I don't own Naruto and I never have, probably never will. Can never tell for sure though.
Nightfall!
Chapter 54: Itachi's New Eyes
On the side of a desolate road in one of the most isolated area's of the Land of Fire, stood two large building's. On the outside they appeared to be nothing more than a roadside tavern with a separate building for it's guest rooms. It could be said that the only thing unusual about these very standing two leveled constructs was that all around them there were no signs of any of the forest's that littered the expanse of the Land of Fire, in fact their was barely a tree in sight.
One could be remiss for believing that this was indeed a normal establishment, but as a wise man once said, 'A ninja's greatest tool is deception'. This was no ordinary tavern, inside sat some of the worst criminals in all of the fire nation, this was the Head quarters for the Land of Fire branch of the black market bounty office and mercenary higher. This was where the underworld turned when the hidden villages refused their request, or simply wanted to save some money.
It was because of this reason that two ninja were slowly approaching with the deceased body of a monk draped over ones shoulder. "Look at this place, what kind of fucking idiots would live in a place like this!" Hidan scoffed looking at how desolate the land was in the area.
"The kind of Idiots, that know it's better to not draw any attention to themselves. And don't want customers. They would scare the regulars away" Kakuzu replied grumpily.
"Or could that just be you? After all almost everyone who works with this place has a bounty on their heads, and we both know how much you love a bounty" Hidan laughed in reply.
"It is not the bounty I love, it's the money! Money is the only thing that truly has any meaning in this world everything else is just for idiots like you, Hidan" Kakuzu grumbled.
Hidan gained a large tick mark on his forehead and swung his scythe in anger at his partner, genuinely trying to remove his head from his body. Kakauzu however stopped the blade with a single hand, and spinning around impaled Hidan with a kunai directly between the eyes. "Ow, fucking great, first the insult now this, you're a real asshole Kakuzu" Hidan swore under his breath as he removed the kunai.
"You say that, but you attacked me first" Kakuzu replied.
"And you disrespected my religion, and Jashin-sama" Hidan replied.
"Shut up, you damn extremist!" Kakuzu snapped.
The pair continued bickering until they came to the door of the pub, where Kakuzu silenced Hidan with a strong fist to the face. A greeter opened the door for Kakuzu and slowly backed away into the shadows.
The man behind a very depressing looking counter looked up when he saw the door open and immediately his eyes widened in shock of who it was that had just entered. There was not a bounty office in all of the elemental nations that didn't know who the Immortal Kakuzu was. Being one of the main offices for the black market had meant that the fake barman had paid Kakuzu before for one of his many kills. "Ah Kakuzu, a pleasure to see you again. And this must be your new partner, I do hope he lasts longer than some of your others" the man said cheerfully.
While the the man behind the desk was in good spirits the others in the tavern were all sweating. There was always a strong possibility that the Akatsuki's self proclaimed financier would find any of them annoying or that their individual bounties would become large enough that Kakuzu would take interest in them.
They all let out a collected sigh of relief when they saw the body of Chiriku however, it was always a good sign when Kakuzu had a dead body slapped over his shoulder, as it would mean that he wouldn't be as likely to attack them.
"I have a bounty for you to cash" Kakuzu said, the tone of his voice all business.
"Very well, may I ask who it is that you wish to claim?" the fake bartender asked still in a cheerful mood.
"Chiriku, the monk from the Fire Temple. He had a very sizable bounty on his head" Kakuzu answered darkly.
"Impressive, he was one of the most difficult bounties we have, only Jiraiya the Sannin, Asuma Sarutobi and Kakashi Hatake have bounties of equivalent difficulty and pay in the Land of Fire," the man said as he began inspecting Chiriku's body to be sure it was indeed the former monk of the twelve guardians.
"Yes I'm aware that certain factions outside of the Tsuchikage in Iwa would pay a great deal of money for the heads of Kakashi Hatake and the Toad Sage. However infiltrating Konoha would be suicied even for us" Kakuzu replied.
"Speak for yourself, they couldn't kill me!" Hidan confidently declared proudly.
"Maybe not, but I can imagine them locking you away until all of the lifeforce you have gained from sacrificing people has been used up and you will die in the end" Kakuzu said.
"That would take hundreds of years for that, I would escape before I was even close to death" Hidan scoffed.
"Very well, do you want to go to Konoha and hunt down Kakashi Hatake?" Kakuzu asked with a hint of mirth.
"Of course not, we are supposed to be hunting the jinchuuriki" Hidan said.
The barman's eyes widened at this point. "Your Hunting jinchuuriki? Why would you want to do that?" he asked in surprise.
