Chapter 5

Naruto strode along with the toad sannin at his side. They were headed for a rather large town that was apparently quite the gambling den, and as Jiraiya had so kindly pointed out, Tsunade wasn't known as the 'legendary sucker' for nothing after all.

It was a beautiful day as they walked towards the town, they had passed others, and Jiraiya had quickly discovered that while with Naruto, peeking sure as hell wasn't the best idea in the world. And as such they had made swift progress, even with Naruto walking slower than normal, having to concentrate on trying to learn the technique the forth himself had created, he found it surprisingly hard, but with three or four clones helping it he was already onto the third stage and well on his way to mastering it. A soft breeze passed along the path they were travelling, neither said anything to each other, both comfortable to be lost in their own thoughts. Jiraiya had seen what the boy could do, and after realising how powerful he was and who he was he had offered to teach him both the summoning contract and the rasengan, Naruto had simply refused the first on grounds that summoning something to fight for you wasn't cool and that he had already beaten the one tailed demon in a one on one battle, however he accepted the second option with no small amount of enthusiasm and had Jiraiya speechless at how quickly he was learning the technique.

"So Jiraiya-san, any idea as to where in this town we'll find Tsunade?" he asked the sannin, shaking the man out of his thoughts on his latest novel

"Huh, oh right, yeah, um...she'll either be in some bar getting plastered of she'll be in the largest casino in that town, racking up her debts" he told Naruto, who, though still concentrating on the ball of blue chakra in his hand, nodded and smiled

"Seems to me your all rather weird you sannin, the snakes a paedophile, you're a pervert, and Tsunade has the worst luck ever" he said and Jiraiya chuckled a bit at that, agreeing with the kid somewhat. He was still slightly surprised that Naruto treated him with a fair amount of respect, not as much as everyone else, but at least he didn't call him a pervert when girls were around. And he had to admit that the brat had a point when he had told Jiraiya to earn his respect, since Naruto never gave respect, that, Jiraiya could relate to.

When they eventually arrived in the town they'd been walking towards, Naruto had finally got the damned ball of chakra to a stable norm, and shocking Jiraiya even more at the sheer speed he'd completed something that took even him a good while to get.

"Well" Naruto said to him once they'd arrived "I suggest that we both split up and search for Tsunade, she can't be that hard to spot after all" he said and Jiraiya nodded in agreement, for once not thinking about peeking sine Naruto would most likely hunt him down again, which was not something he wanted to experience again for at least a few more days. And with that said they both went their separate ways to find the, oh so infamous, slug princess.

Naruto wandered down the busy streets, looking around at the shops while his clones observed from the roofs of the building, he was looking for Tsunade but had decided that while he was here, that he should probably buy a few gifts for his girls. As he strolled through the bustling streets thinking about what to buy them both he had his thoughts drift to his favourite pastime save for being with his two girls, training, more specifically, how to add his wind into the rasengan, after all, Jiraiya had said that it was only part way complete, and as such Naruto had the suspicion that adding elemental chakra to it was the next step in the process, now, he already had a pretty good grasp on the manipulation of elemental chakra, so it shouldn't take him too long to get it to work, once that was done , then he could see how else he could manipulate it.

Night fell surprisingly quickly for Naruto, he was satisfied though, even after failing to find Tsunade, he had brought Kureani some rather nice perfume that he knew she loved but didn't buy, always claiming she didn't need such 'materialistic' things, he had also brought her a rather nice kimono that would complement with the red colour of her eyes beautifully. He had then brought something more...practical, for Anko, a kunai set that had seals that allowed them to return to their holding seal once used, along with a rather nice necklace with a snake instead of a normal decoration, it had red ruby's for its eyes and some rather beautiful green emeralds interspersed amongst its scales, oh, and a ring for Kureani and Anko, but that was a different matter entirely.

He walked around with the stuff safely sealed into a storage scroll, following Jiraiya's scent until he came upon a rather moderately sized bar with a man shaped hole in one wall. He walked in and saw Jiraiya at one of the tables off to the side, talking to Tsunade, and another girl who Naruto guessed was Shizune, according to Jiraiya's descriptions of them anyway.

He moved over and could hear that Tsunade's voice was slightly slurred from the amount of alcohol she just been consuming, he sat down next to Jiraiya and leaned back, Jiraiya looked at him for a second before turning back to Tsunade, who hadn't taken her eyes off Jiraiya all the way through the, at the moment, rather one-sided conversation

"I won't go back Jiraiya" she eventually said "that village took far too much from me, and the idea of me being the Hokage is simply laughable, why the fuck would I want a job that's both idiotic and has a one hundred percent fatality rate?" she asked but Naruto raised his hand before Jiraiya could begin to speak again and looked at Tsunade hard

"You are scared" he said bluntly, shocking the three present at the table "you fear the memories that place holds for you. But you a nothing more than a coward, you choose to run from your problems, the two people you speak of, whose deaths you would spit on" he growled and Tsunade nearly lost it, only to be restrained by both Shizune and Jiraiya, Naruto stood up and looked her dead in the eye

"You're afraid, that's all there is to it, someone like you has no right to protect anyone. I bet you those two are rolling in their graves now" he said and before anyone could blink Naruto was sent flying through a wall and out of the bar and into the street. Tsunade glared after him and walked towards the boy, who she was surprised to see getting up, even after she had punched him at nearly full strength. He sighed and stood up; cracking his neck once he looked at her with fire in his eyes

"I want to make a deal with you, Tsunade of the sannin" he told her, shocking everyone there, she glared at the boy who spat out a mouthful of blood

"What sort of bet?" she asked cautiously "and what are the prises?" she asked and Naruto chuckled softly

"I bet than when you meet Orochimaru in a few days" he said shocking both of the sannin at the fact he knew that "that I'll be able to put down his medic and keep him busy" he said and she scoffed, Jiraiya however, smiled at the boy's ingenuity, he knew that Tsunade would underestimate his strength and as such this bet was already heavily in his favour

"And if you lose?" she asked and he looked her dead in the eye

"I'll pay of fall your debts" he told her and she gasped, before smiling and shaking his hand

"You got yourself a deal, gaki" she said and Naruto smiled

"I'll see in a week's time then" he said and vanished.

