Disclaimer: I do not own or profit from the Naruto franchise
Rain village
morning after Pein and Tobi's argument
Naruto was currently lying in his bed, wearing only his mesh body suit, and with a great deal of blankets thrown over top him, the reason he was in this situation was sitting in a chair near the bed next to the end table also in the room with him and she was currently reading a book. After Konan had arrived and presented Tobi with the option of fighting both of the S-class rain village ninja or neither, he chose neither and vacated their village. After Tobi left Konan had found the real Naruto and he debriefed her on everything that had happened why she was away. During his debriefing she noticed he was coughing very often and upon closer inspection she found he had a slight fever as well as a bad cough, once discovering this she ordered him to bed, fearing that he may get worse if he stayed up and went out and stood in the rain more, as this seemed to be one of his favorite pass times. With any luck he would be better at the end of the day if he stayed in bed and rested. Certainly within a day or two his illness would pass with him being a young and very physically fit shinobi. But it was times like this she wished she knew medical jutsu, she could always bring up a medic ninja from within the ranks of the rain village to purge the illness and have him back on his feet in no time, but she didn't trust anyone to treat Naruto other than herself. So here she would stay like every other time he had ever been sick since she had found him all those years ago, sitting in a chair within his bedroom, near the doorway watching over him to make sure he didn't get any worse and to ensure that he received anything he may need, like food, water, extra blankets, and the like. It was strange to see the S-class ninja and leader of the Akatsuki, one who had never lost a battle being sidelined by something as trivial as a cold.
Suddenly Naruto sat up upon sensing another presence nearby. Once he sat up Konan was immediately on her feet and blocking off the doorway willing a wall made of paper into existence while she swiftly moved over to where Naruto was lying on the bed. Naruto upon seeing Konan move to stand over him looked at Konan and explained what was going on.
"Zetsu just interrupted my rain, he will be here shortly." He stated to Konan, feeling an additional presences within the rain that he normally didn't, but quickly recognized the chakra signature as Zetsu. He then removed the ring bearing the kanji for 'zero' from his right thumb and handed it to Konan.
"I'll activate the god realm, and go meet him if you'd like." Naruto offered already slightly slipping into his alter ego Pein.
"Very well, I'll meet you in the lobby to give your ring to the god realm, and then we shall talk to Zetsu." Konan stated as she took the ring from the bed bound red head dojutsu user and left the room.
Once Konan left Naruto, who felt Zetsu breaking the rain right at the base of the tower, quickly reached out his chakra and projected it to the god realm. Once he awoke the god realm he made it get out of the bed it was occupying and make its way toward the door. He quickly arrived in the lobby and upon seeing Konan standing there waiting for him went and stood next to her, once she handed him his ring he put it swiftly and smoothly onto his right thumb and turned to face the doorway where Zetsu would be arriving through shortly. Never one to disappoint Zetsu did indeed open the door and come through.
"Greetings Leader, Konan." The plant like man began as he entered the room and stood across from the two rain village shinobi.
"What is it Zetsu?" Pein questioned the Akatsuki spy.
"We found the six tails. Yes the six tails is in Tsuchigumo village with a young girl that contains a dangerous kinjutsu." The strangely formed Akatsuki member informed the two rain ninja.
"Interesting, what is the six tails jinchurik's name?" Pein questioned Zetsu.
"Utakata he is a missing ninja from the mist. He uses a strange bubble ninjutsu it seems utterly ridiculous. I didn't think it was that bad, it seemed effective when he fought those hunter ninja." The plant man argued with himself.
"Very good Zetsu, now I must inform you that Itachi went rogue, your new assignment is to assist Kakuzu and Hidan in hunting Itachi down and killing him. Do not kill Sasuke Uchiha and do not eat Itachi, we will be collecting his bounty" Pein droned out to the wood user who looked mildly shocked at Itachi's betrayal but nodded none the less and set out on his new goal.
Once Zetsu left and Pein was positive he was alone turned to Konan with questions. "When should we move to retrieve the six tails?" he asked her and Konan could have sworn under the droning monotone she heard a bit of eagerness only she could detect from years of living with and constantly being around him.
Checking to ensure nobody was around she turned on her heels and headed for the stairs intending to return to the top of the tower, the god realm followed her to receive his answer, and once she was positive they were alone she responded. "As soon as you recover you will retrieve it, I can stay and look after the village while you're gone."
