Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto (unfortunately). I do own all of my own characters.
Thank you to all my reviewers!!! you ppl r so nice :-)
"blah" speech
'blah' thoughts
Peter Kim - After careful consideration I have found a way to use your idea (about Temari). So thank you very much!
sound -- soon; remaining members -- u'll find out in a bit.
anonymous - i'm not exactly sure on how many chapters, i do know its going to be over 20.
No 1 You Know - a g/f right now is kinda hard, MAYBE later.
joann - the truth won't be (bluntly) revelead for a long time. but don't worry Sasuke will hear it b4 the end.
TimeShifter16 - for secret behind Itachi killing the clan refer to the previous reply. For the 'good side' ur close... just keep reading.
jasx316 - Hinata turn bad... i'll b honest, i don't see it working w/ the plot of the story. And Class S Missing-nins are generally not accepted back into their villages XD
AkiaBinZaid - if I explain it now, I wouldn't have anything to talk about in a later chapter.
Daniel of Lorien - how come u assume that Naruto dies?
Sirus183 and Monaki-cheung - ur question will be answered in a few chapters.
shinikumiko - got u addicted huh? well i'll put that in the personal achievement category ). Glad u like my fic.
Monaki-cheung - yes and can't tell u.
Anyone that's wondering about "the relationship" (It's more of: "the deal") btwn Naruto and Hinata, wait for a couple of chapters... (like till 17ish)
sorry for the delay; had to write an essay for college and packing...
Chapter 14 – Old Enemies, New Friends
Getting through and out of the Snow Country was easy, considering that he wasn't the only one leaving. It turned out that Naruto got lucky, the time he was leaving was the same that all the visitors and/or tourists leave, making it easy for Naruto to blend in.
After safely getting out of the Snow, Naruto crossed the border into the Earth Country. For the most part he managed to avoid the Stone shinobi way, but one time he did happen to sit quite close to a Stone shinobi group and overhear a single plan-altering conversation..
"… so were you part of the strike force?" asked Stone 1. (A/N: um… its 3 nins taking and I'm lazy).
"No, they sent me to clean up the mess and search for any secret documents and stuff," replied Stone 2.
"So what the hell was there at the Akatsuki hideout?" asked Stone 3.
"Nothing much at all; it was like it was deserted," explained Stone 2, "we found who the members were, some info about the missions, but otherwise there was nothing."
"Two of the members are still on the loose right?" Stone 1 asked.
"Yea, there were only three went we attacked," said Stone 3.
"I believe, there's a Cloud-nin and a Grass-nin that are still loose," explained Stone 2. "Oh and there was something about a Leaf-nin, but he seemed to have quit that organization about half a year before it was taken down."
'So the Akatsuki were taken down…' mused Naruto. 'It seems that Raiko and Miya haven't been captured yet. That's good… though I wonder how the Stone knew where to go.' Naruto decided to continue listening in.
"Doesn't it seem strange that just out of the blue there was an anonymous tip-off about the Akatsuki and that it was right?" wondered Stone 1.
"Yea, but we got them, so I don't think it matters that much," said Stone 3.
They continued chatting for a while longer before finally leaving, but never again about the Akatsuki.
Naruto paid for his food and went back to his hotel to think, 'Six months after I left, they were taken down by an anonymous tip-off. Who would know where the Akatsuki were located…?' Naruto quickly realized that no one, apart from the members themselves knew where headquarters was. 'A random passer-by gets lucky? No… you'd have to be able to recognize them as Missing-nin.' Naruto pondered it for a little while longer, but came up with nothing.
'Oh well, that means one less group to hide from,' thought Naruto happily. 'That's good that Raiko and Miya were able to escape… now, though, they won't be found. Especially Miya she can hide like no other.'
Naruto wandered through the Earth Country for another week, seeking some more information about the Akatsuki take down. He found out that the Sand had helped the Stone, but that this also seemed to have sparked a civil war to break out within the Sand. "A hot spot for danger," the people called it and Naruto agreed.
After the Earth Country Naruto had a choice between the Rain and the Grass Country. He considered the seasons and instantly chose to go to the Grass Country, 'no way am I going the Rain Country in the middle of the rainy season… no way in hell!'
