Review Shoutouts
none: An accident you say? As long as I'm not involved you can have all the accidents you want buddy.
TheDon1023: Of course he is. I'm not putting all this effort into shaping the story to leave him as an f'n chunin yo.
acepro Evolution: I never lost it man, I never lost it. Because I'm Kenchi, and I'm AWESOME!
Erisah Mae: I would have gone into that, but I barely freakin passed my psych class last year and I'm not touching a subject that could get my butt chewed out by people that are actually smart with a ten foot pole. Also I'm glad you read my other story. It seems to be ridiculously popular, I really didn't see that coming when I wrote it.
Kethatril: I've been told that fight scenes are my forte friend, thanks a lot.
Inarifoxkami: All will be revealed later yo.
Malix2: That's what I think, but with this one I can't just drop her and forget about her (*cough cough* Kishimoto) so I had to come up with something and hopefully it is satisfactory.
HellsMaji: A combination of chivalry/wanting to actually get along with his team kept him from backhanding her in the early chapters.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fullmetal Alchemist. Have we gotten the point on this yet? Because if no one has by now I must assume that you guys have the memory of a friggin goldfish. Enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 50: Something Worth Fighting For
(Undisclosed location on the border of Tsuchi no Kuni)
Two men sat waiting in an abandoned Iwa outpost waiting for contact from a client for a mission that one of them accepted. The other wasn't too excited about taking a job at this point in time.
A man with slicked back silver hair tapped his foot impatiently and growled under his breath, "Damn it Kakuzu! Why the fuck are we waiting in this musty piece of shit shack in the ass end of butt-fucking nowhere?" The man had his hitae-ate wrapped around his neck with three slanted lines, the symbol of the village Yugakure, crossed out by a single slash through them.
A second man who was seated on one of the dusty chairs inside of the building looked impassively at his partner with strange eyes, green pupils and red scleras (You know… the part of most people's eyes that are white? Just to avoid the question that I might undoubtedly get later altogether. Thank you public high school. NOT!). With his face covered entirely by a mask, save for his eyes, eyebrows, and his slashed Takigakure hitae-ate, the ire on his face was clearly shown by the visible features of his face, "Shut up Hidan. All those times that I've had to stop for you and your stupid religious crap and now I've actually got something important to wait on and you're bitching about it."
The silver-haired man, identified as Hidan took offense to Kakuzu's words, "Fuck you Kakuzu you damned heathen! Don't slander Jashin-sama! I hope you cook in hell for your words."
Kakuzu scoffed and rolled his oddly colored eyes, "Even Hell runs on money. I'd be just fine."
Hidan pulled a three-bladed scythe from his back and began swinging it around, "I'd rather be heading to Kumo right now to catch our target jinchuuriki, or have you forgotten that we've been sent after the Nibi. I can't wait to slaughter some Kumo ninja, Jashin-sama will be pleased."
"The Nibi won't be going anywhere anytime soon! This bounty I'm being hired for is for 100 million ryo, I haven't seen a bounty that high for anyone in years!" Kakuzu could almost see the money in front of him as he spoke.
Something entered both men's field of awareness as Hidan walked towards the door of the building, "Well it looks like someone's offering themselves up as a sacrifice… Jashin-sama thanks you…" He broke into a dark grin as he raised his scythe to cut the door and the person behind it into half.
Hidan was then blasted through his chest by a mass of black thread, dropping to the ground in pain, "Goddamn you Kakuzu!"
Kakuzu ignored him and moved to open the door, "Your stupid religion isn't costing me 100 million ryo Hidan." Ignoring the swearing silver-haired man behind him he opened the door to find an Anbu of Iwa origin, "My target?"
The Anbu handed him a dossier on his mark and vanished almost as quickly as he appeared. Kakuzu rifled through the papers, his eyes widening as he read along. Shutting the folder with a chuckle he turned to Hidan who had by now picked himself up, holes in his chest notwithstanding, "Well I can safely say that Itachi and Kisame are going to be pissed after we're through with this one."
Hidan raised an eyebrow at his partner's chipper mood, "What's got you in such a cavalier mood?"
Kakuzu tossed the folder to Hidan who read through it and also had his own viewing orbs widen, "Hidan, we're going fox hunting."
XxX
(In the general area of Hi no Kuni)
Jiraiya yawned as he watched the fish that he had caught that morning fry over a fire. Looking up at the position of the sun he stood up and walked over to one of the two tents that were set up, "Oi! Brats wake up! Breakfast is ready!" Jiraiya would have gone inside, but the last time he had tried that, Akiza wasn't exactly decent and he ended up getting an early morning beating lain upon him for his trouble. Yep, the best part of waking up is a female's foot in your nuts.
Grumbling came from inside the tent before it was opened to reveal a shirtless blonde mop of hair rubbing its eyes. Jiraiya stared at the boy adjusting his eyes to the sunlight, "Gaki what are you doing in there?"
Naruto blinked as he focused his eyesight on his sensei, "What? It's more comfortable than my piece of crap tent, that's for sure. And the company's sure a hell of a lot better." Naruto turned his head back inside the tent, "Akiza-chan get up. Ero-sennin's just going to keep messing with us until we do."
