Chapter 7 : The Zombie Brothers!
Naruto opened his eyes when he felt something stir in his arms, blinking a few times to adjust to the light the blond looked down and found a smile work its way on his face. Konan was lying on his chest sleeping peacefully, a content smile showing on her face as she tried to burrow her way deeper into his muscles. He gently rolled the blue-haired woman off of him and leaned on his side as he looked down at her face, reaching out with a hand Naruto brushed away a few strands of Konan's hair as his knuckles caressed her cheeks. Leaning down Naruto pressed his lips to hers in a light kiss, which seemed to wake up Konan as she began to stir. Opening her eyes Konan smiled as she saw a pair of familiar blue eyes looking at her. The blue-haired woman wrapped her arms around Naruto's neck, bringing his head in down for another lip lock. "I hope you plan on waking me up this way every time we sleep together," Konan mumbled with half-lidded eyes and a coy smile.
Naruto grinned at her as he went in for another kiss, "when you're ready I'll wake you up in far better ways than this…" In emphasis Naruto let his hands ghost across her chest, lightly touching her nipples which could be felt through the fabric of her shirt since she never wore a bra to bed. Konan gave a soft moan at his touch before Naruto brought his hand back up to her face, cupping and caressing her cheek with his thumb. Even though she had slept with Naruto many times since they became an official couple, Konan had asked Naruto that they wait to go any further and so they had not done anything other than some heavy petting. Naruto knew this was Konan's first relationship; because of that, she wanted to take things slow, to find out more about him and more about herself after having finally been given the chance to do so.
It was something Naruto could understand and in truth had no problem doing.
"Mm… I'll be looking forward to that time," Konan told him with a small smile on her face, "what time is Jiraiya-sensei going to be here?"
"Not for another few hours," Naruto replied as he lay down on his side and pulled Konan to him. Jiraiya had gone out to do have a last-second meeting with someone in his spy network before he and Naruto left for Konoha. Since Naruto was not sure how long it would be before he could spend any real time with Konan or the others, he had taken to spending a full day with each of them. Yesterday had been Konan's day and the two had spent most of their time at an area that had four waterfalls which combined into one large waterfall with dozens of little pools at the bottom, the place was called Taki No Kesshou (crystal falls) and they had gone there for a picnic before just cuddling together under the stars.
After hearing that she still had a few hours with Naruto, Konan gave a grin that was almost similar to the blonds as she rolled them over so she was straddling his waist. "Since Jiraiya-sensei is not going to be here for a while what do you want to do?" she asked with a small almost imperceptible smirk.
Naruto smiled as brought his lips to meet hers.
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Yugito let out a tired huff as she continued to run; she was not sure how long she had been running. It could have been hours or even days, the only that she knew was that she needed to keep moving.
Her clothing was currently ruined, the purple armor piece she wore was gone having been destroyed during her recent battle. Her shirt was ripped in several places, revealing her stomach and parts of her bra. Her pants were destroyed having been turned into shorts, with several large gashes running along the sides. Some of her wounds were still bleeding, having not had the chance to heal with the amount of chakra she had used in her battle. The blond Kumo Jonin had just been returning from a mission when she had been attacked, by two men wearing black cloaks with red clouds on them.
Akatsuki.
She was not quite sure just how they had managed to locate her, but she supposed it didn't matter. They had found her and demanded that she come with them, knowing who they were and what they wanted she had refused and the two had proceeded to try and capture her. After her first battle with them, she had realized that she was at a serious disadvantage when fighting them out in the open, knowing she had created a distraction and ran. Currently, she was in a sewer system deep below a village several miles off the border to Kaminari No Kuni, it was her hope that she could get them in an enclosed space and trap them there. If she could do that she was sure that she could take them out by playing to her strengths, but she knew not to underestimate the two. She had done that before when they first caught her even knowing what group they belonged to, that had nearly cost her her life.
The two were not only strange-looking but were also vastly more powerful than the average shinobi with an odd mix of techniques she had never seen and powers she did not know existed.
One of them was a tan-skinned man with a bandana like Hitea-ate; it had a waterfall symbol with a slash mark through it showing he was a missing ninja from Takigakure (Village Hidden in the Water Falls). His irises were a greenish color and pupil-less while the rest of the eyes were red. He wore a black mask leaving everything covered except his cheeks and eyes visible. The thing that got to her however was the four masks the man had on his back, if that was not odd enough then the fact that those masks could detach themselves and fight independently certainly was. Not only that but it appeared that each mask was linked to a specific element and the man would often combine two elements into a collaboration jutsu of some kind, making the fight not only six on one but also twelve times harder.
The other person she was faced with was even weirder, despite being the more normal-looking of the two. He had slicked-back white hair with purple eyes, while he held a three-bladed scythe in one of his hands. Despite this seemingly normal look, she had found out the man was anything but. When she had first attacked him he had been severely injured, with Yugito managing to puncture one of his lungs with her Signature Kaizuki assassination attack. Despite that injury, nothing had happened except for him to start cursing her out about how he was going to sacrifice her to Jashin, apparently, he had gained some form of immortality by becoming a zealot for a religion known as Jashinism. While Yugito had not quite believed what he had said, his religion was later proven to be much more than she had first thought. After making some kind of weird occult symbol on the ground, the man had proceeded to ingest her blood which he had gotten with a lucky hit. As soon as he did the man's entire appearance had changed, his skin turned black with a white exoskeleton over it. He had then used the scythe he had been carrying to impale himself through the leg, and somehow much to the blond woman's shock that same injury appeared on her own leg. It wasn't hard for her to figure out that anyone whose blood eat ingested became injured when he injured himself, so long as he was in the middle of that symbol. Knowing this Yugito had used Nibi's chakra to and blasted the man out of the symbol, before ruining it and running.
It was then she had headed into a village she recognized from the few times she had been there and then headed straight for the sewers. Just a little bit further… she thought as she ran into an open room. Just as Yugito reached her destination instincts kicked in, causing her to duck just as a large scythe passed through where she had been standing. Spinning around she looked over to see the two that had been chasing her walking in, the scythe being yanked back into the white-haired man's hands.
"That was pretty good of you to dodge Neko-chan," he said with a grin, "though I am the slowest member of Akatsuki."
"Careful Hidan," said the one with the mask in a gravelly voice, "she might kill you if you're not careful."
Hidan merely smirked, "pft you know that's not possible, if she could kill me I'd let her."
Yugito took several deep breaths as she slowed her heart rate, "I'm going to make you regret underestimating me." she reached into her pouch and pulled out one of her kunai which had an explosive note attached to it. At the same time she felt a ring on her finger shift as it pressed against the fabric of her pouch, she recognized it as the proposal ring that Naruto had given to her about a month after the blond had spent a week with her, to make up for being in the Icha Icha Movie. Like Mei's it also had the seals on the underside, so that she could use it to call him when she needed him and never lose it.
She personally did not want to get Naruto involved in this and possibly get hurt, but she knew he would not only be pissed if she did not call him but that he was also more powerful than her. Besides that, she had promised Naruto that she would call him if she ever ran into Akatsuki, "Now I'm gonna show you why I'm the second strongest ninja in Kumo!" Yugito threw a kunai at the gate behind them; the sharp sizzling sound was the only warning as the kunai exploded causing the gate to collapse and the way out to be sealed shut. When the two were distracted by the explosion she channeled some chakra into her ring, sending a single pulse to let Naruto know she needed him.
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Naruto stopped as he and Jiraiya were walking to their next destination, Jiraiya walked along for a little way before noticing his student had stopped and was staring into space. Stopping as well Jiraiya turned to look at him, "Naruto is there a problem?"
Naruto looked at his sensei, "one of my Hiraishin seals went off, the one with Yugito. I'll see you later sensei," Naruto disappeared in a yellow flash before Jiraiya could even speak.
"Just like his father," Jiraiya mused as he continued on his journey
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"Kaiton: Zukoku! (Fire Release: Infinite hard work)"
Several compressed fireballs shot out of the mouth of the mask Yugito had come to recognize as the fire one. The fire balls soon turned into a large fire storm that enveloped the area in front of her.
"Fuuton: Atsugi! (Wind Release: Severing Wind Pressure)"
A large maelstrom of pressurized wind was launched out of another mask, catching up to the flame and increasing its size and power. Yugito was just about to jump out of the way when a figure appeared right in front of her, the blond woman smiled as she recognized the familiar mop of spiky blond hair.
'Suiton: Suejinheki. (Water Release: Water Encampment Wall)'
As Naruto spread his arms out in front of him a giant wall of water began forming from the moisture in the air, in less than a second he and Yugito were surrounded by water as the collaboration jutsu smashed into the protective shield. There was a hiss of steam as the two jutsu clashed, the fire jutsu trying and failing to overpower Naruto's water wall. When the fire was completely put out Naruto pointed a finger at the two cloaked Akatsuki members.
'Suiton: Dabakufu No Jutsu. (Water Release: Great Waterfall Jutsu)'
The wall of water soon swirled around in a vortex before it launched itself at Kakazu and Hidan, the two jumped out of the way as the water drilled straight through the cement they were standing on.
