Konan wrapped her arms around her leader's chest, her blue hair at odds with the red clouds that covered his cloak "Konan, what's the matter?"

She looked into his blood red eyes, the thin predatory slits that made the other members tremble on occasion "Nothing. Just wanted to make sure you won't leave like Yahiko…"

Very slowly he leaned down and kissed her forehead "I won't leave you. I promised I wouldn't." his nose twitched and he rolled his eyes "Still peaking in on other people Jiraiya?"

The frog sage leapt down from his perch in the trees "Aw, come on! Who wouldn't want to see their pupils getting warm and cuddly!" he said with a smirk as the rain slid off his umbrella and across the already soaked ground.

The container for the fox demon rolled his eyes "Yeah, sure. Whatever. I've got to talk to Kurama, he said something about needing to find Shukaku and his container."

Kakashi Hatake looked at his team roster "Well isn't this interesting, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha and…this is revenge for something isn't it?" he asked the Hokage.

Sarutobi laughed "I did pick them because of that eye" he said pointing to the hidden one the ninja had.

The white haired Jonin sighed "But seriously? Nagato? I could see an Uchiha because of my eye but the Rinnegan?"

Naruto opened his eyes before closing them again and allowing himself to settle deeper into his meditation, the dark ring around them the only sign that Sage mode was active. Konan sat beside him, both of them in meditative positions, Naruto's palm on her back slowly fed her a tiny stream of nature chakra, the rings around her eyes were darkening considerably but she was suffering no ill effects.

Before them was one of the members of the organization, a spy "We have contacted Yugito Nii of the Two Tails and Fu of the Seven Tails. Both of them now know of us but declined to come…I'm sorry Lord Rage, Lady Angel"

Konan spoke without opening her eyes "You did all you were asked to do. There is no need for regret. Thank you." their spy blushed and grinned as he bowed before racing out.

Jiraiya leapt down "Most of the other jinchuriki are being watched 24/7 I can't get in there without being spotted…and me, being as great as I am, well, you don't mistake me for someone else" the hermit bragged.

Even behind their closed eyelids the sage could see both his students rolling their eyes. Pulling his hand away the elder of the two said "That's enough for today Konan, you've gotten great and handling nature chakra, you just need to learn how to gather it." she nodded and he helped her to her feet. Pulling on the black cloak the leader of the Akatsuki stood tall "We have waited in the shadows long enough. We will start to assemble the team needed to complete our goals. Within a week I'll have the roster of who we need to find. Some will be mercenaries and others nobodies, but they have their place as do we all."

The two other members nodded and slipped away to wait for their orders.

Kurama was browsing the list with his partner in the white space within the seal "Well that Uchiha…the one that killed his clan, uh…"

The human of the two chuckled "Itachi?"

"Yeah, I think he'd do. You know why he did it, he displays vast amounts of love for his family and village."

Naruto nodded "We'll need somebody like him. More importantly we can make him see our angle. "

The fox scanned the names, the information from his own kin, the slugs, the snakes and the frogs filling in most of their lives "I like the two swordsmen, they'll do nicely as will the ice girl"

The other laughed "I'd hate to try to pull her away from him! What do you think of the samurai?"

There was a moment of deep thought "I like them, but I don't think we could pull any of them worth our time away from their country" With his nine tails flicking back and forth Kurama countered "What about ANBU members?"

"Naw, their loyalty is to the village and I wouldn't be able to know how far to trust them"

"Even Kakashi?"

That stopped Naruto "Having someone of his caliber would be good but he is former ANBU and holds deep ties to the dead there. If I thought we could I'd say yes but I don't want to appear before him if I think he's going to say no. Then he'll have information on us"

The fox sighed "So picky…better than how you used to be" the host chuckled uncomfortably and scratched the back of his head "What about a Hyuga? That Neji brat is bitter about his father."

"No" Naruto said firmly "If we mess with one of the village clans we'd bring the entire country down on top of us. That's why I can go after Itachi. No clan."

The calamity of wind felt his eye twitch "Well at least that Orochimaru is an idiot, there's an easy duo for us."

Smiling Naruto tilted his head "Where do you think I'm going right now?"

The white area faded and he spoke softly to himself "Okay, if I were a backstabbing snake where would I be…well I doubt Orochimaru would be there but maybe…nope. Hrm…" rubbing his chin he blinked before smacking his head "Duh!"

