-Ten Days Earlier-
-Skypiea-
"You presumptuous insects…" proclaimed the man known as Lightning-God as he stood atop the mighty airship hovering above them, "You invade my holy land, defile my Vearth, profane against my priests, and now you seek to desecrate my relics…"
Most of Akatsuki had gathered together in readiness for a continuation of their earlier battle, which Enel had abandoned in a snit half-way through. Now, though, it seemed he was ready to give it another shot. The airship's enormous motors and propellers roared and whirred as it kept the gold-coated ship afloat, solving the weight-to-propulsion problem by channeling Enel's unlimited power. Lightning shook the air as the atmosphere ripped apart from his rage. He turned an imperious finger towards Akatsuki's leader.
"Are you even listening to me?!" Enel screamed.
A couple hundred feet away, Tobi waved him off, busily bent over in front of the Poneglyph embedded in the side of a tremendous golden bell.
"Yeah, yeah," said Tobi, clearly distracted, "Sounds great- I'll be right there, just gimme a second…"
Almost laughing with rage, Enel thrust out his palm, his body crackling with lightning.
[KAMI NO SABAKI: EL THOR]
Every member of Akatsuki- save for the one currently reading- shielded their eyes from the god-like lightshow as a two-hundred-million volt hammer of lightning as wide as a house crashed out from Enel's hand. It turned the air around it into an expanding wave of energetic plasma that singed hairs and burnt robes. The bolt struck Tobi dead on, covering the distance between them in less than a millisecond, at which point it immediately disappeared with a noise that sounded vaguely like a *vroop!*
Tobi grunted in annoyance.
"Quit it! I said I'm trying to read! I'll fight you in a minute, okay?!"
It was times like these that Danzou remembered why it was, exactly, that most of Akatsuki tolerated Tobi being in something like a leadership role. Each of these people respected power, and Tobi had it like few others he had ever seen before. Names like Hashirama and Madara came to mind, and that was no faint praise.
Enel began hyperventilating again, and for a moment Danzou felt sure he was about to witness a repeat of their opponent's earlier temper tantrum. Unfortunately, the man composed himself moments later.
"Very well," he said, breathing deeply to steady himself, "I know not what tricks you are using to escape my vengeance, but it means nothing in the end when I can rip the clouds from under your feet."
Immediately, Orochimaru and Kakuzu began preparing long-ranged wind-jutsu, but Enel needed no such preparation.
[SANGO]
Another titanic bolt of lightning appeared as if from nowhere, striking upwards from underneath Tobi. In a flash of light and fire it obliterated the tremendous cloud-wrapped vines that the golden belfry rested on before being absorbed into Tobi's defensive technique. The bell fell, smashing through several layers of cloud below before breaking through to the open air.
"Hey!" Tobi shouted, as he began free-falling, "I was reading that, you meanie!"
A series of white tentacles whipped out from his ears, grasping and clinging onto the remnants of one vine to halt his fall, and his Rinnegan flared with power. The incalculably heavy golden bell halted in mid-air, then began to climb upward once more.
Not to be outdone, Enel dodged the incoming wind attacks with an instantaneous teleportation, appearing next to Tobi with a vengeful cry, already swinging his heavy golden staff. Tobi attempted to dodge, but the attack landed unerringly, breaking his bones and sending Tobi shooting sideways into a nearby bank of clouds. The bell resumed plummeting to the earth below, but Enel paid it no heed. He landed on the clouds and then turned to the gathered members of Akatsuki, laughing with a god's nobility.
"Even with your tricks, see how easily your leader was bested! The rest of you cannot possibly stand against me, but I offer you one hope. Having defeated my priests, I am willing to offer you all a position at my side on my journey to Fairy Vearth! The moon holds a treasure of incalculable value, and together we can claim it!" Enel smiled, bestowing this wonderful favor upon them with divine mercy. "You only need to kneel before me."
Danzou glanced around. He didn't think that a single member of Akatsuki- with the possible exception of Deidara, who was trying to look like he wasn't involved- was phased by this man's threats. But, then, Danzou was well aware of their bomber's elemental weaknesses by this point. This so-called lightning-god just didn't appear all that worrying. He possessed a marginally competent teleportation and a perfect defense that relied upon his transformation abilities, but he was over-reliant on the sheer power of his lightning techniques. Danzou had seen little from this man to indicate he was a skilled fighter. Hurting Tobi was the first success he had had against them during these encounters, but…
No sooner had Danzou thought this than Tobi emerged from a nearby bank of clouds, scrabbling up to the surface with grunts of effort. He wasn't even hurt any more.
