Chapter 9

Senomura- One month later…

It was a full month before Han made any contact with Roshi, who turned out to be east of Tsuchi's capital.

After conversing with Han, both had decided not to inform Ōnoki of what had happened to Han. Neither owed their loyalty to Iwa or the Tsuchikage who had thrown them by the wayside as Iwa entered a period of demilitarisation.

Roshi told Han that he'd likely make his way to the southwest, where an intersection of three rivers met and a large town known as Tsuchimashiro thrived there. It gave him some form of protection as any fight would be witnessed by the whole town and Tsuchi's Daimyo would become very angry if the place was destroyed, so Roshi's attacker wouldn't be able to get out of the country easily or without repercussions.

Naruto cursed Roshi for his intelligent decision, it would make life for him far harder as not only was it likely that shinobi regularly passed through Tsuchimashiro but if the inevitable fight between Roshi and Naruto became too prolonged then more serious backup for Roshi would arrive.

Realising that facing such odds, even with his current power, was likely to result in serious injuries, imprisonment or even death, Naruto made the decision to leave the experienced Roshi for now and concentrate on the Jinchuuriki of the Rokubi, who he believed was called Utakata.

Information on him was scarce, the man had an even larger tendency to be a loner than Han, which was saying something.

For the next two weeks Naruto created Chishio Bunshin, one every three days, in order to send them across the Elemental Nations in an attempt to track Utakata down. Meanwhile Naruto once more focused on his training, knowing he had to get to the level of a young Hashirama or Madara if he wanted to confidently take on Roshi in the middle of Tsuchi no Kuni with little chance of being killed or imprisoned as he would be forced to escape from the Daimyo's and thus Ōnoki's wrath.

It would be nearly three months until Naruto gained information on the whereabouts of Utakata who turned out to be venturing within Tani no Kuni. This made Naruto grumble in frustration as he would either have to add weeks onto his journey time by taking a detour through Waterfall, Earth, Claw and Wind or he could cut through Hi no Kuni and take a direct line towards River.

Naruto felt that it was worth the risk to go through Hi no Kuni and arrive at his destination faster before Utakata moved once more. During his journey throughout the Land of Fire he kept all of his senses on high alert, wary for signs of either Minato or more importantly, the unknown man and his shinobi group who had far too much information on him, whilst he still knew nothing about them except that they were called 'Root'.

Naruto arrived without incident a week later, but would be forced to spend another month searching for Utakata because although Naruto knew what country Utakata was in due to sightings from the local population which matched the man's description, Naruto didn't know where exactly he was.

At times Naruto appeared to have just missed Utakata and at others he was days off. The Uzumaki could swear that Utakata knew someone was following him, which would be incredibly dangerous indeed. He had caught Han somewhat by surprise along with a healthy bit of planning, if this Jinchuuriki was prepared then Naruto would have a far harder fight ahead of him.

He eventually caught up at the border between River and Fire, where a young man with pale gold eyes, dressed in a light blue kimono with three bubbles stitched on the back was clearly waiting for Naruto beside a large river which made its way south before branching off to the sea.

A stream of bubbles floated past Naruto before he heard a calm voice speak, "You've been tracking me for quite a while now, why is that?"

"You haven't made things easy for me, constantly moving around."

"I like to travel. Now what do you want?" Utakata's voice sharpened as he asked his question for a second time.

"A tails worth of your chakra." Naruto gave a similar answer as he had Han, wondering what response he would get this time.

Utakata narrowed his eyes at Naruto before turning away from him and beginning to walk away, "No" was all Naruto received.

A smirk adorned his lips at the once again predictable response, "I don't take no for an answer."

Utakata halted in his tracks before sighing deeply, "One more to add to the list of dead."

Naruto saw his target turn, blowing bubbles in a steady stream towards him,

"Suiton: Hōmatsu no Jutsu"

Naruto threw a kunai at one of the approaching bubbles, causing it to explode upon contact. Eyes widening at the realisation that these bubbles would surround him and then explode, Naruto started his own set of handseals.

