I was having major block when i started writing this chapter, but the ideas started flowing and here it is!!
I already have a few ideas for further chapters and all!!
Oh!! i revised this story's first chapters, firstly because the first chapter was way too shorst, and secondly because i used to write with a lot of '...' and it didn't look that good, so... yeah!!
I hope you enjoy this chapter, it has a major turn of events...
Please review and tell me if you liked it, and opinions of course!!
Oh... IMPORTANT - I have a question, that is really omportant for me, do you guys think this story's getting better than when it started??
Previously on The secret behind:
Conversations happen. Sakura speaks with the mysterious man, who reveals himself to be Uchiha Itachi, and finds herself not hating like she thought she would.
The Leader of Akatsuki finds himself observing the twins and falls asleep watching them. Hana sees him and covers him, as she goes to her room she thinks about her leader, and concludes that he isn't a bad person.
Sakura tries to convince Gaara and Sai to let Itachi help, but they refuse, 'He said we could, but can we really trust him?'.
Something new is discovered, who is this person the Leader of Akatsuki is searching?? And what will he do to Akira??
Chapter 10
It's said that the world is small because, in the most unexpected situations we find ourselves looking at something we weren't expecting to see… but when we're searching for something we consider of great value, the world always seems to be bigger than the universe.
"… the small girl gathered all of her courage and ran so she was standing in front of the old man, the sharp kunai held between her hands pointed outwards in a defensive posture, her eyes determined to protect the old man." He paused.
"What happened next??" the twins asked simultaneously, attentive to what he was telling them.
"Seeing the enemy charging in her direction, the fearless boy, with all his speed, ran and stopped in front of the girl, his arms in a protective posture, his most terrifying glare directed at the enemy, no one was allowed to hurt the girl, and who did, would see hell from the boy." The twins clapped, their eyes shinning.
"That was a really…" Ryuuki started.
"… great story Sasu-nii-chan!!" Kyuuki finished.
2 weeks earlier
It had been 2 months since he had kidnapped the twins, they had changed premises 2 other times, being now in a small neutral territory between the Fire and Tea country. He had done everything so the twins wouldn't feel 'home-sick' and he had to lock them up in a cell, because he only had sealed rooms in the main HQ.
Currently, everyone was having dinner, and everyone meant all of the Akatsuki members, and a few other people.
The table was a rectangle, having 14 people around it. On the extremity of the table were Ryuuki and Kyuuki. From the twins point of view, on the right were Deidara, Tobi, Hana, Kisame, Konan and Akira (well, actually it's Pein). On the left side of the table were the new members of Akatsuki (whose description will come later) Kai, Kaorin, Jin, Ryo and Ruki. Finally on the other extremity of the table was the young Leader of Akatsuki, Uchiha Sasuke.
The food displayed on the table was variable, there were onigiri, tempura, several types of sushi, udon, and other types of food, and, of course, for Kisame there was a big salmon, and for Deidara, Tobi and the twins there was ramen.
Everyone ate silently and calmly, drinking their water, tea or sake once in a while.
Observing attentively their faces, if one looked at the previous leader, Pein, we would clearly see he was pissed, his hard glare directed at the current leader. Next to him Konan had a passive and worried expression towards her childhood friend that was pissed at the new Akatsuki leader, once in a while she would sigh softly and drink a small sip of sake.
Other clear expressions could be seen on the faces of Jin, Kai, Ruki, Ryo and Kaorin, they kept glancing at the kids at the extremity of the table with curiosity mixed with slight confusion mixed with mild interest. For once Tobi was quiet, but just because Deidara-sempai was helping the twins eat their ramen, as for Hana, she was eating quietly, sometimes glancing at the impassive leader, other times glancing at the twins and Deidara, the kids sure liked the blond man, they were always happy near him.
