Author's note: So last chapter ended with some moves taking place, and now its time to show what's going to happen. It's time for things to start happening, and now the story starts to take off once more. This will be a bit of a slow take off, and will pick up more in the coming chapters.
"I hope you're having fun Hidan" Kakuzu said as he watched his partners antics.
"It would be more fun if these little shit's could put up more of a fight, none of them are even worthy enough to sacrifice to Jashin-sama." Hidan said pissed off as he just cut down the ninja that were coming at him. After having sealed the 3 tails every ninja in the Akatsuki had gotten a power boost, it wasn't massive, but they felt better. Now Kakuzu and Hidan were inside the village of Kakuzu's home wrecking havoc and slaughtering away. Mostly Hidan, Kakuzu was looking for the Jinchuriki with no real luck.
"Aye yo, Kakuzu, this guy cut my arm off put it back on for me will ya" Hidan shouted as he smashed the man's face in with his foot, smiling as he heard the bones crack and crunch as the man's face caved in, killing him.
"Whatever, after this I'm leaving to find the Jinchuriki. You do whatever you want, but she's mine" Kakuzu said, Hidan smiled, not caring. Mainly because he was given free reign to kill off every single man, woman, and child in the village.
The two split up, Hidan smiling as blood dripped down his body, not his blood though. Kakuzu quickly left leaping through the village to find his bounty. It didn't take long when the girl came flying down at him and punched a hole through his chest. Destroying one of his hearts, to bad she didn't know he had more than one though.
Fuu smirked, "And here I thought the Akatsuki were supposed to be tough, guess not if they fall as easily as you."
Kakuzu started to laugh as he stood up, the hole in his chest already gone and replaced with more of his threading. "Oh girl, did no one teach you history? Do you not know who I am?" Kakuzu smirked as the girl stared at him, trying to rack her brain as to who the man could be. She was also scared, she felt the man's heart explode in her fist when she hit it. "I'll give you a hint, I tried to assassinate the first hokage and survived, and stole secrets from this village before deserting 70 years ago." Realization started to dawn upon the girl.
"It can't be! You should be dead! You should easily be 90 years old if not older!" Horror was actually on the girls face, the man looked like he was easily in his early to mid twenties, even though you couldn't see much of his face.
"You only live forever when you do horrible things, but I don't care, because you can't kill me" Kakuzu said as he started to walk towards the girl. An explosion racked the village behind them, Kakuzu didn't even flinch as he kept moving, but Fuu's eyes slightly shifted, her defenses hesitating and dropping for the slightest of moments, and that was all he needed.
The man was instantly on top of the Jinchuriki holding her down with his threading as she tried to struggle, Kakuzu grunted, the girls physical powers were indeed more than his, he smirked not caring, he just re enforced his threads using more to hold her body apart. He then shot lightning through his threads shocking the girl. Fuu tried to scream as her body convulsed and twitched, but her mouth was covered. Kakauzu stopped the travel of lightning and looked at the girl, smoke was coming off her body, her eyes weary as she looked up at the man in front of her.
"Humph, still conscious huh? That won't work, lets give you another round" Kakuzu shocked the girl again this time with more intensity, tears falling down her face as her body twitched and convulsed, the only thing keeping her alive was the beast inside her any normal person would have been long dead. Fuu felt the ability to stay conscious leave her as her head started to drop. "That was easier than I thought it would be" now to go see how that fool is blowing things up.
Kakuzu had the girl floating behind him wrapped up in his threads to make sure she couldn't escape, plus if she tried to wake up he could just shock her again. He got lucky with the lightning affinity heart he grabbed in Kumo, the ninja had a very strong affinity to it, but he was wasting his talents, something that Kakuzu would not do. The man slowly walked back to the village, he could see fire everywhere and wondered if maybe the current Kage stepped in, not that it would make any difference. Maybe if he used the Hero's water, but only an idiot would use it, the repercussions weren't worth the use of it. That's why he never bothered taking it with him when he left the village so long ago, or coming back for it.
