[The Renegade] - Chapter 11: Deadlock (Patreon)

Chapter 11 - Deadlock

Konan-dono,

We have received your letter. Konoha is interested in exchanging coal for our shinobi’s safety. However, your terms are beyond what the village can afford at the moment, in the aftermath of Akatsuki’s invasion.

I believe it is in both of our best interests to meet and talk face-to-face rather than through a letter. I propose Takumi Village in the Land of Rivers as our meeting point. As it is a diplomatic meeting, I will come together with only two aides.

As a fellow leader of a Hidden Village, I believe you know what is best for the prosperity of your people. Although weakened after Akatsuki's Invasion, Konoha is still a force that one would rather have as an ally than an enemy.

Please let me know your answer as soon as possible. Should you decide to accept to meet us, before any further discussion, I demand you bring proof of my shinobi’s well-being.

Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage.

Putting the letter down, Naruto asked Konan:

"What are you going to do? Are you going to meet them?"

"As vital as it is for them to retrieve their prized shinobi and their kekkei genkai from our hands, we need their coal just as much. We have no choice but to accept their proposal," she said.

"What if they tried to pull something dirty?"

After they tried to capture him while he was in the hospital, Naruto's faith in Konohagakure’s goodness disappeared completely.

Resting her chin on the back of her hand, Konan smiled at him as she said:

"I will have you with me, won’t I? With you by my side, there’s nothing they can do to hurt me."

"Definitely!" Naruto said and grinned, happy at how much faith she had in him. "I will protect you with my life!"

As Konan took a pencil and started writing her answer to the Hokage’s letter, Naruto looked at her in silence.

Noticing his gaze on her, she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, inwardly smiling. To her, his behaviour was so obvious that she could easily tell what he was thinking about.

‘He’s so innocent. Like a puppy who can’t get enough of their master’s attention.’

That thought almost made her let out an uncharacteristic giggle. Fortunately, she managed to hide it behind a fake cough, and then she shifted her attention back to her letter.

"Konoha is still a force that one would rather have as an ally than an enemy... She’s clearly provoking us here," Konan said, furrowing her brows in thought. "But that’s just empty bravado. If she was that confident, Konoha’s troops would’ve been at our gates long ago."

Konan had never forgotten her childhood, the suffering that she experienced during the war-torn era of Amegakure. Her family died at the hands of Sunagakure shinobi while Nagato had witnessed Konohagakure shinobi killing his parents in front of his eyes.

‘The large powers of the Ninja World never ask for permission. They never negotiate with the weak. They take what they want, they kill, destroy, and pillage with no regard for anyone’s fate.’

She had never forgotten her pain, and her hatred for the large villages had never diminished.

‘The only reason Konoha has not started a war with the Land of Rain despite losing their Mokuton, their Sharingan, and a Hyuuga male as well is that they don’t dare to. They know by now that Naruto has the Rinnegan and that he’s loyal to Ame.’

Speaking of Naruto, Konan jumped slightly when two hands unexpectedly landed on her shoulders.

"You looked tense," he said as an explanation, and he started gently massaging her shoulders.

Konan involuntarily released a sigh of comfort as he massaged her tense and tight neck and shoulders.

"Ugh, it’s so good! But this isn’t a good moment. I need to focus on the letter now," she said, putting her hand over his, on her shoulder. "I’d be more than happy if you continued what you’re doing in half an hour."

"Okay, no problem," he said.

In the next moment, Konan froze as she felt his lips touch the crown of her head. Her amber eyes were wide with surprise as she turned her head to look at him.

"Um, sorry, I didn’t mean to. It just felt like the right thing to do," he began to apologize when she stood up to face him.

When her brief expression of surprise was replaced by a smile, he felt as if a weight had been lifted off his chest.

But as she unexpectedly wrapped her arms around him, it was his turn to be stunned with surprise.

"You don’t have to apologize," she said. "I understand your feelings, and I accept them."

