Thank you for reading this story! Please read the A/N at the end of this chapter, thank you :)
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Not everybody is born with luck, the Akatsuki being a prime example of this. Almost every member has a reason to defect from their home village, whether for reasonable intentions or not, it didn't matter.
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It all started as a nightmare. The same recurring dream persistently coming back to haunt Obito. The humidity of the night resurfacing along with the desperate heaves of breath that came from a young boy barely thirteen. The beginning of the nightmare always started with a sense of hope, as if Obito was able to save her, as if he had a chance. But no, it was all a lie to keep Obito from waking up, to make him continue the treacherous journey to his past, by giving him false hope he would be forced to rewatch her death.
He vaguely focused on the fuzzy world surrounding him, the rain falling to the ground around him as he jumped from tree to tree, the dark setting made the world seem more ominous, the only light coming from the moon above. All the hope his nightmare fueled him with came crashing down when he saw what was in front of him.
He couldn't close his eyes, he never could when he had this nightmare. He wasn't focusing on the chaos going on in front of him however, instead he focused on one sole person, Rin. Her face that usually always held a smile was now splattered with her own blood, a look of terror visible on her face. A wide gaping hole through her chest made the scene all the more gruesome as she started choking up her last words. Everything after that was a blur, Obito vaguely remembered screaming and desperate pleads if mercy, but he ignored them all. The light of his world was gone, it had been gone for a long time now, and for the time being he wouldn't be able to see her. Not for awhile. And nothing in this world would make him change, nothing would bring him the same sense of happiness that she did, nothing absolutely nothing would ever—
"Tobi!" Came an extremely irritated yell from blonde haired ninja. Tobi woke up. The blonde hadn't noticed however (due to the overly bright orange mask Tobi always seemed to wear) and kicked him in the side. "Wake up, un! We need to get moving, I don't want to arrive late like last time"
Tobi shook off the nightmare he had, there was no purpose to think about it for too long, instead he put on his silly persona and jumped up clumsily. He practically radiated sunbeams as he clapped his hands together and started apologizing profusely. "Sorry sorry Deidara-Senpai, Tobi didn't mean to sleep in for so long. Thank you for waking Tobi up!" His voice was high pitched, making anybody that stayed with him for so long surely go insane.
The blonde Ninja, Deidara, at that point didn't seem to even bother with him anymore. Instead he glared at him before picking up his bag and lifting it up to his shoulder. "Well you better hurry up and pack, because I'm not waiting for you if you take longer to pack then to wake up un" he said with his usual annoyed voice "the leader has summoned us, so we need to get going"
Tobi nodded quickly before he scurried off to pack all the things he had laying around. At some point Deidara almost left before Tobi could finish which led to some frantic cries of "wait for me Deidara-Senpai !" And "Deidara-senpai please come back!"
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It was almost midday when Tobi decided to ask something "Does Senpai know why the leader has summoned us? Why don't we use the hologram thingys that we always use" He tilted his orange mask to the side as he waited for a response from his partner.
The blonde ninja shrugged in response as they continued walking through the forest "must be for something important I guess" he wasn't focusing so much on Tobi however and instead focusing on the map in his hands, squinting down at it in confusion. "Why are the words so tiny un.." he muttered to himself.
Tobi hummed after getting his question answered. They continued walking in silence while Tobi focused on kicking a rock along the way, when suddenly another question came popping back. "Hey senpai, why are we walking through the woods instead of flying on one of your clay birds?"
Deidara sighed, looking up to look at the soulless orange mask in front of him, "because I don't feel like making one right now un" and with that he looked back down at his map. The wrinkles on the scroll didn't seem to exactly help with Deidara's patience either.
And once again, another thought seemed to cross Tobi's mind as he found another hole in Deidara's reasoning. He jumped in front of Deidara which made the blonde ninja stop abruptly and look up at the masked idiot with growing anger. "But Senpai!" Wailed out Tobi "you said it was for something important! Wouldn't it be faster if we flew on one of your clay birds?!" Tobi sounded almost disapproving, even with his childlike voice and idiotic poses.
Deidara's face twitched as he held the scroll in his hands tighter, staring up at his partner with even more annoyance.
That didn't seem to stop Tobi however as he kept prodding on, "Hey Deidara-senpai—"
Suddenly the map in Deidara's hand tore in two, Deidara seething in anger. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Deidara threw the two pieces in his hands down to the ground in frustration and started chasing Tobi around with his clay bombs.
"Will you shut up un!" Came his angry screams as he chased around his fellow Akatsuki member.
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It was sundown when they finally arrived at the Akatsukis main base. Deidara looked about ready to cry in pure bliss when he spotted the familiar base, completely ignoring Tobi's ramblings. As they came closer they were greeted by Kakuzu and Hidan, who seemed to have also arrived around the same time as they did.
Hidan looked over at them, and smirked. He walked over to them while Kakuzu stayed behind at the entrance. Hidan looked down at them with a grin "seems like we weren't the only ones invited to this fucking party" his tone of voice was cocky, as if he was doing it on purpose just to annoy the bomber nin. And it seemed like he succeeded as immediately Deidara's smile fell when he saw Hidan.
