It was late by the time they got back to the village since it was several hours away and the meeting had been in the late afternoon, and everyone was tired. After a brief summary and thoughts with Tsunade, they all said their good nights and Shikaku, Shikamaru, Naruto, and Jiraiya headed toward the Nara Compound, Jiraiya saying he would stay with Naruto and Shikamaru until he went to confront Nagato and Konan.

Naruto sighed as he stepped through the main house's front door.

"You ok?" Shikamaru asked as he wrapped his arm around his husband's waist.

"Yeah. Just tired," Naruto replied, laying his head on Shikamaru's shoulder.

"It has been a long couple months for you," Shikamaru said.

"Mommy!" Shikadai cried out as he ran down the hallway.

Naruto smiled and took a step forward, making Shikamaru drop his arm, and Shikadai hit Naruto's legs hard, making the blonde cringe a bit. "Hey, what's wrong? I told you I'd be back."

Shikadai looked up at him, tears in his eyes. "Mommy, you no leave again."

Naruto picked the boy up and kissed him on the side of his head as the boy wrapped his arms around Naruto's neck. "I won't."

"Not yet, at least," Jiraiya said.

Shikadai tensed and wrapped his arms a little tighter around Naruto's neck. "No. Mommy no leave," he said, an angry sounding tone to the boy's voice.

Naruto chuckled, just imagining Shikadai glaring at the older man. "Calm down, Dai. I won't be leaving for a while, but I am a shinobi."

"No, mommy. You no leave," Shikadai said, anger now gone and replaced by fear.

"Ok. Ok," Naruto said. "I won't leave." He looked up and saw Yoshino walking toward them with Kairi in her arms. The girl seemed to be asleep. "Were they ok? They both seemed pretty upset when we left."

"Shikadai was a bit restless, but other than that, yeah. They were both fine," Yoshino said as she handed Kairi to Shikamaru.

Shikamaru smiled down at his daughter and kissed her forehead.

"You two should go home and get some rest," Shikaku said. "It's going to be a long week, if not longer. I'll come over tomorrow and we can discuss your plan."

Shikamaru nodded.

"She had a bottle about an hour ago, so she should be good for a bit," Yoshino said. "I'll go get her bag." She then turned and disappeared back into the living room, coming back only a moment later and handing the back to Shikamaru, but Jiraiya took it instead.

"They got their hands full," the white haired man said when Yoshino gave him a look.

"Thanks, Pervy Sage," Naruto said.

They said good night to Shikaku and Yoshino, then walked the short distance back to their house, Jiraiya following the two up the stairs and setting the bag down next to Kairi's room. "Night you two," he said, then disappeared into his room, closing the door behind him.

"I'll put Kairi down," Shikamaru said, then picked up the bag and walked into the girl's room.

Naruto just nodded and walked into Shikadai's room. The boy had fallen asleep in the short time it took them to get home, but as soon as he laid the boy down, Shikadai woke up. "Mommy."

"Shhh. I'm not going anywhere," Naruto said as he sat down on the side of the bed. He pulled the tie out of Shikadai's hair, then ran his fingers through it. "I'll sit with you until you go back to sleep."

Shikadai grabbed Naruto's hand, looking afraid that the man would disappear again if he let go. As Naruto continued to run his fingers through the boy's hair, Shikadai's eyes slowly closed, and when the boy no longer had a death grip on Naruto's hand, Naruto knew the boy had fallen asleep.

Naruto leaned down and kissed Shikadai's forehead. "I love you," he whispered, then carefully stood up and left the room.

Naruto peeked into Kairi's room, but didn't see Shikamaru, so he closed the door and walked to their room. He saw his husband taking off his shirt and smiled, coming up behind the man and wrapping his arms around his waist and leaning the side of his face on the man's back.

Shikamaru turned in Naruto's arms and reached up to tilt Naruto's head up, kissing him. They stood there for a few minutes in each other's embrace before Shikamaru pulled them both over to the bed. They both stripped down to their boxers and crawled in, Naruto getting as close to Shikamaru as he could.

Naruto laid there, listening to his husband's breathing. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

Naruto looked up at him. "For being so troublesome."

Shikamaru chuckled and leaned down to capture the blonde's lips again. "I've come to expect it by now."

