Okay here is chapter 7 and to make up for the shamefully long gap between 5 and 6 its much longer than usual and I have a week off from uni starting a week tomorrow if 8 isn't up before then it will be up during the week and I will try and get 9 up during that week as well but no promises (I have 3 assignments due then- not long ones and the 1st really needs to be done by friday anyway- so fingers crossed).
Also i really appreciate reviews and thank you to everyone who has reviewed or favourited etc.
Hope you enjoy ^_^
Disclaimer:I Don't own Naruto or the Akatsuki, the series would be very different if I did (namely, it'd be called Akatsuki) but personally I think Masashi Kishimoto has done a better job than I ever could since it's his creation and not mine *cries*
Akatsukis Agenda
Chapter 7- To Konoha
Early the next morning Ame waited in the kitchen for Hidan. As usual he was late, Ame sighed, they lived in the same building yet even then his timekeeping abilities were terrible. A few minutes later she was joined by Kisame.
"Hey, are you okay?" He asked, clearly surprised that she was still here
"Yes, I'm fine, just waiting on Hidan" She replied trying to smile.
"You don't seem 'fine'"
"I'm just nervous about this mission, the longer I'm here waiting for Hidan the more tempted I am to tell Leader to forget it and not go… but I know that I can't do that and that I'll be fine when we get moving" He looked at her, this was the reason he had waited until she was supposed to be long gone before leaving his room. He knew that if he saw her he would want to keep her here and had to fight the urge to find Leader and tell him not to send her to Konoha.
"Don't worry too much, it's your first time and it is understandable that you're so nervous" He smiled hoping that this would help put her at ease, she returned his smile
"Yes, I suppose you're right" At this moment Kakuzu walked in
"Were you not supposed to have left about an hour ago?"
"Yes, but Hidan hasn't showed up yet and I'm not going over to his room to get him not after the last time" she said with a shudder "Damn him and his rituals" Kakuzu snorted in approval
"He always does this, those stupid things take ages and he always insists on doing them… Still it shouldn't bother you too much, he has been warned not to kill anyone unless it is strictly necessary to keep you safe, self defence and to protect the mission" He poured himself a coffee and turned to leave "Good luck with the mission, and if Hidans head should part company with his shoulders and you have the option, keep his body it's much quieter than his head" She laughed at this she wasn't sure if he was serious or not but she didn't doubt what he was saying, Hidan could be really obnoxious sometimes.
Kisame was looking closely at her he couldn't quite believe that this woman with no ninja skills was going to infiltrate Konoha- one of if not the most powerful, shinobi village to track the Kyuubi- the most dangerous of the tailed beasts- a task he and Itachi had failed. That being said he was notorious for numerous brutal, high profile murders and he was well aware that looking like a shark and towering over most people was likely to be a terrifying experience. As for Itachi… being an Uchiha would in itself bring him a great deal of attention but to have so easily and so ruthlessly massacred that entire clan save his little brother, would possibly make him a scarier prospect than Kisame, especially in his native Konoha. Ame on the other hand was nothing like either of them, she was harmless, reasonably shy and quite naïve. Despite this being one of the things that would keep her safe from scrutiny, he wished that he could have gone with her instead of Hidan or even better kept her here well away from Konoha or anyone else who would wish to harm her if they ever found out.
"Ame, I want you to be careful" he said to her "I know you will try your best and I know it isn't you I need to worry about in regards to stupidity" he tried to smile at her again fearing that the serious tone would cause her to worry unnecessarily "And I also-"
"Come on we have to go" cut in Hidan "We're gonna be walking all fucking…" he stopped talking and stared at her shoulder, Kisame hadn't noticed that he had put his hand there while he was talking to her. Hidan snickered
"Oh, so THAT'S how it is" He turned and walked out the door muttering something she couldn't hear as he left. She looked back at Kisame. Her nerves starting to get to her again
"Well, I suppose this is it" She said standing
"HURRY THE FUCK UP!!!!!!" Hidan shouted. Ame grimaced
"See you later Kisame"
"Be careful and good luck". She smiled at him and ran out the door to catch up with Hidan.
The journey to Konoha would normally take a day and a half for Hidan, this time travelling by foot with Ame it would take 3 possibly 4 days to get there, a fact he was quick to mention.
"This is going to take forever" he huffed
"No it isn't, it'll day 4 days max" she hoped that he wouldn't be like this the whole time they were travelling otherwise she suspected that it would at least feel like forever. This would be the longest she had been out of the base and it made her nervous. She had played through a lot of different things that could go wrong on this trip, what if someone in Konoha recognised Hidan? If they did she'd be pretty much screwed. There was no way she could fight them that would be akin to suicide and she was pretty sure that trying to out run a ninja would fail spectacularly too. She just had to hope that Hidan could cope with them but even then she suspected they'd try to fight her or realise her uselessness and attempt to grab her while he was occupied. Ame didn't fear betraying the Akatsuki- Konan had already taken care of that but the prospect of torture was frightening. If the knew or even suspected she had any link with the Akatsuki she knew that they would show her no mercy- except with her death. She was broken from her thoughts by Hidan.
"I can't believe that they sent you on this mission, seriously it seems like a disaster waiting to happen"
"The reasons I was given make perfect sense" She responded feeling a little bit offended and a bit anxious, what if Hidan was right?
"You aren't a ninja; you don't even have any chakra, seriously, what sort of idiot thinks that's a good idea?" He went on ignoring her obvious discomfort.
