Chapter Twenty-Nine - Reunion
"Aiko," Konan murmured lowly, causing Aiko's blue eyes to snap towards her as she prepared herself for battle. "I know I haven't been there for you recently, but-"
"Stop," Aiko declared pointedly, cutting her off.
"But Aiko-"
"I said stop, okay?" she repeated, her voice coming out like a forceful whisper. "I don't want to hear it. Wherever you want to say to me-" Aiko took a sharp breath, her expression soft and her voice similarly settling into a gentle tone - "you can say it after we finish this."
Konan gave her daughter a soft smile, lifting her hand up to affectionately caress her cheek.
"Alright. I'll see you later, then."
"Yeah," Aiko murmured, body tense as she prepared to be reverse-summoned into Konohagakure by the Animal Path. "See you later."
Aiko arrived at the next street over in a flurry of paper, blue eyes focussed and the hilt of her sword in hand as the paper overran the area, caccooning the people within and already beginning to be coloured with their chakra. Her head flicked to the side as a stray who had managed to avoid her capture jumped from the rooftop, kunai in hand, causing her to summon the blade of her Raijin no Kirie to empale him through the chest before twisting to slice at an assault of shuriken and kunai from above. The weaponry was sliced in two, causing it to clink as it hit the ground.
With their locations revealed, the three enemy shinobi appeared, hoping to surround her as two charged from the front as the other did the same from behind. Aiko sent out a second flurry of paper, hitting the man behind, the two in front retreating before a torrent of unnatural wind cut through the chakra-infused paper or sent it whirling back.
"I see, my paper can't penetrate the wind barrier," she acknowledged.
"That's right!" the shinobi retorted, his fingers moving to infuse his kunai with wind chakra, his own partner seemingly preparing a fire ninjutsu if the tiger seal was any indication. "Now your paper can't-"
Aiko plunged her Raijin no Kirie into the ground, the lightning conducting across the path created by the water chakra infused paper that had been lying on the ground. The shinobi had been so focussed on the paper midair, that they had failed to recognise the small stream being formed at their feet. Now, the street was clear for interrogation. Aiko walked up to the rare sight of the Konohagakure shinobi dying her paper grey with wind chakra, holding her blade to his neck.
"Where is Uzumaki Naruto?" she demanded of him, making her blade crackle with static at his neck.
"I'll never tell you," he spat back.
"Tell me, or your friend's chakra will be completely depleted and I will use it to set the surrounding buildings ablaze," she threatened, baring her teeth as his jaw visibly locked. "This is no bluff, shinobi, I have more fire-tainted paper than I know what to do with right now."
"Go to hell, little girl."
"As you wish," she declared, draining the wind users comrade of the last of his chakra and sending the paper high into the air, watching as it fluttered down and ignited like a firecracker, coating the nearby buildings in flames, before turning her attention to the next person in sight. "Where is Uzumaki Naruto?"
"Uggghhh," Aiko screamed with frustration, the excess of fire-tainted paper condensing into a giant ball before launching it across the way, like a comet.
The comet crashed into a building, a mighty boom sounding from the resulting destruction and the excess chakra being used to fuel successive explosions that built into a destructive inferno that reached into the sky. Aiko was sick of these people's Will of Fire. All this death and destruction, just because these stubborn idiots insisted on protecting a demon in a shinobi's skin. Gritting her teeth, the Akatsuki member took to the rooftops to look for her next victim, eyes narrowing on a ploom of smoke. She moved towards it.
Aiko ran along the rooftops as she spotted Pain's centipede summon, her eyes flicking forward to access the masses of people it was chasing. Some civilians, but there were plenty of shinobi attempting to assist them. Hopefully, these ones would take her warnings to heart. Just as Aiko was about to join the frey, she skidded to a halt as a gift was delivered to her from the Gods themselves.
That which was in the form of a pink haired girl.
Aiko landed on top of the fallen centipede, realising that it was dead as a result of the girl's single punch. Evidently, she had come a long way since the Chunin Exams, particularly when considering the fact that she had been able to defeat Sasori. But so had Aiko, and it was time that she got the answers she was looking for.
"Sakura!" a Konohagakure shinobi called over to the pinkette, pointing out Aiko to the girl. "Don't lower your guard. There's an Akatsuki member in our presence."
"Iruka," Sakura murmured, turning away from the young girl she had finished healing to stand in front of her and the elderly woman in an attempt to shield them from the enemy.
"Nice to see you again, Sakura," Aiko called from atop the centipede's head, making the girl's emerald eyes widen in recognition. "Tell me, do you make a habit of killing other people's pets when reuniting with old friends?"
"Aiko of Akatsuki," the kunoichi responded, emerald eyes narrowing. "You were never my friend, and you certainly weren't Naruto's either."
"Funny you should mention him, because that's who I'm looking for," she admitted, a dark look crossing her blue orbs. "Do you know where he is?"
"Even if I did, I'd never tell you."
"We'll see."
Aiko sent forth an abundance of paper, prompting Iruka to escape to the rooftops, her blue eyes narrowing as Sakura headed directly towards her. Aiko burst into paper, landing on the adjacent rooftop, only to escape in a similar manner as the pinkette followed with a burst of chakra to her feet, the roof caving in from her chakra-infused punch. As Sakura landed on the ground amongst the falling debris, Aiko was waiting, her chest heaving as she directed a torrent of water from her jaw to prime the girl for a lightning bolt, only for her actions to be interrupted by five well-aimed kunai, two trailing paper bombs that forced her to dodge and abandon her pursuit.