"Katon: Yurika no Jutsu"

Fireballs the size of the Goukakyuu no Jutsu but with the speed of the Housenka no Jutsu made their way towards Utakata, detonating all the bubbles on their way. As the fireballs hit the surprised Utakata he detonated into a large amount of bubbles that were swallowed up by fire.

As Naruto realised the Utakata he was facing the whole time was actually a clone, he felt more bubbles coming from behind him but was too late from preventing a few from exploding in his face, throwing him across the river as the real Utakata emerged from the trees.

His opponent pressed his advantage by blowing more bubbles, however these ones were far larger and thrice as fast as before, causing a series of detonations that Naruto fled from by using Hiraishin. He had prepared the battlefield earlier by throwing kunai to certain strategic places.

Soon tiring of the cat and mouse game Naruto began to use one of the stronger fire techniques he had in his arsenal,

"Katon: Gōenka"

Naruto kneaded the fire chakra within in his stomach to create a multitude of fireballs which not only decimated all of the bubbles aiming to detonate near him, it also consumed the area where Utakata had been standing, decimating it in a fiery blaze.

Naruto used a simple wind jutsu to blow some of the smoke away, revealing Utakata completely covered in a red chakra cloak, six tails swishing behind him.

"Well that's not good."

As if to prove Naruto right, Utakata's tails extended towards Naruto, attempting to impale him. In return Naruto called upon seven Uzumaki chains to combat Utakata's six. At the same time Utakata spat a stream of acid at Naruto which quickly consumed the hastily erected earth wall the Uzumaki had formed to prevent the attack from eating away at his own body.

Naruto was once again engaged in a game of cat and mouse as Utakata appeared in front of Naruto and started to use a combination of strikes and tails to attack him with.

As the fight continued to progress Naruto at first found it difficult to keep up with the wild and unpredictable tails which scored multiple lashes across his body, the potent chakra instantly cauterizing the wound. Yet as the fight developed and Naruto strained his eyes more and more to keep up with the tails he was more easily able to predict Utakata's movements and eventually started to push the man back with his own taijutsu/chakra chain combinations, going so far as to have his extra chain free to attack Utakata directly.

As his chain started to elicit cries of pain from the Jinchuuriki due to superficial strikes which hit Utakata, Naruto now found that he could see exactly what Utakata was going to do next, enabling him to finish the fight with one final move.

Weaving through the four tails that had just tried to impale him, Naruto had three chains bind them to the ground as he struck Utakata in the face. Naruto then leapt into the air to avoid the final two tails and had two of his chains bind those tails to the ground as well, leaving Naruto to strike the main body of the Biju enhanced Utakata with a chakra enhanced punch, disorienting him for long enough so that Naruto could use his final two chains to drag the container himself to the floor.

Making sure that he was firmly restrained Naruto decided upon a different method of extraction this time, desiring to see if his control over Mokuton was enough for this.

"Hokage-Shiki Jijun Jutsu: Kakuan Nitten Suishu"

Ten pillars surrounded Utakata and began to suppress his chakra within the area contained within the ten pillars. However Naruto then had the pillars channel the Biju chakra into a scroll he had placed on the ground before initiating this technique. Red chakra was diverted into the scroll in front of Naruto, causing Utakata to return to his normal form, although his kimono had become tattered and burned.

A few minutes later and Naruto had gained all the chakra the scroll could handle and could instead purely focus on suppressing Utakata's chakra.

After finishing his technique Naruto rolled up the scroll and secured it to his back. He then left a letter for Utakata which detailed what he had told Han about the Akatsuki. It would make him wary (if he read it) and could thus make the Akatsuki's life more difficult.

Just before he left, Naruto glanced at his reflection in a kunai, his body quivered with excitement as he noticed that his Sharingan now had three tomoe inside them as a result of fighting Utakata. It was apparent that the difficulties he had faced in fighting the man's Biju state had helped to advance his eyes to the next level.

