He awoke to the darkness of his room and to the feeling of his room gently vibrating.
That woke him up better than a thousand buckets of water to the face. That meant something big was happening outside.
The room shook again. He could smell rubble and a hint of smoke.
Definitely big.
He got his equipment ready and left in a hurry. First, he was going to find out what was going on. Then he was going to do whatever his duty was. This wasn't a mission, this was defence of Konoha.
He liked the fact the logic he'd just used had been twisted into his favour.
He activated his Byakugan to see a bloom of chakra erupt from the outskirts of the village. There was a large jutsu being employed there then. He checked all around and saw something in the sky. A figure on a dragon?
That was interesting and unexpected.
He realised it would take someone pretty special to just attack Konoha like this. Not only was it likely full of elite shinobi, but it had a good intelligence network and Root protecting it. He wondered how odd it was that his former master hadn't seen this coming or intercepted it early.
Still, causes could wait. Right now, he needed solutions. Konoha was under attack, and he had to defend it. The person might be powerful, but his objective didn't necessarily have to be to kill them outright.
He needed to find out what they wanted, and get them away from Konoha to prevent damage. Hopefully he'd get some backup.
As he thought that, a fireball jutsu flew to one side of the man on the clay dragon that gently manoeuvred it to avoid the clumsy jutsu, the flight looking effortless and gentle.
He then threw down a white object that exploded.
So he was an explosive expert who used...clay? Naruto considered his options.
There were probably other shinobi in the village better suited to taking the man on, but it was his duty to try.
He readied his bow and moved, judging the distance until he definitely within range. He attached an explosive tag to the bolt; the extra power would certainly make up for the loss in accuracy. It would also get the man's attention far more easily.
He aimed carefully, taking into account wind conditions, gravity and the man's slight movement.
He breathed out as he fired the first shot.
The man reacted to it by dropping a little. The tag exploded close enough to shake the man up. Naruto almost smiled, his foe was cocky. Then again, his trick wouldn't work twice.
He moved, throwing up a genjutsu to hide himself as he rolled onto another rooftop, this one closer to the edge wall of the village.
His foe was distracted by more jutsu from below. He could see the cloak the man was wearing now.
Akatsuki.
So they had come either for him, or for information about him.
He aimed the bow again and fired three shots in quick succession, the first at the man then two at where he suspected the man would go.
He felt a touch of annoyance when the man used his clay dragon as a shield, the soft clay simply absorbing the impact of the bolts.
So the man could see if bolts carried explosive tags. He was observant, but still hadn't seen him.
He moved to another rooftop, very close to the edge of Konoha now. He was almost directly below the man.
He fired a bolt with an exploding tag attached and watched as the man swerved out of the way more vigorously this time. Hopefully the man could establish a pattern that he could crack.
He leapt onto the walls and ran up to the top. He was probably visible here, even with his cloak becoming the same grey as the walls.
He looked up at the man who was looking straight at him.
The dragon swooped low, swerving to avoid Naruto's pot-shot attempt to shoot the man off the beast.
The beast swooped down to hover in front of him, the man looking him in the face from about five metres away.
"Do you like my-"
He ducked as Naruto tried to shoot him point blank.
The man leapt off the dragon, letting it fall to the base of the walls. Naruto realised what was going to happen next and dived behind the nearest cover before bracing himself.
The explosion ripped out half the base of the wall and much of the surrounding earth. The vibration shook the stone walls and they began to fall outwards. He found himself leaping from fragment to fragment as he tried to stay on top as some twenty metres of wall began to fall downwards.
He reached the bottom and immediately replaced himself with some splintered wood, which promptly disintegrated in an explosion from a waiting clay bomb.
"Come out! Actually don't! I'll blast you out unless you tell me where the Nine-Tails is."
Naruto considered his position.
He was slightly hidden in the woods, but the man could simply level the area and kill him in the process. His opponent was cocky and liked big displays of power. That was useful. He looked at the man with his Byakugan.
His hands had mouths. That was just anatomically wrong. They were...eating, for want of a better word, the clay and it came out charged with chakra. That explained the explosive properties.