"And you told me to be careful," Naruto said with a smirk as he turned his head to look at Yugito. "Yet here you are picking a fight with Akatsuki, really now Yugi-chan how hypocritical of you…"
"It's not like I went out of my way to find them," Yugito mumbled in embarrassment about her own words being turned on her. "Besides I called you didn't I?"
"True, and I'm gonna have to find some way to Thank you, as I was just getting bored from not having a challenge," Naruto grinned at her. "So how would you like to go on a date later tonight and then maybe afterward we can take a nice trip to a communal hot spring…"
"That sounds nice…" Yugito said with a small blush.
"OI!"
The two turned to Hidan who had just interrupted their banter, "Who the fuck do you think you are you prick!" Hidan yelled as he pointed at Naruto with his scythe. Said blond blinked as an owlish expression came to his face and he pointed at himself, "Yes you! I'm gonna sacrifice you to Jashin for interrupting me you stupid fuck!"
"My, this guy's got a mouth on him," Naruto mumbled, "Which one do you want Yugi-chan?" the blond male asked as he turned to his fellow blond.
"I'll take the loud one," Yugito said with a smirk as she began channeling Nibi's chakra. Soon a dark purple cloak covered her frame, shaped like a cat with two swishing tails behind her. "You can have the other one…be careful; those masks of his can detach and launch jutsu at you."
Naruto nodded in acknowledgment as he put on his shinobi face; raising a hand he pointed it at Kakazu.
'Raiton: Byakurai. (Lightning Release: Pale White Lightning)'
A giant bolt of lightning shot out of Naruto's finger and charged towards Kakazu, one of Kakazu's masks came out of his back and to his aid as it opened his mouth.
"Raiton: Gian! (Lightning Release: False Darkness)"
A large bolt of lightning shot at Naruto's jutsu crashing into it as the two began to vie for power, Naruto pushed more chakra into his jutsu and overpowered Kakazu's. There was a large explosion of electricity as the blond's jutsu plowed through the Raiton: Gian and charged on to Kakazu, said man was forced to jump out of the way only to find Naruto right in his face. The greedy member of Akatsuki tilted his head to the side to dodge the fist, at the same time his skin began to darken and harden as he grabbed onto the blond's arm pulling Naruto into a punch. Only for the said blond to disappear in a puff of smoke as another Naruto came at him from the ground with a Rasengan in hand, Kakazu jumped back as he dodged the Rasengan and sent out several tendrils to impale the blond. Once again there was a puff of smoke signifying a Kage Bushin being used.
"I see," Kakazu said as he turned around to see Naruto standing a little ways behind him, "your description matches that of the Kyuubi Jinchurikki. I see the rumors about your battle prowess are true," as Naruto smirked, Kakazu pulled out what Naruto recognized as a bingo book and began to flip through it. "You have a 500,000 Yen bounty on your head, quite impressive for someone who only gained fame recently. After Akatsuki extracts your Bijuu I will be able to make a nice bounty off your corpse…"
"You're more than welcome to try," Naruto said as he got into his fighting stance, "but neither you nor Akatsuki will get what you want from me…"
"We will see," Kakazu said as all four masks emerged from his back, two of them came at Naruto. Said blond jumped out of the way just as one shot a blast of fire at him, when Naruto jumped out of the way another mask shot a ball of wind at the fire blowing into Naruto's path and strengthening the flames. The blond shinobi's mouth bulged with water, as he thought his jutsu.
'Suiton: Kaihodan! (Water Release: Pressure Canon)'
A strong jet stream of water was shot out of Naruto's mouth and headed for the flames, dousing them with a hiss of steam as Naruto landed on the ground. As soon as he did the blond was forced to dodge a blast of lightning that came at him from behind, flipping himself around Naruto made a slicing motion and launched a Kaze No Yaiba at the lightning mask. Before the wind blade could cut through the mask, the fire mask appeared in front of Naruto's jutsu and launched a stream of fire at it. The wind was soon reduced to nothing as the fire overtook it and headed for Naruto, who jumped out of the way and held out his hand.
'Suiton: Saryuudan No Jutsu. (Water Release: Water Dragon Jutsu)'
A large dragon made of water coalesced into existence besides Naruto and crashed against the powerful flame overpowering it and heading for the fire mask, which jumped out of the way. Naruto turned around just as the lightning mask shot a blast of lightning at him.
'Raiton: Byakurai. (Lightning Release: Pale White Lightning)'
Naruto launched another lightning bolt from his fingers, slicing through his opponent's lightning bolt. Landing on the ground Naruto was forced to continue dodging Jutsu and launching counter Jutsu, finding that he was not gaining any ground against his opponent. The blond cursed as he continued to find himself being forced to react defensively and never get in a solid advantage, whenever he managed to get the upper hand on one of the masks one of the others would come to back it up. As another Fuuton, Kaiton collaboration Jutsu headed for him Naruto decided it was time to change the playing field.
'Suiton: Bakusui Shoha. (Water Release: Exploding Water Shockwave)'
A large amount of water burst out of nowhere and covered the entire area, dousing the flames and forcing Kakazu to jump on the water. As soon as he did Naruto was there aiming a punch at the man's face, Kakazu hardened his skin again as he grabbed the fist and pulled the blond into a knee. Naruto jumped up and over the knee as well as the rest of the bounty hunter, forcing Kakazu to let go. Naruto came back down with an ax kick, only for Kakazu to sidestep the attack and smash a foot into Naruto's face. Naruto puffed out of existence and Kakazu only had enough time to turn around as Naruto smashed a palm strike into his solar plexus and sending the man flying, the blond had no time to celebrate his hit as one of the masks launched a blast of lightning at Naruto. Said blond began to spin as he covered himself in a protective layer of chakra as he called upon his elements; soon a mixture of wind and water swirled around him in a tornado-like fashion. When the lightning hit it was merely absorbed and combined with the other two elements. The swirling wind, water, and lightning started to change into a black mass with electricity as several thousand wind blades occasionally flying out while water swirled around him in a whirlpool-like fashion. The entire spectacle looked like something akin to a miniature hurricane contained in a ball.
Naruto grit his teeth as he continued his spin, combining and controlling the three elements within his vortex. This was the culmination of all of Naruto's years of trying to combine his elements, for a long time the blond had imagined combining all three elements into a single attack. It had only been about a week since he had been able to create his first-ever combination of his three main elements, managing to create a storm cloud by gathering his elements into the palm of his hand and compressing it into a super-dense matter. The ability to do this was ridiculously difficult to control, requiring him to split his attention between the three different elements until they merged but the power behind any of the jutsu Naruto planned on making would be unlike anything ever imagined.
Suddenly Naruto shot up into the air as the speed of the storm swirling around him began to increase, suddenly it stopped and for a moment it seemed as if everything around Naruto had become frozen in time. Right until several thousand dark storm clouds filled with lightning, cutting winds and large cannonball-sized water drills and hailstones were launched everywhere around him with all the fury of a raging tempest. Two of Kakazu's masks were completely annihilated; the Lightning mask and fire mask were unable to get out of the way in time and suffered what almost seemed to be the wrath of an angry god, as the maelstrom of power tore into them. In the center of this power blast was Naruto who had his arms and legs splayed out, using his chakra to fuel the raging storm.
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Yugito dodged another reckless swing from her opponent as she tried to find a way around Hidan's guard, however, despite the man's style being completely reckless and having no form what so ever; it was also too unpredictable and therefore impossible for the blond woman to find a way around. Yugito was forced to jump over a horizontal slash from her opponent, landing on the ground she went through several hand seals and slammed her hands on the ground.
"Raiton: Ikazuchi Hakai! (Lightning Release: Thunder Destruction!)"
Yugito sent an enormous bolt of lightning which tore through the ground towards Hidan, said immortal jumped out of the way. As soon as he did Yugito jumped into the air and tried to claw swipe him, Hidan swung his scythe and impaled her. Only for Yugito to explode in a shower of electricity, "Fuck!" Hidan cursed as he landed on the ground shaking as sparks of lightning ran through his system.
"Kaizuki!"
Hidan managed to recover and jumped back as Yugito slammed into the ground where he had been, creating a large explosion from the fire jutsu she had created. Yugito jumped away as Hidan tried to close in on her once again swinging his scythe, ducking under a slash before she was kicked in the face. Yugito flipped through the air as she went with the blow, landing on her feet a few meters away as she began going through more hand signs.
"Raiton: Raiyuudan! (Lightning Release: Lightning Dragon!)"
A large mid-night blue dragon made of lightning coiled around Yugito's form, lightning sparking off of it as its purple eyes glared balefully at Hidan. With a loud roar it launched itself at the Jashinist who jumped back, Yugito did a few hand signs and the dragon changed directions and charged at him again. Hidan was forced to run and dodge as the dragon continued following him, he looked over at Yugito to see her holding a hand sign and realized what was happening. As he ran he closed in on Yugito's still form and threw his scythe at her, forcing the woman to lose her concentration as she jumped out of the way. The giant dragon lost control and smashed into the ground, exploding in a powerful display of electric sparks while creating a large crater.
"That's some technique you got their Neko-chan," Hidan said with a whistle as he looked at the large crater. "Who knows that might have actually hurt me."
