7 A Drift 3

(Kaz)

Smoke drifted up around his bubbling cast-iron pot into the air.Kaz pulled the steaming pot of rice off the fire and let it rest.He smiled at his guests noting their interest as he pulled three small clay bowls from his pack.Despite the meal being rather plain, both of his new guests seemed exited for the hot meal.

Judging by the road dust on their black and red cloaks, they had been on the road for sometime.They probably hadn't had something warm in days.Kaz not feeling suicidal didn't bother asking for their names and they in kind didn't ask for his.

Kaz's heart thudded loudly in his chest, his eyes widen as he felt a hint of gratitude from Itachi.Kaz smiled, to hide the surprise on his face.The mind's eye of Kagura kept surprising him. If this was the basics of its power, how much could he gleam from someone after a lot of practice?

He moved cautiously, scooping them each a serving of fluffy spiced rice, noting the steadiness in his hands.For some reason he couldn't understand, these two rogue ninja were here and, for better or worse, they just wanted a hot meal.

Kaz was going to attack the Akatsuki eventually, but right now he was almost completely drained of chakra.He had to focus on his meal and pretend like he had no idea who they were.He doubted people of their reputation would let him leave if they learned he was a bounty hunter.

This was perhaps the worst time he could have ever chosen to meet up with someone in the bingo book. He was tired, hungry, and out of chakra. For the moment, all Kaz could do was feed them and send them on their way.They sat around the fire, sitting far away but still in the shade of the large oak.

"So what brings you out this way? It's unusual to see a hidden grass ninja far from home."The fish man asked, devouring his first bowl of rice vigorously.Kaz smiled, noting the feel of curiosity from the Fish mans chakra.

After studying the bingo book over the last several days, Kaz was familiar with several ninja that had bounties.A group near the top of the list, each with high bounties, was the akatsuki.

From the photos in the bingo book he knew the fish man had to be Kisame hoshigaki while the other could only be Itachi Uchiha.Each were listed as S rank with a massive bounty, and most curiously, each was on the hit list of several of the great nations.

With that in mind, Kaz decided to be as cordial as possible.After all it took immense skill to not only evade a great nation but to become wanted by several.Kaz swallowed the excitement filling him, what would he get if he killed one of these monsters?

He pushed out his senses and swallowed. Kisame chakra was alarmingly massive, giving off the feeling of a burning hunger.The other Itachi felt so cold that Kaz thought he could see his breath in the summer air.He pulled back his senses, hiding his chakra signature again.

"Well, that is because there is no more village hidden in the grass."Kaz replied, meeting each of their eyes in turn with a serious expression."Really?What happened?" Itatchi asked, leaning forward with interest crossing his face.

"Well, cloud ninja attacked us, thoroughly wrecked the place, killing almost everyone."Kaz said, leaning back on his tree stump.

"Where is your leader? It's hard to believe that Zosui of the grass would die so easily."Itachi asked, his dark eyes boring into Kaz.At that Kaz smiled widely."Zosui is definitely dead. I checked his corpse and everything."Kaz reply cheerily.

That took both of the Akatsuki off guard. Kisame grinned his shark like smile."By your tone, it sounds like it was you who killed him?" Kisame asked exitedly.Kaz nodded his head.

"Now things are getting interesting.This kid is a lot like us Itatchi."Kisame said, excitement in his voice."Bragging about such things could get you in trouble with the authorities."Itatchi reply, his face a calm mask.

Kaz raised an eyebrow at that sensible question."That is a strange question coming from a pair of rogue ninja like yourselves."Kaz reply, gesturing to their slashed headbands."You know we are rogue ninja and yet you still invited us to sit at your fire and enjoy a meal?" Kisame asked, cocking his head curiously.

Kaz shrugged his shoulders as if dining with rogue ninja was a common pastime."You asked nicely, and I don't have a habit of attacking people if there is no profit to be gained." Kaz said seriously, poking his small fire with a stick.

Kisame grinned, "I like this guy, he seems fun to have around." Said Kisame glancing to Itatchi. Itatchi rose to his feet, his black and red cloak billowing as he stood."Thank you for the meal.Come Kisame, we still have a long journey ahead of us."Itatchi said, his dark eyes meeting Kaz's emerald stare.

