Gathering Shadows (Rewrite)

The next day they make their way towards the cave traveling quickly over the sand near and nightfall they finally arrive at their destination. Before Naruto can barge in Raven stops him as he notices something odd about the bolder blocking the entrance.

“You don’t want to touch that,” he cautions as he activates his Shadow Eyes. “Just as I thought there’s a faint glow of chakra coming from some type of barrier.” He deactivates the Jutsu before linking his mind to the growing darkness around him. “There are four markers that feed the barrier and from the looks of things they need to be removed at the same time.”

Releasing the link he looks at the others. “We'll wait here while I deal with the markers,” he tells them before performing a few seals. Four Shadow Replications step out from behind him and take off to remove the markers.

A few moments later Raven drops to his knees and braces his hands on the ground while panting trying to catch his breath. “Okay not doing that again,” he chuckles sheepishly slowly getting back to his feet. “Didn't expect there to be any feed back. Damn that hurt like a bitch,” he tells them with a silly grin.

“Can we go now?” Naruto asks trying to keep from laughing. Raven nods as Sakura puts her fighting gloves on. Cracking her knuckles she approaches the boulder and pulls her fist back as she focuses the maximum amount of chakra needed into her fist before striking the barricade. As she releases the chakra the large rock is instantly reduced to rubble allowing them access to the cave inside.

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Once inside the four of them come face to face with the entire Akatsuki organization. “Sorry for crashing the party,” Raven says stepping in front of the others. “We just came to pick up our friend,” he tells them, “So hand him over and we’ll be on our way.”

“Stop them before they interfere with the ritual,” a spiky haired projection tells the two that are actually there.

Moving as one the two Akatsuki members leap from their potions and approach the four Konoha ninjas. “Sakura, you grab Gaara,” he tells the medical-nin, “Kakashi, you and Naruto handle Cyclops over there.” Turning back to their opponents Raven takes up a defensive stance. “The big one’s mine.”

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The battle quickly spills out into the forest as Raven soon begins regretting his decision to take on the larger missin-nin by himself. ‘Of all the dumb things you’ve done in your life this has to be the stupidest.’ Raven has used nearly every trick in his arsenal against the puppet master yet despite his best efforts he still isn’t able to break through the hoards of puppets Sasori no Akasuna possess. Seventy-six of the hundred and one puppets the Akatsuki summoned now litter the ground while the other twenty-five including the Sandaime Kazekage guard their master.

The mostly puppet shinobi grins as he watches the young Jounin struggle to stay on his feet. “You’re almost out of chakra,” he observes. “Now it is time to finish this.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Raven replies as he pops a soldier pill. Raven moves rapidly through a complex series of hand seals as he prepares for his former clan’s most dangerous kinjutsu. His mind links with the darkness around them providing him with a perfect view of the entire battle to come as his arms and feet become bladed weapons.

Leaping into the air his body begins to twist and turn as he uses his chakra to rotate his body at such an incredible speed that he becomes a black sphere of death. The words ‘Death’s Dancing Shadow’ rings throughout the field as the spinning sphere barrels straight towards the puppets.

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Naruto carries a sleeping Gaara on his back as he and the others make their way back towards the cave in search of Raven. They gasp in shock as they see the carnage of shattered puppets littering the ground before them. A head of them, with his arm still embedded in his opponent’s chest, Raven’s unconscious form kneels before the lifeless body of the Akatsuki member.

Sakura races over to check on her friend and releases a sigh of relief as she realizes that he’s only passed out from exhaustion. “He’ll be alright,” she tells them easing the arm from corpse holding the Jounin up. “He used up all of his chakra but with some rest he should be alright in a few days.”

“Too bad none of you will live that long,” a cold voice tells them from behind them. As they turn around they come face to face with Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki. The two S-Ranked criminals glare at the three shinobi and the unconscious Jounin.

“I wouldn’t... I wouldn’t under... under estimate us... Itachi,” Raven slowly tells the former ANBU Captain as he struggles to his feet. “I’m not as easy to kill as your clan was.” Raven's knees are wobbly as he struggles to remain standing while he retrieves his last soldier pill from his pouch. Popping it in his mouth, he feels his strength temporarily return to him.

“Don’t look at his eyes,” Raven tells the others as he moves between the two missin-nin and his friends. “Kakashi, I’ll handle Itachi first then you and the others can take care of shark face when I’m finished.”

“I wouldn’t count on that,” the Uchiha tells him. Raven is unable to move his body and in an instant Itachi is in front of him and punches him hard enough to send him flying into the tree twenty feet behind him. Raven doubles over from the force of the blow and as he is about to fall forward the Uchiha traitor grabs him by the throat and slams him against the tree again forcing his sunglasses to fall to the ground.

“The Hiroku’s were always an arrogant clan,” Itachi sneers as he watches Raven smirk. “I’ll knock that smug look from your face.” Shock crosses his face as Raven’s chakra laced hand catches his fist easily. Shadow Eyes stare into Sharingan and shock becomes fear as Itachi's Tsukuyomi (God of the Moon Genjutsu) proves useless on its intended target.

Raven smashes Itachi in the face with the Uchiha’s own fist before releasing the captured fist causing the rouge shinobi to stagger backwards. Bringing his palms together Raven concentrates a large amount of chakra into both hands before moving towards the Uchiha and slamming both his palms into the traitor’s chest sending him several feet back. Raven performs three seals with just his right hand as his victim's entire body glows for a brief instant before exploding.

The ear splitting dying screams of another can be heard from behind the tree line followed almost immediately by a second explosion. “What the hell did you fucking do?” the Uchiha’s partner demands as he draws his sword. A moment later the missin-nin collapses face first to the ground.

“What happened?” Naruto asks slowly moving closer to the fallen man. “His scent completely changed,” he tells them. Kicking the body over with his foot he leaps back quickly as a precaution only to find that it is the body of another shinobi.

“It’s a special type of kinjutsu that creates an almost perfect copy of another ninja,” Kakashi tells them. “It requires a human sacrifice and person being copied to give up half of their chakra.”

Raven suddenly drops to his knees again as he fights to remain conscious against the overwhelming exhaustion threatening to claim him. “I don't have enough left to Shadow walk us back to Suna,” he tells them struggeing standing back up.

“Before we go,” Kakashi beginss as he helps Raven back up. “What exactly did you do to Itachi’s clone?”

“The same thing I did to the real Itachi I'd imagine,” Raven answers as he leans on the Copy-nin for support. “Blew him to hell.” At their confused expressions he explains; “That last attack converted his own chakra into one giant charge. Normally it would only affect the target but since the shadow clone was linked to the copy and from him to the real Itachi I can only suspect that Itachi’s also dead.”

“Impressive,” Kakashi comments.

“Exhausting,” Raven chuckles before he finally passes out from chackra depletion forcing Kakashi to throw him over his shoulder.

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