Okay, here's chapter 3! And yes, there will be a fight scene in this chapter, and I hope it comes out good. This is probably one of my first fight scenes, unless you countt role-plays. So, tell me what you think!

Chapter 3: New yet old enemies

-(.),(.)-

"Okay you two, we'll fan out for this part. I'll go to the shore to look for clues, Naruto; I want you to go into the forest to do the same, and Sakura, I want you to go through town to ask people if they have seen or heard anything about people in black coats with red clouds. If you to find anything-" He took a small pause, did some quick handsigns, and summoned three of his nin dogs. "Tell one of them to find me, and follow them to report. One dog will go with each of us. So, you ready?"

It was about five o'clock in the morning, and the Konoha ninja were getting ready to officially start their mission. Tsunami, Inari, and Tazuna weren't up yet, but they needed to get to there places before the normal townspeople were out about. Yes, some fisherman and merchants were up to start the day, but they were few and not likely to notice a fast ninja hopping through the trees.

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto and Sakura were anxious to start. They both wanted to find Akatsuki and bring them down, for bringing pain to so many to experience such horrible pain. Naruto, more for the pain that the organization had caused the jinchuuriki of all the bijuu and because of the pain Itachi had caused Sasuke. Sakura was fighting for teammates, but the first one that came to mind was Naruto. And that scared her a little. Wasn't Sasuke the one to first enter her thoughts?

But there was no time for that now. They had a mission to start. Three ninja jumped away toward their respective areas, with a nin dog following after them. Kakashi to the shore, Sakura to the town, and Naruto to the forest. They all began on their various tasks.

-(.),(.)- Kakashi

The silver haired ninja was walking along the shore of the beach, looking for a camp or a boat in the ocean. He stayed away from the actual shoreline, hiding in piles of jagged rock that lined the beach. His nin dog was up ahead, sniffing for a trail. Lucky summon animals, being able to poof away whenever they needed to.

While Kakashi thought about the unfairness of the ninja and the summoning animal world, his dog barked. Apparently, something had been found. He quickly jumped over to the spot where his dog was. On the ground, a strange symbol rested. After a quick analysis, the Copy nin recognized the symbol.

"Not good," The silver ninja leapt away towards the woods.

-(.),(.)-Sakura

Quiet frankly, she was bored. She had gone from shop to shop, trying to find information on the group her team was searching for. Currently, she was sitting in a tea shop, her nin dog lying at her feet, taking a nap. She had a plate of dango in front of her, and she was contemplating her earlier thoughts.

Why had Naruto come into her mind before Sasuke? That had never really happened before. Maybe because the village was starting to receive less and less information about the former leaf nin, because now he was constantly on the move with Team Hebi. And Naruto was always there for her. Even when he was on his training trip, with the perverted Sannin, she knew that he was going to come back. He would never abandon her,

Her head met the wood of the table, causing the people to look at her. Why did she have to think like this! The only one that Naruto and she could think about was Sasuke. They had to get Sasuke back, so she could show him that she loved him. …Right?

At that moment, the nin dog sleeping by her side raised her head and sniffed the air. He looked at her with eyes that said, Follow me. The look told it all. Apparently the dog smelled something or someone. She laid some money on the table to pair for her snack. She then ran after the dog who seemed to be heading towards the woods.

-(.),(.)- Naruto

Naruto was searching through the woods, seeing if he could find anything. He saw a small clearing that seemed familiar to him.

He jumped from his tree to the clearing, looking around at the trees. He ran his fingers along the wood of one. Multiple groove marks ran up the tree, as if a knife had cut it. Also, along one tree, footprints seemed to be imprinted in the tree, as though a foot had rammed itself into it. A small smile crossed his face of memory of their tree climbing. Back when they had still been team seven…

He snapped out of his reverie when he heard a twig snapped behind him. He raised his arms in defense and called out, "Who's there?"

