Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto (unfortunately)
"blah" speech
'blah' thoughts
'blah' Kyuubi's speech
note: revised chapter.
Chapter 4 – New Arrangements
It was getting brighter now, light was starting to graze the mountaintops in front of them. They had been running for several hours now, exactly how long Naruto did not know. His mind was more focused on the destination rather than the journey and even though he hadn't slept at all in the last 24 hours he still managed to keep up with Itachi and Kisame.
'This kid is really something,' thought Kisame. 'I was sure we would have had to take a pit stop, but he doesn't even show the slightest signs of exhaustion.'
'Great stamina, for a kid his age,' thought Itachi. 'Even thought it is probably due to the Kyuubi.'
"We will soon be crossing into the Mountain Country. They don't have a hidden village so getting in will be a lot easier," informed Kisame.
"Don't the border guards stop you to ask questions? Won't they see that you are missing-nin?" asked Naruto referring to their forehead protectors.
"That's what genjutsu is for, Naruto," curtly replied the Uchiha.
"Right," Naruto nodded in embarrassment.
"Lets slow down to walking speed now," ordered Itachi. "We don't want to attract attention by continuing like this."
'Understandable, blending in with the crowd, more or less,' reasoned Naruto looking at how the Akatsuki members were dressed.
'Yes, the less attention you attract the better, this is one of the basic principles of stealth,' lectured the Kyuubi .'You'll learn more later.'
The border station soon came into view and the group slowed themselves down almost instantaneously. The station itself wasn't anything impressive, just two houses standing opposite each other on each side of the road. In between them was a small gate that opened outward to let people in and out of the country.
Itachi and Kisame performed a genjutsu that made them look like simple farmers. Naruto was also about to change himself, but Itachi stopped him reasoning that he didn't look suspicious and that the border guards haven't received any news yet.
"Actually, I think he should cover up those whisker marks," suggested Kisame. "This way the pursuers don't know where to find us."
"That's true. Hold on a moment Naruto," said Itachi as he performed another genjutsu that not only hid Naruto's whisker marks, but also made him look like the son of a farmer.
"I thought you were just going to hide the whisker marks," whined Naruto in confusion. It's not that he particularly minded his new look, it was necessary after all, the problem was just that he didn't like being deceived and/or lied to.
"We can't be too careful," replied Itachi in a stern voice. The eldest Uchiha had never been good at dealing with kids and all their misplaced whining.
Once they got to the gate, the guard lazily made his way out of the building and asked what business they had coming to the Mountain Country. Itachi made up something along the lines of going to visit relatives, or some shit related to family. Naruto put on his 'happy mask' and acted all excited about seeing his sister after so many years. All in all they got through 'the security' quite easily.
The trio continued at a leisurely pace until the border was out of sight and then instantly picked up the pace; albeit not nearly as fast as when they were running through the Fire Country.
"We don't need to travel really fast now," explained Itachi. "We are just going until the nearby town, so we can rest for a little while."
))))) Meanwhile North of Konoha (((((Kakashi and Jiraiya were running through the forest looking for Naruto, following the path the ANBU had taken.
'I hope we can get to him before something bad happens,' thought Kakashi.
'Damn it Naruto! This is not the time to be running off, with the village in its current state we need every single shinobi we have. I'll have to have a serious talk with him later,' angrily thought the sannin.
Suddenly Kakashi and Jiraiya felt an uncomfortable chill go down their spines. "I have a bad feeling about this," muttered Jiraiya.
"We best be prepared for a possible fight," said Kakashi as he raised his defense. 'However, something tells me that we might be a little too late.' About a minute later, both jounin and sannin smelled blood. "This can't be good," said Kakashi and increased his pace. "How can we smell blood, but not be able to see where it's coming from?" he wondered. 'It would be understandable if we were of the Inuzuka clan, but otherwise.'
Jiraiya's face grew even more serious, 'There can only be one explanation: there must be a massive amount of blood,' gravely concluded the old man.
