The air in the clearing was tense and rife with an amalgamation of the bloodlust rolling off of the former Kiri-nin and the sheer malice emanating from Naruto's three-tailed cloak. The three ninja silently stood at the ready, waiting for someone to make the first move. Itachi, knowing Kisame would likely start to get impatient very soon, expected him to be the one to charge. However, he was proven wrong when a myriad of silver chakra chains that each had a reddish glow to them sprouted from the ground and attempted to bind the two rogues, but they leaped out of the way in the nick of time. Just as they did, a second Naruto burst from the ground behind them with chains extending from his palms, showing them where those chains originated from.
That momentary distraction was all the original Naruto needed, and in an instant, he used the speed boost afforded to him by Kurama's chakra to close the distance between himself and Kisame with a hand crackling with lightning. Itachi's Sharingan widened in surprise, but upon closer inspection, it wasn't just a Chidori that Naruto was wielding. Several chakra chains coiled themselves around the blonde's arm up to his palm, and they were conducting the lightning chakra and bathing his entire arm in it. Kisame did not have enough time to do anything more than somewhat shift his body just enough to mitigate the damage, and damage it did, as the proverbial blade of lightning practically cleaved through a decent portion of the shark-man's chest.
Itachi was left completely stunned at the sight of his partner being launched from the blow, spewing blood from both his chest wound and his mouth. Only when Kisame bounced along the ground in a bloody heap with Samehada hurriedly scuttling toward its master and Naruto diving to the ground primed to kill him did Itachi snap out of his stupor. However, the clone from before wasn't standing idly, and the Uchiha quickly found himself dodging and maneuvering around another bevy of chakra chains, leaving Kisame to his fate.
Speaking of Kisame, he was not having a great day. Bleeding out on the ground wasn't particularly fun, but the modified Chidori that the fox brat looked to be planning on decapitating him with would make his day a hell of a lot worse. He just barely grabbed a hold of Samehada in time to hoist it up to block the attack, and the sentient sword did its job by absorbing the chakra from both the Chidori and the chains, dispersing them as well as absorbing the blonde's three-tailed cloak before the shark-man batted him away with his free hand.
Naruto quickly rolled into a handspring and returned to his feet, then he immediately flew into another set of hand seals and slammed his hands on the ground beside him, erecting a mud wall that blocked the massive fireball Itachi sent his way after dispatching of his clone. Knowing that the fireball was merely a distraction, Naruto flicked a kunai out of his sleeve and swiveled to clash with Itachi's own kunai. He took great care to avoid making eye contact with the Uchiha and elected to sprout another barrage of chakra chains from his back to fend the man off instead.
Meanwhile, Kisame was busy absorbing the chakra Samehada snagged from Naruto to repair the damage the blonde did to him.
"That was a hell of an opening shot," Kisame remarked with a chuckle before returning to his feet. "I knew this would be fun."
Back with Itachi, in the midst of weaving through the onslaught of chains, Itachi sent a wave of shuriken at Naruto while his back was turned, but they were all swiftly batted away by the chains without the blonde turning around a single time. Itachi didn't have much time to ponder this before he was forced to dodge once again, and a Big Ball Rasengan, courtesy of the newly arriving Jiraiya of the Sannin, slammed into the ground where he once stood.
As if through a mental link, Naruto took that as his cue to dash towards a grinning Kisame to engage him one on one. The battle was on, sentient zanbato meeting chakra chains in fierce clashes. It became apparent rather quickly that the chains wouldn't survive the encounters with Samehada, however, as the scaly sword would just absorb the chakra and disintegrate the chains, so Naruto opted to play things a different way. He darted deeper into the forest with Kisame giving chase, leading the man away from his partner and the Sannin.
"You're not getting away, brat!" Kisame shouted before launching into a set of handseals. "Water Style: Exploding Water Shockwave!"
A massive torrent of water spewed from the man's mouth and furiously plowed through the trees towards its target. The surge very quickly rose into a frighteningly large tsunami with Kisame sitting at the helm. Naruto leaped back and bounded from tree to tree to escape the wave, eventually scrambling to the treetops. He wasn't safe there, though, as Kisame had sent a pack of sharks after him amidst the chaos. Cursing, he shot out another set of chains to defend against and dispatch of the sharks while he bit his thumb and flew through a set of hand seals of his own.
"Summoning jutsu!" he cried, and with a large plume of smoke entered an equally large, fiery red salamander that slammed to the water-logged ground in front of Kisame.
