Chapter 3: Friendship and Betrayal
The Akatsuki continued to train Kimimaro and myself, taking us on missions with them and occasionally sending us on simple missions of our own. Both of us became more adept at using our bloodline limits—my visions became clearer and more frequent, and Kimimaro learned the first of the hereditary taijutsu moves known as the "Five Dances." When I was eight years old, Deidara returned from a mission with a young girl about my age. Her name was Kataoka Akisane, and Deidara had found her in the Lightning Country, near the Cloud Village. Like me, she had inherited her clan's bloodline limit—in this case, an ability to manipulate the weather—quite strongly. And like me, she had been the only survivor of a massacre that resulted when the other villagers came to fear her clan's power. Deidara knew that such a unique and formidable ability could be a great asset to the organization, so he brought the child back to the base with him.
There is, perhaps, one reason besides the power of our abilities that explains why the Akatsuki took us in: loyalty. The Akatsuki have many subordinates who serve them out of a desire for money or power. Such mercenaries would switch sides in an instant if someone made them a better offer. The three of us, on the other hand, would never betray those who saved us, even if our lives depended on it.
Well, Akisane and I wouldn't, anyway. At that time, we thought Kimimaro wouldn't either. His betrayal was something that even I didn't foresee until it was too late.
Young ninja usually train in three-man teams, so it was no surprise when Akisane joined Kimimaro and I in our training and on our missions. It was also around that time that Kimimaro began to manifest the symptoms of the illness that would eventually claim his life. No one knew what the disease was—even the Akatsuki members didn't know what to make of it. Despite his recurrent bouts of fever, trembling, and general malaise, Kimimaro was still the strongest of the three of us.
Although we were being trained as shinobi, we were still children, and we sometimes got into trouble, as all children do. On one occasion, we found Hiruko, Sasori's prized puppet, sitting inert and empty in the hallway outside the dojo. Sasori was presumably inside the dojo, training with his real body. "This thing is amazing," Akisane remarked. "I mean, can you believe Sasori-san controls something this sophisticated from the inside?"
"How do you suppose he does it?" I asked. "Is it all chakra strings, or are there levers and buttons and stuff inside that he uses to move it?"
Akisane looked up and down the hallway, and a mischievous expression crossed her face. "Let's have a look inside and find out."
I grinned and lifted the Akatsuki robe that covered Hiruko. "Here, there's a panel inside that looks like it opens up. I bet that's how you get in." Working together, Akisane and I opened the panel and climbed inside.
"Uh, guys, are you sure we should be doing this? Sasori-san might get mad," Kimimaro said worriedly.
"Not if he doesn't catch us. You can stand guard and warn us if you hear him approaching the door of the dojo."
"Hey, look at this! There's a seat in here!" Akisane pointed to a sort of bench that did indeed provide a place to sit inside Hiruko. Both of us hopped up onto it.
I noticed several dimples in the wood of the puppet, and I could sense a dull chakra embedded in them. "I think these are attachment points for chakra strings."
"Phew, it's dusty in here," Akisane complained, punctuated by a sneeze.
I shrugged. "Well, he's a puppet himself, so I suppose it doesn't bother him." Suddenly, an image flashed through my left eye: a pale, delicate hand resting on a doorknob. "Uh, Kimimaro-san, is anyone coming?"
"I don't hear anyone," he said, then poked his head inside the panel. "Hey, can I take a look now?"
"Yeah, sure," said Akisane. "Hey, Tobi-san, move over so there's room for Kimimaro-san."
At that moment, Kimimaro stiffened and quickly withdrew his head from Hiruko's interior. "Er, hello, Sasori-san," we heard him say.
"What are you doing?" Sasori's voice was cold and suspicious.
"Er…I was curious about Hiruko and I wanted to have a look inside. I'm sorry."
"Where are Akisane-kun and Tobi-kun?"
"Er…I don't know."
"Damn!" Akisane cursed softly. "What are we going to do?"
"Shh, maybe if we're quiet he'll believe Kimimaro-san and go away."
"Believe Kimimaro-kun about what?" We looked up and saw Sasori glaring through the panel in Hiruko's side.