Hidan was having fun, these ninja kept coming at him and he wasn't even trying he was slashing them down three or 4 at a time. It was funny though, every now and then he would let an attack get by and play dead, wait for them to get over him, and then he would take out a group all at once. Hidan looked around, the village was becoming extremely quiet, all around him bodies lie on the ground blood splattered all over the place, fire burning down buildings and homes.
Hidan smirked before he stopped moving coughing out blood, he looked down to see his heart in front of his chest being held. The hand holding the heart crushed it, "How dare you Akatsuki scum attack our village. As leader I swore to protect my people, so far I have failed. Right now I will atone for my sins, I drank the hero's water and in my death I will save my people." Shibuki removed his fist from Hidan's chest as he kicked the Akatsuki clocked ninja to the ground.
The man went to leave and find Fuu before it was too late when he heard the man he just killed chuckling. "Oh it's been a long time since someone has tried to take me out by destroying my heart, it's going to suck putting a new one in. I just hope that Kakuzu is in a giving mood"
"But… how are you alive" Shibuki eyes widened in horror as Hidan stood up. "Wait! Did you say Kakuzu? That's impossible, he should be dead, even if he was alive he'd be at least in his 90's!" Shibuki was scared, but it made sense, they snuck past all the defenses of the village like it was nothing.
"Oh boy, I knew this was gonna be fun." Hidan swung his scythe at Shibuki, the man dodged the attack by a mile, thankfully with how much of the water he drank his power was increased 50 fold. He had no idea how long it would last for, so he needed to end this quick, but he didn't know how. He already destroyed the man's heart, Shibuki quickly went on the offensive, he was faster and stronger than Hidan so that made the fight a bit easier, he wasn't sure how to kill the man so he needed to incapacitate him.
"Keep it going, give me more, come on give me a real fight!" Hidan was enjoying the pain, the man was a sadist, no matter how hard he hit the man he kept smiling. Shibuki kicked the man away.
"Humph, what an idiot, using the hero's water won't do you any good, neither of us can die." Kakuzu came walking up, Fuu unconscious behind him.
"FUU!" Shibuki eyes widened as he shot forward with all the speed he could muster and punched Kakuzu as hard as possible, his fist going through the creatures stomach.
"Come on, I figured you would have learned with Hidan, we can't die. Plus I used to be a member of this village, I know how weak your ninja really are. You must have had a lot of that water to be as strong as you are now, though the minute it wears off you'll drop dead so it's not like it matters too much." Kakuzu didn't even move as he had his thread's attack Shibuki, the man barely dodged the small strands, knowing better than to get hit.
"So you really are Kakuzu the immortal? I never would have thought it was true, but how?" Shibuki said he couldn't afford to stall for time but he needed to know.
"A forbidden technique created by this village, I don't know who made it but I have perfected the technique and I call it: Andeddo nusumi (Undead sealing). Don't worry about how it works though, you'll be dead soon enough."
Kakuzu couldn't even care less about this man, he had no doubt he would win this fight. Shibuki charged the man again, this time putting more force in his attacks, he was doing good using a kunai to block the threads coming at him, but he wasn't sure if he could keep going forever.
"You're strong I won't lie to you, but compared to the likes of Harashima Senju, you are nothing more than a pebble in the ocean." Kakuzu cough as Shibuki disappeared in pure speed and reappeared with his hand through the man's chest destroying one of his hearts and a lung. Kakuzu fell a few steps backward, that was two hearts in one day. Now he was angry, he only had one left, he hadn't replaced his 4th heart in a while and was down to 3, now he has 1 left.
"That should take care of you, now to get Fuu and run before Hidan can get back to me" Shibuki said as he quickly grabbed the girl, he stood up with her before he felt his body go limp. Blood started pooling out of his mouth as he fell to his knees, Fuu falling onto the ground in front of him.
