Without further ado, .-.. . - ... / -. . - / .. -. - - / .. - !
Chapter 54: Scatter to the Wind
Sasuke wasn't going to pretend like the sand siblings' arrival had solved all of their problems, but he also wasn't going to complain about having another three ninjas on their side at the moment.
Especially when all three of them were Chuunin level, easy. Hell, Kankuro and Temari had easily gotten stronger since they'd last fought, each wielding a new tool in combat. The former, a new puppet, one that looked a bit like a cage of all things. The latter, a weasel with a scythe she'd summoned forth on her fan, which seemed to have been reinforced slightly since last he'd seen it.
Gaara was perhaps the only one of them who'd idled in place. If anything, Sasuke thought the sand the boy employed was moving slower than it had the last time they'd fought. He wasn't entirely sure why that would be, but he did have a guess.
He might've turned down power… for the chance to live a normal life.
On a regular day, he might've smiled at that, but, well… it might've sounded selfish, but they kind of needed power more than good vibes at the moment. Not to mention…
"So, the One-Tail has appeared as well." The man named Pain stepped forward, a blank expression on his pale face. "How convenient that we shall capture both here today."
They'd gone and brought another Tailed-Beast into the equation, another way they could lose this battle. Now, if either Naruto or Gaara got captured…
No. He snapped himself out of his bleak thoughts. We won't let that happen. We just need to buy ourselves some space, and then we can get the hell out of here!
We won't lose anyone! He promised himself.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Zabuza and Haku, having paired back up with the arrival of the sand trio, battling the blonde Akatsuki from before. It looked like they were winning pretty substantially, but if Sasuke were to guess, then the man across from them wasn't exactly a good short-ranged fighter.
The idea was confirmed a moment later, when Zabuza's sword cut down the man's body, forming a huge gash in his chest and stomach that looked like it wouldn't be healing without medical attention. A moment later, he swung back up, and lopped off the man's right arm.
Far from panicking, the blonde grabbed his arm and bought himself space, using the time that Zabuza and Haku had assumed he'd be reeling during to get behind the wall of Pain-lookalikes. Two of them stepped in front of the blonde, having broken away from their own battles with Kiba and Anko, the former of which had been blown back when Haku went to assist his master, and the latter of which was clearly exhausted, having gone as even as she could with her opponent.
Still, as the blonde looked to finally be processing the loss of his arm, one of the mirror-images held his hand out, and a horrifying figure rose from the earth. It was… hard to describe. It was a face, Sasuke was fairly sure. The head wore a simple dress around it, and it had the same eyes as the rest of the Pain replicas, but what really stood out to Sasuke were the wrappings around the things mouth, which soon fell away, revealing a gaping maw that looked large enough to swallow a man whole.
"Deidara." The main pain spoke to the man apparently named 'Deidara'. "Step inside."
The blonde didn't exactly look thrilled with that prospect, but he nodded anyways, jumping backward and into the waiting jaws of the spiky-haired pains summon. The mouth closed around him, and the first thing Sasuke heard was a blood-curtling scream.
It stopped almost all movement across the battlefield, or, well, it stopped that of the Leaf Ninja. The other Pain's seemed to merely use it as a distraction, gaining ground on their opponents who were then forced to zone back into their battles.
After a few seconds, the agonized yells ceased, and the maw opened up once more. Out from it stepped Deidara, his clothes still in tatters, but his body completely healed. His arm had even been reattached, and there weren't any signs of scarring. It was as if the injury simply hadn't happened at all.
"Hah… Pain my man…" Deidara spoke through his teeth, seething silently as he looked angrily at his compatriot. "Next time, let me know that's going to be like going through hell beforehand, hn!?"
Pain ignored his associates shouting, instead focusing back in on the rest of their group. Sasuke took a step towards Naruto, wanting to be in front of him in case the man tried pulling him again. Best case, he couldn't pull Naruto with someone in front of him, and worst case, Sasuke would just grab him out of the air.