Half way through his journey back to Senomura, Naruto was accosted. He felt their presence quite a while ago and quickly deduced that these shinobi were of no threat, so he allowed them to approach, wanting to send a message to Konoha. Deflecting some kunai away from himself, Naruto turned to face the Hunter nin which were chasing after him. He sensed some ANBU were hidden in the trees a bit further back attempting to hide their chakra presence.

"Only two groups of you? I'm almost insulted that you would classify me as an S-rank nukenin but only send the eight of you after me."

The Hunter nins did not reply, instead throwing a very recognisable kunai in between them and Naruto, a tri-pronged kunai.

'Shit, he must have given them to each group who were tracking me!'

A flash of yellow later and Naruto now found a far more imposing sight in front of him, Minato was casually picking up his kunai, flanked by Kushina, Tsunade and Kakashi.

"Well done group 7, provide ranged support in this fight, leave everything else to us."

Naruto stared into blue eyes which held no emotion in them, nothing to indicate that Minato would feel even the merest flicker of remorse for what he was about to do.

A leaf floated between the two groups, drifting down until it touched the ground and Naruto activated his Sharingan and faced the oncoming kunai, deflecting the slash aimed for his throat.

"So you've taken the Sharingan as well, you can sink no lower."

Naruto parried another kunai strike from Minato and then ducked under a slash from Kakashi as a chakra chain emerged from his back to prevent Kushina's own chain from impaling him.

"I've got much further to go before I'm finished. You'll all be insects to crush by the time I've achieved all my objectives."

Naruto used his own Hiraishin to avoid the tag team taijutsu combination that Kakashi and Minato were about to perform only to be struck by Tsunade who had been anticipating his move.

"Your objectives end here and now!"

Above Naruto were Kakashi and Minato, both performing a different set of handseals.

"Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu"

"Raiton: Rairyuudan no Jutsu"

The two elemental dragons combined to form a monstrosity that towered over twenty feet high and flew towards Naruto who had started his own seals the moment his Sharingan identified what they were doing.

"Mokuton: Mokujōheki"

A corridor of wood surrounded Naruto and the dragon combination cracked but couldn't penetrate the wood defence. That job was left to Tsunade who pummelled straight through the technique with her chakra enhanced punch, allowing Kushina who held a katana enhanced with wind chakra to strike.

Unfortunately the Naruto she struck crumbled into mud once it was decapitated, outside the corridor of wood found Naruto performing another series of handseals.

"Hyoton: Kokuryū Bōfūsetsu"

From a seal placed on Naruto a torrent of ice escaped, quickly forming a black dragon which flew towards Minato and Kakashi, the former of whom used Hiraishin with the other to another of his kunai to avoid the dragon.

Instead the dragon aimed for the Hunter nin, striking them high into the air, allowing Naruto to finish them off using Hiraishin.

"Dammit!"

Naruto smirked as Minato shouted in distress, before his eyes widened as he felt a presence behind him. Managing to dodge to avoid being bisected, Naruto instead found a deep wound stretching across his chest, courtesy of Kushina and her sword. Blood was pouring from it as he tried to enhance the healing process using his chakra, but was forced to put it on hold as Kakashi attempted to finish him with a Raikiri.

He used a few chakra chains to drive off Minato as he turned to stare Kushina directly in her eyes,

"Genjutsu: Sharingan"

Kushina's momentum immediately faltered, slipping into unconsciousness. However before Naruto could do anything else to her two of the surrounding ANBU used a katon/doton collaboration which Naruto was forced to avoid as a third ANBU retrieved Kushina's unconscious body.

"Kamui"

As Naruto heard Kakashi call out the technique he saw a space-time distortion open up next to him.

'Jikukan Ninjutsu? But when did Kakashi acquire the prowess for…'

Before Naruto could think any further he was struck by Tsunade who had come from the space-time distortion and used the Chakura no Mesu to sever the tendons inside his right arm and leg, causing Naruto's body to collapse on that side as he could no longer support his body weight.

