TIMESKIP : Eleven Months
Character | Age
Naruto Uzumaki | Eight
Kasumi Uzumaki | Eight
Natsumi Uzumaki | Forteen
Nina Uzumaki | Nineteen [Ageless]
Kushina Uzumaki | Twenty-four [Ageless]
The Ame Orphans | Twenty
The Sannin | Forty-seven
Chapter 5 : Emancipation
Hi no Kuni (Land of Fire)
The Akatsuki, which currently consists of Yahiko, Nagato, Konan and about twenty A-class and B-class ninja and Naruto, had been traveling various parts of the elemental nations for about eleven months. This time was used for training, making new contacts, gathering spies and information they require to fulfill their future goals and other miscellaneous tasks.
During this time, Naruto had managed to master Banshō Ten'in to its full capabilities, he could now attract almost anything towards any other thing, and do this with each of his hands simultaneously. His mastery over Shinra Tensei also increased; he could now do it every thirty seconds for about twenty times a day. Though its nowhere near Nagato's level, he is only an eight year old and has a lot of time to improve in.
Nagato had let him copy his Chibaku Tensei as well, but forbidden from using it unless it's a life-death situation as it consumes too much chakra; more than Naruto could provide right now. Together with Naruto, Nagato had also managed to find and use yet another one of Rinnegan's abilities; creating chakra disruption metal.
They used this metal in the shape of blades or rods that could be created at a moment's notice with the user's chakra and are more resilient than any steel available, which makes them great weapons for regular usage. Their availability is virtually limitless and spontaneous, they are disposable and not to mention the cheapest weapons they could ever find - given they are made from their own chakra with no extra cost.
When the enemy is hit with one of these chakra blades, his chakra control is disturbed so much that until the victim gets the rod out of his or her body he can't even hope to use even the simplest ninja techniques, including enhancing their senses. Moreover, if enough chakra is pushed into the rod from a close enough location, the user can immobilize the opponent completely, making them little more than a sitting duck.
Nagato had told Naruto that he knows a few more techniques of the Rinnegan, but they are too dangerous to try and he won't perform them unless absolutely necessary. He warned Naruto about an extremely powerful technique that has the drawback of sucking out so much life force out of the user that even an Uzumaki would be turned into a husk of his former self. According to him, with time the Rinnegan keeps unlocking more techniques that the Rikudō Sennin had sealed in the bloodline and the user knows how to perform that particular technique by instinct.
Kyūbi had told them that one of the abilities of the Sage was to be able to manipulate six different bodies from distance, each with its own abilities; that was the reason he was called sage of Six Paths. When that jutsu is unlocked, it would mean they know at least the basics of most of the Rinnegan based techniques.
As of now, neither of the two had been able to unlock the Rinnegan to that level, so they still had to wait; but Rinnegan wasn't the only thing Naruto was learning. Yahiko had been teaching him Suiton ninjutsu. His proficiency with water was good enough to warrant him an S-rank status, but since he wasn't good enough in other aspects to be considered S-rank, he was still high A-rank ninja, and a pretty damn good teacher when it came to teaching suiton.
With Yahiko's help the blond had mastered about twenty different suiton techniques, three of which were A-rank. He had also copied an S-rank from him to learn later when he had enough chakra for it; right now his Yogengan might kill him by absorbing too much chakra to perfect an S-rank technique, so he decided to play it safe.
Surprisingly enough, Naruto was able to use Origami jutsu that Konan was so fond of. He couldn't copy them with the Yogengan, but it wasn't a bloodline. Once Konan hammered the theory and concept in him, Naruto was eventually able to get it.
This didn't settle well with his other two friends as Konan never taught anyone her Origami jutsu; she wanted to keep it a clan secret as it was her dream to bring back her family's name. Her family consisted of talented origami ninjutsu users who had all been killed during the third great shinobi war with the exception of Konan. Of course she had asked Naruto not to teach it to anyone; she had given it to him as a gift for saving her and her friends.
