A/N: Sorry about the long wait for this chapter or even just an update in general, I broke my keyboard and had to order a new one and Walmart was being a cunt and wouldn't ship it to me and I had to be an actual person and go places. I am posting this at around 11 PM Central time because I now live in the middle of the country and it is still Halloween where I live. So Happy Halloween, let's hold off the Christmas music for like another day or so if we can. Other story news and updates will be found in the Author's Notes at the bottom of the chapter. Now onto the story:
The village was not quite the same, there was a careful vibe in the air. As if the man who had laid waste to it a little over a month ago would come back and lay waste to it again.
"I wonder what Naruto is doing" commented Sakura as she worked with Team 10, under Shikamaru's watchful eye.
"Who cares, he like with all blond(e)s, is more trouble than he is worth" answered Shikamaru.
Ino raised her fist at her pineapple haired teammate and Sakura stuck her tongue at her blonde rival.
"You aren't the least bit interested in what someone like Naruto could be learning from a legend like Jiraiya?" asked Ino
"No, I do this thing called minding my own business." answered Shikamaru
"Oh come on Shika, you got to be the least be curious at what he could be doing?" added Choji.
"Nope" answered the lazy Nara.
"So where is your sensei? Kakashi is on S-Ranked death roll for the next month. Something about him being one of the strongest shinobi in our village means the village needs him more than we do" said Sakura.
"Asuma is on a mission with that Kurenai lady" answered Ino as she held a board up as Choji nailed it into place.
"Kurenai is a very nice lady, she taught me some of the more advanced Genjutsu that I know" commented Sakura.
"Huh, didn't she have a thing for Naruto as well?" asked Ino
"Yeah, something like that. How did you know?" questioned Sakura
"Because Asuma-Sensei hates Naruto for getting in the way of his "relationship" with Kurenai." responded Ino
"Well all I know is that Naruto and her had some kind of fight or something because she's angry with him and the two of them aren't dating." said Sakura
"I wondered if that is going to make an impact on their mission." stated Ino
Outside the Village, near the border of the Land of Fire:
Kurenai was on a mission with Asuma, something she was neither happy about or capable of doing anything about.
"I don't get it, if Naruto and you aren't dating at the moment, then why can't I ask you out?" asked Asuma
"I don't know, maybe because I'm not interested in you." replied Kurenai
"Why not? I'm strong, handsome, and smart" said Asuma "I'm quite the shinobi, you'd know that if you gave me a chance."
"I did give you a chance" said Kurenai with an eye roll "You broke up with me because and I quote "I have needs and we're moving so slow that we're going backwards" remember that line genius"
"I apologized" whined Asuma
"Yeah and I don't have to accept it" finished Kurenai as she basically ended the conversation.
They ran for a while longer, long enough that the sun started to set. But there was no talking this time around, just that premium awkward silence that makes traveling just absolutely great.
"We should have run into some Chunin scouts by now" mentioned Asuma as they approached the outpost they were supposed to be picking up information from.
"You're right" said Kurenai before she subtly looked around for Genjutsu.
"That's not needed Kurenai, we knew that you would be coming here. No reason to use a Genjutsu when you have a top 2 in the world Genjutsu user closing in on your location" said a voice.
Asuma and Kurenai looked up and above them was a pair of men in black cloaks with red clouds on them.
With the long black hair, red sharingan eyes, and slashed through Konoha headband, the one on the right was clearly Itachi Uchiha. The one on the left with the blue skin, gills, spiky black hair, and bandage wrapped sword on his back made him Kisame.
With them was a bunch of Konoha ANBU lookalikes, except these men and woman had blank masks.
Two S-Ranked Shinobi with the help of 32 potentially ANBU level Shinobi, was more than enough for simply Kurenai and Asuma.
Itachi dropped down from the tree, his Sharingan blazing as it morphed into something else, causing a ball of fear to explode in her stomach.
