Authors Note: Barely had any time to update. I seriously h8 exams. Lol :P
The red-haired puppet walked forward, intent on joining the fun, cranking slightly as he did and bending over as he almost tripped over his weak legs. He cursed himself for his stupidity, and lifted his head. Sasori instantly wished he hadn't; why had he fallen in THIS direction?
The vague sound of crackling wood could be heard all over the place as Sasori lifted his bored, half-closed eyelids and promptly shot them open, spying two monstrous beasts coming towards them. Well, not monstrous by size, but by pure anger. The next second, a steadily-getting-worried Sasori couldn't help but chatter his teeth stupidly, not sure of his next move; the sight was just too stupefying. Pein, leader of the Akatsuki, torturer of the weak, merciless villain, conspiracy starter, long-lived avenger, and so-called pacifist was striding steadily towards the large bakery stall in which the Akatsuki members were assembled in front of, mocking and taunting the poor stall owner and his even more unfortunate young assistants, who were getting their money ripped off by a delighted Kakuzu. Sasori enviously glanced at his oblivious comrades in jealously from the corner of his eye, wishing he hadn't noticed his two tough superiors; now his mind was jumping to the wrong conclusions, instead of more literal ones; he shouldn't have cared, but he had to, since he failed the Chunin Exam preliminaries to a mere girl. That girl looked like any everyday slut, but instead she hid her hidden potential of packing immense-powered punches. Sasori was living proof of that; his stomach still bore a large hole, enough to kill any normal human being. Thankfully being a self-converted human puppet, Sasori did not worry since he had no use for worthless, liquid blood; a hole was any hole, plus it allowed wind to enter his hollow body, which felt quite comfortable indeed. Plus he did not have to worry about excruciating pain since his body felt nothing, absolutely nothing, even if a streamroller crushed him fully, he would have slept through it, except his body would be shattered into flat boards. At any rate, poor Sasori now had a problem to deal with: Pein and Konan. He grimaced slightly as he noticed Pein narrow his wicked eyes; those slanting pupils made the orange haired leader intimidating. He looked like someone who had just finished dealing with love trouble; perhaps he actually did. Sasori muffled a laugh as he thought of Pein walking with a girlfriend; the whole thing was effing impossible. However he couldn't laugh in front of his teammates since he informed them he owned absolutely zero emotions; he actually kept some after converting himself into a human puppet; emotions such as love was useless, but humor was certainly significant since it provided various breaks during rests to enjoy. Plus, if you laughed in front of a cranky Pein, he would beat the living shit out of your body; again, Sasori did not own any living shit in his body, so he was safe. Now, he bent slightly down, crouching behind a particularly fat-assed man to hide his thinking self from Pein's direct view...he needed to think fast.
Should he make a run for it, or just stay and try to use Minato's deathly fart to repel Pein? Probably not since Pein owned the farts of both Hashirama and Tobirama Senju, the 1st and 2nd Hokages, respectively. He made up his mind; escaping was the right thing to do, and he had to get the hell outta here right now; he couldn't betray his comrades either, but the others would fare well, with the exception of two individuals. One of them was urging his senpai to bomb the whole shop, while the other was busy stuffing cash into a back pocket, now attempting to offer a rusty racecar for the simple price of 1000 ryo. The assistants, as stupid as they were, actually accepted the deal, and the bounty hunter's eyes flashed in superb delight as he got richer and richer. Sasori shook his head grimly as he forced himself upright, and walked quickly towards his fellow comrades. An-amused looking Hidan was spitting swear words at the stall owner while stabbing various pastries with his merciless scythe. Just as Sasori fell down, his weak wooden knees failing to support him, five burly guys walked past, pointing at an Icha-Icha shop in happiness; they also happened to block Pein and Konan's path quite incidentally. Sasori sighed in relief; those guys bought him time without knowing it; he threw himself up this time instead of staggering up. He had a bad feeling even so.
