Hey, people! Is it true that I have an unique style of writing (typing)? It's okay if you say no. I just wanted to clarify stuff. On my old account (Peltra), people thought I had a bit of weird humor. Strange, huh?
So... who liked the appearance of Minato? I'm sure you understand why exactly he's against Konoha now. And since you know about him, then the identity of Areno (Desert) will be easy to figure out.
I STILL feel like I'm letting out too many hints. Oh well.This time we're revealing Musei(Silent), and you should all be figuring out who is in Itonami.
P.S. You know what? After reading a few stories here and there, I realized that I just CAN'T bash somebody. I'm the kind of person who sticks close to the canon characterizations, and only rarely make people OOC. But even without bashing, my story (in my standards) is pretty good actually.
✿ Chapter 7: To Bee or Not to Bee ✿
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer. (I really have no idea what this means.)
There was a moment of silence.
"Now what do we do?" wondered Kakuzu.
"What do you think?" Kimimaro deadpanned.
Without another word, the trio (Kabuto slung on Asuma's shoulders) gave chase towards the direction of Kirigakure.
Izuna dodged a few swipes of Kimimaro's sword, as well as the Mizukage's (Except for Tsunade or Gaara, I'm only referring to the other kage by their titles.) jet of boiling water vapor.
Crimson eyes glowed as the world bended. Literally.
"This is just like Kamui, that Mangekyou Sharingan technique!" Asuma gasped, having seen it once before on a mission with Kakashi.
"Stronger," Izuna corrected. "My strange eyes don't really have a name, but considering they were not like this before I took them from the previous owner, I guess I'll call it the Mangekyou Byakugan. With this, I can bend reality." The air rippled and swirled, intending to rip everything in its path to shreds.
(Location: Itonami Room Thingy)
"Riku! What are you doing?"
Utakata shrugged, and blew another bubble. It floated gently on top of a dirty dish. "It helps clean the dishes." And he was right. The once dirty surface was clean and sparkling. The others just gaped.
"Jutsu aren't allowed for everyday chores!"
"Chakra is just a tool. I will use it whenever it is required."
FutureRokudaime: SAKURA-CHAN! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT WE JUST FOUND OUT!
CherryBlossom: Does it explain your delay in returning?
FutureRokudaime: Hey! Asuma-sensei's team still hasn't returned!
MindReader: They'll come back. Now, spill!
FutureRokudaime: So, this was how it went. I bumped into some guy called Kogane, who turned out to be my father!
CherryBlossom & MindReader: WHAT?
CherryBlossom: You have a father?
FutureRokudaime: Furthermore, he's the Yondaime Hokage. Ring any bells?
FutureRokudaime: Hey, Sakura-chan! Ino! Answer me!
FutureRokudaime: Plz answer! Right now!
BugBoy: Somehow, this piece of news doesn't surprise me at all.
Troublesome: This is so. Damn. Troublesome!
Sasuke was seething.
Having seen Itachi pass by on that big screen multiple times now, without that damn (BEEP) even acknowledging him, was (BEEP)ing infuriating.
"Teach me how to defeat Itachi!" he demanded towards a newly awakened Raikage. Well, the Raikage was the only choice, since Madara was in 'Tobi Mode,' and most of the others awake were still catatonic after their punishment:having to see Lee and Gai in the bath. Naked. Why were they in the shower hugging each other anyways? But never mind that, I'm not sure I want to know.
"Well, Kid," the Raikage said, rubbing his chin, "the most effective moves are the ones you create for yourself. Take that Chidori, for instance. It worked the best with Kakashi because it was HIS original technique."
Sasuke sat and thought. What were his techniques? All his time with Orochimaru, and what had he actually learned? Sure, his taijutsu increased, and he could summon both snakes and hawks. But what about ninjutsu?
A few variations on Chidori, tricks with ninja wires, how to use the Curse Seal Level 2 effectively. But was that it? If that was all he had to defeat Itachi, then it was not enough.
Now, how to create a new technique? Sasuke scanned his memory to search for any interesting jutsu to start with, finally settling on the fight at the Vally of the End.
His eyes widened as he remembered the black, shimmering Chidori, the one that had overpowered the elemental difference between lightning and wind,the one that had won him the battle between himself and Naruto.
He had been concentrating so much on defeating Naruto that he had ignored a brand new technique! But how to recreate such a technique? The Chidori was normal even when he was in his curse seal form. So what triggered the abnormal change?
