How Kurama Leads Naruto Astray

In the Land of Wind, the weather had been strange recently, causing massive sandstorms that nearly covered most of the desert in the Land of Wind, basically engulfing the entire country.

Because of a certain rogue ninja's idiotic actions, the Sand Village had to send a large part of its forces to rescue people, leaving the task of capturing the rogue ninja to their trusted ally, the Hidden Leaf Village of the Land of Fire.

As you can probably guess, this idiotic rogue ninja is the infamous Mukade, who, despite everything, still wants to gain the power of the dragon vein, which is the power of the Six Paths. Now, he's only a step away from success.

Jiraiya and Kakashi stood at the edge of the dragon vein, with Sakura, Shikamaru, and Temari beside them. All five of them had serious expressions on their faces.

"Centipede, what exactly are you trying to do!" Temari, now matured, stood holding her iron fan, her face full of anger as she stared at the centipede at the center of the dragon vein.

The centipede sneered. "Of course, the princess of the Sand Village can't understand my noble intentions. You pampered ones have long forgotten about us common ninja. Since you only care about yourselves, I'll have to find a way to get stronger on my own!"

Kakashi sighed helplessly. "Out of the five people in front of you, two are commoners. Jiraiya-sama is the strongest among us, and Sakura is the strongest of the three Chunin. So why are you blaming others for your own problems?"

"I'm a Jonin," Shikamaru raised his hand and said.

"Sorry, I forgot," Kakashi said without any apology.

It was mainly because Shikamaru had just recently been promoted to Jonin, so it was easy to forget.

"I'm going to take the Jonin exam when I go back!" Temari glared at Shikamaru.

Shikamaru was helpless, but he didn't argue. It wasn't like he could say that the Jonin exams in the Sand Village were harder than in Konohagakure because of limited resources... Saying something like that might get him killed.

Sakura smiled as she watched the two of them. "I'm a medical ninja. I don't need to take the regular Chunin exams."

"Where do you get the confidence to say that?" Jiraiya said, sweating. Sakura's punch now had the power to rival Tsunade's, and her medical Ninjutsu was already at an advanced level. Recently, her chakra had almost reached its full capacity due to the Yin Seal, and she had even started trying to learn the Sage Mode of the Wet Bone Forest.

... Is she about to take off?

To explain, Jiraiya had been waiting for Naruto and Sasuke for a long time but hadn't heard from them. While collecting intelligence from the ninja world, he also kept in contact with Konohagakure. Once he learned that Sakura's medical Ninjutsu and her monstrous strength were already formidable enough, he decided to offer to teach her Sage Mode.

Since Naruto and Sasuke were both learning Sage Mode, and Jiraiya had some free time, he thought it might be a good idea to teach Sakura as well.

The Great Sage was also happy. With Jiraiya's experience, they weren't worried about Sakura getting into trouble, and Jiraiya even borrowed the Dog-Beating Staff from Mount Myoboku.

Kakashi was looking at the four of them with black lines across his forehead. "We're chasing after rogue ninjas, can we not go off-topic like this?"

Jiraiya-sama was one thing, but how did the three of you also start acting like him?

Is it contagious?

The centipede's face also darkened. After all, he was about to do something big. Why did these people keep going off-topic? Was the main point about the Jonin rank? It was because the Sand Village refused to give him any resources!

Shikamaru thought to himself, it's not that the Sand Village won't give you resources, it's that they don't have any resources to give you.

But he couldn't say that because Temari would punch him, and he couldn't fight back.

So... women are troublesome.

"Whatever you do now won't matter, the seal will open soon, and I will gain the power of the dragon vein, becoming the ruler of this world!" The centipede shouted at the five of them, fully unleashing his secret technique to absorb the seal left by Jiraiya.

Jiraiya's expression turned grim. "This is trouble."

He knew all too well how powerful the dragon vein's power was. If the centipede absorbed it, at this point, no one in the ninja world might be able to defeat him.

"Is Sage Mode not ready yet?" Jiraiya asked, a bit impatient. He instinctively glanced at the two sages on his shoulders, Fukasaku and Shima.

Fukasaku shook his head subtly. "You know how long the preparation time for Sage Mode is."

"It's because you didn't take the enemy seriously. If you had summoned us earlier, we could've already taken him out," Shima sighed and shook his head.

Jiraiya had nothing to say. When he first saw the centipede, he hadn't taken him seriously, after all, he was just a Jonin. With his own strength, he could easily win. Who knew the centipede had a secret technique specifically for escape?

It's his fault, and he accepts it, so he absolutely can't let the centipede succeed.

As long as the Sage Mode is activated, Jiraiya believes that with his speed, he can instantly kill the enemy and not give the centipede a chance to activate the dragon vein.

While thinking this, he suddenly saw a black crack appear not far in front of the centipede, as if the space had torn open. The black crack became more and more obvious, finally turning into a large mouth that fell right in the center of the dragon vein.

With six people and two frogs looking confused, Naruto and Sasuke's figures walked out from the black crack.

Naruto, upon seeing everyone, immediately brightened up: 

"Perverted Sage? Kakashi-sensei? And Sakura-chan and Shikamaru? Were you all waiting here for me?"

Sasuke also paused for a moment at the sight of the people in front of him, instinctively speaking: 

"That doesn't seem right. There's also Temari from the Sand Village. According to what you said, she shouldn't be here, unless they got married and didn't invite us."

"Ha, there's no way they'd get married and not invite us. Are we that annoying?" Naruto laughed without care.

Shikamaru: "..."

Temari: "..."

Kakashi: "..."

Jiraiya: "..."

Sakura's expression changed drastically. The joy of reuniting with Sasuke hadn't even lasted a second before she couldn't help but shout: 

"Sasuke! Naruto! Get out of the way!"

"Huh?" Both of them froze for a moment.

The next second, the centipede's voice came from behind them: 

"It's over!"

"Secret Technique: Seal Technique: Devour!"

"Dragon Vein Seal: Release!"

It was only then that Naruto and Sasuke realized there was a strange person standing behind them. With the renewed eruption of the dragon vein chakra, Naruto and Sasuke were once again engulfed by the purple light.

The black crack hadn't disappeared yet, and the purple chakra, along with Naruto, Sasuke, and the centipede, was swallowed up by the black crack.

"We just got back, damn it!" Naruto's scream echoed as his figure vanished from the spot.

Sasuke suddenly opened his eyes wide. His blood-red Sharingan focused and formed a six-pointed circular Mangekyou pattern, which he directed at the centipede.

"Six Paths: Amaterasu!"

Not a good guy, burn it first.

"Naruto!" Sasuke called softly.

Naruto gritted his teeth, and the golden Hagoromo suddenly appeared around him, with nine Tomoe lined up on his back. His facial whiskers turned into deep black lines.

He looked at the centipede burning in black flames and shouted: 

"Damn it, look at the mess you made!"

"Six Paths: Vajra Lock!"

Two golden chains shot out from Naruto's body. Their immense power completely bound the centipede. The Amaterasu flames continued to burn its body, while the Vajra Lock sealed the centipede's chakra and movement.

Not a good guy, tie it up and beat it up first!

The black crack slowly closed, and the three figures completely disappeared in the chakra explosion of the dragon vein.

The violent chakra tore the sky apart and relentlessly surged outward.

Shikamaru pulled Temari back, and Kakashi and Jiraiya immediately retreated as well, each pulling the tearful Sakura with them.

Under the sky of the Land of Wind, purple chakra swept through, and only Sakura's voice could be heard, carried by the wind and sand.

"Sasuke!!! Naruto!!!"

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