Naruto had been running at extremely high speeds for the past hour and was feeling the burn in his legs from over use. His cheeks and eyes showed the influence of the demon he was holding, something he didn't use unless it was an emergency. His training had increased his chakra reserves past his previous levels by three times easily but he was still vulnerable. Naruto would have been past the point of exhaustion a good while back, if not for the fox and since it was the only thing keeping him going at this point, Naruto didn't want to complain.
“Hey gaki, where's the fire?” Jiraiya's voice snapped the jinchuriki from his musings; something that was surprising considering the toad hermit was on Gamabunta. Naruto was about two feet from running smack into the toad bosses front right foot.
“I need Tsunade-bachan! Sakura-chan's been injured and if we don't get bachan than she'll loose her arm!” Naruto was about to run around Gamabunta when he was wrapped up by the oversized tongue of the amphibian and hauled onto his head.
“Thanks boss.” Naruto took the opportunity to grab his breath back and was glad when the giant summon turned around and headed back.
“You need to think your plans through more, Naruto. Sprinting from Suna trying to get back to Konoha is still going to take a lot of time and if your friend is in serious trouble, it will kill them.”
Naruto nodded, realizing that he could have cost Sakura her arm if Jiraiya hadn't shown up. For the first time since the exams, he realized that it might be too soon to look forward to the title of chuunin. Naruto closed his eyes to guard against the fierce wind that was slamming against his face from the toad bosses great leaps.
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“Sasori and Deidara are dead.”
The only reply was silence until the leader spoke.
“I know.”
“Shall I…?”
“…No. They may not have been the most powerful, but if they are dead that means that Jiraiya is most likely behind it. Recall the others, if he is still in Suna, then their group hasn't left yet, and not even the immortals can take on two sannin.”
A pair of green eyes narrowed.
“You know that I'm not one to second guess you when it comes to these things, but we need those jinchuriki, you said so yourself. If we don't get at least one now, then they may come up with a better system of protection.”
“Of course I am aware of that, but since we are two members short, any further loss of life would make us unable to seal the demons. At our current strength we can only seal one demon.” The brown eyes of the leader closed in a moment of reflection before the seated figure rose and dusted itself off.
“I will get our target and leave you to recall the immortals back. If Hidan gives you any crap have Kakuzu bring him back.” With that the leader of Akatsuki stepped out of their base and into the light for the first time in a while before beginning his trek towards Suna.
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The ride to retrieve Tsunade had grown quiet, as Naruto was contemplating his previous fight and Jiraiya was just standing there, eyes closed.
`Why didn't I think of summoning?' Naruto was kicking himself for his oversight. `It's far simpler than travel by satetsu and uses far, far less chakra. While I did get there faster with my sand, it used far too much and riding on Gamabunta wouldn't be too much slower.'
It was amazing how much distance the toad boss could cover when he wanted to, and while it had taken Naruto almost an hour and a half to meet up with Jiraiya, Gamabunta hadn't been moving at full speed, and in fact he wasn't moving anywhere near full speed. In the time he had been riding, Naruto was back in the outskirts of the Fire country, a feat that was a day and a half by foot or even four hours by shunpo. It was a good thing that Jiraiya came along when he did; Naruto truly would have been the death of Sakura for not thinking though his travel plans.
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“Kakuzu, Hidan, you are to return to base.”
“WHAT? We haven't captured the jinchuriki yet, why do we need to return now?”
“Idiot, you do not question orders! It doesn't matter why, but I would hazard to say that Sasori and Deidara failed.”
“Correct, they were beaten by Jiraiya.”
“Hmph, that idiot always was too overconfident.”
With that, the two missing ninja began their return but not before Kakuzu's eyes swept over the party that was their target. Besides the jinchuriki, there was the only other Uchiha besides Itachi and the Hokage, a sannin herself, but more importantly, the granddaughter of the only person besides the leader to outright humiliate him in a fight.
