Hey guys! The reviews for the last chapter warmed my heart a lot. Always awesome to see people supporting me even though I took such a long break. Unfortunately, culinary school is going to start taking up much more time once I enter my second term. Three days of working 8-4 at a restaurant and two days of school, one of which is practical and the other theory. Theory ain't so hard. It's pretty garbage actually. You don't really need to try at all since you pass even if you fail.

Practical and the working days are going to be tough though. Practical in itself is already four hours of prepping, cooking and cleaning. But hey, it's fun. Well, as fun as standing around and handling fire can be, but I can't complain. Don't really have an interest in taking part in competitions either though. Not my sort of thing.

Anyways, enough about me. I'd like to answer some reviews publicly:

ncpfan: I'd really like to see more of Kushina's reactions to things, especially how she's dealing with Naruto's defection in the aftermath of it all and if it's causing any conflicts between her and Minato at all (I can imagine she must have been enraged when he put Naruto's name in the Bingo Book to cover up their mistakes and didn't step down as Hokage, knowing that they were the ones responsible for Naruto's becoming the man he now is).

U: Kushina and her reaction to everything else will be covered more in the later chapters. There's only a little snippet of it here. But regarding the rest of the question, that doesn't really make sense. While he is her son, he is still a criminal. And it's to be taken in alive only. So there's no real reason she should be mad about it. And stepping down as Hokage wouldn't really solve anything. Who else is going to take charge? Danzo? Yeah, no one else really wants that.

(And no, to the people who have asked, Kushina will definitely not be divorcing Minato or even ending up with Naruto. Or Mikoto with Naruto. Because frankly, that doesn't make any sense at all. I'm all for KushNaru or whatever but come on, that's just silly.)

Deiru Tamashi: Huh. You know, I actually rather liked this chapter. I thought that it rather fit the title for it, especially considering the rage that Natsumi felt before and during her change. I do think that you made a good decision in choosing to not blow up the bridge, as I don't think that would have even been worth it. The scene of Hidan's hand coming out of the grave was highly surreal, and I enjoyed it.

If I I had to say one thing, it would be that Zabuza's final charge and subsequent death weren't given as much detail as I would have liked, but that could just be own personal preferences talking. I did like the display of Naruto's inner struggle between staying in character and caring for his sister. Altogether, I did enjoy this chapter and very much hope for more.

U: This. This is the sort of review I enjoy reading. Constructive but also points out what they liked about the review. Thank you so, so, so much for it. Regarding Zabuza's final moments and the consequent slaying, there was already 22K words at the time of writing and I really didn't want to add any more since it was already stretching it. I'll try to take note of this in the future and improve on it.

NEW EDIT: Alright. I think I need to address this review a guest decided to leave behind.

Guest: Here I am, thinking Naruto was some kind of badass, and yet, after a simply display of power, he starts acting like a cowed little bitch. I know joining the akatsuki was his goal, but the way you went about it made Naruto look pathetic and weak as fuck. With that said, this chapter has COMPLETELY destroyed any and all interest I previously had in this story. Goodbye.

U: I really, REALLY hate that I have to explain this to anyone but clearly from your well-thought out review I do.

If you honestly thought that Naruto was going to pick a fight with a guy stronger than him you might have gotten my Naruto mixed up with somebody else's. Naruto isn't retarded. He isn't going to pick a fight with someone he know he can't beat. Not even with Hidan helping him.

And I don't really see how yielding to an enemy makes him 'pathetic and weak as fuck'. It's called 'not being a fucking idiot'.

But enough of that. Here's the newest chapter. I hope you enjoy it.

Quaint as can be, the shop that lined the side of the lonely dirt road was quiet despite the amount of customers it contained. Segregated into their own respective groups, the customers chatted with hushed whispers amongst themselves so as to not disturb their neighbours.

At the very front of the store, with his back facing the entrance, Naruto was absently flipping through his black book, reading through the newest edition of it for any new entries. Gathering data on any enemy that came their way was always helpful.

For once in a long time, Naruto was without his mask. Temporarily removing it and swapping it for a loose scarf that was draped over and around his neck. Chances of being recognised by the common folk were slim to none since Naruto's image was usually plastered onto Bingo Books instead of posters. Most of the time, unless one had a morbid curiosity, only shinobi carried the books with them. So Naruto had chosen to ditch his mask as of now and wear a loose scarf around his lower features instead, hiding his slightly stitched mouth from sight. It was rather reliving not having to wear his mask, even if it was short lived. Vision uninhibited from the small holes he saw out from and darkness that covered his peripherals when he bore his mask, Naruto could see everything around him clearly again, both literally and in the metaphorical sense.

Hidan was slowly banging her forehead against the wooden table, groaning lowly as she repeated the action over and over again in the hopes that it would annoy the owners of the establishment to hurry it up. With each collision, the necklace dedicated to Jashin was sent clinking nosily against her headband, and even her breasts jiggled in a very eye-catching manner. Reason for her actions was that she had been waiting far too long for her damn desserts and she was getting tired of it.

Either that or she was getting a little too stir-crazy ever since they had left Wave a few days ago. Doing nothing but training must've been boring to her, especially when her unmoving targets bled not even a drop of blood.

Frustrating as it may have been for her there was simply nothing to do while being wedged between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind in the small country that was known simply as the Land of Rivers, home to the Village Hidden in Valleys. They couldn't make too much noise lest they stir up the metaphorical hornets nests that sat right next to them, so they were currently trying their best to keep a low profile.

Nothing interesting had happened save for training and the development of new techniques, but otherwise everything was smooth sailings.

Breaking the monotonous chain of action, she sat back up and threw a glare behind her shoulder at the old man who ran the cashier. The elderly employee had been giving her a rude stare from behind at her apparent show of disrespect and poor behaviour, but was shocked even further when she suddenly shot him with a glare a hundred times worse than his. Had her companion not flicked her in the back of the head without even looking up from his book, causing her glare to die off almost immediately, the old man would've probably died. Shooting a scowl at Naruto for ruining her fun, she looked back at the old man and slammed her fist into the table, gathering the attention of the other patrons had they not already been staring in annoyance when she was rattling her brain against the table.

"Where's my fucking foooooood?" Almost as if it had been timed, the doors to the kitchen opened and a young boy came running out, carrying a tray full of delicious looking desserts. Sticks of colourful dango shined deliciously under a generous layer of sweet syrup and heaps of piping hot dorayaki sat on top of each other, their fine red bean paste visible between the spongy yet firm pancake that encased it. He began making his way to each table, distributing the ordered desserts before moving on to the table that currently sat two S-ranked shinobi.

Of course, it wasn't as if any of those people in there knew who they were. They were but mere civilians and unless they had gotten their hands onto the latest edition of the Bingo Book, Naruto highly doubted that they would be recognised.

With quick feet, the boy slid what remained on the tray, a number of plates of the heavenly looking deserts and two cups of steaming tea, onto the table. Then the boy paused in front of Hidan after taking a step forwards, and for a brief moment, Naruto thought that they had been caught and recognised.