Deidara huffed, crossing his arms and glaring up at the purple eyed man. "Yeah? Well you got any idea why Leader-Sama wanted us here?"
Kakuzu apparently got bored with waiting for his partner and walked over to the three, overhearing Deidara's question he answered for Hidan "From what I heard from Kisame, it might be some sort of tool that will help us capture the Jinchūriki and their beasts" he said, mumbling half of his words. He spared Tobi a glance but mostly focused his attention on the other two again.
Tobi piped up at that with excitement, clapping both his hands together and saying "Oh Oh! What if it's an easy bake oven." He started off, seemingly unaware at his associates blank looks. "We're going to make cupcakes and hold a big BIG bake sale, and all the Jinchūriki would have to come!" Tobi cheered, looking about ready to jump in the air and run inside the base just to take a peek at the 'easy bake oven'
"What the actual fuck is an easy bake oven?" Whispered Hidan to nobody in particular. Deidara could only shrug while Kakuzu inwardly wondered how much money Tobi's plan could make.
Suddenly the door to the base opened, they all turned around to see a woman with dark blue hair and a rose in it come out. It was Konan, the only woman apart of the Akatsuki. She stared at them for a couple of seconds before greeting them with a small nod "I'm glad to see you all have arrived, please, come in" her voice was uncaring, and eyes calculating. She stepped to the side of the metallic door to make it easier for them to pass through.
Hidan was the first to enter, followed by Kakuzu and then of course Deidara and Tobi. It seemed as if they weren't the first to arrive, as Konan lead them into a room where Itachi, Kisame, Zetsu and Pein were already comfortably sitting, Itachi and Kisame both with a cup of tea.
Konan took her seat next to Pein as usual while the others found a place to sit. Once everybody found a place to sit Pein started off the gathering officially. "Welcome, and thank you for taking the time in coming" much like Konan, his voice didn't exactly sound caring either, instead it sounded rather dead and careless. "You all may be wondering why I have summoned you all here today"
"Fuck yeah I've been wondering! So get on with it!" Came Hidan's inpatient yell. Kakuzu didn't seem to appreciate his partner's disrespectful attitude and glared at him. Not that that seemed to bother Hidan, instead he smirked at Kakuzu with ease. Like an unleashed animal he had a disregard for respect.
Pein after a momentary pause continued "well, recently, me and Konan came across a device that could do something most would consider unimaginable and if anything, unbelievable." His gaze didn't seem to reveal anything to them, so they were forced to listen to the rest of what he had to say "although difficult to get, we eventually fell into position of this" with that, he lifted a small cube into the air for them all to see. It was a dark purple color, it didn't just consist of one material, rather multiple: Wood, Glass, and most prominently Metal. It had over a dozen buttons and there was a black rectangular shape on the center of it, potentially the screen. From the glass portions of it, it glowed faintly.
"With this device, we can travel across time and space" he said firmly, a look of determination set across his face.
Kisame chuckled lightly, staring at the purple cube with a humoress gaze "I mean no disrespect Pein-sama, but that" he pointed at the cube in Pein's hand "couldn't possibly do what you claim"
Konan frowned lightly at what Kisame had said but otherwise said nothing.
Itachi sat his tea cup down and looked up Pein. "If I may ask Pein-Sama, how do you know this device works?" Itachi usually didn't show much emotion, but you could look at him with confidence and say that he was at the very least intrigued by the idea. Some of the other members nodded in agreement wondering the same thing. It was a pretty big claim after all.
Konan cleared her throat and stepped forward "We have already tested it out you see" Konan had stated this as casually as you could in only a conversation, as if it were an everyday thing. Then again, in the ninja world everything weird seemed to be an everyday occurrence. "We went to a time long before neither of us were born, potentially some of you as well"
Hidan barked out with laughter, laughing at his own joke before he could even say it "and what did you do!? Fuck your grandmother!?" He continued laughing, although nobody else found it as amusing as he did.
Konan blinked slowly at him before clarifying things for him "no.., we have captured the five and six tails already" Hidan suddenly stopped laughing to himself and turned away while muttering. Some of the other members looked shocked at the feat they had achieved, just the two of them alone.
"How interesting.." muttered the white Zetsu with a smile.
Tobi stared at the cube through his mask intrigued. He wondered how they could possibly come across such a useful device. Obito smiled underneath his mask, eyes filled with malice.The things that they could do, the things that they could change. Suddenly a smiling brunette popped up in his mind, and immediately his smile fell and he looked down at his hands ashamed. He shook away the fleeting thought.
Kisame spoke up "so how'd you do it? How did you two catch the tailed beasts?"
Pein placed the cube down on the wooden table in front of him "it was quite simple actually, all we had to do is find the Jinchūriki when they were at their most vulnerable and go off from there."
"So why do you need us to help you?" Kakuzu asked with a raised eyebrow, crossing his arms and leaning back into his seat. It was a rather reasonable question after all, they have already captured two of the tailed beasts, why did they need the others to help?
