They had been walking for over two hours, with one short break in between. Nothing had been out of the ordinary, and shockingly, there had been periods of silence where none of them would say anything, opting to enjoy the silence. Everything was good.
Until Menma finally decided to break the silence.
"Hey, ero-sennin," he called, gaining the other man's irritated attention. Without waiting for him to speak, he continued, "Do you know the reason why we are looking for Tsunade?"
Jiraiya gave him a confused look, "I thought you knew about her being the new Hokage? Or have you forgotten?"
The young boy looked sheepish and let out an embarrassed chuckle as he had forgotten the reason already.
After fifteen more minutes, a town came into their sight. "Alright guys," Naruto voice snapped them out of their thoughts, "We're approaching a travelling town, Since Kaa-san is quite elusive of the shinobi sent for her, blending in is necessary from this point on. So remove anything which can identify you as a shinobi."
Menma gave Jiraiya a deadpan look, "Oh, sure. A large, gorilla sized man in bright red clothes and white hair longer than an average girl."
Jiraiya whacked Menma's head, causing the blonde to yelp, "Don't mock the hair, brat! And I blend in very well, thank you very much!"
Before the argument could accelerated any further Naruto interrupted. "Now now, no need to argue, we don't need to cause a scene after all" He said before continuing. "I will go and look up for information on Kaa-san, you guys can go check in a hotel, I will come back later."
As Naruto went off somewhere else to get information, the Toad Sage and Menma entered the town. Menma was marveled by all the activity going on and all the people having fun in the various stands available. He didn't leave the village much and only started after he became gennin.
"Let's go to a hotel and sleep the night. We will start searching tomorrow depending on the information Naruto brings" Jiraya stated and they both nodded.
They were calmly walking through the town completely unaware of two presences after them. They were keeping their distance and suppressing their chakra levels so they wouldn't be detected.
"Looks like the information was accurate, he did leave the village with Jiraya but how was the third person?" Kisame asked as he watched the two of them check into a hotel.
"I couldn't identify the third shinobi from such a distance." Itachi calmly explained in his monotone voice.
"Eh, probably is a cannon fodder." Kisame said carelessly.
"We are shinobi, don't underestimate him. We don't have much info on him so tread carefully even if he seems weak" Itachi explained. He was always the prudent one while Kisame tended to jump in, guns blazing.
"Fine but even we can't take on Jiraya" Kisame said.
"Indeed. Let's find some girls" Itachi said and Kisame's jaw dropped.
"You want to get laid?" Kisame asked and Itachi got a tick mark.
"I heard about Jiraya's obsession for women. It's our best choice to distract him long enough for us to get to Naruto-kun" Itachi explained and Kisame nodded.
"What about the other guy?" Kisame asked.
"Seems like he has already separated with them for the time being." Itachi commentated. "We don't need to worry about him. Let's go." He said and they both disappeared in a blur.
With Tsunade
Two women could be seen walking through the empty streets of the town. The reason they were empty was simply because they were walking through a castle that made that town famous.
The first woman had a slender frame and a rather large bust. She had brown eyes and long pale golden hair that was strapped in two pig tails. On her forehead she had a purple diamond tattoo. She was wearing a grass-green haori with the kanji for gamble written in black on the back, inside a red circle.
Underneath she wears a grey, kimono-style blouse with no sleeves, held closed by a broad, dark bluish-grey obi that matches her pants. Her blouse is closed quite low, revealing her sizeable cleavage. She wears open-toed sandals with high heels and red polish on both her fingernails and toenails. She also wears a soft pink lipstick. She was also wearing a necklace with a green stone, similar to an emerald.
The other person was a fair-skinned woman of average height and slender build with black eyes and hair. Her hair is straight and shoulder-length with bangs that cover her ears and frames her face. She was wearing a long bluish-black kimono with white trimmings, held closed by a white obi, and open-toed sandals with low heels.
They were Senju Tsunade, Naruto's mother and a world renowned medic and her apprentice Kato Shizune.
Suddenly the earth started shaking and the castle they were walking to visit exploded and came crashing down. As the dust started to clear it showed that the castle was destroyed by a rather large snake with two people on top of his head.
"I found you" Orochimaru said from the top of the snakes head.
"Orochimaru" Tsunade said with her eyes widened. She hadn't seen her teammates in a very long time. It was approaching on two decades by now.
"Long no time no see Orochimaru" Tsunade said. She knew that Orochimaru was missing Nin and as such was treating him wearily especially since she knew exactly what he could do.
"You are difficult to find" Orochimaru replied.
"What do you want with me?" Tsunade asked trying to get this over with. "You didn't come to talk about the past did you?" Tsunade rhetorically asked.