Akiza sat up and looked at the two standing at the entrance wearily, "Alright… give me a bit to get ready. I'll… *yawn* I'll be out there soon enough."
Naruto smiled at her and gave her a kiss before heading outside with Jiraiya. Jiraiya gave his student a knowing grin, "Sleeping together now gaki?"
Naruto rolled his eyes, "Ero-sennin we already had sex. At this point I would say that sharing the same sleeping quarters would be a step down on the intimacy list don't you think?" Naruto sat down by the fire, "How far out from Konoha are we?"
Jiraiya pulled out a map, "We're a few more days out. We've just now gotten back inside the borders of Hi no Kuni so things are going to start looking familiar for you soon kid. You excited to go home?"
Naruto grinned at him, "Yeah, there's tons of people I want to see. I want to see if Sasuke-teme is still an ass, I want to see if Big Boss and Haku-chan fucked up and ended up getting pregnant, and whether or not Zabuza killed him yet for it."
Jiraiya took on a grim face as he passed Naruto one of the cooked fish, "You've got a lot on your plate when you get back. I hope you're ready, your enemies are going to start coming out of the woodwork once you start working again."
Naruto grinned at Jiraiya with a mouthful of fish, "What other kid do you know had the ire of around a dozen kage-level ninja by the time he was fifteen?"
Jiraiya chuckled, "Even your old man didn't have a laundry list of bad guys after his head like you do until he was seventeen. I don't know whether to be proud of you or pop you on the head for being so damn polarizing."
Naruto spit one of the small fish bones into the fire, "Hey! I do more than make enemies. If you haven't realized it the Raikage thinks I'm awesome, I have an entire country that is specializing in trade that thinks I'm a hero, and the Mizukage fucking loves me now."
Jiraiya got a perverse look on his face, "Speaking of the Mizukage, is she really as good looking as people say she is?"
Naruto decided to take pity on the old pervert, "*sigh* When Akiza-chan comes out I want you to dig through my stuff until you find a folder with something in it that you might find interesting. It will answer all of your questions on her."
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Why would I need to wait until your girl leaves the tent gaki? Other than the obvious reason that she'd castrate me with that weapon of hers if I walked in on her again?"
Naruto rubbed the bridge of his nose in apprehension, "Just… trust me alright? It will be better for all parties involved if those pictures never see the light of day. And by the light of day I mean Akiza-chan laying eyes on them."
Jiraiya nodded in understanding and whipped his head around quickly as he saw Akiza exit the tent, fully clothed and placing her hair up into her ponytail, "Good morning you guys."
Jiraiya sprinted into Naruto and Akiza's tent, nearly bowling the girl over. Akiza gave Naruto a curious look, "Fullmetal what the hell was that about?"
Naruto sighed, "Nothing, he just wanted to check something that was in my gear. Come over here and get some breakfast. We've got a lot of ground to cover today."
Akiza listened to the blonde and made her way over to grab a fish of her own to eat. Sitting down next to her boyfriend she gave him a smile, "So, are you excited to be heading home?"
Naruto gave her a glance and returned her smile with a small one of his own, "Excited? More like anxious. I wonder if I'm ready for what's going to happen when I get back. The entire point of this training trip was to get me ready to match up with S-ranked ninja in fights to the death. I wonder if I'm ready or not."
Akiza sidled up close to the boy and laid her head on his shoulder, "You beat Yugito back in Kumogakure didn't you? She's one of their absolute best, if you can beat her you should be good enough to take on any of those Akatsuki losers that you told me would be after you."
Naruto shook his head, "I don't know Akiza-chan… You weren't there when they attacked me the first time right after I got promoted. I didn't lay a hand on them the entire time, they absolutely slaughtered me. Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki… If Kakashi and ero-sennin hadn't shown up when they did I would be in an Akatsuki basement right now having only Kami knows what being done to me, or even dead."
Akiza frowned and flicked Naruto on his nose, forcing him to yelp in surprise and glare at her, wondering what the big idea was. Akiza gave him a firm look, "You've been training for years just for this. You've beaten 3 S-ranked ninja already, one of whom was a kage. You are ready for them, I know you are. And it's not like you're going to be all alone. You have Jiraiya-sensei, that brother you keep telling me about, Kakashi Hatake, Zabuza Momochi, you have so many powerful ninjas that are ready to help you fight. You have me too, and there's no way that I'm letting them take you off to die."
Naruto saw the determination in her eyes and nodded, "You're right. I needed that, thank you."
Akiza gave Naruto a toothy grin, "Anytime Fullmetal." Placing a kiss on his cheek she stroked his whisker marks lovingly, taking great pleasure out of the purring noises coming from him.
"WHOA!"
The two broke from their short reverie with the shout coming from their tent. Akiza stood to go investigate when Naruto pulled her back down. When she gave him a questioning look he just shook his head, "Just… don't. Trust me, you don't want to know."
Akiza still looked apprehensive as even more sounds of what seemed to be approval came from the tent that Jiraiya had rushed into earlier. As the two teens polished off the rest of the fish, all the while ignoring any and all perverse sounds coming from behind them, Jiraiya rushed out with a drop of blood coming from his nose and a grin on his face, "Gaki that was incredible, why didn't you tell me that was what the fuss was all about? I've got to go to Kiri for a bit, you kids can make it back to Konoha alright can't you?"