Bones erupted from the ground, thick and sharp. They shot up so high they reached far into the sky, branching out the higher they went, creating a jagged forest of blades.
"Dance of the Camelia , Level Three," Kimimaro said. "Give up; I'm in control of the entire battlefield. The bones will only grow closer and closer. You have nowhere to escape."
"Is that so?" Izuna chuckled. He flickered, and the illusion was dispelled.
"I must admit you are all formidable opponents, but you all failed to realize that the field was entirely in MY control from the beginning of the battle. The Mizukage is long gone by now." The shadow clone dispelled.
Kakuzu swore. "That was only half of his power! Just how strong is that guy?"
"If my analysis proves to be true..." Kabuto shifted his weight on Asuma's shoulders, "then I fear that Madara-san would be the only one who could beat him."
The others all stared at the medic-nin, surprised. "Why are you so certain? There are many other powerful shinobi who can-"
"No," Kabuto interrupted, eyes still staring ahead to where the clone had stood, a unsettling calm look on his face. "There's no mistaking it. UI is Uchiha Izuna."
When Kimimaro's team (He fought the most, so it's fair it gets named after him.) returned defeated to Konoha, Kakuzu went to check up on his partner.
"(BEEP), Kakuzu! You're finally (BEEP)ing back! Sew me back together!" the three halves of Hidan demanded. Kakuzu only sighed and got to work. Thick black threads weaved itself into the edge of the three Hidan halves, bounding the flesh together and waited for Hidan's rather slow regeneration to make him whole again.
"Figured you'd land yourself into trouble without me."
"HEY!"
After sewing Hidan whole again, the Akatsuki made their way towards the kitchen.
"I smell brownies!" cried Kisame, smacking his lips.
There was a plateful of brownies sitting on the kitchen table, freshly baked, and its aroma drew the Akatsuki towards it like flies.
"Guys, I don't think this is a good idea," Konan warned, but the others ignored her.
"Who (BEEP)ing cares about that?" said Hidan, stuffing his face full. "This stuff is delicious!"
"Women's intuition. Don't say I didn't warn you," Konan said, and walked away.
Soon, the plate was empty, and the group of S-rank criminals sat around the table, patting their stomachs contently, and burping occasionally.
Their peace was interrupted by a crash, and the door opened as Khorale walked in.
"Have you seen-" She froze as she looked at the sight before her.
Now, before you read on, I'll let you know a little fact: Khorale adores brownies. She loves them on the level of Itachi's adoration of pocky, and Naruto's obsession with Ramen. Possibly even more. See what I'm getting at right now?
Khorale loves brownies. She likes baking brownies. She likes baking brownies and eating them platefuls at a time. And what she DOESN'T like to see is for it to be eaten by somebody else.
There was a moment of dreaded silence.
"Y-you," Khorale growled, her frame shaking with fury. The Akatsuki (minus Konan) gulped.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
"What was that sound?" Naruto turned around towards the hotel the Akatsuki was currently staying in.
"I don't know," Jiraiya shrugged. "It sounds like seven voices screaming something like 'I didn't mean to!'. Strange."
"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "And what makes it even weirder was that it sounded like the Akatsuki."
"Nah, they wouldn't have been the ones screaming like a bunch of sissies. That'd annihilate their dignity."
"Never mind," Naruto grumbled.
Inside the Cage, the occupants were currently laughing their asses off.
"I didn't even know Itachi could squeal like that!" Madara chortled.
"What is that girl doing?" Orochimaru looked, eyes wide. Sure, he was a master of torture, but this was too cruel for even him. (I'll leave the punishment up to your wild imaginations.)
"Ouch," Tsunade said, wincing. "The stick's on fire- Wait, is she gonna shove it up-"
There was a terrible scream of pain, and the males in the group cringed violently and looked towards Kakuzu sympathetically.
"That's GOTTA hurt," Sasuke said, shivering as he looked at the angry form of Khorale. Even if he was a safe distance away from the raging woman -coughdemoncough-, he still felt uneasy.
Gaara turned away, twitching slightly, but otherwise unaffected. He was used to dealing with violent stuff after all.
The other kage were sleeping.
Sasuke tore his eyes off of the screen, and refocused on creating his black Chidori, which he named ShiTori, Death Birds. The reason he didn't name it Shitori was because it would be SHITori, which would cause him to swear every time he yelled it out. So, ShiTori it was.
Sasuke decided to try creating the ShiTori again, getting no results at all. There wasn't even a spark.
