Chapter thirty-five:
Auribus teneo lupum
A/N: I'm writing, I'm writing… Sorry for waiting you guys. All explanations on my profile page. Special thanks to my darling beta Nevervana who still supports me whenever I come crying at her doorstep every few months.
"Phantom Dragon's Nine Seals."
Throbbing vibrations permeated the air, the ground under her, through her very flesh, drilling deep to the bone marrow. A shiver shot down Akane's spine and she trembled, hard. As the pressure in the room heightened, she swore she could see the air coagulate, glowing pale-blue.
The air around her was bubbling with chakra.
By the nature of her body, Akane wasn't well attuned to her surroundings; having no chakra network, she wasn't quite sensitive to the subtle changes noticeable even to non-ninjas. But the malicious hue of this monstrous power was not lost even on her.
It mounted and compressed to such terrible density that she felt her ears pop. Her vision swam for a moment, until she realized that the vague shapes, like writhing snakes of inverted shadow, were not spots in her own eyes but the thrumming power itself made manifest.
Akane took a cautious step back, craning her neck. The body of the bearded old man was lifted high into the air by an invisible force, overtaken in a kind of a glow. And it was loud, the air whooshing like someone had ripped a giant balloon, and she tried to suppress the thought that it was a human being ripped open here right in front of her as she saw the man's limbs twitching as if electrocuted, his mouth snapping open in a mute scream-
It felt so palpable on her own skin that sudden nausea soured her throat. She pushed her lungs to breathe in the thick air, suddenly light-headed, trying to keep herself standing upright. The whole chamber was pulsing in a heavy, overbearing rhythm.
"Ne, ne, Akane-chan, are you okay?" Tobi yelled down to her in what couldn't be anything but mock concern. She gritted her teeth.
"It's nothing," she strained, opening her eyes, "I'm terrific."
Pein's metallic voice rang clearly above the gurgling noise of chakra. "The ritual will take five full days to complete. During this time you will prove your worth to us. There are still questions in need of your clearance."
"But of course," Akane hurried to answer, "My knowledge is at the Akatsuki's disposal."
I must take the right tone, it flashed through her mind, I will not get far with this false submission.
"There are few rules within the Akatsuki," Pein said in a quiet yet authoritative tone, "You may not be a member, but as an associate you're obliged to all of them nonetheless."
"We are working towards a specific cause, the details of which will be disclosed to you as is seen fit." Akane didn't remind him that she may already know about those, but the edge to his eyes suggested Pein was already considering this as well. His voice, so far cool and methodical, took a promisingly dark turn as he said, "And if you betray us..."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Akane threw him back a sweet smile, accompanied by a small shrug of her shoulders, "Leader, allow me to be perfectly clear from the very beginning. I couldn't care less about your goals, nor your means of achieving them. What I do care about is this girl. Bring her to me, safe and sound, and I'll do everything in my power to ensure you avoid any and all possible setbacks to your cause."
"Whether it's with the Sound, Leaf, Akatsuki, heaven or hell itself, I honour my deals. If," she accented, balancing the single syllable like a counterweight on her tongue, "you are willing to make one with me."
She was putting everything she had on her side of the scale, and hoped it would be enough to balance out the field. Akane held Pein's ringed gaze, as if daring him not to measure up to the weight of her words. And as he did, the soothsayer knew that he was an adversary that she could fully count on.
"Then it's settled."
Spring was in full bloom. Sweetly-scented petals sprayed the forest, sun's glow warmed the air, cooled by sudden rains. Akane stood at the entrance of the cave, and breathed in. Feeling light. Feeling strong. Feeling free.
She knew she was being watched, of course. Zetsu's ability to be at multiple places at the same time was quite handy during the ritual, allowing him to keep watch over the entire area. And right now, at this very moment, he was acting as her surveillance.
The girl couldn't see him, naturally, or even sense his presence, but her suspicious mind was keenly aware of his existence. She didn't mind this, however. She was content to just stand and breathe breathe breathe in as hard as her lungs allowed her- and then breathe it all out in one long, exasperated sigh.
Something in her had broken, beyond repair, the jagged edges cutting her open, bleeding her. Everybody is bloody beneath the skin, Kabuto had told her once. He was right, of course. She was a bloody mess.
Akane stared down into the darkness of the cave. Time to crawl back in and face the monsters.
