"You!!" - Naruto was surprised seeing his former classmate.

"Yo, long time no see, Naruto! How you doin'? I would love to talk to you, but unfor-" - Eiji was interrupted by an angry Naruto

"You not only tarnished the reputation of Hokage but now you are with Akatsuki as well?" - Naruto summoned two shadow clones while saying that.

"Is it really you Eiji?" - Sakura and Chiyo finally caught up with Naruto and were facing Eiji too.

"You know him?" - Chiyo

"Yes, he is a former classmate from the Ninja-academy..." - Sakura was unsure how to feel.

She was never close with Eiji, but not only was he a former classmate, but a shinobi from Konoha as well.

When Naruto and she heard that he became Hokage, they were surprised but didn't really pay attention since they didn't interact with each other during that period.

But when suddenly news broke out that he killed a council member and fled, it became really weird.

Since Naruto's dream is to become Hokage one day, he was furious that a Hokage would do something like that.

On the other hand, Sakura trained under Tsunade.

During that period, Tsunade occasionally dropped hints that Danzo wasn't without blame, but never got into anything specific, so Sakura concluded that it wasn't as simple as everyone else thought.

But now since it looked like he was with Akatsuki, they had no choice but to fight him.

"Naruto, you are still as energetic as usual...but you are wrong. I'm not with the Akatsuki. I'm here as the Shi-"

"I DONT HAVE TIME FOR YOUR LAME EXCUSES!! I NEED TO SAVE GAARA!! I WILL BEAT YOU UP AND I'll MAKE YOU TELL ME WHERE GAARA IS!!" - with that Naruto charged with a Rasengan at Eiji.

'Damn...I forgot how annoying he could be...not even letting others finish...shit, looks like I'll need to make them retreat somehow...' - Eiji sighed and placed his hand on his sword grip.

Then when Naruto was about to hit him with the Rasengan, he was suddenly cut in half.

With a smoke, the two parts vanished - it was a shadow clone.

The real Naruto suddenly appeared behind Eiji.

Eiji moved his finger and was about to do something, but Naruto suddenly was pulled away from him: "WHAT?!"

It was Chiyo who used chakra threads to pull him back.

Naruto got up and looked at Chiyo questioningly.

"He looks like a Kenjutsu user and a really skilled one at that. So going into short-range is the wrong tactic. I will attack him from long range, while you two will support me!"

Sakura and Naruto, who calmed a bit down, nodded.

Meanwhile, Team Guy was standing in front of a giant boulder with a seal on it.

"Gaara is inside these rocks." - Pakkun

"!" - Lee

Suddenly a loud noise appeared.

And then the boulder broke into countless pieces while two silhouettes walked out of the cave.

"Mm, looks like there were a few folks waiting for us outside...well, I'll just head to the nine-tails while you can play with them Sasori." - Deidara summoned a giant clay bird and got up before flying away.

"Tsk, this little shit..."- Sasori looked at Team guy, then at Gaara's corpse inside the cave.

"I don't want to waste much time, so I'll make it quick." - Sasori suddenly attacked with his iron tail, targeting the weakest looking member: Tenten.

But it was stopped by a kick from Guy.

"Lee, Tenten, Neji, the other Akatsuki is probably flying towards Kakashi's location. You three follow him and reinforce Team Kakashi!" - Guy was in his usual fighting pose and stared at Sasori.

"BUT WHAT ABOUT YOU, GUY SENSEI?" - in his usual loud voice, Lee asked.

"I will deal with him alone. Now go!"

"Sensei..." - Lee

"Lee, come on now. Team Kakashi might be in trouble, so Sensei entrusted us with it..." - Tenten

"...alright." - Lee

"Looks like those brats left. This makes it easier for me to finish this quickly." - Sasori

"Sorry, but this won't be quick. And it won't be easy!" - Guy charged at Sasori.