A.N. Hey guys, been a minute. Just wanted to stop in and let you guys know I'm looking forward to all of you guys reading my newest chapter. I also want to let you know about Naruto's frankly ridiculous height a bit. A normal warrior caste pureblood Sith averaged 3 meters. They were half again as tall as a human. They were also twice or more as broad and, to my understanding, about around twice as massive as well. In short, they were FREAKING HUGE. He clocks in at a staggering 3.27 meters tall (his sword is over 12 feet long including the handle) in my notes once he's done growing. In short, he's a bit more than ten feet tall. With that in mind, he's not as proportionally broad as normal warrior caste Sith, only about twice as broad as a normal human. This means he's actually something of a beanpole for his kind. Ain't alien biology great? Anyways, I'd love it if you'd leave a few detailed criticisms or comments. For me, I don't really care about quantity of reviews, but rather their quality. Even if you just want to scream at me for being a faggot, I can use that too.

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

"Demon speech and techniques"

Disclaimer: I own neither Starwars nor Naruto.

47 BBY Month 4

Naruto allowed himself a small smile, more a relaxing of the corners of his mouth, as he watched the bandits before him shift uneasily. Part of it, obviously, was the fact that he himself, garbed in blacks and greys, not to mention clearly inhuman, stood head, shoulders, and chest over even the tallest human there. However, the greatest contributor to his spectacle were the clearly dangerous shinobi, everyone knew who the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū were, and the nearly uniformly armed and armored warriors behind them.

While the various bandit groups had primarily been a means of supplementing the food stores of his villagers, Naruto was not one to waste resources, especially when the non shinobi warriors were at a significant disadvantage without good steel. Of course, if you looked closely you could see that the men behind him wore bits and pieces from no less than forty different groups, but the fact that all wore full sets of proper armor while carrying a spear and sword tended to override that fact.

In truth, simply arriving at the head of such a force would be enough to convince the hired thugs, numbering no more than three hundred, to break and run. Gato, on the other, seemed to almost be incensed that someone had challenged him. Honestly, that was rather easily observable from the way the impressively short man before him was purpling. Turning his head back to the midget, Naruto felt a small moment of shame as he realized he had simply been tuning what seemed to be a very impressive rant out for the last five minutes.

"...AND WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT TO INVADE MY FUCKING VILLAGE YOU MUTANT FREAK!? YOU THINK I'M GOING TO JUST LET YOU WALK OVER ME? TAKE WHAT I'VE EARNED? I'LL FUCKING HANG YOU BY YOUR ENTRAILS 'GHRRKTGHFFFFF'"

Growing tired of the short man's blustering, Naruto simply launched himself forward in a burst of pure speed, quite beyond the ability of anyone other than Raiga and Zabuza to track, and closed his clawed hand over Gato's rather soft throat. For a moment he debated simply murdering the man horrifically, but reconsidered when he thought of his future plans. Nami no Kuni was rather strategically placed and a very short distance from Uzu itself. Deciding that this place would, at worst, make a good staging area, Naruto prepared to make an example.

"...You annoy me, little man. Your warriors are weak, you are weak. I am tired. But first, I plan to punish you for your arrogance." Gathering a burst of Force energy, Naruto burned through Gato's meager chakra reserves and ravaged the man's mind.

In moments he had gleaned every secret, every hidden stash, and the knowledge of every coin Gato had ever held. That the man's mind was ruined beyond any hope of repair, burned out in a quite intimidating, and extremely painful for the petty tyrant, flash of light, was a pleasant side effect. Casually throwing the corpse off to the side, not quite realizing the body was chucked more than a kilometer away, Naruto strode up to the now unemployed thugs and gave them a rather simple choice.

"Leave and I swear I shall not kill you. Stay and I shall break you all." The thugs did not hesitate, they broke and ran. Many throwing down their weapons in an attempt to flee faster. Naruto himself simply waited a few minutes and issued a rather simple order. "Kurosuki-san, Momochi-san take twenty men each, kill them all." There was no need for the two to confirm the order, they simply turned about, chose their men, and began the hunt.

"Suzume, Ranmaru, Haku, take the rest of the men, gather the abandoned weapons and armor, then bring the rest of the non combatants up and strike camp just outside of the village. Do not fully unpack, we may yet have a roof over our heads tonight."

A simple "Hai, Uzumaki-dono/Sensei" was given in response to this order, though the young shinobi were no slower to comply. After about fifteen minutes of standing in the middle of the main path through this section of Nami, the locals finally became curious enough to actually approach their latest conqueror. Of course, acting like that would just incite the locals to fight back, or seek outside help, much better to play to their desire for a hero.

An older man of roughly average height and with a large beer gut stepped forward first, "Um...well...thanks for killing the bastard, I guess?"

Acknowledging the thanks, Naruto inclined his head, "He was a threat to my people as well. And, it was the right thing to do."

Somewhat startled at the soft, if rather deep, voice coming from the giant, the villager stepped a bit closer and spoke again, "So, um, is there anything you want?"

"Yes, there is. One of my compatriots had a condition for joining me and I need a place for my people to stay."

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what was the condition?"

"I will travel with him to Kirigakure, slay Yagura the Tyrant, and halt the genocide of the bloodline users."

Shocked at the clear and concise response, the villager thought for a few moments. Deciding to go out on a limb, even if the shinobi was a bit scary, he walked the last few meters until he was in a proper conversational range, "Well, seeing how you just killed Gato and your men are out taking care of the last of his, I figure, if we can help you, we will. Oh, my name is Tazuna by the way!"

Looking down at the outstretched hand, Naruto, taking great care not to crush it, shook it with his much larger hand. "I thank you Tazuna-san. My request is simple, I wish for you to house my people while I fulfill my previous agreement. Of course, my people will return everything Gato stole from you either way."

What followed was several minutes of silence. Tazuna clearly deep in thought, Naruto stood mildly relaxing. Turning to look Naruto in the eye as best as he could, Tazuna clearly wore his confusion on his face, "You're for real, aren't you? I mean, Gato has been here for three years. Our own daimyo caved after one", Tazuna turns and spits as if the word left a bad taste in his mouth, "The others didn't seem to care either. I know letters reached the lord of Fire and the kage of Kirigakure. I know that because those villagers came back."

It was this point that Suzume and Ranmaru had returned with their men and the other villagers had began to come closer.

"And still, none of those fucking bastards did one FUCKING thing! Women and children were raped and enslaved, men tortured and killed! My...my own son in law. He was publically executed because he stopped a pair of thugs from raping a seven year old girl." Tazuna dropped to his knees, tearing his threadbare clothes as they become dirtied from the earth and mud he collapsed into.

As Naruto stood there, looking upon a broken old man, he felt a strange mixture of pity and disgust well up in him. Half of him felt that the man in front of him was pathetic for showing such weakness to a complete stranger, and possible invader. While the other half wanted to tell the man that everything was going to be ok. That he would stand for his people. Defend them against all who would harm them. Doing as he had been trained, Naruto drowned out all distractions. He felt Raiga and Zabuza returning with the rest of his men so everyone would hear or see what would happen next. Turning his face up to Naruto once again, with tears streaming down his grime smeared face, Tazuna asked a single question. "So, why?"

