A/N: A few people asked for a chapter from the Akatsuki's POV, so in order to build a little more suspense and get a little more perspective on the situation I have humbly decided to grant your request. I hope I do it justice, it wasn't in the original outline (except maybe a little splurge here and there) but I'm going to give it a shot anyway.
Each scene in this chapter takes place at different points within the six month time skip, but they are in no particular order. Some are scenes I have been wanting to put in the story but couldn't find a good spot for, especially the one from Naruto's POV, because of flow issues. This is the best solution I could come up with, hopefully it won't seem too out of the blue.
Allow me to reiterate before you continue: I am not making new Jinchuuriki. Remain calm, bear with me, please. But you do meet one of those OCs I warned you about in this chapter, just FYI, as part of what Naruto's been up to in those six months.
Chapter 4: Interlude
Konan had not really found much humor in the world in a long time.
A very long time.
She figured it was understandable, considering. Yahiko, her teammate and almost lover, was long gone. Sensei, the man she had once thought of as a father-figure, had passed from this world as well (it didn't help that she had more than a little to do with that).
Now, Nagato, her last true friend in the world was dead.
She'd also had plenty to do when she got back to Amegakure, carrying out her former teammates, and now Uzumaki Naruto's dreams, of peace and alliance. Amegakure was under her rule now, albeit somewhat secretively, and she felt the weight of that dream of peace more than ever.
But that is where she had put her faith, and there she would keep it and play her part as best she could and maybe make up for some small fraction of the pain she had caused in the past.
When Konan had gotten back to the Rain Village she had taken pains to hide Nagato's body, laying him next to Yahiko. That masked man, Tobi, would come for the Rinnegan, of that she was sure and she had laid her traps for him, waiting. Showed that man a few scars for the corruption he had caused.
She thought she had considered everything.
There was, however, one obstacle she had not accounted for and had deemed it damn laughable when it walked into her Village.
The Daimyo's men looked almost as surprised as she felt when they issued their Lord's command and she had not only snorted in a very unladylike fashion, but had had a rather long and teary laughing fit right in front of them.
Maybe she'd been a little more stressed than she'd realized.
Or maybe it really was that ridiculous.
Nevertheless, Konan composed herself quickly and, attempting to regain her blank, emotionless mask, faced the little black-clad men before her.
"Forgive me," she said primly, "Allow me to clarify. The Daimyo of the land have sent . . . you," she pointed a dainty finger at the men with utmost contempt, "To remove me from my village," her hand retracted to rest on her own chest in the most queenly manner she could muster, "Because he is under the impression that I am a . . . Jinchuuriki?"
The black uniformed man in front of her was wearing a mask that covered most of his face but his eyes were revealed and in them she saw every ounce of fear she'd ever inspired staring back at her, "We will use force if we have to." She almost impressed at how steady his voice held. Almost.
Konan, being a founding member of the Akatsuki and having studied Jinchuuriki for years, probably could have expounded for hours to these men about exactly how wrong the Daimyo were in that aspect . . . but she found she really didn't care enough to bother. She had more important things to worry about and if these idiots, who wanted to take her out of her village and treat her like some common flunky they could intimidate, if these kinds of people had a death wish she was more than happy to oblige.
On second thought, maybe she should refrain from actually killing them.
Dreams of peace and all that. Even if they were stupid enough to take on Lady Angel.
Konan nodded to herself, making her decision and then cocked her eyebrow at the Daimyo's men, "Listen carefully, all of you," she said, taking the diplomatic approach first (it had worked for Naruto anyway), "You and the Feudal Lords are mistaken. I am not a Jinchuuriki, nor can any such being be found in this village. I must ask you to leave, now."
The one that seemed to be the leader had the nerve to step toward her, "We have our orders. You will leave or you and your village will face dire consequences."
Oh, really? She wondered distantly, How quaint.
"Very well then," Konan paused and raised her arms, "Force it is." And flapping sheets of paper filled the room.
As she did this, something rather surprising happened, and for a second time that day, Konan was very nearly impressed with these foolish men.
Two of them, moving with Ninja level speed (although Konan doubted these men were traditionally trained in the way of the Shinobi, they obviously had some competence in the skills of one), two of the black-uniformed men grabbed the previously unnoticed attachments to their backpacks and fire spewed out.
Her first round of paper went up in smoke almost immediately, and as Konan decided maybe she would kill these idiots, another of the men pulled a tube out of his belt and blew through one end, spraying a barrage of poisoned senbon at her.