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The sun was sitting low on the horizon when the Konoha party felt they could rest safely. They had been followed by two members of Akatsuki for most of the day after Naruto and Sakura had left but for some reason they had left a short time ago. Tsunade was no slouch and knew that they were watching her, but kept her party unawares except for Shizune who would be needed if they attacked, but luckily that came to pass. They had taken a short break, only two or three hours from the village and would be relieved to be able to sleep in their own beds tonight. So when she felt the tremors that preceded the arrival of Jiraiya, she grew rather annoyed. There was only one reason he would ride into camp and that was if her skills were needed. Her annoyance grew to even higher levels when it turned out that Jiraiya wasn't even on Gamabunta, it was Naruto who had fallen asleep on the ride in.
“Naruto, what are you doing back here? Where's Jiraiya? Or Sakura for that matter?”
“Hmm…not now, bachan, I need to get that free bowl of ramen, only four more bowls to go…”
“NARUTO WAKE THE HELL UP!” The Hokage yelled in frustration.
“Gaki fell asleep on the way here, he's exhausted Tsunade, he deserves it after fighting the Akatsuki.” It was Gamabunta that spoke up on the sleeping boys behalf. “Sakura sustained an injury that requires your assistance or she might lose her arm and Jiraiya leapt off a while ago and headed back to Suna, seemed in a big hurry.”
The group as a whole was shocked, Naruto and Sakura had fought off Akatsuki and Sakura was in serious trouble.
“Shizune I need you to get everyone back to the village, you three are more than welcome to stay for the time being, you can send a message if you need to, Sasuke go with them, tell Anko and if you two want to you have my permission to come back to Suna. If I know Naruto at all, he's feeling responsible for Sakura and won't want to be sent to Konoha while she's in Suna, so he's coming with me.”
Those that had been addressed nodded and Tsunade leapt up to Gamabunta's head and surprisingly the toad boss didn't object. In short order he had turned around and leapt off towards whence he came leaving the remaining ninja in his wake. Realizing that if the Akatsuki members realized that Tsunade had left the small group of ninja wouldn't stand a chance, Shizune hurried them towards Konoha at a dead sprint.
As soon as she had adjusted to this method of travel, Tsunade took the chance to look over Naruto. He wasn't injured in anyway other than exhaustion and some very minor fatigue to his muscles, so he must've had help with the Akatsuki other than Sakura. Having nothing to do until they reached the desert capitol, Tsunade sat down and waited to catch up with her teammate, wherever he was.
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The trip was much faster than by foot or by any other means that she knew of, and that is why Tsunade found herself staring at the walls of the village she had just left much sooner than she had anticipated. Not having anywhere he could go; Gamabunta disappeared in a large cloud of smoke from which Tsunade walked out of with Naruto who had awoken with the loss of his `bed'. Both were allowed into the village without any questions being asked, as per Gaara's orders and made their way to the hospital where the slug sannin quickly went to work appraising the condition of her pupil and the trauma that she had sustained. Sakura's right arm had been blown off halfway between her elbow and shoulder which would make any transplantation tricky as part of the arm or stump would need to be removed to make it even with her other arm.
“Hokage-sama, there is another problem that I hadn't accounted for.” Gaara had been waiting for Tsunade with Sakura while she was unconscious and being tended to by Chiyo and the staff of the hospital. “When I suggested trying to reattach an arm, I believed the Akatsuki member to be female, but it turns out he is not.”
“Can you show me the body anyway, if they are not too dissimilar than it may still be possible, it may just take some corrective surgery.” Tsunade was pleasantly surprised with the steps taken by the Sand doctors to try and preserve Sakura's arm, and thus her ability to remain a shinobi, but in the end it may still be futile. Re-attaching an arm was not easy and would require that nerves, muscles, blood veins and bone were connected properly and then they would need to make sure that Sakura's body didn't reject the new limb. For her to be able to continue as a ninja she would need to connect the chakra pathways as well, or Sakura would never be able to use her explosive strength from her dominant hand again.
