Chapter Twenty-One - Sacrifice
Aiko stared at the open sky, her expression uncharacteristically solemn as a soft hand rested upon her shoulder, prompting the girl to look up to meet her mother's gaze.
"Don't worry," Konan comforted her. "He'll be fine."
"I know, it's just… it's kind of hard to imagine Gaara running out of sand in the middle of a desert," Aiko winced, shaping a paper butterfly before crushing it in the palm of her hand.
As much as a paper butterfly would be comforting, it would probably just distract Deidara or give away their location. With a sigh, Aiko rested a palm on her cheek, looking out into the distance as her ring gave out a spark of chakra.
"They did it," she beamed at her mother, opting to sit cross-legged to make a seal and thought-project herself into the cave where they would extract the One Tail.
Aiko's thought projection popped into existence within the cave, her attention instantly falling on Deidara's smug grin, returning his smile before resting her eyes on the sleeve of his cloak.
"What happened?" she demanded.
"I took down the One Tail, un. You should have seen it - it was true art," the pyromaniac boasted, blinking as her arm phased through his head.
"You idiot! I meant what happened to your arm?"
"It's fine."
"It's missing, Deidara!"
"We'll find it later, un," Deidara scoffed, flicking his one hand as if it wasn't a big deal.
"Yeah, what's the big deal?" Hidan added from his perch on the demonic statue. "Find it later and pay the bastard to sew it back on."
"Yeah, and I'm not completely helpless, un. I can still make one-handed seals."
"That's not the point! You lost an arm, Deidara. And what do you mean you'll 'find it later'? Your arm is in Suna, which you just invaded to kidnap their Kazekage!" Aiko shrieked, causing Deidara to open his jaw before promptly closing it again.
"Oops?" Deidara winced.
"I swear to Jashin, Deidara. When I next see you I'm going to rip off your other arm for your pure idiocy and feed it to Zetsu!" Aiko growled, turning her back on the pyromaniac to stomp over to her perch on top of the left-hand pinky finger of the Demonic Statue.
Aiko glared across at Deidara, face frozen in an eternal scowl as Pain commanded Zetsu to use his highest capability to survey the area. Promptly, she closed her eyes preparing herself for the long process of sealing the Beast.
"An enemy from Konohagakure is approaching the hideout," Zetsu warned them after a long stretch of extraction. "He appears to be very skilled. His name is Maito Gai."
Aiko let out a choke at the name, prompting her to slap her chest as she coughed it out. Amongst themselves the Akatsuki demanded to take on the Green Beast, making Aiko gulp as Kisame put himself forward.
"I'll go. I have a personal vendetta against that man. For more reasons than one," Kisame grinned, looking towards Aiko to his left. "Care to be my witness?"
"I'm needed here, Kisame," Aiko huffed. "We can't all skip out on our duties."
"I agree with Kisame," Pain declared. "He, and he alone, should counter the threat. After all, he is the most suitable for that jutsu. However, I can only spare 30% of your chakra for such a task."
"How about I spare 25, and I get to take the pipsqueak."
"This isn't a negotiation, Kisame," Konan warned, eyes narrowed.
"Coward," Kisame muttered, before his thought projection left the cave.
"Aiko…"
Aiko's eyes flew open into the daylight, lifting herself up from the ground and turning around to take off in a flurry of white paper.
Aiko observed as the ground gave way from Samehada's powerful blow, watching as Kisame's silhouette appeared amongst the dust with his sword rested on his shoulder.
"You…" Gai frowned, his eyes narrowing on the shark as Lee asked if the two shinobi knew each other. "Who are you?"
"Looks like the 'Bizarre Beast' is a dumb one," Kisame announced, looking slightly offended. "It seems I'll have to refresh your memory."
"Gai-sensei, there's another one!" Neji warned them, just as Aiko arrived amongst a tornado of paper in a crouched position before standing up to smirk at them.
"I know he's not that memorable, but you guys remember me, right?" she questioned in a sickly sweet voice.
"Gai-sensei! It's Suki from the Chunin Exams!" Lee exclaimed, a single finger pointed towards the girl.
"Oh, erm..." she sweat-dropped, "that's not my real name."
