~~~
Naruto arrived to Uzu safely. He stretched before walking on the land. They surely couldn't have followed me. But if they did, Naruto had to come up with a clan.
Naruto walked to the underground base that was built by the Uzumaki. Dropping down to the water, he channeled chakra to his feet and balanced himself.
I have to get all the scrolls and secrets in my sealing. Naruto ran to the vault and saw the numerous techniques that were there. I only need ones that will benefit me. He saw a few elements jutsu scrolls and immediately grabbed on them.
Haven't learned any of these kinds of jutsus. Naruto thought as he grabbed another scroll. 'Sealing scroll for dummies' A scroll that contained the arts of sealing. Naruto immediately snagged it.
My knowledge with fuinjutsu is scarce. While my clan are the best with it, this base doesn't have much things about it. Naruto roamed around as he picked many scrolls.
Huh? What's this? Naruto found an odd book that was sticking out. Out of his curiousness, Naruto pulled the book out and skimmed through the pages.
It's blank...
Naruto suddenly heard a noise in front of him. Naruto looked up and saw the shelf... moving to the side. A door appeared from the other side. Naruto slowly opened the door. To his surprise, a long spiral staircase was there.
I have gone too far to just stop. Naruto walked down the staircase in a tense manner. Naruto stopped as he saw a room. It's dark... As soon as Naruto walked inside the room, it started to simultaneously light up. Torches upon torches were making a path for Naruto.
This is odd. Naruto walked down the narrow concrete floor. As Naruto got a clear view, he saw a tablet that was destroyed in half. Naruto stood forth right in front of the tablet and read it out loud.
"There will be a time when leaders shall clash. Puddles of blood will fall in the battle. Endless warriors will perish, their lives getting taken by the gods-..."
The words were cut off. It looks like the tablet is a message or prophecy of some sort. Naruto walked towards the staircase. Such lies. Relics of the past are only history, nothing more. Naruto made his way to the top floor. The light of the torches burning away behind him.
Naruto snagged a couple more scrolls before going to his makeshift room. Naruto gathered his belongings and went in the hallway. It's been almost a day after the Tea Country and Naruto has yet to sleep ever since.
Won't hurt to sleep, right? Naruto fell on his bed and slept shortly after.
~~~
Naruto woke up in a familiar sewer. His eyes quickly scanned his surroundings before sighing. "I'm here again, huh?" Naruto got up the sewer-type water and looked at the cage in front of him.
Deadly red eyes with slits were glaring towards him. Naruto slightly arched his lips upwards, forming a small smile.
"Looks like we meet again, eh? Kyuubi."
~~~
It's been hours outside of his mindscape. Leaf-nins are slowly creeping up the Uzu territory. "Are you sure he's here?"
"He could be fooling us, but I doubt he is."
~~~
"Don't smile at me, idiot." Naruto just ignored this and laid down in the sewage. It wasn't ideal, but it had to do. "What are you doing?" The Kyuubi's loud voice boomed all over the place.
"I'm relaxing. It's something I do nowadays." Naruto simply yawned after. The Kyuubi just growled at his answer. "What are you going to do now?" The Kyuubi practically demanded an answer.
Knowing the Kyuubi, Naruto had to answer. "I don't know" The Kyuubi roared. "What do you mean "I don't know", you child!" Naruto slightly opened his eyes at the killing intent that was being emitted.
"Like I said, I don't really have a goal right now. Getting stronger is what I'm hoping I can accomplish." Naruto closed his eyes as the killing intent lowered down.
"They're here, you know?" The Kyuubi said as Naruto laid in the sewage.
"I know. I'm just waiting for the right moment to wake up." Naruto stood up and started stretching. At this point, I'm just stalling until they reach Uzu. The Kyuubi snorted.
"I can hear you!" The Kyuubi roared loudly. But by the time it finished, Naruto already disappeared from his mind.
~~~
Naruto felt their chakra getting closer to the island every second. Naruto got up from his bed and walked outside his room. It looks like Team 7 is the only one that came. But Naruto had to be careful just in advance. He's not stronger than the 3 of them combine.
