Chapter II
Very close to Otogakure, the Village Hidden in the Sound, a blonde figure walked. She wore a long black cloak, with red cloud patterns. Her scratched-up Iwagakure headband was tied around her forehead. She approached a large boulder. She concentrated Chakra into her foot, and kicked it away, revealing a stairway into an underground cavern. She walked in, and then moved the boulder back over the hole. She stood in the pitch black darkness, waiting.
The road to Tanzaku was long, but by noon of the second day, Zukuari and Zumoto had arrived.
"Do you think…we'll find Tukuto here?" Zumoto asked.
"I doubt it. If I know Tukuto, the sore loser that he is, then he would be hiding as far from Konoha as possible. My bet is, he's either in Sunagakure, Kumogakure, or Iwagakure." Zukuari said.
"But the average ninja would expect him to distance himself as far as possible, so he must be hiding very close to avoid detection." Zumoto said.
"But Tukuto knows they would expect that, so he would hid far away, as I said." Zukuari said.
"Look, Tukuto may be really smart, but that doesn't mean-"Zumoto said, and gasped. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a teenage boy, with brown hair in a ponytail. The boy looked back at Zumoto, and smiled.
So we meet again…The teenager thought, and walked away.
"What?" Zukuari asked.
"Nothing, it was nothing." Zumoto said. But it looked like…nah.
"Zumoto-san…" Zukuari said.
"huh?" Zumoto replied.
"I don't think we should be here." Zukuari said.
"Uh…okay, then…should we just go on towards Suna?" Zumoto asked.
"Yeah, let's get going." Zukuari said.
Back at the village…
Haruno Sakura frantically ran into the Hokage's tower later that day.
"What's wrong?" Naruto asked.
"A Neo-Akatsuki is attacking!!" she yelled, panting.
"I'll handle 'em. Who is it?" Naruto asked.
"I don't know, Waterfallnin, headed towards the palace." Sakura said.
"Sakura-Chan, leave." Naruto said, and Sakura disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Soon afterwards, the door to Naruto's office was kicked open.
A lady in a black cloak with red cloud patterns walked in.
"Uzumaki Naruto…" she said, with her eyes closed.
"….." Naruto was silent.
The attacker had five senbon in each hand.
"Not those damn senbon again…" Naruto moaned, before using the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, and creating a shadow doppelganger for the fight.
Southwest of Tanzaku City, Zukuari and Zumoto walked down a cement path until it ended.
"Does the trail end…?" Zukuari asked.
"I've never been out here…" Zumoto said.
"Sakura-sama never took me out this way." Zukuari said.
In fact, none of the new Sannin had been outside of the Land of Fire during training or missions. When they did travel into other countries, they had never gone to the Land of Wind, or Sunagakure.
"Let's just keep going southwest until we find something." Zumoto said.
"Boy, your navigational skills show here." Zukuari said sarcastically. "You know, we could just…never mind."
The two continued to walk across the open plain.
"This is boring, something needs to happen." Zumoto said.
Several meters behind them was the brown haired boy from Tanzaku.
They want something to happen, huh? Well, wait till they see this!
Wait, no. I better not reveal myself yet.
The border was up ahead.
The two ninjas crossed it without thinking twice.
Hmm…now that they're in a different country, Konoha can't send help to them unless Suna calls for it.
"We've still got a whole day of travel ahead." Zumoto said.
"Wouldn't it be nice if Shimotu-sensei was with us?" Zukuari asked.
"Sure…" Zumoto agreed, though inside he didn't really care.
A very small hump of sand rose up near them, but they didn't notice.
What appeared to be a pair of eyes rose up out of it and looked around.
Noticing the two ninjas, it sunk back down and disappeared.
Looks like we've got company…The Godaime Kazekage thought, looking through an orb at the two Sannin.
"Gaara-sama!" Rinkashi yelled, bursting into his office.
Gaara remained calm. "What is it?"
"Konoha is under attack!!" Rinkashi yelled.
Zumoto stopped in his tracks.
"This desert is so hot…" he complained.
"Yeah, and there's NO shade! How are we going to sleep tonight?" Zukuari moaned.
"Tomorrow we'll arrive in Sunagakure. If we can keep walking until then, we'll arrive there in the morning, and we can rest there." Zumoto said.
"Alright." Zukuari sighed, and they continued walking.
"What makes you think you can barge into Konoha and do whatever you please?" Naruto demanded.
The enemy laughed. "I always have been able to do whatever I want. Coming from the Village of Waterfall, where there is no military force, nothing can stop you from fulfilling your true goals."
The shadow clone instantly started applying forces of Chakra to Naruto's hand. Soon enough, the original Naruto was holding a ball of blue chakra and running at the enemy.
"RASENGAN!" He shouted.
The enemy raised an eyebrow, and ducked. The attack missed. She then poked the back of Naruto's knee with a senbon, and he jumped in surprise.
"Silly little Naruto…don't you know what true power is?" she asked.
"Shut up." Naruto said angrily.
The attacker quickly formed hand seals, and yelled, "Hidden Waterfall technique!" A puddle of water instantly was under Naruto's feet, and streams of water were climbing up his legs. They branched off, and soon was tying him in place.
"What is this?" Naruto demanded.
"You have no clue." The attacker said. "The true battle is just about to begin."
