By the way, I didn't know exactly what the Hidden Waterfall Village looked like, and I only had one picture to work from, so I hope my description isn't too far off.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I have made up some characters for this story
'Thinking'
"Talking"
"Demon Talking"
LOUD SOUND
Two inconspicuous people walked up to a large waterfall. It was huge, and the hundreds of tons of water that rushed towards the ground created a continuous roar of fury. The two men were dressed in all neutral colors for the sole purpose of not attracting too much attention. Using a simple jutsu, they passed through the thundering water without getting even a drop on them. Looking around, they found themselves in a very dark and very large cavern. The water roared behind them as the two supposed travelers observed their surroundings. Immediately spotting a large gate, they made their way towards it. A figure instantly appeared to meet them.
"Who are you and what is your business in the Hidden Waterfall Village?" questioned the guard.
"We are simply tired travelers who wish to stay for a night in your village. It is supposed to be quite beautiful," one of the men said. He had brown hair and unusual green eyes. Those eyes flicked around as they took in everything around him.
The other stranger pulled out some documents and handed them to the guard. He looked over the papers which identified the two men before him as Masaru and Katsu, peaceful civilians who were simply fond of traveling.
The Waterfall shinobi looked at the second man for a few moments before looking back at the documents. This man had red, almost flame-like hair and dull black eyes. His face displayed no emotion, just like his partner's. Feeling slightly unnerved at the man's unusual appearance, the shinobi nodded his approval and handed back the documents.
"Welcome to our village, Masaru-san and Katsu-san," he acknowledged. The two men nodded at him.
The village guard then made a signal and a couple seconds later the large gate was pulled open, allowing them entrance to the village. The brunette and redhead exchanged a look that went unnoticed by the Waterfall shinobi and then continued forward.
It was now fairly common knowledge that the Village Hidden in the Waterfall had begun to relax it's security and now let it's allied nations know of it's location. Before, outsiders had been strictly forbidden, but now they were welcomed along with the business that they brought. So naturally, Konoha had their location, though they didn't keep it as much of a secret as they should have, and not all of their shinobi were quite as loyal as they thought….
Masaru and Katsu stepped into the village, taking a look around. They were met with the sight of a peaceful looking village situated around an enormous tree. The tree was roughly the size of a large mountain, it's trunk thicker than any other tree in existence. A lake was on the other side of the tree, and the surface of it glistened in the sunlight. The air was amazingly calm and serene.
The two new arrivals shared a secret smile. On the outside, they seemed to be pleased with the view of the Waterfall village. On the inside, however, they were smirking triumphantly.
A simple henge and some forged papers had been enough to fool everyone.
A blonde kunoichi walked quickly towards Konoha's gates. As the Hokage, she had the responsibility of assigning teams to missions and making sure that the missions were successfully completed. Normally, the Godaime would just hand out the missions and that would be the end of it. However, today's mission was a bit more…special.
Six ninja were gathered at the gates. They had been told to wait for her final instructions on their mission. They all turned at the same time once they sensed her arrival.
A few greeted her with "Hello Tsunade-sama," and the others just nodded respectfully. Before the Godaime stood Sakura, Neji, Kiba, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Kakashi. The silver-haired jounin watched her approach with his one visible eye.
Tsunade knew that he wanted to retire soon, but she wouldn't allow it; this mission needed his supervision. He was a strong ninja with exceptional skills and experience, and the Godaime would not let that go to waste. Kakashi had, however, been inevitably changed after the banishment of his student five years ago and his loyalty to Konoha had been severely tested.
Tsunade nodded back, smiling slightly as she looked over the rest of the group. Kiba was standing with Akamaru at his side as usual, still turned slightly towards Shikamaru, who he had been talking to before. The Nara had pretty impressive skills for someone of his age, and had even made ANBU about four years ago. That genius had yet to apply himself to his work though, due to his apparently hereditary laziness.
Her eyes shifted to Neji and Hinata. They had gotten along much better in the past few years than in their genin days. Neji used to despise Hinata because she was from the main house of their clan, the Hyuugas, and therefore deemed more important than him. However, once they really got to know each other, they had become close friends who looked out for each other. That particular hatred (on Neji's part) and nervousness (on Hinata's part) had taken a while to dissolve. Now, the two acted more like family and Hinata had almost completely gotten rid of her stutter, something Tsunade was infinitely proud of.
