AN: The fourth chapter is up! Thank you to everyone who reviewed this story, it is greatly appreciated! Please review, constructive criticism is welcome.

The pairing votes so far are:

Temari - 8

Karin - 3

Mei - 2

Anko - 1

Feel free to leave your vote on who Naruto gets paired up with in either a review or PM. The next chapter I will announce the pairing!

Im still stuck on what Naruto should train in other then earth bending so suggestions are greatly appreciated!

"Talking"

"SHOUTING"

'Thinking and/or Talking to bijuu'

'Bijuu Talking'

Warning: This chapter and possibly future chapters will contain some spoilers!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Uchiha Itachi had been quite surprised at the turn of events in the last couple of mouths, he had heard that his little brother had defected from Konoha but that had been quite predictable if you asked older Uchiha. What had truly surprised him -even though he wouldn't show it- was what had happened recently in Amegakure. Well that and his current mission, as Leader-Sama had ordered in the exact words of 'Itachi, I need you to find someone that would be able to assist us in our current goal, it needs to be someone who is powerful and has known true pain and has managed to move on, I would ask someone else to do it but I think that you're the only one who could do this without making more trouble for the organisation.' As soon as those words had been said Itachi had been able to list one person who would be able to help Leader-Sama in his goal, no... the akatsuki's goal. Now all he had to do was find the person, but after a little while the Missing Nin had become extremely confused. He had gone to the town that both Jiraiya of the Sannin and Uzumaki Naruto should have been located at but when he found the perverted Sannin the man was running around the small town in panic looking for his student, after a little investigating Itachi had discovered that Jiraiya's student had ditched the old pervert, but he couldn't understand why? Perhaps after his little brother's defection the blond Jinchuriki had decided to do the same? But that couldn't be right... From what Itachi knew -and Itachi knew a lot-, Naruto wasn't one to abandon the few precious people he had. So then, what was the cause of the blond boy ditching his Sensei? Itachi decided that after he found the boy he would ask the question himself, hopefully the boy still had him on his 'list' of precious people, although he highly doubted it. After all the things that the missing nin had done he wouldn't have been surprised if the blond hated him as much as Sasuke did.

It had taken the older Uchiha a few days but he had managed to find Naruto while using his crows, it would have been problematic if Naruto had known that he was there right away, so he had decided to approach with extreme caution. He had watched the blond Jinchuriki the whole time that he was in the land of waves and he had found a small smile forming on his face every so often. When he had watched Naruto and Inari on their little shopping trip the missing nin could tell that the young boy with Naruto had no idea about the blonds disability, it had made the Uchiha feel a little sad at that fact. Itachi knew that Naruto didn't like anyone knowing about it but the missing nin could tell that Naruto needed someone to be there for him again, like he had been there before he had taken the mission to kill all of his clan. Perhaps he could help the blond out again...

Itachi had watched Naruto give an excuse to leave the village after he had finished getting the supplies the blond had needed but Itachi had a feeling that he had been spotted, so he decided to confront the blind boy when they were far enough away from the 'Great Naruto Bridge'. When the missing nin had read the name of the bridge he 'almost' chuckled, but at the same times he had thought something along the lines of 'if only you could see what the people of the land of waves called their bridge, Naruto...' Itachi had felt a large amount of guilt when another thought entered his mind

'If only I had been able to find you sooner on that day...' The Uchiha had deeply regretted what had happened on that day but he had managed to push away that regret, Naruto hadn't blamed him so he shouldn't blame himself... But it was hard not to, after all if he had gotten to Naruto sooner on that fateful day then the blond wouldn't have been blinded.

Itachi got rid of those kinds of thoughts and he looked at the boy who had stopped walking once he was far enough from Wave to not get the people there involved in whatever happened next. He was now alone with the boy on a dirt road that was surrounded by trees. The missing nin's eyes widened somewhat when he saw the blind boy lift his right leg and stomp it onto the ground, Itachi's eyes widened a little more when the tree he was currently hiding in started to shake and threw him off but he had managed to land on his feet and he took notice that the tree he had been on had collapsed. The Akatsuki member blinked when he saw that the blond was facing him and giving him his usual foxy grin with his arms crossed.