Sasori fell down three times after that. After cursing his body for the fifth time, he noticed that Pein and Konan were walking towards him and the other Akatsuki members faster than normal; the sounds of their grass sandals bellowed loudly through the gravel pavement. Now even his "Pest" detector, installed on his left knee, was beeping and flashing continuously; that meant a pest was coming rapidly towards them. Sasori raised his head and glanced forward just as Pein pushed his way roughly through the bustling Konoha crowd, his Rinnegan eyes spiraling furiously. The puppet master instantly jumped to the right conclusion due to his brain; Pein was out to get him for failing the Chunin Exams when he should've easily won it. That meant Kakuzu and Tobi are in trouble as well, because they also failed by losing in the preliminaries! Sasori trembled slightly, but managed to calm himself down, and he grabbed Kakuzu and Tobi by their long sleeves, running away into an alley while dragging the two of them. Pein made his way through the crowd and just got past a particularly fat woman's ass before he scanned the Akatsuki members and noticed that the three in question were missing. The leader clenched his fist tightly and seemed to radiate dark energy; black waves of evilness seemed to surround Pein, reflecting his anger. When I get you three, Sasori, Kakuzu, and Tobi, you will pay. PAY! Pein breathed heavily and settled down before he turned to address the remaining members of Akatsuki; he gasped when he saw that they weren't there. All that was left of the raided bakery stall was the owner, who was lying unconscious on the ground with his hair sheared off by Hidan's sharp scythe. The members noticed Pein and Konan right after Sasori, Kakuzu and Tobi left, exchanged nervous glances with each other, and promptly gathered themselves and got the hell out of here. They had also escaped the extreme tightness of Pein's clutches! The leader changed his mind abruptly as he walked back to rejoin Konan, breathing in outrage with his mind full of torture plans. When I get ALL of you, you will pay!
At the moment though, Pein had something else to worry about. What Konan told him the next instant revealed the truth. She had just been asked out by a Konoha Jonin! As Pein heard her rapid words, he spun around and spied a man speeding away into the crowd, blending into the bustling Konoha villagers moments later; Pein lost track of the man by then. He made a hurried mental note to track down the damn guy and kick his ass; currently, his powerful brain had finished calculating all troubles, and completed piling up a schedule of tracking down both the man and the Akatsuki. This was going to be a long, long day. He had come to watch the final stage of the exam; he did not plan on playing as a policeman, catching crime and fixing wrongdoings. What the hell of a mess did he get himself into? Pein ripped at his spiky hair and his Rinnegan eyes flashed with frustration. A moment ago everything was fine and good, a peaceful day; now things were as messy as a rumbling thunderstorm!
First things first, he had to fix Konan's condition, but he certainly never regarded himself as a brainless workaholic.
"Why the hell did you accept his offer?" the foul-mooded Pein demanded angrily, glaring at a calm Konan with rage and eyeing her stupid, brainless mouth; why couldn't she think before speaking? "I've got enough problems to worry about currently with finding my subordinates; now you had to cause me extra time by accepting a random person's request for a date! Woe is me!"
"Too bad." Konan replied coldly, glancing down at the ground, determined to look away. Pein regarded his shorter companion for a second silently with piercing eyes which seemed to drive into Konan's body. Something alerted Konan, and she looked up to see Pein's actions. He continued staring intently, causing Konan to momentarily blush slightly; she quickly regained her normal posture and glared back at Pein with defiance; any minute now, Pein thought Konan would pummel him in the crotch for glancing like a pervert at her body. He would've accepted the punch wordlessly as it meant she would touch him. Pein, however, just proceeded to continue the staring match; neither was giving up. Her smooth blue hair, which had grown recently and now trailed down to her shoulders, looked particularly good on such a busy day in which Pein had met a weird Icha Icha loving Jonin named Kakashi Hatake, failed to capture the three failures, and failed to retrieve his subordinates. Looking at the hair made him feel better than being a self-claimed God; that concept just angered Pein further, driving him away from his admiring.
"I'll get him, don't you worry," Pein retorted nastily, thumping his head with a curled up fist to try remember Konan's date's appearance. He had promptly forgot what the Konoha Jonin looked like, in the mess of the situation. Now how was he going to track down the criminal in question? He needed the man's appearance, for god's sake!
Pein glared at Konan with deep hatred, trying to keep himself from casting a Shinra Tensei on his partner in anger. Well, actually, not exactly hatred, because the leader could not make himself hate the only woman of Akatsuki. He just couldn't, no matter how hard he tried. So all he managed was a slight grimace; his Rinnegan eyes, however, perfectly reflected the Akatsuki leader's current temper, which was extremely short. He was going to track down that fucking man with all his might, even if it meant following him all the way to Sunagakure, which was very far from Konoha. It just showed Pein's determination for his woman; he wasn't going to let any random guy mess with his possessions. If Konan thought he was a lovesick puppy only caring for a woman to own, he didn't give a freaking damn.
"Jesus. Uh, fine, when are you going to meet him for this date?" Pein asked almost politely, trying another tactic in order to absorb more information. Instead of being rough and direct, he was asking the question like if he did not plan to have any involvement in the matter.
