Sorry for the delay! i was so busy with family visiting and then my grandpa's in the hospital right now! so forgive me for the delay and spare me from your wrath!
and thanks darkmoonphase for all you comments! if you hadn't of commented, i would have given up a long time ago!
Naruto stopped to rest by a large tree. He had been running all day and was glad for a chance to stop. But as soon as he caught his breath, Naruto was ready to go again!
"Gotta' admire his determination!" Naruto's observer said under her breath. Naruto didn't hear her. He was already out of range by the time she said it. She followed him quietly for another hour. Finally she got tiered of the game and decided to come out of hiding.
Naruto had stopped to rest again. At the place he choose to stop, he found a small steam and some wild berries and he ate them gratefully while drinking the cold, sweet water.
There was a rustle in the branches above him. Naruto quickly pulled out a kunai and readied to defend himself. After about five minutes of no other noises, Naruto decided to continue. He never let his guard down, though.
He came to a clearing. There was a small stone pillar there. It marked the edge of the forest. Naruto looked around. Which way would Sasuke have gone? If he kept going, Naruto knew he would reach the Village Hidden in the Mist, but if he changed direction, he'd be headed for Gaara's home. The Akatsuki were near here but should he really go that way? Even to find Sasuke it seemed a bit too risky. Then again, Naruto was all about taking chances! And he still had a promise to keep! Sasuke would come home!
Naruto was about to begin to the Akatsuki's old hideout when someone stepped out of the trees. It was the girl that he had seen with Sasuke. What was her name? Zakuro!
She was dressed the same, her hair was pulled back into a bun. She had three shuriken in one had and three kunai in the other.
"Naruto Uzumaki!" she called daringly, "You are not worthy of Sasuke's friendship!"
"What?! What the heck are you talking about!?"
"Sasuke has a plan for you, and though I'm not totally sure what it is yet, you better believe it has your death written all over it!"
Naruto stared at her. Was this true? Was he really going to die if he found Sasuke?
Naruto felt the fox inside him restlessly trying to push himself out. He felt the red chakra boiling inside his chest. Zakuro saw a hint of red chakra surrounding Naruto. This was her job. What Sasuke had told her to do. But now that she had made Naruto's fox show it's self, she wanted to fight it! She wanted to kill it! To prove to Sasuke that she was strong!
Naruto looked up at the girl. His eyes were red and his whisker marks were dark. He knew the fox was gaining more control over his body each time he used the chakra, but this was the first time the fox had gotten out with out Naruto calling it. He was scared.
Zakuro eyed the man. His attitude changed totally. He was no longer looking at her with fear and sorrow. Now his eyes were filled with hate, murder, and something else. Something wild. She couldn't even give it a name. It scared her!
"You think my Naruto is unworthy of the Uchiha's friendship! How are you worthy?! Do you think you're stronger than us?! If so, than why aren't you Hokage!? Why couldn't you kill or injure even one of the people you fought?! We could have! We could have killed them all! But you! You barley escaped!"
The demon became more evident as it spoke. Naruto's voice changed. It was darker, deeper, more evil! His chakra had shaped itself around him. It looked now like Naruto was only the base of a giant demon fox, with five tails.
Naruto screamed and as he did, the demon fox roared. To voices came from one mouth. Zakuro be so scared she couldn't move! She couldn't think! She couldn't even breath! She felt an arm around her waist. Something was pulling her. She turned quickly, getting some control of her body again, and saw Sasuke.
"Thank you," he said in an emotionless voice, but his eyes held hurt in them. Zakuro feared that her Sasuke was just as scared as she. But he wasn't. He let go of her and walked slowly towards Naruto.
Naruto saw him and growled.
oOo oOo oOo
Sai led Kakashi's team and the sand shinobi to find Kakashi. He had been in charge of Kakashi's team since Kakashi left to check out something. Now they were all following one of the dogs to find out what became of Kakashi. The dog led them to a clearing. When the entered, something felt wrong. Sai looked around and saw all but three of Kakashi's ninja dogs lying dead on the ground. The dog following looked around for a minute then disappeared. Sai tried to call it to stay but was too late. He heard one of the ninja's yell then fall to the floor dead. Then another. Then another.
Sai ran. He ran as fast as he could. Every single shinobi that had been with him was now dead. They had been fine one minute then they just died. Sai feared for his life. He ran and ran for what felt like forever! Then he realized something horrible. He was running in circles. Sai was standing in the same clearing. And there in front of him was an Akatsuki member with only half a face.
Sai almost threw up.
Even worse than that, the man was standing over a dead Kakashi and behind him was a pile made of the dead shinobi. Sai felt his legs shaking. He tried to run but couldn't move. His knees buckled and he fell.
The man stepped over Kakashi and placed a mask on his face. He turned and knelt beside Kakashi's face. He took out a kunai and cut into the dead man's face. Then he removed the sharingan eye. His hand slipped under his mask. Then he took the kunai in his hand again and drove it into the mask. The man cut out an eye hole. Now he did a few hand signs.
Sai watched all this in horror! The man now had both eyes and was looking at him with the same awful way Sasuke had looked at him years before. Was it possible? Was this man also an Uchiha? Or maybe he only had the sharingan eyes like Kakashi had had. But that couldn't be! Kakashi was never able to use this skill with his Sharingan! This man had to be an Uchiha!
As he thought of all the ways he might be able to escape, Tobi walked over to him, taking three kunai out of a pouch inside his coat. He added them to his hand then displayed the four weapons in front of his face.
"Are you going to stand there and watch your own death? Or will you move and at least try to escape!" Tobi was behind Sai now. How was this guy so fast?!
"There is no escape from you." Sai said, defeated.
"Smart."
"You are the only one I have ever meet that was able to bring up my emotions."
"Happy day. Is that supposed to mean something?"
