Wow, thanks to everyone reading this! Here's chapter six!
I don't own Naruto or Umineko, believe it!
I should stop using exclamation marks now!
Kakashi awoke to the sound of frantic knocking on the door to his room. He instantly was on the alert, and stepped out of bed, crossing quickly to the door. He twisted the dull brass door-handle and it swung open, revealing Shikamaru. Kakashi knew at that moment that something was definitely wrong, from the way Shikamaru's face was covering in sweat, and was lit up by an expression of shock. The door swung shut behind him as he exited the room.
"What's wrong?" He asked quickly, his tone on edge.
"Kakashi-sensei, I was just coming to check that you were alright, I still don't trust the Akatsuki to stick to their word after all…"
"Yes, and?" Kakashi replied, looking at Shikamaru with an expression of urgency.
"I saw…well…" Shikamaru couldn't seem to be able to find words for it. He pointed at something behind Kakashi.
Kakashi turned and his eyes narrowed. He took a couple of steps backward into the corridor to look at it properly.
Shikamaru was pointing at the back of the door to Kakashi's room, the side that faced out into the corridor. It was covered from the top to the bottom with handprints. Crimson handprints and slashes in the wood and deep gouged marks that looked like they had been made by scraping fingernails, or claws down the surface. Around the red handprints were more areas of the red substance, spattering the wood randomly.
"It's blood." Shikamaru said quietly. He lifted his hand. From where he had been knocking on the door, his hand was covered in the sticky red material.
"It can't have been here that long…it's still wet." Kakashi observed, trying to stay calm. He didn't know why it vexed him so, and put his insides on edge. He worked with death and blood at a daily basis, so why was this making him want to yell out loud? He guessed the loss of his chakra and abilities made him feel weak and vulnerable, which he was, in a way.
"Go and wake the others, and bring them to the main dining room. Fetch the Akatsuki as well; I expect that this is their doing." Kakashi instructed Shikamaru, who quickly nodded and ran down the corridor to find Tenten, Hanabi, Kiba, Hinata, Lee and Neji. Kakashi walked away in the opposite direction, towards the dining, so that he could do some thinking. Why would the Akatsuki do that? Was it meant to scare him? To drive them away so that the Akatsuki could get on with their objective in peace? Kakashi signed, and absent minded drew out of his pocket, the charm that Hinata had given him last night. He looked at the pattern inscribed upon it and shrugged. Probably not important, he thought. He put it away and proceeded into the dining room.
In about ten minutes, the room was filled with the Akatsuki and the leaf ninja. Kakashi narrowed his eyes as he did a quick headcount.
"Hang on," He said, "Shikamaru, I told you to fetch everyone. Where are Hinata, Kiba and Lee? Plus, I see that some of the Akatsuki are absent as well…"
Shikamaru scratched the back of his head.
"Well, that's just the thing…" He began, and looked at Neji.
"Neither Kiba, Akumaru nor Lee returned to their rooms this morning. In fact, I haven't seen them since yesterday evening." Neji explained his voice deadly serious.
"It's the same for me," Tenten added, "Hinata hasn't appeared yet either."
Hanabi remained quiet, looking up at everyone with an impassive face.
"I trust our 'allies' here know something about it!" Tenten said, here eyes full of loathing as she looked at the Akatsuki.
Pein uncrossed his arms and looked at Kakashi.
"None of us left our rooms last night, apart from Kisame, Itachi and Zetsu who were on watch duty." He made clear, "And so far, we haven't heard from or seen them since last night either."
"That's strange…" Sasori said, and all eyes turned to him. "Its not like Itachi to go gallivanting off to explore…he usually gets straight to the point, don't you agree Deidara?"
Deidara went red and looked like he was about to argue with his partner, until Pein silenced him with a hand.
"Despite the storm, I believe that we ought to split up and try and find them, considering the events of this morning and last night. I have a bad feeling about this…" Kakashi said, looking through the large window to the gardens outside, where the wind and the rain continued to punish the great house.
"I suggest we assign one Leaf ninja to each Akatsuki member. I know there are more of them, so there will be some groups of three. I repeat, anything that goes against our temporary alliance will have consequences. Do you agree?"