As for the Leader at the other extremity of the table, he was eating his sushi and onigiri calmly, his eyes analysing the expressions on his subordinates, Ruki, Kai, Jin, Kaorin and Ryo had never seen the twins before, and he was glad they weren't looking at his hostages with ill intentions, just curiosity, confusion and interest.
For once Tobi was quiet, and he was glad for that, he wasn't sure he would be in the mood to put up with all the goofiness Tobi had, it reminded him too much of his Dobe friend. Deidara was helping the twins eating, the trio always seemed to be happy when together, and he was glad that this whole situation had good points, which ones?? Well… for starters, Deidara had begun to smile with his heart, and he seemed happy.
"I'd like everyone to come to my office, except Pein-san and Konan-san." Sasuke announced as he finished his meal and got up, taking his dishes with him, and walked away towards the kitchen.
He could feel Pein's glare, but he didn't care, Pein's ability didn't scare him one bit.
He stopped at the door and looked back, he could also feel someone else's eyes on him.
"Could you meet me in my office before everyone Tobi-san??"
"Hai Leader-sempai!!" Tobi answered enthusiastically jumping to his feet and taking his dishes he started walking/bouncing happily to the kitchen.
Suna
2 months, it had been 2 months since he had kidnapped her children, 7 weeks since she had seen him at the Akatsuki main base, 5 weeks since another base had been found out, but who had been there had been gone a few hours before they had arrived. It had been 3 weeks since another base had been found out, and the people who had been there had been gone a few hours before. This man hunt wasn't going anywhere, and she was getting tired and frustrated.
Gaara and Sai were doing everything they could, but it wasn't enough.
"What are you planning Sakura-san??" the voice of the person she was visiting came out monotone and mildly curious. She turned to face the older man.
"I'm going alone, I have a few tricks up my sleeve too." She answered and walked to the table, he was sitting in front of said table.
"Are you sure it's a good idea?" he asked, to which she shrugged.
"Good or bad, I don't care, I'm sick of playing hide and seek." She muttered and put a map of all the countries in front of him.
"You said you knew where all the bases were." The man nodded. "Then please mark them for me Itachi-san." Her look said she wasn't kidding.
"Very well." He took the pen she had put next to the map and started marking points in the map.
"Thank you." She said as she looked at the map. "We've already got these." She said pointing at the map, Itachi nodded and crossed out 3 marks in the map.
"That's all of them." He looked at her. "Be careful if you have to enter Rain." She raised a brow.
"Why?"
"It's the main Akatsuki base, although I'm sure he'll only use it as a last resource." She nodded.
"Thank you Itachi-san." He nodded.
"Be careful Sakura-san." With that she left the cell, a plan already in her mind.
She knew Gaara was in his office doing some paper word, and Sai was with the ANBU team planning their next assault.
She walked to her room in the Kazekage mansion and packed up the necessary on a backpack.
"So far so good." She mumbled and, with her backpack, she walked out of the mansion.
In the streets, people talked and gossiped about the strange things that had been happening in the village after she had gotten here, but she merely ignored and entered the Kazekage tower. The lady at the front desk was about to say something, but Sakura had already entered the hallway before she could.
She stopped in front of Gaara's office door and changed her facial expression to completely worn out. She knocked twice and entered.
The red haired man behind the table looked up and put the papers he was reading down.
"Is something wrong??" she shook her head.
"I didn't sleep to well tonight." She walked closer to him. "I just need to relax and I'll be fine, well, at least my body'll be fine." She smiled slightly.
"Do you need anything?"
"Can you take me to the oasis?? I always feel better after being there a while." He nodded and got up.
"Why do you have a backpack??" he asked as they got closer.
"Well, I just put a towel and clean clothes, and something to eat and drink inside, in case I stay there a while." She answered in a small voice as she hugged his torso. He nodded and hugged her back.
Something she never got used to was the ride to go to the oasis, being carried by a whirl of sand wasn't what she cold call normal, it made her head a bit dizzy every time.
