short while, but he couldn't keep it out of his head. If he actually came across Kabuto he didn't know what he would do.

"I don't know." Naruto said, "I mean, we're kind of late to get our lead from here aren't we?"

"We have to start somewhere." Reasoned Ino. She had a point. Mizuki was probably the best starting point that they had to go from, "Come on. Don't get all drab and frowny on me now."

Naruto turned his head and looked into Ino's eyes to find her doing the same with him. She grinned at their proximity and pushed her forehead against the goggles on his in something of an intimate gesture.

He'd been through a lot and seen a ton of things, but Naruto was really a bundle of nerves when it came to the topic of intimacy with Ino. Training with Jiraiya and living with the people that comprised the Guardian Ninja took away every last scrap of his shame in almost every definition of the word, but this woman made him feel like he was twelve and just getting used to receiving positive attention from a pretty girl.

"Hey." Naruto asked, swallowing to get his swagger back and muster his nerve up again, "Ino-chan."

"Mmm?"

"When this is over and you interrogate Mizuki, would you maybe want to come with me somewhere?" Man, the way he said that was so uncool. He learned how to better talk to girls and even operated smoothly around Ino before. But that was for play, 'That was so lame! You couldn't have thought of something more awesome to say than that?'

Ino on the other hand didn't seem to be flustered in the least, "…Are you asking me out?" Her father didn't raise her to be meek and indirect about how she felt, and she was just glad that Naruto finally seemed to be getting over whatever hang-up he had when it came to getting closer to her.

"What? Pssht. No." Ino gave him a deadpan stare before placing a hand on the top of his head and shutting her own eyes, as if she were about to use her mind-reading jutsu, "Yes. I'm asking you out damn it. Don't read my mind."

"I'd never dream of it dear. And I'd love to." She gave him a peck on the cheek and a wink for his troubles, "You don't have to be so nervous. It's just me. I'm not gonna poison you or something for saying something silly. I'm used to it by now after all."

That was nice… and somewhat backhanded, but hey whatever. Ino was Ino, and if she wasn't her he wouldn't be into it.

The sound of a door opening in the interrogation room separated the two, which was odd because from inside the room no one could see them behind the one-way mirror. Ino's father Inoichi was the one that had entered, and Ino felt kind of weird doing anything like that with her dad within sight, even if he had no idea what was going on behind that glass.

Inoichi just paced in front of the table that Mizuki was seated in front of, rubbing his chin as Mizuki just watched him walk around.

"So are you letting me out of prison at last?" The former teacher sneered, "Almost four years of prison time with no end in sight just for attacking Uzumaki of all people? That seems really harsh."

"You have a point." Inoichi said, stopping to face the disgraced chunin, "Getting beaten up by a kid that technically hadn't graduated the Academy had to be enough of a punishment huh? I wonder how well that went over for you in prison when everyone found out about it." Mizuki growled at him angrily at the humiliating defeat being brought up.

"I didn't lose to a boy." The former schoolteacher spat bitterly, "I lost to the Kyuubi."

"The Kyuubi had nothing to do with it, but whatever makes you feel better." That wasn't the point of this little session though, "Tell me, about thirteen years ago or so, were you approached about entering a Yakushi Kabuto into the Academy as a new student?"

It was best to get down to brass tacks to get this over with as soon as possible. No sense in beating around the bush. They'd go in headfirst.

Instead of denying anything or trying to feign ignorance on the matter, Mizuki just began to chuckle. Soon however, that chuckling erupted into full-blown laughter that grew more and more maniacal and mocking in its tone.

"Oh, oh this is just too good." Mizuki said, calming down as an actual tear of mirth came to his eye, "Oh… it took you that long to catch on? Honestly, that's just priceless. I didn't think it'd go under the radar really. I figured you'd bust him in school, and then after he actually graduated… but years rolled by and nothing. Man oh man, when I heard you put him in that chunin exam that got projected all over the place… I fucking died laughing in my cell and nobody knew why."

He even managed to get two more kids in Kabuto's class to defect to Orochimaru for power as well. What were their names? Yoroi and Misumi. Whatever. They died years ago, so they weren't really much more than grunt material. Still, every army needed foot soldiers.

"So you were bribed after all." Inoichi said with a dark look on his face, "Even back then Mizuki? Unforgivable." And this was the man that they'd put in charge of their children for so many years?