Allowing a single moment of hesitation to slip into his body language, Naruto pulled the hood of his travelling cloak back. Several of the villagers stepped back in fear at seeing the black and red mask. Moving slowly, he reached up and unlocked the clasps on his mask. More stepped back and even Tazuna's eyes grew wide at what hid there. Where even a few months before his father's face had lain, still handsome enough to catch the eye of many women in spite of his differences, now lay something far too sharp and far too heavy set to be human. While he did not possess the simian features of baseline Sith, Naruto had moved farther away from human normal. With the black lines that marked his whiskers thicker than ever and his face tendrils now reaching to the bottom of his chin, he seemed near deformed. The broad planes and rough features made him seem like a barbarian at best and an oni at worst, all of which was magnified by the shifting black and red pattern of his sharingan, glowing proudly in both of his eyes.

Reaching out a hand to the kneeling man before him, Naruto answered him, "Because I could." Helping the wide eyed man to his feet, the young Sith continued, knowing that with every word he bound these people closer and closer to him. So turning to speak to everyone gathered there, he spoke.

"My name is Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto. My mother was Uzumaki Kushina, the Aka no Shi, and the last survivor of the main family of the Uzumaki. My father was Namikaze Minato, the Kiroi Senko, and yondaime hokage of Konohagakure. For most of my life I was the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko, with all that entails. I was spat on, beaten, and scorned by nearly the whole of the village my parents gave their lives for and I was made a sacrifice to protect. I did what I did because I was here and I know what it is like to be powerless." Naruto allowed a gentle smile to form on his face. "Still, my work is far from done. Suzume, Ranmaru."

"Hai!"

"Bring half the men, we need to sack Gato's mansion."

"Hai, Uzumaki-dono."

"Zabuza, Raiga, you two stay here and watch over the village. Share our food and medical supplies. We will bring back everything Gato has. Expect us in a few hours."

While Zabuza stood silent, thinking over what he had heard, Raiga responded, "Understood. We'll be waiting on you."

"Haku, deal with the wounded and ill amongst both groups."

Receiving a nod from a still thinking Zabuza, Haku responded with a soft "Hai".

"Tazuna, bring a few of your people. I want you to know you can trust me. You have five minutes. After that, we have a manor to sack."

Nodding at his instructions, Tazuna moved off and began to issue instructions of his own.

Thirty Minutes Later

After his short walk, filled with more than a few glances from Suzume, Naruto stood outside the gates of Gato's mansion. It was an obscene and gaudy thing. Intended to be more of a indulgence into the worst kind of opulence and decadence as opposed to any kind of functional hub of administration. And the worst thing was that Gato had even skimped on properly building much of the compound itself.

For example, he had what looked like large gold knockers on the main gate. In truth, they were lead that had been covered with pyrite with an extremely small admixture of actual gold. Simply put, they looked real enough to fool anything but a close inspection or a true master. And his entire manor was like this.

The walls were sloppily made in any place that wasn't visible to guests, the defenses were almost entirely for show, and the internal gates were made from incredibly low quality iron. That the man was using iron on an island surrounded by salt water was one issue. That Gato had known how poorly his "defenses" had been made and had been content with them was another.

What made it worse was the sheer paranoia the man had exhibited when it came to his money! If Naruto spent the next two decades hunting Gato's liquid assets he would have found, maybe, half of it. Thankfully, he was as greedy as he was corrupt and had moved the entirety of his hard assets to his manor. In a vault with walls two meters thick. Reinforced with the best seals Gato could buy. And booby trapped so thoroughly the explosives inside of the vault could reasonably level half of Nami. Of course, none of that would avail him now, what with Naruto quite literally possessing every secret the fat midget had once held.

That being said, the reason for him lasting this long was actually pretty simple. He, along with a small group of like minded individuals, controlled more than half of all trade in the elemental nations. In fact, they had been working together to concentrate even more power in their own hands and seizing Nami was intended to be a first step. From there, they would have strangled trade from a number of small rivals by undercutting their prices, bought them out, and moved on to larger and larger prey. They were so wealthy in fact, that the daimyo's of no less than fourteen nations took bribes in exchange for agreeing not to interfere with their operations. Had Naruto not intervened, there little conglomerate would have likely bought their way into a stranglehold on the regional economy and would have been able to field enough men to rival even major shinobi villages in power. Given none of those villages butchered them like pigs beforehand.

Of course, they had not gotten as far as they had by being foolish or shortsighted. So they had contracted a shinobi mercenary group known as Akatsuki to defend them and their interests. And while Gato had been used as a disposable patsy, none of them actually expected him to live for very long past his takeover, by the rest of the group, Naruto would need to be wary of an entire group of S rank nukenin coming after him. If for no other reason than not wanting to level his new island in the inevitable crossfire between whoever the Akatsuki sent to kill him. Still, it was something to look forward to.

For the second time on the same day, Naruto found himself mildly embarrassed. It seemed he had been so deep in thought he had failed to notice that he and his company were standing in front of Gato's manor and that what remained of his guards were running about, attempting to fortify their location.

"Jun, Lee, Suzume, Ranmaru, deal with the guards on the wall. Show me how far you have come!" With his order the demeanor of the four best shinobi under his command shifted from a combination of mild wariness and interest into a sense of barely restrained blood lust.

As the "battle" began the four launched themselves straight towards the wall before them, opening with a volley of kunai. While they threw several knives each only a handful struck vital spots, though the defenders were quite effectively suppressed. Reaching the base of the curtain wall all four swiftly ran up the sheer face of the building before them, throwing the occasional kunai at any thugs that presented their heads for targets.

Upon reaching the top Ranmaru fired off a sizeable water bullet, punching through a man's chest, while Suzume, Jun, and Lee contented themselves by going to work with their knives. In less than a minute the only surviving defenders were hidden within the manor itself and would need to be rooted out. Of course, no one but Naruto was aware of this so when he kicked the main gate of its hinges the rest of those present were quite surprised. It is of course not even worth mentioning that he most certainly did not have a smirk on his face. And he unquestionably did not chuckle at seeing his cute little students jump a literal meter into the air.

Raising a single brow Naruto simply pointed to the man Ranmaru had killed, now hanging by an ankle while his intestines spilled out a hole in his chest, and stated, "Excellent shot, your power was perfect Ranmaru-kun." Taking a moment to note that a number of the men had had their genitals savaged Naruto looked at Suzume and asked a silent question.

Standing firm, Suzume met Naruto's eye and answered him quite vocally, "I saw what had been done to some of the women in Nami. They deserved it."

Nodding, Naruto simply walked towards the manor proper, ignoring the green-hued villagers who had stopped to relieve the contents of their stomachs. Who was he to question Suzume on something like this. Unlike most women, she travelled with her father through some of the worst parts of the Elemental Countries. She would have seen sex slaves and worse. It also went without saying that had she ever been taken, she would be considered lucky to be killed before being violated herself.

Striding up to the entryway Naruto kicked the set of double doors off their hinges as well. He definitely enjoyed doing that. Still, there was work to do. "Suzume, there are four hostiles in a room on the top floor in the eastern most section of the building. Take a squad and neutralize them. Tazuna, choose two people and send five warriors with them to locate the prisoners. They should be in the kitchens. Those are to the west and along the far wall. The rest of you, with me."

