Chapter Eleven: Layers
For a while, I'd begun to think that maybe the Akatsuki weren't so bad after all, that maybe some of them were like me . . . with more layers than just 'mass murderer'. Konan was kind to me, and she seemed to have high hopes for Pein as well. Sasori is only fifteen. Kisame is crude, but he has a way with Akaime, and I suppose that made me start to trust him. I forgot my place. Namely, that amongst a band of horrific human beings.
In Kisame's case, not even human but a cold, wet, slimy fish. He looks human right now because we're using Transformation Jutsu as our disguise, but underneath that picture of a dark-haired man I know I'll find blue skin and gills and serrated teeth.
I miss my Akatsuki coat – it felt protective, despite the darkness that it stood for. But now I'm wearing the plain homemade clothes of a villager whose form I stole.
Kisame's getting fidgety as we near the gate – Kiri is his village of origin and it's understandable that he fears recognition. There are plenty of shinobi that can detect a simple Transformation Jutsu if they want to, although actually identifying the user is extremely difficult.
"State your name and purpose!" a chunin guard calls from inside the hut at the gate.
"Miyoki Boichi, and Miyoki Fukuto." I offer.
The guard glances at us. "You're brothers?" he asks in a bored tone.
"Yes." Never.
"Purpose?"
"Both rare book dealers. We heard there was huge sale in one of the shops." Both notorious criminals. We heard there's a wanted man running around in your village and we're going to kill him.
"Alright, you're through." The guard allows us through the gate and I glimpse Akaime landing on the roof. He's there as a precautionary measure.
Kisame and I take the first right we come to, and after about four minutes Akaime returns. "Well?" I ask him, looking into Shisui's eye. I allow Akaime to put a genjutsu on me, though I instinctually fight any type of mind invasion. Through the genjutsu, he relays to me what he's seen.
The guard pushes a button to unlock the gate. "Alright, you're through."
He waits until we are out of earshot and then lifts a radio that was hooked to his flak jacket.
"I've got a pair using Transformation Jutsu heading east on Takoshi Street posing as brothers named Miyoki. One dark-haired, one fair-haired, about five eleven and five nine respectively, both wearing plain brown shirts. Can you get someone on them?"
There's a pause and then a crackle of static before a voice can be heard clearly. "Roger that, Saki's on her way."
"Great . . . you got takeout for lunch, right?"
Here the genjutsu ends and I return to my own mind, inadvertently glimpsing behind me for any sign of pursuers. There are plently of shinobi on the streets of Kiri but none of them seems to be fixed on us. I'm sure it won't be long, though.
"That guard saw through our Transformations." I pass on to Kisame, "I can't believe you didn't mention the fact that Kiri uses guards who detect that jutsu."
He shrugs. "It's been a long time since I've been here; things have changed. Besides, I never worked in the village security department."
"At any rate he's sending someone after us so we better ditch these disguises." I try to find someone on the street whose appearance I can copy. At a dango stand is a young couple in line, and I point them out to Kisame. "Those two."
He nods and we both perform the jutsu after slipping into a dark corner where we won't be seen, stuffing our pockets and waistbands with our own shuriken and kunai. Just in case.
Kisame begins to laugh and I glance at him – both of us have transformed into the man of the couple. I almost chuckle too but then I remember the walnut woman and I quickly wipe the smile off my face.
"You have to be the lady." Kisame smirks, "You're more girly than me."
"Why can't you be the lady?" I argue, crossing my arms.
"No way."
I scowl. "Fine." I quickly turn myself into the slim, blond girl and we emerge from the corner we were hiding in. Unfortunately, our path is blocked by a very young woman in a Kiri flak jacket.
"Can I help you . . . gentleman?" she asks, looking at me because I'm the lady here.
"No thank you, we can find our own way." I say politely, hoping that there's still a chance that she's not the one that was sent after us. My voice comes out high and squeaky and I barely manage to keep from cringing.
