A bit shorter than the other chapters, but this one fought with me every step of the way. But my muse is picking back up again, so I should get another chapter or two churned out soon!

[Bridge of Fire and Earth]

Unlike any other time where Naruto asked for the Kyubi's power, Naruto was in full control. He opened up the fight with a left hook. Normally, it would have been fairly damaging. But now, augmented with Two Tails of Kyubi's chakra, it sent even an S-rank ninja crashing through dozens of meters of trees.

Orochimaru coughed as he smashed into a small clearing. Now far away from the choking miasma of the Kyubi's power, he could actually breathe. His eyes widened as nearly without movement, the Kyubi brat reappeared, seeming to have teleported. Mouth a grim slash, he prepared to fight the now much more powerful Jinchuriki. Faintly, as sounds of an absolute beating commenced, he wondered what caused One or Two or Three tails to appear.

Kakashi frowned. The battle had moved beyond the entire team's line of sight, all except for Neji. He swiftly commanded the young Jonin to activate his eyes. Said Hyuga gasped, explaining to the others that he could see Naruto fighting the Snake Sannin, with Two Tails, just like a little while ago, and clearly winning, but somehow not able to kill the Sannin.

"Thank you, Neji. If the battle doesn't improve in a minute or so, we'll move out to assist."

"No! Naruto is forming a third tail!" Kakashi cursed.

A mile away, Naruto stared at Orochimaru, a frown marring his face. Orochimaru was cackling, raving about being invincible. Naruto thought maybe he and Jiraiya had hit the Sannin too hard in their time, knocking all of the Sannin's screws loose. He focused back on the traitor's words.

"Observe, Naruto-kun. You may beat me in sheer power, but you will never kill me, as I am more durable!" Then, with an absolutely disgusting vomiting noise, Orochimaru threw up another body. His new body rose to its feet, the old one turning to ash. Naruto grinned maliciously. Orochimaru might be able to revive himself in odd ways, but this was hardly Naruto's limit.

"OROCHIMARU!" came the bellowed repartee, followed by a roar, augmented with Two Tails of power. Said Sannin braced himself, this time keeping from being blown off his feet. Whatever Orochimaru had been about to say died in the Sannin's throat as a third tail started to form, the red chakra around Naruto bubbling more ominously and quickly. Naruto screamed in a combination of pain and rage, the sheer noise more powerful than an actual punch in Two Tails, meaning that Naruto was several times more powerful.

The explosion caused by the scream was heard and seen by the Konohan team, who watched in shock as a huge pillar of chakra leapt up, and then their surprise grew as several dull booms followed the scream, as only Neji could see the way Naruto's basic punches could now do as much damage as a Futon: Rasenshuriken. The teenage Hyuga muttered under his breath, "This is insane. Per taicho's orders we are forbidden to go anywhere near, Kakashi-sensei, what should we do next?"

Kakashi swallowed, everyone on the team could hear the not so distant screams and explosions, no doubt that this point there was a fairly large clearing formed by Naruto's attacks. "We stay put for now. At this moment I think I am the only one who could actually enter the battle, not even Asuma would be of assistance now." He had glanced at the other elder Jonin, trying to assure him that he meant no insult.

Asuma assumed a mildly composed veneer, but he was clearly also having flashbacks to the Kyubi's attack 16 years ago. The chakra that they felt wasn't anywhere near as malevolent, at least not at this distance, but the sinking feeling in his gut was more or less the same. Both older Jonin swallowed, their fear very apparent to the younger ninja, unknowingly terrifying them. In the Kyubi attack, they hadn't directly participated, but they had seen the destruction wrought by the beast, and they had then been safe in knowing that both Hokage, retired or not were in the village, with the full back up of ANBU and all three Sannin.

But here, here there was no back up. Asuma then shivered as he realized that Orochimaru was the closest person in strength to a possessed Naruto, and he definitely wasn't on their side. If even Kakashi doubted his ability to fight Naruto, then this whole team was honestly doomed should a possessed Naruto come across them, unless they wished to kill the teen, and Asuma couldn't entertain that notion for more than a split second. No matter what, Naruto was a Konoha ninja, they could never kill him.

It had barely been a minute, and Orochimaru was already feeling the strain of keeping up with the now massively enhanced Jinchuriki. Forget getting the boy as a test subject, the Snake Sannin just wanted to leave alive. Unfortunately, Naruto's rage seemed to be growing, and the boy was fast enough that Orochimaru had to fight to stay ahead of the Jinchuriki's attacks. A single punch had as much power as one of Tsunade's, so Orochimaru was in no hurry to get hit by one. And as he dodged another blast of air, he wished the teen would stop roaring. His ears hurt from the noise, and the boy was now just casually destroying trees as well.