There was an awkward silence between the two for about three minutes until Naruto decided to speak. Itachi was shocked at what had came out of the blind blonds mouth but he didn't allow it to show, instead he just stood still with a blank expression on his face.

"It took you long enough! I had been expecting you to sneak into Konoha the week after you left! I had thought that you would come to pay me a visit once and awhile! In the end I had to go looking for you Itachi-Sensei!" Itachi was having trouble comprehending what was happening, didn't Naruto hate him like Sasuke did? The blind blond actually sounded worried, upset and lonely. Why? After what the missing nin had done to him, why did the blind blond still seem to have wanted to meet him again? As if reading the missing nin's mind the blond said in a serious, yet sad tone while taking his grin and turning it into a sad smile.

"Did you really think that I would believe what you said to me that day? I can tell when someone lies you know and even if I couldn't tell, I'm not Sasuke! Jeez, for a prodigy you sure are stupid." The last part was said in a relaxed yet mocking tone and Itachi's eyebrow twitched. Sure the Uchiha had been surprised when Naruto had said those words but now he was both happy and annoyed, happy at the fact that Naruto didn't hate him and annoyed about the blond calling him stupid! But that wasn't important at the moment, the Akatsuki member needed a way to bring up what he had come here for, it was a matter of great importance that could change the fate of the elemental nations. But... How to bring it up? How to bring it up...? Perhaps he should ask the blond why he ditched Jiraiya. Yup, that would be a good conversation starter. Itachi would go with that.

"It's good to see you again Naruto, I've actually been looking for you for a few days now but when I found Jiraiya I found out that you had 'run away' from him." Itachi took note of the sad expression that took place on the blind blond as well as the fact that the blond let out a frustrated sigh while pinching the bridge of his nose. What could have happened?

"I'm sure that you know about the three year training trip me and Ero-Sennin had planned?" Itachi just nodded, Naruto kicked the road and it caused the ground to shake but nothing else happened.

"Well you see... The only thing Ero-Sennin was planing on teaching me was how to control the Kyuubi's chakra, even though I had told him countless times that I didn't want to... A week ago I had finally had enough of him and his 'you can't do anything without the Kyuubi's chakra' speeches so I left, simple as that." Itachi had a feeling that there were parts of Naruto's short story that the blond had purposely left out but he decided not to pry. Just when Itachi was about to speak Naruto beet him to it and the blond said in a curious manner

"So, you said that you were looking for me, why? Is it the same reason as last time? Because if it is then I won't let you have Kurama!" The Uchiha blinked as Naruto got into a fighting stance, apparently the last time he had met Naruto had completely slipped his mind.

"No... Perhaps it would be best if we discus what I have to say while traveling? I don't mind where we go." Naruto nodded and got out of his stance, the blind blond would be able to sense any kind of trap long before he got close to it and Itachi didn't seem to be lying.

Once they had walked for about five minutes with Naruto leading the way in silence Itachi decided to inform Naruto of what he had been sent to do. In a monotone voice he said

"There were two leaders for the Akatsuki, one was like a figurehead even though he was one of the founders of the organisation, his name is Nagato but everyone in the organisation calls him either Pein-Sama or Leader-Sama. The other leader worked behind the scenes and ordered Leader-Sama around, this man had claimed to be Uchiha Madara, although it turned out that he was a actually someone else." Itachi paused for a moment and looked at Naruto who had stopped walking and was in a thinking position with his right hand connected to his chin, his eyes were closed and a frown was placed on his face. After a couple of moments the boy let out a sigh and started to walk again. Taking this as a gesture to continue Itachi spoke up again.

"Leader-Sama realised that with the plan the fake Madara was using he would be unable to complete his own goal, a long-term goal that the Akatsuki was created to achieve, Peace among the Elemental Nations."

Naruto continued walking in front Itachi with his own thoughts on the matter. It was quite obvious what had happened next, the two leaders fought for their own ideals and one of the two came out on top. The blond was hoping that the one who won was the one who wished for peace, who knows what the other person had planned? The blind Jinchuriki decided to not think about that and waited for Itachi to continue.

