Daze Pt 2
Chapter 20 - End of beginnings
A/N: No author's note today, I'm lazy.
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"Here we go again."
The man chewed white clay with his teeth braiding it into a silk like substance before slowly lowering it from his mouth.
"Like thif?"
"Don't talk with your mouth full dolt were you born yesterday."
"Fhu you Puffet Bo."
Deidara flipped a metaphorical clay bird at his partner from beneath the sleeve of his red hooded jacket.
Sasori groaned at his partner's immaturity.
"Just spin the thread and shut up."
The red-haired man turned to his side where a younger blonde boy was reading a blue book.
"Naruto-san are you sure this is necessary."
"Hai Sasori-san for my plan to succeed I'm gonna need some specialized explosives."
"You still haven't told us what your plan is, when we left the Akatsuki it was in faith that you had a plan but all you've given us is vague half answers."
"You had enough faith to leave with me Sasori, have a little more you'll see soon enough."
The puppetmaster let out a sigh adjusting the collar of his green striped turtleneck sweater.
"Very well but this better be good."
Loud exaggerated footsteps and a dragging sound grew louder.
A sharp gravelly voice yelled from a distance and a moment later a blue gilled man in a sleeveless black shirt emerged.
He dragged a battered unconscious body by the leg.
"Hey gaki I caught that rat you were looking for!"
"Well done Kisame-san, toss him in the hole I'll deal with him later."
Kisame obliged him, tossing the unconscious man roughly into a wide pit within a cell.
Naruto gazed at the shogi board before him, taking a second look at his book before making a tentative move.
'Consider all the pieces in play, Pain, Konan, Hidan, Madara, Sasuke, Jiraiya, Kakashi, hmm.'
Kisame let out a chuckle.
"What an expression gaki you must really be serious."
"Of course I'm serious Kisame-san, one wrong move and all of us could die, or worse."
Naruto hid his expression behind his book, light beads of sweat beneath his brow.
"Don't sweat it kid, Orochimaru's gone, Kakuzu's imprisoned, and Kabuto ran tail tucked between his legs, you've already shaken up the playing field."
"Yes but the pieces still in play are the ones that really worry me."
Naruto stared at the King, gold generals, and lance.
Pushing the red ring to his mouth he tugged at the inner collar of his grey cloak trying to channel some Itachi energy.
'Jiraiya could probably help but he's busy keeping an eye on Kabuto's whereabouts.'
'I don't want to put Sasuke or Tayuya anywhere near the line of fire, what's my move here.'
Naruto stood up suddenly tossing his book onto the couch where he had been sitting.
"I'm gonna go speak with the prisoner, Deidara keep up the good work."
"You godd it bothp"
Naruto left down the hallway every step ringing in the cave's stone recesses.
6 months earlier...
"*sigh* What was I thinking, waterwalk across the ocean."
Naruto huffed with exasperation his chakra was feeling shaky and his legs were tired.
"Next time I'm just gonna reverse summon myself."
After what seemed like hours of endless blue-green monotony Naruto gazed the faintest hint of white sand in the distance.
"Is this what Kumo beaches look like, not what I was expecting."
With renewed energy Naruto half ran the rest of the distance to the beach.
The instant he touched land he collapsed in the sand tossing white dust into the air around him.
He looked up and saw he was beneath an old palm tree at the foot of a limestone cliff face.
"This cliff looks familiar, if my theory is correct the pier should be somewhere over that bend."
'But for now I need a breather.'
He closed his eyes and let out a relaxed sigh folding his arms behind his head.
His rest was short lived as he heard a series of sand crunching steps.
Focusing his sense of hearing he heard the subtle shuffling of a blade leaving it's holster.
He flipped from his laying position to his feet drawing a kunai to counter the slashing of his mystery assailant.
"Can't you see I was trying to relax, no manners."
"Shut up Akatsuki."
He let his eyes follow the source of the voice and saw it was a woman in her early twenties.
She wore a grey bodysuit with a kumo flak jacket tossed over it.
Her head-band was tied around her neck letting her tawny hair fall on either side to frame her face.
'A cloud ninja, but the shinobi village is far away from this series of port towns, with all the ships currently disembarked the shinobi guard would be on leave.'
"How'd you know to find me here?"
She smirked a cat-like grin her onyx eyes glinting in the morning sun.
