Chapter 2
Jiraiya surveyed the former battlefield as he arrived at the scene of where he felt the Kyuubi's chakra at it most potent. Looking around, he could see the damage that the statues of the Uchiha founder and the First Hokage had taken and the general mayhem around them. Rubble had been thrown across the valley, several boulders were charcoal black and the waters of the river were still turbulent.
The chakra from the Kyuubi still lingered at this point, even though it had been hours since it had first been registered in Konoha.
The only part of Naruto that remained at the Valley of the End were fragments of his clothes and his dried up blood.
"Damn..." He muttered to himself as he tried to sense the path that the Kyuubi's chakra had taken, whether it was going back towards Konoha or away from the village.
There was no direction; it had simply vanished.
However, there was a peculiar presence that he had never felt before that seemed like two different chakra systems wrapped into one. The only other thing that he could tell was that it was damn powerful. If he had to guess...
"Akatsuki..." He grit his teeth as he glared around the valley, daring the culprit to show themselves.
Jiraiya then lost it. In a complete break from his natural, easy going, persona he screamed many profanities out to the world as he started to decimate the surrounding scenery with his vast repertoire of jutsu and sheer power of his attacks.
"Damn it Naruto..." And with that, he leaped away, travelling towards he was scheduled to meet his Akatsuki informant.
“Sasuke!” Sakura shouted as her sensei arrived back at the village with her team mate draped across his back. Kakashi took one look at the Kunoichi and rolled his eyes. “What happened to Sasuke, sensei!?” She yelled out in hysteria when she noticed the rather large hole in his shoulder. “Is he okay? And wher-“
“I have to get Sasuke to the hospital.” Kakashi muttered as he walked past the girl and then shunshined away, leaving a bewildered Sakura in his wake.
“And where is Naruto…” She finished the interrupted question as she turned back to the outskirts of the village. All that could be seen were everyday random villagers going to and from their various activities and happily talking to each other without a care in the world.
There was not one sign of orange anywhere.
Her mind quickly came to the single conclusion based on everything she knew and had observed about her team mates.
“Naruto…” She said sadly as she turned her gaze towards the hospital building. “No…” She pleaded. “No Sasuke, you couldn’t have…” But all the evidence based on her team mates pointed towards it.
“No!” She shook her head, pushing those thoughts away. Naruto must have come back to the village when she was having lunch… Or maybe he was just being slow as usual! That’s it!
But deep down she knew, Naruto would come back with Sasuke out cold, slung over his shoulder or die trying.
Naruto wouldn’t even dream of leaving the village so that option could be crossed out.
Her hands trembled and her body shook violently as she came to the final conclusion. There were no ifs or buts about it. Naruto was dead, killed by his only friend.
“Naruto…” She sniffled out, tears forming in her eyes.
“It appears that the team you sent out to collect the Sharingan was unsuccessful my lord.” Kabuto informed the snake sannin the bad news as he knelt before him. “And I regret to inform you that out of the team you sent to collect the Uchiha, none of them returned. All were killed in action.”
Orochimaru was livid at this news.
His breathing was ragged and his glare as cold as ice as he watched the quivering form of his subordinate. “Please tell me Kabuto,” Orochimaru hissed out. “Who was responsible for the deaths of my five best subordinates?”
“Well sir, each of them were killed by separate shinobi.” Kabuto told him nervously as the sweat fell down his panic stricken face. He gulped before continuing. “Jirobou was killed by a single strike to his stomach, effectively turning his vital organs and all of his other innards to paste. Kidomaru was killed by heart failure as it seems all of the veins were closed off. Tayaya--“ Orochimaru stopped listening as his mind landed on the clan who was most likely responsible for the death of that subordinate.
“And although Kimimaro was killed by his disease, the place where we found his body ended up being a desert rather than the field of grass that we were expecting. This leads us to believe that the late Kazekage's children were involved in the deaths of the sound five.”
