Chapter 20 – Enter The Akatsuki

Sado Hanataro yawned. He was amongst the six ANBU who had got the morning shift to watch over Uzumaki Naruto. He understood the importance of guarding Naruto day and night, but that didn't stop him from getting bored, very bored. Right now, they were strung around a small section of the woods, keeping a watch for anything suspicious. Earlier in the morning, they had tried to keep a direct eye on him, till Naruto had acidly asked them if they got the jollies from watching someone take a leak. So, they had taken up positions from where they could not see Naruto, but could rush in immediately at the first hint of danger. It was mid afternoon and they had seen nothing out of the ordinary. Being new to the ANBU, Hanataro found guard duty quite boring, specially this assignment. After all, who in their right minds would try to kidnap a trained shinobi in the middle of a heavily guarded village?

Hyuuga Hiashi sat patiently on the stool while Neiji finished his meal. He had walked into his hospital room just as the nurse was about to set the tray. Neiji had tried to rise, but was stopped by a single gesture from Hiashi, who then sat down, indicating that he would wait till he had finished. Hiashi watched Neiji as he ate slowly. The poison Naruto had inflicted him with had simply paralyzed his muscles. With all the injuries from the invasion, the doctors had just given him the antidote and told him to rest for a few days while his system flushed out the toxins. As head of the Hyuuga clan, Hiashi was unarguably the most powerful Hyuuga alive, which meant that he was the expert on reading people's emotions. Neiji had radiated nothing but bitterness and hatred for the past few years. His eyes still shone with anger, but there was another emotion that Neiji had never felt before, confusion. Uzumaki Naruto, the boy with no parents, the boy with no clan, dead last in class, had defeated a Hyuuga prodigy, and had done so in terrifyingly easy fashion. From their birth, each Hyuuga was taught that their clan was the most superior to all clans. To lose to a non-Hyuuga was simply unthinkable, especially if you were the rookie of the year. Neiji finally finished his meal and put the tray on the bedside table, and looked up to face his uncle.

"Am I to be punished?" Neiji asked straight away.

Hiashi looked at him for a few seconds before speaking. "Why so you think you lost?"

Neiji's face scrunched up in confusion. "I … I don't know."

Hiashi sighed. "You lost because you let your hate for the main house blind you." He held up his hand to cut off Neiji off as he opened his mouth to speak. "I let you be after your father died, thinking that you had enough sense to snap out of this delusional hatred of the main house, but I was wrong. You became fatalistic to fuel your anger. Do you really think your father would have been pleased to see his son fall as low as to be defeated by an academy dead-last?"

Neiji's hands clenched at the mention of his father, but he said nothing.

Hiashi continued. "You are one of the most talented members of our clan in more than a hundred years, yet you lost and you lost embarrassingly, because you let your hatred blind you. Naruto, on the other hand, managed to keep his mind clear of such emotions. It was the sole reason why he beat the rookies of the year."

Neiji hung his head in shame. He had been told by his teammates on how he had defeated the Uchiha with ease.

Hiashi dusted his robes as he got up. "Naruto has been feared and hated by most of Konoha all his life, but that did not stop him from challenging his own destiny. Think about that. Also think about Uchiha Sasuke and what he has become, for letting hatred seep into his very bones." With that, he dropped an envelope on the bed and walked out.

Neiji sat for a long time, with his head in his hands, thinking about what his uncle had told him. After what seemed like hours, he slowly reached out for the envelope and opened it. His brows furrowed as a letter fell out. His eyes went wide as he recognized the handwriting. It was his father's! His hands trembled as he read.

Dear Neiji.

By the time you read this, I will be dead. ….

…

…

Lee charged at his opponent with all the speed he could muster and lashed out with a roundhouse kick. His opponent managed to duck out of the way, but not enough to avoid grazing Lee's foot. Lee smiled fiercely as he felt his foot graze his opponent, but the smile soon vanished as she disappeared soon after. He frantically whirled left and right, trying to feel her out. After a few seconds, he began to panic, and it was then he felt the cold point of a kunai pressing down on his throat. Sighing, Lee dropped his head in disappointment at being beaten so easily, again.

"Don't look so disappointed, Lee! You have tried to overcome all obstacles with your hard work. Just think of this one as another obstacle you must cross." Kurenai told Lee as she handed him a flask of water. The "obstacle" was training Lee to be able to at least detect low to possibly mid level genjutsus.

Lee nodded as he went towards where Tenten and Sakura were sitting, along with Gai and Kakashi. The three genin teams were here as part of a special project, pooling the talents of jounin teachers to create a bit better rounded ninjas. Gai was helping Sakura in taijustu and physical stamina. Kurenai was training Tenten and Lee in genjutsu. Kakashi was training everyone how to fight against a Sharingan wielder. Lee had been rendered completely useless during the invasion before being revived by Shikamaru due to being knocked out by a simple genjutsu, showing that despite his excellence in hand-to-hand combat, he could be neutralized very easily. Sakura had excellent chakra control and a flair for genjutsu, but physically she was too weak, making her a liability against opponents who were strong against genjutsu based attacks. Tenten was good with weapons, but her ability to fight at close quarters was abysmally low. Asuma would have been an ideal teacher for her for close quarter combat, but he was in the hospital, recovering from an overdose of aspirin. This was also why Ino and Chouji were not present that day. Hinata and Neiji were still recovering from their wounds, Sasuke was unconscious and Shikamaru and Naruto were busy with their chuunin lessons. It was ironic how the dead last and the one just above the dead-last managed to graduate to chuunin status, leaving everyone else behind.