Danzou nodded to himself. He'd suspected for nearly a year now that Tobi had some method of self-regeneration, but it was normally so hard to hurt the man that it had taken ages to get confirmation. He'd add that to the list of Tobi's known powers.
The tentacles were odd, too. He hadn't seen those before.
"Aw shucks! My stone!" Tobi cried out in frustration. "I needed to see what was on that!"
Tobi pointed to Hidan, pulling the robed regenerator off his feet with a pulse of telekinetic power and eliciting a great deal of swearing. He grabbed Hidan by both shoulders and began shouting in his face.
"Go after that bell and make sure it doesn't go anywhere, okay?!"
"Wha- what the shit are you-"
Wasting no more words, Tobi picked Hidan up over his head and chucked him into the hole the bell had made. His screams faded away as he disappeared out of sight. Seeing this, Deidara spoke up.
"Hey, I'd better go down after him. You know- make sure he can get back up here, un."
"What?" Tobi asked, "Oh! Oh, yes, you're right! Okay!"
In seconds, Deidara leapt down after the falling regenerator. That left only Tobi, Orochimaru, Kisame, Kakuzu, and Danzou up above, with Sasori still busy repairing the ship from the damage it had sustained during their abrupt ascension. Tobi had offered to do it himself using his command of Wood-element ninjutsu, but after he bungled the first attempt Sasori had refused him further access.
Enel, meanwhile, was watching them all with a furious expression. Tobi turned back to him with pride in his eyes.
"Well!" Tobi stated with grandiose flair, "I hereby declare that since you made us fight your four priests, we get to subject you to our own trials!"
"Tobi, what are you doing?" asked Orochimaru.
"I have my four priests right here!" continued Tobi, showcasing the four Akatsuki members, "First up is… the Trial of… Sharks!
Enel narrowed his eyes, but said nothing.
"Psst, Kisame, that's supposed to be you…" Tobi hissed.
Kisame raised a hand and took a step back. "Mmmm… lightning and water don't mix very favorably, I'm afraid. You pass the Trial of Sharks. Congratulations."
Enel blinked. Tobi turned and ripped off his mask, betrayal filling his face. "WHAT?! COME ON! You can't just give up like that! What about adventure?! What about fun?! What about-"
Interrupting Tobi, Kakuzu leapt to the foreground, exploding into a thick cloud of black thread that coalesced into four figures. This was his Earth Grudge Fear technique that used the hearts of four powerful shinobi to create independent bodies. The four heart-creations wore white masks with green, yellow, blue, and red markings- each figure controlling master-level ninjutsu in wind, lightning, water, and fire respectively.
Now, the Wind Heart poured chakra into its attack.
[FUUTON: ATSUGAI] - [WIND RELEASE: PRESSURE DAMAGE]
A blast of intensely compressed wind-chakra shot from the Wind Heart and stampeded towards Enel at half the speed of sound. The clouds in its path began shredding and flying apart from the slicing wind chakra, and then the attack explosively expanded, engulfing Enel in a pressure dome of compressed air.
"Ah! Kakuzu! You jumped in too early!" cried Tobi, rushing to keep up with his commentary, "Err- You now must face the Trial of Strings! No- shit! Strings was one of the Priest's trials, wasn't it?!"
Enel shook his head as the attack covered him, paying no heed. Weak insects never learned the true meaning of power- it didn't matter what they did to him. The slicing attacks cut into his skin, seeming to tingle as they did so, but it would do no damage before he automatically transformed into lightning.
Lightning, as any mortal should know, was invincible.
He barely registered the stinging sensations worsening, looking down to see what the problem was. His eyes widened in shock as he watched a blade of wind cut a quarter inch into his skin before his lightning transformation finally responded. Other cuts were already welling up with blood.
Having felt pain for the first time in ages, Enel screamed in surprise, then covered his face. The vortex still surrounded him, refusing to relent, and he tried to transform into lightning to escape, only to find that his power refused him. Reflexively, he fell back on the power of Mantra, feeling the motions of the air before they happened and dodging the worst of the wind attacks.
Outside, Kakuzu's Fire Heart decided to add its attack to the maelstrom.
[KATON: ZUKOKKU] - [FIRE RELEASE: INTELLIGENT HARD WORK]
Enel's connection to the Mantra collapsed as he watched the incoming firestorm with the first true fear he had ever felt in his life. If that attack hit him when his defenses were malfunctioning, he could easily die. He pushed his lightning transformation harder and harder inside the slicing chamber of wind until, just before the world exploded in fire, Enel finally switched into his lightning form, teleporting to fall into a bloody heap in an area outside the erupting inferno.