Sakura was standing off to the side a bit, appearing to be deep in thought. Lines of concern were etched into her face as she puzzled something out. As much as the Hokage would have liked to see the pink-haired kunoichi back to her old talkative self, she knew this was something Sakura had to do. And besides, she was an exceptional ninja with a sharp mind, so she would figure out whatever was bothering her before long.
"As you all know, your assignment is to work together to retrieve Naruto Uzumaki, jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. We have not had any contact with him in over five years, so approach with caution. Use force if necessary, but not with the intent to kill. Bringing him safely back to the village so that he can be protected from Akatsuki is your top and only priority."
The six ninja nodded, already aware of the terms of the mission. Tsunade looked them over and then continued.
"We have recently received info that a blonde-haired man greatly resembling Naruto has been spotted in Wind Country. There is a chance that it is him, so that is where I would like you to start your search. Therefore, I would recommend heading to the Hidden Sand Village."
Kakashi tensed at that. Ever since Naruto's wrongful banishment, Suna and Konoha had been at the brink of breaking their treaty. The Kazekage had been furious and would have declared war on the Hidden Leaf Village if Tsunade had not intervened. Konoha had never seen him so livid. Gaara now knew that it had all been a huge betrayal within the village, one that has not gone unpunished.
Internally, Tsunade grinned evilly as she remembered Hiashi Hyuuga's execution. As the first part of his punishment, Hiashi had been given a nasty sickness that caused his face to swell up immensely and for ugly red blisters to appear all over his body. After experiencing the pain of the villagers' rejection due to his appearance, Hiashi had been subjected to Tsunade's scalpel. Once his body had been sliced open and experimented on for two full days, which had caused him excruciating pain due to him being conscious the entire time, Jiraiya had the honor of injecting the man with a slow moving toxin. This particular poison had been Orochimaru's invention originally, one that he used whenever an enemy was no longer useful and he wanted to get rid of them while enjoying the sound of their shrieks of agony.
Even with that information, though, Gaara remained suspicious of the Hidden Leaf and rarely contacted them. There were very few meeting between him and the Hokage, and the meetings they did have were forced and painfully formal.
Hinata spoke up, voicing everyone's thoughts. "B-but Tsunade-sama, what about the Kazekage? Will he allow us into his village?"
Tsunade sighed. She really was pushing her luck a bit here, something she never seemed to have very much of in the first place. "Since we are technically still allied villages, he has to let you in; otherwise his village would look incredibly bad. I'm sure that once he hears about the purpose of your mission he will become much more agreeable." She had a strange glint in her eye after saying the last sentence. Politics were a horrible game, easily manipulated, but could also come in handy in times like this.
"Now that you have all of the information, are you ready to leave?"
"Yes!" they answered in unison.
"Perfect," Tsunade said with a proud but weary smile. She prayed that this mission would go well. 'Please Naruto….'
The Hokage stood at the gates, watching the six shinobi (and one nin-dog) leave the village. She had wanted to personally see these ninja off to show just how important this mission was to her. With one last look at the fading forms of the jounins, Tsunade sighed and turned around to go back to her office. She quickly wiped away the tears that had started to form in her amber eyes.
After much thought, Naruto had decided to go to Wind Country. The Village Hidden in the Sand was as good of a place as any to get noticed in, and besides, he had connections there. It did help that the current Kazekage had been like a brother to him before he left Konoha. Konoha… well he preferred not to think of that traitorous village. Regardless, Naruto and Gaara had both shared the burden of being a jinchuriki and knew each other's pain. And even though Shukaku no longer resided in Gaara, their friendship never did fade. If anything, it had strengthened.
But what was he doing, reminiscing in the past? The future was what he had to look forward to.
Two days ago, Naruto had purposely made quite a scene when he saved a young woman from a group of bandits. After the ten seconds it took for him to defeat them, the woman had thanked him greatly. As a sign of her appreciation, she had brought Naruto back to the camp where her family and fifteen other people were staying and insisted he stay for dinner. When he finally left, the couple of children in the group had stars in their eyes at meeting someone so powerful, and the adults had clear looks of admiration on their faces.
Needless to say, word of the blonde shinobi had spread quickly throughout Wind Country. It never did take long for news to be passed on. Naruto estimated that it would take roughly a day before Konoha got wind of him. How perfect- now they'd know exactly where to find him without knowing it was his intention. His ingenious plan was beginning to work.
