Chapter 59 - Chapter 58

"Hawks."

"Toads."

"Hawks."

"Toads."

This argument had been going on for several minutes, as Naruto had run into Team 7 on his way to some personal property that he'd just recently found out about, and Sakura and Chouji decided that they would go along with him to keep him from being by himself.

Conversation had eventually broken down into Sakura asking Naruto what it was like to have access to such legendary summon creatures such as the toads. At that point Sasuke smirked and added his own input, more or less saying that toads were alright, but compared to hawks they blew.

"Hawks are better dobe." Sasuke said, still smirking at the fact that he was able to goad Naruto into an asinine argument that he couldn't win in his opinion.

It was an argument that Naruto was in until the finish for, "And I'm telling you that they aren't bastard! If you want a cool summon you've got to go with toads!"

"Hawks can fly and they're the fastest summon in the world, even faster than snakes."

"Toads are the best for actual battles. They can actually hold stuff, make hand-seals, and do jutsu."

"Hawks have wind release just from flapping their wings, and if you want a hawk to hold something that's what talons are for." Sasuke added to his own side of the debate, "Let's not forget this important fact either. Hawks eat toads."

Naruto just glared at Sasuke for bringing conventional facts of nature up. As if he didn't know that himself, "I'd love to see your boss summon even try to eat my boss summon." Gamabunta would gut and stuff that oversized pigeon, "Hawks don't even have Sage Mode!"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at that statement and good-natured Chouji just had to ask the question that was on everyone's mind, "Naruto, what's Sage Mode?"

Realizing that he couldn't really talk much about that subject, Naruto just cleared his throat, "Ah, just a really kickass technique that the best toads know how to do." And could teach to humans if they so felt like they were physically capable of learning it, "The point is, hawks can't do it. All hawks can do is caw and poop from really high in the air."

That struck a chord with the sole Konoha Uchiha who glared at Naruto for that crack, "I'll remember that the next time you're falling hundreds of feet to your death."

Tiring of the argument between the two powerful chunin, Sakura found that the world had given her a bit of a gift to stop the senseless banter without having to clock anyone, "Uh I think we're here guys." She said, pointing at a bit of a rundown shrine with the swirl mark of the Uzumaki Clan symbol on the awning outside, "I think this is what you're looking for Naruto."

Naruto nodded and stepped forward, "The Uzumaki Clan Mask Storage Temple." He said to everyone else and to himself with a nod of confirmation before taking a deep breath and shouting to the sky, "WHY DOESN'T ANYONE EVER TELL ME ABOUT ANY OF THIS SHIT!?"

First the fact that his clan actually used to mean something in the world, and now that they had property in the village?

Sasuke hated agreeing with Naruto, but in this case he couldn't find a reason not to, "Honestly, it's not like there's anyone else in the village that could or would take care of this place but you. I don't get why the Hokage didn't tell you about this place until now." If he had been in Naruto's shoes he would have been plenty upset about not having access to the things that his clan had amassed and left behind over the years.

The reason Hiruzen was telling Naruto about his clan's land holding now was because of the fact that he wanted Naruto to remain in the village and refrain from leaving for as long as possible, at least until they could find a way to remove Killer B without him knowing.

There was another reason that he hadn't told Naruto about the mask temple sooner. A very good reason. But none of the young chunin present were privy as to the reason why. Very few people actually knew what the function of the temple was.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Chouji asked as Sakura was the first to walk up the steps to go inside of the dilapidated building.

As the rest followed inside, they were a bit wary of going much farther as the floor creaked with every step they took inside. Support beams from around the ceiling had fallen all over, and wooden pillars were cracked and broken, "Kami." Sakura said as she watched where she put her feet on the wood, "Father Time sure took a sledgehammer to this place didn't he?"

"It's a fixer-upper." Naruto said with a wide grin, leaning against a pillar until his arm broke through the weak surface, "Whoa!" Pulling his arm free he dusted splinters off of his arm-warmer and carried on, "I can totally rebuild this place."

"You could always D-rank it out to some genin squads." Chouji offered with a grunt of effort, lifting up a fallen pillar so that everyone could progress inside past a blocked doorway, "You've got the money right? All those Guardian missions?"

"And the S-rank from a while ago." Sakura added, sweeping down some cobwebs out of her way, "Come on Naruto, work the system that tormented us as kids."

"The only way I'm not doing this myself is if I can get Hanabi and Konohamaru's teams to do this so I can order them around." Naruto said with a wide grin, "But they're about to do the chunin exam, so I'll just make some clones and do it myself when I get some free time. Maybe if I have enough money and there's enough space I can build a house out here on the property. That'd be cool right?"

"Hey."

Everyone heard Sasuke call out from a different room of the temple and followed the sound of his voice to enter some kind of room dedicated to something. Directly in front of the doors there was an ornate podium surrounded in a display of black flames on the wall that had twenty-seven creepy oni masks hanging there underneath three Uzumaki Clan symbols.

"I think this belongs to you too Naruto." Sasuke said dryly as everyone else entered and stared at what he was looking at.

They were all certain that he was right, but Naruto had no idea what the hell he was looking at, "…So what the hell am I supposed to do with a bunch of masks? I mean they're kind of cool and everything, but like…"

"No, I get what you're saying. But there's got to be some kind of practical reason that they're here." Sakura said, walking up onto the podium to reach for one, "May I?" She asked, getting a nod from Naruto and taking one down to study it, "These are in great condition. Not a speck of dust on them or anything."

Something about a few of those masks felt wrong. She didn't know any other way to put it, but some of those masks felt, not cursed, but like there was dangerous power flowing through them and they had some kind of purpose. So in short, yeah, cursed.

"Put it on." Naruto said, getting Sakura to freeze in place, "Come on. Go for it."

The pink-haired kunoichi scrutinized the face of the creepy demon mask closely for several seconds before feeling a serious sense of dread and shaking her head, "No. Hell no. Not a chance. You put it on."

"You're already holding it Sakura." Naruto said, him and Chouji standing a safe distance away just in case it was cursed or something, "Just put it on your face." Why would he be obligated to put one on, because he technically owned the place and all of the masks?

"Why?" Sakura was not comfortable about this in the slightest. She'd seen movies that started like this, "If I wind up going insane and going on a killing spree I'm starting with you Uzumaki!"

Naruto and Chouji looked at each other before Naruto found a respectable way to respond to that, "If you go insane and start going on a killing spree, I'm the first one out that door and I'm sealing you in here."

"Okay, okay, okay." Sasuke said, moving forward to take the mask from Sakura. Her hero. He wouldn't let her do something so potentially dangerous on his watch, "Sakura's not wearing this. Naruto make a clone."

Tilting his head in confusion it took a few seconds for the reason why to sink it before Naruto palmed his goggled forehead hard, "Right. Gotcha. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" A hand-seal and a puff of smoke later, and a second Naruto appeared at his side, "Good luck bud. Godspeed."

"Thanks Boss." Naruto's clone said to him before giving him a bro-hug and moving forward to face his fate, snatching the mask away from Sasuke and Sakura, "If I go on a killing spree I'm probably going straight for the eyes just so you know."

"…Thanks?" Sasuke didn't know whether to thank Naruto's clone for the warning or get pissed that Naruto's first plan in a no-holds-barred battle was to go straight after his eyes.

Naruto's clone took several deep breaths before simply going for it and placing the mask onto its face.

It was at that point that Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Chouji all realized exactly why the Hokage had never told Naruto about the mask temple back when Naruto was a child; because he was not ready for the responsibility of overseeing it.

When a temple had a mask in it that would allow you to be possessed by the Shinigami… you had to be extremely careful with it.

If there was a mask that did that, were there any others that could do anything else?

XxX

(Ninja Academy – Hokage's Office)

Elsewhere, Hiruzen had a horrible chill down his spine that in the effort to keep Naruto busy and in the village doing something productive he might have just done the equivalent of giving a monkey a lit explosive tag to play with.

But he had to put that aside for the time being due to his current visitor, someone that he had seen time and time again grace his presence to converse with him or more commonly argue with him about something that he had done or wanted to do.

"Danzo." Hiruzen said, setting aside his daily busy work to make time for a talk with his old friend and rival, "What can I do for you today?"

Never one to mince words over what he required from the Hokage, Danzo looked around the room with his one squinting eye as the other bandaged one remained covered, "You probably already know what I'm going to speak with you about but there is a clear and present danger just outside of the village gates."

"I have Jiraiya handling it diplomatically." Hiruzen tried to assure him, "If anyone can reason peacefully with this man it is him."

