Kakashi POV~

They were so close. So close.

My heart stuttered when Tenzo reported the close encounter in the forest. 

So close.

I studied the group in front of me. All fully-fledged ninja, once cute genin still finding their footing. After hearing how Tenzo nearly captured Naruto, some wore determination, some hope, some excitement.

A bare few wore pure relief at the word nearly.

I was once among the determined ones. Now I was just glad to hear that the most elusive young shinobi that I'd ever met was still out there, confounding and irritating quite literally everyone.

Tenzo, with his wood style, would be able to exploit a very big weakness of Naruto's. Against his wood style, Naruto would have trouble using the Kyuubi's chakra without getting restrained. And Tenzo was no pushover, either, so it would cause a bit too much destruction if Naruto fought him and intended to win.

I'm okay with the fact that he got away.

I stopped trying to force myself to think like the village. Yes, I'm glad he's gone. I shouldn't be but I am.

There was also the matter of Sai. After we all got together again and began to head back, he came clean about everything. How his real mission was to get Naruto, and also about how he changed his mind, especially after talking to Sasuke. 

The resolve in his eyes when he said he would no longer let Danzo control him, it sent warmth blossoming in my heart.

Later, while we were camped out during the night, I confronted Sasuke while we were both on watch.

I put a hand on his head, mussing up his hair. He startled and glanced back at me curiously, black eyes soft in the darkness.

"Good job." I told him. He blinked at me, silent, and turned away again. We sat quietly, and I felt something like pride. I was proud of my students. Both the one who left and carved out his own path, and the one who stayed and rediscovered his own. My students, overcoming demons much more demonic than the so-called demon Kyuubi.

How I was grateful to watch them grow, grow into something marvelous.

I smiled softly. It sounded like something Jiraiya would say.

Marvelous indeed.

Naruto POV~

They didn't even know what hit them.

Deidara was about to launch another bomb into the water, most likely a finishing blow towards Isobu, when he was swatted out of the air like a fly.

The blond Akatsuki member crashed into the water heavily. He came spluttering back to the surface, stunned.

When he got his bearings together again, he found he was faced with a being of pure fury.

I stood on the surface of the water, golden chakra swarming around me in a cyclone of power, the energy so immense that we were on a verge of a Tailed-Beast transformation. My cloak fluttered around me, now glowing gold with the black symbols of the Sage of six paths. I was surrounding in a hurricane of chakra that churned the water itself, causing rippling waves to billow across the whole lake. 

There was no worry, using this amount where I was. I was far away from other people, and I was ready. 

We were ready to make a move.

I retracted the chakra arm that I used to hit Deidara. He was strong, I would give him that, but faced with Kurama's and my anger?

He stood no chance.

"Move any faster and I'd compare you to the Raikage."

'Aw. I'm flattered.'

Recognition dawned on his face when he realized who he was up against. No doubt he would have done some research on the Jinchuriki he was after.

"The missing Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi." Deidara scoffed smugly, pulling himself out of the water and hopping onto another one of his bird figures that he enlarged. He laughed, "Oh, I can't wait to see their faces when I drag you in! Maybe that'll earn me a bit of respect, hm."

I grit my teeth, but didn't blow up on him. I wasn't going to loose my cool.

"Had to get involved eventually." I shrugged, playing along. I smiled at him. "What fun would it be if I didn't?"

I had a lot of experience with smiles. Fake smiles, happy smiles, pressured smiles, and all that. And the way I was grinning at him now? The way he looked slightly unsettled before shifting into a maniacal grin himself?

Oh, I was ready to murder someone.

Isobu surfaced from where he was chasing Tobi underwater. I didn't forget about Deidara's partner. I wasn't making that mistake again. Besides, I had to be careful around him. Who knows what he was up to?

"Took you two long enough." Isobu grumbled. "How long am I going to play bait?"

Unlike most of the time, Isobu spoke out loud, where everyone could hear him. His voice was loud, echoing across the lake, but it was normal to me.

Deidara, on the other hand, seemed surprised.

"Bait, hm? What's this thing going on about?"

I glared at him, "Let's do this, Kurama. Isobu."

"Sure, brat." Isobu huffed before diving back underwater. 

Deidara stared at us in wonder. He smiled, reaching into the bags in his cloak, "Well, this'll be fun, hm."

He pulled out a small white lump and started babbling some shit about art. I wanted to scoff.

'Tch. Honestly, he's much too overconfident.'

"He thinks that he can beat us just because he's taken down Jinchuriki and Bijuu before. What a dumbass."

Unbeknownst to Deidara, I gathered and wrapped chakra around my arm. With a flick of my arm and only a second of time, I shot a chakra arm towards him, giving him a facefull of the Rasengan I had been preparing and cutting him off mid sentence.

He flicked a wrist forward, eyes narrowed in annoyance that I interrupted him. A small handful of the white objects (which I now knew were clay infused in chakra, thanks to Deidara's excessive talking) rained down on the spot where he was, sending out a spray of explosions. Deidara himself disappeared the smoke. Oh well. He wasn't S-class for nothing.

"Deidara senpaiiiii! Noooooooooooooo - "

I nearly flinched at the whiny voice. 'Goddamit. I didn't even know he was there.'

"I'm gonna murder that little-"

'Maybe wait a moment? Before you do that?'

Deidara suddenly burst out of the smoke, still circling around on that clay bird. 

"Feisty! I like it!" he called down to me. 

'Fuck this. Full Bijuu mode it is?'

