Deidara flew immediately to Kumo's ninja village. He wanted to be the first Akatsuki to strike. So he flew and in a few hours, he was high above Kumo.

Deidara glanced down onto the streets of Kumo. No one's noticed me yet. He grinned as he pulled out a statue of a bird.

"Now let's show the good people of Kumogakure that art…" He paused for a moment and dropped the statue. "Is a BLAST!"

A massive explosion ripped through Kumogakure. Several buildings teetered and collapsed, crushing civilians and ninja.

Deidara dropped several others, each causing equal destruction.

"Raikage, we are under attack from the Akatsuki!" A Chunin yelled. "We think it is the clay user from Iwagakure, Deidara."

A was looking out of the window of his office, looking over the destruction of his village. A turned away from that and smashed a desk into pieces and shouted. "Order 50 lighting users to bring him down! Get the Genin to escort the civilians to safety! Order another 100 to attack the bombs as they fall!" A walked towards the window and threw the destroyed desk through the window. He paused for a moment and turned back to the Chunin. "Also, send a message to the other villages. Notify them that the Akatsuki have surfaced again and this is our chance to kill them all." And with that, A leaped from his office and ran off.

A's assistant remained in his office. "You know, I know the village is under attack, but he could have at least used the stairs." She turned towards the Chunin. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go get those lighting users. I'll handle the message to the other villages."

The Chunin nodded. "Yes ma'am!"

Just as he was leaving, another ninja ran into A's office, panting. "Where's the Raikage!" She shouted.

The assistant was just preparing the message for the other villages. "He's gone out to fight the Akatsuki, Karui."

"Dammit!" She shouted. "I need to see him and tell him that the Seven-tails is heading towards Killer Bee."

Itachi stood on top of the Nanabi, flying straight towards Killer Bee. He knew he had most likely been spotted by Kumo, but hopefully Deidara would tie up Kumo and allow him to capture Killer Bee.

Itachi soon spotted the Valley of Clouds and Lighting. Scanning the valley, he spotted a tent and willed the seven-tails to begin charging up for a chakra blast.

The blast headed straight into the tent and exploded and tore up the land. Dust and debris flew everywhere.

Itachi stared at the destruction in front of him, hoping that wasn't it from one of the most powerful tailed beasts. He wasn't disappointed when another tailed beast blast flew right out of the dust and straight at him.

The Nanabi lazily dodged the blast and hovered nearby as the dust cleared.

In place of the dust was a massive Octopus. The Eight-Tails, Itachi mused.

"Let's begin, Killer Bee."

No words were exchanged as Bee charged up another blast and fired it right at Itachi. Itachi and the Nanabi were obliterated and blown away from the blast.

"Look at that guy, thinking he's a tough guy, but it didn't take him long to fry." Bee said.

"You should pay attention more, especially in a fight." A voice said beside him. Just as Bee heard it the Nanabi released another blast straight into the side of the Hachibi.

Bee was thrown into a nearby mountain and smashed the mountain completely.

Itachi channeled his chakra through the Nanabi and the Nanabi fired a massive fireball at Bee. Itachi circled the wreckage, wondering if that was it for the Eight-tails. He was not disappointed when the Hachibi came to life and swung its tentacles at him.

"Bee, this isn't going well." The Hachibi said. "I've lost most of my chakra firing those 2 blasts and using more on defending against the last blast and that fireball. You need to slow down the chakra consumption."

"I know bud, but this guy ain't no dud." Bee said. "I'll bring this fight to close quarters now."

Bee lashed out with his tentacles and began dragging down the Nanabi. Right as he was about to burst the Nanabi's head off it, the seven-tails dissolved into hundreds of ravens.

"Genjutsu Bee. He's escaping."

"I know, I thought that was the final blow."

Itachi performed a few hand signs and the water erupted around the Eight-Tails, forming six tall towers around the Hachibi.

"Water style: Six water spiral attack." The six spires launched several spears at the Hachibi, impaling it in several spots.

Bee let out a howl of pain and immediately jerked out of the water spears. Several of the Eight-tails tentacles fell off and landed into the water.

"Bee, this is urgent. I can heal your wounds, but then you'll only have enough for one more tailed beast blast and no rapping of your going to say something, the author is getting tired of thinking of raps."

"Yeah, I understand. Eight, only heal the wounds that restrict my movement. We'll take care of the more life threating ones later. If you do that, I should have enough for 2 more blasts, but I can't afford to mess it up."

"Understood, but if you want to survive these wounds, you're going to have to end this now."

