Precious chaos
Days later.
Kakashi was still under that bad weather, avoiding seeing anyone else than Shikamaru.
Three days before he had been in communication with the patrolling squad, found Tsunade and informed her about – his state of mind.
His desperation.
His demotivation.
Tsunade had laughed.
"Stop cunting there around. Choose a motherfucking path and see where it leads.
The fuck you thought was commanding?"
Kakashi didn't laugh.
He sighed and put end to the conversation.
Shikamaru was looking him, from the other side of the Kage's desk.
He was always there. Was always looking at the Kage. Always answering to the Kage.
Only thinking for and about the Kage. Kakashi made a half smile.
"What then?"
Shikamaru took time to formulate the answer.
Kakashi was mentally destroyed since the previous evening.
He had announced his fears, one night of sighs being now totally fucking useless and only heavier to bear for his wit.
Kakashi was totally distracted, and so Shikamaru only answered "Get back on it tomorrow" standing up to leave the room.
This was the signal for Kakashi. When Shikamaru left, he had to leave.
They were acting in total coordination – they looked like twins.
Three days later Kakashi hadn't changed a bit.
Shikamaru had begun to sigh in his place, watching him looking always the desk board and twitching, from time to time, evidently thinking of things he just mumbled on to have a last taste of them.
Things – Naruto and Sai.
When you munch memories like this, that's for a dead one.
Shikamaru understood that the other had completely lost hope.
"Well if it's a war of attrition they're attempting to put up, they've made it" he said scornfully.
Kakashi, as reply, sighed looking him, the eyes of a scorned cold puppy lost in nowhere.
Shikamaru sighed himself.
"Kak. We have to make something.
At least send Tsunade. Hinata, Tsunade, Sakura. What about it?"
Kakashi nodded.
"Actually we have to do something. They only or another squad too?"
Shikamaru thought.
"Two squads. That should be right.
Have we got time – a minute – I want to put down once for all the squads shipping.
Lee – Neji – Chouji – Tenten – Sakura – Kiba – Ino – Hinata – who then?"
He realized he posed the wrong question.
Kakashi sighed silently again.
Then he cleared his throat, regaining his voice, and said:
"Keep them for now. They're the first ones.
Neji, Lee and Kiba - Hinata, Tsunade and Sakura – Ino, Tenten, Chouji. Neji with Guy, Ino with Asuma. That's right?"
"Could be. I wonder when the FUCK will we actually find Orochimaru."
Shikamaru sighed loudly and angrily.
Kakashi looked him and wasn't able to think enough as to speak.
"WHERE THE FUCK IS OROCHIMARU?"
"Thir, thir, shut the fuck up...ye waen gu an like this aw the road long, yeah?"
"Shut up yir fucking mooth, ye –"
"You two, stop quarrelling. Silence, I said. And I SAID."
Hidan and Kakuzu obeyed. Tobi wrote the laws therein, that was clear as day.
Tobi himself didn't speak.
He never spoke, he always thought.
Then when he said something – orders – he had always that spiteful, sneering, scorning voice of the one who laughs at you mocking you and pretending he's treating you with respect.
But Hidan and Kakuzu hadn't the wit to notice it – they were bored like children when they want to play and grown-ups force them to do serious shit.
Their play had ended with Sai's death. There were no replacement toys as for now.
Sai had resisted few days after Naruto's death – both their corpses hanged on Kakuzu's back, folded in some dirty clothes.
Kisame and Sasori's bodies had instead been chopped to pieces and buried hastily somewhere far from Akatsuki's hideouts.
They had left the hideout where they killed the boys and were presently trying to avoid all the hideouts Deidara knew.
Deidara.
Tobi often thought about him.
Deidara was an incredible failure of his.
Tobi wanted Deidara to go and tell Konoha people some things but he planned on getting after him later and killing him.
Now it wasn't possible.
He had decided to risk on Deidara – getting the Jinchuuriki meant that Konoha put up its guard, Deidara was involved, Deidara HELPED them – Deidara fucked him.
