Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One Piece. If I did then Sasuke wouldn't have become such a little shit after the Land of Waves Arc.

Ikō: Then again, I wouldn't be dead in canon.

Skillet: You don't even exist in canon!

Ikō: Ah touché...Why are Tamaki and Renge growing mushrooms in the emo corner?

Tamaki: i wish that i'd never been born.

Renge: i wish that i'd never been born.

Haruhi: Well, that's not very surprising for Tamaki-senpai, but it certainly is for Renge. What exactly is going on?

Hikaru: Um...well you see Haruhi...*whispers into Haruhi's ear*

Haruhi:...

*joins them in the emo corner*

Haruhi: i wish that i'd never been born.

Skillet: What is wrong with everyone today?

Cedric: I think it's rather hilarious!

*Twins whisper into their ears*

*Skillet and Cedric go to emo corner*

Cedric: i wish that i'd never been born

Skillet: i wish i could update this chapter already.

Arc 3: Wooden Stone

Chapter 44: Waves of Future Past

"...Oh no..." Naruto looked on in horror as he saw that the Santatsu Foundation had retaken the control over the Land of the Waves it had lost when Gato was killed, their flags now hanging over the buildings of the country. And each time he looked upon the three ringed flags, Naruto felt his vision go a bit redder "No, no, no, no, no..."

"Naruto-sensei?" Mêi asked her teacher in a fearful tone, scared as his killing intent rose with every passing minute.

However, before Naruto inadvertently let youkai run through his system, Hinata grabbed hold of his hand in order calm him down. This grabbed Naruto's attention as he looked his fiancé in the eyes, and began to feel more relaxed "Don't worry Naruto-kun, we'll figure out what's going on here and do something about it."

'So that's his fiancé? I have to admit, she's even prettier than I expected for a guy like him.' Renjā thought to herself with a smirk on her face.

It was then that Shino spoke up, and voiced his opinion on the matter "In any case, it's become clear that the Santatsu Foundation has taken control of the Land of Waves. And considering they bought off a noble the last time they pulled this stunt, we can't be too sure about who they put in charge of this operation."

"It doesn't matter who they put in charge by this point, because even if that person is pathetically weak like Gato was, odds are their putting someone powerful behind them. That way what happened back then won't happen again." Itachi stated in a matter of fact tone, being even angrier than Naruto was by this point.

"Then you know what that means right kids?" Jiraiya said as he cracked his knuckles "You're going to have to go in guns blazing if you want to fix this shit."

"Sounds like a plan pervy sage." Naruto said with an excited smile, before giving Hinata a quick peck on the cheek and unsheathing Kurama and Azuma, sprinting towards the blockaded exit to the bridge that was apparently there to keep the citizens of the Land of Waves from leaving. The blonde swordsman leapt over the blockade of barbed wire and cut through it, surprising and scaring the guards who were at the fence.

"Nigiri"

Naruto turned to face the guards, and recognized them as some of Gato's men from 7 years ago that he brought with him to kill Zabuza. However, they didn't seem to recognize him for some strange reason and merely drew their weapons "Looks like you don't know where you're trespassing wise guy. The new order of the Land of Waves only allows specific people in so why don't we teach you what happens to those who don't respect that order."

"You can try killing me. But there's a certain woman out there who will return the favor on you tenfold if you do." Naruto said with a smirk on his face as he saw Hinata follow behind him and knock out each of the guards in one swift move.

"Eight Trigrams: Sixty Four Palms"

After landing in a crouch on her feet, Hinata admired her handiwork with the guards before she saw the others coming in behind her with her byakugan "There should be more guards in this area. Once they figure out we're here, they'll be on our tail."

"That means we only have two options. Find the main base of the ones responsible for this mess, or see if we can find anyone who can give us a clue as to what's going on." Shizune strategized before turning her attention to Naruto "You're the only of us who's been in this country before Naruto-kun. Do you know anyone who can help us?"

"I may know a few people, but I have a favor to ask you once we find them Shizune." Naruto said with a grin before pointing to his students "I need you and Ero-sennin to take these brats and make sure they don't come anywhere close to the action."

"But Naruto-sensei!" Renjā complained to her teacher, who remained as stubborn as ever.

"Don't give me that bullshit Renjā, the last time you brats stuck your noses into the Santatsu Foundation like this you could have gotten yourselves killed. And that was against a weakling like Kabuto, but we don't know how strong this person is or who they are. You aren't ready for a real fight yet at your level, the only one who's even close is Zhên and he still needs to master his Lightning nature." Naruto told his students, and turned around to see that another group of guards charging their way.

"You know the drill boys, kill the men and take the woman!"

"I'll take care of this lot. Now you get to see the true extent of my abilities." Jiraiya rolled up his sleeves and bit into his thumb hard enough to draw blood, before touching it to the ground and summoning up a toad larger than any of the shinobi there. He then performed a series of hand seals before slamming his palm into the back of the frog.

"Water Release: Water Gun"

The toad then unleashed a wave of water from its mouth that was strengthened by Jiraiya's chakra, sweeping away the guards and cutting into them. With the army before them instantly defeated, Jiraiya smirked and struck a pose "Ha, you fools have no clue who you are facing do you? Yes it is I, the master of espionage and teacher of the Yondaime himself! I am the shinobi who woman want, men want to be, and children look up to! I am the all powerful Jiraiya!"

'Yes, I finally finished it!'

"Stroke your own ego later Jiraiya-sama, we'll be having company again sooner than later." Shizune said as she and the others ran past the beaten guards, and further into the capital city of the Land of Waves.

Meanwhile, the main palace of the city was filled with every luxury imaginable as opposed to the urban and rural areas of the coastline which were back in squalor after mere weeks of falling back under the Santatsu Foundation's rule. This is because the daimyo and the other nobles of the Land of Waves were fearful that they would lose their fortunes upon another takeover of their land, and made a deal with a representative of the organization that they would be financially protected on the condition they surrender without a fight.

"Ah, my beautiful land. My beautiful Land of Waves." The daimyo admired the crashing waves against the shore of his palace, ignoring the suffering of his people "I have full confidence that my decisions, will lead to more beauty in this land. With any luck it will become as beautiful as my palace."

While he was admiring the grandeur of his palace, a page arrived with news for the Wave Daimyo "My lord, Dentist Salon has news for you. He needs you to come down to the dun-" Before the page could finish his sentence, the Wave Daimyo had pulled a cord and opened up a trap door that dropped the page to his untimely demise, with only a side glance and a look of uninterested contempt from the man responsible.

"How many times do I have to remind these fools not to come in announced. I might as well see what that ugly man wants." The Wave Daimyo yawned as he walked out of his throne room down the staircase leading to his dungeon. Inside the dim and gray dungeon which stood out in sharp contrast to the rest of the estate, a man with tan skin and blue hair styled into an odd pompadour and braid combination. He also wore a high collared version of the blue and white uniforms Santatsu usually where, along with a surgical mask over his mouth and a slightly tinted monocle over his right eye.

This man was the tenth seat of the Eleven Titans, Haru Tanaka also known as Dentist Salon. In front of him was the broken and beaten Tazuna, who had been arrested for his role in building the Great Naruto Bridge, and endured torture after torture until the day of his public execution was scheduled. And to add salt to the wound, his arms had been smashed and cut off by the Shotatsu much like his son-in-law had suffered, so he could never build a bridge again.

To make matters worse, the duo that had been responsible for executing Kaiza on Gato's orders were still enlisted by as Shotatsu after their humiliating defeat by a young Naruto seven years prior, and had taken a shine to kicking and beating him while he was tied to his post. Zorī and Waraji were currently in the middle of one of these torture sessions, beating him with the hilts of their katana. Deciding to be a bit more sadistic, Zorī said to the old man with a sneer on his face "So old man, ready for your big day? I can't wait to see your grandson sob his eyes out like when we killed his dad."

"Waah, waah, please don't kill my grandad!" Waraji joined his partner in his mocking, before bellowing out a sickening laughter. In response to this, Tazuna defiantly spit out a bloody tooth into Waraji's face, resulting in the hulking man giving him an angry kick to the side.

"Ugh, what ugly trash! We're getting rid of it and the ugly bridge it made today aren't we?" The Wave Daimyo made a disgusted look at the blood that Tazuna's torture had left behind over the past few weeks.

"Of course my lord, and once the Great Naruto Bridge is destroyed you and your people will receive all you need only from the Santatsu Foundation." Dentist Salon responded to the corrupt daimyo with a bow, before informing him of the news he'd called him down for "Speaking of which, its namesake has arrived in the Land of Waves, along with my former classmate Itachi Uchiha. I have no doubt in my mind they'll try to interfere with today's proceedings if they are allowed to live."

"Well, then take care of them. That brat may have saved us from Gato, but that's no reason to have any gratitude is it? Besides, killing ugly things I why I have you people." The Wave Daimyo brushed off the news before facing them again "Also, while you're out, there's a lovely woman named Tsunami I've had my eye on. Bring her to me so I may make her my wife, and feel free to throw her son off a cliff or something. I have no need for such ugly things as children in my palace."

"Your wish is our command my lord, as long as you return the favor later. Zorī, Waraji, find the bridge builder's daughter and bring her here. Do whatever you want to the brat." Dentist Salon ordered his men, who grinned like mad men and clutched their katanas as they prepared to head out into the snowy streets of the city before them.

"Early Sacrifice"

Itachi dispatched another enemy as he and his allies edged into the more populated areas of the city-state, gaining them the attention of crowds. While many of the impoverished and weak civilians were overjoyed to see that aid had finally arrived, this also drew more ire from Shotatsu who continued their assault everywhere they went. However, many of them proved to be hopelessly outmatched by the Konoha shinobi, who handled them rather easily.

The only real problem for them was a large obese Shotatsu, who arrived as his comrades were getting pummeled by the enemy "I've imagined meeting the hero of this nation, but I never imagined I'd see him face to face. Now I get to break him like a twig in front of everyone."

"I highly doubt you'll be able to do anything to me buddy, but you're welcome to try. I'll enjoy cutting you up." Naruto said with an excited smile, which his new opponent returned as he focused Busoshoku Haki into his fists and began trying to pound the blonde swordsman into the ground. While Naruto had more trouble keeping up with only two swords, he still managed to coat his swords with Haki as well and defend against the man.

Then, out of nowhere Naruto was given the opening he needed to end things quickly when an arrow suddenly shot out and stuck itself into the man's butt cheek, causing him to cry out in pain "AAARGH! WHY YOU BASTARDS!"