Orochimaru was quiet before speaking up again. “As of now, the Uchiha is irrelevant to the situation. So far, Sunagakure is still in a state of civil unrest from the death of the Yondaime and the Ichibi jinchuuriki is the individual most likely to ascend to the position of the Godaime. If we act fast enough, we could place someone in a well placed position so they could destroy the village from the inside.” Orochimaru looked expectantly at the bespectacled youth.
“What do you require of me my lord?” He had a feeling he knew what was coming up next.
“Kill the jinchuuriki and burn Suna to the ground before they even realise what's happening.”
“Tsunade, may we have a word?” The Hokage heard as she traversed towards the hospital room where she was scheduled to perform an operation for a shinobi who had been recently returned from a mission in a critical condition.
“What do you two want?” She snapped at the elderly council members. Koharu and Homura withstood the killing intent the same way they would a slight breeze.
“We would like to speak to you about the squad you sent on a recent mission to intercept the Uchiha on the boy's quest to deport himself to Orochimaru's grasp. Said the male of the duo as Koharu watched on solemnly. “More specifically, one individual member of this squadron in particular.”
Tsunade immediately realised what the two of the council members were onto. “Listen you two,” She glared at the two. “I do not have time to deal with your complaints about me sending Naruto out of Konoha to retrieve the Uchiha.” The look she gave the two had as much venom in it as one of Orochimaru's snake summons bites. “I did not sign up to be Hokage to listen to you two moan about my judgement.” She said turning away and walking down the hospital hallway.
“Tsunade-sama,” The suffix was said with mock sweetness as Koharu turned and smiled her former Genin partner. “Need we remind you who in this establishment is above whom?”
Tsunade stopped in her tracks as she turned her head and glared at the two, which failed to mask the confused expression evident in her face.
Homura continued where his female counterpart left off. “You see Tsunade, I don't think you realise this or anyone has told you, but you are not in charge here.” Tsunade's eyebrow raised as she fully turned her body around to give the two elders her full attention.
“You see, the position of Hokage is only that of a figurehead. You have no authority over the council.” Tsunade could feel the chakra amassing in her right fist.
“You see Tsunade, you didn't sign up to merely just listen to our advice, you signed up to follow out the advice we give you, whether you like it or not.”
The two turned away and laughed. “And by the way Tsunade, you do have the time to listen to us 'moan', as you put it. If you want to see the jinchuuriki again, we suggest you come with us.” And with that, the two rounded the corner and leaving a stunned Hokage in their wake.
Regaining her composure, Tsunade turned and bowed her head towards the poor Akimichi boy who she was basically leaving on his death bed.
Just as she started walking back to the tower, she looked towards the leader of the squad from the partially successful mission who had heard the entire exchange and dipped her head gravely in an apology.
“I am truly sorry,” Tsunade whispered out before walking away.
“It appears we have a traitor in our midst.” Madara told Konan and Pain as he observed the city of Amegakure below him, his back turned towards the two of them. Pain raised his eyebrow at this. “Maybe two if my hunch is correct.”
Lightning struck a nearby construction as the sound roared through the building that served as their main hub of operations.
“What makes you think we have a traitor in our organisation?” Pain asked as he tilted his head to the right. The confusion was so tangible, the question mark above his head was easily visible. “Let alone two?”
Madara turned his head and observed the Rin’negan master through the single eye hole in his mask. “I was observing your former sensei, Nagato.” He said simply, not elaborating anymore than that.
“Jiraiya?” Konan spoke up. “What does Jiraiya have to do with a spy in the Akatsuki?”
“How deep do you believe Jiraiya’s spy network goes?” The Uchiha founder let his rhetorical question hang in the air as he turned to face the two of them. “Jiraiya has accomplices everywhere, including the Akatsuki.” He let the two absorb this new information while he turned back around.
“Itachi.” Pain finally spoke up as he went through all the possibilities of who it could be in his head. Madara didn't deny so he assumed he had come to the right conclusion. “But why would Itachi betray us like this?”
