Nine Tailed Serpent

by LT2000

Naruto was the ideal shinobi, a cold killer twisted by the Kyuubi's demonic whisperings. When he is placed onto a Genin team, new bonds develop. Now this living machine struggles with his dark past and what it means to be human. Now complete.

21. Chosen

'That's no natural creature…that almost looked like…'

Recognition snapped into her mind, as she recalled once reading in Konoha's Bingo Book about some Iwa Missing-nin who could shape high-caliber explosives into living bombs, and tended to use an animal theme in doing so. Kurenai couldn't recall the man's name on the spot, but he was well-known to have been linked to several notorious terrorist organizations as a hired bomber, and was considered armed and lethal enough to merit an S-Class ranking. Further consideration was halted as the small hummingbirds careened towards the stress points on the wooden building next to them, as well as the onsen walls. Kurenai pulled her exposed student down into the hot water as countless eardrum-shattering explosions rang out in the air all around them, showering wood splinters and stone shards all over. Konoha was under assault once more, this time with its Hokage absent

Nine-Tailed Serpent, Chapter 21: The Chosen – Akatsuki Rampage

Disclaimer: Naruto ain't mine, not making any money here, you know the deal.

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Yuugao avoided Naruto's sword stroke with ease, slamming her own practice blade between his shoulder blades with a stinging crack as he overextended. The jinchuuriki lurched with the harsh blow but managed to retain his balance while scowling at the kunoichi, as he knew there would be a noticeable welt there later. The purple-haired martinet seemed less than impressed with her blonde subordinate's indignant attitude.

"Pathetic. You telegraph attacks like a novice. You're supposed to be an ANBU."

'Sparring' had soon enough turned into his vice-captain giving him Hell over his lacking skill in kenjutsu, something he'd never received actual training in. Yuugao seemed to get some vicious pleasure in beating poor Naruto to a black and blue pulp while criticizing his innumerable technical mistakes in excruciating detail, though she wasn't quite as obvious about her sadism as Anko used to be. Something about purple hair served to make women into nutcases, the Bijuu container was convinced. Naruto leered and placed his bokken against his shoulder.

"Let's move right on to ninjutsu and see who comes out looking..."

At that moment, explosions boomed in the air, causing the ground beneath the two ANBU to quake. Black smoke began rising in the village, billowing into the cold late morning air. Both shinobi tossed their practice swords to the side and began running back into Konoha at a rushed pace, heading towards the source. Naruto leapt onto a short building and looked at the chaos as the pair reached the village's urban outskirts. The blonde could see no hostile shinobi around, but the ongoing assault was apparent as bombs continued to explode around in the distance, littering the streets with wood and metal shrapnel.

"Huh, a second attack…useless patrol teams must have all been sleeping. And the Hokage's gone on business, too…shit, what a mess."

Yuugao shook her head as she landed next to him, glancing into the air as a huge bird passed high overhead.

"No, that…couldn't be right. Both the Suna and Oto shinobi ranks were gutted in the last encounter. Another assault would be impossible with their present numbers."

Naruto did nothing but shrug in response, still looking down at the chaos in the streets below, mind working to isolate his target. Armed shinobi were rushing towards the battle in one direction while panicked civilians evacuated in the other, creating a nightmarish logistical situation as the two moving bodies converged on one another.

"There are other villages that hate us…"

Yuugao leapt onto a taller building to gain a better vantage point, with her blonde cohort shadowing. Once there, the two were able to glimpse the battle raging in Konoha's commercial sector, and it was a massive one. Weapons and jutsu roared in the air as the village's shinobi battled against what seemed to be close to a hundred armed warriors garbed in identical blood red cloaks. Their movements were even more peculiar, however. Naruto's perception wasn't as good at the sizable distance, but it seemed as though the hostiles were moving with an almost inhuman coordination, like one single thing was controlling them all.

'Puppets…'

The crimson-clad puppets glided rather than ran, and were more than a match against the unprepared and bewildered Konoha-nin opposing them as a massive melee raged amongst the smoke and smoldering rubble in the explosions' wake. Yuugao came to the same conclusion about the robed shinobi as her subordinate had. Naruto's was inclined to believe that the Hidden Sand had launched another attack somehow, as puppet manipulation was a combat technique native to that village.

"This is kugutsu…I've heard about a master who can control a hundred puppets at once. Rumor has it that he can take down an entire nation with his dolls."

The purple-haired swordswoman crouched against the building's edge as she prepared to move down towards the combat zone, placing a slender hand on her katana's handle. Naruto reached down to draw a kunai, and grimaced as he realized that he had no gear. The blonde jinchuuriki hadn't seen reason to bring his killing tools along to a light sparring match, and the current scenario was something that had never even crossed his mind. Yuugao stopped and turned back when he made no move to head into the battle with her.

"Look, I need to run home and scrounge some equipment. I'll catch up in a minute."

The vice-captain gave him a look, but said or did nothing to stop him, knowing as well as he did that it was more than idiotic to rush into a combat situation without the proper gear. Naruto started out in his apartment complex's direction, bounding across the nearest street onto another building.

"Like Hell. You'll manage to get sidetracked as usual alone, so I'm tagging along."

At that moment, several more explosions rang out in rapid succession, this time centered in Konoha's central administrative district. Naruto's head whipped about in mid-leap to see the smoke rising through several points on the Hokage Tower. The kugutsu practitioner couldn't have done that, which made it obvious that there was at least one more attacker.

"Argh, we got caught with our pants down this time…how embarrassing."

Naruto winced as he continued to stare at the now smoking tower that stood smack in Konoha's center, higher than all the other structures in the shinobi village, almost compromising his balance as he landed on the next building. The bomber might as well have struck the Hokage Monument. To attack the location that most represented the Sandaime's rule was an insult that couldn't be overlooked. The blonde remained rooted in place until Yuugao passed him, at which point he regained his concentration and continued on his path.

"Indeed…some heads will be rolling over this intelligence blunder, I can guarantee it."

The pair at last landed at Naruto's ramshackle apartment building, and soon scaled to his home. However, upon arriving it became obvious that someone else was about. The blonde's wooden door was in two broken pieces on the concrete outside the entrance, shredded down the middle with small shavings littering the area. The vessel blinked and entered, with his vice-captain a step behind. The intruder didn't take long to locate, as Naruto saw a certain cloaked shark as soon as he stepped his living room.

"…You!"

Relaxing on Naruto's couch with his legs propped onto the small table, his bandaged zanbatou leaning against the wall next to him, was a grinning Hoshigaki Kisame. The container stared in silence at his uninvited houseguest, not quite believing the situation. Kisame reached to his side to grab the massive Samehada with one hand, training the vile shaving blade on the blonde's chest. There was a noticeable pressure in Naruto's chakra coils as Samehada pulled at his chakra, even with the weapon not quite touching him. His cursed seal stirred in response to the stimulation, but the jinchuuriki quashed it without hesitation. Still, the Akatsuki member seemed to notice, as his predator's grin widened.

"Took long enough, kid. I was beginning to think Itachi-san gave me the wrong address."

That answered a couple questions, as it was now rather obvious that Akatsuki were the culprits in this attack, and Naruto realized with a bothered grimace that the group had come to capture him, and all this slaughter and destruction was being done on his account. The blonde continued glaring at Kisame at the entrance, and Yuugao brushed past him into the meager living room, drawing her slender katana and prowling along the wall to pincer the renegade Kiri-nin with the silent grace that marked a practiced assassin, her hawkish expression narrowing as the Akatsuki mentioned Itachi's name.

"Kirigakure no Kaijin, Hoshigaki Kisame. You're an S-Class Missing-nin charged with murdering a daimyo, as well as arson, sabotage and rebellious activities against both the Hidden Mist and the Mizu no Kuni government…a traitor and a disgrace to the shinobi name. We don't stomach your kind in our village, criminal."