The fighting started once more on the outskirts, as Deidara launched a few of his explosive creations at their group. It had taken Sasuke a while to realize what they were, largely because his focus during their skirmish hadn't been on the ex-Stone ninja, but as he gazed at the man with his Sharingan active now, he recognized the material the man was sculpting his creatures out of was an odd type of chakra-ridden clay.
He didn't particularly have the time to question the logistics of the man's ability any more than that, and so he merely passed the information around.
"Zabuza, Anko, Haku!" He called to their most skilled fighters, waiting until he was sure they were listening to him after the latter boy knocked Deidara's new creations out of the sky with his senbon. "He's making those things out of clay, but he's keeping it stored in the left side of his cloak. If you're going to hit him, hit him there! That'll cripple his abilities!"
He'd caught that little detail with his Sharingan as well, though he himself wouldn't be able to use it. Instead, he had to focus back in on what he could only assume was the primary 'Pain', the one who seemed to possess the ability to push and pull.
Sakura stepped in front of the both of them, clutching her stomach with her right arm. Both were injured, a hole having been carved into her right arm, and a few ribs broken in her chest, if his analysis of her walking patterns was correct. The Sharingan gave him an extraordinarily powerful observational ability, yet he had a habit of using it to watch his teammates, instead of the villains he should probably have been focusing on.
Sasuke nodded to the girl as she looked back, giving her the signal to advance. She did so, dashing into Pain's guard and bringing a fist to bare. He launched the girl back a good twenty feet, but Sasuke had figured something out from fighting this guy for a while…
His push and pull were connected, and, more importantly, they had a cooldown period.
It was around five seconds, and he was fairly sure there was no difference between push and pull in terms of time of recovery, so he began counting inside his head. He focused as hard as he could with his Sharingan, catching a kunai that Naruto threw to him and flipping it around on his finger. He'd gone through every single one he had in his bag earlier that day, having most of them stolen when the sound ninjas had come to collect them, and the rest lost in battles.
5…
They ducked into Pain's guard, but the man was an expert. Sasuke had been able to see he'd merely been toying with them earlier with his enhanced eyes, but even still, he'd taken the training wheels off for real this time.
4…
A quick hit here, a smooth block there, and both he and Naruto found themselves blown back, unable to duel Pain at close range any further.
3…
Sasuke decided on a dime to switch strategies. He formed the seals for the Fireball Jutsu as fast as he physically could and unleashed it. In that same time span, Naruto summoned a shadow clone beside him, and brought his own Rasengan to bear, charging at Pain and hoping to use Sasuke's own Jutsu as a distraction.
2…
The fireball was dodged, much like Sasuke had expected, but that still gave Naruto the room he needed to converge on their opponent. His best friend shouted as he brought his Rasengan back, preparing to slam it into Pain's stomach.
1…
But the ninja dodged Naruto's attack. He doubled back, giving Naruto room to breathe that he really didn't want. Sasuke had recovered from his moment of exhaustion, having thrown out his fireball while already quite low on chakra, and was on his friends heels. They almost had him, and Naruto's Rasengan was still spinning in the boy's hand, still ready to be unleashed.
They were on Pain in the next moment, both bringing their weapons to bare. They were so close…
"Almighty Push!"
But not close enough. Both he and Naruto were blasted backwards, bouncing, and skidding across the dirt. Sasuke accrued more than a few scrapes and bruises before he stopped rolling, but by that time, the damage had been done.
Pain had been able to force distance between them. He'd been able to wound the both of them before they could do a single thing, hell, they hadn't even knicked him…
Or at least, that might've been what Pain thought.
Now, Sakura!
The girl jumped up from behind Pain's back, taking his blind spot in a moment where the man was still cooling down. He had no way of seeing her coming, no counter to the ability, he stepped forward, even, still thinking they were about to be defeated…
And then, at the last possible moment, he sidestepped Sakura's blow.
