Beta By: RedCommander72. I had a writer's block and only thanks to her I was able to get back my usual creative self. Thank you so so much. Merci beaucoup!
A/N: If any one finds any mistakes, let me know(politely).
1.10. Attack on Hidden Leaf part-1
Hayate Gekko knew he had no business doing something so trivial as to start a betting pool over two of ANBU's most celebrated shinobis. However, it is quite difficult to predict the course of one's life and people end up doing irrational thing. Thus, Hayate ended up doing exactly something utterly irrational, i.e. he started a betting pool over the love life of a certain blonde and raven headed powerhouse shinobis. He was also well aware that not many people cared or had the knowledge that he was the mind behind one of the biggest betting pools in the Leaf Village's history, but it didn't really bother him.
In his defence, he was drunk, utterly wasted or high as fudge; call it anything you like. Bottom line is, he had gotten drunk and taken a bad decision, not unlike many people have done in their lives and continue to do so in the future as well.
Let's start from the beginning.
Three years ago..
Hayate and Yugao were celebrating his ANBU promotion. Yugao was happy to have him in the same ranks as her, and who was he to deny the happiness of his girlfriend? So, the charming pair went out that fateful night.
Half way through the night, like most shinobi bars, this particular one got crowded as well. They were showing off, bluffing, trash talking about the Stone Village, cursing at civilian council etc. the usual activities from typical ninjas.
Hayate was already pretty out of it when some guy Yugao calls tiger started telling everyone all about how Itachi seems to have a crush on their adorable fox.
The adorable fox was none other than the host of nine tailed fox, a silent little thing with too much chakra, Hayate didn't know that. He did know who Itachi was though, everybody did.
"I bet they will make the cutest couple ever," Yugao had said cheerfully, clinking her beer mug with tiger's own.
Everyone voiced their agreement, some cooing over how adorable the girl was as a tiny child. Hayate was new to the ANBU team and wanted to impress everyone. He wasn't aware of how many inside jokes ANBU's made in their free time and was feeling a little left out, adding to the fact that he was intoxicated and thus, in a foolish attempt to make himself known, he opened his mouth and uttered those fateful words.
"Wanna bet when they get together? I say a thousand yen at the end of this year!"
That was the day, for the first and last time he lost his cool and did something so diabolical. Yugao was impressed with his boldness and had quite a good time laughing, adding fuel to this seemingly ridiculous betting idea. Turned out, some geeky guy was actually keeping tabs on the bets.
Next thing Hayate knew, there was a huge betting pool going on and even non-ANBU members were putting bets on the Uchiha and Uzumaki pair. Hayate had lost his money thrice in the last three years.
Although both Itachi and Naruto were extremely fast and powerful when fighting in the field, they were also equally awkward, slow and in denial when it came to their own feelings. After a year, the sizeable amount was deposited in the bank and the ANBU's would fix parts of their headquarter with the interest money earned from it. The amount now had taken the form of a small fortune.
Back in present time…
Hayate coughed while putting a coin inside the jukebox the ANBU had bought with the interest money this month. Melodious music swirled through the huge cafeteria of the ANBU headquarters. The few ANBU were wolfing down food like they hadn't eaten in days, probably true given the usual nature of their missions, looked up and gave him a thumbs up and he returned the gesture with a cough and a nod. Hayate felt relaxed instantly, closing his eyes and leaning beside the music player. The jukebox was definitely a good idea, he needed to thank that Yamato guy for the thoughtful suggestion.
"How come we can afford the jukebox? Is the Hokage paying us that much?"
Hayate felt his ease taking a leap away from his body when the sound of that particular calm, poised but youthful voice hit his eardrums. He straightened his posture immediately and his eyes found the owner of the voice, who was looking at Hayate with curiosity mixed with hints of doubt. Itachi Uchiha. Hayate's training was the only thing that kept him from cringing or fainting. The man was terrifying.
He coughed uneasily. The ANBU had gone great lengths to protect the truth of their extra income from both Itachi and Naruto. No one wanted to unleash the Uchiha and Uzumaki wrath on themselves. Hayate shivered just thinking about the consequences of Itachi knowing about the betting pool. He refused to think about what might happen if any one of them ever discovered that Hayate was the one who started the whole mess. Hayate would have no choice but to go rough.
It had been very difficult task since Itachi was one of the smartest people in the village. Then again, a certain clan filled with extremely smart but lazy people can do wonders when they wanted to. Hayate sent a silent 'thank you' to the Gods for creating the Nara clan, without their help, the secret would have been out a long time ago. Obviously not all Naras knew about this particularly juicy secret, but those who were in ANBU and higher up in rank knew and for some reason found the situation hilarious. Hayate had never seen people from Nara clan laughing so much that one fall off his seat and another had tear in her eyes. That was one educational day for him.
