An old friend

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In a small boarder town between Land of Grass and Land of Stone two missing ninjas sat at a table in a small inn. They had been sent a message from their home base to learn about the strange woman soldier from another land that has set up base in one of the nins old village. Which wasn't a new thing as many of the other Hidden Villages, and countries have been sending out spies to gather as much information on the strange woman as they could, but they on the other hand been sent to try to steal one of the woman's guns.

"The latest is that the woman Niamh Bradley has given out a challenge that whoever manages to defeat her in the upcoming exams will gain her services," a man said to the two missing nins as the other people in the inn continue on with what they were doing at the time.

"The woman is just going to work for whoever can beat her?" Itach ask the Akatsuki agent.

"Yes it's true," the man said wondering what's going through the missing nins head. He had heard about this missing nin for what he did before he left his village.

Itachi Uchiha had graduated at the top of his Academy class at age seven, had mastered the Sharingan by age eight, became a Chunin at ten, and became an ANBU squad captain at the age of thirteen. Itachi was considered the best ninja among his clan. His father, who took an active interest in his son's career, said Itachi was the "pipe" that connected the clan to his village. As a result of his father's involvement in Itachi's life, Itachi's little brother, Sasuke Uchiha was neglected. Itachi watched over Sasuke to a degree, convincing his father to spend time with Sasuke, such as attending Sasuke's entrance ceremony into Konoha's ninja academy, which required a guardian to be present. This changed after a confrontation between Itachi and his father.

After the apparent suicide of Shisui Uchiha, who was believed to be Itachi's best friend, by drowning, Itachi was approached by three of his fellow clan members and questioned about the incident. Though they didn't state it outright, they considered him a suspect since both the circumstances surrounding the suicide and the suicide note seemed off. Angered, Itachi confronted the three and forced them to admit the truth. One of them mentioned that Itachi began behaving strangely about half a year after he joined ANBU. After a threat by one of the three, Itachi assaulted and effortlessly defeated all of them. In response to this, it was revealed that Shisui was told to keep an eye on Itachi due to his strange behavior. After being confronted by his father about his behavior, Itachi responded that "he'd lost all hope for this pathetic clan", but apologized regardless when asked to stop by Sasuke.

Not long after this incident, Itachi slaughtered his entire clan except for Sasuke, who had been at the academy during the slaughter. Sasuke returned home shortly after everyone was killed and found his brother standing over the bodies of their parents. When questioned on his motives by Sasuke, he claimed it was "to test his ability". He revealed he purposely played the part of the loving older brother as a way to test Sasuke's potential. Itachi also confirmed the truth of the suspicions that he had murdered Shisui in order to gain the Mangekyo Sharingan, for which killing one's best friend is a requirement. He then departs, telling Sasuke that he wasn't "worth killing" and that if he wants to kill him he must spend his life hating him and acquire the Mangekyo Sharingan.

Itachi mainly uses ninjutsu and genjutsu during battle, both of which are augmented by his Mangekyo Sharingan. In the former, Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan allows him to use Amaterasu, a jutsu which creates black flames that are hotter than the sun and can penetrate any barrier. He also uses basic ninjutsu at such a speed that even another Sharingan user has trouble following the movements. With his Sharingan, Itachi is virtually immune to his opponent's genjutsu, simply reversing it back upon them using the copy abilities of the Sharingan. With the Mangekyo Sharingan, Itachi can also use Tsukuyomi, a genjutsu which traps his opponent in an illusionary world. Itachi can then torture his opponent for days on end, all of which takes place in the blink of an eye in the real world. Though the main strategy to avoid the Sharingan is to avoid eye contact and focus on Itachi's feet or body, even this is not a certain method of evading his techniques. By merely pointing at an opponent, Itachi can catch them in a powerful genjutsu.

"But to fight her one on one is going to be a costly fight," the man said. "I heard how she took on the guards Gatou's base by herself. He had over a hundred men there and she took them all with enough time to empty the vaults of the money in them and load a ship to sail back to Waves."

"And she was strong enough to make my old friend run away," the shark like man said.

