DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto. But the damn manga should focus more on Naruto, dammit!
"damn it"- speech, common jutsus
"damn it"- thoughts, other Japanese words (hope they're right though)
"damn it"- Kyuubi talking, or some other whopper jutsu
I edited Chapter 5 such that instead of only 1 more bijuu left to capture, I changed it to 3. The source of my research was wrong and I just found out that the Akatsuki still have 3 more bijuus to capture.
Naruto: Chapter 6 – New Hardships
The pain his body was going through was indescribable. Every now and then, he would cough up blood. The time for the Soul Transfer Ritual was near.
"You're approaching your limit. You'll need a dose of Rank 10 medicine or your body will expire with you still in it…" explained Kabuto to the Snake Sannin.
Orochimaru grunted out in pain and let out a large wave of killer intent. "Uh…I'll just go get some" said Kabuto hesitantly. While he was walking away from Orochimaru's quarters to the medicine supply room, he heard the Snake Lord laugh crazily. The sound of it scared him to the core.
Orochimaru suddenly stopped laughing, choking in his own blood. Suddenly, he heard a crackling noise, and when he looked up, a thin, ethereal blade was rushing towards him.
He quickly blocked with both his hands, the contact with it numbing his arms. "The chakra…is his. But he never used this kind of shape manipulation before…" thought Orochimaru.
Suddenly, the wall where the chakra blade was coming from was sliced into a thousand pieces, and the attacker was now revealed. His kusanagi sword unsheathed. There stood Uchiha Sasuke.
"I knew this day would come", said Orochimaru.
"I have nothing more to learn from you," replied Sasuke. "I won't show you any mercy either. Even if you beg down on your knees for it."
Sasuke moved the chakra blade slightly to the right, with the blade still piercing both Orochimaru's arms so his mid section was now exposed.
"Orochimaru, you are weaker than me. There is no point in sacrificing my body to you anymore."
"Big words from the leftover Uchiha…"
"Hmph…if I hadn't been so weak, I never would've sought you out, would I? You only wanted me because you couldn't handle Itachi, right? Mister Great Sannin Genius? Perhaps the world at large would consider you gifted, but you are nowhere near the level of an Uchiha. Compared to us, a person like you is as average as anyone else.
Looking down on you as one who carries that name, your pitiful attempts to acquire the power that we possess is simply laughable. Drug experimentation and transferring from one body to another?
Your methods are pointless.
Do you even have a goal anymore? You claim to be seeking the reason behind existence, yet all you do is make petty excuses to play god with other people's lives. You sicken me. "
Sasuke thrust the lightning blade deeper so that Orochimaru's arms were pinned on the wall behind him. He drew back his sword arm and aimed to strike his heart.
With his arms being useless, Orochimaru had only one thought in his mind…escape. He opened his mouth as wide as he could so his true body could escape and fend off the Uchiha.
His true self was crammed into that small, tight body. Now, finally free, he could stretch out to his true size. A giant white serpent, with countless millions of snake heads forming as his scales, all there for him to command.
"So, this is your true body…a scaly white serpent," observed Sasuke.
He activated his curse seal and soon, his entire left side was now covered with the seal's black markings. "You wanted to take over other people's bodies so badly, you experimented on your own…now you're a pathetic form of your former self" concluded Sasuke.
"Come now Sasuke-kun", cajoled the huge white serpent, "GIVE ME YOUR BODY!!!" and with that, the great white serpent charged towards the sharingan wielder with blinding speed.
Kabuto had finally found the bottle for the rank 10 medicine. "The medicine's not enough anymore. At best, he'll make it to tomorrow, but more than likely he'll need to do the Soul Transfer Ritual today…still, I never would've guessed Sasuke-kun would be quick to allow it", he thought to himself.
With the bottle in hand, he walked back to Orochimaru's quarters. "It doesn't matter. Even Sasuke-kun won't be able to survive the ritual", he mused. As he was nearing the door to the Snake Lord's room, that was the moment he noticed a large amount of blood splatter.
He quietly but quickly crouched down, pulled out a kunai and edged towards the opening.
What he saw shocked him.
Lying down on a large pool of blood was the large body of the great white serpent. He had already seen it before. What shocked him were the lifeless eyes of the great serpent. And in the middle of all this stood Sasuke.
"What the hell happened?!? Is the ritual over already?!?" he asked himself.
Sensing no danger, he straightened himself up and slowly walked into the room, while keeping a weary eye on Sasuke. The sharingan calmly looked at the medical ninja, and then proceeded to walk out of the room.
"Wait…"
Sasuke stopped and waited for Kabuto.
"Which one are you?"
"Which do you think?" replied Sasuke. Then his eyes showed the sharingan.
"Orochimaru-sama…is….dead…" said Kabuto haltingly.