Good thing I have my trusty clones! Naruto thought as he breathed in and out.
~~~
"We're here." Kakashi said as they closed in to the shore. They had one mission and one mission only. "To retrieve Uzumaki Naruto". They failed last time, but it won't happen again. They were inexperienced.(excluding Kakashi)
But this time, they were prepared and stronger. They were not a hopeless as before. They jumped onto shore.
"We'll search the area together. Uzushiogakure is filled with destroyed ruins, the chances of one of them containing Naruto is high." Sasuki and Sakura nodded.
They all started to slowly walked in the territory of Uzushiogakure. They entered one of the ruins and found nothing. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura called out.
"Yes, Sakura?" Kakashi and Sasuki followed the voice of Sakura, who was standing in front of a destroyed language. "What do you think this is?" All 3 observed the destroyed stones in front of them.
"I think it's the Uzumaki language." They all nodded in agreement.
"The exit is right here." Sasuki pointed towards an opening to the ruin. As they moved from each ruin to the next, their hopes of finding Naruto stared to deteriorate.
"This is taking too long!" Sasuki punched the wall of one of the ruins. "We just have to look longer." Kakashi said to try and ease their retrieval. But deep inside, he was also losing hope in the operation.
But they suddenly saw orange in the distance.
"Is... is that a fox?" Sasuki asked, her eyes squinted to get a better view. Sakura also squinted her eyes. "I think so too." Sakura said as the team went closer to the fox. The fox eyed them before running away.
They increased their speed to catch up to the fox. As soon as it stopped, the fox looked towards Team 7 and dusted off trapdoor.
A secret base?
The fox dispersed into chakra. In a split moment, they knew what the fox was. It's Naruto's doing. He knew we were here since the beginning. Sasuki grit her teeth as they entered the inside the trapdoor.
The atmosphere suddenly changed as they stepped on the water. They all were careful and kept their guard up. "Watch out for traps." Kakashi whispered to the two. The two girls nodded and continued walking.
A familiar voice started to echo around the walls.
"You have come... kind of expected you to come later, but this can do." Sasuki could sense the smugness that was laying under Naruto's voice.
"Fight me! Fight me now, coward!" Sasuki yelled throughout the base. "Find me. I am inside here, waiting." They all continued to walk closer to their destination.
~~~
Naruto wasn't lying when he was waiting on his throne. He was sitting on a magnificent throne fit for a dumb kid like him. His left leg was over his right.
Naruto was magnifying his voice with chakra. It was fairly useful at times like this. A smirk appeared on Naruto's face as he saw the silhouette of Team 7.
"You have found me..." Naruto got a good look on their faces. Before anything else could happen, Sasuki appeared in front of his face, with a fist connecting to his cheek.
Naruto's head hit the back of the throne. "That was pretty hard... but it isn't hard enough." Naruto disappeared in a pack of foxes.
"So it was you who was showing us the way to this base." Sasuki looked towards the side of the throne. "Of course" Naruto had his 3-tomoe sharingan activated.
"Your genjutsu won't affect me, Naruto." Her own 3-tomoe sharingan activated. "I know, that is why we are feeling each other out with our own genjutsu, are we not?" Naruto blocked a punch from Sasuki with a punch of his own.
A short shockwave went through the room. Naruto felt a kunai behind his neck. "We'll retrieve you-." Kakashi said behind him. "Without fail!" Sakura threw a chakra punch towards Naruto. But when she punched him, Naruto turned into a... log!
Substitution! Sakura thought a log turned into tiny bits.
"I would've been knocked out unconscious if I was hit by that." Naruto said as he still had his sharingan activated.
Naruto threw a shuriken towards Sasuki. "Do you think so low of me now to the point you think shuriken will beat me?" The shuriken suddenly multiplied and became 3 shurikens coming towards them. Sasuki easily deflected hers.
The other two barely managed to scrape their way to dodge just from a moment of shock. I won't fail... Naruto dodged an upcoming of kunais going straight towards him. Naruto sent a set of his own towards them.
