Author's Note:
Chapter Two is here, aaaand the first chapter was pretty much ignored. That being said, I didn't expect much.
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters in the Naruto manga or anime. I only own my Original Characters.
The second part of Hagoromo's Jutsu took place immediately.
Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame walked on a deserted path through a forest. The two had recently completed a recovery mission for a scroll stolen from the land of Fire's Daimyo. The mission itself had been rather uneventful for this pair of Akatsuki, without any fighting whatsoever. Itachi had simply used his Dojutsu's genjutsu properties and convinced the thieves that he was their leader, and then simply eliminated all of the thieves with only a kunai.
To Kisame, the mission had been thoroughly boring. The Seven Swordsmen of the Mist were all made bloodthirsty through their missions, and the generally warlike nature of Kiriagakure didn't help. Kisame appreciated Itachi's skill most of the time, but the giant shark man was by no means happy about sitting back and watching others show off.
Uchiha Itachi felt the tug on his chakra before he saw the golden glow radiating from his skin. Looking around, Itachi saw faint golden light coming not only from his body, but from Kisame's too. Quicker than the eye could see, Itachi activated his Sharingan and compared the golden glow on himself and Kisame. Itachi felt a slight tug on his Chakra, but upon scanning the area, he could not find where the source was. In addition, he couldn't even find which direction his chakra was being pulled in, as if it wasn't from around him!
"Kisame, be careful." Itachi said calmly but warily.
"Don't forget I'm your equal, Itachi." Kisame said, still sour about being denied fighting against the thieves.
This pair of Akatsuki looked around desperately, searching for the source of the tug on their chakras. They searched before they vanished into the darkness of the Jutsu.
Akasuna no Sasori and Deidara were traversing to capture the Ichibi no Tanuki, Bijuu of the Godaime Kazekage, Subaku no Gaara. Sasori was a master of Sunagakure's puppet arts, becoming a legend of puppetry. Sasori, for his part, had created extremely powerful puppets out of the humans he had killed over his life. Among his favorites was Hiruko, a puppet that he used to nullify a puppet master's primary weakness: taijutsu, and the Sandaime Kazekage, who could manipulated iron sand. Hiruko and the Sandaime had dozens of weapons hidden all over their bodies, every one of them coated in Sasori's newest poison. He was eager to test it out and see the results, making him extremely anxious, at least as anxious as a puppet could be.
His partner, Deidara, viewed art extremely differently. Rather than being eternal like his partner's thought, Deidara viewed art as a single fleeting moment to be remembered but never seen again. The two's opinions of art were so different, in fact, that Deidara and Sasori often fought over it. Both had their fair share of wins and losses, but Sasori's superior experience gained him the lead in their conflicts. Deidara, despite being just over half of Sasori's age, still had a great deal experience. The act of killing a great number of Iwagakure Jounin and ANBU hadn't left Deidara unconfident or unskilled.
The two of them trudged on through the desert, straw hats and cloaks keeping the scalding rays of the sun at bay.
"Danna, is the entire nation like this, un?" Deidara asked, annoyed at the never-ending desert before them.
"Brat, if I didn't know the way to the village, we'd be lost in these deserts forever." Sasori said from inside Hiruko. Deidara groaned yet again. Sasori's hatred of being kept waiting was one of many, and Deidara's constant groans on the journey to the sand were about to join waiting in Sasori's list of hatreds.
Just as Sasori was going to give Deidara a piece of his mind, a golden glow surrounded the both of them.
"Deidara," Sasori said with venom. Deidara felt fear, Sasori never called him by his actual name unless he had made a severe mistake. "Did you cause this?" Sasori asked, holding up his arm.
Deidara looked down at his own flesh and saw the golden light covered him too. As the artistic Akatsuki pair looked for the source of the light, the two of them felt a tug on their chakra and then they saw nothing at all.
The 'Zombie brothers' of the Akatsuki were leaving another bounty office after their target hadn't given information about the location of the Nibi. Pein had never considered all possibilities however, considering the informant also happened to be an A-Rank Kumo nuke-nin worth 30 million ryo.
