( Disclaimer: All characters, names and places drawn from the Naruto manga and anime series are owned by the original creators, and I lay no claim to any of it, custom characters notwithstanding. Also, if anyone with a grasp of both English and Japanese reads this and finds error with some of my makeshift jutsu names…please contact me. I would like them to be as accurate as possible. )
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Chapter I: The New Team
The forest around Konohagakure on this particular morning was more peaceful than usual. There was barely a sound from the usual denizens of the forest, who by this time were rousing from their burrows to go about their daily ministrations. A light mist lay in the air, not yet dispelled by the warmth from the rising sun, giving the surroundings a slightly ethereal quality. But a peace this perfect wasn't going to last forever and the end of it was quickly forthcoming.
Leaping from branch to branch, dark brown eyes focused on the path ahead, a Konoha chuunin continued his rapid pace without pausing to admire the beauty and peace around him. There was nothing more important than escape at this point, and if his opponent was as fast and as unpredictable as he had heard, then even this head start might not be enough. Of course, the thrill of battle was pleasant, but in this case escape was the top priority. As the path opened up ahead of him, he took a moment to stop and catch his breath atop a thick branch high upon a taller oak tree. Crouching there, a few beads of sweat soaking into the cloth of his forehead protector, he turned back towards the direction from which he'd come, looking for signs of pursuit.
Within moments, a barrage of shuriken sliced through the air and landed in the trunk of the tree upon which he perched, as well as the branch upon which he was currently waiting. Though none hit home, the fact that he couldn't see his attacker coupled with how close the projectiles came to landing in him instead of near him surprised him.
"Bloody accurate…"
But now was no time to marvel at his attacker's aim…it was time to move forward again. Bracing himself for another leap, he launched off the branch into the air. Not three jumps later, a form clad in orange and black entered his line of sight, waiting upon a branch several yards ahead. The green chuunin vest worn by this one didn't seem to fit very well with the rest of his attire, but there was no time to debate fashion. Forming a single seal, the attacker began his assault.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Where there was once on, now there were at least 30, and the fleeing chuunin realized that running would be impossible now. A split-second before another barrage of shuriken struck his position; he leapt into the air, allowing the volley to sail past and into the army of shadow clones that were even now swarming towards him like wasps. A few of them were taken out by the weapons, showing that these two weren't quite synchronized yet. Five clones, however, were almost upon him, prepared to attack. Raising his heavy fists, he parried their blows and fired back with palm strikes and forearm blows of his own, sending the small contingent out of existence. Coming down to the ground with a heavy sound, he looked up again, seeing three more clones coming down his way, kunai drawn. Time, he felt, to stop fooling around and show off some new jutsu he'd been working on! Rapidly forming seals, he finished by clapping his hands together firmly:
"Doton: Sukinishi!" (Earth Style: Stoneskin)
The three kunai wielded by the clones were let loose and sailed towards their now stationary target. As they sailed through the air, his flesh began to darken and become far less smooth. By the time the kunai struck, they merely bounced off his body without effect. It wasn't until he sought to strike at the still descending clones that he realized just how much harder it was to move his body during this jutsu…something he'd have to work on. Nevertheless, the blows he landed, despite the lowered speed, were much more powerful. One heavy swing with his arm swept all three clones aside. Another volley of shuriken hit his back, as he was unable to move fast enough to dodge them, but they had the same effect as the kunai…none to speak of.
The remaining clones, including the original, continued sailing down at him and entered into hand-to-hand combat with the statue-like chuunin, and though their blows landed, most resulted in howls of pain from striking something so hard with such force. They were easily swept aside, and one strike apparently hit home on the creator, as he went sailing back into a tree. The blow stunned him, but as he wiped a touch of blood from his lip, he was nevertheless wearing a determined grin. As his blue eyes seemed to focus past the stone ninja, said stone ninja realized that the second attacker must have been closing in. No time for anything other than a wide-range attack now. Keeping up the Sukinishi was a steady drain on his chakra, but he should have enough for this.
