By the will of fate

A few months ago, a new meeting of two dangerous Shinobi in black raincoats took place on the balcony of the tallest building in Amegakura.

— You did a great job, Madara is pleased. He expressed a desire to show himself to the organization and become your new partner," said Payne, standing under the downpour and seemingly not noticing that he was soaked through, and the drops continue to drum on him.

Itachi, who was watching Payne from under the awning, sighed.

— I take it the refusal is not accepted? "What is it?" he asked. – The last thing I would like to do is work with him.

The red-haired man turned to Uchiha and measured him with a thoughtful look. The Rinnegan in his eyes flashed.

— I understand. I would not like to cooperate so closely with someone whose views are so different from ours. But, alas, he's in charge here, not me.

— Is he interested in me? Uchiha asked.

— It's you. After you lost Kisame, according to him, it's time for you to go back to basics," Payne said. – Whatever that means.

Itachi nodded.

"Nagato, I've worked with Madara before… That was before I joined Akatsuki," he said. – Then all the good things in my life disappeared. It's hard to imagine what could happen this time.

— I do not know what to expect from Madara. But beware of him. And keep what you know a secret," with these words, Payne left, leaving Itachi alone to watch the endless rain.

The man's fingers, clutching the handle of the kunai, moved a little, causing Asuma's team to tremble at once. The smile on the lips of the villain became wider, mocking sparkles danced in his eyes. It seems that such a psychological attack gave Akatsuki pleasure. But he wasn't going to stop there. In the next moment, his fingers tightened on the hilt of the blade, and with a sharp movement, Hidan drew the blade of the weapon across his own throat. Akatsuki dropped to one knee, leaning on the ground with his hand with a bloody kunai so as not to fall. The wound on his throat gurgled, spewing whole streams of blood, first sprinkling Hidan's chest and legs, his cloak, and the ground.

The young Yamanaka, whom Asuma was carefully holding in his hands while sitting on the ground, twitched, and the next moment Shikamaru, Choji, and their mentor shuddered with horror again. It is unknown how Ino managed to get the same wound and was now choking on her own blood. She didn't last long and soon went limp in the teacher's arms.

—The thing...— was all Shikamaru could manage. Even he was no longer able to contain his emotions and, yielding to anger, rushed into battle.

Hidan, whose wound on his throat had stopped bleeding and seemed to have even healed a little, got to his feet, looking contentedly at genin rushing towards him. He threw the bloody kunai into the air and, catching it by the tip, threw it forward.

Nara jumped forward, rolling on the ground and passing a whistling blade over his head. He immediately jumped to his feet and jumped on Hidan, swinging his fist to strike. He did not even retreat and, without stepping out of the circle, caught Shikamaru's hand with a bloody palm.

"Not strong enough, you cunt," he croaked, apparently, the vocal cords had already healed. "Come at me unarmed?" What nonsense. What do they only teach you in Konoha?

He was about to thread the inexperienced kid on the blades of the scythe, but it was not there. Shikamaru, whose other hand rushed forward to strike, hit the target. When the fist, in which all the rage of the genin from the Nara clan was collected, crashed Akatsuki into his contented muzzle, it turned out that the young Shinobi had prepared a surprise after all. A surprise that neither Choji, who was going to rush to help, nor Asuma, who had Ino's lifeless body in his hands, nor Hidan, who did not notice how Shikamaru had managed to get something out of his pouch earlier during a somersault, expected.

— Die, scum! Nara exclaimed, unclenching his fist, in which there was a crumpled explosive seal.

The explosion made Choji close his eyes, and Asuma quickly but carefully put the student's body on the ground and rushed forward. Jonin managed to catch genin, whose left arm was torn off by the explosion to the shoulder. Half of the boy's face was disfigured by a burn, and most of his clothes were charred. Nara himself, it seems, remained alive, but lost consciousness.

— Shikamaru! Akimichi shouted, rushing forward. Before joining the teacher, he saw Hidan's body falling to the ground. There was absolutely nothing left of the villain's head, the upper part of his torso was covered with burns. There was a disgusting smell of burnt meat in the air.

All that happened could not but attract the attention of team number seven, who continued the battle with the second enemy.

"It looks like your comrades had a hard time," Kakuzu remarked, turning his head to where the explosion had occurred. – But rest assured, Hidan can recover from any wounds. To tell the truth, even I haven't figured out how to kill him yet.

"Was he thinking about how to kill his partner? What kind of monsters are these Akatsuki?!" thought Mikoto.