Kabuto and Orochimaru were in their lab when a sudden voice interrupted them "So this is where you were hiding out…it took a lot of sifting to find this place"

Both those experimenting and the experiments, the sound five, turned to see a man that they hoped not to ever see again. There was no mistaking that he-it was a monster in human skin. He stood taller than the Sannin, his black cloak with red clouds went down to his ankles where he wore the normal set of sandals. His fingertips were all that could be seen with slight claws and each one carried a ring, all of them were gold with a small colored stone with a symbol as they drummed lightly against his biceps. But what scared them the most was his face, somehow the covering up to his nose made him seem more fearsome. Under his eyes were two deep marks that looked almost like whiskers, his hair was gold and red, each thread it's own color before twisting into nine braids that trailed to the small of his back where they looped back up and down in a mind-boggling pattern. His eyes were blood. There exists no other color that it could be called. They were silted like a fox's and peered through their souls.

Even leaning causally against the doorframe it was obvious that this person had power. The air around him simultaneously compressed and stretched them. It made them feel as if this creature wasn't really from this plane but some demon here to play with humanity.

Kabuto hissed "Who are you?!"

Orochimaru chuckled "Now, now Kabuto it isn't polite to be so aggressive with guests even if they are so…unexpected. Though I do concur, who are you?"

Without care the man stepped into the room, the five surrounded him with their leader and his spy in the front "I'm a friend of your friend. Jiraiya often told me about you. And his failure."

The snake prodded "So you're here on behalf of the village?"

"Not the leaf" the man shot back immediately "If anything I'm here for my real home. The Rain." thinking for a moment he continued "But I do think the Leaf wants me back very much…"

The spy and the five were silent as the two continued "And why is that, mister…?"

"Rage. Rage is a fitting name for one such as myself. Born into it you see." he shifted slightly before reaching up and pulling down his collar, the fabric fell and his full face came into view. Three markings and fangs.

"Ah, the keeper of their own Tailed-Beast…I had heard that you died."

Snorting the fox man replied "Hardly…enough with the pleasantries. I'm here to take something and I won't take no for an answer."

Kimimaro leapt forward as Kabuto roared his name in reproach. With a sword of bone and used both hands in a deep and powerful downward slash. Rage responded by leaning back and letting his body sit just outside of the blade's reach. The bone wielder lashed out again and again with screams of fury. The other four jumped in and much to their ire he started to give pointers. "Kimi…mind if I call you that?"

"Yes, I mind!" screamed the normally reserved fighter.

"Eh, too bad. Kimi, you're moving way too broadly for someone of your skill. It's almost like you want to get hit. Fatass, you're draining chakra…which for someone like me is a bad idea" he let a bit of Kurama's chakra out and watched the fat man scream in pain as the hatred ridden energy ripped through his system. The group activated their level 2 seals in response to his hair-breadth dodges.

Kidomaru made a whip out of his silk used it to attack but Rage said blandly "Okay, this is boring…" an enormous blast of yellow chakra forced them back, dazing and blinding them for a moment. Pulling his arms out of his cloak and letting it fall around his waist he slid into a crouch with his arms limp and mouth curled into a snarl.

Sakon hissed out a "What the hell?" of sheer surprise. Tayuya held back a bit of blush but clamped her mouth shut. Most ninja wore a simple plate armor underneath their clothes, in fact the only exceptions they had found were Kimimaro and Rage.

Rage's bare chest held few scars-the sign of either a ninja who did not do his job or one so exceptional that he outclassed every job he took. Given that even Orochimaru was knocked back from a pure outburst of energy it was more than likely the latter. The two scars they could see were massive though, one was a large gash that ran across his stomach from one side to the other splitting his clearly defined musculature. The other was a giant mass of scar tissue over his the center of his chest, roughly the size of a fist.

A mask appeared on his face, around the outside rims of his eyes a red circle formed before it bled down to a sharp purple curve that came down the middle of his cheek and two pale green lines radiated out from each eye, one angled up and one down, slowly the mask darkened until it was pitch black.

Orochimaru stopped. He knew what this was but he really didn't believe it, the implications were too staggering to admit. "What do you want? Information? A lab?"

Rage flicked a finger and a chair was dragged from where it was implanted in the wall right behind him from the blast, sitting he smirked as his fingertips bounced off each other, it was not a pleasant thing and even the Sannin felt less like the snake and more like the mouse. "I'm taking the Uzumaki" the snake stiffened at this, clearly this one knew the full extent of his operations "And" he continued "That one as well" he said pointing a finger at the red head.

She didn't take kindly to this "Fuck you! I'm not doing anything you want! I'd rather die asshole!"

The smile fell and he dropped a hand between his knees where it rested on the seat of the chair, for a moment nothing happened. With a snap louder than anything any of the five apprentices had heard before a bolt of black lightning appeared for a second, from outside or his hand they couldn't tell, but it exploded through the mountain above them and the floor below them, sunlight flooded in and from hundreds of feet below the sound of the underground river, the hole itself was large enough that anyone there could have walked through and the edges were smooth.

