Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It is the propriety of Kishimoto.

Hello everyone, I present you the next chapter of Clash of Realms. Hope you like it.

Chapter 6: R and D

KONOHA –

A few days had gone by since Naruto acquired his new bloodline: the Byakugan. For a day or so, he used the dojutsu not unlike a young child having received a new toy. The effect on his sight was disconcerting to say the least.

He had once believed, like everyone lacking the dojutsu, that the eye allowed its user to see around himself as if he had eyes on the back of the head. But that wasn't the case. The Byakugan didn't really work like an eye, more like a field of vision that could be extended and manipulated at the user discretion.

To put it bluntly, when Naruto activated the dojutsu, it was like a dome was created around him. Its size depended on the proficiency of its user. On the first activation, the dome had a range of 50 meters around himself, wherein he could feel everything. Although he quickly discovered a glaring weakness to said eyes, a blind spot at the back of his neck. It extended until the edge of the vision. Still that wasn't a concern of his for the moment, as he already planned to find a way around it.

While he was far from gaining a modicum of mastery over it, the eyes still proved their usefulness in other areas, such as spying and information gathering. Concealing his eyes when activated was an easy matter with his growing illusion skills. Everyday he dispatched five to seven clones all around the village. The clones' only goal was to learn how to read people with the newly gained eyes and occasionally spy on other ninjas.

Dismissing the thoughts for now, he focused on his own training. Mechanically, he moved through his kata imagining his opponent reacting to his movements. The moves came from the official Anbu fighting style. He might hate Kakashi but even he had to admit the guy knew his stuff. The amount of knowledge he gained from the jounin's mind was staggering to say the least.

He was about to start another kata when a clone materialized behind him in a swirl of leaves. Stopping his movements, he sighed in exasperation.

"Is there a reason you interrupted me?"

The clone just grinned widely at the question. "You won't believe what I just found!"

Not in the mood for any charade, Naruto urged him to get to the point.

"I found it!"

"You found what?" Now intrigued, he looked at his clone as he questioned him.

"I found the facility… The R and D facility we were looking for, I found it!"

Widening his eyes in surprise, Naruto swiftly stood at the ready and narrowed his eyes at the clone.

"You're serious there? Because if it is another one of your jokes…" He left the threat hanging as he thought about what facility the clone was talking about.

For a while now, he had given several of his clones the task of finding the elusive Research and Development facility, but to no avail. Just like his namesake, it was very well hidden from prying eyes. The only information he had on it was that it conducted experiment on Yakumo's bloodline. The fact that it was a closely guarded secret even among the higher ups of the village, was a given. After all, it wouldn't do for the village to be associated to the idea of experimentation on human beings.

"I'm serious boss. I found it by luck when I was working on the Byakugan. You don't believe me? Come with me and you'll see." The clone exclaimed as he tapped his right foot on the ground to make a point.

"I've got a better idea"

"Oh… And that's…" The clone never got to finish as he disappeared in a puff of smoke. The original closed his eyes as he relived everything his clone went through for the day.

Upon opening his eyes, a permanent smile seemed sketched on his face. He couldn't believe his luck. 'He was telling the truth after all… I better get there myself and see what they are up to.' He thought before giving some instructions to his clones training a few meters away from him. Then he transformed in his phantom form and flew toward the location of the facility.

The flight there didn't take that much time, especially when he knew quite well where the facility was situated. A short while later he finally stopped above a forested area. The surroundings didn't sound appealing and no one could be expected to find such thing in the area.

"The place seems isolated enough. Neither too far nor too close to the village. No wonder no one found out about it. And that is not even including the fact that everything is underground."

He casually said to himself before activating the Byakugan. His sight switched at once, giving him the rush of excitation he associated with the eye technique. Like a god peering at his subjects, he gazed through the trees and soil until he had a perfect view of the underground buildings.

'No wonder the Hyuga have such a stick up their ass. Gotta admit being able to look through everything is awesome.'

While deep in thought he still went about doing his business. Disregarding whatever entry system existed for the facility, Naruto simply flew through the ground. 'Being intangible sure has its perks' He absentmindedly thought. He quickly reached the first underground floor, which seemed deserted to say the least. But he knew better.