Naruto smiled. "Thank you for letting me be on your team."

Shikamaru frowned. "I still don't like it, but I know how stubborn you can be. I'd rather you be on my team where I can make sure you're safe, then out fighting one of the others and worrying that I'll never see you again."

"I'm not defenseless anymore."

"But you're still not at 100% either. Did Kurama tell you if his chakra will be replenished by the time we face them?"

"He mentioned that he was going to rest for the week so that he could, so we won't be hearing from him for a while, but he said that we should be ready."

Shikamaru nodded and pulled Naruto closer. "Good. I can't lose you again."

Naruto furrowed his brow and wrapped his arms tighter around the man. "I'm really sorry I worried you."

"I know, but thinking that you might've been killed... It about killed me."

"I'm sorry." Tears welled up in his eyes. He knew exactly how Shikamaru felt, because he had felt the same way after Itachi said he had killed Shikamaru and Shikadai.

Shikamaru took a deep breath and Naruto felt the man kiss the top of his head. "Let's just get some sleep. It's been a long day."

Naruto nodded and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath himself.

Over the next week, it had been hectic in the Nara house. On top of having a new baby in the house, and Shikadai being very clingy, the talks between Shikaku, Shikamaru, and Jiraiya were going on too. Jiraiya and Shikaku liked Shikamaru's plan, but the two Nara men kept butting heads about some parts of it. Asuma, Ino, Choji, Izumo, Kotetsu, and Shizune came over too as Shikamaru had chosen them as part of the team. They had decided to have two teams of four, one to confront them head on, the other as back up.

Naruto wasn't too happy that Shikamaru had put him on the team that was back up with Ino, Choji, and Shizune, but after explaining that he would be their trump card, he felt a little better.

Kakashi even came over a few days before the week deadline showing them the letter they had received from Itachi. Itachi had written when the simultaneous attacks would take place, saying that he was going to send Hidan and Kakuzu to a location near the Leaf and that he had sent a letter to the Raikage about where he was going to send Deidara and Sasori, that Pain and Konan would be in the Hidden Rain village, and then he told them the location Kakashi was supposed to meet up with him and Kisame. Shikaku appreciated the heads up on the locations so that Shikamaru and his teams could add it to their plan, and also suggested Kakashi take a team or two with him as backup. Kakashi agreed and said that he would find a few men to take with him.

Jiraiya also had to figure out who he was going to take as back up, because as much as he hoped he could talk Nagato and Konan into changing sides, he knew that the chances of that were slim, and he didn't want to be at a disadvantage. Tsunade evidently told him that she would be joining him, much to everyone's protests, and Shikaku suggested a couple teams of anbu as their backup.

Naruto was getting a bit antsy the closer it came to the day of the fight, and he had to admit that Kurama being as silent as he was was kind of making it worse. He knew Kurama needed to focus on replenishing his chakra, but having the fox's voice in his head over the years had become a kind of comfort to him, so the silence was a little unnerving now. He had almost summoned the fox a few times just to make sure he was still there, but always talked himself out of it. He knew that if he did anything to keep Kurama from fully recovering, Shikamaru would bench him from the mission entirely and there was no way he was going to let that happen.

The day of the encounter had finally arrived and to say the air around the two teams was tense was an understatement. Asuma and Shikamaru had scouted the area the day before, setting up a few things for their plan, and they all agreed to leave early that morning to get there before Hidan and Kakuzu.

Shikamaru ran through the plan again with everyone, making sure that everyone had it in their minds and telling them to run through it at least two more times, and now they were just sitting there waiting.

Naruto had been standing a little ways from the others, just staring in the direction of the village, his arms crossed as if he was giving himself a hug, a frown on his face. He leaned his head back when he felt someone wrap their arms around his waist, knowing it was Shikamaru.

"They're going to be ok," the Nara said after he kissed the side of Naruto's head.

"I know, but I feel so bad. Shikadai knew that something was going on, even if Yoshino, Ino, and I kept him away from you guys talking, and we left before he woke up. He's going to be so scared. I promised him I wouldn't leave, but..."

"We're going to go back to them," Shikamaru interrupted.

"I know, but... This is going to be a dangerous fight. We're going up against the two immortals of the group. I... I'm a bit scared, Shika."

