Sasuke, who was sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed, was slightly surprised.
He opened his eyes and turned towards Naruto, who also looked equally startled.
"Your Bijuu... wants to speak with me?"
Sasuke asked Naruto, his tone flat but with a hint of doubt.
"It seems so, Teme," Naruto replied, a little confused.
"Hana-neechan, are you sure?"
"Of course, I'm sure, my prince,"
Hana replied.
"Now, Sasuke-kun, close your eyes and focus. I will draw your consciousness in. Naruto, you wait outside for now, okay. This is a secret conversation between me and this young Uchiha. It concerns... well, an important secret about your family, Sasuke-kun."
"A secret about my family?!"
Sasuke immediately tensed, his expression turning serious.
Any information related to his family, especially after the massacre tragedy, was extremely important to him.
"Hey, hey, Hana-neechan! Why can't I listen in?!"
Naruto protested, feeling a little left out.
"I'm part of the team too!"
Hana chuckled amusedly.
"My prince doesn't need to be so jealous~ This is really a special matter between me and him. You just focus on your chain training. After this is over, I promise I'll spoil you, okay?"
Naruto blushed at the word 'jealous'.
"WH-WHO'S JEALOUS, HUH?! YOU'RE WEIRD!" he shouted inwardly, then with a slight grumble, he broke his mental connection and allowed Hana to 'expel' him from his own subconscious.
Naruto opened his eyes in the real world, seeing Sasuke now sitting silently with his eyes closed beside him, looking as if he were soundly 'asleep'.
With a long sigh, Naruto picked up his adamantine chain jutsu scroll again and tried to focus on studying it, although his curiosity about what Hana and Sasuke were discussing continued to bother him.
Meanwhile, inside Naruto's subconscious, which now felt more spacious and brighter since part of his seal had opened, Sasuke Uchiha stood transfixed.
The scenery around him was still the same as he had briefly seen before – dark corridors like giant water channels. However, this time, Hana's figure sitting behind the giant iron bars looked clearer and... more real. The upper part of her body, from the waist up, could now extend out from the gaps in the bars, allowing her more freedom of movement.
Her light blue kimono was draped elegantly, and her nine orange tails swayed slowly behind her.
Thin smoke curled from the long smoking pipe she held.
"Welcome back to my humble 'abode', Sasuke-kun,"
Hana greeted with a faint smile, her blazing red eyes looking intently at Sasuke.
Sasuke nodded curtly, trying to hide his nervousness and astonishment.
Coming face to face with an entity as powerful as the Kyuubi, even in the form of a captivating woman, was still intimidating.
"Hana-san," he greeted with forced respect. "You said... you wanted to talk about my family?"
Hana nodded, her smile fading slightly, replaced by a more serious expression.
"Correct. Tell me, Uchiha Sasuke, what will you do... if someday you meet your brother, Uchiha Itachi, again?"
Instantly, the aura around Sasuke changed drastically.
His Sharingan eyes activated on their own, two tomoe spinning wildly. A cold and dense hatred emanated from his body.
"ITACHI...!!!"
Sasuke hissed, his voice trembling with overflowing anger.
"Of course, I will KILL HIM! I will avenge my entire clan! I will make him pay for all the suffering he has caused!"
Sasuke's fists clenched tightly until his knuckles turned white. The shadow of that tragic night haunted him again.
Hana merely observed Sasuke's emotional outburst silently, her gaze calm yet calculating.
After Sasuke had calmed down a bit, though his breathing was still ragged, Hana asked again,
"Do you remember when I explained about the Akatsuki organization to Jiraiya and my prince? About their plan to capture all the Bijuu?"
Sasuke frowned, trying to remember.
"Yes... a dangerous organization that wants to revive the Juubi. So what?"
"In your opinion," Hana continued in a low voice,
"who are the members of such a dangerous organization? They certainly aren't ordinary ninjas, are they?"
Sasuke fell silent.
His genius brain immediately went to work.
An organization aiming to capture all Bijuu and revive a legendary monster... its members must be S-class ninjas, the most dangerous fugitives. Then... could it be...?
"Don't tell me..." Sasuke stared at Hana with wide eyes, a horrifying realization beginning to form in his mind.
"The two Akatsuki members you said we would meet later... could one of them be... Itachi?"
Hana smiled faintly, this time her smile showing a little admiration.
She extended her slender hand through the gaps in the bars and gently pinched Sasuke's cheek.
"Fufufu~ It turns out you are indeed a smart boy, Sasuke-kun. Much quicker on the uptake than my prince, who can be a little slow at times."
Sasuke's face immediately turned beet red from the unexpected touch and the compliment (which was accompanied by a slight taunt towards Naruto).
Even the cold Uchiha Sasuke couldn't stop himself from blushing at Hana's sudden charm and closeness.
He reflexively recoiled slightly, adopting his characteristic tsundere stance.
"Hmph! D-don't treat me like a child, Hana-san! And don't mock Naruto!"
Although he often mocked Naruto, he didn't like others doing it.
Hana chuckled for a moment at Sasuke's reaction, which she found very adorable.
"Alright, alright, I apologize."
She withdrew her hand.
"But you are correct, Sasuke-kun. One of the two Akatsuki members you are likely to encounter on your journey to find Tsunade is your beloved older brother, Uchiha Itachi. He is one of Akatsuki's core members."
