"Human talking"
"Human thinking"
{Non-verbal speech}
Jutsu will be underlined
"Hello little brother" a deep, raspy but distinctively feminine voice echoed throughout the clearing. The color seemed to instantaneously drain from Asuma's face as the voice registered in his mind, pulling at the painful memories associated with it. "Atsuko?" Asuma asked, disbelief heavy in his voice.
The now identified Atsuko fully removed the hat from her head revealing a curly white Mohawk cut short at the sides and back. She had a black, ball shaped; labret piercing with the kanji for 'smoke' on it below her bottom lip. Her skin was a light caramel color and like her father at her age, she had a single line running vertically under the outer corners of her beautiful hazel eyes.
The now identified Atsuko took a wood tipped cigarillo from her cloak, lit it and took a drag before speaking. "Sorry to disappoint but I don't have time for a family reunion, so I'll just cut to the chase and tell you what's going to happen. My young associate and I are going to take the Kyuubi Jinchūriki off your hands; anyone who decides to interfere will die"
"Teme, you might want your rebreather" Naruto said unsealing his own and covering his nose and mouth with it. Tenten who was right behind them frowned and asked "Is there something you two want to share with the rest of the class?" "If this is really Asuma-taicho's sister then she may start exhaling all kinds of poisonous smoke, she…" but before Naruto could continue he, Sasuke and Tenten were forced to jump apart by a spray of ice senbon.
Naruto landed with his left foot in a puddle and scanned the area, looking for his attacker. Unfortunately, due to his rebreather obscuring his downward peripheral vision, he was unable to see the water at his feet shift and silently defy gravity behind him. He did however feel the chill on the back of his neck as the water took the form of a mirror and froze.
Naruto tried to move away from the sudden cold spot but could only let out a surprised "Ah!" as frigid hands wrapped around his arms making sure to prevent him from making any hand seals and yanked him back into the mirror.
The ice mirror only stayed solid for a second and some change before it melted away but that was all the time a certain shunshin proficient Uchiha needed to hop inside and give chase.
One second Sasuke was in a cold dark void and the next he was dropped face first into a shallow, mist covered creek. Standing he was nearly over whelmed by a since of vertigo but still noticed that the water only came up an inch or two above his ankle and was extremely cold. Looking to his right he could just barely make out Naruto who was standing atop the water 7 feet away and wiping some vomit away from his face with his sleeve.
"Unfortunate. I never meant to bring you to this place Uchiha-san. Since Itachi-senpai will be displeased with me if he learns you died by my hands I will make you this offer only once. Abandon the Uzumaki and I will allow you to live, for if you remain by his side you will surely die." Haku said only breaking her calm monotone when she spat out Naruto's surname.
Since Sasuke couldn't see through the chakra saturated mist with his regular Sharingan he activated his Mangekyō and was able to make out his surroundings.
"Dobe, we're trapped in a dome of twenty-one floating ice mirrors. Twelve at ground level, eight above the first twelve and angled toward the ground, the final mirror is above the rest and facing straight down. Our opponent seems to be a 5 foot tall Kiri hunter-nin who's 15 feet away to our one o'clock" Sasuke informed Naruto seemingly ignoring Haku's warning.
Haku who was only slightly surprised that Sasuke could see through her mist (Itachi could somehow see through it too but told her that his brother shouldn't be able to yet) stepped back, entering the mirror behind her.
Sasuke informed Naruto of what had just happened along with the fact that the enemy's reflection was now present in all the mirrors. "You've made your choice, now…DIE!" Haku said as she threw senbon at the young leaf-nin at a ridiculously fast rate of speed. Despite the velocity of the incoming ice based projectiles, Sasuke's Mangekyō Sharingan was able to estimate their trajectory allowing him to duck, dodge and deflect more than 90% of the senbon. It was only due to the fact that the enemy seemed to be faster than him that any got threw at all.
"Demon Mimicry: Human Chakra Cloak!" Sasuke heard Naruto yell out and saw all the ice senbon that had pierced his friend melt away. {Collabo #1} Naruto signed to Sasuke before going through hand seals his teammate doing the same. The fact that one couldn't see the other didn't matter as hour upon hour of practice took hold and they got the timing for their joint technique down perfectly.
Naruto extended his palms forward and sent out a powerful air cone that blew away the mist in its path. Sasuke spat a fireball into the air cone that, while only being 15 inches in diameter, was packed so full of fire chakra that it was blue instead of red. "Collaboration Jutsu: Braking Blaze!" Naruto and Sasuke shouted as the newly created blue flamethrower made contact with two of the ground level mirrors.