Gaara led his counterpart to an unused room in the hospital, not too far from where Sakura lay, to view the bodies of Sasori and Deidara. Quickly taking some measurements and doing some preliminary checks, Tsunade declared the limb suitable for an attempted transplant, though it would need some very delicate and precise work to make it function properly as well as fit at all. The shoulder joint needed to be cut down to fit Sakura's socket, the stump of her right arm would need removing and all of this took time that was very valuable both to Tsunade and Sakura. All this work would be best served by a Hyuuga, and she only knew of one that had half the skill necessary for the job.
“I need someone to get me Hyuuga Hinata immediately.”
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When Hinata was hurriedly summoned by the Hokage, she was surprised, as the entire group had left two days ago, almost three, so they should've been back in Konoha. Not being one to ask too many questions, Hinata followed the ninja who had tracked her down and headed to meet up with the legendary medic. Hinata had a certain fascination for the medical arts, ever since her mother had died when she was young and it was a subject she had studied on her own often to the dismay of her father when she was younger. Truth be told, there were few medical ninja in Konoha who could out fight the Hyuuga heiress and probably sixty five or seventy percent had less medical knowledge than her as well. But there was no one outside of the Hokage who knew more about infections and diseases than Hinata, mostly because of her mother.
Of course, very few people knew this, considering how shy she was, but the Hokage was one of them and was going to put both her knowledge of medical arts and her knowledge of the chakra system to work.
“Hinata, it's good that you could come as quickly as you have, Sakura has had her right arm blow off and we're going to try and replace it with a transplanted one. I'm going to need you to prep the arm and then you'll need to help with connecting her chakra pathways back together.” She handed Hinata a list of things that needed to be done to very precise specifications and left to briefly check on Sakura. Tsunade knew that she would need to look over Hinata to make sure that everything was done correctly or else this new arm would be worthless. As she checked up on the pink haired teen, the Hokage felt a large spike of chakra that she identified as Naurto's coming from an area well outside of the village along with signatures from Jiraiya, the Kazekage and the final one she had never felt before.
Hurrying back to Hinata the Hokage was surprised that in the short amount of time she had been gone Hinata had already shaped the socket and was busy removing some of the excess muscle mass making sure to leave the chakra pathways intact. Tsuande felt another large burst of Naruto's chakra; this time mixed with the Kyuubi's and knew by the flinch of her assistant, that Hinata had felt it too. However the young girl continued with her work, undaunted by the flashes and explosions of chakra that sporadically pop up.
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Gaara and Naruto had felt the approaching battle not by chakra but by sheer instinct. They had left without telling anyone and headed towards the disturbance. The battle was a good ways out from the village; it would take even the speediest of jounin more than ten minutes to reach on foot. When they arrived to the battle field, Jiraiya was standing opposite of a tall ninja with brown hair. The newcomer was years younger than the toad hermit but despite his lack of experience it was Jiraiya who was seemingly the worse off.
The steel grey eyes of the Akatsuki member, for that is what he was if the cloak was a good indicator, shifted ever so slightly and both teenagers knew they were being appraised. He had no weapon and no revealing markings or tattoos, he was rather plain looking.
“It was a bad idea for you two to come.” Jiraiya's words were not comforting and the two boys wanted to know why.
“Quit your complaining and let us help.” Naruto was a bit too happy to get in this fight and though he didn't know it, he didn't have a ghost of a chance to win this fight.
“Naruto, this isn't some random member, he's the leader, the strongest member of the organization and-“
“And he's kicking your ass. I understand that he won't be a push over but if we work together than he's no problem.” Naruto reached into his utility pouch and retrieved the scroll he kept his zanpakuto sealed inside. Summoning the black scythe, Naruto released the first stage and the first of the silvery markings went black. Again, pure darkness enveloped the immediate area and Naruto took immediate advantage, rushing towards the leader with the scythe bouncing on the sudden currents of air that were being created. Naruto swung the weapon around but was surprised when his target simply leapt over the half blonde and performed a few quick hand seals before expelling a great ball of flame from his mouth. Having no course of action but to dodge, Naruto rolled to his side as Gaara's sand attempted to stab the leader only for the man to turn into a pile of sand upon impact.
