He was tired of it all. He had seen strength, he had seen so many days and he had seen…pain. I sat down beside him, watching as the water lapped against itself, and the man's tired blue eyes drooped slightly. He sighed and I looked at him curiously,
"What's wrong?" he kept silent for a brief moment before he replied,
"She died in my arms…"
Then I felt multiple pairs of coal black hands clasp on my shoulders and neck and drag me back; I had managed to break into my own imagination. When I opened my eyes, after minutes of keeping them clenched shut, to behold the hooded guardian of my vault of ink. His vulpine red eyes burned in my memory as I ran away…
Yo guys!
This is a story that takes a twist on history, yet again. My friend Kilare thought of this and I guess he permitted me to write it down, hope it's what you think, dude. Oh and thank you very much.
Obito's plans to take over the world are a tad bit different that in canon, read to find out.
I'm going to let you read this cuz I have nothing of significance to add so…
Enjoy!
CHAPTER 1
Musical bells chimed above Tobi as he pushed open the door of a building, Sasori, in his human body, quietly followed after him. Both took their time to look at the layout of the shop they had entered; it had dolls, teddy bears, nut crackers and every other sort of toy imaginable neatly stacked on the shelves, each one clean and well maintained despite the reputation they had heard about the elusive toy shop.
The toy shop was approximately outside of konoha's borders in a patch of land that had a smoothly flowing stream passing through and soft, lush grass around with a paved path leading towards the door of the shop. The building was about the same size as a typical residential building, painted in soothing blue pain and white paint outlining the windows, the door also look comparatively new, shining with glossing red paint. Despite the welcoming posture the shop brought to the visitors there was also an underlying rumour going around that the owner of the shop allowed people to see his toys but never allowed the, to purchase anyone, no matter how tempting, 'it's best for your sanity if you don't question something's,' he would always say when they asked him. If a person ever got too grabby and stole a toy the horrors the person would go through, especially at the dead of night, would almost nearly drive the person insane, that was until the mysterious owner tracked the person down and took back his toy.
The cursed toy shop was the name circulating around Fire country, but the sign board at the top wrote 'Grandpas Toy Emporium'. It was mostly being treated as a haunted house that people visited on holidays.
Sasori lightly ran his hand over an immaculately white teddy bear with beady black eyes, his Akatsuki robe rustling as his wooden hand passed over the other multi-coloured teddy bears. His mind went back to the bear his parents had given him that had been burnt through by a strong acid, fond memories…
Meanwhile Tobi was cautiously looking around the ghostly empty store, his lone coal black eye making sure to look at each thing twice. When he was a genin in Konoha he had heard stories about the elusive toy store, but most dismissed it as myths, despite fervent insistence that it was indeed real. Though the owner of the store, although shrouded in mystery, was also said to be a super powerful ex-Konoha shinobi who retired after a tragic accident. He could vaguely guess who this person was, he just hoped to every power protecting him that the man wouldn't connect him to the incident he had retired; the man's abilities were direly needed in the Akatsuki, not because of any significant death but that the man was known as a 'battle finisher'.
The Uchiha's eyes snapped forward to the far side of the room directly opposite the front door when he saw a pair of white rabbit ears peak out from behind the counter. He coughed into his hand and spoke up,
"I'm here to see-"
"I know why you're here?" the hiding person squeaked, the voice sounded like a male child; his guess was proven right when the person leaped onto the counter and sat down cross legged on it. He was a healthily tanned boy with bright blue eyes and a full head of blonde hair that reached the nape of his neck, he cocked his head to side when the S rank ninja didn't respond quickly, still trying to figure out if the boy was wearing a rabbit ear costume. The boy had on stark white shorts and shirt but was barefoot. The boy seemed to be getting impatient with their silence, "your that guy that killed Chiyo-obaa-sama and your that guy that's been asking about Ji-sama in town, am I right?"
"That's surprisingly astute for one of your age," Sasori muttered,
The boy slowly shook his head, "your first mistake was thinking I was human, bro,"
"Stop antagonizing the guests, Yami-chan," a voice said, the person walked in from the door behind the counter to reveal the elusive toy store owner. The man stood tall with blood red hair that had streaks of grey in it, bright blue eyes that showed grandfatherly love but at the same time showed the years of heartbreak he had gone through ever since he had quit as a shinobi from Konoha. He had some light laughter lines on the sides of his mouth and a small peaking, red-grey beard. The history books said that the shinobi was the same age as the dead Sandaime but what they were seeing was a sixty something year old man that didn't look a day over forty. The man was wearing a red vest and red track suit pants with a towel draped over his shoulder, like he had just come back from a morning jog, which was true. His exposed arms showed that the years of being in retirement had not toned down the lean muscle he had built. The man rolled his neck and propped his elbows on the counter, beside the curious rabbit-boy, and said, "Now why would two gentlemen like yourself be in my shop?" the boy named Yami squinted his eyes suspiciously at the duo,
The men looked at each other and a secret message passed between them, proceed with caution.
Tobi was the one that spoke, "you seem to be well acquainted with us,"
"Yami-chan here keeps me updated on things happening outside my shop, stuff outside of Konoha," this mean that the man vaguely knew about them, "do you know who I am?"
