Thanks for all the reviews and favs!
Wasn't Karin great in this weeks manga? She's definitely a survivor.
So Itachi's other element is water… that's pretty cool actually. It also makes me wonder what a water based fight between Kisame and Itachi would look like since Itachi was second only to Jiraiya (according to the last databook.) It's entirely possible that he's better at water jutsus than Kisame. But I wouldn't bet money on that… after all Kisame is pretty awesome too xD
Disclaimer: Kishimoto owns Naruto.
X x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Chapter 61 – The Price
Sasori's promptness was nothing short of admirable, as far as Itachi was concerned. Being used to a highly disciplined lifestyle, the fact that the puppet master would say he would be "finished" with his assassination mission at a specified time and then showing up a couple minutes later ready and willing for a new mission was almost enough to make the teen smile.
The circumstances of the new mission, however, overrode any gratitude he felt. As the pair made their way out of the destitute Rice country village and into the forested hills in the center of the small nation they spoke little and anyone who saw them would not think they were travelling together. Though they walked a mere ten feet from each other, their thoughts were miles away.
The house Sasori lead Itachi to was medium sized with about eight rooms and a central kitchen that also served as the dining area. The faded green tatami mats that covered the dusty floor were worn in places – no doubt nibbled by rats. Rustling sounds accompanied them as they walked down the house's central hallway, confirming the presence of rodents. Or at least Itachi hoped it was rodents. Knowing Sasori, they could have been zombie puppet rats programmed to protect the house.
"Come with me." Sasori lead the teen into a room near the center of the house and pulled back one of the mats. His puppet body opened and a red-headed boy stepped out and formed a series of hand signs. The exposed floor glowed as kanji lit up in a bright yellow light before fading away.
"Interesting." Itachi observed.
"Follow me." Although the boy's voice was pleasant, the tone was definitely impatient. He stepped down into a steep staircase that descended into a large basement. Although a full laboratory was set up with glassware, scrolls, chemicals and a computer there were no corpses nearby waiting to be turned into puppets.
"What is this place? Is it yours?" Itachi stepped cautiously, not trusting Sasori to lead him safely into his lair.
"I have at least one lab in every country on this continent."
"That's quite a few…" Itachi's voice trailed off as he watched the red-head pull the poison samples out of the pocket of his Akatsuki cloak and set them on a table.
"You can rest over there. You mentioned Konan was also checking into whether Hanzou created this poison so you might check in periodically and see if she has found anything out. No use wasting my time if she already has the answer." He immediately got to work, pulling out several slides, labels, and a box of chemicals from various drawers. Ignoring Itachi, he placed drops of the poison on the slides and began examining them under a high-powered microscope.
Itachi looked at his watch and wondered if Konan had time yet to get the sample to Rain. It would be cutting it close, but he decided to check in anyway. Making his way to a couch at the far end of the room he pulled out his Akatsuki ring and stuck it on his finger. Closing his eyes in concentration he called out to Konan. Ten minutes later she responded, without any apology for the delay. After all, there was no need. Contact had to be made in secrecy and it was not always convenient to respond immediately.
As her voice filled his thought Itachi suddenly wondered why Konan still had an Akatsuki ring if she and Pein had divorced themselves from the organization.
"I haven't heard anything, Itachi." Konan's soft voice was almost comforting and again Itachi was struck by how much she seemed to have changed. Had Akatsuki been a burden to her as well? The answer seemed self-evident.
"Thank-you Konan."
"I'll contact you when I get an update. Have you found Sasori?"
"Yes. I'm with him now."
"Then that is something, at least."
"By the way, the ring…" Itachi wasn't sure if he should ask why she was able to use her ring for contact.
"It's okay. Pein and Sasori are the ones who came up with the rings. They cannot work properly without Pein's jutsu. I have to go now, Itachi."
"Thank-you." Itachi broke contact and smiled for the first time in days. Konan had just revealed a very important piece of information to him. And because she was not the type to make stupid mistakes, he knew it had been a calculated move on her part. Madara's entire communication network could be brought down at the whim of a man who was now silently feuding with the real leader of the Akatsuki.
The fact that the rings were still working seemed to indicate something as well, however what exactly that was completely escaped Itachi's comprehension. Perhaps Jiraiya was in on it on some level? Seeing Konan and Jiraiya sitting at a table together sipping sake was still eating at him.
"What did you discover?" Sasori broke him out of his thoughts and Itachi looked across the long room and the childlike puppet perched on a tall stool with a thick book open in front him.
"She hasn't gotten any information back from her sources yet." Itachi yawned and opened his backpack to retrieve a soldier pill, but he was interrupted again by Sasori.
