Well, the pandemic actually gave me a lot more time to finish this chapter. Part 3 of the Confrontation, here you go!

Chapter 42: Confrontation, Part 3

The two shinobi danced around each other in a flurry of taijutsu.

Kakashi launched punches after punches, kicks after kicks at the enemy in front of him. He was sure that in the Kamui dimension, there was no way the masked man could abuse the technique to slip past attacks as Naruto had told him about. That was why the cyclops decided to bring the fight into this dimension at the beginning; if the man really was Obito, he might be able to gain some advantages fighting with skills alone. After all, he had trained himself relentlessly for this day to come.

However, he quickly realized that he had overestimated himself a little bit too much.

If Kakashi himself was like a typhoon, then the masked man in front of him was like an earthquake. His hits were not in any proper forms or styles, but each of them contained the power of a battering ram. It was just like fighting a less skilled Tsunade. No matter how skilled Kakashi was, letting himself get hit by one of those punches and kicks would hurt quite a lot.

This was a battle of skill versus strength.

Blows after blows, the two shinobi clashed against each other again and again, with each blow faster than the one right before it.

Then, after their fists collided in a particularly nasty blow, the two finally separated. Both of them were a little bit out of breath.

Then the masked man started going through hand seals. With his Sharingan revealed, Kakashi immediately realized the Tiger seals which made up a large part of the string of seals, which signified a very powerful Fire ninjutsu. He immediately went through his own string of hand seals for a Water ninjutsu.

"Fire Style: Infernal Flame!"

"Water Style: Tsunami Break!"

Tsunami Break was an A-ranked water ninjutsu, which usually wasn't able to match the power of an S-ranked one like Infernal Flame. However, with Kakashi's precise chakra control and the elemental advantage it provided, the Copy Ninja was able to deal with the opposing jutsu without losing too much energy.

How the two shinobi managed to spit out those two jutsus from their mouths even though they were hidden under the two masks was a different matter.

After the two jutsus died down, the two combatants once again faced each other, Sharingan bearing into Sharingan.

"You really have lived up to that 'Kakashi of the Sharingan' moniker that people give you, Kakashi," Tobi remarked with the same impassive voice. "I guess it's time to switch to something else."

He unraveled something he was holding on his back. It was a very large non-folding fan. Kakashi wasn't that unfamiliar with this type of weapon; he had seen a lot of shinobi wielding similar things, such as Temari of the Sand, who wielded a fan of herself, but there is only one clan in history who wielded this particular type of fan in battle, which is the Uchiha Clan.

"Switching to weapon, huh…"

The Konoha jonin drew his own weapon, the White Light Chakra Saber. Even though the light in the Kamui dimension was dim, the blade of the sword was still gleaming brightly.

"Let's see how good you are with that."

Naruto groaned and cracked open his eyes.

The first thing he realized was that he was looking at a wooden ceiling. There were cracks and holes everywhere on it, but it still served the purpose of hiding the people inside from bad weather quite properly. And his surrounding was shaking back and forth gently.

Only then did he realize that he was back on the Byakuren, and the ship was now moving in a steady speed.

He pushed himself up by his arm and sat up. His body felt so empty, so tired, as if he had just ran twenty kilometers without stopping. He wasn't in his room the other night, either, because this room has a window which looks outside, where he could see the bright blue sky, which signified it was some time in the afternoon.

He was surprised, though. The last time he had used the Mirror of Yata, he had needed to stay in bed for a day before he could have even moved his arm. This meant his body had grown quite a lot, and his recovery speed had also improved massively. It was a good sign, especially considering the fact that the destiny fights were getting closer and closer…

"Ah, Naruto-kun, you are awake!"

He looked at the window right next to his bed. Haku's head was sticking through the window frame with the familiar peppy smile he usually saw on her. Two seconds later, the entrance door burst open, and she ran into the room and sat down at the corner of his bed.

"Haku-chan? Why are we moving? What happened? Did we…?"

The girl put her index finger on his lips to shut him up. "Don't worry," she giggled. "The mission was a complete success. We managed to convince him, and now we're on our way back to Kirigakure!"

Naruto's face brightened with each of her words.