"Sakura, you need to get out of here!" Iruka shouted, his eyes fixed on Aiko. "The hospital is already filling up - they need you there."
"I don't think so," Aiko countered, red paper peeling from her form so that she could aim it at the adjacent buildings.
The paper hit the buildings with a fiery inferno, setting them alight and sending rubble tumbling into the street, which distracted the duo from the paper which she used to construct paper chains behind them. At her command, the chains ignited, creating a fiery wall to cut off their escape, as well as acting to keep away their peers. Once Sakura was finished turning the rubble into pebbles, she charged on Aiko, who responded by summoning her Raijin no Kirie. The lightning blade met a chakra-infused fist, causing a clap of thunder to ring out into the air and sending both girl's flying back.
Whilst Aiko managed to skid across the ground and land on her feet, Sakura let out a wounded howl, rolling slightly, before recovering enough to crouch and begin to channel medical ninjutsu to her wounded hand. Despite it being reinforced with chakra to withstand fatal blows, the sword had still managed to cause third degree electrical burns and numb her arm up to the elbow. Sakura gritted her teeth as Iruka bellowed a stream of fire towards Aiko, giving her the time to recover as the Akatsuki member slapped a brown piece of chakra paper to the ground, causing an earth wall to spring up to her defence.
Sakura charged forward, punching the defence to make it cave inward and smash into pieces, but all that was left behind the wall was its crushed remains. Aiko was gone.
"Sakura! Look out!"
Iruka pushed the girl away from the tidal wave of paper that was preparing the descend upon her, eyes widening as it captured his form. He was already beginning to feel his chakra draining away as the paper turned red, representative of his chakra nature.
"Where is Naruto, Sakura?" Aiko demanded, holding her blade to where Iruka was trapped amongst her paper cocoon, his mouth bound to prevent him from interfering.
"I won't," Sakura faltered, looking at Iruka trapped in the girl's clutches. "I won't… tell you."
"Do you want this man's death on your conscience, Sakura? Do you want to be the one responsible for killing him? If not, I would reconsider that answer."
Sakura's emerald eyes met Iruka's dark ones, hardening her will as a wordless understanding passed between them.
"I won't tell you anything."
Aiko responded by shoving her Raijin no Kirie through Iruka's chest, watching as the already red tinted paper began to become spattered with blood before peeling away the paper supporting the limp body and allowing it to fall to the ground.
"NO!" Sakura screamed, tears streaming from her eyes as she charged upon the lavender-haired girl who lifted her blade and sent her flying back with a strike of lightning towards the girl's chest.
Aiko stepped forward, readying her blade for Sakura's end, eyes widening as a torrent of water burst through her firewall, a familiar Konohagkure shinobi riding the wave with a bandage draped across his nose and conch-like mace in his hands. The Akatsuki member quickened her pace, gritting her teeth as a flock of crows obscured her vision from the girl, before realising they were circling, preventing her escape.
As the bird's cleared, Aiko assessed her situation, eyeing up the four Konohagakure shinobi surrounding her; Kotetsu and his partner Izumo, who used water ninjutsu, a man who wore sunglasses, and another with black-tinted goggles peeking out of an oversized hood with a gourd upon their back. All of which stood against her. All of which were going to die before her eyes.
"Are you okay, Sakura?" the man with the sunglasses called over to the girl who was hovering over Iruka's body, palms positioned above his wound.
"I'm fine, but Iruka…"
"There's nothing you can do about that now, but there are still people that you can help at the hospital."
"Right," Sakura sniffed, taking one last look at Iruka before taking off into the distance.
Aiko sneered, unable to do anything but watch her retreating form as she gripped the hilt of her sword white-knuckled.
"Now to deal with you, Akatsuki's child."
"You'll regret your actions soon enough," she claimed, a malicious aura surrounding her form. "Now die!"
Konan assessed her opponents with a clear mind, realising that they were of the Aburame Clan. They were well known for the control of insects, which were seemingly capable of absorbing the chakra from her paper, thereby removing it from her control, even going so far as to eat it like termites would do to wood. Hence why she had set up a paper defence around her clone. It would do little good if the insects managed to overwhelm the replica, meaning that she would have to send another to conduct an interrogation to locate the Nine Tails.
"Shino, give it all you've got," the eldest Aburame with spiked black hair commanded, eyes flicking to the side as he was met with silence. "Shino?"
Little did the Aburame Clan Head know that underneath the shadow of his hood and high collar, Aburame Shino was blushing, recalling the image of a certain lavender-haired girl who bore a great resemblance to the woman in front of him… in nothing but her underwear. Were they related? Surely they must be given that they were both in Akatsuki. What if this woman knew of the incident in question, having sought him out to seek revenge and cast judgement on him for his moment of shameful actions?
"I will," Shino eventually managed to reply, hoping to his hive that this woman wouldn't feel the need to remove her clothing during their battle.
A/N: Thank you for the support Gerden360, Lucency and garneauyoann! Everyone on here hates writing fight scenes, so hopefully that was ok - my favourite part was Shino remembering his trauma, haha!