With wild eyes, Enel snapped his head up to look at the Wind Heart, which was just now reorienting to face him. A flick of his wrist verified his lightning was now working properly, and he sent another bolt of landscape-shattering energy at the creature that had attacked him.
Silently, Kakuzu's Lightning Heart slid into the path of the bolt, sticking out both of its black, wriggling limbs to intercept.
Lightning struck.
For the first second it seemed to absorb the attack without problem. Then, rapidly overloading, a fan of lightning discharged wildly into the air behind its back. A second later, the Lightning Heart exploded in a cataclysmic blast of energy that sent the Wind Heart flying back from the battlefield, a stray bolt arcing to the nearby Water Heart and vaporizing it in a single instant.
Kakuzu watched this display of power in disbelief, shock hindering his motions as Enel fired a second blast to obliterate him. Saving the day, Tobi dropped into place in front of him, raising both hands. Once again, the blast of lightning disappeared with a *vroop* noise, and Enel screamed in anger.
"Okay! I guess that's the Trial of Hearts over for now!" Tobi said, cheerfully. "Next up, the Trial of Snakes! Orochimaru, that's you, in case you were wondering."
"Danzou," said Orochimaru, looking his way. Silently, Danzou nodded and ripped off his eyepatch, revealing the Sharingan underneath. Together, the two Konoha missing-nin sprinted towards the Lightning-God who was just now standing back up.
"Whoa!" shouted Tobi, "Danzou, you can't join in yet! I don't have a trial name for you! Hey, wait!"
Breathing deep, Enel connected once again to his Mantra. As long as he kept it together, he could predict every move these strange foreigners made. Even if they could somehow hurt him, it meant nothing if he dodged every strike. Feeling the future solidify in his mind, everything on the island began move according to its pattern. Smiling, he raised his hand to smite the two approaching heretics.
Then, with no warning at all, fate shattered.
Danzou's eye transformed into the Mangekyou Sharingan.
[YATAGARASU] - [EIGHT-SPAN CROW]
Enel felt his connection to the future fracture into a thousand different possibilities in an instant. Screaming, he collapsed to his knees and struggled to ready himself again, but Orochimaru had already launched an attack that sent a storm-front of wind chakra approaching him. Desperately, he transformed into lightning, darting out of the path of the attack and retreating from the battlefield. Unfortunately for him, his retreat was halted an instant later when another wall of wind blocked his path. Kakuzu's Wind Heart had returned and was watching the battle from a distance.
Pinned between both fields of wind, Enel was brought to the ground just in time to see Danzou in front of him, his sword glowing with a green energy that coated and extended his blade. Enel raised his staff, determined to block the first strike.
Danzou's blade struck true without even being hindered by Enel's attempt to parry, impaling the Lightning God through the chest on his right side.
Enel collapsed with a bloody sigh, and Danzou removed his blade, the Mangekyou fading away.
-Present-
-Approach to Water-7-
-Ship's Clinic-
Shimura Danzou saw the light being shone into his stolen eyeball with painful clarity and precision. He couldn't help it. Only an Uchiha could deactivate the Sharingan at will, which is why he normally kept his eye hidden behind an eyepatch.
"The deterioration of this eye is proceeding faster than expected," said Orochimaru, flicking off the light he had used to measure the cloudiness of the lens, "Assuming it continues to decline at this rate, I estimate you have another half an hour of operation at most before it becomes completely blind."
That was unfortunate, thought Danzou. Taking from the bodies of the Uchiha warriors that had gained a Mangekyou on the night of the massacre, he had recovered very few eyes before he had been forced to escape Konoha, and this was one of the last remaining ones that was useful for him in combat. Yatagarasu was the three-legged bird that represented the hand of the divine in mortal affairs, and it was intimately connected with fate. It was a fitting name, given that the three-pronged pinwheel shape in Danzou's Mangekyou could be used to view the future of whatever he was looking at. Three-second precognition was extremely useful for a technical fighter like himself, even if he couldn't bring out its full potential as an Uchiha might have.
As Orochimaru began replacing tools, the snake continued to pry. "Has the eye been acting strangely, Danzou?"
"Yes," he admitted. "Yatagarasu behaved oddly during the fights with both Enel and Aokiji."
The snake-man paused. "How so?"
