Chapter 2 The Falling Clouds Part 2
The woods was just like any of the normal forest in which he had walked through in the land of fire, he truth he hated the land of fire, it seemed to be nothing but endless woods made up of the tall strong trees with massive branches that ninjas love to jump from. For a ninja who was one of the seven legendary swords man of the hidden mist village he preferred to be near the water, water also helped with all his Justus. He moved some of the low-lying branches out of his way as he came into a small clearing which surrounded a broad slow moving river.
Instead of walking to the nearest bridge Kisame Hoshigaki, the Monster of the Hidden Mist, wielder of the legendary sword Shamehada and member of the Akatsuki decided instead to walk across the river. He used a small amount of chakra to walk across the water. He was about three quarters of the way across when he saw another figure, an older woman who was maybe half his height walking across the lake.
Normally Kisame would not pay any mind to this ancient looking woman, she was too small and weak to be a threat to him and most importantly, she would not give him a challenge. The fact that she was walking on the water meant she had to be a ninja but even that did not make her a threat.
"You must be Kisame of the hidden Mist," said the old woman as Kisame stopped and looked at the woman. "I have been waiting for you."
"And who are you?" inquired Kisame
"I am Scylla and I am going to kill you," said old woman as Kisame blinked at the idea of this old crone harming him in any way. She may give him a hit on his hand with her cane but that was about all she was capable of doing.
"Well that is laughable." said Kisame as he reached over his shoulder and grabbed Shamehade's handle. He pulled it out the sword, which was almost as long as he was tall and raised it high over his head. "There are easier ways to commit suicide."
"There is are you sure you don't want to use one of them?" inquired the woman as she placed both of her thin hands on the handle of her cane.
"Well goodnight Scylla." laughed Kisame with that he brought Shamehade down on the woman's head, he expected her body to be cut to pieces by the multiple sharkskin like cutting edges of Shamehade however, to his amazement it brushed off her skin with a grinding sound as if he had strike a stone.
"You looked at me as if I was not a threat to you Kisame normally a human as old as I am would be a weak fail person, however as my kind ages the shell keeps getting harder so your little blade is nothing to me." explained Scylla
"An Earth justu to harden the skin, well then I will just drown you," stated Kisame as he ran though hand signs, when he finished a ball of water engulfed the older woman. To his amazement, the woman took a deep breath of water and just stood there in the water as if it was air. Then she walked out of the water prison Justus and into the air.
"Not going to work," said Scylla as twisted the top of her cane, breaking whatever justu she had used to hide what she really was. Her skin had turned into a mixture of red and white plates which moved as she did, making a natural suit of armor. Her face remained the same only instead her eyes were black. From his view it was clear that her entire back had turned into a harden case. Four extra legs where coming out of her joints raising the total of legs to six. For a moment it appeared that, her hands had turned into giant pinchers however as her fingers moved it became clear that the pincers had been separated into a strange hand. She wore some clothing but it appeared that her very skin was her true armor. Kisame eyes widened for a moment before he grinned.
"Well this is unexpected, so the stories are trues you're a Heikegani," stated Kisame as lifted Shamehade up. Scylla blinked and looked surprised at the fact she did not have to explain what she was. "Crab people of the shore who would come to steal bad children and eat them. I always thought you were a myth, an old grandmother tail used to frighten children into behaving."
"Well your wrong Kisame, we are very real and while you humans have pushed us to the edge we are rising again." said Scylla "You and your Akatsuki have been a pain in our side and I am here to put an end to you as a threat others will take care of the other members of the Akatsuki."
"My grandmother always said that your kind would return and that hell would come with it," stated Kisame as he grinned.
"Your grandmother was wise for a human," stated Scylla
"So I guess the world as we know it is about to come to an end?" inquired Kisame as he put his sword away, causing Scylla to raise an eyebrow, that is if she had one. "I know the stories about your kind, only fire can beat you…too bad Itachi is no longer around and that we are standing on a river."
"Yes, that is why I waited for you here." explained Scylla
"Oh well, so what are we going to do?" inquired Kisame "My Grandmother told me that if I saw your kind to run inland and since you require water to live you can't follow."
"I can live without water," said Scylla
"But not for long, how long can you run without getting water maybe an hour or less. I can run a lot longer than that and those legs of yours aren't built for jumping from tree limb to tree limb," stated Kisame as Scylla glared at him.
