Still Naruto POV~

Not long later, Kakashi came to me and said that they had to leave soon. I simply nodded in understanding. My travel would go much faster when I was alone anyways.

Sasuke hadn't left my side the entire time, not speaking much but providing a constant presence. Whatever anyone else thought, I found it comforting.

Before they left, I was approached by a majority of my old (friends?), Sakura among them.

"Naruto! Continue inspiring people the way you do with youthful vigor!" Rock Lee shouted. I couldn't help it. His words brought a smile to my face. Out of all of them, Lee was always one of the least judgmental, and never so much as glared at me in his life. 

"You too, Lee. You're a good friend."

He beamed at that. The others provided their congratulations and thanks, and last of all I was confronted by Sakura.

To my surprise, she bowed her head and apologized.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. I'm sorry I hurt you in the past. I know what I did caused you pain, and I'm sorry. You don't have to forgive me, but it felt wrong to leave without apologizing."

I didn't know what to say to that.

I never said it out loud, but I didn't like Sakura much. I didn't hate her, but she bothered me since the beginning. She struck me as the kind of person who would want forgiveness no matter what, and was now trying to get into my good graces just because I was supposedly "strong now."

But here she was, offering nothing but an apology. Not asking for anything in return. Her voice was sincere enough that I was willing to accept the apology.

"Thank you, Sakura." I said, and left it at that.

Kakashi and Might Gai came up to me then, and announced it was time to go. Kakashi gave me a fond look and I returned it as Gai ruffled my hair.

"Take care, Naruto." Kakashi said at last.

Sasuke put a hand on my shoulder before leaving, and said, "Bye, dobe."

I snorted, "See ya. Teme."

They all disappeared, then, heading back home to Konoha. 

I saw a small smile on Sasuke's face before they vanished.

When they were gone, I turned and set course to the Hidden Stone.

It was time to pay Son Goku a visit.

From the beginning, Kurama and I planned to free the Tailed Beasts.

I wouldn't say "planned," since we actually had no plan, but we intended to. Still, we were fresh out of the Leaf village, having just escaped our prisons, and neither one of us was eager to go back and risk getting caught again so soon. So we waited, and trained, and prepared.

Somehow, this situation provided the perfect opportunity.

Still, there was no way to get the Bijuu out without killing the Jinchuriki, so the least I could do was change everyone's minds, and get the Jinchuriki to stop treating the Bijuu like tenants and more like equals. It was a first step.

But I wasn't counting on this.

Tobi, with his teleportation, could move much faster than me. He could teleport others too.

And somehow he must have caught wind of what I was doing because when I arrived the Jinchuriki were dead and the Bijuu were gone.

It was fine before, but I picked up the pace the moment I sensed Akatsuki chakra in that area.

When I arrived, the chakra (Itachi's partner, was it Kisame?) was gone, taking the Jinchuriki of both Son Goku and Kokuo with them.

The Iwa nin who greeted me had already found out, and I thanked them quietly. Once I was far enough away, I punched a tree and screamed until my throat hurt.

"You can still save them, Naruto."

'I know, but dammit. He's stopping me at every turn and I hate it.'

"Let's go." Kurama urged, and I took off towards the new location of the two Jinchuriki. I knew it took quite a while to extract a Bijuu, and I had to stop them before they were finished.

When I arrived, though, Kurama announced that some of the Bijuu were requesting a meeting in the Psyche plane. I went in immediately.

In the psyche plane were all of the Tailed Beasts. Every single one of them.

I gaped at them, and noticed that some of them had their Jinchuriki with them too.

"Hey! I've heard all about you! Naruto, the friend of the Bijuu!" said the one who I recognized as Killer Bee. He spoke oddly, like he was rapping his sentences. Gyuki looked at me from behind him, and I nodded to them. Gyuki nodded back.

'So, what's this about?' I asked.

The Bijuu and Jinchuriki exchanged glanced before Kokuo said, "We've been captured. Not all of us, but it seems that the Akatsuki is going on a spree after hearing what you're planning."

'I noticed.' I answered gravely. 'Kurama and I are outside the cave where you and your Jinchuriki are right now. We'll get you out.'

Kokuo nodded, a little more interested. Son Goku leaned towards me, somewhat skeptical.

"Kurama tells me you two have been looking for an opportunity to free us for a while, after you escaped your village. Is it true?"

I glanced up at him. 'Yeah. Sorry we took so long.'

Son Goku snorted, "It's not like we were waiting for you like damn princesses, kid. But I guess I appreciate your effort." he glanced at Kurama, "After all, it's hard to doubt you when even Kurama's going completely insane with motherly protectiveness."

"Shut your mouth, Son." Kurama snapped, startling a laugh out of the other Bijuu.

"Anyways, we called you here to share some of our chakra." Matatabi explained.

"I must admit, you've caught my interest." Chomei added.

"Especially since all of our siblings who met you are insisting that you're different from most humans. Even Shukaku couldn't bring himself to claim that he wanted to kill you." Saiken piped up as Shukaku cursed at him vehemently, but didn't deny the statement.

I stared at them in awe.

I didn't expect this, and yet...it was amazing.

The Bijuu were coming together, and with their help, we could finally free them.

At last, we were getting somewhere.

Forcing my tears to stay put, I grinned and said, 'Thank you. All of you. I'm glad you're all willing.'

"Hmph. We're doing this 'cus Kurama asked. When Kurama puts aside his wrath for the sake of someone he cares about, we're willing to do the same. After all, we Bijuu have to stick together, eh?" Son Goku huffed.

I nodded. 'So, uh...'

"Put your fist out, Naruto." Kurama said, and I did. Each of the Tailed Beasts did the same.

