A/N: ok well, not much to tell apart it's goin' to be full-packed action from this chapter onward,, and oh yeah, this fic's gotta be my most successful n satisfying fic to date, over 7000 hits' quite something for an amateur like me, tho sure, not all the ppl might really read it past chap 1 or just clicked on or s'thang, but i wanna thank y'all who added this as ur story alert, fav, etc. as well as those who reviewed,, never thanked y'all like this before so i just wanna take this opportunity to do so... then last thing, i'm goin' ta b busy wit college again,, sigh... well apart from that, enjoy this freshly baked fic! holla
Disclaimer: I own noth'n but this story, don't sue me for copyright, ay!
Chapter VI- On The Move!
Akatsuki was gathering at the border between Fire Country and Wind Country. A gush of wind blew past them, waving their cloaks away. Pain, their leader, stood on a small sand dune while his comrades just stood behind him, patiently waiting for him to debrief them.
"All of you wait here… I'm going to bring Naruto with me in a second…" Pain vanished the second he finished.
Deidara sighed effortlessly while the rest just sat down, doing whatever they were doing. Itachi still stood as he emotionlessly stared toward Sunagakure, his partner Kisame noticed and gave him a friendly slap on the back.
"What's wrong? You look weary, not like your usual self" the shark-man grinned, showing his sharp teeth in the process.
Itachi didn't answer but patted Kisame on the shoulder, signaling that he's fine. Kisame understood and went about his way, leaving the Sharingan master alone once again. He noticed the girl who was always with Pain staring at the same direction. Itachi considered asking her the same question Kisame did, but decided not to. Konan however, noticed as well and asked Itachi unfalteringly.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing" he muttered, closing his eyes.
"… Are you worried about your little brother's friend?" she asked again, peeking from the corner of her eyes at Itachi.
"Not the least" he replied coldly, opening his eyes.
"… I see…"
Any form of verbal conversation then died, the Akatsuki stayed silent until their leader comes back with the last Jinchuuriki in his hand.
"Sasuke-kun, how are we going to kidnap this Naruto kid?" Karin asked, hopping on a tree branch.
"The same way the Sound Four convinced me to come with them… through the Hokage Mountain. The security over there is very loose…" Sasuke replied emotionlessly, hopping to another tree branch.
"Sasuke, when can we rest? I'm tired… and thirsty…" Suigetsu whined and was about to get yelled at by Karin, but Sasuke stopped her before she could do it.
"Soon Suigetsu, we're going to rest when we reach that place…" Sasuke said as he reminisced about the past.
"That place?" Jyuugo asked, hopping to another tree branch.
"… Valley of the End" Sasuke replied, his Sharingan activated for no apparent reason.
"Well then, I'll be on my way… if anything happens here, inform me immediately, Iruka" a silver-haired man said.
"I understand, please be careful on your way, Kakashi-san. Somehow I have a bad feeling about this…" Iruka said darkly, but Kakashi just smiled softly under his mask. Kakashi gave Iruka a thumb up then he turned around and ran toward the horizon, to Sunagakure.
Iruka turned around, but his eyes were still set upon Kakashi's shadow. He turned his face around for the last time and walked back inside the village, heading toward the Academy. "… I hope everything will be just fine…"
Jiraiya was on his way to Otogakure after he heard about his former teammate's death; he rushed to find the truth and to see it himself. Since he met with his spy at the border between Earth Country and Rice Country, he could get there in no time.
"I must hurry…" Jiraiya panted as he ran as fast as he could.
Just as Hebi arrived at the Valley of the End, Suigetsu quickly dove into the stream while Karin and Jyuugo just sat down on a rock nearby and drank. Sasuke walked to the edge of the stream which was actually in the form of a sculpted head. He looked ahead and then down to the waterfall.
He noticed that there was no sign of battle at the foot of the waterfall; he thought someone must have repaired the damage seeing that the foot of the statues was intact. He reminisced for a minute before looking back ahead. He stared at the statue in front of him and saw some sort of illusion of his blond friend's silhouette. His eyes saddened but it regained its usual cold gaze.
"Karin, Suigetsu, Jyuugo! We're leaving in 10 minutes, get yourself ready…" he said with his back facing them.
"W-what?! Hey! For your information we've been running non-stop from that freaking smelly place, okay? Can't you at least let us have some more rest, damn it!? Who do you think we are? The freakin' Kages?" Suigetsu protested but the moment Sasuke released his killing intent, Suigetsu stayed silent and just cursed under his breath.
