Dawn's Sage

Chapter 4

"So let me get this straight. We're going to waltz into the most heavily defended Hidden Village IN THE WORLD in full Akatsuki regalia, drop hints about how we're looking for the Nine Tail's jinchuriki, and no one will care?" asked Deidara in disbelief after hearing her partner's 'master plan'.

"People WILL care, that's the point. Nabbing the jinchuriki on an irregular mission to god knows where or lord forbid in the village is suicide." spoke the young sage. "This way, they give him a couple of protectors and ship him off somewhere 'hidden' so we don't wreck the village if we tried to get him that way. Which we won't, because as strong as we are, no one can take on an entire Hidden Village, let alone the Hidden Leaf." Contrary to his statement, Naruto could think of six people who could probably pull off the feat he claimed to be impossible. "Besides, Leader gave us permission to put Akatsuki on the map. If some people see us, it's no big deal."

"Look, my art could probably level a city, but stealth and kidnappings are not my strong suit, yeah." said Deidara, loath to admit that her art had any shortcomings.

"That's why you're partnered with me. My jutsu are based around small scale damage with varying levels of lethality. You just make sure the jinchuriki doesn't start a full transformation. My summons don't like to be called for Tailed Beast emergencies." said Naruto, both to reassure Deidara and fill the time with idle chatter.

"Speaking of which, I've never actually seen you summon anything before. What even is your summoning contract?" asked Deidara, more than willing to oblige Naruto's unspoken request for conversation. The response was cut off by Naruto's abrupt halt. He stuck out his hand to signal a stop.

"We're here." said Naruto as he began running through several hand seals.

"Where is 'here' exactly? This is just some random clearing. The Hidden Leaf is just about a mile ahead. Let's just go ahead and get this 'brilliant' plan of yours over and done." said Deidara. Despite her frustration, she didn't go past Naruto. She had learned over the years that his sensory abilities were surpassed by none except Zetsu and Pain. When he said to stop, you stopped, even if it was in the middle of the woods for no discernible reason. Naruto finished his seals and put his right hand on Deidara's chest, while his left hand took a place on his chest. Just as Deidara was about to call him out for feeling her up, a sealing matrix spread out from Naruto's hands, running across her body before fading. "Okay, what was that, yeah?" asked Deidara, thoroughly confused by her partner's actions.

"The Hidden Leaf is surrounded by a sealed dome, which alerts a team of highly trained ninja about anyone unauthorized entering the city. It doesn't pick up low chakra levels, so trade is fairly unrestricted. And all Leaf headbands have a small seal inside to allow entrance to the village, so their own ninja can pass inside with no problem." informed Naruto.

"If there's some all seeing seal dome around the village, how come I've never heard of it?" asked Deidara.

"Because it's a ninja village." responded Naruto simply. "They keep secrets."

"Then how did you find out about it, yeah?" asked Deidara, now just annoyed at her partner.

"I sensed it easily enough; it's drawing enough Natural Chakra to turn my even me into stone. But I still wouldn't have a clue what the heck it was if Itachi hadn't told me before hand." responded Naruto, answering every question posed to him with a calm that betrayed his young age.

"You and that Uchiha; it's weird, yeah. You'd think you were partners with that jerk instead of with me, the way you two get along. Though I must admit, those sharingan are pretty. Not art level, but they're up there." said Deidara as Naruto laughed at his partner's antics.

"Let's go then. I hear the ramen in the Hidden Leaf is wonderful." said Naruto, his toad-like eyes glowing with anticipation.

"Blegh. It's always ramen with you. We're eating some real food this time, yeah. Let's try to find a dango stand." said Deidara as the two walked into the village proper, drawing some strange looks from the guards for their strange attire and obscuring hats.

"That's even less of a meal than ramen is. At least my suggestion isn't desert." deadpanned Naruto.

"Any better ideas that soggy noodles or delicious sweets?" asked an annoyed Deidara.

"Ramen for lunch then dango for desert?" ventured Naruto tentatively.

"Deal."

