Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I wouldn't be publishing it on a website, that's for damned sure.

I won't bore you with trivial nonsense before the story even begins, so please, sit back, relax and enjoy!

It was rather quiet, Naruto thought. It was a warm, sunny day, a small breeze rustling through the limbs and boughs of the trees of the forest. But still they made no noise, no leaf sighing in the breeze, no branches creaking or moaning. The animals were also notably absent, by all rights the forest should have been teeming with all forms of wildlife on a day like this but they had seemingly disappeared without a trace. Not that he could blame them. Despite all of his bravado and boasts he always felt a nagging apprehension before the start of every battle, of every fight. That same apprehension seemed to pervade the very air coupling with the strange quiet to create a truly unsettling atmosphere.

"All infiltration squads, this is the five minute mark to mission start," The mission coordinator stated over the radio, the woman's voice a near perfect monotone. Uzumaki Naruto turned around and gave a cocky, wolfish smile to the group of men and women behind him and held up all five digits of his right hand. There was no need for him to speak and the ninjas that he commanded today had served with him various times throughout the war.

It had been two years and then some since the Fourth Great Shinobi War had begun and Naruto had grown both physically and mentally with it. Nearing the great age of eighteen Naruto stood almost even with Kakashi, his long blonde spikes, which he now held in a small pony tail, made up the difference. After out growing his second favorite set (cause face it, the set he wore when he was a genin was the best) of orange track suits he decided that it was time for a change.

He kept the dark red trench coat with the black flame trim that Shima and Fukasaku gave him right before his battle with Pain. In keeping with the trench coat's darker colors he now wore a custom made tactical vest, made in the style of Konoha chunin vests, which his friends had given him for his seventeenth birthday. It was mostly black with white trimming and on its back was a slightly larger version of Uzumaki clan symbol, the spiral. Underneath the vest he wore a simple black long sleeved t-shirt which covered a light layer of chainmail, the t-shirt had long stripes of a darker orange (Naturally he would never do away with his beloved orange) color that ran from his shoulder to the ends of the cuffs.

One of the biggest changes to his attire also attributed to the changes in his fighting style. He wore on both arms a pair of bracers that covered from his forearms to his forefingers. They were a gift from, of all people, Gai and Lee after Naruto had once asked for help in improving his Taijutsu style and he had "graduated" from their intensive training courses. It was a truly well thought out gift as they complimented his move-fast-and-hit-hard style of combat.

They were made of a type of steel that had a special compound mixed in during the refining process that let it absorb a person's chakra many times greater than normal steel would. The bracers also had a piece of armor that extended over his fingers and came to a sharp point so that when Naruto made a fist he would actually have a short blade to use instead of just his fists. After a bit of trial and error Naruto also figured out how Asuma could use his chakra to leap off the blade of his trench knives effectively extending their reach by almost a foot. Because his bracers had more material and thus more chakra absorption than Asuma's trench knives he could effectively create blades of pure wind chakra that extended over a foot and a half from his hands.

"All squads, this is the three minute mark to mission start," Said the mission coordinator. Naruto made held up three of his fingers casually and there was a slight bustle of activity behind him, although still very quiet. His squad was checking their equipment, making sure that kunai holders were fully stocked, they had the proper allotment of shiriken, those that had blades made sure that they were both safely fastened to their person and that they were capable of being easily drawn. Naruto himself double checked to make sure that his bracers were securely fastened to his arms.

The war with Madara was neither pretty nor clean. The first attacks made by Madara devastated the countries of Hot Springs and Frost, and although the major villages in those countries had been evacuated the joint shinobi forces had never expected that the main forces of Madara had the ability to travel underground.

They were virtually undetectable. The civilian casualties were already terrible when the first responders got there and only got worse as constant reinforcements from both sides quickly escalated the attack into a major battle. The Joint Shinobi Forces took a heavy blow that day as many lives were given to ensure the survival of the various civilians. The one good outcome of that battle was that it cemented the camaraderie of armies of the Shinobi Forces. In fighting and dying together individuals forgot where the man beside them came from.