"Uzumaki Naruto, the cursed maker. Most people seem to have forgotten about the older intakes in the older editions on the bingo books," Sasori said,
"Thank goodness for that, the silence helps me concentrate,"
"What if we told you that your strength could still be used for a good cause? That the world still needs the legendary Uzumaki again?" Obito said,
"I'd say you should stop trying to stoke my ego and get to the point, sonny," Naruto chuckled quietly, Yami hid his giggles behind his hands,
"We're from an organization of S rank ninja and we wish to recruit you. With you being there the world would fall to our might and we will have no opposition to bring about a new world order,"
"Oh? And you were so confident I would go along with this your plan why…?" Naruto raised a single eyebrow,
"Because we know you still miss your goddaughter, Naruto-san,"
It was minute but a small change happened to Naruto, or a few small changes; his eyes drooped and his shoulders sagged tiredly, then he clenched his fists, then finally he glared at the duo, the air felt like it had been charged with electricity, "you watch your words, child," he grit out and snapped upright, Yami too glared darkly at them,
"I wouldn't come all this way to stick my hand in the mouth of a bear, sir," Tobi suddenly felt even more respectful of the man, his sharingan may have been powerful but Naruto had fought against the Sandaime and Shimura Danzo and succeeded, that was a feat that was buried away from prying eyes, though it was still agreed that Uzumaki Naruto, the old shinobi, was still someone not to be messed with, "we mean everything we say, you can see your goddaughter again if our organization succeeds," the air thickened dangerously and both began to subtly prepare themselves if all hell broke loose,
"Leave the dead, dead. My daughter is no longer in pain, leave her in peace," he pointed to the door and it snapped open, "now leave…before I change my mind," all the grandfatherly comfort had left his eyes and his general demeanour and what now stood before them, commanding them to leave, was the legendary Uzumaki himself, the Cursed maker. There was a reason Hiruzen Sarutobi, his team mates, Danzo and even the Sannin, Orochimaru included, heavily respected the man. He had been a neutral party to all of them, the snake Sannin had even paid him a leisurely visit not too long ago, but when his blood began to boil and the infamous Uzumaki blood lust reared its bloody head them it was best advised to retreat.
Tobi and Sasori though didn't run. Naruto strength and years of experience was too valuable for him to become a potential enemy. The Uchiha always had his 'katoametsukami'…
The masked man reached back without looking and closed the door slowly, "I'm sorry, Naruto-san, but we can't take no as an answer,"
Naruto's greying red hair shadowed his eyes and Yami leaped onto the table into a crouched position, like a rabbit about to leap forward like a bullet, "are you certain you don't want to leave?" he dropped his towel onto the counter with shaky hands, and cracked his knuckles,
The S rank duo bravely stared down the older man, "you understand right? We don't want you coming after us later,"
"There are worse pains than death…and I will show you each one," his right hand swished to Yami, the rabbit boy, and the boy immediately hunched over in his stance, his white shirt tore off his body as thick muscles exploded from his arms, his spine moved to sight and his legs broke apart and formed legs patented to rabbits. The boys incisors shot down past his chin and drool dribbled from his mouth, claws erupted out of his hands and feet. He let out deep feral, enraged roar that ruffled the red and black robes of the two highly ranked shinobi, despite the distance between them.
Yami shot to the duo as Naruto leaped over the counter with one hand; that was when the teddy bears and dolls lined around them stood up, their eyes now shone white. Naruto frowned sharply and nodded, "attack," each toy, from rocking horses to tiny figurines in doll houses all went under different but still very similar transformations. They grew claws and fangs, their height doubled and their mouth opened wide, inky black void glowed inside. They didn't hesitate to rain down around the two ninja.
Obito and Sasori were now regretting walking into the cursed maker's toy shop. Yami squealed and slashed at Sasori, the puppet master ducked under the blow made sure to dodge the subsequent slashes from the lethally sharp claws. He saw an opening and spat out a poison senbon from his mouth, the needle broke against the rabbit monsters torso and he cursed to himself as a rocking horse tried to bite off his leg. A sharp blade shot from his palm and he cut through the horse easily and breathed out a corrosive acid over the dolls that attempted to rain down on him. Obito's sharingan spun lazily as he idly used his kunai to slice through some monster teddy bears, he was forced to let go of his weapon when a green bean bag swallowed his arm. His eyes widened in surprised as Naruto's hand exploded from his chest, the old man had moved so fast he didn't sense him in time; he burst into chakra smoke to reveal that Naruto had impaled one of his teddy bear monsters. The man grunted and shook off the dead creature, his eyes roved over the chaos in his store; Sasori was now fighting inside his Hiruko puppet armour and Obito was phasing through attacks and breaking wooden horse heads. Yami let out a high pitched squeal and his claws blurred over Sasori's puppet armour, the man made sure to use his iron scorpion tail to clang against the attack. He pushed the rabbit boy back and spun on his heels; his tail slashed through a shelf and caved it on the rabbit. His eyes moved to Obito and he bore witness to a blazingly fast taijutsu fight between the Uchiha and the Uzumaki. Naruto's fist phased through Obito's head and the man jabbed at the man's stomach, Naruto moved away from the blow and expertly feinted his next attack to the other man's chest but instead spun around and nailed his head with his elbow. He grabbed the dazed man's cloak and Spartan kicked him out of his store, breaking through the sturdy wooden door.
