Italics indicate thinking

Bold is for attacks

Kale's POV

"Any Questions?" Tsunade asked the group assembled before her.

A select few had been called to the roof of her building to get a briefing, we were going after Akatsuki and after they attacked the Temple of Fire. Fu and I were assigned to work with Shikamaru and Asuma-Sensei, I was second in command after Asuma.

"Fu maybe you should drop out." I whispered "This is Akatsuki."

"Fu will not run away." She said "I will be fine, you'll be there with me."

I blushed a bit "I'm just worried about you."

"I have a question." Asuma raised his hand "Chiriku, one of the Guardian Shinobi Twelve was a monk at the temple, what happened?"

"Sir Chiruki…died at the hands of the two Akatsuki."

"I want to know their plans but they are dangerous." Tsunade said "If capture is impossible, eliminate them. We know of four Akatsuki member, two of whom are presumed dead, we don't know if these are ones we've had some experience with or not, but they always operate in pairs so be careful…don't let them escape!"

"So what's the first stop?" I asked.

"We begin where they were, the Fire Temple." Asuma said "It's a tough job but someone's gotta do it."

Later

"This is the Fire Temple?" Fu said as we walked around the rubble.

"It's definitely seen better days." Asuma said as we walked down the rows of coffins.

This was a merciless slaughter.

We found the head monk and an aide amongst the destruction, they were cleaning and attempting to get a start on restoration."

"So, where's Chiriku?" Asuma asked.

"Unfortunately his body is the only one we've yet to find." The monk said.

"Hmm…" I tapped my foot "Maybe they took him with them?"

"Why would they do that?" Fu asked.

"If someone had a bounty on the guy Akatsuki may have tried to cash in." I suggested.

"…probably." Asuma sighed.

"Then they probably took him to an exchange center." Shikamaru pointed out.

"Well where are the nearest exchange points?" Fu asked.

"Five in the general area." I said "There's one not too far from here."

Fu helped me prep messages for the carrier pigeons and we sent them off to the other teams to have them check the other centers.

"Let's get going to ours."

"If you're going to battle." The old monk said "Allow me a moment to sa a prayer for you."

"Sure." Asuma-Sensei nodded.

Later

"That's the coat." I said looking at the man sitting on the steps of the abandoned building "Black with red clouds, he's Akatsuki all right."

"Fu doesn't recognize him." She said "We've never encountered him before.

The man on the steps was young, tall, had slicked back grey hair and a huge three pronged scythe on his back.

With no option but to attack while his partner was gone we all got into positions and started our attack.

"Geez it took you long enough-." The man whined before realizing Asuma was behind him.

He quickly jumped back and used his scythe to bat the shuriken away.

"Now!" Shikamaru yelled binding the man with his shadow.

"Bug Transformation Jutsu: Mantis Forearms!"

"Four Layer Seal: Ice Spike!"

I pulled out the Mystic Staff and used its power to create an ice spike and jam it into the man's chest while Fu's arms became sharp like a praying mantis and she stabbed his heart.

"Got him." Fu smiled.

"That's one down." Asuma nodded.

"Jeez that hurts you know." The man said.

What the hell?

"Impossible, Fu has pierced your heart." The girl said.

"Man that really hurts." He groaned.

"Immune to a heart strike…how? Immortal?"

"Hey you're catching on." The Akatsuki member smiled "By the way…who are you guys anyway?"

He looked at all of us but stopped at Asuma.

"Aw Dammit." He groaned "I'm gonna get dragged back into that pisshole aren't I?"

"We're Ninja from the Leaf Village." Asuma explained "And we're here to take you out. Akatsuki move in pairs so we planned to take you out before your partner showed up."

"Well then you went after the wrong guy." The man smirked.

"Huh?"

"Shikamaru behind you!" Fu yelled.

A masked man appeared behind Shikamaru and tried to take his head off with a punch but luckily he got free in time, unfortunately his Jutsu broke and the scythe guy was able to move again.

"Fu, Kale get out of there!" Asuma yelled.

Fu grew wings and buzzed back while I slide away, we quickly used the chance to regroup with Asuma and Shikamaru.

"Seems money came to find you Hidan." The masked man said.

"Stay out of this Kakuzu." The grey haired guy said "They'll be my sacrifice."

"Skip the girl." Kakuzu said.

"Huh?"

"Are you blind." The man grumbled "She's Number Seven."

They caught on to Fu right away!

"Well lucky us, the Seven Tails Jinchuriki came right to us." Hidan laughed dragging his foot through his blood.

"You're…the Seven Tails…" Shikamaru looked at Fu who only turned.

"It was stupid of you to sign up for this, we brought Akatsuki what they wanted." Asuma glared "But we'll deal with that later, right now we have to deal with these two."

Hidan finished dragging his foot and was now standing in some sort of diagram, a circle and a triangle.

"Don't let your guard down or you'll die." Kakuzu warned.

"If they kill me that's just fine." Hidan smiled.

"I'll charge them, Shikamaru you bind them." Asuma said.

"That's too dangerous." Shikamaru said "This isn't like you."

"I'll go in with you." I said.

"NO!" Asuma commanded "These guys are too strong, you watch Shikamaru and keep an eye on the masked guy we don't know what he can do."

"We should take a precaution and retreat for now." I said "We should fight if we know nothing and they want Fu."

"They won't let us leave." Asuma said "This is the only option."

"This play…doesn't suit you." Shikamaru said.

"I'm no pawn." Asuma smirked drawing his blades.

Asuma engaged Hidan in combat, the Akatsuki swung his scythe like a ball and chain. While Asuma had him distracted Shikamaru tried to chance Hidan down with his shadow. The scythe was sharp, just a nick on the cheek and Asuma was dripping blood.

"Fire Style: Burnt Ash Mist!"

Asuma spit out a plume of grey smoke and when he clicked his teeth it engulfed into an explosion. Right as the fire started I noticed Hidan stepped into the trigram on the ground.

"Ohh yeah!" Hidan yelled as the smoke cleared "That felt great!"

"GAHH!" Asuma yelled as he was scorched.

"He was burned too?" Fu asked "But he wasn't near the explosion."

"You've been cursed." Hidan said "My ritual starts now! Let's embrace the pain as one!"

What's going on…?

Hidan pulled out a long baton and stabbed his own leg.

"AHHHGA!" Asuma yelled grabbing his leg.

"That hurts doesn't it?!" Hidan laughed.

"He's holding the same leg Hidan stabbed." Fu pointed out.

"It this guy…some sort of living Voodoo doll?" I wondered.

"Do you want to savor more pain…or do you want me to end it now?!" Hidan asked raising his spike to his chest.

"Shikamaru!"

"I know!"

Shikamaru's shadow darted forward and managed to snag Hidan in time.

"Dammit…" Hidan growled.

"It'll be a while to back up gets here." I said "We'll have to hold this down till then, but if we attack the crazy guy the Captain will get hurt too."

"If this keeps up I'll have to come in." Kakuzu said.

"I said not to get in the way!" Hidan snapped.

"Hmm…" Shikamaru hummed.

"Got something we can use?" I asked.

"Yeah…let's go!"

AN

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Till Next Time!