Suigetsu's sword clashed against Mito's, and Mito was sent to the floor drooping both of her swords. Suigetsu sighed as he stuck his sword in the ground. "Come on brat you should be able to stop that. I didn't even swing that hard"

"I'm still learning," Mito said getting up and picking up her swords. They had come back to the base after defeating Raiga. Suigetsu had immediately started training Mito in kenjutsu. Now Mito had been slowly catching up to Suigetsu in taijutsu, but in kenjutsu Suigetsu was miles ahead.

One of the biggest problems Mito was having was holding two swords at the same time. Mito heavily favored her right hand so her coordination with the two swords were way off. Most of the time she would only swing her right sword while her left sword hung at her side.

She wasn't the only one training Hanabi and Hitomi had been sparring. Hanabi was trying to work on her gentle fists while Hitomi was working on her sharingan by trying to predict Hanabi's moves. Naruto was also training but his was a lot different than anyone else's. Naruto was reading an advance mathematic book that gave Mito had headache just from looking at the page long equations.

Mito had assumed that Naruto was looking for a way to fix the weakness in his reflection, but when she asked him about it he said that his reflection couldn't get any better when it came to reflecting taijutsu so he would just have live with that weakness. Mito wo still didn't really understanding Naruto's powers just accepted Naruto's answer. Mito knew however that Naruto wouldn't just ignore the weakness. If his reflection couldn't be modified to stop Lee's punches then he would do something else that could.

This training continued for a couple days until Zestu came to give Naruto a mission. Naruto walked back in the meeting room with Zestu. "Got something you need me and the brats to do?" Naruto asked.

"No this is an actually Akatsuki mission." Zestu said.

"I thought I could only do bounty hunting mission with the brats until I got a partner… Oh shit." Naruto said thinking about it.

"Don't panic yet we still haven't found you a partner, but you won't be going alone, say hello to your new temporary partner." Zestu said with a creepy but somehow childish smile.

Naruto looked around the room hoping someone other than Zestu would pop into existence. No such luck. "What's our mission?" Naruto sighed.

"Don't sound to disappointed we're going someplace where you can get something you want, like one of the seven swords." Zestu said.

"Kirigakure; I guess I could get the brats a souvenir." Naruto said.

"Before we go I think you need to have a look at this." Zestu said handing Naruto a bingo book. Naruto saw what page Zestu was opened to and received a slight shock.

"So how did they find out?" Naruto asked seeing his real name on the page.

"Don't know but it's here." Zestu said.

Naruto put the book down and sighed. His secret was out and he was sure more ninja were after him than ever before. It wouldn't be so bad, but damn that bounty Minato placed on him for bringing him back alive was fucking huge. Naruto wouldn't be surprised if he had the largest active bounty in the bingo book right now. "That sucks but there's nothing I can do about it, so what's the mission?"

Naruko was trying to cut a leaf with her chakra and so far no luck. It was so frustrating; why did chakra natures have to be so hard? At least she wasn't the only one having problems. Minima wasn't haveing much success on her chakra nature either.

The girls have been training ever since they found out Naruto was Accelerator. Naruko still hadn't decided if she wanted to take Jiraiya up on his offer, so until she could make a decision she would be training with Minima under Minato and Kushina. First lesson Chakra nature; Naruko had wind and Minima had lightning. Kushina told Naruko that wind was rare to have something that Naruko took great pride in. Both Minato and Kushina had lighting nature so it was no surprise that Minima also had it. This wasn't a bad think for Minima however as Kushina could teach her a lot faster than she could with Naruko.

With Naruko and Minima taking lessons from their parents team 7 had been disbanded with Sasuke now taking lessons from Itachi. Kakashi was doing whatever Kakashi did in his free time.

Naruko opened her hand again to check up on the leaf and was surprised to see she had actually made a small cut. Normally she would have jumped for joy at her progress, but she just didn't feel like she had gotten anywhere. The ability to cut a leaf wouldn't do her any good against Naruto who just made S-rank, and who knows how powerful the Akatsuki is.

Naruko guessed she only had herself to blame. If only she had taken being a ninja seriously back in the academy then maybe her brother wouldn't have such a head start on her in terms of skill. She was sure Orochimaru didn't let Naruto slack off like her parents let Naruko do. Naruko sighed thinking about her brother and went back to cutting her leaf.

