Part 8
It was about an hour to midnight as Naruko exited her bathroom. It had been about two weeks since she and Jiraiya had returned to Konoha with Guren and Yūkimaru in tow. Since then she and Jiraiya had been going over all of the information they'd taken from the old cliff side base, following up leads and 'convincing' some of Orochimaru's spies to give them some information. From that, Jiraiya found out that a significant portion of Orochimaru's spies were dedicated to attempting to track the Akastuki's movements, mostly because they still wanted Orochimaru's head on a stick, something the Hebi Sennin would like to avoid, but also because he still hoped he'd be able to snag Itachi's body somehow. It also lead to the reveal of a number of spies in Konoha and in the Hi no Kuni capital, Hi no Shuto (Capital City of Fire).
The yearly fortnight of snow was just about finishing, and Naruko was glad for it. While she enjoyed the seasonal change, she preferred the usual warmth of Hi no Kuni to the current cold. Also, it was a bitch to walk in heels in snow and ice, something she should have considered when she decided not to bother buying any flats except for regular ninja sandals, which were cold as hell this time of year. She'd rather not have her toes freeze off after all.
She yawned as she climbed into bed, and covered herself in her lovely new thick blanket. She needed a thicker blanket because she preferred to sleep in just underwear, something that baffled Sakura since she could 'just put on some thicker clothes dammit', but whatever. She was comfortable. Settling in, she felt the bed start to warm up and her eyes drifted shut, her dreams full of ramen, Kage-hats and women.
"So what's so important that it couldn't wait til' morning?" Tsunade asked, as the pleasant buzz of alcohol was slowly diminishing to be replaced with a headache and a desire for sleep. Despite wanting to relax today, the revealed spies had required quite a bit of her attention. At least she'd likely be able to unwind tomorrow.
"I believe I can predict Akastuki's next move." Jiraiya answered. That got her attention.
"How?" she asked sitting up straight.
"Well, based on intel Naruko and I 'acquired' from Orochimaru's informants, they'll be trying to capture the Nibi next."
"The Nibi? That's dangerous, considering how powerful the Hachibi Jinchuuriki is supposed to be. Those two together would be quite a challenge."
"It would be, if they were anywhere near each other. These days, the Hachibi Jinchuuriki doesn't leave a private sanctuary of some kind, whether that's wilfully or not I'm unsure. The Nibi Jinchuuriki however, is an active jonin. Not only that, but she rarely enters Kumogakure actual, getting her missions via messengers and dead-drops and such."
Tsunade leant forward onto her desk, resting her chin in a hand. "So, she operates alone? That is very dangerous."
"I believe Kumo are underestimating the threat Akatsuki pose. The Nibi Jinchuuriki, even without her Biju, is a formidable ninja. She is also one of the few Jinchuuriki recorded to have complete control over a Biju."
"Why would they underestimate them? The Akatsuki are made up entirely of S-rank missing-nin from all over. Even if she's as good as you say, that's a hell of a threat."
"Yeah, well there are no Kumo missing-nin in Akatsuki as far as we're aware. And they've been even more isolationist of late, cutting ties with Kirigakure and some of the smaller surrounding villages. So they probably don't know anything about Akatsuki apart from the fact that they're a group of missing-nin that attacked Sunagakure, which is still considered the weakest of the Great Five. As far as I can tell, they don't seem to think the threat is legitimate, at least to them. They also seem to think a war is on the horizon. They've been building up defences for a while now."
"Yes I know. Well I don't blame them. S-ranked missing-nin running loose, Orochimaru running his own damn village and the skirmishes between smaller villages. Great Wars have been started for less."
Jiraiya nodded solemnly. "Well regardless, we can't let Akatsuki get at the Nibi. Kumo likely believes this 'Nii Yugito' is up to the task of defending herself. The incident in Suna says otherwise, not that Kumo would likely care."
"So you want to try and pre-emptively defend the Nibi Jinchuuriki? That could go very wrong, very quickly. That could easily lead to war, Jiraiya." Tsunade warned.
"I know, Hime. But I'd rather start a war with Kumo than let Akatsuki have any more Biju. There's too many unknowns. Too much risk. That said, I'm not going to just let a war start. Regardless, I think this needs to be done."
Tsunade waved her hand at him. "Yeah, alright, fine. What do you need from me?"
"I'd like to take a small team with me. Including Naruko."
Tsunade smirked at him. "What, afraid to fight them alone? Is your age catching up to you, old man?"