"Actually I wanted to ask a small favor" Orochimaru said.
"He doesn't look good...he looks like he's in constant pain" Tsunade thought as she observed Orochimaru taking particular attention to his arm who was limp at his side with bandages around.
"Tsunade-sama you can already tell what we want" Kabuto said.
"Find another one...I've stopped performing medicine" Tsunade flatly replied.
"You can see very well the extent of the injury...there isn't another one" Kabuto explained.
"That arm...that isn't a simple injury" Tsunade said fishing for information. "That injury... Its caused by the injecting of highly poisonous and acidic chakra.. I didn't know there was anyone capable of doing that in the Leaf village... Atleast not after Naruto died..." Tsunade expertly analyzed.
"What did you do to get that?" Tsunade asked.
"Just something that went wrong when I attacked the leaf" Orochimaru said and Tsunade's eyes widened.
"You did what?" Tsunade asked surprised. "Looks like sensei did a number on you" Tsunade said chuckling.
"It wasn't sensei... It was someone else. But that doesn't matter!" Orochimaru growled out. "Heal me, or I will resort to use force"
"Enough of this" Tsunade said and punched a nearby wall completely destroying it. She was about to dash towards Orochimaru when he started talking again.
"If you heal me...I'll bring back your brother and lover and even that son of yours" Orochimaru said smirking and everyone froze and Tsunade started shaking.
"Don't you want to be with them Tsunade?" Orochimaru asked pressuring her even more. Of course Naruto was already alive but she didn't need to do that after all the Snake Sannin did plan to get rid of her after her hands were healed.
"If I heal that arm what will you do?" Tsunade asked making eye contact.
"I'll destroy the leaf" Orochimaru replied without hesitation.
"Destroy the leaf?" Shizune rhetorically asked. "Tsunade-sama you can't accept this...I would like nothing more than to have them back but you can't heal his arm" Shizune stressed out.
"Shut up Shizune" Tsunade yelled and Orochimaru smirked. Tsunade sunk her head deep in thought.
"You don't have to answer now" Kabuto explained and she raised her head. "You have a week"
"Tsunade-sama let's kill them both here. With the state of his arm we won't get another chance" Shizune said but once she looked at Tsunade she fell silent. Tsunade was very deep in thought almost unaware of her surroundings.
"Don't think just because I can't do hand seals I can't put up a fight" Orochimaru said and bit his finger drawing blood. The moment Tsunade saw blood she started shivering and clutching to her necklace.
"I know of your fear for blood" Orochimaru said chuckling. "We will be going now and we will meet in one week" Orochimaru said and both of them disappeared in a blur.
Menma sighed in irritation, he was sitting on his bed in the hotel room Jiraiya had rented for the night. The young Uzumaki was trying to somehow burst a water balloon using Chakra but he hadn't made any progress yet. Jiraiya had just once showed him how it's done and then ignored all his plea's for help,
This was only supposed to be a small stop in the town until Jiraiya had spotted a pretty young woman who had winked at him. Almost immediately, Jiraiya had waved him off to find a hotel room for the night while he 'gathered some information.' Naruto snorted, he knew damn well Jiraiya was following after the woman from earlier like a lovesick puppy.
And he thought that this was an urgent mission.
His thoughts then drifted to the Senju who had been accompanying them in this mission. He was already a nice guy in Menma's book as he hadn't ridiculed his dream but instead had encouraged him to try harder. He looked to be quite the component shinobi. Perhaps he could ask him for help instead?
Menma's musing were brought short as he heard a knock on the door, thinking it to be Jiraiya he stood up to open it.
"Ah Ero-Sennin, already got rejected?" He started as he opened the door but suddenly went quiet as he saw two figures at the other end wearing a black coat with red patches. Menma looked at the first figure and saw the Sharingan his first thoughts were...
"Sasuke...?
But then he realised it was not his Uchiha teammate.
"No... Who is he?" he thought trying to figure out who the man was. "He has the same Sharingan as Sasuke"
His thought process was brought to an end as the unknown Sharingan wielder said "Menma-kun... You will come with us"
Not knowing what to do, Menma stepped out to see what all this was about.
As he was standing in the hallway the Shark like person suddenly said as he brought his sword towards Menma.
"Itachi, I think I should just cut his legs so he can't run."
"Do as you please Kisame, but remember we need him alive" Itachi said.
As Kisame was about to cut Menma's leg who was frozen in shock and terror. A figure burst through the hallway.
"It's been a long time…Sasuke."
Kisame turned around to glance at the newcomer. "Who?"
"My foolish little brother.." Itachi answered.
