Heeeello hello!
As always, Without further ado...
Chapter 56: Quiet Exchange of Those Thought Lost
Naruto zipped through the tree line, doing his best to keep his mind off of what'd just happened. It was difficult, namely because he was carrying a reminder of it, of his failure, along on his back, in the form of the unconscious Haku, who still had tear tracks all down his face.
The group looked… horrible.
The Sand trio were easily the best off, but that was also likely because they'd arrived near the end of their little rescue mission. Gaara was unscathed, but that was largely thanks to his armor and defensive sand, both of which were made to protect him.
Kankuro and Temari looked largely OK, but even they seemed to be having issues. The former's puppets had both been destroyed, and the latter's fan had rips in multiple places. Neither were injured, but when it came to future combat encounters, both had effectively been rendered useless.
Kiba seemed alright. Naruto had sort of forgotten the boy was there if he were being honest. Still, he'd turned into a large, twin-headed wolf, which had, at the very least, been pretty alright at holding off Sasori with help from the Sand trio. Still, with the way Akamaru lounged atop Kiba's head, having passed out, he had a feeling they wouldn't be doing that again anytime soon.
The sound three were beaten and bruised, but they were alive. Dosu had, at some point during the battle, fainted from his wounds, and Naruto could only pray they'd get away from the Akatsuki soon enough that they could heal the boy, before those injuries…
He shook his head, finding grief welling up within him again.
Anko, now the effective leader of the team, lead the charge, carrying a sleeping Sakura along on her back. Both women seemed to be in middling condition at best, and Naruto had a feeling his friend wasn't waking up anytime soon, and that meant her teacher had a heavy weight if they got caught in combat again.
Lastly, he looked to Sasuke, who still seemed shocked about what he'd discovered earlier. He didn't quite know all there was to know about what Itachi had said to Sasuke, regarding the eyes of their clan, but apparently, whatever it was, it had directly gone against what they'd seen today. He wanted to reach out and comfort the boy… but his heart just wasn't in it.
He put his head down and soldiered on, ignoring the screaming in his legs as they yelled about having to carry double their normal load. He wouldn't allow them to complain, not when Zabuza had entrusted something so important to him…
Something more important to him than his own life.
He couldn't allow himself to relax either, not for a single moment. Every sound he heard had him jumping, sending his head swiveling and checking every corner, every nook and cranny of the forest surrounding them.
If the Akatsuki caught up to them… they needed to be ready.
They traveled for quite a way's before he felt a small stirring on his right shoulder, and turned to see Haku's eyes flutter open. He seemed disorientated, which was good, since it bought him some time to think of what to say to him, to somehow try and diffuse the situation he knew he had no chance of avoiding.
"Haku…" His voice came out as shrill and unconfident, nothing like how he'd wanted it to sound. "Uhm… so, listen-"
A sharp whistling noise cut into his voice, and before he could even allow himself to fret or worry, his body was already evading.
The black rod impaled the trunked he'd been about to land on, cutting quite far into the wood, in a strike that would've easily been fatal to the boy riding along on his back. He was about to turn in midair, and fire off a kunai at the man behind them, before he remembered that he'd already exhausted his supply earlier. Instead, he bit down on his lip, and alerted the others.
"We've got company!"
The problem, really, was that the head of the group had already stopped moving. Naruto looked ahead as he continued to run and jump his way forward, but what he saw shook him deeply.
Tobi stood at the front of their formation. His left arm hung limply at his side, but aside from that, he looked totally fine, more than prepared to get right back to what they'd been doing.
Naruto felt a massive swamp of fear in his chest, but tried to zone it out, ignore it. It wasn't helping him right now. He knew the people who'd just showed up, brandishing weapons and preparing to eradicate them, were dangerous without his damn soul having to chime in to tell him.
Though, as he tried to do so, Haku seemed to come to his senses.
"Na… ruto?" The boy spoke softly. "Where's…"
His voice cut out as he looked up and saw exactly what Naruto himself was seeing. Above them, sitting on a branch with his legs dangling casually below, was Kisame Hoshigaki. In his right hand, he casually wielded his living blade, Samehada, with the greatest of ease, slinging the weapon onto his shoulder and shooting them a wide grin.
In his other hand, he wielded Kubikiribōchō, the great sword of Zabuza.
"No…" Haku whispered quietly, barely loud enough for Naruto, whose ear was only a few inches from the boy's mouth, to hear. "No, no, no, no, no, n-"
"I gotta' admit, that guy wasn't half bad, all things considered." Kisame called out to the both of them, and Sasuke, too, as the boy walked up next to Naruto and Haku, looking none too happy to be there. "I mean, he ended up holding the five of us off for quite a while."
Five? Naruto counted the members they'd been dealing with in his head, one by one. Kisame, Itachi, Zetsu, Sasori…
No…
Another figure emerged from the tree line just beyond them. His face was, as always, completely void of emotion. He looked blankly ahead of him, his hair a bright orange, and his eyes a lifeless purple.
All in all, Pain looked… disinterested.
"Oh, right!" Kisame suddenly shouted out, before swinging Kubikiribōchō back off of his shoulder, and thrusting the sword out. "He was your master, right kid? Or was it like… dad or something? Eh, doesn't really matter."
He threw the sword in a lazy arc, and Naruto watched as it impacted into the wood just a few feet beyond them.