"This cage dampens chakra," Madara said lazily, opening one red eye (still hiding the Rinnegan one because he wasn't supposed to have one). "Doing anything less than using your full chakra reserves would be useless. And you need a kage level amount of chakra as well."
"I bet the dobe could do it," Sasuke muttered angrily. "I bet Itachi could also."
Madara just shrugged.
With a frustrated yell, Sasuke quickly shaped his hands through a few hand seals, his chakra spiking dangerously, and to the amazement of the other occupants of the Cage, a tiny spark of black traveled down Sasuke's arm and disappeared half a second later.
"It's going to be powerful. I just know it," Orochimaru muttered, staring at it. "What did you do?"
Sasuke looked at his hands, also disbelieving. "I accidentally mixed up the hand seal of Raikari with the hand seal of Blaze Release: Shadow Fire. Though I don't know how I even knew that technique at the Valley of the End. They were very similar, but still..."
"Lucky guess?" the Raikage shrugged.
"What is Blaze Release?" Tsunade asked.
Madara remembered that time from his original timeline. Sasuke had used the Blaze Release to exert complete control over the Amaterasu. Not even Itachi could do that, as he had just guided the hell flames in the general direction of his enemies.
"Blaze Release is not quite a bloodline, as it doesn't reside in every single Uchiha," he explained. "It appears rarely in the genes, and has rather little use since it's very similar to Fire Release, only stronger. Blaze Release also exerts much more control over fire than normal. You can summon flames without hand seals, and you use far less chakra," Madara finished, and the others stared at him with wide eyes.
Madara rolled his eyes. "Are you asking if I have one? Nope, I don't. My brother does, though. And, speaking of my brother..." he suddenly stopped, as he remembered what happened to Tsunade when she almost revealed Izuna's identity. The occupants have all suffered greatly. "... well, you don't need to know." he finished lamely.
A piece of paper fluttered down from nowhere.
Nice save. It spares me the trouble of finding something else to torture you guys with.
Do not show this to anyone else.
-IU
A messenger falcon flew through the air, and settled on Kakashi's windowsill.
The masked nin's eyes scanned the contents, and immediately called a meeting for ninja that were jounin level and up,which meant that the rookie (maybe not so rookie anymore) twelve (Sai's filling Sasuke's place) were there too. The Akatsuki were too injured to participate, so all theycould do wassit in on the meeting while cringing away from Khorale, who was glaring at them.
"Kirabi of the Cloud has called a Summit Meeting in the Land of Iron. All temporary leaders will attend to discuss the war. I need to pick three of you to be my bodyguards, just in case the organization decides to target me as well."
'Don't worry, they won't.'
"You again," Khorale said, irritated.
'Yup! The temporary leaders are safe, 'cause they aren't the actual ones, and will just stop when the real leaders get back.'
"Well, that's a relief," a heavily bandaged Pein sighed. Can corpses even bleed? He was sporting a massive black eye and was limping slightly.
"I'll choose one from the Sound, one from the rookies, and Team Hebi."
Karin shook her head, and backed away from Chouji. Juugo shrugged and pointed towards Suigetsu, who just grinned. The rookies nudged one another, and finally decided on Shikamaru.
"Why is it always me?" the Nara groaned.
"You're very smart, despite your laziness," Sakura shrugged. "You can always find loopholes in the law in case you want something to go in Konoha's favor." The others all nodded, and pushed Shikamaru towards Kakashi.
Kabuto shook his head, and said he was going as the Otokage, so he couldn't accompany Kakashi. The sound shinobi looked at each other, and finally Kimimaro sighed and stepped forward.
And so they left.
"Ero-sennin! Ero-sennin!" Naruto yelled, running towards the sannin.
"What is it, Brat?"
"A monster! It came from my refrigerator! My leftovers are alive, and they're planning world domination!" There was a moment of silence as Jiraiya tried to process what exactly was going on.
"If you're lying, Brat..." Jiraiya growled, but walked towards Naruto's apartment anyways.
Upon approaching the house, the ground began shaking. Now convinced that Naruto was indeed not lying, Jiraiya approached the area cautiously.
Slowly opening the refrigerator door, Jiraiya was treated to the horrible sight of-
"Ugh, what IS that thing?"
It lay flat on its stomach/mouth/teeth/suction-cup thing, whatever it was. Tentacles sprouted everywhere like a star fish, and a single huge eye stood on the back of the slimy creature.
"Greetings, humans," it said in a demonic voice. "I am the leftover of the ten-year old ramen. I am here to conquer the world."