"I am too, but we just have to trust each other. Having you and Shizune on the back up team will give us an advantage. If anyone gets hurt, Shizune can heal them, and one of your powerful jutsu will probably be the saving grace for us."

Naruto had to smile at that. "It will be the first time I'll actually be able to use my new rasengan."

"Just remember you have to use it while in sage mode. It's a double edged sword."

"You mean a double edged shuriken," Naruto joked and looked up at the man.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, but smiled. "Troublesome blonde."

Naruto reached up and pulled Shikamaru's head down so he could capture the man's lips. "Just be careful. Please," Naruto said, a bit of fear in his voice.

"I will."

"Shikamaru." Naruto and Shikamaru looked behind them and saw Izumo coming up to them. "Ino said they're almost here."

The two broke apart and Shikamaru got a determined look on his face. "How far?"

"About ten minutes out," Izumo replied.

"Alright. Move everyone into position," Shikamaru commanded.

Izumo nodded and ran off.

Naruto grabbed Shikamaru's hand before he could fully walk away and pulled his husband in for one final kiss. "Let's get these jerks."

Shikamaru smirked. "Is Kurama ready?"

'I'm ready.'

"Yeah. He's good to go."

"Let's go then," Shikamaru said, then the two ran off towards the others.

The area they were in kind of looked like a wasteland, no grass, the trees looked dead, and boulders littering the area. They all thought it was a perfect place to take out two immortal beings. Shikamaru, Izumo, and Kotetsu had jumped into a few of the trees, Izumo and Kotetsu summoning large scythe-like blades connected by a long chain, and Asuma pulled his chakra blades out and hid behind one of the boulders. Naruto, Ino, Choji, and Shizune stayed back a bit to keep hidden, but close enough that they would still be able to see the fight in case they were needed.

It was only a couple minutes before they saw the two men in black robes with red clouds covering it.

"I don't get it. Why the heck would the jinchuriki be somewhere like this?" the man with silver hair, Hidan, asked.

"This is where Itachi said the nine tails would be. He also said that there was a chance we could run into a cash cow as well," the man with a headwrap and bandana covering his face, Kakuzu, said.

"Seriously! We're not here for some cash cow! Why is it always money with you?" Hidan yelled, raising his hands into the air.

"We need money for what we're..." Kakuzu began, then stopped dead in his tracks and held out his arm to stop Hidan.

"What?" Hidan asked, looking a bit annoyed.

"Look out!" Kakuzu yelled as he jumped back, Hidan doing the same.

Two kunai flew towards the men, paper bombs flying behind them and detonated mere inches from them. Before they could even make sense of what happened, two more kunai with paper bombs flew at them. This time they simply dodged them, and smoke filled the air around them.

Naruto smiled as he saw two shadows disappear under the smoke and had to keep his laugh in check when he heard Hidan yelling out.

"Hey! What the heck? I can't move! Kakuzu, what's going on?"

"You idiot, it's them," Kakuzu said in a deep tone. "It was a trap."

"I'll kill Itachi for this!"

Before the smoke fully cleared, Izumo and Kotetsu jumped down and slashed their blades through Kakuzu's chest, sending what looked like strings flailing out a bit from the wounds, wrapping the chain around the man's arms before digging the blades into the ground. "We got him! Asuma!" Izumo yelled.

Asuma came out from behind the boulder and ran up to Hidan, one chakra blade glowing a bright blue as chakra extended out and made the blade longer.

"What?" Hidan asked, eyes wide. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Taking you out," Asuma said as he swung his blade, but before it could connect, he fell forward and landed on his face.

"Crap," Naruto heard Shikamaru say and saw what he meant. Wrapped around Asuma's ankle was a hand and arm with long, thick strings attached to it, and what looked like something beating inside a clump of the string. A second hand burst out of the ground and flew up towards Shikamaru, which made the man jump away and break the shadow jutsu that was holding the two.

"Did you guys seriously think that would work?" Hidan asked with a smug grin as he pulled his three bladed scythe off his back and swung it down at Asuma.

Asuma rolled out of the way to dodge the weapon and slashed his chakra blade at the arm. The hand immediately let go before it was cut and the thick strings that were buried in the ground came up to show that it was attached to one of the arms of Kakuzu. Both arms quickly flew back and knocked Izumo and Kotetsu back and that allowed Kakuzu to free himself of the chains, and the two akatsuki members jumped back.

