Chapter 30:
Hidan and Kakuzu stood at the fingers of the statue in the cave somewhere. Well, it was their holograms which were standing there, while their bodies are somewhere else.
Everyone else in the Akatsuki was also there, including a new member, Saeko formerly of the Busujima Clan of the Land of Iron. All of them took one look at the Zombie Duo, and saw how beaten-up they are, especially Hidan, who barely has anything left of his Akatsuki robe.
"Hidan, Kakuzu, what happened?" Pain asked with narrowed eyes.
Hidan growled in anger, while Kakuzu had a thinking look on his face. "I…" Kakuzu started to say. "I have no idea."
His reply confused everyone in the Akatsuki except Hidan, who was just as much in the dark about what happened as Kakuzu was. One minute he was playing with Leaf Ninja, and the next he felt an unbelievable pain and was flying through the air. Kakuzu joined him soon after.
The same goes for Kakuzu. He was messing with the Leaf ninja who controls the crows, humoring him with a little taijutsu sparing, and then there was some dude, who grabbed him by the face, dragged him through the roof and then tossed him in the same direction towards where he previously kicked Hidan.
Kakuzu was confused as to how could something like that happen. He and Hidan were not weak, nor slow, but whoever that person was, has speed and strength no regular human could possibly possess.
Kakuzu is stronger than Hidan, faster as well, and more observing. This means that while Hidan saw nothing but a blur which kicked him, Kakuzu was able to recognize a male with blond hair and beard, and blue eyes while he was being held by the face and dragged through the roof. Because of that, he was sure that the guy seemed familiar for some reason, but Kakuzu can't remember from where.
"We were messing out with some Leaf ninja in front of the bounty office," Kakuzu started to explain. "Hidan pretty much killed one of them, I believe his name is Asuma Sarutobi and he has 35 mil bounty on his head," Itachi rose his eyebrows at this, but said nothing. "Then some reinforcements from the Leaf showed up, but they were nothing special, and we would have dealt with them in no time. But then…" Kakuzu stopped talking as he was still unable to come to fully understand what the hell happened. Hidan growled again, and started shouting and swearing, promising pain and sacrifice to Jashin, of, whoever that person was.
Everyone in the Akatsuki were totally confused by the way two of their members were acting, as they have never seen them like this. This was new, and whatever happened, was raising red flags in Pain's head.
"Someone showed up," Kakuzu spoke again, making everyone look at him. "While I was messing with one Leaf ninja on the roof of the bounty office, Hidan was kicked so hard he was sent flying through the sky," several eyes widened at that, while few narrowed theirs, "then, whoever kicked him, appeared on the roof where I was, in an instant, grabbed me by the face, slammed on the roof, and dragged for several meters, before he tossed me in the same direction as Hidan, with the same speed and power as if I was kicked.
"I have no idea how that was possible and who could have done it. I have never thought that there is someone with that much speed and physical power in this world. We were both flying for MILES, before we crushed down. That should have need impossible for anyone using pure strength."
"Were you able to see how it was?" Pain asked. He was very curious about who could it be, and, while he won't admit it. He was slightly concerned. Unknown to him, his feelings were shared by few other members of the Akatsuki.
"I saw… NOTHING!" Hidan shouted, and then went on another rant, and another line of cursing. Kakuzu though.
"I was able to see a golden blonde hair, full facial beard, along with blue eyes, and some markings around the eyes," Kakuzu said, making everyone raise their eyebrows, except one member, who smirked. "I can swear that I saw him somewhere, but I can't remember where."
Before Pain could say anything, a female voice said. "You run into Alessandro," the voice which belongs to Saeko, said. Everyone now looked at her and had either raised eyebrows or narrowed eyes.
"You mean your previous partner. Alessandro Stark." Pain question, and Saeko nodded.
"Yes," she confirmed. "He looks a bit different then in the bingo book because the picture there is outdated for about three years. But from the description… I'm pretty sure it's him, as he is the only one who has enough speed and physical power to do something like that."
"And why would he attack our members," Pain asked? "Was he after their bounties like he was after Sasori and Deidara?"
"I don't think so," Saeko said. "If he was, he would have killed them and then taken the bodies, but he just kicked them away. That proves that he was after something else. Maybe it has something to do with those Leaf ninja, but I can't be sure."
"Maybe he was searching for you," Kisame said. "You were his partner in bounty hunting."
Saeko again shock her head. "If he was, he would have beaten Hidan and Kakuzu, and then questioned them about out location. Since he didn't do that, that means that, either he doesn't know that I have joined the Akatsuki, or he does, but doesn't care that I joined you and abandoned him. I was just one of many who were working with him on bounty hunting, so he might think that I'm unneeded."
