Zetsu had lead Tobi to another room in the base and knocked on the door, which was opened shortly by a certain black-haired Uchiha. Despite his usual cool attitude, Itachi looked surprised to see Zetsu of all people at his door. Firstly, Zetsu didn't really ever visit any of the others, preferring to remain solitary hence his lack of a teammate [unless you count his other half as a teammate], and if he did have to visit another Akatsuki member, he just appeared out of the floor. Because apparently Zetsu was just too cool for doors.
Then Itachi noticed the person standing behind the plant man. "Is he the new guy?"
Zetsu nodded. "Yes. Apparently he got cut off from Deidara at some point, so I figured I would drop him by with you and Kisame."
"Hmph... Very well... I am interested in his abilities..."
Zetsu nodded and disappeared through the floor, his black half mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like 'arrogant bastard'.
Tobi waved cheerily at the Uchiha, who gave him a blank look and took a step back to allow the masked man into the room.
Tobi stepped in without need for any more invitation, and looked around, only for his eyes to fall on another figure in the darkened room.
The person was tall and had very broad shoulders and chest, and a huge bandaged weapon was resting on the man's back.
As Tobi's eye adjusted to the poorly lit area, he became aware the man looked quite inhuman. His skin was a light blue, his eyes were oddly round and lacked irises, and he had gill-like markings on his cheeks.
Tobi gasped and pointed at him. "Fishy!"
The ninja looked very offended at that. "I'm a shark, not a fish!"
Itachi sighed quietly, trying to hide his annoyance. "What is your name anyways?"
"Tobi's name is Tobi!" He chirped in response.
Itachi frowned- well, more than than he usually was. He already didn't like this person, though Kisame still seemed curious about him despite being offended at being called 'Fishy'.
"What'd you do?" Kisame asked bluntly.
Tobi blinked at him in confusion. "Huh?"
"What are your crimes?" The shark man elaborated.
The masked man gasped in shock and horror. "Tobi doesn't do crimes! Tobi's a good boy!"
Kisame and Itachi exchanged confused looks.
"Er, um... Why are you in the Akatsuki then..?" Itachi questioned.
Tobi smiled under his mask, though neither of the other missing nins could tell. "Tobi's secret~"
"...Hmph... Allow the evaluation to begin.." Itachi said, his black eyes turning crimson. "Mangekyou Sharingan..."
Tobi's body stiffened as he was caught in the illusion of the Genjutsu, the room fading away to a blood-red sky and a twisted, dark forest. Itachi still stood in front of the apprentice, his eyes locked with Tobi's own, and the Uchiha didn't even flinch as ravens flew around him and at the new member. "Can you break this simple Genjutsu?"
Tobi glanced around fearfully at the crows who were very nearly attacking him, though looked back Itachi once he realized the man had said Genjutsu.
It's just an illusion... I can focus and break it...
It took several more seconds, but Tobi finally broke through the weak illusion and blinked, returning to reality.
"Not half bad... But Leader said you were able to easily dodge attacks. I would like to see that for myself."
"You would? Tobi can show you! Tobi's good at escaping!" As if to prove his point, he disappeared suddenly into the ground not too unlike Zetsu and popped back up behind Itachi, yelling 'boo' quite loudly.
The Uchiha didn't even flinch. "Kisame, let's go outside and you can fight him."
"Alright. I've been needing to get some more practice in with Samehada." Kisame said, heaving the large sword off his back.
Tobi nodded enthusiastically and followed the two ninja out of the base, not seeming scared of the thought of fighting Kisame in the least.
Once they were outside in a clearing with Tobi facing Kisame and about 10 feet of space between them, Itachi told them to begin.
Kisame charged forward with Samehada raised high, and attempted to swing it at Tobi, only for him to vanish in a poof of smoke and pop up out of the ground a few feet away.
Frustrated, Kisame tried attacking with his sword again only for Tobi to throw himself to the side and out of the way.
Itachi wasn't impressed so far, but he kept a careful watch on the masked man anyways. He knew there was something more.
Kisame picked the sword up from the indent it was in from it's hard collision on the ground and turned on Tobi once more and with incredible speed for his size, launched at Tobi with his over-sized weapon.
The apprentice didn't move this time, and Itachi leaned forward with interest. Samehada was supposed to hit it's target, but it encountered no solid object and passed through Tobi as did Kisame's body. Kisame looked shocked that he hadn't hit his unmoving target and glanced back at him, a question on his face. Tobi just grinned cheekily and rubbed the back of his neck. "Is Itachi and Fishy impressed by Tobi yet?"
Kisame still simply looked dumbfounded, and Itachi frowned more again. "How did you do that..?"
Tobi blinked at him innocently. "Tobi is a ninja..."
Itachi sighed. "I'm aware... But what is the technique behind it?"
Tobi tilted his head thoughtfully. "Hm... It's Tobi's super duper secret technique..."
Kisame and Itachi sweatdropped. They clearly weren't going to get an answer out of him.
"Can Tobi go find Deidara-senpai now?" Tobi asked hopefully.
Itachi nodded to let him know he was dismissed, and Tobi ran over and hugged him, which prompted the Uchiha to shove him away angrily.
Unfazed, Tobi turned on his heel and ran over to Kisame and hugged him as well. The shark man froze, not sure how to respond. The last thing most people wanted to do when they saw him was hug him, considering he was an S-rank criminal mutant shark man, so Tobi's action caught him off guard, and the masked apprentice had already run off back to the base before he had recovered enough to say something.
"...I don't like him." Itachi said bluntly.
"He's weird... Other than the fact he doesn't seem to be a criminal, I'd say he belongs here."
Itachi just grunted in response, sauntering back to the base like the badass he was, trying to ignore the fact he had just been hugged by a complete idiot.
'I hope Deidara blows him up...'