"Very well." The god realm stated before removing his ring and giving it to Konan then turning on its heels and returning to the storage room. Once Konan received the ring from the body of her dead friend she continued up the stairs to where her sick friend was currently resting, she only stopping briefly at the kitchen area to fix some soup and to retrieve a cup of water before she continued on her way upstairs. Once she made it to Naruto's room, she opened the door to find the young man sitting up within the bed he occupied, the blankets she had laid upon him had fallen from his upper body exposing his bright red arms and mesh covered torso, the skin that was visible between the links of the mesh was flushed red no doubt from the slight fever he had and from the heat of being swaddled in blankets no doubt, and he was looking at her with the strangely beautiful purple eyes that sage of six paths was supposedly told to have possessed. They held each other's gaze for a moment, he has such a powerful gaze even when sick, no doubt a side effect from possessing the greatest visual jutsu to ever exist. She quickly shifted her line of sight as she moved into the room and set the tray she had been carry the soup and water on and placed it upon the end table located next to the bed Naruto was currently sitting on.
"You shouldn't be sitting up, you need to stay under the comforter or you'll make it worse." She stated in a softer than normal voice she reserved for coaxing Naruto to do things that he didn't want to really do, as it was obvious he didn't wish to remain in the bed any longer.
At first she thought he would defy her, in fact she was almost hoping for him to say 'no thanks I'd rather go do….' To at least show he had a though in his mind that didn't involve pleasing her. But after a brief second he lay back down satisfying her and paining her at once, and pulled the blankets back over himself, obscuring his body up to his neck from view with the grey blankets she had used to cover him.
Once he returned to his resting position Konan tore her eyes from the rinnegan user and focused on her alchemy, mixing some herbs into the soup that would speed up his recovery from the cold he had, and as a side effect it would make him slightly drowsy if the previous history of her using this combination of herbs was anything to go off of.
Once she had completed mixing the herbs into the soup she moved to sit on the bed with Naruto, who once he noticed her intentions moved over within the bed to accommodate her. Holding the bowl of soup in one hand and the spoon in the other she began to feed it to the sick shinobi at a slow steady pace, occasionally breaking rhythm to hand him a cup of water to drink from to replace the fluids that he had no doubt lost from sweating underneath the thick blankets she had placed on his earlier in the day. It was strange, she had not nursed the rinnegan user like this in years yet when she started doing it again it felt as normal as when she had done it when he was a young boy. Moments later his arm came to rest across her lap as he closed his eyes, no doubt from the herbal medicine within the soup taking effect. She continued to feed him for a few more minutes until she ran out of the soup she had brought up, she attempted to get Naruto to finish drinking his water, but by that time he had fallen asleep as the arm he had draped across her lap had grown heavier as a result of him drifting asleep.
Konan thought about going to do something productive, but instead she found herself just gazing down at her sleeping friend, it was baffling that such a powerful ninja, which she raised to be paranoid beyond all reason was completely content to go to sleep, even with the aid of some sleep inducing medicine, with someone in such a close proximity to him, but then again as a child he often came to her in the middle of the night when he was frightened by something. Even though it had been a long time since she had seen him sleep, apparently his innate comfort of having her in close proximity had never waned. Naruto then subconsciously shifted in his sleep slightly, tightening the arm he had draped across Konan's lap, and in that process he pulled Konan closer to him. Tenderly Konan reached forward gently ran her fingers through his blood red hair, it always amazed her how his hair could stay spiked even in the harsh weather of the village and while he was lying in bed. It was moments like these that ensured to her that she had made the right decision in bringing him here when she first found the young boy all those years ago. After lingering at her sickened companion's side for a few more moments, Konan freed herself from the arm draped across her midsection and made her way out of the room, stopping briefly to retrieve the tray of soiled dishes to take to have cleaned later.
Meanwhile Naruto instantly awoke once he felt Konan moving away from him, one of the down sides of being a sensor type he supposed, in that brief time of her sitting next to him and taking care of him, he grew accustomed to the feel of her chakra in close proximity, and once she left it disturbed him. It was even worse when he was a kid and didn't understand what he was feeling or why, and he often misinterpreted what was happening. He did later learn that when sensor types are around a certain person for long periods of time, they grow accustomed to that person's chakra and start to link feelings they commonly feel toward that person to their chakra, for Naruto the feelings he associated with Konan's chakra were warm and safe feelings. Shrugging off the slight change the environment had undergone while he was asleep. Naruto slowly sunk back into the covers, closed his eyes, and eventually went back to sleep.