The facility had a total of four floors. Each one seemed specialized on a specific area of expertise. Using his Byakugan, he observed in depth the first floor. Every nook, every corner was analyzed and committed to memory.

'There're only three people on this floor. A little low compared to the other ones!' He thought curiously as he moved into the room the scientists seemed to be working at. Each one wore a white blouse, though he didn't linger on their physical attributes, just enough to identify them should he sees them outside the facility.

He looked intently as they tested a metal in a strange liquid. Upon soaking the metal in the liquid, fumes rose from it, indicating the liquid or the metal itself was very hot. He could see several kind of machineries that he had no idea of their purpose whatsoever. Still he could correctly guess that they were testing the resistance of the metal.

Further analyzing the rooms in the first floor, he saw plethora of weapons, ranging from kunais, shurikens to sword and the like. He even saw a sword that seemed to vibrate at a high frequency.

'This floor must be specialized in weapons development. I'll have to absorb the memory of one of the scientists to better understand what they are working on!' He idly thought as he flew to the second floor. He had seen everything he needed on the first, so he saw no need to linger there.

The first thing he noticed on the second floor was that everything seemed sterilized. There was no speck of dust anywhere on that floor. Knowing that such cleanliness couldn't be normal, he suspected an artificial mean was used to clean the floor. What mean, he had no idea, but he could certainly guess several possibilities.

He counted seven scientists. Each one seemed to work on their own project. Looking around, he saw a room used to store hundred of labeled tube. The few names he recognized indicated they were drugs. Some were used in hospital, while other were common poison.

'A biological engineering facility I see. I shudder to think what discoveries they have kept hidden from the world at large or whatever poison they have designed and used out there, with none the wiser.'

Once again, he didn't linger and went down to the third floor. He immediately noticed the difference as he counted over twenty scientists. This time, they seemed to be working on only one project. The giant room they were all working at was a dead give away. Still what he saw in that room stunned him.

A machine the size of a two storied building was being attended to by those scientists. He could hear people barking orders and instructions but he didn't pay attention to that. What he was focused on was the "heart" of the machine that seemed to house a glass container.

The glass was tainted and didn't allow anyone to see what was inside. But thanks to his Byakugan he saw the interior of the container as clear as day. And what he saw inside was nothing short of freaky. A bubbly red stuff seemed to float aimlessly at the center of the container. He had no idea what the thing was, but it looked a little too much like blood for him to dismiss it.

'Is this the project they are working on using Yakumo's bloodline? Or is it something else?' He wondered as he observed the workers slowly assemble the machine.

He could see that whatever they were building wouldn't be completed for a while now. He didn't know how long it would take and if there was another one like that existing somewhere else. So his first course of action would be to learn everything he could about the thing.

Unfortunately, stealing the memories of one of the scientists wasn't a viable option for now. What with none of them being isolated. He couldn't afford to let his presence here be discovered by Sarutobi. This was obviously one of his trump card, so it was better to keep his knowledge of it a secret for now.

Oh he would destroy the machine before it was completed, that was for sure. But right now he had other matters to attend to, like the large office that served as the fourth and last floor of the facility.

Flying through the ground, he quickly reached the last floor. Unlike the other floors, which housed several rooms, this one only held two. One where he could see a library of a sort and a worktable. And another room with hundreds of seals covering its walls.

Disregarding the second room for now, he went for the library. Not only was he curious about what it may contain, but he wondered to which it belonged. Obviously the one in charge of this facility. He murmured to himself as he passed through the wall and stood in front of the shelves.

Strangely enough, most of the book seemed related to human physiology. There were books on anatomy, bones structure, nervous system and the likes. Skipping through them, he searched for the more esoteric kind of books. After a while he did found something that peeked his interest: Seals Materialization and Rituals.

He had no idea what they were despite his growing knowledge in the art. As far as I can remember, Kakashi know nothing about it. He thought, searching for information about it. Finding none, he decided to copy the book for himself.

This was done by materializing in the real world and using a basic — although difficult to apply — sealing technique to copy the material on a blank scroll. His task done, he searched the room for anything unusual.