The Eight-Tails shot forward straight at Itachi and the Nanabi, charging a tailed beast blast. "This will be the end for you!" Bee shouted.

"You should realize that a frontal attack is useless." Itachi said as the Seven-tails charged up for it's own blast.

Just as the Seven-Tails was done charging, the Eight-Tails vanished in a burst of lightning.

"Who said this was a frontal attack?" Itachi looked up and saw the Eight-Tails just before it released it's chakra blast. Itachi and the Nanabi slammed into the ground, creating a massive crater. Bee landed besides them a second later and transformed back to normal. "We showed him, didn't we Eighter?"

'I'm exhausted from that fight.' Bee thought.

"Bee, watch out! I just sensed him!"

Bee immediately got into a fighting stance with his swords, when the Itachi and the Nanabi in the crater exploded. Bee was thrown like a ragdoll into the air slamming into a pile of rocks, nearly knocking him out and knocking all of his swords away. 'My swords.' Bee thought through the fog that had invaded his mind.

Itachi landed right next to Bee. "A simple shadow clone explosion defeated the great and powerful Eight-tails." Itachi looked right at Bee and put him under a genjutsu. "I know your tailed beast is out of chakra. You can't resist this Genjutsu. Good-bye." Itachi summoned a clone, which picked up Bee and placed him on the Nanabi before dispelling.

The capture of the Eight-tails was complete.

'I wonder how everyone else is doing on their tasks.' Itachi wondered. Itachi closed his eyes contacted Pein.

"Itachi, I take it everything was a success?" Pein said.

"Yes Pein. The Eight-tails is secure and I'm heading to the sealing place now. How is the hunt for the Nine-Tails?"

"Not well. We still haven't located him yet. I've ordered the others to begin targeting villages and towns. We will destroy all of Kumo if we have to in order to root him out of hiding."

"Also, Itachi I need your help with something. Meet me at my location in two hours."

"Yes Pein."

Tsunade was in her office, just about to finish the day when the transmission came in from Kumo.

Tsunade quickly read the first reports about the Akatsuki attacking Kumo and decided this maybe the chance to destroy the Akatsuki once and for all.

"Shizune! Summon Kakashi here right now. Also get Tenzo in here ASAP."

She didn't even hear Shizune reply, she was too busy trying to find a way to get Naruto back and completely destroy the Akatsuki in one stroke.

Deidara continued to rain down death on Kumo for nearly an hour. He had nearly run bout of clay and was preparing to leave when lighting began striking everywhere.

Deidara swore and began swerving in an attempt to dodge the incoming lighting strikes.

On the ground, men were loading catapults and other devices in an attempt to bring Deidara down.

"Move over!" The Raikage had arrived and made is way toward a catapult. Lighting sparked all over his body. He then proceeded to climb on a catapult. "Prepare to launch me at the enemy." A ordered.

The ninja in charged nearly fell over when he heard this. "Um, are you sure that's a good idea sir? What if we miss?"

A turned to him with a very nasty look on his face. "And for your sake solider, I hope you don't."

The ninja gulped and ordered his team to get ready to fire. "Fire!" He shouted and A was launched into the air.

Deidara was just beginning to leave when A flew right at him. He only had time to catch a glimpse of him before his head was lobbed off by A's punch. 'Too fast' were Deidara's final thoughts.

A continued flying and smashed into his office, creating another hole, and landed right in front of his secretary and Karui.

"Raikage!" Karui yelled. "Bee is under attack from another Akatsuki!"

"Couldn't you have used the other hole? The other countries responded by the way and are sending several attachments to help us find the Akatsuki."

"Stop making jokes Masami, and what do you mean Bee is under attack? I just killed one of them." A said, his anger rising again.

Before Karui could respond another ninja, a Jonin, raced into A's office. "Raikage sir. The Akatsuki have invaded the whole country. We have dozens of reports from members rampaging around the western part. Bee has also been captured by the enemy and is being transported by the Akatsuki to Lake Mami. The coastline is also under attack from the Akatsuki member known as Kisame. A couple other members are causing massive damage to our military bases by the border of Iwa." The Jonin finished and collapsed from exhaustion.

A walked over to a book case and smashed it into splinters. "Order every ninja we have and form them up. I want an army of fast ninja to meet me at Lake Mami to recapture Bee. Send a cable to the other countries. Tell them were going to need more than a few men if we want to wipe out the Akatsuki. Also, Masami, get me another goddamned desk! Now move!" and with that A turned around and smashed another hole through his office and went to lead Kumo's army.