"Here ya' go, figured you'd probably want to keep that, and, well, it's pretty useless, all things considered. All it does is heal itself when it breaks, and it's not like someone like me's ever breaking a sword. I have no need for it, but you can keep it, y'know, for sentimental value and whatnot."
There was a moment of complete and utter silence, where not even the Akatsuki moved a muscle. Haku looked up at the man above them, sneering down at the three of them, him in particular, and Naruto could see the exact moment where a part of him simply… snapped.
The boy gripped onto Naruto's pressure point, forcing him onto the ground with a small yelp of pain. He stepped off of him without a word and took a zombie-like step forward as his eyes bugged out, an almost manic fury taking over his face.
"I'll… kill you…" Haku muttered under his breath, walking over to his father's sword and placing a hand on it's handle. "I'll kill… you… I'll kill you…"
He repeated the words like a mantra, and Naruto heard the bones in the boy's hand crack as he flexed his appendage. In the next moment, he gripped onto the sword, and, with one fell swoop, and an impossible strength, drew Kubikiribōchō from out of the bark, holding it aloft, and pointing it directly at Kisame with death in his eyes.
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
In stark contrast to the ice-wielders tone, Kisame smirked with apparent glee.
"Now that's more like it."
Naruto pushed himself back up as another figure zoomed past him, barely managing to catch themselves before they flew off the edge of the small wooden platform they were stood upon. Anko had blocked whatever blow sent her here, but the evidence that it was a harsh one was written all over the back of her arms. Several large bruises adorned them, and it seemed like she'd been tanking for quite a while.
Sakura was still asleep on her back, which meant the woman couldn't afford to give an inch.
She stood just behind Haku, who was turned the other way, looking up at Kisame with such a grudge that Naruto could feel the boy's killing intent from where he was sitting, even though it wasn't directed at him.
"I am so… damned tired of this shit…"
Naruto looked over and saw that it was Anko who'd spoken. She didn't look terribly well as she dropped her arms, either, letting them fall to her sides and grinding her teeth together.
"You people just won't give up, will you… fine…" A black mark appeared on the back of the girl's neck, emerging from it in a flaming pattern that looked almost identical to that of the girl riding on her back. "I'll get rid of you myself!"
Anko's curse mark was out in full force, having finally broken itself free of the shell the woman had placed around it. Naruto didn't really have to think for that long to know that was quite a bad thing. He tried to decide who he needed to back up, tried to find out who he'd need to help out, before an explosion rocked the battlefield, sending him flying backwards. Luckily, he barely maintained enough control over himself to recover midair, but it didn't stop him from seeing just who the new arrival was and cursing under his breath.
"Yo! Sorry I'm late, hn!" Deidara called out from an owl far above them, already drawing more clay into his hand-mouths to form into bombs. "Shall we finish these guys off?"
"Yes," Pain called back apathetically. "But remember, you are not to kill the One or Nine-Tails."
Naruto was surprised to find that he actually wasn't panicking. If he had to guess, even his subconscious had figured out that panicking didn't serve any purpose here. Not now, at least, when the enemy had numbers equaling to more than half of theirs, and each were easily capable of killing every single one of them by themselves.
The Sand and Sound trios were pushed back as well, landing around their area and immediately forming a circle. It was smaller than it'd been just an hour or two ago, what with the loss of three of its members. One had fallen, but two stood outside of it, rage overtaking them. They charged at the Akatsuki, seemingly without a care in the world for their lives.
Ah. I see. Naruto realized as their group frayed at the edges, as everything fell apart, and as the Akatsuki encircled them, preparing to destroy them once and for all. We're going to die.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
A massive explosion of white smoke covered the battlefield, and the sounds of trees being crushed behind them had Naruto turning his head, looking at whatever could've arrived, at what would, with their luck, certainly be another Akatsuki member coming to back up his allies.
Instead, however, the Akatsuki that were boxing them in from behind were blasted back, forced away by a numerous count of Jutsu. He wasn't able to identify even half of them, but he could tell they were high level.
"Everyone!" A familiar voice cried out from beyond the smokescreen, and Naruto felt tears of relief filling his eyes as he turned towards it, practically gasping.
"Sorry we're late!"
The smoke cleared, and from out of it, a hundred or more Leaf Shinobi stepped. Leading them was Tsunade herself, her arms crossed underneath her breasts, and a glare in her eyes that declared she meant business. Beside her was Shizune, donning full combat garb for the first time Naruto had seen.
Just off to her left was Kakashi, his ninja dogs out and active, jumping towards them and offering their support to their group. Behind him were several other ninja Naruto recognized. Shikaku, Inoichi, and Choza to start, Might Guy, and his squad of Genin, and a few others he knew less well, Ibiki Morino, the proctor for the first exam, a full squadron of Anbu, along with what he could only assume were Root ninja.
Behind them all, standing atop a massive toad and posing dramatically, was Jiraiya himself.
Tsunade stepped forward, an incredible tension brought about by her presence alone. Every step seemed to only increase that feeling. As she walked by Naruto, however, she ruffled his hair, and just a bit of the fear in his body, the fear he hadn't even recognized the presence of, dissipated from the contact. As Tsunade finally stopped, just in front of their group, the tension reached a fever pitch.
She stared down the Akatsuki for several moments, and even though they looked far from cowed, they still didn't make a move against her.
"Members of the Akatsuki." She spoke simply, her voice a beacon of strength. "If you wish to survive the day, you will retreat from this point at once."
