Chapter 246: A Visitor with a Proposal

Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 246: A Visitor with a Proposal

Naruto opened his eyes and stood up from the futon before walking to the other side of the room.

"I don't appreciate being interrupted while I meditate."

"Is that what you were doing?" An invisible speaker responded to his comment with a mocking tone. "By the looks of those two naked girls sleeping close by…I would have guessed something else."

Naruto glanced down at the wooden floor of his apartment. "I know exactly where you are. There's no point in trying to hide from me." He had already detected this strange person since they ventured inside his detection perimeter.

From the moment he had promised to protect this village, Naruto had set up several clones around the surrounding area to extend the range of his senses. It was just five clones in total, so it wasn't much of a loss to have them stand guard while the rest worked on other projects.

"Yes…I've felt your eyes on me since I crossed the village walls. It's a new experience for me, to be honest." A figure emerged from the floor.

This was a humanoid creature with completely white flesh. Its left side appeared almost human, while its right side was deformed beyond recognition.

The creature wore no clothes whatsoever but also lacked human features down there, something Naruto was at least grateful for.

"I presume you came here because you have something important to say…so speak while you still have the chance," Naruto told the creature.

It responded with a smile devoid of concern. "You are too kind, Mister Uzumaki. I do have something very important to say. But before I introduce myself, let me make it clear that I come with no bad intentions toward you or your girls."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, wondering what the creature was getting at.

"My name is Zetsu, and I am a member of Akatsuki."

"The ones trying to capture me to extract the Bijuu sealed inside my guts?" Naruto asked.

"The same ones," Zetsu said without hesitation. "But we both know that the Kyubi is no longer there…isn't it?"

"Hmm…" Naruto's eyes narrowed. That was not publicly available information, and only a handful of people knew about it.

"Yes, we know about your special ability to absorb the Bijuu, and we also know that you've taken at least three of them…perhaps four?" Zetsu hadn't received news about Gaara's state, so he could only speculate based on the fact that the boy was seen returning to the Wind Country with an escort from the Sand Village.

From what he knew of Naruto, the boy wouldn't have let Gaara go while he carried something Naruto wanted.

"And now you're going to tell me that you wish to cooperate with me…" Naruto scoffed. If they knew that much, they must realize how much of a threat he was to their plans.

'The only reason for one of them to come here to talk is because they're no longer confident about capturing me,' Naruto concluded.

"Do you know where the other Jinchuriki are? You may know about Killer B since he's the brother of the Raikage, but others are a bit more elusive, aren't they?" Zetsu commented.

Naruto did have an idea about the location of a few others, like a girl named Fu, who lived in the Waterfall Village, or that the Six-Tails Jinchuriki was a missing-nin from the Mist. He was also sure that the Rock Village was in possession of at least one Jinchuriki, either the Four-Tails or Five-Tails…perhaps both.

However, he wasn't going to reveal what he knew to this individual.

"And you'll share that information with me?" he asked instead.

"We'll do more than that! If you join us, we'll give them to you in person so you can absorb them," Zetsu promised.

"And why would you do that?"

"Did you know that the nine Bijuu were originally a single entity? One that was known as the Juubi. The goal of our organization is to reconstruct this legendary creature and use it to enforce a long-lasting peace in the Elemental Nations," Zetsu revealed a small part of their plan.

Naruto could tell when someone was lying to him. This person was mixing lies with truths, or at the very least, it was the truth as far as he knew. Making it difficult for him to discern any lies.

"Peace…you say. You want to acquire unrivaled power to enforce an artificial peace under threats. 'Either do what we say or be destroyed'…that type of thing?"

Zetsu didn't seem deterred by Naruto's comment. "And yet, it is better than war." What Zetsu failed to mention was how they planned to use the Juubi exactly.

"If that's your goal…then giving me the other Bijuu won't help you, would it?"

Zetsu shook his head. "Now…I won't claim to fully understand how that ability of yours works. But even if you've refined the chakra from the Bijuu, they should still be usable for our purposes. Think about it…we'll make you the most powerful being in the world, and then, when the time comes, you just have to share a small part of that power with Akatsuki."

'Now that…is a complete lie,' Naruto noted.

With what he'd been told so far, he could piece together their intentions.

Since they didn't know how his Cosmic Assimilation worked, they believed that he could still be refined for their purposes and that the chakra from the Bijuu could be extracted.

They probably wanted to lure him to their base of operations and capture him before attempting the extraction.

"Is the organization already in possession of any other Bijuu?" Naruto asked.

"No…but we know where they are. If you come with me, I can take you to our leader. He can share everything with you after you swear loyalty to us," Zetsu promised.

'More lies…seems like I won't get much more from this guy,' Naruto thought.

"Who told you about my ability?" he asked.

"I'm afraid I don't know who the informant was…our leader has contacts all over the continent who share information with him," Zetsu responded.

'Lies again…'

"I've heard enough. I'll give you my answer."

"Will you join us?" Zetsu asked.

"Absolutely…" Naruto raised his palm toward Zetsu. "No."

A blast of compressed wind shot out at his target, reducing Zetsu's white flesh to powder before the creature could react.

Unfortunately, since Zetsu was in front of the entrance door of his apartment, the blast also decimated the entire front wall, along with the door and windows.

Ino and Hinata nearly jumped out of bed after hearing the commotion and stood in full alert.

"Naruto?" Hinata activated her Byakugan and looked around.

"What's going on?" Ino glanced at the massive hole in the apartment.

They could now get a good night view of Konoha from the living room.

"Sorry about that. We had an uninvited guest…so I had to show him the way out." Just as he said this, his senses picked up an unusual movement near the north wall of the village.

The signature of the creature he had just destroyed appeared there for a couple of seconds before vanishing.

'He survived somehow…' Naruto shouldn't have been surprised. If this creature dared to come right into his apartment, it was because it was confident in escaping.

'Now that Akatsuki knows what I can do…they're going to get more aggressive with their methods.' Naruto had no doubt about that.

Things were going to get hectic very soon. But he wasn't concerned about this. It would just be an opportunity to acquire what he needed.

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