"Argh!"

"Everybody retreat! Fuuton: Rasenshuriken"

As all the shinobi fled the area Naruto could only widen his eyes as he realised that Minato had timed this perfectly so that Naruto wouldn't have time to recover from his injury and escape. Furthermore the short distance between Minato and he meant that no technique of Naruto's would be able to protect him from Minato's attack. The man had even accounted for the Hiraishin, as Naruto could no longer feel the connection he had with each individual kunai so that he could flash to them. It was then that he noticed that there was a second Minato who was holding his kunai, having removed the formula which allowed him to teleport to them. This only left…

"Jikukan Ninjutsu: Yugami"

A quick set of handseals caused a symbol to appear in the air for a moment before it vanished and reality bent around the Rasenshuriken and then suddenly it had changed directions to move upwards into the sky, exploding well out of range of Naruto, who had healed his leg but had some beads of sweat running down his face from the chakra cost of the technique.

"How on earth…Just what sought of space-time technique was that?"

Naruto gave Minato a deadpan look, "I'm not in the habit of explaining my techniques to people who could potentially counter them, figure it out for yourself. Give Natsumi-chan my love."

Naruto spat out the last sentence as concentrated his chakra on a kunai far away from here, requiring the extra time to connect with the formula upon it. He flashed away from the area, leaving Minato to give a frustrated shout at Naruto's escape.

"We lost two good people to that damn brat! We'll mourn for them when we get back group 7. Tsunade how's Kushina-chan?"

The Slug Sannin hovered over Kushina, green chakra shining from her hands before the light died down, "She's fine, a bit of rest and she'll wake up in about an hour."

Minato nodded, "Good and how are you faring Kakashi-kun, I know how much Kamui takes out of you."

The white haired Jounin was on his knees panting as Tsunade approached him, using her own chakra to bolster his own until he could replenish his own reserves naturally, "Thank you Tsunade-sama. I'll be fine with a bit of rest Minato-sensei."

Again Minato nodded before he gathered any of his kunai from the battlefield, also collecting Naruto's own version of them from his clone so he could study it.

"Alright then it'd be best if you all hold on so that I can transport us all."

It took Minato considerably more chakra the more people he was transporting with his kunai, especially if it was a long distance as it was now. In order to transport everyone all at once Minato had the ANBU and Hunter nin pour some of their chakra into the sealing that Minato created for large group transportation.

A yellow flash later and they had arrived at the gates of Konoha. Once there Minato ordered Kakashi and Kushina to rest and recover at the hospital with Shizune overseeing them as he also told Tsunade to get some rest. After a heated argument with Kushina who only backed down with Tsunade's help, Minato made a beeline for the Hokage's Tower.

Once inside he debriefed group 7, telling them that they would hold a memorial for their dead members soon and would add their names to the memorial stone at the same time.

After this he called for an emergency meeting with the shinobi council which was set for an hour's time.

After the requisite amount of time had passed Minato made his way to the council chambers where he found everyone already waiting for him.

"May I ask why you called us Hokage-sama?" The old voice of Danzo Shimura filtered through the room, calm and composed as always.

Minato had to grit his teeth at the man, knowing his ROOT was still active but unable to gather any evidence or pin anything on the man.

"I have summoned you all to give an update on Naruto."

The shinobi council were disciplined enough not to begin muttering like old housewives, "Group 7 used one of my kunai nearly an hour ago to alert me of their discovery. Kakashi, Kushina, Tsunade and I were all transported to engage him."

As Minato described his encounter in great detail, many faces on the council grew worried and dismayed as they realised how powerful Naruto had become if he was capable of fighting and escaping from four S-ranked shinobi.

In contrast to all the other faces, Fugaku Uchiha looked apoplectic with rage after Minato had described Naruto's three tomoe Sharingan. Hiashi Hyuuga also became tense at the mention of the stolen dojutsu.