Sure, he was outside waiting on an apparent showdown with the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, a lynchpin ninja in Konoha's forces despite his age, but was it really a battle he wanted? And if it was a battle that he wanted, could Jiraiya cool him down or somewhat deter him from actively seeking out a fight?

This would mark the second jinchuuriki that wanted a piece of theirs in a fight in addition to Gaara, a ninja of their Suna 'allies'.

"There is no diplomacy with Killer B." Danzo said as if this were something that he didn't need to tell Hiruzen, "Kumo's A-B Combo are very rarely reasonable men. There is no possible way that this ends well for the village, so I beg of you now to take action. At least this way we can prepare in advance for-."

"-For war?" Hiruzen finished for Danzo, setting aside anything else that he might have been doing with a sigh, "I don't understand you old friend. Why are you always so quick to move to the solution that will lead to the most bloodshed? You and I have both lived through the same conflicts. Why would you want to subject our children to that hell?"

"Because war is necessary, and it is inevitable." Danzo explained on his end, "No matter what move you make here, eventually it will occur. It's a matter of time. The question of who is the most powerful village has been in doubt for several years, and it's almost come to a head time and time again."

You could only have so many near-misses until the time finally came that you couldn't avoid it any longer. It was a fight that Hiruzen had managed to deter twelve years ago at the cost of Hyuuga Hizashi's life, but Kumo simply kept knocking at the door. Eventually they were going to break down the doors of the mansion to take the keys for themselves, or Konoha was going to have to do something to stop them once and for all.

That was the way Danzo saw things.

"If you've lost the stomach to do what is necessary before it is too late, perhaps you should think about handing the position of Hokage off to another." Danzo said with a magnificent poker face, "You're not getting any younger you know."

"I do know, and I plan on handing it off." Hiruzen said, "The moment I find someone that breaks through and shows me what is required of a Hokage to lead. Now is that all you came to speak to me about?"

"I don't want to waste too much of your time Hiruzen." Much to the Hokage's surprise as he thought he knew his friend well enough to figure he was about to settle into a long debate with him about what to be done with Killer B just outside of the village, "I just wanted to make sure that you knew what the score was. You're tiptoeing through a minefield here. Every time we've tried to extend an olive branch to Kumo we've been burned because of it."

With that he departed the office of his rival and oldest friend, taking note of every shinobi who passed him in the halls. After all, Konoha already had one confirmed ninja that had been in its midst only with the intent to spy. He would never know that he was the one that had given that ninja the deep cover training needed to perform such a task.

Upon reaching a stairwell that would have led up to the roof, Danzo stopped and ensured they were alone before one of his younger Root operatives appeared in a Shunshin comprised of ink, kneeling in front of Danzo.

"Danzo-sama. Orders?" The young man asked obediently.

"Stand Sai." Danzo ordered, getting just that from the artistic shinobi, "Continue monitoring the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. Take Hyo and Fuu with you to fill out a squad. Do not allow him to leave the village under any circumstances."

"And of the Hachibi jinchuuriki?"

"I have Torune and a larger team committed to keeping an eye on Jiraiya and Killer B." With orders to act and exterminate with extreme prejudice should Killer B prove to be too great of a threat to be allowed in such close proximity to the village.

His run-in a bit over a week ago with Jiraiya had not vanished from his mind. As the kind of man and ninja that he was, Danzo had a long memory and whenever he thought about it the feeling of Jiraiya's hand wrapped around his throat subsisted even then.

Still though, if the Kyuubi jinchuuriki was powerful enough to establish this incident by killing someone as notably powerful as Darui, the Raikage's right-hand man, perhaps it was time to get the return on his investment that he'd gotten Orochimaru to experiment on him for all those years ago? Control of the Kyuubi jinchuuriki would mean strong leverage over the village.

Yes, perhaps it was time for that idea to begin manifesting itself in earnest.

XxX

(With Naruto – Outskirts of Konoha)

Ino didn't know exactly where Naruto had planned on taking her when he picked her up from work at noon, but she was totally into getting some alone time with Naruto. She didn't get much of it between all of the work at Konoha Torture and Interrogation, being asked to work at Yamanaka Flowers by her clan, training, and all of the insane b.s. that they routinely got themselves into.

"I'm so proud of you Goldie." Ino said as she and Naruto walked through a forested path around the back end of the village, "You took me out to lunch to a place that didn't serve solely ramen. It wasn't so bad was it?"

"You act like I eat ramen for every meal." Naruto replied with a roll of his eyes, "I know how to eat at other restaurants. I'm a grown man for crying out loud!"

"Oh calm down." The purple-clad kunoichi told her date as she latched onto his arm tightly, "So what do you plan on showing me? You said there was some place you wanted to take me."

"Yep."

"Any hints?"

"Nope."

"Do I have to read your mind or drug you?"

"I wish you wouldn't."

It didn't take too much longer for the two of them to come to the same grounds that Naruto had gone to before with Team 7 to make sure it wasn't so dilapidated that he wouldn't want people close to him to see it.

Ino really started to be interested when she noted that their path wound up being paved with brick and started taking them underneath large red torii gates. They were going somewhere important, but she'd never seen this part of the village before.

"Where are we going?" Ino asked again upon seeing a faded swirl mark that had been put into the ground to signify clan grounds.

"My clan's property." Naruto answered for her benefit this time around. He looked over at her and saw that she had her mouth slightly held open, "I know! I didn't know my clan even owned any property until two days ago!"

After making it through the last torii, they found themselves in a courtyard with only one building at the end of it, a somewhat rundown temple. It was the only building in the area, but there was plenty of free space on what could be perceived as Naruto's land.

"Wow." Ino said as she looked around what she could see. She let Naruto guide her by the hand over to the stairs of the temple to sit down out front as she took it all in, "So now that you know about this, what are you going to do with it?"

Naruto gave her a big grin and pointed behind them, "I want to fix this place up and then I don't know. Maybe build a house or something if I have enough money. That sounds good right? What do you think?"

However long it had been since anyone had tended to the grounds, it looked like it needed a lot of care, but there seemed to be ample space for whatever else he wanted to do. After all, he was just one person, so he definitely could have done something else with the property if he wanted to.

Seriously, now it was just getting ridiculous. First the whole clan thing that they'd found out about only after they'd become genin, then they learned who Naruto's father was years later, and now finally his clan actually had some land in Konoha, and this was the first he was hearing about it.

But Naruto wasn't upset about it, or at least had long since vented his frustrations audibly in some manner previously, so Ino figured that getting all bent out of shape about it wouldn't do anyone any good. She just sighed and set her head on his shoulder, putting a smile on her face when Naruto wrapped an arm around her and pulled her in close enough to set her whole body on him, "Missed you." She whispered.

"Hm?" Naruto hadn't heard her due to how quiet she was and set his head on hers while rubbing her back, "What'd you say Ino-chan?"

"Nothing… just noticing how nice it is out here."

Yeah, it was pretty nice out there. Naruto hadn't really noticed that the first time he'd come there with Team 7 with him being pissed off about the fact that it was the first he was hearing about his temple grounds, and the insanity with the mask that his clone put on inside of the temple, but it was pretty peaceful, like an actual clan ground but much smaller.

"So do you want to go in and check out the temple?" Naruto asked Ino. Though he really didn't want to go back in there after the first Shinigami mask scare his clone gave him and Team 7, it was his responsibility to care for these grounds.

Ino got off of his shoulder and looked over at him with a raised eyebrow, "You know, no one's out here. If you wanted to make out you don't have to take me inside a dusty old temple for more privacy."

"…"

"…"

"Are you serious?" Naruto asked, really stunned at what Ino had just figured his motivations for taking her inside to be. He'd been so surprised he'd let out a pulse of chakra from his body involuntarily. What she said hadn't been the case, but now that he thought about it that seemed like some kind of roundabout way to goad a girl into doing something like that, "Ahem… I mean, that wasn't why I wanted to take you inside but…"

"…But?" Hopeful could have been a very accurate word that one would have used to describe the tone of the ponytailed blonde.

Naruto opened his mouth to say something when the reverb of the chakra he'd sent out came back to him, "…I feel like six chakra signatures all over the place around us right now."

"Oh that is just the lamest excuse ever Goldie-kun!" Ino shouted, smacking him hard on the shoulder, "If you're afraid to kiss me just say it. You don't have to make up a fake-." She was promptly shut up when Naruto grabbed her laid a serious kiss right on her mouth without hesitating or looking like he'd been considering it for a moment.

She sure hadn't been expecting the smooch, or the fact that he was willing to use tongue with her, but sometimes surprises were nice. Good surprises were extremely rare when you were a ninja, and for Ino this definitely counted as one of those rare ones.