The force of the punch sent the ground spiraling outwards, forcing not just Pain, but both he and Naruto to jump away from the epicenter. Sasuke cursed in mid-air, unable to understand just how the man had been able to avoid a punch he shouldn't have had any opportunity to see coming.
There was always the chance that he'd simply assumed they'd try something of that nature, which, while fair given the caliber of enemy they were facing, didn't explain Pain's behavior towards them. If he'd expected an attack, he would've simply turned towards Sakura, ignoring the two enemies he'd already placed out of commission. Instead, it was as if the man had eyes in the back of his head, being fully able to see Sakura, and evade at the exact moment of impact.
Just what the hell are these guys!? Sasuke couldn't help but wonder.
His attention was briefly demanded by a movement on the outside of the battle. He turned towards the sand trio, who were dueling against one of the five other Pain look-alikes. It seemed slow-going, but also in their favor.
Kankuro dodged backwards, narrowly ducking underneath the cyborg-pain's buzzsaw-tail-thingy. He moved his puppets forward, capturing the large creature inside of the cage-looking-one, and then splitting Crow up into many pieces. He forced those pieces into the holes in the coffin, effectively killing whatever was inside.
Unfortunately for him, however…
"That won't kill it!" Sasuke shouted, drawing Kankuro's attention, and the rest of his team's, for that matter. "It's got some weird machine parts! It's not going to go down unless you break it to bits!"
Kankuro seemed to doubt him, but a moment later, his puppet rattled, as if being broken apart from the inside. Before it could be entirely breached, Kankuro unleashed the cyborg inside, allowing it to spill out of it's confines. It had wounds all over it's body, but only around half of them were actually bleeding.
We aren't winning this… and we can't even buy ourselves a second to make a get-away! Sasuke screamed inside his head, fighting with his own mind to come up with some semblance of a plan. How the hell do we get away from these guys!?
Another Pain jumped in front of Sasuke and Naruto. This one was the summoner that had chased Naruto and the rest of their group down the corridors of Orochimaru's layer. Much like the rest of its… Sasuke hesitated to use the term 'brethren', it stared at them blankly, as if it weren't truly even there.
It formed a series of seals so fast that Sasuke barely had time to comprehend them. It was nearly able to slam its hands into the ground before Naruto charged in, a shadow clone just barely preventing the final seal from being formed. Instead, the summoner hopped back, ten, twenty paces, until it was stood behind two other Pains. The main one they'd been fighting, and another, who Sasuke had come to understand had the ability to absorb chakra.
And I'm not exactly swimming in the stuff either. Sasuke panted lightly, trying to draw more chakra from out of his core and into his chest, molding it into flame. I've got… not enough for a Chidori, but enough to force out another Fireball. After that though…
He heard a small yell from back where the sand trio stood, and turned to look at just what could be the problem now. Weirdly enough, it was Kankuro of all people who'd shouted. He was looking down at his puppets with a horribly confused expression.
"What the hell?" The boy shouted suddenly. "Oi! Crow, Black Ant, why the hell aren't you responding to me!?"
"They're not responding," A new voice, raspy, sounding almost like a whisper despite the distance it carried, called out from beyond their line of sight. "Because I've cut your connections to them. I must say, you're truly quite advanced for your age."
A… man? Sasuke was really getting tired of everyone in the Akatsuki looking super damned weird. He sounds like a man, but that body…
The 'man' who'd stepped into their little clearing (And Sasuke could only refer to what had just a few hours ago been the middle of the Sound Village as a clearing presumably because of the Akatsuki around them) walked more like a tortoise than any human he'd seen. He shuffled forward, eyes set upon Kankuro, but there was a certain lifelessness in his pupils, not to mention the way they moved almost robotically, that seemed to scream they were fake.