"Right now." Konan's words struck Pein like thunder. His whole world seemed to spin out of control. Now he had a new goal set up; getting rid of war and establishing eternal peace over the shinobi universe had just slipped helplessly into second place of Pein's to-do list. The leader clenched his fists, a new No.1 to-do clear in front of him; this one could not fail. His whole face turned red and steam literally erupted from his pierced ears as a sign of his pissed-offness. How dare Konan, it was unforgivable. He needed time to make preparations for a assassination operation, but time was of valuable essence here. Pein rubbed his temples in an attempt to clear his mind, but failed, so he merely turned to Konan with a few words for the female Akatsuki member to absorb.
"Whatever! I'll get him for this! Just try to enjoy your date...while you can..." Pein growled haughtily, not bothering to hide his increasing rage. With a curse, he vanished in a wave of rippling flames, and disappeared from the spot, leaving Konan wondering if all hell would break lose in the next few hours. Little had survived Pein's anger when he targeted a victim; they never had the chance to retaliate. That probably means that her date was going to die sometime or another. What a troublesome partner she was paired with; she had no choice as Pein was the leader who decided all decisions. Konan shook her head and walked away to meet her date at the Ichiraku Ramen Stand; he had promised to buy her an unlimited amount of Ramen as long as she went on a date with him. She smiled slightly; men were easy to fool.
"I'll kick your ass...don't worry..." Pein vowed in a deep voice, his Rinnegan eyes expanding dangerously. This was a sign of even more dangerous events to come. He suddenly spied a whistling Konoha Jonin strolling down the street towards him without a waist pouch clipped on his waist; it meant he had no metal weapons with him, which would make things much easier to complete. Pein blinked in surprise at his good timing, but he couldn't help thanking God, including Jashin-sama, for giving him a reliable source. The leader coughed quietly and leapt towards the stunned Jonin, who attempted to run away and tripped over his shoelace. Those 'sneakers', as new inventions, were hard things to use!
Meanwhile...
Kakuzu, Sasori and Tobi, the three Akatsuki flunkers, were calmly strolling down a busy street, safe from the Rinnegan eyes of the ever-watching Pein-sama. Today was a bright day in Konoha and it seemed like every villager was out in the sun instead of staying home like a homesick geek; perhaps the sun was celebrating the three Akatsuki's defeat and Pein's sudden arrival. Very surprising, to say the least.
Sasori sighed in relief, checking a special GPS system embedded on his left elbow every once in a while to check if Pein wasn't close on their trail. He stared at the little diagrams and numbers, and made some quick calculations. Pein wasn't coming anytime soon; in fact he was heading for somewhere else. "Thankfully I noticed Pein coming just now. Never knew he's someone who would come to watch his underlings; if I didn't notice him, who knows what would've happened to us. We would probably be stuck at a kiddies' summer camp working as damn counselors, eh?"
Kakuzu shuddered at the very thought; working without pay was definitely horrid.
"Tobi is a good boy! Tobi needn't run from Pein-sama!"
"He ain't a sama to you, Tobi. I'm your sama." Sasori explained triumphantly, raising two index fingers into the air for his victory pose, while all the time causing Tobi to scratch his head in total confusion. Sasori gave up trying to convince Tobi to become a puppet worshipper; the idiots were becoming more and more difficult to welcome into the art of puppetry and eternal life. Sasori couldn't blame Tobi, he was probably brainwashed by Pein, who was known for his notorious torturing methods, such as forcing a scared Deidara to watch hardcore hentai, censored edition, for fifty hours straight a few weeks before. That was how Deidara developed an annoying habit for saying "un" at the end of each and every one of his sentences, sentence fragments, and run-on sentences; he used to say "yeah", but after watching such inappropriate scenes, he forgot how to say a four-letter word like "yeah."
"I'm hungry! Aren't you hungry?" Kakuzu moaned impatiently, glancing around with his dark eyes for a place to eat. In truth, he already had a place to eat firmly stuck in his mind, and the place that he fell in love with was the Ichiraku Ramen Stand; ever since the fateful day when Itachi took him there to eat before the Forest of Death, the greedy bounty hunter had felt some sort of connection to those slurpy, long ramen. The feel of gripping the wooden chopsticks tightly, the absorbing aroma rising up from the welcoming bowl set on the table, drool slipping unnoticed from your mouth as you glance with passion at the noodles in front of you...just staring at a bowl of ramen made Kakuzu cry in thankfulness. Ramen was now officially his second most favorite thing in the whole wide world, second only to the glittering, very-countable CASH. No matter how hard Kakuzu tried, money was his life; it was probably his soul mate, even though money technically isn't a human, it still gave Kakuzu all he desired. He lived for money, and for ramen, without those two special items, Kakuzu would suicide on the spot without a single second of hesitation. His rough lips had gotten quite rusty, stuck behind that smelly, damp mask for so long; he needed ramen to calm things down and bless his desiring mouth with greatness. Kakuzu was stuck in a reverie about ramen in which he went to a large ramen company and robbed the whole place free of food. Drool began filling up behind his mask, and pretty soon the whole mask was starting to get damp, dripping small droplets of saliva at the same time onto the ground. Nearby Konoha villagers hurried past Kakuzu, occassionally turning their heads to glance with wonder at the bounty hunter. He looked out of place, bumping into several people simply because he was still stuck helplessly inside his blissful, solitude reverie. Ramen could conjure such greatness, he never knew that.