But alas, upon closer inspection Naruto realised that the young boy was just interested in the beautiful Hidan and her exotic hair. Well, those aspects of her as well as her very open cleavage. Naruto had to stifle a chuckle at the sight of the young boy enthralled by Hidan's sizeable breasts, acting as if he were some old toad sage pervert.

Somewhere in the Elemental Nations, Jiraiya of the Sannin sneezed and smiled proudly. Someone must've been talking good about him again.

Returning back to the wayward pair, Hidan noticed the boy staring at her as if she were a goddess and figured that it must've been one of those first crushes sort of thing. It was cute and flattering, but she had someone else in mind for that sort of thing. Glancing towards Naruto, she lifted an eyebrow at him and the silently communicated through their eyes. It was amazing just how well they could understand each other just from a few months of spending time together.

Naruto gave a silent shrug and set his Bingo Book aside. Taking his cup into his hands, he blew at the cup of tea to cool it down before taking a sip. Whatever the case, he wasn't about to get jealous at a boy who was just interested in a pair of lovely breasts. It was just a kid, and Hidan seemed to have it covered.

Plucking the skewer out from between her lips, the silverette leaned her head forwards and shot him a beautiful smile. "Hey there, kiddo." The boy immediately looked up and blushed at the sound of her voice, staring right into her large purple eyes. They weren't sure if it was because he had been caught in the blatant act or if it was because she had spoken to him, but it didn't really matter. "What's your name?"

"Shiba-" The skewer Hidan had been twirling around on her fingers was sent into the wooden table, embedding the thin piece of sharpened wood into the sturdy structure with a loud twang as it shook violently. Shocked by the attack and sudden movement, the boy jumped slightly and yelped in horror.

"I don't care what the hell your name is, you shitty brat." Hidan followed her growl out by pounding the table with the bottom of her fist, "Stare at my boobs any longer and the next things these babies are going into are your eyes." With a wave of her hand, two more sticks suddenly appeared in between her once-empty fingers.

That was enough of a warning to send the boy scampering away with fear evident on is face, nearly tripping on himself as he took off towards the kitchen doors with the metal tray in his hands. Awesome breasts or not, they were not worth losing his eyes over.

"Hah!" Hidan barked out a unladylike laugh at the sight of the running child. That would teach 'em to stare. The rest of the patrons frowned or outright scowled at her actions but returned to eating their meals. Suddenly, she lost her amusement and stared straight at him, totally serious.

"I would've done it you know." She suddenly said without any prompt, confusing Naruto, "Totes would've made him blind. Don't doubt me on that."

Naruto squinted his eyes at Hidan, "Why would you assume that I would doubt you on that?"

"I'm losing street cred here, Naruto." Hidan mumbled somewhat grouchily. Leaning forwards, she whispered angrily, jabbing at the table as she spoke to the blonde, "People used to fear me! Look at me now!" She threw the patrons a glance who were busy digging into their meals, "They aren't trembling in fear!" It was ridiculous! The lack of blatant disrespect made her fingers twitch. "No one recognises me any more..."

"We're a long way from Yugakure," Then Naruto gave her a look of doubt. "And even then they never recognised you before." The only reason Hidan had any form of fame was because of the myths surrounding her and her immortality in Yugakure and that in itself was limited to the surroundings of the village, so unless rumours of a silver haired psycho came floating out then she didn't have to worry all that much. And when Naruto had met her, the Kirigakure team she had encountered and slaughtered only knew of her immortality because she had stated so.

With a low whine, Hidan sniffed sadly at her lack of notoriety whilst continuing to eat her food with fervour. The sight of her eating while depressively shaking her head made Naruto smile. But he decided to cheer her up.

"Well, maybe the reason you're not infamous is because you tend to kill everyone that comes our way. So technically you would be very infamous had they lived to tell your tale." With that, Hidan's eyes lost their welled up tears and grew wide. Even her mouth had stopped chewing temporarily as if was thinking about how she hadn't even considered that.

"I haven't even considered that!" Yup. Naruto wasn't even that surprised any more having been used to her antics. As soon as her excitement had come, it left leaving her in a calmer state. "But I think sending them Jashin-sama's way is more better than being known. I still kick ass anyway."

"Speaking of that, how's your training coming along?" Naruto asked as he yanked the makeshift senbon out from the table and tossed it to the plate she had designated to collect the sticks of the dango. Flexing his hands into fists, Naruto felt the dull ache that informed him of how well his recovery was going along. The development of his technique had rendered his hands and forearms numb for a few days but he had managed to pull through. Even during Wave when Hidan was visiting his little sister Naruto had been developing his new move but it was a high-risk high-reward technique that had the potential to cripple the user for a few days via having their muscle tear and bones crack.

Thankfully for Naruto he did not have to experience either of that since he had been physically conditioning his body after a crushing defeat to Itachi when they were still children. The Uchiha boy's words at the time had influenced him greatly and what resulted in who he was today.

"It's going pretty damn well." Hidan pulled the baggy sleeve of her fuzzy robe backwards and revealing her pale arm. Flexing as hard as she could, Hidan revealed that she had gained an impressive amount of muscle in just a few months. The comparison was quite obvious since before she joined Naruto in whatever it was that he was doing searching for that top-secret group she only had enough power to swing her rather hefty scythe around. Now, with lots of exercise forced onto her on Naruto's part, she had enough strength to handle it properly. Fighting was much easier when she didn't have to rely so heavily on physics, the weight of her scythe and using momentum to increase the power of her swings. She could still do all that with the added bonus of attacking even harder and faster than before. It wasn't much but it was still an improvement she gladly accepted.

Noting that Naruto was silently observing her arm, Hidan grinned cockily. "I know. I'm pretty ripped, right? Heh, no need to be impressed."

"No," Naruto pulled his scarf down slightly and revealed his mouth to her as well as his whiskered cheeks. Raising the cup to his lips, he closed his eyes and sipped gently at the steaming liquid, "I was just reminded of a chicken wing."

"I'll stab you, fucker!" Hidan pulled her sleeve back down shamefully and grumbled at him once she realised that he was just pulling her leg, "Whatever! Mock me all you want. I'm going back to eating."

"I thought you preferred ribs?" Having picked the information up awhile back with an attentive ear, Naruto commented at the sight of Hidan returning back to shoving stick after stick of dango down her throat in a gluttonous manner.

"My favourites are ribs," Having swallowed the mouthful of chewed sweets, Hidan pulled the stick of the dango out from her mouth in a rude fashion, waving it around absently like she was casting a spell, "But I don't really mind sweet shit. Not really preferred but it's not like I have much of a selection." She gestured towards the list of foods that lined the walls, all of which were more appealing to the taste-buds of sweetness. "Can't stand veggies though. Just... bleh." She stuck her tongue out and made a face at that and Naruto just bobbed his head along with her words.

"I know. I just thought sweets didn't rank up on your list high either." It took her a second to register his words, but Hidan was actually pretty surprised that he had remembered what her liked and disliked dishes were. Most of the time he was the quiet one in their conversations and spoke little but knowing that he was paying attention made her smile endearingly at him.