"It's no use. The flame you two have created is among the hottest I've ever encountered but it is not enough" Haku taunted while flooding the area with more mist. "Teme, when I smash the mirrors get out of the dome, if I can't make it support me from the outside" Naruto mouthed out taking advantage of the mist and Sasuke's ability to see through it.
"Rodger" Sasuke said acknowledging the fact that he heard the order. Naruto who still had the technique going extended two chakra claws and slammed them into the ice mirrors causing them to crack. He then extended the chakra claws to cover the two mirrors and began squeeze them as hard as he could.
Haku found that despite the area's abundance of water and her own enhanced chakra reserves (achieved through her short but intense Akatsuki training and the performance enhancing drugs provided by Konan) the heat and pressure was too much and she was unable to strengthen the mirrors in Uzumaki's grasp so she decided to strike now. She flung a handful of metal senbon but found them either stopped by a chakra cloak or deflected by Sasuke's kunai. As she jumped to a different mirror she felt a flare of the Uchiha's chakra and noticed it contained some kind of dark feel to it. Right when she reached the halfway point between mirrors she saw ethereal black flames racing towards her.
Making three lightning fast one handed seals she formed a chain of ice from the creek bed below that wrapped around her right arm and yanked her down. The flames still hit but landed on her left hand instead of her chest. Haku screamed as she placed her hand in the water below but found it ineffective in dousing the black flames. She tried freezing the water but that didn't work either and as the flames moved up to just below her elbow she came to a grim realization.
Making 2 seals with her right hand she formed an ice katana and cut off her left arm just above the elbow. As she looked up she saw her mirrors finally give way and the two Konoha-nin escape. "Wait, my mist is still in effect how can I see them?" Haku asked herself before flaring her chakra and dispelling the area wide Genjutsu. Now once again surrounded by mist Haku used all of her senses besides sight to track her opponents but couldn't locate them.
Feeling slight movement at her feet she jumped back narrowly avoiding a pair of hands that attempted to grab her ankles before feeling a burst of chakra at her left. Due being airborne and the sheer speed of the attack she was unable to dodge the right hay maker that knocked her unconscious.
When Naruto emerged from the ground the mist had thinned considerably and the ice mirrors, while still intact where lying on the ground. Sasuke looked at him and asked a nonverbal question. "Do you want me to finish her?" Naruto shook his head wanting to take her back to the village for interrogation. Reaching into his vest Naruto took out a chakra barring tag and a sedative filled auto injector and walked towards Haku but before he could reach her a large venus fly-trap emerged from the ground and closed around her before going back underground.
Naruto and Sasuke quickly jumped together and put their backs to one another scanning the area for the opponent, knowing that they couldn't take another shinobi of Haku's level or higher. Both had burned through a considerable amount of their respective chakra reserves, Sasuke more than Naruto.
Much like the regular Sharingan, the Mangekyō seemed to 'ask' for more chakra than it actually needed in order to be sustained. It took Sasuke a couple of months to find the right amount of chakra to channel into his regular Sharingan and had yet to properly train with its advanced form.
As the two stood in the ice cold water they couldn't help but wish that Ino was still with them to scan the area. Finally Naruto decided that they should try to find the others. Channeling chakra to his nose Naruto caught the smell of blood and tobacco and leapt into the trees Sasuke right behind him.
With the convoy:
He couldn't believe it. Not only was his sister alive but so far she had killed four Konoha shinobi like they were nothing. A wagon containing two patients, a med-nin and the Chunin driver had all been set ablaze by a powerful fire jutsu. The sight infuriated the green spandex clad member of team 9 and before anyone could stop him he charged Atsuko and engaged her in taijutsu.
The S-class Kunoichi seemed to enjoy toying with Lee and Asuma guessed it had something to do with the fact that she dated Maito Gai's older brother. Deciding to take advantage of her seemingly distracted state and shaking himself from his own Asuma turned to his second in command. "Anko, take Han and find Naruto and Sasuke" "Glad to see your head is back in the game" Anko responded before taking off with Han.
Atsuko saw the two attempting to leave and sighed "It seems that I'm going to have to wrap this up kid. It's a shame, you remind me of someone I used to know". Deflecting Lee's punch Atsuko grabbed the back of his head achieving a muay thai-like clinch and kneed the Genin in the stomach forcing the air out. Taking a drag of the cigarillo still in her mouth she let it fall to the ground before grabbing a handful of Lee's hair and bringing his face up.
