Chapter 27 - The Masked Men

Disclaimer: I can barely afford wifi, what makes you think I can afford to own Naruto and Bleach?

[Uzu no Sebone]

For several moments that spanned anywhere from seconds to minutes, Naruto's group and the Akatsuki merely stood before the entrance to the cave that Kazuko had been hiding out in. Neither side said anything or did anything, yet at any indication, both could spring into action. The dead silence was only broken when the man with the marked mask spoke up, eyes gazing at the blonde Uzumaki.

"So you're Naruto Uzumaki; you've been quite the thorn in our side, haven't you?" He asked rhetorically.

"It's only fair, considering what you did to me and my parents. Did you expect me to give you a fruit basket or something?" Naruto retorted as he gripped the hilt of his zanpakuto in case this guy tried to make a move on him or his team.

Before the masked man could respond in return the blonde-haired Akatsuki member entered the conversation.

"So you're the gaki who killed Orochimaru? Not cool kid, I wanted to be the one who defeated that snake, and you just had to take that from me, hm!"

Naruto shrugged. "You snooze you lose man. I didn't see any 'Reserved for Iwa Blondie' sign on him when I cut his head off."

'Did Naruto of all people just make a blonde joke?' Neji asked himself.

The young Uzumaki's taunt appeared to work as Deidara began to clench his teeth in anger. "Why you little-!" He began as he reached into his robe.

Seeing this, Sasuke and the rest of Naruto's team tensed up unsure what to expect, while the man with the spiral mask appeared to panic. Strangely, in an almost childish manner, Obito ran up to Deidara from behind and grabbed both his arms, restraining the former Iwa-nin.

"Please don't do it, Deidara-senpai! We're supposed to bring back Kazuko alive, remember?! And besides Madara-sama is right next to us; do you really want to make him mad?!" The spiral masked man pleaded with a childish voice that would've made this scene a bit comical if it was happening anywhere else.

Deidara, now focusing his anger on Obito, tried to break free from his grip until the person with the marked mask, who was presumably the "Madara" that his compatriot was referring to, calmly walked up to them and separated the two.

"That's enough from the both of you! In case the two of you hadn't noticed our guests are waiting." Madara began, then turns to the puppeteering member of Akatsuki. "Sasori, be prepared to-"

Before Madara could finish his sentence, Naruto flash-stepped in front of him and Tobi. Once close enough he swiftly drew his zanpakuto in an attempt to bifurcate the two masked men... only to completely pass right though their bodies as if they were only apparitions. Sasuke and the rest of Naruto's peers were surprised by this, yet both Kazuko and Naruto were more unfazed than surprised.

"Thought so, though I was hoping to be wrong." Naruto mused, flash-stepping back to where his group was. "Looks like defeating you will take a little more effort than it took to beat all of your lackeys so far."

"That was way too close wasn't it, Madara-sama? Another split second and the Kyubi jinchuuriki would've cut the two of us in half." Tobi noted in a tone that had a twinge of fear emanating from it.

"Indeed, Tobi." Madara nodded, turning towards the whiskered blonde. "Naruto, Naruto, Naruto... only a few minutes after we've met and you've already lived up to your growing reputation so far. Feel flattered, it's not often someone impresses me so quickly. Now why don't we see how strong you truly are?"

Naruto, while more than willing to fight Madara as far away from his teammates as possible, had to be sure he could leave his teammates to deal with the other Akatsuki members.

"Kazuko?" He started.

"Yes?"

"I know we've only just met right now but could you please help my teammates fight those other two Akatsuki members?" Naruto asked while directing the Uchiha's attention to Deidara and the Akatsuki member hidden inside the hunch-backed puppet.

Kazuko turned her gaze towards the Akatsuki, and then to Naruto's teammates, before she let out a deep sigh. "Less than five minutes after you show up and I'm already in the middle of a fight, huh? I suppose it can't be helped; there is no way that I'll ever join any organization that threatens Konoha... especially one with him in it." She narrowed her eyes towards Madara. "Count me in."

"Thank you, Kazuko-san." Naruto replied, turning his attention back towards Madara and Tobi. "You want to see how strong I am? Alright, but let's take it elsewhere. After all, you want me to go all out with no reason to hold back don't you?" He said it as if it were a challenge and a taunt at the same time, like he was insinuating the most infamous Uchiha of all was afraid of him and needed some kind of advantage here.

"After you, Uzumaki." Madara said in a mocking tone, covering up the fact he caught the insinuation and was looking forward to proving it wrong.

Naruto, without saying another word, sent a glare towards Sasuke to remind him not to get involved, then flash-stepped to an unknown location on the island. Right away Madara and Tobi seemed to sink into the ground and simply vanish like a drowned victim.