Her words made him embrace her fiercely, his arms tightening around her to the point where she was having trouble breathing. As he buried his face into her neck, the soft fragrance of her short hair overwhelmed his sense of smell. He wasn’t well-versed in recognizing and describing scents, but if he had to guess, she smelled a bit like cinnamon and something else that he couldn't put into words.

‘He really is like a puppy,’ Konan thought in amusement as she heard him inhale her scent deeply, filling his lungs with the smell of her.

A while later, he finally let go of her, but he did not break away completely. It was the first time in his life he had experienced such close intimacy with a girl—with anyone. She was so soft, and warm, and she smelled so good that he couldn’t get enough of it. Drunk with the feel-good sensations triggered by his hormones, he couldn’t find the will to let her go from his arms.

As their heights were similar and there were less than ten centimetres between their faces, he could feel her warm breath on his lips. Maybe it was only his imagination, but when he wetted his lips, he could even taste its sweetness.

Bringing his hand to cup her face, he inwardly wondered at the softness of her skin as he caressed her cheek with his thumb. When she leaned into his touch, he felt his stomach lurch with his feelings for her.

"Can I kiss you?" he asked, his voice only a breathless whisper.

The smile that stretched her lips at his question made his body quiver with want. He couldn’t remember ever being so entranced by anyone. It was as if every move she made, every little action, was meant to seduce him.

"You don’t need to hold back your feelings around me," she whispered back and, gently pushing the back of his head with her hand, she closed the distance between them and pressed her lips on his.

The mere contact with her lips made him groan. As it was his first real kiss, he was clumsy, needy, and almost desperate. But her lips guided him through it, taming his passion with her experience.  When her slippery tongue slipped through his parted lips and caressed his, he almost lost the feeling in his legs.

As he moaned in her mouth, Konan felt herself getting excited too, and, tilting her head, she deepened their kiss even more, the taste of her saliva making him let out more of those delectable noises of pleasure that she was quickly becoming enamoured with.

When she finally broke the kiss and the world outside started registering again in his perception, Naruto found that he had unknowingly been led to sit down on Konan's chair and that she was now sitting in his lap, straddling his legs.

"Was this your first kiss?" Konan asked, her voice breathless too from the kiss they had just had.

"Yes."

So overwhelmed was he by the explosion of bliss from his first kiss with Konan that he couldn’t even remember momentarily the accidental kiss he shared with Sasuke when they were kids or the kisses of death that Fuuka had forced upon him while trying to kill him almost a year ago. It was as if Konan’s kiss was from a completely different plane of existence compared to those. He had never thought anything could feel that good.

She let out a charming laugh at the dazed look on his face and pecked him on the lips one more time before she stood up to her feet.

"Are we a couple now? Are you my girlfriend?" he asked.

Grabbing him by his hands, she made him stand up with her to embrace him.

"How is that even a question? I wouldn’t do this kind of thing with anyone else," she said with her arms draped around his neck, her amber eyes peering into his.

Although Konan had stopped their make-out session in order to get back to work, she found herself unable to get away from his grasp when he leaned in and started kissing her again.

Despite the fact that she was over thirty years old, his passion and desire for her lit a nearly dead flame inside of her too. Many years had passed since she had last been intimate with someone - she had never been with another man after Yahiko’s death. She had almost forgotten how it felt to be held and embraced. How it was to be desired, to be lusted for. How it was to be admired and loved.

As he pushed her against the wall and his hands wandered down to her hips and thighs, Konan found herself letting out a moan of excitement. Feeling her raise one of her long legs and wrap it around his waist to push him deeper against her, Naruto gave into his passion completely too.

Consumed by desire, the two of them spent hours embracing and tasting each other’s lips, unaware of the passing of time.

⁂ One week later ⁂

Among shinobi and civilians alike, Takumi Village was one of the most well-known and most frequented places in the Land of Rivers. Famous for its craftsmen’s skill in making shinobi tools and weapons, it had often been the target of other Hidden Villages, both friendly and hostile, during wartime.

