217: Akatsuki

Chapter 217: Akatsuki

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[‘So I was right…’] Kurama thought, peeking from within Naruto and watching the scene outside. 

The Konoha ninja team was observing the false dead body of the Uchiha descendant. However, Kurama's focus was specifically on Neji. 

[‘Not only did he regain all his wasted Chakra, but his total Chakra also increased again. By around 13% this time. Both happened the exact second the Uchiha perished.']

Just what the hell is he?

Not only that, as she watched him now, he was busy with something else in his head – while the others were discussing his opinion about the use of a technique called the Shapeshifting Jutsu – and as he stayed dazed, his chakra just kept increasing. How's that even possible?

She could barely sense him after trying hard, but that only lasted as long as he was in her sight. With such a special perk, no wonder the others beside him didn't notice the sudden spike in chakra. Probably only the female Hyuga brat noticed this since she had observed the battle to its end with her Byakugan. But if she did, she didn't care to point it out.

['Very interesting…’] Kurama purred.

In this single day, he had (around) a whopping 54% increase in Chakra. Not only that, but she also figured out about that alpha beast scent around him. It came right from him.

This Hyuga brat wasn't a human. Not entirely anyway. A true beast resided within him, or maybe he himself was that beast… and she really wanted to see what else was alpha about the boy other than his scent.

[‘Tsk, I suddenly want to break free. Being inside this Uzumaki brat wouldn't do.’] Kirama thought, and with that in mind, she started to contemplate how exactly she should make an ‘escape’. This brat didn't keep his promise, and she didn't particularly like him anyway, so she didn't mind if tearing from within him would kill him. 

Anything for freedom.

–★–

About the ‹Shapeshifting Jutsu› Neji gave the same explanation to Kakashi’s team. They didn't doubt his words and rather went into investigating the body. 

While they did so, Neji was busy putting his 250 stat points into each desired stat, his MP soon reaching 51,300 points. Suddenly, a voice brought him out of his daze. 

“You are really different than before, Neji.” Naruto said, a competitive grin on his face. “Not only are you strong but you also know about Jutsus that even Kakashi-sensei doesn't know.”

Kakashi of the thousand Jutsus. Of course, even he didn't know about a jutsu that can only be used by the Rinnegan.

“Oh well, I would have said it's all fate, but we have had that talk before.” Neji said with a chuckle, and Naruto laughed too. Hey, he liked Naruto. Not the best guy around, but he was friendly and was much better than someone like Izuku.

“By the way, I have a question for you, Neji.” It was Kakashi who butted in. “The Tenseigan. Itachi spoke of it. What is that?”

After being healed by Kurai, Kakashi seemed mostly fine now, all his physical wounds gone, except he was still somewhat exhausted from chakra overuse.

Tenten and Sakura glanced at each other, possibly remembering Hinata’s warning from the onsen that Neji had peeked into, and even Chiyo and Temari seemed quite interested. Especially Temari, who possibly suspected his previous transformation to be a part of the eye, and Hanabi and Temten possibly did the same too.

“It's a clan secret.” Neji pulled down his blindfold, revealing his cosmic blue eyes. “The eye of Reincarnation, the Tenseigan. An… Evolution of Byakugan, in short. Similar to the Sharingan’s Mangekyou state, in a way, except for its drawbacks." It was more like Sharingan to Rinnegan, but he probably shouldn't use that example. "My flight and telekinesis, even though I try to cover it with the excuse that they're secret jutsus, are actually just perks of this eye of mine. Moreover, it's not in its full power yet.”

Kakashi seemed slightly surprised that he knew about the Sharingan’s Mangekyou and even its drawbacks, but he didn't seem to question his other statements. He, along with the other people present.

As for why Neji was revealing his ‘secrets’, that's because he wanted people to know about his exceptional powers. His recent plan was to seduce some girls and make his cult upon which he will leave Konoha and travel the world to hasten the happening of the 4th Great Ninja War. When that time comes, the more knowledge people will have of his special abilities, the easier things will become.

“Though as I said, it's a clan secret. So please keep it to yourself, for now. I plan to reveal it publically after returning to the village.” Neji said, watching everyone nod quickly, with the girls truly mesmerised by his eyes. 

However, his last statement seemed to have caught Hanabi's interest. But she didn't inquire about it in front of all these people.

Neji put his blindfold back. “Now, if you will follow me. One of my eyes’ powers is to sense negative energy, and around 12 kilometres northeast from here, I sense something particularly evil. I will bet my money that it's where Gaara is right now.”

Kakashi stood up from the ground. “I believe you're right. Before I cancelled Pakku’s summon, he was leading us in that direction too. Let's get going.”

Then, led by Neji, everyone moved in sync and soon found themselves in the front of a sealed cave.

—--

On the side of a small mountain river, a massive cave entrance was sealed with a huge boulder with a paper seal on top of it. The two Konoha teams had gathered there.

“Is this the place?” Sakura asked, looking around. “It's somewhat plain except for the sealed cave.”

