I was attacked by plot bunnies in the middle of the night D: once I started, I just couldn't stop!
By the way, this is the first Naruto anything fanfiction I've ever written and I did extensive research on the characters before I wrote them...just please go easy on me if I wrote them OOC D:
-Az.
It was a calm, quiet day in the Castle That Never Was. The day was just beginning, so the members of Organization XIII all convened in their meeting hall: the Round Room. It was a custom, established by Xemnas, to start the day off with meetings, in which the Organization discussed plans for the day, the future, and whatever mayhem may have befallen the Nobodies.
The local redhead, Axel, fell into step beside his young friends Roxas and Xion as they made their way towards the room. Number VIII looked unnaturally tired, as his green eyes were dark and he walked slowly, slouching all the while.
"I wish Mansex wouldn't call these meetings every day, man." he groaned as he rubbed the back of his neck, "Especially not when I just get back from a week-long mission in Agrabah! I want to sleep."
Roxas and Xion rolled their eyes at each other and smirked, but they didn't say anything.
Not having received a reply from either of the two, Axel frowned and raised his voice, "I mean...really! A week! I ought to be getting a medal for my week of hard, dedicated work! ...Guys? Guys!"
His voice was becoming higher and more frustrated, so Xion broke first and started giggling.
"We heard you, Ax!" she snickered, looking at the wide-eyed redhead, We know you were away for a week! We're glad to have you back."
Axel sighed and settled down, crossing his arms behind his head as he grunted, "Now that's what I like to hear."
Roxas sighed as the three entered the Room and took their seats via dark corridors. As usual, the inseparable trio were the last ones in and many of their fellow Nobodies sent them evil glances as they mounted their thrones and waited.
Xemnas paused to glance at his incoming members and sighed, starting the meeting.
"Now that we're all here...we have some new assignments we will be doing today. Xigbar, you and Demyx are to investigate a new world that number XI discovered. Numbers XIII and III, you are to train today. Numbers IV, V, and VI are still investigating the strange substance found yesterday, so they are currently excused from missions. And lastly...number VIII, there is a new world that you will be scouting." he said.
Axel sat up in his chair with a dismayed look on his face, but the others just shrugged and went about their duties. Axel was about to protest until a warning glare from Roxas silenced him. He was right; not even Axel had the guts to deny the Superior.
"...Yes Superior."
Axel left the room behind his two friends, grumbling about 'too much work' and 'working to the bone' but nonetheless, he prepared for the mission and took the papers from Saix.
He looked down and read the papers, sighing.
Mission – Investigate this new world.
Objective – Find out all you can on this new world. Report back as soon as possible.
Notes – According to the member who found this world, it has a high concentration of some foreign energy; proceed with caution.
Well it sounded easy enough. He had done recon before, how was this any different? And that "high concentration of energy" was probably just some hyped-up Heartless or something; no biggie.
"Well, I'm off, then." he announced, waving goodbye to Roxas and Xion.
"Have fun!" Roxas called.
"Good luck!" Xion told him.
Axel gave them a thumbs-up and left through the corridor, on to his next adventure.
Meanwhile, in a world far, far, far away from the World That Never Was, another redhead was preparing for the day.
"Deidara, hurry up!" a brown-eyed man snapped at his hapless blond partner, running up beside him, "You know I hate waiting!"
"Sorry Sasori-danna!" Deidara exclaimed, jamming something into the pockets of his red and black robe, "Just wanted to grab something, un!"
Sasori huffed and walked out of their base, muttering, "More clay, I presume?"
"Yeah, un." Deidara scoffed, "Art is a bang, after all!"
"Frankly I'm getting tired of that catchphrase of yours, Deidara." Sasori said icily, "True art lasts forever, not a single second. If you—"
Deidara scoffed and turned away, having heard this grand "Art lasts forever" speech many times before. He busied himself by checking his clay and stubbornly ignored Sasori, until the puppetmaster made a particularly impatient noise somewhere between a hiss and a growl.
When he had the young blond's attention, Sasori calmed down and said, "Our mission is to assassinate someone in a nearby village. I expect you to treat the situation seriously, instead of just blowing things up at random."
Deidara snickered and threw up his hands, exposing the mouths on each, "Don't I always, Sasori-no-danna?"
Sasori wasted no more words on the boy as they went deeper into the forest, closing in on their target village. Deidara looked itching to make something detonate, but Sasori kept him at bay, signaling him to wait.
They proceeded through the woodland with ease, until they were sitting among the trees that guarded their village.
Sasori was analyzing the villagers' comings-and-goings, looking for a way in without suspicion, but found he was constantly interrupted by Deidara's blathering.
"Sasori-danna?"
"..."
"Sasori-danna...?"
"..."
"Sas—"
"Deidara," Sasori interrupted rudely, having reached the very end of his patience, "if I did not respond the first time I will not respond the third. Leave me to my work."
"But Sasori-no-danna! Look there!" Deidara exclaimed, nodding in the direction of the other side of the village. Sasori followed his gaze and at first, saw nothing but the black shapes of birds flying off.