It certainly helped make the next few months a bit more bearable as Madara and Kabuto's forces began a series of surgical strikes against the various countries. Attacks aimed not at the fighters themselves but at their supply lines and at the civilians, moves to lower the moral of the people and the fighters. That was the one advantage Madara and Kabuto had over the Joint Shinobi Forces; they didn't need to be concerned over the welfare of their troops, they just had to stay alive and they would succeed through attrition. But then the tide turned practically all on its own.

In all the chaos and death and fighting almost everyone had forgotten about Yamato. Everyone except for Naruto it seemed once he learned what had happened to his minder on that bumpy day inside the gigantic turtle and everyday when he wasn't at the front lines he constantly reminded Tsunade about it, about how they had to go and find him. She was sympathetic of course; she had been in his situation a few times before with her lover Dan and with Jiraiya but she couldn't promise him anything, not when the enemy was hitting them so hard.

But while Naruto was attempting to petition Tsunade, the man himself had not been sitting idle. Yamato was attached to the Stalk of the Gedo Mezo and connected to each and every Zetsu that had been spawned from the Gedo Mezo to date, their increased strength being pulled from his very being. However there was one thing that neither Madara nor Kabuto took into account that often times connections run both ways. Once Yamato was able to get his bearings he soon discovered the link between himself and all of the Zetsus. With a bit of tinkering he found that he could, from time to time, control a single Zetsu for a limited amount of time before the strain began to be too much.

With this potentially lethal ability a plan began to form, one that was probably even more dangerous than anything he had ever done (well, there was that one time…) given all the uncertainties that it involved. Mainly, would he wake up when he pulled himself out? And once his control over the Zetsu was gone what would it do? So many unanswerable questions floated around his mind but he knew that he would slowly be killing his comrades the longer he stayed. However he also knew he couldn't just jump right into it, he had to wait until he had a reasonably good chance of success to even attempt it.

And then the chance he had been waiting so long for fell into his lap. He felt it through the link when Madara had commanded nearly all of the Zetsus, from within the fortress and from the countries where they were harassing the shinobi armies, to move to a location just several miles away from Kumogakure. This left the fortress with barely a skeleton guard to protect it and the perfect opportunity for Yamato. Once he was sure that the horde was a good distance away he enacted his plan.

Once he had control of his desired Zetsu, Yamato made its way towards where he was implanted as non-suspicion arousing as possible, and given that he had not run into any other Zetsus he could only assume that he was successful. Once his Zetsu was standing in front of his still form he began to pry at the edges of the stalk where his body was, loosening it so that his Zetsu could pull him out quickly. He figured that he wouldn't be able to retain enough control over the Zetsu as more and more of his body was pulled out of the Stalk so he was trying to set it up so that when he pulled it would only take one big heave.

After some time the pressure was starting to mount behind his eyes letting him know that he was close to his limit on this particular Zetsu and he couldn't afford to take another one. He quickly set his Zetsu so that it had a firm hold on his shoulders and then had it pull with all of its strength. And then utter blackness overcame him without any warning. Of the few times Yamato told Naruto his story he would go quiet and stare off into space until Naruto prompted him to continue onward, and he was never told what Yamato saw while in the dark. A part of Naruto told him that Yamato wasn't sure either. He was able to wake up and make his way out of the base from there, not even running into any Zetsus on his way.

Naruto had seen first hand what had happened when Yamato had pulled himself out of the Stalk of the Gedo Mezo. The place that Madara was hitting with all his might was Kumogakure, home of A, the Raikage and supreme commander of the Shinobi forces. Madara's attack came as a surprise to everyone but Kumo wasn't completely defenseless either. Each of the major villages contributed a sizable portion of the forces to the shinobi army but they hadn't left their homes vulnerable. On top of the original Garrison defending Kumo Naruto and Killer Bee were also there, possibly why the attack was so heavy.