On instinct four blue chains slithered out from the base of his neck and clanged against a poison tipped kunai Sasori had shot out from his mouth. Naruto slowly looked over his shoulder and Yami blurred behind him, using his body to take the attacks. The corrosive tipped poison allowed the weapons to slice through the boy, weakening him but only making even more feral; the hair on his hair spiked up uncontrollably and he hopped blazingly towards the puppet master, dodging the kunai that were sent to him until, against Sasori's anticipation, he passed by him but the diversion worked immensely; his eyes went forward again and his puppet head was immediately smashed to pieces by Naruto's knee. The man hopped behind the man and dug his fingers through the wooden armour, yanking out the puppet master inside and hastily throwing him out of his store before the man could spew out knock out poison on him.
The sixty something year old man sniffed and wiped his nose with his forearm, before he ran out of the store with Yami hopping beside him, the poison tipped kunai lodged in his body. More chains sprouted out of his arms and they all combined into a drilling point, the chain drill flew to Obito and the boy crossed his forearms over his chest to take the attack. A purple chest flickered around him and sparks flew around as he struggled to hold back the drill, Sasori grunted and stood up smoothly. He wasted no time unsealing his Kazekage puppet and sending it out to Naruto. The man's eyes widened fractionally when he saw the puppet and he snarled at Sasori, still drilling against the impenetrable Susanno armour. He called back his chains to leap away from iron sand spikes that shot from the puppets mouth, Yami hopped from spike to spike but was summarily impaled by an iron sand spike through his chest, bubbly black blood poured from the wound and his mouth but he stubbornly ripped the spike out and roared at the puppet master. Naruto cupped his hand, his blue chakra chains flailing around him, and blew into it, he pushed his palms out to Obito, who had dropped the Susanno and was running to the older man, and to his shock silver glinting spoons flew from the man's hand to him. He flipped over a few, a single spoon passed by his eye and his Mangekyo sharingan analysed it, they didn't look out of the ordinary but it was always best to be careful when it came to fighting against Naruto. The spoons splashed into the stream behind him and he was pushed forward from the resulting explosion, he made sure to phase through Naruto's hand when it reached forward to rip his heart out, the man frowned at the ability; his chains lashed after Obito.
Yami coughed out more blood as iron sand impaled his back, his shoulders hunched over tiredly but he growled lowly, limping forward to Sasori. Iron sand though gathered around him and lifted him into the air in a ball; Sasori clenched his fist and Yami was summarily crushed by the sand attack, black and white blood dripped from the ball. The S rank puppet master quickly sent his puppet to Naruto to assist Tobi. The man noticed this and cupped his hands again, blowing into them and a large table knife formed right before their eyes. He brought it down on the ground and the duo were forced to leap away as the earth cracked towards them, Naruto blurred to Tobi first but grunted in shock as something impacted his neck. His vision became blurry and he wobbled on his feet uncertainly, his chains crumbled behind him and he staggered forward. The table knife broke apart into wispy white air, he tiredly looked over his shoulder and snorted when he saw a single Hiruko arm levelled at him, he pulled out the knock out senbon that was lodged in his neck and smirked slowly at the duo,
"Smart one, puppet user," Sasori nodded in appreciation, "old age must really be catching up to me…that's never happened before…Yami or not…" he muttered quietly. Naruto lilted on his feet and fell down face first. Tobi actually let out a sigh of relief at that and carefully walked up to the knocked out war veteran, picked him up and began rushing back to Ameagakure with Sasori.
What they both weren't aware of was that Naruto's kekkai genkai, the Dualism, even though it allowed Naruto to be able craft anything he could think of it had a major downside; his natural senses were shut down when he began crafting something, forcing him to rely on his eyes and ears to keep watch, that was why he created Yami the rabbit boy, to watch his back while he was creating something. The other reason he had created Yami was to be a play toy to his dead surrogate daughter, or his goddaughter, when the boy was in his full rabbit form. As Naruto was being transported to Ame in his head, like a dream, memories of when he was younger went through his mind. They were the better days for him, mainly because his daughter was still alive.
Flashback
"Ne, ne, Tou-san are we there yet?" a small red haired child asked loudly as she tugged on the blue robe of a taller red haired man. The man looked down at her and grinned widely, his pearly whites glinting in the sun at his impatient surrogate daughter; he picked her up and swung her on his back, the girl giggled loudly.
"Look over there, what do you see?" he point at a large rock monument with two faces carved on, one of a man world renown as the 'Kami of Shinobi' and the other as his silent but equally as deadly brother. The girl squinted her eyes,
"Two guys with big heads…?" she emphasized the word 'big',
The man chuckled and shook his head, "no, kiddo. Those are what Konoha refer to as Hokage, that is the Hokage's monument," he said it carefully to the girl,
"Like with Godaime-Otou-san?" she asked hesitantly,
"Exactly like Godaime-sama, you're very smart," her chest puffed out in pride "…for a three year old,"
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!"
