Chapter 25
Separation
Land Of Grass
Northern Hideout
In the Land of Grass's northern area where it bordered the Land of Earth it was rockier and filled with hills and the like and of course with those came caves and within one of those caves was an identical cabin to the hideout in the Land of Hot Water and it was here were Naruto appeared flopping to the ground dizzily with a sickly sensation in his stomach at being sent through time and space at high speed, the Hiraishin was not for everyone.
Naruto groaned as he lay in a heap on the cold stone floor even with the warmth of the nearby fire did not change his cold feeling.
"Why did he do that!?" Naruto asked himself loudly as he pulled himself up into a sitting position and found that he was in what looked like the exact same cabin he had been in with his Dad, Kakashi and Jiraiya.
He forced himself up on his feet and double-checked that he had everything with him and much to his relief he did, his pouches were fully supplied, he had all of his scrolls, the one with his money and more importantly his Jutsu scrolls were also there, the only thing he left behind was his jacket which he left on a chair inside the cabin.
"Damn it!" Naruto punched the wall in annoyance, he had just met his Dad for the first time and he had to leave because of 'enemies'.
'But I suppose this means that I can get back on track and collect the last 3 Kekkei Genkai I need.' Naruto thought as he took in the very similar hideout.
'Samui! I know how to break that Seal now, I need to loop back around to the Land of Lightning!' Naruto thought just remembering what he learnt.
"And finish the Rasengan as well." He said aloud, he had been attempting the final step of learning his Dad's Ninjutsu.
Naruto inspected the building in silence after that statement and he wasn't surprised to find out that the cabin was identical to the other one, so Jiraiya must have just done the same thing all over the continent and they were all made the same and hidden away and protected by numerous barriers and traps.
Naruto decided to have some food and take stock of the surrounding area and to his surprise when the door opened in response to the hidden Seal on his body he was not in some isolated hamlet surrounded by artificial hills but instead was inside a dark cave.
"Does the Land of Grass even have mountains?" He questioned as he walked to the exit of the tunnel which was easy to find due to the left-hand wall being lined with glowing seals.
'Walking down here actually reminds me of Hiruko's hideout.' Naruto thought idly as he made his way out and the sun was shining high in the sky.
Naruto found himself on a cliff edge overlooking what he expected in the Land of Grass, huge amounts of grassland that moved back and forth lazily in the wind, the entire country felt very different from most of the other countries he had been in, the entire country seemed relaxed.
"Nice place." Naruto commented to one but himself but he did shiver a little in the wind.
"I need a jacket first." He said and turned back around into the cave to search the cabin for something he could wear.
Naruto searched through the house and eventually found what looked like an old haori, it was white with red flames and was probably intended to fit someone older than Naruto but he could deal with some oversized clothes so he threw it on and head out properly this time.
It would be the first time in a while since he had been truly alone, in the Land of Water he had Haku and even Byakko, in the Land of Lightning he obviously had Samui and then after that met with Jiraiya in the Land of Frost and stayed with his Dad and Kakashi in the Land of Hot Water.
'Now I'm alone again, I suppose that's what was bound to happen though.' Naruto thought melancholically.
He stood on the cliff edge and overlooked the Land of Grass and realised that he would have to go backwards since according to the map he found this hideout was on the northern border of the Land of Grass and Land of Earth.
"I'll come back this way." Naruto decided and turned and walked up the cliff edge and it was a rather long walk though it didn't drain Naruto's giant reserves of Chakra much.
"I wonder what the Land of Earth is like?" He wondered as he walked near vertically up what he realised was a small mountain.
Later
Land Of Earth
"This place sucks." Naruto said aloud as he kicked a rock across the rocky ground.
That's all there was around him rocks, rocks and more rocks there was no road that he could see and he had not seen a single living thing, not even an insect or lizard.
Naruto could sum the entire country up in one single word: Boring. There was nothing around and there was nothing to see apart from different coloured rocks like he was currently standing on red rocks now while the small mountain where his Dad's hideout was a grey type of rock and Naruto could even see in the distance some brown and green rocks strangely enough.
"Where the hell do I find a Kekkei Genkai in all this nothing." Naruto complained again as he trekked across the wastes of the Land of Earth.
Unknown to Naruto but he entered the Land of Earth in the wrong place as there were numerous small roads into the Land of Earth that lead to small villages some even built into the rock near underground lakes and rivers, but Naruto was actually on top of them as he decided to take a direct path instead of a normal one.
"I hope I find something soon, I only have about 3 weeks worth of rations." He mumbled trying to fill the dead silence with something other than the wind blowing across rocks.
'This is going to be a long walk.' Naruto sighed again but this time he didn't speak.
