"Focus now. Create a clear image in your mind of what you want to show me. Think of each individual detail. Think of sounds, of scents, of anything that your mind can remember."
Ino pictured a flower. It was easy to focus on flowers. She'd worked in her mother's flower shop since she was a young girl, and the names and properties of various plants came as naturally to her as breathing. And maybe it was because she'd recently received a letter from Sakura, but her mind drifted to the image of a cherry blossom tree that she often saw on the other side of the village. It had just started to bloom, several small flowers on a tree with a vast trunk and branches that reached into the skies themself. She let the image in her mind expand to include the entire tree. If she could convey this entirely, it would be impressive, wouldn't it? Something she could use to wow Naruto and Chouji, maybe even get a change in expression from Shikamaru, and when Sakura returned, she just knew this would prove her to be the stronger kunoichi. What other clan than the Yamanakas had a telepathy technique? It was something Sakura would never be able to copy.
"I'm ready."
"Good." Her father's voice echoed over her image of the cherry blossom tree. "Now, make the hand sign. Reach out with your mind to touch my own."
Ino did so. This technique was different than the Mind Transfer technique. She wasn't pushing her mental energy from her body in full, she was only really transferring a little piece of it. Her father likened it to a glass of water. She wasn't pouring out the entire glass, but letting a single drop fall from the rim. Just the image. Just the picture of a cherry blossom tree, just starting to bloom, beautiful and strong, like her…
"Is it...a tree?"
Ino grinned. It was working, she was really doing it!
"Like...an oak tree? Something big, I can't really make out more…"
"Crap!" Ino cursed, her technique breaking as she did so. She'd gotten the tree part across, but not the flower? It was the first damn thing she'd thought of! "It was a cherry blossom, Dad! Cherry blossom!"
"Oh! Well, you managed to get the branches across, I think." Her father laughed. "And to be honest, you're much further along than I was at your age. You might be able to get a full image by the end of the year!"
"I need to do it quicker if I'm going to keep up with Sakura, Dad!" Ino protested with a huff. "Sakura's training under the Tsuchikage, she's probably learning all sorts of cool jutsu that'll blow people away, and I can't even get more than one clan technique down!" She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and concentrating again. "One more time, this time I know I can do it."
She missed the softened look on her father's face, and the smile that came to it. "One more time." He agreed.
One more time turned into a dozen, until Ino felt the strain of chakra exhaustion begin to work its way through her body. She'd heard stories, of course, of how the Yamanaka had been able to transfer information across the battlefield in the blink of an eye, keeping squads connected through the sheer telepathic power of their chakra. If she'd been able to do this sort of thing at the chuunin exams…
Well, it wouldn't have helped her beat Sakura, no, but maybe it could be a stepping stone for something even greater, something that would let her kick Sakura's ass and win the heart of…
Ino hesitated.
Mentioning Sasuke in the village had become something of a taboo. The majority of the villagers spoke the Uchiha name with either scorn or a pity that resembled grieving. Grieving for what was. Grieving for the fall of the two brothers who had been the pride and joy of one of the village's founding clans. And Ino knew especially not to mention Sasuke around Naruto, not unless she wanted to see the blonde fall into a slump for the rest of the day.
Maybe once she'd thought Sasuke handsome, desirable, but now, after seeing the fallout from his leaving, even her past crush seemed soured.
She hit the point where her father insisted she take a break, so Ino made her way out into the village for a walk. Perhaps she was just moping, but...well, it was only a matter of time before she mastered that damn technique. And then, bigger and better things, just like Naruto was always talking about.
And speaking of…
It was supposed to be Team Asuma's day off, but as Ino walked by Training Ground Twelve, she noticed a familiar shock of orange and blonde hair lying in the grass. Amused, Ino made her way over to kneel at Naruto's side. Sleeping like a baby. It was easy to overlook how hard the Uzumaki had been working since he'd joined up with Team Asuma. Training under Tsunade and Jiraiya, and going out on missions on top of that.
Compared to him, Ino's training was barely anything.
"...hey, Naruto." Ino poked at the boy's forehead. "It's not good to sleep in the grass for so long, you know? You'll end up like Shikamaru."
"Mmm…'no, five more minutes…"
"Idiot." Ino lightly rapped Naruto with her knuckles. "Wouldn't you prefer to be in a bed?"
"Bed? But I...oh!" Naruto suddenly shot forward, his hair and jacket covered in grass. "I wasn't sleeping! I was training! Training, I promise!"