"It's a shame you've met me so early. Yours could've truly been a lengthy and successful career." Suddenly, a bladed edge emerged from the man's backside, almost resembling a scorpion's tail. "But I hate to keep people waiting most of all. Die without delay."
The object pierced through the air, gunning for Kankuro at an intense speed. The younger puppet-master brought up 'Crow', which looked like it might be able to match the strike with it's body, but the new arrivals' tail simply ducked underneath it, embedding itself in the earth. It reemerged only a moment later, cutting up into Kankuro's guard and stabbing him in the stomach.
The boy winced, but a pocket of sand had blocked the attack. Gaara's chakra-filled particles surrounded the tail and crunched down upon it. A sound that seemed more like the crushing of wood than the collapsing of metal to Sasuke sounded out across the Sound Village, and when the new Akatsuki brought his tail back, it was to find it severely damaged, snapped in multiple places.
"Oh. I see." The inanimate man turned to Pain. "Is he…?"
"The One-Tail. Yes."
"How droll. Deidara, I leave that one to you."
"Eh, a little busy here, Sasori!" The blonde shouted, narrowly avoiding Zabuza's massive blade as it sailed over his head. "I could use some help!"
'Sasori' groaned, before shuffling towards Deidara. Luckily, that meant their superior teammates would be holding off two Akatsuki…
But it didn't change anything for Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura, not to mention Kiba, Zaku, Kin, and the sand trio, who were still stuck with a combined six 'Pains'. Dosu's condition also wasn't getting any better without medical attention. He might not have been bleeding out, but he was a sitting duck off to the side, practically waiting to be held hostage.
The longer this drags on, the less chance we have of getting out.
An idea struck him a moment later that was both incredibly idiotic and the kind of thing they'd probably get away with doing. He turned towards Sakura, seeing the way the girl tensed as she watched Zaku and Kin dodge a particularly brutal strike from a Pain, and grabbed her by the shoulder.
"What is-" She turned towards him suddenly, aggression in her gaze that evaporated when she saw who he was. "Sasuke?"
"I have an idea." He uttered quietly. "And I need your help."
He explained it to her quickly and watched as light seemed to return to her eyes. He had a feeling that the curse mark had been affecting Sakura more than she'd been letting on, given the way her eyes had shifted away from them rather often back in the catacombs of Orochimaru's compound. Seeing her fully cognizant, however, was as good as he felt he'd be getting for the time being, so he settled back on the plan.
"What do you think?" He asked quietly, not taking his eyes off of Pain, who was dueling a few dozen of Naruto's shadow clones, which he seemed to summon from the Nine-Tails' reserves. "Will it work?"
"…Maybe?" Sakura answered honestly, a small lilt at the back of her voice that gave off a doubtful impression. "Sorry, I mean… Yeah. I should be able to mimic her, at least to some extent. It won't be as controlled-"
"That's more than fine." Sasuke nodded. "We need raw force, not control."
"Then I suppose I'm your gal."
He turned towards the Sand siblings, who'd broken off of the cyborg Pain they'd been fighting, and were now struggling to deal with the Akatsuki puppet-master, who'd helped Deidara enough to give him back a good position. It probably also helped the man that one of Pain's look-alikes had joined him, forming a two man squad that was more than able to contend with Anko, Zabuza, and Haku.
They had little time before they were overwhelmed. Honestly, they were lucky that three of the 'Pains' were still sitting back and waiting. They seemed to be the most valuable, and Sasuke recognized two of the three as the summoner and healer, respectively. It was a smart move, as it wasn't like the Akatsuki needed to over index to defeat them. They could keep their utility in reserve just in case they pulled something crazy out of nowhere.
He approached the real Naruto, watching as the last of the boy's clones were blasted away by Pains' almighty push, and tapped him on the shoulder. He filled the boy in on the plan as quickly as he could, and watched as a confident expression took over the boy's face.
"It'll work." He reaffirmed simply. "I have faith in her."