Kisame smirked, looking towards Pain himself and raising his eyebrows, as if asking 'can you believe this woman?'. Pain, however, didn't seem to return the feeling, though Naruto wasn't exactly sure if his face was capable of showing emotion. He stepped forward, taking the Hokage of the leaf quite seriously.
"And what makes you think you have the strength to be threatening us?" He asked calmly, without any doubt. "Do you truly believe the ninjas present here are enough to contest us in power?"
"Yes." Tsunade spoke without fear. "If you'd like to test that, then by all means, I've been looking for an excuse to wipe you out."
Pain stood still for a moment, and then, after deliberating, he let out a small sound of amusement, before nodding. Instead of retreating, however, the man turned his head up, and spoke something Naruto had never expected to hear.
"Jiraiya Sensei, it's been a while."
Sensei!?
"Yahiko." Naruto's own teacher called out. "I had… hoped I was wrong."
Pain said nothing, merely blankly staring ahead at the man before him.
"What of Konan, and… and Nagato? I see… that you have his eyes."
Naruto could fully admit he had no idea what was going on right now, but it appeared, at least, that his was a rather universal experience, save for Tsunade, who was staring a hole into the ground beneath her, an expression of guilt set upon her face. At some point as the two spoke, Kakashi had made his way over to them, and placed his hands on both Naruto's and Sasuke's shoulders. He appreciated the show of support, he definitely needed it.
"Konan is still with me. With the Akatsuki." Pain, or perhaps Yahiko was his real name, spoke. "Nagato is dead. Has been for many years."
Jiraiya looked gutted, but unsurprised. A quiet acceptance as he silently mourned whoever Nagato had been.
"I'm sorry." Jiraiya finished simply, before hopping off of his toads head. He landed on the wooden outcropping that Naruto's group was stood upon, walking forward until he was shoulder to shoulder with Tsunade. "I'm sorry I left you all… but I won't hesitate to stand against you now."
Pain merely nodded.
"I would expect nothing less. Though, no matter what you'd have said, it wouldn't have mattered, we accomplished our goal." He turned back around, back towards the sound village, and began to walk. "Orochimaru is dead."
Both Tsunade and Jiraiya's eyes widened, and the two seemed to want to step forward, to question further, and they might've done just that…
If someone else already hadn't.
The moment Pain had turned his body, a form had charged at him, bringing his sword to bare, and swung down. The blade was blocked by Kisame's own, and two of the seven swords of the Mist clashed for yet another time that day.
"You think you get to run!?" Haku screamed, somehow forcing the sword down, forcing Kisame back. "I'll kill you, all of you, you'll never-"
A smoke bomb was thrown directly at the feet of the two clashing warriors, and a figure dashed into them. He gripped onto Haku's body, and pulled him out, kicking and screaming.
"LET GO OF ME!" Haku cried, rage overcoming any sense of reason. "I have to… have to-"
"You have to calm down!" Inoichi shouted, drowning out the boy's complaints. "You think you can fight them all on your own!? You think it's worth throwing your life away for nothing!?"
Haku ground his teeth together as tears flowed down his face, and he let out a screaming yell as he fell to the bark below, pounding his fists into it over and over.
"We shall have the Jinchuuriki eventually. It matters not when we retrieve it." Pain gave them his final parting words. "Know this, members of the Leaf Village, you will come to know pain in time."
"Hey, Zabuza's brat, you're not half bad!" Kisame guffawed as the rest of the group retreated. "If you think you're up for it, I'm always ready to clash swords with someone strong. Though, well, right now, you're pretty far from that."
Haku was still hunched over on the ground, his fists still in contact with the earth, but that didn't stop him from balling them up, squeezing so hard his knuckles went white.
"Next time…" The boy uttered under his breath, looking up and meeting the shark's gaze as he spat his next words out. "Next time you won't be laughing… I swear that."
Kisame looked practically thrilled.
"I'll hold you to that."
And then he was gone.
/-/
The silence in the clearing was almost overbearing. Medical ninja surrounded the wounded parties, namely Dosu and Sakura, though, pointedly, everyone in their group had some piece or part of them that was hurting.
Anko sat next to Sakura, her curse mark still flaring up, and from the looks of things, still burning her severely. A sealing ninja came by after a few minutes and began working on her, and after some work, the woman managed to seal the raging flames back up again.
The mark, however, was still perfectly visible on Anko's skin, looking almost like it was hissing with energy. It was nowhere near the silent, sleeping beast it had been before.
For Sasuke himself, he could freely admit that this wasn't how he'd thought the day would be ending at all.
He let himself fall backwards, laying down on the hard bark and trying to ignore the rampant exhaustion he was currently experiencing. After all, he hadn't really lost anyone that day. He liked Zabuza well enough, but they didn't really have a connection. Haku though…
It wasn't fair to the grieving boy for him to be down about a bit of pain, and so he held his nerve.
"You alright, Sasuke?"
He opened his eyes, inclining his head slightly to the left, and saw Kakashi looking down on him. He didn't look pleased, well, none of them did, with Zabuza having been killed, but at the very least, it seemed like he was going to try and cheer him up.
He appreciated that; he just didn't want it.
"I'm fine." He answered simply, sitting up and briefly scanning for Naruto.
He found the boy sitting next to Haku, murmuring quietly with the orphaned teen as they discussed something or another. It looked to be a rather one-sided conversation, but he could tell his best friend was trying to keep Haku distracted, even if his method could've used some work.
…king at him.