"You actually hurt me fucker, but it's all good" Hidan smiled as he ripped his scythe back, Shibuki's body ripping in half falling to the ground. "Damn he died too easily, I was gonna do the ritual on him. Whatever, get up Kakuzu we should get going. I'm done here" Hidan said as he kicked his partner.
"Fuck you Hidan, I lost two hearts today, I need to find some more here soon" Kakuzu said as he stood up wheezing, "A lung also."
"How about that, looks like we both need a new heart, bastard got me from behind and destroyed mine. It feels weird tbh, my body feels cold, guess that's what happens when my blood isn't being pumped through my body." Hidan said as he played with the hole in his chest, putting his hand through it laughing at himself.
Kakuzu picked fuu back up with his threads, "Let's get going, Hidan stop playing with yourself and lets get ourselves some temporary organs before reporting back to Pein-sama" Kakuzu said as his threads ripped the heart out of Shibuki and dragged it into his own chest. "Humph, of course you're a water user, pretty weak too, whatever it'll make due for now."
Hidan and Kakuzu quickly worked through the village finding some replaceable organs before they made their way to a hideout to contact the rest of the group. It was time to seal the seven tails, and this would take a while due to the strength of the bijuu.
Naruto had enjoyed the last week, he had forgotten how relaxing it could be in the village, including that he and Hinata are openly dating. Naruto was happy, he hadn't run into Sasuke since he saw him on his date, which still baffled the boy. Sasuke was sent out with Kakashi on a mission so he couldn't test the boy's skills. But there was no rush, Jiraiya has been missing since he came back, Naruto had no idea if the man had left again or not. The best part of all of this was Naruto was finally living in his parents home for real. It wasn't like last time when he was in Obito's Tsukiyomi, but this was real, and every day he learned something new about the home. His dad had left a lot of secrets in there, some unfinished, but a lot of stuff he never knew about. So many safe rooms, he had a panic room under the house, that was filled with all of his secrets including the Hirashian, as well as unfinished jutsu, and hundreds upon hundreds of notes.
Naruto had read through a lot of them, a good majority was about how to finish the rasengan and how each time he failed what he took from it etc. never once though did he try to use clones, if he did things would have worked out for him. It looked like he got close quite a few times though. Naruto couldn't help but be amazed by his father's own genius as he read over his notes. His favorite room though was easily the library, there was so much in there from Uzushiogakure. He brought in Arashi one day, and the man was in tears, he thought so much had been stolen during the fall of the country, but really Kushina had snuck back with Minato to steal a lot of information. Right now though Naruto was sitting on the couch with Hinata asleep on him, they were just hanging out reading, and she must've got tired. It was only the middle of the day but it was the perfect day too, the weather was perfect outside, barely any clouds, it was warm but not too warm. The perfect Sunday, even though it wasn't Sunday.
Naruto set his book down as he looked down at Hinata, the world has been crazy, so to have a day like this was the best, he couldn't even remember the last time he had a day like this ever. Naruto ran his hands through her hair as she lay there, it was perfectly serene. Naruto decided to take a nap as well and closed his eyes deciding he might as well get used to life being good.
"Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze open the door, this is ANBU" a voice could be heard as a pounding was coming from the front door. Naruto and Hinata both quickly got up from the couch, Hinata rubbing her eyes yawning, Naruto meanwhile got up to answer the door.
"What is it?" Naruto asked opening the door seeing an Anbu with a monkey mask on.
"You are being summoned by the hokage, you are to report alone, this is S-ranked" Naruto's eyes narrowed, worried about what that could mean.
"OK I'll be there shortly, let me get my stuff" Naruto said, the Anbu nodded and left. "Hinata I-" the girl cut him off.
"Go, it's okay, I'll head home, just be safe please Naruto-kun" Hinata said, Naruto smiled and kissed the girl, missing the way her lips felt. He then grabbed his kunai pouch putting it on his leg before quickly putting on his sandals. He then used a few shunshin to get to the Hokage's office. He hopped through the window scaring the kage, "Baa-chan what's going on!" Naruto asked, ignoring the other people in her office.
