Hey guys! Sorry if this is late...I'm not sure if it was...anyways this is my replacement fic for TLD (Twins of Light and Darkness) I will continue TLD and X-factors and this one as well. The new X-Factors chappie should come out later this week. As for this one, I didn't really know where I was headed with one cause I had alot of good ideas so I had it all over the place for a little while. But finally! I narrowed everything down and this is the result. So please enjoy! (BTW let me know if you prefer the current title or Operation: Potential thx!)
Four years ago in Kumogakure
"Raikage-sama, our genin report," a chuunin teacher at the Academy handed him the file containing the papers. The Sandaime Raikage frowned at the report, he did not like what he saw.
Kumo was failing, their number of genin that could potentially become Jounin, Chuunin and Hunter Nin was falling. They had the largest amount of Jounin and Hunter Nin in all of the Elemental Countries but their future was at. Most of the genin would probably die on some lame C or B rank mission. While they had many genin and other shinobi with potential, it was not enough. They needed powerful genin, ones with utmost potential, ones with kekkai genkai, ones with special abilities, perhaps even Jinchuuriki. His daughter Yuugito was a Jinchuuriki and a few other Jinchuuriki for her to play and train with was not a bad idea. If they didn't have any genin soon, then well...Kumo was going to become in heavy debt to other Hidden Village's, not something anybody wanted.
"We need to think of something... You said Pein wanted to see me?," the Chuunin nodded, "Send him in please," Raikage sighed and rubbed his temples. The Chuunin bowed and retreated out of the room. This matter was giving him grey hair. Pein was his brother, and the leader of Ame. While he had not inheirted the Rinnegan, he had risen through the ranks to Raikage. Ame and Iwa was closely interlinked, highly dependent on each other, if Iwa was to fall, Ame would go down with it.
"What's giving my genius big brother a headache Kinsen-nii-san?" Pein entered the office and took a seat in the chair across from Kinsen. The Akatsuki was formed recently, and Pein was already recruiting members. He had his eye on Iwa's genius, Deidara. So far the Akatsuki consisted of himself, and his childhood friends, Konan and Nagato, both of them out on missions to look for potential new members.
"Kumo is failing otouto, we are running out of genin that will be able to pass the Chuunin Exams. We need a group of genin that will be able to reach Chuunin and beyond. They will lead the village's future. " Kinsen explained, he passed Pein the report on the genin levels.
There was a pause as Pein scanned the report briefly, "That's simple, if we don't have the genin, then surely other Hidden Villages must. All we need to do is to kidnap them from the villages." Pein tossed the report back on the desk carelessly.
"That just might work...If you can, I would prefer them to be as young as possible, perhaps even little babies, it will be so much easier for us to teach them if they have as little attachment to their former village as possible. And this might be a little too much, but could we get Kekkai Genkai kids or Jinchuuriki?" Kinsen winced a little at the size of his request, it wasn't impossible to pull of but it would be pretty darn hard.
Pein thought about it for a moment before speaking, "I'll pull up a list of possible candidates for you and figure out how to pull it off, but-" Kinsen sighed, here was the part where Pein wanted something in return. "I want you to get the missing-nin prodigy Deidara to join the Akatsuki.
"That's it?" Kinsen asked in disbelief, "All you want is Deidara?" there was a nod. "You can have Deidara if you want, just get the list done,"
"Done deal, I'll have Operation: Potential ready soon," Pein smirked and walked out of the office, he would be back in a couple of days, everything already figured out. He wasn't only helping Iwa, he was helping Ame and himself to a bunch of extremely talented younglings.
It took a good month of planning but finally it was done, Operation: Potential was a go. All of Kumo was briefed on this via a ceremony and was fully prepared. They were first going to kidnap Hinta Hyuuga, the Hyuuga heir. By using the mayhem over at the Hyuuga compound as a cover, other Kumo nins would sneak in and kidnap their targets. And just in case that the incident over at the Hyuuga compound was not enough, Pein had a spy/man inside Konoha, Uchiha Itachi. He was already ordered to murder his entire clan by the Sandaime due to the coup d'etat that the Uchiha had planned out. Every Uchiha would be killed by him except his brother and himself. Then he join the Kumo nins on their run back to Kumo. Other Kumo nins would be in other Hidden Villages, kidnapping other candidates from other Villages.
"Head out! Operation: Potential is a go!" Kinsen shouted at the assembled Jounin and Hunter-nin assembled in front of him. With that, all of them became blurs and leapt out of the Village. 'The future of the Village depends on those kids, bring them back safely,' once he could no longer sense any one of his men's chakra signatures, he turned and returned to his office.
A week later in Konoha...
