Hola~
I've got my final exams in a couple of weeks, I despise higher education, I do English Language & Literature as well as Photography. My whole life is writing basically lol. Also if I don't update at the time that you want me to, then sadly, too bad. I always aim to update sometime on Monday, be it morning, evening or night, I do the best I can.
The previous chapter was some comic relief - I compiled all of my Omakes together, hope you liked that! I'll probably do another one in the future.
Also, what do you guys think of a possible select few Akatsuki member redemption?
Enjoy this chapter!
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A beating heart of stone, you gotta be so cold
To make it in this world, yeah, you're a natural
Living your life cutthroat, you gotta be so cold
Yeah, you're a natural
- Natural by Imagine Dragons
The Jinchuuriki Alliance (Naruto Fanfic) Chapter 44 - CutThroat
RECAP:
"Team Alpha," Naruto raised his arm, "When Deidara reports back and tells us who exactly is invading-" He paused, "General Nii, Bee, Han, Roshi, Zabuza, Juugo, Suigetsu," He noted everyone.
They all raised their heads and were ready for their leader's command. Naruto crossed his arms and looked at everyone in the eye.
"Prepare for attack."
END RECAP:
"Well, well, well..." Kisame grinned, his sharp shark-like teeth glistening as he tossed his giant sword, Samehada, over his shoulder. "Itachi Uchiha, we were wondering where you had disappeared to."
Standing next to his brother, Itachi stared blankly at his former partner. "Apologies for worrying you, as you can see, it wouldn't have been a good idea to tell you where I was going."
His smirk twitching slightly, Kisame answered. "Pein would have loved to know that you were going directly to the centre of the Jinchuuriki base." He paused and huffed, "No one was worried."
"Who are the brats?" Sasori questioned.
Itachi studied the scene in front of him. His enemies were his former Akatsuki teammates; Kisame, the sword-wielding tailless tailed beast, Sasori of the Red Sand, Hidan the immortal zombie, and Zetsu.
It wasn't looking great, but Itachi knew that he would be able to put at least one of them in a genjutsu. The only problem was that they knew that he would probably do exactly that.
Itachi glanced around. He was standing next to Sasuke, Akihiko, Haru and Kaoru. He was confident in Sasuke's skills, as he trained him personally. The other three were ex-Kiri ninja with their own skills. Kaoru used Genjutsu and razor-sharp playing-cards, Akihiko mainly used poison, and Haru relied on Ninjutsu and Taijutsu.
Oh, Haru and Kaoru were also dating, much to Akihiko's constant chagrin and exasperation; but he was used to it by now.
"Are we going to do this, or not?" Akihiko grumbled, he was prepared for battle and didn't want to engage in useless pleasantries. Even though they were his General's previous teammates - they were enemies now, and that was all that mattered.
"Ha!" Hidan grinned, "This fuckin' kid knows what's up." He unsheathed his scythe and cackled.
Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Hn, impatient."
Zetsu attempted to retreat into the ground, holding a large wooden puppet casing behind him, but Haru threw a kunai at his feet, startling him briefly.
Kaoru smirked, "Let's dance."
~*~*~
For the five minutes that everyone waited for Deidara to report back, Naruto stood with his arms crossed, his foot tapping restlessly.
The second that the familiar shadow covered his body, Naruto looked up and watched as Deidara dispelled his bird, jumping down and landing gracefully on his feet. The older blond wiped his brow and exhaled.
"Not great news, Danchou. By Itachi's descriptions, it looks like Kisame, Hidan, Sasori and Zetsu. Utakata is stuck in some sort of..." He grimaced and waved his hands as he tried to explain, "...Wooden puppet thing, yeah."
Naruto nodded, "Did it seem like Ghost were able to handle them?"
The leader of Uzushiogakure had the upmost faith in his subordinates' strength. They were strong, all of them, and he couldn't deny that Itachi would have been able to handle at least two Akatsuki member on his own, maybe even three.
"They'll be fine, yeah."