Mizuki just shook his white mane of hair around, "Orochimaru-sama understands what makes a man like me tick. All of this village's talk about the Will of Fire, and protecting the people, and all of that crap… the only things that matters are power and understanding the truth."

"Why are you freely telling us all of this now?" Inoichi asked, "I haven't even begun to interrogate you yet."

"Because none of what I've said matters. Nothing I just told you is actually important." Mizuki said with as much of an arrogant shrug as he could muster, "It doesn't matter that you've got me trapped here. You can interrogate me all you want, you can try your cheap mind reading jutsu and it still won't work. I'll tell you what's going to happen the moment you do." He jerked his head to the entrance, "The minute you try to pull something that's actually useful out of me I'll be getting up and walking out of that door."

The Yamanaka head narrowed his eyes at Mizuki, who was far too smug for his tastes. But why? He was a prisoner, but he never seemed to see going to the Konoha Strict Correctional Facility as anything less than a mere setback according to reports on his progress.

But he wasn't talking either. At least not about anything more than propaganda and drivel about how out of the loop they were. So Inoichi had to try and call his bluff.

Walking up to Mizuki who was grinning with his head lowered, Inoichi shut his eyes and placed one hand on his head. He didn't have the mind reading amplification machine available at the moment, but there was no rush. He could take all the time he needed to break through whatever mental defenses Mizuki had set. He had to have them because he was so confident that Inoichi would never find anything.

But once the connection was made and Mizuki's entire body was forced to relax and succumb to the jutsu, something in his throat seemed to relax and force him to swallow. Both Naruto and Ino saw that behind the one-way mirror and wondered what the hell it was. That was an actual object, "Goldie-kun…"

"I saw it." Naruto said before noticing black markings under the short sleeves of Mizuki's prison-issued uniform. Those weren't there before, "Wait, those look like seals." The walls were too thick for Naruto to try and sense through, but if he'd been able to he would have been able to feel Mizuki's chakra intensity spike.

The only indication they got that something was happening was when Mizuki's muscles suddenly expanded and he broke his bindings behind his back. Inoichi quickly snapped out of his jutsu and put his arms up in time to block a punch that knocked him into the mirror hard enough to crack it.

Not wasting a moment, Mizuki broke through the door and out into the hallway only to meet Naruto coming out of the adjacent viewing room to face him, Ino rushing past him to get into the interrogation room to ensure her father was alright.

It took a second for Mizuki to recall who it was standing in his path to escape granted to him by Kabuto's experimental drug and cursed seal, but the features were the same as someone he knew just a little bit more grown up.

Naruto just stared him down and noted that he had some strange black markings on his face as well that looked like tiger stripes.

"Well if it isn't Naruto." Mizuki said with a laugh, making great efforts to look as big and imposing as possible, "Rematch time!" In a sudden move he lunged at Naruto, grabbing for his throat only to miss the strike and hear the jingle of a chain. Looking down he saw a single tight loop around his waist sticking tightly and felt himself get yanked directly backwards, "What kind of-?"

"Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!" Naruto slammed a Rasengan directly into the base of Mizuki's spine, driving it deep enough to carve a mark into him. It shot Mizuki down the hall like a bullet, but the chain remained wrapped around his waist and pulled him back and up into the air… through the ceiling. He was then slammed back onto the floor on top of his head, hard enough to bust the floor, "Setsudanki Kujo (Slingshot Extermination)!"

Mizuki stuck straight up in the air, half of his body driven through the floor. This was the sight that Ino and Inoichi saw when they the dutiful daughter helped her father up and out of the interrogation room.

"Rematch over." Naruto quipped, reeling the chain back into the tenketsu in his arm that it had extended from underneath his arm-warmer, "I think I win again 'ttebayo."

Inoichi just stared at Mizuki as Naruto plucked him out of the hole he'd created down to the lower floor and dropped him on the ground. He wasn't moving, but he wasn't dead. Naruto hit him in the spine and then slammed him on the top of his head, "Did you paralyze him?"

"You still needed him right?" Naruto asked, not sparing Mizuki a second glance. He was just a ghost from his past that could start him on a trail to get to Kabuto. That was all, "Freaky-weird cursed seal and everything. That's something."

"You didn't answer my question Naruto."

