"Someone freaking kill that stilldeluded guy already. He's such a bastard making us wait all this time for the next freaking chapter!!!"

And for that I apologize from the bottom of my heart. I have been working on getting things just right for this chapter the last two months, because of course, it involves another battle. My last battle scene didn't go over so well to most of my readers so I have been trying to work diligently and calculatingly about fixing my battle scenes. I lost a lot of readers for this novel because my last fight scene "sucked". Haha.

I've kept you all waiting too long for this chapter. I'm guessing you're all wondering if Hideo's okay or not? I guess maybe you should read and find out...

His eyes were flickering open and close as he continually forced life to stay in his body. He knew that if he managed to fall asleep he would never wake from his slumber. If there was only one necessary thing that needed to be known about Hideo Onji, it was this: no matter what, he was always bound to find trouble wherever he went…

At the moment, he found himself on the back of a medic-nin rushing him back to Konoha for emergency care. The Raikage hadn't taken lightly to the sarcastic humiliation he had given him in his office, and thus he was not allowed treatment. He always figured his sarcasm would get him in trouble one of these days, but had to admit that he was regretting it now as he started coughing up a large amount of blood and watched it as it carefully dripped down his face and onto the medic-nin's vest.

"There's nothing more I can do for you." The medic stated while picking up the pace, "You have a lot of internal bleeding that's been suppressed, but my abilities aren't enough to heal it completely."

Typical. Sometimes he just had to laugh at his luck. Nothing had ever gone as planned for him. Not even since he was a kid…

"Alright, how about you next." His Jounin-sensei acknowledged him to which he stood up.

"My name is Hideo Onji," He stated quite clearly and a little irritatedly. "I am being forced to become a great ninja, because my father wishes it."

The look on his sensei's face was as close to priceless as a ninja's face could get. Hideo was almost positive that the man had never heard a reply like that before.

"Well," his sensei sighed, "So long as you're willing I guess…"

It was true. Neither he nor his brother had any desire to want to be ninja when they were younger, but unfortunate circumstances had forced them into it.

His father was originally a ninja from the Hidden Cloud Village. Because of some hard times induced by a harsh dictator, his father had faked his own death and escaped to the Hidden Leaf Village bringing jutsu of all different types with him. His father had no special eye like the Sharingan to immediately memorize jutsu, he had literally memorized over a hundred jutsu from the Hidden Cloud Village the old fashion way.

And he had to pass his legacy on to his children.

Hideo spent one year in his Genin Squad before achieving the rank of Chuunin. It wouldn't have happened if his father had not drilled every possible jutsu he could down his throat. It was safe to say that he grew to hate his father over time. And that was just saying it nicely…but at the ripe age of fourteen things took a turn he never expected.

"Keep that damnable creature back!" A Jounin yelled before launching a handful of kunai with explosive tags at the beast that lay before them.

It was something straight out of a nightmare. A giant fox was lashing at the hundreds with out the slightest flicker of mercy hiding inside its evil eyes. Everyone was forced once again to jump back as far as they could as the fox sent yet another explosive amount of chakra hurtling toward the ninjas.

All techniques were proving useless. Some of the more foolish ninja had begun charging the beast, but fell dead right before making contact. The beast had a lethal dosage of chakra poisoning that inhabited the very aura around him. Anyone sporting a wound allowed the poison to enter their system and fell dead not even a minute later.

The fox lashed his tails behind him creating a fiery whirlwind that charred a small group of jounin that couldn't get out of its range.

It was a beast unlike any that he had ever seen before…and it scared the hell out of him. It was impossible…this thing…it couldn't be beaten!

He fell to his knees as panic started to engulf him, and it was like the fox could smell his fear. The fox turned in his direction and began charging another of his explosive chakra blasts from his mouth.

Time seemed to slow down as the blast eradicated everything as it hurtled its way toward him…It was over for him…

"SUMMONING JUTSU!"

He watched wide-eyed as a gigantic frog appeared from out of nowhere and cleaved the blast in two sending the lethal blast off in two different directions and out of harms way.

His life had been spared by some miraculous miracle…He sighed in relief as darkness overtook him.

The Fourth Hokage sacrificed his life to seal the beast that still haunted his memories. His mother and father were killed in the attack, and his brother Itsuki would never be able to walk again.

