Chapter 29
Meeting The Shiin Clan

The Next Day
Land of Earth
Wasteland

Naruto woke up to dead silence, his Kage Bunshin hadn't alerted him to anything that happened during the night so it must have been a quiet one and then he noticed that Tayuya was in the tent with him still asleep she was right by the opening of the tent which was shut tight.

'Huh look at that she looks cute when she's not shouting and cursing at me.' Naruto thought with a small smile watching her chest rise and fall gently.

'Stop it Naruto don't be an idiot, you're basically her captor and we came here for a reason.' Naruto scolded himself and shook his head to drive such thoughts out of his head.

'I need to get out of here and get some fresh air.' He decided.

So using all of his refined stealth skill, Naruto got out of his cheap sleeping bag and wrapped it up then moved over to near Tayuya and the entrance now this was the tricky part how could he move or open the tent without waking Tayuya.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Tayuya's eyes cracked open and stared at Naruto.

"I was trying to sneak out without waking you up." Naruto answered staring back at her.

"Well, congrat-u-fucking-lations you failed that." Tayuya groaned and she sat up and winced when she unconsciously moved her legs and made pain shoot up her legs.

"Careful your legs are still pretty bad." Naruto said which made Tayuya glare at him.

"You fucking think, every time I move them it feels like some fucker sticking a knife in my leg and poking around." Tayuya said wincing.

'I knew it was bad I never knew it was that bad.' Naruto thought watching as she got control over herself and the pain through breathing exercises, this was another basic Ninja skill in order to ignore the pain and focus on the objective.

In Naruto's opinion, it didn't really work but it seemed to be an important skill so he had learned it under his training with Arashi when he was younger.

"Come on let's have some breakfast, then we can get moving again." Naruto said to her.

"Yay. More shit tea and dried meat maybe some hardtack as well." Tayuya was completely unenthused by Naruto's food.

"Well, maybe next time you can bring your own." Naruto snarked at her as she opened the tent and a warm breeze came in which was surprising.

"Huh. I was expecting it to still be cold." Naruto said as he climbed over a glaring Tayuya and out into the warm air outside, his two Clones were still there though they both looked very bored.

"Thanks, guys that's enough." Naruto said and dismissed them with a Hand Sign, they both poofed out of existence and Naruto got their memories of the night and nothing had happened just a very boring night watch.

"Hey, Shit head get me out of here." Tayuya called from behind him.

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto sighed and he turned around and helped her out of the tent and placed her against the wall opposite the tent and near the small fire pit that his clones had prepared through the night.

"Wow, solid Clones are useful huh." Tayuya looked around at all the small defensive changes his clones made through the night, it was mainly concealment things along with the fire pit and a small ring of sharp rocks around the edge of the hole they were in.

"Yeah, they really are." Naruto agreed as he got the rations out for another meal.

"No tea today sorry. just water." Naruto said as he realised he only had a few leaves left and he wanted to save them for dinners in the night.

"Better than piss." Tayuya grumbled and took the food and water-filled cup off Naruto without a thank you.

They ate in complete silence with only the slight breeze filling the silence between them. The food was finished quickly and Naruto began to clean up the camp, sealing things away and otherwise getting ready to move out while Tayuya was watching him curiously.

"I can't believe an idiot like you know Fuinjutsu, that's something that takes actual fucking brains." She commented as he sealed the tent away with a puff of smoke.

"Fuinjutsu is in my blood, even if I'm an idiot I can still do the basic stuff." Naruto said as he rolled his camping scroll up and slipped it into his pouch.

"In the blood huh." Tayuya said so low that Naruto didn't hear her.

"I'm surprised at how warm it is." Naruto commented as he took down the tarp and revealed the hot sun above, it was just after dawn but even so, things were very warm.

"That's how places like this get shit head, days are hot and nights are cold because the only thing keeping this entire shit hole of a country warm is the sun." Tayuya said like she was explaining it to a child.

"Oh. Okay." Naruto nodded taking her words as truth, he had no idea about the weather and its effects.