Kabuto muttered "Lightning?"

Rage replied with a blank face as he pulled his jacket back up "It's more complicated than that, but yes. Lightning." he turned around and took a few steps up the stairs "Come on girl, I don't have time to waste."

Tayuya growled but looked to Orochimaru who nodded and silently rubbed the side of his neck. Spying it was then.

The clone Rage had used to gather sage chakra for his demonstration at Orochimaru's hideout smiled up at Konan "First recruit found"

The blue haired woman smiled "Who?"

He waved a hand "The brat the snake was training. Wrong of course. Her chakra's twisted because of that stupid seal and I'm going to have to break it before we get back. I don't want him being able to get into trouble at the tower"

She nodded and pressed her lips against his gently "Take care" he clone gave her a soft smile before dispelling.

Jiraiya entered the room "I take it you're still not sure of this?"

The woman shook her head "I'm entirely sure. His dream means that people like us won't drown in the mud. It means people like you would be seen like the heroes you are rather than the has-beens people call you."

The Toad Hermit scratched his head "I know that but his ways are…unorthodox at best. At worst he'll be punished under the full might of all the nations."

"If he succeeds, not even at best, we'll finally have some measure of peace and won't have to worry about being stabbed in the back every moment of our lives"

As soon as they had left the hidden lab the two had started walking. That had been nearly eight hours ago. Neither of them had volunteered to speak first this long and the redhead was about to burst "Okay, I give. Was this some sort of fuckin' test or something?!"

Rage looked around the dense forest around the road and flopped down "No, not really." she heard a rough grinding before he pulled his arm out of the torso of his cloak and held out a bag "Jawbreaker?"

With a look of disbelief she asked "That's what you've been doing for eight hours?"

He shook his head "Nope, just the past three. Trying to figure out what flavor these are supposed to be."

"You mean we could have talked the entire time?" he nodded and she slumped "Why am I not surprised?"

"Actually" her new…master? Leader? Started "We're here to keep an appointment."

Before she could ask what kind Rage's form flickered in and out of focus several times before he pulled his cloak to his waist and allowed the mask to cross his face and a single red tail out.

"Kurama…think one'll be enough?"

"I don't know, I was hoping you wouldn't need any"

Shrugging the human replied "He's gone insane. You think I like this any more than you do?"

A large turtle covered in spikes burst out of the forest and roared as a swarm of ninja surrounded it. A woman in a blue dress with red hair dropped beside Rage "Now it's your fight." she looked like she had a mouthful of blood "And in exchange you'll get what you asked"

Rage's face was blank as he grabbed her hand and gently kissed her knuckles "I will do what I have promised Lady Mei." the lady blushed and made a shrill sound and the ninja surrounding the turtle darted back.

In a pure white space three entities sat "Yagura's gone insane, he's been controlled for so long and the controller overloaded him."

Rage looked very concerned "Isobu…are you okay?"

The three tailed turtle sighed "I've been better. Yagura used to be all right. You know, as far as containers go." shaking his massive head the turtle went on "Just do it and I'll try to get to that tower of yours" Kurama's nose touched Rage and he nodded.

Rage's body seemed to become more animalistic, his crouch now brushed his knuckles against the ground and his fangs were so long that the extended past his mouth, each braid traced down his back before running along the top of a tail, one per braid. All the ninja were settled into the trees some distance away.

This was a fight for monsters.

Yagura let out a torrent that leveled part of the forest and had the onlookers leaping back from the fight. Many looked around in horror, the clearing was now nearly a quarter of a mile wide. Rage, however, hadn't moved but he gripped his forearm and a ball of wind the size of a shadow windmill shuriken formed in his palm and darkened until it was pitch black and lightning arced off it. Teleporting forward the human slammed his hand into the former leader and cracked his shell right behind the head before being shaken off by the thrashing turtle.

Inaudible to all others the container of nine hissed "Shit, this isn't working…I'm going to have to use it."

Kurama agreed "But we're not going to use that form."

"No. So I'm going to need a few seconds and you're going to have to do the seals"

Sighing the fox split himself into Yin and Yang and both started darting through the equivalent of seals at blazing speeds.

In the real world Ao's eyes widened and he jerked his head to the side to keep from vomiting at the tremulous wave of colors colliding and mixing and splitting and reforming only for the cycle to repeat. The yellow and red were the primary but they were mixing with at least four other colors before it stabilized into a storm cloud gray.

