Chapter 12: The Root of All Evil (aka War Pigs)
(AN: I'm counting Konan, Itachi and Kisame, Deidara and Tobi, Hidan and Kakuzu, Zetsu and Orochimaru. Pein is the leader, teamed up with Konan of course.)
Shinju stood next to Kisame in the semi-circle consisting of the nine Akatsuki members and the leader. She slouched sideways slightly, one hand on her hip, the other hanging at her side. Shinju was used to being around these kinds of people; just to clarify that, she was used to bad people.
"Now that you are here, I'd like to go over a few items with you." The leader looked piercingly at her.
Shinju shrugged, totally relaxed. "Mind if I have a smoke?"
"Not at all."
She pulled a pack from her hip pouch and lit it with a small katon jutsu.
"So, what do you need me to know?"
"First of all, we are a group that works in pairs. Since there are already four pairs, you'll have to make a choice, to work alone, or to work with another pair that's willing to take you on." He paused expectantly.
Shinju narrowed her eyes slightly as she dragged on her cigarette. Exhaling, she asserted, "I'm not working alone. And I'm not working with Orochimaru, I just might kill him. Which won't be too good for your organization, I think." She smiled darkly at the leader. Orochimaru made a low hissing noise.
"Ok, who wants Shinju on their team?" The leader looked around at the group. Shinju continued to puff on her cig.
Deidara tried to look away from Tobi as he pulled on his teammate's sleeve and pointed to Shinju. "Deidara-sempai! Tobi would like to make a new friend!" He hopped up and down a little.
Deidara opened his mouth to say something scathing, but before he could say anything to Tobi, Shinju turned slightly at the waist.
"I don't make friends. With anybody."
She took another drag and looked at the leader, expecting him to take matters into his own hands. Tobi stopped hopping and sniffed. But before Pein could comment, Kisame waved a hand briefly.
"We'll take her."
Shinju smiled. "Thanks, Kisame. Glad to be on your team." She turned and punched his shoulder lightly, then nodded at Itachi.
"Good," said the leader. "Next order of business. For the last nine years, we've been trying to track down and gather all of the bijuu, as you may know. Our organization has been able to assemble seven of the nine bijuu. As of right now, the remaining two are located somewhere in Mist and Fire, one is the eight tails, a squid, and the last is the kyuubi." He looked directly at her eyes. "Itachi's team has been assigned the kyuubi." He paused again.
Shinju dropped her cigarette and smashed the butt with her sandal.
"If you think that because the kyuubi was my teammate for two months, I won't be able to capture him alive, you're sorely mistaken." She looked right back at Pein matching his icy glare with a blood red one. Itachi's breath caught slightly, almost inaudibly. He shifted, and commented, closing his own eyes, "Those eyes belong to my brother." He opened his eyes again revealing his own sharingan. "Each one of ours is different, like a fingerprint. His had two channels."
Tension built in the room as the two shinobi, now teammates, stared each other down, each ready to spring at the other at a moment's notice. Shinju finally broke his gaze as she cut off the chakra flow to her eyes. She looked to her hand, then to her cigarette as she lit another. She closed her eyes.
"Itachi-san, you have Orochimaru to thank for that." She re-opened her eyes and noted that the anger had faded quickly from Itachi's face. Unfortunately, anger was building elsewhere, and before she knew it, she had been slammed to the other end of the room, cigarette and all.
"You ungrateful bitch!" Orochimaru hissed. "You turn on me, then use the power I gave you to come back to my side!" He walked toward her rapidly as she panted lightly and pulled herself up from the floor. "I should kill you where you stand!" He stepped right up in her face, the bitter enemies stood toe to toe. A long hand slid out from inside the dark robe, and came up to her hardened face. Shinju said nothing as he caressed her visage. Orochimaru whispered, "I won't tolerate this kind of betrayal." His hand went to her neck, and as quickly as sound, he pushed her up against the wall, crushing her trachea. Shinju's hands rose to his wrist and her eyes widened as she struggled for air. Many members of Akatsuki smirked, and Kisame even let out a low growl that somewhat resembled a chuckle.
"I'm going to kill you slowly… I'm going to make you suffer ten times as much as I did when you betrayed me…"
Itachi smiled and narrowed his eyes, engaging his sharingan once more.
Then a flame lit in Orochimaru's eyes as he leaned close to her face, and she continued to claw at his wrist as she paled and her lips lost their color. Her breaths came in hoarse rasps, barely reaching her lungs at all. Orochimaru's tongue slowly exited his mouth and licked the side of her face as he said in her ear, "Or worse, I'll just take your body now and let you die the most shameful death possible right here, showing everyone in this room my ultimate achievement. Ku ku ku."
Her fingers pried around his hand, barely able to loosen his grip.
She inhaled as much as she could before delivering her blow.
"Fuck you."
Orochimaru cackled and drove his palm into her hyoid cartilage, destroying her breathing passage. But all that remained after his attack was a cloud of smoke.
A voice taunted from behind him, "You always were slow, Orochimaru."
He turned around, infuriated, but didn't comment. She exhaled the smoke from her cigarette. She had just showed everyone that she was faster than him, and definitely more in control of herself than he was. He clenched his fists.
"We'll finish this another day, kunoichi."
"Ok, whatever you say, Snakey." Shinju laughed as he passed behind the other members to return to his place. She retracted the seal that now covered half of her body, a clear sign to Orochimaru that she would take extra precautions and preparations in order to defend against, or kill him.
Pein smiled. "Now that that's over with," he said it as though he expected the confrontations to take place "We'll get to the last order of business. The next one was initiation, but considering that you just bested Orochimaru, I think that will suffice for our purposes." Pein grinned. "Here's your cloak." He held his hand out, and Kabuto appeared with a new one. Pein handed it to Shinju, and she slipped it on. "Wear it all the time. You shouldn't have a reason to take it off." She nodded.
"You can all go. Thanks for coming." The group started to disperse. As Orochimaru left, he looked one last time at Shinju, who noticed and stuck her tongue out at him. He frowned and left with Kabuto and Zetsu.
Kisame laughed aloud, and Itachi narrowed his eyes.
"We have to talk, Shinju." Itachi uttered softly, threateningly.
She looked directly at him. "I know."
Kisame pulled samehada onto his back. "Not now though." He grunted as he pulled the harness tight. "We're going home first."
Shinju looked questioningly at him.
"We have a couple of bases and otherwise we mainly stick to places outside of the five countries. But right now, we're heading to our mist base." He winked at her.
"Can we swim this time?" Her face brightened, and although she didn't smile, Kisame felt her cheer and anticipation infect him.
"Definitely."
Itachi turned without a word and walked away from the pair.