"Er…"
It was not until five years after I had first been brought to the Akatsuki that I met the man who founded the group and who gives them their orders. Throughout the shinobi countries, there are many rumors, each more outlandish than the last, about who leads the mysterious organization Akatsuki. None of those rumors have hit on the truth of the matter. The truth is simply this: over twenty years ago, a young shinobi of the Grass Village named Kimura Hidoshi rose through the ranks of his countrymen to become Kage. It had always been his dream to lead the Grass, and he molded himself into the most outstanding ninja his country had ever seen in order to reach that goal. But when he finally achieved his lofty ambition, he found himself disappointed. He was expected to protect the shinobi, who were all vastly weaker than he was, and the civilians who were too weak to defend themselves and so needed shinobi to defend them. He described his position as nothing more than being a "glorified babysitter." So in the midst of a great battle between the Grass and the Stone, he faked his own death and fled in search of opportunities to become truly strong. In time, he sought out other shinobi with the same mindset, and devised a great plan: to capture all nine of the bijuu and harness their power, putting that power to whatever use the fledgling organization saw fit. Sasori was the first to be recruited into the Akatsuki, followed by Zetsu, Orochimaru, Kisame, Kakuzu, Hidan, and Deidara.
The day I met the leader was one of those rare days on which the entire Akatsuki gathered at the hideout in the Mountain Country. Kisame had captured the jinchuuriki to which he was assigned. The Akatsuki were preparing to extract the demon from its jinchuuriki, and for this the leader needed to be present. All of the members were gathered outside the entrance to the headquarters, while Kimimaro, Akisane, and I waited inside, peering around the side of the cave mouth and hoping for a glimpse of the mysterious leader. Soon enough, he came into view around the last curve of the narrow ledge that led to the entrance of the Akatsuki base. Although he was neither particularly tall nor particularly broad, he was an imposing man. His hair was light brown in color and spiky, and his eyes were the golden color of honey. He looked to be in his forties, and the chakra that radiated from him was the strongest of any I have ever felt.
"Have all of the preparations been completed?" he asked brusquely.
Sasori nodded. "Yes, Hidoshi-dono." The Akatsuki are a proud bunch (and, truth be told, a bit arrogant at times), but all of them treated the leader with the greatest respect.
"Good." The leader stepped past the group of red-and-black-clad men, then stopped. "The three chakra signatures inside, are those the children you spoke of?"
The three of us looked at each other, then tentatively walked out from the entrance to stand before the leader. I swallowed hard. The aura of power resonating in the air around this man was so strong that it felt like a weight pressing down on me from all sides. "I am Sawada Tobi, sir. These are Kaguya Kimimaro and Kataoka Akisane, my teammates, sir." I bowed deeply from the waist and waited for the leader to say something.
He looked at us for a long time, his eyes moving slowly from one to another. "Your abilities are strong. In time, you will be of much help to the Akatsuki."
Reassured by those words, I grinned behind my mask. "We intend to be, sir!"
"May I ask a question, sir?" inquired Kimimaro. His face was pale, and his voice softer than usual. He had been having one of his bad days.
"You may."
"Everything I have heard about the bijuu suggests that they are beings of immense power. How will you keep this one from escaping once it has been removed from its host?"
"Like this." Suddenly, the leader was standing in the middle of the huge cavern that formed a sort of entryway to the main part of the Akatsuki base. He had moved so quickly that we had seen no trace of his motion. It was as though he had simply teleported from one location to the other. He knelt and placed one hand flat on the ground. Amid a plume of smoke, a gargantuan statue appeared. It had nine eyes, all closed, and its hands were upraised and manacled. "This statue will imprison the bijuu, and Kisame-san's ring will link him to it, allowing him to access its power."
The Akatsuki members leapt into the air, landing lightly on the fingers of the statue. Kisame made a Kage Bunshin, which left the room and then returned carrying an unconscious teenaged boy—the container of the bijuu. The Kage Bunshin placed the boy on the ground between the hands of the statue and then disappeared. The statue's mouth slowly opened, and a blast of energy engulfed the jinchuuriki. The chakra was so intense that Akisane, Kimimaro, and I had to raise our hands to shield our faces.
