Shirotaka had stopped as well, turning around and lowering his hat again. Sugi's hands were shaking slightly, and his entire attention was focused on Raine, completely ignoring Shirotaka, who had also drawn a weapon.
"Why?" he asked, still staring at her. "Why are you with the Akatsuki? What made you do this?"
"I think," said Shirotaka, grinning slightly, "that these two know too much about us. Raine, please dispose of Kenja-san. I'll take care of Sugi-san."
She grinned wider, slowly shifting her hand and holding it out before her. Using the orbs wasted too much chakra, and she did not want to tap into the Aohane's chakra at the moment, it was too troublesome. She slid her arms through the respective sleeves of her Akatsuki cloak, bringing into view six shuriken, three in each hand wedged between her knuckles. She and Shirotaka moved at the exact same moment, charging their opponents with incredible agility. The six shuriken were sent directly at Kenja, and he ducked, throwing several senbon at the same time and knocking away another few that were still headed for him.
Sugi is no pushover, she thought, locking kunai with Kenja and looking over at Shirotaka. He is the son of a legend. She almost suprised herself with how easy it was for her to think about her brother's death. It was if she felt nothing towards him, as if that part of her mind was completely dead. Cold, black and dead, like the rest of her. She was barely trying as she dealt with Kenja, and she could see Shirotaka struggling slightly, especially when a snake shot out from Sugi's sleeve, grappling onto the Akatsuki's neck and snapping its jaws around it. But she knew from experience; Shirotaka was no pushover either. He was an animal. He fought with speed and instinct, making a deadly combination.
Shirotaka remained frozen for a few seconds, before he turned his gaze back to Sugi, baring his teeth like an animal. they began to grow, becoming too long for his mouth as his eyes also changed, widening and becoming wild-looking. He lunged towards Sugi, clamping around his neck and spilling blood over the pavement, his now wolf-like muzzle shaking it back and forth. She turned her attention back to her own battle, suddenly falling back and causing Kenja's force to send him off balance, where he nearly fell onto her. But she moved suddenly, with amazing speed, letting him land on his hands and knees, struggling to get up. But he noticed what had happened.
Blood was pooling around his feet, and he could not stand as pain shot through his legs. Raine knew that what she had done was cruel, but it mattered little to her. She had cut his tendons in his ankles, rendering his legs useless. He could no longer stand, no matter how hard he tried. She brought up her leg, refusing to dirty her hands further, and slammed one of her high-laced, black leather boots into the back of his neck, grinding his jaw into the cement and staring down at him with a blank look on her face. She brought her foot up again and slammed the heel of her boot into his neck again, smiling slightly as it gave a satisfying snap under the pressure, killing him instantly.
She looked over to her brother, who's snake had disappeared, and found him laying on the cement, unmoving and with a large amount of blood pouring from his neck and several other wounds throughout his body. Shirotaka had none of Sugi's blood on him amazingly enough, and his only wound was the small snake bite on his neck, which he was rubbing clean.
"We should move the bodies into the house. Someone might find them," said Shirotaka, bringing a green chakra to his hand and holding it over his wound. When he brought it away, the wound had completely vanished.
"I'm suprised you dealt with Sugi-san so quickly," she said emotionlessly, using her foot to kick the girl's body into the room.
"It appears these villagers know a lot about us," said Shirotaka, after kicking Sugi's body into the room, on to the top of the pile of bodies. He closed the door and brought a large amount of chakra to his hands. He lifted his hands in silence, running it along the space between the cement wall and the metal door, melting the metal into the cement and completely sealing it, preventing anyone from entering without using tremendous force.
"So we should lay low for the next while," he finished, turning back to her. She nodded, lifting her hat from the ground and shaking it out before replacing it on her head, brushing her hair out behind her to keep it out of the way. Perhaps, she thought, following Shirotaka silently out of the alley, perhaps this will prove to be more interesting than I first thought.