"Hai, uzumaki-dono!"

With the short answering cry the teams moved out to deal with their objectives. Naruto himself moving to secure the vault itself.

After another thirty minutes he was ready to leave. The locals had been rescued, the remaining hostiles killed, and the vault had been secured. Of course, by secured he meant he had ripped it from the earth, and prepared it to be levitated back to the village alongside all of the actual valuables and foodstuffs they had retrieved, in the process answering Tazuna's unasked question of how he had brought so many people to Nami without a fleet of ships.

Kneeling down, Naruto concentrated, reaching out with The Force and focusing on the vault. Easy enough thanks to the interference of the seals. Twisting, pushing, pulling, and blasting the earth and rock out of the way, he ripped the entire structure up and out into the free air. Holding it with his mind, Naruto reached out with The Force once again and picked up a number of pallets and heavy pieces of cargo and began to levitate back towards the village. And, again, he was most certainly not wearing an improbably smug smirk as he walked away.

Three Days Later

Standing in the prow of a small ship, liberated from Gato's former merchant fleet, Naruto mused on all he had accomplished. Nami no Kuni, betrayed by their daimyo, was desperate for a protector, and Naruto just so happened to be a prince. When Tazuna and Eiji got together, after recovering from an impressively nasty hangover, they both agreed that Naruto was clearly inhuman, a noble, and therefore was eligible to be both enshrined as a kami and declared feudal lord of Nami. That there was nearly universal support for such a position amongst both groups simply moved things forward all the more quickly. Though, perhaps, the sheer amount of food and alcohol that had been imbibed by the villagers had contributed to a rather hasty process for such a significant decision.

Unfortunately there had been some resistance from the citizens of Nami. They were understandably wary of another tyrant coming in and abusing them when they had just slipped Gato's yoke. It had ended up being a rather simple thing to win them over. As their numbers were made up by those that had suffered the worst under Gato's reign, Naruto healing the wounds of each and every citizen of Nami had both drained him to dangerous levels and made him into a hero in the eyes of even the most cynical and bitter of his opponents.

It had been the work of two days to organize a quick vote and declaration of his new position. Most of that had been in the making of a massive feast and the organizing of a new force to defend Nami in his absence. Ichirou and Masahiro had organized the citizens of Nami into training groups while Eiji, Satoru, and Tazuna had set to work planning out the rationing of their supplies and organizing the men and women into work teams to begin refurbishing the dilapidated and damaged buildings.

His plans were moving forward swiftly and while some friction had occurred between the two groups of villagers, things were already improving when he left. Yes, aside from the small issue that was the incredibly troubled and unsure Momochi Zabuza approaching him from behind. A few things piqued his interest. One, Momochi was clearly conflicted, likely over whether he'd be inviting one tyrant into his home to kill another. Two, Naruto realized he literally could not soothe the man's fears. Aside from them all being justified in principle if not scale, he would only seize Kiri if he absolutely must as he needed Uzu and another village would only detract from his focus on learning all of his clan's fuinjutsu. Especially since he could name his price once he slew Yagura and the new Mizukage understood their place. He also held no small amount of animosity towards the village itself for participating in the extermination of his clan. Three, he would gain far more from an "alliance" than he would from open conquest. Kiri was waging a civil war and those always left a country vulnerable. Even if he lacked the exact intelligence of each of the other villages necessary to calculate exact behavioral patterns, there was little doubt they were doing all they could to exacerbate the situation. Quietly, of course. There was no need to turn their subtle support into open warfare. Yet.

In the end, the Swordsman was right in fearing for his country and nothing Naruto could do would dissuade the man. Still, he was too valuable to kill outright, as his skills, and those of his servant, were incredibly useful for building a future army. So it was with an incredibly sadistic smile, unseen beneath his mask, that Naruto turned and faced the now approaching shinobi. Because the first thing a Sith learns is that death is just the beginning

Momochi Zabuza prepared himself to confront the...boy? Yes. The boy he had turned towards Kirigakure. His claims had been absurd at best, delusional at the worst. Either way, having another jinchuuriki, especially one that seemed stronger that Yagura, in Kiri would most likely be the rebellion's undoing. All because he had no actual guarantee that this self proclaimed Uzumaki would honor his word. In an agreement with a village that had helped butcher his kin. And what was worse is that Zabuza had seen him use word games to weaken his enemies and then sway a large number of civilians to his side with nothing more than an average speech and a few grand gestures.

This needed to be done. And it would go differently than their first fight had. Stopping for a moment, Zabuza remembered how brutally he and Haku had been tossed around. Naruto's mastery of kenjutsu was comparable if not superior to Kisame's, the blue skinned bastard. Still, that was all the giant had shown. Even when dozens of water clones had thrown themselves forward, all Naruto had used was giant sword. And right now, that blade was nowhere to be seen. Zabuza continued walking, coming to his final set of stairs, and mused on how it seemed that oni might be returning to the impure world. Shrugging, he decided it didn't matter. It was why he had kept the Oni Kyodai in reserve. They should have been able to circumvent that red skinned bastard's ridiculous sensory abilities so long as the used their Hiding in Water Technique. Considering that the move could hide from Ao's byakugan, it made sense that it could hide from just about anything an eleven year old could know.

Walking onto the deck of the ship they had bothered, he confirmed the marked barrels holding the brothers were in position, Zabuza let the weight of the Kubikiribocho steel his resolve for what he was about to do. As he turned to look at the boy, standing on the prow of the borrowed ship, he noticed that he was being watched from behind the welp's mask. A small tremor slipped through him. Once more steeling his resolve, Momochi Zabuza stepped forward.

"Naruto-san."

Naruto tilted his head forward in acknowledgement.

"I have a number of questions. And I want answers." Tensing up incase the boy decided to strike first, Zabuza waited to see if he would be interrupted. After a few seconds without change, he continued. "To begin with, I need to know exactly what you plan on doing once you get to Kiri. And I need to know when you plan on leaving"

Tilting his head to the side, Naruto responded, "You and I will make contact with the leader of the rebellion, you will convince them to accept us, and then we will move to neutralize Yagura at the earliest possible convenience. Assuming you can honor your end of our little bargain and I receive all of Kiri's intel on possible surviving Uzumaki, I shall leave without incident. Assuming everyone else behaves, of course."

"Alright then. You claim to be a former jinchuuriki and the son of the fourth Hokage. How are either possible. Especially considering your current appearance?"

Zabuza tensed as the man before him gave a small chuckle and responded with a question, "You would expect the assimilation of all the chakra of a bijuu to be a rather dramatic event, correct? Because if you did, you would be right."

Eyes widening, Zabuza had to take a moment and marvel at the sheer arrogance of the brat standing before him. The child's arrogance was so astounding that it actually took him a moment to notice the small crew of smugglers had withdrawn to the back of the boat, preparing for the violence that Zabuza was preparing to unleash.

"So, Uzumaki, you claim to be only eleven years old. You claim to have slain a bijuu. You claim you to be the only child of the fourth hokage and you claim to have no other intentions towards Kirigakure when I just saw you take over a gods damned country!"