Naruto just shrugged, "He broke out. He attacked you and me. Now he isn't gonna do that again. Yay."

The Guardian Ninja group didn't have a lot of wiggle room to fuck around in their work. You had to have somebody killed? They killed them. You had to keep someone alive for some reason? You'd better tell them what condition you needed them in beforehand or you'd be getting back whatever you got. No complaints allowed after the fact.

Ino just looked down at the broken criminal and then to Naruto before raising an eyebrow, "Anybody ever tell you that you fight scary now Goldie-kun? And who's fixing this by the way?"

Silence lingered between the three of them until more ninja that had been populating the building at the time came to secure the area and find out what was going on.

"…Genin?" Naruto answered questioningly.

Inoichi nodded absently, "Yeah, that's a D-rank mission."

"What about him though?"

"Ino dear?"

"Yeah…" Ino said, kneeling down by Mizuki to begin working on healing him as best as she could on-site, "I'll make sure he can keep going." Her palms began to glow green as she held them over Mizuki's wounds, "Did I ever tell you I really don't like this job daddy?"

Inoichi just sent a wry smile down to his daughter in return, "You think I do?"

XxX

(Undisclosed Location – Otogakure Base)

"Good to have you back Kabuto-kun." Orochimaru said with a rather twisted smile as his right hand man, lead scientist, and top medic finally returned to his good graces permanently, "The prodigal son returns and all of that other sentimental noise."

"Aw I'm touched Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto replied with a chuckle as the two of them walked through the dark corridors of the hidden base, "But since I'm here I've got to know, how is your pet project coming along? I haven't seen Yukimaru in quite a while."

Ah, the Sanbi jinchuuriki. So devoted to his words. He swore that he would make the young man strong. Give him the power to protect the people that were important to him, such as another of his elites in Guren.

He never told him exactly how he was going to ensure that the boy gained that power. It would be obtained through him. Through Orochimaru taking his body and making it his own. Yukimaru could live vicariously from within his consciousness him the way that the other souls he had shoved aside to take their bodies did.

The loss of Otogakure's land holdings in Mizu no Kuni was a shame, but it was not a sacrifice without benefit. That stone had almost been bled dry by the time that he'd gotten what was left of his investment out, right before the base quite literally fell.

"The loss of Kimimaro and my lovely island facility was a shame." Orochimaru said, never losing his smile as the extremely pale man led Kabuto along, "Kimimaro was a strong enough to take on and hold his own against my former comrades in Akatsuki. It's hard to believe that he was defeated by Konoha's imperfect jinchuuriki."

"I think Naruto-kun is an interesting fellow personally." Kabuto offered as a rebuttal of opinion, "We were 'friends' for a while after all." The humor from that wasn't lost on Orochimaru who actually laughed to himself, "I killed his first teacher before I left. An unfortunate run-in."

"Oh, I'm sure you're so broken up about it." Orochimaru quipped, "But I have no use for a jinchuuriki that can barely control the beast inside of him. Yukimaru is the perfect host body. His chakra quells the Sanbi. If he had the will to do so, he could control its powers freely."

And that was what Orochimaru planned to do once he was inside of his body. With all of that wonderful power in the palm of his hand he could finally begin his push to getting everything he wanted for himself.

He would need Kabuto to oversee the last few modifications he wanted to make to Yukimaru's body before he would take it over. He couldn't wait. Kabuto couldn't have taken to departing from Konoha quickly enough for his tastes. He wanted him to get right to work as soon as possible.

As far as Orochimaru and his 'little' operation in Otogakure was concerned, things couldn't have been going smoother for him.

Omake: Out of Body Experience (Hour 0)

"This is totally retarded." Shikamaru said, sitting on a chair in Naruto's apartment right next to the tenant of said apartment, "Why do you have to test your jutsu on us Ino?"

"Yeah, what if it backfires?" Naruto said, slightly nervous when it came to assisting his kunoichi teammate with one of her odd clan ninjutsu, "Your jutsu is scary. It messes with minds and stuff. I don't like that."

Ino stood behind them both and rested a hand on each of their shoulders, "Don't you two worry about that. It works perfectly and I can definitely do it. Besides, when I master it well enough I can start learning more complex techniques, like stuff that involves hitting more than one target with one jutsu! Isn't that awesome?"