Kisame has a distinctive shark-like appearance, complete with pale blue skin, small white eyes, gill-like facial structures, and sharp triangular teeth. Even his name, Kisame means "Demon Shark". Despite his rather brutish appearance and his apparent love for battle, Kisame speaks in a calm and polite manner compared to most of the other members of Akatsuki. Kisame was also one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and is known as the Scourge of the Hidden Mist. Like the other members, he is somewhat overconfident in battle. He also clearly enjoys fighting and possibly mutilating his opponents.

Kisame's main weapon is Samehada "Shark skin", a large unique sword of comparable size to Zabuza Momochi's zanbatō. Unlike a regular sword, Samehada is covered in large scales that shave instead of cut, much like a shark's skin (hence the name). It also has the ability to absorb any chakra around it, allowing Kisame to literally cut through his opponent's chakra. The amount that it can absorb is unclear, but it can even consume the demon chakra with no ill effects. Samehada is also a sentient weapon and only allows Kisame to wield it. The amount of chakra Kisame possesses is apparently very large, even by Akatsuki's standards. Kisame has displayed astonishing speed and incredible physical strength. He uses water-based jutsu in combination with his powerful physical attacks. He has also demonstrated the ability to create water from nothing, allowing him to turn any potential battleground into a lake for his other water-based attacks.

"Are you scared?" Itachi asked.

"No," Kisame said. "But she did kill Razor one of the top five. Even for someone like you fighting someone like Razor without getting a single wound would be a hard task to do. You don't get to be on top of the top five list of assassins without knowing how to deal with people like us. If both of us would attack him we would win but not without being heavily wounded or missing a limb or two. And that's if we took him by surprise."

"True," Itachi responded. Even for their group they kept away from dealing with the assassin guilds and its members as they couldn't be losing members with their plans with the tail beast going on.

"What do you think we should do?" Kizame ask. "Wait for the exams and challenge her to a fight?"

"That might be the best thing to do," Itachi agreed. "With her blood limit that allows her to move at a speed that makes her too fast to follow and her prowless in both short and long range fighting makes her a deadly foe to face. If we attack her now without knowing her full powers and fighting skills we will fail."

"It's good that you two know your limits," a voice above them said.

Looking up the three Akatsuki members saw a man leaning over the rail guard of the second floor. Right above them was a big, burly man, dress in a green color leather vest and green pants. He wore a gasmask covering his face, and carried a number of blades on him. All three of them knew who he was the moment they saw him.

"Butcher you're still alive?" Kizame said eyes widening seeing the most feared assassins of the Hidden Village wars.

"He's the one that killed all of those high ranking ninjas during the war," the agent said.

"I heard about you," Itachi said keeping calm knowing not to show any weakness to someone like him. "You're the one who kept attacking the 4th Hokage when he was still alive."

"Yes I am," Butcher said. "He was the only one I found to be a challenge out of all the Hidden Village's top ranking nins. He was the only one that could make it out alive when I went all out. In fact if he hadn't been weaken by fighting me a few days before he might have survived his fight with the Nine Tail Fox." (1)

"I heard you step down after that hanging your blades after he died or that you finally met your end," Kizame said. "Are you after that woman too?"

"The woman from lands across the sea? Yes I am," Butcher answers as he pulls out a meat cleaver in one hand and a metal sharpener rod, with a sharp point at the end in the other. "But it's been years since I have fought against people of the Yellow Flash's level. So let's see if I still got it with you three."

Butcher throws the metal rod down impaling the rod in the neck of the Akatsuki agent as it misses its target Itachi who ducks his head out of the way. Itachi pulls out a kuni in time to block the meat cleaver as Butcher leaps down from the second floor swinging downwards at him. He shoves Butcher off of him with the assassin landing on the table. Kizame let out a roar as he swings his sword overhead in an attempt to cut Butcher in two but only ended up in cutting the table in half instead, as Butcher jumps off of it pulling his weapon free from the fallen agent's neck. Itachi throws several kunis at Butcher but each of them were all deflected with a wave from Butcher's weapons. Kizame attack again swinging his sword and locks his massive blade with Butcher's twin weapons. Butcher ended the weapons lock with a swift kick to the gut sending the ex-Mist nin flying across the inn causing the people inside the building to start running and screaming to escape the fight.