Reappearing from the edges of the inky blackness, the man didn't dispel the illusion; he out right destroyed it by sending a shockwave of his own chakra out to disrupt the technique.
“Naruto, illusions won't work against him, at least not ones that you could cast, even with your scythe. He didn't need to break the illusion he just did it to show you how powerful he is.” While he was a bit intrigued at how the ninja before him could see through the Bringer of Darkness technique, he felt as though he could still win, he just needed a new strategy. Gaara was trying to perform a rather fatal version of acupuncture but was missing and the leader seemed unfazed.
“Then I'll step it up a little.” Before Jiraiya could stop him, Naruto had started to go into his bankai. (Final release) While the initial release of the zanpakuto are a product of their creation, meaning that they are conceived before hand, the bankai is a product of the wielder's inner spirit and strength. It is because of this that a word or phrase is usually used to activate this final stage.
“Watashiosorekotonashi nozoite…OSORE!” (I fear nothing except…FEAR)
The entire shaft of the weapon became pitch black as all the symbols became a formless mass and began to migrate upwards until they became a blade opposite the original one with one key difference. While the first blade had stayed the same as always, the new blade was formed upside down, allowing Naruto to cut in any direction he swung osore.
During the researching of these weapons, Naruto had feared that his bankai would somehow involve the Kyuubi or cursed seal, but instead it reflected nothing more than his own view of himself. He was always feared by others in Konoha, feared for the demon and then just when that fear was beginning to subside, fear for those he loved and how they would react to him came to dominate his mind. This time he would close the distance much faster and make sure that he would cut the leader. He flash stepped to the leader, who was still preoccupied with Gaara, and pushed osore forward, only for the leader to disappear in a blur of movement that was just as fast if not faster than shunpo.
Once more, the kyuubi jinchuriki found himself amazed that his opponent seemed to read his movements as if he had a sharingan but had the presence of mind to swing osore around and try to bite into his opponent's side. Instead of cutting anything, the leader simply grabbed onto the shaft and incinerated it with a little chakra. Naruto dropped the burning wood and tried to land a sweeping roundhouse to his opponent, only to be blocked and punched in the stomach with enough force to push him back yards.
Gaara was beginning to see how this man could control nine S-class missing ninja and continued his own assault, fruitless though it was, hoping to buy Naruto enough time to come up with a plan. He watched as Naruto's weapon burned into ash and became worried now that his friends best means of attack was reduced to nothing. Which is what made the blonde's next actions so surprising. Naruto flew into a short string of hand seals before a short tree rose up and grew from the earth, the exact size and shape of osore's shaft. After plucking the wood, the blades came instantly afterward, the bankai was restored as if nothing happened.
“I see, so the wood and metal were intentional, you can reform you weapon as often as necessary so long as you have chakra.” This was the first time the leader had spoken, his voice held a harsh tone that came from years of giving orders. “I am lucky to have the opportunity to capture both of you though I am afraid I will only be taking one, Itachi-kun would be so disappointed if he didn't get another chance at you.”
Naruto had heard enough and flash stepped into the fray again but found that once again the leader was faster and shunpo began to lose speed the longer he used it meaning that sooner or later, he wouldn't even be close to landing a hit. Having no other choice, Naruto disengaged from the battle and withdrew a number of kunai that had three tiny blades instead of one major blade. While the leader was busy blocking Gaara's sand with a wall of earth, Naruto threw the kunai around the area before hurling the final knife at the leader himself.