"Ah hello, Naruto-kun. Good to see that we found you nice and fast. I thought we might actually need to search for you. Thank Kami your sensei was stupid enough to let you go alone. I really would not have to deal with him," From the trees, two figures dropped out of the trees, wearing black cloaks with red clouds adorning it. Naruto growled.

"Akatsuki!"

-(.),(.)-

Sakura was leaping through the trees when she saw a flash of silver. She yelled out, "Kakashi-sensei!"

The ninja stopped and looked over his shoulder to see his pink haired teammate right behind him.

"Sakura, how did you find me so fast? Ah, right I almost forgot about you," He kneeled down to the nin dogs by there feet. "You two should go. I'm expecting a fight, and you two aren't meant for that," The nodded in understanding and poofed away.

"Kakashi-sensei, did you find something? I just followed the dog…"

Kakashi nodded and replied, "Yeah, I found something, but I'll tell you later. We have to find Naruto before they do," He leapt away with Sakura close on his tail.

"Kakashi-sensei, do you think that the Akatsuki found Naruto?" Sakura was worried about her teammate. If they weren't there to help him, things could get bad fast.

-(.),(.)-

The two black cloaked figures just stood impassively in front of Naruto, while the whiskered ninja was tensed. He was scared, definitely scared, but that's not an emotion that Naruto Uzumaki shows. The thing that scared him the most was that he didn't know the two.

The taller man had silver like Kakashi, but more fluorescent. Also, the hair was the same style as Naruto's, only a little shorter. He didn't have the Akatsuki hat or ring. On his left side, a katana hung on the inside of the cloak. He was tall, about six feet. He was lean, but his arms showed definite muscles. He wore a bored expression like he thought he should be doing something else. A rock hitai-ate with a scratch through it was pinned to the left sleeve of the cloak.

The smaller female by his side wore a smile that would disarm most men, unless you were good at reading facial expressions. Underneath the look, bloodlust seemed evident. Her hair, which was the color of flax, was tied in a loose bun on her head. Her brown eyes shown, as though she was eager to fight the boy. She had no evident weapons, so most likely, she more of a ninjutsu user. Her scratched cloud hitai-ate was tied around her neck.

"Now, do we really need to do this Naruto-kun? It would be so much easier for us if you would just be a good jinchuuriki and came with us," The man spoke with disdain, obviously believing Naruto wasn't worth their time.

Naruto snorted at this. "Yeah, like I would listen to you. How about you two come quietly now so I don't have to waste my energy kicking your butts?" The pair smirked at him.

This time the woman spoke. "Naruto-kun, do you seriously think that you can take on both of you at the same time? You may have power, but not enough for both of us," Her voice sounded like she was trying to hypnotize him. It wasn't genjutsu, because Naruto didn't sense any differences in his chakra. It just seemed like she really was just trying to persuade him.

"Then this will be easy. Go ahead, underestimate me, it will just make my job that much easier," his hands formed the familiar cross sign. "Multi Shadow clone jutsu!" About a dozen Narutos surrounded the two. Some held kunai; others were in a defensive pose.

The smirk on the male only deepened. "Impressive, that you can create so many clones at once and still have so much chakra. And you haven't evened used the Kyuubi's chakra. Too bad you're gonna have to die. You would make a good edition to Akatsuki,"

"Like I would ever join your stupid organization anyway!" yelled the original Naruto. "It looks like you guys aren't going to come quietly and answer any questions. I guess I just have to beat it outta you!" Every Naruto charged at them.

The clearing was instantly filled with smoke. The original Naruto had luckily stayed a bit behind to learn the fighting style before attacking with his clones. The only thing he gathered was an intense sharp pain.

He looked at the male, who wasn't in a different position from when he first saw him. The only difference was that the hilt of the katana was showing.

How was he able to draw and sheath his katana so fast without me even seeing it? Narutothought. Well, I guess I just have to avoid the sword. I should try attacking the girl to see what she's all about.

He created twelve more clones, and this time charged solely at the female of the group. Again, the clearing was filled with smoke.