Probability told.
He had risked on probability.
He had to get the Kyuubi IMMEDIATELY – he had to get Orochimaru in the shit.
He wanted the Ten-tails to be perfect.
Melting the demons, fusing the demons, get the Ten-tails back – get his power, his energy – and make him – it? – do what you fucking want to be done.
He decided to let the guys stop and rest for that night. That was the fifth day they were travelling in a row.
The two guys never complained, but they were getting nervous.
Hidan threw down a bag he was carrying, Kakuzu threw down the boys.
Tobi neither watched them.
He stood there looking the way they had to do, thinking of where to go and what to do and where the fuck could be Orochimaru.
And he thought of Deidara.
There were lots of things in Akatsuki's hideouts that had been left there by those asses of the guys and that it was better that Konoha didn't find.
Those things could bring Konoha to him – could even make someone notice some things that he, for the moment, wanted to shut up.
Kakashi.
WHY DIDN'T KAKASHI COME TO FIND HIS PUPILS?
This he had foreseen, he had prevented, he had prepared for it!
He had taken it into account – FUCK IT, he NEEDED Kakashi to come out of that fucking village!
He suddenly thought of Orochimaru and laughed.
How could you be that cunty?
Decades ago Orochimaru had decided he would raze Konoha, and Konoha was a fucking little fuck of a village NO ONE cared for – without allies – with the Kyuubi – against Orochimaru.
And Orochimaru was powerful.
And was useful.
Any country would accept to go against Konoha to take the demon and grant itself Orochimaru as ally.
ANYONE.
'Why is he so stupid...'
Hidan caught his attention. He was screaming at Kakuzu's back:
"Ah'm nowt fucking saying thit thit flying bitch ay Deidara wid betray us, AH SAIS HE'S ALREADY FUCKING SOLD TAE KONOHA!"
Tobi laughed sincerely. 'Flying bitch'...!
"Bitch ass motherfucker. Whoa God bitch ass motherfucker.
I hate being on this thing.
I HATE FUCKING BEING ON THIS THING"
"Stop palling.
You're just flying, man. You see that thing there? That's your house.
You've to see and know how this thing works, like fuck it, man, Shikamaru, you'll have to ride it"
Shikamaru moaned in panic.
His panic sprang from the fact that it was totally PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE for that THING to fly – it was made out of CLAY. Clay.
Fucking clay.
No energy, no propellant, no fucking energy and this thing COULD FLY.
Kinetically and physically fucking impossible.
He had to do it, though. That thing could be useful.
Though he was concentrating to hold down the nausea, though he was also thinking (really) about how that thing worked – he didn't want to do it never again – though the panic he was into, he couldn't help thinking about KAKASHI.
How was he doing there alone?
What was happening?
That – was it clearly completely straight, leaving him alone in the office?
Since the first day, Kakashi had never been alone in the office.
Shikamaru sighed, Deidara turned to look him, Shikamaru sighed again and spelled silently "Hokage..."
"HOKAGE? What?
KAKASHI HOKAGE?" Tobi screamed against Orochimaru.
Orochimaru nodded and confirmed, sneering.
"Is it so incredible for you? He's skilled for it. More than Tsunade surely..."
"The fuck he's skilled!"
"Think you, really?"
Tobi didn't answer.
There was such a venom in that rhetorical stupid question – there were so many chances of letting him understand something from whatever possible answer.
Tobi decided to shut up, due to the apparent elusiveness of Orochimaru's question.
Hidan answered without being questioned and sidelong watching Kabuto:
"Nae think. Whae cares. Wir here fir"
"WE'RE here for" said Tobi clearing his throat. "You know what I want to do, don't you, Orochimaru?"
Orochimaru waited a second and then stated, lightly:
"No."
"Well...I'd like to show you a bit of it."
Orochimaru disappeared.
"Then, why do you have to be so distrustful?
Really, man, if I can trust YOU"
"I'm trustworthy!" said Orochimaru reappearing, offended, behind Kabuto. "I've always done what I said I'd do!"
