A/N: Time for a good old fashioned ass-kicking. We all love those, right? Either way, I've been planning this one for a little while
Time for chapter 84
Enjoy!
Kron chuckled to himself as he walked through the dark streets of Sunagakure. He was returning from a group meeting in which a vote was taken as to whether or not Itachi should take Yugito's last name rather than the other way around. To the surprise of no-one, the vote was split, with the male attendees backing the Uchiha to retain his surname, and the female attendees voting for the opposite.
'Poor guy. It's not his fault that Yugito is such a monstrous amalgamation of forward personality traits' the former Kumo ninja thought to himself. As he trekked through the alleyways and rounded the corners, he began to distinctly feel like he was being watched. After several minutes of enduring the unsettling feeling, he launched a kunai to his left, right at a brick wall that was blocking out the moonlight and casting a long shadow. Just as Kron had expected, no sound of clattering metal could be heard. Instead, a low chuckle echoed from the shadow.
"Not bad. Your sensory capabilities aren't a myth after all"
The former Kumo ninja glanced at the shadowy wall and scowled. The voice was familiar in the worst possible way. As he stared into the shadow, a man slowly emerged from it. He was masked, and wearing a robe. The same man who had intervened to save the Raikage's life during Itachi's mauling of him.
"What do you want?" Kron asked, his eyes narrowed. The masked man, referred to as 'Tobi' by Itachi, shrugged his shoulders and took several steps forward, exiting the shadow completely.
"I'm just here to say 'hello'. I don't believe we've spoken before" Tobi said. The Tanto wielder scowled as the man halted his approach. The masked Akatsuki was clearly amused by Kron's skepticism.
"Would you mind answering a question of mine?" the chunin asked. Tobi chuckled and adjusted his mask.
"Ask away. I must warn you, though. My answer may not be entirely honest depending on what you ask me" he replied. The former Kumo ninja nodded.
"What is your relationship with the Raikage? And why did you come to his aid?" he asked. Tobi remained silent for several moments before tilting his head to one side.
"Let me answer your question with another question. Have you ever wondered who orchestrated the experiments performed on you and the other children?" he asked. Kron's eyes widened at the man's words. The masked Akatsuki's voice had dropped from it's usual high tone to one several octaves deeper.
"The council and the Raikage, obviously. They hold all of the power in Kumo" he responded, feeling far less sure of his answer than he would have liked to. Tobi shook his head.
"Think a bit more carefully. Would a village council and it's Kage ever really approve using children as test subjects? The answer is no, they wouldn't. The council wouldn't, at least. A is and always has been an amoral and twisted man, so he jumped at the idea. But even with his approval, such experiments would have needed the approval of both to move forward" he said. The Miura boy clenched his jaw tensely.
"Get to the point" he demanded. The masked man audibly laughed at the chunin's frustration and impatience.
"The point is that the council needed a push. A reason to need the testing to be carried out quickly and ruthlessly. It was shockingly easy to sway them. All it took was a dead body or two and they were quite optimistic about the idea of carving up their children. People really are quite easy to manipulate if you know what buttons to push" he said. Kron growled.
"From the sounds of it, you were the one pulling the strings" he said angrily. The Akatsuki put up a hand to silence him.
"Yes, I was. I think you'll still want to hear the rest of what I have to say, though, because it very much pertains to you specifically, Kron" he said. The Miura boy begrudgingly motioned for the man to continue.
"One thing I'll bet you didn't know about the experiments is that they started several months before you were born. The tests were carried out silently, with several low to middle class families losing their youngest child every year. This happened for six long years, with little to no success. Eventually, the council gave up on the prospect of creating a reliable weapon with a mediocre child as their base. They then took a new approach. They began to pay the wealthier families of Kumo large sums of money in order to use their children as subjects" Tobi said. Kron struggled to maintain his composure as his mind was ravaged by the painful memories.
"A variety of clans were paid, your included. The original plan was to use your sister, Izumi Miura, for experimentation, but you were chosen instead due to the fact that you were much more likely to survive the testing. What happened next is well-recorded history at this point. The testing was carried out, and only you survived. Quite an impressive feat, really. For a six year old boy to survive thirty-six different operations, including a brain surgery, is astounding" Tobi continued. At this, the Miura boy's self-control wore away completely. He charged forward and threw a punch at the left side of the man's mask.
As he drew closer, his fist passed through Tobi's head. Kron's eyes widened as he slipped through the masked Akatsuki's body entirely. He stumbled forward as he regained his balance. He was now behind the man, who was chuckling.
"I suppose you may be wondering why I prompted Kumogakure to do such a terrible thing. The simple answer is that a village is an excellent vessel for advancing your goals, if you can gain control of one, at least. Laying out a few of their major figures and figure-heading an enormous scientific operation was a good way to gain influence and control" he continued as Kron tried to strike him once more to no avail. The Tanto wielder growled and began to conjure his LIghtning Armour. Before he could, he was impaled through the shoulder with a black rod.
"I would rather keep this quiet. Go ahead and keep swinging, but I won't allow you to transform. Such a thing would attract a crowd" the masked man said, twisting the black rod in Kron's shoulder as he spoke. The former Kumo ninja clenched his jaw and threw a left-legged kick at his opponent, which Tobi curiously leaned away from to avoid.
"You quite an impressive threshold for pain. I suppose it may be impossible to keep you quiet. Let's take this somewhere else, shall we?" the Akatsuki said. A swirling vortex then appeared in the center of his eye, sucking both himself and Kron into it. When they rematerialized, they were in a strange place. It was riddled with stone slabs and the sky was black. They were situated on an enormous platform of stone.
