Only three jinchuriki and one tailed beast was left; things were not looking good. Orochimaru was also dead by the hands of the Akatsuki. Kabuto, the only survivor, proved to be no help at all. Going through his brain had only revealed that Hanabi, Mito and Hitomi were part of the attack, and other information that would have been valuable if the snake was still alive, but the worst part was the memories Kabuto had of Naruto's childhood. Minato, despite knowing he would regret it, asked Inoichi to show him those memories, so they watched as Naruto devolved his powers at the hands of Orochimaru, sat in a cage, killing people for the sake of progress, sat in a cage, devolve his ideals, but more than anything sat in a cage. It hurt Minato to watch and it was even worse knowing that Kabuto had spent a lot of his time spying on the leaf. Someone who could have lead them to Naruto had been so close all this time. While Minato was suffering watching his son Inoichi seemed to be enjoying himself after all this was the monster that killed his daughter, and that's what scared Minato the most. Was it too late for Naruto? Did the village already hate him enough that he would never be able to return? The logical part of his brain told Minato that it was, but he just couldn't believe that. And even with all these memories of Naruto there was nothing that gave them any sort of weakness everything that was in these memories were stuff they already knew although Orochimaru apparently had a notebook about Naruto that Kabuto strongly expected had a weakness written inside it. But that notebook had gone to the grave along with Orochimaru; exactly how Naruto wanted it.
It wasn't all bad news because Naruko had succeeded in making an elemental rasengan. She was using three shadow clones to do each of the steps separately and while Minato applauded her for her genius it wasn't practical for anyone else to use. Minato simple did not have enough chakra for it and Minima while having some of the Kyuubi's chakra could theoretically do it, it would still take a huge amount of her overall chakra, far too much, to justify using it on one move.
Naruko improvement was amazing and certainty boosted her combat strength, but Minato was still so afraid that the Akatsuki would swoop in a take her. Minato had been confident that he could protect his daughter, but Naruto had crushed Taki alone. He had crushed them so bad in fact that Taki had pretty much pulled out of the alliance. Could Minato really protect Naruko from an organization with that kind of power?
Minato slapped himself at the thought; of course he would. He wasn't alone he had Kushina Jiraiya, Itachi, his daughters, and loads of other strong ninja. Taki was a minor village so they probably weren't prepared to fight an S-class ninja like Naruto. Besides Naruto was Minato's blood so of course he'd be insanely strong. There was nothing to worry about. With these thoughts in his head Minato went back to work confident once again that everything would turn out all right.
If only the rest of the village could be as optimistic as he was.
Hitomi walked along side Kisame after she and the rest of the girls had been separated. Hitomi eye had healed a day ago and she was finally able to take off the bandages. Hitomi didn't think she'd ever forget how painful that was.
Kisame didn't talk much, but from Hitomi's observation of him thus far she was confident that he was one of the higher level Akatsuki members even when the Akatsuki had a full set of S-classes. If Hitomi was to guess she would place Kisame as the third strongest in the group with Pein and Naruto above him. Although Hitomi wasn't sure who was above whom with Pein and Naruto. Hitomi didn't know anything about Pein's abilities, but he was the leader which must mean he had undeniable power, but Hitomi just found it hard to believe Pein would be able to get passed Naruto's reflection although Itachi, and Lee to a lesser extent, had proven that it was not impossible. Normally it wouldn't matter who was stronger since they were on the same side, but Hitomi bet that whatever Naruto was planning wasn't just going to fly by Pein. Hitomi just hoped that Naruto knew what he was doing.
Mito was sitting on one of Deidara's clay birds while Deidara was on another one. "Where are we going?" Mito asked.
"To Iwa, Sasori died before he could capture the five-tails so now it's up to his partner and his replacement to do it." Deidara said.
"Thinking about blowing up your home village." Mito said.
"I'm not blowing it up!" Deidara yelled defensively. "I'm making art."