When he found nothing else of importance, he decided to move to the next room, which was protected with several complex sealing scripts. He wasn't ashamed to admit that most of them went over his head. Yet he resolved himself to get better at it. He knew better than anyone the possibilities with sealing technique, and preferred not to be at the mercy of one such technique sometimes in the future.

Still, it was in this room that he found it, the objects that would help solve several mysteries: The log of all the experiments undertaken in the facility.

"Without a doubt, the information about Yakumo's experimentation will be stored here. Though I don't think it would be a good idea to materialize in that room until I know what those seals are for."

Although disappointed by his impromptu visit, he still counted that as a success. The prospect of someday gaining access to such information was very appealing.

Several minutes later, he left the facility to go back to his training.

KONOHA — RESIDENTIAL AREA —

Unlike other ninjas village, Konoha didn't separate its ninja population from the civilian's one. Villages like Kumo, which are strongly militarized, prefer having a residential area for their ninjas and another one for the civilians. To them, a civilian cannot be granted access to their soldier dwellings, less they come upon classified information.

However well thought it seemed, Konoha didn't believe in that. They advocated the mixing of both parts in hope of having the two sides come to an understanding.

Going by such philosophy, we could rightfully assume that Naruto's apartment was situated in a residential area for both civilians and ninjas. But that would be wrong.

Naruto's apartment was situated in a rather isolated area. This new apartment was given to him after his old one was torched by an angry mob a few months ago. From a few yards away, the building looked rather plain. No particular decoration to note. The place seemed deserted with the lack of lives in the surrounding area.

That's the first thing Kakashi noticed while walking toward said building.

While walking, he observed the surroundings, trying to find any clues of Naruto's whereabouts. Upon standing in front of the two stories building's entrance, he pushed open the door. Darkness greeted him as he searched for the light switch.

'Found!' He thought before turning on the lights.

A quick sweep of the place was enough before he went upstairs. The way he moved indicated he was familiar with the place. 'This building hasn't been cleaned for a while now. Then again, no one lives here beside Naruto.' He muttered to himself while walking toward Naruto's apartment.

A short-while later and he stood in front of the room's entrance. Knowing Naruto hadn't set foot on the area for a while now, he just opened the door without announcing himself. Once again, he turned on the lights in the room, but wasn't surprised when no light came.

"Of course! The boy never paid for electricity. I'm even surprised the light work in the building. What with no one living here."

Having no other choices, Kakashi opened the stores instead, letting the sun rays brighten the room.

Now that he could perfectly see the place, he noticed with surprise that it was very neat. Everything seemed perfectly ordered and put in position to maximize free space. If it wasn't for the large layers of dust, he would have thought someone lived here.

Still, he wasn't in Naruto's room for this. Ever since he learned that said boy possessed his family's bloodline, he became obsessed. Obsessed with the method Naruto used to activate the bloodline that is. He couldn't care less how Naruto came to possess the bloodline. Neither was he interested in Naruto being a lost member of his clan. Like most in Konoha, he had already made his mind about him and wouldn't change his views anytime soon.

With easy, he summoned four nin dogs and had them snoop through every nook. Their only objective: to find a clue on the boy whereabouts and any scroll that would indicate the method used to activate the white chakra bloodline.

While the dogs searched the place, he contemplated the situation he found himself in. He had inquired about the investigation on Naruto's case, but was always rebuked by the Hokage. After a while, he became fed up with the situation and decided to take the matter in his capable hands.

First he looked through the records, hoping to find something about Naruto's past. No one — to his knowledge — knew whose clan Naruto belonged to or if the boy was from civilian ancestry. Naruto's past had been well kept from the public after all. The fact that the boy had his bloodline was a clue Kakashi used to start his investigation.

He searched through his family's records but came up empty. If there was a connection he didn't see it. That avenue closed, he resorted to looking through Naruto's life records. And once again he found nothing amiss except maybe several indications that should have alerted people in the ninja academy that the boy was more than he appeared to be.

He was interrupted when one of his dog barked with excitation. Quickly, he zipped through the room until he was standing above the dog. Kneeling beside the animal, he touched the flooring and noticed that it sounded hollow. With a smile, he removed the plate. His eyes brightened at the sight of a wooden safe box.