"I didn't, I was on a D rank mission cleaning this beach and you stumbled right into my path."
She tossed her kunai into the sand pulling a metal claw from her hip and placing it on her hand.
"I'm glad it's me who found you, I have a particular interest in you Akatsuki bastards."
Naruto chuckled.
"So even we have fangirls these days."
"You wish teme, how about a hint!"
She growled and charged at him, orange chakra jumping off of her body in bubble-like ripples.
'A jinchuriki!'
His mind quickly ran through the dossier of remaining hosts and he realized this had to be Yugito Nii, host of the Two Tails Wraith cat.
"Look I'm kind of on a break right now, can we call it a truce."
Naruto jumped away from her initial assault which planted her clawed fist deep into the ground tossing sand around the beach with the shockwave.
"As if!"
Naruto sighed.
'I'm still exhausted physically and my chakra reserves are near empty, if this fight escalates there's no way I'll be able to win.'
"Are you sure we have to do this, this early in the morning, how about I treat you to breakfast instead?"
Naruto gave her his best nonchalant smile and it threw her into a state of confusion for a split second.
'What is up with this guy, is he that young, and naive or, does he think I'm not a threat!'
She seethed with silent anger.
"Y-you bastard, Do you think I'm some weak little girl for you to play with?!"
Her eyes flickered with blue light and two blue cat-like tails of fire emerged from the base of her spine.
"Stop playing around and fight!"
Naruto paled.
'She's taking this really serious.'
"Very well then."
Steeling his expression he closed his eyes.
'I haven't had to use this since I received these eyes,-'
Naruto raised his middle and red ringed forefinger to his right eye.
'I know the side effects could be damning but if she unleashes the full host I'm going to be torn to shreds.'
He began to stream chakra into his eyes waiting until the instant she was upon him.
He could feel the heat from her chakra, and hear the slicing of the air from her claws.
"Tsukuyomi!"
His eyes snapped open revealing a black shuriken esque pattern, blood rained down his face.
Yugito paled for a split second before she fell hard skidding across the beach as her momentum stopped suddenly.
Her eyes went blank as she landed hard on her chest rolling for a few feet.
"I'm really sorry, but now that I have you, I have no choice but to capture you."
Naruto reached into his hip pouch pulling out ninja wire and sealing tags.
'Zetsu could be watching from anywhere.'
In Yugito's mind...
"W-Where am I?"
Her surroundings were a charred wasteland everywhere she could see there was red light, and waves of black sand.
A cloaked blonde figure rose from the ground adjacent her.
"There you are!"
She prepared to lunge at him but he raised two fingers and her forearms were engulfed in black spectral chains.
He pointed down and the chains pulled her to the ground.
"I told you already I don't want to fight you."
"Liar you Akatsuki are all the same, you see us all as beasts for you to capture!"
Naruto looked away grimly.
"You're not wrong."
"Then why waste time with words!"
Naruto sighed sitting cross legged across from her.
He removed his cloak tossing it into the sand where it sank into the ground.
"Your cloak?"
"I'm only telling you this because I feel you deserve to know who it was that unjustly captured you."
He snapped his fingers and the chains holding her snapped letting her fall into a natural seated position.
"If you feel the need to attack mindlessly then go ahead, but it'll accomplish nothing in this realm, I control matter, space, even time."
She huffed angrily but sat willingly.
"If you're gonna talk then start talking."
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm a Shinobi from Konoha."
He smiled at her.
"I am also the former host of the nine tailed fox."
With Naruto...
Naruto released Koko, giving her pink-bowed ear a pet.
"Call on me again soon master."
The ninja cat gave him a wave with her tiny paw before vanishing in a poof of smoke.
Naruto stared up at the cave entrance of the Akatsuki's Kusa hideout.
"Oi Sharkboy wake up you lazy gilled bastard!"
Kisame growled from within the cave.
"It better be damn important or I'm gonna feed your leg to sharkskin gaki!"
A few minutes later and the blue gilled Akatsuki stepped out from the cave, hair messy and eyes bloodshot.
"Huh gaki, who's the girl don't tell me?"
"Yeah, she's the Two-tails host."
"How'd you manage to capture her by yourself?"
"It's a long story."
"I see."
Yugito looked down at the ground.
"I'm sorry Yugito-san but it's too late for you, I understand if you hate me."