"What's your name kid?" Kisame asked, standing to follow Itachi.Kaz glanced up at them, his blue hair dancing in the playful summer wind."I'm Kaz Taberu if the hidden grass."Kaz reply, cocking his head at the question.

From his seat, Kaz watched the two figures retreat down the road, their pace still lackadaisical.He shook his head, pondering the strange encounter.For being two wanted ninja, those two didn't even threaten him, which was strange.

He waited until they were out of sight before rising.It was time to continue on his training.He packed up quickly and headed towards the leaf village at a full run.The dirt road passed underneath him and the tightly packed trees passed in a blur.

(Itatchi POV)

They walked in silence for several hours, the calm only broken by the chirp of birds and chatter of squirrels."What is on your mind Kisame, you seem lost in thought?" Itachi asked, deciding to broach the topic.

"I'm just thinking about that blue-haired kid. Do you think we should tell the boss about him?" Kisame, asked, cocking his head."Pain only wants S ranked Jonin in the Akatsuki."Itachi replied his tone calm, but he couldn't hide his interest."Well, maybe he is an S ranked ninja?" Kisame said.

"If you want to fight him so bad you could have just said so."Itachi said, glancing sideways at Kisame."Sure fighting him would be fun, but we need more members. It couldn't hurt to ask the boss, and besides, he wants us to keep an eye out for prospective recruits." Kisame said, his eyes sparking with excitement.

"Alright, let's get this over with. That way we can catch up when we need to hunt him down."Itachi said, walking off the dirt strewn path.The heat was fraying on his nerves and his feet hurt from walking all day.

He took a seat on the grass and activated his projection ring. His consciousness went elsewhere, the images of a dark cafe coming into stark focus. Itachi appears on the point of a stone finger next to Kisame. Only one other projection was in the chamber with them, its face shadowy only revealing the faint circles of the rennigan.

"Report!" Order pain, calmly."Still no sign of the three tails!" Kisame reply frustration in his voice.

"Then why did you call this meeting? Go check further south. Strange reports are coming in from down there."Pain asked, his tone annoyed."We just found an interesting ninja, he claims to have killed Zosui of the grass."Itachi said, his tone unconcerned.

"What's his name?" Pain asked, still annoyed."Kaz taberu of the hidden grass village."Never heard of him."Pain replied.

"Neither have we until now.But Zosui of the grass was an S ranked Jonin. If this kid really killed him, then he has potential."Itachi said, cocking his head at Kisame.Pain paused for several seconds.

"Change of plans. Hold off on searching for the three tails for now.I want you two to test this Kaz and see if he is good enough to join our group."Pain said.

The projection ended and Itachi opened his eyes.Kisame was grinning his shark toothed smile with one hand gripping samehada in excitement.

"Let's go Kisame, if we don't hurry we will never catch up with Kaz."Itachi said, leaping to a nearby branch and propelling himself forward with a kick.Judging by the chakra burns on his hands and the disheveled state of his cloths Kaz was training while he was traveling, it could take days to catch up.

...…

(Kaz)

Kaz lay on his back watching the stars, getting up the courage to push his aching body out from under his thin silken blanket.It was two days since his run in with the Akatsuki and Kaz was back to his training.

He was actually seeing actual signs of improvement, which was always good.His hands ached from chakra burns, but surprisingly, the cuts on his chest were a light shade of pink after several nights's sleep.

There it was again, that unusual healing speed.Kaz rolled up his bedroll, strapping to his pack before chewing on some dried nuts procured from one of the dead cloud ninja.

He smiled at the salty snack, wishing he had more than a few small packets.Kaz wiped his salt covered fingers on his dust covered brown pants.He limbered up, stretching his back with a satisfying series of poops that travelled up from his lower back to his shoulders.

His muscles now feeling a lot looser, Kaz started off on day six of his journey.As always he started by summoning a single shadow clone, the most he could get away with summoning and still have chakra to spare.Come to think of it, he had never actually summoned a second before.

His clone appeared with its usual scowl of greeting.

