A/N Yes what has happened is the same thing that happened to Naruto in the Movie Blood Prison, only it has happened to one of the most loyal Akatsuki members, Naoshi Mayumi. Now if you've already seen Blood Prison, which I think everyone has, you'll know what happens. Yeah there will be differences. Rights to the plot of that movie of course goes to its creators

Chapter 5 - Devil Shark

- Kirigakure -

"So, we're looking for a guy named Torazame Hōzuki? What's his story?" asked Noboru as he and Sarada walked through a slight mist blanketing the path to Kirigakure, their boat from Uzushiogakure having arrived at the main island a few minutes before.

"He's one of the new Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and he wields a sword that's covered with bandages for the most part. He's powerful as well, since he was able to hold his own against Genkaku whilist under the effects of a toxin that could knock even a Bijuu out in several seconds." said Sarada, Noboru nodding as he twirled a kunai in his hand, the slight jingle of the chains that connected his two swords being the only sound that accompanied their talking.

"Alright. Genkaku was right about going to enlist him. The hard part about this though is that we're gonna have to try and find him." he said with a frown as he slipped the kunai back up his sleeve and stretched his right arm, Sarada shrugging.

"We could just ask the Mizukage."

"Nah. I have a feeling I know where he is. I remember Yahiko, one of our former members, talking about Torazame when he was younger and that the two used to train with one another down in his cave off the coast of the island. I bet you ten that he's down there." said Noboru as he walked off the path and jogged to a high cliff overlooking the calm waters below, Sarada joining him in looking for any clue as to where Yahiko's grotto was located.

"If I remember correctly…" mumbled Noboru as he narrowed his eyes and looked for a few moments before he grinned and pointed at a displacement in the waves due to a small rock protruding out from below.

"There. Below that is the underwater cave that holds the entrance."

Sarada nodded before she and Noboru braced themselves and jumped off the cliff, diving into the water cleanly and masterfully to prevent a splash.

They swam under the waves towards the ocean floor and a large mound of rock, Noboru motioning for her to follow as he entered a small opening, large enough for one person to go into at a time. After holding their breath for two minutes, they let it all out as they emerged head first from the pool of water resting before a much smaller cave adorned with two torches crowned by blue flickering flames.

"Come on." said Noboru as he hoisted himself out from the lake, Sarada following suit, and after drying themselves off they proceeded down the cave and it's massively log staircase lit by the same blue fire at the mouth.

"This place creeps me out. And what are these images of?" asked Sarada with a shiver not at the decrease in temperature but at the carving of horrible monster made of what looked like black gunk clawing and slashing away at men and women as they fled in terror of the creature.

She looked around and saw more cave drawings similar to the first, only in some there was four of the monstrosities and then a fifth figure controlling them, the black gunk spitting out of its back.

"They're of Yahiko. He's the one controlling the black creatures." said Noboru without turning around, Sarada's eyes widening in horror at who this Yahiko person was.

"Why is he like that?"

"Well...I'll start from the beginning. He was one of the first shinobi to be apart of the newly founded Kirigakure, and he was sent on a mission to retrieve a package beneficial to the partnership between them and Takigakure. He and four of his closest friends and allies went to the meeting point, but when they got there, several members of Taki's ANBU faction ambushed them." explained Noboru as he pushed aside a cobweb, Sarada shivering again.

"What happened?" she asked nervously.

"Everyone with Yahiko was slaughtered. Murdered. In a fit of rage, he killed them all and stole the Kinjutsu the Captain of the ambush squad possessed known as the Earth Grudge Fear. What it turned Yahiko in to was nothing short of a horrible monster. All of his vital organs except his heart turned into a mess of thick black threads. His body burst apart at the sheer amount that had grown inside of him, so with the threads he sewed himself back together, limb by limb, until he had literally become a living ragdoll." said Noboru, Sarada's gut twisting and turning in disgust at the horrifying images the backstory was placing in her mind. "And in retribution and guilt, he took the hearts of his fallen friends and stored them in masks that he stitched onto his back, while he would replace his own heart with the ones he would take from shinobi he killed when his original would fail. Those four hearts he kept all those years are those black monsters. He became infamous as the "Four Faces of the Devil"."

Sarada glanced to her left after shuffling down another couple of steps and gulped when she stared right at an image of one of the black monsters impaling a human being with its arm and crushing its heart with several of the black threads it was made of.

"That's horrible."

"Indeed." agreed Noboru with a solemn nod before he held his arm out to stop her, the two looking down at a door some twenty steps down below, and judging from how new it was he guessed it had just been recently replaced.

He closed his eyes and focused his chakra to look into the room beyond, and after a few seconds of searching he found Torazame in one corner of Yahiko's old grotto and walked up to the stone door, placing his hand up against it and sending a pulse of chakra through it. The stone glowed yellow and with a rumble it moved aside into the walls of the tunnel, spraying dust down onto him as it rolled over.

"Visitors?" asked Torazame when he looked up from where he sat facing a row of candles, most likely a shrine of some sort, and glanced back over his shoulder to see Sarada and Noboru enter the cave.