"God how the fuck did you get through multiple countries and end up here alive?" She wondered out loud as he finished up.

"A lot of luck and skill." Naruto said remembering his previous encounters, Kimimaro was a monster and Naruto wasn't sure he could beat him even with both the Hyoton and Ranton at his disposal, then the entire clusterfuck that was his adventure in the Land of Lightning started off fine but quickly turned into a disaster with those two bloodthirsty Clans attacking two of the strongest Clans within the Land of Lightning and getting themselves wiped out for the trouble.

Even while Naruto was recovering Samui would bring him news of the Yotsuki and Bofu wiping out any survivors from the battle as well as sending scouts into their territory to launch their own counterattack on them and there was only one order given 'Accept no surrender'. So the Ginkaku and Kinkaku Clans were systematically wiped out over the course of a few days down to the last child.

It sickened Naruto to think about it but they had brought it on themselves by being so belligerent but even so in the Ninja world extermination meant exactly that, Naruto was told horror stories about what happened to Clans that got wiped out, how every man woman and child were killed and then their entire compound would be destroyed along with anything that reminded anyone of their existence and that was the fate of those two clans, Naruto hoped that at least they would spare the noncombatants but deep down he knew that in the Ninja world that was the expected response.

"Hah. It's not been fun." Naruto sighed as he walked over to Tayuya.

"Looks like you've seen some shit huh." Tayuya commented on seeing his eyes.

"I don't wanna talk about it." Naruto said as he turned around and gestured for her to climb on.

"Tch." She made an unhappy noise but she wrapped her arms around his neck again and Naruto grabbed her legs as carefully as he could.

"Fuck! Be careful Shit head!" She hissed in pain as he lifted her up fully, evidently, he had not been careful enough.

"Are you ready to guide me today?" He asked as he jumped out of the hole they had camped in and looked around to see the same scenery as yesterday just a rock-filled wasteland with no animal or human life to be seen.

"I really don't like this country." Naruto commented looking around.

"No shit, I don't know why we came here, to begin with." Tayuya muttered angrily as she too looked around with a disgusted look on her face.

"Right which way?" Naruto asked her ready to make some progress.

"Keep going west until we hit a valley with a river at the bottom, then I'll guide you from there, if we turn up straight away then you'll just get killed." Tayuya told him.

"Right, that's a comforting thought." Naruto said preparing himself for the run.

"Just get going, are you a Ninja or a pussy, death isn't that big a deal." Tayuya scolded him again she even unwrapped her arms from around him so she was pushing against his shoulders.

"That's what you think." Naruto mumbled then he ran at full sprint making her squeak and grab him tight.

"Asshole! You're doing that on purpose!" She shouted at him as they blitzed through the area.

"No, I'm not." Naruto lied as he ran.

"Fuck you." Were Tayuya's final words to him for the rest of the trip to the valley.

Later
Land of Earth
Valley

Naruto must have run for around 3-4 hours just running in one direction through the same looking terrain of stones and nothing else, the occasional hole or small hill broke things up but it was just a boring trip.

And the worst thing was that Tayuya refused to talk to him as they travelled, so he was stuck with his own thoughts while Tayuya stubbornly refused to talk to him.

'Why couldn't Tayuya be like Samui, she was easy to talk to and really cool.' Naruto complained mentally as he was in automatic mode.

'This trip hasn't gotten as bad as the others yet but knowing my luck it is going to get worse and I'm going to get caught up in another inter-clan conflict.' He complained mentally thinking about things other than the two girls he talked with.

'No matter what country I go to there are always Ninja fighting, I've never come across a place where Ninja are not fighting for territory or money. It's sad that these families are just constantly fighting and killing each other.' Naruto was now onto the current state of the world in perpetual small conflicts.

'My Mom died because of one of those stupid conflicts, I don't even remember the name of the Clan who attacked her team when she was in the Land of Fire. One minute she was there smiling and the next her teammates were back returning her body to Aunt Chinami and Nagato.' Naruto had not thought about his mother since she died a year ago, it was still too raw and hurt to think about it.