As soon as Minato had finished his report Fugaku's voice burst out, "This is an outrage! The Uchiha and Senju bloodlines both stolen! Not to mention he fact that the boy also has the Uzumaki and Yuki bloodlines! He must be eliminated! He-"

"That's enough Fukgaku-san, I know that you are upset that the Sharingan has been stolen and is being used by someone not of Uchiha blood but as much as we may wish to deny it, Naruto is a formidable opponent especially when we consider what Hokage-sama has just told us."

The calm and shrewd personality of Inoichi Yamanaka was exactly what was required to diffuse the tense situation and make Fugaku return to a calmer demeanour. As Fugaku sat back down Inoichi turned towards Minato and gave a slight bow of his head.

"Thank you Inoichi, I propose that we create a team who is ready at all times to be transported via my Hiraishin to wherever Naruto shows up. This team should consist of no less than four S-rank shinobi, which I believe should be possible if we include me, Kushina, Tsunade and possibly Shisui or Itachi, one of whom is usually in the village to train Sasuke as the other goes on a mission. Is that right Fugaku-san?"

"Hai, that is right, I'm making sure that my youngest gets the best training he can."

As the council began to debate over the pros and cons of setting up such a team and restricting their activities to the village, Minato noticed that Shikaku had made no comment and looked to be thinking rather hard.

"A penny for your thoughts Shikaku?"

The Nara head looked up and sighed, muttering a barely audible "Troublesome" before he spoke up, "I would propose that we leave the Naruto situation now, with Akatsuki still at large and being a far more prominent threat we can't afford to have so many of our best holed up in the village. In addition we must consider Iwa and Kumo, both of whom might consider the reduction in mission intake resulting from the formation of this group as a sign of weakness. I suggest that we wait until we have dealt with the Akatsuki and potentially Orochimaru as well before we tackle Naruto, at which point we can call upon Suna to help us, adding another S-rank shinobi or two to our list to draw upon. By waiting we will also give Natsumi and Sasuke time to grow further, potentially far enough to add another two S-rank shinobi to our list to draw from. A task force consisting of these shinobi could then tackle Naruto, who would be overwhelmed by facing so many powerful shinobi at once."

With a final "Troublesome" Shikaku's head slumped onto the desk, as if speaking for so long had completely drained him of all his energy.

The rest of the room had descended into silence, all thinking about the proposal until the unusual occurrence of Shibi Aburame's voice was heard, "I second this proposal. Why you ask, because dealing with one problem at a time is more efficient and dealing with the more prominent problems is logical."

The steadfast logic of the Aburame began to sway much of the council and in the end Shikaku's proposal was unanimously accepted. Although both Fugaku and Hiashi raised objections, wanted assurances granted and dragged their feet kicking (and nearly screaming), they too accepted Shikaku's option.

A mumble was sounded through the room as Minato was about to discuss whether they should keep their current surveillance for Naruto in place or whether those shinobi could be used for other things if they weren't going to pursue Naruto.

"What was that Shikaku?" Choza asked of his old friend and placed his ear next to the inaudible Nara who was too lazy to even lift his head up from the table.

A moment later and Choza's eyes brightened in realisation as he relayed Shikaku's words, "Shikaku wants to know what was in Naruto's scroll."

The room delved into speculation and supposition, Minato groaned internally when it dawned on him just how long he would be stuck here and nearly groaned out 'troublesome' himself.

Half a day later Minato dragged himself back to the Hokage's Office, deciding to finish off some important paperwork and leaving the rest until tomorrow. When he arrived a kage bunshin was diligently working on the stacks of paper which lined the room.

After it dispelled Minato got a slight surprise when he discovered that Kōsuke had arrived today with an update on Natsumi's training.

Minato was ready to burst with pride when he found out that Jiraiya believed she was ready for Senjutsu training at Mount Myoboku. It meant that she would become the youngest practitioner of Senjutsu ever and her body was strong enough to handle the chakra, which put her at an Elite Jounin rank in Minato's books.

