Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything else affiliated with Masashi Kishimoto-sensei...and I gain no profit from this work of fanfiction

Chapter 1: Akatsuki

Naruto screamed as the Akatsuki continued their jutsu that would strip his body of the Kyuubi demon within him. Of course it would rip his soul out of his body at the same time, but the Akatsuki didn't really seem to care about that happening. Every nerve in his body was filled with white hot pain as his mind threatened to crack under the pressure. There was no room in his mind to wonder at how the infamous group had gotten their hands on him, much less wonder where his friends were. He was too preoccupied with the sensation that he was being ripped in half at an agonizingly slow pace as well as feeling as if he was being melted at the subatomic level. He had almost given up on fighting against the jutsu he was fighting just so he wouldn't have to feel anymore.

Suddenly, it stopped.

No explanation, it just stopped.

Oh he still hurt plenty, but the pain was no longer growing. He even ached worse than after the battle with Sasuke at the Valley of the End, and that had been, hands down, the most painful experience of his life. Barring, of course, the pain he had been in immediately following his second battle with the avenger when they had come across one another years later. That had been a pretty painful experience too, but he had healed much quicker after that battle then the one before.

Great, I'm dead. But why does being dead hurt so much? Gaara said when this happened to him that he didn't feel anything except that he was all alone. So why does it feel like I've been ripped to shreds, but it also feels like I'm healing? Course it always did hurt during the healings, especially when Tsunade-bachan wanted me to learn a lesson or something...

He cracked an eye open and was surprised to see a small, dark-haired girl sitting next to him, patiently bandaging his wounds. He hadn't even felt her approach him, much less start to treat his injuries. She smiled at him when she noticed that his eyes were open before calling out to someone else.

"Ka-chan! He's awake!"

Over her words were voices; he recognized the voices of the Akatsuki members, but there was one voice that he had never heard before in his life. It was a woman's voice, but it sounded similar to one he had known since he had first become a genin, and while it was familiar, it was...different. It was as if the woman was talking with an accent while trying to impersonate one of his closest friends. Naruto's eyes darted to where the sound of voices was coming from, but he was at the wrong angle to see anything about the people he could hear.

"You dare to attack one of my own after the warning that you were given?" The woman's voice was soft, yet the edge in it sent chills up Naruto's spine. This was not someone to mess with. Her voice glinted with supressed violence, worse than any kind he had ever heard before. Much worse than even the hint of amused violence that had always been present in the voice of the now deceased Snake Sannin.

"It is of no concern to you, woman," Uchiha Itatchi's voice was emotionless, as always, "No matter what warnings you may think you have given the Akatsuki, it is of no matter. This is--"

"Of no concern?" The woman's voice grew louder and the threatened violence of before became a promise of what would soon follow, "Of no concern? How can it not be of concern to me when you take my husband and use your forbidden jutsus on him to pull out of his body something that has no place leaving it?"

"Look, yeah, if you leave now with the girl, we just might let you live, yeah." Deidara's voice sounded amused, "We might even forget that you interfered with this business, yeah."

The little girl looked into Naruto's blue eyes and he blinked, confused, into crystal blue orbs much like his own. Her smile faltered as she saw the puzzlement in his eyes before helping him to sit up. For all that she looked to be about 7 years old she was able to help him sit without appearing to strain herself. He hissed in pain as the wound on his chest reopened and started to bleed sluggishly. The girl sighed, sounding exasperated, and placed a hand on the bandage covering said wound. Naruto tensed as he felt the girl gather her chakra, but didn't fight the jutsu that she employed on him as he felt the healing ability of the Kyuubi being enhanced for a few moments, allowing the wound to seal itself and heal completely. He was momentarily startled, but sagged after his exhaustion caught up with him. It felt like he had been put under one heck of a healing jutsu, one that required just as much of his chakra as the one employing the jutsu. The last thing he heard before drifting into unconsciousness was the strange yet familiar voice of the woman standing somewhere between himself, the girl and the Akatsuki members present in the cavernous room.

"I don't want you to 'forget' this 'interference'," the woman's voice echoed around her ominously as it seemed to reverberate with the chakra that she was unleashing from herself, amplifying her very presence it seemed, "I want each and every one of you to remember my warning until the day this pathetic excuse for an organization is nothing more than a speck of dust on the shelves of time."

A/N: This story has been sitting on my computer for a while, and once I gifured out how to put stories onto this site I figured 'why not?'...I know I haven't finished my other story (not even close to finishing it actually), but I wanted to know if this one would be well received or not...just curious, y'know? This isn't a oneshot on my computer, but I don't know if anyone would want to have the other chapters...like my other story, this one has pathetically short chapters. I'm still not used to putting my stories down in words, usually they spend most of their time rolling around in my head.