Shikamaru landed next to Asuma, who was picking himself off the ground along with Izumo and Kotetsu, and the four glared at the two. "This is as far as you go," the Nara said.

Hidan laughed a loud and maniacal laugh while Kakuzu just narrowed his eyes at them. "Are you guys idiots?" Hidan cried out. "You really think you can take us on?"

"Seems he was right. We did run into a cash cow," Kakuzu said. "That's the symbol for the guardian shinobi 12, is it not?" He was looking at Asuma, or more specifically Asuma's waist.

"Guardian shinobi 12? What's that?" Naruto asked quietly.

"It's a group of shinobi that helps protect the feudal lord," Shizune said. "Asuma was one of them when he was younger."

"So they're not just going to try to get to Naruto?" Choji asked.

"Doesn't look like it," Shizune said. "The guardian 12 made quite a name for themselves. They're ranked high in the bingo books."

Naruto frowned. "Be careful."

Hidan draped his scythe over one of his shoulders and Kakuzu discarded his already torn robe. Kakuzu had stitches all over his body as if it had been cut into pieces and stitched back up. The man hunched over a bit and suddenly four blobs flew into the air from his back. When they took shape, it was four stringy looking creatures with different colored masks.

Naruto remembered reading about them and how they could each wield a different type of chakra. Even though Kakuzu's jutsu was earth style, he could also control the other four styles as well. The fire creature wore a white mask with a red mouth and took the shape of a demonic tiger, the lightning creature wore a white mask with a yellow, triangle nose and took the shape of some sort of deformed biped, the water creature wore a white mask and had two dark blue triangles down its cheeks and took on the shape of a demonic, beaked biped, and the wind creature wore a white mask with light blue marks under its eyes and its body took on a strange four-legged creature with thin wings.

All four of the creatures looked like bad news to Naruto, and he wanted to get out there to help them, but knew that he needed to stay hidden.

The akatsuki moved first with Hidan running toward Asuma, swinging his scythe at the man. The four creatures went after Izumo and Kotetsu, while Kakuzu, whose body seemed to come apart even more after the creatures appeared as his arms were now longer because of the strings, went after Shikamaru.

Hidan was laughing like crazy as Asuma blocked his scythe over and over with his chakra blades. "I'm gonna make you a part of my ritual!" he cried out.

"Not... gonna happen," Asuma grunted out.

Shikamaru was dodging Kakuzu's flying hands left and right before he disappeared into the ground.

"What the..." Kakuzu asked as he looked around.

Shikamaru's shadow crept up behind Kakuzu and he rose up out of it with a kunai in his hand, ready to plunge the weapon into the man's back, but the fire creature raced over and shot a stream of fire towards him. Shikamaru glared at the creature and as he moved back, put his hands together to form the hand sign for his shadow stitching and the tendrils shot off the ground and plunged themselves into the mask, breaking it and causing the creature to fall to the ground in a puddle of some kind of goo.

"Well, at least they're easy enough to take care of," Shikamaru said as he raised his kunai up and faced Kakuzu again.

Kakuzu glared at him and instead of shooting his hand toward the shadow user, he shot it backwards and grabbed ahold of the back of Kotetsu's vest and flung him towards Shikamaru.

The two leaf shinobi crashed together and went rolling on the ground, groaning a bit from the hit. Before they could get up, Kakuzu sent both of his hands flying toward them and clamped onto their necks, dragging them closer to him and raising them up in the air.

"No," Naruto said and tried to run out there, but Shizune placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Naruto, stick to the plan," she said sternly.

Naruto looked down at her, then back at Shikamaru, who was struggling against the man's grip, clawing at the hand around his throat. "But he's in trouble. I can't just..."

"Shikamaru can take care of himself," Ino interrupted. "Trust him, ok?"

Naruto looked over and saw the concern on Ino's face, but then nodded and looked back at his husband.

Shikamaru kept clawing at the hand, but then made a hand sign and several shadows sprang into the air, piercing through both hands and successfully making them release both him and Kotetsu. They coughed a bit, but didn't have time to recover as Kakuzu was already throwing another attack at them. Shikamaru once again disappeared into his shadow, and Kotetsu used a substitution to get away.

