Paper Mountains

Chapter 6: chilly dispositions

"Now, however, I'd like to know about you, Jinyama Sagami."

Raasu blinked away her initial shock quickly, much to Kisame's disappointment. He loved when his leader got the jump on an unsuspecting foe. Pein never told them his plans before they occurred, which was a blessing and a curse, but something to get used to in Akatsuki. For the young Taki-nin, Kisame was fairly certain she had not suspected the thoroughness of Pein's research into her background. After all, it had only been a short odd week since she had appeared in front of himself. Kisame had no idea the nin had any name besides the one she introduced to them, nor did he care much, but by the stricken look on her face, it was obvious she was surprised, and that pleased him.

Akatsuki was a very resourceful organization. Sagami Raasu was the name on her shinobi papers; Jinyama, her family name, was to her knowledge unassociated with her shinobi status. Takigakure only pressed her for information about her background long enough to learn it was civilian – shinobi villages tended to be interested only in shinobi bloodlines. By touting her family name, Akatsuki was taunting her.

"Jounin," Pein read further, "but no prior ranking history." He was trying to intimidate her in as few words as possible.

"Yes," she confirmed, stuttering. "I am a jounin of Takigakure." What of it?

"Takigakure chose you to represent their shinobi class, and therefore, you are of interest." Konan explained. "Hoshigaki-san informed me about your fight with those ANBU." Raasu refocused on her face to the right of Pein's. Her manner of speaking was more formal than her counterpart's. Her hair was blue, only a little darker than Raasu's own. She looked like steel and silk and very pretty. "Tell me why you were selected for this mission," she finished. Her lips moved softly and her eyes were full of solemn interest.

Raasu mimed her face to the image of compliance. So that was what they wondered. They already knew her combat was up to par with Konoha standard ANBU. That was a must, since Akatsuki's prowess was infamy; they would not truce with just anyone – it must be both strategically and combatively advantageous.

"I am sufficiently ranked in taijutsu and ninjutsu. My stamina is above average. I have served Takigakure for seven years, three of which as a political representative. I am versed in history of the shinobi world. There are others like me, and many far outrank me who might have been chosen for this mission, but I do possess one trait which is essential to success: absolute loyalty to Takigakure." She fixed her eyes on Konan's veiled purples. "Takigakure is not so foolish as to think that sending a lone liaison to a criminal organization does not have the risk of said liaison switching sides. My village trusts that I am not the type of person to consider it. Others might have been."

Kisame reacted with a snort of muffled laughter, which Konan ignored. She nodded, seemingly satisfied, then looked to Pein. Their eyes met and like the flash of understanding between the Hoshigaki and the Uchiha, some message passed between Pein and Konan. When Pein turned back to look at Raasu, there was a mysterious force behind his eyes, like the swirling winds of a particularly fierce storm.

The remaining short time of the meeting was a quick back-and-forth overview of the scrolls Raasu stole from Konoha and a sketch of how they might be used to convince other shinobi nations to join Takigakure's underlying dissent. She was not so foolish as to tell them exactly which nations were on the short list of potential allies.

Ultimately, she closed the meeting with another bow. "Thank you for granting me this audience."

"Hm," Pein affirmed. He spoke to the entire gathered group. "Entertain yourselves within this base until I disperse assignments. Jinyama, I will call for you when I have decided how to proceed. Dismissed."

The sight of him without his Akatsuki cloak quieted her, and she slowed down her walk. There was his face, seen in its entirety for the first time – not half-obscured by the high collar of his Akatsuki coat, or misshapen by the dying light of a campfire. There were his eyes, the same eyes she'd already met a hundred times, atop a face that was by all accounts supposed to be tinged with demonic fury. Instead it was just… a face. She stared, unabashedly taking in soft features and a feathery grace she hadn't in a million years expected from the Uchiha.

"Myojinyama," he stopped her.

She stiffened at his addition of 'Myo', the prefix to Jinyama that was dropped in her parent's generation, but she put that on the back burner for now. She hadn't forgotten the earlier intense radiation from him that was not quite killing intent, and was wary about encountering him alone. Even now, his aura was clouded with black mist in her mind's eye. "Yes, Uchiha-san?"

Sagami was twenty, and at that moment she was made aware of Uchiha Itachi – as a person. Beyond the threatening aura, the confined air of the tunnel gave his voice a velvety depth. They hadn't spoken since before her introduction.

