Memories of the Dawn
Chapter 1: God's Island
"Ugh" Naruto groaned as he weakly opened his eyes. "Where am I?" Naruto sat up and looked around. He seemed to be on an island in the middle of nowhere. The deep ocean water completely surrounded the island. Naruto tried standing up, but he felt a sharp pain in his left leg which caused him to stay seated. The course sand felt rough under Naruto's pants. There was no other land for miles and in the middle of the island, was a dense emerald jungle. He inspected himself for any damage. Naruto lifted up his pants leg and found a rather large gouge in his knee. He sighed, "Where's Sakura when you need her." Whoosh! Naruto looked towards the jungle and saw a fireball shoot right at him. He was immobile, so he quickly lied back and went right under the whirling mass of fire. This left his jacket somewhat scorched, but he remained unharmed. When he looked back over he saw someone ran towards him with his sword.
"Naruto!" Sasuke screamed.
"Sasuke? What are you doing?" Naruto tried moving but was unable to without bleeding. Sasuke was charging, suddenly A large figure dressed in black pushed Sasuke to the side. He glared back at Naruto with his piercing red eyes and long black hair. The man grabbed Naruto and slung him over his shoulder. "Come, we must move quickly." The man carried the young shinobi into the dark forest, Sasuke followed in pursuit. In mid run Itachi spun 180 degrees, while carrying Naruto on his back. He put his hand to his mouth as a hand-sign. "Fire-style, Fireball Jutsu!" He released a gigantic fireball and Sasuke. Sasuke was too late to dodge and impacted with the large ball. "Aghh!" He screamed in anguish. He turned around and picked up the pace. Naruto could've sworn he saw someone come to Sasuke's aid.
"What's going on?"
"Silence, Jinchuuriki! We don't have much time"
"Jinchuuriki... Akatsuki? Let go of me!" Naruto pulled out a kunai and stabbed it into his captors back. He grunted then disappeared in smoke. Just as Naruto was about to hit the ground, he reappeared and caught him in mid-air. "Don't test me, Nine-Tails. I'm only following orders. I'd have you put to death if I wasn't on a mission right now."
"You took the words right out of my mouth." Another voice behind them said. Naruto looked up and stared in disbelief. "You're the shark guy, Kisame. Then that must mean..."
"Bingo, kid." Kisame said with a smirk, showing off his sharp teeth.
"I-Itachi?"
"Humph."
"Put me down!" Naruto began banging against his back. Kisame was about to pull out his sword when Itachi stopped. "Gladly!" Itachi grabbed Naruto by the arm and flung him onto the ground. Naruto hit his head against the ground and fell unconscious. Itachi hovered above him and surveyed the camp. "Inform leader that we've established a base." Kisame pulled out his radio. "With the Jinchuuriki."
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"C'mon Naruto, hurry!" Sakura was running in front of me. We were in a tunnel; it was dark, and cold. The walls were lined with slime and it smelled of mold and mildew. "Yeah, move it loser." Sasuke taunted, using his sword to cut through the various vines in our way. It was just like old time, Sakura, Sasuke, and me on a mission together. Only this time, it was life or death and we were running out of time. Once Sasuke heard we were all going after Itachi and he had defeated Orochimaru, he decided to return to the village. Sasuke said he would accept any punishment as long as he was able to go on this mission. There was a blinding light at the end of the tunnel. I had kunai in both hands. We were ready.
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"You threw him?" The leader asked angrily. Konan had her back against a tree. "Leader told you to bring the Nine-Tails unharmed." She sighed
"He already has a huge gash in his leg, I thought it wouldn't matter." Itachi confessed. He held his head down. Leader smacked Kisame instead.
Naruto was awoken to this angry conversation. His forehead was bandaged to stop the bleeding and he had more bandages on his wounded leg. His jacket lied across the tent, so too much movement would give him away.
"You shouldn't have let Itachi carry him." Leader shouted.
"I was fighting of Itachi's 'foolish little brother'." Kakashi shouted. Itachi sneered. "You said no one else was there, Leader."
He was taken back by this remark, "Sasuke was there? This was not what we planned. Zetsu, I know you're listening. Go perfect the defenses. Hidan, Kakuzu, you're on guard. Itachi, go check on the boy. Naruto flinched; he had to get out of there! Naruto winced at the pain which left him immobile. Why wasn't the Kyuubi healing him? He hastily surveyed the inside of the tent. Any kunai or ninja tools he had were taken away. Itachi approached the tent. His shadow could be seen towering over Naruto. Itachi pulled down the zipper and stared at their catch. He closed it back up and returned to the campfire. "Still sleeping."