"Just don't be making art out of our target." Mito replied. Mito didn't know what to make of Deidara. While she respected his skill as a ninja; he just seemed too unstable even with the Akatsuki's standards although perhaps not on the level of Hidan. Mito didn't even think Deidara and her were a good pair. Sure they had worked together once before but that had ended in Deidara losing his second arm. Their powers were also complete opposites. Deidra was a long range bomber while Mito was a close range brawler with one or two long ranged attacks. Mito was seriously wondering if they'd be able to capture the five-tails, but then again, this was Deidra's home village and he can cause quiet a distraction. Mito smiled as she thought up a plan. She would be the one to take down the five-tails not Deidra like everyone expected. She would prove that she was just as good as any other Akatsuki and make up for her uselessness during Orochimaru's assassination.
Hanabi was practically skipping to where Naruto was supposed to meet her. She knew that now that she was part of the Akatsuki she would have to play the part which basically meant walking around with a scowl everywhere she went, but she was just too excited to see Naruto. She hadn't seen him in forever and now she was on the same level as him. Well, Hanabi didn't actually think that. She knew she was nowhere close to Naruto, but I least now she could help him as a fellow Akatsuki member. Plus she was all alone with him which made her even happier.
Hanabi was so happy that she didn't even notice Naruto when he was in her sight. "What are you doing?" Naruto asked with a very confused look.
Hanabi stopped so fast that she tore up some grass. She had a horrible blush on her face that she tried desperately to cover up, but all she could think of was how Naruto had seen her skipping, SKIPPING! That is something no serious ninja do, or any ninja for that matter.
"I was just…" Hanabi couldn't come up with anything to say as she stood there where he hands clamped together her front of her and looking to the side. She was feeling herself melt from embarrassment from the gaze she couldn't. This is not how she wanted to meet Naruto after all this time. It made her feel like nothing had changed from that fateful day in the Land of Frost.
Naruto waited a little bit for an answer to explain what he just saw, but seeing Hanabi reaction gave him all the answer he needed. He had almost forgotten that Hanabi had a huge crush on him. "Fine whatever I don't really care." Naruto said without any emotion, but on the inside was laughing very hard.
Hanabi felt relief wash over her as Naruto didn't press any farther. She waited for her blush to die down before turning back to face Naruto, but when she did her blush came back darker then it was before. "Why aren't you wearing a shirt?" Hanabi screamed. Naruto had his Akatsuki cloak on the ground beside him, and apparently Naruto had stopped wearing a shirt underneath it as Hanabi could see the pale white skin of his chest and blushed madly, even if to must people Naruto looked like an anorexic vampire, which would give very little sexual appeal.
Naruto sweat dropped as he hadn't been wearing his Akatsuki cloak since Hanabi had arrived. She must have been too caught up in her skipping to have realized, Naruto thought. He had taken it off because he felt like his arm had healed enough to where he didn't have to bandage it up and he had taken his cloak off to take them off. This was something Naruto was going to explain to the blushing girl, but the moment he lifted his unbandage arm Hanabi freaked.
In Hanabi's world she saw Naruto's arm and about had a heart attack. There were large patches of fresh pink skin surrounded by a red outline that stood out against Naruto's pale skin. Hanabi had heard that Naruto had been injured by Itachi, but she didn't think he had been hurt this bad. Hanabi had seen this after the fact so it wasn't that bad, but she knew you didn't get scares like that unless you were seriously burned. Hanabi immediately rushed over to get a better look at Naruto's arm.
"What are you doing?" Naruto asked a little uncomfortable with the sad look Hanabi was giving as she stared at his arm.
"You didn't get this treated did you?" Hanabi asked looking up at Naruto's face giving him a very angry look.
Now a normal man would have died on the spot with a look like that, but Naruto was the strongest ninja in the world (or so he told himself) so he was not going to be intimated by a girl three years his junior. "No I didn't. Why should I have? It healed fine on its own and my ability kept me from bleeding out." Naruto said.
