Chapter Two: In Town
The Akatsuki as cats went to the nearest town and were sent off by their leader in different directions. All of the pairs were told to observe the people, to keep mental notes of unusual things and try to keep track of time and met back at the edge of town they came from in a hour.
Deidara and Tobi
As far as either of them could tell, the town is fairly normal, and not really remarkable in any way, besides that they can't understand what the people say or read any writing they saw.
"Deidara, I—"Tobi had paused.
Deidara did not know if what Tobi is thinking caused him to pause or if the slip from third person to first made him stop. Deidara stopped walking and looked Tobi in the eyes.
Tobi was nervous "I wonder if, what if we've been cats for too long? What if we can't understand the people any more cause we have been cats too long." Tobi sounded genuinely worried.
Deidara felt a second's worth of panic but pushed it aside. "Don't be stupid Tobi, un. Remember the books? Some we could read and others we couldn't. They are specking a different language." He said and lightly smacked Tobi on the head.
"I still think I'm right sempi, we have been cats too long, and I am forgetting things." Tobi said calmly not upset about being hit.
Deidara paused it was true, he too was forgetting things, struggled to remember, this new life as a cat was starting to over shadow his life as a human. He shuttered at the thought, "Your right Tobi, but we gotta go and do our mission; it might help get our lives back. yeah"
Deidara walked on and Tobi followed.
Itachi Kisame
They were sent at the heart of the town, the busiest and most creoed, the shopping district. They passed by buildings, stales and people of every kind. Some shabby, some clean, some ugly others beautiful and all coexisted in one town square. It was hard to be unnoticed as they were not many dark, shadowy places or things to take cover under. Many times they were completely exposed and had to run from reaching hands.
"I've never seen cats here in the square before." One woman said as the cats ran away from her.
"They must be pets from a shop or near by house." Her friend said.
"What makes you say that?" the woman asked.
"Well their comfortable around people but they don't like strangers. I'm sure they know they belong to someone."
"That makes sense to me."
Itachi and Kisame ran till they were out of the main shopping area, they walked till they came to a building. Small and needing new paint and smelling of blood, they were very familiar with blood.
They approached the building cautiously and peered through the window and it lowed their defenses immediately. It's a butcher shop, meat of all kinds in the display case. A man at the counter grined, he grabed something from the case and went to them.
Itachi not wanting anything to do with him backed off, he turned to find Kisame was waiting for the man.
"Kisame, let's go!" Itachi hissed he was he could admit to himself he is scared.
Kisame turned to look at Itachi "No, stay Itachi here, get food." Kisame said and he sounded afird. Time is running out, they would have to met Leader and the others soon. But here, food was about to be delivered.
The man waited, very amused as the cats seemed to be talking to each other. The black one was far away from them and calling desperately to the big gray one. It did not hurt his feeling that the black one did not trust him; he could imagine being a stray cat is a hard life. But the big gray one scooted closer to him. The man laughed and tossed the summer sausage he had down to him. The gray cat pouched it and ate it quickly. The man laughed and went inside for more food.
Kisame had to use every ounce of control not eat everything. "Come on Itachi eat your half." Kisame said but he eyes the other half longingly.
Itachi felt his ears twitch as he thought and he carefully slunk over to Kisame and the sausage. Itachi carryiyed the suasage over to were he hid before and ate.
The man come back with more food gave to Kisame and tossed to Itachi who still came no closer. They ate but the big one begged for more. The man was confused, the cat did not look thin and he given generously. But then he thought he figured it out.
"Oh bless you; you're a mommy aren't you?" He asked and envisioned Kisame the cat and many black and blue kittens, Itachi the cat nearby on the lookout for danger; a cute cat family.
"Oh how sweet." The said to his own fiction he assumed. "Here take the bag." He told Kisame who took the bag quickly.
Kisame and Itachi ran then, eager to report back with food, a real success.
Kakuzu Hidan
They got the slums were everything is filthy and bleak, the kids played in dirty clothes and played with dirty things and a group of boys threw rocks at them.
"Damn, fucking, bastards." Hidan muttered.
