Ryu Kotei here saying that I hope everyone had a very Happy Holidays and are excited about the upcoming new year! One can only imagine what will happen next year!
On a final note, I do not own Naruto, One Piece, or the song Through the Fire and Flame.
"Yohohoho!" normal speech
"Gaara!" thought/mind speak
"Yohohoho!" demon speech
Chapter 3: Chasing After Tails
In the mountainous area of the Land of Earth, one could find three individuals traveling the road towards Iwagakure.
The first individual was a woman with short messy blonde hair wearing a dusty leather jacket over a raggedy forest green turtle neck shirt with its collar covering the lower half of her face along with old leather gloves and worn leather boots while a large, rugged hat sat upon her head. The woman was also carrying a large farming scythe with a rusted, but deadly sharp blade upon her back. The noticeable feature of the woman was not just her raggedy looks, but the many pieces of straw that were poking out from under her clothes and her hair.
The second individual was a large man with a shaved head wearing samurai armor on the lower half of his body over grey pants as his upper body was covered in numerous scars. Like the woman, the lower half of the man's face was covered by a metal mask that had a serrated edge above his mouth. Attached to his hip was a katana that was decorated in purple amethyst gems with a lapis lazuli gem in the middle of the hilt.
The third individual was a small and meek man with slicked back auburn hair wearing a white button shirt under dark green overalls and black fingerless gloves. A pair of circular glasses rested upon his nose as a pointed tooth could be seen from the left side of the man's mouth while the pupils of the man's eyes were slightly slitted. A lion's tail was also wrapped around his waist in the fashion of a belt with the fluff hanging from the man's side.
"Why are here again?" asked the woman as she and the large man were following the smaller man.
"W-we were sent here to find Han, j-junchuriki of the G-Gobi," the meek man nervously said, "W-we are to c-convince him to join our Order, Nohe-chan."
"Oh yeah that's right," the woman said with realization in her voice, "Who was Han again?"
The larger man sighed as he said, "Han is an Iwagakure shinobi and is also the junchuriki of the Gobi, the Five-Tailed Dolphin Horse. I'm not going to bother telling you how he looks since you'll forget it for the umpteenth time and we'll know him when we see him. He supposedly wears a kind of steam-powered armor that not only boosts his power, but protects him too."
The woman looked at the large man with a glare and said, "Hey! I may be forgetful but you didn't have to be a heartless jerk, Suzuha!"
"There he is!" said the smaller man as he pointed to a large figure wearing red armor as two Iwagakure shinobi were with him, "He's…quite larger than…*gulp!*…than I had thought."
"You there," said the man in red armor as he pointed to the trio, "What business do you have with Iwa?"
"GAAAHH!" the small man cried out in fear as he hid behind the scar-covered man before said man picked him up by the back of his shirt and dropped him in front of the man in red armor, "W-w-we are from the O-Order of the N-N-Namaki and w-w-we were sent to find a…a Mr. Han. I'm Yuki."
"I'm Suzuha the Heartless," said the large man said as he pointed to himself, "I once was a samurai for the Land of Iron, but I was banished and sent into exile for 'needlessly' slaughtering a small village."
The scarecrow-looking woman approached the man in red armor and said, "I really can't remember my name, but I'm alright with Nohe-chan."
Nohe-chan stared at the man for a little bit before looking back at Yuki and asked, "What were we supposed to do again?"
"If you're here for Han," said one of the Iwa ninja as he pointed to the man in red armor, "then you can take him. We really don't care about who takes him or Roshi as long as these freaks are out of our hair."
The Iwa ninja then noticed the katana in Suzuha's possession and asked, "That's Akumu Satsugai, the famous Uchiha Slayer? What's a sword like that doing out of the Land of Iron?"
Suzuha gave the Iwa shinobi an evil smirk and said, "Why don't you try and take it from me and just exactly see why the call me…Heartless."
In the Land of Wind, Team 7 and Team Guy had just left Sunagakure when sand suddenly blasted upwards to reveal a woman with long blue hair in a giant braid wearing a black vest opened to reveal white wraps around her chest, skinny black pants, and black high heels standing before them.
