The Glass Kunoichi

by Spottedleaf9

Chapter 10

(Akane)

When I slowly came to, there were voices; two to be exact. "I can't believe I got babysitting duty, mm…I'm already stuck watching you, Tobi." This voice was annoyed and sounded slightly angry. "I'd rather be making art, mm."

"Gomen, senpai. Tobi is sorry. Tobi is a good boy." A high pitched, almost girly voice spoke in an apologetic tone.

"You better be sorry. You're such a drag, mm." The first voice was talking again. "She doesn't look like much. Hidan brought her in broken. If Pain wants her, I don't see why. It's not like Hidan was our strongest and even he managed to put a significant scratch on her."

"Deidara-senpai, Tobi knows why Pain wants the girl!" The second voice piped up; seemingly eager to be helpful to this Deidara. What kind of weird relationship is there between these two shinobi; Deidara and Tobi?

"Oh yeah, Tobi? What could it be?" Deidara left out the odd tic in his speech this time.

"Pain-sama wants the kunoichi because she has unrivaled defensive capabilities. She could make us untouchable in battle. Even more than we already are, Deidara-senpai!"

I made the mistake of going stiff. The speech abruptly stopped and the attention was turned toward me. "Alright, you can stop pretending to sleep now, Akane, mm. I saw you twitch, yeah."

I sat up and winced; my hip was on the mend due to my natural ability to slowly build myself back up, but that was just it. It was only healing slowly and slowly meant I was still in a fair amount of pain. My first impression of Deidara was a reject doll from the worst toy makers in all of Konoha. His hair was long and hung over his face on one side. "I bet your plans really suck doll hair. You also failed to kill me; much like Hidan who actually swore he would unlike you."

"Tobi is a good boy!" I turned my head as Deidara sighed in exasperation. All I could see of the second, school-girl ninja man was a swirly orange mask with a hole big enough for a single eye.

"Yes Tobi, you're a good boy. Now shut up, mm?" Tobi squealed, happy by this acknowledgment and shut up as Deidara turned toward me again. "Our job is to make you agree to serve us before Pain gets back. Any way that we can. If I can't make you agree," He paused to crack a few knuckles. "Then I'm handing you over to Itachi and he'll certainly screw with your head, mm. If none of us can make you cave, then when Pain gets back, he'll kill you and move on to another recruit."

I didn't gulp. Never let them see you sweat. "That's fine with me. You'll just have to kill me. I'm never going to help you. Not as long as I have hope for this dreary world. That is my way of the ninja. To protect my home and the people in it; shinobi or not, above all else."

Deidara started laughing. "This is going to fun, mm. You're in for a hell of a time, mm Tobi?"

The childish ninja spoke up; having been silent since Deidara commanded it. "Silly girl! You should listen to Deidara-senpai. He knows what he's doing. He'll use his special Goth-Blonde ninjitsu on you!"

Deidara cast an annoyed glance toward Tobi immediately before turning back to me. "Although I suppose it would be smarter to let Itachi try his hand at caving in you first. My methods are just going to leave you even more banged up and I don't want you to be unusable to Pain. That would make your conversion worthless and he'd probably still just kill you." Turning to Tobi, he sighed. "As much I hate to say this, go get Itachi. Tell him not to hold back. If he sees an opening, he is to take it."

Practically skipping out of the cave like room, the masked shinobi couldn't have looked more cheerful. It was particularly unnerving that he acted like he had not a care in the world and I found myself wondering what the Akatsuki wanted with a ninja who was so obviously stuck with the mindset of a young child. It should be that this only hindered them. He must have a seriously strong ability or they'd never let him in.

I was now alone with Deidara who was surveying me. "Akane, I really hope you cave. I honestly think it's a waste for any young girls to be slaughtered the way Pain would do it. There's no art in dying like that, mm."

Tobi peeked his head back around the corner joyfully, his one black holed mask staring straight at me. "Just come to the dark side, silly girl. We have sweets!" He turned at this joyfully, and skipped back down the hall. Deidara burst into laughter at my bewilderment. Before long, a new ninja, wearing the standard Akatsuki cloak, came around the bend and entered the chamber I was interred in.

Before he even looked at me, I felt speared by his gaze. His familiar; red-eyed gaze. "You have Sharingan like…" Stopping myself, I halted in my sentence. There was no use bringing up people from home or even Kakashi from my traveling group.

"Like Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke. Well, Kakashi stole the jutsu that is my pride and joy from someone else in my old, long-lived family and Sasuke is my younger brother." Then Itachi looked up and fixed me directly with his eyes and my fears were confirmed. "I'm here to make you submit to Pain's will. Prepare yourself and try not to be too broken by my power."

Held by two, fully operational Sharingan, I stood not a chance in the world of withholding and I knew it. I was only a simple genin and even if I had touched Itachi, I was decently sure my defense could not block out genjutsu. Whatever I was going to be shown would inevitably worm its way into my mind and become the truth I knew.

"Akane!" I heard Kakashi's voice and closed my eyes. "Akane please…help!" Choking back tears, I tried not to swallow the lump in my throat as I listened to the sounds around me. I was already losing this fight. Already forgetting the screams of agony weren't r-

"Dad…I'm sorry! Gomen…" I shrieked and tears flowed from my eyelids. "I'm so sorry they got you too…Please don't die. You're all I have…" Struggling vainly, I lost my last little bit of grip on reality and was won over.

(3rd person POV)

Itachi stood over the limp body on the ground before him triumphantly; it hadn't even been twenty minutes before the young genin from Konoha caved, watching her father die in various ways. She'd certainly lost her grip on reality quickly and it didn't fail to amuse the Akatsuki that she had really crumbled so fast; even going into the torture knowing she would be facing mainly genjutsu. He had done his best to ensure that she would now not argue with anything anyone told her. She was a member of the Akatsuki. Already, she'd been clad in the robes and would likely awake not remembering anything but that.

Pain was going to be pleased when he got home and found the present awaiting him.