"So why aren't you running?" inquired Scylla
"Because if your real then the other legendary creatures are out there in those woods waiting for me." stated Kisame as he looked out toward the woods when another figure stepped out from the woods. From this distance, it appeared to be a goat or a deer man thing waiting to get him if he made it to shore. "If I am going to die, I'll die on the water."
"If?" inquired Scylla as Kisame bolted forward and pulled out a small Warhammer like weapon, he brought it crashing down on Scylla in one of her leg joints causing her to scream in pain.
"Scylla!" yelled the figure on the shoreline as he moved toward the water's edge.
"I am alright." cursed Scylla "Stay there if you come out he will get you with his water Justus."
"No you're not, see it is your bad luck I actually liked my grandmother and she loved to tell me stories about the creatures of the sea and all the mythical creatures. So I know as much about you as you know about me," said Kisame with a toothy grin. "I know that your armor is too thick to be broken through with sword but I know that your joints are the weak point and like I would for any crab I am going to bust you open."
"Water style typhoon wave!" yelled Scylla as a giant wave of water rose up from the river.
"Water style shark wave!" yelled Kisame as his own giant wave formed up behind him, only the wave changed forms into the heads of three giant sharks. The two Justus clashed causing rain to fall on the battlefield before canceling each other out.
"Summoning justu!" yelled Kisame as a swam of small two foot long sharks appeared in the water and rushed the crab creature. The sharks jumped out of the water and bit down on the hard armor shell of Scylla however their teeth was no way near strong enough to go through the natural armor she had.
"Pointless!" yelled Scylla as she used her claw hands to kill the small sharks by clamping down on them.
"You would think so?" said Kisame as he turned into the water.
"Water clone." thought Scylla as she scanned the area, before doing a 360 turn faster than any human could do. She slammed her fist into Kisame's chest, since her hands where razor sharp it cut deep into his flesh and ripped up his cloths.
"I know things about you Kisame, I have studied you combat style and you love to attack from the rear before doing the killing blow," stated Scylla as Kisame grabbed his chest; he turned his gaze toward the shore only to see that the demon there had called for reinforcements. There were now six additional demons standing there.
"Looks like I am going to die anyhow." laughed Kisame
Multiple miles downriver from the Kisame, two teams of ninja from the hidden leaf village had arrived on the scene of a battlefield. The local population had sent word to the nearest ninja in this case the village hidden in the Leaves about the series of explosion happening in the area. With the threat of the Akatsuki, two teams where sent out to investigate the reports of a battle. What they found was a field of destruction, trees where either ripped out of the ground, burned to ash or simply destroyed. Giant holes remained in the ground and the after effects of Justus could clearly be seen.
"What happened here?" inquired a tall man with dirty blonde hair and blue green eyes. He wore the tradition green flak jacket with a large red vest over it.
"I don't know Inoichi," said Choza Akimichi as he looked at the his long time friend.
"I do." said the third member of their team Shikaku Nara as he walked up holding a small ripped piece of black cloth, it was stained with blood but the red cloud could still be seen.
"Akatsuki" said Inoichi
"That is the same group which killed our children's sensei," stated Choza
"Yes." confirmed Shikaku as he looked around the battlefield. "The question is how many Akatsuki members where here and what demon they took."
"Sir! Come over here!" yelled a voice of another Jonnin in the distance as all three of them bolted over to the voice only to see something they had never seen before. There lying in multiple nearby area was not one, nor two but eight figures dressed in the black and red of the Akatsuki. Six of the seven had orange hair, which caused Shikaku to reach into his vest and pull out a small book. In his book were hand drawn images of each of the known path of pain that the two elder toads had seen.
"Shikaku is this them?" inquired Choza as his friend moved from one orange hair person to the other. Some of them had been badly disfigured by the justu which had hit them. At each of them, he checked the eyes to see the Rinnegan.
"Yes, five of the six are the ones who killed Jiraiya." Confirmed Shikaku "From everything we know Pain was the Leader of the Akatsuki," admitted Shikaku as he moved to the other, a badly burned woman who looked like she had been blown up. "This must be Pain's pattern the girl orphan lady Tsunade told us about, the other one has the Rinnegan but not the orange hair. He has to be linked with the other Pains."
"One of these two here, are likely a jinchuriki he was after and somehow they ended up killing each other." noted Inoichi as he looked at the two none Akatsuki members who were lying in the ground. One of them had a Pain nearby with a blood covered kunai in hand.
"Possible but something doesn't seem right," stated Shikaku "This smells of a set up."
"How so?" inquired Inoichi
"The woman is clearly killed in an explosion but the area around her isn't burned," said Shikaku "This smells of a set up to me."