"Normally, it shows me a single path for their fate, but against those two I saw numerous paths that converged into one as I watched."
Orochimaru nodded. "Hmm, that explains it."
"What, exactly, does that explain?"
"Both of those powerful fighters exhibited a similar trait. As we noted when we fought the lightning-user, Enel, he seemed to possess some ability to identify a person's location at all times, even at extreme range or when otherwise unable to see. I have since confirmed he possesses no special Doujutsu to explain this phenomenon. The so-called Admiral relied upon that same ability."
"I don't see what that has to do with the Yatagarasu."
"There was another aspect to it, I believe. Enel professed to be able to see our moves before we made them—"
"Yes, I'm aware of his empty boasting. We were the ones who fought him in close-range both times, and unlike the others claimed I found him to be an utterly incompetent fighter. I thought you had decided it was just that he boosted his reflexes through control of lightning, and then his control failed after the wind attack phased him."
Orochimaru shook his head, still stowing his tools. "No. I've since confirmed that wasn't the case. In fact, the only thing I can see that is the same in both cases is that Enel and the Admiral's fighting performance degraded immediately after you entered combat."
Narrowing his eyes, Danzou considered what he knew. "You think that they did, in fact, possess precognition."
"I also think that the Mangekyou Sharingan overpowered it. Like a master of Shogi thinking twelve steps ahead of a novice, when two predictions of the future clash only one can be true in the end. Whatever form of precognition those two used was no longer giving them accurate information—"
"Which would mean that the multiple paths I saw was the Yatagarasu fighting and winning a battle for supremacy," finished Danzou, nodding to himself. "It makes sense."
"Yes," agreed the snake-man, "-and it also means that it's more stressful on the eye itself. We only brought this one eye on this mission, so you would be wise to be careful with it, Danzou."
"Of course you are correct," he lied.
In truth, it still amused him that Orochimaru wasn't aware that he had brought the Kotoamatsukami with him on this journey, hidden away inside the First Hokage's mask of flesh on his shoulder.
After all, it had been Orochimaru himself who had implanted the eye there.
Years ago Danzou had taken Uchiha Shisui's incredible eye, the Kotoamatsukami, and though it had cost him, that cost had been worth it. For someone who wished for true power, it was a most glorious tool.
What a strange twist of fate that it had been born to one as unambitious as Shisui.
The Kotoamatsukami could be used to subtly and invisibly alter a target's personality and desires, even without eye-contact. The only problem— besides the normal Mangekyou's weaknesses of gradual blindness—was that it was limited to being used roughly once in a decade. So, cast out from Konoha with little in the way of resources, Danzou had known to use it wisely.
He had gone to Orochimaru.
Once Orochimaru had come under the Kotoamatsukami's thrall, the man had become convinced that Danzou's ascendancy would create the most wonderful cycle of destruction and rebirth in the country's history. With Orochimaru's aid, they had partially overcome the limitations of the Mangekyou by implanting the First Hokage's cells so that the eye could draw upon the natural energy that flowed from the Senju DNA. Now, instead of being useful once a decade, it was possible for him to use it once a week.
It was a pity they hadn't fixed the gradual blindness problem; the Kotoamatsukami was almost dead after barely ten uses. It was also a pity that he had never discovered where Itachi had hidden Shisui's other eye.
Also unfortunate was the fact that the eye hadn't worked as expected on Tobi. Or rather, after Danzou had enthralled him once, Tobi had followed his orders for more than a day, but the jutsu had weakened every time Tobi had used his damnable chakra-nullification technique, until eventually he had returned to normal. If he was going to manipulate Tobi he just had to wait for the right moment.
So the eye would rest safely in his shoulder until that moment arrived.
"While we lost a member to this threat," said Orochimaru, interrupting his thoughts, "I believe we may have learned enough to make up for the loss."
"Oh?"
"While the Admiral we fought was indeed powerful, if he represents the utmost powers of this world then I believe we've already won. All that remains is choosing the appropriate strategy." He turned to face Danzou, curiosity in his eyes, "Tell me what you would do, Danzou. I wish to see how you would stir the world into motion and ensure our control of the Fruit of the Divine Tree."
Danzou paused to consider this. Two separate uses of the Kotoamatsukami on the man over the years had meant that his control over Orochimaru was very thorough, but giving his thrall the answer he wished to hear would make it less likely to cause conflict in the long run. In this case, however, he felt that his honest opinion would work best.
