The harrowing howl of a fell wind gripped the Akatsuki members within the chambers to their bones. The creeping grip of the cold reaching up and wrenching them from their stupors. Seeping deep into the marrow, forcing a shiver through the nerve endings that rode along their spine, crawling up their back like a swiftly crawling spider.
There was silence for a moment, punctuated by the grating of the still moving chains.
Then a low, moan, which grew into a piercing shriek, as though the voices of damned souls had just arose from the depths of the underworld, the sound made them all pause, before it increased, clutching at their ears. Melting ice was dislodged, white chunks sliding across the wooden floor of the raised dais.
It took only a moment for these men to realize where it was coming from.
The statue.
The sealing statue, it was...it was in pain?
And all at once the source became all too clear in their eyes as the once reddish chakra emerged from the inanimate objects mouth, flooding across the room, searing flesh and clothing, forcing each of them to leap away, onto the walls as the scarlet hue of hell was reinserted within the seal. It crawled up the chains, bringing the smell of molten metal and smoke into the room before they rose further and further, their paths culminating onto a single target.
The dead Godaime of Konoha
It burned its way through their seal like living acid, flowing and strong, entering the Kage's coil system with natural violence that awoke the greatest of the Jinchuriki with a strangled gasp, consuming sweet oxygen, as he gulped it down. He was Aware of the pain, currently rushing through his system, relishing it.
Pain was a sensation. And sensation was the realm of the living.
"Konan! What is this! What the hell did you do wrong!" Kisame roared at the lone female of the group, who watched the scene with wide, disbelieving eyes, abstract horror etching itself slowly onto her features as she realized that, this...this monster...had done the unthinkable. He...had not only survived but...beaten the extraction itself? Was he so fully fused with the ninetails now that the link could not be severed?
Naruto slumped, his breathing heavy. A sheen of sweat marred his head and face, trailing down his nose and falling towards the dais below. He blinked, lids closing over dull eyes momentarily before opening once again, hazed blue shifting as he struggled to take in everything in sight.
The others below him, stared as the vast majority of the Demon's expelled chakra finished re-entering the body of their prisoner, leaving only the red haze of a mist, aloft in the room.
Itachi's gaze traveled to Konan as the five found their feet back on the wooden dais. "What...happened?" He questioned, voice guarded, carefully devoid of emotion.
But he could not fool her. He was worried, rattled, perhaps even fearful. He, as they all had, figured that this would be the end of it; the end of him.
That this would mark the day, the devil king of Konoha died.
But instead he lived, still containing his Bijuu. Every second he spent alive, even as a prisoner was another second he could escape, another second he could turn on them...kill them. The same trick would not work twice, and his power had already proven great enough to defeat four of them. Possibly more.
Konan turned from the room, with a flare of her red cloud cloak, marching down the stairs, intent upon the room containing the seal designs, to discover what had gone wrong. Everything was so precise, so meticulous so precise and calculated. Where had they messed up? Everything had been done perfectly.
Now they needed to wait, three days of preparation, all for nothing, wasted.
Konan marched through the icy hallways of the fortress, with tangible fury beneath a cold facade. Her cloak, billowing near her ankles with her rushed pace. She clearly sought to avoid her four peers, not having the answers they no doubt sought for themselves.
Her shoulders were tense as she walked, and she ignored the groveling subordinates and chuunin servants as they bowed hastily, making way for her passage, pressing themselves firmly against the walls as they did.
She marched straight towards her quarters, never once giving a backwards glance down the hallway towards the chamber she recently vacated, opening the door and slamming it behind her as she entered.
Her room was small, but adequate, as were everyone's. The floor, walls and ceilings were all lined with wood, though the Ice around that always kept temperatures very cold here, requiring many furs to be spread throughout the floor and bedding in order for any human to not freeze to death in the middle of the night.
It held a bed, a small equipment locker, a desk, and finally, on the far wall, a small, bowl like wooden carving with seals running along the inside, all gathering at the bottom, forming a tight circle.
Marching towards it, the blue haired woman removed the ring on her index finger, the Byaku, and placing the centerpiece Kanji down in the center of the tiny circle at the bottom of the bowl, she soon watched the seals glow bright white.
Placing her hands on the sides of the bowl she soon felt the familiar presence of...Pein, within her mind.
'Why do you seek an audience with me Konan? You know I cannot afford distractions such as these.' Came the Akatsuki leader's disembodied voice,echoing within the confines of her mind.
'There is a problem.' She responded quickly. 'The sealing...he...the Kage of Konoha...he managed to reverse it.'