They were the reason why Kumo had lasted until reinforcements came because while they had two thousand defending Kumo, Madara had nearly eighty thousand at his command along side the Shinobi that Kabuto could resurrect. It was a long and hard battle for Killer Bee and Naruto and in the end they were tired and out of Chakra and about to be over run when suddenly all of the Zetsus just stopped. Right there, inches away from Naruto and Bee, their eyes were distant and unfocused. Naturally that was when A came tearing through the place with the mustered might of all four corps of the Shinobi army right behind him.

From that point on it couldn't even be called a battle and more like an execution and Madara was on the back foot having to rely on more and more on Kabuto, something that Naruto knew had to be irking the man as he had yet to see the two of them working together in the same relative space meaning that they didn't trust each other. The Zetsus hadn't been entirely neutralized. They were still very deadly; they just weren't as fast or as strong as they were, probably reverting to their pervious levels of strength and speed.

"All Infiltrations squads," Said the communications Kunoichi right at the one minute to mission mark, "Your commander-General Gaara." This made Naruto raise an eyebrow while there was a bit of static flowing over the transmitter in his ear as it the microphone on the other end was transferred to the aforementioned person. Gaara rarely spoke before missions began; the time when he took command initially at the start of the war was the only notable exception.

"All strike teams this is the Commander General," Gaara's voice suddenly announced from over the radio. Gaara had the kind of presence that when he spoke you couldn't help but stop what you were doing and listen, probably because he didn't speak at all unless absolutely necessary. All around Naruto the members of his strike team stopped moving, stopped readying weapons and checking equipment and just stood still so they could hear the words of their Commander General. "This is something you already know but I just wanted to reiterate it," he said, his voice always in the near monotone that everyone knew.

Without warning a wave of sand the size of a moderate village rose up and, seemingly of its own accord, slammed into the mountain stronghold. Fierce gales of wind erupted from that attack, swinging the sand around the edges of the mountain and into the open ground in front Naruto and his team. It looked like in that first initial attack the whole northern face of the mountain had been swallowed by the sand. Then followed, if you looked just hard enough, a series of flashing lights followed by forks of electrical discharges jumping up from the clouds of sand and then deep reverberations, the shock waves of the massive lightning attacks; the Raikage's follow up punch to Gaara's first strike.

"Everyone, go and get our brother back," Gaara commanded, high winds whistling in the receiver of his microphone. Naruto couldn't help but smile, if that wasn't a signal to attack then what was? He leapt forward and without even looking back at his strike ushered one single command.

"Go!" with that he and nine other men and women ran onto the flatlands that comprised the western approach to the mountain, normally a dangerous task given the open terrain but they had barely left the cover of the forest when they were obscured by the sands of Gaara's attack. They could see less than a foot in front of them and had to keep their mouths and eyes covered from the sand but they also had a sensor-nin, Taka, up front so he could forewarn his teammates of any sort of ambush. While it was their commander controlling the sand, a general attack on this scale was hard for anyone to control and so it had the effect of them willingly walking into a sandstorm.

Aside from the dangers of the sand attack they also had to worry about attacks from the enemy, the less than perfect visibility meant that the hordes of Zetsu and the various resurrected Shinobi skilled in assassination could use it to their advantage. The suddenness of the attack did work in their favor; it would take the enemy moments to properly react to the attack, to decide whether to split their forces and deal with the obvious frontal attack or to keep their forces close to deal with the flanking attack they knew would be sure to come.

Suddenly calling out in warning Taka jumped to one side just as a pure white fist erupted from the ground where he had been standing. Naruto swept forward, his left arm encased in wind chakra swept his arm, blade extended, in an arc through the midsection of the unfortunate Zetsu as it drew itself out of the ground. Not even looking at the body that he left behind Naruto quickly spun around and lifted his right arm in a forearm block. Steel on steel chimed as his attacker, Momochi Zabuza appeared out of virtually nowhere. Both men recoiled from the unsuccessful attack and Zabuza jumped back into the encompassing sands while Naruto's arm was tingly and slightly numb.