"Don't think you'll be stopping the Order from saving the Kazekage from the Akatsuki…Straw Hat," said the woman as she looked at Naruto.
"Who are you?" Naruto asked as he got into a fighting stance to either bolt ahead to save Gaara, or fight this woman.
"I'm Eisei the Scorpion Empress," said the woman with a slight chuckle, "and I'm here to stop you from preventing the protection of the Kazekage."
"You call kidnapping 'protecting'?" Tenten asked with a sharp glare in her eyes.
"Hey, the Akatsuki kidnapped him first," said Eisei with a slight smile, "We're just…kidnapping him back from the Akatsuki and don't think that you can get through me easily."
Eisei chuckled as her skin had become a shiny midnight black while her hands transformed into large, stone crushing pincers. Her lower jaw then changed into mandibles with sharp teeth as a long scorpion's tail appeared from her behind. Eisei's transformation was completed with two extra pairs of arms as he looked like a large black scorpion with blue hair.
"Behold the power of the Mushi Mushi no Mi: Model Scorpion!" Eisei said with a scraggly voice as she focused her sights on the group with her stinger swaying in the air, "Now who shall I stab first!"
"I shall be your opponent!" Lee declared with his usual courage as he approached the Scorpion Lady.
"You sure Lee?" Naruto asked as he observed the large scorpion, "From the looks of her, she could be either an Emperor Scorpion or a King Scorpion; just one sting from either of those two can be pretty serious, deadly even."
Lee gave his friends a thumbs up while keeping his eyes on Eisei.
"Do not worry," the taijutsu expert said with a gleam in his eyes, "I shall fight with enough youth and spirit to make both Guy-sensei AND Zoro-sama proud."
"That's the spirit Lee!" Guy cheered, "Show this woman what one's Flames of Youth can really do!"
Eisei smirked as the other Konoha shinobi ran past her, leaving just her and Lee.
"I shall let you have the first move since you are the challenger," said Lee as he got into a battle stance, causing Eisei to chuckle.
"Poor move, boy!" the Scorpion Lady said as she launched her stinger towards the chunin, but missed as Lee quickly dodged to the right. Lee then went in to rush Eisei but he was forced to jump back to avoid a massive claw swipe before barely getting stabbed by the stinger, only for a small cut to form on his cheek.
"Hehehe, I've already won," said Eisei as she brought the stinger to her face and licked the blood from it, "my poison will begin to course through your body and slowly kill you from the inside out. You might as well kill yourself just to save yourself from an agonizing and painful death."
"You shouldn't underestimate your opponent because they have been poisoned." Lee countered with a fierce look on his face, "My Flames of Youth shall help me to victory even before your poison could kill me!"
"Such talk for a small boy." Eisei said before she shrugged her shoulders, "Oh well, I'll enjoy watching you kill yourself just to defeat me. Please do make this entertaining than that last one."
Lee said nothing as he gave the woman another look before rushing towards her with a fire in his heart.
With the Konohagakure Team, the group rushed into a forest as one of Kakashi's summons led the group towards Gaara.
"We're not too far from the Kazekage," said Pakkun as the pug jumped through the trees, "I'd be surprised if we didn't bump into the kidnappers within a few yards."
"I wouldn't be surprised." Naruto said as everyone took a glance toward him, "The Akatsuki wouldn't want to give the Order a chance to somehow not only 'rescue' the Kazekage, or in this case the Ichibi, but obtain any other Tailed Beasts that they have captured. It's practically a game of tug-of-war where if either side gets a Tailed Beast, then that side is just that much closer to achieving their goals. We cannot risk that."
"I would agree with that." said a growling voice as everyone stopped to see a hunched over figure with a mechanical tail wearing a black cloak with red clouds.
"I take it you're one of the Akatsuki, am I correct?" Kakashi asked as he was ready to fight.
"Yes." the figure said as he looked at the group, "I am the Master Puppeteer, Sasori and I take it you're not with the Order of the Namaki."
"Where's Gaara?" Naruto said as he couldn't sense the Kazekage anywhere.