Kisame's almost preened on being recognized, even as he tensed and prepared to move into combat at the slightest motion to attack on Yuugao's part. Naruto meanwhile made his shadow snakes slither down his arm, allowing their crimson heads to protrude through his robe sleeve as he angled his own position. Deep down, he envied the older man's impressive criminal record a little.

"I think we should add breaking and entering to that list. I don't like having raw sashimi in the living room. The smell's a bitch to get out."

The shark-nin ignored the insult as he rose and shouldered Samehada with practiced ease, pointing towards the bedroom with a painted thumb.

"You won't need to be concerned with that now, jinchuuriki. Pack a bag. You've been invited on a splendid little retreat."

The blonde started weighing his options as he responded in a sarcastic tone. Like Hell he was going to cooperate with being kidnapped. Still, Hoshigaki Kisame wasn't an opponent to be engaged on a reckless whim. Naruto stood a much better chance against him now than he would have back in Sakai, but still not a good one. Still, Akatsuki had picked a battle in the village, so engaging Kisame was now unavoidable.

"I haven't got quite enough leave saved. I'm still new to the ranks, so I'll have to pass."

Yuugao continued in a similar vein, bringing her sword into an attacking stance.

"You'll be the one taking an extended vacation instead, Hoshigaki…a nice, relaxing stint inside an ANBU interrogation cell."

Kisame's shark grin turned vicious, as his razor-pointed teeth bared in a snarl and he lurched over in preparation to strike. The bantering preamble had ended. Each word the tall Akatsuki member spoke was slow and enunciated as his massive killing intent slammed over both Konoha-nin. To Naruto, the terrible sensation seemed a suitable compliment to the battle sounds shredding through the air outside.

"Looks like we're going to have ourselves a little disagreement here. Perfect."

The blonde was expecting a charge, and tensed to counter it no matter which person the shark man chose to attack, but Kisame instead tossed Samehada to the side and began making seals.

"Suiton: Baku Suishouha!"

The jinchuuriki took a cautious step back towards the apartment's ruined entrance when Kisame's gut expanded as he complete the jutsu. The Nukenin spewed water onto the ground, and Naruto knew what would be happening next, having techniques similar in nature in his own arsenal. The blonde hesitated no longer than it took to watch Yuugao somersault back through his living room window onto the concrete outside and then retreated as well, exiting the apartment right as a massive tidal wave burst through the whole outside wall, ripping the run-down building's side asunder. Naruto almost got swept into the raging current, but managed to leap over the rail onto the building next to his now ruined apartment complex. His soaking wet companion landed a moment later.

"I think we might have done better with the puppets…"

The deluge continued to pour out through the apartment like a sluice, submerging the entire block underneath the rising waters. The building tops thus became innumerable small outcroppings in a man-made lake. Yuugao wrung out her long hair as Naruto remained concentrated on the ongoing torrent, as the waters carried wood and concrete chunks into the lake covering the streets.

"No use complaining. At least he can't come out and blindside us now."

The biggest explosion to that point then ripped into the air in the distance, causing the jinchuuriki to stagger in the resulting shockwave while the smaller Yuugao was sent crashing to the ground. For a long moment, Naruto thought that his eardrums had been shattered, but he was soon enough able to hear the rushing water and the battle shouts beneath the migraine-inducing ringing. An instant later, a shadow blanketed his position in shade, and he looked high to see Kisame cresting a tsunami, bearing down on him with Samehada held high.

XXXXXXXXXX

Deidara, explosive artistic genius extraordinaire, soared along in the air above Konoha's man-made peaks. The Iwa Missing-nin's carrier bird circled near the large red tower that stuck out like a sore thumb in the village's center. Civilians and shinobi scurried about hither and thither like countless ants in the streets below, but Deidara's attention was on his next target. Something so lacking in artistic design shouldn't be allowed to exist.

"A grotesque blot on the landscape, un. This ought to make a drastic improvement."

Deidara reached under his cloud-patterned Akatsuki robes into the leather satchel around his waist, scooping some material into his hand. The mouth on his right palm ingested the explosives and three small earthern birds emerged a moment later, which careened towards the Hokage Tower and landed in choice positions. Deidara glided into a good place to observe his work in motion and activated the living bombs, blowing sizable holes into the administrative building. The explosive blonde lingered about long enough to watch the smoke begin rising into the air and regarded his creation with crossed arms and a pleased nod.

"There. Now that's much more pleasant to look at, un."

Despite his initial irritation regarding this mission, or to be clearer, his being commanded to work alongside that philistine zombie Itachi and his coarse barbarian partner, the eccentric Iwa Nukenin was now reveling in his chance to showcase his art to the ignorant masses in the largest shinobi village on the continent. Deidara let out a mad cackle and circled the smoldering tower once, then starting back towards the battle site. The blonde man lowered his altitude as he sailed past the Konoha-nin and crimson puppets battling it out in the streets and atop the buildings, weaving to the side to avoid a rogue ninjutsu as it neared. The puppets were organized in a loose protective matrix around their manipulator, and the explosive Akatsuki member sought out said person, hovering in midair to clap in appreciation when he reached Sasori. The tongues on his palm hands snaked out and intertwined with one another as Deidara applauded.

"Ah, how sublime…how inspirational! Your art is resplendent, Sasori-danna!"

The red-haired living marionette, operating without his scorpion-like travel puppet in this particular battle, responded to the applause with a less than gracious smirk as he stared straight ahead, taking the compliments as his due. The compartment on Sasori's chest was opened, through which innumerable chakra strings snaked out to control his hundred puppets. At his side, his master work and the centerpiece in his extensive human puppet collection, the Sandaime Kazekage, stood as his last sentinel in case someone managed to break past his phalanx, as one hapless Chuunin almost managed to do. Sasori pulled back a crimson puppet armed with a long yari, which leapt up to intercept the incoming Konoha-nin and impale him through the stomach, slamming him onto the pavement near to the two Akatsuki members.

"Hm, that's right. Eternal masterpieces like mine can be appreciated time and again…unlike those blue-collar circus acts you would call art."

To accentuate his statement, Sasori commanded the puppet to slam its poison-coated weapon into the Konoha-nin over and over, observing with a cruel leer as the poor man's tortured wails rent the air. In the end, though, the puppet master was humane enough to end the prolonged savage attack with a quick spear thrust to the heart. Deidara shook his head as he watched the process. Never one to accept being outdone, the explosive blonde prepared to make his own exhibition.

'Hm, performance art…well, two can play at that game, Sasori-danna.'

Deidara brushed his long blonde hair aside to expose his implanted mechanical scope and peered around the combat zone, seeking a suitable model and soon isolating one close enough to his location. The criminal Iwa-nin's lips quirked into a manic grin and he reached into his satchel once more, molding a dozen or so explosive spiders. Sasori continued to concentrate on controlling his puppets, sparing his partner little attention. Deidara swooped into the melee and dropped the spiders onto the concrete, and then glided back to where Sasori stood, the puppet man piercing him with his impatient gaze.

"I disagree, Sasori-danna, with all due respect. A true masterpiece is something that makes a single lasting impression and is lost, living on in the beholder's memories. Your puppets are impressive, but such outward permanence is repetitive and dull. Now observe, un."

The spiders crawled along the ground between the combatants, isolating their target and bounding onto her. The Konoha kunoichi tried to swat the living bombs loose as she slipped under a puppet's claw swipe, but to no avail. The explosives detonated, raining red blood and gore over the immediate area. Few had noticed the one man being maimed in Sasori's exhibition, being preoccupied with the battle, but the loud explosion and gore splattering onto the street and buildings attracted much more attention. Deidara shot his Akatsuki partner a victorious smirk, since the whole point behind a live exhibition was to give people something to notice and remember.