Ino couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, come on, Naruto, I'm not gonna tell Jiraiya you were sleeping. But this is supposed to be our day off, you know. What were you even practicing?"
"I...wasn't practicing anything, actually." Naruto admitted. "Not really. I actually...uh, Ino, can you keep a secret?"
Ino smirked. Naruto, keeping secrets? How incredibly unlike him. She leaned in, her smirk growing mischievous. "Wait, don't tell me...are you training to impress a girl, Naruto?"
"N-no, not like that! I mean-" Naruto blushed. "I mean it'd be really cool if I could show off to Sakura next time I see her, but this is something different. But...well, I don't really know if I'm supposed to tell you the secret. It's so secret that nobody else our age knows besides Sakura, I'm pretty sure."
"That secret? Now I really want to know." Ino kept leaning in, now more eager than ever. "Come on, I can keep a secret, you can tell me. Tell me, tell me!"
"...but you might not like me anymore if I tell you."
Ino froze. Not...like him anymore? Well, Naruto could be a bit of a dolt at times, but what could Naruto have possibly done that would have-
"I...I have the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed inside of me, Ino."
"W-what? You're joking, Naruto, how could you…"
Naruto was known for pranking, wasn't he? This was just some silly prank, it had to be. But the way Naruto was looking at her, desperate, worried, looking scared enough that he almost looked sick…
The Nine-Tailed Fox…
She didn't have any memories of the day when the Fox had attacked the village. She hadn't even been a month old. But the stories...she'd heard the stories. Stories about how the monster had killed so many shinobi and civilians, how it was only due to the Fourth Hokage that the village survived at all.
And Naruto was...containing it?
"So...it's like how Gaara is?"
Ino found that she wasn't exactly scared to hear about Naruto having a demon inside of him. Sakura had been traveling with that scary Suna shinobi for months now, and the way she wrote about Gaara it was like the two had been friends all their life.
It made sense now, though, why Sakura had suddenly become so interested in Jinchuuriki. Her teammate was one, it was stupid that she hadn't seen it earlier. The way Naruto had trounced Neji Hyuuga at the chunin exams, the way he seemed to have such boundless energy in their missions...all that chakra had to come from somewhere, and of course it would come from a Bijuu.
"Sakura said Gaara has a Bijuu inside him too. I think she calls it Shukaku?" Ino explained, laughing nervously. "I mean, I don't really know that much about it, but you're nowhere near as scary as Gaara so I don't think I have anything to worry about. Maybe you have the Fox, but you're still a dork that falls asleep in the grass and won't eat anything but ramen unless I drag him to the grocery store."
"You...you really mean it, Ino?"
Naruto looked hopeful now, and Ino hadn't realized just how much it meant to him that she...what, not freak out? It wasn't as though he'd given her a reason too. Naruto wasn't a killer, not like Gaara had been. Naruto was just…
Naruto.
Not a Fox. Not a demon. Just regular, old Naruto.
"Yeah I mean it." Ino reached out to knock her knuckles against Naruto's head again. "And you know, Shikamaru and Chouji won't care about anything like that either."
It was starting to make sense now, why the adults always seemed to hate Naruto so much. Ino had thought it was because the boy was a prankster, but...if all people saw was the Fox, every time they looked at him, then…
She thought of how Sakura was, back when she let her hair cover her eyes and was so shy that she could barely speak up for herself. But as soon as she'd started to tie her hair back and show off her face, she'd started to grow more confident…
No, no, that...that hadn't been it. It wasn't just the ribbon.
It'd been her.
Ino had been the one to acknowledge her. To be her first friend. Ino had been the one to help her come out of her shell.
But if she hadn't gone to Sakura that day, if she hadn't helped her out...what kind of person would Sakura have become?
If Naruto didn't have friends...would he have been more like Gaara?
Suddenly, Ino felt mad. Mad at the village for shunning Naruto in such a way. Mad that they'd almost made a monster out of Naruto, monster within him notwithstanding.
"I...guess I kind of expected you to freak out more."
Ino snapped back to the present. Naruto was talking again. "I mean, the way everyone else in the village looks at me, I figured it was luck I found people who were willing to be my friend at all, you know?"
"Wrong." Ino retorted. "It's not like the Fox is breaking out any time soon, right? And I don't have a problem with you. You work harder than Shikamaru and Chouji combined, and if you're on our team next time we're in the chuunin exams, we're gonna breeze right through to the finals."
"Wait, you mean...you want me on your team for the exams?"
"Duh."