Back in the present day, Masaru and Katsu were quietly walking around the Waterfall Village. No one had so much as one suspicious thought about them, but what else could you expect from high-level shinobi such as themselves? Their disguises had to be perfect.
Continuing down one of the village's main street, Katsu pulled out a small piece of paper. On it was the drawing of an unusual young woman. She had pale green hair and strange red eyes. Masaru took a quick glance at the picture of their target before scanning the streets with his forest green eyes. After inconspicuously searching the entire street and coming up with nothing, they moved on.
Three hours later darkness began to descend upon the village and the two henged men were still searching.
'It's a good thing that this village doesn't have any decent shinobi or we might have been discovered by now,' thought Katsu. Beside him, his partner was thinking along the same lines.
Unknown to them, a team of three Konoha shinobi were rapidly approaching the Hidden Waterfall Village. The village's leader had sent a mission to the Godaime Hokage asking her for help protecting the village's jinchuriki, Fu. He was worried that their village might be a target for attack since they housed her. Tsunade had accepted and sent three shinobi to aid her. Ino, Choji, and Shino were the ones assigned to the mission. It was only a matter of time before they arrived at the village.
Half an hour later, Masaru and Katsu had laid eyes on a particular girl. She was sleeping peacefully in the grass, mostly hidden by the bushes surrounding her. Masaru smirked. They had finally found her.
Ino, Choji, and Shino had just arrived at the Village Hidden in the Waterfall. They passed through the enormous falls with ease and identified themselves to the village guard. He nodded and summoned two other guards to lead them to Fu while he remained at his post. The five of them set off at a moderate pace to find the jinchuriki and set up protection for her.
Not wasting any time, the man supposedly named Katsu grabbed Fu. Her eyes immediately flashed open revealing insect-like red irises with no pupils. She furiously struggled against Katsu's grasp, but it was no use. Horrified at his almost inhuman strength, Fu opened her mouth to scream, only to catch a glimpse of terrifying red eyes. She just stared into them, unable to look away.
Masaru had released his henge and now stood in front of her, his eyes boring into hers with a cold glare. His raven-colored hair made him look like part of the night itself. His pale skin looked delicate but it was obvious that he was a strong shinobi by the air of power that floated around him. But it was his terrifying Mangekyo Sharingan eyes that rendered her unable to move.
Before her stood Itachi Uchiha, a traitor to Konoha and known member of Akatsuki. Fu shuddered and tried to look away, but she just couldn't. A moment later she heard him whisper something but couldn't quite make it out. And then she blacked out.
Satisfied now that she lay motionless in his grasp, Katsu slung her over his shoulder and looked back at his partner.
"I guess there's no need for henge anymore."
'Katsu' grinned. "I guess you're right."
Itachi smirked as Katsu released his own henge. Navy hair replaced red, and strangely shark-like eyes were in place of his previous black. His skin melted into a pale blue, and gill-like markings appeared on his face. Hard muscles became visible and a large sword adorned his back.
Kisame cracked his knuckles, "Finally."
Itachi turned to Fu and quickly cast a genjutsu over her so that she appeared to be a large sack on Kisame's shoulder. "Let's go."
The Konoha nins were running beside the Waterfall shinobi, matching them step for step. It was a few moments later when they abruptly stopped.
"What is it?" Ino asked. Her bleach blonde hair had grown much longer and now flowed down her back to her waste. She still had those same side bangs that went in front of one of her eyes.
One of their escorts looked around, scanning the area for any chakra signatures.
"She should be right around here," he said. He nodded to his partner and they began to search for her. The Konoha nins quickly joined them in looking for Fu. Why was it always so hard to keep track of a jinchuriki?
Itachi and Kisame flashed in and out of view as they ran at incredible speeds. The unconscious Fu was still being carried by Kisame, and she was still disguised as a large sack. The two vanished and reappeared at the edge of a clearing, hoping to get away from the more populated parts of a village. They could not risk being seen.
"Where could she be?" asked Choji, who was starting to get an uneasy feeling.
"I-I don't know…" stuttered one of the Waterfall shinobi. 'So much for an easy mission….'
The green-haired jinchuriki was nowhere to be found. Shino set out a swarm of his bugs to search for any unique chakra signatures. Her status as the container of a tailed beast would definitely give her unusual chakra.