"Hmph…quit loitering, Deidara. You have an important task to complete too."

Sasori was an obstinate person, and he would never acknowledge being upstaged. The puppeteer's mouth curled into a scowl and he made a shooing motion with his hand. Deidara cackled and rose higher into the air on his oversized bird, making towards Konoha's central district again and leaving his partner to his work. A loud crashing noise sounded in the near distance, attracting the bomber's interest. A ramshackle dump in the slums burst wide open as water began pouring out into the streets, and a tall blonde person wearing a robe escaped to leap onto another building, with a woman a step behind.

'So, that's the nine-tails kid. Mm, seems like that oaf Kisame might have a rough time with him…or at least one could hope.'

Deidara decided to loiter a little longer, despite what Sasori-danna had told him. He had nothing much to do but kill time until that uncultured rube Itachi gave the signal, and his explosive supplies were running a bit low. Konoha would remember his art, he was certain. Besides, he took an aesthetic interest in the blonde jinchuuriki, who according to Zetsu-san's intel had considerable talent with explosives, and in a double-crossing notion, Deidara even hoped that the blue stooge Kisame would botch the capture attempt on the kid. Itachi had been the one to design the current attack plan, and so Deidara would be most amused to see the scheme go sour, though not to the point that he would risk incurring the Leader's wrath with noncompliance or sabotage. The blonde bomber would do as he was asked, but sure as Hell wouldn't go the extra distance to help ensure the plan's success.

'Yes, that would be just excellent. Let that Sharingan bastard take the fall when this doesn't work.'

Too absorbed in his scheming, Deidara gave little heed to his surroundings, assuming that no threat existed since the village's shinobi were all occupied with Sasori. Hence, the blonde man didn't notice the meat cleaver spinning through the air towards him until the butchering instrument was too close to evade. The cleaver sliced into his bird's wing, making the Akatsuki member shake in midair. To Deidara's surprise and overwhelming shame, his assailants weren't even Konoha-nin. Rather, a dozen or so tradesmen and shopkeepers had taken up whatever arms available to them in order to protect their businesses and homes. The militia 'soldiers' cheered at the hit and hurled curses at Deidara as his bird struggled to gain height. The blonde artist reddened with anger and humiliation. This insult was more than he could take. No-one damaged his artwork.

"Eeek, how un-civilized! These mundane humdrums having the sheer gall to vandalize a master artist's prized work, it's savage and reprehensible! You'll all have to be given a crash course in cultural appreciation."

Deidara hopped down onto the nearest building and sent his crippled bird hobbling towards the small mob. These insipid civilian morons still didn't understand his art's true nature, the sculptor scowled as he realized, and the nincompoops poked at his wounded condor with their crude killing instruments as it approached, clawing and pecking right back at them in retaliation. At last one managed to sink a spear into its gut, prompting the rest to commence hacking at the bird in a mad rush.

"…First lesson: art is a bang, un."

At the same moment the villagers stared up at the shouting man, the hewn-up oversized bird on the ground next to them exploded, causing the ground to shake and blowing the whole street into smoldering rubble, reducing several businesses into nothingness and incinerating the militiamen. Deidara used his scope to peer through the churning black smoke as the harsh wind that the blast created whipped his long blonde hair about, marveling at the artistic devastation with a broad grin. A large airborne sign crashed down onto the concrete ground next to him, charred and shattering on impact, and the sculptor glanced down to read the intact lettering on one chunk. Ichiraku Ramen. And indeed, making those uncouth civilians appreciate his genius in their last moments was Deidara's own Ichiraku. A bright light then illuminated his vision, and the artist used his remaining explosives to mold a second condor, realizing that the moment had come. Deidara glided towards the central district once more, headed towards the Konoha ANBU's headquarters where Itachi would be waiting with the Ichibi's jinchuuriki, but not even having to rendezvous with the Uchiha could spoil his good humor now.

XXXXXXXXXX

Uchiha Itachi navigated the winding corridors in ANBU HQ without a making a single incorrect turn as he proceeded towards the secure detention zone, having memorized the compact, imposing complex in painstaking detail during his short-lived stint as a captain in the corps. There was almost no garrison present, as the veterans were to a large extent outside the village along with the Sandaime, serving as the old Hokage's guards while he met with the Fire Lord, and the remaining soldiers were out in the streets 'protecting' the village against Sasori, who seemed to be serving his intended purpose as a distraction quite well. He and his puppet legion would keep Konoha's shinobi occupied while Deidara created misdirection with random bombardments, and Itachi and Kisame would split paths to capture the two jinchuuriki in the chaos. The plan was simple in nature, but it seemed to be working as designed.

"Halt, intruder!"

Itachi spared an unconcerned glance towards the guileless ANBU trainee who had at last crossed his path. The man wasn't wearing a mask or the standard Black Ops combat gear, instead armed with a kunai, and strode towards the Uchiha at a cautious pace as Itachi began raising his hands in a surrender pose. When the man came close enough to make visual contact, the illusionist moved one raised hand to tip his bamboo Akatsuki kasa over onto the ground. A single glance into the Sharingan was all Itachi needed to make the man go running past him down the corridor, as his genjutsu ensnared the other's mind to believe that the Uchiha had turned to escape. Itachi slid against the wall to allow him passage. For a moment, the Sharingan master considered killing the man while his back was exposed, but decided that there was little point to it and continued on his path.

'That went well enough, but…'

As the Akatsuki member approached the door to the compound's prison, he saw three masked sentinels holding the entrance. Realizing that his previous approach wouldn't be plausible due to their masks, which Itachi knew to be coated with a special chakra-based chemical to provide increased resistance to visual genjutsu, the Uchiha bowed to the inevitable and strode into the narrow corridor. The small squad's captain recognized the intruder at once and spoke with a snarl.

"You…Uchiha Itachi! How dare…"

Itachi reached into his cloud-patterned robes and hurled three shuriken at the ape-masked captain, who evaded the shinobi stars and motioned his squad to attack. The shuriken exploded into smoke, each revealing an Itachi shadow clone, and each clone proceeded to grab one ANBU. The real Uchiha made a lone hand sign and the three clones detonated in unison, splattering blood, bone and skin all over the metallic hall and causing a strong acrid stench to permeate the still air. Itachi shook his head at the waste and moved towards the prison entrance, but paused on sensing an approaching killing intent behind him. The Akatsuki member twisted to the side and allowed the katana swipe aimed at his back to sail past him, drawing his tanto and slitting the ANBU's throat with a single motion as her momentum carried her past. The genius shoved the kunoichi's corpse to the ground and incinerated her approaching comrade with a Grand Fireball, obliterating the last man on the squadron.

"Pointless…"

The Uchiha stepped over the mess and reached the entrance, looking over the seal carved into the metal door, the same one that had been there since he was in the corps. The fuiinjutsu reacted to a person's chakra signature, allowing those at captain rank or higher into the room. The problem with such a seal was that, once a person's signature had been entered into its recognition mechanism, it couldn't be removed. The stoic Uchiha almost let out a smirk as he concentrated his chakra into his hand and touched the seal. No-one could have guessed that a Nukenin like Itachi would ever attempt to get into ANBU prison as opposed to the reverse. The seal shimmered and the lock on the door clicked open. The Uchiha stepped through into the dim room, glancing at his surroundings when a stern voice growled out at him, dripping with ill-concealed sadism.

"Humph…well look who it is. You've got some balls coming back to this place, kid."

Itachi stared across the small prison at the lead interrogator and warden, Morino Ibiki. The ANBU detention area was small, containing six cells; two along each wall, not counting the one that contained the entrance, and was located at the complex's center to make escape much less possible. None but the most lethal or important prisoners would be housed in this place, and as a crazed demon container and the Yondaime Kazekage's last living heir, Sabaku no Gaara counted as both. The Suna-nin was the prison's sole inmate at the present time, and was chained to a chair inside a cell that was lined with special chakra suppression seals, slumped over as though drugged.