"What? They're birds, Deidara." the annoyed puppet said.
"But they're flying off and screaming,un." Deidara argued, "That means something's going on over there, yeah?"
Sasori froze and silently cursed the boy; he hated it when the younger male had a good point.
"Yes, and what do you propose we do about it? Leader-sama is waiting for us to return." he said.
"I say we go over there and see what's going on, un." Deidara growled as he set off.
"Deidara!" Sasori hissed as he pursued his partner, "Deidara, we have a mission!"
"The mission can wait, Sasori-no-danna!" Deidara said over his shoulder, "I'm going to see what's going on, un!"
Sasori groaned as their route through the forest took them to the disturbance, and what a sight greeted them there!
Axel dropped out of his portal into a wide, green forest, stumbling a bit. He straightened up and looked around, letting out an audible groan at the sight of the place. A forest. He hated forests! It was too tempting to set one of these trees alight and watch it burn, burn, burn...
He shook the thought away and started walking, keeping his mission in mind as he scouted the area. There wasn't much to see, really. Trees, grass, the occasional stone...
Maybe this was some kind of gag-mission?
He froze when he saw some leaves fluttering off a tree and he watched them fall, eyes narrowed. There wasn't any wind that he could feel here...
Looking up cautiously, Axel slithered around towards the tree and searched for whatever had disturbed the leaves. It could've been a squirrel, he guessed. But as he made a move to turn around, he felt something sharp whiz by his ear and a knife embedded itself in the bark of a tree next to him.
His eyes flashed open and he whirled around, summoning his chakrams as he did. Where there had been empty forest before him, now there was a team of three or so men, who had been concealing themselves in the trees.
No words were shared as the two sides clashed. Axel's fire and chakrams matched beautifully with the men and their physical-based attacks, and sparks flew from both sides as they attacked.
The tables turned on the fire-wielder when one of the men did something with his hands and the area was drenched in a blinding fog. Axel couldn't see up, down, or sideways and he attacked blindly, agitatedly throwing his chakrams here and there as he searched for his attackers.
He was lucky enough to hear a pained yelp coming from his left and he focused his attacks on that point, where he was rewarded with the sounds of more pain.
There was abrupt silence for a second, in which Axel withdrew his chakrams and stood tense, gripping the Eternal Flames tightly as he waited for a sound or attack.
The silence seemed to go on forever until it was suddenly broken by a loud BANG! Axel ducked as a hail of stone, leaves, dirt, and what looked like clay falling back to earth. He was repulsed to see a smear of blood appear on the rock before him and he recoiled backwards, unintentionally ramming into someone coming up behind him. He let out a shocked shout of surprise as he went down under a flurry of foreign limbs and what felt like bark, but seemed too mobile to be a tree.
What the hell kind of world WAS this?
Axel was about to burn whatever was on top of him off, when he was cut short by a sudden shout of, "Oh geez! HENGE NO JUTSU!"
There was another BANG and Axel's head swam with dizziness before he collapsed.
Sasori made a move to grab Deidara's cloak but the blond twerp was too fast for him. Said twerp dropped onto a treelimb, watching the fight going on below with a maniacal look on his face.
"A fight, un! Wonder who that guy is, yeah?" he said to his partner when the puppet was close enough to hear.
He was referring to the spiky-haired redhead on the floor below, as he squared off with some patrol from the village.
"Whoever he is, he is not our target." Sasori growled, "We shouldn't get involved and—"
He was cut short by the sudden curtain of fog that descended on the scene. He recognized it as a Hidden Mist Skill, so he wasn't immediately alarmed.
He was, however, when he saw Deidara making a bird bomb with some of his explosive clay and he caught his eye, where he began to signal Deidara to stop before he did something stupid.
Too late.
Deidara dropped the bird onto the scene, made the hand sign, and gave a quiet hiss of "Katsu!"
The bird exploded, right on top of their target, who had conveniently enough been in that scrap at the time. The partners in the tree jumped down to make sure no one was left alive in the blanket of smoke and fog, and things seemed all clear until something stumbled into Sasori from the back.
Whatever had hit him sent both puppet and person down to the forest floor, where they started to blindly attack each other in an attempt to shake the other off. Deidara couldn't get involved in the fight because he was too busy enjoying it to help. He did, however, chip in when he saw more disturbed birds coming at them, signifying that there was another patrol headed that way.
"Oh geez!" he hissed. His warning snapped Sasori back to his senses and the two partners made an identical handsign, before shouting in unison, "HENGE NO JUTSU!"
A loud sound erupted as the two jutsus clashed and the three people were knocked down from the force of the hit, but Deidara suffered noticeably less than the others. He saw Sasori and the mystery person faint and, without much choice, he grabbed them both and dragged them into the undergrowth, just ahead of the second patrol that had come to help.
He knew it was too risky to do another jutsu when he didn't know Sasori's state so, frustrated, the young artist contented himself by crafting some more clay birds, but with no intention of blowing them up...yet.
"Sasori-no-danna..." he sighed after a while. He looked at his unconscious partner and murmured, "Wake up..."
