Stray Dogs
Chapter 14
Naraku Eiichiro walked silently into the halls of the hidden Temple of Jashin. Red-robed monks bowed respectfully as their High Priest passed, but he paid them no mind. He stepped past the bloodstained altar into the most important room in his world.
The bright laboratory lights played off of the glass tube around which the monks worked in reverent silence, gleaming lights dancing across the golden skin of the multi-limbed form within.
Eiichiro knelt, then took to his hands and knees, and began to speak.
"My Lord, all is proceeding as you have foretold. The plans have been made, the demon Madara will die before us, and soon you shall be made manifest in flesh once more. You will breathe righteous slaughter upon this sinful world. You will bathe in the blood of the heathens, and we shall follow you and bask in your glory."
...
Naraku Eiji lay awake and thinking. He had given up his bed to Kankurou, while Mizuki had given his to Temari, now Mizuki was bedding with Zaku, and Eiji lay on the couch. Kankurou had offered to share, but Eiji didn't want to put his guest out. Both Zaku and Mizuki had offered to let him stay in Zaku's bed, but he didn't mind. Traveling with his brother, Eiji had slept outdoors in terrible conditions at times. He could handle a good couch.
Eiji thought back on the day, he'd spent several hours explaining Jashinism to the Suna Siblings, preparing them in case of any battle with a priest, and Zaku had talked some about life in Otogakure, dying and his short time amongst the Akatsuki. Then Kankurou had shown them his puppets, Karasu, Karoari and Sanshou, which he summoned to the front yard, and remarked that, with proper training, someone with six arms would make an excellent Puppeteer.
Eiji sighed and finally accepted the fact that he wasn't tired. He got up and walked outside, quickly leaping to the roof, and looked around at the grasslands around him. Nothing but grass in three directions, and Kusagakure was a short ways to the west of the small house, which stood alone. There were no trees. However much he hated Amegakure, at least it had trees. He lay back and thought about planting a few, preferably fast-growing, trees.
"I thought I heard an intruder, jan."
He turned to see Kankurou crouching a few feet away, wearing only a pair of black boxers.
"Who are you?" Eiji grinned, Kankurou looked like a different person entirely without his Puppeteer's outfit and Kabuki paint.
"The Boogie-Man, the Monster Under The Bed, Uchiha Sasuke . . ." Kankurou grinned, but put his hand over Eiji's mouth when he started to laugh, not wanting Temari to think they were intruders and fan them into oblivion. "Shhhhhhhhhh." He whispered, "Temari might hear you."
Eiji nodded, Temari was an intimidating woman.
"I have a bad feeling, " Eiji whispered, "I think Eiichiro wanted everyone to know about Zaku and the others. He must have known that every ninja in the world would want to investigate when he sent Zaku and the twins here."
"Yeah, not the way I'd keep a secret." Kankurou sat down on and looked up thoughtfully,"Maybe he's trying to stop them from the inside."
Eiji lay back down, "Eiichiro does everything for Jashin, and Jashin is a god of death, war, bloodshed and evil. The only reason I can think of he would have to fight Akatsuki was if they somehow either posed a threat to his religion, or were doing something so evil even his Jashinist sensibilities were offended."
"Or, he could just be using them, like Orochimaru used the Kazekage as a distraction so he could kidnap Sasuke. Jan."
Eiji hadn't considered that, and the thought frightened him.
"Maybe." He paused, thinking of the late Kazekage. He was Kankurou's father, after all. "My condolences about your father."
Kankurou snorted, "He wasn't much of a father. He destroyed our family, killed my mother, and put a murderous demon in my little brother. I'm glad he's dead, I just hope he stays that way."
Eiji didn't know what to say to that, he'd known that already, of course.
"I'm sorry," Kankurou looked out toward the village, "You were just trying to be nice. I guess you could say Baki was the more like our real father, he was the one who took care of us, trained us, spent time with us, jan. I don't recall the Kazekage ever even talking to us unless it was either to order us to kill someone or to insult us, jan. But we had it better than poor Gaara, can you imagine, being four years old and having your own father send assassins after you? He told us Gaara was evil, and kept us apart. So my brother spent the first twelve years of his life alone, and we were too afraid to even approach him, much less help him, jan."
Eiji wondered how someone could be so evil, even Jashinist's cared for their own families. He decided to change the subject. "Why do you always say that?"
"Say what?"
"Jan."
"It's just something I say. Like when Uzumaki yells 'Dattebayo!' at the end of every sentence, but less annoying, jan. Thugs talk like that, It makes me seem even more tough and rebellious."
"If you say so . . ."
Temari suddenly appeared, holding her fan, "#$%! I thought you two were prowlers! What the hell are you doing up here!?" Both guys took one look at the angry female, jumped from the roof and ran into the grass to hide.
"Boys." She sighed, and went back to bed.
...
Kakuzu shook his head. The wound separating Hidan's head from his body was ragged, not a clean cut as it had been the times when he'd been decapitated by blades. This would be hard, but, then he could charge overtime.