Zabuza prepared himself to execute his plan. He tensed himself and uttered a phrase that would alert Gozu and Meizu to strike, "This conversation is over." As Zabuza began to force chakra into his limbs, two wooden barrels exploded into blades of water with large, spiked chains lashing out towards both sides of Naruto, aiming to bind and pierce him.

Momochi Zabuza first realized when something was going terribly, terribly wrong when instead of moving, a pair chains left from Naruto's back, binding both Meizu's and Gozu's attacks. Eyes widening as the water blades dispersed harmlessly on the chains, Zabuza dashed forward, hoping to occupy the giant before him long enough to permit his underlings to withdraw. Coming in with a heavy rising slash, he aimed to bisect the giant before him, even if Zabuza expected the boy to block. As the strike came within centimeters of striking, a new chain erupted from Naruto's flesh, intercepting and twisting around Kubikiribocho.

Assuming he survived the fight he was in, what happened next would forever be burnt into his memory. He watched in seeming slow motion as the chain binding his weapons tightened, crushing it at the thinnest part just above the hilt. Even as his beloved weapon broke, he could only stare in horror as both Gozu and Meizu lost their gauntleted arms as the chains coming from their enemy's body reached their hands moments before the releases in their own chains activated. In that very second as the armored limbs were bound in glowing, that blue links broke and twisted them limbs with their inexorable pressure. It was with a macabre sense of interest that he watched each and every link shred through the armored limbs, impressing their awful will upon the weak flesh beneath. As he watched, he knew that these chains would mean instant death should they entrap him. In an attempt to gain as much ground as possible Zabuza directed all the chakra he could to his legs, launching himself many meters away from the ship even as the planking were previously stood shattered into hundreds of splinters.

Continuing to move, Zabuza leapt onto the surface of the water surrounding the vessel and began to run as quickly as he could, knowing he'd only have one chance to succeed in his plan. As he came to a stop Meizu and Gozu hit the water next to him, leaning on each other for support. Taking in their wounds, he noticed the dripping blood and splintered, twisted bone fragments sticking out of their forearms. With a grimace, he realized his support was crippled.

Breathing heavily, Gozu began to speak, "Hey boss *pant* I think we may have fucked up a bit *pant* *pant*. Not that losing my arm doesn't hurt like a bitch *pant* but I really hope you have a plan to make our *pant* *pant* coming deaths worth it."

Grimacing, Zabuza responded, "Yeah. I have one. But you're probably gonna hate me."

With a snort Meizu snarked back, "Too late for that. You already got us up shit creek and I'm glad we didn't bring a paddle or that red skinned fucker would be sodomizing us with it."

"Well, I'm pretty sure we have a shot to bring him down. But I doubt we'll be walking away from it."

With a pained grunt, Gozu shifted his hold on his brother, "Well. I guess we probably should have just tried to kill Yagura ourselves. Still, it was an honor, boss." Raising his stub up, Gozu visibly steels himself for what's about come next. Zabuza, with a sharp nod, lets the blood from his comrade's wound touch the fragment of Kubikiribocho in his hand. After a moment the blade began to slowly regenerate and the pair turned to look at Meizu. After a moment Gozu elbowed his brother and Meizu, with an eye roll, repeated the process. Grabbing a pair of chakra pills, he tossed one to each of the brothers before swallowing two himself.

As he was putting his remaining pills away, Zabuza realized that he could hear a small splashing noise, indicating that the small waves in the ocean were breaking against something. Standing twenty or so meters away he saw that his target had arrived. Knowing that he had only one more shot, Zabuza issued his final order, "Follow my lead", and launched himself backwards, forming the Ushi hand seal and calling out "Kirigakure no Jutsu!". From his previous...skirmish with Naruto, he was aware his opponent had doujutsu of some kind. And while he did not believe the mist would completely occlude Naruto's eyes, it should reduce the effective range by a noticeable margin.

Sighing with relief as his comrades raised their own mists, Zabuza quickly unleashed a wave of Mizu Bunshin, aiming to slow his target down for a moment. Unfortunately for him, the red skinned giant he doing his level best to kill had decided not to cooperate. Instead, the near four meter bulk was rampaging towards him, throwing up large waves in his path. Gritting his teeth, Zabuza tossed his sword up into the air and began running through two, simultaneous sets of one handed seals. Blurring through the movements, time itself slowed to a crawl as his enemy came ever closer.

Once Naruto reached the halfway point, and Zabuza was only a third of the way through his seals, Gozu and Meizu launched themselves from beneath the surface of the water, disrupting the mists around them, and unleashed volleys of kunai with their remaining arm. Landing on the balls of their feet, both shinobi launched themselves forward, kunai held firmly in hand, and struck at Naruto from sides.

It had been a perfect maneuver, both brothers in perfectly synchronized in their movements. Each foot hitting the water at the same time as the other, eyes never wavering, and muscles tense enough to strike as soon as they were in range. And it was all for naught. The moment the brothers came within ten paces, Naruto's chains struck.

Piercing through the chest of both brothers, the dark blue chains began to use the bodies as blunt instruments and brutally crushed any Mizu Bunshin that came in range. Discarding his macabre bludgeons once he had finished the first wave of clones, Naruto continued rampaging towards his enemy, never noticing the feral glint of victory that now filled Zabuza's eyes.

Knowing that if he was to win, now was the moment to strike, Zabuza finished the final signs in both hands. While a pair of water dragons, of truly titanic size, rose up and charged Naruto with a soundless roar Zabuza allowed his thoughts to drift for a single second.

'My ultimate technique, something I developed to kill Yagura himself, reduced to being thrown at a child. Still, the pain of learning the one handed seals from Haku was more than worth it if it lets me stop this tyrant here and now.' As the chains that had slain Gozu and Meizu moved to intercept the dragons, Zabuza cocked his eyes up and saw that Kubikiribocho was within reach. Reaching up and catching it with both hands. 'The blades finally regenerated. Gozu, Meizu, your sacrifices will not be in vain...Haku, I hope you can forgive me for abandoning you' Knowing that he had already pushed his body to a dangerous extent by using as much chakra as he had, Zabuza prepared himself for a final attack, having steeled himself to do what had to be done for the sake of Kiri. The one move he knew would overwhelm his enemy's defense. That he also knew would take more from him than he could give.

With a roar, he dumped the last of his chakra into his faithful sword, his Kubikiribocho. In that moment his senses exploded outwards, touching every drop of blood that once filled both Gozu and Meizu. He demanded control of it all. He forced the blood to obey his will. And it leapt at the chance. Dozens of large, red spears formed from the water. Each one possessing a sharpened and hardened point strong enough to punch through steel. And they leapt forwards at his enemy.

As Zabuza stood there, panting in exhaustion, darkness closing in around the edges of his sight, he couldn't help but give one last smile at how the spears had impaled Naruto in a dozen places. When the impaled Naruto burst into smoke and the jutsu dispersed, Zabuza's smile of victory turned into the horror stricken face of a man who had given everything and not even come close with his dying breath. Once the last wisps of smoke dispersed, Zabuza's knees gave out and darkness filled his vision, his last thoughts being a prayer of mercy for Haku's sake.