"We do what we did with Konoha. Cut off a head and strike for the tree during the confusion. If these Admirals are the strategic power that they were implied to be, then killing one of the three would throw the world itself out of balance."
"Three? Strategic Power?" asked Orochimaru, not following. "Where are you getting this information from?"
"Oh, that's right," muttered Danzou, "You weren't up above when Tobi played us for fools again..."
-Hours Earlier-
Tobi, Kakuzu, Kisame and Hidan were above deck, and Danzou watched their ongoing argument from his position at the helm.
Kakuzu slammed his fist through a nearby railing, splinters flying into the ocean. With a barely-restrained growl, he bit out, "Of COURSE we need a smaller ship! Have you forgotten that Sasori died back there, Tobi? Without his mechanisms we're stuck sailing this massive thing ourselves. All because you wouldn't let me replace my heart!"
"Well that's not fair!" started Tobi, "He went off on his own! It was too late to help when we got there!"
"When you got there, Tobi," growled Kakuzu, "Some of us were fighting that man for five minutes before you thought to stop wandering about and join us!"
"That hardly sounds like my problem. Sounds like you guys couldn't handle him."
"Of course I couldn't handle him! I lost two of my hearts following after your worthless scheme up in the sky-"
"Now, now-" said Kisame, seeking to calm the situation, "Tobi, he really was a challenge. Honestly, I'm probably the only one among us who's used to fighting against an ice-user. There's a reason we in Mist exterminated the Yuki clan, after all."
"Don't think I've forgotten about you," snarled Kakuzu, pointing at Kisame. "What happened to the plan? In case of another powerful Fruit-User, we were supposed to trap them inside a force-field and fill it with water. Did you just forget about that without my water heart around to help you?!"
Kisame's jaw fell open, "You can't be serious! I don't care what kind of weaknesses these people have- you never give an ice-user more water to work with!"
"And so you conveniently spent your time fighting defensively rather than going for the kill? Fantastic."
"I expected Tobi to show up sooner! If we run into a fire-user you won't see me playing it safe, let me assure you. Tobi, what were you doing when the rest of us were fighting?"
"Hmm?" asked Tobi, pausing to sip from a nearby drink. "Oh! Well, I stole the soul of one of the pirates we beat in the games!"
There was a pregnant pause as Danzou, Kisame, and Kakuzu took this in. Sighing, Danzou abandoned the helm and stepped down to join the conversation he had so far stayed out of. He made it his personal mission to acquire a list of all of Akatsuki's strengths and weaknesses for when he finally betrayed them, and Tobi's list found a way to grow every day.
"Pardon me?" Danzou asked, hoping for some clarification.
"I ripped his soul from his head," reiterated Tobi, pointing to his own skull, "-so now I know everything he knew."
The earlier argument ceased for the moment, and Danzou felt like choking the man to death. Given the wide variety of mind-bending abilities Tobi had displayed or alluded to so far, it was never clear whether any given expression of his power was something real or just a symptom of his delusions. Honestly, soul-stealing sounded pretty worrying, as these things went.
"You... take someone's… soul… and then you learn everything they know…?" asked Kisame.
"Yep!"
"Tobi," asked Danzou, "could you have done that to the crew of this ship when we first captured it?"
"Well, duh," said Tobi, rolling his eyes.
"-and you could have saved us good bit of confusion and wasted time?"
As Danzou sought to uncover this mystery, Kakuzu began twitching with barely-restrained rage. Tobi just sipped again from his drink.
"What, and miss out on the adventure?" he asked, clearly put off by the idea, "You have to experience this stuff for yourself, you know! Besides, even if I knew it, you guys wouldn't have known it!"
"You are nothing but a worthless sack of refuse, you insufferable LUNATIC!" yelled Kakuzu.
"Man, I can't believe you guys are all against me," whined Tobi. "Some friends you are. Hey Hidan, aren't you going to say anything?"
A muffled scream and some thumping was vaguely audible from Hidan's direction. The solid lump of ice that he was encased in vibrated slightly in indignation.
"Oh, right, he got caught by that Admiral fellow."
"Tobi," asked Danzou, "Please tell me that you know something about this man that attacked us."
"Sure! I'll tell you all about him and the others!"
Before he could speak, Kakuzu growled out a threat. "Don't think that I've forgotten about my earlier demand. I won't take no for an answer this time, Tobi. I need a new heart, and we need a new ship that we can control without the puppeteer. If you want my help and my resources in acquiring a new ship, you will give me the lightning-user's heart."
Back in the ship's clinic, Orochimaru frowned as Danzou told the slightly disturbing story. Closing his eyes, he considered it all carefully.