"Really? So…"

"Yeah," Haku answered him with a bright smile. "Just go outside and you'll see!"

Naruto was confused, but he followed Haku outside, anyway. And his mouth gaped open when he saw it.

Isobu was swimming calmly next to the ship. His single eye stared at Naruto when he saw that the jinchuriki had stepped out of his room.

"WHOA!"

"Relax, Naruto-kun," the voice of the Mizukage rose behind him. "Mr. Three-Tails here has agreed to our proposal. He is not going to harm us, at least until anyone of us breaks our words."

Naruto turned towards Mei in surprise. "So…"

"Yeah, after you used that barrier technique to protect the ship, it was Fuu-chan who stepped in and talked some sense into his head," the female Mizukage nodded with a smile. "So our successful negotiation today was thanks to Fuu-chan… and you also, Naruto-kun."

"Huh…" Naruto could only stare at her, dumbfounded.

Then he remembered. "Wait, if that's the case… Where are Fuu-chan and the old man? And Sai too? Don't tell me…"

"Calm down, Naruto-kun," Mei soothed him. "They are all right… at least for now…"

There was something in her voice that made Naruto suspicious.

"What do you mean? Why did you say 'at least for now'?"

Mei grimaced. "Well, the thing is…"

She told Naruto what happened. After hearing the whole story, Naruto also grimaced.

"So that's what happened…"

"You don't seem surprised," Haku noted. He looked at her and nodded.

"It's not like I hadn't expected this to happen. It's just… I didn't know it would happen in this manner. You know, that Sai guy used to work for a person named Danzo in Konoha."

"Danzo Shimura, huh?" asked Mei. "I heard about him a lot in the past. That guy is famous for being a war hawk, right?"

"Yeah," Naruto nodded. "I have been suspicious about why Orochimaru could know of where we were heading to and got there even before we could. It must be someone who was on the ship with us who leaked out the information, and ruling out every other person, I think the only one left who could have leaked it was someone in our teams – Sai or old man Kosuke."

"I see… so do you think Sai betrayed us?"

Naruto shook his head. "That doesn't make sense, actually. If Orochimaru had actually been supported by Danzo, he should have finished the job and left the scene before we arrived, or waited until we finished fighting Isobu then ambushed us and taken him after we exhausted ourselves fighting him, shouldn't he? Isobu is a Tailed Beast after all; even a Legendary Sannin would struggle battling him. I suspect that Danzo just leaked information about Isobu's whereabout to Orochimaru, looking forward to using our hands to get rid of that snake for him."

His reasoning was… surprisingly smart. Even Naruto himself was a little bit taken aback with what he had just said himself.

But then he remembered something else…

"Wait… then Fuu-chan and the old man… they are throwing himself into Orochimaru's lair! I need to go help them!"

He took a few steps, trying to jump off the ship, but immediately smashed his face to the ship floor when he stumbled.

"You cannot go anywhere with your body at a state like that," Haku said, crouching down to pull him up. "You spent too much energy when you used that barrier technique; Fuu-chan said it would be days before you would wake up from exhaustion. The fact that you are already standing here is already too much to believe."

"Ugh…"

Naruto's bubble deflated immediately. He knew that he was in no condition to go help anyone at the moment. The aftereffect of using the Mirror of Yata was still in full. But still…

'Come on now, Naruto. Didn't you say that you would believe in Fuu?' Kurama said inside him. 'I believe with all her power, she will be all right.'

'Yeah… but she doesn't have much experience in this, does she? And just two of them going into Orochimaru's lair like that…'

'So those things you have just said are just for show?' he heard Shukaku snorting. 'Come on, bro, just relax yourself and sit still for a while. What can you even hope to do with that battered body?'

Naruto winced. 'You didn't need to say that in such a cruel way, Shuki-chan…'

'Stop calling me by that stupid nickname!'

But what the tanuki had just said made Naruto think. It was true, Fuu was no less powerful than him when talking about firepower; in fact, when it comes to destructive power, she might even be more powerful than him. Now, worrying about her just proved that he was a hypocrite when he said he believed in her before.