However, after the end of the Third Ninja War, as the great Hidden Villages entered a period of relative peace, Takumi Village was slowly forgotten. Now, nearly twenty years later, most weapons shops had been closed down as the craftsmen started directing their manufacturing skills to produce different things, things needed in times of peace. It slowly became a hub for new inventions and technological breakthroughs.

The reason why it was such a famous place for shinobi even after so many years was that the Daimyo of the Land of Rivers hired missing nins for the sake of protecting it. Therefore, many shinobi and kunoichi that went rogue often tried to seek refuge under the wings of the Land of Rivers’ Daimyo.

As Konan explained to him all those things, Naruto gawked at the shops and street vendors with great interest. For a village that had lost its main source of revenue decades ago, it looked like it was flourishing.

"We have arrived," she said, stopping in front of a large, three-story pagoda.

"How many shinobi do you sense inside?" he asked. He could enter the Sage Mode and find out for himself, but he didn’t want the others to interpret it as an act of hostility.

"Five shinobi and a few dozen civilians. I assume that three of them are from Konoha. The other two ninja must be the Daimyo’s bodyguards." Konan said. Her sensory ability was very good.

⁂

"Lady Konan of Amegakure has arrived."

At the servant’s announcement, all the occupants in the room turned their heads to the door.

The first to step inside was a woman with short blue hair, orange eyes, and a grey cloak obscuring most of her body. The only other features that stood out in her appearance were the piercing in her lip and the light blue paper rose ornament adorning her hair. Knowing the fragile diplomatic position Amegakure was in at that moment, even with her love for Akatsuki and the ideals it stood for, Konan chose not to wear the infamous cloak at this summit.

As Naruto stepped through the door after her, Tsunade involuntarily rose to her feet, and Shikaku and Hiashi at her side both became tense. After witnessing Pain’s massacre and the destruction of their village, the sight of Naruto’s purple, inhuman eyes sent chills down their spines.

"Greetings, Daimyo, Hokage-dono," Konan said calmly.

Whereas the Daimyo returned her greetings right away, Tsunade took a moment before replying.

"Greetings."

Once Konan sat down at the round table and Naruto took his position standing at her back, the Daimyo cleared his throat before saying:

"As the Daimyo of the Land of Rivers, I will be your moderator. I hope you will be mindful of the fact that you are on foreign, neutral territory and work towards reaching a peaceful conclusion to your dealings. Let the meeting proceed."

Minding her manners, Konan remained silent, letting the Hokage speak first.

"I will start by asking for you to show me proof of my shinobi’s well-being. If you don’t have that, I have nothing further to talk about with you," Tsunade said, the tone of her voice speaking volumes of the rage smouldering inside of her.

When Naruto stepped forward and placed an envelope on the table in front of her, Tsunade couldn’t keep her calm anymore and suddenly punched the table, smashing it into smithereens.

"How could you do something like this, Naruto?!" she yelled. "How could you have killed Maito Gai?! How could you have betrayed the village?! How could you side with the terrorists that had been trying to kill you for years?!"

"This meeting isn’t about me explaining myself to Konoha," Naruto said, not even flinching at the table’s destruction. "I answer only to Lady Konan now, Hokage."

The calm tone of his voice and his confident and indifferent demeanour doused Tsunade’s anger like a miracle.

In the meantime, the Daimyo was sweating like a river under his clothes, his heart about to jump out of his chest. His two bodyguards were clenching the handles of their weapons tightly as well. Although the Daimyo was paying them a fortune for their services, they did not have a sense of loyalty towards him - after all, they were missing nins, criminals. In front of the rage of someone as powerful and violent as the Slug Sanin, they were quaking in their boots.

Levitating the photos that had been scattered out of the envelope and fell all over the floor when the table was destroyed, Konan made them float in front of the Hokage.

"Aside from Haruno Sakura, who has had her arm chopped off, everyone else is in perfect condition. But her arm was reattached, and she is healthy now too," Konan said. "At Naruto’s request, they had not been tortured or interrogated. They’ve only been imprisoned, with their chakra sealed."