Madara was silent before finally answering. “When he left Konoha, it appears that he had been told to do so by the Hokage.” He let a musing silence fall over the room, which was only broken by the sounds of rain splattering on the roof and the ground below.
“Then it seems that Itachi was not even behind the Uchiha attack four years ago... Was he?” Pain said as he turned his gaze towards the Uchiha.”Was he Madara?”
Madara let the rhetorical question stew in the air as the silence deafened them.
"Master, it appears that we have a problem!" Madara turned his head and regarded the figure of the spiky haired, one eyed man with disinterest as he waved his hand lazily to tell the man to continue. "The council have made a decision about what will happen to the Uchiha boy. Rather than imprison him; they are going to have the boy extradited officially, but they have decided to treat him as a rogue shinobi." The servant left the rest of the synopsis of the situation out as Madara raised an eye brow inquisitively behind his mask as he contemplated on the events that would occur for each scenario for the actions he could chose.
After three seconds of careful consideration and planning, Madara came up with the ideal plan. "Let the events follow as the old coots have planned, if we try to stop anything from happening, the effects will be detrimental to our plan but if we kill or capture the boy, Orochimaru will seek retribution as he is against the Kazekage's children. Let the Uchiha leave, but we can not let him reach Otogakure. We can not afford to let Orochimaru acquire the Uchiha, too many things can be ruined by him gaining the Sharingan.
"Yes, I understand Obito." And with that, the image of Madara's subordinate de-materialised as he went back to his buisness.
Madara rolled his eyes behind his mask at the man as he turned back to the two Akatsuki co founders. “Now back to the matter at hand,” He said with absolute authority. “As for the second spy; who was it that Itachi recommended for a replacement for Orochimaru when he left us?”
It took less than a second for Nagato to come to a conclusion. “I will inform the partners of these traitors.” And with that, Obito disappeared with a swirl of his mask as the two watched on as the blue haired one tried to contemplate the new situation.
In a secluded, undisclosed location, Jiraiya looked on at the Uchiha as he listened to the boy give his synopsis on the current situation within the Akatsuki that they were to deal with. However, his thoughts still lingered on back at the valley where his student's legacy had disappeared.
“The Akatsuki has moved their plans forward. As of this moment, we are now searching for the locations of the nine jinchuuriki and once we have found these locations, we shall be keeping tabs on them.” Jiraiya shook off the bad feeling he was getting about his god son and turned his full attention back to the Uchiha. “However, the Akatsuki won't be making their move on acquiring them until we have enough money to follow it up with their plan for afterwards.”
“And how long will that take?”
Itachi's face transformed into that of a thinking man as he added up the average annual income that the Akatsuki had been receiving “I've estimated it at about two years, give or take half. It all depends on whether there are any set backs and the availability of missions really.”
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't help but voice his feeling on the matter. "You wouldn't happen to have any information on Naruto would you?"
Itachi looked towards Jiraiya as his hardened face softened slightly. "I'm sorry Jiraiya, but Naruto was recently collected by one of our agents." Jiraiya's head drooped heavily as he listened to Itachi explain the fate of his students son. "Not even I know where he has been taken, but I assume that any attempt to rescue the boy will end up in your death.” He said solemnly as he turned his face towards where Jiraiya had also sensed the presence emerge.
“Yes, I believe I shall be going now too.” And with a flash of movement, Jiraiya was gone.
After three minutes of waiting the presence made itself known to the Uchiha. “So what did Jiraiya want?” Itachi stared impassively as Kisame strolled towards him, his sharpened teeth flashed with a grin as he hefted the Samahada off of his shoulder.
“I'll be frank and just come out and say it, the leader wants you dead.”
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Chapter notes: Yeah, this chapter has been edited to make things look smoother and to make it not look like a rushed job...
Chapter end notes: Jiraiya scenes were crap, I know. I just couldn't get in the groove for those two scenes, but they WERE needed...
Keep in mind that from now on, there were two original traitors in the Akatsuki. Just the second one is not who you might think...