Jinchuuriki Counterattack

Ch.2 Akatsuki?

"You have no idea who you're dealing with," Fu repeated the earlier words of the group of pirates with a roll of her eyes. All of them were tied together by ninja wire with various bruises on their faces. "You guys couldn't even put up a decent fight despite having the advantage in numbers. Freaking pathetic for a bunch of 'blood-thirsty' pirates."

She grabbed one of them by the shirt, eyes narrowed in anger, "Tell me where your boss is!"

"As if any of us would tell you anything," the pirate scoffed.

The others nodded in agreement, appearing to be on higher spirits. It appeared that this particular pirate was their leader or someone they all looked up to. Upon closer inspection she noticed that this one was the only one to wear a red coat over his white pants and navy shirt.

Utakata watched the exchange in silence. To be brutally honest, he sympathized with the man currently under Fu's harsh glare. It was not like him to get between two stubborn people butting heads in a heated argument, but their staring contest would not get them anywhere.

With that in mind, it was with great reluctance that he stepped up, "If you tell us where your leader is then I assure you that no further harm will come to you."

A silenced settled on the ship before the pirates busted out laughing hysterically.

"This scrawny bastard thinks he's threatening!"

"What's with this girly looking freak?!"

"The girl did all the work before! Don't get ahead of yourself bastard!"

"I know!" Fu joined in with the laughter.

That was the last straw. Something snapped within Utakata and his calm demeanor was gone, his eyes blazed in fury as he kicked one of the pirates on the stomach and glared at the rest.

"Who do you think you're talking to?!"

Soon the whole ship erupted in a heated argument that got them nowhere as Utakata had previously realized but was too pissed off to care.


Two Akatsuki robes fluttered in the wind as a pair of people watched the scene at the ship.

"Is that them?"

The taller of the two smirked, "Correct."


"Enough already!" Utakata exclaimed beyond the noise before regaining his calm demeanor. "Now, if you don't tell us where your boss is I cannot guarantee your safety."

"Bring it on brat," the presumed leader sneered, "You're all skin and bone, why don't you gain a bit of muscle before acting like a man."

Despite the insult Utakata smirked, "Very well. I tried to help you but it seems someone like you is incapable of thought."

He stepped aside as a grinning Fu approached the pirate while cracking her knuckles.

"H-Hey!" The pirate looked at Utakata pleadingly, panic on his face, "Are you not man enough to do this yourself."

"I'd rather not get my hands dirty. Besides, you've seen how effective my companion is at fighting," he responded calmly.

The presumed leader gulped as he looked over the damages on the ship just to remind himself of what he was dealing with. Many of his comrades were sprawled across the deck, hand-sized holes were made all across the ship, and he could have sworn he had seen a couple of teeth on the floor.

"F-Fine! I'll talk! Just get that freak away from me!"

Fu smirked inwardly as Utakata moved to stand between her and the pirates.

"There. Isn't that much easier," he grinned at the pirates before continuing, "Go ahead and speak but I forgot to tell you that if you lie, Fu here will have to persuade you to do otherwise."

The pirate sighed deeply, "Okay look, the boss as you call him, found us a couple of months ago."

"What do you mean by that?" Utakata asked, intrigued.

"Well, my crew and I have always been independent. Nothing but us and the sea for years but that all changed when this man appeared out of nowhere in our ship," he chuckled dryly, "Were were in the middle of sailing to a merchant village when he just landed on our ship out of didn't take kindly to that and fought 'em but he kicked all of our asses in just seconds. Kinda like your friend here."

Fu had to smirk at that.

"So this random guy tells us that he is now our leader and that he would kill us all if we don't do what he says," the pirate went on with a frown, "Then he just jumped off the ship and disappeared. We just high-tailed out of there as soon as possible and decided to ignore the man. There was no way he would come back anyway so why the hell did we need to follow him? That proved to be a mistake since he appeared out of nowhere again and killed one of our men."

Utakata narrowed his eyes in thought, "How does he 'appear' exactly?"

"He just fucking jumps out of the water and lands on the deck," the pirate explained before continuing his story, "Anyway, he gave us the location of a small island not too far from here and told us to go there. Not wanting anyone else to die we did like he said and sailed to the village. When we made it there we saw around a dozen ships docked there... The bastard had done the same to other pirate ships, we found out. Next thing we know he appears out of nowhere and tells us that we would sail these waters and stop any merchant ship. Those that failed would be killed."