'She was like the sun bright and warm and then she was gone, if I never met Hiruko would I be getting deployed out on missions for the Uzumaki Clan doing what they've done for hundreds of years now.' Naruto was beginning to brood in his thoughts now as a frown appeared on his face from thinking about the entire situation.

"Hey! Shithead! Wake up!" Tayuya's voice brought Naruto out of his dark thoughts.

"Wha! What!?" He asked as he turned ever so slightly so he could see her.

"I've been calling you for like 5 minutes now, what the fuck's going on!?" She questioned him angry as ever.

"I was thinking." Naruto said looking back ahead.

"You can think!?" She mocked him.

"I'm thinking about dropping you." Naruto shot back.

"Oooh! Look at you growing some balls!" Tayuya bickered with him.

"What do you want Tayuya, or was it just to annoy me?" Naruto asked seriously contemplating just dropping her.

"We're getting close, the valley's ahead and we're going to need to get down to the river." Tayuya told him and pointed ahead where Naruto could just see more of the same.

"Be careful the valley comes out of nowhere. Stay aware I don't want to fucking die because you weren't paying attention" She warned him and gave a light slap on his shoulder.

"Okay, okay." Naruto said and decided to take her advice.

He kept going for around 15 more minutes but then he noticed that the ground was changing and he began to move a bit slower and then nearly yelped when he realised the ground just suddenly ended about 10 meters ahead of him and he had to suddenly skid to a stop.

"Fuck! See I told you!" Tayuya bragged as Naruto peered over the edge of the valley and did indeed see a river right at the bottom, honestly it was more of a gorge with harsh stone walls and there was only a thin strip of land on either side of the river, from this height it looked like only a single person could walk on either side.

"Damn." Naruto said looked over.

"So where do we get down?" He asked Tayuya who was gripping him a bit more now than they were on the edge of the valley.

'Is she really scared of heights?' Naruto asked himself as he heard her gulp ever so slightly.

"There's a goat path somewhere along this side, it's by a huge red boulder and it leads down to the river." Tayuya told him after regaining composure and hoping that Naruto did not notice her wavering voice.

"Right." Naruto looked east up the valley and it was flat with no red boulder, then he looked west and saw it was rougher and the rocks redder in colouration so he decided that must be the way.

Naruto followed the edge of the valley east, it was like a huge divide between the earth itself, it seemed like the Land of Earth was full of these gigantic trenches cut into the earth and Naruto could not tell if they were natural or made through extensive use of Doton Ninjutsu.

Naruto did find the big red boulder and he searched around to find the goat path that Tayuya mentioned Naruto actually checked over his shoulder and she had her eyes closed and seemed to be meditating.

'Wow, she really is scared of heights.' Naruto thought and smiled at the absurdity, Ninja were often required to go to high places usually to scout and get a good look at the layout of an area but more often than not high places were also the perfect place to launch an attack or ambush from.

Naruto made his way down the uneven and unstable path, Naruto could not believe that people used it as every step he took seemed to make it crumble and make it more treacherous to walk down.

"I think you and your Clan need a better way down here." Naruto commented as some more rocks dropped from the path and went down to the bottom making noise as they did so.

"I know! This fucking sucks!" Tayuya complained and she even flinched when a particularly large part crumbled away and hit the wall on the way down like a miniature landslide.

"We're nearly at the bottom now." Naruto said using Chakra to stick to the ground just in case.

It was annoying with a lot of twists and turned but eventually, Naruto and Tayuya reached the bottom and Naruto could now see the land on either side of the river was slightly larger than he first thought with enough room for a group to walk beside it, though the river itself was very fast and violent it was splashing up against the sides and sprayed him a little.

"Woah!" Naruto said as a particularly large spray came up from the river.

"It's fucking always like that." Tayuya commented unhappily it seemed that she opened her eyes and was now glaring at the surroundings.

"This place is a shit hole!" She complained and groaned.

