Chapter 1 – A Needed Paranoia
Lawyers: I claim no ownership of either Hunter x Hunter or Naruto.
Summary: Gon and Killua needed money. Badly. So they didn't bother looking twice when a certain snake sannin offered payment for them to join his village.
Notes: I guess this idea crept into my head after examining the similarities between Hunter x Hunter and Naruto. In the HxH storyline, it takes place while Gon and Killua are busy thinking up ideas to get money to buy Greed Island (after they have their bouts with the Ryodan). There's some lapse of time where, instead of chasing the Ryodan again, they train themselves and develop abilities similar to the current manga's state. In Naruto, it's after Sasuke joins Orochimaru's ranks; after he gains the Chidori Nagashi (One Thousand Birds Current) and after Naruto has rescued Gaara from the Akatsuki.
Also, there will be slight alterations to the HxH plot since Gon and Killua failed to help Kurapika out with Ryodan-catching. The Ryodan leader has no fish hooks in his heart and can move about freely.
Gon and Killua needed money. Badly. Greed Island, their current sole hope for finding Gon's father, had been just a tip out of reach. But what had pissed Killua off to no end was the fact that they had only been twenty jenis short of their prize. Twenty jenis, for godsake! Just after Killua had attempted to teach Gon about the tricks of the auction, too! He'd been fooled under his nose; he, the lecturer of auction strategy had been left to fume at his own embarrassment and explain why he had sounded so knowledgeable when in fact he couldn't even put his knowledge to practice. Luckily, Gon wasn't the type to snicker and blame, or else Killua really would've blown.
And now, there was a suspicious dark-haired man offering them money, a large, chump sum of readily available cash to join their village. Killua wasn't sure of agreeing at first, wasn't sure if the man with elongated eyes and floppy black hair was worth trusting for a copy of Greed Island. But Gon, the all too naive Whale island native, had already accepted the deal, sent their thanks, and dragged the wary Zoldick heir along.
Not that Killua could really complain, of course. Danger could be fun, never mind what his malignant, narrow-minded older brother would say. Illumi had once been his goal; his mountain to scale, and Killua had clung on to the man's every words and made them his philosophy. But now, his brother had faded into ash under the intense fire of Gon's normality, and Killua no longer felt the need to pick at his brother's scrap of a philosophy.
Yet the more Killua looked at the man calling himself Orochimaru, the more Killua was reminded of his brother. It was as if—
"Killua!" Gon's voice cut through his thoughts. "Orochimaru says he's offering us dinner. Don't you want to go?"
Killua shrugged. Going mattered little. The need to investigate their new employer, rather, mattered much more. Still, out of politeness, he knew he had to agree. And besides, this might just offer a good opportunity to scrutinize Orochimaru's real intentions.
There was no one in the dining room by the time they reached it, just a couple of plates of restaurant food gracing the table. Killua inwardly sighed. Any hopes of interrogating their employer had crashed through the roof. And they were being served that disgusting spicy thing he'd consumed at Gon's house. Ewwww.
"Gon." Killua wasn't sure if they were being spied on in their sparsely populated dining room, but his curiosity took the better hold of him. A piece seemed to missing from the puzzle of Orochimaru's generous offer.
"Eh, Killua?"
"Don't you find it weird? We're being offered thirty million jenis just to join a village? Unless this guy is some rich bastard who grows money on trees—"
"Well, he did say that we were going to help him train someone too. But that's not too hard, right, Killua?"
Killua's face darkened considerably. The exact reason that was bothering him was why this idiot wasn't giving them a harder task to undertake. He forcefully spooned in another mouthful of the spicy, claw-like substance, dejectedly wondering why he hadn't just convinced Gon to go to the local ice cream stand instead.
"So, Kabuto, the white haired boy is suspicious?" Orochimaru was not surprised. The boy was a legendary Zoldick, and to expect the Zoldicks to not harbor at least a hint of paranoia after the daily assaults on their estate was, frankly, stupid.
"Indeed." Kabuto had no idea why the snake sannin had insisted on paying so much for a Hunter and a Zoldick to drop by the Sound. Had Sasuke needed any training, he could've easily sufficed. Why sacrifice their paycheck just to bring in two kids?
"I will figure a way to dispel his suspicion eventually. For now, inform Sasuke that he will have better sparring partners."
Kabuto nodded numbly, almost seething in annoyance. Better? He wanted to sneer. No spoiled bundle of brats could possibly be as competent of a sparring partner as himself. But if Orochimaru's purpose was just to rile him up…Or…perhaps the man had found another viable vessel…
"Oh, yes, and Kabuto? Leave with the Akatsuki tomorrow. A week after tomorrow they will be here for a diplomatic session, and you should be there to spy."
