Disclaimer: Naruto isn't owned by me, but Umigakure is still my idea. Mine, I tell you!!! ALL MINE!!! Ahem

Chapter 22: The Attack Begins

(Naruto's P.O.V)

I lay in the bed, a small smile on my face. Next to me, sleeping quietly, was Sakura. The thin sheet was all that seperated our bare skin from the cool night air of the window we cracked open a little.

I chuckled, remembering how Sakura had been quite eager to get me into the room. She apparantly enjoyed our 'intimate moments', clearly stating that the past two weeks I had been gone on a mission with my ANBU team had been hell for her. She looked innocent in the public's eye, but she had a naughty streak to her on those occasions that we had the night to ourselves. Needless to say, I was the only one that knew of it...well, maybe Ino too, but what doesn't Ino know?

I yawned, feeling the warmth of Sakura lulling me to sleep...

...or at least I had hoped for that to be the case...

I instead found myself in the mindscape of Kyuubi's chamber. A few feet in front of the cage sat Sasuke, looking over a chess board with his brow knitted together in a look of utter concentration. He watched as one of the black bishops seemingly moved as Kyuubi used his chakra to make the piece glow red, and my former teammate groaned as he saw his knight get taken out.

"Check." spoke Kyuubi.

Sasuke searched the board for a solution, then used one of his bishops to take out Kyuubi's assault. Kyuubi yawned, seeminly unphased by the denial from Sasuke. I decided to speak up.

"What do you guys need?" I asked, followed by a yawn.

The chessboard dissapeared as the two faced me, "Naruto, Kyuubi and I think you need to train a bit more. It's been three days since we last sparred." Sasuke answered, followed by a grunt from the demon-fox.

I sighed, "Look, guys, I just got done no more than three hours ago sparring with Ero-sannin...and Sakura was rather...affectionate tonight. She-"

"Don't need details, dobe." Sasuke said with a wave of his hand.

Kyuubi smirked, "So, when are you going to finally ask her?"

I blushed, and before I could say another word, Sasuke laughed a little, "So, you're going to pop the question?"

"Yeah...I've been planning on it for awhile now. I'll be asking her next month. I was going to have a date planned...restaurant, walk through the park, and then we would go up to the Hokage Monument." I finished.

Sasuke nodded, "About time you do that."

"Tch, you didn't have to put up with his constant dreaming of her back when he was a kid." Kyuubi snorted, and the two laughed. Oh, great, Sasuke's corrupted Kyuubi into mocking me as well now.

"Listen, guys, can we wait until I go to meditate around noon tomorrow? I still have to sign that treaty with the Wave's council tomorrow morning at nine. Luckily enough, the agreements have already been made on both sides. I just have to be there to 'verify' it all."

Sasuke shrugged, "Fine. I guess if you're too winded after going at it with Sakura, then sparring would prove to be pointless."

I sighed as the two laughed again, "Watch it, teme." I growled, but couldn't help but smirk a little. In all honesty, I liked Sasuke this way.

"Very well, we'll spar at noon tomorrow then," Kyuubi concluded with a nod, "Now, get some sleep, you'll need it if you're representing Konoha tomorrow."

With that being said, I drifted off to sleep. The following morning was rather slow paced. I went to the main tower of Umigakure with Shikamaru, Temari, who was representing Suna on behalf of Gaara and the council as well as Konoha, Kakashi, and Jiraiya. The alliance was signed rather quickly since Tazuna was part of the council of the village, and within an hour all the agreements and alliances were put into paper and were made official by the signing of me and a few others.

I was informed afterwards by Inari that Sakura was helping out the village medic-nin at the hospital, so I decided to go and work on my mental training with Sasuke and Kyuubi. If Sasuke and Kyuubi said was right, then the technique we developed would be able to counter anything the Sharingan or Mangekyou Sharingan threw at me.

Two Hours Later

I snapped my eyes open when I heard a distant explosion. I had just finished with Sasuke and Kyuubi the sounds of distant rumbling went off. I looked towards the direction leading to the port, and saw smoke rising into the air.

I felt the presence of two others behind me, and I spun around with a kunai in hand to meet the faces of Konohamaru and Moegi.

"Naruto! The village is under attack!" Konohamaru exclaimed, his forehead glistening with beads of sweat. He seemed like he had been running quite a fast pace, and Moegi was just starting to catch her breath.

"Who's attacking?" I asked as I got up from the ground.

Konohamaru gave a pained look, but Moegi answered, "Naruto...Akatsuki...they have Sakura being held hostage. We managed to get out of the fight, and looked everywhere for you."

I dropped the kunai I was holding, "W-what?!"

"The Sea-nin are trying to get to the group of nuke-nin, but they're being held off by Water Jutsu and some really powerful Fire Techniques. I think one of them was that Shark guy you said you met up those years back." Konohamaru added.

