Yugito walked through the dark streets of Suna, en route to her meeting with Naruto. The boy was weird, she would admit, but a capable fighter and certainly crafty enough to be a ninja. Throw in the fact that he was a jinchuriki as well, and Yugito was intrigued by the boy. She climbed up a wall and leapt onto an open ledge where the leaf ninja was supposed to be. He was there, but he wasn't alone. The Kazekage stood with him, talking like they were old friends.
“I figured it wouldn't hurt if all three of us were here. Besides, we all have the same kind of problems or at least we will if things don't change soon.” Naruto read the look off her face before she could even before she could voice her complaint.
“It is nice to meet you, outside of the exams.” Gaara extended his hand in greeting and was a bit shocked when the girl reciprocated and shook his hand. The Kazekage knew that the kunoichi was strong minded and detested people she considered weaker than herself.
“Well I don't know about you guys, but I figure we should get this done with.” Naruto was watching for anyone walking about this time of night.
“This is about the Akatsuki, right?”
“Yeah, I don't know how much info you and your villages have, but as I think we should share. We might not have anything other than the demons in common, but that's still enough of a reason for me.” This was directed more at Yugito, as Naruto felt that he and Gaara held a strong bond already.
“I agree. I may have been trained by many different shinobi since I was young, but even I don't wish to have to fight two S-rank criminals at once.” Yugito was a surprising ally, but hopefully one that could be trusted in the future.
“Very well, why don't we take this inside, that way we can speak uninterrupted.” Gaara motioned towards his office. Already spread out on his desk were the appropriate files. Yugito looked around the room a bit in awe. The Raikage's office wasn't nearly as nice as this; it was much darker and seemed more cramped. Gaara just moved behind his desk and waited until the two sat down before he pushed the first file forward.
“Our information on the organization as a whole, it's a bit below what I would have liked to see, but we just haven't had the resources to put on a spy mission of this caliber.” The two visiting ninja looked over the information; it was a vague and speculative but solid and was confirmed by everything that Naruto knew. The only new information was a possible location of their base, mostly based off of a number of disappearances in the region between the Fire and Sand nation. Gaara pushed another folder forward.
“Despite our status as a great power, we have produced few ninja worthy of S class status, at least in the past twenty years or so. Therefore, if there were a member of Akatsuki from Suna, this is my bet.
“Akasuna no Sasori.” Naruto's voice wasn't any different than usual, but even Yugito could tell that he was a bit uncomfortable. “At least it's convenient.”
Yugito shot him a look of bewilderment, but he just shrugged it off and then pulled a book from his pouch.
“This is what I've been able to assemble, mostly though Jiraiya, but he's the closest thing to an expert on the organization that you could get without being a member. “As far as Konoha goes, we only have one confirmed member, Sasuke's older brother Itachi, but there are still four members we haven't confirmed with a hundred percent accuracy. We had another one, but then Orochimaru left the organization, around the same time as Itachi left Konoha. What we know for sure is that they seem to go through members on a pretty frequent basis, that's one of the reasons that we don't know the exact members for sure. Besides Itachi, there's Hoshigaki Kisame, a former member of the seven swordsmen of the Mist. There's Sasori and his partner, Deidara a Rock ninja who specializes in explosives. There this guy named Zetsu, but we don't know anything about him, even where he's from he doesn't work with anyone, at least, as far as we know. The final pair, which is the one we aren't a hundred percent on, is a guy from Takigakure named Kakuzu. Once again, we don't know much, but our best estimate is that he's right in the middle in term of strength, more than likely fifth. His partner is from some unknown village or country and goes by the name Hidan. Once again, we don't know anything about him, so it's all guess work. As for the last two, we have absolutely nothing, they haven't been seen or heard from, and if it weren't for the fact that someone has to be leading the ninja, we wouldn't even know they existed.
As for motive behind them, we don't have much. Since they're capturing the demons and their hosts, it's easy to see that they need the power for whatever they're doing. If they need that much power, than it's probably some kind of take over the world thing.”
“What's the point of capturing jinchuriki if all they need are their powers? Wouldn't it be easier if they just convinced us to join their side?” Yugito asked; this new information was an eye opener.