"But what if it had gotten infected or what if the pain had made you make a mistake in battle. This isn't just some minor wound you whole arm was burnt to a crisp!" Hanabi yelled with worry and anger.
"It can't get infected because my reflection keeps all germs away, and I even banged it up just in case." Naruto said feeling rather let down that Hanabi thought he could die from something as minor as that.
"Still let me heal it and bandage it." Hanabi said already preparing to use the small amount of medical jutsu she knew to help Naruto.
"It's already healed enough and I don't need it bandaged." Naruto said.
"What is with you guys and having so much of an ego that you can't accept help when it's offered to you?" Hanabi said very irritated. "Yes I know that it's mostly healed, but there's still some damage here. I know that doesn't mean much to the Accelerator the world's strongest ninja." Hanabi said sarcastically. "But it not going to do any more damage, and besides with my help those scares could go away faster." Hanabi said now getting a little desperate for Naruto to accept her help.
Naruto looked at the girl who only wanted to help. Didn't she realize that he was fine? That he would have to take down his reflection for her to help and that would put him in more danger then just letting the wound heal on its own. Logic would tell Naruto to ignore Hanabi, but the sad look she was giving him made him feel a little guilty. Fine, what were the odds that they would get attacked here, plus, as much as Naruto didn't to admit it he did have soft spot for Hanabi. "Go ahead," Naruto said holding out his arm and disabled his reflection. Hanabi looked so happy while she was healing Naruto that the pale boy actually gave a little bit of a smile, and it was all done within twenty minutes including new bandages.
"So what's the plan?" Hanabi asked Naruto looking pretty pleased with the work she had done.
"We don't have a plan." Naruto said.
"What," Hanabi said her jaw dropping slightly.
"Hidan and I both captured our targets. Which mean it's the other groups' job to capture the rest, so we don't have any work to do." Naruto said falling down to the grass in a carefree manner.
"But we have to be doing something." Hanabi said scared that she wouldn't be able to show Naruto anything she had learned since they parted.
"Nope, we're done." Naruto said looking at the sunset. "Anyways I'm going to bed."
"But we could at least do bounty hunting work." Hanabi said, but although Naruto wasn't asleep yet he did give her a response. Hanabi severely disappointed with the outcome of these events made her bed as close to Naruto as she dared.
When the moon was high in the sky Hanabi stirred awake from a dream she could no longer recall. She planned to fall back asleep, but she noticed something strange. Naruto wasn't asleep instead he was sitting cross-legged with a cup of water in his hand. Now there was nothing strange about this Naruto's could have simply gotten up to get a drink except he wasn't drinking it. He was tapping his finger in the water at different intervals. Hanabi realized that he must be contacting Suigetsu.
Hanabi wasn't exactly sure how it worked, but somehow Suigetsu was able to get information from water. Naruto must be sending Suigetsu a message. All the members of the Akatsuki suspected Naruto was up to something but this was solid proof that Naruto was using Suigetsu for something, but what could that something be. Hanabi was greatly disappointed that Naruto didn't trust her enough to let her in on his plan. Didn't he know that she was loyal to him and not the Akatsuki? It hurt Hanabi, but there was nothing she could do about it. Hopefully Naruto would tell her in time.
That night while Naruto was putting together his plan. While Itachi was finally retuning to the village after healed enough to make the trip back. While Minato was just getting home to his wife who had been waiting for him. While Naruko was wide awake in her bed thinking about the power she now possessed. While Pein was looking over his village with Konan next to him. While Tobi was making his final preparations for the end game. A huge chakra pressure emerged and alerted every sensor near and far away. It was so large and so sudden it would be better to call it a chakra explosion. There were only nine things that could give off that sort of pressure and there was only one that was unaccounted for. That night the three-tails made itself know.