"That's not good. If Kisame's here, then so is Itachi." I growled.

"Naruto, there's six of them...they made a demand that you be handed over, or Sakura dies. Luckily, they don't seem to willing to kill her unless you're there yourself. So we attacked." Konohamaru finished.

"Those...bastards. Okay, listen you two, I want you two to stay close and follow me. When we get to the port, I want both of you to find our group. Undertstood? Akatsuki won't do anything stupid if I agree to cooperate with them." I said firmly.

"Naruto, no! If you surrender to them, then you'll-"

I cut Moegi off, "I never said anything about surrendering to them. I've got a way to fix this...maybe. I've been working on a way to counter that Itachi's techniques, but it won't be easy."

The two nodded, and with nothing further to be spoken,we ran off towards the sound of battle.

(Kakashi's P.O.V)

I avoided another blast of flames as Itachi and I squared off. Even with the combined efforts of Rin, Rock Lee, and myself, we still were having a great amount of difficultly fighting the Uchiha. Unlike the time back when we went to rescue Gaara, this was Itachi in the flesh. We were able to take a small amount of comfort in the fact that Lee was fast enough to connect a hit or two on Itachi every so often...but it still wasn't enough.

Meanwhile, Kiba, Akamaru, and Chouji were fighting Zetsu with some success, since it was easy enough to sniff out the missing nin when he dissapeared into the ground. The Inuzuka and his hound would give the location, and Chouji would use his raw power to crack the earth near the shoreline where the fought to drive out Zetsu. Needless to say, the strange man seemed to be toying with them, for I hadn't seen him really attack yet.

Hinata, Temari, and Hanabi were fighting the woman that was known as Konan. The three were not having much luck, for they had to continually dodge paper kunai by using their Rotation and wind jutsu to avoid the seemingly endless barrage of techniques. A unique style of ninjutsu, and it gave the Akatsuki member the ability to fly thanks to a pair of wings resembling those of an angel's. An angel of death...but still an angel.

Shikamaru and, much to my suprise, Inari, were facing off the infamous Hidden Mist nuke-nin, Kisame Hoshigaki. Shikamaru was not looking too well, considering he wasn't a close range fighter. If not for Inari, I feared the worse would for Shikamaru. However, the face on the Nara's face spoke volumes about the young man's determination. He only had that look on his face once before, and that was when he fought against Hidan. Inari, on the other hand, had a smirk on his face. The Chunin boy was fast, and he seemed to be quite an adept Water Jutsu specialist. Not of Kisame's level, but still talented.

A little ways from our own fight was Anko, who was taking on a man wearing an orange mask named Tobi. The man didn't seem to display any special talents, but Anko was smart enough to look beyond that. Akatsuki didn't have him as a part of the team for nothing. Everytime she managed to get a hit in, he got up, unphased it seemed.

The two far off combatants were Jiraiya and five other men, who for some odd reason were more like parts of one man. His name was Pain, and was the leading member of Akatsuki. He had managed to set up a barrier around the port, and it covered all of us while keeping any Sea-nin out in the process. The two were on summons; Jiraiya on the back of a giant toad while Pain was on a summon of his own.

Off in the distance was a pillar that Pain had summoned. Tied around it was Sakura, unconcious and beaten. No doubt she had put up a fight, but one ninja could only hold against six S-ranked missing nin for so long.

The part that bothered me wasn't that Akatsuki had gone for Sakura, but the fact that they had brought all six of their members. Were they finally getting desperate, and decided to just go for a full assualt? They demanded that Naruto be surrendered to them, otherwise they would use force.

"Naruto..." I whispered as I activated my Sharingan to continue my attack on Itachi.

(Inari's P.O.V)

"So, you're the one known as Kisame Hoshigake? I've been told you're wanted for the attempted murder and coup d'etat of the Mizukage...along with several other charges in various countries." I spoke, stanging on the water as Shikamaru was attempting to catch his breath. He had a very nasty gash on his right arm, and he seemed to be a bit weary.

"Heh, well, you're right about that, kid. I don't know what a little guppy like you plans to accomplish against me, but winning this fight won't be it," Kisame laughed with a toothy sneer, "This poor excuse of a shinobi village can't even hold its own against me, let alone the rest of Akatsuki. What makes you think that a squirt like you can do any better? You aren't even a Jounin."

I frowned, "Okay, now you've crossed the line," I turned to Shikamaru, "Go help Anko-san. This fight just became personal."

Shikamaru gave me an incredulous look, "Are you crazy? This guy's not a S-rank criminal for the hell of it. He'll rip you to shreds."

I shook my head, "Somehow, I don't really think that means much. He just insulted Umigakure to my face, and now he'll pay. We're not pushovers, despite our numbers. Go on, Shikamaru-san...I can handle things from here."