Ino cast a look around the group, and wondered where this girl could possibly be. 'There wasn't any attack on the village, so where is she? Ugh this is not going to be fun if we have to be out all night looking for her.'
Just then there was a rustling in the leaves of the trees on the other side of the clearing, which they all heard. The five ninjas stiffened and their heads whipped around to the source of the sound.
Two figures had just arrived at the edge of the clearing. Their black cloaks with red clouds were easy to recognize. Raven hair... blue skin... before them were Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki. Suddenly, the two froze. Ino gasped as she locked eyes with glaring red orbs with black markings in them. Choji's eyes widened at the sight of the two Akatsuki members. The whole world seemed to freeze as the ninjas just stared at each other. The two Waterfall shinobi trembled in fear.
Itachi and Kisame were so close to reaching the edge of the village when they heard a gasp. Both missing-nins stopped in their tracks.
Itachi looked up to see five pairs of eyes staring at him and Kisame with various stages of shock.
'Oh…shit,' was the mutual thought.
Kisame reached for his massive sword but Itachi stopped him.
"Remember what Leader-sama said," he cautioned.
Kisame made an annoyed sound, remembering that he was given orders not to fight. His mood just got a lot worse. Itachi was also unhappy since he personally hated Konoha for what they did to Naruto. They had crushed the dream of a young boy for something he had no control over. It was also kind of Sasuke's fault...'stupid little brother...'
His inner musings were interrupted when the shinobi from Konoha got into fighting stances. 'These Akatsuki guys will definitely be hard to take down.' Ino examined them, trying to figure out the best way to attack. 'Wow that Uchiha sure is hot...wait WHAT AM I THINKING hes the enemy!' she shook her head to clear out all distracting thoughts. This was going to take a lot of focus.
Shino sent out more bugs, hundreds of them now pouring out of his sleeves. He would not go down without a fight. Choji spread his legs and began to make the appropriate handsigns for his family jutsu. Ino glanced at her teammates and was proud that they all seemed to be just as determined as her. She saw Shino's insects but had long gotten past thinking they were gross. Her blue eyes flashed.
The Konoha-nins charged. Kisame made an amused sound and a sigh came from Itachi's direction. The Waterfall nins had pretty much fainted already.
BOOM! Ino's fist crashed into the spot where Kisame had been standing only moments ago. Dismayed, she whirled around only to be met with a punch to the face. Ino was back on her feet in an instant, only to find that her target had once again vanished. Shino went for Itachi, followed closely by Choji. Shino let loose his bugs at the Uchiha traitor, only to find that they wouldn't go anywhere near him. A strange energy surrounded both of the Akatsuki members, something that he had never seen before. It had to be new- he had never read about it in any of the reports and something that could not have been overlooked. It appeared to be some kind of barrier that prevented them from being marked or tracked.
'This is bad,' Shino thought without much emotion.
Choji was about to utter the familiar words to make his body expand but was cut off by a fist slamming into his stomach. Red eyes glared into his own as he was sent flying backwards. His attacker hadn't even broken a sweat and was just standing there as if nothing had happened. But then, Itachi vanished again. Choji's eyes widened as he felt a presence behind him. Before he could react, however, he was sent flying in the opposite direction. He was clearly outmatched.
Itachi and Kisame then vanished at the same time only to reappear a short distance away, standing right next to each other. Ino took note of their ability to function exceptionally well as a team. Then she noticed the sack on the shark-man's shoulder.
"Release!" she cried, and the genjutsu was dispelled.
They all gasped (even Shino!). Fu, the jinchuriki they had come here to protect, had been captured by Akatsuki. The worst possible thing had happened. 'Oh no...'
Itachi gave them all the famous Uchiha glare, and then placed a hand on Kisame's other shoulder. The blue Akatsuki member grinned, winked at Ino in an exaggerated manner. Ino, Shino, and Choji were baffled, but then something unexpected happened. Black flames overtook the two missing-nins, originating from Itachi's palm. The flames flared outwards and lapped greedily at everything around them. One second it was a flaring black inferno, and the next it dissipated and then extinguished completely. When the flames cleared, the there was nothing there. The Akatsuki members had escaped. And they had another bijuu.
That's the end of Chapter 4. I hope you liked it!