They rarely stayed overnight within the walls of the Cloud, instead usually travelling to one of the closest villages and spending each night in a different hotel. The Cloud-nin were certainly more alert, and the disappearance of the four Jounin seemed to greatly unsettle them, and security had become quite tight. It seemed to her as if every day it became harder and harder to infiltrate the villge. There was not much information to be found out in the Cloud, as they had found out already what they were up to. It was no secret either. Even the villagers knew about it. They were simply preparing for the war.
She and Shirotaka had spent many hours gathering information on the subject, and had roughly decided what was up with the war. Luckily it wasn't too confusing with only two sides to the war. On the Leaf's side were the Five Great Shinobi Countries, which were Konoha, Kumo, Iwa, Suna and they had even gotten Kiri, the Mist, to join, despite the fact that the Wave country usually kept to itself. On the Sound's side they knew of only two so far, which were the Oto, obviously, and an over-sea village that had a suprising amount of military power called Tsukigakure, the Hidden Moon. But that still left Taki, the Waterfall, and Kusa, the Grass, open to be recruited by Orochimaru. All they were left to do now was to find out if they had yet made any plans, any battle tactics yet. Once they collected that information, their part of the mission would be complete, and they would be free to gather extra information on other countries to better prepare themselves for the war. They basically had all the needed information now, and anything else they gathered would be extra.
At the moment, Raine was in her hotel room, in the bathroom. She had a towel wrapped around her body as she dried out her long hair, brushing it out and drying it over and over, until it was somewhat dry. She slipped on her usual clothes after wrapping up her hair in a towel, a pair of black shorts and a small, black tank top. She quickly lifted a large-buckled belt from her pile of clothing, tightening it around her thin waist just above her hips and fiddling with the buckle for a moment. She grabbed a few bandages and securely bandaged her left shoulder which she had horrible luck with, and it always seemed to get injured somehow in battle. After tying the bandages with her teeth, she lifted a strip of cloth, wrapping it around her body and over her upper arms before buckling it together in the front with three, large black pieces of leather. She tucked the Ikichi inside of her shirt and headed towards the door, opening it and stepping out into her room.
Shirotaka was leaning on the wall beside the bathroom door, and she didn't notice him until she was nearly past him, jumping slightly and glaring at him. "Don't scare me like that," she hissed, wondering what he was doing in her room. Or how he had gotten in there in the first place. "I might attack you next time." She had been about to say 'kill' but she knew she wouldn't be able to simply kill Shirotaka.
She examined him closely, noting that she had never seen him in anything other than his Akatsuki uniform before. The trenchcoats certainly did make people look larger than they were. She had always thought Shirotaka was a well-muscled, medium-sized man, but he was, instead, alot thinner and taller than she had first thought. He wore a plain black t-shirt and had Anbu arm guards on his forearms. She could see the end of a tatoo stretching below the sleeve of his right arm, and could pick out a wolf's head, muzzle stretched wide and teeth bared. He wore dark blue, almost black pants that were bandaged from just below his knees to his sandals, and had two weapons pouches, one on either side of his waist along with a shuriken holster on the side of his right leg.
"Hurry up," he said simply, ignoring her reaction. "The Raikage should be holding a meeting soon."
A meeting? For what? More planning? She sighed, stepping past him and sitting on her bed where her Akatsuki trenchcoat and weapons were layed out neatly. She slipped on her socks and grabbed her tall boots, slipping them on as well and doing up the long laces. She was the only member of the Akatsuki who wore any other footwear besides the traditional sandals, instead wearing her tall boots. Kariudo had questioned her ability to fight in heels, but she had shown him she was as capable of fighting while wearing these as she was wearing sandals, and he had not bothered her about it again. She roughly shoved a small knife into her left boot and stood, unbuckling her belt in order to slip on two holsters that were for her small daggers. She checked the inside of her trenchcoat, making sure there was another fan ready for usage, along with a number of kunai and a few shuriken, before slipping that over and reaching up to her hair, pulling off the towel and heading back into the bathroom. She quickly brushed her hair and stepped out, noticing Shirotaka had left already.
