Naruto: The Unwoven Threads of Fate

The cloud of leafs quickly blow through the air, returning to this new person. Each individual leaf blade locks together and settles over the shoulders of him. They assembled into a scale mail mantle that billows in the wind despite its weight being too much to normally do so. "This one is simply too good for that, even in his restricted state."

Itachi remains quiet, but his blazing red eyes turn to the newcomer. They burn as they rake across the body from head to toe in a fleeting moment.

"The Nameless Shinobi joins the battle." Itachi blandly drones out as he turns slightly to better face the new threat. "We have things to discuss, you and I."

"That's convenient, I wish to speak with you too." Nameless responds in kind as he drops out of his tree. He slowly starts to enter the field as his leaf blade mantle clinks with each step that he takes. He's not particularly in a hurry, and he stops when he's between the Rescue Team and the Uchiha. "Shall we settle this with our weapons being words instead of kunai and jutsu?"

"Do any of you have a clue as to what the hell is happening now?" Temari half whispers out of her mouth, her guard and senses are at the max. Not only was the Uchiha here, but also whoever this new one is. "Is this guy one of yours?"

"I was hoping he was with you." Kakashi responds in a low volume. The Konoha jonin is tense himself, though he doesn't display it as openly as the kunoichi. "He looks like he wants to be on our side but I'm not one to take chances."

"If he wants to take a crack at Itachi first, let him." Chiyo doesn't bother whispering, she wants both other shinobi to hear her words. "If he loses, then Itachi isn't at one hundred percent when we face him. If he wins, well then we carry on our way and thank him."

"True, but Itachi isn't at one hundred percent now." Nameless responds, tossing the words over his shoulder but not turning away from his opponent. "Itachi hasn't been at one hundred percent for a while. Right now I'd say he's at… about thirty. You feel it too, don't you puppet man?"

"Puppet man?" Chiyo's face scrunches up in disdain. She runs her hands down her sides over her rather billowing full body garb and glares at Nameless. "I may be old, but I'm still a lovely lady!"

"I wasn't talking to you." Nameless bluntly tells her, not at all phased by her hostility.

"Wait are you talking to -" Kakashi visibly recoils - almost like he was struck - away from Nameless. "Really?"

So much was conveyed in the single word. A whole slew of things that only those who are close would even understand. Things like 'why the hell are you here?' and 'I'm glad it's you, but why are you here?' and even 'thank God it's not another enemy, but seriously why the hell are you here!?' You know, the important things.

"I'm not apologizing." Nameless rolls his neck around. "But aren't we on some kind of time table? Itachi over there is being nice and letting us talk. Forgive me, but that doesn't seem like S-rank missing nin behavior. That means his goal is only to stall for time."

"That is indeed my mission objective." Itachi monotonously confirms the theory and then proceeds to break it. "But I also have a personal side objective now that you've showed your... mask."

"Really?" Nameless refocuses on Itachi and runs a hand down the side of his mantle. "Consider me interested."

"You asked me for a battle of words instead of kunai or jutsu." Itachi's eyes switch from the basic Sharingan and have personal stylized pattern. "I propose a battle of the Sharingan, my fellow Uchiha."

Many shinobi are good at hiding their discomfort. When their opponent gets under their skin and hits a nerve, the gut instinct isn't to openly show it. The first reaction is to suppress whatever emotion is stirred. But not only is this group on high alert, three of them are veteran shinobi that are feared and respected throughout many nations. Two of them have the Sharingan activated and one of them was prepared to spot any reaction Nameless had, no matter how infinitely small. Under these conditions, Nameless had no chance of hiding his surprise.

But like the good shinobi he is, he expertly reigned in the fleeting moment of emotion.

"You want to see who has the superior eyes." Nameless speaks, not bothering with making it a question. Itachi's motives are clear. He casts a quick look over his shoulder at the group of four behind him. "Allow the rescue team to pass and allow me to speak to you before we begin. If you do this, we can have battle your way."

"I accept." Itachi drones out and stares at Nameless while calling out to those behind him. "You all may pass."

"What? No! You can't be serious!" Naruto shouts out while point a finger at Nameless' back. "You want us to just walk away when you're facing Itachi Uchiha? At least let me stay and help you!"

"Naruto." Kakashi softly places a hand on the genin to calm him down. It doesn't really work, Naruto is still set on helping out whoever this is. "Do you trust me?"

"What kind of question is that?" Naruto balks at the jonin, taking his eyes off Nameless to stare slack jawed at Kakashi as if he's a idiot. "Of course I trust you."