The extraction of the bijuu from its jinchuuriki took three days. At the end of that time, the three of us returned to the entryway in time to see the bright energy receding into the statue's mouth. The jinchuuriki lay on the ground, limp and pale. Slowly, Kimimaro approached him and laid a finger against his neck, feeling for a pulse. "He's dead."
Akisane and I walked forward to stand on either side of Kimimaro, who was looking down at the boy's body. The boy was older than us, but still very young, perhaps 15 or 16. I had killed before, on missions, but somehow this was different. When I had killed, it was because the other person was trying to kill me, in a fair fight—or as fair as fights can get between shinobi, anyway. This boy had been knocked unconscious, prevented from fighting back.
The leader must have seen how disturbed I was, because he jumped down from his position on the statue and came to stand in front of me. "This is the way of the shinobi," he told me. His voice was a bit softer than usual, but still filled with absolute confidence in what he was saying. "A shinobi, no matter how young, accepts the risk of dying and the necessity of killing. And this is something we had to do, for the sake of our dreams."
Being trained by nine S-ranked shinobi is an advantage that few young ninja have, and so our strength increased at an amazing rate over the next few years. By the time I was 14, the three of us were easily ANBU-level. The Akatsuki had entrusted more difficult missions to us, and we were allowed to complete these missions on our own more and more often. My desire to become a full member of the organization had only grown as time passed. The Akatsuki seemed like they could do anything. No enemy could stand against them, and there was no task too difficult for them to complete. I wanted, more than anything, to be that strong, to become truly an equal in their eyes.
Our strength, of course, was not the only thing about us that changed. Kimimaro's voice became deeper, and my own body seemed to undergo an exponential increase in height. And it seemed to me that Akisane had changed overnight. Suddenly, she had breasts and hips and a smile that could melt any man's heart in an instant. Being a shinobi, she was more muscular than the average girl, but she was still unmistakably a woman, and I sometimes felt like I would be perfectly happy if I could just look at her forever.
On one warm summer afternoon, the three of us were taking turns sparring with Kisame. It was Akisane's turn, and Kimimaro and I watched the intricate dance of swordplay taking place in front of us. Akisane used her speed and agility to her advantage against the much larger and stronger Kisame, and the fluidity of her movements entranced me. Kimimaro, being the perceptive person that he was, noticed this. "You know," he said, "Orochimaru-sama told me a story once about his old teammate, Jirayia. He said that when Jirayia liked a woman, he would tell her, 'Your eyes are like the stars, your voice is like the voice of an angel, and your body is as beautiful as the sakura tree in bloom.'"
I looked at Kimimaro skeptically. "That sounds kind of corny."
Kimimaro shrugged. "Orochimaru-sama said it always worked for Jirayia."
Jirayia was famous for his womanizing, so I figured that Kimimaro was probably right. Later in the evening, as we gathered to greet the newly recruited ninth member of Akatsuki, I edged close to Akisane and mustered up as much courage as I possibly could.
A lone dark-haired figure in ANBU garb was making his way along the ledge toward the entrance to the base. Keeping my eyes fixed on the horizon beyond him, I took a deep breath and said, "Akisane-san, your eyes are like…"
Akisane grabbed my upper arm excitedly and pointed to the figure ascending the ridge, cutting me off as if she hadn't even noticed I was speaking. "Dear gods, look at him. He's beautiful."
Apparently, what always worked for Jirayia doesn't work for me. At least not when there's an Uchiha around.
Although he was not much older than us, Itachi had been accepted into the Akatsuki as a full member. He possessed the Sharingan, which alongside the Byakugan, is one of the two most powerful bloodline limits in the world. He had been named an ANBU captain of the Leaf at the age of 13. And of course, he had single-handedly destroyed one of Konoha's most powerful clans.
