Jiraiya mulled over what Kakashi had told him, about everything.

"Okay, I understand most of this. You had a lead, Tsunade pointed you at Hanzo because he fit. I honestly had the same thought," Jiraiya admitted.

"So that's why you showed up," Naruto murmured in thought as he walked back towards the palace of the Fire Daimyo.

"But why did you try to engage the leader of the Akatsuki?" Jiraiya asked with a frown, looking over his shoulder at the back of Naruto's head. "Kyuubi or not, that was pretty damn reckless."

Naruto grunted but made no comment.

Jiraiya sighed. "The Daimyo might not be happy about this, almost dragging Fire Country into another country's civil war."

"Almost nothing," Naruto remarked.

"Naruto, this isn't a game," Jiraiya warned.

"Did I seem like I was playing around?" Naruto deadpanned.

"No, but you clearly don't get that your crossing into another country can be seen as an act of war on our part," Jiraiya countered pointedly.

Naruto said nothing as they continued to the castle.

Kakashi hummed but said nothing about the little disagreement between the Sannin and the Bijuu. He got the feeling there was more that Naruto wanted to say on the subject but was biting his tongue. Either out of being mentally exhausted from the fight or another reason, he wasn't sure.

He noticed that change in Naruto over time since becoming the new Kyuubi. He was still loud, obviously, and spoke his mind. But he did keep some things close to the chest. He had to. At his size, silence was the only way he had any kind of privacy, any kind of secret.

To a ninja, secrets were valuable, currency even. How precious they must be to Naruto, who often had to choose between saying something everyone would hear or saying nothing at all?

It was amazing to observe and think about. The power, even the form probably wouldn't affect Naruto's personality much if he was just smaller. The size of him was ironically the biggest thing creating a gap between him and other people.

He could easily imagine a golden Ninetails with playful blue eyes running around Konoha and messing with people, happy and content. Maybe the size of a horse, maybe smaller. But not this big.

Amazing to realize what details mattered most in a situation.

Jiraiya sighed as the palace was growing incredibly close. "Just let us do the talk-"

"Fire Daimyo," Naruto spoke up calmly, underlined with tiredness and frustration at the situation. "Jiraiya needs a word. Something happened at the border. And I would appreciate it if a medic or someone could take a look at Kakashi-Sensei."

Copycat and Toad Sage looked at each other with interest at Naruto's action.

"He says you're welcome to the healing ward, Kakashi-Sensei. Pervy Sage, he's expecting you," Naruto informed flatly, looking at the setting sun. "Now excuse me while I keep guard for the bastard."

The pair had little choice but to go along with it, jumping off before Naruto stepped further away from the palace, finding his preferred mountain to keep watch from.

He let his mind wander while it could.

Hanzo wasn't behind the Hakaju, nor was he the source of it.

But the Akatsuki showing up. Were they involved or just opportunist assholes?

In either case, they failed to kill him. But Pain wasn't gone. Naruto wasn't even confident that killing that body was a truly crippling move. He could be back with the same tricks another day, and more if he was smart.

Not to mention there were so many others watching that fight with Pain. He hoped he gave them something worth reporting.

He was just glad the other Bijuu hadn't gotten involved. He had no idea where he stood with them and that was not the time or place to find out how many were willing to give him the nephew treatment like Saiken.

Saiken. He wished he could head back south and talk to the slug right now. It was...nice having someone who openly called him family, who cared and worried about him. Not that he didn't appreciate Iruka and his friends back in the village, but...

It was probably just having someone on his level that he could relate to and talk to. Ask questions about being a Bijuu.

Cycling back, Hanzo was no longer a suspect. Which left a big gapping question of who or what the Hakaju was?

Meanwhile

"You were attacked by the golden goose?" Shizune repeated in interest.

"It tried to eat me!" Choji said, covered in bites and scratches.

"I don't suppose you were able to capture it?" Shizune asked as she healed the boy.

"No, it flew off the moment we tried," Shikamaru answered.

"So if we see it again, should we try to kill that bird, bring it alive, what?" Ino asked uncertainly.

"Lady Tsunade would like it alive unless it proves deadly," Shizune answered with a hum. "These wounds are very stubborn."

"Wounds can be stubborn?" Choji asked, wincing a bit in pain.