"Taka Nami"

Naruto sent a slash flying through the air and cut the large man down in one fell swoop, before giving a grin to the source of the arrow "You know Inari, I figured I'd see you today, but I didn't think it would be in this situation. You're totally invited to my wedding by the way!"

"Well, it's like you said to me back then, heroes usually show up at the last second." Inari walked out of the alley way, brandishing a crossbow and wearing a large smile on his face.

"Why you little brat! How dare you interfere with us!" A random shotatsu pointed his rifle at Inari with intent to silence the now teenage Inari, only for Shizune to suddenly kick the firearm out of his hands, before catching it and breaking it over her knee.

It was then that Naruto noticed something in the town square that sickened him to the very core of his being. A golden statue of Gato that had been covered with beautiful flowers, as if a memorial for the tyrant who brought the Land of Waves to near ruin with his rule "What the hell is this?"

With an evil smirk on his rat-like face, the Shotatsu spoke to Naruto "This is the memorial statue of the Shogun of the Sea, Gato. After we took back this land, the Wave Daimyo was kind enough to offer repentance for his betrayal of Gato's conditions by fulfilling these three favors for us: The Great Naruto Bridge be destroyed, the man who built it be executed, and the citizens of the Wave must beg Gato for forgiveness everyday at this-" Before the man could finish, Naruto had already removed the statue of its head like had been done to its namesake.

"Whoops." Naruto said flatly as he resheathed Kurama.

"You bastard! You'll pay for-"

Naruto then proceeded to cut the man down with Azuma, before sheathing the sword and turning his attention back to Inari, who had a large grin on his face "Great to have you back Naruto. We've been waiting for a good opportunity to fight back."

"Forgive me for asking, but who is we?" Shino asked, not being familiar with the Land of Waves.

"That would be us." A female voice said, belonging to Tsunami who had an entire army of the Waves' citizens behind her "It's a good thing you shinobi arrived when you did; otherwise we wouldn't have beaten that Nitatsu. And as for you Inari, I thought I told you to stay in bed while we saw if the rumors were true! You can afford that injury getting infected!"

"I can't just sit back and do nothing like I did back then Kaachan! Not when they're gonna kill Jiisan today!" Inari argued, shocking Naruto who only just noticed the bandages covering the boy after what appeared to be a painful defeat "When they killed Otousan, I couldn't do anything but cry, but now I have an opportunity to fight back and I'm going to take it."

Before Inari could argue anymore, Shizune went for his bandages and lifted them up to reveal a nasty looking drill shaped wound that no normal human could have easily left behind. Naruto felt sick to his stomach looking at the wound, but forced himself to keep watching as the medic win made her diagnosis "Someone with strong powers did this to him, and it hasn't been treated properly. What happened to this boy?"

"When they came for my father, we all tried our hardest to fight back, but there was a woman and a man with Logia Devil Fruit powers. No one in this land uses Haki, so we couldn't land one hit on them, and the man hurt Inari with one of his attacks. We haven't been able to receive proper medical help for him because the Santatsu Foundation has restricted the capability and supplies of our doctors." Tsunami explained the situation to Shizune, who seemed horrified.

"Those bastards are the only reason we haven't been able to truly fight back yet, so we've had to wait and listen for the right time to strike. And it's come in our darkest hour, on the day Tazuna has been scheduled to be executed." Giichi said in a voice filled with regret at being able to do so little for his friend, before facing the citizens and loudly proclaiming "People of the Wave, we now have a fighting chance to save ourselves and the man responsible for freeing us the ocean's influence! And at the end of this day, Tazuna will still be alive, the Great Naruto Bridge will still be standing, and we'll be free of the Santatsu Foundation once again!"

"Great Naruto Bridge?" Naruto asked, this being the first time he'd heard the bridge's full name. It was then that he noticed that the crowds around them had only grown larger, while he and Shino were now surrounded by lovestruck girls, much to their's and Hinata's irritation.

"This is what Naruto looks like in person?"

"He's even more handsome than I ever imagined!"

"Look at those muscles!"

"His friend is good looking too!"

"I wanna see him without his coat!"

While her fiancé and teammate were buried in the fangirls, Hinata felt herself seethe with an uncharacteristic rage "I thought I'd be getting a vacation from this here. These fangirls are seriously irking me!"

"You're telling me! How come I never get any attention?" Itachi pouted about none of the fangirls going for him, before he noticed three children approach him.

"Hello there unclean one! I can see every bit of your impurity!"

"What?!" Itachi growled in irritation.

"Is something bothering you unclean one? Are you not feeling well?" One of the children asked, only to receive a smack upside the head from an incensed Itachi.

"You brats! What right do you have be calling me unclean?!"

"An unclean one touched me!"

"We need to go and be cleansed!"

As Itachi angrily chased around the children in response to the slight, Naruto began introducing the members of his team to Inari and Tsunami "The pervert with the long dark hair and tear troughs is Erosenpai, the woman with the purple hair and lip piercing is Konan Hirato, the guy in the coat is Shino Aburame, the woman checking out Inari's wounds is Shizune Katō, the girl with the long blonde hair is Ino Yamanaka, and the brats are named Fancy Boy, Squealer, and Rainbow Dash."

"Those aren't our names you Naruto-sensei!" Mêi objected to Naruto's usage of nicknames to introduce them.

"The other old pervert is named Jiraiya Arashi, he's in charge of the mission. The woman with the long blue hair and the lavender eyes is my fiancé, Hinata Hyuuga." Naruto introduced Hinata to Tsunami, who's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"You two are getting married!"

"Yes, we'll be exchanging vows at my family's temple later this month." Hinata said with a smile on her face as she gripped Naruto's hands, both excited for the wedding and eager to get Naruto cured in time to live for it.

"Congratulations!"

"I have to say Naruto, I never thought that you'd end up with someone so pretty. She seems way out of your league to me." Inari said with a mischievous smirk on his face "Also, what's with the pink hoodie anyway?"

It was at this point Tsunami smacked her son upside the head for being rude "Don't start Inari! So what brings you all here to the Land of Waves? All of our Den Den Mushi have been cut so there's no way you could have gotten a distress call."

"The Sandaime Hokage died in battle not long ago, so we came to meet up with a Marine escort at your ports. I have to say, it's a good things we arrived when we did." Shino tried explaining, in spite of the numerous fangirls hanging off of him "On another note, you really named that bridge after Naruto? How did you not know about this?"

"Yeah, I mean we had a statue of you put in front of the bridge and everything." Inari pointed this out to the blonde swordsman, who seemed confused by this statement.

"Eh? Sorry, but we don't really know anything about a statue of me. We did see something that looked like it would have a statue on it on our way here, but it was smashed to hell so we couldn't tell what it was supposed to be." Naruto told them, making the members of the resistance even more angry than they already were.

"Damnit, those bastards are undoing everything we've worked to accomplish over the past seven years." Tsunami growled and clenched her fist, before taking in a deep breath and calming herself down "I know what has to be done. Giichi, go retrieve Masamune from my house!"

"Who's Masamune?" Mêi asked, curious along with most of the other shinobi there who this mysterious stranger they were introducing Naruto to.

However, Renjā and Jiraiya seemed to have a better idea as to who, or rather what they were retrieving "Don't you get it Mêi? They aren't showing Naruto-sensei some dude named Masamune. Masamune is a sword!"

Just as the apprentice swordswoman had predicted, Giichi ran out with what appeared to be the outline of a katana wrapped in a cloth, and handed it over to Tsunami. Tsunami then proceeded to unwrap the cloth to reveal a katana that was sheathed in a cerulean scabbard with a white wave pattern drawn into it. The handle was green and had seemed to have a simple square shaped tsuba, while the blade itself was a very pale gray with a lavender hamon.

"This sword is named Masamune, and it belonged to Kaiza before he was killed." Tsunami said as she handed over the Meito grade sword to Naruto "Please use it to defeat those who are hurting our Land, and become our hero once again."

"I'll gladly cut up every one of these Santatsu fucks and I'll use that sword to do it. But I don't like the idea of being called a hero: those guys are the kind to share ramen with everyone, but I just want as much ramen as I can eat." Naruto got himself a few weird looks with that statement, but he still picked up his new sword and admired its high quality. However, he didn't have long as his Kenbunshoku Haki had warned him of an incoming threat.

And it seemed Itachi, Jiraiya, Hinata, Shizune, Konan, and Shino had sensed the exact same thing with their Haki; it seemed that the Santatsu held ownership of Gato's army more that originally thought, as almost the entire army of thugs he'd used to kill Zabuza seven years ago were glaring the shinobi of Konoha and brandishing their weapons. Leading them were Zorī and Waraji, who seemed to be looking at Naruto specifically.

"NO WAY! THERE'S GOTTA BE A HUNDRED OF THOSE GUYS!" Mêi panicked at the large amount of their enemies as they approached.

"There's quite a few of you fools here. I hope that doesn't mean you're planning a rebellion against us again." Waraji said with a mocking grin on his boar like face.

"Why don't all you poor innocent civilians go back to your homes, while we take care of these invaders?" Zorī condescendingly ordered the people of the Wave, reveling in the anger and hatred they were sending their way. It was then he pointed to Tsunami and Inari "Tsunami, you've been ordered to come to the palace of the Wave Daimyo to be wed to him immediately. Of course, he doesn't have much use for your son, so we'll be putting him out of his misery."

Once they made this threat, Hinata unconsciously turned her byakugan on and glowered at the men "And what makes you think we'll allow you to do that?"

"What makes you think you can stop us princess?" Waraji stuck his tongue out as Hinata, and threateningly flashed his sword at her.

Before he could pick a fight with the Hyuuga, Zorī blocked his partner and reminded him "Don't waste your energy on small fries Waraji. The reason we came here is to take revenge on that brat who got us demoted seven years ago."

"Yeah...I've been waiting to cut up that little shit!" Waraji chuckled a bit as he glared at Naruto with the rest of the army.

"That's the brat who cost us our meal ticket!"

"Because of him, we couldn't loot the Wave!"

"Well, now he'll get his!"

"...He looks kind of familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it."

Naruto noticed their glares, but he didn't seem to be especially intimidated and instead let a shit eating grin spread across his face "Now what are you bastards looking at me like that for? Do I have a bit of rice stuck in my teeth or something? Or is it crab?" Zorī and Waraji didn't respond to Naruto's taunts and instead unsheathed their katana, before charging the swordsman with large sadistic looks on their face.

"We've been waiting for this for a long time brat!"

"Now you're gonna take your medicine!"

While Naruto drew out his three swords in preparation for the attack, one of the Shotatsu had a look of panic flash across his face "Wait! I remember him now!"