It had already been two uneventful days. Until the technique stabilized, Pein and the rest of the organization seemed too preoccupied with keeping it steady to deal with her. It was probably why she had gotten the generous permission to move about, while the Akatsuki was fixed in place for the ritual. Her walking radius stretched no further than the entrance, of course, but every possibility of being alone, for however few moments, was crucial to her waning sanity.
"Who's going to be in charge of her?" Kakuzu had asked to the room, "Someone who's able to take care of... difficult situations, defuse exploding tempers—"
"… you two would know..." Akane added all too calmly.
"—And who can handle this sort of crap constantly," Hidan filled in, glowering at her with murder in his eyes.
Akane had passed her look over the members one by one, her eyes mockingly wide. "Oh my, now why would I trouble any of you? It's quite alright, Leader. I'll be perfectly fine on my own for the time being."
Truth be told, Akane would be called back up to the statue fairly rarely. Just a few hours into the ritual the girl had grown surprisingly used to the sight of the half dead elderly man floating in mid-air just a little ways away. While the Akatsuki busied itself sucking the life out of the Jinchuuriki, Akane would sit down idly by the giant turtle's side and wolf down the spare field rations the two present teams had piled up for her. Again and again with the damn rice-balls. Was it all ninjas ever ate?
She gazed up at the twitching holograms in thought. After the reports were in, Kakuzu discussing the finances and Kisame bragging about the details of his fight with the Six-Tails' host, it was all strictly business. The Akatsuki gatherings seemed to be generally uncommunicative and eerily quiet. Naturally, she thought, as these hardened criminals were unlikely best buddies throwing slumber parties behind the scene. In fact, it looked more like most of them hated each other's guts.
The obscure silence was making her mind come up with all sorts of inappropriate questions as she munched on her rice. Like, didn't they need to relieve their bladder or something? On second thought, didn't they need to eat, or drink, or sleep? Anything at all? They were not as inhuman as to be above basic physiological needs, but Akane hadn't seen a single one of them move an inch from his spot the entire time.
Clearly bored with her life, she hypothesized that, while participating in the technique, they fed off Jinchuuriki's chakra for renewed energy, and that it was doing all sort of bizarre chemical processes to their metabolism that her biology 101 course couldn't even begin to explain.
By the third day Akane wished she hadn't pondered on the diet of Akatsuki members as she witnessed one of them feasting on a human corpse.
When the dead body of the old man hit the ground, Akane watched it roll aside with glaring disinterest and mild distaste. She had no wish to spend the rest of the ritual in a cave with a corpse rotting by her side. She was just about to speak her mind, when saw it: a shape growing from the ground, a sound of a snapping jawl, and Akane realized that she was about to meet Zetsu in person for the first time.
She left the cave before she could see him in action and lose her lunch.
The beast's eyes snapped open and Akane stumbled back almost tripping over herself, her heart climbing up her throat. She had gotten rather used to lounging away in the crease of the Three-Tails shell; when the Akatsuki extended its sealing ritual to it, Akane had forgotten that it was still, in fact, a living and breathing creature.
But not for long.
For a moment the girl saw a hypnotic reddish gleam leave its irises and the black of the pupil grow impossibly larger, before all that was left was a blank, glassy stare reflecting the bright blue light of summoned chakra. There was nothing in those eyes. The once mighty beast was fully subdued and completely at their mercy.
"Guess it'll take some time to drain this thing up too, yeah," Deidara noted, already bored, as if commenting on the weather.
Akane glanced in the direction of the pyromaniac. It was extraordinary to think it took only two people to take down the frightening creature slumbering in the dark this whole time. It must have been under an immensely strong genjutsu to keep it docile- something as potent as the sharingan, as it may be. Her inspecting eyes slipped from Deidara to his masked partner, Tobi. Or rather, Madara.
How powerful exactly is he?
Akane realized she didn't really know.
This sudden new thought, that she didn't know something, that she didn't know a whole lot, disturbed her. The extent of Madara's real power was hugely a mystery to her. The farthest she had gotten reading the manga was the zombie-ninja war, before this shit happened. Past that point... she had no idea. She had never learned the ending. So far Akane had tried to get a grip on the things she knew and work around with that. Stick to her guns.
But who knew how many shots she had left? For a moment, Akane had a sickening feeling like she had unknowingly loaded a revolver for a game of Russian roulette.
