Naruto Shippuden - part 23

Naruto stared out across the village from his hiding spot and scratched at his head in confusion.

Why the hell...was everybody acting as if nothing was going on?!

Seriously, he had told three people already that he was intending to kill the elders, not to mention his little murder fest in the Hyuuga compound. Why then, was nobody reacting to that?

Xanna's Negative Emotion Sensing wasn't picking up anything particularly out of the ordinary, except for the Hyuuga compound.

Did everyone he'd told so far decide to keep quiet about the information or something? What the hell was up with that?! And what was up with none of the Hyuuga informing anyone about the fact that the main house had just been slaughtered? Or had they simply not informed anyone yet?

Talk about being too stealthy. Those ANBU were either incompetent or he and Xanna were just that good.

Deciding that he needed to give his sensory abilities a boost, he went perfectly still and began drawing on the natural energy of the world around him. Instead of what he usually did, he simply harmonized with it and allowed it to expand his awareness instead of sealing it away.

He ignored the happy purring noise Xanna let off when she felt the natural energy pass through her. If she wasn't inside him, it would refuse to interact with her, but since she was inside him, it had no choice. The demoness really liked the feeling of being connected to the world, even if it was only by proxy. It was something very new to her.

It also boosted her ability to sense negative emotions, giving it a far greater range and strength.

It was this ability boost that he took advantage of in order to find his target.

His original plan had been derailed by the fact that everyone had apparently decided to keep quiet, which was something he hadn't expected, especially not from Hiashi. The whole point had been to flush Danzo out of whatever hole he was in so that they could get a clean shot at killing the annoying old man, but apparently it was not to be.

The man tended to lurk in a hideout even when there was nothing going on, so Naruto was quite sure that he wasn't in the open right now.

Using this sensing ability to track him down was far from being an exact science, since it gave no sense of identity, but it was the only thing he could think of right now. If Danzo was sleeping then it would be useless, beacuse sleeping people didn't give off negative emotions.

He had already tried this earlier in the night but hadn't gotten anything. At this point he either needed to get lucky and sniff the old man out or wait for the village to go up in arms over the Hyuuga Massacre as it was likely to be called.

Several minutes of sensing later, they picked up something which they guessed was probably the old man. The only reason they could make that guess was because the signature was below ground for some reason. The feeling radiated anger, frustration, along with a distinct control freak tendencies.

Naruto seriously had to wonder how nobody had found the hidden base beneath the ground, but that was a moot point right now. It was time to hunt down that old mummy and finally put an end to him.

Naruto made his way over to the spot where he was sensing the presence and decided to abandon stealth.

Lets see if we can combine our powers my dear. He thought to his lover, feeling her mental equivalent of a grin.

Three chains extended from his chest and Xanna flooded her chakra into them and shaped it into one of her favorite tricks. The chains started glowing white hot at the tip as Xanna began grinding her condensed chakra against itself in that spot.

Naruto grinned and stabbed the chains downward, easily burning through the ground and then the reinforced concrete of the walls that made up the underground room where Danzo was hiding.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Danzo had no idea what exactly was going on. One second he was just finishing the usual morning rituals(it being about two hours or so before dawn...Danzo was an early riser) that everyone does such as going to the bathroom and such and the next there were chains of white hot fire tearing apart the walls.

Things had not been going well for the old war hawk lately. To be honest, things hadn't been going well for some time, but they had reached a whole new low after Uzumaki was brought back from his last mission by Jiraiya.

That backstabber Orochimaru had caused him so much trouble this time and he didn't understand why. They had worked together several times in the past, with both of them profiting from it. He had no idea why the snake Sannin would choose to so blatantly admit that they had set the Uzumaki up to die.

Well that was not exactly true, he had a pretty good idea that Orochimaru thought that the chance of tempting Uzumaki over to him was too good to pass up. He really should have known better, Uzumaki Naruto didn't strike anyone as a follower if they thought about it. Hell, the only reason he even seemed to listen to Tsunade was because he felt like it.

He had hidden in these secret tunnels as soon as one of his spies had caught wind that that bit of information had been blurted out by Orochimaru and none too soon at that. He had only barely been ahead of Tsunade's ANBU.

The rumor of Xanna being Kyuubi had come at a most fortuitous time for him and he had sent one of his Root agents to worsen it. His intention had been to cause enough panic for a mob to form and attack the comatose Jinchuuriki. The powerful barrier that had risen up to protect his home had been very unexpected and unwelcome as it had allowed Tsunade time to establish order. He had been intending to turn the mob against Tsunade next, painting her as an accomplice and sympathiser of the Kyuubi and use that to install himself as Hokage. But since they hadn't been able to actually kill Uzumaki, their anger and fear couldn't be directed elsewhere.

He hadn't actually believed that rumor, so it had shocked him rather badly when the woman he had sent Fū to capture had openly revealed herself to be the Kyuubi. No wonder the man had failed.

Still, he hadn't lost hope of coming out on top in this quite yet. The situation had still been volatile and he knew that he only needed to wait for a while for tension to boil over and then take advantage of it.

His plans were rudely torn apart when those chains had crashed through the walls and Uzumaki Naruto dropped down from the hole he had cut into his hidden base. Danzo had no idea how the plan wrecking oaf had even managed to learn that the base was there and even less of an idea as to how he had known exactly where Danzo was.

"Good morning Danzo." Naruto greeted as if they had simply encountered each other in the street.

"How are you still alive?! The medical reports said that you had suffered mortal injury to your chakra coils!" Danzo demanded loudly, he usual composture lost in the face of the fact that this infuriating man had torn apart so many plans. Why wouldn't he just die?!

"You've been making quite the nuisance of yourself Danzo and we're going to put an end to you once and for all. No amount of fancy tricks will be enough to save you this time." Naruto continued to speak as he advanced on the old man, completely ignoring the question.

