Chapter 76

Title: To be...or not To bi

...

Kisame Hoshigaki, a hidden mist nin. Originally, Kisame was to guard the Cypher Division under orders from his superior, Fuguki Suikazan of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. 

When the group was cornered by Konoha-nin under Ibiki Morino during a mission, Kisame chose to kill the Cypher Division members to keep their intel from being leaked out through Ibiki's interrogation, as instructed by Fuguki.

Eventually, after learning that Fuguki was selling information to other ninja villages, Kisame killed him and took Samehada for himself. Though the Fourth Mizukage commended him for his loyalty to Kirigakure, killing his comrade caused Kisame to become disillusioned and came to realize that the world was filled with lies. 

It was soon after that Kisame was approached by a mysterious figure who was manipulating Yagura from the shadows, calling himself Madara Uchiha. 

After seeing the shinobi's Sharingan, Kisame insisted that he reveal himself, leading the masked stranger to show Kisame his face. 

After explaining his motives and the Eye of the Moon Plan to Kisame, he was initially skeptical of the mysterious ninja, but the notion of a "world of truth" enticed him.

Till date, he was the only Akatsuki member who had seen Obito's true face, and as a master manipulator that he came to be, when dealing with someone who valued truth and loyalty, a little show of sincerity would go a long way in earning his loyalty.

This was how Kisame also knew that this particular ability of intangibility belonged to only one man.

"I don't think I owe you any answers." Kakashi lazily replied but was immediately on guard seeing his attack had little to no damage on him.

"Hm, understandable. Then I'll put in my all in this battle, I can only hope you can last long enough." Kisame said, completely forgetting his initial mission of retrieving the Jinchuriki.

And so, a battle between Kisame and Kakashi began. This battle went a long way to show the Tailless Tailed beast that there was a reason the Sharingan was feared, and on top of that, Kakashi, who has been touted to have copied over a thousand Jutsus with it.

"You're one formidable one, has anyone ever told you that?" Kisame asked as he huffed in exhaustion.

He had brought out everything in his arsenal only for Kakashi to match him in both speed and lethality.

Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage

Silent Killing

Summoning Technique (Shark)

Water Clone Technique

Water Prison Shark Dance Technique

Water Prison Technique

Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave

Water Release: Five Feeding Sharks

Water Release: Four Sharks Rain

Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave

Water Release: Great Shark Bullet Technique

Water Release: Water Bullet Technique

Water Release: Water Shark Bullet Technique

Kakashi had managed to replicate and even modify some of his techniques like the shark rain, water shark bullet, great shark bullet, water feeding shark dance and five feeding sharks.

The [A Thousand Feeding Shark] Technique was the only left for him to use as he knew that this body and chakra won't be able to handle that much chakra.

If he had known this guy would be this tricky, he would have started with it.

But he noticed that as they fought, the bastard only got swifter in his execution of his techniques. Wherever he used sharks, the bastards used dogs.

'I mean...how does that even work? Are dogs able to survive in water?' Kisame thought to himself in annoyance as his eyes were trained on Kakashi who also wore a focused look.

'This is getting exhausting. What's with Naruto and Gaara? Shouldn't they be done already?' Kakashi thought as he could feel the drain on his chakra become more apparent.

Meanwhile, Temari and Sakura had managed to locate Kankuro who was near death's door lying on the desert floor. 

Sakura quickly checked his pulse and froze as she couldn't feel any pulse whatsoever.

"Temari-san, I'm afraid-"

"No! He's fine, just do that thing you medical ninjas do." Temari interrupted, for some odd reason felt that he shouldn't be dead despite his pale and unbreathing state.

"What thing?" 

"The thing. The thing with the green light."

"Oh, that. Well, if it's any consolation." Sakura said as her hands glowed green which she then placed on Kankuro's chest, near his heart region.

This was a basic medical technique used to revive a dead or dying heart. She had learnt it and put it to practice on fishes, but fishes and humans were fundamentally and physiological different.

Learning this was a test of one chakra control as a medical ninja. Calm and patience; those were the traits that helped one develop.

So although she did this, she didn't particularly feel it would work, so imagine her shock when….

BA-DUMP!*

"What!?" She cried as Kankuro's heart gave a loud 'thump', as though waiting for her to just place her hands on him.

Sending her chakra into his body, she analyzed it thoroughly with her eyes closed, moments later, she opened them and looked gravely at Temari. 

"Your brother's condition is critical and isn't something I can deal with at the moment." 

"What does that mean?" Temari asked calmly, as a Jounin and special adviser to her brother, the Kage, being calm was something she had cultivated for so long, not to mention being the daughter of the previous Kage.

Heh. Amongst her age mates, she could probably remain calm even if the moon falls on earth.

(A/N: Yup. I did watch the scene when Madara used His Shattered Heavens. Even at the sight of the meteorite, she was, to an extent, calm.)

"It means I can't heal him here."

"So you need to be somewhere else?"

"Yes, preferably Sunagakure. Some special conditions are needed to extract the poison from his system. Also, certain herbs will be needed to treat his damaged nerves, all of which are not on my person." Sakura explained.