The week pasted quickly for Naruto, who was too busy training to notice much else but his progress, he had being trying to add elemental chakra into the rasengan, he had quickly decided against that idea, especially after his arm got shredded by its sheer power. Instead he now turned his thoughts to a flying version of it, at first it seemed impossible, as the user had to stabilise it constantly or it would lose its shape and power almost immediately. But then he'd had an idea, he needed to stabilise the core, if he could do that then the rest would be simple, in theory anyway.

So he began, and for six days solid he had practised, he was getting there, but it still wasn't fast enough the survive for more than one or two seconds after it had left his hand, not ideal exactly, but good enough for now.

He returned to the hotel him and his sensei were staying at and almost immediately fell asleep.

He awoke the next day with the sun shining brightly into his eyes, Shizune was next to him on a chair, his sensei appeared to also be out of it, but Tsunade was nowhere to be seen. Naruto groaned and palmed his face. He sat up groaning and turned to Jiraiya

"Wake up!" he yelled startling both Shizune and his sensei awake

"What the hell gaki!" Jiraiya shouted at his student, Naruto just pointed to the bed where Tsunade was meant to be and both of them shut up

"Damn it" Naruto heard his sensei mutter before he turned to him "come on kid, we've got a bet to win" he growled and Naruto smirked as both of them, followed swiftly by Shizune, took to the roof tops and began to rush over to where Tsunade was supposed to meet Orochimaru.

They arrived at the place to find the walls had been smashed and damaged beyond all repair

"Damn it, where are they?" Jiraiya groaned, Naruto tilted his head and listened, the sounds of battle could be heard and a smell of snake originated from the location

"This way" he told the two people at his side, they followed without a question, Jiraiya because he was already aware of Naruto's incredible senses and Shizune because he did.

They had finally found her, standing in a field where she was facing Orochimaru, or rather had been, for now her face was a white as paper and Naruto knew the reason why, you didn't have to be psychic to see it, Kabuto had slit open his own arm, and was moving in to kill Tsunade. Naruto snarled and lifted his hand; a ball of blue energy that was swirling extremely fast appeared

"Time to die" Kabuto whispered to Tsunade. He never stood a chance in hell, one moment he was facing a paralysed slug sannin, the next he felt something extremely powerful hit his stomach and send him spinning with no small amount of force straight into a boulder easily one and a half metres thick. He collapsed, out of the fight for the moment. Orochimaru was beyond annoyed now, here, standing before him, was the apparent bane of his very existence on this earth, the one who had taken his arms from him, and put his medic, it seemed, out of commission for a little while.

Naruto stood there in front of Tsunade, his right side slouched from ramming the rasengan into Kabuto, his bangs covering his eyes in shadow

"Neh, Tsunade-san?" he said as the sannin looked up in awe, both at who her savour was and what he had just used, he stood up and, cracking his neck, faced Kabuto's prone form "could you get over your fear already, I really can't protect myself and you at the same time" he told her, but the bright smile and warmth in his eyes took the sharpness off of the statement. Tsunade could only nod absentmindedly

"Yo sensei, could you take care of the paedophile over there?" Naruto shouted over to Jiraiya who nodded and cracked his knuckles

"It would be my pleasure" he muttered as Shizune ran over to Tsunade and began checking her over for any injuries. Naruto watched with a raised eyebrow as Kabuto stood up, although his legs appeared rather shaky

"Let's go" Naruto said as he crouched down and the wind picked up around him, Kabuto grinned and his hands glowed green as he shot forth, determined to kill Naruto, or at least maim him in some unspeakable way. But it was not to be, Naruto's face had become cold and as he stepped forward and thrust his palm out towards Kabuto, the air bullet hit Kabuto square in the face, sending him back with a broken nose. Naruto carried on, he appeared to be dancing, and it could of looked incredibly beautiful if not for the obvious damage it was doing to Kabuto who looked as if he was being pounded by an invisible and unstoppable opponent before he suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke and reappeared at his masters side and applied some blood to the snake contract on Orochimaru's arm. There was a massive burst of smoke, which sent the part of Naruto's brain that wasn't concentrated on fighting onto wondering if all this smoke could be detrimental to his health, and suddenly there stood/laid Manda. Jiraiya and Tsunade, who had apparently been shaken out of her blood induced shock after Naruto's little speech, also slammed their hands down onto the ground and summoned their own personal summons. Naruto jumped up onto the toad bosses head

"Yo boss" he greeted the giant toad who looked up at him and smiled slightly

"Yo Naruto" he greeted back before turning to face the giant snake facing him, and the summoner on top of its head, he pulled his knife from his belt and stood ready. Orochimaru was about to start talking when suddenly two things happened at once that no one saw coming in the slightest. One was that a Naruto clone suddenly appeared behind the two people on the snakes head and slammed a fully formed rasengan down onto its head, and second was that Naruto suddenly seemed to teleport in front of Orochimaru with a manic glint in his eyes and a wild grin on his face

"Surprise!" he shouted and rammed a rasengan into the snake sannin's stomach, forcing him off of the snake summon and towards the ground, a few metres off of the ground he pushed forwards and let the sphere go, much to the shock of the onlookers, and almost a second later, and just before the snake was about to hit the ground, the sphere destabilised and a massive explosion engulfed the snake summoner. Hell, if he wasn't going to hit the ground hard originally, he certainly did then. Naruto smiled wildly as he estimated the force the snake had hit the ground must have been something similar to having a piano fall on top of you from sixty odd feet.

He wasn't surprised when the snake-man/thing sat up and, with the help of his right hand man, got out of the hole

"I'll get you soon enough, Uzumaki" the man growled as they both sank into the ground.