The next couple of days went incredibly slowly. It seemed like every one in the leaf was just waiting for information. Information about Mito, information about the Akatsuki but mainly information about Naruto. The leaf was tense to say the least. By now everyone knew that the Hokage had listed Naruto in the Bingo book and it seemed like the whole ninja population not just in Konoha but everywhere were ready to mobilize at just a clue to Naruto's location. I was a race to see who could get to him first. Would it be the bounty hunters looking to capture Naruto for the money? Would it be the Leaf who wanted to bring Naruto home or would it be Minato's enemies who were ready to kill him. These questions would plague the Namikaze family every night.

However there was one village that didn't care about the Namikaze's lost son: Kirigakure. No one could really blame them they did just finished up a bloody civil war that has led to the rule of the fifth Mizukage and fixing a ninja village hardly left time for concern about other ninja villages. So it just happened to be the perfect place for Naruto to turn up.

Naruto was standing on a mountain overlooking the village hidden in the mist. Naruto was wearing a straw hat to avoid being identified. The village looked like absolute crap it buildings were in disrepair some of them looking about ready to fall over. From what Naruto could see the streets were littered were beggars and prostitutes. It looked even worse with the cloud covered sky that was blocking all the moonlight from the night sky.

While Naruto was admiring the city Zestu immerged up through the gourd next to him. "You know for a partner you don't stick around for too long Naruto." Naruto said since once they left the base and Zestu explained the mission to Naruto he had immediately merged through the gourd and left Naruto to walk all the way by himself.

"I think he missed us, do you remember the mission?" Zestu said.

"Of course I remember the mission." Naruto said.

"Good then we wouldn't need to talk till the mission is complete, make sure you don't get killed." Zestu said before submerging back into the ground.

"It was nice talking to you too." Naruto said to himself. The mission Zestu had given him was beyond weird. Naruto had to kill a bunch of seemingly random prisoners that had been captured in the civil war, and Zestu job was to destroy some document from the fourth Mizukage. Naruto didn't know why the Akatsuki wanted these guys dead, but Naruto didn't think the Akatsuki would send them out here for no reason so it must be important.

The problem was that this was a stealth mission and Naruto wasn't exactly a stealthy person to begin with. Add a huge bounty combined with a village that could really use the money then you have the worst mission ever. Naruto didn't have time to curse his luck however because he had a mission to do.

Naruto created four tornados coming from his back, His cloak swung wildly around him and Naruto had to hold onto his hat to keep it from falling off. Once Naruto had adjusted his tornados slightly he felt confident to us his new technique. He had never used it before but all his calculations said it would work and as long as the calculations said it would work then Naruto was confident he could do it first try. Naruto pushed off the ground and started flying. It worked just how Naruto calculated it would; by moving his tornados in different direction Naruto was able to push himself in any direction and hover in mid-air if he wanted. It was a little awkward at first since Naruto had to do all the calculations for the wind speed, but once he got that down he was flying as if he had been doing it for years.

Naruto flew high into the skies above Kirigakure staying in the clouds to keep out of sight. It was a good thing Kirigakure was so disorganized since normally it be impossible to land in a major ninja village without getting spotted, but right now there was a bunch of abandon area in the village that made for a perfect landing zone.

Once Naruto landed he stopped his tornados and made his way to one of the slums. Naruto expected to stand out a little more in his Akatsuki cloak, but pretty everyone in the slums were wearing some kind of strange outfit probably because it was the only things they could find. It didn't take long for Naruto to find the prison since it was one of the few buildings that was in somewhat decent shape.

Naruto spent the next hour scooping out the place. Learning the guards' movement and forming his plan of attack. The guards seemed to be anywhere from mid-chunin to high- jounin and they were all especially tense. The building was a medium size structure that was made entirely out on concrete. There were no windows and only two doors one in the front and one in the back. Naruto assumed that the cells would be in the basement of the building.

Now the question was how to get inside. It would be so much easier if Naruto could just kill them all, but no this was a stealth mission. Naruto sighed it looked like he was going to have to use the oldest trick in the book. He walked over to a nearby building that looked like it would collapse at a moment's notice. This would be perfect Naruto could use vectors to make the building fall and everyone would just think it fell naturally, and that's just what Naruto did.