She dodged these easily enough, but a second later was almost caught in the shoulder by a flying projectile about the size of an apple. Her paper took care of this by reaching out and lobbing it away and she turned to see yet another of the men holding what looked like a miniaturized canon on his hip. She didn't have much time to contemplate that because as soon as the apple-sized object the tiny canon had shot at her hit the wall and bounced off it began to secrete some sort of gas. Konan knew was poisonous just by the green tinge of it.
She sent her paper out to it again, wrapping it and containing the gas and also realizing that although these men were not Shinobi in the strictest sense, they had access to much of the tools Shinobi used, and some they didn't. Advanced weaponry.
Shinobi in general preferred not to rely too heavily on tools, unless they were a specialist, as such things tended to break or get lost and often the only thing a person had to fall back on was their own body.
These men were relying almost solely on weaponry and they had access to some of the best.
They were still no match for her.
Konan went for the flame throwers first, allowing some of her paper to be burned and distract the men carrying the packs, but another wave of sheets dodged and began to wrap the men from head to foot. In no time they were unable to use their flames or they would risk setting themselves on fire.
The leader was shouting, now that their main line of defense against her was unreachable but was soon silenced as Konan swiftly cocooned him away as well.
Konan then turned to the other men remaining, "I am beginning to lose my patience, gentlemen. Kindly show yourselves out or I will have to show you out myself." With a flick of the wrist she raised the three cocooned men and allowed them to drift toward the open window.
Without their leader, the other men, though they still outnumbered her significantly, quickly quailed and ran. No honor among the Daimyo's men apparently.
Allowing her three prisoners to drop to the floor, bruised perhaps, but safe, she unwrapped the leader's face enough for him to hear and answer her.
"I am going to ask you a question," she said, looming over him, watching his eyes widen as he squirmed inside his prison, "You say you are after Jinchuuriki. Then tell me, what has become of Uzumaki Naruto of the Leaf?"
Naruto was lost.
He wasn't sure how he'd managed it as he was still in Fire Country, but the forest he was in was beginning to all look the same. Except that tree. He was pretty sure he'd seen that tree at least three times before.
Great, not only was he lost he was going in circles.
It had only been a few weeks since he'd left the village and, had Naruto not been a Shinobi and seen some pretty messed up stuff in his short life, he could have easily labeled them the worst weeks of his life. But he was a Shinobi and therefore he considered his situation bearable if not comfortable.
The one time he'd tried to show his real face in another village, despite it being a civilian village, he'd been swarmed by the Daimyo's men and he'd had to run for it again. Apparently his face was one they knew by heart. Luckily a simple Henge was enough to fool them, but ever since the Daimyo's new law people were suspicious of any new face in town, making it difficult for him to move through populated areas.
He was suddenly really glad Choji had once decided to give him a friendly lecture in food gathering, because not only could he not easily get into town to buy food, he was running low on funds.
He'd been sticking to the wilderness ever since, except now he was lost.
And alone, that niggling voice told him, Don't forget alone.
Shut up, he thought back.
Funny how they haven't come to look for you.
I said, shut up, and Naruto clamped down and silenced it.
He was just contemplating what good retracing his steps would do when he heard it.
Naruto stopped, then leapt into a tall tree and listened for another noise. Something was moving out there and it wasn't human. As he listened closer he realized there was more than one.
He moved back, blended into the shadows of the tree and waited, hoping whatever it was would just pass by. Naruto watched as a shadow approached through the trees, silent and stealthy, four legged and furry with eyes that glowed in the early morning darkness.
A wolf.
If there was more than one it was probably a pack then, and Naruto felt a little safer knowing wolves weren't prone to climbing.
When the creature stepped out into the open though, Naruto had to reevaluate his assessment. The beast could be better described as a wolf-dog, reminding Naruto more of the familiars in the Inuzuka Clan than of their wild cousins. Upon this realization the blonde tensed all the more, wondering if this meant there was another Shinobi nearby.
As he watched, the wolf-dog, covered in gray fur, its chest and feet white, sniffed the ground around his tree and lifted its head to sniff the air. It was about the same size as Akamaru, and when it raised its eyes to lock onto Naruto's, they held the same nearly human intelligence.
Naruto froze. Had the creature been looking for him?
It was still staring at him with its head tilted curiously and Naruto figured there was no sense in hiding if the thing knew he was there.
He stepped out, unsure, and without really knowing how one was to address a random intelligent beast while they were lost in the forest, said ever so gracefully, "Um . . . hey?"
If a wolf-dog could roll their eyes, this one did. Then it only continued to stare at him . . . expectantly.
