The Next Day
6.a.m
"Your progressing well Kise-"
Sasori said, wiping a thick gleam of sweat from his brow as he turned his head back to the adorable brown headed girl. The next words had all but died in the Atarashi members throat as he looked at Kise, a deep frown was etched into her face as her hand mindlessly controlled a puppet, making it run from side to side with a faraway look in her eyes. Sasori wanted to sigh at the expression on the girl, she had been like that since they had started training and it looked like it wasn't going away any time soon. While she was still heading all of his instructions and following the training regimen, her mind was most definitely elsewhere.
"Kise what's on your mind? You look distracted." Sasori said as he took a seat next to the unmoving Kise.
Kise looked up at the red-head besides her and her frown only deepened. She put the hand down that was controlling the puppet and sighed. The puppet was still active as it curled itself around Kise as she rested her head in her palm, her eyes slowly shifted from Sasori and back to the large mountain that their base was hidden within. Her free hand mindlessly playing with a few strands of grass beneath her fingertips as they sat out in the forest next to the cabin.
"I'm just...i'm worried about Naru-nii. He was acting kinda scary last night after he found out who killed Shisui-jiji. And I just don't want him to do something he would regret."
Sasori's eyes softed and he slowly nodded his head along with her, leaving back and raising his head to look up into the endless blue sky. There wasn't a single cloud that blemished the beauty and Sasori silently marveled at the scene. He gently patted Kise on the head,
"I know what you mean kid, but this means a lot to him."
"I know...i'm just a little worried."
Sasori chuckled as he shook her brown hair a little more. Kise stifled a giggle as she tried to push the older man's hand away. Sasori just chuckled at the scene, he sometimes forgets that Kise was only about nine years old. She acted much older than she let on and had an air of maturity that she kept up for most of her life. Of course she still acted like a kid, but it was little moments like these that always surprised Sasori and he wasn't sure if he could get fully used to it.
"Well that's why you're going with him right? To make sure that blonde idiot doesn't do anything stupid?"
Kise giggled again and smiled at Sasori. Her smile suddenly turned mischievous as the puppet around her clicked rapidly. Sasori then yelped out in surprise, looking down to see the little boy puppet that had wrapped itself around Kise had its mouth open and was biting down hard on one of his fingers. Sasori felt his eye twitch before glaring at the young girl, Kise just laughed it off as she took off running back to the cabin. Sasori yelled after her as he held his sore finger, he silently cursed to himself as he quickly caught up to Kise who was giggling furiously. He swore he would never get used to a puppet that acted on it's own, but at least she made good enough progress that she made no indication of even controlling the metallic boy.
Sasori quickly grabbed the girl by the collar and picked her up. Kise didn't even try to fight back as he did so, too busy laughing as she looked up into the sky. Sasori was about to scold the girl, but the second he opened his mouth he noticed that the Kise wasn't even looking at him. Blinking in surprise as a sudden caw echoed into the early morning air. He raised his eyebrow and quickly asked Kise what was wrong and was even more confused as the girl kept her gaze into the sky, her golden eyes tracing something as a small shadow obscured most of his face.
"Naru-nii once told me that Shisui-jiji would often get distracted when crows circle around them."
Sasori felt his whole body freeze over at Kise's words. He hesitantly raised his head upwards, squinting his eyes a bit as the glaring sun almost blinded his vision completely. Just as he finally adjusted he felt them grow wide, his blood ran cold in his veins as Kise's words echoed in his mind. She was right, there were about six crows cawing loudly as they flew aimlessly above their heads in the empty sky. Sasori put Kise down in a flash, almost dissorentinting her at his speed. Kise was about to ask what the matter was when Sasori quickly spun on his heel looking back into the forest they had just run out of. Kise watched in confusion while Sasori was trying his best not to sweat, internally he was trying to calm his beating heart.
"There is no way, how could-"
His thoughts were cut off as his breath hitched in his throat, he heard Kise gasp next to him as they watched a black silhouette slowly make their way towards them. Sasori felt his body stiffen as he took several breaths to calm himself down, he reached behind him taking the large scroll on his back and swinging it open. The footsteps only grew as the mysterious figure got closer to them and stood right under the glaring sun. Kise grabbed the cloth of Sasori's pants as the figure finally stopped its trek towards them.
Sasori slammed his open palm into the scroll as a tall human-like puppet exploded from the scroll with a poof. The puppet looked to be a man who stood just about six feet tall with short arms as it floated above the ground already connected to Sasori's chakra strings. Sasori and Kise looked forward at the man standing across from them, he was tall, taller than Sasori as one of his arms rested just outside the zipper in his coat. His pure black cloak swayed in the wind as the top half of the cloak covered his lower face from view. He had a scratched out Konoha headband over his forehead as his long black bangs parted in the center and framed his handsome face. Sasori pushed his arm out to shield Kise from the man, and she gasped loudly as the deep red clouds finally became visible to her.
"Don't look into his eyes Kise!"
She quickly nodded, fighting the urge to suddenly look into the strangers eyes before forcing her head to the side. Sasori didn't have anytime to let out a sigh of relief as he looked at the familiar man in front of him. He took a quick step forward to get in front of Kise as he looked towards the man, making sure he didn't look into the glaring red tomoe spinning in his sockets.
"What the hell are you doing here Itachi."
Sasori said, making it sound much less like then a question as he glared as the now dubbed Itachi stood menacingly in front of the two. This wasn't good, if a member of the Aktauki had finally found them then things could quickly turn terrible. The breeze offered a much needed catalyst for Sasori as it helped calm his growing nerves, out of almost everyone in the Akatsuki, Itachi was the one he feared fighting the most. And if Itachi was here then-
"Where is your partner?" Sasori said as his eyes flickered around the forest.