Damn. Yes. Just his luck, to be stuck with the freaks that possessed red-cloud-embroidered coats and purple nail polish.
Sasuke was not pleased. He had never heard of a Zoldick, and no matter how much significance Orochimaru seemed to place on them as being an "elite, assassin family perhaps superior to the ANBU," Sasuke still found himself doubting. And he definitely wasn't pleased with someone who had only gained the mere title of a 'Hunter', as he'd heard the Hunter exam was only a tad bit harder than the Chuunin exam. Clearly nowhere near Itachi.
He was going to greatly look forward to crushing these dimwits.
When they approached, he had not expected a white-haired boy (wasn't he supposed to be twelve?) and a rather Narutoish partner. Playing with them certainly wouldn't hurt. Destroying them with Chidori afterward would be a feat he'd look forward to.
"Uchiha Sasuke, is it?" Killua's curt voice rang across the training field.
"Yes." And an even more curt reply.
"We have been asked by the leader of your village to spar with you."
Then get on with it and quit stalling! Sasuke snarled at no one in particular and flung several kunai hastily in the Zoldick heir's direction. To his infuriation, the boy easily averted the attack, even if said attack was something any genin could avoid.
Killua stared blankly at Sasuke, emanating a bored expression. Before their arrival, he'd had Gon contact Hanzo, the single ninja in their round of the Hunter exam, and found out about shinobis' peculiar decision to use kunais, senbons, and shurikens instead of their more modern counterparts. As another set of kunai flew by, Killua gauged Sasuke's throw—it was certainly not slow, but it was definitely nowhere near the velocity of a speeding bullet.
Gon was right. It wouldn't be too hard to train the Uchiha. But to deal with the derisive looks that this spoiled village leader's son (or so he thought) was sporting on them was enough to drive Killua to the brink. A part of him wanted to dump him in his family's estate and leave him to the mercy of his fat brother Milluki.
Sasuke glared at Killua, radiating annoyance. To him, Killua's nonchalance and his not-even-bothering-to-attack demeanor held a mocking tone. Unless he wanted to activate his bloodline limit, a strategy was definitely in tow. Muttering an inscrutable Kage Bunshin no Justu followed by a quick Kawarimi no Jutsu into a blade of grass, Sasuke managed to distract Killua for just enough time to collect his thoughts.
Killua quickly concentrated nen on his eyes to keep track of what was going on. He saw a shift of some sort of energy that was obviously not nen creep from Sasuke's body into the plants below them, and then watched as Sasuke disappeared and reappeared from sight. This must've been the chakra that Hanzo had informed him of. Hanzo had claimed that all shinobi from the general area of the Five Great Shinobi Countries made use of said energy. Hanzo had proceeded to explain that unlike nen, which focused more on twisting a single hatsu to suit all of one's needs, chakra thrived on numerous abilities.
Whatever maneuver Sasuke had just performed had obviously allowed him to go into hiding. Yet Killua knew that hiding for either of them would only prove an advantage for their opponent—after all, Killua could sense Sasuke's leaking nen miles away and Sasuke could say the same about Killua's unused chakra. Stupid move, Uchiha. Even without en, your presence 4.5m behind me is just screaming to be knocked down.
Killua had had enough of analyzing. Usually, one would say battle is synonymous with strategy, but it was obvious that the Uchiha's mind lacked the strategy compartment, making their skirmish more than boring. Normally, such lack of thinking ahead wouldn't have annoyed Killua—after all those spars with Gon he had first hand experience that aforementioned head-straight-to-battle types fished out the most unpredictable moves to send an opponent to hell. He had long since learned not to underestimate them. And this Uchiha knucklehead had just garnered the exception of his theory. (1)
In a few days—with the Akatsuki and Kabuto, who are nearing Oto's borders
Kabuto cracked an eyelid at the sound of birds.
He cracked another at the amplification of said sound.
And shot straight up when a loud BOOM emanated from someplace west of his current half-awake state.
His delirious state allowed him to conjecture that Deidara's clay birds must have learned to imitate real ones in speech. He was going to give hell to aforementioned Akatsuki member soon, very soon for disturbing his sleep.
Sasuke sighed and clutched his head. Wasting a Chidori shot was probably not a good idea, but at least it dissipated his anger. His defeat at the hands of newly labeled "Zoldick brat" was definitely a blow to his revenge-afflicted soul. A blow that he'd return as soon as the chance showed itself.