Akiza and Naruto simply gave him a dumbfounded look as he didn't even wait for an answer and took off with all of his things, leaving the two alone at the campsite. Akiza pointed at the smoking trail he had left behind, "What the hell just happened here? Did he just ditch us? Again?"
Naruto nodded, "I knew I might have ended up paying for showing him that stuff, but he has been training me so I figured I owed him." Naruto suddenly blinked before rushing into the tent and fumbling through his things. Letting out an anguished cry he pulled at his spiky locks, "That perverted son-of-a-bitch! He took my pictures! I never said he could have them! I don't even think I want them back anymore when he does show up again!"
Akiza's head was swimming with question marks until she put together the words 'perverted' and 'pictures'. Narrowing her eyes at the devastated blonde alchemist she spoke in an icy tone, "What pictures are you talking about Fullmetal?"
Naruto stopped his crying and turned to Akiza with a careful eye, "The secret kind?"
Akiza shook her head and summoned her halberd, "Wrong answer sweetie."
Naruto begged off in vain, "Baby nooooo!"
XxX
(Kirigakure no Sato – Mizukage's Office)
Mei Terumi, the Godaime Mizukage, took a short reprieve from her paperwork as she looked out the window of her office with a smile, "Hmm… I feel like someone that I know very well has just been affected by my beauty somehow."
Ao, who was asleep nearby, (Kami, guard duty was boring… Don't village kage have Anbu to do this crap for them?) stirred from his slumber and yawned, "In my day I knew all kinds of beautiful kunoichi Mizukage-sama. Yep… unfortunately I was never the type to settle down and I ended up having to turn down a lot of marriage proposals."
Mei's eye twitched, 'Turn down marriage proposals?'
Turning to her bodyguard with an overly pleasant look she spoke to him, "Ao, shut up or I'll kill you."
The blue haired man was left gob-smacked, "What did I do?"
XxX
(One Day Later – Somewhere in Hi no Kuni)
Naruto and Akiza were still two days away from Konoha by Naruto's estimation. It was okay though, they weren't in any real rush to get there. Actually, they were ending the training trip slightly early. Their time had been spent walking briskly while Naruto informed her on things that she would be seeing and doing once they had gotten to Konoha.
Naruto had a massive grin on his face, "I can't wait until you get to try Ichiraku Ramen. That will throw all of your onigiri bullshit right out of the window. I swear it."
Akiza gave him a dry look, "I don't think that a bowl of noodles from some random stand are just going to flip my opinion like that Fullmetal."
Naruto pointed at her, "Mark my words; you will bow down to the flavorful explosion of ramen if it's the last damn thing that I ever do in my miserable life woman!" Akiza's response was the ever mature and sophisticated raspberry.
As the two continued to argue up and down the road a pair of figures began wandering out from the horizon. As a fairly powerful aura began to wash over the two they ceased their squabble and began to pay attention to figuring out exactly who was ahead of them and how much of a threat they were.
As they drew closer together, Naruto narrowed his eyes once he saw the tell-tale black cloaks with red clouds on them and he tensed up. Akiza's heart began beating quickly as she remembered the instructions from Naruto and Jiraiya about the general apparel of Akatsuki.
The two groups stood within ten feet of one another and came to a stop, staring at each other. Naruto kept a glare on both men facing them down while Akiza panned her gaze between him and their soon-to-be opponents.
Naruto decided to speak to get the festivities under way, "So it's that time already is it? I guess ero-sennin wasn't exact when he said that I had three years to get ready for you guys."
Kakuzu chuckled slightly, "Actually we're not here for Akatsuki kid. Though now we can kill two birds with one stone, I'm here to get the bounty that was placed on your head by the Tsuchikage. 100 million ryo… that's a lot of money, the only other person in Hi no Kuni with that kind of bounty on his is just a measly 35 million. You should be proud."
Akiza glared at Naruto, "What did I tell you? I knew he'd do that shit to you once he left Kumo!"
Naruto put a hand on her shouder, "Calm down. It's okay, we were going to have to fight these guys at some point. And this is as good of a litmus test as I'm going to get when it comes to my own power, yours too. You've been training for years as well."
Akiza sighed and nodded before biting her thumb and making hand-signs, "I know… I still wish Jiraiya-sensei was here though. This would have been way easier if it was three-on-two instead of two-on-two. We're not S-ranked like these guys are. Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Sekki Kiritateru, Naginata no Eimin (Summoning Jutsu: Earth Slayer, the Eternal Halberd)." A summoning array appeared on the ground as her primary weapon emerged from the ground and into her hand.
Naruto smirked and formed his blade-arm, "Speak for yourself. I'm obviously S-ranked by now if our masked friend over here is speaking the truth about my bounty. It is true isn't it Mr… I don't know your name."
Kakuzu again chuckled in amusement at his latest bounty, "My name is Kakuzu child. And it is true Naruto Uzumaki, the Fullmetal Alchemist, bounty of 100 million. And your companion also has a decent little amount on her pretty little head as well. Akiza Tamagawa, 30 million to be exact."
