I'M SORRY X 1234567890. You didn't deserve the long wait. I'm the worst. Yet I'm so thankful to all the reviewers and followers and favourites, etc. I've been writing this a little at a time. So one part might be rubbish, and the other might be better. Anyway, enjoy^^
Waking up in the Akatsuki base wasn't as bad as I had originally planned. Slowly opening my eyes, I could see the dim light of the base even though it was void of any windows. Stretching slightly, I sat up in my bed, observing the room around me. It looked the same as it had done the night before, which is a relief because if any of these Akatsuki weirdo's had come into my room at night, then shit would have gone down.
I stood up debating whether I should search for a shower or not. Deciding that I might as well, I walked over to the dresser in the corner and yanked the drawer open, looking for a towel. I managed to find one shoved right at the back in the corner, so grabbing that, I opened up my door and took off down the hallway searching for the shower room. If they had one. I mean do these people ever shower? They must. Although with an organisation like this it is debatable.
Surprisingly enough, finding a shower room was quite easy. As if by luck, it was just opposite the room I was sleeping in. This made it easy for me to quickly get in there, take a shower, and do the embarrassing naked run back into my room as I realized that I haven't got any decent clothes to wear.
If that wasn't embarrassing enough, having to dance around on both feet searching for clothes completely naked was worse. Finally finding some ninja pants and a plain black tank top, I quickly threw them on as well as the necessary underwear. Turning around, I glanced at my hitai-ate sat on the counter next to the bed and moved my arm to grab it, but suddenly stopped, remembering where I am.
I don't even deserve to wear Konoha's symbol anymore. I'm a disgrace. A disgrace to the village and to myself. Thinking of the third Hokage's funeral and the words I promised back then, I felt guilty. Guilty for being alive. I also felt ashamed with myself. I know I'm stronger than that. I could have easily refused 'Leader's' proposal to join Akatsuki. Why didn't I refuse? Does the prospect of death scare me that much? No, it was more of the fact that I had so much left to do before I die. The prospect of dying before that angers me.
Forgetting my hitai-ate, I slipped on my ninja sandals and my ninja pouch and flopped myself back onto my bed. Do I go exploring or shall I just lay here until another person fetches me? It could be a different member this time. Instead of Konan, it could be that annoying silver-haired bastard or even worse, him.
Yes, I knew exactly where I was and who was here. I've been trying not to remind myself for the past 4 years. I mean, I wasn't standing around picking flowers for the last 4 years, and I'm quite relieved that I did some research about this place and the various members which accompanied it.
Thinking of my research about the Akatsuki, nothing seemed to help me in this position. 4 years of research and the only things Jiraiya and I could get was tiny pieces of information about a few members. Konan and Pein were never even mentioned among the spies we had.
A knock on the door disrupted me from my thoughts. After replying a quick 'come in' the door opened to reveal a young, blonde-haired male, dressed in the usual ninja gear. His hair was rather long and was tied in a high pony tail, his fringe covering one of his eyes.
"You're the new member, hmm?" He asked, raising his eyebrow at me. I blinked, nodding my head slowly. For someone with a rather feminine looking face, his voice was rather deep. He looked around the same age as me, if not younger.
"Leader-sama sent me to take you to get something to eat before you prove your worth to the organisation, hmm."
I sighed, nodding as I stood up, making my way to the door. Great. Another person who I haven't seen before. In my research only names were given, no pictures. Unless I had a name from this guy, my information was useless.
"So do you know who I'm going to be fighting then?" I asked, looking at the stranger in front of me, tilting my head slightly.
He shook his head, shrugging his shoulders slightly. "Don't ask me. You'll find out soon enough. Now come on, I'm hungry, hmm."
I frowned, either he was just bad at talking to people or he was just plain rude. I followed the blonde out the door and down the hallway, contemplating asking him his name or not. I might as well, since I don't really have anything else to lose being here already. Except my life, maybe.
