Attacked
"Kakashi-san," The Uchiha knocked on the door, the ring on his hand flashing. When he received no response, he knocked again, "Kakashi-san!" This time he called a little louder, hoping to gain a reaction. When there was none present, Itachi merely opened the door, inviting himself into the still-bare room.
At six in the morning with rainy weather outside, not much light shone in through the windows. Since the curtains were open, the teen guessed that his partner had been too exhausted to do anything before flopping down on the bed fully dressed. Since he wasn't an Uchiha, using the sharingan must have taken more out of him than expected. Nevertheless, the man had to get up.
The night before Konan had told them to meet at the gathering hall at seven sharp. She had subtly hinted that Pein did not like waiting. Being new members, it was obvious that they had better give a good first impression on the group. This included getting to their first meeting on time. Itachi knew more than well enough that Kakashi had a major problem being on time. He never gave proper reasons, but he never improved either. Itachi had made up his mind to set this habit of his right, even if it meant getting on his bad side.
That, and he definitely had to help Kakashi with his sharingan; it took up too much of the man's tiny chakra reserves to actually be useful in combat.
Walking to the bed, Itachi put a hand on the man's shoulder, shaking him a little to wake him up. "Kakashi-san!" He said once more, frowning.
As he took his hand away, the man gave a groan and turned to face him, mask slightly askew and dark eyes opening with more than just a little trouble. After a few agonizing seconds, he managed to turn over onto his back, where he lay gazing up at the ceiling disorientatedly. "Wha—?" He mumbled, still unable to make a coherent sentence.
"It's almost time, Kakashi-san. We need to get ready." Itachi replied, dark eyes focused on Kakashi's one visible dark eye – the other one was hidden under his forehead protector as usual.
Under the mask, the Uchiha could vaguely see that he was smiling. Letting out a soft bark of laughter, Kakashi pulled himself up with some effort. "Just like you, Itachi. You always say 'we' even though you're already done!" Despite the cheerfulness in his voice, the round of coughing that followed wasn't very convincing at all. Nevertheless, Kakashi managed to get himself out of bed, wincing as he rested his weight on his feet. "Hm... I think a little exercise would be quite nice right now," he murmured, adjusting his mask and casting a sidelong glance at the teen.
"Are you sure you're fine?" Itachi asked suspiciously, eyes narrowed in concern, staring him down relentlessly, as though he was already completely convinced that he wasn't.
In response, Kakashi walked over, almost a full head taller than the Uchiha. Putting a hand on his head, the silver-haired man smiled, "I'm not as fragile as you think, kid," he reminded his junior, taking his hand off a glowering Itachi's head, "after all, I did get promoted four years before you did! What about a little spar, eh, my dearest kouhai?"
Itachi rolled his eyes, relaxing into a smile; of course Kakashi would be like that even after he had strained himself with a rather long spar the day before. "Suit yourself," he responded, tilting his head and closing his eyes.
When he opened them again, the crimson irises of his trademark sharingan was visible, matching nicely with the red clouds on his cloak. Kakashi nodded approvingly and they left to the training hall that they had found the day before.
The area was cavernous and dark. It was larger than expected considering it was underground (just like the meeting hall); a faint air current flowed through the entire chamber, barely managing to upset either male's hair. Both in dressed in identical Akatsuki cloaks, they stood facing each other; Itachi with an expressionless face and Kakashi with a carefree look. The concrete walls surrounding them could be seen pockmarked by various jutsu – a particularly large burn mark from Itachi's Gokakyuu yesterday, a notoriously large crack from when Kakashi accidentally missed with his Raikiri and other various mishaps. Luckily for them, this training hall was already marked with other such misfortunes and no one should really notice.
If one blinked even for the slightest moment, they would have missed the way that both men lunged at each other. They fought without weapons, each taking turns to block with a strong stance and attack with a light foot, jumping up and striking down or ducking and trying to unbalance the other with a leg sweep.
First it was Kakashi on the offense, then it was Itachi, then back to Kakashi. The fluidity of their movements perfectly matched each other, the speed to see and process each strike aided by their sharingan and practiced speed, honed to the fastest humanly possible.
The minutes seemed to pass slowly as the speed of the attacks increased and decreased like the ebb of an ocean's tide. Eventually five minutes was over, then ten, then thirteen, fourteen, and as though both had some kind of internal clock, they struck out once more to the other and promptly fell back.
Kakashi was breathing hard but not sweating as he let his arms fall to his side; he trusted Itachi enough to know that the match was over and not surprise him with another attack. When he looked up, he saw that Itachi was in a similar condition, a smirk present on his normally solemn face; nothing like a spar in the morning to wake one up. This time it had only been taijutsu, as they had practiced ninjutsu yesterday. Kakashi also suspected that Itachi was too wary to push both his and Kakashi's chakra limits, for both despite their famed genius and grasp of kekkei genkai and ninjutsu, had quite tiny chakra reserves.