The kunoichi steps closer. "I hope you know that the use of Transformation Jutsu to gain access into Kirigakure is illegal."
Quick as a flash, Kisame sends a kunai at her forehead, which she deflects easily. I leap backwards down an empty alleyway – if there's going to be a fight it needs to be in a place where there are no people. Our disguises will dissipate at a blow, and the fewer number of people there are to recognize us, the fewer we have to kill.
Kisame and I are both in foreign bodies in a place that Kisame may or may not recognize depending on how much has changed in his absence. On top of this, we are maintaining a jutsu that requires chakra control and finesse, and I have lost the use of my greatest asset – the Sharingan.
Even the two of us together are finding it hard to draw her away from the village while dodging attacks and trying not to make a scene. Luckily, we are near the edge of the village and we make our way into an open meadow.
I check out the chakra nature of the girl at the dango stand – if it's Fire, Water, or Lightning I'll be able to use my own jutsu.
She's an Earth type.
Great. I scowl to myself, I don't know how to manipulate Earth chakra. It means I'm confined to E-rank jutsu that doesn't require nature transformation; mostly amateur stuff they teach in the academy.
"Can we switch bodies?" I ask Kisame meekly, "I can't work with this lady's chakra."
"Nope." He laughs at my struggle. "You're an S-class missing nin – you can figure it out for yourself. Isn't that right, Akaime?"
Akaime clacks his tongue in my ear and I realize that I can still use Sharingan through him.
"Go on." I launch him from my shoulder "Get that kunoichi." If Akaime manages to use Kotoamatsukami on her, then we can rewrite her memory to forget she ever saw us instead of killing her.
Even as I think it, I know that won't fly with Kisame. He likes to kill – he said it himself. Chances of this woman's survival are quite slim at this point.
By now she's caught up with us and is throwing Fire Release jutsu our way, which I can only dodge. Akaime panics at the flames and backs away, out of dojutsu range.
Kisame tries a Water Release, but misjudges the strength of his body's chakra and his attack falls short of the kunoichi, who is speeding closer.
I rack my brain for an academy jutsu that would be actually useful. Judging from her skill, this is at least a jonin that we're up against, maybe even part of a special-task force dedicated to securing Kiri. She'd easily see through a regular clone jutsu, and I'm not agile enough in this form to pull off a Substitution, which would only distract her for a millisecond anyway. I could transform into her or Kisame and use Fire or Water Release, but that would take time and leave me vulnerable to attack during the actual transformation.
Maybe she senses that Akaime's bad news, because she's keeping him well at a distance. Finally, he gives up and perches on a tree limb to preen his feathers. Which means the whole genjutsu deal is up to me.
As I dodge shuriken and think about genjutsu strategy, Kisame is plagued with a hail of flaming senbon. He deflects a few and dodges some, but a follow-up kunai catches him just under the collarbone. Immediately, the Transformation Jutsu is dispelled and he appears himself again, gills and all. His face contorts in pain for only a moment as he wrenches the knife from his body at throws it back at the kunoichi, hardly even fazed.
There's the chink of metal on metal as she knocks away the bloody kunai.
"YOU!" The word is shrilly screamed and blazing with fury.
Kisame looks up. "I'm sorry," he wonders idly, "Do I know you?"
"By the time I'm finished with you, you'll wish you didn't." she snarls, using her kunai to point at his face.
It's the perfect time to genjutsu her; all her attention is on Kisame and I could easily get her under my thumb. But curiosity stops me. I stand by quietly, hoping not to be noticed.
"Hmmm . . . you do look familiar." Kisame says. He's playing around, and all of us know it. "Tell me your name again?"
Her glare hardens. "My name is Akamitsu Sakina. Does any part of that ring a bell, Hoshigaki?"
Kisame's toothy grin falters slightly, and he is uncharacteristically silent.
"Shall I remind you about other people named Akamitsu?" Sakina asks coldly. "Shall I remind you how you murdered your entire squad?"