Once in the oasis, a smooth line of sand travelled around her neck and settled in a necklace.
"Do you need anything else??" she shook her head and kissed his cheek.
"Thank you." He nodded.
"Break the necklace and I'll come to get you." She nodded.
"I know." He smiled and she smiled back as he disappeared in a swirl of sand.
She sighed, now came the hard part of her plan. She put her backpack in front of her and took the map out, she examined it and counted how many bases there were to go investigate.
"There are 22 in total. We found out 3, so I have 19 bases to go check out." She nodded to herself.
"Yosh!" she exclaimed, and made a hand seal.
"Kage bushin no jutsu." Now there were 19 Sakura's on the oasis, she had learned this technique a few years ago, being the Hokage's apprentice had been a good thing, since she had access to all the scrolls she wanted.
"Each of us will go check out one base, simply to see if they're there. If not you can disappear so I know, if they are, do the same so I know where to go."
"Hai." The clones answered and she started telling each of them which base they would be investigating.
"You won't get away now you bastard." With that last thought, she was ready to start the real man hunt.
"Scatter." The 19 clones scattered, each going in a different direction.
Curent Akatsuki HQ
The 10 official Akatsuki members where gathered in the Leader's office, well, Deidara wasn't there yet, and Nagato and Konan weren't official members anymore.
"Why did you call us Leader??" Leader looked at who had spoken and stared at him for a few seconds. The person who had spoken was a male with spiky black bluish hair and purple/grey eyes, he was 21 years old and was called Ryo.
"I have new orders for all of you." Leader answered after a while and Ryo nodded.
"What kind of orders Leader?" a girl asked, she had long black hair and blue eyes.
"I'll explain after Deidara gets here Kaorin-chan." 'chan' because she was only 17 years old.
"Hai." The door opened to reveal a happy blond haired man carrying a small boy with spiky raven hair and dark emerald green eyes, with some tints of onyx in them. Said boy was giggling while playing with Deidara's bangs. His left arm was down, his hand holding a small hand of a girl with long raven with some dark pink, almost red, highlights hair and onyx eyes with tints of emerald green. Said girl was giggling and looking up as she obediently walked next to the blond adult.
"Sorry for the delay, un." Deidara apologised and closed the door with his foot.
"Can you tell us what our new orders are now Leader??" Kai, a 20 year old with dark orange hair (Sai's hairstyle but a bit messier) and green eyes asked.
"Yes." He paused and signalled them to sit down, some did, others didn't. "Until now I've ordered you to search for that man."
"Yes, and he's really hard to find too Leader." Ryo muttered.
"From the last report Ruki gave me, he's staying somewhere in the tea country, so we'll leave him there for a while."
The twins were next to Deidara with confused looks in their eyes, not understanding a word of what Sasu-nii-chan was saying. They shared a look, Ryuuki shrugged his shoulders and Kyuuki crossed her arms in front of herself, trying to understand what was being said.
"I'll need you to find 3 people. I'm pairing Kisame and Ryo to find the first person."
"And who is it Leader??" Kisame inquired.
"And why the 2 of us??" Ryo asked.
"Both of you have water based jutsus, and the person you'll be searching is a water based shinobi, he should be in the water country somewhere." There was a brief pause. "He's an old member of my team, Suigetsu."
"Hai, when do we leave Leader??" Ryo inquired.
"As soon as this meeting's over." Kisame and Ryo nodded.
"Next I'm sending a 4 member team to bring another member of my old team back to the base."
"Why 4 Leader??" Hana inquired.
"Because he can go berserk at any time."
"Who are you sending??"Ruki asked.
"I'm sending Ruki, Tobi, Kai and Hana."
"And who is he??" Kai inquired.
"Jugo, he should be somewhere in the northern regions of the fire country in the mountains, he isolated himself because he doesn't likes hurting anyone and loves nature." The 4 assigned nodded.
