Daze
Chapter 19: Contact
A/N: Here's nineteen, enjoy.
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A pained groan was the first thing to reach Naruto's waking ears.
"Ugh."
"Looks like he's awake."
Naruto looked up locking eyes with the purple haired woman who sat across from him.
He noticed he was tied up and groaned with severe annoyance.
"Not this shit again."
Naruto had been tied up enough in recent years that if it never happened to him again it would be too soon.
"So, you care to tell us why you were fighting in the streets blondie."
"What's it to you Snakey, this isn't your village."
"I'm asking the questions here gaki."
"You can't hold me like this, it violates the peace treaty between Konoha and Kiri."
"Sure thing Gaki we can take that up with the Mizukage and see what she thinks about this."
Anko held up an orange Konoha Hitai-ate with a slash through it.
She held both the hitai-ate up, looking at him calculatorily.
"So double agent, who were you playing us, or them, and how'd you manage to get banished from the village without me knowing who you are?"
Naruto chuckled.
"Wow this really put a wrench in the works, the boss is gonna be pissed."
"Who's that, wait let me guess, Orochimaru."
"Orochimaru,"
Naruto thought for a second calculating the first game plan he could come up with.
"-soo, you figured it out huh, I should've known a student of his would be clever."
Anko growled.
"I knew it, that sob story about your captain was a load of ninken crap you got those eyes from the snake-teme himself."
"So now that you know, what are you going to do to me?"
"That's for me to figure out, and you anticipate shaking in your shorts."
"Sakura bring in the other prisoner, and go grab Tayuya."
The pink-haired girl nodded stone-faced.
Anko tossed the headbands at Naruto and they landed in his jacket V.
'Thank Kami if Tayuya had seen that Hitai-ate she'd have made me.'
A moment later she returned with the white-haired man and red-haired girl.
"So how do you two know each other are you co-conspirators who had a falling out without your master to keep you in check?"
The man groaned in a mixture of annoyance and pain.
"I have nothing to do with this Akatsuki scum."
Anko and the young kunoichi turned to the Blonde boy who was internally smacking himself.
"Has anything you said today not been a lie gaki?"
Naruto chuckled and gestured towards Ino and Tayuya with his head.
"I said those two were cute, that was pretty true."
Ino blushed and Tayuya growled as Anko looked at him annoyed.
"You think this is a game."
"I'm having fun."
Anko kicked the chair he was in over making Naruto wince as his head bounced off the hardwood floor.
"Well that was unnecessary."
Naruto internally smirked as the fall had allowed him to grasp a ring from the sleeve of his jacket.
"You'd better start talking and fast before I let Tayuya here have fifteen minutes alone with you."
Tayuya smirked at the idea and Naruto let out a raucous laugh.
"Sorry love, it's gonna take longer than that."
Tayuya lunged at the boy barely being held back by Sakura, as Anko kicked his chair around making him face to face with her.
"I've dealt with your kind before, headstrong, tricky types that think they can use humor as a shield."
She stomped on the leg of the chair, her sheer strength bouncing it back to a seated position where the boy's throat was in line with her drawn kunai.
"Well guess what gaki I'm not laughing, and I have thousands of very painful ways to make you talk straight."
Naruto began to sweat slightly.
"What do you want to know?"
"First things first let's verify this guy's story you're an Akatsuki, where's your cloak, and if you lie I'll know it and I will make you bleed."
Naruto nodded.
"Within my hood there's a small cut slit, in between the two fabrics is a piece of sealing paper."
Anko reached into the boy's hood, and pulled the paper out, sure enough a sealing matrix was written on it.
"Ino make a barrier there's no telling what trick he might pull."
The blond girl nodded making the seals.
"What's your name Akatsuki and don't even try using an alias?"
"Tsukio Kara."
'He's telling the truth.'
"Alright Tsukio, if this does anything other than release a scroll I'm going to feed you to my snakes, slowly."
Naruto nodded.
Anko cautiously set the seal in a protection barrier before quickly activating it.
