Naruto Shippuden - part 28

"Whaddya mean Naruto isn't a Konoha shinobi anymore?!" Fukasaku demanded of Jiraiya. They were currently in Myobokuzan and having a rather important discussion.

Jiraiya did tell them most of the important things that went on in the world, but they didn't have any scheduled times for when he did this, he just told them when he came around to Myobokuzan. He hadn't considered Naruto's status as a missing-nin important enough to go to the toad mountain because of it.

"He just isn't...some stuff happened that forced him to become a missing-nin." Jiraiya explained awkwardly.

"What kind of stuff?" Fukasaku asked with some incredulity in his tone. People didn't just become missing-nin for any old reason. He was afraid that it had to do with the reason for his visit.

The following explanation of his then lover and now wife being the Kyuubi actually made him feel better rather than worry him more. Though it did bring other disturbing questions to light.

"I see...and how long has he been in contact with the Kyuubi?" Fukasaku asked.

Jiraiya frowned, starting to become irritated with this one sided exchange of information.

"I don't know, but I think it's time you told me what this is all about."

Fukasaku sighed, seeing that he would need to explain himself if he wanted his student's help on this, though he really didn't want to.

"We didn't remove Naruto as the toad summoner because he'd taken to using such an aggressive Senjutsu style, the real reason that we did it is because of how he did it and what it might mean."

"Maybe you should explain that in a bit more detail Pa." Jiraiya said with a frown.

"He adapted the natural energy that he'd taken from Myobokuzan into something that suited his personality better, that isn't somethin' that should've been possible. By doin' that he opened up a door to possibilities that we thought were long gone, that's what made us so scared and angry."

"Who's 'we'?" Jiraiya interrupted.

"The summon clans, all of them."

That brought Jiraiya up short. For all of the summon clans to agree on something was ridiculously rare. Most of them were at best neutral with each other, for them to even bother interacting with each other was highly unusual.

As far as he knew none of the summon clans were actually enemies, but they didn't exactly get along. Well...Manda and Gamabunta were enemies, but both of them were rather cranky. Not that anyone got along too well with Manda, other snakes included.

"What kind of possibilities could be so bad that all of the summon clans would agree on something?" Jiraiya asked.

Fukasaku sighed again, highly reluctant to talk about it. There was a reason that there was so little information on Senjutsu available to humans and he wasn't eager to reveal it. He really hoped that his student would see reason on this... They wouldn't even be having this conversation if there had been any other choice.

"To explain that, I'm gonna need to give ya a bit of a history lesson. What I'm about to tell ya happened a long time ago, I was just barely out of my tadpole days at the time."

"Wow, when you said a long time ago, you meant a really long time ago." Jiraiya interrupted with a snicker, causing Fukasaku to glare at him until he shut up and looked sheepish.

"The world wasn't really all that different than it is now, except for the fact that there were no hidden villages, people were still usin' chakra to kill each other. The Senju and Uchiha were the largest and most well known shinobi clans at the time and were predictably at each other's throats all the time."

"So it was like the time just before the formation of the hidden villages?" Jiraiya asked, seeing that this all sounded very familiar.

"Pretty much." Fukasaku said with a shrug. "The dynamic didn't change when Senju Kaganazuri was born, but it did when he became ten years old. At that time, the Senju celebrated the emergence of a bloodline that they didn't even know they had...the Mokuton."

The Sannin gaped incredulously at the old toad. "But the Shodai was said to be the first Mokuton user!"

"That was because the summon clans made sure to suppress the bloodline as much as possible. If it hadn't been for that, there would have been at least a dozen Mokuton users before Hashirama." Fukasaku said grimly.

"But why?!" Jiraiya burst out, feeling outraged, knowing that by 'suppress' the ancient toad meant 'kill'.

Fukasaku sighed tiredly, knowing that it definitely wasn't one of the nicer things that the summons had done. "The Uchiha caught wind of this new bloodline and sent assassins after Kaganazuri, but they failed to kill him. They did get his parents however. After that, all of the Senju clan kept close watch on the boy and trained him as best they could in the use of his powers."

"Eventually we summons heard of the boy and his remarkable power to manipulate plant life and the snakes approached him with an offer to let him sign their contract, which he did."

"Why the snakes?" Jiraiya asked curiously.

"They got there first." Fukasaku admitted with another shrug.

While Jiraiya leveled an odd look at the small toad elder, Fukasaku continued with the story.

"The boy was remarkably gifted at learnin' the techniques taught by the snakes, especially Senjutsu once it was time for that. That was where the problem started unfortunately."

"What do you mean? What problems?" Jiraiya asked with a frown.

"Ever since he saw his parents killed, Kaganazuri had been sullen and moody, only cheering up when there was something new to learn. Less than a year after he mastered Senjutsu, he learned how to reverse the power of the Mokuton. Instead of giving life, he learned how to take it and I don't mean by killing. He learned how to drain out the life from plants and eventually from the very ground."

"But why would he do that?" Jiraiya asked, getting a foreboding feeling from Fukasaku's grim tone of voice.

"Because he'd discovered that it would allow him to live forever, as well as making him stronger. He'd reduced several areas into wasteland before the snakes called him back to Ryuuchi Cave. He was their favored student and summoner and they'd known about the darkness that lurked in his heart ever since the death of his parents, they just hadn't cared, just like they don't care if Orochimaru is evil or not. They weren't willing to let him suck the life out of the very earth though, so they betrayed him, poisonin' him when he had his guard down."

"Just like that? They stabbed him in the back so easily?" Jiraiya asked incredulously.

"The snakes were always very pragmatic and it was the right thing to do in this case. Kaganazuri would have kept drainin' the life out of everythin' he could in his greed and their actions probably averted a disaster. Ever since then, the snakes have been sendin' their smallest serpents to check on the newborn Senju to see if they had the potential for the Mokuton and poisonin' them with an untraceable toxin if they did, to make sure that a near miss like that doesn't happen again, as well as to make sure that the Mokuton stayed forgotten."

