CHAPTER 65(Tracking Itachi)

Read auxiliary chapter World Info before starting the story.

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and changes etc)

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CHAPTER START---

Entering the Hokage's office, Jin wears his regular combat attire as he answers Tsunade's summon.

"Yo princess," he gives her a wave as she looks up from her desk.

Jiraiya sits in the window with his arms folded, clearly deep in thought.

"Jin," she greets him with a bored expression.

"Hmm, well if it isn't master Fukasaku's prodigy, ya know he never shuts up about you..." Jiraiya teases his fellow sage.

"Well, to be fair," Jin lifts his visor while activating the orange pigment around his brown eyes," only one of us finishes our training remember."

"I took a different path, we all have our own purpose in life after all," Jiraiya gives him a curt nod.

"So whaddya need?" he directs his gaze to Tsunade before putting his visor back down.

"Sasuke killed Orochimaru, without the threat of Orochimaru we have a chance to bring him back to the village before his reputation gets any worse," Tsunade points out.

"So what, want me to go beat him up and drag him here? Already told you I won't."

"No, I'm asking you to help Naruto, knowing him he'll want to go after Sasuke."

"Uh-huh, still don't see why I'm here," he frowns a bit.

"Would it kill you to care about bringing your friend back to the village?" Jiraiya asks, a bit annoyed by Jin.

"It honestly might since I've never tried it before, but I really don't have any place in my heart for traitors, and we were never friends," Jin fires back.

"That's beside the point, can you sense him, Jiraiya says your sage mode should be able to even from here, well?" Tsunade asks, narrowing her eyes at him a bit.

"Yeah but I can't tell who the hell he is, I can sense everyone but telling them apart is a pain and his chakra keeps changing every time I meet him, whatever your ole pal Orochimaru did to him is still going on," he shrugs, telling them the truth.

"We assumed as much, considering how difficult it was to sense Orochimaru because of that and his followers with that evil mark all follow the same trend, plan B it is then," Tsunade sighs, clearly annoyed at having to do this.

"Plan B?"

"We'll send Naruto's team after Itachi, when we capture him Sasuke will have to come to us for his revenge, we can deal with Itachi and bring Sasuke back in one move."

"And you need to send me because Itachi would kill anyone but Jiraiya and I, have I ever told you how much easier it would be to just put a bounty on Sasuke?"

"Every chance you get, this isn't up for debate, you're going with them. As Hokage, I'm ordering you on this mission!"

"Fine but I won't like it, anything else?"

"No that's all, I sent Sakura for Naruto a few minutes ago so they should be here soon," Tsunade informs him.

"What kind of tea do you make master Fukasaku, he always complains that mine is bad but it's the same green tea," Jiraiya speaks up, shattering the tense atmosphere.

"I crush mealworms in his cup, don't think I ever told him though," Jin gives the older man a small smile.

"Huh, that's pretty smart, what about the Rasengan, heard you perfected it with all elemental transformations, never really asked how you learned it, mind sharing with this old man?" he quirks a brow, Jin doesn't even twitch at the question.

"The ninjutsu library doesn't have it, but those books never shut up about the 4th Hokage and the stuff he could do. Including some very detailed descriptions of how his jutsu would look and operate. I reverse-engineered it from the descriptions. Didn't know I got it right until after Asuma told me after the chunin exams."

"Huh, and here I thought I knew the limits of what a genius could do, although I shouldn't be surprised considering what I know about you," Jiraiya gives him a knowing smile.

Hearing this Tsunade only looks between the two, knowing she's being left out for good reason, she trusts Jiraiya, but it still annoyed her that they'd talk about it in front of her.

"So much for trusting your Kage..." she mutters lowly.

"You're cute but not that cute princess, besides, I don't fully trust anyone, isn't that rule number 1 of being a ninja?"

"No it's not," she points out.

"Well, you need to publish a new book for the academy..."

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

"Lady Tsunade we're coming in," Sakura calls out as she and Naruto quickly enter the room, as they look in they see Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Jin looking over at them, both Sanin with a look of worry and Jin looking bored.

"We've got some information to discuss with you two..." Tsunade's eyes them carefully, both team 7 members are already a bit nervous about this meeting.

"Long time no see Naruto!" Jiraiya happily calls out to his student.

"Pervy sage!"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT BRAT!"

"Jiraiya, focus please, we have some information about... Sasuke," Tsunade's words are followed by a tense silence as both Naruto and Sakura almost visibly recede into their minds.

