The desert sun beat down on the scorching hot ground, a cloudless sky and desolate surroundings offering no shelter to the single man who was currently trudging slowly across the plains. "I hate this," Zetsu complained to himself. "I really do. But it's necessary to find Tobi," he argued.
The schizo's eye involuntarily twitched. "If he were anywhere within a 10 mile radius of us, I'd freakin' see him since the ground is as flat as a pancake!" The sudden outburst caused him to become light-headed, and the plant man collapsed to the earth. Desperate for shade, he shut his flytrap tightly around his head. Although this provided him relief from the sun, the heat trapped within his flytrap quickly made the temperature rise to unbearable levels, and he was forced to open up again. He was somewhat cooler now, but the bright light was back.
The Akatsuki member lay there, completely still. He could vaguely hear the sounds of vultures circling overhead, but paid it no mind. "Tobi, where are you? We want you back, Tobi." And for the first time in a long time, the plant man felt genuine sadness in his heart.
He was snapped out of his emo moment, though, when a vulture swooped down and landed a few feet from his head. He smirked to himself. At least providence was kind enough to provide him with sustenance.
Zetsu waited patiently as the bird hopped closer and closer, and then, when it was close enough, he snapped his flytrap shut around the vulture. Dinner was served.
-n-
The trio made up of Itachi, Hidan, and Deidara was on the move once again. Itachi was in the lead, as per usual, with the other two fast on his heels. They were moving through the forest, or at least what remained of it. Soon, the forests would completely disappear, and they would be traversing across the vast plains that separated them from their intended target.
Suddenly, Itachi halted and raised a hand, motioning for the others to stop. Deidara and Hidan responded as expected, and shifted down into fighting stances. "It's all right," Itachi informed them.
The Uchiha turned about to face his companions and hopped across several tree branches to stand near them. "We need to talk," he explained calmly.
"About what, un?" Deidara inquired with a raised brow.
"Ya having second thoughts about us coming along with you?" Hidan guessed.
"No," the weasel stated as he shook his head. "I've been thinking. It's not safe for us to traverse the plains. It offers no protection whatsoever, either from enemy ninjas or…other persons," he elaborated.
Deidara and Hidan were in shock. "You mean we came all this fucking way for nothing?!" Hidan practically screamed at the weasel.
"No, I'm saying we're going to need to backtrack a bit and make a detour," Itachi snapped at the Jashinist.
"Actually…"
"What? If you have a Jashin-damned plan, blondie, spit it out," Hidan commanded.
Deidara was staring at the plains, head cocked to the side and a thoughtful expression painted on his face. Slowly, one of his hands slipped into the clay pouch on his hip. Itachi stiffened, and Hidan reached for his scythe, both of them expecting an attack from the direction Deidara was looking towards. To their confusion and relief, Deidara merely kneaded the soft clay with his hands, as if calculating how much he possessed. "If there are enough waterways on the way to the warring lands, I can fly us there on one of my birds, un," he declared.
The other two men stared at the blonde for a few minutes as his suggestion sank in. "That plan's not half bad," Hidan said in a surprised manner.
"I agree. That is, if you think you can support a bird carrying the three of us for hours at a time," Itachi cautioned.
Deidara didn't even hesitate before he nodded. "It'll be easy, un. Sasori and I had to fly like that for days at a time, un. If we stop at night for food and rest, it'll be no problem."
"In that case, we can continue along our previous path," Itachi concluded. "Is that fine with you two?" Twin nods were given in confirmation, and soon they were running through the forest again.
This time, though, Itachi wore a frown on his face. Deidara's casual reference to Sasori had brought back memories of his own former lover. Vaguely, the Uchiha wondered how Kisame was doing. He hoped the shark was getting along all right without him; then he realized what a foolish thought that had been. Of course Kisame would be fine; he'd been in the Akatsuki longer than Itachi, and had gone through numerous partners before the weasel's arrival. Besides all this, Kisame was a full grown man, and thus fully capable of caring for himself in the real world.
"Still," he thought somberly, "I can't help but worry about him."
-n-
Kisame himself was reclining on his bed, frowning down at his sole photo of Itachi. Try as hard as he could, he was no closer to remembering his former partner than he'd been when he'd first discovered this photo. It was like he kept hitting a brick wall within his mind; a wall with no cracks, no gate, and no way of sneaking around.
Despite not being able to remember the man, though, Kisame had grown rather fond of Itachi's picture. "He's not all that bad looking," the shark quietly mused. "Sort of like…refined? No, more like gentle. Wait, that's not right either…" the shark groaned in frustration. Lovely. Now he couldn't even think of a decent adjective to describe the weasel.
His concentration was broken by a soft knock at the door. "Come in," he called out.
Konan slowly opened the door, and cautiously peered about. Ever since Sasori's mental breakdown, the female was particularly careful when entering the semes' rooms. "Pein needs you," she informed him.
"What for?"
"Big meeting. He wants everyone to meet in the living room, as soon as possible." Kisame nodded, and the origami mistress quickly dismissed herself, presumably to gather the others together as well.
Sighing, the shark laid his picture on the bedside table to study later. Right now, he needed to see what the leader needed.