Karin and Jyuugo never really complained about being ordered around and decided to just obey. They packed up their things and refilled their water-skin. Ten minutes later, they were on the move yet once again, leaping from trees to trees, heading toward Konoha.
Coincidentally enough, the safest and quickest way to get to the Hokage Mountain was by taking a shortcut path near the border between Wind Country and Fire Country. Unknown to them however, was that a dangerous group was waiting nearby and a certain Konoha shinobi was heading there as well.
Soon, they will meet head-on.
Back in Konoha, Yamato just finished reporting to Tsunade. Although he had predicted that she might have already known, it still surprised him how calm she reacted to it. He started to debate on of how far and how much she knew.
Yamato stayed silent while Tsunade was in her usual thinking position with both her hands folded in front of her. Yamato didn't notice at first but after taking a better look, he realized that Tsunade's face was pale and she was also wearing a necklace. He immediately recognized it as Shodaime Hokage's. He was about to ask about it but Tsunade spoke first.
"Thanks for your report, Tenzou. I release you from your current mission. Report back to your squad and wait for my orders. Stay on stand-by. Also on your way, tell Morino Ibiki to report in my office as soon as he can." Tsunade ordered Yamato, who was more surprised to have his real name mentioned.
"Understood Hokage-sama…" Yamato excused himself and vanished into thin air.
Outside Tsunade's office, he sighed, unsure on how to react. Then Shizune appeared with a stack of paperwork, she noticed Yamato standing blocking the door.
"Ano… excuse me, but could you move aside, please? I need to get in…" she asked politely at Yamato, who jumped in surprise and quickly stepped aside.
"E-excuse me! I was thinking about something…" he explained trying to find an excuse, flailing his hands and flushed in the process.
Shizune looked at him and giggled, causing Yamato to blush even harder as he just rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, thinking he just made a fool out of himself.
"… Ah I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at you… you're… Tenzou, right?" she asked, while at the same time trying to suppress her giggles.
"Huh? Ah, y-yes, I am…" Yamato replied as he rubbed the back of his head.
"I believe we haven't introduced each other properly. I'm Shizune, nice to meet you…" she said smilingly at Yamato who turned crimson.
"… L-likewise. I'm Tenzou…" he replied, bowing down.
"Hihi, it's a bit weird… we've known each other through files and missions but it's the first time we've talked and introduced ourselves properly… it feels a bit weird, don't you think?" she asked, smiling at him (with that damn-oh-so-cute-smile. I know, we need some humor to lighten up the mood a lil' bit, don't you think?).
"Y-yeah… it does, doesn't it? Ha… hahaha…" Yamato replied awkwardly.
"Yes. Oh! I almost forgot… I'm sorry, but I've got to give these to Tsunade-sama… well then Tenzou-san, I guess I'll be seeing you from now on, ne?" she said once more before heading to Tsunade's office.
"Y-yeah… oh, here, let me open the door for y-…" Yamato said but the door got opened before he even grabbed the door knob. "Areh?"
Tsunade appeared behind the opened door, looking rather pissed at Yamato. He had a dumb look on his face and started to sweat hard as it immediately struck him that he was supposed to tell Ibiki to report to Tsunade as soon as possible.
"A-ah, Shizune-san! It's been a pleasure knowing you, I need to go now. Bye! See you!" Yamato said hastily and dashed away for his life, leaving a still pissed Tsunade and an oblivious Shizune.
"He really is an interesting guy…" Shizune said smilingly as she entered Tsunade's office.
After she put the paperwork on the desk, she turned around to see her mentor. At first she smiled innocently but soon realized something different. She had an all-too-similar necklace tied around her neck. Shizune blinked at Tsunade and was about to ask when her mentor explained everything.
In another part of Konoha, Sai was rummaging through the secret scrolls of the village's kinjutsu archives.
"Hmm, this is weird… I can't find them anywhere… this archive should be at least half-filled with those scrolls…" Sai muttered as he stealthily moved from one spot to another.
The archive was dark and many seals and traps were placed in order to keep it safe from intruders. Sai however, could easily detect the traps and avoid them. When he finally arrived at the end of the archives, he began to think whether they have been moved to another place or if there are some secret entries.
When he was about to move out once more, he was suddenly stopped by his former master, Danzou. He was standing behind Sai all the time fully equipped with his shinobi attire, and Sai never even noticed.
"D-Danzou-sama?! Why are you here?!" he gasped in disbelief.
"You really are rebellious just like your useless brother… I shouldn't have put my trust in you, Sai" Danzou said as he raised his hand and formed a single-hand seal.
