Chapter 13

Landing on the steps to the temple I look up at the damage done to the weird figures on what used to be the gate. "What is this?" One of the gate chunin asks as we all look up. Until two monks come to the top of the steps. Both of them are bald making me think that's a normal thing for these monks. One had a white beard with bushy unkempt white brows and a wooden cane. "You... Are from the hidden leaf village, right?" The younger man asks down to us.

"Yes." Asuma answers and we start to walk up the steps to them.

"We were contacted by the young monk in your care." He explains how he knew we were coming. As Asuma reaches the second to last step the old man finally speaks.

"I am the head monk of the Fire Temple, I had been out of the temple for a while when I heard about what happened here.." He then turns to lead us the rest of the way to the Fire temple. "I rushed back as quickly as I could but... It was a terrible sight." Following behind them I nearly yawn at all the talking but I manage to keep a hold of myself.

The old monk falls silent as we walk through the gates of the fire temple before the sight was actually revealed to us. It was in complete shambles. Torn down into rubble. I didn't really expect anything less. The Zombie team's tactics are, overboard to say the least. Everywhere they go always ends up this way. They don't exactly move under the radar like Itachi, Kisame, and I, and it constantly gets them lectured by our leader. For a secret organization that is supposed to move amongst the shadows. Those two are far from stealthy.

Coffins were lined up in neat rows on the ground before the destruction. There had to of been hundreds of dead. Another signature move of those two. Instead of settling for a single mark and catching them on their own to prevent unnecessary fighting. These guys, especially Hidan. Has to kill every last person. One of the main reasons why we have a hard time getting along.

"We asked neighboring temples for help recovering the remains." The old man explains as he stops. This action makes us stop as well while the rest of them take in the situation.

"This is awful." Shika remarks with a hand on his hip as he looks at all of the coffins. The sight making all of them grimace in disgust.

"Where's Chiriku?" Asuma asks taking his eyes away from the area around us to look at the old man. The young monk's eyes widen as he looks down.

"Actually, we have been unable to find Lord Chiriku's remains.."

"Asuma.." I force myself to exhale as my eyes widen just long enough for the others to see me.

"What is it, Kira?" He asks turning towards me.

"This would have to be the work of the team consisting of the Akatsuki Treasurer.." I tell him trying not to smirk when his eyes widen.

"Wait, what do you mean?" One of the gate chunin asks and I ignore him a moment watching Asuma.

"As I said the Guardian Shinobi Twelve have bounties on their heads. There were only two left. Asuma and Chiriku. The Akatsuki attacked here... Not looking for the Jinjuriki.."

"But for the bounty.." Asuma breathes and I nod. "That means.."

"Yes, this team contains the one person more immortal than I am…" I comment causing a confused but brief look from Shika.

"What... Do you mean?" Asuma asks giving me the chance to finally release the pent-up sigh I've been holding back.

"I cannot be killed by man-made weapons. That being said. If I take too much damage by ninjutsu then I will inevitably die. This guy, however... You can cut him into pieces and he'll still curse at you."

"W..What in the world is that guy?!" One of the chunin asks and I shrug.

"That I don't know the answer to. But it's safe to say they would be taking the body to a drop-off point in order to cash in on the bounty before they do anything else." I put a hand on my hip as I watch Asuma's eyes harden thinking about what I said.

"Izumo." The gatekeeper with the bandages on his face looks over his shoulder at the other brunette. "Where's the closest collection offices?"

Izumo flips through his clipboard. "Including the closest one, there are five locations in total." He says then looks up at the other one.

"Hn, send word to the other teams." Asuma orders making Izumo nod in understanding. He then completes his hand signs summoning five white doves before inscribing on small pieces of paper what we found out.

Releasing them he watches them take off in different directions to the other teams. "Now the nearby teams can rush right for the other four exchange point locations and they have an idea of what they're going up against." Izumo says watching them until they were out of sight. I see, so one is meant for the village.

"Alright, let's go!" Asuma says then turns to walk away.