"Well, that was some morning exercise!" The silver haired man commented airily, having already recovered his breath.
"Hn," Itachi straightened up, absentmindedly looking at the ring on his finger, "just like always." Out of curiosity, the Uchiha's eyes flicked upwards, looking to see what his senior's reaction would be.
Naturally, Kakashi just pulled his forehead protector over his sharingan, smiling as he did so. "Of course, we have to stay healthy don't we?" He replied in the same cheerful tone, readjusting his fingerless gloves so that they were a little more comfortable.
"Let's go. It's probably going to start soon."
Both men walked to the exit, taking the right turn and following the long passage to the meeting room. To say that the Akatsuki were civilized people and actually sat down around a table would be a giant lie. The meeting hall was by far the largest of the rooms, easily doubling the sprawling training hall's height and ground area. In the middle of the ridiculously large (and echoey) hall were two large statues resembling hands with their palms up, as though each was cupped around a ball.
From where they stood, Itachi could see that each of the fingers had a different symbol carved onto the nails. The left thumb read "gyoku", then the index finger "san", middle finger "hoku", ring finger "nan" and pinky "kuu". The right hand's pinky read "gai" followed by "shu", "bya", "ao" and "rei". Recognizing his kanji character, Itachi made his way to stand on the left ring finger, while Kakashi mirrored him, standing on the right ring finger. Almost immediately after they had taken their spot, Pein and Konan showed up, Konan on the right middle finger and Pein on the right thumb.
Itachi and Kakashi both spared their seniors a nod in greeting before looking back to each other to share a look: where were the others?
Two minutes later, the first sign of sentient beings emerged from one of the shadowy doorways. It was the silhouette of a tall and slim figure with long hair and a rounder one half his height that looked like... a rock. Needless to say, as they stepped into the brighter area, the pair could see that they were both wearing the traditional Akatsuki garb.
The taller one had impossibly pale skin. His mouth was twisted in a smirk while his reptilian eyes were outlined with purple markings. "Oh my, see, Sasori? We weren't the latest," the voice made Kakashi tense up immediately as the sickly calm tone made its way to his ears. The man's long hair was parted to his right and fell down past his shoulders. It was Orochimaru; one of the Legendary Sannin who had defected from Konoha years before. The man's eyes immediately latched onto Itachi and the Uchiha shot a glance towards Kakashi; yes, he was definitely planning something.
"Huh?" The second man's voice was low and gravelly. He wore a mask similar to Kakashi's but he looked like a hunchback. A glance with Itachi's sharingan told him that the actual person was hiding inside the guise... it was a puppet, wasn't it? So he was a ninja from Suna. "Well isn't that great. Now we'll have to wait for everyone and I hate waiting."
Orochimaru laughed, taking his position on the right pinky beside Kakashi. "Oh yes, but look here, we have two new comrades, don't we, Sasori?" His eyes turned to rest on Kakashi on his right, then Itachi on his left before giving Pein a curt nod.
The hunchback made his way to the head of the circle, where he claimed his position on the left thumb. "Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Itachi. Last survivors of their respective clans, wielders of the sharingan, defected from Konoha for massacre of the Uchiha clan the night before." He obviously had an extensive spy network for managing to figure something like this out so early on. "Humph! Still a bunch of kids." He grumbled once more.
Itachi and Kakashi simultaneously narrowed their eyes, but refused to say anything. Likewise, Pein and Konan kept quiet, leaving the pair to talk amongst themselves. It was common knowledge that Orochimaru was twice as old as Kakashi was and the hunchback referred to as Sasori seemed to be just as old if he was able to refer to them as kids.
"Ridiculously strong kids for Pein-sama to let them in immediately, eh?" Orochimaru replied, tilting his head and putting a hand to his chin in thought, "The son of the White Fang of Konoha and the son of the Konoha Police Force's leader. How fitting that we should acquire the last two wielders of the sharingan!"
Kakashi got the feeling that when the snake-like man said "we", he meant himself and Sasori – an ominous and likely untrue thought, but he couldn't shake the feeling.
"Humph, greedy bastards." Another deep voice echoed throughout the cavern.
"WHAT? Greedy bastards? Go suck a dick you asshole! Jashin-sama curse you!" Another voice complained loudly. Pein narrowed his eyes; this wasn't a voice that he was familiar with.
"Kakuzu," the ginger addressed the man sharply, followed by a comment about how slow he was, courtesy of Sasori.
"Yeah, I killed the other one." The man finally came into sight, face hidden by a ski mask and a Takigakure forehead protector. "I found a replacement. Tried killing him four times but he just won't die." Bright green irises surrounded by red sclera once again latched onto the two newcomers.