His eyes widened as the enemy Kunoichi kissed him right on the mouth and exhaled, forcing smoke in to his lungs. Atsuko carelessly pushed him away before vanishing in a grey smoke shunshin. As Lee tried to get up, he found himself paralyzed and having a hard time keeping his eyes open. "Such an unyouthful thing can't count as my first kiss can it?" He asked himself before losing consciousness.
Anko and Han were nearly at the wood line when Atsuko appeared in front of them in a larger than normal puff of smoke with her head turned to the right. Exhaling a stream of fire she turned her head to the left creating a U shaped wall of flames baring Anko and Han from going anywhere except back.
"Looks like I'm going to need a hand keeping you all here" Atsuko said before biting her thumb and smearing the blood over her labret. "Summoning: Spawn of the Enenra" 6 child sized creatures floated up from the flames. They had burning red eyes and goat-like heads with mouths filled with rows of sharp teeth. Instead of hands their arms ended with sickles and instead of legs they had smoky tails.
Touching her ear Atsuko received a message from Zetsu "The assessment is over, we should leave now" "Make sure no one leaves the area" Atsuko ordered before vanishing in a puff of smoke. "Shadow Snake Hands!" Anko yelled sending some of her more expendable serpent familiars to attack the smoke monsters. The snakes passed through the beings and landed on the ground dead. "Be careful they're toxic!" She yelled out. The young Enenra monster that she attacked flew towards her but found its target blocked by a man with milky eyes. "Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Palm!" Han yelled as he released a high-speed chakra enhanced palm thrust that pummeled the Enenra dispersing it.
"Thanks, come on, we need to find the brats and hall ass out of here" Anko stated. "Actually, they are 300 yards to our 8 o'clock and headed this way" Han informed her. "Good let's get rid of the rest of these bastards" Anko said before using one of the few wind style jutsu that she knew.
2120Hrs, Akatsuki Hideout, Northern Land of Rivers:
"Assessment, who ordered you to do such a thing" Pain asked, his voice even but somehow still jam packed with anger. "No one leader-sama, I got a tip from one of my subordinates that the Kyuubi Jinchuriki was in the area and figured that it would be a good idea to test the full extent of the kid's abilities and see how the new trainee stacked up. I mean I'm supposed to be training her right? Well I'm a woman of action and a firm believer in learning by doing. Sasuke Uchiha possessing the Mangekyō was an unknown unknown and I…" "Silence!" Pain roared half in anger and half in a desperate attempt to head off another one of Atsuko's migraine inducing known unknown rants.
"I warned you of Uzumaki's abnormal level of skill, sending your trainee after him regardless of her unique bloodline was foolish. Especially since you weren't present for her battle" Sasori admonished.
"Maybe she wasn't thinking clearly, maybe her brain cells are dying do to having a little more than tobacco in those cigarillos of hers" Kisame joked. "Atsuko-san maybe in the wrong but her mistake has provided valuable intel. My younger brother seems to be protective of Uzumaki and now we know he possesses the Mangekyō and can plan accordingly" Itachi pointed out.
"I say we just kill the little shit now!" Deidara yelled pissed that Sasuke had grown more powerful in such a short amount of time. "I agree. Although they didn't get into specifics my spies inform me that Orochimaru has taken an interest in Sasuke Uchiha. If the snake takes the boy's body and dojutsu he will become a far larger problem than he is already" Sasori warned.
Itachi looked at Pain who had promised to help him get Sasuke's eyes once they had properly matured. "I have my own plans for the younger Uchiha so for now none of you will make any attempts on his life. Continue to acquire funds, keep tabs on your jinchūriki targets and carry out any special projects I assigned you, dismissed" Pain ordered causing the astral bodies around Atsuko to shimmer out of existence.
Standing up Atsuko walked out of the main chamber and down a dark flight of stairs before reaching a brick wall and doors to her left and right. Biting her thumb and writing a short sealing array on the fourth brick from the left three rows up from the floor she channeled a precise amount of her chakra causing the wall to open up revealing a room containing a sleeping Haku and Obito Uchiha who was standing above her wiping his hands.
"How is she Madara-sama?" Atsuko asked after kneeling. "Her body initially tried to reject the cloned replacement arm but then changed the appendage's very nature" Obito said interest heavy in his voice. "It changed its nature?"
