"You never told me what precisely our mission was."

Naruto paused in his consultation of the map and glanced over to Anko with a blank expression. Outside of the brief splash of conversation when they left the mission office after giving the Sandaime grief and they first hit the road the last few days had been relatively silent with the barest of talking being done mostly during the night to wake the other & tell was their guard shift. "The Sandaime received actionable intel from a reliable source about the location of a hideout used by Orochimaru for his experimentations. Given we know that the disgrace cycles his time through the various safe houses and hideouts he possesses it was decided to send us to raid the place with the recent empty out" he said looking back to the map. "If we keep our current pace we should be there by no later than noon tomorrow."

Ankos lips fell into a grimace as her eyes filled with a hatred. Being sent to deal with anything to do with her former sensei was well and fine since she wanted to pay him back for the suffering she was caused but to be sent out after the man had fled to a new location was unforgivable. "What intel do we have about this base?" she asked pulling out a pair of kunai and began to sharpen the edges on each other.

"Local agents and sensor types sent out by the Sandaime suggest strong outputs of chakra in an otherwise normal looking uninhabited field. This suggests to them and to me that we are looking a sub-terrainan base. We cannot be certain of defenses so I will be sending scouting parties in the form of shadow clones to spot and disarm what can be disarmed ahead of us actually going in. In case we run into enemy combatants we are given carte blanche to murder them with extreme prejudice anyway we see fit so long as we get any & all information we can from them. Those we find those who have been experimented on are in poor health or look to be dying we've been ordered to do them the mercy and put them out of their misery. Experimented on prisoners who are in good health are to be brought back to the village with us alongside all the research from the base we find, doesn't matter what it is" Naruto said rolling up the map and turning onto his side. "You have first watch tonight. Wake me in four hours."

-within Narutos mind/dream-

"You know, a girl could feel that-"

"Don't even start you flip flopping Barbie and or Ken doll" Naruto said plopping down in a chair. "I need advice and I need you to be serious for once."

Morgana blinked and looked offended before creating a chair with the wave of her hand, shadows revealed her form dressed in her signature white suit and long white scarf around her neck. "First of all, that was uncalled for you little shit. Second of all, what do you need advice from me for? Having my abilities gives you access to the pertinent parts of my memories. Unless this is about advice in the be-"

Naruto glared darkly at Morgana shutting the vampire up completely. "I told you I need you to be serious for once and I meant it. This is not advice I'm asking for in regarding to anything sexual or pleasure related this. This is business" he said sharply.

Morgana sighed as she rested her cheek on her hand. Before her powers activated in Naruto she had such fun watching the boy be a pain in the ass to everyone around him but now the boy was a touch too much like her. He was all business, sadistic tendencies and torture except when it came to that Haku chick he revived as a familiar but kept her separate from the others almost making her a pseudo vampire. "Fine, I'll be serious. What do you need advice on?" she asked leaning forward with a rather focused look in her crimson eyes. As he explained the details of his current assignment she looked thoughtful as her fingers drummed against her cheek. "You said you were ordered to mercy execute the experimented on individuals whose prospects are not bright yes?" she ssked in reiteration.

"Yeah."

"There is a process similar to making a willing or unwilling familiar." Morgana began to explain the process as she crossed one leg at the knee over the other. "Unlike absorbing the soul to make a familiar you sort of filter the contents of the victim. Absorb the blood, the abilities, the knowledge- absorb everything but the soul. If you can do that than by all counts you create a blank familiar without condeming the soul of the person to suffer within us. Rather, within you."

"So by actively draining all but the soul I can grant the mercy being ordered while still creating a familiar of sorts with the knowledge and abilities they possessed for my own to control?" Naruto asked just to make sure he heard it right.

"Wow, you know how to parrot. I'm so prou-"

Narutos brow twitched as the sandy foot of a construct controlled by zombie-esque familiar Shukaku kicked Morgana in the chest sending her shooting back like a rocket into the far wall. "You're a real bitch you know that? And I don't mean that in the nice sarcastic way either."

"Love you too grandson on of mine!"

"Fucking loony ass vampires are going to be the death of me" Naruto muttered rubbing his temples and shaking his head. As he stood he waved his hand breaking the chairs back into shadow before Morganas chair reformed into two distinct shapes.. "Casul and Jackal were your tools however we both know they did not work with my style so they were smelted down and reforged. That does not mean I do not respect the weight behind them." He raised one hand as a copy of Jackal and Casul floated in the air between them. "I give you replacements to compensate for using the originals to make my own weapon."

Morgana glared at the zombie-like sand racoon before her eyes turned to the floating guns before her. "I still have a bone to pick with you about that" she said snatching up the weapons up and testing their weight. "These are heavier than the ones I used in my time."