"Yes. It is a good plan. If any of my organization harms your comrades, they will be punished, although I take it the same goes for you."
Kakashi nodded.
"Lee, go with the red-haired one, Tenten, you're with Deidara, Neji, I want you to stay close to Hidan and Kakuzu and Shikamaru go with the one in the orange mask. I will accompany Pein and Konan. This way, we will be able to keep tabs on what the other party is doing. Here," Kakashi took out several sets of radio communication units, "Put these on and notify me if they do anything against our interests."
The leaf ninja each took one. Pein spoke up.
"Fine. We meet back here in one hour. If anything happens, notify us and we meet here immediately. Dismissed."
The groups quickly left the dining room, Hanabi following after Tenten, who she had temporarily attached herself to.
Kakashi looked at Pein's emotionless face as they strode up the corridor to start their search in the upper levels of the great old house. Suddenly, Pein put his hand into the pouch that was attached to his belt, and drew out a key.
"We found five of these, in what must have been the servant's quarters, when we arrived here." He said.
"Take one. I have already distributed the others among the more trusted members of my orginistaion, and I feel it would compromise out temporary alliance if I kept them from you."
Kakashi took it and placed it in his pocket, before the three of them continued their search.
Meanwhile, Deidara, Tenten and Hanabi were working their way through the overgrown gardens that decorated the grounds outside the house. Tenten kept a kunai in her hand at all times, incase they either hit some sort of danger, or her 'team member' decided to go against his leader's promise. She would never trust any Akatsuki member. Then again, Deidara wasn't looking particularly happy either. She guessed he was pretty much useless without that exploding clay of his, although he probably still had some basic taijutsu training.
"Hey! What's that building over their?" Hanabi piped up, tugging on Tenten's sleeve to get attention. She was pointing at the tome of a roof that they could see just over the line of shrubs ahead of them.
"I don't know. Deidara?"
"It's an old storehouse. We found it when we first got here. There was nothing of interest inside, un." He replied.
"Even so, we ought to check it out." Tenten said, and began to walk off in that directing, Hanabi hurrying along behind her. Deidara rolled his eyes. No-one ever listened did they? She crossed his arms and waited for her return. A minute passed.
"Deidara! Deidara come quick! You have to see this!" Came a frantic yell in her direction. Deidara was instantly on the alert and ran forward to find the source of her surprise.
At that moment, Kakashi, Konan and Pein were descending the ladder from the attic of the vast house, having found nothing to aid their search in the slightest. Suddenly, Kakashi's com unit began to fizzle and crackle, and he heard Tenten's voice.
"What is it?" He asked quickly, "Have you found anything?"
"You all need to see this…we're at the old storehouse…" Came her voice. It was strangely quiet, and sounded as if she was in shock.
"We'll be right there." Kakashi replied. With a look at Konan and Pein, they ran quickly to round up the others in order that they could all meet Tenten's group.
Ten minutes later, all twelve of them were standing facing the large door to the storehouse, their faces full of mixed feelings. Hanabi was smiling widely; Tenten stared up with a look of shock, like most of the others. However, Kakashi, Neji, Pein and some of the older Akatsuki members looked at the sight with serious expressions.
Painted onto the wide wooden frame was some kind of symbol. It was huge and covered the entire surface, with strange letterings and words decorating the different parts. It was shaped like a huge circle, with a five-pointed star in the middle. What ever the symbol was supposed to mean, it reminded Tenten of the diagrams and symbols she had seen as a child, from a book in the Konoha library about the occult…
"It's painted with blood again." Shikamaru observed, his voice sounded strained.
The group went silent for a minute.
"I suggest we look inside this building, we might find something."
"Leader, its locked. We already tried opening it."
"That's weird…" Hidan said thoughtfully, "We left the damn thing open yesterday."
Pein walked forward, taking out his key to the storehouse. It clicked in the lock. He then took hold of one of the rusted handles on the door, and opened it. Almost everyone recoiled as a stench his them from the closed room.
"Aurgh," Exclaimed Hidan, "What is that sme…"
Suddenly, Tenten let out a scream that tore through the air, making everyone jump. She ran forward towards into the storehouse as Kakashi stepped in to look at what had triggered her sudden outburst…