The building fell and a bunch of the guards ran over to check the damage and to see if anyone needed help. While this was going on Naruto walked through the back door. "What idiots," Naruto said to himself as he walked down the dark hallways and down the stairs.

"Hey who are yo-," was all the guard could say before Naruto sent a pebble through his head.

"Man one guard stayed behind to watch the prisons. This village it worse off than I thought." Naruto said getting the attention of the prisoners.

"Hey are you here to free us?" One the prisoners said.

"Well I'm not freeing you but I am getting you out of here." Naruto said sending a pebble through the bars. This caused the other prisoners to panic and move as far back in their cells as they could. It didn't help; as Naruto went around killing everyone that was on his list. Once that was done Naruto left the prison just as easily as he had entered. The guards were still helping the people that were hurt in the collapse so it would be a little bit before they would discover the bodies. This gave Naruto time to head to the armory.

The armory was way better guarded then the prison and Naruto had no idea where the swords could be. He was looking for one specific sword and finding it without knowing where to go would be a problem. Likely for Naruto helped arrived in the form of a plant.

"How'd it go?" Zestu asked.

"It was way too easy. They only left one person to guard the prisoners after my distraction." Naruto replied.

"Ours was equally as easy. It seems like this new Mizukage isn't so great on defense, give her a break she only been in office for a week. " Zestu said.

"I don't care about that I just want to get in there." Naruto said pointing to the armory.

"So you're really going to steal a sword?" Zestu asked.

"Sure am," Naruto replied.

"Which one? We can get it a lot easier than you can. Zestu said.

"The Nuibari," Naruto said.

"Wait here." Zestu said submerging into the ground.

Naruto now not having to go get the sword himself waited for Zestu to come back. When he did he gave Naruto the sword and they left the village just as the prisoner's bodies were being discovered.

Naruto could hear sword clashing as he entered the base. He quietly walked into the training room so he could see what was going on. Mito was sparing with Suigetsu and Naruto could already see improvements in her kenjutsu. She was using both swords now although she was still favoring her right hand, and he sword play looked shaper. This wasn't enough to get Suigetsu to really try, but it was good progress.

Hitomi was reading a book, and Hanabi looked like she was practicing a water jutsu. They were all too busy to notice that Naruto had returned. "Hey heads up!" Naruto yelled. Hanabi turned to see a long needle speeding towards her. She barely had time to dodge before the needle imbedded itself in the wall behind her.

"What the hell! You almost killed me!" Hanabi screamed.

"What are you talking about I was just giving you your present." Naruto said chuckling to himself. "But if you don't want it, then I'm sure Hitomi will be glad to take it."

Hanabi puffed out her cheeks and walked over to dislodge the needle. Hanabi knew exactly what it was since she had to listen to Suigetsu's lecture about the swords along with Mito and Hitomi.

"So you went to Kirigakure on your mission?" Hanabi asked.

"Yeah," Naruto replied.

"How was my home village looking?" Suigetsu asked.

"Like crap," Naruto said. "Buildings were falling down and the ninja were so bad that I was able to complete my mission in no time at all and get that sword without even being detected; one of the five major ninja villages my ass."

"So why did you get me the Nuibari?" Hanabi asked.

"If you hate it so much then give it to Hitomi she must be feeling left out being the only one to not have one of the seven swords." Naruto said sarcastically.

"That's not what I meant of you know it." Hanabi said with a small blush on her face.

"I thought it would be the best sword for you given your eyes." Naruto said explain his reasoning. "I thought it was strange that the hyugas could see 360 degrees and father than most people but used close range combat. Well that sword will allow you to take full advance of your eyes by allowing you to attack at long range along with still being useable for short range."

Hanabi looked at the Nuibari in a new light. She had never even considered using her eyes for long range attacks, but the more she thought about she wondered why the hyugas never focused on long range. Probably because the elders thought close range fighting reflected the hyugas in a better light then begin cowards who stay away from their enemies. "Thank you Naruto." Hanabi said.

"If you really want to thank me then show me you have what it takes to use that sword." Naruto said.