She shook her head.
"You understand what it's like to be one of us."
Naruto nodded solemnly.
"It makes this so much harder."
"But you complete your mission, in every village that is the essence of a great shinobi."
Naruto shook his head shamefully.
"Itachi was a shinobi, I'm just a coward who's too afraid to betray my family."
"It's never easy to stand against those who trained you, I couldn't imagine having to face B-sama."
"B, you mean Killer Bee?"
The woman nodded.
"He was teaching me to control my beast; he has full mastery of his eight tails."
Naruto paled slightly.
"A jinchuriki with control of their beast…"
Yugito giggled uncharacteristically.
"I guess your friends are in for a real fight."
Naruto shook his head.
"I'm assigned to him."
She paled slightly.
"Oh…"
"Yeah…"
Naruto carried the woman into the cave where it expanded into a large chamber.
A hologram of a spiky haired man with ringed eyes stepped to meet him.
"Karasu-san Kisame here tells me you managed to capture the Two-tails by yourself."
Naruto nodded.
"Hai Pain-sama she let her guard down and I was able to trap her in genjutsu."
"I trust you retained enough chakra for the sealing process?'
"Yes sir."
"Very well we begin at once."
Naruto sighed but followed the man into the chamber where a great statue rose to the confines of the ceiling.
"It seems, we've begun sealing your beast."
Naruto looked away from the woman too ashamed to gaze into the eyes of an innocent he killed.
"I see."
She gazed at the ground.
"It's going to take all of my chakra to focus on the sealing, so my time here is nearly up."
"So this is the end?"
Naruto sighed.
"I'm going to try something."
Naruto focused on the state of the world peering deep into the woman's mind he pulled forth her innermost thoughts and feelings.
He set it so space could form itself freely and time would move at a snails pace of what it actually was.
From her perspective he had simply vanished and she was home.
Cee stepped out from a nearby restaurant dumplings in hand.
"Hey Yugito-chan, can we go somewhere and talk."
She blushed.
'Does he know?'
She walked with the man smiling as her friends Omoi, and Karui waved to her from a distance.
Naruto floated by setting sun, eyes vacant.
'I hope at least this gives you some semblance of peace.'
"Two tails Wraith cat, sealing complete."
Pain jumped from the statue returning it to a seal in the ground.
"With that the One Tail Shukaku, Five tail Siege Horse, and Eight tails Ox are all that remain, remember your missions."
Pain made a single handed seal mimicked by the other ninja.
"Until next time."
He vanished along with the holograms of the other members.
The only ones left were Naruto, Kisame and the materializing form of Madara.
"Zetsu, take the body."
The plant-like being emerged from the wall and grabbed the fallen woman.
"Yes Madara-sama"
He vanished with an annoyed grunt from his darker half.
"Well done Karasu you continue to impress me."
The masked Uchiha's crimson eye glinted in the darkness.
His facial muscles bent showing the smile his concealed mouth was making.
Naruto stared back at him with his newly onyx eyes breathing heavily from lack of chakra.
"I aim to please Madara-san."
"See that you continue to do so."
The man vanished in a swirl of air and bent matter.
Naruto growled, punching the cave wall.
Kisame sighed.
"I really hate that guy."
Naruto seethed with newly released anger.
"That bastard killed my parents, and I can't touch him both figuratively and literally."
"Them's the breaks gaki."
Naruto sighed, falling to a seated position against the wall.
"Kisame-san I don't know how much longer I can wait."
The man adjusted the sword on his back relieving some of the weight from his shoulder.
"Why wait gaki, the more time that passes the more Bijuu they'll have at their disposal."
The boy sighed.
"Two words Snake Pedo."
"Orochimaru huh."
Naruto nodded.
"I can't face the Akatsuki while he's still a factor, it's hard enough without a snake at our backs ready to coil around my throat."
"Well then why don't you just kill him, you have Itachi's eyes, he shouldn't be any more of an issue for you than for me."
"How am I supposed to find him, he's as slippery as his snakes."
"I'm sure you'll figure it out, if you don't we're both screwed."
The man gave him a toothy shark-like grin.
"You're a real teme Kisame."
"I know."
X END X
A/N: Hope you enjoyed thanks as always to all my wonderful readers for sticking with me on this, the next chapter should be out soon.