Itachi kept his face stoic as he kept his eyes trained on Sasori, his sharingan slowly going back and forth between the red-head and the mysterious girl with him. She didn't look familiar to the older Uchiha, in fact he had never seen her before in his entire life. But she seemed important to Sasori, judging by the fact that he thrusted himself between the two of them. Itachi barely registered what Sasori had said since he was too into his inner musing, he had never known that the puppet master actually cared for other people.
"Kisame is here, but he has another mission."
Itachi said as he pointed to the tall mountain next to them. Sasori felt his heart sink as he followed his finger, Kise wasn't much better as she actually gasped in terror. The second all eyes made contact with the mountain as small explosions reached their ears, then several rocks started to fall down the mountain followed by a thin player of smoke.
"N-naru-nii!"
Kise yelled as she quickly escaped from Sasori's tight grip on her, she didn't hear Sasori call out for her to stop as she ran forward. Her whole body was jumpy as fear flowed itself through her veins. She didn't get very far as Itachi was quickly in front of her, she didn't have enough time to react as the older man tightly slapped his hand over her mouth and swapped her legs sending her crashing into the ground. Sasori called out to her again as he twitched his fingers and sent his puppet soaring towards Itachi. The Uchiha didn't even bother to move as he watched the puppets arm shoot itself forward, a small tube became visible and Itachi didn't seem phased as he gripped Kise's long brown hair tightly and held her in front of him. Sasori grunted at the cowardly way to not get hit by the attack, with another flick of his finger the puppet did a barely roll swinging a blade out of its arm as it attempted to cut Itachi.
The Uchiha was too quick though, he threw Kise to the side as he placed his palm on the ground and jumped over the blade that swung at him. Before the puppet could even act again Itachi took off towards Kise, his eyes wide as the young girl snapped her head up and raised her hand outwards. The moment she looked up however she briefly caught the spinning tomoe in his eyes as her arm slumped back down, her eyes rolling backwards as she fell to the ground unconscious. Itachi didn't even bother to catch her falling body as she hit the ground with a thud.
Sasori growled, commending his puppet back to his side as the two men stared at one another. Itachi just looked at Sasori with a blank expression, one the red-head returned. But internally the Uchiha was confused, he wasn't aware the puppet master had a secret life that they were all unaware of. It was quite concerning for Itachi to learn this way, which is mainly why he had sent his partner to the base without him. Itachi silently mused again at the look of irritation that flashed in Sasori's eyes, he had never seen that expression ever in Sasori.
"It seems you are a traitor Sasori, what a shame, the Akatsuki really benefited your membership."
Sasori growled again at the man's comment, his free hand tightened into a fist as his eyes glanced between Kise and the mountain. He didn't know what Naruto was up to, Kise and him left pretty early in the morning and Naruto was still asleep when they left. Kise seemed fine, it didn't look like Itachi had used one of his psych altering genjutsu and looked relatively okay. Yet he was worried, he wasn't expecting to be found, at least not this early. He silently bristled at Itachi's comment, yes he was a member of the Akatsuki, key word was. Yuno had found him before the Akaktuski had and the only reason he joined with the criminal organization was because of Itachi. Clenching his fists tighter he clicked his tongue.
"Yeah well it seems you're going to have to go along without me. That damned group is nothing but monsters."
Itachi quickly wiped his face of any surprise that might have leaked through into his expression. That...certainly wasn't what he was expecting. Itachi states stoic as Sasori's eyes periodically glanced back to the mountain. There was someone important in there, Itachi silently thought to himself. Sasori looked worried, more worried than he had ever seen the man, and that was saying a lot since he had only seen the red-head act seriously.
"I see, then I'm sorry Sasori. But you will have to die here."
"Tck, i'll like to see you try."
With Naruto
Before the Attack
Naruto woke up with a jolt, his body felt like it was on fire as sweat poured itself down his brow. His breathing was heavy and erratic as he tried his best to calm his rapidly beating heart. His hand flew over his chest and gripped tightly around the fabric of his clothes as he tried to desperately grab his heart. His little episode didn't last long as he felt his body start to calm down as the familiar heat of Isobu's chakra entered through his coils. He breathed a sigh of relief as he lowered his hand from his chest and back onto his bedsheets. He thanked the demon, and after a few seconds he swung out of bed and walked into his connecting bathroom. Once he entered the restroom he quickly paced by his reflection in the mirror, he did a double take as he looked at himself. He raised one of his hands and rested it just under his left eye, feeling moistness as a few silent tears fell from his scarred eye.
"I'm crying…?"
"You had a partially bad nightmare last night Naruto."
Naruto was shocked at Isobu's words, a nightmare. He didn't even remember dreaming last night, let alone having a full blown nightmare. But it explained his strange awakening today, it had been awhile since he had woken up in a cold sweat, and even longer than he remembered waking up crying.
"What was it about?"
Naruto was surprised at Isobu's lack of response, it was concerning slightly to the blonde but he didn't press the issue. Isobu on the other hand was still in a small state of shock and he was barely even remembered to help calm Naruto down. The nightmare, it was the worst the blonde had ever had and was happy that Naruto didn't have any memory of it. So he decided to stay silent, it was something he wouldn't repeat to Naruto. For how much he loved Kise and longed for Kurenai, it would only break his heart of what he dreamed of.
It didn't take long for Naruto to finish getting ready, no longer than 10 minutes Naruto was freshly showered and ready for the day dressed in his usual attire. He was wearing a similar jacket to Kise's but it was fully zipped up to his chest, leaving the top half of it open to reveal the fishnet shirt he had underneath. He had on a matching set of black shinobi pants with a nice shade of olive shinobi sandals. Walking back into his room he was about to exit into the main hall when he glanced back at his dresser, he stood in the doorway for a few minutes as he looked at the neatly folded Konoha headband on his desk. The metal was still perfectly slashed out and the dated cloth looked clean, only sacred from age. With a heavy heart he went back and grabbed the headband and tied it securely over his head, he usually opted to leave the headband behind since it made no difference to wear it while training. But since he was returning to Konoha it was a must to wear, even if it was a tad suspicious.