Masami sighed. "I'll get that cable to the other countries. Kauri, can you take care of this ninja. Then I'd go join the Raikage. Also, make sure he sends some more ninja to defend the Daimyo from the Akatsuki. I'll also send out the notes to the commanders to mobilize our military. Good luck out there by the way."

Kauri nodded and raced out of the office.

Well this is the most fun I've had in a while. Kisame mused as he killed another Kumo ninja. He had just been flooding a fishing village when several ninja showed up and tried attacking him. He said tried because he killed all of them except one who ran off to get reinforcements. It had been a while and he expected him back soon.

Kisame grinned, displaying his shark teeth. "Well, look who's finally back. I thought you were going to run off completely."

No less than twenty other ninja show up. All of them had swords out and looked ready to fight. The leader, an older Jonin pointed his sword at Kisame. "You'll pay for this you monster."

Kisame just began preparing hand seals. "Monster? Maybe you've seen one. I'm looking for the Nine-tails. Any information and I may spare your lives. Deal?"

"Enough talk. Prepare to die." All of the ninja prepared a lightning jutsu to fry Kisame.

Kisame laughed. "So, you don't know anything. Guess I don't have to hold back." Kisame immediately lunged straight at a Chunin and crushed his throat with one of his hands. The Chunin let out a gurgled scream and died right there. A nervous Genin then fired his lightning attack early and hit another Genin.

Kisame laughed again. "It's just too perfect." All the other ninja released the lightning attacks at Kisame who dodged them easily and swung his sword right on top of a Jonin's head. The Jonin didn't even have time to react as his head was smashed by Samehada. "Come on. I need a challenge and there is no Itachi to stop me now!"

Three ninja charged him with their swords. One aimed for his head and was blocked by Samehada. Another lunged at his heart and was stopped by kick to the neck and nasty crack was heard from all around. The last one also tried the heart and was stopped by his friend's body falling on him.

"Yuu!" A female Kumo ninja screamed. She raced after Yuu and was cut down by another attack from Samehada.

"Pathetic and you call yourselves shinobi." Kisame taunted. One by one, sometimes in groups, each ninja was killed until there were none.

Kisame began walking toward another village not far from here until he was interrupted by Samehada pulling him another direction. "What is it? Do you sense something?" Kisame asked his sword. The sword motioned that way and soon Kisame understood. "You sense the Nine-Tails chakra? That way? Then that's where were heading." With a general idea where the Nine-Tails was, Kisame began heading westward.

Halfway across Kumo, Gannon and Amuru were in the middle of attacking a Kumo military base. Amuru was cutting down several Kumo ninja, while Gannon was attacking buildings and heavy weapons such as cannons. He had also summoned several creatures. They looked like black smoke and they seemed like they were made of smoke.

Gannon was sitting on top of one of these creatures; so far it was the largest at nearly 15 feet tall even when it was on all fours. It had massive claws on its feet and a small, stubby tail, its head looked like a lizards and it had dark scaly skin similar to a lizard. Gannon turned toward Amuru. "Be sure to check their headquarters. They may have a copy of their battle plans here."

Amuru glanced back at Gannon. "Yeah, I was just about to head over there. The commander of the base was taken out already, right?"

"Yes, one of my shadow beasts killed him."

Amuru looked at several of the ninja attacking one right now. "So, are those invincible? They don't seem to have a weakness." Amuru asked as she headed for the commanders quarters.

"Everything has a weakness. They just have to find it."

She turned away from the battle with the shadow beast. Guess I better watch myself around him. Amuru thought to herself. She entered the commander's quarters and began searching for any documents that could help the Akatsuki fend off a counter-attack from Kumo.

Back outside, the Kumo ninja were just beginning to figure out the weakness of the shadow beasts. One of the Jonin commanders called out. "Everyone, the beasts can be hurt if you channel your chakra through something. It has to be normal chakra, not a nature chakra."

The surviving ninja immediately began attacking the beast with their swords and inch by inch, they began to turn back the beast. Casualties were beginning to run high, too high for many of the ninja and once they got some breathing room, they retreated outside the base and began preparing to defend against the next onslaught of these creatures.

Gannon jumped from his summon and onto a stone rampart. Looking down on the Kumo nin, he began thinking of a plan to finish them off. Maybe I'll send level 2 creatures at them. He mused. "Yeah that will finish them off." He began to gather his chakra for a summon and summoned three identical creatures. These were more humanoid, but they too were composed of shadowy material. They stood at nearly 7 feet tall and had masks on. The masks were black with identical patterns on each of them. The patterns were simply several lines through them. They had no eye holes or any visible noses and had short, rope like hair. "Attack and wipe out those ninja down there. Leave no survivors." Gannon ordered.

