Naruto stood up, put on his remotely dry clothes, and furiously wiped away his tears. He abruptly stopped moving. "I sense two chakra's coming our way rapidly."
Kurama had noticed it as well. His eyes grew wide and his ears lay flat on his head. The fur on his back stood straight up. "Hide your chakra and stay under the ridge, it's coming from above us." The Nine-Tails replied tensely.
Naruto did as he was told. His chakra now much too low to be sensed. He slowly waited out the ominous feeling of being watched. He knew that the two chakra sources were somewhere up in the air, and he knew they were circling in his proximity as if they were looking for him. He cursed inwardly as the sun was beginning to set.
He felt the two chakra sources coming closer, as they had landed on the ground not too far from his hiding place. It sounded like they had been traveling on a creature with wings. He couldn't use a transformation or transportation jutsu to escape the pressing situation. The rise in chakra would lead the two straight to him. So he waited quietly, his back pushed against the rocky walls.
Suddenly, he was thrown away by an invisible force. He flew forward and landed roughly on the ground about 15 meters further. His ears were ringing and he saw smoke elevating around him. "A bomb?" His confused mind wondered as he grabbed his painfully abraded skin.
"There he is. I told you I could smell him out!" He heard a voice call.
"Ugh, would you stop bragging already, it's not like smelling someone out means anything. It was my explosive art which send him flying." A second voice said clearly annoyed.
"If I have to hear about your art one more time I swear I'm going to kill myself again." The first voice answered crudely.
"Not that again Hidan."
"Are you even sure this brat is a junchūriki?"
"Yes. He's the junchūriki from the Leaf, the Kyuubi vessel. You'll see as soon as his chakra spikes up."
Both shinobi walked towards Naruto, who was crawling back up. "Who are you! And why did you attack me!" He demanded to know.
As soon as he saw their headbands, which carried the symbols of Yugakure and Iwagakure, but with a deep scratch running through them, he feared the worst. "You're missing ninja..." He muttered.
"Even better junchūriki. We are rogue ninjas who work with the Akatsuki." The taller one replied.
Naruto heard him being called 'Hidan'. He carried a giant triple-bladed scythe that looked incredibly dangerous. The other one, who was blond, wasn't carrying anything except for a long black cloak with a red cloud pattern as his partner wore as well, but apparently, he was able to use explosives, Naruto guessed.
"I got to get out of here!" Naruto thought to himself. He'd heard enough about the Akatsuki members to figure out that he was no match for two of them at the same time. "If only I could signal Kakashi somehow..." He mused.
"You concentrate on the fight. I'll take care of signaling Hatake." Kyuubi answered, concern evident in his voice.
Naruto took a fighting stance and awaited his opponent's first moves. He didn't know enough about the pair to attack first. He had to be patient, as Kakashi had taught him. A painful sneer crossed his heart when he thought about Kakashi. "What if I get killed here? What if they take me and the last thing I said to him was 'screw you'." Naruto thought as he choked up.
"NARUTO! Focus on the fight!" Kurama furiously spat at him.
"Right," Naruto said putting his thoughts to the side.
Hidan had caught onto his little distraction and used that timing to launch himself forward while maneuvering the scythe around his slim body. It was clear he had amazing control over the weapon. Naruto jumped up as the scythe was being aimed at his feet. He used the momentum to make a half-turn spin and threw three kunai at the grey-haired man's back. His kunai missed their target as Hidan blocked them by moving his weapon towards his back. Naruto cursed as he shot backward. In the meantime, he felt Kyuubi gathering more and more of his fire-red chakra.
Having no time to wonder what the fox was up to, he quickly summoned five Shadow Clones. Together they all attacked at once, two Naruto's were forming a Rasengan as four others continuously attacked the enemy with taijutsu. Hidan moved his scythe which immediately became much longer, as it was extendable. He made the weapon rotate in a full circle, effectively dispelling all of Naruto's clones and hitting the real Naruto in the gut with one of the blades.
Naruto cursed inwardly as he lost the Rasengan. He hadn't noticed that the scythe could be used as a short and long-ranged weapon. He had a cut running across his abdomen, even though it was painful, it didn't seem to be very deep. It was becoming clear that it would be difficult to fight Hidan, while keeping an eye on the other Akatsuki member as well. He doubted the blond explosive user would keep out of their fight for long.