"Tatsu Maki"

Before the thugs could even get close to attacking Naruto, the swordsman had already drawn his own blades and knocked Zorī and Waraji away in one fluid spinning motion. Within seconds, the thugs were lying bleeding and defeated on the ground, much to the shock of the army. It was then the one who recognized Naruto for something else spoke up "No way...that brat from seven years ago...he grew up to be the Cinderface!"

"Is that a problem?" Naruto said with an evil smile on his face as he pointed Masamune in their direction, emitting what felt to them like several metric tons of killing intent in their direction.

"...RUN LIKE BABIES!"

Once they realized Naruto for his exploits after the Wave mission, the army of thugs turned tail and sprinted away from the swordsman, not wanting to risk their lives engaging with him. However, they didn't get very far as Itachi and Hinata had appeared before them in a flash of leaves, both emitting killing intent of their own. With a nasty glare in her byakugan eyes, Hinata focused chakra into her hands and spoke in a soft tone.

"Why are you running? Here I thought you wanted to fight us?" Hinata proceeded to unleash a painful series of strikes onto a part of the army.

"Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms"

"And yet you seem to be trying to back out! That's incredibly rude you know." Itachi growled with his sharingan flaring up, before performing the hand seals necessary for one of his clan's most infamous jutsu. Before the thugs could react, Itachi blew a torrent of fire out of his mouth and lit the men ablaze.

"Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu"

"Swarm: Tarantula Hawk Wasps"

While he released the swarm of the large stinging insects from the sleeves of his overcoat, Shino glared at the men through his sunglasses "Don't forget, you're the ones who challenged us first. You can't run from this."

"Alright, they're keeping the old man in the palace of the Wave Daimyo right?" Naruto asked Inari, with the rebellion against the Santatsu now occurring in full force "Here's the plan: We're gonna go in there, free the old man, and cut up every single one of the Santatsu bastards."

"Interesting idea Naruto, but I think that we'll need a little bit more detail in the plan if we want it to work. And I have a plan that just might work!" Shino gathered his comrades together and explained his plan, making sure not to accidentally reveal any details to the enemy nearby.

Meanwhile back in Konoha, Maito Gai sat in the waiting room of the hospital room with a determined look on his face. Sitting nearby were his Captain Shikamaru Nara and former student Neji Hyuuga, all three of the men arriving shortly after the news that Aoba Yamashiro had recently awakened from his week spanning coma and was ready to be interrogated on what he had seen before the attack. Currently Gai was looking out into the village streets, watching Lee as he trained his team of genin.

"Come on Tamaki! Pick up your feet and let the power of youth be your guide!" Lee tried to encourage his physically weakest student in his own way.

However, Tamaki seemed more confused than anything by this "I don't even know what that means Lee-sensei!"

"Lee, you've grown up into quite the fine man; you even have your own eternal rival now. Keep it up, and the girls won't be able to keep their hands off of you." Gai said to his student through the window, giving a nice guy pose for good measure. However, this only got him weird looks from the other men in the room.

"Who are you talking to Gai-san?" Shikamaru asked, not as used to his eccentricities as Neji was.

"Are you surprised, he's clearly insane." Neji said with a blank look on his face, before releasing an exhausted sigh from his lungs "This mission is hard enough knowing that a teammate is involved, but the pain this could cause Lee if this is correct..."

"Unfortunately, there's not much we can do if that's the case. We have to be completely objective in our investigation, especially if it's a matter of village security like this one." Shikamaru said in a matter of fact tone, before a nurse came in to greet the group of shinobi.

"Hyuuga-san, Maito-san, Nara-sama; Yamashiro-san is ready to see you all now."

The three shinobi followed the nurse into the hospital room, and found Aoba still looking rather pale and hooked up to an IV, but in a much better state than he had been a few days ago. Seeing them come in with the nurse, Aoba spoke up "Thank you for your help Suki-san. What are you three doing here?"

"You and your squad were attacked a few weeks ago by what we believe to be the Santatsu Foundation, and Hayate Gekko was found murdered last Monday by one of the Nitatsu. It's troublesome to ask, but Division 6 will need your testimony concerning a certain individual to gain an arrest warrant." Shikamaru explained to the man, who seemed shocked at the revelations.

However, he gathered his composure quickly and calmly nodded "I understand, what do you need to know?"

In response to this question, Shikamaru pulled a picture of Katsu out of the pocket of his flak jacket, and showed it to Aoba "This man is Elemental Katsu Lee, you may recognize him as former captain of Division 2 who mastered each of the five chakra types. He claims to be the chairman of the Terran Group, but he's also suspected of being a spy for the Santatsu Foundation. We only need one more piece of decisive evidence to bring him to trial, and you may provide us with that decisive evidence."

"Terran Group..." Aoba paused for a moment as if deep in thought, before remembering several important details about the attack "I remember now! Before we were attacked, we were approached by a caravan with a man inside claiming to be the chairman of the Terran Group! Then when we tried to investigate, another man with a Logia Devil Fruit power!"

"We see...thank you for your time Aoba-senpai." Neji bowed his head in gratitude, in spite of the heavy feeling his stomach which he shared with Gai, both knowing what this damning evidence would entail for Lee. With their task done, the men walked out of the room and down the hallway in complete silence. It was only when they made it to the hallway nearest to the hospital lobby that one of them managed to find the words to speak.

"It's a total drag, but there's no denying it now: Katsu Lee is involved with the Santatsu Foundation in one way or another, and we can't afford to let him roam around the island freely any longer." Shikamaru groaned in annoyance, before walking further down to the lobby and out of the hospital "I guess I'd better report this to Hokage-sama. How troublesome."

Unlike Shikamaru, who seemed to have fully expected this outcome, Neji and Gai seemed to be even more furious than ever before. This was especially accurate for Gai, who didn't even bother hiding the rage that contorted his face into a nasty grimace "Damn that unyouthful man, coming back and toying with the emotions of my son! I'll bury him alive for this!"

"I'd like to do that too Gai-sensei, but first we need to do something more important." Neji said with a somber look in his eyes, as he pointed out the window to Lee, who was now practicing jutsu outside with his students. Gai immediately understood what Neji meant by this, and prepared to head out and break the news to Lee concerning his father.

However, before he could do so, Katsu came by with a fatherly smile on his face and tray of ice cream in his hand "I thought I might find you out here son! I see you have quite the team of strapping young genin to train!"

"Why, thank you for noticing! Indeed Team 3 is the very essence of Konohagakure's inner and outer beauty. I feel so guilty blinding you with my radiance good sir!" Tamaki went on another one of his spiels, while Hani noticed the ice cream that Katsu had in his hands.

"Ice cream! Thanks a bunch mister!" Hani said with a happy smile on his childlike face, before beginning to take in large bites of the ice cream.

"Don't forget to brush your teeth afterward Mitsukuni."

"You have quite the interesting bunch of kids Lee-kun. I hope that one day each of these young men will become as splendid shinobi as you." Katsu told his son as he handed him the ice cream.

"You..you really think I'm a splendid shinobi?" Lee said, with a large grin spreading across his face at finally gaining his father's approval.

"Of course I do, you are my son after all!"

Upon watching the scene spread out before him outside and seeing Lee's smile, Gai slowly lost his nerve and felt his feet plant firmly into the ground. Neji noticed this and decided to remind Gai of what they had set out to do and why "What are you waiting for Gai-sensei? We can't let that bastard keep lying to Lee like that."

"Well...I mean he's going to find out soon even if we don't tell him. Captain Shikamaru is going to report the evidence to Tsunade-sama anyway, so maybe we should just let Lee spend his last bit of youthful bonding with his father." Gai reluctantly said with a false smile on his face.

Once Neji got over his shock at this statement, he smacked Gai upside the head and got up into his face "You fool! I thought you considered Lee your son, and not his! Why would you let him keep lying to him instead of doing what's right! Who knows what will happen if we wait too long!"

"But..."

"Fine Gai, if you're too much of a coward to tell Lee then I'll do it myself!" Neji angrily growled in the face of his former teacher, before storming out of the hospital and leaving Gai alone to wonder what he should do next.

"What do I do...what do I do father?"

The members of the Santatsu Foundation had now long since received the notification from other posts that there were several dangerous intruders attempting to take back the Land of Waves, one of whom was the infamous Cinderface, Roronoa Naruto. In response to this news, there were now over a hundred Shotatsu guarding the area around the Wave Daimyo's Palace, knowing that would be the place they would strike if they wanted to end things.

Inside the palace were another hundred men, along with the Wave Daimyo and the two Nitatsu he'd been having act as his enforcers during the recent Santatsu occupation. Each of these men were armed with a variety of weapons from firearms to swords to flails. However, the quickly felt themselves get weak in the knees when they saw six figures come over the horizon walking side by side with each other with looks of thunder on their face.

These shinobi were Itachi Uchiha, Konan Hirato, Roronoa Naruto, Hinata Hyuuga, Ino Yamanaka, and Shino Aburame; each having a look of determination on their face which managed to scare the crap out of each of the Shotatsu there. Only one man actually mustered up the nerve to actually try fighting them off, firing a cannon with hopes that it would blow them all away. However, this didn't do anything as Naruto simply drew Kurama out and sliced the cannonball in half without so much as a sideways glance.

Since they'd gotten the responses they'd wanted, Naruto pointed towards the ground and said in a nasty growl laced with killing intent "Drop 'em" After a few seconds of hesitation, the enemy soldiers set their weapons on the ground and raised their hands in the air for good measure, before backing away and clearing the shinobi a path right to the front door of the palace. It was then that Ino faced her comrades and asked.

"So this is where we start the next part of the plan right?"

"That's correct Ino-san, and I'm afraid that means we have to break off from each other for the time being." Shino said before giving Naruto, Konan, and Itachi a friendly pat on the shoulders "You'll need to have found Tazuna and captured the Nitatsu within one hour if we want this plan to work. They'll be executing him at around 3 PM."

"Then it's a good thing we're here. You'll know when we've got everything settled when we're seeing the all these Santatsu shits behind a pair of bars." Naruto told his friends and his fiancé, the latter of whom he gave a quick kiss on the cheek before they vanished in a flash of leaves.

He and the remainder of the group then walked up to the front door of the palace, which seemed to be very large and fancy, before preparing to break it down. However, before they could do so Konan noticed Itachi seemed to have a very forlorn attitude "Itachi, is something the matter? Normally you're the most gung-ho person I know when it comes to fighting the Santatsu Foundation. Is this about Haru Tanaka?"

Itachi visibly tensed up at this question, which Naruto noticed "Yeah, you acted like you knew the bastard before we left? What's up with you and that guy?"

"If we're correct, then Haru Tanaka is a former classmate of Itachi's and the only one strong enough to even come close to scraping his spot at the top of their class." Konan explained to Naruto, who seemed surprised by this news.

