Chapter 29
Naruto yawned lightly as he lay on a large grassy hill, Hinata and Yugito standing nearby. They had been here for almost a day by this point. It was part of a plan they had been working on for a while. Annabel was currently away in the Leaf Village getting some supplies so they might make their next move soon.
"You think those fools will show up soon," Naruto asked, opening his eyes as he glanced at Yugito and Hinata.
"Well if the Challenge works out like we think, they should be here sometime soon," Hinata said.
Yugito nodded in agreement, "So tell me again, and why we are taking on the entirely of the Akatsuki in a one on one battle?"
"It is the fastest way to remove them, besides after losing two of their members in simple fight. They will want to make sure I am removed from the equation if I am already this strong," Naruto said simply.
"I doubt they realize how weak you actually are," Yugito said smirking.
"Really, and all my wins against you in a fight don't suddenly count then," Naruto said, smirking as he glanced up at her from his spot.
"Oh you both calm down, we have visitors, it would not be polite to fight in front of them. But rather fight them instead," Hinata said, turning to face four people that were walking up towards them.
"Okays fine we will behave," Naruto said before with a small spring was standing again.
They were quick for a few moments before finally the group of three was facing down the group of four. Naruto, Yugito, and Hinata had by this point memorized the Bingo book, and quickly guessed just who was standing in front of them. Each of the Ninja were rogues and all high S-ranks.
"Well I guess introductions before we get to business," Naruto said, "Unless you of course just rather start the fight first, and finish introductions later."
"They don't matter to me," One of the four said.
"Okays then, I guess I am dealing with you Kisame," Naruto said, pointing to one of the four, which he had met before.
"And I got you," Hinata said pointing at the one with the Scythe, "Hidan right?"
"Good, I don't have to worry about keeping you alive," Hidan said grinning.
"And I guess Itachi and myself are dealing with you," Kakuzu stated glancing at Itachi then at Yugito.
"No, he is going to be dealing with finding your boss, and bring him out after we kill all three of you," Yugito said, rushing forward as blue flames began to cover her body.
Indeed the as Yugito predicted the battle soon became weirdly one-sided considering all of the Akatsuki were some of the best ninja out there. The first to fall was actually Hidan. While he could not be killed and was very powerful in his own right, he soon found out that did not me he could keep fight no matter what. In the past when he had a part of his body cut off, it would only hinder him a little bit. But Hinata was not one to cut things, she tended to shred them instead. As such only a few moments after the battle had started Hidan was reduced to a large pile of meat and bones, still alive but for all it was worth he might as well be dead.
With Hidan reduced to dog food, Hinata turned her attention to Yugito's own opponent. The man was strong and faster than expected, as he wove through Yugito's attacks even while Yugito kept up her one tailed form. Hinata active her eyes watching both him and the other two enemies for a few moments before nodded. Itachi was still staying out of the battle for now, Naruto seemed to be toying with Kisame as he dodged each of Kisame's attacks. Kakuzu on the other hand had a very interesting chakra network in and about him, and Hinata wanted to see why this was.
Running forward Hinata pulled out her Kitchen knives and through them with expert precision. But to her surprise they did not stick in but rather bounced off his skin with seemingly no effect on the man. Hinata blinked as she drew them back to her with her chakra strings causing both blades to return to her hand. Not breaking stride the entire time, as she neared her opponent, she channeled chakra into the blades.
Kakuzu who, had noticed the blade's impact against his side turned to see Hinata rushing at him. With the light the way it was he could not see the chakra surrounding the blades until it was too late. The blades cut his hands clean off before he could even blink. But he only smirked as he jumped clean of Yugito's next attack and sent out the wires that filled his body and reconnected his hands to his arms.
"Interesting little set of tricks you have there," Kakuzu said, flexing his hands a few time making sure everything worked correctly.
"So the rumors in the bingo book were right, you are close to immortal," Hinata said thoughtfully as she looked at the man.
"Yes, even the Second Hokage could not kill me," Kakuzu said smirking, as he debated about which attack to use next.
"Then again, you did not kill the Second either so I guess you cannot be too great," Hinata said smirking as she rushed the man.
"What makes you think you can defeat let alone beat me?" Kakuzu asked blocking Hinata's punches with ease.
"Well to put it simply, for you to survive that means you have an interesting trick hidden away. But if I block all your chakra points, then what good is that trick?" Hinata asked, grinning savagely.
Kakuzu eyes widen, as Hinata suddenly became a blur of movement. He could not move fast enough to block or deflect all her attacks. Soon though she leapt back, much to his surprise. He flexed his hands finding his chakra connects where still working, for the most part.
"So much for that idea," He said charging forward.