Yugito growled as another of her attempts to kill the man failed, she couldn't understand why she was not able to kill this man. Her thoughts were cut off as Hidan threw his scythe again, forcing her to dodge as she rolled to the left. As she came up she jumped into the air just as the scythe came back in an attempt to slice her in two, Hidan grinned at her while she was air born and threw it again. Yugito eyes widened as the scythe sliced right through her, only for her to disperse into lightning. Hidan was forced to let go of his scythe as the lightning channeled through it and shocked him.
"Kaizuki!"
Yugito's flame-covered hand tore right through Hidan's chest right where his heart would be, sending blood and fire everywhere as the man gave a grunt. "You fucking bitch!" Hidan yelled as he turned his head to glare at her. "I'm gonna fucking sacrifice your ass to Jashin now, fucking cunt!" The Jashin Zealot spun around with enough force that Yugito was picked up off her feet and thrown through the air, flipping around she channeled chakra to her feet as she landed on the wall. Looking up she had just enough time to dodge Hidan's slash as his scythe came down, ripping through the spot she had been standing on.
Yugito found herself completely on the defensive as she continued to dodge the white-haired man's mad attacks, ducking, sidestepping, and twisting her body every which way in a desperate attempt to not get cut. Reaching into her pocket as she continued to weave through Hidan's attacks Yugito pulled out an explosive note, putting it on the scythe as it made another pass that managed to cut off some of her hair. Creating a single hand sign the young woman charged some chakra into the tag, jumping back just as it exploded and allowed her some breathing room.
'Nibi I'm going to need your help with this.'
'How are we going to do this then kitten?'
'I'm thinking full transformation.'
'Ok then, kick his ass!'
As Hidan got up and tried to find his scythe which had gotten thrown into a wall, Yugito once again became surrounded by dark purple chakra. Going down on all fours making the blond Kunoichi look like a human cat before she began to change. The chakra began to coalesce around Yugito forming into the shape of a cat as it started to grow, getting larger and larger until Yugito was the size of a four-story house. Ghost-like flames moved and shifted on the giant cat's skin making it look similar to a ghost as yellow eyes glared down had Hidan.
Said man whistled as it looked at Yugito, "that's one big kitty!"
Yugito reared up her paw and smashed it down onto where the man was standing, Hidan jumped back just in time to dodge and threw his scythe at the now Nibified Yugito. Said woman opened up her mouth and launched a black ball of chakra at the scythe sending it off course; pulling back on the wire Hidan recalled his scythe to him again. Jumping back as another ball of chakra destroyed the area he was on, Hidan hid behind a large boulder that had fallen from the ceiling sometime during the fight. Hidan tried to come up with a way to fight a giant two-tailed cat but only came up with a blank, Kakazu was usually the strategist of the two; it was unfortunate he was fighting that blond prick.
Just as Hidan was about to run out with his scythe swinging like he usually did there was a large explosion where Kakazu was having his battle, blasts of lightning, wind blades, water drills, and hailstones charged over the land and destroyed much of the area. Looking out from behind the rock Hidan saw the cat had looked in the direction of the blast, being smart enough to realize he might not get another chance the Jashinist charged out from behind the rock and threw his scythe.
Yugito roared as she felt a sharp pain in her front leg, looking down she saw that it had a large cut in it though it was almost healed. She looked over to find the source and felt her eyes widen, Hidan had obviously cut her and was almost done with the ritual. She ran towards Hidan in the hopes of messing up his ritual but it was too late, Hidan managed to ingest the blood. He soon changed into his ritual form, his skin turned purple and he had a white exoskeleton showing on the outside, as his rises turned black while the sclera turned purple. Just as Yugito was about to shove him out of the pentagon seal Hidan stabbed himself right in the stomach, causing Yugito to roar out in pain as she fell to the ground and began to skid across it.
Yugito's form began to shift back to her original state as she curled around her stomach, which despite Nibi trying to heal was bleeding profusely. She saw Hidan coming over to her as the blood loss started to get to her, as the man's feet came to a stop in front of her the woman's eyes fluttered closed.
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Naruto was breathing heavily as he landed on one knee, that technique took far too much chakra than it should have. Of course, it was the first time he had used it in battle so that was to be expected, he would have to work on it when he got home. Getting up he noticed Kakazu pushing some debris off of himself and cursed, Naruto had hoped that attack would have taken the man out. Checking his reserves Naruto realized he was nearing empty, which left only one option.
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Flashback…
Naruto struggled to hold his form as he fought against Kirabi who had his eight-tailed cloak on, the two continued to trade blows with neither really getting the upper hand. Despite it being fairly hard to keep control Naruto felt he was doing pretty good, right up until the point where he was sent flying from a powerful kick as Bee screamed out 'Lariat!' landing on the ground several feet away Naruto's form was canceled as he ran out of juice. Yugito came to his side and helped him sit up as Killer Bee walked over to him, "it looks like four tails are as far as you go, your gonna have to work on that yo!"
Naruto saw Yugito's eyebrow twitch but was thankful that she did not get violent right now, "I understand, so I'll just have to use this pretty much as a make it or break it jutsu then."
"Still you did pretty well," Yugito complimented with a smile, "it took me years to get up to two tails with Nibi and you're up to four in less than six months so I'm sure you'll get it sooner or later."
Naruto grinned, "Thanks Yugi-chan!"
Flashback end….
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'Hey Kyuubi, I need some of your chakra to deal with these guys.'
He heard a humph in his mind, 'I can see that Ningen… very well so long as you do not make me look like a fool I will lend you my power.'
Naruto sighed as he felt Kyuubi's chakra start to course through him and was about to start bringing out more when a voice called out.
"OI! Kakazu I got that bitch we're after!"
Naruto looked over and saw Hidan carrying an unconscious and bleeding Yugito slung over his shoulder, the blond shinobi felt his eyes widen right before they narrowed in anger. Red chakra began to bubble up from Naruto's skin as he started to let his anger get to him, bringing out more of the Kyuubi's chakra than he had intended. Pretty soon it began to blast out of him in an uncontrolled manner, lashing out at the ground and tearing huge gouges on the surface. Naruto's breathing got heavier as his whiskers began to thicken, while his nails turned into claws and his eye went from blue to red with black slits running down the middle. Just as Naruto was about to lose complete control when his enhanced senses picked up a faint pulse from Yugito, pausing he channeled more of Kyuubi's chakra to his ears and confirmed the pulse. Realizing that the woman was not dead the blond was able to calm down, remembering what happened last time he lost control and knowing if he did he could very well kill Yugito as well as the other two.
Once he felt less anger he began to channel and control Kyuubi's chakra like he was taught to do. Naruto created a small layer of his own chakra as Kyuubi's began to lay over him like a second skin and covered his entire form view, unfortunately, he had used most of his chakra in the battle already so he would not be able to maintain the form for long; but hopefully, it would be enough. The vile chakra soon began to take the shape of a fox, looking more like skin than the standard Bijuu cloak. Behind him were six fox-like tails flailing about in an agitated manner, almost as if they had a mind of their own. Naruto's eyes were now completely white and he had a row of sharp-looking fangs and a large fox-like exoskeleton covering his frame. All in all, he now looked like a fox with its muscles and bones showing.
Before either of the two could even so much as move Naruto appeared in front of Hidan and sent him flying back with a crushing punch to the solar plexus, causing the man to fly back as he let go of Yugito. Naruto appeared right under her as she came down, the red chakra pulled back from his hands and arms as he caught the unconscious Yugito. Disappearing again he repapered and set her down on the far side of the room, creating kage bunshin to watch over her before he disappeared again.
Hidan felt his eyes widen as Naruto appeared right in front of him and speared him with his claws and the six tails behind him, channeling as much of Kyuubi's chakra as he could Naruto watched in satisfaction as the man's skin, blood, bones, and muscle began to literally dissolve with a hiss of steam. It was well known that a Bijuu's chakra was like a deadly poison to human's who have not been acclimated to it, however, what was not as well known was that Kyuubi's chakra being the strongest was almost like acid to humans and if a concentrated enough dose was injected into them would literally destroy a person's body. The blond paid no attention as Hidan screamed and cursed him, when the man was nothing more than a head with a few bones Naruto took two tails and impaled them through Hidan's eyes and out of the back of his head. With a strong tug, the tails split the head in two before the rest of the tails speared them again, making sure Hidan would never be able to return.
Naruto jumped as a blast of water was shot at him, looking over at the water mask Naruto thrust his hand forward as a large red chakra claw shot out. The mask could not be recalled in time as Naruto's chakra claw grabbed it, the mask was dragged towards Naruto. As soon as it got in range Naruto impaled the thing through the mask with his tails, cracking the mask as he lifted it up before tossing it away like a rag doll. He looked over at Kakazu before the six tails came in front of him and began to gather chakra, Kakazu not realizing what it was but knowing it couldn't be well, sent out the last mask he had to try and stop the Kyuubified Naruto. It was too late as Naruto swallowed the compressed ball of chakra; as soon as he did the ground began to crack from the sheer density of the chakra that now weighed Naruto down.