"Please wait a moment, Lord Asuma Sarutobi." The old man speaks making Asuma stop and look back at him. "Please allow me to say a prayer for all of you who are about to fight." The two chunin guards look at each other with a look that very nearly made me laugh and Shika's face droops that used to mean he was about to complain about how much of a drag that would be.

Asuma just smiles as he turns back to the old man. "It would be an honor." Yeah, right. I nearly sigh, seeing all of them now bowing their heads respectfully as the old man raises his hands folding them in prayer after handing the younger monk his cane. As he begins his low chant I look up at the sky. There was a low rhythmic tone to it. With the old man's deep voice it almost felt like it was vibrating inside me.

I thought the chant would take forever before the old man finally finishes. "Please. Be safe." Hearing those words I look away from the sky to the old man as Asuma raises his hands in prayer bowing his head.

"Thank you." He pauses then drops his hands. "I will at the very least, retrieve Chiriku's body."

"Please, don't push too far." The old man says then looks down openly at Asuma's sash. "You have a bounty on your head for being a former member of the Guardian Shinobi Twelve… Just like Chiriku." He then looks back up to Asuma's gaze. "Please be careful."

"No need to worry." Asuma smirks as he puts his hands on his hips. "The bounty on my head is Five million more than Chiriku's for a reason." He then holds out his hand showing all five fingers as he is talking causing me to push the palm of my hand into my forehead. Idiot. That just means Kakuzu won't be able to pass you up.

Shikamaru chuckles at his Sensei before looking back at the old man with a smile. "The only thing Asuma has to worry about is that he smokes too much."

"Let's go." Asuma clears his throat before turning and leaping out of the Temple to the trees. Following behind him I look down as we move. Making sure I stay close by.

"Asuma Sensei." Shika calls out as we make our way through the trees to the closest drop-off. Asuma gives a sound of question as he looks back to Shika. "What kind of relationship did you have with this Chiriku guy?"

"What brought this on all of a sudden?" Asuma asks giving Shika more of his attention as he moves up next to Asuma again.

"A heavy smoker like you who hasn't smoked in two whole days. You always stop smoking when something bad happens." Can't he tell that Chiriku was a friend?

"Observant as always." Asuma chuckles nearly making my eyes roll. Observant, yes. But a slow observation. "I'm too soft if you can see through me like that."

"I always can tell." Shika says just before his gaze falls on me out of the corner of his eye briefly as he talks. "What move you're going to make when we play Shogi." This for some reason makes Asuma laugh light-heartedly. Meanwhile, I'm just curious why he looked at me when he said that. It was as if he was claiming he knows that I'm still a member of the Akatsuki. "You haven't looked like this, since the Third Hokage passed away."

This however made Asuma fall silent. Even the guys behind us were watching the two of them with interest as if they themselves hadn't noticed any of this. "You know I was a member of the Guardian Shinobi Twelve right?" Of course, he does, we were just talking about this yesterday. Shika didn't respond probably having a similar thought as I had. "I guess... You could say we were like you and Choji." He continues without waiting for Shika to say anything.

Shika just seems to look at him for a few minutes before smiling. "You won't quit smoking for long."

"I won't stop smoking for long.. Huh?" Asuma then laughs looking at Shika. "Yes, that is how it's been until now. Shikamaru, I appreciate you worrying about me. But I didn't stop smoking because of Chiriku. More importantly, the guys from the Akatsuki are strong enough to kill Chiriku. We're dead if we don't stay sharp." Him saying this made the others look at me and I nearly sigh. Thinking of what's coming. "Kira, you're quiet." Asuma points out to me bringing my gaze up to look at him.

"I was just thinking, Asuma." I speak quietly causing him to look over his shoulder at me.

"Trying to figure out what else we may need to know?" He asks and I shake my head a moment. Causing him to drop back a bit so he was now moving next to me. Watching me closely.

"Not exactly, Asuma. I'm more thinking that if they see me. They'll target me. The leader probably has given them my picture by now as they should be well informed about me. It may even be enough to get them to forget about their bounty and to chase me down."

