" Pein-sama," the blue haired woman stood cautiously behind her very pierced superior.
" Yes?" he replied not even turning. He was thinking about his plan, his plan to revive his organization and how to further ensure its survival. The rain of Amegakure was soothing and helped his mind process information.
" Have you found him yet? Kisame helped us secure the sacrifices but we still haven't found-"
" He'll come, I made sure of that," Pein said dismissively, making it quite clear that the conversation was completely over. However the woman had more on her mind, Pein noticed.
" More questions still Konan?" he smirked at his companion who flushed a dull pink.
" You mentioned at the last meeting that you have found a way to ensure the Akatsuki's survival and growth. How?" she sat down next to the man, staring out at the streets of Amegakure below.
" I found five very promising adolescents that are full of potential. All are already missing Nin and have banded together. Every pair of Akatsuki's will have one subordinate, even us Konan," he said almost softly, lovingly.
Konan nodded the origami flower in her indigo hair bobbing as she did so, and she stood to leave.
" I trust your judgment, Pein-sama, I just hope that he does come. It's been almost too quiet here," and with that she left. Pein looked back out at the soaked streets of the village. Too quiet indeed.
" RYUZA!!" leaves fell from the trees, little animals scurried away, Ryuza nodded, yep she was getting closer. He took off pulling leaves out of his outrageously spiky blonde hair, cursing as he realized there was one pierced on the tip and he could not reach it. Ignore it, he told himself blue eyes darting furiously to and fro, concentrate on surviving. Too late.
"RRAAAWRR!!" the blonde teen was tackled from the behind and they rolled away, a mess of hair, limbs, and lovely metaphors that they just don't teach in school nowadays.
The two teens came to a halt slamming forcefully into a tree, earning a sharp hiss from the blonde and a delightfully colorful curse from his attacker. Who happened to be laying dazed across his chest.
" Well, well, Kit, I knew you couldn't resist my manly charm," for all his manly charm he received a hard punch in the gut.
" Kita, come on don't hurt him," another group of youths emerged from the trees. The blonde stood carefully brushing dirt and leaves off his black hakama pants.
" Are you kidding me, Chomei? Her refrain from hurting me, wow isn't that like asking for rain in Suna?" Chomei was leaning against a tree running his fingers through his green hair. He was wearing a long black, and white coat with yellow trim that covered the lower half of his face. On his head was a black and yellow headband with the I of Suna with a deep scratch across it.
Standing just to his right was a teenage girl with light brown hair. She wore a colorful brown, tan, maroon, and black outfit; on the straps of her sleeveless shirt there was the kanji for earth. She wore a pair of arm sleeves; those had the exact same marking on them as well. Her headband was sewing into her skirt and also had a deep groove in the middle. On her left leg was a ninja pouch filled with senbon, shuriken, and kunai.
" I'm sure she wouldn't hurt you, Ryuza," she said her voice small and unsure.
" Hey now, Maki," a tall boy with blue hair came out and slung his arm around her, " we all know Kita was just messing around,"
" Yea, Maki, I was just messin around, I wouldn't actually try to hurt Ryuza," Kita slung her arm around her friend. Kita had orange hair that went down to her middle back. She was wearing a pink, red, and tan outfit that showed off her toned midsection. She had no headband but she did have the Konoha leaf symbol imprinted in the skirt part of her outfit. She also had the kanji for fire sewn into the straps that dangled on her shoulders.
These youths were geniuses, prodigies of there own villages. Unfortunately the teens had seen more than there fair share of pain and betrayal. Somehow the teens found each other and banded together to create their own little gang. The first two members were Kita and Ryuza, and they had the closest relationship among the five. The two became acquainted with each other when they had crossed paths and started to fight. The fight lasted for about an hour before they both passed out. When they woke they didn't have enough energy or will power to move, so they talked. They realized they had a lot common. And that was when they decided to travel together.
Chomei was next; they had to fight off several Suna jounin to get to the injured boy. Maki was next; she actually was caught in one of Chomei's Genjutsu's and over came it. It wasn't everyday you found someone who could do that so they took her in. and last was Yasu, he actually asked to join them, saying strength in numbers. He was a valuable part of their team.
" Hey, Ryuza did you actually scout around a little before you put a beetle down Kit's shirt?" Yasu asked sighing. Ryuza grinned showing off his excessively pointed canines, he had filed them to a point when he was a kid.
" Of course I did, ahem," Ryuza drew himself up to his full height, " well there is a little village about a mile west of here, fifty feet from that there's a little stream that leads into a much bigger river that heads south. To the north is nothing but forest, and to the east there is a gypsy caravan heading to Konoha," a glint came to Kita's emerald green eyes.