"Kakuzu, when can we leave? Jashin hates killing for money and plus, this place sucks!" Hidan yelled, waiting for Kakuzu to finish up his transaction with his banker. Hidan looked up and grinned at the sight of Kakuzu's green and red eyes flashing with anger.
"This funding is for the organization, Hidan. You will watch your tongue about this unless you want Leader-sama to personally deal with you!" Hidan snorted, he knew that Kakuzu had undoubtedly haggled with his banker until he had offered at least 5 million ryo extra for the bounty. Kakuzu was actually a skilled haggler and often kept the extra money from his bounties, making sure to not arouse suspicion from Pein. All of the members of the Akatsuki were loyal, but even Kakuzu had his own agenda when money was involved.
As Kakuzu finally left the bounty office, he noticed that a golden glow was being emitted from himself and Hidan. Kakuzu analyzed the glow carefully, and in his ninety-one year old wisdom, came to a conclusion. Kakuzu was left unable to tell his partner about the golden glow by Hidan panicking
"KAKUZU! What is this golden glow? What does it mean? Where did it come from?" Hidan asked as he grabbed Kakuzu's shoulders and shook him back and forth, in a panic. Kakuzu quickly removed himself from Hidan's panic and smashed him over the head with his iron-hardened fist.
"It appears to be tugging on our chakra networks. Rather than stealing it away however, it seems to be bringing us with it. If you don't understand it, think about it like a summoning." Kakuzu gave his idea to Hidan, at which point the immortal Jashinist stopped panicking and nodded.
Hidan readied his scythe as Kakuzu started preparing to be summoned. Neither one of the 'Zombie Brothers' were ready when the world went dark around them.
Zetsu, the Akatsuki spy, used his unique ability to fuse back into a tree, having completed his mission. Zetsu's black half looked rather bored with a simple spying mission, where as his white half was taking notice of all the small details. After spying on the Earth Daimyo, Zetsu learned that the Jinchuriki of the Yonbi, Roshi, was an old man with red hair, who was on a mission to retrieve a prized heirloom of the Earth Daimyo's family.
"We need to return to Leader-sama and Konan. The Yonbi Jinchuriki being on a mission gives an excellent opening to capture him." Said Zetsu's black half, somewhat bored.
"Don't be so dull, at least we got a mission…" Said Zetsu's white half, trying to look optimistic despite his obvious distaste of the mission. As the two halves of Zetsu both sighed and prepared to phase back into the Akatsuki's hideout, a golden glow surrounded his body.
"What is this?" Both halves asked at the same time. The two sighed again as their vision went dark.
Hagoromo smiled at Pein and Konan as he saw their expressions as the gold glow came upon their bodies.
"Where are you sending us, Rikudo Sennin-sama?" Konan asked, worried but more tired from the constant worry about the founder of Chakra.
"Konan-san, you don't need to worry about that. I am sending you to another dimension, vastly different from your own. You may, in fact, find very interesting surprises waiting for all of you Akatsuki in this world. Before you go, however, I will say one thing." Pein made eye contact with Hagoromo has he made his order.
"Pein, you and the other Akatsuki members will never succeed in your mission without keeping your heads down. If anyone realizes what kind of abilities you all have, your mission will fail, pitifully. If you have any desire of succeeding, whether for your own or the world's goals, keeping anonymity is key. Do not forget this!" Hagoromo said, as he smiled once again at the two Akatsuki leaders, seeing their eyes harden and their heads nod.
The nine Akatsuki woke up, and discovered they were no longer in a place they recognized. Large metal monsters with people inside them roamed on streets everywhere, giant steel buildings went hundreds of feet in the air, and strangest of all, people wearing strange clothes everywhere.
The Akatsuki had arrived on Earth.
Realizing this was the dimension the Sage of Six Paths sent them to, Pein and Konan remembered what he had said about being anonymous.
Pein's POV
I knew that my members weren't aware of the situation involving the Bijuu, and I knew that in the middle of some street wasn't the best place to relay the situation, especially considering how out of place we were, especially Kisame, Zetsu, my Rinnegan, and our Akatsuki cloaks. Seeing a huge scroll on the ground, I picked it up, knowing the Rikudo Sennin had sent it along with us. Looking around, I saw that the entire world was made of metal or stone, and the entire world felt like the grayness of its surroundings summed up its entire existence.