"Well as you can imagine, the extraction process took quite a while to complete with only the two of us. And things are much more convenient when there are multiple people helping us with fighting" Pein cleared up for them.
The black half of Zetsu suddenly spoke up "so, which are we going for now?"
Pein thought about it for a few seconds before speaking up again "Why don't we vote on it by the raise of hands" It would almost be funny to see a group of criminals raising their hands to vote if it weren't for the fact that they were criminals. "Who votes for the one tails?" Pein asked.
Nobody except Deidara did, who slouched slightly when he realized nobody else was raising their hands. He put down his hands and sighed "if we're going to be doing this, I say we do it in order" he mumbled, having no other reasoning other than that.
"Nah fuck that!" Declared Hidan, he abruptly stood from his seat letting it fall to the ground with a loud slam "I say we go for the hardest one! That one asshole of a beast, the nine tails, man I got a bone to pick" he said with a grin, cracking his knuckles.
"I agree, we might as well get that one over with" muttered Kakuzu, a little annoyed with himself for agreeing with Hidan of all people.
The rest seemed to also agree because there were a few mutters of agreement. Deidara glared at Hidan but otherwise said nothing. What was odd however was that Tobi throughout all of this stayed silent, which Pein took note of.
"Then it is decided" Said Pein "we will be going for the nine tails first."
Konan stepped away for a moment to retrieve a book from a drawer before coming back. She handed the black book over to Pein who accepted it and started flipping through its pages. At once he stopped at a page "well it seems we have a few contenders" he said dryly "A woman known at Mito Uzumaki was once a Jinchuriki for the beast, and so was Kushina Uzumaki. And as we know.." he looked up from the book "the Ninja known as Naruto Uzumaki also holds the beast within him"
"We should go for Naruto Uzumaki" said Kisame with a toothy grin, putting down his cup of tea and looking up at the leader. He remembered the last time he tried to get the beast, he wanted a second chance.
Itachi didn't seem to agree however "no, we have tried and failed at trying to get him. I say we do another person" The black haired ninja didn't seem to specify who however.
Obito knew if they went after Kushina, depending on what time period they went to, there was a chance that she would recognize him. He didn't want to take his chances "Oh Oh!" Tobi said hopping up from his chair, making Deidara jump because he hadn't heard the masked nin speak for awhile. "I saw we got for Mito Uzumaki!"
Deidara already thoroughly annoyed from nobody voting alongside him, and having his partners squeaky voice scream from next to him shook his head profusely "like hell i'm agreeing with you un! I say we should go for Kushina Uzumaki"
Nobody else wanting to agree with Tobi nodded at Deidara's request. Deidara gave a triumph smile from everybody else finally going along with what he wanted.
Pein nodded "We will be going for Kushina Uzumaki it seems then" he said simply. Handing the black book back to Konan, who tucked it away somewhere in her cloak. He then picked up the time traveling device and started pushing the buttons necessary to teleport them to the time they needed to go. "Everyone, gather around me."
Everyone did as instructed, even Hidan who usually complained about being bossed around. Once they were all surrounding their leader Pein pressed the final button necessary. With that they were all suddenly zapped and the last thing they heard was the screams of Tobi. If anybody else had been in that room, they would have seen that at one moment the Akatsuki were there, and the next they were gone. Only the slight ripple of the left over tea in the teacups hinted that something had happened.
Traveling through time wasn't exactly pleasant, being pulled apart and transferred to places unknown and far would never be an experience once would dream of. And as they would soon find out, time traveling wasn't exactly something you could do without its consequences and flaws. For the pursuit of power, they would soon fall victim of something else, they would fall at the hands of something they rather not hear, they would fall into Empathy, or at least some of them will.
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This idea came to me years ago, except I didn't really have a plan for it and instead lost interest and eventually stopped writing this.
I'd like to clarify that I actually lost interest in Naruto awhile back as well, so I'm forgetting a lot of the small details that made up the old story. So I'm using the old story as a skeleton or sorts lol. If you're (surprisingly) a old reader of mine, you will find A LOT of similarities in this comparing it to the old story.
So if you see any plot holes in this it might be my fault memory forgetting all the cool facts about Naruto I know :P
I'd like to believe my writing has improved but honestly it's still a little wacky at times. Chapter 1 of this story is just a more fleshed out version of my old chapter one, but I'd like to clairify something. This isn't going to be an exact copy of my old story, there will be one huge main difference, as foreshadowed in the description. You will soon see what I mean in the second chapter, which should hopefully make things more exciting :)
If you are impatient to read more (thank u btw if that is the case :-:) then you can read the older version of this "The Akatsuki shouldn't mess with time"
I can't promise that it's any good though lol.
I probably forgot to mention a bunch of other things, so if I do I'll make sure to include it in the A/N of the second chapter.
If you see any problems or flaws with this, or if there is anything you'd like to see regarding where they travel through time, please let me know!
Thank you!! :3