"What's your name?" I asked, trying to sound casual about the whole thing. The blonde turned his head to me, his visible eye widened slightly. Maybe he wasn't expecting me to be so formal with him after my episode yesterday with that other asshole.
"It's Deidara, hmm. You're Kitamura Kira right? Well of course, Leader's been after you for a while, hmm." A rush of information hit me at once, almost causing me to stop.
Deidara. Part of Iwagakure's Explosion Corps. After becoming a missing-nin he became a well known Terrorist Bomber before joining the S-Rank criminal, extremely dangerous, bla bla bla.
The information we did have on the Akatsuki members was extremely brief. This was all I had on the member known as Deidara. I'm sure there were other things that I've forgotten. Damn.
This 'Leader' has been after me for some time? Why is that? The only thing I can think of is that jutsu but it wasn't that important, just kinda weird. But it wasn't 'Akatsuki worthy.'
"Why?" The question left my lips before I had time to process it. Oh well. Deidara shrugged yet again, slowing down to the same door I saw the previous night. I sighed, pushing my damp hair out of the way of my face before being dragged by Deidara into the dreaded room.
Opening the door, the room was relatively empty, save for two other people. One was Konan, who I met last night, and the other was the partner of the silver-haired bastard who I punched last night who knocked me out back in Konoha. My stomach gave an uncomfortable turn at the thought of Konoha. My thoughts kept thinking back to my hitai-ate which I had left on the counter.
Shaking my head, I looked at Konan, who smiled politely at me. From the lack of people in the room I guess it was pretty early. I have a feeling that I'm going to lose all sense of time being here. I could at least mark the amount of days I'll be here or something.
Deidara dragged me over to where Konan was sat and beckoned for me to sit. I sat carefully on the chairs, as though they were about to break. They did look rather old. Konan was wearing her usual Akatsuki cloak, but it looked more for warmth than for respect. It was freezing in here, and the cold that I've tried to ignore had finally washed over me, giving me goosebumps and making me shiver.
Konan brought her arm out from her cloak, producing an apple to me. She nudged it in my direction, indicating that I should take it. I cautiously grabbed it, nodding my thanks to her. She just smiled again. Should I take a bite? I don't see why not, unless it's drugged of course. Why would they drug me though? It's not like they're strong enough to do that without the apple. Shaking my head, I just took a bite, thinking that they couldn't do much more damage to me than they already have.
The apple wasn't drugged or poisoned or anything. It was just an apple. The apple barely filled me up, though I was grateful to Konan. She was the only one who was being kind to me. It might be because I was a girl. Was Konan the only girl in this organisation? I haven't seen any others and no girls have been mentioned in my information.
I listened to Konan and Deidara have a brief conversation. They were just talking about who I was to be fighting.
"Well Leader-sama was thinking either Hidan or you, Deidara." Konan said softly. Deidara frowned, shaking his head.
"No way, hmm! The whole base saw what she did to Hidan last night. She's proven she can beat him, and I don't want to be embarrassed like that, hmm." Deidara protested loudly. I honestly wouldn't mind fighting Deidara, I actually have some information about him, whether it's useless or not.
"It's not your choice, Deidara. If Pein-sama chooses you, then you shall do what he says." I love how everybody addresses the leader as 'Leader-sama' except for Konan who calls him 'Pein-sama.' There's something going on here, I'm sure. I almost laughed at my thoughts. Gathering juicy Akatsuki gossip to tell all my criminal friends. Ridiculous.
"Damn it! Why can't he choose someone else like Sasori no Danna or that bastard Uchiha, hmm?" Deidara complained. I involuntary stiffened. I was trying to postpone our meeting for as long as possible. Taking a rather hard bite from the apple, I tried to stay as calm as possible by relaxing my muscles and shifting further into the chair. They didn't notice.
