The Path Taken

Chapter 2

Gathering the Force

Naruto, Pein, and Konan arrived at a huge cliffside with a circular boulder in the side. Naruto was staring in awe at the huge boulder as Pein walked up to it and channeled his chakra into it and a seal matrix showed and a large hole opened up in it. Pein motioned for Naruto to go through as he and Konan walked through. Naruto walked inside to find a large cavern with two giant cuffed hands with a ring on each finger in the middle of it. Naruto climbed up one of the fingers that's said "south" in kanji on it. He was almost got to the top when a there was a voice from the top of the finger "About time you made it up here kid." Naruto screamed and let go and would have fallen if not foe a blueish hand grabbing his arm. Naruto looked up to see what he would describe as a shark-man holding on to his arm. "Kisame, don't give the kid a heart attack." another voice said. Naruto looked to see a non duckbutt headed Sasuke. "Aw come on Itachi, without surprises the worthless." said the shark now dubbed Kisame "That is true, however a surprise doesn't usually mean having a heart attack and almost falling to your death now does it?" the man now known as Itachi said from his position on the other hand. Kisame helped Naruto up and spoke "Why didn't you just climb onto the palm of the hand instead of climbing up the hard way." Naruto smiled "It took more effort and I am slightly stronger because of it." he said.

Pein stood at on one of the thumbs and did a few hand signs and soon each finger had a hologram of a person on it with the exception of the left little finger and the fingers with solid people on them. Naruto walked up to the empty finger and turned to Konan "Konan nee-chan, why is this one empty?" asked Naruto "He left our organization and you will soon take his place." she said, further exciting the young boy who climbed up the finger and sat on it. "Leader-sama who is that?" a hologram that had eyes that were green and red and no pupils asked. "That is my apprentice and newest member of the Akatsuki, Uzumaki Naruto." One of the holograms that had long hair then yelled "You're kidding right?" The kid doesn't look like it could take on a squirrel much less a shinobi, un!" and another hologram that looked hunched over spoke "Shut it Deidara, you couldn't take on a squirrel without leveling the forest it lived in with the explosives you call art." Deidara then started yelling again "Fine art is the beauty of that single fleeting moment of explosion. Art, is an explosion, un!" the Deidara shouted. The hunched over hologram turned to Deidara "You are still calling those clay firecrackers of yours art? True art endures the ages... beauty is everlasting." the hunched over hologram said. Naruto decided to interrupt with his idea "What about an everlasting explosion?" he asked innocently as Deidara and the hunched over hologram looked at him in shock at the revelation. "He's on to something there Sasori." Deidara said while already thinking about the new work of art. "If he is joining Akatsuki we will need to get him a uniform small enough." a hologram with purple eyes said. Pein looked to the man "I shall get to that later Hidan, for now we have other matters to discuss, such as our mission. I have proposed a new plan. We shall not capture the bijuu but we will train the jinchurriki and form an elite jinchurriki task force to fight for peace. Who objects to this new plan?" Pein said. There were no objections. "Then it is settled, your targets and teams will remain the same except for Itachi's because we already have the Kyuubi jinchurriki. Your new mission is to find your target jinchurriki and convince them to come without violence. It should be easy considering how I've seen them treated. Itachi and Kisame will take Naruto to get his gear in a nearby city where Kisame will also try to convince the Yonbi's jinchurriki Roshi to join. Understood?" Pein's newest orders were met with a chorus of 'Hai!' and the holograms dissipated.