Naruto turned to face the Jinchuuriki in Team Alpha, he tapped his chin and then shook his head. "I don't think it's yet necessary to send you all out." He grimaced, "But if Ghost and the Akatsuki are evenly matched, how will we retrieve Utakata?"
Groaning, he rubbed the back of his head and shot a look towards Yagura, who was innocently smiling at him, leaving all the decisions up to Naruto.
An idea appeared in Naruto's head suddenly. He spun around, "There's a lake nearby the Eastern Gate, about thirty metres away from the battle." He met eyes with Suigetsu, who stiffened from the sudden sharp gaze. "Suigetsu, do you think that you can conceal your presence long enough for you to grab Utakata and shunshin out of there?"
Suigetsu felt his pale hair irritate his eyes, so he pushed it away as he thought for a few seconds. "Yes." He nodded, "I can."
Suigetsu Hozuki tensed and clenched his fist at the thought of being so close to Kisame Hoshigaki. Samehada, Kisame's sword, had accepted Mangetsu, Suigetsu's brother, as a wielder before he died. Suigetsu wanted that sword, and he wanted to talk to Kisame and punch some sense into him, for personal reasons.
"Zabuza," Naruto noted, "Use your mist and silent killing technique to help Suigetsu get out of there, support Ghost if needed, you know Kisame, correct?"
Nodding silently, Zabuza hoisted his own sword across his back in preparation.
Exhaling, Naruto counted to ten and raised his hand to Suigetsu and Zabuza. "Go."
Sasuke gasped for air as Sasori's poison started taking effect almost instantaneously. He pulled the long needle out from his leg and tossed it to the ground, hearing a satisfying clang as it hit the rock.
Akihiko grimaced, "I probably have the antidote somewhere in the village." The younger Uchiha grunted and straightened his leg, ignoring the burning pain shooting up his thigh.
"Enough fucking talking!"
Sasuke practically pounced out of the way and landed on all fours as Hidan cracked the ground in half with his weapon; he glanced at Itachi who was holding both Kisame and Zetsu in a genjutsu, but Zetsu was twitching slightly, meaning either Itachi's genjutsu wasn't strong enough (which wasn't possible) or-
"Oh," Sasuke motioned to Haru to attack Zetsu, "He has two sides to him, the other one isn't completely shut down yet."
"I'll put the other side in another genjutsu!" Kaoru pulled out a card and grinned, using that card to quickly cut off Hidan's wrist.
"Shit! I liked that hand!" Hidan growled and spun around to grab the discarded hand on the ground. He was crazily agile, and that surprised Kaoru. Haru jumped in front of Kaoru to protect him while he cast his genjutsu.
Hidan's scythe retracted and a long metal cable shot forwards. He deflected a swarm of shuriken and laughed as Haru frowned.
"Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu. (Water style: Hidden Mist Jutsu.)
Sasori paused at the sudden bellowing voice, and that pause was nearly his downfall as Akihiko shunshinned behind him and managed to stab his kunai into Sasori's neck. He gasped in shock as the kunai simply sliced across, without any blood visible from the attack.
"He's wooden!"
"Wooden?" Sasuke repeated incredulously.
Akihiko grit his teeth, "Sasuke! Poison fire!"
Due to practising it numerous times, Sasuke held up the Tiger Seal and breathed out a large amount of fire, watching as it combined with Akihiko's poison shower and it burned away some of Sasori's body.
Sasori fell limp and winced, "Crap-" He pulled his cloak away and saw that some parts of his wooden legs were scorched and burnt.
A hand gripped Sasori's neck and he was limply held up by Zabuza. He chuckled lowly at Sasori's pathetic expression. "Huh, I never liked puppets." He flung his sword at Hidan, who was behind him. "Or Satanists."
"I'm a Jashinist, you bandage fucker!"
Suigetsu had appeared by now and grabbed Karasu, who was Sasori's puppet. Utakata was inside.
Zabuza and Haru were dodging Hidan's scythe attacks. Sasuke was injured and Akihiko was trying to find some temporary relief for Sasori's poison. Itachi and Kaoru were holding Zetsu and Kisame in a Genjutsu.