"But then what about the Shodai?" Jiraiya asked, hiding his rising anger at what he was hearing.

"They overlooked him somehow, don't ask me how because I don't know. By the time his Mokuton manifested, he'd been much too powerful and observant to be taken out like that. Bein' unable to discreetly remove him, we all had to settle for hopin' that everythin' would be alright. We near panicked when he somehow managed to learn Senjutsu all by himself, not to mention how much more powerful he was than Kaganazuri from a purely combat perspective. We all breathed a sigh of relief that he never discovered how to drain the life out of plants."

Jiraiya looked quite stunned at all this information, but he was also very angry.

"The fact that Naruto managed to learn how to convert natural energy into life force isn't near as bad as that, but it's still a huge cause for concern. He might not have the Mokuton, but we're still worried that he's going to learn how to drain the life from livin' things even without it, that's why we removed him from the toad scroll...we didn't want him learnin' anythin' more about Senjutsu from us. Especially with that prophecy that the old geezer made about one of your students either savin' or destroyin' the world." Fukasaku finished with a heavy sigh.

"How dare you?" Jiraiya growled out, glaring furiously at the small toad. "None of you had any right to decide something like that! You were so damn scared of someone repeating what this Kaganazuri character did that you felt it was okay to kill every baby with the potential to use Mokuton?!" He knew that it had been the snakes who had done the actual deed, but it was clear that Fukasaku was at least nominally in agreement. Obviously he didn't like it, but he felt it was a necessary evil.

"We couldn't risk something like that happenin' again." Fukasaku said defensively. "If it did then it could've meant the extinction of all life on the continent and there was no guarantee that we could've taken another life drainer by surprise like that. The fact that Hashirama managed to learn Senjutsu all by himself was proof enough that it was the right thing to do. If he'd gone down the same path as Kaganazuri, we wouldn't have been able to stop him."

"That wasn't for you to decide! You don't get to make decisions like that just because you're scared that something bad might happen!" Jiraiya roared at the toad furiously, unable to believe that the kindly elders he had known for so long were capable of something like this.

"You weren't there! You have no idea how close the world came to being destroyed! If it wasn't for a lucky break then the Elemental Nations would be nothing but a barren wasteland!" Fukasaku argued back, trying to keep his temper in check. He knew that it was only natural for Jiraiya to be angry. He'd argued against the decision too when he'd been younger, until the elders of the time had shown him what had been left after Kaganazuri had been finished.

There was a reason that Wind Country was a desert and why it started so abrutly. Despite the hundreds of years that had gone by since then, it stayed as a desert instead of recovering. Granted, it might have recovered eventually if there had been sufficient rainfall and fertile earth there, but the endless plains of arid sand didn't retain water well enough to sustain plant life anymore.

"And I suppose you would've killed Naruto too if you'd suspected that he would have learned to do something similar?" The white haired Sannin asked scathingly.

"Yes, we would have and we would've been right to do it! He's already attacked the snakes and taken all of their natural energy, how long do you think its goin' to take him to learn how to drain the life from the livin'?!" The elder toad snapped back.

"Just send me back to Konoha. This conversation is over." Jiraiya said coldly. He didn't want to be around his old teacher anymore right now, or else he might start throwing fire Ninjutsu around

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Jiraiya was nervous and uncertain, not a common state of affairs for him, nor was it one he enjoyed.

The cause of these feelings? Tsunade.

It had only taken him about a whole day of waffling over it before he'd manned up and told her about his talk with Fukasaku. He'd rightfully feared for his life during that conversation.

The busty Sannin had raged, yelled, broken things(not him fortunately) and been generally destructive for a good long while. She'd nearly summoned Katsuyu just so she could punch the giant slug, which was completely unheard of. Then again you'd never think that the ultra polite slug would be capable of going along with something as despicable as assassination on babies, especially for such a dumbass reason.

Now however, she was no longer raging.

Now, she was drunk off her ass and even worse, she was maudlin drunk. Actually, Jiraiya couldn't remember seeing her this drunk in decades.

The toad Sannin didn't know how to deal with that. He was used to her being irritable drunk or angry drunk...even violent drunk. That's the kind of drunk she was when around him anyway, which he suspected was probably because he tended to stare at her the way her chest heaved when she panted for breath.

Maudlin drunk was entirely new territory for him though. Was he supposed to be supportive? Was he supposed to do something perverted so that she got angry at him?

"Shtupid shummonsh...hic...who do they think...hic...think they are?"

"Yeah, those bastards." Jiraiya agreed awkwardly. He definitely agreed with her on that, but it was awkward because Tsunade was being so weird. Shizune was the only one who knew how to deal with maudlin drunk Tsunade.

"Even if they are...hic...right about Naruto." She managed to burble out and then giggled. "Just not...the way they think."

"What do you mean?" The toad Sannin asked warily.

"Oh yeah...hic...I never told ya. Naruto'sh inshane...hic."

"Yes, everyone knows that Naruto is insane." Jiraiya said dryly, very relieved.

"Nah, thatsh...hic...not what I meant...hic. I mean...hic... , he'sh REALLY inshane." Tsunade 'clarified' with a drunken arm wave.

The earlier relief vanished like smoke. "Tsunade, how is my godson insane?"

"Well ya shee...hic... He wash all alone...hic...ever shince he wash born...hic...cuz nobody wanted anything...hic...to do with him cuz of the Kyuubi...hic. The only one who took care of him...hic... was Xzhanna, so he'd do anything...hic...for her and I mean ANYTHING."

Jiraiya frowned deeply. That explanation was lacking in a great many details no doubt, but he got the general idea and it wasn't pretty.

"Do you think he'd hurt anyone if it helped her?"

