DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto.
"hello"-speech
"hello"-thoughts, jutsus, other Japanese words (hope they're right though)
"hello"-Kyuubi or Enma talking
This story takes place after Manga Chapter 325. Hope you like it.
Naruto: Chapter 3 - Konoha Infiltrated
It was already nighttime when Team Asuma returned to Konoha, carrying the body of Chiriku and the remains of Hidan. From one of the buildings, Kurenai was anxiously waiting for the return of her mate. When she saw their outlines at the main gates, she rushed out to meet them. She collided into Asuma's arms and knocked the wind out of him.
"Oof!" exclaimed Asuma. He was about to scold her when he noticed that her shoulders were shaking and her head was against his chest. Meanwhile, Kotetsui, Izuma, and Shikamaru were busy trying to look at something else.
"I thought you'd never come back", said Kurenai while in soft tears. Asuma smiled, kissed her forehead and held her shoulders away a bit so he could look into her eyes. "I'm back this time aren't I? We'll talk later. I have to report to Hokage-sama" replied Asuma. Kurenai nodded, stepped aside and looked on as the four made their way to Hokage Tower.
Tsunade was busy reading reports from the other Akatsuki hunters when there was a knock on her door. "Enter!" said Tsunade.
Team Asuma entered and stood in line facing the hokage with Asuma in the center.
Tsunade smiled, glad to see that Team Asuma came back alright. "Report."
"Hokage-sama," started Asuma, "We were able to defeat 1 Akatsuki member. We brought back his body for scientific study, as well as Chiriku's body."
"I see. I assume this is the 'immortal' you indicated in your reports?"
"Yes, his teammate saw that he was outnumbered and retreated, but not before crushing the head of his colleague."
Tsunade frowned at the Akatsuki's methods, then replied "Very well. Please leave the immortal's body at Lab 2. I'll do an autopsy to find out more on his 'immortality', and please bring Chiriku's body to the temple for a proper burial…..I'm sorry Asuma. I knew he was a close friend of yours."
Asuma nodded in reply, and the four walked out.
Tsunade stood and looked out her window, unable to shake a feeling of foreboding.
Later in the night
Hidan's body was placed on a long narrow table while his head was placed at a different nearby table. The left-rear side and top of his head was crushed, and blood still trickled from his neck. Slowly, his eyes opened. The room was dark, and filled with books, glass jars with something inside, and a faint scent of formaldehyde could be discerned.
His head was lying on its left side. Hidan started moving his mouth and cheeks to maneuver his head so that he could clearly see the Akatsuki ring on his finger. He closed his eyes, and concentrated on the ring. The symbol in the ring began to glow deep red.
Kakuzu was meditating in the lotus position, far away from the last battle with the Konoha shinobi when he felt the disturbance in his own ring. "Good work, Hidan." thought Kakuzu, and started moving towards Konoha.
Meanwhile, with Naruto
"I asked you who you were….or are you deaf?" asked Enma.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I am going to be the future Hokage!" replied Naruto determinedly.
"Baka!" thought the Kyuubi and Enma simultaneously.
"And why did you summon me here, oh future hokage?" asked Enma sarcastically.
Naruto shrugged and said "I just wanted to see what kind of monkey I was summoning, I guess."
Enma's face contorted into anger and suddenly rushed at Naruto in very high speed and punched him in the stomach, shifted and kicked him at the chest, propelling Naruto 6 feet away from him and knocking him face-down into the ground.
Naruto got the wind knocked out of him and had a hard time breathing and slowly got up, while putting a hand on to his lift rib where he thought he heard a crack. "That old geezer packs a punch!" thought Naruto. "He is strong…and fast" said the Kyuubi to Naruto. Naruto nodded in reply.
"What the hell did you do that for, you old hair-ball?!" shouted Naruto.
"I do not work with idiots who are weak and are a waste of time" said Enma, who started walking away. (A/N: monkey style, which means on all fours.)
Naruto began to shake in anger and wanted to beat the monkey to a pulp. "Yes……yes, let's kill him Naruto…" said the Kyuubi deliciously.
The elder monkey stopped, sensing Naruto building up chakra, and detecting a killer intent…."But not from the boy…the Kyuubi!!" realized Enma, and barely managed to jump away when Naruto swung his sword.
"He's fast. So, this must be the container for the nine-tailed demon fox. This could prove interesting…" thought Enma. He shifted his feet apart flexed his hands and said "Come!"
Naruto looked at his opponent, quickly glanced behind him and back at the monkey again. "Good, we are a bit far away from the house. Hmmm, the monkey holds no weapons, and judging from what he did to me earlier, is very adept at taijutsu…good thing I practiced with fuzzy-eyebrows every now and then."
"That thick-browed freak's taijutsu is no match for the elder monkey. Unless he unleashed the five gates…" commented the Kyuubi.
"That could be true. But we hardly know anything about the monkey… let's see what he's capable of, then we'll up the stakes."
Naruto rushed at his opponent, sword held downwards for an upward strike. Enma jumped up, in time before the blade made contact, performed some hand seals then said "Katon: Haishekishu!" The volcanic dust cloud came roaring down, making Naruto roll to the far left. As he rolled, he grabbed 2 kunai and threw them at the monkey who was still in mid-air.
Seeing the kunai, Enma quickly did a hand seal and said "Henge!!" and formed into the free-forming diamond pole. The kunai harmlessly bounced off him and he came whirling down on Naruto's position to crush him.