"Naruto, what's up?" the summon casually asked before taking note of the situation.
"No time for chitchat, Kenji," Naruto said while standing atop the salamander's head. "We're up against a water user; you know what to do."
"Heh, we light 'em up," Kenji replied with a grin, and the giant salamander lifted his front legs and flew threw a set of hand signs that put Kisame on edge. "Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"
Meanwhile, Naruto was preparing a jutsu of his own. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" he shouted, and a strong gust of wind expelled from his mouth and fanned the already absurdly powerful flames into a raging inferno, turning much of the surrounding water into steam and setting numerous trees ablaze.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Kisame cursed while flipping through more hand seals and raising a massive wall of water to block the oncoming firestorm.
When the titanic elemental clash died down, the surrounding area was in a peculiar state: a forest fire that was slowly being done away with by the steam and splashing water. The amount of steam in the air limited visibility, but that wasn't going to hamper Kisame, and he spawned another set of sharks to take down the salamander while Samehada sniffed out the jinchuriki.
Meanwhile, Naruto had departed from atop Kenji's head, as he knew that Kisame wouldn't remain idle. When the sharks revealed themselves, Naruto used the Subterranean Voyage jutsu to tunnel underground while Kenji easily fended off the onslaught of predators. He may not have been the boss summon, but he was more than strong enough for this.
However, after the last shark was viciously batted away with his tail, five Kisames (though each lacked Samehada) rose from the remaining water surrounding Kenji and trapped him in a massive collaborative water prison. A sixth Kisame stepped forward with Samehada in hand and a wicked grin, but he was accosted by chains piercing through his body from beneath and behind him, and Naruto re-emerged from under the surface with a victorious grin. He sent Kenji a nod, and the salamander vanished from the water prison and returned to the summoning realm.
That victory was short lived, however, as the Kisame that Naruto caught gave the teen a grin of his own and dispersed into water, revealing himself to be another water clone. Just then, the real Kisame emerged from under the surface and grabbed the downed Samehada before clobbering Naruto with it. The rogue ninja reveled in the shock and horror written across the teen's face, but that revelry transitioned to confusion when the teen smirked at him. It dawned on him much too late that he fell into a trap as well, and the Naruto in front of him exploded into lightning, shocking him and sending currents of electricity through the rest of the remaining water, taking down Kisame's water clones as a result.
When the shock died down, Kisame fell to the ground in a heap, and the real Naruto finally emerged from the soaked ground with a smug smirk.
"You don't look like you're having fun anymore," he taunted the man with a level of mirth that drove the Tsuki no Me member up the wall.
"Oh, you are so dead, you fucking brat," Kisame snarled while returning to his feet.
"Raiga said the same thing; didn't work out too well for him," Naruto replied with a shrug.
Kisame gave him a feral grin. "I ain't a pissant like Raiga."
"No, I suppose you're not," Naruto remarked while pulling on Kurama's chakra once again, and his three-tailed cloak returned. With a cross hand sign, dozens of shadow clones popped into existence, each sporting a three-tailed cloak of their own. They launched into action faster than the eye could see, and Kisame was hard at work battling off the swarm with unwavering brutality.
He didn't have any particular trouble defending from the onslaught at first, and Samehada was certainly enjoying the chakra feast, but things became a touch more arduous when the chains started to come out. Kisame was stuck dodging and batting away a slew of Kyubi chakra-reinforced chains, never having enough time to perform hand seals for any large scale jutsu to clear the area, and Naruto only continued sending the clones after him in waves. Once the chains started coiling around his limbs and knocked Samehada from his grasp, he knew exactly what the blonde was scheming, and he didn't like it one bit.
Soon enough, Kisame was strung up and restrained by a myriad of reinforced chakra chains courtesy of the shadow clones, and the original Naruto only smirked and went through a final set of hand signs. A violent chirping entered the recently-formed clearing, and the familiar sight of the Chidori presented itself in Naruto's palm. Then, more chains sprouted from his upper arm and coiled themselves around it up to his palm to conduct the electricity, creating a lightning blade just like he had at the beginning of the fight.
"Killer Bee is either going to be proud or pissed that I bastardized the Lariat," Naruto mused before shrugging. "Oh well."