"It's what we medic-ninjas call it when chakra or something else is hampering our ability to heal someone," Shizune explained. "Considering that goose seemed to have absorbed some of Naruto's chakra..."

"Does...does that make it a mini-Bijuu?" Ino asked in alarm. "Is it going to get bigger...?"

Shizune paused before smiling awkwardly. "We hope not?"

SQUAWK!

"AHHH! He's returned for me! He wants my fingers!" Choji screamed, jumping away from the honking sound.

"Choji, that's not-" Shikamaru stopped as he looked up and saw that it was indeed the golden goose outside the window. Thankfully, it wasn't flying towards them. "You can stop hiding, it's flying away."

Shizune momentarily ignored her patient, who was shivering in fear under the hospital bed, as she made her way to the window and watched the bird flying away into the coming night, feathers bright against the darkening skies.

"Well, that's not ominous at all," Ino remarked with a dry tone, voicing Shizune's sentiments.

Shizune had a feeling tonight was going to be interesting. Maybe not here, but somewhere.

Meanwhile

"I see," the Fire Daimyo said, sitting on the daimyo's cushioned dais while Jiraiya knelt after delivering the impromptu report. "To summarize, our good Bijuu was attacked while investigating a possible lead on this Grave Beast?"

That was one way of putting it. "By someone powerful, evidentially. Kakashi of the Sharingan told me this man, Pain, created something that was essentially a small moon to try and trap Naruto. If I hadn't seen the aftermath, I might not have believed it."

"Troubling indeed. There are only a few people in all of history that could trade blows with the Bijuu," the Daimyo noted in contemplation. "I take it there were witnesses?"

"Everyone was watching."

Jiraiya scowled upward in annoyance at Naruto answering in his place.

"At least three of the others were there," Naruto added in.

"Others?" the daimyo asked curiously.

"He means the Bijuu, or the Jinchuriki rather," Jiraiya filled in. "I'm sure every nation is on high alert after hearing there was a battle on the border with the Kyuubi."

The Daimyo nodded. "And this man, Pain, is not only the leader of a rebellion in the Land of Rain but is also the member of this group of elite rogue ninjas?"

"Tell him who they are and what they're after, or I tell everyone," Naruto warned pointedly.

The Daimyo raised an eyebrow, giving Jiraiya a pointed look as if telling him not to hold anything back.

Jiraiya sighed. "My spy network says they're a group with the aim of gathering the Bijuu. Their members include many high-profile criminals. Itachi Uchiha, Deidara of the Stone, and Kisame Hoshigaki to name a few. Orochimaru was among their numbers before he had a falling out with them."

"I see. I think I understand the situation. Thank you, Jiraiya. Is there anything else to report, or that you need?"

"Just that Naruto wanted Hanzo of the Salamander to meet with you, but the man felt he was needed most in his village after that attack," Jiraiya explained neutrally.

The Fire Daimyo hummed. "It seems I was correct in my guess. I'll have my envoy send word to the Land of Rain of possible aide."

Jiraiya blinked. Did the Daimyo...just concede to Naruto's prompting, to give aid to another nation? "My Lord, You wish to involve the land of Fire in another country's civil war? Are you not worried about how other countries might view this?"

"I mean, it'd be kind of stupid to let people like that have a whole country to play with, right?" Naruto asked as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

And the Daimyo nodded in calm agreement with that sentiment. "While I feel no obligation to aid this Hanzo in keeping hold of his country, freely allowing it to fall into the hands of such powerful criminals would be to allow them to grow as a threat. Speaking of which, do your spies know if they are still active as mercenaries? I know my fellow daimyos recommend their services once or twice, but I have a certain healthy distrust for rogues such as them."

Jiraiya conceded that reasoning was a good point, but it all still felt rather odd, too easy in some ways. "Not often as of late, no. Except for Kakuzu, but his desire for money means he'd always be a mercenary on the side."

Any further conversation was cut short by a small tremor in the ground.

"Naruto?" The Fire Daimyo asked, glancing upwards.

"Something's going on out here," Naruto said, his grumbling just barely loud enough to make out clearly.

The Toad Sage shared a nod with the Fire Daimyo before disappearing in a blur, quickly coming outside to a high balcony. Jiraiya quickly saw what Naruto meant.

