A/N: Sorry if it took a long time to finish this.

Whatever It Is…

Chapter II:

Settling the Score

The next day, rain again poured over the earth. In a few minutes, trees, the soil, and everything under the sky were fully soaked in the ice cold rain water. Then, the dark clouds clumped together in a huge mass and lightning tore the skies. It made the whole place damp and gloomy.

Pein, regardless of the harsh weather, stood still. He holds his head up high and his eyes closed: as if feeling the rain water patter on his face, flow through his cloak then down to the feet. Even though calm and relaxed outside, he was eager to get even with the masked assailant. He continued to be in that gesture until suddenly, he threw a kunai in front of him on the dark open space. Amazingly, the kunai stopped on mid-air, as if it was strangled onto some kind of vines.

Pein looked sharply at the direction where the kunai stopped. With a deep vice, he asked impatiently, "What took you so long?"

The kunai dropped on the soft, moistly ground. After a long silence, a silent chuckle followed. Pein strained his eyes to see through the dark space. The lightning illuminated the place but not a soul was in sight there. Another lightning flashed followed; there was the enemy of his.

"My, my, aren't we eager?" the ANBU asked jokingly.

A curt reply came, "Let's get this over with."

"Excited, I see." The ANBU said while pulling out the huge, silver boomerang from her back, "I don't intend to waste time too so let us begin!"

The masked assailant made the first move. She threw the boomerang strongly to Pein. Pein dodged the attack by jumping. While in mid-air, he summoned a chameleon which coiled the ANBU and made her unable to retaliate. He landed on the ground and started walking towards the wriggling ANBU. He thought he had won the fight but when he came near, Pein saw in his very own eyes that the chameleon became visible and suddenly fell into pieces. Pein realized that she made strings out of chakra and she has the advantage now so he backed off a few meters away. But he made a wrong move.

He didn't realize that the ANBU can control the movement of the boomerang at her own will. Worse is that her is at the very same angle where the ANBU had thrown the boomerang. Fortunately, Pein had seen her moving her fingers as if tugging something. He knew now that she was up to no good but it was too late to evade completely the attack. It slashed his left arm deeply. While he staggered to his feet to regain his balance while holding his bloody left arm, the ANBU laughed.

"Is that all you can do?" she taunted, "I thought you are strong because you haven't lost a battle."

Her statement put Pein into a big surprise, "How did you—!?"

"You cannot hide anything from me." the ANBU boasted, "Including that Rin'nengan of yours."

Tobi dashed through the woods. He has to set off alone this time because Deidara isn't well yet to go with him. Itachi and Kisame stayed with Deidara at the hideout. Zetsu had gone of ahead of him to tell Tobi where their leader is. As soon as he got the coordinates, he dashed off. Tobi decided to faster, even though he slipped at the puddles a few times. He fears that if Ren is the masked attacker, he might never see Ren breathing again for what she had done to Konan. Surely, Pein would likely to kill her without knowing that she is Ren.

Tobi stopped when he saw Zetsu's two-sided head sticking out on a trunk of a tree. He tiptoed towards Zesu then looked at Pein then at the masked enemy. He shivered not because of the cold rain; he shivered at the ghastly aura that the masked ANBU releases when anyone sees her. Tobi shunned that feeling for awhile and tried to get a feeling of the situation.

"What is happening around here, Zetsu-sama?" Tobi queried

"Leader-sama is in big trouble." Zetsu put up plainly.

Their leader is indeed in big trouble. Almost every jutsu that he tried seemed to be like trash in front of the ANBU. But the ANBU's attacks seemed to be like some unknown bloodline jutsu. He can't trace where the attacks would came from—the enemy was at the left side but the attack would come from the other side. He also summoned all of his five forms but he is still having difficulty on defeating her.

Tobi was watching at the fight that he didn't notice that he stepped on a twig lying nearby. It made a huge noise but because of the intense fighting occurring to the two, they didn't notice that sound. Tobi sighed thankfully as he carefully placed his feet where no twigs are lying.

At last one of Pein's forms had hit the enemy's mask that the half of it crumbled down and it revealed to everybody who their enemy was—Ren."R-Ren-san," Tobi stammered, "why are you fighting with leader-sama?"

Nobody heeded to Tobi's question. Ren and Pein still continued the fight. Pein and his other forms continued attacking simultaneously. Ren didn't seem to be bothered by these attacks and just side-stepped when she sees them coming. Ren finally attacked. She summoned three kagebunshins out of nowhere and surrounded Pein and his forms. In a flash, Pein and his forms were tied together in some chakra string. Then, Ren tugged again the boomerang to her hand again.