"So, you're scared." no.

"You bet, one I can certainly handle. But both of them, not a chance." Plus, Hidan has a big mouth. He could out me in a heartbeat unless the leader has ordered him not to.

"Kira." He says seriously watching me. "We have your back remember that." They have my back? That's a laugh. Hidan slips up and they'll attack me too.

"Okay, the other thing I was thinking about." I pause to meet Shika's eyes before looking back to Asuma. "We will be better off taking them on one at a time with a team comprising of mostly chunin. That is a no-brainer. The best strategy I can think of is dangling bait in front of them. Which would, automatically be me unless they somehow recognize you as the last remaining Guardian Shinobi."

"Hn. You're right." Asuma says before he clicks his tongue. "It can't be you. It is not a lie that you are in fact the ideal bait, Kira. But you are also the only medical-nin on this team. If something happens to any of us, we will need your healing. I nod to him and look down again.

"Then it would have to be you, Asuma. Thinking of that assumption we could do it in a number of ways. But I feel the best strategy would be Shika's shadow possession jutsu when you have one distracted. Ideally, he could catch both of them at once as a surprise attack but that would defeat the thought of separating them."

"I see where you are going with this." Shika pipes up now looking ahead. "If we can pull that off I'll be a sitting duck for the other one if he shows up. I will need Izumo and Kotetsu to back me up. We will keep Kira back but within enough distance, she can leap into action when we need her."

"Yeah.." Asuma says seriously now leaping forwards to catch up to Shika.

"It would be a lot better odds if Kira knew which one was the immortal." Shika speaks my name drawing my attention back to him. "Can you think of anything that you may have heard that would tell us which one?" He asks over his shoulder and I bring my fingers up to my chin. Acting like I am thinking. Trying to remember anything Itachi and Kisame could have said while we were on missions. Something I can grasp onto as a source to play off of.

"They didn't actually talk about any of the other members, for the most part. Except Deidara did call him a religious loud mouth dumbass. It's the main reason that makes me think they are actually only out there for themselves individually. There is no sense of friendship at all. Even between Itachi and Kisame. They work well together but they don't.. well... Do anything like friends. They don't talk about stuff beyond their missions or targets. Otherwise, they are quiet. I bet if anything happened to one or the other. It wouldn't affect them emotionally in the least." I shake my head as a thought comes to mind, I nearly smile. "No that's not exactly right. If anyone dies… no matter who it is. Most of them would take joy in killing." I could feel Shika's eyes widen as the others narrow their gazes in thought so I decided to add a little something in. "In fact, going from the four I did meet. Only one wouldn't take pure bliss in killing even their partner."

Silence fell over us before Asuma looked over his shoulder at me after a few minutes. "You said, only one wouldn't kill their partner." He speaks up and I actually do smile this time towards him. Showing there was one member of the Akatsuki that I didn't hate.

"That's right. The one member I am thinking of doesn't take joy in killing at all. He actually reigns in his own partner so they can remain under the radar. To avoid unnecessary death. Even when going after their marks.." I pause looking ahead of us and past them as if I am remembering the very man I am speaking about. "He never did the killing when it came to bounties either. He would distract them, or incapacitate them for his partner. But otherwise, he would stay out of the fray."

"So, you are trying to tell us not all of them are mindless killers like you yourself was just saying." I felt the accusation in Asuma's voice nearly made me sigh as I look back at him.

"Don't get me wrong, one out of four isn't a very good percentage when you look at how small the organization actually is. As I'm not saying he won't kill. Just unlike his reputation. He doesn't like to. As I am the only one who knows the real reason why.." I give him a smile. "Why he joined the Akatsuki in the first place." I then look away from him again, allowing my smile to fade and become more serious. "But that is neither here nor there. The ones we will be fighting today, aren't him. So be prepared for Sadistic killers." Successfully diverting their attentions with reminding them who they are up against I fight not to sigh as I begin to think about the fight ahead again. I just have to remind myself to keep as much information about Itachi down as I can until Tsunade finds those documents.