"Finally. I was wondering how long you would hold back."

Kurama released what small hold he had on his chakra, already itching to send it all out. I knew the only reason he didn't release his full chakra at once was because I wasn't prepared and it would be harmful if I didn't expect it, but now a full Tailed-Beast transformation was all it would take to smash these two. 

Golden chakra enveloped me, forming the translucent chakra giant in the shape of a nine-tailed fox. Half the lake was covered in Kurama's chakra, a majority of the water already crashing into the forest. 

Deidara, for the first time, seemed actually worried that he might lose this fight. He didn't retreat, though, and I doubted he would. I could already tell this guy's pride was too big for him. It'd be his downfall one day.

"Tobi!" he shouted, "Get out of the way!"

"Oh no! Deidara senpai! Are you sure-"

"YES. Get out of here, hm."

The masked man fixed his gaze on me before turning and running off. I couldn't see his eye through the mask, but there was something unsettling about the way he studied me compared to how he acted. 

This Tobi fella was going to be a major thorn in my side in the future.

Deidara, whose hand was chewing up clay (how does that even work?) suddenly threw up a whole bunch of the stuff right down. A giant version of himself formed, which was weird.

"Shit. Naruto, if you focus on it, you'll see that when it disintegrates miniature bombs are dispersing in the air."

'What's that supposed to mean?'

"If you breath it, you'll disintegrate."

'...fuck.'

"Just keep my chakra around you. It'll protect you."

'Right. That's good.'

I could sense the small bombs now, so minuscule that I couldn't even tell they were bombs. Before Deidara could do anything else, I leapt forward, the giant chakra fox around me batting an arm forward when I did, and Deidara was smacked right out of the sky.

He almost dodged, but there was no escaping pure chakra. The chakra cloak around me preventing any of his bombs from even affecting me. 

A well-aimed Tailed-Beast bomb and this fight was over.

Until he was gone.

"Wha-" Deidara's indignant shout was cut off from the swirling portal warping him away. After a moment, he disappeared, all trace of him being there gone.

I froze, and Kurama's avatar around me did too. 

"I can sense them in the distance. They're...retreating?"

'Dammit.' as Kurama withdrew all his chakra, drawing it back to himself, my frustration mounted. The moment it was all gone and my feet hit the water, I dropped down and punched it uselessly. "DAMMIT." I screamed, "FUCK. WE WERE SO FUCKING CLOSE TO DEFEATING HIM, AND HE JUST DISAPPEARS?"

I slam my fist onto the lake again, loathing that all it did was slosh around my hand. Stupid water, not even letting me punch it...

"This isn't good. They saw you. They know you're finally coming out of hiding, and they'll tell the others."

"I know." I let out a shuddering breath, mumbling out loud, "That portal thing, it had the same feel as Tobi's chakra. That bastard can teleport, then? He knew Deidara would lose, so he pulled him out of there. Fuck this. If he can just teleport people-"

Kurama was silent, letting me rant to myself as I crouched in the middle of the lake. The choppy waters were starting to settle back into place, only to be disturbed again by Isobu.

The giant turtle came floating to the surface, surveying me with an eye shadowed by the spikes on his head.

"Is he okay?" he asked Kurama.

"Give him a minute."

At this I finally stopped, letting myself just sit there on top of the water and breath.

"This won't do." I muttered. I wasn't used to talking out loud with the Bijuu, but I did this time. "We stopped them from capturing Isobu, but there's nothing stopping them from trying again, or sending someone more powerful. We can't just sit here and guard you all day, with the other Bijuu still vulnerable. We can't do this on our own."

"I can take care of myself-"

"Quiet, dumbass." Kurama reprimanded, "That mindset is exactly what got Shukaku and Matatabi caught."

"Which is why we need help." I stood, eyeing my now scruffy clothes with distaste, "The Akatsuki is still relatively new, and although I doubt any of the Hidden Villages are taking this lightly, they still don't understand the extent of what the Akatsuki is capable of. Not like we and some of the others do. We need assistance." I looked Isobu in the eye, "If all the Bijuu work together, we could do it, but not all of them are in a good position."

"Brat," Kurama interrupted, "Are you saying to ask for help from the Hidden Villages?"

I sighed, exhaustion weighing at my bones, "We have no choice."

"You mean the same villages that imprison us like tools?" Isobu leaned in close, voice lined with steel and centuries of bitterness, "You know how they are. Why would you consider asking them for help?"

"Because we have no choice!" I threw my hands up impulsively, "We're fighting a common enemy. I hate having to ask them, but we'd be fools to take on the Akatsuki on our own!"

"You're right."

I hushed at Kurama's voice, all the fight draining out of me. The fox sounded...defeated, or at the very least forlorn. 

"The Hidden Villages treat us like objects incapable of thinking or feeling emotion." Kurama growled, "But we need their assistance here. Just to take down the Akatsuki."

Isobu blinked, "Kurama-"

"There are ways of getting their help without confronting them outright. After all the effort we went through to not end up back in their clutches, we're not just going to waltz back in there. But as long as we're on the same side against the same enemy, we can ally with them without even having to see them."

I nodded, smiling softly, "That's what I was thinking."

Kurama huffed, "After all this is over, we're going back into the forest and I'm going to sleep for a decade."

"Yes, yes, you lazy fox. We'll do just that." I plopped back down on the water, "I think I'll sleep for two decades."

"Sure you will."

I closed my eyes in a second of momentary peace, "If you say so."