This piques my interest. So this is Kisame's background – wanted for murder of comrades. Figures.
"I had reasons." Is his only reply as he shifts on his feet. Clearly, he's unsettled.
"You know what it's like to wait days for someone who means the world to you to come home . . . and the anxiety just eats at you?" Sakina pauses to snort, and as she speaks she walks in circles around Kisame. "I guess you wouldn't. You don't love anyone. But I waited forever for my sister to come back and she's still. Gone. She didn't come back. Should I remind you about that part as well?"
Kisame scowls but says nothing, so she continues.
"She didn't come back because was dead. She was murdered by someone she should have been able to trust without question – her own comrade!"
"I told you," Kisame replies, "I had reasons."
"There is no reason," Sakina snaps, "To kill someone who trusts you."
I swallow hard as I remember the feel of my Mother's arms around me for the last time. "We love you, Itachi. So much."
My parents trusted me to do the right thing. Did I?
"Enough." Kisame growls, reaching for his sword. I've heard stories about Samehada, but never seen it in action. It's Kisame's treasured possession, and pulling it out means business.
"Yes, enough." Sakina agrees, and yanks one of the kunai in her tool pouch. Kisame hisses in pain as he is bound by nearly invisible wire. The whole time she was monologuing, she was dropping the wire in circles around him, and she was so slick that neither of us caught her at it. Then she used the kunai attached to it to pull it tight around him. Ninja wire is strong stuff – even Kisame would have a hard time breaking out of it.
In a flash, Sakina is behind Kisame with a blade to his throat.
"I hope you know," she says menacingly, "That you're a kill-on-sight target." She draws the blade across his neck, but light enough that she only slices the skin. Blood beads at the cut, the bright red contrasting against his blue color. Kisame's nose twitches at the smell of his own blood. I'd like to think it's involuntary.
"Let's see." Sakina grins, "Would you prefer incineration . . . or blood loss?"
Kisame glances at me and then quickly away, like he knows he needs help but doesn't want to admit it.
It's up to me. As it is, I have two options. I can save Kisame or let him die.
He deserves it. He really does. He murdered the walnut lady without a second thought, and from what I've heard, he'd kill his own comrades, too, which doesn't bode well for me. If our positions were reversed, I'm sure he'd leave me for dead.
But when I think about it, the conversation regarding the murders bothered him enough that he failed to notice even a simple wire trap. And Akaime likes him, which has to count for something . . .
Sakina's free hand clasps the katana behind her shoulder – that's a weapon meant for killing. It's now or never.
I hesitate for only a second, and then I release my Transformation Jutsu and regain my own body, which is a lot more comfortable. Sakina shifts her eyes to me at the sudden movement and I catch her gaze, easily trapping her in a genjutsu.
She drops the katana and the kunai that's attached to her ninja wire. It falls slack around Kisame. I can feel her subconscious fighting the genjutsu, but she's absolutely no match and she remains staring vacantly ahead of her.
Kisame sighs very lightly and puts his palm to her forehead. He fires the same jutsu he used on the walnut lady at point-blank range, but this time he looks away and he does not smile. Sakina stops fighting my genjutsu and falls to the ground face-first. He squats and makes several handsigns, ending with Tiger – a Fire jutsu. Her body disintegrates into ash.
"To destroy information." Kisame explains.
"Cremation," I correct.
I hold my tongue and don't protest the killing; this was something that had to be done if we are to complete our mission in Kiri. Kotoamatsukami is risky anyway because we don't know Kiri's general protocol to deal with intruders, and we'd risk inaccuracy by rewriting her memory.
"We should leave the village tonight," Kisame suggests, "and let things settle down in the next few hours. We can try again in the morning."
I nod in agreement and Akaime returns to my shoulder with the ruffle of wings and shifting of claws as we head away from Kiri, sloshing through the marsh.
A/N: in some ways, I think this story is turning out to be as much about Kisame as it is about Itachi.
hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review!