Naruto stood still listening, the harsh winds of Gaara's sand storm screeched through the air, almost drowning out the desperate struggles of his squad as they dealt with the other ambushers. Suddenly there was a soft sound behind him, almost lost in the storm, making his instincts scream in warning. Naruto ducked and rolled, the massive slab of steel Zabuza called a sword sweeping right where his neck should have been.

"Brat," Zabuza commented as he pursued Naruto, his sword slashing and hacking while Naruto dodged and blocked, though there was more of the former and less of the latter as the force behind the blows numbed his arms.

"Stop calling me that," Naruto groused, sliding under another sweeping attack and past Zabuza's guard. His hand went straight into the man's chest and out his back, his hand covered in chakra and dust.

"To obvious brat," Zabuza said as he delivered a knee strike to Naruto's stomach, while Naruto's hand was still in his chest. What Zabuza was referring to was his control seal, the mechanism that lets Kabuto control all of the resurrected ninja. It was devastating in the beginning when the Shinobi forces first encountered the resurrected ninjas. It ravaged the morale of the various ninja who they had once called brothers or sisters but they were also devastating in that they could not be destroyed so easily. It didn't matter what vital areas they hit, how many techniques they threw at them, the resurrected would just reform and carry on whatever path of destruction Kabuto sent them on.

At first it was believed that the only way to defeat them was to either seal away the soul of whomever they were fighting which wasn't always practical because those who could accomplish such a thing were hard pressed to do so in a battlefield. The second method was to bind the physical body down but that proved to be only a temporary remedy as either the binder ran out of chakra, they broke their bonds, or, ultimately, Kabuto would just recall them and then re-summon them somewhere else.

Naruto growled as he jumped back from Zabuza, the strike hadn't been all that powerful due to their close quarters and the mail shirt under his uniform had absorbed the majority of the blow. "I don't have time for this," he said, closing his eyes for a moment. Seeing that moment of weakness a number of commands inlaid in the control seal overtook Zabuza and he found himself dashing forward against his will, moving as fast as he could to strike Naruto. But he knew he would fail, knew that he would be defeated in less than a second once he saw that pose. It happened the last four times he fought the brat.

Just as Zabuza swung his blade down Naruto was encompassed in a golden light, his entire body covered in a powerful yellow chakra with the odd symbols that have come to be known as the marks of the Rikudo Sennin forming around his navel and neck. Right after the change an ethereal claw shot out from the coat of chakra surrounding his body and caught the sword mere inches from his face.

"I'm sorry to do this to you again Zabuza," Naruto said, he then plunged his right hand into the man's left thigh and pulled out a kunai with a piece of paper attached to it. As soon as he did that a coffin appeared, closed up around Zabuza and puffed out of existence in a cloud of smoke. Naruto destroyed the piece of paper almost as an afterthought as he commanded seven claws from the envelope of chakra around his body out into the surrounding walls of sand. He didn't need to see where the enemies were, because when he accesses Kyuubi's chakra he could sense a whole host of things, far more than just chakra. He could sense a person's emotions, their intentions, their will and the Zetsu clones had a very repugnant will.

Seven meaty thumps later eight forms came into view around him; most were barely scratched but slightly winded while two had larger wounds that would need attending before they could move on. While his group quickly fixed each other up Naruto noticed that they were a member of his group. "What happened to Taka?" he asked. The medic of the squad, a young man named Juu from the Hidden Waterfall village from the look of his gear, answered without looking up.

"There was a second Zetsu waiting when he jumped away from the first, he had no time to react," he said. Naruto didn't say anything, just nodded at the medic. This wasn't the first person he had lost in a big battle, and if the war kept going the way it was he wouldn't be the last either. He had learned to deal with the loss as only one with hardened experience can but that wasn't to say that it didn't eat at him when he had a moment to himself.