Sasuke nodded and said "I've taken over." He turned around and made his way to the experiments room.
He arrived onto a large room. Inside it were many long glass tubes much similar to Yugito's preservation cell, but he was only interested in one.
As he neared this particular tube, a voice called out "I thought that was you…so you actually defeated Orochimaru then…"
"Yeah," replied Sasuke "Forget that though. Let's get you out of there."
Sasuke drew out the kusanagi blade, and with a swing, had broken the strong glass. Water rushed out of the opening, and strangely, no body could be seen when the glass tube was in tact.
When the water had completely exited the tube, forming a small pool of water near Sasuke's feet, a hand shot out, followed by a head and then the other hand. It looked like the prisoner was 'crawling' out of the water.
"Finally…thanks Sasuke"
"Come with me…we'll take care of you first Suigetsu."
"Hmmm…I'm first so…who are the rest then?"
"Two more to go. I'm taking Karin from the south base, and Juugo from the North base."
"Oh dear…I don't really like those two at all. I really don't believe I can get along with them", smiled Suigetsu. He had marshmallow green hair with matching eyes, but his teeth were sharp and serrated. When he finally 'crawled' out of the pool of water, he was as naked as the day he was born.
"No need to get along especially well. Just work with them."
"I suppose…after all, you did save me."
Sasuke nodded to that fact, and then replied "Put on some clothes and let's go."
"Hahaha! You really do talk like you're in charge."
"Stop your blathering and move it."
In a blink of an eye, Suigetsu was behind Sasuke. His index finger pointed to the Uchiha's temple with the thumbed cocked back like a pistol.
"Let's make our relationship clear, hmmm? Just because you defeated Orochimaru doesn't put you in charge here. Everyone was after him. Sooner or later, someone would've taken him out. Orochimaru liked you, so you simply had more chances to kill him than the rest of us."
"Your point?" Sasuke asked calmly.
"That I have the advantage…."
"…"
"Hahaha! Just Kidding. Your heart didn't even skip a beat. It really wasn't a fluke that you beat him..that's reassuring", said Suigetsu, moving the cocked hand away from Sasuke.
Sasuke only looked at him, still waiting for his answer.
"Fine, I'll go with you. But before getting the other two, I'd like to make a little detour if you don't mind."
"Where?"
"Kirigakure no Sato…"
Akatsuki Lair
The strike came out of nowhere, and Naruto barely managed to duck before the blade would've connected where his neck used to be.
He quickly rolled forward and jump-flipped to stand upright, crouching low.
He still did not know where his attacker was. The walkway was poorly lit, and shadows danced eerily as fire from the torches on the wall flickered here and there.
"I wish Shikamaru were here. Then he could just Shadow bind this guy and I can beat the crap out of him", thought the blonde.
He scanned his eyes to the left, right, front, rear, above. He quickly hopped back as the attacker crashed down on his initial position, sword poised down for a skewer strike.
Seeing that the jinchuuriki had evaded the initial attack, the attacker quickly repositioned the sword for a horizontal arc slice. When the blade was about to connect, Naruto's hand shot out and grabbed it.
The attacker twisted his hand and pulled so the blade was free from his opponent's hand while opening the linear wound to a gaping one.
"Gaaahhhh!!!" said the jinchuuriki while clutching his bleeding left hand. "This is stupid and unfair!!!"
"Why?" replied the Akatsuki Leader.
"How am I supposed to block and counter when I don't even have a kunai?!?!? And besides, that is MY katana!!!"
"Evade. It IS a nice sword. I think I'll hang onto it for awhile."
They had been at it for a long time, everyday of every week the same, with Naruto being attacked by Kazama whenever Naruto left his room, leaving no moment of rest.
One time, while the blonde was asleep, the orange-haired man silently walked into the room and suddenly kicked the sleeping shinobi awake, then proceeded to attack him with the Yoshimoto sword.
The Akatsuki Leader had started the training for the jinchuuriki until he was worthy to be part of the organization. The jutsu reinforced door of Naruto's room was no longer kept locked, and the blonde could come and go from his room as he pleased, but there was a catch.
He was told that he would be attacked at anytime without warning and he was not provided with any weapons, and the chakra blocking seal was still in place, so jutsus were out of the picture.
Also, because of the chakra seal, Naruto's wounds didn't heal as fast as he liked them to. His body was covered with cuts and bruises while his clothes were almost in tatters.
The blond shinobi was especially thankful that Itachi and Kisame had just left for another fund-raising mission. The sharingan user and the Samehada wielder were more vicious with their attacks, beating Naruto to the brink of death.
All Akatsuki members were instructed to attack Naruto on sight and to never relent unless Naruto was able to escape to another section of the large cavern or fell down unconscious.
Escape was easier said than done.
