Author's Note:
Dear god, people, you are upsetting me. THANK YOU TO YAPOOK, WHO OH-SO-KINDLY REVIEWED, LIKE THE GOOD LITTLE READER HE/SHE IS.Thank you for your input. Oh, and Sasuke will not be the only person I kill. Actually, I'm really just using this fanfiction to rewrite Naruto the way I want it to be.
And again, Echo Uchiha, PLEASE DON'T JUST SAY "SWEET" AND COUNT THAT AS A REVIEW. NOT HELPFUL, AND ANNOYING AT THAT.
Sigh… I so lonely…
Disclaimer. I don't own it yet, but I will own it in the future. In the meantime, Masashi Kishimoto is holding it captive. And ruining the storyline.
Itachi and Kisame were fallowing the trail of singed plants (results of Fallyn's low flight) through the forest near Konohagakure. They were on complete guard, ready to run if any patrolling village ninja showed up.
Further on the trail ended abruptly, and the imprint of a large and skinny body was still in dead grass. As Kisame examined the print to decipher how long ago Fallyn had been there, something red and black in the bushes caught Itachi's eye.
He walked past Kisame, who was babbling about scent and chakra remnants, etc. etc., and reached his hand under the bush. He gripped something crusty and clumped, and pulled out the blood-encrusted severed head of his younger brother. The glossy dead eyes stared blankly into space, completely untouched by decay. Kisame stopped prattling, and stared at Itachi as he raised his younger brother's head by the bloody hair to look it in its lifeless eyes. He quickly turned away though, when he saw Itachi's hand reach up and prepare to remove the eyes from the boy's sockets. He started mumbling again, to avoid hearing the sound of eyeballs.
When he turned again, Itachi was facing away from him. His own two eyes were discarded on the grassy floor, and Kisame could hear a slightly stomach-turning squish as Itachi put in his new ones.
When Itachi turned and blinked, his Sharingan was already changing. Kisame was the first to come face to face with the Uchiha brothers' Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. He didn't feel very honored.
He stood, and with a small nod they started to make their way to Konoha.
When Fallyn woke, she was still strapped to the table. Her leg burned with a steady hum, and the early hints of a migraine were tugging at her head. The room was empty.
"I…don't wanna wake up yet…" she mumbled, and half-heartedly tugged at the leather.
There was no noise outside of the closed door. There was only a constant mechanical hum and the occasional flicker of one of the dimmed lights dying out. It annoyed the hell out of the edgy girl strapped to the table in a foreign dimension.
She tried to force herself to relax and ignore the growing sense of tension rising in her gut courtesy of her manic claustrophobia. Through closed eyes, she willed herself to think about other things and tone out the hospital noises.
The first distraction that came to her mind, though, was Pein. She started, and her eyes shot open. What the fuck was that? she thought, eyes panicked. Sure, the guy used to be her favorite character, but he was a jackass in real life. Still, she couldn't help but give a small smile when she remembered him kicking Hidan in the face, and his expression when she knocked him out of her chair… Shut up. That's only two things. And a really crappy excuse for thinking about him, she told herself angrily. Then another voice became heard in her consciousness; a very familiar companion, the Eleven Tails.
Aww, has someone developed a small crush? Hm? Looks like you aren't homosexual after all, girl, it taunted.
Fallyn narrowed her eyes. Go away, creature, you aren't welcome to have a conversation with my mind. And NO, I don't have a CRUSH on him. And there was never any homosexual tendencies going through my mind and you know that, seeing as though you like to comb through my every thought.
She felt its…whatever it was in her mind… leave. She sighed in relief. Another image of Pein flashed through her mind, and she quickly smothered it and started thinking to herself again.
You've personally know the guy for, what, three days? Four? Just because he was your favorite character in an anime shouldn't add points. Seriously, you stupid subconscious, get out of some anime dream world.
Before her mind could respond, the door burst open. Her eyes flew shut, and she struggled to keep her heart rate down, pretending to sleep. Two people walked to opposite sides of the table and quickly unstrapped her. They moved her gently onto a stretcher and smoothly walked down the hall, the movement from their footsteps not noticeable from the linen she was lying on.
They came to a halt, and dropped the stretcher. Seriously, after all the trouble of being gentle, they rudely dropped her onto the cold tile floor.
Fallyn shot straight up, and before she could realize it was in a fighting stance. "What the fuck?" she said, thoroughly disgruntled. But the people who had carried her were gone.
Suddenly her feet were swept out from under her, her arms pinned painfully to her back, and her face shoved into the ground. She didn't even have the time to cry out; the wind was knocked out of her before she could react. Gasping, she turned her eyes to face her assailant. In the dim hospital light, she could see nothing but the distinctive features of a male and an undeniably familiar windswept and spiked hairstyle.
"Now now, calm down, girl," he hissed in a scolding tenor voice, increasing the pressure on her wrists. "You're going to have a little late night meeting with the Fifth Hokage, so I'd instruct you to lower your temper, if you know what's good for you. You wouldn't want to enrage Lady Fifth, or your punishment might be a little tougher than it already is, what with you being affiliated with the Akatsuki and all."