The clear skies overhead, illuminated by a partial moon, were rapidly becoming darkened by thick clouds.

They were rolling in far too fast, and Jiraiya could feel a heavy chakra in the air that wasn't Naruto's. "Someone is differently directing this thing, or it learned a new trick," Jiraiya murmured. "Both are bad."

Naruto grunted in agreement as he let some of his chakra slip, his golden fur becoming the only source of light beyond the torches of the castle.

Until, of course, the flames started going out.

Naruto's eyes snapped to the palace in alarm. "Jiraiya! Kakashi! Everyone! The skeleton minions are in the palace!"

"Shit!" Jiraiya said, looking down as he indeed heard a rattling sound coming from the courtyard. "We'll handle it, you deal with the big one!"

Naruto would, as soon as he found the fucker. Still, this was getting bad. The humanoid skeletons were invading the palace and had the advantage- the darkness didn't hinder them like it did the soldiers who were busy trying to mount a defense and relight torches. Torches that would not light.

Naruto found himself without an opponent for an unbearable moment before having an epiphany.

Gathering chakra into his tails, he grabbed at the wind as he spun and sent a trio of wind blades into the sky, trying to cut through the clouds.

They cut through, but the clouds were so thick they closed up at the bottom before the slashes could break through to the clear sky.

And still no attack from the Hakaju itself. Maybe it really was after the daimyo?

No, something about this was wrong to Naruto, he just couldn't think of what while people were fighting and dying in the dar- "Dammit, I'm an idiot!" Naruto realized as he flared his chakra more and brought the ends of one of his tails closer to the palace.

The area lit up like the sun rose just for them.

The soldiers, though somewhat fearful of the undead creatures, quickly rallied and mounted a better counter against the mindless invasion.

"Good job, Naruto!" Kakashi called out from within the palace. "I'm guarding the Daimyo and his family, we're heading to the lower levels."

Naruto grunted in acknowledgment, not wanting to give anything away. He snarled in frustration as his tails began to wave around him. Where was this thing?!

It waited until Naruto looked away before he felt the bone monster rush out of the darkness and into his side, latching onto his side.

"Shit!" Naruto exclaimed, his tails stabbing into the ground around the palace to help brace himself and push back before he fell over and crushed a lot of people. He went as far as placing one hand on the palace roof and hoping it wouldn't cave in.

Thankfully, it didn't, even if it was damaged.

"Come here, you sneaky asshole!" Naruto yelled as he turned and grabbed the Hakaju with his hands and tails. But he could still feel it feeding on his chakra. "Eat this!"

Naruto flared his chakra intensely, enough to send several skeletons and warriors into the courtyard flying several feet. The force of the output helped dislodge the Hakaju, giving Naruto the chance to push it back and slam it face-first into the ground.

"Okay, someone is definitely controlling you this time! You are not this smart!" Naruto said as he kept the beast pinned. "And if someone is controlling you..."

He kept as hard a hold on the Hakaju as possible and tried, tried to sense for any sign of who this was. But over the blood, screaming, and everything else? It was impossible to tune into anything further away.

"Naruto?! Do you need any help!?" Jiraiya exclaimed.

"I got this, Pervy Sage! Just keep as many people alive as you can!" Naruto called back.

It was only now that he realized the Hakaju had gone strangely still. He looked down and saw it was no longer struggling, merely raising a front leg to...

Naruto's eyes went wide in shock as the Hakaju made a hand sign.

There was a poof and the grave-beast was replaced by a giant mount of dirt, vaguely in the shape of the giant Skelton. "Substitution?!" Naruto realized in shock, already turning to see where it had emerged.

Like something out of a nightmare, the Hakaju rose from just below the earth to the north of the palace.

It roared, and more of its minions leaped off from the behemoth to join the fray and invade the palace. It was only so many before Naruto barreled into the Hakaju, sending him and his foe tossing into the ground. When the Hakaju started to create another hand sign, Naruto responded by biting the offending Hand and tearing the relatively small bones off.

More would form to replace it, but for now, it delayed what the Hakaju could do.

That was all Naruto needed as he began to claw and tear into the Hakaju. It tried to fight back, to bite and claw at him, but the efforts were feeble to Naruto.

He had to admit, God or not, that Pain certainly was harder to fight than this thing.