Naruto and Jiraiya just stared,dumbfounded.
Naruto decided to ask the Kyuubi what the hell was going on, so he closed his eyes and entered his subconscious.
"Furball! What was that thing?" That was the first thing that left his mouth as he arrived.
"Silence, you puny little human," the beast hissed. "I, the Kyuubi no Yoko, will not be spoken to like that. Now, apologize."
Naruto grit his teeth. "I'm very sorry to remove the giant stick shoved up your ass then!" he yelled.
Crimson eyes narrowed. "Be gone, mortal. Come back when you are more polite."
Naruto opened his eyes. Not a second had passed in the real world. He turned to Jiraiya. "The stupid fox refuses to help me," he said irritably.
The leftover monster made a cute little growling noise and pounced, latching onto a vegetable that was lying on the other side of the refrigerator. After the juice was sucked out of the lettuce, it turned white.
Naruto shuddered. "Vampire leftover monsters. Great. Just great."
Sasuke practiced again and again for the ShiTori, but nothing came. It was like he lacked power. He grit his teeth. How was he ever going to beat Itachi if he couldn't practice his technique?
"You lack hatred," his older brother's words echoed in his head. Of course.
Sasuke remembered the spiking anger he had felt just before performing the ShiTori for the first time, and his hands flashed through a couple of seals carefully. With a look of satisfaction, Sasuke watched as a little spark danced on the tips of his fingers. It vanished earlier than before, perhaps because he wasn't angry enough. But it was a start.
"Remember, don't use too much chakra," the Tsuchikage called as he turned from a conference between the leaders. "We're planning to escape soon."
The Raikage turned back to the conference. "To break free, we will need outside help."
Gaara nodded. "The Yondaime Hokage is alive, as we have seen on the screen. That means the seal on the cage was his design. We're out our leagues here. The Yellow Flash is the greatest seal master in history."
"We need outside help," Orochimaru agreed, albeit a bit painfully. It damaged the man's pride to ask for any didn't count.
"I wonder..." Madara mused thoughtfully. "Remember last time, Tsunade and Orochimaru? I managed to contact the nine-tails brat."
"You're right," nodded Tsunade. "Naruto heard Orochimaru's yell, and turned his head. I still haven't asked you what happened yet." She shot a sharp glare towards Madara.
"Okay, okay!" Madara held his hands up. "I went into his mind, and we exchanged words. Then my chakra ran out, so the connection broke."
"You will contact Uzumaki again," said the Mizukage. "Share with him our ideas for escape. He will pass on the message to whoever we need."
In the corner, Danzo stirred.
The meeting room was circular, with six seats. 火(Fire/Ho), 風(Wind/Kaze), 水(Water/Mizu), 雷(Lightning/Rai), 土(Earth/Tsuchi), and the newest addition: 音(Sound/Oto)
Kirabi cleared his throat, and motioned the temporary leaders to sit down.
Temari was in the Kazkage seat.
Kakashi sat in the Hokage seat.
Pein was in a hologram, since he was too injured (*Pein glares at Khorale, who glares back*) to arrive in person. He sat in the Mizukage seat.
Deidara was also in hologram in the Tsuchikage's seat. (I searched all the Iwa characters! The only other kage level ninja alive there is Deidara. So yeah, I have no choice.)
Kabuto sat in the Otokage seat.
They were the only people there. Their escorts were outside, guarding the Summit, along with the samurai.
"Okay, we're here to discuss and share our information on the Itonami," Temari said, using the name for the first time.
There were a few mutters of surprise as the information sunk in on the gathered people.
"Itonami, is it?" Pein asked. Temari nodded.
"Well, from what Konoha has gathered, it appears that the Itonami is aiming for world domination by kidnapping all the strongest shinobi in the world so that the rest of us will be left vulnerable.
"Is that so?" Deidara sneered. "Glad we're so weak then."
"Quiet, Deidara," said Pein.
"Oh please, Leader-sama," said Deidara. "I've lost my partner! My old mentor is also gone! We even miss that pedophile snake a little!"
Kabuto growled a little, not liking that his master was called a pedophile.
Pein only sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "From what Akatsuki has gathered, one of the members is Minato Namikaze,the Yondaime Hokage.
There were shocked exclamations around the room. Kabuto took deep breaths to keep from hyperventilating, Kakashi already knew, Temari blinked in surprise, and Kirabi-
"Er, who's this Minato again?" Cue multiple face-faults.