“Naruto NO!” Once again, Jiraiya's words of warning were lost as the teen disappeared in a bright flash of yellow. The leader was forced to dodge the initial strike with a kunai and this time Naruto leapt away before he could burn the scythe again. Once again he disappeared in a flash but instead of finding himself in the arid desert he was trapped in a large cavern of earth in complete blackness. Naruto formed a rasengan and tried to drill through the wall but the chakra was absorbed. Trying once more the results were the same as they were the time after that. Not realizing that the technique he was caught in was not Doton Kekkai: DorÅdÅmu which used the chakra to reform itself, but a new technique altogether, Naruto kept pushing more and more chakra into the wall. Since the leader hadn't uttered a word when he formed the technique, no one knew what it was or what it did.
Jiraiya had watched as his student was trapped and unfortunately he could do nothing about it, he had sustained a hit to a point on his arms that completely paralyzed them for at least another few minutes. If Gaara could hold out then there was a chance that neither boy would be taken. Just as he felt his arms become mobile once more, both Jiraiya and the leader felt the chakra in the area of Naruto reach a critical point and both were forced to dive underground to avoid the blast. Gaara had felt the event too, but too late to retreat to safety. The dome blew apart in an explosion of chakra that spread out not unlike the sun in the early mornings and late evenings. Gaara's sand moved to block the wave of chakra, but only held momentarily until the wave of pure energy broke through and collided with the young Kazekage, knocking the wind and consciousness from his body. Naruto, having been at the epicenter of such a cataclysmic event was also unconscious and had it not been for his rapid healing, would have died. The two original fighters reemerged from the ground but Jiraiya was too far away from Gaara to prevent the leader from grabbing the red head and pulling him underground leaving only some parting words.
“It was nice to see you again, Jiraiya-sensei.”
The Toad hermit just gathered Naruto up and began the return sprint back to Suna.
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Tsunade was impressed at the Hyuuga; she had completed everything to specifications and far ahead of any time schedule that the Hokage could have wanted. She was just beginning to attach the arm to her apprentice when she felt Naruto's chakra explode and then recede into near nothingness. Knowing that would probably mean she would be needed again, Tsunade hurried the procedure along as much as possible and by the time that Jiraiya appeared with a badly burned and exhausted Naruto, Sakura was roughly twenty percent finished with attaching the new arm, the really time consuming process was the reattachment of the chakra system, something that Hinata would have to oversee.
Naruto was laid in a bed and treated for the burn but he remained unconscious for the remainder of the day. Anko and Sasuke arrived by midnight, having ridden one of Anko's larger snakes and were led to Naruto's room. Sakura's operation had finished only a small while ago and all that were involved were worn out, especially Hinata who had to use her wind natured chakra to clean the edges on both sides of the arm and make sure they would fit together. It was devastating when used in combination with jyuken, allowing her to sever the chakra system, rendering the recipient in a state exactly like Lee. She had stumbled into the first room she could find, the fact that it happened to be Naruto's room was a complete coincidence and she fell asleep as soon as she sat down in the corner chair. Anko and Sasuke noticed the heiress when they entered but didn't remark on it. Naruto was sleeping and had few signs of injury other than some small bruises on his arms.
“That was Hideaki's doing. He's the leader of Akatsuki, which means that Chiyoko is the second in command.” Tsunade had come in behind the family and felt it necessary to fill them in.
Sasuke looked confused and Anko only had the faintest look of recognition on her face.
“The Yondaime's teammates, Jiraiya's other students are the one and two of Akatsuki?” Anko was surprised and couldn't figure out how it happened.
“It gets worse, he took Gaara, so we have at best four days considering that two members were killed. If we can't stop the extraction by then, Gaara will die.”
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(A/N: First off, I'm sorry if that translation isn't grammatically correct, I just got it from an online translator, so you can blame me for being lazy. Secondly I hope you liked chapter 25, it doesn't seem like it's been that many chapters, but it really has been. I've been working on this story for over a year and it feels like it's only been three months or so.Naruto's zanpakuto is names Osore, fear, and really soon you'll get to see its bankai abilities.
Thanks for all the reviews as usual and please keep them coming.)