"I admit we had our disagreements and fights, but I always admired Haru for his determination and it pushed me to better so as not to lose the top spot in our class and left my family down. That's why it's so hard for me to even comprehend that someone like him could be a Nitatsu!" Itachi elaborated on his emotion, while Konan placed a reassuring hand on his soldier.

"Don't worry Itachi, whatever happens you can count on me and Roronoa to fight alongside you when the time comes to confront the Nitatsu."

"Hey, don't forget I'm gonna be the one to chop this bastard up!"

Itachi gave his former superior a warm smile in response to her words, before focusing his attention back on the large door in front of them. After channeling Busoshoku Haki through his arm and turning it a shade of black, Itachi slammed his fist into the door and knocked it down in a single punch "PIZZA DELIVERY BITCHES!"

The men on the other side of the door hardly had a second to move out of the way before Itachi broke it to splinters with a single punch, causing a majority of them to go flying back into the walls of the palace and make the foyer resemble a war zone. Only a few of the men and women were still conscious enough to see three figures standing in the doorway, before walking in with looks of war etched into their faces.

"Shit, they're here already!"

"Let's make this quick shall we? Tell us where you bastards are keeping the old man, and where the hell your bosses are. Then we might be kind enough to send you to Hell right away and leave it up to the Marines." Naruto said with Kurama clenched in his teeth, as he and the others walked into the palace ready for battle.

"Boul de Fromage"

Suddenly, a tiny bullet of what appeared to be Busoshoku Haki shot out in a way that seemed faster than Naruto's own Haki could detect and shot him in side, causing a small wound to leak white blood. And to make things even stranger was when Naruto looked back to see where the bullet would have landed, to find a large splatter of cheese on the wall behind him "What the fu-" While the swordsman had let his guard down, a shot of Busoshoku Haki covered cheese shot out and slammed Naruto in the face and into the wall, knocking him out.

"Tomme de Savoie"

"It is pronounced forage you stupid animal." A woman with long wavy blonde hair and green eyes in a chef's outfit insulted the defeated swordsman in a heavy french accent, while retracting the large stretch of cheese coated in Busoshoku Haki back into her arm. The woman then proceeded to pull back the sleeve of her jacket to flex her muscles and reveal a tattoo of a spider on her arm, which had the number 9 imprinted into it "Did you really think that you could defeat me, the Ninth Nitatsu Zoe McKinney!"

"I didn't think they'd show themselves so soon. I have to say though, for a Nitatsu she is a rather pretty." Itachi said with a typical lecherous smile on his face, causing Konan to lightly smack him upside the head.

"Think with the right head Itachi, we've got a mission to complete. Naruto's already down for the count, so we need both of us to stick to the plan if we want to make it to Haru." Konan reminded her former subordinate of the reason they were there.

Itachi nodded at this before drawing his blade and focusing Haki into it, turning the sword a deep black color "I understand from the people of the Wave that you've eaten a Logia Devil Fruit madame. Would it be the Cheese-Cheese Fruit?"

"Heh, I don't have to talk to a filthy beast like you. But yes, I have eaten the Cheese-Cheese Fruit. What are you going to do about it?" Zoe said as she pulled several kitchen knives out of her sleeve, and threw them at Itachi with blinding speed.

Using his incredible agility, Itachi was easily able to avoid the knives and made his way towards Zoe with his own blade drawn. However, once he made it close enough to attack the woman, he suddenly stopped with his sword inches away from her face "No, damnit! Forget your chivalry for five seconds and fight!"

"I see. You're one of those types of animals aren't you?" Zoe's fear turned into a smug smile when she realized Itachi wasn't going to fight back, before she turned her left arm back into cheese and hit Itachi in the stomach. The Uchiha had a hard landing into the palace wall, where coughed up a pint of blood as a result of the blow.

"Tomme de Savoie"

After coughing up a bit more blood, Itachi looked up to Zoe arrogantly glaring at him from the top of the stairs "You animals are all the same, you do anything for a pretty face and can't fight if one is involved. No wonder you and your stupid swords animal friend are so weak when you can't accomplish anything in a fight. You even fell for such a simple trap by a mere Shotatsu!"

"Shotatsu? What are you talking about?" Itachi asked only to realize another woman with red hair and glasses to emerge from underneath the staircase. He recognized this woman as his clingy girlfriend back in Konoha, who was now wearing the white and blue robes of a Santatsu agent "Karin? You're a Shotatsu?"

"Yep! Sorry I couldn't tell you before Itachi-kun, but that doesn't mean we can't still go out!" Karin embraced her now ex-boyfriend in a hug, only to freeze him with her Devil Fruit power.

"Lovely Freeze"

"Paper Chakram"

In response to this sudden betrayal, Konan used her own powers to create a ring of paper above her and throw it onto Karin, sending her flying back and unconscious. This managed get the attention of Zoe, who made string cheese coated with Haki emerge from her back like a spider's legs "I see you're much stronger than those foolish animals from before. You should provide me with a good fight mademoiselle!"

"I wish I could say the same for you. You aren't nearly as strong as you think you are McKinney!" Konan said with a smirk as she slowly turned herself into paper, before noticing that the defeated Naruto and Itachi were being lifted up by Shotatsu and taken deeper into the palace 'Excellent, this is all going according to plan!'

"I wouldn't say that! After all I have defeated your animal friends and now they're going to die alongside the old man responsible for us losing control of this country last time. However you have the honor of dying in combat with me!"

When Naruto and Itachi awoke after being thrashed by Zoe, the two men found themselves in a metal cage with little to no light in the room they were trapped in. Naruto tried standing up from the uncomfortable crouching position, only to find he'd been chained to the floor with a pair of kairoseki handcuffs "Looks like they caught us Ero-senpai. Which means, we're probably gonna be meeting the other Nitatsu soon."

"Let's hope they show up soon so we can move on with the plan. This is starting to get uncomfortable." Itachi tried changing positions, which proved to be very hard due to being pinned to the floor. It was then he realized something that made their situation much more uncomfortable "Um, where are our shirts?"

Naruto looked down and found that the Shotatsu that captured them had taken their clothes, leaving them both shirtless in a cage with each other. Enraged and embarrassed by this scenario, Naruto grabbed hold of the bars of the cage and violently shook them with his teeth "Let me out of this damn cage! I'm not gonna be half naked in a cage with this damn pervert!"

"..Hey brat..." The swordsman stopped his effort to get the enemy's attention when he saw a familiar face tied to a nearby post. This was a battered and armless Tazuna, who seemed to be covered in old bandages and dried blood "Bout time you showed up. Didn't think you and Sasuke would get your asses kicked so badly though."

"...I'm not Sasuke. Who is this old man?"

"That would be Tazuna, the old fart we came to rescue." Naruto explained to Itachi, who was still somewhat in the dark about Team 7's exploits in Wave.

"Well, you're doing a hell of a job gaki. You'd better think of something fast, otherwise that pansy ass feudal lord will kill all three of us." Tazuna groaned through his pain, only for the dungeons to light up as Dentist Salon and the Wave Daimyo waltzed in with another group of Shotatsu "Speak of the devil."

"I have to say I am honored to meet you in person, Roronoa Naruto. Though I have to say, I didn't think the person who helped save my beautiful country would be so ugly." The Wave Daimyo approached the cage and sneered in Naruto's face, successfully pissing off the swordsman "I do have to say though, you aren't nearly as beneficial to our country as the Santatsu turned out to be."

"You mean beneficial to you? Because believe me, I've seen what these assholes have done and they're hardly beneficial to anyone who doesn't stuff their pockets full of beris." Naruto refuted the Daimyo's delusions, who merely laughed it off.

"No matter, I wouldn't expect an ugly thing such as you to understand."

"Oh, I understand you pussy. And because I understand I'm gonna skin you alive when I get out of here!" Naruto threatened him with an evil smile while releasing more killing intent, which made almost everyone in the room lose their lunch. Only Dentist Salon and Itachi seemed unaffected, the latter being to fixated on the former at the moment to notice.

"Ignore him Daimyo-sama; we'll be dealing with the Cinderface and the Bridge Builder soon enough. However, there's someone I wish to take care of beforehand." Salon focused his attentions on Itachi, who seemed to be on the verge of tears "Oh my, so you do remember me?"

"no...I didn't want to believe it...WHY TANAKA! I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS! WHY WOULD YOU JOIN THE SANTATSU FOUNDATION AND KILL MY FAMILY!" Itachi cried, remembering his former classmate's heartless murder of his great aunt and uncle all those years ago.

In response to Itachi's heartfelt plea, Salon sneered at the Uchiha through his surgical mask before reaching through cage and punching him square in the mouth "You and me friends? Give me a break Itachi, anyone would half a brain would know that I always hated you back then. Everyday I tried my hardest to stay at the top of the class, but you had an easy ride to the top because of your family name. All you ever did was flirt with the girls and goof off during lunch, yet somehow you stayed one step ahead of me. Whenever I even got close to being the best, you always had to swoop around me and upstage me!"

"I never wanted to upstage you Tanaka, I just wanted the both of us to reach our highest potential as shinobi. But why, why have you squandered that potential working for someone like the Santatsu Foundation?" Itachi asked, causing Salon to burst out into laughter.

"SAKUSAKUSAKUSAKUSAKU!" Salon laughed maniacally before stopping to give Itachi another evil grin that was visible through his mask, before showing off the spider tattoo on his back, which had been marked with 10 "Don't you get it Uchiha, ever since I devoted my life to the Santatsu Foundation I've unlocked potential that I never could on my own! Now I've perfected my style of fighting to a point where no ordinary shinobi or even a member of a noble clan bloodline can defeat me! Indeed, I and the other 9 Nitatsu before me have risen to a level beyond shinobi! But it's not like you'd ever understand that!"

Dentist Salon punched the chained up Itachi through the bars of the cage once again "I'm proud to have played a part in your clan's cleaning Itachi, because it was weak! And foolish!" Salon mocked his former class while repeatedly slamming his face into the metal bars "And one more thing: I've long since surrendered that foolish Konoha name of Haru Tanaka! I've chosen a new name, one that truly represents the terror the Santatsu Foundation inflicts on it's enemies! I am Dentist Salon!"

In response to the Nitatsu's proud declaration, his men cheered and applauded him like one would do at a rally or a concert. However once the cheers had stopped, Dentist Salon heard a roaring laughter coming from the cage. He turned with a furious glare to see that Naruto had been laughing hard enough to cry "I-I'm sorry...Your name is...is Dentist Salon?!"

"Yeah, so what?" Salon growled, not liking the swordsman's response.

