I tried to hit out at the person holding me but they grabbed my hand and forced it behind my back, twisting it painfully.
"You really don't want me to drop you." A quiet voice said in my ear, I struggled a bit more and they sighed, and to my surprise released their hold. I plummeted through the air for a sickening amount of time, feeling fear bubbling up inside of my throat as small things nicked at my face and arms. I felt sure that I was about to hit the ground and splatter all over the place when I was in someone's arms again. I clung to the person who had caught me, shaking with terror.
"I told you so." The same calm quiet voice said in my ear and we were moving again, in the treetops, I reasoned, and at a great speed. The rushing wind in my ears stopped and I was set rather roughly on the ground and the blindfold was removed.
In front of me was a large stone fortress, it protruded from the side of a mountain and had something large and red painted on the door. I stared up at it in shock. I looked around and saw a boy with flaming red hair, cloudy red eyes and a dark knee length cloak with a high collar and red clouds on it he pulled out a sword. I immediately tried Porting away, but I didn't move.
"Just keep walking until I tell you to stop." he said, I gulped and walked into the fortress, noting that the large red thing on the door was another cloud. It was dark and gloomy inside with a nice evil feeling going for it. Red hair boy marched me into a room where more guys wearing the cloaks with red clouds and silver headbands on a few of them, were sprawled across various pieces of furniture.
"This is the new girl yes?" a kid in an orange swirly mask said excitedly, jumping around as red hair sheathed his sword. "Hello there new girl! Tobi is pleased to meet you! Tobi likes meeting new people! Tobi is a good boy!" He hugged me and I took a step back.
"Whoa what?" I said, a boy standing in a dark corner said nothing as he stepped a little closer, I fought the urge to run as far away as I could as fast as I could and wriggled away from hyper-boy Tobi.
"We're the Akatsuki, you're being recruited as our new member."
"The what?" I asked, wondering where Ed and The Doctor where and if they were okay, these guys looked dangerous and a little unstable.
"The Akatsuki," he repeated, "we're a criminal organisation of ninjas who-" I interrupted, scary or not I was feeling a little annoyed,
"Aim to take over the world?" I said,
"Well yes that is the plan." I snorted,
"What's your problem bitch?" A silver haired guy said loudly coming closer, I stared up at him trying very hard not to be intimidated.
"Well, taking over the world? Please come with something even more cliché why don't you. Burn the world bring it down from the inside! Destroy the economy and every government system, and the environment! Don't just 'rule the world' incinerate it!" I laughed a little and red head guy smiled.
"I like this one, I'm Hidan." The guy with silver hair said, holding out his hand for me to shake I took it briefly and let go.
"I would say it was nice to meet you, but I'm not really into point blank lies." I said, "Do excuse me if I'm less than polite to an evil organisation of kidnappers!" I said, he chuckled again.
"She'll at least be useful for…entertainment purposes." Hidan said walking away into the fortress. The black haired guy who had been standing in the shadows walked past me and away as well.
"Itachi." he said shortly,
"What?" I said,
"His name, I'm Sasori by the way." Red head said, a man with dark hair, blue-grey skin and lines like gills on his face stepped forward,
"Since we're introducing ourselves my name is Kisame." he said I bowed slightly, for want of something else to do.
"I'm Konan." A woman with blue hair who I hadn't noticed said, also walking away. I was beginning to wonder why all these people were walking off when I hadn't actually introduced myself yet.
"My name is Kakuzu. It is nice to meet you." A man with shining green eyes said, I nodded.
"Charmed my name is Robyn." I said in response, a man with hair a paler shade of red than Sasori's stepped closer to me.
"I am Pein, we have witnessed your fighting and think it would be a not totally useless addition to the arsenal of our group. You will be held here while you teach us how you are able to manipulate the elements in such a way." I looked at him rather blankly.
"But why?" I said, Pein shot a glare that made me want to curl up into a little ball and not come out.
"Because I say so. Follow me." I walked behind him as he walked into the house in the mountain. He led me to an empty room with a bed and a cupboard in it. "This is your room, an Akatsuki cloak is in that cupboard. I will come and get you tomorrow morning, just be here then." He said and walked away. I stared blankly after this confusing man, just be here? Were they not even thinking that I might try and escape?
On the other hand they were all ninjas, evil ones to be precise; it would be foolish to assume any kind of mastery over them. Even in Elemental magic, Pein had seemed interested in the specific way I manipulated the elements not just the ability itself.
I pulled out the cloak and studied it. It was made of a good material that looked like it could take quite a bit of action. Red on the inside and black on the outside it was certainly an awesome garment, but I did wonder if it got hot in summer. I pulled it on over my clothes and moved around a little, it was surprisingly light.
A loud explosion rocked the fortress and I raced outside my room to find out what it was, I found Sasori in the room with all the chairs attaching strings to a wooden puppet.