"I have urgent orders to take this jinchuuriki with me, Ibiki-san, but I would much rather circumvent needless death. Please stand aside."

The scarred man in black smirked, looking like some wicked monster in the dark interrogation room. Ibiki reached with one hand into his long black coat, retrieving two metal knuckle dusters, not the bladed trench knives that Sarutobi Asuma liked to use, but more than enough to cause serious damage given the ANBU torturer's large size and considerable strength. Ibiki slipped one duster onto each hand, motioning his two minions in the room to prepare themselves as well. Meanwhile, on hearing the term jinchuuriki used, the sedated Gaara's head snapped over to stare at the Uchiha with a tired expression.

"Don't be ridiculous, Itachi-kun. A blood traitor has no right to talk like that. You'll be getting nothing here except a little cot in the cell next to his. You see, I've been keeping a room on exclusive reserve ever since that incident, so come right on in and let's have a nice long chat. You'll never leave this compound alive again."

Itachi reached to his brow and brushed his hair aside, as emotionless as he ever was and not in the least intimidated as he revealed his glowing Sharingan.

"…I see. But do remember, I tried to be diplomatic about this."

The Uchiha glared with his doujutsu and swept his red gaze across the room, attempting to capture all three shinobi in an illusion. Ibiki's two cronies clutched at their heads and moved as one, each stabbing the other with their katana, each believing that the other was Itachi. Ibiki meanwhile resisted the Sharingan-boosted genjutsu and charged the smaller man, aiming to behead him with a hard right. The elder Uchiha brother slipped beneath his punch and crossed into the room, and the impact straight placed a sizable dent in the prison wall. Ibiki whirled about and threw a second punch, which Itachi blocked with his tanto. The torturer's hot breath touched the emotionless Uchiha as the two stood locked in a standstill.

"Clever little ruse back there…but we'll both learn how well that Sharingan likes hot needles soon enough. I can't wait."

Ibiki's tongue snaked out and licked the scar groove in his upper lip with relish.

"Hn."

The scarred man moved to throw a hook with his other hand. Itachi ducked back underneath it and pulled his blade back, scraping it along Ibiki's duster. The Uchiha plunged his tanto through the larger man's kneecap with a single lightning-speed stab and ripped it back out stained crimson. The big man hissed and collapsed clutching at his knee. Itachi wasted no time, pivoting on the spot and slamming a hard heel kick into his opponent's throat with an almost mechanical skill. Ibiki's head snapped back against the metal wall and he sank down, nursing both a useless leg and a bruised windpipe. The man glared up when the cool, blood-soaked steel edge pressed against his throat, staring into Itachi's emotionless gaze as the Akatsuki member leaned over him.

"You should have heeded me when I gave the chance, Ibiki-san."

Itachi's doujutsu went wide and cracked bloodshot, as the three tomoe in his crimson spheres extended towards the pupils, creating a pinwheel-like phenomenon. Ibiki went pale white and his breath caught in his throat, as looking into the Mangekyou Sharingan sent him spiraling into a living Hell, Tsukuyomi. The Uchiha stood as his Sharingan reverted to its normal state, hovering over the shivering mess prone on the ground, the meanest screw ever to grace a Konoha prison reduced to a sobbing wreck. Itachi could have killed him, but he was content to show his superior power and leave the man to his catatonic condition. In general, the genius wasn't one to kill someone unless the situation required it. The thrill that had once come with the act had long since vanished, though Kisame still seemed to revel in the whole thing.

"Gaara-kun, it is time to go. You will be leaving this place with me."

Itachi strode over Ibiki's wounded subordinates on the ground, battling against the racking pain and the boiling in his vision that came with using the Mangekyou. Those two men would live also, having stabbed one another in non-vital spots while under the Uchiha's thrall. Sabaku no Gaara continued to observe the Akatsuki, as the jinchuuriki was in no real position to argue. Itachi stuck an explosive note onto the lock on the Ichibi container's cell and activated it, blasting the mechanism apart. The silent Uchiha moved into the cell and hacked into Gaara's bindings with the tanto, pulling the red-haired Genin to a standing position. The Suna-nin's impassive expression narrowed with suspicious when Itachi reached into his red and black robes and retrieved some manacles.

"…You didn't come here to rescue me."

Itachi said nothing as he gripped the vessel's wrist in one hand and locked the restraints using the other. These were special null-chakra shackles that were made in the xenophobic Hidden Snow. Akatsuki had obtained two pairs at a ridiculous markup via Kakuzu's extensive black market connections. Kisame was holding the other set, though Itachi was a bit uncertain that the manacles would hold strong against Uzumaki Naruto's massive chakra levels…assuming that the shark man could manage to get them on the kid to begin with. Nevertheless, the metal shackles worked as promised, suppressing the youki that Gaara was attempting to pull out as soon as Itachi applied them. Once the prisoner was bound and helpless to escape, his captor responded to his comment.

"No, Gaara-kun…I did not. You are now our prisoner rather than Konoha's."

Itachi motioned Gaara to begin walking, which the jinchuuriki acquiesced to with a snarl, having little real choice in the matter, and the stoic Uchiha moved along right behind. The Akatsuki member directed him through the halls in silence as the two exited the prison, headed towards the location where Itachi had arranged to rendezvous with Deidara, where the complex walls would open to the outdoors. As he arrived in the right place, Itachi activated the signal bomb he had planted outside earlier with the appropriate hand seal, which would call his 'comrade' into position to make the prisoner exchange. However, he sensed something wrong with the wall, and reached over to rap it with his knuckle, expression narrowing in thought as he listened to the impact.

'Titanium reinforcement…this is new, and a problem…'

The plan was to have Deidara blow a hole in the wall using his explosives, but that was no longer viable. Nothing the artist had in his arsenal would pack enough punch to puncture through a titanium wall, which meant that Itachi would have to handle the matter. Bracing against the pain he knew was to come, the Uchiha activated his ultimate doujutsu once more.

'Amaterasu.'

Itachi shoved Gaara back against the corridor's other wall. Flames hotter than a million suns appeared and melted a hole in the wall in an instant, licking the edges and spreading in a slow pattern while the Uchiha slumped back against the wall, clutching his brow in pain. Itachi's vision swam, and the Sharingan burned as though someone had splashed corrosive acid onto him. His blood pounded in his ears. Using the Mangekyou once was hard enough on him. Twice in quick succession was almost more than even he could endure. Had Itachi envisioned this development, he would never have used Tsukuyomi on Morino Ibiki.

"You're sure looking a bit exhausted there, Itachi-san."

The Uchiha glanced over through the hole in the wall, vision still blurred as he glimpsed a black and red blob, topped with a blonde mop. Even without looking, however, he recognized the rich, sneering voice as Deidara's, and straightened his posture, showing more strength and resolve than he had at the moment. Itachi knew that Deidara hated him stemming back to a certain incident with the artist's recruitment into Akatsuki, and would pounce on the slightest weakness, the same as all his other 'allies' in the organization save perhaps Kisame would. Orochimaru had tried once in the past, while the snake was still in Akatsuki, and Sasori would love to add a Sharingan puppet to his collection. Kakuzu would kill him to claim the prize that he would bring. There wasn't a shinobi clan or village around that wouldn't meet whatever ludicrous price the renegade Falls-nin might demand in order to get their hands on the Uchiha kekkei genkai. Zetsu would view him as an exotic meal, and the Leader wouldn't give a whit so long as his ring was salvaged in order to be given to his replacement. These were the perils he had embraced when he had chosen to exterminate his clan and abandon Konoha, leaving behind all the luxuries that came with being heir to the Uchiha, and likewise leaving all the ghosts to his little brother.