'In. Out. In. Out. In. Out.' Pacing his breath, Naruto allowed his chakra reach out and touch the energies flowing around him. At first, all he made contact with was his Dark Side energies. They were as a veil, dulling his senses, and obfuscating the energies of the world around him. Still, the power was addicting. Even the smallest caress sent shudders of pleasure down his spine, the smallest touch would see it whispering is his ear as a lover would, promising him everything he desired, so long as he just gave in to it. And giving in would be so very easy-'NO! I must be strong. I must keep pushing. The promises are lies. Slavery is all that comes from submission.' Firming his will, he pushed forward, allowing his chakra to move beyond the haze of dark whispers, and ignoring the taste of rot the filled his mouth with his escape.

And as his chakra slipped free, the world around him brightened. Every sense became sharper, every thought clearer, every breath of air just a bit fresher. Reaching out with his newfound senses, he touched upon all the chakras around him. Everything from the smallest bird in the air to the very trees so many kilometers away from him and every living thing in the ocean around him. Even with all of these connections touching his very soul, more and more came.

As the distance from which the energies came increased, their messages became less and less clear, the feelings muddling together into a sense of vitality, of life itself filling the very world around him. However, as he knelt on the prow of his ship, a feeling of something twisted found him. A touch of something...unclean. Of things that were done away from where all sane beings stood. In the moments that passed, the nameless feeling of wrongness grew, and with it came an overwhelming sense of HATE.

Holding on to the first feelings, those of life and nature, as long as he could, Naruto's eyes shot wide as a nearly overwhelming pain shot through him. It felt as if his skin had been covered in naphtha and been set alight. Releasing his hold on the powers of the world he lost his greater awareness but the dulled the pain. Still kneeling, he felt the occasional tremor rock him. After a few shuddering breaths he noticed he was no longer alone.

Naruto turned his head and saw that his would be assassin had awoken. Brushing off as much as he could of his weakness, he stood and turned to face the man. Now bereft of his mask and hood, Naruto permitted the shinobi to look upon him. To see the face of the man who struck down his comrade. Who nearly ripped him limb from limb out of pure bloodlust. The young Sith steadfastly ignored the flutter of amusement he felt as the shinobi before him gripped his sword all the more tightly. To Naruto's amusement, Zabuza seemed quite content to stand there and glare at him. Truthfully, Naruto was more than a little thankful for the moment as it allowed him to center himself in the here and now after his failed attempt at...communing with the world around him.

Still, Zabuza was not there to engage in needless games. Without preamble, he drove straight to the heart of the issue.. "Why did you let me live?"

Spreading his arms in a gesture that would be far more comforting from someone who did not look like a monster, Naruto responded just as plainly. "Because you still have value."

"You don't really think I'll still introduce you to the rebels, do you?"

Letting a massive smile split his face, baring his black teeth, Naruto gave his answer. "Of course you will."

With a sinking feeling, Zabuza began to realize the magnitude of what he may have unleashed upon his homeland. Knowing he was going to regret what came next, he still asked a question that had a thousand answers. None of them pleasant. "...Why?"

His vicious smile growing even wider, the dark energies that fueled him growing just a bit stronger, Naruto answered, "Because I must test myself. Because I desire their knowledge. I need the Uzumaki restored. And I have goals greater than you can ever imagine that I must achieve. And no matter how powerful I am, I will need allies." Turning his back to the man behind, Naruto gave one last reply that chilled the very blood in Momochi Zabuza's veins. "Besides, you most certainly lack a choice in the matter. One way or another you will aid me in this task."

It was through gritted teeth that Zabuza forced out a "Very well.", knowing that he lacked the strength to overcome the man before him.

At that moment, Naruto knew he had defeated Zabuza in the final stage of their battle. Dun-Moch was an old and powerful technique of the Sith, and a rather simple one as well, that focused on manipulating the opponent through actions and words alike. Normally, one would expect immediate results that were usually centered around sloppiness or wasteful attacks. In this case, Naruto needed to guarantee that Zabuza would not just kill himself to deny his knowledge to the young Sith. And rage, especially when you think your opponent has made a mistake, can lead to extremely foolish actions.

Naruto could quite clearly feel the shinobi's anger through the fluctuations of his chakra. However, rather than attempting to slay him again, Zabuza would move to rejoin the rebels, warn them of his potential danger, and in doing so, bring Naruto closer to Yagura all the quicker. While there was the possibility of the rebels attempting to slay him in turn, the fact that he represented a legitimate opportunity to slay Yagura without losing dozens, if not hundreds, of men meant such a chance would come after the jinchuuriki was defeated, at a point where he himself would, theoretically, be exhausted and vulnerable. Such an attempt would in turn give him the chance to best the new Mizukage in battle, showing them exactly how any attempted assassinations would go, as well as giving him leverage to force their compliance in assisting him in searching for the Uzumaki and finding a fuinjutsu teacher. In the end, no matter what happened, assuming he was not slain, his position would be all the stronger. And he sincerely doubted that they would possess the strength to slay him. After all, they could barely contain the jinchuuriki of the three tails. Allowing himself a true, if small and rather sadistic, smile for the first time, Naruto realized why the Jedi and Sith were such cryptic and manipulative bastards. It was one hell of a lot of fun!

Four Days Later

Naruto strode forward, swiftly moving down the gangplank set in the rather rustic docks that was his final stop. Without turning, he noticed the three individuals, moderately better clothed than anyone else nearby, that had been striding towards him. It was plainly obvious that the three men were customs officers and it was just as plain from their swagger that they thought themselves above anyone else in the coastal village.

Taking only a moment to savor their faces, a rather impressive degree of paling and near comical eye widening, upon seeing his, Naruto simply strode through their little group. Amusingly one of them even fell backwards during their scramble to get out of his way. Though, to be fair, Naruto had to admit the fact that he looked like an oni, carried a sword larger than a human male, and wore clearly exotic armor. Frankly, anyone who did not run from him was likely either supremely arrogant or supremely foolish. Of course, the admission did nothing to curb the sneer that split his face.

"Zabuza, how long will it take for the rebels to make contact with you?"

Zabuza, who had previously been having a small chuckle as the officials had tripped over each other in their haste to escape took a moment to think. "Hmm, I'd say a day or two. Considering those idiots are probably going to go alert whatever shinobi were stationed here and I imagine you'll kill the lot."

Cocking a brow ridge, Naruto responded "Oh? And why do you think I would kill them?"

Turning to look at the red skinned giant next to him, Zabuza deadpanned "Because you're bored and they'll annoy you."

Nodding in agreement, the young Sith allowed a note of amusement to creep into his tone "Most likely."

As he finished speaking a volley of kunai and shuriken tore through the air in his and Zabuza's general direction. With a lazy gesture, Naruto unleashed a wave of air knocking the weapons from the sky. Turning towards the source of the weapons, he cocked a brow ridge. And then immediately had to stifle a chuckle at their faces.