Not that it mattered much, the second he took a step into Fire Country he was a target.
After exiting his bedroom he made his way to the main hall, as he walked he took note of how quote the room looked. Usually Kise was already up and starting training with Sasori while Naruto practiced his training with Isobu. But today seemed different, not a single soul resided in the cave and as he walked into the main hall he looked back at the table they all had occupied last night. He raised an eyebrow at the table, noticing a small slip of paper folded neatly in the circular table. Walking over he gripped the page between his fingers and flipped it open,
Naruto,
Me and Kise are going out into the forest for some early training before you two leave today, I hope you don't mind.
Also Yuno wanted me to tell you that he left something for you in the training hall. He left last night after you and Kise had gone to sleep.
We will return before lunch.
-Sasori
Naruto quickly scanned over the note and threw it back on the table, he wasn't too surprised that Yuno had left so soon after telling them the information that he had promised so he didn't really care that he was gone. As long as Kise and Sasori were back then they would leave, just the mere thought of finally getting ready to leave back to Konoha was getting him excited. Danzo would pay for what he had done to Shisui, he would pay. Naruto then made his way to the training hall, Sasori did mention a gift and he was slightly curious as to what Yuno would leave him, Yuno didn't seem like a gifty kind of guy so it must be something pretty important.
As Naruto was walking he couldn't stop the adrenaline rush that coursed through his veins, the longer he walked the more he thought about just leaving Kise here and running off to Konoha. It would ensure her safety and she could stay with Sasori, she still had a lot to learn and while he's finally killing Danzo she could become much stronger. Naruto thought about this hard last night too before he had drifted to sleep, Kise's safety was still his number one priority, even more than Danzo's death. So if she could stay here it would just make things go much smoother.
Pushing through the door into the training hall he took a step into the room and he froze. A sudden chill sparked down his spine. The room felt heavy, much heavier than it had ever felt before. It was like walking through a desert as he looked around the room, his eyes scanned carefully as the heavy feeling seemed to only grow with each passing second. The waterfall he had grown used too had stopped falling, and he silently missed the rhythmic sound as the room flooded into silence.
"Naruto, someone is here with us."
"I know, but I can't pinpoint their location."
Naruto internally responded, it was faint, but he could definitely sense a faraway chakra center in the large room. The chakra felt as heavy as the room as it moved from place to place around the darkened training area. The chakra was potent and thick, and just from the glimpse he was sensing he could tell that it was the largest pool of chakra he had ever come across. Naruto thought about activating his sharingan but quickly squashed that idea, it was still a secret and it would most likely catch whoever had snuck in here off guard. Then for a split second Naruto sensed it the moment he took a step forward, a massive force invaded his senses as he performed a quick shunshine to get away.
A loud bang rang through the cave making the stone around them shake from the force, Naruto struggled to gather his fitting from the man made earthquake as he looked back to where he was standing. He felt his eyes go wide as he looked at the man who now stood in his place, his pitch black cloak swung in his gust as his leg embedded itself in the ground, physically caving itself into the stone as a crater now stood in place of the blonde boy. Naruto then saw it, the glowing red clouds that adorned the man's cloak as he turned to meet Nareuto's eyes. The man's whitish blue skin glinted in the dark as his mirror white eyes gleamed with amusement, forcing his foot out of the stone ground he smirked at Naruto, his sharp teeth shining dangerously as what looked like gills flapped under his eyes.
"You are quite fast for a kid, color me impressed."
The man said with a playful tint in his voice. Naruto felt his heart rate speed up at the man, he couldn't take his eyes off the flowing red clouds on his cloak.
"An Akatsuki member? What the hell are they doing here?"
Naruto thought, as he looked back up to the man's spiky black hair and the slashed out Kiri headband around his forehead. The man raised his shark like eye at the blonde as he looked Naruto up and down,
"You're a missing nin from Konoha? How interesting." he said, narrowing his eyes at the boy. Naruto didn't respond as he stood his ground across from the blue man.
"Naruto whatever you do, you can NOT use my chakra. They should have no idea that I'm sealed in you."
Naruto nodded, ignoring the man's words as he agreed with Isobu. Whatever the reason for the Akatsuki being here, it was no way related to him. None should know about his status as a jinchuuriki except Atarashi and Narumi, and she had kept that a secret for whatever reason that he was still uncertain on. Naruto straightened his posture as he flipped a kunai out of his pouch before glaring at the man. The shake like man just grinned at the blonde in response.
"What are you doing here?"
"Hmmm well me and my partner have been looking for Yuno for about a year and we finally have caught wind of him here." he said truthfully, there wasn't any need to lie about that after all.
Naruto hid his surprise as best as he could, he had recalled Yuno saying that he had swooped in and took the Sanbi before the Akatsuki could get to him. So they were probably tailing him to get the tailed beast into their possession.
"Sorry to break it to you, but he's already long gone."
"Oh? That's too bad, then I guess you wouldn't mind telling me where he went? Either that or I kill you here and now."
Naruto scowled at the threat as the man just grinned evilly. Naruto didn't even bother responding as he performed a quick shunshine appearing just to the left of the shark like man aiming his kunai to his side. The man's grin just widened as he quickly turned his back to the blonde letting the kuani come into contact with the large wrapped up sword on his back. Naruto smiled confidently as his blade made contact, his smile soon faded away as the sword he had hit swung upwards.
A large mouth appearing from the front of it as it tried to attack the blonde. Naruto sunshine again, this time appearing just above the blue male as he sent a sweep kick downwards, the man saw this coming from a mile away and tilted his body backwards dodging the kick before sending his knee crashing into Narutoi's stomach.
