Author's Note: Before proceeding with my narrative, I feel that it is my obligation to share two disclaimers with any potential readers. The first disclaimer is that I DO NOT, I repeat, I DO NOT own Naruto Shippuden. The only way that those particular rights would ever come into my possession would be if, somehow, my dreams of becoming fluent in the Japanese language and attaining Japanese citizenship were to miraculously come true. The second disclaimer is that, this happens to be my first ever fan-fiction. I admit that, until recently, I considered such literature to be beneath my pay grade. However, I realized that, any truly great author, which is what I aspire to be, would never consider any form of writing beneath his or herself. What is more, I appreciate any form of constructive criticism that could be offered. Therefore, I greatly appreciate any form of commentary that you all might have for my writing. Thank you, and please enjoy Naruto Shippuden: Eye of Impermanence!
Chapter 1: Come Now, New Mission!
It was early morning, the time when fair dawn, with her rosy red fingers, first peaks over the horizon, illuminating all the land. It was the time when, every living thing, from the tiniest insect to the most massive monster, stirs and slowly shifts from a realm of dreams to one of wakefulness.
Now, all of this would have been the case for one Naruto Uzumaki, had it not been for a great fist coming down hard, like a clap of thunder, upon his still sleeping head. The fist in question belonged to none other than Sakura Haruno, who stood, glowering, over his bed, a vein popping out from her forehead as she shouted,
"NARUTO, WAKE UP!" The instant that her fist came into contact with his flesh, Naruto was yanked up into the realm of consciousness, and, within a moment of that was doubled over in pain, clutching the now rock-sized lump protruding from his forehead.
"Oy, Sakura-chan," he grunted indignantly, glaring up at the pink-haired girl above him, "what the hell was that for?"
"I've been banging on your front door for nearly fifteen minutes!" Sakura huffed, hands on hips, "When you didn't answer, I had to find SOME way to get you up. Did anyone ever tell you that you sleep about as heavily as a tranquilized elephant?"
"Okay?" grumbled Naruto, still nursing his throbbing forehead, "but WHY did you have to get me up at 5:30 a.m.?" Sakura rolled her eyes, as if unable to believe that Naruto had just had the audacity to put such a question to her.
"Because," she said, with exaggerated patience, "Tsunade-sama called all the Chunin to an emergency meeting this morning. A meeting where, I should add, your presence was also requested. When you didn't show up, I was sent to come fetch you." Most of this information passed right over Naruto's head, like water over rock. However, the moment that he heard the words "emergency meeting", all his feelings of pain and irritation from a moment before vanished, to be replaced by ones of curiosity and excitement.
"Emergency meeting, huh?" He asked, leaning forward and listening intently, "What about?" Sakura merely shook her head in response,
"Hokage-sama didn't specify," she shrugged, turning away from him and strolling into the kitchen, "but my guess is that, whatever it is, is of the utmost importance. Now, come on! Get up and get dressed!" Naruto was inclined to groan at this, but a deluxe death-glare from Sakura, coupled with his own, newfound interest, enabled him to roll out of bed and stumble into his tiny bathroom. After dousing his face with cold water, Naruto slipped out of his pajamas, and signature penguin hat, and began to change into his usual black and orange jump suit. Once he had finished, he met Sakura in the kitchen, who nodded once before turning and bolting out the front door.
"Hey! Wait up!" Naruto called out after her, struggling to keep in rhythm to her brisk pace. As he chased the pink-head down the newly constructed streets of Konoha, he could feel his mind beginning to wander through all the possibilities surrounding the meeting to which they were headed.
Nearly two months had passed since the invasion of Pain, yet, only now, was life even beginning to resemble what it had before. Naruto, and all the other ninja, had been hard at work for the past sixty days; reconstructing homes and businesses that had been destroyed. Even with the unexpected, and much appreciated, help from several shinobi sent from Suna, the hours were long and the work difficult and dangerous. Though they were recovering swiftly, it was quite clear that the villagers were deeply shaken by the experience of seeing their homes flattened. In this time of crisis, no frivolities could be spared, making it easy to deduce that, whatever this meeting that old-lady Tsunade had called was about, it had to be a matter of life and death. But what could it be? With such old enemies as Orochimaru and Pain dead, and the remaining Akatsuki scattered, who was there left to fear? And what, right now, could possibly be of greater significance to the ninja of Konoha than the rebuilding of their homes? Oh, whatever could it be?
. . .