This time, the male kept his sword unsheathed. The blade was onyx black, and it looked like it was made out of polished rock. The blade seemed to be the sharpest Naruto had ever seen.

"Will you stop making those annoying clones? I'm dulling my blade for nothing on them," The male seemed to remain bored with the current situation.

"This is going to be harder than I thought," Naruto braced himself to continue fighting.

-(.),(.)-

Kakashi and Sakura noticed the smoke from the clones coming up from a nearby clearing.

"He's over there," Kakashi called back to Sakura, who was a few paces behind him.

"I can tell that sensei," Sakura was tense. Her teammate was fighting two Akatsuki members alone, and he was their target. If they didn't get their soon, he could be lost to them.

He two stopped in the trees that entered the clearing. What they saw was Naruto bracing for action, a male Akatsuki with a katana drawn, and a female member just standing there smiling. The two jumped down in front of Naruto, holding their hands up in preparation for an attack.

Kakashi spoke first. "Who are you? We have seen most of the members of the Akatsuki, and we have never even heard mention of people who look like you,"

The female spoke this time. "I guess we never did introduce ourselves did we? How rude of us. My name is Kira Hitaki, former ninja of the Hidden Cloud Village. One of the newest recruits into Akatsuki," Kakashi, Sakura, and Naruto were confused by this. Since when had Akatsuki been recruiting?

Now it was the man's term. "And I'm Hiro Natashi, former ninja of the Hidden Rock Village. Like Kira said, I'm also one of Akatsuki's newest members. Leader-sama said that if we capture Naruto-kun and bring him back alive, we will be given the highest rank in the Akatsuki. That's when we get the hat and the ring. So once we bring this jinchuuriki back, we will officially be part of the most powerful organization in the ninja world," His eyes glowed with pride for himself, as if he had already earned his title. "Oh yeah, where were we? Ah yes, capturing you," he looked at the two in front of him. "If you two don't want to die, I suggest you move. We only need Naruto-kun alive. Leader-sama said that we could kill anyone that got in our way," He was bored again apparently.

"Like we would let you have Naruto you jerk!" Sakura began gathering chakra in her hands. She felt a hand on her shoulder. She first looked at Kakashi, who also had a hand on his shoulder. "Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan… please let me fight them. Alone," His eyes were blazing with hidden fire; something had awakened behind his eyes.

"Naruto we can't let you do that. These guys are too dangerous…" Kakashi looked in his students eyes.

"Kakashi-sensei, please I need to fight them by myself. If things get too bad, then you can come in. But only when I say so. Please sensei, please," That last bit seemed more of a command than a request.

Kakashi sighed. There was no way around this. Naruto was just too stubborn to allow them to help him. At least he said that he would let them assist him if things got too tough for him. "Fine. But, if I think things are getting out of hand, then I'm helping, whether you like it or not," Naruto allowed this condition by nodding his head. He walked in between his comrades, eyes again ablaze.

Sakura looked at her sensei with disbelief. "Kakashi-sensei, how could you let him do that? He's going to get himself killed by doing this!"

Kakashi looked at his female student with a worried eye. "I know, and that's why I made him agree to me helping out. But do you really think that he would let us fight this battle? He has a grudge against this group, and for a good reason. He has to do some of it by himself, or he will never be able let go, even when the group is gone. He will think that he didn't do enough, didn't help enough, all because others were trying to save him. Remember his past Sakura; before team seven, he never really had others looking out for him. He was on his own. But now that he has friends to help him, he still isn't sure on what to do. He gives everything his all, even if it will kill him. It's his way of saying that he cares," Sakura looked at her sensei in disbelief. Every single word of that was true. But, she still didn't want her teammate and friend to fight alone. But she had no choice.

Naruto was preparing for the next attack. "So, you two think that people like me are things you can collect? Toys you can throw away once you're done?! Well, think again!" Every sentence, every phrase, every word, became accented as Naruto's anger grew. His whiskers became more defined, his eyes darkened to a blood red, and his pupils became slits. His chakra levels began to skyrocket, as the Kyuubi added his chakra to his own. "It's time to teach you otherwise. Shadow clone jutsu!" Over a hundred, is not a thousand, Narutos appeared. "You sure you still wanna fight me?" All the Narutos smirked, all of them with the bloody eyes. When the two didn't move, he just charged in, along with all of his clones.

