Just out of curiosity, I would like to know who your favorite character is right now. Please tell me in your review!
The sound ninja fell to the ground, blood still gushing from his neck. Karasu was out of breath from the amount of chakra she had used. The Sharingan gradually faded from her eyes.
"She really looks like you when she is using the Sharingan," Sasori murmured to Itachi.
"Umm…Itachi-san?" Ningyou asked, somewhat timidly. Itachi blinked as though surprised and turned his attention to the red-haired girl. "Will Karasu be all right?"
Itachi shot a cursory glance over at his copy. Karasu had recovered from exhaustion pretty quickly, and her eyesight had returned to normal already. Impressive. Would it be possible to…? Leaving the question to himself unfinished, he said, "She'll be fine. The Sharingan always takes a lot of energy to use. With practice, she'll be able to keep it activated longer."
"Itachi-san. Yours was awakened when you were eight years old, right?" Black Zetsu asked.
"I mastered it at eight years old," Itachi corrected.
Sasori, who had been reading the files, looked up. "These should interest you guys. Take a look." He tossed the papers to Deidara. Luckily, the papers were clipped together so Deidara was spared the trouble of having to pick up scattered papers.
The replacements watched apprehensively (with the exception of Sutetchi since he was busy stitching up wounds) as Deidara, followed by Itachi and Zetsu, read the file. The Akatsuki then drew together to talk, making the atmosphere even more tense.
"What do you think they'll do?" Sakan whispered.
"Maybe we shouldn't have given them the file," Nendo sounded worried.
Fumetsu scowled. "Why are you all so scared? If they try to kill us, we'll fight! We're supposed to be stronger than them, right? We can kill them easily!" Luckily for Fumetsu, the Akatsuki did not hear her exclamation.
Before she could be reprimanded for her lack of respect, Sasori walked up to them.
"There is something we would like to discuss with you," he said, glancing at them all.
"Are you gonna kill us?" Nendo blurted out. His fellow copies shot him an exasperated glare.
To their surprise, however, Sasori half-smiled. "No. Not even close."
"You're going to let us go?" Tenchi asked.
"Not that either, hmm," Deidara joined his partner in keeping the replacements in the fog.
"Well? What are you gonna do?" Sakan demanded.
Itachi held up a hand, and all eyes turned to him. "Before we ask you that, we need to know if you actually are planning to destroy the Akatsuki."
"Oh, right. That was also a part of the files," Sutetchi remembered.
"We already told Orochimaru that we weren't going to kill you. First, we don't know you all that well, and you haven't wronged us in any way. Second, most of us actually prefer not to kill…" Everyone except Itami, who was speaking, looked at Fumetsu, "…and third, if we did kill you, that would basically mean we were being used, and none of us like that."
"In that case, I think that you can hear the second question," Itachi continued.
Before he could ask the copies the question, Tobi interrupted him. "We want to know if you are willing to come with us!" he said in the same hyper voice that he used before the fight.
"Tobi! This is a serious matter! Don't treat it like it's not important, hmm!" Deidara was reaching the end of his patience with Tobi.
"But you guys were taking too long to ask! Tobi just wanted to do his friends a favor!" Tobi whined.
"And how is asking the question like that doing us a favor?" Deidara snapped.
Sasori cut in. "Enough. The clones know what we want now. Let them make their decision."
"And hurry. We can't wait around all day," Black Zetsu added.
The replacements drew together. "What do you guys think?" Itami looked at her friends.
Karasu didn't care whether or not they went with the Akatsuki. She thought that if they went with the originals, they could learn some good techniques. Even so, they only had a maximum of five years to live.
Tenchi wanted to go with the Akatsuki. He wanted to meet his original before he died, and he wanted to learn some more jutsu to help him manipulate his paper. Sakan agreed with Tenchi.
Although Nendo, Ningyou, Kuroi, and Shiro already met their originals, they still wanted to go with the Akatsuki. Their reason was to get to know their originals a bit more. They thought this would help them learn more about themselves. Also, going with the Akatsuki might let them discover how the Akatsuki humiliated Orochimaru.
Fumetsu objected. She didn't want to go with the Akatsuki. Her belief was that she and her companions would be bossed around all day. Out of all of them, Fumetsu hated being a clone the most. To her, they weren't meant to exist because they were only copied from the original Akatsuki. Going with the Akatsuki would be like rubbing salt into a wound.
Sutetchi agreed with Fumetsu. Like her, he thought that they would be able to take care of themselves.
"Well, I also want to go, so I can learn more jutsu and get to know my original, Pain," Itami said, "There are two who don't want to go, one undecided, and seven who want to go. The majority wins. Therefore, we are going."
Sutetchi shrugged, and Fumetsu went, "Tch!", but both succumbed to the decision made.
"Hey, you're all going to be my friends, right?" Tobi asked the clones on the way to Amegakure.
The clones looked at each other before replying sure. Of course, Tobi didn't hear the hesitation in their voices.
"We're here," White Zetsu said.
They had stopped in front of a tall tower. However, its height wasn't so great that they couldn't see the figure standing on a balcony at the very top. He wore an Akatsuki cloak and had spiky, orange hair. Itami could tell that her original was the one standing up there.
Suddenly, the figure jumped down. Landing in front of them, he raised his head and said, "You took your time."
I've decided to screw the updating-once-a-week thing I mentioned last chapter. I can never follow deadlines; they're too demanding and restrictive for me. Actually, the only time I can get myself to follow them is for school…