Naruto and Akiza looked at each other blankly as Naruto spoke up, "Wow, I guess I did piss Onoki-teme off didn't I? My bad."
Akiza rolled her eyes and set herself into a reactionary stance as she looked at her opponents, "Yeah… Remind me to kick your ass over it after we're done here, if we survive in the first place that is."
Kakuzu nudged the man next to him, "Hidan, leave the Kyuubi jinchuuriki alive so we can extract the Kyuubi. I can get the bounty for his dried up, lifeless husk from Iwa after we pull the demon from him. But you can go ahead and kill the girl. We'll just take her straight there and get the money for her."
Hidan put a grin on his face at that, "That's more like it Kakuzu! For a godless heathen you can be okay sometimes." Hidan pulled the deadly looking scythe from his back and licked his lips as he looked at the female ninja he had just been given the green light to rend asunder, "Hi there beautiful. You'll be sure to make my day won't you? Jashin-sama would like your blood."
With that Hidan madly rushed in. The sheer braze and bravado behind his rush almost caught the two young ninja off-guard, as they had been conditioned to expect things like opening gambits and projectile weapons at the start of fights, not a straight out bull rush. His attention was firmly on Akiza who finally got her halberd up to block Hidan's first attack from the wicked looking weapon.
Naruto tried moving in to assist her as Hidan beat her back with a berserker-like assault when Kakuzu moved in to try and beat down Naruto up close and personal. Naruto blanched at Kakuzu's speed. He was slower than Itachi, but compared to the majority of ninjas Naruto had fought he was still way faster than them, 'Ugh… He's just as fast as Haku-chan is… Kyuubi-chan! It's now or never. Either we're ready for what's to come or we're not. I know I said I'd get you out, but I'll be damned if it's going to end up with you being used for whatever these idiots have planned for you.'
Inside of Naruto's mindscape the nine-tailed vixen was focusing intently on helping her container out, "You have my full support like always Naruto-kun. Go get 'em kit, don't hold back and don't hesitate to kill. Remember that they want to pull your soul from your body. What have I been telling you?"
Naruto narrowed his eyes as he finished dodging Kakuzu's first attacking barrage, "No mercy for the merciless…" Naruto then rushed at Kakuzu in a zig zag motion, forming a 3-man group of Kage Bunshin with each jerk of movement. The clones began throwing out kunai and shuriken between at Kakuzu as Naruto made his way closer.
The speed that Naruto was moving at didn't allow him to notice quickly enough that Kakuzu hadn't even tried moving and when the sharp weapons made contact they harmlessly bounced off of him. Naruto had been close enough to launch a blade-arm punch but wasn't able to stop the attack until it glanced off of Kakuzu's body much like the shuriken did, however it did rip up the chest area of his cloak.
Naruto was drilled in the face with a punch from the Taki nuke-nin and sent rolling along the ground. His Kage Bunshin took up a defensive perimeter around their creator as he picked himself up off of the ground. Naruto spit out blood and wiped his busted lip, "What the fuck was that?"
Kakuzu pulled off his tattered cloak to reveal a black muscle shirt, showing that he had massive stitches all over his body, "That was Doton: Domu (Earth Release: Earth Spear). You can't break through my skin boy, my skin is now far too dense even for your blade."
Naruto stood behind his wall of clones, "Block this then." Naruto tapped his clones on the shoulders one by one, sending them off on a path around Kakuzu, encircling him. Naruto nodded to his clones that then all pulled out gloves and placed them on their left hands, all with evil grins on their faces.
Kakuzu simply looked at all of the clones and then at the Naruto who was simply watching. Taking note of all of the white gloves the masked man looked amused, "What are you doing kid? You gonna check for fingerprints?"
Naruto chuckled, "Nah… There's just something that I've been dying to test out in battle and you're a fantastic guinea pig for it." Looking at his clones excitedly he spoke again, "Now normally I would say that a battle isn't really a place to learn how to use something, but to hell with it! Boys!"
The clones raised their gloved left hands and snapped their fingers. All Kakuzu saw was a spark emerging from the cloth of the gloves being rubbed together before his world became an inferno.
XxX
(With Akiza and Hidan)
Akiza had long since recovered from the ferocity of Hidan's first series of attacks and began to fight with him on par. Hidan's use of a cable connected to his scythe was an unexpected nuisance, but Akiza had been training with lengthy close-range weaponry since she was a little girl, and having a willing and able sparring partner that could form pretty much anything he wanted to use as a weapon from the minerals in the ground, a scythe ironically being one of his choices, allowed her battle experience against weapon toting enemies to increase exponentially over the last two and a half years.
Hidan hadn't really expected an opponent with a weapon that was even longer than his and it was starting to upset him somewhat, "Hold still you little bitch! Just let me cut you!"
Akiza scoffed as she parried a strike with the pole of her weapon before flipping it around and lashing out with a quick slash that caught Hidan on his arm, "Why the hell would I do that? You just yelled about killing me for you 'Jason-sama' or whatever his name was."
Hidan came back in swinging his scythe at strange angles with the assistance of the cable linked to under his cloak that began to test the limits of Akiza's weapon defense. Getting sick of coming within a hair's breadth of getting cut into ribbons by her asshole of an opponent. Akiza jumped back to get some distance, "Enough of this shit! Hirogeru!"
