Be me, casually checking this chapter at 11 on Tuesday to see if I've edited it already and then finding out that I actually haven't even touched it.
What a shame that was.
Anyways, without further ado, here's the thing.
Chapter 76: Seven, Six of Nine
Sasuke flinched at the words out of Tobi's mouth, and even though he could pick up on some of the amusement in the man's face by gazing into the hole over his right eye, he couldn't quite get the full picture, or the full depth.
He didn't really want to, either. The man seemed the gloating type.
"Stalling?" Sakura spoke, sounding aggravated. "What the hell? For what!?"
"Ah yes, my mistake." Tobi turned to her, the drawl in his voice perfectly showing how much he looked down upon them. "Allow me to tell you exactly what my plans for today are, along with all sub-plans and contingencies for it as well."
Sakura clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth but didn't speak again. Instead, she made silent eye-contact with him, nodding out of the corner of her eye. Sasuke made no movements, hell, he didn't even stop looking at Tobi, who'd since turned back to him and Haku, who Sasuke imagined the man perceived as larger threats, but Sakura knew the capabilities of his Sharingan better than most and knew how far she could push them.
She knew he'd seen her.
He and Haku pushed forward almost simultaneously. They gunned not for Tobi, who they'd long since realized they couldn't interact with, but for Fu, still squirming in the man's arms. She saw them coming, and seemingly having planned her true escape tactic, leant forward slightly, and activated some kind of ability.
Wings sprung from her back at an alarming speed, one flying upwards and smacking an unaware Tobi in the face. Sasuke didn't laugh, but he wouldn't at all hide from the amusement that coursed through him at the bewildered expression in Tobi's eye. The man had to stay corporeal to hold onto Fu, which meant he'd been entirely blindsided.
Sakura moved next, her hands coming down to slam onto the bark below, and causing energy to course through the branches beneath her. They writhed like serpents, until, like a whip, the chakra snapped through them all at once, and attached themselves to Tobi's legs.
The man looked down with a small curse, clacking his teeth together as he looked up at himself and Haku as they approached, swords poised to strike again. This time, they'd given him a rather simple ultimatum…
Turn incorporeal and dodge… or die.
Though, as Sasuke watched the man's eye grow not terrified, not defeated or even concerned, but amused, he realized they'd underestimated him.
"A decent display… but not enough."
First, Tobi reached out, phasing straight through the wooden binds trying to hold his body in place, and chopped at Fu's neck. The girl crumpled almost instantly, and Sasuke recognized the technique as one they'd all been taught in the Leaf at some point to subdue a target. That Tobi would use it only leant further credence to the idea that he was originally from their village.
However, as nice as it would've been to focus purely on that, he had other things to worry about.
Namely, the whirlwind of black that seemed to encompass the very air around them in the next moment.
It was… an incredible thing to describe. It seemed as if the very world around them distorted, bent in a way that was entirely unnatural, and in that moment, Sasuke cursed his own foolishness.
It'd been three years, and he'd only seen it the once, but this power had been used by Tobi before. He'd used it to try and steal away Naruto while they'd been fleeing the Sound Village. It'd only been Haku's quick reflexes that'd bailed him out.
And now… now he was using it on Sasuke himself.
It was an oddly painful thing. Like someone was running their hands across his skin, his muscles, even his bones, and twisting them in odd ways. It wasn't as if they were being ripped apart or broken… but more akin to the stretching and pulling of muscles one would feel during a particularly taxing workout.
Only multiplied by a good ten or so.
"You'll make a good bargaining chip, Sasuke Uchiha." The man spoke as they fell towards him, and his victory only became more assured. "I doubt your brother will be nearly as troublesome this way."
Before he could too harshly consider the meaning of the man's words, a dozen or so branches had shot up from the floor and wrapped themselves around both himself and Haku. He didn't even have time to realize what was happening before he'd been thrown to the back of the room, landing harshly on the wood.
"Oh?" Tobi turned towards the source, to where Sakura stood panting, having horrendously overexerted herself to do perform such a feat in so quick a time. "You'd interrupt?"
"You won't touch him." Sakura breathed out, steeling her nerve. "Not while I'm here."
Sasuke himself made to stand, forcing his body to move even past the exhaustion of the day wearing down on him. They'd run all the way here, for over half a day, then proceeded to climb the length of the tree… and now they were face to face with Tobi, fighting for Fu's life.
It was clear in all of their faces; they were running on fumes.
Even Kegon and Yoro, who were standing a way's away and looking for an opportunity to try and rescue Fu, looked horribly fatigued. They must've been awake for the last day and a half, running counter-operations to the Akatsuki's assault.