Tsunade giggled drunkenly again, as if he'd just said something truly hilarious. "He'd cover them in gravy...hic... and throw 'em into a pit of hungry lionsh." She said, with an exaggerated nod.

Suddenly she started frowning in slight confusion. Looking as if she was trying to remember something important.

"Wait...hic...I washn't shupposhed to to tell ya that. Doctor-patient...hic...confidnetiality."

Jiraiya didn't even feel the urge to smirk at how she'd mangled that last word. He really needed to talk to her about this when she sobered up.

"Well imagine that, the summons actually have a good reason to be worried." He said to himself cynically. Honestly, he was finding it hard not to think that they had it coming. "At least the stupid snakes got what they deserved."

"Yeah, I told him...hic... where to find Orochi." Tsunade mumbled and started snoring on her desk.

Jiraiya just sighed to himself, at least that explained how Naruto had even gotten to Ryuuchi Cave in the first place. Though how he had managed to get Orochimaru to take him there was beyond him.

Wait...Hiraishin...right.

That technique was such a damn cheat on stuff that should normally be hard, such as taking your girlfriend to picnics on the beaches of Water Country without any planning or having to take time off.

Damn Minato.

Or invading the hidden territory of an enemy summon clan.

Damn Naruto.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto frowned thoughtfully as he examined the results of the latest Edo Tensei experiment.

The reincarnated man was just standing there, doing nothing. Then again, he didn't need to do anything, nor was he really capable of much, considering that he had been a random bandit in life. The nature of the Edo Tensei had required sacrifices and there were fortunately plenty enough of those in the form of various criminals and missing-nin.

He had long since been fascinated by the unlimited regenerative ability of those summoned by the Edo Tensei, but it had turned out not to be regeneration at all. The soul that was anchored to the undead body merely provided the 'blueprint' for what was to be constructed. It also prevented the body from simply collapsing. The anchoring effect was provided by the one who was sacrificed, or to be specific, their life force did so. The undead bodies were not alive after all, which was why a sacrifice was even needed to summon the dead...it kept the soul bound to the mortal world.

The mystery of infinite chakra was also hidden in that forced union of dead soul and undead body. The spiritual part was provided by the summoned soul and the physical by the body of the sacrificed. The bound soul kept forcibly extracting physical energy from the sacrifice and prevented it from dying, leading to an endless supply of chakra. The stronger the physical energy of the sacrifice, the more power the summoned dead could use. Which meant that it would be fairly stupid to use civilians or Genin as sacrifices if you were trying to summon someone of Kage level power. It didn't really have to be a powerful sacrifice, merely one who innately had strong physical energy, though most of those were powerful shinobi.

Naruto had gotten a kick out of Orochimaru's grimace when they had discovered that little tidbit. It also made him wonder what the hell kind of drugs the Nidaime had been on when he had come up with this shit.

The whole reason that he wanted to deconstruct the technique, was because he wanted to see if he could somehow turn himself into a pseudo Edo Tensei type thing, only without actually being dead. He wanted to retain his sense of pain as well, because without pain there wouldn't be any pleasure either and that would make sex extraordinarily pointless. A bit inane perhaps, but unlike some people(such as Orochimaru), he actually cared to enjoy his immortality.

In short, he was trying to do something impossible again. To keep his soul imprisoned inside his own body, preventing it from moving on to the pure world even if he was blasted to dust. The real trick was to make sure that his body would pull itself together if that happened.

He pretended not to notice Orochimaru salivating at the idea.

It was one of his ideas for locking his body into its current condition so that Xanna's presence inside him wouldn't be killing him anymore. Of course, he was worried that if he did that, she wouldn't be able to sustain herself anymore.

He was going to need to practice it on people, because there was no way in hell that something like that was going to go right on the first try.

It may be unwise to attempt such a thing while I am inside you as well. Xanna spoke, breaking Naruto out of his thoughts.

Because you might end up being permanently stuck in me? Naruto asked rhetorically, having already considered it.

Yes. We have no idea how something like that would affect us, it would be best to postpone such things until you can get me free.

Agreed.

That left only an ever smaller amount of options available to them. Orochimaru had already admitted that he and Karin had been searching Hot Water Country because of some very unusual happenings when he had caught them. These happenings included reports of people being eaten and going missing randomly, as well as a single rumor about a demon being seen in the night.

They hadn't known what it was about, but Naruto had quickly realised that Jashin must be out and about, doing whatever he was doing. He had sent clones to investigate, knowing full well that the key to saving Xanna might be with him. Unfortunately, Madara had been hunting them down and destroying them, no doubt trying to force him to come out into the open personally. The first one he had tried to use some kind of weird technique on, but it hadn't worked. Judging by the way that the Uchiha had laid his hand on the clone's head, it had probably been some kind of mind reading technique, but it was apparently ineffective against shadow clones, which was a relief. If Madara had succeeded in that, then they would have been in deep shit.

It was unfortunate, but his clones couldn't hide their chakra the way that he could. That they had even managed to get any equipment from one of Orochimaru's labs was a small miracle.

Speaking of getting that lab equipment...Naruto looked to his right, focusing and causing a small sapling to grow from the ground. Senju Hashirama's cells had assimilated well and he had even gained the Mokuton. The man's life force had truly been amazing, about as strong as his own right after he had made his own Senjutsu style. Both he and Xanna believed that it was no doubt due to the fact that Hashirama had also learned a Senjutsu style of his own. If the Shodai hadn't died(which was something that was actually puzzling him...how did the man die anyway?), he probably would have lived for somewhere upwards of two hundred years, maybe even three hundred.

He couldn't really do anything combat worthy with the Mokuton yet, but it bought him a good bit more time at least. Hopefully, there would be plenty of time to master it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Madara was brooding as he sat on a large, throne like chair.

The cause of his brooding was, as was always the case lately, Uzumaki Naruto and his continued possession of the Gedō Mazō.