“Well, all we have is a story that one of Jiraiya's old students told him. Apparently at a time before the biju were being sealed up, there was a `hidoi yajuu' or great beast that was even more powerful than the demons we have. It was rumored to have untold power and be impossible to defeat or kill in any way. Suddenly, some time around three hundred and fifty to four hundred years ago, it just vanished and the first records of biju appeared in human history. Now, this story goes that the beast was suppressed, not killed, by a number of its weaker minions who had grown tired of being subservient to this beast. I think that those servants somehow became the biju, and I think I may even know how. If the biju sealed parts of the beast within themselves, then to revive the beast, the Akatsuki would need the biju and not their hosts.”
Yugito and Gaara were captivated by the boy's tale which, if true, would spell immeasurable trouble for the shinobi world.
“How many demons do they have?” Gaara was the first to find a question to ask.
“Only three right now, but we know for a fact that they are increasing their pace. Jiraiya's informants have alluded to increased sightings of the members and we can only assume that they will be coming after you two soon.” Naruto was shocked when both took the information in stride and didn't even bat an eyelash.
“Well, that's to be expected, so any guesses on who they'll send after us?” This time Yugito seemed to be more interested.
“No, and I'd rather not speculate too much. That way if I'm wrong you haven't prepared for the wrong people, you should be ready for anyone and anything”
The conversation continued on for a while, well into the early morning/late night hours. Eventually the two visiting ninja went back to their rooms and prepared for their departures later the next day.
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“…and your informant is sure that the Nibi and Kyuubi jinchuriki are leaving tomorrow?”
“Yes, the Konoha team is leaving with the Hokage and the Cloud team is by themselves. There is the small matter of the Hyuuga's remaining, but they should be of little importance.”
“Even so, we need not get into a fight where one or more of the legendary sannin are near. Undoubtedly Jiraiya has been floating around Suna as well. Konoha is very protective of that boy. If the four of you were to leave today, you should arrive in two days. I want the Shukaku and Nibi now; that will make our plans go much smoother later on.”
The four shadowy figures just nodded their heads and blurred out of existence.
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The entire contingent of Konoha shinobi, minus the Hyuuga delegation were back on the road to Konoha and in were actually accompanied, albeit loosely, by the Kumo shinobi, who were taking their losses rather well. The arrangement was actually something of a surprise, as the jounin that had accompanied them had been called back to Kumo earlier yesterday, leaving his team to make it back on their own, or in this case, with the Konoha shinobi. There was talking about Cloud's new Raikage, the previous one having died a few years ago, so new was a relative term. A day had passed since they had left the small enclave in the desert and nearly half of this day was gone when the convoy stopped in light of the sun and heat.
Part way through the small lunch they troupe was having, Naruto's head suddenly picked up and his eyes immediately snapped back towards Suna. Sasuke and Jiraiya recognized the sign of a marked kunai being thrown, though they didn't know how Suna seemed to get their hands on one. In reality, Naruto had given both Gaara and Yugito a hiraishin kunai that they were to throw if they were ever in need of help or if they ran into Akatsuki. Obviously Gaara was being visited by the organization and either needed help or had pressing information.
“Akatsuki's after Gaara - I'm taking Sakura - watch out for another attack.” His words were very tense and spoken very rapidly and before anyone had realized it, the all but promoted chuunin had grabbed the young medic by her arm and began to sprint off into the desert back towards Suna. What the assembled group couldn't see, was the concentration that spread over Naruto's face as black sand began to seemingly appear from nowhere and form a tunnel of coils before obscuring the two retreating figures from view in a shell of iron and then shooting off towards the village at a steep trajectory.
By creating a magnetic field in the coils, Naruto was able to pull a projectile made of the iron sand to the center of a coil and then switch it off, before pulling the projectile to the next coil. He had created a coil gun, which was very useful for throwing weapons, but here he had used it to create a much faster way of travel for the two ninja, one of which was still in shock from the experience.
“Sakura, there are S-ranked criminals attempting to abduct Gaara, and I need you to help out when we get injured.”
Sakura instantly knew how serious the situation was, never before had Naruto alluded to the fact that he would assuredly sustain injury from a fight, the boy always left some room in his wording, lest he become injured.