Throwing caution to the wind, he put the box on the sole table of the piece before lifting up the lid. An action he immediately regretted as the only thing he saw inside was a sizzling paper. Widening his eyes, he immediately switched with a chair close to the window before jumping through it.

He fell on the ground and waited for the explosion… and waited… and waited, but nothing happened. Confused, he sent a clone to the room to see what was going on.

A few minutes later, he felt his clone disperse and got its memories. To say he was angry was too weak a word to describe his actual feeling.

"A fucking prank! That boy is so dead when I see him!" He growled lowly while moving away from the building. His clone had looked inside the box only to find it filled with flakes used for parties and a victory flag with the word "sucker" below it.

Seeing this, the clone couldn't help but sweat drop at the choice of prank. Obviously he saw the hidden meaning of the prank: the boy could have killed him if it was a real explosive note.

Naruto's Jinchuuriki status wasn't the only reason ninjas of the village were wary of him. The boy's pranks were another reason for their distrust. Every prank Naruto did was done in such a way that were he to replace the harmless paint by something deadly, the target would have died.

Because of the boy aloof nature, no one knew if it was a warning or just a prank. Still better safe than sorry, so the ninjas chose to tread lightly with him.

After a while of moving on autopilot, Kakashi found himself standing in front of a rather large compound. The huge gate barring entry to everyone, adorned a white wolf on its material. Kakashi looked at the insignia with nostalgia. 'The Hatake symbol…' he thought morosely.

Once upon a time, the clan was widely known and revered. But today it was just a remnant, nothing more. 'The only surviving member is unable to use his own bloodline. What a joke I am.' He thought as he opened the gate using his blood and chakra to grant himself entry.

It had been a while since he set foot on this ground. After his father suicide, he buried himself in his ninja training in order to become greater than anyone else. He had to, if he wanted to restore his family honors — in his eyes at least —.

Moving through handseals, he summoned once more several nin dogs to search the compound. This time though one of the dogs stayed with him.

"Kakashi-san, it has been a while!"

"That it has, Pakkun. That it has." Kakashi replied to the dog. Leaving the other nin dogs to search through the compound, he proceeded to the main house where is father once resided.

"Have something happened?" Pakkun wondered as he took in his surroundings.

"Why do you ask?"

"The fact that you are back inside this compound after so many years is reason enough, don't you think?" The dog said gruffly.

Still, Kakashi remained tight lipped and kept moving toward his late father's house. It took sometimes but before long he was in front of said building. Without preamble he moved inside.

The first thing he noticed was the scent. A scent he remembered very well. A mix of natural flora usually found deep inside the Forest of Death. I never got how he was able to bring that odor inside this room. Kakashi thought tiredly.

Everything here reminded him of the past. A past where he was happy. A past where he had a family. A past where he had a name.

It was also the reason he didn't come by often. He already had his plate full with reminiscing of his genin days. Still, refocusing on the task, he started his search of the dusty room.

"Kakashi….?" Pakkun started softly.

"Ok! Something did happen. Or rather someone!"

"I'm a smart dog but even I need a context to understand, you know!"

Huffing in exasperation, Kakashi continued. "Out there, there is someone able to use the white chakra…"

"That's not possible!" The gruff voice of the dog interrupted with a tone of finality.

"I thought so too, but I saw it with my own eyes. That boy can use our bloodline." His angry voice was enough to muffle the sound of the shuffling furnitures. He was searching high and low for anything that he had missed all those years ago.

"Then how did he activates the bloodline. Only another user can activate the dormant white chakra." Pakkun reasoned out loud, trying to find a reasonable explanation to the situation.

"That's the thing I'm looking for. I am an hundred percent sure that there isn't another holder of the white chakra out there. That leaves only one possibility…" He left the end of his sentence hanging, knowing Pakkun would come to the correct conclusion.

"There is a way!" Pakkun exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes! There is a way to activate the bloodline by myself. I think the answer is somewhere here, hidden." With renewed vigor, he searched the room, going so far as to remove plate from the ground.

"Then why would your clan said otherwise?"