Attempts to find the blond had failed just as miserably as had his attempts to summon the statue. The Hiraishin allowed him a ridiculous amount of mobility while simultaneously allowing him to leave his hideout without exposing it. Only Obito's Kamui could have possibly made him able to move with greater impunity.

Madara had considered stealing Obito's other Sharingan from Hatake Kakashi in order to gain access to Kamui, but it wouldn't help him if he didn't know where Uzumaki was hiding, not to mention the likelyhood of it being guarded against entry in that manner.

The annoying blond was being incredibly cagey and cautious, especially since he had heard from Zetsu that he tended to be rather reckless in combat. So far Madara had only found his clones, which naturally were of no use. The Human Path didn't work on them since they had no souls and there was no way to contain them. What he needed to do was force his enemy into the open.

Madara was well aware that Uzumaki had somehow managed to hide his chakra signature even from him, but it would still make it easier to find him than if he was hiding away, he was rather distinctive after all.

This would all have been so much easier if the damn blond had just stayed a Konoha shinobi instead of becoming a missing-nin. At the very least, he hadn't completely cut ties with the village.

I guess I'm going to Konoha after all. He thought to himself with dark amusement. It certainly wasn't how he preferred to operate, but if Uzumaki had done anything, it was prove that crude methods can be just as effective as elegant ones.

It would also serve as a nice bit of revenge against Uzumaki for bringing up Mito. He hated it when that woman was mentioned.

It wasn't that he hated Mito herself, her name simply brought up bitter memories that he didn't like thinking of.

He'd actually encountered her before Hashirama did when she arrived at Konoha. He'd been puzzled and a bit curious about what the regal looking young woman was doing there and had asked if she needed someone to show her around, thinking that she was some kind of foreign dignitary or noble that had come to see the newly built hidden village.

They had ended up spending the day together and Madara had honestly taken a liking to her. That was the first and only time that he had ever liked a woman, being something of a misogynist. Despite her regal bearing, she hadn't been insufferably arrogant as he'd expected. She'd been remarkably easy to get along with actually and wasn't the slightest bit intimidated by his reputation.

Of course, not even two days later he'd learned that she was to be wed to Hashirama and that his rival had known her for years.

He'd never spoken of his interest in Mito to anyone, nor had he given any indication of it. Uzumaki's words had been meant as a mocking insult, but they had unexpectedly struck true.

It had been after he'd calmed down from that bit of rage that he'd realised that Uzumaki Naruto pissed him off just as much as Hashirama.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto's head snapped up as he felt one of the Hiraishin kunai that he had given to the girls in Konoha being thrown.

Stifling his urge to teleport there immediately, he made a shadow clone and had it do the teleporting.

Teleporting into the unknown when someone else was calling you was a seriously bad idea when you were a hunted man, even if it was one of his girls calling. If everything was fine, then he would teleport there himself and if it wasn't, the shadow clone would disperse and he'd know the situation.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Clone Naruto looked at the scene in front of him in a sort of numb shock...It was far worse than what he had feared.

Tsunade and worse, Ayame, were both lying motionlessly on the ground and he could clearly see that they weren't breathing.

Sakura, Hinata and Tenten were still alive, but clearly exhausted. They didn't look as if they'd been in a protracted battle, so it was more likely that they were just drained of chakra.

Just slightly behind them stood Uchiha Madara with his arms crossed over his chest. He was wearing his old armor and had his gunbai slung over his back.

He was currently scowling at being faced with yet another clone instead of the real one. He had thought that Uzumaki would come personally if these women that he was close to were threatened, but apparently he'd been wrong.

Zetsu had told him that the civilian girl was the one that he was closest to and Tsunade was Hokage, which was why he had used the Human Path on them, thinking that they might know something that would hint at Uzumaki's location, but no such luck.

The other three he had left alive because he needed them as leverage and the chance of them knowing anything useful was non-existent. It hadn't even been all that hard to get them all. He could suppress his chakra perfectly and had easily made his way through the village unseen and gathered them all. It hadn't been hard at all to bring them to this deserted training ground on the outskirts of the village after that. Honestly, Konoha's standards had dropped rather drastically from what he recalled of the village, even if it was the dead of night and not everyone could see in the dark as well as him.

Tsunade had put up a bit of a fight, but as she knew nothing of his abilities, it had been easy to use the Human Path on her. Through her he had learned of the Hiraishin kunai and through Ayame, he had found one. The other three kunoichi were nowhere close to being powerful enough to give him a challenge, especially unprepared as they had been.

"So you will not even come in person to save these girls? How heartless of you Uzumaki." Madara said mockingly. He had been hoping to use the shadows he had in Limbo to restrain the former Jinchuuriki, but there was no point in doing that for a shadow clone.

The shadow clone said nothing for a time, only staring at Ayame's body numbly. His dear big sister, who didn't have a single mean bone in her body, was dead. Dead, because some idiot didn't like the world and wanted to create his own.

"You killed her." Naruto said numbly, still not having come to terms with that fact.

"I would not have done so if you had simply given me the Gedō Mazō. Give it to me now and she will be returned to you in the Infinite Dream."

The words snapped Naruto out of his dazed grief and allowed him to focus on the situation. He could fall apart later, right now there were still three girls that he could save.

"If I do that, I'll just lose my wife too."

"You will lose her either way and if you do not give it to me, you will also lose these three." Madara countered. "Just accept the Infinite Tsukuyomi and you will have it all back."

Naruto glared furiously at the old Uchiha, trying to think of a way to solve this situation and coming up with nothing. If he gave up the Gedō Mazō then Madara would swiftly take the Hachibi from Kumo and use the Infinite Tsukuyomi. There would be no time to counter him.