Yet still, as he looked on at Sakura's face, the utter determination set in it, he found some of his worries fading away. How could he sit on the ground, tired and defeated, while his girlfriend was up and ready to fight. He was supposed to protect her, and Naruto, and everyone else important in his life.
He needed to be there beside her.
Which was why it was all the more agonizing when his head felt like it might burst any moment, and his right eye bulged in its socket. He gripped onto it as he fell onto one knee, trying to stifle the pain in his skull.
"Oh?" Tobi looked towards him. "Seems that Genjutsu of mine finally took effect. A bit later than I'd meant it to, but I suppose I can't complain."
'The world pulsed, a sign of a fairly rudimentary Genjutsu being cast upon him. Normally, it would've had no effect at all, and yet Sasuke found that his next step was off by a hair, causing him to plummet to the floor below, having effectively been tripped. It felt like something had lodged itself in the back of his brain as well, but he couldn't afford to worry about that.'
He swore as he tried to fight the feeling, but it was much the same as when he'd utilized those black flames through his eyes during their fight against Hidan and Kakazu, the pain was overwhelming him, preventing him from doing a thing.
"Hmph." Tobi turned back towards Sakura, who was distracted, momentarily, because of worrying about him.
He knew exactly what would happen the moment before it occurred. He saw as Sakura's eyes widened, saw as Tobi dashed forward, and he let out a scream, a raw, unintelligible thing that had no real meaning, other than to try and warn the girl of what was coming, to try and save her from her fate.
Tobi was on her in another moment. With a few quick hits exchanged, he knocked her back, and without so much as a pause, black swirls gathered around her.
Sakura too seemed to see what was about to happen as well, for she spent the final moment before she was consumed looking over at him.
All she could do as she was sucked in by the whirlpool was give him a soft smile.
And then she was gone.
The feeling that built within him, the dread and fear and bile and malice that crept up his esophagus, and escaped his throat through a ghastly scream, still somehow didn't quite feel like enough to sum up the feelings welling in his heart.
He forced himself up and to his feet, forced himself to draw his sword back into his grip. This time, he didn't pay any attention to the pain in his skull. No, there could be time for feeling that pain later. Now… now he had a rather simple objective.
Killing Tobi. Killing Obito Uchiha for daring to touch one of his precious people.
His sword blazed through the man, and though it made no contact, he was fast enough on his second attack. The Chidori that'd blazed to life in his left hand cut across Tobi's sleeve as he tried to grab him, very nearly taking the man's hand with him as Sasuke careened into the back wall from the speed of his approach.
He pulled himself out of the indentation, letting out another almost inhuman wail as he blinked forward. This time, Tobi was ready for him, however, and though rage had made his strikes hit harder… they'd done nothing for his accuracy, or the thought process behind them.
He was subdued within a moment by the combatant, when he allowed Sasuke to pass through him, and instead of trying to counter, simply unfurled a metal chain from beneath his coat. It caught him around the waist, clotheslining him, and stopping him in his tracks.
He was slammed to the floor a moment later, entirely bereft of breath as the man walked up to him, a tiny laugh almost enough to build that same rage within Sasuke a second time.
"Oh, don't worry," The man spoke, looking down at him amusedly. "You'll be going to the same place as her. I have a use for the both of you, after all."
Before the man could say another word, however, he was forced to retreat by a round of icicles hitting where he was standing, not allowing him to corporealize, and then by Hinata of all people grabbing Sasuke by his left leg, and quite literally hauling him through Tobi's body, and to safety on the other side.
"S-sorry, Sasuke!" The girl apologized as she brought him further and further away from their single opponent. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to help Sakura. I… I should've been able to do something, and yet…" The girl shook her head, clearly agonized. "Even with the Byakugan activated, I couldn't see him when he was in the floor! I should've been able to detect him, but it was like he ceased to exist entirely! I… I just don't…"
He shook his head, giving her a light smack on the shoulder with the back of his hand.
"Worry later." He seethed out, not mad at her. "Focus. We need to win here."
The girl nodded, focusing her attention on Fu, who was still passed out beneath the man.
"Fine, fine." Tobi turned to them. "I suppose I can kill every last one of you, if that's what you-"
"There will be no need for that, Tobi."
The voice that had interrupted Tobi's speaking was icy and cold, though, strangely, Sasuke couldn't quite shake the feeling that he recognized it. It came from a figure who had materialized just beside him mere moments prior, appearing in a puff of white smoke, as if he'd been summoned there.