Hinata grinned before waving at him, or something behind him. Kakuzu stop and looked at her in surprise as he turned around ducking to make sure an attack was not coming from behind. But he noticed too late that she was waving at him not something behind him when he saw a blue ball of energy flying from Yugito towards him. Hinata had distracted him long enough to allow Yugito to use a Tailed Beast Bomb on him.
Kakuzu flew out the ball of chakra grinding into him before finally exploding in a massive blast. Kakuzu while able to survive some things, could not survive this as his body was turned to ash in a mere moment. And no amount of his special skills was about to save him either from that.
Hinata smiled as Yugito walked back up a moment later in her normal human form looking a little winded, "Well that is one way to deal with immortals."
Yugito nodded in agreement, "Yes, but that is the last time I do that in a partial transformation. I feel a little sick now."
Hinata smiled and helped Yugito sit down as she turned to notice Kisame and Naruto were still going at it. Neither one of them had spared a second glance at the fall of the two Akatsuki, nor could either of them could afford to either. Kisame by this point had stopped playing with Naruto and was going for the kill strike with each swing of his massive sword. Naruto for his part was still not going full out, but if only because he was not currently attacking. Right now Naruto was working his hardest to dodge or defect with his giant brush Kisame's attacks.
"Naruto will you hurry up, Yugito is feeling a little sick," Hinata called out.
"Fine, take all the fun out of this," Naruto said ducking, and retreating over to Hinata.
"Somehow I doubt that was fun," Hinata said.
"Nah the brat was right, you're taking away all the fun. I have had not had a fight like that in a while. Pity I cannot just fight to the death but orders are orders," Kisame said, looking at the group.
"Yes pity, then again, I can say it has been an honor fighting you, too bad your death will not be as honorable," Naruto said as he got into a new stance.
Kisame smirked, "Just try it kid I will…"
But whatever Kisame was going to say died, as did he in that moment. Itachi had finally made his move, and it was not against Naruto's own group, but against Kisame. With lightning fast speed, Itachi removed Kisame's head.
"Well it seems you finally decided to come around," Naruto said, grinning some as he looked at Itachi.
"I was ordered to join, as to bring about the end of the Akatsuki," Itachi explained.
"Ordered? Wait that would also mean you were ordered to kill your clan," Hinata said a little surprised.
"Yes, Naruto knows this, though he was never formally told," Itachi said.
"Well this is a little weird, to be honest," Yugito said, before asking, "So would you know the location of the other members?"
"Currently I know of only two, they are the Leader and his teammate," Itachi explained.
"I see, lead me to him, and I will remove these two as well. Then we can hunt down the final two members," Naruto said.
"Why wait, holder of Kyuubi," A figure said appearing a few moments later.
Naruto turned and grinned, "Which would this be Itachi?"
"The only unknown of the group," Itachi said.
Naruto looked at the man, he was wearing an orange mask, which swirled to one point revealing only one eye. The eye though was one just that of the Uchiha clan, Sasuke's family.
"Well now this is a treat, the only unknown element of the group comes to face little old me and my marry friends," Naruto said jokingly as he gave a small bow, before adding, "So I should ask, what do you want? Friendship, or my own Tailed Beast?"
"I have come for Kyuubi, and I shall take it by force if need be," The man said.
"Well that is too bad, I don't wish to give Kyuubi to you, and I doubt Yugito wants to give Nibi away gift either," Naruto said, a smirk fixed on his face.
"Fine then, come and get us if you dare," Naruto said shifting into a lazy stance.
The man seemed to hesitate. Something was off here, Naruto very likely knew he was a threat. But Naruto seemed to be no more worried than a Jonin Sensei about to fight a fresh from the school Genin squad. That being said, he was sure Naruto had no hidden aces up his sleeve, but then why would Naruto seem so confident.
"You will regret this," The man said finally charging forward.
"I doubt I will," Naruto said, before through his hands together, and sent out a powerful pulse of chakra.
Both Itachi and the man felt it at once as a huge seal appeared below the ground, and suddenly their vision changed. Itachi realized what had happened in a moment as his Sharingan had deactivated. He could tell as his vision without his active eyes was much, much worse. But the man's own eyes were far better, and his only true hint something was wrong when a blade came flying by his head, and he did not see its path beforehand.
Such was the man's reliance on his eyes he did not even move to block the next blade as it went right towards his heart. He threw chakra into his eyes to make so the blade would pass right through his body without harming him. But the seal was preventing all effects that his eyes and bloodline allowed him to use. As such a moment later the blade buried itself into his heart, killing him.
Hinata blinked as she brought both of her knives back to her hands, before with a quick flick sent blood off of them, before she spoke, "Why did he not dodge?"
"I don't really know," Naruto said slightly confused himself.