He'd been tempted to attack Kumo himself and take the Hachibi, but he had nowhere to put it. If he sealed it into the Gedō Mazō he'd revive the Juubi and that would be a disaster. Xanna couldn't use its chakra as long as the Hachibi still retained its demonic spirit and the only way he knew of to destroy that spirit was to stuff it into the Gedō Mazō, which was as previously noted, a big no no. He knew of Killer Bee by reputation and had no wish to attempt keeping such a powerful Jinchuuriki with full control of the Hachibi's powers contained either. Especially when it would serve no purpose.

In short, he was in a lose-lose situation, which was exactly the type of situation he had been able to avoid so far. He'd just been starting to hope that Madara wasn't the type to resort to this kind of thing, but clearly his hopes had been premature.

He hadn't wanted to take away their ability to choose their own lives and this was the result. The ability to choose what people wanted to do with their own lives was something that Naruto had always respected, which was why he hadn't been more insistent about getting his girls out of Konoha and why he hated the idea of being trapped forever in an infinite Genjutsu.

The only exception to this were scum such as rapists and the like. As far as Naruto was concerned, people like that didn't have rights. Basically anyone that hurt others just for the sake of hurting them or to satisfy their own petty desires.

Tenten, Sakura and Hinata had by now managed to struggle onto their knees, having recovered enough chakra for that at least.

All three girls could see how conflicted Naruto's shadow clone looked and it didn't take them long to figure out the situation. They knew that if Naruto thought that he could save them, he would already be here. They all knew that he was perfectly capable of throwing himself into an uncertain battle without fear, but this was different.

He had to think of Xanna now and he had clearly admitted to them that he didn't believe himself powerful enough to have any hope of defeating the legendary Uchiha as he was now. It was clear that he was struggling to find a way out of this, but he couldn't think of anything that would allow him to save them all as well as Xanna.

Tsunade had vaguely explained to them(thinking that they might as well know if she had been stupid enough to blurt it out to Jiraiya in her drunken stupor) that Naruto was psychologically incapable of placing anyone before the demoness, so his indecision was understandable. They all knew that he loved them, but Xanna was the foundation on which his whole life was based, they knew and accepted who he would choose if he was forced to.

They exchanged glances, all three of them knowing that this situation could only have one possible end.

"I...can't do that." Naruto spat out through clenched teeth. If he gave up the Gedō Mazō he wouldn't even be saving them, he would be condemning them to being trapped in that stupid illusion forever.

Madara raised an eyebrow, having figured that the blond would give him the statue and try to get it back after he had the kunoichi somewhere safe. It would have been an effort doomed to failure of course, but clearly the Uzumaki had more steel in his spine than he'd thought.

"So not even their deaths will move you to act? What about their pain then?" He asked rhetorically. "If you do not give me the Gedō Mazō, I will use the Tsukuyomi to torment them until you do."

Naruto growled angrily, a sound that no human throat should be capable of making, desperate to find some way out of this.

Tenten, Sakura and Hinata had stiffened when they'd heard the threat and were relieved to have a way out of this. Hinata in particular was wearing an uncharacteristically dark scowl at once again being used against her loved ones, this time in an even worse way than the Hyuuga elders had done.

It had been her idea that had given them this way out. She had gone to Tenten and requested that the budding Fuinjutsu mistress place a cursed seal over her heart, one that could be activated at will and be used to kill her without hope of recovery, even if a medic of Tsunade's ability was nearby.

Tenten had protested at first, but after Naruto had visited and told them about Madara, had agreed and placed it on herself as well. They had told Sakura about it too and the pinkette had only deliberated about it for a few minutes before asking for it as well. Tenten's knowledge of the Caged Bird Seal was what had allowed her to create it, seeing as it was loosely based on the kill-switch present in that particular seal.

They hadn't told Tsunade about it, because they knew that she wouldn't have agreed to it and Ayame was a civilian so she wouldn't be able to use it on herself anyway.

None of the three girls had been able to muster up the optimism to believe that Madara would have let them be, but they weren't willing to abandon Konoha either, each for their own reasons. Sakura had wanted to help her master restore Konoha to its former greatness, Tenten had wanted to become a great kunoichi and Hinata had wanted to see her family fully healed from the damage that the Caged Bird Seal had done to it.

None of that mattered anymore though.

Hinata remembered what Naruto had done for her and would not be used to cause him pain and guilt over the fact that he was unable to save them.

He had recklessly decided that she would be his little sister when she had been a stuttering wreck of a girl and helped her overcome that. She'd been despairing of ever finding anything worth living for when the brazen blond had demanded to be called big brother as if it was no big deal.

She had been happy about it but hadn't expected anything to come of it, but he had surprised her again. Not more than a couple of days later, in that tower in the center of the Forest of Death, he'd disregarded any kind of propriety and kept on hugging and cuddling her as if she had always been his little sister instead of something he'd seemingly decided on a whim.

He had teased her out of her embarrassment, encouraged her and helped her so much. She knew that he was always busy with something, either training or some Fuinjutsu project or other, but he had made time for her as much as he could and never considered her to be worthless.

Thanks to him, her family was united, her cousin was back to his old self, the cursed seal was gone and she was a respected kunoichi that could be proud of herself. If it hadn't been for him, Hinata could only wonder if she wouldn't have sought out some kind of 'heroic' death on a mission just to get away from it all.

Tenten was having similar thoughts.

Naruto had offered to teach her despite still being a Genin himself at the time. He had no obligation to do so, nor did he have anything to gain from it, he had just seen her interest in Fuinjutsu and decided to help out a fellow practitioner.

She was aware that she'd been a relatively feeble kunoichi when he had taken her on as a student, not really capable of much more than throwing things at her enemies. She would have been doomed to fall behind her teammates if that trend had continued.

Even then, she knew that it hadn't been a typical apprenticeship. Naruto had constantly poked fun at her with his perverted antics and generally acted more like a big brother than a teacher. Some of the best times that she could remember having in her life had been during their lessons together.