"Then we should return to Sunagakure then." Temari said with a no nonsense time as she mounted Kankuro on her shoulder.

With a nod, they both began their run towards Sunagakure

And while all this was happening. Naruto had finally managed to hold down the slippery bastard that only knows one single technique.

'Who the hell uses one stupid simple technique all the time!?' The blind Uzumaki thought with a huff of annoyance, forgetting that he too fell under that category.

"You better let me go brat! Don't force my hands now." Deidara declared to the two friends having a manly handshake.

Having not seen each other for a few years, Gaara was a bit emotional in meeting the guy that changed his life, and although he didn't show it on his face, he was very happy.

As for Naruto, he was filled with respect towards this friend of his. Two plus years ago, he was all murder hobo, but now, he sat on the seat of Kazekage,  a position of the highest authority, the village's first line of defense in case of an invasion such as this.

And to top it off he did this while being of the same age as him. So Naruto was filled with nothing but respect.

"You can watch over him while I go help the others, take the opportunity to rest and recover a bit of your chakra."Naruto nodded at his friend before turning and running towards Kakashi.

However, as he ran, he saw a shocking scene of both Kisame and Itachi running towards him with Kakashi and Sasuke in pursuit.

'They're escaping?' he thought as he took a stance to hold back the two but as the two reached him, they both dropped to the ground and began morphing until they turned into two unfamiliar faces.

"What the hell?" Naruto said in pure shock as he saw one of his elder brother figures turn into another person after he seemingly died.

"That's...Yura from my village." Gaara, who was also shocked by the scene, walked up to Naruto and said. "He's the captain of the border control squad. To think he was used in such a manner."

Gaara ground his teeth in anger seeing one of the two fallen men. To him, this was an explicit art of forceful manipulation.

"I'm afraid you're mistaken Gaara." Sasuke spoke as soon as he came to a halt.

"What do you mean?"

"This is the effect of the Shapeshifting technique." Sasuke said

"Shapeshifting technique?" Came the chorused question of both Naruto and Gaara.

"This technique allows the caster to allocate a portion of their chakra and transfers it into a living human sacrifice, allowing the original to fight via an elaborate "copy". The appearance of the person on whom the Shapeshifting Technique is performed is completely identical to the original person." Sasuke explained the technique as he kicked the other person to see the headband of the hidden grass on his head.

"Then Yura and this guy are sacrifices?" 

"Yes, willing sacrifice." Sasuke replied and sheathed his sword. "Seems like the Akatsuki truly do have spies in the Major Villages." 

"What? Willing sacrifice? Spies?" Gaara asked and Sasuke nodded.

"I believe this is the end of this mission. I still don't understand why and how I got here in the first place. Mind filling me in?" He asked his Sensei who was looking at him with tired eyes.

"I could if I knew, but I don't. Why don't you explain what you meant earlier." Kakashi asked, but his tone wasn't exactly asking.

Sasuke frowned at this but decided to remain calm. After all, he still hoped to return to Konoha one day, and despite being labeled as a rogue nin, he still hadn't done anything irredeemable.

"Hah..." Sasuke sighed and began. "The Shapeshifting technique is a technique created by the leader of this group known as the Akatsuki. It's a group that Orochimaru was once a member of."

"Orochimaru was a member? Then the leader must be crazy strong right?" Kakashi muttered audibly enough to which Sasuke nodded.

"I don't know the details but Orochimaru seems to dread the leader. As for the sacrifice, he himself had used it once so he researched it. It's a technique similar to medical Ninjutsu where a foreign chakra enters your system to heal you. In that case, you allow that chakra because you trust that person right?"

He asked and everyone nodded. It was common knowledge that having someone's chakra in you could result from one of two scenarios.

One, you're in a Genjutsu, 

Two, you're being released from one.

"So there's a possibility of rejecting this influx of chakra, but they both didn't reject it. What does that tell you?" Sasuke asked.

"That they accepted this massive influx of chakra willingly." Kakashi answered.

"Hence their spy status." Sasuke concluded

"Then how did they change physically? Why were they looking exactly like their original?" Naruto asked as he tried to feel up the residual chakra left behind.

"Because for a new chakra to take over, they need to expel the one in the 'container', giving them the ability to alter appearance as they see fit." Gaara was the one who spoke this time as he seemed to have studied that a little as a result of his Jinchuriki status.

It was similar to how when fully released, the Tailed beast would transform into its original appearance despite being in the human body (container). 

And in cases like that, the Jinchuriki do end up dying if not properly in control.

The group stood in silence as they allowed the new discovery to sink in.

With this news, doesn't it mean that there were also spies in the major villages which the Akatsuki could use to do whatever they wanted in any village?

Which genius came up with that technique?

As they all thought that, Sasuke and Naruto both felt something was wrong.

"Something's wrong." X2

"What?"

"Deidara." Naruto said and turned to the location Deidara was last seen only to see nothing.

"Stay on your guard." Kakashi said as he went on alert, but as soon as he finished, a deep voice sounded right in their middle.

"That won't be necessary."