Announcing, Chapter 12!
Chapter 12
Recap
"So, that's it then. I will die, not because of your personal vendetta against me, but for convenience's sake." Kakashi felt an odd sort of serenity wash over him. He would die, and he accepted that fact.
Another laugh, this one with a bit mirthful. "No, Hatake-san. You will suffer a fate much worse than death." Kakashi watched apathetically as the other man's elegant hands flew through hand seals in a pattern he didn't recognize.
"Kaimetsu no jutsu." The younger man announced, and Kakashi knew no more.
Hatake Kakashi sat up in his bed, breathing heavily from a nightmare he could not remember. He looked around his apartment frantically, but nothing was amiss, and the jounin finally relaxed back into the comfort of his bed. Looking out the window, he saw it was well past midnight. That was strange. He didn't remember falling asleep. In fact, thinking hard, he didn't remember coming home at all. Once again he tensed.
Genjutsu Masters could fool all five senses into believing an illusion, and Kakashi withdrew the kunai from under his pillow and stood carefully, waiting for an unseen attack.
When nothing came, he formed a hand seal, and shouted, "Kai!" Once again, nothing. He was either truly in his own apartment, or in a very believable replica. He turned quickly and reached between his mattresses, looking for something in particular, something no replication could have, because no one knew about it, and it was sealed to only react to his chakra signature.
To his shock and relief, Kakashi felt the sheaf of papers and withdrew them. It was a pile of newspaper clippings, ANBU reports, and pictures, all about one boy. Naruto Uzumaki grinned up at him from the pictures, ranging from birth to four years old. None were more recent than that.
The oldest pictures were riddled with holes from kunai practice. To Kakashi's grieving mind, the demon child had taken his sensei from him in one of his greatest times of need. As the pictures showed the child growing up, the holes grew more and more sparse, as Kakashi's rage dwindled, until the final picture was pristine, unless one counted the obvious tear markings. The picture was taken the day the boy ran away, and Kakashi knew, deep down, that it was partially his fault.
He knew something few others did. That Naruto Uzumaki was given a different name at birth, one that bore more significance than anyone would ever know. Naruto Kazama took his first breath on October tenth, sixteen years prior, and his last under that name the same day. In order to protect the infant from incurring the wrath of his father's enemies, the Hokage, newly reinstated, rechristened him by his mother's last name.
Too bad that that lack knowledge that kept the boy safe from outside forces did not do the same from inside forces. If the citizens of Konoha had known that the vessel of the nine tailed demon fox was also the son of their beloved savior, well, he would probably have been treated like the prince he was.
Kakashi was one of the only ones that knew from the beginning, though he still didn't forgive the kid until just before his defecting from his home village, which was discovered, was for a good reason. The three men found hanging at the village's gate were later discovered to have gang raped the four-year-old, though how the Hokage knew that was beyond the silver haired man. There were no tests that could prove it. But the ancient man seemed sure, and the three names were never added to the Memorial Stone.
Kakashi sat down heavily on his bed, still staring at the photograph. He wondered idly wondered if Naruto was still alive today, where would he be and what would he look like. A brief, ghostly image of a blond boy glaring down at him with icy blue eyes flashed through his mind, but was gone before he could completely grasp it.
Still thinking of the boy, Kakashi drifted back into uneasy dreams.
Eien checked the formation of his troops one last time. After sending Kakashi back to Konoha with a message for Sai that Konoha could wait, and to keep an eye on the troublesome silver haired man, they were ready to move out. Clones dispersing from their stations at other villages confirmed the same for the rest of his loyal group.
These men and women, who had laughed with him, cried with him, and fought for him were ready to do it again, this time with more risk than they've ever faced.
It was all Eien could do not to suddenly go off alone, to fight the Akatsuki. These people might die, and he didn't want that to happen. But they'd probably come after him regardless, led by a severely pissed off Gaara. So he would lead them to the unknown, and pray to a god he didn't believe in that they would all come home safe.
Nodding to Gaara, who stood beside him with glowing green eyes, Eien signaled it was time to move out. The world would converge on the head quarters of the Akatsuki, and the blond only hoped it was enough.
Sai read through the letter quickly, before burning it and watching the ashes mingle in the air. His new master called for patience, not to enact the plan yet, and to keep the buffoon who had discovered too much to figure out he had been missing for days.
For a former ROOT operative, all of was easily accepted. The black hared boy resettled in his perch to watch the man carefully. He had received both the ninja and the message, shockingly enough, from a frog.
There was more to this than met the eye, apparently.
Yugito eyed the forces around her speculatively, as the men and women showed no signs of fear or uncertainty. They knew there was a steep chance they would die in this battle, but every single one of them forged onwards, towards their doom, for one reason and one reason only, because Eien needed them to.
Yugito wished she instilled that sort of loyalty. The cat in her lap purred blissfully.
Gaara nodded to his master, who smiled softly back. The troops began to move, first in coordinated steps, but, because they were ninja, they all took to the trees and began moving in a more sporadic fashion, the red head and blond at the forefront. A fox hopped beside them, going from branch to branch as easily as they did. He would b sent back to the summons realm as soon as they neared their destination, to warn his master of the impending mass summons. A tanuki dashed beside them for the same reason.
They were taking no chances.
Utakata played his flute almost idly as he dashed through the terrain, his a thousand men and women ranging around him, surging forward.
The boy eyed the slug perched on his shoulder. To most, the bug was ugly, deformed, but to the brunette it was beautiful, a work of art.
He used to never tap into his demon's powers, opting instead to use his own, but because of Eien, he now had an accord with the demon slug, and they had a deep friendship and mutual respect.
The teen owed so much to the younger boy.
Han moved alone, save for the odd looking animal he rode. It was known to most as an animal of legend, a dolphin horse. Han knew it to be real because he held the demon inside him, and used its subordinates as his main mode of transportation.
After receiving a letter from one of the only people he respected, Han was traveling away from his home village. Being the main adviser to the Tsuchikage had its perks. He had been offered the position itself, but declined. It held too many bad memories.
Instead of traveling with the rest of the troops from his village, he set off alone, going in a slightly different direction. He had a secret that no one knew, and had to go take care of it before he left to fight for and possibly die for the younger blond.
He arrived at a small house just outside the hidden village, and slid off his mount. He had taken off his armor earlier. It was of no use here.
A small child spotted him from where she was playing in the sand, and grinned widely, showing off a missing front tooth, before running to his and throwing herself in his arms.
"Daddy!" She cried happily. A woman smiled sweetly at him from the doorway.
Two days later, all of the converging forces were going just as strong as at the beginning of the tour.
Eien shaded his eyes as he looked down into the canyon. Across from his own group, he spotted all of the others. They were all perched on the precipice, waiting for his signal to attack.
Almost to himself, Eien muttered, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the home base of the Akatsuki."
A bunch of POV changes in this one, to make up for the lack of flashback. /:J Sorry for the long wait, but I hope to update more soon. But, for now, I have one other chapter to write for another story, before I post them en masse.