Naruto had in no way forgotten about his training and would always make sure to practice wherever he went. Naruto walked off of the road and into a wide-open field and began to practice his taijutsu. Halfway through one of his kata, he noticed a big solitary Oak Tree standing on the opposite end of the field, 'well I'll be… I remember this place…'
)))))Flashback(((((
"Now Naruto," yelled Miya from the other side of the field, "I want you to grab me with your vines."
"You're not gonna stand still are you?" asked Naruto with a scowl.
Miya smiled, "of course not. What's the fun in that?" she gave a small chuckle before her face went absolutely serious, "Now come on!"
"Alright, alright," he grumbled and touched the tree. He closed his eyes to envision where the vine was going and directed them to go where Miya was. As soon as the vine got within a meter of her, she jumped away shouting, "missed." Naruto then began to redirect the vine. But was again too slow, "ARRRHHH! This is impossible how am I supposed to catch you with only one vine!?" he yelled.
"My dear boy, who ever said you can only use one?" she said in a sweet voice.
"What!? You mean this whole time I could have made several?" asked Naruto incredulously.
"Of course," she replied.
Naruto once again pressed him palm to the tree, 'Now she tells me… but how would I coordinate multiple vines?' Naruto thought a little and then decided to put his taijutsu senses into play. 'I'll try to guess where she's going to jump based to her movement and then have a vine waiting for her…'
Naruto put his idea into action, but found it hard to guess where Miya was going to jump next, 'is she doing this on purpose? Wait who am I kidding, of course she is.'
At that point Miya decided to give Naruto another clue, "kid you're never gonna catch me using this little number of vines."
'Little number,' thought Naruto who had by now been trained to read into people's words. 'I'm using ten right now, but… wait a second… this morning she said we were going to train on a full scale…' Naruto growled a little. 'A full scale, of course… she wants me to cover the entire field in vines.'
Naruto then gathered up more chakra and did exactly that; he shot vines out in all directions and concentrated even harder to know which vine to activate to capture Miya. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Miya jump away and instantly prepped the group of vines she was going to land close to, 'gotcha,' thought Naruto, but too early. Miya didn't land fully, she just barely touched the ground, but enough to jump away. It kept going like this until Naruto had run out of chakra.
"That was good Naruto, you figured out the point of my initial lesson," said Miya.
)))))End Flashback(((((
A smile grazed Naruto's face as he put his hand on the tree, "ah memories… And then I remember the next day of training, to make the vines jump out like six feet… that was torturous."
Naruto then noticed that it was getting dark really fast, "I forgot that about the Grass Country, the dusk only lasts like 30 minutes." Naruto picked up his bag, got back on the trail and continued to the next village. A bandit tried to mug him soon after he had set out, but Naruto just calmly killed him without even breaking stride, 'fucking idiot.'
He rented a room at the hotel nearest to the village's exit and went to get something to eat. Afterwards Naruto decided to wonder around the village and finally found his way to a hilltop over looking the entire village, "nice place they got here." It was about midnight when Naruto decided to stop his contemplations and go get a good night's sleep.
On the way back he passed an alley where he saw a kid getting beat up by the local gang. Naruto was going to just walk on by, when suddenly an image flashed through his mind. The image contained himself as a 10-year old kid being beat up by some villagers. Naruto scowled and looked back at the beating in the alley, 'God damn it! I don't care about that kid, I should just walk away… it's none of my business,' said one side of his mind. But another said the exact opposite; Naruto suddenly found himself stuck in the middle.
Finally on a random impulse he decided to walk towards the gang, 'I don't even know why I'm doing this… it's not like I care… ah what the hell may as well draw some blood…' he concluded.
Naruto, very quietly, came up behind one of the gang members and snapped his neck. Once the body fell forward lifeless the others turned around and looked at the intruder.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" yelled a man, who seemed to be the leader, as another crouched down to check his fallen comrade. "He's dead…" said the man slowly. This seemed to piss off the first guy, "You're gonna pay for that!" he yelled. Naruto just stood there calmly with uncaring eyes.
The leader then rushed at Naruto and tried to punch him in the face. Naruto simply moved his head a little and counter-attacked the leader with a powerful punch to his ribs. A loud cracking sound was heard and the leader fell down to the ground clutching his side in pain. Naruto then kneed him right in the face knocking him out and breaking his nose and maybe more.