However it brought up the issues of Minato's own training, he knew that he had more potential but found so little time to train and experiment, so Minato decided to ask some people around the village if they wanted to train with him. He also made a promise to himself to visit the toads in the near future to see if he could improve his own ability to access Sage Mode.

Minato sighed once more as he thought of all the work ahead of him.

Senomura- Two days later…

Naruto arrived back at his home both annoyed and happy at the same time. He was annoyed that Konoha had been able to track him and cursed himself for being so arrogant as to let the Hunter nin and ANBU approach him, he should have realised that Minato had a plan up his sleeve. He was also dismayed that Natsumi was soon going to learn the legendary Senjutsu, meaning that he needed to have a counter to it.

However what pleased Naruto was that not only had he been able to fight against and escape from four S-rank ninja with ANBU backup, he had also managed to kill two of their backup and knocked out one of the S-ranks.

After Naruto had placed the scroll containing the Rokubi's chakra in the hidden room he decided to sit down and think upon his next actions. He knew where the Nibi, Yonbi, Nanabi and Hachibi would be for the foreseeable future. He also knew that at this moment, despite his High Kage level strength, it would be suicide for him to engage any of them by himself because each would have a village surrounding them. In three cases it was a shinobi village and in the last one it was a prominent trading town located in the middle of a country. So Naruto decided to focus upon his training and his bloodlines.

He would first of all take Shisui's blood into his own, for now that he had accessed the final stage of the Sharingan through his fight with Utakata, Naruto believed that Shisui's blood would force his own eyes to transform into the Mangekyō Sharingan, an ability his clan said would grant the wielder different powers for each person who obtained it. Although Naruto would most likely gain the same techniques as Shisui, he still knew that they would be formidable and very useful in the future.

After this he could devote his time to training with these new eyes alongside his other techniques. Approximately a year later he would infiltrate Konoha himself and visit the Uchiha's Naka Shrine and attempt to decipher the secrets there. The True Uzumaki had learnt that by advancing through the various stages of the Sharingan one could read more of the tablet, seeing that none of them had ever seen the tablet, let alone been able to use a Sharingan to decipher it, this would be unchartered territory for Naruto.

At the same time Naruto had thoughts about kidnapping Sasuke to lure Itachi out of the village so he could try and take some of the elder Uchiha's blood, perhaps he could gain additional abilities by taking the blood of different Uchiha with Mangekyō Sharingan.

It would be at this point in time where Naruto could begin his hunt for the chakra of the other Biju, he would be able to easily locate them and if his skills had improved enough, he would also easily beat them.

Naruto's laughter sounded throughout the halls of his home as the plan came together inside his mind.

Author's Notes:

I hope you all enjoyed this latest chapter, for now Naruto is at a bit of a standstill as the rest of the Jinchuuriki are all in well protected areas. I hope you enjoyed the battle he had with Minato and co, Naruto's arrogance cost him slightly.

Here's a list of the techniques:

Katon: Yurika no Jutsu – Fire Release: Fire Lily Technique – The user expands their lungs to a massive size in order to exhale gigantic fireballs of a size between the Goukakyuu no Jutsu and a small house. Each fireball has comparable speed to the Housenka no jutsu. It is a highly draining technique, usually requiring a high affinity to fire and large amounts of chakra. A-rank.

Raiton: Rairyuudan no Jutsu – Lightning Release: Lightning Dragon Technique – Very similar to the Water Dragon Technique, this jutsu requires the user to emit a stream of lightning from their mouth in the form of a dragon. Said dragon will then strike out as directed, electrifying and burning anything it comes into contact with. A-rank.

Jikukan Ninjutsu: Yugami – Space-Time Ninja Technique: Distortion – A powerful technique developed by Naruto, the seal responds to a series of handseals developed by Naruto, after performing them the seal will appear. It has the ability to warp reality for a single instant, allowing techniques to suddenly appear elsewhere or turn in a different direction. S-rank.

Until next time, Ja ne!