"Are you sending someone to go get the other member of you team??" Deidara asked quietly. For a moment Sasuke's face flashed in disgust.
"Yes, but for her it'll be when the other 2 are already in the base."
"Resuming, in the base it'll be only Deidara-sempai, Leader, Jin and me, ne??" Kaorin commented to herself.
"And the twins." Deidara intervened, somehow indignant.
"Right." Kaorin replied quickly. "And the twins."
"What about Konan-san and Nagato-san??" Jin asked quietly from the corner where he was. Jin had blond hair in spikes (Sasuke's haircut in blond), sapphire blue eyes and a triangle red mark on his right cheek.
"They're going to continue going after Kabuto, he's been causing troubles in all the villages he's been." Jin nodded and glanced at the twins.
"Cute kids." He mumbled, and only Kaorin, Deidara and Sasuke heard him.
Getting frustrated, Kyuuki frowned and decided she wanted to know what was going on, just because she was 4 didn't meant she would be staying in the dark. With that she walked among the people in the office and then walked around Leader's desk.
"Anoune." She called quietly while tugging on Leader's pants. Everyone shut up and stared, not knowing what their leader's reaction would be. The young Akatsuki leader looked down to see big onyx eyes staring up at him.
"What?" he asked.
"Anoune, can you explain me and onii-chan what you were saying??" she asked quietly. He stared at the small girl and glanced around him, to see everyone observing him.
"I was giving orders." She tilted her head.
"Orders?? Why??" Leader sighed.
"Because it's what I do." He whispered so only she could hear. Kyuuki nodded and then looked up at him with a look he couldn't read. "Is the onii-chan in the corner nice??" she asked with a blush, he had to contain a chuckle and nodded. She bounced up and down happily and ran to the corner, where Jin was leaning against the wall.
"The next time'll meet will be in the Rain, it's safer there." Everyone nodded. "Dismissed." He watched as Kaorin walked to the small boy next to Deidara and knelt in front of him, Ryuuki hide behind Deidara.
"What's your name??" she asked. "I'm Kaorin!!" she said with a smile. Ryuuki peeked from behind Deidara, who was looking attentively, and looked at Kaorin.
"I'm Ryuuki." He whispered. "You have pretty eyes." He mumbled, to which Kaorin grinned.
"Thank you, you have pretty eyes too, wanna come play with me??" she asked holding her hand out for the small boy to take. Ryuuki looked up at Deidara, as if asked for permission.
"You can go Ryuuki-kun, Kaorin-chan is a nice girl, yeah!!" the blond encouraged, to which Ryuuki took Kaorin's hand and let her lead him outside.
In the corner, Kyuuki was looking up at Jin, while the 18 year old looked down at her. It was as if they were having a staring contest.
"Anoune, will you play with me onii-chan??" Kyuuki asked after a while.
"I don't like playing." Jin answered blankly.
"Please??" she begged with big shinning eyes.
"No." he straitened himself and was about to start walking.
"Anoune, then can you show me a trick??" she asked, Jin raised a brow.
"A trick??" she nodded.
"Panda-nii-chan can do all sorts of things with his sand, Kiba-nii-san can make Akamaru become smaller to carry him and Shika-nii-chan can play with his shadow." She told him.
"You mean a jutsu??" she nodded.
"Me and onii-chan can climb a tree with our feet, Kaa-chan said we're very smart, because she only learned that when she became a ninja." Jin stared at the small girl for a while.
"Without your hands huh??" he mumbled. "Fine."
"YAY!!!" Kyuuki cheered and started following Jin like a puppy would follow his master.
Leader observed everything and sighed, the twins seemed to get along with everybody, he wondered if they would still smile if they knew they were all bad guys.
After his office was empty he sighed and looked out of the window from his chair, it was just a matter of time for someone to find this hideout, they had to get to the Rain as fast as they could, the Rain was, after all, governed by the Leader of Akatsuki.