Shikamaru and Naruto both looked at each other before speaking in stereo, "We can already do that with our stuff."

"Well unless I'm using a poison jutsu I can't!" Ino barked back, cheeks turning red at being the only one without a signature jutsu that could affect multiple targets, "Look, just help me. I'll do the jutsu, make sure it works, and that'll be that."

Shikamaru just let out a groan that translated to him consenting to help, but not being very excited about it. Naruto nodded his own consent, but idly wondered why they always had to do these kinds of things at his house.

"Alright." Ino said, stepping back twice behind them and taking a deep breath before forming a brand-new hand-seal. Crossing her forearms in front of her body, she touched the thumb of both hands to the ring fingers and took aim at the two of them through the space provided to target them, "Here we go. Shinkoukanshin no Jutsu (Mind Body Exchange Jutsu)!"

She could feel the connection of her chakra to theirs and quickly uncrossed her arms before releasing her ring fingers and thumbs from their positions, the jutsu completed. Honestly she was excited at the results. She'd never executed that jutsu on people before.

"Whoa." Shikamaru's voice said, but it didn't seem like the way he would talk at all, "Ino-chan is this how you feel whenever you switch bodies with other people?" Standing up, Shikamaru's eyes looked down at his hands and the rest of him as if it were completely foreign, "This is weird. Hey Shika, your body sucks! Train harder! I feel like a good punch would break me right now!"

"That's why I don't get hit idiot." Naruto's body said in an unusually lazy inflection. His blue eyes were barely open as if it took too much effort to do so, but they weren't squinting as Naruto was known to do from time to time, "Your body feels like I'm moving in fast-forward or something. All of this energy is so troublesome."

Ino pointed between the two of them to make sure she had things straight, "Okay, so Goldie-kun is in Shika's body and Shika is in Goldie's body. Sweet, it worked. I'm so ready for the next tier of techniques!"

"Yeah, yeah good for you." Shikamaru interrupted, clearly uncomfortable in the foreign skin, "Switch us back already. This is lame."

Ino rolled her eyes and tried form the necessary release command hand-seal to do just that, "Alright. You're no fun." She then found her hand stopped by Naruto grabbing onto it, "Shika-, I mean Goldie, what are you doing?"

"Yeah…" Naruto drawled slowly, "I'm not ready to go back into my body yet."

"What?" Needless to say, both Ino and Shikamaru were surprised. One of them was greatly displeased, "What the hell do you mean you're not ready to go back yet?"

This was a golden opportunity for Naruto. It had been a long time since he'd been able to release his mischief valve and vent a little with some old-fashioned debauchery. And for once he could do whatever he wanted to whoever he wanted and receive no negative consequences for his actions later on… because they wouldn't be his actions. They would be Shikamaru's actions.

If Naruto knew Ino's Shintenshin no Jutsu he'd have done that crap all the time just to mess with particular people, but as far as he knew there was probably some code that kept them from using it so liberally.

Naruto did not have such a code, and did not have to adhere to theirs if there was indeed such.

Also he owed Shikamaru seven times over for times back at the capital where Shikamaru had gotten one over on him for kicks. That damn prank he collaborated with Jiraiya on that involved Shizuka and Kotoko wasn't going to be very funny by sunset.

So basically, game on.

"I'll see you guys-." Naruto looked over at the clock on the wall before giving up trying to come up with a decent time, "-Whenever I get bored. Later!" He jetted into his room and out of the glass door onto the balcony where he proceeded to jump off and take to the streets, "Damn it, Shika's body's slower than dirt!"

It was like running with weights on compared to his body. Everything felt more sluggish. It was terrible.

Oh well. He didn't need to be a superhuman jinchuuriki athletic marvel to make a public nuisance of himself. If he played this right it was going to be the best day ever.

Alarms went off in Shikamaru's head as he jumped up to give chase-, "Naruto you son of a-!" -And wound up overshooting his leap and smashing his head off of the top of the doorframe to the bedroom. Naruto's body was way faster and stronger than he was used to. It was like being on steroids all the time, "Ugh, I hope he felt that. But that would mean I felt that too. Troublesome."

Ino just held her hand over her eyes in a mortified manner and shook her head, "Oh, this is going to be one of those days isn't it?" She moaned negatively.