"Oh. Well. O-okay, I'll do my best!" Naruto put up a fist, and there it was, that fire in his eyes that Ino had gotten used to seeing. "You know I'll kick serious ass, you can count on me! Believe it!"
"Yeah, yeah, but you still haven't told me why you were training out here." Ino reminded him. "Something to do with the Fox?"
"Uh-huh. Well...you see, Gaara sent me a letter recently talking about Shukaku, and...well, he apparently talks with Shukaku a lot so I figured maybe I could try and talk to the Fox, but he never wants to talk to me. He's always either pretending to be asleep or griping about how annoying I am."
"What do you think you'll get by talking to him?" Ino asked, baffled. "He tried to destroy the village, of course he's gonna be all scary and angry all the time!"
"Well, Shukaku was like that too, but Gaara said he's been more friendly since they started talking!" Naruto protested. "I wondered if maybe...if maybe the Fox has been alone all this time and wants a friend too."
It was...bafflingly naive, but Ino couldn't fault the logic. And the sympathy behind it. Maybe, in a strange way, Naruto was starting to see himself in the Fox.
It gave her an idea. A stupid idea. An idea so hilariously stupid that her father would have grounded her for a year if he ever heard her considering an idea so stupid.
"What if…"
No, Ino, don't do it. Too stupid, too risky…
"What if...I tried to talk to him?"
"What?" Naruto blinked. "How the heck are you gonna talk to him? He's inside me!"
"Don't you remember who I am, Naruto?" Ino scoffed. "I'm the beautiful and powerful heir to the Yamanaka Clan! And you remember our signature technique, don't you?"
"The...Mind-Transfer Jutsu?" Naruto frowned as he thought. "So you're saying you want to get in my head so that you can talk to the Fox? But why would you want to do that?"
Because I'm an idiot way in over her head.
But damn it all if I'm not curious.
"Maybe he'll be more receptive if he talks to someone pretty like me!" Ino offered with a gesture. "After all, Naruto, boys like you are disasters when it comes to saying the right thing, you know. Plus...it might not even work." It was possible her jutsu wouldn't be able to breach the seal that had been put on the beast; after all, what sort of seal would it be if a Yamanaka could tear it apart from the inside? But it was worth a shot, she supposed, if only to say that it wasn't possible. And if it did work…
Well then she'd be able to help Naruto out. And maybe even learn something about the Fox that she could hold over Sakura whenever she decided to get her butt back to Konoha.
"Can you hold still for about five seconds?"
"Yeah sure, Ino, but are you really sure you want to do this?"
"Nope." Ino retorted with a grin. "So let's give it a go!"
Before Naruto could talk her out of it, Ino concentrated and made the hand sign she needed. She felt a rush of weightlessness as her mental energy was shot from her body, and time seemed to slow down, second by second, until she felt herself crash into Naruto.
And then everything went dark.
In a vague sense, she was aware of Naruto's body. Perhaps could even control it if she really focused. But the dark room that had grown around her was taking precedence, until eventually all she could see was the room itself, and nothing of Naruto at all.
But she did hear something.
Breathing. Heavy, deep breathing that seemed to fill wherever it was she had ended up. She could almost feel the air pushing against her.
And then, all at once, an eye appeared before her, blinking open and glowing with unnatural chakra.
"Oh look. A new snack."
Ino awoke back in her body with a scream.
That thing...that thing had been huge.
How the hell did the Fourth manage to seal something like that inside of a boy?
She heard a groan as Naruto came back into consciousness, and she had to do her best to hide the panic that had overtaken her body. Naruto wasn't the Fox, she reminded herself. Just...just a container. Just Naruto, Naruto who helped her keep Shikamaru and Chouji in line, Naruto who had taken a shuriken to the chest in her place on the last mission, Naruto who had...who was her teammate. Who would still be her teammate.
"Did it work?" Naruto asked? "Everything went black for a minute, but I don't remember anything else."
Ino took a deep breath before nodding. "It worked." She told him. "It worked. I saw it."
And next time…
Next time she wasn't running away.
He'd said it before and he'd say it again.
Girls were troublesome.
Initially Shikamaru had thought it was simply a clash of personalities. The girls he knew, with perhaps the exception of one Hinata Hyuuga, were boisterous, egotistical, loud, and bossy. And Shikamaru wasn't exactly one to want to boss people around himself, but really, that didn't mean others had to be so commanding, and that other usually happened to be a girl.
But this, what he had in his hands right now…
This was a whole new level of troublesome. And it began with 'Dear Shikamaru'.