"Deidara, Pein-sama's word is final. There's no guarantee that it'll be you, so just relax for now. I'll take care of Kira." Deidara grumbled some incoherent words and stormed out grumpily. I stifled a laugh. He's so moody. It'll be funny annoying him after all this loyalty and proof stuff is done.
"Shall we go, Kitamura Kira?" Konan asked mysteriously. I just nodded, confused by her sudden weirdness. Konan and I both stood up, and she led me through the door Deidara and I came through, going in a different direction though.
Konoha
"What do you mean she's gone?!" Lady Tsunade slammed her fists on the desk, furious. Kakashi stood in the middle of the Hokage's office with his head drooped down slightly.
"They took her, they must have." Kakashi murmured. Tsunade growled, scrunching the papers of D rank missions she was holding in her hand.
"How can you be so sure Kakashi?" Tsunade asked angrily. Kakashi sighed, dragging his hand through his gravity defying hair. Who else would have taken Kira? She wasn't really one to run off and leave people all alo- oh wait, yes she was. But this time he was sure that she didn't just run off. He was drugged, for Kami's sake. People like him just didn't get drugged so easily. Whoever made the drug must have been very experienced in that area. Anyway, he would have seen Kira put something in his dango anyway, since he had his 'eye' on her as Lady Hokage asked him to.
"There's no other explanation. It is them, isn't it, Hokage-sama?" Kakashi stated more than asked. Tsunade just sighed, nodding into the palms of her hands. Kitamura Kira was hard work.
"Kakashi. Get Anko here immediately." Kakashi wasted no time in jumping out the window in search for the purple haired kunoichi.
Tsunade bit her lip in thought. Why was the Akatsuki after Kira? What separates her from the rest of us?
Tsunade had already sent several ANBU squads out to investigate areas of the Land Of Fire, although she could be anywhere by now. There was no way Kira could have ran away, none at all. She still had ties to this village, to Kakashi, to the Third Hokage and to her. She gritted her teeth. Damn the Akatsuki. We're going to get Kira back, no matter what the consequences.
Akatsuki
There were many hallways in this cave. And doors. How do these things even get fitted? Argh, I don't even care. Nerves were setting in now. The idea of fighting an Akatsuki member unsettled me. These were S-ranked criminals from Akatsuki and I was just some random Jounin from Konoha. I sighed, rubbing my eyes with the palms of my hands. This is exactly what I need. To have my ass kicked in front of the Akatsuki leader. Brilliant.
"Konan?" I asked tenderly, wondering if talking was appropriate at the moment. It seemed to spoil the silence of the cave. Konan shifted her eyes to me, notifying me that she was listening.
"Where's my kunai?" Konan's eyebrows furrowed, as if she didn't get what I meant, but then her facial expression turned neutral again. I have been meaning to ask this for a while now, it just never felt like the right moment to bring it up. If I was to be fighting an Akatsuki member, I would feel much more comfortable if I had my un-named kunai-sword on me.
"That big weapon of yours? Don't panic. Pein-sama has taken possession of it. I assume he'll return it to you when we meet."
After swerving through the many hallways of the cave, we finally reached a door which Konan hastily opened. I winced, it was bright. Not only bright, but it was actually breezy. It smelt of fresh air too. We're actually outside? Honestly I didn't think I would be seeing the sun again. Not that I minded much, but in this moment I was rather grateful to the sunlight for its warmth ignoring the several times it's given me heat stroke.
Outside, it looked rather similar to the training grounds in Konoha. There was grass and trees. Not much else, but that's what expected of a training ground I suppose. It was massive though. More than double the size of the training grounds in Konoha. In the middle of the grounds stood the Leader. Should I start calling him 'Leader-sama' too? Eh, I hope he doesn't get offended if I don't. Whether it's a slip of the tongue or on purpose.
"Thank you Konan." Leader briefly nodded his head to Konan, who smiled gently back at him. There's definitely something going on here. "Kira. You should know why you are here. Are you ready to get started?" Leader asked me emotionless as he was yesterday. I nodded, even though it was a complete lie. Leader managed to see straight through it. He gave a slight smirk.
