I didn't hesitate to grab her hand and lead her as far as possible from the crowded room; she didn't have time to protest as I arrived at the room and passed through.

It was convenient that I found an empty room on the first try, and even if it wasn't a sick random person, it wouldn't be that dangerous to hear. Though the room was a mess and it had a faint but distasteful smell.

"Why did you bring me here?" Fu immediately asked as she pulled her hand away from mine.

"Do you think it was a good idea to speak of such a thing out in open where absolutely everyone can hear you?"

The realization took a moment to hit. "Oh, I forgot about it."

She gave a sheepish smile while scratching the back of her head.

A long tired sigh left my lips, I have to accept that not everyone was perceptive. "Besides you seem awfully cheerful for a girl who lost her entire time days ago."

Fu looked at me silently and blinked. "Well, we weren't friends to begin with, they were the team assigned to me only for the Chunin exams, but they were fun to hang around." She held her chin as her eyes wandered on the roof. "But now that you mention it would be a real problem if I were to report a team wiped out, all the blame would surely fall on me…" Her orange eyes once again landed on me while a smile formed on her lips. "More reasons to join you then!"

For a moment I was at a loss of words. Apathy was shocking when it comes from those who seem to hold empathy.

"You looked shocked back then." I recalled our short meeting interrupted by Kakuzu's surprise attack.

"Well, anybody would be shocked when you see shinobis who aren't by any means weak, be obliterated in a blink of an eye." She tried to clarify.

"They were weak." I replied then inspected her while my vision flashes red and looked at her small chakra coils mixed with bijuu chakra. "Better said despite being a jinchuuriki you don't seem to be that strong."

My comment came with the memories of my fight with Naruto and how mixed his chakra was with the Kyuubi while hers it was separated and her chakra reserves in general were small. Besides most knowledge I had about them was how they could fight and win thanks to their raw strength or massive chakra reserves. Perhaps Naruto was the only one with such unique ability and couldn't be used as a reference point.

The green-haired girl tried to reply, opening her mouth but quickly closing it a couple of times before she finally gave up trying to come up with a response. "That's unfortunately true, I'm mostly self taught, but that can only take me so far."

I recalled her fight and how she was defeated so easily, but if her ability was that shallow then there was no necessity to actually put all that effort into defeating her. Yet before I could think more into the implications, I dismissed all those thoughts since they had nothing to do with the original objective.

"We derailed from the point, why do you want to join?"

She turned around and walked away from me a couple of steps as she checked her surroundings. "Well, the Kazekage pretty much explained to me the whole thing about Akatsuki and how they had been collecting Bijuus all over the land and knowing my village they have zero to no chance to put up a fight against any of their members, if they actually want to fight."

She turned to face me again and extended her hand turned into a fist which raised two of her fingers. "That would leave me pretty much two options, try to hide somewhere and hope for the best or seek refuge at any other major village."

"That doesn't sound promising." I replied, somehow I could relate to her situation since when I first arrived I had no goal or place to go so the concept of being lost was terrifying.

"Exactly, like I really hate hiding and never going out. I want to travel across the land and see more cool stuff!" Her smile slowly disappeared while her eyes looked down. "And seeking refuge at another village can pretty much end up with me dead either way, like they only need the bijuu inside me, not me as me."

"Is a possibility." Naruto's friendly attitude and direct connection with Tsunade came to mind, in Konoha at least she wouldn't be killed but she would end up being exploited as much as possible.

Or somehow they would end being best buddies.

Yet that would be giving away such a powerful political person for free.

"But now I have a third option!" She exclaimed and then pointed a finger at me, breaking me away from my train of thoughts. "You just proved that you can take on these bad guys, so if I stick with you then my safety is guaranteed and I can explore the world as well!"

Her very simple reasoning amazed me. The younger Naruto didn't even compare to her in that regard, and he used to be a knucklehead.

There was a moment of silence between us, yet our gazes remained connected.