Sometime Later
Naruto eventually found signs of life in the evening, the sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon when he found a small village that looked like it was carved into the side of the mountain, a road passed right by the village but there were walls in the north and south along with gates, it seemed like the village controlled the routes north and south of the area.
"Finally." Naruto sighed at seeing people for the first time since entering the country.
He decided on a more common and stealthy approach by disguising himself as a merchant again by suppressing his Chakra with a Seal and unsealing his wooden medicine box and putting it on his back.
He went around the west and dropped down onto an empty road and began his trek to the village itself, it took him longer than normal since he had to act like a 13-year-old traveller selling medicine and that meant slow pace and semi-frightened demeanour.
As Naruto got close to the village he was stopped by guards as he got closer to the gate and wall, it was the usual song and dance as he opened his box and showed his herbs and medicine, claimed he was looking for his merchant father and was selling medicine to get by.
The guards were not to his surprise Samurai or Ninja instead they appeared to be militiamen or mercenaries and were armed with spears mainly though there were a few bow wielders as well as one or two with katana and appeared more trained than the rest of them.
The only thing that almost caught him out was that one of the guards noticed that the herbs he had were from the Land of Lightning and he managed to explain that away as he had just come from the Land of Lightning and was now looking for herbs in the Land of Earth.
He got through without incident and entered the village to find it far more alive than it looked from a distance, people were in the streets and the main road was lined with food stalls, sake bars and tea shops and all of them looked well maintained and prosperous.
'It looks like this village is very rich because of where it is and all the traffic to and from the Land of Earth must have to pass through here.' Naruto realised as he took in the sights.
The people seemed happy and relaxed there was little of the constant tension and fear that he came across in others countries.
'I need more information, I don't know anything about the Land of Earth. I knew a lot about the Land of Water and even the Land of Lightning but this place was never taught back home.' Naruto continued inspecting everything around him and was even talked into buying some takoyaki and tea from one of the stalls by a particularly silver-tongued merchant.
"This is good." Naruto commented as he took a bite from his food.
Naruto wondered around for a while and got caught up with the festive feeling that was hanging in the air and ended up sampling food from almost every stall along with whatever drinks they prepared.
By that point, the night was setting in properly and the stalls themselves were beginning to close so Naruto was forced to look for an Inn and found one easily due to being the main hub of commerce in the Land of Earth.
The Inn was called the Sleeping Oni Inn, it was like all buildings in the village built into the side of the huge mountainside but on the inside, it was decorated with wood, richly coloured carpets and it was warm as well which was a great relief for Naruto since the Land of Earth was very cold, it had no sea except in the far east and the wind was unrelenting since there were no forests around. The Inn was everything Naruto wanted it was cheap, out of the way and private, so he bought a room for 2 nights and was pleasantly surprised at the large size, the warmth and that there was even a full table and seating for him set up.
"This place is a lot better than I expected." Naruto said as he put the medicine box down on the table and took in the room, there were no windows but that was expected since they were literally under a mountain.
"Right I need to plan what I'm gonna do here." Naruto muttered as he sat at the table, he already had his fill of food due to all the stalls so he hadn't ordered any dinner from the Inn.
The first thing he needed was information which meant that he'd probably end up hunting for a map shop again, then he'd actually have to sell medicine and hope the people in the village liked to gossip so he could pick up some information from that at least.
'Spending two days to gather information is the least I could do here, I know that there are only a few Clans in the Land of Earth with Kekkei Genkai but the ones they have are supposed to be strong.' Naruto went over Hiruko's scroll again and saw that the Yoton, Bakuton, and Jiton were the main big ones in the country there were a few smaller ones around but they seemed rare and he probably wouldn't be able to find them without a dedicated hunt.
'I'll just concentrate on information, for now, the Land of Earth is the largest country of the Great 5 and barely populated only the Land of Wind has fewer people.' Naruto was wracking his brain for information that he was taught years ago.
'Tomorrow is gonna be a big day.' He finished his planning and rolled up the scroll and sealed it away, he was half tempted to unseal his Chakra but just because he hadn't seen any Ninja or Samurai did not mean there weren't any around watching out for foreign Ninja or enemy Clans.
Naruto decided to go to bed early, he needed to be up early tomorrow in order to get everything he wanted to do done.
'I hope this one goes smoother than what happened in the Land of Earth.' Naruto thought as he slipped into the futon.
Naruto should have learnt by now that nothing goes smooth in the Ninja world, especially for someone who made it his personal mission to go around stealing Kekkei Genkai from powerful Clans.
?
