NARUTO:The sealed shinobi.

Tayuya let out a huff as she, Kakashi, and Shikamaru sat in restaurant after finishing another day of 'information gathering' which was pretty much them being tourists. Looking around at the lazy jounin and the lazier chunin she felt her temper slipping, "Alright Kakashi. Seriously, can you tell us when Shithead is getting back? At least if he were here this would be mildly entertaining somehow."

Kakashi let out a sigh, she had been asking him about this for the last three days, "Tayuya, for the ten thousandth time; he'll come back when he comes back. I'll know when he's on his way and I'll let you all know."

Tayuya grumbled and crossed her arms, "Shithead... he'd better have a damn solid excuse for ditching us here like this."

Shikamaru yawned, "Whatever, you troublesome woman. All I know is that this is my kind of mission. No fighting, no running around, just relaxing and doing nothing. Maybe I should try and go on more missions with Naruto and Kakashi-sensei more often."

Kakashi eye smiled at Shikamaru, "See Tayuya? Shikamaru has the right idea here."

Tayuya let out an undignified groan and dropped her head on the table with a thud.

XxX

Two fast moving blurs shot through the brush, one following the other. They were moving swiftly through the wilderness of Nami no Kuni in a specific general direction.

Naruto kept close on Sai's heels as they ran further into the country, "Hey Sai-kouhai, I kind of figured that a village named for whirlpools would be by the ocean or something."

Sai kept a dull look on his face as he lead the blonde chunin along, "It would seem like the most logical place Naruto-senpai, that's why it isn't anywhere on the coast. Uzushiogakure was actually one of the villages that were hard to find."

Naruto nodded in understanding as he kept up with the Root shinobi, "So you've got the terrain memorized completely? That's actually very impressive. I haven't seen you pull out a map once."

"A map would have been too dangerous to bring Naruto-senpai." Sai admitted as they continued on, "Remember, there can be little to no evidence of your relationship with Danzo-sama other than to those that already know. And even then, it would be far better if they didn't know that you are still in contact with us."

Naruto could only imagine the shitstorm that would commence if Tsunade or Jiraiya found out that he was still in contact with Danzo. There was no way that Naruto could convince them that Danzo was simply doing the duty he swore himself to doing when he said he would protect Konoha. If he came to them with that argument they would just say that Danzo had brainwashed him like the rest of Root when he was a child and that would be that, he would be locked in a cell, or even worse, sealed again. Naruto liked being able to think clearly and logically thank you.

Naruto's thoughts wandered towards the capabilities of Sai. He didn't know how good he really was. Chances were he was probably better in practice than the majority of the other ninja his age, as Danzo would never have made him his contact if he wasn't. He still had no idea what Sai could do. He figured that Sai was able to draw animals and bring them to life as evident by the attack he launched when Naruto was unaware of his presence, but what else could he do?

Now wasn't the time for that. He was searching for something, Sai was helping. He had more important issues to think on. What would be waiting in Uzushiogakure? Would anything even still be standing? Does Sai really even know where he's going? Keeping his thoughts to himself he followed his paler Root companion, "We are close Naruto-senpai."

Naruto frowned, "How do you know Sai-kouhai?"

They jumped through one last patch of overgrowth before coming to a massive valley. Sai gave Naruto a fake smile, "I just do."

Naruto sweatdropped, "I can see that…"

Within the valley there lied Uzushiogakure. Not far from where Naruto and Sai stood there was a waterfall leading to a massive river that split cleanly through the village. On the other side of the valley there was another waterfall doing the same. In the center of the village there was a whirlpool where the two directly conflicting waterways met. Around the whirlpool were four massive cylindrical buildings at least one hundred feet off of the ground while what used to be houses and other assorted buildings dotted the landscape around them. Naruto sighed, "Well, shall we?" Sai nodded and the two jumped into the valley to begin their search.

XxX

As they walked along the remains of the ruined village, Naruto routinely created Kage Bunshin while Sai drew an ink rat to go with them to investigate places of interest. Sai and Naruto kept moving towards the center of the village to the massive cylindrical buildings in the middle of the village.

Naruto whistled as they continued on, "This place is huge. When did this village fall? It's just as big as Konoha."

Sai kept his eyes peeled as well for anything to pay attention to, "It fell during the Second Great Shinobi War. This village had many enemies, the war opened with Sunagakure, Amegakure, and Iwagakure temporarily combining forces to sack the village all at once. This brought Konoha into the war to defend its ally, however it was too late. Your clan had been scattered to the winds and the village was destroyed."

Naruto frowned, "That's a very morbid breakdown of what happened Sai-kouhai. We need to work on you sugar-coating stuff like that. If it wasn't me, and I wasn't used to you Root guys talking like that, that might have creeped me out."

Sai didn't spare Naruto a glance, "Naruto-senpai those were the facts. Uzushiogakure was destroyed by a combined effort of two of the Five Great Shinobi Nations and one minor one, however that village is lead by Salamander Hanzo, perhaps the strongest man alive today."

"Bullshit."

Naruto almost jumped at the Kyuubi's timely interjection into the conversation, 'What do you mean Kyuubi? I know Hanzo, he beat Ero-Kyofu, Tsunade-baachan, and Orochi-teme at the same time back in the day. That seems pretty damn strong to me. Why would he not be?'

The Kyuubi huffed, "Because the strongest man alive definitely isn't Salamander Hanzo. Hanzo is a gnat compared to the man that is truly the most powerful, you've got to go further back into your history for that." It laid down on its haunches and yawned, "You're not even close to who the strongest is ningen."

Naruto rolled his eyes, 'Whatever fuzzy, he's old as hell. He was old when he fought the sannin, and he's still considered the best. Why won't you just tell me who it really is already so we can end this conversation?'

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