Once the last person was healed they set off again, the sands of Gaara's attack were finally starting to subside and the loud sonic booms were starting to become more and more common.

"Man, the Raikage is really starting to go to town," muttered one of Naruto's team as they came up to the rock wall base of the mountain they were assaulting. As they reached the base they began to climb the way only shinobi (and samurai too) could, by not even stopping and running straight up.

"Of course he would, his brother's in here somewhere," replied another, a young woman from Cloud. She was about to say something else but a particularly violent attack struck just overhead making the whole mountain tremble, causing the kunoichi to lose concentration and thus control over her chakra and begin a deadly tumble down its sheer wall. Naruto reacted without thinking and gathered up the Kyuubi's chakra, shooting out an arm and catching the falling woman before she barely fell a hundred feet.

He pulled her back up to his spot and placed her gently on the rock wall where she replaced her footing. A very faint blush graced her cheeks, though it was almost hidden by her dusky skin tone that was almost exclusive to Lightning Country, as she nodded her thanks to him and he wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't also felt her gratitude and ... appreciation for his physical attributes. Naruto almost sighed. Another fan to his already sizeable following was something that he really didn't want.

Damn the Kyuubi and its extra sensory powers!

"Enough chatter, keep your mind focused on the mission at hand. Killer Bee is counting on us," Naruto said, firmly ignoring the Kunoichi. The mission objective was simple, save Killer Bee. Actually getting into the mountain fortress that may or may not actually be holding Bee that no scouting party has ever returned from was anything but simple. The only reason they were committing such a large force and show of power was that it was the most heavily guarded enemy instillation within range of Killer Bee's abduction.

Naruto and his team were one of six specialist teams sent into the interior while Gaara and the Raikage led a force of a thousand men and women making a lot of noise hoping to draw enough of the enemy's attention so that the infiltration teams would have a chance slightly better than next to impossible in finding and extracting Killer Bee. Naruto personally felt that all of the Kages should be here at this battle, they alone would have increased the mission's success nearly ten times but as it were the Mizukage and Tsukikage felt that it would be a waste, that there wasn't enough reliable intelligence to make it worth while.

Tsunade and the leader of the Samurai nation, Toshiro Mifune, remained neutral when the issue was brought up, they wouldn't give the attack their blessing but they also felt that if there was such a chance that Killer bee was there that Madara and Kabuto could not get their hands on the Hachibi. There was no stopping the Raikage from committing himself to the cause of rescuing his brother and he would have committed almost all of Cloud's forces as well but Gaara had been able to talk him out of it once he also pledged himself to Bee's rescue. Gaara was the field general of all Shinobi forces so if a major attack on an enemy base was to occur then he would have to be there.

Naruto himself had to fight nearly tooth and nail to get involved in the attack. He knew that he could be captured but with an attack going on and Madara and Kabuto attempting to draw out the Hachibi they wouldn't have a lot of attention to spare in capturing him. In the end he even threatened that they couldn't stop him that he would just flash to the battlefield once it was started. Naturally such a declaration earned him a scolding from Tsunade and a tick in the temple from the Tsukikage. The Mizukage didn't careless, despite having Naruto on her 'must have' list, whether he went or not, at the very least it would ensure Madara's and Kabuto's attention were on the battle and not elsewhere.

After a few moments of scaling the mountain wall they came upon a proper ledge, wide enough for one person to walk on and sturdy enough to withstand the Raikage's bombardment. Once all of his team members were on the ledge and the immediate surroundings were checked for hidden Zetsus Naruto picked a direction and moved on, his team following behind. There were several near misses, boulders falling, bits of the ledge giving way underfoot, the usual, until they finally found a crevice that was large enough for a man to walk through. It was pitch black inside the crack so with a gesture of his hands everyone in the team drew out some chemical glow sticks, the kind you snap to activate.