After a long while Naruto broke the contact, with Ino trying to follow his lips until it was clear that the kiss was over. Once again he opened his mouth to speak, but had to take a moment to savor just how distinctively sweet Ino tasted. Huh, she wore lip gloss today, "Don't ever tell me I'm afraid to do anything. But I'm dead serious. There are six people watching us, all over, and I think one of them is the guy that spied on us on Sasuke's property."

Still a little out of it from having her breath stolen away via a searing kiss, Ino's primary thought had been to wonder where the hell Naruto had learned to kiss like that. But fortunately her mind quickly caught up to what he'd said to her about their being watched.

Ew, voyeurs.

"Well get them out of here." Ino asked of Naruto quietly, "Scare 'em off or something." She really didn't want something like this to ruin their moment, and if they hadn't attacked by now a fight wasn't their motivation for keeping an eye on them.

Scare them? One of those fuckers wasn't afraid to try and fight five-on-one against Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba, Chouji, and Shikamaru at the same time. How the hell was Naruto by himself going to scare six of them? If they were anything like the one guy that Naruto had fought he wasn't sure they knew what fear was.

"Oi." Naruto said loud enough to be heard elsewhere, "I know you guys are here. Go away." He received no response from the trees, "…Ink guy. Get your guys to go away. I totally know you're there." He started pointing around in the exact areas he could sense them, "Fine. Ino-chan."

Nodding, Ino dropped a smoke bomb and two quick figures dashed out of the cover into the forest, quickly finding themselves pursued by the mysterious spies in question. Back at the temple though, Naruto and Ino emerged from just inside of the mask temple.

Kage Bunshin and Henge.

"At some point that's got to stop working, right?" Ino said with a smirk as it didn't seem like Naruto could sense anyone around them any longer, "We've been doing that since we were genin."

"I would have done something else, but I'm not sure Oiroke no Jutsu would work on these guys."

"I thought I told you never to use that again."

"You told me never to use it in front of you again, not to never use it again period." Ino merely stuck her tongue out at Naruto after his smart-aleck response and bumped him with her hip to prompt his second response, "Come on. Let's go out and circle around the outside of the village to lose those guys."

"Right behind you stud." Ino teased as she followed after him.

That clone trick wasn't going to work for long so they were going to double around and go to see someone about this, because it damn sure wasn't acceptable.

XxX

(Some Time Later – Ninja Academy – Hokage's Office)

"Alright dad…" Asuma said, rubbing the bridge of his nose in an exasperated manner, "Between Root tailing him and the whole Killer B thing, we've got to think about getting Naruto out of the village for a while until things cool down."

That would more than likely piss him off though since being sent away for any prolonged period of time would have to come with questions that would probably upset him when answered. So you had to make sure wherever he went was worth it.

"You aren't thinking of going with him are you Asuma?" Hiruzen asked, smoking his pipe, "You do have my to-be daughter-in-law with child to worry about."

"Naruto is basically one of my kids already." The bearded younger Sarutobi said with a grin before it dropped off of his face, "But I see your point. Still…"

"Where would you send him?" The wizened Hokage asked, earnestly seeking his son's council on how to see to one of the only students that he'd ever taken. It had always done his heart good to see Asuma get so reinvested back into the village after taking on Team 10 as his own, "It would have to be somewhere good. Were you to allow him to get stir-crazy that would make things worse than leaving him here."

Asuma took a second to think about it and lit up a cigarette before asking Hiruzen to hand him a map. He received it and traced his finger all over the borders surrounding Hi no Kuni before tapping the portion that he found appropriate, "There. Send him there."

"You're certain?"

"Oh yeah, he'll love it."

"…He still has to complete the mission that goes with this territory." Hiruzen said in a warning manner, "It will be difficult."

"So? You act like that'll matter any." Asuma replied. He had all of the faith in Naruto that he needed to have after Naruto and Shikamaru had returned from the capital and after seeing what they could do upon returning to Konoha, "We'll get a good team together. Ino wants to interrogate Mizuki so she'll stay behind, and Shikamaru will want to as well."

True enough. Doing missions never bothered Naruto. As long as he could get into it, and it would only help him get into the work more if it was in a place that he could get excited about working at. Breaking up Team 10 for the duration of this mission though wouldn't be popular with Naruto, but given that Ino had a previous commitment and Shikamaru wanted to follow Kabuto's trail to everywhere he could do so for as far back as he could in the village, it would be for the best.

The team wouldn't really be the problem though. The issue would be Naruto leaving in the first place.

But at this time, Hiruzen was one to realize that for once Danzo had a point from their earlier meeting. Perhaps this time he needed to be as direct and straightforward as possible. As the Hokage he had to put his foot down every so often and this was one of those times.

"Inform Naruto to put a non-Team 10 squad of four together for a mission and have them assemble at the main gate."

XxX

(With Naruto – The Next Morning)

With Naruto's network of friends in the village it was fairly easy to quickly get a team together after Asuma came to him the previous afternoon following his sort-of date with Ino. When he heard where he'd be dispatched it almost made up for the fact that he was going to be going without Ino or Shikamaru.

Well Ino could keep him in the loop as she'd mastered her telepathy by now, so he wouldn't go uninformed. She could tell him what was happening at nights with her interrogations and Shikamaru's findings if they weren't forbidden from telling him what they'd come across, so that wasn't going to be a problem.

Making it to the front gate according to the orders from Hiruzen, Naruto wondered why it was shut and under guard from the inside since even though it was early it was past the time that they would open up for commerce.

Either way he was told to wait, and it turned out he wasn't the first one there as Rock Lee was already waiting and doing sit-ups, counting them off into the seven-hundreds without a sign of stopping anytime soon.

Meet teammate number one.

"Has he been at this for long?" At Naruto's side Tenten walked up, shifting her travel pack on her back as she deadpanned a stare at her Team Gai teammate. Couldn't he take some downtime even before a mission? Now was not the time or place to pop out one-thousand sit-ups.

Naruto just shook his head at her question with a shrug, "I don't know. I got here right before you did." Looking to his side where the shorter bun-haired kunoichi stood next to him he bid her a smile, "Morning Tenten."

"Good morning Naruto-chan." She said with a yawn. Normal people would just be waking up right now, and she herself hadn't had to wake up that early since she'd been promoted and didn't have to show up for every single one of Lee and Gai's crushing morning training regimens, "So who's our fourth?"

Opening his mouth to say who their final teammate would be, Naruto was cut off by a Shunshin happening right nearby the two of them, revealing Sasuke standing there as if he were paying them no mind. Showoff. He knew exactly what he was doing.

It wouldn't be surprising if it turned out that he'd been waiting until the moment someone brought him up, even in passing, to make his appearance like that. He was trained by Kakashi after all.

"Are we ready to go?" Sasuke said, skipping the formality of greetings, not that Naruto or Tenten expected him to give them both a smile and a handshake before they all went off on their merry way. He tried to ignore Rock Lee's continued exercises, but really couldn't after he stopped and jogged over to the three of them, "Lee."

"Sasuke-san! Naruto-kun! Tenten! What a splendid morning to take such a mission together!" Lee said, clearly as fired up as ever to get things started. It was partially infective as Naruto was getting excited, but Tenten had seen it way too much to get anything out of it any longer, "I believe if we leave now and hurry through the countryside nonstop we can arrive at our destination in-!"

Tenten cut him off before he could go off setting some ridiculous pace that none of them would be willing to keep up with after they started travelling, "Stop… just stop Lee. No matter what, it'll take at least two days."

Lee visibly deflated, putting a silent smirk on Sasuke's face and eliciting a remark from Naruto under his breath, "I really hope you won't be a buzzkill like this for the whole mission Tenten."

"There's a difference between being a buzzkill and actually wanting to feel my legs after we get to where we're going." Tenten argued with a roll of her eyes, "You have no idea unless you spend years dealing with that teammate."

"I'm lucky." Sasuke said, momentarily interjecting his own opinion to stir things up, "No one on my team is that teammate."

"You killed Lee's vibe." Naruto said, patting the poor taijutsu specialist on the back, "No wonder you haven't been promoted yet. You've got to get that whole motivational leadership thing down."

"I haven't been promoted yet because I need some sort of elemental proficiency and the only element I'm proficient in is 'Weapon'." Tenten said before taking a second to realize who she was talking to, "Oh, no wonder I can't get my point through on this. You are that teammate."

Naruto looked absolutely affronted at the accusation, "I am not THAT teammate!"

"It isn't Shikamaru, and Ino doesn't have nearly enough spaz traits to be the one, so it's you!"