Naturally, the question that everyone in Konoha asked themselves in the days following the Uchiha massacre was, "Why?" I think I may be the only person besides Itachi who knows the answer. You see, a short time after he joined the Akatsuki, I had another one of my visions. Itachi and Kisame were on a mission, and Itachi was hit with a poisoned kunai. The pair still managed to vanquish their enemy, but the poison had already begun to take its toll. It was not fatal, but it left Itachi feverish and sick for a couple of days. Kisame brought him to an inn in a nearby town, and left to find some medicine that would speed the healing process. In a fever-induced delirium, Itachi began to speak, tossing and turning in his sleep. He spoke of a hidden power of the Uchiha bloodline, an ability to control the chakra of other beings, even ones as powerful as the bijuu. The Uchihas tried to bring the most powerful of the bijuu, the Kyuubi, under their control using this ability. Unfortunately, they underestimated the power of the Kyuubi, and their plan backfired. The Kyuubi broke free of their control and was predictably rather pissed about the whole affair. So it attacked the village housing the people who had tried to control it. In the wake of Kyuubi's devastating attack, the Uchihas did not admit their mistake. Instead, they covered up their indirect responsibility for the disaster, hiding it from the rest of the village. And they kept the secret of their ability hidden as well, fully intending to perfect it and use it again some day. Knowing that a new attempt to use this power would probably produce results as devastating as the first one, Itachi set out to destroy the clan, eliminating everyone with the potential to use that ability. But when he was confronted by his younger brother, he simply could not bring himself to kill the boy. So instead, he gave the boy a task: to become strong, to hate him, and one day to fight him in a battle that would claim both their lives.
Although learning the motive behind Itachi's actions gave me some sympathy for him, I couldn't help resenting the fact that he'd entered Akatsuki at such a young age. He had achieved something effortlessly that I had worked towards for years. And it didn't help that Akisane had developed something of a fascination with him. "I mean, he hardly ever talks, he never shows any emotion, he has these weird lines under his eyes, what's so attractive about that?" I complained to Kimimaro.
"Hm?" Kimimaro looked up, blinking in a way that clearly indicated he hadn't heard a word I'd said.
"Never mind." We were practicing our shuriken (or in his case, finger bone) throwing, and I was hurling my shuriken at the targets rather harder than was necessary.
"Tobi-san…can I ask you something?" Kimimaro had stopped throwing his finger bones at the targets and was looking pensive.
"Yeah, sure."
"If…if someone who was precious to you, more precious than anyone else in the world, asked you to do something, would you do it?"
I thought about Zetsu, and about Kimimaro and Akisane. "Of course! Even if I had to risk my life!"
"What if…what if you had to hurt someone else to do it?"
"We're shinobi. Almost every mission we have requires us to hurt someone. But we do it to help the Akatsuki, because they're precious to us."
"Yeah. Yeah, I guess you're right." Kimimaro returned to his practice, but he still seemed disturbed. We had been having a lot of assassination missions lately, and I wondered if that was affecting him.
Sometimes I wish my bloodline limit was more reliable. If I'd known what Kimimaro was really talking about, I'd have given him a different answer.
It was a few days later that the shit, as they say, hit the fan. I had been reading a scroll that Sasori had given me which described a few medical ninjutsus, when the premonition hit me. Orochimaru's demented grin, a flare of purple chakra, a clash of minds, the scarlet gaze of the Sharingan. Orochimaru had found a way to transfer his soul into another body, and was determined to use it to take Itachi's Sharingan for himself.
I jumped up from my chair, scattering scrolls and papers everywhere.
"What's wrong?" Akisane looked up from her own scroll, immediately sensing that something was amiss.
"Itachi-san and Orochimaru-san are fighting. Orochimaru-san's trying to kill him!"
By the time I finished the second sentence, she was on her feet and out the door. I hurried after her, summoning all my chakra and looking around for Kimimaro.
A truly spectacular sight awaited us in the chamber where the bijuu had been extracted. A massive three-headed snake sat in the center of the room, hissing and writhing. Orochimaru had the sword of Kusanagi out, and he and Itachi were firing various ninjutsu at each other. Somehow, Itachi was dodging all three of the snake's heads while simultaneously countering every jutsu Orochimaru threw at him.