"He has an ability that lets attacks pass right through his own body, or so I have heard. It must have worked using his Sharingan eye, otherwise he would he never been hit," Itachi said, thoughtfully.
"Well that is one more down and three left," Naruto said, before looking at Itachi again, "So care to point out the location?"
Itachi nodded before stopping as suddenly a large sphere came flying towards them. Itachi quickly fled as the others were too late to dodge and were caught in the attack. The hill they were standing on was destroyed and turned into a huge sphere, floating only a few feet above what would have been the original top to the hill.
Itachi appeared a few moments later a good hundred or so feet away from the Hill and glared at the location, before calling out, "Show yourself Pain!"
Yet another figure appeared wearing the cloak that all the Akatsuki wore. But unlike almost all the rest, he had a stone cold and calm face. As if he could care less about wiping out a village, any more than he cared about eating dinner.
"Itachi, you betrayed us," Pain said simply.
Itachi shrugged as he activated his eyes, "I was never on your side to begin with."
"You know you cannot defeat me, nor my other paths," Pain stated noticing Itachi getting ready to fight.
"I know, but if I can slowly you down that will be more than enough," Itachi said, though he was not sure how true that would be.
Pain the Leader of the Akatsuki was in that position for a reason. In spite of the members many skills, by themselves none of them were a match for Pain. Even Hidan and Kakuzu who were basically immortal, could not face Pain in a straight fight and expect to win. Itachi was the closest to being able to defeat pain, but that was only because his Sharingan eye proved him an advantage against Pains on bloodline.
There was also the fact, that Itachi was not sure just how good of shape Naruto, Yugito, and Hinata were in after that last attack. At best they might be still alive and only slightly injured. But it was more than likely each was badly injured and/or out cold as well. So any back up he might be expecting was going to likely be a while, and much longer than Itachi could afford to fight.
"Shall I make the first move, or will you just submit instead," Pain said, taking a step forward before they both felt it.
It was a rising Chakra level unlike anything either of them had ever felt before. Even Itachi who had been around when Kyuubi had first attacked, had never felt something like this. And the scary part was it was still rising rapidly. Itachi and Pain turned to face the stone Sphere, now expecting Kyuubi and Nibi to burst forth from it.
But what happened instead was rather unexpected as suddenly a loud roar was heard behind them. Turning they caught the site of a monstrous beast a far distance off. Its shape was that of a fox, and its size and nine tails suggested only one name, Kyuubi. Itachi and Pain were both confused by this, as they saw the creature swallow what looked to be a weird black ball.
"What is going on," Itachi asked confused.
"Kyuubi's holder has released his demons full power," Pain stated, before leapt towards it.
But before he could do anything more Kyuubi opened its mouth and fired the sphere a blazing fast speed towards a large nearby hill. Pain turned, and Itachi was just able to catch the look of fear on his face, before the ball impacted with the hill. Itachi turned and saw the entire hill was destroyed within moments.
Itachi could not help but gulp in fear. He had heard just what Kyuubi was capable of, but he had never truly seen it before. To think this beast was sealed in Naruto.
Itachi then remembered Pain and looked to find him, but saw he seemed to have died. Itachi was rather confused, before A few moments later Naruto and the other to jump in from the trees showing them all to be just fine.
"Clones," Itachi guessed.
"Yes, added with the Ninetail's and Nibi's Chakra to provide extra strength. Also I would like to introduce you to the real Kyuubi," Naruto said, before gesturing to the beast behind him.
"Real one," Itachi said confused.
"The nine tailed foxed sealed into me is not the real Kyuubi, but rather a creature much like my summons. The real Kyuubi has been in hiding till one of our friends found it recently," Naruto said as the beast made its way slowly closer to the group.
Itachi saw on its head, yet another person. A young female, who was currently sitting with her eyes closed. If Itachi were to guess she would be a sensor, searching out for people by searching for their Chakra signatures. Which would explain Kyuubi's shot earlier, she must have sensed their target.
"Who is your friend," Itachi asked.
"Anabel, she has been working with Kyuubi to locate and kill anyone who has been hiding from us," Naruto said.
"I see, so you only have one member left. I believe his name is Zetsu," Itachi said, after a few moments of thought.
"No, we have two," Hinata said, as Itachi got a slightly worried look she added, "It is Orochimaru. He was once part of the group, and needs to be removed in case he should try anything as well."
"How do you plan on finding him," Itachi asked, "He is not easy to track, even the Akatsuki have had trouble keeping tabs on him before."
"We don't have to track him down, but rather let him come to us. He is still after your brother if Jiraiya's information is correct. If we hurry then we shall be able to grab Orochimaru and kill him once and for all," Naruto said, smirking.
"So one last fight then?" Itachi asked.
"Yes, just one last fight."