He didn't know what he'd done to deserve the letter. He barely even knew Sakura, short of the ramblings that Ino tended to default too whenever anyone dared mention the sheer concept of Sasuke Uchiha. Sakura was Ino's rival in love, Ino's rival in skill, and...well, he supposed she was Naruto's old teammate, and Naruto did talk about her a lot, but that had nothing to do with him. He could count the number of times he'd spoken to her on one hand. He couldn't logically consider a friend, just an acquaintance at best, nothing to justify this stupid letter.
And of course, because clearly he'd done something truly horrible in a past life to justify this, the majority of the damn letter was written in some sort of code.
(And damn her, now his curiosity meant he had to solve it.)
Only the first sentence was immediately legible. 'Dear Shikamaru, for your eyes only, for the sake of our friends'. Ominous, vague, and irritating. And then, oh then, came the code.
IYa-2-4-13-4. IYa-1-1-4-5. NaU-1-3-15-4. RiRo-4-6-11-2.
The code was full of sequences like these, and it went on and on for an entire scroll. Sakura must have spent hours putting this together, and then she'd had the audacity to put it behind a code that nobody in the entire goddamn village knew. It wasn't a typical Konoha code. As far as he could tell, it wasn't anything the Anbu used either, and how would Sakura have gotten her hands on something like that anyway? For a brief moment, Shikamaru considered that it might be an Iwa code, since Sakura had been supposedly training there, but there was no way he could crack an Iwa code, was there?
And then she had to go and say that whatever the hell she'd written in here had been for the sake of 'their friends'. Which meant she clearly thought it was important. Which meant that Shikamaru couldn't just throw the damn letter into a ditch and forget about it.
IYa. NaU. RiRo. Each of the sequences began with one of those three character combinations. If he could just figure out what they meant.
Shikamaru groaned as he trudged across the Konoha training grounds. He'd been mulling over the letter for three days now, trying to piece together the contents within. And he was stuck.
And he was starting to kind of hate being stuck.
But what he did know was that he didn't know enough about Sakura Haruno. And there were two immediate people in his life who did.
Ino, he didn't feel like bothering on a day off, but he could always count on Naruto to be training even when the idiot was supposed to be resting. It was just a matter of finding out which training ground they were…
Ah. And...oh.
There was Naruto. And Ino. Oh god, they weren't making out, were they? No...no it looked like they were doing something else. Ino was...gesturing. Was that the Mind Transfer Jutsu?
He watched as both Ino and Naruto slumped into the grass. And...Naruto didn't get up. It looked as though the jutsu had worked, so why wasn't Ino controlling Naruto?
Why the hell was everyone around him so weird?
Eventually, Ino awoke, shaking her head and rubbing her eyes as she pulled herself back into a sitting position. Not long after, Naruto awoke as well. They both looked at each other, and then began to talk excitedly.
What the hell?
Shikamaru resisted the urge to groan as he approached the two, scroll clenched in one hand.
"Should I even bother asking what you're doing?"
"Oh! Shikamaru!" Ino startled. "Um, well...Naruto, you can tell him! If...if you want. I mean…"
"Nothing!" Naruto shook his head. "We're just screwing around. It's our day off, ya know?"
"Screwing around with...Mind Transfer Jutsu?"
"Uh…"
Shikamaru sighed. Alright, maybe he really shouldn't want to know, but...now he sort of had to. "Is it something that's going to get one of you killed?"
"That's a big question with a lot of answers." Ino replied with a small laugh. "But it shouldn't kill us. Oh, come on, Naruto, I told you he isn't going to care, just tell him."
"You tell him if you're so eager!"
"Okay!" Ino brightened up. "We're talking with the Nine-Tailed Fox!"
...there was far too much to process in that statement. Far, far too much. Never mind that such a statement suggested that the Nine-Tailed Fox was sentient enough to hold a conversation, never mind the implication that the Nine-Tailed Fox was somewhere close enough to talk to, never mind that talking with it somehow involved the…
Shikamaru could have slapped himself. Of course Naruto was a goddamn Jinchuuriki. He should have seen it sooner. Take the most troublesome scenario ever and multiply it by ten, and that was his life! His new teammate was a Jinchuuriki!
"Alright, I'm going to overlook that in favor of something even more troublesome." Shikamaru answered, not failing to notice the look of apparent relief on Naruto's face. Had he been...worried? It wasn't like other villages didn't have Jinchuuriki. They were fairly standard for each of the Big Five. And he wasn't anything like that creepy Gaara at least. Without further ado, he shoved the scroll in Naruto's direction. "Do you wanna tell me what the hell your old teammate is trying to tell me?"
