Chapter 24 – The New Arc: The Lost Uchiha
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[Main Gate, Konohagakure]
One Week Later…
Naruto was waiting for the rest of Team 7 at the entrance for their next mission; as he awaited the rest of his team he took a moment to glance at the latest addition to his wardrobe: a necklace with a green gem attached to it that was apparently once owned by the Shodaime Hokage. He was rather surprised when Jiraiya gave it to him a week and even more shocked when he found out that Tsunade, who was the owner of said necklace, was giving it to him as a gift. As it was a heirloom from the Shodaime, however, Naruto was more than happy to accept the Sannin's gift.
Naruto got out of his train of thought when he saw that Sakura had arrived.
"Hey, Naruto-kun, where were you and Sasuke-kun yesterday? You guys weren't at the ceremony for Tsunade's induction as the new Hokage," Sakura asked right out of the gate, so to speak; since Naruto, along with Jiraiya, had brought Tsunade in the first place his abscence did not go unnoticed by the pink-haired kunoichi.
"Good morning to you as well, Sakura-chan; if you must know the reason the judges from the Chunin Exams had finished rendering their decisions on who else would become chunin about five days ago," Naruto explained.
Unlike most shinobi whose promotions to chunin would take a month after the Exams to be confirmed Naruto's promotion had been decided immediately after his fight with Neji; when one considers the fact that he defeated Orochimaru during the second phase of the exams it's much easier for the judges to make their decisions even before the finals began.
Naruto's answer only confused Sakura even further if her expression was any indication so Naruto elaborated on his answer.
"Sasuke apparently gained the necessary votes to become a chunin; his promotion ceremony, which is the one you'll have to do once you become a chunin as well, just happened to be at the same time as Tsunade-hime's ceremony and, since Shikaku-san requested that I help with that ceremony, I had no choice but to miss the one for Tsunade. She already knew about that and said she understood so I didn't have to worry about any backlash from her," Naruto said, getting a nod from Sakura.
"I'm surprised by you, Naruto; you make it sound like you believe that Sakura will become a chunin," a familiar voice said.
Naruto and Sakura, who were facing the area in outside of the gate, turned around and saw that Sasuke (who was the one that had said that comment), Kakashi, and, to Sakura's surprise, Team Guy had just arrived. Naruto simply shrugged at Sasuke's comment.
"You and I both know that she has the potential; she just had realized enough of it yet," Naruto replied, to which Sasuke surprisingly nodded in agreement.
An even bigger surprise came from Sakura; instead of getting all excited over the acknowledgement from her crush she was more focused on the other team.
"Hold on Kakashi-sensei; why is Lee-san and his team here?" she asked to which Kakashi gave a light chuckle before he answered.
"That's a fair question, Sakura; this mission requires at least two squads to complete so Guy-san volunteered to work with us," Kakashi explained.
At this point Tenten entered the conversation.
"We wanted to repay Naruto for the things he's done for us. Guy-sensei and Lee wanted to help Naruto because of the time that Naruto saved Lee's life in the preliminaries of the Chunin Exams. Neji, though he refuses to admit, wanted to repay Naruto because he helped him overcome his belief in destiny and for helping him clear things up with Hinata-san and his uncle. I also owe him for the gift he gave me, and the training to help me use that gift, several days ago. When we heard that this mission would be done alongside your team we decided to give you guys a hand," Tenten explained while drawing Team 7's attention to a scroll on her hip when she mentioned her reasons for wanting to come on this mission.
Sakura was surprised when she saw the scroll read out the was labeled with the word Samehada, having recognized if as the name of one of the Seven Swords of the Hidden Mist. Shortly before the beginning of the Sakura had come across an old book in the Konoha Library (she was looking for information that might've helped her and her team prepare for the Chunin Exams) that talked about the seven blades; out of curiosity Sakura looked through that book, which had some information regarding the Executioner's Blade and Samehada as well as the other five swords. The pink-haired kunoichi, having heard a rumor that Naruto had killed another of the Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist during his mission to find Tsunade, assumed that Naruto had taken the man's blade (in this case Samehada) and, not having any real need for it, gave it to Tenten as she was primarly a weapons-user and would be able to put the sword to good use.
Sakura got out of her train of thought when Kakashi took control of the conversation.
"Now that Tenten has finished her little story I think it's time we headed out," Kakashi said nonchalantly before he and the rest of the group walked out the gates of Konoha and towards the location of their mission, unaware of the events that were about to unfold.
[Aka no Uzu (Red Whirlpool) Harbor, Eastern Coast of the Land of Fire]
Two Weeks Later...
Teams Kakashi/Seven and Guy, with their clients in tow, had finally reached the large port that was their final destination after several delays held the group up for a couple of days.
This mission, which was a C-Rank in it's classification, was not really as dangerous as it was annoying for the shinobi; the two team first arrived in a town several miles north form where the Great Naruto Bridge was located where the clients, a large merchant caravan, were waiting for them. After trekking through the southern Land of Fire, which was heavy bandit country, the shinobi finally got their clients safely to their destination without serious incident. The head of the caravan gave his thanks, paid the fee for the mission, and bid the shinobi farewell.