Focusing earth chakra into his hands, he picked up a heavy boulder from nearby, at least three times his size, and infused it with the chakra gathered in his hands. As the boulder began to glow, he turned and hurled it in the supposed direction of his second attacker, quickly forming hand seals as it sailed through the air, finishing with another hand clap:
"Doton: Bakuhatsu Ishi!" (Earth Style: Stone Explosion)
At the heavy clap, the chakra built up in the boulder caused it to explode violently; sending shards and chunks of rock sailing at high speed in the direction said boulder was thrown. A surprised shriek told him that the other attacker wasn't expecting this…but a brief flash of blue light in the form of a sphere also told him, based on acquired knowledge, that she wasn't so shocked that she didn't have time to evade it. She came into sight and landed before him in a crouch, white eyes peering through a curtain of shimmering black hair. Those eyes were surrounded by veins pressing against the flesh of her face, and though she was a touch out of breath, she still looked ready for more. The blonde ninja who he'd knocked aside before was on his feet again too, having shaken off the cobwebs. In his typically loud manner, he pointed at the stone-covered chuunin and proclaimed:
"You haven't won yet, Kuma! We've only started!"
Releasing the Sukinishi, the chuunin named Kuma faced down his first attacker with a grin and held out his hand, beckoning him forward to continue.
"I wouldn't expect any less from you, Naruto-san."
The girl now to his rear stood as well, dusting the small pieces of stone and dust from her attire, looking a little nervous, but also still determined to put up a good fight. She briefly glanced in Naruto's direction, and a slight blush came to her cheeks. Even after being on the same team as him for several missions and spending more time with him in general, Hinata Hyuuga couldn't shake her shyness about the self-proclaimed future Hokage. But she was getting better, albeit slowly, than when she used to faint if he got too close.
Naruto, only recently having become a chuunin, was starting to become like the Naruto of old. Full of confidence and with energy to spare. It was a change that everyone was happy to see come about in him. Events over the past year had been hard on everyone, but where Naruto was usually the one who tried to cheer everyone up with his unflappable spirit and positive attitude, he was the one hit the hardest. Losing someone dear to you had that effect.
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It was such a bother the way the leader would just call for them without warning, never bothering to query as to whether or not they were training, eating or what-have-you. And it wasn't as if he could be ignored, either. Sasuke had attempted that only once, and the resulting consequences had caused even him to be a little more respectful of his commander, if not of the person as a whole then at least of his power. The leader wasn't the kind of person you wanted to face in combat for any reason at all.
But that did not require Sasuke to like the situation, either.
At least this time, the summons didn't interrupt anything. One by one, the forms of the Akatsuki members materialized atop the stone fingertips of the massive statue located within their main base. All of them, including Sasuke, clad in the long black cloaks that concealed nearly their entire bodies and part of their faces. Red clouds swirled about each one, a trait which made them easy to spot out in the open. The lot of them remained quiet for the most part while waiting on the leader himself to appear, though some chatted quietly amongst themselves. The over-talkative Tobi chattering to Deidara, who was growing more agitated by the moment, and the odd Zetsu, who was always talking to himself…and responding. Itachi was as silent as death, as per usual for him. More than once, Sasuke's eyes shifted in the direction of his older brother, and more than once he had to fight to keep himself from forgetting his place and his promise and attacking him. It would not accomplish much here anyway, as their real bodies were far away in each case.
Then the form of the leader flickered into view, those amazing Rin'engan eyes flashing in the darkness of the chambers. Pain glanced about briefly at the assembled Akatsuki, then began his address, which this time had a different tone and purpose than the usual orders to catch the various tailed monsters for their ultimate goal.
"A rosuto-nin (lost ninja) has begun making his way from the old Kaimeigakure outside of the Sound Country towards the Fire Country as of yesterday afternoon."
Pain's deep voice resounded briefly while the Akatsuki members had time to absorb the meaning of his words. If a single rosuto-nin had caught Pain's attention for some reason, beyond the acquiring of the tailed beasts, then this one must be something special. After a few moments of quiet chatter, Pain continued, the first note of his voice implicitly commanding silence.
"His power would be either a help or a hindrance to us. It would be in our best interests to ensure that it is the latter, and to eliminate him if this proves impossible. Are there any volunteers for this mission?"
So that was it…either bring him into the fold or remove him from consideration in a permanent fashion. Most of the Akatsuki pairs already had their own missions, nearly all of them involving tailed beasts. Sasuke and his partner, Tobi, who was suddenly quiet again, glanced about briefly before their eyes met. It sounded like a challenge to Sasuke, who was still on a mission to prove himself in more ways than one. Tobi would have made objections right away had he a problem with taking on the mission, and his silence reinforced Sasuke's decision to raise his hand, accepting the mission.