From the satchels by his sides, he only had so much of the clay. Presumably it was specially prepared beforehand.
So his opponent was a long range explosives expert with limited ammunition.
He considered his options.
Outright kill in combat was out immediately. Too many unknowns about other jutsu and skills the man had.
He would fight him like he had fought Neji that long time ago. Only this time he would have to try and kill him, or survive until someone else could.
The man was tossing a clay bomb gently from hand to hand in a bored fashion.
"C'mon. It'll be a blast. Just tell me what I need to know and I won't blow you up. Or maybe I will. Art doesn't compromise after all."
He tossed the bomb idly over his shoulder and some bushes exploded.
Naruto made a clone and backed off. Test the opponent. Know him. Find his weakness and strike.
The clone leapt out, tanto blade poised to strike from above. The man ducked and turned.
"Ooh, you think that tiny blade gives you an advantage here?"
The clone lunged forwards again, attacking furiously. The man was dodging with some ease, and starting to look bored.
Naruto knew the clone's next order. Try enraging the man. Work out what he enjoyed and belittle it as best he could. He considered the insults that the ANBU team shared, and decided to try something similar.
"Your hands are abnormal, and so is your face."
A fine start to the insults. Naruto wondered why the man nearly laughed at the insult as he kept dodging.
"Is that the best insult you have Shorty?"
Ok, so physical deformity wasn't it. He crossed it off the checklist of insulting things he could try. He remembered some of the more anatomical banter he'd heard amongst the ANBU.
"Your penis is of diminutive stature. As are your skills."
The man ducked under another swing and caught the clones arm, pinning it behind his back in unorthodox style.
"Seriously? You're not good at this."
"I believe so, yes."
The man sighed as the clone henged into a kunai, slipped out his grasp and unhenged, thrusting upwards. He somersaulted out of the way of the strike.
"Not bad. Nothing compared to my art though."
The clone's Byakugan was active, and it saw the bomb coming. Naruto observed the battle carefully. He wouldn't reveal himself until it was entirely necessary.
The bomb missed his clone who decided to try hitting the man with a genjutsu. He realised he'd have to sacrifice the clone soon; its reserves were getting lower by the moment.
The man didn't dispel the genjutsu and just saw through it. Ok, genjutsu immune, or at least sight. The clone tried an auditory genjutsu.
The man leapt towards the clone who was doing his best to project the sound of a thousand crossbow bolts into the man's mind. Apparently he could hear that. Not entirely immune then.
Still, his clone couldn't use another jutsu for now, it's chakra low, and he'd rather not have it dispel until it had to.
The man caught the clone with a series of taijutsu moves, leading to the clone being locked into a submission grip.
"Talk."
"No."
The man sighed and snapped the clone's neck, causing it to leave existence.
He hit the ground angrily.
"A clone?"
Naruto hit the man with another auditory genjutsu, and whispered all around the man.
'Yes. Was that all you had? Or is your art weak?'
The man dispelled the illusion and threw bombs in every direction. Naruto moved to avoid being exploded as the undergrowth around Konoha exploded into firewood. There were some screams as an unlucky chunin who'd come out ran into it.
"Alright. You die you short-arse. C2!"
Another dragon formed. That was good, Naruto could deal with that. The man couldn't see him, and he could see the dragon.
Plus he might get some backup if they saw it. He idly wondered where everyone else was.
He kept moving, and began dodging away from the area the dragon was vomiting bombs onto.
Naruto fired another harassing bolt and karawimi'd away from the location before it once more dissolved into splintered wood and flying dirt. Apparently his foe made that clay last a long time before he had to make more.
He could see the man above scanning the forest for him. Without visual genjutsu, he had to rely on camouflage and swift relocation to prevent himself being spotted in the forest.
He was leading the man around the walls and slightly further out, towards his ideal battleground.
The forest of death had taller trees and bigger risks for the man to take. All he needed was to get the man into a fight on his terms.
How to do that? Would the man retreat once he was low on clay? Could he risk that happening?