He grinned at the thought.
"What are you smiling at you #$! Frankenstein!?" Hidan growled, "Visions of coins dancing in your #$! greedy head?"
"Shut up or I'll sew your head on backwards!" Kakuzu growled and sent the dark threads from his body to sew Hidan's lips shut. "Finally, I can work in peace."
Hidan's glare was full of deadly rage, but he finally closed his eyes and waited to be rejoined with his body. They needed Kakuzu, why else would they have brought him back. He was also a part of their conspiracy, a very expensive part, but an ally none-the-less. Hidan had become oddly attached to the greedy immortal. He didn't shy away from slaughter. Kakuzu worked quietly, thinking on the plot, and the bizarre revelation of Tobi's role in Akatsuki. He wondered if the kids were going to be involved as well, they needed all the help they could get against Madara. Kakuzu shuddered, he'd known Uchiha Madara, almost a century ago, and his memories of the evil Uchiha were far from pleasant. He wondered if Kidoumaru knew that his 'Sempai' was an evil, immortal monster on par with Shukaku or Kyuubi. Probably not, Tobi had fooled everyone, even him, and Kidoumaru, while still an undeniable genius, was not exactly mentally stable since his resurrection. As Kidoumaru himself put it. 'I suffered an 8D10 Sanity loss.' Whatever that meant. . . Tobi hadn't actually fooled them, Tobi probably didn't even know who Madara was.
He wondered idly whose body Madara had usurped. He knew that he was male, an Uchiha, with only one eye, a severely damaged body and who had been gone from Konoha during Itachi's bloody familial massacre. He could think of only one possibility. True, poor little Obito was supposed to be dead, buried beneath a mountain of boulders in some God-forsaken corner of Iwagakure, but he was around the right age, he would have only one eye, having given the other to that idiot Kakashi, and, being 'dead', he would have escaped Itachi's notice. Tobi had shown the ability to heal from mortal wounds in a matter of seconds, as well as to teleport. He could easily escape a cave-in, especially with Madara's power helping him. Also, from what he'd heard, Uchiha Obito was defiantly a 'Good Boy', and his bizarre behavior, (as well the fact that, if he was Obito, that a young war hero and loyal citizen of Konoha would be happily working alongside the Akatsuki, including the very man who'd slaughtered his family,) could be due to some lingering brain damage from his injuries that his body had not been able to heal. Everyone had always assumed Tobi was just retarded, but maybe his odd personality stemmed from injury rather than birth defect. He shook his head, it was all too confusing. He honestly hoped that Tobi wasn't Obito, the kid deserved far better than the life of a puppet. In his mind, Obito was the only Uchiha who was worth more than the cost of his internal organs on the black market. Kakuzu started to whistle. Whoever Tobi was, he'd be free soon, one way or the other.
...
Sasuke didn't even see it coming, his attention was on fending off Karin's advances, when, suddenly, it was upon him. The orange-clad figure rushed Sasuke, wrapping his arms around the Uchiha and holding on like a leech.
"SSSSSAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSUUUUUUUUUUKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Naruto shouted, "I've finally found you!"
"OH GOD NO! I hoped I'd killed you!" Sasuke tried to pry the knucklehead Ninja off of him, but his grip was too strong.
Sai walked up, shaking his head, "I should have stayed in Konoha with the Hag." Sakura was a picnic compared to Uzumaki Naruto, "Even Sakura isn't this obsessed with you, Sasuke."
"HE'S WORTH IT!" Both Naruto and Karin shouted.
"And get off of MY Sasuke!" Karin screamed, pulling Naruto off the boy. Unfortunately, for Sasuke at least, Naruto's grip tore Sasuke's clothes from his body, leaving him in only his Batman underwear. Karin fainted, and Suigetsu fell to the ground, laughing like a mad hyena.
"I was so worried about you! Dattebayo!" Naruto shouted, not caring about Sasuke's situation, "Zaku told us -"
"Zaku?" Sasuke asked, pulling on a spare set of clothes, ignoring Suigetsu's laughter and Karin lying unconscious on the ground, "Who's Zaku?"
"You remember Zaku, that little windbag from Otogakure! The guy that got his arms blown off by Shino!"
Sasuke sighed, Naruto had officially gone insane, "That kid is dead, remember? Orochimaru sacrificed him and that girl, What's-Her-Face."
"Tsuchi Kin." Sai noted helpfully.
"I know, but he's back from the dead! Just ask Sai, we saw him in Kusagakure, and he said a lot of dead Oto guys are back, even the Oto-Five! Dattebayo!" His eyes widened, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot, did Orochimaru... Well, you know... Make you his woman?"
Karin, who'd finally started to wake up, screamed at the insinuation and fainted again.
"WHAT!?" Sasuke screamed.
"Well, Zaku said Orochimaru was a pedophile and..."
Sasuke didn't hear the rest, seeing as how he fainted dead away, falling on top of Karin.
To Be Continued . . .