The moment he heard the word clan, Kakashi abruptly stopped. He looked at the wall in the middle of the room, where a rather plain sword laid. As if acting on impulse, he took the blade from his resting place and weighted it. Silence descended upon the piece as he became absorbed in his thoughts.

Thoughts of his father prowesses in war.

Thoughts of one day emulating him.

Thoughts of the day he found his father dead body.

Thoughts of the shame he had to live with afterwards.

"Haaaaaaaa…." Violently, he swung the sword toward the wall. If he was already shaken by the existence of another white chakra user, the result of his actions were even more mind blowing.

Knowing the reputation and capabilities of his father's sword, he expected the wall to be cleanly cut. What he certainly didn't expect, was the sword itself to broke like a frail glass.

"Are you out of your damn mind Kakashi?" Pakkun yelled at his summoner, shocked by his actions.

But it sounded like a drumming beat to Kakashi. The sound of falling metal seemed more important to him at that moment. Because they were like a piece of puzzle to him. A puzzle that seemed unsolvable even when he came close to the truth.

But in the end what really was the truth? What was he really after?

He came here to find answer on his bloodline, but instead he found even more questions.

And if that wasn't enough, the last incident with the sword opened its own can of trouble. The sword shouldn't have been broken like that. That alone meant one thing?

"This is not the real white fang of my father!" He exclaimed almost drunkenly.

His words reverberated through the room, and Pakkun heard them clearly. Understanding the deep shit Kakashi stumbled upon, the dog nin found it wise to let it master absorb the information without disturbance.

He knew all kind of theories one could get to, with everything that happened but he chose not to think about that for now.

SOMEWHERE IN HI NO KUNI —

"Still nothing?"

"Nothing Unkai-sama. We found no trace of the four man squad sent to Konoha."

The Kurama clan leader looked contemplatively at the ninja before him. Things were spiraling down fast for them. This started with the team he sent to retrieve their clan library 3 months ago.

"First Hibiki and Kentaro mysteriously disappear. Then another four ninjas disappear trying to accomplish what should have been a simple mission. Things aren't going into our favor." Unkai thought out loud with his subordinate standing still in front of him. He dared not to make a comment, not that he had any in the first place.

Unkai uncharacteristically looked at his subordinate once more. "There is something wrong going on in Konoha. Does the intelligence department is sure that our whereabouts and goals haven't been compromised?"

"From their last report, nothing indicates that Konoha is aware of our moves. The only element of notice is the presence in Konoha vicinity of the S-Ranked ninja, the ghost."

"That is indeed a terrible news. We still don't know why she is targeting our clan in the first place. Could she have been hired?"

"It is possible. But we have nothing to check that possibility Unkai-sama."

Unkai leaned on his chair, searching a better position for his back. Old age hasn't been kind on him like so many others. He had seen his power declines with time and like every other ninjas out there, he had been unable to do anything about it. Granted his case wasn't as severe as those like Sarutobi because his main skills revolved around Genjutsu, something that didn't require much in term of physical prowess and chakra capacity.

"No matter, we are too close to stop now even though I get a bad feeling about things going on in Konoha. We have to strike decisively when they are unaware of our objectives. If we wait even more, we'll surely run out of time and Konoha will finishes that weapon of theirs."

"I understand Unkai-sama. Should we proceed as it was planned then?" The ninja in front of Unkai replied while bowing low to show his respect.

"Yes, let's deploy the spy group to Konoha first though. We need as much information as we can glean before the main event. Also have Tori starts operation Uprooting."

"At once Unkai-sama."

The Kurama clan leader silently observed his subordinate moving out of his tent to execute his order before going back to his paperwork. He sincerely hoped that things would go smoothly from now on. He wasn't one to believe in nonsense like the greater good, but if there was one thing he couldn't and wouldn't accept, it was Konoha possessing their clan heiress power.

That power was just too much for anyone to handle. 'Brother should have taken my advice and killed that girl when she was born. I knew once I witnessed her power that it would cause great peril to our clan, but as always, he had to be greedy.'

The late Kurama clan leader, Unkai's brother, had been adamant about not only exploiting his daughter unnatural power, but also displaying it to the village in order to increase their fame in the village. Unfortunately he had underestimated the jealousy of their rival clans.