"Good." Kakashi gives Naruto his best eye smile, but it reeks of fakeness. "Because I trust him, and if he thinks he can handle this I believe him."

"But-"

"No buts." Kakashi cuts of Naruto's rebuttal. He doesn't want to hear him insist again. "He doesn't need our help, Gaara does. He just gave us a free ticket to go save him and you want to waste it?"

"That's not what - but I - he can't do it - ARG!" Naruto throws his hands up in defeat. After muttering a few words under his breath that probably shouldn't be repeated, he glares at the back of Nameless. "Fine! We'll go on ahead but you better catch up quick, whoever you are!"

With that final statement, Naruto takes to the trees once more.

"Good luck?" Temari hesitantly says as she follows suit. She's beyond confused at this point, but she's not one to dwell on uncertainties when her brother is slowly dying. If Kakashi says he trusts him, that's good enough for her. She doesn't need to know why.

"Hmph." Chiyo grumbles out as she spares a last glance at the two opponents who are about to face off. "I've heard of bickering between clansmen but you two are taking this to a whole new level."

"I'm trusting you." Kakashi says, and he's the only person that Nameless turns around to watch leave. "Every fiber of my being says not to, but I'm doing it anyways. Don't make me regret my choice."

Only two men are left in the small clearing. Both are calmer than either has the right to be, it's almost like some of the walls of their respective fortresses are down now that there's no crowd of onlookers.

"Well that was overly dramatic." Nameless sarcastically says as he breaks the silence. "Now for the next part. You are under no obligation to respond in any way, shape or form. I'm not going to bother asking you questions. I'm going to list a few things, merely statements that I know to be true and I'll let you know when I am done. I won't try to flee, I won't try to attack, I won't try to weasel in a genjutsu or other underhanded tactic. I'll do nothing but speak. Is that agreeable to you?"

Itachi doesn't verbally respond. The ever stoic Uchiha simply nods his head once. His interest is piqued.

"To get this one out of the way, I am not an Uchiha." Nameless smirks behind his mask as Itachi's brow twitches slightly. "I will still engage in a battle of the eyes with you if you want, I did give my word. Next, which I find immensely amusing though I didn't think it would come up, you and your brother have the same tells. His brow twitches too."

Itachi's bright crimson eyes narrow sharply at the mention of his brother. It's a very sensitive subject for him.

"If that wasn't enough of a give away to my identity then you're not as good as everyone says." Nameless continues despite the very tense Uchiha. "I know that you're sick, something with your lungs I believe. You think it is incurable, but I'm willing to prove you wrong if you want. The choice is yours. What was next? Oh yes, I know everything about the Akatsuki. I know that you're actually spying on them to hamper their movements. I know that despite being a missing nin you are still loyal to Konoha. I know that the Massacre was ordered by the higher ups in Konoha. I know that you still love Sasuke despite the pain you've caused him. I know that you plan to die by his hand so he can cleanse the Uchiha name. Plus you are hoping that with your death he awakens the Mangekyou Sharingan, and that he might even take it a step further and achieve the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan."

It's hard to get a reaction out of a shinobi. It's even harder to get one out of an Uchiha. This specific Uchiha however, was know even in his clan for having a tight leash on his emotions. But right now they're bleeding through his mask of apathy.

"Please allow me to properly introduce myself." Nameless grasps the bottom of his mask and slowly peels it off his face. "Some call me a monster. A smaller group call me a hero. A select few call me a spymaster. Fewer still call me a seal master. But many, many people know me by two words. Heart Thief. Despite all that, I like to introduce myself simply as Alvarcus. It is a pleasure to properly meet you, older brother of my best friend."

The unmasked Alvarcus deeply bows to Itachi, yet doesn't take his inky black thread eyes off of the man. He's taking a gamble here, probably the biggest one of his life. This is the only time he will ever have Itachi to himself. This is the only time that he has a chance to sway his way of thinking, of changing the path Itachi has decided for himself.

"I offer you my services." Alvarcus rises up from the deep bow and boldly looks Itachi in his eyes. "I'd promise to keep Sasuke safe, but I've already been doing that for years. I have no intention of stopping either. Instead, I'm offering this. I've decided to take the Akatsuki down and I will. I'll take each and every one of them on and beat them. I'll trump the two immortals, I'll dismantle the puppet, I'll shatter the clay artist, I'll tear the paper woman to shreds, I'll beach the shark, I'll burn the plant, slay the false Uchiha, and I'll sooth the Pain. I'll take this problem off your hands, but in return I'll give you an even bigger one."