Danzo backed away rapidly, hurriedly releasing the seals on his right arm. "Root! Protect me, I'm releasing the seals on my arm!"

The old man was fortunate that the door was on his side of the room and he wasted no time in retreating through it.

"It's no use running worm, there will be no escape from us."

Danzo risked a glance back even as his Root shinobi rushed past him to engage the enemy, wanting to know what was with the suddenly female voice.

The sight of Uzumaki with glowing crimson eyes and black slits, along with nine fox tails waving about, caused him to go pale.

"Kyuubi..." He whispered to himself and kept running.

What the hell was going on?! Wasn't the demon supposed to be free now? How was the beast able to use Uzumaki's body like that?

He wasn't skilled enough to seal a demon, especially not one of such power, but Jiraiya could probably do it. His idea for getting out of this was to escape elsewhere and let the toad Sannin deal with it or at least have all the might of Konoha arrayed against the Uzumaki while the demon was resealed into another container.

Naruto and Xanna easily cut through the suicidal charge of the Root shinobi, simply moving forward and slaying them without bothering to attempt anything defensive. Sage Mode enhanced toughness prevented physical weapons from doing any harm worth mentioning and the few Ninjutsu launched at him were harmlessly absorbed into the glove.

The only one that proved to be any danger at all was an Aburame that had for some reason been shirtless and purple. The purple color turned out to be some odd form of insect that was transferred upon skin constact. Naruto could feel the tiny bugs gnawing on the hand he had used to cut the man open but failing to do much as he healed faster than they could hurt him. A surge of Xanna's corrosive chakra swiftly wiped them out and they refocused on the real prey.

A chain speared forward, catching Danzo through the leg before he could turn a corner and started dragging him towards Naruto and Xanna. The two were surprised however when the man's body wavered like an illusion and then reappeared some distance away.

"That technique again? How irritating." Naruto commented idly even as they continued to pursue the man behind the corner.

"Fūton: Shinkūha(Wind Release: Vacuum Wave)!"

The wind blade that Danzo had hoped to use to cut down his pursuer hit Naruto directly in the chest and caused a deep gash. Unfortunately for Danzo, that gash healed over rapidly, leaving only some blood as a sign that it had even happened.

"Now that was some impressive control of the wind element." Naruto commented as he sent chains to impale the old man again. In the narrow corridor, Danzo couldn't dodge and was forced to use Izanagi again.

He wasn't being sarcastic either, it really was impressive to have that kind of control of wind. Creating blades of wind was much more difficult than creating a gust. The fact that the technique had caused that kind of injury on him was nothing to sneeze at.

Danzo, seeing that he needed a more powerful attack, flew into more hand seals.

"Fūton: Shinkū Taigyoku(Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere)!"

Naruto simply used his glove to absorb the dense air ball coming at him, causing Danzo to grit his teeth in frustration. He wasn't given any time to do anything more however as his own technique was lobbed at him and he once again couldn't dodge due to the tight corridor.

Naruto frowned as the man wavered again and reappeared unharmed despite the fact that the technique had ripped him apart.

"What an irritating ability, no doubt it has something to do with all those Sharingan eyes in your arm." Xanna said as she took control of Naruto's body and sped up her advance. She wanted to kill this annoying old man already.

The sight of all those eyes implanted into an arm of all things had surprised both the demoness and her host, but it changed nothing. Danzo was still going to die. The fact that the arm was discolored in an eerily familiar manner wasn't missed either.

Danzo frowned as he saw that his wind techniques were being negated so easily. Those gloves were absurdly useful. He would have liked to have a pair of them himself. Clearly he needed to use something that wouldn't be so easily absorbed.

"Mokuton: Daijurin no Jutsu(Wood Release: Great Forest Technique)!"

Seeing wodden stakes start to grow out of Danzo's arm was another surprise but countered easily enough. Danzo couldn't possibly muster the same amount of power with it as Senju Hashirama and the narrow corridor worked to the advantage of whoever could exert more brute force.

Thinking about the why and how of Danzo having the Mokuton would be reserved for later. Neither demon nor container forgot that they had another arm made of Senju Hashirama's cells safely sealed away though. It would be a truly uncanny coincidence if those two things weren't connected somehow.

"Agni Schiwatas(Breath of the Fire God)!"

The immense heat emanating from 'her' right palm disintegrated the approaching wood and Xanna wasted no time lunging into a slash that forced Danzo to use another Izanagi to save himself.

A Sharingan closes every time he does that. Naruto pointed out, having been paying attention to the arm while Xanna was controlling their shared body.

Acting on the information instantly, the demoness lunged for the arm and ripped it off before Danzo could react properly. Unfortunately, the arm grew into a large tree as soon as it hit the ground and smashed apart the ceiling, causing dirt and broken concrete to rain on Naruto and Xanna.

They could hear alarms being raised on the surface, but ignored them. It wasn't important right now.

Danzo held on to what was left of his right arm and fled towards the exit while he could. He could only use Izanagi one more time now that his arm was gone and that was with the Sharingan in his eye socket, which he had transplanted out of his arm after losing Shisui's Mangenkyo.

Either way he needed to get out of here, this narrow battleground heavily favored the monster chasing him.

A spear of lightning hit him in the back and forced him to use that final Sharingan. He didn't bother even turning around as he ran for the exit, nor did he bother to wonder where the lightning bolt came from.

Naruto once again relinquished control to Xanna as she speedily chased after the old man. He had never allowed himself to forget that he still had one of Kakuzu's False Darkness techniques stored in his gloves and it had come in handy here.

Danzo knew that he was close to the exit now and ran faster. It didn't help him though as he was grabbed by the back of the neck and flung back deeper into the base.

He picked himself up once again and stared down the crimson eyed demon whose gaze bored into him with a sickeningly powerful killing intent. There was no point in running since the way back was blocked.