"Akatsuki, follow me." I said, my voice getting the attention of my members. Needless to say, they followed me (albeit with surprised expressions or a raised eyebrow) as I walked into a dark alley off of the street. Konan stood beside me, as usual, and the seven other members looked at me. Kisame, Kakuzu, Zetsu, Sasori, and Itachi had already met me in person, but Deidara, Hidan, and Kakuzu looked at me with faces of curiosity and surprise.
"So you're Leader-sama, un?" Deidara asked, looking at my Rinnegan and numerous chakra receivers. I could tell the explosion-happy Iwa nuke-nin was about to ask about the piercings, but I waved him off with one hand.
"Yes Deidara, I am Pein, better known to you all as Leader. Every single one of you was surrounded by a golden glow, yes?" All the members nodded except for Konan, she had been in the same room as me, after all.
"The reason we have been sent here is by the workings of the Rikudo Sennin." Needless to say, I was given blank stares by all of the members. With my Rinnegan, I knew that some members had assumed I had some type of run-in with divinity, and this sentence gave them all the prompts to believe it. I went on to recount his story to the group, as every other member added an account, except for Konan, Sasori, and Itachi, who were generally quiet. As the last accounts were spoken, I decided to make a plan.
"Itachi, your Sharingan will be extremely useful. You will find someone and use your Sharingan to discover somewhere we can make into a temporary base. Zetsu, you scout to find information about this world and about potential Jinchuriki for the Sennin's mission. Konan will help me look for any type of currency inside of this scroll. Kakuzu and Kisame will observe how these people act to each other. Deidara and Sasori will make an inventory of all our supplies. Hidan will stand guard." As I finished my orders, everyone responded with a chorus of "Hai" and did their tasks. Before doing the task I had set myself, I ran through a few hand seals and placed an area genjutsu to conceal the Akatsuki's presence.
All the ninja tools, food pills, dry rations, and other general tools were amassed on Deidara and Sasori. Kakuzu and Kisame put on a quick Henge Jutsu to look like normal people and walked around close to the alleyway, taking mental notes on behavioral patterns. Zetsu merged with the ground and moved through the ground until he reached suburbia. I worked with Konan to search the scroll, and we discovered the Bijuu, and their number of their tails labeled each one. Aside from the Bijuu, Konan and myself discovered bills of money similar to Ryo but much different; we assumed those bills were currency in this world, even if they did look strange. Itachi returned, a man following him, presumably under a Sharingan-induced genjutsu. Watching this, I telepathically communicated for Kisame and Kakuzu to return to the alleyway using my ring. As I saw them enter the alleyway, they disabled their disguises and looked with interest. As I gestured to Itachi, his Sharingan whizzed around and started the series of questions.
"Where are we?"
"The United States of America."
"What is the United States of America?"
"A country." Guessing how the rest of Itachi's interrogation might look without the proper prompting, I looked over to Itachi.
"Itachi-san, remember that the Rikudo Sennin probably sent us to another world, if not another dimension. These types of questions will only serve to disorient us more until we can find somewhere useful to regain our footing." Itachi nodded and went back to his interrogation.
"We are looking for a workspace, where should we look?"
"Get an office in that building." Said the man, pointing towards a building on my right.
"How large is this office?"
"The offices in the bottom of the building are small, and can only hold four or five employees."
"How many 'employees' do the offices in the top floor hold?" I couldn't resist feeling impressed by Itachi, yet again. The concept of the Akatsuki members as employees was laughable, only proven so when Deidara held in a laugh and Kisame's shark grin grew. Unseen by the other members, I had a very small smile on my face which was shifting from grin to grimace. After all, Akatsuki members could only leave the organization upon death or defection - joining the Akatsuki was a choice that could never be taken back, and it was not an easy fate to deal with.
"The highest one is one workspace. It could hold upwards of twenty employees. The individual offices are rather large too, large enough for sleeping quarters."
"What else does this office in the top floor yield?"