Naruto was nowhere near Konan's level though; she could disintegrate into paper, fly with paper wings and what not. Whatever you could think of as something that paper could be capable of doing – Konan could do it and more. She could make even weapons from paper, make her paper hard as steel and use it as shurikens.
'I may be stuck making paper boats for now, but I will improve with practice and one day surpass you in your own art, Konan-chan!' Naruto vowed to himself with determination blazing in his eyes.
Kyūbi couldn't help but once again admire his will to never give up. Before she even realized what she was saying, the words had already left her mouth. 'I'm sure you will, Naruto...'
She mentally winced. 'Damn, I almost sounded concerned! I'm the fucking Kyūbi no Kitsune god dammit. I don't do kindhearted!'
It had been a long time since Nagato had been waiting to finally meet his aunt, and he was quickly losing his patience with the blond. "Alright Naruto, that's quite enough for waiting, don't you think? I think you are quite ready for whatever the dragons can give an eight year old as a test. I've been teaching you for a year, and so have Yahiko and Konan. I've never seen a more powerful brat at your age. I'd say you're as strong as me when I had completed Jiraiya-sensei's training at the age of twelve."
The least he wanted was a decided time for a meeting; having had lost his parents when he was six, Nagato always dreamed of having a family again - and until a year ago he believed he was the last of the Uzumaki Clan.
Naruto merely looked annoyed at his cousins' accusations. "Don't yell at me, it's not like I am trying to delay the family reunion you know! It's just that Kaa-chan told me the test will be hard and I need to be ready."
The red haired male rolled his eyes. "You are ready, I would say you are at least high-chūnin level right now, and that's without your Yogengan."
Naruto's shoulders sagged in defeat; maybe his cousin had a point. "Tch, fine. There is just one little problem…"
The elder Rinnegan wielder tilted his head in questioning way. "Yeah…?"
Naruto grinned sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. "Well um... I kind of forgot to ask Kaa-chan about the hand-seals needed for summoning when I signed the contract; and I guess she forgot them too."
Nagato tried to resist the urge to face-palm. "Naruto, sometimes you are just so stupid," he puffed out his chest with pride, "But of course, not everyone is as handsome, smart or charming as me. So I shall show you how it's done!"
As he dramatically prepared to go through some hand seals, Nagato realized he didn't really have a summoning contract; so he never needed to learn the summoning hand signs either. "Eh... on second thought... Konan-chan, do you remember the hand seals needed for summoning? I don't think I should be the only one who gets to help him."
Konan, who had been silently listening to their conversation and sweat-dropping every once in awhile could only giggle at her childhood friend. "Fine, look carefully, I will only show them once. You too Nagato..."
She didn't give Nagato proper time to protest that statement and went through the three hand seals and resumed her relaxed position. Since she didn't have a summoning contract either, she didn't mold chakra while performing the seals so that nothing unexpectedly unfortunate may have the chance of happening.
Naruto memorized the hand seals and then performed the required seals before slammed his hand on the ground; he pushed as much chakra into it as he could without fainting.
"Kuchiyose no Justu!" (Summoning Technique)
A large puff of smoke erupted in front of the group as a giant golden dragon appeared in front of them. It looked down at Naruto and spoke in a rather soft voice for its size, momentarily stunning the observers.
"Greetings summoner, I am Aradace, queen of the dragon clan, or as you might want to refer to me as – the boss summon."
Naruto bowed in greeting to his summons' leader, he remembered how his mother had told him to be as respectful as possible with his summons. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, Aradace-sama; it's an honor to meet you."
Kyūbi couldn't help but whine. 'Why couldn't you have been that respectful to me? Surely the mighty Kyūbi no Yōko deserves more respect than that puny little dragon!'
Naruto sweat dropped. 'You called it a little dragon? Just look at it, it's huge!'