“But…but…S-rank? We can't handle S-rank criminals! They're nearly Kage level!” Sakura tried arguing with her abductor/teammate, but was overruled considering that they were already hurtling back to Sunagakure.
“Probably not, but then again, we don't have a choice. These guys are after Gaara and Yugito and sooner or later they'll be after me, so we decided we'd band together and help each other.”
The medic just nodded not entirely sure of the connection between the three, but she realized that it must be serious if three ninja as strong as Naruto and Gaara were being hunted. She watched as a small hole appeared in their sphere of metal and the ground began to quickly approach. Her eye's widened as their carrier plummeted towards the sand below but was amazed as the speed began to slowly drop, until she felt their downward speed stop completely, just before they were pulled through another series of coils.
“How much longer do you think this'll take?” Sakura turned and asked her teammate, hoping for a short reply as her stomach couldn't take much more acceleration. But as her head turned, it wasn't her teammate that she saw, at least as she knew him. The boy standing with her in the steel cocoon was far more determined than she had ever seen him and had a glint in his dark eyes that was foreign to her. The most puzzling change was that he had just finished tying his new Suna head band to his forehead, removing his worn Leaf symbol and placing it in his pocket. The cloth was a dark red as opposed to the usual black or blue and although it didn't stand out much, to the citizens of Suna, it marked him as an honorary ninja, one who had the friendship and support of the Kazekage.
“It'll still be a little bit, at least another couple hours.” He saw her eyes sweep upward to his new accessory and answered the question before she asked it. “Gaara asked me to become an honorary Suna shinobi…turns out that my father was one, so I'm automatically a citizen.”
Now, Sakura was never dumb by any standard, so it was only natural that she figured out Naruto's secret.
“Sandaime Kazekage is your father…isn't he? I remember, during the first chuunin exams, your mom told me that she thought the satetsu was part of you, even before you were born…I guess I just never put that together until now.” The only confirmation she got was a nod before she felt the bottom of her stomach fall with her descent again.
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As quickly as Naruto had disappeared, everyone's eyes focused on Sasuke, asking for an answer, which for once, he didn't have.
“What? Don't look at me like that! I don't know what the hell that was about, but he felt the pulse from a hiraishin kunai, probably from Suna. Why they would have a kunai or who has one I don't have a clue so don't ask me.” Sasuke's revelation started an explosion of questions that began to fly around until Yugito was able to raise her voice loud enough to be heard.
“I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!” Almost instantly everyone shut up and looked at the blonde. Seeing that she had their attention the kunoichi continued. “Naruto gave the Kazekage and I one of those kunai and told us that if we ever had problems involving Akatsuki, we should throw them and he'd be there as fast as he could. Gaara must have thrown his.”
“So that's what he meant when he said `watch out'.” Jiraiya muttered before looking to Tsunade for confirmation. The Hokage gave her silent agreement and began to herd the other ninja towards Konoha while Jiraiya began to head towards Suna to assist in any way possible. Shizune helped to push everyone towards the village while Tenten and the boys of the cloud team were trying to figure out what was happening.
“Not to sound dumb or anything, but why are we running and who is the Akatsuki?” The weapons mistress asked as she pulled up to Sasuke, but it wouldn't be the Uchiha who answered.
“The Akatsuki are a group of S-class missing ninja who have committed grievous injustices against their home villages. What they are planning is a mystery and we only have information on about 78 percent of the organization. We do know that they are after a select group of ninja who all had similar upbringings…” Tsunade gave just enough information to answer the question, but keep Yugito and Naruto's past secret. The information had its intended results as Tenten became quiet and picked her pace up
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Naruto and Sakura were still hurtling through air when finally the village came into view as a jutting wall of rock on the horizon. Using one more acceleration coil, the two found themselves at the entrance to Suna and the entrance to the fight as well. Gaara was battling a ninja with blond hair that was falling over the ninja's left eye and then was pulled into a pony tail in the back. Judging by the explosions rocking the air around the fight, that was Deidara and so Sasori would be around somewhere. Sure enough, there was the scorpion fighting against an old woman that caused Sakura to inhale sharply.