Naruto quickly jumped back, but as one end of the pole struck ground, an eye appeared in the middle of the pole and then a hand snaked out and made to grab Naruto's neck to pin him against the tree behind him.
Naruto quickly compressed chakra in the center of his mass and released it as he body flickered behind the pole. He did a horizontal strike with sword on his left hand but didn't make contact since the arm, instead of hitting the tree, went for the ground to jump lift the pole. In the arc of the jump, Enma released his Henge noh jutsu and returned to monkey form.
Naruto, seeing midway of his strike, knew that he would miss and instantly rotated his left hand to continue an upward-center strike while pouring chakra into the sword to form the secondary blade. The wind blade extension made contact with Enma's right heel and nicked some flesh off.
Enma landed about 6 feet away from Naruto and grimaced when he applied weight on his right foot.
Both were now breathing heavily from the battle. Naruto shifted his stance, feet apart and made ready to flicker behind the monkey when Enma suddenly said "You've drawn first blood…no one has been able to do that. Not even Sarutobi during our first battle. You just might have potential, Naruto."
Naruto was surprised and sheathed his katana, seeing that the battle was now over. "Monkey boss, sir. May I ask for your name?" asked an eager Naruto.
"I am Enma, the elder monkey. I haven't had an exercise like that for quite awhile now…since Sarutobi died" sadly replied the elder monkey. Naruto remained silent, not knowing what to say.
"I noticed you used Shunshin no justu just now. That was the trademark move of the Yondaime and he brought it to a whole new level when fighting." commented Enma.
"Yes. I'm trying to integrate it into my fighting style" smiled Naruto proudly.
"It was good. But not perfect."
Naruto's smile quickly melted away.
"Also, you have poor taijustsu."
"Okay! Okay! I know already, you don't have too push it you know?!"
Enma merely chuckled then looked thoughtful for a moment. Then as if agreeing with himself stated "I will train you in taijutsu and how to incorporate the body flicker into it."
"Really? Thank you, Enma-sensei!!"
"Summon me again this time tomorrow. Until then…" and with that, the elder monkey disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"You should've used Renku dan while he was in mid-air" said the Kyuubi.
"What's Renku dan(air blast)?" asked Naruto.
The Kyuubi sigh in disgust then said "Have you forgotten when you fought with Shikaku?! Renku dan is air intermingled with chakra. When the blast hits its target, the encompassing chakra will be very painful thus causing physical damage. The majority of air intermingled with the chakra lies in the interior of the sphere. Once the exterior chakra is gone after impact, the air still continues with its course...into the body of your target, doing some damage to internal organs as well as forcing remaining oxygen out of the body."
"So the last part means I'll just be leaving my enemy breathless?" asked a doubting Naruto.
"Yes. But what shinobi can fight if he isn't breathing right, neh?" smiled the Kyuubi evilly.
Naruto now nodded in agreement.
"I will teach you Renku dan and another jutsu to counter fire jutsus."
"Eh? What justu, huh? Huh?"
"Patience. I will show you while you sleep. Visit me then. That way, I can be more visual."
Naruto wanted to learn the jutsu right then and there and argued with the Kyuubi, but couldn't win the argument, so he headed back for the house to get to bed.
Back at Konoha
It had taken Kakuzu 2 hours to reach Konoha. He was now on the outermost wall. He observed his surroundings to see where good entry points would be. Seeing his opportunity during the next shift in the guards, he quickly slipped over the wall unnoticed by the darkness. Once inside, he remained on top of rooftops as he headed for the signal of Hidan's ring.
Unknowingly, he was headed for Konoha hospital. When he arrived, he once more scanned the area for sentries. Kakuzu was very careful. Once he confirmed that there were none, he slipped into a window on the east wing. The room he entered into was empty of any people or patient. He quickly moved to the door, opened it a crack, saw no one and was now in the hallway. He quickly made his way forward, always feeling for the intermittent signal from Hidan. He finally come upon a door marked 'Laboratory 2'. This was where the signal felt strongest. He quietly entered and closed the door behind him. That was when he saw Hidan's body and head on two different tables.
"Hello Hidan" said Kakuzu in a low voice, almost a whisper.
Hidan opened his eyes. He had kept the closed all this time to maintain the illusion that he was dead. "What the fuck took you so long! My heart has stopped beating and could be irreparable!" whispered Hidan fiercely.
"Shut up. You can always 'get' another one" replied Kakuzu while carrying Hidan's head to the body. He then pulled his sleeves back to reveal hands sewn together like a rag doll. These 'seams' started to unravel and 'sew' Hidan's head together with his body.
"Ouch…it still hurts when I try to turn my head." said Hidan, now standing up. "My hearts also stopped beating, I can only go on like this for 3 days."
"So we'll get you another one." said Kakuzu calmly. "Now, let's move out and finish our reconnaissance mission."
"No! I wanna find that bastard that cut my head and take his heart!!" said Hidan.
"We don't have the time. It'll be morning soon. And HE said that reconnaissance was the top priority of our mission." replied Kakuzu.
Hidan snorted in anger but remembered the orders and slowly followed Kakuzu outside.
While they still had the cover of darkness to aid them, the 2 akatsuki members checked on sentry posts, probable weak areas, and geographical advantages. When they had gathered enough data, they quickly made their escape, unnoticed, into the darkness.
Operation "Clean-up" was a success.
I'm trying to keep the fanfic as closely with the Manga as I can, in terms of a person's jutsu style and fighting techniques.
Also, would you please state whether you want more detail done in terms of the new jutsus that Naruto will be learning or "to hell with how it is done"? Would really appreciate your views on that.