The Zoldick brat had told him, yes, him, the supposed genius of the Uchihas that he lacked strategic maneuvers. Heavens, he, the smartest member of team seven, lacked strategic maneuvers? Just who did this farce think he was, thinking that he could lecture Sasuke on strategy? It was obvious to Sasuke that the Zoldick brat had used no amount of strategy either. After all, who could call just standing there a strategy? Unless, of course, the Zoldick brat was trying to provoke or test him…
Sasuke quickly shut off such thoughts. Any relatively intelligent person, Naruto not included, knew that provoking him would've been suicide. So what the hell had the Zoldick brat hoped to achieve by just standing there? And how was it that the white-haired menace had survived his newly developed Chidori Nagashi and then turned the electric currents onto Sasuke? He then had to use a second wave of Chidori Nagashi to defend himself, soaking his chakra source to near zero, causing him to pronounce defeat. Well, not exactly in a verbal manner.
Sasuke was sick of this. He was supposed to surpass Itachi, not sit here and mope. He should've improved while staying at Orochimaru's for so long, and yet, this was his improvement? Being unable to defeat a twelve-year-old boy?
Not wanting to waste another Chidori shot on calming his short-fused mental state, Sasuke decided to take a swig of sake. Ever since being introduced to the drink six months ago, he had come to savor the drink's innate ability to lift depression, which came off as rather contradictory since the drink's technical term was depressant.
Killua shook his head. The minute Sasuke had attacked him with electric currents after a shout of "Chidori Nagashi", he had to try extra hard to suppress the need to kill. Watching the psycho attempt an ability that would've killed or at least disabled normal folks for days had spurred his interest to rip apart the Uchiha's heart, a feat he could've easily accomplished in his close range to the bastard. Even more annoying was how huge Sasuke's bozone layer (2) had balloned—he just had to shout out the attacks name! Didn't this guy have any notion of stealth?
Sure, they weren't exactly on friendly terms, but if his daily training sessions with the Uchiha were to be quite so…irritating, he would definitely find another way to loop in the money. This arrogant bastard was both annoying and lackluster. Perchance this was the reason Orochimaru had hired them—it was certainly a handful to deal with spoiled sorts. Perhaps the snake-sannin deserved some sympathy after all—taking such a bratty kid in was quite a handful. He had expected a challenge, a chance to learn something new. Instead he got a fool who knew naught of electricity manipulation.
Red clouds impaled on black cloaks flooded Otogakure's front gates. Diplomatic meeting time had arrived. Kabuto wanted to groan. They were always so….agonizingly silent.
As soon as the Akatsuki were all seated, introductions made, and small talk dispersed, the meeting finally commenced. Kabuto inwardly cringed in listlessness as he watched the Shark pass a scroll to the Snake. He remembered the scroll's contents, and pondered why the Akatsuki leader had bothered to write down what could've been easily spoken.
IN REPLY TO: AKA-OTO ALLIANCE
Otogakure's proposition for an Aka-Oto alliance has been gladly accepted. Our forces, though currently few in number, will soon gain momentum as the missing-nins of the Great Shinobi Countries are gathered. Our assistance will extend to Otogakure when two or more countries are attacking Oto, or when any one of Oto's enemies proves a direct threat to Akatsuki. It is understood that similar assistance will be provided to the Akatsuki. The finance and trade departments of both Akatsuki and Oto will be unified under chosen leaders from both fronts with an equal number council from both fronts. Targeting of Oto-nins on Akatsuki's part will be ceased.
Considering the second half of your proposal, we suggest that we lie in wait before initiating war against Konoha. Akatsuki will consider sending in shinobi to perform guerilla attacks on Konoha's forces in order to weaken them in preparation for a full on assault. Konoha's current force against us, though nothing compared to its prime, may turn out like the even it did 1.5 years ago at the Chuunin Exams, a stalemate despite losses.
(Signed)
F. Eitel
Kabuto knew that the relationship between Oto and Akatsuki was flimsy at best, and no amount of words on paper could change things. Of course, he knew that Oto would bear an advantage in reconnaissance since Kabuto was an excellent spy. Besides the numerous attacks and ploys by Akatsuki that Kabuto had managed to drag Oto out of, he had also gained a relative understanding of Akatsuki's government through his spywork. It was the new government the Akatsuki leader continuously spoke of that intrigued Kabuto—it allowed much more freedom than your average shinobi country, a freedom that Kabuto yearned.
From Kabuto's observations, the Akatsuki leader, who had given his name (Kabuto assumed it was fake) as Frelch Eitel, had wanted a free information trade marketplace. Violence to gain information, especially of the shinobi kind, would not be tolerated. People were encouraged to share information freely, though they were also allowed to keep secrets without legal irritations. This was what Kabuto had long yearned—free flowing information would mean a chance to learn about as many medical jutsus as he wanted; no more Orochimaru or village heads restricting him. Of course, he wouldn't be able to physically harm anyone to get or test his info, but he could live with that.