She just wanted to make sure she could utilize a clan jutsu on human beings the way it was intended to be used. Was that so much to ask? And now Naruto was going to domestically terrorize Konoha… or something.

Come to think of it, he never did tell them exactly what he was going to go do.

"Well?" Shikamaru asked expectantly, "Switch us back already."

Ino just threw her arms out haplessly, "I can't just do it whenever. Goldie ran out of range. We'd have to chase him down and keep you both nearby if we wanted to break the jutsu that way." They both had to be well within her field of vision at least.

That wasn't what the young Nara genius wanted to hear.

Shikamaru sat up on the floor and rubbed where he'd bumped his now blond head, "Okay if this jutsu works like the rest of your mind switching jutsu Naruto felt me bump his… my… his… this head. So he probably knows that anything he does to my body his body will feel." Ino nodded.

That definitely meant that Naruto wasn't going to purposefully do anything to his body that would be harmful, not that he thought he would in the first place. That was a bridge too far for someone like Naruto to take even on his most mischievous day. He wasn't going to actually hurt anyone, so at least there were rules established to this little game then.

Looking at the body he was currently inhabiting, Shikamaru looked up at Ino who seemed confused on what to do. He could work with this though, because while Naruto was in the more advantageous situation Shikamaru had the stronger body to work with as soon as he got used to it.

Shikamaru was in a body that finally matched how his mind felt, and he didn't have to do lick of the borderline insane training or the hard work that Jiraiya forced Naruto to put in to get it.

Now he could either take the high road and use his powerful temporary body and unparalleled intellect for good as in stopping Naruto from terrorizing the village in his body, or he could take the low route and fight fire with fire by completely blasting Naruto's reputation and standing amongst the people the way Naruto was about to blast his.

Shikamaru took a moment to think on it before slowly getting up and walking outside, "I'll be back."

Ino just watched him calmly leave and shut the door behind him, but she knew that tone. This was completely surreal, and more importantly all her fault. If she couldn't stop the two of them, horrible things were going to befall Konoha until one of those two destroyed the other.

Well not really, but it was going to get very ugly.

Looking at the clock, Ino grimaced. Seven hours. That was when the jutsu would end and they would return to their own bodies. That wasn't fast enough, which meant that she had to do something about it.

If she couldn't undo what she'd caused before things heated up that village wasn't lasting until 8 that night when the jutsu would end, that was for damn sure.

"Crap. I'm gonna need some help."

Jutsu List

Setsudanki Kujo (Slingshot Extermination). B-rank taijutsu, offensive, mid-range. Naruto can trap an opponent in his chakra chains and use his honed physical strength and his malleable chakra chain to lift them off of the ground and forcefully slam them down from an elevated height. The effectiveness of the technique is all a matter on how Naruto drives his opponent down; he can kill them, cripple them, or debilitate them depending on the method he uses.

Shinkoukanshin no Jutsu (Mind Body Exchange Jutsu). Ninjutsu, supplementary, mid-to-close range. A Yamanaka Clan jutsu, the user takes aim at two targets and forces them to switch minds temporarily. It is a fine scare tactic for interrogation and is a building block technique that enables Yamanaka Clan members to begin learning top-shelf combat ninjutsu involving their clan specialty. Can also be extremely useful in battle, as it operates under the same principle as the other Yamanaka possession techniques; i.e. damaging one will hurt the other equally as well. Thus killing one while this jutsu is in effect will result in the death of both.

This jutsu will wear off on its own after a certain amount of time, but that time can be sped up by the two jutsu victims wasting chakra.

Ongoing Stats (Out of 5)

Konoha Shinobi

Mizuki

Ninjutsu: 3

Taijutsu: 3

Genjutsu: 2

Intelligence: 3.5

Strength: 3

Speed: 2.5

Stamina: 2

Hand-Seals: 3.5

Total Score: 22.5

Kumogakure Shinobi

A (Raikage)

Ninjutsu: 5

Taijutsu: 5

Genjutsu: 3.5

Intelligence: 3.5

Strength: 5

Speed: 5

Stamina: 5

Hand-Seals: 3

Total Score: 35

Killer B

Ninjutsu: 4.5

Taijutsu: 5

Genjutsu: 3

Intelligence: 3

Strength: 5

Speed: 4

Stamina: 5

Hand-Seals: 3

Total Score: 32.5