Naruto looked up into the sky and smiled as the cooling breeze brushed past him, the clouds that had been gathering suddenly seemed to dissipate at his victory and Naruto smiled wildly and relaxed as he turned around and walked over to the small group of three people who were looking at him in shock

"Shall we get going?" he asked, snapping them all out of it

"Gaki...how the hell...?" Jiraiya tried to ask him, he smiled

"Well, I tried adding elemental chakra to it, but that was a bit dangerous to my health, so instead I tried to make it so that I could launch it at my enemies" he said, shocking them once again "I found that it was impossible because it would destabilise and explode as soon as it left my hand, so I tried to make it more stable, I found that if I increase the speed of the rotation in the ball itself, then it becomes more stable, and quite a bit more powerful than the original" he told them and his sensei beamed in pride at him, slinging an arm around his shoulder he laughed

"Good work gaki, not only did you learn the damned thing and make it better, but you manage to hold off both Orochimaru and Kabuto" he said "that, I think, is reason enough to drink" he cheered, Naruto just smiled and chuckled at his sensei's antics, the then turned to Tsunade and looked at her smugly

"I guess that means I've won the bet then" he said, she smiled and shook her head, ruffling his hair she laughed and put her arm around his other shoulder

"Yeah yeah gaki, now, sake!" she shouted, Naruto laughed as Shizune attempted to tell Tsunade off and shook his head, absentmindedly wondering about his girls and how they were doing.

After a night of drunkenness on Tsunade and Jiraiya's part, Naruto couldn't get drunk it would seem, and Shizune refused to drink, the group of two sannin's and two apprentices made their way back to Konoha. Tsunade laughed heartily when Naruto told her why Jiraiya hadn't been peeping for the past few days as did Shizune, Jiraiya just huffed and said something about disrespectful students.

The day was beautiful, the sun shone in the sky and a cool breeze stirred the leaves and made the shadows dance as a pair of swallows swooped gracefully overhead, Naruto breathed in deep and sighed happily, enjoying the forest as him and his companions arrived at the gates to Konoha.

After a brief flurry of activity, once Tsunade revealed who she was, Naruto was on the prowl, seeking out his two most precious people on the earth with a determination that made you wonder if he wasn't out to kill somebody.

He eventually found them, in that same old dango stand, he almost groaned at not checking here first, but he swiftly pushed those thoughts aside in favour of more pleasing ones. He formed a shadow clone and gave it some orders. And as one, they crept up behind the two girls and before either could give the other a warning they had sprung, they covered the eyes of their respective girl and before they could protest, kissed them with a gentle possessiveness that neither of the girls had the will or strength to fight against.

After a few moments he pulled away and sat down beside Anko as his clone took the seat next to Kureani, the girls sighed and leant their heads on their respective Naruto as the Naruto's wrapped their arms around them

"Good morning Anko-hime, Kureani-tenshi" he said, making both the girls blush at being called such things, he then reached over and took out the gifts he had brought them, first he placed a small box in front of Anko, who reached over to it, looking at him questioningly, he nodded and she opened it shakily, and gasped when she saw the pendent. Her eyes filled with tears and she wrapped her arms around Naruto's neck and gave him probably the best kiss he had yet experienced in his life. She then pulled away and put it on gently. Kureani leaned over, and she too gasped at the beauty of the necklace. Naruto smiled gently when she turned her questioning eyes to him, and he produced another wrapped box, placing it in front of Kureani, when she opened it and saw the perfume and its name she gasped and practically shot over the table, the clone having dispersed itself after Kureani got up to look at Anko's gift, and glomped Naruto, giving him a kiss that, like Anko's, he would remember for the rest of his life. He then reached back into the bag, not missing the glances the girls shot each other, both wondering if he had indeed brought them both something else

"Here you go" Naruto said as he handed the kimono to Kureani who could only marvel at the quality and colouration of the material, Anko on the other hand was feeling quite awed with the device in her hand, having wanted one for quite some time. Both of the girls had tears in their eyes, and they both kissed him on his cheeks before snuggling up on both side of him. Naruto sighed and looked up, content, and wondering if this could or would last forever.

A week had passed since Tsunade's integration as the new Hokage of Konoha, Sarutobi stepping down graciously, thankful to Naruto after Jiraiya's report that he had been the one to convince her to come back. Tsunade's first order of business had been to make it perfectly clear to the council that they were just that, a council, not the rulers of Konoha or anything of the sort.

Naruto had decided, quite wisely, against telling either of his girlfriends about his fight against Orochimaru and his right hand man Kabuto, and had also publicly threatened Jiraiya against peeking on either of his girlfriends, unless he wanted to lose his most precious thing in the world.

Now, Naruto was sitting at a bar, enjoying the slow, rhythmic music coming from the speakers as he slowly sipped at his sake, Jiraiya was sitting beside him both lost in their own thoughts until Jiraiya finally spoke

"Hey gaki?" he asked, Naruto just grunted in response, "how did you know about Tsunade's meeting with Orochimaru?" he asked the blonde, who sighed and tapped his ear

"Heard you talking about it, I didn't say anything because I wanted to unsettle her, and it worked" he replied and Jiraiya chuckled

"Your one scary ninja, you know that kid?" he asked him and Naruto smiled and shrugged off the praise

"Yeah yeah, whatever you say" he said, making the sannin chuckle as they both went back to their sake. After a few moments of silence, punctuated only by other people and the gentle pulsing music Jiraiya spoke again

"When are you going to ask them?" he said, watching Naruto's reaction out of the corner of his eye, the kid didn't even flinch, he just sighed and closed his eyes in silent contemplation

"I don't know, when things have calmed down I guess, the last thing I need is going out to war with those two on my mind, especially if my enemies were to know my relationship with them, and as all men know, women just can't keep quiet about that sort of thing" he explained, and Jiraiya chuckled and nodded in agreement with his last statement

"True" he responded, silence fell over the pair again like an old comforting blanket. But it was short lived, for no sooner had silence once more descended than Kiba burst into the bar with a wild look on his face

"Naruto!" he shouted upon noticing him, neither he nor Jiraiya even blinked at the sudden explosion of noise, the same couldn't be said about the bartender who'd dropped the glass he was polishing in shock. Naruto turned around with a bored expression

"Yo" he said simply, chucking down another dish of sake before pulling out some cash to pay for his drinks and the broken glass. He patted Jiraiya on the shoulder

"See you later Jiraiya-san" he said, the man nodded in response as Naruto walked over to Kiba who looked flushed from running rather hard

"Sasuke's left the village!" Kiba said before Naruto could ask what was wrong; he sighed heavily and motioned for Kiba to lead on, all the while thinking about the nasty things he was going to do to both the little prick and his sensei when he returned.