When a rock actually hit Hidan he went from anger but passive to active attacking. He attacked the boy who was laughing. He leapt onto his face and bite and scratched, hissed and screeched. The boy cursed and trying pulling the silver cat from him but it was no use. Hidan let up when Kakuzu reminded him of something.
"Hidan lets go we have to report soon."
Hidan paused. "So what?!" He growled "I don't fucking care!"
His partner reminded his of something important to him "We get back sooner the sooner we can turn back into humans."
"Right let's get going then." Hidan said leaving a sobbing, mauled boy in his wake.
Zetsu
He was sent to a residential area, this is a prosperous neighborhood, and all the houses are huge, the yards enormous and well maintained. Zetsu found there were many things he did not understand in this world. What give him the most pause was the things, the big things that every home had at least one of. The things come in a variety of colors and for the most part similar shape.
Zetsu wondered if the things were linked to status and wealth, did the different colors signify statues? He felt certain that the homes with more than one were wealthier than the others. He was going from home to home by walking under the bushes and shrubs, as not to be seen. He stopped when he heard something, he waited.
A man and his dog walk out the house ahead of him; Zetsu crouched down low, wanting to merge with the earth as he use to be able to do. The dog, big and brown pulled hard on his leash; his owner stumbled and lost the leash. Zetsu tensed, both sides of him screeched the fur on his body raised and bristled. The nose and then face of the dog come into the bush Zetsu hid in. Zetsu growled and hised, his black paw rose to strike the dog.
"Carl, bad dog leave the cats alone!" The man shouts and got control the leashed and pulled Carl away from the bush.
Carl the dog was not aggressive, not eagerly trying to get at the cat to hurt it but a very curious dog. Carl waged his tail, thinking he was pulled aside because his master would get the cat, a new friend he hoped.
"Carl come on let's go, leave the cats alone." Master said and Carl sadly walked away head down, disappointed.
Zetsu ran out the opposite direction, not really thinking but desperate not to be caught. He is very scare for the most part he is just an ordinary cat now, and Carl is a very big dog, who could unintentionally hurt him. Zetsu ran all the way to the rendezvou point, never once looking back at Carl or the man.
The man saw Zetsu leave, surprised it was just one cat, he was certain heard heard two cats; he guessed the other cat had stayed in the bush not daring to come out yet. A very strange cat, he thought, completely divvied as black and white with perfect seminary. He gave Carl a pat on the head, his dog didn't mean to scare the cats, he's just misunderstood for being big, but he's not a bad dog.
Pein Konan
They had searched what turned out to be warehouses and storage unites. The only thing they discovered is that cats in this world could not understand them and they could not understand the cats. They met two green-eyed white cats, who were friendly but when they said 'meow' it was just a noise.
They went to the outskirts of town were Pein order the Akatsuki to met. They waited content in the presence of the other person. Their tails linked, their paws touching, they said nothing, instead they sat quite and happy.
The first pair to arrive was Kakuzu and Hidan who looked very displeased. They sat in front of their Leader and gave their reports.
Zetsu came running clearly scared.
"And that fuck'n kid hit me, with a rock and fucking hell Zetsu, what happened to you?" Hidan had never seen Zetsu scared before.
All turned to look at Zetsu who came to a halt panting. "Dog. Big dog, nearly got me." He painted out.
"Shit that's rough man. A kid was being an ass to me, but you seem to have had a harder time." Hidan felt his rock story was small by comparisons and no longer interseted in it. "Get you fight back?"
"No, almost had to but his owner got him and allowed me to escape." Zetsu had caught his breath but his sides hurt from running, he laid down wanting a nap.
"They got something sir." Kakuzu he lift a paw to point at Kisame who still had the bag of food.
"Leader we have food." Itachi informed his voice a monotone.
"Oh good Tobi likes food!"
Deidara and Tobi walked over,and joined the group and so the Akatsuki were whole again, they ate food and shared what they learned.
They walked back to the house when they got back it was 9 am and they all desisted a nap was best. Then they would continue to search the house. They picked places to nap: Hidan took the small couch, Deidara slept in an armchair, Kisame slept in the office in a plush rolling chair, it was only thing tall enough for him. Tobi got a kitchen chair and slumped in it, his head down. Kakuzu sat in a kitchen chair, head on the table. Besides him was a timer he set for one hour as Leader instructed him to do. Pein and Konan were in the master bedroom in the full size bed.