Kyūbi huffed. 'Compared to my magnificence it's nothing more than a little lizard trying to fly.'
The blond chuckled. 'You aren't jealous of the dragon, are you?'
He mentally grinned as no response came; even though he didn't show it he was quite shocked and oddly, happy that Kyūbi was almost behaving like a friend to him; an annoying friend, but a friend who's been with him through thick and thin nevertheless. Even if it was impossible for her to leave, there had been many instances where she didn't need to help him, but yet she did. For that he was grateful.
The dragon seemed to nod her giant head in acceptance. "Nice to know you too, Naruto-chan; but before you could call our kind for your aid you need to prove your worth. Are you ready for our test? Kushina-chan must have told you the basics about us. Make no mistake; if you fail then we will not give you another chance. On the battlefield, failure leads to death. If you survive the test we won't kill you, but you can't take the test again."
"I am ready, Aradace-sama." Naruto managed to reply with an even tone, even though inwardly he was very nervous.
The dragon smiled, which was quite scary with all her giant pointy teeth on display. "Good! Now, your test will be to find the legendary sword of the dragon clan, the Ryūjin. When our previous summoner died, the sword was lost with him; he was your maternal great-grandfather by the way, I think. We'll give you a seal that will help you track it down more easily. After you have it with you, you will need to have the sword accept you as its master. You will know if it had accepted you or not by channeling chakra through it.
If you don't already understand this, than we believe that whoever has managed to take the Ryūjin from someone as powerful as our previous summoner, it might be more than you can handle.
The good news for you is we don't care how you get the sword. You can steal it or you can kill the current owner and take it. The point of the test is to have the sword in your hands and be able to channel chakra through it."
The dragon then started to shrink in size until it was around six feet tall human female, wearing elegant golden robes. She had D-cup breasts and an hourglass figure; her face was flawless on first glance but if you look closely you could see that she had very fine scales covering her skin. Her hair was golden blond, not much unlike Naruto's, but much more organized and elegant. Leaning forward, she took Naruto's right hand and bit it lightly; after withdrawing there was now a curled up dragon tattoo visible where the bite mark should have been.
"This will lead you to Ryūjin. The dragon's head always points towards the direction of the sword. Keep your hand parallel to the ground though, or it might point vertically up even though the sword isn't in the sky. Good luck!" And with that, she vanished.
Naruto sighed in obvious relief. "Oh well, that's much easier than I expected."
Nagato looked like someone had just killed his puppy; he whined in an obviously disappointed tone. "Aw man! I was hoping to see an awesome battle of you with that huge dragon."
Naruto looked horrified, if he had to battle a dragon that big he would have been beaten to a pulp and tossed aside, more than likely dead. 'Thank kami my great-grandfather lost his sword; now I can find it instead of having to fight a fucking dragon!'
'I could have beaten her in my full bijū form, but you would have been completely useless against her.' Kyūbi mused.
'Not completely, I hope...'
The demoness gave him an equivalent of a mental shrug. Perhaps he could have annoyed her after all? 'Their greatest asset in battle is the impenetrable skin. Right now I doubt anything you can do would manage to more than scratch her.'
He gave her a sigh of defeat. 'Fine Kyū-chan, I understand'
His mental conversation was interrupted by his cousins once again enthusiastic voice."What are we waiting for now? Let's get that sword so we can send a dragon messenger to your mom and arrange our meeting already. We will help you kill the unfortunate bastard holding, unless they hand it over peacefully. Since the boss said she doesn't care how you get it, and the sword doesn't belong to whoever is holding it..."
Naruto nodded. "Yes, we should start moving south-east according to the tattoo."
Flashback End
And so they had been moving constantly, from Rain country towards Nami no Kuni, since the tattoo was pointing in that direction. Right now they were somewhere in Hi no Kuni.
Suddenly the group sensed a chakra spike and stopped. Obviously there were some ninja nearby, more than likely fighting each other; they had to decide whether to ignore it or get involved.