The man was nearly the same height as Tobi, if a centimeter or two taller, though his complexion made it hard to truly read his face. He was covered all over with black rods, and his hair was a vibrant orange in color. More menacingly, however, were the purple ringed eyes set within his skull, which seemed to radiate some kind of strange power.
Though it was none of those things that truly drew his attention. No, what drew his attention was instead the gasp that seemed almost flung from Haku's mouth, drawn not by a realization, but by utter shock.
It was that noise that keyed Sasuke in to just what was going on. He took a second glance at the man's face and spotted just what about him it was that had Haku so stricken.
He'd seen him before.
That wasn't to say he hadn't recognized Pain himself, given that it was fairly hard to forget the combination of ringed eyes, bright orange hair, and black piercings, but the base body upon which Pain had imprinted himself was one he recognized.
The short hair… the scars on his lips… the sharpened teeth…
"Za… buza?" Haku's voice was like a whisper, yet it carried within it a deadly fury. "You…"
"The mission is over." The pale and deadened body of their former ally spoke. "We have gathered the others on our end. We await the seventh."
Tobi groaned but nodded, turning back towards Sasuke with what he could only assume was a mocking smile.
"Well, Sasuke, it looks like you're in luck. Or… perhaps you aren't very lucky at all, depending on how you're looking at it. I'm afraid I no longer have the time to be kidnapping you as well."
His eyes bugged out slightly at the man's words.
"The hell do you mean by that!?"
"He means that we're leaving," Pain spoke, his voice sounding entirely disparate of emotion. "Given that our goals have been accomplished."
Sasuke couldn't quite wrap his head around that, though luckily, he was given some time to think by a sword impacting the area directly beneath where Pain had been just a moment prior. The weighty blade carved into the wood below, cutting out a massive chunk as it was wrenched free, the owner of said sword panting heavily, in both exhaustion and fury, as he looked upon the fallen warrior.
"How… dare you!?" Haku's voice was like a blizzard, in the way that it seemed to deafen the rest of the sounds in the room, as if nature itself, and the laws of the world, were rewriting themselves at his behest. "You'd defile my masters body… you'd use it for your heinous schemes…" Haku's teeth ground together, and when he looked up, his normally hazel eyes now seemed to glow the same red as the Sharingan. "I'll kill every last one of you for what you've done!"
In that, they were in agreement. Sasuke himself stepped forward, flipping his sword into his hand in preparation for combat, but before they could even bother, Pain turned to the rest of them, absolutely apathetic.
"You sit here and squabble meaninglessly. We have already won this battle."
He felt a trickle more of fear course through him, even past the fear for Sakura, wherever she was, and the fear for Naruto down below, however he was doing.
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is simple," Pain turned to him. "This entire operation was a front. A smokescreen. The remainder of the Akatsuki have been out around the continent completing far more important missions than this, while the supposed Akatsuki Assault Force was distracted by only a few of our own. Alas, half of your entire force was unable to stop us from taking a single Jinchuuriki," He gestured to Fu, who he must've already considered captured at that point. "How depressing for you."
"Wait…" Hinata shook her head, seemingly in disbelief. "But the rest of the Akatsuki are down below! They're fighting Kakashi and-"
Tobi loudly guffawed at that, looking at the girl out of the corner of his eye, probably sneering.
"No, no, go on, please." Tobi smarmed, looking down on them all. "Tell us all about who Kakashi's fighting. Tell us what you know about them."
"They were wearing hoods, and…"
"And?"
Hinata's eyes went wide.
"So, you figured it out, then." Tobi gave a single haughty laugh. "Yes. The ability of Zetsu, to create spore-like copies of himself that can be dressed up and changed around. Though, well, we didn't even need to utilize that latter ability here."
"Then…" Sasuke spoke quietly, disbelieving. "You…"
Tobi merely gave a victorious hum.
"Why did we take so long when I could've done this," He gestured to Fu at his feet. "At any moment? Why didn't we warp the other Akatsuki in here if we've had the capability to do it for hours? Why bother attacking the village at all when I can simply steal the Jinchuuriki away whenever she's the least guarded?" He asked rhetorically, knowing they'd all figured it out by now. "Simple. To distract you and your little Anti-Akatsuki Force from the real mission."
/-/
Yugito backed away from the figures approaching her. One, a man with multiple piercings along his face, with short, spiky orange hair, and the second, another version of that same man, with his hair slicked back, stood just beside him. The two mirrored one another, as if cut from similar cloths, but ultimately different.
"Yugito Nii." The first spoke calmly, almost apathetically. "You will come with us."