"So that's why you've been doing all of this..." Utakata mused while rubbing his chin in apparent thought.

Fu crossed her arms and scowled, "Why don't we just wait for him to appear? That way we can kick his ass and the pirate ships will leave, right?"

"That seems like the logical choice," Utakata agreed.

"It does indeed."

The pirates froze in terror, the color draining from their faces as the two jinchuuriki spun on their heels to come face to face with the owner of the voice. It was a man well in his thirties with short spiked hair, wearing a simple light blue kimono and a straw hat. Standing out the most were the many scars on his face and chest.

"Who are these two?" The man smirked as he addressed the pirates.

"We came here to kick your ass," Fu answered with a grin on her face, "You are the person behind all of this right?"

"That would be me yes," the man answered calmly. "But I'm afraid that you will have to die," he dropped into a fighting stance as before breaking into a smirk, "You guys are strong. I could tell that the second you set foot on this ship."

Fu grinned in response, feeling a bit of excitement at fighting someone that actually looked strong. "My name's Fu by the way," she introduced as her chakra wings formed on her back, "I hope you can actually back up your words."

The man bared his teeth in a smirk, "I've always believed that one should always know the name of the person that killed them...I am Kenji, the ruler of these waters!"

Kenji laughed as he charged in at the girl with a maniacal look on his face. Fu ran towards him as well and met him head on with a punch to his face but the older man just laughed and dished out a punch of his own. The jinchuuriki bit back a scream of pain as she was harshly knocked back but managed to flip in the air as to land safely on the floor. She drew in a breath as the man charged in once again though this time she decided to hit without holding back.

Using her wings to push herself faster against the man, she landed a harsh kick to his face, snapping his head the side as blood splattered out of his mouth. Having lost the momentum, Fu was easy picking for Kenji who began to laugh as he grabbed her by the neck.

"Hey, don't tell me you're done already," Kenji smirked as he brought the girl to eye-level before dropping his hold on her and kicking her away, earning a cry of pain.

The smirk never left his face as he made his way towards the girl before catching movement out of the corner of his eye. Kenji proved to have great reflexes as he turned around, blocked a kick, and delivered a punch to the aggressor in less than a second.

"Don't butt in kid," Kenji glared at Utakata who was on his back with blood dripping from his nose, "I've finally found someone who's worth fighting. If you try anything like that again I'm going to kill you."

Fu pushed herself off the floor before glaring at the man, "Who are you? You haven't even tried to dodge any of my attacks. Are you insane!"

Kenji began to laugh as if he had heard the most funny thing in the world. "Insane?! No way! I just know better than to do something boring like block when I could be attacking!" He smirked with a crazy glint in his eyes, "Pain is nothing more than a nuisance. That's why I don't acknowledge it."

"I see," Fu grinned in return before casting a side-glance at Utakata. "Don't interfere, I'm going to do this on my own."

Despite not agreeing in the slightest, Utakata nodded. If she did need his help then he would jump in even if she was against it.

"Let'g get this started then," Kenji smirked as he charged in at Fu.

The jinchuuriki remained still, reading her opponent's movements. Once the first punch came, she easily dodged it by leaning way, when the second came she sidestepped and slipped into his personal space. A smirk etched on her face as she drew her fist back before delivering a harsh blow to his stomach though this time she knew better than to stay in place, and jumped away just as Kenji tried to grab her.

'I got him figured out,' Fu's eyes glinted in excitement as she waited for Kenji's next attack.

As the older man prepared to charge in, everyone on the ship was taken off guard as a couple of robed figured stepped down on the deck.

"Akatsuki!" Fu exclaimed in surprise upon recognizing the red clouds on their robes.

Utakata watched the two robed figured in silence, "So this is the Akatsuki."

"Who the hell are you?!" Kenji roared angrily. Whoever had disturbed his fight would pay.

"We are members of the powerful-" The taller of the two began as he turned to meet the gaze of whoever had just yelled at them, only to gape and flinch back along with his companion, "What the hell?! Why is he so big?!"

"Akatsuki?" Fu and Utakata chorused in a dull tone.

The two ninja, at least they thought they were ninja, cowered under the large man before turning to them for help. They dropped their straw hats and bowed.

"Please! Save us!"

"Huh?"

Kenji stepped forward threateningly with an annoyed look on his face, "I asked who you were?"

"My name is Daisuke sir!"

"And I'm Akio!"