"The ANBU tracks seem to be going in the direction of where this smell originates. Maybe they followed it too," Kakashi tried to lighten the situation, but it didn't work. The deeper they traveled into the forest the thicker the smell of blood became. 'We are definitely closing in on, whatever it is,' thought both men as they exchanged worried looks.
After several more minutes of running they made it to where Naruto had fought against the ANBU. The sight that lay before them literally shook both of them to the core. The small forest clearing was predominantly covered in blood. Everything, absolutely everything, had some amount of blood on it. It was an absolutely disgusting sight. Kakashi barely held back his dinner and Jiraiya just simply stared at the clearing unable to move or say anything.
"My god… I haven't seen anything like THIS in 13 years," said Kakashi in a trembling voice with shivers running down his spine, arms, and legs.
"Yes, this looks demonic alright," said Jiraiya instantly understanding what Kakashi was referring to. 'Please god, the seal didn't break. Just please,' mentally pleaded Jiraiya.
"Naruto probably lost control again," said the copy ninja. "But as far as I know, the only time that happens is when he's under great emotional stress."
Jiraiya took a moment to digest that information. "If that was the case then Naruto must have been provoked somehow," said Jiraiya. "Since he most certainly isn't the kind of person to give up; especially control of his body." The toad sannin looked closer at the mess before them, 'I really wonder what happened here.'
"The good news is this is all still fresh, less than an hour has passed since this fight took place," said Kakashi. "Naruto is probably still relatively close to the village," both Leaf-nin silently prayed for that to be true.
"Considering the fact that we can't feel that demonic chakra anymore, I'd say that Naruto has calmed down, at least a little bit," said Jiraiya with a small glimmer of hope of his face. "The two of us can't possibly handle all this territory," sighed the sannin pointing in all the directions Naruto could have gone. "Kakashi, report back to Tsunade about this and tell her to gather up some man-power to search for him," he ordered. "I'll stay here and try to track him. If I find anything I'll draw arrows on trees." Kakashi nodded and was gone instantly.
'Tracking him is going to be rather difficult since the smell of blood is covering most every other smell in the area,' looking around Jiraiya noticed that there were several footprints in the bloodied grass. They were all small, 'a child's foot,' mused Jiraiya. 'Well, it's good that he's still alone.'
Jiraiya then started looking for clues as to where Naruto could have gone. He looked around the outside of the clearing and noticed that no footprints led in or out. Hence the sannin reasoned that Naruto must have been traveling through the trees. Jiraiya instantly jumped up into the surrounding trees and after only a few minutes of search saw a bloody footprint on one of the branches. 'All right, now I can follow him,' thought the toad sannin. 'With any luck I'll have him back in the village before sunrise,' smirked Jiraiya as he jumped forward.
The trail was rather easy to follow since Naruto made no attempt to cover up after himself. After several minutes Jiraiya realized that the trail was a straight line and increased his speed.
'Good thing Naruto doesn't know how cover his tracks,' however as soon as he thought that the tracks ended abruptly.
"What the…?" Jiraiya decided to look several trees ahead thinking Naruto might have jumped farther than all the other times. He still found nothing. 'That's weird…' the old man went back to the last footprint for a more thorough examination. "According to the depth of the outline, the fact that it's only one footprint and the smudge on the toe side: it looks as if he was still running, but then where the hell did he go?" wondered Jiraiya with a very confused look on his face.
Something inside of him told him to backtrack a little in hopes of finding some clues. About 20 footprints back he noticed an abnormality, this footprint seemed to be smudged differently. 'Aha! It looks as if he jumped to the left here. Clever, clever, but you'll have to do better than that.'