"Are you a dentist or something?"

"...It's metaphorical!" Dentist Salon had to think for a few moments before declaring himself again, along with another cheer from the Shotatsu in the room.

This wasn't a good answer for Naruto though "For what?"

"...It's a name..that strikes fear into the hearts of men, women, and children all over the South Blue!" Salon declared, only to get a few shrugs from his men this time. Amused by this, Naruto responded with a mocking smirk.

"Whatever you say teme."

"Shut your trap Cinderface, you're next after we kill the old man." Salon threatened him with a shard of glass he'd pulled out of his sleeve, before turning his attention back to Itachi and placing the glass shard up against the Uchiha's neck "Now Uchiha, you have no idea how long I've been-"

Dentist Salon's monologue to Itachi was once again interrupted by thinly veiled laughter from Naruto, who seemed to be struggling to hold it in "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry! I just picture you waking up in the morning, looking yourself in the mirror, and all seriously saying to yourself, 'you know what would be a really kickass name?' DENTIST SALON!" Naruto continued mocking him, with many of the Shotatsu now struggling to hold in their laughter "That's how I hear it in my head! What was your second choice, Dildo Taser?!"

After that last crack, the entire room burst into laughter including all of the Shotatsu and Tazuna. The only exceptions to this were Itachi, the Wave Daimyo, and Dentist Salon himself, who pulled Naruto's neck through the cage and placed the sharp piece of glass up against his neck "New plan! We're killing you first!"

"Well, at least death is better than having to live as a moronic fuckstick who thinks Dentist Salon is a cool name." Naruto said in a low growl, not intimidated at all by the Nitatsu's threats.

However, before the confrontation between the men could escalate any further, the Wave Daimyo pulled Dentist Salon off to the side and reminded "I believe you're forgetting I've already decided how we kill that brat. If we want to get the people of the Wave to submit to us, we need to stamp out any embers of hope they might have. And what better way to do that then kill the Bridge Builder right alongside the Bridge's namesake."

"...That is correct Daimyo-sama, the Cinderface will fall to me in due time. But first we have bigger fish to fry." Salon made a drill of what seemed to be glass emerge from his arm, before turning his attention back to Itachi "There are several shinobi here you know Daimyo-sama, each plotting to overthrow you. What should we do with them?"

"Simple, kill the men and make the women my concubines. Any beautiful women should make excellent additions to my collection with Tsunami. And if there are any children, feel free to throw the disgusting creatures off a cliff." The Wave Daimyo nonchalantly ordered Dentist Salon, who seemed more focused on Itachi at the moment.

While Naruto seemed livid at this declaration at first, a smug smile quickly spread across his face when he realized his wrists now felt significantly looser than before "That's an idea that really pisses me off. It makes me so mad, that I might just break these handcuffs!" Naruto yelled before the kairoseiki handcuffs holding him and Itachi suddenly undid themselves, allowing Naruto to stand back up. It was then Itachi cut off the arm Dentist Salon was using to hold his glass drill, only for the arm to reform due to him being a Logia type.

"What the-" Salon tried to figure out Naruto and Itachi's sudden escape only to hear a large boom as the entire ceiling was blasted to pieces. He looked in the direction of the sound to see that a random Shotatsu had fired his rocket launcher into the ceiling, and now had a large grin on his face. In response to this, Salon immediately killed the man by throwing a shard of glass into his throat, but not before he threw his weapon into the air where it was caught by a kunoichi with her hair tied back into a ponytail.

Then, to make matters even worse for the Santatsu, Hinata came down out of the hole and dispatched each of the Shotatsu in under 30 seconds with her Gentle Fist attacks. Seeing the smirks on each of their faces, Dentist Salon came to a realization "We've been tricked! This was their plan all along!"

"Took you long enough Taserface." Naruto taunted him as he popped his back and knuckles, in order to release the tension that he'd been holding up from being stuck in that position "You didn't think me and Erosenpai were really that weak did you? We turned off our Kenbunshoku Haki on purpose back there so we'd be easier to capture. And if there's one thing we know about you Santatsu douchebags is that you can't resist a gloating session! So we had Shino plant his beetles on us so once you brought us right to you, they would pick the locks on our handcuffs!"

While he was visibly frightened for a moment, the Wave Daimyo quickly regained his composure and mocked them both "It still doesn't matter either way Cinderface! Even if you manage to break free of these handcuffs, there's no way you'll be able to make it out of that cage! We've already welded it shut!" The feudal laughed at them for their inescapable situation, only for Naruto to start eating a hole through the cage. In response, the Wave Daimyo screamed like a six year old.

"You put him in a metal cage! The Kyuubi Jinchuriki can eat metal you dumbass!" Dentist Salon screamed in frustration, before ordering the remainder of his men "Gather the citizens of the Wave to the execution yard! We're killing the old man immediately!"

Before any of the Shotatsu could carry out the order, another shinobi fell from the hole where the ceiling used to be and landed right behind Salon "I'm afraid that won't be happening."

"Swarm: Yellow Jacket"

Dentist Salon screamed in shock and rage as Shino suddenly sent a swarm of yellow jackets into his face, before sending another set of insects in order to pull Tazuna out of the dungeons and to capture the Wave Daimyo. While Shino was courteous enough to have a squadron of butterflies carry Tazuna to safety, the Wave Daimyo found himself covered in horseflies who restricted his every movement as they flew out of the pit.

"Operation: Rescue Tazuna completed!" Hinata proudly declared before noticing Itachi and her fiancé crawling out of the large hole the latter had eaten out of the bars "Where's Konan-san?"

"She stayed behind to fight the other Nitatsu they stuck over here. Some crazy bitch with a Cheese-Cheese Fruit or whatever." Naruto said before using his bond with the Kyuubi to pull Kurama back to him. To make things even easier, the Shotatsu had decided to tie his swords together which gave him all three of his swords back in one fell swoop. After placing Kurama in his mouth, he turned his attention back to Dentist Salon "Also, whenever you try to kidnap me, don't tie my swords together. I will break out and kick your ass."

"Tsk, I have no interest in a mutt like you. My power can only be truly appreciated by someone of noble blood, and there's only one person here I'm even remotely interested in fighting." Dentist Salon glared at Itachi, before once again growing a large glass drill on the side of his arm "Now Itachi, I will show you how weak and pathetic you are compared to me."

Itachi felt himself flare with anger for the briefest moment, before smirking and gesturing to Naruto "I'm afraid I can't do that Tanaka, as #9 has already challenged you. And I'm not so dishonorable as to interfere with another man's challenge. Besides, I believe you'll find this man is more than adequate enough to deal with you. He's just as strong as me, if not stronger."

"Thanks for the compliment Itachi." Naruto said as he walked towards Dentist Salon, who glared daggers at him.

"I think we should all go now until you've gotten things taken care of. I love you Naruto-kun." Hinata gave her fiancé a quick kiss on the cheek before she, Shino, and Itachi leapt from the dungeons and left Naruto and Dentist Salon to fight, along with the few Shotatsu that hadn't been knocked out yet.

Once they were on the surface, they each examined Tazuna who seemed to be very worse for wear "Holy shit, what did they do to this guy?" Ino felt herself get a little sick at the extent of Tazuna's wounds "I think it's a miracle this guy's even still alive!"

"Watch it young lady. I've still got another twenty years in these old bones!" Tazuna said weakly, before Hinata picked him up.

"We need to get him to Shizune-senpai stat! As long as none of his vital organs have been damaged, that's his best chance of surviving." Hinata said before sprinting off in the direction they originally came from "Don't worry Tazuna-san, we won't let them destroy all of your hard work! After today, the Santatsu Foundation will never step foot on this island again!"

"Vieux Lille"

Zoe took her game up a notch through the usage of stronger types of cheese, still laced with the Busoshoku Haki she'd been using throughout the entire fight. While she was fast enough to land a good right cross on Konan that sent her flying, that didn't stop the Konoha kunoichi from growing another two sets of paper wings which she laced with her own Haki before firing them at Zoe from the air. However, Zoe created more appendages of string cheese on her back that she used to deflect each of the cards.

"Paper Drizzle"

"Fromage à Effilocher"

Once she had deflected the paper that Konan had fired on her, Zoe used the Haki coated cheese on her back to reach for her airborne opponent, only for Konan to disperse into several different sheets of paper before the attack could land. Konan then reintegrated her body right in front of Zoe and attempted to axe kick her, only for the Nitatsu to block the attack and send her flying back. Then to make matters even stranger, one of the Shotatsu off to side threw Zoe a package of crackers at the snap of her finger. Which she then proceeded to eat, wrapper and all.

"What the hell? Are you not taking this fight seriously?" Konan growled, flabbergasted that her opponent was stopping for a snack break.

In response to this, Zoe grinned at the paper woman before snapping her fingers once again and having her subordinates throw her a BLT sandwich, which she shoveled down as greedily as before. Once she was finished, Zoe licked the crumbs off her fingers before answering "Tell me Konan Hirato, you seem much stronger than any of these other mutts that you've tagged along with; the same goes for the other maidens you've brought. Why do you lower yourself working such animals when you could become so much more powerful?"

"If by power you mean the Santatsu Foundation, then you should know full well why. If becoming more powerful means lowering myself to work with you savage, then I'd rather be a weakling!" Konan declared as she prepared to take things up a notch.

"I see you aren't going to change your mind then." Zoe leered at her opponent, while a nearby Shotatsu gave her a pork cutlet bowl to eat. While she devoured the pork bowl, the woman coat her entire body in Busoshoku Haki and began to release a foul smell that made Konan a bit sick to her stomach. The smell appeared to be coming from a blueish mold that was forming a thin film around the surface of the Haki.

"Gorgonzola Ubermensch"

"I'll just have to eliminate you here then!"

"Have fun trying then Cheese Woman, because I'm not one to be easily beaten." Konan said with determination in her voice before suddenly turning the floor they'd been standing onto disintegrate into several thousand sheets of paper.

"Paper Person of God"

"You can't be serious Itachi!" Dentist Salon yelled in disbelief to his old rival, who was currently standing above them in anticipation for the fight that was about to happen "I've waited for over a decade to defeat you, and you expect me to fight this loser instead?!"

"Hey, you have no right to call me a loser with a name like Dentist Salon or a hairstyle like that." Naruto said as he took a quick swig of his sake bottle and drew his swords "You've got a Logia fruit like that other psycho right? What is it?"

"I'll humor you for now before I move onto Itachi, but if you must know I ate the Glass-Glass Fruit." Dentist Salon demonstrated by turning his right hand see through as if it were nothing "But that's hardly the extent of my true power. And with that power I will destroy you!"