When, at long last, Naruto and Sakura burst, panting, through the doors of Tsunade's office, Naruto was stunned to find a much larger crowd than had been expected waiting for them. Milling about here now were all their friends, people who they had fought, and nearly died, alongside, many of whom looked just as perplexed as he did.
Here, off to one side, stood Shikamaru, as sullen and bored seeming as ever, right next to Chouji, who, as expected, was munching contentedly on a bag of potato chips. Next to them stood Ino, who had her flirt factor turned on "HIGH" as she conversed with Sai. But Sai, of course, being a former Root ANBU member, and thus, having absolutely no comprehension of human emotions, was totally indifferent to her affections.
Off in another corner stood Lee, with his bushy eyebrows and bright green spandex, enthusiastically lecturing Ten-Ten on the "power of youth" as she sharpened a shuriken. Next to them stood Neji, his mouth set in a hard line. Naruto had always had difficulty discerning any emotion in the Hyuga's cold, pale eyes, but he was almost certain now that he could see a glint of jealousy in them at all the attention that Lee was getting from Ten-Ten.
Seated behind her great mahogany desk was Tsunade, who looked as though she had just been diagnosed with terminal insomnia. To her immediate left stood Shizune, who was nervously eyeing her mistress while desperately trying to control a squirming Tonton. Standing on Tsunade's right, to Naruto's great shock and delight, were none other than the young Kazekage, Gaara, and his two siblings, Kankuro and Temari. Naruto flashed Gaara a wide grin, who nodded in turn at the sight of his old comrade. Though they had never spoken much, they shared a bond impossible to describe. Both knew what it meant to be Jinchuuriki; to be thoroughly alone and to have a demon trapped inside oneself.
Standing directly in front of Naruto and Sakura were Kiba, Shino and Hinata. Kiba, wild-eyed and shaggy, grinned down at Naruto from his perch atop his dog, Akamaru's head. As for Shino, it was flat out impossible to discern any emotion that he might or might not have expressed from behind his sunglasses, balaclava and hood. Hinata, timid, yet graceful, blushed deeply when Naruto looked at her, and, at once, cast her pale, lavender-colored eyes upon the floor. Naruto's gaze lingered upon her the longest. Of all the people gathered here today, she was the one he thought about the most.
At one point during his fight with Pain, Naruto had been pinned down by chakra-absorbing blades, and then, out of nowhere, Hinata had come to his aid. Though clearly outmatched, she had fought bravely to protect him, risking certain death in the process. Amidst the struggle, she had revealed her true feelings for him,
"Naruto-kun, I do this because-because I love you!" After hearing these words and seeing the one who spoke them get struck down with impunity, Naruto's inner Kyuubi had been triggered, enabling him to break free of the chakra blades and reassume the fight. After he'd killed Pain, Naruto had rushed back to the ruins of Konoha to check on Hinata. Though he'd been relieved to discover that she was all right, things hadn't quite been the same between them ever since. What could you possibly say to someone who, as it turned out, loved you and had just risked their life to save you when you'd barely ever acknowledged their existence beforehand? Suffice it to say, ever since the battle, their relationship had been strained at the best of times, and flat out awkward at the worst. Naruto wished that they didn't have to be so distant. After all, he liked Hinata; a lot, as it turned out. And it had taken him seeing her nearly die for him to make him realize just how much he liked her. As he stood there in Tsunade's office that day, he began to wonder. Was it at all possible that, deep down, he might actually feel the same-? The sound of Tsunade clearing her voice brought Naruto out of his meditative state and back into the present.
"Well," she said, surveying her audience over her interlaced fingers, "now that we're all assembled, I think that it's safe to start. Firstly, I'd like to thank you all for coming here on such short notice. I assure you, I wouldn't have bothered any of you unless it were of the utmost importance." There was a general mumble of assent from amongst the gathered teens. None of what Tsunade had just said was anything new to them.
"I've summoned you all here for two, very specific, reasons," she continued, "the first is that, you all have proven, time and again, your truly exceptional prowess as shinobi. The second reason, is that all of you have personal experience fighting the Akatsuki. Both of these make you ideal for the mission that we've selected for you-"
"Which is what?" interrupted Naruto, unable to stand the formalities and restrain his curiosity any further. This outburst earned him a good, solid smack across the back of the head from Sakura, along with several dirty looks from all the other Kumoichi present (Hinata excepted, of course). Though the irritation read plain across her face, Tsunade managed to continue in a surprisingly calm tone,
"We're sending you all on a 'search and destroy' mission to the land of ash."
