Why didn't this make sense to him?
He...He was Hoshigake Kisame, the Monster of the Bloody Mist, wielder of the legendary Samaheda, S-rank Nuke-nin all round bad ass motherfucker...
So why wasn't this making sense to him?
Oh...that's right...because he hadn't picked up one of these in years. He always had his partners deal with this part of the traveling issues.
Discretely, he cast his eyes this way and that way, making sure no sentient creature was within sight.
If it ever got out that he'd forgotten how to read a simple map...
He needed to find Itachi now...if for no other reason other than to be able to play off his lack of map reading skills as laziness by foisting the duty off on his Uchiha teammate.
"Alright Bee where would she be?"
Ignoring Naruto's rhyme Bee threw his eyes around to look through the surrounding village. It was nothing big really, if there were more than fifty buildings making up the place he'd be surprised. This was a vacation resort not an area where people lived.
Still they had to find Yugito quick and not make too much of a spectacle. This place was well known as a good rest spot for vacationing Shinobi. It was almost an unspoken rule that it, and a few other places like it in other countries, were all but treated as a neutral zone. And for good reason. With the unspoken truce, places like these were some of the largest grossing sources of foreign trade that could be established in the feudal Shinobi system. That and Ninja needed a place where they could relax too. What was good for the geese was good for the gander so other villages had the peace of mind with the thought that they could let their guard down in other places like this. A wouldn't want-
There was a surge of Chakra, then an explosion from one of the Shinto temples beyond the town proper.
And just like that half the people in the crowd were sporting kunai.
Neutral ground my ass. He heard Gyuuki snicker in his head.
"Come on!" Bee yelled, drawing two of his swords. "Mister Nine and Big Eight are gonna rescue miss two from a grisly fate!"
"I'm afraid that'll have to wait." That familiar oh so cold voice cut in; right between the both of them, and both Naruto and Bee jumped apart, startled out of their skins with the sudden presence of the stoic Uchiha.
"Good god he's fast!" Naruto thought to himself, his wind blade emerging as he glared at the top of Itachi's head.
"This fool usurped my rhyme! Looks like its time for the Bee to shine!"
Bee took a stance, ready to lunge in and attack when he noticed something.
Every single person on the street, other than them, was frozen stiff.
As though caught in a stasis, they were each locked in place, some with worried looks thrown to their surroundings, others cautious, some even stuck drawing kunai.
A mass, powerful genjutsu...
"He's strong, this might take us very long!"
"Big nine!" He shouted, brandishing his two drawn swords. "Go one and help miss two! I'll beat this one, then join you too!"
"Don't underestimate him Bee!"
"Big Eight will chew this guy like bait, ya fool!" He offered the blond a thumbs up, Naruto smiled in return before glaring again at Itachi and making a mad dash for the shrine.
Itachi's red eyes trailed after him, only breaking his gaze away as Bee rushed in to strike.
The blade of the Hachibi Jinchuuriki carved into smoke, black wisps dissipating into the air.
The Hachibi Jinchuuriki tightened his stance, two swords at the ready to defend his most vital areas when he turned, hearing the whiz of a kunai through the air.
He struck the knife out of the sky only, to freeze in his tracks.
The previously frozen Shinobi were all now looking straight at him with glassy, unseeing eyes.
"Oh hell naw!"
Yugito grunted pushing herself free of the debris that had rained down around her. Wooden shrapnel and slivers falling off her body as she reached up to the crown of her bleeding scalp.
She stared at the hole, watching the two men walking through it.
"Wind and fire." She breathed, picking herself up. "Quite the combination you can pull off...and with no hand seals either."
The sickle shot out from the opening, a blur of red with metal cabling, three wickedly long blades falling to crash onto the area she'd been standing on with the weight of a maul.
"Damn. Though I guess its only right you could dodge that. If you couldn't that'd be pretty sad, I am the slowest of the Akatsuki after all."
The Anbu woman frowned. Either he was supremely confident in his other abilities to just blurt that out or he was an imbecile.
"Quiet Hidan." The beast of a man with the unnatural eyes snapped.
The two stepped out into the light of day, letting her see them in their full Akatsuki regalia.
She would have to hold back on the Nibi's chakra. These were two S class Shinobi. She would be hard pressed to defeat them within the time frame her body could safely withstand the Nibi's full might, if they were both fresh and able to avoid her attacks.