"There is no need to wear our cloaks within this space," he informed her. She nodded, keeping her eyes firmly fixed at the bridge of his nose, catching every twitch of his deadly eyes. "Having them at our meeting was a formality." And a scare tactic, she thought, meant to make their imposing organization seem all the more threatening.

She nodded again, not quite trusting her voice to be steady with their solitude and his dark presence. The realization that she'd made the automatic classification of 'attractive' – and about her age – pushed to the front of her awareness, sparking a bit of anger in her.

"You are not afraid to look me in the eye. Why?"

The question puzzled her. Surely he knew that she was very, very afraid of him? That fear had nothing to do with the choice to meet his sharingan? She mustered her courage to answer. "I will never defeat you. No matter how strong I become, I will never reach your level. So avoiding your genjutsu will not make a difference in whether I live or die," she pointed out, gaining ground. "But it will make a difference in how seriously you take me. A bashful kunoichi is beneath your notice, but one who looks into your doujutsu unflinchingly is worth her salt." As if to prove it, Raasu flicked her eyes from red to red, willing her racing brain to still.

Itachi's stone gaze looked down his nose at the shinobi in front of him. Somehow he couldn't picture her 'bashful'. "A wise observation." He spoke without appearing to move a muscle.

Not knowing what to say and being entirely confused about the exchange, Raasu fell into silence. She was about to start walking when he inexplicably spoke again, changing the subject. "You hate me."

She struggled with her words, at a loss. She couldn't fathom the motive behind his inquisition. But of course she hated him; she hated all missing-nins. People who have abandoned the village that gave them life and purpose were a low form of scum. She had accepted the mission with mixed thoughts: on one hand, she sneered the idea of making deals with criminals; on the other, the value of their power over the shinobi world and their ability to strike fear in their enemies was better served for Takigakure than against it. And when her mission proved successful, it would boost her standing as a shinobi and add a tick or two to her list of abilities.

At the end of the day, though, Raasu was not here as herself; she was here as an extension of Takigakure. She represented their interests and in some cases made decisions on their behalf. She was expected to handle delicate situations… delicately. And by that she meant that under no circumstances was she to goad, anger, threaten, or otherwise antagonize any of the group's members. Sometimes that might mean keeping her personal opinions… personal.

"You're mistaken, Uchiha-san, and I'm sorry if I've given you that impression," she replied evenly, straightening her back a little and making her expression blank. "I do not hate you." Perhaps there was a way to handle this line of questioning both delicately and personally.

He cocked his head, inviting her to continue.

"I'll not deny that I have little respect for missing-nin," she conceded. "Nor will I deny that I often wonder what goes through your head. But my purpose here has no patience for petty emotions like 'hate'. I distrust you. I find you uncomfortable. I am afraid of you. But I do not hate you." Her eyes darkened, thinking.

"I've read your file – you real file, the one in the Konoha library of records," she supplied.

"Hm," he declined to comment, not asking her to which of his many files she was referring.

"By age thirteen, you'd already committed all of the acts for which you are internationally known, both commendable and sickening." She shook her head, something twisted in her gut, making her wonder if she should just keep her mouth shut, but the curious part of her was insatiable. "Please stop me, Uchiha-san, when I overstep. Stop me if you would rather I not speak about this."

"I opened the door, Myojinyama-san. Continue." Again her extended family name, this time with a twist of a joke in his voice.

"I read your file," she repeated carefully. "When you were thirteen, you murdered…your clan…in pursuit of power – it was a test of how far you'd come at the time. You told that to your brother, who you tortured that night." She molded her phrasing carefully to avoid sounding accusatory.

Itachi regarded her carefully. No one talked to him candidly about his past. Her presence at Akatsuki was surely an interesting experiment in interaction with outsiders. "Hm," he said again, neither confirming nor denying.

"But if I am being frank with you, which I believe that I am," she was speeding up her words, and forced them to slow down. "It doesn't make sense," she enunciated slowly. "Little of note shows up on your record after you left Konoha. Nothing to the same scale as what happened there. If you were interested in pursuing ultimate power, the slaying of your family and abandonment of Konoha should have been the beginning, not the pinnacle. Yet here you are, six years later, to all accounts doing very little other than following orders… Certainly not pushing yourself towards greater gain. If you were in pursuit of absolute power, shouldn't you be leading Akatsuki?"

He moved so fast she only blinked and his hand was on her, throwing her backwards with such force that her heels scraped the floor. They would have crashed into the wall of the tunnel had Itachi not performed some invisible space-time jutsu, sending her through it – literally.

