Okay, sorry that the chapter is longer than usual, but I needed it to be that way to include everything I wanted. But it's an important chapter so please read it unless you have an incredibly short attention span... Oh, a plate of cookies! *runs off*
Descent Into Darkness
Chapter 14
"So, why did you call us all here, Tsunade-Sama?" Sakura asked the Hokage, her green eyes filled with curiosity.
"I have been notified of some recent activity from the Akatsuki. This is the first time we've seen anything in the past two years, but according to a few of the Anbu, there have been a few sightings of some of the members. I am afraid that they may be planning an attack in order to capture Naruto and extract the Nine-Tails from him," Tsunade explained to the group.
Amongst the gathering included Naruto, Sakura, Sai, as well as Team Ten, and what remained of the Rookie Nine. Everyone since had dispersed onto their own, some of them now Jonin instructors. Except for Neji, Tenten, and Lee, who were all twenty-one, the rest of the group were twenty years old. Tsunade almost couldn't believe that she had known them since they were children and how much they really had grown up. Even Naruto had matured a bit, though he still had that slight dopey idiotic-ness that he hadn't been able to shed completely.
"So, are you sending us out to take them down before they get a chance to attack us?" Neji asked.
"Yes, I feel as though that would be the best decision. Normally I would want to wait a bit longer to see what move they make, but I'd rather not put it off. I have an uneasy feeling about something, and I'd prefer to take care of it sooner than later."
"Are we to bring them in as hostages or do you want them dead?" Sai questioned.
Tsunade sighed thoughtfully. "I'd rather have them brought in alive, but I understand just how powerful they are. If you must, kill them. In fact, I will provide you with some potent tranquilizers so that you can transport them with much less difficulty. They should be knocked out for a few hours, which will be plenty of time for you to bring them here to be locked up."
"But, can we really take them all down that easily?" Ino frowned slightly.
"I didn't say it would be easy," the large-breasted woman answered. "But it's highly unlikely that you'll run into them all at once. They work in two-man teams from what I've gathered, so as long as you run into only one pair at a time, I think the eleven of you should be more than capable of taking them down. Watch each others backs and protect one another as well. We still don't know the true power of their individual abilities, so stay alert. However, we do know that there are some especially dangerous members, such as Uchiha Itachi."
"And what about that psychotic bastard who killed Hinata?" Naruto growled, his eyes narrowing. "Is he still with them?"
Tsunade clasped her hands together. "I don't know all the details of each present member. For all we know, he could've left the organization, but mostly likely he is still part of the Akatsuki. Be careful of him if you see him."
Kiba scowled. "If I find him, I'm going to kill him myself."
"Don't get careless," the blond woman warned, looking at each of them. "I have heard rumors that he is immortal, though I haven't found any solid proof of the claim. Even still, assume that it is true and keep some distance between yourself and him should you come across him."
"He's going to pay for what he did to Hinata," Naruto said menacingly, already feeling his fury building up. "Even if he can't die, I'll make sure he suffers."
"Calm down, Naruto. I don't need you to transform in the middle of my office," Tsunade said flatly. "Anyway, I want all of you to head out as soon as this discussion is over. Are there any further questions you need answered before I give you the coordinates of the location I send you to?"
When nobody said anything, she supplied them with some extra items, including the tranquilizers that she had mentioned. She then sent them off to the targeted destination, as there had been claims of recent activity there. As soon as the group had left, Tsunade sighed and took out a bottle of sake. She took a long swig, gazing out the window listlessly. Konoha had lost Hinata two years ago. Hopefully the others would not meet the same fate.
"I can't believe they're finally showing themselves again," Tenten murmured as she and the others traveled to the area. "I knew that they would be back eventually, but...I don't know...I just was hoping they would be gone for good..."
"No such luck," Sakura responded regretfully. "I'm afraid of running into Sasuke's brother more than anyone else."
"Hopefully he's not the one we run into first," Kiba grumbled. "Hell, I have a bad feeling about all of them."
They spent the next several minutes in silence, all of them anxious over the aspect of taking on Akatsuki members. Sure, there were eleven of them, and most of them were Jonin, but it didn't feel as though it mattered. They were taking on S-Ranked murderers. Even with all of them working together, it still would be no simple task in taking down any of the members, tranquilizers or not.
"Hey, I hear something in the distance," Kiba suddenly hissed, pausing for a moment as he listened carefully. Akamaru stopped beside him, sniffing and whining quietly, prompting the others to halt for a moment.
"What is it?" Tenten asked just as Neji activated his Byakugan to take a look.
"There's an unfamiliar scent...along with something else," Kiba informed them, his face serious.
The others exchanged confused glances, wondering what he meant. Ino was the first to ask him what he was talking about.
"Well...I smell blood...and a lot of it," he confessed, swallowing a lump in his throat.
"It's true," Neji added solemnly. "I can see it... I see a few people fighting, but it isn't clear enough for me to see who it is. We need to move closer."
The group continued on, wary of what they were about to find. Two minutes later, they had reached their destination and, as Neji had confirmed, they were not alone. They remained hidden in the trees for the time being, not wanting to give away their presence right away. There were two young men dressed in black cloaks with red cloud designs on the material. One had long blond hair, and they were shocked to see that each of his hands had a mouth in the center of his palm. The area was drenched in a nauseating amount of blood, with several bodies strewn about. There were four remaining ninjas going up against the Akatsuki members, all of them looking panicked.
"What the hell?" Shikamaru murmured as he and the others stared, horrified at the grisly sight.
The other male had short red hair and he was controlling a few wooden puppets, each of them armed with sharp objects that seemed to be dripping with some sort of liquid.
"Poison," Sakura mused quietly to warn them.
"But why does that guy have two mouths in his hand?" Chouji hissed, his eyes wide as the blond man pulled some clay out of his waist pouch.
They witnessed as Deidara molded the clay with those mouths, before they spit out small animals made out of the stuff.
"What the hell does he plan on doing with those?" Naruto scoffed. "Make little statues to keep with his pottery?"
"Mind if I finish them, Sasori? I really want to go out with a bang, un," Deidara said, glancing over at his partner.
Sasori shrugged lightly. "Be my guest."
With a sadistic smile, Deidara hurled the clay animals directly at the remaining enemies, before suddenly detonating them. The clay figures exploded, killing the four ninjas in the process. Ino and Sakura squeaked in surprise, clamping their hands over their mouths to keep quiet. The others stared in shock, unable to believe what they had just witnessed.
"So, those are our opponents then..." Lee's voice trailed off.
"We can do this," Naruto told them. "If Granny thinks we're capable of taking them down, then we'll be fine. Let's go."
Not waiting for a response, he jumped down from the tree to make his presence known. The others followed suit, none of them wanting to admit just how apprehensive they felt.
Deidara quirked an eyebrow and exchanged glances with the redhead. "Who the hell are you guys, un? What do you want?"
Instead of answering, Naruto lunged at him, forming a Rasengan in his hand. Deidara leapt out of the way, narrowly missing getting hit by the powerful blast, while the others simultaneously attacked both him and Sasori. The pair managed to block or dodge every single attack, though Deidara was getting annoyed.
"Hey, what's the big idea?" Deidara demanded, clearly ticked off.
"We are shinobi from Konoha, and we have been sent to capture you and bring you back to the village with us," Neji explained icily.
Sasori stared at them, undeterred. "Is that so? And I thought today was going to be dull..."
"Heh, if you guys wanna fight, then that's what you're going to get, un." Deidara pulled another wad of clay from his pouch, using the mouths to form more tiny sculptures.
The redhead waited patiently behind his array of puppets, ready for his enemies to make their move. Since there were eleven of them, they had split into two groups to take on the Akatsuki members. Sasori faced Sakura, Ino, Sai, Shikamaru, and Kiba while Deidara found himself against Naruto, Neji, Shino, Tenten, Chouji, and Lee.
The blond bomber threw his clay figures at the opposing team, detonating them just as the ninjas jumped away. Unfazed by the missed attack, he quickly worked on molding more explosive clay, all the while avoiding their attacks. One of the figures grew large enough in size to allow him to hop onto its back and fly upward, greatly affecting their ability to land a hit on him.
Meanwhile, Sasori manipulated his puppets to shoot poisonous needles at Sakura's group, who barely managed to move away out of the way. He was guarded by the puppets, and it seemed that no matter what they threw at him, nothing made contact with him. Even Shikamaru's shadow jutsu could not make it to the redhead, for he simply moved out of the way and changed position in order for one of the puppets to take the attack. As both sides continued their grueling battle, it seemed that no one had obtained the upper hand quite yet. It was too risky to try to use the tranquilizers right away, since they could easily be deflected. Even still, although the Akatsuki members had certain advantages on their side, the Konoha ninjas managed to hold their own against them.
None of the bombs detonated in time to harm them, and Deidara had no choice but to fly around to avoid their projectiles. Tenten used an array of ninja tools, some of them explosive and flammable. At the same time, Shino sent his insects to attack the clay bird, and Naruto continued to barrage the flying figure with Rasengans. Likewise, they were forced to guard themselves as Deidara relentlessly dropped several explosives, and Neji used his 8 Trigrams 64 Palms as a defense.
Sakura had managed to destroy one of the puppets with her chakra-infused strength, only for a new one to appear. A few simple hand weaves had made it possible for Sasori to replace any damaged puppets as necessary, having more than a hundred in his entire arsenal. However, he used only three at a time, not finding it necessary to use more. Ino attempted to use Mind Control on him, only to find that she was unable to do so even though he did not move to avoid the attack.
"What's going on?" she asked, suddenly drained. "Why can't I enter his body?"
Sasori had a ghost of a smile on his lips, knowing that her mind control would not work on his body, seeing as it was artificial. Shikamaru switched over to Naruto's group, finding his jutsu useless on the puppet master. In return, Lee and Chouji went to Sakura's team, using their close-range attacks to help destroy the puppets. A new barrage of poisonous needles shot out at them, and Sai used one of his painted creations to absorb the blow. The drawings dissipated, and ink puddled on the ground.