Jiraiya jumped to the left and didn't have to search long before he found a new trail of footprints there. 'Just like last time, it's a straight line. I can freely increase my speed then.' Though, again after following this new line for a while Jiraiya soon found that it came to another dead-end. "Not again!" grumbled Jiraiya as he was forced to backtrack again. This time only 10 footprints back, the sannin found a footprint that was smudged to the left. "Damn it!" Jiraiya cursed softly under his breath, "I need to start paying attention to every footprint." Jiraiya briefly wondered how the supposedly delinquent blonde had suddenly become so good, before completely focusing on the task at hand
After about 30 or so footprints, Jiraiya noticed that Naruto turned left again. Not paying this pattern much heed, Jiraiya simply followed this new trail. In another 20 footprints Naruto again turned left, 'What the hell is he doing?' thought Jiraiya once again changing direction. Within several minutes, Jiraiya finally noticed that his surroundings looked surprisingly familiar. 'I feel like I've been here not too long ago,' mused Jiraiya and looked around more intently. That's when he realized what Naruto had done, 'THAT DAMN KID!' screamed Jiraiya in his mind; he was already planning a punishment for Naruto for making a fool of him.
"Find anything Jiraiya-sama?" Jiraiya turned around to find Kakashi crouching down looking at the footprints.
"You're back soon," said that sannin in a strained tone.
"Not really, its been over an hour," stated Kakashi.
"AN HOUR!" yelled Jiraiya.
"Well yes, I reported to the Hokage. Told her about everything that we found here. Then showed her on a map approximately where this happened, so that she could better strategize where to send other shinobi," explicated the younger shinobi in a calm voice. "She is going to gather more forces to look for him at dawn."
Jiraiya nodded in understanding, but looked back down at the ground.
"These are his tracks are they not?" asked Kakashi while pointing at the footprints.
"Yes, but if you follow them they either end up as a dead-end or they keep turning left until you come back here," said Jiraiya in obvious annoyance.
"That's interesting, Naruto was never been very big on stealth. He prefers loud entrances, if you know what I mean," said Kakashi with a slightly joyful hint in his voice.
"Yeah, that's what worries me," replied a concerned Jiraiya. 'How come now, suddenly, he can come up such tricks that can deceive even me?'
))))) Back with Naruto (((((
Naruto, Itachi, and Kisame were now on the outskirts of a small town. "We will spend a few hours here resting and getting a few necessary things," said Itachi.
"Oi, Itachi-san, are you sure that it's safe? I mean the Leaf are probably tracking me already, so shouldn't we still be on the move?" asked a worried Naruto. 'I don't want to go to back to that fucking village!'
"Naruto, I don't think you realize, but considering the speed we were just traveling at, we are actually about a week's worth of normal travel time away from Konoha," replied Kisame with a grin.
Naruto's eyes widened. He knew they had traveled fast, but not THAT fast. 'I must have been REALLY engrossed in my thoughts.'
"Plus, Itachi and I used some tricks to fool any pursuers that may be following us," added the blue-faced missing-nin. "So don't worry Naruto they won't be showing up here anytime soon."
"First of all, we'll need a hotel, then we need to get you some new clothes Naruto," outlined Itachi while looking with disgust at what Naruto was wearing, "and only then can we start thinking about food."
Naruto looked down at himself and was about to say something, but Itachi interrupted, "Don't even think about objecting, Naruto, that outfit of yours screams 'please kill me' and we don't need that kind of attention."
"No, I wasn't going to object," replied Naruto. "It's just that, I don't really know what to get for myself," he finished in a timid voice.
"Don't worry about that we'll help you out," the Uchiha reassured him.
"Thanks," said Naruto with a big smile. 'This is great, no one in the village, not even my so-called friends, would help me with getting an outfit. That is of course IF I could handle the stares and glares of the shop owners, customers, and the general crowd to actually get into the store and stay long enough to actually look at more than one outfit.' Naruto wanted to shake in anger and resentment, but managed to restrain himself, 'Calm down, Naruto, calm down… you are over and done with that place now. Never going back, so no need to think about it anymore,' the demon-container told himself.