"Do not panic, I have asked your competitor to fight you only for ability purposes." I've decided to just stick with calling him Leader for many reasons. Firstly, so it'll get stuck in my head that I should address him as such, so I don't get my ass kicked to kingdom come and back. Secondly, I just feel a little odd calling someone 'Pein'. Mainly because I might not be able to keep a straight face, but mostly because the name was just weird. His real name cannot seriously be 'Pein' can it? It sounds more like a title.
Leader pulled out a scroll from his cloak and made the necessary hand signs, so it poofed open to reveal my beautiful kunai-sword. He grasped it tightly in his hand, extending it towards me. I took it cautiously, my eyes quickly scanning over the initials on the bottom of it, making sure it's the real deal. It was. The old markings of 'KK' were carved into the bottom. I gave a brief smile in thought of my kunai-sword, but it quickly vanished as I realized my situation.
After taking my kunai-sword, I breathed in deeply, trying to calm my nerves. I looked to Leader to see his eyes glued on the door me and Konan walked in. It was opening. As the door opened, I almost choked on the air as I realized who it was.
"Kira. This is Uchiha Itachi. He will be assessing your skills. You may begin whenever you feel is necessary." Pein spoke before teleporting himself and Konan away. I sucked in another breath of air, as he walked closer to me. The grip on my kunai-sword tightened as his facial features became more apparent. He stopped moving and was stood only a few feet away from me. This was the best worst outcome for me. I avoided looking into his eyes, and instead focused on where his feet were. My knuckles were going white from the grip I had on my kunai-sword.
Another good thing about this sword, you can see reflections off of it pretty well. I could see the reflection of this apathetic bastard's face. Completely and utterly uninterested. This seemed to make me angrier than I already was. I mean, I wasn't expecting a hello or anything, but nothing? If he were to unexpectedly turn up in Konoha (again), I would have at least been shocked. But nothing. It was if he was almost expecting this. Bastard.
A rush of air pulled me out of my thoughts. I felt a cold and sharp metal at my throat, and a presence behind me. Asshole. As if he's never used that one on me before.
*Poof* Thank Kami for the substitution technique. Replacing myself with a tree branch, I now found myself awkwardly standing on the side of a tree. Jumping silently onto a branch, I tried to expand my hearing for anything that would give him away. Nothing. Of course. I didn't have brilliant hearing, just the normal kind, ya know. But I would have been an idiot if I couldn't hear the faint 'whoosh' of air, as hundreds of shuriken rushed towards me. Using my kunai knife, I managed to deflect the ones in front of me, and jump away before getting hit with the rest. I jumped onto another tree branch, just to get bombarded with another couple hundred shurikens. I inwardly groaned, before repeating the process.
Thinking carefully about what I've just done, I realized that he was trying to trap me. Instead of letting him know, I waited until he threw even more shuriken at me, and instead of deflecting them and moving again, I dropped from the tree branch and onto the floor. Yes. Onto the floor. Right next to where I was about to land. Landing, I instantly moved my kuni-sword towards me, to protect me from Itachi's kunai in his hand. And then I made the stupidest mistake any idiot could have made.
I looked into his eyes.
Yay! I'm on an Easter break for 2 weeks now, so expect at least 2 more updates within that time. This probably has mistakes in it which I'll fix when I feel like it. xD I'm so hooked on playing The Sims Medieval lately, it's such a fun game!;D
Anyway, thank you again for all the reviews, favourites, follows, etc. It means so much to me. I'm thinking of trying to find/make a cover of some sort for this story, ignoring the fact that I have no drawing or editing talent.
Also, any ideas on names for Kira's kunai-sword? It's exhausting writing that each time, I want a snazzy name for it, and I've never really given it much thought until I kept spelling sword wrong -_- So ya, you can comment an awesome name, and if it's awesome enough, I might just name it that^^
Ja ne~ c;