Meanwhile, from within the trees, Hidan looked over at Kakuzu with an annoyed expression. "Did we really have to help these idiots? Can't they handle it on their own?"
"They are facing off against the Nine-Tail's Jinchuriki," the masked man grumbled in response. "We should offer some type of assistance."
"Jeez, we just fucking finished our mission, now we have to do another one? What the fuck," the immortal man sighed.
"Quit your whining," his partner snapped. "Besides, I thought you enjoyed killing people..."
Frowning, Hidan's attention went to Naruto, and his eyes widened. "Oh, I remember that fucking brat. I should've fucking killed him awhile ago. But I guess I can now."
"Capture him alive," Kakuzu told him sternly. "But you may kill the others as you see fit. I will assist Sasori, and you go help Deidara, since he is the one fighting the Jinchuriki."
"Alright, let's do this shit," Hidan replied with a huge grin as he took his scythe off his back.
The two of them leapt down right in the middle of the battle, causing everyone to momentarily stall. Deidara looked at the pair with annoyance, finding it insulting.
"What the hell are you two doing here?" He demanded. "Sasori and I can handle this, un."
"Yeah, well, it sure as hell doesn't look that way," Hidan remarked dryly. "So stop your fucking bitching already."
Recognizing the silver-haired man, Naruto's eyes narrowed with hatred. "You! You're the bastard who took Hinata!"
"Hey, dumbass," Hidan replied with a laugh. "Long time no see. Have you gotten any better since the last time I saw you? Or are you still a pussy?"
"Screw you!" The blond Jinchuriki snarled, taking a step forward. "What did you do with Hinata? Did you kill her?"
The Jashinist smirked. "Obviously, you fucking moron. After my partner and I left, we brought her back to the base with us. You wanna know what happened after that?"
Neji glowered at the man who had abducted his cousin, his rage almost as evident as Naruto's. Everyone else stared at him warily, while the other Akatsuki members watched with amusement.
"First, I ripped all of her clothes off," Hidan began, enjoying the way Naruto twitched. "And then, I fucked her until she couldn't even move. After that, I slowly tortured her for hours until I finally sacrificed her to Jashin-Sama. I used her forehead protector to mop up some of her blood and then sent it to her father as a gift. I was originally going to send her head in a box, but decided against it in the end because I was too fucking lazy. When I was done with her body, I dumped it down a ravine. You'll never find it. Or at least what's left of it," he added sadistically.
All at once, the battle broke out once again, this time with Kakuzu ripping his cloak off and tossing it aside. The masked creatures in his back pulled themselves out and circled around the Konoha ninjas threateningly.
Having remembered those creatures from their last encounter, Sakura yelled out to warn the others. "Those masked things each have a different element to attack with! Be careful!" No sooner were the words out of her mouth when a bolt of lightning shot right at her, only for her to be grabbed out of the way Sai.
Naruto lunged at the immortal man, intent on ripping him apart as his body was surrounded by orange chakra. Hidan staved off his attack with his scythe, countering with his own attack. His speed was matched with Naruto's, and each time one of them attacked, the other would counter with their own. Neither one managed to land a single blow on the other, angering Naruto even more.
"What's the matter?" Hidan taunted. "Are you mad that I didn't let you have a turn with the girl before I disposed of her? Oh, you should've heard her that night. Just begging me to stop...It was like music to my fucking ears. She kept crying for you, for anyone to come and save her," he lied deviously. "But nobody ever came... And her blood was so fucking sweet..."
Naruto sprouted a single tail within the orange chakra and he moved so quickly that even Hidan was caught off guard. He managed to lop off one of his arms, and Hidan looked down at the severed limb with a twinge of annoyance. It was the arm that had held his scythe, now leaving him without his weapon.
"Now look what you did," Hidan sneered, though he was unconcerned for the lost limb. "Now I'm going to have to make Kakuzu sew the fucking thing back on."
"I won't give him the chance!" Naruto rushed over to him, getting ready to drive his chakra-infused fist into Hidan. Just as he was about to strike the man, something suddenly appeared in his way and blocked the attack.
There was a small explosion of chakra upon contact, making it almost impossible to see what had stopped the attack. The others were busy trying to fend off the other three Akatsuki members, though they couldn't help but glance over to see what had happened.
When the billow of smoke finally dissipated, Naruto's eyes widened with shock as he gazed at the sight before him. His blood ran cold, and he felt as though he was looking at a ghost.
"H-H-Hinata?" he stammered breathlessly.
The young woman smiled softly. "Hello, Naruto..."
And that ends chapter 14. The next one will have more fighting, so don't worry it won't be too boring (though in all reality, I think I suck at writing fight scenes, haha.) Again, sorry about the long-assed freaking chapter. I would've added more but decided that it was good enough and that I would add more details in the next chapter. It will be out soon. I was also in a rush so the proofreading that I did probably sucks and I'll most likely find a bunch of errors later... On that note please review. Flames will be used to roast marshmallows.