So here is the next chapter, it's kinda short, but had to be. I hope that you all like it, and comments are welcome, enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own, nor know anyone who owns Naruto.
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Chapter 3
The next day Naruto waited at the north gate to Konoha. He had been up most of the night trying to decide where they should start looking. There was very little information as to where, or even how many of them were in Akatsuki. After asking around, and getting a large amount of help from Tsunade they were able to come up with a plan.
Only one person had seen Itachi, and his comrade leave. And they left through the north gate. So they would head north. Itachi was rumored to be one of the most powerful in Akatsuki, so he would be their first target to locate. None of them were powerful enough to kill them, even together. So they were simply to find their hide outs and then come back and report.
Naruto had made sure to get to the gate before the rest of the team, he wanted to see who would be there first. A few minutes before nine he could see Hinata running towards the gate, she looked upset.
"Naruto I'm sorry I'm late, I hope that you aren't all waiting, for, me." Hinata slowly finished. As she looked around she noticed that she was the first there besides Naruto.
"Don't worry about it, you're actually early. And the first one here, I'm still waiting on Shikamaru, and Chouji." Naruto said calmy, followed by a small chuckle. "I'll explain the plan when they arrive."
After only a minute or two Shikamaru and Chouji arrived together, just as Naruto expected. It would be interesting working with someone smarter then him, stronger than him, and it was always nice having a bloodline in the team. Naruto liked creating instances to take advantage of them. It had just taken Sasuke quite a while to awaken his.
"Okay, as I explained before, we are going to be tracking Akatsuki. The only reason we have been given this mission, is becase of it's high level of secrecy, we are being trusted with that secret. We will be heading north from here, if Itachi kept his course that's the way he will be found. This is going to be a long mission, we will be away from Konoha for a long time. It's going to be tough, but I'm sure we can handle it. Let's move out." Naruto finished.
After a few glances at each other the team left the safety of the city and headed north. Although it seemed odd to them all that they would hopefully find Itachi in the Hidden Village of Sound. But they figured they would have to change course eventually.
Naruto's team was given specific directions to avoid any unnecessary combat. Tsunade almost even asked them to remove their forehead protectors, but decided not to on a feeling that it would only hinder their movements. Almost everyone was getting along with Konoha at the moment, so it could just raise suspicion.
Tsunade had set up meetings with the heads of all the other Kage's that could make it, and sent urgent messages to the rest. With special seals that could only be opened by a Kage. This contacts were meant to inform the other nations of their mission, so that they wouldn't be bothered.
However this also opened up room for sabotage, by anyone spying. Tsunade just hoped that wouldn't happen. It was a possibility that Akatsuki had infiltrated the councils of one of the villlages. But only time would tell. If that time came, she did have one special ninja following behind them to make sure that hadn't gotten into trouble along the way. Although he was following his own mission, it somewhat corresponded with Narutos'.
Naruto and his team had been heading straight north for almost two days. After they had taken their break for a meal around noon. They changed course slightly west, leaving them on a heading for the Hidden Village of Stone. None of them had ever heard too much about the area. But they still had no clues to where to find Akatsuki.
Darkness fell somewhat early that night due to a heavy amount of cloud cover. So they all decided to rest up at an Inn located in a small village. They were still two or three days run from the Hidden Village of Stone.
Naruto and Hinata were outide of the inn in the backyard. Naruto was helping Hinata develope her Taijitsu, she was small, and somewhat lacking in confidence, he was hoping the training would help her confidence, and balance out her size. Even with her Byakugen she still had trouble with Narutos' speed. He had been training with Neji for so long that he knew how to deal with her bloodline.
Hinata ran towards Naruto and jumped high into the air, blocking her image with the light of the moon. She threw three kunai towards him, and moved straight in. Hoping to connect with Naruto just after her kunai. However Naruto blocked the Kunai with one hand, and was able to knock her thrusting arm away. Hinata qcuikly lowered her body and went for a leg sweep. Naruto was slammed to the ground, and lay on his back. Hinata quickly moved towards him with open palms. She was trying to end the battle then.
Naruto rolled away at the last moment and sprang up behind her, leveling a kunai with her throat, Hinata had done well, but Naruto was just too fast.
"You did very well Hinata, you've gotten quicker, and are less detered by failed attacks." Naruto complimented. "Lets rest for a little while and then maybe we can go again."
"Thank you Naruto for all your help, I can feel myself getting stronger as the days go by." Hinata said softly. Naruto was amazed at how quickly she could return to her shy state of mind.
The both of them sat up against the fence and closed their eyes. They had been fighting for nearly two hours, so they were both fairly tired. Naruto opened his eyes when he heard voices talking behind them.
"I've heard rumors of attacks in the Hidden Village of Stone. Someone is looking for Jinchuuriki there." A voice spoke quietly behind them.
"I wonder who it could be. I hope that they don't come here, we could never hold them off. It would be a shame for the village to be destroyed for something that wasn't even here." Another replied.
"Hinata, lets head inside, we need to rest, we need to get to the Hidden Village of Stone quickly." Naruto whispered.
Naruto and Hinata headed inside and went to sleep. After a few hours of sleep Naruto woke up, and nudged the others in his team. It was time to leave. It only took a few minutes for them to gather their things and walk out into the moonlight. By the location of the moon Naruto figured it was no later then two in the morning. Over the last few days him and his team had grown a liking to traveling at night, with less people, and the cool air, they were able to travel faster and longer.
A day and a half later they arrived at their destination, and checked into another Inn. As soon as they had their bags put away they gathered for a quick briefing of what they were to do.
"I have a special surprise for the three of you. It has been arranged for us to be temporarily activated as ANBU. Although it is mostly for concealment purposes. We have been giving new uniforms. Please put them on, along with your masks, and we will leave." Naruto said, throwing each of them a package containing an ANBU uniform, and a mask. Each of their masks were different, and reflected who was inside.
Shikamarus' was straight black, with two white circles around his eyes. It made him look much more sinister than he really was. Chouji's had two criss crossing patterns across his, if you blocked out one of them at a time, you could see that the lines formed the outline of a stomach. Although odd sounding, you could hardly tell without looking for it. Hinata's was pure white, with pink circles around her eyes. And Natutos' was a sort of tribal pattern mimicking the basic outline of a fox in red lines.
Together they walked out into the village. Hinata had her Byakugen activated and searched the city for high amounts of chakra. As they paced around the village they noticed that there weren't a whole lot of people outside. Which amazed Naruto because of how awe bringing the design of the village was. Each and everybuilding had been carved out of the mountainscape around them. The stone was shinned to an amazing sheen. Not overpowering to the eyes, but enough to make your jaw drop. The whole village looked like one giant sheet of polished marble.
As they walked around the village they kept finding large levels of chakra, but none of them seemed to be Akatsuki. The four of them crept around the village all night, looking for any sign of them. It took them all night to stumble around the village and find something interesting. As they turned a corner and entered a new part of the village they were shocked to discover that the whole black had been burned to the ground. It looked as if there had been a major battle recently. If the bodies hadn't been removed already, it would have been a very eerie thing to see.
Hinata detected an extremely high level of chakra coming from a building at the end of the street. The only building on the block that had survived. She started trembling simple from the knowledge that so much chakra could be contained in one place.
"Naruto I think that we have located them, there in that last building, there is a very high level of chakra. It's emitting from two people. Both of them seem to be meditating together." Hinata informed Naruto.
"Then we definately must be careful around here. If they are still around we could easily fail our mission here and now. It is very important that it is not known what we are doing in our mission to anyone. Let's head back to the Inn, and send a message to Tsunade reporting this." Naruto said softly.
Trying not to look suspicious in case they were being watched they slowly turned around to leave the area. However a dark figure was standing in their way. As they started to walk towards him, he stepped out of the shadows and revealed himself. The man standing there was easily recognized as Uchiha Itachi.