"None of your business, all you need to know is that is why we are in the Land of Fire" Hidan said.
"You're after some very dangerous opposition in that case" the bounty collector said quietly.
Kakuzu narrowed his eyes at the man still inspecting the body of Chiriku. "What do you know about the jinchuuriki!" he ordered causing everyone else in the bar to somehow shrink into the shadows, as to avoid the wrath of an angered Kakuzu.
For the first time since Kakuzu and Hidan's arrival the bounty collectors smile faded. "Uh well I only know about the three jinchuuriki who work as mercenaries here in the Land of Fire" he said weakly.
"Then tell me their location!" Kakuzu said a hint of urgency in his voice.
"I don't know. All I know about them is what I have been given by the legal bounty offices. I know that the former Suna jinchuuriki likes to work on the west side of the Land of fire with a kunoichi who specializes in Hyoton. And the Nanabi jinchuuriki works in the forested areas and mainly works with eliminating bandits and drug runners" the man said.
"And the Kyuubi!" Kakuzu asked not yet satisfied with the information he received.
The man gulped and looked around as if hoping for some help to come. "I can't, if they find out I said anything I'm as good as dead" he pleaded.
"Hey Kakuzu, sounds like this guy has a death wish anyway. If he doesn't tell us I'm sure that if we don't kill him Hiruko and Kisame would have no problem coming for the information themselves" Hidan laughed.
The bounty officer now frantically looked around scared for his safety. He knew that Kakuzu needed him alive to pay the pair for their bounty, but Hiruko and Kisame were well known to kill anyone who crossed them. "Fine!, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki works exclusively with either Itachi Uchiha and Jiraiya the Toad Sage, and they only take on S class missions throughout the Elemental Nations" he said.
"Keep talking, what else do you know?" Kakuzu asked.
"Well, as you may know, Itachi Uchiha is a master of Genjutsu, and wields the Mangekyo Sharingan. The Toad Sage Jiraiya, is a master in every sense of the word, with skill in Taijutsu and Ninjutsu that is unrivaled by most" the fake bartender said.
"We already know about those two, what about the Kyuubi brat!" Hidan said angrily showing his frustration at the man for not telling them what they need to know about the most illusive of the jinchuuriki.
"Well the thing is nobody knows about his complete skill set, at least not in the Land of Fire, and those that do know refuse to talk. But it is said that he has never lost a fight, of the three people in their group the Kyuubi jinchuuriki is said to be the strongest. If you are planning to go up against him then you must have a death wish" the man replied.
"Sounds like someone who would be good to sacrifice to Jashin-sama" Hidan laughed.
"Hidan be quiet, if this information is accurate then it may be that Hiruko and Kisame are not suited to fight against the Kyuubi, they may need someone a little more durable to fight him" Kakuzu said sternly.
"Well that's us isn't it, we're more durable than anyone" Hidan smirked.
"Indeed we are, in any case we need to get this information to the others" Kakuzu informed Hidan before turning back to the bounty officer. "We need a room, and are not to be disturbed while we talk to the other members of the Akatsuki" he added and without waiting for agreement he grabbed a key with a room number on it and stalked out of the bar with Hidan following close behind.
(Fire Temple)
"Man they haven't left a single sign of where they went to!" Naruto yelled in frustration as he landed back in front of the main temple building.
A monk who had been standing around watching the group of ninja search the area finally walked forward. "Naruto-sama the two people who walked off with the body of Chiriku said they were taking him to a bounty office somewhere to the north" he said bowing low.
Naruto looked pleased but embarrassed at the same time due to the monks antics. It was Asuma who spoke up first however. "Why didn't you say something earlier?"
"I'm sorry, we are not supposed to speak in the prescience of the sage" he said.
"What?" Asuma asked.
"Well isn't it obvious Asuma, they see Naruto as the reincarnation of the Rikudou Sennin, the Monks of the fire temple still practice some of the original Ninjutsu taught by the sage" Kakashi theorized.
"He's right, while I was here training with Jiraiya sensei, the only person they allowed to speak to me was Chiriku sensei who was the high monk, they considered him the only person to be worthy of the right no matter how much I protested" Naruto sighed. Before turning to the monk who was still bowing so low his forehead touched the floor. "Thank you for your help, please there is no need to bow to me" Naruto said to the monk.
The monk didn't speak he just stood up bowed once to Naruto and once to the other ninja of the group and left back to the other monks who looked at him like he had just committed some horrible taboo.
