102 The Betrayal

General POV

While Denku and the Deva path were fighting, Ishizu activated his Rinnegan to see the bandit leader activate the forbidden jutsu.

"Come on, you two. I need the sealing array now."

Ishizu summoned a panda child.

"Tell the sisters to come with the sealing array. It has started."

"Aye-aye, Sage," shouted the child.

More and more nature energy was pumped into Hotaru that even Naruto felt it.

"Hotaru is in danger! We have to find her now!" screamed Naruto.

Utakata and Naruto came to Hotaru at the same time as Yang Yang, and her sister appeared.

"No time for a lovely chat, you two. We have to find the perfect target. Is the sealing array ready?" asked Ishizu in a hurry.

"We have finished it, but are you sure you want to use it? If Naruto sees you now without your mask...," started Yang Yang.

"I know, but it is either now or later. I will spare him the unnecessary problems. Let's do it!"

Ishizu gathered his massive amount of nature energy that came to Hotaru and took some of it inside him to transform.

He appeared in front of Hotaru and the leader.

"Ishizu-sensei, you came!" shouted Naruto.

"You! You are that mist ANBU. What are you doing here?" asked the leader in confusion.

"I have no need for you," spoke Ishizu as he knocked him out.

"Nice, Ishizu-sensei."

"I am sorry, Naruto," bitterly spoke Ishizu before performing hand seals.

"What do you mean, sensei?" asked Naruto before a wood dragon appeared from the ground and coiled around Naruto, draining him from chakra.

"Hotaru is getting more and more nature energy inside her body. If it will continue, she will burst and die as well as many kilometers of this place."

Ishizu turned to Utakata while Naruto had a horrified expression.

"This jutsu... It can't be."

"She is someone you love, right, Utakata? Would you give your life to save her?" asked Ishizu.

"Sensei! Tell me this is not true!" shouted Naruto, but Ishizu's eyes were on the other Jinchuriki.

"What do you want, Sasaki-san?" Utakata narrowed his eyes, thinking what the man wanted from him.

"I can seal this jutsu away and even take it from her, doing no damage to Hotaru.

But.

In exchange, you must release your Bijuu chakra for me."

Naruto's entire body was trembling. His brain working at high speed to come to terms with what was happening.

Ishizu waited for Utakata before the latter agreed in defeat.

"You made the right decision, Utakata."

With that, Ishizu suddenly opened the seal, releasing the accumulated chakra. In response, 5 chakra tails appeared behind Utakata, who hoped to suppress it.

Yet the seal master took out a 210 x 297 mm (normal paper size) seal that had a small black point in its center.

Now: Panda Fuinjutsu: Gluttony Hole."

Chakra exchange happened between the girl and the paper and one could see how the black point grew until it absorbed the nature energy from within Hotaru, leaving the paper completely dark.

Quickly, Ishizu took out his container with 6 marbles and pointed at Utakata.

"And Fuinjutsu: Six Roaring Pandas."

The tails were quickly absorbed and 4 out of 6 marbles were full, leaving an exhausted Utakata was panting on the ground.

Turning away from Utakata, Ishizu's eyes momentarily stopped and met with Naruto's.

Unlike his normal sky-blue eyes, only reddish fox eyes were staring directly at him, fueled by Kurama's chakra.

Both student and sensei looked each other into the eyes, with the former seeking an explanation only for the latter to fold at the stare Naruto was giving.

Relief overcame Ishizu when Denku appeared from the sky and dusting himself off.

"Puh, that was a nice fight."

"You... are back, Denku. Who... was it?"

Denku had to take a few deep breaths. Whoever it was could keep Denku on his toes.

"It was that fake God from Amegakure. He sent his little puppy and killed the Mizu Shinobi. When I sent the pet home, the Deva Path appeared. We fought for a while but he was really resilient, so I made a tactical retreat. You should do that too."

Then Denku turned to Naruto and even if he wasn't there when the betrayal happened, he could feel the tension in the air.

"I apologize for what he has done..."

"Enough Denku!" Ishizu's calm attitude broke as he screamed at Denku, causing the panda to stop his sentence.

Ishizu gnashed his teeth and turned to Utakata.

"Because you cooperated with me, I will give you some advice that will save your life, Utakata. The team that was sent to retrieve you is dead. A person who is hunting the Tailed Beasts murdered them. I have sent a message to Mei Terumi asking to take you to Konoha for his own safety. Due to some circumstances I am not able to help you go to Konoha, so I will give Naruto the mission."

It was hard for him to even look at Naruto as he was now but he used his last mental strength to speak to Naruto although he couldn't look him in the eyes.