This time Hiro and Kira tensed for the on coming attack, most likely because of the numbers. But the outcome was the same as the last time. All of the clones poofed away, but this time Hiro wasn't the only one in a different stance. Kira arms were in the position of sixty-four palms of gentle fist before the strike, but her legs were together and her eyes were closed.

"Dance one, The Dance of the Crane," Kira said with a smile. Hiro held his blade horizontally in front of him, and he was in a crouch, his eyes also closed. This time, he smiled.

"Dance two, Dance of the Serpent," he opened his eyes. "You see kid? We aren't like most Akatsuki pairs. Our moves work together to take out limitless enemies. We cover all sides. So no matter what you do, you can't beat us," His smile deepened, his voice became even more boastful than before. "So Naruto-kun, looks like since you aren't going to come quietly, we'll just have to make you," Hiro held his sword in front of him. "Dance three, Dance of the Tiger," Hiro charged straight at him, while Kira ran around the back of him. Naruto quickly made to shadow clones to help protect him. It was to no avail though. The sword went through one shadow clones and skidded along his side, cutting cloth and skin. A chop to the spine made contact, soften by only hitting the clone first.

Naruto gasped in pain. The cut on his side was deep, and it would take a few hours for the Kyuubi to heal it, if he was resting and wasn't using the chakra from him. His spine was killing him, but everything seemed to be moving well enough, so it seemed like the blow hadn't worked like it was supposed to.

"Damn… you…" Naruto gasped out. He knew that Kakashi and Sakura were going to jump in soon, so he needed to finish this fast. He had one move that he knew he could use, but it was dangerous, and it hurt like hell to use it. But, it seemed like the only way.

He created five more clones. Two jumped to the trees and ran off. Kira smiled at this. "Trying to go for help? Why would you do that? You have teammates behind you. Why don't you let them help?"

"Because, I would never let my comrades get hurt. That's part of my nindo, my ninja way," Naruto charged once again with his clones. But this time, he seemed to know more about the style the two used together. When Hiro would slash his sword, the Naruto would duck underneath the blade in time. When Kira tried to kick or punch, the Naruto facing her would avoid it. After a bit of dodging, the two clones landed a punch on both of them. One clone had gotten under Hiro's guard and had punched him in the gut. The other was able to block Kira's punch and hit her in the face. The pair each flew into a tree about ten feet apart. Hiro rose first, rubbing the back of his head.

"Dammit, how did you get under the guard?! The style is supposed to be impenetrable!" He was obviously angered by the fact that Naruto had found a way to get underneath. He looked up at Naruto's face, which was now smirking.

"Shadow clones are damn useful like that. Every time you destroy one, I learn what it learned. So if it discovered something about the way you swung your sword, or how she kicked, I learned it. So, now that this fight has been balanced a little, you wanna still fight?" Naruto expected the two to be somewhat hesitant, but the reaction he earned was the complete opposite.

Hiro started laughing. Laughing. At him. Why? He had just learned in his style, and was able to parry both of their blows now at the same time! How could he laugh?!

Then he looked over at Kira. She wasn't laughing like Hiro, but she was smirking. And it seemed like she was in complete control of everything had been going on. It was extremely unsettling, and Naruto was starting to get mad.

"Why are you laughing?! You shouldn't be laughing!" His eyes were blood red and his pupil were slits. His whiskers were more defined. His canines and nails lengthened and sharpened. He was angered at the fact that the two were basically mocking him. And he couldn't stand that.

Hiro stopped and looked at Naruto with humored eyes. "We are laughing, Naruto-kun, because you think that just because you learned a few of our moves, you are on par with us. How naïve you are. Do not fool yourself. We will bring you to the Akatsuki, and you will die," An evil grin rested on his lips. "And now we begin again. Dance Four, Dance of the Ram!"