Mindful of the spike of negativity he sensed stepping into the clearing, Naruto used the boost granted by Kurama's chakra to zoom towards Kisame intent on beheading him, but he had to change course to dodge the spatter of fireballs from the Phoenix Flower jutsu that rained down on him. Darting to a nearby tree, he bounced off the trunk and shot like a missile to the bound man with his arm crackling dangerously.
Just before Naruto could hit his mark and kill the man, Itachi appeared in front of Kisame with a tanto and defended against the blonde's attack. The tanto was cleaved right through like butter, but that was expected. Itachi just needed to be in position to lock eyes with Naruto. The three tomoe of his Sharingan spun and morphed into the tri-bladed pinwheel of his Mangekyo.
"Tsukuyomi," Itachi whispered, and Naruto's world froze and flickered into an empty field where he and Itachi were the only occupants.
Once Naruto regained his bearings, he looked down at his arm that was bereft of lightning, and he shot the Uchiha an annoyed glare. "You couldn't have waited literally one second?"
"His death would only serve to make matters more complicated than necessary," Itachi replied.
"I don't see how taking a piece off the board early makes matters complicated for anyone but Tsuki no Me," Naruto countered.
"That's exactly the point. A loss like that will cause Madara to do something rash, such as moving on the jinchuriki earlier than planned."
"Are you all not moving on them already? What's this whole encounter even for if that's not the case?"
Itachi sighed, and Naruto could gleam a hint of frustration coming from the man. "Madara is rather upset at the loss of the Sanbi during the Kiri rebellion, and he wanted us to gauge your abilities without the assistance of other members of Akatsuki. That's why killing Kisame would cause more trouble than it's worth, especially if Zetsu is watching this battle, which I'm certain he is."
"So, you've been tailing us for a week just to do some damn recon?" Naruto asked with a sense of growing indignation.
"In essence," Itachi dryly confirmed, and a small smile formed when Naruto began to sputter. "I'm surprised you know the Chidori. I didn't think you ever returned to Konoha."
"I haven't, at least not to learn any techniques. I sold the Scroll of Seals back to Kakashi for it in Nami."
"That is… understandable, I suppose," Itachi exhaled, and then he moved on to the real reason he placed Naruto in his ultimate genjutsu. "Madara and Zetsu have been discussing more lately about retrieving the Rinnegan."
"That doesn't surprise me," Naruto responded. "Who wouldn't want the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths?"
"From what I can gleam, they need them for something specifically," Itachi continued. "What that is, I am not certain, but I can hazard a guess that it relates to capturing the jinchuriki. The eyes may be necessary in order to seal away the biju."
"And that's likely why he tried so hard to get Nagato on his side in the beginning," Naruto mused. "You mentioned earlier about their timeline. When is your group planning to move in full?"
"As soon as the Sanbi has reformed," Itachi answered. "Zetsu believes that it should take about three years. They are confident that they can eliminate Akatsuki and obtain the Rinnegan in that time."
"We'll see about that," Naruto muttered. "Thanks for the update, Itachi."
"Madara doesn't trust me at all, so I get what information I can," Itachi nodded.
"Can we stop calling him Madara?" Naruto asked in exasperation. "We all know that he isn't actually Madara."
"He's an Uchiha and is much more powerful than me," Itachi shrugged.
"That doesn't exactly narrow things down, Itachi."
Itachi's eye twitched. "I will ignore that."
"You'd better," Naruto chuckled, and then the illusion broke. Now back in the real world, Naruto's attack petered out and the clones holding Kisame in place dispelled, freeing the man. Naruto nearly fell forward to the ground, but he caught himself and created space between himself and his two opponents.
"Took your sweet time, Itachi," Kisame grumbled as he hefted Samehada back to his shoulder.
"He broke out of Tsukuyomi…" Itachi dryly replied, keeping up the act in the most Itachi way possible. "That is… unprecedented."
Kisame's beady eyes widened, but before he could respond, they were joined once again by the Toad Sage who took his place beside Naruto. To make matters worse, two more people arrived in the clearing as well, one of them being a frantic genin and the other landing in the clearing with a thud in the form of Tsunade of the Sannin.
"What the hell is going on here?!" shouted both of the newest arrivals upon witnessing the destruction on display.
"Kisame, we're leaving," Itachi commanded, and the larger man only angrily huffed before acquiescing.
"This isn't over, kid. I'll hunt you down when it's time for our rematch," Kisame said with a malicious grin before he and Itachi flickered away.