"Hai," Hanabi said energetically as she ran over to Suigetsu to learn how to use the Nuibari.

Naruko avoided two of Minima's chains. "Great breakthrough!" She yelled as she sent a strong gust of air at Minima. Minima dropped to her stomach as the jutsu flew over head. Naruko was about to launch another one when she sensed something below her and jumped out of the way just as one of Minima's chains ripped through the ground.

While Naruko was in midair she threw two kunais at Minima who had to roll out of the way and stand back up. Minima retaliated with her own kunais but these were lightning charged and were going much faster than Naruko's. Naruko was just barely able to avoid them as one even nicked her arm.

"Ok that's enough." Minato said standing up to stop the match.

"What I've haven't even got you use my ace!" Minima complained.

"That may be so, but you two have been training all day and a long spar just wouldn't be good for you. I mean just look at yourselves." Kushina said who had also been watching the match along with Jiraiya.

It was only now Minima realized that her clothes were stinking to her skin thanks to all the sweat she had produced. Naruko was in a similar state.

"Why don't you two wash up and I'll go make dinner." Kushina said.

"Hai," the girls said starting to walk off to their bathrooms. Jiraiya also stood up and for some reason started following them.

"Jiraiya if you try to sneak a peek at my daughters there'll be hell to pay!" Kushina said her hair rising with a deadly aura.

"That not what I was doing I swear." Jiraiya said holding his hand out in front of him. Minima and Naruko didn't get to hear what happed to Jiraiya as they had already left the room.

Naruko felt the warm water hit her face and run down her body. It was so nice to be able to relax a little. Naruko's days had been nonstop training she wasn't complaining it was nice to be able to get stronger, but it could just be a little much.

"Hey Naruko I've been meaning to ask you. Have you decided if you're going to train with Jiraiya?" Minima said from the other side of the wall. Although Naruko and Minima had separate bathrooms they were only separated by one wall, and it just so happed that the showers shared that wall. So they could have conservations with each other if one of them didn't turn the water on to loud.

"No I haven't why'd you ask?" Naruko said.

"I think you should." Minima said.

"What, if I left for three years it would just be you, tou-san and Kaa-san wouldn't you be lonely?" Naruko asked.

"Probably but we've all experienced Naruto's power and at the rate we're going we're never going to catch up to him." Minima said and somehow Naruko knew Minima was touching her scar. "The only thing that I can think of to beat him is get power the same way he did: under a Sannin."

"I don't think Jiraiya will give me the same kind of power Orochimaru gave Naruto." Naruko said trying to laugh at her own joke.

"That maybe so, but he managed to make tou-san strong enough to be Hokage. So even if you only return from your training trip a minuscule stronger than you would have been if you stayed then it just puts you a little bit closure to Naruto, and don't think I'm not going to be busting my ass while your away because I'm not going to let you get that far ahead of me." Minima said.

Naruko thought about it for a long time as the water ran down her body like a cloak of water. "Do you really think I should?" Naruko asked.

"Definitely."

Dinner was nice. Kushina had made a great meal just like always and everyone seemed happy, but no one was saying anything. There was no conversation about anything good or bad. Naruko felt like they somehow knew that tonight she was going to say something important and they didn't what their talking to interfere with hers. Naruko sighed. "I've made my decision I want to train with Jiraiya." Naruko said.

No one asked why she had decided so suddenly, but Minima looked happy, Jiraiya was smiling like he had just peak in the bathhouse, Minato and Kushina looked sad but they seemed to know this was the right decision. That's when Naruko realized. "You knew I was going to make my decision tonight."

"Yeah, Minima told us how she was going to try and talk you into it." Kushina said.

"I can't say I'm happy to see you go, but I know you'll come back stronger than ever." Minato said.

"Well it looks like you get to spend three years with your hero. I'm sure you excited." Jiraiya said.

Naruko looked at all the smilying faces at the table and felt better than she had felt in a long time. "I promise I'll make you proud." Naruko said.

The next day Naruko and Jiraiya left. Only Minato, Kushina and Minima knew they were leaving. The rest of the village would find out soon enough, but Naruko didn't what them to know when they were leaving because she didn't want them to think this was goodbye because it wasn't. It was a promise that in three years all the problems that had built up over the last twelve years Naruko would finally be strong enough to fix them, and the village would be too.