"What the hell, watch where yer' goin'!" a villager yelled, pissed off, as Kakuzu walked forwards absentmindedly, bowling the villager over effortlessly. Kakuzu made no reply and merely stepped on the villager's face heavily, crushing the nose in half for good measure, before continuing his stroll. As the poor villager lay on the ground screaming and clutching all that's left of his pitiful nose in pain, Kakuzu followed Sasori and Tobi through the crowd of people; that had been Kakuzu's 16th bumped villager. So far the unfortunate fellas had either received a broken nose, a black eye, knocked-out teeth, or a combination of all three; it certainly was a generous yet free gift from a greedy person like Kakuzu himself. The bounty hunter was quite proud of himself; he finally thought about others for a bit instead of merely himself, ramen, and glittering cash.
Kakuzu hurried past staring villagers as his 17th victim collapsed, his straight, ridged nose completely caved into the center of his face. It certainly was a gruesome sight, so Kakuzu wasn't staying around for the consequences. Subsequently, five animal-masked ANBU shinobis jumped down from a nearby building, starting to draw their katanas. Kakuzu, Sasori, and Tobi glanced at the ANBU in surprise, who probably in turn glanced back from behind their grotesque masks; the three Akatsuki members made a run for it, dashing and pushing their way roughly through the crowd of bystanders, who were either bowled over and suffered a gift from Kakuzu, or knocked flying like a rapidly shot missile into a nearby building. The ANBU members recovered quickly and sheathed their katanas before running after the escaping trio. However they were too late as the diversion had given Kakuzu, Sasori and Tobi enough time to disappear from the scene of chaos. Well, only the clumsy Tobi was left behind, tripping over the untied shoelace of some random person watching the scene. He collapsed heavily onto the street ground, and looked up to see an ANBU member leaping at him with his sharp katana held high, glinting the bright rays of the sun on the wicked blade. Plus it was coming straight down! Tobi screamed in absolute terror, jumped up like a shocked hedgehog, and started running again.
A few minutes later Tobi managed to give the pursuing ANBU member the slip by yelling that there was a monstrous UFO with seven-colored rays rapidly descending from the village with green suited, five-headed green aliens sprouting from a circular door on the high-tech roof equipped with six billion tommy guns. The ANBU member believed Tobi, looked at the sky, saw nothing interesting except for a fluttering sparrow, turned back, saw no one in front of him, and promptly crumpled onto the ground, crying in disappointment that he had lost his target and missed the UFO at the same time. Life couldn't be more terrible than this particular event, could it? The ANBU member clutched his head, which had suddenly started to rattle violently, sending painful jolts through his whole body; he started to turn pale green from exhaustion. Perhaps this was the orange masked guy's technique or something. Nevetheless the ANBU member collapsed heavily, his eyes rolling around in their tired sockets, seeing strange objects such as five-headed green aliens in front of him. Wait...green aliens levitating above his injured ass, gripping a fully loaded tommy gun, pointing it at his chest? The ANBU member's face promptly transformed into a vile shade of pinkish-purple mixture as a sense of weirdness washed over his body; what in the world was going on?
Meanwhile, Tobi found Kakuzu and Sasori running along a tight alley, their faces twisted in sour expressions, and followed them into likely exile and hideout from the ANBU force. They were now double-missing-nins, having deserted two villages as of now; what a bright record it was. In truth Tobi was quite glad; this was the life of a vagabond, and he never expected it to be full of twists and turns, not to mention fun and games! This WAS the ultimate life! Tobi whistled cheerfully as he followed Kakuzu and Sasori in climbing into an open-covered manhole entrance; the grotesque smell overtook the three of them, and noises of swearing and spitting were heard quite clearly, until Sasori found out and latched the cover on the entrance. It blocked out all signs of noise, so even if the smell was horrible, it provided a safe hiding spot. No one would think of looking in such a dirty place.