"What do you want?" Naruto asked, getting irritated. He could still hear the others milling around just out of view, mere shadows in a forest full of them. "I'm not coming down," he added.
The wolf-dog cocked its head and proceed to sit heavily down on its hindquarters with a light thud. It gave him a look that clearly said, Well, you can't stay up there forever, buddy.
Naruto glared for a moment. The last thing he needed right now was a sassy fuzz-bucket. That was probably hungry.
Finally he sighed and looked the thing right in the eye, "If you or any of your friends try to eat me, I will Rasengan you into a fur-coat, got it?"
The wolf-dog made a scoffing noise through it's nose that seemed to say, Same to you, pal.
Naruto rolled his eyes and jumped down from the tree, landing lightly on his feet in front of the animal, poised to run at the first sign of attack.
None came.
However, more of them emerged, cautiously making their way over to Naruto and what he assumed was their leader. Or alpha. Or whatever.
The pack was all shades of brown and gray, blending into the trees and forest around them. Naruto counted eleven of them, twelve, including the first one to come out.
He backed away but only managed to back into one of them, the smallest one. This one, with mousey brown fur, gave him a little nudge to the back of the knees and a kind lick to the hand as if to reassure him, then began to sniff. In fact, they were all sniffing and snuffling at him as the leader watched on. Eventually they all seemed to come to some conclusion or other and looked at each other, that same almost human intelligence shining in their eyes, and then looked to the gray leader.
It was one of the more bizarre things Naruto had witnessed, but by now he'd learned to roll with these sorts of things.
The pack seemed to have some silent conversation until, finally, the leader nodded and stood, looking Naruto in the eye again. It jerked its head as if to say, Follow us and be quick about it, before it turned and dashed through the trees.
Naruto had a split second to ask himself if he was really about to follow a bunch of canines through an unfamiliar area before the others took off as well. Only the little mousey one stayed behind to push its head into the back of Naruto's knees, pushing him in the direction the pack had run. It turned pleading puppy eyes up to him when he didn't budge.
"Oh, what the hell," Naruto sighed and started after the rest, "Why not?"
Once in a while the leader would stop and sniff the air, maybe change course slightly and keep running, but it wasn't even ten minutes later that it and the rest of the pack stopped and went completely still.
When the pack went silent Naruto soon heard something else in the distance but couldn't really make out what it was. The gray wolf-dog turned to him again and jerked its head in the direction of the sound, Well, dummy, get moving, haven't got all day.
Naruto was really starting to get annoyed with this mutt but it hadn't tried to eat him yet, and seemed to want his help. So he moved closer to the sound. The wolf-dogs didn't follow him but some did shift nervously and whine, as if in anticipation.
Naruto was again thinking how ridiculous (and probably really foolish, but he was too used to living up to that reputation to stop now) this whole thing was when the sound became clearer. Sobbing. Someone was crying.
He quickened his pace but before he could get much closer a voice said, barely audible because of its distance and weakness, "Who's there?"
Naruto stopped momentarily, wondering how anyone could have heard him coming at that distance when the voice came again, "I-I know you're th-there. I'll-I'll -," there was a rustle like someone was scrabbling through the dry leaves on the forest floor, "I'll hit you!" The voice sounded like a young girl's, dry and cracked as it was.
From a distance Naruto saw a limb rise up from behind a thick tree, like the person had picked it up to threaten him with it.
Naruto finally closed the distance as silently as he could and saw a sight that would have been comical if it wasn't also so sad.
The owner of the voice was a girl alright, and she did indeed have a tree branch in her hands ready to swing. Naruto, however wondered why she was facing the tree so threateningly, instead of him, as he was standing behind it just to the side where she could have easily seen him.
That's also when he noticed the state she was in. The arms that held up the impromptu weapon were too thin and shaking, her dress and bare feet were dirty and torn. The girl's white hair hung long over her face and shoulders, obscuring her face and making Naruto wonder how she could see at all through that mass of hair.
"Hey," Naruto finally said quietly, trying to be non-threatening, but caused the girl to startle so badly she screamed and whacked the tree with all her might (which was pathetically not much), "Whoa, wait! I'm not —"
She realized she hadn't hit him and started to sputter incoherently, "Y-you-you get away. Just g-get away." She began to swing her branch from side to side wildly, actually managing to aim in his general direction this time and Naruto decided to move before the poor girl took her own eye out.
"Calm down," he said before easily grabbing the branch and pulling it out of her weak grasp. She'd started to cry again and turned like she would run away but Naruto caught her arm as gently as he could without hurting her, "I'm not going to hurt you."