In a dark cave shadows flickered from a lamp casting an unearthly blue-white light it was not a natural flame and it remained unmoved by the wind blowing through the cave and even seemed to be almost frozen in place except the small ripples that ran up and down it.
A figure appeared in the darkness with ringed eyes and others followed until 10 men stood around the lantern, their forms however were indistinct with only some features that could barely be seen it was like they were living shadows.
"So what happened?" Rei asked as he surveyed his comrades.
"It seems that we have another organization in the shadows moving against us, I have no idea how they discovered us." Gyoku explained with crossed arms.
"How could that even happen except with the presence of a traitor within our own ranks." Hoku was very unimpressed.
"That is a possibility but there is another; worse possibility." Gai spoke out with his strangely distorted voice.
"What's that?" Nan's figure was huge and he seemed to have an equally large object slung across his back.
"An organization whose role is to maintain the current status quo with Clans fighting each other until 1 or both are ground to dust." Gai said sounding annoyed.
"It is strange how up until the Great War the world has stagnated completely. Usual human nature is to advance and improve yet it seems we are stuck in a mire." San said without his usual chuckle, in fact, this was the most serious that the other members had ever seen him.
"I have heard rumours about such things for many years now, often it is dismissed as fantasy but to have an attack launched on us so blatantly when we are trying to de-escalate tensions between the Uchiha-Hyuga alliance and the Senju is no coincidence." Byaku spoke with the wisdom of many years.
"It is the old adage, once is a coincidence, twice is happenstance but three times is enemy action." Gyoku recited an ancient adage of all Ninja regardless of Clan or country of origin.
"It seems we have an enemy then, those without assignments currently your new orders are to look in the shadows and find out anything about our new mysterious enemy." Rei their leader ordered.
"And what do we do when we find them?" Ku asked casually.
"Interrogate them if you can, otherwise kill them." Rei replied.
"Finally some action to show of my art!" Ao exclaimed and the others ignored the outburst from the youngest member.
"There will come a time when we shall stand in the sun but that time is not now, the red dawn will rise over the world one day." Rei said and nodded to each member as they disappeared to attend to their tasks.
Only Shu remained and Rei turned to face him fully.
"Is there a traitor within our ranks?" Rei asked him softly.
"From my analysis in this form I do not believe anyone has betrayed us but I can only get an accurate reading from meeting them in person." Shu replied.
"I know Itachi, but I would have hoped that my judgement of people would be accurate." Rei sighed and brought a hand up to his forehead.
"Nagato, no one can truly understand another person without a deep bond. As of right now, we are a group of like-minded individuals sharing a distant goal. Camaraderie must be developed through experience with each other." Itachi said.
"I know that. There will come a day when we can operate in two-man cells just like I always intended." Nagato replied as his Rinnegan glowed grey in the dark.
"That would mean leaving our Clans if we have any." Itachi pointed out the obvious.
"At that point would it matter?" Nagato asked.
"No, it wouldn't." Itachi admitted with a nod.
"We are all doing this for a better future and that will require personal sacrifice beyond just fighting." Nagato said.
"Are you going to leave the Uzumaki Clan to accomplish your goal?" Itachi was very curious about the answer to this question.
"I am hoping to lead the Uzumaki Clan to accomplish this goal along with our Akatsuki." Nagato admitted and actually managed to stun Itachi.
"You intend to bet your entire Plan on this?" Itachi was shocked.
"Yes I am, the Rikudo Sennin brought peace and order when he was alive but that peace died with him and with the advent of Ninjutsu and Ninja Clans the world was plunged into a war that has never truly stopped. I would happily bet my Clan on such a future even if it rips my heart apart to do so." Nagato admitted but there was a certain tone in his voice it was like devotion or perhaps madness Itachi could not tell but he knew that Nagato believed in every word he said.
"I see. You have given me much to think about." Itachi said and he too disappeared leaving Nagato alone in the dark of the cave with only the strange lamp for company.
"Peace is a goal worth dying for." Nagato said to the silence and then he too disappeared.
Ever since Nagato founded the Akatsuki many cogs had begun to turn in the Ninja world, those who wish for peace and those who wish for the world to remain as it is, as a great revolution is often preceded by great violence and bloodletting for a Ninja's own ideals whether it be peace or war.
AN:
Here's chapter 25 hope you all enjoyed it.
And here's the current revealed Akatsuki members in case you didn't read between the lines.
Leader/Rei: Uzumaki Nagato
Shu: Uchiha Itachi
Ku: Bofu Darui
Ao: ?
Nan: ?
San: ?
Byaku: ?
Gyoku: ?
Hoku: ?
Gai: ?
Translations:
Yoton=Lava Release
Bakuton=Explosive Release
Jiton=Magnet Release