"Torazame Hōzuki, I presume?" questioned Noboru as he walked forward, the soft reddish orange glow of the pool of magma situated in the center of the gave illuminating his face for the swordsman to see.

"Akatsuki? Why'd you come here?" he asked as he stood up from the shrine and crossed his arms, Sarada standing back behind Noboru to let him do the talking.

"I've come here to recruit you. You showed exceptional skill in the arena the day before and the organization has decided to enlist you as a new recruit."

Torazame, to say the least, was a little surprised at Noboru and the idea that the Akatsuki had come to recruit him. He blinked a few times and lowered his chin a few inches while he thought about the idea of wearing the cloak that designated one as one of the most powerful shinobi alive.

"Hm...sounds interesting…"

"You should. We could use someone with your skills."

Torazame looked up at who was with Noboru and was taken aback for a second time when the same girl he had seen in the arena showed herself to be the Akatsuki member's partner, a grin spreading across his face in response.

"Well I'll be damned. You're that Hatake chick. They brought you in too?" he asked as he strolled over to a table, his bandaged up sword resting atop it., and stroked its hilt.

"Technically yes. So, what is your answer?" asked Noboru after crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow in anticipation of the swordsman's response.

"I'll join…" Torazame swung the sword around and pointed its tip right at Sarada, smirking as she jumped a little, and said, "...If she can beat me. One on one, no jutsu or anything. Just hand to hand combat. Or, kehehe, in my case, kenjutsu."

Noboru looked back at Sarada, wanting to see what she would do, and to his surprise she stepped forward without fear and silently accepted the swordsman's challenge. Torazame snickered as he hefted his sword up onto his shoulder and stood with all his weight on his right foot while waiting for Sarada to draw her weapon.

"If it's a kunai, I'm gonna laugh." he thought with a sneer before she cracked her knuckles, a hidden seal manifesting itself on the palm of her right hand.

A large plume of smoke erupted out from the seal and Torazame's eyes widened when the smoke cleared, revealing that in her hand, held backhanded, she possessed a large curved blade, about as big as her, with the handle built into its structure while near the flatter end, a long chain hanged from a hole cut through the metal and fell into a pill by her feet.

Even Noboru was surprised by the very unorthodox weapon, the likes of it never seen before.

"Like my Kuresentosōdo?" she asked before she kicked the end of the chain up into her free hand, swung it out like a whip while she let go of the blade, and let it fly forward with insane speed right at Torazame's chest.

He ducked and rolled out of the way of the blade and watched it imbed itself two feet into the cave's wall, the penetrating power of the blade without the implementation of chakra astounding him. Before he knew it Sarada had pulled herself with the chain and sent her feet flying at his head while the blade swung out from the wall and threatened to strike him in the back with its more blunt edge.

"She's good."

He swung his sword over his head and stopped the Kuresentosōdo dead in its tracks while with his arm he blocked both of Sarada's feet and pushed her away. She backflipped and gracefully landed on both feet, the chain in her hand pulling back her sword into her free hand, her fingers tightening around the handle as she watched Torazame stand up to his full height and laugh.

"You're pretty good, I'll give you that." he said before he vanished in the blink of an eye, Sarada's Sharingan searching the room for him before he swung the sword out at her from her blind spot, expecting a hit.

She ducked under the swing and sent the blunt edge of her Kuresentosōdo into his gut, making him cough out the air in his lungs while she lunged at the hilt of his sword. He grasped onto it and used both feet to propel herself away from him, planning to use his own weapon against him.

He grinned.

"Gah!" she gasped when a sharp pain came from her hand, her eyes darting down to the handle of the large sword and gasping when she saw several spikes protruding out from the hilt and cutting into her hand, the instinctive reaction being to let go of the blade.

That's when something else weird happened.

The blade screeched, it's high-pitched squeal echoing off the wall as it literally jumped across the floor and right back into Torazame's possession, the spikes in its hilt retracting before it returned to his hand.

As Sarada clenched her bleeding hand she asked, "What kind of sword is that?!"

"You could say its a reincarnation of one of the legendary swords. The sword I'm talking about, Samehada, the sharkskin sword, was the most terrifying and fearsome of the Seven Swords. It was large, sentient, and absolutely loved the taste of chakra. It literally eats the stuff." said Torazame as he hefted his sword over his shoulder again, taking the time to allow Sarada to quickly bandage her injured hand.

"Unfortunetly for Kirigakure, Samehada came into the possession of the Hachibi's jinchuuriki, Killer B. So, as a substitute, they recreated the sword in the form of Taigāsamehada, the Tiger Sharkskin sword. And who do they give it to?"

Sarada's eyes widened as the blade quivered and with a loud tearing noise, the bandages covering Torazame's sword were shredded to pieces as the sword came to life, its dark red, scaly skin rippling as it sensed the presence of her chakra once again.

"This is my sword, Taigāsamehada. And with it...I am known as the Devil Shark of the Mist." said Torazame as he pointed the uncovered sword at Sarada, the memory of what happened to the shinobi whose shoulder had been shredded apart due to the sword's scales returning to her.

