Quietly sitting on the ridge overlooking Nami no Kuni, a familiar whiskered blond couldn't help but think back on his last fight. If he hadn't caught his pursuers off guard then he wouldn't have succeeded in killing them… though he would admit that his chakra string technique was a major factor in their defeat.
What ran through the blonds mind however was the fact that the next team Akatsuki sent after him would be prepared for a dangerous fight and if the last two were anything to go by then he would definitely need to increase his abilities.
That was the reason behind the new additions to his wardrobe, a simple black trench coat and a pair of gloves. What made them special though was what he had sown into them… some of the scales of the greatsword Samehada. It came as quite a shock to him to discover the nature of that weapon, one massive, smooth skinned, leech like creature, with hundreds of smaller, scale shaped leeches, each one capable of eating and storing chakra if it wanted to.
He would happily admit that it took awhile to figure out how to get them to accept him as their master… which it turned out was nothing more than let them drain his chakra for long enough, though they had stopped eating his, they had started to eat the chakra of everyone around them… including Tayuya who decided quite quickly that the scales were surprisingly dangerous.
So here he was contemplating his next move, occasionally turning to face the graves of the people that taught him more about being a ninja than anything else ever did.
"Heh, it's kinda funny isn't it Zabuza? After all that talk of ninja's being tools of their villages and how I wouldn't be like the rest… I'm not one anymore," Naruto couldn't help but mutter to himself as he turned to face the grave marked with a massive cleaver, "you know, thinking about it, I hate the way the villages treat their shinobi, acting like they're just tools that should kill all their emotions… (sigh) maybe it was for the best that I got banished huh?"
The continued to stare at the sword before letting out a mirthless chuckle as he accepted that there would be no response, not even a slight breeze that might indicate that someone was watching over him from the next life.
"Oh well… I guess it's about time I left this place, see ya around Zabuza," was the last statement to leave the blonds mouth as he quietly walked away from the ridge and back to the small town.
XXX XXX XXX
Deep within the walls of Amegakure, a small group was gathering in person for the first time in several years.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YA MEAN SOMEONE OFFED ITACHI AND KISAME?!" came a loud shout from one of the group. He was a young man with long blond hair tied into a ponytail and a strange device covering one of his eyes. On his head was a slashed out Iwa hitae-ate while a long cloak with several red clouds covered the rest of his body.
"What I mean is that they were killed when hunting the Kyūbi jinchūriki," a strange man split in two vertically stated calmly. One half of him was white and possessed an eye with a yellow iris, while the other half was pitch black and possessed an eye that was yellow all the way through. His hair was green and he wore the normal Akatsuki robe like all the others… although the plant like protrusions extending from his shoulders made him look even stranger than his split appearance.
"GODDAMMIT! I WANTED TO BE THE ONE WHO KILLED ITACHI!" the blond shouted angrily again causing the rest of the group to stare at him blankly.
"Shut up Deidara," a man with orange hair and countless piercings littering his face. He was wearing a slashed out Ame hitae-ate, however the feature that stood out the most about him was his eyes… they possessed a metallic sheen while a ripple like design made them look even more unique than the Uchiha's legendary sharingan, "it could be pure luck that Itachi and Kisame ran into the shi no tenshi while searching for the jinchūriki. However from now on you must take care to avoid confrontation with that mercenary, we cannot afford to lose any more members before collecting the bijū."
"Well if we have to avoid this guy then what does he look like un?" the newly dubbed Deidara asked the others.
"How should I know? I told Itachi and Kisame were the jinchūriki was as soon as I located it, once that was over with I started looking for the Iwa jinchūriki so I never saw the guy, or girl, that doesn't matter," the black half of the plant like man said with a minor interruption from the white half.
"Tch, then how are we supposed to avoid this guy un?" the blond asked, earning a shrug in response from the plant.
"Who cares about avoiding this bastard, I say we kill the fucker!" a man with slicked white hair and red eyes shouted. Outside of the usual Akatsuki robes he wore a round pendant with a simple triangle decorating it while a massive, three bladed scythe was strapped to his back.
"If you come across him then feel free to try and kill him, just make sure that Kakuzu doesn't die either," the orange haired man stated earning a psychotic grin off the white haired man, "however you are NOT to waste time actively hunting him down, do you understand?"
"Tch, fine," the red eyed man muttered with a noticeable amount of annoyance in his voice.
"Is that everything? If so then I need to get back to work fundraising," a large man wearing a full face mask and a slashed out taki hitae-ate as a bandana asked. The sclera of his eyes were red while his iris was green.
"Not quite. Since we are all here I believe it would be appropriate to inform you that there has been a change in plans," the ripple eyed man stated seriously, drawing the attention from the rest of the group, "because we cannot tell whether the shi no tenshi is hunting us down or not, Kakuzu will continue to raise our funds, however the rest of you will focus on capturing the jinchūriki for now."
"What about Itachi and Kisame's targets un?" Deidara asked in curiosity.
"They are open to anyone… now that is all," the obvious leader stated, causing the rest of the group to quietly leave the room.
XXX XXX XXX
"See ya Tazuna, we'll be sure to come back someday," Naruto told the old man as he and his redheaded partner prepared to leave via the massive bridge that connected the island with the continent.
"Make sure you do brat! And we'll be sure to make enough work to hire you for!" the sake swigging bridge builder shouted happily earning a smile off the whiskered mercenary before he turned and left Nami once again.
"So where are we going now S class killer?" Tayuya asked with a little bit of mockery present in her voice.