Naruto and the rest of the younger members of the two teams were now waiting for their senseis; Might Guy had gone to look for the nearest bathroom while Kakashi was simply late... again... with his squad unaware of his whereabouts.
As Naruto stood at the entrance to the town that grew out of the port, staring into the ether, he suddenly heard Neji's voice which appeared to be directed towards the Uzumaki-Namikaze clansman.
"Is your sensei always this late, Naruto-san?" Neji asked; since the end of the Chunin Exams Neji, who was trying to fix his relationship with Hinata and her father, and Naruto have improved their relationship by a great deal, allowing the two talk to each other in a much more casual manner.
"Oh no, Neji-san, it's never this bad... it's actually much, much worse; if I know him I think it's safe to assume that we'll be stuck here for at least a couple more hours," Naruto said, causing Neji to pinch the bridge of his nose upon hearing this.
Before Neji could say anything else, however, he and Naruto noticed that six large chakra signatures had suddenly approached an area near the town; what really caused the young shinobi to grow alarmed, however, was the dark and virtually identical nature of these chakras.
"Are you sensing these chakras, Naruto?" Sasuke asked his teammate, having seen the emanting chakra with his Sharingan, who simply nodded in response.
"You guys should go find Kakashi-sensei and Guy-sensei and tell them what's going on; I'll go on ahead and investigate this myself," Naruto said before he flash stepped to the location of the two chakras, not even bothering to give Sakura or anyone else a chance to protest his actions.
Upon realizing that Naruto had just left Sakura and the three members of Team Guy prepared to head in the same direction as her blond-haired teammate before Sasuke stopped them.
"As much as I hate to admit this I think it's best if we do what he says; at the level each of are at right now...(he sighs in reluctance) all of us would only get in his way," Sasuke said rather matter-of-factly which took Sakura surprise; even though Sasuke was still the same as far as his attitude was concerned the kunoichi did notice that her teammate/love interest was changing... she hadn't realize how fast he had actually changed, however, since the Chunin Exams.
Before anything else could be said, however, Kakashi and Guy finally arrived, having sensed the menacing chakras at the same time as their students did. Kakashi looked around before he said anything.
"I'm guessing that Naruto is already heading to where those two chakra signatures are coming from?" Kakashi asked the younger members of both squads.
After they answered in the affirmative both teams immediately headed towards Naruto's location; upon sensing a increase in Naruto's energy some of the members of the group to shudder as the memories of how he crushed Neji during the Finals of the Chunin Exams came crawling back into their minds. They realized that Naruto was about to do something drastic and that was something that scared his peers more than the two foes that the young Uzumaki appeared to be fighting. After all, as powerful as those two people are, they were completely outmatched by their blond-haired teammate...
With Naruto...
"So you're the jinchuriki of the Kyubi, Naruto Uzumaki... it appears you're going out of you way to interfere with our plans yet again," a man said to the young Uzumaki.
Naruto simply eyed the man who spoke to him as well as keeping tabs on who the chunin assumed was his partner which wasn't that difficult considering the fact that they stood out like a sore fuma shuriken.
The one who spoke was a tall man who had green, pupiless eyes with red sclera and tanned skin where it could be see as the man wore a white hood, a black face mask, a headband with the symbol of Takigakure scratched out and, of greater concern to the young shinobi, a black cloak with a red cloud pattern on it like the one Itachi and Kisame wore which left little doubt in Naruto's mind that he was part of the Akatsuki.
The man next to him wore the same Akatsuki cloak as he did but a lot more detals about his appearance could be discerned. The man had medium-length sliver hair and purple-colored eyes while, along with his cloak, he wore a shinobi headband, with the scratched off symbol of a village Naruto didn't recognize, around his neck along with an amulet that the chunin recognized as a Jashinist symbol. The man also wielded a red scythe, which was connected to a metal cable, whose head carried three blades that were placed one on top of the other; the blades got smaller from top to bottom with the top blade being the largest.
After a few moments of tense silence Naruto finally responds to the hooded man's comment.
"If the Akatsuki was willing to use it's 'Immortal Duo' as a couple of errand boys I have to assume it's an important errand. So of course I'm going to interfere... Kakuzu," Naruto said in a serious tone.
The eyes of the now named Kakuzu widened in shock at hearing this.
"He knows who we are; does he know what we're capable of as well? No wonder Leader-sama told me and Hidan not to engage this Jinchuriki just yet," Kakuzu thought to himself as he eyed the very thing that got him and his partner into this mess: a small scroll that Naruto had placed in his right pocket that was partially sticking out of it.
In addition to taking the scroll had also disintergrated the contact that was carrying that scroll as proven by the ash pile that stood 50 yards away from the group, the man having made the fatal mistake of trying to fight the chunin; Kakuzu realized that this opponent was indeed as dangerous as Itachi had claimed and realized that fighting him for the scroll was a lost cause.