"Well we have a lead at least. As far as I know there are two black market bounty offices to the north of here. We should split up and check them both, if they are there hold them up until the other group arrives" Kakashi suggested.
"I agree" came Naruto's response.
"What if they aren't at either of the offices?" Akimi queried.
"Then we search for leads in the area and meet back here tonight if we don't find anything" Kakashi said.
"Alright then, I'll go with Akimi, and you three can check out the other office" Naruto said.
Everyone murmured in agreement soon all three were off, Naruto and Akimi heading north east while the three Konoha ninja headed westward. 'Good luck Naruto, but in truth I hope we find them, I know you are strong, stronger than I will ever be, but I will still defend you with all that I have' Kakashi thought as the Yoinokuchi pair left his eyesight.
(Konoha)
Itachi sat in a dark room with the only light coming from a small lamp that lit bench where Jiraiya sat reading over the latest chapter of his next book. He may write smut but he was very proud of his work, always making sure to keep his writing interesting with a good plot and a decent amount of action, often based on the missions he had gone on during his life.
As Itachi sat still in the dark meditating and trying to extend his chakra so he could see without his eyes he began to realize just how sore his eyes actually were. 'Wait! I can feel my eyes again' "It's close!" he declared standing up.
Jiraiya immediately stopped work. "Are you sure?" he asked standing up from his seat.
"Positive, there is a dull ache in my eyes and I can feel my chakra beginning to flow into them" he said calmly.
"Well we should do this outside, we may need this base again some time, and we wouldn't want to damage this place" Jiraiya sighed.
Itachi nodded in understanding. "I agree, while it is highly unlikely that any problems will occur, it is best to be on the safe side. Shall we go, also I believe that we should do this further away from Konoha, I am not exactly welcome here" he added.
The two Yoinokuchi ninja gathered their belongings and made a quick exit from the cave. They ran a fair way away from Konoha so that they could be sure any of Itachi's chakra could not be felt from the village, nor could they see if anything happened. "So how long do you think it will be now?" Jiraiya asked.
"It's unclear, but I can presume that it is close, I can feel the chakra start to build up behind my eyes" Itachi said calmly as he took a seat under a tree.
Jiraiya, remembering Tsunade's warning also took a seat off to the side, well out of Itachi's line of sight. Seconds turned into minutes and still nothing happened. The Toad Sage was becoming impatient, and he was just about to say something when he saw Itachi's whole body tense. "It's done, I can feel it" Itachi said.
Less than a second later Jiraiya felt a huge burst of chakra and Itachi's eye bindings burst into brilliant pure white flames causing the bandages to completely evaporate in an instant, once the bandages were gone so were the flames. Jiraiya watched wide eyed as Itachi stood, his eyes still closed. "How do you feel?" Jiraiya asked.
"Amazing" Itachi replied opening his eyes to reveal a set of shining lightening blue eyes with a metallic red three bladed pinwheel slightly thinner with a more prominent curve than the set in his old Mangekyo Sharingan, but still closely resembling his old Dojutsu. Itachi closed his eyes and moments later there was a small decrease in the chakra flow to Itachi's eyes as his control began to return and the eyes morphed back to something that closely resembled the sharingan, the main difference was they were now azure blue rather than red, and instead of three tomoe he sported thee black spirals in the same locations.
Itachi closed his eyes once more and the chakra again dropped to normal levels, when he opened them again Jiraiya was staring into deep navy blue eyes. "My chakra levels have increased significantly" Itachi said in surprise.
"That's not the only thing that has changed" Jiraiya said handing Itachi a small mirror.
Itachi marveled at his new set of eyes. 'They are much darker than when they were implanted, this must be a result of it blending with my DNA' he thought. Channeling chakra into his eyes he marveled at the bright blue that greeted him, then he noticed the changes to the tomoe. 'So it really is no longer a sharingan' he smiled at the thought. He felt further away from the rest of his cursed clan and it was almost liberating. Once more he added the chakra to his eyes and the Azure blue seemed to brighten again and almost glow with the chakra, similar to how Naruto's would glow when he channeled chakra directly into his eyes. The the spirals around his pupil began to unwind and thicken until they formed the three bladed pinwheel and finally the black changed into the bright red. "Amazing!" he exclaimed although his voice was hushed.
"So, let's test them out. It would be foolish to run into battle without knowing what those new eyes of yours actually do" Jiraiya said.
Itachi nodded. "Well Let's try my old jutsu first... Tsukuyomi!" Itachi said staring Jiraiya right in the eyes.