“It is the place.” Neji confirmed, looking into the cave with his Lord’s Eye. "And of course it is plain. You expect them to put a seal that says 'Akatsuki Secret Base'?"

"...Hey, I was just asking. No need to mock me for it." Sakura pouted, crossing her arms.

However, Neji didn't even look at her. His focus was entirely on the inside of the cave. The ‘meeting’ was still taking place among the Akatsuki Members, and Gaara was alive, just unconscious, as the Shukaku wasn't entirely sucked out of him yet. 

“J-just what on earth is that…” Hanabi, who had made the mistake of looking inside as well, watched the Akatsuki members standing on nine fingers of the grotesque Gedo Statue. 

Neji put a hand on her head. “Don't look, it's dangerous.”

Hearing him, she quickly deactivated her Byakugan. Luckily, Itachi hadn't thrown her into a Genjutsu the moment she looked. Inside, as Neji kept looking, Itachi and “Pain” looked back at him, though they obviously couldn't see through the walls.

“Gaara is alive.” Neji confirmed, watching Temari grow restless. “But he's on the verge of not being so. We need to hurry and break inside.”

“It's a Five-Seal Barrier.” Kakashi explained, observing the paper that was stuck into the rock. “There are four more of this paper seal in this area. To remove this one, we need to remove the other four at the same time. Without doing so, it's impossible to remove or harm the barrier.”

“I can see the four other seals. They're mostly 500 metres away from us, but all in four different directions.” Neji did, stepping forward and touching the rock. “But let's not go that far. Leave this to me.”

Then everyone watched carefully, expecting some truly flashy jutsu that would detonate the rock into blitz, despite the presence of the barrier. However, nothing flashy of that sort happened. Just… The huge rock blocking the entrance, along with the paper seal on top of it, disappeared when it came into contact with Neji’s hands. Gone into his inventory.

“Ah…”

Neji would swear he's been hearing that same gasp over and over again for the past few days.

“Another ability of my eye. Now let's move.” he ordered as the trained Ninjas quickly regained their senses, immediately running inside.

“Kgh! Those bastards did something weird!” he heard a bratty voice from inside. “They're here already!”

“Tsk.” he heard a cold click of the tongue just as he and his team reached inside, finding Pain who started to do some weird hand signs. “The mission is a half success, we got more than half of Shukaku’s chakra, that's enough. More is preferred, but it is better to abort the mission. We can't do anything to them in this form, so I shall leave them in Sasori and Deidara’s hands.”

Pain finished his hand signs as the Gedo Statue stopped sucking chakra out of Gaara’s body, and immediately dissipated into a puff of smoke along with 7 of the ‘holograms’ of the Akatsuki Members, all glaring at Neji before they vanished.

Now, only two of them remained inside the cave.

[Deidara - Explosion Human- Peak Tier 9]

[Sasori - Puppet Human- Mid Tier 9]

“Haah….” Deidara sighed, glaring at Neji and his team. "We are gonna get our paychecks cut short."

"Wait," Neji pointed a finger at him. "You guys are getting paid?"

"What the fuck does that mean? Of course, we get paid. You think we are some weird-ass organization who would keep its members starving?" Deidara asked back.

The Ninjas glanced amongst each other at the word 'weird-ass organisation'.

"Anyway, you bastards. You're gonna pay for all this!" Deidara took out some white balls from his side bag. "I will show you the power of explosions."

His teammate, Sasori, narrowed his eyes and turned to Deidara.

"Deidara," Sasori warned, watching the blonde click his tongue.

This time they didn't get to argue about what was art and what was not. As Deidara simply threw a small ball on Gaara's feet as the ball expanded, taking the form of an albatross bird which put Gaara on the bag of its beak. Deidara jumped over it and flew out of the cave instantly, avoiding Kakashi's try to stop them.

A few seconds passed in silence as everyone stared at the bird's back.

"...Huh?! Why are we sitting out here?!" Naruto asked in shock. "Kakashi-sensei, come with me! I will save Gaara! Neji, you take care of that puppet dude!"

"Wait, take me with you!" Temari yelled, running after Naruto and Kakashi as Tenten followed too, after nodding at Neji.

Now, Neji (and Kurai), Hanabi, Sakura, and Chiyo were left inside the cave.

Neji turned to the puppet master. This guy would be easily taken out with his new heightened level. The problem was Deidara and Gaara himself.

The only reason Neji let Deidara go was that he didn't want to fight a suicide bomber inside a cramped cave, and also because of the remnants of Shukaku inside Gaara. 

From Gaara's chakra flow, Neji could tell that the Shukaku was about to take over his body. Neji for one didn't want that beast to come out inside this cave and therefore kill everyone by crashing it on their head. Though he hoped Naruto would be able to hold the One-Tailed-Beast back before Sasori was taken care of.

"Everyone, stay back." Suddenly, Lady Chiyo said as took a step forward. "Please let this old granny take care of her grandchild."

Huh. 

Oh right. She's Sasori's grandmother. He nearly forgot.

And ugh, annoying family drama. He wanted to finish this quickly.

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