She glanced over the room to make sure there was nothing else of hers that had been left behind, before stepping out of the room and heading slowly down the hall towards Shirotaka's room. Before she reached out to knock, the door opened and Shirotaka stepped out in his Akatsuki coat, closing the door behind him.
"I was out looking around the town yesterday," he said, leading her down the hall, "and I think that the Cloud-nin are looking for us. They must have found the bodies of the ones we killed."
"They're looking for us?" she frowned slightly, wondering how long they would be able to stay in the village with the Cloud chuunin and jounin after them. But that was up to Shirotaka, he was above her in the Akatsuki and made the decisions.
"Hn. This will probably be our last day in here. We'll just check out this meeting before leaving."
"Where will we go after? We still have at least a month and a half left."
"Right," he muttered, stepping up to the clerk and paying quickly. They usually wouldn't pay, but now it was too risky to draw attention to themselves. "We will most-likely meet up with Itachi and Kisame to help them in monitering Naruto-kun."
Raine's face darkened as they left the hotel. Itachi-san? Ugh... She really felt uncomfortable around that man. There were just some things about him that unnerved her. And on top of that, he was with that Kisame. Kisame was not as bad as Itachi, but he was still... unnatural. She greatly disliked those two.
Shirotaka led her down the streets, where people were just beginning to wake up and go about their daily business. They were the same as she remembered them, dodgey and antisocial, keeping close to the walls of the surrounding buildings and avoiding speaking as much as possible. It was cloudy out, as usual, but not raining as it usually did. But she could still feel the weight of the clouds above her, and knew that it would most likely begin raining later today. The clouds seemed heavy with the condensation, and their bottoms sagged with the added weight.
She sped up, falling into step beside Shirotaka as they headed towards the center of the city. They had 'attended' one other meeting and knew how to enter the building. It was fairly easy to enter into the Raikage's house, into the meeting room at least, but there were still many things the two Akatsuki needed to worry about. This meeting would contain, most likely, jounin, chuunin and, of course, the Raikage himself. If it was very important, there might not be as many chuunin, but there certainly would be more jounin and even Anbu. If they were caught, there was a very slim chance of their escape. While they might be able to take on the Raikage together, or Shirotaka taking him on alone, with the added jounin, chuunin, and possibly Anbu, they stood little or no chance.
"You head in first. I'll be up right behind you. Make sure you make no noise whatsoever," said Shirotaka warningly. She nodded silently, looking up at the roof of the Raikage's house. Bringing a small amount of chakra to her feet, she easily jumped onto it, landing in a crouch and casting around for a few seconds until she found what she was looking for. A small raised part in the roof to her left. She darted over to it and circled around behind it, setting her hands onto a small latch and gently pulling with her gloved, right hand. She used her left hand to silence it as she lifted it slowly, propping it against the raised part of the roof as she lowered a boot slowly into the darkness below. When it touched upon a firm surface, she slid completely into the darkness, her eyes adjusting slowly.
The crawlspace was not very large, and even for her it posed some difficulties when it came to moving. She did not know how Shirotaka manuevered through such a small space, as he was much larger than her. She crawled silently to the left, until she came to a slightly more open space, where she could almost stand. The house of the Raikage was large, and this crawlspace was like a maze, but she knew her way around. It had, afterall, once been her house, and she had been a child. A child who loved to explore. She headed swiftly to the other side of this larger cavern, before coming to another small hatch which was already open. She dropped down into this with no second thought, landing in a cramped space on a thin rafter and moving to the left slightly. Far below her was a large room that was just beginning to fill with Cloud-nin, and at the head of the room, flanked by two others, sat the seventh Raikage. He was already speaking to a number of jounin, but she could not clearly hear what he was saying. She could sense Anbu around the parimeter, and could see two in the shadows to the left of the room. Tight security, she thought, grinning slightly.