The red haired man chuckled again, his voice blowing through the forest around them, "you have a lot to learn, Kushina-chan,"
"That's why Godaime-Tou-san sent you with me right? To teach me stuff,"
"Not only that; I am also to serve as your guide and your protector," nothing new there; he had been protecting his precious goddaughter since the moment she had been born. There was rarely a day they would be without the other, their connection went so deep the other Uzumaki referred it back to the Nidaime Uzukage's connection with her father the Shodaime Uzukage's younger brother. In a way it was almost like that; he was the present Godaime Uzukage's younger brother and she was the Kage's youngest child.
The red haired man wore neat blue robes that would have looked formal if he did not choose to cut the sleeves neatly and wear a long sleeved mesh armour undershirt under it. He also wore black shinobi sandals and his uncontrollable, uncombed hair had a purple flower his ward had picked from a bush. He also wore a black clothed forehead protector. The girl wore a simple short purple dress with black short pants underneath, on her back was a small blue backpack her mother had given her, though she didn't necessarily need it since her surrogate father had already packed everything she owned and stored it into a storage seal on his left arm.
They had been sent to Konoha to relieve Mito Uzumakis position as jinchuriki from her, replacing her with Kushina. The Godaime and his wife didn't want to part with their rambunctious daughter but they had agreed that the Kyuubi was too much of a natural disaster to fall into the wrong hands. The Nidaime was relieved to hear that a replacement was being sent.
Most might wonder why a member of the royal family wasn't being escorted by a battalion of highly ranked shinobi or even the members of the Kage's personal guards. Why was it that it was only the Godaime's eighteen year old brother that was escorting such a highly valued person?
The answer was simple really. It was because the Godaime's brother, Uzumaki Naruto, was all the girl ever needed and all she ever wanted.
He wasn't called the 'Cursed maker' just for show.
"Ne Tou-san," Naruto hummed to show that he was listening, the girl buried her head in the crook of his neck and squeezed his neck a little tighter in her pudgy arms, he furrowed his eyebrows when she did this; for all three years of knowing Kushina it was very hard to see her when she was nervous, "do you think they're gonna like me?"
He smiled gently and spun her around so she was in his front, clinging to his chest. He pet her head familiarly when she looked up at him with wide, purple eyes, "they'll absolutely love you, Kushi-chan," he hugged her tightly,
"But-but what if they don't…?" she grasped his shirt in both of her small hands and savoured in his warmth,
"Then they'll find out what happens when you cross an Uzumaki," dramatic wind blew around Naruto, throwing his short, spikey hair around. The wind cut abruptly when the child sneezed, "wanna take a ramen break?"
The girl looked up at him dully, her mouth set in a straight line, "is that even a question?"
"For a second there I thought you lost your ramen appetite," he closed both of his eyes and grinned,
"Well you were wrong; I'm always ready for ramen,"
"Good thing your kaa-chan packed enough for an army huh," he set her down on her feet and she summarily dusted down her short, purple dress before she sat down on the ground, watching as the older Uzumaki smoothly unsealed a bento tin and handed it to her. She took the tin with both of her hands, like he had taught her, and dug in, "I'll leave Yami-chan here for you, I have to go and take care of something," he riffled through his robes and pulled out white baby sized rabbit, who wasn't meant to fit there with its size. The creation scratched its ear and leaped down, Kushina hastily caught it while still managing to balance her bento tin.
"Where are you going? Why can't I come?"
He waved his hand flippantly and patted her head, "it's nothing serious, and it's just that we've been followed for quite a while now. Probably mercenaries trying to kidnap you or something," he shrugged and began walking to the forest,
"Can I watch?"
He screwed his lips to the side and idly scratched the small speckle of red stubble on his chin, "Only if you promise to finish dinner when I make it, can you do that for me?"
"Pinkie promise," she chirped and held up her tiny pinkie, he smirked and hooked his bigger pinkie around hers. She then stuffed her mouth with ramen and the wooden rabbit scratched its ear again.
"Watch and learn kiddo,"
He spun around on his heel and sharply got into a taijutsu style, the Uzumaki taijutsu style, and looked on into the darkness of the forest where he detected multiple chakra signatures. One by one about a dozen sword bearing missing ninja marched out of the woods and surrounded them, looking at the confident man hesitantly.
His eyes flicked to a nameless shinobi who leaned toward who he assumed was the leader, if the fact that the man was the bulkiest of them all, and whispered, "I-I-I'm not sure about this Oritoji-san, it's the cursed maker,"
"I can see that. Don't worry, he's over numbered," he pointed his sword at the man, "attack!"
There were thirteen mid ranked shinobi in total. As the first person brought down his sword he spoke, "your first mistake was thinking it was possible to overcome an Uzumaki with numbers alone," he bent away from the attack and threw his palm forward as the blade passed by, smashing the weapon into shards that peppered the owner of the sword and two more of his accomplices, only dazing them long enough for him to bash their heads together and bringing down his elbow on another man. He pulled his leg back, away from a kick and threw it forward, catching a blade stroke with the sole of his feet before he spun around and nailed the attacker with his heel, he grabbed the knocked out man and pushed him to another person. He slapped his palms together and breathed into them, he opened them again and millions of sparkling white butterfly flew out and spiralled around them. The ninja began wildly swinging their arms around to chase them away, until their movements became sluggish, an unknown force cooing them to sleep. Naruto spun around and bent under a desperate punch from the leader, he grabbed the man's elbow and swung his leg over it to nail him straight on his face. He allowed the man to fall on the ground.
