Author's Notes: I'm back once again! Before we get started I just want to address a issue that some people were worried about after the last chapter. I will once again state that this will not turn into a Harem fic and I plan to keep it on the same course. Just decided to throw n some controversy to keep you guys guessing and excited. And hopefully this chapter continues to fuel that excitement.

Also I want to give a MAJOR shout out to SoulCry for revising all Twenty-Eight of the previous chapters of Immanence. Also the next update for Eminence will be out before Friday and Vanished Without a Trace will be out before Sunday.

As usual, thanks again for all the support and I look forward to reading your reviews.

Immanence
Resurrection of Uzumaki no Kuni
10th Shippuu: Dancing Flames of the Wavering Heart

I couldn't believe how things had quickly gone from great to hell in the matter of a couple of days. Thanks to all the preparations for war and training I had forgot about the possibility of the Akatsuki making a move. And they also picked the perfect time to do so. Till the end, those guys proved to be more of a pain than anything or anyone else.

During the time Naruto and the Kyuubi had decided to elope with one another, Jiraiya had just barely managed to get Kushina back to the hotel where Tsunade immediately began to work on her. The chakra from the Kyuubi was consuming ever cell it got its hand on causing several of Kushina's organ to bleed internally. It took a day and a sleepless night for Tsunade and Shizune before they finally brought her out of her critical stage. Kushina life was saved, but just barely.

When Kushina's eyes finally opened the only thing that was on her mind was her son.

"Where's Naruto?" she asked in a meek voice as her body was still weak from the poison.

Jiraiya was seating at her side at the time, it was his time to take watch over her, and glanced in the other direction.

"No one knows where he is." He stated in a somber tone.

"Did that demon take him away?" she forced out.

"Most likely."

"Didn't Yu-chan and him work on Minato's jutsu together? Shouldn't she be able to find him?"

"Yes, but there is a problem with that."

Kushina sighed a little as she tried to move. Every muscle in her body felt like they were about to burst in flames as she released a loud groan. Jiraiya placed his hands on her shoulder letting her know that it was still to early for her to move.

"What happened…?"

"Yugito is refusing to search for him. It seems that she believes that he was cheating on her with the Kyuubi and his disappearance is giving her the feeling that he has cast her side."

"Bullshit!" she shouted right before groaning once again.

"You still as stubborn as ever." Jiraiya sighed.

"I know that bitchis just manipulating Naru-chan to do what she wants. Where is Yu-chan now?"

"She is with Aoi right now. When she found out about Naruto disappearing she tried to run away but Aoi stopped her. I swear I've never seen the girl act in such a way before. She used to be so emotionless and now she is on the verge of breaking." Jiraiya stated as he frowned. He, just like everyone else involved in this mess, hated to see those two go through this. Jiraiya once again began to seethe as thoughts of the Kyuubi once again tearing apart the family of his greatest student and closest friend.

"I've decided." Kushina said all of a sudden bringing Jiraiya back to his senses.

"You've decided what?"

Kushina forced her body up despite the large amount of pain that was rippling through her. Jiraiya tried once again to push her down but this time she brushed him off to the side, as she finally was able to rise up out of the bed.

"I'm taking my Naru-chan back and killing that kitsune bitch."

"Don't be stupid Kushina. Now is not the time to go searching for Naruto. Let Yugito and him handle this situation. Your Naru-chan is an adult. You can't always just show up and force him to follow your rules."

"This is not about him following my rules, this about setting things right!" she yelled as she reached her feet. Her yelling had caused Shizune to walk in the room to see what was going on.

"Why are you up and walking Kushina-san? You are only hurting yourself, please lay back down."

"Listen to her Kushina." Jiraiya pleaded.

"I don't care if I die because of this, I will not lose my son a second time thanks to that damn kitsune." She gritted her teeth as she tuned out the pain.

Suddenly a needle was launched in her neck causing her to instantly fall limp forcing Jiraiya to catch her before she collided with the floor. Both Jiraiya and Shizune turned around to see Tsunade leaning against the doorframe with a tired expression on her face. She was probably the most exhausted of them all since she had used up almost all of her chakra reserve trying to save Kushina just a few hours ago.

"Tsu…"

"You said it already Jiraiya, she is stubborn." Tsunade interrupted as she walked out letting out a loud yawn.

"It's not like you to use those sort of methods…" Jiraiya said as he placed Kushina back in her bed. Shizune nodded as she walked out of the room.

II

Jiraiya glanced up at the moon and began to wonder what would be their next move now. Thanks to this major detour in their plans, they weren't able to launch a full on attack against Akisame. Instead they were forced to only send Shikamaru since Aoi was needed to help consol Yugito, and the rest were left to deal with Kushina and recovering Naruto.