"It has several bathrooms, a shower, a kitchen, and refrigerator." I had heard all I needed to. As my unrivaled brain thought up the possibilities, I made my decision. We were going to take this "office" on the top floor and convert it into the Akatsuki's base of operations until further notice. I nodded to Itachi and he left, undoubtedly leading the victim of his Sharingan somewhere to disable the genjutsu he was under.
I focused on my ring and sent a message to Zetsu using it: 'we are getting an "office". Continue gathering information until further notice.'
As Itachi returned, I knew that I would need him to use a Genjutsu to ensure they would get undisputed control of the office. A thought that occurred to me was that the top of this building, from what I could see, had some type of shed on top of it. Perhaps that was where they could seal the new Jinchuriki? Walking inside of the building the man gestured, I saw a lobby, the air was colder than outside, but I couldn't detect any chakra coming from anywhere except for the eight of us. Itachi quickly walked up to the desk, Sharingan blazing. I grabbed Itachi and whispered my command.
"Get us the entire top office, and get more information on the shed on the roof of this building." Itachi nodded and turned back to the desk. The other members along with myself watched the Uchiha work his magic to get us the office.
"We need the entire top office." The man behind the desk in the lobby's eyes went wide at the Sharingan and he nodded, clearly under Itachi's genjutsu. The man grabbed a key and passed it to Itachi.
"This is the key for the top office. It is on floor 50." Itachi nodded, handing the key to me. The second part of the questioning was about to start.
"What is in the shed on top of the roof?" Itachi asked, calm as ever.
"It used to belong to the old mayor, a shed used for a government helicopter. When he resigned, he sold it back to the building, but he took the helicopter and the supplies with him. That shed is essentially free space." My eyes widened and I looked at Konan, just as she returned the glance. We both nodded and it was clear that I wasn't the only one who thought of it as a possible sealing space. As for figuring out what a 'helicopter' was, the Akatsuki had more than enough time to learn about the strangeness of the 'United States of America'.
"How much privacy does the office and shed give?"
"The office's previous owner stripped all the cameras off, and no one has replaced them since. There is one camera in the left corner of the back of the shed." Itachi nodded, sending that information to his mind.
"How many individual offices are there in the top office?"
"There are twenty individual offices, a small kitchen, two bathrooms, a shower, and a conference room." Despite being in a genjutsu, it was clear this man was proud of that office, which would have probably cost a fortune, had Itachi not been as good at genjutsu.
"We own that office, and the shed on top of the roof." Itachi said, the man simply nodded and repeated what Itachi said.
"No one will disturb us unless to collect rent for the office." Itachi said again, and the man nodded again.
I nodded my approval to Itachi and the eight of us walked up the stairs, everything was going to my plan. We arrived in the office, found a light switch, and looked around. Our office was very spacious, with rooms everywhere. The conference room was spacious, with chairs for eight people, not including the large chair at the head of the table. The bathrooms were in good condition, the shower was a source of much delight (few families got hot water, let alone criminal organizations!), and the kitchen provided an excellent place to store rations and prepare meals. As I looked out of the windows to the far distant ground, I remembered something important; Zetsu was still on his mission. I knew he would contact soon though. Zetsu always did.
Third Person POV
The two-minded being known as Zetsu was underground, listening in on conversations on the outside world. Upon entering a tavern, he looked around. Unfortunately for the less spartan members of the Akatsuki, no sake would be present for when they realized just how strange a world they were inhabiting. Looking around, Zetsu saw two old men, their flushed cheeks practically screaming about the heavy amount of alcohol they had just consumed.
"These young fools *hic* don't know what their goals in life are." Said a man with a long beard, shaking his head. The other drunk was a tall man, completely bald, with a long nose.
"They always *hic* hang out around the park in the middle of town. Teenagers *hic* running around without parents disciplining them. Back in our day we would get a smack on the head if we left the house without asking my papa!" The tall drunk said.
"What if these Jinchuriki we create could be teenagers? If they're as foolish as these old drunks say, we should be able to bring them to the base and use a sealing Jutsu…" Black Zetsu offered, curious as to Pein's reaction to his proposal.
