I don't own Naruto or Assassin's Creed.

Bold is demonic speech

Italics are thoughts, flashbacks, the like.

-Chapter Twenty Eight: The small big battle-

Asuma had a lot of experience leading groups into dangerous places, hostile territory. He had done his share of suicide missions. Lee, and Al-Kahil he wasn't so sure of, Doryu's record seemed to be rather impressive in fact. At the age of twenty four, Doryu had already completed over one hundred missions, thirty of them were assassinations, fifteen were hostage rescues, and several others were other combat missions.

Al-Kahil was the best of the newer generation of Assassins, Naruto's training partner, Sasuke's training partner, and in many ways a good balance of them both. He was bigger than Sasuke, but not as broad as Naruto, he used the sword of the Assassins, but favored kunai over throwing knives.

Lee was the greatest fist fighter than Konoha had ever produced, no longer clad in his green spandex, but a black ninja suit, minus a mask, and minus the bowl cut, he'd chosen to grow his hair back to it's original braided length. He also carried a weapon now, on either of his sides were trench knives, much like his own, but slightly longer and narrower on the blade, the steel wasn't the conductive metal he had, but a much harder carbon steel. Lee had changed greatly since a two years ago.

-Flashback: Two years ago-

Lee was sitting by himself, beneath a waterfall, the tallest one in Konoha. Gai had died, and Lee was taking it incredibly harshly, throwing himself into training, swearing that he'd surpass his beloved master and make the dead man proud. It started with first concluding that in order to surpass Gai, he mustn't imitate the man, but rather use his styles to propel him into greatness. The first thing he did after his meditation was change his entire outfit, never being one for style, he replaced his green spandex suit and leg warmers with black ninja pants and a black gi, beneath it he wore a long sleeved, form fitting shirt.

It wasn't long after that that Lee concluded that in order to succeed at becoming the greatest Taijutsu master in all of Konoha, he needed a weapon. The weapons store was a place to him that was entirely alien, he'd only ever gone there to buy basic weapons to replace his broken kunai, or missing shuriken. He was trained for a sword, but didn't want to become too reliant on it. Perhaps something smaller. A dagger was a better idea, smaller, but far more difficult to master, due to it's short length. It was then that he saw them; the handles like knuckledusters, from one end of each, a brass stud protruded, from the other end, a seven inch blade.

After buying them, he spent some time familiarizing himself with the weapons. That was when he began to think about what it was that denied him the use of chakra. A thought occurred to him, he could see just what it was, the medical examiners at the hospital could find out why, and perhaps help him with his goal. After his training in the morning, Lee went to the hospital to see an examiner.

The results that came from it were strange, they indicated that the only problem was that his chakra system wasn't well formed, at that time it was concluded that there was a form of therapy that could help him. It involved the use of a steroid, much like a soldier pill, that would help grow his chakra system, with the proper training. He was given specific instructions on how to use them, which involved taking one before he trained, and then as he continued training in both physical ways and mental ways, his chakra pathways would expand, allowing Lee the use of his chakra.

Never one to learn many jutsu, Lee used the chakra that he'd learned to use through six months of tree walking and water walking was used to enhance his physical skills. He'd learned basic jutsu like the replacement jutsu, as well as the Kage Bunshin. Never would he be able to make as many as Naruto, who was known for his immense stamina, but he could manage ten. Kakashi stumbled across him fighting with shadow clones one day, and told him that the clones retained knowledge when they were killed. It was then that he started making them read books while he trained with his knives, fists, and body.

A year and a half later, Lee was known as an exceptional ninja. not skilled in Genjutsu, and possessing only a few basic jutsu, most of which were stealth or Taijutsu enhancing skills, but his Taijutsu was far better than anyone's in the village. Lee had accomplished his goal of surpassing Gai, he often was seen meditating near Gai's grave, which wasn't in the Graveyard, but rather near the training ground where the ninja trained with his beloved team. Neglecting to cut his hair, Lee simply braided it.

Just before the return of Naruto, Lee beat Neji in a taijutsu match.

-Flashback: End-

Lee had indeed improved in leaps and bounds; When he found something he couldn't overcome, he attacked it with all of his strength and will until it was overcome, and then he was that much stronger. Lee's life had consisted solely of obstacles that he couldn't overcome at first. That iron determination gave him a small amount of peace, knowing that Lee would conquer whatever was in his way.

When camp was made, information was shared on the ninja that they would be facing. It was decided that Lee would fight Deidara, since he was the only one who was fast enough to dodge the explosives that the man was known to use. Hidan would be faced by Asuma himself, being the oldest and most experienced, it was fitting that he fight the most unknown shinobi on the enemy team. Doryu would fight Zetsu, the man who was supposedly master of all things earthen. Al-Kahil was fighting Sasori, the puppet master, being primarily a Taijutsu fighter, but Al-Kahil had a special surprise for the puppet master.