She turned back to him again and desperately tried to swing at him with her other arm but Naruto caught that too. She thrashed in his grip and as her hair was thrown back Naruto saw her face and suddenly things got much more confusing. Her eyes were completely blank, just white orbs in their sockets. The girl was blind.
"Let go!" she was screaming again, fighting with all her tiny might to get away.
"Will you calm down? If I wanted to hurt you I could have already," Naruto tried to reason. Her thrashing weakened by the second and he was hoping she would wear herself out so he could talk to her, but then the gray wolf-dog appeared again and the girl's head, impossible as it seemed, swiveled to lock her sightless eyes on the creature.
She screamed yet again and redoubled her efforts to get away, "They're back! They'll kill me, let go!" She managed to knee Naruto in the stomach somehow and he grunted but thankfully kept hold of her.
This time he twisted her, still trying to be as gentle as possible as he could feel the fragile bones in her tiny wrist, and pinned her back to his chest, putting a hand over her mouth and holding both her wrists with his other hand.
Quickly he said, "Stop, please. No one's going to hurt you. Not me . . . and not the dogs," Naruto looked up at the gray wolf-dog standing a few feet away now with its head lowered pitifully as it watched the girl struggle weekly, "I think . . ." Naruto started as he watched the animal move slowly towards them so as not to startle her, "I think it wants to help. It brought me here to help."
The girl stilled after a few more jerks for freedom but continued to shake like a leaf.
"I'm gonna take my hand away," Naruto said, "I just want to talk, I promise. Please don't start screaming again." The girl nodded hesitantly and he lowered his hand and loosened his grip slightly.
She practically went limp as she started crying again. Naruto had no clue what to do, the poor thing seemed to be half out of her mind.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto," he said, trying to calm her. Naruto shifted and set her against a tree so she was facing him now. After a moment's thought he started pulling ration bars and his canteen from his pack. She looked like she hadn't eaten in a while, "What's your name?"
She shook her head but didn't speak, only folding her arms against the chill in the air, a choked hiccup escaping her now and then. Her head still hadn't turned away from the wolf-dog, apparently considering it a bigger threat than Naruto even though it hadn't made a single threatening move toward them since it walked up.
"Okay, never mind," Naruto mumbled and pulled and extra blanket out, too, draping it over her shoulders. She jumped and "looked" back at him then, and Naruto wondered how in the world she knew where beings of flesh and blood were but had managed to hit a tree she seemed unable to see.
"Why are you out here all alone? Are you lost?" Naruto asked, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.
She shook her head again and curled into herself and the blanket, away from him.
Naruto thought she wasn't going to answer again, and sighed. Shaking his head, Naruto decided to set about making a fire, hoping she wouldn't try to run off. Her feet were cut up and scraped pretty badly and he was impressed she'd been able to move on them at all.
Then she said, barely over a whisper, "He said we were just going for a walk." Her voice sounded like rocks in a blender.
Naruto turned back and her sightless eyes were on the wolf-dog again, which had inched closer, still watching the girl with an oddly pained expression on its doggy face.
"A walk?" Naruto prompted stepping toward her again.
"The men came," she said, ignoring him it seemed, "The strangers that smelled bad. They talked and then Ko said we were going for a walk. Then he was gone, his light went out," she was frozen now, transfixed on the dog watching her, looking rather like a cornered animal herself, "They wanted the wolves to kill me. They protect the village, they kill the threats," her white eyes turned and seemed to lock onto Naruto next and he almost stepped back from her blank eyes, "You smell nice."
And then she fainted. Naruto snapped out of whatever daze he was in and caught her before her head hit the ground, but as he did the blanket slipped from her shoulders. He was pulling it up, wrapping her more securely in it when he looked down and saw the mark on her collarbone. It was a small seal.
Naruto blinked in disbelief, not fully understanding what it could be.
He looked back up at the wolf-dog who had come closer now and snuffled almost lovingly at the girl's hair, and back down at the seal.
"She couldn't be . . ." he whispered, and the mutt looked at him curiously, ". . . Jinchuuriki?"
"Missing?" Madara didn't really like to repeat himself or others, but this time he made an exception, "The Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki is missing?"
"Hm," White Zetsu hummed lazily, "I was a little surprised too. The Leaf is awfully protective of him. But it seems he's been driven out of the village and now they don't even know where he's run off to."
"And I take it," Madara clarified, "We do not know where he is either?"
