The sealed kunai

Chapter 65: Eye To Eye

Naruto's clones were basically him. They knew that they weren't and were mostly subservient to Naruto when it really mattered, like in battle, but they had his mindset, they thought like him, they had his personality.

There was a part of Naruto's clone that was vastly angry with what he was seeing as he travelled through the village holding tightly to Hamako. He'd transferred some of his chakra to her to help with her exhaustion, which was the equivalent of squeezing a drop of juice out of a full glass when comparing their chakra sizes.

"Naruto-sama." Hamako said, still rather weak, but much stronger than she'd been in the house, "Please take me to Tsunade-sama. There's still a battle left to fight and our secondary defenses still need my guidance to work."

She had seen one home of hers utterly decimated before. Had been powerless to do anything other than flee and hide, and even then, when all of the others that remained in Uzushiogakure stood to defend their home to the last she was unable to.

That was not the case this time. She loved this village. And even if it was a diversion meant for Tobi to get to her, those fires were very real. The dead bodies in the streets were real. The panic was real. Everyone fighting was real, and while she was no shinobi, no combatant, she was someone that could do something to protect her new home.

Hamako Kiyomizu had fortunately given herself to a master that understood her fully.

"Okay." Naruto said, shifting his trajectory for the time being to run along the rooftops en route to the high point of the village buildings where Tsunade would be found in the middle of wartime, "You can summon your control board back to you without taking a big chunk of your chakra right?" She was still suffering from the superficial side-effects of chakra exhaustion.

"Yes, I can. Don't be worried for me master. I am more worried for you." She said earnestly, grabbing the collar of his Root top tightly, "That masked man..."

He was the reason for all of this. Everything that was happening today. And not just today either. Everything that had gone down with the Akatsuki, and so many things before that. He was responsible for the death of Naruto's parents.

"I know." The yellow-haired jounin didn't need to be told about any of this. He was already mad enough, but after seeing the village and hearing his concubine's words through his clone, after it dispelled he would probably be angrier.

Nothing more needed to be said between them as Hamako basked in the temporary comfort that Naruto could provide until they wound up on the Academy rooftop to find Tsunade surrounded by a direct ANBU guard.

The Hokage quickly took notice of them and a look of surprise came to her brown eyes, "Hamako? Naruto? I thought you were still a full day out?"

"She summoned me back when fake-Madara showed up at home." Naruto said, setting Hamako down to stand on her own feet, "The real me is fighting him up there right now." Tsunade's face took on a look of shock until a grave seriousness took over and she started cracking her knuckles, "Tsunade-baachan no..."

"You're giving me an order?" Tsunade asked treacherously.

"Um no?" Good answer Naruto, "But what about the rest of the village?"

"You're his objective Naruto! If he captures you then he wins!"

"The village comes first! I'm just one ninja, and I can beat him! I'm good enough!"

"Minato was good enough! And look what still happened!" Tsunade shouted, getting even her ANBU guard duty to feel a bit of apprehension at the tone of the Hokage, "I almost lost you in Amegakure, and this is the man that was behind everything instead of Jiraiya's student Nagato?! No! I can't let you fight this masked man!"