Hideo was forced into a very unsettling predicament of caring for his brother at every given second. His brother was just a year younger than him. Hideo couldn't even begin to remember how many times he had to listen to Itsuki cry at night. Simple tasks became frustrating for him, and Hideo, one who had never really invested too much time with his brother, now found him as his sole caretaker.

Health and welfare benefits were pathetic to say the least so eventually a Chuunin's paycheck just wasn't enough to keep everything up and running in the house. At the age of seventeen he took the Jounin exams and passed with flying colors. At twenty he was forced to join anbu. It wasn't until Tsunade became Hokage that such benefits finally began to stabilize them out again.

That was about the time that he had met Tayuya…

He was ordered by Tsunade to always keep a close tab on Tayuya since she was an enemy-nin, but he knew there was never a need to do so. She slowly became a very stable part of his life. When he couldn't be there, Tayuya was the one that checked on Itsuki. Deep down…she never did have an evil heart. She was very caring, but hid it underneath her attitude.

Unfortunately, the village didn't take a good liking to her. Somehow, word leaked that she used to be an enemy ninja and the village didn't take the information too well. Tsunade thus created Team Sound for him to lead. His teammates were Tayuya and Anko.

Anko…he had never allowed himself the idea of a family…but he had grown so fond of her. Tayuya had told him to stop being a pussy and ask the bitch out. All he could do was chuckle then…but now…he kind of wished he had taken the advice…

"Captain, hang in there, Konoha is just ahead." The medic-nin said to which she got no reply…

"…Captain Onji…?"

"That's weird. It's beginning to rain," Naruto spoke aloud as him and Tayuya walked outside the hokage tower.

"Tch. Fuck that." Tayuya groaned. It had been sunny all day and it was strange that a cloud had come up from out of nowhere.

"Tayuya! Naruto!"

The two in question turned around hesitantly at hearing their names barked out. What could the ole hag Hokage want now?

When they turned to see her it was blatantly obvious that something was wrong. Her face remained unreadable though…

"Follow me." She ordered quietly.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked hesitantly.

Tsunade didn't reply, she just kept walking towards the hospital…

"Did somebody get hurt?" Naruto asked again as rain began to trickle down from the sky and shower them. Once again, Tsunade said nothing…

"Good God, Tobi, what the hell happened to you, hmm?" Deidara asked as he gave his partner a look over.

The Akatsuki cloak Tobi had worked so hard for looked like it had been through a hurricane. Cuts and scuff marks were present all over the rags were present all over. A sleeve was missing from the garment as well as the ends of the cloak had been shredded. But what might have shocked Deidara the most were the cracks that were present on Tobi's orange mask.

As if to answer his question, Tobi tossed the body of a man down to the floor in front of Deidara. Upon futher investigation Deidara realized that it was the eight-tailed Jinchuuriki.

"Good god, Tobi, you tried to take one of the stronger bijuu on by yourself, hmm?" Deidara asked. "Got to admit, I didn't think you could even fight."

Tobi didn't feel like throwing on his normal "happy go lucky" façade. He had been foolish…

"Hi, my name is Tobi."

The young anbu obviously knew what the cloak symbolized and had probably been briefed on the danger of such an organization. He would soon be cursing his luck as he would soon be fighting the true leader of Akatsuki…

"Hideo is my name. What brings you all the way out here?" The anbu, Hideo, asked cautiously.

Tobi smiled malevolently though it was hidden by his mask. "I heard there was a strong warrior out here and thought I'd test myself against him."

Hideo glared at Tobi, "Over my dead body!"

Tobi faked mild surprise as Hideo ran through hand seals that Tobi just mildly was interested in.

"Wind Style: Hurricane Gust Jutsu!"

Tobi watched almost giddily as the blast hit him full impact and demolished the inside of the cabin and sent him flying straight through the small wall and onto the grassy knoll outside.

As if to prove the weakness of the attack, Tobi got up from the debris and started stretching his arms and popping his neck. The look on the young anbu was almost priceless.

"Geez kid, why'd you have to go and do that?" Tobi asked in a depressed voice before looking to his cloak. "You really made a mess of my cloak with that one!"

Hideo bit his tongue before smirking and charged at Tobi with surprising speed. However, it held no surprise for Tobi. Hideo made a slashing movement meant to slice his arm off with a kunai, but just as the kunai was about to do its job Tobi made his arm transparent causing Hideo to only slice the sleeve off of his cloak.