"Well, exactly… no training, no history and no entry in any bingo books. A clean sheet"
They continued in silence for a couple of hours. Around noon they stopped at a café near the fire country border. Ame was already exhausted, she had never walked so far or so fast in her entire life. She went into the café alone and ordered a cup of tea while she waited on Hidan, who had gone to check something. A few minutes later he returned.
"Hey, Ame rest here for a while. I need to do something" She could guess what that something was. Despite being told not to do his rituals, she knew that Hidan was unlikely to do as he was told, he would have to cut down for practical reasons but as long as it didn't get them caught and as long as she didn't have to see another one, she didn't mind if it meant that she could get more rest stops without having to ask and suffer the consequence of Hidan bitching about it. She supposed that he preferred travelling with her over travelling with Kakuzu. Kakuzu viewed both Hidan and his rituals as a hindrance and a constant source of annoyance and he made it clear, Hidan hated travelling with Kakuzu and he hated his love of money and having to go out of his way to obtain bounties. The two of them fought and neither had a good word to say about the other. On the whole she got on with both of them. While he didn't look his age Kakuzu really was a bit of a grumpy old man but luckily for her, he reserved most of his displeasure at things for Hidan. Occasionally he did give her advice about Hidan and surviving in this world and he didn't seem to have any ill will towards her, but on the other hand, he didn't think she'd live very long and she doubted that he'd be surprised if she was maimed or killed. She spent more time around Hidan and while she got on okay with him, she was incredibly wary of him especially after she walked in on his ritual by mistake, she shuddered at the memory it had taken Deidara 40 minutes to calm her down enough to tell him what she'd seen. After that he had been banned from doing his rituals outside of his own room if she was around. About 35 minutes later Hidan returned. He decided that they should have lunch before they continued on their journey.
"I can't believe there is another 2 or 3 days of this" she sighed
"I know, Leader is such a pain in the arse, what the fuck make that guy think -" She cut him off not wanting to hear another of his rants against the Leader.
"No, I mean I can't believe that it is so far away. When these missions are shown in the anime or manga-"At this point it was she who was cut off
"Ssshhh!!!! You have no idea who might be listening in"
"Oh, sorry" It hadn't occurred to her that anyone would be listening in to their conversations. Glancing around the café she noted that it was fairly quiet and she didn't think that they'd stand out that much, Hidan was dressed in normal clothing and it would never be obvious what his occupation was far less his affiliation. Even she had changed her style for this trip, her usual clothing was highly distinctive in her own world, and while it wouldn't be as noticeable as the Akatsuki cloaks it would be easily remembered so she changed it for dresses and flat sandals that women here wore, making herself look less foreign.
She caught their reflection in the window and she realised that they did look like what they were claiming to be- a young newly married couple from the capital city of the Earth country. The identities they had concocted were highly plausible and since they were entering from the Grass country not Earth, to avoid suspicion they claimed they had been visiting relatives of Hidans in Kusagakure. Ame had been shocked when Hidan hadn't objected to pretending to be married; she had thought his religion would have forbidden such a thing. He had just laughed it off.
"No, Jashinism doesn't prohibit marriage or anything but it is better that I don't get seriously involved with women"
She looked around the café again it was reasonably sized and clean especially when she considered the price range if she compared like for like at home this would be a tiny, dirty place hidden up a side street somewhere. It would also have stank of grease, given that the favoured method of cooking food in the Glasgow area was to deep fry everything, including ice cream. She laughed slightly. She mentioned this quietly to Hidan who smirked
"Would I take my wife to a total shithole?" Then he whispered "Be glad you got me. If you'd been sent with Kakuzu, those greasy hellholes you mention would be paradise in comparison to the places he'd take you" she laughed and he straightened up
"Are you ready to go?" They left hoping to make good time and get to Konoha later on in day 3 so as to avoid that extra night outside, especially since they were guaranteed tonight and tomorrow night under the stars. This prospect was not pleasing to Ame, since she had no idea who or what would be hanging around here at night. She decided to raise this fear with Hidan who laughed at her
"What are you afraid of? Akatsuki?" She was worried that he might be too overconfident, although he could afford to be, he was immortal, she wasn't. At dusk they stopped in a clearing near a river in the middle of the forest for the night. Ame was extremely tired beyond all belief but she didn't think she would be able to sleep thinking about all the possibilities of being attacked by ninjas, robbers or animals. However, within seconds of lying down she'd fallen asleep and slept until shortly after sunrise. The next day had passed much the same as the first and on day three they walked for much of the day and by 3 pm Ame was becoming panicky as well as being tired and sore from all of the walking. The thought of more walking and another night outside was making her want to cry but she fought the urge and kept going.
"Konoha is about an hour away"
"Really?" She immediately felt her spirits lift.
"Yes…Darling" He grinned "you know we are supposed to be married"
"Yes, Hidan I am aware of that"
"Well we need to act as if we are" He said draping an arm around her shoulder "We need to be convincing" He said pulling her closer.
"Of course in public that will be true" She said finally catching the implication of his words "but in private it is business as usual"
"We'll see" He smirked "you and I both know that you can't resist me"
"You want to bet?"
"No. I would feel terrible about taking your money from you" He was still grinning at her. He was becoming unbelievably cocky. She suspected that the lack of supervision was emboldening him if one of the others had been there he would have been shut up at "Darling".
In little time at all they were approaching Konohas tall gates, by this time both were in reasonably high spirits.
"I'll do the talking" he murmured to her
At the entrance they were stopped and asked a number of questions. Unsurprisingly, Hidan was a convincing liar and they were admitted to the village for up to a fortnight with no problems. As the gates were opened to allow them in, Ame took a deep breath as she realised that she was now in Konoha.
