Asahi P.O.V.
"Take care, Asahi!" Sakura and Ino said in unison.
Kiba and Choji shared a breezy laugh and advised I steer clear of experiments.
Shikamaru tossed a multicolored stone into my hands. I twirled it around, watching the light reflect off of it and create five mini rainbows on the ground. I looked up at him for an explanation.
Asuma lit a cigarette. "It's a 'Thank You' gift."
"For saving his life." Kurenai glanced lovingly up at Asuma.
Naruto peered at the stone in my hands. "You got her a colorful rock?"
"It's from the Hyuga rock garden, Naruto-kun." Hinata gave a nervous smile, assumedly fighting off a blush.
Tenten lit up. "Think of it as your own little piece of Konoha!"
It was nice to know that although no doubt they still distrusted me, we had formed a petite friendship. But that was over an hour ago.
I read over the letter detailing where I was supposed to meet Sasuke. This was the place, seemingly just like any other abandoned, creepy, flea-ridden village. Vines covered the homes, spiraling up into one huge and menacing entanglement.
"Uchiha?" I called in a teasing tone. The only answer I received was the wind, stirring a browning leaf.
And then a sword at my throat. I always knew I'd go out this way, making one joke too many. Though, what'd I have to lose? With a hand held in front of me I used the Deva Path to propel the sword ten feet away.
"So Sasuke, which one are you?" I stifled a laugh with my hand. "In all seriousness, did you absorb Orochimaru?"
The boy picked up his sword and inspected it for damage. A sharp sound alerted me that he had put it back in its sheath.
"Yes. I assume you know what my next move is?" He wouldn't look me in the eyes.
"Yep. Go gather that platoon, Captain." I sarcastically saluted as Sasuke started to look up.
I turned on my heel back in the direction of the Leaf village. A sudden jolt alerted me I had disassociated, allowing me to take those few seconds of invisibility to thank the fact that I trained earlier. I pulled a kunai out of the unmoving clone's back.
"You've improved." Sasuke's gaze was unreadable, blank.
"I got tired of feeling useless." I shrugged.
His face was unchanged. "Then don't be, accomplish something."
"Yeah, I was going to go back to Konoha permanentl-"
"Join Hebi." Sasuke said abruptly.
"No thanks, you've already got a full group in mind." I closed my eyes and saw Sasuke's complete disregard for Karin's life during his fight with Danzo.
"It wasn't an offer, it was an order. I am Orochimaru now." He sounded a little disgusted when he said that part. "You're my subordinate." Oh wait, his stern arrogance returned.
This was the same guy who was going to regret and rename this group after learning the truth about Itachi. I'm not messing with this part of the storyline.
I laughed. "I'm not a sensory type like Karin, and I'm not as gifted as Jugo or Suigetsu. Also, I don't want to so...no."
"You're akin to a psychic and you understand what it's like to wield blessed eyes." Sasuke didn't budge in his reply. "Your reaction time isn't faster than my Sharingan."
I rubbed away an oncoming headache. "So what are my options?" I asked. Right now I considered summoning something to distract him but he'd just use Amaterasu on it and we'd be back at square one.
"Join, or starve to death while under Tsukuyomi." Came his reply.
Seeing as I'd been waiting for a chance to try out some new abilities anyway, I simply replied with: "I yield."
"...You, Karin, and Jugo." Sasuke finished explaining to Suigetsu about all the members involved.
Suigetsu gave a toothy grin. "What about the quiet one behind you?"
"Put some clothes on please..." I said, still shielding my eyes from the freedom the swordsman was enjoying.
My comment earned a small laugh from the liquefied boy. Suddenly he appeared behind Sasuke, his fingers mimicking a gun that was pointed at the Uchiha's head. After a few moments he pulled down his hand, pleasantly surprised that Sasuke didn't even bat an eye at the threat.
"It must be nice to be able to shoot a bead of water like a bullet." I commented.
"What happened to the quiet girl too afraid to uncover her eyes?" Suigetsu replied.
Sasuke started walking back towards the entrance. "let's go." He said.
I carefully made my way over the broken glass and water-like substance spilled on the ground after Sasuke released Suigetsu. The sword-enthusiast reveled in the sun and humid air, sights which I'm sure he hadn't seen in a while.
We walked briskly past prison cells full of rugged looking people begging of and cheering Sasuke's name.
"Why does Orochimaru have so many prisoners here?" I asked in a hushed tone.
Sasuke stopped when a female silhouette appeared yards ahead of us. He replied with only one word. "Experiments."
"Listen Karin, I've been in that glorified aquarium for a long time, can we get some place to sit?" Suigetsu sighed.
Karin refused to leave at first, apparently her duty was to stay here and guard the captives. She was stunned when she heard of Orochimaru's defeat, but didn't try to stop Suigetsu from leaving to free all of the prisoners. I got up to follow him, but the head of Hebi ordered me to stay.