"My partner is attempting to lose that annoying roadrunner before reaching with the others to extract the Ichibi." Sasori answered, "We are already behind schedule because of those tree-hugging fools."
"Straw Hat-san," Neji said as he kept his focus on the Akatsuki member, "please allow Tenten and I to handle Sasori while the rest of you go retrieve the Kazekage."
Naruto gave Neji a quick nod before an arm bloomed from near Sasori's head and slapped its hand on the ninja's face over the eyes, allowing Naruto and the others to escape as Neji and Tenten stayed behind.
"Dammit!" Sasori said as he wrenched the hand off and was about to give chase, but a sickle zipped by him to redirect his attention to Neji and Tenten.
"Sorry," said Tenten as it was revealed that her hand was the sickle as the bladed weapon returned to her before reforming her hand, "but we're not going to let you go that easily."
"Big mistake as my puppetry is unmatched by all!" Sasori said as he removed his cloak to reveal the tail was coming from a mechanical device on his back, "You both shall make fine additions to my collection!"
Neji quickly shot out a stream of air from his palm before he and Tenten jumped away from the branch as it was obliterated by Sasori's tail. Tenten jumped onto her hands as her legs and feet were turned into chains with a sickle on one chain and a spiked flail on the other.
"Kusari-gama Madness!" Tenten said as she twisted her body around in a wild motion as both the sickle and flail had hit Sasori multiple times.
"So you've eaten a Devil Fruit," Sasori said after he jumped away from the attack, "I've honestly wanted a puppet that had the powers of a Devil Fruit. Unfortunately I have never found a Devil Fruit, nor had one live long enough for me to study its power. Hopefully I can get lucky."
"It's never wise to gamble with Devil Fruit," Neji said as Sasori's tail was coming straight towards him before jumping to the side, "because sometimes the power just isn't worth the price."
"You talk as if you know of someone with such a power." Sasori said as his tail returned to his side.
"Yeah," said Tenten as her feet returned to normal before she jumped to then with each of her fingers turning into sharp knives, "he's the village clown because we were able to stop him from doing any damage with his powers. But enough talk as we need to help Naruto."
"Too bad you won't get the chance," Sasori said as he rushed towards the two Konoha ninja, "because you both shall die right here!"
With the rest of the Konoha Group, Pakkun's nose twitched before the small dog changed his course.
"I hope your squad can handle those two, Guy-sensei." Naruto said with a serious tone, "The members of both the Akatsuki and the Order are no pushovers. While I don't know exactly just who is in the Namaki as the cult is highly secretive, but Pervy Sage had told me a good bit about a few Akatsuki as they are a group of high classed missing-nin."
"Have faith in them Straw Hat-san!" Guy said with his usual 'Nice Guy' smile, "My students have vigorously trained themselves in ways not even you could imagine. What you saw was only but a small taste of the REAL power that my youthful students have."
"Better hope it's enough to stop not only Eisei, but that Sasori fellow," said a voice as the team stopped once more to find a young man with bird like features.
"I take it you're also a member of the Order." Naruto said as he stared down the bird-like teen.
"Hehe. You got that right Straw Hat. Name's Suigin, Fastest Man Alive thanks to the power of the Tori-Tori no Mi: Model RoadRunner!" the teen introduced himself with a smirk, "I stopped chasing after that crap artist when I felt her presence nearby."
"Who are you talking about?" Guy asked as he and the others were on guard for a possible ambush.
"Straw Hat should know her, considering that our seal master has been working on removing the seals that were placed on her." the Roadrunner Man said getting a shocked look from Naruto.
Uzume! Naruto thought as he remembered how easy it was for the Namaki to get his twin sister, So she is with them and they're working on removing the seals I placed on her.
"How many seals have they removed?" Naruto asked as he kept an eye out for his sister.
"Dunno as last I heard that they were only able to remove three of those seals." Suigin said with a chuckle, "We have to evacuate the base every time they decide to remove just ONE of your seals as they were placed in delicate areas that if Uzume was ticklish then…boom."
Naruto was about to rush past the teen when Sai and Nemu appeared in between the two.