"I'll be waiting," Naruto breathed out, and his Kyubi cloak vanished.
"The hell was that about?" Tsunade asked Naruto, and Jiraiya was just as curious.
"That was Tsuki no Me," he answered.
"And they are?" she followed up.
"A group of S-rank terrorists working towards world domination, basically," Naruto responded, and he noticed the brown-haired girl's eyes widen at the information. He assumed that this was Jiraiya's protégé.
"So, the foil to Akatsuki, then," Jiraiya mused.
"If this was one of your shitty books, then sure," Naruto replied, and the man slumped in dejection.
"Blondes are so mean," the man lamented, and said blondes snickered at him.
While the two were reveling in sweet schadenfreude, the bun-haired genin was staring at Tsunade with stars in her eyes. She was legitimately in the presence of her idol, the very woman she aspired to live up to. She was standing next to the literal gold standard for kunoichi the world over-
"The fuck are you staring at, brat?"
Tenten was snapped out of her wonder by the question (demand?) and met with three pairs of eyes gazing back at her. She ignored the amused face of her sensei and locked onto the mildly annoyed glare she was receiving from Tsunade Senju, and she couldn't help but minutely flinch under the woman's scrutiny.
"This is Tenten, the genin I took under my wing for the time being," spoke Jiraiya when it became clear that Tenten would do nothing but flounder in her idol's presence.
Tsunade quirked an eyebrow and studied her even further. "I'm not all that impressed."
Whatever modicum of pride she might have been feeling for getting a decent handle on the Swamp of the Underworld jutsu that Jiraiya gave her earlier was promptly stomped out from the quick dismissal, and she practically deflated.
"Cut her some slack," Naruto spoke up, taking pity on the girl in her admittedly hilarious predicament. "She's a Konoha kunoichi, so she probably looks up to you. I'd imagine meeting you for the first time would have plenty of people starstruck."
Tsunade considered it for a brief moment before she gave the blonde a noncommittal shrug. "You weren't when we first met."
"Yeah, well, I'm just built different."
The save from Naruto allowed Tenten to finally take the older boy in, and the first thing she noticed was the pair of bright, blue eyes swimming in a mixture of mirth and curiosity while observing her. It made her even more self-conscious than being written off by Tsunade already had, but it was a different kind. She would never admit it to anyone, but she had a bit of difficulty pulling her eyes away from his own. When she finally did, she found herself transfixed by his spiky, blonde hair that had the beginning stages of bangs on either side of his whiskered face. Add that to the calm, self-assured confidence he radiated even in the face of two retreating S-rank criminals, and she'd be lying if she said he wasn't the most aggressively handsome boy she had met since Neji.
However, there was something else to note about him. Minus the strange cloak, he looked so reminiscent of the Yondaime from pictures she had seen. It was strange; maybe they were related in some way? He barely looked any older than her, so maybe they were not-so-distant cousins?
"You're spacing out again," Naruto pointed out with a chuckle.
Tenten snapped out of her thoughts with an embarrassed blush, and she deflated even further when Tsunade joined in on snickering at her expense.
"I think everyone has had a long day," Jiraiya spoke up to spare his student anymore embarrassment, and Naruto nodded with a sigh.
"Where's Karin?" he asked Tsunade.
"I left her with Shizune back at the inn when we felt a few massive bursts of chakra," she answered as the group began to depart from the clearing. "The giant wave fighting off the forest fire was pretty easy to follow."
While the adults conversed, Tenten couldn't help but shudder at the reminder of that wave of chakra she had also felt. She wasn't a sensor by any stretch, so the fact that the chakra being released in that battle was so potent that she could practically taste it without being in the area unsettled her. It had such a violent, malevolent presence to it, but she mentally wrote it off as coming from either the infamous clan killer, Itachi Uchiha, or Kisame Hoshigaki of the Seven fucking Swordsmen. That much chakra (and so dark, at that) coming from the mysterious blonde teen that seemed pleasant enough was just incredibly difficult to wrap her head around.
It felt way too much like Gaara for her tastes, and the less said about that monster who mangled her teammate, the better.
Tenten was then struck by a thought; Lady Tsunade was the world's premier medic-nin, and there aren't many afflictions that she shouldn't be able to at least do something for. Lee's ninja career was in danger after the damage he sustained in the preliminaries. Maybe someone of Tsunade's caliber could help Lee? She had to be able to, right??
