What if Naruto had a hidden power that came to be when he fought Mizuki, a bloodline he never knew of? Then he would be known as the Kaze no Arashi, the Wind Storm!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Those rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

Kaze no Arashi

Chapter 40:

Breakdown: The Beginning and Ending of Too Many Things to Count.

Uzumaki Naruto was running, just running. He didn't want to stop. He couldn't stop. He just kept going. His breaths came in and out rapidly yet in a rhythm, an unmistakable rhythm, a chaotic rhythm, an unbalanced rhythm. His eyes unfocused, causing him to crashing into a tree, falling onto the dirt that his feet once moved on. He just kept breathing, his blue pools full of confliction, sadness spiraling out of control. He moved his hand in front of his face, panting a bit, and, then, gritted his teeth as he turned his hand into a fist and bashed it into the dirt beside him, tears starting to escape his eyes as he remembered the words that the letter said, the words that made him stop reading it.

Gaara died…

XXX

Nii Yugito was running, just running through the sewers as she stopped and turned around, her long, blonde hair pulled down into a pony-tail. She breathed out a bit as a three-bladed scythe went forward, coming toward her, and landing on the water. She noticed that string of some sort was at the end of it as she heard the footsteps of the ones that were after her for some reason.

"You've sure got some moves…" One of the two said, approaching Yugito from the darkness of the tunnel. She noted this one as the one with the long scythe. "Hmm… My attacks are the slowest of the Akatsuki and the least skilled… So I can't hit a fucking thing, seriously!"

Yugito flinched at the word "Akatsuki," but kept her composure. "So, you're both from the Akatsuki…"

"Even though you have those moves," the one with the scythe said, coming out of the darkness with his partner, revealing his Akatsuki cloak, his slicked back silver hair and purple eyes, "you're still not all that much trouble."

The other one began to speak, a tall, dark skinned man with the same cloak as the other one, white hood, black mask, and usual eyes that were green with red sclera and no pupils. "Hidan, this is the jinchuriki of the Two-Tails. One little mistake, and you're dead." The way this guy spoke about Hidan dying seemed to confuse Yugito, almost like he was joking.

Hidan merely smiled lightly at his partner. "Ah, Kakuzu, no need to tell me that at all. I want her to kill me so this can be over with, seriously."

"Then, let's do this." Kakuzu said, eager to get this over with.

"Wait a moment," Hidan said as he pulled out a chain wrapped to a circle with an upside down triangle on it and put it near his lips. "I need to be sure to offer my prayers to God."

Kakuzu merely looked at him, irritated, "There you go with those stupid prayers again."

Hidan barked back, slightly looking at him, "Hey, I don't particularly like them that much either, but my religion is strict about this shit!"

Yugito merely smirked, "You guys think you got me trapped, but it's the other way around!" She made a hand sign and paper bombs started to explode, trapping the three of them inside the sewers. She narrowed her eyebrows, looking fiercely at them. "Now that I know you're Akatsuki, I can't let you guys out."

Hidan looked at Kakuzu, "Oh, crap, Kakuzu, looks like she's got us trapped here."

Kakuzu merely looked ahead at Yugito, "It's for the better anyway."

Yugito still looked fiercely at them. "I swear on my name, Nii Yugito of Kumogakure, that I will kill you!"

Hidan looked pissed at her, pointing a finger in her direction, "Huh? Kill us? Goddamn it! I fucking hate it when someone yells out a battle cry like that. It fucking pisses me the fuck off! And when I get pissed off, it goes to my head and when that happens…"

"Just shut the hell up, Hidan." Kakuzu said, interrupting him.

"But still when that happens, I begin thinking, 'Ah, to hell with all these objectives, I'm going to destroy everything in my way.'"

"Like I said Hidan, shut the hell up. Our objectives are everything."

"I mean, this assignment just doesn't go well with my beliefs. I mean, my religion, Jashin, is about pure carnage and nothing more. An assignment where I have to half-kill someone should never get me to want to do it, seriously. I may not look it, but I'm a very religious person! So, why not we negotiate?"

Yugito kept her eyebrows narrowed, specious of these two, "What do you mean, 'negotiate,' huh?"

Hidan just looked at her, "I mean, can you just roll over and let us capture you?"

Yugito began to change into the Two-Tailed Cat, "Heh, like that will ever happen!"

Kakuzu got into action position as Hidan just looked on, "Oops, guess that was a 'no…'?"

"Are you stupid or something?" Kakuzu said back.