Hidan was caught by surprise as the business end of Akiza's weapon extended and pierced him right through the chest, continuing to extend even after it burst through his back.
Akiza smiled to herself as she saw her blade hit him flush, "That was way too easy. An S-ranked ninja was that easy for me to beat? I'm better than I thought I was, I guess."
"That fucking hurt you bitch!" Hidan roared as he rushed forward down the blade, forcing it even deeper into his chest as he wanted nothing more than to separate Akiza's head from her shoulders. The girl was so caught off guard that only when Hidan reached the point where he rammed his chest into the blade guard of the weapon she reacted.
Akiza's could only speculate on exactly how the fuck he survived that attack that had punched a hole right through his chest, and then he started his berserk rush again… with her weapon lodged firmly in his chest… and he was pushing it further into his chest while he ran down the blade, swinging at her.
Akiza was forced to let go to avoid the blade and get some space. She pointed an accusing finger at Hidan, "Why the fuck aren't you dead? What, do your organs move around inside of your body or something?"
Hidan laughed as he turned to face her, the enlarged halberd still sticking out of his chest, "This is Jashin-sama's greatest gift to me! I am immortal. You can stab me in the chest all you like little girl, you can't kill me."
Akiza narrowed her eyes, "Is that a challenge?" She extended her arm and crooked her finger at Hidan, "Kaektekuru."
Hidan looked at the girl in confusion, 'Did that bitch just tell me to come back?' His thoughts were cut off when he was forced to yell in pain as the halberd flew from his chest cavity and back into her hand, "What the fuck was that you little cunt?"
Akiza slammed the pole tip of the weapon onto the ground, standing it up straight, "I'm so glad Jiraiya-sensei taught me how to bond with my weapon. How he knew Sekki Kiritateru was sentient when I didn't I'll never know… and right now I don't care." She let go of her weapon, leaving it standing straight up, "You got blood on the handle you asshole!"
Hidan touched at the gaping hole in his chest, "That was really good. I didn't see that one coming, but Kisame's weapon can do that flying shit too so I'm not too shocked. You're still going to die here girly."
Akiza leaned on her weapon like a pole, "You say you're immortal. Well let's find out how immortal you really are."
XxX
(Konoha – Hokage Tower)
Tsunade had somehow singlehandedly finished her day's paperwork and had yet to have even more dumped on her lap. Thus she was taking a well earned break from the service of being her village's kage. Mentally she was cursing a certain blonde brat for leaving without telling her how to do paperwork the easy way, since Sarutobi still wasn't telling. As a matter of fact he took it as a point of amusement whenever she asked him.
As she was thinking of ways to torment the boy upon his arrival a toad appeared in her office with a scroll. After dropping it on the desk he vanished in a second puff of smoke. Tsunade picked it up and began to read. Growling at the writer upon finishing, "Dumbass pervert… Great, now Naruto's out wandering the country all alone without Jiraiya there. Shizune!"
Said black-haired medic-ninja appeared in the door shortly after her name had been called out, "What do you need Tsunade-sama?"
Tsunade rolled the scroll back up, "Get me someone that I can send out to find Naruto. Jiraiya's got him wandering around Hi no Kuni while he's off gallivanting in Mizu no Kuni."
Shizune gave the Hokage an odd look, "Why is Jiraiya-sama going to Mizu no Kuni?"
Tsunade rubbed her temple, "I don't know… Something about the Mizukage and research… I don't care. Get me someone that can find and retrieve Naruto."
XxX
(With Naruto)
"WOOO! You know he's dead!" Naruto grinned as the flames from his attack died down. He ended up catching Kakuzu in the ultimate crossfire with his attack. Even his clones were fully engulfed in the inferno and dispelled, "There's no way in hell he lived through that."
"That was a pretty good surprise kid…" Naruto found Kakuzu walking out of the smoky remains of the inferno, "You even ended up taking out one of my hearts… I guess I'll have to take one from your little girlfriend as a replacement."
Naruto bared his teeth at the idea of this man taking Akiza's heart out, "You lay a finger on her and I'll rip your head off with my bare hands."
Kakuzu chuckled, "On second thought though, Hidan probably killed her himself by now and is doing that stupid post-fight ritual of his. Oh well, at least dealing with you will eat up chunks of time that would have otherwise had me waiting on his unconscious ass."
Naruto glared at Kakuzu, "Akiza-chan won't be so easy to kill. I'm going to kill you and then I'm going to kill him."
"Oh please brat. If the Shodaime Hokage couldn't kill me then what makes you think you can?" Naruto was confused. The Shodaime Hokage? What the hell was this guy talking about? Kakuzu looked like he was checking for something when he looked at Naruto with an upset look on his face, "You took out my earth element heart… Hey, that girl is from Iwa. I'll bet she's a doton element. I'll have to finish you quick so that I can take her heart before Hidan destroys her. He can't be killed you know? He's immortal."
Naruto slipped into a stance, "Immortality is bullshit, but if you think that your friend is so dangerous and that Akiza-chan is so overmatched I guess I'll have to straight up kill you and help her out."