"If it is by your hand, then I am honored to die!"
"Shut up! You're trying to kiss up to me now? When you are about to die! What is it you want? Tell me. I have killed many today and I don't like working myself to hard, so maybe you'll get lucky."
Sai smiled inside. Really, what kind of power did this guy have to make an emotionless person like himself feel happy, scared, sad, and scared.
"I want to join you. I was you to take me under your wing. Teach me all you know. Please make me your student, sensei!"
Tobi laughed. He laughed hard.
"Sensei? Who do you think you are!" Tobi said when he had calmed himself from the laughing fit. "What is your name?"
"Sai."
"Well then, Sai, let me tell you something. Do you know why I am in the Akatsuki?"
Sai shook his head.
"Well, it's because I am dead. Or I was. But a nice young man raised my lifeless body and filled it with the soul of a friend of his. I have every memory from this body's past, but I see everything in a different way. So if this body loved that man called Kakashi, it doesn't matter. All I see is a man that fought by me then stole my eye when I died."
Sai's eyes widened in horror. Was this guy telling the truth?
"Also, I am in the Akatsuki because I also have the memories of the soul's past. I am two people mixed together so that both could live. And do you know what my soul remembers most? It's one great love."
Tobi push one of the four kunai into Sai's stomach.
"It's love," he said next to Sai's ear.
Another was pushed in.
"For killing."
A third.
"So no,"
A fourth.
"I guess today wasn't your lucky day."
Sai fell in pain on the ground. He pulled out the kunai, praying that he would live.
Tobi watched as the boy before him tried to get up, but the loss of blood from the deep cuts was too much.
Sai fell again. He knew it was too late.
"As I said before, it is an honor to be killed by someone as strong at you."
And Sai died.
"Man, even the last words of that pathetic guy pissed me off!"
oOo oOo oOo
Zetsu easily avoided each and every attack the girl threw at him. She used every jutsu she knew to try and at least hit him once! Nothing worked. He moved quickly for someone with a giant plant on his head. He talked to himself too. It was like watching White Zetsu talk to Black Zetsu. Akane was at least getting information out of this fight. All she had to do was keep him moving until Naruto came back with Sasuke. It could take days!
But she was half Hyuga! And she was also, to her disgust, half Uchiha. She did have to admit to herself though, that being an Uchiha had it's ups as well as it's downs. For example, she did not have the sharingan, but she did have something similar to it that she had made up on her own. It was the byakugan with every single one of it's abilities but it also copied. It wasn't as fast or as accurate as the actual sharingan, but it worked. Another example was that she was fast! Her family said it was from the Hyuga side and maybe it was because she had no sharingan. But Akane had to wonder if maybe it was also a bit from the Uchiha side of her family. But the best "up" Akane could think of right now, was that both an Uchiha and a Hyuga had great natural chakra control and that because of the constant use of the Sharingan for the Uchiha's and the Byakugan for the Hyuga's, both had a special ability to use very little chakra for anything they did. Shikamaru had taught her how to measure her chakra many years ago, so Akane knew she had enough chakra to continue this fight for another two days non-stop if she had to.
Black Zetsu was grumbling to White Zetsu about something. The noise pulled Akane out of her thoughts. (A/N: Bold means Black Zetsu is talking.)
"Why can't we just kill her! Then we could go after that delicious looking boy!"
"No! Sasuke said we couldn't kill him."
"But we killed all those other shinobi!"
"No! We didn't kill them! We only injured them. They will live, unless their will to die is strong."
"But that's no fun! And we haven't eaten in days!"
"We disposed of three bodies yesterday! Don't you remember the spies Zakuro killed?"
"That wasn't even a snack! Zakuro killed them with her vampire like jutsu's so it was like eating sand!"
"Sand? How is this happening?!"
At the mention of sand, Zetsu felt a sandy arm snake it's way up his body. He was stuck in the strong hold of some kind of case made of hardened sand. The owner of this strange case soon showed himself. Akane was elated to have someone like Gaara help her! Zetsu scowled.
"Now look what you've done! You've made us stuck! And there is no way we will be able to eat like this!"
Gaara smirked. "You won't have to worry about that any more."
Gaara stretched his arm out in front of him. He opened his palm. Then he closed it quickly. He waited for the sound of the body being crushed. The blood spilling from the edges of the sand coffin. That old and all-to-familiar sound that was heard so much only a few years ago. He waited, but the sound never came. Instead, the sound that washed over his ears, was sand crushing sand then pooling on the floor of the forest.
Akane watched the pile of sand in shock. Gaara could only think of one explanation. But for this organic creature to be able to use a sand clone was almost as unrealistic as pigs flying or swords talking!
The sand in the middle of the pile began to rise and take shape.
oOo oOo oOo
Jugo didn't attack. He stood and watched the small group as they talked at panicked. He laughed to himself. How could such a smart looking bunch of kids be so panicked about one guy?! Then he recognized two of the boys. Yes, those two had ought him before. Now it made sense to him. They must be telling the others about that nice little fight they had back then.
One of the boys, the one with the dog, kept glancing up at him. Like he was going to attack a group of almost helpless, scared to death, loud annoying little kids! But then again, why not?
oOo oOo oOo
A man watched as Naruto began to transform into the fox. He watched as many more shinobi, including Sai, were killed. He watched as Gaara came to help Akane fight Zetsu. He watched as a large group gathered around the lifeless body of Rock Lee. And he watched as Neji, Konkuro, Tenten, and Temari left Rock Lee to chase his killer. He watched as a scared Zakuro ran from Naruto. Ran for her life. He watched. He watched and he waited.
Sorry for the shortness but like i said, it's been busy over here!! next chapter will come sooner! maybe even later today! hope you enjoyed! please comment! it keeps my stories alive!