"Sakura got-"

Tsunade didn’t continue her words. She was so angry that her body was trembling. Noticing the state of his leader, Shikaku hesitantly came forth and started speaking in her place:

"Returning to the original purpose of this meeting - it’s impossible to acquire the amount of coal that you are requesting in a short period of time. But we are willing to deliver that amount to you in several smaller charges, over the course of six months, as long as you also do us a favour besides returning our captured shinobi. In exchange, we would like-"

Shikaku’s words were suddenly cut off as a fast and heavy object whooshed through the air. In the next moment, the Land of Rivers’ Daimyo’s head flew up in the air, and blood erupted from his neck like a geyser.

"Kubikiribōchō!" Hiashi said in recognition when he saw the huge blade embedded in the wall after beheading the Daimyo.

"The Daimyo!" "Who dares?!" the Daimyo’s two bodyguards yelled at the same time.

Shikaku, Tsunade, and Hiashi all became tense and ready to battle.

"There are four intruders. Judging by the size of their chakra reserves, they are powerful. Prepare for battle, Naruto," Konan said.

"Understood."

The two of them had agreed on a plan of action beforehand in case things went south, so Naruto didn’t need any further instructions.

"Shinra Tensei!"

As he said those words, the outer wall of the meeting room was blasted into pieces. Obscured by the clouds of dust and debris left in the wake of the wall’s destruction, Naruto and Konan jumped out of the pagoda into the open space, landing on the rooftop of a smaller building in the Daimyo’s residence’s courtyard.

"If you had to make a grand entrance, at least you could’ve gone for the jinchuuriki’s head, you dumb cretin!"

"This loud bitch again… Shut your damn mouth for once!"

"Both of you stop it! Juugo and Suigetsu, keep the Hokage and the other two busy. Karin, conceal your chakra and hide until you are needed."

Hearing the last voice, Naruto didn’t need to see it to recognize who was the one that spoke.

"Sasuke."

As Sasuke jumped out of the destroyed building too, the air also started shimmering, and an orange-masked shinobi wearing the infamous Akatsuki cloak appeared out of nowhere.

When the orange-masked shinobi looked at Naruto, he couldn’t hold back his disbelief.

"The Rinnegan!!"

His voice suddenly filled with anger, Obito screamed:

"It’s not enough that you betrayed me, but you’ve even given Naruto the Rinnegan?! The heavens are my witness, Konan, your death will not be an easy one!"

But Konan didn’t reply to him. Spreading her white paper wings wide, she took to the air behind Naruto, filling the air around her with countless paper tags.

"Interesting eyes you’ve got there, Naruto. Even more interesting was to hear that you, of all people, have defected from Konoha! What has the world come to?!" Sasuke said and laughed. "The idea of joining hands with you to destroy Konoha once and for all doesn’t sound bad at all but, unfortunately, I have been hired to kill you. Now, let’s see whose eyes are better, yours or-"

Sasuke stopped his tirade when Naruto suddenly bent over and started coughing, holding onto his throat as if he were choking. In the next moment, a crow came out of his mouth—a crow with a special doujutsu in its eye socket.

But, before Madara or Sasuke could react, even before the crow could do what it had been programmed to do, four paper blades sliced it into pieces, splashing its bloody remains all over the place.

"What was that, Naruto?! That looked like one of Uchiha Itachi’s crow summons! Are you okay?" Konan quickly asked, worried.

"I’m fine," Naruto said after catching his breath. "I’ll explain later; there's no time for that now."

He had completely forgotten about the crow that Itachi had implanted in him. He didn’t know what the crow’s power had been supposed to be, but he didn’t have time to mull over it. Not when two Uchiha were emitting such deep killing intent towards him.

Momentarily, all four of them were completely silent, the screams of the scared civilians running away sounding particularly loud in Naruto’s ears.

But then, Sasuke suddenly said:

"Amaterasu!"

As a tear of blood fell from his eyes, a conflagration of black fire suddenly engulfed Naruto.

However, the screams of agony that Sasuke had been expecting didn’t come out. Instead, the flames which were said to be inextinguishable and hotter than the sun shrank rapidly, dissipating completely into Naruto’s hand.