"Same here. Can you get that information to the other groups? And send a clone to get Dosu as well."
"Right, got it." The boy seemed to strain for a moment, grunting as he summoned four more shadow clones. "I've gotta' be honest, though… that's it for my chakra."
"Heh, so even you have a limit?"
Naruto snorted.
"Be an ass later." His clones all stuck their tongues out as Sasuke, to which he simply scoffed.
They charged towards the four groups, Anko, Zabuza, and Haku; the sand trio; Zaku and Kin; and lastly Dosu, who had luckily been left mostly alone as he leaned against the remnants of a broken-down building. A moment later, after seemingly communicating the message, they charged back in, this time rounding on Pain and trying to attack him.
The man dealt with them easily enough, and Naruto sighed.
"Figured I may as well use them to try and beat him up instead of just letting them dissipate."
Sasuke nodded, agreeing with his friend's logic. It was a shame they were so vastly outclassed that none of their more usual techniques were working at all.
"Gah!"
He turned, seeing that Zaku had been knocked back a few feet, having taken a blow to the side of his head. Kin, in turn, was forced to jump backwards, holding onto Zaku, and launching them both backwards. She threw out a few senbon with bells tied to the ends, but even her signature attack felt more like a diversion than anything else.
"Sakura, if you're going to do that plan, make it soon, thanks!" Kin shouted angrily.
She wasn't angry at her friend, that much, at least, was clear. She was upset with the situation they'd been thrust into, to which Sasuke could very much agree. He turned towards Sakura herself, and watched the way she held her hand out below her, taking a stance not too dissimilar from the one he'd use to charge Chidori.
Her hand was glowing with chakra, just like his might, but hers was going to be used… just a bit differently.
"This is all of it." Sakura spoke through gritted teeth. "I'm using all of my remaining chakra… just… give the signal!"
Sasuke nodded, taking the kunai that Naruto had given him and chucking it towards the furthest group from them. Zabuza saw it pass by and impact against a tree, and from what little Sasuke could pick out, the man was communicating the next course of action.
Namely, that they were running.
The three practically flew backwards, much to the surprise of Deidara, who had, because of his long-ranged style, been putting distance between himself and the close-ranged fighters before him. Unsurprisingly, the cyborg Pain who'd joined him retained his blank smile.
"Gaara!" Naruto shouted, and Sasuke saw the sand ninja turn. In response, Naruto merely nodded.
The sand trio pulled back as well, barely managing to avoid their puppet-master opponents' tail, which sailed by, cresting against the edge of Gaara's sand armor, but not leaving any marks beneath.
Kin, Zaku, and the now carried Dosu did likewise. Kin seemed less than thrilled to be carrying her teammate while Zaku got off scot-free, but her teammate had taken a blow to the head, which meant he definitely shouldn't be lifting anyone anytime soon. Still, as the sound trio forced some distance between them and the Pain they'd been dealing with…
That's our cue.
"Sakura!" He shouted, running until he was a few feet behind her, and waiting until Naruto had passed him as well. "Nail it!"
The girl acknowledged, her curse mark's evolved form rippling with power, power that seemed to coalesce and focus into a ball of pure energy, located directly in the girl's right hand. She held it aloft, building power and momentum, until, with a shrieking scream, she slammed it into the earth below.
Sasuke was already running by the time the girl had done it, but that didn't stop him from getting blasted off his feet. The earth rippled and quaked beneath him, launching upwards in massive chunks of dirt and rock. He chanced a look behind him, seeing as Sakura dug her hand out of the earth, and gripped onto it, seemingly in immense pain. Zabuza, Anko, and Haku were the only ones still stuck on the other side, but they were more advanced ninja than they were.
The trio hopped across the cascading earth that flowed like waves, making it to Sakura in only a moment. Anko grabbed the girl, and propelled the both of them forward. Upon seeing his teammate safe, Sasuke himself booked it.