"So… the world powers exist in a balance. The Four Emperors, the Revolutionary Army, the Shichibukai, the Celestial Dragons, the Pirates, and finally the Marines, headed by the three Admirals that represent their strategic might..."
Danzou nodded. "A Marine Admiral represents a perfect target once we have acquired some intelligence on their strengths and weaknesses. Taking an Admiral's head will force a fundamental shift of power away from the Marine Strongholds to cover their losses."
"It is also guaranteed to be a source of a powerful fruit-user to fuel the sacrifice needed by the Divine Tree," mused Orochimaru, and then he stepped over to a sealed cabinet. From inside he removed the jar that contained the Lightning-God Enel's heart.
Danzou watched the heart with interest. It continued to spark and convulse in the nutrient bath that sustained it, the excess electricity being absorbed by a complicated series of seals.
"That's it?" he asked, "The Fruit's power remains inside that heart? Can it be given to Kakuzu and still remain of use as a sacrifice when the time comes?"
"That depends on him, but I believe so. The Lightning-God's power may be extremely beneficial for meeting an Admiral's power with our own. If you ask my opinion, I believe it is likely that this fruit and the Admiral's were equals in terms of strength. It just goes to show the value of proper fighting experience. I believe that Kakuzu could make better use of it than that man ever could have."
Danzou smirked. "It would be quite dangerous to have Kakuzu turn this fruit against us. How confident are you that this heart can be sabotaged without detection?"
"There is no need to worry about that," assured Orochimaru, stroking the glass with a pale finger, "He is welcome to test his mastery of jutsu against mine any day. If he fights us before we reach the tree then he will find that his heart gives out quite unexpectedly."
"Excellent. Let it be so."
"Speaking of problems in the ranks," Orochimaru said as he began to prepare the heart for removal, "Kisame has been acting strangely since we returned from the island."
"Oh, yes… I had noticed that as well…"
-Hours Earlier-
Kisame shifted uncomfortably as he considered the events of the past day.
At Tobi's insistence they had gone along with the game called a "Davy-Back Fight" proposed by the other pirate crew in an effort to learn something about the outside world, and the first match had been an aquatic race. Kisame, of course, had been absolutely certain that that was where he would end up, and he hadn't been disappointed. He just hadn't expected to run into an opponent that would interest him.
Idly, Kisame brushed his hand along the rough surface of his shark-skin arm. One of the opposing team members, a man named Capote, had been a creature very similar to him. Greenish-blue skin, barely-visible scales, adapted to water, a nose like a billfish… Kisame had never seen another person like him in his entire life. Even more disturbing, Capote had seemed to know exactly what he was. He had called him a 'Fish-man'.
Of course, it was hardly Kisame's first time being called a 'Fish-man,' but somehow it seemed a bit more meaningful coming from this man of unknown species.
He had never known his true parents or his lineage. He had washed up as a baby on the shore of the Land of Water, and as he had grown into a body that possessed an immense physical strength he had been forcibly taken by Mist's roving recruitment squads. The intent had probably been for him to serve as fodder for the murderous ritual that was their initiation into training as Mist Ninja- they just hadn't expected him to kill every other one of the children and emerge as the victor.
Kisame was loyal to the mission. He had his duty and he would fulfill it. Mist didn't raise people who would quit their tasks on a whim, after all. So he had killed Capote with little in the way of thought.
But he found himself hoping that he would run into more of these strange 'Fish-men' on their journey...
Back in the present, Danzou shook his head. "I don't know what is causing his change in attitude, but I'm not concerned. Everything in his profile says he will continue to work to reach the tree." Unspoken was that they would then have to kill him.
Nodding, Orochimaru returned to his work, recovering the fruit and leaving the room with little else said. Danzou followed suit.
Many legends speak of a divine fruit that grows from a mystical tree, but what is generally unknown is that many of those legends were originally talking about a pomegranate. In other words, a single fruit with many other fruits inside of it.
When Danzou had learned that Akatsuki planned to fight their way to the Divine Tree, take the Millennial Fruit, and then split the power of the gods between themselves, he had been willing to do whatever it took to ensure they failed. But now he saw it as an opportunity. Tobi would reach the tree, and then, under the power of the Kotoamatsukami, the owner of the Rinnegan would happily kill every other member of Akatsuki and ensure that Danzou received the Fruit himself.
And under Danzou's careful watch, the world would finally know peace.
A/N: There will be a mini-update on Thursday.