"Well, whaddya know about him! Where is he!" Naruto immediately asks, excited a bit at the news.

"The information was, he killed Orochimaru recently," Jiraiya abruptly announces.

"Orochimaru, are you sure?" Sakura finally snaps back to her senses.

"Positive, he's dead."

"THAT MEANS SASUKE CAN COME BACK NOW!" the blonde throws his hands up excitedly.

"Not quite, Sasuke won't come back until Itachi dies, and he's hell-bent on killing him himself," Tsunade bursts his bubble, for a moment the boy looks like a kicked puppy.

"That means---" Sakura realizes immediately.

"Yes, if we find Itachi and bring him here, Sasuke will come here," Tsunade confirms the goal.

"Oh, then let's form a team and go track him down!" Naruto cheers, immediately back in high spirits.

"That won't be so easy Naruto," Kakashi says as he enters through the door," from what we've encountered so far the Akatsuki are either too dangerous to capture or just not interested in talking, if we captured any of them we'd just interrogate them but that's a long shot to even secure them."

"But, then what do we do?"

"Our very best, simple," Kakashi cheers him up a bit.

"And even if you do hunt down one of them, if you were to find Itachi himself, then what?" Jiraiya asks, immediately stalling Naruto and Sakura's thoughts.

"Nothing, a single team can't hope to bring down an Akatsuki for capture, at least not ours," Kakashi glances over at Jin, causing everyone to look at him.

"For the record, this is gonna be annoying and Naruto and Sakura are probably gonna die if they fight any of the Akatsuki," he responds immediately.

"That's why we'll be joined by one other team, any more and they'll see us coming from miles away and scatter, our goal is capture so Sasuke has to come to us, we can't kill them because then he would just be left aimless, understand?" Kakashi receives a stern nod from Naruto and Sakura.

'So I still end up being their captain, guess you win Kurenai' Jin thinks to himself as Kakashi calls in team Kurenai.

"Yo, everyone!" Kiba greets them with a big smile.

"And I guess you're making me go too?" He looks over to Tsunade to see her giving him a harsh glare.

"Yes, you'll be acting as the main combat force for this mission," she says in a matter of fact.

"Of course I am, alright, what's the plan?" he looks at Kakashi expecting an answer.

"Everyone get ready and meet at the gates in one hour, I'll brief you all there, we can't waste time," Kakashi says before he flickers away.

"So... he didn't think of a plan yet..." Jin groans as he disappears from the office as well.

---1 Hour Later, Konohagakure Main Gate...

Gathered in raincoats, team 8 and team 7 huddles around Kakashi waiting for the plan.

"After we get to the first starting point, we fan out for 5km in different directions before coming back to the meeting point and repeating until we get a lead," Kakashi says in a bored tone.

"Won't we be out of radio range for that sensei?" Sakura quickly points out.

"We won't be relying on radios mainly," with a quick hand seal Kakashi places his hands on the ground, a cloud of smoke later and his ninja hounds are summoned around him.

"Cute," Jin mutters as he looks at some of the smaller dogs in human clothes.

"We'll be separating into teams, Kiba and Akamaru will be fine together, Sakura will take two hounds, Paku will stay with me and Naruto will have Hinata and Jin, because he's their target the Byakugan and Jin's sensory abilities, as well as a hound's nose, should keep him safe. If you find either the Akatsuki or Sasuke you're not to engage unless myself of Jin gives permission, GOT THAT?" he raises his voice slightly while glaring at Naruto.

"Sure thing sensei!"

"Alright, let's get moving,"

---2 Days Later...

Leaping through the trees, Jin can feel Sasuke fighting Deidara roughly three hours away, choosing not to mention it until it's far too late, which it likely already was, he keeps following the hound in the wrong direction.

Looking over to his right as they leap through the trees he catches Hinata's eye, with a hand signal he points at Naruto then makes a talking motion, only for her to start blushing and completely ignore his signs.

'Jeez, useless shonen girls...' he laments as he feels Sasuke's chakra rapidly declining.

"Naruto, stop!" he commands, their entire team immediately comes to a halt.

"Huh, what's wrong?"

"Hinata, look for the other teams with your Byakugan, Naruto, send clones to tell them to follow us that way," he points in the direction of Sasuke.

"Did you find an Akatsuki?"

"Yeah, and Sasuke's fighting him, we need to move now."

Immediately Naruto's clones head out to look for the other teams as Jin leads them toward Sasuke's location.