The two teenaged members of Akatsuki finished their lunch without event, if one ignored the simply insane amounts of ramen Naruto consumed within the time it took Deidara to finish a single bowl. Deidara decided to throw Naruto under the bus if Kakuzu asked why they had spent more than the allotted amount on this mission. Which of course would happen, since Kakuzu's 'allotted amount' practically had them paying him out of pocket, as opposed to them actually getting money out of the tall bounty hunter. Deidara looked around and was annoyed to see that her absent-minded following of her partner had led them not to a dango stand, but to the outskirts of the village alongside a small waterway.

"What's the big idea, yeah? I was looking forward to those sweets." asked Deidara, only acting annoyed. She knew that Naruto never did anything without reason, even if it wasn't always a good one.

"I thought we might want to eat after dealing with the rats that have been following us, hoping we'd drop something." said Naruto with a meaningful glance over his shoulder. Two figures jumped out of the trees and landed several yard away from the Akatsuki partners. One of them was a tall man with beard and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, while the other was a beautiful woman who was wearing more bandages than actual dress. The first to speak was the man.

"Who are you? And what business do you have in the Leaf?" he inquired, hands twitching towards his kunai pouch.

"We're simply artists and collectors. We were looking for quite the rare piece here in the Leaf. Once we heard it might be here, we came as soon as we were able. After all, there are only nine pieces like it in the world." said Naruto smoothly. He was referring to the jinchuriki, hoping that these jonin could pick up on the hint.

Unfortunately, he appeared to have overestimated them. "What if we don't believe you?" asked the female, hands moving into a more practical position for hand seals as her chakra built up.

"Oh for the love of god, yeah! Let's just get this over with!" shouted Deidara as she removed her hat. Naruto sighed as the slashed Rock forehead protector gleamed in the light. "We're here looking for the Nine Tails. Hand him over, and we won't level this place."

"Deidara, need I remind you we're here to gather information, not start a war. Let me handle this." chided Naruto as he removed his own hat. He turned his eyes to the side briefly as he sensed a small chakra level retreating. He had almost missed it next to the two jonin flaring their chakra right next to him, but Natural Chakra missed nothing. He turned his attention to the two Hidden Leaf ninja before him. "So if you could just tell us where he is, we'll leave with no trouble."

"Sora isn't in the village at the moment, but you won't be around when he gets back, so don't worry!" The man pulled out two small knives as he dashed forward that seemed harmless enough, but Naruto could see the chakra rolling off of them in waves. He blocked the first one with his Sage Mode enhanced forearm, but the wind chakra still managed to leave a small cut. Naruto didn't dwell on it however, and quickly grabbed the jonin's other fist, leaving another shallow cut on his palm, to prevent his opponent from forming any seals. Naruto had to appreciate the chakra blades that would have certainly bisected a normal human, and he was grateful for his diamond hard skin. He pulled his opponent in brought his knee into the man's gut, driving the wind from him like a ton of bricks. Naruto stepped behind his foe and raised his hand to deliver the finishing blow when his hand was stopped by the branches of a tree that had grown from the stones behind him. Naruto linked the obvious genjutsu with the flaring chakra from the woman from before. Once he recognized it, Naruto broke the genjutsu without even trying thanks to the Natural Chakra constantly flooding his chakra system. By simply changing the rate at which he absorbed Natural Chakra, Naruto could break all but the strongest genjutsu. However, Naruto heeded his own advice to Deidara; they did need someone to actually spread the word of their search for the Nine Tails so they could make an attempt when the Hidden Leaf tried to move the jinchuriki to a safer location.

Naruto was so engrossed with his thoughts he almost missed the kunai that the woman drove into his neck. Almost. One didn't have perfect chakra sensing and miss that. The kunai glanced off his Sage Mode enhanced skin, much to the woman's surprise. Naruto brought his hand down to grip the woman's wrist before flipping her over his shoulder. His left hand went to punch her in midair and send her flying. But before he could make contact, she exploded in a shower of flower petals. The male jonin used his position on the ground to attempt a leg sweep, but was grimaced in pain when his kick connected with what felt like a brick wall. The Akatsuki member didn't move an inch as the Leaf jonin retreated to regroup. Naruto didn't need to. He had worked with Deidara long enough to know how long it took to prepare a piece of art.

"Deidara, now." said Naruto as he turned his back on his opponents to jump onto the white bird that rose from the walkway behind him. Deidara grinned as she threw her hands out at the two Leaf ninja. Two small white birds with four wings apiece flew swiftly at the duo.

"Katsu!"