"It seems some ninja are fighting nearby." Yahiko commented.
Nagato gave his friend a nod. "It could be someone Naruto knows in trouble; we are within Hi no Kuni, and there has to be a Konoha ninja fighting there."
Naruto wasn't so sure about that though. 'The only ones I care about from Konoha are Kasumi-chan and Kaa-chan, and I really doubt they're here.'
"Or it could be a bunch of missing nins." Konan added.
Naruto sighed in defeat. "Well, while I don't have any friends in Konoha, I guess it could be Kaa-chan even if the probability is pretty low, and I would rather be safe than sorry. So I say we go check it out; there's no harm if we don't get detected."
Others could only nod in agreement. With their decision made Naruto, Nagato, Konan and Yahiko moved towards the chakra spike while the rest of the group stayed behind, ready to fight just in case their leaders needed back-up.
When they got to the clearing they saw a female, roughly around twenty years old fighting at least a dozen missing-nin from Kumogakure no Sato. At least four of them seemed jōnin level and one almost ANBU level. There was also a girl tied to a tree without much clothes; she didn't look more than twelve years old.
The girl that was fighting had shoulder length red hair and lavender eyes that looked suspiciously like Hyūga's byakugan, the veins that had bulged around them somewhat confirming their suspicion.
Upon seeing her headband, Naruto's group was shocked to see the Uzumaki Swirl on it. It seemed as if their eyes were playing tricks on them. Uzushiogakure no Sato had been long since destroyed and no one bore the symbol of that village anymore; lest they attract the wrath of countless enemies the Uzumaki had. That meant...
"We have to help her Nagato-san, she is obviously strong but against one ANBU, four Jōnin and seven Chūnin level ninjas, she is clearly outnumbered and needs help!"
Nodding, the group moved forwards.
With Nina
Nina Uzumaki was never a lucky girl; in fact, her creation in itself was an unlucky event. She was birthed by an Uzumaki mother who was raped by a Hyūga during the clan wars around eighty years ago.
Even though she was the result of such a painful predicament, her mother had always loved her and never let her feel lonely. That was until she died when whirlpool country was annihilated.
Nina had managed to escape her pursuers, thanks to the training given to her by her mother and her Byakugan. She had inherited the cursed dōjutsu from the bastard rapist of her mother - not that she knew who he was, only that he was a Hyūga from Konoha. When she had first activated the cursed eye, she had refused to use it and had been disgusted that she even possessed something that made her resemble her mother's rapist.
But her mother had told her how every tool available at a ninja's disposal must be used, regardless of the tool's origins. It had saved her life that day; after that she had tried looking for any other Uzumaki survivors, and failed spectacularly. Until now that is.
She was a master of her bloodline the Kanzen Tentai's age aspect, so she had remained a nineteen year old girl even though she was born about eighty years ago. Currently she was heading towards Nami no Kuni.
By pure luck, she had heard one of the ninja in Otogakure (Hidden Sound) of Ta no Kuni (Land of rice fields) talking about a blond girl whose blood could heal any wound. She had heard that the girl was being sold and 'Orochimaru-sama', as the ninja referred to the man as, was very interested in her.
She was sure the girl was Uzumaki, as it was their bloodline that provided that ability. The blond hair was confusing, but it could come from the paternal side, like her byakugan – regardless, if there was the slightest chance of another Uzumaki being alive, she couldn't let someone like Orochimaru get his hands on her. She can't let her be a slave either, so she had to get there before anyone else does.
However, as her fucked up luck would have it, she had stumbled upon a group of missing-nin. Stumble wouldn't be the right word of course, given that they were barely in the range of her byakugan which she had been using to scout ahead. The only reason she headed their way was that they were about to do something she despised more than anything. With a girl around the age of twelve tied to a tree, and had hungry looks in their eyes; even a blind person could sense what they were about to do.