He blinked, feeling like he'd just barely missed stumbling onto something. Back during their fight, there'd been something on his mind…
The Mangekyou Sharingan. The existence of four.
His eyes widened. Tobi having a Mangekyou Sharingan confirmed it. There were, in fact, three living Mangekyou Sharingan users, and that was at least. Itachi had stated simply that there were only two. His brother himself was a given, seeing as how the man had shown it to him on multiple occasions, and Kakashi had used his own back in the Land of Waves. Still, now that he knew Tobi also had one…
The pattern hadn't been the same as the one that'd supposedly belonged to Shishui. That had been a four-pointed windmill, but Tobi's had been different. It had been–
He was looking at him.
A thought crossed his mind, one even he wasn't sure the validity of. It'd been so long, so many months since he'd seen it, and even when he had, it had been for a fraction of a second. Could he truly trust a memory like that?
"Kakashi!"
"Yeah?"
Team 7's mentor was confused, and it made sense as to why. The vigor in his tone probably surprised the man, having come out of nowhere from what had been, no more than a few seconds before, a depressed atmosphere.
"I need to see your Mangekyou!"
The copycat's eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to protest.
"Please! It's important!"
He closed it with a sigh.
"Alright, but if I end up in the hospital again because of this-"
"You won't. I only need it for a second."
"Alright, alright." Kakashi groaned. "It's going to be a while."
He nodded.
The waiting was agonizing, all things considered. It was at least three minutes, and during which, he scanned the tree line around him.
Numerous different ninjas were helping each other out, including the Root ninjas, who he'd sort of assumed had been called in for the manpower alone. They didn't seem… overly friendly, but they were assisting in providing relief, so he supposed that was a start, at least.
Naruto and Haku's conversation seemed to have hit a standstill, but luckily, Inoichi had approached, and sat down on the boy's opposite side. Now, being attacked from two angles, it seemed he was at least talking back when they spoke, which was about as good as they could hope for.
Sasuke silently wished they'd leave him alone, let him grieve in peace, like he had, but looking back, he wasn't sure if that was a particularly healthy thing to do, given that he'd chosen to isolate himself for nearly three months afterwards. Maybe the boy would come to be thankful he'd had friends to count on immediately.
Who knows…?
"Alright, I'm ready."
Kakashi's words had him refocusing on the task at hand. He looked up at the man's face and studied the scarecrow's left eye closely. After only a moment, his suspicions were confirmed to be truth, and he took a single step back in shock.
Tobi's Mangekyou Sharingan… It was the exact same.
And the entire time, from the moment they'd arrived, to Pain and Tsunade's standoff, Jiraiya and Pain's conversation, and Haku's desperate attack…
Tobi had been staring directly at Kakashi.
He communicated all of this to his teacher, and watched as the man's face grew… Sasuke had a hard time deciding just what the emotion on the man's face could've been described as.
It was pale, deathly so, but it wasn't as if his face looked aghast or terrified. If anything, he would've said the man looked aggrieved. But it also wasn't quite that extreme, either. His teacher was, if anything, a master at keeping his emotions in check. Hell, he could only assume that reason the man wore a mask was to keep his feelings hidden.
Still, for the man to still crack ever so slightly, with his training, with his mastery over being a ninja…
He remembered back to a conversation he'd had with Kakashi… what felt like ages ago at that point. It'd been during his training for the Chuunin exams, when he'd grown too curious about the man possessing a Sharingan. He'd asked how Kakashi had gotten his left eye to begin with, and the man had told him a story, back from the Third Shinobi World War…
The story of a boy named Obito Uchiha.
"Uhm, Kakashi?" Sasuke felt a bit awkward prying, like he was delving into something far too personal. "Do you… know anything about that guy, or…?"
It was a long while before Kakashi responded to him, and even when he did, it was in a nearly silent voice, so filled with emotion that it was, paradoxically, devoid of it.
"No." The scarecrow lied. "Nothing at all."
/-/
Nagato could admit to himself, now that they'd disengaged from the Leaf, and subsequently, the Jinchuuriki they'd been attempting to capture, that he was more than a little exhausted. Being stuck in a metal frame that held his body together was about the only thing preventing him from falling over and dying while controlling his paths.
Sasori had gone on ahead, looking to alter with the servant who's mind he held in the palm of his hand. Zetsu had returned to base, and Tobi had, as he occasionally tended to, disappeared. He'd show up within a few days, though, perhaps this particular time had something to do with the Leaf contingent they'd run into earlier.
Still, the day wasn't over. They'd accomplished their mission, assuredly, but unfortunately, a few hours earlier, he'd lost one of his paths.
It wasn't in a way that he could easily deal with, either. Normally, when one was destroyed, he'd simply revive them with Naraka's power. Now, though it wasn't death, but a massive pile of stone and earth that held down his Human Path.
It'd belonged to the body of a Takigakure Shinobi, but much like the rest of his paths, he had no real attachment to it. If anything, the amount of work it was going to take to dig it out was more than worth replacing it over.
The Deva paths head turned from side to side, silently scanning the tree line for a particular figure. His eyes caught sight of it after perhaps ten minutes of searching, and he hopped up to the particular tree it was located upon.
It was the body of Zabuza Momochi, lying still atop a branch, a calmness in his expression that left Nagato feeling… contemplative.
He did not feel guilt for having helped kill the man before him. Nor, really, did he have any lingering regrets being brought to the surface by his death either. Still, there was a tiny part of him, an insignificant, but obnoxious voice that wanted to point out that Zabuza Momochi had died to protect the one he loved.
