Hola my readers! Thank you for clicking on this story and I appreciate it. Please review, tell me what you like or don't like, what I should change or anything like that. This does take place in a different Naruto timeline. Erase normal childhood Naruto from your head. None of that happened. You could say this sort of takes place during the Fourth Shinobi War except there's no war, if that makes any sense. Everyone is in their twenties or younger in some cases.

Chapter 1: The Akatsuki

Naruto stumbled through the forest. Bloody and beaten. His arm was broken and his stomach grumbled to show its hunger. He thought about food, how his mother used to cook rice and seasoned fish to perfection. How he gobbled it all down without a second thought. Seeing his parents again was the only thing keeping him going.

He shivered as a cold breeze passed through the forest. All he was wearing was a light t-shirt and shorts, not the type of clothes he should've been wearing out in the forest in the middle of December but he couldn't do anything about that. The moon was full and shining in the sky down onto Naruto's face. He felt like crying. He felt like just curling up into a ball laying next to a tree and going to sleep and waking up from this nightmare. But his father's advice stopped him from doing it, Run wherever your legs take you and don't look back. His father had told him

He couldn't give up. Even if he had no hope he had to make some. He walked a little bit more looking at his bare feet and the wet ground.

And then he heard a light rustle.

He turned to look behind him. It must've been coming from the trees that surrounded him. There was only a little dirt path for him to follow so that he could reach the safe house his parents told him to go to. Naruto stared deep into the forest, squinting and breathing heavily. He froze as he saw a shadow move. Another one moving after it. Just a deer or a bird. Or a person. He thought as he slowly began to back away.

As soon as he heard the laugh he bolted. He limped as fast as he could wincing in pain with each step. The path became more tree-filled and shrubs of all sorts began to block his path. He tried to step over them but jumped back as thorns dug into the bottoms of his foot. He turned. The shadow was jumping from tree to tree. But there was no doubt that he was getting closer to Naruto.

Naruto then made a left and began to run through the forest, avoiding trees and almost certainly scratching up his feet.

But Naruto had worse things to fear as soon as he tripped on a fallen log. He began to roll over continuously sliding down a hill rocks dug into his skin and pained his entire body. Tears began to run down his cheeks as he stopped rolling and laid on the grass. Everywhere was filled with numbing pain. He cried out and even that hurt. He could do nothing but lay there and look at the dark night sky. He heard a crunch and his eyes darted to the left. A man in a black-colored robe with red clouds painted on it approached him. He had an orange mask that spiraled into a hole that showed his eye. It was red and had what looked like black dots in it. His black spiky hair made him look even more menacing.

"You don't look too well, Naruto." He said, kneeling down to look at him. Naruto looked at the man's red eye and immediately felt nauseous.

"It's a shame. I'll need you in good condition for what I have to do. You seem interesting. I'll keep you around for a little while, see how you grow and change. The Fourth Hokage's son ought to show some potential." The man continued.

Naruto took a shaky breath as he began to be sucked inside of the man's mask. It felt like his whole body was being ripped apart and squished into a tiny ball. The tears wouldn't stop running down his face and for a second he thought he saw a flash of yellow light moving faster than lightning. But it was too late for Naruto to be rescued. He closed his eyes as darkness flooded in and surrounded him.

And then I woke. Sweat trickled done my neck onto my bare chest. I took deep breaths trying to calm myself down. I slid out of his bed and stumbled to the bathroom, turning the faucet on making a jet of water ran down from the pipe. I gathered some in my hands and splashed it into my face, the cold sharpening my senses. I looked at myself in the mirror. My spiky blonde hair that reached down to my shoulders seemed untidy and there were shadows under my eyes. Signs of restlessness, Another nightmare, I thought as I rubbed my forehead. All of a sudden I heard a knock at the door and footsteps behind me. The sound of heels hitting the floor. I turned around and saw Sakura there leaning against the doorway, looking me over and frowning.

"What's wrong with you? Constipation?" She joked.

I smiled, "Ha-ha. What do you want anyway?"

Sakura grinned back. Her pink hair was tied into two ponytails with a black band. She wore her red sleeveless top and black shorts, her cloak wrapped around her waist. She looked harmless certainly, but give her the chance and she could flatten you.

"Master wants us, he says it's time to start the hunt." Sakura explained.

I raised an eyebrow, "The hunt?"

"I don't know the details. You're going to have to come to the meeting room if you really want to know."

Sakura turned and walked away before I could ask anything else. I turned the faucet off and shook my head, letting out a sigh and returning back to my room. It was quiet and I could hear nothing but water dropping. There were lanterns on my nightstand and suspended in the air by wires and string. No doubt the work of Tenten. The space Master gave me was large, although I had no idea why. I'd grown up here as a child lying in my king-sized bed and rolling around in my red satin sheets. Maybe he favored me more than the other members. It didn't matter anyway, I never knew what that guy was thinking. I walked over to my dresser and opened it pulling out a white t-shirt and slipping it over my head.

I then walked out of my bedroom, turning left to go up the stairs.

"Hey! Naruto! Wait up!" I heard a voice behind me shout. I groaned when I realized who it was. Kiba was jogging over to me, Akamaru at his heels. Although they both were extremely annoying, with Kiba always acting like a hero, and Akamaru barking and pooping all over the place, the dog scared me more than Kiba did. It was a slender thing with sharp razor teeth and red eyes. It was completely white and had the appearance of a tiger rather than a dog. When I first met the guy I thought the dog had rabies.