Sai's vision suddenly became blurred as it slowly turned dark and his entire body became numb. The next thing he knew, he was on the floor, feeling numb. Then the last thing he saw before he passed out was the silhouette of his former mentor.
Jiraiya just arrived at what was supposed to be Otogakure. Instead of a well concealed underground base, he found a devastated ground. It was as if the entire base got blown up by a very strong explosion.
Bodies were everywhere, most of them burnt beyond recognition. Then he noticed something in the middle of the wide devastated hole. It was in the form of a huge silvery snake. It was lying lifeless on the ground.
When Jiraiya got there, he quickly noticed that it was none other than Orochimaru. He covered his mouth in disbelief at the remains of his former teammate. Suddenly something moved nearby and Jiraiya quickly reacted to it.
"No need to get all offensive, Jiraiya-sama…" a voice said calmly behind the big silver snake.
Jiraiya stayed alert as the owner of the voice slowly made an apparition. It was Kabuto.
"You…"
"Yes... as you can see, Orochimaru-sama is dead now… but the question is, do you really believe that?" he smirked at Jiraiya who raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"What do you mean? Explain yourself!" Jiraiya demanded in a threatening voice.
"I'll just show you so it can save us the trouble, hm?" Kabuto said, removing his glasses and looked at Jiraiya.
Jiraiya became even more surprised as he saw Orochimaru in Kabuto's left eye. If it's only a genjutsu, he'd know, however Orochimaru's presence was so strong within Kabuto's left eye; he even felt that Kabuto's eye was another living entity entirely. From that, he deduced one thing.
"So that's how it was. You took Kabuto's body since you couldn't take Sasuke's, am I wrong, Orochimaru?" Jiraiya asked, easing his stance.
"Not entirely, no. You see Jiraiya-sama, you can feel his presence so strongly, yet it's not him. No… I took the liberty to put him inside my body when that bastard Uchiha took over his conscience. Fortunately enough, there was some conscience left inside his true form, not wasting any time, I put him inside my body… Orochimaru-sama lives within me now…" Kabuto explained as he laughed like a madman.
"… In the end Sasuke never really planned on giving his body after all… so? Where is he now?" Jiraiya asked Kabuto, who stopped laughing abruptly.
"That Uchiha bastard? Hn… since we share a conscience of the same person, I am somehow able to read his mind… he's on his way to capture that Kyuubi kid… he should be arriving near Konoha by now… hope he gets killed alongside those traitors by Naruto-kun…" Kabuto scoffed and turned around.
"… And? Where do you think you're going?"
"I don't know, probably to our other hide-outs… either way you won't catch me, and we both know it…" Kabuto replied cockily without even facing Jiraiya.
"Says who?" Jiraiya asked as he formed a couple of hand seals and was about to perform a ninjutsu.
"Says me!" Kabuto smirked darkly as he jumped forward to keep his distance from Jiraiya's ninjutsu.
"Katon: Gokakkyu no Jutsu!" Jiraiya yelled and a big fireball made its way toward Kabuto, who just snickered.
Shikamaru had gathered the others; namely Ino, Chouji, Lee, Tenten, Neji, Kiba and Shino. He had also predicted their reactions when he gathered them together. Most of them had a sinister and sorrowful looks, none had the courage to speak up, excluding Neji and Shino who are Neji and Shino (I mean come on, they only speak as if they're paid to).
"Alright, listen up. I know how you all feel right now, and I feel the same. But we need to act now or it might be too late…" Shikamaru broke the silence, earning everyone's attention.
"What do you mean, Shikamaru-kun?" Lee decided to ask.
"The problem right now isn't Sakura, but Naruto. How many of you know about Kyuubi?" Shikamaru asked, narrowing his eyes a little.
"The nine-tailed demon beast? Of course we all know… what about it?" Ino spoke up, her ponytail swung to one side.
"Of course you do, but how many of you know the real story of Kyuubi?" Shikamaru emphasized on the word 'real', earning Neji's full attention.
"… Are you suggesting that the one which said that the Kyuubi was killed by Yondaime is a made up story?" Neji suggested. Everyone looked at him as if he had just committed blasphemy.
"Exactly" Shikamaru nodded in accordance.
Everyone spoke up at the same time, protesting and arguing against each other. Shikamaru silenced them with his Shadow Binding technique and once they realized they stopped their arguments.
"So what does your version says, Shikamaru?" Ino asked skeptically
"No… rather, what is the relevance with Naruto? You did mention something about being too late and that the main problem we're facing now is him…" Neji asked theoretically.