All four of them froze at his sight. Instantly averting their eyes away from his upper body. Before this mission had started Naruto had warned all of them about an encounter with Itachi.
He had told them to never look at his eyes, and even then to be careful about where you look, it would be very easy for you to be caught in hsi technique, and if that happens your dead.
"You must look at his feet, and his shoulders to fight him, otherwise you will be dead within moments." Naruto had told them.
"What are you four doing here all the way from Konoha. I'm sure it wasn't to find me was it. Most people who find me end up dying. Is that your wish?" Itachi said calmly, and slowly. Almost making it seem like a warning.
Hinata glanced back towards where she had seen the chakra emitions. And noticed that there were still two people up there.
"Naruto I think this is some sort of clone. I can still see the two men meditating up in that room. But one of them has less chakra around him. He must have used some to make this clone to fight us." Hinata stated, trying to keep as quiet as possible, so only Naruto could hear her.
Naruto simply nodded his head in acknowledgement. "Itachi, we are simply passing through, we wish no battle with you. We are looking for a fugitive from Konoha who tried to assasinate Hokage-sama."
"That's too bad, too bad he failed anway. As for you four, I'm going to kill you. Anyone from Konoha is my enemy." Itachi replied, and with what seemed like no movement he dissapeared.
"Naruto he is coming at you!" Hinata warned.
Naruto dodged to the side just in time to see Itachis' fist coming towards his face. Itachi was underestimating them, and hopefully he could take advantage of that. Naruto continued to block and doge the assault of fists and feet that were flying towards him. At the same time Hinata and Shikamaru hid in a back alley and waited for their turn to attack, as Chouji did the same in an alleyway on the other side of the road. Naruto was fast, and he was powerful, if this was a clone then he wouldn't have too hard of a time.
Naruto nd Itachi split and stood in front of each other. Naruto eyed the distance between them, it was about twenty meters. That was enough time to counter Itachis' next move. Itachis' hands suddenly became a blur with seals, Naruto steadied and prepared for his attack.
"Koton: Karyuu Endan." Itachi spoke.
As Itachi exhaled a huge flame from his mouth, Naruto formed a seal and three shadow clones appeared. At the same time he formed seals for another attack.
" Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu." Naruto said to himself., and he dissapeared beneath the ground.
One of his shadow clones jumped out of the way of the attack, as the others threw kunai at Itachi, breaking his concentration, stopping his next attack. Itachi let a grin spread across his face, whoever his opponent was, he would be a challenge.
Naruto chose this moment to spring his attack. Leaping from beneath Itachi he flew out of the ground and connected with Itachi's chin, sending him flying into the air. There was a popping sound and a cloud of smoke. Itachis' clone was destroyed. Naruto watched as the real Itachi came out of the shadow.
Itachi dissapeared one more time, reappearing directly behind the Naruto. Within a few moves Itachi was holding Naruto by his arms and forced his head to look straight up into his eyes. Naruto blinked and Itachi was gone.
He knew immediately that he was in a technique already, and looked around. He wasn't even in the village anymore, he was back in Konoha. And there was a war raging around him. To his left he could see a giant fox with nine tails, looming over battle field. And a sinlge man stood in front of it holding a seal that Naruto didn't recognize. He watched in horror as the man sucked the nine tails into the belly of a woman laying at his feet. Suddenly he realized what he was watching.
But quickly the image faded to blackness and only the woman appeared, screaming in pain. She was laying on her back, with her legs pulled towards her, spread. She was giving birth. Naruto watched as a small baby came out from the womas womb. The woman let out a single breath of relief, and NAruto watched as her body went limp.
Naruto could feel tears welling up in his eyes. Itachi had gone too far, he had forced him to watch his own mother die, giving birth to him. The image faded from his eyes again. And before him stood Itachi, holding a long katana, placing the point directly at his throat.