It would be alright, she decided. As long as they didn't know that what she had were mostly blanks.
Her reputation preceded her already; Leaf and Sound's struggle over her in the past had earned her some valuable points in Akatsuki's good book, and she intended to keep it that way. Her game was in biding herself time, and soon the time would be right. She just had to stall a little bit more. Hana was within her arm's reach.
Akane shook the thought from her head, lest she should get too hopeful. First thing was first: she had to get him on her side. She threw a discreet look over the hand statue to the unsuspecting dark silhouette. Uchiha Itachi was one of the single most powerful ninjas in this world, there was no question about it. And Akane held priceless knowledge over him: his past, his future, his goals, his weak points-
Sasuke…
If all else failed, Itachi could prove to be just the necessary ace up her sleeve. If she could get his protection, she would make sure Madara couldn't dare lift a finger against her... not until Itachi's death at least. But that was just enough time for her to settle her position within the Akatsuki and strengthen her own influence over its de facto leader. Pein was her one-way ticket into the attack on Konoha and God knew she didn't need Madara pulling her aside for his own personal goals…
There was a delicate power-play within the Akatsuki, invisible to the most of them, Akane knew. The only true players were the man hiding behind the mask, Uchiha Madara, and the man hiding behind his bloodied reputation, Uchiha Itachi. If she played her cards right, Akane could gain the upper hand on both. At her will, she could unmask the first and shatter the illusion of the other. As it stood, however, she had no need to do either- for the main bargain chip was Pein himself. He posed no actual threat to her plans, but she depended the most on his decision to bring her in on the invasion plan.
And this time, Akane swore, she would get things right.
"Senpaiiiiii, I'm boooored!" Tobi howled all of a sudden, making her jerk awake from her perpetual musings.
Speak of the devil.
"Shut up Tobi, hn," Deidara grunted. His tone was a verbal equivalent of a smack on the head, "I don't care."
Tobi slumped his shoulders in an overdramatic gesture with an even more dramatic sigh. Akane thought she heard Kisame give a low chuckle, while Hidan outright commented, "Who brought in the retard..."
"But I'm just soooo bored!" Tobi cried again like a whining toddler, "You guys are never ever ever fun."
No one rose to that. The members of the Akatsuki stood united in silently praying away the pest known to them as Tobi.
"Hey, wait! I know what we can do!" Akane cringed. Oh God somebody shoot him. The frequency of his voice was not meant to be withstood by human ears. "We can use this time to get to know each other better! Right? Right Akane-chan?"
The soothsayer twitched in alarming attention. Why was he talking to her again?
Bored though she might have been these days, Akane didn't really have any wish to indulge in idle prattle with the Akatsuki murderers. Tobi, especially, would not be her first choice. She clicked her tongue in a condescending manner.
"I could care less," she bristled, "I'd prefer it if you didn't address me at all."
Deidara snorted, "Yeah, good luck with that."
Tobi hung his head, looking positively crestfallen, "But-but-but! Since we're stuck here together, we could play a game or something!"
"A game?" Akane felt a sudden cold rise up her spine.
(A game, a game, let's play another game...)
"Yeah," the masked man nodded his head far too earnestly to be even remotely sincere, "Tobi knows many fun games! Do you like games, Akane-chan?"
Akane gave him a mild look. "Oh I adore them," she cooed, for a moment tempted to give him the best creepy grin she had picked up from Orochimaru.
"Oh my gosh, me too!"Tobi squealed in unconstrained glee. "Then, I announce that we're playing," he stopped there for what she presumed to be an imaginary drumroll, "Truth or dare!"
Akane stared. So did everybody else.
"The fuck?" Hidan snarled, "I'm not playing stupid games with this asswipe."
Akane's thoughts very much resembled Hidan's, all swear words included. The next thing you know we'll be playing spin the bottle, she thought to herself sarcastically.
"But it's such a cool game, Hidan-san! Tobi promises! Look, look, it goes like this..." Tobi took in a loud throaty breath, like a child getting ready to proudly recite a poem. "Akane-chan must tell a truth about everyone who's playing or- or they get to dare her!"
Ah. Cute. So that's what he was getting at. Akane masked her annoyance by smiling a sweet patronising smile at him, "I don't think that's how it's played, Tobi-kun."