The man looked somewhat surprised as the boy's body poofed away into a large ball of smoke, the smoke completely obscured his vision as he grabbed the hilt of his sword and brought it forward. With a single slice the smoke cleared away leaving the room empty again as Naruto stood perfectly still in his previous spot, the man grinned again.
"Sorry but genjutsu doesn't work against me and samehada." he said as the sword opened its mouth again and nodded. Naruto looked somewhat disgusted at the sword, he had never seen such a thing before and it was almost scarring.
"The name is Kisame kid. Make sure you remember since I'm the one who's going to kill you."
Kisame said as he grinned again he vanished completely. Naruto stood shocked for a moment at the man's speed, and didn't have enough time to block the knee that impacted his gut. Naruto gasped in pain but he tried to hold his ground, using the kunai he had taken out earlier he thrusted it deep into Kisame's leg. Kisame didn't even seem phased by the kunai entering his leg as he punched Naruto across the face sending him flying down the room. Naruto grunted as he flipped in the air and landed back into his feet, he looked over to see Kisame easily take the blade out of his leg and toss it across the room. A small layer of blood leaked down his leg as he ran a tongue over his sharp teeth. Naruto scowled before going through hand seals.
"Water Style: Shark Attack!"
Naruto yelled as he took off running to the now desolate pond that the waterfall used to fall into. Two large sharks made of pure water formed and took off soaring towards Kisame. The blue man just laughed loudly as he grabbed Samehada tightly and brought the sword forward as he took the attack head on. Samehada opened his mouth and the water sharks receded back into nothing as the sword absorbed the attack. Naruto watched in surprise as the sword then grew several inches in size. Naruto scowled, performing another shunshine appearing to Kisame's left side, Kisame having seen the blonde just grinned and brought his arm upwards to block the kick sent his way. Naruto bent his body backwards until his hand reached the floor and he spun quickly around and smashed his opposite foot into Kisame's face. His foot connected to Kisame but it barely seemed to affect the man as he grabbed Naruto's foot and attempted to throw the blonde away, Naruto acted quickly as he formed a singular hand seal with his free hand.
"Blood Style: Blood Pike!"
Kisame widened his eyes in surprise at the unknown jutsu as a sharp pain registered itself into his leg. He yelped as he looked down to his previously wounded leg, only to see a large skinny pike made of blood pierce his through his leg and go all the way through to the other side. He was so caught off guard that he didn't have enough time to dodge the blast of water the Naruto shot from his finger tip as it impacted with his chest and sent him flying back into the room. Kisame lost his grin and scowlded as he got back to his feet, he quickly brought Samehada to his leg letting the sword eat away at the jutsu and blood at his leg. It had been a long time since he got actually mad at an opponent, and he surely didn't expect it to be some dumb brat. After his leg was blood free he gave chase, using his sword to swipe at the blonde's side. Naruto sidestepped the attack, sending another blast of water from his finger, Kisame just brought his sword around to absorb the attack as he rammed his shoulder into the boy.
Naruto gasped again as he skidded backwards, using another shunshine Naruto blasted past Kisame, swiping a kunai towards his body but was intercepted by Kisame's larger sword. Samehada then grew again, swirling around Naruto's arm rapidly. Naruto tried to use his shunshine again but was too late and the sword took a bit into Naruto's stomach. Naruto yelped in pain and forcefully brought his feet upwards kicking the blade away and shunshining away.
Standing just 20 feet from another Naruto flew through hand signs but quickly stopped as he watched Kisame's sword start to roar in what seemed like pain. The scaly blue sword started to grow in size again until it was about the size of Kisame now, the blade's tongue was stained red as it cackeled again. Kisame himself didn't look too good, his white eyes were wide open in complete disbelief as he shaikly looked back into Naruto's direction.
Naruto was on edge as he kept his hand seal up, his chakra was already molded and was ready to attack but Kisame seemed to be acting strange. HIs sword was wailing loudly and now Naruto couldn't tell what kind of emotion the sword was feeling anymore. Samehada finally seemed to have calmed down a bit but the pressure that Naruto had felt when he first entered the room had returned full force. The air was suffocating, Kisame's potent chakra was starting to roll off his body as they continued to stare at each other.
"Inside of you, you're a jinchuriki."
Naruto felt his eyes widen, his mouth fell open in shock as Kisame grinned. Samehada flared widely as Naruto's throat went dry. Naruto tried to school his expression as he tried to think of anything he could say to Kisame, he was confused, he was shocked. Even Isobu's mind went blank at Kisame's words. Kisame's just gave a crazed smile, his sharp teeth glinting dangerously,
"Yes yes. Samehada recognized the taste of the Sanbi's chakra!"
Naruto felt his blood run cold as he looked down to his stomach, a part of his shirt had been ripped off from the sword biting him, his seal was still invisible but several teeth marks were etched into his skin. A bad feeling made its way into Naruto's body, this was bad, this was very very bad this wasn't at all how it was supposed to go. His mind was traveling a mile a minute as he tried to find an excuse that would work.
"Me? A jinchuuriki? Please you sound crazy."
"You can't trick me, Samehada knows this chakra anywhere, he was the one who almost killed his previous jinchuuriki. Now it seems I don't need to find Yuno anymore!"
In that instant Kisame took off towards Naruto, Naruto barely had any time to react as Kisame brought his sword down in an overhead chop. Naruto managed to roll out of the way, sending another water blast from his fingertips towards Kisame. The shark-like man didn't even bother to use his sword to dodge the attack as he took the water jutsu head up, powering through as he thrusted his sword forward. Naruto was no match for the man's superior speed as the sword smacked against his face sending him billowing to the floor. Naruto's head snapped off the ground painfully as he felt the sword bite his stomach again this time. Naruto scowled, he had had enough with a burst of chakra he activated his sharingan and quickly formed a hand sign, the blood from his new wound started to float upwards as it formed a shuriken and sent it self towards Kisame's hand that was holding the hilt of Samehada. Kisame jumped back avoiding the attack, taking Samehada with him as Naruto jumped back to his feet, the wounds in his stomach already healing thanks to his blood jutsu.
