Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 126 SAVING WHO YOU CAN

She had long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. Wearing a short-sleeved black and purple blouse she didn’t have too much going on in the chest area, so I wasn’t too interested. But she was the only female Jinchuriki I knew of. There was just something about a woman with power that I really liked. Maybe it was the knowledge that she could kick my ass, or maybe I wanted a stronger group of women around me just in case. Either way I wondered if I could seduce her. 

The only thing I could hear were her footfalls as she ran down the tunnel. She came out of the hall Naruto running like an idiot, like everyone else in this damn world. As she ran out she didn’t turn to go around the large pool of water at the center of the room but simply ran over the water. A few paces out onto the large underground reservoir a blade shot out of the hall after her. 

Yugito jumped up, dodging the jagged blade expertly. Skidding to a halt on the water she turned to face who attacked her. I wasn’t sure how they caught up so quickly. She had been running loudly through the hall, but the 2 Akatsuki members simply walked in. They must have had slasher movie villain powers where they could walk everywhere and somehow catch up to people. 

“You dodge well,” The Akatsuki member with his face visible said. He had white skin and slicked back gray hair that was past his ears. He wore no shirt under his Akatsuki uniform, the black robe with red clouds printed on it. 

“Hey, Hidan,” his companion said. “She’s the 2-tailed Jinchuriki. Don’t get cocky or you’ll die this time.” He wore a face mask, and a gray hijab or whatever it was, only his eyes were visible. The eyes appeared red. 

“Don’t give me that shit, Kakuzu,” Hidan said. He was the one that had thrown the weapon at my blonde Yugito. It was a red scythe with 2 blades directly under the main one. A lot like Arlong’s weapon back in One Piece. “No one can kill me.”  

“You probably think you have me cornered,” Yugito said. She did a hand seal while saying, “You don’t. I lured you here.” Exploding tags were let off from her hand seal. The tunnel behind the Akatsuki members and the other 8 tunnels that led into the water reservoir collapsed as tags exploded from her hand seal. A resounded boom went through the large cavernous room. 

I thought she wasted a great opportunity to say, ‘I’m not trapped in here with you, you’re trapped in here with me,’ but to each their own. The Akatsuki members looked surprised, but neither was too worried. They really shouldn’t have been. Back in the main story, no matter how cool this girl looked taking on Akatsuki members by herself, she still died. 

“Wow,” Hidan said as the dust cloud from the explosions began to settle. “You’re annoying. Let’s make this quick.” He pulled the chain on his bladed weapon and the scythe came back to him. 

Before Yugito could respond I gave the signal. The shadow on the ground extended from the billowing dust cloud latching onto the shadow of the dark Akatsuki member, Kakuzu. Anchoring onto Kakuzu’s shadow he was locked in place and another shadow split off moving for Hidan. Hidan noticed it and dodged out of the way. 

Kakashi, Naruto, Asuma and I ran out of our cover. Kakashi and Naruto from behind a fake wall behind the Akatsuki members, Asuma and I from behind Yugito. Kakashi had his hand glowing white with Chidori and Naruto had his Rasengan orb in hand. They attacked Kakuzu in the back as Shikamaru released the shadow hold. 

Kakuzu flew toward us from the the twisting power of the Rasengan. Asuma had his wind chakra blades in hand. Slicing an X across Kakuzu’s flesh the right section of his body fell off. I had my Muzukashi in hand. The condensed water chakra had 1 pin hole that I forced into the chakra exterior. 

Water poured out of it as Asuma dodged out of the way. So close to Kakuzu I simply moved my hand around in wide arcs. The pressurized water shot out and cut him to ribbons. The man didn’t have time to scream out as he was dismembered. The water expelled out over 4 seconds, but that was more than enough time. 

His limbs flying my way I let them come. My other hand held my Jitte covered in water chakra. I bashed in his head. Making him hit the water surface hard then sink down to the depths. I breathed in and out heavily. The real issue was gone. All that was left was the immortal. 

“Kakuzu?!” Hidan yelled. He was at the other end of the room staring at us, unsure what was happening. 

“He’s dead,” I said, walking toward him. “We broke all of his hearts.” 

“Tha-That’s impossible!” Hidan yelled. 

“We will see,” Asuma said. He and I headed toward Hidan. Weapons in hand a shadow shot out from under the water. It latched onto Hidan’s keeping him in place. Asuma and I ran, I went low, cutting him in half, Asuma went high, cutting his head off. Hidan didn’t have time to move. He screamed and yelled at us as his head flew off. 

“You fucking assholes!” His severed head yelled as it began to sink into the water. Shikamaru surfaced from under the water. Grabbing the man by the long gray hair. Lifting the head up as he stood on the water Hidan still flung insults at us. 

“So he really is immortal?” Naruto asked as he walked up. 

“Looks like it,” Asuma said. He grabbed the head and stuffed a sock in his mouth. “Where should we take his parts?” 

“No idea. I don’t want his head to hear though. Let’s each grab a section.” I raised my Jitte up and sliced down. Cutting both his halves into quarters. They began to sink so I grabbed them and threw the pieces to Naruto and Kakashi. “I say bury him all over the world.” 

“This is creepy. But easy,” Naruto said. “You had me all worried about these guys.”

“You should worry about them. That 1st guy had like 5 or 6 hearts. Each one could use a different chakra element. He was strong, but cocky. The only reason we got the jump on him.” I looked down to the depths of the water but there was still no movement. “Your people are coming to collect that other guy, right?” I yelled at Yugito. 

The blonde woman was staring at us. “Uh yeah,” she said, bringing her out of her thoughts. “You guys really did have a plan, huh?” 