"You have some interesting jutsu, boy. I bet you'd have quite a bounty on your head in the future too if you weren't going to die here," Kakuzu commented.

"There's no way I'm going to die," Shikamaru said as he popped out of his shadow and sent another shadow racing towards Kakuzu.

The akatsuki member couldn't get away in time, and was enveloped in a large shadow sphere. Naruto saw Shikamaru panting a bit and knew how much chakra all those jutsu were using. Shikamaru wasn't holding back and was already using up way too much chakra. He saw Shikamaru change hand signs, and then heard a muffled cry before the sphere dissipated and Kakuzu fell to the ground. He didn't move.

"Yes," Ino cried out, a smile on her face. "Two of his hearts down, three to go."

Naruto smiled as well, but then saw the wind creature flying quickly toward Kakuzu's body, plunging into the man before the mask broke. Naruto frowned as he watched Kakuzu sit up and glare at Shikamaru.

"You're going to pay for that, boy," Kakuzu said and sent strings flying toward Shikamaru.

Shikamaru must have been worn out from what he had just done because he couldn't dodge the strings fast enough. The strings wrapped around his wrists, arms, waist, legs, and ankles and lifted him into the air. He cringed a bit at how tight the strings must have been, eyes closed.

Naruto's eyes were wide, and what he saw next made his heart stop. The lightning creature was coming up fast behind Shikamaru, its mouth open and light shining as if it was about to shoot off a jutsu. "No!" he screamed and jumped out of the trees and ran towards them, but Shizune and Ino grabbed his arms. "Let go!"

"Naruto, Choji and Kotetsu's got it," Ino said.

Sure enough, Choji was already behind Shikamaru, his arms expanded and blocking the massive lightning bolt thanks to the arm guards, and Kotetsu was slashing his large blade through the strings that held Shikamaru. As soon as Shikamaru fell into Kotetsu's arms, the man ran towards them at a high speed.

"Take care of him," Kotetsu said as he placed Shikamaru in Naruto's arms.

Naruto, Ino, and Shizune moved back into the trees and Naruto laid Shikamaru on the ground. Shizune immediately activated her medical jutsu and healed what she could.

"Shikamaru?" Naruto asked, worry clearly in his voice.

Shikamaru gave Naruto a small smile. "I'm fine. Send Kurama out."

Naruto looked down at him, nodded, then summoned Kurama. The fox was standing at the size of Naruto standing up, and nine tails were flailing in the air. 'Let's do this, Naruto.'

Naruto stood up and punched his fist in his hand as he walked up to the fox. "Yeah."

The two ran out and Kurama immediately went for Kakuzu, clamping his jaw down on the arm that flew past him and slashing the strings with his claws.

Naruto formed the hand sign for his shadow clones and two appeared, one on each side of him and just slightly behind him, and he stuck his hands behind him so the clones could form a rasengan in each hand. He ran towards Izumo and Kotetsu, who were fighting the water and lightning creatures, and gave out a cry as he jumped into the air and aimed his rasengans at the two masks.

The creatures were able to dodge the attack, but Naruto quickly pulled a kunai out and slashed it at the water mask. It shot several bullets of water at Naruto, and threw the blonde to the ground.

"Naruto, get up!" Kotetsu yelled.

Naruto sat up and realized he was sitting in a puddle of water, then saw the lightning mask shooting a bolt of lightning at him. "Crap!" he cried out and jumped up just before the bolt hit the water. He heard the electricity buzzing through the water and he landed safely away from the now electrified puddle.

He was about to run towards the creatures again, when he was hit and smothered by a body. He pushed it out of the way to see that Asuma was heaving heavily. "You ok, Asuma?"

They both stood up and Naruto saw Asuma grasping at his chest. "No. He got my blood," Asuma said. "We need to stop him before he makes that symbol he needs for his ritual."

"We got these two. You take care of Hidan," Izumo said as he and Kotetsu ran towards the two creatures.

Naruto and Asuma ran at Hidan, who was already making the symbol on the ground. Naruto pushed himself to go a little faster and his fist collided with Hidan's face, sending the man flying through the air. Hidan's skin had changed. He was now pitch black with white lines that made him look like a skeleton. Naruto looked down and saw that there was still one line missing from the symbol. "We can't let him finish it."