"I will survive. Take him, and tell Sasori to begin the retreat. I will go and assist Kisame in apprehending the nine-tails."

Itachi grabbed onto Gaara's shoulder and shoved him towards Deidara, blinking several times to restore his compromised vision. As his sight at last cleared, he saw the sculptor making an indiscreet reach towards his satchel, scowling when he realized that he had nothing inside. For once, even the stoic Uchiha ghosted a smirk, mocking the blonde man over losing his long-awaited redemption because he hadn't been able to moderate his impulses, both men knowing that Deidara would never again have a better chance to kill Itachi. The explosive blonde scowled and reached down to grab the medicated container's shackles, pulling him through the hole in the wall into his large bird's open maw and soaring back whence he had come. The Uchiha watched Deidara's winged abomination swallow Gaara whole, leaving nothing but his red hair protruding through its beak, and leapt through the hole into the village streets behind the demolition expert.

'Now, to locate Kisame and Naruto-kun…'

There were skirmishes raging in various places, but locating his targets was a simple matter. Two monumental chakra signatures were clashing in the Konoha slums. Itachi recognized one at once as being his partner's, and the other raged with a malevolent nature. The Uchiha let out a tired breath and deactivated his Sharingan, in an attempt to conserve his remaining stamina, as it seemed that Kisame would be unable to bring Uzumaki Naruto down on his own. Zetsu hadn't exaggerated. The overgrown child had evolved into a real shinobi since their previous meeting. Itachi concentrated hard on reaching one battle while avoiding the other as he ran through the streets, not stopping once until he happened to glance at a building, looking right into his own clan's insignia emblazoned on a cracked wooden sign.

"Hmm…how absurd, to think that I would end up returning to this place…"

Looking around the squalid Uchiha District, it was obvious to Itachi that Sasuke maintained little to do with their ancestral grounds. Dust caked the abandoned homes and shops, weeds poked out through cracks in the once impeccable streets which were now mottled with clutter, windows were broken and there were still places stained crimson. A real ghost town, one suited to the current situation as battle sounds raged in the air. Itachi could almost hear the disembodied voices screaming out at him as he browsed the places he had littered with corpses not so long ago, able to remember each individual spot in precise detail, in addition to the particular kinsman he had slain there.

"Murderer!"

"Betrayer!"

"Monster!"

Not surprising, that such a battle would stir a warrior clan's restless spirits. The grieved souls clawed at Itachi's own spirit, lashing out at their returned murderer in their impotent rage. In the distance, water rushed high into the air as Naruto and Kisame continued to batter one another. There was still more work to be done, and Itachi knew he needed to be getting over there, but couldn't shake the idea that there was some reason his instincts, instincts that meant so much to an Uchiha, had brought him back to this place, that it wasn't some mere coincidence. Kisame could wait a moment longer. Sasori's staged retreat was herding the Konoha-nin in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, Itachi halted in the clan district's ruined square, gazing at something that he didn't remember being there. A small stone monument sat in the center, emblazoned with the clan's insignia. Konoha must have erected it to memorialize the lost Uchiha, or perhaps his brother had commissioned the modest sepulcher. A simple bouquet rested at the monument's base.

'Plum blossoms…mother's favorite.'

The stoic man picked up the bouquet, examining it as though it held some great secret to be unearthed, and then crushed it in his grip, tossing it aside like so much garbage. The elder Uchiha raised his tanto to the insignia on the monument, preparing to slash the same horizontal line that marred his Konoha hitai-ate into his clan's memorial when he sensed a presence behind him. Halting the motion, Itachi glanced back over his shoulder, not bothering even to grace the arrival with reactivating his Sharingan.

"You've grown, little brother. However, I have no time to reminisce here. Come."

A pregnant pause ensued, and then Uchiha Sasuke gathered white lightning into his clenched hand, charging at his unconcerned brother's back with a battle scream.

XXXXXXXXXX

The cloaked person stumbled back as a lightning-encased hand erupted through its midsection, littering his innards all over the pavement. With an enormous hole blown in its stomach, the crimson puppet was pulled back towards the person controlling the lot, its steel katar clattering to the pavement. Hatake Kakashi stared around at the devastation in his village, smoke rising all around him, and let out a sigh.

"Look at all this damage, unbelievable…"

At that moment, two more puppets glided down towards him at the same time, one brandishing a serrated katana and the other wielding a mace. Kakashi sidestepped the blade swipe and caught the incoming mace at its long neck, and then sent the katana puppet careening across the street into a wooden building with a kick as it turned about to make a second attack. However, the mace puppet released its weapon while the man was preoccupied with its 'partner' and slid behind Kakashi, locking both his arms and turning him around, where the silver-haired elite grit his teeth as he stared right into a third puppet's high-powered crossbow, which was trained on his heart. The puppet's trigger hand tensed as it prepared to shoot an armor-piercing round.

"Konoha Senpuu!"

A green blur spun into the crossbow puppet, blasting it into a power pole with a vicious roundhouse kick. The marionette shattered into its individual component parts, which rolled around on the cracked pavement between the two Konoha-nin. Sparks rained down in a storm as the splintered pole collapsed, breaking the lines. The spandex-clad Gai landed next to Kakashi, covering his back with his trademark blinding grin, while the silver-haired man slipped one arm loose to grab the unarmed puppet holding him, hurling it into its katana-bearing cohort.

"Despair not, Kakashi-kun! We will rebuild and make our village lovelier than ever! I, Maito Gai, shall guarantee it!"

Kakashi slinked down into a combat position and reached to his hitai-ate, uncovering his mismatched Sharingan. The disarmed mace puppet recovered and dove at his side with razor-sharp talons prepared to strike, but Kakashi saw through the motion with ease and evaded the attack, slamming the doll's own mace into its spinal column, breaking the puppet in two.

"Let's save the enthusiasm until after we get through this situation. And watch it…their melee weapons are coated with poison."

Gai reached into his pack and shot a thumbs up with one hand as he pulled out his nunchaku using the other. The eccentric martial arts master used the chain on his weapon to block the katana puppet's blade, and then wrenched it down and beheaded the marionette with a high thrust kick. Gai and Kakashi stood back-to-back as six more puppets came bearing down on them.

"Yes! You and I shall make this event into a special challenge, then, Eternal Rival. The man who eliminates more will be the winner!"

The incoming crimson puppets spread out to surround the two Konoha-nin and advanced in a single rush. Gai grit his teeth and scowled, his previous light-hearted manner gone. Puppet parts soon began to litter the whole area, as the two elites scrapped their attackers using superior skill and teamwork. However, as soon as one puppet was knocked down, two more zipped in to replace it, and during the resulting distraction, the beaten marionettes that hadn't been broken on the whole would grab onto their lost limbs and reattach them to enter the battle once more. As this continued on, Kakashi at last began to keel over with exhaustion as his unnatural doujutsu began to exact its toll on his reserves.

"Damn…there seems to be no end to this. At this rate, we'll lose to sheer exhaustion."

Kakashi reached into his vest to pop a quick soldier pill. Now and then the two would glimpse a small hole in the puppets' phalanx line and see the person manipulating them; a small, willow-like man with red hair wearing a black cloak patterned with red clouds. However, both men were too preoccupied to even think about rushing him, and the gaps never lasted more than a second or so, making such a plan implausible. Kakashi and Gai leapt back a little to escape being caught in another pincer, and the bowl-cut taijutsu expert smirked at seeing his companion beginning to wind.

"You must train harder, Kakashi-kun! Such poor stamina is inexcusable!"

Kakashi paid his rival's admonishments little mind, however, as his dual-colored gaze was trained straight ahead.