The moment I touched them, raw chakra seared through my system like lava.

The power was wild and uncontrolled, unlike Kurama's chakra, but it had the same feel to it. It didn't take long to organize the foreign chakra, until I was able to tap into separate ones at will.

'Thank you.' I said, as we all retreated from the psyche plane.

I didn't know this, but Kurama and all the Bijuu were thinking the same thing.

This is him, the boy that the old sage prophesied.

This is him.

Sasuke POV~

It was nighttime when I saw Itachi again.

To be honest, I didn't expect to see him. I didn't want to see him. I was done with him, and I've gotten over my obsession, so why was he here?

I was the only one on watch, so when a slight movement in the bushes ahead alerted me of a presence, I immediately switched on my sharingan.

I recognized that chakra, that figure, that man he was here -

He shifted when he noticed that I'd seen him, and retreated a little ways away.

I sighed. I had no idea when he'd leave me alone, so I decided to just fucking go with it and get this over with.

I stood quietly, careful not to make any noise and wake the others, and made my way towards Itachi. I kept my sharingan on.

When we were far enough away, he turned to face me, and I hissed, "What the fuck are you doing here?"

He blinked, but that was about the only reaction he gave me. "I'm here to tell you something."

I reeled back. "Uh huh."

"Tobi told you the truth?"

"...yeah."

He nodded. "I have put Kabuto under a genjutsu, called Izanami. On my command, he will release the edo tensei and be stuck in an infinite genjutsu loop until he can accept his true feelings. When he releases the edo tensei, I will be gone for good. So I wanted to apologize."

His words left me in vague confusion, while the last sentence struck me like a slap in the face.

"Apologize?" I hissed.

He nodded matter-of-factly. "I should have trusted you from the beginning. I'm sure if you'd known the truth, you could have helped stop the coup. I tried to take matters into my own hands, deliberately keeping you at arm's length, tried to shoulder the burden all by myself, and ultimately all I can do is stand here before you as a failure."

I stared at him for a minute, silent.

He faced me fully, "I'm sorry, Sasuke. I did something I regret, and while I can't stop you from doing anything, I don't need you to ever forgive me." he reached out and tapped my forehead with two fingers, and I couldn't bring myself to pull away. 

"No matter what, though, I will always love you."

Something blossomed within my chest, then. Something light and heavy at the same time, something that sent every nerve in my body rushing with warmth. 

Itachi pulled away and disappeared. A stood rooted to the spot for several minutes. Absently, I realized my sharingan was still activated.

There was a while flash and a glow of afterlight in the far distance, and I knew he was gone for good.

For the first time in years, Itachi had been completely open with me. Perhaps that's why the small container where I bottled up everything finally burst open. It was fully open, now, and I'd forgotten how it felt to be free.

The floodgates, holding flimsy and confining, broke at last.

I stood and silently cried, with only the pale moon and the shadowy trees as witness.

Naruto POV~

When I burst in there and challenged all the remaining members of the Akatsuki, I didn't quite know what I was thinking.

There was a seal on the entrance, but it was a simple one that even I could decipher without Kurama's help. I guess I had my mother's blood after all, as Kurama liked to joke.

They looked relatively surprised to see him bust in there, but not that much.

"Oh, it took you long enough, Kyuubi boy." said Kisame, and my brain immediately labelled him as 'shark.' Well, I wasn't wrong.

"Oh, wow. There weren't as many of you as I thought." I looked around. Tobi wasn't among them, strangely, but at this point there was just Kisame, Zetsu, and strangely enough, Deidara.

Out of all of them, Kisame was the strongest. I wasn't counting on Zetsu being good at combat, and I've fought Deidara (I had no idea he was still around).

"Now this will be fun. Perhaps you are a Jinchuriki who will actually give me a good fight?" Kisame drawled.

Okay. He was the type to get a battle-high, I could see that.

He wanted a thrilling fight? 

Well...I wasn't planning on giving him one.

Grab Jinchuriki, and go. That was the plan.

Too bad Deidara's stupid bird swallowed him.

I stared at it dumbly for a moment. Then I said, "Well that's not very nice."

Kisame boomed a laugh, "Man, you're a funny one. No wonder you got Deidara so pissed when you met."

"I'll get you for that, you prick." Deidara grumbled, and I couldn't tell if it was directed to me or to Kisame. Probably both.

"Sure, sure." Kisame grabbed the handle of his sword, "What are you waiting for, eh? You've got some spunk. Let's see it."

I studied him carefully before moving. I didn't blame him for being confident (snarky was more like it), considering his reputation of being the "Tail-less tailed beast." I did my research. Samehada could eat chakra, and Kisame had massive chakra stores. Really, he was the perfect person to fight a Bijuu.

If I was too careless with him, there was a good chance of me getting defeated. Not to mention, he had Deidara here as well. While I knew Deidara couldn't beat me, he was a pain in the ass and explosions were messy.

So, I ran away.

Call it a 'tactical retreat,' but I basically ran. I couldn't fight in that cave, not when all three of us (excluding Zetsu, that little tree bitch wasn't even here anymore) had very destructive powers that caused large-scale damage. That cave would be obliterated from the get-go, but I wanted more room.

Obviously, the two of them gave chase, but they weren't stupid. They also needed some space, so they followed.

Kurama gave me a steady stream of chakra, but I didn't release it all just yet. Not when Kisame's sword literally ate chakra.

When I reached an open clearing, I turned around and launched a chakra arm towards Kisame, going straight for the throat. Literally. 

He swiped Samehada in front of him and the chakra arm fell apart, the sword sucking it in.

So that's how it works.

And with that, the fight began.