She'd have to take her chances fighting them as she was. If she could wither them down enough, then when she let the Nibi take over, it could take them both while they were tired and sloppy.
She'd definitely have to stay on her toes. One false move, and a crippling wound would be the least of her worries.
She reached into her pouch, feeling the Shuriken in her hands.
Suddenly, the big one moved, hands slamming into the ground to erect an earth wall to his and Hidan's right, the wall of unyielding rock rising as the shout rang out through the ruins of the shrine.
"Dynamic Entry!"
The Great Breakthrough smashed into the wall with a crunching sound. Pure, hard rock crumbling in the face of a gale force wind but ultimately holding strong as the attack finally died away.
Yugito turned to look only to see a white clad teenager staring down at them from one of the shrines nearby prayer altars.
He was frowning.
"Why does that work for Gai?"
She had no idea who he was, what he was doing here, or who Gai was. What she did know was that this idiot was gonna get himself killed!
She opened her mouth to speak when he turned his head, smiling and waving in her direction. "Hey miss two, good to see you."
Her thoughts ground to a halt.
No...there could not be someone else that spoke like that...It just...
There wasn't enough room in the world for two of them and her continued sanity!
"'The fuck are you?"Hidan barked, marching around the wall to get a good look at the boy.
"Uzumaki Naruto." Kakuzu answered. "C rank nuke-ninja from Konohagakure, bounty is at five thousand. Paid when he's brought in alive." He recited off of memory, taking one look at him. "Rather low for a Jinchuuriki."
Hidan frowned, turning to look at his partner with a single open eye. "Eh? This kid?"
Yugito gave a startled jerk.
Kakuzu nodded. "Konoha's Kyuubi"
"Isn't Itachi supposed to be handling him?"
"Oi I'm right here you know!" Naruto protested.
And was flatly ignored. "His loss is our gain." Kakuzu declared. "We get two for the price of one trip. Handle the Nibi. The Kyuubi is mine."
Naruto's features turned grim, as did Yugito's. their hunters were done with the pleasantries.
"For the love of god did they run or fly!?"
Hana couldn't help but agree. Bee and Naruto were moving at a ridiculous pace. They'd had an hour head start before they'd woken up in the restaurant and gotten their gear ready to track, but they'd easily managed to make that hour seem like half a day or something.
"They couldn't have flown." Omoi concluded, one hand rising to his chin. "Maybe they were ambushed, and the guys were so good they managed to beat Bee-sensei and Naruto-san before covering their tracks. And now we're walking right into the same trap. And we'll get slaughtered even worse with how strong Bee sensei is compared to-" He got solid smack to the back of his head from the irritated Karui.
"Would you stop going off like that!"
Hana snickered hearing Samui sigh in frustration.
Then, she stopped, a growl from one of her nin-ken warning her as she brought her hand up into a closed fist, the three Kumo nin stopping dead in their tracks. "Someone's up ahead."
"Bee-sensei?" Karui ventured.
She shook her head. "Nah, I'm not even sure...what exactly this is, it smells weird as hell."
"How do you know its a someone then?" Samui questioned.
"There is some human traces on it."
"Maybe its some wild man eating beast that no one's ever discovered before. Maybe its whatever got to Bee sensei and Naruto-san maybe it-" Another smack, this time from both Karui and Samui.
"Eagle spread." The blond Jounin ordered, drawing her ninjato. The other two Kumo nin drawing their own blades. "Stay back Inuzuka-san you'll just get in the way."
She nodded. A well oiled team was best left to its own well known and practiced formations. Adding in her and her two ninken was a headache that would prove more a hindrance than a help.
The three Kumo nin snuck forward, with Hana following a ways behind them as they crept through the underbrush.
Her sharp ears could pick up the frustrated muttering of someone. Definitely human then. She couldn't make out the words though.
She did however, quite clearly hear Samui's sharp intake of breath.
A second later as she emulated her.
Tall as a mountain, blue skin, black cloak, red clouds, giant sword.
They were staring straight at one of the only widely known Akatsuki ninja. Hoshigake Kisame.
'Fuck my life.' She thought to herself.
The Nuke nin was glaring at a piece of paper in his hand, sneering. She didn't see what it was but it must have been something big to be frustrating him like this. She heard from others that Kisame was usually smiling no matter what the circumstance.
She shifted, watching as Samui gestured for her teammates to sneak into flanking positions.