This was the scene that the Hokage of all people came upon as he walked with Kakashi, Gai, and his son Asuma, "Uh…" Kakashi whispered to their overall superior, "Are you sure we should let them go on the mission like this?"

"They're fine." Asuma said with a smile of confidence, "Watch. Hey! You guys want to switch off of this mission? You don't seem to be getting along that well!"

Finally having gotten the attention of the teenage squad of chunin the responses were unanimous in their own way. Sasuke just sneered at the idea and gave a single shake of the head. Lee snapped out of his funk and rapidly shook his own in the negative.

Naruto and Tenten just looked at one another before addressing Naruto's sensei with raised eyebrows, "You think we're not getting along?" Tenten asked, somewhat bewildered at the thought, "That's crazy. This isn't me and Naruto-chan not getting along."

"Yeah." Naruto confirmed, "I've been training and fighting with Tenten since the week I graduated. This is how we are… fucking tomboy."

"Dumbass dandelion."

"I'll cut you."

"I'll cut you worse."

"I'll cut you deeper!"

"I'll cut you with more stuff!"

"Ahem." Hiruzen cleared his throat to put an end to that, prompting Tenten and Naruto to bury the hatchet with a halfhearted single-armed hug… before Rock Lee grabbed them both and started shedding tears at how dynamic and youthful his friends were. Gai was about to join in until Kakashi reminded him of right place/right time by jerking him back by his shoulder, "Well, shall we then?" He walked ahead with the three jounin and raised his voice to a booming degree, "OPEN THE GATE!"

The massive main gates to the village slowly began to open wide, confusing Naruto, Sasuke, Lee, and Tenten as to just what was going on. All they could really do was follow behind.

It was weird though. The four adults ahead of them looked like they were the ones marching off into battle despite the fact that they were the ones that were supposed to be heading off on the mission.

"Gai-sensei." Lee said, willing to voice his ignorance to the current situation aloud, "What is going on? Why are you and the other sensei escorting Hokage-sama outside of the village walls?"

"Don't worry about it Lee." Gai assured his similarly attired student, "Just keep on going on your way. You have your mission to go and do. We have ours."

Cryptic answer aside, that didn't sit very easily with any of the younger crowd there. Nothing seemed to be outside, but two dots farther down on the road. Naruto, curious as ever, let out a pulse of his sensor jutsu only for his eyes to widen and more questions to spring up.

He sensed Jiraiya, that much was clear. But the person with him, his chakra was massive. After he'd gotten accustomed enough with his jutsu to feel out the signatures of other he learned what to search for when it came to gauging levels.

He found that he had so much chakra the only way he could accurately sense it in others was in trying to compare it to his own as a base. Very rarely did people ever measure up closely on the scale that his was set to. But the dark-skinned guy with sunglasses on the ground didn't just measure up easily.

That man had more chakra than Naruto did, and it was just as intense if not more.

'This guy…' Naruto thought to himself in alarm, 'His chakra is stronger than Asuma-sensei's, Sadao's, Kimimaro's, that Darui guy's, Hokage-jiji's, even Gaara's and Fuu's!' And there was only one way that could be possible as far as Naruto had come into contact with thus far.

The two of them actually locked eyes in a stare-off that caused Naruto to freeze in his tracks on the road in an effort to size the guy up. A Kumo ninja. He'd seen more than enough of that flak vest that he wore to know that much even if he couldn't see the insignia on the white headband.

Wait, he'd seen this guy before.

Scratch that, he'd seen this guy more than once.

Oh hell, Killer B.

And suddenly things started linking up in his head logically. Crap, who did Naruto kill in Kumo's pecking order?

"Go on brat." Jiraiya said sternly, averting his eyes from Killer B to make sure his student understood the score, "You've got a mission to do."

Basically he was telling him to toss off in so many words, because this was out of his league. And that hurt. He was strong enough to face off with Orochimaru's top bodyguard and Akatsuki, but he wasn't good enough to deal with this?

But Jiraiya wasn't really leaving room for argument, and from the looks of things neither were any of the jounin senseis or the Hokage. Naruto simply walked past and tore his eyes away from Killer B's to continue past.

This was basically an armed escort. Three of Konoha's strongest jounin, one of the Sannin, and the Hokage himself standing between any potential conflict between Naruto and Killer B. The thing about it was that it wasn't a case of overkill. It was an entirely appropriate amount of force given the circumstances and the individuals involved.

"Hachibi-sama'll be here when you get back Mr. Nine." Killer B said with a big grin, "You can run but'cha can't hide." He was going to have his words with Naruto, and he wasn't going to leave until he did. It was as simple as that as far as he was concerned.

…

He wasn't sure if he understood that correctly, but just in case he did, motherfucker! Did he just call him out?

Oh hell no, that simply would not stand.

Before Naruto could even turn on his heel to offer his reply, he felt the pressure of both the Hokage and Jiraiya fall on his shoulders. Double kage-level intent all leveled at him? He swore his heart missed a beat before getting back on track.

"I thought I told you to leave." Jiraiya said to Naruto, voice leveled with emphasis, "You don't want to keep the clients of your mission waiting, do you?"

"Listen to Jiraiya." Hiruzen followed up, "Actually, listen to me. Go."

And when the Sandaime Hokage said to do something with that kind of emphasis behind it you didn't say anything, you didn't sit around and think about the possible consequences of skirting the order. You did what he said, and you did it double-time.

The entirety of Naruto's team, Naruto included, took off to travel quickly through the trees.

They all waited for enough time that Naruto, Sasuke, Lee, and Tenten would have made it a good distance away from their location, and then the Hokage approached Killer B himself, "So you've seen Jiraiya say as much, but now I feel I would be remiss if I didn't say as much as well. I'm not going to let you fight with Naruto. You and I both know he can't defeat you."

There wasn't even any need to hide it. Everyone there knew it.

Oh sure he would scrap until the bitter end, come when it may in that ill-fated battle. Naruto knew enough about fuuinjutsu and about being a jinchuuriki that he'd be dangerous enough to make a move if given enough of an opening, but that just wasn't realistic. The experience as a ninja and as a jinchuuriki that Killer B had simply dwarfed Naruto's, and the sheer amount of power the man had at his disposal was more than Naruto could draw upon without going berserk and ruining everything.

And even then Killer B could still beat him.

The Hokage himself even considered the fact that Killer B could beat him in direct combat.

Killer B still just shook his head, "Still not leavin'." The Eight-tails jinchuuriki said as he slapped the ground, not caring that there were now four powerful ninjas telling him that no fight was going to occur (not counting the Hokage), "Nope, not a chance."

Asuma just heaved a heavy sigh and sent a look Jiraiya's way. The man had been out there for two days already, "So do we start doing this in shifts or what?"

"That seems fair." Kakashi said, stroking his chin in thought, "…But if you don't feel like going first." He then turned his attention to Gai, "Jiraiya-sama's been keeping watch over our guest Killer B for two days already. Anyone that can do such a thing has to be extremely youthful." The eyes of one person in particular lit up at that prompting, "I wonder who can stay out here with him the lon-?"

He didn't even need to finish the sentence before Jiraiya found himself picked up from his spot on the ground and moved aside, "Hey! My ass finally made a good groove in the road in that spot!" He was pissed because he'd finally gotten ultra-comfortable sitting in the road, and because he'd been doing some good training while not moving an inch that whole time.

"But Jiraiya-sama, you've been here for two days!" Gai said, sitting on the ground and gladly taking his place, "Surely such a show of youth as that should be given the chance for others to prove their own! My eternal rival Kakashi has made a grand point in how we can show B-san-." He ignored the correcting yell from B of 'Hachibi-sama', "-How youthful our village is in our endeavor to prevent our two hot-blooded jinchuuriki from confronting one another!"

Kakashi gave Asuma a pat on the shoulder, "There. I bought you at least five days before we have to switch shifts."

Hiruzen just shook his head beneath his Hokage garb. Since he usually saw them inside of an office during briefings he at times grew used to seeing them all uptight and overly official. Their respective eccentricities could be lost on him after a time of only meeting with them in formal circles.

After years of that, sometimes he could forget that even in the field his jounin weren't that much better than the kids that they'd trained, "I really wish you wouldn't play on Gai's quirks like that Kakashi."

"Hokage-sama ever since my cute little genin team all got promoted I have three regular forms of entertainment in my life at this point." Kakashi said, listing things off on his fingers, "Reading, cultivating my mastery in sarcasm and snark, and actively messing with Gai's head. Don't make me lose one of those things. Please."