Jiraiya took a moment to take a look at the battle between the kaiju and frowned. Naruto was still going strong, but his movements were getting sluggish and sloppy.

He was tired, simple as that. His body could probably stay in the fight, but his mind was definitely fatigued. In a less stressful moment, he'd ponder if this was a leftover of Naruto's humanity or if Bijuu also faced mental exhaustion naturally, if sleep was still a requirement for masses of chakra.

As it was, he filed that away for later and jumped back to help in the fighting. The bone-creatures were thinning in numbers, but it was obvious more could come at any mom-

The Hakaju formed by the castle again.

"Naruto!?" Jiraiya called out in warning and in question as he used his hair-needle Jutsu to pin down multiple enemies at once, preparing to summon a toad if needed.

The golden fox rammed it away before it could even get more minions into the courtyard.

Naruto grunted. "He fucking respawned! I killed him that time, and he just came back!" he exclaimed, both in frustration and in explanation.

That wasn't good, Jiraiya realized, watching as Naruto growled and kept the Hakaju at bay. Something was definitely controlling this thing now, the Sage was sure. It had been purely animal before by all accounts, but now it felt like someone was giving it commands, using it like a weapon rather than an attack monster.

Naruto, meanwhile, stared down his foe with uncertainty as the Hakaju remained at a distance. Naruto himself could fight and endure anything this thing could dish out, but the people in the castle could not outlast an endless horde of skeletons forever. And a toad summon would not last forever if the Hakaju just kept reappearing after being destroyed.

He needed to put a stop to whoever was controlling it, but he still had no idea where they were.

It wasn't infinite. Naruto was sure there was a limit to how many times it could be broken before it needed to sulk off and recover.

So, killing it until it stayed dead for the night was the only option? That still left the castle and the humans at risk though.

Still, he barred his teeth and tensed to attack, the skeleton monster bracing itself as well-

SQUAWK!

But both of them stopped to look at the sound in confusion.

It was...the golden goose that had been up his nose?

Naruto starred incredulously.

He wasn't sure, but he got the impression the Hakaju was too beneath its shroud of darkness.

The bird flew towards the Hakaju, and Naruto wondered if the bird was brave or stupid.

Neither, as it turned out.

The goose let loose an honk that turned into a majestic screech, the body engulfed in light and erupting into a bright golden flame. It grew rapidly to be the size of Naruto's head, forming a great burning bird that was screeching into the face of the Hakaju.

The Hakaju, despite everything, flinched back and recoiled from the radiant light and screeching call. The blazing chakra burned away the shroud of darkness, leaving only a skeleton beast until-

Naruto narrowed his eyes. For a split second, he almost sensed something. Something within the Hakaju, under the cloak, had disappeared before it could be revealed.

The Hakaju finally roared and became more animalistic, biting and longing at the bird, which dodged and clawed at the head.

Seeing his opening, Naruto charged forth and grabbed the Hakaju by the skull, slamming it into the ground with a bone-snapping twist.

The Hakaju finally started to disappear and dissolve. Not vanquished, and with this cloud cover, it might still reappear somewhere.

The roar of the blazing bird brought Naruto's attention back to his unexpected ally. The fiery avian took higher to the sky, reaching the clouds, and with a vermillion wave washing over the clouds, they began to part and dissipate.

Naruto blinked as he realized the bird was gone. No goose or anything, just...gone.

"Pervy Sage, any idea what the fuck just happened?" Naruto asked absently.

"Was a little busy fighting skeletons!" Jiraiya called back, kicking a dissolving one in annoyance. "But did a damn Phoenix just show up to help you?!"

"Yeah...I think it came out of my nose," Naruto said absently.

"...WHAT!?"

Unsurprisingly, more than one person had this reaction.

End of Chapter

Yes, people, I had a plan for using the Golden Goosse this entire time. Hehe, that was fun to write. Damn thing turned into a pheonix to help Naruto out. But yeah, someone decided to remote control the Hakaju, making it much more dangerous than when it is just attacking like a wild beast. More so when it has cloud cover to let it stay as it pleases. Hakaju plot will only have a few more chapters left before it is resolved.

Early viewing of chapters 28-29 avaliable on my pat-reon:

p a treon . com (slash) akumakami64