He made a flourishing movement with his wrist and the swarm of butterflies rushed over to the remaining ninja, who were preparing to flee into the forest, putting them to sleep just like with the others. The surprising thing about it was that it wasn't a genjutsu.
Naruto grabbed the leader from the ground and lifted him clean off his feet, shaking the man to wake him up, "be glad I didn't kill you, I only did that because she was watching. But there are worse things than death these days. Do you want to find out what?" the man frantically shook his head, "good. Now pick up your balls and leave…before I change my mind," he dropped the man and watched as they scampered away from him with their tails between their legs, "that was almost too easy, I didn't even use my kekkai genkai that much," he snapped his fingers and the white butterflies exploded into cool gusts of wind,
"Tou-san is so cool!" Kushina cheered, "When are you going to teach me to do that butterfly thingy,"
He bopped her nose and sat down to eat, "I call that 'thingy' my first stage butterfly effect, it's one of those special things only I can do. Do you remember what they're called?"
"You mean like kaa-chan's chains? You said they're called bloodline powers right?"
"Bloodline abilities but that was close," he laughed to himself when she pumped her fist in the air, still balancing her ramen lunch in her other hand, "you're still too young to understand what it is,"
The girls face turned red with embarrassment and she raised a finger to tell the man off until more ninja dropped around them, this time they were wearing Konoha hitaite. Naruto looked at them with mild curiosity until one of them stepped forward and bowed politely to them,
"I apologise for the intrusion, Naruto-sama, Tobirama-sama sent us to escort you to Konoha,"
Naruto nodded and bent down for to begin eating his ramen, "you'll have to give us a few minutes, we're on our lunch break,"
Flashback
Naruto groaned and rubbed his neck as his eyes flickered open. The old man licked his dry lips as his blue eyes adjusted to the dim lighting of where he had been dropped off. He sat up from the bed he had been placed on and from what he could see he was in a cell; there was even bathroom to the right of the room. He was at least grateful that there wasn't any horrible stench or rodents scampering around. He got to his feet and groaned again when he felt his chakra fluctuate; he looked down at his palms and saw that there were black gloves over his hands with a purple kanji for restraint glowing softly on them. He smirked in amusement and shook his head, he could only guess that there were four more chakra restraint seals as well as super suppressors on his body, the suppressors function were to strain the flow of chakra to his hands or anywhere at all. The restraints were to back up the suppressors, neither were to limit his movements but he instinctively knew that the cell he was kept in was reinforced with seals. He walked forward to the iron rod cell door, which replaced the wooden door that used to be there; they had even taken the initiative to remove the whole wall to the corridor and replaced it with seal reinforced iron bars. He ran his fingers over a bar shortly before he grasped two in each hand and peered out. There was a dimly lit corridor outside his cell going down to his left; he instinctively knew that he might as well be in the only prisoner's cell in the entire building. He also deduced that he was in a supped up bedroom that had been made into an impromptu cell. (Just think of a regular old prison cell, but with just the perks of having a clean personal bathroom and bed)
He chuckled and placed his forehead on the bars, "this should be interesting," he didn't even raise his head when he heard numerous footsteps walk towards his room-cell,
"I see your awake, Naruto-san," a voice said,
"Obviously," he replied and looked up; there were about ten red cloud cloak wearing people standing outside his impromptu but still very sturdy cell. Even though he had retired from active shinobi duties he still made sure to keep current on matters happening outside his shop. From what he could remember six of the ninjas standing outside his cell were S rank and the rest he could only guess were unclassified. He stood up straight and crossed his arms as he looked at each of them; Kisame, who had a small smirk etched on his face, Kakuzu, who he had a neutral expression on the part of his face he could see, Hidan, who kept on licking his lips and chuckling to himself, Itachi, who couldn't hold his gaze for too long even though his sharingan wasn't activated, Diedara, who was glaring bloody murder but wisely kept his mouth closed and Sasori, who was closest to him and was looking him over with critical eyes. There was a stoic man with purple rippled eyes, a female with purple hair and a chin piercing, a black and white creature with a Venus fly trap around his head and finally the orange masked man that had the sharingan as well but it was also deactivated.
The man with the purple rippled eyes spoke first, and he assumed he was the apparent leader because of it, "Uzumaki Naruto, the cursed maker, it's nice we finally meet,"
The older by far man shrugged, "you could say that, yes. How did you get the rinnegan?"
"I was born with them. Now…are you going to reconsider your choice?"
"Of course not, I won't going to join your little group but I am going to be staying for a while, I want to see how far you guys can go with your ambition,"
Kakuzu snorted, "You think you can break out of there? Those are level nine restraint and suppression seals, those iron bars are imbued with unbreakable obsidian steel. You won't even be able to summon enough chakra to keep yourself warm…idiot,"
Naruto slowly smiled in amusement, "ah Kakuzu, the famed man that survived against the Shodaime Hokage. You'd think these things can hold me wouldn't you?"