Oh Tobi was having fun with this. The look on the young anbu's face was priceless.

"What? Did you really think I'd take another attack like that?" Tobi asked goofily.

"Tch." Hideo smirked as he went for a quick jab with his left hand, but Tobi just avoided it. Upon evading it Hideo swiftly went into an upper kick with his right foot that Tobi blocked boredly with his right hand. The result was a surprise to Tobi as the force of the kick created enough wind pressure to blast him back a good thirty yards.

"You've learned to use wind nature chakra alongside your Taijutsu skills. Pretty interesting." Tobi stated happily.

"Tch." Hideo grimaced before charging the opponent.

What ensued was a one-sided Taijutsu battle with Hideo attacking relentlessly with Tobi phasing out just when a punch was about to connect. He switched it up by throwing a close range B level genjutsu to confuse Tobi, but it had no effect whatsoever. This surprised the young anbu enough to back up and try to recalculate his opponent.

"Who are you?!" He asked with aggravation.

"I am Tobi," The akatsuki laughed evilly. It was time for playtime to end.

Just as he was about to make a move against Hideo, an Eight-tailed Ox appeared before both of them. It was the size of a mountain and held an aura that would make even the strongest warrior want to crawl into a little hole and hide.

"Finally came out to play with me?" Tobi laughed as he looked over his two opponents. "This might be fun!"

Tobi teleported behind Hideo with a right hook, as his fist impact into Hideo's back he used the moment to teleport him and Hideo up on top of the Bijuu's head. The impact finally registered into Hideo as Tobi had punched him straight in the kidney, which sent him to his knees. Tobi, using this time wisely, brought out some special paper seals and began placing them all over the Bijuu.

Slowly, the Bijuu began losing chakra in his system, but Hideo had recovered from the attack and was sliding through hand signs. As he issued the last hand sign, Tobi dived off the beast and watched as the Bijuu's back was engulfed with flames, which to Tobi's irritation destroyed the paper seals and the Bijuu reverted back into its Jinchuuriki.

"My seals!" Tobi yelled out taking his attention away from the fight for a second. That was the only second Hideo needed as he whipped an already ignited set of explosive tags around Tobi with some wires. They exploded around Tobi as pain registered in his body for the first time in a long while. Hideo had figured out the weakness to his transparency jutsu. If it was stuck to Tobi when he used the technique it would become transparent with him.

"Now!" Hideo yelled as he jumped away. Tobi looked around confusedly before a tail came and whipped him across the face and cracking his mask. The Jinchuuriki had reverted to a half-demon form and created a successful combo attack in the midst of the tag trick.

"Ouchie!" Tobi whined with a minor hint of irritation.

"No more fun and games!" Tobi yelled. Hideo went wide eyed as he teleported to in front of his face. Tobi grabbed hold of his arm and yanked it out of place before snapping it with his foot.

Hideo screamed out in pain as Tobi delivered a strong set of combos to his ribs. He could feel a couple of them had shattered. But he pushed the registry of the pain out of the way as he ducked and rolled under Tobi's legs as he let out a Grand Fireball Jutsu meant to incinerate him.

Tobi dodged backward and to the Jinchuuriki and unleashed a taijutsu combo mix of kicks and seal placements. The seals slowly sucked all the chakra from his system, but for good measure he activated the Mangekyou Sharingan. In that instant the Jinchuuriki was defeated and only one was left.

A kunai flew by his head which he dodged. Tobi allowed himself a laugh. "Still kicking huh?"

The young anbu allowed himself a chuckle at the line before smirking. Tobi was really beginning to hate that smirk. He decided a week's worth of torture was in the anbu's near future and activated his Mangekyou Sharingan again.

It had started before he could even try to look away. What resulted was a week's worth of torture. Kunai stabbed into his gut repeatedly in an inferno of fire that scorched his very skin. Two hundred different types of tortures were used on him and when it was all over he looked down and realized that it was nothing but a genjutsu, and yet the pain from the torture hadn't gone away…he collapsed as his legs caved in underneath him.

"You're out of your league," Tobi said with the first hint of seriousness he had shown during the course of the whole battle.