"Where's that?" Naruto blurted out again. Barely had the words escaped his lips before he was cowering beneath the torrent of blows that Sakura was raining down upon him. Tsunade's own vein was pulsing as she rose from her chair, as if to assist her pupil in the pummeling of Naruto. Sensing the danger that lay only a moment away, Shizune quickly intervened,
"It's in the far west, Naruto-kun." she explained, placing her hands on Tsunade's shoulders and forcing her to sit back down, "There's a hidden shinobi village there, Kagegakure, the village hidden in the shadows. We've been working with several local ANBU members, and, last night, we received intelligence of a most distressing nature. The report said that four agents of the Akatsuki have been seen prowling around. Supposedly, these individuals are under direct orders from Madara Uchiha himself to locate a certain weapon hidden there. Though the report didn't indicate what this weapon may be, it did mention that it was of a certain, unusually high destructive nature."
"How high is 'unusually destructive'?" asked Sakura, curiosity causing her to pause mid-punch.
"Well," answered Tsunade, having now regained her composure, "we are told that, when this device is activated, it gains the ability to flatten continents!" Dead silence filled the room. It would be a pitiful understatement to merely say that they were all shocked; the terror and disbelief that clawed at all of their hearts, even those of the bravest among them, is scarcely imaginable! The ability to flatten continents, how was such a thing even possible? And the idea of the Akatsuki being in possession of such a weapon was enough to make a shiver even crawl up Neji's unusually stiff spine. After what seemed like an eternity of silence had elapsed, one of the teens worked up the courage to say something,
"Alright, time-out! Back up!" snarled Kiba, sliding off of Akamaru's back, "You just said a minute ago that you don't even know what this weapon is. So, how can we really be sure that it's as destructive as you say it is? And secondly, what do you want us to do about it when we don't even know what it looks like?" Before Tsunade even got a chance to respond to Kiba's outpouring of questions, a cool voice answered from the back of the room,
"Just for the record, I happen to know the exact size, shape, and location of this particular artifact, and, precisely how to activate it. As for 'what you are to do about it', that's quite simple; you are to destroy it, BEFORE those Akatsuki swine get the opportunity to place their filthy paws on it." At the sound of these words, everyone turned in surprise to find themselves face to face with a tall man, standing in the doorway. He had a mop of tousled, inky black hair that fell in curtains around the snarling panther-shaped ANBU mask that covered his face. He wore a slightly too small breast plate over a weathered looking black T-shirt, whose tightness placed great emphasis on his extensive musculature. But even his seemingly impeccable physique had flaws. His great arms were cris-crossed with long, wiry scars, possibly sword wounds, as well as a number of severe burns, making it appear as though they had been put through an oven after a meat grinder. Four giant shuriken were strapped to his back, as well as a shinobi head band, which had a solar-eclipse design etched into the metal, the symbol of Kagegakure.
"This is Toshiro Takahira," explained Tsunade, standing and taking her place at his side, "He's an ANBU operative from the land of ash and the one who will be leading this expedition. He also has personal experience fighting the Akatsuki." Toshiro flexed his muscles, causing the long scars and severe burns on his arms to be thrown into starker contrast.
"I got these from some of Deidara's bloody clay spiders," He scowled from behind his mask, "It's truly a shame that I never got the chance to repay him in full. But, be that as it may, I think that we'll all have more than ample opportunity to...EXERCISE OUR FRUSTRATIONS on the Akatsuki throughout the course of this mission."
"And what do you mean by that, exactly?" inquired Shikamaru, arching an eyebrow and standing to get a better look at the newcomer. Shizune cleared her throat nervously while Tsunade folded her arms, her expression grave,
"What I've assembled here today is a joint Leaf, Sand and Shadow task force that will be entrusted the mission of preventing the Akatsuki from acquiring this weapon by WHATEVER means necessary. If you are to encounter the Akatsuki agents along your journey, I am authorizing you all to terminate their operation."
"Terminate?" asked Naruto, his heart sinking; He had a nasty suspision about the identities of the four Akatsuki agents in question, and exactly what Tsunade meant when she said "terminate". Toshiro nodded, as if reading Naruto's mind,
"Terminate, with EXTREME prejudice." Tension hung in the air for a moment before he chose to continue, "Now, I want you all to go home and pack your gear. Remember to bring ONLY the essentials; food, clothes and ninja weaponry, and ONLY that which you can carry, we have a long road ahead of us." Everyone nodded slowly, the reality of their present circumstance just beginning to sink in. Tsunade managed a small smile as she sat back down behind her desk,
"Good luck to all of you! Remember to stick together and never falter in battle. As of this moment, Operation Bleeding Sunrise is now in affect!"