Naruto also cast a glance to where the battle of Asuma's team with Hidan had just ended with something incomprehensible, but Kakashi sharply called out to him.

— Naruto, don't get distracted! Our enemy is in front of us. And now we can't help our friends in any way.

"Your teacher is right, Naruto. Any mistake now could cost you your life!" growled Kurama.

"I know. But I have a bad feeling about something," Uzumaki mentally responded, hoping that everything was all right with his comrades and the son of the Third.

Sasuke, meanwhile, did not take his eyes off the three black monsters with masks. He remembered which one of them spat lightning at them, and wondered what elements those on the sides had.

"And what kind of heart did Mikoto destroy, I wonder?" thought Uchiha, trying not to be distracted by thoughts about how he wants to extract information about Itachi from the second Akatsuki.

The genins and their teacher did not have time to agree on a plan of further actions, as one of the masked creatures opened its mouth and released several balloons at the enemies, from which our heroes barely managed to dodge.

— Earth Element: Mud Bog! – taking advantage of the time gained, Kakuzu folded the seals and hit the ground with his palm, forcing everyone except Mikoto, who was lucky to be the furthest, to fall shin-deep into the ground, which became liquid and at the same time viscous.

It looks like Akatsuki already had a plan of action worked out. The last masked creature spewed a wave of water at the enemies, covering them. Mikoto, who did not have time to catch on to anything and was not held by the enemy's ground equipment, was thrown back a few meters by a water wave. The wave slammed her into a tree, and the girl, hitting her head, fell into oblivion.

—Oh, no," Kakashi whispered, realizing what the enemy was up to.

Naruto and Sasuke saw the third black monster open its mouth, in which lightning was already sparkling.

"Your last chance to survive is to cover yourself with something from this lightning," said the Nine-Tailed. "Do you have any ideas?"

"Of course. Thank you, you've already given me one," the blonde replied, knowing what he would do. There was a card in his hand.

— The technique of mass shadow cloning!

At the moment when the lightning shot at our heroes, dozens of clones appeared in her path, taking the blow of technology on themselves. Some of them instantly evaporated in clouds of white smoke, and a few managed to survive and rushed forward, distracting the enemy's attention to themselves.

Grabbing their kukri, they rushed to Kakuzu, which was the most logical move, since the masked creatures focused on the clones, but did not attack them, fearing touching the main body of the host and destroying another heart. However, the enemy turned out to be such an experienced fighter that even armed shadow copies of Naruto were not afraid of him. He deftly dodged the blows, and then, waiting for the right moment, counterattacked, using his hands separating from the body.

Meanwhile, Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi have freed themselves from the swamp-like trap. The water technique that Kakuzu poured over them partially neutralized the effect of the previous jutsu, and the grip of the earth was no longer as strong as before.

— Mikoto! – Naruto saw that Uchiha was lying on her side under a tree, not coming to her senses, but before he could hurry to her, Kakashi called out to him again. And just in time, because Kakuzu had just dealt with the last clones and was preparing to strike back.

A water crest, similar to a shark's fin, rushed towards them. Slicing through the ground as if he was the sharpest blade, the fin rushed at Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi. The fin was wagging a little, but it was moving confidently towards our heroes. And all three of them had the idea that the technique was somehow aimed at them, and it would not be possible to dodge it.

"It's my turn to act!" — Uchiha realized, deciding that he should not lag behind Naruto, who saved them from the last Akatsuki attack. He stepped forward with his hand in his pouch. The next moment, Uchiha threw several kunai with an iron fishing line attached to them into the ground in the direction of the approaching jutsu.

— Element of Fire: Dragon Flame Technique!

When Uchiha exhaled fire, the flame crawled along the iron threads in all directions, creating a whole network of fire with much greater coverage and overall heat than, for example, the great fireball. When the water ridge evaporated, leaving behind a curtain of steam, the fire on the fishing line went out.

"And he was not only practicing Chidori!" — Naruto flashed through his head, who for the first time saw this technique performed by a teammate.

Meanwhile, the second team, or rather what was left of it, was trying to recover from what had happened.

"Is he alive?" Choji asked hopefully.

— Yes, there is breathing and pulse. He's strong," Asuma said softly and turned his gaze to Eno, who already had a whole pool of blood under her. The girl's frozen eyes stared at the sky. – I'm a bad teacher…

Akimichi said nothing, realizing that it was stupid to say something to cheer up Jonin in such a situation.