"Well, what now?" Naruto asked her looking around for any signs of human life.

"Just follow the river downstream." Tayuya said sagging down again.

"Okay." Naruto nodded and followed her instructions, he wasn't running anymore but he kept a quick pace for a walk, Tayuya was starting to feel heavy now and his arms felt tired. She was a light girl but she had been on his back for hours now and it was wearing away at even his large stamina.

They kept going for around half an hour and then Tayuya perked up and Naruto realised why when he felt multiple Chakra signatures incoming none of them were particularly large but there was a few of them.

"Stop." Tayuya warned him and he did so and waited.

4 shadows dropped down in front of him, They all had a similarly patterned scarf, it looked like grey snake scales. Two of them were girls, one was young around Naruto's age with bright orange hair with a dark navy hat on her head and she had a lilac sleeveless jacket and dark green knee-length shorts along with the usual Ninja pouches and a flute in one hand.

The other woman was a young adult with long black hair she was wearing much less than her counterpart with a dark purple tube top that covered her chest but left her stomach showing along with a light green small waist-length sleeveless jacket and a grey camouflaged patterned skirt that went with her scarf.

Their male counterparts looked similar, though one of them stood out with his tousled shoulder-length messy blonde hair and grey eyes, he had the snake patterned scarf around his neck and was wearing a lavender long-sleeved shirt with dark pants and shoes, he had an ocarina in one hand and seemed shocked.

The older man looked far calmer, his own grey eyes were at ease and he had long smooth chin-length purple hair with his bangs hanging just over his eyebrows. His attire was similar again with a snake-patterned scarf and a green short-sleeved shirt with long grey pants, though strangely he had two black arm sleeves on his lower arms up to the elbow.

"Tayuya! You're alive!" The blonde-haired one said in shock.

"Hey, Menma, Arashi, Sasame and Bitch." Tayuya greeted them from over Naruto's shoulder.

"My name is Kotohime and you know it you little slut!" The black-haired woman shouted at her.

"Kotohime." The purple-haired man-Arashi said and silenced her.

"We thought you were crushed during the retreat Tayuya, I thought you had died." He said to her.

"Yeah well I would have but this Shit head saved me." Tayuya said and slapped Naruto's shoulder who was watching the interaction curiously.

"Indeed. And just who are you?" Arashi asked Naruto looking him over, evaluating him.

"I'm Naruto." He introduced himself with a nod.

"Naruto thank you for saving our Clan member but I do have to ask why you did such a kind thing?" Arashi asked him and with an extremely subtle gesture, he got the others ready for battle as all of them shifted ever so slightly.

'Wow, that's fantastic team work.' Naruto thought as he barely caught it due to how Tayuya tensed up which meant she recognised it.

"I saved her for two reasons; the first was for information and the second is because I wanted to." Naruto answered honestly, there was no point lying at a critical moment like this.

"Information. Because you wanted to." Arashi hummed and seemed to regard him slightly differently.

"Just what information did you want? Are you holding our Tayuya ransom?" He asked again with a sharp look.

"I need information on the Land of Earth and the Clans in it, I've already met the Kazan Clan when they dropped a cliffside onto your Clan." Naruto said shocking with his knowledge of the battle.

"And no I'm not holding Tayuya for ransom, I wasn't about to watch someone die slowly." Naruto told them.

"Not a very good Ninja are you?" The black-haired woman Kotohime said snidely.

"Maybe I'm just sick of seeing people die." Naruto shot back with a flash of anger, he was really getting sick of just how callous Ninja was to each other.

"I see." Arashi said and he brought a hand up to his chin.

"Hm." He hummed as he seemed to think things over.

"You have saved one of our own and on top of that you're not actually asking for any information about our own Clan, I suppose we could reward you for bringing one of our most talented Ninja back alive." Arashi said out loud to the shock of his own Clan members even Tayuya.

"Arashi! You can't do that Shiin will." Sasame the orange-haired girl began to protest.