For now, he thought, let's just relax and go back to Kirigakure to wait for her. After that… if something happens… he will go and find her.

"You are… Naruto Uzumaki. The jinchuriki of my sister Kurama."

Everyone nearly jumped when Isobu's voice boomed next to them.

"Uh… yeah," Naruto carefully said, looking at Isobu's eye warily. "That's me, I guess."

"You… are different," the turtle continued looking at him from head to toe, as if he was evaluating him. "You are not just simply a jinchuriki. There is something else within you… something bigger…"

"Yeah…" Naruto began sweating. Of course Isobu wouldn't expose everything to everyone on this ship to hear… would he?

"Very well. Come here. I'm allowing you to sit on my head."

"Eh?"

A minute later, Naruto was sitting on top of Isobu's head. Having lived with the turtle (from another timeline) for a long time, he knew that this permission was only for someone who he had a certain level of trust on.

It meant that there's no need to worry about being eaten alive anymore… at least for now. Naruto really didn't want to experience that feeling another time. The first time was already traumatic enough for him.

"So… how did you manage to tame my sister?"

Naruto was baffled at the blunt, insensitive question the turtle blurted out at him. So that was what he was wondering about?

'Oh, I'm gonna murder that stupid turtle in his dream,' Kurama grumbled in his head.

As if hearing Kurama's voice in Naruto's head, the Isobu outside snorted. "She's saying that she's going to kill me, isn't she?"

Naruto blinked. "How did…?"

This time, both Isobu snorted at the same time. "Oh, that old vixen's always like that. Who doesn't know?"

While the Isobu in his head was being beaten to a pulp by Kurama, Naruto chuckled. "Well, saying that I 'tamed' Kurama is not quite true, ya know. It's more like… we became partners after we reached a mutual trust. We have the same enemy we need to defeat… and both of us cannot even hope to touch that man if we don't work together. So… after a while, for some reason we started to believe in each other without any doubt, as if it was like that from the beginning. Yeah… it's really hard to explain, hehe…"

Isobu's single eye glanced upward, looking at Naruto.

"You really are a strange one among humans, aren't you, Naruto Uzumaki?"

"Hmm?" Naruto tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"The fact that you treat a Tailed Beast as your 'partner' is already strange enough it's to the point of being suspicious," the turtle snorted. "You should know that throughout the course of history, someone who treated us decently alone is already very rare. Do you know that most of the time when any human tried to approach us, their intention was just to imprison us to use as weapon?"

Naruto shifted uncomfortably on Isobu's head.

"Well… to be honest, at first I was like that, too, when I first met Kurama," he admitted. "And it was quite a long time before Kurama actually opened up to me, too; before that she just hated my guts. Well, the fact that my dad literally grew her a penis didn't help…"

'NARUTOOOOOOOOOOO!'

"…yeah, and she's trying to kill me in my head for that now," he winced. "But anyway, what I mean is… well, when people have the same goal, the same target, and they have to work together, it is easier for them to understand each other. It's hard to explain why… but maybe if you have someone like that, someone who you are willing to work with, you will understand. I'm sure of it, believe it."

Isobu didn't say anything in response. He knew everything Naruto had just said was just too good to be true, so good it sounded suspicious. But this Naruto guy… he seemed too honest to even tell a lie. And the fact that he managed to befriend Kurama of all people…

Could it be… this is the one you told us to find, Father…?

But still…

"There is still something else you are hiding from me, isn't it, Naruto Uzumaki?"

Naruto started sweating. He was keeping something secret, but it was something he could not discuss in the open like this. And after living for quite some time with Isobu himself, he knew that even though the turtle was a little bit slow, he was incredibly perceptive. There's no way he could hide anything from him. He decided to just tell him half of the truth.

"Well, yeah… there is still something I haven't told you. But trust me; I have a very good reason to hide it from you, at least for now. Can we wait for until we reach Kirigakure, and after you settle down? I promise I will tell you everything I can."

Isobu's eye glared at Naruto in a calculating stare. Then, the turtle answered.

"Very well. I will trust you… for now. But you'd better keep your word, or there will be… consequences."

Naruto grinned. "I promise."