"Itachi!" Suigetsu yelled, watching as the older Uchiha raised an eyebrow in question. "You'd better get Kisame back!" He used shunshin to appear back at the village as quickly as he came.
Snorting slightly, Itachi shrugged, "I can do that." He shut his eyes for a brief second. "Mangekyo Sharingan!"
Kisame instantly collapsed just before Itachi spun around and evaded Hidan's attack. Zetsu broke out of the Genjutsu and sunk into the ground, taking Sasori with him.
"What happens if I decapitate you?" Itachi pondered.
Hidan stumbled as he ran forward, "H-Huh?" Zabuza used his sword and swiped at the air quickly.
Seemingly, there was no result.
But Hidan's head quickly slid off his body and dropped to the ground. Itachi tapped a pressure point on Hidan's shoulder and his body slammed to the ground.
"H-Hey! Itachi, you bastard... What the fuck did you do to my body!" Hidan's head was staring upwards at Zabuza and Itachi, a massive awkward frown on his lips.
Itachi smiled, "You won't need it for a while."
~*~*~
"So."
Itachi blinked. "So?"
"So..." Naruto intertwined his fingers together and furrowed his brows. "So that's the head of a Satanist?"
Not expecting it to speak, Naruto jumped slightly as Hidan groaned, "I'm a fuckin' Jashinist, not a Satanist!"
Naruto shook his head in confusion, "What's the difference?"
Grinning, Hidan explained. "Satanism is when you worship the devil, but Jashinism is worshipping a killing God, and he tells us to kill people so we can save them from the fear of death! It's a public service," He scowled, "And I'd love to sacrifice you to Jashin-sama, right now!"
Naruto raised his hands in surrender, "By all means Hidan, if you can," He smiled mockingly, "go ahead."
"You fuckin' asshole!"
Hidan started to spit more curse words out of his mouth until the door swung open and Deidara came sauntering in.
"Danchou, I finished the report-" He froze. Leaning down and widening his eyes at the desk, the long-haired blond man opened and closed his mouth multiple times. "-What the..."
Hidan rolled his eyes, "Oi, who's the bitch?"
Deidara's face went bright red and he grabbed the decapitated head's silver hair and used a lot of force to hit it, "OW!" Deidara slammed it back down on the desk.
"Who are you calling a 'bitch', yeah?!"
Hidan cackled, "Obviously you! Come on, don't tell me you don't have a puss-"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
Itachi smiled. "Ah, they're going to get along wonderfully."
The Uzumaki seals were some of the most powerful fuuinjutsu in the world. Karin and Naruto had trained under Jiraiya for a few months in the past after the rescue mission at Orochimaru's hideout.
Currently, Suigetsu was standing with his arms crossed, fuming at Kisame Hoshigaki, who was seated with seals at every limb. Kisame had the decency to look sheepish, but Suigetsu didn't care about the excuses or reasoning that Kisame may give him.
"Where were you?" Suigetsu spat.
Averting his eyes, Kisame didn't respond.
Suigetsu laughed and shook his head incredulously, "Mangetsu dies, and you just disappear?!" He clenched his teeth and he felt his fingernails dig into his palms, hard enough to draw blood. "Senpai- wait, no, you don't even deserve to be called that anymore."
Mangetsu Hozuki, Zabuza and Kisame all were part of the Swordsmen of the Mist. That meant that they were all pretty close; Zabuza and Kisame used to teach Suigetsu how to fight with a sword. Kisame even called Suigetsu 'the reincarnation of Zabuza' because of his love of fighting and killing, but when things got tough, Kisame just disappeared.
Suigetsu already had argued and gotten an apology from Zabuza, he was a headstrong guy who wanted answers.
The younger man dropped his hands to his sides and stared blankly, his fury dissipating as his voice lowered. "You know that you're the reason I was kidnapped by Orochimaru and experimented on, right?"