All three wore looks of intense concentrations and it was quite obvious they had prepared themselves to engage in a truly epic battle. Naruto took a great amount of pleasure in simply launching a wave of red, toxic chakra chains at them. The faces of horror and pain that followed the agonized screams of all three men were absolutely hilarious. It took a truly immense act of will power to stop himself from bending over laughing. Why common soldiers thought they stood a chance in anything approaching a fair fight against even Zabuza escaped Naruto. However, it did remind him of the time when his father slew a thousand enemies in a single battle and Revan had cut through a few hundred low level dark Jedi during the Battle of the Star Forge. After all, those were common warriors who fought titans. This was no different.

Still, the faces of abject horror worn by the customs officers was more than a little pleasing. The fact that they had all vomited in disgust was a bit extreme though. Yes, the air was filled with the smell of melting flesh, yes his youki was rather toxic, and yes, he had ripped the shinobi into tiny pieces, but these were supposed to be officials of Mizu no Kuni! Naruto had expected them to at least be capable of handling a little violence.

So, with a sneer firmly affixed to his face, he walked off. After all, these were most certainly not his people. Nor were they even serfs of his soon to be ally. What care did he have for these men and women.

Looking at the still smoldering remains of the three shinobi before him, Zabuza let a grimace over take his face. Those men may have been his enemy, but they were still shinobi of wave. It...irked him that the man whom he had brought to his nation had been the cause of such horror when they had only just arrived.

Had he not already been sure that the jinchuuriki was a monster in human form, these actions would have firmed his resolve. What was worse, was that Naruto seemed to be growing more violent as time passed as well. Back in Nami, he hadn't taken pleasure in killing the fat midget. Zabuza could tell he was barely holding back from mocking those dead men. For a moment, he felt self recrimination well up in him. What if he had unwittingly unleashed a monster far worse than Yagura upon his homeland? Sighing, he turned from the charred corpses. What was done was done. Never mind the possibility that the rebels might just be able to deal with both of them given the right opportunity…

Turning to see his companion looking at the cowering officials with a sneer, Zabuza walked over to Naruto, cleared his throat to get the man's attention and spoke, "Now that that's done, we should head on out. No doubt any rebels in the village know our affiliation now and I highly doubt we'll be able to find a place to stay anywhere near here."

"Perhaps. I felt a number of presences move away quite rapidly. Still, do you truly think the villagers would deny us a place to stay?" Now that his sneer had finally disappeared, a cocked brow ridge was the only hint of emotion on the Sith's face.

"Yeah. The reason we landed here was, supposedly, to hide the fact that we intended to join the rebels. This village has been affiliated with Yagura's forces since the beginning of the purges. It's why there were so few shinobi protecting it."

Zabuza felt his stomach twist a bit when he saw a glint enter into the giant's eye. A glint he'd seen in the eyes of shinobi before. Usually when they were taken by bloodlust. With a new undercurrent of rage of in his tone, Naruto spoke again, "And how did they prove their...dedication to Yagura's cause?"

Standing in silence for a few moments, to allow the villagers a head start if nothing else, Zabuza began his explanation. "The villagers granted a number of civilians with bloodlines safety in their village. And when Yagura's Oinin Butai arrived, they turned the lot over. The only words I have to say in their defense is that this village was pillaged by the Kaguya at the beginning of their rebellion."

Naruto, who had been staring at the backs of a number of retreating villagers, visibly processed this information. After a minute of waiting, the Sith came to a decision. "Since you seem to want to avoid a massacre here, I shall permit this incident to pass. But I strongly advise you to exterminate them later. Those who would kill others whom they had taken in are not to be trusted." Turning to face Zabuza, the nuke nin felt the tension and anger in the next words strike him like a blow. "You will surely regret it if you let them live."

Even as the ominous words reached his ears, the man found himself entranced by the spinning patterns visible through the mask's eye slits. It was a small thing, but it seemed to Zabuza as if the boy was speaking from personal experience. And the situation spoke of an attempt at reconciliation. Or, at least a small promise to behave while in country.

Striding down a mostly mud path, Naruto contemplated his surroundings. So far Mizu no Kuni had been rather unpleasant. The place was far, far too wet for his tastes. All the humidity made his skin itch and every time he took a step the ground tried to drag him back down. Weighing nearly four hundred kilograms would make mud do that to you. He made sure not to complain about that, though. Reinforced bones and redundant organs make someone a bitch to put down and considering the state of his homeworld, well, it would just be plain stupid to complain about being more difficult to murder. Though all of that was rather insignificant compared to what was, by far, the worst part: the stench.

Sea brine and fish isn't nearly as bad a stench as rotting corpses and excrement, but the seemingly endless swamplands that made up the interior smelled of nothing but rotting plant life and other, far less pleasant, things.

Of course, the fact that the air stunk like it did, combined with the regular storms that swept the area, meant that any guerillas hiding out in the region would be next to impossible to track down. By scent or sight, at least. That did nothing to conceal the dozen odd men and women who were tailing his little group.

He had found his least favorite environment. Both his former master and Lady Surik had assured him it would come one day and that it was an integral part of being a Jedi or Sith, though the two of them figured it would take a bit longer than this. Though, to be fair, Revan's absolute hatred of deserts and Surik's unflinching rage towards jungles made itself known very early on. Of course, Naruto imagined he would likely hold the same opinion if he had been required to track across Tatooine multiple times, while being shot at and ambushed by would be Sith, or spending six months playing "hide the lightsaber in the spleen" with mandalorian commandos on Dxun. In retrospect, this really was him just being rather bitchy.

With a mental sigh, Naruto actually began paying attention to the outside world again. At first he was mildly confused at the fact that the sun was setting and, apparently, his group had been walking for several hours. Subsequently, he then realized he had zoned out, again, while in the presence of potential hostiles, again. More than a bit embarrassed, not that he would ever display such undignified emotions, he decided to ask their guide a question that had been on his mind for quite some time. "Sir, would all eight of the men following us be yours, or are we liable to be ambushed at some point?"

With that single phrase, three very different sets of reactions occurred. The first, and mildest, was the widening of the eyes of Naruto's guide. The second was the immediate flurry of action within the surrounding tree line. Most of the aforementioned action was related to immediate volleys of weapons being thrown between the now revealed squads. The third, and final reaction, was a deep sigh from Momochi Zabuza.

Now standing in the middle of a muddy road, watching two squads of, likely, highly trained shinobi try to kill each other. Naruto had to fight to keep a frown of boredom off his face. "Zabuza-san, why are they ninja trying to kill each other?"

With an incredibly confused look on his face, and ignoring the part of his mind screaming at him not to respond to the red-skinned giant, Zabuza spoke very slowly and very clearly. "Well, I imagine one of the groups are rebel shinobi, while the other squad are probably loyal to Mizu."

"I get that, but my teachers said that every time I go into a new area I was probably going to be attacked by at least two or three groups of would be assassins. And that no one would try to help me until they were absolutely sure that it was beneficial. Which would probably only happen after they tried to kill me at least twice."

At this, Momochi Zabuza had to take a moment. While that may not seem strange, his companion's story actually convinced a veteran A-rank shinobi to turn his attention away from an ongoing battle, where at least four oinin aimed to slay him should they succeed, and stare in shock at the insanity the next to him seemed to be convinced was reasonable.

