Chapter 5!
Broken Plan!
It was now roughly three days since he and Toka had started on their travel to Tea-country. He had used this time to analyse the Senju-Kunoichi and what he found was something he didn´t like at all.
Toka was powerful sure but she was following Hashiramas dream in a way that followed obsession. He would need to be careful if he wanted to convince her to join his vision of peace.
Deciding to start convincing her he stopped and faced her. He could see that she instantly went on guard.
„Well, i suppose we can now start on the real reason why i requested you for this mission."
Toka´s eyes sharpened at that and she entered a battle-stance.
„I knew something was strange with you. Are you an Assasin sent to eliminate me?"
Naruto chuckled at the question and Toka glared at him.
„No, i am not. In fact I would like to recruit you for the Organisation i represent."
Toka looked wary at him but a bit of her tension left her. She was still ready to battle but apparently decided to listen. Taking that as a good sign Naruto continued.
„My Organisations goal is to bring True Peace to this war torn world. As you have surely noticed pretty words aren´t enough to change the world. Hashiramas condition is proof enough of that. After he dies the different villages will take advantage on the situation to start a new round of large scale wars, which with the use of the Biju will further escalate.
For this reason i started to recruit people who are powerful enough to bring this world into an Age of Peace. You, Toka are on of the People i want to recruit into my Group. What do you say?"
While Naruto talked he could see that Toka was considering what he was seeing and seemed to see some merit to his plans.
„I admit, you are quite correct in what you are saying regarding the current situation of the world. Not to mention given how the Villages are reacting to Hashiramas injurys it is quite likely that war is soon breaking out which will utterly ruin the Peace my Cousin is fighting for."
Naruto allowed a grin to form.
„Does that mean you will join?"
Toka seemed to struggle with herself for a moment before calming and stepping in his direction. Naruto feeling secure that Toka had decided to join him let his guard down slightly. Something which cost him when Toka suddenly drew her Katana and slashed him diagonally over his chest.
Jumping backwards Naruto in instinct he was confused at first when he felt a stabbing pain. Looking down on his chest-area he saw a long wound going from his left shoulder to his right hip. The wound was not deep and even healed already slowly but Naruto was still angered at himself for letting his guard down to this extent. He barely had time to evade another quick sword-strike from Toka that probably would have taken his head off.
„Damn, i suppose you won´t join my group then?"
„That´s right. Hashirama always dreamed of a peaceful world but he put his hope into Konoha and i will follow him every step on the way."
Naruto showed a scowl at her explanation. Unraveling a scroll he unsealed his personal weapon. The black sword „Shusui" (1) and took up his own stance.
Both fighters stood still for a moment before clashing in the middle with their swords. Naruto quickly noticed that Toka was definitely the better Swordsman, the Kunoichi quickly evaded all his strikes.
Jumping back a bit Naruto summoned a few Shadow-clones who spread out around Toka. The Kunoichi warily looked around. As one Naruto and his clones attacked using a technique he learned from Yugao Uzuki: The Crescent Moon Technique.
Toka though proved her power as she easily dispatched the clones, but Naruto used this to his advantage as he attacked her only to see Toka suddenly dissolve into feathers. Looking around Naruto couldn´t see her anywhere when he was suddenly tied to a tree. Seeing the Cherry-blossoms around him Naruto knew now that he was in a Gen-jutsu. Cursing he quickly morphed his right eye into his Mangekyou-Sharingan and used Kamui just in time for a sword to pass through where his heart would have been.
Looking Toka in the eyes he could see she was shocked at seeing his Sharingan. Using the moment Naruto quickly stabbed his Katana into Tokas shoulder. The woman gritted her teeth and jumped away from him. Naruto was just about to follow up with his attacks when he suddenly felt several Chakra-signatures quickly close in on them.
Cursing he decided to end this fight now when suddenly his sorroundings disappeared and he stood in a black void. Naruto immediatly closed his eyes to concentrate on his other senses and managed to evade another strike with nothing but a slight cut on his cheek.
Sensing another air-movement Naruto quickly spun around and stabbed forward. Feeling his sword hit something Naruto saw the darkness disappear only to hold back a curse. Impaled on his Katana straight through her heart was Toka. He could immediatly see that the woman was already dead.
Naruto with a small look of remorse pulled his sword out of the Kunoichi and slowly lowered her body to the ground. He quickly closed her eyes before pulling out a vial from a seal on his arm. Taking a bit of her blood he put the sample back into the seal.
Standing up he cast a last look at the woman before he disappeared via Kamui.
Tobirama and his squad had immediatly started following Toka after he had listened in on Danzou speaking with Kagami about the suspicious merchant. Tobirama needed to hold back a curse at the thought of what may be happening to his cousin right now.
„Koharu, how far are we away from her position?"
The Kunoichi closed her eyes for a moment to concentrate.
„We are close already but the fight has already started, I can feel their Chakras clash."
This time Tobirama cursed loudly before taking off in an accelerated speed. Danzou and Hiruzen joined him quickly with the rest following at a slightly slower pace.
The group crashed out of the tree-line to land in a big clearing as they heard Tobirama let out a scream of rage and anguish. Koharu and the others looked on shocked as their otherwise calm teacher craddled the still body of his cousin. At the side Hiruzen beat his fist bloody at a tree while Danzou had an cold empty look on his face.
The group stood for a while still showing their respect to the fallen Kunoichi. Finally Tobirama stood up and Koharu was almost scared of her Senseis look. The man looked ready to murder the next person speaking to him.
„Homura seal Tokas body into a scroll, Hiruzen send an summon to inform my brother of what happened. Danzou you will show me and my brother a Henge of the man who killed my Cousin."
The three Ninja nodded with serious expressions on their faces.
This was certainly a day they would never forget.
Appearing in his room in the Akatsuki hide-out Naruto ripped of the ruined merchants-clothes before throwing them on the ground.
„I take it your mission was a failure?"
Naruto almost cursed. Zetsu definitely should choose his moments better, but he calmed himself down.
„Yes, my plan to recruit Toka failed and i couldn´t even take her prisoner to convince her slowly like i wanted. With her now dead i will need to recruit one of the back-up members for the Jinchuriki-hunting group. I suppose i will need to use Itachi in the end, despite my hoping to simply have him join the Ruling-group. Though given that i still have no idea what to do in regards to his disease it is probably better to keep it that way."
Naruto unsealed the sample of Tokas blood before walking over to a small shelf with several empty and filled vials. Placing Tokas among them he looked them through, so far he had samples of Hashirama, Toka, Kakuzu, Fuuka, several Shodaime Kage and even Ashina Uzumaki. He got the sample from the battlefield where Hashirama and Ashina fought some beast and the old Uzumaki lost several hairs that day which he could collect.
Concentrating on his broken plans for Toka he decided to wait until the next member would be recruited.
He had a minor setback but the Akatsuki would continue forward.
(1) The blade Naruto used is the sword Shusui from One Piece. (Please not to confuse with the Ninja Shisui Uchiha)