There were nine. But, in the end, the nine would end up being zero. Unless you counted the master mind behind it all. Then, there were ten. And ten would end up being one.
There would end up being one that was laughing. That giggled. And chuckled. And cackled. And loved the sight of pain, suffering, and survival. He loved seeing how long certain people could cling to their life.
The One had decided it would be a funny, little game if he stuck a bunch of freaks on a deserted island. With no food or water, unless they counted each other. Then, there was a limited supply of food and liquids. They fought, they paired up, they bonded, they survived, but it didn't matter when they all ended up dead. But, the One decided to record this game. Write every detail on a few pieces of paper. So he could laugh and remember it some other time.
The Akatsuki Story
It was morning when the One picked out some outcasts and stuck them together. It almost fully satisfied the One with amusement when just seeing their perplexed faces face the rising sun, to see them run around in confusion, almost terror, to see them on the starting line of insanity. But, he told himself it was only the beginning. He couldn't wait to see who would cross the finish line.
He watched, keeping a list of the people in the game.
Pein and his best friend, Konan, were the first to make some sort of shelter. They had claimed their own small area of terriotory and covered the area with branches and leaves to prevent them being soaked by rain. To their luck, on the first night sleeping in their shelter, it began to downpour. They were glad. Even if they came from the Rain District, rain still wasn't their favorite. However, the other seven were not glad.
Kakuzu's body and only clothes were damp by the time he found a cave for shelter. He hid inside of it and took off his suit, ditching some of the parts he didn't need. He lost all confusion at this moment. Whatever the game was, he didn't want to lose it. He had already heard others. He'd kill them before they could kill him. Hidan, who happened to know Kakuzu and despised him, but had no idea he was in this situation too, screamed at the sky. As if it would help anything. He slept in the rain. They were both from a district not too far from Konan's and Pein's.
Kisame, a huge, freakish looking male, didn't mind the rain. He was in the water almost all the time. He actually kind of liked this game. He loved games. And it seemed really fun so far. He hadn't died yet. Itachi was under a tree, a silent man. He was from the Leaf District. He hated rain.
The One didn't seem to have any smypathy, for the next couple was a unique one. First off, they didn't just know each other, they were brothers. Sasori, a redheaded puppeter, running through the wet grass while holding his little brother, Deidara's, hand.
"Sasori, where are we even going?" The blonde asked. Sasori tightened his grip and gave a cold, but honest reply. "I have no idea." Because he really didn't. One day, he was walking Deidara to school, and the next, they were here. Sasori felt a throbbing in his head, as if he had been knocked out and dragged here. He reached over, feeling Deidara's head. There was a bruise on the back of it too. The redhead could only sigh and keep searching. They didn't end up finding anywhere but under a tree. Deidara began wringing out his long hair.
"Where are we?" Deidara asked another question. Sasori felt his body twitch. He didn't have an answer. So he didn't answer, leaving Deidara even more nervous than he was. He didn't ask again. "Sasori. Mom's gonna be mad if we're not home."
"I'm sure she can understand that we were kidnapped." Sasori answered, his expressionless face hard to move. "Just go to sleep."
Deidara played with his fingers, looking down at them instead of up at his brother. "I'm just saying. She could get mad." He paused, but the puppeter didn't answer. "Sasori."
"Shut up and go to sleep." Sasori answered and Deidara finally decided to listen. He fell asleep in minutes, huddled up against the tree. Sasori watched, cautious of the darkness. He closed his eyes after several minutes and was out.
The One had to admit, the first few days were boring. It involved building, drinking the rain, and once his vicims started eating plants as food, The One had to take action. Someone had to die. It was a careful, yet careless project. He chose one almost by random and lead another to him. By doing something such as making movement and running away. Hidan chased it, feeling as if these noises were being made by a bird, or a rabbit, or even a deer. Some sort of animal would've been fine to at least see. It would give him hope. He was a meat-eater. He loved meat. Therfore, just the thought of eating plants disgusted him. He ran into Itachi, and the raven was dead in minutes. Hidan had seen the person and just insantly killed him. The One liked him. Watching him hack at the lifeless body with a sharp rock and drag it back to his newly made home. Unlike others, he had meat for dinner.
The One laughed when each victim spotted the trail of blood and stared at it in fear, then got away from it. Deidara almost screamed. The One had grinned when hearing him promise to stay close to his older brother. He wanted Deidara to die next. In a horrible way. Not just sensless hacking. It had to be in front of Sasori. The One wanted to see the little boy's body eaten.
However, Deidara didn't die next.
After the incident, Hidan didn't even want to look at plants. He wanted human flesh. He would die for it. And he did. Funny story. While walking around with the blood-stained rock in his hand, Hidan was snuck up on himself. A boy with green hair stabbed the back of his head. He left Hidan's body there, only tasting a few drops of blood and eating patches of skin on his face and neck before shaking his head and carrying on. Humming. As if he were glad.
"You know, Yahiko would be great in this situation." Konan whispered and Pein only silently nodded. Konan sighed. "Nagato, please speak to me. You've been so quiet."
"This place isn't right. I want to leave." Was all Pein said.
"And how do you suppose we do that?" Konan asked and Pein didn't have an answer. The woman got up and went outside to find berries by herself this time.
The air was getting too cold, as if The One could alter it. As if he changed the season from fall to winter. The plants were dying. Slowly. Soon, they'd all be gone. The One would give them only the choice of eating each other, or eating dirt.