The Hokage's office was filled to the brim with ninja early the next day. "As most of you have probably heard the three-tails location has been discovered." Minato said. Inside the Office was Kakashi's team, Guy's team, Kushina and Jiraiya.
"So we have to seal it before the Akatsuki can." Kushina said.
"But why did you call all of us in surely the other villages will be sending their own ninja." Neji said looking around at all the familiar faces. "It would be better then send an anbu teams for this sort of thing."
"About that, the leaf wasn't invited to help, so anbu teams would be a quick way to send the wrong message." Minato said.
"They why are we going?" Sasuke asked irritated that he had been called for a mission as soon as his brother got home.
"Because even if we aren't supposed to come it can't hurt to have a few extra people to help, and more importantly by sending regular ninja it will ease the other members of the alliance into letting you help." Minato said.
Some of the smarter people in the room could tell what the true purpose of this mission was. Minato was trying to mend his relationship with the rest of the alliance by sending his 'not-so-regular' ninja to help out, in other words, his best ninja. Minato just wanted the alliance to recognize the ninja he was sending. It had nothing to do with what kind of message anbu team's would send. If Itachi wasn't too injured to go on this type of mission he'd probably be here too. However, this was doubled edged sword if they captured the three-tails successful then it would help Minato regain favor, but if they failed the alliance could blame it all on Minato and that would break the relationship beyond repair.
"I see, but I have one more question." Kakashi said. "In a mission that's objective is to stop the Akatsuki from capturing another tailed beast is it really such a good idea to send a jinchuriki on this mission."
"What's that supposed to mean!" Naruko yelled.
"Quiet Naruko." Minato said getting the attention of everyone in the room. "I can see what you mean, but Naruko hasn't been able to go on missions recently because of that very fact. If I keep her in the village she won't get the experience she needs to defend herself against these high level opponents. Besides it not like I'm sending her to fight a tailed beast alone. You're all going with her and honestly with all of you on this mission it might be safer to send her with you then leave her in the village."
"Also if things get really bad I'll make sure Minato gets his ass out there in a second thanks to the seal on my back." Kushina said.
"I see then I guess there's nothing left to do, but head out." Lee said.
By the time they got there the battle was already long under way. There were Iwa and Kumo forces running around a big lake with what looked like a giant grey turtle. Although the three-tails was way more dangerous than any turtle could hope to be. A giant wave of water smashed onto the shoreline breaking trees and carrying them away. There were a few bodies in the water that moved with the waves that the three-tails was creating.
"What the hell are leaf ninja doing her." Said a female voice as she jumped down from one of the few remaining trees. She was wearing the Iwa uniform, and had black hair with pupiless eyes. She was Kurotsuchi. The Tsuchikage's granddaughter
"We're here to help." Kushina said.
"We don't need it." Kurotsuchi said, but then an explosion rang out along with the death screams of a few ninja.
"Doesn't look like it." Kushina said giving the girl a cocky smirk.
Kurotsuchi clicked her tough in annoyance obviously not happy with another village interfering with the mission, but she couldn't deny that any ninja they could get would help. "Fine just know that you're not in charge here." She said as she led them to the main battle.
They reached a small hill by the river that had a bunch of ninja focusing firing on the three-tails. "Black panther!" one of the Kumo ninja yelled as black lightning struck the water and electrocuted the whole lake and surprisingly the three-tails was actually affected by it.
"That must be some power lightning jutsu." Minima said admiring the man's jutsu.
"Hey Darui, guess who decided to show up." Kurotsuchi said as she ran up behind him. Darui took a brief look behind him, but didn't have time to take his eye off the three-tails as it was already recovering. "Hey didn't you see. They're damn leaf ninja?!"
"I don't care if they're part of the Akatsuki; if they're here to help them let them. We're going to be charging the lake soon to attempt a capture. Hopefully you leaf ninja aren't scared of getting a little wet." Darui said.
"Of course not," Sasuke said activating his sharingan.