The rest of the gang was getting more and more pissed off every second and when their leader collapsed they all jumped at Naruto in anger. Naruto merely punched the first guy, kicked the second one and let in a few punches and kicks, 'their punches are about as strong as a light push from Itachi.' Naruto took his time beating the crap out of them, making sure to draw more blood than was necessary before finally knocking them out and/or killing them.
When he was finally done he turned his attention to the boy, "hey you all right?" he asked.
The boy was still shocked that Naruto could easily defeat all those people, "y-y-yes… t-t-thank y-you s-sir."
"No problem!" said Naruto with a smile, "now come on its time for you to go home."
Naruto helped the boy back home and assured him that those people won't be bothering him for a long time. 'They sure as hell won't, I killed at least half of them and the rest… well they will be in the hospital for several months. After that some will walk, others won't…' Naruto felt surprisingly good after doing that. 'Hmm… why do I feel so… happy inside…?' Naruto brushed it off and turned in for the night.
For some reason unknown to Naruto, he stayed in that village for another week. Maybe it was to watch out for the boy or maybe to relive some more memories by practicing on that field; either way Naruto found the place to be surprisingly comfortable.
But all good things must come to an end and at the end of the week Naruto finally forced himself to leave and traveled around the Grass for about a month. After the Grass Country, Naruto made his way into the Lightning Country. Just like with the Grass, Naruto stayed in the Lightning Country for a month wandering all over the place.
During that time he found his way to a lonely mountain, the top of which was shrouded in clouds. Naruto decided to climb on top of it again, 'this time I'll take the hard way Raiko was talking about.' Six hours later Naruto was only about a quarter of the way up the mountain, 'damn I should have known when Raiko said hard he meant it. Hey wait I wonder if I could do "that" jutsu.' Naruto then pumped more chakra into his feet and jumped slightly off the wall, adding in more chakra to achieve the desired result. "Yes! I can still do it!" Naruto yelled while standing on air. 'Too bad it only last for about a minute,' though Naruto as he quickly made his way via 'floating' to a more comfortable climbing area. "And to think it took me three weeks to learn that… it was funny how Raiko had to try it three times before he actually got it work," Naruto laughed as he remember that day of training.
Finally after another half day Naruto was finally on the summit. 'I remember training to fight with these clouds obstructing my vision… actually that's when I learned to use that special ability of my eyes.'
)))))Flashback(((((
Naruto is standing in torn clothing in the dense fog looking all around him trying to anticipate the upcoming attack. Raiko strikes at him and this time Naruto is at least able to block, 'Damn it! I can't last like this! The look in his eyes when he hits me… he's just laughing at me…' All these thought slowly, but surely angered Naruto and he had activated his Demon's Eyes without realizing it.
Raiko struck Naruto had in the middle section once more, but this time when their eyes met Naruto's mind flashed through all of the hellish tortures that he would give Raiko. To Naruto's great surprise and shock, Raiko fell on the ground screaming and grabbing his head in pain. Naruto then sees the whip-like marks that appear on his exposed arms, 'what the hell? No one around here has a whip…' The screaming did not last more than a minute before Raiko abruptly stopped and fell unconscious.
Itachi then came up and examined him. Finding only a few non-serious physical wounds, he drew back Raiko eyelids and activated his Mangekyou. In about half a minute Itachi stood up and looked back at Naruto, who now and a confused horrified look on his face.
"Naruto tell me exactly what happened?" said Itachi in a very serious tone.
"Well… he hit me and I guess I had already activated my Demon's Eyes," Naruto began explaining. "So then I was really pissed off and thought back to some of Kyuubi's memories from hell and wished I could do that to Raiko."
Itachi seemed to think all this over, "did you maintain eye contact with him during all of this?" he finally asked.
Naruto thought back, "yes I did," he answered.
"I see…" Itachi said in a far away voice.
"What is it, Itachi-sensei?" asked Naruto.
"Naruto, I want you to do that same thing you just did, to me," said Itachi.
"But sensei, you will get hurt like Raiko and…." Naruto started protesting, but was then cut off by Itachi.