Tsunade sighed as she grabbed her forehead, "I'm sorry everyone but if you would please excuse us, this is S-ranked information I need to be alone here with Naruto-san" the other people in her office responded appropriately before heading out of the office.
"Ok baa-chan were alone, so now please tell me what's going on?" Naruto asked, worried about what she would tell him.
"Takigakure was attacked and destroyed" Naruto's face widened in horror knowing where this was going, "Fuu, the Jinchuriki of the seven tails was also captured. The village was attacked by Kakuzu the Immortal and Hidan of the undead, which explains how they were able to sneak into the village." Naruto gripped his fingers, now he was furious, Akatsuki made a move and he was too slow to do anything.
"Is there any chance we can still save her? She has seven tails, that won't be a quick extraction. The one tail alone was supposed to take 3 days to seal, this should take at least a week if not longer!" Naruto said, he needed to do something.
"Exactly, Kakashi and Sasuke were on there way back to the village when they heard about this and sent me a message, they have gone to Takigakure to investigate, you are to meet them there, you can bring one person with you as long as they aren't on a mission already." Tsunade said with a smirk.
Naruto wasted no time with his answer, "Shikamaru" this got the women's attention, Naruto was quick to say why, "His genius may help us find the location of the Akatsuki, he's smarter than anyone I know, and his tactics can help us in the fight against whoever we may face."
"You're lucky he's only on gate duty, I can easily have someone replace him, and Ino has been getting on my nerves lately. Go to West Gate, Shikamaru is working there, let him know what he's doing now, there is no time to say goodbye you need to leave immediately." Tsunade told him, Naruto meanwhile nodded.
"Thank you baa-chan, I just hope we can make it in time" Naruto said before leaving the office.
Tsunade watched the boy leave, "Are you sure this is right?"
Jiraiya walked out of the shadows, "This is his test, let's hope he can win. I can't always watch his back, and he is more than strong enough, with or without sage mode." Jiraiya walked over and kissed Tsunade's forehead, "I have to leave now, there are some things I have to attend too. I'll contact you soon my love"
Tsunade looked up at the man, her face fell soft, "Please be careful, I can't lose you too." She rested her head against the man, he just smiled softly, it wasn't time to see his students yet, first he had information to collect, and people to see. He had a village to protect still.
"I don't plan on going anywhere love, plus you still have the kid" Jiraiya said, Tsunade chuckled though.
"Get out of here you buffoon, go save some people, and keep in touch with me" Tsunade said before the man could leave. Jiraiya smirked, he quickly kissed the kage before leaving the office, "Jackass…" she muttered wishing the kiss would have lasted longer.
"Ugh, this is too troublesome, why didn't you get someone else like Neji?" Shikamaru said as they hopped through the tees, Shikamaru trying to keep up with Naruto.
"Your skills are better for this mission, and you are a lot smarter, what you lack in physical prowess you more than make up for in strategies and quick thinking." Naruto said, Shikamaru was taken aback a little, he keeps forgetting that Naruto isn't the same stupid kid he used to know. Leaving with a Sannin for 4 years really did a lot for him.
"Whatever, let's just hurry up and get there" Shikamaru said, making Naruto grin, the trip would normally take about two days to get there, Naruto was going to accelerate that quite a bit.
"Well we don't really have two days to waste, so how's about we get there in a few hours?" Naruto said. Shikamaru was scared by what the boy could possibly mean, he was sure that they weren't going to run that fast.
Naruto stopped abruptly, Shikamaru had to be careful not to run into his friend, "What are we doing?"
Naruto didn't answer instead he flared his chakra and slammed his hand on the ground, "Summoning Jutsu" Naruto yelled.a huge puff of smoke appeared and next think Shikamaru knew he and Naruto were on top of a Giant toad. "Sorry I didn't do this sooner, I couldn't be near the village when I did this"
"Naruto is that you?" the summoned toad said not even bothering trying to look up.
"You betcha Gamken, I need you to help me get somewhere fast" Naruto said.