The wind-chime that hung at the front of the wooden store sang with a gentle tinkle when a breeze past it, playing a sweet tune that encompassed the voices of the patrons for a brief moment. It was nice for once to not be chased by people who wanted their heads or to be involved in some kind of fight. Relaxing and spending time with each other was always nice. But as Hidan downed her piping hot tea in one go, slamming her glass back onto the table, they were reminded that their short break was over and that it was time to hit the road again.

By the time the chime sang again, all that was left of the pair were cleared out plates, two empty teacups and a number of notes to pay for their meal. The thankfully relieved old man was not included in that.

In Konoha.

Natsumi was surprised to find herself swept up in a big hug the moment she stepped foot through her front door. She hadn't even had time to even call out that she had reached home when it had happened. Face buried within the bosom of her mother, Natsumi found herself victim to a series of pats, hugs and kisses to the top of her head from a violently worried mother, who had swooped in and embraced her beloved daughter in a hug.

"Kaa-chan!" Natsumi writhed within the older woman's grasp, taken back in surprise at how fast the housewife was. To be fair, the woman had been a Jonin before retiring once she gave birth to Naruto. "You're killin' me here!"

After a few moments, Kushina pulled away and looked at Natsumi with watery eyes, showing just how worried she had been. Cupping her face in her hands lovingly, Kushina ran her thumbs over the dirty cheeks of the younger lookalike she had birthed.

"Oh Natsumi!" She sniffed sadly, pressing her cheek into her daughter's whiskered one, "I thought you were badly hurt or maybe even died!" Kushina had heard from the toad summons again that a fight had broken out, but the Konoha shinobi had worked together and survived it with no more than just injuries and exhaustion. Still, with the letter she had sent detailing everything that had happened, Kushina was a complete mess in Konoha and would've run all the way to Wave without stopping just to see her daughter. "Please don't leave your Kaa-chan, 'ttebane!"

The younger female didn't have to think very hard about it but it was clear why her mother was so worried. She had already lost one of her children who, while she did not actively show it, did love dearly.

Actually losing the other to death would've definitely broken her mentally.

While some might have blamed their parents for such a thing, Natsumi didn't. It was equally her fault as well for not having spoken up about Naruto's condition of being mostly ignored to her parents. She knew her mother would do anything to get her firstborn, one of her babies, back and blamed herself for being part of the reason he had turned bad.

With a sad smile, Natsumi wrapped her hands around the waist of her mother, hugging her back with equal intensity. She wasn't going to leave her mommy any time soon. Hell. No. The last thing she wanted was to completely break her mother's heart.

"I'm ain't going anywhere Kaa-chan." She mumbled into Kushina's bosom before pulling her face out and smiling tiredly at her, "But I'm pretty dirty... and tired. Think you could let me take a shower?"

"Oh!" Kushina released her second child and stood back to full height, remembering that she did just come back from a particularly treacherous mission. Wiping away her tears, Kushina nodded. "Right! Right! I'll prepare some food so come down when you're done, okay?"

Natsumi's hopeful eyes widened at the prospect of lunch and was just as large her sudden grin was, "Ramen?" She asked, Kushina smiled down at her daughter, her sadness washed away by the sweet child before her.

"Ramen." She confirmed with a lovely smile, much to the excitement of a pleased Natsumi.

"Awesome! Give me twenty minutes though! I'm gonna use the bath." Natsumi gained a surprising amount of energy from the confirmation alone and dashed off in a burst of speed, running up the stairs towards the second floor of their house where her room was, leaving a smiling Kushina behind.

Konoha - Inside Natsumi's seal.

"What was that all about?" Natsumi sat in the darkness of the seal, staring beyond the bars that were unilluminated. While she could not see beyond it, Natsumi could still feel the presence of the Kyuubi stirring at the sound of her voice. Having just had a nice warm soak, a filling lunch of ramen, and enough time to rest up again, she felt ready to take on anything that got in her way.

The Kyuubi answered her question by cracking a glowing red eye open, staring right at her but said nothing. Lying down with his chin over his crossed paws, the Kyuubi tilted his head until both eyes were staring her down. Not deterred by the rather scary sight, Natsumi pushed onwards with a small frown adorning her pretty features. In fact, her whisker marks were twitching quite a bit in annoyance.

"You were all like 'Use your rage! Let them know what it's like to fear you!' I thought we were buddies! And you were totally happy!"

"Foolish child! Do not delude yourself into thinking that we are anything closer than warden and prisoner." The Kyuubi slowly rose his head up until he towered over Natsumi. With a low growl, he sneered at the girl for thinking such. She could be as friendly to him as she wanted to and he wouldn't care all that much. But when it came to doubting his intentions of helping her out, the Kyuubi took great offence. "We are acquainted as victims of circumstances. I merely helped you in beating your foe in order to prevent a painfully slow and agonising reincarnation. Despite what you might think, we Biju can still feel pain."

That wasn't enough to please Natsumi, especially when she had first made contact with him. He had been quite nice -or at least as nice as a giant vulpine beast made entirely of chakra could be- when they had first met up in her seal. "But you still made me-"

"Your ignorance is overwhelming." The glare intensified greatly as he growled lowly at her, baring his massive fangs that were the size of adult males threateningly despite being unable to physically harm her. "Disregarding the fact that he had no intention of killing you... Did you honestly think that you would have won against the ice user without my help?" There was a long awkward silence that hung in the air as Natsumi thought it over, and the Kyuubi voiced her thoughts. "No. You would not have. I was the one who helped you and the only way to do that was to remind you to be angry."

Natsumi was stunned for a moment when she realised that the Kyuubi was right. If it hadn't been for the Kyuubi's power and chakra giving her the sudden surge in power she needed to overpower Haku, she would've definitely lost.

Hidan's death had caused her pent up anger to explode outwards like an erupting volcano and was thus the perfect time for the vulpine beast to assist her by funnelling a tiny smidgen of his power to her.

Sure, maybe he would've escaped if the opportunity presented itself, but he did actually have the full intention of saving her hide and only told her to get angrier because he had gotten quite excited at the prospect of seeing a foe die before him. It had been far too long since he had the opportunity to partake in the quashing of a human being. Inhabiting a teenage girl's body for a full decade and then some could grow quite boring without any blood and gore, and he didn't mean the type that came every month.

Ugh. Humans were strange creatures. Especially the women.

As his tails flickered behind him, the Kyuubi's eyes lost their menacing glow from surprise when Natsumi bit her lip and arched forwards in a low bow to apologise.

"I'm sorry..." Natsumi had learnt long ago that admitting to her mistakes and wrongdoings was something very important as a Hokage. If the Hokage was so prideful as to disregard whatever mistake they made due to pride then they weren't really that much of a Hokage anyway, "I shouldn't have blamed you for that. I just thought that you were purposefully trying to egg me on or something like that." Rising back up, she had an awkward smile on her face, "So again, I'm sorry. Sorry for pushing the blame onto you. I was just pretty upset that you were going crazy inside of me."