"Perhaps, Tobi, your game isn't such a bad idea," to her complete incredulity Pein followed Madara's lead, even sounding interested, "It would be a good way to test the depth of the girl's knowledge of the organization."
Akane flinched at that. Oh boy. Way to go, Madara. she thought grimly. Way to turn this into an interrogation.
But if that is how you want to play? Her lips twitched in an unconscious smirk.
Fine. Let's play.
Akane could –and did- handle an interrogation, back in her day. There were no white rooms, no sharp instruments, no veiled threats this time, no. It was, as Tobi had put it, nothing but a game to him. But if she didn't come on top of it, Akane knew, she would never be taken to the Rain headquarters. If she turned out to be an impostor, a spy sent by either Sound or Leaf, she was a risk the Akatsuki would not be taking. She looked over to the Akatsuki members and knew that, if she proved unworthy of their time, one of them would simply be ordered to slit her throat, then and there. She predicted Hidan would enthusiastically volunteer.
Once again, what was at stake here was her very skin. But once she got past this milestone... there would be no turning back. She would be marked as the willing associate of the Akatsuki, the world's most feared criminal organization, and she would start working for them towards their victory. But as long as she got what she wanted out of it, well...
She guessed that was perfectly alright.
And here he was, her employer to be, literally bouncing in excitement, the smug prick.
"Ok, ok, so!" Tobi clasped his hands gleefully, "Since Akane-chan is new she gets to choose who goes first!"
"Fair enough…" she allowed, yawning widely just for theatrics, "but undoubtedly tedious."
The soothsayer straightened her attire and stepped up, looking around the chamber with unassuming interest. She had only a moment to decide how she would play her hand, and make it count.
"I gather it's only logical to start with you two… although there's not much of relevance to say that hasn't been said already," she turned to her travelling companions, Hidan and Kakuzu, measuring them up with cold calculating eyes, "How can I put this... Well. You two are completely disposable. It doesn't matter if you live or die."
And it didn't. What did they matter? They were but another set of pawns. Hidan never to be heard from again; Kakuzu dead, brought back as a zombie, only to die once more. Effectively changing nothing, contributing nothing but a few nostalgic action sequences. Their lives had less impact on the events than even her accidental existence in this world.
The Zombie-duo, naturally, didn't see it as such.
"Ha ha well fuck you bitch!" Hidan sneered, masking the way Kisame snickered in the back. "I don't have to listen to her shit! What the hell does she know anyway?"
"Clearly nothing except for the fact that you owe me your lives. You have already cheated death once because of my interference," Akane said matter-of-factly, throwing him a careless look,"You were supposed to die back there, when we first met. If you had not avoided battle, you would have soon met your end with the arrival of the Nine-tailed Jinchuuriki, Uzumaki Naruto, Kakashi the Copy Ninja, and Shikamaru Nara, a brilliant Chuunin whom- by the way- I suggest the organization should keep an eye on in the future. He is the one who will devise a strategy to blow up Hidan here to bits." It was hard to keep the satisfaction at the thought out of her voice.
"Me? Taken out by a fucking Chuunin? What kind of a pathetic joke is that?" Hidan's eyes flashed hatefully at her.
The Jashinist was absolutely fuming at this point; his jaw had tightened, biceps flexed. On all accounts, he looked ready to jump at her and tear her throat out with his teeth.
"The thing is," she ignored Hidan's hissy fit by speaking to Pein directly now, trying to offer her prophetic words a frame of rationale, "I had already shared my visions of them with Konoha, which is how they knew the depth of their techniques. With all the information I gave them, it wouldn't take them longer than a day to figure out the appropriate strategy to take care of both for good."
"So we don't fight?" Kakuzu's voice was low and incredibly threatening, "Is that what you're suggesting?"
"What I'm saying is that the next time you cross Konoha ninjas, you better take extreme caution, as you have a startlingly good chance of dying. Or, well, becoming immensely incapacitated in your case," she looked at Hidan, almost giving into a bitchy wink.
"Who would have thought that the 'immortal' Zombi-duo would be the first to end up three-feet under, hn," Deidara jeered, eliciting an unsubtle roar of laughter from Kisame this time.
"I don't think you should allow yourself to be so careless around your opponents either, Deidara-san," Akane turned to him, "Seeing as how you are next in the line yourself."
The laughter stopped at once.
"...what did you just say?"