"I may be clumsy, but I will do my best to help you Naruto-san. Where are we going exactly so I can do my best for you?" Gamken asked happy to at least be able to help.
"We need to head about 200 miles west of here" Naruto said, "Id appreciate any help you could give us, and when I see you next I promise to give you something in return for helping whatever you want" Nauto said. "Also avoid any towns we don't need to hurt anyone!"
"It will be my honor to help you Naruto-san, please hold on tight because we are going to be going now" Gamken said as he lowered his body getting ready to shoot his body off
Shikamaru's eyes widened when he saw Naruto's smirk and quickly did what he could to hold onto the creature.
Without much warning Gamken shot off at super speed, flying over the land. Gamken kept up the speed as he kept jumping, Shikamaru was trying his hardest to hold on whereas Naruto was just chilling like it was no problem. The toad kept up this pace for a good little while before he had to stop and rest, by the time he did Shikamaru couldn't help but be amazed at how far they had gone.
"I'm sorry Naruto-san, but I need to rest, forgive me for not being able to go all the way there without a break." Gamken said apologizing.
"Don't sweat it man, you've actually helped us out a lot! Rest up for an hour or two and then we'll continue" Naruto told the toad, Gamken nodded before going to rest near the lake they stopped by.
"So what's the plan?" Shikamaru said as he rested on the ground, his legs feeling weak.
"After we get to the village I'm gonna enter sage mode to locate Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke so we can meet up with them, hopefully they'll have more for us to go off on. For now all that we have is Akatsuki attacked Takigakure, from what Baa-chan told me the two members who attacked are supposedly immortal, and they laid waste to the village while also taking the seven tails jinchuuriki. I don't know how much you know about the Akatsuki, but their goal is to hunt down all 9 bijuu and their jinchuuriki and seal them away so as to use their power for its on use." Naruto told his friend, Shikamaru could tell from Naruto's body language how upset he was about this situation.
"I'm guessing you're so upset about this because you're the Jinchuuriki of the nine tails huh?" Shikamaru said.
Naruto eyes widened, "Wha? How did you know that!" Naruto didn't remember telling Shikamaru this.
"You told the entire village a week ago that you're the vessel of the Kyuubi, how I didn't realize this sooner is beyond me, but it makes so much sense, everyones okay with it though. We know you couldn't choose this for yourself, but no matter what you always did your best for all of us." Shikamaru said as he scratched his head.
Naruto smiled, he already knew no one would care, but the way Shikamaru said it outloud it made him feel better. "Yea, as a Jinchuuriki myself I can't help seeing my siblings being destroyed like this. Anyone trying to collect all Nine Bijuu is easily up to no good, and the lengths they're willing to go is insane. They attacked and most likely demolished a minor village, and that was just two of them. Jiraiya and myself did a lot of extensive research on this group, it's full of S ranked individuals, led by another individual who is strong enough to make all of them follow him. Which in its own right is scary, for someone to be so strong that a group of S ranked Ninja follow him out of fear alone. It's terrifying what they could do, which is why I have to stop them, I have to help my brothers and sisters no matter what." Naruto said as he sat with his arms wrapped around his legs, his hands balled into fists.
Shikamaru stood up and put his hand on Naruto's shoulder kneeling next to the boy, "Well you're not alone. I've got your back, and so does everyone else we will help you no matter how troublesome this may be" Shikamaru said.
Gaken came back up to the boys, "I am ready to continue now if you are Naruto-san."
Naruto smiled as he took Shikamaru's hand, the boy helped Naruto to his feet and they got on the toads back. Naruto looked forward, he knew war was coming, but this time he was prepared, and this time things would change. "Thank you Gaken, let's get going, full speed ahead." The toad nodded before taking off.
Author's note: Sorry for the long take to update, work has been busy and life took over for a minute, it may be a few weeks until I update again, but I'm going to try and update at least twice a month if possible. Anyways I hope you liked this chapter, and I will try to be back soon with more!