Kiba brought him to the gate where the others of the group were waiting, Neji, Shikamaru and Choji all stood ready and waiting for him. He walked up, putting on his jacket as he went; out of all of them he seemed to be the most relaxed; the others all seemed to be practically buzzing with anticipation for such a dangerous mission

"Alright, now that we're all here, here's the layout, Sasuke has left the village, now I know many of you don't know him personally, but as a fellow leaf ninja we have a duty to help him" Shikamaru said in his lazy tone of voice "now, I've been put in charge of this mission, although this will be my first time as the leader of a team so please point out any mistakes I make, alright?" he asked, looking around, they all looked ready "aright then, let's go" he said and with that the group leaped off into the trees.

A few minutes later and Naruto spoke

"Neji and Kiba, you two go at the front of the pack, Kiba can sniff out explosives and the like along with tracking the enemy, Neji can look out for any traps, alright?" he asked and the two people nodded and leapt forth to take the lead at the head of the pack, they were travelling in a loose arrow formation.

As they drew forth they began to encounter more and more traps, eventually Kiba stopped

"They've stopped to rest, looks like they think we're too weak to take them" he growled, Naruto put a halting hand on his shoulder

"They may think that Kiba-san, but please, we must think of a plan first, alright?"He asked Kiba, who calmed himself and nodded, Naruto drew them all around and began to speak

"Okay, here's the plan, first of all I'll send in a shadow clone to trigger off one of the traps, thinking that we're dead they won't be prepared for our next strike. Shikamaru, you bind as many as you can with your shadow, Choji, try and take out as many of them with your families techniques once that's taken care of, the rest of us will be standing by for backup, although keep in minds this is only a basic outline, do not, I repeat, do not engage your target if you will die, okay?" he said, they all nodded, completely serious, Naruto stood up and put his hand in the centre of the group, the rest followed suit

"Alright then me, stay strong and stay safe, let's do this!" he growled and a resounding 'yeah!' from the group later they started the plan.

It was going well, the clones had worked and the group of sound ninja's appeared more relaxed than usual, Naruto had slowed the group to a crawl as they approached, he was wondering whether or not to tell the group about what one of his clones had seen, namely the group, and the fact they were the sound four. He tapped his radio

"Listen people, we might have a slight problem, the group that have Sasuke are all extremely powerful A-class ninja's belonging to Orochimaru's bodyguard squad, I am changing the priorities of this mission with the leaders consent" he said and waited

"Go ahead" the voice of Shikamaru said and Naruto nodded

"Priorities are now as follows; if unable to complete the recovery of one Uchiha Sasuke, you are to destroy, repeat, destroy him and his eyes. If faced with overwhelming odds, flee, I repeat again, flee, do not try to be a hero, I am the strongest here and as such, if I give the order, I will be the one to hold them off while you return for reinforcements" he told the group and was greeted by a empty silence

"All clear?" he asked and a chorus of 'yeses' followed, he sighed

"Okay then, time to begin part two of the plan" he said as everyone got into position

It was silent, no birds were singing, only the barely audible breathing of Naruto could be heard through the mikes of the group as they readied themselves

"Go!" Naruto growled into the headset and listened as Shikamaru whispered his technique, he watched with cold eyes as the technique reached his targets, Naruto had not ordered him to hold off fully initialising it until it was necessary, since there was no way he'd be able to hold his technique if all of them tried to break it at once.

"Go Choji" he said, and he watched the sound ninja's faces as Choji's gigantic fist came out of the trees, all but one managed to jump away, Shikamaru unable to keep them there, instead, focusing on keeping the big one in position as Choji's fist struck him. Naruto watched as the man blocked it but was sent a good three metres back, Naruto gritted his teeth and prepared his technique

"Move Choji!" he shouted, not caring for silence now their cover was blown, Choji's hand swiftly retracted as Naruto let the rasengan go , watching with satisfaction as it struck the guy in the face and exploded, sending him into a rather solid looking tree. Naruto ordered the others to attack as he vanished into the darkness of the surrounding trees.

Naruto watched as him team leapt forth only to be captured by a large dome of solid earth; Naruto growled and prepared himself to strike at the right moment. The rest of the sound had left, taking the barrel with Sasuke in it, with them.

Naruto waited a few more moments before suddenly using a shushin to apparently teleport in front of the sound ninja, grunting as he thrust a rasengan into the man's gut, letting it go it picked him up and spun him rather painfully into a solid rock behind him

"Get out of their guys!" Naruto shouted at the dome, and watched as Kiba and Akamaru broke out of it with one of their family techniques, Naruto never bothered to learn the names, and quickly the team was back together. Suddenly Choji spoke up

"Let me take him" was all he said, Kiba looked at him like he was mad, but he was stopped from saying anything as Naruto put a hand on his shoulder, Naruto looked Choji dead in the eye

"Are you sure?" he asked in complete seriousness, receiving a nod in response he walked forward and grabbed Choji's hand with his own, putting his left hand on Choji's right shoulder he looked him dead in the eye

"Stay safe and stay strong, comrade" he said, patting him once on the shoulder he turned to face the others

"Let's go" he said, the look in his eye telling them all to trust him they all looked at each other and nodded, leaping away into the trees, Shikamaru cast one final look back at his friend as he turned to face his enemy.

They flew through the forest at breakneck speed after the remaining sound ninja's, Naruto transformed and leapt in front of them, looking just like the sound ninja they'd just left behind. He shot forward, easily catching up with the three ninja

"Jirobo you fat-ass, where have you been!?" Tayuya shouted at him, he turned to her

"Ladies shouldn't use such foul language" he growled back at her "and those Konoha brats had more chakra than I thought" he growled at her, she looked at him suspiciously but seemed to buy the ploy and kept going forwards with the rest of the group.