When he arrived in the living room, he saw Kakuzu reclining boredly on the couch, and Hiruko sitting next to the couch, presumably with Sasori in it. The shark took his seat next to Kakuzu just as Konan and Pein entered the room.
The leader looked at the trio before him and sighed. The Akatsuki was only fighting at half its normal force; this was not good. "Everyone, I have important news. And before you ask, no, it's not about our missing members." You could practically feel the hope in the room wither away at the words. "What I'm going to speak to you about is a much more pressing manner.
As I'm sure you're all aware, I've had you carrying out simple missions for the past few months, in preparation for a much more difficult assignment." The leader paused as the others calmly nodded their heads. "You see, about six months ago we received news that a certain group of skilled ninja was planning on summoning a demon."
"Like one of the tailed beasts?" Kisame inquired.
"No. More like a hellhound they're going to forcibly drag out of the gates of hell." All attention was now on Pein's every word. "I determined the information to be insufficient proof that a summoning was actually going to occur, due to their lack of manpower and skills in the area of summoning. Still, I took a few precautions; like keeping you people close to the base and watching their activities with a careful eye."
"And?" Kakuzu pressed.
"It appears that through various means, they've acquired more skilled ninja to help them, as well as stealing a few scrolls with important notes on the summoning process. The only thing they're missing now is a scroll I had Sasori and Dei-" Konan began coughing madly, effectively cutting Pein off. "I mean, a scroll that was retrieved a few months ago. However, this particular item isn't entirely necessary for the job-"
"Get to the point," Kakuzu growled.
Pein gave the man a glare, but did as told. "They're prepared to summon the demon any day now. We need to make sure that doesn't happen."
"We're going to go to their base, and destroy everyone and everything we can get our hands on," Konan went on. "We have to make sure that none of them escape, or else they could revive the idea to summon the beast."
"The base will be heavily fortified, and we'll be outnumbered at least thirty to one," Pein cautioned them. "If we didn't absolutely have to do this, I'd avoid this situation at all costs. But there's nothing we can do now, except kill."
Kisame snorted. "Sounds like we don't have much of a choice." He turned to look to the other members beside him. "Right?"
Kakuzu grunted in the affirmative, and Sasori made a motion with Hiruko's head that Kisame could only assume to be a nod. "All right, when do we leave?"
"You have one hour to pack," Pein informed them. "And then we're heading out."
"To where?"
"A place pretty far to the east of here. The countries in that area are always at war with one another, so the radicals had no problem sneaking a few hundred men into their base. The locals would have just thought it was part of an army or something."
Kisame nodded while Sasori and Kakuzu exited the room. Soon the duo parted ways, and Kakuzu made his way to the bedroom that had once belonged to himself and Hidan.
The banker quietly shut the door, half expecting Hidan to start pestering him about the meeting. Sadly for the banker, nothing greeted his ears but the silence of a nearly empty bedroom.
For the hundredth time, Kakuzu sat down on the single bed in his room and ran his fingers across the quilt covering his former partner's side of the bed, meticulously smoothing out the nonexistent wrinkles in the covers. He closed his eyes and stretched out on the mattress, his head resting on Hidan's pillow. Years of using the same pillowcase had deeply embedded the Jashinist's scent into the fluffy bed accessory, and offered Kakuzu the closest possible thing to his actual partner. "Hidan," he whispered softly as his eyes closed.
-n-
"Kakuzu," Hidan murmured as he stared off into the distance. The trio was now riding atop a clay bird, courtesy of Deidara. While the blonde focused on piloting their transportation, Hidan's mind was free to wander. Naturally, all he could think of was his old partner. Currently, he was sitting towards the rear of the bird, staring back the way they'd come, as if he was trying to look for Kakuzu.
"Why do you always do that?" Itachi inquired from behind him.
"Do what?" Hidan asked. The zealot scooted over a few inches, allowing Itachi to sit next to him on the bird.
Once the weasel had made himself comfortable and smoothed down his windswept hair, he began to clarify his statement. "You always mutter Kakuzu's name when you think we're not paying attention. Why?"
Hidan stared straight ahead of him for a few moments, picking his words carefully before speaking again. "When I was a kid, this old bitch told me that if you say a person's name, and that bastard says your name at the same time, you'll be able to hear each other no matter how fucking far away from each other you are. If you believe that crap."
"Do you?"
"…Maybe."
"If you miss him so much, why'd you leave?"
Hidan snorted and grinned bitterly. "The bastard didn't want me around anymore, so I got the hell outta there."
"What makes you say that?"
Hidan just shook his head in reply. "You wouldn't understand, dumbass." He yawned and fell back against the bird, staring at the sky above them. "Well, I'm beat. Night."
"It's not even four o' clock," Itachi reminded him.
"Like I give a damn. I'm gonna sleep now, Jashin dammit." With that, Hidan folded his arms behind his head and shut his eyes, intent on getting some rest. Itachi rolled his eyes before stretching out and mimicking the masochist's motions. There was nothing better for the two of them to do now, and since Deidara would be completely drained of chakra when they stopped, he and Hidan would be responsible for setting up camp and keeping watch for enemies. Enemies that could very well be their former allies…
Allowing his thoughts to briefly shift to the Akatsuki once more, the weasel fell asleep near his comrades.