And if that were the case, then what differentiated him from someone like Nagato's own mother and father, or Yahiko himself?
As he was pondering this and that, Kisame landed beside him, looking utterly unaffected by the day's events.
"Yo, boss." He called out to him, walking over, and looking down at the corpse before them. "You investigating something, or…?"
"You could say that." He responded automatically, not paying too much attention to the man. "Take this one with us, I'm going to use it."
"Oh?" Kisame smirked. "Does this mean we're not digging around in the ground all day looking for that other one?"
"Yes."
The body of Zabuza Momochi slung around his shoulder, Kisame turned back around and dashed after Deidara's owl, the two making their way back towards the organization's closest den. Still, he himself would need to return to the Rain Village at a later date if he were going to operate on the body they'd just obtained.
To transform him into a manifestation of Pain.
/-/
By the time Kabuto awoke, dusk had fallen across the bleak remnants of the Sound Village.
He sat up from where he'd been lying still, and immediately felt a sharp pain in the middle of his head. It didn't take him very long to recognize the pain, given that Orochimaru himself had once removed it.
It was Sasori's seal of control.
He bit down on his lip, but knew there was nothing to be done, at least, not alone. Right now, he needed to locate Lord Orochimaru. Despite their more recent quiet disagreements with one another, the man would remove the seal on his brain, that much he knew. He didn't want his second in command under the control of the Akatsuki anymore than Kabuto did himself.
Still, as he began walking through the broken-down rubble of the Sound Village, he couldn't help a morbid curiosity that filled his heart. He hadn't much cared for the place, but seeing the town he'd once thought of as, at the very least, a place of residence, completely destroyed was…
A small noise called out from a collection of plaster and wood, what had likely once been an apartment of some kind, and he felt a small, almost unidentifiable urge to investigate.
Kabuto kneeled down beside the broken down remains and placed his ear as close as he could get it to the rubble. He heard a tiny, indistinct voice, and knew for a fact that someone was buried beneath it.
"-buto, is that name alright?"
He wasn't really sure why, but over the course of the next hour, he gradually dug the person out of their prison. It was hard work, especially since he had no Jutsu that could realistically help with digging, other than his chakra scalpels, which, while useful for cutting into plaster, weren't quite sharp enough to do anything about the occasional beam of iron or steel he found in the wreckage.
It took another thirty minutes, but he saw the person below him for the first time. It'd actually turned out to be two people, a mother and son. They looking terrified, yet hopeful now that they'd been exposed to the light.
Perhaps he should've encouraged them, but he simply couldn't find the energy.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he removed the last of the barricades, and pulled the two out of the pit. They sat still on the ground around him for quite a while, just… staring. Staring at the town that had, for better or for worse, once been their home.
Now, it was a crater.
"What… what do we do?" The woman asked him. "How will we survive!?"
He had no answer for the woman, nor, truly, did he have an answer for the voice inside his own head, who'd been asking himself the same question for the entirety of his time awake.
A wooden object hurtled towards the three of them at a speed Kabuto was only barely able to react to. It snaked around him, instead gunning for the two civilians behind.
He knew the weapon, knew it's creator and it's user. He knew he should allow Sasori to simply gut the two civilians behind them, two civilians who had, through no fault of their own, possibly seen any of the Akatsuki. If there was a chance, no matter how slim, of that having been the case…
Then according to the Akatsuki, they needed to die. Hell, Orochimaru would've done the same thing.
He watched as the mother stepped in front of the tail, shielding her son from it, and Kabuto knew without thinking that the blade on the tip would simply impale them both, running her straight through.
He shouldn't have cared.
"What's your name, little one?"
"I…"
His head practically split in two, and a scream bubbled up into his mouth that he had to force himself to keep inside.
"He doesn't remember anything, but… he had this helmet with him! A Kabuto, right?"
"Hmm… What about that name, sweetie?"
"Ka… buto?"
He shoved the tail into the dirt with his foot, unable to stop its forward momentum, but forcing it underneath both of the mother and child, between their legs.
"Run." He spoke shortly. "Don't turn back. Not for anything."
They hesitated for just a moment, and the tail beneath them reactivated, aiming upwards and preparing to gouge into them from below.
This time, he drew his chakra scalpels into his hands, and cut along the tails' midsection. The wood severed at that point, and a good portion of the end of the tail, along with the tip of the stinger at the end, flew off as its momentum continued to carry it.
"RUN!" He repeated himself, and this time, the mother and son seemed to understand it, for they turned and ran towards the edge of the village. They didn't stop, and the last he saw of them before they disappeared behind a building was a small, grateful smile on the mother's face.
He tried not to let it affect him, but really, a small section of his heart pined to see it once more, to…
To see his own mother once more.
He turned back towards the figure approaching him, and tried not to flinch as a sharp pain, like a knife, ran up his spine, before ending inside of his skull.
"You disobeyed my orders, Kabuto." The man spoke his name, and suddenly, a hazy film seemed to descend over his vision.
He wanted to apologize to Sasori. Definitely. He wanted to hunt down those two he'd allowed to escape, to do right by the man who'd raised him. Yes. Certainly, Sasori was worth–
He screamed as he broke free of the man's control, taking a solitary step back and preparing his stance once more, redrawing his chakra scalpels into his hands and readying himself for battle.