Outside, the furious ANBU captain of the unit cursed angrily, realized that the three weirdos could be anywhere in the village causing mischief, and commanded his men to spread out with a new mission in their minds: locate the three and promptly arrest them. To make matters worse one of his men was mentally destroyed, and was currently crying that the UFO had disappeared before he could take a picture of the glorious spaceship. Suspicious bullet marks were all over his bloodstained body, with an even more suspicious ten-toed footprint embedded on the ANBU member's crushed cheek.
"What a really great day," the ANBU captain mused tiredly, rubbing his suddenly sore temples and making his way towards a looming wooden ladder, which was leaned against a roof with exact accuracy; that angle surely meant not falling down all of a sudden and crushing battalions of innocent villagers. Another member of his unit suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started running with all his speed towards the captain, not watching where he was going. The captain sighed and glanced up at the likely reporter, until he caught sight of the ladder's location. Uh-oh.
"Watch out, you're gonna crash~" the ANBU captain croaked hurriedly, reaching out a rapid hand. He didn't finish.
The ANBU member crashed into the ladder and collapsed instantly as the ladder crushed several unfortunate villagers. It also smacked the ANBU captain on the head, and he fell down, a big bruise sprouting from the top of his white hood. It was painful, and he lay there groaning in fake agony, hoping to attract the attention of beautiful healer-nin. None came after a few minutes, so he decided to give up, rescuing his sore throat.
All in all, now there were two seperate units trying to find the three escapers: Pein, and the five-man ANBU unit. It was only a matter of time, but the time isn't specified, so it could take more than forever to find the three in such a large, bustling village in which every single person was out in the sunshine doing something either pointless or useful. The ANBU captain sighed, scratching at his itchy mask as he jumped onto the roof of a slanted building; too bad his last off day was six long years ago, he still missed the glorious day itself; sleeping in until 5:00 in the afternoon was pure greatness. Now, instead of lying comfortably in a soft bed, he was stuck on a possibly-endless wild goose chase for three weird cloaked guys.
Sasuke Uchiha left the hospital, which was currently experiencing the troublesome matter of housing big armless Jugo and broken-hands Suigetsu. To make matters worse, the attendants forced Sasuke to pay for his teammates' housing costs since he was the only one still in good health. Now, as Sasuke strolled angrily out of the hospital, he noted that his pockets felt exceptionally light, freed from the torture of housing heavy money. What a freaking waste, he could have sent the money to donation instead of using it heal his worthless teammates; donation in Sasuke's vocabulary meant donating cash to HIMSELF, since he was someone in need....OF POWER, HATRED, and...CASH, which was prominent in acquiring power. After all Orochimaru the Snake Sannin had charged a housing fee of 1000 Ryo per year; it freaking wiped off Sasuke's expenses list completely and tidily. Sasuke sat down on a wooden bench, cupping his chin in his hands, feeling extremely bored and frustrated at the same time. He shot an evil glare at a nearby blue bird just for the heck of it, but it stood there innocently, as if standing up against the mighty Uchiha. Before Sasuke knew what was happening, he did not have time to react as the bird dived forward with its wings outspread, pecking Sasuke's cheek piercingly in the process. Sasuke yelped slightly as the bird took off with the speed of a blasting rocket, escaping likely death. Sasuke propelled himself off the bench in a valiant effort to grasp the bird and pull it apart piece by piece, but all he achieved was collapsing onto the grass after losing gravity quickly; his whole face was bruised with slight cuts, and fires of anger glowed in his usually onyx eyes, lighting them with the majesty of evil. Sasuke sat there panting, growing more pissed with every passing second; he decided that he was going to attack the next person who passed him with every weapon in his arsenal. Just for fun, just to spill out the frustration. What a great solution; Sasuke felt proud of himself as he leaned back softly against the bench, rubbing his cheeks tenderly while anticipating the next arrival....
Itachi turned and walked into a deserted street near Konoha's hospital, where the crew were working overtime because of the new wave of injured patients from the Chunin Exams preliminaries, including a giant fatso with severed arms.
"Where are you going, 'Tachi?" Kisame asked, a bit surprised that Itachi was walking towards Konoha's Hospital. Was he visiting a patient or some injured friend? As far as the shark-nin knew, Itachi had no friends in Konoha; he only had people who hated him for massacring the proud Uchiha clan single-handedly, excluding his pathetic excuse of a gangster-like brother. Itachi had described Sasuke Uchiha well in concrete details, and from what Kisame could gather, Sasuke was nothing but a hatred-lacking brat.