'Naruto, share my chakra with Asuma.'

'What? How do I do that?'

'Focus on his chakra and infuse it with mine. This will allow me to share my healing powers with him. He's in no condition to fight in the state he's in now.'

Naruto looked over and saw that the cut on Asuma's chest was a lot deeper than he originally thought it was and could see the man was struggling to stay standing. He reached out and placed his hand on Asuma's shoulder, closed his eyes, and focused.

"What are you..." Asuma began.

Naruto could feel Asuma's chakra and pushed Kurama's towards the man, successfully merging the two. When he opened his eyes, the man was covered in a red chakra cloak.

Asuma's eyes were wide as he looked at his hands, then placed his hand over the cut on his chest, which was quickly healing itself. "How did you do that?"

"Not sure. Kurama will have to explain it later." Naruto turned and glared at Hidan who was running toward them. "Right now, we have to focus on this guy."

"Right," Asuma said and raised one of his chakra blades.

The two ran at him and when Asuma slashed his blade, it seemed to reach further than before.

"Guess he shared more than just healing chakra with you," Naruto said.

"It does feel like I have a new wave of energy in me now," Asuma said with a smile.

The two exchanged punches and kicks with Hidan, almost as if they were performing some kind of dance, and only stopped when several black tendrils pierced Hidan's body.

Naruto's eyes went wide, then saw Shikamaru panting on one knee with his hands forming the sign for Shadow Stitching. The man was shaking and he knew Shikamaru was taking a chance of using his shadow jutsu at this point.

"You little..." Hidan started. "How dare you!" Hidan threw his arm with his scythe back at the same time Asuma slashed his blade across Hidan's neck.

Naruto watched in horror as the scythe flew toward Shikamaru and everything seemed to slow down as he tried to run after it. He watched in slow motion as the three blades buried themselves in Shikamaru's chest and both the shadow user and Hidan fell to the ground at the same time.

"No!" Naruto screamed as he fell beside Shikamaru.

The three blades had buried so deep that Naruto could feel the tips of them on his leg when he pulled Shikamaru into his arms. Shikamaru coughed up blood and cringed at the pain.

Tears fell from Naruto's eyes as he stared at his husband. One of the blades had pierced right where his heart was and he barely registered that Ino and Shizune were now kneeling next to him.

"Shikamaru!" Ino cried out, fear in her voice.

Shizune already had her medical jutsu going and was trying to heal the wounds. As she sat there in silence, Naruto stared at her face, hoping to see some kind of hope, but the longer he stared, the more her face fell. "Th... There's nothing I can do. The blade went right through his heart..." She moved her hand to one of the other blades. "...and one of his lungs."

"No. No, no, no, no," Naruto said and pulled Shikamaru closer, burning his face in Shikamaru's shoulder. "No, please."

Shikamaru coughed and Naruto could feel the man's hand on his cheek. "Na.. to"

Naruto looked at Shikamaru and saw the man smiling at him, blood running from the corner of his mouth. The memory of Shikamaru lying on the ground with a rod in his chest and blood pooling out from under him suddenly flashed through his mind. He shook his head. "No. Don't talk, Shika."

'Naruto, share my chakra.'

Naruto looked over and saw Kurama walking over to them, Choji following, and barely caught the sight of Kakuzu in several pieces on the ground behind them. "Will it work just like it did with Asuma?"

'I don't know. His injuries are more severe, but if you don't do it now, he will die.'

Naruto turned back to Shikamaru, took the man's hand that was still on his cheek, then closed his eyes, focusing to find Shikamaru's chakra just like he did with Asuma and pushing as much of Kurama's chakra into the man as possible. He opened his eyes to find that both of them were cloaked in the red chakra and Asuma, who must have come up to them after he closed his eyes, was slowly pulling the scythe out of Shikamaru while Shizune had her hands over the wounds, green chakra mixing with the red. "Please. I can't lose you."

Shikamaru cringed as the blades left his body, and when they were out, looked up at Naruto with half closed eyes. "Love you," he said, barely above a whisper.

The tears that fell from Naruto's eyes seemed to evaporate because of the chakra surrounding him. "I... I love you too."