"Kill me? That fucking hurt like hell, you bastard! Who stabs their fellow pioneer in immortality five times and rips their arms and legs out?" The other one roared. When he came into sight, he looked every ounce as arrogant as he sounded. Silvery hair a shade darker than Kakashi's was slicked back, revealing violet eyes slanted in indignation. His neck was covered by a forehead protector which Kakashi recognized as the extinct Yuugakure village while his chest was bare, revealing recent wounds over various vital organs that had been stitched close, similar ones on each elbow, proving the fact that he was indeed immortal. His lower body was covered in a pair of dark pants in surprisingly good conditions, as his ninja sandals were. On his back was an atrocious looking weapon – a red, triple bladed scythe while hanging from a chain around his neck was a pendant in the shape of a circle and a triangle in it.
Looking back to Pein, Kakashi saw the man's eyes narrow. "Tch, fine. Do you have the ring?" In response, a ring was tossed to his hand. "Come here." He indicated the other newcomer.
"Fuck, no, bastard." The man flipped his finger at Pein, earning himself a rap on the head from Kakuzu at his side. "Kakuzu!" He whined, glaring as though he were betrayed.
"Hurry up and move your ass, idiot." The man referred to as Kakuzu growled. "I won't fix you up this time if you get blasted to bits, Hidan." With that, he took his place on Kakashi's other side, fixing both sharingan wielders with a stare at the same time. "They would make good bounties one day." He commented, earning a loud curse from Hidan, who was still on the ground.
"They would be of more use to me than to you, Kakuzu!" Sasori growled.
"Quiet!" Pein's voice boomed, immediately silencing the other Akatsuki members. Turning to Hidan, he tossed the ring down. "Wear it on your right index finger. You will be Kakuzu's partner. Welcome to Akatsuki." Frankly, he didn't sound very welcoming at all, as though he were still annoyed about the loud-mouth's backtalk.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I don't give a shit about your Akatsuki crap." Hidan snorted disdainfully, looking as though he had every intention of walking out before Kakuzu stopped him.
"Hidan." Kakuzu's voice sounded dangerous. As the purple-eyed man opened his mouth, ready to spout some sort of retort, Kakuzu's hand shot forward, connected to the depths of a sleeve by a multitude of black strings. The tanned arm grabbed the cursing man and set him down on his right before the dismembered limb returned to its original owner.
The appearance of the two made the total attendance a grand total of eight people. Every one of them were S-Ranked Missing Ninjas and everyone of them looked every bit as dangerous.
"Zetsu," Pein's voice rang out again as a human sized Venus-flytrap seemed to grow from Itachi's right on the right hand's pinky. The plant soon became the black Akatsuki cloak as he stood on his feet, finally visible. The plant opened up, revealing a man with short hair the same color as the plant contraption that surrounded him and a man, half black and half white right down the middle.
"Here, we stopped to have a meal." The black side said in a menacing voice.
"You were the one that took so long to eat the brat!" The white one argued.
"You didn't help!" The black one hissed back.
"Enough!" Pein interrupted the split personalities. Every soul in the room was turned to him, staring into his purple rinnegan. "I want to hear your progress and I want you to know that we have three new members. Uchiha Itachi, Hatake Kakashi and Yuugakure's Hidan." A few welcomes were muttered, but they were only met by two nods and a loud, rude remark.
First, Orochimaru reported possible candidates for future Akatsuki members in the Land of Snow (what they were doing there was not pried into) as well as the eradication of quite a few people, most of which neither Kakashi or Itachi knew.
After them, Kakuzu reported that he had earned the organization a grand total of 60 million ryou by collecting two bounties. He had also recruited Hidan and... killed his last partner.
Lastly, Zetsu reported that he had located the Nanabi in Takigakure, which Kakuzu immediately refused to collect.
"Then who will you send, Pein?" Black Zetsu asked.
"What about... us!" The white Zetsu suggested cheerfully. "I'll be enough to take the jinchuuriki on by myself!"
"I refuse." Black Zetsu objected simply. "So, who will you send, Pein?" He asked again.
"We could go?" Orochimaru offered with a knowing smirk – he and Sasori were the most effective team and he himself had a vast armament of jutsu.
Instead of answering them, Pein closed his eyes for a while. When he opened them again, he seemed to have made his decision. "Kakashi and Itachi will go."
The room was silent and everyone was looking at the two impassive men. "Hah! Those dick-less bastards?" Hidan started cackling in a way that made Kakashi doubt his sanity. "They're kids for Jashin's sake!"
Orochimaru snorted, "they massacred the Uchiha clan, idiot. I'll bet that a dozen of you couldn't compete to either of them..." With that, he fixed a creepy smile onto Itachi before his skin started to crack off.