Naruto merely rolled his eyes at this statement and infused Busoshoku Haki into his swords "Just keep telling yourself that bakame." The swordsman then charged at his new opponent with blinding speed, though Salon hardly seemed very intimidated by this and merely stood still as the attack came closer.

"Tora Gari"

"Vitra Borilo"

However despite Naruto's usage of Haki, the attack somehow passed right through Dentist Salon without harm, as he simply turned into melted glass and came back to form once he had avoided being cut by the swords. Then once Naruto's back was turned, Dentist Salon turned his right arm into a long glass drill and made the move to pierce Naruto through his heart, only being deflected at the last possible second. Now on the defensive, Naruto began a quick blocking and dodging fight using all three of his swords against the large drill Salon had made.

'How the hell did this bastard avoid getting cut by me? I know I had my Haki turned on!' Naruto tried coming up with any reason his attack might have missed 'Maybe he's sharp tuned his Kenbunshoku Haki enough to predict the future? No, that can't be it, then he would have known our plan right before we set it into action. It's gotta be something else...Wait a minute!'

Once he'd realized how Salon had managed to avoid his previous attack, Naruto jumped a few feet back and moved into a strong defensive stance "I think I've got you figured out teme; I don't know how you're strong enough, but you used Haoshoku Haki to shut off my Haki didn't you?"

"Hn, I didn't expect you to figure it out so quickly, especially considering your poor record as a shinobi. I've trained my Haoshoku Haki to a level that it will knock the wind out of any opponent no matter their strength. This coupled with my Devil Fruit power makes me unbeatable to normal foes, which means that you die here along with any hope you might have had of stealing this country from us." Dentist Salon explained as he formed a portion of his Haoshoku Haki in the palm of his hand, before throwing it at Naruto.

While the swordsman was visibly affected by power of his opponent's Haki, he clenched his moth into a smile "I've got news for you then, you glorified light stand...I'm nowhere near a normal enemy!" It was then Naruto focused youkai across his body, causing his hair to turn white and a skin tight layer of red steel to spread across his skin "I'm gonna have to take things up a notch!"

"Iron Kitsune Armor"

After slipping into his more powerful armored mode, Naruto put the Busoshoku Haki back onto his swords and prepared to attack Dentist Salon, who didn't seem very intimidated "I already told you that's not going to work. I'm just going to force your Haki off again." Dentist Salon prepared to release another wave of Haoshoku Haki, only to feel a deep and sickening feeling make his skin crawl as Naruto came closer. For some reason, this prevented Dentist Salon from activating his Haki in time and he had to improvise.

"Rengoku Oni Giri"

"Vitra Borilo"

Creating another drill from his arm, Dentist Salon blocked Naruto's swords at the last second as the two men sped past each other. However, they almost immediately turned to face each other once again and continue their fight, as Salon created numerous glass shuriken from his wrists and sent them flying at the swordsman. Naruto deflected most all of them at a speed faster than most watching the fight could see, and the ones that managed to hit their mark weren't able to do anything but harmlessly bounce off the armor. Once he had finished with that, Naruto swung all three of his Haki laced swords into Salon's direction and sent an airborne attack his way.

"Hyakuhachi Pound Ho"

For some reason, Dentist Salon once again found himself incapable of using his Haoshoku Haki again and received a large cut at his side from the attack. While their superior gripped the wound in pain, a few Shotatsu that had been pretending to be unconscious reacted in shock "No way! He actually hurt Dentist Salon-sama?"

"Unbelievable! What do we do?...Go back to being out of it?"

"Good idea."

While Salon had a look of fury so potent that scowl could be seen through the mask covering his mouth, he quickly regained his confidence "I see what you're doing here you little shit! You think you can beat me with a cheap trick like that! Well, I'm strong enough to where my Haki can trump even that!"

"Hey, I'm not the Lieutenant of Division 3 for nothing dumbass. And people who underestimate me usually end up dead." Naruto said with a grin as he increased the potency of his killing intent, before charging at Dentist Salon again. Now making a drill for each arm, Dentist Salon increased his emission of Haoshoku Haki before engaging Naruto once again, both their swords and drills colliding at the same time as they attempted to gain an opening to attack.

"Tsukumogami no Ronin"

"Duobla Vitra Trilo"

"Man, they're really going at it down there!" Ino said with a grimace as she felt the killing intent that was being emitted from the dungeons, while several of the weaker willed Shotatsu that had been watching the fight passed out from the magnitude of the atmosphere "It's crazy just how strong Naruto has gotten!"

"This is the power of Gotei 13 Lieutenant, especially an assassin from Division 3. No matter how this fight ends, it's going to be interesting." Itachi watched the clash between the two men below them with intrigue, all while the captive Wave Daimyo nearby thrashed and whined in the ropes he'd been bound in.

"Let me go you pirate savages! I am the ruler of this beautiful nation, and I demand your res-"

After only a few seconds of the traitorous man's griping, Shino got sick of it and proceeded to shove a sock into his mouth "Quiet you foppish plebe, and let the noose tighten around your neck!"

Shortly afterward, Dentist Salon found himself tiring of the cat and mouse game that he had been playing with swordsman, and released a stronger wave of Haoshoku Haki that managed to temporarily wind Naruto. Dentist Salon used this opportunity to get closer to Naruto before releasing a dozen long glass spikes from his body which struck the swordsman in several places around his body. However, thanks to armor cushioning the blows, Naruto only felt a slight tingle.

"My turn." The blonde swordsman growled with an evil grin, before vanishing from sight and leaving Tanaka seemingly alone on the battlefield. However, upon some looking and usage of his Haki he found that Naruto was speeding around the room and gaining momentum, using a very similar technique to the one he used against Gaara in the past.

Seeing this, Dentist Salon grinned under his surgical mask before focusing Busoshoku Haki throughout his entire body "You really think I'd be dumb enough to fall for something like that? I've done my homework on you Cinderface, seen all your old fights, and read through your Academy records. I know what a loser you really are Uzumaki! No, you aren't worthy of having such a noble clan title as the Uzumaki! I'll call you trash instead!"

"Nijutoryu: Twenty Courts of Hell"

A Kage Bushin of Naruto in his armored form emerged from the ground and began clawing at Dentist Salon with speed that would be impossible for any normal human to see, actually managing to pierce through his opponents Haki and cut him. This was made even worse for Dentist Salon when the original Naruto charged into him after having gained enough momentum, breaking through his hardened body and piercing the Nitatsu with his swords.

"Ushi Bari"

"You've overspecialized your Haki dumbass. Spent so much time honing your Haoshoku Haki it's made your other types of Haki that much weaker!" Naruto said as he held Dentist Salon in place, planning to bisect the Nitatsu while he was trapped. However, Dentist Salon had other plans and removed his surgical mask to reveal a large mouth full of teeth that had been turned into large glass shards. With his opponent held in place, the Nitatsu bit into Naruto's neck.

"Makzelo de Barracuda"

"Fuck!" Naruto growled in pain as the glass teeth of Dentist Salon somehow bit through his armor, only to get the wind knocked out of him as he was by Haoshoku Haki at point blank range. Making matters even worse was that the red layer of metal that had been coating his body was now blown off by the Haki, leaving his latter half exposed to more damage. Dentist Salon took advantage of this and formed two more glass drills along his arms.

"I told you trash, your killing intent is no match for the honed perfection that is my Haoshoku Haki! A dobe like you never stood a chance against someone like me." Dentist Salon cried as he proceeded to slash and pierce at Naruto's exposed skin with his drills, which had been reinforced with his Haki.

"Duobla Vitra Trilo"

"Duobla Vitra Trilo"

"Duobla Vitra Trilo"

"Duobla Vitra Trilo"

"Duobla Vitra Trilo"

"Now to finish you off weakling!" The Nitatsu roared as he focused his Haoshoku Haki in to a glass orb that was about the size of a normal human head, before throwing it straight at Naruto. The orb released a massive explosion of Haoshoku Haki on impact, weakening the already winded Naruto further, though his opponent wasn't nearly done with this assault yet. Dentist Salon focused all the power of his Devil Fruit into the drill on his right arm, making it that much bigger and more dangerous, before slamming it right into Naruto.

"Šarbombado"

"Giganta Vitra Borilo"

Naruto was hit head on by the large glass drill and bled from both the wounds across his body and coughed up a pint of blood from his mouth. However, in spite of this brutal attack the swordsman continued to stand. Seeing that his warden had taken a beating from that last attack, Kurama felt the need to speak up "What the hell are you doing out there moron? You can't just let this jackass wallop on you like that!"

"Yeah I know, but for an idiot who names himself like a crackhead he's surprisingly tough!" Naruto internally growled to his tenant as he began to take more of the Kyuubi's youkai "I'm gonna have to emit even more killing intent and take my armor up a notch if I wanna end things quick!"

"You're still standing Trash? No matter, it won't stay that way for much longer!"

Dentist Salon declared as he gathered another glowing white ball of glass into the palm of his left hand, before levitating it upward and flicking it right at the swordsman. But before the attack could even get close to Naruto, something caused it to lose it's heavenly glow and its momentum, and it dropped pathetically to ground. While Dentist Salon was infuriated by this, this fury quickly turned to fear upon being hit with a massive wave of killing intent that spread across the entire battlefield which caused his heart to drop into his stomach. Along with this release of killing intent he'd been releasing, Naruto was repairing the damage done onto his armor by Dentist Salon, but also focusing Busoshoku Haki into the metal turning it from red to gray. This transformation also caused his hair to spike up and turn red, his eyes to turn purple, and his height and muscle mass to increase.

"Iron Kyojin Armor"

"What the f-"

"Hyakuhachi Pound Ho"

Before Dentist Salon even had time to comprehend what was going on, Naruto had already released a slash attack from all three of his swords that caused several bloody scratches to burst on his body 'How is his killing intent this powerful? Even at 50% of my release no ordinary shinobi should be able to negate my Haoshoku Haki like that!' The magnitude of Naruto's killing intent also seemed to effect the spectators of this fight as well, if the reactions of his team members were any indication.

"Holy shit it feels scary down there! Just looking at is making me sick!" Ino said anxiously as she clutched her stomach.

"Division 3 members do specialize in killing intent in their line of work, and Naruto is their lieutenant, so we really shouldn't be surprised. But still, to think that this ability has advanced so much in such little time since the Chunin Exams. It certainly is rather intimidating." Shino said, before sticking more pocky into his mouth.