"Huh? She sent you a letter too?" Naruto frowned as he opened the scroll. Then, he started to laugh. "What the heck, Shikamaru, it's all nonsense! Sakura would never have written something so weird."
"Then it's probably not nonsense, Naruto. Let me look at it."
For a while, the two squabbled over the letter, passing it back and forth to get a look. It was great, just great. If they didn't have any clues off the bat, this was probably a dead end. Really, what had Sakura been thinking?
For the sake of our friends…
Their friends.
Suddenly, all at once, it clicked.
"Wait, give that back!" Shikamaru snatched the letter from a whining Naruto, looking over the code. IYa...NaU…
Ino Yamanaka. Naruto Uzumaki. And RiRo…who else would Sakura consider a friend in the village? Kakashi's name didn't fit, and he was fairly certain it wasn't a relative of Sakura's, it had to be a friend…
Ri...Ro…
Ri...Lee. Rock fucking Lee.
But what the hell did the numbers mean?
"...Ino. Naruto. Sakura's been writing you letters, right?"
"Uh, yeah, just not anything weird like that." Ino answered with a frown.
"Can I see them?"
"What? Why? Does the word private mean anything to you?"
"I think she wanted me to see them." Shikamaru retorted. "Ino, she's written you...four letters so far, correct? Naruto, five for you? And...Lee should have 8, if this pattern follows."
"What? She wrote Lee more than me?" Both Naruto and Ino spoke in unison before looking at each other in confusion.
"I'm not here to listen to you two bicker. I need to see those letters. I promise I won't need them long."
It took some corralling, but eventually Shikamaru had access to all of Ino and Naruto's letters. And maybe he didn't have Lee's but there were only twenty-six letters to the alphabet and he could probably deduce the missing ones without going to talk with the annoying jump-suit boy.
Ino Yamanaka, letter two, paragraph four, word thirteen, fourth letter…
That one was an 'i'.
Slowly, piece by piece, he was solving this damn thing.
"I am sorry to put you through this Shikamaru, but I cannot be too careful. There are people in the village that you cannot trust. Do not transcribe this letter to paper. I know you are smart enough to decode it in your head. You're the smartest person I know, and that is the reason I am writing to you specifically.
I need your help. There is an organization woven deep into Konoha called Root, and I have reason to believe that it is not working, as it claims, for the good of the village, but for the ambition of its leader. I believe they have kidnapped children from other villages to brainwash into perfect shinobi soldiers. I believe they perpetuated Orochimaru's research while he was still in the village. And it's possible there are many more dark secrets that I have yet to deduce. Most importantly, if they find out that I am writing to you about them, it is possible they might kill you.
If you don't want to involve yourself further, I understand. Burn this letter and never mention it to anyone; I'm sure Root will leave you alone. But Shikamaru, if you have an ounce of loyalty in you, to your friends, your village, your people...you need to keep reading. And you need to help me to root out Root."
...girls were so damned troublesome.
A very large part of Shikamaru wanted to burn the letter and forget he ever read it. An organization called Root that worked within Konoha? Wouldn't the Hokage at least know about it? He couldn't imagine Tsunade allowing the kidnapping of foreign children for any means. He couldn't even imagine the Third allowing that. And that it was an organization that might have involved Orochimaru as well...what the fuck was Sakura trying to drag him into?
...and damn it all, if it was true, if any of it was true, he couldn't just sit around and let it happen.
So Shikamaru made his way into the depths of the Nara forest, deeper than anyone but the clan was allowed to go. Once there, he sat down beneath the shade of his favorite tree, and began to read Sakura's letter.
There was a deep wind in these woods, a howling wind that would have terrified the man if he wasn't just a little less than human himself.
But Orochimaru was beyond most concepts of fear by now. He had seen the depths of the darkest jutsu, lived beyond death itself, fought powers that were far more frightening than whatever nature had to throw at him. No, rather, it was the things in the woods that fled from him, rightfully so. He moved from branch to branch as smoothly as a snake stalking prey, and the things in the woods saw him as predator.
Orochimaru glanced back in time to see the glimpses of his companions behind him. Kabuto had long learned the art of moving silently, but young Sasuke had yet to quite master that balance between swift and quiet. Every now and then a branch cracked, a leaf fluttered...but he was young, of course, and still leagues ahead of where even he had been at such an age. Besides, it wasn't important now for Sasuke to be perfect, nor would it ever be.
Once Sasuke's body was well and truly his...all of his decades of experience would more than suffice.
