I apologize for the huge delay on my part. The reason for that is rather simply, I'm currently looking for a job. My contract with my old work space was over and now they decided to not take me anymore. Worry not, I have a plan B but it take most of my free time. Anyway, let's not concentrate on the negative things in life and instead let's focus on the positive. The new chapter is there (yay) and i hope you enjoye it.
—
The blond artist of the Akatsuki let out a audible sigh as he sat down in the comfortable audience chair of the grand theater of Atlas. His expensive and well tailored suit fit like a second skin on his body and he would normally take pride in such fine clothing but not during such a annoying day. Sasori sat down next to him in a identical suit and glared at him. "Behave yourself Deidara. First impressions are important."
Ever since Sasori started to work for the small company there businesses has been booming. Everyone was talking about the boy wonder who could tinker such magnificent modifications for weapons and robots. It even caught the attention of the higher society, that's the reason they were invited into this fundraiser for the refugees of the kingdom of Vale.
"It's literally the beginning of this little party and it's already annoying me my man. I mean look we're we sit. A balcony so far away that we can barely see the stage? What kind of architect made this?" Deidara complained as he leaned back into his chair with his arms crossed.
Sasori shook his head. "You obviously don't understand how this works, this is a massage. They are basically telling us that we are part of the higher society but still at the bottom of the barrel. I hope you are ready or a bunch of passive aggressive comments. Now that I think about it you'd better stay out of talking to prevent embarrassing our name."
Deidara held his hands up to Sasori's face. He wore white gloves because Sasori demanded it. "Is this the reason i have to were these? Because my freaky palms might cause rumors or bad press to our name?"
"Welcome to the game of the higher society. Now shut up and enjoy the show." Sasori simply held up a pair of golden binoculars to his face to see the stage.
Deidara crossed his arms again and stated to mutter to himself. "Another reason why my art is better, you can't sell it or have these social balls around them. I just blow something up and become a legend, end of story."
Sasori handed Deidara the binoculars. "Here, this should shut you up."
Deidara took the binoculars and looked at the stage through them. He immediately recognized the singer, it was Weiss. She was standing in the spotlight in her elegant dress and sang with such a powerful voice. He was simply awestruck, when was the last time he felt so amazed by someone? The only person coming to mind would be Itachi and the first time he saw the power of the Sharingan.
This however, was on a completely different level. A new form of art that absolutely amazed him. A fountain of inspiration, new highs that he will climb. A new chapter on his journey for the ultimate art.
The puppet master smirked as he watched how Deidara studied every single movement of her performance and every little movement of her lips. "I new that would work."
—
Itachi snapped awake from a dream he couldn't remember. His body was stiff and he felt slightly uncomfortable.
He quickly realized that he fell asleep while he enjoyed the sunshine while sitting in a chair. Maybe not the best idea to sleep completely exposed to the heat of the sun while being clothes for longer journeys. Well, it wasn't the worst situation he woke up to.
He noticed that the sun was starting to set. They would arrive in the morning so it would probably be best to sleep the rest of the day in a bed rather then outside. He should hover grab himself a bite to eat.
Just before he started to get up from his chair the Ship was rammed by something. Suddenly a giant dragon like grim rose from the waters and started down at its prey. As the guest on the ship stated to panic and the crew started to load there weapons Itachi was struck with a hard choice. Should he grab himself something to eat now or first fight the Grimm.
However mighty that beast might looked Itachi new that it was far below him. He finally decided to first take care of the beast and then eat. The Uchiha was just about to get up from the chair when he suddenly saw a certain monkey Fanus riding the Grimm. Not long after he was supported by a well known cat Fanus.
That put a little smile on Itachi. Now he could go to the buffet and take something without caring to much about the beast. Normally he wouldn't care so much for food but it has been days since he ate a warm meal and the food looked quite good.
As the ship steered and turned to different directions Itachi made his way to a large table with warm food. They apparently used red dust crystals to keep the food warm, a neat little use for these things. As the crew ran around the ship to fire the canons The Uchiha simply walked past them back to his chair.
As he sat down and ate his food he simply watched the two Fanus fighting the Grimm. He new he should probably help them but the food was quite tasty and it appeared like they had things under control. Plus it wouldn't be good for them if Itachi simply took this challenge, they need to grow and harden themselves in battle.
As he continued eating he noticed that they were having slight problems so he decided to matters into his own hands. Itachi waited until the beast came just a bit closer to the ship before taking care of business.
While still sitting he pulled out two knives and waited for the perfect moment. When that moment came he threw both of them in the general direction. While in the air they collided with each other and one of them hit the dragon Grimm directly in its nostril. That knife however had a read dust shard attached to it and shortly after exploded.