Jiraiya just smiled indulgently and shook his head. "No, I'm as good as ever, Hime. Just wanna ensure success." He got a bit more serious. "This is too important."
Sensing the mood change, Tsunade sighed. "Fine. Who do you want?"
Naruko grumbled as she stumbled around her room, gathering up her gear. She'd only had about five and a half hours sleep before Jiraiya had come and woke her up, telling her that they had a mission. Sliding her pants up underneath her dress she had her clones haul other stuff out like spare clothes and weapons and store them away. She slipped on her boots and strapped Masamune onto her back, her weapons pouch on her side and finally her scroll at the base of her back. Looking in the mirror she was irritated to find herself in a bit of a mess, something that she wouldn't have been bothered by a few years ago.
She kind of missed not caring, back when being the best ninja ever and becoming Hokage was all that mattered. But she'd grown older, realised there was more to life and, more specifically, realised her sexual orientation. While by no means rare, homosexuality wasn't hugely common in shinobi villages, if for no other reason than they're near constant need to re-populate after wars and such. But there were a fair few people she knew that were gay or bi as well; Sakura was a lesbian and Ino was bisexual for example. She also knew Iruka was bi but he wasn't really one to date. Anyway, once she started to become attracted to women she started to care about her appearance. Kind of a bitch when she got hit on by guys but anyone that didn't know the meaning of 'no' could easily be taught a swift lesson. There was one guy from Mizu no Kuni she remembered quite well since she had burnt the word 'NO' into his arm with katon chakra.
Realising she'd gotten side-tracked she quickly fixed her hair the only way she knew how, with a quick Ranjishigami no jutsu, as well as quickly applying her makeup. While doing so she noticed how chipped her black nail polish was and sighed. She didn't have time to fix it at the moment, especially since ninja-grade polish (which was hard as hell to come by) took ages to dry.
"Bloody hell, gaki, I know you wanna look good and all but we're on a tight schedule here." Jiraiya said with some irritation.
"Yeah, whatever, you wake me up in the middle of the night, you can wait. You might be a hermit, but I'd like to make myself presentable."
"Uh huh. Come on." Jiraiya jumped out of the window and headed for the gate.
Naruko sighed and made a clone to lock the window behind her and put the security seals up as she followed Jiraiya.
Coming up to the gate, she saw some others waiting for them. Sakura was standing by the gate casually admiring the sunrise. Next to her, Shikamaru was lying on the ground apparently asleep. Lastly sitting on a box of some kind was Inuzuka Hana, her three dogs sitting dutifully at her feet. Eventually, Naruko had managed to get Shikamaru up by threatening to beat him black and blue with a sheathed Masamune.
After walking down the road for a couple hours, heading east, Sakura asked. "Sorry, Jiraiya-sama but what is the mission?"
Jiraiya looked back at her with a raised eyebrow. "What, Tsunade didn't tell you?"
Sakura, Hana and Shikamaru shook their heads and Naruko realised she hadn't been told either. "Some ANBU came by and told us to get geared up and head to the main gate. That's it." Hana said.
Jiraiya sighed. "Alright, so basically we're going to try and find the Nibi Jinchuuriki and stop her from getting captured by the Akatsuki. Hana and her dogs will try to track her down as she is somewhat nomadic, Sakura's our combat medic of course and Shikamaru's Kage Jutsu should help us to slow down any Akatsuki members and, if need be, capture the Nibi Jinchuuriki ourselves."
Naruko looked at Jiraiya in shock. "Capture the Nibi Jinchuuriki? We tryin' to start a war, Ero-sennin?"
Jiraiya just shrugged. "If it comes to that, it comes to that. Frankly, keeping the Biju out of Akatsuki hands is more important than stopping a war." The three younger shinobi were rather subdued for a while after that.
"You think you've got me trapped." Yugito smirked viciously. "But it's you whose trapped. Like the rats you are!"
A number of explosions went off, causing all of the tunnels in the sewer system to be blocked by debris.
"Eh? Seems we're trapped, Kakuzu." the silver haired one said.
"Doesn't matter, Hiden. It's better this way, actually." Kakuzu said dismissively.
"I swear I'll kill you, Akatsuki." Yugito promised.
"Say what? You? Kill me? Dammit, I hate it when people talk to me like that. And I can't even kill you. So how about you just come along quietly and I can get back to serving Jashin-sama properly?" Hiden asked with a smirk.
The two Akatsuki-nin watched as the Nibi Jinchuuriki crouched down and snarled. Exploding in blue flame, she literally turned into Matatabi, the Nibi.