“That's Chiyo-sama! She's one of the most respected people in Suna, what's she doing fighting?” The old women seemed to be holding her own, but her age was obviously hindering her and she was visibly wearing down. Naruto was descending as fast as was safe to and could do nothing but watch as Sasori was able to push the elder women into the stone surrounding the village. The pair was still a good ways up in the air and a good ways away from the action, so no one had noticed the large black sphere shooting towards the fight yet, but not for long. Sasori's tail shot towards the white haired lady and there was nothing Naruto or Sakura could do to stop the stinger except reveal themselves and hope that the shock was enough to buy some time. Using the material of the shell, Naruto's satetsu began to plummet towards the ground in an attempt to immobilize Sasori's puppet, though he couldn't see where the criminal was hiding, so the best he could do was stop the puppet.
Thankfully the tactic worked and the rain of metal was enough to stop the tail in its tracks and allowed just enough time for the landing of the pair. Sakura instantly ran to Chiyo's side and began to help the venerable women, checking her over for injuries and making sure she hadn't been poisoned as was common with puppeteers. While she was checking her `patient', Naruto had set to work demolishing the immobile chunk of wood with a fast rasengan to the body. Not surprising to the boy, a similarly cloaked figure leapt from the wreckage and stood up to eye his opponent, though it was a figure of speech, seeing as there was a dark cover over Sasori's upper body.
“Konoha's other jinchuriki…this day became more interesting.” Sasori's comments reached the ears of the women, though only Chiyo realized their implications, Sakura was wondering what the puppeteer meant. Naruto picked up on the word other, but didn't pry he just watched in fascination as Sasori removed the cover over his face.
For someone who had been alive for a good long while, Sasori didn't look a day over seventeen or eighteen. His hair was a violent red, something reminiscent of a flame, and his eyes were a golden brown color. While he was probably a heart-throb on the level of Sasuke when he was in Suna, he now had a look on his face that was pure, unwavering hatred.
“You destroyed my favorite puppet and though I cannot forgive you, I am interested, how did you know that I was inside?”
“There were no chakra strings coming from anywhere I could see, which would mean that they were hidden inside the body of your hunk of wood.” Naruto replied, still eying his opponent. While he didn't look any worse for the wear, the trip and his constant use of electromagnetic forces took a toll on the teen.
`Crap, I probably don't have anymore chakra than Sakura does right now! This isn't going to be good, not that it was going to be easy before.' He began to think about a plan, though he was throwing out nearly as many as he was coming up with.
Thankfully Sasori was taking the battle more cautiously than normal. After seeing the damage that the rasengan could cause, along with the fact that the kid seemed to have control over the satetsu, Sasori knew this was a horrid match up for him. His grandmother might not be a large threat, but this jinchuriki…he would be problematic.
“Sakura, you need to help Gaara when you are done, I can take things from here.” Naruto's words were forceful, he didn't need her and Gaara could use the help if the raining sand particles were an indication.
“But-“ Sakura was cut off by her teammate.
“No, I have almost every advantage and Gaara will probably need some help, if not medical attention. Besides, since Chiyo-sama is Sasori's grandmother, she knows him better and what he's likely to do.” Sakura hadn't known of Chiyo's relation and in light of that bit of information, decided to listen to Naruto.
Not for the first time today, Sasori was impressed at the knowledge the jinchuriki had. It wasn't common knowledge that the highly respected Chiyo had raised him when his parents had died, heck, he doubted if most of the council knew that, making Naruto's acknowledgement even more interesting. That was when he noticed it, Naruto's head band. The red cloth wasn't distinguishing, after all that pink haired girl's cloth was red too, but if you coupled red cloth with the Suna emblem, well then there was only one possible explanation.
`So, he's the recognized son of a Kazekage…but Sandaime never had any kids and he's the last person to use the iron sand…must be Orochimaru's work.' Sasori's thoughts only made him more intent on getting the boy's body for a puppet if he could, although being a vessel, the extraction of the fox would leave only a miniscule opening to make a puppet.
Naruto had enough waiting and upon seeing Sakura head towards Gaara decided to begin the fight in earnest.