"Bansho Ten’in!"

Sasuke lost control over his body as he felt himself getting pulled towards Naruto’s hand. Even as he was pulled towards Naruto, Sasuke quickly put his hands in a Tiger Seal and a huge fireball came out of his mouth.

However, his fire technique failed again as a pair of Asura-arms grew out of Naruto's torso and formed the hand seals to cast the Kage Bunshin technique.

"Gakido!" the newly summoned clone said as it sucked in the Great Fireball technique.

Right as Naruto was about to catch Sasuke in a chokehold, Obito appeared behind Sasuke’s back and whisked him away into the Kamui dimension.

But Konan had been waiting for her chance to strike all along, so she made full use of it once the opportunity arose - she knew that in order for him to teleport others away, he had to materialize his own body. While the orange-masked Uchiha was still in the middle of teleporting Sasuke away, three paper tags glued themselves to his neck and right arm.

‘Crap!' Obito thought as his body was blasted into pieces.

⁂

"Don’t let your guard down. He still has the Izanagi," Konan warned Naruto.

While they were waiting for Obito to use his technique and rewrite his fate, suddenly, the large pagoda collapsed with a great noise, and a scream of agony pierced the sky.

As the rabble was blasted away, a rotating dome of chakra came into view, revealing that the two Konoha nins were completely unharmed. The debris of the collapsed castle moved again as Tsunade punched her way out.

At that moment, Obito also appeared in the air, not too far away from them, with Sasuke next to him.

‘I took Sasuke with me, thinking he’d be of help to keep Naruto busy, but he ended up being a dead weight. I didn’t expect Naruto to have the Rinnegan.’

He decided to attack Konan when she left the village in order to not go through a similar scenario like the first time around, to eliminate her home advantage, and to prevent the possibility of falling into her trap again. After all, although he had Izanagi, his stock of Sharingan eyes was limited.

But his plan went off the rails from the very start because of one variable: the Rinnegan. He had not expected Konan to have actually given Naruto those eyes.

‘Should I retreat? Or should I seriously try to go for the kill?’

Now that Naruto had the Rinnegan, Obito didn’t believe that he could fight against him while holding back in order to capture him. There were also the Hokage and the other two jonin that he had to be wary of.

‘But if I killed him, the Nine-Tails might take even up to a decade to appear again. The plan would be delayed for too long. On the other hand, if I retreat now, I will be giving Naruto more time to fully master the abilities of the Rinngean… I cannot do that.’

He knew exactly how powerful and dangerous a competent Rinnegan user could be. He didn't want to imagine the possibility of Naruto learning how to wield those eyes perfectly while also making full use of the bijuu's power sealed inside of him.

While Obito was still debating in his mind whether to continue attacking or retreat, the Hokage came in front of them, dragging Juugo’s monstrous body by the neck. Her clothes were torn and soaked with blood, but her body appeared to not have even a scratch on it.

"Juugo," Sasuke said quietly, inwardly alarmed.

Juugo was a very powerful and dangerous foe once he activated his kekkei genkai, Sasuke knew that better than anyone. Between Juugo and Suigetsu, he had not expected the Hokage to defeat them both and come out of it unscathed.

"Things are finally going well for once," Tsunade said as she threw Juugo’s corpse at Sasuke’s feet. "I get to beat the snot out of both of you traitors and bring you back to the village with my own two hands."

"Lady Tsunade! I advise you to be careful-"

"Not now, Shikaku," Tsunade said briskly as black marks started spreading from the seal in the middle of her forehead, covering her face and the rest of her body too.

On one side was the undying Slug Sanin with a powerful Hyuuga and a Shadow Imitation Jutsu user.

Uchiha ‘Madara’ and Uchiha Sasuke with his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan made up another team.

And lastly, a Rinnegan-wielding Naruto and a former member of the Akatsuki made up the third team.

The three sides were staring at each other tensely, waiting for the others to make the first move. It was a three-way deadlock.