"I know. I will take full responsibility for our guest." Arashi cut her off while Menma was watching Naruto very carefully like he was a viper in the grass.

"This seems far too convenient. How do we know he's not a Kazan member in disguise." Menma said bringing his ocarina up.

"The Kazan Clan don't have the blonde look, and his Chakra is completely different from theirs." Arashi said and Naruto realised he was a Sensor-Nin which was why he was so at ease, the others probably expected him to not come alone but Arashi knew he was alone due to his detection abilities.

"I'm a wandering Ninja, I have no Clan." Naruto said though he felt Tayuya shift slightly and give some sort of signal to her Clanmates, though he didn't see what.

"If you agree to our terms, I believe we can help each other out." Arashi offered and stepped forward and he broke formation.

"Depends on the terms." Naruto replied as he shifted Tayuya who was watching silently from his back.

"Extremely simple, do not attack and you will not be attacked, do not use Chakra or it will be seen as an attack and of course the return of Tayuya, I can see her legs are damaged." Arashi said with open arms to show he meant no harm.

"That seems fair." Naruto nodded though he was preparing countermeasures in his head, Hiruko always told him to expect people to betray him.

"And my flute! I want it back Shit head." Tayuya spoke up suddenly startling Naruto.

"Yeah sure." He replied annoyed at the sudden outburst.

"Then have we come to an agreement Naruto?" Arashi asked and he stood right in front of Naruto.

"Yeah." Naruto nodded and he shifted Tayuya so Arashi could take her.

"Good, there has been far too much bloodshed recently." Arashi took Tayuya from him and put her on his own larger back, Tayuya even squeaked quietly as he did so.

"Here's her flute." Naruto said and reached into his pocket and pulled out the dark grey instrument.

"My thanks, our instruments mean just as much to the Shiin Clan as our own life does." Arashi accepted the flute and passed it to Tayuya who snatched it out of his hands.

"Follow me and try not to make any threatening gestures, our Clan is on edge at the moment." He said and turned to his team and nodded and they became shadows again.

"Right." Naruto said as he hoped that this would go well.

Naruto should have known better by this point.

Land of Whirlpools
Uzumaki Clan Village
Clan Head Tower

Nagato overlooked his home village which affection in his grey ringed eyes, with the Rinnegan he could see the Chakra of everyone in the village and saw that they were healthy.

He was currently standing atop the tallest building in the village and it would be his future home once the current Clan Head died and passed it onto him.

'I wonder how Naruto is doing? Is he still alive, did he meet his Father? So many questions and so little answers.' Nagato thought.

Nagato always had an affection for Naruto despite how everyone else saw him, he always had a crush on Kushina and was devastated when she chose an outsider to the Clan but she looked so happy when Naruto was born that he never said anything and never revealed how he felt about her, something which he regretted greatly since her death on that idiotic mission to the Land of Fire.

The anniversary of her death was coming up and then it would be two years since she had passed on, Naruto had been gone from the village for months now and his Mother was resting her in the family shrine to those lost in battle.

"How quickly time passes when you are busy." He muttered to the wind.

"Hm!" He let out a noise of surprise when he felt multiple Chakra signatures incoming to the village but relaxed once he recognised them as the team that was sent out earlier in the week to scout out some of the more outlying islands that were technically under Uzumaki control but were not important enough to garrison.

He recognised them as Uzumaki Kai the son of the current Fuinjutsu-Master, Uzumaki Kiyome, the daughter of an injured Ninja who became a baker and finally Uzumaki Karin daughter of Chinami and Naruto's cousin, she was a fiery girl especially ever since Naruto left. Nagato recognised that she felt guilty that she couldn't stop her cousin from leaving but there was nothing she could have done to stop him.

Naruto was too much like Kushina head-strong and utterly determined and once they set their mind to something they would slam their head against the problem until it was gone, it was one of the things that Nagato truly admired about the both of them.