"I won't say more than I have already done. Go to Konoha and you will get your explanation. Goodbye, my student."

Before Naruto could form words in his head and throw them at his sensei, he was gone in a puff of smoke.

Back in *DD*

"So what happened? I knew that Utakata was captured, but it was one of those fillers that I forgot most about. So how was the fight against Pain?" Ishizu asked for an explanation.

He was sitting on a stone with his head submerged between his legs and arms.

"Well, after you sent me looking for the problem, I found the corpses of the Mizu Shinobi. Pretty mutilated. There was this gigantic dog with more than one head looking at me with their Rinnegan. I quickly disposed of the summon but that only attracted the master. I remembered him from our last meeting with Sage Po. I wanted to leave, but he attacked me.

No big deal, I thought, as I knew how his attacks worked.

The fight continued for a moment before he decided to cheat and summoned the other 5 paths. I am strong but fighting 6 of them is a pain in the ass and I love my pretty fur, so after finding a good place, I faked my death and left," summarized Denku in a steady but low voice.

He had to talk with Po about the outburst of his Sage. Betraying his student wasn't easy as it sounded. Emotions had to be controlled or else something bad might happen.

Ishizu nodded.

"That's good. I need him confident enough to invade Konoha."

"Ishizu. All you are talking about is this invasion. Not once did you speak about Naruto? You were his sensei, and you betrayed him. I thought you wanted the Hokage to tell Naruto about you."

Ishizu pressed his lips against each other while glaring at the panda. Denku was a fighter and shouldn't be speaking with him about sensitive topics such as this.

"Plans change and I adapt to them. It doesn't matter if he gets to know it now or when he reaches Konoha. What matters is that he knows. Still, it doesn't mean I won't help Konoha survive Pain's attack.

I know Kushina will gut me if she hears I could have saved Konoha and didn't. That's why my next mission is to return to Konoha and make an anti Shinra Tensei battier in case Nagato uses his big Shinra Tensei to flatten the entire village."

"What about the Uchiha brothers?" inquired Denku.

"Itachi should be healed by now. He will either meet with Kisame or accompany Sasuke to the snakes. Pain's invasion is the perfect opportunity to get Konoha's major thorn out of its body. Danzo has contributed nothing useful during the last years. Sure, he has done enough for the village, but the negatives outshine the positives by a lot.

But before that, I have to ask them if they want to exchange eyes. Itachi is blind. I made the KoH heal him but spared his eyes. It is their decision to do it."

Back in the elemental nations, Naruto reunited with the rest of his team and they left for Konoha.

Utakata accepted going to Konoha after a letter from Mei arrived saying Utakata is no longer a missing-nin and that he can stay in Konoha before she personally comes to Konoha and takes him with her.

While Naruto and Utakata saw Ishizu leave, Naruto asked Utakata not to talk about it to anyone and Utakata agreed since it was none of his business.

In Naruto's mind.

"I can't believe it," Naruto spat out the words like they were poison as he ran in front of the cage while an amused Kurama looked down at Naruto.

"Quite a big reveal he made. Who would have thought."

"Big reveal?! He was, or is Yamamoto! He was the one that stopped me from taking Sasuke back. He was the one who stopped us from sealing the Sanbi. I can't believe he betrayed the village; betrayed me. After everything he has done for us. WHY?!"

For the first time in a long time, Kurama laughed while also reflecting on his hatred towards humanity.

"You are a Shinobi, right? Your emotions blind you to finding the truth. Your question for why he's done it can be answered if you look for it as you are now."

"Answer? There is only one answer. He is the same as the Akatsuki. He hunts for us Jinchuriki to take our chakra," Naruto replied as he ran at the cage and hit it with his fist resulting in a 'CLANG'.

In return, Kurama slammed his claw against the cage, causing a shock wave to hit Naruto and pushing him back.

"Enough! Leave this place, Naruto. As amusing as it is to watch you be controlled by anger, I want my late-night sleep. As long as you can't control your emotions, you will never find the answer. I know betrayal hurts, but you either let it go or deal with it. If left alone, it will consume you."

With that, the Kyuubi kicked Naruto out of his mind.

"You are back?" asked Utakata.

"Stupid fox, thinking he knows everything and kicked me out. He thinks I can't think straight."

"It must hurt knowing your sensei betrayed you. When I thought my sensei betrayed me, I was also furious. In my hatred and fear, I killed him. Over time, I've come to regret what I've done and maybe he wasn't doing what I thought. We are Shinobi, Naruto. Nothing we do is simple. Look underneath the underneath."