Naruto took one of his own glow sticks and threw it down the passage way. It clattered and rolled to a halt some 30 feet away from the entrance, its eerie green glow showed that the walls and floor were blank of any trigger seals for traps. The medic looked at Naruto, giving a questioning look, whom just shrugged his shoulders and took the first step in. Once he reached the glow stick that he threw he stooped to pick it and as he was coming back up he came face to face with the half face of a Zetsu.

"Shit," was all the time he had to say before the Zetsu fell on him, its inhumanly sharp teeth finding his jugular. The rest of his team didn't have time to react either, as they had already been killed. But as the Zetsus were getting up from their kills, there was a sharp sound, like a balloon popping and suddenly all of the bodies disappeared into clouds of smoke. The two Zetsu closest to the entrance were the only ones to know what was coming afterwards.

"Katon: Karyuu Endan no jutsu!"

Kamatsuchi was dead, this much he was allowed to think. Like any true Samurai he gave his life to protect the lives of his people and his lord only to be resurrected by that snake (literally) Kabuto. At first he tried to rebel against him, to kill him but, as in the old stories, Kabuto's mind was simply faster than his blade and had placed him into this sorry state. He only spoke when a direct answer was needed and in the tersest way possible, he stood around at his designated guard point waiting for something to happen.

Whatever portions of his mind that weren't under Kabuto's control practically screamed in joy when something finally did happen, though those portions were a very, very small minority and didn't even register as a twitch anywhere on his body.

When jets of flame suddenly came spewing out of the small crevice that served as the south entrance, Kamatsuchi drew his swords and waited for the intruders, aiming to ambush them. He stood still, swords at the ready watching the outline of the crevice, an undead, inhuman, and indestructible killing machine. But he still had a human body.

The intense light that the flames gave off hurt his eyes, though that was one of the portions of the mind that Kabuto turned off, but they also stunted his night vision, and so he couldn't see until his eyes readjusted. The only help that he got were these odd chunks that were still burning spread out around the fissure; they did have the downside of causing his eyes to adjust slower than was wanted.

Suddenly he didn't have to worry about night vision as a pair of kunai came whistling from the fissure to strike him in the eyes. He would be blind for a few moments at least because of this but he didn't care, he merely charged forward regardless of the lack of vision swinging his swords as he did, his chakra pouring into the blades extending and sharpening them to lethal lengths. His charge didn't last for more than several steps as there were several crunching impacts on his chest and then a sudden sense of vertigo overcame him as his feet no longer touched the ground. He might have been more effective if Kabuto let him have the thought to actually pull the kunai out. Or maybe he wanted it that way.

As Kamatsuchi pulled himself from the wall he finally made a sound. He opened his mouth and let out the highest pitched screech that Naruto or anyone on his team had ever heard. Even most children couldn't reach that high a pitch let alone from a grown man of his size. It continued on for several moments until finally Naruto had overcome the sound and tore Kamatsuchi apart. He started at the throat but the damage was done. Even as he was tearing the control talisman to shreds Naruto began to sense a torrent of presences coming at them from all sides.

"Shit!" he said turning to his team. "Everyone form up, we're about to have a lot of company!" everyone snapped to attention at the urgency in his voice. "Ray, Genzo, and Tomi, take the left flank. Hiyori, Gurusu, and Furyuu, take the right. Ten and I will have the center and Juu will stay back to support whoever needs it. Stay focused people."

To the normal eye it looked like nothing was happening that nothing was coming. But Naruto had worked with several members of this team before and they all knew when to trust his judgments and to snap into action when he gave the order. They didn't waste any time, they all jumped into their positions at the instant he was done giving orders. As soon as the last person was in position a wave of white bodies broke the surface of the stone floor, wicked smiles and inhumanly sharp teeth.