"Go ahead and get some sleep. It will take hours to sort this out, and for what I am going to charge for this… I promise I will wake you if I find anything."
Itachi deposited the pill container back into his pack and nodded. Laying down on the dark colored couch he closed his eyes, falling asleep easily.
X x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Sasuke cried out as he opened his eyes and stared at the pale crescent moon invading his room. Taking a deep breath he sat up and wrapped his arms around his legs.
"Why am I having so many nightmares?" The boy moaned helplessly to the empty room. A sudden urge to seek out his mom was overwhelming and he felt a tear slide down his cheek when he realized she was hundreds of miles away in Konoha. "At least she's alive."
For the last few days the boy had suffered through many different nightmares detailing, in surprising clarity, the destruction of Konoha and the deaths of his friends and family. And he was the instrument of their destruction.
He had heard stories of how dreams could foretell the future and Itachi seemed to believe it as well. In fact, Sasuke creased his brow in concentration as he remembered the time they had shared in the secret jail underneath the Konoha police station. He and Itachi had the same dream.
"I was standing over the bodies of Sakura and Naruto." Sasuke whispered.
"Sasuke?" The boy cringed as he recognized the voice calling out to him from the hallway.
"I'm sleeping. Leave me alone."
The door slid open and Madara walked in. Despite the early hour he was dressed in his Mizukage robes and appeared to be wide awake. "You were broadcasting some pretty powerful chakra there, kid. What's going on?"
"I… was?" Sasuke blinked a couple times in surprise, "I… had a nightmare… nothing important."
"Sasuke?" Another voice called out to him, this time it was Karin. This was expected, given the circumstances. The girl was extremely sensitive to chakra fluctuations and he had probably woken her up.
"I'm okay Karin. Go back to bed."
"Are you sure?" The redhead glanced in the room and looked worriedly at Sasuke and Madara. She was clutching a dark blue silk robe tightly over her chest and her wide, frightened eyes brought a sudden feeling guilt over him.
Sasuke nodded slightly and whispered, "Yeah."
Unconvinced, Karin gave one more look at the pair before reluctantly returning to her room.
"It was that bad, huh?" Sasuke continued to whisper, not trusting his voice to speak any louder.
"Well, Karin's an exception here, but you were broadcasting some pretty heavy chakra. I doubt anyone else sensed it. The question is, what's wrong with you and why are you so bad at controlling your emotions? You did undergo desensitization training at the Academy and you have seen some pretty bad stuff since then. You shouldn't be fazed by nightmares anymore."
"I'm sorry."
"I will speak with Sora about arranging for you to undergo more desensitization training. This can't continue, Sasuke." Madara's voice was stern and it was obvious he was upset.
"No!" Sasuke cringed inwardly as the memories of the training he had undergone as a young child in the Academy returned to him. They were exposed repeatedly to training films detailing missions that involved assassinations and some of them had been quite gruesome. Considering the reputation of Mist village, he had to wonder what their methods were. Did they use live people? Would they make him watch as prisoners were horribly tortured and mutilated for not providing information?
"'No?'" Madara quoted the boy, "I believe that answer is all the proof I need."
"I…"
The elder Uchiha interrupted him gruffly, "What did you dream?"
The urge to lie had never been so strong and Sasuke actually uttered the first few syllables of a falsehood before his good sense clicked in. Snapping his mouth shut he stared back at the window. The moon had drifted away from the window, or perhaps it had been hidden by the clouds or fog. Either way, the pitch black night was as dark and distant as the man sitting in front of him.
"You don't want to tell me?" Madara urged impatiently.
Sasuke shuddered, "Why do you want to know?"
"Sasuke, I'm very busy and you're acting like a child." He creased his brow for a moment then continued, "Well, you are a child, but ninja shouldn't act like children."
"Oh." He took a deep breath and decided he had no choice, "I dreamed that I destroyed Konoha and killed my best friends and my parents and Itachi were dead." Sasuke was a little surprised at the look of shock that briefly crossed Madara's face. However, a moment later he wondered if he had just imagined it. After all, the man was not the kind of person to be surprised by anything.
After a couple minutes Madara finally turned his back to the boy and began walking towards the door, "Hmm. I see. That's all it was. Then let me ask you this, Sasuke. If peace was within your grasp, something tangible that you could not only hold in your hand, but share with the rest of the world, and your fath… Fugaku tried to kill you in order to prevent that peace… what would you do? And keep in mind that he would use the Shinobi forces of Konoha to stop you."