His ring began to vibrate and that alerted Nagato that someone was trying to get in touch with him in regards to his hidden life, in one world he was the heir to the Uzumaki Clan who would lead them to glory in the future while the other was as the Head of a multinational and inter-clan organization Akatsuki whose main goal was establishing a lasting peace, a goal which was easier said than done.

Nagato disappeared in a swirl of smoke and he blurred through the village until he left the island that the village was on and went east to one of the uninhabited islands and entered a cave he had prepared there, it was hidden with layers of Genjutsu and Kekkai Ninjutsu there was no one except Nagato who could pass it let alone break it.

The cave was utterly normal except for the stone pillar which had a blue burning lamp on it along with a gigantic statue of some figure.

Nagato had summoned it years ago but he had no idea what it was so he just called it the Gedo Mazo and left it alone in the cave under all the protection he could muster.

He went through his Hand Signs and activated the Jutsu which would use the lamp as a catalyst and bring them to him.

"Hello, Leader." The gravelly voice greeted him like a shadow formed from the ground flickering into existence like a flame.

"Gai! I was not expecting you to report." Nagato said surprised, he thought it would be Nan with his update on the situation in the Land of Water, or Byaku reporting on the Land of Fire, they had triggered their plan and it seemed to be going well.

"I have discovered some information that you should know." He said his voice sounding as strange as always due to the unique apparatus on his face.

"What is it?" He asked curiously.

"Someone is moving in the shadows to counter us. I followed a lead and it went right to the Daimyo of my country, there was a small clash between me and them but I left and managed to get some information out of those ingrates." Gai reported that Nagato had a feeling that the tall man was smiling.

"There are not many who can stand up to you." Nagato commented idly.

"I imagine it's the same for you with those Rinnegan." Gai retorted.

If Nagato was a less controlled man he might have flinched back or revealed some shock but instead, he merely lifted an eyebrow which Gai could not see due to the Jutsu only allowing a person's figure to be seen and not their facial features.

"Hm, it seems you truly are not a man to be underestimated." Nagato said like he was unbothered by the situation.

"The same could be said of you, I joined this 'Akatsuki' out of curiosity, to what fool believes he can change the world but imagine my surprise when the Leader of said organization has the same eyes as the founder of Ninjutsu." Gai said and respected seemed to be in his voice now.

"I am a fool." Nagato freely admitted.

"But even so I believe this is worth betting my life on, and even if it means standing alone." Nagato said with passion.

"I see that now, I apologise Leader. It seems you are a greater man than I thought. I will be sure to fully dedicate to the Akatsuki from now on." Gai said and even bowed his head ever so slightly.

"Thank you for your loyalty I swear to never betray it." Nagato vowed to him.

"I hope you don't because if you do then I'd have to kill you." Gai said.

"I'll send you a copy of the full interrogation along with some encrypted scrolls they had." Gai said and then he was gone and Nagato released the breath he was holding.

'What a terrifying man, if we did fight I don't know if I would win so easily.' He thought thinking about the level of Ninja he had within the Akatsuki.

Each member could be considered a one-man army such was the power they wielded, Nagato could destroy entire villages with his Ninjutsu and the other's were not that far behind, Itachi was a true genius in every sense of the word while Darui was far more devious than his lax demeanour expressed and that was not even bringing in some of their older members who had decades of experience under their belt.

"I should get back to the village they will be wondering where I am." Nagato sighed, this was the most difficult part of running this organization in secret the constant excuses he would have to make.

The Akatsuki was still in its infancy and it required a lot of management on Nagato's part while all the other members distrusted each other on some level, when they revealed themselves to each other and the world he hoped there would be camaraderie between their group so they could move in pairs like how Nagato wanted the Akatsuki to operate.

But that goal was years away for now Nagato would have to be content with operating in the shadows and giving direct orders to each member.

Though he knew some had different goals he hoped that within the Akatsuki they would embrace his own ideals and work together for a brighter future.

AN:

Here we are chapter 29 I never thought we'd hit this point at being one away from the big chapter 30, it feels like I only restarted this story a few days ago.

Hope you look forward to the next chapter.