"Naruto, that sword. It had taken some of my chakra just now! They definitely know!"
Naruto cursed as he tightened his fist. He watched as Samehada grew a bit more in size. With a burst, Naruto raced off towards Kisame, aiming a punch to the man's head. Kisame brought his forearm to block the attack. Without hesitating Naruto sent another punch his way sticking to the same side forcing Kisame to duck out of harm's way. Kisame widened his eyes as he ducked down, barely having enough time to move his head out of the way from another blood shuriken. Using his momentum Kisame brought his elbow upwards into Naruto's gut. But much to his surprise Naruto managed to catch his elbow, with much more force this time Naruto bent his elbow back as Kisame stifled a scream of pain as he felt his elbow leave his socket as Naruto broke his arm with one swift motion. Kisame growled in annoyance as he bruted through the pain and brought his leg forward, sweeping Naruto's legs. Again much to his surprise Naruto managed to jump over his legs, flipping over and sending a downwards kick into the man's stomach.
Kisame gasped in pain as he spit out globs of blood from his mouth. He didn't have time to react due to the pain and with a yell, Naruto formed a singular seal as the gobs of blood Kisame had just spit out formed into sendon and cut themselves deep into Kisame's shoulders. Kisame was angry, with a loud roar he brought Samehada forward, forcing Naruto to shunshine away. Kisame huffed irritably as he snapped his arm back into place, he was getting pissed now. Samehada quickly ate away at the blood in his wounds as Kisame performed a quick water jutsu.
"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"
"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"
Both shinobi yelled simultaneously as two large identical dragons of water crashed into each other, Kisame scowled as the large beats collided in the air as a loud splash directed his attention to his left. Naruto jumped through the water with a crazed expression on his face, his sharingan spinning widely as Kisame felt his eyes widen again. This was all the hesitation Naruto needed as the kuani in his hand slipped past Kisame and dug itself deep into the man's chest. Naruto was shocked however as the second he cut deep into Kisame, the shark-like man bursted into electricity. Naruto screamed in pain as the electricity coursed through his body. It felt like he was getting stabbed with a million tiny needles as his body fell to the ground, he was covered in water thanks to the two water dragons so the electricity had no problem hitting every spot in his body. With his body trembling slightly he barely had time to roll to the side dodging another overhead chop courtesy of Kisame. Kisame had expected this however and quickly let go of Samehada and flipped his body over and jumped down onto Naruto. Kisame's elbow almost broke through Naruto's skin as Naruto gasped in pain again.
Naruto used another shunshine as he soared past Kisame, using his blood from his new injury and forming the familiar three pronged spiral weapon. With a yell Naruto thrusted it towards Kisame, the shark-like man was prepared however and managed to roll back to samehada just in time to meet the spiral blade head on. Naruto, seeing his blood blade get absorbed, jumped backwards, forming a chain out of water that wrapped itself around Kisame's wrist, making him lose his balance. Using the opening, Naruto sunshine in close this time, forming a smaller blood blade and attempting to send it through Kisame.
However, samehada quickly bite the water chain around Kisame making the jutsu dissolve and giving Kisame enough time to duck out of the way of the oncoming blade.
Kisame was still off balance thanks to his water chain, using his advantage he dissolved his own blood jutsu and landed a sharp punch to Kisame's injured arm, forcing Kisame's body buckled down in pain. Kisame however caught Naruto off guard, with his free arm he dropped Samehada and charged into Naruto sending them both down to the floor.
Naruto scowled as Kisame sent a mean right hook to his cheek, blood flew from Naruto's mouth as he grinned. Kicking upwards he managed to jump away from Kisame, they locked eyes for a moment and Kisame felt himself growing more and more annoyed at the boy's smirk. He stayed silent however as he watched a thick trickle of blood fall down his sharingan eye, then a senbon was flying his way.
Kisame almost laughed at the pathetic throw, but the laugh that was coming alive quickly died in his throat as he found himself unable to move his eyes away from the blood sendon that was flying his way. He tried to snap his head towards the sound of Naruto but found it impossible to do so, and without a second thought he had a surging pain in the center of his body once again. He didn't try and fight back the sound of pain that pushed past his lips as he was finally able to look back at Naruto, he was breathing heavily as a large spear made out of blood found itself pierced through his body. Kisame's mouth exploded in blood as he took a step back in pain, he looked at the tired blonde in front of him. Naruto was trying to not let his fatigue show, he had used up almost the full 5 seconds of his misdirection and he was already low on chakra thanks to the amount of blood jutsu he had used in the fight. He was starting to feel the effects on his body as he barely had the energy to even be standing. He shut his sharingan eye to conserve as much chakra as he could as he watched Kisame fall down on one knee.
Naruto stayed still for a moment, staring at the hunched over body of Kisame with a sense of relief. He had done it, he had actually managed to kill a real Akatsuki member. This felt surreal for the blonde, he knew he had grown stronger but this destroyed any doubts he was having. Naruto breathed out a sigh as he held his sore stomach, he wondered if Kise and Sasori were okay, hopefully they hadn't run into Kisame's partner.
All his thoughts died in his mind as he felt a sharp pang run through his leg. He winced pain as he looked down to see the Samehada latch itself onto his leg, he howled as the teeth sunk deeper into him making blood leak out from the wound. Naruto huffed as he tried to shake the sword off of him, and nothing had prepared him for what would have happened next.
Kisame's hand reached forward grabbing a hold of Naruto's blonde spiky hair. Naruto looked on in shock as he was brought face to face with Kisame, the man growled evilly. Naruto felt himself gasp for air as the scaly blue sword tightened its grip around his neck. He tried his best to channel enough chakra to use a shunshine but found it impossible as the sharp teeth of Samehada once again plunged themselves deep into Naruto's stomach.