"You've tried to take Naruto from me, not to mention your attempt at kidnapping me. You will die for these and other transgressions." Xanna said and advanced on the motionless old man.

"Any last words?"

"Just a few," Danzo said coldly, preparing to use his last resort. "Ura Shishō Fūinjutsu(Reverse Four Symbols Sealing Technique)!"

Xanna reared back in surprise, not having expected this in the slightest. Naruto forcefully assumed control and acted to counter the effects of the dangerous sealing technique.

"Gogyō Fūin(Five Elements Seal)!"

He slammed his clawed fingers into Danzo's chest to apply the seal and then leaped back across the corridor. As he had expected, the addition of an odd numbered seal to an even numbered one screwed up the original.

Instead of everything in a large sphere being sealed, the Reverse Four Symbols Seal warped weirdly as it tried to expand but kept failing. In the end it turned inward on itself and sealed Danzo into himself until nothing but a piece of chest was left, the seal on it standing out starkly.

Phew, that was close. Naruto sighed internally with relief.

How dare he! That bastard, I wanted to rip his guts out! Xanna fumed.

Oi oi, just be glad we didn't get sealed into his corpse, that would have really sucked. Naruto thought to her, feeling kind of amused at the cause of her anger. You would have gotten out soon enough, but it would have killed me.

True enough, I suppose I was being overconfident again. She said with a sigh, remembering the Jashin incident.

Well you can't help being such a sexy beast. He snickered at her.

I hope you realise that I'm going to be the one killing the elders as compensation for you mocking me. She informed him.

What? But why? Do you have any idea how much I was looking forward to killing those two assholes?! Naruto protested.

Maybe you should have thought of that before you made fun of me, but I suppose I can let you kill them in exchange for something else. She answered with a fake sigh.

Such as? He asked suspiciously.

You can kill them, but then you won't be getting any sex for a month.

Go ahead and kill them then. He sulked. It just figures that in spite of the fact that you're a demoness of amazing power, you're still using that cheap trick to blackmail me into doing things your way.

Yes, the irony of it is rather amusing isn't it beloved? This is one of the reasons why being a female is better.

Naruto didn't reply and simply Hiraishin'd back to the apartment.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto gazed at the chaotic beehive of activity that was going around the collapsed part of Danzo's hidden Root base and nodded to himself. Things were finally heating up.

He was currently in a shadowy corner where one of his Hiraishin markers was placed. He didn't have too many of those around Konoha, but having a few teleportation spots was always good. He had several outside the village as well.

Tsunade and Jiraiya were both there from what he could see, along with some other familiar faces. No doubt they would soon figure out that it had been him, if they hadn't already.

Naruto surmised that they had probably increased the protection around the other two elders, so he'd need to draw some attention away from them first. He didn't actually want to slaughter the shinobi of Konoha wholesale, even if most of them were morons for trying to lynch him. That would be just pointless bloodletting and he wasn't aiming to completely gut Konoha anyway. That would upset many of the people he cared about.

His plan was more or less back on track either way and it was time to get to it.

Making two shadow clones, he proceeded to run to a very nice house that was a short distance away in the high end residential sector and dove headfirst through a window without pausing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kimura, the youngest and only female member of the civilian council shrieked in fright as the black clad man of monstrous proportions crashed through her window and stood up with a roll.

"Uzumaki!" She shrieked again as the man advanced on her and then grabbed her by the throat. She put up a futile struggle as she was pushed against a wall and the grip around her throat loosened enough to let her breathe.

"Shut up and calm down." He ordered and gave her neck a light squeeze to emphasise his point.

The woman nodded fearfully and looked at her captor with terrified green eyes.

"Now I'm sure you think I'm here to kill you..." She got even more scared.

"...or rape you..." She started shaking.

"...or maybe even torture you a bit." By now she was hyperventilating and crying hysterically.

"But that's actually not what I'm here for." As soon as the words registered she calmed down enough that she was only sniffling slightly.

"W-W-What are you h-here f-for then?" She stuttered fearfully.

"Oh, I'm just here to kill a little time and deliver a warning while my clones murder your two buddies on the council." Naruto explained.

"W-what, kind of w-warning?" She asked again, choosing not to focus on the fact that both Akiyama and Ishida were likely going to be dead soon if they weren't already.

"Unlike the other two morons that did a lot to make my childhood hell, you never did anything to me." He told her, causing her to sigh in relief before he continued. "However, I know that was only because you were too young and in no position to do anything at the time."

She whimpered again, certain that he was going to kill her.

He leaned in to whisper into her ear. "Next time, make sure you think a lot harder before you decide to screw someone over, because you never know how that someone is going to turn out in the future. The only reason you're going to see another day, unscathed and unspoiled, is because I'm actually a pretty nice guy if I do say so myself, but I could have easily turned out to be a very bad guy."

Having said what he had intended to say, Naruto let the dark haired woman go and left through the front door.

As soon as he was gone, she collapsed to the floor, shuddering uncontrollably. Having her own helplessness rubbed in her face like that, telling her that she was only being spared from death and suffering on a whim... It left her shaken in a way that not even the Kyuubi attack had shaken her.

What the hell had they been thinking, provoking that man?! Of course, she knew what they had been thinking...he hadn't seemed all that dangerous, at least not from behind the protection of other Konoha shinobi, despite the fact that they had been the ones trying to convince the Sandaime to execute him because he was too dangerous. Only now, that she had seen just how easily he could have destroyed her, did it hit her how stupid they had been.

Her colleagues would clearly never get to have this little enlightenment, but Kimura decided that she was never going to antagonize a shinobi again. Any one of them could become a missing-nin and decided to get some payback on her before leaving.

Would it be safer to stay in Konoha or go somewhere where there were no shinobi?

She would think about it later...once her body stopped shaking so badly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto gazed at the burning house of councilor Akiyama, the oldest of the three councilors and wondered why Ishida's house wasn't burning. The shadow clones were supposed to kill both of them after all.