The Konoha ninja's were holding back a way, not wanting to be discovered as they watched Naruto play his part perfectly and the sound ninja's buy it.

A little ways further however, and Tayuya suddenly span round, trying to thrust a kunai in-between Naruto's ribs, Naruto allowed the illusion to drop as he caught her wrist

"Damn, not enough information "Naruto said to himself as he rammed a rasengan into Tayuya's chest, sending her back into a tree, the one that had been carrying the barrel, the one with many arms, tossed it over to Tayuya who was only just getting up, she went to shout something at him, only to notice the serious look on his face, a strange look on his face to be sure

"Go, both of you, this here is the Uzumaki Naruto Orochimaru-Sama warned us about" at that Tayuya took another look at the blonde, only to gasp as she realised the guy was right

"Don't die dumbass" was all she said as she shot off into the trees followed by the last sound ninja. Naruto watched as the many armed thing took up position in a tree and began to spew what looked like golden silk from its mouth, crafting itself an arrow, it shot it down at Naruto who didn't even flinch as his team arrived. He waved his hand and the arrow wobbled and struck the ground suddenly, Naruto grabbed it and examined it, watching as it fell to pieces in his hand

"Chakra strings" he muttered, Neji heard him and walked forward to stand before him, like a soldier in front of a respected commander

"I will stand and fight here, Naruto-san, you and the others move on ahead" Neji said, Naruto looked at him and nodded, gripping his hand like he had Choji he placed his left hand on Neji's right shoulder and looked him dead in the eye

"Stay strong and stay safe comrade, and don't try to be a hero" he said, Neji nodded

"Go" was all he said and the remains of the unit shot off into the forest as Neji took up a stance before his opponent.

Further on and another, unexpected thing, had happened to the remains of the sound team, they had met up with their former leader, he had taken the barrel while the other two stood ready to stop the Konoha ninja's from advancing. Naruto suddenly shot out of the trees landed in front od them, followed swiftly by the rest of his team

"Die" a voice shouted and Naruto turned to watch as one of the sound ninja rushed towards him, before Naruto could move Kiba had leapt forwards and tackled the bastard off of the cliff they were standing on

"Bastard better not die" Naruto growled and he felt a hand on his shoulder

"It's troublesome, but I'll fight the girl, you catch up with Sasuke" Shikamaru told Naruto who put a hand on Shikamaru's shoulder and squeezed

"Stay strong and stay safe comrade, I'll complete this mission, so don't worry about it" he told the lazy Chunin who nodded and Naruto shot off into the dense foliage, now more determined than ever to beat Sasuke to a pulp.

Naruto arrived out in an open field

"Stop!" he growled and the pale man carrying the barrel stopped, turning his head he grunted and put the barrel down

"Uzumaki Naruto" the man said emotionlessly "my master wants you dead" he said as he suddenly shot forwards at a speed Naruto had rarely fought against

"So do a lot of people, but it isn't going to happen anytime soon" Naruto replied and pushed both palms forwards, the pale man couldn't dodge and was struck full force by the air bullets, sending his sprawling backwards

"Let's dance" Naruto growled as he started to send air bullet after air bullet towards Kimimaro who, despite his tremendous speed, couldn't dodge them all. Naruto halted after a few minutes and looked on coldly as Kimimaro lifted himself back up, completely unharmed

"Hmm, you can manipulate you bones, strange, I thought your clan was dead" was all Naruto said before he shot forwards, skilfully dodging the bone tips fired his way, before slamming his hands towards the man as they engaged in a vicious hand-to-hand dance that would of left most spectators in shock at the sheer speed of their movements.

Eventually Naruto landed a solid hit that sent Kimimaro stumbling backwards, suddenly a vile chakra began to leak from the barrel, it suddenly exploded forcing Naruto and Kimimaro to jump away from it, and there stood Sasuke in his second stage form, he took one look at Naruto, sneered and leapt away into the trees. Naruto went to jump after him but was prevented from progressing any further by Kimimaro blocking his way. He was about to reengage the man in mortal combat, but was prevented from doing so when he saw Lee arrive and kick the pale man straight in the face

"Rock Lee reporting for duty" the over hyper Taijutsu master cried, obviously drunk, Naruto shot off

"Take care of him Lee!" he shouted as he leapt after Sasuke, not looking back once as Lee began his fight with the pale man.

Naruto caught up with the Uchiha traitor just as he crossed the river, the location of the greatest battle ever in the history of Konoha, save for the Kyuubi of course.

"Stop, Uchiha Sasuke!" Naruto shouted at the running figure, who stopped and turned around, Naruto sneered at the transformation as Sasuke laughed

"I feel so powerful, I feel amazing!" he shouted, but then the transformation receded and he grinned viciously at Naruto, who suddenly realized that Kakashi had withheld possible vital information from him and his team, he growled as his list of reasons for beating the man half to death and then finding a way to hand him over to Death himself grew in his mind. He turned to Sasuke who was looking at his hand in amazement

"This is it, the power I need to beat him" he looked up at Naruto "and you" he hissed, Naruto grinned madly

"Really?" he asked "you are still weak Sasuke" he said holding out his hands as his bangs covered his eyes in shadow "not all the power in the world is going to change that, you would go to someone else for power, you would become like your brother for revenge" he said, and he watched as Sasuke began to grow more and more irritated "your brother became powerful by himself, I became powerful by myself, all of my friends became powerful through their own will!" he shouted as the wind began to rapidly pick up speed around him "you, my dear Sasuke-chan, are weak beyond belief!" he growled and Sasuke snapped

"Shut up!" he roared as the cursed seal activated "what do you know about sadness or loneliness, you, who's never had to experience loss!" he roared and Naruto laughed as Sasuke charged up a chidori

"My dearest Sasuke-chan, I know of loneliness and I know of pain, I know more than you can ever imagine" he said as Sasuke roared and launched himself towards him