Fallyn said nothing. After the man saw that she wouldn't give him the pleasure of a reaction, he climbed off of her and brushed himself off. She was up in an instant, and confirmed that her guess was true.
Hatake Kakashi.
They had been spotted. It was a mistake, really. A wild cat had launched itself at Kisame, and instinctively he had drawn Samehada to slice it cleanly in half. But that wasn't the only thing that had been butchered; Samehada's considerable size had also accidentally taken down a few trees. And as we all should know, a couple tons of wood doesn't fall silently.
Once the guarding squad had come to investigate, all they saw was a flash of a red cloud before all traces of the two rogue ninja had disappeared. Startled, they had raced back to tell Tsunade that they had sighted some Akatsuki. This led to the correct assumption that the two Akatsuki had come for the Jinchuuriki that the Leaf had successfully captured. In the end, it only got Fallyn in trouble and Itachi extremely aggravated at Kisame.
Now the two criminals had to be even more cautious, making sure that even the slightest noise that had to be made was covered by a natural forest sound. That made for slow progression.
Kisame was not pleased with himself. This whole silence thing didn't go very well for him; he was a big man with a big sword, and didn't like to sneak around. Brute force was more his thing, but he knew that he couldn't take on a whole village. There was nothing he could do, and it pissed him off.
Itachi was extremely unpleased with Kisame. Being smaller and less vocal, silence was one of his more favored tactics. But with his cover blown, his advantage was gone, and the Konoha shinobi were prepared to attack. He was dying to test his new Sharingan, and he had to admit that this was the perfect time, but he had a mission at hand. And a very exasperated Pein, whose assist at world domination had slipped out of his hands, was waiting for him to come back successful or not come back at all.
Their sulking was interrupted by the snap of a twig in a nearby bush. Immediately they were still, muscles poised to fight. Slowly, they circled around the bush, daring whatever was inside to come out.
It was Tobi. The orange masked man flew out of the bush, straight up, frantically waving his hands back and forth and scream-whispering, "No! No, Kisame-senpai and Itachi- san, don't kill Tobi! Tobi just wanted to heeelp!"
Both men nearly jumped out of their skins when he shot out, but quickly relaxed. "Tobi," hissed Kisame, "What the hell are you doing here?"
He started babbling, but Itachi quickly hushed them all. "Tobi," he said, strained but calm, "I have an idea. But I need your…abilities… to help get Fallyn-chan out of the village."
Tobi stopped flailing, and gained a more sober demeanor. "Ah, so that's where the Jinchuuriki's hiding," he said in a deep tenor voice. Behind the swirled mask he smirked, mind racing to come up with a new plan to accommodate the crucial new addition to his organization.
"So tell me, Itachi, what is this plan?"
"Alright, so Itachi and Kisame found the base he was holding Fallyn in, and she had escaped, so they trailed her, and found out she was in Konoha. And Tobi went to…help. That's it?" said Pein, who had calmed down and was now assessing the situation with the appropriate behavior that a leader of an S-class criminal organization should. He continued to tell himself he only went into hysterics because he had such a powerful card to play and it was stolen from right under his nose. It was easy to believe.
Zetsu, who had traveled unnoticed beside the two ninja trailing the missing girl until Tobi had it under control, had come back to report to Pein and receive new orders.
Pein sighed. This is exactly why he had gone through all the trouble of traveling to the girl's dimension to take her first; so that Konoha wouldn't get her. All wasted. And he hated it when his time was wasted. He hoped something beneficial would come out of this whole thing.
He snapped out of his reverie, and looked sullenly down at Zetsu. "Continue watching what happens; inform me if reinforcements need to be sent out. Dismissed," he said with as must authority he could muster in his slump.
This was getting annoying.
Fallyn was rudely shoved into the Hogake's room, lit with candles. Shizune was standing faithfully to the right side of a giant desk, for once clear of papers. Lady Fifth, the one in charge of it all, sat with eyebrows were furrowed and hands interlocked in front of her moth. Her hair was slightly disheveled and her clothes weren't tied all the way; Fallyn wouldn't have been surprised if she had woken up very recently to be there. It was almost two in the morning, after all.
The room reeked of alcohol, and two empty sake bottles were in the trash can beside the massive desk. Lovely. She was drunk.
Behind her Fallyn was entranced by the village. Lanterns and light dappled the houses like fireflies. She snapped out of her trance when she realized that Tsunade was speaking.
"Huh?" she said, confused.
The blonde haired woman's eyes narrowed and she repeated herself with a very annoyed tone. "I said, welcome, Eleven Tails Jinchuuriki, it's a pleasure to meet you." She didn't sound very drunk. How curious…
Fallyn shook her head. "You know, I am my own person. Why do I always seem to be identified by whatever the hell's inside of me all the time?" she said, feigning hurt, though smirking.
Tsunade twitched, but managed to sustain her temper. "Anyway," she said, attempting to brush it off, "You probably want to know why I called you here at such an ungodly hour."