'Can't believe I still have to babysit these brats, maybe I should have just taken my Rinnegan and lived isolated, way less drama. Mmm, but I suppose Shikamaru, Ino, Karin, and Gaara are pretty cool, sigh, this is getting to be a pain in the ass, just gotta make sure things go according to plan and not blow my cover...' he plots while they spring through the trees.

As they're almost an hour away, a massive explosion goes off on the horizon.

"He disappeared, I can't sense him..." Jin's words cause Naruto to go into a slight panic.

"WHAT ABOUT THE AKATSUKI?"

"Same thing, maybe a suicide attack, won't know till we get there anyway."

"Yeah, no way Sasuke is gonna die like that, we'll find him!" Naruto still keeps smiling as they race onward.

"We need to wait for the other teams before we go any further, I don't know what we'll find but Sasuke is really far away now," Jin says as they arrive at the crater left after Deidara died.

"What could have done this, so much damage..." Hinata murmurs as she observes the destroyed forest.

"Explosives, probably the guy who kidnapped Gaara, we missed all the fun," Jin casually mentions as he sits down under a shady tree.

Looking at Hinata awkwardly staring at Naruto as he pets the ninja hound, he releases a deep sigh before relaxing against the tree to wait for the other teams.

---A Few Minutes Later...

"I've got the scent, they're a few hours west," Kiba announces as everyone looks at him with some amazement.

"Hmm, how come you couldn't sense him?" Kakashi immediately asks Jin.

"Because whatever the snake did to him has his chakra constantly changing, I can't pin it down out of all the people in my range," Jin shrugs as they prepare to move.

"I suppose that explains how he got that strong that fast then, alright, Kiba lead the way," Kakashi orders as they all begin running.

Hours later while running through the trees, Kiba updates them on what's going on.

"They've stopped, maybe they found Itachi, Jin?"

"Hmm, one moment," focusing on the direction Kiba's heading, Jin feels immense chakra, but not Sasuke's. "We've got a serious problem, Kakashi I don't think most of our team is gonna be useful in this fight," Jin receives shocked looks from everyone.

"WHAT!" Naruto immediately feels offended.

"Care to elaborate?" Kakashi calmly asks, his eyes always staying forward.

"Whatever the hell is with them is absurd, definitely stronger than the one-tailed beast, way way more chakra, and it's not alone. I'm betting it's Kisame, they call him the Tailless Tailed Beast after all, and he sure as hell lives up to it if that's him," Jin says with a bit of awe, this really was the first time anyone had this much chakra on the battlefield other than himself, he was a bit excited.

"That's the one Guy fought... if you need to fight him then Sasuke and Itachi are out of our grasp, we'd have to split up while you deal with Kisame. The best case would be you deal with Itachi, but from the intel Guy gave us I'm no good against a monster like Kisame..." Kakashi immediately began making a plan.

"You willing to risk dealing with Itachi with everyone else while I deal with Kisame?" Jin asks, no real emotion in his voice.

"Hmm, either way, we're putting everyone else here in danger. I'll leave Kisame to you, maybe we can stall Itachi or Sasuke enough for you to finish the shark man and back us up," Kakashi decides their course of action.

"Sensei...are these guys really that strong?" Sakura asks, noticing the tense atmosphere between everyone while Jin seems almost bored at the idea of fighting these monsters.

"Itachi looked at me for half a second and put me in the hospital remember, but we aren't good matchups for Kisame, with our numbers advantage Itachi's Sharingan won't be as effective so we need to take advantage of that while Jin deals with Kisame. They'll likely be locked in a battle of attrition according to Guy's intel which is why we aren't in that fight, we simply can't compete with their freakish chakra..."

"But I can," Naruto points out.

"Yes, but you haven't even finished your Rasenshuriken training yet and you aren't as skilled as they are. Besides would you really want anyone else to take down Sasuke or Itachi for you?" Kakashi teases Naruto with a simple question.

"Hm, yeah, I'LL BE THE ONE TO BRING SASUKE BACK!" Naruto announces as they make their final approach.

Minutes later as they are barely a mile away from the many chakra signatures, Jin gives them one last bit of information.

"I can feel Sasuke and Itachi fighting, two people are in front of us, one is definitely Kisame, be ready to---EVERYONE MOVE NOW!"

With no warning he feels an absurd amount of chakra all at once, a shadow falls upon teams 7 and 8 as well as their ninja hounds as a tsunami hundreds of feet high crashes down onto the forest.

END CHAPTER---