"I don't know yet. Destiny, however, directs me to walk along this path." Itachi walked along the gravel pavement towards the hospital, with Kisame following obediently, swinging Samehada over his shoulder to keep it out of the way. Sometimes having a gigantic sword could prove inconvenient.
His sharp ears caught sound the footsteps were making against the ground, even though they were still yards away from coming close. "Someone's coming...gotta prepare Chidori...hurry," Sasuke sneered to himself, excited that he was going to commit murder right on the spot. Sometimes life was just full of surprises, and surprises could be good ones. He performed some rapid hand seals and sparkling lightning energy started to surround his right hand as the red Sharingan revealed itself, appearing in Sasuke's wide eyeballs, replacing the onyx color. He grinned like a crazed drunkard, stomping his foot impatiently on the ground, waiting for the stupid arrival; Sasuke was in full combat mode, or rather, full massacre mode. Now all he required was the unfortunate and idiotic victim for him to plunge his anger into. Sasuke crawled behind a bush to add suspense to the coming ambush, licking his dry lips in steadily increasing excitement.
Itachi suddenly stopped, bending down to pick up the small jar of nail paint that he had dropped one second ago.
The Akatsuki member grasped the small nail paint jar with two fingers and started to bring it up, but stopped quickly as he noticed a weird sight in front. Something wasn't right; the alerted Uchiha surveyed the area curiously for any signs of attackers or enemies. Tall trees sprouted from nearby grass, and battalions of bushy bushes loomed up from where they were planted at, perfect for an attacker to hide in. Itachi's eyes narrowed on instant reaction, and he leaned in to survey the bushes more carefully; one of them was slightly bulging, with a twitching finger poking out. Sure enough, in the next nano-second, a raven-haired, Sharingan-eyed boy leapt out from behind the bush in question, and extended an arm, throwing forward a sparkling Chidori technique with all his might while hollering loudly through open lips: "DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The hooded man, who was bent over something, instantly lifted his head, and a short gasp rose from tight lips. Sasuke's crazed eyes widened, and promptly narrowed as he clearly saw nothing but air in front of him. His whole face went pale as he realized what was about to happen; he's got to prevent the coming collision by flying! Too bad he didn't learn how to use his invisible wings; Orochimaru had taught him on his very first lesson that the Uchiha had wings constructed out of paper fans attatched to their backs, invisible to the naked eye. It seemed like Sasuke's eyes, even though Sharingan-type, were very much naked; he let out a scream and rose a hand quickly towards his pants, in order to prevent damage to his private part. It had suffered enough back in the Forest of Death, and yet it still urined for the Uchiha. Sasuke was sure he owed the private part something.
After a few seconds, Sasukee promptly smashed painfully onto the ground as he hit no one; the pained Uchiha struggled to roll over, but his eyes rolled in their sockets until they vanished completely. Sasuke groaned tiredly, blood spurting out from various cuts placed all over his torn clothes; falling unconscious as Chidori stopped flickering on his hand, disappearing into wisps. Who'd know a fall could've caused such grievious damage to a stunned shinobi.
Fuck...speak of the devil! It's foolish little brother Sasuke! Itachi thought numbly, tucking the nail paint jar into a small pocket on his black cloak. He could not possibly believe his eyes....Sasuke had tried to ambush and kill him? Was it possible that Sasuke knew his identity, and had waited here for revenge? Knowing Uchiha prodigies' big brains, it was extremely likely; thank god that Itachi had stopped an inch from death due to the jar of nail paint falling. He proceeded to grab out the small jar and hug it to his chest with all the might in his arms; it was his savior, all because of dropping!
Kisame lumbered up, leaning heavily on Samehada. He had missed the short fight a while ago. "Err...'Tachi, you OK? Hey, what the, isn't that your bro there...did he just try to KILL you?"
An awkward silence followed. Itachi made a mental note not to make his foolish brother seem like a mass murderer who'd kill on the spot without pure consideration. He decided to answer his partner's awkward question with an awkward answer; he could not make his clan seem like a murder-loving group of people. After all he had massacred his whole clan years ago with only one single katana; if he stated Sasuke had tried to kill him with a single Chidori, people would start spreading rumors that the Uchiha absolutely adored killing like Jashinists. Naturally Itachi found himself saying a safe, "Maybe, maybe not."
"Aren't YOU gonna kill him?" Kisame inquired roughly, looking at Itachi strangely; it normally does not take the Uchiha to answer a simple question with such a long period of hesitation.