Sasuke's world seemed to collapse.
Itachi... part of Akatsuki? An organization aiming to capture Naruto?
This... this was too complicated.
Hatred and confusion churned within him.
Seeing the emotional turmoil in Sasuke's eyes, Hana continued in a softer tone.
"I know this is hard for you, Sasuke-kun. But you must be prepared to face it." She then extended her palm. A small amount of warm and strong orange-red chakra began to gather there. "Here, take it. Consider it a 'good luck charm' from me."
Sasuke looked at the chakra in Hana's hand doubtfully.
"What is this?"
"This is a small portion of my Kyuubi chakra," Hana explained.
"I will implant it within your body. If you ever get caught in a powerful Genjutsu, especially Itachi's Tsukuyomi, this chakra will instantly explode and forcibly free you from the illusion. It might not be able to completely nullify a Genjutsu that strong, but at least it will give you a chance to fight back or escape."
Sasuke was stunned.
Such significant help... from Naruto's Bijuu?
"Why... why are you helping me to this extent, Hana-san?"
Hana smiled again, this time her smile was sincere.
"Consider it an investment for the future. You are my prince's most important rival and friend. If something happens to you, he will surely be very sad. And I don't like seeing my prince sad."
She then playfully pinched Sasuke's still slightly red nose again.
"Now, prepare yourself, Uchiha Sasuke. I can already sense two very strong and familiar foreign chakras approaching your location in the real world. They... have arrived."
Sasuke, though still slightly annoyed at being treated like a child, felt Hana's warmth and sincerity.
He nodded. "Thank you... Hana-san."
The red chakra then entered his body, feeling warm and providing a strange sense of security.
With that, Hana told him to leave.
Sasuke left Naruto's subconscious and woke up in the real world.
In the simple yet comfortable inn room, Naruto was lying on his back on the tatami, staring boredly at the ceiling.
The Adamantine Chain jutsu scroll lay beside him, momentarily forgotten.
His stomach began to rumble. Sasuke sat not far from him, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, seemingly meditating or perhaps just resting after his intense 'conversation' with Hana in Naruto's subconscious.
The atmosphere felt tense and full of anticipation after Hana's warning about the arrival of two foreign chakras.
"Haaah... I'm starving..."
Naruto complained, clutching his stomach.
"That Ero-sennin is really taking a long time 'gathering information'. Don't tell me he got lost in the red-light district again, dattebayo!"
Suddenly, a soft knock was heard on their room door.
TOK. TOK. TOK.
Naruto and Sasuke were instantly startled and looked at each other.
"Well, that must be Ero-sennin back already!"
Naruto exclaimed, his face immediately brightening. Without thinking or sensing any danger, he leaped up and ran towards the door, already prepared with his trademark scolding.
"You slow Ero-sennin creature! I'm going to starve to death if you don't come back soon and treat us to a meal!"
He slid open the door roughly.
The door opened, and outside, in the dimly lit inn corridor, stood two men in long black cloaks with very conspicuous red cloud patterns.
One was tall and large with pale blue skin like a shark, a ferocious face with sharp teeth, and a large, bandaged sword slung across his back.
The other was shorter, with long, flowing black hair, and a handsome yet expressionless face, his dark eyes staring straight ahead.
Naruto: "..."
(His previously wide smile immediately froze, his eyes blinking several times, his brain trying to process the unexpected sight before him.)
Sasuke, sensing something very wrong from the aura of the two strangers, was now standing warily behind Naruto, his hand unconsciously already reaching for the kunai in his pouch: "..."
Naruto, with a face full of innocence and extraordinary confusion, tilted his head.
"Anooo... sorry, who are you scary Uncles? Are you in the wrong room? Ero-sennin's room might be next door..."
Hoshigaki Kisame, the shark-faced man, looked at the blond boy standing innocently in front of the door, and his already ferocious smile became even wider and more terrifying.
"Heh heh heh... This brat... is very interesting."
He glanced at his silent companion.
"Itachi-san, is this snot-nosed kid the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki we're looking for?"
"Ah." Naruto's small figure was clearly reflected in Uchiha Itachi's dark black eyes.
His face remained calm, without the slightest emotional turmoil, as if looking at an inanimate object.
Only that one word escaped his lips, yet it was enough to send a chill down the spine of anyone who heard it.
Inside Naruto's seal, Hana, who had sensed their arrival from the beginning and had been carefully observing the two people outside the door, suddenly couldn't contain her laughter.
She burst out laughing until her fox body shook.
"PFFFT... HAHAHAHAHA! OH MY GOODNESS! LOOK AT THAT!"
Hana exclaimed in Naruto's mind, her voice filled with unbearable amusement.
"Two of the most dangerous terrorists in the ninja world, members of the S-class criminal organization Akatsuki, came to kidnap you... AND THEY KNOCKED ON THE DOOR POLITELY LIKE ORDINARY GUESTS?! THIS... THIS IS THE MOST RIDICULOUS SCENE I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE AS THE KYUUBI! HAHAHA! MY STOMACH HURTS!"
Hana quickly covered her own mouth, trying to muffle her laughter.
She glanced carefully at Naruto from behind her seal bars, and sighed in relief after confirming that her innocent prince apparently hadn't heard her impolite outburst of laughter earlier.
She had to maintain her image as an elegant and dignified Bijuu.