She sneered at them, feeling a bit of feline grace fill her form as the Two-Tails' chakra coursed through her.
"Or what?"
The second stepped forward.
"Or we take you by force."
/-/
Isobu's massive eye was drawn upwards towards the sun as a shadow appeared overhead. When his body had finally gathered enough strength to turn up, still exhausted from his reformation, he found a young woman with blue hair hovering above him.
"I would ask if you'd come peacefully," The almost angelic figure asserted. "But I'm afraid you wouldn't quite be able to answer me, in your current state."
As if in response, Isobu roared, gathering chakra in its mouth for a powerful Water-based Jutsu.
"Forgive me for this." She spoke one final time, as her body gradually separated into sheets of paper.
"I have no hatred for you in my heart… but needs must."
/-/
Roshi looked towards the oncoming figures, sensing hostility from their first appearances on the edge of his perception. Normally, he wouldn't bother to run from an opponent, meeting almost any head-on who tried to face him, but something about these ones had the hairs sticking up on the back of his neck.
The two seemed almost inhuman. One moved as if he were a puppet pulled along by strings, his jaw flapping with the wind, creating an ominous sound, and the other, a bald man far taller than him, was one of the craziest looking bastards he'd ever seen, with black piercings running down his entire body.
"Four-Tailed Beast." The puppet-looking guy spoke. "You will come with us."
He stepped back.
"No… I don't think I will."
The man, far from being cowed, simply sighed.
"Fine then." His jaw unhinged. "Suit yourself."
/-/
Utakata pushed the girl hiding behind him even further backwards.
"Get away, Hotaru!"
"But master, together we could-"
"No buts, Hotaru!" He stressed, pushing her further away. "I'll buy us some time, but…"
Two orange-haired men stood before him. One, with a streak of hair running down the side of his face, and the rest drawn up in a ponytail, and the second, far more imposing man was a short spiky-haired one. Three rods ran through his nose, but most noticeably was the look of absolute apathy present in his features.
"Six-Tails." The man spoke evenly. "You will surrender yourself if you wish that girl to remain unharmed."
He felt a pit of dread open within his chest, but he didn't show that on his face. He pushed once more on Hotaru's chest, forcing her backwards.
"Go." He said to her one last time. "I'll catch up with you."
The girl looked like she might cry.
"You promise?"
He turned back around, unable to look Hotaru in the eye as he smiled sadly.
"Yeah…"
"I promise."
/-/
Sasuke paled as the weight of what was happening hit him. All around the continent, Jinchuuriki like Fu, like Naruto, were being stolen away. They were being kidnapped right underneath the noses of those said to protect them… and here they were. Ineffectual, unable to protect a single one of them with half their force, just like Pain had said.
"A shame, too." Tobi shrugged. "Your Hokage sent you all several message hawks even before you made it here to the Waterfall to warn you about what was happening," He put a hand on his chin, as if thinking. "Though, well, I suppose someone could've been cutting those down long before they reached you, couldn't they have?"
Sasuke growled as he took a step forward, rage and sorrow and a million other things ruling his mindscape as he tried to draw the sword in his hands.
Before he could initiate any combat, however, Pain had turned to Tobi.
"Just finish up here. We don't need to be wasting time."
Tobi nodded as the man disappeared into white smoke, and whether or not he'd unsummoned himself, or had always been just a clone, Sasuke wasn't sure it entirely mattered, given that Tobi held Fu in his arms now, and was about to suck her into his eye.
"Oh no you don't!" Haku utilized the same maneuver he had numerous times that day, firing off icicles to force Tobi to stop.
Except the man didn't stop. As if he were an adult who'd finally stopped playing around with the children around him, he allowed the icicles to pass through his body whilst still absorbing Fu into his eye, the girl being sucked up in such a manner that she looked like water flowing down a drain.
Kegon and Yoro screamed, barely too late on their attacks to try and strike at Tobi's face, and because of it, they passed right through.
Not a second later, the man looked to Sasuke.
"A shame I could not get my hands on you as well…" He sighed. "Oh well. I suppose you can't win them all."
And then, without another word, he dropped into the floor below him.
The silence in the roof was deafening.
Kegon and Yoro grasped at the floor, both of them looking entirely shellshocked. Hinata was similar, seemingly scanning every which way with the Byakugan, trying to help the others locate Fu, but…
Haku stabbed his sword violently into the ground, and let out a rasping yell as he pounded his fists on the bark below him. Sasuke couldn't particularly blame the boy, having seen his master's, no, his father's body being used in such a way.