"Not yet, it seems like his hatred meter isn't max yet...we gotta wait till he's reached his potential. Destiny clearly states that foolish Sasuke here will somehow slay the great snake Orochimaru...we can't murder him just yet, or the consequences will be dire. Take him to the hospital, Kisame." He wasn't glad that his brother had tried to kill him, but his brother did not know he killed the Uchiha clan until Itachi personally told Sasuke the grand news. It was square, so Itachi felt that he had to help his poor brother; he hadn't really looked forward, or even thought about, the day when he would clash with Sasuke in an all-out duel. For now it was better to play it safe.
"Fine...but you're paying for his stay."
Kisame's reply was much more unsuggestive now, full of dislike at the idea, but he had to obey his best friend. Sighing, the shark nin slung Sasuke's limp form over his shoulder like he was a bag of wet rags, and vanished in rippling liquid water, heading for the hospital. Itachi just stared thoughtfully after them, rubbing a hand over his black hood, wondering whether it was a good idea after all to come back to Konoha after all. It was definitely troublesome as he had to wear his hot, humid hood the whole time; if he had even taken it off for one split second, hordes of ANBU would've come running at him, vowing to avenge the Uchiha clan. Something weird suddenly occured in the elder Uchiha's mind as he started to walk away from the place where he almost got pierced by a full-steamed Chidori. It seems like we're destined to meet yet again, Sasuke...too bad we're both male and brothers. You would've made a nice match as a soulmate.
A 6 foot 3 tall body slammed onto the ground with the force of a rampaging elephant getting shot through by a stealthy hunter, while another taller man stood over the motionless Jonin with the attributes of a powerful, reckoning leader. Evilness and waves of darkness radiated from the orange-haired man's body, and it greatly intimidated the downed Jonin. No one else was in the street where the fight was happening; it was clearly abandoned, and the barren surroundings suited the orange-haired man's wicked intentions perfectly.
"Bastard!" Pein insulted grouchily as he crouched down, slamming another fist into the poor man's half-distorted face with powerful impact; the punch of fury knocked out half of the man's perfect white teeth. Now it wasn't so perfect as it was missing the top row completely, with blood seeping through, making his once handsome face seem like a match to Frankenstein's ugly one. He tried to stand up, but Pein whacked him heavily on the brains, sending the Jonin falling down again, breathing weakly. His sight was wavering from loss of blood. "Speak!"
He still had to conduct his duty even in a dire situation like this. "Never..." the Konoha Jonin managed to reply in vain, earning a kick in the balls. Ruby red blood flew out from the Jonin's wide opened mouth as his weakening hands flew like flying black crows towards the bottom of his pants; he did not get a chance to protect his private parts or retaliate for the kick, instead Pein's wicked grin widened as the grass sandal came crashing down again at fast speed, this time holding the force of a powerful sledgehammer. The Jonin felt the bones in his right hand crumple like defenseless twigs; the pain was excruciating and he let out a torturing scream, causing Pein to almost crash to the ground, his eardrums ringing and buzzing at the piercing sound wave. The Jonin himself felt much worse than the shaky-headed Pein, still recovering from the loud screaming; with bones snapped in his fingers, he could not possibly cast any notable Jutsus or simple hand seals.
"Just speak, will you, I haven't got all day. Stop screaming, and speak." Pein snapped sternly, spitting in the Jonin's watering, bloodshot eyeballs and placing a rough knee sinking into his soft guts for extra measure. Pein was excellent at torturing innocent shinobi; it was his specialty, the trait which earned him leader of Akatsuki. He absolutely loved, even ADORED torturing, almost as much as ending the grief and gory of full out war and....he couldn't say her name just this moment, it made him too angry and pissed.
A sharp-nailed finger stabbed slightly into the Jonin's thin neck, drawing out a thin line of blood. Just seeing his own life source made the Jonin feel sick; he wanted to puke, but was afraid it'll enrage his torturer even more. Pein started to draw a kunai from his pouch; the Jonin, although wounded badly, still caught sight of glinting metal, and instantly froze on the spot, his brain calculating various scenarios which might happen. The wounded Jonin quit screaming as his voice started to waver weirdly; the scream died into a mere gasp. As Pein started to stab down with the deadly tip of the kunai, the Jonin's eyes widened, and he started to speak for the sake of saving his life; the chances of him survivng this encounter was slim, but at least it was a good try. Inserting the kunai back in his pouch swiftly, Pein grinned from ear to ear, licking his dry lips in anticipation, as he was finally going to receive what he wanted to hear: information about Konan's current date. He leaned in, cupping an impatient hand to his ear, as the Jonin began to croak out barely hearable words with all that's left of his once booming voice...