"The Yellow Flash, The seal Master of Konoha, and I repeat, the Yondaime Hokage," Kakashi said, rubbing his nose.
"Oh. Him." Another round of face-fault.
"He used a Hirashin boomerang that can continuously fly in unpredictable patterns and does not touch the ground unless he stops it. It's almost too fast for my Sharingan to track, and too fast to keep up with."
"I have clues to yet another one of its members," Kabuto spoke. "The one called 'Areno.' The team for Kumo encountered her. They said she had an ultimate defense of some sort."
Temari twitched slightly.
"As I was saying -and I think you all might agree with me- is that Areno could possibly be related to Gaara," Kabuto said seriously.
"There's a very strong possibility of that," said Pein.
Deidara shrugged.
"There was another member. Musei. Who could use the Hyoton," said Pein.
"No big deal," Kakashi said. "In Yukigakure, the hidden snow village, there's a lot of hyoton users. The only reason it mattered so much was because it was Yukigakure's only kekkei genkai. I can't imagine how it appeared in Kiri, as a gir- I mean boy, grew up there." He felt a slight embarrassment on almost calling Haku a girl.
"From what the Kumo team could tell, the man did not have the same build as any of the hyoton users. Where their structures were built for speed, this guy was for strength."
"Describe him more," Kakashi said, feeling a bit of dread. He had a feeling as to just who exactly it was... After all, the members of the Itonami were ninja thought to be dead.
"He wore a Kiri headband sideways on his head, and had spiky black hair. There were bandages covering the lower half of his face. Oh yeah, he had a huge sword too.
Kakashi groaned, and banged his head on the table. "Why does it have to be him?" he asked miserably.
"Who?" Temari asked curiously.
"Momochi Zabuza," Kakashi replied, "the Devil of the Mist. I thought I killed him myself. How could he have been alive?"
Deidara shrugged. "Probably the way the Yondaime survived the Kyuubi, or how Tobi survived the fight with the Shodaime Hokage, OR how a jinchuuriki can survive an extraction."
"There was one?" Kirabi asked sharply, eyes drilling into Pein's ringed ones.
The orange-haired 'god' nodded curtly, and explained. "We did not know about it until recently. Zetsu had been storing the jinchuuriki bodies (you do know in the canon that fake-Madara's pathes are jinchuuriki bodies, right?), and reported that one was missing. Then we came across the report of Uchiha Sasuke missing by the hands of somebody that looked remarkably similar. We put two and two together, and figured out that Riku is Utakata, the jinchuuriki of Rokubi."
"Don't think you can just find him and talk some sense into him," Deidara said lazily, knowing what Kirabi was about to do. "He's beyond reasoning. Revenge-obsessed, he is, just like that Uchiha pipsqueak.
"I'm NOT a pipsqueak!" Sasuke roared towards the screen.
The others snickered, but it soon stopped as they saw the temporary leaders glance their way.
"No way..." they heard Kakashi whisper.
"No way," Kakashi whispered. "Sasuke. I just heard Sasuke."
The others nodded. Somehow, the missing people were watching them. Here and now.
"Hey, Tobi!" said Deidara. "If you can hear me, yell!"
There was a faint "Tobi's a good boy!" and then silence.
"We heard them," Kabuto said hoarsely. "Orochimaru-sama!"
"Speak louder!" There was Tsunade's voice.
"Well, I'm trying!" Orochimaru's voice rang out.
"Temari, can you hear me?"
"Gaara!" Temari said in relief. "Are you safe?"
"Oh no," somebody said,"the manipulative old coot has woken up."
"Who's a manipulative old coot?"
"That's Danzo!" Kakashi said.
"Ah, the connection's breaking!" the temporary leaders heard someone exclaim. There was a rustle of static, and then, nothing.
Next chapter: The girl-guide cookies gags starts, the vampire leftover monster is exterminated, and Apples. Lots of apples!
Minato – Kogane (Gold)
Izuna - IU
Zabuza – Musei (Silent)
T****a – Meimu (Illusion)
Hinote – Okunote (Secret)
Utakata – Riku (Shore)
K****a – Areno (Desert)
Preview/spoilers:
Tobi was actually quite a brilliant actor. Perhaps because he was not real. Jiraiya was completely convinced that it was still Naruto talking.
And then the leftover went for the instant ramen boiling over the stove.
Inside his head, Naruto panicked. "NOOOOO! NOT THE RAMEN!" and red chakra began pouring out.
"He's going four-tails for a cup of ramen?" Jiraiya asked incredulously.