"I used a few of the spare souls to forge the metal into something special." Naruto made a motion with his hand asking for Jackal. When it was slipped into it he ejected the clip and faced it open end towards Morgana. "Using seal knowledge drained from the handful of fuinjutsu masters I used as a blood bag after we destroyed that organization in Suna I devised a seal to create artificial bullets" he said before biting his thumb and swiping the blood on the seal, the life giving essence being used to create crystaline bullet shaped projectiles filling the clip to maximum capacity. "Uike normal crystal this one is strong enough to withstand the force of the hammer hitting an internal energy primer, could be chakra or your vampire youkai doesn't matter, and seals lining the inside of the barrel add a kick to the velocity so that theres more impact and speed making it not just more deadly but harder to block too."

Morgana looked impressed at the description. "Crystal huh? What force in the name of god makes the crystal so strong to withstand all that and not fall apart?" she asked checking the magazine on Casul and found a copy of the seal engraved into either side of the exterior.

"Lets just call it what you already call it for simplicities sake and be done with it, ninja magic. Plus, a willing secondary source who let me use her like a juice box to take a sample of her ability to make the crystal to make the seal work so these" Naruto slammed the clip into Jackal and pushed on the slide "don't blow up in your face if I need to summon you as backup." He pulled the trigger six times emptying the magazine, the blood colored crstyaline bullets connecting dead on to a shadow holding up a particularly nasty soul he took for his regenerative purposes.

Morgana was skeptical of the crystal bullets effectiveness til she saw the soul begin to wither away before her eyes. Skin rapidly paled and shrunk like a time-lapse film of a corpse being left to bake in the sun; the eyes rotted in their sockets, muscle atrophied in moments to nothing in moments & clothes crumbled to dust. "I'm impressed."

"You should, it was a pain in the ass to get right. I had to regenerate my body blown to bloody chunks from the waist up six times to get the sealing array right" Naruto said tossing Jackal back before the avatar gone.

-back in the real world-

"Yo wake up, its your turn for guard duty" Anko said shaking Naruto roughly. She noted the redhead seemed to appear like he hadn't been sleeping but she chalked it up to being a weird trait he developed since his mental breakdown and ability awakening in the preliminaries.

"Damn near doesn't feel like its been four hours" Naruto muttered rubbing his eyes. Even though he was now technically a full vampire and didn't need to sleep, his Uzumaki genes had done something to correct the flaws his body possessed upon awaking Morgana and even corrected the inherited vampiric weaknesses so they didn't affect him, it was a habit he was not ready to break. Sleep had always been a reprieve for him to review the world in detail and plan his future moves. Even with his former state of being and denial of the harsh reality around him he had been far too keenly aware he was, at least publicly, talking to talk even though he knew he wouldn't be heard. Now that he was free to be as much of an ass he was internally back then sleep was boring if still at least mentally a thing he still felt a need for though he physically did not, not for the same reasons anyway.

The rest of the night Naruto passed away going through the motions with Belial as Anko slept. He could have woken her to take the final shift but by the time he finished his katas he noticed the sun coming up forcing the redhead to blink wondering where the time went. He must've gotten lost in his thoughts during the time he'd massacred a tree that looked halfway rotted to mulch. "Nows as good a time as any to wake her" he said shaking his head. Grabbing his canteen of water, another habit he was trying to work out of now that his diet was blood based, he dumped the cold contents on the purple haired jounins sleeping head.

Anko bolted upright with a start feeling cold water splash on her face and head. It took her a minute to get her bearing before her eyes glared daggers at Naruto. "The fuck man?!" she growled with a rather pissed off glare. "Theres other ways to wake people up!"

"There are but pissing you off is its own reward" Naruto said with a fanged grin. "Its dawn sunshine, lets get going. If we beat feet now ee can make it to the base before noon and hopefully do all we got to do before nightfall & make tracks out after rigging charges to explode."

"Since when did we decide that the base would be blown to smithereens once we got out those able to travel and all the experiment test subjects that can travel?" Anko asked with a dark look on her face.

"Since the explosives in question are highly experimental and likely to not just leave a satisfyingly large crater. Not just that but with any & all dead bodies of ninja Orochimaru leaves behind to guard the place I'm sure we'll leave a painting of gore and entrails at the very least a mile wide in every direction" Naruto said with a non-chalant shrug. "Any other stupid questions?" he asked as he packed Belial carefully back into its sheate.

"Do you value living?" Anko muttered to herself as she packed up her bedroll into a sealing scroll with her other non-weapon supplies before pocketing the scroll in a pouch on her hip.

"Technically speaking, no. My awakening during which I permanently crippled kibble breath rid me of being able to call myself alive. Or at least 'alive' in a sense like you would classify it. Tell me what human can regenerate from taking obious fatal attacks without the need for a medical ninja the calbre of Tsunade" Naruto said looking over his shoulder at "My humanity is gone and instead I walk amongst the same shadow now as my ancestor lived his undead life. Living, dead, undead- whats the big difference to begin with?"