…

Deidara was annoyed at the lack of art that accompanied her shout of creation. Instead of an artistic smear on the ground, two hounds made of lightning were chewing on her clay creations like chew toys before they dispersed into the air. The two jonin that Naruto had effectively manhandled had been joined by a third that was helping them to their feet. The newcomer had a head of spiky silver hair and wore both a mask and a headband over his left eye, leaving only his right eye exposed. Deidara wasn't too mad about the destruction of her art though; she had left a surprise for the man who had managed to draw blood from Naruto, a feat even her art hadn't accomplished.

As the duo flew away, a segmented centipede rose from the ground and wrapped itself around the bearded jonin. The lightning user channeled his element into his right hand and sliced the centipede from top to bottom. Ant other one of her creations would have been shorted out by the electrical interference, but this art was actually many small pieces that acted independently. The portions that had been cut in half by their weakness didn't detonate, but the lower ones that had yet to be touched exploded with all the glory Deidara had come to expect from her art.

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Shikamaru and Choji were in a hurry. Sure Sora was an abrasive jerk, but he was a fellow member of Team 10. Asuma had been rushed to the hospital, unconscious with his legs a mangled mess, so it was up to them to help warn Sora of these Akatsuki people that wanted him dead. It hadn't taken long for Shikamaru to find out that Sora had left with Jiraiya of the Sannin to find Tsunade of the Sannin, both to become the next Hokage and heal the previous Hokage, who had fallen into a coma after his fight against the Fourth Kazekage. The attempted invasion of the Hidden Sand had been painful, but not devastating by any means. The Hidden Leaf would recover. Shikamaru knew that there were certain people that would want revenge, but he also knew that no one wanted to spark another war. Both sides had lost enough already; further conflict would just drag in the other nations.

Shikamaru had found out from his father that the targeted duo was starting their search in Tanzaku Town, a small tourist community not too far from the Hidden Village. He had no doubts that Jiraiya could handle himself, but the element of surprise had killed many ninja before the legendary Sannin, and would kill many after. If he knew about the threat, half the battle was already won.

The two friends arrived at Tanzaku Town and were simply overwhelmed by the sheer ustle and bustle of the city. The Hidden Leaf was just a large, but it was designed around utility and defense, not as a massive advertisement. The two decided to split up and search for Jiraiya and Sora separately to speed things up. Shikamaru figured that if they were found by the Akatsuki, two genin would be little more threat than one. The only hope they had was to find Jiraiya before Akatsuki.

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It had been a while since Jiraiya had seen the small toad on his windowsill. The tiny red creature had told him that it possessed crucial information, but would only reveal it if the Sannin caught it and bought the toad candy. The toad then jumped off the windowsill and began hopping like mad through the city. It took Jiraiya several seconds to process what had just happened. Jiraiya had never met this particular toad, and so had no way to simply summon him back. And so the great Sannin, Toad Sage of Mount Myobokuzan, the man men want to be and women want, was reduced to chasing a toad the size of his fist around the town like a genin on his first D-Rank.

He had told the tagalong kid that Asuma had sent with him to book a room at the hotel, and Jiraiya was almost glad to be away from the Nine Tail's Jinchuriki's incessant whining. Or he would be, if this accursed toad wasn't so darn fast!

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Naruto and Deidara hovered above Tanzaku Town, doing lazy circles on the clay hawk. Naruto had yet to meet the Nine Tail's jinchuriki himself, but he assumed he simply had to find the biggest chakra source in the city and find its source. The two largest in the city were actually fairly close in size, but they were travelling together, so Naruto could only assume that these travelers were the jinchuriki and its protector. Once Deidara described the two to him courtesy of some long range reconnaissance from the camera-like device over her left eye, Naruto recognized the younger as the jinchuriki Sasori and Zetsu had found, while the older was Jiraiya of the Sannin, the only other Toad Summoner. It had been a clever plan, in Naruto's opinion to lure Jiraiya away with a Gamakichi by promising snacks should he distract the Sannin for long enough. It was almost too easy, which is why something had to go wrong.

He really couldn't even blame anyone but himself. He had focused a bit too much on making sure that their entrance didn't destroy half the city and so had dismissed the two relatively small chakra signatures that were quickly approaching the target. The three immortals of Akatsuki would never let him live down such a rookie mistake, even if he was still technically a rookie.