Being the Biju inside of the Jinchuuriki, the Kyuubi could easily sense the storm of emotions that came with every teenager going through puberty. They weren't full of bad intentions and lies at all. But all his weak siblings had been sealed and used by humans and he couldn't trust one so easily yet regardless if or not she had good intentions. She wasn't the strongest so it wasn't as if she couldn't be used by others like some kind of puppet. And she even apologised for her mistake instead of being prideful.

No. He couldn't trust her yet. It was simply in his instincts not to do so. Not to say that he wouldn't lend a hand to her now and then when she truly needed his power but as of now he still couldn't hand his power over to her willingly when she had yet to prove herself strong enough to not be used by others. Her father may have been the strongest in the village but it didn't necessarily mean that he wouldn't die in battle. Anyone could die. Even someone as mighty as the Kyuubi himself could die would his host perish.

But returning to the situation at hand, he would not allow himself to stoop to the level of his siblings who were caged up and used as the weapons of their respective host's villages.

Still, having a host such as the little child before him was not as bad as he thought. While he was definitely confined at least he wasn't being pestered by the hundreds upon thousands of humans who had tried to harness his powers as their own so that was a plus. And while he hated to acknowledge it, his relationship with his host was admittedly amicable. The girl was nice and respected him as a sentient being instead of a mindless beast.

To be fair, he had gone on violent rampages, but still, the point was still there.

From what little he knew from snippets of conversations, some of his brethren had it much worse than him. Being chained down and nailed to prevent movement. Compared to him, they certainly had it worse. Much, much worse. At least in her, while cramped, he could sleep and move comfortably without being pinned down.

The Kyuubi stared at Natsumi for quite some time before he came to some kind of conclusion and returned back to lying on his paws.

"Tch... Think before you speak next time, brat." The Kyuubi closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, "Is that not what is required of you for your measly goals of becoming the leader to your village, or even bringing that interesting human back?" He recalled just how heartbroken the girl had been when the one person she had loved with all her heart became a traitor. A pity. He was a very interesting one even by the standards of pitiful humans.

Natsumi widened her eyes, "You mean Naru-nii?"

"Yes, little pervert. The one you fantasize over and call your brother. Humans are so strange. Why would touching yourself so intimately be so arousing?" The large fox snickered loudly. He didn't have to open his eyes to see that his host was currently feeling some kind of embarrassed from having been watched.

"Wh-Whatever!" Natsumi spluttered indignantly when the Kyuubi admitted to watching her 'down-time'. But she quickly regained her composure and stood ramrod again, a confident smile rising to her face.

"But you know what?"

Feeling the surge in confidence rising in his host, the Kyuubi wondered what she was thinking about and was amused enough to open his eyes back up and respond.

"What, perverse one?" Natsumi's eye twitched slightly, "What is it that is so important that you truly need to tell me?"

"I've got another goal now." Raising her hand up to the beast who had snapped his eyes back open again in confusion, Natsumi pointed her three fingers up into the air.

"One." A finger went down, "I'm gonna bring back Naru-nii. Even if it kills me."

"Two." Another finger was shot down, "I'm gonna become the Hokage, and I'm gonna be the best-est, good-est and most awesome-est one there was, is and ever will be!"

One after the other, she knocked two of them down until she was just left with one finger.

"And I'm gonna take away all that hate inside of you some day and make you trust me and become my friend because if you're gonna be stuck inside of me by yourself, you might as well have some fun doing it. Because... Well, everything is better with a friend." Well, there were a few exceptions. Such as sex. She really didn't want Sasuke to be there with her cheering her on or something when she got her long awaited sexy-time with Naru-nii in the future. Would've made one hell of an awkward story to tell if anyone ever asked. "I won't give up. I'll try and try again and again even if I fail a thousand times. I promise you that much." The conviction in her words and the words themselves truly were astounding, and even they seemed to have gotten through to the monster fox whose breathing had stilled noticeably. Then he blasted a wave of hot air at Natsumi, who stood her ground.

"Tch... I hate people who can't live up to their words." While worded as a threat, Natsumi could clearly hear the message hidden behind his words.

'Show me. Show me you can do them- and I'll best friend forever!'

Okay. Maybe it wasn't exactly phrased like that, especially at the ending but Natsumi was certain that it was something along those lines.

"Then I'll show you wrong you giant furball! I'll show anyone who doubts me that I can do it!" Natsumi jabbed a thumb into her chest, proudly proclaiming to the tailed beast before her, "I'm Namikaze-Uzumaki Natsumi, the soon-to-be first female Hokage of Konoha, and I never go back on my promises!"

After a moment of staring deeply into each other's eyes, Natsumi dropped her arm and smiled at the fox.

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat some more but I've got to go and train some more. Hinata-chan said she was gonna help me out." She scratched her nose in a bashful manner, "And sticking around after that high-note would be pretty anti-climatic. So I'll see you again later, 'kay?"

The Kyuubi didn't respond to her question since he knew she was going to come back regardless if or not he wanted to see her. With a grumble, she was waved away and vanished from the seal before the beast finally closed his eyes yet again after a long hard stare at where she was standing before.

'We shall see, child... We shall see.'

With Naruto and Hidan

Having walked some distance away from the store and turning into a woodland path that would take them through the borders of the Land of Wind and the secretive Amegakure and towards Ishigakure no Sato (Village Hidden in Stones), which was very close to the land that hated his father, and thereby him due to relation, because of the absolute decimation he had brought upon their forces at the end of the Third Shinobi World War. That meant that his bright blonde hair was a dead giveaway to his heritage. Perhaps hiding his hair while in their territory was a good idea.

Flanked on their right and left by trees, the pair walked side by side as always in relative silence. But after a few moments Hidan suddenly snapped her head backwards when something in the corner of her peripheral caught her attention. But as soon as she turned back to look at it, it was gone.

Looking back forwards, she jabbed Naruto in the side softly. "Did you see that?" The low whisper over the faint sounds of the forests in the early afternoon took hold of Naruto's attention almost immediately since Hidan was actually trying to be discreet.

"What?" The blonde didn't tilt his head to face her and continued to walk at the same pace since he quickly picked up on Hidan's attempt at being sneaky.

"I swear under Jashin-sama's name that I just saw a crocodile or some shit on a tree branch. Or at least the mouth of a crocodile. Not going crazy... I think, but it was hard to tell from the corner or my eye."

"They're call jaws, Hidan." Then Naruto took a big sweeping glance to his side and back to check up on her words, "And I don't see anything."

"No shit." She frowned, somewhat perturbed from being watched by what she thought was a crocodile. The trees seemed to dance and she was very much aware of the deep chirping of the crickets that were hidden in the bushes and grass that lined the side of the beaten dirt road. Even the chirping of birds grew ominously loud to the point where they were silently wondering to themselves on how they had not noticed just how loud everything was. "It like... It like moved or something."

"Moved? Well, Crocodiles are known to climb trees, but I doubt that they live anywhere here. And even if it was a crocodile, there's little we have to really worry about. They're not very dangerous or scary to shinobi." Never had it been documented that crocodiles ever killed healthy and fit shinobi, and even if that happened it would have been one embarrassing death. Something like that would have been mocked for generations.