With his relatively small chakra pool, Kaz had to pace himself in his training.He couldn't just coat his entire body in lightning for more than a second.Wait, hold that thought, would that even do anything?Kaz smacked his face, glancing at his clone. Why did he keep coming up with stupid ideas?

"What is that look? You just came up with a crazy idea, didn't you?" His clone asked, amusement in its emerald green eyes."Well, what if instead of a small amount of lightning chakra around our hand we cover our entire body?" Kaz asked, ignoring the fact that he was essentially speaking to himself by talking to his clone.

His clone scratched its beardless face, cocking its head to the left in contemplation."That would drain all of our chakra in moments, and I don't even know if it would do anything?" The clone said curiously.

"Well, we won't know until we try."Kaz said, excitement filling him.His clone glared at him and furrowed its brows."If you kill us. I am going to strangle you in the afterlife."His clone said helpfully.

Ignoring his clones' threats, Kaz dismissed his clone into a puff of smoke, noting a slight resistance.For this, he needed all of his chakra. Kaz glanced around, taking in his surroundings. Now he just needed a distance marker. Along the dirt trail about thirty meters away were three trees in a clump.A butterfly flew lazily about, gliding on the warm morning breeze fluttering to a patch of daisies.

Ok, this was going to be test number one.Hopefully by covering his body with lightning he could cover maybe half that distance with his small chakra pool.He focused, coating his entire body in a thin layer of chakra.

It took substantial effort, pushing so much chakra from his body as the energy wanted to be free.It was a pain as once the chakra was out of his body and away from his skin; it wanted to dissipate into the air. Kaz worked methodically, spreading the chakra out evenly until his body shimmer with a blue sheen.

After years of practice, chakra flowed to the soles of his feet easily and up his legs, but keeping the chakra from touching his entire body was a different matter entirely.Kaz could see it shimmering in the air, flowing next to his skin, appearing like a second skin.Well, that was not good.

The chakra touched him everywhere and whenever Kaz focused on one spot like his feet, another point of chakra would drift closer and touch him.Sweat trickle down his forehead as he focuses intently on the bubble of chakra, trying to keep every little bit of chakra from touching his skin.

But his attempts felt as futile as looking both left and right at the exact same time.He panted for breath, the strain of holding too much chakra outside of himself taxing him. Now he had to make a choice, dismiss all the chakra and come up with another idea or change the nature to lightning and receive a shock one hundred times more powerful than usual.

His clone was going to kill him if he survived this.Kaz could swear he heard a shout of frustration in his mind as he decided to continue with the stupid plan.Normal people might say his idea was stupid, and perhaps it was, but Kaz was used to training that looked suicidal.

He gritted his teeth. This was going to hurt. Breathing deeply, his heart racing, Kaz changed the bubble of chakra around him into lightning nature.Oddly, there was no initial shock of pain but a calm flicker of white sparking energy across his vision.

His vision swam with sparkling white lightning crackling slowly in front of his eyes.The trees around him were no longer swaying in the breeze, but seemed to be perfectly still.His eyes widen in shock as he spotted that blue and yellow butterfly hovering motionless in the air right above a beautiful daisy.

The world around him was silent, the only sound the crackle of incandescent white lightning dancing across his skin.So far so good, this was going a lot better than expected.Something deeply troubling was an immense pressure on his body, like he was carrying an enormous weight.

His eyes went wide. Somehow he knew that if his body wasn't so used to such heavy pressure on it he would have been instantly killed by changing that much chakra to lightning.He could thank Zosui for that.

Now was the real question, could he move with his body under the pressure?Was that massive pressure a weight on his body or his body trying to tear itself apart from his lightning chakra?There was only one way to find out, and so Kaz feeling like he was carrying several trees at once leaned forwards.

He focused on his target, the patch of trees thirty meters away.Leaning forwards, Kaz took a single step, pushing away from the earth with all of his strength.The earth cracked under his feet and the dirt path blurred beneath him. Ahead of him, the trees rushed towards him in a blink of rushing wind.

No, that was wrong he was moving towards the tree.Kaz startled from his ridiculous speed struck the tree shoulder first causing a shower of splinters and bark to fly in every direction.His pace didn't seem to even slow as though traveling through a tree like it was a minor inconvenience.