He himself fell to his knees. The energy that'd filled him thanks to adrenaline and training was gone now, replaced only by the hollow feeling of fear and worry he carried for Sakura, along with the agonizing realization that'd hit him just a few minutes prior.
They'd come to prevent the village from being destroyed. They'd come to protect the citizens of the Waterfall. They'd come to defend the tree from the Akatsuki. They'd come to strike them down, and defeat as many as they could. And they'd come to safeguard Fu, to prevent the Akatsuki getting their hands on her.
The Village had been utterly decimated, its people along with it. Most were dead from what they'd seen, and even the few who remained would likely need to leave their old homes behind while the place was repaired. The tree in the center of the Village had been compromised, utterly inept to defend them. The Akatsuki hadn't lost a member here, and though Naruto had been fighting Deidara, it had only been to escape. Fu had been kidnapped, the girl's optimism poignantly missing from their entourage as Hinata fell to her knees, grasping at her face like she was going to be sick.
They'd failed in every regard.
All he could do as clawed at the bark below him was let out an agonized scream.
/-/
Deidara stepped past the broken ruins of yet another home as he limped back towards their designated rendezvous point.
Bodies littered the streets around him, the bodies of people he'd put there. He felt nothing for them, couldn't really afford to either way at the moment, on account of the horrible aching pain that kept radiating off of his brutally destroyed jaw. The thing was cracked in so many places that it'd be a miracle if he ever spoke without an impediment again.
Well, he assumed he'd get over it. Life wasn't about speaking with others, it was about art.
And his art didn't require him to speak.
Even still, as he rounded a corner, he found himself face to face with someone he hadn't expected to see.
"Deidara." The man spoke quietly, almost… angrily. "So… this is where you were."
"You're the newbie…" Deidara spoke, trying to keep his voice under control. "Kabuto, right?"
"Yes." The younger man answered him, stepping slightly to the right as he looked at the destruction surrounding them. "You were the one who did all of this, right?"
Deidara couldn't help feeling like this man was wasting his time at first, but if he harbored a genuine interest in his art, well…
He could understand that.
"Yes, I was." He smiled as best he still could. "I took an aerial position and utilized my explosive clay to rain down my art from above. I do believe this was an even more effective show than during my time in the Earth!"
Far from being awe-inspired, as he should've been, the man named Kabuto simply sighed.
"Right… thanks, that's all I needed to know."
"What are you talking about, hn?"
Three senbon pierced different points on his body. One flew through his throat, embedding itself in his windpipe. Another pierced straight through his liver, and the final a point on his wrist, straight through an artery.
He coughed as he spat up blood, and fell backwards, landing hard as he looked up at the man above him.
"What the hell are you-!"
His voice cut off as another shadow walked forward. Clad in the same red and black of the Akatsuki, this one had a far more menacing air to him.
Well, that, and as he saw him, Deidara felt a fury overcome him as he looked up into the man whom he despised the most.
"So… you found him."
"Yeah…" Kabuto sighed. "Sorry, I couldn't hold myself back. I won't let someone like him walk free. I refuse."
"I understand. I also-"
"ITACHI!" Deidara screamed, blood and spittle flying out of his mouth. "You bastard! Here to kill me, huh!?"
Itachi looked down at him like an apex predator would regard an insect.
"No. Kabuto is the one who bears a grudge here. I have no such thing for you. In fact, I don't particularly care about you in any way."
Deidara's entire expression shifted as those words processed through his brain. His eyes widened, his jaw, what was left of it anyways, tightened, his lips pursed, and his nose crinkled. A white hot core of anger boiled to the surface of his chest, and he felt a maddening sense that he no longer cared about anything at all.
No, he just wanted Itachi dead.
"You… I'll kill you!" He screamed, drawing a piece of clay out of his bag from his right side, which sparked a sort of odd feeling, like he'd done something wrong, that he ignored, and opened up the mouth in his chest. "I'll blow the rest of this village… the entire Akatsuki, everything to smithereens," He laughed, before violently screeching. "JUST TO KILL YOU!"
He shoved the clay into the maw on his chest…
And felt nothing but an intense agony.
He looked down at his chest to see not the piece of clay he'd intended to feed into his heart, but instead, a kunai knife embedded into it.
"My apologies, Deidara." Itachi spoke almost sadly. "But I have long since come up with a way of countering your little C0. A small Genjutsu casted upon you, that only flips your perception of where your kunai knives are stored, And the bag where you store your art." He pointed down to Deidara's waist, where, sure enough, his kunai knives rested on his right side, and his explosive clay bag on his left. "By reversing your thoughts on where those two items were stored… you would draw a deadly knife, and plunge it into your own chest."