Kisame's head snapped up, eyes wide and jaw slack. "What?" He gripped the chair that he was strapped to. "Orochimaru did what?"
"He-" Suigetsu exhaled and dropped onto the ground, shivering at the thought of his time being experimented on. "I tried to look for you, so I left the village." He covered his face with his hands, "Damn snake and white-haired freak got me."
The amount of thoughts that rushed through Kisame's head started to overwhelm him. As Suigetsu explained and told him more about Orochimaru and the experiments, Kisame grew increasingly angry as even though he wasn't the greatest of people, he would never allow experimentation on children - especially not kids that he knew.
Three years ago, that was when Orochimaru had just left the Akatsuki. That meant that Suigetsu was being experimented on while Orochimaru was still part of the group - Kisame could have rescued him. Kisame could have helped.
He shook his head, it was too late now. He couldn't do anything about it now. All he could do was-
Kisame looked up at Suigetsu. He sighed and beckoned the boy forward.
"I'm chained up, so I can't do much." Kisame rolled his eyes. He awkwardly pat Suigetsu's hand and lowered his head. "Sorry."
That was all Suigetsu wanted to hear.
"I'm sorry."
After Naruto had checked up on Utakata, he retreated back into his office and sat on his seat. It was a comfy chair, with two thin pillows under him so that he was able to fall asleep at any moment - it was a daily occurrence.
He spun the chair around and stared outside of the large window. He saw the children in his village, the same ones he rescued from Orochimaru's hideout, coming out of the Academy and walking with Karin and Juugo, who mainly took care of them.
Those kids didn't have parents, so somehow the children took a liking to Karin and Juugo, which the latter boy didn't expect at all.
Naruto sighed and leaned back in his chair.
"What's wrong?"
Naruto smiled at the familiar voice and turned around in the chair again. He looked up at Sasuke's expressionless face and saw a small twinkle of curiosity and worry in his eyes.
Sasuke had also gone to the hospital and was treated by Sakura for the poison that Sasori injected into his body. It took a few hours but he was now able to walk around easily and without wincing from pain.
After years of being best friends, they had no reason to lie to each other.
"Should I have let Hidan and Kisame into the village?" Naruto simply asked with his hands in his pockets.
Sasuke was wearing his usual ANBU style attire - it was the uniform for Ghost members.
"It was your decision. I agree that putting them under strict supervision is necessary right now, but I think Kisame can definitely be turned to our side." He shrugged, "Hidan, I'm not so sure about."
"Sasuke," Naruto started, "Do you think what I'm doing is... right?"
Instantly, the young Uchiha raised an eyebrow pointedly at his leader. "Right for who? The orphans who you rescued from Orochimaru's lab?"
"I didn't mean-" Naruto interrupted.
Sasuke placed his hands on Naruto's desk and leaned forward with narrowed eyes. "Or do you mean the Jinchuuriki who didn't have a caring village, and are now safe from harm?"
Naruto bit his lip to stop himself from speaking.
"Never second guess yourself." Sasuke told him. "You're doing what you think is right, and that's all good people want from others." He straightened his back and exhaled. "You're an idiot."
With his chin on his palm, Naruto tilted his head and smirked up at Sasuke. "You're nicer than people think, you know."
"Shut up."
Naruto chuckled, "Tsundere."
"Shut up Naruto."
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I just had to include some bits and pieces so it makes sense in the future. The fight scenes won't make sense unless you actually read it all (lord knows when I'm reading I completely skim words.)
Okay, I have to do this a lot so let me say it here lol:
This is NOT a harem. This is NOT SasuNaru. This is NOT HinaNaru. This is NOT NaruIno. This is NOT KibaNaru. I'm still deciding if there is even going to be a pairing, because mate, Naruto is the boss of a village, he doesn't have time for romance at the moment! He's too busy dealing with the Akatsuki!
If you want some of those pairings, go check out my other stories, I have many SasuNaru's, NaruIno and I'm in the process of writing a KibaNaru.
Also, I love Hidan, so glad I decided him to be a decapitated head for comic relief hehe.