"Gai...look over there…"

The spandex-clad man looked over towards the same area and blanched.

"Now what in the…"

Adding to the puppets, several respected Konoha-nin seemed to have turned against their comrades and were supporting the invaders. However, a closer inspection revealed a more rational, though no less galling scenario. The 'hostile' shinobi were mere corpses, hanging about in the same manner as the puppets, and were also being controlled using chakra strings. Their movements were slower and less coordinated than the mechanical hitokugutsu marionettes, but battling against their lost comrades was taking an obvious emotional toll on the Konoha-nin still alive, and the corpses served well as meat shields. At a point well down the street, the line parted again to reveal the red-haired puppeteer staring straight at the two elites with a belligerent smirk. Kakashi growled out what both men were thinking.

"That bastard…he's using our own casualties to supplement his troops."

Gai seemed to sense something in the air, and looked up to see more armed crimson puppets preparing to launch at them.

"Incoming!"

Kakashi prepared to meet the next attack as well, but the charging puppets halted their motion all at once and clattered to the ground in one large heap. Sarutobi Asuma landed on the pavement near the other two instructors with his bladed metal knuckles drawn and augmented with chakra. A burnt down cigarette was in the bearded man's mouth. Asuma spat the worn butt onto the ground and lowered the knuckle blade he'd used to cut the puppets' invisible strings to his side.

"Hmm, looks like we've got ourselves a little problem here."

Kakashi murmured a response through his mask while Asuma glared into the battle.

"Now there's a gross understatement…"

Three corpse 'puppets' ambled through the air towards the elites. Asuma was standing a little closer to the ensuing battle than the other two, and the dead Konoha-nin reached his position. Asuma shook his head and made silent apologies to the spirits whose corporeal images he was about to attack. Meanwhile, a shadow passed overhead, and a large bird soared towards the puppeteer's lines. Kakashi glimpsed a blonde-haired man garbed in a red and black cloak identical to the small kugutsu master's mounted on the condor, and came to assume that the two were the ringleaders in this unwarranted attack. The man leered back at the trio as he crossed over.

"Katon: Haisekishou!"

Asuma's ninjutsu technique had him spew red-hot ash onto his enemies, continuing until he covered both them and the area surrounding them. The bearded shinobi then clicked his teeth together and the ash cloud exploded, burning the corpses to smoldering cinders as a putrid stench rose in the air. However, once the smoke cleared, their skeletal remains remained standing there, bones charred black as the molten steel that had been their kunai moments ago coated their hands. Asuma scowled and reached down to grab the nearest motionless puppet, and tossed the humanoid contraption into the skeletal trio, which resulted in the whole lot collapsing into one large bone pile. And with that, the puppet legion began to withdraw, and their manipulator took to the building tops while leaving his stolen corpses behind to cover his retreat.

"Tch. Freak thinks he can escape us now. Fat chance…come on, let's wipe 'em out."

Asuma lit another cigarette as he spoke, but he needn't have bothered, as both Gai and Kakashi were moving to the pursuit as soon as he'd opened his mouth, headed right in to run beside the other Konoha-nin who had been engaged closer to the puppeteer Sasori. The three took to the buildings in order to evade the puppets, more intent on nailing the leader than bothering with inanimate underlings.

"You seem a bit distracted, Asuma-kun."

Gai sent the Third's son a sidelong glance as the two moved alongside Kakashi, as Asuma kept glancing down around the village streets and their comrades rather than keeping his undivided attention on their target. The bearded man seemed to be seeking something or other, and was having little to no luck in locating it, as his mounting irritation suggested. The trio landed on a medium-sized building, and the Sarutobi exhaled his cigarette smoke and let out a sigh.

"I'm getting a little worried about Kurenai, that's all. I hope she hasn't gotten in over her head with these weirdoes prowling around."

The man soon regretted even mentioning his plight, as Gai reacted in his usual manner.

"Ah, love! But keep heart, Kurenai-chan is a strong…"

Gai didn't get to complete his humiliating comment however, as an ear-piercing scream rent the air behind the Konoha-nin. The agonized noise seemed to originate in the Uchiha District, a place abandoned ever since Itachi's holocaust.

"That voice, it sounded like…"

Kakashi completed the other man's sentence in a worried tone. The ruckus gripping the village now seemed to be calming down to a large extent, as there were no more loud explosions detonating all over the place, and the melee in the streets had become a routine pursuit operation. Something was happening in the slum district, but that was a good distance out. As such, the tortured wail could be heard loud and clear.

"…Sasuke."

Rather than his usual boisterous attitude, Maito Gai's voice was hard and understanding all at once. For Kakashi, this situation represented a memorable dilemma. He had to choose between his mission and his team member, between helping his comrades and protecting his student.

"Go, Kakashi. We can handle the rest over here."

The silver-haired elite nodded and turned back, leaping into the streets to make a direct beeline towards the scream's source. His path took him right into the Uchiha District's main square. When he arrived, he saw a third cloaked shinobi pressing his beaten student's cheek against the small stone monument erected to honor the murdered clan. Blood streamed down the sepulcher in thick rivers, and Sasuke's shattered right arm hung limp at his side, mottled with small scorch marks that indicated he'd tried to use Chidori. Sasuke's assailant spoke without moving in a haunting voice.

"It's been a long time, Kakashi-san."

The speaker's voice had aged somewhat, but his quiet, haunting tone was unmistakable.

"Not long enough, Itachi. Let Sasuke go, now."

Uchiha Itachi turned around, and Kakashi averted his gaze ever so little in order to avoid looking into his bright Sharingan. Instead he looked at Sasuke, who Itachi then pulled into a standing position and turned around, holding him in a hostage position against Kakashi. The kid looked more like a raw steak than a human being. His black orbs, identical in color but so much more expressive than his older brother's, were both swollen shut. His right cheek was red and swollen as well, and blood gushed out through a split lower lip as well as a deep gash on his other cheek where Itachi's ornate ring had ripped open the skin. That ring glistened in the sunlight, as the elder Uchiha snatched his little brother's raven hair and held him out a little, exhibiting his work but not letting him loose. Kakashi had lived through a war, but seldom had he seen such a savage beating.

"You have not taught him well. He remains as pampered and weak as he ever was, and he has not even come close to mastering his Sharingan."

Kakashi scowled through his mask and glared death at the criminal genius. Itachi reached into his cloak and pulled out a bloodstained tanto in response, holding the blade against Sasuke so as to remind the Konoha elite that he had a prisoner, as though Kakashi could have overlooked that detail. The act seemed to indicate that Itachi had no apparent intention to attack the silver-haired shinobi, at least at that moment

"Don't stand there and belittle him, traitor. You haven't got the right. Exterminating the Uchiha Clan wasn't enough. You had to come here again with allies to wipe out the rest."

Itachi gave no emotional reaction to the older man's accusations, not that Kakashi had expected one. A sudden wind blew through the abandoned neighborhood, sending dead leaves and random debris rolling down the unkempt road. The Uchiha Missing-nin's cloud-pattered cloak and long slate hair moved in response in the breeze.

"I was ordered to this village to retrieve the Fourth Hokage's heritage. Reducing Konoha's operational strength in the process is a mere bonus."

Kakashi grit his teeth in recognition, as there could be but one person who could be called such: the child that his sensei had sealed a Bijuu into in order to save the village. And in an ironic twist, that same village was now being torn apart so that some unknown hostile organization could procure said child. Konoha was hurting, her people were being slaughtered in the village streets and in the indirect sense, Uzumaki Naruto was exacting his long-coveted revenge on all the people who had once maltreated him without needing to do a thing, as this was all being done on his account.