There was a soft, almost undetectable whoosh of dust and air as Shirotaka appeared beside her suddenly, not even acknowledging her as he peered intently down at the meeting. The rafter they were situated on was higher than the others, and on the far side of the room, hidden in the darkness away from prying eyes. Even if they were heard, they would most likely not be found. The two Akatsuki leaned forwards as the meeting began. The Raikage folded his hands on the desk in front of him and began speaking.
"Quiet," he called out across the bustling room. The silence was almost immediate, and he refolded his hands on the desk before him. "Let's make this quick," he said after the room had gone completely silent. "Let me speak first, and you may ask questions after.
"The three Anbu squads that were sent out months ago returned yesterday evening and had some interesting things to report, coming from the Sound. It appears Orochimaru has revised some of his previous plans due to a disturbance caused by infiltrators." Raine scoffed silently. Akage and Kageru... Were they found out? Those idiots, they'll mess up the plans! "It was brought to our attention three years ago by the Godaime Hokage that Orochimaru had obtained an Uchiha to use for his new body. He has, up until now, been training his body to prepare it for the moment when he will take it over and call it his own. He will still be continuing with this plan as far as we know, but there is also another problem that we need to worry about now.
"A man by the name of Akisu is that problem. We assume that he is the son of Orochimaru, and at the moment, he is an S-ranked missing-nin from Konoha that may currently pose more of a threat than Orochimaru himself." Raine's mind seemed to slow down as the time around her stopped. That name.... She had almost forgotten. Akisu...? It had a dull, metallic ring to it as it rebounded through her head over and over, trying to awaken some former emotion that had been lost years ago. But her mind was as dead as her body, she could feel no emotion. She blinked a few times and time sped up again as she refocussed on the meeting below. "He has become at least as much of a threat as Orochimaru, that is, until Orochimaru takes the Uchiha's body. And, on top of that, some of you may remember the Hikaru, the more powerful version of the Aohane. Akisu is the boy who carries this experiment, and it is still unknown how much of the experiment's power he is able to harness.
"But this is not the only new problem that has surfaced. It appears that the Akatsuki are also on the move again. No village is yet sure of their motives, but they have been spotted a number of times in the last few months all across the countries. They are still travelling in pairs and have not caused any large disturbances, but there is another problem that has recently been brought to my attention. Shizuka Tsukimi."
Raine would have pitched forwards off of the rafter in suprise had Shirotaka's arm not shot out to cover her mouth, as she almost cried out. She had not heard her full name for around ten years, but to hear it in a place and time like this was not something she looked forwards to. Whispers spread across the room below as the Cloud-nin remembered her name, connecting it to what she was.
"You mean... The Rokudaime-sama's...?"
"Yes," said the Raikage, coughing lightly once. "She is a wanted criminal, an S-ranked missing-nin wanted in both Kumo-gakure and Konoha-gakure. As most of you know, she is also the capsule for the Aohane, on of the Rokudaime's experiments gone wrong. She is also the holder of the Ikichi, the Lifeblood Stone of the Cloud. Most of you also know, and if you do not already then it is time for the secret to be publicized, that she is the daugher of the Yondaime Hokage. Although the former Raikage tried to keep this a secret from Kumo-gakure, the child she had given borth to was no child of Orochimaru's, who had left a few months prior.
"Although this is a problem in itself, there is more bad news. The Rokudaime Raikage's other child, her son Shizuka Sugi, was found badly injured and near death-" Near death?! We didn't kill him?! "-along with the other jounin found a few months ago. He nearly had his vocal cords torn out, but was able to begin speaking a few days ago, and what he had to say was not good. According to the information he passed to us, we can conclude a few things about the two Akatsuki that were sighted in Kumo-gakure. The first, is that one of them was actually Shizuka Tsukimi. The second is that she is willingly travelling with the other, and had no problem in attacking her own brother. The third is that she still carries the Ikichi. And the last is that she has become tens of times more powerful than when she first became a missing-nin. If she is able to control the Ikichi and the Aohane's power fully, she is as much a problem as Orochimaru and Akisu." A jounin suddenly approached the Raikage from the shadows behind him, bending down and whispering something in his ear. His face darkened slightly and he waved the man away, nodding slightly and whispering something back. What's going on? thought Raine, narrowing her eyes.