"Yes, I do think so," the immortal man replied quickly,
"You'll find out in time that I can fight without my chakra," he turned to Tobi, "and you, child, would find out how mad an Uzumaki can really get," and finally he turned, surprisingly, to Hidan, "and you…if you think you can sacrifice me to your god I dare you to come in here and try,"
"Did you just fucking dare me, you old piece of shit?" Hidan yelled,
"Yes I fucking dared you, you disgusting rodent. Come in and do something about it, I need some entertainment!" he stepped back and motioned for the jashinist to enter,
"Don't listen to him, idiot," Kakuzu said lowly but Hidan was too far gone, Pein didn't even try to stop him from pushing the cell door open, the seals recognized him and allowed him entry,
"I'll just take some of your blood and show you the glory of Jashin-sama!" Hidan screamed and ran at Naruto, his scythe swiping upwards,
Naruto jumped backwards, still trying to get used to the added weight the restraint seals had on him. He slipped away from a smash and grabbed the downed weapon with his left gloved hand and swung over the weapon, smashing his knee against Hidan's cheek and blasting him across the room to the iron bars. Naruto ran at the priest and slid on his knees when Hidan swiped with his scythe again, the war veteran pulled the man's feet out from under him and flipped over him, his hand still holding the leg so Hidan again careened across the room and bashed against the wall. The red haired man hopped on his heels and chuckled to himself, motioning for Hidan to come at him again. The mad man gladly obliged by screaming and racing to him, he was surprised when Naruto stepped into his guard and grabbed his neck in a strong choke hold. The older red haired man grit his teeth at the action and whirred around, he smashed the priest on the iron bars, not stopping until Hidan dropped his scythe and blood poured from his mouth. Naruto head butted him once and roughly grabbed his hand, placing it on the cell door; the seal recognised Hidan and opened up. The Akatsuki began preparing for a fight; Naruto ignored them and threw the man in his grasp to the wall and made sure to kick the tri-pronged scythe to Hidan, the weapon sliced clean though his head and nailed him to the wall, not that he was too aware of that; his eyes were spinning. Naruto flexed and clenched his black gloved hands and looked at the S rank ninja that were in ready taijutsu stances, waiting for him to attack. The man rolled his eyes and turned back into his cell, turned back to them and used his right hand to close the cell door, it clicked back into place.
"One of the ways to qualify to become the next Uzukage, once upon a time, was to live at least a year of your life without chakra; the elders would seal off your chakra, leaving only the barest minimum for you to live on. My brother, Mitsuki, my sister, Hanabi and I did this when we became genin. Mitsuki just impressed them more," he shrugged and smiled at them with the almost eternal amused glint in his eyes, "I also have numerous other ways to get out of here,"
The nine ninja remained quiet; Hidan still hadn't picked himself up. Diedara fought down the flinch when Naruto's eyes flicked over to him,
"Do you want to have a go against me as well?" Diedara didn't reply, "I thought so. If you plan on using your sharingan on me you need to have more chakra than me, restraint seals or not," he said this ominously but most assumed it was Itachi he was talking to, "what's for dinner?"
The Hokage's tower,
Konohagakure no Sato,
Tsunade Senju tiredly rubbed her aching forehead as she received a report from ANBU operative Crane. The man was standing at attention, telling his superior exactly what he had seen,
"The shop was burnt down but I was able to find a detached puppet arm in the wreckage,"
"That's enough Crane, dismissed,"
"Hai, Hokage-sama," and he marched out of the office smoothly. The Senju sighed and rubbed her forehead again, closing her eyes and sighing,
"Why didn't you just stay, Naruto-senpai?"
"Hime, what's up?" Jiriaya said as he dropped on her window seal,
"They took him, Jiriaya," she said quietly and sat up in her chair, staring the Sannin straight in the eyes as it finally dawned on him who 'him' was,
"That's not possible-"
"Do I look like I'm playing around?" she asked,
"I mean…this is Naruto we're talking about!"
"I know, only kami knows what horrible things they're doing to him now," little did they know that at the moment Naruto was merrily slurping ramen out of a deep bowl, not even having the decency to blow on it while Sasori watched on, perplexed that a man like Naruto would love ramen so much and confused at how it wasn't scorching his tongue. Back in Konoha, Tsunade abruptly brought her clenched fist down on her desk, "we need to go and retrieve him, and I know who to send,"
"Slow down hime…I can go get him, no sweat,"
"No, you'll need support. Shizune!" she yelled and the woman's assistant rushed into the room, "go call team Gai, team Kakashi, team Kureanai and team Asuma, hurry!" the younger medic saluted and ran to summon the teams the Hokage had called. Tsunade though froze when she realized something; it seemed jiriaya also realized the same thing,
"What if he-"
"Damn it," she ran her fingers through her blonde hair, "he's going to kill us,"
"She doesn't have to go, she could stay back,"
"She'll give us all headaches…besides…he's bound to find out sooner or later, why not sooner. I just hope he doesn't kill us,"
As if on cue the door burst open and team Kakashi walked in. Kakashi and Tenzo stood tall over them but the three students also stood out. One was a black haired boy with a black long sleeved shirt under his chunin flak jacket and brown khaki pants, he also had fingerless gloves, he had a tanto sheathed on his back and in his right hand he had a sketchpad. The next was a girl with pink hair in a red apron shirt and short black pants, over her torso was a chunin flak jacket; she looked at the Hokage with worried green eyes, expecting maybe a reprimand of some sort. The last person was a female with blood red hair that fell down just over her shoulders and two long fang-like bangs reached down to her chin; she wore a short sleeved red battle kimono with a black sash around her waist, there was a long slit to the right of her kimono, showing she also had on black shorts, she also had a katana sheathed on her back. The girl also wore her chunin flak jacket proudly but she looked at the two nervous Sannin suspiciously.