Kakashi glared at the fan on Tobi's hand, gauging up the weapon carefully.

It looked just like a very big uchiwa, but a mere single glance of the skilled shinobi he was allowed him to realize it wasn't at all. The edge of the fan was so sharp it wouldn't be wrong to call it a giant sword in the shape of a fan. The fan was made from a type of metal Kakashi hadn't seen before; with that amount of metal used to make it, it must have weight quite a lot, probably at least equal to the Kubikiribocho of Kirigakure. For some reason, a terrifying aura flowed out of the masked man just from holding it on his hand. Just looking at it made Kakashi's spine chill.

But right now, he knew he had two big advantages.

First, he had already heard from Itachi that the right eye only allows Tobi to stay in the Kamui dimension for ten minutes. When that ten-minute limit caps, he will be forced out of the dimension with no exception, and won't be able to return to the dimension for at least five minutes. For some reason, Kakashi's Sharingan doesn't have that limit. That was more than enough time for the Konoha jonin to escape, since the Kamui from his left eye can also open the gateway to any place in the normal world that he wishes to go to. But that also means his enemy would not think of holding back, either.

And second, he had important information in his hand. If this man was actually Obito, then the information about Rin's state should be something he wouldn't be able to ignore. He hated this idea, but this is the only way to wake the Uchiha up from his despair and desperation.

But that kind of information isn't something he can blurt out to everyone, especially members of the Akatsuki. He needs to be sure that the information goes to the person it is intended for, not anyone else.

He needs to break that mask.

Seven minutes left.

He slipped into his stance, his Sharingan locked into his opponent's.

"Come."

The masked man didn't even hesitate a single second. In a single bound, he crossed the distance between them and swung the fan in a vertical arc on Kakashi's head. The slash was very powerful and fast, but somehow…

The sword-fan smashed onto the surface of the white pillar they were standing on. However, it bounced back almost immediately, and a horizontal slash was delivered right towards Kakashi's waist.

However…

Kakashi nimbly jumped up right before the sword-fan could cleave him in half. He twisted his body on the air, and aimed a quick slash with his sword covered in lightning chakra at his opponent's neck.

The drawback of this kind of sword style was that due to the weight of the sword, it would be very difficult to control the movement of the sword itself after the slash had been delivered, due to the inertia. Only a person who was properly trained with the sword style, such as Zabuza with his mastery of the Kubikiribocho, could properly handle the blade; a mere copycat would just expose all of his weak points to his enemies to strike back.

But the Sharingan of the masked man wasn't just for show. Seeing the incoming danger, he immediately took a step back and twisted his body, pulling the fan backward by his right hand and blocking the incoming shorter blade. Kakashi winced when the White Light Chakra Saber collided with the blade of the fan, and to his horror, the Chidori covering the blade fizzled out into nothing.

"What…!?"

"Uchiha Return."

A blast of wind energy blasted out of the surface of the fan with the full power of Kakashi's own Chidori. He was blown away into the air, and fell out of the white pillar they were standing on, into the black abyss.

Shit…!

Kakashi didn't even dare to even wonder what might be waiting for him in that unending void. Hastily channeling lightning chakra into the White Light Chakra Saber again, he stabbed the sword as deeply as possible into white pillar right next to him. The blade plunged into the pillar to the hilt, and it helped slowing his fall down quite a bit before he managed to balance himself on the pillar.

That was so dangerous…

Sending chakra to his feet, Kakashi leapt up back to the top of the pillar. His hands weaved through hand signs for a powerful S-ranked water jutsu that he knew, which he was confident that Obito would have a hard time countering with another jutsu due to his affinity with the fire element.

"Water Style: Spiral Dragon Burst!"

The jutsu was fired right after Kakashi's feet landed on the white surface. The enormous water technique thundered its way towards the Akatsuki member, and would have devastated anything on its way if there had been anything standing between the two combatants. And just like before, the masked man withdrew the fan and used it as a shield in front of him to block the jutsu. The water technique dissipated after a few seconds, as if being absorbed by the weapon, and…

"Uchiha Return."

…just like before, a burst of chakra blasted out of the fan's surface, nearly sending Kakashi off his feet even though he was pretty far away from Tobi.

