For the past few, no, many months, Naruto had been switched between different teams. Just to check his 'compatibility'.
The worst thing about this was, The Akatsuki didn't really have a hideout.
The purple hair lady and the orange hair man, whose names he had learned were, Konan and Pain (Some of you may call him Pein but let's go with Pain here k?)respectively, seemed to have their own hideout somewhere, but they never really.
At first he got paired with Sasori, who was actually Deidara's partner, but had been 'working' on something previously.
Sasori was ugly. Ugly as hell. He made rackety noises, and old man sounds and was so deformed it made Naruto gag.
But of course he didn't do anything about it. Their partnership lasted only one mission, in which Naruto didn't get to do anything.
"Don't interfere." Sasori had said, before finishing the business.
"Hey! I didn't get to do anything!" Naruto had tried protesting.
"You're new here, so I don't trust your skills." That was all Sasori had said.
This old fart could go eat shit and die.
After a few months, he landed up with Hidan and Kakuzu.
A truly weird pair. Hidan kind of reminded Naruto of Deidara, but...he couldn't really decide which one of them was more stupid.
Of course, both of them were quite skilled and Naruto had never imagined that such weird waysof using chakra existed.
But even the mission with these two didn't go well...
Kakuzu continuously rambled about their low pay, and Hidan cursed at everything around them.
"Why are you so pissed?" Naruto had asked, pretty confused. He didn't understand what had happened, but Hidan ignored him and continued grumbling.
Later when they encountered the wealthy merchant that they were supposed to take down, Kakuzu told him specifically not to do anything and just stay back. "But why?!" Naruto whined, Hidan smirked at him, "Watch amd learn kid."
He then proceeded to whip his huge scythe around and slashed at the merchants arm. He licked his blood, which was kinda gross, but what could Naruto say? He had done something like this on several instances as well...
Hidan's methods were quite interesting and Naruto was quick to make mental notes of it.
It was pretty satisfying to watch Hidan stab himself and the merchant writhing in agony.
As much as he was disliking Hidan's personality, he was actually in awe of his method.
But of course, Hidan wouldn't even talk to him, much less tell him about his tricks.
"Is it because of me?" He asked. It had been a while a they were returning, ad Hidan was still cussing.
But at that question Hidan paused and turned around. His expression was purely pissed. His eyebrows raised more than Naruto had imagined to be possible.
"Is it because of you? OF FUCKING COURSE IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU." Hidan had began yelling. Now it was Naruto's turn to raise his brows.
Kakuzu simply sighed, as Hidan continued ranting.
"IT TOOK ME SO MUCH FUCKING TIME TO PERFECT MY METHOD. I HAD TO BE FUCKING RECRUITED BY THEM. I FUCKING LOST!! AND THAT IS HOW I JOINED! BUT YOU? YOU , JUST A PATHETIC SMALL FRY HAD THE AUDACITY TO COME KNOCKING AT OUR APPARENTLY SUPER SECRET ORGANISATION AND YOU WON??? AGAINST THAT LADY?? AND YOU GOT ACCEPTED??
WHAT?? THE??? ACTUAL?? FUCK??"
Now that Hidan mentioned it, it did make some sense, so Naruto simply decided to back off...no point angering this guy.
And lastly he had been paired with Itachi and Kisame. He had looked forward to this one. He had wanted to have a chat about Sasuke with his brother. And he wanted to know about the massacre. But...things don't always go quite as planned.
This time, they were supposed to be assassinating a rich landlord because another rich landlord wanted this rich landlord's land.
Huh.
The blond had already given up hope of trying to get some action, so he didn't even bother when Kisame went ahead after flashing them a thumbs up. Itachi didn't even bother moving a muscle. So he had stayed back with Itachi in the fields far away from the guy-who-was-about-to-die's house.
Naruto had known why Kisame went alone, it was because the the rich landlord was too dumb to have shinobi guards. Kisame could get over with this in a hour, but knowing these people, they like to take their time with killing.
Naruto had sat on the ground, under the setting sun, using his newly acquired fancy cloak as protection against the sun. Itachi just stood. He had a straw hat with a bell, that wasn't even jingling, and he just stood.
After some time of just standing and sitting, they somehow came to the conclusion that Itachi would teach Naruto some kunai tricks.
This had excited Naruto, and so he had gladly agreed . He hadn't expected it to be so tough.
At first he wasn't able to do anything that the Uchiha did, but Itachi was a patient man. He seemed like that kind of person who would allow others to speak their entire monologue but himself would just nod.
Anyway, after sometime, the blond realised that the trick to it had been the wrist. Itachi's wrist and fingers flicked and turned in a very particular manner, and once Naruto grasped it, the trick shots came easy.
"You're a fast learner." Itachi had told him.
"Not like Sasuke though." Naruto smiled sweetly at the man, expecting some kind of reaction.
Itachi looked down on him and gave him a questioning look.
"You're quite famous back there in Konoha...you know that right?" Naruto said in a sweet voice, as if he was asking Itachi to tell him how he won the first place in the running race.
Itachi's glare seemed to harden, and Naruto expected him to lash out, but unfortunately just at that moment Kisame returned.
"HOHO! BONDING! I see..." He has seemed to be in a good mood, with Samehada bigger than usual.
Itachi gave him a nod and they moved out.
Another uneventful day with only Naruto learning some cool Uchiha kunai tricks.