The abrupt distortion made her insides turn over, and Raasu would have crumpled to the floor if Itachi hadn't kept moving forward, propelling them both through the room that existed behind the wall. This time when they came to the far wall she crashed into it, his forearm keeping her pinned.

Raasu stared at him through dizziness and nausea, affronted by the invasion of her person – even if she had been voicing delicate assumptions about him. The nerve! Briefly she felt the impression that while she wasn't exactly surprised by his sudden assault, she was afraid of what he might do, and through her stare she might have seen the same conclusion in his eyes.

"You know who I am, and yet you provoke me." His eyes bore into her blue ones. "But if you think that I am the one to be afraid of, then you do not know Pein," he whispered, his voice a low hiss. "Nod if you understand."

Blue eyes widened a smidge. Understand… was he warning her? Itachi must have seen the confusion in her expression. "I am a subordinate of this organization, like you." He spoke more plainly, still in a whisper. "It would not be wise to give him the impression that you question his authority by questioning why I do not lead." There was a frightening intensity in his tenor voice. "Nod if you understand."

She opened her mouth to say that Pein's leadership wasn't under question, it was your motives only, but closed it after considering that one thought might reasonably follow from the other, so the semantic difference didn't matter. She nodded.

He removed his arm and Raasu braced herself against the wall, lips a firm line, bright eyes trained on his movements. His expression was blank as ever but he still stared at her with elevated intensity. Even in near darkness his eyes were bright enough for her to study the details of his black tomoe.

As the moment stretched out, Raasu felt that the Uchiha was regarding her as if measuring something, and she stayed still as a mouse under his gaze. He wore no weapons, not that it made him any less dangerous.

In the almost darkness his eyes glowed crimson, a bright and tainted neon of pure color. Raasu stared into them, sinking into the depths of his irises. She felt her fear rising as clearly as a trickle of icy water down her spine and promptly squashed it with a burst of frustration and a clench of her jaw. What right did he have to frighten her with his existence? What gave him the right to wave her father's name in her face? By what right did she deserve to be afraid? The taste of her fear made her want him to measure her. To show him that she may be afraid, but her fear was unconscious and unwanted and did not hold her sway. How many times now had she stared the sharingan in the eye? 100? 200? And he'd used them on her twice and she still looked.

All too soon or not soon enough (she would swear she wasn't sure which), the corner of his mouth twitched and he turned to leave. Raasu stayed motionless, daring not even to breathe. Seemingly as an afterthought, he turned around halfway to the door. Raasu watched his lips move in profile. "My father would have appreciated you," he said quietly before disappearing.

She stayed upright for a while, though trembling like a kitten against the wall.

Thoughts whirling, she sank down along the wall to rest on the floor. My father would have appreciated you. The sentence was so unfathomable she thought maybe she'd misheard him.

Belatedly she realized the room he'd shoved her into was hers.

She shivered. The Uchiha gave her a bitter taste of the Akatsuki underbelly and much to think about in the fewest words possible. There were things hidden about Pein that the Uchiha alluded to – things she wanted absolutely no knowledge of. They were a functioning unit to her and to her village and despite knowing their biographies on an individual level, they must stay as a unit.

These things about the organization hidden to the public eye were things she wanted no part in. Do your job and get out, a part of her whispered. Don't stick your neck out, don't get involved in whatever may or may not be happening internally. What if, when this was all over and done, Takigakure ordered her to Rain as a permanent liaison? She shivered at the thought. No, they wouldn't do that to her.

Against her wishes she thought back to the Uchiha's last line. My father would have appreciated you. What did that mean, and what had compelled him to vocalize it? His father… his father.

Uchiha Fugaku, patriarch of the Uchiha clan. Raasu all but buried her face in her hands. Uchiha Fugaku would have appreciated her… was that so? She couldn't say why, but somewhere inside she was satisfied by the notion. Yet the Uchiha – Itachi…had murdered his father, so there was that, she thought wryly.

Meddling in Akatsuki affairs brought only trouble, she decided. Her village would attack Konoha soon, and she would be rid of them then. It could not come fast enough.

When Raasu woke, it was just as dark as when she'd fallen asleep, since there was no natural light beneath the mountain range. Her internal clock was probably correct, so it should be early to mid-morning. She supposed it didn't matter. Her mission was progressing; all she had to do now was make herself available when Pein called for her.

She rose quietly, flexing the sleep out of her joints. Her arms curled around her body protectively. She thought more about the sparse emptiness of the Akatsuki base. It was so… unimposing. Unremarkable. Small, even. The feeling of stale air returned to her, with the desire to have a drink of clean water.