Itachi and Zetsu looked around, the places they would have wanted were taken by someone else. Itachi would have preferred the couch and Zetsu wanted the chair Deidara is in.
"We might be able to find futons." Itachi suggested to his humanoid plant companion.
"There weren't any in the hall closet, where else might they be?" Zetsu asked.
"There is an office that Kisame and I found, maybe in that closet." Itachi suggested.
"It's worth a try."
They went to the office were Kisame sleeps and very carefully opened the closet. There was nothing, not even a blanket.
'Damn, I'm out of ideas.' Itachi thought as he and Zetsu left the office.
"Only one thing to do now." Black side say aloud. 'Ask Leader and Konan to make room?' White thought at his other half he was teasing.
Black scowled "No, were not doing that. We sleep as cats."
Itachi assumed the outburst was a response to something his white half though, and/or Zetsu in general was crazier than anyone knew.
Zetsu turned into his cat forum and jumped up on the couch.
Itachi gave it a moments thought and joined Zetsu on the couch as a cat.
"Have a nice nap Itachi."
"You too."
Quickly they both fell a sleep and now all Akatsuki slept and the timer went off much to soon for anyone's liking.
They resumed to search the house they desisted to look for keys that went to the secret doors in the hall closet.
"But he had better not find any thing wrong with his house." Pein warned his followers.
"Yes, sir." they said as one.
Carefully they searched everything and everywhere and found it taped to the underside of a desk-drawer was a key.
"I found it Leader, hm." Deidara said looking very pleased.
He gave it to his leader who looked pleased as well. "Good work Deidara, well down."
They went to the closet and tried the door, the key worked and the door swung open. The moment had come but...
Not that anyone wanted to admit it, but they were hesitant, a little scared as they had no powers in this world and they had no way of knowing what was beyond the door.
Pein as the leader, went first the others followed closely behind as they walked a short distance. Pein had walked into a cord hanging from the ceiling and although frighten at first he gave no indication.
He pulled on the hanging cord and a light bulb turned on illuminating the dark. The room was empty and tiny.
"What a waste of time!" Hidan declared and as the last person all he had to do is turn around. He did and begin his way back, the others started to follow him.
Just as Hidan was about to go through the door it slammed shut.
"What the hell?!" He screamed.
The Akatsuki knew no more as they were rendered unconscious.
They awoke as cats in the places they had picked for the nap, they also awoke to James slamming the door shut.
"Damn , fuck'n boss, hate him." James saw his cats and smiled.
"Hello guys sorry that I woke you."
James took off his shirt and went to the fridge for food, that he did not have.
"Shit, I need to go to the store." James groaned, he was really tired, but he knew for a fact that the fridge would not replenish itself, not even if he asked nicely.
"Okay so I will be back soon." He told the curious cats who were all in the kitchen watching him.
He put the discard shirt back on and went back to his car and drove to the store.
Once James was gone the Acatsuki turned Akatsuki.
"He's in a hurry."
"He was looking in the fridge, maybe hes getting food."
"What do we do now?"
Talking seem to fill the room and it was too much for the Leader "Shut up!"
And they did.
"He might be back soon so we need to put everything back." But he looked and everything they had touched or did anything to in the search of a key was back as it was. He was just then aware of the key not being in his hand any more. Pein went to drawer where Deidara had found the key in the first place. It was there and in addition so was a note.
He read it aloud Do not try that again, leave what is locked alone. Soon your condition will be irreversible; time is ruing out.
Pein felt hostile the writer of the note, how dare someone get in his way? But clearly they had powers that he did not and they could do incredible things. Like turning people into cats, and hold over power all of them; he did not like it but the unknown person or persons had complete control over them. They had complete control and they gave the Akatsuki like some sort of collection, as pets, in a strange world to a young man who lives alone.
Why? What is the point of this?
Pein could think of no point other then amusement a terrible amusement to who ever had this unnatural power over all of them. He was very afraid for his Akatsuki but he had a thread of hope they could escape the fate of being life long pets. He would hold one that thread as long as he could. He is the leader, he would do all that he could for his Akatsuki.