The next day
early morning
Naruto had just woken up, feeling much cooler, and significantly less congested than he did the day before, so he supposed Konan's herbal concoction worked like a charm, as it always had. Stretching his muscles that were slightly stiff from being in bed for a full day once he felt them loosen he then climbed out of bed, clad in only a full body mesh suit, he then moved over to the closet in the room. Opening it revealed a very limited array of clothing options, on the floor board there were several shinobi sandals lined up in a row, then a small shelf, with half the shelf covered in neatly folder grey pants with attached leg warmers, which was standard made in the rain village, and the other half of the shelf was covered in neatly folded navy blue shirts. Overtop the short shelve were many Akatsuki cloaks, a full closet of them in fact he probably had close to fifteen cloaks in his closet. Considering he only had many copies of the same outfit it didn't take Naruto long to decide on what to wear, he quickly pulled on the pants and shirt, followed by the sandals, tied his headband around his forehead, and lastly before he left the room pulled on one of the black cloaks with red clouds, signature of the organization that he had grown to love, that was sitting in his closet. Walking down the hall as he was fastening his cloak, he finished just as he made it to the overlook.
Bird-Rat-Ox-Monkey-Rat-Snake
Water style: Rain tiger at will
With that the rapid downpour of rain that the village Hidden in the Rain was known for started to fall again. Closing his eyes briefly Naruto processed every single different chakra signature he felt within the encompassed area of the rain, he located no intruders. Naruto then moved to the stairs and started to go down the floors until he reached the room that he stored his paths in. once he opened the section of wall he had hidden his paths within, once the doorway was revealed Naruto entered the room and began checking over the six paths of Pein to ensure that they were in perfect condition. He would be hunting a jinchuriki soon and he needed to ensure his ultimate technique was fully functioning, so closing his eyes to focus his chakra and quickly reopening them and channeling chakra through the receivers within the bodies of the realms. All six realms then stood up at attention and began moving around. Satisfied that they all worked correctly Naruto then returned the other realms to the beds they had previously occupied and laid them back down.
"Pein" came a soft stoic voice from the entrance way.
Turning around Pein found the blue haired Akatsuki member, and true leader of the organization as far as he was concerned standing there. "What is it Konan?" he questioned his leader as he came to stand directly in front of her.
"Are you prepared to go after the six tails?" she inquired as she turned and motioned for him to walk with her.
Once they both had left the room Naruto turned and resealed the entrance to the storage room before he responded. "Yes I am prepared. When shall I leave?" he questioned his partner as they continued to walk down the hallway.
"As soon as possible." She told him, than she turned and looked him fully in his legendary purple eyes before she spoke again. "How are you feeling?"
"Significantly better than I did yesterday, thank you for attending to me." He told Konan with a slight smile only she had ever seen since he arrived here.
Nodding her head slightly Konan decided she was happy with his recovery and allowed him to go after the six tails shortly after midday and after making sure he was no longer showing symptoms of the illness. She was slightly worried about sending him off by himself, it would be the first time he was ever outside of the rain village by himself, but she supposed that he needed to have that experience, she couldn't hold his hand forever, in fact when she looked back over his life she supposed she had smothered him a little too often. This would be a good growing experience for him.
Naruto was soon a black and red blur moving toward Tsuchigumo village, he chose to travel by himself because a single man traveling was far quicker and drew much less attention, also he could always summon his realms to him when he needed. He made good progress and soon a small rice farming village came into view, he would seek shelter there tonight and finish his journey tomorrow. It wouldn't be long before the Akatsuki had the six tails sealed.
Naruto stopped briefly to don his sedge hat before walking into the village. Once he entered the village he could tell that it was nothing more than a small outpost town, there was a local bar, probably where he would also have to get lodging, a few stores selling general items such as food, and a meek clothing store was also present, but that was about it. There was probably close to a hundred inhabitants of this town, if that, but a general observation Naruto made as he was walking a through the town was that everyone seemed to be at least content, and a great deal of them seemed to be happy. It was a nice thing to see and it was what Konan, he and the Akatsuki were working toward. Thinking of Konan made him feel alone again, he hated the feeling, it frightened him, he knew it was silly but he had never gone anywhere without her there to guide him. In battle he was comfortable, he had fought many times without her with him, but when it came to traveling, he had never left the rain village without her, he knew in theory what he should do, but when it came to put it to practice he was nervous. At first he walked around for a few hours to get a feel of the village, and to procrastinate. Nervous as he was to be out of the village by himself, he was glad that his first time out on his own was in a low stakes area such as this one. So approaching the bar or restaurant, because it really could be called either, he went in so he could inquire about a place to sleep.