"But I thought you killed every Uchiha?" Kisame asked.
But before Itachi could answer, Sasuke interrupted.
"Uchiha…Itachi!"
Sasuke was trembling in rage as he gazed at his older brother. When he had found out that his brother was in the village- courtesy of a loose lipped jonin- looking for Naruto of all people, his blood had nearly turned to ice.
He had immediately set off in pursuit of his teammate.
It was fortunate that the old man at Ichiraku was kind enough to tell him that Naruto had left the village with Jiraiya, the Toad Sage and one of the Legendary Sannin. That popped a question in Sasuke's head as to just what was Menma doing travelling with one of the most powerful shinobi in the world.
Nevertheless, he had ruthlessly pushed the question at the back of his head. Concern for his teammate had overridden his logic, not to mention the rage smoldering inside him at the piece of news that Itachi came for Naruto and not him.
He had immediately run off to the closest town, counting on the fact that they could not have gotten far if they had only set off two hours earlier. It had taken him only half an hour of running close to full speed to arrive at the nearest town. He had then stopped for a quick breather for five minutes, before resuming his search for Jiraiya and Menma. After fifteen minutes of searching he had finally found his target.
"It has been a long time….Sasuke."
Sasuke's blood boiled at the painfully familiar voice. The same voice that he had loved hearing, and the same voice that had advised him to hate him to gain power to kill him one day. The same voice that slaughtered his parents, his entire clan without an ounce of mercy.
"Uchiha…Itachi!"
Sasuke immediately charged up a Chidori and ran towards Itachi, but the older Uchiha easily caught his wrist and redirected the attack to the nearby wall while crushing his hand. Sasuke let out a painful shriek as his brother manhandled him.
Itachi then activated his Mangekyou Sharingan and said.
"Tsukuyomi"
"Foolish little brother," Itachi's voice might have been a monotone and uncaring, but there was no mistaking that he scorned Sasuke in the moment. "You still don't have enough hate. You are pathetically weak. Perhaps you need something to refresh your purpose in life."
Kisame who was watching decided to get back to the task they had originally came for - Menma. Who after seeing Sasuke being manhandled had summoned Kyuubi's Chakra and was trying to fight but Kisame using the Samehada was easily able to absorb the Chakra. As he was about the cut Menma's legs, a voice rang through the hall way
"Earth Style: Earth Wall Jutsu
The Jutsu caused a wall of Earth to rise between Menma and Kisame. Both the Akatsuki members and Menma looked over to see who the man was.
Menma immediately recognized the familiar set of Blonde hair and brown eyes. "N-Naruto-san..."
Naruto had been fortunate enough to sense two huge Chakra signatures heading towards where he could sense Menma, he had immediately made a dash for it and was able to make it in time.
He looked towards Menma and said. "Now rest kiddo.. I will take care of this"
Kisame looked over to the new arrival and sighed in irritation. "Damn pests after pests..."
Naruto quickly went through some hand seals and called out.
"Water Release: Water Bullet Technique"
A fountain of water gushed out of his mouth and made its way towards Kisame who brought his sword towards it. The Sword immediately absorbed the Jutsu.
The Senju sighed at realization. "So Uchiha Itachi and the other the wielder of Samehada, one of the Swords of the Seven Swordsman of the mist. I do wonder why such names are trying to capture a genin." He said before going through another set of hand seals.
"Since your sword really likes to absorb Chakra, take this"
"Acid Release: Deadly Dragon"
A whole dragon made out of Acid erupted from Naruto's mouth and made its way towards Kisame at alarming speed. Kisame thought he could block it with his Samehada like usual but suddenly a loud scream from his partner made him dodge the attack
"NO! KISAME! DODGE!"
Seeing the urgency in his partner's voice, Kisame decided it was better to dodge, and was he right. The attack burnt through - no decomposed the whole one side of the Hotel.
Itachi had been seeing the battle and had been thinking.
"Naruto... Now where have I heard this name before"
He tried to recall from recent Bingo Books but he hadn't heard of that name - atleast not in a long time...
He suddenly saw the blonde Senju go through some hand seals but it was what he called that widened the Uchiha's eyes in realization.
"Acid Release: Deadly Dragon"
"Acid Release!" He thought "That's Senju Naruto!"
Itachi quickly shouted to Kisame "NO! KISAME! DODGE!"
After dodging Kisame looked towards Itachi and asked "Do you recognize him Itachi?"
Itachi who had already regained his composed look said "Yes - that man is known as the PlaugeBringer. Thats why I told you to dodge his attack. That Acid can decompose anything! And I am not sure if even the Samehada can absorb it"
"So what should we do now Itachi? Jiraiya should already be returning by now. We can't take on both of them together." The former Mist Ninja said.