There was silence within her mind for several moments, and for a hile she wondered if somehow these seals too had malfunctioned, or if Pein had banished their connection for some reason.
But soon his voice projected itself again in her thoughts, ringing with incredulity and disbelief.
"What?"
"He has somehow managed to reverse it." The blue haired Nuke nin repeated slowly already feeling that disbelief shifting to anger, prickling the back of her mind with its unpleasant pressure.
'That is not possible!' He hissed, and she could almost see the purple ringed eye bearing down on her. 'All Jinchuriki die the moment the Bijuu is extracted. He could not have reversed it.'
Konan said nothing, merely waited for his fury to abate before she would speak again. The last thing she needed was for him to think her inept by spewing out some ignorance, of which, thanks to this matter, she had an abundance of at the moment.
'I shall return soon. Rest for we will begin the extraction process immediately after I arrive.'
Before she could say anything more, his presence abruptly vanished, and the seals over the medium receded, vanishing back into her ring, the glow, fading. She reached for the metal band again, taking it from its resting place before it donning it on her finger.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The wind howled outside their hastily erected shelter, a hollowed out dome of snow, ice and whatever spare materials they could each find.
Temari hugged the spare heat sink blanket closer to her, grateful for the old man's, Yoshihiro's, mind for preparation having several sets of equipment gear in one of the few scrolls he had, enough to feed them, keep them warm and give them some adequate equipment to make this Ice dome.
It was a cramped little space, with a pit fire inside with a very tiny hole at the top to release the smoke. . The wind barely entered the opening, but the chill still creped through their bones, sinking into the marrow.
The young Suna Kunoichi shivered within the confines of her blanket, her body, unused to the cold and more used to the searing desert heat of Suna, or even the warm humidity of Konoha rather than this bone chilling cold.
The others were asleep, lids closed but bodies alert, waiting for any type of unnatural shift in movement outside the dome to awaken, alert and ready for a fight at a moments notice.
In deep cover missions, one did not have the luxury of a full nights rest, and so one needed to make due, with six, five, maybe even three. One did not want to waste valuable recuperation time in trying to fall back asleep every time some wild animal passed over their awareness. And so the act of falling in and out of sleep, was a relatively simple matter, achieved through simple acts of meditation taught when one joined the Jounin ranks, where deep strike missions in enemy territory were a given.
But even with her own training in this art, sleep eluded her, eyes traveling repeatedly to the young woman who lay huddled in a fetal position within the dome, instinctively trying to conserve whatever heat was in her body as she slept.
After her fainting spell, several hours ago, she had awoken in screams, eyes wild and frightened like a wild, wounded animal. Hands shaking as she hyperventilated, only calming after several minutes of being held down by Yoshihiro and Kakashi.
Her shaking had not ceased until they had finally touched down and began erecting this small shelter, and she had barely spoken a word before she had gone to sleep. She ignored the questions thrown her way, until all three of them had simply allowed her to keep her silence.
As her eyes wandered to the sleeping woman. Her mind wandered to the brother they were currently seeking out.
Newly arisen questions blended with the old. Doubts that had lingered in her mind over...everything...that she had ever known, or thought to have known about the man were strengthened, and her certainties becoming less and less.
She wondered who this woman was. What relationship she had with Naruto before whatever happened between them had torn them apart, and driven her to exile. Had there been a relationship at all? Did he know who she was? If he did, then he had done a most excellent job of not mentioning her. Then again, he did a tremendous job of not mentioning anything unless she pried the information away from him with considerable effort.
She had heard rumors, even in Konoha, of Suna's angel. The Kunoichi that had charged, alone into enemy lines and forced Hatake Kakashi to retreat singlehandedly.
That had been only the beginning in a long series of raids and defenses that had escalated her fame throughout the elemental nations. Supposedly dressed in, soft hues of white and blue. She stood as a beacon of light to any and all who hated Konoha's "Devil King" and everything he and his militant Empire stood for.
How could two people born of the same blood, turn out so differently from one another? What cruel fate of circumstance had done this so that she would be spared what he had to endure? Or had they both perhaps began as the same but she changed along the way. Something happened to her that did not happen to him. Or had happened to him that didn't happen to her.
This was all so frustrating. Every time she seemed to have a handle on the situation involving him, and her opinion of him something else came along and threw a metal bar between the cogs of her brain to throw everything out of whack again.
As if sensing the eyes drilling through the top of her head, the lids rose allowing pools of light blue to scan the torchlight whiteness before raising and finding the Young Sabaku staring straight at her.
Temari opened her mouth but in the end only one question came to mind. "What's changed?"