"Kurenai, you need not fear. We aren't going to kill you, we need you alive. It will be the simplest way to simply have Naruto turn him over to us. You can try to fight, but that is not logical for you to do. You are in over your head" Stated Itachi with a tone that said he knew he was only speaking facts.
Asuma's hands flashed as he pulled out his twin trench knives and allowed wind chakra to flow through them.
"Yeah it's gonna be a cold day in hell before you take Kurenai or myself" spat Asuma, his chakra flaring showing his strength.
"I said nothing about you, actually kill the spare" hissed Kisame before he drew his sword.
Asuma gulped before he let out a loud a calming breath, followed by a nervous chuckle leaving his lips.
Kurenai just kept her eyes on Itachi, this was not a fight she was looking for, but one that she knew would be forced to participate in.
With Naruto and Jiraiya: The Border of the Land of Fire and Land of Wind:
"You would think that the Hidden Sand Village would be happier that we managed to give them a report on where Gaara is being held" commented Naruto
"You'll find that most of the Kages are assholes, something about being that powerful just brings out the worst in people" replied Jiraiya.
"Hmm, I guess that makes sense, Old man Hiruzen-Sensei was a slave driver when he was training me" realized Naruto
"You think he was hard on you? Imagine how hard he was on us to make us the level of the Kages by the time we were 16. You certainly are closer than any other 17 year old that I've met. But don't worry, I'm not an like the other shinobi on my level."
"Please, that's because instead of being an asshole, you peep on those of a female" retorted Naruto
"YOU BRAT! I AM YOUR SENSEI AND MASTER, YOU WILL SHOW ME SOME RESPECT!" screamed Jiraiya as he started to chase Naruto out of the sand and into the beginning of the forests.
He was gaining on his blond haired student, the second one, when he felt a massive amount of chakra flare. He immediately recognized it as one that he once babysat when he was a young Genin.
"You feel that Naruto?"
"Yeah sensei" replied Naruto in a serious tone.
"Someone from the village is in trouble, someone that I know"
"Everyone you know is strong enough to take care of themselves" reasoned Naruto "You always say that we need to be able to stand on our own two feet, helping whoever that is isn't allowing them to stand on their own feet."
"You don't feel it?" asked Jiraiya as he changed their course.
"Feel what?"
"Underneath that massive flare of chakra is a bunch of suppressed chakra signals, they maybe be able to fool someone like you or a lesser shinobi but I literally do this for a living. No one on this planet can hide from me. If I'm looking for them."
A massive blast of flames shot out from the source of the chakra and Naruto felt a wave of chakra flood the area, it was overwhelming.
"I know you felt that" asked Jiraiya as they sped up, becoming little more than slight blurs as they raced towards the source of the chakra they felt.
Another blast of fire and another flare of the same crushing chakra was felt, leaving more questions.
The original flare of Chakra started rushing towards them and Naruto narrowed his eyes. Neither Jiraiya or himself were suppressing their chakra, but I mean they were still Jiraiya and Naruto. Whoever they were, they were not going be rushing towards them if they were going to be hostile.
Naruto started to mold chakra inside of his body, the flames swelling in his belly. He would unleash a massive firestorm upon seeing the sorry sap who would dared challenge him.
He almost lost control of the flames that filled his lungs when he saw that it was Asuma who was racing towards them. Well, not the rude asshole son of the Third Hokage, but more about the stilled form of Kurenai draped over his shoulder,
Asuma was looking heavily roughed up himself, his Jonin vest destroyed along the right side, his smoking stick gone from it's place in his mouth, his headband missing as was his special Twelve Guardians sash that he wore around his waist.
Kurenai's dress was showing signs of ash and her red sleeve was shredded showing blood running from the deep scratches that littered the arm.
"Jiraiya, boy am I glad to see you" panted Asuma as he struggled to pull air in to his tired body.