The memories hit him suddenly and provided the answer, making him facepalm at himself. Ishida had a wife and two teenaged daughters. As soon as his shadow clone had caught sight of their terrified faces he hadn't been able to go through with it. With a sigh he decided to let it go. It wasn't as if he'd be able to do anything different anyway. He wouldn't be able to make widows and orphans just because he wanted some payback on that asshole and he couldn't use the same justification that he had used with the Hyuuga either. In the grand scheme of things, Ishida wasn't really important, he was just a stupid, narrowminded asshole.

The man's wife and daughters had never done anything to him as far as he knew and he couldn't bring himself to cause them pain just for the sake of satisfying his own anger. He was still a sucker for a crying girl. He would have to be satisfied with scaring the living daylights out of the man.

Akiyama had a wife and son once, but they had died during the Kyuubi attack, so his clone felt no compunction about sending the spiteful old man to the grave.

"What do you think you're doing Uzumaki-san?" A voice from behind him asked coldly.

Naruto turned around calmly, having sensed her a short time ago, though he had to admit that she was quite good at concealing her presence.

"I appear to be killing people in preparation of becoming a missing-nin kitten." In a tone that suggested that he had only just discovered this.

Uzuki Yuugao twitched at being called that detestable nickname. It was hardly the first time that someone had made a crack about her ANBU mask, but she absolutely loathed being called kitten. She had been one of the ANBU on watch to enforce Tsunade's state of martial law. It was just her luck to be stationed nearby.

"I see, in that case I have no choice but to kill you." She said, even more coldly as she drew her sword.

"With only one sword?" He asked with a smirk and continued. "Watch this."

Nine chains extended from his back and their tips slowly formed into vaguely sword like shapes.

"Kyutoryu(Nine Sword Style)." It was more of a gag than anything else, since it needed so much focus that he couldn't even move while doing it. It would have been more useful and easier if he hadn't forced the chain tips out of their usual spike shape, but then it wouldn't be quite so funny.

Yuugao swallowed at seeing the array of weaponry pointed at her but stood her ground.

Naruto grinned at her and decided that he could afford to have some fun here before moving on to the elders.

What followed actually left Naruto seriously impressed by the purple haired ANBU's skill with a blade. She was definitely much better at it than him. He kind of regretted not asking for lessons, but since he had given the Kusanagi to Tenten, it was a moot point anyway.

Yuugao on the other hand was incredibly frustrated. The infuriating blond just stood there and let the chains do all the fighting. He wasn't even all that good, he just had so many weapons to swing, along with the fact that the chains had no joints, that she wasn't able to get close to him.

When she finally saw an opening, she instantly lunged at him, intending to impale him. Unfortunately for her, Naruto had been counting on that and caught her sword with his bare hand, the deadly blade only barely able to make a cut on his Senjutsu enhanced skin. In no time at all, Yuugao was bound with another chain, the previous ones having retracted.

Just to screw with her, he took her ANBU mask off and leaned in as if he was about to kiss her, barely restraining his laughter at the fury in her eyes.

"Alas my dear kitten, we were not meant to be. At least we had one dance together." He said dramatically and then sent her spinning into a bush, throwing her mask into the same general direction with a chuckle.

Sensing the rapid approach of more shinobi, he started running away. That swordswoman was going to be up any second as well and she was going to be pissed.

Now, one might ask why he didn't just Hiraishin away and the answer was simple. So far he'd been keeping a lock on the marker in his apartment on a more or less constant basis as a workaround for his problem with locking onto Hiraishin markers and he wasn't doing that anymore.

Aside from that it was time to drop all this stealth crap and cause some mayhem.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Some time earlier.

"Who do you think this poor bastard used to be?" Tsunade asked as she and Jiraiya inspected the dismembered chest they had found in the hidden tunnel beneath the village.

The tree that had suddenly sprouted from underground had caused the street to cave in and one house was going to need rebuilding. Fortunately, the people living inside it had suffered nothing worse than scrapes and bruises. It was fortunate that the tree hadn't been directly under the house or there would have been casualties.

The mystery of how exactly the tree had managed to suddenly sprout from underground was currently still unsolved.

The collapse had however, revealed the existence of a tunnel network beneath the village, which they were currently tentatively exploring.

"That's a Reverse Four Symbols Sealing Technique on that chest and there's a Five Elements Seal placed over it." Jiraiya answered. "Considering where we found it, I'd say that this used to be Danzo. It would be just like him to use a suicide technique like that."

Tsunade nodded in agreement, deep in thought. She had a bad feeling that she knew who had done this. The points where the Five Elements Seal was applied had bloody wounds that would be consistent with a large, clawed hand having done the sealing.

"You there, go to the Hyuuga compound and tell one of them to get their ass over here on the double." She ordered one of the Chunin that were just standing around and looking as if they didn't know what to do with themselves.

The man nodded and ran off, probably glad that he had a well defined mission.

"Tsume, can you tell if you can get Naruto's scent from anywhere around here?" She asked the Inuzuka clan head, who was keeping watch nearby.

Tsume nodded and began sniffing around with her partner Kuromaru. A couple of minutes later, she shook her head in frustration.

"There's too much dust from the collapse in the air to get a clear scent and that bloody hunk of chest has no scent on it at all for some reason." Tsume reported.

"The Reverse Four Symbols Sealing Technique must have sealed away even all the scents in the area." Jiraiya speculated.

Tsunade pursed her lips and considered what she should do next. She didn't want to think that Naruto was the one doing this, but there was only one person in the village that had hands that big and clawed, not to mention skilled enough in Fuinjutsu to use the Five Elements Seal.

"Hokage-sama! There is another hole cut into the ground over here!" One of the nearby Jounin shouted.

