Naruto blinked as what Itachi had done became clear. A double-layered illusion woven between he and Jiraiya, where they had both been trapped but Naruto had experienced a whole other reality within the briefest of seconds. He glanced to his side, where Jiraiya glanced to and fro, examining his surroundings with a frown.

"Even for you, Itachi, this jutsu is impressive. I do not think I could have escaped this had I not known you were an ally. I've never experienced anything quite like it."

"I appreciate your saying so, Jiraiya-sama. Tsukiyomi is an ability unique to my own Mangekyo evolution."

Jiraiya nodded, pursing his lips. "What do you have for me, Itachi?"

"Two things. Firstly, and most importantly, our battle begins in earnest now. This will likely be the last time we can exchange information so freely."

Naruto's mouth fell open, Itachi's previous words ringing in his ears. "You mean—"

"Yes," Itachi regarded him solemnly. "The Akatsuki have all their pieces in place for whatever final goal is being aimed towards. Orders have been issued to several of the inner circle to make their move on their main targets. The hunt for the Jinchuuriki has begun."

Blood thundered in Naruto's ears, the weight of what he was being told landing like a physical blow. He'd known for a long time this was coming, of course. He'd prepared as much as he could over the last two years to be ready for this precise thing. Panic shot through him like lightning regardless.

There was only so much you could do to stop it when being told nine shinobi of Uchiha Itachi's calibre were beginning their hunt for you.

"Who are the targets," Jiraiya asked, all business.

"It seems the hunt must happen in tail order. A team have been dispatched to capture Subaku no Gaara and Yuugito Ni. I do not know who of our number, only that it is not our leader and his partner, nor Kisame or myself."

Jiraiya nodded. "All things considered, that's probably as reassuring as things could possibly get. There are good options and bad ones still, but from what I can see, the worst is off the table. What else did you have?"

"We were followed here by a Konoha hunter squad. Four Jonin level Root members. One has the chakra of somebody I would be required to engage carefully. Deidara is under the impression we have wilfully led you here as a trap. We are to retreat upon the arrival of the interlopers and report your abilities as they currently stand to the rest of the organisation. It is...regrettably sound as a plan."

Jiraiya shrugged. "Thanks for the heads up, but I wouldn't worry too much about that. What I can do is already pretty widely known, and much of how Naruto fights could be pieced together through accounts from those that survived spectating the Chunin exams and what I'm most likely to to have taught. Either way, we'll have to flex a little muscle to leave unharmed, so there's no point in grousing about it. You've done well, Itachi."

There was a pregnant pause as Itachi stood firm in the face of what Jiraiya seemed to believe constituted a plain dismissal. "Something else?"

Itachi was silent for a moment, and suddenly his eyes closed in an expression of resignation. "Nothing, Jiraiya-sama. I am merely reaching the limits of how long I can maintain this jutsu and the time manipulation within."

"How long will it have passed for Deidara," Jiraiya asked.

"Not even a second has passed in the real world."

Naruto couldn't help but whistle appreciatively as the black and red world of the Tsukiyomi fell away, revealing the same clearing they had been in before, complete with a smirking Deidara and the ever serene Itachi.

"Well," Deidara said suddenly, breaking the silence. "As fun as this has been, I think it's time we left you to our other guests as we have places to be."

He saw Jiraiya tense and begin moving moments before he felt the reason why. The Tsukiyomi had shook the nature chakra he'd been passively channeling to sense his surroundings from his system. Now he was standing still, however, he'd begun to channel it once more almost by instinct, and felt just how close the quartet of presences Itachi had warned of were.

Jiraiya leapt back as one masked figure exploded from the ground beneath him, and two more immediately pounced, driving him away from Naruto. Their plan clear, Naruto threw one last glance at the retreating shapes of Itachi and Deidara before concentrating fully on his attempts to find his opponent.

His heart raced, and a small grin broke out on his face. Two years of low-risk missions and training. Of preparing. Of being held back. Two years of being constantly aware of a threat he could do nothing about. And, finally, there was something real in front of him. Something he needed more than he could possibly describe.

Something he could hit as hard as he could.

A glimmer of light upon liquid gave his assailant away. Sneaky bastard had been slowly weaving trails of black liquid across the floor to him for Kami knew how long. He rejected Jiraiya's approach of retreat, neatly flashing through a series of handseals and loosing a stream of white hot fire from his mouth to incinerate the liquid.

The flames lit the clearing, revealing a trio of black shapes above him, eagles mid-dive. Naruto twitched a finger and a kunai materialised from one the many minute black seals on his hand. He deftly weaved between the strange airborne creatures, his kunai carving a path through them like wind, the last just barely avoiding his strike.

Naruto's grin grew as the subtle pop of a jutsu release sounded behind him, his opponent finally committing to the fight proper. Naruto span on instinct, left hand shooting upwards to redirect a savage kick aimed to his throat. The shinobi opposite him launched into a flurry of well-drilled attacks, all picture perfect and lighting fast, and all aimed for places that would cause the greatest possible damage.

He matched each blow at a speed that surprised even himself. It was easy to forget after spending so much time with him, that Jiraiya was one of the strongest shinobi alive today. Compared with him, his opponent moved to Naruto's eyes as though he were underwater, sluggish and obvious.