The three creatures raced down there at far faster speeds then the previous summons and crashed right into the survivors of the military base, tearing apart the ninja with their bare hands. What blows the creatures took they absorbed and in no time the survivors were all wiped out.

Amuru joined him just as the last ninja fell and handed him several documents. "We should report this to Pein as soon as we can." Amuru said.

Gannon quickly scanned the documents. "Yes he will need to know. Get ready, were going to move out soon."

"Wait, can't we grab something. I saw a safe back there and I want to go back real quick."

Gannon shook his head. "No, we need to get this to Pein now. We had no idea that all of the countries would react this way once we attacked."

Amuru scowled. "Well you can tell Pein that. I'm going to open that safe. I mean, this is why I joined the Akatsuki, to get rich. I'm not about to let that safe go."

It was Gannon's turn to scowl now. "And you're going to just jeopardize our whole operation just so you can steel some gold? If we win you can have all of the gold in the world. Well I'm going to go on ahead. Do you need me to leave a summon?"

Amuru angrily shook her head. "No, I can get my own ride. See you around."

Gannon watched her walk off. "For some reason, I doubt it." Gannon jumped back on his summon and headed off to meet Pein.

18 years ago in Konoha.

A seven year old Naruto sat in his apartment; he had just been forced out of the orphanage a couple of weeks ago and had been given an apartment by the Hokage and he had assigned a caretaker to check up on him. Every few days old man Hokage would check up on him.

Those days were his favorite. All the caretaker would do is ignore him.

But today was different. For the first time since staying in his apartment, it was raining and thundering and Naruto was terrified. Old man Hokage had promised that he would visit today, but he was starting to think the Hokage lied and wasn't coming.

Now people were outside throwing rocks or something at his apartment. He didn't understand why

"Maybe it's cause I'm an orphan." Naruto thought glumly.

The rocks ceased soon after that, but something else happened, something far more terrifying. A man dressed in black wearing a dragon mask for the ANBU Black Ops. Was pounding on the door and peering through the windows. He proceeded to smash the glass with a brick and began screaming into Naruto's apartment.

"Better not come out you Demon. Cause if you do, were gonna kill you. You got that you little shit?"

Naruto covered his ears and closed his eyes, but he couldn't block out the screaming. "Go away!" He screamed.

The man just laughed and continued banging against Naruto's door. "Just wait till I get in there."

Naruto opened his eyes to make sure he wasn't making his way in, but almost immediately regretted it.

"You opened your eyes you stupid demon."

Naruto saw a flash and soon he was in a different place. He was in a cold dark cave.

"Where am I?" He shouted. He felt hot breath on his back and he turned slowly around and saw a giant black dragon. The beast roared and Naruto began screaming. The worst part was realizing no one was coming.

Naruto woke up with a start, panting, and jerking his head around making sure he was safe. He closed his eyes again and caught his breath before standing and walking out of his cell. He saw Wong sitting down and went over to join him.

Wong looked up at Naruto. "Ah, so sleeping beauty is awake."

"Yeah, yeah. Make as many jokes as you want. Anything interesting happen while I was asleep?"

Wong grinned. "You know that ring you gave to Gordo? Well, the guards found it and Dolso wasn't very pleased." Wong laughed.

"Well, come on. Don't leave out any of the details."

Wong stopped laughing. "You have no idea how nice it is for a something to go according to plan. Anyway, Dolso just beat Gordo in front of everyone and dragged him off to solitary. He'll be there for a while, but Mari asked to see you."

Naruto looked up in surprise. "Me? Do you know what she wants?"

Wong shook his head. "No, but I wouldn't want to keep her waiting. She can have a real mean temper if you keep her waiting for too long."

Naruto turned around and began heading towards Mari's quarters. "Well see you around."

Naruto passed the guard and entered Mari's room. Mari looked up from her chair and smiled. "Welcome, Arata. How are you?"

"Good. How are things?"

Mari stood up and walked up to Naruto, but Naruto noticed how she walked. It was more of a seductive walk.

Mari smiled again. "Excellent, but could you join me? I need help with something."

It was Naruto turn to smile. "Well, I'm sure I can you with anything you need."

Mari grabbed Naruto's hand. "Well what are you waiting for? Let's go."

A while later, Naruto and Mari laid beneath the covers of her bed. "You know it's been a while since I last did that." Naruto said.

"I bet. This is prison after all, unless you're playing for the other team."