"Who did this to you?" asked the Toad Sage
"Akatsuki, more specifically Itachi and his partner Kisame. They were accompanied by these ANBU type shinobi that wore plan blank masks." answered Asuma
"People as powerful as Itachi and Kisame using ANBU level support? That's not a normal Akatsuki behavior, they usually run strictly in duos, this must be some kind of task force that was put together to match up with Naruto and I." muttered Jiraiya.
"I told you Kisame, Lord Jiraiya isn't a normal Shinobi, even if he plays the madman. He is still one of the sharpest men in all the land, he figured it out that we had extra help against him" said a cold voice from behind Asuma.
"Itachi Uchiha, you flatter me. I can't let you take Naruto, but I hand you an ass whupping of legend" spat Jiraiya "Asuma, get Kurenai back to the village. Naruto and I will handle this"
"Lord Jiraiya, these are the boogeymen of the Shinobi world, let me help you. Naruto can take Kurenai back to the village, you and I have a better chance of surviving. I already know how they fight, we can do this." pleaded Asuma, his eyes steeling with determination.(A/N1)
"Fine. Naruto, you take her back to the Village and Asuma and I will take out the trash" said Jiraiya with a tone that left no room for Naruto to argue back.
Naruto nodded and grabbed Kurenai from Asuma before disappearing in a blur, headed back to the village at speeds that would put most Jonin to shame.
Asuma smirked and pulled out his trench knives and said "No reason to hold back with an opponent this dangerous"
"I agree" stated Jiraiya as he flared his chakra and the ground started shaking before he was forced to jump to the side to avoid a long wind enhanced and extended slash of Asuma's trench knife.
"You knew?" hissed Asuma as he jumped to stand next to Itachi and Kisame, clearly making his intentions and sides known.
"Kid, you are a shit liar and you could never pull one over on me. In fact, you're all kids, from fish faced freak to the baby Uchiha with daddy issues. But none of that matters now, you three already made a mistake and this fight is over" stated Jiraiya with a seriousness that was usually never seen.
In a blur, the toad summoner slammed his hand onto the ground and there was a medium sized puff of smoke.
"Jiraiya boy? You've called on us?" croaked a small green toad with a tiny cloak
"Eh this is much nicer than last time Pa, we aren't underground" added a small purple toad.
"I apologize for bothering you two, Ma and Pa, but I'm going up against 3 members of the Akatsuki here. I need you to grant me Sage Mode." said Jiraiya as the two small toads jumped onto his shoulders and their feet melted into his body.
Jiraiya chuckled and said "You guys are so fucked" as his nose grew large and warty, his red face marking growing thicker and extending down his face and finally his eyes turned yellow and his pupil turned into a horizontal bar.
Kisame was the first to rush forward, swinging forward his scaled sword. He smiled ear to ear when he saw Jiraiya refuse to move, but much to his horror, the Toad Sage caught the cluster of scales he called a sword with his bare hand. Things only got worse for him when his sword was unable to pull any chakra out of the wild haired man.
"Amazing right" mused Jiraiya before he tightened his grip on the sword before used it to pull the blue skinned man towards him before slamming his foot into his stomach.
The shark like man was sent flying backwards as Jiraiya tossed the special sword over his back, disregarding it.
Leaning back as he turned, he avoided another wind blade from Asuma before he used his forearm to block the next one. The chakra created blade didn't make it past the top layer of nature chakra coating his skin, but Jiraiya made sure to avoid taking too many of those blows.
Racing forward, Jiraiya continued to simply dodge to waves of wind chakra created blades sent at him by his Sensei's son. Upon reaching the traitorous Konoha Jonin, Jiraiya swung his fist at the bearded traitor. Asuma was surprised at even when he dodged, he felt a fist slam into his chest, sending him crashing onto his back and knocking all the air out of his body.
Jiraiya twisted to avoid the bullet of water that was shot at him by Kisame.
"He fucking missed and still managed to send smokey here to the ground, this is why we call him the Legendary Jiraiya" commented Kisame as he rejoined the fight. "Why don't you put him in one of those famous Gen-Jutsu of yours Itachi?"