Then Kisame turned and looked right at them.
The four (six if counting dogs) froze, their hearts leaping into their throats as the Nuke-nin's beady little eyes fixed themselves on them.
"Hey." The man growled. "Where the hell is Mazayaku resort town!?"
Hana blinked utterly stupefied.
"Did we..." She ventured, no point in keeping quiet if he already knew they were there. "Stumble on an S class Nuke-nin as he's going on holiday?"
"I didn't even know they had holidays." Karui offered.
"Make me ask again." The blue skinned man growled. "And one of you looses an arm."
Omoi's hand peeked out from behind his bush, finger pointing north west. "Bout eight more miles?"
"Thanks." The monster of Kiri grumbled before turning and marching off.
The four remained dumbstruck for several moments before Karui pulled herself out of her stuppor. "You idiot!" She hissed. "That's where Bee sensei went! He's probably hunting him and Yugito-sempai
"I know." He answered. "Now we can fight him with sensei's help!"
"Thats-" She paused. "-not a bad idea actually."
The dark skinned teenager nodded. "Yeah. I mean Kisame's an S class bad ass if we would have tried to fight him he would have killed us...or taken us hostage. Then he would have used us to lure out Bee sensei. Then A-sama would have come out of Kumo and then-" A hand was stuffed against his mouth.
"Keep quiet." Karui urged, eyebrow twitching. "You sound better that way."
"If you two are done!" Samui snapped. "Follow him! And hope Bee-sensei doesn't have his hands full already."
He ducked behind a tree, a rush of fire breaking over it before he leapt up, just barely dodging a jutting earth spike that ripped through the wooden barrier a second after.
Landing on it with a crouch the blond smirked as he heard Kakuzu's annoyed grunt.
"You remind me of Tobi." The Taki nin groused. "His best skill is running away."
"Then he'll live longer than both of us!" Naruto snickered.
The ground beneath the earth spike he was standing on exploded, hands whipping out from under rock and dirt to grab onto Naruto's wrists.
"Longer than you!" Kakuzu agreed before he thrust his sleeve forward, black tendrils emerging to link and merge with the tendrils controling the hands on Naruto's wrist, reeling the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki in.
The Nuke-nin frowned. "Kai!"
The Genjutsu dispelled revealing that he was only gripping a piece of the fallen tree before a chain chain wrapped firmly around his throat.
He gripped at the length of metal links, grunting as he turned to look at the blond haired boy, pulling on the thing.
"This weapon." He hissed, eyes narrowing. "I hunted this bastard down before!"
"Yeah." Naruto confirmed with a smirk. "He told me all about you."
"No wonder you're so slippery. The Ghost of Iwagakure..." The Akatsuki nin muttered.
Naruto's smirk widened, channeling wind chakra into the length of chain before he yanked. Hard.
Kakuzu's head separated from his shoulders...it wasn't cut...the black, cable thick tendrils that formed his body literally pushed his head up, off his shoulders almost a foot into the air, let Naruto's wind chain slip between the now empty space and pulled the head right back into its proper place.
Naruto blinked. "So that's what he meant when he said 'Bullshit dodge'"
Then Both Kakuzu's hands rose, fire and wind combining to create a blazing inferno that looked to swallow everything infront of it.
The Nuke nin snapped his gaze up, watching as the boy leapt over the onrush of flames, the jump was so high there must have been wind manipulation involved. He brought his hands up to attack again.
Then the wind blade came from below the Taki nin.
Kakuzu took it full in the chest.
He gasped, the breath leaving his lungs as he glared at the blond haired ninja now emerging from the floor at his feet, sword still firmly lodged in his chest.
The Taki nin snarled. Bloody Genjutsu!
Naruto pulled the blade out, smirking as Kakuzu fell to his knees before turning to run back to where he could still hear Yugito's battle with Hidan.
Then an arm was around his neck, cutting off his air in a half second.
Kakuzu's raw power was monstrous, Naruto tried to pull his limb open only to feel like he was trying to move a concrete covered block.
Then one hand was moving, barely blocking the kunai thrust that sought to drive the diamond shape knife into his gut. His chakra enhanced strength quickly succumbing to whatever brute power Kakuzu had going for him.
"Your master never saw this trick though did he!?"
Naruto answered by using his free hand, channeling wind Chakra into his weapon before whipping out the chain, the deadly bladed whip moving to carve Kakuzu's back open.