His body felt alive, sparking with white lightning. He didn't even feel the tree as he passed through it. The cloak of lightning flickered and faded a mere moment later, leaving Kaz still traveling at a ridiculous speed.Kaz gaped, cursing himself just before he hit the dirt road and tumbled.

He rolled, absorbing most of the impact on his right shoulder.Tumbling head over heels, he finally came to a stop by using his face on the dirt road.Kaz just lay there for a few minutes, trying to figure out where he went wrong?

His chakra pool was near empty and his body still tingled from the torrent of lightning that coursed through him.Kaz lay there and catch his breath. Here was as good a place as any. On second thought, who was he kidding? He wasn't laying face down with a mouthful of dirt because he wanted to.

His body just refused to move at all. The only things he could move were his eyes and even then he could only see the dirt road up close and personal.

He took in deep ragged breaths, his heart beating spasmodically. It's okay, he told himself; you are just a little numb from the lightning.His inner words didn't help in the slightest. What if he was paralyzed from hitting that tree?He could have broken bones and not even know about it.

His heart beat increased from spasmodic to frantic at that thought.He focused on his fingers, pushing away the sense of terror at the thought of dying while paralyzed.When nothing happened, he had to force himself to take in deep calming breaths. Despite his fear and desperation and anxiety, his body refused to move for at least five minutes.

His finger twitched, brushing against the road, hope filled him.Excitement filled him at that. Next, he focused and moved his toes.Though still numb sensation was gradually returning, and he could feel his toe brushing against his sandles. Kaz let out a sigh of relief, his heart beat calming as he affirmed no, he wasn't paralyzed.

The pain started in his shoulder and slowly spread to his back and even his legs.It was a deep throbbing pain that was unlike anything he had ever felt. It was across his entire body and stung like sharp needles straight to his nerves. He groaned, and with some effort, pushed himself to his feet.

His body was weary, as though he had done intense physical training.That must have put a lot of stress on his body? His legs wobbles but as he moved, the feeling began returning faster.The warm summer breeze ruffled his blue hair, the strands brushing his cheeks. His shoulder throbbed, stinging in pain from the fall.

Felling somewhat embarrassed but also proud of himself Kaz decided to stop training for the day.Despite the monumental failure, he had still succeeded in a fashion.If he hit someone while going that fast they would explode like that tree.Kaz kicked a splinter of wood that was somehow over two hundred yards for where the tree was standing.

He picked up the finger sized piece of wood examining it. Then, deciding it was not all that impressive, he tossed the stick away. Kaz continued down the road, grimacing as he remembered he still had over a week before he reached the leaf village.

He idly pushed out his senses, wondering if anyone was near.He walked at a casual pace for hours, his chakra slowly returning. During that time, he practiced with his senses, testing to see what his limits were.He figured if his body was sore from the morning, there was no better time to practice mind's eye of kagura.

It was near evening when he felt it.With his focus outwards, Kaz could easily sense the two figures rapidly approaching despite the fact they were trying to hide themselves.Kaz lept from the road into the trees and crouched low, masking his chakra signature.He breathed softly, hiding behind a thick clump of leaves and watching the road.How did Karin mask herself perfectly?He needed to figure that out for the future.

Two familiar figures in red and black cloaks rushed up the road towards him.His eyes went wide as they slid to a stop right beneath his tree."Where is he now?" Itachi asked, glancing around."He is hiding nearby, samehada can still sense him."Kisame said glancing around the forest.

Well, now, this wasn't good. What could they possibly want."Come out Kaz, we know you are here."Itachi said, his head panning side to side."The sword on Kisame's back wriggled and gesture right towards Kaz's hiding spot in the tree.

Kaz didn't know why the akatsuki were back until Kisame drew his long, two-handed sword and smiled up at his hiding spot.Well, they definitely were not here for another meal.As to why they were here, maybe Kaz gave them food poisoning or something?

"He is up in that tree" Kisame said, gesturing right at Kaz.Itachi weaved several signs holding his hand to his mouth and taking in a deep breath."Fireball Jutsu! "Itachi said. A wall of redhot flames grew in size, rushing straight towards Kaz's tree.