“Satetsu Shigure! (Iron Sand Drizzle) The adrenaline increase had caused Naruto to shout out his attack, something he hadn't done in a long time, as it wasn't good for a ninja to make loud noises. The metal filings clumped together and formed hundreds of pellets before being flung at the puppet master, who had to move quickly to avoid the high speed bullets, lest they hit and lodge themselves in his joints.
Naruto didn't realize that Sasori had turned himself into a human puppet, so when the red head dodged his attack, Naruto flash stepped into his path and delivered a very quick snap kick to Sasori's stomach. He instantly knew that something was wrong when the resistance to his attack was greater than anything he had ever felt before. Sasori fell into a pile of sand and Naruto had to leap back and try to locate the man.
From his left he noticed movement and ducked under the bladed arm of a puppet that tried and take a swipe at him. Fire sprung to life on his fist as Naruto drove it into the body of the marionette, forcing Sasori to relinquish his control over the puppet. Naruto realized that Sasori was much better at stealth than he was at detection, so he spread his satetsu out over a large range and had it rain down once more.
“You won't be able to force him out like that twice.” For the first time, Naruto heard Chiyo speak and turned to watch the old lady pull a couple scrolls from her person and summoned two puppets, one a women with dark black hair that fell down to her shoulder blades, and the other a man with red hair to match Sasori.
Naruto had seemingly ignored her advice and created a mass of shadow clones, probably around thirty or so, and was currently blowing sand around with some chakra, trying to find the hidden scorpion. Chiyo just glared at the teen, who was he to disobey her? The two puppets opened their mouths and two black balls around the size of an apple shot forward until they collided, resulting in a large explosion that kicked up a wicked sand storm.
Hidden in the sand, Sasori wondered what his senile grandmother was trying, those attacks hadn't even been close to his position and he knew she could find him eventually, so why waste a trap?
“Doton: Rasengan.” In the confusion of the explosion Sasori had lost track of Naruto who had taken the opportunity to spread out into a circle, where all of the clones plus the original began to make a trap door for the scorpion. The individual rasengan didn't cover more than a five or six foot radius, but with thirty clones, each performing the technique, Naruto was able to increase his coverage by a large amount, and not just by increasing the numbers, if two of the swirling pits would collide, then the area would expand farther than twenty feet! Naruto had created a gigantic pit of quicksand and Sasori had nowhere to go but up.
Erupting from the sand cocoon he had created, Sasori leapt into the air, a summoning scroll already in his hands and unfurled. He needed cover, something he could only get now with puppets he had. As the scroll was unfurling in the breeze of his ascent, Naruto suddenly appeared above him, arm positioned to send him rudely back to the ground. This was such a surprise to the master puppeteer that Sasori's only option was to try and push himself backwards or forwards while in mid air. Twin sets of blades sprung from beneath Sasori's cloak and began to rotate at impressively high speeds, even for a shinobi. The displacement of air was enough to push the puppet man back, just enough to make Naruto miss his body.
Naruto's fist scraped down the length of the scroll without doing any damage to Sasori and the boy had to stop the swirling sand so he could land. The speed of the rasengan had grown so great, that had he landed, he would have instantly been sucked down into the sand, and not even shunpo could have gotten him out of the pit. The sand was still spinning, but at a much slower speed when he landed and he was able to walk across it as if it were water.
Sasori looked down at his scroll and cursed. The brat had smudged just a small portion of the seal, but it was enough to make the entire thing explode if he tried to summon anything from it now. Knowing that a puppeteer's weakness is in close range combat, Naruto took the opportunity to close in while Chiyo moved her puppets closer as well, two blades appearing where their hands had been. Naruto's first strike was a haymaker to Sasori's stomach with his right hand. Once more the blond felt more resistance than usual to his assault except this time his opponent didn't turn to sand…he splintered. The sudden pain wasn't anything that Naruto would have taken seriously except that he had never fought a man made of wood before and took a step backwards in surprise.
Chiyo recognized the significance of that exchange and continued Naruto's attack.
“Please, I created those puppets, I know their secrets, do you actually expect to defeat me with them?” Sasori chided as he dodged the sword swipes from the puppets he had made from his parents bodies. Any reply that Sasori's grandmother would have spoken was cut short as Naruto re-entered the action but this time he had flames dancing on his fists and licking at his wrists. His punches were fast and hard and Sasori had little chance to dodge and sustained a number of hits which began to spread over his wooden frame, threatening to engulf him completely if he didn't do something.