"That looks like it's been burned open." Kakashi said as he looked down into the hole. He had been closer to this area and arrived just before Tsunade. His sensitive nose had already told him who had done this and it made him close his eye in resignation. He hadn't expected things to end well, but it was still hard to see.

He didn't really know how to feel about Naruto's girlfriend being the Kyuubi. On one hand, the demon was the reason that Minato-sensei was dead, but on the other, he had clearly seen how much Naruto cared for her. He needed more information before he could make a decision.

"I'm getting Uzumaki's scent over here, he was definitely the one that did this." Tsume informed Tsunade.

"But how? He doesn't know any fire Ninjutsu." Tsunade asked in confusion.

"My Kikaichu are detecting traces of Kyuubi's chakra in the area." An Aburame said as he creeped up on the group stealthily.

Everyone went deathly silent as this was revealed. It was beyond obvious that Naruto and Kyuubi were working together in this. Tsunade and Jiraiya exchanged a grim look. Naruto alone would have been a terrible enemy, but if he was partnered with Xanna, then they had no idea how to stop him.

The surprising arrival of Hyuuga Hiashi was a welcome distraction from her thoughts.

"You called Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade didn't know why the clan head had come himself, but she didn't care. She just needed a Hyuuga.

"Yes, I need you to use your Byakugan and find Uzumaki Naruto. He is currently under suspicion of having murdered Shimura Danzo." Not that Tsunade was at all upset over seeing the man dead, but she had to uphold the law( or at least make a show of it).

Hiashi pursed his lips and did not activate his Byakugan despite being ordered to do so." I am sorry Hokage-sama, but I cannot obey that order."

Tsunade scowled as she turned an annoyed look towards the man. She may have no say in the goings on of the clans, but in situations like this Hiashi had no grounds for being disobedient. "And why is that?"

"Less than thirty minutes ago, Uzumaki has slaughtered the Hyuuga main house. I am the only adult main house member remaining. In addition, he knows how to control the Caged Bird Seal beyond my own ability to do so and has rendered the entire branch house unconscious. I fear he would do them harm if I acted against him."

That was the best that Hiashi could do for Naruto at the moment. He couldn't throw his support behind a missing-nin and a criminal without bringing disaster down on his clan. Not to mention that the clan itself was in shambles and he didn't expect to retain his position as clan head for much longer anyway.

Another deathly silence ensued as they took in that bit of information.

"Why would he do that, and why were you spared?" Kakashi asked shrewdly. Naruto had never struck him as someone who did things without reason. Impulsive he may be at times, but a random butcher he was not.

Reluctantly, Hiashi explained. "After the Kyuubi's identity was revealed, the clan elders branded Hinata before I could act to stop them. Uzumaki somehow infiltrated the compound without being noticed and found out. In retaliation, he slew them all, sparing only the children. I believe that I was only spared at Hinata's request."

"But how could he know how to control the Caged Bird Seal?" Jiraiya wondered, knowing how complex that thing was.

"That I do not know." Hiashi lied. He would not reveal his part in this so openly. Perhaps later, he would inform Tsunade and Jiraiya of the truth privately or even better, let his successor deal with it.

Everyone that heard that looked suspicious, but the Hyuuga were good liars and Hiashi gave away nothing. There was nothing that could point to that being a lie, but it somehow rang false to the experienced shinobi.

In that instant, they saw a house in the residential sector going up in flames.

"Isn't that...?" Tsume began uncertainly.

"The home of civilian councilor Akiyama." Tsunade confirmed grimly. "I guess we won't be needing your Byakugan after all Hiashi."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A mere few minutes after she had sent the group of shinobi as scouts to determine Naruto's location, they returned and had one extra, in the form of ANBU operative Cat. Tsunade couldn't be sure, but there seemed to be a palpable aura of rage surrounding the purple haired swordswoman.

"Hokage-sama, councilor Akiyama is dead, but Ishida and Kimura are still alive, though they are terrified." The squad leader reported.

"I see, well at least you managed to save two of them." Tsunaded said approvingly, guessing that Naruto hadn't wanted to stick around and fight them even if he was easily more powerful. She may not like the civilian council, but she didn't dislike them enough to be happy over their deaths either. The same could not be said for Danzo, though she couldn't show it openly.

The squad leader looked uncomfortable and spoke up. "We did not Hokage-sama. Uzumaki chose to spare them. Both reported that Uzumaki had ample time to kill them but decided to leave them alive."

This confused Tsunade a great deal. She knew that Naruto hated both the civilian and the elder council and couldn't make heads or tails of his actions.

"Do you know why he spared them?"

"In the case of councilor Ishida, we learned that the man's daughters begged Uzumaki not to harm their father and apparently succeeded in convincing him."

Tsunade blinked in shock at hearing that, everyone else doing the same. She'd never heard of begging actually working in situations like this.

"What about Kimura?"

"She was too scared to be coherent."

What the hell are you doing Naruto? Tsunade asked herself furiously, trying to find some kind of reason or pattern in her fellow blond's actions.

"Hokage-sama! Uzumaki has been sighted!" One of the lookouts on the roof reported.

Instantly jumping up on the roof, she quickly noticed Naruto moving rapidly through the streets.

"What the hell is he doing?" She asked in confusion.

"He appears to be...skating...through the streets Hokage-sama." The man next to her said blandly, having no idea what to think of that.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

You have GOT to teach me how to do this! Naruto exclaimed in glee as they sped down a street. He could already imagine the fun they could have by racing against each other.

Xanna was currently in control and was doing one of the most amazing things that Naruto had ever conceived of. She was coating the feet of their shared body in a layer of super smooth chakra that allowed them to slide across the ground without any friction whatsoever. Air resistance was still something of a problem, but it was easily negated by applying some repulsive force to the back of their feet. It was pretty much the exact opposite of the surface clinging exercise.