A black cloak with red clouds popped out.
"Release the barrier."
Ino obliged but right as she released it Anko's eyes widened.
"Wait, reactivate the barrier quickly!"
Before Ino could react the cloak lifted a translucent figure emerging into as it floated upward.
Anko heard the snapping of frayed rope and felt a swift palm into her back knocking her over.
Naruto vaulted over the downed kunoichi quickly dispatching the charge of Tayuya and Sakura with a flash of his sharingan.
"Sharingan: Yoru no megami no itchi!" (Copy Wheel Eye: Accordance of the night goddess)
Sakura and Tayuya fell into a shared illusion world, waves of silken darkness flowed over them like the folds of a dress.
They looked up and saw the face of the pale moon stare down at them.
Ino raised her hands into the Yamanaka jutsu, but he closed the distance between them with speed that made the winds whisper around him.
"Sorry Ino-san."
He chopped her with his palm, her eyes glazing over as she fell to the floor.
Anko struggled to return to her feet as she felt an unnatural weight pushing her into the ground.
"I'd stop struggling if I were you, that gravity seal grows stronger the more you fight against it, but it'll dispel in fifteen minutes."
Naruto whistled, pocketing the bladed ring on his finger.
"Good for every occasion."
"Release!"
The cloak returned to the floor with a shimmer.
"It was genjutsu?"
Naruto picked up his cloak, putting it on and replacing the Akatsuki ring onto his bare finger.
"Hotaru-san I apologize for whatever I may have cost you, may this death be an honorable release."
Naruto drew his tanto ritualistically raising it above his head and lowering it onto the man's exposed neck.
The blood rained to the floor by Anko's face.
"You killed him?"
"He was nothing to me, guess you don't know everything, huh snakey."
Naruto gave a two finger wave vanishing in a swirl of sand.
As soon as he was gone Sakura and Tayuya snapped free from the illusion.
"An Akatsuki,"
Anko groaned.
"He must be here to plug the leak."
"Sakura, Tayuya, head to the rendezvous point I'll catch up as soon as possible!"
The girls nodded running quickly to protect their source.
Naruto rematerialized outside a temple as the first hues of pitch night touched the sky.
"Right on time thank kami."
Naruto casually walked up the marble steps to a pillared chamber overlooking the city.
"Hamata, Hamata are you here?"
"Over here Karasu-san"
Naruto walked over to the elder man who was kneeling before a statue of some ancient four armed warrior goddess.
The man mumbled a prayer setting some bread and coins on the statue's feet.
"So, the package."
"Yes."
The man reached into his suit jacket, handing Naruto a yellow envelope.
"Enclosed are all the details for my replacement."
"Thank you for everything Hamata, Itachi spoke highly of you."
"He often spoke of you as well, did you know that?"
Naruto bit back some melancholy.
"No, no I didn't"
"He really cared for you, like a brother he said."
Naruto tried to hide the pain on his face but based on the way the man patted his shoulder it was obvious.
"I have to go now my cover's been compromised and if the connection is made it could destroy everything Itachi worked for."
"I understand son."
"I hope you find peace in the end Jiji."
The man smiled softly.
"I already have, child."
Naruto summoned a small grey tabby and placed the envelope into its mouth, reverse summoning it until he could safely check the document.
"Bye pops"
Naruto made a handsign when his sharingan caught a flame of chakra in his periphery.
"Shannarooo!"
Naruto narrowly sidestepped a kick that would've removed his head.
"Don't touch him you worm!"
'Sakura huh, she's really improved.'
He reached into his pocket grabbing some green wax plugs and placed them into his ears.
Just in time it seemed as his sharingan saw waves of chakra distort the air.
Sakura got in between him and the elder man and Naruto gave the man a look that silently communicated the situation.
"You got lucky today Geezer but these Kunoichi won't be here to protect you next time, and the Akatsuki never forgets."
Naruto imitated something he'd seen Madara do once as he used genjutsu to make it look like his body was disappearing as his arm traced it in a circle.