The two wearing Akatsuki robes looked at the man pleadingly, "Please forgive our intrusion!"

Kenji watched them silently, as if thinking about what he was going to do with them, but was kicked away before he could do anything. The large man crashed against the floor before getting up and smirking.

"Not bad. Looks like you got your priorities straight," Kenji acknowledged Fu, who was standing at the side of the two cowering ninja. "Let's keep this fight going then!"

The man let out a battle cry as he ran at the girl at a fast speed. Fu narrowed her eyes and met the man halfway through his run with a punch to his face but he shrugged it off and punched at the kunoichi's stomach, earning a cry of pain before she retaliated with a kick to his shin. Kenji laughed as he received another kick, this time to his side but used the opportunity to grab her leg.

"Got you!" He laughed as he hurled her over his shoulder.

Fu twisted in the air before using her wings to stop herself midair. She scowled deeply when seeing the man still grinning like a beast. Whatever she did was having no effect on him.

Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Fu dove down on the man and pumped as much chakra as she could into her fists. Her chakra wings blinked out of existence as she cocked her fist back while descending towards the man who only smirked and jumped at her.

It happened in slow motion in her mind. Kenji threw a punch, she leaned her head to the left, then he aimed at her stomach with his left hand, but she knocked it aside with a backhand. Now the man was completely open and she didn't hesitate as her fist met the man's face with a loud smack, hurling him out of the ship.

Fu landed safely on the ship and ran over to see if Kenji was still going to fight, but to her relief his unconscious body was floating on the water.

"Looks like we're done."


After turning Kenji over to the right authorities which were quick to bound him in metal chains, Utakata had gone to retrieve their payment while Fu stayed behind on the docks with Daisuke and Akio.

"So?" She began in a firm voice, making both of them flinch under her gaze. "There's now way you two are with the Akatsuki so tell me why you're dressed like that?"

"Well, um... We overheard some veteran ninja talking at a bar and found out that there's a group of powerful ninja carrying out 'certain' jobs for 'certain' villages. When we heard that we decided to create these robes in accordance to the description the ninja gave, 'black robes with red clouds.'"

Now that she looked a bit closer, the stitching around the red clouds seemed pretty amateurish and the robes themselves were pretty old. It made her wonder if the Akatsuki had a designated tailor but she quickly dismissed the thought as not to get sidetracked.

"What do you two do anyway?"

"We're mercenaries!" Akio piped in with a raised hand.

Daisuke sighed at his colleague's behavior but nodded at Fu, "That's why we were on the ship. We heard that pirates were causing trouble and wanted to stop them. Thankfully we didn't get there in time. That big guy would've kicked our asses."

Akio nodded fiercely, "I know right? What's up with all these strong ninja we've seen around lately?!"

Utakata approached the three with a brown bag slung over his shoulder, having finished his task.

"What you got there?" Fu asked in curiosity.

"Our payment," he answered simply. "What did yo find out about these two?"

"They're mercenaries."

The Akatsuki robed teens smiled proudly at that.

"Bad ones at that."

They face faulted.

"I see," Utakata muttered to himself before coming up with an idea. "Why are you two mercenaries if, not to be rude, you two are so weak?"

"We need money," Daisuke answered.

Utakata grinned, "Then allow me to make a proposition."


Fu and Utakata walked on the outskirt of the port village. After succeeding on their short mission they were ready to move on to the next village in search for the other jinchuuriki. Though now they had help.

"Seriously. Are you sure those two will help us out?" Fu asked, more than a little skeptical.

"Of course they will. Being mercenaries would have gotten them killed in no time. Taking on the role of spies, drifting from village to village suits people like them better."

"I guess," she sighed. "How are we gonna communicate with them though?"

Utakata fought the urge to foll his eyes when hearing the question, "We went over it right in front of you. You're aware of that right?"

"Of course. What kind of idiot do you take me for? It's just that you kept on rambling about random stuff so I just tuned you out."

"All right, no need to get upset. We will communicate through this," he pulled out an old scroll with green markings. "This is a special scroll. It sort of works like a summoning seal but doesn't at the same time. What it does is, if I were to write something here then this scroll's pair, the one I gave to Daisuke and Akio, will project those words."

"Really?!"

Utakata nodded, "This isn't used much since messenger birds are much more reliable between large numbers of people."

Satisfied, Fu turned back to the road ahead. Now that they had two people helping them search for their fellow jinchuuriki, they were ready to leave.

She couldn't wait to see more of the world.