Journey to Iwa: The Night Before

For the past 2 weeks the new incomplete Saints have been getting things together. The 3 new members; Sakura, Hinata, and Sasuke all got their induction tattoos and move in to the Saints' complex, bringing the remaining possessions they had with them... Those that weren't destroyed that is.

The city was wrecked. It looked like abandoned ruins, since the streets were now quiet. But quickly, things were being renovated by both conduits and the DUP. You'd expect them to have a temporary truce to repair Konoha City, but the DUP still went out their way to capture the conduits that still survived. It was easy to go against them since most of their weapons and supplies have been reduced to rubble by The Reapers and Curse, but they still could beat you if you weren't careful. Since the battle, The Saints had to call up friendly Conduits to build a new location, this time inside the mountain it's self, since it really wasn't save anymore to be on the surface anymore.

All of this was happening, but The Saints were still able to have somewhat of a funeral for their fallen comrades. Naruto took Sasuke's advice and grudgingly cremated his 4 fallen comrades' remains. Many conduits from all corners in the city found out about what happened to The Saints and how the Black Clouds now cease to exist, so they all came for the funeral. It all took place in the crater where the black clouds were killed, the same crater where they had their sparring match with The Saints.

It lasted for a few hours then soon everyone left at nightfall. Jiraiya and Tsunade both left to search for more info on the whereabouts of the man known as Fumei. The Saints went a top a high building in the city to meet up, along with some major conduits who were allies. The 8 Saints were talking over what needed to be done, and speculating how dangerous the Reapers and Cursed were, now that they seem to be working together. Ino, Tenten, and Temari were there as well. Shikamaru, Kiba, Lee, Sai and all the other major conduits were there listening as well.

They were currently speaking of Fumei. Sasuke was speaking at the moment.

"So, you're telling me that now there is another Prime Conduit who's wearing a hood or something? He's the one responsible for taking out half the saints?" The question was sent towards Naruto, who just nodded bitterly "His punk ass was strong as hell, it was unreal... But there was something weird about him... It was like... His power, resonated with mine... Like how blood related conduits would... I was thinking deep down that he could've been related to me, but at the same time I couldn't be so sure if he was Uzumaki or not. He resonated with me like how every Reaper did... It was strange though... This was stronger than the others... Wait! I remember another thing... He had a number on his jacket. Eight. Whatever the hell that means" Gaara sighed and spoke steadily "The Reapers already want something from you, same goes with Sasuke and The Cursed. We just need to get more information about them, based on what Sasuke said, the cursed are ran by Anko and some snake man named Orochimaru. We're still unsure who leads the Reapers though"

The red phone in Naruto's pocket suddenly became 10 times heavier. From the mayhem going on, and the stupid things that have been happening, it suddenly made him realize that he has an alternative route... A way out... He could leave this gang whenever he wanted. Naruto threw those thoughts away and decided reluctantly to speak up "The leader of the Reapers is definitely a woman named Fuuka" Everyone quickly turned their attention to Naruto, shocked. Sakura squinted her eyes in suspicion "How would you know any of this? Have you seen her?" Naruto glared at Sakura, Seishogan activated subconsciously. He and Sakura always had clashing personalities, it was always a thing to deal with whenever they were around each other. It quickly became tedious as well. Naruto spat on the ground, only taking his eyes of Sakura for a small moment. "Whenever one of those Conduits that busted out of the DUP Power Plant went wild, I took a trip underground. Soon enough I found a woman, and had a few words... I only found out that she was a reaper way after I left. She's my-" Naruto stopped for a minute... He didn't feel comfortable, telling the group his blood connection to her, or the fact that she's waiting for him to contact her, anytime. Sakura pressed Naruto for an answer "Your what?" Naruto looked down and then up into the green eyes of his so called comrade. "My best and only guess of who's the Reapers' leader"

Sakura didn't seem satisfied by the blond's answer. In fact, a number of people found what he said was strange, Naruto could see their emotions clearly. They were all wondering how he met her, and got out alive. They weren't exactly suspicious, but they were a bit curious. For some reason, Naruto felt that something was probing his mind, trying to extract information from his brain. He quickly span around and glared at Ino. "I've let you in my head once bitch. Try to get into it again I'll burn yours to a crisp" Ino's eye twitched as her concentration broke. She frowned at Naruto and turned her head aside stubbornly, refusing to look at him. "You're hiding something. I don't like it Naruto" The blond's eyes flared in rage at Ino's remarks.