He's keeping his distance from us. Sasuki clenched her fist tightly. But she quickly took a deep breath. Her hands unclenched.
"We'll bring you back." Sasuki pointed her finger towards him. Naruto quickly weaved a set of hand signs. "Wind Release: Wind Shards".
A gust of wind made its way towards the 3. All 3 manage to dodge the attack. Naruto smirked as the wind split into many different pieces and bounced off the wall.
They all couldn't react quick enough and took a direct hit. Satisfaction grew on Naruto's face. "I won't be brought back." Naruto said he charged towards them.
Sasuki immediately reacted to this and charged as well.
"We'll bring you back no matter what." Sasuki said as their fist connected. Naruto looked behind him right after and saw Sakura's fist inches away from his pretty face.
Genjutsu...
Naruto dispersed into a pack of foxes. The was easily recognized by Sakura and was neutralized.
Naruto appeared from her back and pulled in for a quick punch to her stomach. "Not so fast." Naruto felt a sharp pain in his stomach as he flew a few meters.
Naruto stood up and glared at Kakashi. Naruto created a few sets of shadow clones. "I'll handle Sasuki." The clones nodded to their boss' orders. Naruto quickly turned towards Sasuki and threw a kunai, which he followed immediately.
Sasuki tried going to the side, but he met face to face with a clone that Naruto created mid-battle. "Oh, hello there." The clones jabbed Sasuki's stomach and she went flying.
Dammit! It was a direct blow to Sasuki. Naruto charged at the down Sasuki, but a sudden rush of wind from the side made him distracted. "Cha!" Naruto dodged a punch from the apprentice of the 'Slug Princess' and carefully dodged the shockwaves from the aftershock.
Naruto brought his fingers to a cross.
"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" The room was filled Naruto's clones. They were going to have trouble with this one.
They all started to form a Rasengan. They all charged at the three with the intent to defeat.
"Chidori Current" A stream of lightning bursted many clones. Naruto himself started to charge closer to Sasuki.
"This world focuses on the 'Survivial of the Fittest' more than anything." Naruto first said. "I pisses me off. So I'll become strong. I don't have any goals right now."
"But I do know that my plans for the future will only be fully effective if the villlage didn't hold me back!" Naruto said a he punched Sasuki in the gut.
But leftover lightning from Sasuki's body made Naruto stiff. He stood paralyzed for a few seconds for Sasuki to get up and punched Naruto back.
"I don't care about your goals. You can achieve them while being in the village!" Naruto wiped a trail of blood from his mouth. "Now that I remember. You said you would become my 'light'." Sasuki widened her eyes.
"You... knew?" Asked Sasuki.
"I regained the memories of my clones. But I can't go back. I have went too far in the darkness. And I never planned on returning." Naruto took a deep breath.
"But then again. The brightest lights are only created by the darkest shadows. I look forward to what my light can do. But... that will have to wait until later." Naruto summoned a clone to create a 'Rasengan'.
"Your definition of walking into the darkness is leaving Konoha?! Bullshit!" Sasuki yelled towards Naruto. Lots of clones were still holding the other two back.
"I guess. . . that's my standards. But, killing a person can't define the darkness that I have fell into — death and murder is too common in the Elemental Nations." Naruto told her.
"I'll finish this battle with this attack." Naruto stated. Sasuki weaved a set of her own hand signs. She formed a 'Chidori'. Both launched their body towards each other. As they closed in on each other, the two brought their arms back.
"Chidori!"
"Rasengan!"
They smashed their attacks against each other, creating an explosion that was blasted everyone around the vicinity away. The smoke and dust went around the whole room. The explosion created a massive hole on the ceiling, which was an escape route.
As the smoke cleared, only 1 silhouette was visible. Once the smoke was fully at ease, Sasuki appeared to on the ground and Naruto not anywhere in sight.
"Dammit!" Sasuki smashed the ground in frustration.
"He got away..."
~~~
This is the end of this chapter. This one was longer than it was expected to be, but it's fine.
I'll be updating soon enough.