Pain will not say it out loud, but he doesn't know which of the two options said by Saeko were worse. If it's the former, and Alessandro is after the Akatsuki to reclaim Saeko, then they are in for a hard battle, since the guy has shown to be incredibly strong. If it's the latter, and he doesn't care that Saeko has abandoned him and joined the Akatsuki, well, Pain doesn't even want to know how powerful some other members of that group are if Saeko would be deemed unnecessary, when she alone has destroyed five of his Pain bodies, and almost brought down the sixth as well, before he was able to subdue her.
"How do we fight him?" Pain asked.
Saeko looked at him with raised eyebrows. "You don't," she said, getting raised eyebrows in return. "If you see him, you run away… fast, and if you are lucky, he will let you go. If you are not lucky, well... you are dead. But trust me, there is no battling him. He is powerful and skilled enough to fight and kill just about anyone."
Everyone from the Akatsuki looked at her as if she was insane. They couldn't possibly believe what she has said, as it sounds unbelievable.
"If he is that powerful, then why did you leave him and join us?" Black Zetsu asked with narrowed eyes. He is very suspicious about all of this. He has been around for a long time, and has seen powerful people across the centuries, but not many could have taken on the entire roster of the Akatsuki and win with no problem. The only ones coming to mind are Hagoromo, his sons, and their reincarnations, Hashirama and Madara. Few others, like Minato Namikaze, might come close, but even he wouldn't be able to take out nine S-Rank ninja by himself. Whoever this, Alessandro Starrk is, is possibly a very big threat to his plans, and he must find out as soon as possible who he is, where he's coming from, and how to stop him. If he doesn't and his plans for the Akatsuki fail… his mother will not be happy with the fact that she will have to wait even longer to be unleashed upon the world.
Saeko looked at Zetsu and shrugged. "One reason is that I was afraid of him," her response stunned everyone. "It's hard to work with someone you are afraid of. The other reason is, that I simply didn't think that he cared about me enough to come after me even if I abandoned him. We weren't close. We just worked together, and that's that."
"So what is his reason for saving the Leaf ninja?" Pain asked.
Saeko shrugged. "I don't know," she of course was lying… partly anyway. She didn't know why he saved this particular group of Leaf ninja, but if she was to guess, there is probably someone in the group Naruto cares about because they were on his side not against him.
"Does he have some kind of goal in life," Pain asked again? "Or is he just satisfied with being a Bounty Hunter?"
Saeko hmed, and made it look like she is thinking about the question. In a way, she was thinking about it, but she was thinking on how to lie. "Well," she finally spoke. "He always spoke about some kind of 'unity', though he never explained what that meant, and I knew better then to ask."
Everyone in the Akatsuki thought about what Saeko said about the goal of Alessandro Starrk, and what this 'unity', might mean. They unfortunately came up with nothing.
Pain finally decided to stop thinking about Alessandro, and focus on the more pressing matters… like the extraction of the two-tailed beast from its jinchūriki which was currently lying on the floor in the middle of the cavern. "Let's proceed with the extraction of the two-tails," Pain said. "I will find a way to deal with Starrk after this is done."
The others nodded, and then performed the hand seals for the jutsu which will extract the beast from the jinchūriki.
Saeko looked at the young, blonde haired woman floating mid-air surrounded by blue chakra with pink chakra leaving her body through her mouth and nose. She couldn't help but sigh in her head at how fortunate this girl was that Pain decided to send her, to capture the jinchūriki, instead of Hidan and Kakuzu who were meant to be the ones who captured her.
That job was given to Saeko as a way of initiation in the Akatsuki and to see if she would be able to do the job, even though she has proven her power when she destroyed five of Pain's six bodies, and only lost to the last one because she wanted to and not because she was actually defeated. Pain thought that he won because he was strong, but was unnerved by the fact that he almost lost, especially since he sees himself as a God, because of the Dōjutsu he has.
After he brought Saeko in the Akatsuki HQ in the Land of Rain, he told her that he wants to see if she would be capable of capturing a jinchūriki, and sent her to the Land of Lightning to capture the Two-Tails, who was going to be in a secluded area on a mission sent by the Village Hidden in the Clouds, council. The Two-Tails jinchūriki was sent on the mission so that she can be captured by the Akatsuki, who have made a deal with Kumo. Apparently, the Akatsuki promised to leave the Eight-Tails alone, if they were given the two-tails. The Kumo council and the Raikage jumped at the chance and practically handed over the weaker jinchūriki while they kept the stronger, who is also the Raikage's brother.