"N-naruto th-this isn't good!"
"Next time, try not to miss my heart,"
Kisame said, mocking Naruto as he slapped Naruto across the face. Samehada sunk its teeth deeper into Naruto's stomach making blood pool out of Naruto. Naruto found it impossible to even mold his chakra as Samehada stayed latched onto him, and the moment he had tried to channel Isobu's chakra Samehada sucked it out of him, making Isobu widen his lone eye in fear.
"You..you broke my arm, you managed to piss off Samehada, piss me off. And you almost killed me, I don't even care who you are, or why you have a sharingan, or how the Sanbi got sealed into you. But." Kisame said, letting go of the blonde hair as Samehada lifted Naruto upwards. Naruto tried his best to fight back but everything seemed futile since the sword was making it impossible to do so. His vision was beginning to get hazy, his eyes squinting to even look ahead of him to make out an even single shape or person. The only thing he could see was the imposing silhouette of Kisame as he stood across from him, looking down at Naruto like he was some sort of prey. All noise started to become a muffled mess as Samehada gripped tighter around his neck. Naruto raised his hand to try and pry the sword away but the moment his hand came into contact with Samehada, he felt his chakra get sucked away even further. Naruto blinked as he could vaguely see Kisame reach into his pouch but couldn't see what he took out. Naruto couldn't even hear what Isobu was screaming anymore, everything had started to fade away from him as he gasped for just an ounce of oxygen.
A silent scream forced itself from Naruto's mouth as he felt Kisame's hand slam itself into his lower midriff, he could now faintly hear the screams of Isobu as he felt his blue eyes start to roll themselves backwards.
"I guess for your punishment, you won't mind if I take that Bijuu would you?"
With Sasori
With a loud roar Sasori charged his puppet forward, the barrels of its arms spinning crazily as a large plum of fire soared out from arms and made their way to the Uchiha. Itachi kept his face impassive as he jumped away from the flames, dodging the insane heat of the attack. He was unprepared as the second he jumped away he was met face to face with a second puppet, who's mouth unhinged itself shooting out a large amount of senbon trying to cut up the Uchiha.
Itachi couldn't go anywhere as he felt the hundred needles pierce themselves into his body with a sickening squelching sound. Sasori didn't have time to relish in his victory as Itachi's body then started to break apart into several large crows and fly themselves towards him. Sasori reacting quickly, brought his first puppet his way, shielding himself from the crows as they pecked at him and his puppet ruthlessly. Sasori grimaced as he felt one of the black birds knick his shoulder, without warning he twitched his fingers again as his second puppet sprang to life again, the wooden creature looked to break in a large gust of air as a large dragon made of wind formed at his mouth and took off towards Sasori and the birds.
With another twitch of his index finger, the dragon split apart as it reached Sasori, only to retake shape as it passed the red-head and forcefully swept up the crows and sent them flying off into a faraway tree.
Sasori sensing something to his left brought the puppet to shield him from a swift kick from Itacchi. Sasori scowled as the wood of his puppet started to crack from the power of Itachi's attack. Twitching again he pulled back on the strings making the first puppet soar itself backwards at Itachi. This time Itachi gave a small scowl as he jumped into the air to avoid the attack, sending an overhead kick to the puppets head and smashing the wood beneath him to bits.
Sasori clicked his tongue as he retreated backwards from the Uchiha, he never liked it when one of his creations broke. It had always felt like a part of him was breaking anytime someone destroyed the wooden puppets. With a scowl his second puppet came flying next to him, easily towering over Sasori with its arm outstretched showing the two tubes to Itachi.
The Uchiha just kicked away the broken puppet at his foot as he looked at Sasori, he wanted to raise an eyebrow at Sasori's fighting style. The puppet master had been much more aggressive than he usually was, he even initiated most of the attacks, something Sasori had never done before. Also he was using basic puppets, puppets that most chunin in Sunagakure had purchased after being allowed access to the special store. It was strange, and Itachi for once couldn't put together his old friend's change of personality and ideals.
"You have changed Sasori."
Sasori just scowled at Itachi, "Wrong, this is who i've always been. It's you guys that never bothered to look at anything else."
Itachi moved slightly, expecting the puppet user to attack like he usually had. But much to the Uchiha's surprise no attack came. This time Itachi's brow did raise in a small amount of confusion, he didn't know what to think. Sasori was known for his mocking, for his superior tactics in the battlefield that overshadowed even veteran shinobi.
Then what was he doing?
Sasori noticed a part of Itachi's mask crack the longer he tried to analyze him, his plan was working.
The puppet master grinned as he barely noticed the small twitch of the Uchiah's arm. There it was. With a laugh Sasori sent his puppet flying towards Itachi, the Uchiha was more than ready to block the attack as the puppet grew closer to him but was surprised when the puppets arms folded back to normal.
"Now Kise!"
Itachi felt his eyes go wide slightly as a sharp pain ignited in his left leg. He winced from the random pain only to barely glance over to see the girl he had put under a genjutsu early to be standing tall, she was breathing heavy with her arm outstretched towards him. The pain in his leg only seemed to get words as the puppet produced a blade from it's mouth and plunged it deep into Itachi's gut. Sasori noticing something was wrong forced his hand backwards, but it was too late. The body of Itachi then exploded, sending his puppet flying back into tiny bits and pieces back at Sasori.
"An exploding clone? Dammit!"
Sasori cursed to himself as he glared as the tall form of Itachi walked himself back to the two of them. Itachi masked his face as he moved his cloak open to see his now heavily bleeding leg. After he had switched places with his exploding clone he was shocked to see several kunai from his pouch had forcefully ripped free of their prison and dug themselves deep into his leg, courtesy of the young girl he didn't recognize. He was lucky she looked to be inexperienced because if she was stronger, then he might not even have this leg anymore.