"Just do it!"
Naruto then concentrated and brought back that same anger and frustration he was feeling during his battle with Raiko. He activated his eyes and let all his raw emotions out along with the Kyuubi's memories of Hell. Itachi had by now activated his Mangekyou and was staring down Naruto, but for now neither side had an advantage. Itachi then increased the effects of his technique and finally made Naruto brake down.
"What was that?" asked Naruto uncertainly, he saw that Itachi had activated his Mangekyou yet he was able to withstand it.
"Naruto, it seems your eyes have an ability similar to my Mangekyou," explained Itachi.
"What!? Really!?" Naruto stared wide-eyed.
"Yes, though yours seems to work the mind a little differently from mine…"
"How?"
"I'm not exactly sure," said Itachi, "we'll have to do more experimentation to find out."
)))))End Flashback(((((
It took me six months to fully understand and master two levels of that technique. "A mind technique that effects all levels of the mind, making any imagined injury appear on the physical body." That was what Itachi said about it, Naruto had always felt that Itachi was a bit jealous of Naruto's eyes having so much power. Of course Mangekyou had its own advantages that Naruto's Hell Jutsu simply could not do, so Naruto's was not an all-powerful eye. 'Through out the years I have managed to get it up to level 7. There are two more levels, but anything beyond 5 is basically instant death to humans.' After the merge Naruto considered himself as more of a half-demon. Also he noticed that it would really throw off his opponents to be called "human" during battle.
Naruto stayed on the mountain until his food had run out and then finally went down and left the Lightning Country several days after that.
'What is wrong with me? It's bluntly obvious I shouldn't stay so long in a country with a Hidden Village,' Naruto continuously scolded himself. 'I guess a part of me never loses hope that I might stumble upon Them just once more.'
When Naruto was ready to leave he contemplated the idea of trying to find Kisame, but decided against it. 'He wouldn't want me to just be pestering him without a purpose,' reasoned Naruto. Hence Naruto briefly traveled through the Water Country and soon found himself in the Wave Country. He noted that it was now quite the economical center, completely different from its ruined state just six years ago. 'Wow, it has been that long…' Naruto couldn't suppress his curiosity and went to find Tazuna's house. Making sure he wasn't noticed as he sat in a nearby tree waiting for the family to get home.
The first person he saw was Inari who was now very happy and cheerful; Naruto smiled slightly as that. Next he saw his mother, who was scolding Inari for being late. Finally Tazuna arrived tired and grumpy, 'as usual,' thought Naruto. From what Naruto caught of the conversation, Tazuna was contracted to build a bridge for the Water Country and has just returned today. 'Hmm… my luck is improving,' thought Naruto. Naruto stayed in the Wave Country for a week, shadowing Tazuna's family, before finally leaving.
Naruto decided to avoid the Fire Country and instead travel by sea, he hired a man to take him to the Wind Country on a private boat. The voyage took three weeks during which time Naruto and the captain had become good friends. The man had found out that Naruto was a ninja when Naruto accidentally dozed off and fell overboard, but landed on top of the water. The man didn't care for that and instead took the time to get to know Naruto as if he was a regular person.
They arrived to the Wind a week behind schedule due to the fact that they decided to wait out a storm. They were damn glad they did too, after all the wreckage that they saw along the way. Naruto wasn't that big of a water person and was happy to finally be on land, he paid the man and went on his way.
'I wonder how Gaara is doing?' he mused while walking down one of the main roads. 'Especially with that civil war happening in his country…' just then his senses picked up on a fight not too far in the forest. Naruto thought it's probably some bandits again jumped toward it. For the past several months since saving that kid in the Grass, Naruto had been unable to pass up a chance to help people in need.
However once Naruto got to the battle scene he wished that he hadn't come. There he saw six shinobi, Sand most likely, fighting three other Sand-nins that looked familiar to Naruto. 'Damn it! I don't want to interfere with a shinobi battle.' Just then Naruto recognized one of the Sand-nin, 'that's Gaara…' he thought, 'then I don't need to help them, Gaara will be fine.' Naruto stayed hidden in the tree above the battle and continued observing.