Poor sons of bitches didn't know that the Akatsuki never intended to keep their end of the deal, and plan to go after the eight-tails as soon as possible.
The reason Yugito Nii, the two-tailed jinchūriki was lucky, is because Naruto has made a seal which will prevent the jinchūriki from dying in case their Biju was extracted. Naruto made this seal after Gaara was killed by the extraction, and has taught that seal to his closest companions and allies. Saeko has used it on Yugito after she defeated the blonde haired Kumo kunoichi.
Of course, the other members of the Akatsuki don't know about this, and they never will.
One of the things that Saeko was able to make Pain give her in return for her joining the Akatsuki, were the corpses of the jinchūriki after the Biju were extracted from them. Naturally, Pain was unnerved by this, but seeing that Saeko is really powerful and will be a great addition to the Akatsuki, he agreed with her request, and so, Saeko will be able to get her hands on Yugito's dead body after the Biju was extracted.
The reason the members of the Akatsuki won't know that the jinchūriki are surviving, is because the seal placed on them takes about 10 minutes to activate and revive them, which is enough time for Saeko to take the body and leave before anyone notices anything.
Saeko still needs to find a way to get to the body of the other jinchūriki and place the seal on them after they are captured and before the Biju are extracted, because she won't be the one who goes after all of them. She also needs to be close to the place where the sealing takes place, so that even if she is at the sealing site as a hologram, she will be able to get to the body before it gets revived, and gets noticed by those who really are at the sealing site, like it was the case with Sasori and Deidara with Gaara.
XXX
Asuma walked out of the Garganta, following after Tayuya, and found himself in front of an unbelievable sight.
He was standing at the top of the entryway of the Land of Whirlpools, and from there, he had a perfect look at the whole place.
Asuma Sarutobi has been around a lot, and has seen a lot of places in his life, many of them beautiful in one way or another, but this town-in-the-making, he was currently looking at, is the most beautiful he has ever seen… and the place doesn't even look to be finished yet.
"W-Where are we?" He asked with astonishment in his voice.
"We are in the Land of Whirlpools." Tayuya replied as she was standing next to Asuma, Garganta already closed. Just like Asuma, she was admiring the place, even though she has lived there for the last three years, and has seen the construction from the start.
Asuma looked at Tayuya, sharply, and with narrowed eyes. "Isn't that the place where the Uzumaki Clan used to live?" He asked. Asuma was old enough to know about the Uzumaki Clan. He was born around the time they were destroyed, but at that time, the history of the Uzumaki Clan was taught in the ninja academy in Konoha, and has been until after the death of the Fourth Hokage. As such, he knew about the history and the end of the Uzumaki Clan, while the younger generations, those born few years before the death of the Fourth Hokage, and after, don't know anything about that clan, as the Konoha council has decided to expel everything about that clan and their whole existence from the Academy.
Thinking about it now, Asuma realized that it probably has something with the fact Naruto was an Uzumaki, and almost no one in the village wanted the boy to think that he is someone important, but instead they wanted him to think that he is a nobody.
"Yes," Tayuya replied. "They used to live here until their destruction about 30 years ago. The place has been completely destroyed and no one has lived here ever since. Many have been coming here over the years, searching for anything of value, and trying to find the vault, but no one has been successful.
"Three years ago, Alessandro decided to build a place where he can live along with those he cares about, as well as with those who need a place to stay, and have nowhere else to go, so he chose this place. We've been constructing it ever since."
"I see," Asuma muttered, as he looked around the place. He had to admit that he was impressed with how much work has been done in just three years. To turn a completely ruined place into something like this… it is unbelievable. He himself wouldn't have believed it if he didn't see it with his own eyes. "But why this place? There must have been some other place around the EN, which would be better for the construction of the town or village."
"Alessandro and I are both Uzumaki," Tayuya said, making Asuma's eyes nearly pop out of his head. "This is our ancestral land. As such, there is no better place for us to build a city then where our ancestors lived."
Tayuya and Asuma looked at the city from their high standing point for a few more minutes, before Tayuya said. "Let's go to the leader's office, and introduce you to some people."
Asuma and Tayuya jumped from the wall, and headed down.
"I thought that Alessandro is the leader?" Asuma questioned.
"He is," Tayuya said. "But he has left a clone behind to help me keep watch over everything. We are going to introduce you to him, and then to the other people Alessandro has turned into Hybrids or pure Hollows. After that, we will see what we can have you do, when you are not training to learn to control your new powers."
Asuma nodded, before he continued to run next to Tayuya, in silence.