As an orphan, she never had any family and Naruto had become a lot more than just a Fuinjutsu master to her during those times. He had invested far more time and effort into her than she had expected. Even when he'd been forced to leave, he had still given her those wonderful gifts so that she could continue learning as well as the sword that had become more than just a weapon, but a precious gift.

She owed him a lot and refused to be used to hurt him like this. She hoped that he would find the Kusanagi and remember her when he used it in the future. Either way, she would, could not allow Madara to learn about the Codex of Seals. It was probably the only book with detailed written instructions on how to learn space-time Fuinjutsu and that was knowledge that Madara absolutely could not be allowed to have. She had the Codex rigged to self destruct if she died without passing it on, a security feature she had added after Naruto had informed them of Madara's resurrection.

Sakura too was remembering the past, going over the time she spent with her remaining teammate.

She knew that she'd been nothing more than a nuisance to him at the start, a stupid little girl playing at being a ninja so that she could impress a boy that didn't care about her at all. Naruto had been harsh with her and never sugar coated his words, deliberately describing in detail all the awful things that could happen to her if she wore a forehead protector without the ability to defend herself.

She'd hated him for it at the time, but it had served to snap her out of her stupidity eventually. She still wondered sometimes if Sasuke could have been saved if she'd been more useful from the start or if maybe he wouldn't have left in the first place.

Sasuke...she knew that Naruto had never liked him, but he had still argued to have him buried as a loyal shinobi instead of as a traitor despite his attempted defection. Sakura wasn't stupid, she knew that Naruto wasn't unduly upset about having killed Sasuke, but he wasn't pleased over it either. The two of them had simply never bonded and likely never would have.

As soon as she'd stopped being an idiotic fangirl, Naruto had also stopped being so harsh. She'd been surprised by that, having expected that the blond hated and resented her for being so useless, but it hadn't been the case at all. He hadn't held any grudges and easily became a friend as if their rocky past interaction didn't matter anymore.

The stupid attraction she had developed for him after his return to Konoha was still a source of embarrassment for her sometimes, but that night time visit had allowed her to get it off her chest and deal with it, so it wasn't a big issue anymore.

Though now that she was facing her imminent death, she had to wonder if she should have taken Xanna up on that offer of having sex with her while she was in Naruto's body. She'd been wondering if it was really as great as Naruto made it seem.

She let out a mental snort at how insignificant her virginity seemed now that she was about to die. So her first time would have been with a female ancient demoness that was using her male teammate's body to do the deed, big whoop. At least it would have made Ino do a spit-take during one of their lunch discussions, it would have almost been worth it just for that.

They exchanged glances again, seeing that the other two were in agreement. They didn't want to die, but they wanted to be used as leverage against Naruto even less. Madara was too powerful for them to be capable of escaping him. It would hurt him to see them die, but not as much as it would eat at him if he knew that Madara was torturing them just to pressure him into giving up the Gedō Mazō. There were no good choices left here, so they could at least decide to do the least possible harm.

Tenten spared a brief moment of regret for the fact that she had only just begun learning space-time Fuinjutsu and hadn't been able to crack the Hiraishin yet, as that would have been the only thing that might have allowed them to escape this situation.

Hinata, who was sitting in the middle, reached out and squeezed the hands of her friends as they prepared to activate the seals over their hearts. Of the three of them, she was the most familiar with the situation and knew exactly how abhorrent it was to them to be used like this to hurt someone they loved. They would have preferred to kill Madara, but the negligent ease with which the man had taken them down made it clear that it wasn't going to happen.

Even if Naruto could have sacrificed Xanna to save them, they would prefer to die than to have their minds trapped forever in Madara's personal world.

Naruto knew that something bad was about to happen when all three girls looked at him with a resigned expression and silently mouthed that they loved him. The moment after that, all three girls spasmed briefly and then fell to the ground as a powerful charge of lightning chakra burned out their hearts and damaged them beyond repair.

Madara hadn't bothered to stop them from moving or holding hands or anything of the sort. It wasn't as if they were capable of doing anything after all and it might actually help him in pressuring Uzumaki to give up in order to save them. He had no time to react to the sudden activation of their cursed seals.

The old Uchiha merely frowned and stepped away from their bodies while Naruto's shadow clone made a wordless exclamation and rushed at the now dead young women. He hadn't expected them to be capable of suicide in order to deny him the chance to use them as leverage against Uzumaki, but he had apparently underestimated their resolve quite severely, not to mention their resourcefulness.

He was greatly skilled with medical Ninjutsu, but the amount of lightning chakra he had sensed being emitted from those seals would have been far too much for anyone to heal, not to mention that their deaths were near instant.

He could resurrect them of course, but the price of using the Samsara of Heavenly Life was much too steep to be used for bringing back hostages. Not to mention that they were likely to simply activate that suicide seal again.

"Since it would appear that I no longer have any leverage, I will be taking my leave now." Madara spoke almost conversationally and turned towards Konoha. "But first, a little goodbye present for Konoha."

A three sided Susanoo flared to life around him, each holding a different hand seal.

"Tengai Shinsei(Heavenly Obstacle Quaking Star)."

Naruto's shadow clone directed a dull look towards the massive meteor that was falling towards Konoha at terminal velocity. Theoretically, the original Naruto might be able to teleport here and smash it before it struck the village.

But he wouldn't do that. For a change, he wasn't thinking of the fact that this would be exactly what Madara wanted...he was just in too much shock at seeing the majority of his loved ones die to be capable of caring about all the people that were about to be obliterated in the village.

Not that he would have cared about most of them to begin with, but there were a few among them that were worth saving from his point of view. Instead he silently gathered the bodies of the five women that had died because of Madara and then turned to face the resurrected Uchiha.

"You should have stayed dead Madara. The next time you see me, I will be a god and death won't be enough to save you from me anymore."

Madara turned away as the shadow clone teleported away with the bodies of the women. He wasn't the type of person to prevent an enemy from taking care of the dead out of spite and there would be no purpose in such an act.