— So it is, — they heard someone's voice and, turning to where Hidan's body was lying, they saw a strange man in an orange mask with only one slit for an eye. He was wearing an Akatsuki cloak. – Who throws kids into battle when they have no chance of winning? However, Konoha… What to take from her? This is a very familiar story.

"Back up, Choji," Asuma commanded, deciding that this time he would take the fight alone.

The masked man gave them a mocking look.

— Don't get excited. I'm not here to finish you off. I will still bother myself with such abominations. Today, enough children's blood was spilled, and in vain, — Akatsuki sat down on one knee and touched Hidan's body with his hand, which suddenly twitched. – Well, wow! Tenacious bastard.

The next moment, the mysterious stranger disappeared into the spatial funnel along with the headless body.

— Where is the green-haired girl? Asuma was alarmed.

Akimichi looked around. Where the Seven-Tailed Jinchuriki had been since the beginning of the battle, she was no longer there.

"Did he take her too?" Choji was horrified. — What should we do now?!

- Let's go, we need to help Kakashi…

Meanwhile, the fight with Kakuzu continued.

— Well done, Sasuke, — praised Kakashi, who decided to take advantage of the fact that the enemy does not see them. He folded the seals and created two water clones. One of them, using an earthen technique, disappeared underground, and together with the second, jonin rushed forward. – Cover me.

Sasuke and Naruto exchanged glances and rushed after the teacher, not even guessing what he had prepared for the enemy this time. Emerging from the veil of steam, our heroes rushed to the enemy. Kakashi is from the center, and Sasuke and Naruto are from the sides. Akatsuki realized that the main threat is Kakashi with a clone.

— The element of the Earth: ... — Kakuzu did not have time to finish, because a card with a pointed edge stuck into his shoulder and did not allow him to complete the technique.

When three masked creatures were about to attack the Copying Ninja at once, a lot of small fireballs launched by Sasuke flew into their faces. Akatsuki, convinced to the last that the son of White Fang was attacking him, sent his hand forward, which, turning into a stone pike, flew forward, connected to the body of the owner by black threads.

The pike pierced one Kakashi and, fortunately, it turned out to be a clone. And the original, to Kakuzu's surprise, jumped over him with Chidori in his hands and rushed towards the lightning-shooting creature, which, according to Hatake's calculations, was the most dangerous. Shinobi kicked off the ground with his feet and soared into the air. And behind the black giant in the mask, a second water clone jumped out of the ground in the same way with a Chidori in his hand.

— Lightning Element: Raiden! – the famous shinobi Konoha exclaimed, and his technique connected with the clone technique with a bright lightning bolt, piercing the mask of the creature controlled by Kakuzu and causing it to break into many fragments. As soon as the mask was finished, the black substance that made up the monster was sucked into the ground.

Kakuzu turned around, not believing his eyes. Was it really possible to come up with such a plan in a few seconds?

— Chidori! – it was heard behind him, and the next moment Sasuke's hand, flashing with lightning, burst out of his chest.

With his last breath, Kakuzu, realizing what a monstrous mistake he had made, turned his back to genin, petrified, forcing Sasuke's hand to get stuck in him. In order to snatch the limb from the captivity of the stone, Uchiha needed to use Chidori again. From such a rapid loss of chakra, his eyes went a little dark.

Just such a moment was waiting for one of the creatures, which rushed to the host's body and sucked into it, bringing the stone back to life and patching up the hole in the body. Akatsuki turned around and, turning his hand into a water tentacle, grabbed Uchiha, lifting him into the air and squeezing him so that he gritted his teeth in pain.

Kakashi and the clone rushed to help, coming to the enemy from both sides. And the last monster with a white mask opened its mouth, aiming at him to finish him off with a powerful aerial technique.

"It's time to use your trump card, Naruto. You haven't forgotten about that card that will help you use my power, have you?"

Uzumaki, doubting who to go to help, turned to the black monster, who was almost ready to use the vacuum explosion technique.

— No, I haven't forgotten, Kurama. I hope I sealed your technique correctly," the blond muttered in response. He drew an ace from the deck, into which some time ago, secretly from everyone, he tried to seal something of a completely different level, which could not be compared to the techniques of the lower and middle levels.

"But I have to warn you about the following. As you know, using cards, you spend your chakra on activating techniques. Once more than you would have spent if you had used it yourself, once less. To activate this jutsu, you will need as much chakra as you have never used in your life!" Kurama informed him.

The blond man froze for a moment.

- what? And you're telling me this now? – he managed.