It took them two days to get to the supposed location of the camp, inside the deep ravine; But finding it was a different story entirely, the shrine gate in the river showed them the location, but the massive boulder was in their way, and even Lee's greatest punch couldn't collapse it.

"The rock has a seal on it, but what about the walls around it?" Doryu immediately set to work on hand seals. "Earthen arts! Earth shaping!" The solid stone began shaping, a large doorway appeared in the side of the wall.

"I see that you're quite intelligent, all of you. Good." Out from the hole approached a man shaped being, a massive maw of what appeared to be a fly trap. His face was mostly featureless, except for a mouth, and the red eyes that seemed glowing on his longitudinally divided face, one side black and the other white. His body was obscured by cloak. "I see that Konoha has planned something. Then let us do battle!" A vine shot up through the water, nearly impaling Al-Kahil, but Doryu diverted the vine with an earth jutsu that appeared to have no seals required. "Your ability is strange."

"Call it a blessing." Doryu's chakra continued to congregate at his hands, and then disappear as jutsu fired off. An 'Earthen Arts: Dragon from the Earth' came roaring from the riverbed, and pinned Zetsu to a wall. The wall and dragon both created a pincer, but suddenly the man was gone.

Zetsu fired the jutsu off first, before resurfacing, the vines ensnared the contemptible man who was so skilled in Earth jutsu. He surfaced to see the man struggling. "I hope you enjoy your prison, you won't be leaving it until I'm ready to kill you." Zetsu had made a grave mistake in underestimating the Hayabusa; When he felt the blade through his back, it was clear. Doryu twisted his sword in the man's back, he'd pierced the Abdominal Aorta, Zetsu would bleed to death in a matter of seconds, but it didn't stop there, Doryu pulled the blade up, cleaving through connective cartilage and bone, cleanly severing Zetsu's right side from his body, from his stomach up.

Doryu was standing, blood covering his brown ninja uniform, the body of his fallen opponent sinking in the water below, staining it red. Suddenly, he jumped back, just in time to avoid the explosion that sprayed everyone with water.

"It's my turn yeah." Deidara walked out of the hole in the wall. "It's your turn to see my art. And good job on Zetsu, that bastard just gathered information." Lee stepped in front of Doryu.

"This one's mine Doryu, rest." Lee put his hands up into his usual stance.

"Ah, a Taijutsu fighter, interesting. I'll show you my skill." Deidara created a massive bird from what appeared to be clay, he stepped onto the bird and flew high up into the air. Lee picked up a fist sized rock, and with a powerful arm threw it at the bird. Quickly forming a seal, he used the replacement jutsu, and was soaring through the air towards the bird. Lee grabbed the bird, and pulled himself up, as he rose, an uppercut found it's way to Deidara's chin.

The explosives user flew from his bird, Lee followed him, not expecting the massive blast that came from behind him. Lee planted his feet against the wall of the ravine as Deidara fell into the water below. Lee ran down the wall, and jumped to land on the water. Deidara surfaced, only to be kicked in the face by Asuma, right into Lee's direction, who in turn grabbed the blond man and slammed him into the wall.

Lee grabbed his trench knife, holding the man against the wall, he didn't expect the man to self destruct.

Lee was thrown against the other wall, and sunk into the wall, blood, bone, and flesh, spattered the entire area of the ravine, Lee stood up in the water, his face, arms, and chest were scorched and black. He stood to his full height, adrenaline keeping him standing. "Initial Gate: Release!" The burst of chakra came. "Life Gate: Release!" The burns began to fade quickly.

Lee stood, his clothing burnt and torn, the skin regenerated, when he heard the clicking. The sound that's made when metal strikes stone. Four strikes sounded in quick succession, and they seemed to be getting closer as time continued. There were also footsteps, and the sound of what seemed to be a cane.

Two figures emerged, one was a human, his gray hair slicked back, in his right hand he held a scythe with three blades. He was a man of average build, but his eyes showed such demonic intent, he looked to be the God of Death incarnate.

The second figure was more imposing than the first, it seemed to be a masked beast with a metal scorpion's tail. It's face was dark, the hair was braided in corn rows, the remainder of it's face was covered by a red cloth.

"Let me guess." Al-Kahil stepped forward, tipping his chin up slightly. "The fuckin scorpion thing is Sasori of the red sands?" He laughed. "I was expecting something less explosive." In a flash, a kunai stuck into Sasori's forehead, the seal on it began burning. "Say hello to our new invention, we call it Nitro Glycerin."

-Chapter Twenty Eight: End-

A/N: It's taken me a while to figure out how I wanted to do this one. There will be a second part to the small big battle. I call it that because it's the less dangerous of the Akatsuki. I dove into Lee's back story a bit, because I feel that too many people leave him as is. I'm considering doing a one-shot that explains how Gai died, probably after I finish this story. Next Chapter: Al-Kahil and Sasori, Hidan and Asuma.