"Oh no Sasuke, you two need a moment." I giggled mischeviously and stood outside the door, not surprised at all when it locked from the inside.
One broken down door later and Suigetsu barged in on Karin's scene.
"She changed her mind, but says it's because she has business to attend to and just happens to be going the same way as us." I said.
Karin grew animatedly defensive again. "I hadn't even said that yet! How did you-"
I activated my Rinnegan and pulled the door back into it's place. Tapping my forehead sarcastically, I glanced at Sasuke. "I'm Psychic."
"You want to go the Northern Hideout?!" Karin exclaimed.
"All the guards are dead. The experimentees killed them once they heard about Orochimaru's demise." I said morbidly.
When we arrived, various levels of the Curse Seal transformation awaited us. Browned, painful looking skins and twisted faces snarled angry words at Sasuke. The first one to confront us burst through at least five feet of solid rock. Sasuke incapacitated him with one swift blow of his sword.
"Why are you two even here?" Karin asked.
Suigetsu said something about the Seven Swordsmen and Karin chewed him out for his hobby.
"Sasuke threatened me." I said, with a flick of my hand in Sasuke's direction. "If I get bored, I'll leave." I smiled. Sasuke, who had been dormant up until that point stared at me. There was a moment of tension in the air, both of our eyes activated, seeing who would strike first.
"Take off that headband. You're no longer a Leaf nin." Sasuke declared before continuing towards the hideout.
I untied my headband and watched the sun glisten off it one more time before putting it in my lower vest pocket. Unlike someone, I don't intend to have fluctuating loyalty to Konoha.
We grew closer to the monstrous humanoids. "Can we take a break? I haven't moved these muscles in a while." Suigetsu pleaded.
Karin yelled at him again.
Sasuke warned the swordsmen who was already drawing out his sword. "Don't kill any of them."
"Heh." Suigetsu chuckled before engaging the prisoners.
"Asahi, Karin, help me find Jugo." Sasuke ordered.
I pointed to the heaviest steel door I could find and looked to Karin. "Here?"
She spaced out for a moment before agreeing.
I sidestepped around the wounded bodies until I sat alone outside and waited for them to finish their conversation.
"From this point forward, we five are one unit. Our goal is to locate Itachi Uchiha." Sasuke declared.
"We are...Hebi."
We visited a literal Cat-Lady and stocked up on supplies. Finally, cloaked in black we all gathered face to face.
"Go." Sasuke commanded. No sooner than the words left his mouth did Karin, Suigetsu, and Jugo become a blur off to look for clues to Itachi's whereabouts. I was about to head off too, before Sasuke ordered otherwise.
"There's something you aren't telling me, therefore you aren't leaving my side." Which something did he mean? Itachi? Deidara? The fact the everyone who's anyone know's he killed Orochimaru now?
"You're about to fight Deidara of the Akatsuki. He uses the hands on his palms to mold explosive clay into various creatures. His partner is Tobi. Physical attacks don't work on him." I stood on my tiptoes to be level with Sasuke's ears.
"Disassociation?" He asked.
"No, it's something completely different. Just don't try it. Also, his clay is an Earth element." I advised.
The bush behind us rattled. Sasuke turned to face the shrubbery. "Get out here and face me." he said.
"Look Tobi, that's definitely Itachi's little brother. Arrogant just like his kin." Deidara huffed, walking out of the woods with Tobi on his tail.
Sasuke didn't reply, but instead charged at the duo with his sword. His movements were almost too fast for me to see. Tobi of course, was unaffected while Deidara barely dodged the hit.
Deidara began with C1, creating the roundest spiders I had ever seen. He flung them at Sasuke and told Tobi to hide. Sasuke's arm lit up with electricity as he swatted the spiders away.
Tobi dove to the ground, then cried out in hysterics as the deflected pests landed on him. "Deidara-Senpain wait! Don't set them off!"
"Fast. Looks like I'll have to move on to C2." Deidara created a large clay dragon, and Tobi ran off to do something. Something...important. I can't remember what it is off the top of my head. I closed my eyes and accessed the manga. C1, a large dragon that creates a smaller dragon, Sasuke steps on something...
"Landmines, Sasuke!" I yelled.
He landed next to me waiting for more of an explanation. "The dragon fires clay bombs from its mouth in the air, Tobi placed land mines in the ground. They intend to trap you." I said.
"How much force does it take to set these mines off?" Sasuke asked.
I picked up a pebble and tossed it lightly to a random spot on the ground. I laughed as the stone hit a landmine and was launched high into the air, before falling down on another mine. "That much." I answered.