XxX

(Hi no Kuni Countryside)

The team travelled in relative silence that seemed to drag on and on. And no one seemed too excited to break it after what had occurred outside of the gates of their village just a little while ago.

Looking between everyone there, Tenten saw the hard countenance on the face of Naruto and the attempt at Sasuke to brush off everything that had just happened. Just like Lee, she was sort of out of the loop on this whole thing, and she wasn't particularly a fan of being left in the dark.

She hadn't been when she learned that Naruto was a jinchuuriki, and that hadn't changed much since then.

"So." Team Gai's resident kunoichi said as she and her three other teammates travelled through the trees, "Anyone gonna tell Lee and I what that was all about?"

"I admit to being curious myself." Lee said, as the two of them hadn't been privy to the events of the mission that the entirety of the Rookie Nine had taken due to their own homefront concerns.

"It's a long story." Sasuke of all people said, having also much like Naruto broken down the chain of events as to what had just happened, only more so because he still remembered the Omoi boy from the final section of the chunin exams.

Raising an eyebrow at the fact that the normally reserved Sasuke felt the need to say anything at all, Tenten just felt more of a need to figure out what was going on, "We've got a long trip."

Alright, and with that Sasuke's bluff that it was too complex to get into went straight out the window, "Okay, it's not a long story then. On the last mission we all took, Naruto killed the Raikage's right-hand man and Killer B's student."

Way to be delicate in your approach Sasuke.

Naruto already knew that Killer B was there about what had happened on the last mission, but just how personal it happened to be was news to him, "What? I killed who? Why didn't anybody tell me that after we all sent in reports? I wrote their names in there and nobody said shit to me about it!"

"Do your own research idiot." Sasuke said to him as he hopped from branch to branch, "If you wanted to know, that's what the archive library is for."

"Why would I research people I already killed?" Naruto asked loudly, offended at the library remark. He went to the library… sometimes, "It was over! They're not coming back to fight me again! People don't just come back from the dead and stuff!"

Oh if only he knew yet.

"So it is revenge then." Lee said with a contemplative tone, "Perhaps you should apologize Naruto-kun."

Everyone cringed at the thought of doing such a thing, even Lee, and he was the one that had suggested it. Ninjas didn't apologize for killing the people they fought. Shit happens and you knew what you signed up for, the fact that you were an adolescent notwithstanding. Get over it.

Ninjas did not apologize. For anything. Ever. No matter what.

"Fuck that." Naruto didn't even need to take a second to shoot that one down, "Do you know how many people I had to kill as a Guardian? What qualifies him to get a sorry if no one else does? Nobody ever apologized for trying to kill me before, even my friends, Tenten."

Tenten gave him an indignant look at Hey, what did he want from her? Sure, he'd been fresh out of the Academy when they'd first fought, and sure she'd pelted him with a nonstop barrage of deadly weapons, but in her defense he came at her with a ton of clones.

"But I'm not apologizing." Naruto continued to say, "Kabuto… he killed Iruka-sensei, and I'm not expecting or demanding an apology out of him." No, he was just going to kill him back when he got the chance.

…Kind of like what Killer B was probably going to do the moment he was able to as well. Damn it. That kind of debunked the point he was trying to make. It seemed that Sasuke was about to shed light on this until he received a pointed look from Naruto letting him know that he was already aware of the hole in his logic.

"That whole pride thing only really works out when he's not stronger than you." Tenten said, "You saw all of our senseis and Hokage-sama out there, and they were still treating him like he could break through them at any second and get to you."

Yeah, Naruto saw it. He also saw that Killer B had called him out (at least he was assuming that was what had happened), and the collective elites made him walk away… like a pussy. Naruto's Hokage forced him to back down and bitch out.

Team 10 were no strangers to and had no aversion to cutting out and running away. It made the bulk of their better strategies and led to some of their better wins. Even so, Naruto was not a fan of it by any circumstances but his difficulty drew the line at direct insubordination to Hiruzen, and he was going to do what the man said when the law was laid down. Out of respect and out of fear.

"Yosh! There is nothing that we can do about it now!" Lee said, trying to get things back on track. Say what you wanted about how he acted day-to-day, he had a strange way of keeping things in perspective, "Let us continue on to the youthful village of Takigakure!"

Right. Takigakure. That was where they were going for their mission.

Well at least Naruto had that to look forward to. And the work they had ahead of them would keep his head on straight more than anything else.

XxX

(Some Time Later – With Shikamaru – Konoha Archive Library)

Since the whole thing with Mizuki, Shikamaru was doing his absolute best to follow every touch of Kabuto's career history that he could with mission briefings from people that had worked with him abroad, briefings from the jounin sensei of Kabuto, Akado Yoroi, and Tsurugi Misumi.

Steadily he managed to stitch together a lengthy breakdown with a massive bulletin board that his mom wasn't keen on letting him keep in his house, thus he took it elsewhere. Fortunately they were more than willing to keep his work at the library and were even willing to archive it as an official case.

It was pretty easy to finagle after Shiho more or less went on the warpath in regards to past incompetency in such a sensitive focus of village affairs such as theirs. Such a tiny girl, and only sixteen. She was surprisingly fierce in regards to things like lapses in village intelligence.

Such a thing was not as troublesome a trait for the female to have as he'd seen most women in the world to possess. He could actually relate, because having the wool pulled over his eyes so casually set him off as well. He didn't want to get obsessive over the whole thing, but he definitely planned on getting this put together enough to start dealing some damage back in return.

"How's it coming buddy?" Chouji asked, arriving with Shino of all people, and bearing lunch that they set down on a clear space on a library table, "I ran into Shino and he wanted to come too."

The heavily concealed Aburame didn't say anything, instead investigating much of what Shikamaru had done, "How long have you been here?" The body of work spoke for itself to the amount of time he'd put in over the last few days.

"Since this morning." Shikamaru said taking a moment to sit down. He wasn't really hungry, but he needed something or else he'd probably crash at some point, "I'm starting to get an idea of how this guy operated." Eating was too much of a bother right now on second thought. He was on a bit of a roll, "Look."

"I'm assuming these blank spots are lapses in the record." Shino said, pointing out how many of them there were, "Parts where Kabuto could be considered unaccounted for."

"Yeah." Shikamaru confirmed, "He didn't have many for the first few years after he graduated. Two years later he started taking part in chunin exams, every single year until the one we were all in together where his teammates died. Then he stopped."

Shino nodded and kept looking over everything with an analytical eye behind his sunglasses, "These times when he was unaccounted for only seems to occur on missions where he was a good distance outside of the village... and chunin exams."

God, the chunin exams had probably been like Christmas to that guy. Since they could take place in any hidden village he had a free pass to go anywhere during that stretch of time, he had a free opportunity to gather information on any ninja he could find, and since it was a test of his own capabilities as a ninja his jounin instructor had to be hands-off and let him do his own thing with all of the extra bodies populating the villages.

And when they took place inside of Konoha it was probably all the easier for. With the security in regards to the foreigners, no one would be looking at some marginal genin from the actual village the exam was taking place in.

Chouji sat his head on the table and raised his hand as if he were in school, "So we've got tons of dark spots, and totally nothing at all before the guy was nine years old."

"No, we've got something." Shikamaru said as he pulled out a map of the Elemental Nations with some general areas circled out on it, "We can break down that there may be Otogakure holdings in these places. His amount of taken missions abroad picked up after the last chunin exam he took part in years back, so maybe we can use this to get some scouting teams together to check out the places that we can."

Not only that, but what Naruto had said before had something to it. His 'adopted' parent had been the matron to Konoha Orphanage before her disappearance. He had yet to look into that as he wanted to do the actual archive work first, but that was going to be next.

Shiho made her way over as she found it nice to stop in and check on Shikamaru when she had some downtime in her work. Once again, she found him dutifully plugging away at trying to piece together what he could that would not only help them find Oto hideouts around the country, but also doing what he could to ensure that none of what happened with this whole spy situation could ever happen again.

It was so admirable. The people around Shikamaru called him lazy more often than not, but it was clear that they just gave him a hard time for fun and could see the thing about him that she liked the most. He didn't do it often outside of points when it was needed, but when he applied himself to something there was just some part of him that shone through, like flipping a switch.

Chouji noticed the codebreaking specialist looking at Shikamaru with a small smile on her face and just shook his head before turning his attention to the food he brought. If Shika wasn't hungry right now and Shino wasn't willing to dig in yet… he might as well eat.

XxX

(Disputed Border of Tsuchi no Kuni and Takigakure-held Lands)

"Tch, this Orochimaru thing is cutting into my art time." Deidara said as he and Sasori walked alone on a desolate, rocky plain, "There's nothing out here worth wasting an imaginative explosion on, un. Now you know why I was so willing to ditch my village."