He kept having to switch with various, short lived, objects as explosions roared around him.
The edge of the forest was getting closer, the trees a darker shade of wood and more menacingly tall.
He wondered how high the dragon could fly. It certainly had limitations, the shape was wrong for efficient flight. As he reached the taller trees he began to climb. Too many dangers below. Splinters like senbon needles could get thrown up by explosions, as could rocks that would have a similar effect to a shuriken.
He could see in his Byakugan the man was following him. He fired another bolt, trying his best to fire from lower. He didn't want to give away his height that easily.
He found a wide branch and stopped moving for a moment. He had about half a bandolier of ammunition left and the rest of his usual kit. That was acceptable.
He leaned out and hit the man with another auditory genjutsu. He had to pick his words carefully; the man would simply dispel it when he knew he was hit.
'Your art is of inferior quality.'
The angry yell and larger explosion let him know he'd hit the mark. That was good. He knew his opponents favourite thing and would insult it endlessly.
The man was descending lower on the dragon, hesitantly and slowly, unsure of Naruto's location.
"You think my art is inferior? Meet my greatest art then. C4!"
The giant man was cartoonish inflated and ridiculous. It was tall, and wide, and incredibly round. Naruto didn't really see the threat. The amount of chakra and clay required for such a clone meant it was likely hollow.
Then it collapsed into dust and Naruto realised the true danger.
Naruto saw the air around the man suddenly begin filling with chakra and started to move. He made a shadow clone to distract the man and they bolted through the trees. The glow was spreading quickly around him.
The man had seen the clone and was moving to block it off. He wanted to herd Naruto into the glow. How much chakra did this technique take? How much would the man have left afterwards?
The glow was spreading faster than he could run; he needed to find somewhere good to dive into. A small cave presented itself to one side and he dove into it, making a clone to keep running as he did so. He landed in the cave and rolled as the clone tried to get away from it. He didn't want to risk the explosion collapsing the cave.
He made himself ready to run from it if he needed to.
There wasn't an explosion as such. The area the chakra was in just disintegrated and disappeared as a billion tiny explosions ripped everything apart. Creatures great and small were destroyed in a sudden and confusing moment. After that, physics took over and the hot air and particles left moved upwards.
The gap left was suddenly filled with howling wind as pressure rebalanced. Naruto held on as dank air from the cave rushed outwards from behind him. Balance achieved, the air pushed out a little as things settled down.
The man landed his dragon in the centre of the clearing created. The fine dirt had become and dusty grey sand, and there was no more cover.
The man patted his dragon and laughed.
"I know you're still out there. Your clone disappeared before disintegrating."
The man was looking at the cave. Naruto realised he was cornered.
He considered running into the cave but that was a bad idea. An explosion would trap him and that was probably not a good place to be.
He silently cursed his lack of options when cornered. His summon were not combat specialists, even their strongest wouldn't pose any threat. His weapons could hold the man at bay, but he needed the cover.
He looked at his crossbow and saw the chakra conducting wire attached to the firing mechanism. He'd never been taught how to channel chakra through it. Could he work out how in, he checked the man's position, two minutes? Unlikely.
So he couldn't really run, he couldn't really fight and he was cornered.
The only advantage he had was the Kyuubi, and he didn't want to do that. Not yet. That was a definite last resort measure.
He needed time. More time would give him more options.
How could he gain more time?
He could talk.
But why would the man keep him alive?
He realised his option was to give the man some information. He was pacing closer.
"Come out little leaf. Come out and talk to me. I might just let you live."
Naruto slung the bow onto his back and walked into the open. His opponent looked faintly surprised.
"Ok. What do you need to know?"
The man looked at him, cocking his head.
"This doesn't normally happen. Normally you're meant to stay there and die after saying something like 'Nevermore!' or 'Over my dead body!'"
"Oh. Would you prefer that?"
The man laughed.
"Ohhh, a comedian. Well then, since you want to talk. Where is the Kyuubi?"
Naruto considered his options. He was, to this man, just another leaf nin. Yes he had genjutsu and shadow clones, but how special was that? The shadow clone was a high rank jutsu. He was likely a jonin to the man.