Sakura rolled her eyes in defiance. "A guilty man usually gets riled up when people think he's full of shit. Somebody like you? I'm surprised your comrades could even get a long with you" Naruto quickly snapped. His left hand engulfed in fiery black and gold smoke and ember, ready to burst. Utakata put a hand on Naruto's shoulder to get his attention. "Naruto, relax. These are all comrades, you don't need to fight right now" Kiraibi nodded in agreement. "Forreal man, chill out yo" Gaara nodded quietly, while Fuu only looked at Naruto with the deepest concern. Naruto pushed his teammate's hand off and glared at him. "I don't care, she's not my comrade Utakata. She's just a bullshit replacement for our REAL comrade, Yugito right? Or was it Yagura? Roshi? Or my own fuckin' cousin Reyos?! And who does Hinata replace man? Which one of those 4?! Which one does even Sasuke replace? Don't get me wrong, he's my best friend, but how can you so easily just try to replace our comrades like it's nothing? You have me suggesting some bullshit stuff like going all the way to old man Roshi's city to find a 'new' teammate. Han right? How the fuck are we supposed to be sure he'll even join?! It's funny how you guys did the same when my own brother Menma disappeared! You assholes brought me up out of nowhere! I never asked for any of this shit! You douche bags just forced it on me! You give me this stupid philosophy that we should show mercy to the ones who prosecute us and try to kill us! Saying shit like we can't lash out on the regular humans. So much so they think they can walk all over us! It seems like I was better on my own" Hinata, who was quiet the whole time put her head down sadly. Sakura put her arm around her to comfort the Hyuga, while glaring at Naruto.

Sasuke buried his face in his hand, rubbing his forehead. "Naruto come on-" The blond span sharply to face Sasuke "Shut the fuck up! I'm surprised you even joined when I offered, way to throw your own team behind you" Sasuke glowered at his friend "You're the one who suggested for me to join! What the fu-" Naruto sucked in his teeth "Maybe I shouldn't have made that dumb ass mistake! From where I'm standing now, maybe I shouldn't have even gone to that damned forsaken party. I wouldn't have had to deal with any of this bullshit from you, and everyone else! Who knows? I could have been fighting for the other side!" Sasuke was at a loss of words for his troubled friend, so he just stood their blankly. With that being said, Naruto stormed away from the group of conduits. His Aunt's words were ringing in his ears as we walked "you're fighting for the wrong side" He was stopped from behind him by an unfamiliar voice. "Hmph, you're really temperamental"

Naruto whirled around to face the owner of the voice. He looked up and saw in the moonlight, someone sitting on the entrance to the stairs inside the tall building. The man was Fumei, in the same clothing as last time. With black clothes, hood up and all. Naruto quickly lunged in smoke dash at Fumei, but he just quickly dodged his attack. Naruto glared at the mysterious man. "Fumei! You're going to pay for every last bit of pain you gave to my comrades! I'll kill you right here!" Fumei shook his covered head and sighed "I'm afraid you have the wrong one dumb-ass, I didn't kill your friends. You've gotten me mistaken for that sarcastic bastard Kisai. It's like him to give you a stupid name like Fumei" Naruto squinted at the man's hood and realized what was wrong. His voice did not match last time, neither did his way of words match either. In fact, he looked a bit shorter than him. Fumei was somewhere close to 6'8 or even 6'9. This guy looked like he could be barely 6'1. The number on his cloak wasn't an 8 either, it was a 9. Plus, his energy resonated with Naruto's like Fumei's but for some reason, it was just a bit different, a bit unique.

Naruto fired an ember dagger at the hooded man, who easily dodged it. Naruto took his fighter's stance, with his left hand extended charged and ready to shoot. "Who the hell are you?! Who the hell is Kisai?!" The hooded man shook his head. "You don't need to worry shit about my name. I've just come to warn you again. You see the shit you're going through? You don't have to unless you do what Fuuka says" The hooded man then pointed a gloved finger at Naruto "You're the one she's wanted since the very day you were birthed. Your resonating power speaks to her. You're her successor, Naruto. Remember that" Naruto's eyes widened and his mouth dropped a bit. As he spoke, he slowly lowered his hand down to his side. "Those words... I've heard them before... Who are you?"