Hiding his chakra presence he quickly and silently leapt over the edge of the cliff and towards the ocean below.
"He's gone!"
Sakura growled.
"You okay old timer?"
Tayuya looked around for any flash of blonde she could witness.
'Damn him!'
Naruto let out a sigh of relief as he sealed his cloak and ring hengeing into a brunette woman he sat in a tea cafe.
"Thank kami for compartmentalized information if they knew who the Akatsuki contact was they would've made me immediately."
He popped the envelope seal open and slightly lifted the photo's and documents inside.
"Taiza Kakume huh?"
He saw a picture of a brown haired boy maybe three years older than him.
"Now to establish the connection."
'It's crucial I get to him before they finish with Hamata if I run into them again Anko might make the connection.'
With that in mind Naruto finished his tea handing a large bill to the waitress he stood up and left for the pier.
Naruto arrived at the pier as lanterns bit back against the night's shadows.
He saw a blacksmith's shop by the wooden dock and knocked on the pillar announcing himself as he lifted the paper curtains.
"Taiza?"
"That's my name."
"I'm here about a pet delivery."
"A pet?"
"A raven."
The boy's eye glimmered and he nodded.
"Meet me in the back in five minutes, I've got to close the shop."
Naruto nodded walking away inconspicuously.
He leaned against a post reading a blue book until his internal clock told him it had been five minutes.
He walked behind the building and waited to be let in through the back door.
It was taking a while and he started reading again to pass the time.
"Whatcha readin?"
"Something my brother wrote."
He showed Taiza the cover, Kanji crudely written in black marker.
"An Expanded Lesson on Shinobi Tactics Vol. 4?"
"Nothing you'd be interested in trust me."
The boy nodded.
"Come on in, you're letting the heat out."
Naruto obliged him stepping into the apartment.
"So you're a blacksmith, how do you know Hamata?"
"He's sort of like my grandpa, I grew up with Karen, his granddaughter."
"So you were adopted?"
"In a manner of speaking his son is my master, he took me in as an apprentice as a favor to my late father."
Naruto responded with a quiet 'huh'.
"I trust you were briefed on the situation?"
"Don't worry you'll have no problems from me."
"Good this is for you, don't lose it, and don't let anyone find it or your line is burnt."
The boy nodded and took the slip of paper from him.
"What is this, it's all incoherent scribbling and black lines?"
"It's a cypher it keeps people from reading it too easily."
"Do I get a key?"
"You already have one."
Naruto snatched the paper back from the older boy holding it in front of the window as the moonlight hit it, a set of blue kanji were illuminated.
"Invisible ink?"
"Bingo, The codes are transcribed to the lunar cycle so we don't have to update more than twice a year."
"That's wicked cool."
"That's Itachi for you, everything had to be all austere and cryptic."
"Anyway I have to go if there's an emergency that you absolutely cannot resolve that threatens to break the line you can use that paper to call me."
"I look forward to working with you Taiza-san."
Naruto gave a two finger wave and was about to leave out the window when there was a loud banging at the door.
"Taiza-san this is Anko Mitarashi of the leaf village, we have reason to suspect you may be in jeopardy."
"Just a minute!"
Taiza motioned to Naruto to hide somewhere.
"Don't you have a second door?"
Naruto whispered quickly.
Taiza shook his head.
"Well get one!"
Naruto whisper-yelled diving behind a pile of unfinished leatherwork.
Taiza opened the door and saw Anko rearing to kick it in.
"Easy shinobi-san what is this you're saying, me, in danger?"
Anko nodded.
"We need you to come with us."
He obliged grabbing a cloak for the cold night air and following the women out of the building.
Naruto let out a silent sigh of relief when he heard Anko say something that made him freeze.
"Tayuya you stay behind and survey the place if the Akatsuki comes send us an SOS signal with your chakra."
Tayuya nodded.
Naruto waited for the three sets of footsteps to fade into the distance.
He heard a single set of footsteps and a closing of the door as Tayuya looked around.
