Behind the Waterfall

#56 Akatsuki

"Alright, I don't want you two to go with them. The Akatsuki is already looking for you, there is no need to deliver two of the strongest bijuu right to their front door." The Hokage said, looking at Naruto and Fuu.

"No offense, but we really do not care about the Akatsuki, however Danzo has to die, he repeatedly threatened Fuu with his actions and I won't stand for that. He is honestly the only reason we are even here. If it were not for that contract and the teams that were sent to capture or kill us, we would not have come back to this village in a long while." Naruto argued, earning an angry look from the old man.

"We can not let you two endanger yourself just for some kind of vengeance. If you two fall into the hands of the Akatsuki, then they are almost done collecting the Bijuu." Hiruzen stated again, his voice stern.

"No disrespect but you don't really have any say over us." Fuu replied, the Hokage's face falling as the girl stood.

"I don't want to have to force you." He admitted, his tone showing that he was more than ready to do just that if he had to.

"Even if you wanted to, you couldn't." Naruto said, knowing that with Fuu and his skills alone they would be hard to defeat, however with Kurama and Chomei there were very few people that really had the power to try.

"But we will stay here for a few days. However, if there is any sign of Danzo or the Akatsuki, we will be going." The redheaded boy continued, getting a confused look from Fuu. He answered her with a look that promised they would talk about it later and to just go with him for now. He felt her relax a bit as the tension between the Hokage and her went away.

"Alright, I will inform you if anything should come up." The old leader replied.

"I'm getting too old for this shit." The pair heard him mutter under his breath as they walked out of the office.

"So, why would you allow them to keep us here?" Fuu asked, still angry and confused as to why they should stay in Konoha, essentially as their prisoners.

"The Hokage wouldn't have let us go. As much as I don't like that, we both have to admit that he is at least partially right. We can not go after Danzo without a plan. There is no way that we can get to him directly if the Akatsuki are on his side. We both know that they are more dangerous than even the Hokage is aware of." Naruto thought back to when he had first met one of the Akatsuki.

"What do you want?" Naruto asked, his eyes watching the movement of the giant scythe in the man's hands.

"Just to tell you, Jashin is waiting for you." The blonde man replied, a large smile on his face.

"We should go. He is not our target. Yet." His masked partner replied, the coats of the two slightly moving in the breeze.

"What do you mean, yet?" Lion asked, his hands wandering towards the sword on his back.

"Just that. We do not have a use for him at this point in time. But we will come for him in the future." The blonde man stated, putting the scythe on his back again.

"You expect us to let you just walk away after threatening one of our own?" Hawk asked, the girl pulling out a few kunai and taking a step forwards. Naruto could see a small smile forming on the shorter of the two's face.

"Yes." The masked man simply stated, before turning around as well. The pair started to walk away when Lion and Hawk attacked. Both moved quickly, their weapons piercing flesh at the same time.

"You won't threaten anyone anymore." Lion simply said, pulling his sword out of the masked man's back. However, instead of falling over like you would expect from a corpse, the man stood there, not moving at all. The blonde with the scythe did the same when Hawk let go of her kunai, the weapon being buried hilt deep in his left shoulder.

"Man, that hurts." Was the first thing that was said. It came from the blonde, his hand reaching behind his back and pulling out the kunai.

"We don't have time for this." The taller one of the pair stated, not even looking back at the team of rogues.

"Can't I just kill them, Kakuzu?"

"No. We have other orders." Naruto wondered what kind of person would be able to order shinobi like that around. Shinobi that seemed not even fazed by a killing blow. This was someone he really didn't want to meet.

"Really?" The blonde man whined, his personality completely at odds with his apparent strength.

"Yes, come on." The other one, Kakuzu said, again beginning to move forwards.

Naruto saw Hawk and Lion ready themselves for another attack and quickly moved to intercept them.

"Don't, we don't stand a chance." He whispered, hoping they could just leave without getting into a fight.

He sighed with relief as the two cloaked shinobi jumped away.

Fuu had told him a similar story, although they hadn't told her anything about being a target. They had just randomly shown up one day and left quickly after that.

Their theory was that they had been scoping the jinchuriki while collecting funds and generally preparing their plan, whatever it may be. They didn't have any information about the leader of the Akatsuki, other than his name and his most prominent feature. He called himself Pain and had acquired a pair of Rinnegan eyes, eyes so powerful, even the Sharingan paled in comparison. There was something about the whole situation that didn't sit right with Naruto, but he couldn't figure out what it was, something just felt out of place about everything.

"We have to confront Danzo. If we can hurt the Akatsuki at the same time, even better." Fuu stated again, still not really seeing a problem, since they were both a lot stronger then a few years ago.

"We can not go against the Akatsuki and Danzo at the same time. You saw the seals that that man has access to, we can only imagine what else he has up his sleeve. And pair that with Pain and his Rinnegan, along with every other member of Akatsuki that we know of, there is too much risk. We have to find a way to draw Danzo away from the Akatsuki." Naruto explained his thinking.

"How would we do that? It's not like we can just tell everybody where we are. Then he would come and bring the Akatsuki along." Fuu asked, as Naruto opened his arms and invited her into a hug. Accepting the invitation, the girl fell into his arms, as their eyes closed and they entered Naruto's mind together.

Hiya Dragons, 

This concludes this chapter. Sorry for the delay. 

Not really much to say for now. Dedication to @erazerxd for his lovely comment on the last chapter. Also thanks to @SolarusPhoenix for commenting on last chapter as well. 

Today I have a question for you again: 

Do you want the Konoha crush to happen or do you want to have another type of showdown with Pain and the Akatsuki? (Post your answer in the comments as always.

I have a discord channel, where I am online a lot of the time (although I am mostly shown as offline ) If you want, you can talk to me there: https://discord.gg/8FxcsJZfaT

Anyways, that is it for today. 

Take care and stay safe, 

Peace, 

Gleam-eyes