Shikamaru sighed, and pulled out a soldier pill. He ate one himself, and handed me one as well, "Inari...you better not die on us. Naruto and Sakura speak highly of you, and if you die, I don't think they would be able to forgive me anytime soon for leaving you alone with this freak." With that said, he ran to the battle between Anko and the masked man.

I turned to face Kisame who was grinning as he lifted Samehada of his right shoulder, "Heh, so you have a death wish, huh? I'll be happy to fulfill it for you then."

I said nothing as I concentrated chakra throughout my body, "Don't speak so soon. I'm just getting started with this little bout of ours."

Kisame's grin widened as he sensed my rise in chakra, "Well, well...the little guppy isn't so weak after all. You seem to have about as much chakra as a standard Jounin."

"Oh, there's more than that..." I chuckled, and slowly my body melted into the salt water. The next thing I knew, I had actually become a mass of water...well, sort of. I was still a sentient being, still retained my intelligence, and was still alive. I had been the first shinobi in all of Umigakure to unlock a bloodline. I had yet to give it a name, but I suspected that many generations ago, before my grandfather's time, our lineage had shinobi ancestors. My grandfather and mother had no knowledge of this, but I decided to work on it. It had been one of the reasons why I was so skilled in water combat.

I raced through the water and resolidified behind the unsuspecting nuke-nin. I delivered a swift kick to Kisame's back, and watched as the man turned into water.

"Water clone?!" I said, and quickly ducked to avoid getting shaved by Samehada.

"Impressive. A kekkai genkai of some sort, eh? You know, I knew of a boy with that ability...I believe his name was Suigetsu Hozuki..." Kisame laughed as he barely managed to hit me again. I could feel my chakra dissapating as I came closer to the bizarre sword. I couldn't afford to lose chakra so carelessly.

"Suigetsu Hozuki? Huh, I've heard of the guy in books...not sure where he is, but don't get our abilities confused. Unlike him, I don't require constant rehydration. My ability relies on chakra alone, and I can freely manipulate the water level in my body by as much as ninety-nine percent. It's much more effective than that man's abilities." I explained as I jumped back to avoid a downward arc of the man's blade.

"Hidden Mist Jutsu!" Kisame spoke, and the area around us became blanketed in a thick sheet of white.

"This won't work on me; all Genin are required to know how to engage in such conditions before they graduate here. You'll have to try harder than this." I said, closing my eyes.

A laughter came from every direction, "Is that so? Well then, I guess you should have no trouble with this!"

I jumped to avoid having my legs torn off, and as I descended back down, I went through a few seals, "Wind Release: Wind Vortex Justu!"

A whirlwind surrounded me, and within a few seconds the mist had vanished...and so had Kisame.

I had no chance to move as the fish-like man reappeared from the water, his sword about to grate into my back. I quickly channeled some chakra into my back and my spine area became water, preventing possible damage. A bit of skin and cloth had been torn off, but it was a small price to pay to prevent paralysis.

"H-how?" Kisame uttered in frustration.

"I told you," I said turning around, "I can manipulate the water level in my body to whatever I wish, so as long as chakra flows through me."

I suddenly felt an impact from my side, and heard a rib snap, "Crap, more Water clones..." I looked up to see Samehada slam me into the water. I flew through the watery depths, and barely had time to react as Kisame went for me with his sword.

"Water Style: Five Man-eating Sharks Jutsu!" Kisame yelled through the water.

I saw five water sharks materialize, and I quickly pulled out my blade. Turning into myself into water wouldn't help against an attack that was made of water as well. This battle had just gotten alot more serious, I realized as the five sharks swam at me with speeds much greater than any human.

(Hinata's P.O.V)

"Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation!" I yelled, spinning like mad as another barrage of origami kunai flew at me. Despite the material they were made of, those kunai were as sharp and deadly as any other ninja weapon, if not more so since Konan could manipulate them without raising a finger.

Hanabi stood next to me, heaving in air, "Nee-san...how do we get past her attacks without getting torn to ribbons by those origami attacks of hers? She seems to be made of paper almost, and any solid attacks we make will just end up making contact with sheets of paper that she substitutes herself with."

"Well, if we can find a way to slow her down, then maybe we could turn this battle around," Temari said as she whipped her fan to knock back a spray of paper shuriken, "Unless one of you knows any Fire Jutsu..."

"Wait...slow her...that's it!" I said, and turned to Temari, "Temari, do you think that you could create a strong enough wind to lift up the sea water?" I asked the blonde wind maiden.

"Just how much water are we talking about here?" she asked, taking a leap backwards to avoid more origami projectiles.

"Enough to completely soak her." I replied, and was further comforted by my idea when Temari merely laughed with a smirk.