Jiraiya found himself in what could only be described as nothingness. Everywhere he looked was white, no sky, not even land. "Interesting, while it is true I didn't choose anything for you to see, I expected you to be transferred to my inner world" the voice of Itachi echoed around Jiraiya.
"Well, while I'm here you should experiment a little... but nothing painful please" Jiraiya said.
"Very well, how about I create... Konoha" Itachi said materializing beside the Toad sage.
No sooner had he finished talking than the pair found themselves standing in the center of Konoha on a busy day, civilian shoppers were walking around not even paying attention to the pair.
What caught both Itachi and Jiraiya's attention immediately was the fact that Itachi's inner world was no longer dark. The red sky and black clouds that were always present were gone. This new inner world was for lack of a better word, perfect. Every color was there, Jiraiya could even smell the food from a nearby restaurant. "This is impossible. I can't find a single flaw in the genjutsu, if I didn't know better I would be sure I was in the market district of Konoha" Jiraiya said.
"Yes but I can now understand the reason for the large chakra increase, this version of the Tsukuyomi requires almost twice the chakra as my old one. However I can see where this would have it's advantages, my old Tsukuyomi was powerful, but everyone knew they were trapped in a genjutsu. Now I can trap them inside my inner world and they will not even know they are trapped" Itachi said calmly.
Itachi let the genjutsu drop, returning both himself and Jiraiya to the real world. "That is quite the genjutsu, there won't be many out there that can deal with that. So what's next?" Jiraiya asked.
"That would be... Amaterasu!" Itachi said staring at a nearby tree.
Flames shot from Itachi's eyes. However they were not black flames. They were white, the same white flames that burned the bandages from his eyes. The white flames struck the tree but it still stood no sign of damage done to the plant at all.
"What the hell? Why isn't the plant burning?" Jiraiya asked.
"I do not know" Itachi admitted.
"Well those white flames burned away your bandages when the Dojutsu awakened, maybe you aren't doing something right?" Jiraiya suggested.
"That is true, but I didn't have control of my eyes when it first awakened, I just thought about getting the bandages off and then they burned away" Itachi said.
"That's it!" Jiraiya said triumphantly. "The flames only burn what you want. The tree hasn't burnt because you do not see it as a threat or in your way. If you desire to burn the tree it will burn" he explained.
"Sounds reasonable" Itachi thought and after focusing on burning the tree down it burnt away to nothing in almost no time at all.
"Interesting, it adds quite a bit to your arsenal. Something like that could be used in many different ways, the first one that comes to mind is a barrier to help escape if discovered in a infiltration mission. You could move through the flames but your enemies cannot" Jiraiya said clearly impressed.
"Indeed... that just leaves, Susanoo!" a spectral figure appeared around Itachi. However this was much smaller and more human like than his previous Susanoo, while his previous Susanoo towered over him, it now acted more like a cloak that shrouded around his body rising no more than a foot above him. It was also quite obvious to Itachi that the range of it's attack would be far shorter and the ultimate protection it granted was significantly reduced. 'It's smaller and weaker, but then why is the chakra output the same?' he thought slightly confused. Then a thought occurred to Itachi and he kicked off as hard and fast as he could.
Jiraiya had been less impressed by the transformation of Itachi's final ocular jutsu from the sharingan, that all changed when Itachi moved. It was like a bolt of lightening. The speed was equal to that of the Raikage. While equipped with the same weapons as his old Susanoo the smaller range and decrease of overall protection seemed like an even trade.
"I believe I can live with this" Itachi said dropping the jutsu and letting out a sigh. He may have picked up some upgrades on his former jutsu but they drained him of his chakra, it was clear that he couldn't use those jutsu constantly. Without the increase in his chakra levels Itachi would have been out of chakra already, but as it stood he still had enough chakra left for about five minutes in his new Susanoo form.
"Well, it's good to see everything is still in working order. Now drop back to the first stage of the Dojutsu so we can test out the standard sharingan abilities" Jiraiya suggested.
Itachi nodded and his eyes morphed back, the red faded from the pupil and it changed from the three bladed pinwheel into the three spirals circling the pupil.
"Alight, first off let's test your ability to predict the movement of some projectiles" Jiraiya said quickly creating several mud clones each took out a set of kunai and moved to surround Itachi.
Just like the sharingan Itachi was able to see the attacks before they came. After a few minutes however he noticed that was not all he could do, as he dodged a kunai he seemed to cause the blade to move away from him on its on. Itachi saw an attack coming and stopped dead rather than move to avoid it, the kunai shot right towards Itachi, however before it hit the kunai changed direction in mid air hitting a tree.