After the emergence of Yakumo's power, and the following revelation about that power being their clan bloodline, their numbers had started to dwindle. Missions gone wrong, accidental deaths, sabotaged materials, these had been some of disasters that seemed to befall their clan members. Obviously they knew it wasn't accidental, unfortunately they couldn't pin it on anyone with lack of proof.

It was also during that time that they finally faced Sarutobi true's visage.

'The man is a ruthless son of a bitch.' Unkai thought as he recalled every time he had faced the man.

Every legal avenue they tried to find the guilty parties of their unfortunate accidents was immediately shutdown by the man. It had been a nightmare to be a Kurama member during those time. They had to look over their shoulder even in the village they were supposed to be relatively safe.

Paranoia settled and then tragedy struck in the form of the Kurama clan leader's death. The chaos that ensued afterward was such that they were forced to flee from Konoha, leaving behind the one thing Konoha had been after all along, Yakumo.

"Now the time has come for us to get our revenge. I swear on my life that Konoha will pay dearly for what they did to our clan brother." The current clan leader swore while looking at a picture of him and his brother smiling at whoever took the picture.

Back in Konoha, Naruto was finally back home. His clones were still training just like he left them, so he didn't bother checking on them. He had full confidence in their professionalism. After all, one of the advantage of the clones was the single track mind they were created with. He didn't need to be behind them all the time to make them work. If he asked them to do something, they will execute themselves without so much as a complaint.

Swiftly moving through the crowd of training clones, he made his way to his house situated at the end of the cave. Opening the welcoming door, he went inside and immediately sat across the table in the kitchen. Retrieving the scroll he had copied from the R&D facility, he laid it on the table before unrolling it.

With particular attention and even some glee, he scrolled down the content of the scroll, committing everything to memory. Sometimes he had to read the information twice as it really was complicated.

The scroll was about sealing materialization and was something developed by the Uzumaki clan apparently. Something he was greatly surprised with. The content of the scroll detailed the process one needed to undergone to be able to materialize a seal they envisioned in their mind, on the palm of their hand. And be able to lay it on any surface.

This technique required not only perfect visualization but also mental prowess to be able to quickly envision a seal with perfect detail on their mind.

"This is really a godsend! Imagine the possibilities with being able to write a seal at will, without having to waste time in using a brush! Not only that, but being able to use it in battle…" Naruto spoke out loud, delighted by having found such technique.

Though he didn't miss the mention that only simple seal or small seal could be materialized in such way, given the need to envision it in one's mind. But even a simple application of the explosive seal with this technique could be very dangerous to anyone he came into contact with.

Without wasting any time, Naruto went back to the training area, specifically where a group of clones working on sealing techniques trained.

"Guys! Stop whatever you are doing for now. I've got something important we need to work on in priority."

"You're serious there? Man don't you see we're killing it here? Go dispel another group of clones" One of the clones complained, quickly followed by others too.

"Yeah? And what new seal did you come up with?" Naruto replied quickly shutting them up.

"Yeah I thought so. We both know that it takes times to come up with a new seal, and what I want you to learn is top priority. So all of you better not complain about it."

He didn't even wait for their reply before he had them dispelled one by one. 'Talk about democratic management' He thought with a smirk.

The clones dispelled and their chakra absorbed, he created the same amount of clones, which was about two hundreds, with the purpose of working on seal materialization.

His task done, he immediately switched to his phantom form with but one thought in mind: absorb a medical ninja in order to gain medical knowledge both for himself and to cure Yakumo.

To be continued...

Preview next chapter:

"I've waited so long for this. Waited to see you squirm like the snake you really are. Any last words from that traitorous mouth of yours?"

"Listen to me Unkai-san, you don't have to do this..." Sarutobi implored the elder man standing beside him whose body was littered with exploding tags.

"The time for talk is over. I may go down today but you WILL be going with me."

Sarutobi only had time to see the tags lit up before his world went white. A resounding boom was the first thing that civilians around the hokage tower heard as the building was reduced to fast moving brick that flew away in the expanding blast direction, unmercifully taking with him lives like a vengeful god would.