Inside the Mist

Synopsis
As the Three-Tails retreats, the wave from his rampage sends Naruto towards the land. Separated from the others, he finds himself covered by a mist that induces genjutsu. Within the illusion, he sees Orochimaru asking Naruto to stop interfering with his plans and proceeds to begin his Living Corpse Reincarnation technique in order to take over Sasuke's body. Naruto forms a Rasengan in one hand and attempts to strike "Orochimaru" in the face, only to be stopped by Kakashi, as Naruto was about to strike Kiba. As the others regroup around him, Naruto reveals that the Three-Tails was the one rampaging on the lake. As this complicates matters for them, Kakashi has Pakkun go to Konoha in order to receive orders from Tsunade; in the meantime, they will simply wait. Naruto is impatient as he wishes to save Yūkimaru, but Kakashi does not allow him to go exploring on his own due to the fact that the illusionary mist, emitted by the Three-Tails, had nearly caused him to kill his own teammate.

Gozu swims to shore and meets up with the other members of Team Guren, but promptly leaves in order to find Guren. Elsewhere, Yūkimaru watches over Guren as she wakes up, and the latter is surprised to find out that he had done so. She expresses shock when he tells her that his home is with her, but quickly falls under the effects of a fever, caused by Kabuto's pills. She finds herself playing nurse for him once more, and thus, unable to regroup with the others.

Pakkun arrives in Konoha and relays Kakashi's information regarding the Three-Tails to Tsunade. Realising that the Akatsuki may soon arrive if word gets out, she decides that they must acquire the beast first and thus appoints Shizune, Ino, Rock Lee and Tenten to the Orochimaru Search Team. Ino and Shizune, along with Hinata and Sakura, are tasked with using their medical ninjutsu to deal with the fūinjutsu whilst Lee and Tenten are to take over Hinata and Sakura's combat duties.

Meanwhile, Naruto and Sakura are given patrol duty but the former shirks off by a cliff in order to contemplate on Yūkimaru's association with Orochimaru's followers. He tells Sakura that Jiraiya had told him that home is where the people who care about you are, and that as long as people are thinking about you, they would always have a home. Believing that he is talking about Sasuke, Sakura comforts him by saying that they will never forget or give up on him and thus Konoha shall always be his home. As she walks off to resume patrol duty, Naruto reaffirms that so long as he always thinks of Yūkimaru, then the latter's home would be Konoha, and thus sets off to find the boy.

Trivia

 * Under the effects of the genjutsu, Naruto was able to form a Rasengan without the aid of shadow clones, proving that he has the innate ability to do so despite relying on his clones.

Credits
Dentro de la Niebla