Hello again, guys! I am so glad that I received more and more reviews from you guys. Thank you so much! Now, let's move on to the new chapter of "The Reason".

And another thing, I am thinking of changing its title. Any ideas? Please, please, I really need your opinion guys!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

start of chapter...

"Uzumaki Naruto," said Konan again, this time with a smile on her pale face. Naruto's cerulean blue eyes widened slightly as she rose to her full height and pulled on her Akatsuki cloak. Even in her tired state, Konan still emitted the aura of fear that resolved around the six Chuunins.

Sure, Naruto had battled Itachi, and Tenten had battled Kisame before but both of them were just clones. They were no match for the real Akatsuki member in front of them. "How do you know my name?" Naruto being himself, shouted and prepared to spring at her, but Shikamaru was quicker to hold him back.

Konan bowed her face down as if searching for an answer. "Who would not know about you Uzumaki Naruto, Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko?" she spoke calmly to him with her azure blue eyes bore into his. Her statement received different reactions from his team mates.

Hinata turned off her Byakugan out of shock, Kiba and Akamaru looked at each other, a slightly surprised Shikamaru exchanged gaze with Tenten who was clearly not affected by the piece of news. Only Shino was undeterred by the exposure, or so it seems. No one knew what happened beneath the high collar and hooded sweater.

Konan studied them one by one and smirked. "So this is the only thing that Konoha was able to do? Sending in a couple of low-class ninjas to face an S-class criminal like myself. That Hokage of yours is very interesting," she purposely irritated all of them. Kiba clenched his fist in anger hearing those words and sent a couple of kunais towards her direction. "Kiba, no!" Shikamaru tried to stop him but it was too late. He had charged at Konan while forming several hand seals.

Konan had expected this, and held up one hand with her other hand caught the kunais thrown by the Inuzuka. She threw it back at him and formed her own hand seals. In a matter of seconds, she leapt before Kiba can ram into her with his drill attack. Konan twisted her body and deliver him a hard, wind-enforced kick at the back of his head, sending him flying into a large tree trunk.

Akamaru who can't stand seeing him lying motionlessly against the trunk, leapt at her with bared fangs. Konan easily jumped on his back and dug a kunai dipped in poison at its weak spot on his spine before pulling it out in a fast motion. Being a medic ninja herself, she knew very well where to attack and where not to. She kicked aside the large dog and turned to face the rest of them. "Who's up next?" she asked coolly, swinging the blood soaked kunai between her fingers.

Naruto looked in disbelieve at Kiba and Akamaru's fates before turning his gaze at her almost emotionless face. Almost, but not quite. He sensed something was bothering her.

"Naruto, Shino, Tenten, Hinata, if we are going to face her, we will have to work together," Shikamaru immediately took the role of being the leader of his group. Naruto moved in closer to him, and so did Shino, Tenten and Hinata. One by one, the Nara laid out his plan to the four of them, with Hinata keeping her Byakugan on to keep an eye on Konan who was still standing some distance away from them.

"They think they can beat me with such a pathetic plan," she muttered in boredom. For a split moment, she forgot about the problem she had thinking of before the arrival of the Konoha team. "Come on guys, we can do it!" Naruto's cheer grabbed back her attention to them. 'He was just like Itachi described,' she thought as the four of the Konoha shinobis disappeared, leaving only Naruto facing her.

"So, you really think you have what it takes to defeat an Akatsuki member, do you?" Konan asked him in a provocative way. Being Pein's partner for such a long time, she had inherited some of his traits. "No, I know I don't have any special powers to face you. But I have a plenty of back ups to do so!" he answered her cheekily and formed his signature hand seal. She was quick to read his movements and threw a couple of shurikens at his hands. "Kage Bunshin, eh? Too bad!" she sent more shurikens at his hands, making him unable to perform the jutsu because of being too busy dodging the weapons.

Konan took the opportunity to disperse into butterflies in order to mess up with his concentration for a while and reformed herself in mid-air, right on top of him. As he looked around for her, she dove down with a chakra powered punch, aiming it at him. When he realized it, it was too late to do anything.

However, a quick flash of indigo entered the atmosphere and pulled him out of the way just in the nick of time. Konan's powerful blow hit the ground, and even though Naruto was saved from punch, he and his saviour were hit by the wave of the chakra released. Both of them were sent into the ground with a hard impact, forming another crater beside the large crater formed from Konan's punch.

Shikamaru witnessed the whole incident from his hiding place behind some bushes. 'Hinata...saved Naruto..,' he was a bit shocked by the determined action of the meek Hyuuga heiress. But he had not much time to further admire her action. His plan had been wrecked before it can even start. Shikamaru mentally tried to form a new strategy inside his head. 'That woman was so troublesome,' he gritted his teeth out of frustration. A small movement in the branch opposite him told him that Tenten was also feeling uneasy with the whole incident.