There was a distinct pause, and Orochimaru looked at the Jinchuriki oddly as the teen stopped his rampage. The boy had closed his eyes and seemed to be breathing deeply.

Naruto opened his eyes, breathing deeply as he focused. A blanket of rage had overtaken him as he had felt Hyorinmaru get injured within his mind, the inherent spiritual properties of the Kusanagi allowing it to hurt the ice dragon. But as the fight progressed, he saw how Orochimaru had continued to stay a step ahead of him, which he attributed to being in a berserker like state. As Naruto's mind rapidly focused, he controlled his anger, funneling even more of the Kyubi's power through his body as he let out a soul-chilling roar.

A giant column of charka burst into the sky as the ground shook from the sudden uptick in chakra being outputted by the teen. Naruto's skin swiftly peeled off, the sheer malevolence of the Kyubi's chakra overcoming his own natural resistance to its chakra. Naruto's roar transitioned from pure rage to a mix of anger and pain, a swirling helix of energy appearing around him as the transformation completed.

Naruto had changed. Before, he had merely been cloaked in the Fox's chakra, starting out as a translucent red, and as more tails appeared, becoming a much more opaque blood-red. But now, he looked monstrous. No features could be seen on his body, as it was covered in a mix of blood and burning skin, only his body shape could be determined, with four tails added on. But the most disturbing part were his bright white, completely blank eyes. Somehow, looking into them, you could tell there was no humanity left in those orbs. And you would be right.

Orochimaru looked on in not a little bit of awe, well aware that the fight was rapidly worsening for him, as he had barely been able to combat the Three-Tailed Naruto, which had already been a major upgrade over Two-Tailed Naruto. He shuddered to think of what this monstrosity could do.

His questions were swiftly answered when the now Four Tails Naruto opened his mouth, a large ball of chakra condensing in front of the thing's gaping maw. He..it…whatever..then swallowed the ball of chakra, before grinning. The abdomen of the possessed Naruto then puffed up. At this point, Orochimaru had a faint inkling of what was going to happen. These suspicions were validated when Naruto cracked open his mouth and fired the attack, which the Snake Sannin now recognized to be a Bijudama.

With no time to lose, Orochimaru slammed both palms on the ground, summoning forth his ultimate shield. "Sanju Rashomon!" The concentrated ball of chakra slammed into the first of the Rashomon gates, and exploded.

Neji, Kakasi and the rest of the Konoha team were treated to a very brief look at some of the most storied and revered defensive gates that Konoha had, the Rashomon gates. Kages and Kage class ninja used them very frequently in the early days of the Villages, and to see them in these days was a treat.

Until they were annihilated by the Bijudama.

Orochimaru gasped, impaled as he was on a tree branch. The injury itself was not overly harmful, but the sheer devastation caused by just a single Bijudama was astounding. He realized, instantly, why the Akatsuki had essentially standing orders to leave the Kyubi Jinchuriki to Leader-sama. No one else could compete with this level of power.

There was a shallow trench from where the Jinchuriki had fired the attack, and then that widened into an absolutely massive crater, shaped into a long cylinder instead of a hole in the ground, due to impacting the Rashomon.

In some corner of his mind, Orochimaru cackled insanely, and in another, he wept. There was no combating this. He had summoned three Rashomon gates, the most that had ever needed to be summoned was four, and the Bijudama had swept them away in a second. A Four-Tailed Bijudama had wiped out his most powerful defense in a second.

Orochimaru ran.

Naruto and the Kyubi smiled. Their ruse had worked.

[In Front of the Great Tower, Ame]

A tall ninja cloaked in black, with a hood pulled over his face, shouted into the gloom that seemed constant in the Village Hidden in Rain. "Oi! Anyone? Is anyone here? I want to join your organization thing! Hey!"

There was no response from the villagers, and he had driven himself mad trying to talk to them earlier, none of them had shut up about their Angel or their God. It was enough to drive someone insane.

A calm voice asked him a question in such a chilling and sudden tone that the ninja jumped. "Who are you, and why are you here?"

He chuckled, sounding only slightly unhinged, biting out his words, "Why am I here? Why am I here?! I'm here to join the Akatsuki, whoever the fuck you are!"

"Leave Ame immediately." The man could finally put a face to the voice as he looked upwards, a blue haired kunoichi garbed in the simple black dress accented with red clouds that was signature of the Akatsuki. She had wings made of... was that paper? coming out of her back, as she stood on the very edge of the highest tower in the village.