Yukimura Toshio knew this day had to come. He and his comrades had been following the two potential new allies when the worst had happened. The first was the legendary Momochi Zabuza, a man who had put his life on the line to gather resources and make contacts outside of Kiri for their cause. The other a...stranger. The man, if he was actually human, was a giant, easily two point seven meters tall, red skinned, and seemed to have black bone spikes coming out of his arms. Both were at least A rank and if the stranger was an S rank, Toshio wouldn't have been surprised. Still, he and his men had failed.

The four oinin, lead by his childhood friend Shimizu Tamotsu, had managed to stalk his squad without being detected. Yamata had already fallen, the farmer's son no match for a veteran shinobi, Batu was bleeding out, and Yamachi was trying to hold in his own intestines. He, well he was pinned to the ground by his once friend. A tanto was pinning him to the ground and he felt the cold steel of a kunai pressing into his neck.

Cracking a smile, he spoke to his old friend one last time, "So, kouhai, you finally brought me down. Well, I knew you would surpass me one day. Really, I am glad it was you. Sorry it had to end this way."

Even through the mask Toshio could feel his old friend grimacing. It really didn't surprise him when a few words came out. "Senpai, you taught me everything. I owe you my life a dozen times over. I know why you did this. You saved all those lives back then. I want you to know that camp never re opened and those blood liners escaped. Die with dignity and may you find peace in the next life." The wounded rebel looked on as Tamotsu tensed and prepared to drive home the kunai now positioned between his ribs.

In the space of a heartbeat, everything changed. First, a massive foot struck Tamotsu, sending his old comrade flying. In the next second a scream rang out and, as he turned his head towards it, watched in horror as a claw was driven through the bottom of one of the oinin heads. A gurgling sound announced their bloody, bloody death. With a snap, a glowing chain, seemingly made of red chakra, lanced out towards the second enemy shinobi. Instead of piercing the man, it wrapped around him and began to tighten. In the space of three seconds the scream that had just started was cut off and replaced with a wet plop and loud cracks that broke the otherwise undisturbed silence.

With a calm stride the giant he and his men had been watching strode over to the still form of Tamotsu, casually taking a sword blow from the last oinin on his armored forearm. With an almost casual air he turned, grabbed the retreating arm, yanked it forward, and snapped out a clawed hand. The simple blow crushing the oinin's mask and ripping the man's face open. Even as the screaming shinobi tried to hold the strips of flesh together, the giant simply turned down to Tamotsu and pushed. With a wet pulping noise and a single, full body spasm, Tamotsu's rib cage collapsed. Strolling over to the final, now whimpering, oinin, the massacre was ended with a single kick, snapping the man's neck so far back it seemed to be half torn off.

With a wave of the giant's hand, a volley of red lightning sought he and his comrades bodies. As a sharp, sudden pain passed through his body, Toshio felt every ache and pain in his body disappear. He felt better than he had in a decade! Every little catch and pull, every tiny injury from his training, it was all gone! Turning about he noticed his comrades sitting up, looking either confused or terrified.

Craning his neck, he looked up at the giant now standing above him. Now that the shock of his survival was starting to wear off, he felt a rush of emotions, mostly relief and sorrow, but he was far from stupid enough to feel anger. The giant was definitely an S-rank. And by the way he butchered those oinin, he was a hard S rank at that. Of course, that didn't help anything when his baritone ground out an incredibly simple question.

"The hostiles are slain, why are you still laying on the ground?"

Toshio, unsure of how long the giant's patience would last, scrambled to his feet. Knowing that the man would likely want to continue moving, he gathered his comrades, promising his men they'd talk about what happened later, and got the group moving.

Three Days Later

Naruto was pleased. Once their escorts no longer had to hide, and their guide was free to "reveal" his shinobi training, their whole force moved much, much more quickly. In fact, they were finally coming up to the main hideout.

Of course, they would not normally bring an unknown such as himself into such a vital location, far too much of a risk. That changed very, very dramatically when the first rebel officer, a man named Ao, who quite interestingly possessed an implanted byakugan, heard about Naruto's seemingly miraculous powers of healing.

Obviously, he had demanded a demonstration, and after Naruto had saved a man whose arm should have been lost, he was far, far more trusting. Apparently, with most of medical technology in this world being barely on the level of an industrialized third world country, the general lack of resources that comes with being a rebel group short on just about everything, and a serious dearth of Iryo-nin, someone like him was worth his weight in gold. Quite literally if all he wanted was to be payed for healing their wounded.

Still, the incident had not been without its mild annoyances. It turned out that his ability to heal with dark transference was inversely proportional to his subject's chakra reserves. And while he was thankful that he, personally, seemed to be an exception, the fact that it took far, far too much out of him to smooth out the imperfections in Ao's implanted doujutsu was disconcerting. Frankly, he was likely being a bit childish, but with the ongoing trainwreck that was his force healing training, and he did try to get as much practice as he could, Naruto would have greatly preferred an absolute. But, he would have to make do with what he had.

With a sudden cry of "Halt!", that was rather anticipated considering that the rebels were still qute detectable to a chakra sensor, Naruto found his party stopping for, hopefully, the last time. It was to his rather great surprise when a red haired woman, quite clearly an Uzumaki if her chakra reserves were anything to go by, stepped out of a small building, a hut really, and promptly inclined her head. Not enough to show submissiveness, but enough to show respect. To Naruto, this was enough. For now.

"Welcome, stranger, to our headquarters. And Zabuza-san, I am quite glad you have returned. And I see you've more than fulfilled your goal of ending Yagura's reign if any of what my men claimed was true."

With a snort, Zabuza stepped forward, "He isn't dead yet. Besides, Naruto here is probably going to demand you hand half the village's children over to him to train. Well, that, and any relics he wants. Probably the seven swords at that."

Terumi Mei was a smart woman, one who prided herself on being a good judge of character, and, as much as she could be considering her profession, a good person. She, however, did not believe the gods were real, much less capable of incarnating themselves in this world and blazing a trail of death and justice through the worst parts of Hi no Kuni. So, as any sane person would, she took the reports of an eight foot tall kami, supposedly created by the destruction of Uzushiogakure, with more than a grain of salt.

When she saw the now nearly nine foot tall, red skinned oni standing in front of her, wearing foreign armor, seemingly unarmed, and looking somewhat bored, she pulsed her chakra. Twice.

That is not to say she was unprepared for this meeting, quite the contrary. At all three rebel outposts the group had passed, all members of the rebel forces belonging to the escort and Zabuza had been debriefed, checked by their closest approximation of competent medical personnel for any form of tampering, and then purged of all foreign substances and chakra just to be sure, and they still reported that the man, if he could be called that, could heal with a wave of his hand, rip oinin apart like they were fresh genin, and never seemed to sleep or eat in their presence.

She was somewhat distressed. Mostly because there was no way in hell that her luck was nearly this good.

Still, after she confirmed he was real and had greeted him, mildly insulted Zabuza, and then took a moment to consider what the nukenin had said. She should probably make sure that Naruto didn't take offense to the man's rough manners. Especially since he seemed to actually be strong enough to both be an Uzumaki and, quite possibly, a jinchuuriki as well. If the quality of his chakra was any indicator at least.

She did, however, all herself to take a moment and consider what would happen if he and Hoshigaki Kisame met. Probably get drunk, get into a fight and promptly level half of kiri.