Every ninja there got out on the lake and started heading for the three-tails. The three-tails wasn't going to let them run straight at him, however. A rain of huge water bullets were shot at the approaching force. Iwa ninja made brought up rock walls all the way from the bottom of the lake to block them. The three-tails reacted by upping his power. "Shit he's about to use his tailed beast ball." Jiraiya said.
"Everyone get as close as you can. That's no point in trying to block something like that, but it might think twice about firing it too close to itself." Kurotsuchi ordered.
Everyone ran as fast as they could towards the tailed beast hoping to avoid the blast. Kurotsuchi seemed to be right in her prediction because the three-tails shot the ball a ways behind them, but even if it wasn't a direct hit didn't mean they were safe. The shockwave caused more than a few ninja to face plant in the water. This was much more dangerous then it normally would have been because the water in the lake and become incredibly unstable do to the attack. Some ninja were pushed under the water and wouldn't be seen again until their bodies washed up on the shore, but the group didn't have time to worry about the water below. They were now close enough to the three-tails where they could be easily hit by one of the swinging tails.
"I've got this," Kushina yelled as she used her chains to wrap around one of the tails and stop it from swinging. The three-tails wasn't going to have any of it as he swung one of his other tails towards Kushina.
"I don't think so." Minima said as she used he own chains to stop the tail. This made the three-tails pissed as he stranded shaking back and forth and swung his last tail around wildly trying to hit the red-heads.
"I can't let the leaf girls have all the fun." Kurotsuchi as she shot a white substance from her mouth at the last tail. When the three-tails dipped his tail back in the water from swinging it around the substance hardened making the tail much heavier.
Although the three tails was having trouble moving its last tail it wasn't immobile, so the time to strike was now. Tenten shot hundreds of explosive tags. Lee and Guy opened one of their gates and started wailing on the beast. Sasuke, Kakashi and Darui used their lightning jutsus all at once to make and extremely power lighting beam and all the other ninja started firing their own jutsus.
Not even a tailed beast could take that many jutsus without being affected. The three-tails seemed to howl in pain as the jutsus just kept coming, but the worst was yet to come as Naruko charged up her Rasenshuriken. Naruko was going to hit the three-tails with her best attack and hopefully it would do enough damage to capture it.
The three-tails must have realized that if it was hit by Naruko's attack it would do a lot more than just cause some pain. It curled its self into its tails making himself a sort of ball. Then it started spinning at speeds that were impossible for Minima and Kushina to hold onto their chain. They had to cancel them unless they wanted to be sent flying. The spinning was so fast that the substance Kurotsuchi had shoot onto the last tail just peeled off, and with that the three-tails raced around the lake within seconds and came right back at them. It was so fast most ninja didn't even have time to think. The ones who could cut off the chakra to their feet and fell into the lake. "Tenten get down!" Neji yelled since Tenten was one of those ninjas that forgot how to think. Neji raced after her and push her into the water just as the three-tails passed over head. However, in saving Tenten Neji had not been able to get down far enough and got his back chopped up like a raw steak by the three-tails' spicks. The water turned red from not only the blood coming from Neji's back, but also the hand-full of ninjas that had stayed above water.
Meanwhile the three-tails kept making passes above them making it impossible to surface, but they couldn't stay in the water they'd drown. A sudden burst of smoke turned the group's attention elsewhere. The group was amazed to see a giant toad underwater with them; Jiraiya had summoned the toad boss.
Without saying a word the toad boss took out his sword and jumped through the water with Jiraiya on top. It was like they had a telepathic connection because he was not surprised at all by the giant spiked shell spinning at him. The three-tails hit the toad boss' sword and sparks flew everywhere. Slowly but surely the three-tails started losing speed and grinded to a halt.
The three-tail uncurled itself only for the toad boss to plunge his sword through the middle tail. A new barrage of attacks insured as the ninja started to get back onto the water. The three-tails was clearly in a lot of pain and victory seemed at hand, but things never came that easy.