"But yet, that does not excuse you from betraying Konoha, the place where your brother grew strong, and the place we would call home" he growled at the incoming Sasuke, he grabbed the boy's wrist and slammed the chidori into the ground

"Die!" he roared and punched him as hard as he could, sending him down into the water at quite a speed, he slammed into it but managed not to fall in, Naruto grinned manically again and charged up a rasengan, he allowed himself to fall off the cliff, he ran down the side a way before pushing off of it, leaving a dent in the statue where the force of the chakra jump caused the stone to partially implode on itself, he hurtled down towards Sasuke at an unbelievable speed, impacting the water the rasengan exploded, Sasuke only just managed to get out of the blasts radius, watching as Naruto, using his other hand, spun round and flipped round, striking Sasuke with a harsh kick to the midsection that had the young sharingan user coughing up blood, sending him into the valley wall. He picked himself up and flipped through hand-signs, he breathed out and a gigantic stream of fire shot out of his mouth and hurtled towards Naruto, who didn't even blink in fear or shock. Instead he braced himself on the water, his legs apart and his hands out and began to roar as blue chakra started to leak off of him, Sasuke watched in shock as a giant vortex of wind formed around Naruto, absorbing the fire and increasing its strength many times over as it hurtled up towards the sky. Naruto stood in the middle, sweating as he flexed his control of his chakra and brought his hands together, slowly, and pushed forwards slightly, Sasuke could only gasp in awe as the top part seemed to collapse on itself partially, forming a sort of spike, it suddenly shot forwards at an astonishing speed, hurtling towards the Uchiha, who barely had enough time to go into his transformed second state and take to the skies as the firestorm superheated the water he'd just been standing on, causing it to explode spontaneously and release superheated steam. He looked over to Naruto and was shocked to find him standing there, only slightly out of breath and with a rasengan already in his hand and poised to launch at Sasuke

"Die you damned cockroach!" Naruto shouted, throwing the ball of violently swirling energy with enough to speed that it punched through one of Sasuke's newly formed wings before he could get out of the way, Sasuke managed to land on the middle of the statue of Mandra, on top of the fingers. Naruto leaped up the statue of the first Hokage so they were at the same height, then Naruto began to craft another rasengan and Sasuke questioned himself as to just how many of those thing Naruto could make, hell, even with the sharingan he couldn't capture the chaotic nature of the ball, he gasped as it suddenly began to spin faster and faster, shaking in Naruto's hand as he grinned excitedly at Sasuke on more time

"Time to die" he growled leaning down, the ball of energy beginning to pick up material now as the winds around it started to grow stronger and stronger, Sasuke created a chidori and shot off of his perch, determined to kill Naruto before he could do anything else, but it was not to be, Naruto suddenly pushed off of his perch with such force that it shattered the part of the statue he'd been sitting upon and sent him hurtling at Sasuke at speeds to fast to follow, but somehow their attacks still met. A black energy engulfed the area, Sasuke was struggling to hold his attack together when he notice the attack in Naruto's hand begin to rapidly destabilise, he looked at Naruto's grinning face

"Boom" was all he said as suddenly the ball in his hand detonated, sending Sasuke slamming into the statue of Mandra, Naruto managed to brace himself for the impact and managed to jump back off of the statue of the first Hokage and catch Sasuke before he struck the ground and died.

Naruto put him over one shoulder and, after popping a soldier pill, began to walk back to Konoha. Meeting Kakashi on the way there he gave the unconscious boy to the jonin and told him that he'd be speaking to the Hokage about the fat he'd been withholding information vital to both the village and the mission, Kakashi had gulped in fear, and told Naruto that all of his 'comrades' were safely back in the village and that Tsunade was looking over them. Naruto has said nothing but had increased his pace dramatically, almost leaving Kakashi behind.

Naruto's first priority was to see that his comrades were safe, despite the nagging voice in his skull that told him to find his girlfriend's and inform them that he was fine to keep them from worrying, but he shoved it aside, right now he had people to see and an Hokage to talk to.

He had arrived in the hospital to find Shikamaru sitting outside of Choji's room, his head in his one good hand, his other one having a broken finger on it. Naruto sat beside him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder

"How is he?" he asked and Shikamaru shook his head

"He's fine, but I-I just feel..." he trailed off, Naruto nodded in understanding

"I know, you feel like you could have done better, but listen to me" he said, getting Shikamaru to look at him, unshed tears in his eyes "you couldn't have done any better, you were all inexperienced and not used to real battle situations and we had no real idea what we were all going up against, nobody died and we completed the mission, there's really no better outcome for a situation like we were in" he told the lazy shadow user, who smiled gratefully at Naruto

"Cheers Naruto, that...that helps a lot to hear that from you" he said and Naruto smiled at him, patting him once more on the shoulder he walked into Choji's room, a single nurse was tending to his chart, as soon as she saw him she vanished out of the room. Choji cracked an eye open and looked up at Naruto who was standing beside his bed

"Hey captain" he chuckled weakly, Naruto chuckled back

"Good work Choji, I'm glad to see you and everyone else is alive, you did Konoha, your family and me proud, well done" he told the rather skinny and poorly looking Choji who smiled as much as he could at those words

"Cheers" he muttered. His eyes closing, Naruto could tell he was struggling to stay awake, so he put a reassuring hand on Choji's shoulder and squeezed gently

"Rest up and get well again, you've done well today" he told the boy who briefly smiled once more before falling back into unconsciousness. Naruto exited the room and shut the door quietly; throwing a reassuring look towards the still slightly worried Shikamaru he turned as began to walk towards Kiba's room.