Hideo coughed as blood dripped down his mouth. He chuckled as he pushed himself back up to a standing position, but it was deemed unnecessary as Tobi grabbed hold of his clothes from the front. Hideo closed his eyes to avoid Tobi's eye trick.

"Won't work again, Tobi, now that I know you're an Uchiha." Hideo allowed himself a laugh at his situation.

The young anbu was gathering an extremely excessive a mount of chakra into his fist. He hurled a wide left hook at Tobi's face out of desperation, but Tobi just let it faze through him.

Tobi was at a loss for what happened as he let the punch faze through him and watched as Hideo with a huge smirk on his face smashed his own fist straight into his chest. The impact caused by his Hurricane Fist Technique sent him flying away from the battle. He had calculated exactly what Tobi would counter with and used it to his advantage to escape.

"Damn it,"

"Uh…Tobi…?"

"I underestimated my opponent." Tobi pouted. "Maybe I'm getting a little rusty after all these years."

"…right…" Deidara rolled his eyes, "Well anyway looks like we need to go through the ritual, hmm." He declared to which Tobi just sighed and nodded.

The waiting room. It's always the tensest place inside a hospital. You don't know whether you'll ever get the chance to see that person you're visiting open his eyes again. At the moment that was the exact situation that Tayuya found herself in.

Hideo had been carried in hanging on by a mere thread of life and Tsunade was now in the operating room doing her best to bring him back from death's cold clutches. Naruto had been very quiet for a while now. Much like her, he was probably reflecting on the idea that people can be fine one minute and dead the next. Life was such a strange experience.

"Tayuya…no matter what happens…know that he did his best."

Tayuya let a single tear roll down her cheek before giving a stubborn reply, "Tch. Don't underestimate that bastard's stubbornness. You'll see…when he wakes up he'll be asking why the hell all the IV's are stuck in him and try to storm out of the hospital like he always does…"

To this day, Naruto Uzumaki has no idea what force of nature allowed him to make such an impulsive decision, but at that moment he didn't care what the consequences would be.

He wrapped his hands around Tayuya and gave her the most heartfelt hug that she had ever felt in her entire life. He told her that it was okay to be scared. Scared to lose a loved one. And at that moment Tayuya couldn't take it any longer…

"Tayuya! That was supposed to be the Ox Sign not the Tiger Sign! Are you trying to fry my ass!"

"Oy Red. Let's go get some grub from Itsuki's restaurant. I could do with a free meal for once. You're too expensive."

"Always taking money from me without permission. You're acting really girly girl for some reason. It's starting to freak me out."

"Mission Time, Tayuya. Don't screw up or you get your head popped off!"

"Happy Birthday, Tayuya.

"So tell me about that guy you met at the pub the other day? Come On! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!!!"

"Mind your fucking manners, god damn it!"

She broke down in Naruto's arms…

Author's Note: Oh god I am terrible. I leave a cliff hanger and then update and now it's just intensified the cliffhanger! God I know you all hate me. It's like what Kishimoto is doing right this very moment with Kakashi. Bastard...

I want some feedback for once, therefore I need you the readers to help me. Tell me what you think of Hideo Onji. Your answers may be a determining factor in whether he lives to fight another day. Or maybe I'm just messing with you guys and it won't matter either way. Haha. This has been a cliff hanger for a little while now I know, but I found a good place to stop and one of my readers told me that he/she didn't care if I didn't resolve the matter. They just wanted the next chapter out. Haha so you have that person to thank.

I have had many complaints over ways I've handled battles in the past, so I tried my hardest to remedy that situation in this chapter. I can't really say whether you will like this one any better, but I did try a little harder for your sake. I've literally been working weeks on this battle scene and re-edited it enough times that I am sick of it, so I hope you find it worthwhile at least.

I'll try not to take too long with the next chapter, but I'm not promising anything either. I don't have near as much time as I used to and probably won't get my time back until Spring Break or Summer Vacation. Being a college student is both the most stressful and the most interesting time of my life thus far.

Anyway, SORRY!!!! About the late update. Review and make me happy so I'll get the chapters out quicker. Believe it or not I set this kind of goal like thing for how many reviews I get, so when I see I have less reviews for the new chapter than the old one I get discouraged. So make sure to review. It is rather important.

I'll see you all when my next chapter rolls around. Peace Out.