We were in Kumogakure. It was the Hidden Cloud Village in the Land of Lighting. Run by the Raikage, I knew that they had another Jinchuriki for the 8 tailed beast. What I didn’t get is why Yugito didn’t get the same protection the 8-tailed beast did. They were reluctant to believe us when we showed up a week ago. But once Hidan and Kakuzu were spotted in the country the day before they started assisting. The Raikage’s brother was a Jinchuriki, so he wanted to protect them as much as possible. 

“Yeah, these 2 would have been hard on your own,” I said. “Thanks for leading them here.” 

“I don’t know, I feel like I could have handled them,” she said walking over. 

“I bet,” I lied. She would have died so bad, and off camera, the worst type of death. “So uh…how the hell do we get out of here?” I looked around, all the entrances had been sealed. 

“Umm,” Yugito said. “Dig?” 

“Goddamn it,” I mumbled. “Did we not have an exit strategy?” 

“You said we needed to seal ourselves in!” Naruto yelled. 

“Yeah, but we needed an exit too. Fuck. What’s above us?” I asked. 

“Nothing really,” Yugito said. “Just outside of town I think.”

“Perfect,” I said. Throwing Hidan’s limbs they smashed against the wall. The man’s head really started yelling at me. “Woah there…oh god. There’s gotta be a name I can call you.” I racked my brain trying to think of something to call the severed head. “Ichabod Crane? No. Damn…uh don’t lose your head. Yeah, that’s it. Don’t lose your head, Akatsuki guy.” He continued to yell through the sock as his head swayed in Asuma’s hand. 

Doing the summoning seals I pushed chakra out in a wide burst. A giant sea turtle appeared. It was about 50 feet across. The water sunk down as he filled the space. His head in front of me I said, “Yo uh Kamoji, right?” 

“Yeah, what’s up Weston?” The giant sea turtle said boredly. 

“Nothing, found myself stuck somewhere. Think you can make a hole straight up?” I asked. The big turtle blinked. Looking straight up I was surprised when a stream of water immediately shot out of the sea turtles mouth. Like a cannon the water knocked a huge hole in the ceiling above, revealing sunlight. 

Rubble and water rained down on us. A lot hitting the turtle but he didn’t appear to care. “Thanks Kamoji!” I said. “Hey, did my sister show up there?” 

“Yeah, she’s at Baria,” Kamoji said. “Kind of a bitch. She didn’t like working for the right to sign the contract. Kame said she was working on Kamjutsu.” 

“Cool, well that’s all I needed. Thanks Kamoji.” 

“See yeah,” the turtle said. Smoke billowed out and the summon ended. I had done this a couple of times just to practice. I was getting closer to being able to summon bigger and bigger turtles. I understood now why Kame had me clean the barnacles off the turtles. It let me get to know all of them, and introduce myself. 

“Weston! That was awesome. Who was that?” Naruto asked. 

“That’s my summon. You know how you have toads? I went to the land of sea turtles and signed a contract with them. There’s a land of toads somewhere too.” 

“What?” He asked, surprised. “There is?” 

“Yeah, where did you think you summoned them from?” 

“Another dimension?” Naruto asked. 

“Yeah, actually I could see that. No, the toads exist here on Earth,” I said. “You should ask Jaraiya about it.” 

From what I knew, Naruto was supposed to be learning how to mix wind and Rasengan. But since I was Team 7 now, Naruto went where we did. I asked for Asuma and the Jounin of Shikamaru’s group was nice enough to start Naruto’s training on the Wind Element. Then after he learned that he should have headed to the land of toads to learn Sage Mode. I’d messed stuff up and it was becoming a hassle to keep it all on track.  

“Anyone alive down there?!” A voice yelled from the opening in the ceiling above.

“Yeah!” Yugito yelled. We were soon climbing up the walls to the new exit while ninjas jumped down to get the remains of the guy in the water.  

We were met with the Raikage and his posse. The Raikage was a big black guy. Very loud, very imposing, and from what I understood, very strong. 

“Is it done?!” He yelled from a short distance away. 

“Yes, Raikage,” Kakashi said, taking charge. “From what we understand there should only be 6 Akatsuki members left.” 

“And you still think they are a problem?” The Raikage asked. 

“Yes,” Kakashi said, looking to me. 

“Yeah, they’ll start recruiting again. The ones left are the strongest of them,” I said. “And Orochimaru has-” 

“Orochimaru is dead,” the Raikage cut in. That got everyone’s attention. 

“Really!?” Naruto asked excitedly. 

“Yes, rumors been going around for a while. We got confirmation recently. One of your own, an Uchiha, was said to have done it.” I nodded. He was probably already on the move, collecting his own team to help him take down Itachi. With Danzo dead I hoped he didn’t declare war on the village, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath. 

“What next?” The Raikage asked. 

“I believe a kage summit would help. Bring everyone into the fold. We have been able to save the 1 and 2 tailed beast from Akatsuki,” I said. “There is the 8 and 9 tailed left out of their hands currently. I am not sure on the 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 tailed though. I don’t know how many they actually need to complete their plan.” 

“I have heard that the 4 tail Jinchuriki’s body was found dead,” one of the Raikage assistants said. 

“We will probably need to assume they have all 5. We need to keep the other’s out of their hands,” I said. “But we-” 

“Message sir!” Someone yelled running through the crowd around us. The person handed the Raikage a small rolled up slip of paper. He read it quickly. 

His eyes went to us, and I knew what it said. “Konoha was attacked,” the Raikage said. “A man named Pain showed up.” 

“Fuck!” I spat. “Let’s go,” I said turning around. 

“Weston! What’s going on! Who is that?” Naruto asked, none of the others questioning as we started to run out of the village. 

“It’s the current leader of Akatsuki. We pissed him off,” I said. We were soon up to our full speed as we got our second wind.