"I said, I know what's been on your mind from the moment I announced Orochimaru's death, so let this be a warning to you. If you seek out a fight with Uchiha Sasuke, you are bound to lose and only blow yourself up in the process," Akane revealed, still with an air of boredom about her, "Sasuke will survive your most powerful explosion by sacrificing Orochimaru's summon snake, Manda, in his stead. Your death will accomplish nothing."
Deidara's hologram flickered in rising rage. "Bullshit! That little prick doesn't stand a chance against my art. You're-"
"Saving your life," Akane inserted coldly, "But if you're in such a hurry to die then, by all means, do go right ahead. My work here is done."
"Yeah, we'll just see about that. I'm gonna-"
"You're not going to do anything, Deidara," Pein's voice cut through the chamber like a cold blade, "We will not lose another talented member by taking unnecessary action."
"Why not, let 'im!" Hidan mocked, his smile spelling out payback in wide grinning letters, "At least he'll go out with a bang, right? Isn't that what you really want, Deidara-chan? Oh yeah, he'll have a total blast!'
"And I'll destroy you after I'm done with him, you motherf-"
"Enough," Pein said, his voice as steel-cold as his eyes, "Deidara you are from this point on forbidden from initiating a fight with Uchiha Sasuke. Tobi will supervise you."
Deidara's eyes slit in furious humiliation."You've gotta be-As if fucking Tobi could stop me!"
"If you refuse to cooperate then I will have no choice but to bind you to the hideout. We will not waste any more time on the issue." The command echoed around the room with resounding finality, leaving no room for further argument. Deidara grunted in obvious rebellion, but was smart enough to hold his tongue.
Well, that's one way to make somebody hate you, Akane thought, ignoring the absolutely murderous look the bomber threw her. That's too bad, she thought, surprisingly a little disappointed. She had rather liked the guy.
A part of her wondered if there was a way she could turn that around. She could already feel her head spinning fine threads of neatly aligned sentences ready for baiting and luring. Something wicked inside her smiled, and for a moment, she wondered if she was smiling herself. It felt like an animal that finally grew sharp claws and began grasping how to use them.
The men around her were silent. Her pause, however short, made them impatient. And that made her, horribly enough, happy.
"Now where was I? Ah yes. Uchiha Itachi." She tapped her chin with her fingers, turning to look him over. "A truth?"
A delicious idea occurred to her.
Akane smiled quizzically at him, "Well, I don't suppose anybody here knows what really happened that night? The night of the infamous Uchiha massacre?"
The soothsayer had said it aloud to the room, but her eyes lingered on Tobi a second longer than the rest. That poignant fragment of a moment, that vaguest cue that he was involved- she knew it would be enough to get her message across. The power of mere two words that could change everything:
I. know.
Itachi's impenetrable eyes and inscrutable countenance gave nothing away, but Akane could imagine the wheels turning in his head with unmatched speed. She could even take guess at some of the thoughts. If she really did know and exposed his secret mission now, should he take action and slit her throat before she even manages to get the words out? Or should he wait it out? Deny everything? Should he try to flee immediately or stay in one last attempt to kill as many present members in the room as he could?
Finally, Akane said, "You used Mangekyo sharingan on your little brother, while standing over the corpses of your mother and father. You showed Sasuke exactly how you killed your parents, as well as everybody else. Over and over and over again. You left him alive only so he could forever be haunted by the images of their death... and his own inability to prevent it."
Well. She didn't lie. It was the truth. Not the one she had implied knowing, but a truth nevertheless.
"You never told me the details. That's cold, even for you, Itachi-san," Kisame said, but with an impressed sadistic lilt.
Akane never moved her eyes away from his. Although Itachi said not a word, she felt the tension lift from his posture however slightly. Yet his eyes became more guarded than ever. A surge of silent understanding passed between them: no, she would not compromise him.
Not for now, at least.
Satisfied with her performance, Akane turned back to the leader of the Akatsuki, and waited. She was almost closing the circle and, while she did have a spicy thing or two to share about Kisame, Akane had no idea what she would have said about Zetsu.
The bizarre ninja was a complete mystery to her. Nothing of his past had been revealed in the manga until the last chapter that she read. She couldn't allow them to draw too much out of her now and see the fullest extent of her 'visions'. The mere implication that her knowledge was, in fact, limited, would render her useless, steal away her power.