I was the first to break the ice that was trying to form between us. "For you it looks like a win-win situation with advantages, but for me I can only see downsides." Unlike her, I stressed myself with the details. "The remaining members of Akatsuki would look for you and in consequence I would have to be the constant threat of an attack."

"Then just beat them like you did before." She nonchalantly replied.

My eyes widened as I looked at her, looking for any trace on her face that she was joking, but there was none.

"You can't be serious…" Once again she amazed me with her reasoning, she was truly the polar opposite of me who couldn't stop worrying and thinking of the future and ramifications of every decision I made.

"You defeated them then you are stronger so you won't have any issues defeating the rest." She tried to excuse her reasoning.

"It doesn't work like that." The other members came to mind, Kisame me would be an absolute nightmare to fight against and Pain would be an instant game unless I could unlock the Mangekyo.

"Really?" Fu tilted her head in confusion.

I brought both hands to rub my temples, I couldn't believe that I was dealing with a girl who was the same age as me yet with the mind of a kid. "Look, things are way more complicated than you think."

Fu looked at me in silence for a moment and her eyes widened in realization before her checks heated up, revealing a faint blush on her face. "Oh, you are asking for THAT kind of thing."

I genuinely wasn't expecting her to recur to that possibility, and I didn't want that kind of rumor spread or it would ultimately ruin my reputation.

"Wow, I didn't know the princess had a fetish for dark-skinned girls, Kumo is definitely your promised paradise." The least desired person I ever wanted to meet and hear my conversation crossed the door with the biggest shit-eating grin I've ever seen, rivaling even Suigetsu's

"Fuck you." I snarled back at the annoying redhead who no longer was wearing her robes, but was with her original outfit that barely left anything to the imagination.

"Shove it." She replied as she gave me the finger.

I frowned, and to sour the situation I heard Fu giggling behind.

."My name is Fu, and you?" The dark-skinned girl ran up to greet the intruder with her cheerful attitude.

"The sexy Tayuya at your service." Tayuya grinned and mockingly bowed.

"Ignore her, as I was saying I don't see any benefit in taking you with me and no, I'm not asking you to do THAT kind of thing." I spoke out loud to get her full attention to somehow overshadow Tayuya's presence, even if I didn't want her to hear it would be next to impossible to get rid of her without causing an scene.

But she laughed out loud to her heart content and grabbed my shoulder, pulling me back. "Funny coming from you since you have been banging my dear Karin for a while now."

I couldn't describe it well but I felt something deep inside my mind snap, all the tension and stress building up was released.

"I'm getting tired of you." I muttered under my breath and spun around and went for her neck.

Tayuya didn't have time to react, but her laughter died out instantly the moment my hand got a firm grip on her vulnerable spot and almost immediately both hands tried to forcefully pull my hand away but miserably failed.

I only pressed on with my grip. If words would not work, then by force, I would make her stop with her stupidity.

Overpower her in every way.

Rewrite her mind completely to my liking.

"I-I... can't….bre…" Her hands gave up from trying to break free and tried to grab my face.

My eyes could see through the red. The corner of her eyes were tearing up.

My vision returned to the original colors and my hand quickly released my grip on her neck, allowing her to gasp for air when I realized my outburst.

That wasn't good, not in the slightest.

"Just go."

She composed herself and rubbed her neck and left towards the door, not before looking back.

Tayuya looked at me with a different light. She no longer held her cocky attitude as she always carried herself with but a hint of genuine fear.

She quickly left the room without uttering a single word, with the door hanging open.

"That was really harsh…" Fu commented.

Somebody witnessed my outbursts and would defiantly be something she would remember.

I on the other hand wanted to leave it buried as it never happened. "Can we return to our conversation? What can you do that nobody in my team can do?"

"I...I can somewhat create a connection with insects who can help me with scouting and even in battles." Fu declared one of her abilities, which made sense; she was the container of Chomei a beetle.

"Juugo can communicate with animals and can do a much better job at scouting and I have a powerful sensor with me and Suigetsu is a very skilled fighter." I dryly replied.

But a connection with nature was already in my grasp.

"I… can fly, perhaps not for a long time, but fly nevertheless..."

"Again, Juugo can easily call for birds." I cut her mid-sentence, miscellaneous abilities aren't that useful except a select few.

"I...I'm a jinchuuriki." She muttered.

"Which is a liability since it put us in the radar of pretty much everyone and there is a risk of your bijuu getting out of control." I was relentless with my words, it was important to make myself clear from the beginning to not leave room for doubt.

Though I would omit the fact that keeping her with me would inevitably attract Itachi, who I wanted to meet as much as I wanted to avoid him.

"..."

In silent agony Fu's legs gave up just like her spirit, slowly sinking on the floor until she could completely bury her face between her legs and arms.

She didn't try to say anything to defend or support her claims, she merely gave up and tried to comfort herself.

It looked very bad for me if seen from an outside perspective, as if I was bullying a girl to the point of crying.

I turned around and made my way to the door where I stopped and looked back at the miserable girl.

"Come, I hope you don't carry a lot of things with you. We will be traveling for a long while."

"...Uhhh?!" She lifted her head, her eyes wide open.

"Is there a problem?"

"Didn't you just reject me?"

I rolled my eyes. "I never rejected you, I only named all the disadvantages that your company might bring."

"You...you are a jerk!" She shouted with a finger pointing at me.

"Yeah, yeah I hear that a lot." And I doubted she would be the last person who would call me names. The world was a vast place after all.

"Geez…" She slowly got up from the floor and dusted off her shorts and skirt.

From my part, I patiently waited for her to prepare.

Together we left towards the reception and there was no change except that Karin was waiting there as well.

"You are finally back." She said with her gaze focused on me with a faint smile, but I noticed the shift of direction towards Fu and her smile disappeared completely.

I was hoping that it wouldn't be a problem that I would have to step in in the future.

"I hope none of you wasted your time lazing around, at least tell me you stocked our supplies." That commentary was mostly directed at Suigetsu, since I had confidence in Karin and Juugo was too simple to expect complex things from him.

"Relax, I might be lazy, but I know when to work." Suigetsu yawned as he stretched his legs and jumped from the sofa in one fell swoop and continued with stretching his arms and neck.

Karin cleared her throat to gather everyone's attention. "What he is trying to say is that we replaced everything that was damaged in the battle and restocked our food and water."

Hearing that, I nodded and stepped to the side, revealing our newest member to the rest of the team.

"I believe you introduced yourself already." I asked her out of consideration.

"Yup!" Fu cheerfully exclaimed as she stepped forward.

"Good, it saves me time."

With that said, it was clear that we achieved our goal in Suna.

"So you really will be going through this plan." Karin sighed as she held her forehead as if she was expecting a headache, and couldn't blame her, she also had to think for the entire group and worry about possible problems.

"What plan?" Fu quickly asked.

"Again, not the place to talk." I briefly turned to address her.

"Sorry." She lowered her head and stepped back.

The five of us finally left the hospital through the main entrance, passing many citizens who eyed us with curiosity but as ever we ignored.

Despite feeling that a long time passed inside the hospital, the sun was still up and burning, and without my dessert outfit I immediately felt the heat reaching me. Creating the need to get out of the streets and enter to any building which was absolutely better than being outside.

"Let's move." I gave the order and jumped towards the nearest roof.

However, Fu landed in front of us and extended both arms to somehow form a barrier, preventing us from moving forward.

"Is there a problem?" Karin asked.

"That quick?!" She shouted, completely dumbfounded.

It created an awkward silence in the group.

"...Yes?" Suigetsu reluctantly answered.

"I need to pack my things first!" Fu added.

Everyone turned to look at me, waiting for the next action.

Since she didn't know we would accept her to come with us or that we would be leaving so fast, it was obvious that she wouldn't have prepared anything unlike my team who was ready to move.

"Fine, lead the way." I accepted her request. Hopefully, since she was alone, she didn't have much stuff so it would be a brief stop.

Fu beamed a wide grin and jumped in the opposite direction, landing on a taller building where she waved her hands for a short while before she jumped again to another building.

All of us followed soon after, so we didn't lose sight of her.


"Here we are!" Fu extended her arms as she watched her hotel where she had been staying which to say the least seemed to at least comply with the minimum requirements to be considered a place to rest, besides the very simple architecture it didn't look flashy or nice but a very monotonous building. The difference from the building compared to the better district we used to be was like night and day.

But I didn't come to sightsee and soon entered the building with everyone and to find much to the outside was very dull as well, so dull and uninspired that I didn't register my surroundings until we arrived at her room number and Fu opened the door to let us pass.

And much to the surprise of no one, her room was small and messy, with all her things scattered all over the floor. The room only had a single bed and a nightstand then the rest was empty space, even with that simplicity the room felt very crowded, especially with Juugo size who turned around and left towards the hallways where he took a seat on the floor and started to meditate.

The only thing that stood out was that it had a window that illuminates the entire room quite well.

"Wow compared to our last apartment this place sucks." Suigetsu didn't hesitate to comment on the very cheap room.

"Don't be rude Suigetsu, not everyone is filthy rich to spend money at their leisure." Karin quickly intervened, reminding him that we were in fact lucky.

"She doesn't seem to mind…" He pointed at our newest member, who was too preoccupied with gathering her things in the mess of a room we were currently in. She hummed a song, which didn't recognize at all, as she kept piling her things on her bed where she could finally store them in her backpack.

"That's not an excuse." Karin chastised him, but Suigetsu only looked at her with his typical smile.

"Enough both of you. Karin, did you get a hold of recent information?" Once again, my intervention stopped those two from escalating their bickering.

Suigetsu shrugged and sat on the floor, lazily looking at the sky through the window.

Karin, on the other hand, adjusted her glasses and turned to me with her professional face. "About what?"

"Anything, any rumor or disaster, or did you interrogate Hidan?" It had been days that I was unconscious and I doubted they remained completely idle at that time and I didn't see Hidan head with them.

"I tried, but it was pretty much impossible to get anything out from him so we just sealed him in a scroll." She brought up a storage scroll that was tightly sealed with a sticker on the cover, and she quickly put it away on her belt.

"That's a shame but still can be used as a bargain chip." I shrugged, honestly I wasn't expecting to get much from that zealot besides selling his head when the chance arrived and then bury his body parts across the world.

"Well, without Orochimaru or Kabuto, the sound village pretty much collapsed." She added.

"No shit." Suigetsu snorted, trying to hold back his laughter.

But I was surprised, on the other hand, Orochimaru. While a monster to many, he was a charismatic shinobi with many skilled subordinates around him. Unless they fell into infighting over who would take charge, which knowing the nature of things might have been the most plausible explanation.

Karin glared hard at our lazy swordsman before returning with her news. "Tayuya informed me that Iwa jinchuurikis are currently missing."

My face contorted into a frown. "That's not good."

"Well they were always hermits so going missing wasn't that surprising at first but the thing is that they used to have some sort of contact but it had been weeks since they last sent a message." Karin tried to provide an explanation but I didn't need the assistance of any magical eye to tell she also knew the truth of their fate.

"So Akatsuki has three bijuus under their power, perhaps four if they already captured the Three tails." I deduced by the current facts, however with one Bijuu dead I couldn't tell if they were going to follow the process or rush everything just to achieve their goal.

"Well, another bit of news was that the jinchuuriki of two tails is in critical condition at the moment." Karin caught me by surprise on many fronts.

"Critical condition?" The fact that she was alive was shocking to say the least.

"She suffered an ambush but barely managed to escape with her life." She clarified, yet it didn't answer my mental doubts.