"Now I will kill you Naruto, your dying mother will be the last thing that your eyes will see." Itachi stated slowly.
Out of no where the sword and itachi dissapeared. And Naruto was back in the Hidden Village of Stone. In front of him Itachi was standing perfectly still with his arms at his side. At his feet Naruto could see a shadow leading backtowards the alleyway to his left.
Shiukamaru had caught Itachi in his technique, saving Naruto.
Quickly Naruto formed a shadow clone, and ran with it towards Itachi. Within a few steps him and the clone had formed a raging Rasengen. Narutos' eyes were red, and a red chakra was flowing around him. Itachi had gone too far, and Naruto was going to kill him.
Naruto thurst the Rasengan into Itachi's chest, blowing him backwards. And creating a massive crater in the ground. Shikamaru and Hinata came out of their spots and joined Naruto.
"Naruto Shikamaru, Hinata you must see this." Chouji shouted thirty meters away. He was standing over the body of Itachi.
When they got close they could see that it wasn't Itachi that Naruto had killed with his Rasengan. Below them lay a man dressed in Akatsuki robes. But on his head was a forhead protector from the Hidden Village of Stone. Akatsuki had been here a while apparently.
"Hinata are they still in that building?" Naruto asked.
Hinata turned her eyes towards the building. "Yes, they are both still there, and still meditating. I'm not sure what just happened, but that was not Itachi."
"It's time we left this village. Wee need to report to Konoha about our findings." Naruto stated, and they all disappeared in a flash, and went directly back to the Inn.
They all gathered their things and cleaned up the Inn. On top of Narutos' bed lay a scroll. He picked it up and gazed at the writing. Shikamaru watched as his eyes widened in surprise.
"The note says that they regret not having the time to fight me personally, but to rest assured that they would be after me soon enough. It goes on to say that they hope I'm a bigger challenge that the other two Jinchuuriki they have defeated." Naruto finished. "Lets move, I think it best we head back to Konoha and report this personally, if for nothing else, it's only a short detour on the way to the Sand. Where we will be talking to our new allies, if they are after Jinchuuriki, Gaara will be on that list as well."
"What makes you think that they will go there before they go after you?" Chouji asked.
"Well, there are nine bijuu. And the on inside of me is called the Kyuubi. He was said to be the most powerful of them all. So I'm guessing that I will be one of the last they try to obtain. Gaara holds Shikaku, the one tailed beast. If the Kyuubi is the strongest, I'm guessing that Shikaku, will be one of the weakest, especially given it's history of being sealed and extracted numerous times. Lets get moving though, I'll explain more on the way." Naruto answered.
Quickly they finished packing and left the village and headed south. They traveled quickly, and took few rests until they reached the boarder of The Land Of Fire. There they slowed down a little and Naruto started to explain more to them.
"It has been kept fairly classified, but Jiraiya has gotten some information stating that it will take Akatsuki around three years to get to me. Giving us over two and a half years to prepare. Tsunade was hoping that we would be able to find them all in that time, and retaliate before they were ready. However I don't think that it will be as easy as she hoped. It seems like it will be very hard for us to find them without them knowing about it. Which will make an ambush impossible." Naruto informed them.
"So what do you think we should do now." Shikimaru asked.
"I'm going to suggest that the four of us begin special training to prepare for their arrival. The three of us, as well as many others will be needed to fight them off when the time comes. So we all need to become stronger, and progress in rank." Naruto explained.
"What kind of special training?" Hinata asked.
"Well, I think that the only way that we will be able to stop a group as powerful as them, is to create many teams that are trained to deal with one Akatsuki member at a time. Each crew will be designed to play into a members weakness, and maybe even their strengths. Most of them will be too powerful for one ninja to defeat. However with special teams we will all stand a chance. Maybe we can even coordinate with the Sand and incorporate them into this. But it will all be up to Tsunade-Sama. So there is nothing we can do until we let her know what's going on." Naruto finished.