Kakuzu rushed at Naruto who met him head on. When Naruto tried cutting he noticed that Kakuzu wasn't so eager to take his hits head on this time. Kakuzu tried to sweep Naruto's legs from under him and ended up having to dodge a retaliatory knee strike to the face from the boy, "What's the matter Kakuzu? What happened to you taking my punches head on and letting me hit you. I kind of liked when you let me do that."
Kakuzu turned and let Naruto see his back. Naruto almost puked when he saw what Kakuzu was showing him. Four masks were sown into Kakuzu's back, however one of them was broken, "I have five hearts. One is my own inside of my chest, and the others are kept inside of this mask. Replenishing these hearts with new ones every once in a while is the reason that I've lived so long."
Naruto remembered him talking about the Shodaime Hokage, "So… how old would that make you for knowledge's sake?"
Kakuzu grinned under his mask, "91 years old."
Naruto's jaw dropped, "You're even older than jiji? So stealing these hearts keeps you alive and you have five of them. You're telling me that I have to kill you four more times to beat you right?"
Kakuzu turned back around, "That's basically the gist of it. Each mask has an element. You just so happened to destroy the one that had my earth element, that's why I'm no longer using Doton: Domu. So you scared yet?"
Naruto smirked at him, "Are you kidding me? I get to kick your decrepit ass four more times and each time I kill you, you get a little weaker." Naruto rushed at Kakuzu, leading with his strong side, or what most would call his blade-arm.
A long time ago Naruto acknowledged the fact that what used to be perhaps his greatest handicap, would have to become his greatest strength in battle. Training to fight with his fake right arm as his focus paid off in the academy, having never lost to anyone that had ever fought him. Not even 'Rookie of the Year' Sasuke Uchiha had beaten him once Naruto's steel fist made contact with his opponent's face. He worked as hard as he could to learn how to make contact with the steel appendage and obtain pinpoint accuracy along with the implied one-hit knockout/killing power of a blunt metal object. With his added speed and ever-increasing muscle mass, Naruto was a close-quarters force to reckon with, and that's without him having to resort to transforming his arm to his favorite weapon, the simple, yet uber effective short blade was Naruto's greatest tool in combat, allowing him to go toe-to-toe with almost any foe, regardless of their weapon type, and letting him overwhelm unarmed adversaries.
Suffice it to say, his taijutsu had to get to what he liked to call, 'Borderline Bushy-Brows' status in order for him to be able to go one-on-one with weapon wielding psychopaths like Kisame Hoshigaki or Hidan. His development of Akuma-ken (Devil Fist) over the last few years consisted of him developing a ton of hand speed, mostly in his right arm, and developing more close range technique and improved footwork to keep opponents with low reaction time in close to give him ample opportunity to launch the right arm and end the fight.
Jiraiya likened Naruto's obvious hand-to-hand fighting style as something of a freight train when it was clicking on all cylinders and Naruto was feeling the flow of battle, you could know exactly what's coming, but actually stopping it was something else entirely.
Kakuzu wasn't the fastest member of Akatsuki whatsoever. Most of the time when someone got close to him he would just use Doton: Domu and proceed to dominate them with his increased strength that the jutsu provided him, either that or when faced with a troublesome close-range specialist he would just use his black threads and pull out their hearts. With his earth element gone and with him unable to kill Naruto he was actually forced to fight in close range against a person that had been making a concerted effort to get damn good at beating people up with his bare hands and had no such concessions against killing his enemy.
Naruto was one of the most enigmatic jinchuuriki to Akatsuki, right behind Kirabi of Kumo. Not because he was hard to find (Like Kirabi), not because it was hard to get any word on him (Again… like Kirabi). No, it was all because information on his battle style was simply extremely hard to come by. In all of the years that they had been gathering info on the jinchuuriki, they had always been easy to get word on. They were used actively on missions and were somewhat well known at large.
Not Naruto.
The list of people that knew of him as a jinchuuriki outside of Konoha could be counted on one hand. The amount of his battles that were well documented were scarce. Other than his actions at the chunin exam finals and his exhibition fight against Yugito just a few weeks prior to the current battle there was absolutely nothing on him. The only true battle in the last three years that Zetsu, Akatsuki's spy, might have been able to get information on Naruto from was during his battle with Sasuke Uchiha at the Valley of the End, where he was a spectator. Even then, Naruto hadn't fought Sasuke full blast, toying with the Uchiha until he ended up being gaffed in the side with Chidori at which point he turned up the Kyuubi's chakra and blitzed the overmatched Uchiha and defeated him, earning Naruto a place on Orochimaru's shit list.
The battle that actually made Naruto legendary, and made him a hero to Kirigakure, was his fight with Yagura, a fight that absolutely NOBODY had facts about. Only the Mizukage Mei Terumi had anything on it and she wasn't going to betray her most vaunted ally's trust after he put his neck on the line for the rebellion the way he did.
The point of all of this is simply, no one in Akatsuki, except for maybe, maybe, Itachi and Kisame had any true idea of what Naruto could do, and even they didn't know anything, as they barely saw him attack when they "fought". It was mostly them taking turns stomping a mudhole in Naruto's ass while he held out valiantly and ran away. Therefore Kakuzu and Hidan came into this fight utterly blind as they had not an inkling of what Naruto could do or what the hell he had been doing with himself for so long.