"Crocodiles? Not dangerous or scary?" Hidan scoffed, "Yeah, says you. You obviously don't know about that one crocodile who took over some desert country and nearly blew it to kingdom come. Not only that but the crocodile had a giant gold hook as one of his hands and was a pirate. Oh don't give me that look. I haven't even told you about that part with the rubber monkey. Shit sounded pretty crazy."

Naruto regarded her with a strange look, unsure if she was drugged out from whatever had been laced in her desserts earlier on or if she was being serious. It was hard to tell sometimes when it came to his lovely companion.

"Desert country? You mean Suna?"

"Nah. I think it was like in some place else that's way out there. Like really waaaaaay out there." She nodded to herself, "Read about it in a newspaper some seagull with a postman's hat gave to me."

"Now I really can't tell if you're joking or not. This sounds really ridiculous, especially the part with you reading. But you're quite convincing. And that's quite scary to me."

"Regardless, even if it was a crocodile it's gone no- GAH! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" From the ground in front of them, a pair of large green jaws sprouted which opened to show the half-grinning face that was split down the middle in white and black. Naruto's big blue eyes widened marginally at the sight. Partially because the man had just emerged from the ground like a ghost, but mainly because of what he wore. His shoulders that were sticking right out of the ground were completely covered by a cloak that he wore, proudly donning the insignia of the group that Naruto had been searching for ever since he had made headlines with the blood of the Uchiha Clan.

"Heeeee~llo~!" Zetsu sang happily, seemingly eager at the prospect of meeting new people, "I'm so excited to- Whoa!" Zetsu retracted back into the ground faster than they had expected without a trace, causing Hidan's pike to impale the floor where his head would've been.

"Shit." Hidan pulled back from her throwing stance and sneered as she wiped her bleeding thumb and palm against her robes, "That's the crocodile I saw." Then she frowned, "I didn't think he'd look so freaky up close though. And he could talk and move through the ground too... What a fucking weird ass crocodile."

"I don't think that was a crocodile, Hidan..." Naruto's eyes were already scanning the area for the strange creature. While the thing was undoubtedly from the Akatsuki seeing as how it was garbed in their uniform, there was no telling what it was here for. Perhaps they had somehow angered them after unknowingly foiling one of their missions or operations.

Then, at a safe enough distance, Zetsu re-emerged from a rather thin branch. The act left both stunned since it was an impossible feat for him to have accomplished. While Naruto was shocked into silence, Hidan was gaping openly.

"Dude! You can do magic tricks? Ha-hah!" Then her mouth split into a grin, "I love magic!"

It was just physically impossible to keep the rest of his body hidden! It just was!

"It isn't magic, you silly little girl... We just use this ability to move through terrain." This time the cloak he wore was much more prominent since he had revealed his upper body all the way to his elbows.

"Hidan." Naruto muttered sternly to bring her back to the situation at hand, "Focus."

"Oh, right. My b." Taking a minute to properly observe his outfit, Hidan suddenly realised that his outfit matched up with the one Naruto had described. "Isn't that the outfit of the group you told me about? Red clouds on black cloaks? Whassit called? Archipelago? Agenda? Acapella?" Hidan muttered to a nodding Naruto.

He had revealed to her the nature of such a group a while back when she had asked if they had a specific goal in mind. Wandering around with Naruto and raising hell wherever they went was fun and all but Naruto was the type of person that always seemed to have an objective in mind. Be it 'get stronger' or 'search for the Akatsuki', he was the polar opposite of Hidan, who was perfectly content with doing whatever life threw her way.

"It's Akatsuki, and yes... It should be..." Naruto didn't look at Hidan as he spoke, too focused on staring at the plant man to even do so, "But I've never seen a person like that appear in the Bingo Book before." He would have definitely remembered reading about someone like that unique man. If this was just how secretive Akatsuki was then there was no telling just who else was part of their group.

"To the immortal pair of shinobi, Hidan and Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto, the Akatsuki humbly extends their hands to you fortunate folks!" Although Hidan had immediately tried to kill him upon his appearance just a few moments ago, the eccentric plant man did not seem to be fazed in the least. Perhaps it was a common trend that he had gotten used to already.

"Just who are you?"

"Why I'm the top-secret secretive spy of the Akatsuki. I'll tell you my name after you two have joined but what I can tell you is that I've been waaa~tching you two ever since news broke of your actions against Konoha. Oops. Maybe I shouldn't have said that..." He covered his mouth up comically after informing the pair, who merely frowned at the news. They weren't exactly fans of being spied upon. "Oh but don't worry. I only watched you two for a few hours a week, nothing much happened really."

"And what if we say no to joining?" Naruto just had to test the waters. Were they desperately in need of members or were they looking to just increase their might. He didn't know just how many members Akatsuki was comprised of but there surely couldn't have been too many since S-ranked shinobi were hard to come by these days.

"Yeah!" Hidan cheered, parroting Naruto without much thought, "What if we say no?" Would they outright reject the fact that the two of them weren't joining and force them into doing so or did they have so many people that losing two S-ranked shinobi was no sweat off their back? "We don't even know the first thing about the Akatsuchi and you want us to join? What if the organisation's just a bunch of chumps and we're the only good ones there, huh?"

The sides of Zetsu's mouth drooped as he slowly lost his grin and all that was left of it after was a display of his teeth that showed his disappointment. "Well... That just won't do. But that's fine." Shaking his head sadly, he appeared as though he didn't want it to come to this. "Perhaps a display of our power is in order. You can decide joining us after we wrestle you into submission." Uh-oh. That didn't sound too good. "But rest assured right now, immortal or not, you're gonna have a bad time." And with that he immediately sank back into the branch and vanished again.

Hidan turned her head to the side and squinted at the dust cloud that was slowly rising through the trees and heading towards them from right side of the road.

"You know... That doesn't look too good." Hidan pointed the ominous cloud that had stopped in it's place, slowly dissipating into the air as the wind blew it away. Whatever it was, it must've stopped to have done something. Naruto and Hidan were fully prepared for anything that came their way-

"Shinra Tensei (Almighty Push)!"

Swathes of trees were immediately flattened, spreading out in a cone shape that started from where the dust cloud had ended. They collapsed over each other like dominoes, hundreds of trees that had seen decades of fighting and bloodshed, literal history in the making, taken down in an instant from an unknown power. Pure annihilation. No matter how many it knocked down it never lost a bit of momentum, charging forth at the surprised duo.

"Aw hell-" Hidan and Naruto raised their arms and braced for impact. The visible repulsive force that slammed into them had not been any form of Fuuton Jutsu. It was purely what it was. Just raw force that sent the two flying off into the other side of the woods. Barrelling through trees, branches, bushes and ultimately crashing somewhere far away, the two were temporarily and understandably down and out for the moment.

At the very start of the massive wave of destruction, the orange haired man started to slowly walk over the destruction he had caused, the hundreds of toppled trees, towards the pair he had blasted away.

"Yare, yare..." Zetsu's head rose from the trunk of one of the many fallen trees, assessing the massive amounts of damage caused by the leader of the Akatsuki. He clicked his tongue repeatedly, as if chiding his leader. "That was a little too much don't you think, Leader-sama?"