"Very well, we shall continue in the morning. It's about eleven o'clock and we should all get some sleep." The Akatsuki members retreated to each of their tents. Leader and Konan shared a large black tent with the signature Akatsuki clouds on them. Itachi had a mall black tent, Kisame had a blue one. Left were a yellow tent, a white tent, a grey tent, a black and white tent, and a small orange tent. Naruto was able to see out a small peep hole in the side. Once all of the others had fallen asleep, Naruto slowly crawled over to his jacket. He reached into a pocket and surprisingly found a small orange scroll. He opened it up and read the text.
Naruto, here is a gift for helping me earlier. Use your chakra to release the seal. Love, Sakura.
He must've stuck it in his pocket weeks ago and forgot about it. Naruto released the seal and from the smoke appeared a small round metal disk with a thin hook on it. Naruto grabbed it and stuck it in his left ear. He pressed the little button in the middle. A low metallic voice said, "You have one message." Beep! Suddenly a raspy breathing was heard. "Naruto... why? Why did you do this to me?" She shouted. Then there was a large crash and a scream. "S-Sakura?" Despite Naruto's pain, he grabbed his jacket and limped out of the tent. Naruto used his chakra to numb his leg. The camp was in a trimmed part of the forest. The jungle surrounded them in a complete circle. Naruto slipped behind his tent and into the forest. Naruto had to find Sakura. After running for a while Naruto rested against a tree. He had to catch his breath. He released his chakra and almost screamed, luckily someone muffled his mouth. Or perhaps it was unlucky? "Quite boy, you can't let anyone now you're here." Zetsu was hanging out of a tree. Naruto slapped his hand off. "What do you bastards want from me?" Zetsu pulled himself out of the tree. "We're just trying to get you out of here alive. This is far worse than it appears."
"Worse than being captured by the people who want me dead?" Naruto retorted. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" A dozen Naruto's appeared and they all fell down in pain.
Zetsu sighed, "I could've told you that would happen!" He bent down and grabbed Naruto by the good leg and dragged him back to camp. "You're Zetsu right?" He nodded. "Just tell me, what's going on. Why aren't I dead?"
"Normally, you'd have been extracted and left for dead. But our current situation doesn't allow us. Our priority now is to keep you alive because if you die, the Kyuubi dies with you." Zetsu's white half said. By the time they got back it was daybreak. Most members have come out of their tents. Apparently they don't were the cloaks when they sleep. Only leader had the signature coat on. Itachi had a mesh shirt on, and Kisame was only wearing pants. Everyone one looked over at the plant man and his prize. Zetsu let go of Naruto's leg and went to sit with the team. Naruto sat up and stared at them all. On the left were Zetsu and a blue haired girl. On the right were Itachi and his partner Kisame. There in the middle was a man with fiery orange hair that looked strangely like Naruto's own. He had many piercing all over his face and was wearing the cloak. Naruto could only assume he was the leader. Everyone was silent, no one would dare move. Then the blue hair girl stood up and walked over to Naruto. She kneeled down and offered her hand. "Well?" She said smiling. Her hair was a luscious blue that swayed in the wind. She walked in heels and a fishnet shirt. She had blue eye shadow and bright blue lipstick. Naruto took her hand and she lifted him up. He leaned on her and she helped him over to the sitting logs. Kisame stared at the boy, and then whispered to Itachi. Itachi smirked, "Yeah, like she'd do it for five bucks." Konan threw a kunai at him. Itachi reflected back at her. Right before it hit her it exploded into paper shreds. Naruto was amazed by this, how did she do that?
"Um... am I going to die now?" Naruto asked in a lowered tone.
Once again the blue girl was the only one to speak, "When Kakuzu gets back he'll fix up that leg."
"That's not what I asked." Naruto replied. There was a silence once more. The leader stood up and looked over at Naruto.
"You have absolutely no idea what's happened do you. We saved you from all you little friends so dear. They want you dead." Leader said.
"...That's insane. All you people want are to kill me for the Nine-Tails. That's it; you have no reason to save me! Besides, my friends would never hurt me."
"Where do you think you got that wound from, and why do you think the Kyuubi won't heal it?" The blue girl said.
"..."
"You're friends attacked you and you turned on them. You were just defending yourself, regardless of the casualties." The girl walked over to her tent.
"Casualties?"
Konan brought back a scroll and opened it. "Ino Yamanaka, Shino Aburame, Tenten, Sai, and Naruto Uzumaki. Or so they think." She smirked. "There's a few more, but I won't go into that right now."
"We need to get to the base," Leader announced. "Let's get moving."
"Sorry, but this is for your own good." Konan said. "What?" Naruto asked as Konan hit him in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious. "Kisame, carry him."
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We were ready, just not ready for everything. When we reached the end of the tunnel there, hanging from a jungle vine by the neck...
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