The nuke nin kicked him off, the harsh stomp of his booted foot on the blond's back driving the air from his lungs and nearly snapping a rib.
He rolled, regaining his feet in time to see a rush of boiling hot steam rushing towards him. That fog would scald the skin off his bones.
He pulled the chakra chain back to him, using the wind element to manipulate the length of metal links. It coiled around him, round and round before he gripped it by the pointed end, driving it into the open end of the weapon hilt.
Then the chains started spinning.
Like a belt on a motor; the chain, glowing with high concentrations of wind chakra spun round and round, entering one end of the hilt and shooting out the other as the chakra formed a wind barrier around him.
Kakuzu frowned, watching the steam disperse before he launched another massive fireball at the Jinchuuriki.
The power seemed to grow, from a gust into a storm, and then a typhoon, the trees bending back, away from it as fire was swept up in the gale force winds.
Then, Kakuzu was forced to duck aside as the technique ended, with Naruto whipping the flaming chain out, up, over his head to smash it down where the Taki nin had been standing. An explosion pelted the older man with dirt, rock and bits of wood before the flame died away.
He landed, glaring at the panting blond.
Naruto for his part just grinned all the wider. "I couldn't just let Gaara and Neji have dibs on it!" He exclaimed with a breathless laugh.
"An Ultimate defense." The experienced nin surmized. "By spinning so much Wind Chakra no matter what they throw at you it'll either get shredded to bits or carried away if its something more insubstancial like fire or water.. You've even turned fire into a one shot weapon, combining both it and your wind element in the chain to attack when you drop the defense."
Naruto grinned. "Damn, you're good! Got all that in one."
"I also figured out its weakness." The Akatsuki nin thought, knowing that no technique was without its own fatal flaw, save perhaps the legendary Hiraishin no Jutsu of the Yondaime Hokage. 'Takes too long to set up and tear down. Anyone gets in striking distance when he's doing either and he's wide open.'
Now he just had to get him to use it again and capitalize on it.
Bee's elbow came down on the poor man's head with an audible thunk. His body going limp as he fell unconscious to the floor.
"Sorry my man! This was not part of the plan!"
He kicked another woman in the side of the head, backhanding another poor sod in the face in the same motion.
"Gyuuki what do I do? Soon he'll be sendin the whole village for us two!"
"I'm thinking!" The Ox barked. The villagers weren't particularly strong or skilled, they stumbled towards him and only vaguely swiped. Either Itachi had not mastered this power, whatever it was, or he was just looking to get Bee tired, or warmed up. Problem was that every second they wasted here, without finding him was another second he could be going after Naruto, or Yugito, or setting up a trap for when they were finished.
Finally, the old ox had a plan.
Gimme some room to move around Bee. With a thought, the tight control he held over the beast fell away a bit, laxing in its grip as the Hachibi's chakra surged through him, escaping in three quick pulses around Bee's body.
The first made them stumble, the second cleared their vision and the third knocked them flat on their backs, the mass of people groaning in pain.
"What'd you do?"
"I pushed my Chakra into them." He answered. "First shockwave to find the Tenketsu, second to force it open, third to slip in through the Chakra gates. Since they weren't using their chakra it was easy. They're poisoned now though. They need doctors but it'll keep them off your back for a while...unless the Uchiha can just bypass what I did."
"How?"
"That eye can control Bijuu if the wielder is strong enough. Might be he can just slip past the effects of my chakra to make them keep fighting despite the poison."
"What!? Are you tellin me, that this eye can see through Genjutsu, capture others in genjutsu, helps with Taijutsu, copies ninjutsu and can put down the big Bijuu?"
"Yes."
Bee blinked. "Huh...well that's some bull shi-"
The world vanished warping and distorting into an unholy red. The bodies at his feet vanishing, the buildings of stone and wood replaced by raven black feathers that cascaded down to the ground.
Bee flickered his chakra, alternating its flow through his body.
"Bee!"
He turned back surprised at finding the massive, towering Gyuuki lumbering up behind him. "Eighto?"
"He's caught us both!" The Ox said "He was waiting for what we did. When we opened up our Tenketsu he slipped his Genjutsu into both our Chakras. Don't worry though! This isn't the cursed Tsukiyomi. Though whatever it is is based on it."
"Very astute."