Itachi decided to end the fight as he actives his blood limit locking his eyes with Butcher's. But to his shock his jutsu was having no effect on him. "How?" he asked as this had never happened before.

"Sorry but mind jutsus don't work on me," Butcher smiles underneath his mask as he slams his cleaver into a wooden stool and swings it around throwing the stool free flying at Itachi.

Itachi acted on reflex and smashes the stool away with one hand as he blocks the incoming strike from Butcher's iron rod. The force of the blow sent him onto his back, daze he manages to roll out of the way as a cleaver buries itself into the place where his head was at just a second ago.

Itachi quickly forms four shadow clones and sent them at Butcher. His eyes narrows as he watches all of his clones ruthlessly and quickly dealt with by Butcher. He blocks an attack from one clone as he stabs his iron rod into the eye of another, grabbing the attacking clone he uses him as a shield from the kunis thrown from the other two. Showing his strength he plunges his two weapons into the dying clone's body as he runs at the other two clones and rips the body in two, taking the two other clones by surprise as he buries both of his weapons into their foreheads. His clones weren't as strong as he is but no one had even defeated them this quickly before.

"He's strong," Kizame said standing up from the pile of broken tables and chairs.

"And skilled," Itachi adds. "I have never seen anyone like him before."

"That's why I was known as the Ninja Butcher during the war," Butcher smiled as he leaps at the two.

!

Outside the Inn –

"Looks like he's getting all the kinks out of his system," a blond hair woman said as she and her companion watched the inn from atop of a building.

"It's been a long time since he's been on a hunt," a big dark skin man said.

"He's taking on two of the Akatsuki members and is easily forcing them on the defense," Vixen smiled as she watches as people ran from the fight. She has an extremely destructive and unpredictable personality that went well in her line of work. Common sense means nothing to her nihilistic nature.

"But he's getting to much attention," Z, a very stoic and quit man said.

"He doesn't have to worry about that," Vixen smiled. "You don't become the best without knowing how to fight your way out of things you know."

Z said nothing as he took a drink from his jug as the fight continued down below. An explosion ripped the inn in half as the two Akatsuki members were thrown out of the building from the force of the blast. Stepping out from the flames was Butcher as if he couldn't be hurt by the fire.

"He still has it," Vixen smiled. "They're both dead now."

"Something is coming," Z spoke as he pointed towards up the road as something was moving fast kicking up dirt as it went.

Vixen narrowed her eyes as she tries to make it out then widen as she sees it. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Yes it is," Z said as they continue to watch the events unfold below them.

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On the street's below –

Itachi panted as he held his chest where Butcher had struck him with his cleaver. Kizame was standing using his sword as support blood dripping down his legs from his wounds. Neither of them had ever faced someone of the level of Butcher before and now they see why he was the most feared assassin of the war.

The fight had taken them into the kitchen with Itachi trying to stop Butcher from burying the pointed end of his iron rod into his neck as they leaned over the stove. Kizame saved him as he made Butcher break his hold on his partner to block his sword thrust making him block the attack. Seeing an opening Itachi kicked Butcher into the gas main breaking it under his weight. Itachi grabbed Kizame as he made a charge at the fallen form of Butcher, pulling him with him out of the kitchen. He grabbed an oil lamp on one of the tables throwing it at Butcher as he was standing back up. A mighty clap of brilliance and sound, a displacement of air that slapped at their eardrums, the force of the explosion sent both of them flying out of one of the inns window.

"That should do it," Itachi said as he stares at the burning inn.

"No its not," Kizame said never having face him during the war but heard enough about him from his fellow swordsmen to know it wouldn't be this easy to kill the Ninja Butcher.

"So true," Butcher said as he walks out of the front door of the burning inn, none worse for wear. "You really didn't think it would be that easy did you?"

"Why are you attacking us?" Itachi ask.

"You two are a good way of me getting back into shape and there's the matter with the prices on your heads from your villages also," Butcher explains. He suddenly turns his head as he heard a strange engine like noises fast approaching.