Naruto had no need to issue the command to attack for as soon as the first heads broke the bed rock he and his team let loose. Fire, lightning, and wind lashed out from their line, killing the white Zetsus by the dozens. The ones that were able to run the gamut of destruction were almost immediately cut down by Naruto and his ethereal claws. Once the initial wave of attacks from the three ninjutsu specialists wore off more and more of the Zetsus were able to get through and Naruto found himself hard pressed to keep up with the near endless waves of enemies. However, once the Zetsu clones reached the battle line the Taijutsu and weapon specialists went to town and soon bits and pieces of them were flying every which way.

They fought on for what seemed like only seconds, the near endless tides of white never slowing but at the same time they were keeping up with the attacks. That is until a sudden change in the enemy's attack pattern. Naruto sensed a shift in the way the Zetsus were coming at them, like a wave the direction they were coming from altered.

"Up and to the left!" He roared over the chaos, pointing in the direction where the most concentrated front was coming from. There was no hesitancy within his comrades as they obeyed and renewed their attacks with vigor, focusing on the area he had pointed out. Before any of the Zetsus had a chance to emerge the converging attacks blasted away layers of the stone ceiling, flaming chunks of Zetsu falling with chips and fragments of rock. With the first rank of attackers decimated the second rank emerged right after them, giving no thought to their fallen. They just charged wildly into the next wave of attacks, as did the wave right after them and the wave after them. Naruto was getting frustrated, they had just barely gotten into the stronghold and already his team was starting to wear down. If they were somehow able to get past this onslaught they probably wouldn't have it any easier because by now the entirety of the stronghold's defenses had to know they were here.

Things took a turn for the worst when a passage opened on the far side of the room introducing a fresh wave of Zetsus plus a vanguard of three resurrected Ninja, one of whom was Kankuro. The formerly dead man gave Naruto a blank stare and summoned two of his puppets without preamble. And then they lost a Taijutsu specialist. He had over extended himself in taking out a Zetsu which left him open for two more to swarm him and bear him down to the floor, killing him with fists and teeth and chakra suction.

Naruto didn't have much time to react to the hole in their line as he was immediately set upon by Kankuro and his two puppets. Having to fend off a horde of clones and trying to fight a fully fledged puppet master at the same time is not what Naruto would call fun, in fact it was down right difficult. If Naruto paid the least bit attention to the two poison spewing constructs then he would be swarmed by four or five Zetsus but if he tried to focus on the clones then he would be open for Kankuro and friends. All the while his team was being pressed harder than ever by the Zetsu horde, they were rapidly being forced back towards the crevice where they entered the room from. Naturally this would be the wisest course of action as it would limit the number of enemies attacking you all at once, however given the abilities that Zetsu possessed they would be walking into a deathtrap.

"Enough of this," Naruto hissed, his teeth clenched in frustration. He cupped his hands together and a black ball of energy started to form between them. Kankuro and his two resurrected compatriots took notice and rushed straight towards him, knowing almost instinctively what he was up to. They weren't quite fast enough.

"Beast Bomb!" Naruto roared and thrust his arms and the dark sphere forward. There was an incredible noise and he lost all sight for a second. Then he blinked and he could see again. Kankuro and the two other resurrected ninjas were no where to be seen as was over half of the attacking mob of Zetsus. Plus there as a rather sizeable dent in the back wall of the chamber. There was a momentary lull in combat as both sides took in the damage of that one attack.

From the smoke clouds thin wisps starting forming and flowing, like tiny streams of smoke propelling themselves of their own will rather than by the air flow. They began to congregate and grow, going from shapeless blobs to the vague shape of bodies in seconds. After a few more moments the last of the limbs to be reformed were in place but their eyes had lost that empty, heartless look and they had regained a measure of life (ironic yes). Kankuro's eyes, however, quickly grew in surprise when he recognized that it was Naruto in front of him, fear and panic quickly overcoming even that.