"Rokubiko Imari (Six Tails Menacing ball)"
The wind mask that Kakazu had sent was utterly obliterated as a large cylinder of destructive chakra shot from Naruto's mouth, Kakazu just barely managed to jump out of the way. The moment he jumped into the air however Naruto had appeared behind him, Kakazu felt a sharp pain all over his body as Naruto's tails and claws pierced him from behind. With a roar Naruto ripped Kakazu's body into chunks, tossing the pieces off of his tails before the red chakra around the blond began to recede. Naruto dropped to his knees as he started to breathe heavily, using that much of Kyuubi's chakra still took a toll on him and left the blond exhausted afterward. He looked up over at Yugito's prone form on the other side of the room, with a groan Naruto stood up and began to walk over to her.
Once he got to her he dropped into a sitting position, pulling a sealing scroll filled with medical supplies out of his kunai pouch. Unrolling it Naruto unsealed his medical equipment; wrapping his arms just under Yugito's chest he gently pulled the upper half of her body onto his lap. Channeling a little bit of Fuuton chakra to his fingers Naruto created a wind blade that he used to cut Yugito blood-covered shirt which was still intact since the damage had been a reflection that had been caused by Hidan's Juinjutsu, he took it off so he could get to her wound. When he did Naruto winced, the wound was three holes each one was about three inches in diameter and had pierced all the way through Yugito's stomach. Naruto could see his own legs as they came out of the other side through her back. Had Yugito not been a Jinchurikki this injury would have no doubt killed her, as he looked Naruto could see Nibi trying to heal the wounds but feared that the giant cat would not be able to heal a wound this massive before the woman died of blood loss.
Naruto quickly grabbed his disinfectant and put it on one of the medical cloths, he began to dab the cloth against the torn skin watching as the alcohol bubbled and burned away anything harmful that may have been in the wound as poison or dirt to help Nibi hasten the healing process. After Naruto watched in satisfaction as the wound began to heal a little faster, a sign that there were several forms of bacteria that had forced Nibi to divert some chakra to destroying whatever was in the dirt. Grabbing the tube for his medical cream and a large number of bandages Naruto began to apply them to the young woman's torso, since Yugito was a Jinchurikki Naruto dumped an entire bottle of his healing ointment on the bandages rather than a small dose to hopefully help Nibi hasten the healing.
The blond shinobi put a hand to the neck and checked for a pulse, noticing it was dangerously slow he began to double the pace of his work. "Come on Yugito you have to pull through this for me…" Naruto mumbled unaware that several tears had leaked out of the corner of his eyes as he worked, if she did not make it through this he would never be able to forgive himself. Once he finished patching the blond woman up Naruto grabbed some blood pills, put them into his mouth, and ignored the vile taste as he began to chew on them. When the pills were more liquid than anything, Naruto placed his mouth over Yugito's and began to use his tongue to push the mush into her mouth. He gently massaged her neck when Yugito made several gurgling noises, in order to help her swallow the medical supplement.
Naruto checked her pulse again and sighed in slight relief as he found that despite the young woman's injury, she seemed to be out of danger. He tried to stand, only to find he was too tired to actually get up back up. Wrapping an arm under Yugito's bosom Naruto dragged them both over to the wall with his other hand, leaning back Naruto sighed as he pulled Yugito the rest of the way onto his lap. "You know you worried me? " Naruto said to her despite knowing she could not hear him. He put a hand to her cheek and began to caress her face, smiling as Yugito seemed to subconsciously know it was him, and snuggled into it while purring lightly. Leaning down Naruto kissed her forehead before putting his head to hers, "looks like I've got to wait a few hours before I can get us out of here."
He closed his eyes as he thought about the battle, had it not been the last resort he would have never used Kyuubi's chakra. Despite the great power he got from it, the chakra did not come without great cost as well. Often it would leave him exhausted because Kyuubi's chakra was extremely corrosive Naruto had to apply a continuous stream of his own chakra in a protective layer under Kyuubi's. Even with his own ridiculously vast reserves, Naruto could only hold this form for several hours max, after that he would usually pass out from chakra exhaustion and unfortunately had yet to work a way around that problem. He also had to add onto the fact that while Kyuubi was not actively hindering his use of its chakra anymore, the intense feelings of rage and hatred that came with it could sometimes be overwhelming, which was the reason he could not go above six tails yet; even after extensive training.
After an hour Naruto felt he had enough chakra to start moving, putting an arm under Yugito's legs and back Naruto lifted himself and her off the ground. Looking around Naruto found an opening in the ceiling where one of the misfired jutsus had hit, moving up to it Naruto channeled some chakra to his legs and jumped from the debris as he made his way out of the sewer.
When Naruto left a large plant-like man emerged from the ground, "this is not good leader-Sama will not be pleased when we inform him of another failure." Zetsu looked over at the chunky remains of Kakazu's body, moving over to Kakazu's hand Zetsu grabbed the ring off the man's finger before eating the chunky remains of the corpse. Looking around and noticing there was nothing else Zetsu left.
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Naruto sat in a chair right next to the bed that Yugito was laying in; he had managed to get to Kumo just under an hour after the battle and informed the Raikage of what happened. It had been about a day since then and the blond woman had yet to awaken, a testament to just how badly she had been injured. Both of his hands were holding one of hers, gently caressing the back with his thumbs.
Naruto frowned as he tried to think of a way he could have prevented this from happening, yet no matter how many angles he looked at it he did not know what he could have done differently. Even though he knew of his opponent's abilities from Konan had it not been for Kyuubi's chakra he would have most likely been defeated, while most people would consider it amazing that he was able to come out of a fight against S class criminals alive Naruto was not most people. Not being able to defend one of the people he cherished more than anything in this life or the next and nearly passing out from chakra exhaustion afterward was not a solid victory, especially when the two people he fought were not at the top of the food chain in Akatsuki.
It just means I need more training, Naruto said to himself as he banished any defeatist thinking from his mind. He, better than anyone knew that asking pointless what ifs would not get him anywhere, his failure simply meant that he just had to try harder. Next time I won't let one of my precious people get hurt, Naruto vowed to himself as he looked at Yugito's unconscious form.
Naruto heard the door open but did not bother to look behind him; he already knew who it was. "What do you have for me?" the blond asked as the man came to stand behind him.
The person behind him sighed, "Unfortunately I don't have any useful information on who could have given out the information about Yugito's mission."
Naruto frowned and closed his eyes in thought; ever since Jiraiya had given Kumo information on Akatsuki, the missions that the two Jinchurikki had taken were kept a secret from everyone except those with high levels of clearance. Very few people could have known not only that Yugito was on a mission but also where the mission took her, the only ones Naruto knew who had any clue about the missions undertaken were the Raikage and members of the shinobi council. This meant that there was a spy for Akatsuki in the council since the Raikage was extremely loyal to his shinobi and would never sell one of them out, especially Yugito and his brother. This treachery did not surprise Naruto as much as it might have at one point in time, after all Suna had had a spy in the council through the use of a slave seal. It could be something like that or one or more of the councilors could have been bribed, there were a number of possibilities about why someone may be willing to sell out their Jinchurikki.
"Would you mind if I look through the information you have found?" Naruto asked as he finally turned to the person he was talking to.
A looked distinctly uncomfortable to acquiesce to Naruto's request, in truth the Raikage actually would not mind if the blond shinobi looked through the reports he had gotten; he both respected and trusted the young man, especially when it came to Yugito. However handing out classified information to a shinobi who belonged to a foreign village was extremely frowned upon, not just because of the political fallout he could get, but also because of how that information could be used against Kumo if the information got out to another village.
Naruto sensed A's hesitation, "look we both know that you have a traitor somewhere in your council. The only other people who knew where Yugito had gone were you and Bee, you would never betray one of your ninja and Bee is almost like a brother to Yugito so that leaves just one option…"
"Yes I do know that but we both know it's not that simple," A said in a gruff voice. In the end, it came down to whether or not he felt that the safety of Yugito was more important than the political fallout he would receive if anyone found out about this. In the end, the choice was no contest, "very well I will give you the information you need," A sighed as he came to a decision, his shinobi's lives were more important than what some scheming politician could do.
"Thank you," Naruto said as he turned back to Yugito.
A looked at the young man for a little while longer, before leaving to get go get the files for him.
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Jiraiya set down his empty dish of sake as he sat at a bar in a village just inside Ki No Kuni, grabbing the bottle next to him he filled another glass and drank. The Sennin had decided to stop here while he waited for his apprentice to finish spending time with one of the three beautiful women that came into his life, Jiraiya let out a small perverted giggle as he thought of all the women his prized pupil had. The kid was an absolute gold mine when it came to material for his books; he was almost finished with his next one thanks to Naruto. He was even thinking of making another one called Icha Icha Cat Tales, after the success of his other book that the white-haired Sennin made based on Naruto. He had a plan to write a book for each of the women Naruto was with, the toad Sennin giggled perversely at the thought of his new books as well as the money they would make.
Jiraiya set his saucer down and was about to grab more sake when a toad hopped onto the bar top with a scroll in its hand, "it's from Naruto." the toad held out a scroll.
Jiraiya took the scroll from the toad that waited patiently for the Sennin to read it; unrolling it the Sennin began reading the contents. Jiraiya kept a mostly neutral expression when he read but if one looked closely enough they could see a small trace of worry in the Sennin's countenance. When he finished reading the scroll Jiraiya sighed, it seemed his apprentice always got into some kind of trouble no matter where he went. Jiraiya took out a blank scroll and started writing a letter to Tsunade, with the information Naruto gave it was clear that his prized pupil was going to be in Kumo for a few days. Finishing it he handed his scroll to the messenger toad, "give this to Tsunade and let her know Naruto and I will be a few days late."
