Chapter 26 - Deal
Kisame swung his cloak over Kage quickly to cover her. The large shark-nin frowned when Hidan and Deidara began to laugh and turned to them when Konan helped the blonde up and to her room.
Her face was frozen as if she were having an internal battle; but her body moved shakily.
Kisame growled at the two howling Akatsuki members. "Shut the hell up!" He thwacked them with Samahada- draining their chakra sharply in the process.
Deidara whimpered, falling on the back of the couch holding his head. "It was funny though, Hm."
When turning to Hidan to chew him out as well, though, both shinobi bursted with complete laughter. Even the spiny Samahada was chuckling and rolling along the floor. Hidan growled at this.
Why were they laughing at him?
He didn't find out until Itatchi pointed a mirror close to the bookshelf at him.
The friction between Samahada's spiky scales and Hidan was very high when Kisame hit him and generated enough heat to fry the top of the Jashinist's head. He had a Mohawk, and it was hilarious.
"What the fuck?!" He scrambled to the bathroom to fix it, not giving the others' laughter a second thought or insult.
Kisame wiped a stray tear and exhaled a laugh. "Oh my stomach hurts."
"My entire body hurts, Hm." Deidara exhaled a chuckle. He was slumped over the back of the couch upside-down with his arms out.
Itatchi sat back down and resumed reading his book. The laughter eventually dying down after Kisame and Deidara mumbled insults about the Jashinist. It took the attention away from Kage's surprised nudity at least. He sighed and flipped a page; besides the ordeal the woman seemed off, as if she were hiding something.
Kage returned downstairs with two scrolls and was now fully dressed. She didn't want to talk to anyone. Not after what he had been through recently. She still had to go meet the Uchiha brat in the morning, and if she didn't show up he would probably tell Oorochimaru everything about her. The Diamond-nin went straight to Pein's office without another word.
"So I take it didn't go as planned considering we were met by Storm?" Pein perked a brow. "Did he fall for the other offer?"
"Yes he did." She threw the scroll to him. Kage had taken the protective diamond coating off before she came up. "Storm had to fight off Oto ninja though. The snake caught on and somehow saw through the genjutsu right after signing.
"Alright. Well done. Now all we have to do is kill Oorochimaru." Pein mumbled as if that would be an easy D ranked mission and put the scroll into his cloak.
"He'll be dead soon anyway. No point in getting unnecessary blood on our hands."
"How do you know this?"
"Did you forget that you sent me into the stupid bastard's village, or that I'm a priestess? He's got tons of followers." Kage grumbled.
Pein frowned at her and fumbled with a pen on his desk. "Yes but not all of his followers are present with him 24/7."
"I just got lucky. Anyways there is something I want to ask you." Hopefully that would be enough so she would have to ask any more questions on that subject. There was no telling what Pein would say if she told him everything about Itatchi's little brother.
"Go on." He began filing through paperwork. Mission reports, requests and other means of offers were neatly organized. Just because he was the leader of the Akatsuki didn't mean he would allow Amegakure to fall. He kept the shinobi working and Ame Academy operational and fully staffed.
"I want more freedom. Also, I don't want to partake in the extraction of Jinchuuriki's or help in capturing them." She spoke boldly with crossed arms and a sharp stance.
Pein didn't allow Kage's blunt requests to interfere with his scribbles and signatures. After a moment he allowed the pen he was using to rest in his hand. Purple ringed eyes made contact with a smokey blue. "You may go to and from wherever as you please, no one is forced to stay here but you will not go without your partner. You also do not have to help with capturing Jinchuuriki, though you will help with the extraction rituals."
The blonde threw her arms down ad opened her mouth to protest though was cut short.
"Your chakra control and the high amount of chakra you own would help the process quicken massively. We are down by two members anyway, we need the help. You've proved you won't run off, and I will allow more freedom, but if you refuse to cooperate with my demands for our organization's goals then we will transport Deidara to Suna and he will detonate the bombs in your beloved comrade. The ring you posses will allow you to be holographically present when the extraction process is occurring, which is why I will allow you to leave."
He then began moving his pen again and moving around papers. "The first offense you make will result in a warning by locking you in the cavern where you first woke up here for seven days. The second and you will be present when Deidara publicly kills your loved one along with the entire Hidden Sand village. Those lives are up to you, though. Now. Dismissed."
Kage was shocked. He would go that far if she disobeyed him? She took a moment to steady herself before pulling out a sealing scroll. The blonde waved hand signs and grabbed the item that had appeared from the parchment. She placed the item on Pein's desk.
"It's not much, and I don't know if you'd like it but I figured I'd pick something up or everyone while I was out." She backed up to the door ad bowed. "Thank you."
Pein waited for the woman to exit before examining the item she had placed on his desk. It was a stack of eight forehead protectors that had been hand-sewn into either red, white or black fabric. The symbol carved into the metal plate matched that of the red cloud on the Akatsuki cloak.
The Akatsuki leader looked at the door she had taken to leave with wide eyes. She had made these by hand; he could tell due to the very thin, protective layer of clear diamond that surrounded the metal.
That woman had taken her time with these at some point on her mission.
They could never be scratched out either.