Once the signal was given through comlinks, Konoha was in chaos within a matter of seconds, Hinata Hyuuga, the Hyuuga heir was kidnapped. Inuzuka's were trying to track down the missing heir with no avail. There was just too much going on. Someone had set the Nara Compound on fire and nin's were rushing about frantically trying to put out the fire. There was a blur as the young Uchiha Itachi carrying a bundle rushed by, headed towards the gates. Many assumed he was summoned there to make sure no enemy got out but nobody knew what the bundle was. Well that was what they assumed...until a scream resounded from the direction of the Uchiha Compound.
"They're dead! They're all dead! The Uchiha's!" the cry rose up, a dozen or so medics and ANBU were dispatched to the Uchiha Compound to sort things out over there. Another dozen were sent in the direction of the main gates to block of the escape of the killer.
Hayaku Fushidara was a Kumo Jounin, very well known for his speed. His job was to kidnap three special someones, all heavily guarded. All three of them were reportedly Jinchuuriki although one's demon was a kept a very well hidden secret until Pein-sama found out. Now when a quick Katon Jutsu lit the Nara Compound on fire, courtesy of one of his team mates, it was all he needed to dash into the compound faster than any shinobi's eye could follow.
According to the blueprints of the compoud, the three special kiddies would be in the room...to his right. Inside was a woman and four cribs, each one carrying a kid but only three of them special. Seeing that the woman was already picking up one of the kids, he cast a quick genjutsu that would allow him to sneak in unseen. Cautiously, he took a step inside the room, checking to see that his genjutsu was working properly. She was probably a civilian, unable to detect the genjutsu. Grinning at his luck, he quickly checked the cribs, sure enough, there was two blondes in two of the cribs. Now the third one was a little bit difficult, the kid the woman was holding looked pretty much the same as the one in the crib.
Frowning, he gently pried open the one he held's mouth, nope , no teeth or fangs for that matter. He did the same to the other kid...fangs, four of them already, he had found the one he wanted. Hearing voices and footsteps coming, he quickly wrapped them in a blanket, tied them to his back and bolted towards the west gate through the window, the one where all the sucessful Kumo nin were supposed to meet. A few other blurs heading in the same general direction told him that his team mates had seen him escaping with the bundle and now all of them were clearing the area.
Kinsen nodded as names of the kids were checked off as Jounin brought each of them in. There was roughly around eleven in total and now each of them lay in their own little cribs in the same hospital room, having endured a rough ride back from Konoha. Although Itachi refused to leave his little brother alone, so he sat in the chair by Sasuke's crib, already asleep. His men were all exhausted, having pushed themselves to the limit to get the eleven kids back to Kumo within half a day. All of them were assigned a good week's worth of vacation and resting time.
Smiling, he walked down the aisle between the cribs, tucking in each one as if they were his own children. When he reached the two blondes, the most prized out of the eleven, the Namikaze twins. It was rumored that only people of Namikaze blood could preform the Hirashin. And although all the Elemental Countries had a copy of the instructions of the Hirashin, nobody had ever suceeded other than Minato himself.
As he was tucking Sora, the older one of the two in, he noticed a seal on the kid's right arm. It looked extremely complicated and somewhat like a summoning seal mixed with a storage seal. Frowning, he pumped a little bit of chakra into the seal, careful not to hurt the kid. With a poof, Sora vanished and there was a dull blue flash from Naruto's crib. Kinsen rushed over, slightly worried and fasinated at the same time. There was the same seal on Naruto except now there was a fox over top of the seal, as if it meant that the seal was holding something. Curious he pumped the same amount of chakra into the seal as well and watched as the seal greedily absorbed it.
The same blue flash appeared in Sora's crib and poof! There he was again, sleeping contentedly, as if nothing ever happened. Shaking his head, he made a mental note to file this bit of info away and test the seal when the two were older.
Four years after Operation: Potential...
Kinsen watched fondly as his daughter Yugito ran off to play with her friends. The eleven kids was the spirit and life of Kumo, everywhere they went, they brought smiles to people's faces. It was as if the failing Kumo had revived just by the arrival of the eleven. Konoha had suspected Kumo for being held responsible of he kidnaps and finally had proven it. Right now he was fending Konoha off by saying that breaking the truth to the kids would permanently damage their mental and emotional wellness and they should stay in Kumo for their well-being. When they were old enough, they would be sent back to Konoha for a trial run and then they would choose where they wanted to stay.
But right now this wasn't important, all that mattered was for these kids to have fun before they grew up into the harsh way of the shinobi. Pein was recruiting other Jinchuuriki who was older and had more experience with their demon's to teach the kids. There was Kinsen's brother, Kira, host of the Hachibi who had immeadietly stepped up to the plate. He had also become quite fond of the kids, who had treated him as an uncle to them.
The cry of 'cheater' roused Kinsen from his thoughts and he found Yugito chasing Naruto around with a furious look on her face. With a sigh, Kinsen made his way over to the two to break them up...ah the sweet life of fatherhood...
And there you go, that was a mighty big prologue but I hope you all enjoyed it nevertheless. So please, please please with sugar and cherries on top R&R! The more reviews, the longer the chapters! ~AnimeClouds~