All Akatsuki members were frightfully fast, and their hits were unleashed with full force. There was even a time that Naruto had to crawl back into his room because his shin bone had cracked after trying to kick Kisame, who had blocked with the Samehada.
He preferred Deidara or Tobi returning to the base. Deidara didn't use taijutsu as his primary attack, so Naruto managed to block some of his attacks. Tobi on the other hand was much faster, but his punches and kicks didn't hurt as much. "I wonder if he pulls them?" thought the blonde.
So far, he had never encountered Zetsu nor the blue-haired woman.
There was no one to help him. No shoulder to cry on. No person to talk with. He had lost hope for rescue a long time ago.
He had also lost all track of time and missed seeing the light of day or the glow of the moon. During nighttime, when he wasn't being attacked, he learned to spend his time meditating on the floor in his room and just withdraw and reflect.
"Kyuubi, are you there?"
"What do you want?"
"What am I doing here? And why all this beating up? Why don't they just kill me?"
"You are here because of me. As to why they continue to beat you, I do not know…but isn't it curious that they've only used taijutsu or kenjutsu?"
"Yeah…you're right. Itachi never used the Mangekyou on me. Deidara also didn't use his clay explosives on me either…what's going on? Do you know how long we've been here now?"
"Roughly….almost a year."
A year. He never knew the storm would last this long. But he kept soldiering on and kept to faith. He needed to…he really didn't have a choice.
Konohagakure no Sato. Hyuuga Mansion.
The sky was cloudless, and the sun shone proudly down on the Village of the Hidden Leaf. It was just another day for many to go about and continue on with their daily activities, but there was one who didn't share this view.
She looked down at the ground sadly, remembering that this was the day that Naruto disappeared. When she heard of the news, she wanted to go out and join in on the search, but her father had not allowed her.
"Hinata-sama…do you want to continue?" asked the jounin of the Hyuuga heiress.
"I…um…Neji-san…I think I need to take a break", replied Hinata.
Neji nodded in understanding and sat down alongside Hinata on the porch steps. They were currently training within the grounds of the Hyuuga mansion at the request of Hyuuga Hiashi. Neji knew all too well Hinata's feelings for Naruto, and decided that Hinata probably wanted to talk with him.
"Where ever he is…I know he will be alright."
"H-how do you know that, Neji-san?"
Neji turned his pearl-white eyes skyward, as if the answer would be shown to him from above. "His spirit is indomitable. I've never known any other person with such spirit."
Hinata nodded in agreement, then said "I…I miss him Neji-san…"
Neji looked at his cousin compassionately and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I know…but you must believe in him…just as he believed in you."
"Do…do you believe in him, Neji-san?"
Neji gave Hinata one of his genuine rare smiles and said, "With all my heart…"
Konoha Hospital
Haruno Sakura had been wandering around Konoha for more than an hour now. That morning, her shift at Konoha hospital had already ended, but she didn't want to leave.
She busied herself just so she wouldn't feel the pain. While she was attending to an unconscious patient who had a concussion, she opened one of his eyelids to check for the pupil's reaction to light.
The patient had cerulean eyes…very similar to that of Naruto's. A single tear dropped from her emerald eyes, and she quickly ran out of the hospital as fast as she could.
Her feet led her to Team Seven's old training grounds and now she stood before the three wooden pillars. She approached the middle one, where Kakashi had tied up Naruto. She softly touched it, feeling the smooth surface of the wood.
"I thought I'd find you here."
She closed here eyes, trying to hide the tears. A shinobi was supposed to be strong. Fearless. Emotionless.
"Hello Kakashi-sensei. Back from your mission?" she asked.
"Yes…I did as you requested and detoured after my mission was completed at Kirigakure and asked around. I even visited Tazuna and Inari. I'm sorry…but no one had seen Naruto there for the past year."
"Th-thank you…but you really didn't have to do it…"
"I didn't have to….but I wanted to. He is our teammate…."
He looked at the pink haired kunoichi and searched his thoughts. "What would Naruto say in this situation…?"
Sakura looked one more time at the middle pillar, and slowly started to walk back into the town, Kakashi walking beside her.
"After all the time that he's gone…do you still love him?"
"Yes." replied Sakura. "With all my heart…"
Kakashi smiled at his former student and embraced her comfortingly, giving the pink-haired kunoichi a shoulder to cry on.
Hokage Tower
Tsunade was bored.
She had been doing nothing but paper work for the past few months. Every fifteenth day of the month for the past year, she had the entire 20th legion go out and look for fresh news from any of the neighboring countries for news of Naruto or Jiraiya.
She never realized until now that she would actually miss both the prankster and the toad hermit to distract her from her work.
The doors to her office quietly opened and in walked Shizune with more paperwork for her to do. The Godaime sighed tiredly then said "Why did I even take this job?"
"Well…because you are a sannin of the leaf and the best medical ninja there is. Here is the report from the different captains of the 20th legion…" replied Shizune.
