A/N: Here's this week's update guys! Hope you enjoy!
Akatsuki Adventures
Chapter Seven: Something HAS to be done! (Part two)
Angrily, Pain brought the phone up close to his ear. All he could hear was panicked breathing on the other side, as if someone were running. "Tobi?" he asked hesitantly.
"OhmyGodLeader-kun! I am in some serious trouble"
"Slow down" Pain was finding it hard to hear over Tobi's breathing, and it was getting on his nerves, "First of all where are you?"
"No time to explain!" Tobi puffed, "Just remember one thing… It was NOT my fault or idea! OK?" and with that Tobi hung up on Pain.
All the Akatsuki in the kitchen were leaning forwards in suspense, "Well?" Konan asked Pain.
"Apparently, whatever it is they've done… is not Tobi's fault" Pain wondered why Tobi always had to be so vague for dramatic purposes, all he had to do was tell Pain which direction they'd headed in, but no, Tobi had to make it difficult to find him.
"We could just leave him I guess" Kakuzu offered a tempting way out, but Pain held up his hand.
"No" he stood from his chair and begun to pace the kitchen, "We are Akatsuki. We travel in pairs. We take the kyuubi as a team- I will NOT leave a comrade in distress out there" he glared at Kakuzu, who just looked at him as if he were insane.
"That's right!" Hidan piped up, "I mean even Kakuzu and me work as a team"
"No we don't" Kakuzu said crossly, "If it were up to me I'd work solo"
"But we're friends Kakuzu!" Hidan looked genuinely hurt, and Pain couldn't tell if whether they were messing around or not.
"Don't be weird!" Kakuzu growled and turned away from Hidan.
"Can we please pay attention here" Pain snapped and all of them listened again, "Thank you. Now, under Tobi's extremely vague instructions we're going to have to go about this methodically. All of you gather once more into your respective pairs- Deidara and Sasori you can work together again." He paused whilst they all stood with their own Akatsuki partner. "Good, now Kisame and Itachi, I want you to search in the east"
"Got it" Itachi nodded and Pain was thankful that he could at least trust those two with the task.
"Konan and I will go west"
"Um" Deidara spoke quickly, "Are you sure you want to go west Pain? I mean, Sasori and I can easily go that way for you, un?" he then laughed nervously and Pain grew suspicious.
"Konan and I will go west" he repeated, "And Sasori and Deidara will go north"
Deidara and Sasori both cringed but nodded anyway. Pain continued, "And finally, Kakuzu and Hidan will go south"
"Right" Kakuzu nodded, looking pleased- Pain wondered as to why though and again grew suspicious. I wonder why they always go behind my back… he thought, but dismissed it quickly. No, he had to trust each and every one of those scheming bastards, after all... they were Akatsuki and there was no 'I' in teamwork.
After an intense little meeting the Akatsuki split to go and prepare themselves for the mission to come, Kisame and Itachi remained in the kitchen to drink one last cup of tea.
"I wonder what situation Tobi has gotten himself into" Itachi wondered aloud and Kisame shrugged,
"Beats me… He's always up to no good though so I'm thinking he lied about whose fault it was- he didn't even mention Zetsu though so I wonder what happened to him…"
"Zetsu is remarkably good at avoiding conflict" Itachi sighed, "So I'm sure that he'll be OK- but… Tobi's rather unlucky so he's most likely in a bad place" Itachi took a sip of his ocha "Unless of course- he's pretending to be in danger for attention"
Itachi hoped for Tobi's sake that that was not the case, otherwise he'd have to face an extremely angry Itachi- and no one wanted to face that.
The way in which Sasori and Deidara prepared was quite a bit more hectic than drinking tea.
They hurried to Zetsu's cave and hid deep inside, lighting a candle so they could see each other whilst they talked. "This is bad!" Deidara hissed, "If Pain finds what's west…"
"You think I didn't realise that!" Sasori snapped, "When I was coming here… I knew something was fishy about the location of this hideout" He remembered back to a conversation he'd had with Zetsu in chapter 6.
"It doesn't matter what we know!" Deidara shook Sasori, who fumbled to keep hold of the candle, "How are we going to stop them finding it?"
"We can't" Sasori pushed Deidara away, and then realised he was feeling faint, "The best we can do is leave far from here and never come back, pack your bags and meet- wait a minute, you're the one who chose this place right?" Sasori focused his staring puppet's eyes on Deidara,
"Well, yeah?" Deidara mumbled, a little freaked out by Sasori's sudden mood swing.
"That means that technically I had no part in choosing this wretched location to begin with!" Sasori smiled to himself then, "Which means that I can pretend I had no idea as to what's west!" he laughed and Deidara's face paled, "The only person who can take the blame with you… Is Tobi"
This dawned on Deidara suddenly. Before, he hadn't really been that bothered about Tobi going missing- in fact, he'd started to think about the benefits: no more stupid humming, schoolgirl impressions and meeting strange con-artists.
Now though, Sasori had opened a new door of possibility- the possibility that he would no longer be able to blame all his mistakes on Tobi.
He stood up and Sasori stopped looking pleased with himself, "Where are you going?"
"We have to find Tobi" Deidara then declared and strode out from the cave to make his preparations.
Meanwhile at Kakuzu and Hidan…
Hidan watched as Kakuzu rushed around the little house they'd built into the rocks. He seemed to be gathering unusual preparations and Hidan was too unnerved to ask any questions.
Into his arms Kakuzu then shoved a cooler box of disposable budget flashlights, "Kakuzu" he then felt forced to ask, "What are these for?"
"We're going back to that cave Hidan, but this time we'll be prepared"
"But Kakuzu! We're meant to find To-"
"Shut up Hidan!" Kakuzu threw a loop of rope around Hidan's head and it rested lightly on his shoulders, "We are not going to waste our time looking for that brainless chump, OK?" Hidan blinked at him, wondering as to how Pain would react if he found them out, "If you ask me," Kakuzu moved to a secret chest hidden in the wall and removed a couple of pickaxes "Losing Tobi was a benefit for Akatsuki- after all he was only good at carrying refreshments out to people who were working"
Hidan wondered who would carry Kakuzu's refreshments now, and had a horrible feeling it would end up being him. He looked at all the preparations Kakuzu had gathered, "How long have you been, like… planning this?"
Kakuzu blinked, "Well, for quite some time now actually"
"Kakuzu I thought we were friends! Friends are supposed to tell each other about missions and plans!"
"DON'T BE WEIRD!" Kakuzu shouted and shoved another box at Hidan to carry, "The only reason I'm even taking you is to use you as a human shield- now, I think we've got everything…" he reached into his cloak and produced a crumpled piece of paper, "I'll just go over the list once more…"
Hidan wondered why he had to carry everything, whilst all Kakuzu carried was a couple of pickaxes he'd got outta nowhere…
"I think we're ready to go" Kakuzu threw away the paper, "Let's leave before everyone else, I don't want to risk us getting caught- can you manage all of that?" he looked at Hidan.
"No! This is way too much stuff to carry" Hidan protested,
"Good" Kakuzu begun to walk, leaving Hidan to struggle in his wake.
For the rest of Akatsuki, they departed one hour later than Hidan and Kakuzu. Pain had at the time wondered why they left so early in comparison to everyone else, but he dismissed it as eagerness to find Tobi and stood in front of the rest of Akatsuki.
"Now" he told them all, looking at each of their faces to look for suspicious behaviour- all he found was determination.
"I guess that the search for Tobi… begins!" and with that, the three remaining pairs scattered in the search to find Tobi…