Itachi's eyes widened, he had focused on deflecting the kunai and it changed direction. The next attack came in and this time Itachi focused on stopping the blade. The kunai was only able make it half way to Itachi from where Jiraiya had thrown it before it stopped in mid air. It wasn't like Naruto's gravity release where he could reverse the gravity to prevent projectiles from striking, Itachi had stopped the kunai in mid air.
Jiraiya didn't attack as he watched Itachi staring intently at the kunai floating in mid air a few feet away from him. "Well this is new" he said stepping out from the treeline but leaving his clones where they were. "Try moving it" the Toad Sage added indicating the kunai.
Itachi nodded not taking his eyes from the kunai. One of the spirals in each of Itachi's eyes began to spin slowly, and as if moved by in invisible hand the blade turned in mid air before shooting off back in the direction it came striking one of Jiraiya's mud clones.
"Impressive! Let's see what else you can do" Jiraiya said before lightly tossing a kunai into the air in front of Itachi.
It was a slow process, at first Itachi couldn't control the speed. It would take ages to turn then when ever he sent it in a straight line it would go faster than he could anticipate, after about ten minutes he started to get the hang of his new ability and soon had the kunai flying around every which was as long as it was inside his line of sight.
"Throw out another" Itachi ordered.
Jiraiya did as he was instructed. Itachi was able to stop the blade in mid air but could not move both blades at the same time as he had hoped. "How about we see how many you can stop, I imagine this will have a limit, and it would be wise to know what that is" Jiraiya suggested.
"Yes I was just thinking the same thing" Itachi said and indicated for Jiraiya to toss up another kunai. He was able to stop the third blade, however after that he couldn't stop any thing else. "It seems three is my limit" Itachi sighed.
"One for each spiral in your eye" Jiraiya theorized.
"A sound theory, I would like to test one more thing. I will hold two kunai still in mid air and deflect single kunai thrown at me, I want to know how quickly I can change from one target to another" Itachi suggested.
"Good idea, we should also test how powerful this telekinetic ability is. Moving kunai and shuriken is one thing, but lifting say a fallen tree is another thing entirely" Jiraiya said knocking over a large tree for Itachi to train with.
Itachi nodded and after letting the kunai he was manipulating fall to the ground, he turned to the tree that Jiraiya had knocked down. This task proved far more difficult, Itachi had started sweating but he soon found the large tree hovering in mid air. "This is draining on my chakra. The larger the object the more chakra that is needed it appears" Itachi said, dropping the log on the floor.
"Alright, now lets test how quickly you can switch between targets" Jiraiya said.
It turned out Itachi could change almost instantly. As quickly as he could move his eye to the next target the target of his telekinetic manipulating would change. And with the sharingan's ability to see things before they happen still in effect it proved to be a very effective combination.
"Let's stop there, we need to go rest up. We can work on this more later. Now we need to prepare to go find Gaara and Fuu and make sure they are alright" Jiraiya said.
"In that case I think I need to rest for awhile, those jutsu are all rather draining on my chakra" Itachi said finally realizing just how exhausted he really was.
"Yeah rest up, we'll head back to the cave and leave tonight. The information on where the others are heading will be back at the main hideout but you look too spent to make it back there without suffering chakra exhaustion" Jiraiya said.
Itachi nodded and the pair made their way back towards Konoha.
(Elsewhere)
"Well this place doesn't scream black market" Asuma said sarcastically as they approached a large tavern in the middle of what could only be described as the most baron area of the Land of Fire.
"There are two very large chakra signatures here" Tenzo said looking at the building beside the tavern.
"Is it the Akatsuki?" Kakashi asked.
"I believe so, yes" Tenzo replied.
"Well then, lets go say hi" Kakashi said.
"I was thinking the same thing" Asuma added before lighting a new cigarette.
END CHAPTER!
I was hoping to get into the fighting this chapter, but the part on Itachi's eyes took longer than I expected sorry.
Also some suggestions on what to call Itachi's new Dojutsu would be welcome. Hope you don't think he is over powered or anything like that, I tried to make some changes to the sharingan that while improving it didn't make it god like, although it does a good enough job at that itself. If there is anything you don't like feel free to criticize. I know I can't make everyone happy but feel free to complain about anything you don't like.
Sorry for the late update, I had a massive storm the other day and my phone lines and DSL are cut, I replied to a few reviews from my phone but I couldn't post, I'm posting this from my friends place. My internet will be back early next week so hopefully you won't have to wait too long for the next chapter. Anyway hope you enjoyed the chapter.