For now, this was an experience meant to stretch the boy's legs, but that was merely a secondary benefit to the excursion. The real reason he was here, the real reason he'd ran across Sound Country and into the unclaimed lands of the Mountain's Graveyard, was that he was here to make a very important transaction.
Normally Orochimaru would have considered it foolish to step foot onto Akatsuki territory, but the majority of the organization had left the Graveyard months ago, and Orochimaru knew he had little to fear from the member he was moving to meet, as long as he and his kept civil. Kabuto, he could trust. Sasuke...this would be a test. Teenagers were notoriously difficult, and Sasuke, under the weight of trauma, could be excruciating under the wrong circumstances. Orochimaru was...mostly positive that Itachi wasn't here, but if the Uchiha did show up…
A dilemma he did not want to consider. A dilemma he hoped his contact had taken into account.
The trees suddenly cleared around them, and before them stretched a vast plain, dominated by the sight of one of the most massive skeletons Orochimaru had ever seen. What the animal used to be, even he hadn't a clue. Something ancient, something old, something that predated even the eldest of his summoning snakes. At some point, when he could justify it, Orochimaru longed to get a bone sample, something he could use to try and clone one of the beasts...but for now, there wasn't exactly room in his tiny spit of a country.
For now, the bones were simply a landmark, somewhere easy to find so that a meeting could take place without interference. No shinobi was brave enough to come this deep into the Graveyard, not even the Taki shinobi, with all their superstition.
"What is it?" Orochimaru heard Sasuke ask.
"Something too old for history to have remembered it." Kabuto explained. "Judging by the structure, it appears similar to modern reptiles. It's a good thing for us that nothing that large exists anymore, don't you think, Sasuke?"
"Hn."
Curiosity. Not unusual for Sasuke. When it came to combat, Sasuke tended to be a quiet, determined learner, but when it came to knowledge outside of battle...Sasuke was surprisingly studious. For a brief moment, Orochimaru felt pity for the boy. Pity that he was to be the last of his bloodline. Pity that he was doomed to become Orochimaru's own vessel. If not for the tragedy, the boy might have grown to become a shinobi that rivaled his own greatness…
"Ah, there he is, Lord Orochimaru."
Indeed he was. In the far distance, at the base of the skeleton's massive ribcage, a figure appeared. The figure was all white...definitely unusual. Orochimaru was far more accustomed to seeing both halves of the being known as Zetsu. If only the White had been sent...what business had occupied the creature that was so much more important?
It mattered little. If he backed down now...he would never get what he'd came for.
Orochimaru made his way down from the massive tree branches, quietly landing on one after the other until coming to the ground in a quiet rustle of wind. Kabuto came next, and Sasuke not far behind him. He could see the White Zetsu smile as he approached...perhaps a quaint attempt to appear unearthly, but the attempt was enough to send a noticeable shiver of fear through young Sasuke. There would be questions from the boy later, he was sure of it. For now…
"You have brought what I asked for, I hope?"
"One lock, as requested." The Zetsu brought for a small vial. Within, Orochimaru caught sight of a bundle of silvery hairs. Hairs that could have belonged to anyone. He had no doubt that the Zetsu could easily deceive him, just as he himself planned on deceiving the Zetsu. But the chance, for the chance that this lock was what he desired…
Well worth the risk.
"Kabuto." Orochimaru gestured to his servant, and the man stepped forward, producing a scroll and opening it for Zetsu to see.
"Details on the Resurrection Technique." Kabuto explained. "As the notes mention, it will require a human sacrifice to bring back the soul of the deceased. Though I doubt that will be a problem for you."
"Not at all." The Zetsu replied, still grinning. Kabuto snapped the scroll shut again and moved forward in time with the Zetsu.
There was a moment, a brief moment, in which everyone there tensed. A moment in which anyone could have drawn a blade or started a hand sign. A moment in which betrayal would have been as easy as breathing.
The vial touched Kabuto's hand, and the scroll touched Zetsu's. Both shinobi backed away, and Orochimaru could see a small breath of relief come from Kabuto's lips.
"Thank you for your business, Zetsu. Be sure to give Pein my regards."
"You could always come back to us, Orochimaru. There is place in our organization for your skills."
"As always, a tempting offer. But I have much bigger things in mind."
The group separated without much further pleasantries. It was only once they were a mile from the meeting point that Orochimaru allowed himself to ease up. It had been a gamble on his end, of course, but he doubted Zetsu would immediately discover that the scroll he'd been given had been altered slightly from Orochimaru's original design: one simple symbol with an extra line through it, enough to ensure the technique wouldn't last more than an hour.