**********************Konoha Council Room*************************

Konoha's council was in an uproar about Hiruzen giving up the Kyuubi jinchurriki so easily o a man he had no idea about. Hiruzen was telling the council gave up Naruto to the man because he wanted the boy to have a better life and because he sensed no bad intention within the man that Naruto left with. The council still decided that the reasons that the Hokage gave for giving up the so called 'Kyuubi Brat' were terrible and incredibly stupid and were still screaming at the man to bring him back and one of the council members named Danzo was already planning on sending some of his root agents to capture and bring the jinchurriki back by force. The civillian council was angered that they lost their punching bag and the shinobi council was pissed that they lost a military asset. It wasn't until Sarutobi flared his Killing Intent did both sides quiet down, although the civillian side was unconscious which was even better, Sarutobi began to speak. "While I do realize that we have lost a very powerful asset, my reasons for giving up Naruto still stand as he would probably be dead before he became a shinobi from all of the brutal attacks on him or he would grow to resent the village for what they have done to him and leave the village more violently or try to release the Kyuubi to get revenge." the rest of the shinobi council stood quiet because most of them knew that it was for the best. The civillian council still screamed at the old Hokage who then lost his temper on them. The KI killed small animals within a fifty yard radius of the council meeting place.

****************Some Town Near the Land of Earth***************************

Naruto, Itachi, and Kisame were going to get Naruto gear in a town called Hoseki. Naruto now had an Akatsuki robe that fit him and under it he had a mesh shirt and black pants like Pein has. He also got a few shuriken and kunai as well as a sealing scroll. Now the three were off to find the Yonbi jinchurriki to convince him to join. The three had no luck at all for over two hours and were now in the slums. "So, what does he look like?" Naruto asked. Itachi sighed "You have been looking for well over two hours and you didn't even know what he looked like?" Naruto looked at Itachi "No, I was just following you." he said innocently. Itachi sighed and kept walking "He has red hair and a red beard and an odd hat." Naruto nodded and started looking. This continued until Naruto stopped moving and stood straight up and wide eyed. Itachi turned around to look at Naruto as did Kisame. "Hey kid what's wrong with you." Naruto grabbed where his seal is and spoke "I feel a presence coming from that direction." he said pointing at a bar. The three went into the bar and saw Roshi at one of the bar stools. "Well, that's convenient." Kisame said as they walked to him. "Hello Roshi." Kisame said sitting down in the stood next to Roshi. "Who are you?" Roshi asked. "I am Kisame Hoshigaki, and this is Naruto." Kisame said as Naruto sat on the other side of Roshi. "Why is the Monster of the Hidden Mist here to see me?" Roshi asked. "We are here to exted an invitation to join a jinchurriki task force." Roshi laughed, "Why would I want to do that? It sounds like a meaningless job that won't help me in the long run so why would I do that?" he asked, Kisame looked at the middle aged jinchurriki, "Good point, you would be more respected, you would be trained to be more badass in battle, and Orochimaru of the Sennin is one of our primary targets." Kisame said in hopes that the reasons he gave were good enough. "Hmm, that snake is a tough opponent, and I would like to be more badass, give me some time to think about it. I will give you my answer in three days if you are staying here." Roshi said, Kisame grinned, "Yeah we'll still be here, meet us in the town square in three days with your answer." Kisame said as he and Naruto left to find a good hotel to stay at.

**********************In a clearing next to the town*****************************

Itachi watched in shock as Naruto was doing his now favorite activity. Blowing up trees with pulses of gravity he named Jūryoku Jū*. Itachi couldn't believe how much this boy could fire off and decided to interrupt the carnage. "Naruto do you know any shinobi techniques?" Naruto stopped blowing up trees and looked to Itachi. "No, I never learned any techniques because the academy teachers told me that the history of Konoha was more important than fighting. I only know how to channel chakra because I saw it in a scroll once." Naruto answered sadly. Itachi silently cursed the academy teachers and the village's insolence. "Well the Rinnegan you have also gives you top notch chakra control. I will teach you the basics of combat, and I will give you a few fire justus to work with. Just don't blow everything up alright?" Itachi joked although Naruto blowing everything up was a very serious and real possibility.

*****************************The Hotel****************************************

A tired Naruto laid on one of the three beds that Kisame has gotten. He has one hell of a training session with Itachi and the result was learning three Katon justus: Katon: Zukkoku*, Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu*, and Katon: Hyōji-tō no jutsu*. He also has yet to learn tree walking. Itachi was amazed that Naruto learned the fire style jutsu so fast. It took Itachi a week to learn only one of the jutsus Naruto managed to learn in one hour. Itachi was happy for that the boy was a fast learner because he also worked extremely hard unlike the rest of the Uchiha clan who only copied ninjutsu from other shinobi. He hoped that Sasuke would learn to not to copy other ninjutsu like the rest of the clan did. Itachi was lost in his thoughts until Kisame walked through the door with Itachi and Naruto's food. "Hey Itachi wake up the kid dinner is ready." he said. Itachi tuned to wake up Naruto to see that he wasn't there. He turned back around to see a dumbfound Kisame and an eating Naruto. Then they ate and went to sleep.