Since her mother was a rape victim, she despised rapists more than anything. She had sworn long ago that any rapists that crossed her path would never receive mercy and die a slow and painful death. The redhead had years to practice her techniques and train, so even though she didn't have any scrolls from the Hyūga on Byakugan or their techniques, she was quite adept at using it.
She had extensive knowledge of human anatomy as well, a great deal of experience and expertise unlike any other. With these she had created her own taijutsu style that allowed fluid movement of the body as well as fast strikes. She will make sure these bastards feel pain before they die, slowly.
'Byakugan!'
Seeing the redhead get into a taijutsu stance, the missing ninja got smug looks on their faces.
"You think you really stand a chance against us? You know what, we kind of needed another one, and you came just in time. Who knows how many turns this little thing will last?" The apparent leader gloated, pointing towards the young girl who seemed to be quivering with fear and disgust. "We'll even give you a chance to surrender peacefully and even enjoy what we're about to do; it will be more fun than if we have to force ourselves on you and fuck you till you break."
Nina scoffed. From what she could see, the girl was already pretty beaten up, but her underwear was still intact, so they probably hadn't raped her yet. 'Good for the bastards, I won't hurt them that much before killing them now...'
Without any further warning, Nina dashed ahead, uncaring of the fact that the leader was easily at Anbu level. Her movement little more than a blur as she closed in on them. But instead of closing the tenketsu or performing fatal strikes like usual, she touched the major nerve endings and pushed her chakra into them to cause maximum pain to the missing ninja.
"ARGHH!"
The two closest to her that were hit immediately collapsed on the ground, writhing in agony. She smirked at their painful cries; as she sensed some people coming close and watching, the girl decided not to act against them unless they attack her.
"Shit, she's strong! Looks like we're gonna have to work to get that sweet pussy. But you know what they say, hard work yields the best results. Don't worry girly, those two were just chūnin when they defected, and I don't think that has changed even today."
The lackeys of the ANBU-level missing ninja roared in laughter, displaying their agreement with their leader. It was also their way of boosting the confidence that had fallen slightly after witnessing the girl effortlessly take down two of their own.
Unfortunately for her, the other missing ninja were now on-guard, and attacked her as a team.
Her body slid gracefully to avoid their attacks, letting their swords, kunai and various other weapons dance around her body, sometimes almost grazing her delicate skin, but not quite. Naruto and his group watched the show silently, impressed by how flexible and graceful the Uzumaki kunoichi seemed.
Though, while the teamwork of the missing ninjas had flaws, all ten of them seemed quite competent fighting together and were slowly but surely gaining the upper edge.
The red haired girl mentally cursed; in her rage over the act of rape she had completely ignored strategy and logical thinking. Oh well, it wasn't like she had anyone to live for; but she wasn't going to let these bastards get her alive. And she was definitely going to kill many of them, hopefully winning.
Naruto clicked his tongue as he saw the girl couldn't probably win unless she had something up her sleeve. "Help me out here, I want to talk to that woman about her headband..."
Nagato could only smirk at his cousin. "Same here, lets get rid of the eyesores first."
Just as Nina was about to use one of her trump cards, the four people that she had spotted before jumped into the fray.
"Origami Shuriken!"
"Guh!" Two more chūnin level ninja who were closest to the blue haired girl collapsed as they choked on their own blood after their throats were impaled by the paper shurikens.
The missing ninja who had been busy with fighting Nina didn't notice the arrival of the new group until it was a little too late for the two who had died. When the opponents finally noticed them, the leader roared with anger and annoyance dripping from his voice, along with a slightly worried look on his face. "Stay out of this you imbeciles! This is none of your business; we found them before you and we're going to be the ones who get to rape them first. If you want you can have a go at them after we're done."