Before the hooded man could respond, Utakata fired a condensed acid bubble towards him. The man dodged it quickly and out of reflex shot Utakata in the chest with his conduit energy, causing him to crumple to the ground. The man's power were fire and smoke, almost identical to Naruto's but the difference is the whole thing was a blood red smoke and black ember. Naruto looked at the damage done to Utakata with the Seishogan, and saw that the burn had some type of infection in it that targeted Utakata's kinetic energy. He looked back at the hooded man, bewildered. The man turned his head to face Naruto "Remember what I said Naruto" he then quickly dispersed in a crimson fiery smoke haze, blinding Naruto. When his vision focused again, the man was gone, and no one could sense him.

Hinata, Sakura, and Fuu all had to work together to heal Utakata. The burn wasn't normal for some reason and no one understood why. Sasuke looked over it with Neji and they both came with a grim conclusion. Neji spoke deactivating his Byakugan, which could see the conduit, and human anatomy in large detail. "That's the plague from Cole Macgrath's time. It looks like it's fired in small doses in every burn. If the burn itself doesn't kill someone, the plague infection will... That's a terrifying conduit power, although it looks like a strong conduit can recover from it, with or without any healing enhancements... It'll take awhile for Utakata to make a full recovery. From what it looks like, you'll have to wait a few weeks before you can make your way to Iwa City"

While nursing Utakata with healing, Sakura glared up at Naruto. Ino looked at him with even more suspicion "What does he mean by successor, Naruto? What's your connection to this Fuuka lady?" Naruto closed his eyes and started walking away. Sakura frowned and then shouted "You're just going to run away from that question? Answer it!" Naruto stopped and slowly turned his head half way, his crimson red Seishogan blazing at Sakura "Quit badgering me as if I'm the bad guy. Get the fuck off my case. I'll go to Iwa alone, the rest of you can stay here. I'll just steal a car and head on there" Fuu spoke up for the first time which was really unusual for her to be quiet "You're a damned liar! I'm coming along with you! Who knows what would happen if you go on by yourself!" Realizing what was going on Hinata quickly volunteered as well "I'll go... I may be new Naruto, but I can help you on the way" Hinata's offer rubbed Fuu the wrong way, and she let her know by giving her a deadly glare. Sasuke knew nothing would get anywhere so he spoke up to silence the others. "Me and Naruto work the best together, that's a given. Me and him will go together. We can take a jet to get there quickly" Shikamaru shook his head at Sasuke "Bad idea man. With all the commotion going on, anything in the air that's unidentified will be shot down by the DUP or something, better to go by car"

Naruto and Sasuke took Shikamaru's advice. The Saints went back to their hideout and all helped the 2 conduits to gather a few things to prepare for the drive to Iwa. They had to pass through 3 major cities and probably a few minor ones to get there. Naruto and Sasuke bid their teammates farewell and left in a black car.

The 6 remaining Saints watched them leave grimly. Sakura soon spoke up "I don't like the shit Naruto is selling. He's hiding something, something big. There has to be a connection with The Reapers that we don't know about... Maybe he's conspiring with them? That instantly pissed off Fuu. "You don't know shit about Naruto so why are you even talking?" Utakata weakly put his hand out in front of Fuu to relax her. "Fuu may be hotheaded but she has a point. How can you, try to call out our comrade when you haven't proven anything to us yet? You're kind of ridiculous" Kiraibi nodded "Hell yeah this bitch is! Talking shit like she's the Mrs! Keep your mouth shut bout my man. He's not with the Reapers in any type of plan!" Hinata looked shyly at Sakura "They have a point Sakura... I mean.. You can't just jump to a conclusion so early..." Gaara sighed and shook his head " I'll admit it, it's sketchy on why he's avoiding the questions about this Fuuka lady. I wouldn't think anything of it, because I'm sure that The Black Clouds would have known about her from the dead founder Nagato or something, but they're all dead, and Sasuke doesn't know anything. We have no idea who she is and why she wants Naruto. Reyos is dead as well so he can't tell me anything. Just have faith in your teammate that is... And whoever that hooded man was as well... We'll find him"