Unfortunately Kakuzu's partner, Hidan, did not take Itachi's warning to heart.
"WHO THE [expletive] ARE CALLING ERRAND BOYS, YOU SON OF A [expletive]? IN THE NAME OF JASHIN I'LL [expletive] KILL YOU!" Hidan roared as he began to charge at the Uzumaki as he had also forgotten that the Akatsuki needed the Jinchuriki alive as well as Pein's order to the Jashinist, and the rest of the Akstsuki for that matter, to avoid a confrontation with the young Uzumaki-Namikaze clansman at all costs.
Naruto simply unsheathed his blade as Hidan charged at him and, to Kakuzu's confusion gave himself a small cut on the palm of his right hand before aiming that palm at the crazed cultist.
"No, Hidan... no you won't," Naruto said rather calmly before he began to generate a large amount of orange reiryoku in his bloody hand, shocking the Jashinist.
"What the [expletive] is that attack, for [expletive] Jashin's sake?!" Hidan said to himself; Naruto simply smirked at the religious fanatic before he unleashed his attack.
"Gran Rey Cero!" Naruto yelled as he fired a beam of the orange-colored reiryoku.
The beam soon took the appearance of a flying razor blade as the sheer speed and power of the attack caused it to compress and decompress wildly. Hidan was taken aback by this attack and didn't try to dodge it until it was too late; the Jashinist was caught in the beam which began to glow shortly after overtaking him. A few seconds after that the cero exploded; as the explosion occured in the middle of a large forest it leveled a large number of trees and other natural features.
As the explosion subsided Naruto turned to face Kakuzu who was smart enough not to charge at the chunin head-on.
"Since I'm in a merciful mood today I'm going to suggest that you fall back if you want to live for now. And before you make your next move be aware of the fact that I know about your Earth Grudge Fear as well as the secrets behind it and, unlike the Jashin religion's techniques that make your dismembered partner immortal, I'm aware of the fact that you can still die regardless of that technique's power," Naruto said in a nonchalant manner; the chunin was well aware of the fact that Hidan had survived getting hit by his Gran Rey Cero but he also knew that the cultist was not going anywhere for a while.
Kakuzu's eyes narrowed at what was obviously an insult on Naruto's part before he finally took off; before the aged shinobi left to find his partner's "pieces", however, he left one final warning to the Uzumaki.
"You might've won this time, Uzumaki, but rest assured that it is only fleeting; we of the Akatsuki will capture one day and, when we do, I will take my time instilling terror into you," Kakuzu snarled before he retreated.
As soon as the former Taki-nin left Naruto simply smirked at the man's warning; he cold tell that, for all of the man's big talk, the so-called "Akatsuki Treasurer" had been shaken up this encounter and would probably not be bothering him for a while.
Naruto shook out of his train of thought when he felt the scroll that had been the cause of this entire incident nearly falling out of his pocket; the chunin took the scroll and opened it up; after a few more minutes of trying to break through the seals that safeguarded the contents of said scroll Naruto finally got to see why the contents of the scroll would compel the Akatsuki the send their "Immortal Duo" to retrieve it.
What Naruto found in that scroll took even him by surprise though he obviously didn't show it.
"So they're trying to get her to join their ranks. Even though their chances of recruiting her are remote at best if they've already managed to find her... I need to get this information to Tsunade and fast," Naruto thought to himself just as the rest of his team arrived along with Team Guy; the young chunin realized the things were about to get difficult... for his team members at least...
[Unspecified Location in the Shinobi World]
Meanwhile…
At the mouth of a massive cave deep within an unknown mountain range a young woman stood outside as the sun began to set for the night. She appeared to be in her early twenties, and at least five and a half feet in height, with a slender figure and a fair skin tone. She had black hair that was long enough to reach her knees, though she held it in a ponytail that started below her midback, while the bangs that framed the sides of her face were long enough to go well below her collarbones; her hair went along well with her large black eyes whose piercing gaze would give a person the impression that she was trying to read their mind.
She wore a simple attire consisting of a form fitting grey shirt with long sleeves, black stretch pants, a blue sash ties around her waist that appeared to have some sort of metal plate stitched onto it; the metal could barely be seen, however, as it was covered by another blue cloth that as wrapped aroung the metal piece. In addition to her attire the woman also had what appeared to be a naginata as long as her slung onto her back.
As the woman, who was sittiing on the ground watching the sunset, she felt a light wind blow into her face.
"It appears something big is about to happen; it feels so different from the times before, however, so maybe I'll should stay put this time," the women mused to herself as she entered the cave to rest for the day.
Though she normally fled from wherever she was at this sudden sensation she decided not to do so this time; unbeknownst to her this decision to stay would lead to encounter she could never have imagined...
Next Time – The New Mission Begins
A/N: I know the chapter feels like a filler in its content; considering the new arc, however, it had to be like this in order for the story of the arc to make sense.