Sucks for them.
Anyone that was actually willing to spill information on the blonde's battle style from over the years was dead. Naruto was usually very good about killing his opponents. Everyone he fought in Kiri's bloodline war could attest to that. Only Kabuto Yakushi, Orochimaru's right hand man and Sasori's spy, gave out any info, and all he really let them know was that Naruto was really good at using his auto-mail arm and that he had learned Rasengan. What a bounty of knowledge that was…
Thus when Naruto came at Kakuzu he really didn't expect a possibility of Naruto moving so fast he couldn't keep up with his speed. He barely moved aside as Naruto slashed him across the chest with his blade-arm. The only thing that really saved Kakuzu was that the yellow and black blur that cut him came right at him. Had Naruto tried from an angle he would have killed Kakuzu again, but only experience with such an advantage over your opponent would teach one subtle nuances such as that. Evidence that the blonde, while extremely fast and well aware of exactly how fast he truly is, was not used to having such an advantage over his enemies. That meant that he either got that fast all on his own and was later informed how ridiculously fast he truly was later on, or the person he usually tested his full speed against was just as fast or faster than him. Either way Kakuzu had to step his game up or else he would be outworked by this upstart.
Kakuzu felt the cut on his chest, "You're very fast for one so young. That's quite dangerous."
Naruto shrugged, "I know a lot of people with Sharingan, one of which are planning on coming to take my head after you fail. I was always told that the best way to bypass the Sharingan's advantage was to simply move faster than the user's body could follow, so I learned how. And that was all me by the way, no chakra added. Now are you scared yet?"
Kakuzu laughed heartily (no pun intended) and somehow forced the eagle mask and the tiger mask on his back to a demonic tiger body and a body with four legs and wings made entirely out of the black threads from his own body. Naruto raised an eyebrow at this and felt the power radiating from the thing, "What the hell are those things?"
The beast roared as Kakuzu spoke, "These are manifestations of my elements boy. Wind and fire to be exact." With a wave of his hand Kakuzu sent the two massive creatures at his blonde target.
Naruto cursed inwardly as the enemy force was incoming, "Fuck…"
XxX
(With Akiza and Hidan)
Akiza was sick of this fight. Through use of her training with Naruto on her taijutsu style she used her developed flexibility and dexterity to stay out of range of Hidan's blades, all the while dealing him damage, some of which was pretty fatal. Hidan's berserker style of simply trying to hit her and damn the consequences let her get off some pretty precise strikes that would have killed anybody else by now.
She had cut him on the inside of his thigh close to his groin, an area where there were some very vital arteries that would have caused him to bleed out. He simply cursed her out and hobbled back towards her.
She had hit him head on with Doton: Doryuudan no Jutsu (Earth Release: Earth Dragon Jutsu) and knew that the blunt force alone from that jutsu should have turned him into paste. He just spit up a ton of blood, cursed her out and ran right back into the fray.
She stabbed him directly under his armpit after ducking a slash and then forced her blade to extend out through the other side. He cursed her out while he looked like he had been hung out on a laundry line until she retracted her blade.
She cleaved open his belly. He held his insides inside and wrapped tatters of his Akatsuki cloak around his torso to hold it all in.
She even had a few Tsuchi Bunshin hold him in place while she stabbed him down through the collarbone, extended the blade as far down as it could go before it hit the ground and then pulled it out. Oh she got a royal cursing for that one, but no dead Hidan and it was starting to piss her off.
"Fucking lay down and die! These are all killshots! When you hit someone with a killshot they fucking die! That's why they're called killshots!" Akiza shouted while Hidan picked himself up off the ground once more.
The man in question glared at the girl that was wounding him so, "You are the most troublesome little bitch that I've ever fought. I haven't hit you once."
Akiza set her halberd back in a ready position, "Yeah, well you keep saying that you only need one shot, and screaming at me to 'hold still bitch so I can gut you' isn't really going to make me slow down and let you do so, is it? How are you even a ninja anyway? You honestly fight like shit and you haven't used a single jutsu the entire time I've been fighting you. Why aren't you a samurai or something? At least then you'd get an opponent that would be more inclined to stand across from you and trade blows."
Hidan was getting upset. Up until now no one had ever insulted him as a ninja to his face before because he could kill anyone that did it. No one ever defeated him in battle. Even enemies that picked him apart much like this girl was doing ran out of strength and chakra dealing him damage, leading to him eventually ending the fights in a gruesome manner. This girl had been using ninjutsu regularly to attack him and she had also summoned that damnable halberd, at which time she was more inclined to simply stab and slash away at him while keeping him away from her.
Hidan was nearly frothing at the mouth, no one had avoided his checkmate in a one-on-one battle thus far and yet he couldn't even get the first step of his technique completed, "Why the fuck won't you run out of energy? You should be huffing and puffing by now!"
Akiza smirked, "For the last two years I have been training with a jinchuuriki with enough stamina to put at least a dozen ninja to shame, and I've been having sex with him for the last month so I have to say, fighting you after having to keep up with him for so long is something of a brisk workout. He also kind of fights like you when he's pissed off so that's always a plus, though he does actually drop and stay down when I hit him clean with killshots."