"This was a second hand one, I believe," Hayate answered smartly. It wasn't, it was very new, latest model in fact.
Itachi looked at the box like it was offending him. "Really?" He activated his sharingan. Cheeta and Monkey had noticed the situation and casually strolled in their direction.
"It seems almost new to me," Itachi commented. "In fact," he pointed his red eyes at the room and gave it a quick glance. "There are plenty of things new here, like all the tables have been replaced. The couch is definitely new. The vents look more furnished too. As a matter of fact, the whole building has been painted ten times in the last three years. Whose idea was neon green this time again? Where are we getting the money to do all these renovations anyway? I thought we were on a tight budget!"
Hayate gulped. The guy never missed anything. "We don't know, maybe lady Tsunade is better with money and budgeting. Plus, due to the Akatsuki we are getting a lot of missions lately," monkey answered. Hayate nodded and coughed at the same time.
"Ya, I believe so too," Cheeta supported.
Itachi turned to them with narrowed eyes. "You know I have noticed something else lately."
Hayate had started to sweat inside and uneasily leaned back on the wall again, trying to look more relaxed than he really was.
"WE ARE UNDER ATTACK! EVERYONE, THIS IS NOT A DRILL. I REPEAT, WE ARE BEING ATTACKED, EVERYONE GET INTO FORMATION! THE LEAF VILLAGE IS UNDER ATTACK FROM THE AKATSUKI."
Within the blink of an eye, the whole squared of ANBU were dispatched. Things were about to get interesting. Very much so.
Hayate for the first and last time thanked the Akatsuki for their timing.
Line break…
Pein, also known as Nagato Uzumaki. Well, not so commonly known by that name since nowadays he preferred to introduce himself as Pein. Why would anyone want to introduce themselves as pain is beyond this author but it is what it is?!
Anyway, Pein happily pushed another Leaf ninja out of the way. No, not happily mind you, may be with slight touch of amusement since he is not allowed to be happy, all the while mentally checking on the check list of things he had to do for the mission he was on.
Attack the Village Hidden in the Leaf, check.
Destroy the Village Hidden in the Leaf, check.
Attack everyone who is alive and make their status unalive, processing.
However, it does seem that he was in fact getting more shinobis attacking him than he originally thought was possible. He had nuked the village after all, so why the hell was he getting attacked by so many of them? On top of it all, why was the invasion that easy. Huh, should have thought about the lack of civilians inside the village as well. What the hell? Do the ninjas of the village have nine lives? None of them should have survived his first big attack!
"Hello, my name is Lady Tsunade and these are my fellow leaf ninjas. Can we talk for a minute?"
The Hokage of the Leaf village approached him with politeness and a bright smile?! Pein was thoroughly confused. What on earth was happening? He had just destroyed more than half of her village and she was smiling?
"I need the information about the nine-tail host," Pein demanded without wasting any time. He could feel all of his other Path's fighting.
"You see," Lady Tsunade slowly pulled out a seal from under her sleeve. "You are not getting anything about the girl out of me and you are not going anywhere until you agree to listen to what we have to say." Tsunade bit down on her thumb and a few drops of her crimson blood fell into the seal and the dark colour of the ink in the paper turned ruby.
A neon purple light engulphed the sky within the blink on an eye.
"Ever heard of shadow clones?" Tsunade asked in a sweet voice. Pein was busy taking in the dome shaped purple net covering the sky, before he looked back at the Kage whose smile was turning more sinister by the minute.
Pein gave her his most famous talk-or-die look and she had the gall to ignore it completely.
"You see the village you thought you destroyed isn't even here. The people you have been killing are the shadow clones of the original ones. Since you have that nasty eye which can see through any illusion, we had to do something different. Wanna hear what that is?"
Is that a sake bottle the Hokage is pulling out, all the while smiling like the cat which ate the canary? What the hell?
Pein suddenly felt like a rat caught in a trap and as one of the greatest power holders in the shinobi world, that was a feeling he wasn't used to. With a sinking feeling in the pits of his seven undead paths and his one not so dead body, he heard the impossible trap the Leaf village had set specifically for him.
Line break...
The fight was getting brutal, Pein had to give it to them, the Leaf was one heck of a challenge. He had already lost three of his seven paths and he might just lose some more. The other side wasn't without casualties either, but they still keep coming back with more.
