The Last Hope-Revised

This is the revised version of my story the last hope as you can tell from the title… Contains spoilers up to chapter 367 including Yondaime's real name.

Summary: (Post Sasuke Retrieval) after failing to bring Sasuke back, Konoha blamed everything on Naruto. In blind anger, Naruto ran to the only place he could think of the Akatsuki! Gaara, after hearing the news joins his only friend. Neji, fallen into the hands of Orochimaru, earns the biggest secret of the Hyuuga clan.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I am not making any money off of this

"Speech"

'Thinking'

On to the story!

Flamez are welcome as long as they are not just none sense like "it sucks" or some thing like that... if you have to flame me, at least tell me why I suck!


Orochimaru POV

Yes… kukuku… I can see that right now little Hyuuga Neji-kun is giving me his undivided attention, After all, why wouldn't he? I'm about to tell him the biggest secret of his clan, one that he unknowingly plays quite a part in. Not only that, I'm the only one who know it… well, at least now I know the secret is definitely worth the two year effort that I put into. I already have little Uchiha Sasuke-kun, now, I will also get little Hyuuga Neji-kun to join me. Imagine… both the Sharingan and the Byakugan at my disposal Kukuku…

"Well, aren't you interested yet, Neji-kun?" I stalled, knowingly angering the little Hyuuga… ahh… young ones now days are so fun… kukuku… awww… little Hyuuga Neji is glaring now, how cute! Deciding to amuse myself, I continued, "Did you know that your father unknowingly helped to weaken the Hyuuga clan since the day he was born?" Ahh… Neji-kun is glaring again… guess I should end his misery.

"Before I tell you the secret," I started, "I should inform you of the true reason behind the existence of the seal of the Hyuuga branch clan. Unlike what you are led to believe, it does not solely just keep the branch clan in check, there is a special, spiritual reason behind it. The fore-father of the Hyuuga clan is just a normal person… until one day he accidentally saved a demon… the six tailed demon wolf, or Rokubi no Yoka. As a reward, the guardian of the earth and forest gave him a gift which eventually evolved into today's Byakugan and the Hyuuga clan doujustus. But there was also something else, and ultimate attack that is granted only to the eldest child of the main clan, and by eldest child, Rokubi no Yoka meant the first one to breathe the air of the earth which he guards."

At that point, I was rudely interrupted by the little Hyuuga. "What does that have to do with the Hyuuga branch clan seal again?"

Ignoring him, I continued, "However, Rokubi no Yoka made a mistake, as a demon, she did not know that human kind does not have nearly as much chakra as her. Even after the growth of strength in the Hyuuga clan, the ultimate attack of still requires too much chakra that event he legendary Utaku Hyuuga can only do it twice before fainting from chakra exhaustion. So normally, the leader of the Hyuuga clan would draw chakra via the curse seal." Ignoring the raged look on little Neji-kun's face, I continued, "Except for the clan head, the rest of the Hyuuga clan does not know of the this, they were only told to pass the position of clan head to the eldest child of the clan leader after he or she dies."

"Do you not know where I'm heading to now, little Neji?" ahhh the little Hyuuga is so very fun to tease. "Well, the birth of your father and uncle were a special one. Although they were not by all means the first pair of twins in the Hyuuga clan, but they were the first pair of twins in the main family. At the time of their birth you grandfather was already KIA because of an IWA ambush, your grandmother was also gravely injured. The twins were forced to come out after only six months of pregnancy. In fact they popped out together, one head first, one feet first."

Kukuku… ahhh… Neji-kun is finally seeing where I'm heading to, better finish the story before he interrupts.

I continued, "Anyone with even the faintest medical knowledge would know that it is very dangerous for a new born child to remain upside down, so the midwife first pulled out the child with the feet out. That boy, Neji, is your uncle, Hiashi Hyuuga. You are the Hyuuga clan genius; I believe you understand what I'm trying to say now, yes, Neji-kun? Kukuku… join me, Neji-kun….join me and I will teach you the ultimate attack of the Hyuuga clan, and I will remove that useless seal and give you a much better one."