"What happens if I use this technique? And why didn't Kurama warn me about the consequences?" flashed through the Joker's mind. He thought that maybe Nine-Tails had been waiting for this moment all this time. And maybe their partnership will come to an end at this point, and the demon will show his true face?

"You have no choice anymore," the demon growled.

Naruto realized that nothing else but the secret compression technique would work against the masked creature, and he would not have time to resort to the latter. So, come what may. – Tailed bomb!

Throwing the card forward, the blond shuddered when he saw a huge black ball appear from the card. Before he could blink an eye, the sphere suddenly shot out, hitting exactly on target and leaving only a crater in the ground from the last freely pacing "heart" of Kakuzu.

From such a blow, the earth shook, Naruto, feeling the last of his strength flowing out of him, fell to the ground. Through the prism of the orange chakra tightening his body, he saw how Kakuzu accidentally released Sasuke. I saw Akatsuki turn to Kakashi and his clone, rushing forward with a new chain of lightning capable of cutting anything in half. However, not anything.

At the moment when Hatake was ready to attack, Kakuzu's body turned into water, and upon contact with it, both the Copying Ninja and his clone were shocked by their own discharge. The clone turned into a puddle, and Kakashi fell to the ground, either saying goodbye to life or losing consciousness.

— Well, that's it, — muttered Akatsuki, once again taking a clear form. He heard the clang of metal and looked at Sasuke, who had fallen on his fifth point to the ground a second earlier and was fumbling in his pouch. – I wouldn't worry about me if I were you, kid. Look what your friend is going to turn into now. Realize who he has been all this time.

Sasuke turned his head and looked at Naruto, standing on all fours and gradually losing the appearance of a man. Uchiha's eyes widened in surprise and fear. Now the Uchiha sharingan could appreciate the full power of the Nine-Tailed chakra sealed in Naruto. Chakras, against which he seemed insignificant.

Kakuzu and Sasuke were so engrossed in the spectacle that they did not notice the appearance of Asuma with Shikamaru in his arms and Choji.

— What's going on here? Akimichi squeezed out, not understanding anything.

Nara, whom Sensei was holding in his arms, barely opened his eye, looking at Naruto, enveloped in a blushing bubbling chakra, and passed out again, unable to overcome the pain.

— And you came to see? Akatsuki grinned. "You would have been the first to be killed by the Nine-Tails.

- Would you? Sasuke asked, realizing that Kakuzu was not telling him something.

The resulting silence was broken by the croaking of ravens that flew out of nowhere and formed into a new figure in a cloak, menacingly blinking two red lights.

- Calm down, - a familiar voice sounded, addressing Naruto. Two red lights with a pattern of a three-edged curved shuriken spun, and the next moment the blushing chakra, which continued to envelop Naruto and transform him into a beast, evaporated, and the blonde himself collapsed to the ground.

Sasuke's eyes widened when he realized who he was seeing in front of him.

- Itachi, you came to the rescue in time, - muttered Kakuzu. However, his voice sounded tough as always and there was not a drop of gratitude in it.

- Zetsu accidentally spotted two Konoha teams, so Toby decided that you would have difficulties, - Uchiha responded. He looked at Kakashi lying on the grass, then looked at Asuma and Choji. And finally, he turned his gaze to Sasuke. "I'll kill you!" Sasuke exclaimed, jumping to his feet, despite his fatigue and the practical lack of chakra. A kunai flashed in his hand. Uchiha swept past Kakuzu, who, by the way, conveniently turned to stab him in the back, and attacked Itachi.

However, the young Uchiha in his current state had no chance of success. The enemy caught his hand and looked into his eyes. Two sharingans met.

- I've grown up, but I haven't learned anything, Sasuke. I told you, don't even try to kill me until you get the same eyes," Uchiha grinned. The mangekyo in his eyes spun, plunging Sasuke into Tsukuyomi. After that, Itachi casually threw his brother aside.

Uchiha was about to say something else but noticed Mikoto stretched out on her side under a tree. He tried to remember where he had seen her before because her face seemed painfully familiar. But, alas, I could not.

Itachi took a step towards Naruto, noticing that Asuma visibly tensed at the same time.

"Don't even think about it," Akatsuki warned the son of the Third. "It belongs to us now.

Sarutobi resolutely stepped forward, and Uchiha flashed his eyes again, imposing genjutsu on Asuma and his student. Both saw Kakuzu, Itachi and Naruto captured by them turn into black sand. When the genjutsu ended, there were no more slides of black sand, however, as well as Akatsuki and the young Uzumaki, who by the will of fate fell into the clutches of those from whom he tried to protect the other.