Riding on top of a one wheeled machine dress in clothes that none of them had ever seen before was a man with a helmet covering his head from view. He's dress in a uniform of some kind with grotesque rippling patterns of grays, greens and browns. But it was what he's armed with was what caught their eye, guns like the ones the woman in the Leaf village is armed with judging from the descriptions of the weapons they had gotten.

"Looks like you two are lucky," Butcher said as he walks past the two wounded nins. "I got bigger prey to deal with."

"What should we do?" Kizame ask Itachi seeing Butcher has no longer any interest in them now.

"We hide and watch," Itachi said not liking to run and hide but both of them are too wounded to face a new foe today. Both of them made hand signs and used a speed jutsu to disappear as they move at blinding speed.

"What's going on here?" Hunter asked Butcher as he steps off of his bike.

"What did you say?" Butcher asked back not knowing what the man just said. (2)

"I said what's going on here," Hunter said this time in Japanese as he had learned many different languages as he had little to do since he became a super soldier.

"Nothing much," Butcher said. "Just that you walked in at a bad time." He threw his iron rod at Hunter like a spear, but to his surprise he caught it by the blade.

"You want to fight?" Hunter asked his eyes narrowing at the man in front of him dropping the weapon he caught.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Butcher asked as he pulls out another cleaver and runs at Hunter.

Hunter pulls out his twin Raging Bulls and fired both of them at the cleaver wielding man. Butcher saw the flashes of light and quickly brought both of his cleavers up in time to block the two bullets flying at his face, the force of the blow sent him flipping backwards. He reeled back and threw both of his blades at Hunter. Hunter waited for the blades to come close and deflected both of them with his guns as he spreads out his arms and quickly brought them back together and fired at the man who threw them.

Butcher eyes widened as he had never seen someone block his attack like that before. They usually just get out of the way giving him time to prepare for another attack. With bullets flying at him Butcher pulled out another cleaver and used it to block the incoming bullets as he leaped into the burning inn to escape the firepower from the man. Hunter followed to the front of the inn firing till he ran out of bullet and was impress that the man had manage to block all of his shots with a simple meat cleaver. He holstered his twin revolvers and pulled out his G1 Grenade Pistol and fired it at the shadowy form of the man in the smoke filled building who had attacked him. The entire ground floor of the inn exploded as the grenade went off, the inn weakened from the first explosion crumbled with the second.

Hunter stood in front of the destroyed inn to see if the man had somehow survived the blast. Then the sounds of the town's guards came down the road. Not wanting to hang around to be caught Hunter jumped onto his bike and took off with the town guards racing onto the scene.

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Up on the roof top –

"The boss is going to want to hear about this," Vixen said to Z.

"Looks like someone else survived the shipwreck," Z said.

"What do we tell him about Butcher?" Vixen asked knowing that the boss wouldn't be happy with losing the hardest to find assassin in the countries before the job he was hired for was finish with.

"Tell him about what?" a voice behind them asked. Turning they saw Butcher looking like something the cat had dragged in, bleeding badly.

"How did you escape?" Z asked.

"By the skin of my teeth," Butcher said. "And tell your boss of yours that I want a gun also. Or he's going to have to look elsewhere for help." He leaped off the roof top and disappeared in an alleyway.

"This has gotten much harder for us," Z said.

"You can say that again," Vixen said wondering how the boss is going to take the news of another soldier from lands across the sea running around.

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In Niamh's fort –

Niamh sat in front of her two students Naruto and Hinata at a table as she explains how to load a flintlock. For the past two weeks whenever she wasn't on a mission she was busy teaching her students her fighting style and for her two younger ones about her guns. "The shooter pours the desired quantity of relatively coarse-grained propellant powder into the muzzle from main flask. Then starts patched ball (patch of thin cloth makes for tight fit, accurate shot), and rams it down until it is seated atop the powder firmly but without crushing the grains. The charge loaded, the shooter returns the ramrod, opens the flash pan and half-cocks the gun. About every fifth shot the shooter has to free the touch-hole of carbon to avoid a flash-in-the-pan."