The first step of their plan, at the very least, had gone off without a hitch. He'd gotten the idea from watching Tsunade fight Kabuto and Orochimaru the first time he'd seen her. Her Jutsu had been devastating, though, it wasn't as if it had hit anything but earth.
Still, hitting earth was exactly what they'd ended up needing here. Sakura hadn't exactly possessed the fine-tuned control to not waste a crap-load of the stuff doing it, but she'd been able to mimic the ability well enough by pumping her fist full of an inordinate amount of energy. Luckily, that'd been enough.
No one had been caught in Sakura's wake, which was a good thing, because he truly hadn't been sure what they would've done if someone had been.
As they made it to the very edge of the effects range, having ran at a speed Sasuke hadn't truly thought himself capable of, they turned back around, gazing at the Akatsuki.
Deidara had taken flight with another bird from before, but everyone else had been swallowed by the earth. Well, it wasn't like they'd sunken in, but at the very least, they'd been blasted away by the effect. Hopefully, if what Sasuke was hoping would happen came to pass…
The ground cracked and buckled, forming a massive schism that started perhaps a hundred feet from the edge of the chasm just off to their right. The very earth below them began slipping out from under their feet, and, for Sasuke at least, that was their moment to put as much distance between themselves and the Akatsuki as possible.
He ran against the current, just barely getting beyond where the ground was collapsing. Despite what should've been their moment of triumph, Sasuke heard a small yelp. He looked ahead, seeing Naruto being pulled backwards by an invisible force.
Sasuke growled as he turned his body, quickly scanning the horizon for the main Pain. He spotted him almost instantaneously, hand extended as he went down with the flow of rocks into the canyon.
He's trying to take Naruto with him! Sasuke focused hard on channeling chakra to his visual cortex. Like hell I'll let that happen!
He hadn't exactly mastered the ability he was about to try and pull off, but he'd certainly gotten… better at it. Practicing with Naruto and Jiraiya, utilizing it against his best friend when he'd been conquered by the Nine-Tails, or against Gaara when the boy had been controlled. Hell, even Kisame of all people he'd been able to stop.
So, what was some asshole who'd given himself the name 'Pain' going to do to stop him?
He focused hard, dashing into Naruto's path and locking eyes with Pain. In that split second, he felt a large but not overpowering pain in the back of his skull. It wasn't nearly as intense as when he'd used it on instinct before. If anything, he would've called it tame compared to then. Still, he watched as the man beyond them stiffened, his hand still elevated.
Naruto collided with his back, sending them both sprawling to the ground and rolling a few times. He realized with no small degree of panic that they were hovering over the pit below as well, and the ground beneath them would fall into it soon.
"Naruto," He shouted down at his best friend, trying to rouse him from his pain-induced reeling. "We have to move!"
The boy stared up at him, then around at the mud flow currently gunning for the pit a hundred or so feet below them, and wisely answered "Right!".
They dashed forward, jumping from falling rock to tumbling boulder as they made their way back up the collapsing cliff. He heard Sakura shout their names, and felt a boost of energy in his body that he'd really needed. It propelled him forward just enough, allowing him to temporarily ignore his exhaustion and power through it.
He leaped the final gap, landing solidly on terra firma, and checked to make sure Naruto had as well. His eyes widened as the footing the boy had been using suddenly collapsed, but Sasuke narrowly managed to close the distance and grasp the boy's outstretched hand, pulling him up the remainder of the cliff face. Sakura ran over as well, kneeling down between the two of them and showing a genuine expression of worry that looked oddly out of place on her cursed features.
His best friend breathed heavily, evidently still running entirely on adrenaline. Sasuke gazed past him, looking into the chasm below. The falling dirt, rock, and mud had kicked up a hell of a lot of dust and particles, but luckily, it seemed that the six 'Pains' and the weird puppet-master had been swallowed up.