Of course, she could help him. She was Lady fucking Tsunade! She was the greatest medic to ever come out of Konoha. She could probably be bisected by a giant tree root and still come back swinging.
Her mind was made up. Now that she and Jiraiya had found her, she would do whatever possible to get the legendary healer to help her teammate. Even if they weren't successful in getting her to become the new Hokage, she would make damn sure that the woman at least came back to the village and helped Lee, even if she had to drag her back by her pony tails.
Naruto plopped down onto his futon with a tired sigh. Karin's sensory prowess was both a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing since she could point out just about any chakra signatures coming their way, effectively making it impossible to ever get the drop on them when combined with the negativity sensing Naruto got from Kurama. It was a curse, however, when she could practically feel the entire battle between himself and an incredibly powerful opponent from a good distance away and was so stricken with worry that she nearly had a panic attack.
It took 5 whole minutes to successfully pry the girl off of him once she laid eyes on him upon their return. Afterward, though, she returned to her training and was hard at work trying to breathe life back into a fish; where she or Shizune even got the fish, he had no idea, but she looked laser-focused, so he left her to it. As he relaxed and melted into the futon, he heard a faint shuffle accompanied by a yawn in the back of his mind.
"I felt you pull on my chakra earlier," the fox lazily remarked. "What happened?"
"Tsuki no Me showed up," Naruto replied with a sigh. "I needed a quick speed boost for my Lightning Cleaver, and my chains are a lot sturdier when I'm using your chakra. The negativity sensing also helps some with the tunnel vision."
"Ah," the giant fox yawned again before placing his hand back onto his folded arms. "Did you get 'em?"
"Almost, but they ran off."
"Weak."
"I know, right?" Naruto agreed with mild incredulity before he quickly deflated. "Although, one of them was Itachi, so I couldn't kill both of them."
"The only good Uchiha is a dead Uchiha," Kurama grumbled.
"I mean, sure, but Itachi's our informant. We kinda need him."
"He associates with the degenerate flesh bag who dared used those blasted eyes to subjugate me; ME, the mightiest of the biju."
"…Which time?"
"Watch it," growled the annoyed fox.
"I'm just joking with you, Kurama," Naruto placated while putting his hands up in mock surrender. "We'll find him and kill him in time."
"We'd better."
Just then, Naruto felt a different tug in his mind in conjunction with his Akatsuki ring vibrating. Within moments, a new voice entered his mind alongside Kurama.
"Naruto," addressed a familiar, deep voice that he knew came from Akatsuki's leader. "It has been some time since you left Ame. What is the progress of your mission?"
"The mission is just about complete," Naruto responded. "Raiga and the Kurosuki Family have been neutralized, and the Kiba blades have been retrieved. On our way to Kiri to return them, Karin sensed Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki of Tsuki no Me following us in Hi no Kuni. We gave them the slip, but they tailed us all the way to Tanzaku, and I had to fight them off."
"Do you require assistance?"
"No, but Konan is gonna send some anyway because she's a mother hen."
"Indeed."
"We ran into two of the Sannin today," Naruto continued. "The third one is in the area, as well. Apparently, he's wounded and trying to con his teammate into healing him after attacking Konoha. I doubt she's going to go along with it, but I'm thinking of sticking around in any event because this may be the best opportunity we'll have for a while to kill him."
Pain lowly hummed while considering the idea. "That does sound ideal. You may postpone returning the Kiba to Kiri in the interest of eliminating Orochimaru once and for all. I do not envision you needing any assistance in this endeavor…"
There was a pause, as if the wielder of the Rinnegan was looking at something in the room with him. "…However, do not be surprised if help arrives, nonetheless."
"Konan is listening, isn't she?" Naruto deadpanned, quickly putting together what was happening.
"Yes, she is," Pain replied, and Naruto could hear the amusement edging into his tone.
"Are you eating well, Naruto?" the soft voice of Konan smoothly intone in his mind.
"Yes, mom," Naruto groaned, though not even he could fight the small smile from forming.
"Good," she replied before exiting the connection, leaving Naruto alone with Pain once again.
"You have your updated mission. I shall leave you to it," Pain concluded before ending the connection, leaving Kurama alone again in Naruto's mindscape.
"Too damn crowded in here when you humans do that."
"Shut up, Kurama."
I wasn't entirely sure what direction I would go with this plot bunny for a long while, so I'm just gonna have fun with it. Fuck it, we ball, and all that.
Thanks for reading.