Akina stared straight back at the Sabaku, averting her eyes only for a single moment before she responded, voice scratchy and hoarse from lack of use throughout the day. "You tell me." Adjusting her position once again, Suna's Angel was soon asleep, leaving Temari alone with her own thoughts until the sun peered over the horizon once again.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Above the dais he waited. Waited for them to return, or for the others to arrive. The faint mist of the Kyuubi's chakra beneath him had yet to recede. He teetered in and out of consciousness, feeling his strength and formidable power sapped away from him due to the seals
He knew that they had attempted the extraction. Though he hadn't been conscious for the procedure, his body felt wrong...out of place, as though...it wasn't really his own body.
It may have been the weakness of his limbs, or the constant darkness that clawed at his awareness. He wasn't used to being in such a deplorable state.
He didn't know how he had survived. What had gone wrong for them, or right for him.
He could theorize though of course. The safest guess so far was either human error, or lack of knowledge on their part. Their seal, must have been like his own, focusing upon extracting the chakra, and holding the consciousness of the great demon, using the creatures own mind as an anchor for the rest of the chakra it held.
With him however, there was no consciousness to grasp, the beast's mind was within the fool of a girl, Akina.
No mind. No anchor. No anchor, and the chakra returned, naturally, to the location that was nearest, and most familiar to it. To him. And thus, saving his life in the process. The youki had flooded his system, now draining him of his energy as its side effects seem to hit.
His eyes drooped, and he attempted to summon the will to remain conscious. The longer he stayed conscious the longer he could contemplate an escape, or at least watch these men, exploit any potential weaknesses their conversations may show.
But the thread of consciousness was thinning, and his feeble grasp in the plane of reality was waning. His eyes dropped with heaviness before falling closed completely and his body once again went slack, hanging limply from the chains.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The snow battered against their bodies, clinging tightly to their clothing and hair. The blankets they had used to sleep in now draped over their shoulders and bodies, a fragile, thin veil against the biting winds
Snow had given way to thick blankets of ice and hail that clung to them like sheets of white. Kakashi led them on, his stark white hair falling into the surrounding background , almost indiscernible, only his darker clothing allowed for Yoshihiro, who took up the rear of the group, to keep sight of him.
It was a slow trudging pace they kept, the winds too strong to take flight, and the ice too slippery to run on without risking injury.
Kakashi followed the thin thread of red chakra that extended from Akina as if drawn to a beacon. At this point, it was their only hope, even if he wanted to turn back, knowing where was South was near impossible in this bleak gray weather, that barely allowed even him, and the sharingan to see beyond his own hand.
How could anyone live in this place? Where would they get food, water? How would Naruto himself have survived these conditions in his state? How did-
Kakashi suddenly lurched forward, as if he'd stumbled out of a thick bush into an open field.
His eyes darted left and right, startled and wide eyed before swiveling around on his heel at the sound of the others, Akina, Temari and Yoshihiro, calling his name.
Only to come face to face with a shifting wall of wind and ice, looming over him like a daunting obstacle...An obstacle which they just passed. He looked deep into the veil of silver gray, the silhouettes of the others soon peeking into his vision like misty ghosts. Their voices, called out to him, startled, and muffled by whatever stood between them.
He reached out, wincing as his hand once again entered the biting winds and harsh cold and latched onto the first silhouettes arm.
He felt it jerk and struggle, and he quickly yanked it forward, bringing Temari stumbling into his chest as the wind resistance gave way to nothing.
She blinked, stupidly glancing around in confusion and bewilderment before Kakashi moved around her, reaching forward and soon pulling out Akina and Yoshihiro in a similar manner.
The older Tsuchikage whipped his head over and around, confused just like all the others until his eyes found the shifting wall of ice he'd just been pulled out of. The older man took several steps back, craning his neck back in order to look all the way up, in an effort to see the top of the unnatural weather. "A...a Shuuichou tenkou no gokuin?"
"Weather altering seal? Kakashi stated looking back to the older male. "I thought they havent been used since the dark days before the allegiance of The First Five."
"They haven't." The Tsuchikage said with a shrug.
Temari bobbed her head side to side with a 'Isn't that obvious' look "When you need clients to actually make it to your village to get money, doesn't really pay to have a seal that makes it damn near impossible to reach a village. I mean without Kakashi being able to follow the chakra thing from umm..." The Suna Kunoichi paused, momentarily forgetting Akina's name before she recalled it with a brief look over her shoulder. "Aki-Akina!" The Kunoichi yelled whirling around with a double take, finding the young woman laying face down on the snow.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Konan! Konan!"