"What is it?" Itachi whispers the three words.

"I want you to live." Alvarcus says it as if it is a simple task that anyone can do. "I want you to let me fix you and I want you to talk to Sasuke. Explain to him everything and why you did it. And if he still hates you, I want you to keep loving him. He has never openly admitted it, but you always have and always will mean the world to him."

A silence draws out between the two men. Neither make any overt moves towards the other, but neither do they retreat. They're simply waiting.

"That's it." Alvarcus breaks the silence once more, after he thinks Itachi has had enough time to think it over. "I've said everything I wanted to. Think it over more if you want. Once you've got an answer to my offer, break the spider's web in the corner of your room. I'll be in touch once you do."

Alvarcus doesn't wait for a response, he starts walking straight past Itachi. He doesn't know how well the rescue team will fare against Sasori and Deidara, but he does know that if he's there the odds go up significantly.

After drawing within an arm's length of Itachi, Alvarcus makes it ten more steps.

"It was good to see you..." Itachi calls out to him. "Muffins."

When Alvarcus whirls around in rage to shout at the Uchiha, all he gets instead is a mouth full of feathers.

The Present

"I'm not telling you jack shit." I decide after the memory flashed through my head. "I don't care if you like my spin on things, you don't get to know. Not now, not ever."

"Another one for the list then." The calm and collected voice says as I hear the scratching of pen on paper once more. "After that you caught up with the Rescue Team. How did that go?"

"Probably about as well as you're picturing it." I let out a loud and obnoxious yawn. "Chiyo and Temari were doing okay, but Sasori was just toying with them when I showed up. It was kind of sad to be honest, neither of them were well suited to combat him."

"But you are?" He asks a leading question. "You're better than the prodigy wind user and the elder puppet master both combined?"

"What kind of question is that?" I snort out in amusement. "We're shinobi you moron. No, I don't consider myself better than them, even though I have more devastating wind jutsu at my disposal than Temari and I have a youth that Chiyo lacked. But in this specific situation against that specific enemy, yeah. I'm way better suited to go against Sasori."

"Forgive me, but I don't believe you." The pen scratches once more, it's the only sound to hear besides our voices. "Sure you're good, but you're not that good."

"You're playing me." I accuse him. "You're trying to get me to voluntarily tell you about my fight with Sasori and give a little insight to how I fight. Sure, I'll tell you what happened."

A Cave In the Land of Rivers

"Well damn. I could have sworn it was in Suna. It doesn't matter, I way over prepared for this encounter. I'm still good." I mutter out loud to myself as I stop in front of a cave. "Now it's coming back to me, Kakashi and Naruto go after Deidara who took Gaara while Chiyo and Temari go against Sasori. Wait no, it wasn't Temari. It was Sakura. She went after Sasori with Chiyo and miraculously won. But was that it? Didn't Sakura do something more?"

As I stand there, trying to sort out why I feel like I'm missing something important, I take in the site of my next battle with the Akatsuki. The mouth of the cave is rather small, barely a meter wide and two or so tall. There's an insane amount of rock debris littered around the mouth. I think someone blew up a massive boulder. Anyways, every once in a while I feel a gust of wind ruffle my clothes and I see a flash of a wooden figure.

Temari and Chiyo must be putting up one hell of a fight, it's not easy to stand against an S-rank shinobi. Even though there's two of them, I'm more than sure Sasori can handle them both for a long time. I wonder if they've broken Hiruko yet? Let's go see.

I calmly walk into the cave. The sunlight dims behind me, the whistling wind switches from a breeze to the whooshing of rapid fire wind jutsu before me. I hear the clicking and clacking of a puppet and my eyes settle on the hunched form that hides the real Sasori.

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" I coyly call out to the three shinobi trying to kill each other. They all pause for a fleeting moment to cast a quick glance my way.

Temari and Chiyo are giving Sasori a very, very wide berth. They're on the complete opposite side of the cave to put as much distance between them as possible. There's fresh gouges and scrapes all over the cave, Temari has been going to town. However, there's a few deep rents that I know can't be from her. It looks like Sasori is giving just as good as he's taking.

Speaking of Sasori, though the face of Hiruko remains stagnant, I bet he's confused as hell. Not only was there a team sent so quickly and comprised of Konoha and Suna shinobi, now Nameless of all people drops in. My presence has to be a mental blow to his psyche.