"Looks good to me," said Inoichi "Sorry Shikaku but you are seeing things."
"How many Akatsuki members are left anyhow?" inquired Choza
"Our children played a major role in taking down two of them, Naruto and Sakura took down another two who took Gaara. Then there was the report that Sasuke had killed Itachi before being taken so it is safe to say he joined them." explained Shikaku as he kept studying the battlefield, it looked just too perfect, a jinchuriki killing all these Akatsuki members didn't seam right.
"So how many?" inquired Choza
"Maybe four, the two Kakashi's team saw when they tried to hunt Sasuke down plus the one Itachi was teamed up with from the hidden Mist." explained Shikaku
"And without their leader they might disband." added Inoichi with a smile "We may not have to worry about them anymore."
"Maybe, but I find it hard to believe that a single jinchuriki could take down all of these Akatsuki members, most of all the one who killed a sannin." stated Shikaku "This isn't right."
"I know you may not like it but sometimes luck plays a part, remember when I beat you in chess that one time?" inquired Choza as Shikaku glared at his friend, he didn't like losing in that game and the one loss he had beside to his son was to Choza. "This jinchuriki may have gotten lucky."
The battle in the river was waging both Kisame and Scylla had gotten hits in, Kisame had broken through the leg armor in four places crippling her. Finally, he raised the hammer and brought it crashing down on Scylla's head killing her in one final blow. The blow bent his Warhammer which he tossed into the water where it sank to its bottom where Scylla's body already was.
"I win." said Kisame as he coughed as a small amount of blood. Then came the sound of movement from the beach he looked toward the shoreline to see that more of these demons had shown up. Among their numbers where some of the same kind that he just killed. These crab demons moved out into the water and headed toward Kisame with blood in their eyes, they wanted revenge for the death of Scylla.
"Well looks like this will be my last fight," laughed Kisame as he grabbed his sword for the last time, he knew he wasn't going to get out of this alive and he was going to go down with his sword in hand. With that he charged forward toward his waiting death sword raised and blood in his eyes.
Hours later hundreds of miles away from Kisame's final battleground a light rain tapped against the glass as the 5th Hokage of the Village hidden in the leaves looked out over her village with her light brown eyes. Only days earlier she had buried her long time teammate and friend Jiraiya, the Toad Sanin had fallen to the Akatsuki member Pain. Fearing that Pain or another member of the Akatsuki would head toward the Leaf to get the nine tailed demon fox out of Naruto Uzumaki she had sent that blonde hair knuckle head off to train with the elder toads. In addition she had ordered extra ANBU patrols and the Jonnin core was made away of the threat. She had done everything she could to prepare for the storm on the horizon but now those black clouds seem to have broken apart.
She looked down at the reports out the Leaf Hospital Morgue; there was now nine new bodies on the stainless steal table. Seven of the nine of bodies where dressed in the black robes with red clouds of the Akatsuki, they had been identified by the female elder toad Mama of the Pain which had killed Jiraiya. The final two Akatsuki members on the table were people she could identify as two of the orphans, which Jiraiya had taken care of all those years ago.
The last body on the table was identified by Sakura as a young man she had meet days earlier, the former mist ninja and jinchuriki for the six-tailed demon Utakata. Form the casual point of view it would seam that the Rinnagon wielder Pain was killed by the Jinchuriki in battle, for most people that would be enough to file the battle away and declare the threat over. Tsunade could not believe that the person who defeated Jiraiya could be defeated by a single jinchuriki without hard evidence. That evidence was lacking.
"Who could have killed eight Akatsuki members and a Jinchuriki and leave almost no evidence that they were even there?" inquired Tsunade to herself wondering who could have done it.
"Lady Tsunade?" inquired a voice as she turned her gaze toward the door to see her aid and longtime friend standing there.
"Shizune, I didn't hear you come in." admitted Tsunade as she looked at the slightly taller then average woman with short black hair framing her face.
"Your mind was focus on something else." stated Shizune as she took a breath "Are you going to call Naruto home from his training?"
"No, let him train worst case he is ready for the next chunin exams," explained Tsunade as Shizune nodded her head.
"Well in that case, since the Akatsuki are not a threat anymore can we revisit my request?" inquired Shizune as Tsunade blinked as she tried to remember what the request was.
"Yes, sorry of course you can go to the medical conference," said Tsunade "Just give me the paperwork."