"Hai, the arm was frozen solid as the Mokuton chakra present in the arms cells was siphoned into the girl's body, changed into Hyōton chakra and then channeled back into the clone arm modifying it into a perfect copy of her original arm"
"How is that possible?" Atsuko asked in disbelief. "It would seem that the Hyōton possesses unique properties of its own and can consume the chakra of the Mokuton to use for its own ends. Perhaps it has something to do with the water chakra aspect of the Mokuton" Obito answered his eye closed in thought.
"Did you know this would happen? Is this why you wanted me to send her after the Kyuubi kid, so that she'd get hurt giving you an excuse to incorporate the Shodai's cells into her and study the effects?" Atsuko asked as respectfully as she could although deep down she was annoyed that her student had been used as a test subject.
"I had heard stories of Hashirama having difficulties against the Yuki clan when he was young but never truly believed them. When you brought the girl to me I decided to see what would happen if the two bloodlines were put against each other, the Mokuton being completely overcome on a cellular level was quite a surprise" Obito admitted.
"So you're going to use Haku to kill Danzo?" Atsuko asked having already told Obito of the war hawks 'upgrades'. "When the time is right" Obito answered before thinking "I'm kept alive by the Hashirama clone's cells. I may have to kill this girl one day"
Next day, 1339Hrs, Konoha:
What was left of the caravan was just pulling up to the village gates, exhausted, having taken only 2 one hour breaks since being attacked by the enemy kunoichi. Tenten was looking at Naruto and Sasuke trying to figure out just what their deal was. The two had just lost a teammate and fought an highly skilled Jonin level kunoichi but instead of being freaked out they both appeared to be lost in thought.
"Naruto come here" Asuma called waving for everyone else to go ahead and Anko to go check in with the gaurds. Tenten's curiosity got the best of her and she hung back a little channeling chakra to her ears. "Here's the half of Kubikiribōchō that broke off during our battle with Rotsuchi, maybe you can do something with it" Asuma said handing Naruto a scroll. "Kubikiribōchō! Why would Asuma-taicho give Naruto the remains of one of the 7 legendary swords of the mist?" Tenten asked herself.
"Tenten, we need to get Lee and the other patients to the hospital" Neji called pulling her from her thoughts. "I'm coming" she replied deciding to find out more about Naruto Uzumaki.
One hour later, Root Hokage Monument base:
Naruto was kneeling in front of Danzo finishing summing up everything that happened since he first arrived at FOB Tobirama despite the fact that the war hawk had probably already heard about it. "So the Uchiha knows of your status as a container, has the Mangekyō and your relationship with him is somewhat strained?" Danzo asked.
"Hai Danzo-sama, I don't think he blames me for Ino's death…at least…he said he didn't but I know he doesn't trust me as much as he used to"
"Then maybe you should give the impression that you completely trust him" Danzo stated. "You want me to tell him about Root?" Naruto asked.
"No, I will approach the Uchiha after Ino Yamanaka's funeral myself you will simply accompany me" Danzo answered before standing up and walking towards the door.
"Young Yamanaka's death was unfortunate but not totally unexpected so I took the liberty of commissioning the creation of a new weapon that is nearing completion. Follow me" Danzo stated leading Naruto to a hidden elevator that he had never seen before. They entered and went down an additional 7 levels and exited entering a well-lit laboratory, a stark contrast from the rest of the base. It couldn't be said that the room was especially large but it was filled with high tech equipment that looked as if it had come straight out of a science fiction novel with a small group of people in lap coats tending it.
As Naruto was taking everything in one of the lab coats turned around revealing a familiar face. "Hello Danzo-sama, I was just writing up a progress report for you, we've made a breakthrough in the experiment" Doctor Kichida said after nodding to Naruto, his voice filled with excitement. "I brought Naruto here to see his new teammate so bring them down and give a brief explanation of the project before explaining the breakthrough" Danzo ordered.
Kichida nodded before going over to the room's only open wall and entering a code into a key pad. There was a hissing sound as two 7x4 foot cylinder shaped tanks slowly descended from their hiding place in between floors. One contained an adult female who was floating in a clear liquid, nude except for bandages that barely covered her genitals. The other contained a girl around Naruto's age who seemed familiar to him, floating in a reddish liquid clad in a sports bra and panties.