Wither the three-tails was desperate or simplify panicked didn't matter. All that mattered was that the three-tails created another tailed beast bomb. He Shoot it so close to him that it was more like the three-tails dropped it. Everything was blow back: the toad, the people, the water, itself, everything.
The first thing Naruto realized after the tailed beast ball went off was she couldn't breathe. Naruko who was lying face down in the water quickly pulled her head out. The next thing she realized was how much her body hurt. There was blood dripping into the water giving Naruko's reflection a reddish tent. Naruko supposed she should be happy; after all, it was only due to the fact that the three-tails hadn't charged up its tailed beast ball that much that Naruko was alive.
Naruko got to her feet and looked at the surrounding area. She must have not been out that long as the water of the lake was still trying to settle itself down. The three-tails could be seen slightly under the lake; it didn't look to be moving.
"What do you know it took itself out." A voice said from behind. Naruko turned to see Kakashi a little bloody, but since he was giving his signature eye-smile Naruko didn't think he was too bad off. "Come on lets go find everyone else."
It didn't take long for everyone who was still alive to regroup. Surprisingly there were very few casualties in the explosion although Neji had apparently not been able to survive since he had already lost too much blood from saving Tenten. Naruko knew Tenten would blame herself later, but right now they had to capture the three-tails before it was able to get up again. They started heading towards the three-tails just as the lake's water calmed.
"That was easier than I thought." Sasuke said already forgetting that one of their friends had died.
"It was only easy because you got here late. We've been spending hours weakening it." Kurotsuchi said bitterly.
"This is now time for celebration. The three-tails could get up at any time we need to move." Kushina said.
The three-tails wasn't too far away from the shore, but right when every ninja got onto the lake the previously calm water started to move again. It wasn't even close to what the three-tails had been able to do but it was noticeable. "That's not us is it?" Minima asked.
"No but watch yourselves we don't know what's going on." Darui said as he looked around the whole lake to see what the cause could be. Everyone saw it at the same time. Across the lake were two figures wearing Akatsuki robes. One was obviously male with a slightly shorter female beside him. There was whispering all throughout the group. "Everyone calm down we knew the Akatsuki could show up, so we'll just show them what happens when you come late to the party." Darui said. His words might have been spoken with the courage expected from a leader, but it didn't do much to calm the group's nerves.
As the figures came closer the water became more and more restless. The group was silent. The only noise was the slight splashing of water as the Akatsuki members walked towards then. They could start to see their features, and that was enough to make the leaf ninjas' voices get caught in their throats.
Pale skin, hair that looked like it had been bleached, red eyes. There was no doubt about. He seemed to be grumbling about something. The group of ninjas was able to catch the last of it as he came to a stop. "Stupid Zetsu making me come all the wat out here even after I've captured my jinchuriki." The 'disaster' said.
Suigetsu was walking along a dirt road with a map in his hand. "Well, Naruto you sure are an interesting guy. Who knew when I joined your little group things would turn out like." Suigetsu said talking to himself at of boredom. "You didn't seem like the type of guy who would plan something like this when I first met you, but man when you get to work you get to work. It's just a shame you left us with the clean-up work although it still going to be more fun than anything the Akatsuki had me do. Speaking of 'us' I'm almost at the rendezvous point." Suigetsu said checking his map again. "I really have to hand it to you Naruto you pulled the wool over everyone's eyes. Who could have known that she was still alive? I'll have to ask her how you did it."
What little faith you all have. Did you guys really think that I was keeping Kabuto alive just so he could reveal Naruto's weakness? No, no, no I need him for something completely different although it shouldn't be that hard to guess. Also you may have noticed that this took a while to update. The reason for that is my family planned a last minute vacation then school started so I didn't have a lot of time. This chapter was originally going to be a lot longer, but since it been so long since an update I decided to split it into two smaller chapters, so until next time.