My bloodline limit was the only thing that kept Orochimaru from killing me outright. I saw each of his moves in my mind's eye a split second before he made it, just barely giving me time to dodge. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the snake's three heads hit the ground independently of its body, and then Akisane was fighting Orochimaru too.
In fictional stories about people who can see the future, their attempts to prevent an event often end up causing that very event. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that my warning to Akisane was what distracted her and created an opening for Orochimaru. While my right eye was keeping track of Orochimaru's strikes and blocks, my left eye saw the sword of Kusanagi slashing through an arm that was too slender and feminine to be my own. "Watch your arm!" I hollered, and in the instant that she turned to look at me, Orochimaru brought the Kusanagi down, cutting cleanly through Akisane's left forearm just below the elbow.
Within the next few seconds, Itachi had thrust Akisane into my arms, sliced off Orochimaru's right hand, and plunged the Sannin into the hell that is Tsukiyomi. Meanwhile, I tried my best to stop Akisane's bleeding and keep her from going into shock. I succeeded in doing both of those things, but I knew that loss of a limb usually meant the end of a shinobi's career.
Do you know the real meaning of the words "killing intent"? I thought I did, but I never truly experienced it until that day. Looking up at Orochimaru as he staggered to his knees after the Tsukiyomi, I felt an overwhelming bloodlust flow through me, pushing any other thoughts away. In that moment, I knew only one thing: I wanted Orochimaru dead. Destroying him, punishing him for what he had done, was all that mattered. I vaulted to my feet and rushed towards him, green medical chakra glowing around my arm. Normally, this chakra is collected around one finger to make a scalpel, but I was using it to make a sword. I fully intended cut Orochimaru in half. I think I might have been able to do it too—between having his hand cut off and enduring whatever torture Itachi had subjected him to in the world of Tsukiyomi, he was in no condition to dodge or counterattack. Still, I felt a prickling in the part of my mind that activates whenever I have a vision. I ignored it, too consumed by pure rage to pay attention. So it took me completely by surprise when I found myself being impaled by Kimimaro's femur.
Our faces were only inches apart, and I stared at him in shock. Looking back on that moment, I wonder if I just imagined the regret in his eyes. I don't think I did.
I collapsed to the floor, and Kimimaro escaped with Orochimaru. "Did Kimimaro…did he really…?" Turning towards the voice, I saw Akisane laying a short distance away. Tears and blood streaked her face, and her voice was weak.
I only nodded. Black spots were floating across my field of vision, but suddenly I saw a scene that was crystal clear: a gray-haired man with glasses bending over Orochimaru, tending to his wounds. "Orochimaru…won't die…" I said. Then I passed out.
I would have died if it hadn't been for Sasori. One of his human puppets was a former medical ninja, and he used this puppet to heal the injury Kimimaro had given me. He also constructed a puppet arm to replace the one that Akisane had lost. Placing the wooden appendage against the stump of her arm, he used a special medical jutsu to stimulate the growth of both human cells and wood, so that the biological and artificial parts of the limb would meld into each other. This process created a perfect seam and made it possible to mold chakra with the puppet arm, but it was also very painful. Akisane cried out and grabbed my hand, squeezing hard enough that her nails drew blood. I didn't mind.
The arm Sasori made for her was stronger than steel, and each hollow finger held poisoned needles that could be fired from the fingertips. Still, it took some practice to learn how to use it, and I had to take my recovery slowly as well. For me, getting over the shock of Kimimaro's betrayal was harder than overcoming my physical injury. I had never trusted Orochimaru, but I had viewed Kimimaro as a brother. He was the one who had tried to distract Sasori when Akisane and I hid inside Hiruko. He was the one who had told me about Jirayia's "foolproof" pickup line. He was the one who had completed numerous missions with Akisane and I, saving our lives on more than one occasion. Was Orochimaru really so important to him that he would betray us for the Sannin's sake? Apparently so.
In an unspoken agreement, Akisane and I both trained relentlessly so that we could complete missions meant for a three-man team with only two people. At seventeen, we were as strong as the average jounin.