She needed to stop this. It was more than enough. Her knowledge was draining up with every precious word that dripped from her lips. She had to bring this game to its end, and she needed to do it fast.
"Shall I continue?" Akane asked innocently, taking a step about the room, "Leader, I do believe it was your turn. My apologies. But, allow me to digress once more."
She'd been feeding them nuggets for the first round, but now was the time to throw a bone between them.
A bone belonging to a dear, old, dead friend.
"I have yet to hear Konan-san speak during this meeting," Akane addressed the quietest of shadows, looking directly at her now wih sharp, observant eyes, "A blue-haired woman with an origami-flower adorning her hair. Make no mistake, I can see you, Lady Angel."
A tense moment passed until a woman's voice answered. "Not even all members of the Akatsuki have had a chance to meet me in person, yet you would reveal my identity so easily. Your gift is impressive, litle girl," Konan's voice was soft, yet somehow indescribably cold, "Be careful how you decide to use it with us."
"It is indeed curious. She had addressed me by my first name the initial time we spoke as well," Pein said without a single emotion in his tone that she could use as a pointer on how to proceed with this, "What else do you know?"
Akane licked the salty tang of sweat from her lips. Bit by bit, piecing the old story together in her mind, she started, "It is a dream I had while travelling now. I saw three orphans, left behind by a war in a shattered land. Their names were Nagato, Konan... and Yahiko."
(Game)
"A kind man took them in, old from a war he'd been fighting all his life. Fed them. Taught them. Loved them as his own. He spun them a dream of a world made safe, where children lived in peace instead of squalor and fear, and nurtured by his dream they became legendary shinobi in their own right, the pupils of one of the mighty Sannin," she wove the story, coiling like a serpent, preparing to strike.
(Set)
"It was Yahiko who led your team of rebels, his spirit that inspired your fight. It was he that you and all the people of Rain came to rally around against the tyranny of Hanzo the Salamander. Akatsuki is his legacy."
(Match)
"And the two of you... murdered him."
(she was so tired of this game.)
"He was your best friend, was he not? Your comrade. So how does it feel?" Akane said with a cruel laugh, the malicious chuckle implying that this suicidal verbal lash was a daily occurrence. "How does it feel to wear his face as a mask and wield his dead body as your weapon?"
She stopped. Suddenly, she felt it.
It crept up her legs like a cold breeze, whirling around her body and making her skin tingle. A gurgle broke from the bottom of her throat as she went choking on the sheer thickness of air, like she was suddenly submerged deep underwater. The sound of her own rising heartbeat was drowning out the background noises.
It had been so long since she'd properly felt abhorrent fear – that offish, empty feeling in the stomach, the beginnings of a cold sweat, feeling utterly helpless to even move a single limb. Not since Orochimaru.
Vertigo pounded at once into her head, like someone had smashed her face into a wall, blinding her with pain, breaking her nose and teeth. Her blood was racing and hissing and boiling over, heart frantic, fit to burst, bones implode under the white-hot pressure and scatter into ragged shards. It felt like her entire body was pulsing and grinding together, flesh squishing in on itself. A few painful heartbeats more and it would have knocked her out.
Akane tried to focus for a second, but her knees gave out underneath her. Curling up on the ground, she pressed her palms against her closed eyelids, seeing sparks. Her lips recoiled in pain, the action causing her nose to throb even more fervently, and she raised her hand, pressing her palm against the slick upper side of her lips.
Blood.
Her nose... was bleeding.
Brimming with anticipation, the soothsayer let a choked laugh escape her mouth. Amazing. Pein wasn't even actually in the room, but half-way across the country, and yet he didn't need to lift so much as a finger to bring her down writhing to the ground, doubled over in pain, with nothing but spiking up his chakra alone. His presence was so strong, the killing intent so powerful and control so precise, that she felt it like a physical blow to her very insides.
It was easy to understand why Pein would think himself the God of the shinobi world. Against herself, Akane sat in terrified awe of the power just witnessed; power great enough to hold open a portal to her world, as it may be, she thought with a constrained smile. Nagato Pein was an ally she couldn't afford to lose. She needed this power harvested.
Her blurred vision cleared as the pressure gradually dispersed into air. Weak-kneed, Akane didn't try to stand up yet. She looked up at him through lidded eyes, a smirk showing through a trickle of blood that now ran down her chin.