The Grimm roar in pain as it's entire snout was blown to bits. The pain was so incredibly intense that it immediately fled the fight. If the dust crystal was only a bit bigger or was deeper inside the nose of the dragon he might have been able the kill the beast, but for now this victory was enough.
Blake and Sun jumped of the dragon and onto the ship right after the explosion. They watched the Grimm run away before turning to Itachi who was still sitting there in his chair and eating his plate of food. He simply looked at them with his bored eyes and shrugged. "Have you tried the steak? It surprisingly tender."
—
Somewhere on a forest bath two members of the white fang where walking towards there destination. A meeting with there superior Adam Taurus.
One was a shark who was a master of lies and deception, he knew what his purpose was. Get into the fish tank and then devour all of those little fishes like the shark he is. The other one was a far more human looking Fanus, a spider that only wished to fight the good fight like all of her comrades.
Right now however Trifa was currently fighting a more personal fight. Since they started there journey,that will definitely take another couple of days, no one has said a word and she blamed herself. She couldn't remember what happened last night except that right in the morning she woke up sleeping on top of her captain.
How could she do that and what kind of other embarrassing things did her drunken self do that night? Did she try to seduce him? Did she try to take her clothes off? Hundreds of pictures popped into her head of things she might have done. There wasn't one scenario in her head that didn't make her look like a huge idiot.
"Trifa, Tell me if you see a river or a pond. Basically just a mass of water." Kisames voice brought her back to reality and she thankfully had a chance to speak with him.
"Yes captain." She answered as both returned to silence again.
She was mentally screaming at herself, finally she had the chance to have a conversation to make it less awkward between them and now the chance is gone. Could she maybe find a way to talk again? Maybe ask why he wants a larger body of water, but didn't to much time pass already? Wouldn't it be strange to ask that after such a long silence?
Finally the spider Fanus gave herself a push. "Are you thirsty captain?"
Kisame shook his head. "No, I just think I have some web in my hair that I didn't get fully out."
"W-web?" Trifa slowly repeated.
"You covered me last night in order for me to not, and I quote: escapade your spidery embrace." Kisame simply answer while Trifa wished that the ground would just open up and swallow her.
She had to attempt at least some way of making this conversation less awkward, some topic that they both agreed on. She came up with the first thing that came to her mind. "Let's hope we Come across some humans on our way."
Kisame stopped dead in his track as her heard that. As he turned around Trifa expected some sort of smile or some sort of agreement but his face was completely different. It was the face of pure disgust.
"Did you not had your fill yesterday? Wasn't it enough for you to kill those people in the forest? Those who's only option was it to run?" Kisame asked with a grim expression on his face. He was tired of this, no sick of all those unnecessary killings. When he joined the Akatsuki his mission wasn't to senselessly murder people, it was always for a higher cause he believed in. Now, he fought for Adam's dream, a mass grave for humans and all those who opposed him.
"B-but we fight for the Fanus, we are bring freedom to our race." Trifa nervously said as the anger started to boil in kisame.
"We don't! You fight for Adam and his mad dream while never meeting that fool! I never wanted this! I don't fight for Adam or the white fang! I fight for my dream, a world without lies! A world where monsters like me don't have a place in it!" Kisame yelled as Trifa fell onto the floor from shock.
Kisame realized that he had said to much, he gave himself away. That girl, that white fang member had to die. No one would care. Adam wouldn't care.
Kisame slowly grabbed his legendary sword and slowly moved towards her. She was petrified with fear, one swing and her head would be no more. Kisame prepared to swing as he saw the fear in her eyes. That same look every victim of his had, they looked like they saw a true monstrosity that would definitely take there life's.
Out of the corner of his eyes he saw a Grimm running towards them, they were brought by Kisame's burst of negativity. He had to deal with the beast and the rest of those who are approaching.
With one swing he completely destroyed the Grimm but soon a pack of wolf like Grimms ran towards them. The shark immediately ran straight towards them, he needed this. He needed to fight something that he believed would make the world better.
With each kill his rage did not diminish it started to grow and grow. He remembered his life before he was brought to this world. Every decision he made that was now gnawing at his mind.
"I killed my teammates for my village!" Kisame yelled as another Grimm was killed by his mighty swing.
"I betrayed my village for my dream!" He yelled again as sharkskin tore through another Grimm.
"I fought for the world were my best friend was killed by his own younger brother!"Kisame heard a scream and turned around. Trifa was pinned down by a Grimm and was about to be torn to bits. He did not hesitate and threw his mighty blade at the Grimm, killing it and saving Trifa.
"I died for my dream while accomplishing nothing!" Kisame was fight the Grimm with his bare hands.