His plan was ruined when two of the six Sand-nin used a Fuuiton attack that took out the entire tree that Naruto was sitting on and managed to cut his left arm. 'Destroying my seat is one thing, injuring me I won't forgive.'
Naruto then appeared right behind the two Sand-nins with dual Rasengans and slammed them into their backs, drilling a hole halfway into their bodies. The comrades of the two dead Sand-nins were absolutely shocked that a shinobi had appeared out of nowhere and killed two of their best Fuuiton users.
"Who the hell are you?" yelled the captain of the remaining four, "and why the hell did you just do that?"
Naruto's dead-cold eyes focused on the leader, "No, and because they cut me," he replied monotonously.
"What do you mean 'no'? Whose side are you on, the Loyalists or Radicals?" the leader spat out the last name.
"My own," simply answered Naruto. 'So he's a loyalist… if this gets any worse I'll probably side with Gaara.'
At this point the leader noticed that Naruto didn't wear a forehead protector, "hey what village are you from?"
Naruto's eyes flashed slightly, "I didn't come here to get interrogated! You have no authority over me!" Naruto said very forcefully.
"So then you must be a Radical, get him!" he commanded a ninja dressed in all gray.
The gray ninja rushed at Naruto, but before he could even throw a punch Naruto had already grabbed his arm, touched him lightly on the chest and gave him a sideways kick that sent the ninja flying into a tree on Naruto's left. All Sand-nins present were shocked to see blood pour out of the gray ninja's mouth uncontrollably, and weren't very surprised when he soon fell over dead.
Gaara saw the shock and confusion on their faces and took this opportunity to his advantage. He made his sand wrap around the leader and lifted him up into the air. Before any of the other Sand-nin could comprehend, Gaara said, "Desert Funeral." Blood sprayed everywhere and the remaining two Loyalist shinobi ran for their lives.
Naruto then walked up to Gaara, "and here I was thinking you could defend yourself without my help."
Gaara got a bewildered and angry look on his face, "we were doing absolutely fine and had already made up a plan, until you showed up."
"Now Gaara, we should be thankful that this young man helped us out; since we were out numbered," said Temari gently and bowed slightly to Naruto saying a respectful thank you.
Naruto chuckled slightly, "it was no problem. After all I was just repaying a debt," he said with a smile.
The three Sand-nins looked at him with confused faces, "what do you mean 'a debt'?" asked Temari, "Have we met before?"
Meanwhile Gaara was closely studying this mysterious shinobi, who managed to take out three high level Sand jounin as if they were nothing. He had a very strange feeling that he knew this person and that this person meant something to him. Naruto could tell that Gaara was close to guessing who he was and decided to give him a clue, he turned stared Gaara straight in the eyes and then switched them to his demonic ones and back again.
Gaara's eyes widen in realization, "You… you couldn't be… Naruto?" he asked very uncertainly.
Naruto smiles, "guilty as charged," he said. "It's been a while, hasn't it? Gaara, Temari and Kankuro."
The three stared at him wide-eyed, he had changed so much since they last saw him. They had all heard that he was a Missing-nin, and since the raid on the Akatsuki they knew that he had been part of that organization. Yet here he was standing in front of them, smiling even or at least they thought it was a smile since he still wore a facemask.
"Do people only recognize me by my whisker marks? I mean seriously," said Naruto with a laugh. Naruto then looked around, "come on, we should leave the battlefield."
As they walked to the Sand siblings' campsite the regular 'how are you's?' were exchanged; Naruto tried to tell them as little about his life as he could. "As a Missing-nin you must always be wary," is what Itachi used to say.
At the campsite they all sat around the fire on which a large deer was roasting. (A/N: the Wind Country isn't all desert, where they are right now it's a forest) Naruto broke the silence, "so what's with this civil I've been hearing about?" he asked.
"The civil war is a dispute about who the next Kazekage should be," explained Temari. "The Loyalists want to appoint Baki, our former sensei, as the Kazekage. The Radicals however have nominated a female Kage."
"A female Kage, I don't see the problem with that. Who would it be?" asked Naruto calmly.
"According to tradition in the Sand, the Kazekage must be male. As for who the female Kage is… well they have elected me," said Temari.
Naruto raised an eyebrow, "so I'm talking to the future Kazekage, huh?"
"Nothing has been decided yet," said Kankuro.