"What's up?" He asked as he slowed to a walk beside me.

"I'm going to the meeting room. Lord Tobi wants to see us." I answered quickening my pace.

"Well what's the hurry? With you looking like that, it seems you'd be going to bed rather than to a meeting." Kiba laughed. Akamaru made a sort of bark and then growled at me.

"Shut up, Kiba, it's not like you look any better." I replied. His hair was a complete mess and he wore a mesh t-shirt and green cargo pants with sandals like he always does. The bandages wrapped around his eyes had been switched with a black bandana. He was like he always was. Untidy and smelly.

We kept walking in silence. Well I did. Kiba just kept on yapping like his dog does whenever someone throws a stick. Luckily, we made it to the meeting room where everyone was waiting.

"Naruto! Kiba! How nice of you to join us." Zetsu called. I looked toward the ground shaking my head. I remained silent and pulled out a chair, sitting down around the long table and waiting for Master to arrive.

"What, no response?" His white half said teasingly.

"Shut up, Zetsu." I responded.

"Yeah, Zetsu. There's no reason to state the obvious, Naruto is always late." Shikamaru joked. Everyone laughed while I only blushed more. I only watched as Shikamaru let out a plume of white smoke, then put the cigarette back in his hands.

"You're the one who's late all the time! Your lazy ass can't get halfway to the bathroom without thinking about going back to sleep." Naruto retorted.

Shikamaru only threw his cigarette behind the chair and stared at me.

"What? You expect me to lose my cool? Sorry, Naruto. I'm not like you." Shikamaru said.

"Why, you-" Naruto began to say.

"Enough, Naruto. You're an adult now. This whole immature act has got to stop." A voice interrupted. I watched as my master emerged from the dark hallway, a white mask with two holes on his face.

"I..." I tried to find something smart to say, but all that came out was a simple, "I'm sorry, Master. I'll try."

"You will. You won't try." Lord Tobi remarked. He then took a seat at the head of the table and Zetsu walked up to his side, in his hands was a book which he sat in front of Lord Tobi.

"You all know why I called you here. You should. This is the moment of truth after all." Lord Tobi began. Everyone remained silent, no doubt wondering what in the world he had to say. An image of the nightmare before flashed through my mind and a shiver crept down my spine. I shook the thought out of my head and listened to Lord Tobi.

"All the years I spent training you was for this moment, the day where you would go off into the outside world to do a simple task for me." He continued. "I won't fill you with some emotional crap right now, time is quickly disappearing and frankly, I need you to get this job done quick and clean."

"There are nine tailed beasts in this world. They were created by the Sage of Six Paths years ago when he was alive. There giant creatures containing a large amount of chakra that could level a village in a matter of minutes. That's the exact power I hope to have control over." He explained.

Zetsu cleared his throat then spoke up, "We'll extract the beasts and store them in a special statue that's in another hideout. There'll be several hideouts for the extractions scattered around where you'll all be sent." He placed a pale hand on the book in front of Lord Tobi, "This contains information my brothers have collected on the nine jinchuuriki. These people have the tailed beasts, or bijuu, sealed within them. We need to get them out."

I shuffled uncomfortably in my seat. My stomach was hurting for some reason and it felt like it was about to burst open.

"This extraction will kill them, but it's for a greater cause." Zetsu continued.

"When this is all over, Project Tsuki No Me will be complete and I will be the ruler of this hatred-filled world." Lord Tobi said. I swear behind that mask he was smiling. His sharingan eye looked at the 12 of us.

"We're splitting you up into three man squads. Don't complain about who you get stuck with, remember our mission." Zetsu said. He then took out a page from the book and read it off. "Shikamaru, Choji, Ino. You're group number one. Kiba, Shino, and Hinata, group number two. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, group three. Neji, Lee, and Tenten, group four."

I slammed my palms down onto the table, "SASUKE!?" I screamed aloud. Everyone's face turned to me. "No way. I'm not doing this. He's a showoff and a player!"

"Excuse me?" Sasuke questioned. He leaned on the table, glaring at me. "At least I have skills."

"Sh-shut up you idiot!" I stuttered. My cheeks were a bright red and Lord Tobi was leaning back in his chair, amused.

"Make me, dunce." Sasuke countered.

I was flaming, I hated the way girls fell for him like leaves during a storm. I hated how he always showed me up whenever we fought. I hated everything about him from head to toe.

"Enough! You guys are acting like babies. What did I say?" Zetsu intervened. His black half seemed to be angry while his white half was smiling devilishly.

"No complaining..." I mumbled.

"What was that?"

"No complaining!" I shouted.

"Good. I'm glad your voice is still working, with all that shouting you do."

I sat back down in my seat and tried to fight back the raw feeling of embarrassment. But I could do nothing. It felt as if a black cloud was hanging over my head and rain was pounding down on me.

"If you don't mind me asking, if there's four three man cells, how do we take down all nine of them?" Neji asked. Polite and calm as always.

"You don't. You'll have multiple targets. But don't worry, Tobi will be retrieving some of them." Zetsu answered. "Now then, let's discuss your targets. Tobi?"

"Sasuke, you and your squad will take the nine and eight. Neji, you'll be taking care of the seven and six. Kiba, you have the numbers five and four. Shikamaru, you take care of one and two. I'll take three tails. Do I make myself clear?" Lord Tobi explained.

We all nodded.

"Then prepare to move out. Project Tsuki No Me is officially beginning."