Clearing her head, she focussed on the moment and decided to observe the necessary formalities. "I thank you for your aid and I wish to forward the gratitude of my men whom you have helped. I am Terumi Mei and you are Uzumaki Naruto. Again, I welcome you."

The...man walked a few paces closer. It surprised her somewhat at the grace the man moved with. She expected him to be somewhat stiff as even shinobi have a limit to their flexibility and considering his size...Well, chakra wasn't magic.

Moving slowly, he removed his mask, and even with her near perfect skills of diplomacy she couldn't stop the minute widening of her eyes at the oni's, as he was clearly not a man, face….tentacle...things. She actually had to stifle a gasp when his lip curled up in small grin, exposing black teeth.

With a chuckle, Naruto spoke, "Yes, yes. I know my appearance is quite shocking. I assure you I am aware of how I look. So go ahead and let your men get it all out of their systems. However, I would greatly appreciate it if I did not come across them henged as myself."

Recognizing the olive branch for what it was, she quickly put his features to memory: his hair was formed into long dreadlocks, adorned with a few paper charms for good luck and a pair of silver bells were tied into them. HIs face was formed of broad, flat planes with sharp edges. A face far too rough to be called handsome, but he seemed to look the part of a barbarian of old, excepting the pitch black eyes, lacking any other features, the red skin, and face tentacles. Mei, again, had to suppress a shudder when she noticed the tendrils, which hung a down to where his collarbone would be, curl and move slightly. However, the most clearly alien features were the bun spurs forming his chin, a pair of small black, bony horns just starting to creep past his hairline, and a pair of cartilaginous ridges where his eyebrows should have been. All of this was, of course, ignoring the large, black spikes coming from his elbows.

Clearing her throat, she spoke, "Uzumaki-san, I must say, you cut quite the striking figure. Still, I imagine you and your companions must be quite tired. I have had suitable accommodations prepared for you. If you would follow me, I'll show you to where you'll be staying." Without waiting to see if he would ask questions, Mei turned and began walking away from the main entrance to the rebels base.

As she walked away four rebel shinobi fell into position around her. Normally, the four specialized shinobi, all masters of defensive earth and water style techniques, gave her a small feeling of security. Not too much of course, she was a kunoichi. But her….guest was more than a little disconcerting. His chakra was, in a word, overwhelming. Mei could feel how tightly he had bound his own presence, he almost seemed to possess civilian level reserves if one only looked at the apparent size of reserves.

However, his chakra lingered. Instead of dispersing after he moved on, it remained, and it almost….tainted the land behind it. It was, ironically, a simple enough method of tracking him, even if it would require someone to already be somewhat familiar with him and to be looking for the very minute traces he left behind.

Of course, this wasn't the disturbing part. What bothered her was that the only other time she had seen something like this was after Yagura had unleashed the full might of the sanbi. Mei still remembered that event.

Right after Yagura had been attacked by Zabuza, he had manifested his biju completely as a dozen odd attempts on his life came on after another. It had been an almost abortive start to the rebellion as the various disconnected factions had made their own separate attempts, almost attacking each other in the process. Dozens of their best had been killed in minutes. And it was largely the memory of that day that kept the majority Kirigakure's remaining shinobi from defecting or outright leaving the village all together.

Seeing hundreds of jounin and chunin die screaming at the hands of a massive, demonic tortoise was a hell of motivator to keep you heads down and eyes forward. If nothing else, it sure as hell plugged a lot of potential leaks.

The idea of something that leaked chakra like a biju was rather….unsettling. However, the being was unbelievably arrogant if the way he acted, sparing Zabuza as he did and then taunting the man, and then walking into Kiri's territory without support or a guarantee of any kind. No, she could work with this. No matter how powerful he was, he was still a man, and men can be played.

Perhaps the simplest thing to do would to have him heal the wounded they have now and then send him on a rampage through the less important parts of Mizu. That would force Yagura to either send his best, and suffer a loss he could ill afford, or confront his rival jinchuuriki head on. Unless, of course, he was willing to suffer the loss of income and face that such a rampage would cause. And considering how tentative the daimyo's support was for his reign right now, he could win this war just to have his people starve.

With a smile, a bit too predatory to be friendly, and with a bit too much of a purr in her voice to be anything but clearly seductive, Mei Terumi set about to restore order in Kiri and crush two threats to the land she loved. "Uzumaki-san, while we are honoured by your willingness to help us, perhaps it would be best if you took your rest first. After all, you have not slept once during the whole of you journey. It wouldn't do for you to collapse in the middle of treating our wounded comrades, would it not?"

Turning to look at the man behind her, she realized she may have made a mistake. Looking into his black, predatory eyes, she saw something terrible. In the inky depths there were glimmers of red and a promise of something beyond her most horrific nightmares. Terumi Mei realized the mere act of flirting with him had aroused something mighty and merciless within him. In that moment she felt as if her time had comed.

And then it passed. The moment of danger ended and still looking into his eyes, physically incapable of turning away, she realized that he knew what she had planned. It chilled her when, with a smirk, he next spoke. "I appreciate the offer….Mizukage-sama. But it would reflect poorly on me to rest while others suffer. At least, so long as I might alleviate their suffering with little more than a wave of my hand. So, if you would be so kind, might you lead me to my prospective patients?"

Mei could almost feel the gloating challenge in the tone of his voice. He was ready for anything she could throw at him and it did not bolster her confidence when he mocked her title. Of course it warmed her heart when her men tensed at the insult, but she knew it would be extremely stupid to pick a fight with a jinchuuriki in her own base.

Inclining her head ever so slightly, she granted his wish. "Lee-san, would you kindly escort our new friend to the infirmary. And as soon as he's finished, take him wherever he needs to go." Her tone made the question an order and it was more than understood where he would not be permitted. So with a quick "Hai, Mizukage-dono", Lee and his compatriots, normally Mei's bodyguard, led the still smirking giant away from her.

Ao, speaking up for the first time in the whole discussion, summed up Mei's thoughts far, far too accurately. "Back in my day, the bijuu were locked up inside the jinchuuriki. I guess nowadays it's just the fashion to have a bunch of monsters running around."

Frowning, Mei's response surprised her oldest friend. "Ao, I think I may have fucked up."

A.N. I really hope you guys like this. I re wrote the chapter a few times and it originally was much, MUCH darker than this. I blame that on my mood shifting every few times. My dad is still in jail and my younger siblings are in a bad place over it. Thankfully I'm old enough to muddle through life and not let it be overly bothersome, but it still gets me that it upsets them, yah dig?

Anyways, a few fun things. The whole Uzumaki-Namikaze thing is mostly because he's still 11 and he wants to honor both his parents. No, the Namikaze aren't a clan in this story, though I point out that Japanese did have a few duel family names. Mostly to differentiate themselves from nearby families that had the same name but no relation, but I digress.

As for the chapter itself, I really want you guy's opinion on whether or not I captured his puberty well. I wanted him to come off as arrogant more than once, mostly because he's only ever been bested by one person (Revan) who is now dead. Don't worry though, he's gonna get a bit of a wake up call next chapter!

P.S. Let me know if the Wave scene was too cheesy. I was trying to make it earnest, but I am absolutely terrible at dialogue in general.