"You talk too much Deidara." Sasori said as he glared ahead of them from underneath his hat, "My spies have told me that there are problems in this area. Takigakure and Iwagakure think it's one another trying to scout out the border to gauge how well an attack would go."

It sounded like Orochimaru's m.o. to cover the tracks of his own misdeeds by starting trouble between two or more outside parties. He'd probably be found closer to where the border split between three different countries. He loved using places like that to hide, and with good reason.

And aside from that, there was nothing like a good war to keep people from realizing that they were supposed to be looking for you and worrying about what you were doing.

"He's certainly got a bunch of his little bases popping up all over the place." Deidara said with a chuckle, "Trying to make a franchise out of the Otogakure name I'd presume. You've got to be proud of your former partner for having ambition like that."

"Do you ever stop talking?"

"Cut me some slack Sasori no Danna. Hunting for a snake is boring. There are so many holes you can't tell which one he's in." The rogue bomber said with a grin underneath his hat before suggesting an alternative activity, "We can go and get the Nanabi while we're here. That would probably be way more entertaining. I heard that the jinchuuriki can fly and can't be injured. Interesting right?"

"Very. Feel free to disregard Leader-sama's orders. Go ahead. I'll wait for you to return and I'll report on your progress when it comes up."

"…On second thought, that can always wait."

XxX

(With Naruto – Takigakure Limits)

Well this was just as annoying as it was the last time he'd come there. Since the entrance to Takigakure was supposed to be hidden, there was nothing to do but hang out around the general area that the village was known to exist in, waiting for a patrol of some sort to reach them and escort them in.

"Can't you just sense out the entrances or something?" Sasuke asked, sitting on the root of a tree in small forested space by a stream near the others on his team, "You've got that jutsu of yours right?"

Naruto shook his head, "They keep a barrier ninjutsu up to disguise it. I can't bounce my chakra off of it to make the effect of the jutsu work for me and find it. You might be able to see it with the Sharingan, but I don't think you can either."

"If Neji were here he'd have a better chance of seeing it, but they'd probably capture us for looking for their entrance on purpose." Tenten said, checking over the equipment she had with her just in case, "So we're here to deal with some border dispute? We're not really diplomats."

"It's not a diplomatic mission in nature." Sasuke said, whipping his hair out of his eyes, "It's just that if we don't find what we're supposed to be looking for we're probably going to wind up watching the start of a regional conflict between Iwa and Taki."

"And Taki's the only one willing to put anything up on the table to try and figure out just what's happening." Naruto continued. Since this was a mission that was brought to him first he already knew the deal, "Iwa's not our biggest fan, and everyone kind of thinks that they want a fight anyway."

Tenten sat her cheek in one hand and mumbled under her breath, "It's amazing how you know the political climate hundreds of miles away but you don't know the general briefing on the backstory of the guys you've fought."

"Quick, name something that doesn't have to do with weapons." Naruto replied instantly instead of rising to the barb, "Right now. Go, go, go."

"Um, ah… uh…"

"Time's up."

While Tenten stuck her tongue out at a victorious looking Naruto, Lee raised a point while using the down time given to them to do some one-armed pushups, "I do not understand why Iwagakure would want to take part in something as unyouthful as a confrontation that at most would only move the border a few miles one way or the other."

It was because a fight between Takigakure and Iwagakure would easily favor the latter depending on how serious it got. If it could go into the realm of an actual armed border dispute but stop just short of breaking out into a full-on war Iwa could come out looking all the more stronger because they outclassed Taki for the most part. If it could be ended before becoming a full-blown war, they wouldn't have to deal with Konoha who would more than likely stand with Taki but would also do whatever they could to keep war from actually occurring.

Naruto knew of this because there had been tensions rising over the years between the two villages and he had a 'sensei' in regards to his jinchuuriki control that he routinely travelled out to work with while he'd been a Guardian, so he was aware of enough of the local happenings through her.

Both Iwa and Taki had been the victims of brutal attacks on the borders that left no survivors, and it was of the mindset that one had been the first to instigate and the other retaliated in kind. Neither chose to claim responsibility in the slightest for the deaths, and with no other culprits in sight, nor any reports to shed some light on what was really happening in the region things were starting to boil over.

These things kept happening too frequently whenever teams were sent out to do missions or patrol the area a little too close to the border, especially over the last year.

The thing putting a rush on this situation in particular was the fact that this year the chunin exams were to be held in Iwagakure. If war wound up coming to pass, the exams would have to be canceled or at the very least moved with Iwa and Taki both unable to take part. Even moving the exams in of itself could stir up its own beehive of trouble as the remaining villages scrambled to determine a replacement host village.

There was probably going to be some fighting on this mission, which no one on the Konoha team was really against. Some more than others clearly.

"I am so excited!" Lee jumped up from his pushups and started throwing shadow kicks at the air, "We will have the chance to be heroes! The people that prevented a war!" Things like this were the reason that some people became ninjas to begin with.

"Or the people that started one." Sasuke said on the tail-end of the green-clad ninja's statement. He received a round of glares from Naruto and Tenten for the comment, "What? If he's going to one end of the spectrum I can point out the other possible outcome can't I?" It kind of went without saying that failure would more than likely result in the exact opposite happening though.

And just like that, Tenten was no longer the walking buzzkill of the team. That spot had been firmly ascended to by Uchiha Sasuke, heir apparent to the title that he had been from the outset of the journey.

"You stayed positive for as long as you could didn't you Sasuke?" Naruto was actually impressed. He lasted three days without bringing down the mood of the squad, that was worth a pat on the back, which Naruto gave him.

"Shut up, and don't touch me dobe." Sasuke's eyes flickered to the trees around them as he saw Naruto grow more attentive to their surroundings as well due to some unseen alert he himself had been privy to, "Incoming."

That was the cue for everyone to get up into formation and look alive. Just in case this was an ambush or something they would be prepared. Oh would they ever be prepared.

Eight Takigakure shinobi landed surrounding the quartet of Konoha ninjas, each faction sizing the other up, as was the custom of intelligent warriors coming across one another for the first time. After a few moments, the leader stepped forward from the Taki crew, "The Konoha team dispatched to deal with the mission we sent them I presume?"

"Greetings from Konoha…" Naruto said with a big grin, "…Where 'amazing' happens." That wasn't their village slogan but damn it, it should have been. Rock Lee seemed to dig it from his reaction of a hearty thumbs up.

The leader of the Taki squad looked at Naruto strangely while Sasuke muttered something about him being an idiot and Tenten held her hand on her forehead, wishing that she'd gagged him before others arrived, "Uh… huh? You're the leader?"

Well, that was a point of contention. They hadn't really established a leader since they were all the same rank. Tenten technically had seniority, but only by a year so that criteria didn't matter.

And if no one was volunteering, Naruto certainly wouldn't be shy about taking the reins. At least he wouldn't have been until Sasuke cut him off and spoke first, "No, I'm the leader."

Sasuke looked around to see if anyone not named Naruto had a problem with that, actually finding that Tenten was relieved. The far lesser of possible evils as far as she was concerned.

She actually covered Naruto's mouth when he realized what had just happened and was about to verbally protest, allowing the Taki squad leader to take enough time to see that Sasuke was more than likely affiliated with the Uchiha Clan.

"Hm, Uchiha. Appropriate." They were entirely willing to accept Sasuke as the leader of this crew, "Very well then. Blindfolds." Sasuke narrowed his eyes and everyone else got defensive, forcing him to explain, "We need to ensure that we take measures to protect our village's location."

Sasuke's eyes moved to the other Taki ninjas around them before shrugging as if he were unconcerned, "Fine. Go ahead." And with that, the four of them were blindfolded, 'Like this is really going to do anything. Even if Naruto can't sense the entrance itself, we're still going to know how we got there.'

Because the real reason Naruto knew that they were coming to begin with was because he had clones watching over their rest spot when the Taki ninjas arrived. But they were just going to keep that little fact to themselves.

XxX

(Meanwhile – Otogakure Base)

It was a fine and banner day as far as Orochimaru was concerned, or at least it would be in a matter of minutes. Years of preparation, planning, and development would lead to him taking one giant step closer to being the perfect being.

Kabuto's return was a boon in regards to completing the preparations for Orochimaru's next vessel. Things went much quicker and smoother, and now it was finally time.

Otogakure was booming with the influx of money swindled from Gato Company during his 'partnership' with the weasel that thought having a mind for industry was enough to get involved in the ninja business; enough to fund the formation of three separate hidden villages, all going to bolster his already existing forces.