The Two-Tailed Cat roared and swiped at them, causing debris to fall around them. Hidan and Kakazu cursed, going toward the outside, an opening. Hidan went behind a wall of rock, looking at the cat.

"So, this is the Nibi, said to be the tailed beast of vengeance. That must make me a trapped rat. Heh, this is so not funny…"

XXX

Fu was running, trying to find Naruto. She suspected that Naruto raced off because of the contents of the letter that said, "Gaara died…" But if he had read on, he would see that he was brought back to life. She had to find him before he did something horrible to himself. She ventured on in the direction Naruto went off to, seeing the start of a forest. She then noticed Naruto, sitting underneath one of the first trees. She went to him and started to explain what the real story of the letter was.

"Naruto, Gaara isn't dead. It says in the letter that he died but was resurrected by this Chiyo lady."

Naruto moved his head forward so quickly he shocked Fu, making her fall backward as he grabbed the letter and read on in hope. He wanted to hope that Gaara was still alive; he didn't deserve to die. Naruto let out a breath of relief, happiness as he smiled and read the rest of the letter, talking of Gaara's big welcome back to the village. He chuckled at the image of Temari making Gaara's fan girls back away from the still-slightly recovering Kazekage. He smiled sadly, wishing he was there to see Gaara.

"Hey, lovebirds!" Naruto looked up to see a blushing Fu beside him and a grinning Jiraiya in front of him. "Let's get going to Iwagakure!"

Naruto sighed, smiling lightly as he put the letter into one of his pouches. "Yeah, let's get going!" He got up, offered the still slightly blushing Fu a hand, which she gladly took and went onward, to their next destination.

XXX

Nii Yugito was nailed on the remains of a wall as Hidan was lying with a black spear inside his stomach like the one Yugito had in her hands. Kakuzu was sitting, reading something that looked like a map.

"Hey, are you almost done with that, Hidan? It's already been thirty minutes…"

"Let me be! The ceremony must not be interrupted!" Hidan yelled as he took the spear out of his body, cursing in pain. He began to rise up and look at his partner.

"Each time you go through one of those creepy prayers. Could you at least shorten them?"

"Shorten them?" Hidan yelled. "That's sacrilege!"

Kakuzu looked at the map, finding out where they would go next to find their other target. "Fire Country will be next…"

XXX

Uzumaki Naruto smiled as he looked around Iwagakure. People looked at him weirdly, noticing he was with a Takigakure kunoichi and Jiraiya of the Sannin.

"So, you've finally arrived, Jiraiya-sama, Naruto…"

Naruto smiled at the familiar face of Bushido Kisuke with his two teammates. Kisuke was wearing a black shirt, black pants, and a slight smile. He seemed a little taller than when Naruto last saw him, but Naruto had gotten taller so it didn't really surprise him. Washimura looked almost exactly the same except he had his chunin vest and white pants with black stripes down them. Hikari had her long blonde hair pulled into a braid down her back, wearing a tight black shirt and form fitting black pants.

"Kisuke, his teammates!" Naruto said approaching them.

"You should at least remember our names!" Hikari yelled at him before calming down. "Utsukishi Hikari is my name, Jiraiya-sama."

"Washimura, Jiraiya-sama." Washimura spoke, reminding Naruto a bit of Shino.

"And who is this Takigakure kunoichi with you?" Kisuke asked, the look in her eyes reminding him of Han whenever he had seen him.

"Oh, her?" Naruto pointed at Fu, pulling her in, causing to blush lightly. "She is Fu and she's traveling with us until we get to Konohagakure where she'll transfer there!"

"Hey…" Fu said, still not used to contact with a ton of people.

Kisuke went over to Naruto's ear and whispered, "She's a jinchuriki, isn't she?"

Naruto grew a little stiff, "How did you know…?"

Kisuke smirked at him, "Well, now I know."

Naruto cursed, but then looked at Kisuke and lightly smiled, trusting him with this information. "Just don't say it to anyone and everyone."

Kisuke just reassured the Uzumaki, "I understand, Naruto… Just like how you're the host of the Nine-Tailed Fox. The only people that will probably know is Onoki and my teammates. Though I know eventually, word will spread about her being in Konohagakure."

"I know," Naruto said, looking at Fu interacting with Jiraiya, Hikari and Washimura and he sighed. "I just don't want anything bad to happen to her like what happened back at Takigakure."

"Alright," Kisuke said, putting a hand on the shinobi's shoulder. "Let's go see the Tsuchikage then. He really wants to test you against one of his shinobi. Probably me." Kisuke sighed as Naruto laughed a little and they headed for the Tsuchikage's tower.

