Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the associated characters, locations, jutsu, etc. The only thing I own is the plot of the story. If there is any plagiarism of any form it was completely unintentional.
Main Building of Kumogakure, present day.
"DAMN THAT BRAT! WHERE THE HELL DID HE RUN OFF TO NOW?!" The Raikage screamed at the op of his lungs as he slammed his fist down on his desk, effectively shattering it. Darui let out a long sigh as he walked out of the room. Leaving the Raikage and his assistant, Mabui, alone.
"I'll get the maintenance crew." He said just before disappearing on the hallway.
"Raikage-sama, perhaps Sasuke has gone to visit his friend from Konoha."
"The Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi? Even if that was true, we have no idea where to find him. He has been gone from the village for the last 4 years." He said as he dropped back to his chair.
"Then, perhaps he has gone to visit another one of his friends?" The Raikage let out a strong and mocking laugh when she said this. When he stopped he once again had a serious expression on his face.
"The boy is the embodiment of solitude. I wouldn't be surprised if that Uzumaki brat is the only friend he has." A closed his eyes for a moment before turning to look at his Mabui. "Prepare a search party immediately, and tell Bee to come down here this instant!" Mabui scrambled off to the hallways leaving behind a puff of smoke. A stood there looking at the empty doorway before he turned to look out his large window. "What do you want now?" When he said that a man suddenly landed with a thud behind his desk.
"I trust that you will stick to our agreement." The man said with a cool and collected voice.
"Remember that he is still our Jinchuriki! I don't care what you say he stays within my sight even if I have to nail him to the floor!" The other man was about to say something when the sound of approaching footsteps made him disappear back into the shadows.
"Raikage-sama! Samui's team is ready to go on the search for Sasuke. But, apparently Bee-sama is not available right now." She said the last part very quietly, as if she didn't want A to hear it, but he did.
"What?! Where is he? Is he in another one of his ridiculous concerts?!"
"Actually, Bee-sama is not in Kumokagure, He left days ago but no one knows where." The Raikage had his head hung low and wasn't moving or talking. "Raikage-sama?"
"BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Outskirts of the Border of the Land of Lightning
"Hey, Bee. Did you hear that?"
"What?"
"Someone yelling your name, far off in the distance."
"There is nothing. You're only bluffing. Ha-chan*, I think you are going crazy. Man, all this walking is making you hazy."
"Keep an eye out for trouble, Bee. Your brother will not be happy that you ran off."
Kumogakure
"Mabui! Send Samui's team to Kirigakure, last time he was there, let's see if he's stupid enough to do that again."
"Hai, Raikage-sama! But, what about Bee-sama?"
"I'll deal with that." Mabui gave a quick nod before she once again scurried off into the hallway. Once again the mysterious man made his presence visible to the Raikage.
"Did you have something to tell me or were you just going to stand there blabbering like an idiot?"
"Don't underestimate me, have you forgotten what I am capable of doing? If you put so much as a finger out of line it'll be your downfall. Remember that I will always be watching." When he said that the man disappeared as fast as he had come. The Raikage slammed his fist down where the desk should have been, but instead hit empty space. He looked down to find he had already smashed his desk so he picked up his chair and turned to slam it against the floor.
"Raikage-sama!" Mabui stood in front of him, hands on her hips and a stern expression on her face. A let out a sigh and dropped his chair back to the ground.
Somewhere Around the Border Between the Land of Air and the Land of Rivers
"Coast is clear, come on." Kakashi said as he swiftly moved towards the enemy's hideout. It was still early in the morning so there was not enough sunlight so that they could be spotted among the trees, but there was more than enough so they could navigate trough the forest without crashing into the trees.
"Dammit Kakashi, slow down a little. We've been running all night, I'm getting tired." Sakura grumbled as she jumped from branch to branch alongside her sensei.
"Gomen, Sakura. But we have to get there as soon as possible. It is likely that after our last encounter they will be on their edge. If someone were to spot us we would most likely be in trouble."
"*sigh* I know." Sakura said in defeat. After some more traveling the familiar clearing where they were "ambushed" came into view.
"Al right, the entrance must be somewhere around here, keep your eyes open in case any of them are around here." But immediately after saying that Kakashi jumped to the side to avoid several shuriken that were now impaled in the spot he had been in just seconds ago. He looked up with slight worry, but was relieved to find that Sakura had also avoided the attack and was now looking at the direction the attack came from. They heard a deep chuckle emanating from the trees behind them and when they turned to see who it was they saw the same three shinobi who had attempted to ambush them last time they were there.
"I see that you have returned, Sharingan no Kakashi. Though I look forward to fighting you I must say that it will be a shame for shinobi of your skills to die, truly regretable." The man in the middle said.
"You again! Who the hell are you?" Sakura asked while holding a kunai in her hands.
"Ah yes, forgive me. My name is Hiroaki." He said with a mockingly polite voice, he then made a hand motion towards the woman standing next to him, she seemed to refuse to speak, but one stern look from Hiroaki made her speak.
"I am Amaya." She said while eyeing Kakashi with a mix of interest and anger.
"Wait a minute," Kakashi said as his eyes started darting around, "last time there were three of you. Where-" Just when he said this a large hammer came crashing down on them. They were thrown to the side, and when they looked back they saw the last remaining member. He was panting excitedly and had a twisted grin on his face. Hiroaki let out a long sigh before he raised a hand towards his teammate to present him.
"This is Mamoru. He's... Quite the excited one."
"Be careful, Sakura. We have no idea of the fighting techniques they use. Don't do anything drastic until we get an idea of what we're up against." Kakashi said as he pulled out a kunai.
"Shut up and die!" Mamoru shouted as he lunged forward swinging his mace. Kakashi instinctively ducked and thrusted his kunai forward. However, instead of him dodging it he was impaled straight in the heart. Mamoru let out a low, pain filled grunt before he dropped dead with a thud.
"That's it?" Sakura said dumbfounded. Kakashi looked down at the body lying on his feet before he lifted his gaze to observe the other two.
"I told you, Hiroaki. He wouldn't last for more than five seconds." Amaya said with slight disgust in her voice. The man next to her let out a small chuckle before he raised his right hand and grasped the hilt on his sickle chain. Kakashi and Sakura once again got into fighting stance, only to watch how Hiroaki stabbed his own hand with the sickle.
"What the-" Sakura said as she observed how the blade was quickly covered in its wielder's blood. Hiroaki removed the sickle from his hand with slight grunt before he threw it towards Kakashi. Once again he easily dodged his enemy's attack, but he still heard the gruesome sound of tearing flesh. He looked behind to see that the sickle's original target was the lifeless corpse of their dead teammate.
"Yogoretachi: Yuketsu!*" The once still body of Mamoru suddenly started thrashing around violently making Kakashi and Sakura step back in caution. Hiroaki pulled back his sickle from Mamoru, not a single drop of blood left on the blade. He lifted his left hand and made a seal as he continued his technique. "Yogoretachi: KontorÅru!*" Now Mamoru's corpse was gruesomely twitching and contracting with sickly sounds. The body thrusted both hands on the ground to rise back up. When he stood his head slowly looked up as he let out a spine chilling cry, his eyes blank and lifeless. Mamoru once again dashed towards the Konoha team, this time however he used only a kunai, and his moves were faster and more agile.
"What... Is... Happening?" Kakashi said between strikes of his opponent. What kind of jutsu is this?
"And I shall be your opponent my little one." Sakura turned around to see that the green haired woman, Amaya or something, was standing in front of her with two puppets by her side. "So young and pretty, you'll make a wonderful addition to my collection."
"Not another one of these puppet lunatics again." Sakura said remembering Sasori, whom she had to fight on her last failed rescue/capture mission regarding Naruto. She was traveling alongside Shikamaru, Kakashi, and Kiba on the Land of Lighting, when they ran into two members of the Akatsuki. A bakuton* user and a puppeteer. The former got away but they managed to kill Sasori. He had a weird fascination with turning powerful shinobi into puppets, and it seems he wasn't the only one. While she was lost in her thoughts one of the puppets unsheathed several hidden blades from its arms and then it rushed towards Sakura. Out of the two Kunoichi she was obviously superior in raw strength, but Ayame and her puppets were faster, and they had a lot of hidden senbon, blades, wires, and even poison gas that were making Sakura's life all the more harder.
Meanwhile Kakashi was clashing against the unique Kekke Genkai user and his... Undead puppet? However, every time Kakashi landed a strike on the resurrected body it seemed to have no effect whatsoever. And if he tried to attack Hiroaki Mamoru's body would just intercept the attack and return the attack. If things kept on going the way they were, they would both tire out pretty soon.
"This looks bad..."
*Ha-chan: Eight-o. (Killer Bee's term of endearment for Gyuki, his tailed beast)
*Bakuton: Explosion style
Author's note: I realized some stuff needed to be cleared out so, here. And there is also more stuff included to make future chapters clearer.
Rookie 9 are 21 years old. This means that Hinata fought Hanabi when she was 16, a little young for marriage, but hey... tradition.
Minato and Kushina sealed the entire Kyuubi in Naruto with another jutsu besides Death Reaper Seal, and the Kyuubi's attempt on Naruto's life did not occur, which leaves both Minato and Kushina alive for now. They died years later, when Naruto was 14. He was accused of their murder 2 years later. Why this happened and what happened with Jiraiya I will talk about later.
Orochimaru's invasion of the Leaf happened the day after Naruto was accused, so the Third lived to be 4 years older than in the series.
Sasuke was take to Kumogakure as a baby, and thus didn't meet Sakura or Naruto until years later. He has awakened the sharingan, but not yet the Mangekyo. He is the current Jinchuriki of the Nibi, Matatabi. He did train with Orochimaru at some point, but I will talk about that later.
Gaara's father is of course alive, but his mother did die. His father is still a little cold to him, but he has still some amount of love/respect for Gaara. Gaara also never had to kill his maternal uncle. His relationship with his Bijuu, along with Sasuke and Naruto's, will be explained later.