Just thinking about all of the experimental modifications that this money would allow him to dip his feet into, things he'd already dipped his feet into testing on his own ninja force… it made him smile every time he stopped to think about it.

All of the figures of influence around the Elemental Nations that he could bribe and lure into bed with Otogakure. There was so much to be done! So much that could be done still!

Walking through the dark halls of his hideout, Orochimaru arrived to his intended destination, smiling like a Cheshire cat at the sight of Kabuto seemingly waiting out in the hallway for him, leaning against the wall by a closed door, "Kabuto." The Sannin said in greeting, "Are things finally ready?"

"Yes." Kabuto answered, "Yukimaru's already been prepared. It's strange." The medic and spy said, "You would expect someone in his situation to feel fear or some sort of hesitance, but he just said his goodbyes to Guren, Kidomaru, Tayuya, Sakon, to me, and he's just waiting there with a smile. He knows exactly what's about to happen."

There was facing something with your head up, and then there was what Yukimaru was doing. He seemed excited to do whatever he could to further things for Otogakure and for Orochimaru, even knowing that he was going to lose his body.

Orochimaru just chuckled and shook his head, "Kukukuku… do not question the power of purpose Kabuto. There aren't many things in this ugly world of ours that can make a person whistle their way to the execution block quite like the thought of believing that what is happening to them is happening for a reason. That something is happening to them for the greater good at large, it can make a man or woman accept almost any fate that befalls them."

It was times like these that made Kabuto see what kind of a man Orochimaru was. He could bend others, draw upon their own insecurities, make them want to better themselves for his sake. He did not rule by fear despite the fact that he struck terror into the hearts of any who had come across him. He didn't have to. This man could take the broken and the downtrodden and make them march over the edge of a cliff for him.

He didn't obtain the allegiance of his key players in the same manner twice, which made him all the more incredible. Say what you would of how he treated most of his underlings as disposable, but the man could lead to get the results that he wanted, "Whatever you say Orochimaru-sama."

"Trust me." Orochimaru said as Kabuto went to grab the knob of the door for him, "Do not deride young Yukimaru for his dedication in the face of oblivion. Celebrate him. If all shinobi were this accepting of their position in the grander scheme of things… the world would be a much better place."

It just so happened that Yukimaru's position was to assist in the ascension of a God to achieve the pinnacle of possible existence.

As the door opened, Orochimaru stepped inside and saw the gentle magenta eyes of the youthful Sanbi jinchuuriki, who was already dressed in clothes meant to be an exact replica of Orochimaru's. His body was significantly longer and more grown than when Orochimaru had picked him up from Mizu no Kuni, the fruits of the experimentation done to augment and speed his growth.

Even so, the boy was still as docile and gentle as ever. The pale green-haired young man had a calm, tranquil smile on his face as he saw the leader of Otogakure enter, "Orochimaru-sama. Is it time? Is it finally time?" The door shut behind his benefactor, only reinforcing that it was the moment he'd been prepared for.

"Yes child." Orochimaru said with a smile that while meant to be disarming and reassuring, would cause the hair of anyone else to stand up on the back of their neck out of fear, "You've done so very well for me since I've found you and discovered your talent. I'm very proud of you. Everyone is."

And those words seemed to mean the world to Yukimaru, bringing tears to his eyes, "Thank you. Kimimaro… before he died he always told me just how much of an honor this was. He and Guren always used to talk about how special you had to be just to gain your notice, and now-." He couldn't even finish what he was saying before he found himself choked up by his emotion.

"You've earned it." The white-skinned master of the ninja arts set a hand on Yukimaru's shoulder as he began to cry, "It's alright to feel overwhelmed, just as long as you're ready." Yukimaru couldn't say anything. He merely nodded and smiled up at Orochimaru with two eyes full of tears, "You won't feel a thing, it will be over before you know it, and afterwards you'll be with me for all eternity as I unlock the secrets of existence."

Yukimaru merely closed his eyes and accepted. He had no home, no purpose before his ability to partially control the Sanbi into with his chakra had been discovered by Orochimaru. These few years had been the grandest of his young life as he had been trained to properly harness his chakra and use the shinobi arts, and now he had the chance to do something important.

And so he was more than willing to accept his role with open arms and closed eyes.

"I'm ready."

Thus he never actually laid eyes on Orochimaru shedding his body like snakeskin, revealing a secondary form of a towering white snake with a body composition of smaller white snakes with a monstrous head, its mouth wide open and set to devour the boy.

"Fushi Tensei (Living Corpse Reincarnation)!"

XxX

Kabuto just walked away from the room as he could hear Orochimaru's true form getting to work on making Yukimaru's body his new vessel.

It would be a quick transfer of Orochimaru's soul supplanting Yukimaru's own. The boy was entirely too weak-willed, not meant to be a shinobi, with his only real use being as a shell to keep the Sanbi in for Orochimaru to use as his own biju. The Sanbi would do nothing because of the nature of Yukimaru's chakra, which would become a part of Orochimaru's chakra and allow him to easily control the creature when combined with the willpower of the man.

'As if he needed it.' Kabuto thought to himself as a morbid smile peeked through on his face, "I wonder… just what can Orochimaru-sama do with all of that power at his disposal?"

If ever there was an interesting time to be on Orochimaru's side… Kabuto had definitely selected the best time to leave Konoha, for certain.

Omake: Out of Body Experience (Hour 1 – Naruto's Side)

After going a few miles away from his apartment, Naruto had come to the stark realization that in his haste to take advantage of this bounty of revenge that had been dropped in his lap he had no earthly idea what he was going to do with it. He needed some time to think, and in that time he also realized that Shikamaru's wallet was full.

He thought about heading off to binge on some ramen, but figured that even if Ichiraku's wasn't the first place that Shikamaru would try to trap him he still wouldn't enjoy it as much as he would have in his own body. So he needed to do something else.

A lesson that Naruto had learned as a young man from Tsunade that he could carry with him forever was perhaps one of the most constant ones that had been driven into his skull via repeated exposure to Tsunade's complete lack of luck in this particular avenue.

Never gamble with your own money.

And he wasn't. He was using Shikamaru's money in order to gamble with someone that had no shortage of funds.

'I can't get a read on him.' Naruto thought to himself as he sat across a table from Sasuke, both holding a full hand of cards, 'Is he bluffing? And why is Shika's body sweating so much?' Of course, he was still inside of Shikamaru's body due to Ino's earlier jutsu snafu that he was going to take full advantage of for as long as he could.

CAW!

A hawk perched on Sasuke's forearm let out an ear-splitting cry as another landed on the table and a third landed on Sasuke's opposite shoulder, all of them staring holes through Naruto and letting out loud sounds.

CAW!

'Why does Shika wear a leather jacket in the middle of Hi no Kuni?' Naruto thought to himself, tugging at one of the sleeves on Shikamaru's choice piece of clothing that was his own for the time being. Looking up, Naruto saw a fourth hawk sitting on Sasuke's other shoulder.

CAW!

'Relax.' Naruto thought to himself with a confident grin, 'This hand is unbeatable.' And indeed, he had a royal flush of hearts. But as he put his cards down from in front of his face he saw two more hawks. One in Sasuke's lap and the other right on top of his head, and now all six were cawing audibly at him, 'What?'

Naruto didn't even see or hear him summon any of them. One or two was weird enough, but this was getting ridiculous, and now he was looking all over the room for anymore. And they were everywhere.

CAW!

Standing on the mantle across the room.

CAW!

Standing on the shelf right above the doorway.

CAW!

A picture on the wall with a gigantic image of a hawk's head. Probably Sasuke's boss summon, and it was drilling into his soul with its stare.

CAW!

They were everywhere. He was surrounded by avian. Releasing a pulse of his sonar jutsu from Shikamaru's body to see just how surrounded he was, Naruto went wide-eyed and looked down, '…No.'

Poking its head out from underneath the table right in front of him was one last hawk, staring right up at him with cold, soulless eyes.

CAW!

"And I fold…" Naruto mumbled, putting his cards down on the table facedown as Sasuke just continued to smirk at him. Shaking his head, Naruto just stood up and emptied his pockets out onto the table, "…Take care of Shika's-, I mean my money."

Holding his head, Naruto just ambled out of the room and Sasuke's house wondering what the hell had just happened.

Sasuke shook his head and dispelled all of the hawks out of the room, reaching across his table to rake in his winnings, "That was weird. Shikamaru's usually harder to clean out than that." Whatever, it was free money. He wasn't going to complain.