Bee turned at the sound of the voice, finding Itachi sitting on a stone chair, legs crossed, hands laced together infront of his lips.
The Uchiha blinked languidly eyeing the Hachibi and its host.
His mind passed through the most effective means of disabling the two. The longer they remained, the more Chakra he wasted. And the more likely they could escape.
He prepared himself to bring the full power of his self made illusion down on the two when, at that exact moment he felt something, a tugging at his mind.
He would have sighed in aggravation were it in him to do so.
A piece of him left. A piece of him remained behind.
Blinking languidly as black and red was replaced by endless white, the stone chair vanishedfrom beneath him as he stood to his full height.
The world blurred and changed, shifting in this perception of time and space before he found himself staring at the surprised visage of the young Uchiha Sasuke.
"Sasuke." He greeted, eyes traveling down towards the thin scroll in his brothers hand.
Smart enough to open one of his seals then...better. He swiveled his gaze back up towards his enraged sibling. Sharingan meeting Sharingan.
Even with his famous indifference he couldn't help but comment...
"You have the most interesting timing little brother."
The boy's chakra flared, even in the illusionary world, searching to form a technique to run him through.
The eldest waved a lazy hand and chains were suddenly coiled around his brothers wrists, tied to a chair that reeled him in, forcing him to sit.
"Seals are amazing things." He commented, stepping closer before another chair formed so he could sit comfortably across from Sasuke. The world of white morphed and vanished, the endless blank replaced by vibrant colors until they found themselves sitting in none other than their father's very own study back in the Hyuuga main house in Konoha. "Even my genjutsu can be bolstered. Bending the laws of reality and illusion to its breaking point with some application. Its no wonder the Uzumaki were so very feared. Even the Mangekyo would have trouble breaking through this now."
Sasuke froze, eyes darting this way and that way to take in his surroundings before righting himself and glaring at Itachi with all the hatred he could muster from across their father's desk.
The eldest of the two siblings leaned back on his father's old seat. Resting comfortably.
He took a deep, languid breath, and suddenly, the weight finally settling off of his shoulders in some small way.
"Let us speak then Sasuke..." He sighed. Eyes closing placidly.
Opening them again he met his brother's hateful stare. "Let us open up these closed doors. Let loose...all these old ghosts...There are just...too many secrets."
He sighed and many would say he aged for that brief moment. "Too many secrets..."
Yes, I know I'm an ass.
Yes, Itachi will be giving you readers some tangible answers to the picture in the next chapter.
Now there's something important that I must tell you about my readers.
This story is gonna be a trilogy. So soon (not in the next chapter of course but soon) this first part will be ending and its sequel will be posted.
The reason for this is threefold.
1) I don't want to have another beastly monster of a fic like Lost Soul. (Not that this piece will be nearly so long. At least I'm not planning it as such)
2) There are a lot of people complaining that they can't leave reviews on this fic because all the previous chapters were deleted and now their old reviews are "blocking" them from reviewing again.
And 3) There are two other projects I want to finish.
Three fics and school is too much to juggle adequately. People have complained that the lagging updates makes them forget plot points and such and have to go back and re-read and makes it thus, difficult for them to keep interes in the fic.
So my solution is simple. Finish all three of them one at a time.
This story, being the closest to the cut off point before the second installment will be what I'll focus on right now. I suspect that if everything goes according to plan my other fic "Souls of Heroes" can be finished in 10 chapters. Maybe less even.
The sequel of Shikon is the only one that's still missing quite a chunk of content. So that'll take the longest. But 20 to 25 aditional chapters I think will be what's needed to wrap it up. Focusing solely on that project will shorten the update times considerably.
What this means for this particular story is that its sequel will not be posted for quite some time. Though, when it does kick up again the updates will come more frequently, smoother and more easily allow me to juggle my life and my hobby. When it is posted, the most I'll be working on is 1 other work. Either the sequel to Shikon or another piece I've got running around in my head. (Here's a hint it involves time travel) Two stories are manageable. Three just aren't. It was why my old fics, Strength of brothers and Twist of fate were just flat out dropped because I couldn't keep up the juggle. I don't want that to happen here. I wan't to finish all of my works. For that to happen this has to be done.
To any and all those that might disagree or agree with this, if you can't reach me via reviews for the aforementioned reason #2 you can reach me by PM to voice your agreement or disagreement if it means that much to you.
At any rate, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next one will be out soon.