Naruto walked right into the establishment and immediately he noticed that he stuck out like a sore thumb with his Akatsuki cloak and sedge hat, as everyone else seemed to be at least four inches shorter than he was and were wearing dirty field clothing, and where exposing a lot of skin, while all of his clothing was in pristine condition, and the only exposed flesh was when he lifted his hands and the billowing sleeves of his cloak rolled back on his wrists to expose his hands. When he reached the counter he was certain that every set of eyes in the small establishment, fourteen sets in all, were watching him with blatant curiosity.
"C…can.. I help you?" asked the man behind the counter who appeared to be in his late fifties if Naruto had to guess.
In response to the older man's question Naruto swiftly withdrew a bundle of ryo from the inner pockets of his cloak and laid it on the table. "Do you provide lodging?"
Now to a small rice farming community, the amount of ryo that Naruto withdrew from his cloak was probably more than the whole village made in a year, so when Naruto put it down onto the counter of the restaurant owner, as Naruto had confirmed it as a restaurant despite the strong smell of alcohol permeating from it, the amount of currency he was presented with flabbergasted him.
"Ummm uhhhh." Was the intelligent reply of the owner as he tried to overcome his shock at seeing so much money in one place?
"Do you have a place I can spend the night at or should I look elsewhere?" Naruto questioned again he voice somehow becoming even more monotonous as he was willing himself not to grow agitated with the elder restaurant owner.
"I have a storage shed out back, it has a cot in it, and you can stay there if you like." The older man told the Akatsuki pseudo leader as he fished out a key from somewhere under the counter and placing it on the wooden surface of the counter.
Naruto simply picked up the key and walked off, leaving the bundle of ryo atop the counter for the owner. Naruto got to the storage shed and immediately decided to put up a five seal barrier around the flimsy shed to ensure his privacy and to avoid any unwanted sneak attacks in the middle of the night. He settled himself in and got out the trail rations that he had brought along with him to eat and began to sedate his hunger. Afterwards he withdrew a map from within his cloak and began to take a look at it. If his calculations where correct it would take about six hours of traveling before he would reach Tsuchigumo village, than he would begin scouting for the six tails. So lying back on the cot that he had bought for the night at a price of about a thousand ryo, He had yet to remove any articles of clothing from his person, instead opting to sleep completely covered in his cloak and sedge hat, so leaning back and closing his eyes he quickly relaxed and drifted asleep.
Middle of the night
Naruto was suddenly thrown into consciousness when he sensed a massive spike of demonic chakra. Now a normal ninja, or even a normal sensor wouldn't have sensed the chakra spike, but Naruto being a sensor, and an S class ninja at that was able to sense the spike of tailed beast chakra, quickly realizing that a tailed beast had to be nearby he set out to capture it. So quickly getting out of bed and stuffing the few meager belongings he had brought with him on his trip into the pockets within his cloak he removed the seal, trap combination from the door of the shed and quickly took off toward the chakra signature.
Rain village
Konan was currently thinking over the roster of Akatsuki members in an attempt to make a power play, if Kakuzu and Hidan where successful, there would only be one sharingan wielder left alive, three if you counted Kakashi and Danzo, she was trying to figure out how the Akatsuki would split if they went ahead and attacked Tobi now, especially now considering they had proof he wasn't Madara Uchiha. She already knew that Kisame and Zetsu would side with Tobi; she doubted that there was a way to convince them to change their minds either. She knew that Sasori would side with Naruto and herself, along with Hiruko once they gave him the sharingan. Beyond that everyone else was a wild card, but they needed to find a way to kill off Kisame and Zetsu before the schism in the Akatsuki took place, two less S-class ninja in the mix for herself and Pein to deal with would be ideal, perhaps they should send Kisame after the eight tails, he was the most powerful jinchuriki left to be captured if any of them had a chance at killing him it would be the that one.
With Naruto
Naruto had arrived on the scene just in time to witness what appeared to be a massive explosion, and to counter the massive explosion the six tails had fully transformed into the tailed beast state to absorb it. It was quite a sight; there were several leaf village shinobi along with the six tails there that got into the scuffle with some men and the six tails transformed. Pein quickly deduced that more observation before action would be needed.
Boar-Dog-Bird-Monkey-Ram
Summoning Jutsu
With that Naruto quickly summoned a huge chameleon and entered it, once he entered his freshly summoned creature it turned transparent and suppressed both their chakras, making it ideal for infiltration, using it he quickly moved closer to the six tails to discover what was going on.