"What's this all about, Baa-chan, Ero-Sannin?"
"Manners, Mikoto-chan," Kakashi said with an eye smile,
"Sure, sure," the girl said flippantly, "what's this big, super important thing Shizune-nee-chan was screaming about?"
"She wasn't screaming, Mikoto-teme," Sakura muttered to the girl quietly,
The teams that had been called filed into the room, "everyone's here, Tsunade-sama," Shizune said as her head peaked into the room,
"Thank you, Shizune," the black haired woman nodded and closed the door, "you may all be wondering why I called you here, firstly," she waved her hand and the shadows at the corners of the room lightened and she pressed her pointer finger on a seal on her table, there was a slight clicking sound that resonated round the room, "this is a mission of double S rank importance,"
"I knew it, pay up, Ino-chan," Tenten whispered to the blonde girl beside her and the girl grudgingly passed over fifty ryu to the bun haired girl, Tsunade coughed to get their attention,
"Has any of you ever heard of the 'Cursed maker'?" the Senju asked and deafening silence fell on the assembled ninja; ever so hesitantly Tenzo spoke up,
"Uzumaki Naruto-sama, double S rank. Don't tell me-"
"No he's not dead and no, he hasn't joined the Akatsuki," hearing this Kakashi, Tenzo, Kureanai and Asuma all sighed in relief,
"Wait…Uzumaki…?" Mikoto Uzumaki asked tentatively,
The toad sage winced and rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "it's a long story,"
"I'm not leaving until I hear it," she said stubbornly, she crossed her arms to show her rigid stance,
Tsunade sighed, not for the first time that hour either, and stood up, walked to a book shelf and took out an old, beat up edition of the Iwa bingo book. She threw it to the red haired girl, "page 35," the girl hurriedly flipped through the book and her team mates looked over her shoulders to read it as well, the other junior ninja also looked on in. Mikoto then saw the name Yamato had called, Uzumaki Naruto. The picture was of him beaming brightly at the person walking beside him, fully clad in his shinobi uniform, his arms were behind his head in a relaxed pose and he had a katana sheathed on his back. The person he was chatting with wasn't seen but from the very corner of the picture they could see red hair. The information on him was astounding; he was a ninjutsu, kenjutsu, fuinjutsu and taijutsu master, with high control of his chakra chains, his regeneration and his kekkai genkai. He had been acclaimed to finishing off hundreds of Iwa and Kumo shinobi during the second and third shinobi war. The book had said that he had been ranked as double S rank, the fifth Konoha ninja to ever reach the rank, was because he hadn't ever failed or retreated in a mission and he had been able to kill the gold and silver brothers as well as the dozens of battalions that had ambushed them, a feat the Nidaime had admitted was miraculous. The sixty something year old man also had other feats under his belt that had proven him as a certified double S rank.
"And you're saying this guy is still alive?" Shikamaru asked sceptically, Tsunade nodded,
"He has to be ancient then, I mean it says right here that he and the Sandaime were about the same age," Kiba said,
"No, he's an Uzumaki; his genes help him stay young," Jiriaya spoke up,
Mikoto was still reading through the older Uzumaki's bingo book entry, but she still said, "Why wasn't I told…?"
"Sarutobi-sensei thought it was for the best, he would have come and taken you away from Konoha if he knew,"
"So he doesn't know I'm here as well," the girl smartly assumed, her fists tightened around the book, "someone from my clan was still alive and kicking and you guys didn't tell me just so he wouldn't take me away…?"
"You can beat us up about it later but now we have a mission," Tsunade said with a hurried undertone before shit actually hit the roof,
"What the hell is more important than answering my questions?" Mikoto snarled,
"Naruto was kidnapped half an hour ago by the Akatsuki,"
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" the girl tore out the red haired man's page and folded it, storing it safely into her flak jacket,
"We can't just bum rush into the Akatsuki territory, we need a plan," the red haired girl groaned in frustration and threw the book to the ground, she rubbed her eyes to clear the tears that glazed over them, ignoring the sympathetic gazes some of her fellow junior ninja were sending her, "there are six S rank ninja we need to go through and a whole ninja village, plus we have no idea where they're keeping him. Maybe our spy could tell us,"
Jiriaya shook his head negatively, "no help there, he says that they're suspecting him. No letters to or from him in months now. We can't sneak in because the chakra rain he warned me about can detect anything and anyone that isn't from Ame,"
"So that leaves bang-flash-grab-run," Tenzo mused loudly as he scratched his chin,
"Bang-flash-grab-run?" Neji asked, speaking audibly for the maybe the first time,
"It's a classic plan Nidaime-sama came up with in the second shinobi war. We 'bang' the door down, throw in a 'flash' bomb, 'grab' the prisoner and 'run'. It's a manoeuvre he formed when he didn't have enough ninja to spare to rescue the fire daimyo when Kumo and Tea shinobi kidnapped him. It was…it was Naruto-sama and Danzo-sama that went through with it. Alone.