He heard her let out a bemused sigh and flop on the couch.
He considered his options whether he should remain hidden, ambush her, or try to sneak out.
'If I remain hidden and the other three return that greatly increases the chances of them finding me.'
'I don't know if I can sneak out without putting her under a genjutsu and I'm spent on chakra for today.'
'I'm gonna have to take her down quietly.'
Naruto emerged from the leatherwork raising himself into a silent crouch and slowly approaching her.
He was nearly within chopping range when her eyes caught glimpse of a blue book on the table the same one she had seen in his bag.
'Shit!'
She realized he was behind her and turned around to strike him.
'Taijutsu is my only option.'
He caught her hand in his own rolling over the couch and onto her he blocked against a jab from her other hand grabbing her wrists in his grip.
She reacted quickly, shoving both of her legs into his gut and using the momentum to roll both of them onto the floor.
'Shit she has the ground advantage with her smaller center mass.'
He raised his guard as she began a barrage of ground pound punches and elbows.
'If I only defend she will wear down my guard.'
He waited for the briefest break in her assault and struck.
With a direct headbutt he managed to knock her off of him and send them both tumbling down with blood lines on their foreheads.
"You think you're hotshit teme, Im glad you were stupid enough to show your cocky face!"
She dove at him like a rabid chipmunk grabbing his collar and punching him square in the jaw.
"Kami you're like a beast!"
He grabbed her arm as she went in for a second punch pulling her towards him where their chests collided and placing her into an arm lock.
He managed to slip like a snake onto her back, still holding her bent arm in his hand behind her.
He grabbed her other arm and pinned it flat against her back.
"Surrender I have you in "Zettai shōri" (Absolute victory) and without the use of your arms that flute will be useless."
She growled hawking her neck and using her teeth to tear at his abdomen
To his shock she managed to pull his hitai-ate loose from his jacket where it fell to the floor.
She saw the flash of neon orange and her eyes widened.
"N-Naruto?"
Naruto sighed.
"Fuck."
Tayuya growled with more rage than she had mustered in all the time he'd known her, and that scared him.
In a flash he was on his back and she was on top of him striking him repeatedly in the gut and solar plexus.
"You stupid dickless bastard who do you think you are!"
He couldn't respond breathless and coughing as she ended her assault with a single resounding slap.
"We don't see each other in over a year,"
She punched him in the shoulder.
"-you send me to your village full of perverts and assclowns,"
Another punch to the opposite shoulder.
"-and then you have the sheer stupidity, no, the absolute gull to try to play with me like this!"
And a finishing coup de grace straight to the cheek.
"G-glad *cough* to know you care *cough*"
"Shut up dickless or I'll punch you in the balls."
Naruto nodded silently.
"*Sigh* You have a good reason... don't you."
He nodded grimly.
"Fine,"
She ran her fingers through her messy hair, beads of sweat still on her forehead.
"-I won't tell the others but don't ever try to pull shit on me again!"
He nodded fervently terrified of the crimson demon before him.
"I'm sorry Tayuya I guess my prankster side just couldn't resist."
He let out a half chuckle half cough.
"Oh and before I forget."
The girl lifted him by his collar striking him with a closed palm and planted a kiss on his lips.
"Don't ever kiss me without asking again, Teme."
"R-roger."
She climbed off of him and he stood shakily.
"Remind me never to fight with you up close."
Naruto dusted himself off picking up his hitai-ate he tossed it into his pocket.
"Until we meet again."
"Yeah, yeah dickless."
Naruto grabbed his book vanishing amid a swirl of leaves moments before the leaf kunoichi opened the door.
"What happened to you?"
"I tripped over the bastard couch."
Anko gave her a perplexed look.
Naruto sighed in annoyance as he curled up under a tree.
"Three week wait my tail, give me a good night sleep and I'll water walk my way back to land."
He used his cloak as a pillow for his back raising his hood he lay back and fell asleep.
X END X
A/N: Hope you enjoyed, more soon.