The whole thing was made even more fun due to all the shinobi throwing sharp objects at them or attempting to stop them by various means. Xanna's Negative Emotion Sensing was telling them that most of them were either scared shitless or utterly furious.

That could have been a consequences of the nine red-orange fox tails that Xanna was using as a counter-balance to make sure they didn't take an undignified tumble on the ground.

You're too much of a clumsy human to handle it. She retorted teasingly, finding his enjoyment of the situation infectious.

I can too handle it! He shot back, only realising how childish it sounded after it had left his metaphorical mouth.

Handle it then. And with that she unceremoniously let him have control, not giving any warning whatsoever. She continued moulding chakra around his feet though, since Naruto didn't know how to do it himself.

Naruto wobbled dangerously due to his body suddenly lacking tails(he suspected she had deliberately removed them to see if he'd faceplant due to the sudden change in his center of balance), but managed to steady himself before he took a nosedive into the dirt. Now steady, he took the opportunity to be smug, ignoring the three shuriken that bounced away from his arms and chest.

Ha, told you I could handle it!

Sharp turn.

Wha..? OH SHIT!

Indeed, they were rapidly coming up to a sharp turn in the road. A sharp turn which Naruto didn't know how to navigate. He knew that Xanna had done something with her legs and tails to divert momentum or something, but he had no idea how to repeat that maneuver.

Seeing as his partner was waiting for him to crash into a building and prove her right instead of helping, Naruto decided to improvise. He stabbed a chain into the ground at an angle, with every intention of using it to slingshot himself around the corner.

This unfortunately increased their speed considerably, making Naruto's eyes tear up from the wind and turning the surroundings into a blur that was only distinguishable due to having Senjutsu enhanced eyeballs. It made the whole thing even more awesome though.

Isn't that your former sensei? Xanna questioned, spotting a silver haired man with a cloth face mask.

That's Kakashi alright. Naruto confirmed.

The man had his Sharingan out and was already making rapid handseals. A wall of earth rose from the ground as soon as he finished, completely blocking off the street.

Naruto simply grinned at the tactic and pushed off the ground, going into a flying kick that was very much inspired by Gai.

"Dynamic EXIT!" He shouted as he passed by Kakashi, just to mess with the man as he easily smashed through the thick wall and continued with the slide on the other side.

How did he know we would go this way? Xanna asked curiously.

That is a very good quest-

His thoughts were interrupted due to having slammed into a wall, despite the fact that his eyes were telling him that it had been an empty street.

When they finally stopped at the end of a long trench dug into the earth, Naruto blinked in confusion, his face mostly hidden under a curtain of unbound, bright gold hair. Judging by the trees and grass, they were in one of Konoha's training grounds, which meant that the 'empty street' they had crashed through had actually been Konoha's outer wall. The minor injuries he had sustained were already healed, but this was definitely weird.

Genjutsu?

Impossible. With both of us being in one body, we would have been immune to Genjutsu even without your dense chakra blocking them.

A few more seconds of contemplation brought to mind one other possibility.

Yin Release Genjutsu might work though. He said pensively.

Don't tell me that you actually helped someone in this village learn how to use that? The demoness asked incredulously.

It could only have been Naruto that had helped someone with that, as he was the only one that did any dabbling with Yin and Yang release in Konoha. Her own ability to create a human form body was actually a heavily specialised form of Yin-Yang release(the only one she could use in fact), which was what had gotten him interested in the subject to begin with.

Ah...I may have? One Yuuhi Kurenai came to mind.

A sigh was the only answer he received. Honestly, sometimes he was just too helpful to people that he actually liked.

It seemed apparent now that Kurenai had used her Yin Release Genjutsu to funnel them towards Kakashi and when that hadn't worked, towards the outer wall, which was the sturdiest wall in the village. The intention had probably been to knock him out instead of having him crash through it though.

Well played Kurenai, your skill with Genjutsu has improved a great deal. Naruto thought to himself.

Not another word was said as Xanna reestablished her perfect chakra concealment and they ran off, leaving a clone to lead the village on a chase again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well well well, if it isn't the humans I'm about to kill." Xanna drawled as she approached Homura and Koharu at a leasurely pace, dragging 'her' claws over the wall as she went, easily gouging grooves into it.

The token ANBU guard left to both protect and keep watch of the elders had already been knocked unconscious and most of the other shinobi in the village were still chasing Naruto's clone.

"You filthy demon! I knew we should have killed you when you were a baby!" Koharu spat.

"You appear to be mistaking me for Naruto, but rest assured that he is perfectly human." Xanna replied.

"At least you would have died with him then!" Homura shot back, just as angry as his old teammate.

"No, I would not have. At worst I would have needed a decade or two to reform my body."

"Why are you here then?! Have you come to gloat over how you've beaten us? Deceived Konoha with your posession of the son of the man who sealed you and played us all for fools all these years?!" Koharu yelled at the calm demoness.

"You place so much value in this village when it is but a speck of dust in the wind." The demoness said in an almost musing tone. "And I am not possessing Naruto, he has willingly shared his body with me."

"But why...?" Homura asked, the last statement shocking him so badly that he couldn't even muster up any anger. He and Koharu had been one of those that had believed that Naruto had been controlled and possessed by the Kyuubi.

"Because I love her, it's that simple." Naruto explained with a shrug, seamlessly switching control of his body with Xanna.

"But she killed your parents, along with so many others!" Koharu yelled at him, trying to get him to see reason.

"Correction, she killed my mother. My father commited overglorified suicide." Naruto replied blandly.

"You don't care?!" The old woman asked in an incredulous yell.

"Not in the slightest." He answered with a smirk.

"What kind of monster are you?!" Homura piped up angrily.

"A monster? They were the ones that chose to attack Xanna when she approached the village, not the other way around. Am I supposed to be angry at her for defending herself?" He asked back.

"But the Kyuubi is a demon! What else were we supposed to do?!"