If it wasn't for how hard Naruto had to strain himself to keep up, he would have supposed this man was a Chunin. Naruto deflected an obvious left jab, only for his opponent's movements to change. One moment he was there, and in another, he was gone, twisting through Naruto's guard with a fluid, almost serpentine movement.

Naruto tried to angle an elbow strike toward him, but the Root agent evaded it deftly, brushing against Naruto's kunai pouch to avoid it, before scampering away and out of the reach of Naruto's following kick.

He narrowed his eyes, as the opponent wheeled around to face him, plain white Root mask hiding a mess of jet black hair. He was fast, and skilled. He'd shown just enough to make Naruto think he'd gotten his measure, before sharply increasing his speed to catch him off guard. Clever, but executed too slowly to have caught Naruto.

It was odd, Itachi had been confident about declaring these all Jonin-level shinobi, yet...

His opponent attempted to capitalise on his distraction, throwing several shuriken to set Naruto off-balance, before launching himself at the blond at almost imperceptible speed. Almost. Naruto stepped into the strike, redirecting it with his right arm and sending the Root Nin into the path of a freshly created Kage Bunshin, who launched a savage kick right through the man's solar plexus.

Naruto only raised an eyebrow as the figure exploded into a shower of that oily black liquid, before turning slightly to face the real Root nin, standing just out of the way of the battle. The masked shinobi tilted his head almost innocently, as Naruto narrowed his eyes and his Kage Bunshin popped from existence.

In the background, the sounds of Jiraiya's battle raged, though from the panicked communication of the normally silent Root behind them, it was clear the direction that battle was taking.

"You know," Naruto said nonchalantly, "if you really wanted to take on me and Jiraiya, you should have bought a battalion, never mind a single squad. This was suicide."

To his surprise the ninja chuckled. It was the laugh of a man younger than Naruto expected, yet utterly devoid of joy. Devoid of anything, really. "You are correct, Naruto-san. We stood little to no chance of victory, and knew so when choosing our fate. Jiraiya-sama alone all but guaranteed that, but you have grown beyond even Danzou-sama's predictions. He truly thought I would be a match for you. Ah well, orders are orders."

He crouched slightly, pulling a scroll from a pouch at his hip and loosing the parchment and a brush. Naruto felt the surge of chakra as it flashed across the paper, and a trio of brilliant white, drawn lions roared forth from its pages. Recognition hit him like a hammer, but there was no time to talk. In seconds the lions were upon him, teeth bared.

In response, lightning crackled forth from his palms, two luminescent blue and white whips that crackled and fizzed through the air. He deftly twisted his wrists, and the whips lashed out, carving apart the ink-drawn apparitions, which were quickly replaced by other. For a moment, Naruto danced with the creations, his whips providing a perfect cymbal-crash accent as they rent apart several of the chakra-ink creations.

Chakra surged once more, and behind them all, something far larger emerged. An ink gorilla at least twice his height howled and beat it's chest before barrelling towards him, the ink lions fanning out to surround him as it did so.

Naruto scowled, the knowledge of who was behind the mask and the uneasy feeling he'd gotten from the few times he'd actually met his attacker. More than anything else, though, what drove his next move was knowing just how close this person had been to Danzou.

The thought of the man sent fury burning through him, hot and hateful, and he felt the satisfaction of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. That didn't matter to him in this moment, he only saw the enemy, and the means with which he would drive them into the ground. He only had to loosen the tight reign he kept on himself the barest of amounts, and even that sent a flood of bubbling, demonic chapter coursing through him.

He felt the searing as it bubbled up over his skin, burning and yet not. He felt his canines extending, his features stretching and sharpening, and the claws extending from where his nails once were.

The gorilla was almost upon him, murder in its eyes, until suddenly, Naruto was simply not there at all. The creature blinked, confusion painting its face right up until Naruto's fist penetrated where its heart would normally be. It fell away into inky nothing, and Naruto darted away, fuelled by the Nine Tailed Fox's hateful chakra.

He could feel his opponent straining to keep up with how quickly Naruto was destroying his creations, but it was a futile effort. Within moments they had been culled enough that the path to the culprit was clear. Naruto's eyes sharpened, his heart stopping dead as he darted forward.

The haymaker Naruto landed was enough to shatter the mask and send his enemy sprawling across the dirt, and all the remaining ink drawings splashed to the floor as the Kyuubi's chakra bled away from him, allowing him to start taking in Nature Energy once more.

"I see yours if finished too, well done Naruto," came Jiraiya's voice from behind.

Naruto looked back at his unscathed master, who was walking away from a body on the floor, with a summoned toad stuffing another into his mouth not far away.

"Only two?" Naruto asked.

"The squad was led by Fu, one of Danzou's best," Jiraiya said, shrugging. "I killed one, and took the other alive. Fu wisely decided retreat was in his best interest."

"Seems a waste."

"Perhaps. Danzou obviously believes taking back the Kyuubi's power is worth expending whatever resources it might take. No matter the potential of those resources," Jiraiya said, and both of the former Konoha shinobi turned their gaze towards the unmasked and unconscious Shimura Sai.