As for Deidara, however…
"Hey, you assholes!" The blonde Akatsuki shouted loudly, reaching his hand into his coat and pulling out a large figurine. "Think you can dupe us, hn!?"
Sasuke glared at the man, and for perhaps the first time that fight, the two of them made eye-contact. Deidara's eyes widened to nearly comical proportions, and Sasuke saw recognition in them, though from where, he wasn't quite sure, given that he was almost positive they'd never met before.
"I knew you looked familiar!" The man screamed out suddenly, brow furrowing in anger as his coat billowed in the wind. "You're that bastard Itachi's brother, aren't you!?"
"What of it?"
"Oi, kid." Zabuza called out to him, already preparing to dive back into the forest at the edge of the village. "No time for this, let's go!"
I know that, but… if he knows something about Itachi…
…Damnit!
He turned, dashing towards the rest of the group with Sakura and Naruto in tow. Deidara screamed behind them, but they ignored it, at least until his owl was suddenly flying above them, preparing to drop bombs on them.
"You think I'll let you get away, hn!?"
"Don't panic, keep running." Gaara spoke as the ground beneath him made a horrid grinding noise, as if being crushed into tiny bits and pieces. "I'll guard us from that one's attacks."
"No need."
It was his sister's voice. Temari ground to a halt a few feet from Gaara, drawing her fan back across her back and preparing to swing it. Evidently, she'd lost her summon at some point during their engagement, but it seemed she still had plenty of chakra, for wind began gathering at the edges of her weapon.
"Against anyone else, taking to the skies might give you an advantage…" The girl muttered under her breath. "But against me?"
She swung her fan, launching hundreds if not thousands of sharp tufts of air at the Akatsuki above, who had no way of dodging even most of them, let alone all of them.
"It just makes you an easier target!"
Deidara didn't take any hits, but his owl was eviscerated. He fell to the ground some twenty feet below, landing badly and grunting out. He shot his hands out and opened the mouths embedded in them, firing off some ten or twenty spiders, which puffed out into larger and more intimidating creatures a moment later. Unfortunately for him, they were struck by a few dozen senbon from both Haku and Kin, who shared a small smile as they turned back towards the group.
"C'mon, ignore that guy and let's move!" Zabuza shouted. "They won't be able to chase us nearly as easily once we make it into the woods, so go!"
They followed the man's orders, charging after him as he led the way. Sasuke saw the ancient trunks of the trees ahead of them and did his best not to let go of the tension in his heart quite yet.
Just in case, before they made it out of the Sound, something else came along.
"Oh!" A voice suddenly called out, echoing in and around the buildings around them. A figure emerged from out of the ground, standing in the middle of the pathway out of the village. "My apologies for being so late! I was held up something fierce!"
Sasuke recognized the figure, but not by sight. It was a memory in his head, a description he'd received from Sakura back when they'd discussed the perpetrator's of Danzo's demise. A masked man with short black hair, and a spiraling orange porcelain mask.
This is Tobi. Sasuke put together, feeling his breathing begin to get slightly erratic. He's the one who said the Uchiha Massacre… was partly Danzo's doing.
What else do you know? He only just held himself back from asking.
His gaze followed the man's body, sizing him up, seeing if he could learn anything from the way the man moved with his Sharingan. He could see inside the man's mask with it, but only through the singular hole over his eye, and what was beneath wasn't particularly impressive. A slightly scarred face, but that was all he could make out.
He disregarded that, instead letting his eyes wander across the man's form. He picked up some subtle cues from the way the man's hands and feet were positioned, but they weren't enough to build a character on, or to do much else.
The object in his right hand, however, was a bit different in that regard.
It was a severed head.
"Oh, interested?" Tobi asked, calling out to him with a childlike glee as he held the still-bleeding object out for all to see. "Y'see, this here head belongs to Orochimaru of the Sannin!"