"It's on your desk," explained Shizune as the first female Hokage looked down at the small mountain of papers. It took a few moments and more help from Shizune but Tsunade found the paperwork.
"Oh, ok." said Tsunade as she signed the papers "Enjoy the medical conference."
Miles away from the Leaf in an Akatsuki base, Sasuke Uchiha was numb to the world, his wounds where still healing from his battle with his brother. He still had trouble believing the story that this Tobi had told him that his brother had killed his whole clan including their parents by order of the third Hokage and this Danzo man. The room in was in was rather dark with the only thing beside his cot being a single burning candle. Suddenly her heard voices coming from outside and the sound of a dropping tray full of food.
"How?" asked Tobi's voice from the other side of the door, he sounded weak. "How…could you be? I held you when you died."
"Do I look dead, Obito?" said a woman's voice as the sound of footsteps filled the air.
"I…I held you when you died." said Tobi in a weak voice as if he could not believe what he was seeing.
"Touch me if you don't believe me, that sharingan of you should be able to see that I am not some summons or a clone." said the woman "Besides I was the one who cheered for you when you passed your genin test all those years ago."
Sasuke lifted his head and looked under the door, judging from the shadows he could see that the two of them where close together, then one of them reached out to touch the other.
"How is this possible? You died?" inquired Tobi's voice from the other side of the door.
"Obito, there are other groups who have plans with the tailed beasts and sadly with what Madara did to your body to save your life you can't be turned if they would even want you," explained the woman in such a sad voice "I am so sorry Obito."
"What did you do?" inquired Tobi's voice as he gulped and the sound of dripping liquid filled the air.
"I am so sorry Obito, but it was either this or they kill you slowly and violently." said the woman's voice "The poison was on my hand and it will kill all those cells Madara used to heal you without them you can't live. I am so sorry but at least it will be painless and I will be with you until the end."
"But..." said Tobi's voice as the shadow showed one of them falling forward only to be caught by the second.
"There…there, Obito it will be alright you're going somewhere peaceful." said the woman's voice in-between the sound of tears. For the longest time all Sasuke heard was the sound of the woman's crying. Finally, the strange woman opened the door to show that Obito was lying against the far wall, Sasuke looked up at the woman she was maybe in her late twenties or early 30's with medium length brown hair with the same shade of eyes. She was about average height, and wore a standard jonnin outfit however, she didn't have a headband of any kind on. Below each of her eyes where violet color marks, she looked down at Sasuke for a moment before entering the room closing the door behind her.
Instantly Sasuke reached for his snake sword only to have the woman grab his hand before he could pull the blade out.
"Don't worry I am not going to hurt you." assured the woman as Sasuke looked at the woman's hand. "And I removed the poison I used to kill Obito so your fine."
"Who are you?" inquired Sasuke as he tried to active his Sharingan only to close his eyes, his chakra was still too low.
"That doesn't matter right now Sasuke Uchiha." said the woman in a soft kind voice as she let go of his hand and stood up "You should consider yourself lucky if my student or my sensei was here you would be dead, they take trying to kill their older brother and son kind of serious."
"What the hell are you talking about?" inquired Sasuke "I don't try to kill anyone, I kill people."
"The question is, what do I do with you?" asked the woman without answering Sasuke's question "I can't take you back since you would try to escape which would mean the death of us all."
For a moment, this strange woman studied the young man sitting on the mat. It was clear that she had been crying from the redness around her eyes. Even so there was something about her which seamed familiar like he had seen her before somewhere.
"Best answer may be just to kill you, but to end the Uchiha line like that…no I think the better answer would be to leave you and let fate decide what happens." explained the woman as she moved to walk out the door.
"Oh, Sasuke when you see Kakashi next tell him it wasn't his fault when I stepped in the way of his chidori." said the woman as turned and walked out of the room closing the door behind her. For a moment, Sasuke was not sure what to do as he heard movement outside the door. Slowly he got up and using his sword as a walking stick, he moved toward the door. When he opened it, he found a tray of food on the ground and strange footprints leading away. Tobi's body was gone, likely taken by that woman.
Very slowly and with great amount of pain Sasuke moved down the hallway and after a while he found himself standing before a door, judging from the smell of fresh air coming from around the door it was the way out. He pushed against the door only to find himself stepping out some rock face with the ocean in front of him. He sat down with his back against the rock face as he gazed out toward the sunset.
"It shouldn't take long," said Sasuke and so it did not by the time the sun had risen three figures stood before him.
Well I hope you liked this chapter and the little surprise I had at the end at who is still alive, now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.