"Oh?" Sasori sounded… not quite disappointed, but an odd mix of that and curiosity, as if he hadn't hoped for this outcome, but was terribly intrigued either way. "The mark on you is defective. So… Orochimaru tampering with and removing it before has allowed you to resist this new one as well?"
He said nothing, not wanting to give an agent of the Akatsuki any more information than was required.
"Then, I suppose you're useless. What a shame."
The man might not have had his tail, but the tail wasn't what made him an S-ranked ninja, either. His mouth opened, and a few thousand senbon seemed to rain from out of it, heading straight for him.
Kabuto dodged around them, bobbing, and weaving his way through the man's guard. He wasn't quite sure what he was doing, taking on a member of the Akatsuki. He'd at first hoped to pretend like his seal was still in effect, pretend like he was under Sasori's influence, but…
Mother… Can you tell me what I'm supposed to do?
He knew he couldn't defeat Sasori, at the very least, not on his own. With Orochimaru beside him, or perhaps even someone of Kimimaro's level, they might've stood at least a chance. He didn't doubt that they'd probably die after the fight, though, even if they won. Sasori had so many different gadgets, so many different abilities, all of which were poisoned, or booby-trapped, or spat fire, or exploded, that a single slip-up was destined to kill you.
And you couldn't fight an S-ranked opponent for long without slipping up once or twice.
The battle, if one could really call it that, didn't drag on much longer. Sasori on his own was the far better fighter, and it didn't take very long for the man to nail him with a single senbon. After that, his system was flooded with a poison that gradually took the strength from his muscles, and in a fight…
Such a fate was a death sentence.
He was forced to the floor, looking up into the eyes of Sasori, or, into the beady, fake whites of his puppets eyes, with a defiant one in his own. He wouldn't beg or plead, not to the man before him, who'd care not for such things.
Mom… I'm sorry, it seems I'll be departing this world far sooner than I'd meant to. He mused to himself. Are you…
The puppet raised his hand, a weapon within that would snuff out Kabuto's life.
Proud of…
But before Sasori could bring it down, a voice called out.
"Wait."
The both of them turned, and Kabuto saw a face he recognized from description alone. His hair was orange, some spiked up, and some falling into his face. His eyes were purple and ringed. Orochimaru had told him of the identity of the Akatsuki's leader long ago, when he'd first broken the seal over his mind placed there by Sasori.
This must be Pain.
"What for?" Sasori asked casually, not putting away his weapon, but merely halting its descent. "I see no reason to keep him around."
"We've had need of a medical ninja for quite a while now." Pain spoke, walking over to Kabuto and looking him directly in the eye. "You'd offer your services, wouldn't you?"
He'd have done just about anything to live a second longer, nodding without any hesitation.
"Whatever for? Hidan?" The puppet off to his left continued to try and justify killing him. "Kakazu stitches him back up, and even when it gets too extreme, your Naraka is enough to-"
"I tire of having to do everything." The man finalized without another word. "That is all. We will return to base."
Sasori clicked his tongue, but otherwise stayed silent. After a few seconds, however, he seemingly remembered something.
"And what of the two rats this one let go?"
Kabuto felt a small twinge of despair at the thought of the two being hunted down. He had no real connection to them, but…
A mother and son…
"Leave them. They are of no consequence, having only seen the you in your Hiruko form. They gain nothing from selling information, either, other than placing themselves in danger."
Sasori groaned, but shuffled away, pulling his cloak back over the Hiruko puppet's armor and masking it's appearance.
"Fine. But he's not my responsibility anymore, I've no control over him."
"It's not as if he'll disobey orders." Pain looked right down at him, and maybe it was the deadened eyes, or the absolute indifference in the man's face, but something about it scared Kabuto to his core. "Will you?"
"No." His voice came out clipped, sounding cowed, not exactly an impression he wanted to give off. "Sir. I will perform to the utmost of my abilities."
Pain regarded him coldly for another few moments, and whatever mental conversation the man was having with himself, Kabuto had no way of finding out.
"Give him the antidote."
Sasori groaned, but walked over to him, pulling out a small vial and offering it up. Kabuto downed the liquid in but a second, coughing as it burned away at his throat. Even still, he could feel himself grow better as it coursed through his system, his muscles growing looser, and his breaths coming easier.
"Follow us. Stray, and you will be killed."
With no other words, the man turned and dashed towards the forest just beyond the Sound Village, Sasori right behind him. He managed to force himself to his feet and run to catch up to them. It wasn't terribly far, but even so, Kabuto found himself growing tired as he followed behind Pain.
He'd fought Itachi and Kisame earlier, well, mostly Kisame, and the man had managed to strip almost all of the chakra from his body with that massive, living blade of his. He'd no idea how to counter something like that, other than to simply not let it hit him, and out-duel the man as best he could.
He'd failed on both counts.
He brought himself back to the present, looking up at Pain and finding his own eyes narrowing. There'd been something about Pain earlier that had struck him as odd.
Orochimaru had told him that the man had gone around massacring anyone remotely connected to Hanzo of the Salamander, the old leader of the Rain Village. From those members of his close family, all the way down to people who'd simply worked for him, his cooks, tailors, and gardeners.
So why would a man that paranoid, that addicted to staying in power, allow the survival of a couple of, as Sasori had put it, rats?
