As most of you know this is a side story to 'Naruto: Making of a Hokage.' Even if you're a new reader it's not really necessary that you read 'Making of a Hokage' but it you want to then you should start with 'Naruto: A New Path,' its prequel. This story will be loosely tied with the other and you guys should be able to enjoy it fine if you're just looking for a Fu story.
Anyway, that's all I have to say and I hope that you enjoy the story.
Jinchuuriki Counterattack
Ch.1 The Mission
The sun shone down on the rich port of a commercial village; crowds of people walked about the streets wearing clothing typical of summer. It had a sense of everlasting summer, maybe due to the scent of salty water that lingered in the air or the seagulls flying through the sky as kids pointed and laughed. While the scene was typical of a village like this, for someone that had lived her entire life in the woods this was a breath of fresh air, one that she wouldn't be getting tired of in a while.
Fu, former ninja of the Waterfall Village and jinchuuriki of the the Seven-Tails. She was on a mission, not for a village but for herself, and it had taken her to this busy village in search of the remaining jinchuuriki. Her goal was to get them all together and form some type of team to watch each others back against any sort of threat, they already had a cool place to use as a headquarters.
The mission was going smoothly so far. Utakata, the jinchuuriki of the Six-Tails, had decided to join her cause and was traveling with her in search of the others. That meant that there were three of nine jinchuuriki joining the, for now, nameless team. She didn't know how many jinchuuriki the Akatsuki had captured which is why time was of the essence.
She was sure that she would run into those guys at one point of her travels but she figured that when the time came she would find a way to deal with them. For some reason she was ready to give everything up for the mission, which was weird since the whole thing started from a spur of the moment.
The whole thing began when she met Naruto, jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails. Before that she had thought that she was alone in the world, but finding out that she wasn't made her want to meet the others. Naruto had also told her a few more things which she did not know, like how he and another jinchuuriki he knew shared similar pasts in which they were miserable. Her life had also been like that, being treated like an outcast because of something that wasn't even her fault, and it made her want to find the others even more.
If they shared similar experiences then maybe getting them to join her cause would not be too difficult.
"It'll get dark in a couple of hours, we should get moving," Utakata pointed out since he and Fu were currently standing outside a shop, the latter having bought a few snacks.
Fu nodded in agreement as she looked around the area in curiosity. The store gave them a clear view of the docks which, in contrast of the village, were completely deserted. "Fine..." she muttered absentmindedly before giving him a glance, "Now that I think about it, you were the one that decided we should come here but haven't told me how exactly we'll find information on the others. I doubt we can just go and outright ask them in they've seen any jinchuuriki running around."
Utakata smirked, "That wasn't what I had in mind." He cleared his throat before raising a finger to emphasize his point, "You see, we will be asking about the Akatsuki. From what you've told me about them, they were very distinctive clothing that I doubt will go unnoticed by everyone. This village should have a lot of travelers and I'm sure at least one of them has seen a member. Once we know where they were seen we'll have a rough idea of where to look for the others.""You say it like it's simple. Those guys could kill us if we're not careful, the last thing we should do is pursue them on purpose."
"Hmm..." Utakata crossed his arms in thought before rubbing his chin, "Forget about my initial plan then. It would be wise to ask about them but not to follow them."
Fu's eyes drifted to the village, "Even so...finding the others will not be easy. I only ran into you because of luck, I doubt we'll be that lucky again."
"Then we should find a way to make the task easier," Utakata proposed, "Why don't we set up a small spy network? That way we would have eyes in several places."
"That sounds good but we would need money and I'm pretty sure we're both broke."
Utakata grinned, his eyes catching sight of something interesting, "I may have the solution, follow me."
"Eh?" Fu watched in confusion as her companion suddenly walked away, leaving her to follow after him.
Utakata ended up leading her into a very packed bar near the docks. Before she could ask why he brought her here, she noticed that a large group of people were lined up and putting money into a large cloth bag. She scowled in confusion, wondering if they were going to end up stealing the money and become some sort of dark heroes that do bad in order to do good.
"Every bit helps people," a middle-aged man with graying hair talked over the noisy bar.
"I have a hunch that we might have just used a bit of that luck you were talking about earlier," Utakata explained before tapping a man on the shoulder to get his attention. The man turned to the two ninja, his brow furrowed. "I'm sorry sir, we are travelers and were wondering why you were gathering money."
The man looked at the two oddly before speaking, "We're collecting money to hire ninja. Some pirates have been raiding and attacking our ships, they've attacked at least twenty ships and no one want to sail anymore."
"I see," Utakata nodded, "Correct me if I'm wrong but it looks as if this village makes its money from trade. That means that because no one wants to sail, mostly no one is making any sort of profit."
The man sighed, "That's it alright. We've been gathering money for weeks but it's still not enough."Fu looked at the exchange with her arms crossed. She could see where Utakata was going with this and figured that it couldn't hurt to take a mission from the village. They needed the money and who was she to turn down a village with tasty food. "What do you think Fu?" This way we'll make the necessary money to get a spy network started, a small one mind you, but it'll be something," Utakata explained."Sounds good," Fu answered before turning her back on him, preparing to leave, "But you're doing all the talking, I'm not very good at talking to them.Utakata grinned, "As you wish."