Sasuke chewed on his bottom as he tried desperately to find some sort of logical meaning behind Madara's words. The boy knew there were different ways of getting peace – Danzou had tried to use Itachi to get one of those ways – but it was wrong. How could peace be "peace" if it was soaked in blood?
"Don't have an answer?" Madara was still standing with his back to the boy, his voice was firm, but carried a hint of sorrow.
"I… can't hurt them…" Sasuke finally said.
"Even if it means the rest of the world has to suffer for it?"
"Even if… why would that happen?" Sasuke was now thoroughly confused and apparently Madara knew that because he shook his head and began walking toward the door again.
"Sasuke, be ready to leave at ten tomorrow… um… this morning. In eight hours. You and I will take a little trip to the island of broken dreams."
"Where's that?"
"Water country." He exited the room and closed the door behind him.
Sasuke stared after him with a blank look on his face, "But… we're already in Water country."
X x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Drifting in and out of sleep, Itachi found it difficult to get comfortable on the wide couch. It wasn't that the cushion was hard or the pillow lumpy, but the heightened state of awareness at being so close to Sasori that put him on edge. He doubted the puppet man would do anything, but he had worked too closely with S-class criminals to completely lower his guard around them.
After several hours the teen gave up trying to sleep and sat up. He had to admit, though, that he did feel a lot better. Some of the soldier pills had been able to work their way out of his system leaving him a little lethargic, but it was nothing a good meal and another night of sleep wouldn't fix.
"You awake?" Sasori called over.
"Yeah."
"There's food upstairs. You can cook here and it won't alert anyone to our presence. Deidara keeps a stash. It's just canned soup of course, but he thinks it's edible."
"Hm. Thanks. Have you gotten anywhere yet?" Itachi yawned widely and rubbed his eyes as he fumbled with his glasses.
"Well, this looks remarkably like something Hanzou would have come up with. But it's different. I thought it was one of his 'M' strains, but… I'm not positive of that."
Itachi walked over to the long lab table and stared down at the cultures Sasori had been working on. "So did someone take one of Hanzou's poisons and alter it?"
"Possible. It's harder than it sounds, though. Hanzou, Chiyo, Tsunade… those three were definitely masters of their art. Orochimaru and myself are from another generation but still geniuses with poisons. There is no one else at our level. Yet…" Sasori's voice trailed off as he picked up a slide and stared at it without emotion.
"I could see Orochimaru doing it just to see if it was possible." Itachi added.
The puppet man shook his head, "So could I. The question is how would he get a sample? Hanzou's poisons broke down quickly so they wouldn't be detected, yet this one was engineered to stay in the body and duplicate, even evolve in order to prevent an antidote from working. As paranoid as Hanzou was about being found and killed, I can't believe he would create something like this, or give a sample to someone else to play with."
"He and Danzou had an agreement of some sort at one time." Itachi offered, "Could this poison have been made in payment for something?" He thought back to Nagato's admission a few months earlier about how he had started Akatsuki after Danzou and Hanzou had killed his friend.
"Ah. That story." Sasori responded, as if reading his mind, "I would like to say 'no', but one thing I have learned is to not make absolute statements about people. Perhaps Konan will find out more and contact you. In the meantime, I have isolated several active elements in the poison and I am now working on finding an antidote that will work with all of them."
Itachi nodded, "Then I won't bother you anymore."
X x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
The soup Deidara had stockpiled was a rather expensive brand with very good flavor. Of course, on his Akatsuki salary buying cheap stuff was a waste. Because, as Kisame was fond of lecturing, "You're going to die young anyway, and if you can't take it with you, make sure you die with an empty wallet."
"I wonder if Deidara has figured out yet why he's sick." Itachi smirked to himself. The thought of Sasori poisoning his partner so he could go on a mission by himself was rather amusing. He was pulled out of his thoughts when he felt his ring grow warm on his finger. Looking down at it he saw it glow slightly and immediately scanned the area with his chakra to make sure he was alone.
"Yes?" He spoke quietly as he entered a meditative state and called out to the summoner. He was surprised to see Pein instead of Konan.
"The poison is from Hanzou's 'M' series." The man got right down to business, confirming Sasori's findings with one short sentence. "According to the records it was a special order, but no mention of who it was delivered to was found. It's probably safe to say it was Danzou, given the dates of the records. There was no antidote provided though."
"Sasori suspected as much."
"I'm afraid your best bet right now is Sasori. None of the scientists here are at his level so having them work on it would be time consuming. I have passed this same information on to Jiraiya, who will pass it on to Tsunade. Between Tsunade and Sasori, if they can't do it…" The sentence went unfinished, but Itachi knew what the implications were.
"Thank-you for looking into this. I know you didn't have to do it." Itachi replied politely.