Kakuzu glared at his partner.
"Alright, my contacts say this is her last known position." Jiraiya said. After four days of walking, they were just inside Kaminari no Kuni. The only thing in the area was a large building that looked like it was once a factory of some sort.
"Well, there is a female scent. Smells vaguely like cat." Hana said, sniffing the air along with the triplets. "Quite recent, maybe here... yesterday, two days ago. Wait..." she said smelling in the direction the wind was coming from. "I've got three other scents coming from the south-east. Human, one male, two female."
Just as she finished saying that, a massive explosion went off underneath the building, bricks and glass flying in every direction. The debris would've smashed into them if not for a timely Doton: Tajū Doryūheki from Jiraiya.
"Into that hole, I wanna know what's going on down there! Move!" Jiraiya ordered.
They quickly complied, jumping down into the hole, into a wide debris filled sewer of some kind, though the water was thankfully quite clean. They found two Akatsuki members standing in front of a young blonde-haired woman essentially nailed to a wall via a number of kunai, presumably she was the Nibi Jinchuuriki.
"Dammit! You arseholes are ruining my ritual!" one the Akatsuki yelled. He had silver hair and was wearing his cloak open to reveal his bare chest. In his hand he held a massive red, triple-bladed scythe. Around his neck was a Hitai-ate they didn't recognise.
"And thank fuck for it." the other said. His head and body was entirely covered except for his eyes, which were a pale, pupil less green. He had a cut Takigakure Hitai-ate on his forehead.
Jiraiya then followed them down into the hole, landing between them and the Akatsuki-nin. He looked over them, not recognising the scythe-wielding ninja but shock was clear on his face when he saw the other.
"Ah, so Sannin no Jiraiya recognises me, eh? Well, I suppose I should be flattered, but I'd rather have your bounty, Gama-Sennin." the green eyed one said.
"You can try. First, how aren't you dead?" Jiraiya asked back.
The man casually shrugged. "Came close to dying a couple times. Didn't take."
"Ero-sennin, who is he?" Naruko asked quietly.
"Kakuzu. He was a ninja from Takigakure when it was built. He's one of the few people that lived after fighting the Shodai Hokage." He answered not taking his eyes off of the two Akatsuki-nin. "The other, I don't recognise. Sakura, Hana, once we engage, go secure the girl. I'll take Kakuzu. Shikamaru, Naruko take the unknown. Be very careful you two." Jiraiya ordered gravely.
"Oh for- enough, dammit! Let's fight!" the Scythe-nin shouted, launching himself at them.
They swiftly jumped back to avoid it, Naruko throwing down a smoke bomb to let Hana and Sakura get away.
"The fuck!?" Scythe (as Naruko resigned to calling him) yelled.
The smoke cleared and they could see a shadow from Shikamaru holding him in place. "Katon: Enden!" both Jiraiya and Naruko shouted. In a split second, Scythe was covered in a large amount of oil and set alight, essentially exploding where he stood.
"That was too easy..." Naruko muttered, watching black smoke rise into the air. She silently drew Masamune.
Suddenly, Scythe came soaring out the smoke straight at Shikamaru. It was so sudden that he didn't have time to dodge.
"Ngh!" he grunted, as the longest blade stabbed into his shoulder. It would have been deeper had Naruko not managed to block the scythe with Masamune.
"Argh!" Naruko growled as she put all her strength into pushing back, the blade pulling out of Shikamaru shoulder, causing him to grunt again in pain, and made the scythe to go flying out of Scythe's hands. As Scythe recovered from stopping himself from falling over, Naruko smashed her leg into him, making him fly back at Kakuzu who had been sitting casually watching the entire exchange.
He looked irritatedly at his partner. "You done fucking around, Hiden?"
The newly named Hiden sat up as if getting kicked ten metres into a massive stone hadn't hurt at all. "Fuck you, Kakuzu. Let's just fucking kill them, so I can finally make a sacrifice."
The Konoha-nin watched them with some disbelief. "Come on guys. We gotta keep them busy." Jiraiya said.
"Hana, watch for incoming. I'll get her down." Sakura quickly set about taking the woman down from the wall. She looked to be in her early twenties, but her face was swollen and bloodied.
"Got it." Hana watched as the other three slowly led the Akatsuki-nin further away.
"Get away from her!"
Hana dropped into the Inuzuka taijutsu stance and the triplets bared their teeth as Sakura turned to see a red-headed woman with dark skin in standard-Kumo gear land front of Hana, followed by a tall blonde haired woman and dark skinned man with grey-ish white hair.