He felt bile and fury and agony wrench through his system as a bubble of blood dribbled down his chin. An almost mad laugh poured from his mouth, and for several seconds, he could do nothing but wretch with laughter.
"Ha… ha ha…"
He looked up at the man who'd never once looked back at him, and charged with blood in his eyes.
"ITAAACHIII!"
He was answered halfway by the edge of a senbon fired off by Kabuto, one which buried itself in his nasal cavity, and severed the connection between his brain and spine.
Deidara was dead before he hit the floor.
/-/
Kabuto looked down at the fallen body of Deidara, and felt, almost absently, that his rage at the man had not waned.
He didn't feel particularly good about killing him, either, though he felt as if he'd done something necessary. Ending the mad bomber would at least hopefully spare further villages this sort of treatment, while also keeping some of the remaining civilians in the city safe from him stumbling across them.
But it didn't feel like they'd made any progress, really. In actuality, they'd been fooled by the other members of the Akatsuki.
And that was bad.
Tobi had filled them in on what they'd missed as he showed up with the Seven-Tails (apparently) in tow. Pain as well had come along, and they'd explained that the three of them 'hadn't had to know' in order to execute their role.
If they had purposefully excluded himself, Itachi, and Kisame from learning about the actual plan going on, Kabuto couldn't help thinking, then that didn't bode well for how much the group trusted them.
And, of course, the group was right not to trust them, but they hadn't exactly wanted them to figure that out.
The important question, however, was whether or not they knew, or merely suspected. The difference there would be key, because if they did know, then going back to the base would be akin to suicide.
If they didn't however, then not going back would be seen as an admittance of guilt.
Still, they'd managed to shake off Kisame, telling him they'd heard something coming from their direction (which they had, it had turned out to be Deidara) and told him to scout along ahead their intended path. He'd agreed without much difficulty, and Kabuto got the feeling that, while Kisame was smarter than he let on, he also didn't particularly care about the internal politics of the Akatsuki all that much.
He didn't suspect them, at least, Kabuto didn't think.
He heard the telltale sound of the man's footsteps grow closer as he rounded a corner, and waved lazily towards them which they returned with ones of their own.
"Find what you were looking for?" Kisame asked casually.
"Just an enemy rat." Itachi lied as easily as he breathed. "It wasn't much of a concern. We dealt with him quite simply."
Kabuto nodded along, and Kisame looked at him rather impressed-like.
"Heh, you can hold your own, then?"
"I did fine against Might Guy, one of the strongest in the Leaf." Kabuto argued, feeling the smallest hint of pride in his chest.
"Not true," The man gestured to his face. "You got your nose broken."
"That's…" He lightly ran his fingers over the re-adjusted body piece, which he'd gone ahead and set himself once they'd finished fighting. "I suppose you're right."
Kisame laughed. "I'm fucking with you. Honestly, I don't really care if you go off and get yourself killed, as long as it doesn't mess with what I'm doin', you get me?"
He rubbed at his head and nodded as he and Itachi rounded a corner, and their eyes bugged out to almost inane degrees at what they saw.
Twelve figures had just finished pulling themselves out of a nearby sewer system. Those in the front, the ninjas of the group, looked towards them with shell-shocked expressions, utterly forlorn as they didn't even think to raise their weapons.
And at the head of it all was Naruto Uzumaki, looking entirely dumbfounded.
Behind them, preventing their escape, was a massive pile-up of debris, that seemed to have been caused by the collapse of a large building. If Kabuto had to guess, that was the same reason they'd been forced to exit the sewers at such an unfortunate juncture as well.
"Ah–!" He let out without thinking.
Itachi acted so fast that Kabuto briefly thought the man must have some superhuman speed, for he was able to process that entire scene, and still somehow manage to cast some form of Genjutsu.
Not on the twelve in front of them…
But on Kisame.
"Huh?" Kisame rounded the same corner they had mere moments prior and looked at what Kabuto was staring at. "What're you so surprised about? They don't have sewers back in the Leaf?"
He almost couldn't believe what he was seeing. The man was looking straight at Naruto, along with a few other ninja who he knew far less well, and a crowd of what he could only assume were civilians, without batting an eye.
"They put shit in there, in case you're curious." Kisame turned to him, his face bugging out slightly. "Okay, you keep looking at me like I'm fucking insane, can you clarify why that is, or-"
"Kabuto." Itachi spoke, and it was the calmness in the voice that brought him back, reminded him of what he needed to do. "What's the matter? Did you see something?"
He swallowed on nothing, his mouth far too dry, and looked up with a small frown.
