Chapter 5

The Appearance of Doubt

Kakashi walked through the halls of the Akatsuki's headquarters with his overcoat opened and his hands shoved deep into his pant pockets. A frown was on his face, and he was starting to feel on edge. The group finished collecting the majority of the remaining artifacts a week ago, leaving only a handful left to gather from Konoha itself before their task was completed. But Pein called a temporary halt on the missions while he delved deeper into something he'd found in the last batch of scrolls the group retrieved from Earth Country.

Kakashi's argument that they would lose momentum if they stopped now, before attaining their goal, was ignored by the Leader with no explanation as to why. In fact, the young orange-haired man hadn't spoken directly with him in over five days. Kakashi was beginning to wonder if he'd placed his trust in the Akatsuki incorrectly.

The feeling of distrust only increased when he noticed Itachi hadn't stopped interrogating people in the villages they had visited even after their heart to heart. Kakashi felt his shoulders slouch and he heaved a large sigh into the empty hallway. This had to end – before he drove himself insane with his doubts.

Kakashi pulled his hands out of his pockets, fastened the snaps of his overcoat, and walked with purpose toward Pein's rooms. He would have his answers. One way or another. When he turned the corner which led to the Leader's suite, his frown found its way back to his face. Standing just outside of the man's rooms was Itachi and Kisame, deep in discussion with Zetsu and Deidara. They all fell silent when they noticed him – and again he wondered what had happened to so drastically change how he was being treated by the group he'd sworn allegiance to.

Kakashi placed a neutral look on his features, lifted two fingers to his forehead and gave a wave. "Yo."

Kisame turned away from him, Itachi's eyes shifted to the floor, and Deidara fiddled with his ponytail. Zetsu turned his half black/half white face in Kakashi's direction and met his eyes.

"You don't belong here, Kakashi Hatake." It was the plant-man's darker half that spoke.

Kakashi placed a slow smile on his lips. "That's something I would have expected to hear from you six months ago, Zetsu, but not today."

The plant mantle around Zetsu's head bristled at his words, but he made no further comments. Instead, Kisame spun toward him, his pointed teeth bared when his thin lips pulled away in a farce of a smile.

"Kakashi, why is it you can't do as the Leader has requested? Why can't you just wait for him to call for you?"

Kakashi shrugged. "I was bored."

The blue-skinned man seemed surprised by his answer. "You were bored?"

"Yes, bored. Without the missions, this isn't the most stimulating of places for the intellect. But I suppose that you wouldn't have noticed that."

Kisame growled and lunged toward Kakashi, who simply stepped to the side and directed one swift chakra-enhanced blow to the taller man's rib-cage as he moved past him. The end result was that Kisame landed in a heap on the floor of the hall, gasping for air while Kakashi shrugged once more, turned on his heel, and moved to leave. He paused a handful of steps later and turned back to the four men.

"Let the Leader know I'm ready to chat when he is." With that, he turned and headed out of the hall.

Konoha was on high alert, and had been for over a month now. Reports coming in from every other village made it clear that this would be the Akatsuki's next stop. Rightfully, that attack should have occurred over a week ago. But still, there was no sign of the enemy. In fact, all signs of the Akatsuki disappeared shortly after their assault on Earth Country.

Tsunade paced in front of the windows in her office, hands clasped behind her back, shoes marking out a distinct cadence across the wooden floor. She felt as though she was missing something obvious. But for the life of her, she couldn't figure out what that might be.

"Shizune!" She called out to her aide with a voice that betrayed her frustration.

"Y-yes, Lady Tsunade?"

Shizune's stutter reminded Tsunade that she needed to reign that anxiousness in. She sighed and tried again, turning to meet the dark eyes of her dead lover's sister.

"Shizune, has there been any word from Asuma's team yet?"

The aide lowered her eyes and frowned. "Nothing yet."

Tsunade moved to lean her forehead against the cool glass of the window, closing her eyes. "And what about from Kurenai's team?"

"Only that Earth Country is still trying to regain some level of normalcy after the attack. They're scheduled to meet with the Tsuchikage in the next few days. They'll know more after that."

Tsunade opened her eyes and stared out into the streets of Konoha, noticing how few people were out of their homes even though it was a beautiful sunny day. No one in the village was unaffected by the Akatsuki's threat, not even the civilians. She sighed.

"I have a bad feeling about this. We should have been attacked by now."

"Do you think maybe Kakashi really is working on our side?"

Tsunade turned to look at her aide. "Shizune, I wish I could say yes to that...more then you could ever know...but even I wouldn't take that bet."