"It's basically some old geezers who are set in their ways against the new generation," concluded Naruto simplifying it for himself.
"Only it isn't that simple there are other factors that one must consider," said Temari, "there's the political and the economical angle…"
Naruto suddenly cut her off, "but this is a war. Right now there is no politics and there is no economy. It's all about who can gain control first," said Naruto. "You will be a great Kage if you are thinking of these things ahead of time, but right now you must focus on the situation at hand; and that's the war. Once you win the war, you can worry about those other factors, all you want."
Temari was shocked that Naruto had just so plainly laid everything out for her. It was true she couldn't do anything politically, economically or socially until she was in the Kage position. "Alright, so that simply narrows our problem down to winning the war," she said with new enthusiasm.
'Uzumaki, Naruto,' thought Gaara, 'whenever he comes into my life he always manages to change things for the better.'
"So what's your plan of action?" asked Naruto, "So that I know where and when to stay out of your way," he clarified.
"Huh?' asked Temari, "you're not going to help us?"
"Help you? No, I'm just sight seeing here. And the last thing I need is Leaf Hunter-nin knocking… no breaking down my door," he said very calmly.
"You don't sight see in the desert," said Gaara bluntly, "you are here for another purpose."
Naruto frowned slightly, "well I guess I did have an ulterior motive for coming here." Everyone listened closely to what Naruto was going to say, "I guess I just wanted to see Gaara again and ask how he was doing." The serious air was instantly broken and an exasperated sigh was heard from Kankuro and Temari. Naruto laughed, "what did you think? I was here to assassinate some advanced bloodline or something? I'm not part of the Akatsuki anymore you know."
"Advanced bloodline… the Sand doesn't have that many," said Gaara contemplating something. "And all of those are very well hidden away."
"Look I'm not going to hide out for a year and then jump straight into the boiling kettle, also known as the Leaf Village, without gathering some information about what's happened in the world first," explained Naruto.
"Why would you want go to Leaf again?" asked Gaara.
"I have a score to settle with someone there," answered Naruto, his eyes going cold stopping the conversation right there.
They ate their food in silence, but before they all went to bed, Temari made one final request to Naruto, "please Naruto-san think it over, we could really use your help with this."
"I really don't want to attract attention, and this isn't the most discreet of operations you know," he replied.
"I understand, but maybe we could keep you in the shadows somehow. Just please sleep on it and give us your answer in the morning." Naruto nodded in agreement and went to bed.
After everyone had gone to sleep Naruto was up for several hours contemplating his course of action. 'I could keep attention of my back and stay "in the shadows" as Temari said. But then again this is a war we're talking about, I would have to fight and then rumors would get around and the next thing I know I'm fighting off Hunter-nin.' Naruto did still feel obligated to help out his friends; they did help him out when he was in need. "You must take risks and make sacrifices for your friends," said Naruto out loud. 'I don't remember who said that or how many times I've heard it, but that doesn't make in any less true.' And with that Naruto fell asleep. (A/N: Gaara has also merged with Shukaku and can sleep now)
(A/N: on a scale of 1-10; How cruel would it be if I just cut it off right there?)
In the morning Naruto announced his decision, saying that he will stay and help them out. Temari thanked him, Gaara didn't say anything and Kankuro was still visibly wary of traveling with Naruto.
"So what's the plan?" asked Naruto.
"Well for now we have been gathering up support and fighting off Loyalist attacks," answered Kankuro.
Naruto thought a little while, "I see… and how are things within the Village?"
"It's chaos, constant battles between the Loyalists and the Radicals…" explained Temari.
"But who has supposed control? Who is in the Kazekage Tower?" Naruto continued questioning.
"The enemy holds it for now, but they don't really have control over anything else," said Gaara.
"Well…" Naruto mused, "if you are able to resist them enough so that they don't have control anywhere else, then all you really need to do is capture their last bastion."
"You're telling us to go and attack the Kazekage Tower?" asked Kankuro incredulously. "Are you trying to get us killed!?"
Naruto chuckled, "well that is the only place you don't have at least partial control over."
"He's right," said Temari in a serious voice.
"What!?" yelled Kankuro.
"This is the only way," continued Temari, "if we hope to gain full control we have to relieve them of control of everything."