Kakashi's eyes narrowed and shot to Itachi. In a lightning movement, he had pushed his forehead protector up to reveal his sharingan eye. Staring straight at Itachi, the two exchanged a look; Kakashi would help in this one. Neither was sure that they were capable of taking a Sannin on.
"Orochimaru, stop." Pein's voice commanded, though the only response he got was a hiss and a glare from snake-like eyes as the man's head suddenly gushed from his body, shredding the Akatsuki cloak into pieces as a horrifying new form of the man was revealed. He had the head of a man, but the body of a giant, white serpent.
No sooner than Kakashi had realized this, the snake dove towards a placid Itachi, where he attempted to swallow the Uchiha. Kakashi grinned as his sharingan picked up the irregular chakra flows from the giant snake; Itachi had managed to put the unsuspecting snake into a genjutsu. Itachi's eyes flickered to meet his for a moment – the signal. Surprisingly, none of the Akatsuki were making a move against the snake and leaving the pair to deal with the matter themselves.
Once more, Orochimaru's form altered to that of his human form again. Having broken eye contact, Itachi's genjutsu wasn't as strong as before and the man snarled, obviously released from the technique. "You...!"
Instead of responding, Itachi landed on the ground, flowing into the familiar taijutsu sequence that he had used on so many ANBU missions with Kakashi. With his speed, he would distract the opponent while Kakashi, with his trademark jutsu, would intervene and finish the target off.
Kakashi jumped to the ground, amassing his chakra and creating a static atmosphere around him, concentrated in his right hand. A high pitched crackling could be heard as the field suddenly expanded. Aided by his sharingan, Itachi cut the taijutsu sequence short as Kakashi started running forward in a flash, the lightning nature chakra in his hand shrieking with power. "Raikiri!" His right hand moved at a sweeping thrust to the Sannin's chest, though somehow, the latter had managed to notice Kakashi in time to thrust his left arm up to block the blow.
With a scream of pain, the snake-man looked on as his left hand fell to the ground, completely severed by the jutsu that he had underestimated. Realizing that he had missed, Kakashi fell back, but not before Orochimaru had caught him with a clawed swipe, managing to claw up the younger man's cheek and taking his mask off with it.
Kakashi landed on his feet with a grunt of pain, having to jump away immediately as Itachi let the trademark Uchiha jutsu loose; "Katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu!" The fireball engulfed the snake-man's form, drawing another shriek from him. Instinctively, Kakashi moved to cover Itachi, as though they were being attacked by a group of ninjas.
As the fire died down, however, a burning piece of snakeskin shedding was in place of Orochimaru. Itachi's eyes narrowed, but Kakashi immediately located the slippery man at the doorway where he had come from. "Do not think that I have given up on the sharingan just because of this, Uchiha!" He hissed before dissolving into the darkness.
"Orochimaru!" Pein called sharply, eyes narrowing dangerously.
Sasori seemed just as upset, speaking in a low growl. "That snake bastard! How dare he? I don't believe he was such a fool, good riddance to him! I have no need for traitors like that!"
"Dismissed. Sasori, stay here until we find a partner for you." Pein announced, making Zetsu, Kakuzu, Hidan and Sasori disappear. Konan, as always stayed by Pein.
"Kakashi-san..." Itachi's voice brought the silver haired man back to earth. "You're bleeding." He stated quietly.
Kakashi smiled, and for the first time that Itachi had seen the man, he realized just how good-looking his senior was without his mask. "Aw, thanks for caring, Itachi, but I'll be fine!" He waved the concern away lightheartedly.
"What about your..." Itachi didn't bother finishing the sentence, looking away a little awkwardly.
Kakashi shrugged, "oh that. I was thinking I'll keep it off, how's that?" He asked, tilting his head.
Itachi shrugged, looking back at him. "If you like," he replied simply.
"Kakashi, Itachi," Pein drew both members' attention. "I want you to set out to Takigakure as soon as possible. Dismissed."
Murmuring words of affirmation, both men left the meeting hall. Once they had reached the darkness of the corridor, Pein and Konan disappeared, leaving the meeting hall as empty as it was fifteen minutes ago.
"How about we set out tomorrow? Takigakure is about four days away from here."
"Are you sure, Kakashi-san?"
"Of course! I'll be all better by then! I'm not as fragile as you think!"
"Hn. You told me that an hour ago."
A/N: And? And? How was it? Owo
Much, much longer than the other two chapters, right? But is it as good? I dunno. It's up to you~
Now I wonder why I made Kakashi take his mask off? I dunno, really.
Look forward to the next few chapters, because I'm looking forward to writing them! Read and review because I love hearing from you guys! c:
… Also, shall I draw a cover page for Dawning Red? (You can find me on deviantART as EchoxCrash) What do you guys think?
Brainstorming for the next chapter in the form of sleep, enjoy and await awesomeness! x3