Naruto laughed. "No, I don't swing like that." Naruto began stroking her head. "You're very beautiful by the way."

"Or are you saying that because I'm beautiful, or because I'm the only women in this prison?"

Naruto smiled. "Both, but that just makes you better I think."

Mari smiled. "Thank you. You're not too bad yourself."

The two laid there for several more minutes. "So what's next? For getting out of here I mean and then after that, for us?"

"One thing at a time, Arata. First, let's get out of here. Then decide what's next."

Elsewhere, Kumo's cries for help were being met. All of the 5 Great shinobi nations had decided to send some ninja and an army would follow them, all for the intention of destroying the Akatsuki.

"That is your mission. Kakashi, Sakura, Tenzo, and Sasuke, do you understand? Find the Akatsuki and kill or capture them. All of them have been sighted there, including Itachi, but you must listen to Kumo. Also, Naruto may have been spotted in Kumo. If he has, bring him back here." Tsunade said.

Deep down Tsunade was hoping she wasn't making a mistake in ordering them to bring back Naruto. Sure Kakashi, Sakura, and even Sasuke had shown remorse for their actions, with Sasuke showing remorse last, and now they wanted him back as well, but she was hoping Naruto wouldn't attack them or anything.

Sakura raised her hand. "Would Naruto be protected here? The council still hates him."

Tsunade nodded. "I should be able to protect him from them." She looked at all four of them. "If this is successful, we may see a new world emerge out of this mess. Don't fail me."

The four shinobi looked up in surprise at that comment. "What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.

"I can't say now. Not yet, but you must not fail me. Understand?"

The four nodded and walked out of her office.

Tsunade turned toward Shizune. "Do you think I'm making a right choice by bringing Naruto back?"

"I hope so, but did you ever consider if he didn't want to come back? Or even if you will find him?"

"That's why it's a secondary objective for them. I know they've repented for what they did and now they see him in a new light, but still I just hope he hasn't changed too much." Tsunade turned back to her desk and began signing forms authorizing Konoha's ninja to begin mobilizing.

Shizune watched Tsunade return to work when she remembered something from earlier. "You remember the city-state Manila right? The ones that sold us our Chakra cables, you know the new messaging system for all of the countries? They sent us a cable offering some support. They offered supplies, new weapons, and a bunch of other new technologies in case the Akatsuki surfaced. I think they extended this offer to all the other countries."

Tsunade turned towards Shizune. "Why didn't you mention this before? Accept and ask if they can spare anything else."

Shizune nodded. "Aren't you a little surprised that they offered though? Normally they try to remain neutral."

Tsunade nodded. "True, but they hate the Akatsuki as well. Also understand that Manila is independent. They have no Kings or Nobles, but they have a lot of powerful companies and corporations. They don't want to fight, but they will want to sell us war materials."

"Have you ever been there Tsunade? Before you took me up as an apprentice I mean."

"Yes, it was a beautiful city; it's been on some hard times lately and not quite so beautiful, but there are many rich people and I was hoping to make it big and lost everything, again. They are very advanced and extremely corrupt as well. All it is now is a giant crime ridden city, but the people that do live there are generally good people, but their scared, so they don't complain in fear of criminals. The city is also on a peninsula and the only times they been invaded, once by us and twice by Kirigakure and Kumo, they've repelled them." Tsunade finished up a letter and passed it to Shizune. "Send this to Gaara. Also, word to Jiraiya, we're going to need him for this war"

"Yes Tsunade." Shizune turned and hurried out of her office.

Tsunade stood up and walked over to the window staring down at the village that her Grandfather built. 'This will probably be the last thing I do before retiring.' Tsunade thought. 'God, I hope they find Naruto though.'

Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura, and Tenzo were staring at a map in an inn on the road to Kumo.

Kakashi pointed at a point on the map. "This is the closest Kumo military base. We could head there an offer our support."

"Or we could head straight to the capitol. They have railways that connect to all of Kumo. We could easily get anywhere the Akatsuki are." Tenzo suggested.

"What about Naruto? Are we going to look for him first or last?" Sakura asked.

"The council will want to ignore Naruto, but if we can find him, we can convince them that he's a valuable asset and needs to be protected or needs to be reinstated in the military. If we get him back in the military, Tsunade will protect him until she can make a more permanent deal with the council." Sasuke said.

"We will get him back before returning to Konoha. I promise you that." Kakashi said.

"Well we better get moving." Tenzo said.

"Yeah the next Shinobi war is about to begin and I don't want to miss it." Sasuke said.

"Let's go Team Kakashi!" Kakashi ordered.