That was when Nina noticed that the new arrivals were missing ninja as well; attested by the fact that three of them were wearing slashed Amegakure Hitai-ates. She cursed herself for not considering that possibility and her fucked up luck for landing her in this situation. The three older ones looked very strong and the young one seemed ninja trained as well. The red haired male and the little blond probably had a dōjutsu, as they both had their eyes covered.
Though they obviously didn't have any of the great dōjutsu, or so Nina thought. They obviously weren't Uchiha or Hyūga, as they neither of them had dark hair or the general attributes that the Uchiha or Hyūga clansmen display. Not to mention the fact that those clans were based off Konoha, so obviously no one from Rain country could have those dōjutsu unless their situations were similar to hers.
That left the Rinnegan, the legendary eye of Samsara. But she was sure they didn't have it, no one after the sage had obtained it as far as she knew. So that meant they had some of lesser known but nonetheless dangerous dōjutsu if the opponent was skilled with it.
She got into a wider stance; it seemed she was not getting out of this alive. She silently apologized to the little girl that was going to be turned slave now, and with her who knows what Orochimaru will do. She was not as imaginative as that sick bastard, so she had no fucking idea.
"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked, somewhat confused.
Others in his group perfectly understood what he was talking about though. 'They think we are here to get the girl for ourselves, those bastards...'
"You idiots really think we are like you? We are the Akatsuki (Red dawn), we fight for peace. We are missing-nin because the leader of Ame is a tyrant that we oppose..." Yahiko was interrupted as Nagato placed a hand on his shoulder. "No need to explain Yahiko, they will be dead soon so it's just a waste of time."
Hearing that filled Nina with a flicker of hope, but she couldn't be sure they were with her yet. So she asked. "Whose side are you on?"
"Whose do you think?" Konan dead panned, pointing at the two dead missing-nin,
Nina had the decency to look somewhat sheepish, but she was just making sure. "Alright, I'll let you help since I am outnumbered here."
Before they could continue discussing though, the missing nin decided that while both the groups were enemy and they still had the numerical advantage. Hence the leader shouted "Kill them all, but let the girls live, for now. We will give them better deaths later."
Apparently Konan didn't like that guy. "Shikigami no Mai!"(Dance of the Shikigami, B-rank)
Turning into paper, she wrapped around the leader of the missing-nin, slowly suffocating him. Unfortunately it wasn't going to be that easy against an Anbu level opponent, as he tore through the paper and forced Konan to reintegrate.
While this was going on, Nina had immobilized one of the jōnin and was fighting another jōnin and two chūnin.
The remaining five, two jōnin and three chūnin ran towards Nagato, Naruto and Yahiko.
Nagato and Yahiko fought one Jonin and one chunin each, while the remaining chunin fought Naruto.
Well, that was if you could call Nagato was fighting, basically he was tossing the two ninja all over the place with his gravity manipulation.
Yahiko had already immobilized the chūnin with his water prison, and was attacking the jōnin with a water whip.
Naruto meanwhile thought this would be a good way to test his skills without the Rinnegan. So, instead of using one of his surprise attacks, he let the chūnin get close, and then started attacking him with one of the techniques his mother had taught him during the one year survival training.
"Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Technique, C-rank)
The technique was meant to be a distraction, but one of the fireballs caught the surprised chūnin on the shoulder. He didn't expect such a small kid to know any ninjutsu, let alone C-ranked and above.
While Naruto was a tad disappointed at how easily his opponent got wounded, he wasn't an idiot, so he pressed his advantage.
Throwing several shuriken towards the enemy Naruto performed another technique. This time though, the Chūnin was prepared. "Raiton: Raikou Oonami!" (Lightning Release: Lightning Surge, C-rank)
Naruto, sensing lightning chakra heading towards him via ground jumped in the air and finished his own technique. "Suiton: Mizu Kamikiri!" (Rising Water Slicer, B-rank)
The concentrated beam of water cut through the ground and through the Chūnin, bisecting him in half.