Fallyn stared at her. "Actually, I really want to know why I'm here in the first place."
Tsunade ignored her again, and continued, "Well, there's been an unsettling event that has occurred. One of the guard squads have sighted an organization called the Akatsuki. I take it you've heard of them- because they're looking for you. Now, unfortunately for them, you are Konoha's prisoner, so they'll have to come in here to get you," her face contorted into a sickly sweet smile, and she used a tone of voice laced with poisonous sugar as she said the next part, "Or, possibly, we could use you as bait, and tie you to a tree for an ambush?" She really didn't sound drunk.
Fallyn snorted, then started to laugh, so hard that tears began to leak out of her eyes. Tsunade and Shizune watched her, slightly disturbed.
She straightened and wiped her face with her hand, still grinning. "Oh, sorry… I laugh when things are getting too intense. But seriously, do you really think they'll actually fall for that? I mean, they aren't idiots, or at least to some extent."
Tsunade shook her head. Actually, I was just hoping the animals would get to you first. I mean, we're going to kill you either way."
Fallyn's grin was immediately gone. She choked a little, and managed to sputter, "W-What?"
The blonde smirked, having broken the girl's haughty façade. "Oh, you didn't actually think that we would use you on our side after the Akatsuki had already gotten to you? No, it's too risky to have you in our village, and we can't have you on anyone else's side. So the only alternative is to kill you. But we may as well get two Akatsuki in the bargain, should we not?"
Shizune looked sideways at her leader, eyes wide with horror. She didn't sound drunk, but after a comment like that… She knew that nothing she would say would change the woman's mind, though. Too bad, they were going to lose the Jinchuuriki…
Fallyn stared blankly at the Fifth Hokage. How could someone who claimed to be as peaceful as a shinobi village can get make such a decision? It made no sense, but she didn't want to go therapist on anyone, she wanted to get out. Accompanying the Akatsuki had been a lot more trouble than she had bargained for.
She started to turn around and make a run for it, but there was Kakashi, standing in front of the door. His eyes twinkled with victory and the next thing she knew she was unconscious, again.
When she was once again alive to the world, she found herself staring through a leafy canopy of trees at a night sky. The bark of one large particular oak was shoving its uneven ridges into her spine, tweaking nerves. Her arms and legs were bound tightly, to the point where there was almost no circulation. She nearly screamed. She was going to have nightmares about rope.
There were no abnormal sounds in the forest. Only the occasional song of the leaves and rare howls from god knows what were heard.
Oddly enough, she had this feeling that someone was around. What she did not know was that she was sensing chakra. Having crossed the border of dimensions had awakened some new abilities.
They were positioned in a large circle around her tree, hiding in shrubs and in the branches, trying hard to smother their chakra levels and make no sound. All ready for an ambush.
The forest grew silent.
Then there was a lot of yelling.
And the next thing she knew, three people were in front of her. Two started cutting the rope that stuck her to the accursed tree, and the other scooped her up once she was free. Then they were gone.
Frankly, getting anywhere near the village at that point had been nearly impossible for the trio of Akatsuki members. Searchlights from the walls, ninja waiting in bushes, ninja dogs patrolling. They had trouble getting five feet forward. It was all simply ridiculous.
They had been sneaking around the village in circles, over and over, waiting for an opening in the guard to enter and start their plan. But there hadn't been one fucking opening. Itachi was just about ready to explode.
Kisame and Tobi/Madara weren't too pleased either, but they had enough common sense not to complain about it, seeing Itachi's fragile composure.
They all half-heartedly scanned the wall for the umpteenth time, when they saw it; finally, an opening. It took a lot of effort not to cheer.
But, of course, as expected of ninja, they did not cheer, and rather all leapt on the first and only opening that they would see. All passed right between two ninja who had just passed each other, and landed silently in an alley.
Itachi turned his red-eyed gaze towards his companions.
"Infiltration successful."
"You've got to be kidding me," said Tsunade, staring disbelievingly at the Jounin in front of her.
The man shook his head, his long brown hair shaking slightly. "We were watching the whole area, but they still managed to get her. Three are injured, two dead. Everyone else unconscious."
The big-chested woman immediately grabbed another bottle of sake and took a swig. She wiped her mouth in a quite unladylike fashion, and mumbled something that the Jounin had to strain to hear.
"Team Hebi."
Ending Notes:
HOLY SHITTTTTT! IT'S SUMMER! FIIIINALLY! I'LL BE CRANKING OUT THE CHAPTERS AND STARTING NEW FANFICS! WOOOT!
Oh, and thanks to:
Mattie Williams: Love the comment! Thanks, and please review again for later chapters!
TearsOfTheFallen: O.O I'll keep writing. I don like spoons.
Rima-chan: Already addressed your comment.
miscellaneousSam: YES! YAY FOR CHAPPY INDEED!
PLEASE REVIEW MORE EVERYONE! I'LL EAT YOU ALL IF YOU DO BECAUSE I'M STARVING FOR MORE!
If you review I'll start the pairing scenes a lot sooner…