The toad nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke, when it left Jiraiya sighed as he ordered another bottle. Once it came he got up and left, determined to find some good female company while he waited for his student. A perverse giggle came to his lips, pretty ladies here I come.
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Yugito groaned as she felt her eyes flutter open, she frowned in thought as she found herself staring at a white ceiling; wondering where she was and how she got here. Her mind began to take in the information her senses were giving her, the smell of disinfectant that penetrated the area and the feel of the slightly lumpy bed she was under. As Yugito tried to figure out where she was through the thick haze of her mind, a voice spoke up.
'I'm glad to see your awake kitten.'
'Nibi? What's going on? All I remember was-' her eyes widened as she remembered her battle with Akatsuki. She tried to sit up only to fall back with a hiss as she felt a dull pain in her stomach.
'Easy Kitten,' Nibi said, 'you took a pretty rough beating, even I had a tough time healing you.'
'What happened? Where are we? And where is Naruto?' asked Yugito in a worried voice.
'Your handsome mate is fine. We were lucky kitten, it was because of him that you're still alive and I'm still with you. We're currently in the hospital where I've been trying to heal you for three days, we ended up using a lot of my chakra during that battle so it took a lot longer than expected to heal you. That handsome young man of yours managed to carry you here after he finished those two Akatsuki members off, it was a good thing he gave you that beautiful ring of yours ne? I have to admit I'm pretty jealous you have found quite the devoted man, he hasn't left your side since you two got here.'
'What do you mean?' as Yugito asked that she felt something squeeze the fingers of her left hand. Looking down she saw Naruto was sitting in a chair, his head was on the bed and his eyes were closed with his mouth slightly ajar showing he was fast asleep. Yugito could not hold in the smile that came to her face as she looked at the young man, lifting her unused hand Yugito ran it through Naruto's hair. The young blond man stirred a little but otherwise gave no other indication that he was waking up, eventually finding that she was still exhausted Yugito closed her eyes and went to sleep as well.
A few hours later Yugito woke up feeling a lot better, closing her eyes for a moment she let out a satisfied groan as she stretched herself out in a very cat-like fashion.
"I'm glad to see your awake."
Yugito smiled as she turned her head to the source of the voice to see Naruto on the chair right next to hers, "Naruto-kun…"
Naruto got up from his chair and moved over to her bed where he sat next to her and leaned against the head of the bed, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling the blond woman close. Yugito leaned into the blond as the two shared a companionable silence, just soaking up each other's presence. One of Naruto's hands reached out and gripped hers; while he let his fingers play with the ring he had gotten her.
The band itself was made of white gold, which was a very rare and valuable metal in the elemental nations. Along the band were several motifs of the Nibi in various poses, as well as several Kyuubi's doing the same thing. The jewel in the middle was a Tsavorite Garnet, which was a shade of green that complimented her eyes and had a depiction of the Kumo symbol on it. The jewels on either side of it were red rubies that were cut into the shape of tails, with one side being two and the other being nine. Yugito looked at his hands and the ring with a smile, remembering how he had given it to her during a festival in a small town outside of Tsuki No Kuni called Gotaku Suriampu.
The comfortable silence was soon broken by Naruto, "How are you feeling?"
Yugito sighed, "I don't know… I mean I'm thankful that I'm alive and I don't feel any pain anymore, but the fact that I got beaten in a one-on-one fight even when I was using Nibi's full transformation is just…"
"Frustrating?" Naruto finished for her, he received a small nod. "I can understand that, it's never fun having your weaknesses and faults shown, but that just means you know what you need to work on now." Naruto said as he tried to give Yugito something positive to take out of this, he fell silent for a moment to let her reflect on that before continuing, "still at least two members of Akatsuki are dead, which means we have two fewer people to worry about coming after us."
"I suppose that's something," Yugito said with a smile at Naruto's optimistic attitude.
"On to more important things," Naruto began as he handed Yugito the file he had been looking over. "I was looking through some files on the members of Kumo's council," he actually had several clones read it but it amounted to the same thing. He had gone over every little tidbit of information he had been given on the councilors, most of it were things that seemed to be the obvious activities to look for when dealing with a spy. Mainly the financial situation of the council members, how much money their accounts had received in the last few years. As well as any trips one of the council members went on, including trips for both business and pleasure. Most of that had led to a dead-end, in Kumo people rarely ever got out of Kaminari No Kuni except for the council member who was in charge of the merchants guild and he went on so many trips that Naruto was unable to keep track of them. Naruto had also checked his own spy network and found that whoever it was had no other allies within Kumo, the spy had not gone to any of the other members of the council as none of his seals had picked up a conversation about Akatsuki or Yugito within or around the council chamber. Naruto had then been forced to check more personal information about individual members, finding any Intel he could ranging from personal beliefs to even personal hygiene, wanting to ensure that he left nothing out.
It was there he had found a single lead.
Kotake Mushibata had been a standing member of the council for sixteen years and had at one point been an extremely loyal ninja. Before joining the council he had been one of Kumo's top Jonin and even been a candidate for the position of Raikage, however, A had been chosen for the position both because of his prowess on the battlefield where he had been able to match Minato Namikaze for a short time with his Raiton: No Yoroi (Lightning Release: Lightning armor) and also because his little brother Kirabi had been chosen for the sealing of the eight tails. After the third Raikage's public fallout and A's succession, Kotake had become disgruntled, opposing many of A's ideas specifically the Raikage's decision not to go after the Byakugan after the Hyuuga incident. It had become even worse after Killer Bee's sudden rise in fame and popularity, going from Kumo's hated demon to the 'Guardian of Kumo' a title that had been bestowed upon him by the people of Kumogakure due to his constant desire to protect them. As time went by the man's beliefs had begun to get so bad that most people on the council ignored him, something that had seemed to irk the man to no end. However, the most interesting piece of information Naruto had found was that Kotake had a single case of attempted rape on him that had been filed about eight years ago, fortunately, it was stopped before he could actually do anything. That in itself would not have gotten his attention, after all, rape was one of the most common crimes amongst ninja. What made this suspicious was because of just who Kotake had attempted to rape.
Naruto reached over onto the table near the bed, grabbing a folder he handed it to Yugito. "Yugi-chan I want you to flip to page fifty-six and tell me what you know about the man in there," Naruto said.
Yugito looked up from the folder to look at him for a second before doing as asked; flipping through the pages Yugito got to where Naruto told her and could not hold in her gasp. The file had the picture of a man with dark red hair, dark skin, and black eyes, "I… This man is…" Yugito dropped the folder and closed her eyes as she remembered the night that man had almost raped her. The way the man had used some kind of seal to cut her off from Nibi's chakra before she had the chance to retaliate and knocked her out. Waking up tied to a bed and having the man rip her clothes off, claiming she should be honored to serve him since that was all demons were good for. While Raikage-Sama's Volt had managed to rescue her before anything could happen, it had still taken a year's worth of counseling sessions before she would let a man other than A and Bee near her. It did not help that the council had been comprised of several supporters of the Third Raikage at the time, and had enough pull during that period that they had been able to get Kotake off with a year in prison and a warning. Afterward, he had merely reclaimed his position on the council, through some kind of political loophole in Kumo's charter.
She was jerked out of her thoughts as she felt an arm tighten around her waist, turning her head and looking up she saw Naruto staring at her with a concerned expression. "Are you alright?" he asked as he grabbed the folder and closed it, perhaps it had not been a good idea to show her that. Yugito bit her lower lip as she blinked back the few tears that fell from her eyes; leaning into Naruto she buried her face in his shirt. Knowing she needed to be comforted Naruto pulled her closer to him, and shifted her position so she was lying in between his legs. He gave her a chaste kiss on the head, "I'm sorry," Naruto apologized in a small whisper, "I probably shouldn't have shown you that…"
"It's ok," Yugito shook her head with her face still in Naruto's shirt, "it's just… I tried to forget that time when…"
"When he tried to rape you," Naruto finished for her and received a small nod in the affirmative.
"I was thirteen when it happened," Yugito said as she brought her face out of his shirt to lean it on his shoulder as she told her story. "I won't claim that I had it as bad as other Jinchurikki, while most people have always been wary of me and kept their distance, I was never outright hated. However, there were a few people who completely despised me for what I hold…"
"People like Kotake?" Naruto asked.
"Yes," Yugito nodded, "I had just been promoted to Jonin that day and was still fairly naïve about the world. I had been on my way home when he stopped me to supposedly congratulate me; he was a council member so I had no reason not to trust him. Before I knew what was happening he slapped something on my forehead and felt Nibi's chakra draining from me. The next thing I knew was waking up tied down to a bed and…" a small sob shook Yugito's body as she was unable to finish the sentence.
Naruto's arms tightened around her form, "Shhh… you don't have to say anymore." Naruto put a hand under Yugito's chin and tilted her head up, leaning down he gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek just offside of her lips. "I doubt that man will be living much longer anyway."
"What do you mean?" asked Yugito as blinked away her tears.