"Welcome to my dimension. I hope you find it to be hospitable" Tobi said, spreading his arms in a showman-esque manner. Kron responded by ripping the black rod out of his shoulder. He then conjured his Lightning Armour.
"It'll be your cemetery" he said menacingly. The masked man chuckled and allowed the Miura boy to pass through him once more as he attacked.
"Back to what I was saying, I used the testing to manipulate the political and military structure of Kumogakure. Within a few years, I had complete control of the village, and no-one but the Raikage and a few high-ranking council members knew it. Predictably, they tried to shake the chains I had placed around their necks. They began defying me in a variety of ways. By the time you were chosen to be a subject, I had been forced to erase seven people" Tobi said as he tripped Kron to the ground effortlessly. He then seized the boy by his collar and threw him backwards.
"Past a certain point, it was clear that they were performing the experiments in order to create something that could stand up to me. They never succeeded, but they did eventually produce you, Kron. In a way, you were created to kill me. You'll never accomplish that feat, but you have become quite a bit more powerful than I thought you would" he said. The Tanto wielder scowled.
"You still haven't told me why you're here. There's no way you came here just to tell me all of this" he said. Tobi shrugged and tossed a kunai in Kron's direction, which was deflected.
"I originally came here to pay the Kazekage a visit, but I couldn't help myself when I saw you alone. Take it as a compliment that I've taken time out of my busy schedule to impart some knowledge to you" he said. The former Kumo ninja snorted and charged forward, drawing his blade and swinging it at a downward arc towards the Akatsuki's head. Tobi produced another black rod and blocked the strike.
"I'm flattered, but I'm still going to kill you. Hey, it's my purpose according to you" Kron said as he strained against the black rod. Tobi responded by knocking the chunin's blade out of his hand and driving a hard punch into the right side of his ribs, doubling him over.
"Bold words. Empty ones too. You know as well as I do that you don't hold a candle to me. There was some parity in terms of strength between yourself and the Raikage, not much, but some. There is no comparison between you and I" he said as he grabbed Kron by the neck and lifted him from his knees.
"To put it into perspective for you, you would have been killed by the Raikage had you continued to fight him alone, and you saw what Itachi did to him. I would have done something similar to Itachi had indulged him and fought" Tobi said. The Akatsuki then tossed him backwards. Kron landed on his feet and rubbed his neck. As he recovered, the Akatsuki appeared in front of him and kicked him in the chest, launching him back further.
"I'm not going to kill you, Kron. You have no need to fear for your life, but I'm going to make you a non-factor in this war. By the time this session is finished, you-" Tobi began. Before he could finish his sentence, the chunin blitzed across the distance between them and snapped his head back with sharp, left-handed punch. The man took a step back and easily ducked underneath Kron's follow up punch from the opposite side. He then countered the Miura boy's missed strike with a hard knee to his exposed jaw, forcing him to take several steps back.
"I suppose I earned that one. I must say, your speed is reminiscent of a man I used to know. He too was known for his speed. Yours isn't quite as extreme, not by any standard, but you're still quite difficult to time" Tobi said as he adjusted his mask, which now sported a small crack. Tobi then disappeared from sight, returning to view inches from Kron with his single exposed eye wide, revealing it to be a sharingan.
"You may be fast, but you're still quite a bit slower than I am" he said. The Miura boy immediately shut his eyes to avoid being hypnotized, but it was already too late. His mind soon began to succumb to the apparent Uchiha's genjutsu.
After a moment, Kron's world faded to black.
Naruto's eyes widened as he spotted a horrific sight. The same masked man who had assisted the Raikage in his escape was emerging from a vortex, carrying what appeared to a badly injured Kron on his shoulder. The blonde immediately sprinted out from the alley he had witnessed the arrival from, stopping twenty feet from the Akatsuki. The masked man glanced to his left, catching sight of the Jinchuuriki.
"Oh, what perfect timing. Could you dispose of this?" he said, tossing Kron's unconscious body in Naruto's direction. The Miura boy landed at the blonde's feet. He appeared to be semi-conscious. His injuries were mortifying, with three black rods protruding from his back.
"What the hell did you do to him?" Naruto demanded as he attempted to pull the spikes from his friend's back. The masked man chuckled.
"I roughed him up a little. He's quite resilient. It took my quite a while to break him. He even managed to crack my mask. Although, that was something of a cheap shot" he said. The Jinchuuriki growled and stepped forward, but stopped when Kron gripped his ankle.
"Don't. You can't beat him. He's strong. Stronger than anybody we've dealt with before" the former Kumo ninja coughed painfully. Naruto clenched his jaw tensely, but listened to the boy's advice.
"What do you want?" he asked. The masked Akatsuki pointed to the distant Kazekage building, which was illuminated by the rising sun.
"I came here to pay your Kage a visit. Unfortunately, your comrade and I had such a fascinating conversation that I lost track of time. That meeting will have to wait" he said. The Jinchuuriki opened his mouth to respond, but stopped when the Akatsuki began to swirl into a vortex.
"As much fun as this little visit has been, I must be going. I'm quite a busy man" the masked man said as he disappeared. Once he was gone, Naruto slung Kron over his shoulder and began to walk towards the hospital.
'This is bad. Gaara needs to know about this'
A/N: Sorry for the longer wait on this chapter. Some stuff came up that prevented me from writing yesterday.
See you next chapter! Read and Review!