In her head she was somewhat in turmoil though, 'Goddamn it! At this rate eventually he will cut me. I can't avoid getting wounded forever, and even though I have some pretty big jutsu they won't beat this guy if he really is immortal.' She raised her blade in resignation, 'All I can do is wait for Fullmetal to finish his opponent and hope that this guy doesn't get me beforehand. He seems to be really obsessed with even just nicking me with the way he's just swinging from anywhere. He's not as fast as Fullmetal is though, so hopefully I can keep this up.'
"Here I come Iwa bitch!" Hidan shouted before he came at her again, "Time to step this up a bit!" Hidan swung at her again, only this time when she lifted her pole to block he changed his scythe's trajectory altogether, curving it around her halberd's protection. She narrowly avoided her pretty little head being separated from her shoulders by a three-bladed scythe.
Sweating as she backed off from Hidan again she wasn't allowed any room. Hidan's odd style of attacking was beginning to wear on her defense. She was unable to muster any counter strikes because when she was forced to dodge it was done at such an awkward angle that it was all she could do to simply regain her balance before his next swing, let alone attack in response.
She gritted her teeth before flipping over Hidan's head, a risky gambit with the size and length of his weapon and flipped through hand-signs, "Iwa no Yoroi (Stone Armor)!" As she finished the jutsu she began to shine in the sunlight. Proof that her transparent armor was active. Even though she was invulnerable after utilizing her jutsu she was frowning, 'Kami, this jutsu still takes so much chakra out of me. I don't know how long I can keep it on. When I fought Fullmetal, fifteen minutes was my maximum… I know that it has to be more by now since my reserves have gone up, but I haven't even tried using it since. If I stick to pure blade work then I have at a minimum twenty minutes of invulnerability, if I use any more ninjutsu to keep him off of me and try to kill him before Fullmetal shows up then I don't know but it would be considerably less. I just have to go with the flow, nothing else I can do but keep fighting.'
XxX
(With Naruto and Kakuzu)
As he maneuvered out of the way of the enemy monsters, Naruto was sick of being on the wrong end of the numbers game, "Oh, fuck this shit! Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!" As Naruto was shrouded in a cloud of smoke a smirk came to his lips, "Now that's what I'm talking about."
As the smoke cleared two toads, both somewhat bigger than Naruto himself appeared. One was orange, the other was yellow, and both had on blue sleeveless open vests, "Gamakichi, Gamatatsu. Good to see you guys."
Gamakichi looked up, as Naruto was standing on top of him and smiled at the sight of his blonde summoner, "Hey nii-san! How you doing? You got more kick-ass news for me?"
Naruto shook his head, "No, but I have a fight for you guys. Are you and Gamatatsu ready for one, because I'm sick of being multi-teamed by these freaks."
Gamatatsu looked out and spoke up in his high voice, "Hey Naruto-nii? You gonna feed us after the fight?"
Naruto rolled his eyes at the immature yellow toad, "Yes Gamatatsu, I'm going to feed you two after the fight…"
Gamakichi reached over and smacked his brother with a webbed hand, "Focus Gamatatsu focus! We've got a real deal fight here! This is the first time we've really been summoned to fight! Why'd you summon us nii-san?"
Naruto patted both frogs on the heads, "Because you're the two toads that I've trained with the most, and the ones that I like the most. Now let's finish these losers so I can go save my Akiza-chan, who will then be super grateful, and shower me with love, and something else…"
Gamakichi grinned up at his friend, "I've gotcha nii-san… Alright let's do this."
Gamatatsu however was totally lost, "What's she gonna do Naruto-nii? You kind of cut out at the end there."
Naruto looked down at Gamakichi, "Dude I thought you were going to tell everyone on Mt. Myoboku that I finally scored. What the hell?"
The orange toad rubbed his forehead with his webbed hand, "I did. Hell, dad himself wants you to summon him so he can razz you about it. He just didn't get it. He never gets it, he didn't even get it when dad tried to give him the talk you know?"
Kakuzu was simply waiting through the banter between the toads and his jinchuuriki target, "Are you done yet? Can we finish this already? You're walking money kid, and I aim to collect."
Naruto focused back on Kakuzu, "Guys, this freak is here to capture me, extract the Kyuubi, and take my dried up soulless husk to Iwgakure for a bounty. Let's show him why coming after me was a bad idea…" A nod of affirmation from both toads was his answer, "Excellent, now let's go wild."
Chapter finally up for your reading pleasure. Sorry for the delay, I'm working out some stuff for later in the story and used my other stories as a way to fight through the mental block. It's all cleared up now though, so I'm back in the saddle.
I worked out the last of my college preparation bullshit and I'm shipping back out at the end of the month… Boooooooo.
My brother left for his college yesterday and I had to help his ass move in. A 2 hr drive to North Carolina, helping his punk ass drag his stuff into his room, ditch him there, 2 hr drive back, popped a caffeine pill, hopped into my car and headed down to my college which was an hour and 30 minutes from my house, wheeled and dealed with the housing people (And I somehow made it there 15 minutes before they closed, I'm awesome!), Drove back. Put out a chapter of Naruto: SOF. And then blacked out for 12 hours… What can I say, long ass day.
Alright, I'm out of here. Kenchi out.