"Gai-sensei told me how you frequently visited me at the hospital, Suki! It is good to see you again," Lee beamed, giving her a thumbs up.
"Lee!" TenTen exclaimed, whacking her teammate around the side of the head, "she just said that wasn't her name! She was only at those Chunin exams to spy for Akatsuki!"
"I see," Lee muttered to himself.
"I'm not sure that you do, but okay," Aiko said, giving the boys a double thumbs up.
Kisame threw his sword into the air, sucking in his breath as he filled the immediate area with water. Aiko jumped up, landing on the wave with chakra guided to the bottom of her feet and riding it to witness Kisame target Gai, only to find his arm stopped by Lee's kick. As the Hyuga delivered a Vacuum Palm to send the shark flying back, Aiko sucked in her breath to hit him with a torrent of water from her mouth, making him similarly fly back across the water, before having to disappear in a flurry of paper as Tenten's explosive ignited.
"That water ninjutsu… and that huge sword!" Gai exclaimed, looking towards the shark as he righted himself on top of the water. "You must be…"
"It seems you've finally remembered me," Kisame admitted smugly, sensing Aiko as she reformed on the water next to him.
"...someone I've met before."
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Aiko smiled.
"Like a fungus, and his brats are annoying," Kisame dead-panned before twisting his mouth into his characteristic grin. "Good job I brought my own annoying brat. Come on, let's mess with 'em."
Aiko nodded, running across the top of the water, sucking in her breath as she directed water bullets in Lee's direction. As the boy dispersed the water with chakra-fuelled kicks, Aiko had to whip her chest back, narrowly avoiding the Hyuga's palm, before spinning in an attempt to kick his feet out from under him.
"Vacuum Palm," Neji cried, eyes widening as red paper filled his vision before meeting his wind jutsu with a stream of volatile flames.
Neji's eyes widened, attempting to jump back as the fire was fuelled by the wind jutsu, only realising it was too late when TenTen jumped in front of him, an open scroll in hand to capture and seal the flames within.
"Why are you doing this, Suki? Didn't we become close comrades during the Chunin Exams?" Lee asked of her, swiping at her with a barrage of taijutsu blows which she blocked with clenched teeth before jumping back as TenTen opened a scroll to release five explosive kunai.
Aiko cancelled the chakra flow to her feet, slipping in the water to escape the blast before resurfacing.
"You should understand more than most, Lee," Aiko called back, lifting herself back on top of the water's surface. "Gaara savaged you. The Tailed Beasts are a necessary sacrifice to achieve eternal peace for everyone."
"A world created by such a sacrifice is not peace."
Aiko's eyes widened as the three of them converged on her position simultaneously, making her disappear in a flurry of paper, leaving behind explosive notes in her place. From a distance, Aiko swept her eyes over the blast before turning to Kisame, finding him in a battle of sword versus nunchucks.
Her blue eyes narrowed as his team reappeared in the distance, having been able to survive her blast as they prepared to re-enter the battle. Forming her paper chariot below her feet, she flew towards them as Gai let out a shout, his hands reaching out to capture Samehada. Meanwhile, his team swooped in to take on Kisame. Aiko flew her paper chariot between Kisame and Gai, managing to swipe the sword from the Jonin's grasp as Kisame rushed through a multitude of hand seals. Finally, the palms of his hands slammed to the water's surface below to lift the water in great geysers, thereby encapsulating Team Gai within the volatile orb.
"Ready?" Kisame grinned, looking towards Aiko as she arrived on her paper chariot to step onto the water's flat surface and deliver his sword back to him.
"Always," she smirked back, lifting her arms to release yellow paper tags into the air, guiding them to surround the giant water prison before forming a hand sign to stimulate the crackling of electricity as it shot towards the giant conductor from all sides.
Aiko eyes widened as the water shot out towards them, Kisame grabbing her by the waist to dodge the onslaught of water that was sure to sweep her away before re-summoning her paper chariot for them to hover upon. From above, they witnessed as Gai's body began to glow a bright green, the very water circling him and his newly freed team.
"You should head back to finish up the ritual. We've bought them enough time," Kisame told her.