With a snap of his fingers his bushin dispersed in a cloud of smoke revealing to him all that had just transpired back in the hotel. Unbeknownst to most of them, he had long gone after the trail of Naruto and the Kyuubi as soon as he gave Kushina to Tsunade. He left a kage bushin behind to keep tab on things there while he continued to search. He kind of felt bad for scolding Kushina about trying to hunt her son down when he was actually doing that very same thing.

Not to mention the other issue that he had discovered when he did find the blond. To say it was a huge surprise to see that Naruto had actually slept with the Kyuubi was a huge understatement. Not to mention the dire fact that now Naruto was in the clutches of the Akatsuki made things very problematic on every level.

He could still sense the chakra signatures of the two who captured Naruto and knew that the Kyuubi was hot on their trail. His first thought was to take action, but he later found that he no longer had the drive to recue his pupil. He didn't understand why he was undergoing such odd feelings but it left him motionless throughout the entire battle between Naruto and Itachi. He cursed under his breath as he motioned to punch the tree next to him but he stopped himself in the middle of the act. Now wasn't the time for him to act like a child. He would have to figure out just why he was hesitating in saving the blond – before it reach a point where he could no longer be saved.

III

The world of emotions had always been a foreign thing to Yugito but the current wave of feelings was no stranger to her. She hadn't felt this betrayed, this heartbroken, this disheveled since she was a young child suffering from the oppression of the council as they strived to change her into the perfect weapon for their village.

She didn't know what to do with herself right now. A part of her wanted to track Naruto down – she had a better chance of finding him better than anyone else at the time – and confront him. But the other half was showcasing her fear; the idea of Naruto rejecting her had seeded a thick root in her heart that left her frozen in her place.

Aoi had witness many of the changes in her former student over the years ever since they ran into the infamous Uzumaki Naruto but the one she was witnessing now was one that she never really considered. To her right, in the center of the park where the altercation between Naruto and Yugito had transpired – their first fight – was a red eyed, emotional shaken teenage girl. Aoi placed her arm around Yugito, which caused said kunoichi to glance up; eyes blood shot from fighting back the ever-pressing tears.

"It's better let it out ya know? We should talk about this before you end up killing yourself inside." She paused as she frowned at the choice of words she used but Yugito didn't seemed to mind it much. "What exactly happened?" she asked.

"He picked the Kyuubi over me." Yugito replied in a very bitter tone.

"Are you sure about this? I mean did he actually tell you that you to were… through?"

"He doesn't need to tell me anything. I could sense it in him during the last time I saw him."

"You still don't know that for a fact. Things may look grim right now but this was yall first fight. When emotions are involved like this, things sort of get kinda cloudy and hard to read." Aoi glanced down at the tattooed seal that was resting on Yugito's wrist. "I mean why would he give you that—" she pointed to the tattoo "if he didn't care about you?"

"But…"

"Why won't you talk to him? You guys should talk things out before you get all depressed like. This isn't you, you're a lot stronger than this… a lot stronger than me at this…" Aoi added.

Yugito remained silent for a moment as a light turned on in Aoi's head.

"Don't tell me ya scare to talk to him?"

"No! uh… yes…" she retreated as she began to stare at the couple who was walking by them on the walkway. Aoi sighed out loud as she began to shake her head.

"You have nothing to be scare of ya know?" Yugito glanced up at her as if to be asking 'how so'? "Of all the people we've met over our lifetimes, he would be the last person to abandon anybody. And the sad thing about this is you also know this to be a fact."

Yugito froze in her stare at her former sensei. Since the day she had met him he had always strived for recognition from everyone. His nindo was to never go back on his word and he had promised her that he would always love her. And going by his track record he was still perfect when it came to completing his promises.

She sighed a little as she suddenly stood up startling Aoi in the process.

"What is it Yugito?"

"I'm going to talk to him." she stated firmly as if she was trying to strengthen her resolve behind her sudden decision. Aoi smiled a little bit until the corner of her eye caught glimpse of two shadowy figures in dark robes and red clouds tacked all over them. Reality dawn on her as she remembered who were the people that fell under these descriptions, the Akatsuki.

"Before you talk to whoever it is you need to talk to, how about we have a little talk of our own?" one of the men whom head was entirely covered except for his eyes. On his forehead he sported the forehead protector of Takigakure no Sato with the patented scratch through the symbol meaning he was a nuke-nin.

"Why are you here?" Aoi spat out at the man.

"You know why we are here." The man stated as he glanced over at Yugito.