"Good, you understand," said Naruto. "Now to think up a plan… You said that the Sand Village is in chaos and that there are constant battles, right?"
"Yes, but how would that help us?" asked Temari.
"Simple, the battles are a distraction while several of our teams attack the Kazekage Tower," explained Naruto.
"That sounds easy enough," argued Kankuro, "but they have the Tower right now and they can't gain control. So what makes you think that we will be able to?"
"They can't gain control because your leader is alive and your followers have something to fight for," said Naruto, "but if either side were to lose their leader it would be weakened greatly."
"So you're saying we'll have to kill Baki," said Temari.
"Yes, if you want control."
"But he was our teacher… I mean…" said Temari.
"No! You can't hold any kind of attachments to him," said Naruto darkly. "He's your enemy now; nothing more, nothing less."
Naruto smiled a little, "if all else fails, Gaara can kill him right?"
Gaara looked at Naruto in annoyance, "you know I'm not a killing machine anymore," he stated with slight anger.
"Uh huh, and it didn't rain blood yesterday," Naruto countered. Then noticing Gaara's slightly saddened look added, "hey it's alright I understand how you feel. Hell, I killed more people than you yesterday."
"What did you do to that third guy?" asked Gaara, since to him it looked like Naruto hadn't even touched him.
Naruto thought a little, "oh, you mean the guy with blood pouring out of his mouth?" he asked absolutely calmly. The rest nodded, "I just pressed several pressure point over his chest and kicked him to a place where he can die."
The sand siblings were shocked at the calmness of Naruto's voice when it came to such a bloody killing. 'Is this what Akatsuki training is like?' wondered Temari. 'He's a monster, just like Gaara,' thought Kankuro shaking slightly. 'You've changed a lot Naruto… I hope you haven't become how I was before,' thought Gaara, 'Wait a second, pressure points…'
"So you were present at the Leaf's Jounin Exam right before the Hyuga assassination," said Gaara as more of a statement than a question.
"Yeah," answered Naruto, "that was my easy entrance into Konoha. How'd you know?"
"We heard from a Sand-nin that was there about what happened. You were there for scouting purposes, right?" asked Temari.
Naruto was slightly confused now, "well yes, I did do some scouting of course," he replied uncertainly. "I'm wasn't just gonna dash right in to the Hyuga Manor."
Temari titled her head at him, "but you weren't the strike team," she said.
"What?" asked Naruto now completely confused.
"You want revenge on that Legendary Sannin for killing Itachi, am I right?" asked Gaara.
"Well yea," answered Naruto slightly shocked that Gaara was able to read him that well.
"You were Itachi's accomplice during the whole thing," he continued.
"Accomplice? What story are you going off of?" asked Naruto.
Gaara and Temari told Naruto the official story that Tsunade cooked up about Itachi being the assassin.
"So that's what they did?" mused Naruto. "Well no wonder I've been easily able to avoid any Hunter-nin… they shifted the blame…" Naruto then told them the truth about the Hyuga assassination.
"So they covered it up for political reasons," mused Temari. "A good move for them, the alternative would have raised chaos."
"I guess… anyway we should get going," said Naruto. 'How dare they blame everything on Itachi-nii-chan? I keep finding more and more reason to kill Jiraiya.'
The group of four left their campsite and began their way through the desert to the Hidden Sand Village. They had of course encountered some resistance on the journey, but nothing they couldn't handle. Naruto had picked up a Sand forehead protector from one of his kills and could now avoid questioning by any of the other Radicals. It took them about two months to coordinate the attack, a month to wait for everyone to get into position and another month to wait for the perfect opportunity.
Their break came when they got word of a secret meeting that was going to happen in the Kazekage Tower; all the Loyalist leaders were gonna be there. They knew the fighting would be tougher, but this was a sure way to gain control. Temari, Gaara, Kankuro and Naruto were all in one team that would spilt apart once they got in the Tower. Gaara would go with Temari to kill Baki and Naruto would go with Kankuro to kill the rest of the leaders. They would of course have support teams, but the responsibility would rest on them.