" Well, we're running low on supplies," she grimed at Yasu, " Konoha doesn't need that caravan to arrive does it?" a small smile spread over Yasu's face.
" No they don't,"
Kita and Ryuza let out a whoop of joy and the band of teens dashed off to intercept the caravan.
The caravan director couldn't understand it; he had sworn that he had gone through the very same valley at least five times. His men were getting tired and so were the animals; he had to stop.
" All right men, lets take a break!" he shouted holding up his hand. A collective of sighs and groans of relief littered the valley echoing off the high stonewalls.
" Can you round up the ninja please?" he asked his second in command politely. The short stubby man nodded hurriedly and like a bug scurried off to get the ninja. The assembly of the ninja took about ten minutes, that was nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds too long for the director. These ninja had promised him they were the best. All of them in their early twenties and wearing some ridiculous ninja attire that they assured him were most necessary.
" I need you ninja to patrol the valley to see in you could fine anything, I have a feeling we've gone through this valley before," most of them groaned but ended up shuffling off to check the area. That is all but one. She stood in the regular attire for the ninja, bright shirt, clashing hakama pants, and a mask covering up her lower face. Light brown hair curled around her face in waves.
" Um, Mr. Director sir?" the director was taken aback by her voice. It was quiet and smooth.
" Yes?"
" I'm afraid that I'll need to know where the weak points are in the caravan so I can post and repost different sentries," it made sense to the director, besides how could he possibly deny someone with a voice like that.
" Sure, sweetheart, let me take you around to show you," he wrapped an arm around the girls shoulder's and steered her towards the caravan.
" On every caravan there is a little link that divides one section from another but keeps them joined. Like on a train, if one of those links is cut the whole caravan must be stopped," the girl nodded inching closer to the director, who immediately started to get really warm, " another thing, if the animals are cut loose and spooked we would be completely stranded you see, so we must always keep the animals calm," the girl nodded and pulled away from the director.
" Thank you for that bit of information, I'm sure it will prove quite useful," she bowed and headed off in a different direction from the director. She almost seemed to disappear when she walked into the trees. Wait trees don't wave like that normally, the directors thought came way to late. A clap of thunder broke out from the cloudless sky scaring the animals. Seconds later bolts of blue lightening shot down from the sky and struck the caravan, severing the links between each cart. The animals squealed with fright and the people screamed holding on to each other. The animals, which by now were just about to keel over from fright, finally got motor function in their brains and ran like the wind. When the last beast of burden had finally escaped there was a tense silence, then there was pandemonium.
People began running around screaming for their lives, gathering their children, and making a mad dash for the end of the valley. However there escape was cut short when a lightening bolt slammed down blocking their escape.
" Now, now my little lambs," a voice said from the cliff, " where do you think you're going, hmm?" the voice belonged to a spiky haired youth who was holding his palm out towards them. It was sparkling with electricity.
" Yea, where do you guys think your going?" a teenaged girl landed beside him hands on hips. Her hair was an orange red and fluttered in the breeze, her black eyes scanned the villagers. It was as if she could see to their very souls. She waved a hand dismissively at the spiky boy.
" Round them up, we can't have Konoha on our trail," the grin that broke out on the boys face was nothing short of sadistic. And that was all the people of the caravan knew.
" Ok, Chomei, you put the genjutsu to rest now," the trees faded and the valley became a tall cliff. Kita jumped off the cliff ledge and landed in front of Maki gracefully.
" Good job everyone, that was well thought out and well executed," Ryuza jumped down beside her and they bumped fists, " also a good bit of acting, that was a very nice touch with the lightening bolts, Ryuza," the grinned at each other.
" All right you hams, the lightening was never a part of the plan and neither was your appearance Kita," Yasu glowered at the duo, " you know the caravan was going to Konoha and you just put yourself into unnecessary danger. Would you turn those things off! I hate it when you look at me with them on," he threw his hands in the air. Kita looked confused then she realized.
" Oh yea sorry," her eyes that were black faded into their normal green, " but they come in handy you know, when I turn them on my sight is increased by at least ten maybe more! I can see every hair follicle on your upper lip. Which is getting quite hairy by the way, you might want to consider shaving or at least letting Ryuza zap the hair off your face," In one swift movement Yasu had pulled off is shoe and thrown it right at Kita's head. She ducked and snickered running off towards the abandoned caravan, jumping over the smoking bodies.