"I see, you were buying time for the girl here. I should have seen this coming."
"Enough of this Itachi, you aren't going to leave here alive. And you definitely aren't getting Kise or Naruto." Sasori growled and for the first time in the red-heads' life, he watched as Itachi's sharingan faded away from his eyes. Sasori couldn't even form thoughts as he watched the doujutsu vanish, for the many years he had known the Uchiha missing nin he always, no matter what, had his sharingan active.
Itachi felt his pulse quicken slightly as the name of a familiar blonde boy reached his ears. A name he hadn't heard in a long time, close to years ever since he had abandoned Konoha. Just then the face of an slightly older Uchiha flashed in his head, a head of messy black hair with a securely tied Konoha headband around his forehead. And the most gentle and full of joy smile he had ever seen.
"Itachi you have to come and visit me and Naruto one day! The kid has so much fighting spirit and is so dedicated! And with my training he will no doubt be one of the strongest shinobi ever!"
Itachi blinked at the memory that had resurfaced. Shisui's words echoed in his mind like they had done years ago. Shisui almost everyday would return back to the Uchiha compound with a smile on his face, and would then spend hours and hours bragging about Naruto. He never had said anything bad about the Namikaze, in fact Shisui never had stopped talking about Naruto. Even when the two Uchiha would train together Shisui always found new things to teach Naruto and would break out into a huge smile.
Itachi smiled slightly at the memory, Shisui cared more for Naruto than he had for the entire Uchiha clan, that much was plainly obvious. To this day itachi was still unsure on what had happened to Shisui, he wasn't there during the night of the massacre and was slightly uncertain if the boy was dead or not. But Naruto was alive, and that was enough for Itachi.
"I see, Naruto is with you?"
He watched as the two in front of him tensed slightly. Kise growled as she took a confident step towards the taller Uchiha.
"If you want to get to Naru-nii than you'll have to get through me!"
Itachi looked a little amused at the girl's declaration but quickly hid the emotion. Itachi was still completely unsure about Sasori's change of heart, and Kise was a little interesting to him. She seemed to have the power to control metal, hence the kunai that he found in his legs just moments ago. The situation was confusing and brought up more questions than answers, and before he could continue his train of thought a large chakra signature became visible to the three shinobi in the clearing.
Itachi looked up with a raised eyebrow as Kisame landed next to him, and his confusion only grew as he saw the state the shark-like man seemed to be in. Kisame scowled at Itachi's raised eyebrow and looked back at Sasori in a small amount of surprise. He didn't think the puppet boy would be here as well, he was about to greet the red-head when he was the injurieds on both of his teammates. Quickly putting two and two together he went ahead to grab Samehada but was stopped when Itachi put a hand on his shoulder.
"Enough Kisame. We are done here." Itachi said, surprising everyone. Kisame was about to protest but Itachi's sharingan flared back to life and glared darkly at Kisame. Kisame releucetly nodded but managed to put a grin on his face. His shark-like teeth glinted and ignored the blood that leaked down his chest, he didn't even bother to clean himself up after his fight with the boy.
'Very well Itachi, our mission is completed after all."
Sasori felt his heart drop at the words, a worried expression took over his face. Itachi looked somewhat confused when Kisame grabbed onto his shoulder rather hard. Kisame reached into his pouch to reveal a small sized urn that was seated comfortable in his palm. Sasori felt his blood run cold at the sight, pure dread washed over him and the wicked smirk across Kisame's face told the red-head all he needed to know.
"You fucking bastard!"
Sasori screeched and sent his puppet flying towards the Akatsuki members, he didn't even hesitate as he shot out the largest fireball he could muster at the two. The ball of fire was so large that it had caught the wind and had got taken away into the forest. Sasori didn't even care as he watched the trees go up into flames and soon spread itself out engulfing the whole forest. The smoke had finally started to clear and Itachi and Kisame were nowhere to be found, their chakra signatures completely vanished and Sasori felt his blood boil in anger. While internally he was angry his face showed a heavy amount of worry as he cut connection to his puppet. Sasori wasted no time as he ran towards Kise and grabbed the confused girl by the shoulders.
Kise was alarmed as she watched the fire spread quickly down the forest, trees were starting to turn to ash and she could start to see several wild animals starting to run away from the bright flames. She was scared when Sasori had gripped tightly onto her shoulders, the red-head's eyes looked to be glossed over slightly worrying Kise even further.
"Kise you have to get to Naruto! This is important!"
He yelled making Kise jump in surprise, her heart began to feel heavy as she grew more and more concerned.
"Naru-nii-"
"No time Kise! Here take these, I have to go and find Yuno and Atarashi and tell them about this right away!"
Sasori said frantically as he reached into his cloak and pulled out two identical black and red scrolls. He pushed them into the scared girl's hands and she fumbled to grab ahold of the scrolls. She held them tightly to her chest and jumped slightly once another explosion reached her ears. Both Kise and Sasori looked on in surprise as the mountain then exploded, sending rocks tumbling down and impacting onto the burning forest around them. Kise finally put together what was happening as a few tears started to leak out of her eyes. Sasori looked just as panicked as he grabbed the girls face to look at her golden eyes.
"Whatever you do Kise, make sure he is okay. The red scroll is a healer puppet just in case you need it. The black is the strongest puppet I have made. Use it to keep you safe." he said and Kise frantically nodded, and without warning Kise took off back into the cabin making her way towards Naruto.
Sasori wanted to go after Naruto as well, but he had to report this back to Atarashi as soon as possible. This was important, the fate of the world was now in the line and the second Sasori took a step forward he had to shield himself as a large dust cloud observed his vision from a tree that had just fallen over. Sasori grew more tense as several smaller chakra signatures became visible, snapping his head over to their general direction he scowled. It seemed Kumo had already caught wind of the forest fire and were starting to make their way towards it. With one last worried look back at the mountain he then vanished, traveling at near inhumane speed to make it to the Atarashi base.