"...And more than it, usually. Avowed killers can't be trustworthy."
"HUH, he talks! The man with the cleanest record of Ninja world!"
"I have a reason to kill, it's not only that I want to use people as dead meat..." commented Tobi.
"Yeah, and what a heck of a reason?"
"This."
Tobi had lost his temper and abruptly thrown the strange guitar-shaped box he had been carrying all the journey before Orochimaru, on the ground.
"How were the two guys, there?" asked Orochimaru to Hidan, avoiding making notice of the 'guitar'.
Kakuzu started: "A night for cursing nursery rhymes-"
"STOP WITH PUNS. I hate them fucking puns." hissed Hidan.
Tobi chuckled.
Orochimaru didn't comment, stayed silent for a minute, and then asked:
"What's this, in the end?"
"Five demons."
Orochimaru's glance startled moving to Naruto and coming back to Tobi.
Who continued:
"Including Kurama. He's happy of being there – with me."
"Yeah the demon brought this cunt by us, fucking angry demon mad as fuck" laughed Hidan wholeheartedly.
Tobi smiled in reply. "Then, what do you want to do?"
Orochimaru lingered:
"...C'mon, man, give me just time to think. I can't tell it right now. What you're gonna do with it?"
"We could even start it now if you wanted."
"...Show me."
Thus Tobi did.
Orochimaru saw a blur of shit in midair before him – then he fucking lost consciousness of the surroundings.
He looked at his own hands – seeing them – strangely – SANE.
He then looked at Kabuto and saw him – WHAT?
Long hair, sweet smile, another uniform – that stretch uniform – he gulped "Tobi..."
"What's it like? Isn't it good? What do you want then?"
Orochimaru suddenly realized that he was mentally listing the process of every fucking jutsu ever existed – "WHOAH THE SIX PATHS SAGE Tobi this fucking shit is wonderful!"
Then he took breath once or twice – to gain energy.
But throughout this blur of jutsus he couldn't fucking FIND the one who countered Tobi's genjutsu.
"And then fuck it, herein it's all so black I can't see a motherfucking thing!
Tobi!
Drop this shit down!"
"DROP ME DOWN OF THIS SHIT!" Shikamaru eventually panicked as fuck.
Deidara laughed, light-hearted, made the clay bird lower nearer to the roof of the Hokage's palace.
Kakashi was there on the roof, waiting for Shikamaru.
Who suddenly thought 'How long has he been standing there?'
Kakashi smiled to him and began to walk, coming to them, to help – apparently – Shikamaru come down.
Which thing he couldn't do, since Deidara – laughing – pushed simply Shikamaru down, forcedly, making him stumble and fall badly before KAkashi.
The latter didn't laugh.
He just grabbed Shikamaru's arm and helped him in standing up, then looked Deidara and asked quietly:
"How's gone the trip?"
"Right...good.
He's good in driving this thing.
You were there all the time, however, you could see by your own."
He stopped looking Kakashi and Shikamaru and then said, leering them:
"How about me leaving you alone for a time now?
I'm just going to do some shit down at the prison."
Shikamaru laughed.
"Haven't you moved from them yet?"
"No. I don't want to. That is the best place herein.
Akatsuki surely wants to kill me.
By the way, when does Sand Country come down here to talk with you?" he asked Kakashi.
"As soon as possible.
We have to talk with the teams, Shikamaru. I prepared the communications room for you."
Deidara laughed simply and went, flying, away.
Kakashi shouted behind him:
"Then leave that thing in the headquarter! By the way, fuck it, has it got a name?"
"NO! Why should I name it? It's a thing!"
"Things have names, you idiot..." whispered Kakashi to Shikamaru.
Who laughed lightly and pulled Kakashi downstairs.
While they walked, he asked his Kage, nodding at Deidara: "You think that would be a good choice?"
"YOU THINK YOU LEFT ME NO CHOICE WITH THIS SHIT, you fucker?
I can – I'll show you..."