"Run!" Aoi shouted to Yugito as she leaped in front of her.

"Oi Kakuzu?" the grey haired member who dawn the forehead protector from the deteriorated Yugakure no Sato around his neck.

"What is it now Hidan?" he replied in a drawl tone.

"Think you can handle the first part, I must offer my prayers to God."

"Pointless." Kakuzu stated as he shook his head.

"Oi, I'm not a fan of em either but I must be strict with my faith." Hidan replied.

"Whatever, just hurry it up then."

The sound of electricity caught both of their attentions as Kakuzu turned around to see what was the source. He was met with a large explosion of lightening that almost took out a third of the park engulfing both members of Akatsuki.

Aoi had exhausted nearly half of her chakra supply just to summon enough to create an explosion of such magnitude. Her limbs felt as heavy as boulders and her sight was becoming blurry. She quickly glanced around toward Yugito and frowned.

"I thought I told you to run?!" she shouted again.

"I can't!" Yugito fired back as she glared at her former sensei.

"What the hell do you mean you can't?! That was an order!"

"And you're no longer my superior Aoi-san!"

Aoi started to forced the girl to run but a freeze chill crept all the way up and back down her spine as she turned back around to see that both Akatsuki were still standing, somewhat unharmed by her attack. Kakuzu's cloak had been destroyed in the attack and Hidan had managed to dodge it.

"Fuck!"

"I like her!" Hidan shouted as he appeared behind Kakuzu. "I think I'll play with her."

"What bout your prayers?"

"I'll just repent after I'm done. Hell, it's against the key precept of the Faith of Jashin to leave anything half-dead anyway. So holding back against the jinchuuriki would be a sin. I think ya can handle her by yourself."

"Fine. I'll take care of the jinchuuriki then."

"Last time Yugito, run!"

"I've already told you my answer to that!"

As soon as she finished her sentence Kakuzu was right in her face launching a sidekick in the direction of her abdomen. Yugito swept her left arm to the side to bat his kick away and landed a hard right to his Adam's apple sending him back a little. But he quickly recovered and ducked down and tried to sweep kick her off her feet. Yugito quickly hopped in the air dodging the attack and slamming down hard on his leg breaking it in half.

"Taijutsu is one of my specialties." Yugito stated in a triumph tone but her statement was only met with laughter.

"If you think that was enough to set me back then this is going to be easy." He stated.

Yugito suddenly noticed the many rings of stitches around his arms and realized that when she landed on his leg, it didn't feel like a normal crack of bones.

"What are you?"

"A real monster." He replied as he used the same leg she was standing on to launch her in the air where he quickly grabbed her by the ankle and slammed her hard into the ground face first. Blood spilled onto the dirt from her busted lip and cut up tongue thanks to her own teeth.

She quickly pushed off the ground and tried to hit him with a helicopter kick but he blocked her attack with left forearm and kicked her in the stomach. Yugito clutched her leg in pain and it felt like she made have fractured it.

"What…the hell?"

"Look's like you've finally realized it." he said as he pointed to his arm.

"You harden your body?"

"Correct, physically attacks will be useless against me."

"I see…" Yugito said as she slowly rose to her feet. She reentered her fighting stance as she began to glare up at the man.

"Stubborn eh?"

As Kakuzu began to stalk toward her, she slung down two smoke grenades catching him off guard. The smoke filled his lungs causing them to burn from the lack of oxygen as he began to cough. Yugito took this time to create some distance between them but a massive burst of wind caused her to lose her footing and land on her back.

"Trying to run away?"

"The opposite." She replied as she quickly began to run through a series of hand seals. "I needed space to activate this jutsu. Katon: Kazangansen Shintai no Jutsu!" she yelled as her body burst in a fit of raging flames. The flames were so intense that the grass and dirt below her feet began to smolder. Knowing that this fight could be the toughest once yet, she began to pull in some of the chakra from the Nibi as the red and orange flames began to have a bluish green shade bleed into it. Suddenly she disappeared from his sight causing his eyes quickly scan over the area.

"Oh." He said as she suddenly reappeared behind him launching a fearsome combo of attacks with the added effect of fire to his body. He could only stand there and take it because her attacks were just to fast for him to counter. His body shook like a rag doll from each blow until she finished it by plunging her right fist through his chest stabbing through his heart in the process.

Blood spat up from his mouth onto her body but it sizzled away as soon as it got close to her skin. His body fell limp as his eyes closed. She violently slung him on the ground. She had to hurry to Aoi's side and make sure she was ok

All of a sudden she felt a violent foot to the center of her back sending her flying into one of the last remaining trees in the park. She quickly turned around and saw that it was Kakuzu.