It was still a useful technique, but not nearly as useful as Orochimaru's own perfected product. And that was how it should be. If he just let anyone have access to his carefully crafted techniques, well...he'd be quite the sellout.
"What are those hairs?"
"Something that needn't concern you, Sasuke." Orochimaru answered automatically. He reached out to take the bottle from Kabuto, examining it with a critical eye. The hairs seemed...well, they looked like hairs.
Time would tell if they were truly locks of the being known as Kaguya.
"Come, Sasuke. We have a long journey home, and along the way you will perfect your chakra control. I expect silence on the road back."
"...hn."
He was a stubborn boy. But a powerful one. Soon...soon Sasuke would be his and full.
And the steps to creating his final vessel had, as of now, finally begun.
"Son of a shit-fucked riceball, that hurts!"
"Maybe next time, don't allow yourself to be cut in half during a simple bounty hunt."
"Eat a cock, Kakuzu! You're making it hurt on purpose!"
Never mind that it was always him taking the majority of the damage whenever they went on these 'simple hunts'. In all of his years working for Akatsuki, Hidan hadn't seen the man take lethal damage once. And maybe it was his life's purpose to be a vessel for pain, but that didn't mean his partner couldn't, well, be a goddamn partner every now and then and help out beyond making some dumbass comment about Hidan's fighting style. The only useful quality the bastard had was the ability to sew Hidan back together if the worst came to it. But damn if the process didn't hurt.
Hidan wistfully thought of his old home, the Jashin enclave hidden within the depths of Yugakure. The healers there, the members of the shitty 'Calm Path'...well, at least they were gentler than this. Hidan found himself longing for the easy regeneration of the Jushisai.
(He could just leave...not even Akatsuki knew where the Jashin enclave was hidden. He could run home, hide away until he was forgotten, stop getting involved in this stupid, fucking mess…)
Hidan shook the cowardly thoughts from his head. Jashin would smite him for running away from a job like this one. At some point, once they had enough information, once they were prepared, Akatsuki would move out against the Jinchuuriki. The ultimate challenge, and the ultimate destruction, right? How many shinobi alive could say they'd fought a Demon Host and won? Never mind, of course, that it was much more in line with his belief to destroy the Bijuu entirely, rather than resealing it, but that was a step he could work out along the way.
Jashin, for whatever reason, had set him on this path. Jashin had led Akatsuki to him, that was something that had been agreed upon by his elders. Fuck the elders, Hidan mused, but...the elders needed to be shown at least outward respect. One of the tenants of Jashinism. Tenants he had sworn to follow for such glorious gifts.
Hidan winced as Kakuzu pulled the final thread through his skin. He'd need to remain still for a while, until his body regenerated, but for now, at least, he was in one piece. "Thanks." He grumbled.
"Don't screw up next time." Kakuzu answered, his typical response.
Hidan really hated the fucker.
Kakuzu left Hidan's side to go and wrap up the body of the kunoichi Hidan had lovingly sacrificed. Off the shinobi would go to claim the bounty, leaving Hidan behind to recuperate and catch up when his leg finally worked again. It definitely gave Hidan time to think.
He wondered, briefly, if the young kunoichi he'd met in Plains had really been interested in the faith, or if she'd only really been interested in the immortality. It was a rare gift, he'd been told, one that Jashin granted only to one at a time. One who exemplified the beliefs of the Violent Path. Until Hidan was erased from the world, he would be the only one who carried such an ability. Such was the will of Jashin. If Kakuzu or Pein or any of the other Akatsuki fuckers knew what sort of shinobi they'd been allowed onto their team...he certainly deserved a lot more fuckin' respect.
Pinkie would never obtain immortality. But Jashin could help her to get stronger, that much Hidan could guarantee. Assuming she made it all the way to the depths of Yu and found the hidden enclave within the mountainside. Assuming she wasn't killed on the way in. Hidan found himself rooting for her, in a way. The way she'd punched that Hiroshi guy, hard enough that he'd heard the man's jawbones crackle...it had been like beautiful, beautiful music. He could imagine her training in the steam-shrouded rooms of Peace and Violence. He could see her, bright-eyed, ready to kill, training as an apprentice at his side…
If not for the goddamned Akatsuki.
Jashin sent him to this group for a reason, Hidan reminded himself. He had heard the decree in his dreams, felt it within the power that resonated within him. Jashin wanted him here. But why? Why was it so important to be here now?