"That sounds like a plan,"
The toad sage snapped his fingers, "Oh and hey, if we break him out maybe he'll help us escape with our lives," that's if he isn't too pissed off to help out,
"Guys this Naruto is old, I mean he is really, really old," strangely it was Chouji that said this, "how much help can he give us to escape?"
The Senju woman winced slightly before she replied, "believe it or not…we have been keeping regular correspondence with Naruto-ku-san ever since he retired," Mikoto threw her hands in the air in exasperation, "he's still in great shape," it surprisingly sounded perverse when Tsunade said it…
"What else have you guys been hiding from me?! You know what? I don't care, I'm going to go and rescue Naruto right now, either your with me or not," she shoved past Kakashi as he placed his hand on her shoulder,
"Mikoto-chan wait!" Sai called after her, the girl grunted and looked over her shoulder at him, "I'm coming with you,"
"Of all people," Asuma groaned,
"I might not look like I care about any of this…actually I don't…but I also want to get to the bottom of this, I have some questions I need answered and I know you guys won't give me those answers,"
"It's troublesome but he's right, with all due respect Hokage-sama, Jiriaya-sama, I want to meet this fossil," Chouji snorted and shovelled a fist full of chips into his mouth, he didn't need to tell them where he was standing in the matter, Ino either if the fact that she stood beside Mikoto was any indication,
"I want to meet, Miko-chan's Jiji," was what she said shortly. Needless to say the other chunin and jounin gathered in the Hokage's office persisted to go on the possibly suicide mission.
Tsunade only sighed tiredly and nodded.
Thus the mission to Ameagakure was underway. First they had to notify Itachi that it was time to defect once again, but this time from the Akatsuki.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
They already had five tailed beasts, Zetsu was on the tail of the six tails holder but the seven tails holder had mysteriously disappeared after the Suna chunin exams, they had prioritized their search so that they would capture and seal the beasts according to their tails. They suspected that after Waterfall had left her to take blame for the murder of Grass country daimyos only daughters kidnap; they suspected that she had taken sanctuary in either Kumo or Konoha.
The world was coming under their grasp, it was a slow realization for them but the moment the other villages it was when they had taken the five tails from Iwa, it was almost too late to go back. The foreseeable problem was that Naruto had already acknowledged that he knew of their escapades but had placed his trust in the world to fix itself, he was tired of saving everyone; they should save themselves for once. He had told them himself. Obito predicted that the moment Naruto realized that the nine tails was family he would take action, he didn't want that to happen. The sharingan user knew that Naruto was way passed his abilities, even when he was restrained by all those seals. His net option was to put him under a sharingan genjutsu to hold him down long enough for him to unseal the Kyuubi from Mikoto Uzumaki; he didn't have enough chakra through.
All he wanted to place the world under knew rulership. If Naruto was under his sole command the Akatsuki would be an even more formidable force.
Obito stood with his hands behind his back as he looked up at the massive statue the capture tailed beasts were held, he heard light footsteps walking to him and he furrowed his eyebrows when he heard munching sounds,
"What's that?" Naruto said as he pointed up at the statue with his left hand while his right hand had a bar of chocolate,
The Uchiha's eyes widened in horror, "how the hell did you escape?"
"A magician never reveals his secrets," Naruto said with a wink,
"Get back into your cell old man," he muttered and looked back at the Gedo statue,
"Are you presuming you can give me orders?" Naruto said with a bite of his chocolate bar, he continued speaking with his mouth full, "besides, I was bored and you guys didn't provide any games for me to amuse myself with,"
Obito grunted in annoyance and began walking out of the massive room, "just don't touch anything,"
Naruto rolled his eyes and closely examined the base of the statue, idly eating his large chocolate bar, "I think I've read of this somewhere," which shouldn't come off as a surprise since the Uzumaki clan were the only ones on the planet that had extensively documented everything, "these seals prevent me from sensing anything but this statue is made up of…mukoton trees, marble and…" he hummed and knocked the statue, "stones from demon country. This seems like something the rinnegan can create all at once, but why?"
As the ancient Uzumaki was examining the statue Sasori watched on from the doorway. He clicked his fingers together, "he would make a great puppet," he muttered, "Now…what poison should I use…?"
Authors note
How was it?
Next chapter should show a display of Naruto at his full power and exactly why Sasori would be an unstoppable force if or when he kills Naruto.
This story won't have that many chapters, like with 'The Blonde swordsman', but don't let that stop you from letting me know how it's going.
Please drop a review,
See you on the flip side,
Foy.