XXX

Zetsu appeared by Hidan and Kakuzu. "I'll take care of the Two-Tails… The new member, Tobi, and Deidara went on to capture Three-Tails…"

Hidan got up with Kakuzu as Zetsu noticed the circle on the ground with the triangle in the middle. "At least when we came you were done with that ritual… Yeah, that ritual really gets on my nerves…"

"Hey!" Hidan barked. "You all are just infidels, ignorant of prayer!"

"When you're sad and alone…, all you can count on is yourself." Zetsu said.

Kakuzu joined in. "I disagree. Money is all you can count on."

Hidan had a tick mark on his face. "There you go again, Kakuzu! Did you know your damn assignments dealing with money have us behind schedule?"

"We're already ahead of schedule as is. Plus I joined with you because you said religion is profitable. I have to deal with Akatsuki's finances." Kakuzu spoke to his partner.

"Money is important…" Zetsu said as he looked at them. "You guys go on with you assignment and I'll deal with Two-Tails like I said earlier…"

And with that Zetsu went with Two-Tails and Hidan and Kakuzu went toward Fire Country.

XXX

Onoki of Both Scales was pleased. He got to see skills that the Uzumaki-Namikaze had gained through this training experience. He felt the progress Kisuke had gained through the years as well. Such as in the beginning of their match, Kisuke used a mud clone while Naruto was in Sage Mode. When Naruto used his Frog Kata, the mud blocked his vision, shocking Naruto and allowing Kisuke a few good hits on him. Kisuke also showed that he was following in Takeshi's footsteps. His skills with the katanas that Takeshi was known for surprised Onoki.

"Very nice show, Uzumaki Naruto-kun, Kisuke-kun," Onoki said, smiling at the match.

"Thank you, Tsuchikage-san." The two said, bowing.

"Now, let's get to my office. There is important information for you guys and Jiraiya here."

"What kind of information?" Jiraiya asked Onoki, causing the Tsuchikage to look at him.

"Information on Akatsuki…" That made Jiraiya and Naruto turn serious really quick, walking to the office to find out what this information was.

XXX

"As you have heard, the Akatsuki have started to move, a lot earlier than you suspected Jiraiya." Onoki spoke to Kisuke and the others.

"Yes, I figured that out when I heard from Kakashi and my spy network about the Akatsuki capturing Gaara. Who else have they got into their grasps?"

"Nii Yugito, the host of the Two-Tailed Cat, and I believe that two of the members are about to or have captured the host of the Three-Tails." Onoki said, getting their attension. "They seem to be going in order of tails. This means that I have to, and I have started to, prepare for Akatsuki to come after my jinchuriki since the next one is Four-Tails, one that I have."

"The sad part is that the Four-Tails' jinchuriki lives on the outskirts of the village. He'll be hard to seek out, but the Five-Tails' jinchuriki will be even worse. He is a lot like Fu and purposely stays hidden and hard to find which are a plus and a minus for us. We can't find him, but the Akatsuki will have trouble as well." Onoki sighed at the situation. "It seems that it'll take a long while for them to come here. Probably a month and it seems that two of the members will come near Konohagakure in a few weeks after the sealing of both Two-Tails and Three-Tails."

"The news came to other villages as well?" Jiraiya asked as he saw the looks of frustration on Naruto's face and almost the same on Fu's as well as fear.

"Yes, I believe so." Onoki chuckled looking at Fu and Naruto. "The Raikage's going to be pissed when he hears of her going to Konohagakure. He's already angry with Yugito being captured by Akatsuki."

Naruto and Fu looked at Onoki. "So, Uzumaki," Onoki spoke, curious of what the boy will say, "What do you say you're going to do?"

Naruto looked in thought for a moment, but then, looked at Jiraiya, who smiled at his student and nodded. The Uzumaki looked at the Tsuchikage with a serious expression and said, "I'm going back home!"

AN: There we go, the fortieth chapter of Kaze no Arashi! I thank you for all the support and even those that bashed this story. I'll admit, this story started off pretty bad and I rushed a lot in parts. But I will make sure to write better in all the stories on from here. Now, I'll be making a sequel to this story that I will call Futatsu no Pasu, or Two Paths. Mainly because of the two paths of Naruto and Sasuke, the characters I will mainly focus on, but all characters will be focused on. I will also have a new story up sometime. Again, I hope you enjoyed this story and look forward to the sequel. See ya!