Naruto suddenly felt how Kurama released a massive amount of chakra straight into the air. A red streak formed across the sky as his red glowing chakra kept rising up higher and higher. He heard the fox panting in his mind.
"Deidara, is this the Kyuubi's chakra?" Hidan asked his partner.
"So it would seem," Deidara responded calmly. "Hurry up and do your disgusting blood ritual so we can get out of here."
"Blood ritual?" Naruto did not like the sound of that.
"Yes, a blood ritual you fool," Hidan replied rudely. "Now be quiet and stop flashing beams into the air." He said while spreading the drops from his scythe across the ground. He moved his feet in order to draw a circle. He then spread his legs to draw a triangle with the remaining blood.
"What's he doing with that diagram?" Naruto wondered in his mind. He didn't like the situation at all. He didn't know what attacks or ninjutsu's to expect from the pair, and they made sure not to give away too much information either. He'd never heard of a blood-ritual-jutsu before.
"You're confused, aren't you little junchūriki?" The man said mockingly. "Let me show you what my Jashin insignia can do. It's all about the gods punishing those who fail to understand the pain of others." He added mysteriously.
"Don't get careless Hidan" Deidara warned him.
"Stay out of this blondie" Hidan spat back. As he looked back at Naruto, he licked some blood from his scythe with his tongue.
"This guy is completely insane," Naruto murmured to himself. His eyes grew wide as he saw Hidan's skin changing. It was becoming more and more black, with white markings which resembled the bones of a skeleton.
"Remember that we need him alive Hidan. It's fine if you want to torture him, but make sure he survives." Deidara added rather bored with the whole situation.
Worried by the whole setup, Naruto started forming the hand seals for a Wind Release Rasengan attack.
"I think I'll start with his hands," Hidan said with a crazy look in his slightly purple eyes. "Seeing how he needs those to form signs."
Naruto suddenly felt an excruciating pain in his hand as he saw Hidan piercing his own with a kunai. He looked down at his hand, which was now bleeding heavily. He fell to his knees screaming as Hidan pushed the kunai even deeper, effectively ripping open Naruto's hand.
"Now, what will I pierce next? Your legs... your shoulder... or maybe your eyes?" Hidan said with a cruel grin on his face as Naruto became paralyzed by pain.
In the meantime...
In the meantime, Kakashi was pacing back and forth at their camping place. Naruto had been gone for fifteen minutes now, and he was still torn between going out to search for him or giving the young man some time to collect his thoughts and calm down. Kakashi wasn't used to being in a relationship, so he wasn't sure what to do now that they had encountered their first conflict.
"Maybe I was too hard on him? We have been training a lot. Is it really that strange of him to fall asleep?" He pondered. "But then again, I can't allow him to become sloppy. He needs to learn to act like a shinobi. Regardless if I'm there or not. It's like he's not concerned with safety at all!" He scowled.
"Would I have reacted the same if it was another team member like Sasuke or Sakura? I suspect I would. Naruto's just having trouble with this because I'm his sensei AND also his lover." "It's not all that illogical if you think about it..." Kakashi sighed as he concluded to try and sense the young man's whereabouts. He knew Naruto could be very impulsive at times, which wasn't a very consoling thought.
He grew worried as he couldn't sense Naruto's chakra. "Dammit. I taught him how to hide his chakra for when we're traveling or hiding, but he should know better than to hide it from me!" He frowned deeply. "Or is he hiding for another reason? Not very likely. It's as he said, we haven't encountered any shinobi for a long time now..."
"Screw it, if he wants to act like a little kid, I'll let him stew. He'll turn back up eventually." Kakashi mused as he slumped down onto a rock. He felt Jiraiya's scroll pressing into his skin as he sat down. "But then again... I am responsible for him. And what if he'd ran into trouble? What should I do?!" He closed his eye as his inward feelings and doubts were becoming more and more frustrating.
His eye flew back open when he felt a massive chakra wave in the distance. A chakra which wasn't Naruto's, but was very familiar. The mark in his shoulder started prickling ominously. "Kyuubi!" He thought immediately when he saw a red line cutting the sky in half.
He was gone in a flash.