*************************Takigakure*******************************************

Hidan and Kakuzu were at the bottom of Takigakure. "That is one big ass tree, and I thought it was called the Hidden Waterfall Village!" Hidan said. Kakuzu just nodded and started towards the top of the tree. Hidan followed Kakuzu up the giant tree. "Why the hell are we going to the top shouldn't the people be in the bottom of the damn tree?" an annoyed Hidan asked. Kakuzu then replied to the annoying man "The village hates and excludes their jinchurriki so they exile it to live in the top of the tree." he said as they finally reached the top of the tree. They started searching the tree top to find the jinchurriki who Pein said was a girl with green hair and orange eyes. After an hour of searching, Hidan found the girl crying in a hollowed out branch. "Hey kid, what the hell are you crying for?" he asked. The girl got looked up and Hidan could see why she was crying as she had two healing but still painful looking burn marks on her arm and a black eye. "Kakuzu! I found her!" he yelled. A moment later Kakuzu and Hidan were helping the girl up. "Who gave you those wounds?" Kakuzu asked. "Guards and villagers." the girl said. "How old are you?" Hidan asked. "Six, what do you want with me?" she asked. Kakuzu replied "We are here to offer you a place on a special task force." Kakuzu said, shocking the girl who never had this much respect before. She just stood there in shock. "So how about it, wanna come with us and get out of this hellhole?" Hidan asked. The girl simply nodded and then Hidan sealed his triple bladed scythe into a scroll and put the girl on his back and they made their way to the base.

*********************************Sunagakure**********************************

Konan was looking for the Ichibi jinchurriki named Gaara. So far she gas come across only drunk people for some reason. A few minutes later she saw a bar with a sign that said '99% off going out of business sale all must go!' 'Well that explains the drunk people.' she thought as she went back to searching. After an hour she saw a young girl probably ten years old that had four blonde ponytails. She walked up to the girl and spoke. "Excuse me I was wandering if you have seen a young boy by the name of Gaara seeing as though you seem to be the only sober one in this town." Konan said. The girl looked at her with a shocked expression. "Why are you looking for him?" she asked in surprise. "I need to speak with him." Konan said plainly. "Well he is usually on the roof of his apartment next to the Kazekage's tower." the girl said. Konan thanked her and raced off to the place the girl said Gaara would be. When she got up to the top she saw a crying redhead. She went up to the boy and sat down next to him. "What's wrong Gaara?" she asked. Gaara looked up at her with tear filled eyes. "No one wants to play with me, they all run away. They call me monster and demon. My own tou-san just tried to have me assassinated." Gaara said in a raspy voice that wasn't used enough. Konan was infuriated by what she had just heard, this village was as bad as Konoha. "Would you like to leave this and come with me to become a part of an elite task force?" She asked. She smiled when she saw Gaara's eyes light up. Gaara nodded and went inside to pick up his sand gourd. And she flew them out of Sunagakure with her paper wings, much to Gaara's surprise. They reached the edge of the desert in a matter of minutes.

**************************End of Chapter**************************************

There is my second chapter! *blows party horn and confetti falls from nowhere*

Be sure to R&R and give any suggestions.

Jutsu:

Jūryoku Jū: Gravity Gun, fires a basketball sized ball of condensed gravity that destroys whatever it hits.

Katon: Zukkoku: Intelligent Hard Work, fires a small fireball that makes a huge explosion.

Katon: Hyōji-tō no jutsu: Pilot Light technique, makes a small fire in the palm of the user's hand.

Katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu, if you have seen the series, you better know what this is.

Here is a small poll

Should Naruto be paired with Yugito or Fū?

Leave your answers in the comments