Kakashi left the headquarters to walk through the surrounding forest in an attempt to clear his head. He couldn't figure out what happened to cause the sudden change in attitude from his fellow Akatsuki members. Had he said or done something inappropriate? Did he break some sacrosanct rule? Did he insult Pein somehow?

He kicked at a stone in his path and frowned. He hadn't felt this self-conscious since he first started in the ANBU when he was fourteen years old. He didn't enjoy the feeling then, and he sure as hell didn't enjoy it now. The wind blew his hair into his eyes, and as Kakashi lifted his hand to move it away the porcelain ring on his finger caught his attention. He clenched his fist and felt his frustration rise. Why was the group that had worked so hard to make him one of them suddenly shutting him out? It made him doubt everything he'd been doing here.

Kakashi walked to the edge of a stream and shook his head. He hadn't meant to walk this far away from headquarters, but he couldn't work these thoughts through in the confines of the cave-like rooms. He squatted at the waters' edge and dipped one hand into the cool liquid. He cupped the hand and brought some of that water to his lips. Dipping the hand back into the water he was just about to take another drink when he realized he was no longer alone. He recognized the chakra immediately.

Kakashi scratched along his jaw-line and slowly rose to standing. "Is there something that I can help you with, Kabuto?"

A low chuckle came from behind him. "You could volunteer to come with us, Kakashi Hatake."

It was Kakashi's turn to chuckle. "Now why would I ever agree to that?"

Kabuto sighed. "After hearing that you turned traitor, I figured anything was possible."

Kakashi smiled as he slowly turned to face the glass-wearing pest, noticing the slight blush that rose on Kabuto's cheeks as the young man took in his unmasked face. "I look at it more as waking up, rather than turning traitor. It has a better ring to it, don't you think?"

Kabuto pushed his glasses up his nose and shrugged. "Whichever name you give it, the results are still the same…you are no longer a member of Konoha."

Kakashi crossed his arms in front of him. "So, we have that much in common, right, Kabuto?"

A small smirk covered Kabuto's face and he took a step closer. "Perhaps we'll have even more in common when all is said and done, Kakashi."

"I wouldn't count on it, boy." Kakashi's arms shifted and his hands blurred through a series of hand seals, ending with stream of chakra forced through his lips and forming into a fireball aimed straight for the Snake Sannin's lackey.

"Impressive, Kakashi-sensei, but you should leave that particular jutsu to the experts." The words were followed by another fireball, this one aimed at Kakashi's head.

It was easily dodged, but was followed up by a series of smaller fireballs that took a bit more to avoid. When Kakashi finished his tumbling and skidded to a stop, his eyes focused on the pale-skinned boy he'd tried so hard to save. "Sasuke...how could you have gone to him?"

Sasuke's laughter crawled up and down Kakashi's nerves. "How can you dare ask that? You…who is in league with their own devil?"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "At least my devil has a purpose that is a bit more honorable than Orochimaru's."

"Can you be so sure of that, Kakashi? Remember, Orochimaru was a founding member of the Akatsuki." Kabuto's voice was next to him now, and he barely avoided having the boy's chakra-scalpels slice into him by launching himself onto the stream's surface.

Kakashi started making hand seals to take advantage of his location, but before he had the chance, he felt his body surge with an enormous electrical charge. He tried his best to channel most of it away from himself, but being caught by surprise like that, he wasn't able to counter it all. When it ended, he was left gasping for air and fell to the water on his knees. Only his decades of experience kept him from losing his chakra control and sinking into the stream.

Sasuke stepped closer to him, his hands still sparking from the electrical charge of his modified Chidori. Kakashi smiled. "I should have known you'd make that technique your own, Sasuke. You always were brighter than the others."

Sasuke smirked. "It's a shame you didn't realize that sooner, Sensei."

A noise in the distance made it clear that their battle hadn't gone unnoticed. Kabuto joined them on the water and grabbed a handful of Kakashi's hair in a vice-like grip. "Game's over gentlemen. We really do need to take our leave now."

As the words registered into his brain, Kakashi felt Kabuto's fingers press into the juncture of his shoulder and neck. The analytical part of his mind knew that just the right amount of pressure there could kill a man. In fact, he'd used that method more than a few times in his ANBU days. He also knew that the pressure point was an effective way to temporarily immobilize the strongest of opponents.

He felt his body go lax and fall forward into Sasuke's waiting arms, all the while wondering why he didn't put up more of a fight to escape their attack. Darkness claimed him, leaving the question to be answered another time.