"N-no, sorry. Thought I spotted an enemy combatant, but I think it was just nothing."
Itachi's mouth persed, and Kabuto got the idea that he'd perhaps said something he shouldn't have.
"Just nothing?" Kisame laughed mockingly, slapping him on the shoulder. "It's never 'just nothing'. I'll go check it out, you two wait here. Back me up if I'm about to be stabbed."
He walked forward, and though Itachi remained entirely calm, Kabuto could see the way the ninjas ahead of them seemed to freeze in fear and panic.
Far from doing the same himself, Itachi made a wild gesture with his hands, indicating for the ninjas, and the civilians, to move aside. He did so urgently, and from the look on Naruto's face, it was just about the last thing the teen had expected.
He did as commanded, though, pulling the civilians to the side as Kisame stepped right by them, entirely oblivious to their existence. He looked around, climbed the debris a bit and looked over it, before dismounting, and falling back to the ground with a loud clash.
A child in the group let out a small squeal of fear.
Kisame's eyes trained on her exact location like an owl who'd heard a mouse, and as he did, the mother holding the girl slammed her hand in front of her mouth, effectively silencing her.
The rest of the crowd held their breaths as well, as did Kabuto himself, a hand in front of his mouth.
Kisame got right in the face of the small child, to where their foreheads could've practically touched. The girl's eyes were like saucers as he looked left, looked right, and then, finally, reached out his hand.
Before it could make contact, however, Itachi called out.
"Kisame. Would you stop wasting time?"
The man turned to Itachi with an almost annoyed expression, but more than that, there was just the slightest hint of amusement in his gaze.
"Aw, c'mon Itachi! Shouldn't you cut your bestie a little slack?"
Itachi sighed as Kisame let out a cackling laugh, easily falling in with the rest of them as they kept moving, and, as soon as they passed the vision of that particular alleyway, Itachi fell to his knees, panting horrendously.
"Oi, you alright?" Kisame questioned, not bending down, but showing the slightest hints of concern. "You overwork your eye?"
Itachi nodded.
"I was forced to use it when we fought that rat before. It didn't hit me for a few minutes, I suppose."
Kisame snickered, helping the man up.
"Rat musta' been a tough son of a bitch to make you try."
Itachi gave the smallest ghost of a smile as they continued their journey out of the Waterfall.
"Yes… I found him rather challenging to deal with."
"What about you, newbie?" Kisame asked. "You get any good licks in?"
He found himself shaking his head.
"No…" He muttered quietly.
"That was… all him."
/-/
Sasuke caught up with the remainder of the Akatsuki Assault Force a few hours later.
None of them had been killed… which was just about the only positive of the day so far.
He was hurting as he told Kakashi and Naruto, the heads of the other two teams, what'd happened up above them. Kakashi had sworn quietly, evidently suspecting that Obito might try and go after them, and Anko had been devastated to learn of Sakura's kidnapping, but Naruto just looked… conflicted.
Obviously, he seemed terribly broken up about what'd happened to Fu, a girl Sasuke was pretty sure Naruto looked at as a little sister, and to Sakura, a girl who meant only slightly less to Naruto as she did to Sasuke himself, but more than that, he seemed horrendously confused about something.
Still, he could afford to ask about that only when they'd finished. Relief operations were already underway across the entire Waterfall region, and so they'd been called in to help. The civilians Naruto had rescued first and foremost were taken immediately into care, as several had minor injuries, and one was missing a foot. A mother and daughter duo thanked Naruto profusely, though the younger asked to meet Hinata for some reason, which Naruto set up rather quickly.
She seemed to love talking with the older black-haired girl, who was as kind and gentle as she could be, despite the turbulent feelings that seemed to wage beneath the surface of her heart. Even so, she took the girl's odd questions (like if she really could see through walls, a resounding 'yes' being given in answer) in stride. She'd also hugged the girl against her once she'd started to cry, the weight of the day's events likely catching up with the poor girl, who couldn't have been over ten. And, well… If Hinata herself had begun crying too… who was Sasuke to judge?
Tenten looked similar to Hinata, although handling things in more of a shell-shocked way than letting her emotions out. She'd isolated herself from the others, leaned up against a wall nearby and decidedly not talking with anyone. If he were a less socially awkward person, he might've thought to initiate a conversation there, but unfortunately, he was, and so he did not.
Suigetsu, oddly enough, chatted rather amiably with the entire rest of his unit, messing with Naruto and Shino, and even approaching Tenten after a while, leading her to crack a smile at a bad joke. It seemed like the four of them had really bonded over the last day.