Naruto stared at the dead body, or bodies? It was in two equal parts now, so he can't be sure. He was still dumbfounded at the sheer effectiveness of the technique though.
Others had already finished their enemies, and were watching Naruto's battle, ready to intervene if needed. All of them were equally impressed by the effectiveness of the technique.
'It seems your Yogengan perfected the beam to a level where instead of throwing the ninja away with great force and causing internal injuries, the beam is sharp enough to slice through him. Very impressive.' Kyūbi commented.
Naruto however was feeling a bit sick. Almost all the internal organs of the Chūnin had fallen to the ground in plain view and two separate half-chūnin were lying a few feet from each other. Finally though he was able to hold his lunch.
Nina freed the captured girl, and then the five ninja stood in a circle. Naruto noticed that Konan had more than a few scratches on her, but no serious injuries. While the Anbu-level missing-nin probably wasn't a piece of cake either, her excess training during the last year had made her even more capable a kunoichi than she was before.
Nagato was the first one to speak. "What is your name, kunoichi-san?"
"It is only polite to give your name first." Nina answered carefully. She wore her headband with pride and never hid her name. Given how much her mother had given her, she could at least continue her legacy with the Uzumaki name. But she was by now very aware of how power each of them were. She could probably kill just one or two before being taken down if all of them attacked at once.
Fortunately the three Akatsuki and Naruto decided that it was fine and introduced themselves.
"I am Uzumaki Naruto."
"Uzumaki Nagato."
"Yahiko."
"Konan."
Nina was not sure how long she didn't move or breathe, but she was so shocked that her eyes resembled dinner plates.
"U-uzumaki? That's your birth name or you just took it..." She asked, still not sure.
Naruto chuckled. "Yes, we felt safe to tell you based on your head band, which belongs to whirlpool. Tell us, how did you get it? And who are you?"
Nina sighed. This was too much for a day. But she had to get this over with quickly, or the little girl in wave country might fall into that snake pedophile's hands. So, getting over her shock, she sternly responded.
"I am Uzumaki Nina, last survivor of the Whirlpool country. At least I thought so until today. Now I know there are four. But we have to hurry if we don't want to become three. There is one person I heard about in wave that might be another one of us."
Naruto raised his eyebrows in surprise. Finding two Uzumaki in a day? This day was lucky, which gave him hopes of finding the sword too. "Actually I have a mother and a sister, Nina-san. Although if another Uzumaki needs help then I would like to offer you mine, if you would accept."
"Right. We will discuss everything in detail once we save the girl." Nina responded.
"Oh well, we could tag along, after all wave country is south-east – where we were originally heading." Nagato added, to which Yahiko and Konan nodded. The Dragons had not set any time limit on finding the sword, although the sooner it is found, the better.
"Good, then we have to move quickly."
"We will need someone to inform the group." Yahiko added.
He knew Nagato and Naruto were going to take this personally, since the girl was an Uzumaki, from what Nina knew. Konan was faster than him, and could get them all out of there quickly if things get bad. So he made the logical choice.
"I will go, Konan, go ahead with Nagato, we will be on our way soon as well."
Konan nodded, and then the group of four ninja took to the trees and headed to Wave country.
Yahiko turned around and noticed the previously captured girl looking at him with a hint of fear and hope in her eyes.
'Fuck. This is going to take longer now, I totally forgot about her. Now I have to make sure she gets to some authorities first and then I have to catch up with the Uzumaki's and Konan. Or there is no point in doing so...'
He noticed that Naruto had stopped only for a moment to look and then continued as Nagato told something to him. Yahiko sighed. 'Nagato knows me too well, he knew I'd do this... but seems Nagato and Konan never really cared about the girl? They only interrupted because of Naruto... In fact I think the only reason they work for our goal is because it is my dream.'
Even with that troubling thought in mind, he took the terrified girl and headed to the nearby town, completely unaware of the snake sannin heading towards wave.
| Chapter End |