"Let us handle him." Sai said as Nemu was still sleeping, "Our mission is to rescue the Kazekage before either the Akatsuki or the Namaki are able to obtain the Ichibi."
"Right." said Naruto as he, Kakashi, Guy, and Pakkun left before Sai to a battle stance next to Nemu.
"This is just too easy, hehe." Suigin said as he quickly rushed towards the two Konoha ninja, only for Sai to jump away while Nemu just fell back as the Roadrunner Man made the bubble from the girl's nose pop.
The girl woke up a bit and used her hand to jump back and onto her feet.
"Whaz goin' on?" Nemu asked as sleep was still evident on her eyes, "Are we fighting someone?"
"We are, Bedwetter." Sai said as he pointed to Suigin as he wiped his face as some of the liquid from the bubble got in his eye.
"You might as…well…" Suigin said before he let out a tiring yawn, "ugh…anyway, she might as well stay asleep as what could she ever do to me in her sleep."
"You have…no…*yawn*…i…dea...zzzz." Nemu said before she fell on the ground asleep.
"Well," said Suigin with a smirk, "that was-"
A kick had surprise the teen as he saw that Nemu was wide awake while Sai had somehow vanished.
"What the hell!?" Suigin asked as he saw the silver-grey eyes shining with confidence, "I saw you fall asleep! Where's that really pale kid?"
"Oh he's around," said Nemu as her voice was louder than the soft tone she had before, "but you should be more worried about me."
Before the Order member could ask, he had to dodge a fireball that Nemu shot at him before dodging a blast of wind before another fireball.
What the hell is going on? Suigin thought to himself as he was dodging jutsu after justu, That girl just falls asleep and she's suddenly attacking me! I don't get it unless…
After jumping over Nemu, Suigin saw that the indent on the grass was still there before running deeper into the woods without noticing the smirk on the girl's face.
"They always fall for that." Nemu said as she followed the Roadrunner Man at the same speed.
With Naruto and the two Jonin, they were able to catch up when they saw a weird looking bird in the sky.
"That must be Sasori's partner," Kakashi said as the group was still far behind, "We have to catch up to them. Think you can go use your Gum Style Naruto?"
"I have something better." Naruto said as he created a few blossom clones and unsealed a different instrument for each of them was the original had a sleek looking guitar, "Song Style: Through the Fire and Flames!"
One of the Narutos began with a fast tune on his guitar before the other Narutos joined with an even faster tune playing. Kakashi and Guy felt themselves become faster as they listened to the song being played before them.
This song, Kakashi noted as the trees seemed to blur right past him in a haze of green, I can feel the energy from it.
"YOSH!" Guy cheered as his eyes were lit up with fiery passion and determination, "Naruto-san's youthful song is giving us so much power that we shall catch up to the enemy in no time!"
Deidara flew through the sky in hopes of finding that brat that took the Kazekage from them until he heard the sound of music from behind him.
"What now?" Deidara asked with an annoyed voice until he saw the Konoha Group following him, "What the?! How the hell did they catch up so easily?"
Using his scope, the Akatsuki member saw the duplicates of Naruto playing different instruments at a fast pace.
"That brat must have been to the Traveling Village!" Deidara said as he quickly swore under his breath, "He must have learned some of their special Musical Genjutsu!"
With the Konoha Group, Pakku's nose twitched as the pug then said, "I smell the Kazekage and one other person…it's Uzume's!"
"Naruto," Kakashi said the original stopped playing his violin while the other clones continued playing the song, "Go after Gaara and Uzume! We can handle this guy!"
Naruto nodded as he knew that he couldn't let the Order of the Namaki get a hold of Gaara and also try and stop Uzume before taking her back.
"Alright." Naruto said as his clones vanished along with all of the instruments, "I'll go save Gaara and stop Uzume!"
Guy watched as Naruto changed into the tall human-fox hybrid from the Chunin Exams before the fox ninja vanished into a deeper part of the forest.
"I wonder how much Uzume had changed," Guy said as he kept his focus on Deidara, "I just hope Naruto's ready for whatever Uzume might do."
"Same here Guy considering her Devil Fruit." Kakashi said with slight concern for his student, "I hope Naruto can save Gaara."