There had to be something there. Kabuto realized calmly, letting his more discerning side take over for him as he fell back on old practices, analyzing and preparing, in the case that he'd need Pain's weaknesses. Was it a familial thing? Did he know them? No. Can't have been, too coincidental…
He ran through multiple scenario's in his head, but the one that he finally arrived at sent an odd twinge of Déjà vu down his spine.
Was it the relationship of the two? He pondered. A mother and son, caught in a destroyed village, one desecrated by ninja far more powerful, far more advanced than they could ever hope to defeat… It matches Orochimaru's reports of what happened in the Rain Village…
His eyes narrowed once more, and a theory bloomed in the back of his head as they flew through the trees.
I wonder, Pain… are the two of us… the same in that regard?
Do we both carry a soft spot we wish we could be rid of?
/-/
Kakashi stood silently in a clearing just off of the Third Training Ground. He'd been coming almost every day for the past… years. It'd become something of a daily ritual, something that let him carry on doing what he was doing, to help move on from his past.
Just this once, however, it seemed like his past had caught up.
"Hey, Obito." He spoke quietly, barely audible to even himself. "I went and saw Rin earlier. I wasn't sure… nevermind. I… I ran into someone interesting today. One of my students, Sasuke… do you remember me telling you about them?"
There was no answer, but he assumed it would be 'yes.', since he couldn't help but think Obito would be the type to listen intently, to remember things his friends had told him, to value them and…
And would definitely not be the type to join an international terrorist group hellbent on controlling… or destroying the continent.
He shook his head, dismissing the, frankly, asinine thought.
"Anyways… Sasuke said he saw my Mangekyou Sharingan… well, yours, in the man's right eye. I don't… I don't know what to say, because I don't doubt that he must've seen it, he has a Sharingan himself, after all, but… but there's a part of me that just can't accept that."
He sounded so horribly unsure, so childish, and afraid. He lightly smacked himself on both cheeks, trying to break himself out of his funk.
"I'm angry, I have to admit it." He changed his tone on a dime, trying to recover. "To think someone would've taken your other one, honestly, you must be quite annoyed, having to see out of that bastards mask, when you're trying to be my eye, huh?"
The trees around him shifted in the wind, and from the crinkling of the leaves, he liked to think he heard laughter.
It was all in his head, he knew that, but it made it… not effortless, but… easier.
"I suppose another name is going to join you here in a few days, Obito." Kakashi felt just a bit of melancholy about that, having never really gotten the chance to know Zabuza, but still respecting the man enough. "He's a bit of a hardass, but underneath his veneer, he's a big softie, so I think you'll probably get along."
There was silence in the clearing for a few minutes, as he allowed the wind to tousle his hair, the same as it did with the leaves all around him, and the grass beneath. A flower that hung off of the monument, placed by some nameless mourner, flapped away in the breeze as well.
It was peaceful, so incredibly peaceful.
"Hey… Obito?"
Maybe it was his imagination, but it seemed like any and all noise in the clearing had, in that moment, ceased, replaced by an incredible stillness that felt far less comfortable.
"I… you…"
"The dead won't answer your questions, you know."
He felt as if he should've turned, a weapon drawn, and taken a stance that made him look prepared for combat, for battle, but…
Instead, he merely tilted his head to the side, gazing over at the figure he'd been dreading a meeting with, and yet, the one he knew, deep down, he wanted, no, needed to speak with the most.
"You're… Tobi."
The Akatsuki said nothing, merely walking forward until the two of them stood parallel. He still stayed a good four or five feet from Kakashi, but the distance between them could've easily been closed in less than half a second, could've easily resulted in a stand-off that would take either of their lives.
For some reason, however, Kakashi didn't get that impression from the mysterious figure.
"Why are you here?" Kakashi asked, trying to fill the silence with something. "Just decided to show up in a Leaf training ground?"
"I've watched you, on occasion."
He turned towards Tobi, his eyes wider than they'd been a moment before.
"You come here quite often. This time, well, you mentioned me, so I felt the need to make a cameo appearance, at least."
They went quiet again after that, though Kakashi couldn't help but analyze the man beside him, quietly observing as they remained in silence.
He was decently tall, perhaps a few inches shorter than he was. His hair was spiked upwards, and a seemingly naturally black color. He tried not to read into that, to not put two and two together with everything else he'd already learned in the past few days.
It was hard to resist coming to a rather obvious conclusion.
At the same time, however, such a conclusion would've made no sense at all.
He'd died. Kakashi had watched it happen.
He'd sat beside him, heard the boy's final words, had to leave him behind as the cave–
"Nothing more to say?"
Tobi ripped him violently from his thoughts. An idle, hopeful one at the back of his mind pointed out that they sounded almost nothing alike, it couldn't be him.
Another, more rational part of himself pointed out that a ninja could chance their voice without much effort.
"Where'd you get that Sharingan?" He asked the question that'd been burning at the forefront of his mind since Sasuke had spoken with him back in the forest.
"Hmm… let's see…" The man pretended to think about it, but maybe Kakashi was just hyper-analyzing everything at that moment, because he could tell the man's pondering was phony. "I believe it was… the battle of Kannabi Bridge."
Ice shot down his spine, and his eyes widened to what would've, under normal circumstances, been comical proportions. Instead, his breaths came out in short bursts, and he realized with some degree of panic that he was hyperventilating.
"Whatever could be the matter, Kakashi?"
"You… Are you…?"
Tobi said nothing, instead, he stepped up to the memorial, and kneeled down.