"Afraid not," White Zetsu shrugged and then laughed, "Only so much even I can see. You'll never guess the reason, though."
Madara waited. When Zetsu just stood there grinning like an idiot he snapped, "I appreciate it if you would enlighten me."
White Zetsu's smile faltered but he said, "The Daimyo are after the Jinchuuriki now, too. Not to capture they just want them out of the villages. The Eight-Tails is missing, also, for the same reason."
Madara was silent for a long time and Zetsu began to fidget.
"Perhaps," Madara said at last, making White Zetsu freeze, "The Daimyo have done me a favor."
White Zetsu blinked, "How so? We've lost the Jinchuuriki."
"Yes," Madara said quietly, "But if we can find them . . . Outside their villages and unprotected . . . we will have far less opposition . . ."
White Zetsu smiled in understanding, "Would you like me to start looking, sir?"
"And be quick about it, Zetsu," Madara replied, "The Kages will no doubt be searching as well by now."
White Zetsu nodded and was gone. Madara drummed his fingers on his chair's arm. What an interesting turn of events.
Gaara finished reading the latest message from Tsunade and sighed.
"Still nothing on Naruto, huh," Kankuro asked and sat down next to him.
Gaara wordlessly shook his head. Nothing. They didn't even have a lead yet.
"It's been too long," Gaara said, "If any of our Ninja had been missing this long we would have considered them dead or gone rogue." He said it in monotone but the words felt like thorns on his tongue.
"Don't be like that," Kankuro replied, settling back in his seat, "Naruto's got no reason to go rogue, and do you really think he'd be that easy to kill?"
"I should go after him," Gaara ignored his brother and repeated the same sentiment he'd held for months now, "I should be helping."
"Gaara," Kankuro sighed in exasperation, "We've had this talk. You can't."
"He came after me," Gaara replied simply.
Kankuro grit his teeth, "And I and the rest of the village are eternally grateful to him for that, but it's different the other way around. You're the Kazekage-"
Gaara huffed in annoyance and stood, starting to pace, but Kankuro kept talking.
"Your responsibility is to the village," the puppet-master said patiently, "You can't go gallivanting off across the continent to look for one Shinobi. Another village's Shinobi at that."
"We could send someone -"
"Who?" Kankuro asked, "I hate to say it, but do you really think our people can do anything that Konoha hasn't already done? And while we're at it, why not call up the Raikage and ask if he'd like a few Sand-Nin helping find his brother, too? You can't meddle in another villages affairs, Gaara, no matter how well intentioned."
"I know," Gaara said irritably, turning away from Kankuro, feeling peevish, "Yes, thank you, I know."
His brother was quiet a few moments before Gaara felt a strong hand on his shoulder.
"Look, I get it," Kankuro said, "Naruto's a friend. If the Leaf asks we'll help, but if and when that happens, we just can't."
The Kazekage felt his shoulders sag miserably and he was glad Kankuro was the only one in the room with him. He knew his brother was right, but it still felt like the universe was mocking him somehow.
He was Kazekage, Gaara had finally proven himself to be more than the killer his village thought of him as, had risen above even his own expectation and was happy for it.
But for the same reason he could not help the friend who had inspired him to such things.
Gaara had heard how Naruto had saved the Leaf, how he too, had finally shown them, all of them, what a Jinchuuriki wanted most in life. That they were more than the beasts they held. That they were different from the monster.
Gaara had been so proud for his friend.
And then this law . . .
For just a moment, when the Daimyo's men had explained to him that he was exempt from the new command because he'd been a good little Kazekage, even though Gaara projected calm and placidity, he wished he could go back to his murderous ways just to crush those idiots. He'd pushed them out of his village much like the other Kages had done and with about as much kindness.
Gaara had proven himself, Naruto had proven himself, and here were the Lords of the land trying to reduce them back to the status of a beast.
On second thought, the universe wasn't just mocking Gaara but Naruto as well.
"I'm sorry," Gaara whispered.
"For what?" Kankuro gave his shoulder a little push, "Wantin' to help a friend ain't something to be sorry for, genius."
Gaara smiled a little at that and didn't even protest when Kankuro thumped him a little too hard on the back, strolled out of the room, and teased, "Alright, we got stuff to do Kazekage-sama, let's go."
Rolling his eyes and walking after his brother Gaara felt the smile slide off his face as he secretly hoped the Leaf would ask.
A/N: I'm not sure about this chapter, especially Konan's part, but I hope it's something like what you guys were asking for. Next chapter may be up sooner than usual because I started writing it before this one. We'll be back to our regular programming then.
Please review!