Shikamaru smirked and looked at Neji with a pleased face, "Sharp as always, Neji… I knew you'd have at least an idea of where I'm going…"
Neji just huffed silently and crossed his arms.
"That's right. To make a long story short, the Kyuubi is inside Naruto." Shikamaru said as-a-matter-of-factly. Everyone gasped and froze on the spot; their face showed pure surprise to say the least.
"Sh-Shikamaru, I know you're a funny guy, but this joke has gone too f-…" Chouji spoke first, breaking the swift silence, but Shikamaru cut him off.
"It's not a joke, Chouji. It's the truth." Shikamaru exclaimed, causing the other to stare at him in disbelief and horror.
"Yondaime didn't kill the nine-tailed demon, he sealed it inside Naruto. But that's the truth that even our parents knew, yet because of Sandaime's law, we were exempted from knowing it. However, now that is not the problem. You already know that Naruto was put in a genjutsu by Sakura; coincidentally the genjutsu itself is getting weaker and weaker by the minute. If Naruto regained his memory of what happened that day…" Shikamaru explained and Neji continued his sentence.
"… There is a high possibility that he might unleash the Kyuubi and go on a rampage…" Neji finished and everyone turned their stares from Shikamaru to him.
"Wh-what?! Why?! Why would he…?!" Ino asked erratically.
"Think about it, Ino… if you were in his shoes, what would you do?" Shikamaru asked hypothetically at Ino, who was confused.
"… If it was me, I'd unleash Kyuubi and go on a rampage…" Shino's statement astonished everyone but Shikamaru and Neji who seemed to understand the situation.
Then one by one they too, started to understand the situation. Ino who was still confused looked around and asked again, "Why? Why would he? He's not that type of a person… is he?"
"Ino, who do you think are Naruto's most precious people?" Shikamaru asked her with a saddened expression.
"Eh? I-I don't know… Sasuke and Sakura I gue-…" Ino replied and suddenly covered her mouth as if realizing something.
"Exactly. Sasuke and Sakura. He was betrayed by Sasuke once, hell, make it twice. He had let Sakura down once, hell, make it twice too. If he knew that he's been set up by one of his precious people after he'd been betrayed, how would he feels? Also not to mention all the hardships he's experienced up till now!"
Ino stumbled to the ground while the others were deep in their own thoughts. Shikamaru spoke again, snapping them out of their thoughts.
"Everyone… this is a critical situation for us right now. Screw the upper ups, we're on our own. Right now Kakashi-sensei is on his way to Sunagakure to check on Naruto who is currently in training with Jiraiya-sama. Yamato-taichou is reporting to Tsunade-sama, although I'm not sure what will happen. What I'm sure is that Tsunade-sama herself should already be aware about this matter even before we did, I'm sure…"
"How could you be so sure?" Tenten asked abruptly. Shikamaru looked at her and replied simply, "… because I think that Sakura must have told Tsunade-sama before we even know it, why? Because Tsunade-sama is Sakura's mentor… Sakura could open up to her respected teacher and to top it up, she's also the Hokage…"
Everyone's full attention was now on Shikamaru.
"Now the problem is… how will Tsunade-sama react? We need to act accordingly, that is if we are not called in by her… Because it regards Naruto and Sakura's well-being, I am mostly positive that she might be bringing in the ANBU, it regards the Kyuubi anyway so we might be a hindrance rather than being helpful… Next, I already asked Sai for a favor and he should be contacting me anytime soon, he'll be fine by himself… I think… Last, I want us to keep an eye on Sakura. I don't know why, I just have a bad feeling… true, if Tsunade-sama ordered the ANBU to take Sakura into their custody, she might be safer than being in the open with us, but that would just mean insecurities for Sakura. If that were to happen, then I won't let her be taken away easily…"
"So are you telling us to go against our own?" Tenten asked in hesitation.
"If necessary, yes. Somehow I have the feeling that Tsunade-sama will take Sakura into ANBU's custody, it is of course one of the many scenarios that I could think of, but it seems to be the most plausible one. Of course we won't attack them or anything… a little sabotage or traps here and there should be enough to hold them off for a bit. At least until I can get what I asked Sai to bring me for…"
"Why don't you consult with Godaime-sama?" Kiba asked.