"Tch…"

Now he understood why the masked man chose that heavy, bulky uchiwa as his weapon. Normally, something like that would be very ineffective in battle due to the size and the weight; however, that specific fan has a special ability. It can absorb the chakra of a ninjutsu being sent at it and convert it into wind element chakra, then send the technique back at its owner in the form of a wind burst with the same amount of chakra that it has absorbed. The stronger the jutsu sent at it is, the more powerful the returning burst will be. And the burst will be even more dangerous if the opponent stays close to the wielder of the fan during combat.

In short, a weapon with both perfect offensive and defensive capabilities.

Kakashi bit his lip. What should he do now?

The masked man withdrew his weapon to his side, and Kakashi's eyes narrowed. Channeling some chakra to his feet, he jumped back, making a distance between him and the enemy.

That fan is a melee weapon… so maybe if I don't get into its range, I can…

"Air Slash."

Kakashi's eyes were now as wide as two plates. Say wha…?!

The Akatsuki member swung his weapon in a slashing motion. From the blade of the fan, a projectile made of air shot out and flew towards Kakashi with the speed of a bullet. Not even having time to think about anything, Kakashi reacted with his instinct.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall!"

The ground in front of him erupted from the surface into a wall with three dog heads, shielding him from the incoming attack in just a blink of an eye. The hastily put up wall didn't manage to block the attack completely, but it still gave Kakashi a precious opening to slip past its worst effect.

A perfect defense, and now, powerful attacks both melee and ranged? What kind of hax is that freaking fan?! No, wait…

There is nothing perfect in this world, Kakashi knew that. Even something like that wicked weapon has to have some kind of weakness. But what might it be…?

It is impossible to attack Tobi from afar when he was still holding that fan; it would just stop the jutsu dead on their track and return them back to him.

Then the only thing he can do is…

Gripping the White Light Chakra Saber tight, Kakashi did something no one sane would ever think that someone like him would do: he charged headfirst towards Tobi.

"Hmph…"

Tobi obviously also thought that Kakashi had lost his mind. He swung his fan and delivered four sharp waves of wind chakra at the Konoha shinobi, clearly intending to cut him to shred.

He was sure that Kakashi would throw a fire jutsu of his own to counter the move, since fire has an advantage towards wind. But when he does that, there will be a surprise waiting for him, and this time the Konoha jonin won't be able to escape death. He made a hand seal, ready to throw his own jutsu…

However…

Wait a second…!

Kakashi didn't have any intention of slowing down at all. Instead, he was charging right into Tobi's technique. The wind blades tore into his body one by one, but miraculously for some reason, they seemed all to be stopped by something before they could deal any actual damage to his body.

How is that possible…?!

Tobi desperately raised his hand to deliver another slash, but Kakashi was much faster. He had arrived in front of the masked man even before he could bring his hand down. His left hand lashed out and grabbed the Akatsuki member's wrist.

And the right hand, holding his trusted sword, thrust forward, aiming at the enemy's exposed chest. But…

"Too naïve."

To Kakashi's horror, the masked man raised his left hand in front of him… and took the full brunt of the stab by that hand. The cold, rash fingers immediately wrapped around Kakashi's fist, locking it in place.

"Now you're trapped."

Kakashi's Sharingan looked into Tobi's. Then… a smirk appeared under his mask.

"No. It's you who's trapped."

What…!? Oh, no…!

The masked man looked down, and his eye widened when he saw Kakashi's left foot coming right at his exposed waist, sparking with blue electricity.

Kakashi's prized ninjutsu, Chidori, is basically a technique which covers the user's hand with lightning-based chakra, to use the piercing capability of the lightning element to turn the user's hand into an unblockable blade.

However, even with the enhancing power of the technique, a hand is, in the end, just a hand. It cannot simply stab through matters just with some mere enhancement that easily; the "blade" is just not sharp enough to do it. That is why, besides having their arm trained thoroughly to be able to withstand the force of the sudden thrust, the user needs to maintain a rapid speed to deliver a decisive stab at the vital organs of the target. That is a fatal drawback that makes the Chidori unable to be used properly by a person without the Sharingan, because with the sheer speed of the technique, an user without the doujutsu would suffer from the tunnel vision when running at the target in a straight line, which screams nothing but an easy target for the enemies to practice shooting.