"I've been trying this entire time Kisame, he's breaking them before they can even take hold" answered Itachi as Kisame met Jiraiya in a pure fist to fist bout.
The shark like man was getting picked apart, Jiraiya was either hitting him and damaging his body or missing and still seemingly landing overpowered blows. Spinning Jiraiya kicked Kisame in the face, using the blow as an opportunity to create a springboard from his blue skinned victim, Jiraiya caught the fist of Asume before pulling in his master's son to slam his knee into the stomach of the bearded traitor.
Smirking Jiraiya, backhanded the former Konoha shinobi away and blocked the gravity powered kick from Itachi. Itachi hopped back and tried to flip through hand signs only for Jiraiya to stomp his foot on the ground and cause the ground to crumble all throughout the field.
Kisame is forced to abandon his attack due to the unstable ground, Itachi can't focus the chakra correctly as he is forced to dodge Jiraiya's unrelenting attacks as the Sannin refuses to let up on the Uchiha Prodigy. Asuma manages to gather his wits long enough to use something that made Jiraiya grit his teeth.
"Earth Style: Balancing Force" said Asuma as he slammed his hands on the ground, allowing the uneven ground to mend itself into a large stone surface.
"You dare use the Jutsu of your father after you betray him and the village" snarled an angry Jiraiya.
Turning his attention from Itachi to Asuma, Jiraiya has much more success against the former Konoha Jonin than the former Konoha ANBU captain. Using a forearm to block a punch, pushing it out the way, Jiraiya elbowed Asuma in the neck before bringing his other hand down on top of his head.
Spinning Jiraiya grabbed the rushing sword of Kisame's that the blue skinned man had managed to recover and used it to slam the man in the ground. Ripping it out of the man's grasp, Jiraiya slammed it down on the man, forcing him deeper into the ground before using the chakra absorbing sword to take the brunt of Asuma's wind blades.
Not stopping, Jiraiya slapped the recovering Kisame with his own sword before stomping his foot and making a mud wall rise in front of him before it harden. Punching the wall, a series of spikes shot out at Itachi and Asuma who barely dodged the earth spikes, getting scraped on the side.
"God damn it, he's beating us down and barely breaking a sweat" complained Asuma as he gripped his ribs.
"What's worse is that his chakra level hasn't dipped in the slightest." Added Kisame as he rejoined the group of Asuma and Itachi.
"You kids don't get it, all of you are 30 years too young to even think of challenging me" said Jiraiya before he flashed through hand signs and hot oil flew out of his mouth before Pa added flames and Ma boosted it with Wind.(A/N2)
Asuma tried to match it with his own wind enhanced flames but his fire wall was clearly swept over by the triple threat flames of Jiraiya and his summons.
Kisame hissed as the flames got closer and his skin dried out, his cloak smoking from the sheer heat of the attack. Itachi jumped in front of his two companions and pooled all of his chakra behind right eye before his Sharingan morphed.
"Amaterasu" said Itachi before black flames shot out of his right eye and slammed into the Sage Mode oil powered and wind enhanced flames.
Itachi dropped to his knee, his hands around his right eye, unable to prevent the blood from rolling down his face. But he could only watch from his spot on one knee as his black flames never progressed, they couldn't eat their way through the triple powered Sage flames.
Itachi smiled weakly in disbelief, what was Jiraiya? Kisame and himself were also S-Ranked Shinobi and Asuma was the closest thing to it, even if he was right below it. But this man, the Toad Sage, one of the Sannin, Lord Jiraiya of the Hidden Leaf Village, he was simply inhumane. This was the difference between a single legend and guys like himself and Kisame, there was levels to this. And what has being forced to realize is that he was not on the level he thought he was, Jiraiya was closer to Pain than Itachi when Itachi had assumed it had been the other way around with him above the Sannin, his views warped by his encounter with Orochimaru.
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!
"I can the look on your faces, you are now seeing the difference between being S Ranked and being on the short list for being the God of Shinobi." taunted Jiraiya.