"Get ready, something big is happening" the sensor said as the well of chakra that had started at the core of Rage had grown until it eclipsed that of the Turtle.

None of them caught the technique name, something he never said, but for all of them it was ingrained into their memories for the rest of their lives.

Devil Storm

Rage dodged Yagura's claws by inches as he felt the two foxes finish molding the massive amount of chakra needed. Taking a deep breath his chest expanded to an impossible degree before he let out a roar that stunned even the giant turtle, with the roar came a tidal wave of black wind and the former mizukage was easily lifted off his feet and thrown into the tornado that formed as lightning stuck repeatedly and water and ice blasted against his shell at incredible pressure. Chunks of earth, over a ton each, buffeted him as they were ignited into fiery masses.

But no matter how devastating the debris of the storm it would never reach the level of the storm itself. The wind was starting peeling his armor off when the truth of the wind came out to his maddened mind- the wind was a continuous stream of tailed-beast bombs endowed with wind chakra.

Though Yagura was tough, nearly invincible for the average ninja in this state the jutsu that hit him was designed to destroy everything in it's path. Human, fortress, god, demon. All of it. In the end a very human body fell to the ground, lacerations covering his body.

The others, including Tayuya, circled the body. Mei touched the neck looking for a pulse as Ao looked for any chakra movement. Both of them gave a negative and the former watched as Rage pulled his jacket up "You've held up your end of the deal. One meeting."

One of the others with her laughed "That's it? One meeting?"

She shook her head and reached for a scroll "No. Nuibari." the group was shocked into silence. With a puff of smoke the stitching sword appeared in her hand before she gave it to Rage. He swung the sword in a circle beside him once before he slid the legendary sword between his back and his jacket.

Kissing her knuckles once again Rage bowed "Call on me if you need any of my services"

Mei's blush wasn't nearly as well hidden as she would have liked "If I see fit."

"Of course Mizukage" he replied before walking away with Tayuya at his side.

It was only a half hour later that Rage stopped for the night "Here's a good spot" he noted as he stepped off the road a good bit before rolling his shoulders. His red eyes lit upon the musician's face "Rest while I gather the wood"

She turned to him "A fire? Here? Are you batshit crazy?"

His eyes, the only thing visible, showed no signs of agitation "Yagura ran wild in this forest only an hour ago. It'll be empty for some time yet"

She growled "Fine…" she watched as he seemed to amble about carelessly "Why did you choose me?"

His eyes met hers and she couldn't help but notice that the red seemed a bit less harsh "When you survived Orochimaru's trials an informant of mine relayed some interesting information that he overlooked."

Tayuya stared at him for a moment "What do you want?"

He straightened "Hmm?"

"Why bother taking me from Orochimaru? Why bother with this other person?"

Even with his mouth hidden she knew Rage was smirking at her "How much do you trust me?"

She gritted her teeth "Next to none-Hell, I don't think I'm going to sleep tonight"

"Then I can't tell you"

She let out an inglorious "Huh?"

He was rubbing his forehead "My dream has to deal with making a place where I don't have to worry everyday about some bastard putting a knife in my back, where I don't have to worry that anyone I grow close to may have their throat slit. I can't tell you anything unless I have assurance that you have the same dream I do."

The wood was arranged in a tent-like shape, Rage stuck a finger in a gap between pieces and smoke started to pour out of the spaces before a fire took over. "Tayuya, come here I'm going to take off your seal"

She blinked "What? You can do that?" she couldn't help the smile that crossed her face, nor the lilt in her voice.

He nodded and she darted over as she pulled down her shirt so he could access the seal. He stared at it for several minutes but she didn't say anything as he was muttering to himself, the occasional caught word would be something like "hidden trap" or "overflow" and "explosion". Sighing he stepped back "I'll need a minute. I need to summon the Four Crows"

She blinked "What the fuck are the four crows?"

"The Four Crows are creatures that have seen the beginning of the world and will be there for it's death and as their kin they will feast on it's corpse."

His left hand started to bleed before he made a sign- instead of the normal cloud that summoned a creature a large array of circles and lines appeared around them and a large ocarina made of bone was in his hand. The song he played was a dirge that bored into her mind before pressing her to the precipice of blacking out before it ended.

As her vision cleared she wished it hadn't.

Surrounding them were four giant crows, easily twenty feet tall, each one was partially decayed and the stench was overpowering, but their eyes looked down on her as if she was nothing, less than the grain of sand at their feet.

The first opened it's beak and the scent of putrefaction was even stronger "What do you want Cub?"

Rage stood in front of her and said in a voice that wasn't his "What makes you think it's the Cub who wants something?"