"The two fought at the headquarters of the Akatsuki located in Ame, luckily Leader-Sama won the fight and was not injured due to his fighting style although he had been suffering from severer chakra exhaustion for about a week after the fight. Sadly the fight destroyed the southern quarter of the village... There were no civilian casualties, some ninja died, an Akatsuki member called Zetsu has yet to be found and the destroyed part of Ame is currently being rebuilt, all of the Akatsuki members have gathered there to assist on the reconstruction, which is a fact that I find quite surprising. After the fight Leader-Sama explained what the goal of the organisation was and he gave us the opportunity to leave, none of us did so, even the more... violent members stayed." Naruto was a little surprised and happy with the outcome but found the way Itachi had said the last sentence kind of strange, Itachi had actually seemed surprised with the fact that the Akatsuki stayed together. As they were walking a question came into the blind blonds mind so he asked it.

"Hey Itachi-Sensei, it's good that this Nagato person won and all but, what does that have to do with you coming and tracking me down?"

Itachi was surprised, Naruto still called him Sensei even after all those years and he was glad that he did, perhaps he could offer to help assist in the blonds training again? Possibly, but the mission Leader-Sama gave him had to come first. With a very -very- small smile Itachi replied

"Just recently Leader-Sama realised that he had -in his words- 'no fucking idea' on how to achieve his goal, so he sent me to look for someone who is powerful and has felt 'true pain' and was still able to move on, I believed that he was silently requesting me to find someone that had suffered a lot like he had but hadn't turned out like he originally had. The first and only person I believed would fit the description was you, Naruto. Would you like to come with me to Amegakure?"

Naruto stood frozen in the middle of the road and was having a little trouble trying to comprehend what had just been said, he could tell that Itachi wasn't lying and the blind blond really did want to help, but the Akatsuki were a group of S-Rank missing nin's. If he went with them he would have to leave Konoha behind, but to assist in helping someone bring peace to the world? To help change the world so that no one would have to suffer like him again? It would be nice, really nice. To achieve the goal that Kurama had said not even Rikudo Sennin could achieve? Perhaps he could even snap Sasuke to his senses... He would have to give up on becoming the Hokage and he would possibly have to leave his friends behind if he went with Itachi...

Voices of angry villagers came through his head in flashbacks, some were sightless while others weren't, but they were all the same.

Shouts of 'DIE MONSTER' 'YOU DON'T DESERVE TO LIVE' YOU KILLED YONDAIME-SAMA!' 'YOU FUCKING DEMON!' 'WHY THE HELL WOULD ANYONE LET YOU BECOME HOKAGE, YOU FREAK!'

It was painful, hearing those voices, those hateful voices that always tried to crush his hopes and dreams.

He would do it, he would go with Itachi! But... he wasn't strong, sure he had his bending but that was all he had and it wasn't even close to mastered at its full potential. The blond was starting to feel a lot of depressing emotions build up inside him.

"I would... But... I'm not strong... I..."

Itachi seemed to realise were this was going so he placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder and said in a caring and encouraging tone

"Naruto, you may not realise it but you are strong, your one of the strongest people I've met, the fact that you've survived thus far is proof of that, even if your stronger mentally then you are physically... But if you want to get stronger physically I could teach you again if you wanted?" Naruto brightened up considerably as this was said -all negative emotion seemingly gone for the moment-, Itachi was going to teach him again! It had been six years since he had last been able to spend time with him and now he was going to teach him as well! Naruto couldn't hold in his excitement and he shouted "THANK YOU!" over and over again for about twenty minutes. Itachi let a smile appear on his face, Naruto hadn't changed much from all those years ago.

Finished!

I'm having a little problem with something in this story though, it's only a small problem but it's really frustrating me. (!POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!) I was thinking because this is an Akatsuki!Naruto fanfic, who would be Naruto's partner when he joined? The first person that came to mind was Tobi, but not as Obito, just as Tobi but with his own past that I already have an idea for. (Tobi was my favourite character when he was still TOBI!) But should I put him into this story? I'm not going to reveal the idea I have for him but I will say that Naruto in some way will recruit Tobi if he is in this story. I would appreciate it if someone shared their opinion on the matter. Tobi would still be Tobi and Tobi is a good boy!