The three companions easily found a hotel, dropped off their stuff in the room and went shopping. They soon found a store that sold suitable clothes and after trying out several outfits and some mixing and matching Naruto was set in his new outfit.
The blonde's sandals were replaced by actual shoes; reason being that the Mountain Country was a lot colder than the Fire Country. Naruto's body was now clad in black pants and a black sleeve-less mesh shirt. On top of the shirt was a dark red jacket that had several pouch-pockets on the chest, two regular pockets on the sides and even a pocket on each sleeve. He was now also sporting a facemask that Itachi had suggested so that Naruto couldn't be identified by his whisker marks. They were considering a hat, but because of Naruto's free flowing spiky hair they decided against it.
After that the trio went to get some breakfast, after which they went back to the hotel room and slept until mid-afternoon. "Best to leave now," said Itachi as he roughly woke up Naruto. "We still have about a day's worth of travel, since we will be moving at a much more relaxed pace now."
They left town without any trouble. Naruto was surprised to see that even though their group was drawing looks from the crowd that the looks were of amazement, surprise, or even admiration.
'This feels really… nice… so good to be away from home,' thought Naruto, instinctively calling Konoha home, and immediately mentally kicking himself for it.
During the trip, Itachi explained that the Mountain Country, since it didn't have a hidden village, was in alliance with the Earth Country. So if anyone from this country wanted to hire a shinobi they would go to the Hidden Stone. Itachi politely answered all of Naruto's questions about the Mountain Country and about some other countries, except the Water Country because that was Kisame specialty. Naruto found that both Itachi and Kisame were quite talkative and didn't seem to be so bloodthirsty as long as there was no one else around.
They didn't arrive at the next village until midnight. Not wasting anytime, they had a light dinner and went to sleep at the only hotel the village had to offer. They slept in late, since they had no deadline to keep and weren't really worried about Konoha shinobi crossing the border and finding them. During lunch, Kisame showed Naruto a map of the entire ninja world, on which he pointed out approximately where they were in relation to Konoha. Naruto was amazed to have traveled that far in only a few hours. Kisame on the other hand was amazed that Naruto could keep up with them for such a long time, but of course did not tell the boy this.
Once on the road again, Itachi announced that they would reach the Akatsuki lair by nightfall. As they got closer and closer to their destination Naruto became more and more worried.
'What if they don't accept me? What if they only want the power inside of me? What then? Oh shit, what have I gotten myself into? Maybe I shouldn't have come along?' these were the kinds of questions that were floating around in Naruto's head. 'Hmm, the Kyuubi's not answering, I guess he must be asleep. Well that's alright, I don't really need him right now anyway.'
Itachi noticed Naruto's discomfort, but decided not to say anything. What could he say? He didn't know what the Akatsuki really wanted with Naruto, it wasn't even his concern. So they just continued walking.
The group of missing-nin had been walking for about five hours, the sun was setting and the road was now going through the mountains. Suddenly to the right a narrow path came into view, it tightly passed right between two slabs of stone. The trio moved off the road and walked on this path until it ended in a dead-end.
"Umm, Itachi-san, are you sure you know where you're going?" asked Naruto looking up questioning at the stoic man. Itachi just glared at him. "Well I mean it is dark and maybe you lost your way since…"
Before Naruto could finish Kisame picked him up him by the waist and jumped halfway up the mountain, using the sides of each slab to push off of. After several second they were standing about 500 feet above their former position, on a wide-open ledge. Itachi landed right behind them and walked right up to the side of the mountain and started doing some hand seals. He then touched the stone in a few places and did a few more hand seals.
Naruto was watching this in absolute confusion, 'What the hell is he doing? First he leads us to a dead-end and now he's trying to perform some sort of jutsu on a wall. Weird…'
Just then a part of the wall simply dissolved right in front of the trio to reveal a dark tunnel.
A/N: i know, i know no real action in this chapter, but hey i need naruto to get from point A to point B