And of course, as the creator of the technique, Kakashi himself had thought about it a lot after realizing that massive drawback, and had devised a way to overcome it without depending completely on his inherited Sharingan, in case he somehow was unable to utilize the eye anymore. By compressing the chakra forming the Chidori into a smaller area, such as his fingertips or the palm of his hand instead of letting it spread through his whole hand, not unlike the third step of the Rasengan, he can enhance the piercing power of the jutsu, basically making the blade sharper without having to remain constantly in his highest velocity while performing it. While this reduces the effectiveness of the technique as an one-hit assassination jutsu, as well as costing him more chakra, it allows him to be more flexible and accurate in his fighting style, to the point even though the technique still wasn't completely perfected, meaning that he still needed the Sharingan to use it to its full extent, he was still able to follow and cut down a lightning bolt from the sky, which required both utmost precision and immense power. That was the story about how his own perfected Chidori was renamed Raikiri, the sword that cut down lightning, and how only Kakashi could do it, since he was the only one who managed to learn how to use the Rasengan from his teacher.

And incidentally… this method also gave Kakashi the ability to apply Raikiri to any part of his body to use various types of attack, such as to the feet to deliver devastating kicks with cutting power, just like what he was doing at the moment.

In this close distance, there is no way for Tobi to dodge the incoming lethal attack. This is, definitely, a decisive strike if it manages to land. The Akatsuki member knew immediately the only thing he could do. He flicked his wrist, spinning the fan on his right hand half a round into a reverse grip, and Kakashi's feet rammed hard into its surface. The chakra was immediately absorbed into the fan, and the Chidori fizzled out of existence.

However, he didn't expect Kakashi to immediately turn his kick downward and rip the fan off his hand,pinning it down the marbled ground. With the momentum, the Konoha shinobi pulled the White Light Chakra Saber off Tobi's gripping hand, and at the same time, a chakra-empowered punch was sent towards the Akatsuki member's face with his left fist.

"Now let's see…"

He was completely defeated. There is no way out of this now…

"…WHO YOU REALLY ARE!"

The fist finally landed on its intended target: Tobi's mask that was hiding his face from the world. The masked man was sent flying, and crashed on the white surface painfully. When he managed to stand up, Kakashi grimaced under his own mask.

"So it was true… you are…"

The broken mask fell off Tobi's face piece by piece, revealing a familiar face Kakashi could never forget in his life.

Under the mask was really Obito's face. However, Kakashi knew something strange, something… unnatural was done to his friend. The right side of his face was covered, no, was… made from a white substance which was disturbingly similar to the enemies Kakashi had seen during the siege of Sunagakure, and from the color of his right hand which was sticking out of his left sleeve, he could figure out that the whole right side of the masked man was made from the same substance. In Obito's left eye socket, there was a fully matured Sharingan, but it didn't have the same pinwheel pattern that his Mangekyo Sharingan in his left eye socket had.

"You have become much stronger than you were before…" Tobi, no, Obito now, sneered at Kakashi in a disturbingly monotone voice. "It seems I would not be able to kill you with how I am at the moment…"

"What happened to you… Obito…?" Kakashi asked, quietly and mournfully. "Why did you turn into this…?"

"Why, you ask," Obito answered. Even with the asking word, it wasn't a question. It was more like a harsh, cold accuse. "There's actually no real reason. But if you really need one… then it is because… you let Rin die."

Kakashi was surprised by the words of the Uchiha. "Aren't you going to blame me?"

"Blame you?" sneered Obito. "What good will blaming you do if the world is going to disappear after I finish my plan?"

Kakashi was shocked. The world… disappearing…

"You don't have to do this," he said, trying to keep his voice calm. "There is something I need to tell you about Rin. She might be…"

"You are not in any position to talk about her to me," Obito cut in with a snarl. The steel fan which had been lying on the ground flew back to his hand with just a single motion. "Someone who impaled her with a Chidori right in front of my eyes doesn't have any right to talk about her in front of me. And now…"

The air started rippling around the Uchiha. Kakashi's eyes widened.