"Ah, Nameless." The deep voice resonates from Hiruko. The giant metal scorpion tail starts to sway over its head, bobbing menacingly. It's ready to lash out at the twitch of a finger. Literally in this case. "How good of you to join us, with the way Itachi spoke I expected you sooner."

"Wait what?" Oh come on that's so not cool! I thought for sure I'd surprise him! "Nevermind, I understand now. It was you who has the jutsu that Itachi was using to take another's body. He's not still around, is he? We have some unfinished business, him and I."

"Unfortunately no." Sasori is actually taking his time to answer my questions. How considerate of him. "He is somewhere else."

On second thought, he might be bored. Temari and Chiyo look winded already, I don't know how long they've been at it but they look like they could use a quick break. They both have sweat dotting their brows, Temari is letting her fan rest on the ground and Chiyo is clutching an arm.

"But I don't need Itachi to deal with you, Nameless." If Hiruko had a face, it'd be in a smirk. "Kakuzu and Hidan were very detailed in their report on you. I know how to counter you already and you have no idea what I can do. The odds are heavily in my favor."

"The Third." I calmly say two words, flatly and without intonation before changing my pitch. "Ahem, sorry. The first thing I'm going to do is break that puppet you're hiding in. The second thing, I haven't decided yet. As for the Third, we'll have to wait and see, but I have a few ideas."

"You think yourself capable of breaking Hiruko?" Sasori tilts his puppet's head slightly to better face me. "I will not make the same mistake as Kakuzu and Hidan. I never underestimate an opponent. Least of all one that set us back once before. But I must thank you, with you captured and subdued we will have a much easier time collecting the rest of the bijuu. We won't have to worry about where you are."

At the end of his sentence, hundreds of senbon launch out of Hiruko's mouth. They quickly fly at me and they seem to be shining with a deep purple liquid.

Yet none of them hit me. The moment the first senbon left its mouth I countered. My leaf blade mantle surged to life. Each individual blade unlocked itself from its brethren and swirled around me. They spun around me at high speeds, even higher than what the senbon are moving at, and intercepted each and every senbon that threatened to stab into me.

All the while my hands remained at my sides. I appear completely relaxed despite the metal storm whirling around me.

"Captured and subdued?" I casually ask as the last senbon falls and my mantle rests on my shoulders once more. "Interesting, I thought you wanted me dead. What changed?"

"You claim to be an immortal." Sasori blandly shares while Hiruko's eyes rake across my mantle. "In the scenario that you truly are immortal, we must capture and bind you in chains instead of killing you. If you cannot die, then that is the only way to effectively stop you from interfering with our plans."

"Hm. I suppose that does make sense." I calmly say as my leaf blades detach once more. They gently swirl behind me, all many hundreds of them, and I address Sasori once more. "However, I'm extremely difficult to pin down and even harder to keep imprisoned."

"I expect no less from someone capable of tricking Kakuzu." Sasori drones out once more as Hiruko's massive scorpion tail raises into the air. "Though it seems like you are… not as reliant on seals as he lead me to believe. How are you doing that? Is it a Bloodline?"

"It's interesting really." I walk forward, slowly passing between Chiyo and Temari who have finally gotten their rapid breathing to slow down a bit, and stop once they're both behind me. "Kakuzu this, Kakuzu that. Everyone always thinks of Kakuzu when they think of me."

I gently hold out a hand and run it through the mass of spinning leaf blades behind me. I come away unscathed, the sharp metal leafs never once touched my hand. My control is simply too good for such a mistake.

"Don't get me wrong, I understand why it's easier to make the leap to Kakuzu of the Jiongu than anyone else." I assure Sasori, and maybe Chiyo and Temari too. Though I'm not sure if they're keeping up with our vagueness. Oh well, not my problem. "But I consider myself and my abilities more aligned with you, Sasori of the Red Sands. After all, my original skill wasn't flashy jutsu. It was something more… mundane."

"Chakra strings." It's clicked in Chiyo's head. Despite not seeing her face I know that she's surprised. "You're controlling those blades with chakra strings. I've never heard of someone using them that way."

"It's the culmination of years of work." I smile affectionately beneath my mask. "It started with one kunai, then two, and now… well now I can do this."

The swirling metal leafs accelerate briefly as I gesture at them. Sasuke would be both proud and terrified of me right now. With the countless chakra strings arcing around me, and with the sheer amount of metal twirling about, he'd no doubt realize that I don't know when to quit. After all, this is the third and final version of one of my original moves. The complete Metal Tornado.

"It's an impressive feat." Sasori admits as the tail starts to bob back and forth. "But you are choosing to use the basics of puppetry against me?"