"What was that?" I asked he looked at me emotionlessly. something I was beginning to believe was a common thing with him.
"Just Deidara-kohai playing around as usual." he said continuing to work on his puppet, I waited for another explosion which happened again a few minutes later and headed in that direction.
I went out through the front door and looked around, hearing another explosion and following it to a space that had been cleared of trees. In the clearing a boy in his late teens perhaps eighteen or nineteen I thought, was standing with his back to me.
I skirted around the edges of the clearing until I could see him in profile. He stared intensely ahead with a slanted blue eye, the other one was hidden behind a hunk of hair that hid half his face, at a tree marked with a white chalk cross.
He dipped a hand with manicured black fingernails into a pouch by his waist and drew out a fistful of something white. It vanished for a moment and reappeared as he opened his palm and I saw a small bird sitting there.
"That's beautiful." I said stepping out from the trees the boy whom I assumed was the Deidara that Sasori mentioned smiled at me a little smugly.
"It's my art, and true art…" he threw the bird into the air, it flew some number of metres away, "is a bang un!" He made a hand gesture of some kind and exclaimed something I didn't understand, and the bird exploded in mid air.
"Whoa, how did you do that?" I exclaimed Deidara laughed.
"Who are you un? You are wearing an Akatsuki cloak un. Yet I don't think I've seen you around before, I'd remember un." He winked and I rolled my eyes.
"You wouldn't have met me before no. I'm Robyn and Pinocchio in there, you know the kid with the red hair and no facial expression? He just kidnapped me. I'm fresh off the kidnapping line or whatever it is, to teach you all how to do this." I said, conjuring up a handful of flame and moulding it into shapes.
"Very pretty, almost an art in itself un." Deidara said, coming closer to look at my flame flower. I snuffed out the flame and began to do the same with some water, freezing it in the shape of a bird and tossing it to Deidara, who caught it and spun it around in his fingers.
"For some reason you guys need to be able to make shapes with fire to take over the world, which by the way is a boring goal, but I've already ranted about that." I said to him, he grinned some more and reached into his pocket and pulled out some more of the white stuff.
"I don't know how you do that, but I have a few tricks of my own un." He said,
"What is that stuff?"
"Clay un. I use it for my art un."
"Yeah, art is an explosion I noticed, has anyone told Pinocchio this? He certainly looks like he could use some livening up." Deidara laughed, "But how do you do it anyway?" Deidara showed me his palm; a mouth in his hand opened up and swept the clay inside it. "No way!" I yelled, "You have mouths on your hands!" Laughter again.
"Indeed, un. They infuse it with explosive chakra un." He opened his hand again and set the white clay scorpion inside down on the ground, it scuttled away.
"Oh, and what is that exactly, u-?" I pressed a finger across my lips; I would have to be careful not to pick up that particular habit. Deidara looked fairly surprised, apparently it wasn't a common question. Ah well, I wasn't particularly common myself. He adjusted his headband while he thought and I latched onto the new topic.
"What's with the headbands then?" Apparently this was still and odd question but not so much as the other one, from the look I got.
"It shows that I no longer uphold the same values and beliefs as my Village un." Deidara said, pushing aside his hair a little so I could better see the symbol in the centre of the headband with the line scored through it. That explained the different signs I saw on the bands, they were from different places. "Speaking of which, from which village do you hail un?" I floundered for a minute.
"Uh… Well, you see I don't really come from around here at all. Anywhere near here to tell the truth."
"You come from very far away un? You are a traveller un?" I nodded, liking the explanation,
"Yeah, I'm pretty used to this kind of travel, only usually people don't kidnap me that bit's new. Well, it doesn't happen often. Well, not too often. You ninjas seem to like kidnapping people though."
"You've been kidnapped by ninjas before un?" Deidara asked, scratching his head and as he did a ring on his right index finger caught the light.
"Hey cool ring! What's it for?" I asked,
"They are given to every Akatsuki member." Deidara replied.
"I suppose I don't get one then, being a kidnapping victim I'm temporary at best right? Oh well I have one of my own anyway!" I said holding up my hand and showing him the ring there, calling to Ed at the same time. The light bubbled around the stone, but didn't go in any direction, which worried me deeply.
Deidara made his hand signs again and said his words and the scorpion exploded, in the tree right behind me. I screamed and jumped back, not looking where I was jumping and ending up very close to Deidara, to be more precise standing on his foot.
"Is this what you do with your free time?" I asked, moving away quickly in case he decided to blow something up again, "Do Akatsuki members have free time? In which you do things you enjoy other than plotting the end of the world or whatever?"
"Are you asking me out un?"
"I said enjoy pyro-boy." I retorted he smirked,
"I take every and any opportunity to hone my art further, if that is even possible of course un." I snorted,
"Oh and he's modest too!" I laughed, Deidra laughed with me and we headed back to the base. Inside, Konan was laying out an amazing smelling meal.