Once Pein had gotten close enough he noticed that the leaf ninja seemed to be saying farewell to the six tails, that was good it would soon be time to strike, and very soon they both went their separate ways, but there was a problem with his plan to strike the six tails when it was alone, there was a blond girl maybe a few years younger than him and very attractive to his mind, it was unfortunate that he would have to kill her, another problem he was facing was the hunter ninja that where tailing the six tails, they would have to be eliminated as well.
Boar-Dog-Bird-Monkey-Ram
Summoning Jutsu
Slamming his hands together Pein conjured a powerful dog creature to deal with the hunter ninja that would stand in his way. The dog quickly and savagely moved on the hunter ninja. While his summoned monster did this Pein himself moved onward, know full well that the monster dog would take care of the hunter ninja without his supervision.
He quickly caught up to the unsuspecting jinchuriki and his female companion. His target stopped to talk to the female for a brief second before slowly walking through the forest back toward where Pein had ambushed the hunter ninja. All he would find there now would be bodies, his giant monster dog had dealt with his opposition, so quickly he brought his hands together and flew through more hand seals.
Boar-Dog-Bird-Monkey-Ram
Summoning Jutsu
Only this time instead of some monstrous animal appearing, six other bodies appeared the six paths of Pein. It was time to do battle with the jinchuriki, in reality he knew it was a small chance he would actually need all six bodies to defeat this jinchuriki, there were few things in this world stronger than Orochimaru, but he wanted to end the fight as quickly as possible, and not draw attention to himself. So as the six paths took off and landed gracefully near the six tails as it was just discovering the bloody hunter ninja masks he spoke.
"What happened here." He then turned slightly and noticed the Akatsuki cloaked clad forms to his immediate left. "Are you the one who killed Tsurugi and his men?" he questioned the Akatsuki leader. Pein briefly considered answering the unnecessary question as it was quite obvious that it was he that killed the hunters; instead he opted to speak to the six tail's host.
"Six tails host, the Akatsuki are going to create a new world, an ideal world, for that I need you, or rather the tailed beast sealed within you. Therefore you will be coming with me, be proud you are part of the something great." Pein stated and once the words left his mouth the six tails host turned and fled as quickly as possible.
"Your mine six tails" Pein stated as the Demon realm raised its arm and produced missiles from its wrist.
Flaming arrow missiles
The demon realm's projectile jutsu struck true and brought down the fleeing demon host and causing a massive crater in the area he was fleeing toward. Reaching down with the hungry ghost realm he sucked the remaining chakra out of the six tails, rendering it unconscious. Skewering the six tails host with a chakra rod and infecting the jinchuriki's chakra with his own to avoid the tailed beast within it leaking out chakra to oppose him he unceremoniously scooped up the thin frame of the six tails and began the trek back to his home, and his angel.
Rain village
Four days later
A thud resounded through the caverns the Akatsuki where gathered into as the body of the six tailed jinchuriki hit the ground, the gathered Akatsuki where currently holding back to see if they would receive any orders from their leader.
"Kakuzu, Hidan continue your hunt for Itachi, Zetsu will be meeting up with the two of you and you three shall take the Uchiha on together." Pein stated to bounty hunter as the rest of the Akatsuki looked on questioningly the leader spoke again. "Kisame you will be take the eight tails, he is the raikage's younger brother so be careful. Deidera and Tobi how goes your hunt for the seven tails?"
"ohhh Deidera and me are really close I know we can get it soon, cant we Deidera, Deidera?" Tobi questioned informed his leader and questioned his partner all in one breath as Deidera cut the connection with Pein effectively making his projection disappear, no doubt form having heard too much of Tobi's yammering.
"Very well we will reconvene here once another jinchuriki has been captured, or Itachi has been found. Till then you all are dismissed." Pein announced as he cut the connection with the other Akatsuki members.
Rain village
elsewhere
As the Akatsuki where meeting a small frog broke through the guard patrols and swam to the surface, out of the frog emerged a gray haired older man with a powerful aura about him. Jiraiya the toad sage had infiltrated the Hidden rain village.
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A/N: I know Tobi is revealed to be Obitio in cannon, well that is cannon don't sent me a bunch of PM's or make a bunch of reviews asking about how I am going to handle Tobi, just read the story. Also you all probably noticed it has been some time since I posted a chapter, there is a reason for that many people have been sending me anonymous reviews telling me how I should write my story, and I have even gotten a few insulting my religion, needless to say those reviews made me livid, so I have now disabled anonymous reviewing, if I continue getting these lines of reviews I will be taking the story down. I don't mind critical reviews but hateful reviews are another thing it needs to stop.
Read and Enjoy
God Bless.