Water would calm her, bring her back to herself. It was a human's lifeblood as well as the lifeblood of her village, country, and the earth itself. Takigakure practically worshipped the waterfalls, and all ninja from there were bound to be proficient in techniques stemming from the acquiring, molding, and manipulating of water. Raasu was no different – most of her jutsu were water-based.

However, an entirely uninviting figure had his back to her when she stepped into the meager kitchen area in search of a glass and faucet. She took a step back, not wanting to face this particular person in a closed space, individually at that.

He suddenly slammed the refrigerator door, jarring all of its contents and making her jump. "Do you have a problem with me, Jinyama?" He rounded on her, approaching with closed fists.

"Of course not, Kakuzu-san," she whispered, brow creased. She braced for a fight; the Kakuzu of her folk tales was mean, manipulative, and tempered dangerously, and absolutely nothing had provoked him to snap at her just now. His profile fit so much better to the demon tyrade than the Uchiha's polite external demeanor. She remembered how calm and silent Kakuzu was in the chamber; this was something else. So Pein kept his dogs on short leashes when he was around, Raasu kept the thought to herself.

"No conflict of interest working with my goals that would offend your sensibilities?" the man continued. She shook her head. Takigakure knew Kakuzu was alive and operating in Akatsuki. Her mission had nothing to do with the traitor. "Good. Stay away from me."

Raasu snorted. As if she wanted anything but to be far, far away from him.

"Something funny?" His voice was deep and confident. He baited her, but where the Hoshigaki's baiting was lighthearted, his was malicious.

"I have nothing to say to you, Kakuzu-san," her hands flinched into fists, which made him laugh at her involuntary fear.

"That's a shame," he bellowed. "I have much to say to you. I guess I'll talk, and you'll just have to listen. Sit down," he commanded. She obeyed, thinking very much about her recent resolve to stay out of Akatsuki affairs.

"I hear you're versed in history, which no doubt includes my history." He put his hands up to his face and held them clasped together, looking at her over the top of them. His green eyes were abnormal, she noticed. "You're interested in the truth? I'll give you the truth, then."

He was lying – he had to be. His version of his story was fantastical; crazy, even. According to the missing-nin, Takgakure had sent him in secret to assassinate the Hokage when he was near her age. He failed, and upon his return, Takigakure changed their story and branded him a traitor to avoid conflict with Konoha; allegedly to cover up the fact that they had attempted a takeover.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Raasu listened with wide eyes and a burning sense of dread. He must be lying.

"I've lived a lifetime since then, but your mission and Takigakure's plans are not such a far cry from my past life. You're still young. I may be a missing-nin, but I'll take the chance to save one of my own from corruption."

Corruption? She thinned her lips. "You're not one of my own, Kakuzu-san," she struck out boldly. "And I take it you will not be sent to Takigakure with me?"

He smirked. "Wouldn't that be fun? Don't count on it, princess. It's Itachi and Kisame. You're stuck with them." He knew what of Pein's plans? Was that because he held power in the organization, or had Pein already announced his intentions? Stuck.

"Come with me," the large man grunted through his face veil. "We have business."

She couldn't argue with that, thinking Pein was ready to speak with her. Only, when she followed him into the same domed chamber from her audience, Pein wasn't there. No one was there, except Oshiro Tenzen, Kakuzu's partner. He lounged against the table, a smirk settled on his face.

Kakuzu walked to the center of the chamber before turning and settling into a boar stance.

"What do they teach young meat nowadays, hm?" Kakuzu cracked his knuckles.

Raasu frowned. "Oh no, I don't think so." She crossed her arms to emphasize her dislike of the situation.

"Keh," he huffed. "Such arrogance from a member of my home village." Kakuzu spoke of Taki as a fond, long-distant memory. It was a stark contrast to Kisame's bare contempt for Kiri.

"I will not fight you, Kakuzu-san," she said.

"Well then," Oshiro Tenzen shrugged, stepping forward. "You leave us little choice."

She felt his killing intent reach down to her from the cavernous roof and dodged. A bolt of lightning struck the place she just stood, scorching the packed earth. They wouldn't harm her outright. She believed that when dealing with the Hoshigaki and the Uchiha, or her mission would have gone nowhere. With these two it was a different situation entirely. She felt his killing intent. The pair of them cornered her to force her to show them what she knew.

"You make me sick, Taki," he taunted as she dodged another bolt.