"Oh, that shouldn't be any trouble at all." she said with a grin, "I think I see where you're going with this. Weighing down her body so she can't produce any paper, huh?"

"Exactly." I responded with a nod, and then pulled out a ribbon as I tied my hair back. Hanabi saw this, and her eyes widened.

"Nee-san...you're not...planning on...?"

I pulled off my sandals and handed them to her as I let my bare feet float on the water, "Yes, Hanabi-chan, I do plan on using that technique."

Hanabi started to sputter out words, but eventually managed to say something, "Y-you could...you..."

"Die?" I asked with a smile, "Perhaps...that all depends on if my system can take the amount of overexertion I put on it," I went into a stance, "However, I did invent the technique, so I think I know what I'm doing."

"What are you two talking about?" Temari asked, confusion written on her face.

Hanabi looked at me with worry before turning to the blonde, "Hinata-neesan is going to use a family kinjutsu."

"Wait, your a forbidden jutsu?" Temari asked, her eyes widening with concern.

I nodded, "Yes, the Eight Trigrams One Thousand twenty-four Strikes. It involves both hands and feet, and the speed at which it is performed far exceeds that of any other Gentle Fist technique...Neji isn't as good at it, since his speed is only a little less than my own, but he can perform it in a last resort situation. It's even more deadly than the Eight Gates Assault, since it attacks some points more than a few times, and the rate at which the user attacks is so fast that the chakra coils literally explode in some cases. The internal damage done to organs is almost instant too." I activated my bloodline as I continued, "the only drawback is that the technique requires precision, which requires me to have no burdens to my vision. That's why I'm wearing this ribbon to keep my hair out of the way. The amount of chakra used to attack at such speeds is almost impossible unless one has almost perfect chakra control. Chakra depletion is almost a guarantee, and I myself can have a bodily shutdown if that happens. Regardless, if performed correctly, the Eight Trigrams One Thousand twenty-four Strikes is almost always a guaranteed kill. It's considered an assassination technique because the speed at which it is executed." I looked to see the blonde giving me an amazed look.

"How fast is this technique?" Temari asked, suddenly sounding fearful.

"Between six to eight seconds. Well, Neji takes about nine most times, but his strength makes up for it I suppose." I replied.

"What?! That many strikes in that amount of time?!" Temari exclaimed, clearly unable to believe it.

"That's why chakra is consumed so heavily. Combine that with using the Byakugan, the concept of using chakra in every blow, and the fact that it also requires chakra to go at such speeds, and you're bound to be on the end of your thread at the end of the attack. That's why it's a kinjutsu.

"Well, if me drenching the woman in water to weigh her down will help you, than I'll do what I can." Temari said with a sigh, gripping her fan as she stared ahead at Konan.

"Thank you, Temari. Hanabi-chan, I want you to provide me with cover while I gather enough chakra, okay?" Hanabi merely nodded at my request. I stared at the missing-nin, and her chakra coils became clear as day.

This was all or nothing, and I couldn't afford to fail. Not while everyone else was fighting as well. These people were going to kill Naruto if they managed to succeed, and then they would begin to take over the shinboi world. No...I cannot fail here...I will not fail here...

(Pain's P.O.V)

I jumped away as another blast of flames blew past me from Jiraiya. The man was quite good for his age, and he had managed to hold his own fairly well against me and my four other counterparts. The fifth one was currently out scouting the surrounding area. It was becoming quite annoying, seeing the man who was quite older than me managing to do so well against me. I was holding back, however.

I turned to see the woman fighting Tobi summon a jet black snake that stood at least one hundred feet in length. So, that was the new clan leader of the snake summons. Looking nearby the port revealed Itachi holding his own against three Leaf nin with relative ease, while Zetsu was merely avoiding attacks from the Inuzuka boy, his dog, and the Akimichi boy. Kisame was having a bit of trouble with a Sea-nin, who was busy slicing away at the former Kirigakure shinobi's Water Sharks. Then there was Konan, who was a little ways from my own battle. She was busy avoiding waves of water while dodging the younger Hyuuga girl's attacks. Meanwhile, the older of the Hyuuga sisters was gathering a large amount of chakra.

I suddenly recieved some information as the vision of my body scouting the surrounding area caught sight of the Kyuubi boy. He was followed by two Konoha Chunin, and they were moving at an amazing pace, most likely heading towards this battle. Everything was falling into place, I thought.

"Soon, very soon, are goals will be complete..."

end of Chap. 22 - Well, now the fun begins. Things will be escalating soon, I can gurantee that. What will happen next? Well, what do you think, eh? I've been known to throw a curveball into my plots...just think for awhile about it. Oh, I'm sure a few of you can guess...others, maybe not. Either way, the next chapter couple chapters will be real important for our Jinchuuriki hero. So, look forward to the next chapter soon. Things will be getting intense soon. Until then, keep on reading!