Tsunade sighed with obvious relief as the last of the delegation from Suna left the council room. The whole meeting had gone much smoother than anyone had anticipated. They had underestimated the amount of devastation Suna had suffered during their ill-conceived invasion, during which they had lost not only a large number of good ninjas, but also their Kazekage and their greatest weapon, Gaara. The delegation had come fully prepared to ally Suna with Konoha. The meeting ended with Suna signing a declaration of unconditional support for Konoha forever, or at least till the next warmongering leader decided to break it. As the council started to break up, Sarutobi gave her a genuine smile as if to say "good job". For the first time in her life, Tsunade understood the full implications of what it meant to be Hokage (and why Jiraya wouldn't have made a good one). She had wanted to pound Suna into the dust. A few years ago, she would have done exactly that and to hell with the consequences. Instead, she had managed to see the meeting through with a calm that surprised even her. Konoha had gained a new ally, which would, in a few years time, regain its former strength. Neither side had been made to sign any concessions. Instead, they signed a lot of agreements on exchange programs which would end up benefiting both nations and foster more good will. Students from Suna would study medicine in Konoha, for the prowess of the Konoha medical department was near legendary. Any Konoha ninja with wind affinity would be sent to Suna, as there were wind masters aplenty there. There were many others like this. Both sides had recognized the root cause of the war, insecurity. The Kazekage had allied himself with Orochimaru because he felt insecure over his nations standing.

Sado Hanataro had to admit that Naruto was good, very good. He had not been present during his matches and thus was seeing him in action for the first time. While his overall skills were not great at this point, he had all the makings of an excellent ninja.

Jiraya watched as Naruto pulverized yet another boulder with that weird technique of his. Jiraya had turned up an hour ago, ready to teach Naruto the rasengan, but to his disappointment, he had refused. He was still as stubborn as a mule when it came to anything related to the fourth Hokage. Not wanting to antagonize him, he had instead offered to try and help him refine his 'originals'. To do that, he put up a barrier around a boulder and told Naruto to destroy it. He had then slowly upped the barrier strength, while refusing to let Naruto open the celestial gates. After half an hour, Naruto seemed to have hit a limit. Jiraya had then proceeded to smash through his own barrier with a well placed rasengan, hoping that it would make Naruto eager to learn it. All it did was trigger of a chain of new thoughts in Naruto's brain. He quickly figured out that the destructive potential of the rasengan, much like the chidori, lay in the fact that a lot of chakra was concentrated in a small place. In a few minutes, he had punched through Jiraya's barrier like it was paper by narrowing the chakra beam without lessening the amount he put into it.

"Let's take a break!" Jiraya said as noticed a slight shudder run down Naruto's legs.

Naruto nodded gratefully. He had managed to lessen the side effects of his technique by gathering more chakra than he released. This way, his body didn't have to go through the phase of a sudden decrease of chakra in his body. But that didn't eliminate it completely, and after a couple of dozen or so blasts, he was already feeling giddy. He knew that had he gone all out from the start, he would be unconscious at this point. He sighed ruefully as he realized that his techniques were really not something he could use in a one on one battle safely yet. Not everyone would come in rushing blindly like Sasuke.

Jiraya frowned as he went over their session. Naruto's technique, at full power, was easily one of the deadliest he had ever seen. To tell the truth, at his current speed, Naruto had more chances of hitting the enemy with his technique than with the rasengan. But the side effects made it a very dangerous technique for the user as well.

Suddenly, his eyes went wide with shock. He whirled around and launched a kunai at a raven sitting on the branch of a nearby tree. To everyone's shock, the raven shattered like glass, its pieces slowly disappearing.

Blood red eyes slowly opened and the figure stirred. His companion noticed this and got up.

"So do we charge in now?" he asked, smiling in anticipation.

Uchiha Itachi shook his head. "Our presence has been detected. By now, an alarm will have been sounded. The target is already being guarded by a team of ANBU and Jiraya. Also, I have been unable to detect any presence of the other target."

Kisame growled in frustration. It had taken them days to reach the outskirts of Konoha. Then he had had to wait till Itachi located the target. In short, Hoshikage Kisame was itching for a fight. Itachi stared at the village for a moment longer and then turned and started to walk away. Grumbling under his breath, Kisame followed a second later. Hours later, ANBU teams reported to the Hokage, saying that no trace of Uchiha Itachi had been found anywhere. The only thing they had found was a big boulder sliced into half.