"He's strong, strong enough to defeat Pein-sama. That's why I'm confident he'll be able to the defeat the Nitatsu here and now; the only stronger shinobi here would be Angel-sama. But still after how handily he dealt with Kabuto, I expected #9-san to be well and done with Haru by now. Between this and Zoe woman, there might be bigger power gaps amongst the Nitatsu than I originally thought." Itachi thought to himself as he watched the increasingly heated fight.

Once he'd managed to repress his fear, Dentist Salon gave his opponent an evil, glass-toothed grin as he took off his monocle and angrily crushed it in his hands "Heh, I admit you've got more tricks up your sleeve than I originally thought of you, but Trash is still Trash. That's something that you can't change, no matter how hard you train. As for me, I am the epitome of a shinobi and always have been. If it weren't for the ride to the top that Itachi's surname gave him, I would be the top of our class. But with the help of the San-"

"SHUT IT! You can do a cold read of your erotic dream journal about Erosenpai later, after I've finished kicking your ass!" Naruto interrupted as he ran towards Dentist Salon with all three swords armed and coated in Busoshoku Haki. In response to this, Dentist Salon turned both his hands into blown glass and prepared a defensive attack.

"Murda Purgatorio"

With the swipe of his hands, Dentist Salon sent hundreds of small but sharp shards of glass that were glowing white with Haoshoku Haki towards his opponent, intending to peel his armor his armor off in pieces. However, Naruto released an even stronger wave of killing intent that disabled a majority of the shards, causing them to harmlessly bounce off him; making matters worse for the Nitatsu was the fact that Naruto was easily able to deflect those shards that he hadn't disabled. By the time the swordsman had escaped the attack, he had only been two or three small scratches and was now right in front of his opponent.

"Santoryu Ogi: Rokudo no Tsuji"

Once Dentist Salon was close enough, Naruto cut into the man with a vertical spin at speeds so fast that only other ninja could see it with the naked eye. Now Dentist Salon's braid had been undone, leaving him with a pompadour mullet, his organization's robe had been ripped to shreds, and he had multiple bloody cuts spanning the length of his body. He glared at the redheaded swordsman responsible, who merely glared back and said in a mocking tone "Is that the best you got Taserface?"

"I will break you!" Dentist Salon said as he did something that surprised Naruto as his long blue hair began to move like the tentacles of an octopus, before transforming it into several glass drills which then shot straight at his opponent.

"Kolero de Kraken"

Naruto could tell these drills also had Tanaka's Haoshoku Haki focused into them by their white glow, and emitted another blast of killing intent which caused Dentist Salon to falter, giving the redheaded swordsman an opening to strike. Using his own Haki to weave around the dozens of drills and his swords to deflect them as they came too close, Naruto used Kurama to cut into Dentist Salon before repeating the process with Azuma and Masamune.

"Toro Nagashi"

After being cut and humiliated by Naruto for the umpteenth time in their fight, Dentist Salon growled before screaming in rage and turning both his arms into large glass drills before laying into Naruto in a desperate attempt to pierce through his armor. While he was able to make a few small dents and scratches using his Haki, Naruto persevered and deflected the attacks while also slicing at his opponent any time he got an opening.

"Why you bastard! How dare you humiliate me like this! You're just a tool, both for this disgraced version of Konoha and the World Government! You're no different from that dullard Zabuza!" Dentist Salon screamed in rage as he and Naruto continued their clash.

"Damn straight ugly, that's the idea! He and Tazuna and Kaiza are the real heroes of this place, I could barely do a thing back then without Kurama's help! That's why I trained my ass of to get strong enough to cut up bastards like you!" Naruto said before bringing his swords together and forcing him and his opponent apart.

"Gazami Dori"

There was a brief pause after Naruto and Dentist Salon were knocked back, both men glaring each other down and panting heavily from the severe exhaustion they were both experiencing. However their attention was brought elsewhere when a familiar voice yelled down to them "Kick his no good, Santatsu ass Naruto-sensei!" Renjā said to her teacher from the cliff she was standing, only to find some of Naruto's killing intent leaking towards her and the rest of her team.

"What do I have to do to get you brats to listen to me?! Maybe I should have nailed you to the floor of Tsunami's house!"

"We can explain this time Naruto-sensei! Shizune-sensei and Jiraiya-sama were having us stay put, but these buff guys with Santatsu robes and rifles started rounding everyone up!" Mêi gestured to the embarrassed looking Shotatsu that had taken them there.

"WHAT?! WHY WOULD YOU BRING THE CITIZENS OF THE WAVE HERE, YOU IDIOTS!" Dentist Salon gnashed his long sharp teeth in rage.

"Ummmm, you ordered us to? To watch the execution of the old bridge builder. Where is he anyway?"

The Wave Daimyo spat out the sock Shino shoved into his mouth and yelled at the men for their incompetence "You idiots! Tazuna was stolen from us by these ugly pirate criminals! Bring him back here and kill him already!" The captured nobleman ordered his mercenaries, who cowered a bit before turning around to go back into the city and find where they'd been healing Tazuna. However, the quickly found themselves blocked by an army of very pissed off Wave citizens led by Tsunami and Inari.

"If you dickheads want to kill my grandpa, you'll have to get through all of us to do it!" Inari said while brandishing a crossbow.

"Not so tough without your Logia users to back you up, are you boys?" Hinata taunted them as she came out of the crowd, before joining her fellow shinobi who were currently flanking the Santatsu on their backside. Currently only Shizune was not there, as she was back in the village healing Tazuna.

Seeing that Dentist Salon was absolutely livid at this turn of events, Naruto felt the need to rub some salt in the wound "Isn't this the greatest Haru Tanaka? Now all of the Land of Waves can stand here and watch as the Santatsu crumbles before them, just as it did 7 years ago. Kinda poetic really, I'm putting a stop to your putrid ass in the same execution yard you had Kaiza killed."

"Why...you...stupid..demon...TRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!" Dentist Salon let out an animalistic roar as he released a wave of Haoshoku Haki that was potent enough to knock nearly everyone there onto their feet. It even managed to completely shatter the armor on Naruto's right arm and leave it completely exposed. The Nitatsu didn't seem to notice this though, as he was now focusing on growing six insect like legs of sharp glass out of his back, while also regrowing the drills on his arms and hair, and making the shards that made up his teeth even larger and sharper "I DON'T EVEN GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THE LAND OF WAVES, OR THE OLD MAN, OR THE SANTATSU FOUNDATION ANYMORE! THE ONLY THING I CARE ABOUT IS MAKING SURE YOU AND ITACHI ARE DEAD AT MY FEET! I'LL WIPE OUT BOTH THE UCHIHA AND UZUMAKI LINES RIGHT HERE AND NOW!"

"...You've got some serious issues man. I know that's an understatement by this point, just throwing that out there." Naruto with a blank face before Dentist Salon began swiping at him with his large glass insect legs and the drills that currently formed his hair.

"Kolero de Kraken"

"Goliath Bird Eater"

To Naruto's shock and horror, Dentist Salon's Haoshoku Haki had made his armor that much easier to tear through and his movements that much slower, leaving him a much easier target for the rampaging Nitatsu. Tanaka realized this and grinned before biting down onto Naruto's face with his jaws, intending on lobotomizing the swordsman right there. However, he only managed to bite out a chunk of his armor, which turned Naruto's hair back to normal in that area. Naruto then retaliated by swinging Masamune at Dentist Salon's neck.

"Sanjuroku Pound Ho"

While Dentist Salon's Devil Fruit easily allowed him to regenerate from this decapitation, he was clearly not happy about this and proceeded to focus all of his energy into making a glass orb that fit across the entire execution yard they had fought their way into "Bigger! Bigger! BIGGER! Perfect." With that, Dentist Salon dropped the orb right onto Naruto, creating a massive explosion which turned the surrounding area to rubble.

"Giganto Šarbombado"

"Giganto Murda Purgatorio"

Naruto was launched into the air by the explosion, leaving him open for Dentist Salon to flick another field of tiny glass shards at him with no way of defense "All of my power, every last inch of my Haoshoku Haki! See the power that exterminated so many of the Uchiha clan, you damn trash! And kneel before Dentist Salon!" Tanaka cried as he made an even larger glass drill than before that took up his entire right arm, before slamming it into Naruto. The swordsman coughed up and spilled even more white blood at this point, and was launched into the remains of the Wave Daimyo's palace, now completely totaling the building.

"My palace! My beautiful palace! Tanaka you moron!" The Wave Daimyo wept as he saw the Nitatsu destroy his palace, only for Dentist Salon to madly start laughing as he looked at the audience of the fight.

"YOU FOOLS! THAT PIECE OF TRASH WAS THE MAN YOU CALLED YOU HERO! THIS IS WHY YOU CANNOT ALLOW THE MIDDLE OR LOWER CLASSES TO THINK, THEY GET FOOLISH IDEAS LIKE THAT! GATO HAD THE RIGHT IDEA RULING OVER YOU LIKE THE CATTLE YOU ARE! DON'T WORRY THOUGH, YOU'LL SEE YOUR HERO AGAIN!...AS A CORPSE HANGING NEXT TO TAZUNA AT THE REMAINS OF THE GREAT NARUTO BRIDGE! NOW THEN, FIND THE OLD MAN AND SET UP THE DETONATION OF THAT DAMN EYESORE BOYS!"

While most people would seem horrified at this situation, many of those watching the fight seemed overjoyed as they stared not at Dentist Salon, but right behind him. Hinata then proceeded to point to what they were looking at with a smug smile "You might want to look behind you, Tanaka-san."

"What?" Dentist Salon growled and turned around to see a figure still standing in the wreckage of the palace. While he would ordinarily be enraged at this turn of events, the Nitatsu felt nothing but fear at this time as Naruto released an even greater amount of killing intent than before, so much so that it was actually causing stone to break down and any nearby wood to peel off. Since he'd gotten the reaction he'd wanted out of his opponent, Naruto grinned evilly before speeding at Dentist Salon at speeds almost undetectable to the naked human eye.

Now quite literally staring death in the face, Dentist Salon's mind became a hive of panicked thoughts as Naruto came closer and closer 'Why? Why?! I've trained every day of my life to be able to surpass the Uchiha clan! To surpass Itachi! Then why! Why is my body telling me to run?! Why is every cell in my body telling me I can't win?! Why do I feel like...I'm staring a demon in the face!' With his opponent mere feet away from him, the only thing Haru Tanaka could do was let out an ear piercing scream of primal terror.

"Rengoku Oni Giri"

Naruto stopped right before cutting into Dentist Salon, his swords inches away from his flesh; as it turns out, Haru Tanaka had already passed out from pure fear before Naruto had the chance to cut him down. With a disappointed sigh, Naruto sheathed his swords and turned away from his fallen opponent "There's no point in cutting something that doesn't have the stomach for it. Man, I could really use some ramen right now."