The Akatsuki leader had also mentioned as a supplement to his argument that the rule of the Kages was constantly corrupted. Kabuto was inclined to agree with him, as currently the only relatively non-corrupted Kages were the Mizukage, Kazekage and Hokage. And of course, the Kazekage had only recently gained the non-corruption status, after the murder of their nothing short of insane Yondaime. The more he thought about it, the more Kabuto decided that Kages and their respective Councils did hold far too much power. The strongest person in every village was to be Kage, which meant that if said Kage were corrupt, killing or threatening those refusing to follow him was a pushover. And the Council was almost always made up of rich, upper-class snobs who definitely weren't going to do much for the majority of the population.
Of course, none of this information had explained why the Akatsuki wanted the Bijuu. It was most likely for power, but power to achieve what? If the Akatsuki leader propositioned peace then surely he would not need such massive amounts of power. And surely he would not need to get into wars to gain such power either. Kabuto felt that something was amiss, something kept hidden from his eyes.
But nonetheless, Kabuto almost wanted to help the Akatsuki. Almost felt as if by helping Oto, his chances of this information paradise were diminished.
Killua desperately wanted to tail the newly arrived red-cloud-bearing group, for one of them fit the description of one of his father's failed exploits perfectly. Of course, his father hadn't really failed—it was mainly because the client was slaughtered that his father had succumbed. Nonetheless, he had been warned by his family that the man was dangerous, and that should he ever come within striking range, he ought to make a run for it. His instincts countered his curiosity and forced him to quit eavesdropping until he had a better grasp of chakra control. Currently, walking within a twenty-meter radius of the group red-cloud-black-coat group could prove fatal. Meeting Gon to devise a plan was far better.
When he did see Gon, he noticed that Gon was involved in a rather one-sided conversation with the Uchiha.
"Eh…Sasuke, how does this chakra thing of yours work?" Gon asked.
The question had been ingrained in Killua's mind ever since their fight started—only Gon would be brash enough—and stupid enough—to ask such a question without beating around the bush. Killua had long since vowed to forget about teaching Sasuke nen, as Wing had said that nen in the wrong hands could be disastrous. This spoiled brat was definitely nothing short of the "wronghands". Now, of course, this meant his strategy of getting Sasuke to teach him chakra control while he explained the basics of nen was shot down the drain. There was now nothing to exchange on his end of the bargain. But it obvious that Gon was not having similar plans.
Sasuke was stunned. These were the fools who were training him? And had bested him a fight? Fools who didn't even know what chakra was? Of course it was possible that the white-haired one knew while the dark-haired one didn't and hadn't bothered to share the information. Perhaps that was why the Zoldick brat had fought in lieu of the spiky-headed one. But then that did not explain why Orochimaru would take them both in.
"Ask your friend. He knows, I'm sure." He shot Gon an annoyed, I'm-way-better-than-you glare, hoping that the boy would leave him be.
"Eh? Killua's never mentioned this chakra thing to me before. Right, Killua?" Gon, possessing innate immunity to all types of glares, including the Uchiha Glare®, remained unfazed.
"Well I know of it because Hanzo mentioned it several times. But I don't know about it."
"Hmph. Then how did you fare so well in our fight?"
Killua smirked inwardly. This was a perfect opportunity to retrieve some information. He could always give Wing's original incomplete explanation of nen if he didn't want it to end up in that Sasuke-bastard's hands. Or he could always talk about the training he'd suffered under the care of this family. Yes, the perfect plan had come to light. "I'll explain if you explain chakra."
(1) Yes, I know Sasuke's a supposed genius, but I let Killua say Sasuke "lacks in the strategy department" because after watching him fight, he seems to dive in often with arrogant sentiments and only very minimal bouts of strategy. He may be considered smart by Naruto, but heavens, Naruto obviously is not a good person to be comparing oneself to in terms of intelligence. Take him attacking Itachi out of nowhere—he obviously did not think ahead. Then take Kurapika in the same situation—he actually waited until Ubogin fired his rounds against the Godfathers before stepping in and waging war against a wounded Ubo. Killua and Kurapika share near identical thoughts, minus the fact that Killua is more cautious and Kurapika more knowledgeable on obscure facts. Now if this were Shikamaru vs. Killua, I'd be inclined to say Shikamaru might win. Sasuke possesses raw power, but not raw intelligence.
(2) A bozone layer is a layer that filters out creativity surrounding unintelligent people.
Ending Notes: I suppose the story will be a bit complicated later…It won't end up like Nen Troubles, I hope, as this time I do have a plot planned and written down so that I'll actually remember it. Akatsuki's plans will be outlined slowly, Orochimaru's plans stick closely to the canon. Konoha's plans are also going to be altered slightly based upon Akatsuki's. And I just realized that Sasuke shouldn't know the Kage Bunshin. Oh well, let's just say training at Orochimaru's taught him that.