Naruto's Kit

Chapter 19

Hinata was laying down awake inside the house while Tsunami applied some gauze and balms to her skin to treat the burns she got. Naruto refused to leave her side but sent out a few clones to guard the surrounding area. Akane, already returned to her normal human form, was fine but worried greatly for her adopted mother. Shiba was scared that strange man would come back for them any minute.

Tazuna and Inari finally came back after seeing some fire from this direction. They were glad to see Naruto but not so glad to see and hear about what had happened. Especially when they heard it was his old team mate who started the damage, the one who had no interest in mingling with anyone around him. Tsunami finished up what she was doing while Inari tried catching up with Naruto. Tazuna meanwhile sat down on his recliner and mumbled how he'd tell the ruler of Wave to put an attack on sight order for Sasuke Uchiha. Since they weren't controlled by any Konoha council they didn't have to be lenient towards him if they found him.

Later when Hinata could sit upright and walk around Naruto first summoned a toad and asked it to deliver a message to Tsunade, saying Sasuke had been spotted and was after him now. The toad agreed and vanished. After that, he asked Hinata to go outside with him for a moment and Tsunami to watch over the two girls until they returned. Both girls agreed, but Akane chose to wait outside while Shiba helped Tsunami with drying the dishes.

Sasuke Uchiha was not in a good mood. But then again, when was he anything else? He had been forced to run away from the class dobe, the weak Hyuuga girl, and some little girl with odd chakra. He told himself it was because the girl was a surprise he hadn't expected and needed to plan out a counter before doing anything. Especially because her chakra and abilities were so confusing to him.

'What was the deal with that red chakra? I haven't seen that since the Valley of the End. And that look she had at the end. What kind of henge was that? For that matter, how could she do a henge when she was clearly too emotional to control such a jutsu? And why would she take on a form that made her look like some kind of human/Kyuubi hybrid?'

That last thought made something in his mind click. 'Wait. Red chakra and Kyuubi-like henge? Could that girl have some connection to the nine-tailed fox? Like Naruto? That should be impossible, but what if it's true?'

Sasuke thought about it, and figured there was only one way he could get an answer. He reluctantly reached into his pocket and pulled out the note Madara had left him. When he unfolded it, he saw no words, but some nonsensical runes drawn in a spiral. He looked at it in disgust, but then out of the corners of his eyes saw the surrounding area sort of melt around him and turn navy blue. Even the sky looked like it was melting. Sasuke did a genjutsu release but nothing happened. Everything then turned a solid navy blue, like he was inside some sort of sapphire, then returned to normal. Only he wasn't in the same place he had been before.

Sasuke saw himself underground in some sort of hallway, much like back in Orochimaru's lairs. But the place was lit with lightbulbs as opposed to candlelight and looked more like a prison than a hide-out. And the biggest difference was that Madara was right in front of him, looking like he had been expecting the younger Uchiha. "So, come crawling back eh?"

"No. Just figured I'd see what you're so interested in."

"Sure." Madara stretched the word sarcastically. "So how badly did Uzumaki beat you?"

Sasuke sneered. "He didn't beat me. There was just something extra involved I didn't suspect before."

"Like I tried telling you earlier boy, you're an idiot if you believe that you're the only one whose arsenal has changed in the time apart." Madara reprimanded with a sigh. "Just be grateful I went to the trouble to get you some reinforcements to replace your old ones."