"That's the kind of stupidity that got you into this mess to begin with." Naruto snickered. "Not that I'm complaining mind you, if it wasn't for morons like you, I probably never would have met her."

Both elders fumed at the blond that was quite clearly mocking them. "You're talking as if she wasn't going to attack us."

"I wasn't actually, but that no longer matters." Xanna repllied while inspecting the claws on Naruto's right hand, once again in control.

"But then..." Koharu said and trailed off, her face ashen. There was no reason to think that the demoness was lying...what would be the point?

"Yes, I'm afraid everyone that night died only because they attacked me. Had nobody done so, I would not have harmed a soul. I don't make it a habit to slaughter you hapless humans without cause after all." Xanna confirmed dryly."At least not anymore."

The two elders looked even more devastated at hearing that and the body sharing lovers could easily tell why.

Both had lost daughters while battling Xanna, in Koharu's case her only child. With both of their spouses dead before then, neither one had any family left that Naruto was aware of. Not that he had bothered to look too hard. There was a monument dedicated to the people lost during the so called 'Kyuubi Attack' and all that anyone needed to do in order to find out about those was look at it.

"You've been quite the irritating pests for my beloved and now at last you will die for it." Xanna spoke ominously and raised 'her' hand in preparation for killing them.

"Stay away from my grandpa!" A young voice shouted, sounding as if it had been spoken through a blocked nose.

"No Udon! Get away from here!" Homura shouted urgently even as his grandson jumped in front of him and Koharu, joined soon after by Konohamaru and Moegi. He did not want his grandson and his friends here right now. They were just relatively fresh Genin and therefore powerless to help him and Koharu. Even if they had been Jounin, it would more than likely have been useless.

Xanna and Naruto started with slight surprise, frowning at the fact that they hadn't sensed the three children. Children were always hard to sense with her Negative Emotion Sensing as they rarely felt negative emotions powerfully enough to register. The reason why the Senjutsu given sensory ability hadn't picked them up was similar...their chakra presences were too weak.

"You have a grandson old man?" Naruto asked neutrally.

"Don't touch him! He's never done anything to you." Homura commanded.

Naruto bared his teeth in a brief snarl at the words and the tone before he spoke. "I don't kill children unless I have no choice you dried up sack of shit. Those three won't be harmed no matter what happens here, which is more than can be said for you." He hadn't known that Homura had any family left, but it didn't matter in the end. He was pretty sure that Udon's parents were dead, which would leave him feeling like crap for killing the boy's grandfather, but he intended to do it anyway.

Homura sighed in relief before Konohamaru decided to open his mouth. "if you want to hurt Udon's grandpa, then you'll have to go through us first!" Udon and Moegi nodded, clearly in agreement with the words.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the cocky brats, easily noting that all three of them were almost literally shaking in their sandals with fear.

"Normally I might be impressed that you three haven't soiled your diapers yet, but I've still got things to do and killing these two dried up prunes is one of them. They set me up to die and I'm not going to let them get away with that."

Ishida had been spared because his daughters had begged for the man's life and the man himself was in truth nothing more than a bug to him at this point. These two had betrayed him to Orochimaru and probably Akatsuki as well in a direct attempt on his life. That was not the kind of thing that either he or Xanna were keen on letting go.

A bead of sweat trickled down the two elder's faces as the situation got even tenser and they responded to that accusation. "We did no such thing. True, it was us that suggested to Tsunade that you be observed on account of suspicious behavior, but we would never make deals with a traitor like Orochimaru or with enemies of Konoha."

Once again, Naruto frowned. They were telling the truth, both he and Xanna agreed on that. It seemed that he had been operating under a misconception here.

"Was Danzo acting alone in this then?" He asked.

Both elders nodded and Koharu spoke. "That is what we believe."

Naruto growled in frustrated anger, causing the elders and kids to back up warily, but he wasn't paying attention to that right now.

He hated the elders and really wanted to kill them. It was because of them that he had wasted so many years failing the Academy and he knew it. It had taken a lot of digging and thinking before he finally traced it back to them but he had done it. No doubt they had offered to help the aging Sandaime in the running of the village by taking over the management of the Academy. In truth it had just been their way to get their shots in at the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki without getting in trouble for it.

So many roadblocks and obstacles thrown into his path just because they couldn't keep themselves from lashing out at someone even if it was the wrong target. Not that attempting to strike at Xanna would have gotten them anything but a messy death.

Master your hatred, or it will master you. Her mental voice did a lot to calm him down and he appreciated the words that she had spoken to him for the first time long ago. Years ago, before he had freed her form the seal even, he had felt nothing but hate for Konoha and had often been lost in lurid daydreams of how he would burn it to the ground and slaughter all of it's people except for Teuchi and Ayame.

Xanna had a great deal of experience with hatred and the things it could drive a person to do. If he had wanted to, she would not have stopped him from razing Konoha to the ground, just as she would not stop him from killing the elders right now if he wanted to. But she did expect him to be fully in control of himself and choose to do it if he wished, instead of letting blind hatred drive his decisions.

Naruto had always valued her words above all else and had taken them seriously. Her advice had helped him to keep control of his own emotions and Ayame's kindness had helped him see that there was good in humans too. It had taken a lot of effort, but he had eventually been able to focus on the good things in his life and decided to simply enjoy his time with Xanna instead of focusing on getting back at people who had hurt him in the past.

Not that he didn't get back at them in many ways, but he didn't make it his primary focus. Those he cared for were more important than those he hated.

Taking a deep breath he considered what he should do. With the revelation that they didn't really have anything to do with the attempted assassination attempt on him, Xanna had lost interest in taking their lives, so it would be entirely on him to decide their fate.

His hands itched with the desire to kill them, years of anger and frustration boiling beneath the surface and demanding satisfaction for the wrong done to him, but he held it in check.

Actions and consequences.