"It was killed by the Fourth Hokage and has yet to reform, like everyone from Konoha knows."
The man laughed again.
"You don't really believe that do you? You think he could kill such a beast?"
"He was able to defeat Iwa single nearly singlehandedly."
Although Naruto knew that Danzo had played a little part in that in the background. His father had been good, but the Root operations had been quietly working away in the background. It was amazing what a little rumour spreading and removal of calm heads could do.
The man looked angry at the mention.
"Iwa was a shitdump. That's why I left."
So Iwa missing nin then. Presumably that was where he had obtained the jutsu. Naruto saw the scratched headplate and had it confirmed. How had he missed that?
Naruto knew he had to play slightly dumb. The idea was distasteful to him. He had to lie. He felt his pulse rise as the enormity of the situation began to dawn on him again. He was cheating death by the moment, and the margins were not very thick.
"He didn't defeat the Kyuubi?"
The man shook his head.
"Stop playing the dumbass. I know that you know he sealed it into a child."
He remembered Jiraiya telling him the truth about his father by accidently letting it slip and decided to do the same.
"That child is an outcast."
The man smiled widely and manically.
"See, you do know the child in question. They would be, about fifteen or sixteen. In fact, about your size shortarse. I think you know him."
All too well, Naruto considered. He decided to switch back to lying.
"He's an outcast. Why would I know him if he is?"
"But you know of him? Where does he go?"
Naruto tried his best to think of convincing ideas. Someone was approaching in the distance. He needed them behind the man for maximum effect
He began to gently walk around in a circle and the man laughed.
"Stay still or I blow you to pieces; can your one eye not see this bomb?"
He stopped. The threat was real.
"He goes here. I didn't know you were after him."
The man shrugged.
"I'm not, but my organisation is. Something about gathering all the tailed beasts."
"Oh."
The man narrowed his eyes.
"You don't seem surprised. You know more than I thought."
No sense pretending now then. Naruto had the bow in his hands and started firing. His opponent was fast with his work and a clay clone took the bolts, the metal shafts sticking in the clay statue.
It exploded, sending the bolts scattering in all directions. Naruto felt one pass near his head, the air turbulence shaking his hood.
Far too close.
The smoke hid the man and Naruto moved towards what cover remained. The man's leg nearly met him as he slid under it. His tanto caught the next blow. The hands, with their open mouths gaping and trying to gnash at him pressed against the flat of the blade.
He snuck a kunai into his other hand and struck for the man's hands, causing him to dance away before they could be hurt. A kick caught him in the ribs and sent him backwards. He rolled away. The figure was closer now, running fast. He had to keep the man's attention.
He rose up and reached for his blow gun. The man just batted it away. Naruto realised he was utterly outmatched and the next kick sent him stumbling backwards before another caught him under the chin.
He coughed a little blood up and stumbled away from the man. Buy time. Buy time.
The man attacking him walked slowly towards him.
"You're boring and not worthy of my art. Thanks for nothing."
Naruto saw the figure come in behind the man and take a great flying leap, arm cocked back.
"Thanks for talking you flashy idiot."
"What?"
He spun just in time to meet Anko's fist coming the other way and he recoiled, blood streaming from a broken nose.
"Happy to see me Darkie-kun?"
"Never happier Anko-chan. He's extremely dangerous."
A/N This time with line breaks...for a chapter that is all one giant scene. Yeah, I forgot them last chapter which was a whoopsie on my part.
So yes, Naruto finds himself in the first real action against an Akatsuki, and as expected, isn't exactly winning this one. In fact, he's getting a little pounded in taijutsu. We'll see how it resolved next time.
A lot of people have been asking about what the pairing is in this chapter, and seemingly more importantly, is it going to be Hinata. This got me thinking about the role of Hinata in fanfiction, so I'll throw a mini essay on it on my profile like I've done before if people want to know more of my thoughts on her as a character.
As always, review, flame, PM etc. I urge you all to get an account so I can reply via PM to any questions you have, which just makes me feel happier as a person.