No… it's too late…

"…I'll let you live for today. But you'd better sleep with one eye open, because I might come to kill you at any time."

Then he disappeared into the vortex before Kakashi could say anything else. The dimension was returned to its eerie silence.

Kakashi just stood there, staring at the place where the man who used to be his best friend had just disappeared for a while. Then, he reached into his flak jacket and pulled out some pieces of paper. They were Jiraiya's special seals which allow him to repel some chakra-based ninjutsu by absorbing the chakra into them like sponges, but they are quite fragile and cannot be used multiple times. Before Kakashi's eyes, they started disintegrating on his hand.

When the final fragment disappeared, the Konoha jonin made a heavy sigh.

"I failed… again…"

"It should be here… but…"

The two Konoha shinobi landed in the clearing. This place was where they should have found Sai, but…

"My tracking device shows that he's supposed to be here," Kosuke said, a little bit confused.

Fuu looked around. The clearing didn't seem to have been through a battle, but there were still signs of a slight struggle here and there. She walked towards a tree nearby and picked up something from the ground.

"You're talking about this, aren't you Kosuke-san?"

The old man nodded. "Yeah. I put it in Sai's backpack last night when he snuck out to spy on you. Could it be that there was a fight here and it fell out of his backpack together with these things?"

He pointed at the stuffs littering the ground nearby. Most of them were scrolls of all sizes and painting tools, except for…

"What is this…?"

Fuu walked over and picked something up from the pile. It was a small notebook filled with hand-drawn pictures. Not a single word was written, but the pictures themselves were made into a story of what seemed like battles with different enemies. The strange thing was, it seemed to start from both sides of the notebook with two different protagonists. One of them, the one drawn at one end of the book, was definitely Sai. And the other one…

"Who is this other person? I don't remember seeing him in Konoha before."

"Looks like these two guys are going to fight each other at the center of the book," Kosuke noted. "And from this, I think… this might be illustrations of Sai… and someone close to him. Maybe his brother?"

"Really?" Fuu asked, surprised. "That's so cruel…"

"The shinobi world is just like that," the old man said bitterly. "Even the closest people to us, we cannot always trust. There will be times when even the ones who we trust the most would backstab us…"

Fuu looked at the old man. That voice was definitely of someone who had experienced betrayal in some way. She suddenly felt something squeezing at her heart. This might not be the right time to talk about this. They needed to find Sai first.

"Well, let's just leave it until we find Sai," she decided. "For now, we need to find out where he went first."

"We are going to reach Kirigakure in about an hour, ma'am."

"Very good. Back to your position."

Hearing the words of the sailor, Naruto sighed in relief. This mission is finally going to end. After a bit of rest, he will go looking for Fuu and the old man. Even though he trusts them, there is no way he's gonna leave them alone if they are going to strike somewhere like Orochimaru's base.

Right at that time…

Killing intent…!?

Naruto's hand immediately lashed out by instinct and shot a Rasengan towards the direction of the killing intent. The projectile attack met something in midair and exploded violently with a loud "BANG".

Then he slumped down on Isobu's head. His body was still too weak to attempt something rash like that.

"Are you all right?" the turtle asked in concern.

"Never mind me! Prepare for battle!" the jinchuriki yelled, despite the state of his body. "We are under attack!"

But he actually hadn't needed to raise his voice. Even before he launched his attack, the Mizukage and her guards had noticed the sudden burst of killing intent and had gotten themselves ready for battle. Obviously no one had expected to be ambushed when they were nearly home.

"Come on," Shiro gritted his teeth. "Aren't we allowed to even take a rest?"

Walking out of the cloud of smoke made by the collision of the two attacks, the person wearing the Akatsuki cloak cracked up a sinister grin.

A surprise attack, right before the team arrived home! And a small hint for all of you, this Akatsuki member will not be anyone who you have seen in canon before! Surely after losing two members to Naruto and his friends, they needed to find two others to replace, didn't they? Stay tuned and follow the story to know who those new replacements are!

ITsHardToFindAPenName out!