"Indeed. This man was said to have been as powerful as the Sannin, we need to retreat for now." Itachi said making his way towards the big hole in the wall intending to jump out.
But before he could another voice sounded through the hall way.
"The great Jiraiya-sama has arrived!" The Toad Sage looked around to get what the situation was and upon seeing the two Akatsuki members trying to retreat went through a set of hand seals and said.
"Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind"
"You two will made good food for the giant, fire-breathing rock frog." As Jiraiya said it, fleshy tendrils erupted from the flesh and moved towards the cloaked nin to ensnare them.
The Jutsu was not only capable of attacking whatever was inside it, but protecting as well, evident from the way Sasuke got swallowed behind a wall of flesh.
Neither Jiraiya nor Naruto saw Itachi close his eyes, but both of them felt the explosion that rocked the hallway.
they ran around the corner, eyes going wide in surprise. Jiraiya cursed in shock- somehow, they were able to burn a hole through the organ of a frog that breathes fire, he realized.
"Fascinating," Naruto muttered as he observed the black flames, keeping a safe distance. He had never seen black flames before in his life. As far as he knew, white flames were the hottest, followed by the blue one and the yellow flame. Another interesting thing he observed was that unlike regular fire, this one kept on burning without showing any sign of getting extinguished.
Seeing that the fire couldn't be extinguished through normal means, Naruto started to write kanji on a scroll he retrieved from his pocket at alarming speed. As he finished the seal he brought it closer to the fire and called out.
"Sealing Technique: Fire Sealing Method"
He then looked back to see the two Gennin - Sasuke Uchiha and Menma Uzumaki both unconscious. Sasuke was buried in the guts of the Toad while his teammate was lying on the floor.
Jiraiya cancelled the frog mouth jutsu with a heavy sigh. He returned to where Naruto was sitting before the Uchiha, examining him. The aforementioned Uchiha was pale, giving an absent look to the wall in front of him. It was as if he was asleep and conscious at the same time.
"Multiple broken ribs, a totally twisted wrist and extreme backlash from a S - Rank Genjutsu on his mind" The Senju Medic said as he took out a bottle of some sleeping poison and injected the Uchiha with it. "This should keep him in a medically induced coma for some time." Saying that his hands glowed green and he started to heal the Uchiha.
As he was healing him a kunai blazed past him, lodging itself into the wall. He watched in amusement as Jiraiya's face met a blue ninja sandal, the following body screaming out, "DYNAMIC ENTRY!"
Jiraiya flew with the kick, crashing into the opposite wall all the way down the hallway.
"Dammit Gai, what's wrong with you?!" Jiraiya growled out, rubbing his face to try and take away the sting. Gai wilted a little, bowing apologetically to Jiraiya.
"My apologies, Jiraiya-sama!" Gai shouted. "I had come to retrieve Sasuke-kun, but it seems I mistook you for an enemy ninja." Here he looked sheepish, rubbing the back of his head and sweating slightly under Jiraiya's glare.
"I am treating a patient here, so shut up Gai!" Naruto said giving the green jumpsuit clad Jonin an irritated look. "I am currently healing the Uchiha, wait for about five minutes."
Gai looked more apologetic after hearing Naruto and thankfully decided to spent the next five minutes in silence. The silence was broken when Naruto said.
"There, I have healed him to the best of my abilities, but the backlash from the Genjutsu was too much on his brain. Therefore I have put him in a medically induced coma for some time." He explained. "You can take him now"
"Thank you Naruto-Sama" Gai said as he came forward and tenderly picked up Sasuke.
He then raced off, shouting off "Springtime" and "Youth". Naruto and Jiraiya sweat dropped at the man's excessive behaviors, before shrugging it off. Every ninja had their quirks; Gai was just a bit more unique than the others.
Naruto then went towards Menma, and after examining the Uzumaki for a bit made his diagnosis. "He just has Chakra exhaustion and some scraps. Nothing I can't fix." The Senju's hands again glowed green, as he started to heal Menma.
"So... These are the Akatsuki." Naruto said to Jiraiya.
"Indeed, a group made up of several S - Rank Ninja is pretty dangerous." Jiraiya replied.
"Why are they after the Tailed Beasts?" Naruto asked.
"At this point, I don't know. All that matters is, anyone who wants the power of bijuu that isn't a jinchuriki isn't up to any good," Jiraiya explained, sighing heavily.
Naruto finished healing Menma and stood up carrying the Uzumaki. "Lets stay here for the night, and continue on the Journey tommorow."