Each had a different type of blade drawn, the red-head had a katana, the man had some sort of cleaver-sword and the blonde had a tanto. "You will step away from Yugito-san immediately." the blonde said in a monotone. Her face was expressionless but they had the distinct feeling that she was very annoyed.
"I'm trying to heal her." Sakura said.
Whatever the blonde woman was about to respond with was drowned out when there was an explosion on the other side of the rubble, where they could no longer see the fight. There was a second explosion and Naruko came flailing through the air toward them. She landed roughly on a rock and groaned.
"Naruko! You alright?" Hana asked crouching down next to her.
"Ugh... yeah. Fuckin' arsehole's just won't die." She sat up and picked up Masamune which had landed next to her. She opened her eyes and saw the Kumo-nin. "Hey, fuckheads, we're tryin' to save this Yugito chick. You wanna help or you just gonna stand around and let us do all the work?"
"Looks like you need the help." the redhead said with a smirk.
"Well duh. S-rank ninja mean anything to you?"
"Naruko! Get the fuck back over here! I know your stubborn arse ain't dead!" Jiraiya's voice echoed.
Naruko sent another look at the Kumo-trio and stood up, heading back to the fight.
"We should help, Samui." the man said to the blonde.
Samui sighed and nodded. "Seriously not cool. Karui, stay here and guard Yugito. Omoi, with me."
With that Samui and the man, Omoi, headed over the rubble toward the sound of clanging metal and the occasional explosion.
Hiden cackled as he swung savagely at Naruko who was dodging and deflecting the scythe, desperately trying to not get skewered. It was such an odd weapon that she was having trouble finding a window to attack, even though his style was wild and uncoordinated.
Kakuzu was a complete contrast to Hiden, fighting tactically and using different elemental ninjutsu from all five basic elements with mastery and precision. Only Jiraiya's skill and years of experience kept him from being roasted, crushed or stabbed.
Naruko finally got her window when Shikamaru managed to throw a fūma shuriken at Hiden, working through the pain in shoulder to do so. He'd been throwing normal shuriken and kunai with his uninjured arm but whatever hit Hiden didn't seem to faze him at all. He'd even pulled a kunai out of his stomach and tried to stab Naruko with it when they'd locked weapons. Seeing the massive shuriken spiralling toward his head, he was forced to block it with his scythe. Naruko took the opportunity and, not wanting to waste the chance at all, covered Masamune in futon chakra. She savagely but precisely stabbed Masamune in between Hiden's ribs and into his heart. She smirked and twisted the blade inside of him and tore it through his chest and out the other side.
He fell to the ground and lay still, his blood spreading across the ground beneath him. At that moment, Samui and Omoi ran past them, heading over to help Jiraiya.
"Get the fuck up, Hiden!" Kakuzu called in between blows to and from Jiraiya and the Kumo-nin.
To their surprise, Hiden opened his eyes and growled in annoyance, pulling his mostly detached lower body toward his upper body, his skin and bone knitting back together. Using their shock to his advantage, Hiden swung and Shikamaru again. This time, Shikamaru reacted in time to dodge but wasn't fast enough, the blades slashing deep into his chest.
He fell over onto the ground, bleeding heavily.
"Fucking shit!" Naruko yelled in dismay. She made a large number of clones who basically dog piled onto Hided after each placing an exploding tag onto themselves. Naruko sheathed Masamune and picked up Shikamaru and jumped over the rubble toward Sakura and Hana. "Sakura!" she called landing beside them.
Sakura looked up and her eyes widened. "Fuck! Hana, I've stabilised her, double check for me. Naruko, place him here." Sakura ordered. An explosion rocked the tunnel as Naruko put Shikamaru on the ground.
"How is she?" Naruko asked nodding to Yugito.
"Physically, fine. Mentally, don't know. Injected her with knock out serum. Keep those two stalled another couple minutes then we gotta go, Naruko. I can't heal Shikamaru properly here and this place is about to collapse." Sakura answered, furiously pumping healing chakra into the gashes on Shikamaru's chest.
"You got it. I gotta go back. Stay safe, guys." Naruko said re-drawing Masamune.
"You fucking whore! That fucking hurt!" Hiden screamed as he reattached his right arm.
"What the fuck are you?" Naruko asked.
Hiden stood and smirked. "Just a faithful servant of God."
Naruko barely dodged underneath the scythe as they reengaged in a ferocious blade fight.