The very same events that reduced Naruto to a less-than-happy person in Konoha were the same that pushed Sasuke towards Akatsuki, though in the latter's case there were other factors also. The two needed to deal with the loss in their own way, and perhaps had someone been tugging at Naruto's strings, for lack of a better term, as they had at Sasuke's, then he might have gone down the same path. Regardless, now the two former teammates were on opposing sides, and the inevitable showdown was looking more and more intense.
One by one, the images of the Akatsuki members flickered out of sight; with the leader remaining in sight long enough to instruct Sasuke and Tobi on their mission parameters…
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The dark form slipped through the trees and brush with all the speed it could muster, though it seemed like every other step saw it nearly fall face-first to the ground. Blood seeped into the person's eyes, and trying to rub it away only made it worse. He had something of a head start, but every time he stumbled, his enemies came closer, and if he kept up at this erratic pace, they'd catch him again and finish the job they started months ago. It wasn't something he would relish by any stretch.
Kunai sailed past him, landing in both tree and ground as he tried to run past. It was nearly too late when he heard the sizzling sound of the exploding tags burning up, and it took his last burst of energy to run out of range of the resulting explosions. A decent-sized section of the woods was rent asunder by the force of the multiple tags, and there was no question that it would have put him down for good had he been entwined within that sphere. Now in an open field, he collapsed to his knees, his breathing labored by that burst of speed. The blood and sweat flowing into his eyes, stinging them and blurring his vision, wasn't even a factor now. Even if he cleaned it away, he didn't have the energy to make another dash for safety.
Within moments, three oto-nin landed about fifteen feet away from him, staring down their target with hard eyes. One stepped forward and drew a kunai from his pouch, pointing the tip in the drained ninja's direction.
"End of the line, freak. You can't trespass in our lands and get away with it. Just because our country is in turmoil…"
And so on and so on he went…one long spiel about his country, their pride and a lot of other things that wouldn't matter in the next minute. The injured one before the three oto-nin was trembling, not just from pain but from rage. Throughout this escape and chase, he'd been fighting back the latent desire to use the depths of the power given him, but as his body weakened, his willpower went with it. The darkness within him was stirring, and he couldn't stop it from eventually bubbling to the surface. Part of him didn't want to hold it back anymore, anyway…anything to make this fool stop talking!
"…and that's why you have to die…"
A deep growl emitted from the throat of the bloody ninja, his head turning towards the three oto-nin slowly, a hideous indigo glow emitting from those already dark eyes under the curtain of hair and plasma. All three of the pursuers, suddenly reticent and wide-eyed, took a step or two back. Was this what they had been warned about with this one? Was this that…power?
"Do…you…ever…shut up?!"
Though the words were whispered, the force of them seemed enough to push the oto-nin back even further. The same glow that emitted from the ninja's eyes now spread to his entire body, a dark chakra that seemed to have a life of its own. Like ethereal flame, it flickered and danced around the bloody, dirty form of their target.
"One by one…I will have your souls…"
When those tainted hands began forming seals, it was nearly impossible to see just how many were made, such was the speed of the user. The final seal, the demon seal, marked the end of the three pursuers. The chakra around the bloody ninja recomposed to resemble the shape of a fell demon, the whispered name of the technique the last thing that any of them would hear in the living world:
"Majikkuoni: Kyouou Aka Seishou!" (Demon Magic: Bloody Spirit Feast)
The screams of the oto-nin never made it into the open air; instead ringing in their minds for the last few moments of life they were allowed. By the time the brief battle was over, the bloody ninja was nowhere to be seen, and the desiccated, soulless husks of the oto-nin were all that remained as a reminder of the 'battle' fought there. On towards the Fire Country went the bloody ninja, forcing down the darkness once again and using the newly acquired energy from the oto-nin to fuel his further escape. He couldn't risk another outbreak…not before reaching his destination:
Konohagakure.
( Author's Note: Please feel free to leave me some comments on this story. If I have my way, I want to have as many future installments as possible. The version of the Naruto universe upon which this story is based is different from the canon in a number of ways, which will be revealed as the story progresses. Thank you for reading and I look forward to your input. )