1 week later
She had been searching for a week now, and still nothing, her last bushin had 'poufed' out and she knew that the last hideout on the northern region of the rock country was empty.
She only had one last destination on her map, and it was the most dangerous one, Rain.
She looked at the Rain city gates for a while, she had changed her clothes, so now she was wearing her usual black boots, a black jean miniskirt over black jean short shorts, a black strapless top and a black jean jacket over it, and black fingerless gloves. She had pouch over her right thigh and another at her waist in the right, almost in her back, held by a white belt. On her hair she had a white ribbon, the lace going 'til her waist, her hitai-ate was kept on her pouch, no one needed to know where she came from. Her backpack was left hidden in the forest, protected by a summoned white and blue slug, that would take the backpack and hide if someone was to find it.
She calmed herself down and walked to the gates.
"May we help you??" one of the guards asked coolly.
"I'd like to enter please." She answered with a smile.
"In what purpose??" the other guard asked.
"I came to visit a friend." She said. The guards shared a look and looked back at her.
"A friend you say??"
" Hai!" she smiled. "A friend!" the guards shared looks once again and nodded.
"What's your name??" one asked as the other went to get something.
"Etou, Mikoto!" she answered. "Haruno Mikoto!" the guard nodded, and the other one appeared with a clipboard.
"Fill in the formulary." He said and handed her the clipboard and a pen. She smiled and took the clipboard.
She filled in the form and signed with her fake name and gave the clipboard back to the guard. After that the guards interrogated her, to make sure she wasn't planning anything against the city, and after around 2 and a half hours, she was free to go.
"Have a nice stay." The guards told her as they let her inside.
"Thank you!!" she thanked with a smile and entered the village. "I will." As the gates closed behind her she looked at the village, it was more modern than Konoha and Suna, but people walked from one place to another, they had lives, like in any other country, she wondered if everyone knew about Akatsuki, but she didn't dare ask anyone about it.
She walked around, analysing the city, observing the people, she had to know her surroundings if she wanted her plan to go right, but something about this city make chills run down her skin.
She never used her shinobi skills, she couldn't risk blowing her cover up, she simply looked around the city, making mental notes about it and construing a mental map of the Rain city.
She entered a small bar, man drank and flirted with the girls serving them, the bar tenders kept a close eye on the girls serving, and the man drinking didn't try dirty things. She sat on a stool at the bar and kept looking around, this city, it's like they didn't have a care in the world, it was… somehow disturbing.
"What can I get you??" the bar tender, a man around 22/23 with light blond hair and light blue eyes asked her with a sexy smile. She smiled back.
"Do you have green tea and some dango??" she asked smiling.
"You're lucky, I do have those things." She smiled at him as he walked to the back to get her order, he seemed a nice person.
She kept looking around, no one seemed interested in her presence, that was good, that meant she could keep a low profile.
"Here you go!" the guy from before announced putting a cup of hot tea and some dango in front of her.
"Thank you… etou." He smiled.
"I'm Fai D. Furoraito! You can call me Fay!" she smiled.
"I'm Haruno Sa- Mikoto!" she mentally kicked herself for almost blowing her cover.
"That didn't sound convincing, you weren't gonna say Mikoto." She gulped. "But, I suppose you don't wanna tell me your real name so I'll leave at that." She thankfully smiled.
"Thank you." He waved a dismissive hand.
"It's nothing, lots of people don't want others to know their true identities, it's usual from people that aren't from around here." Fay said with a smile as he prepared some drinks.
"I suppose." She mumbled and drank some tea.
"You're not from around here are you??" she shook her head and took some dango to her mouth. "If you need anything let me know!!" she nodded as Fay walked to another costumer with the drinks he had just prepared.
I hope you all enjoyed reading and i'd like you all to take 2 minutes and review, please!!
I luv you all very much!!
Kaori-chan!!
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimot!