Chapter 26: The Akuma no Shima Incident
I think we could mark this as another successful A-rank mission. My clones had finished ransacking the laboratory and brought everything of interest to be safely sealed. All of Orochimaru's henchmen were killed, with the exception of the doctor and the girl. Anko's clone would be detonating a Rasenshuriken alone with my own the moment we all got out of range.
"Do you really think it doesn't make a difference?" Anko asked softly. It was the first time she spoke since I snapped at her, but in my defense, she was acting like an angsty idiot.
"Yep," I replied nonchalantly. "I've had a lot of time to think on the subject and I've come to realize that your past doesn't define you, it's your actions that do. Who you choose to be now is the important thing, not who you were before and all the mistakes you made along the way."
"And you really believe that?"
"Obviously," I snorted. "Why else would I by trying to get stronger and make connections with people. It would be easier and less painful if I just avoided everyone and became a recluse, not doing anything, but that wouldn't be right. I want to be the best me that I can possibly be and that takes a whole lot of effort."
I'd realized that when I connected with Tsunade. While I was quickly becoming stronger, I was neglecting a whole side of myself… I was slowly isolating myself in an attempt from ever feeling pain if I was separated from my friends… Like how I came to this world… But that was wrong.
Say I succeed and remove all the things threatening this world. What then… I wouldn't have anything else after that, I'd just be a powerful and lonely person, someone like Madara.
"Become the best version of myself, huh?" Anko hummed. "I don't know what that would be."
"Well, it's not really something that anyone can become. We're constantly changing, so the best anyone can aim for is to constantly become a better version of themselves," I finished, before offering Anko a hand. "And the best part is, we don't have to do it alone."
Anko had a small, soft smile as she took my hand, before a grin took its place. "Look Shizune, I'm holding your boyfriends hand!" She said loudly as she swung our joined hands at Shizune.
"W-what?" Shizune asked, looking at us in alarm, before realizing came over her and her face flushed red. "Oh… right…"
"And she made such a big deal of holding your hand in the Hokage's office," Anko grinned. "I'm curious. Without telling me who it is, what's the furthest you've gone with your girlfriend?"
"Second base, nearing third," Kurama spoke through me.
My hands shot up and immediately wrapped around my mouth.
Anko and Shizune froze.
"Was that the Kyuubi?" Shizune asked worriedly.
I gave a short nod, not quite trusting myself to speak yet. No doubt, Kurama was trying to lighten the mood.
"And it's working. Your teammates are now focused on something else entirely!"
"Wait, third base…" Anko muttered. "First is kissing, second is touching, third is…" She let out a whistle. "Now I really want to know who it is!"
"Um… what is third base?" Shizune asked.
"What do you mean what's third base?! You're a medic, you should know all about that!"
Shizune flinched and back peddled. "I-I do, but I've never heard those terms before. I just want to know what they mean!"
"Oh," Anko hummed in understanding, before turning to me. "Maybe you should explain," Anko said. "After all, it was you who said it… and we are discussing your girlfriend."
I shot a quick glare at Anko, who smirked back. "Well…" I began, moving my hands back. "What do you know about the bases?
"Only what I've heard from Anko," Shizune replied seriously. "First base is kissing and second base is touching which means holding hands! You said that you got near third base, which is the one I know nothing about. I'm assuming that first base is the most intimate while third is the least intimate!"
"Oh, this is going to be fun," Anko grinned.
'Alright,' I nodded lightly, suddenly feeling awkward. "Third base is… well forth base is sex." Somehow that felt less embarrassing to say.
"What?!" Shizune squeaked.
Anko burst into laughter. "Oh, the look on your face!"
"Right, so the first base is kissing, that's simple enough," I continued. "The second base is touching… well, more like groping where you feel each other up."
"I don't think you need to keep explaining," Shizune said, her face turning beet red.
"Tell her what third base is!" Anko said with a shit eating grin.
"Well it's when you... In medical terms, it would be when you stimulate a certain sensitive part of a persons anatomy using your hand or fingers!"
"You've gone that far," Shizune squeaked again.
"So why did you stop?"
"The Hokage caught them," Kurama replied.
I rolled my eyes. Technically speaking, Kurama wasn't wrong.
"Wait, what?" Shizune asked, tilting her head.
"It was a clone," I replied, leaving it vague enough that Shizune would catch on and Anko would think a clone of Tsunade had caught us. "Now can we get out of here? We're supposed to be blowing this place up!"
"Hold on, you can't just say that you and your girlfriend were caught getting freaky by the Hokage and not tell us more," Anko said. "I think I'm going to need a few more details."
"What about the deal we had?"
"That's a tough one," Anko muttered. "On one hand, I get to have the memories of blowing this place up using your Jutsu and on the other, I get to hear about you getting caught by the leader of our village!"
"Ah, maybe Naruto is right. We should probably complete our mission!"
Anko rubbed her chin in thought before nodding. "Fine, the mission comes first," She said before shooting a smirk towards Shizune. "Aren't you glad that I didn't believe you were dating Naruto?"
"Um… I suppose," Shizune replied.
"Because then I would think that the two of you were caught getting handsy with each other by your master," Anko smirked. "I imagine that would've been embarrassing!"
"Can we please change the subject?" Shizune pleaded.
"Sure thing," Anko nodded. "Let's talk about how the Kyuubi keeps talking through Naruto and seems to want to embarrass him."
"Everyone needs a hobby," Kurama shrugged, using my shoulders. "Besides, I won't get the chance to talk like this back in Konoha. It would send the people into a panic!"
"Good point… You act differently than I thought you would. I was expecting more fire and hatred," Anko replied.
"He was like that initially," I replied. "When I first met him, he was threatening and I was pretty sure that he wanted to eat me, but I managed to change him."
"Really?" Shizune asked.
"Naruto grew on me," Kurama nodded. "Like a fungus between your toes!"
"Love you too, buddy."
"Well isn't this just the sweetest and strangest relationship," Anko muttered.
The hallway slowly began to blend into the cave we entered. I could hear the sound of waves crashing against rocks as I walked over a small deposit of sea water.
"What the," Kurama muttered as he looked up.
Taking control of my body, I turned to look at Amachi. He was still bound by Anko's snakes, but he had a gloating smirk on his face and his hand on the ground. Almost instantly, the familiar pattern of the summoning jutsu spread across the ground and there was a small puff of smoke, before we were all enveloped in water.
I blinked. 'well that's new, did he just summon water?'
"It would seem so, but that's not the main threat," Kurama replied.
"You have my thanks, bringing me so close to the sea while I was awake, but sadly this is as far as you will go," Amachi gloated, his voice distorted by the water. Flexing, he dispelled Anko's summons and was able to slip past my clones. "You won't be able to escape from my sea monster!"
I rolled my eyes at the same time as Anko. Shizune and I moved to block any escape from the only entrance. Being suddenly submerged was disorientating at first and did grant Amachi an advantage, but at the same time, we were all much stronger than him, regardless of any advantage he had.
Sticking myself to the ground using Chakra, I lowered myself down and pushed off as hard as I could, sending my body towards Amachi at a blistering speed. This fight wasn't going to take long.
"MOVE!"
I twisted my body and grabbed onto the cave wall, hugging it to avoid the giant tentacle that had appeared behind me.
'Is this the sea monster he was talking about?'
The tentacle continued forward and wrapped around Amachi's neck, before jerking back, dragging him out of the cave.
"I suppose you could call him that, but he is definitely not Amachi's."
'Wait, are you saying… what's he doing here?'
"I don't know."
As quickly as the water came, it suddenly disappeared, leaving us all standing on drying land.
"Did that bastard seriously get himself eaten by his own summon?" Anko asked, spitting out a mouth full of water.
"It would seem so," Shizune replied.
"It can't be," The girl said, disturbed by what had just happened. "His sea monster is living water, a creature with tentacles!"
"She's right, the thing that did this wasn't a summon," I announced. "Anko, Shizune... Depending on how this goes, the two of you might need to run. Don't look back, don't argue, just run. I'll meet you back in camp!"
Anko froze.
"Naruto… What's going on?" Shizune asked.
"The Hachibi Jinchuriki is here!"
"What?" Shizune gasped.
"OI, WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE. COME ON OUT AND YOU WON'T GET HURT!" A man's voice called from the entrance of the cave.
I let out a relieved breath. So it wasn't just the Killer Bee who was here, that meant that he would have to be careful with how he fought.
"Remember, if things get bad, you two need to get out of here. Take the girl with you!"
"Yeah, we're not leaving you to fight the Hachibi Jinchuriki on your own," Anko muttered.
"Let's just go outside before they decide to try and blow us up!" I sighed. I understood where Anko was coming from, but at the same time, if Bee and I got into a proper fight, she'd just be in the way.
Exiting the cave, I followed Kurama's directions and climbed up onto the actual land of the Demon Island. I found myself facing three people wearing Kumo headbands and gear.
"You're the one we're after? Man, I can't believe we've been chasing after some brat," The blonde teen complained.
"Shut up, Atsui. Konoha is known to have produced several child prodigies. It's not cool to be beaten by someone because you underestimated them," The woman who I knew to be Samui replied.
Killer Bee just stood at the back, his arms crossed and a knowing smirk on his face.
"What business does Kumo have with Konoha?" Shizune asked.
"That's what we should be asking you!" Atsui argued hotly.
"Atsui. I will handle this, so keep your mouth closed," Samui snapped. "About a week ago, our sensors detected the use of a massive amount of Chakra. When a team was sent to investigate, all they found was a large hole. We've were tracing the Chakra signature left at the location and it has led us to this location. We are here to discover what Konoha was doing on our land, that is all."
"I'm sorry, but that's classified information. If you want, you could send a request to our Hokage to see if she would be willing to reveal what was done there, we would be happy to take it to her ourselves," Shizune offered.
"That is an agreeable offer," Samui nodded. "But at the same time, we need some assurance that what was done was not an act against Kumo. The one that used the technique will have to stay with us until such information is revealed."
"Not happening," Anko spoke for the first time, slipping a Kunai into her hand. I placed my hand on her shoulder, stopping her from rushing forward.
At the same time, Atsui unsheathed his sword, but was stopped by Samui, who held an arm in front of him.
"I'm sorry, but those are not agreeable terms," Shizune said diplomatically. "Perhaps we could compromise and you three could wait with Naruto and Anko in a neutral location while I go and alert our Hokage to the situation at hand."
"So you could come back with a bigger force and kill us?" Atsui shot back.
"Atsui, you just made Jonin. Don't make me report your behavior on your first real mission," Samui snapped.
"But you heard what they said, sis. She'll go get their Kage and we'll disappear!"
I sighed as I scratched my chin. "That's not how any of this works."
"And what would you know about it, brat? Your team is the whole reason we're here to begin with," Atsui snapped.
Brat, huh? I guess I could knock his ego down a few pegs while I explain the situation.
"You should probably do a little studying now that you're a Jonin," I began. "If you were killed by Konoha Shinobi while on our soil, it would make us look bad and potentially lead to a war… something that no one here wants. It's in our best interest to keep you safe as well."
"And what's to stop you Konoha Shinobi from trying to kill us the moment we're no longer on your soil?"
"Atsui," Bee called out for the first time. "You should think about what little nine just said, he's not talking crap. If we die, they look bad, if they look bad, their village looks bad, if their village looks bad, they lose support!"
"Fine," Atsui replied sulkily.
Samui let out a relieved sigh. "Thank you, Bee-sama. I had my reservations, but it seems that having you on this mission is…." Samui froze and considered what Bee said. Her head snapped up and her gaze locked onto me. "You're the Kyuubi Jinchuriki?!"
"…Yes," I said slowly.
Panic briefly crossed Samui's face, before she schooled it into a look of cold indifference. "That's not good. Raikage-sama won't appreciate knowing that another nation's Jinchuriki was in the Land of Lightning! A war could break out!"
"All the more reason to keep a level head and think this through," Shizune replied. "This is a delicate situation where the slightest misstep could bring catastrophic consequences. We need to come to a compromise."
"I agree," Samui nodded. "But a compromise will require trust on both sides!"
"Yeah amd we can't trust Konoha, especially after you decided you killed our head Shinobi after signing a peace treaty with us," Atsui spat.
"Atsui, shut up," Samui snapped.
"Why you hypocritical piece of shit," Anko growled. "That incident was Kumo's fault. Your head Shinobi tried to abduct the heiress of the Hyuga clan! He was caught red handed with the girl in a sack!"
"Bullshit," Atsui roared. Unsheathing his sword, he charged forward and attempted to slash Anko, but was blocked by her Kunai.
"ATSUI, I order you to stop right now," Samui yelled, losing her composure.
"There's no reasoning with these people, sis," Atsui replied. Taking several more swings at Anko, he was blocked each time.
"Is that all you've got?" Anko smirked. A snake slipped out of her sleeve and wrapped around Atsui, halting his movement as Anko rushed forward with her Kunai aimed at his neck.
"NO," Samui screamed and rushed forward, blocking the strike with her Tantō, before taking a swing at Anko who disengaged.
"Shizune, go help Anko, I'll deal with Bee here," I said.
"But–"
"Just go. You know me, I'll be fine."
Shizune nodded and moved to stand next to Anko.
"Wait, we can still discuss this," Samui started. "We don't have to fight here."
"You Kumo Shinobi attack us and the moment you see that you can't beat us, you wanna talk about it?!" Anko said incredulously. "Nah, we can't trust you guys. You'll stab us in the back the moment we turn away, just like you did during the peace treaty."
"You bitch, that was Konoha's fault," Atsui snapped.
"As much as I wish she wasn't, Anko's right. We can't trust that you will keep your word. The moment he began to attack, this became a diplomatic incident!" Shizune pointed out.
My attention snapped to Bee when he took a step towards me.
"So, this is a bit of a clusterfuck," I said nonchalantly. I wasn't too concerned. Killer Bee is an extremely powerful Shinobi who's either near or on the same level as a Kage, but he was also laid back and unlikely to kill me straight away.
"And yet you're not worried at all," Bee smirked as he stopped right in front of me. "Has the little man got a plan?"
"Not really," I waved him off. "It's just… meeting another Jinchuriki, especially one as powerful as you is a great opportunity."
"You've met others?" Bee asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Just the Ichibi Jinchuriki so far," I shrugged.
Bee nodded. "Here's how it's gonna go down. We're gonna bump fists and then we're gonna fight it out."
"That's perfect for me!"
I could hear fighting begin in the background. I wasn't overly concerned. Anko and Shizune were more than powerful enough to beat one Jonin and a newly promoted Jonin. If I were to bet, Samui was probably counting on Bee beating me quickly and then helping them out.
Knocking my fist to Bee's, the world faded to black and I found myself standing in a joint mindscape with Bee, Kurama and Gyuki.
"Your seal isn't locking the Kyuubi away," Bee said, both eyebrows raised.
"Well yours isn't either."
Gyuki leaned forward, his eyes locked onto me. "Hmmm. Could it be that a Jinchuriki has finally tamed my most prideful brother?"
"There's no taming going on at all. We just decided to put our differenced aside and work together," I explained.
"I find that extremely unlikely."
"Think of it however you want," Kurama grunted. "It won't change the fact that we are working together now… and we do have something to share with the two of you."
"And what could be so important?"
"Nothing big, just the end of the world," I waved Gyuki off. "And also the permanent death of all biju!"
"Huh?"
Kurama sighed. "It's as Naruto says. Some things have happened in the last hundred years that I recently became aware of. The Jubi's husk has been summoned to earth and there is an organization that plans on sealing all of us biju into it in an attempt to make a weapon."
"What?! You're joking, right?" Gyuki asked suddenly. "In order for that to happen, someone would need to awaken the Rinnegan and that's impossible. Father was the only one to achieve that."
"Our old man's split bloodline has been combined and a Rinnegan was awakened decades ago," Kurama replied. "The stage is almost set and the world is in danger. If nothing is done, the Jubi will be resurrected."
Gyuki paused and regarded Kurama cautiously. "There's something you're not telling us!"
"There is, but it's unimportant."
"If you want others to help you, you should have the courtesy to inform them what you're dragging them into."
"It's nothing major so long as we stop the Akatsuki early," I interrupted. "There's a man pulling the Akatsuki's strings and he wants to resurrect the Jubi and use it to power a Genjutsu that he'll reflect on the moon. The infinite Tsukuyomi where the entire world will be stuck in an endless dream."
"This man wants us all to take a nap?" Bee asked. "Ain't that whack."
Gyuki let out a long suffered sigh. "Bee, now's really not the time for your rapping."
"Just saying what we're thinking," Bee replied. "Now, who is this clown that wants a sleeping world?"