One of our missions took us to the faraway Wave Country, a small island nation. We had been ordered to deliver a secret scroll stolen from the Stone Village to a man named Gatou. The scroll had been offered for sale on the black market, and Gatou was the highest bidder. Kakuzu was beside himself with happiness because Gatou had paid an exorbitant amount for the scroll.
The Wave Country was cold, and wet, and poor. It was a rather depressing place, a place where the people seemed to have lost all hope. Most of the buildings looked like they were on the verge of falling apart. The building where we had been instructed to meet with Gatou was easy to find—it was one of the few that looked like someone had bothered to take care of it. There were two people standing outside, flanking the door. One was a tall, muscular man with a sword almost as big as the Samehada. He wore a Mist forehead protector, and his chest was bare. On the other side of the door stood a much smaller and younger person with long hair and a Mist ANBU mask. As soon as we approached, the big man placed a hand on the hilt of his massive sword. "Who are you, and what is your business here?" he barked.
"My name is Sawada Tobi, and this is Kataoka Akisane. We're here to deliver something which Gatou-sama has bought."
The big man released his sword and nodded. "Haku, take them to Gatou-sama."
The masked boy pushed open the door of the building and led us in. We found Gatou sitting in a well-appointed parlor, leafing through some papers that looked like invoices. Two men stood towards the back of the room. Both carried katanas, but neither appeared to be a ninja. Samurai or other mercenaries, perhaps. Whatever they were, it was quite clear that they were Gatou's bodyguards.
Once again, we introduced ourselves, and presented the scroll to Gatou. He seemed delighted to have it, and one of his bodyguards handed us a suitcase full of money. Akisane inspected it quickly, then frowned. "Gatou-sama, I'm afraid one of your subordinates has made a slight mathematical error. This is only two-thirds of the agreed-upon amount."
Gatou smiled pleasantly. "You must be mistaken, young lady. That suitcase contains the full amount you were promised."
I pulled out the mission orders Kakuzu had given us. "No, our orders state the amount we are to receive quite clearly. If you are unwilling to pay that amount, I'm sure we can find someone else who will not be so hesitant." I didn't mention the fact that if Gatou didn't pay up, he'd most likely wind up dead. Kakuzu would not be happy to hear that the Akatsuki had been cheated, and an unhappy Kakuzu was not a pretty sight.
Gatou's face hardened. "You will take the amount you have been given and leave. If you try to force me to pay more, the results will be most…unfortunate." This seemed to be the cue for the two bodyguards to step forward and unsheath their swords.
I formed the hand seals for Kage Bunshin, and a copy of me appeared behind one of the bodyguards. I myself ran towards the other one. In unison, my clone and I hit the two men with the same attack: a medical ninjutsu that cut the muscles in their wrists, forcing them to drop their swords. Then we laid standard chakra scalpels against their throats. Akisane, meanwhile, had faced off against Haku. She held a kunai against the boy's throat, but he also had a senbon needle poised against her neck right over the jugular. One of her hands gripped the boy's other wrist, and his hand was paused in the middle of a seal. Apparently, he had tried to activate some sort of jutsu and she had seized his hand to stop him.
"You know, it will be cheaper for you to pay the full amount we agreed on, rather than have to replace your guards after we've killed them," I told Gatou.
Gatou grimaced, pulled out a few more stacks of bills from somewhere, and threw them into the suitcase. "Take your money and leave, and I don't want to ever see you here again!" I allowed my clone to dissipate, and Akisane and her opponent slowly lowered their weapons from each other's necks. I picked up the suitcase and we left as quickly as we could.
"Do you think Gatou will get mad and send some of his people after us?" Akisane asked.
"Maybe. We should probably get out of the Wave Country as fast as we can." To this end, we sped up, darting and weaving through the streets to get back to the docks. As I was shifting the briefcase from one hand to the other, I bumped into an older man who carried a huge scroll.
"Hey, you kids watch where you're going! You almost made me drop these important bridge blueprints into the mud!"
"Sorry, sir!" I called back over my shoulder, and we continued on.
A/N: Wow, this chapter turned out a lot longer than the previous ones. I'm planning for there to be one more major chapter and then a relatively brief epilogue, which will pick up where the prologue left off.