"Sasori!" Deidara gasped and the redhead ran over as fast as he could. He saw his brother was fine, but a bloody body was sprawled across the forest floor. "More of it?" Sasori questioned. He had seen a body of Itachi tossed into a bush the other day. He didn't tell the blonde about it. He knelt by the body and felt that the neck was cold. Sasori wiped off the blood on his shirt. "Disgusting. I don't understand what's going on." He got up and grabbed Deidara's hand, dragging him away. Deidara couldn't help but look back and want Hidan as food. His stomach growled. The One smiled.
Kisame was doing the best at that point. But he fell too. The tall man was taking a nice, peaceful nap when a green-haired boy came, humming. He beat the man to death and went on his way after tearing at all the discolored skin on his arms and licking the bruised body clean of red liquid. The green-haired boy caught Konan picking berries and neared towards her. He tackled the woman, causing her to scream. Pein sprinted outside at the sound, almost as if he were ready for it the entire time. He caught her underneath a boy, dead. Blood was all over her face and her beautiful blue hair. Pein seemed to go balestic and hurt Zetsu by choking him, slamming him against trees, beating him with any free fist or foot. He didn't stop when the boy couldn't breath anymore. He kept going, making the body unreconizible. Sasori heard the noises, hiding his brother and running towards it. Kakuzu was close by. He watched the scene with a straight face.
Sasori pulled Pein off the smaller boy with green hair. He wasn't humming anymore. He scrambled up to his feet and ran. Pein screamed. He screamed and thrashed and kicked at Sasori, who was trying to calm him down.
The One loved it. They were interacting. Pein was finally mad. He loved seeing such a calm man crack.
Just like Sasori's neck, he loved to see it crack.
Pein had gotten away. He went for Zetsu. Kakuzu went for Sasori. He killed the younger man too easily and kicked the body to the ground. It was almost cheating. Kakuzu followed Pein. He needed to survive. And to do that, he had to make sure everyone else was dead.
Deidara waited. He was sitting up in the branch of a tree. He heard screaming and yelling and fighting and hid himself more.
The One was a little disapointed that the little one hadn't died yet, but followed the trail of blood to find Pein on Zetsu again. He finally was able to kill the terrified boy. He was crying and shaking in fear several moments after his last breath. Then he stopped. He laid there.
The One thought Zetsu would have been the victor. He was from an asylum. For crimes of violence, murder, cannibolism. However, that wasn't the case. It just disapointed him that the crazy boy didn't win. He was the first to pass the line of insanity. Before the game even start, he was prepared.
He watched as he saw Kakuzu prepared. He looked abaout ready to kill Pein when the man sat down and prayed. Kakuzu watched him pray, muttering to himself, for the loss of his best friend. And then, he killed himself.
Kakuzu shrugged. He left the scene, knowing he was no longer needed.
The One cackled. He had heard Pein mutter something about Konan never being able to stay alone for too long. He "had to join her". It was hilarious. And then, the brother part came. It was one of the best defeats he had ever seen a little boy make.
Of course, Deidara had to climb down sometime. He was too anxious. It was dark out when he found his brother, but that still didn't stop him from realizing Sasori was dead. At first, yes, he did cry. But, afterwards, he wanted revenge. He searched the terrain. And even though, through The One's research, Deidara was failing school, he was a smart kid. He checked the nearby dead ones and saw blood all over them. Sasori's death had been clean, not a spot of blood on him. He concluded the killer was still alive. He spent the rest of the night sharpening stones with his teeth. Tears of sadness and pain escaping his eyes.
The One was confused when watching the boy drop the rocks into his school pants's pockets and go for the dead plants and surviving plants, tying them together. He looked up at the sky, to the moon. He sat and waited for the poisition of the sun.
In the morning, Kakuzu looked around at the seven bodies. He felt as if he had already won, but he knew he didn't. There had to be more. If he won, this would've stopped by now. In thought, he didn't notice the smaller one following him. There was crimson blood covering his mouth and his hands. He had the eyes of a killer.
Or maybe Kakuzu did notice. For, The One watched Kakuzu turn and throw something at Deidara. It didn't hit him. Deidara looked up to check the sun and grinned. He threw something back. He laughed as it exploded. The bark of trees and dying grass caught on fire. Kakuzu attempted to escape, but that was futile. Deidara walked away from the flames with no regrets.
The One wasn't exactly happy that he won, but kept watching. He wanted to watch the little boy go crazy. Because the One knew he would.
The blonde calmly walked through the blood stained grass and watched the tainted sky fill with smoke. He stood next to Sasori and hung his head, staring at his older brother. He looked so peaceful. Just as he did when Deidara woke him up from sleeping when he had a nightmare. Sasori didn't seem to care when he did. He just let Deidara sleep with him. Deidara always watched Sasori make his puppets from scratch, confused on what art was. He always asked Sasori, but the man said Deidara wouldn't understand. And if he wanted to know what art was, he needed to find it out himself.
Deidara cried. He fell to his knees and sobbed. He fell to his brother, embracing the lifeless body with all the life in him. He hugged him for days, laying there. And he let himself slowly die, watching Sasori's face before drifting off into the lasting sleep of death.
The One spent the last half of his page describing how Deidara was the last one standing. He won. It was ironic, really, that the youngest one and the one with the least amount of experience won. Or it was luck.
"I decided to give the game a title. The group of people that were all slowly sacrificed by each other would be named Sunset. As they all slowly went down, I could see the light leave their eyes. I watched as normal, perfectly happy people turned into dark, merciless creatures. They were the Akatsuki." - Tobi.