"In fact," he said in a slightly lighter tone, lifting a number of papers and tapping them on the desk to organize them. "She is probably listening to us at this very moment." Raine's eyes widened as several heads turned, looking around the room, a few even looking up towards her and Shirotaka. Although she knew she was well-hidden in the darkness, it was still bizzarre to be looking into the eyes of some of those hunting her. "She should know her way around very well, being a former Cloud-nin, and perhaps her and the other Akatsuki are listening in on this very meeting." He said the last words in an odd way, emphasizing them clearly, and some of the jounin shifted again, looking around further.
How can he know that, and act so peaceful and confident?.....! She turned her head slowly to look at Shirotaka. Was it a set-up?! A trap?! Her breaths began to speed up, and she had to force her body to calm down as much as possible. The room below had gone completely silent as several of the jounin looked around, some whispering to eachother. But her attempts to slow and calm her body were crushed when she noticed something else. The presences of the Anbu had vanished.
She looked at Shirotaka, whose forehead was beaded with sweat as he stared intently down upon the silent room. She saw him pull back slightly, clenching his teeth, and followed his gaze. The Raikage was staring directly at them. It was a trap, a set up, she thought numbly. She and Shirotaka could both sense what had happened, and were almost in a state of shock. Their exit had been blocked. There was a large amount of chakra between them and their escape route that both could sense even from there. The Anbu had been dispatched sometime during the meeting. If we do not move now, we will be slaughtered!
"Raine," whispered Shirotaka quickly. "We have to move. Now."
She nodded, scanning the room below. She could not twll if they had heard him or not, but most of them were now staring up at the darkest part of the ceiling, which just happened to be exactly where they were hiding.
"The only way out from here is down and out. We'll have to jump as far from the Raikage as possible and fight out. Use the orbs and the Aohane if needed," he ordered, standing on the rafter and gazing down. She remained crouched, wondering how he could act so calm. If they were captured, he would surely be killed, and she would be killed immediately after they got the Ikichi back from her.
"Go," he hissed. They both dropped from the rafter, sailing down through the air towards the wooden floor below. The jounin reacted immediately, jumping back against the walls or in front of their Kage, some drawing weapons but none moving as they landed in the center of the rough circle. They stood, Raine's heart beating at an unprecidented rate as she tried to keep her exterior as calm-looking as Shirotaka. She stood slowly, back-to-back with the taller Shirotaka, swallowing hard. Why weren't the jounin attacking? Her body reacted to the adreneline pumping through it, and the twenty-four orbs automatically materialized around her, spinning furiously for a few seconds before falling still and hovering.
"Ah," said the Raikage calmly. She was staring directly ahead and slightly down, concentrating on the wooden floor. Shirotaka could do the talking. "I was wondering when you two would expose yourselves." Shirotaka said nothing to this, and Raine was barely listening. She was slowly concentrating her chakra to the seal on her stomach, feeling the Aohane stir longingly within her. Her eyes were wide and blank as she concentrated all of her thought and energy on the seal. She could almost hear the Aohane laughing with excitement at the bloodbath that it would soon be drenched in.
"There is no possible way you can escape from here. Give us the Ikichi, Tsukimi."
The Ikichi is mine, she thought, still staring at the floor. I'll not have an old man like you take it from me. We will...
"Tsukimi," he went on calmly. The room was completely silent. "Give me the Lifeblood. The Ikichi."
"Shut your trap, old man," muttered Shirotaka. He still need time to think of a plan, and time for Raine to prepare the seal. We will...
We will rip you apart.