According to their outrageous Hokage (Damn that woman!), the main town area of the village was evacuated inside the Hokage mountain almost a week prior to the attack. In fact, after the last attack the Leaf had suffered under the Sand village and Sound village, the outer parts of the village were simply built as a dummy or model village. No one lived there and the ninjas used the parts for training and brawls, apparently the crazy ass village had a brawling system for teams to grow stronger.
Only a part of the ninja population was facing his seven paths and each one of them were handpicked to fight a specific one of his paths, they had their own medical team for backup. Even the Hokage building was actually a fake, not completely but partially. Also, the purple barrier had cut him off completely, not a single one of his paths had managed to break out of the barrier just yet. What the hell was going on?
The whole plan was apparently hatched by this Shikaku Nara. And Pein was going kill the guy, make him come back to life and kill him again for being a genius.
Leaf ninjas, from their prospective, were not looking too good either. They had the added advantage of knowing the paths and their weaknesses and they had prepared for it. However, simulation is one thing, practical was another. The Paths were indeed one of the worst things they had ever had to face. Shikaku's plan was air tight, but the enemy was not someone that can only be defeated by making plans and taking part in simulations.
Pein took another hit and another one of his paths bites the dust. He could regenerate them, but the problem was the leaf ninjas were also sealing the bodies away almost immediately. Pein had just about enough and it was time for him to do take out his trump card. So, he snapped.
Line break...
Naruto sighed happily and fell back on the grass. She had managed to perform her wind-style-rasen-shuriken flawlessly. Itachi would be so proud and surprised with her. Once she registers the thoughts her mind was entertaining, she started her internal monologue.
Yes, he would be happy, as her best friend. A best friend with the most handsome smile and warmest eyes, but best friend he was. Nothing less, definitely nothing more. Best freaking friend. Friend, get it mind? F.R.I.E.N.D.
No matter how much she tried, Naruto had failed at something, she had utterly failed to erase the feelings she had developed for the older Uchiha brother.
It had almost been a little over a month; she was almost done with her sage training and she was successful in learning one of her most badass techniques. Needless to say, our girl had been one busy chick. Despite her exhausting days and nights, whenever she would get time to breathe a little, her mind would, without fail, turn its course towards one person, the one person who likes someone else and now she wanted to cry. It wasn't fair.
Naruto covered her eyes and curled up on her side, she wanted to go back home, but was she ready to face Itachi yet? She knows she had made peace with the incident with that Karin girl and what had happened, but what she couldn't come in terms with was her feelings for the guy. She should ask Sai if there was a manual on how to get over a crush on one's best friend. It didn't help that Naruto inherently hated to give up and Itachi was one of the nicest people she had ever met. Why couldn't he be a little less of everything? Why not a little less kind, why not a little less warm, why not a little less understanding and why the hell not a little less handsome? Not fair!
"I have never seen you that gloomy in my life. What the hell happened to you while I was napping kid?"
Naruto jumped up and turned the source of the voice with a speed which had given her old man his nick name, not that she was aware of that just yet. Nonetheless, Minato Namikaze would been very proud if he was indeed alive.
"Pervy-Sage?"
"Yo brat, lon-"
Jiraiya was unable to finish his sentence when a blur of yellow, orange and black tracked him in a bone crushing embrace.
Whatever Jiraiya was about say, died in his lips as he returned the hug with equal fierceness.
"There, there kid, I knew you loved me too," Jiraiya would never admit it but his voice grew thick with emotions as he spoke the sentence. Naruto, for the second time in her life had lost her speech and was a trembling, sobbing mess. She was quite incoherent, but Jiraiya was able to piece up a 'I missed you' from the girl.
"What the hell, I missed my brat too," Jiraiya whispered and let his tears flow as well, stroking the wild spiky head of his second blonde student lovingly. Who knew he would end up with not one but two blonde kids he would want to call his own? Jiraiya wasn't even married yet!
And that was the moment, Gamakichi bounced in.
"Yo, Jiraiya do you know your village is under attack from that Pein in the ass dude?"
The sobbing duo separated from each other like a bottle of soda from its lid and attack the poor toad with a bombardment of questions.
Much later, Naruto would think this moment as one of the most important turning points of her life, a point which if it had happened a minute sooner it could have changed the course of her entire life completely.
What happened after this would be for the readers to find out, Naruto to live out and the writer to type down. If the readers want to find out more, they need to review and show some loving so that the writer doesn't suffer from another horrible writer's block in the near future and her beta don't have to pull her out of that said terrible writer's block.
A/N: Trust me kids (the author acting all sage like, seeping on tea), it was bad.