"I mean I was looking for any information that might give me a lead as to who let slip where your mission had taken you," Naruto replied as he picked up the folder. "Most of what I ran into were dead ends, but there were several discrepancies that I was able to find on Kotake; including his known hatred of Jinchurikki and his attempted rape on you. My guess is that Akatsuki somehow knew this and approached him a while ago," Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "Anyways I'm going to suggest A have the man interrogated; if he does prove to be guilty he'll be put to death for treason."
"What if he's not?" questioned Yugito, worried that this may make him do something drastic to her in retaliation.
Naruto shrugged, "if he's not… then he's going to regret not being killed after I get through with him so it won't matter either way."
"Don't do something you may end up regretting Naruto-kun," Yugito said to him even though she had to smile at his protectiveness over her.
Naruto sighed, "No promises," he said as the two fell into a comfortable silence.
It was half an hour later that Yugito spoke up, "you know you still owe me that date you promised."
Naruto blinked as he looked at Yugito who despite having a bit blush also had a small smirk, Naruto grinned at the woman. "I did promise you one after we finished fighting those guys didn't I?" Naruto asked rhetorically, "does this also mean you're also up for that trip to the communal hot springs?"
Yugito blushed in embarrassment but held her smile, "we'll see."
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Pain listened to Zetsu's report and watched the battle between the Kyuubi Jinchurikki, Kakazu and Hidan with a frown, while he had known that the boy was going to be a problem after they received that report on his time in Kiri; he had not counted on him being able to gain enough strength to defeat two members of Akatsuki. To make matters worse they were now down another two members and only had the Rokubi to show for it so far, adding onto the fact that the Kyuubi's Jinchurikki would most likely grow even stronger…
"This news is troubling," the man said at last as his Rinnegan eyes scanned the others in the room.
Kisame smirked, "the gaki's certainly gotten stronger from the little twerp Itachi and I ran into four years ago. I look forward to the day Sameheda and I can have a real fight with him, it should be interesting."
"Do you think we should go after him Leader-Sama?" asked Zetsu.
Pain stayed silent for a moment as he tried to decide on a course of action, "No, at the moment it would cause more trouble than it was worth. The nine tails must be sealed last, that means we would need to keep him alive until we get the other Bijuu sealed." Pain looked around at the others for a moment, "we will continue gathering the other Jinchurikki and for the moment leave both the Ichibi and Nibi alone, they are not as important anyway. Itachi! Kisame!" Pain called getting Kisame to look at him and Itachi to open his eyes, "how far are you from your target?"
"I think we're pretty close," Kisame said with a shark-like grin, "Sameheda is starting to get excited."
"I want you to capture the Gobi Jinchurikki as soon as possible," Pain said, "the rest of you should also get your Bijuu as soon as you can!"
"Don't worry yeah," Deidara said as he flexed his new arm, "I'm almost near the Sanbi; we'll get that one soon yeah."
"Yeah, Deidara Senpai is gonna lay it on that thing!" Tobi yelled out as he pumped a fist into the air.
"Tobi how many times have I told you to shut up yeah!" Deidara yelled.
"Oops sorry senpai," Tobi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "don't worry, Tobi will be a good boy!"
Standing next to Pain, Konan looked over the others with her usual blank mask. However inwardly she was thankful that Pain was not sending anyone after Naruto yet, she was not looking forward to the time when Naruto would be in danger. Even as strong as he was the blue-haired woman still feared for him, I hope all of this ends soon, she thought to herself.
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All of the members of the Kumo council were currently sitting around the large stone table, wondering why it was they had been called so suddenly. While something like this was not unheard of it was very rare for the Raikage to ever call a meeting, normally only the most extreme emergencies could ever get him to even come to one, that or his attendant had to drag him. It was well known that the man disliked council meetings almost as much as he disliked paperwork or anything that could take him away from his training.
As the council continued talking the door opened and in walked three figures, the first was easily recognized as the Yondaime Raikage who was in front of the group. The second one the council recognized as Yugito who was back in her standard shinobi garb, many wondered what she was doing here but were not overly concerned since she was a shinobi of the village. However it was the last figure that got most of the attention, said figure was completely covered from head to toe in a black hooded cloak. The hood was up covering the man's head in shadow and he was wearing a black face mask, the only thing the group could make out was a pair of piercing blue eyes. Many of the people within the room were intimated by the cloaked figure, none more so than Kotake who as soon as the figure turned his eyes towards him felt an immense and concentrated dose of killing intent that made the traitorous council member nearly release his bowels before it withdrew.
The Raikage went over to his seat with Yugito and the unknown figure following him, both of them standing on either side of the Raikage as he sat down. "I would like to get back to work soon so I am not going to beat around the bush," the Raikage started in a gruff voice. "Four days ago one of our shinobi was attacked by a group known as Akatsuki," there was a slight rumbling among the councilors as they began to talk; while occasionally throwing Yugito discreet glances. "I am sure all of you know that after receiving information about this group from one Jiraiya of the Sennin it was determined that we would be much more cautious about where we send our two greatest guardians." The Raikage was quiet for a while as he looked around at those in the room, many seemed merely curious about what had happened, while a few seemed disgruntled. However A had noticed that Kotake was looking nervous, his eyes were darting from himself, Yugito, and the cloaked figure and the Raikage could see a sheen of sweat on the man's features. It seems Naruto is right, Kotake is a traitor… "To be more careful we deemed that only those with a high level of clearance would be able to have access to any information on where Yugito and Bee were sent, so imagine my surprise when an ally of ours came into Kumo four days ago with a bloody and beaten Yugito."
At this information many of the councilors looked over to Naruto, having managed to realize that he was the ally their Raikage was talking about. "Now the reason I have called you all here is that it seems someone has betrayed this village, giving information on the location of one of my most valuable ninja to a group of S-class criminals."
A raised a hand and before any of the people knew what was happening several of Volt officers appeared and surrounded one Kotake Mushibata, said man who had previously been sweating stood on his feet. "Raikage-Sama what is the meaning of this!" he shouted as he tried to bluff his way out of the situation he now found himself in.
"I thought it would be obvious Kotake," A said in a dark tone as he glared at the man, "you have been found guilty of treason and will be interrogated and then tried. Volt take him away, and put him in one of the holding cells until he can be interrogated."
The man began to struggle as the Volt officers began to drag him out, as he flailed he looked around wildly, and soon his eyes found who he felt was the reason behind his problems. The person who had caused him so many issues, "You BITCH!" Kotake shrieked out as he glared at Yugito with an expression that spoke of madness. "I should have killed you when I had the chance, you fucking dirty DEMON WH- *gurgle*!"
Everyone stared wide-eyed as the cloaked man stood right in front of Kotake having seemingly just appeared there, they looked over to where he had been only to see the fading of an afterimage. Looking back to Kotake they saw the man was now clutching at his throat, which had several senbon pierced into it. "You're going to want to take him to your best medical ninja," the cloaked man said in a whispery voice that sent chills down the spines of everyone in the room. "I just destroyed his voice box so if you want a confession it will need to be fixed," spinning on his heel the man walked back to the Raikage's side.
"Did you really have to do that?" the Raikage asked the man in a whisper once he got back as he shot the cloaked figure a glare.
Said man just looked at him, "he insulted Yugi-chan, in my books that's the ground rules for death so you're lucky he is still whole and will be able to talk after he gets healed."
The Raikage just sighed realizing that with all the things he had seen this man do for Yugito, it should have been obvious he would not put up with someone insulting her. He gave the man a nod before turning back to the rest of the council. "That was all I wished to discuss with you today, tomorrow we will hopefully have a confession from Kotake, and if he is found guilty schedule his execution."
The council stood up with many of them on slightly shaky legs, most of the members were feeling very disturbed by what they had just witnessed. When all of them had left the cloaked figure pulled down his hood and mask, letting his spiky golden blond hair and six whisker marks show. The moment he did pull down his mask Yugito pulled him into a hungry kiss, while he had not expected it that did absolutely nothing to stop him from returning it. "Thank you," Yugito mumbled against his lips with her voice as nothing more than a whisper.
Naruto pulled back from the kiss and gave the young blond woman a happy smile, "you know there's no need to thank me. I did this because I wanted to, because I care for you and because I love you." Yugito smiled at his words before Naruto turned to the Raikage, "when do you guys plan on interrogating Kotake?"
A blinked as he registered the question, "we will be doing it sometime tomorrow, which reminds me…" the Raikage turned his eyes on Yugito, "do you want to be there for the interrogation?"
Yugito gained a surprised look, "I…" she paused as she looked down at her feet. She really did not want to be in that man's presence again, even today just being in the same chamber as him made her feel vulnerable and frightened. She knew it was an irrational fear and the best way to get rid of it was to confront the thing she feared, yet at the same time, the thought of being anywhere near that man was absolutely terrifying.
She was jerked from her thoughts as an wrapped around her shoulder, turning her head she saw that it was Naruto looking at her with a concerned expression. She gave him a small smile to let him know she appreciated his support, leaning her head on his shoulder she closed her eyes as she tried to make a decision.
'I suggest you go kitten.'
'I don't know Nibi that man he…'
'Frightens you I know,' Nibi cut the woman off, 'but that's all the more reason to go. You need to confront this or finding any kind of peace will be impossible.'