Naruto didn't even see them come at him. First, his legs were swept out from underneath him, and then he was rammed in the chest with the hilt of Hiro's sword. Damn, there fast… Naruto began to think. He felt more chakra starting to pour out of him. A tail formed behind him, and two ears were now present on top of his head.

"You two are dead now," Naruto leaped at the two of them, arms aimed at their chests. He reached out to scratch. But all of a sudden, neither of them was there. He looked around in confusion and let out a feral growl. He looked around, and saw the Akatsuki members standing behind his teammates. Hiro had his sword to Sakura's throat, and Kira held a kunai to Kakashi's. Both of them were shocked to say the least. Neither of them had sensed them at all, and now with a simple hand movement, they could be dead. "So Naruto-kun, are you ready to calm down and be a good boy? Or do you want your comrades to die?" Now Naruto knew what the Kyuubi's chakra did to anyone that touched it. So while battling a mass amount of killer rage, he calmed himself down to make the cloak disappear. His eyes still remained red, and whiskers thicker, along with his sharpened canines and nails.

"Don't think this doesn't mean I won't kill you two," Now, it was Naruto's turn to disappear. He reappeared behind them, with a kunai to each of their throats. "Make a move, and you die too. Now, your dreams won't really come true will it?" Now he was smirking.

Kira just sighed and shook her head. "Ah, Naruto-kun, how naïve you really are. You left yourself wide open by using both hands," All of a sudden, her leg whipped out and caught him in his midsection. He was sent flying through a string of trees, which fell over afterwards. Now usually, Naruto could take a blow like this. He would just get up again and continue to fight with a little damage. Apparently when he hit the last tree, he hit his neck, knocking him out. He slumped down at the base of the tree. Kira removed her kunai from Kakashi's neck and ran to Naruto. She threw him over his shoulder and walked to where Kakashi, Sakura, and Hiro were. While she was gone, Hiro had placed his own kunai to Kakashi's throat to keep him from fighting back. "Okay Hiro, I got him. We can go now," Hiro lowered his sword and kunai, disappeared and then reappeared next to Kira. "Well, that's finally over. This brat was a annoying. I can't believe he made us use the fourth dance. We haven't used that in a while," He sheathed his katana, and pulled his robe over it to hide it. Sakura and Kakashi turned around now enraged.

"Give us back Naruto you creeps!" Sakura yelled, gathering chakra into her hand. Kakashi lifted his headband, revealing his Sharingan. They fell into offensive stances, ready to fight for their comrade.

"And why would we do that? We need this guy. And you two can't do anything about it. But Leader-sama did tell us to tell you this if we succeed. We still have two more demons left before Naruto-kun here. With the other demons, it didn't matter what order they were extracted. But with the Kyuubi, he needs to be extracted last because of his mass amounts of chakra. So he told us to tell you that you have about two months until we extract the Kyuubi and Naruto-kun dies. He also said that there is no chance of you saving him. So don't even try. Now, I bid you good-bye for good. Oh, and Naruto says good-bye as well. You won't be seeing him again," Sakura and Kakashi charged at the pair enraged by the kunoichi's words. But before they could reach them, they disappeared from their sight. Sakura and Kakashi looked around frantically, fearing the worst.

"Where are you, you filthy pieces of shit? Come back and fight!" Kakashi yelled out. Sakura was silent. A single tear ran down her face. Kakashi wanted to cry too. Once again, he failed to protect the blonde ninja. Then Sakura collapsed and screamed.

"NARUTO!!"

(.),(.)

Okay, chapter three is finally done. I'm kind of proud of this chapter. I had a bit of writers block while I was writing this though. And that's why I had a late update. I'm really sorry! bows and prays to the gods of fanfiction for forgiveness. Okay now that that's over, I just have to say that I might not be able to update at all for a while. I think I might have gotten myself grounded but I have to wait until my dad gets back from his trip to find out. Until next time, Hail the Wolves is out!