Deidara was angry. "Hey, what's the big idea, un?" He asked me. "Wait...you're the girl who killed Kakuzu and Hidan, right? Purple eyes, too many lucky guesses, sounds like it."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Nope, I didn't do any of the actually killing. I just offered advice." I played with my thumbs nervously.
The dragon's body was bloating, preparing to unleash it's first bomb. Because Sasuke didn't land on a landmine himself, he didn't enter Curse Mode. Since he didn't enter Curse Mode, he couldn't use his wings to take the blast. Deidara laughed insanely as the Bomb became exposed. I was hoping I wouldn't have to use this yet, but I guess this is as good a time as any. I formed the Seal of Confrontation and gathered chakra into my index finger. Slowly, the kanji for "One" was etched onto the pad of it. I grabbed Sasuke's arm and tattooed the kanji onto it. Smoke rose from the wound as my chakra burned into his skin. I'd only tried this on mice, let's hope it worked on humans too.
Sasuke P.O.V.
My arm seared with whatever seal Asahi had burdened me with. The bomb grew closer, the light clouding my vision. Finally it hit me, directly. I felt heat. I felt ripped away from reality. From my body even. I couldn't hear anymore, my ears rang because of the dizzying impact. So this was death?
I looked over at Asahi, who was still breathing. Her face lit up. She embraced me, in near tears. Her mouth was moving but I only heard the hum of the explosion.
"Sasuke, it worked! The seal worked!" She let go of me, seemingly embarrassed she'd let her joy get the better of her. However, was it joy of me surviving or the joy of her seal working?
"Our invisibility is fading now." She said.
I looked at my arm where the kanji had been. The seal was gone. "What did you do?" I asked her.
"Back in the Leaf, after Kakuzu nearly crushed my throat..." I'd have to nonchalantly ask about this later. "I devised a way to pass on my Disassociation. I focus all of my chakra into one finger, which in turn creates enough energy to allow one Disassociated clone of the person I use it on. In a way, I gave you an extra life. I didn't think it'd work though..." Out of Orochimaru's grasp and I'm still being experimented on.
I think it's time to even the playing field. "Asahi, send energy into the ground and detonate the rest of those landmines."
The veins in her forehead became more visible as she exerted more chakra than before to cover such a wide space. "Push." she murmured.
The ground shook a second time, rippling under the force and explosions colliding inside of it. Deidara swerved uncertainly on the dragon, as the landmines sent debris flying up into the air at them.
I activated my Curse Mark and took advantage of the confusion. One of the dragon's wings came flying up, unbalancing it and sending it and the Akatsuki member into the still erupting ground. I floated above the carnage with my own wings.
"Asahi, create more explosions." I ordered. Her arm become a launching pad for missiles, which seemed to disgust her. The projectiles were off course, which gave me the sense she'd never used the Asura path before. She shot a blast of energy at them to keep them on the right track, and right into Deidara.
Checkmate.
"I'm not giving up! I'm not losing to those eyes again!" Again? So he'd lost to Itachi. Hmph.
He began to eat clay as if it were his first meal in years. The masked idiot protested, "Senpai, don't! I'd better get out of here."
Deidara grew grotesque and huge, the clay bubbling up inside of him trying to burst its way out. "Behold, my C4!" He screamed.
Asahi rode up next to me on a flying summon. "Microscopic bombs that detonate inside the target when inhaled." She advised.
Deidara imploded. His clay is weak to my lightening, so all I have to do is run electricity through my body. I doubt even Asahi could escape bombs this small. This time, I grabbed her arm.
"Chidori Stream." Piercing sounds filled the air as I forced electricity through my body and hers, disabling the bombs inside of us. The pain was excruciating, even for me. Asahi was nearly unconscious at this point. Nearly.
"So you killed the girl after she saved your life? Uchihas really are worthless!" Deidara erupted with laughter, returning to his solid form.
"Ow." Asahi stretched out her muscles which the shock had made stiff. "When he unstitches his chest get out of there. He's going to blow up us and everything else entirely this time."
"Make three more seals. Place one on you just in case you don't disassociate in time. Place the other two on me. Then get out of here and find the others." I said calmly.
She rolled her eyes. Asahi focused three times as much chakra as the first seal. She winced as she placed one on her shoulder and then two on mine. She stretched out once more before grabbing hold of the reigns on her bird-summon.
"Bye Tobito!" She laughed as she flew in the opposite direction. Was Tobi short for Tobito?
"There you go again. Bossing people around. Those cold, unfeeling eyes. Stop it..." Deidara undid the stitch on his chest furiously.
"Stop staring at me!" He shoved clay into the mouth that had extended.
A sudden jolt alerted me to the fact that I had used up one Disassociation. Deidara had been throwing kunai at me to keep me from making a clean escape. The clone had taken a kunai to the throat. It looks like I'd have to use that anyway.