The approach had gone smoothly enough. They had descended, no one paying them any more attention than they would any other bird. They had entered the hotel through the window of an adjacent room. Naruto entered the hotel proper, while Deidara remained at the window to give pursuit should the jinchuriki attempt to flee out of the window. The two young Akatsuki members had decided to stick it to their superiors by capturing one of their targets first, only several miles from the nearest Hidden Village to top it all off. Of course, any prolonged conflict would bring both the wrath of the Hidden Leaf and the scorn of their elders in Akatsuki. Naruto decided to tackle this one himself, since Deidara wasn't really a stealth person.

Naruto calmly knocked on the door, but inside he was a raging tumult of emotions. If this Leaf genin was really the Nine Tail's jinchuriki or a suitable substitute, Naruto was off the hook. All he had to do was not use the Nine Tail's chakra, something he didn't even know how to do, in front of an Akatsuki member, and he was home free. Several seconds after his knock, the door opened, and a blue haired kid poked his head out, Leaf forehead protector on display upon his forehead. To the average passerby, he was a normal kid, if a ninja. But to Naruto, his chakra was a raging sea of raw energy, most of it his own, but trace amounts undeniably demonic in nature. Focusing on the source of the demonic chakra, Naruto found the sea located on the jinchuriki's stomach contained a chakra exactly like his own. The only difference was the sheer amount, but that would hardly matter. Nine Tails chakra was Nine Tails chakra, regardless of the amount. Naruto was safe.

"Who the hell are you?" Naruto had been so focused on the relief he felt at not being hunted down by his own comrades that he almost missed the target's annoyed response to being woken up from a wonderful nap.

Naruto went to step forward and sucker punch the target. With Sage Mode, it would be an easy knock out. Only he couldn't move.

"Shadow Possession Complete."

Naruto's eye widened as he realized what the target had done. The reason his chakra had been so large and easy to read was because he had been flaring it. The massive chakra source in the small room, coupled with Naruto's single mindedness in his sensing meant that the two smaller sources that had been trying to hide their chakra had been passed over without a second thought. With Naruto now on full alert, the two genin were as easy to spot as his own Akatsuki cloak. Naruto had missed them, and was now paying the price. He couldn't move as the large, now larger, genin began spinning towards him. Naruto was in trouble.

Or he would be, if he weren't a Sage, member of Akatsuki, and S-Rank ninja. The shadow that was connected to his own was easily destroyed with some Sage Chakra channeled through it. He brought his hands up to catch the large human boulder that was hurtling towards him. Thanks to his Sage Mode, it didn't hurt in the slightest, but the sheer velocity and mass of the technique sent him skidding back into the hallway. The spinning finally stopped, but before the large ball could revert back to a more human shape, Naruto brought his right hand back. He used said hand to deliver a powerful strike to the middle of the large mass in front of him. One could see the hit send ripples across the ball before the genin was sent flying down the hall, cracking the wall upon impact. The fat Leaf genin's technique ended as he was forcefully sent spiraling into unconsciousness.

With one out of the way, Naruto turned his attention to the two genin in the room, who had since moved out into the hallway. The weaker one's shadow shot out once more, but that was easily dealt with via brute force. The jinchuriki ran at him with a set of claws, obviously assuming that Naruto would be held immobile by the strange shadow technique. Naruto noticed the chakra coming off of the claws, similar to the day's earlier encounter with a set of trench knives. Not wanting to be cut by a set of genin, Naruto spat a glob of toad oil into the jinchuriki's face. The oil obscured the blur of movement that was Naruto even more as he delivered a vicious chop to the back of the jinchuriki's neck, sending him to a forced sleep.

Naruto continued on to the third genin, the one that had managed to catch him off guard. Naruto was a sage! Sages were not caught off guard! It might have been petty, but Naruto was in a hurry, and Akatsuki was supposed to be brutal and unforgiving. The straight forward jab appeared to be a simple attack to dodge, and despite Naruto's speed, the young genin appeared to do just that. Then he went flying down the hall anyway.