"Minato-sensei's…all this killing and destruction, was over one damned teenager…"

A polluted chakra resonated through the air, originating in the slums. Kakashi knew that it was Naruto's vile cursed seal going active, and a superstitious sort might have thought it to be in response to the man's inner musings about the teenager. Itachi's crimson Sharingan orbs shuddered closed a second as he seemed to consider the situation and Kakashi's previous words, and the Nukenin came to some unvoiced decision.

"…It was required. You, however, now have other matters to be concerned with."

Quicker than Kakashi could react, Itachi's tanto plunged into Sasuke's side, sliding between the beaten Genin's ribs with zero resistance. The raven-haired Uchiha let out a high shriek and he curled into a ball while still in his brother's iron grip. Kakashi could do naught but stare in horror while the elder teenager pulled his short steel blade back out. Itachi said nothing as he slung his hostage to the ground next to the silver-haired shinobi. Kakashi never even thought about attacking the man in revenge at that point, as he tore into his vest in a near panic in order to produce bandages, pressing down hard with his hand to halt the bleeding as best he could. The older man could tell that Sasuke had incurred some busted ribs as he pushed into the adolescent's side, and he knew that his pupil must have been experiencing indescribable pain at that moment, and also that it paled in comparison to his emotional torment.

"Train him harder, Kakashi-san, quit indulging his childish petulance. I will not spare this pathetic wastrel a third time."

Itachi had abandoned his previous position, as his emotionless voice's origin point had changed, but Kakashi never diverted his concentration to look at the Uchiha criminal as he retreated into the shadows, no doubt headed towards the Konoha slums and Naruto. Sasuke's strangled breathing and pained moans were the lone sounds that penetrated the cold December air within the abandoned district. Near them, the clan monument now bore a long line slashed through the carved Uchiha crest, as the groove ran red with the last scion's blood. Another dishonor heaped onto the name.

XXXXXXXXXX

Naruto and Yuugao leapt aside in opposite directions as the wave crashed onto their perch, turning the building into a large pool. Kisame now stood in the center, smirking as he brandished Samehada and awaited attack. The two ANBU shinobi landed to either side, catching the shark-nin in a basic pincer. Naruto's initial impulse was to pull the exact same stratagem he had used against Kimimaro and run out to make the large man chase him, but his superior had other ideas. The blonde recognized her hand signal as a command to cover her attack, which made the jinchuuriki bristle with irritation. Having to support someone else's action in combat didn't sit well with him. Kisame had chosen to watch Naruto, and hadn't seen the vice-captain's signal, though odds were he could never have recognized it regardless, not being a Konoha ANBU.

"…Ninpou: Seiryuujashu!"

Naruto's red serpents lashed out through his robe sleeve and hurled towards the motionless Kisame, mouths opening to release their heated discharges once within range. The Kiri-nin's brows rose in surprise as he maneuvered Samehada into a guard position to intercept the attack. The attack dissipated as it reached the wrapped blade, doing no harm other than singing the bandages a little. Kisame's grin widened, showing his pointed teeth.

"You should've remembered, gaki. Samehada eats chakra."

The blonde scowled, but the blinding smoke and searing heat still accomplished his purposes, as the attack obscured Kisame's peripheral vision enough to provide the needed cover. Three Yuugao clones rushed at the shark man's exposed back with drawn katana, moving in a strange blurring dance. Naruto recognized the move as some advanced kenjutsu but couldn't quite place it. Kisame grunted as the clones approached, and glided along the water's edge, pulling Samehada back to rest on his shoulder. The blonde cursed beneath his breath as he recognized what the man was doing and tried to pull his snakes back, but it was too late. Naruto's attack continued right on past Kisame's previous position and slammed into Yuugao's shadow clones, incinerating them on the spot. At the same moment, the real Yuugao came descending towards the Akatsuki member, again in his blindside.

"Heh…now that's a little too predictable. Don't underestimate Kiri's Seven Swordsmen."

Kisame swung the massive Samehada with one hand to intercept the incoming strike, an impressive sight to behold. Yuugao never had a chance against the man's monstrous power, and the shark man's nonchalant swing knocked her precise katana slice back with ease. The Akatsuki swordsman grinned and lashed out with his other arm using more speed than a man his size would be expected to have, smacking the much smaller ANBU kunoichi across the water-covered battleground on a collision course with the building's concrete maintenance shed. Naruto used Akuma-Shunshin to move between her and the hard wall, and caught her in his arms. Even then, her porcelain cheek was beginning to swell with blood.

"Oi…"

Yuugao squirmed in her teenage subordinate's hold and reached a hand up to touch her bruised cheek, breathing out a low hiss at the resulting sting.

"I'm still conscious. Look out, here he comes again."

Naruto let her go and returned his attention to Kisame, who was running across the area. The shark man hoisted Samehada and tossed the scaled zanbatou high into the air. The killer blade spun well past where Kisame would be able to catch it and attack the two ANBU without halting his charge. The disoriented Yuugao stumbled when Naruto put her down and almost sank into the standing water. Meanwhile Kisame was getting closer, making hand signs as he approached.

"Suiton: Suikodan no Jutsu!"

Kisame sprang high into the air, and a pointed water tendril snaked out through the standing liquid beneath him. The large tendril twisted and shot towards Naruto and Yuugao, morphing into a shark shape during its movement. Naruto glimpsed Kisame catching his sword in midair as he rolled to the side, pulling his companion down with him. The shark missile impacted hard against the shed wall, causing the thick concrete to crack and splinter. A sharp cement shard sliced into the blonde's side, cutting through his robe as he hit the water. As soon as he hit the 'ground,' the Akatsuki member was again closing in on him with Samehada poised to rend. Naruto knew that he couldn't evade and pull Yuugao out at the same time, and waited until the shark man committed to his swing.

"Seneijashu!"

Naruto's red snakes emerged again, coiling around the incoming Samehada when Kisame made a one-handed chop to bind the shaver in place. The swordsman snarled and pulled back against the snakes to regain control over his weapon, but their constricting reptilian muscles wouldn't give. Seizing the moment's advantage, the jinchuuriki leapt in towards his would-be kidnapper and lodged a hard punch at his head with his other hand. Kisame caught the blow at the wrist and grabbed hard onto the blonde's limb, shoving him to his knees. The Akatsuki member leaned over Naruto and stared right into him.

"This game's over now, kid. You'll need to remember the other important thing about Samehada too …"

Kisame's shark grin returned in total measure.

"…So listen good. This blade doesn't slice…it shreds!"

The shark concentrated chakra into Samehada and ripped back again, shredding its bandages along with Naruto's snakes. Serpent meat, red scales and white cloth pieces rained onto the ground in a mixture next to the cruel weapon. The blonde's right hand seized with the shared pain and dropped to his side, twitching as he watched his opponent raise the blue scaled abomination over his head with a barbaric smile, intent on taking a little more. Naruto grit his teeth in pain, struggling in vain to break Kisame's iron-clad hold on his other arm.

"Fuuton: Daitoppa!"

The blue-skinned swordsman's mouth slacked open and Kisame turned straight into Yuugao's wind blast, which sent both him and a cursing Naruto via unwilling extension rocketing across the zone towards the building's edge. The blonde again tried to twist loose, but the shark wasn't having it. Kisame stuck Samehada into the water as he approached the drop and used the blade as an anchor to halt his motion. The Akatsuki member smirked and raised his enormous weapon once again to block an incoming Yuugao's thrust, shoving the slender woman backwards with no exertion whatsoever.

"Hee hee, and here I thought Konoha's Black Ops were supposed to be tough. Y'all are even worse than those other goons Itachi-san and I killed a while back."

Uzuki Yuugao's cold expression turned even more so, and the ANBU jinchuuriki could have sworn the air's temperature plummeted a degree or two.

"You're the ones who wiped out Epsilon Squad eight months ago…"

Kisame leaned over and leered, shouldering Samehada and wrenching his blonde-haired captive onto the ground, water streaming all around him.