"He calls himself Uchiha Madara, but he's not," I explained. "And he has had his hands in more than one conflict. You two won't have to worry about him though. We'll be the ones taking him down. The Akatsuki is the problem we need help with, they're an organization made up of S class missing-nin."
"And what if you fail?" Gyuki asked. "We can't just leave the fate of the world to the two of you. If you want our help, we'll all have to work together!"
"Very well," Kurama replied. "The two of you can help us kill the fake Madara."
"You sure about this?" I asked Kurama.
"Yes. It's not like including more people will make much of a difference," Kurama said. "In the end, all that matters is that he dies."
"Why do I have the feeling there's still more you're not telling us?" Gyuki asked.
"I mean… we can't exactly tell you everything. We've got a working plan to deal with the fake, the more people that know about it, the bigger the chance the information leaks and the fake takes countermeasures."
Obito finding out and stealing Kakashi's sharingan is literally the worst case scenario. I'm not sure how powerful he would be. He probably wouldn't be as powerful as Kakashi was when he gained both Mangekyou, but he would still be much tougher. He'd definitely be able to use Kamui more effectively, which would make him a much more troublesome opponent.
Come to think of it, I'd probably have to fall back onto another… darker plan, but that was only a last resort. I'd be hurting more than one person by playing that card. Resurrecting Rin was a last resort.
"And you can't trust us?"
"One of the Akatsuki members has the ability to read a persons' mind by ripping out their soul. It's not a matter of trust, it's a matter of keeping things secret until the proper moment," I replied.
Gyuki leaned down and stared directly into my eyes, I stared back, unflinching.
"Fine," Gyuki sighed and leaned back. "You're just as stubborn as my brother. It's no wonder why the two of you get along so well."
"So the two of you will help us?" I asked.
"Help one of my Jinchuriki brothers save the world? Hell yeah I'm in," Bee cheered excitedly.
"From the moment the two of you told us about the Jubi husk, we were going to help you," Gyuki replied calmly. "This was just a matter of finding out what we were getting ourselves into."
"Great… Then we should probably go back outside and stop our teams from fighting. We don't want to cause an international incident."
"Hold on for a second," Bee began. "If we're going to do this right, our villages will need to be in contact with one another."
"That shouldn't be too hard to do," I idly noted. "You're the Raikage's brother and I'm sure I could convince my Hokage."
"To the other nations it'll look like we're forging a new alliance and they'll rush to form their own in preparation of a new Shinobi world war!" Bee explained. "But we're in luck. We're on the brink of a international incident… it just needs a little extra push."
"Wait. Are you saying we need to cause a international incident?" That's crazy, doing that would create a huge amount of tension between our villages… but at the same time, it could work. A dialogue will be opened between our villages and we'll need to negotiate to prevent a war, it was the perfect disguise in order for our villages to prepare for the Akatsuki.
There was also the fact that it would fool whoever arranged this conflict into believing their plan had been successful. There are only nine Jinchuriki in the world. The fact that Bee and I happened to run into each other… Someone was behind all of this. Someone that wanted Konoha and Kumo to go to war!
"You done considering it?"
I nodded. It'll likely cause some tension and create a whole lot of paperwork, but it'll be worth it in the end. "So how do we do this?"
Bee grinned. "How good are your skills as a Jinchuriki?"
Shizune sidestepped Atsui's sparking blade. Anko had been fighting him originally, but they changed opponents once he revealed that he could stream lightning Chakra through his blade. It hadn't been strong enough to cut through Anko's Kunai, but it did give her a shock.
Shifting to the side, Shizune once more avoided Atsui's blade.
"Stand still, damnit," Atsui grunted.
Shizune remained silent as she continued dodging his blade, until finally, Atsui over extended himself.
Stepping forward, Shizune jabbed Atsui in the shoulder as she moved passed him.
"Is that all you've got," Atsui smirked, bringing his blade up, his right arm suddenly fell limp to his side. "What?!"
"I've severed the muscles that enable you to move that arm," Shizune explained, a hard look coming to her face. "Surrender now, or I'll do the same to your other arm!"
Atsui glared at her. "It seems I'm going to have to take this seriously!"
Holding his blade in front of himself, the crackling electricity disappeared and was replaced with a blazing fire. Swinging it, a wave of fire shot off towards Shizune at high speed.