"You know, Naruto is probably far enough away that we can throw up the flare" hissed Asuma
Kisame nodded and Itachi threw up a scroll which exploded, causing Jiraiya to cover his eyes for a brief second.
When he uncovered them, he was greeted with the sight of a falling orange haired woman who was making a familiar set of hand signs.
When she landed, she slammed them onto the ground and in a burst of smoke, there was 5 more orange haired people. All with the standard Akatsuki cloak on, but also with the purple rippled eyes of the Rinnegan. Itachi, Kisame, and Asuma took this chance to retreat away from the battle grounds.
"Those eyes, they're the eyes of Sage of Six Paths. I once taught a student named Nagato who had them, i thought that he died a long time ago." Jiraiya said to Pa and Ma.
"Then how do they have the same eyes?" asked Ma
"I don't know, but I plan on finding out" answered Jiraiya.
"No need sensei" said an orange haired girl whose hair looked like an onion
"I can simply tell" continued a long orange haired man
"We are all the same person" finished a spiky haired one in the middle.
"Yahiko" whispered Jiraiya in horror as he realized who that last one was, the face of his former student.
"So, you do remember us, the students you tossed to the side like yesterday's trash, the people you swore to protect but left to die" said the puppet corpse of Yahiko.
"If you believe that, you're already too far gone, I can't save you. I can only `defeat you" replied Jiraiya.
"You always did joke around too much Sensei. UNIVERSAL PULL!" shouted the Deva Path
Jiraiya was ripped off his feet and sped towards the Deva Path, when one of the other orange haired puppets stepped forward and tried to stab Jiraiya through the stomach with some kind of metal tail.
The metal tail crumbled upon hitting the Sage Mode enhanced body of Jiraiya before he punched it and sent it flying, the physical body destroyed.
"I taught you everything that know, you'll have to be more creative than that Nagato" snarled Jiraiya
"You figured it already sensei, why am i not surprised. None of us could ever pull one over on you" said Nagato through Yahiko's body.
"I can feel the chakra flooding each on of these bodies, it's all the same chakra. That Rinnegan of yours always gave off a unique feel. I remember what it felt like and I can feel it corrupting these bodies as we speak. How far you've fallen makes me ashamed to be your sensei, but I'm not my sensei. My student has become a problem and I intend to clean it up, even if that means putting you down" replied Jiraiya.
The first one that Jiraiya had seen slammed their hands down again and summoned a large rhino that immediately started to rush at Jiraiya. The white haired sage grabbed it by the horn and threw it back at the 5 remaining orange haired Rinnegan users before he went through some hand signs, which he finished as they dispelled the rhino summon.
"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu" said Jiraiya as his mouth unleash a massive firestorm that raced across the earthy ground towards the Rinnegan users. Jiraiya knew that this felt too easy and watched as one of them stepped forward and put their hands out and simply absorb the attack.
'Ok, so one of them can summons animals, another can use some kind of pull Jutsu, another can absorb chakra, and one of them is some kind of metal puppet or at least was.' thought Jiraiya as he took a brief moment to think about the abilities of the people in front of him.
In a blur, Jiraiya shot forward and engaged one of the weirder ones in a one on one fight, this was one of the ones that he didn't know the abilities. Attempting to block this punch, Jiraiya felt his body stiffen as something went wrong. This was only for a brief second before a black blade was aimed to sliced through his right arm, right at the elbow.
But as quickly as the attack was started it was over as the human shell being used was forced to retreat as red chakra hand slammed down right where it had been. Jiraiya panted as his body started to relax, the unnatural moment having passed.
"The Nine Tails delivers itself it to me" said Nagato through Yahiko
"I don't think so" growled Naruto as his single tail split into 3 and in a blur he rushed forward and crushed the single man all the way in the back. (A/N3)
"You attacked the man furthest from the fight" commented Pain
"I figured if you weren't putting it in harms way, it must be important. Each one of these puppets of yours has a different ability." commented Naruto.