He rose into the air and protected himself from the flying debris with a shield of gravitational force as he continued thinking of the situation.

With those three girls committing suicide to deny him any leverage, he now had no means of forcing Uzumaki into the open and the blond was obviously not stupid enough to rush him right now in a revenge driven frenzy.

As much as he disliked it, he was forced into waiting until Uzumaki was ready for him, something which he was by no means happy about, even though he doubted that the blond would be able to become powerful enough to face him anytime soon.

His own personal searching had turned up nothing at all, which was the main reason that he had destroyed Konoha. The sudden power vacuum would spark the fourth great shinobi war as every other country with a shinobi force scrambled to pick up the pieces. Madara knew that Uzumaki needed to come out of hiding periodically and the chaos of war would hopefully force him to reveal himself more often than in peace.

Once again, the solution was not ideal, but it was better than letting the enemy have free reign to do as they pleased until they were ready to face him. Uzumaki's ominous final words certainly boded ill for him if he managed to make good on them.

After all, Madara had free reign to act for decades and he would have succeeded already if Uzumaki hadn't wrecked so many of his plans.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto sat gloomily in front of the five graves that he had dug after his clone had brought back the bodies of his girls and dispersed.

Tsunade would probably try to punch him if he called her one of his girls, but she'd still be secretly pleased about it. She always did kind of suck at keeping her pleasure at his perverted teasing hidden. No woman that went to that kind of length to look young would be upset at being found desirable, no matter what kind of rage she worked herself up to.

It had been a full twenty four hours since then and it was dark again.

Naruto felt that the night was unnaturally pleasant, warm with just a bit of wind. In his opinion it should have been thundering and pouring rain like a flood, but the uncaring weather was entirely indifferent to the tragedy of what had happened.

Karin had given him a brief hug and then moved off, sensing that he wanted to be alone, while Orochimaru had merely looked briefly introspective at seeing Tsunade's body and at learning that his other teammate had probably been crushed by a meteor. He had stayed quiet and well away from Naruto though, feeling that the blond's volatile temper might snap for the slightest, or even imagined, slight towards the recently deceased.

Naruto had stayed at their graves ever since then, just letting his mind drift randomly through the memories of the time he spent with them.

He wasn't actually too upset about Tsunade's death. She had lived her life already and had been ready to die for a long while. She was reunited with her brother and the man she loved now and he was happy for her.

Xanna had always taught him not to think of death as something terrible and he had never had any problem with that mindset. His early life had been difficult and it had been incredibly easy to think of death as less of a tragedy and more of a well deserved rest at the end of the road.

The reason for his gloom was because the other four had still been so young and had so much they wanted to do.

Ayame had just started a family and had been thinking of giving her son a younger sibling. She had been so excited to see her son grow. Madara had stolen that from her, cutting it short because he thought nothing of sacrificing her for the chance to get what he was after.

At the very least, Ayame's family had joined her right after, regardless of how morbid and heartless that sounded.

Tenten, Sakura and Hinata had been even younger but at least they had been soldiers. They had been prepared for the possibility of dying, even if they didn't want to die yet. He just hated that they had died right in front of him(sort of) while he was helpless to do anything about it.

They had made the only choice that they had, he knew that, but he still hated it.

Why did they have to die? Why couldn't I save them. He asked himself morosely. He knew what the answer was of course, but he wasn't able to shake off his depressive mood.

Because you were not strong enough to do so. Xanna's answer was cruel as the truth often was, but he'd learned long ago that it was useless to be upset about the truth. It never changed anything.

It still hurt to hear it though.

They are safe now, in a world where pain can no longer reach them, it is only you who suffers from their deaths. Grieve for yourself, for losing them, but do not feel sorry for them. They died without fear, to protect you, because they loved you. Be proud of them for that and remember them and their courage.

Naruto raised the Kusanagi in front of him, staring at its gleaming blade and reflecting on the words. He had found it sealed on Tenten's belt and had elected to keep it instead of burying it with her. He was sure that she wouldn't want it gathering metaphorical rust in the earth.

What Xanna said was true, they couldn't be hurt anymore. As the only survivor, he was the one who had to carry the pain of their passing and absence. He would miss them, but he would do his best to remember them and the good times he had with them instead of moping over the way they died. They wouldn't have wanted that for him and he knew it.

He knew the Edo Tensei and could have brought them back, but he also knew that it would have been a terrible idea, no matter how much he'd have liked the chance to say goodbye at least. Pulling souls out of the pure world wasn't something that should be done on a whim and all five of them would have recoiled from him in horror to know that he had sacrificed the lives of five men just for that. It was better to leave them to their rest, ignorant of the inhuman acts he was committing in his quest to save his wife.

He felt a feeling of comfort and approval from Xanna at his resolution, even though she could tell that he was still in a very depressive mood.

As for Madara...from him, he would take everything. He would take away his plans, his dreams, his power, his life and when he had none of those, he would take away his chance to find peace in death. He didn't know how he would do the last one yet, but he was certain that there was a way. If it was possible to pull a soul away from its eternal rest, then it logically followed that it could also be prevented from going there in the first place.

Once again, he felt the approval of his wife, though it carried a far more vicious edge this time.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Omake: Hokage Naruto takes a vacation.

"Are you sure you should be taking a week off so that we can go to that poker tournament in Tanzaku-Gai?" Tsunade asked sceptically, rather dubious of Naruto's claims that it was no big deal for the Hokage to take a week off from work.

"It'll be fine, Xanna said she would easily be able to take care of everything as interim Hokage while I'm gone." Naruto assured his predecessor.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Tsunade asked even more sceptically. Naruto had told those closest to him about his wife being the Kyuubi, and seeing as the demon in question was not causing untold amounts of destruction, they were okay with it. That did not mean however, that Tsunade thought it was entirely wise to let the redheaded demoness have free reign of the village, even for a limited time.