Axel groaned and put a hand to his head. It was aching like hell and the dazed Flurry could only lay there and wince, rubbing his head. He felt like he had just been hit by a Behemoth.
"Dammit." he grunted as he sat up. He was still in the forest, that was for sure, but the problem was that there was the acrid stench of smoke in the air...and a blond teen staring at him with a huge blue eye; he couldn't see the other one.
"Sasori-no-danna!" the teen exclaimed, lunging at him. Before he could react, Axel was choked from the front by the overexcited teen, and he only dimly registered what he had called him.
...danna? Doesn't that mean "master" or something?
"Uh..."
"We have to go, un." the teen said quickly. He nodded at another figure lying passed out close by and he said, "We have to go before he sees us, yeah!"
Axel looked and nearly fainted with shock. He was staring at himself! Those were his red spikes sticking up out of that head, and his war paint put underneath those eyes! Not to mention his coat, which was now getting dirty from the forest!
"Aw shit!" he shouted, "What happened? How did I wind up like this?"
Deidara looked momentarily taken aback. Sasori never showed off emotions like that!
"You...you...there was a fight, danna." he said, "We both did a Transformation jutsu, remember? I think the two clashed and...exploded, un."
"What? Jutsu, what?" Axel asked, confused. "Who the hell are you, anyways?"
Deidara's eye widened and he looked uncertain.
"It's me, danna." he said, "Deidara! We're in the Akatsuki, remember?"
"The...what?" Axel asked.
"The Akatsuki! Oh man, un, not good, un." Deidara groaned, sitting back and rubbing his head, "I think you've got amnesia, un! Come on, we have to get you back to base and have Kakuzu look you over, un!"
Deidara got up and tugged the confused Axel with him, who kept looking back at his body anxiously, as if scared it would run away without him.
Alone, Sasori stirred and stood up. Immediately, he felt he was...changed, somehow. Looking down, he was shocked to see he was wearing a dark, unmarked coat with a silver zipper going down it. He was also a lot taller than was normal, which disturbed him greatly.
"Deidara, what..."
He was shocked again to see that his headstrong partner was nowhere in sight, but some stray clay on the ground told of his brief presence here.
"Deidara, when I get my hands on you..." the puppet muttered as he prepared to leap into a tree and go back to base.
"Axel!"
The shout from behind startled Sasori so badly that he tumbled out of the tree and landed in an ungodly heap below. He groaned in pain as he felt himself being lifted up by two small pairs of hands and he was soon standing, looking into the identical blue eyes of a teenage boy and girl.
Great. More teenagers.
"Axel! We were worried when you didn't come back! Saix said it was only a short mission, so he gave us clearance to come after you!" the girl, a raven-haired child of about fourteen, exclaimed.
Axel...?
"Yeah! Come on, Ax, Saix is waiting for your report!" the boy said, going behind him to shove him in the direction of some dark, swirling...doorway sticking up out of the ground.
"Wait!" Sasori exclaimed. The teens backed off and the confused puppet shook his head, trying to understand the situation.
"First of all: who is Axel? Second of all, who are you two?" he asked, shooting a glare their way, "Third, who is Saix and fourth! What is that?" this last remark was punctuated by a jab the dark corridor's way. The teens looked at each other, confused, before they looked back up at their friend.
"You're Axel, Axel." the boy said, "I'm Roxas, that's Xion! We're best friends, remember? Saix is our second-in-command; you should know that much! And that's a dark corridor! It's how we get from world to world. Are you feeling okay?"
Sasori looked from Roxas to Xion, confused, until it suddenly dawned on him what probably happened.
"Henge no jutsu!"
Sasori, through the haze of smoke and fog, heard his and Deidara's shout as they set off the Transformation jutsu together. A loud explosion ensued, and the puppet was sent into throbbing, spiraling darkness...
"The jutsu." he said. Roxas and Xion gave each other a blank stare. A what...?
"Um...Axel?" Xion squeaked, "We should...get you to Vexen. He'll sort you out."
Sasori narrowed his eyes threateningly, causing the girl to step back.
"Get away from me." he spat.
His hostility was momentarily forgotten when Roxas's hands flashed and a giant...key-looking sword appeared in his hand. He held it at Sasori threateningly, his eyes flashing.
"You don't have to talk to Xion like that! Axel, what's gotten into you?" he asked.
Sasori snorted and started to make the hand-signs for a particularly nasty jutsu when he was suddenly bashed over the head by a metal bar and he fell to earth like a log, landing with a loud thump.
Surprised, Roxas looked slowly up to see Xion holding her Keyblade with an uncharacteristically terrifying frown on her face.
"Let's just get him back to the castle. Vexen'll know what to do." she said. Roxas obliged and took Sasori/Axel's legs and started to drag him towards the corridor, with Xion pushing him to help.
The corridor swallowed them up in darkness and far away, Deidara and Axel/Sasori were just arriving at the Akatsuki base. Sadly, neither party knew what blunder they had just made.
Well well...this was fun to write o3o. What happens next? Leave a review to find out~!