He just hoped everything was okay.
Kise was running as fast as her legs could take as she sprinted down the cabin's secret hallway. Her heart was pounding, she felt like it was going to burst any second the longer it took her to reach Naruto. She was scared, no, she was absolutely terrified. She still wasn't entirely sure what had happened to Naruto, but she knew it was something bad. Sasori-sensei looked mortified the second the blue man took out an urn and smirked. Kise had no idea what it was, but she was sure that Naruto was in trouble, she channeled as much chakra as she could into her feet to run faster the more she thought about Naruto in danger.
Kise's heart skipped a beat as she finally saw the door to the training hall of the base, she pushed past the wooden door tearing it off her hinges and sent it flying into the room. Kise didn't even care that her shoulder was now throbbing in pain as she looked on shocked in the room. She was forced to cover her eyes as another small explosion rocked the cavern, she lost her footing and fell to the ground as the cave started to shake. Once the shaking finally stopped she was able to look around the room, there was water almost everywhere as it soaked the ground. She saw several pools of blood scattered randomly and she followed the trail until her heart dropped down into her stomach. Fresh tears formed in her eyes as she gasped loudly, she tried to get to her feet but the second her foot moved forward she slipped in the puddle of water and fell face first onto the floor.
She ignored the pain as she tried again, forcing her body forward as she slid past the pools of blood as her throat turned dry. More tears fell down her face as she finally made her way to the center of the room.
"Naru-nii!"
Kise yelled, her voice hoarse as she skidded across the floor only to see Naruto's body faced down, his face slightly submerged in a small pool of water. His face was paler than a ghost as she reached out to him. She called his name again but got no response. Her whole body started to tremble as she yelled it again, once again getting no response as she grabbed his shoulders and tried to shake him awake. Kise sobbed his name again as she flipped him over onto his back, her eyes going wide as she looked at his heavily torn shirt revealing his now deathly pale skin. She traced over his stomach, her fingers softly going over the large bite gash that he now had on his right side of his stomach.
Kise was freaking out, she ignored as part of the ceiling had caved in, falling down across the room and sending a small little shockwave across the room. Kise's mind was running a mile a minute as she put her two index fingers under his jaw, at first she felt her heart almost exploded when she felt his pulse react to her touch. It was faint, so faint that she was afraid it was just her imagination. Making sure it was real she quickly unraveled the red scroll Sasori had given her and unsealed the small puppet that resided inside.
The puppet was indeed small, about the size of Kise as it wore a typical nurse's uniform. The strange thing about this puppet however was it's face, it looked way more human than any of the other puppets that Kise had seen but she didn't worry about that now. She didn't even bother to connect her chakra strings to the nurse puppet as she ordered it to start to heal the blonde, the puppets' hands started to glow a light green color as they moved around the blonde's body. Kise watched in loud distress as Naruto remained unmoving, checking his pulse again just to make sure he was in fact alive, satisfied that she had felt it, she let go and let the puppet do its thing. She wiped her eyes clean, trying to rid herself of anymore tears as a soft sound of footsteps reached her ears. A heavy sense of anxiety coursed through her as her head snapped back to the entrance of the cave. She cursed herself for not remembering to close the entrance in the fridge, she stood up on shaky legs as she turned to meet more than a dozen Kumo shinobi who had just walked into the room.
Kise put up her bravest face as she unsealed the black scroll in her hand, her hands were shaking and she felt her face crack slightly as the Kumo shinobi started to laugh at seeing the girl look so terrified. The shinobi in front walked forward, he looked like the leader of the pact as he grinned evilly at the young girl. His eyes glancing between her and the boy who was getting healed.
"Are you two responsible for this wildfire?"
Kise scardly shook her head, it was partially true. It was technically only Sasori who had started the fire; she was only a spectator. The man huffed in annoyance as he looked around the destroyed cave, grinning again he shrugged his shoulders.
"Well you look pretty responsible."
Kise felt her eyes widen in fear as she instinctively channeled her chakra into the scroll. The man stopped his walk forward as a large poof echoed itself into the clearing. The man in front took a hesitant step back as a towering figure floated over him. He took a hesitant step back in pure disbelief as fear laced itself into his veins. His group of shinobi had done the same, some even falling down in fear at the sight in front of them.
The puppet that stood towering over them was large, easily taller than anyone in the room as dark purplish black hair stood spikey on all sides of his head. It was wearing a long white poncho with a midnight black shirt underneath that went all the way down to his wooden ankles.
The puppet took in a sharp intake of breath before exhaling out, as he did so a thick black particle substance flowed freely from his mouth as Ksie snapped her head upwards. Her golden eyes wiped of all fear and were now replaced with sheer confidence. Even using her magnet release, this puppet she could tell it was different than any other one she had ever controlled. Power felt like it was rolling off of her as the black substance leaked out of the puppet's mouth and started to circle around Kise. She scowled darkly as she raised her hand forward, channeling much more chakra then necessary as the wood around the puppet started to change color, gone was the once nice brown wooden color, now a deep black replaced it. Kise heard a few screams of fear echo in the room and she didn't care, with a snap of her hand the puppet launched itself in the air. The black substance seemed to take form in hundreds of spikes as it rained down on the Kumo shinobi. Screams of pain bounced off the cave walls as she watched the shinobu get ripped apart from her new puppet, blood flew from open wounds and mixed itself with the pools of water. Her voice was cold as she spoke, he eyes going void of any emotion as she felt herself almost become one with the puppet. With another twist of her finger the puppet above her swiped itself down, forming more spikes as it impaled several of the Kumo shinobi, their screaming didn't even phase Kise as she shut her hand tightly, as a loud muffled howl reached her ears.
"No one, and I mean no one, will harm Naru-nii."