"Yeah…that's right, sweetheart. Those wimps were in the right place at the wrong time."

Naruto seized on the opening that the staring contest between Yuugao and Kisame granted him, and swung his leg into the leaning shark man's cranium. The Akatsuki member stumbled in surprise and relaxed his grip on the container's wrist enough to let him pull his arm loose. The blonde jinchuuriki wasted no time in standing back up, and moved outside the cloaked Mist swordsman's attack range. Yuugao reached into her crane-embroidered practice robe and retrieved a sheathed kodachi blade, exposing and holding it in her other hand to complement her katana.

"Uzumaki…what he's done can't be overlooked. To Hell with capture…kill him."

Naruto stared and almost took a step back, despite the serious opponent near them.

'…Sca-ree.'

The kunoichi rushed at the grinning shark man holding both her swords, transparent illusions trailing behind her as in her earlier attack. The two clashed in a blur. Though Yuugao was smaller and wielded two lighter weapons to Kisame's one massive blade, the monstrous Nukenin was still more than able to match pace with her, holding back her high-speed attacks with Samehada and pleased to have a real battle at last. Each time the man repelled her attacks, but the tenacious kunoichi kept on pressing the battle. Naruto looked on at the duel with an intent mindset, prepared to leap into action as soon as he was needed but at the same time not wanting to waste chakra or be a distraction. Yuugao was driven back one more time, and dropped her kodachi, clutching at her stomach with a pained expression.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Kisame, not in the least wounded, bared his teeth in a crooked smile and hurled Samehada through the air towards the jinchuuriki, who remained in position behind his clones sealing another ninjutsu. The scaled weapon tore clean through Naruto's replications as though he'd used the regular Bunshin no Jutsu, meeting no resistance at all. The blonde container took several panicked steps back as Kisame's lethal weapon closed in, and while he could have evaded it somehow, Naruto instead opted to wait until the right moment and claim it as his own.

'…Now!'

The blonde's hand lanced out and caught Samehada at the handle in midair, and he then made an attempt to hoist the exotic weapon using both arms, but with little success. Kisame's blade was even heavier than Momochi Zabuza's had been. Naruto exhaled a long breath and pulled at his cursed seal, which he had been hoping not to have to resort to given its dangerous consequences, as well as the alarming rate at which he would lose chakra when the juin was combined with Samehada's constant consumption. Thus he gained enough strength to be able to hold the weapon, but choked out a whine when razor spines emerged through its handle to impale his hands. Naruto tossed the belligerent Samehada into the smoke his clones had caused and stared down at his bleeding appendages, dripping crimson into the clear water beneath him.

"Oooh…a rough break there, kiddo. Samehada chooses her own master, and no-one else is permitted to touch her."

The smoke cleared as something rough and sharp poked hard into Naruto's back. Kisame had gotten behind him without his noticing, showing that like his ex-comrade Zabuza, the shark man was skilled in the silent killing method, and was now holding Samehada lengthwise against the jinchuuriki. Kisame's huge paw clenched the container's blonde hair and the Akatsuki member pulled back to arch Naruto against his weapon, making the scales pierce his skin and draw blood. Meanwhile, Yuugao was battling against several Kisame water clones. Clear liquid rained down in a drizzle all around the violet-haired kunoichi as she sliced apart the unarmed doppelgangers with a rare passion. She killed a Mizu Bunshin using both her swords at once, but another materialized right in her blind spot. Naruto tried to shout out to her, as that was all he could do while in Kisame's bind.

"Uzuki, behi…aaaargh!"

Naruto couldn't help screaming in sheer torment despite his usual stubborn pride when Kisame cackled and pulled back on Samehada, shredding into the helpless blonde's covered back. Not even having his heart stabbed out at Kimimaro's hands had hurt quite like this, like having corrosive acid poured onto his skin over and over. Yuugao whirled about at the wail right in time to see her subordinate get reamed apart, but the chakra water in the air around her condensed to surround her in a spherical prison, and the remaining clone pushed its hand into the liquid cocoon to maintain the ninjutsu trap. She could now do nothing but watch on in horror. The hand binding Naruto's hair pulled back again and Hoshigaki Kisame's rough voice crooned into his ears, causing him to let out a shudder at its barbaric glee.

"You should've come along nice and quiet when I was kind enough to ask, jinchuuriki. Now we're going to have a grand old time 'till Itachi-san gets here."

Kisame tossed the limp Naruto over his shoulder and kicked him hard across the combat zone, sending the demonic blonde crashing into the water against the concrete maintenance shack again. He struggled to regain a standing base, but to little real purpose. A shark missile streaked towards the jinchuuriki and impacted into his stomach, sending him crashing through the weakened concrete wall and into the small shed. Naruto curled into a ball on impact in an attempt to minimize the pain. For several seconds he remained motionless there, unable to summon the resolve to stand again, knowing that he was powerless to push back the monstrous Akatsuki swordsman in his current state, and that evolving his cursed seal would kill him with the added strain that came with it. The active juin marks mottling the blonde's skin bathed the dark room in an eerie crimson light. Naruto's head lolled to the side, he let out an amused smirk at what he glimpsed there.

"Kuh…I must be hallucinating now…"

A pure white snake with purple markings coiled on the wet ground next to him, slithering closer to wrap around his torso and pull him to sit. The jinchuuriki shook his head in puzzlement, but mustered his strength to stand again, conscious that the standing water inside the little room had turned red with his blood. The strange serpent remained there, looking at him as though expecting something. Naruto glanced out through the hole his rough entrance had created in the wall, seeing the water rising into another massive tidal wave, and the blonde let out a sarcastic chuckle.

"Heh…he's lost his little mind. He was supposed to be taking me alive, I thought…"

Naruto's serpent companion seemed to 'stand' on its tail and straighten, rearing its angular head back while opening its white mouth. A wrapped sword handle emerged, causing the jinchuuriki to arch a brow, but he accepted the obvious invitation and snatched the handle, pulling out a long, straight dual-edged blade that seemed to glow with a white light. The container recognized the weapon, and at that particular moment his weapon, at once, even in the poor lighting, and wasted no time in smearing his bleeding hand against his chest, giving his blood to the snake summoning pact, and his world went black. Kisame's tsunami crashed into the shed, tearing the loose structure apart and sending the broken pieces cascading down into the waterlogged streets below. When the raging torrent ended, an enormous red serpent sat where the shed had once been, and when its mouth opened, the blood-soaked Naruto strode out, juin marks blazing a raging crimson and holding a silver-white Kusanagi in his right hand.

"Kisame…it's your turn to bleed now."

(End Chapter 21)

Author's Note: I planned on ending the Akatsuki battle with this chapter, but it started running long as usual, and I figured this was a good enough ending point. Giving Naruto the Kusanagi was a more recent inspiration, but I think that it works well and I have thought it out. I'll find something to do with Zabuza's sword remains, I'm sure, but that was an idea that came from when I was planning to take the plot in a different direction from what I'm doing now. Still, since I had him keep the shards, I will actively try to find a reason for him to use them. Readers may of course feel free to make suggestions if they like. The reason behind Kusanagi coming to Naruto will likely be delved into next chapter. For a hint, it has to do with the nature of the cursed seal, as well as Orochimaru's present condition. Not too much I want to rant about here, just hoping that I portrayed the Akatsuki well enough. Next chapter will cover the end of the current situation, as there isn't that much left to do, and will also cover another battle in another land, among other things. I used the Fourth's canon name for the first time in this chapter, so don't get mixed up. I'll probably go in tomorrow to replaced all the instances where I had used his accepted fanon name, but I'm honestly too tired to do it tonight.

That's about all for now, hope the chapter is a good read, as I'm pretty happy with this one on the whole. Let me know what you think, please.