He arrived to find his sister, Hana, tending to Akamaru's wounds, Naruto strode in and took stock of Kiba's and Akamaru's conditions, he turned to Kiba first and walked over to stand beside his bed

"Alright man?" Kiba chuckled out, Naruto smiled at him

"Very good work today Kiba-san, you really pulled through, we finished the mission and no one died, that's all that matters, you've made your clan and Konoha proud today" he said, putting a strong hand on Kiba's shoulder and squeezed gently, Kiba looked up at him with a tear in his eye

"Cheers man; that means a lot coming from you for some reason" he said and Naruto smiled at him, looking over at Hana as she stood up, he looked at her seriously

"How will he be?" he asked and Hana smiled

"He'll be fine in a few weeks with plenty of rest" she then looked at him questioningly "why do you care so much?" she asked him and Naruto looked her dead in the eye, completely serious

"I care for my comrades Hana-san, all of them" he told her and she smiled

"That's quite rare" she told him and he smiled

"I'll take that a complement, so thank you" he said bowing to her slightly, he turned to Kiba

"Take your time resting up, you and all the others deserve it" he said as he walked out, just hearing Kiba's response of

"Yes captain" before he was out of ear shot, heading towards the worst off of them all, Neji. He arrived and knocked on the door, hearing a muffled 'come in' he walked into the room to find a paler than usual Neji looking at him with respect in his eyes, the same as the others, Tsunade was also there, watching him as he walked over to Neji and smiled down at him

"Very good work today Neji, I will tell you the same thing I told the others, you've done your clan, me and Konoha proud this day" he told the prodigy who smiled weakly

"You get some rest now, I'll take care of the rest" he told the boy who nodded and fell asleep immediately after that was said. Naruto turned his attention to Tsunade

"I need to speak with you immediately about the mission" he told the sannin who nodded and they both walked out of the hospital.

Once in her office, Tsunade sat and turned to him, she looked extremely tired from having done so many operations in such a short space of time

"You look tired Tsunade-sama, so I shall be brief, it came to my attention during the mission that Kakashi-san had been withholding information from myself and my teammates regarding the Uchiha's curse seal" he said, and Tsunade narrowed her eyes

"Very well, I'll take your word for it and have him brought before me tomorrow, what about Sakura?" she asked and Naruto nodded "very well, is that all?" she asked and he nodded, and then smiled, pulling out a bottle of sake and placing it in front of Tsunade

"Take a break Tsunade-hime, you need it" he said as Tsunade looked up at him like a believer would look up at Kami herself before he vanished in a burst of speed.

Naruto was exhausted having not taken a moment to rest himself since he'd arrived back at the village with Sasuke. He suddenly heard two people running towards him and turned round only to be suddenly tackled to the ground by an overjoyed Anko and Kureani who began to smother him in kisses. Eventually they stopped and stood up above him, looking none too pleased as he picked himself up

"So?" Anko asked him, looking angry, Naruto noticed she was wearing the gift he'd gotten her, and he sniffed the air realising Kurenai was wearing the scent he'd gotten her

"So?" he replied, sounding as tired as he was, his response only riled the girls up further

"So..." Kureani ground out "where were you?" she asked and he sighed

"I was checking up on my soldiers, who, for your information, have all come back with serious injuries save for one" he said and the girls anger seemed to lessen but not dissipate

"Why couldn't you of checked on us beforehand then?" Anko demanded, Naruto sighed again

"My comrades conditions were more important at that moment in time, I had a responsibility to check up on them" he explained and the girls grew calmer at the explanation, Naruto yawned loudly "now can I please go home?" he asked sounding completely wiped out "I'm exhausted" he said, the girls smiled at each other and, picking him up, vanished with him to Anko's apartment and fell asleep next to him, needless to say, Naruto had a very good night's sleep.

The next day the sky was overcast and gray, the rain just waiting to fall. Naruto was standing to the side of the Hokage, in front of her stood Kakashi and an upset looking Sakura

"Naruto has brought it to my attention" the Hokage began "that you both withheld vital information from him" she said, Kakashi spoke as Sakura just looked down at the floor guiltily

"I really don't see what I did wrong, Naruto still completed the mission and no one died, no harm no foul" Kakashi said, Tsunade was about to retort when Naruto held up a hand, halting her

"Well then Kakashi, if I had been held up, and one of my other teammates had gone after Sasuke and died, what would have happened then?" he asked, Kakashi just looked at him, bored

"But it didn't" he retorted, Naruto sighed "what's your excuse, Sakura-san" he asked, she looked up at him, her eyes holding tears

"I-I asked K-Kakashi-sensei, a-and he t-t-told me not t-to tell y-you" she stuttered out, nearly breaking down into tears, Naruto walked towards her, she flinched back, expecting him to hit her, instead he hugged her, she gasped in shock and tears began to roll down her face

"It's alright Sakura, you didn't do anything wrong, you did what any good soldier would do, followed orders" he said and she broke down, crying in his arms. He turned to Kakashi

"That proves it Kakashi-san, not only did you effectively place a number of Konoha ninja in danger but you also gave you subordinate a completely unjustifiable order" he told him, Kakashi scoffed and turn to face an angry Tsunade

"That's it Kakashi, I am officially taking you off of the on duty list of ninja and am giving you six months of nothing but D-ranks" she said, stamping the paper she looked back up at his shock eye

"Now get out before I let Naruto there kill you" she growled and Kakashi vanished in a swirl of leaves, not looking happy.

Sakura had stopped crying and was rubbing her eyes, Naruto let go of her and turned to Tsunade

"I think you should take Sakura here on as an apprentice" he suddenly told the sannin who looked slightly shocked at that sudden request, as was Sakura

"You sure she's ready gaki?" she asked, Sakura opened her mouth to retort but Naruto stopped her

"I guarantee you" he growled and Tsunade grinned

"Fine then gaki, girl" she said, getting Sakura's attention "you better be ready for hell, I won't go easy on you" she told the pink haired girl who grinned like a maniac and nodded, grabbing Naruto in a tight hug and thanking him profusely before running off to go rub it in Ino's face. Naruto smiled and, bowing to Tsunade, disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

A few hours later and he was back again, only this time he was inside of the council chambers and Tsunade was talking

"During the recent mission to recover Uchiha Sasuke, which was to be led by Shikamaru, Uzumaki Naruto showed signs of great leadership, I have already spoken to the other members of the mission and gathered their statements, they are in front of you now" she said as the council members looked through the statements, suddenly Hiashi raised a hand, Tsunade nodded and he stood, looking at Naruto who was standing at ease in the middle of the chamber, head held high, an air of defiance around him