Today, after a long time, he had seen Tobi again. Tobi had kind of disappeared after Sasori came, and now almost a year later Naruto was glad to be paired up with him. Their sense of humour matched, and Tobi seemed to be quite uninterested in fighting, so this meant that Naruto would finally have a chance to kil enemies. He almost cried of happiness....not really...
"How come I didn't see ya fir so long? Where did ya go?" Naruto asked him as they walked out the "Akatsuki Gathering Cave" , it was a stupid name Naruto had come up with for that desolate place.
Tobi seemed to cry under his mask, "Uwahh, Leader took me with him...."
Well, that was certainly interesting...
"Huh?? Where??" Naruto ventured, because, why would the Leader take Tobi? And where? No one really knew where Pain and Konan were from...
"I don't even know!! They just, took me to some dark and scary place!" He started crying.
Naruto laughed and comforted him, but he couldn't help finding this slightly suspicious.
"So...today we go to a hideout if Orochimaru right? To "clean" out anything suspicious?" Tobi asked.
"Yeah. More or less. There are slight chances that the snake bastard might be there, but I don't really think so..." Naruto replied, stretching his arms over his head.
Damn these cloaks are actually pretty comfortable...
Of course he knew Orochimaru wasn't there at the moment. Keito and Hitomi-though it had reduced-still met up with him to provide information. Orochimaru had moved out of this particular hideout recently and his minion, that Kabuto was murdering some small time landlords for money. How pathetic.
They had to travel for two days, before reaching the hideout. The journey was pretty uneventful, just Naruto and Tobi whipping some reeds around at each, pretending to fight.
Tobi asked him a rather unexpected question then, "Who gave you the katana?"
Naruto was slightly surprised, because of the way he worded it. He didn't ask "where did you get it from" he directly assumed that someone got it for him.
But he couldn't really decide whether it was intentional or just a slip of the tongue. Well, it wasn't a big deal so Naruto replied nonchalantly, "Oh, a friend gave it to me."
Tobi seemed surprised, "You have friends?"
Naruto shot him a look, and Tobi held up his hands, "Alright alright!! Hahah, I was just kidding..."
Later after sometime, Tobi asked again, "Have you named it? Your katana I mean?"
Naruto shook his head, "Nah, it's pretty pointless."
Tobi tilted his head as if to ask "why?"
So Naruto continued, "That's like naming your mask...have you named it?"
Tobi scratched his head, "No?"
Naruto laughed, and they continued.
This time Orochimaru's hideout was in a dense forest, and kind of underground, so Naruto and Tobi had decided that if the entrance was blocked then Tobi would go in and find a way to open it.
On the night before reaching the hideout, while the two people stoked the fire, a bright turquoise figure suddenly appeared behind Tobi, scaring the poor guy.
Tobi shrieked and fell from the small rock on which he was sitting.
"Hitomi, what happened?" Naruto questioned. Her sudden appearance was weird, bit it didn't seem like she brought any bad news...?
Hitomi grinned a weird smile and handed a small scroll to Naruto, then whispered something in his ear. Tobi tried eavesdropping but failed.
Naruto and Hitomi exchanged a look and something shone in the blond's eyes. His mouth twitched into a lopsided grin. Hitomi flashed him a thumbs up and then vanished as quickly as she had appeared.
Tobi creeped closer to him and asked what the hell just happened.
"Oh. We're going to have some guests." Naruto smiled, the flickering fire casted nasty shadows at his face, and gave him a creepy aura. He then handed Tobi the scroll.
-----------------------------------------
<<The next Day>>
They ran in a formation and nodded to each other, signalling that the area was clear. They could approach.
No sign of Orochimaru.
Kabuto?
No.
Any other-?
No.
A nod, and they proceeded.
Suddenly one of them motioned for them to stop.
I sense someone.
Orochimaru???
No. Someone else.
I'll take the rear. Go forward.
Agreed.
They continued forward.
They reached it. The Hideout. A stone entrance to a probably huge underground hideout.
Of course, only that snake could come up with something like this.
Who do you sense? Can you tell there positions-
"HEY THERE!" A clear loud voice suddenly rang out.
The shinobis' eyes widened as they whipped their head around.
This can be a genjutsu.
Just an illusion.
It can't be true.
Are you serious?
"Long time no see! Up here losers."
They whipped their head up and yes, there he was, on one of the highest branches of the tall trees.
One of them however was confused. He glanced at his other teammates. They seemed to be shocked beyond belief.
So it's him?
The boy jumped down, and landed neatly in a crouch on the top of the stone entrance. He smiled and waved at them. The ones facing him too shocked to speak.
Suddenly a figure appeared out of no where, no, more like from the ground itself?! And stood behind him.
Their cloaks matched.
"Done already?" The boy asked the figure behind him, who replied with a thumbs up.
Just at that second a massive explosion rang out behind them, from the ground. A huge fiery that explosion launched stones and soil everywhere.
Amidst this sudden chaos, the kid, now hidden the shadow caused by the explosion spoke, "How are you Team 7? Already replaced me?"
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A/N:
Sorry for late chapter. I was stuck. I am trying to kinda organise? The chapters? Idk.
Sorry.
I don't particularly like this chapter lol.
But anyways...
Oh hey btw!!
I got a fanart!!!!
By- @Suimere123
Thank you so much uwu💕 i love the cute tail and ears omg🥺🥺🥺
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Yours Truly,
23