No good, she thought – her choice was to fight or flee. And she would not flee from Takigakure's most wanted. But water conducts electricity, so her element would be weak against Tenzen's. Maybe she could use that to her advantage…

Next time a deadly bolt fired down, her hand was already arching up, trailing a gasping stream of water. The cavern flashed yellow, then blue as the lightning flashed through her water. She danced under his lightning twice more before splitting into shadow clones. There was nowhere in the vast space for her to hide, so she hid among her clones. Then, she launched forward, kunai in hand.

Thinking her first move would be to send a clone to attack him directly, Tenzen went for the one hanging back, assuming it was the real Raasu. That was part of her plan, though. His lightning struck down and her rear clone burst, its water clinging to his skin and drawing the bolt straight to him.

At the same time, Raasu felt rather than saw the Uchiha come into the cavern as a shadow, and she turned in time to see him and the Hoshigaki materialize, wondering what the devil was causing the commotion.

Tenzen used her momentary lack of attention on him to his advantage, throwing a bolt that Raasu barely had time to deflect. Then it was the same dance and deflection around the room. Disappointingly, the nin must be impervious to his own electricity even in a direct strike.

One false step and she stumbled, throwing out a hand to catch herself and drawing a triumphant sneer from Tenzen. Electricity shot into her hand, making it spasm. She gasped and caught her wrist with her opposite hand, gripping the pained limb that twitched and fell numb as the lightning master's chakra dispersed. Another bolt raced for her midsection and she dodged, throwing herself to one side and hitting the ground hard on her shoulder.

She cursed as she threw chakra into her down side, propelling herself back upright with a huff and a shallow indentation in the stone ground. The fight was getting out of hand; she could theoretically dodge longer than he could throw bolts, but her accuracy would continue to decrease and mistakes were more likely. She was also at a disadvantage with her Water against his Lightning.

With that in mind, Raasu split back into clones and rushed in vertical formation. This time when his bolts rained down, her clones did the work for her, deflecting their deadly strikes and bursting on impact so she could continue her forward assault. The former Kumo nin was a long-range fighter, so her new strategy was to keep him within arm's length. Her numbed arm flexed and renewed energy coursed through her. It still tingled, but was usable.

Three steps from him she lunged, swinging out an elbow, and he dodged to her right. His lightning-imbued palm struck out, trying to hit her bruised forward shoulder, but she countered with a strike of her own, across her chest and grounded. Electricity burned into her skin as she made contact, but not too badly and she gripped his wrist and leveraged him forwards into her waiting backhand.

"Che," he huffed, stabilizing himself and charging up for his next move. "Is that all you can do with water? Pathetic next to my lightning," he taunted.

Raasu was on him again, narrowing her eyes. Water burst from her remaining clones, swirling above their heads. His leg kicked upwards and she rolled into it, swerving away and making a kick of her own, which he blocked with another charged fist. He was skilled with his elemental jutsu, but lightning was notorious for leaking chakra in all directions once converted. Raasu did a little converting of her own, adding to the array of moisture around her body and his. Opponents didn't like being wet, typically. It made them cold and slow. Hopefully it would further confuse the electricity, adding to the diffusion and draining his chakra rapidly. He must have sensed this because he ceased the flow of electricity through his skin. Instead he made to jab at her face and strike out with his knee in the same motion.

She flipped back out of range and closed her eyes to focus her next jutsu. Rain, she commanded. The water above hovered a moment longer before pelting down across the room. Droplets elongated with the speed of their descent. She was no ice master, but through sheer speed water could be just as deadly, pelting her opponent with thousands of fractional steely blue needles. It was, as Kakuzu might know, a standard in Takigakure for shinobi of jounin and higher. Tenzen could block some with lightning armor, but it would still hurt him.

"Tenzen," the word rang deep in the cavern, like a command. No one else attacked her, so she let her water sink back into the earth and opened her eyes, lowering her hands to her sides. It was Kakuzu who spoke and who was now leaning against one wall, arms folded and looking at her down his nose. He nodded to her. Surprised, she nodded back.

Kakuzu's partner would be fine; his body was covered in purple pinpoints where her rain had met skin. The negative charge had stabilized to neutral, so the air was no longer tinged with static. Tenzen grimaced, then grinned. "I'd stay to make you as purple as me, but my partner says otherwise."

"Taki," the Hoshigaki called out. He jerked his head, indicating he wanted her to come with him. The Uchiha was already walking back out. She followed, pinching the bridge of her nose. Stuck, indeed. What a mess.

A/N: Have I mentioned that I love reviews? Additionally, you can find me on tumblr under the same name.