(Hour 1 – Shikamaru's Side)

"Okay, I can't find him." Shikamaru said aloud as he walked down the street with his hands shoved into Naruto's pockets while shifting his shoulders around uncomfortably, "Why the hell does Naruto wear this stupid harness for the machete instead of keeping it on his belt like a normal ninja?"

He'd already set up his first and possibly biggest prank on Naruto as a retaliatory failsafe in case he couldn't stop Naruto soon enough to keep him from doing tons of damage to his reputation throughout the village. Everyone needed a contingency plan after all. It would be his ace in the hole that he'd remember to disarm once this all ended.

But for now he had a body with way too much energy, and no idea where to find the real owner of said body. He was dreading what nefarious acts Naruto could be committing with free use of his body. Consequence free mischief.

There was nothing stopping Shikamaru from doing the same thing though. But all he wanted was his body back!

Wait, if he ran out of chakra the jutsu would undo itself and put both of them back into their own bodies. So with that in mind, Shikamaru decided to kill two birds with one stone, "Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Possession Jutsu)."

As he stretched out his shadow, Shikamaru saw that it was way too big. As in he covered the entire road in his shadow all the way down the block and captured every single person on it, causing widespread panic.

"What's happening?"

"Oh Kami, it's an attack!"

"ANBU! ANBU HELP!"

Shikamaru couldn't have let go of that jutsu and disappeared to elsewhere fast enough. He was fairly certain that getting Naruto thrown into jail or at worst interrogated was well over the line of good taste that he knew Naruto would never cross today.

He definitely had not been expecting what had happened though. All he wanted to do was catch one or two people as he walked by so that he could make them do embarrassing things like pick their noses or grab girls' butts. Stuff like that. Not terrify thirty people just out trying to get by in their day-to-day lives.

His chakra control in Naruto's body was horrible! Was this what Naruto had to deal with all the time? No wonder all of his jutsu had to cost a normal person an arm and a leg's worth of chakra to perform them. That was the only way he could execute anything! Shikamaru couldn't bend that gigantic shadow! And he felt like he was giving himself an aneurism trying to condense the size of it!

If Naruto tried to use a jutsu that didn't take as much to activate and relied more on control it was like trying force a river's worth of water through a turkey baster. No wonder Naruto couldn't do a regular Bunshin to save his life! Good lord! How he accomplished any E-rank jutsu back in the Academy was beyond Shikamaru.

So he couldn't waste and exhaust Naruto's chakra to speed this up. That'd take longer to do than Ino's jutsu would even last for. Maybe he could knock himself out? No, that wouldn't work either. Naruto was tougher than Shikamaru was. Even if Shikamaru had enough heart to knock himself unconscious, there was still a good chance that it wouldn't put Naruto down as well.

Oh well. While he was thinking of something epic to do to Naruto he might as well get started wrecking his reputation with something simple that would take no real effort whatsoever and would give him time to come up with an actual slew of pranks.

Thus Shikamaru simply stripped out of all of Naruto's clothes in the middle of broad daylight on an open street and calmly walked around town as if he wasn't basically naked.

"S'up?" Shikamaru said as people stopped, stared, and pointed at the abject nudity as he merely played it off as nothing important at all. To be completely serious, it wasn't anything important, not to Shikamaru, "It's a nice day out right?"

Why would he care? It was Naruto's body, not his. To Naruto's credit though, his muscles had some definition because some girls were definitely looking. He worked out.

Walking past a group of village women that were stuck staring at the blond-bomber's fit form, Shikamaru lazily tilted his head upward in a greeting to the ladies, 'Yeah… I'm gonna strip what's left of his shame that working for the Guardians didn't already take away.'

Speaking of stripping, he decided that since he'd gone this far already he was going to go ahead and lose the boxers too. Why not? You only get the chance to publicly mortify your teammate to this degree in life once on average.

You know… unless you both had temporary runs as male strippers for mission related purposes. But that was neither here nor there.

(Hour 1 – Ino's Side)

The only place that Ino could go to get any sort of assistance that wouldn't cause any bigger problems than the two young men involved in the to-be trouble happened to be someone entirely out of the loop. She needed someone that could possibly be a figure of authority. Something like that was hard to come by, as there were very few people that both Naruto and Shikamaru would listen to.

There were two choices as far as she was concerned.

She could select Tsunade. That woman put the fear of Kami into both of them, and for good reason, but then again that would probably end up with more destruction than what would be prevented by her involvement.

No, she needed someone that Shikamaru would respect and hold in high enough regard to listen to and someone that Naruto loved enough to actually adhere to admonishment from. A tall task indeed, as Naruto's instincts for basic insubordination ran deep. Ino had to pick someone that Naruto would feel bad for disappointing.

"You need my help?" Shizune asked, feeling odd at being put on the spot in the middle of the Jounin Standby Lounge while she was visiting friends, "Well I don't know. What makes you think I can stop either one of them?"

Ino just gave her a deadpan look, "Okay, go ahead and pretend that you didn't keep Goldie-kun in check for three years back at the capital. But just remember sister that I'm an interrogation specialist and you're a really bad liar."

Was it really that easy to see through?

The dark-haired medic sighed and held her head, "How bad is it going to get?"

"You tell me." Ino replied, "Goldie-kun took off when he figured that he could use Shika's body for as long as he wanted like he'd been waiting for a moment like that for a long, long time."

Oh hell. Apparently Naruto did hold grudges. She knew that all of those practical jokes that Shikamaru had managed to pull on behalf of the other Guardians wouldn't be allowed to go quietly into the night.

As Shizune's face fell, Ino's hopes of bringing this to a close by finding and reasoning with Naruto began to falter, "…Was it really that bad?"

"It varied." Shizune admitted before listing incidents on her fingertips, "There were the times that Shikamaru managed to pawn 'guard duty' of a particularly touchy-feely noble girl named Naho onto Naruto, those happened a lot. Then there was the time that Shikamaru distracted Naruto to allow one of their comrades to put itching powder in his arm-warmers. And then there was the time where he somehow sicced both Kotoko and Shizuka on him at the same time before setting them on each other."

"That doesn't sound like Shika at all!" Ino cried out. Most of those things seemed like they'd take way more effort than Shikamaru would ever put forth without reason, even if he was that devious a person.

Boredom did many a devilish thing to a man. Aside from training and doing missions there wasn't really much safe for Guardians to do when on the premises. It was a free-for-all prank war that they all started for whatever reason, but eventually instead of just fighting each other all of the Guardians who were admittedly lesser pranksters turned on Naruto en masse, and went to Shikamaru for good ones.

They realized what a bad idea this was after Naruto realized they were ganging up on him and brought down his unholy vengeance upon them to such a degree that no Guardian ever chose to rise against him again, present or future. At least as far as pranks went.

All except one.

Shizune explained the chain of events to Ino with a hollow expression on her features, "…And Naruto-kun was never really able to get Shikamaru back with anything because he either knew things were coming and avoided them or somehow turned them on Naruto instead."

That was the price of engaging in a battle of wits with a genius. Naruto's mind might have been scary, but Shikamaru's was far more so.

Ino felt like she was getting it by now, "So my giving Goldie-kun Shikamaru's body was basically giving him the golden ticket to prank Shikamaru without having to actually prank Shikamaru." She wished she would have known this before testing out a body-switching jutsu on them.

Shizune nodded before her eyes went wide. Ino had neglected to mention at the outset of their conversation what exactly she needed help with, just that she needed her help before Naruto and Shikamaru destroyed the village trying to one-up each other somehow, "YOU SWITCHED THEIR BODIES!?"

After cringing at the volume, the teenage Yamanaka hurriedly shushed Tsunade's apprentice as multiple eyes in the Jounin Standby Station looked over at the two of them after Shizune's shout, "Yes!" She hissed in a quiet voice, "Can you help me stop them or not?"

Well that all depended. How much personal responsibility would she feel if Naruto and Shikamaru wound up causing the sheer amount of physical and mental damage throughout the day that she knew they were going to?

"Did you hear?" One of the jounin in the lounge said with a laugh as he was telling them about whatever he wanted to talk about, "Naruto just got through walking down a main street in the village totally in the buff. Did he lose a bet or something?"

Both Ino and Shizune sat off to where they had been previously conversing, faces in shock. Shizune's was totally red, either from embarrassment or anger, it was hard to tell which. Ino's was more along the lines of a thoughtful sort of shock, as she was debating on whether or not she would have wanted to see that for herself. Sure, it was Naruto's body, but Shikamaru was inhabiting it so would that have made it weird or what?

Either way, there was one thing that she could think to say, "…I think Shika drew first blood on this one."