Of course, she had to rather cynically remind herself that Naruto would let her have free reign of the village either way, so she supposed it was a moot point.

"Yeah it's fine. She used to be a queen of some kingdom or other at least a time or two in the past."

"I guess..."

XXXX

Three days later, in the council chamber.

"I was most upset to hear that Naruto-san was out of the village on official business, but now I feel blessed to have been received by his lovely wife." The Fire Daimyo smarmed, rather enamored with the beautiful redhead that was filling in for her husband. He'd never seen such a beautiful woman before and was rather besotted with her. It didn't help that his own wife was somewhat on the chubby side.

Xanna unsmilingly cocked a crimson eyebrow at the fool that was all but drooling at the sight of her.

"As you should."

Everyone in the room froze at the blunt statement made by the redhead, which had pretty much taken the Fire Daimyo's compliment and used it as a confirmation of her superiority over him.

Neji, the newly inducted Hyuuga clan head, suppressed a smirk. He knew what she was, Hinata having told him after the Hyuuga elders had 'mysteriously' died. The rest of the clan had claimed temporary blindness as the reason for why nobody had seen who was the culprit behind the massacre and nobody was willing to call them on the blatant lie.

Her arrogance was, to him, well deserved and entirely reasonable.

The Fire Daimyo chuckled a bit nervously, the frightened quivering of his bowels leaving him unable to be upset at the superior tone.

"You would certainly do well in the royal court Xanna-san." He was still trying to be charming though, being far too used to having beautiful women falling all over themselves to ingratiate themselves to him.

"I have not given you leave to address me in such a familiar manner." The demoness said frostily. Her idea of diplomacy was to intimidate everyone into submission.

"Ehehe, what shall I call you then." The Fire Daimyo asked, taking a small towel from one of his attendants and using it to wipe the nervous sweat from his forehead. Was it just him or was the air feeling unnaturally heavy in here?

For some reason, he couldn't muster up the courage to protest that he was a Daimyo and not to be spoken to in such a way. Somehow, it felt as if there was an axe hovering over his neck, just waiting for him to say the wrong thing.

Xanna smirked and decided to take a page out of her husband's book...with modifications of course.

"You are to refer to me only as 'Your Divine Imperial Majesty'."

There was a strained cough from Tsume, which sounded suspiciously like a strangled giggle that had been cut off just before it could escape from her throat.

"Preposterous! Who do you...think...you...are?" One of the Fire Daimyo's advisors started in outrage but trailed off nervously as he suddenly felt like a very small bug about to be stepped on by a very large boot.

Xanna eased off her glare after a few moments and sighed in a severely put upon manner, running her finger over the table in front of her and coincidentally gouging it slightly with her claw. "Very well, I suppose I could allow you to call me Kōgō Heika(Her Majesty the Empress) for the sake of convenience."

It was best for these monkeys to learn how to grovel properly as soon as possible.

She'd been getting the urge to be royalty again lately and she was sure that it would be more fun than the last time if she had Naruto by her side. Her dear husband wasn't likely to be against the idea of conquering the Elemental Nations...it would serve the purpose of realising that silly dream of his godfather's anyway.

Peace and understanding between the people of the Elemental nations? Pshaw, the only way these sheep would ever have peace was if there was someone to tell them what to do. If left to their own devices, then humans always managed to find a reason for starting a war with someone.

Nobody had the courage to speak up and tell her that 'incovenience' was not among the reasons that they found that moniker so objectionable.

XXXX

In Tanzaku-Gai, Naruto and Tsunade's hotel room.

"Naruto, I've won every single game of chance since we've gotten here. Something is definitely wrong, we should get back to Konoha." Tsunade said insistently.

"Ah you worry too much Tits, what could possibly happen?"

"Goddamnit Naruto! How many times have I told you not to call me that!" Tsunade shouted at him, her fist twitching with the impulse to punch him.

"Watch out for that temper Tsunade, I'm your boss now." Naruto snickered.

"Don't remind me." She muttered sourly. If there was one thing she missed about being Hokage, it was the ability to heap abuse on everyone by virtue of being the top dog in the village.

Naruto snickered again and changed the subject. "Now...take your clothes off and get on the bed."

Tsunade gaped at his audacity for a few seconds before she managed to form a sentence. "What? NO! I'm not going to sleep with you just because you say so, even if you are the Hokage now!"

"Well, I was going to give you a massage, but if you're gonna be such a pervert then you can forget it." Naruto said sulkily, pretending that he hadn't worded it that way deliberately.

Tsunade's eyebrow twitched violently, getting mightily pissed off at these ridiculous word games that Naruto insisted on playing with her.

She did end up getting a massage though and it left her feeling fifteen years younger because of the deep muscle penetration that had been done by his chakra while his hands worked closer to the surface. She didn't even complain when he pressed his crotch against her rear end while he was straddling her legs for superior access to her back. Nor did she protest when his hands started working over her butt cheeks.

She brought up her worries about Konoha again the next day, but was once again distracted, this time by a night of bar hopping and heavy drinking, followed by sex which she would later vehemently claim had been a mistake.

Naruto's unashamedly amused look at her embarrassment didn't make her feel any better about it, nor did her drunken recollection of how great it had been.

Naruto had still refused to head back to Konoha though and they ended up staying even longer than originally planned. The whole experience had left Tsunade with a much greater appreciation for Shizune and the crap she had put up with from her.

When they finally returned, it was to find out that the fourth great shinobi war was about to break out at any moment.

The cause? Xanna had sent runners bearing letters to every nation on the continent, demanding that they surrender unconditionally to the sovereignty of the Uzushio Empire and Uzumaki Naruto, the Celestial Emperor and his wife Xanna, the Celestial Empress.

Tsunade had been horrified.

Naruto had been amused and asked his wife how large she wanted her solid gold, jewel encrusted statue to be.