Jiraiya's earth wall only just blocked the explosion from Kakuzu's Katon mask. "Oi! You two! Get back over to the others, this place is about to come down!" he yelled at Omoi and Samui.
Despite being from another village, they both followed his order and retreated.
Suddenly going on the offensive, Jiraiya managed to capitalise on Kakuzu's split-second surprise. "Doton: Yomi Numa!" (Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld). The swamp that abruptly appeared in the middle of the sewer only just caught Kakuzu, trapping him in it.
He sprinted across the massive room, jumping and kicking an unsuspecting Hiden in the back of the head as he and Naruko locked blades. Hiden smashed into the ground and Jiraiya landed in front of his student. "Set up tags to bury this place. We are leaving!"
There were still too many unknowns in this fight. He'd seen Kakuzu take hits that should have killed him half a dozen times. Kakuzu was similar, although he seemed more interested in self preservation, especially of his masks. But he saw Shikamaru get hit, so now Sakura would be exhausted from healing both him and Yugito who had been half dead, and the team of Kumo-nin was too much of a liability since he knew nothing about them. Naruko was also hurt, a number of slashes across her body and her clothes were in tatters, the skirt to her dress was completely gone, essentially making it a just a top. Similarly, her jacket seemed to have disappeared as well.
Too many risks to keep the fight going. At this point, if it were just him and Naruko they could probably come out on top. But with the amount of unknowns and their primary objective secured, they had to move.
Naruko nodded and made a number of clones. They each spread out across the tunnel, placing tags onto load-bearing columns and the ceiling. She dodged under a swing from the scythe and sent a Shakuton-chakra enhanced kick at Hiden's chest, her foot melting halfway into his chest and causing him to go flying as he screamed in pain. He might be able to regenerate ridiculously fast, but having your chest melted would fucking hurt. He flew to the other side of the room and she left a clone as she ran who yelled: "Shakuton: Shūkai suru taiyō!" (Scorch Release: Orbiting Suns!). She didn't stick around to see what happened but she did feel the earth under her vibrate.
"Let's go, let's go!" Jiraiya ordered, an unconscious Shikamaru and an exhausted Sakura slung onto each of his shoulders. Karui had picked up Yugito and Hana was already leading her nin-dogs out to the surface.
Naruko was the last one out, as Hiden's scythe just barely missed cutting her foot off and she sent a feral kick back at him, yelling "Just fucking die you sick freak!" The heel of her boot smashed painfully into his face, likely breaking his nose and sending him spiralling back into the tunnel. "Get down!" she yelled, setting off the tags. A huge explosion rocked the earth massive pieces of debris when flying overhead, missing them by just centimetres not a moment after they'd hit the ground.
"Fuck me..."
They'd ran for hours, until even Naruko was tired and the others were utterly exhausted. They'd agreed to head north into Tetsu no Kuni, after the Kumo-nin had refused to go into Hi no Kuni after they'd agreed that if the two Akatsuki-nin survived, which they thought likely considering the fight, they would expect them to head for Kumogakure. They'd found a mountain and Jiraiya created a cave a the base of it and covered up the entrance with rocks making it look like a cave-in, but with enough space that air could come in and the smoke from their small fire could go out.
"Naruko, you aren't about to keel over from exhaustion, you're on watch." Jiraiya ordered, and was asleep not a minute later.
"I had a soldier pill not long ago. I shall also take first watch." Samui stated. All of the others were asleep within a minute.
Naruko sat on one side of the cave by the entrance and Samui sat on the other. Naruko had leant her a spare pair of her pants as Samui had been shivering heavily wearing her short skirt. Naruko created a small ball of condensed Shakuton chakra and had it float between them, keeping the cold at bay. The entrance to the cave was quite small, only a couple of metres so the two weren't far apart. Jiraiya had made the entrance a couple metres long and open into the cave with just enough space for them all to be comfortable and for a fire.
Naruko was tending to Masamune when Samui managed to push past her slight social discomfort and said. "Thank you."
Naruko stopped and looked up at her. If the circumstances were different she'd be having a hard time keeping eye contact with the blonde Kumo-nin. "Uh... your welcome?"
"For the pants. And for saving Yugito." Samui clarified. "That was pretty cool."
"Oh. Of course. Couldn't just give 'er to Akatsuki. Can't have a pretty lady freezing to death either, eh?" Naruko responded with a friendly grin as she went back to Masamune, not seeing the very faint blush on Samui's face.
Samui just looked to the cave entrance and wondered how things could get any weirder than sitting in a cave with a flirty Konoha-kunoichi and Sannin no Jiraiya.