Hanabi's and Mito's kenjutsu was coming along well. They were both sparing against Suigetsu and although they weren't nearly strong enough to give Suigetsu any trouble he actually had to try now. Naruto was half watching the spar when something unexpected happened. Hanabi used some tricky footwork and managed to get behind Suigetsu. She stabbed her Nuibari through Suigetsu's head making it explode in water.

Naruto sighed as he used his vectors to forced his chakra to go insane. The genjutsu that was on him broke revealing that Hanabi had never hit Suigetsu. "You're going to have to do better than that." Naruto said to Hitomi. Hitomi had been training her genjutsu and her goal was to cast a genjutsu on Naruto without him noticing but so far that hadn't worked.

"How did you know?" She asked.

"There is no way Hanabi would be able to hit Suigetsu with just kenjutsu at the stage she's at." Naruto said. "If you wanted to do something more relivable you should have had Suigetsu seriously injure Hanabi."

"One day I'll get you." Hitomi said.

"I'm sure," Naruto said sarcastically.

"I see you are in high spirits," Zestu said emerging from the wall Naruto had been leaning on.

"You always show up at the most inconvenient times." Naruto said.

"We've found your new partner, sucks for you, so get ready we're going to the land of Hot Water." Zestu said.

"Fine let's get going I just hope I can keeping myself from killing him." Naruto said. "You brats better not wreak the place while I'm gone!"

"Hai," the girls said

"I don't think killing him will be a problem." Zestu said

Naruto was in the land of Hot water looking for his future partner with Zestu walking besides him. Yes 'walking' besides him something Naruto thought Zestu incapable of doing until now. "So who is this guy?" Naruto asked.

"A ninja by the name of Hidan his village was turned into a tourist spot, he didn't like that so he killed as many people as he could before he fled." Zestu said.

"I see. You know you never told me what happed that caused Kisame to be paired with someone else." Naruto said.

"Kakazu killed his third partner and Pein was getting feed up with replace them, so he matched him up with Kisame who is clam and strong enough to not make Kakazu mad and end up getting killed." Zestu said sounding somewhat entertained by the idea of all those killings.

"Well Kakazu sounds like a swell guy can't wait to meet him." Naruto said and not for the first time thought about what kind of crazy organization he had joined.

"We have to meet Hidan first." Zestu said.

"That great but who knows how long we'll have to wait before we find him." Naruto said. Turns out not long since just as Naruto said that a guy holding a triple-bladed scythe jumped from a tree and tried to skewer them. Naruto and Zestu dodged to the side just as the weapon priced the ground. "I'm guessing you're Hidan." Naruto said.

"Who the fuck wants to know." Hidan said pulling his scythe out of the ground.

"We're part of an organization called the Akatsuki and we would like for you to join us." Zestu said.

"Why the hell would I join a shitty organization? All I want to do is kill people and please Jashin." Hidan said.

"I must insist." Zestu said not sounding too friendly.

"I told you I'm not joining your organization!" Hidan yelled.

"That's a shame it looks like we'll be doing this the hard way. Naruto if you would." Zestu said looking towards Naruto.

Naruto sighed. "I was hoping it wouldn't have to go this way, but it looks like I'm going to have to force you to joining."

"You're going to force me? What are you like ten?" Hidan laughed.

"I'm more than old engage to beat you." Naruto side as he pushed off the ground towards Hidan. Hidan was surprised how fast this kid was and was barely able to block his fist with his scythe.

"Jashin will savor your blood." Hidan said as swiped his scythe down on Naruto's head. Naruto pushed himself backwards so Hidan's scythe hit noting but ground. Naruto wasn't going to be so reliant on his refection anymore, so if he could dodge he would even if the chances of Hidan getting through were next to zero better safe than a scythe through your head.

Naruto reached into his pocket and took out his ball and threw it to the side so it bounced off the trees. Then Naruto stared firing his pebbles at Hidan. He used his scythe to block the pebbles but he forgot about the ball which hit him in the side. The ball bounced off Hidan before bouncing off some trees and making its way back to Naruto.

"Damn that hurt." Hidan complained.

"Just join the Akatsuki it will be easier." Naruto said.