" Chomei, take first watch, I'll take second watch, Maki you'll take third watch, Kita you take fourth and Ryuza you take fifth," Ryuza groaned, and Kita did as well, they had the worst watches. They all went to bed at 10, sitting up laughing and talking and they woke up at 7 when it was still dark, or at least it was this time of year. So everyone had two-hour watches, Kita's were 4 to 5 in the morning and Ryuza had the task of cooking breakfast and waking everyone up since he had 6 to 7. Yasu must be trying to punish them for not going with the plan.
" Yasu, you are the devil reincarnate," Ryuza groaned settling his sleeping bag next to Kita's. The five teens made a circle around the fire that was blazing from the wood they had stolen from the caravan. Kita grinned mischievously reaching down in a bag she swiped and pulled out a stack of bento boxes.
" SUSHI BENTO!" she yelled passing them out. One thing all of the teens shared was their love for sushi. Of course being on the run they didn't get it quite as often as they wished, so when they did it was a time to celebrate.
" Oooh this is so good," Maki gushed lifting a piece of sushi from her bento carefully putting the food in her mouth. Kita of course was shoveling hers down her gullet, Ryuza was sniffing each piece carefully for any weird things before he stuffed it down his throat, Yasu was eating calmly and Chomei was already done.
" So, guys, where are we going next?" Kita asked around her mouthful of sushi. Yasu sighed running a hand through his blue and white hair thinking something over. That really caught the gang's attention. Whenever Yasu was thinking about something hard, he would run his fingers through his hair.
" I've been waiting for the right time to tell you all this," he paused and looked at them, " I received a letter yesterday, by a summoned animal. I didn't tell you about it because I wanted to think it over first, knowing Kita she would rush off and doing the most stupid and reckless thing that popped into her mind," Kita flushed a shade of pink.
" So I kept the letter and thought it over myself, thinking of the pros and cons so to speak," the youths nodded, they trusted Yasu completely and if he wanted to think about it first before sharing then it was probably for a good reason.
" The letter was written by someone named Pein, and he invited us, well actually more like demanded that we join the Akatsuki as subordinates to already existing members,"
The air was thick with tension, Kita could have sworn she could have taken an ice cream spoon and scooped the tension from the air.
" What's the Akatsuki?"
WHAM!
"ITAI!" Ryuza screamed holding his head, " I was being serious Kita," his whining was cut off short by Kita's prompt answer.
" The Akatsuki, a group of ten S-class missing Nins, they travel in pairs and wear black cloaks with red clouds on them. They were a big problem in Konoha before I left," she said with a small grin, " I think we should join," Yasu looked up at her, her eyes were not bright with mischief as they usually were but cool and calculative, like they were when she was in a serious fight.
" I mean there's tons more pluses then negatives. We get protection if we become subordinates, we get to learn from the best," she dug into the bag and pulled out a bingo book, " Uchiha Itachi, Akasuna no Sasori, Hoshigaki Kisame, Kakuzu look these guys are the real thing. This is what I want to be," she flipped through the book. A grin came over her face.
" Another thing look," she flipped open a page, it was a Deidara no Akatsuki, " look how long his info is, about two pages," she flipped through, " look how long our info is, about a paragraph, do we want to be remembered or forgotten?" There was another tense silence.
" Not to mention all the guys look pretty hot,"
WHAM!
"ITAI!"
Yasu nodded, thinking it over.
Pros: learn from the best, get protection, be remembered, get stronger, if the Akatsuki actually succeeded in whatever they are doing they also would get a share.
Cons: It's a trap and we die, we don't measure up and we die, we piss someone off and we die. Or we just flat out get killed doing anything.
"Well, this is a democracy, not a Kit-ocracy, what do you guys think?" Yasu waited for their answer.
Well, you guys know I'm in, we need a purpose anyway," Kita said leaning back against a tree her shoulder touching Ryuza's gently.
" I'm with Kita, I'm totally in," Ryuza said grinning. The two youths bumped fists.
"I think it would be a good experience," Chomei said nodding.
" Maki?" Kita asked, turning to look at her. Maki had that familiar glint in her eyes, the glint of hardship endured. She looked up at Kita.
"We need to get stronger and we do need a purpose. A life without a purpose is not a life at all," Yasu sighed, running his hands through his hair.
"The Akatsuki it is then,"
The teens settled down to sleep all but Chomei who was on watch. About fifteen minutes passed. Then Kita jumped up.
"Wait, how are we supposed to find the Akatsuki?" she yelled at a sleeping Yasu, " huh? Huh?!"
"Shut up, Kita, they'll contact us," mumbled the half awake teen slapping her away.