Pein sighed loudly, something he rarely did in front of others, "Sheeta is a good kid. She has suffered much in her short life and it would be a pity if it ended with more suffering." He ended the communication, leaving Itachi feeling very confused and a little disoriented. Of course he was surprised by Pein's admission, but he was also struck with a feeling similar to waking up in a strange place and not knowing where you were.
"There is no antidote. Danzou ordered a poison with no antidote. How could that be? What if one of his own people accidently got exposed? He would just let them die?" The answer seemed obvious and a few minutes later when he reiterated the conversation to Sasori he was struck with just how insane the man was.
"It's not unusual." Sasori interrupted his thoughts. "During the great Ninja wars… sacrificing your own people in a raid was normal. Your own Second Hokage died that way. That was how the Third came into power. Shinobi exist only for the mission. They have no past, no future, no family, no friends, no enemies. They are only tools."
"Tools…" Itachi repeated. He had been taught that, and had even believed it at one point. But now that the reality of what being a "tool" had slapped him in the face he knew there was something vitally wrong with that lifestyle.
"Danzou isn't insane, or cruel, or a despot. He is simply nothing more than a Shinobi. Perhaps he has even come the closest to living the pure Shinobi life than anyone else alive. He has no clan connections, no family, no friends. He is living from mission to mission. The time between those missions does not exist."
Itachi was forced to agree, but something else was nagging him, "Yes, but… you seem to be the same."
"No, young Itachi. I have my grandmother and my great uncle is still alive and has descendants. The only way for me to live a true Shinobi lifestyle would be to kill them."
Itachi wasn't sure he could believe that. After all, clans had been an important part of Shinobi life since the beginning. Ninja gathered together to support each other during missions and teach their children to carry on the traditions. It was disturbing to hear Sasori talk about his family as if they were targets to be assassinated to prove he was a Shinobi.
"Nevertheless," Sasori continued, "I believe I am close to obtaining an antidote. Having confirmation that this was one of Hanzou's and that it was indeed a type 'M' series does help, as I can now focus my research in one direction. Itachi…" He stared directed at the teen and even though the small puppet body was incapable of showing emotion, his voice resonated distinctly with excitement, "be ready. The price for my services will be high."
"Am I correct in saying it won't consist of money?" Itachi countered.
"I have no need of money."
X x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
"Fugaku, why are you in your office so early?" Toshiro stepped into the large room and approached the desk where his friend was diligently stamping reports with a large wooden seal.
"Couldn't sleep. Mikoto woke up in a panic over Sasuke and began pacing back and forth. It was quite annoying."
"She had a nightmare?"
"Probably. Although she claims she didn't. Could just be anxiety, though. Anyway, Naruto was already awake and training rather noisily in the yard so I figured I would just get up anyway."
Toshiro laughed, "He sure is focused. Who would have thought that little troublemaker would mature so fast?"
"Well, unless he learns to execute his jutsus in silence he won't be alive long enough to mature completely. I gave him a short lecture to that effect before I left, but I'm not sure he understood."
"He relies too much on strength and ignores his brain."
Fugaku turned around and glanced out the window. The sky was bright, indicating the sun was mere moments from breaking over the horizon. Turning back to Toshiro he was interrupted when he saw something out the corner of his eye. Quickly turning his head he saw the distinct outline of an ink creature that could only have come from Sai's jutsu. The small mouse climbed effortlessly onto up the side of the ancient wooden desk and onto an empty scroll Fugaku had quickly unrolled over the table top.
Forming a series of hand signs, Fugaku changed the mouse's form into kanji that spread out over the paper. A diagram also began to draw and as its form took shape the two men's eyes opened wide in surprise.
"They did it!" Fugaku grinned happily, then took a deep breath and let it out slowly before continuing, "But the information is disturbing. Danzou has his own village named Ki and is fully armed. However, this diagram might be helpful. Or…" Fugaku saw some words written hastily at the end of the scroll and banged his fist heavily on the table.
Toshiro frowned, "What is it?"
"They were discovered while sending the information. Humph. They're probably dead."
"Perhaps, it's hard to say until we check."
"True, but the real problem is Kabuto. He is at his most dangerous when cornered. Danzou would be a fool to leave him alive. And so would we." Fugaku looked up at Toshiro and gritted his teeth, "We must prepare for war. Ki will fall before us and Danzou will finally be dead."
X x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
X x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Next week, Itachi finds out what Sasori's terms for his antidote are, Fugaku works out a battle strategy and why exactly is Madara so determined to take Sasuke on a tour of Water country?
Please review
Updates on Fridays