Since the meeting was going to start at midnight, the distraction teams attacked at 11:30pm. They successfully drew off all the Loyalist shinobi, except those guarding the Tower. At exactly midnight Temari gave the signal to attack the Kazekage Tower.
Gaara broke down the gate with his sand and heavy fighting ensued. Gaara, Temari, Kankuro and Naruto managed to avoid the main fighting and advanced on up the Tower. They soon came up to the meeting chamber and instantly burst in. Inside they saw Baki and six other people, who instantly jumped up into fighting stances. At this point Gaara and Temari split off focusing on Baki while Naruto and Kankuro took care of everyone else.
Normally Naruto would use a poison cloud, but he knew his allies had no resistance to poison so he couldn't use that. Instead he did several seals and said, "Katon: Housenka." Five fireballs flew toward Naruto's opponents, who were shocked that a Sand-nin could do Katon. Some dodged and those that didn't, not only got burned, but were also hit with a shuriken. Kankuro used this opportunity to attack with his Kuroari and managed to capture one of his opponents while he was dodging Naruto's jutsu.
Naruto then dodged and blocked some taijutsu attacks that were being thrown at him. He quickly did half a dozen seals and whispered, "Raiton: Electric Claws," Naruto then attacked his first opponent cutting him with his right-hand claws, right above his heart. The man fell down grabbing his chest as if he was having a heart attack, which he actually was. Naruto's other two opponents quickly charged against Naruto and one of them managed to punch Naruto in the face. However Naruto used this to his advantage and kicked one of the Sand-nin in the face, blocking a punch from the other Sand-nin he drove the claws on his left hand straight into the man's neck; once again discharging electricity from his claws.
That left only one more opponent; Naruto smirked as he saw that his opponent was going to use a wind attack against him. 'That won't work…' thought Naruto as he quickly ran through some hands seals, 'Raiton: Short Circuit.' Then at the same time that the Sand-nin shot forward his wind attack, Naruto shot his lightning attack at the Sand-nin. Since the wind attack took longer to complete, Naruto's attack reached the Sand-nin first and electrocuted his body until he finally fell dead. Naruto just weathered the wind attack.
He then looked around to see that Kankuro has also disposed of his two opponents and that Gaara and Temari were now fighting Baki. Baki used his wind attacks to keep Gaara's sand away and at the same time counter Temari's attacks. Finally Temari saw an opportunity, right after Baki had blown back Gaara's sand, and she unleashed her most powerful non-summoning attack. Baki did not have time to raise a proper defense and thrown back into the wall behind him.
He got up and was about to charge at when he suddenly felt that he could not move his legs. Unknown to Baki, Gaara had had his sand creeping up behind Baki and when blown back Baki just happened to land in that sand. Gaara then sent more of his sand and soon Baki was inside of Gaara's sand cocoon and with the words "Desert Funeral" Baki died.
)))))One Month Later(((((
Naruto had helped Temari become the Kazekage and crush any revolts. Temari instantly set out to make life better for everyone in the village and within a month was liked and respected as the new Kazekage. Naruto was now planning to leave, since diplomatic relations would soon be coming from the other villages including the Leaf.
"So you're going?" asked Gaara.
"I can't stay here," said Naruto while throwing more of his belongings in his bag. "Plus I still have things to do."
"Do you really think you can beat him?"
"I don't know… he was able to kill Itachi," replied Naruto.
"You know we're not all powerful," said Gaara, "you should, I don't know, test yourself somehow."
"Test myself?" mused Naruto. "That's not a bad idea. I would have to find a very strong opponent though." Gaara nodded.
"Just know that you are always welcome here," he said.
"Thanks Gaara," Naruto gave him a quick hug, "you and your siblings are really good people. Not many of those left in this world."
With that Naruto disappeared from the Sand, leaving Gaara with a feeling that they would see each other again.
While running through the desert Naruto's mind went back to what Gaara said, 'it's true, I need to test out my powers before confronting Jiraiya.' After several minutes of contemplation Naruto knew exactly who he was going to test himself against, 'he'll be perfect,' thought Naruto with a sly grin and adjusted his course slightly eastward.
A/N: hmm... I wonder who this mystery person is that Naruto is going to test his strength on? (well actually I know... but YOU wonder) :-)
dont expect the next chapter out very soon, since i'm moving on friday.