"Next Generation Root shinobi #13 but you knew her as Ami" Danzo clarified before signaling Kichida to start. "Three years ago Subject Thirteen was sexually assaulted by her Chunin level foster father. During the assault she instinctively absorbed all of the man's charka killing him. Although she killed him before receiving any significant physical damage she suffered a psychotic break and was placed in a juvenile psychiatric ward. Due to her status as an orphan Root was able to acquire her with little difficulty and spent 7 months repairing the damage to her mind."
"Once she was mentally stable we taught her a condensed version of her basic shinobi education and started both Root combat and med-nin training. We also applied three levels of emotional conditioning stopping at a level equal to your own Naruto. Thirteen was originally supposed to be your teammate but do to the capture of this woman (Kichida gestures to the other tank) Guren, a subordinate of Orochimaru, who possesses a unique bloodline we reevaluated that plan."
"Orochimaru had planted a micro bomb in her brain and tattooed a sealing array in near invisible ink on her skin to destroy her body. I was present at the start of her interrogation when she attempted to set both off and managed to disable the body seal in time. She's brain dead but due to her bloodline Danzo-sama ordered she be kept for study."
"I was treating Danzo-sama and was struck by a realization. Part of the reason Danzo-sama's body was rejecting Hashirama Senju's DNA was because he had already reached puberty! So, I pulled blood, bone marrow and spinal fluid samples from the Shodai, Tenzo, and Orochimaru's other 59 test subjects and made a discovery. Although all the test subjects had the same blood type as Hashirama Senju and 5 had a 50% bone marrow match, Tenzo's bone marrow was a 90% match and his spinal fluid was the only one with a composition even remotely resembling the Shodai's."
"With this new data I found fourteen prepubescent female Root candidates that met the required standards and started trying to replicate the blood line. 10 died, 2 survived but showed no noticeable changes leaving subjects Eleven and Thirteen. Both subjects hair and eye color changed to match that of Guren's and both, for a time, were able to use her bloodline."
"After a couple months their new abilities started to fade and my team and I racked our heads for a way to keep the subjects from losing the bloodline completely. It was Danzo-sama himself that suggested using the special energy present in the Shodai's DNA to strengthen the bloodline but when we tried this on subject Eleven the opposite happened and she turned into a living tree".
"It was one week ago when I was re-reading a history book about the Shodai that I got an idea that lead to the success of the project. The Shodai's wife was of the Uzumaki clan. A clan that was said to live long lives and possessed their own unique chakra. I managed to get my hands on some of Mito Uzumaki's genetic material and replicated some of her DNA."
"After what happened with Eleven I was reluctant to actually inject Thirteen with anything so I made a mixture of the Uzumaki DNA and some chakra conductive chemicals, filled this tank with it and placed thirteen inside, taking advantage of her natural chakra absorption ability."
"Based on the tests we've been running it seems as though Thirteen has absorbed so much of the Uzumaki chakra that her own chakra has temporarily taken on similar characteristics. I estimate that thirteen will need 2 yearly 'mass' transfusions of Uzumaki chakra, a process taking 5 days in a tank like this"
"How much longer until this transfusion is complete?" Danzo asked.
"16 hours Danzo-sama" Kichida answered.
"Good, I will give you another week to run more tests before having her spar with Naruto here. Given you don't find anything after you've give him a full evaluation" Danzo stated thinking back to Naruto's report and how he fell for a Genjutsu. "The fact that one of my agents actually saw Kabuto treat Naruto is extremely distressing. That traitor most likely took some of the anti-genjutsu seals to study. The question is what else did he do?"
0348Hrs, Orochimaru's Kusagakure Hideout:
An ecstatic Kabuto was in his second most advanced private laboratory looking at samples through a microscope "I…I've done it. Thanks to the samples I acquired from Uzumaki I've strengthened the serum enough to cure Kimimaro! If the brat's genetic material can do this…" Kabuto said out loud before his entire face lit up in a disturbing smile. "I'm gonna to have to get some more"
A/n: I don't know about you guys but I hate when authors introduce OC's that play a major part in their story but barely touch on the character's back story so more info on Atsuko is coming. Science is my weakest subject so please don't bash me to hard if I messed up the explanations on bone marrow and spinal fluid ect. For anyone that thinks I'm making Ami over powered I'll drop a little spoiler. Ami's a prototype and prototypes tend to be...glitchy. Next update by 2-6-13.
P.s An Enenra is a Japanese smoke monster.