"Your move." he said with a sneer as he beckoned for her to face him, Sarada growling a little.

"I have to be careful with that sword." she thought before she reached down to the chain connected to her Kuresentosōdo and unclipped it, letting the heavy metal chain drop to the ground in a messy pile before she held the sword backhanded and narrowed her eyes at her opponent.

Then...she ran.

Torazame gripped Taigāsamehada one handed as he swung down on her when she went for his gut, Sarada turning in the air to narrowly avoid the scaly hide of the sentient great sword, and to his surprise ducked under his arm while his sword blasted apart the ground where she once was to smithereens.

He sent his foot around in a roundhouse kick and caught her as she stood up to swing the blunt end of her weapon down onto his spine, pushing her back several feet while he grabbed onto his sword with both hands and went after her.

"Just give up!" he yelled as he swung Taigāsamehada at her ribcage, Sarada having to make a split second decision as the sword got closer and closer to her bare skin.

"Do everything to win."

She flinched and grunted in pain as the sword struck her in the side, shredding the skin apart while Torazame's eyes widened, the swordsman having expected her to avoid the attack. Instead she flung her arm over it and while she injured herself further, she gripped the sword tightly and held the blade of her Kuresentosōdo at his throat.

"Game...set...and match." she said through forced breaths as the blood from her injury started to soak through her clothes, Torazame grinning at her resilience and with a shrug he accepted defeat.

Sarada let go of the sword as he stepped back and instantly collapsed to her knees while she held her side tightly to try and stop the blood from the various flesh wounds caused by the great sword's scales, Noboru running over to help.

"Hold on guy, I got this." said Torazame as he held a hand up and to his astonishment, his sword lowered itself out of his hand and snaked its hilt over to her, the blood red skull at its hilt touching the shredded skin of her side and merging with it.

Sarada felt a rush of relief as chakra from the sentient sword poured into the wound and healed it in a matter of seconds, a slight scar being the only marker left behind from the brutal injury inflicted upon her.

"Seems its taken a liking to your chakra." said Torazame with a chuckle as the sword squealed softly at her before it raised its hilt back up to his hand, and allowed him to grasp it once more.

Noboru helped her back up onto her feet and Sarada pushed aside a strand of her hair, Torazame walking over the the table next to his shrine once again to place his sword back onto its shiny surface to re-tape it back up.

"So, are you going to join us?" she asked after a moment of silence, Torazame chuckling again as he looked back at them and smiled.

"I guess I am. Give me a few minutes to recover my sword with tape and I'll be with you out of here."

A few minutes did pass and soon enough, after climbing the enormously large staircase that had led the two down to Yahiko's former grotto, Noboru and Sarada emerged from the cave's entrance with Torazame in tow, the three preparing to jump into the underwater lake to swim back up to the surface.

"See you on the flip side." said Torazame with a grin before his skin and clothes turned light blue and to Sarada's surprise his body liquified and he splashed down into the water.

"Don't worry. It's his clan's special jutsu that allows them to liquify their bodies." said Noboru before he himself jumped into the water, Sarada following behind to catch up to Torazame.

Once they reached the surface of the tranquil ocean they were greeted by Torazame, who was floating on his back with his eyes closed and a smile spread across his face, a sign of true relaxation.

"Oh there you are. Took you long enough." said Torazame as he picked himself up from the water's surface without disturbing its face and shoved his hands into his pockets, Taigāsamehada holstered to a simple brown strap he had slung over his shoulder.

"So where are we going now?" asked Sarada with a glance at Noboru, who had walked off a ways with a finger to his earpiece, deep in an intense conversation with whoever had contacted him.

When he lowered his hand he looked back at the two and shook his head back an forth, sighing as he did so.

"What's wrong?"

"We're meeting up with Genkaku and Nagato." said Noboru as he leaped away from them and back up to the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean, Torazame and Sarada confused as to why he had gotten so serious all of a sudden.

"Why?" asked Sarada.

"I'll explain on the way. For now...the only people that know of what we're about to do is Menma, Arashi, Ninturo, Genkaku, Nagato, and us."

- Mountain's Graveyard -

The once barren landscape that had resulted of the titanic battle between Menma and Indra Otsutsuki in the Mountain's Graveyard had recovered, dense vegetation having reconquered the large crater that had been there for around 40 years. Large trees prevented barely any sunlight from reaching the forest floor and animals of all species roamed the trees and ground for either a new home or something to eat.

There was one part that remained unchanged. The massive hole, leading all the way down to the center of the earth, that had been made by one of Menma's techniques remained blank of any and all vegetation, the malevolent demonic chakra of the jutsu that created the hole still present in the air and earth surrounding the hole. Every so often however spouts of magma would shoot thousands of miles up through the hole, lighting up the forest at night and proving to be a wondrous spectacle.

Near the cavity in the earth's surface, however, a definitely large crack, maybe some several yards long, had been progressively growing larger for years now, inch by inch. What made it peculiar however is that oozing out from the crack was a thick, black substance that absorbed anything it came in contact with, and any plants it touched would instantly disintegrate.

What's worse is that the pool was growing.