Pain didn't spare the spy so much as a glance and continued forwards at his slow but confident gait, his piercing-studded face stoic as ever and his purple ringed eyes calm and unwavering in his decisions.

"A show of my power will break their morale and encourage them to join me. I do not wish to drag this out for long." It wouldn't take long before his abilities came back after that grand show of power. More than likely, by the time the two recovered, he would have already regained them.

Hidan's eyes slowly opened slowly and fluttered as she got adjusted to the rays of light that were currently beaming down into her eyes. She lay motionless in a deep trench she had dug out with her own body, her body shrouded in a thin layer of dirt, leaves, gravel, rocks and splinters from when she had been lifted off of her feet and tossed into the forest like a fucking shuriken.

Her slicked back hair was now an absolute mess, with her purple clip coming off when she had been blasted away. Shit. She hoped she hadn't lost it. The silver strands tickled her nose and in the process of doing so blocked out most of her vision.

"Ughhhh..." She tried to pull herself out of her own grave, but noticed that her arm had gotten horribly mangled in the midst of forcefully breaking through a number of tough objects to stop her fall. "Fuck. That fucking hurts." She lowered her arm and quickly concentrated on it to heal. "Ugh. This sucks dicks. Big dicks."

Meanwhile, not too far away from her, Naruto had already begun to pick himself off from the floor. Pushing his palms against the fresh dirt that had been brought to the surface by the massive power that plowed right through them, Naruto pushed himself off of the ground and stood shakily. His scarf had been lost and his clothes in tatters, Hidan was somewhere but judging from the groans and vulgarities she was spouting she was more than likely fine, but he didn't really care about all that as of now.

What he was focused on was the orange haired man that was approaching him at a gait that could be called relaxed yet held an aura that was undoubtedly dominating. Face pierced with studs that looked to be quite intimidating and painful the man seemed polite and calm to a certain degree (he did just blasted them away with some unknown force). Bright orange hair that was spiked up in the same manner as his was quite eye-grabbing even at a long distance. And on his forehead was something Naruto had not expected. The forehead protector was marked, showing his allegiance towards the mysterious and closed off Amegakure. However there was the noticeable sign of it being scratched horizontally across the logo of the village, deep enough to display that it had been cut badly. Surely that had not been coincidental and must've had a deeper meaning than just a simple scratch.

"Consider our offer again before I have to consider you a loose end, Naruto." His voice was smooth and powerful. It was convincing, cool, collected. It was the voice of a man who knew what he was doing, who had purpose. And it was the tone of a person who knew that, at the end of the day, they were going to be the one to come up on top. Judging from his actions and the decimated landscape, he could clearly back his actions up. Another blast like that at such close range would certainly do far more damage since they had only caught the tail end of it.

And those eyes of his! Just what were they? He had never seen such a Doujutsu before. Sure there were plenty out there, each with their own unique and eccentric abilities, all documented and written down. But over years of extensive research due to his good friend and rival wielding his own pair of Doujutsu, Naruto had never come across eyes such as his save for in an old tome hidden away in some desolate area of the library that had clearly not been touched in quite some time.

Could it have been? The revered and mystical set of eyes that were said to only come once every hundreds of years? Eyes that belonged to the progenitor of chakra himself.

The only ones that were infamous enough to know about was the Sharingan and the Byakugan, and this was said to be on a tier higher than theirs. At the time, Naruto had merely passed it off as a fairy tail since there weren't much details regarding it and no one had been seen with them, but he did remember the simple description of it.

Purple. Multiple rings.

He was facing off against a person who wielded the power of the Sage of the Six Paths... and Naruto felt something stir deep within his gut. He wasn't sure if it was fear, anger or something else entirely. But it seemed to respond to him. Naruto paid it no mind and ignored it, choosing to focus on the man before him instead. Unnerving and unblinking, the ringed eyes just kept staring at him as he closed the distance between them, ultimately stopping a good ten metres away from Naruto.

"Who... Who are you?" Naruto asked, his curiosity overcoming anything else he was feeling.

"I am Pain." The man started to walk forwards once he realised that Naruto didn't seem too keen on fighting any more and stood right in front of him, "Leader of the Akatsuki."

Naruto's sapphire eyes widened considerably. "Leader?" So he was both the leader of the Akatsuki as well as a shinobi, if not, the leader himself of Amegakure. Could such a man be someone else's underling? Definitely not, Naruto felt.

"Aw shit!" Hidan's voice came from behind Naruto, having heard their conversation, "Seriously?"

"Indeed." Pain looked back to Naruto after sparing a quick glance to where Hidan was buried in, "I am but one of a handful of members. We may not be many, but we certainly are enough to crush anyone who gets in our way." Naruto didn't like the sound of that, but didn't retort. It wasn't as if he could refute that claim since Pain did crush them quite well. Naruto's intent to fight had been greatly quelled by that jaw-dropping display of power.

"What exactly are your goals?"

"To achieve peace throughout the world." Pain gestured to the sky in a grand manner, throwing both of his hands up and forming a Y shape, "Anything underneath the sky will be under our control." His black cloak billowed gracefully in the wind as he spoke, "We will halt all wars, all conflicts and even the pettiest of arguments! There will be no more unnecessary deaths and fighting." He was so convincing and compelling that Naruto was certain the average person would be utterly enthralled in his voice and words. This was the sort of man that could start legitimate cults and actually had power to back it up. It didn't help that he possessed legendary eyes that were undoubtedly worth literal mountains of gold due to the fabled tales told about it. The amount some people would pay for a set of eyes like those was nothing to sniff at.

"Peace?" Naruto muttered with a hint of disbelief in his voice, "And just how are you planning on executing such an impossible task?" Way too many times had he heard of people trying to bring peace to the world and each time Naruto would answer with a shake of his head. Peace was a fickle thing, a ratty old bridge that could break at a moment's notice. To him, Naruto didn't think that there would ever be peace. But then again, he had never heard such a statement come from a man who had the eyes of the Sage himself.

Pain lowered his arms and merely stared at him before he extended his hand out, offering it to Naruto.

"It is not entirely impossible. Join us, both you and your partner, and you will find out. We intend on ushering in a new age of peace in our own way. And with you two by our side, the first part of that goal is now one step closer towards completion." The ringed eyes peered deeply into Naruto's blue ones as if the leader of the Akatsuki were trying to take a peek into his soul. To unravel just who Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto was and to find out all his dirty little secrets. "Join us. And you can be part of something greater in this wretched world."

"Hidan?" Naruto tilted his head to the side and asked aloud while he continuously kept eye-contact with the man. While he didn't seem intent on attacking them any further, Naruto still couldn't trust him enough to look away.

"Accept it, Naruto. I don't really think we'd win against this fucker anyway." She responded whilst still in the ground. Pain did not seem to be nonplussed by the insult. He agreed. He came to the logical conclusion that he would not be able to win against someone like Pain as he was right now. Not even with his new technique could he do it. On the bright side, not having to fight saved him the trouble of crippling his arm.

Naruto stared at the outstretched hand for a brief moment before he accepted it.