"I told you already, screw those upper ups… they haven't done jack shit about it, they won't do anything this time either… we're on our own, Kiba… although I am planning on going to Tsunade-sama myself after this and have Sakura stay with us, because we might be able to hold Naruto off, assuming he went berserk with Kyuubi and attack Konoha. But then again, I don't expect to get a good outcome…"
"So what are we going to do now?" Neji asked tentatively.
Shikamaru stared at Neji for a while before laying down his 'self-declared kick-ass' plan.
"You called for me, Hokage-sama?" a scarred man bowed before Tsunade, who silently nodded.
"Ibiki, you are now in charge of the entire ANBU force. Here is your first mission." Tsunade said cutting to the chase as she gave him a piece of paper.
The man called Ibiki took the paper and read it through. He was confused at first and decided to read through it one more time.
"Hokage-sama, this must be a mistake… I can't possibly…" Ibiki protested but Tsunade cut him off.
"Ibiki, this is an order. No more argument. You are dismissed."
A sweat crawled down Ibiki's cheek as he reluctantly accepted his new mission and position and then bowed in respect before disappearing from Tsunade's office.
Outside her office, Ibiki stood with his attention fully on the piece of paper in front of him. He was still feeling uneasy about his new task, when a certain purple-haired kunoichi appeared from around the corner.
"Ibiki? Whatcha doing here?"
Ibiki turned to look at her abruptly he almost dropped the paper. "Anko…"
"What's up?" she asked casually.
Ibiki gained his composure and talked to her casually as well. "Nothing much… I just got promoted to be the ANBU captain…"
Anko became fascinated for a bit and congratulated him, "Really? Wow, congratulations then! What do you say we celebrate this at our usual place, huh? Your treat of course."
"… I'm sorry but I already have a mission… maybe next time, okay?" He said and walked off, leaving a pouting Anko behind.
"Mou, and here I was in the mood to drink… Godaime Hokage sure knows how to slave her subordinates off… oh well… I'll just drink by myself then" she said and walked off.
The quartet from Hebi was still hopping from trees to trees; they doubled their pace after they stopped at the Valley of the End. Karin, having the ability to tell chakra signatures really well, noticed someone's coming their way and notified Sasuke.
"Sasuke-kun, someone's coming toward us. This person seems strong too. What should we do?"
Sasuke seemed indifferent about it and replied, "Keep going, leave that man to me."
Sasuke quickly made a set of hand seals and readied his left arm. His chakra became visible as it's starting to take an abstract form in his left palm; lightning struck around it also made a lot of noise.
The copycat ninja was hopping from trees to trees cautiously. He soon noticed that a group of people were coming at his direction. He sensed the dangerous chakra signature coming from it and he thought it would be too late to avoid encounter, thus he made the decision to just storm ahead seeing that his initial plan matters most at the moment.
Kakashi quickly formed a set of hand seals before stretching his left arm. A piercing noise filled the air as a blue lightning seemed to be formed abstractly around his left hand.
"I'll just finish this quickly…" he muttered as he doubled his pace toward the people ahead of him.
Sasuke readied his left arm as to increase his thrust when he'd meet with his would-be enemy. His comrades were following closely behind him, readying themselves for an upcoming battle .
Kakashi readied his left arm in a thrust position; his right hand lifted his forehead protector to reveal his sharingan ready.
Sasuke's cursed seal was starting to spread as his sharingan was glaring coldly at the sight in front of him.
A huge tree was blocking Kakashi's view but he was positive that his enemies were all behind it, he quickly created some Kage Bunshins. Kakashi and his clones quickly dispersed and attacked head on.
A huge tree was blocking Sasuke and his comrades' view but they knew that their enemy was behind it. Sasuke rushed head on, ready to break the tree in two when he suddenly saw three people moving in an attacking formation from behind the tree. He ignored them as Karin, Jyuugo, and Suigetsu quickly reacted to them.
Kakashi thrust his left arm into the huge tree.
Sasuke thrust his left arm into the huge tree.
A poor huge tree suddenly broke into pieces, sending splinters flying around.
The moment said huge tree broke three pairs of red eyes with black dots met. Kakashi and Sasuke met face to face after so long.
Sasuke stared at his former teacher with his cold gaze, clearly showing no more sign of affection toward him. Kakashi in the other hand was utterly speechless. He had not expecting to meet his other former student of all the time and places; Kakashi could only mutter one word as he looked into a pair of red, cold eyes.
"S-Sasuke…"
A/N: so there ya go, hope ya enjoyed it and yeah, till next chapters ppl! holla oh btw, if there's some japanese expressions that u dun dig, go google it or wiki it, apart from that, i assume that y'all already know most of them.. so this time for real, holla