His eyes widened, taking a small step back as a kernel of fear blossomed in his chest. He… wasn't exactly sure of the man's claim that this was Orochimaru. The face did somewhat resemble him, but…
The neck looked to have been created from several hundred small white snakes. They were clearly inanimate now, though he might've considered the chance that they were alive not more than a few minutes ago. Still, the matted black hair and designs around the eyes did, somewhat, remind him of Orochimaru.
Which was a disturbing prospect to consider. If the man before them had killed Orochimaru, and done it in such a way that, once more, he hadn't even been injured…
"Just who the hell are you!?" Sasuke called out, trying to hold his emotions down, but being slightly overwhelmed by the prospect of learning more about the Uchiha Massacre, about the history of the Leaf Village…
About his brother and clan.
"Oh, but… I thought I introduced myself…" Tobi rubbed the back of his head, before hanging it awkwardly, looking like he wanted to leave. "I can't believe you forgot my name… I guess you don't care about Tobi like he does about you…"
He hated the act the man before them was putting on. He hated the way his posture shifted from that of a prepared ninja to a whiny child, completely dropping his guard and not bothering with defending himself at all. He hated the way that Zabuza sailed right through him, becoming ethereal in some unexplainable way. He hated the way that, a moment later, Haku's needles flew through him, and Sakura's water bullet passed through as well, impacting against the supports for the 'Welcome to the Sound Village' sign just above the man.
It broke off, crashing down upon Tobi in a way that should've at least injured him, and yet, once more, he simply passed through it, picking at his ear with one finger and looking incredibly bored.
He hated it.
"Fine, ignore this guy!" Zabuza shouted, signaling for them all to follow. "C'mon, we're getting out of here!"
Sasuke could agree, but a part of him called out that it wasn't going to be that easy.
Not with the Akatsuki.
"Oh, wait, wait, wait!" Tobi called suddenly, reaching out feebly to try and stop them. "I-if you don't stop, I'll have to use my mega powerful Jutsu and make you!"
It wasn't an idle threat, even if the man made it sound like it should've been. This was the ninja who'd killed Danzo, who'd killed Orochimaru. Even if it had been the man's partner, Zetsu, doing most of the work both times…
He's still an S-class ninja. Sasuke thought, eyes narrowing as he ran past the still panicking Tobi. Anyone in the Akatsuki is. We can't be too careful around him.
The entire group made it past Tobi, diving into the forest, and thinking, just for a moment, that they were home free. They hopped into the trees, gaining height so that when Deidara caught up to them, they could fight him for real.
Without warning, however, their pursuer emerged from a tree in front of them, any semblance of a joking atmosphere completely gone.
Tobi reared back and threw Orochimaru's severed head at Zabuza, who dodged the object with ease. It didn't stop the spray of viscera as it hit the ground some fifty feet below from being any less disgusting, however.
"Perhaps I wasn't clear," The man's voice was different now. It was exactly as Sakura had described it, back when she'd been giving her report to Naruto, Tsunade, and him. The man's entire mood had shifted on a dime, and now, he seemed like a fully competent, fully dangerous enemy ninja.
One to be underestimated under penalty of death.
But even still, Sasuke wasn't prepared for the man's next move. He watched with his Sharingan as the man's right eye tensed suddenly, and a design spun to life inside of it that Sasuke didn't know, but one that sent a chill of ice down his spine.
"Stop." Tobi spoke simply, a pinwheel-like Mangekyou looking down upon them inside his mask, "Or I'll make you stop."
End Chapter 54
I can't believe Orochimaru's really dead. I'm screaming and crying rn this can't be true.
I'm going to very briefly complain about Pain's forms being ridiculously hard to keep track of during a longer fight, and that's for me, the writer, so I apologize if the action regarding them is like... really confusing.
Anyways, we've had two solo-chapters in a row, i.e. no moving from perspective to perspective. That'll probably continue next week with the golden boy himself. Or... Maybe it won't. Who knows.
Anyways, see you then!