Pein claimed that they were going to unite the shinobi world and save it from destroying itself. Rightfully so, Pein claimed that humanity was naturally prone to war, and that he could use strength to force the shinobi world to follow his will, and end fights before they began. Pein even had the audacity, the gall, to claim himself a god. Hidan knew better, of course. He'd met Jashin long before he'd ever so much as heard the name of Pein, and even though Pein was strong, perhaps even stronger than himself...Pein was no Jashin. Pein couldn't possibly unite the shinobi world.
But somehow, through Hidan's being in Akatsuki...somehow, despite all thoughts to the contrary…
Hidan would help lead the world to salvation.
What a stupid, strange thought, that Jashin would insist upon the actions of a Hageshisai in order to ensure the world's salvation. Hidan was a destroyer, meant to annihilate his foes in Jashin's name, meant to ensure violence, not peace.
But who was he to deny the will of his god?
As Hidan tested the mobility of his legs, he began to say a silent prayer to Jashin. A prayer for guidance. A prayer for answers. A prayer for the bloody patience not to strangle Kakuzu and his five hearts while the man slept. If Jashin was expecting him to stick around with Akatsuki…
He was going to need a lot of divine assistance.
A deep, retching cough sounded through the room, and Kisame saw dark blood on the hand of Itachi Uchiha.
Lung disease, progressing at a rate that would kill the man within a year or two. Itachi did not have long to live, and yet, refused all medical help beyond simple pills. Willpower, a stronger willpower than Kisame had ever seen in a man, was what was truly keeping the Uchiha alive. A pity. Itachi was one of the few men that Kisame truly respected...the only one still alive, if he was honest with himself.
To anyone else, it might have seemed strange to see the Monster of the Hidden Mist lay a gentle hand upon Itachi's back. But Kisame supposed no one would ever truly know the real him as Itachi did.
"You're still so determined to die at your brother's hands? If you don't get help, you won't make it long enough to glimpse him, let alone convince him of a proper fight."
"We've discussed this before, Kisame."
Back and forth, this talk usually went. Kisame tried in vain to save Itachi's life, and Itachi stubbornly pushed himself further and further into his own grave. If it were anyone else, Kisame would have let them die. A man who had lost the will to live was hardly a man at all. But without Itachi, if he considered the world without Itachi in it...Kisame had nothing left.
Akatsuki, perhaps, though Kisame held no true loyalty to it. It had been a way to pass the time until his assignment to Itachi, and once the bastard Uchiha had wormed his way into Kisame's heart, motives had changed. Keep Itachi alive. Help him see his goals achieved. And then…
And then…
If he allowed Akatsuki to dominate Konoha, would that be a stain upon Itachi's memory? But was he even capable of stopping Akatsuki alone? A rock and a hard place, that was where he had ended up. Only ever loosely tied to one thing at a time. As fickle and fierce as the waves back home.
"Kisame, you should get something to eat."
"Not until you've stopped coughing."
"What are you going to do?"
Itachi looked up at him, dark eyes seeming to read his very thoughts. "What will you do?" Itachi repeated. "When I am gone? You deserve more than what Akatsuki has given you."
"What I want does not exist." Kisame retorted. He would amuse Itachi, if only for a little while. "The world is full of traitors and scum, and I am the worst of the lot. What sort of home would have a use for a shinobi like me? I killed my superior. I have killed my comrades for the sake of some greater good...but what good is worth the lives of others? I have yet to see it, Itachi. I have yet to see a meaning for this life of mine. You, at the very least, will die giving purpose to your brother. I will likely die a meaningless death, one that will serve to benefit someone else only briefly before they too are overthrown." He chuckled to himself, sharp teeth scraping across each other as he did so. "There is no true honesty in this world. No one truly worth following. I'm lucky enough to have found a friend, and even he will leave me soon."
"Kisame…"
"I have to try." Kisame admitted. "Try to give you a reason to live beyond your brother. If I don't, then I really will have lived a meaningless life."
"...I will get further aid for myself, if you promise me something."
"Hm?" Interesting. Itachi had never bargained before. Perhaps it was becoming too much to bear.
"Promise me, once I am gone, that you will look for someone worth following."
This time, Kisame laughed fully, heartily. Someone worth following?
Such a person likely didn't exist.
Still, as he gently rubbed Itachi's back, he had to admit that he didn't have anything better to occupy himself with, once Itachi was dead. He was neutral to Akatsuki. Neutral to the world. But if Itachi asked...if Itachi asked...
"Alright, you stubborn bastard." He answered. "I'll look. I won't find anyone. But I'll look."
Itachi coughed again, but despite it all, the man had a smile.