"So...uh...well, as you can see, he hit on your woman, and because of his looks he managed to win her heart. You wanted to know his appearance and location, I've got them all right here..." the Jonin started.
After escaping and beating up ANBU members, the three refugees found refuge at a small run-down hotel at the edge of Konohagakure. It wasn't a good place, it was far from hospitable since it was so shabby and smelled of lice, but it would do for a nice hideout. After all it offered shelter, at least, and the money wasn't expensive, so Kakuzu had allowed his companions to stay here. Now greedy Kakuzu himself was negotiating a deal with a hotel manager and Tobi was scratching at several bloody cuts littered across his pride and joy: the black suit, when Sasori suddenly noticed something horrible. He was the sort of person who surveyed the areas around and around with vigilance; it was an old habit which helped save his life from likely ambushers many many countless times, but he wished it would stop now. Why me? Why am I the first one to notice HIM? ALWAYS!
Sasori tapped Kakuzu on the shoulder heavily, and the bounty hunter spun around annoyed only to catch sight of Sasori's eyeball directions; they were locked on Pein himself, who was standing still, eyes flashing with murderous intent. Sasori glanced worriedly at the white-faced Kakuzu, waiting for the bounty hunter to make the first move. Tobi was oblivious of the newcomer; rather he was still fretting about how to stitch his black suit, which made him look handsome in the eyes of hot chicks.
It took a moment's thought for Kakuzu to make a split second decision; he was going to run for his life, but he wasn't leaving without extra income either. "Fuck...it's the leader himself," Kakuzu swore softly, quickly swiping the hotel manager's cash from his pocket and taking off running, with Sasori and Tobi on his tails. Pein vanished in a flash and appeared instantly in front of Kakuzu, who hurriedly stopped, tucking the cash into his pocket for safekeeping. The hotel manager didn't bother chasing after the bounty hunter as he knew from their looks that they were missing-nin on the run; it wasn't safe for an average person to deal with notorious criminals capable of comitting murder easily.
"Don't kill us! Please! Or, in my case, don't dismantle my puppet body!" pleaded a wide-eyed Sasori, who knelt down and bowed to Pein like he was god. Well, technically, Pein called himself god. It took him 19 years just to convert his human body into a puppet one; if it got dismantled, who'd do it for him? With a broken body certainly not himself, and there weren't any good puppeteers in the world besides himself, the very best of the lot. Sasori pondered whether to activate Minato's fart, but decided against it again when he reminded himself of Pein's secret weapons. All he could do was continue bowing, sweat flying down his puppet body. How strange.
"Don't kill me either! I still have fifty banks to hit on!" Kakuzu moaned, tucking his Hit List into the very back pocket so Pein could not see the parchment. "Take my cash if you want; just let me live, leader-sama!" Tears started to appear in Kakuzu's eyes as he thought about the horrid thought of him giving away hard-to-acquire money; the liquid started to dribble down as the bounty hunter almost burst into tears right there. Money was too good to part with so hurriedly.
Tobi just nodded numbly, rubbing his spiky hair like he wasn't sure what was happening. He merely noticed his two superiors staring with horror at Pein, and followed suit, although no one could actually determine his expression since he covered his face entirely with an orange mask. It wasn't actually needed, but he had to copy his senpais, or he might get degraded in ranks, which he didn't want.
Pein ignored their pleas since he had a proposition for them, his subordinates. "Now, now, calm down. I won't kill you on one condition. You have to help me with something....well.....PERSONAL. Here's what you have to do...."
"We'll do anything, just give me a rise in paycheck!" Kakuzu roared enthusiastically, forgetting his previous moment of cowardiness.
"I want 5 AK-47s and 10 Tommy Guns embedded in my weapons slot!"
"A NEW BLACK SUIT PLEASE, FOR A GOOD BOY LIKE ME!"
"All those can be discussed later. Well if you want to live....here's what's going on....and don't fail me...." Pein warned dangerously as he began to explain in detail about the crisis.
A few streets away, a Jonin dressed in a handsome tuxedo strolled down the sidewalk, waiting to meet his blue-haired date...he just didn't know what was in store for him. Three Akatsuki-cloaked figures stood on a high roof, staring down at their target...
A/N: Kind of rushed, but oh well. Because of stupid exams and projects I haven't got a lot of time to update, so I apologize. Ill get the next chapter up soon, and it'll contain more action. Probably 2 more chapters before the 3rd Phase of the Chunin Exam...
R&R!