"Hn, you really are quite the interesting man #9-san." Itachi said with a relaxed smile as the citizens of the Wave began to cheer.

"NARUTO!"

"NARUTO!"

"NARUTO!"

Konan and Zoe glared at each other from opposite sides of the battlefield, exhausted from the toll that the battle had taken them. Zoe in particular seemed worse for wear after fighting the stronger kunoichi for this long, in spite of her experience with her Devil Fruit 'Damnit, how have I been so easily forced to use this much have I power. We both used the full extent of our power, but she still looks like she can fight!'

"McKinney-sama!" A random Shotatsu called down to his superior from the now broken second floor.

"What is it, you stupid animal?" Zoe growled, frustrated at her losing fight with the stronger kunoichi.

"Salon-sama has been defeated by the Cinderface! And Marines led by Vice Admiral Smoker and Captain Coby have broken through our blockade and are headed this way!"

"What?!"

"Yeah, the fight out there was pretty intense, I mean I heard it from in here. I honestly don't understand how you didn't notice it until just now." Konan pointed out the window with a blank expression on her face, the carnage caused by the fight outside plainly visible.

While Zoe was noticeably livid at this turn of events, she quickly calmed down and pulled a mirror shard out of her pocket, which then caused an orange light to envelop her and pull her into the sky "Konan Hirato, I admit that you've defeated me this time around. But unlike that foolish animal in the tenth seat, I'll live to fight another day and I will get my revenge on you for this humiliating defeat! Mark my words!"

As she watched her opponent ascend into the skies above, abandoning the rest of her troops there, Konan let out a resigned sigh "I wish I could consider this a victory, but it was more like a draw by this point. Still though, I think we have a better idea of what these Eleven Titans are capable of now."

"And the winner is Naruto-sensei! Two down, nine to go!" Renjā cheered as she danced happily at the sight of the beaten Dentist Salon, who was currently being tied up while foaming at the mouth in his unconscious state "Where's the 9th seat! All we have to do is kick their ass and keep pushing upward!"

"I think I'm at my limit for today brat, ugly over here was surprising tough. Haven't had a fight like him since Yahiko." Naruto said as he shed his armor and went back to his usual appearance, before coughing up another ounce of white blood 'Damnit, we're still running out of time. I feel even weaker now then I did before!'

Naruto tried to walk out of the crater he'd dug himself into, only for his knees to suddenly give out from exhaustion. Then, Kurama came out of his sword form and into his human form to help his warden walk out "Come on gaki, let's get you to a doctor. I'm not carrying you all the way to Wooden Stone."

"I'll do it!" Ino said, now eyeing Naruto's muscles like a plate of food.

"Aw, no fair I called dibs Yamanaka!" Itachi whined, only for Hinata to playfully smack them upside the head.

"Back of the line you two; my fiancé, my carrying rights." Hinata joked as Kurama handed Naruto over to her "How are you feeling Naruto-kun?"

"Like I was run over by a colony of laphans wearing training weights. So about how I felt after Enies Lobby." Naruto said with a smile, only for it to turn into an annoyed scowl once the defeated Wave Daimyo began to throw a tantrum at the shinobi.

"How dare you ugly savages do this to me! I am the ruler of this beautiful nation and I demand-"

"SHUT UP!" Sentomaru roared in annoyance as he appeared out of nowhere and knocked the arrogant man out by smacking him with the flat of his axe. Behind him were his fellow Marine officers, Captains Tashigi and Coby, Lieutenant Commander Helmeppo, and Vice Admiral Smoker "It's just as was predicted, the Santatsu Foundation has attempted to retake sovereignty of this island. I bet you're happy me and Captain Coby were ordered to sail alongside you know, right Vice Admiral?"

"Play this game of I told you so some other time Sentomaru, take care of what you came here for and clean up this mess." Smoker ordered the Marine of lower rank, causing both Coby and Helmepho to face each other with a nod before going about their business.

"Listen up you pirate scum, all Shotatsu and Nitatsu stationed in the Land of the Waves are hereby under arrest for conspiracy against the World Government and the Hidden Villages of Shinobi Island, as well as civil conspiracy, mutilation of a third party, and relation to the genocide numerous clans. In particular, Haru Tanaka and Zoe McKinney face charges of directly contributing in the genocide of the Uchiha clan and the Bloody Mist, and will face punishment in the third level of Neo Impel Down."

Coby ordered his men who began rounding up any remaining Shotatsu agents throughout the country, while Helmepho and Tashigi had the unconscious Dentist Salon put into chains "Furthermore, the Daimyo of the Land of the Waves has been stripped of his titles by the order of Admiral Fujitora and the Godaime Hokage, and will face trial for his actions in the courts of Shinobi Island."

"Don't bother looking for that McKinney woman, she escaped using Shikataro's Reflect-Reflect Fruit powers. I have to say, she did put up quite a fight against me." Konan said as she gave her back a painful sounding crack.

"Damnit!" Tashigi growled, before noticing Naruto in Hinata's arms. Annoyed with his similarities to Zoro, she approached Naruto with a steely glare "So you're that child who was trained by the Pirate Hunter six years ago. I've heard quite a few things about you! I'll go on record saying I still don't trust him, and I definitely don't trust you Cinderface!"

"I've heard quite a few things about you too; from what I can tell you and Niisan have a blatant thing for each other, but neither of you can bother swallowing your pride to just admit it. Certainly sounds like trust to me." Naruto said with a blank face, causing Tashigi to go red with a mix of anger and embarrassment.

"N-NANI? I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT PERVERT HAS BEEN TELLING YOU, BUT I WOULD RATHER EAT VATHORIC MEAT THAN BE WITH HIM!" Tashigi furiously denied Naruto's guess.

"You know, you sounded a lot different in my head."

"SHUT UP!"

Hinata laughed hard at this exchange, only calming down after a few minutes of this back and forth to ask the Marine a question "So I suppose this means you'll be our escort to Wooden Stone?"

"That's the plan Hyuuga-san. Speaking of which we're on a tight schedule, and your boyfriend looks like he could use a doctor stat, so I'd like to leave as soon as humanly possible." Smoker bluntly stated, to the disappointment of many citizens of the Wave.

"But I wanted to show Naruto how much better I've gotten with a bow in the past seven years!" Inari complained in response to the Vice Admiral's decision "And what about Jiisan! What are we going to do about his arms?"

"That's why we brought Sentomaru along, in case of any lasting injury to someone as a result of the invasion. We'll have a pair of prosthetics up and running for him in no time." Smoker said before facing Naruto, who was still in Hinata's arms "You'll have to be sure to pay these people a proper visit once you got back to the South Blue, but before that we need to assess your condition."

"Assess your condition? What's this guy talking about Naruto-sensei? I mean, that weirdo may have been a tough fight, but you can bounce back with the Kyuubi no problem right?" Renjā asked with bright eyes, which Naruto tried his hardest to avert, knowing the truth of his condition.

"I'm afraid things aren't looking good for you Cinderface. That fight took too much of a toll on your body for it to keep fighting the virus the way it was before. Judging by your blood test, I'd say you've got 13 days at most before you're pushing up daisies." The marine doctor gave his bleak diagnosis to the swordsman, with Hinata and Kurama sitting in the medical bay with him.

"But that doesn't make any sense! His last diagnosis was four weeks to get the surgery, but that wasn't that long ago! Why is it so much less all of the sudden?" Hinata objected to the results of the blood test, with a tone of voice that was both fearful and frustrated.

"You pushed yourself to the extreme fighting that Nitatsu back there correct?"

"Yeah. I hate to admit it, but that bastard was one of the toughest fights in a good long while." Naruto growled as he looked at the floor.

"It's likely that you put too much strain on your body for your condition, using the Kyuubi's youkai and your own Haki that much. You're lucky we figured it out this early, but as a doctor I have to recommend you avoid situations of combat until after you've healed. Pushing yourself any further could result in your window of time shrinking to an event horizon no doctor on this planet can heal." The doctor said with a stern look on his face.

In response to this, Naruto stumbled out of the office and to the outer deck of the ship, where the rest of the team was waiting "Bad news gaki?" Jiraiya asked, being able to tell the diagnosis from the look on his godson's face.

"No shit sherlock." Naruto said in a choked up tone of voice, before starting to cry upon putting the hood of his jacket back over his head "Damnit! Even after all my training, all my work, I'm still not strong enough! If I'd tried to fight that cheese woman in the 9th seat for real, I couldn't have beaten her even without this fucking germ in me! And now, I'm only getting weaker again! I hate this feeling, of being weak!"

"Don't worry Naruto-kun!" Hinata comforted her fiancé with a hug, in spite of wanting to cry herself "We can make it through this! All we have to do is fix this problem and then you can become strong enough to defeat anyone. Until that day comes, I'll be your shield and your sword!"

"Yes, #9-san. I really must thank you for what you've done for me today." Itachi placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder as they looked at the sun setting on the South Blue.

"For what? Kicking the ass of your jackass old classmate?"

"That, and for getting the Santatsu completely out of wave! Now that you've done that, me and Karin are officially broken up!" Itachi said with a relieved smile on his face at the thought of no longer having to deal with the insane redhead.

Well, until Smoker reported something in the telescope he was holding "Hey, we've got company. And not the fun kind!" Smoker proceeded to hand the telescope over to Itachi, who saw something that made his heart drop into his stomach. A very pissed off Karin using her Water-Water Fruit powers to ride a wave right towards their ship.

"That would be my darling Karin. Vice Admiral Smoker, is this thing fast enough to get away from my crazy, water bending, ex-girlfriend?" Itachi asked the Marine with a nervous smile.

"Why do you think I built this boat?" Smoker said before having the ship speed off into the night.

(A/N): Nothing like a Korra reference to end things off! With another half a year long wait on this story because school and writer's block! Fun fact, I was actually hoping to be done with this arc by the time I'd finished community college. But I'm barely a quarter of the way done! Ah well, can't change the past, unfortunately. Just gotta keep moving forward for the time being.

Especially considering why this chapter took so long in the first place. Specifically a certain controversy sucking a lot of joy anime gave me out for a good long while, including writing anything besides the Monster Chronicles. And for those of you who know what I'm talking about, don't start any flame wars concerning the topic in my reviews or private messages. This whole thing sucks enough already.

But that's besides the point. My main focus is surviving adulating while updating stuff that needs it. As such, I'll be honing in on Part of a Family for obvious reasons. Please follow and favorite if you want to see more of this story whenever I update, and please review! I'm fairly close to 400 reviews, which would be a pretty cool milestone for me. Sorry again for the late update, and see you all next time.