There would be no going back now. He and Hidan were now part of the Akatsuki.

Naruto and a somewhat dirty Hidan were kneeling next to each other, both carving a deep but straight gouge across their forehead protectors and showing that they had rescinded their allegiances with their old homes. Standing back up and placing it back to where they had once been, Hidan's around her neck and Naruto back into his backpack since he didn't carry it on him.

"Excellent." Pain said and by his side, Zetsu rose out from the ground. Reaching into his cloak, the strange plant man pulled out two sets of Akatsuki robes and handed them over to Naruto, who accepted them. "You two will be working together in a two man cell just like the rest of the Akatsuki. Zetsu will inform you of the location you will be heading to. You will be meeting up with another member." Reaching into his own cloak, Pain pulled out a pair of rings and held them out in his palm. Both immortals reached out and plucked them out of the man's hands. Naruto noted that the same piercings he used for his face were embedded into his arm. Surely that had to hurt quite a bit since it went right through his arm. He wisely chose not to comment on that and shelved the information away should it come in handy in the future.

He also noticed that his fingernails were painted a deep vermilion. How odd. Hopefully nail polish wasn't mandatory.

Naruto took the one that was red in colour with the marking of 'scarlet' on it and wore it on his right ring finger while Hidan took the one that was orange with the number 'three' etched into it, wearing hers on her left middle finger.

Turning on his heel, Pain began to walk away from the partially destroyed woods and through the felled forest that had been devastated by his single attack. "I will be returning to Amegakure for now." Glancing over his shoulder his last words to them sent a chill down Naruto's spine for reasons he didn't understand.

"Welcome to the Akatsuki."

Zetsu and Hidan began to converse and Naruto tuned them out in favour of staring at Pain's slowly diminishing form in the distance. Feeling his throat go dry, Naruto swallowed audibly. Truly, he had just met a monster in the flesh. They weren't strong enough. Not even close. A single attack from the leader of the Akatsuki had knocked them onto their asses like they were a bunch of inexperienced kids. Sense had been hammered into them and it told them of their status on the food chain. Truth be told, they weren't anything special in the hierarchy that was the shinobi world. Sure they were up there but there were still tonnes of people out there who were stronger than them by leaps and bounds, and plenty more who could become stronger in time. But if they had learned anything today, it was that they were still capable of growing even more.

But he had to wonder just how anyone was supposed to stop a man like him. He was still going to try his best to spy and take in as much information as he could on the Akatsuki, but now he was much more weary. One day that information would prove useful, and with that he was brought back to reality when Hidan nudged him gently.

"-ruto... Oi, Naruto. Are ya listenin'?"

"Huh?"

"Gosh. Pay attention will you? We'll be going through Ishigakure (Village Hidden in Stones) and into Iwa soon. That's where we'll be meeting the other Akatsuki guy for whatever the fuck we're doing there."

"Yeah... Sorry." Naruto apologised, scratching his whiskered cheeks. "I was just distracted."

Zetsu grinned and Hidan groaned and grimaced, clutching her fixed arm. Honestly, she wanted nothing more than to stab that guy in the heart, well in her own heart technically speaking. But even she knew when she would be beat. As of now she was nowhere near being able to even touch him with her fingertip in the ladder that was the food chain.

"Cheer up." She punched him gently in the shoulder, "We'll just have to get stronger, won't we?" A cheeky grin was splayed out across her face and even Naruto had to smile.

"Awww~!" Zetsu cooed, "I told you- Shut up. We're leaving." Zetsu began to sink into the floor and vanished soon after, leaving the two of them alone.

"So..." Hidan held the cloaks out and stared at it. She had to admit that they had a pretty cool design, "Shall we?"

"Excuse me?"

"Duh. Change clothes?" She gestured to their worn out clothing with one hand in a graceful manner, and Naruto finally noted that their clothes truly were in a greater state of disarray than he had originally thought. In fact, he could even see slight bits of Hidan's pale flesh from the holes that had been torn through her robes.

"Right... Right... I'll just turn around." Naruto did as he said and allowed Hidan to change. Hidan turned around as well, her back facing his and quickly removed her robes. Naruto felt beads of sweat roll down the sides of his forehead and struggled with his inner demons not to look.

"Don't peek," She said with a teasing giggle, "I'd hate to poke your eyes out." Naruto noticed Hidan's dual sided attitude when it came to teasing and being teased. She liked being the one doing the teasing, being bold and confident in her actions. But when she wasn't in control such as when he was she was shy and and easily flustered.

'Don't look. Don't look. Don't- well, what's the worst that could happen if you look. A little peek never hurt anyone.' Let it be known that Naruto had been influenced at least slightly by his Godfather. Unable to fight his urges any longer, he began tilting his head over his shoulder, he caught sight of Hidan's alabaster coloured back, the black strap that looped over her shoulders as well as the hook and closure that went across her upper back. He could see signs of their training paying off since there was a clear indication of muscle forming. And he saw that she still wore the same lacy black bra she bought all that time ago, washing it every two days or so.

Personal hygiene was hard to keep up when you were criminals on the run. That and it was never Hidan's forte.

But gods, did it compliment her.

His eyes went lower while Hidan was struggling to unzip her cloak. It was hard to tell with her thick robes constantly on, but Hidan was also quite blessed when it came to her posterior. He hadn't gotten to see it when they had been in Wave, but now that he got a decent look at it, Naruto found it hard to look away. It wasn't grossly large to the point where he would worry if she had some kind of health problem, but it was fit, looked to be quite firm and had nice amount of roundness to it. Wrapped up nicely in a set of matching black undies, they appealed to his tastes greatly.

Ugh. And he didn't even want to get started on those pretty, pretty legs of hers. For someone that was considerably shorter than him, she managed to make them look very long. He wasn't ashamed to admit that he was a fan of them. He didn't exactly have a particular dream woman in mind, liking just about anything, but Natsumi and Hidan were by far his favourites. He hoped he didn't sound like some kind of creep.

Hidan finally managed to get her cloak over her head before turning around. "How do I look?" By the time she had done so, Naruto had already been looking back in front. Feinting as though he hadn't peeked at all, Naruto turned slowly and admired the newly garbed Hidan.

Her Akatsuki cloak fit her perfectly and much like her old clothes, she had a revealing amount of cleavage, zipping her zip down to the middle of her breasts. Just like before, her necklace and newly marred forehead protector hung loosely around her neck and between the valley of her breasts.

"So how do I look?" She had her hands on her hips, cocking her waist to the side slightly as she posed for Naruto before sticking a finger out and stopping him. "No, don't tell me. Your silence speaks volumes about just how stunning I am."

"You do." Naruto chuckled as he removed his worn and torn shirt, tossing it aside and revealing the fairly muscled body that lay underneath. As he attempted to wear his cloak as well, Hidan studied the image given to her and etched it into her brain. She too made the comparison -like he had done- to when she had last seen him topless, during the training session they had all they way back at the arena. Now compared to then was a fairly decent contrast. His shoulders had gotten a little larger and the accents of his muscles were now much more obvious, highlighting just how intense the workout he made for himself was. And without his mask on, it was just an added bonus.