"Then primes with fine powder from the priming flask, not too much nor too little. Lastly snap the pan cover shut, tilts the gun to the left for a second and taps it lightly to ensure that a few grains of priming have entered the touchhole, and, when ready to shoot, cocks to full-cock. When the shooter pulls the trigger, the cock snaps, the edge of the flint excites sparks out of the collision with the steel battery, the impact instantly knocks the pan cover open, the sparks are hurled into the priming and ignite it, and the priming in turn ignites the charge. If the flint is sharp, the priming dry, the touchhole clear and the gun good, trigger pull and shot will seem as one."

"That's how you load this rifle?" Naruto ask pointing to the rifle in Niamh's hands.

"Yes it's something I been working on," Niamh said as she reaches into a drawer of her desk pulling out a box. She hands it to Hinata, "This is your weapon."

Hinata opens it and saw a small gun like Naruto's but has three barrels on it instead of one like Naruto's. "This is for me?"

"Yes it's a tri-barrel gun. You only get three shots with this gun and it doesn't have the range or the firepower of Naruto's but a well place shot will still take any attacker down. It's lighter then Naruto's so you'll be able to aim better then he can with his," Niamh said.

"Niamh will we get to use a bottle-rocket launcher like the one you gave to Maki?" Naruto ask as he and the other kids had watch as Maki test firer the launcher.

"Maybe," Niamh said as she doesn't want to make too many weapons for her to keep track of, with the village council wanting to get their hands on her weapons. "But the two of you still have much to learn."

"Hey Niamh," Meow shouted out as she enter the room. "Emmy has another job lined up for us."

"What job is it this time?" Niamh ask. Ever since the Rogue Valley mission Emmy has been in contact with her to give her missions.

"We're going to need to get back a family sword," Meow said as she hands Niamh a folder.

"One of those missions again," Niamh said as she opens the folder and begins reading about the stolen item and the profiles of the people that have it.

'Jesses Lynch, he was hanged once when he was caught red handed at the scene of the Donell family massacre. The next morning people had assumes someone had swiped his body until a pale man wearing Jesse's clothes and a noose held up a merchant wagon. He was last seen in the ghost town of Tarnation in the Land of Fire working with Mr. Black.'

'Except for Jesse Lynch, who seems to have survived his hanging, most people who have gotten near Mr. Black ended up dead. True, he's the undertaker in Tarnation, and everyone dies eventually. But the residents of that cursed town met their fate unnaturally soon. After the town was abandon he took over and has become a nesting ground for bandits who take the stolen loot back to their new boss. He's always seen with a coffin strapped onto his back and made his home in the middle of the town's graveyard.'

'Loaf Whitney, as a child, this boy was called 'Little Oaf' after his father, Big Oaf Whitney. With time he became know as just 'Loaf', which is just as well considering that he's anything but little now. He's been working with Mr. Black as long as anyone could remember and stayed on after most of the other people left. He's the one who use to dig all the graves with that big shovel of his.'

"A gang of grave robbers and bandits that have taken over a ghost town," Niamh said closing the folder. "Tell Ran to stop drinking the bottle and Maki to get ready we're heading out."

"Right," Meow said exiting.

"Ms. Niamh what about us?" Hinata ask. Her father had told her to learn as much as she can from Niamh since her cousins team encountered the gang using guns. She's the only one in the village who's being taught how to operate and maintain a gun, besides Naruto that is.

"Naruto you take over," Niamh said.

"What me?" Naruto ask.

"You gotten all of the basics down of my fighting style down so you teach Hinata the basics while I'm gone," Niamh said as she went into her room to change her clothes. She quickly pops her head back out. "And I don't want you two to just be making out while me and the other girls are away."

"WHAT!" both Naruto and Hinata shouted together. They look at each other and blush, quickly looking away from each other.

"In a few more years that will change," Niamh smirks shutting her door on the two young kids.

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Author's Notes –

1 – In my story the Butcher had fought the 4th Hokage making him too weak to defeat the demon fox without summoning the death god to seal the fox inside Naruto.

2 – No one in Naruto's world knows how to read or talk in English.

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