Yugito sighed as she opened her eyes and looked at A, "if I do go… would it be alright if- if Naruto was there as well?"
The Raikage frowned in thought for a moment before deciding, "I suppose he can," A replied. The blond shinobi was already knee-deep in this situation anyway so it was not like having him there would make a difference, the blond may even be able to offer some useful insight. "Provided I get a signed contract stating you will not reveal our interrogation techniques," A said.
Naruto grinned, "I have a better idea," reaching into his pouch where there was a puff of smoke, he pulled out a scroll and tossed it to the Raikage. A looked at the scroll which had the kanji for torture on it before looking at Naruto with a raised eyebrow, "that contains torture and interrogation methods I came up with myself during my travels and the Bloodline Civil War. If you wish to keep your own methods a secret you can use those," Naruto said in answer to the large man's silent question.
Despite being surprised that the man would give something like this A merely nodded, "very well we will use these so that you can come as well. The interrogation will start early tomorrow morning at 8:00 am so, don't be late."
Naruto nodded, "we won't," he replied before turning his attention back to Yugito. Sticking his arm out to her he gave the woman a smile, "now that this is over with for now how would like to go out and get some sushi?"
The Raikage let out a chuckle as Yugito grabbed Naruto by the arm and ran so fast the young man was pulled off his feet, as she dragged him to her favorite sushi bar.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Naruto absently ate the sushi on his plate, as he watched the blond woman next to him scarf down her food like it was going out of style. Long time association with Yugito had made him used to her eating habits, which never really bothered him to begin with since he ate ramen the same way she ate sushi.
"So we really had a traitor in the council," Naruto turned his attention to Omoi, who managed to keep the sucker in his mouth despite eating his food. "It makes you wonder if we might have more traitors somewhere, if we had one traitor already there's no reason to assume we might not have another. Or perhaps he was working for someone outside of Kumo; maybe we even have a traitor within the Daimyo's court. Or it could…"
SMACK!
"Damn it Omoi, shut your paranoid mouth!" Karui scowled at the blond-haired Kumo Shinobi, as she smacked him in the back of the head. "If you keep this up, then even I'm gonna be paranoid!"
Omoi picked his head out of his plate, wiping off the noodles he had managed to get on it.
"You two should keep it down," Samui said in her cool and professional voice. "We could get kicked out if you cause a ruckus…"
Naruto shook his head at the two chunin, who had picked up their argument again while Samui tried to be a mediator. He and Yugito had run into the three on their way to Yugito's favorite sushi bar, the three had already heard rumors about what had happened and decided to follow the two. Omoi and Karui had tried to force an explanation out of Yugito; however, she had not been comfortable talking about what happened. Naruto had been the one to discuss the events that had occurred within the council chamber, though he made sure to leave out some of the details as he did not know how much A wanted others to know.
Naruto sensed movement coming towards his plate and used his reflexes to grab the hand that had been just about to steal some of his sushi. He looked over to the owner of the said hand and grinned; "now Yugi-chan it's not nice to steal my food."
Yugito flushed with a bit of embarrassment at being caught, she tried to move her hand away but Naruto was holding fast. "Let go of my hand," Yugito said as she continued her effort to pull it out of his.
"Now why would I do that?" Naruto asked rhetorically as he gave the blond woman his foxy smile. "You would just try to steal my food again."
"Because you love me," Yugito answered with a smile as she tried to appeal to him.
"Hmmm, well that is true…" Naruto trailed off as if in thought. However rather than let go, Naruto brought Yugito's hand to his lips and began to plant kisses on it. He scooted his seat up a bit as he trailed kisses from her hand and moved up her arm, causing the woman to blush as she felt her body begin to heat up. Finally, Naruto was right next to her, Yugito found herself leaning into him as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder. As she looked up Yugito noticed that his face was much closer than before and was getting closer, she slowly followed his actions as she closed her eyes. Just as their lips were about to touch, a cough interrupted them. Yugito blushed in embarrassment while Naruto was grinning like a fox, as the other three they were with staring at them.
"Not that I don't mind you guys doing that," Karui said with a large blush, it was the first time Naruto had heard her speak without yelling. "But you if you're going to, you should really get a room…"
While Yugito blushed Naruto just smirked, "you know you guys didn't have to come with us. Or if we're making you uncomfortable you could just leave…" Naruto suggested.
Karui sputtered for a bit before she glared at him, "this is a public restaurant, you can't go sucking face here!"
Naruto merely grinned, "I think you are just jealous that Yugi-chan got a totally awesome and sexy man like me and you don't…"
"That's it!" Karui yelled with an embarrassed blush as she tried to lunge across the table; however, she was quickly restrained by both Samui and Omoi.
"You need to calm down Karui, be more like our large breasted leader," Omoi grunted as he was elbowed in the face.
"Shut up! I'm gonna kill him!" Karui yelled as she tried to kick the two off of her.
Yugito shook her head and sighed, wondering how she ended up with such an unusual group of friends and an even weirder fiancé.
'You know you love it,' Nibi spoke up in her mind, 'at least nothings ever boring.'
'Not now Nibi…'
'Spoilsport.'
XXXXXXXXXXXX
A, Yugito and Naruto stood behind a large one-way glass window, on the other side was Kotake and one of the Volt members who specialize in interrogation. Kotake looked like he had been roughed up the night before; the man's arms and legs were currently bound to a metal chair that was bolted to the floor. He had several cuts, bruises, and contusions on his face, his left eye was swollen shut and black, and his lips were split. Naruto knew it was standard procedure to beat a prisoner before the interrogation started in order to weaken their resistance, while he himself had never done that since he was on the road and never actually took prisoners he had seen it during the war when he was forced to participate in a few interrogations.
"Kotake we can do this the easy way or the hard way," the Volt officer a man with spiky black hair and several scars going from the top of his brow to his lower cheeks said.
"I'm not gonna tell you shit!" Kotake screamed as blood and spittle came out of his mouth, "you stupid demon lovers can all go to hell!"
The scarred man shrugged before taking out the scroll the Raikage had given him, "Very well the hard way it is," he said. Going over to a table the man unrolled the scroll and unsealed its contents, revealing several dozen odd-looking pins. The odd pins were sharp at the bottom point and around the middle split off into two fairly decent-sized chunks of metal with red tips, all together the device was about 5" long. Another thing the Volt officer noted were all of the seals which were on the pins, running along their entire length.
Kotake's eyes widened as the scarred man grabbed several of the pins and a small metal pole with a .2" radius and a length of 5" and began to walk up to him. Trying to feign courage Kotake laughed, "What are those things? Some kind of new acupuncture treatment?"
The scarred man grinned, "Something like that," he had read what these were designed to do last night and could not help but admit that he was impressed; whoever had come up with this way of torture was a genius. As soon as the scarred man got close enough to Kotake he jabbed one of them in the man's shoulder, right between the joint where the Humerus bone connected to the ball socket. Kotake gave a wince as a sharp jolt of pain stabbed through him but still decided to use whatever bravado he had left. "Hmph, that's it? I guess I shouldn't expect much from an incompetent fool like you."
The scarred man said nothing, merely took the small metal pole and as gently as he could tapped both of the protruding pieces of metal on the pin while channeling chakra through them. There was a small ding before Kotake let loose a large scream of anguish.
"GGGRAAAHHH!"
"These pins are designed to unleash 65 volts of lightning when I channel chakra through them," the Volt officer told the man. "It tends to screw up the nervous system and cause a lot of pain, add onto the fact that the vibrations from the pin are grinding against your joints and you can see why it would not be very comfortable."
"Ha!" Kotake laughed, though it sounded more like a pained wheeze, "you think this is painful! This is nothing!"
The volt officer merely added another pin, this one set in the socket joint between the Humerus bone, the radius, and the ulna. Taking the metal pole he tapped both of them, getting an even louder and more pained scream from the man.
"Did you know that water is a natural conductor for lightning?" the scarred man asked in a conversational tone as if discussing what to have for dinner tonight. "The human body is made up of 90% water, which naturally makes it easier for lightning to travel through your body, but you should already know this right?" As if to emphasize his point the scarred Volt tapped both pins again, eliciting another yell from the man as electric currents flooded his nerves and the vibrations of the pins and movements Kotake made caused his socket joints to vibrate and grate against each other. "Quite painful isn't it? All of this can be over soon if you just tell me what I want to know." the Volt officer said in the same calm tone he had used since the interrogation began.
"Fuck… You…"
"Hmm… seems I need to add another one."
Yugito watched with an odd sort of fascination as the man used those odd pins which had to cause excruciating pain if the Kotake's screams were any indication. While she knew about torture and interrogation Yugito had never done it herself, her main job had always been either assassination or search and destroy missions. As she looked at the man whose screaming seemed to have increased in both frequency and volume the blond woman could not hold in a small wince, while a part of her could not deny that she felt good seeing someone who had tried to rape her in excruciating agony, another felt sickened at seeing the man in pain; as well as the fact that she enjoyed seeing him in such agony. She was knocked out of her thoughts when she felt a hand move into hers and give it a gentle squeeze before lacing its fingers with her own, turning her head she saw Naruto giving her a supportive smile even though he himself did not like watching others tortured, no matter who they were. Yugito gave him a small smile of gratitude for his support as she turned her attention back to the I&T session.