"Well," she said lightly, "point taken."
She wiped away even more blood collecting on her lip. "I think we agree that, in order to avoid any more such… personal stories, I should discuss details like these with you once I arrive in Rain, Leader. Hopefully, in private," she emphasised.
"Careful, girl," Pein said, his words a quiet warning, "If you care to live long enough to keep that word."
"Akane-oneesan is bleeding!" Tobi gasped, breaking the looming silence.
"Thank you, Tobi-kun, for that dazzling observation," she sputtered, pushing herself up into a stand. "It's quite alright. I'd say this has finally made me see eye to eye with Leader, in the most... honest way possible."
The dim room had gone even darker around her, the tension still swirling thickly in the air. The only one who seemed to not have picked up on that was obliviously jumping in his spot like a yapping puppy. "Ooh, ooh, I'm next, I'm next, do me now, Akane-chaaaaan!"
Akane could only give him an agitated stare.
"I do believe we've all had quite enough oversharing for the time being, Tobi-kun," she said as if speaking to a small, possibly slow child.
"Not fair! It's my turn! I wanna know my future too!" Tobi persisted, flailing his arms and screeching. "Is T-Tobi gonna d-die? Tobi doesn't wanna dieeeeee!"
But he will, if he keeps on pushing, her mind groaned.
"Sorry, I'm all out of truths for the day," she smiled apologetically to him, "But if I remember the rules to your game, there's always that other option you left me with."
"After all, are you sure it is a truth you want, Tobi-kun?" Akane asked, a dark challenge in her eyes. "Or was it a dare?"
Dare me. I. dare. You.
"Wooow, this lady sure is scary!" Tobi yelled in terror, but to Akane's ears, he sounded almost joking at her expense. He probably was.
Clearly, Madara was entertained. Not a good thing. She had to make him stop asking questions, and she had to do it now. His cynicism was biting, but Akane had teeth as well and bit just as hard.
"And you're far too smart to act so stupid," Akane drawled, hitting just the right note between wicked sarcasm and bored confidence.
Oh she was fucking with him and she knew it. But she was going to make it just as painfully obvious to him that she wasn't one to be fucked with either. The underlying current of her words was far more menacing and ran deeper than the rest of the Akatsuki could grasp. This was their little game and Akane was not about to lose.
I know who you are.
Keep this up, and I may just have to reveal that unfortunate truth, won't I?
Great. And she had already managed to oh-so-subtly threaten both Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Itachi.
"But yes, you are right, Tobi-kun," Akane added in a half-whisper then, as if an afterthought. She motioned with her hand lightly around the room, "Most members of the Akatsuki, if not all of you, are indeed destined to die. It is but a matter of time."
Nobody spoke for a while after that. The hair-rising buzz of the air, like a low growl from the mouth of the monstrous statue, held the tension in the room trapped, not allowing it to dissipate into silence. And Akane stood in the centre of the closing circle around her, like a messenger, a death bringer, as if she had by her words alone killed a part of the future in their still breathing lungs. Akane rather liked the thought. This thing she brought to life, this certainty- it circled the room, breathed down their necks. And it made her blood sing.
Fear. Their unspoken, still unidentified fear made her lungs burst with triumph.
She had used up most of her ammunition, true, but the mark had been hit: Akane knew it would keep them guessing even on the things she didn't know for a fact herself. After all, who knew what other potentially damaging information she was holding back...
Other than the reputation she crafted to shield herself, the girl who named herself Akane did also possess a weapon. Namely, she was very good with words. Sharp, sweet, ominous, vague words… and unbeknown to them all, they would soon make her one of the most dangerous people in the world.
Auribus teneo lupum- I hold a wolf by the ears. (meaning: I am in a dangerous situation and dare not let go.) (Terence)
Check out the two new soundtrack lists to Konoha and Akatsuki arcs on my profile! The Konoha playlist is dedicated to Akane's time in the hospital and relationship with Koshiro, aaaand I'm kinda missing a cover for that one- if there are any artists among you with some time and will, I'd love you forever if you could scribble something up. Just an open invitation.
Thank you all for still reading this piece of crap, and mucho love to you beautiful people who leave comments! We're nearing the end and if this story ever gets 1000+ reviews I'll… I'll… well, I don't know what I'll do, but it's gonna be dramatic.