This time it was Tobi to laugh, and instinctively moving to leave the place he was and ending up behind Orochimaru.
"I know you're there, you sucker.
You can't prepare this jutsu to work on a snake's senses...sucker."
Saying this Orochimaru turned back to face him, grabbed his mask – and his hand remained clutched holding nothing – inside Tobi's face.
"This is really interesting..." said the latter, jumping away.
"YOU! What the hell is that shit? I don't remember you being able to do anything like it"
"...Ye knew each other?" said Hidan.
"Ye daennae understand it until now?" answered Kakuzu, dropping the kids' corpses on the ground.
Then he raised his head and eyes again to see Orochimaru and Tobi staring hatefully at each other, some ten metres between them, each one standing his ground and trying to counter the other.
Then Tobi sighed.
"This is a good thing for you.
It can only help you to come into this thing. You won't be affected... Orochimaru.
You want to destroy Konoha, you only wanted to gain also something else from it.
I'll make you rule any country you want after I destroy your ex village.
I'll make everyone believe you're good as a governor and let you be the king. 'Tis not what you wanted?"
Orochimaru sighed.
"It could be enough."
"This isn't actually enough to act upon. 'Find Orochimaru'. Actually, try to understand, Shikamaru..."
Tsunade was interrupted from Lee who said:
"Shika, this could we think it also by ourselves! There's no way he'd wrong, Tsuna-"
"I won't accept criticism from idiots, and I won't accept discord.
I say – "
"All hope is gone, in my opinion. However you know better" said Neji.
Shikamaru thought for a minute.
Could there be such a preliminary answer? How, if at all, could it be accepted?
'I should ponder the question.'
Kakashi intervened to say: "This is the only thing we can do as for now. And we must do something.
The girls team will go there, WHEREVER that there is.
C'mon, I want everyone to patrol around, find that fucking Orochimaru and then sent the girls there.
You right, Tsunade?"
"...Yeah, right. However, why should we alone girls go there?"
"'Cus Orochimaru likes to fuck boys, that's clear."
Shikamaru looked at him puzzled: "HAVE YOU EVER TRIED SHUTTING UP, SENSEI?"
Tsunade answered, slightly panicking:
"Oh, hang on, you mean it? ...The cynic you are..."
Just before the other boys in the teams started to shout against Kakashi – in fact they had just been told that Sasuke had been killed, or well, not really everyone knew – Shikamaru entitled Tsunade to command on battlefield – if there would be any – and closed the communication.
Kakashi looked him baffled in reply: "...Battlefield?"
"BATTLEFIELD! DAE YE CALL THIS A FUCKING BATTLEFIELD!
Whir the fuck ur they?"
"Ah can't see a shit ay a thing Hidan! Stop shouting like a pussy!
Thir's nae problem in here, ah can't see them either bit thir them whae fight, it's nowt us involved!"
Straight as he spoke he was hit by a flying blow.
"Whae the fuck wis it? I can't manage to see a fucking shit man"
All around them, a pure BLACK CHAOS.
"It's like being sucked intae a wormhole, guys!"
"Since whin dae ye know wit a wormhole s, Kakuzu?" laughed Hidan.
"BIT WHY THE FUCK DID THEY START FIGHTING?"
"How the fuck wid I ken, Kakuzu...they jist wir talking shite n thin thit shite ay Orochimaru started."
"Ah saw um traeng to take the Mazou.
Thin thit's why Tobi run it um."
They stopped talking to witness the brothel before them, and to try to watch out – to build a defence.
But – against WHAT?
Here and there spots of lights as ignes fatui – wisps – in the light of the fires wrestling feckless shadows.
Orochimaru and Tobi – they weren't simply able to hit each other.
Orochimaru didn't SEE Tobi – Tobi couldn't FORESEE Orochimaru – they were running around and throwing blows around like headless chickens.
Pure total chaos – Hidan and Kakuzu decided to exploit the fact that those two fuckers seemed to ignore
them, and glided a bit away.