Tsunade quickly scanned all the reports then sadly closed her eyes. Shizune quietly observed this and placed a comforting hand on her sensei's shoulder.
"We've failed him Shizune…we've failed Naruto."
"No…don't give up now Tsunade-sama…we can't give up hope!"
Tsunade wiped a single tear away from her cheek. She had nothing left but hope. She had called in all favors just for a single ounce of news of Naruto's whereabouts, but it was to no avail. She silently hoped that Jiraiya was out there with him or something, although she knew Jiraiya was smarter than that…he would've made contact by now if he and Naruto were together. "He would never put Naruto in jeopardy", she thought. But she blindly continued to hold on to this idea, refusing to believe anything else.
"I…I would give anything to hear him call me Granny Tsunade one more time..."
Shizune looked worriedly at the Godaime. She looked down and reflected on her memories with the hyper-active ninja. She too had grown fond of him.
"Do you think he would've made…a great hokage?"
"With all my heart…" replied Tsunade, crying softly.
Akatsuki Cavern. Kazama's Quarters
It had gone unnoticed by the blonde shinobi, but he had become reasonably faster. With the need to defend himself against the likes of Itachi, Kisame, Kazama, and the others, his body had adapted to the situation, needing to survive.
The Akatsuki Leader was impressed with this development. He had gone into his private quarters to read field reports from the other Akatsuki members when there was a knock on the door.
"Come in", he called out while rolling up one of the many scrolls on his desk.
The Lady Mariko quietly entered and closed the door behind her. Kazama looked up and waited for her to speak. "She really is quite beautiful" thought the orange haired man.
The lady had blue hair with a Morning Glory flower clipping her hair to a side, and matching deep blue eyes. There was an aura of serenity about her which he liked, but there was also another side of her he was weary of and the only tell-tale sign of this was when her eyes turned midnight blue.
She had come from the Country of Snow, or rather the Country of Spring as it is now called, after what had occurred there when Naruto and the rest of Team 7 had gone there to protect Fujikaze Yukie, the country's princess.
Mariko had been an orphan, abandoned by her parents in the blistering cold. She had wandered from place to place, stealing food as she went to survive.
She soon discovered that she had a hidden talent.
She could manipulate water and ice, thus providing her a great defense against any would be attacker wanting to take advantage of her. Although she had no formal training, her mastery of water and ice was incredible. She manipulated these elements by pure instinct, having to adapt to various situations as she was growing up.
No one really knew her real name or her real age, and Zetsu had stumbled upon her by pure chance. She was one of the early members of the organization and had chosen Kazama as her partner in Akatsuki.
"How is the girl?" asked Kazama.
"She is conscious, but is very weak, physically. Her muscles have atrophied from not being used for so long"
"Will that pose as a problem for us?"
"I don't think so…just give her time and she should regain her strength. Perhaps now is the best time to persuade her to our cause…"
"You are right. I'll bring the boy with me when I reason with her. She might see life as a member isn't so bad."
"How is the boy's training coming along?"
"Superb. This kind of training is perfect for him. His will to survive is strong."
"I've never heard of this kind of training before. Is it wise to inflict so much damage on him?"
"Yes you have, my lady. In fact, you are one of the perfect results of this kind of training."
"How so?" asked Mariko, moving closer to the Akatsuki leader while listening.
"For as long as one can remember, fighting styles and techniques in taijutsu have always been classified into categories. But the human body is individually unique. When one forces oneself to learn a certain fighting style, one can never achieve their maximum potential in a short amount of time. It just isn't natural for the body, neh? Where as with this kind of training, his body will develop its own unique fighting style, obtaining peak efficiency."
"I see…"
"Well…I should go see the girl then", and with that, Kazama started heading for the door.
As he passed Mariko by, she grabbed his hand, not letting go. He looked at her, waiting for her.
"We still have time…" She moved closer, her body only inches from his as she gazed into his eyes. She moved her free hand to caress his cheek, each movement precise, knowing, not hesitating.
She slowly closed the gap between their lips, and sealed it with a kiss. She tasted like sweet grapes, a fruit he always loved. He closed his eyes and returned the kiss, bringing his arms around her in a passionate embrace.
A few hours later
Kazama needed a breath of fresh air. The cavern itself had no exits, and a unique teleportation jutsu, known only to the members, was necessary to enter or leave it. He felt rejuvenated, and seeing the country side added more to his exhilaration. "Mariko…what will I do with you?" he thought.
He sensed someone approaching him from behind. "He is strong and has quite a large amount of chakra", he analyzed. The other shinobi dropped down a few feet behind the Akatsuki Leader and reached for a kunai.
"It's been awhile…" Kazama stated while turning to face the other shinobi.
"…hasn't it…Jiraiya."
Next Chapter's title: New Bonds