"But the Rikudo Sennin isn't easy to understand, what if he already has something planned for us? We can't trust people as volatile as teenagers with the Bijuu!" White Zetsu said nervously, remembering the information that the Akatsuki had amassed about the antics of Uzumaki Naruto as a child, and the bloodthirsty nature of Sabaku no Gaara.
"Let's go to this "park" and see what these old fools are talking about." Black Zetsu said, as the two halves of Zetsu phased into the ground, only to be invisible to everyone else, underneath the park. It was everything the old men had described: teens wandering aimlessly around, some in groups, some on his or her own. They were chattering, listening to music, even a few yelling or fighting. The two halves of Zetsu knew what to do, immediately travelling towards the chakra signatures of the eight other Akatsuki members.
Meanwhile, the other eight Akatsuki members had finally decided who's room would be where, removed the security camera from the shed on the roof, and had all occupied chairs in the conference room, waiting for Zetsu. Not even five minutes after starting the wait, Zetsu appeared from the floor, nodded towards Pein and Konan, and took a seat.
"What are your findings?" Pein asked, with the smallest hint of curiosity.
"Pein-sama, at first we went into a bar and observed two old men who were talking. They were drunk. Then after that we listened to their conversation about how young people are stupid. They mentioned that teenagers wander around without supervision, especially near a park, so we headed to this park and observed how they acted. Although the park wouldn't be the best place to do so, we discovered that… The best Jinchuriki are teenagers because it would be easiest to obtain them. Also, I don't think there is any sake in this world." The two halves of Zetsu concluded, nodding once again.
Pein rubbed his eyes, and opened the scroll, undoubtedly to look for more clues, and presumably some way the insanity of the less stable members could be prevented without numerous doses of sake.
'Leader-sama seems so unprepared in comparison to his behavior in Akatsuki meetings, un.' Deidara thought, as he looked at the scroll from across the table. Deidara's eyes scanned the scroll lazily as Pein went through it, until Deidara spotted a few kanji, and his eyes widened upon reading "Jinchuriki clues".
"Pein-sama, un! Look at this!" Deidara pointed towards the kanji as he bit his thumb, smearing just enough blood on the scroll to summon the object sealed within. Pein looked at the piece of paper that came out and read it out loud to the Akatsuki.
"For the Akatsuki,
One loathes all who boast.
Two is similar to the Jinchuriki in your world.
Three is a loner who has an ace up his sleeve.
Four has the Yonbi's fire for hair.
Five and Deidara are birds of a feather.
Six and Three both belonged to the same village, and now Six needs Three.
Seven could pass for a Senju.
Eight will stick to the shadows as much as he can.
Nine is arrogant.
Also, each one has a chakra nature or Kekkei Genkai, be thankful I made it easy for you.
Rikudo Sennin"
Pein looked up, and looked at the members
"Because we will not be facing opposition from shinobi, each Akatsuki member will hunt a future Jinchuriki, including you, Zetsu." Said Pein. He pointed at Akatsuki members as he read each one the task given.
"Sasori, you will hunt the future Ichibi Jinchuriki. Hidan, you will hunt the future Nibi Jinchuriki. Kisame, you will hunt the future Sanbi Jinchuriki. Itachi, you will hunt the future Yonbi Jinchuriki. Deidara, you will hunt the future Gobi Jinchuriki. Konan, you will hunt the future Rokubi Jinchuriki. Zetsu, you will hunt the future Nanabi Jinchuriki. Kakuzu, you will hunt the future Hachibi Jinchuriki, and I will hunt the future Kyuubi Jinchuriki. Any questions?" Pein asked as he looked around, everyone remained silent.
"I assume everyone is ready to get started then. Before we go, everyone grab the necessary rations and supplies to capture soon-to-be Jinchuriki. Remember, we need them to cooperate with us if we want to be returned to our world, therefore, capture them unharmed if possible." The Akatsuki nodded and started grabbing the necessary supplies. Pein had a small smile as he looked out of the windows of his new office, everything seemed like it was going to plan.
As I said earlier, the next chapter will present a much more entertaining start to the collection of the future Jinchuriki. Should be interesting.
All reviews and critiques are welcome
-KingsOfSarutobi