"I hope Naruto-san knows what he's doing." Neji muttered after a few moments of tense silence.

"I'm not worried about Naruto, there's no way he would ever lose to someone like that." Sasuke said rather calmly. He was somehow able to keep his rising anger towards Madara in check despite knowing what the man had been responsible for. Not to mention Naruto's intimidating glares and warnings certainly made it much easier for the Uchiha to suppress his own rage and let someone else fight for once.

Before anyone else in Naruto's group could say anything else, however, they were forced to dodge an thrusting attack from the now-named Sasori, forcing them to focus on fighting their own battle.

With Naruto...

After a few minutes of flash-stepping Naruto finally reached his destination: the summit of a very large plateau several miles to the east of where Kazuko and the rest of his team would be fighting Deidara and Sasori. Madara and Tobi reached the plateau several minutes later, with both shinobi emerging from the ground.

"My my, you're a real fast one Naruto-san." Tobi praised.

The attempt at flattery only earned him a harsh glare from the young Uzumaki, causing an intimidated Tobi to run back to Madara and hide behind his master in fear. Madara sighed at his protégé's antics before he whispered something into Tobi's ears; Tobi nodded in response to whatever Madara said before vanishing into the ground.

Madara Uchiha then turned his attention back to Naruto.

"It seems you're full of surprises, Naruto Uzumaki; I haven't seen someone as skilled as you are in a very long time."

Naruto smirked at this comment. "I'm guessing that you're referring to either Hashirama, my dad, or maybe even... your sensei?"

Madara showed no visible reaction to the first part of Naruto's comment but the ending part of said comment was a different manner entirely. Even hidden behind his mask Naruto could see that Madara's right eye, which had already changed to his Sharingan, had widened in shock.

The Uchiha then closed his left hand into a fist. "What did you just say?"

Naruto scoffed. "You heard me the first time, but I guess I didn't make myself clear enough." He paused to clear his throat. "I know who you really are and you're definitely not the true Uchiha Madara; you're just his student, one who's simply borrowing his name. I haven't told anyone your identity just yet and I won't do it until the time is right. I also won't explain how I know your identity because there's no point in doing so."

"Oh? And why is that?" The fake Madara asked, barely able to contain his growing rage.

Naruto unsheated his zanpakuto, having sheathed his blade after his first attempt to strike down 'Madara' and Tobi. "Isn't it obvious? It's because you're going to die here and now... by my blade."

Before 'Madara' could respond to Naruto's threat the young chuunin flash-stepped right behind the masked man who was barely able to turn himself transparent in time to avoid getting bisected. The fake Madara immediately jumped hundreds of yards away from his opponent before he formed a hand seal in midair.

"Fire Style: Bomb Blast Dance Jutsu!" 'Madara' yelled as a massive stream of flames in the form of a spiraling vortex shot out of his mouth, despite the fact that he still wore his mask.

Naruto sighed at this display. "Bakudo #81. Danku!" Right in front of him a transparent rectangular wall materialized in front of him. 'Madara', having landed back on the plateau now, watched in shock as his attack was stopped dead in its tracks by this barrier, with the boy behind it looking unfazed by his jutsu.

"Is that your best? Madara really did a crappy job training you if it is." Naruto taunted.

The fake Madara's visible right eye narrowed at Naruto as the young chuunin pointed the tip of his blade at him.

"Anyways you had your shot now it's my turn. Hyōga Seiran!"

From his zanpakuto a massive wave of ice was fired at his opponent. It looked like a tidal wave and avalanche at the same time.

'What kind of attack is that?!' 'Madara' thought to himself as the wall of ice closed in on him.

As with Naruto's previous attacks 'Madara' was barely able to evade the attack but, instead of turning transparent as he had before, he made the much more simple choice of simply moving out of the way. Before the fake Madara could shift his focus away from the wave of ice Naruto flash-stepped to the masked man and, with one quick swing of his blade, cut off the man's left arm before the fake Madara could see him with his Sharingan.

The resulting scream echoed over the landscape.

Despite the pain caused from losing one of his limbs, 'Madara' was able to turn the rest of his body transparent before Naruto could do further damage to him. The masked man then used some sort of space-time ninjutsu to create some needed distance between himself and the young Uzumaki while a white ooze emerged from the stump of his arm, causing the profuse bleeding from the wound to stop.

"What's wrong? I haven't even gone all out yet." Naruto taunted as he prepared for another attack.

Before the chunin could make his move, however, Tobi appeared right beside 'Madara'.

"Sorry I took so long Shishou! Deidara and Sasori were really taking a beating from Kazuko and the others, more than I thought them capable of. We were barely able to get away from them and reach our hideout." Tobi said in a cheerful tone that caused alarm bells to ring in Naruto's mind.