"Well it has been a few months since we split from Kankurō, Temari and Gaara, so I was thinking about perhaps heading over to Suna for a while," Naruto admitted to the redhead, earning a slight twitch of annoyance off the girl, "is there something wrong with that idea?"
"No… it just means that I'll have to put up with 'that' bitch again," the former Oto nin admitted with a hint of anger in her tone.
"What's wrong with Temari?!" the spiky haired youth snapped with a distinct amount of anger present in his tone, surprising the girl in the process.
"Oh I'm sorry… but are you forgetting that she tried to crush me with a fucking tree?!" came the sarcastic response.
"Oh yeah… I forgot about that," the azure eyed blond said blankly, causing the redhead to grit her teeth in irritation.
"So… now that you're strong enough to kill S class criminals, what are you planning on doing in general?" Tayuya asked him in an attempt to calm herself down.
There was silence as the blond boy proceeded to think over his circumstances.
"Thinking about it, I only managed to beat Itachi and Kisame because they underestimated me… and even then it took everything I had to kill them," he admitted seriously as he clenched his fist, "so I need to get stronger before Akatsuki come after me again, otherwise there is no guarantee I'll survive my next battle with them."
"And how do you plan on getting stronger huh?" came the million dollar question from the redhead.
"How? The only way I know how to of course, take what I know and figure out a way of using it better. I left a few hundred bunshin near Nami to brainstorm for a while, so I should get some new ideas by the end of the day," the whiskered blond stated calmly, causing the girl to look at him strangely.
"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were a completely different person to the baka that saved my life," she claimed as she turned back to the road and calmly continued to walk along the road they were traversing.
"I'll take that as a compliment," Naruto stated after hearing the girls statement.
"Tch, don't let it get to your head asshole," was all the young girl said in response as the duo continued to walk in the general direction of Sunagakure.
XXX XXX XXX
Just outside of Nami no Kuni, a large group of Kage bunshin were attempting to think up new ways of using what they knew in an attempt at creating a new technique for the blond to use… preferably one that would compliment his signature technique instead of one that would waste his time away from the deadly attack.
There was one bunshin in particular though that was currently thinking about the only thing that his former sensei had taught him… the tree climbing exercise.
He remembered seeing Sasuke utilize the technique during fights, using it to pick up a kunai with his feet instead of his hand. However it was what the dark haired boy had done next that made Naruto think, what happens when you put too much chakra into the technique? It makes your feet push off the tree… fast.
And with that in mind, the bunshin dispersed itself, passing the memories onto both the original and the rest of the group.
So with that in mind, the remaining bunshin proceeded to start practicing putting too much chakra into their feet, with the sole intention of developing their own (admittedly basic) high speed movement technique.
XXX XXX XXX
Tayuya had to admit that her combat orientated partner was making far too many awkward faces during their day of travelling… it was almost like he was constantly getting hurt some way.
"Alright, will you please tell me why the hell you've been making those faces all fuckin day?" she suddenly asked as they sat near a campfire in a small clearing, causing the boy to pick his head up and look at her blankly.
"What faces?" came the clueless response from the blond as he continued to eat the meal that had been prepared by the redhead… though it did make him a little suspicious since she didn't normally do anything useful.
"The ones that make you look like you're getting punched in the face!" the former Oto nin almost shouted, causing the blond to think hard.
"Oh… that was just my training going badly," he admitted after realising what she was talking about.
"What went wrong?" she asked as she grew curious over what sort of problem he could be having with his training.
"Uh… well you see… I'm sorta trying to make my own teleportation jutsu," the spiky haired boy told her as he began to blush as he grew uncomfortable about where the conversation was going.
"And what's the problem with that?" Tayuya asked, causing the blond to suddenly turn as red as a tomato and mumble something incoherent, "eh? What the fuck did you say? You're being so quite I doubt even a fuckin mouse could hear you."
"My bunshins keep crashing into trees," and with that statement, Naruto waited… though not for particularly long.
"HAHAHA!"
"Stop laughing."
"And why the hell should I do that?" the young girl asked as she continued to laugh, though quieter than before.
"Because it's not as easy as it sounds! I mean I'm having to use a shit load of chakra in my feet to get to that sort of speed so I don't really know just how little I can use while still using the technique!"
"So you don't know how to stop yourself? Well that's crap, especially since you're only moving in a straight line," Tayuya stated as she managed to get a hold of herself.
"Huh? How did you know I can only go in a straight line?"
"Because that's how teleportation jutsu work. They let you move really fast but that speed also means that your reflexes can't keep up with you until you stop… so they're easy to counter," she explained seriously, causing the blond to deflate.
"(sigh) well that's annoying…" was all Naruto said before his eyes suddenly widened to epic proportions.
"Alright, what's going through that thick skull of yours now?"
"One of my bunshin has just managed to avoid a tree," Naruto said with a maniacal grin.
"And you're getting this worked up over something that simple?"
"Not really… it's more to do with the fact that I've just invented a teleportation jutsu that DOESN'T go in a straight line," and with that statement, the slightly older girls eyes widened comically as well.
"Hold on just a minute! What do you mean by that?!" she shouted, ready to beat him down if he was joking.
"That one of my bunshin has just advanced my movement to a whole new level," came the reply from the whiskered boy as he proceeded to finish off the food she had made, "anyway, I'm going to go to bed… see ya in the morning."
"Wait! How the fuck can you turn during a teleportation jutsu?" the redhead asked in confusion, causing the blond to face her and let out a small smile.
"Chakra strings," was all he said before entering his tent, causing confusion to appear on the girls face as she wondered how chakra strings could help with high speed movement.