Neji POV

What? ... Okay… no comment … pauses, rewind, play… it'd not possible, what game is Orochimaru trying to play with me? But what he said makes perfect sense, does that mean, does that mean, that the current leader of the Hyuuga clan is me? But… that's not possible, is that my true fate? What if it's true? How do I know that he isn't just lying so he could also possess the Byakugan?

With that in mind, I asked, "How do I know if this isn't just a plot for you to acquire the Byakugan?

Doing that creepy laugh again, Orochimaru answered, "Well, I assume that Tsunade has already told you that I was a member of the Akatsuki. I now tell you the reason behind my abandonment of the Akatsuki. during my mission to Iwa, I acquired the Rokubi but instead of returning it to the Akatsuki, I had hidden it. With my new seal, I will be able to seal Yoka inside of you and still not harm your chakra path way, you can even check with your Byakugan. With a demon inside, I will not be able to possess you.

Should I trust him? No, in this situation, joining him is the best choice. Even if he is lying, he will probably possess Sasuke before me. Agreeing to join him will not only open up so much more oppertunities but joining will also give a chance to show Sasuke taht he is better off in Konoha. Looking up, I said in the coolest voice I could manage, "I'll join for now, but you better keep up your end of the promise!"


Orochimaru POV

Kukuku… little Neji believed me… I shall have him wrapped around my finger just like Sasuke. Kukuku... while it's true that I can not possess a human while a demon is sealed inside, the seal I designed will allow the demon and the host to fuse in four years instead of the sixteen years required by Yondaime's seal. Kukuku… I shall have the Sharingan in three years and the Byakugan in six!


General POV

While Orochimaru was manipulating Neji's thoughts and actions, Gaara managed to convince Shukaku to lead him to Kyuubi. Turned out, it wasn'y nearly as much work as Gaara thought it would be. Convincing Shukaku to go after Kyuubi's scent wasn't hard at all considering that Shukaku, like all bijuus, sees Kyuubi as a god. Within three days the one tailed bijuu has found the nine tails.

Naruto was surprised by Gaara's appearance. Gaara's decision meant so much to Naruto. It reminded him that even if most people in Konoha despises him, there are still many people who truly loved him. With that, Naruto once again found the will to live get stronger for his precious people.

After a week of traveling with no direction, both bijuu simultaneously sensed a faint presence of youkai chakra, following the trail, Naruto and Gaara found them in front of the lair of the infamous Akatsuki. There to greet them was none other than Uchiha Itachi.


Itachi POV

Leader-sama was right when he said that Kyuubi and Shukaku will take the bait if they ever sense youkai scent. Smirking at my foolish outoto's best friend, I made a jerking movement signaling them to follow me.

I led them to the meeting room and told them to stay outside as I was instructed to. When I arrived, the meeting was over and all I heard was leader-sama saying to a misterious person, "I insist not extracting the bijuu simply because of one single reason. Uzumaki Naruto is the son of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina. The uproar in Konoha only confirms it. I hope you can understand my feelings and desperation to keep him alive. Also I keep his friend because I do not want to appear too suspicious in front of the other members."

Before I could ponder on why leader-sama seems to be answering to someone else instead of simply giving what he want as a order, he adressed me. "Itachi," he said in his usual unquestionable tone instead of the polite answering tone I heard him use just seconds before, "do inform the two jinchūriki that they have been accepted into the organization and will be placed under you. You are now responsible for all of their training. I will be personally checking their process. They will now serve as your parteners as Kisame is currently MIA. You are also to keep them updated to all the rules and regulations."

Training them myself? I can understand the ichibi as he is the Godaime Kazekage, but the Kyuubi is only a genin. Usually, the training of recruits his level is done by the replacement members. We usually don't even accept genins. Placing new recuits in active teams is also unheard of. Plus, why would leader-sama want to check a simple genin recruit's progress himself?

To be continued…


Well, more changes in this chapter, I added the Akatsuki and decided to not make Itachi sound like he's on crack…. I understand that lots of readers liked the other Itachi, but I can no longer bring myself to imagine Itachi being silly, so he will remain serious.

As for Gaara being the Godaime Kazekage... thanks to the Black Moon's Shadow for correcting me!

As I said in chapter one, old readers of the unrevised version, please tell me if you like this one better. New readers… what do you think?

Well, gotta go… Shiho signing off!