"Have a seat you two, I'm going to get the rest of those idiots." She said, stalking out of the room.
"What's with her?" I commented as we sat down, Deidara grinned and grabbed some bread from the basket in the middle of the large round table. I stared as he took a bite, a new idea forming in my head. "Could you taste that, before it got to your mouth? With you know, the one in your hand? Have you ever tried?"
Another weird look, like he'd never considered that before.
"No, I've never tried un…" He stared at his hand, the one holding the bread, and shivered. "That is so strange un." He said,
"You can taste it! No way!" I yelled as Konan walked back into the room with the rest if the Akatsuki following behind her, glaring somewhat at the loud noise I was making. Hidan towered over me, glaring in his own angry and slightly scary way.
"You're in my fucking seat!" He said really loudly, I jumped up, almost falling on the floor and took the one next to it, which no one seemed to be sitting in.
"You could have sat there un." Hidan turned his glare on Deidara now, and he glared right back.
"What's it to you!" Hidan growled.
"Shut up, it's just a chair." Itachi said, dropping into his chair and snatching a piece of meat off the platter.
What followed was the most violent meal I had ever witnessed. Ever. The only way I ended up with any food at all was by snatching what I could in a lull that occurred about halfway through. Trying not to be killed over dinner was exhausting, though I was sure the kidnapping played its part, and by the end of the meal I was practically asleep where I sat.
Itachi vanished immediately after the food was gone in his ninja way, Sasori was sitting in a chair being silent and blank. I suppose this is what Akatsuki members do in their free time, I though to myself hazily while watching Hidan chase Tobi around with a large meat cleaver while yelling something indistinct.
"Tired un?" Deidara was still sitting next to me of course. I yawned in reply. "You can go to sleep you know un. The bed in you room isn't just there to look good un. Though, thinking about it, I did decorate that room so it does look pretty amazing un." Another yawn, I got sleepily to my feet and shuffled away, Deidara got up followed me.
Somehow my sense of direction or memory must have improved because I actually managed to remember where I had come from earlier.
"There's a bathroom across the hall that no one really uses un." Deidara said helpfully, I nodded and waved sleepily, too tired to be suspicious. He slid the door shut but because I couldn't hear his footsteps, darn ninjas, I had no idea what happened next. Before I went to sleep I cast my mind out, looking for Ed, The Doctor, or the TARDIS, I couldn't find anything, just the forest around me.
In the morning I woke up and lay in bed for a while, thinking about my situation. I pulled my phone out of my pocket; no signal. Well, that would have been too easy. As of then I saw no real way to get out of this than go along with what they were saying and hope they let me leave.
I dragged myself out of my surprisingly comfortable bed and over to the cupboard my cloak had been in yesterday to look for some clothes. I found a small array of ninja looking clothes, most of which were indecipherable to me. I gathered what I could picture myself wearing. As well as my cloak, and crossed the hall to the bathroom. I couldn't hear anyone moving around, but I never could with these guys.
I stood in the middle of the room looking around and wondered if anyone would mind if I made a few changes; a shower for one thing. Eventually deciding that if they did mind I would just put it all back I installed a shower and hopped in.
As it turned out, Deidara lied. Though this wasn't totally surprising. I was halfway through my hot water soak when I heard the door sliding open, though as usual no footsteps, darn ninjas.
"Okay it was a lie un. No one but me though un." Deidara, I sent the coldest breeze of air I could muster in his direction, he mock shivered. "Ooh, that's a good trick girly, but you know I have a few tricks of my own un." I turned off the water and Summoned a towel, wrapping it around myself quickly as the half expected clay bird hopped into the shower. I jumped away from the explosive creature and as I was half expecting, right into Deidara.
"Do people slap you a lot? Because I can see that happening." I asked wriggling away from him, he shrugged and tossed the bird out the window, watching it fly away and detonating it. I grabbed my cloak and pulled it on over my towel, taking my clothes with me I fled to my room and sat on my bed glaring at the door in the direction of the bathroom and Deidara and blushing furiously.
I shook my head and pulled on the ninja clothes, strangely they fitted me perfectly. I looked in a mirror by the window and decided something was missing; I conjured up a headband similar to the Akatsuki's, only blank silver. On it I inscribed a cloud the same as the one on the doors and cloaks, and set a castle on top of it. I tied the band around my forehead and nodded at the effect; much better.
A knock sounded at the door and it was slid open.
"You will come with me now and show us." Pein said, I followed him outside to the area Deidara was clearing the day before. Only this time it seemed the whole team was gathered there as well. Pein led me to the front of the crowd, and left me there.
"Uh, what do you want me to do?" I said, swaying awkwardly.
Next Time on CCC: We find out exactly what it is that they want…