"This is my greatest work. This time you'll see true art. Go away!" Deidara uttered his last words.
Asahi P.O.V.
All feeling returned to my body as I flew closer to the giant remains of Orochimaru's snake summon, Manda. Sugeitsu was the first one here.
"You two look pretty beat up there." Sugeitsu grinned.
"Thank gosh you're okay, Sasuke! Your chakra vanished and I got so worried!" Karin and Jugo caught up to the rest of us.
Sasuke explained that he had to use Manda to shelter him from the blast, as my seal barely provided him enough time to get in alive. Deidara was a much stronger opponent than he had originally thought.
We headed to a resting point, Sasuke was bandaged and asked about Itachi. No one had found anything.
"Karin, can you sense them yet?" I asked. Karin was off by herself, presumably picking up on Naruto and the others closing in.
To evade capture, Sasuke ordered us to flee the area. Jugo was gathering birds to take the clothes Sasuke wore in battle all over the land, to fool Kiba's nose. Of course, Naruto's just going to use shadow clones to check every area.
"Sasuke, someone else will find Itachi first. Just saying." I offered.
Sasuke stopped walking when I stopped walking. "Where." he asked.
I wasn't paying attention to him, I was thinking about the fact that Jiraiya Sensei is off to fight Pain at this time.
"Asahi, I asked you where Itachi is." Sasuke said more sternly.
I looked down at the ground. "Itachi and Jiraiya..."
I fell on my knees in tears. I was never good at handling death. Or planning ahead. I crumbled on the ground and blocked out everyone's voices until they became muffled.
Sasuke's voice was absolutely cold. "Where. Is. Itachi." His sword was unsheathed.
And then I did something I didn't think I'd do in the face of death. I laughed. I couldn't stop laughing. My stomach was tightening so hard that I couldn't breathe. I rolled in the grass and cried and let everything out. Itachi's going to die. Jiraiya's going to die. Everyone's going to blame me for it. Finally I stood up, walking towards a secluded cave.
"You'll find your answer in there Sasuke." I sat outside and waited for him to come out, rushing us off to the Uchiha Hideout for the final showdown.
We headed to the Hideout, before someone came rushing at us.
"It's a lot of chakra!" Karin exclaimed about the threat.
Sugeitsu reveled at the wielder of the Samehada, Kisame.
"Sasuke-kun, from this point forward, you'll have to go solo." Kisame smiled a toothy grin.
Sasuke pushed on without a second thought. "Fine by me."
"Sasuke...before you go..." I stopped him. "You're going to regret this." I sat down outside the hideout and watched him leave.
"...your new group, Taka, will join the Akatsuki." Tobi or "Madara" as he's been asking to be called, said. He explained all about the Tailed Beasts to us.
I sighed, so at this point Itachi and Jiraiya have died. "Then I'm out of Taka, Take care... some of you." I said.
"You were right, when you said I'd regret killing Itachi. I don't want any more regrets. Stay in Taka." Sasuke said. This was the weakest I'd ever seen him. His eyes barely dried from the crushing blow dealt by Itachi's truth.
"Asahi, was it? I'd like to talk to you alone." Tobi/Madara/Obito pulled me aside away from the rest of Taka.
I'd been raised to give everyone another chance, even if they strongly don't deserve it. "Yes?" I pushed.
"Why are you so quick to refuse any affiliation with the Akatsuki?" Tobi (The name I'm sticking with for now) asked.
"Well, logically joining an evil organization is evil." I shrugged, kicking a rock further into the woods.
I stared at the Moon. This was the very Moon that Tobi seeked to utilize in his ultimate goal.
"It's no secret to Zetsu or myself that you know everything we're planning. To be clear, you're either a powerful ally or our worst enemy. Also, maybe your notions of "right or wrong" are incorrect." He said, taking off his mask to try and establish some sort of familiarity.
"No...I'm pretty sure I know what's bad and what's good. You are bad, The Leaf is good." I declared with certainty.
Tobi led me back to the group. "Maybe Asahi, your view of reality is wrong. It would be wise to stick around and find out for yourself." He said.
I didn't have a reply for that. So I just listened as our mission to capture the Eight Tails was detailed.
Sasuke P.O.V.
"It's a shame that it's always the Rinnegan users who are too easily manipulated by their emotions." Tobi said.
I sat with just Zetsu and Tobi, everyone else had gone to sleep by the fire. When I didn't reply, Zetsu picked up the conversation.
"It's that kind heart of theirs that makes them akin to domesticated beasts. Let them think they're in control, while all the while, we're the ones while using them."
All this talk about kind-hearted beasts reminded me of Naruto.
*Annnd Finally done. Halfway through, my sister pressed the power button and erased part of the chapter. I tried to make up for that...