Fu watched as her letter disappeared into a large scroll, one of many that Naruto had given her before they parted ways. According to what he had said, whatever she sent via the scroll would end up with a messenger toad who would then meet with Naruto. She had no idea how long the process would take but he had assured her that it wouldn't be too long.
"It's not like I need his answer right away anyway," she muttered to herself, referring to her questions about how long it would take to rebuild the ruined Whirlpool Village, what was to become their base of operations in the future.
Her train of thought was interrupted when she saw Utakata approaching with a bag on his hand. She looked at the thing in mild curiosity; there was no way that they were getting paid up front and she wondered what was in the bag.
"This is an advance," Utakata explained when seeing the way she looked at the small bag. "It's nowhere near the amount we're getting paid but they gave us this so that we could start tomorrow morning."
Fu nodded absently, "I see... I thought for sure that we would be doing the mission tomorrow at noon..." She let out a defeated sigh, it looked like her plans to visit some of those 'early specials' she had noticed on some of the restaurants she passed on her stroll through the village would be put on hold. "Whatever, we might as well finish the mission as soon as possible."
"That's the spirit," Utakata smiled at her and while the action seemed genuine Fu noticed a hint of smugness that always pissed her off. "In any case, they offered us one of their boats. We can manage it by ourselves and act as bait for the pirates."
"Sounds good," she responded with a hint of a grin. If the mission was as easy as it was turning out to be then it would take a few hours to complete. She nodded to herself before giving him a nod, "Go find us somewhere to sleep, I'm gonna go look around the village."
Utakata sighed as he watched her go with what could be described as child-like wonder.
Two cloaked figures stood on a hill overlooking the merchant village Fu and Utakata were currently in. The wind flapped their black robes with red clouds as one of them smirked.
"This is where they are," the taller of the two spoke in a masculine voice.
"Looks that way, thankfully no one found it while we were gone," the shorter one spoke in a feminine voice.
The taller cloaked figure nodded at his companion before walking towards the village, they had things to do.
Fu smiled as she walked through a mostly deserted street. It was dark already and she had spent her day pretty well. She had eaten some tasty food, used some odd little thing that sparked in different colors when lit on fire, and bought some ninja supplies.
"Good to see you're having fun."
Her smile faded as she turned to glare at Utakata, "What are you doing here? Have you been following me around?"
"I came looking for you since you have no idea of where we'll be staying the night," he responded, earning an odd look.
"What are you talking about? I thought for sure you would've picked us a good spot on the sand."
Utakata sighed, "We're not going to be sleeping outside. I got us rooms at an inn."
Fu's eyes widened, "You mean we're going to be sleeping inside a building?"
He nodded in response.
"Then let's go already," she grinned. She wasn't really used to sleeping indoors and while she would never do it in her village, this was another case, she was a bit exited in fact.
"Good. Follow me," Utakata instructed as the two began to walk through the village.
The two kept a calm pace before coming to a sudden halt and turning towards the same direction, their eyes narrowed.
"You felt it too right?" Fu asked in a somber tone.
"Yeah," Utakata responded, "Whatever that is, it's far from here. But even still..."
"It feels familiar," Fu finished for Utakata before shaking her head, "It's not like we can do anything about it though. Like you said, it's very far from where we are."
Utakata nodded, "You're right. We should go rest."
Fu grinned as she and Utakata sailed in the near waters of the village. The sun was rising in the sky and the weather was great, if they were not in the middle of a mission then it'd be a perfect break. Maybe when the mission was over she would look around the water, she wanted to try her hand at fishing too since she never really tried it in the past.
"Look there!"
She was broken out of her thoughts when Utakata spoke, pointing at an area just behind a hill. Her eyes narrowed when seeing what her traveling companion was pointing at, a large wooden ship.
"This must be where they intercept the merchant ships," Utakata reasoned as he turned the ship in the direction of the much larger one.
Fu smirked, cracking her knuckles, "Great. We go in, kick their ass, and then they'll tell us where their boss is."
"It'll be much harder than that but you have the right idea."
"You should be a lot more positive. We're both pretty strong and I doubt some random pirates can stand up the two of us," she waved him off.
They soon approached the ship that headed in their direction. The two could see a group of people standing at the ship's deck while others manned the stations.
"Look at the ones lined up on the deck," Utakata pointed out as they grew closer to the ship. "Based on their swords, those are the ones that board the merchant ships."
Fu grunted in response as the distance between their ships shortened. "Well, I'm not one to wait for things to come to me so," she began before suddenly jumping off their ship and creating a set of chakra wings.
"Oh well, it's not like she'll need my help," Utakata sighed as he watched the kunoichi fly to the pirate ship and deliver a kick to the nearest pirate.
The group of pirates yelped in shock before charging in at the girl who only grinned in response as her feet touched the floor.
Ch.1 End