"How about a beating heart and a pulse for starters" Anko said with a snort as she rolled her eyes sarcastically.

"A muscle contraction that circulates blood. Does not mean one 'lives' now does it? Just means one is physically alive. Look at me though" Naruto said and smirked slightly as he struck a pose that made Anko scoff at the corniness of it all. "No pulse, no heartbeat and I'm just as physically alive as you."

"Its far too early in the morning for philosophical bullshit." Anko punched Naruto on the head sending the Uzumaki fa cefirst into the ground. "Thats for waking up like that too. Shake me next time or I'll neuter you til you can't regenerate" she threatened stressing on the words 'you can't'.

-three hours later on the edge of clearing where Orochimarus base is suspected-

"So where are these local agents you told me about while we race through the morning mist?" Anko asked as she peered through a pair of binoculars from their perch in the trees surrounding the clearing. Naruto hadn't said much about who these local agents were but said they would meet them in the clearing on his signal. She had tried to get more out of him but the redhead didn't budge as he told her to look at copy of the mission orders. A quick scan of said scroll said Naruto was to signal the agents and thar until they revealed themselves their identities were to not be bothered asking about but being who she was that bit was ignored. She could deal with a reprimand for being nosy, having someone who she was on a mission with keeping secrets about said mission was not something she tolerated after Orochimaru abandoned her to suffer at Konohas hands when he went traitor.

"They'll be here, don't worry about that." Naruto cupped his hands and, with the aid of a sound amplifying jutsu, let out a perfect mimic of a murder of crows cawing as they took flight at dusk. He ignored the odd look and counted down mentally til the expletives pierced the air making him smirk slightly.

"About fucking time shit head!" a readheaded girl wearing a beanie said as the air shimmered dropping a genjutsu that had hidden her and a second young woman from sight. "We began to doubt the expired condom you call a Hokage would send you out here!"

"Now now Tayuya" the second young woman began with a chiding tone "is that really a way to greet Naruto-kun after all he has done for us?" she asked placing her hands on her hips.

Naruto snorted and rolled his eyes as the two girls got into a mini arguement about manners and how a lady should or should not act like. "Tayuya, Gurren- shut up" he said rubbing his temples. He hadn't had his morning blood yet and their bickering made them both a tempting snack to bite on to sate his morning thirst if to just quiet the.. Dropping from the tree he made a motion for Anko to follow him. "So tell us everything."

Tayuya scowled and flipped Naruto the bird for telling her to shut up. "Gay Lord left four days ago. A lot of the labs are under secutirty seal schemes so we don't know who or what is inside the majority of them. Failed experiment corpses were reduced fo ashes before they left. Some of the successes were sedated and put into a sort of frozen sleep. There is one particular success that you might find mighty intriguing though shit head" the redhead said as she crossed her arms under her breasts.

Anko looked between the two girls and Naruto before chuckling to herself. "Oh I like her" she said pointing to the one Naruto and the other he had called Gurren had said was named Tayuya. It was particularly hard to find a girl who spoke her mind freely and in the most direct manner possible without internally checking themselves as their male dominated society taught from the moment it was first understandable. By no means was she about jump out of her clothes to fuck the redhead senseless but she had to say that being as crass as herself and blunt as a boken was hard to find in kunoichi below at least seasoned chunin.

Tayuya scoffed at that and shot the purple haired kunoichi a hard look. "Well diddle your own twat by yourself raspberry. I ain't a dyke and even if I was I doubt I'd spare a second look at a butch like you" she said grinning mean spiritedly. She saw the womans hackles raise making her smirk sligbtly. "Awe, did I hurt your widdle feelings?" she asked with mock concern.

"ENOUGH! Tear each others throats out a different time" Naruto said glaring harshly between Anko and Tayuya. "What are we looking at as far as security goes? I highly doubt Orochimaru would leave a successful experiment alone unprotected even if it was put on ice."

"Couple of his jounin level ninja from his Sound Village. They have some sort of experimental curse mark that looks like a mix of Tayuyas mark and the one on the Kaguya boy he uses as his chief enforcer possesses" Gurren answered. "Those are the biggest threats anyway. Theres a healthy splatter of chunin level Sound ninja here too but they are unmarked so they should be easy pickings."

Anko tensed hearing not only was the redhead marked but there were other ninja in the base marked with a curse seal. "How can we trust her not t-".

"Classified information on the methods of removal that you would need the Hokage to grant you permission to be read in on but I removed Tayuyas Curse Seal of Heaven. The 'seal' on her neck is a chakra applied tattoo to keep suspicion off" Naruto said. "I can't say more without killing you on the spot and making this mission a hundred times more tedious for me." 'Fucking drama queen' and 'whiner' made him glare at Tayuya and Gurren. "I can tell the Hokage you two no longer want the deal if thats what this comes down too" he threatened.