"I wonder… why is hers not here? The girl you spoke of earlier, what was her name…"
The man's words felt like they were driving a stake into his heart. Slowly, deliberately arranged to cause him as much anguish as possible.
"Rin." He only barely pushed out of his lips. "Her name was Rin."
"And of my question?"
"Her body… it was never found." Kakashi tried to force himself to calm down, to steady his breathing, but pieces and parts of his history that'd never made sense were suddenly coming into clearer focus, becoming coherent, and he didn't think he could handle it. "It disappeared… after…"
When the Mist ninja had surrounded them, when Rin had been run through with his own Chidori, how, when he'd passed out from the shock, he'd woken up not only alive, but with nary a scratch on him. How, when he'd woken up, the Mist ninja who'd been chasing them were dead, brutalized and carved to pieces around him. How Rin had been missing, despite every ninja who'd come after them being accounted for.
How not even Minato Sensei had been able to locate her.
Tobi said nothing once more. He was looking at the many thousands of gifts that had been left at the foot of the monument, all gifts left by allies, or comrades, or family for those who'd gone on ahead. With a casual air, he reached down with one hand, and grabbed a faded article from the corner.
The pair of goggles in the man's hand were so very clearly aged and worn that it was a crime. They had been sat here through rain and snow, through hail and sleet, and through sun and thunder. They'd braved the elements for over a decade, silently watching over their master, helping him to see.
Tobi placed them back down without a word.
"I wonder what kind of idiot would wear these."
Kakashi felt like he normally would've defended Obito's honor there. Hell, he might've gotten violent over a statement with that much vitriol in it.
He didn't feel the need to do anything when it came to the man before him.
He wondered why.
'He wondered why'. Kakashi almost felt the need to laugh. As if I don't already know.
"The greatest man I ever knew." He spoke instead, trying to keep emotion out of his voice and miserably failing. "He died in that same battle. The battle of Kannabi Bridge."
"Hm. Funny how small the world is, isn't it?"
"…Yeah."
Tobi stepped away from the monument, stepping down and looking up at the sky.
"Ah. It looks like it's going to rain."
Kakashi followed the man's gaze, and, sure enough, the clouds that had, previously, looked white and harmless were now gray and gathering. He felt a small droplet land on his shoulder, and then another, before, with no real ceremony, the rain began in earnest.
When he looked back down, he was almost surprised to find Tobi still standing there, looking up.
"Funny." Kakashi remarked. "I'd almost thought you'd disappear while I wasn't looking."
"Hm." Tobi actually sounded amused. "I thought about it, but I sensed that you'd only hound after me later, anyways. Best to get this out of your system now."
Kakashi wasn't sure why the man would care, supposedly, but he didn't question it.
"I'm actually almost done." Kakashi smiled beneath his mask, finding a bit of his most common emotion, self-loathing, seeping its way into his heart. "Just… one more question."
He noticed then, for the first time, that the rain falling all around them had not once impacted against Tobi's body. It hit where he was supposed to be, sure, but it never contacted, instead passing right through him, and splashing against the muddy ground below.
His guard's been up this entire time.
"I just wondered… if Obito Uchiha were truly alive, after all this time…" Kakashi tried to think of what to say, of what he really wanted to ask, but the only thing he could think of was… "Why wouldn't he come back to the Leaf Village? To those precious to him?"
Tobi laughed dryly, a frail, quiet thing. It sounded almost fake, and yet, there was a surreal quality to it that told Kakashi it couldn't have been.
"You're asking about the actions of a dead man." Tobi murmured quietly, only barely audible over the rain. "But… well if he were alive… I think that he would've fallen into darkness in the same way many ninja had before. Seeing something so horrible, so at odds with his own beliefs…"
Tobi turned, and perhaps the man purposefully let Kakashi see into the hole in his mask, but he could make out the scarred skin within, what looked to be a spiral pattern running along it, and, of course, a glowing red Sharingan, which illuminated the droplets of rain that fell in front of him.
"Something that contradicted the very promise his friend swore to him as he laid dying…" There was a hate in the man's voice that rooted Kakashi in place. "I think that would've broken him completely."
Suddenly, Kakashi was a young Jonin, trying to wash the blood off his hands in his apartment, and realizing, a few horrid minutes later, that it was caked on far too deeply for it to ever be removed.
He was a bit older, standing before the ninja monument, and sobbing as he begged Obito to forgive him, begged the boy to take care of Rin for him, wherever he was. He spoke the words over and over, pleading with his long lost friend.
Now, when he looked back, he could remember having felt a presence at the edge of his perception, and he wondered now, as an adult, why the man who'd been sitting there had never killed him, had never finished off the pathetic existence in front of him.
He was back on his first day on the job, listening in on the speeches of his team as they told him of their likes and dislikes. It was Naruto's who'd shaken him the most, despite Sasuke speaking of murdering a man in cold blood. The boy had sounded so alike to someone he'd once known, to someone he'd forever respected.
And then, just as suddenly, he was back in the Third Training Ground, standing in front of the memorial stone which housed the names of some of his closest friends. It also housed a single lie. A falsehood of which he now knew the identity of, one that tore at his soul with a fury unforeseen.
Written upon it was the name 'Obito Uchiha'.
When he turned back this time, however…
He was alone.
End Chapter 56
I have literally no idea what to put here, so instead I will put nothing.
Two more chapters until we break for a while. That last one will be... quite the doozy.
Oh, and thanks for the plethora of reviews for the last chapter, I had a grand time reading them all!
See you all next week!