Being in a life or death scenario had a habit of doing that to people.
Kakashi and his half of the team had left, however, leaving the younger Jonin and Chuunin behind.
"We're going to pursue the Akatsuki as far as we can." Kakashi made clear as they suited up, preparing to keep moving despite their exhaustion. "If we chase them, they hopefully won't have the time to be able to unseal the Tailed-Beasts from within their Jinchuuriki. We won't allow anymore people to die today."
They'd all agreed, and Kakashi, Anko, Tenzo and Guy had gone along ahead.
They worked for another eight hours, pulling a solid twin-all-nighter, but they did a hell of a lot of good for the people there, which helped to make up for the fuzziness in his brain. They saved hundreds, moving debris away from houses, and pulling people out of rubble. The rest of the ninja, those who'd not been fit to fight Akatsuki, or who had been out on missions at the time of the attack, were wheeled out to continue working as they could. It was nightfall when they finally got back to the tree, and they were told they could set up camp inside the sanctuary room.
Well, it was a nice added security, but as Obito had already shown them, it wouldn't much matter if someone wanted them dead.
The aching of his bones, his muscles, hell, his everything was just about as intense as he'd ever felt it, and so, by the time they finally managed to actually lie down, he was ready to sleep.
He couldn't, though, because Naruto still had that completely shell-shocked look on his face all day, but, unlike perhaps Hinata and Tenten, he didn't seem to be traumatized.
He seemed to be more… pondering. Pondering the impossible, almost.
"What's the matter?" He finally asked when his curiosity had gotten the best of him.
"Heh… I feel like I should be comforting you, not the other way around." He looked up at Sasuke from the sleeping bag he'd laid out on the floor. "With what happened to Sakura and all…"
He shook his head, biting down on the fear within him.
"Sakura's strong. Not just in body, but in spirit. This won't break her."
Naruto nodded.
"I wish I could say the same about Fu. She's so young, and…"
Sasuke placed a hand on his friends shoulder, smiling evenly.
"I know, man."
Naruto's glum expression almost prevented him from asking any follow-up questions, but he pushed past it.
"She'll be fine. Kakashi and the others won't let them take her Tailed Beast." Naruto nodded, at least agreeing with him there. "Now seriously. Answer the question."
Naruto glared at him a bit annoyedly.
"I was sort of trying to drop the subject."
His own eyes narrowed.
"This is a major deal, isn't it?"
Naruto nodded glumly.
"It's not exactly new news… but its adding evidence onto something… I've already suspected for a long time."
He sat up, leaning against the wall behind him.
"Talk to me."
"Mhm." Naruto acknowledged, bringing his knees up to his chin and sighing. "Sheesh, where do I even begin? We ran into some debris while we were running through the sewers…" He looked to the confused Sasuke with a small modicum of apology. "Long story. Basically, we had to surface, so we did, and though I didn't sense anyone coming at first, someone rounded the corner and saw all of us."
"I take it by your tone it wasn't a friendly?"
"It was Kabuto, Kisame and Itachi."
The hairs on the back of his neck stood up.
"They looked just as surprised to run into us, and I cursed my luck at first, because of course we'd just so happen to run into one another in the middle of an entire hidden village, right?" He sighed. "But then, something weird happened. Kisame rounded the corner after Itachi and Kabuto, and though the first two had seen us… he acted like he couldn't."
"Acted?"
"Well… at first I thought it was an act. A cruel joke to mess with us, y'know?"
He nodded.
"But… no. He couldn't see us, for real. Itachi gestured for us to get away from him, and so we did. Even still, he walked right up to us, got right in Hinata's – er, that young girl who was with her mom – face, but he didn't notice us. Eventually, Itachi called him away, and the three left. From what I heard, though, Itachi collapsed soon afterwards. Kisame suggested that it was complications from using his eye."
Sasuke's blood ran cold.
That… that's not possible.
"You're getting what I'm saying, then? Why I'm so confused?"
Sasuke could only blankly nod.
"Kisame could've killed us… should've killed us. But instead… all our lives… eight civilians and four ninja…"
"Were saved by the Genjutsu of Itachi Uchiha… of all people…"
End Chapter 76
Our main characters suffer an actual loss for once! No silver linings here. Well, the Sound sucked too, I suppose…
Either way, Naruto and Sasuke coming to some realizations!
Anyways, next chapter comes out (like this one did) in two weeks.
I'm experimenting with a dictation software to avoid hurting my wrists while still working on typing, and while its neat, I'm still too slow at using it to get a chapter out weekly. Give me a bit, and we should be back to the normal schedule!
See you all then!