"We were talking about her Dracula. Who is she anyway and will she be of any help?" Gurren asked rolling her eyes at the redhead.

"Anko Mitarashi, second in charge of Konohas ANBU T&I. She'll be of more than just help considering she has a bigger bone to pick with Orochimaru than both of you combined" Naruto said ignoring the Dracula barb. "Lets get going than. I want to be out of here by sun down. Oh and as much as it bothers me, we need to get all the experiment survivors who can travel to come with us or into a long term medical transport sealing scroll if they're in relative fine condition but put on ice. Something I don't have on me."

"You're going soft blood sucker. I thought for sure you'd drain all the experiments left behind dry and be done with it" Tayuya said with a smirk.

"Not my choice, Sandaimes orders. He wants to talk any and all sources about what Orochimaru has been up to so we have better idea about his current capabilitiess since the info we got now is dated and may be inaccurate" Naruto said with a withering look. "If it was up to ke and this was a solo mission I would drain the successful experiments left behind dry, break through what I had to gain lab access to steal the notes & research before blowing the place sky high as I drag you two back with me since we have a deal. And I guess you have one Sandaime too."

Anko palmed her face getting more confused and annoyed by the moment. Ok, these two girls were the local agents who were apparently either once active cogs in the machine of Orochimarus works who turned coat on him or they were local ninja got in to provide intel. The chances of the second happening were healthy but doubtcul given her former senseis paranoia about outsiders observing or being part of his work. "Great great, everyone knows me now who the hell are you two?" she asked pointing to the pair of girls. "What makes you two so special my traitor of a sensei would want you two around?"

Tayuya and Gurren shot Naruto asking if she was seriously out of the look. The raised eyebrow back in response was all the paur needed making Tayuya curse. "Our abilities moron. In his search for immor-fucking-tality hes been trying to make every reputable and formidables skill he can find synch into one host body. My ability with genjutsu, though nowhere near as lethal the Yakumo clans, is pretty deadly in combination with Ogre summons; something he hasn't been able to be accepted by his current host so I'm kept a watch a bloodline he can't get to work either with any host so far, not even with his little boytoy Kabutos help" the redhead said. "Tbe only here who has been able t-"

Ankos eyes went incredibly sharp as she grabbed Tayuya by the shoulders when she mentioned Kabutos name. "You said Kabuto, his last name wouldn't happen to be Yakushi & a medical ninja would he? Silver hair, wears glasses, annoyingly chipper shit whose false sense of seeing on the bright side makes you want to punch his teeth down his throat" she asked. They had long suspected a spy in their ranks and if Kabuto, thougb on file as a leaf genin and trainee medic despite nearly eight straight chunin exam losses where he wasn't promoted in any, was a spy it would make so much sense. No one pays attention to the medic or genin so they could go about their business and let something slip they shouldn't.

"Yeah that would be the jackass himself. Though the Kabuto we know is Orochimarus right hand man, more than competent in holding his own with a chakra scapel to attack & kill as he is using it to work on the poor sods who wind up having blood or body parts disected. How do you-"

"Not important at the moment. You mentioned something particularly interesting we'll find down" Naruto said pointing for Gurren and Tayuya to lead fhem to the base entrance.

"How about a Senju girl roughly fourteen years capable of using the Wood Release of the First Holage?" Gurren asked stomping her foot on a rather ordinary looking flat rock. For a minute nothing happened til a stairway carved itsf into the earth. "After you two" she said making a motion of her hand.

Naruto and Ankos eyes met at the mention of the Senju girl. The only Senju out there known publically was Tsunade and she couldn't use her grandfathers famed .bloodline. So what did that mean about this girl? Was she an unknown? Was she Tsunades child? If she was Tsunades child why did the drunk gambling addicted seem to not care about het daughters well being? Or had the girl been abducted as an infant and something done to Tsunade to make her forget ever being pregnant & having a kid so she truly believed she was the last Senju heir? "Tells us about her" Naruto said as he followed behind Anko, his hands resting on the small of his back under his coat. The quatters were too tight for Belial so he'd have to rely on his wakizashi and taijutsu skills.

"Blonde hair with green highlights, natural highlights as far as everyone knows. Silver eyes. Extremely violent and shorter fuse than a midget being told he can't get on the cup at the carnival" Tayuya said pressing her hand on a seal to fill the earthen stairway back in as torches in the hallway lit up on their. "Oh and she has a big problem with men. She likes to test new poisnous substances on them after doses her body with them to the point of immunity making her Wood Release more dangerous. No one knows what her name is, not even herself, since Gay Lord and Doctore Frankenstein only refer to her as Experiment 626. Everyone else around here refers to her as Poison Ivy."