Meanwhile in the Reaper underground that same masked man was walking somewhere. He soon reached a door and soon walked in the room. Inside the room 8 hooded figures like him seated, all having a number on the torso of their trench coats. 1 through 8. Orochimaru and Fuuka were also sitting on thrones facing the hooded figures. Orochimaru spoke first "I think, it's clear that my Cursed, are now apart of the Reapers? This is much easier, working together instead of fighting, Fuuka. It's a good thing that we've gathered these 9 primes as well. I like them. I hope to soon bring Sasuke and Naruto into them as well" the snakelike man licked his lips like a pedophile. The 9th Fumei spoke up.(Oh yeah I'm going to refer them as numbers now it's much easier than hooded man) "Speaking of those two they're driving to Iwa. I think we'd like to intercept them on their way. They're trying to get Han. Apparently that's supposed to be Roshi's nephew or something" Fuuka's eyes were brightened a bit. "Excellent... We'll stop them there. Knowing them they'll be soon to drive in to Suna again" 9 was about to volunteer to get them, but 2 stood up, taking her hood off in the process. It revealed to be Anko's smug face. "Let me go after them in Suna... I want to see little Sasuke again. Ren , you can come with me too if you want. Since you have something against Naruto for whatever happened to Tetsujin" 1 took of his hood and revealed a man with silvery hair that covered his forehead and deep blue eyes. They were bloodshot a bit and he had a crazy grin. He was definitely a psycho. "Gyahahaha! Great! Looks like it could be a bit fun!" 9 quickly dashed to Ren and grabbed him by the neck. "If you kill him, you'll destroy the reason why we're after him. You better not fuck this up Ren" The crazy man calmed down a bit "Fine! I won't kill him, but I'm going to maim him severely!" That set off 3 for some reason and she went and grabbed him. "Do it and I'll kill you" Ren rolled her eyes hastily. "Fine fine fine, no promises!"

Ren and Anko then left, as well as Fuuka and Orochimaru for whatever reason they had.

9 looked for Kisai, who was number 8. He then proceeded by ripping his hood of his head, and punched him square in the face. "Who the hell uses a stupid name like 'Fumei'? Are you stupid?" Kisai looked up at his angry comrade's concealed face. Kisai had his same sardonic grin. He had black hair and his eyes were a bright gold like color. "Come on man, I thought you wouldn't care! You really need to start bitching at me now? What are you mad that I killed some of The Saints?" 9 shook his head tersely "No, I don't give a shit about what you did to the others. I'm just trying to get through your thick skull that you are not supposed to kill Naruto. You'll just piss off Fuuka" Kisai only rolled his eyes then suddenly 5 spoke up. "Hehe, you really like to cause problems Kisai. You should learn how to check yourself before going overboard. Both you and Ren" Kisai went and looked at 5 "You really want to start now man?" 5's eyes started glowing. His eyes were red, and had an unusual type of Mangekyou Sharingan. It had three stretched triangles evenly spaced around the pupil that each curve at the top around the eye to form a circle, making it similar to a pinwheel. "We can spar a bit if you'd like"

6 tiredly shook his head "You guys are stupid as hell. To think I was busted out of the DUP center only to be with y'all" 4 responded to 6 laconically. "You didn't have to join. Quit bitching" 6 whirled around to respond to 4. "My god, your mouth is annoying as fuck. Can you not?" 7 laughed with a light, yet rude laugh. She was enjoying the arguments "You're too much. Just relax will you? Anyway, hey you I forgot your name. Since you're like our newest member" she was referring to 3, who nearly attacked Ren earlier. "What's your connection with that blond haired brat anyway? All I remember is he was a bit of a punk when I fought him 2 years ago in Oto city" 3 quietly looked up at 7 then slowly said "We had history with each other in the past, but it seems like he doesn't really care about what was between us anymore... That's all" Kisai snorted while putting his hood back on. "Whoa, somebody's on their period"

9 waved his hands slowly to get everyone's attention. "Listen guys, just remember what we're doing OK? We're not going to be used by Fuuka or Orochimaru, we're using them. I already talked with Anko, she wants in on taking them down when we have the chance. Just keep building up trust. Soon enough they'll be out of the picture" 5 slowly raised his hand "And? What if we can't get Naruto and Sasuke to join our side? What happens to them" 9 responded with a tone of finality "Then so be it. They'll die with the rest of the people standing in our way" 4 responded with a curt choice of words "Harsh to do to him. Didn't you have history with both of them? You'll just snuff them out just like that?" 9 shook his head "It doesn't matter. Either they are with us or against us" 6 yawned under his shadowed hood "What type of ultimatum is that?" waved off 6's question. "Relax, we'll give those 2 multiple chances" He then walked out of the room. He was now walking off somewhere out to the surface thinking.

"Naruto, you've grown a bit"