"Naruto! Get out! It's-" He shouted just as coffins appeared. Kankuro attempted to block the lid to his with his hands but to no avail, the lid just nipped off the offending hand. He was gone in a puff of white smoke along with the other three ninjas. 'It's what? A trap? That's obvious to even me. Too late? Fuck it, I'll just tear Kabuto's ass in half,' Naruto thought as he glared at the spot where Kankuro was, his fists clenched tightly into balls.

"Naruto-taicho?" a voice inquired behind him. It was his team's medic, Juu. The man was standing behind him looking at the still sizeable force of Zetsus looking at them. They had backed off from the group once Naruto unleashed the beast bomb but they hadn't left either. It was like they were waiting for something. Naruto didn't really want to find out what that was.

"How bad is it?" he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.

"Sir, we're barely above half strength. Furyuu, Tomi, and Genzo were all killed during the fight, Gurusu, Hiyori, Ray, and I have already used most of our chakra and will be useless in the next fight," He said, his voice barely louder then Naruto's, his exhaustion proving the truth in his words. "Sir what are your orders?"

The commander that had somewhat grown, but was mostly beaten, in Naruto was split; one side said that he should get his people out of there, to let them rest up and recuperate while the other, harsher half, stated that they wouldn't get a chance like this again. That was his loyalty to Killer Bee speaking, he couldn't just abandon his friend to the clutches of Kabuto and Madara and let the Hachibi get sucked out of him. After several agonizing seconds he had made up his mind. He opened his mouth to give his orders but was stopped when a thunderous crack tore through the air, startling everyone. Not even a heart beat later a second crack resounded throughout the chamber and all eyes turned towards a series of spider web cracks on the roof of the chamber.

The third crack wasn't so much another resounding slap as it was the crashing of thunder when the ceiling suddenly burst like a damn and a ton of stone and rubble fell to the floor, a neat man sized hole where it hadn't been before. Standing amidst all the rock and stone and dust was a lone man, his fine black hair swaying in the somehow existent breeze. His legs were spread in a sturdy stance and his right arm stretched out, the thumb on the hand also stretched out pointing towards the ceiling. His black eyes shined with an inner fire that would have made most bonfires look microscopic and his all too white teeth shined in an unnatural light as he smirked.

Naruto felt a crushing need to place a palm on his face. His remaining squad, at least those not of Konoha, stared in bedazzlement at the lone heroic figure. One of the Zetsu, possibly a defected one, moved to attack the green spandex clad man. Rock Lee gave a manly frown as his moment was interrupted when the creature attacked, its right arm swinging with its hand open and fingers cupped like a set of claws.

Did this monster not know who he was? Had it not seen him so thoroughly decimate the armies of its brothers in battles past that almost all Zetsus had a flee-on-sight command built into them? Disgusted in this thing's poor memory Lee took his already extended right arm, balled his fist, and slammed it into the side of the Zetsu's head. The creature was sent in a cart-wheeling motion through the air and into the far wall with a resounding crunch. All eyes had tracked its flight and when its flight came to an end all eyes slowly returned to Lee who had resumed his previous posture.

One of Naruto's squad lost control and muttered, "Epic…" to which Naruto did palm his face.

All in all, Rock Lee was in the house.

Author's Notes: I wouldn't say that this is my first attempt at a story but this is the first one that I have taken seriously. It wasn't my idea to begin with, it is the brain child of one Tellemicus Sundance, he just let me have my way with it with almost no thought what so ever and for that I am truly thankfully to him.

Yes this is a time travel fic, will there be some horrible contrivance like a set jutsu or something that throws our hero to the whims of time? No, I actually consulted with Quantum Physics for their travel method. What that method is, you'll just either have to wait and see or figure it out for yourself. That is all I shall say on the matter until later. If you do figure it out I'll give you a cookie.

That's it for now other than me begging for reviews and such. As an aspiring writer constructive criticism is a highly valued commodity that sustains me very being. Praise also goes a long way towards my self-esteem so don't be shy with that either. If your gonna flame me because you can, well go screw yourself, you're a waste anyways.