"That is of little consequence right now, Tobi... we'll deal with Kazuko and the others soon enough anyways. Did you bring the item I asked for?" 'Madara' asked.

Tobi nodded before reaching into his cloak and pulling out a scroll. Naruto recognized what it was right from his first glance at the object... as did Kurama.

"That's... that masked bastard must be desperate if he's willing to use that. What do you plan to do now, Naruto?

"Hmmm... I haven't used that trick in a while, Kurama. I think this is as good time as any to use it."

Naruto could almost feel Kurama grin in excitement despite the lack of any physical mouth at the present. He refocused his attention to 'Madara' and his lackey as the former grabbed the mystery scroll.

"You've managed to surpass my expectations, gaki, I've give you that much. But as much as I'd like to find out your limits, I don't have time to play games with the likes of you. Let's see how you deal with this." 'Madara' declared as he opened the scroll, revealing that it was a summoning contract for some unknown creature, and placed it on the floor.

After making a few hands seals the fake Madara then slammed the palm of his right arm on the seal of the summoning jutsu, which already had a few drops of blood placed on it.

"Summoning Jutsu!" 'Madara' yelled out before he and Tobi were both enveloped by a massive cloud of smoke.

Tobi was the first to exit the smoke, looking like he wanted to make some cheesy introduction for the creature that just appeared.

"Ta-da! Introducing my Shishuo's main summon and one of the most terrifying beings known to man, other than the bijuu! It's the one... the only... Gedō Mazō!"

The smoke cleared, and standing behind the fake Madara was something that looked like some sort of massive, humanoid, statute-like monster that had been decaying for quite some time but still wasn't done yet. It stood several stories tall, was a pale-shaded purple color, and had multiple spike-like protrusions sticking out of its back like a plant-based porcupine. It appeared to wearing some sort of robe and was shackled, with broken chains attached to the bindings, on its arms and ankles. For some reason the creature was wearing a blindfold and had a large metal rod sticking out of its midsection.

The massive creature, whether by 'Madara's' design or not, let out a massive roar that appeared to caused the very ground on which it stood to shake violently.

And what was Naruto's response to the monstrosity standing before him?

"That's it? Your grand plan to defeat me is to bring a toy into battle?" Naruto asked with a bored expression now etched onto his face.

It's Naruto, did you expect him to be intimidated by this thing?

"A toy, you say? Do you really think you can defeat my summons so easily?" 'Madara' challenged as if he had already won the battle and the whiskered blonde just didn't know it yet.

"I know I can beat that plaything, even if you and that idiot you call a lackey join the fray. That being said..." Naruto began, pointing his zanpakuto at the two masked men. Then he redirected the tip of his blade to the ground as if he was about to release his zanpakuto. Unlike with his previous releases however, Naruto held his outstretched right arm, sword in hand, in front of him instead of to his side.

"... I think it'll be more interesting to have him fight that chew toy instead. Oh, and don't even bother trying to control him with your Sharingan because it's not going to work this time."

'Madara' and Tobi's eyes widened in shock upon realizing what Naruto was about to do.

"He can't be serious Shishou." Tobi stated. 'Madara' in turn had nothing to reply with.

"Devastate, Kurama: Kyubi Kuchiyose!" Naruto yelled out.

At soon as the release command was given the blade began to emit a massive blood red aura while the red wrappings around the hilt disintegrated even as Naruto held on to his zanpakuto. The red aura began to expand beyond the blade until it had enveloped Naruto and most of the plateau on which he stood.

Watching this, Tobi and his master, the latter to a lesser extent, both felt their hearts drop when they heard an all-too familiar roar.

"AHHHHH! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! IT'S THE KYUUBI! HE'LL EAT US ALIVE!" Tobi yelled as he ran away, tripping over himself in his panic a couple of times in the process.

'Madara', having already planned for Tobi to withdraw once he had summoned the Gedō Mazō, paid no heed to his assistant's childish 'retreat.

'So Naruto had somehow gained the ability to summon the fox from within himself.' He thought, taking this new reality in. While the sight of the massive kitsune alone was enough to shock the fake Madara it wasn't the only shocker. 'The Kyuubi's back to full size? Did it somehow regain the half of its chakra that Minato-sensei sealed away?'

Naruto could be seen hovering, or more like standing on the air, beside the tailed beast that normally dwelt within him. He held his zanpakuto, which he still wielded even after summoning Kurama, and directed it at his masked opponent.

"I can tell that you take great pride in that empty shell of a summon. Kurama and I will tear that pride apart... piece by painful piece."

Next Time - The Bloodline Thief: Kazuko Uchiha!