"I fucking told you that my not joining!" Hidan yelled as he charged Naruto. Naruto in reaction threw a pebble which he expected Hidan to block but he didn't. Instead the pebble went right through where his heart.

"Damn I killed him," Naruto thought. But that wasn't the case, Hidan was still charging him." Naruto was so shocked that a man who was supposed to be dead was still running at him that Naruto didn't dodge. He would have been killed if it wasn't for his reflection. Hidan's scythe hit it and the force of the impact was enough to make Hidan fall to the ground.

"Hey what the hell why didn't I hit you?!" Hidan yelled.

"Sorry but thanks to my powers you can't hit me, but what I want to know is how you're still alive?" Naruto said.

"I'm immortal." Hidan replied.

"Then it looks like we're at a stalemate. You can't hit me and I can't kill you, so it looks like you'll be joining the Akatsuki." Naruto said.

"What makes you think I'll join the Akatsuki you just said it was stalemate!" Hidan said.

"It may be true that I can't kill you but I can rip you into tiny piece then shoot those pieces all over the elemental nation and if that happens you won't be able to please Jashin." Naruto said.

Hidan scoured probably trying to weigh his options. He knew that if he couldn't hit Naruto then there was no way he could win. Eventually Hidan's reason got the better of him. "Fine I guess I'll join your shitty Akatsuki.

"I'm glad you accepted," Zestu said handing Hidan an Akatsuki cloak and an orange ring which Zestu instructed Hidan to put on his left index finger.

"Let's get going partner," Naruto said.

Naruto and Hidan walked back to the base with Hidan complaining the entire way. When they finally did reach the base they were met by an odd sight. Suigetsu had Hanabi on the ground and Suigetsu was holding some kind of chisel. Once Hanabi saw Naruto she started screaming. "Naruto help me Suigetsu trying to sharping my teeth!"

"Who the fuck are these people!" Hidan yelled.

Naruto sighed he had a lot of explain to do.

Mito couldn't believe how much power was in this one room. It was so much that she was sweating and by the looks of it Hanabi and Hitomi weren't doing too much better. Suigetsu looked ok but he kept eyeing this guy who looked like a shark.

The reason they were here is because about a week after Naruto came back with his new partner Zestu told them that for the first time in a long time all Akatsuki members were meeting and that include nonofficial members, so they headed out to the meetings location.

Mito didn't really know what to think of Hidan. He obviously didn't like them and he didn't appear to like Naruto either, but he was strong. He spared with Suigetsu once and Suigetsu would have surly died if he wasn't made out of water. Other than that Hidan kept to himself and didn't really come out of his room. He also did these weird rituals. Mito thought he was just the freak to join the Akatsuki, but after arriving to this meeting Mito realized Hidan was the norm.

"Now that we're all here I'll begin." Pein said. "The Akatsuki will soon be making it moves to capture the nine tailed-beasts, but until we're ready we will not be doing any more missions instead we are going to lay low and train for three years."

"Are you fucking kidding me? I just join and you're telling me I have to do nothing for three years." Hidan said.

"Hidan shut up," Naruto said releasing some killing instinct that didn't affect Hidan.

"As I was saying after those three years are up you'll each be hunting one of the tailed beasts, and as a secondary goal Orochimaru although who will take him out will be assigned later." Pein said. "As for who will be hunting each beast it will be assigned by lottery." The women standing besides Pein produced a bunch of papers and put them in a basket. "You'll each choose one and the two that are left over we be giving to me and Konan. Also the location of the three tails is unknown so Zestu will be giving that one and find out where it is. Once he does it will be determined which team will take it down."

The basket was passed around and every member took one. It was a childish way of doing things but it was the easiest way to assign the tailed-beasts without people fighting over them, and with the already tense atmosphere in the room a fight wasn't too hard to imaging. "Please read off your number. The number is the number of tails the beast that your hunting has." Pein said.

"One," Deidara said.

"Five," his partner Sasori said.

"Four," Kisame said.

"Eight," Kakazu said.

"Two," Hidan said.

"Seven," Naruto said.

"That gives me and Konan six and nine." Pein said. "Now that you have all been assigned a Tailed-beast return to you base and be ready because in three years the Akatsuki is going to shake up the world.