The blue haired woman's eyes snapped open, blinking rapidly to clear the haze of sleep as she sat up from the various furs that made up her bed.
Before she could even bound her legs over the side of the bedding, the door to her room was smashed open, allowing her the sight of a wild looking Itachi standing along the door frame. His breathes heaved his chest to and fro as he leaned along the side. "We've got a problem!"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A red haze pulsed with a low, methodical thrum, a repeated, vibration that shook through her chest as she opened her eyes, only to find this reddened haze obscuring her sight.
Her arms shook with weakness, muscles trembling as she struggled to lift herself off the floor. Hissing and grunting she soon fell again, scraping her chin painfully against the cold stone floor.
A soft -Clack clack-clack clack reached her ears bringing her eyes upwards, to find the familiar red hood and cloak behind the haze of red, a deep, ink black background looming ominously behind him like a gaping maw.
The thrumming of the mist around her increased, the vibrations growing so strong they were physically painful as they rattled her rib cage, prying a pained groan from her throat as she clutched at her chest.
He came closer stopping at the edge of the red mist, and Akina soon felt, and heard, deafeningly loud cracks ring through the air somewhere behind her.
Slowly, painfully, she turned over, now laying on her back, she looked down, finding a great, crumbling wall before her, going far to the right and left, before its edges were swallowed by the dark shadows that surrounded them.
The wall cracked again, with more, heavy chunks of concrete raining down around them.
From the new, tiny openings the blond woman watched as Red chakra seeped out pooling at the red haze around her.
Her vision, was obscured suddenly by the red cloak. She blinked, realizing that Naruto now stood between her and the crumbling wall.
Suddenly, the painful vibrations through her chest became crippling, forcing her to curl in on herself, vision becoming a blurred haze of distorted lines and colors, breaths coming in harsh, heavy pants.
She noticed, vaguely, the red chakra shift and coalesce in front of Naruto, who stood between her and it. And somewhere in the back of her mind his words reached her ears. Carrying that familiar edge and guttural tone due to the mask.
"You seek to take advantage of the situation...pathetic."
The chakra around her sizzled and burned, stronger for a moment before his voice reached her again.
"You forget your place."
She opened her eyes, just in time to see Naruto raise a single, gauntlet clad hand, and felt, more than saw, the red chakra around them gather there, the pain she felt, vanishing enough to allow her to prop herself up on her elbows.
She stared at his back, finding the red chakra swirling above him like a tornado, pulled into his raised palm like gravity.
She sucked in a breath, opening her mouth to speak, but soon, the world faded, blinking out of existence with a bright flash.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Akina awoke with a strangled gasp, rising up from the ground as if someone had pulled on a chain along the center of her chest. Only to feel two hands press down on her shoulders, pinning her to the ground.
"These little episodes of yours are really getting annoying girl." Was Yoshihiro's disdainful grunt.
Akina greedily gulped in air, as though starving for it. Coughing as the cold wind instantly dried out her throat and mouth.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Yoshihiro questioned, with the cold winters of Iwa, he was partially used to such weather, and so, didn't realize why she'd suddenly started hacking up a lung.
It was Temari however, that practically shoved him out of the way, scooping up some of the snow and Ice before cupping it into the girls lips.
Akina swallowed, melting the small bits of ice in her mouth before she did.
A sound, not unlike a thunderbolt tore through the fogged sky, and everyone's eyes immediately turned northward, where a red blotch appeared to have spread over a part of the horizon like spilled in, rumbling with vicious crackles of energy.
Akina breathed, swallowing before she staggered to her feet as the glow faded. "We have to move. Now!"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Within the chamber dozens of people ran to and fro, a frenzied panic in their eyes as they glanced upwards to the crackling red lightning bolts that escaped the chains around the Jinchurikki's body.
Itachi and Konan rushed up the stairs, coming to a halt as they saw Kisame, Deidara, Zetsu and Sasori already on sight, with Kisame and Sasori barking out orders to all of the floundering incompetents around them.
"What happened!" Konan yelled at the younger Uchiha.
"We don't know. The chakra began acting up again, no warning. Its actually straining the limits of our absorption seals." The Uchiha answers, ducking as another red bolt of chakra sailed across the room.
Konan said nothing, for she had nothing to say, and found that all she could do was turn her eyes upwards to the creature still chained and unconscious above them.
How was he doing this? Could...could he truly be this strong? This monstrous?
Slowly, ever so slowly, she watched as those closed lids lifted, revealing, with every centimeter, that familiar blood red iris, bearing down on her.