"I suppose that your right, no matter how troublesome it is, they will have to be dealt with. Luckily we were able to foil Orochimarus' plan, and we don't have to fight them both at the same time." Shikimaru replied.
The rest of the trip was made in silence. All of them were wrapped up in their own thoughts, and observations, wondering what was going to happen in the three years to come. It didn't seem like a long time, but for a ninja, it could be eternity. They arrived back in Konoha in half the time it took them to get there. Naruto was pretty confident that Itachi and his team mate wouldn't be following them, so they didn't even look for ambushes. As soon as they got to Konoha Naruto dismissed his team and went to the Hokages' mansion to tell Tsunade about what had happened. He had also sent ahead for Sarutobi to be there as well.
Naruto walked into the conference room inside the mansion and waited for the two of them to get there. It seemed like it had been a long time since he had seen Sarutobi.
"Naruto it is good to see you have returned back safely, but you have returned much sooner than expected." Sarutobi stated solemly.
"We found two members of Akatsuki, but were spotted ourselves. When we found them, it seemed as if they were involved in some sort of long range technique. That required their full attention. Once we were noticed a strange technique was used to turn an ordinary ninja into a replication of Itachi, capable of using all of his techniques. Together we were able to dispell the effect of the move and escape. But we didn't want to get too close, and cause them to attack themselves. There is no way we could have survived that. I've returned to give my opinion on what should be done." Naruto replied.
"You know that you have gained our utmost respect as a ninja, and I think your opinion would be valuable, please continue," Tsunade stated.
"It seems to me that there is no way for us to locate all of them and stop them before they are ready to initiate the rest of their plan, whatever it may be. I feel that our time would be better spent training and preparing for the time, then it would be trying to stop them before they reveal themselves. I noticed that Jiraiya had been following us most of the time. And I know that he has a similar mission to us. Keep him in the field keeping track of their movements, and use the time to create special teams each formed and trained to concentrate on one of the Akatsuki members." Naruto said slowly, choosing his words carefully.
"You have good ideas Naruto. Your idea seems to show knowledge of things that haven't been made public yet. It is true that Akatsuki is after Jinchuuriki, they hope to catch them all and use the power to do something. What that something is we do not know yet. We also have recieved information that there are nine active members in Akatsuki. Each of them more powerful than most of the ninja villages combined. I think that you have a good idea. I will issue new orders to the ANBU. Telling them that if they do make contact with a member of the organization, that they are to try their best to bring back relevant battle data on them. In the mean time we will begin training teams to handle the few members that we do have data on. Naruto go home and rest, tomorrow I will have your new training plan brought to your house, and the following day you will begin. Do you think that the team you have now will be able to deal with an Akatsuki member?" Tsunade asked.
"I'm not sure, if given proper training for the situation, I believe that even if we are weaker we could take at least one of them down. But I have a feeling that Itachi is just the tip of the iceberg, as far as the amount of power they each have. When that weird clone appeared Hinata had noticed one of the members chakra drop. Assuming that one was the one that used the technique, the other shinobi had more chakra than I have ever seen. Possibly more either of you, maybe even both of you combined." Naruto answered.
"I see, well that means that we have to take full advantage of the time we've been given. Naruto you will recieve your teams training routine as planned, for now go to your room and get some sleep." Sarutobi stated. Naruto could tell he was nervous, maybe even frightened.
Naruto could hardly sleep once he had climbed into bed. There were far too many thoughts racing through his head. What was his new training going to include, was he going to train with his teamates, and which known member would he be trained to face? All he knew was that it was going to be a long three years.
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I know that it's kinda short, but it was a hard chapter to write. I realized that I needed to use the time skip like in the show in order to progress the story and had a hard time figuring out how to do it. Given that I don't have the whole Orochimaru story line to help. I needed to find something else. Sorry for revealing some of the techniques used in the show a little earlier than they were, but I'm probably going to change a good amount of the story from here on anyway. Hope that you all enjoyed, and I'll update again soon.