"Now I'm here, fighting a fight for a cause I don't believe in while a friend of mine gets digested by a fucking dragon!" Kisame was pummeling the last Grimm with his fists until it's head was nothing more then a black pile.
As the last Grimm fell kisame fell down on his knees and took one deep breath. "DAMIT!"
Not a sound was heard. Nothing moved and even the wind seemed to disappear. The only thing the shark could hear was the beating of his heart in his chest. He was just sitting there, broken. Every time he fights he gets farther and farther away from this ideal world, the world he has no place in.
Was he even fighting for himself? Why dose he fight for a world that has no place for him? Dose he do it for others? For his teammates that died by his hands to prevent such a tragedy from happening again? Maybe his reason is more selfish, maybe he tricked himself into believing that he might gain a place in that world if he fought for it.
He felt a hand in his shoulder. Kisame turned around and looked into Trifa's eyes. The eyes of a person who doesn't know what to do or what to say. Yet here she is, trying to comfort him while not being able to speak.
His mission is not yet done, maybe the spider Fanus things that kisame had simply a mental breakdown. Either way it useless to kill that girl now, if she asked what happened he will simply lie. That is the thing he was made for after all.
—
Back at the fundraiser party the guest all gathered in a greatly decorated room were the buffet was and the art that was sold for charity. The food was good and the conversations were lively but the blond artist was searching for someone in particular.
He left his partner Sasori behind and was walking past several guest in hopes to find that beautiful singer. It didn't take long until Deidara spotted the long white hair of Weiss. She was standing there and looked at a giant framed painting of beacon academy while some boy with blue hair tried to chat her up.
"How about I get you something to drink, Champaign?" The boy asked with a little smile while Weiss sighed. That's when Deidara walked up to those two.
"Actually, she drinks coffee." The artist said with a smile as they both turned to him. Weiss eyes immediately sparked up at the sight of artist. Without hesitation she hugged him.
Deidara was a little bit surprised by the sudden outburst of emotions but he accepted the huge. Without breaking the hug he looked over to the boy who looked like he wanted to have a say in this.
In that moment Deidara removed one of his gloves and revealed the mouth in his palm. It's tongue sprang out and moved around like it was a completely separate being.
The boy paled at this most unnatural sight and hastily walked away. Deidara put his glove before he and Weiss ended there huge. She didn't even care that the boy was gone.
"What are you doing here Deidara? How did you get here?" She asked frantically. It was clear to him that she was happy to see him and he was happy to see her again.
The artist simply smiled. "Well you see, Sasori decided to sell some of his blueprint to a little company that is now big. You know how his little projects go."
Weiss however looked a little bit concerned. "Are you sure that is so wise? I mean nothing against Sasori but his work could be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands."
Deidara leaned in to whisper into here ear. "There is a little secret, his creations are all flawed. The first The he created was a bomb that gives off a super sonic sound that destroys all those little sensitive wires off all creations that he sells. Once he is done with his work he will sell the blueprint of the bomb and render all his creations useless. He basically sells them all junk, they simply don't know it jet."
"Sounds pretty risky if you ask me. What if one of his creations guards us against the Grimm?" Weiss asked a little bit concerned.
"No,no. The creations are at top form, they are simply useless once he brings that bomb on the market and even then I believe that they are useful against the Grimm. Unless the creatures of Grimm start buying weapons and chucking bombs." Deidara explained.
Weiss looked around a bit. "Were is Sasori anyway?"
Deidara shrugged. "Probably playing the game right now."
"The game? What game? This is a fundraiser." Weiss asked confused.
Deidara laughed and pointed at all the guest. "Look around you Weiss, do you believe that this is a fundraiser? The public believes that this is a fundraiser so that they all look good in the eyes of the public but this is the game. Imagine every one here is a kind or queen. You can either enjoy your royal position or play to be the emperor of them all."
Weiss looked at artist confused. "Emperor?"
"The winner, the king of them all. You have to learn who the other players are, who they are loyal to, who you can trust, who do you make a deal with and who you plan to betray. Every move and every word counts. Make sure that people fear you, make them believe that you are unpredictable or play like you are the good guy or maybe pretend like you aren't going for the win at all." The artist explained overly dramatic.
Weiss smiled. "That's sounds very much like you just made that up."
Deidara smiled. "Then let's listen together Weiss. Let's listen and hear all there little lies and plotting. Trust me when I say that only those who don't play the game talk about mundane stuff while nobody talks about the fundraiser."
The heiress was saddened when she did actually here nothing about donations for the refugees. They all talked about the food or there personal life while some however talked about deals or secret agreements. She heard how the game was played and how nobody even cared about whatever happens outside of there comfortable houses.
It sickened her how they talked like nothing mattered. She already knew what her father was doing. He was probably playing the game right now, aiming to become the emperor of them all.