Deeper into the woods, Uzume ran past the trees with a smirk on her face as she had used her powers to absorb the Ichibi into the seal that holds the Kyuubi's chakra. She felt even more powerful than she ever did before as her Devil Fruit allowed her to simply absorb any form of power without a backlash thanks to the Kyuubi's chakra modifying it.
"Kyahyahyahyahya!" Uzume laughed as she was getting closer to destroying her brother, "Once the other seals that no good brother of mine placed on me are removed, I will have enough power to become the goddess I deserve to be! Kyahyahyahyahya!"
An oval suddenly appeared on a tree before opening up to reveal two cloaked figure.
"Have the Ichibi, no?" the figure asked as Uzume nodded while manipulating some sand from the gourd she stole from Gaara. "Good. Take you back to the base, yes. Brought reinforcement because of brother. Should slow him down, yes."
The other cloaked figure jumped out before Uzume then jumped in.
"You know what to do, yes?" the cloaked figure asked as the a smirk was seen from the other figure.
"He won't know what hit him, hwahahaha!" the figure said with a gusty laugh, "I'll knock the wind out of him! Hwahahahaha!"
"Failure, no." the cloaked figure sternly said before pulling the oval shut.
The lone figure turned around as it said, "I'll show Straw Hat that the sky's the limit with me!"
With Lee, the taijutsu expert was breathing heavily as he dodged Eisei's attacks while dealing with the poison in his body.
"Just give up as my poison could kill armies." Eisei said as she was in a scorpion-human hybrid form, "Even if you do defeat me, you'll die before any form of an antidote could even be thought up!"
"I won't give up!" Lee defiantly said as his body was slightly shaking from the poison, "My Flames bright ever so brightly and so shall my spirit!"
Lee quickly removed his leg weights and sped straight towards his opponent and gave her a mighty kick. Eisei used her massive claws to shield herself, but the outer shell had cracked from the sheer force of the kick as the taijutsu expert quickly went into a barrage of attacks.
His speed and power are amazing! He was able to crack the outer shell! Eisei thought as she burrowed into the sand when she saw an opening when Lee stopped his attack due to the poison, I severely underestimated this ugly and stubborn bastard!
Damn, Lee thought as he regained control of his body, I need to finish this quickly or I'll die because of the poison!
"Scorpion Bolt!" Eisei cried out from underneath the sand as her stinger shot out from Lee's right, but it missed as the young teen rolled forward.
Lee looked around before seeing sand building up from behind him and jumped as Eisei's stinger shot out. Although he was able to dodge the attack, Lee felt his ankle get cut from the attack and a burning sensation from the new injury.
The taijutsu expert fell to the ground and held his injured ankle while hearing his opponent chuckle.
"A double dosage of my poison?" Eisei taunted as Lee quickly got into a kneeling position, "This battle is as good as mine. Scorpion Crush Hold!"
Lee couldn't move in time as two large claws appeared and caught him in a tight hold while Eisei appeared in front of him and tightened her grip.
"I had thought that I made a mistake in underestimating you," the woman said with a devilish smirk of absolute victory on her face, "but you never stood a chance after the first injection."
Lee looked and saw Eisei's stinger reeling back as the tip was pointed right at his face. He knew it was now or never as he had to find a way to escape his opponent's grasp.
"Goodbye." Eisei said as her eyes had a deadly flash as her stinger lunged towards Lee, "Pointblank Scorpion Bolt!"
*klang!*
"What the…?" Eisei said in shock as her stinger bounced off Lee's now blackened forehead, causing the tip of the stinger to be broken off.
Lee quickly used his uninjured leg to kick the scorpion woman in the chin, making Eisei release her grip on him.
"My stinger!" Eisei cried out as she saw the condition of her stinger before focusing her attention on the taijutsu expert was meters from her, "I'll make you pay for that you little shit!"
"I hope you are ready to pay as well," Lee countered as his fingers and toes became a shiny midnight black, "because I am not going to hold back anymore!"
How will the Konoha ninja handle their opponents? What awaits Naruto? Don't forget to rate and review!
Ja ne.