"You're lucky you were able to take out one of my arms." Atsui swung his blade at the retreating Shizune. "If I could use both, you would be dead right now!"
Lunging forward, Atsui brought his burning blade down rapidly, landing a direct strike against Shizune, but as his blade pierced her, she exploded into a cloud of smoke and he felt another strike against his other arm, before falling forward, landing on his stomach.
"I told you that I would do the same to your other arm," Shizune said.
Atsui let out a chuckle as he rolled onto his back. "It seems that I've underestimated you," He muttered weakly. "I guess we both have that in common." Opening his mouth, he began unleashing a wave of fire that was quickly redirected courtesy of Shizune's foot kicking his head to the side.
"There's no room for underestimating an opponent when such large stakes are on the line," Shizune replied. Kneeling down, she stabbed a Senbon into Atsui's thigh.
"What's… going… on?" Atsui asked as he struggled to keep his eyes open.
"I'm sedating you. While this will become an international incident, there's still a chance that war can be averted. That chance becomes less likely with every death!"
"But… I'm…" Atsui slurred before his head thumped back and he passed out.
Shizune let out a sigh as she stood back up. Today had been a mixed bag of good, bad and strange. She just wanted the day to be over now, but she knew that wasn't going to happen. There were several more issues to handle.
Anko was currently fighting the Kumo Kunoichi and she seemed to be doing well for herself. Leading her around as she waited for the poison to take effect… and Naruto… He was busy doing something with the Hachibi Jinchuriki. It looked a lot like the thing he'd done with Tsunade-sama.
Hopefully, when they were done, the Hachibi Jinchuriki would surrender and the fighting would come to an end.
Kumo wouldn't exactly be pleased with what had happened, but they wouldn't have a cause for a war either. Everyone was alive and the fight had been in a secluded area, so the only ones that would know of what happened here would be the Kage and possibly the Daimyo's.
From the looks of it, the poison was beginning to take effect. The Kumo Kunoichi was beginning to pale, her breathing was uneven and her hands were shaking. Just a little bit longer now and they would be able to put this issue behind them.
There was one thing for certain. Tsunade-sama was going to have a lot of paperwork to do. Shizune was suddenly glad that she had her clones handling the bulk of it, because, if she didn't, it was likely that Shizune herself would have to help her with it and she didn't exactly have time for that, what with going on missions and helping out at the hospital.
Anko grunted as she stopped the blonde bitch's blade with a pair of Kunai. She already had an emotionally trying time after going to the place where Orochimaru abandoned her and now she had to deal with this bullshit. A group of Kumo Shinobi that attacked them because they caused a ruckus near their border.
Near being the main word. Orochimaru's base hadn't been in Kumo's territory, it had only been near. Kumo was overstepping, just like they did with the Hyuga incident, except this time they wouldn't be getting away with it. They'd fucked with the wrong Shinobi.
Konoha had a new Hokage. If even half the things Anko heard about Tsunade's temper were true, there was no way in hell she would be letting Kumo walk all over Konoha the same way the Sandaime had.
No. The Godaime Hokage wouldn't let Kumo get away with this.
Anko shook her head. She was getting too caught up in what would happen next. For now, all she had to do was beat these Kumo bastards and wait for Naruto to deal with their Jinchuriki.
Anko smirked as a familiar presence filled the air, but it was short lived when she glanced at Naruto and found that Kumo's Jinchuriki had access to the same bubbling state.
"Well fuck, this is going to get dangerous, isn't it?" She asked no one in particular.
And that's chapter 26.
The plot begins to thicken. Naruto meets Bee. Atsui, a hot headed and newly promoted Jonin is on a delicate mission he never should have been assigned. And Bee is being Bee. Things are going to take a drastic turn soon.
Anyways, I'm up to chapter 33 on the spooky P word website.
P
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I go by the name of ThatKircguy. Just copy the name and paste it in the Patty Rio On search bar. It'd help me out immensely, but don't worry if that's not your style. I will be uploading weekly, so it's not going to be stuck there permanently.
Also, I post my original stuff there as well. It's nothing much, just two short stories for now, but I'll post more as I write them.
Next chapter will be posted on the 28th of June.
Until then dudes and dudettes.