"Uzumaki-san, it says here, according to all of the statements, that just before you attempted to attack the enemy you issued a priority change, is that correct?" Naruto nodded "what exactly did you change those priorities too then?" he asked and Naruto sighed, already seeing where this was going

"I stated, that if we deemed it highly unlikely we would be able to retrieve Sasuke Uchiha, that we were to kill him and destroy his eyes instead" he stated, and some of the members gasped in shock at that

"You also gave your men the order that, if they deemed the success of the mission highly improbable, they were to run and you would cover their retreat, is that correct?" he asked, Naruto narrowed his eyes at the man

"Silence yourself Hiashi, I will not have you speak ill of me or my men, I gave that order because I valued my men's lives over that of one stupid weak Uchiha's "he growled out, startling some of the council, Hiashi bristled

"How dare you..." he started only to be cut off by Naruto

"Easily you scum; I took over leadership of that mission due to the fact that I deemed it necessary since I had the greater experience dealing with mission of that level of difficulty, I gave those orders due to fact I didn't have enough information to make a justified opinion and I erred onto the safe side of caution, I deemed that Orochimaru must not receive the Uchiha's eyes no matter what, I gave the order for retreat and for me to protect them due to that fact I deemed myself to be of a higher level in both power and experience over my fellow soldiers, now..." he said turning to the Hokage "if that is all, I would like to return to my soldiers to see how they are coming along and anyway" he said, glaring coldly at Hiashi "I believe I have said all that I need to" he said and Tsunade nodded

"Very well Uzumaki-san, you may leave" she said and with that, he vanished in a swirl of leaves, she then turned to the council

"Let's get one thing straight, I don't care what you stupid fucks say, I am going to promote that boy, and you can't do anything about it am I clear?" she asked harshly, most of the council grumbled, but those whose children had been on the mission, nodded clearly, having listened to how well Naruto had done on the mission, and how he had been willing to sacrifice his life for them, including how their children had spoken about him with respect in their voices, they had gained quite a bit of respect for the boy. Tsunade had been most surprised to find though, that on the civilian council, Sakura's mother, probably one the most influential people on it, had apparently heard what the boy had done for her daughter and her attitude towards him had done a complete flip, she now openly supported him, leading many others to follow her example, like sheep.

It was almost a week later when it was announced; Naruto stood up on stage, and accepted the Chunin flak jacket with a bow and a grateful smile, as he put it on his friends, and a large part of the village who had heard of his role in the mission bring back their precious Uchiha, cheered loudly for him, he waved and thanked them and then stepped down from the platform and walked towards Kureani and Anko, they watched as he stopped before them and produced two identical dark blue boxes, their breaths caught and tears blurred their eyes as Naruto opened the boxes to reveal two beautiful rings that shone beautifully in the mid afternoon light, Anko's was a dark green emerald and Kureani's was a dark almost blood red ruby, he sunk to one knee, many of the female populous were close to tears at what was occurring, and quite a few of the men admired the courage the kid had to do this in front of the whole of Konoha

"Kureani-hime, Anko-hime, would you, my two most important people in the whole world, do me the greatest honour, and marry me?" he asked, the girls had tears running down their faces as they kissed him wholeheartedly, once they pulled away he slipped the rings onto their fingers and embraced them, Konoha cheered.

After that rather touching show, Shikamaru and Choji had met up with Ino in their training ground

"Can you believe it?" Ino said irritably "Naruto got Chunin and no one else, that's so unfair!" she whined, Shikamaru turned to her, a cold look on his usually lazy face

"Ino, shut up" he growled, startling her with his bluntness, she looked at Choji who also held the same look on his face

"I won't have you disrespecting Naruto-san because of petty jealousy, if you ask me he should of been promoted to jonin, he's done enough to deserve it, he saved Sarutobi-sama, defeated Garaa before he could damage Konoha, brought back Tsunade-sama, and kept us all alive during the mission, he even visited us every day afterwards to make sure we were alright" he said, taking a deep breath, he locked eyes with her and what she saw there was something she'd never forget and would wonder about for a good while after the meeting, complete and utter respect and trust for a person, Shikamaru then spoke

"Some commanders never earn your respect" he said "but from the moment he took control, the moment he opened his mouth, hell, the moment I saw him on that mission, he had mine and everyone else's complete and utter respect" he said and with that him and Choji began to walk away, before he left he turned to her once more "please think about it Ino-san, I would hate to lose our friendship over something as pointless as jealousy" and with that said he and Choji turned and walked away, leaving Ino to think about what she'd just heard.

Later on that day, in a bar with his friends, Naruto received pats on the back and congratulations from them all. He sat at a table with those from the mission to retrieve Sasuke, now that they were all out of hospital, and stood up, holding his glass high

"I would like to offer a toast" he started, getting their attention "to all of you who did your clans, your families, me and Konoha proud" he said and the others all cheered for that. Shikamaru then stood up, surprisingly, and held up his own glass

"It's troublesome, but I would also like to offer a toast, to the one who got us all through that mission and who helped all of us out afterwards, a true leader, commander and friend, Uzumaki Naruto" he said and a massive cheer rose up from the table, Naruto just smiled sheepishly and took it in his stride, laughing along with rest of his friends though out the night.

Later that night though, he found himself sitting next to a slightly drunk Kiba

"Kiba-san?" he asked

"Huh?" Kiba responded intelligently

"I've been meaning to ask you, but on that mission, when that guy attacked me, why'd you tackle him off of the cliff we were on?" he asked curiously, Kiba seemed to think on it for a while

"I don't know, I think it's like the reason we all respect you so much as a commander" he said, then he looked away, looking slightly sheepish "it's like you were part of my pack" he said, Naruto laughed good naturedly and flung his arm around Kiba's shoulder

"Good to hear, now, more sake!" he shouted amongst loud cheers.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yo people, sorry about the really slow update, been a bit stuck for ideas and bogged down in work for a while. Anyway, keep the reviews coming; I really appreciate them, oh yeah, and tell me if I made any mistakes so I can fix them, cheers.