He looked at his right, where Shino was supposed to be. 'Seemed fine at his position,' he thought to himself. He turned his attention back to Naruto and Hinata down there. Was the punch so hard that they were unable to move at all?

Naruto slowly get up from the ground, trying to bear with the pain. Who would have thought that the kunoichi have super strength like Tsunade and Sakura? Hinata was also doing the same beside him. "Naruto-kun, are you alright?" if it wasn't for Konan suddenly appeared by the crater they were in, Naruto would have exclaimed in shock.

"Enough of those lovey-dovey time, because I hate it!" she stomped her feet to the ground, and it cracked into two making Naruto and Hinata fell back to their feet. She jumped down next to Hinata and lifted her by her collar. The Konoha kunoichi tried to pry open her grip but it was useless. The older kunoichi clearly superior to her in strength. "Such a pity. You are a Hyuuga heiress, aren't you?" she waited for no answer before throwing her to the direction where she spotted a tiny movement a second ago.

Tenten's brown eyes widened as the Hyuuga heiress soared towards her. She succeeded in catching her from crashing into the large trunk. But just as she set Hinata down, Tenten was surrounded by a whirlwind courtesy of Konan of course. Just like she did with Kabuto, she slipped in several shurikens. The whirlwind got bigger and began to tear down nearby trees.

"You can stop playing hide-and-seek now! I'm getting bored!" she shouted to no one in particular, but her cold voice rang in the clearing which had gotten bigger due to her attack. No response came from the Konoha team. 'So, is this what I will have to expect from Konoha soon?' she slung her back pack casually on her shoulder. Shinobis from a nearby village will arrive sooner or later to inspect what happened, so Konan decided to leave the area as soon as possible. It worth nothing to attract attention to herself too soon.

"If I can just get any informations from them," she whispered to her self and looked back for a split second. Her sharp sight spotted a scroll beneath some chunks of wood. With the help of two of her paper butterflies, the scroll was slowly delivered into her hand. "Don't go. I am not finished yet," the weak voice of Naruto made her halted for a few moments.

"Do not worry, Uzumaki Naruto. We'll meet again, I'm sure," thousands of blue butterflies stood in her place just in a mere seconds. And he made a pitiful attempt to catch some of it.

With Kakashi

He sighed for the twenty third time of the day. It bored him to no end, having to lie down and missing the beautiful day outside. He was supposed to be well enough to be discharged from the hospital, but Temari had ordered him to wait. For what reason, he had no particular idea. So he lay down on his bed, with the Akatsuki ring in his gloved right hand. One side of him felt relieved that whoever was his attacker did not take the ring away. He really don't want her anger to increase tenfold if she learned that he lost it. But come to think of it, who will attack people and then just leave him like that? What was their motive?

"Feeling better? Strong enough to walk? Now get out from bed and follow me," Temari did not wait for his respond before she spun around and walked out of the room. Kakashi quickly sprang to his feet and followed her. Silence fell between them as they desended a flight of stairs into a large room on the ground floor. She was deadly serious than the times he had seen her before.

"What actually happened, Temari?" he finally asked her as she was pushing the door open. "Multiple more attacks at the borders. We suspect it to be done by the same group of people who have attacked you. See for yourself," he stepped inside and she was behind him, closing the door. Kankurou and Gaara were already there, listening to Shikamaru's recount of what happened.

Out of all of them, Kiba and Akamaru appeared to be the worst. "And there is something you have to know. Akamaru was attacked with the same poison used to poison Kankurou not so long ago. The problem is, the antidotes that Sakura-san made did not work on dogs and our teams could not work out a way to do so, as we in Suna do not use dogs. To save him, Sakura-san would have to come down here," Temari explained seriously. "And fast. That poor beast has not much time left," Kankurou piped in and shook his head symphatically.

With Tsunade

It had been quite a time since she had sent Shikamaru and the others to the Suna borders, so there should be a report by now. But knowing Shikamaru, he will probably finish the report a month after they returned from the mission. Tsunade set down her pen and leaned back against her chair. However a gentle knocking on her window disturbed her peacefulness. A small Kestrel hawk stood at her window with a small roll of parchment in its beak.

She roughly grabbed it away and read it quickly. The contents completely shunned her drowsiness a few moments before. "Sakura!" the pinkette who fell asleep near her bookcase immediately jerked up at the sound of her thunderous voice. "Hai, Tsunade-shisou! What can I do for you?" she said tiredly, followed by a long yawn. "Race down to Suna at this moment. I'll sent this hawk back to the village and if I received the word that you arrived later than him, I will make sure your medic licence will be taken back, do you understand me?".

"Hai, as clear as crystal!".

"Good, now move!".

end of chapter...

Phew, this chapter is longer than any of the other chapters! But I do hope all of you would enjoy this chappie.

Please review :-)! Have a nice, sunny day!