"Akatsuki again?" I asked, Hidan and Kakuzu were supposed to get her first instead of Fu, which didn't make any sense with their mode of operation and made me wonder who was responsible.

However, Karin shook her head. "Not this time, the evidence suggests independent bounty hunters."

My blood ran cold out of shock as never in my wildest form of imagination I could picture that event since it didn't make any sense, or at least I couldn't bring any sense to the situation to understand.

Why would bounty hunters attack a famous Jinchuuriki in the first place?

And with Bingo books, that are distributed to everyone, where those exact bounty hunters acquire their targets, which faction was the bold one to add a profile of Yugito?

"That's odd…" If it wasn't already mentioned, the whole world is fucked.

The future is unpredictable, as it should always have been.

"And the most important thing, thanks to that; the Raikage started a campaign of extermination until he finds the responsible with his brother leading it." Karin finished her report, and all professionalism broke and she looked at me with deep concern in her eyes, hoping for an answer.

Me along with our swordsman could only look at her with wide eyes, trying to process that bit of information.

"Shiiiiiiit..." Suigetsu was the first to break and dropped on the floor, slowly losing his physical form.

And I shared the same sentiment, at least for a moment since I couldn't panic since I was the leader.

"I'm not registered as a bounty hunter and rumors only talk about a mysterious bounty hunter when I wear a mask, but I can easily stop all hunting activity to not be classified as a bounty hunter and avoid Kumo forces." I reasoned.

"It would be for the best to avoid fighting all together, knowing Kumo they will stop after a month or two if they don't find the responsible." Karin made her suggestion, which made me think in what could be considered lying low and how that would affect me with my current goals.

But the whole Kumo situation and what Tayuya warned me made things even more complicated. Even if I was recognized as a bounty hunter I would be recognized as an Uchiha out in the open.

Nothing was stopping them from attempting a capture, and with Fu as a recognized Jinchuuriki that too would incentivize them even more to go and capture us.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I finished packing up my stuff."

Speaking of the devil, Fu finally came to us with her backpack ready, leaving her room relatively clean and organized if one were to ignore the growing puddle of water originally known as Suigetsu.

"Take a seat for now, I need to discuss and set a new plan." I said.

The jinchuuriki looked at me and tilted her head to the right. "I thought we were leaving as soon as possible."

"That was the plan until our redhead dropped a bomb on us." The puddle of water responded.

Fu merely shrugged and didn't seem to mind the change of plans.

"Oh...I can wait." She quickly ran up towards Juugo and sat next to him. "Hey big guy, what's your name again?"

Leaving pretty much us three inside her now empty room.

"What do you suggest?" I asked Karin who had been thinking for a while.

I had been thinking about possibilities as well, but I needed confirmation of my thought, or at least a unique insight.

"With so many death squads roaming the continent I think it would be better if we settle down somewhere safe until things cool down, unless you don't mind fighting the entirety of Kumogakure of course." Karin smiled dejectedly.

Even with my current strength, going against an entire army would be stupid, specially if that army had Killer Bee as the leader. And as far as my own memories could remember, Killer Bee absolutely destroyed Sasuke, even with Mangekyo.

"This will set me back a lot of time." I had to come with terms that the schedule was messed up, but if I wanted to make progress I needed to adapt, I wasn't going to risk my neck. On the good side, I could use that month to consolidate even more all of my abilities that I knew but didn't put into practice.

"I know but this is the safest option right now." Karin sighed and tried to lean on my chest, that was her plan until I grabbed her shoulder and stopped her.

My mind went through all my memories trying to bring a place where we could be safe, even if it was all messed from my arrival the assimilation was theoretically completed since the killing headaches that had been plaguing me were of no importance anymore thanks to her special chakra.

In the search I recalled a moment where I was with Itachi in front of an old lady surrounded by cats, a place where I was always welcome.

My hand carefully grabbed her chin and lifted her gaze to meet mine.

"Let's go to Sora-ku"