This was eye candy at it's finest. And while she might not have liked candy all that much, this was one she could savour greatly.

"Mmmm... Delicious, delicious candy..." She drooled slightly as she continued to stare. Naruto poked his head through the collar of his cloak and blinked.

"You say something?" Now donning the colours of the criminal organisation they were -mostly Naruto. She was just tagging along like usual- looking for, Naruto did look quite intimidating, cool and handsome. Lacking his mask, Naruto's partially stitched mouth fulfilled both criteria while the shaggy head of blonde hair -that had been trimmed recently- and sparkling sapphire eyes added to the 'handsome' factor.

"Huh? Oh nothing. Just said that you look pretty damn cool." She looked off to the side and noticed something purple buried in the dirt underneath a felled trunk. "Hey! I found my clip. Awesome." She ran over to it and plucked it out of the dirt. A gentle blow sent the dirt that covered it right off. Fingers raking through her hair, she pushed the thick silver mane backwards, only for a part of it to pop right back out. Grabbing the stray bang, she pinned it to the side and clipped it in place.

"Hey, I don't suppose you know which direction Ishigakure is, right?"

"No." Naruto responded, frowning, "We'll just have to ask around-" Then he noticed Hidan was ignoring him in favour of spinning around with her index finger pointed outwards like she were acting as the hands of a clock.

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, slit the neck of a ho..." Naruto frowned. He was certain that that wasn't how the rhyme went. Regardless, she stopped and pointed in a random direction, "There! Ishigakure's there!" Wit hthat she began to prance off in that direction without even so much as a further thought. While this might have annoyed him once, her strange habits had already grown on him. Still though, while it was amusing he didn't need to anger Pain just yet by failing something as simple as meeting up with another member.

"Hidan! Wait, where are you going?!"

"Ishigakure! Where else?"

"You can't just guess the location of it!"

"No shit! Zetsu told me where it was. I was just fucking with you!" With a cackle, she made off at an even faster pace and left Naruto in the dust. With an annoyed sigh, he quickly chased after his partner, hopping over and on trunks and branches.

Okay. Maybe her antics hadn't entirely grown on him yet.

Thanks for reading. Review if you'd like!

Originally I was going to have Kisame fight the two of them in an actual battle, but I decided not to use him. Instead, I used Pain to invite them into the Akatsuki since it just felt better than what I had written for Kisame.

Omake: Mandatory Nail Polish.

In a nail salon somewhere, the duo who were dressed in their Akatsuki attire sat in separate chairs that were an arm's length away from each other. Hidan sat at the front of the shop, in front of the register, waiting while the owner of the shop tended to Naruto's toes. Sandals tossed somewhere else in the shop, her newly painted feet were propped up onto the counter of the shop and she was wearing a pair of fashionable sunglasses despite being indoors.

He would've thought more about where she had gotten them from but was distracted by the nimble aged hands that were busy filing away at his toes at an incredible rate. The nail file that was currently in the hands of the hunched old lady, who was over by his feet, was being repeatedly dragged over his nails and carving them into perfect semicircles. His fingers had already fallen victim to being cut and filed properly and all that was left were his toes. Just like Hidan, his sandals had been taken off yet unlike her, he had set them aside neatly instead of opting to toss them willy-nilly around the shop.

"This is still very strange..." Naruto stared at his toes which had been separated by some sort of soft material, preventing them from touching each other, "...I'm still not sure I like it." Hidan spared him a chuckle.

"It's called a mani-pedi, Naruto." He grimaced as the old woman ran the hard nail file over the nails of his toes to shave them properly. Hidan pushed her sunglasses up with a newly coloured finger and leaned back into her chair. Shooting a smirk at how uncomfortable he looked, she tried to reassure him. "Don't worry. You'll come out of this feeling fresh and new."

"How do you even know that I will?" Naruto grunted, "It's just my fingers and nails."

"I've been getting them for my toes." Only her toes though. She needed her sharp fingernails to cut her hand in order to summon her pikes and swords, so shaving them down was a no-no for her. Wiggling her painted toes, she lowered her sunglasses and propped her feet back up onto the table. "And they feel great."

"Is that where all of our budget has gone? That and food... for you?"

She gave him a chagrined smile at being caught, "Yes?"

Naruto shook his head in exasperation. Whatever. It wasn't as if they truly needed funds all that much. He did wish Hidan spent some restraint in spending money, which she did as easily as she breathed air.

"Remind me again why I'm doing this?"

"Apparently it's mandatory for all Akatsuki members to get their nails done and painted. I might not like that Pain guy, but I can appreciate this downtime."

"What down time?" Naruto raised a golden eyebrow at her, "We always had downtime before joining the Akatsuki." It was true. Joining the Akatsuki just meant that they were restrained and with knowledge that Zetsu could drop in on them at any given time, it was even worse.

Hidan kept quiet for a moment before his words settled into her. Hidan bared her teeth at him to hide her shame. "Ah shut up!" Before they could argue any further, the elderly woman showed him a sheet of paper with a smorgasbord of colours printed out onto it.

"Which colour would you like?" He really didn't want to pick one. As a shinobi who was wanted for multiple crimes, he wasn't comfortable with allowing strangers into his guard. Nor did he particularly like the sensation of people handling his toes and fingers in such a manner. But he trusted Hidan. With a sigh, Naruto closed his eyes and randomly jabbed at the paper to pick one, having no interest in willingly choosing for himself.

"I agree, young man. That's a lovely colour on you. Very bold." Naruto opened his eyes and saw that he had selected a bright hot pink as his choice of nail polish and Hidan glanced over before busting a gut from the sudden laughter.

"HAHAHAHA! Oh Jashin-sama! I agree wholeheartedly. You'd look so pretty." Her finger reached under her glasses and wiped an unseen tear away. "That's great! This is great. I love that we spend our time bonding like this. Have I told you just how much I love you?"

"I already know." Naruto rolled his eye with a small smirk and chose a new colour. Hidan looked away with an indignant blush on her cheeks while Naruto began stopping the old woman who was rummaging for the bright pink nail polish. Instead of the hot pink, he picked a colour that was at least decent looking on him. Properly choosing this time, a sickly purple had been chosen since he supposed it would look much more intimidating on him than pink would.

As they settled back into silence, Naruto noted just how fast the woman could paint his nails and had already begun working on his fingers. Years if not decades of painting nails had given her the ability to paint incredibly quickly and that was quite impressive to Naruto. A very useful tool for someone like he who used Fuuinjutsu on a regular basis. She clearly knew what she was doing since she painted perfectly within the nails and never coated it twice, using the perfect amount of ink to complete her task. And in such a fast time too.

"I don't suppose you know Fuuinjutsu, do you Baa-chan?"

The old lady looked up to him in confusion as she finished his last nail, "Excuse me?"

"Pfft." Hidan covered her mouth but failed to hide her snort.

"Um, never mind." Well. Perhaps while he was waiting for his nails to dry, he could learn a thing or two from such a master and inquire about how she painted so fast and well. While it was for something as insignificant as nail painting, there was a chance that practical application could be applied to it for writing seals even faster.