Aiko nodded, guiding her steed towards the ground as Kisame jumped towards the rising waters, skimming along their surfaces to meet Gai head on.
"It was good to see you, Lee. Even without ninjutsu or genjutsu, you've grown into a strong shinobi," Aiko called over to the boy with the bushy eyebrows, the paper already beginning to peel from her body.
Aiko smiled, watching as the boy wiped his forearm across his eyes to clear away the rivers of tears streaming down his cheeks.
"Just make sure you pass along my regards to Naruto. I'll be sure to see him soon."
It was then that the girl disappeared in a flurry of paper.
"Yes Suki, I will. Goodbye, my dear comrade," Lee whimpered, earning himself a second smack from TenTen.
"Lee, she wants to kill him, remember!"
Aiko drummed her fingers against the stone table, looking towards her blank-faced oji-san who sat opposite her. Akatsuki had been successful in their mission to capture and seal the One Tail, but as of yet, they hadn't heard anything from the two members left behind to take care of the Konohagakure shinobi and potentially capture the Nine Tails.
"I'm going to kill them," she growled, standing up to pace around the room. "No doubt they toyed with them, dragging this out on purpose, and I bet you Deidara went to go get his arm to avoid the fact that he got cocky and failed in his attempt to capture a second Junchiriki. Sasori probably had to save his ass. Grr, MEN - I hate them."
Pain blinked at the girl.
"Except you of course, oji-san," she added as an afterthought, making Nagato let out a breath of relief from Amegakure.
Not too long after that, a paper butterfly flew into the room, tinged in the dull brown of Deidara's earth natured chakra.
"Finally," she breathed, capturing the butterfly in her palm before crushing it as her eyes snapped to the doorway where the bomber appeared, clutching his right arm in the nook of his shoulder. "Why are you holding your arm like that?"
Deidara winced, looking hesitant as she approached him, swinging out her hand to swipe his removed appendage.
"Deidara," she stated, making the bomber blink out the image of her mother in an icy rage from his mind, "what happened to your other arm?"
Deidara opened his mouth, yelping as the girl used his own arm to beat him repeatedly over the head.
"DO NOT-" whack, "TELL ME-" whack, "YOU LOST-" whack, "ANOTHER-" whack, "ARM."
"Cut it out, un!" the boy cried, moving the single remaining piece of his upper arm in a pitiful attempt to shield himself from her wrath.
"And where is Sasori? If I find out that you pushed him off your clay bird again, I'm going to hide your arms and tape your mouth shut so that you never make another piece of art in your life!"
"He's dead, un."
Aiko stalled, arm suspended up in the air, flicking her blue eyes between his own.
"How," she breathed, growing stony-faced as Deidara's arm dropped to the floor.
"It was the pink haired girl and the old lady," Deidara explained, finding her eyes narrowing in suspicion, as if he would dare to feed her lies, "I don't get it either, un, but it was a death fitting of a true artist."
"Zetsu," Pain commanded, prompting the spawning of the plant's carnivorous leaves from the ground, "take care of what remains of Sasori's core, and make sure you retrieve the ring."
As Zetsu headed back underground, Aiko let out a yell, slamming her fist into the stone table to make it collapse into the ground as she breathed heavily.
"Don't do this to yourself, un," Deidara sighed, stepping closer so that his torso was up against her back before frowning to himself, "I would hug you, but…"
Aiko let out a breath through her nose, turning around to wrap her arms around his form and push her face into the material of his cloak. Deidara gave the girl a soft look, feeling how her body shook from pure rage as she balled her hands into white-knuckled fists at his back.
A/N: Lee is a God given gift to fanfiction writers everywhere - there was no doubt in my mind that I'd have Aiko follow Kisame, and not Itachi. Also things are getting dark now *mwa ha ha* - how will Aiko react as Akatsuki begins to die out. Also, I promise I'm not pulling an Obito and being constantly late - Fanfiction kept giving me errors this week - it's all their fault.
Lucency - thank you! I really wanted to get some up-beat stuff in before everyone dies *sweat drop*.
Arclight001 - Pahaha - bet your Ma was thrilled, but seriously, thank you for reviewing all the time. I'm always like 'ohmygod a review' when I get one XD