"…Bastard…" Kotake breathed out as the intense pain he was in finally stopped for a moment. The man currently had six pins stuck in him and while nothing else had changed on the outside, on the inside his body felt like it had been dipped in molten lava.
"Still not ready to talk eh?" asked the Volt officer as he grabbed another pin.
Kotake's eyes widened as the man grabbed another pin, each time one was stuck in him it seemed to increase the pain by several-fold. The man was just about to stick another one in him when," Alright! I'll tell you!"
The scarred man pulled the needle back, "Well?"
"I did sell out both Demons to Akatsuki, they offered to pay me a lot of money and I was more than happy to do it," Kotake started. "but that's not all I was also asked to- GGGRRAAAHHHH!" he had stopped mid-speech and let loose a torrential scream, none of the people watching knew what was going on until they saw a seal begin to light up on the man's forehead.
Naruto instantly recognized it as some kind of dead man switch, most were usually placed around the heart and were designed to kill someone instantly with a hand sign; it was actually this seal that had created the bird cage seal. This one was obviously a modified version of that, "Shit!" Naruto cursed as he and the other two people rushed out of the room and into the interrogation chamber. "Hold him still!" Naruto shouted as Kotake began to bleed through his eyes, ears, nose, and pores as he started to spasm. The scarred interrogations expert grabbed the convulsing man as Naruto ran up to him, after inspecting the man he forced Kotake's mouth open and for just a moment saw a seal on the man's tongue before it disappeared. As it did Kotake's convulsing stopped, checking the man's pulse he confirmed that Kotake had died. "He's dead," Naruto announced, "it looks like a modified version of a dead man's switch, I'll have to take a look at it later to figure out what it was exactly. Damn!" Naruto cursed he punched his open palm, "he barely gave out any information!"
"That's true;" the Raikage said, "but what we do have is quite valuable and if I heard right he was going to sell out Bee too!"
"Yeah but since he's dead that does not really help the situation," Naruto gave a sigh as he ran a hand through his hair. "I'm going to study the seal designs I saw and see what I can make of them, I'll return with the info sometime today or tomorrow."
"Ok, I appreciated you doing this," The Raikage said.
Naruto waved it off, "not at all, Yugi-chan is important to me so anyone or anything that threatens her is my enemy."
Yugito blushed at the comment, while the Raikage laugh and the scarred interrogator merely looked amused.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
A day later Naruto found himself knocking on the door to the Raikage's office.
"Come in!"
Opening the door Naruto entered to find A lifting weights like he always does when at work, "I have the information on the seals."
The Raikage dropped his weight as he sat up and put his hands on the desk, "excellent, what have you found out?"
Naruto unrolled a scroll and put it on the Raikage's desk, on it showed two seals. The Raikage was able to recognize the seal on the left as the one that appeared on Kotake's head when he died, the second one however he did not recognize. "The first seal I'm sure you recognize," Naruto began without preamble as he pulled up a seat. "It's the dead man's switch and is normally specifically designed to stop the heart through the use of a hand sign, this one however has been heavily modified. Where the other was designed to stop the heart in one go, this seal's function was to not only stop the brain from functioning but also destroy the entire brain starting at the frontal lobe."
"That would confirm what the autopsy on Kotake showed," A said as he confirmed Naruto's theory. When the morticians had gone over Kotake's body they had claimed that the entire brain had been liquidated.
Naruto gave a nod of acknowledgment before continuing, "however the seal was also linked." here Naruto pointed over to the other seal, "to this one, whose main purpose was to activate the dead man's switch, whenever Kotake began to talk about a specific subject. We can assume that since he had been about to give us information on Akatsuki, that they were the ones who put the seals on him; though he did not seem to know that."
What Naruto didn't mention about all this was that the kind of work required to modify and link the two seals together was impossible for many people to do. When the blond had first heard about Kotake taking away Nibi's power from Yugito, he had immediately recognized that the disgusting excuse for a man must have used some kind of seal similar to the Gogyo Fuiin (Five Elemental Seal) that Orochimaru had used to cut him off from Kyuubi during the chunin exams several years ago. He himself had several seals that were based on that one which he and Jiraiya had made in case Kyuubi's chakra overtook him and there was no one who could stop him from going on a rampage, but he and Jiraiya were seal masters. So Naruto had to wonder where the man could have gotten such a thing, especially since seals were an extremely difficult and obscure art to learn. Very few people ever became proficient with seals and even fewer mastered them. So for that man to have a seal designed to cut off a Jinchurikki from their tenant's chakra meant that he had someone who had been working for him or the more likely case that he had been working for someone that gave it to him. While the seals used to seal Nibi's chakra could be done by anyone who was proficient enough in seals, the fact that Kotake had an extremely powerful and complex seal on him that was designed to kill him told Naruto that there was a seal master at work. The blond wished he had his spy network back then so he could find out who had given him the seals. However, he knew it was a moot point right now, and that he would have to look into it later.
"aruto… Naruto!"
Naruto was snapped out of his thoughts and focused his attention on A, "sorry I was thinking about something… erm what were you saying again?"
The Raikage shook his head for a moment before speaking, "I was just asking if you think there may be any more spies in the council?"
Naruto hummed in thought before speaking, "it's perfectly possible, though you can never know for certain until something happens or you interrogate everyone on the council. Still, it would be best to play it safe and assume that there is another spy, either on the council or among the populace."
The Raikage nodded having come to the same conclusion, though it was always good to hear a second opinion and he trusted the Uzumaki Namikaze heir. "Very well, I appreciate the help."
"Not at all," Naruto replied as he sat up, "I'm always glad to be of assistance to my friends."
A watched as the man offered a nod of respect and walked out the door, when the door closed the Raikage picked up his weights and began lifting again.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Using the key Yugito gave him Naruto unlocked the door to her apartment, putting his cloak up on a stand before walking into the bedroom. When he got there a small smile formed on Naruto's face as he spotted Yugito sleeping on the bed, rolling around every now and then as she made small, cute noises in her sleep.
Naruto took off his clothes and put them in an extra dirty bin hamper that they had gotten just for him, since Naruto visited often he and Yugito had actually gone out and gotten several things for him for when he came over. Naruto now had his own dresser filled with shinobi and civilian clothing and toiletries in her bathroom, Kirabi and A had actually joked that Naruto might as well live with Yugito; of course that had gotten the both of them hit on the head by an embarrassed and angry Yugito.
When Naruto finished getting ready to sleep he walked over to the bed and slid under the covers, almost as soon as he did Yugito turned over and as if sensing his presence latched onto him and pulled him closer to her so that half of her body was on top of him with one leg intermixed with his own and one arm over his chest. Naruto chuckled as he pulled an arm around the blond woman, who gave a sigh of content before snuggling closer.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Jiraiya looked over as Naruto appeared right next to him in a yellow flash, "so I take it you've got everything squared away in Kumo?"
Naruto nodded, "yes, there were a few extra problems I had to deal with but they were taken care of. How did Tsunade take it?"
Jiraiya winced, "let's just say that I am not looking forward to seeing her and giving an explanation as to why you went off to face two Akatsuki members on your own."
Naruto felt a small shiver run down his spine but ignore it as they began walking again, "well I didn't have much of a choice…"
"Yeah, yeah I know they would have gotten one of your girlfriends," Jiraiya grinned, "I think I'll put that in my next book. The hero goes off and saves his beloved from death then gets his reward of OOMPH!"
Jiraiya found himself face first in the dirt as Naruto smashed a fist into the back of his head, "if you keep doing this Ero Sensei one day you're going to regret it."
Jiraiya got up and rubbed the back of his head, mumbling about no good gaki's who gave no respect to their elders. As they continued on their way Naruto smiled as he thought about how everyone would react to his return, as well as how good it would be to see the rookie eleven and the rest of his friends in Konoha.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Omake: Jiraiya's punishment pt. 2
Jiraiya walked along the dirt road as he made his way to the next town; with luck, he would get there and be able to get in some research before his apprentice came back from spending some time with Yugito.
As if sensing his thoughts and determined to ruin his plans Naruto appeared right next to him in his typical yellow flash, however, the blond was not alone. Yugito was standing right next to him and was currently glaring at the Sennin, with one of those glares that every male knows. It was the glare that said 'I'm going to make you suffer' and was a look Jiraiya had gotten whenever he was caught peeking in the hot springs.
Uh oh, Jiraiya thought as he backed away from the two, "uh… it's a pleasure to see you again… Yugito-san."
"I'm afraid I can't say the same thing Jiraiya!" she spoke his name with a cat-like hiss.
"Look if… if this is about that movie then-"
"RRAAHH!"
"Oh shit!" Jiraiya cursed as Yugito transformed into a giant two-tailed cat.
The white-haired Sennin took off running as fast as he could, hoping to get away from the now Nibified Yugito. Unfortunately for him, Yugito was not only sixteen times larger but was also nearly four times faster, she soon caught up to the man and pounced on him, pinning him to the ground with her paws. She then began to exact her revenge for using her Naruto in a porn movie.
As Jiraiya began to scream about his fishing tackle, Naruto stood back and shook his head. With luck, this will make him think twice about being a pervert… then again I doubt anything can do that.