"You are quite the dangerous beast, that one was important, important enough for us to deal with you at a later date." said Yahiko's corpse before they all disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Naruto took a deep breath and allowed the angry chakra of the Kyubi fade back into the seal before he walked over to Jiraiya.
"You ok sensei?" asked Naruto as he gave his teacher a quick once over, looking for injury.
"So, this is the tadpole that you were talking about Jiraiya? He seems like a fine young man" commented Pa
"He will do, bring him by soon" added Ma before they poofed away back to the land of summons.
Jiraiya collapsed to the ground and Naruto dropped down as well, putting his ear to Jiraiya's chest, only to hear a strong thumping of his instructor's heart.
"I'm not dead you dolt, I'm just tired. You fight off roughly 4 S Ranked Shinobi in a less than an hour and you'd be dead on your feet too." complained Jiraiya.
"So now what?" asked Naruto as he made a clone and had it help him left Jiraiya back up to his feet.
"We head back home, put Asuma in the Bingo Book as a traitor, see if Tsunade will put me back together and then we continue our training. At this point, Nagato knows from his puppets that I can't beat him. But I now know what 5 of those puppets of his due, i know what to prepare for." said Jiraiya as Naruto and his clone each slung an arm over their necks and started carrying him back to Konoha.
"I think we could take him sensei" stated Naruto, his voice filled with a determination that made Jiraiya feel young again, like he was with another blond student of his.
"Six on Two? Those are my kind of odds" said Jiraiya with a chuckle as he frowned inside of his head. Six people with the Rinnegan, plus the one pulling the strings bringing the total up to seven. That was a lot of firepower, Naruto and himself were only so much, they would need to talk to Hiruzen about seeing if they could get Kakashi on the team, 3 guys capable of leveling a city is one hell of a team.
A/N:Ok guys, that is it for this chapter, let me get my Author Notes from the chapter out of the way real quickly.
A/N1: Listen, i like Asuma in the canon story, but this is my world and in this one, he's the villain. This is not a bashing situation, I honestly just need plot points and I ain't doing my guy Kakashi dirty like that.
A/N2: I know Itachi made Orochimaru into a bitch, i know Itachi is valid and yall love him, but he got Orochimaru with a Genjutsu and he's starting to get ill at this point. Well, Jiraiya would probably kill Orochimaru if he went 100 percent all out with Sage Mode. Also Jiraiya is a fucking GOAT, who only lost to Pain so Naruto could cry and have a training sequence, well in this story, that ain't happening.
A/N3: If Neji in a Chunin exam can think of something like this with Shadow Clones, Naruto can do it too. Also, Pain was ready to retreat in canon when he couldn't just re-gen his lost paths, mostly because he's was getting ran one hell of a fade by Naruto. And this time, Jiraiya fully healthy + Naruto with 3 tails = Pain ain't want the smoke.
And so this was the chapter, i got a new keyboard, so yall can expect some stories coming out soon. I will appreciate any reviews, PMs, or DM'S on Twitter.
If you get really rude and out of pocket, I will just delete the email and then most likely block you.
I saw a Naruto/2k My career fanfic and would be super into doing one if yall think it can get or will be interesting, i might drop a teaser of that. Let me know if you would be into that kind of thing. Other story news is that my old Harry Potter story Isolation is going to be reposted, as it was which was probably under edited and willed with those cut scenes yall hated. Next story to get an update will be Agent Whiskers because I just watched Age of Ultron. So i guess I would expect that by the end of the weekend because I want to get that particular arc over with so I can do Civil War and watch 2 World War 2 Vets beat up an orphan that one of the vets made into an orphan. In case you can't read between the lines, it's Team Tony up in this bitch and Captain America can gobble these nuts with his none loyal ass.
My Twitter is HKM_FF, feel free to hit me up.
Stay out there on this Halloween, bunch of weird people out there.
HighKey_Mars Out.