"If I were you," Ren advised to Pein while positioning herself to make a one, clean shot, "I wouldn't do anything stupid. If you did, those poisonous strings would tighten. When they come in contact with your skin, the poison automatically seeps through your pores and killing you almost instantly."

Tobi knows that he must do something before Ren ended Pein's life, "Ren-san, stop it!" he shouted as loud as he could.

Ren suddenly stopped. She looked at Tobi at the corner of her eye. After some silence, she said solemnly, "Tobi-kun?"

"Ren-san," Tobi called out happily, "you can remember Tobi!"

Ren's visible eye suddenly widened, "T-Tobi…." She stammered then she kneeled and put her hand on her head then shook her head violently, "W-who is Tobi? Why do I know his name? She has something to do with this!"

"Ren-san, what's happening?" Tobi asked in confusion.

Suddenly, Ren, eyed on him savagely, "What did you do; how can you make her want to occupy this body again!?"

"Tobi doesn't understand what Ren-san is talking about!"

"Tobi!" Zetsu scowled, "What the heck are you doing!?"

Ren caught a glimpse of Zetsu, "Z-Zetsu-san?" then she cringed again.

"What!? I know him too!?" Ren said again with utter surprise, "No, I don't. It's her who knows them. But why do I recognize them? Does she want to go back? No, it cannot be!"

"Does Ren-chan to have an another side?" Zetsu's dark side asked excitedly

"Shut up, this is no laughing matter." Zetsu's white side reprimanded.

"I-I must finish you b-before she can get back again!" Ren scowled.

"Ren-san calm down!" Tobi called out.

Then, as if she's possessed, Ren seemed to be struggling with herself. After a few times of almost slashing herself into pieces ,Ren suddenly called out, "Tobi-kun, Zetsu-san, Leader-sama, run now! She's mad!"

"What is happening?" Zetsu's white side asked.

"Dunno."

Pein took advantage of the situation. He knows a jutsu to counter this type of attack. Stealthily, he made the hand seal then the strings got loose. While Ren was in a delirious condition, he used a summoning jutsu to knock Ren out. Then, confidently that he won, he walked towards Ren. Fearing that, Ren is going to be killed by their leader, Tobi rushed in.

"Leader-sama, please don't kill Ren-san!" Tobi pleaded, "Tobi knows that Ren-san almost made Konan-san almost dead but Tobi thinks that the one who did that wasn't Ren-san!"

"What!?" Zetsu said

"Tobi, stay out of this." Pein said sharply.

"No!" Tobi said firmy, "Ren-san is innocent!"

"Hm," Zetsu mulled as he walked towards Pein, "leader-sama, maybe Tobi has a point, let's not be to rash in our judgments."

Pein looked hesitantly at the unconscious Ren, "Maybe you're right, let's just get her back to the hideout and watch her closely."

Tobi carried Ren on his back all the way to the Akatsuki hideout. When they have arrived, Pein walked fast to his room to check Konan. Kisame was really asking questions eagerly; even Itachi came to ask what happened. Only Deidara didn't welcome or see Ren. He reasoned that he still to weak to go move.

"Honestly," Deidara said on the back of his mind, "I'm just still afraid to face her, un."

Tobi quickly took Ren to her room and laid her down to her bed. After that, he grabbed a chair and dragged it inside the room for him to sit. For hours, he cannot understand what happened earlier. He tried to think what Ren was saying but he cannot find a suitable conclusion. A forbidden idea came into Tobi's mind. Even he hesitated to use it. It might bring him to trouble. But it is the only way he can think of to find out what's wrong.

Tiptoeing to the door and creaking it a bit open, he saw that no one's interested to bother Ren. Satisfied at the situation, he closed the door and sealed it shut so no one can go inside. Then walking beside Ren, he held his hand to the right part of his mask, covering the only eyehole that he has.

"Maybe this is the only way." Tobi said to himself then looking at Ren, "Sorry, Ren."

He removed his hand at the mask. A red glow appeared on the eyehole. It has a red iris with three pupils—it is Sharingan.

"I'm risking my true identity just to know what's happening with you." Tobi whispered, "I'm going inside your head!"

A/N: As you can see, I don't know if Pein's forms have names so I left them unnamed. Please let me know if you know their names. Thank You. Reviews are always welcome.