Shikamaru smiled and his eyes slowly closed, his hand going lax in Naruto's.

"No. Shika. No!" Naruto said, panic filling him. He looked up at Shizune, seeing Izumo and Kotetsu looking over her shoulder sadly. "Shizune?"

Shizune sat there, a focused look on her face as the glow around her hands seemed to get brighter. After a few agonizing seconds, a small smile crossed her lips. "His heart's still beating. Kurama and my chakra are stabilizing him, but we need to get him back to the village as soon as possible."

'It will take time to heal him, but I'll make sure he stays stable 'til we get him back to the village.'

Everyone let out a sigh of relief, and Naruto placed his forehead on Shikamaru's, tears falling even more, but still evaporating in the chakra. 'Thank you, Kurama.'

"Hey, you jerk! How dare you do this to me! Kakuzu, get over here and reattach my body!" Hidan yelled.

Naruto looked up and glared at the severed head that lay a little ways from them.

Asuma stood up and walked over to the head, picking it up by the hair.

"Ow! That hurts! Stop it!" Hidan yelled. He had blood coming from both corners of his mouth, and his head was still black with the white lines to make his face still look like a skeleton's.

"Your partner won't be helping anyone now," Asuma said, a glare on his face. He turned the head so Hidan could see Kakuzu's mutilated body.

"Why you... I'll kill you all for this!" Hidan yelled.

"Ino, can you take Shikamaru," Naruto said, his attention never leaving Hidan's head. He heard more than saw Ino move closer to him, and Naruto carefully placed Shikamaru in the woman's arms, then stood up and walked over to Asuma, the red chakra flailing just a bit as he walked.

"What are you doing?" Hidan asked, a bit of fear in his voice when he saw Naruto approaching.

Naruto stopped in front of Asuma, summoned two shadow clones that had sharp teeth and red eyes, much like he must have looked at the moment, and closed his eyes, feeling the nature energy filling him. When he opened them again, he stuck his hand out and the two clones formed his rasenshuriken. A high pitched whine sounded as he raised it above his head. "Asuma, place his head on top of his body."

Asuma nodded and quickly did so before backing up to the others.

Naruto took a few steps closer. "I will never let you or anyone else hurt my husband or any of my friends again."

"What is that? What are you doing? Stop! Don't!" Hidan yelled as his eyes got wider.

Naruto smashed the rasenshuriken into Hidan and jumped back. He heard Hidan cry out as the rasenshuriken expanded and then grew into a large sphere that engulfed the body.

Naruto just stared at the event, the glare still firmly on his face, and when the jutsu ended, he walked up to the crater and jumped down. Half of Hidan's body was disintegrated, as well as a chunk of his face, and his skin was also back to normal.

"What the heck did you just do to me?" Hidan yelled.

"Making sure you can never hurt my husband again. My rasenshuriken pierces every cell in your body, disconnecting them from the chakra circulatory system, in a way that can never be repaired," Naruto said. "Not that it really matters since you'll never be able to be reattached to your body."

"You jerk! How dare you!"

Naruto turned and walked out of the crater. "Can one of you do an earth jutsu to fill that crater?"

"I know of a simple one that can do it," Shizune said as she stood up.

Naruto nodded then sat back down next to Ino, taking Shikamaru back into his arms. He watched Shizune slowly fill the crater, then looked back down at Shikamaru, who was breathing gently in his sleep. The red chakra was still covering him, which meant that Kurama was still healing him, but the cloak seemed to be gone from himself now.

Kurama dispeled his summoning, and Asuma went and gathered the pieces of Kakuzu in a scroll, then they all headed back to the Leaf to report to Tsunade.

------------------------

Ok, so that was somewhat similar to what happened in the canon, but at the same time not at all. I tried to change it up a bit, but took a lot of inspiration from the fight between Kakashi, Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji's fight against them. I'm sorry if the fight felt a bit short, but I just figured that Shikamaru and Shikaku would've definitely come up with a way to take them down quickly with all the information Itachi gave them. Hope the fight was ok... and yes, I just had to do that to Shikamaru... There's something wrong with me... But you know I wouldn't let him die. Only one more chapter left, so I hope you will stick with me til the end. See you in the next chapter.