"The fuck? No. I'm here to sign up, join up, whatever. I'm not leaving." He scowled, baring his teeth up at the woman above him. "I didn't drag my ass over to this cesspool to take in the sights, you feel me?" Whatever else the man was going to say was blown away when the kunoichi frowned, and opened her wings, flapping them once and generating an extreme amount of wind. "Kami. What is this, a circus? Where do I go to sign up? Do you have a noticeboard or something, where I can tear off a bit of paper and call in? Hello?"

Konan's frown became more pronounced. This man...he was not only insulting Ame, the Village she and Na - Leader had worked so hard to build up, but he was also mocking Akatsuki. And as an organization made up entirely of S-ranked ninja, such an insult could not pass. So she attacked.

"Hey! Whoa, what the fu-" The man swore as he dodged a sudden hail of paper slips, each inscribed with an explosive seal. He wove between the strange rain of paper, mouth set into a grim line as he realized he would have to prove that he was worthy of joining these fucks, and that meant taking down their mascot or whatever that was attacking him. After all, he wasn't already a criminal with a history of country level offenses, was he?

"Fucking hell of a sudden exam. Good thing I've been studying for this one all my life, right?" Konan scowled. This man was taking everything too easily. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice the man drawing a long, thin katana until he had sliced in her direction, a blade of wind nearly slicing her head off as she swerved. So she upped the ante, and detonated all of the bombs that were lying around him. Konan savored he look of extreme panic on the unknown man's face as he saw the bombs sizzle for a split second, before going off.

The man panted within the debris cloud, before smirking, small crackles of lightning flickering around his body as he jabbed with his now much different blade. A lance of lightning speared out towards Konan, who yet again only just managed to get out of the way in time, but not before one of her wings was sheared off, making her tumble down to the ground.

"Ha! Gotcha bitch!" The smoke cleared, and Konan peered blearily into the cloud, mouth setting into a thin line as she beheld the cackling ninja. This would not do. So she let her control over this particular Paper Clone...slip...

Hundreds of papers flew in every direction as she detonated the whole square. Or would have, if the man hadn't stabbed his rapier (when did he switch to a rapier) at her, blowing a hole through her chest and stopping her attack in its tracks. "Hmm. Maybe the Akatsuki isn't as strong as I heard. Or at least, I hope you're the weakest. And easiest." This last part was said with a lecherous grin.

Konan's temper exploded as she screamed, thousands of paper notes swarmed the square as three more Paper Clones formed. "Oh? A foursome? Can't say I mind, but I'm not sure I can take that many at once." Konan could barely hold onto her vaunted and acclaimed control now, her anger, her rage, at the implication that she would ever be unfaithful to Naga - Yahi - Leader.

"Sheesh. Don't take it so hard. Take something else hard though, if you know what I mean." Whatever else the man would have said, it was frozen in his throat as the skies opened up, and a veritable flood of rain fell down from the heavens.

Leader had arrived.

Pein surveyed the scene before him. Konan lay on the ground, or at least one of her Paper Clones did. Her face was streaked with tears and contorted into a grimace of pain and rage. A strange, unknown man stood in front of her, small tendrils of lightning covering his body as he struggled to move against Pein's Gravity Manipulation.

Pein mused for a second, then flicked his hand, throwing the unknown man away. It was likely that he had used some form of Genjutsu on Konan, and that was what caused her distress. Whatever, the man couldn't possibly...survive...what was this?

The man laughed as he stood on thin air. Such a concept had been foreign to him many months ago, but by now it was second nature to defy the laws of gravity. Whatever gravity manipulation the weird man with the spiky orange hair and fucked up purple eyes had done was obviously ineffectual in the face of his superior Reiatsu control. He grinned, firing yet another lance of lightning at the most likely leader person.

The attack disappeared with no discernible cause or effect as soon as it touched the orange haired dude. Well, that was a bummer. So he tried again, but this time, he concentrated, then shouted as he fired a bar of lightning from his rapier.

That attack was deflected as the orange dude calmly intoned, "Shinra Tensei". And then he couldn't move! Well, for a little bit. He struggled, trying to draw his hands together, knowing that he needed every last drop of power to defeat this guy, who so calmly brushed aside one of his strongest attacks.

"And remember my name, bastard! I'm Shiro, here to join the Akatsuki!" Shiro's hood fell away from his head, angular cheek bones prominent as his short, spiky, white hair waved from the sudden flux of power as the ninja ramped up his reiatsu.

Shiro finally managed to clasp both hands to the hilt of his sword, lightning flickering around him faster and faster. Pein frowned, sending a concentrated blast of gravitational energy at the man, enough to flatten a house.

And everything went white with a single screamed word. "BANKAI!"

[Chapter End]

Oh boy oh boy, who's this kid? Whose sword does he have?

What does this mean for Naruto?

Review please! :D