"How… I killed you…" she stated as her bewilderment was only matched by her fear at that time.

"Simple… I'm immortal." He spoke in an all-knowing tone as he began to hunch over as four large shadowy like figured burst from his back and began to stand behind him. The fouth one suddenly collapsed as Kakuzu sighed. "Thanks to that little trick of yours I will have to restock up now."

"Restock?"

"Something you won't have to worry about once we're finish. Now do you give up or shall we continue?"

Yugito fought her way back to her feet; her body was in pain but still on fire. She pumped more of her chakra and the Nibi's into her jutsu as the flames began to roar, as they became more bluish green. A tail began to form behind her as her pupil formed into slits.

"And the neko is beginning to reveal itself I see."

With even greater speed than before, Yugito had managed to close in the gap between the two of them but instead of attacking like before she began to run through a set of hand seals with lightening like speed.

"Kazangansen Kariudo no Jutsu!" she yelled as the fire around her began to spiral into a ball and smashed directly into Kakuzu's face pushing him back several yard as his entire body was engulfed in flames.

In the mist of the flames, he began to run through a few seals of his own causing a wave of water to splash over him calming the flames. Yugito began to glance around.

"Where did you get your water source from?"

"Science."

"Huh?"

"The human body is mostly made of water, giving me a perfect amount of water to use when needed."

Yugito frowned as she began to run through the same hand seals as before.

"That same trick won't work on me again." Kakuzu said as he noticed the same pattern but he managed to miss the slight difference she had added.

"Deyueru Kazangansen Kariudo no Jutsu!"

"Suiton: Junsai!" he yelled just about at the same time.

The spiraling ball of flame crashed right into his wall of water that was shielding him from the attack but he didn't expect a second ball of flames to crashed right into his back. Yugito took this as her opportunity to finish him off from behind with one final attack but she was met with great resistance.

The three demonic black bodies that he had expelled from his own body early had finally made their move. She felt something tangle around her body and slam her hard against the ground.

"Nice try, but you are a century to young to think you can outwit me."

Two of the masked entities reentered his body with each mask resting on his shoulders now as the other one standing in the back.

Yugito pumped a large amount of chakra into her legs as she literally teleported to Kakuzu's main but was pushed back by a violent wave of water from the body behind him that almost caused her flames to fizzle out.

Before she could get up over several dozen black tentacles began to pierce through her body. He then viciously ripped them all from her body causing blood to spray all over the ground. Yugito released a loud shrill as her flames had finally dispersed completely. She could feel the Nibi's chakra race to heal her wounds but there were far too severe for her to be able to move. Not to mention the large amount of mental duress from suppressing the Nibi causing her to be near her limit. She was on the edge of consciousness; the only thing keeping her awake was the pain from the many lacerations on her body that wept with blood.

Strangely, her thoughts weren't on her own predicament at that time. Instead it was on one blond, the man that had managed to turn her life around for the best. Even if they may be separated right now, she still wished to see him. At first, that feeling was minute but it quickly erupted into a craven, and then a need.

She no longer cared what would happen to her just as long as she was allowed to see the man she loved at least once more. She didn't care what he did or if he had really chose the Kyuubi over her. She just needed to see his face.

"Still fighting until the very end eh?" she heard Kakuzu say in the distance. She could feel the atmosphere around her grow heavy as his sight began to fade.

All of a sudden the tattoo that he had given her began to tingle to the point where her will to stay awake, to stay alive, returned.

The wind began to pick up rapidly as it became strong enough to push Kakuzu back several feet. Despite the immense pain she was undergoing, she still managed to place a smile on her face.

She glanced up to the very person she had wanted to see. His sunny blond hair dancing in the wind as his cerulean blue orbs were filled with concern for her well-being.

"Arigato Kami-sama." She quietly spoke.

---
Katon: Kazangansen Shintai no Jutsu: Fire Style: The Art of the Volcanic Body (Original Jutsu) The user focuses all the fire fused chakra into their body causes it to emit a large amount of fire increasing the effects of all their attacks and increases upon the speeds that they could achieve while using the Kazangansen Ashi.
Kazangansen Kariudo no Jutsu: The Art of Volcanic Spiral Hunter (Original Jutsu) User summons a massive amount of lava from an already created fire source and that rapidly spines to contain the heat from within. The user then controls the attack using their chakra control to chase/hunt for their opponent during battle.
Deyueru Kazangansen Kariudo no Jutsu: The Art of the Dual Volcanic Spiral Hunter (Original Jutsu)
Suiton: Junsai: Water Style: Water Shield (Original Shield) The user creates a wall of water that shields them from the majority type of attacks.