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Shikamaru struggled to stay conscious. He hadn't planned on the Akatsuki being this ridiculously powerful. The plan was supposed to end when Choji's Human Boulder connected with the man at the door. But instead the attack had failed for whatever reason, most likely a defensive jutsu of high rank, and the following fight was better described as a no holds barred beatdown. But Sora was a teammate, and dare he say it, a friend. Shikamaru would not allow Akatsuki to win this easily. He struggled to his feet, but his vision was blurred and his ears were ringing with strange notes. He knew he had no real hope of beating an S-Rank ninja as he was. And people wondered why he enjoyed himself while he could.

Shikamaru was honestly surprised, something that didn't happen often, when his vision cleared up, and was more shocked when he was surrounded by four large toads, each wearing what would have been a comical getup in any other situation. Beyond them was a nondescript pink background. The toads seemed immobile, standing with a sword in one hand and the other thrust out as if to hold Shikamaru back.

"Enjoy your stay. You won't be leaving." Shikamaru looked down to see the Akatsuki member he had been 'fighting' fading away. This was a genjutsu, it had to be. Shikamaru disrupted his chakra flow, slowing down his life energy to a trickle before using all he had in one big flare. When he opened his eyes, he has still surrounded by the four toads, in his strange prison. Only the toad song to keep him company.

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Naruto supposed that using the Toad Confrontation Chant might have been overkill for a simple genin, but he was still kind of angry from the whole immobilization thing earlier. Plus, with all luck, the Hidden Leaf would place a higher priority on two genin in comas than a third who went mysteriously missing. Naruto turned around to collect the jinchuriki, but was furious at what he saw, not that he showed it.

"I thought I heard toad song." spoke the man in red, who was holding the jinchuriki over his shoulder. The newcomer was clad in red and wore a headband with the kanji for oil on it. Naruto grit his teeth at the appearance of the Toad Sannin, knowing that any conflict with him would be long and loud enough to bring any ninja within a hundred miles. The Sannin set his charge up against the wall, before running through the seals for the Summoning Technique. "You won't be leaving here." When Jiraiya slapped his hands on the ground, the walls began to morph into a pink flesh.

Naruto recognized this as a cave he once found on Mount Myobokuzan which was in actuality the throat of a massive toad. With the jinchuriki and the two genin, one unconscious and the other staring blankly into space, Naruto didn't think that he would have to worry about the fire breathing aspect of this toad that had nearly roasted him all those years ago. Naruto prepared to fight his way out, but Jiraiya noticed the clay spider that was lurking on the ceiling. The spider jumped down, but was impaled on the Sannin's now spikier white mane as it wrapped around him and the jinchuriki. The explosive went off anyway, and Deidara ran out of the room she had been waiting in. She might like a fight more than Naruto, but she had no wish to use her ultimate art today, and the Sannin would definitely hold them long enough for help to arrive. She knew when a plan had gone south.

When Jiraiya's hair returned to its regular size and shape, he was surprised by the amount of smoke in the corridor. The lack of a follow-up attack meant that the Akatsuki duo had fled when he was distracted by the explosion going off in his hair. What the Sannin couldn't figure out was how they had done it. The Toad Mouth Bind was durable enough to take those kinds of explosions all day. As the smoke cleared, Jiraiya first noticed the safety of the three genin on Team 10. Then he noticed the completely clear walls. Somehow, the two had managed to completely destroy the throat of the mountain toad enough to force a summon dismissal. Jiraiya turned the corner to see a large hile in the wall of the hotel, no doubt caused by that exploding jutsu.

Jiraiya approached the wall to check the damage and look for clues as to how they had managed to dismiss his toad.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" Jiraiya knew then, it was just not his day.

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A/N: Chapter four up! Wooo! This story has received mixed reviews so far, a few supportive, most flames. Mostly I'm going on the assumptions that since people keep favoriting this and following it, they must want to keep reading it. Having some of this reflected in review would be nice. So go on, review! On another note, to address concerns, Sora is not replacing Canon Naruto. I was making parallels, not just switching names and places. Sora is exactly what he was in canon, a pseudo-jinchuriki. Sasori and Zetsu were fooled by the closest thing to the real deal you can get. Naruto isn't about to correct them. When I said Sage Mode would be getting some weaknesses, I didn't mean that Naruto was weak, I just meant that he'll need to dodge when a high level piercing or cutting jutsu comes at him. Any review is appreciated, and some positive reinforcement goes a long way. See ya!