If he killed them, his desire for some kind of revenge would be satisfied. Tsunade would be rid of their nagging and militant mindset. The snot nosed little brat in front of him would be left completely without family.

If he spared them, then they would be free to continue spewing their shit and mostly unwanted advice, but he wouldn't be robbing another child of his only family. It would piss him off to let them get away with it, but they'd be dead in a few years anyway, since they were old as dirt.

Suddenly, he was struck with inspiration.

If he really wanted to hurt them, then killing them was not the way to go about it, because death was only painful for those left behind. There was something that he could take from them that they valued more than their lives.

He gave them a sinister grin, causing them to back up again.

"I'll spare you, but I want something in return."

"What do you want?" Homura asked cautiously. There was very little that they could give him without bringing harm to Konoha in the future and he fully expected the demand to be unreasonable.

"You will retire from the council and live out the rest of your lives as ordinary civilians, never to involve yourself in village affairs again." Naruto declared with finality.

Koharu and Homura balked at the mere thought of it. They had served the village in some capacity all of their lives and to forsake that was unthinkable to them. They wouldn't know what to do with themselves if they had to live as civilians.

"You can't expect us to-" Koharu tried to say but was interrupted.

"You can either retire yourselves, or I can retire you with my claws."

The three kids tensed fearfully, having stayed silent for a while in the hope that things would resolve themselves without fighting, but they couldn't handle staying quiet anymore.

"Grandpa please, just do as he says and retire. It's better than dying isn't it?" Udon pleaded, backed up by Konohamaru and Moegi.

The elders pursed their lips in thought and decided to agree. At least this way, they could work to get back on the council after Uzumaki left.

They gave a nod to show their agreement and Naruto wasted no time in giving them his demands. "Write a letter of resignation right now and hand them to the kids, they will take it to Tsunade."

He had just now felt his shadow clone being dispersed and it wouldn't be long before he was found again. He needed to wrap things up here and move on.

The elders quickly wrote down their resignations and gave them to Konohamaru after Naruto inspected them to his satisfaction.

"And just in case you were thinking of double crossing me..." He said and pressed his palms to their forearms, leaving Hiraishin markers there.

"What is this?" Koharu asked with a frown, staring at the small black seal that now stood out prominently on her wrinkled skin.

Naruto merely gave another sinister grin.

"Hiraishin no Jutsu(Flying Thunder God Technique)."

Both elders suddenly found cold sweat beading on their faces as the blond vanished into thin air. The threat was clear. Uzumaki could reach them at any time and kill them at will. He could even do something as simple as teleporting an explosive tag to the Hiraishin seals on their skin.

Him knowing the Hiraishin certainly explained how he was able to move about the village while his home was still encircled by that barrier.

Either way, they wouldn't be able to risk going back on their agreement with the executioner's axe over their heads like this. It wouldn't be too hard for Uzumaki to figure out if they did so, since he no doubt had quite a few Hiraishin beacons scattered over the village. All he needed to do was teleport in and ask any random villager who was on the council while under a Transformation Technique.

Konohamaru, Udon and Moegi didn't have the same knowledge of the technique, but they understood the blatant threat. They would make sure that Tsunade did not allow the elders back on the council even if they tried.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That was fiendishly underhanded in its cruelty beloved. Xanna purred approvingly.

On the surface, sparing the elders with nothing but a demand for retirement would seem merciful, but for people who valued their ability to serve their village above all else it was far worse than killing them. Now they would have nothing in their lives except endless free time to think of the things they had lost, along with feeling useless because their purpose was suddenly taken from them. The fact that it allowed Naruto to avoid feeling bad for taking away a young boy's only family was just icing on the cake.

If they tried going back on their word, they would live in fear and if they didn't, they would live without purpose.

I know, the looks on their faces were just beautiful. Naruto responded with a grin. Are you ready for the final act my love? He asked with a sense of anticipation.

I can hardly wait. She responded eagerly.

As they had planned, Xanna stopped concealing his chakra and they both flared it powerfully, announcing their presence even to those who weren't sensors. As a final touch, Xanna directed a vast amount of her own power to Naruto's throat. As soon as he felt the immense concentration of chakra there, he roared as loudly as he was able, his voice empowered far beyond what either was capable of alone.

Konoha and much of it's surroundings were shaken by the thundering bellow of an angry god, causing every animal in the area to either run or duck for cover. In the village itself, every human being felt their bones quiver with dread and every child started crying in fear. The roar was powerful enough to make the walls and windows vibrate all across the village.

Xanna's Negative Emotion Sensing let them feel the wave of instinctive terror that swept through the village and it made both of them grin. The roar was a challenge to the warriors of the village, telling them that they were under threat by a power far beyond them. Now it was time to see who would answer the challenge.

Waiting for Konoha's shinobi to arrive, Naruto stood in an empty training ground, surrounded by trees that had been splintered by the force of his roar. His vocal chords had long since healed from the damage that had been done to them by doing that and he rubbed at his slightly sore throat.

Well, that was fun...and painful. He commented.

It was arousing that's what it was. If we weren't about to get into a fight, I would rape you right now. Xanna replied, her voice smouldering.

I'm tempted to screw the plan and then screw you right after.

Tempting though it is, we've put too much effort into this to abandon it now, not to mention that we're behind schedule.

True, but we might as well keep busy while Konoha changes its underwear and comes to find us. Naruto thought at her with an amused grin and clapped his hands together.

Focusing inward, he pressed down on the natural energy that was still in his coils with the weight of his life force, imprinting it with his own personal signature. As soon as that was done, he stilled it and directed it to the Eight Gates so that it would become part of his body.

Hearing Xanna's almost orgasmic moan in his mind as his life force became even stronger made Naruto grin for a moment before he stilled again and drew even more natural energy from the environment, this time using it to maintain Sage Mode.

Finished with his preparations, Naruto stood with his arms crossed and waited for the first ones to arrive.