Sasori pulled a scroll from his back and summoned something in a puff of smoke before Naruto or Chiyo could do anything. Naruto leapt into the smoke attempting to press his advantage but was stopped before he could go too far by Chiyo's hand.
“There is no need to rush in, I can find him and rushing into a situation like this is unwise.”
Naruto agreed but blew the smoke away regardless. There was Sasori or what was left of his smoldering body, but much more ominous, was the newly summoned form of the Sandaime Kazekage and yet both knew that it wasn't the Sandaime anymore. Satetsu began to spill from the body of their opponent and formed into spikes of metal that shone with the dull reflection granted by the poison imbued with the filings. Naruto didn't fear the sand, as he could block it with his own or possibly even highjack the control if he could inject his own chakra to the sand, though the multiple projectiles would make that much harder to accomplish.
The sand rained down and swiftly Naruto's satetsu formed a covering to protect his ally and himself from the poisoned shafts while Chiyo removed a large round object from her cloak and sent her already summoned puppets to distract her grandson while she prepared to finish him off. The puppets hand clasped together and wires entwined with fingers and pulled taught, creating a deadly set of garrote wires. The two puppets sped forward while Naruto remained content to screen the advances of his partner with his satetsu.
Sasori, in control of the Sandaime's body wasn't fooled by the puppets wire trick, even though it wasn't one of his additions, but with the screen by the jinchuriki, dodging the pair he once knew so well became difficult. He became so engrossed in his task that he failed to notice the sphere his grandmother hurled at him. In mid flight the ball began to spread out like a net, eventually forming a gaping tooth rimmed mouth that was able to pin Sasori to the sand before expelling a seal that completely suppressed his chakra.
“It is over, you cannot use chakra now.” Chiyo's puppets sprung forward once more and began to stab the body of the Sandaime multiple times, making sure that the last human remains of her grandson were destroyed. “I hope you weren't too intent on killing him, I've been taking responsibility for his actions for too long and it needed to be ended by my hand.”
Naruto just nodded, recognizing that Chiyo deserved her revenge over his own. He was interrupted from his thinking by Gaara who spoke in a rather concerned voice.
“Chiyo-baasama, you're experience is needed immediately, I was able to kill my opponent thanks to Sakura-san's intervention, but in the process she lost her arm to Deidara's explosive. You must help her; I can only stop the bleeding for now.”
This was a major surprise to Naruto as guilt quickly leapt into his body; Sakura was his charge for this mission, if he hadn't brought her then she would still have two arms and not be in danger of bleeding to death. Gaara had brought Sakura, who was unconscious from the concussive blast was lying on a bed of sand that Chiyo quickly went to and began to look over her patient.
“My specialty is in poisons, not medicine, so there is only so much I can do, and it would mean the end of her career as a ninja and as a medic.” This was brought another wave of nausea to Naruto as he heard that his teammate would never be a ninja again.
“Would it be possible to re-attach an arm and get it work properly?” Gaara asked, snapping Naruto from his self pitying.
“I suppose it could be done, but her arm was destroyed in the explosion, was it not?”
“Yes, however I was thought that perhaps you could implant one of Deidara's arms.”
“I suppose it might work, but if she isn't a match to the blood type than she'll reject the arm and could be in even worse shape than she is now. The only person who has done something remotely like this is the Hokage and she is at least two days travel from here. I'll do the transplant, but there is little I can promise after that. You must get the Godaime Hokage here to help as soon as possible.” Chiyo left no room for argument and Naruto indicated that he would go try and grab Tsunade; before he began to flash step away, hoping to make it in time.
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(A/N: I realize that I didn't go into detail with the other fight, but don't worry, you'll get a good idea of what happened next chapter. I hope you liked some of the farther-out-there elements of the story and I hope you liked the chapter over all. From here on out its all Akatsuki all the time, I know exactly what I want to do with them and you'll get a good idea of the direction I'm heading before too long.
Thanks for all the reviews for the last chapter; I'm glad so many people like the story. Please review this one too, mainly because I have no way of knowing how crazy I'm getting if you don't tell me. )
