"I feel the need to point out", Sasori said drily, "I do not possess an endless amount of failed creations that can be abused like this."
While he didn't truly mind providing the team's cloaks or even the destruction of the clunky shell earlier, it would be problematic if the team expected him to abuse actual puppets like this. His art was sacred, after all. Tossing away 'sketches' he didn't like was fine, but…
"Hn"
Itachi acknowledged he may be asking a little much of the man, but what with the circumstances there hadn't been a lot of choices, unfortunately. He did feel a bit bad though and vowed to do something nice for the other, maybe bring back some of the more exotic toxic plants he knew of for his experiments…
"Un, you saved us a lot of trouble this time… old man.", Deidara smirked at his rival in art and leisurely leaned back against the sturdy walls of their makeshift boat.
"Good thing you brought them along at all.", Kisame added, half-questioningly.
"Emergency part salvaging", Sasori explained. From how much he had been talking he seemed to be in a good mood today. There were days when he wouldn't bother to speak at all.
Then again, it could be because Deidara was there. He couldn't defend his art if he didn't speak after all.
The bomber was surprisingly unconfrontational today though. In fact, they all didn't really act like they usually would ever since the mission briefing.
It seemed like Itachi wasn't the only one who smelled something fishy from this whole scenario. Deidara and himself had been forced to join the organization, meaning they didn't hold much loyalty to the place... if any.
Sasori wasn't loyal to anyone or anything and preferred to develop his masterpieces quietly. He had only joined cause he rightfully assumed, attacks on his person would largely cease, outside of missions. This enabled him to perform more risky experiments with some peace of mind.
Kisame… Kisame had been and most likely still was one of the most loyal to the Akatsuki. However, his increased closeness and camaraderie with Itachi, who most definitely was not, had called his loyalty into question.
Itachi suppressed his guilt at that thought.
In contrast to their rag-tag group, there was Zetsu, who unquestioningly did anything he was told by Madara, and by extension Pein, and even spied on and reported on his fellow members.
another who was loyal as long as he was paid, one who was happy as long as he could sacrifice some poor sods to his god, Konan who was in love with Pein and wouldn't betray him, and Sasori's partner Orochimaru who would stay loyal as long as he got enough interesting subjects to experiment on.
Then of course there were Pein and Madara themselves, or Tobi, as the other Uchiha called himself.
Needless to say, as long as their goals aligned, they would keep working together as they currently were.
All this could, of course be a coincidence. Itachi would keep the possibility at the back of his mind though.
"My crows have yet to spot any land", he drily informed his teammates. "No ships or anything either. We will just have to make do with this as a base and rotate duties."
"Kisame is our best bet to investigate closer to the whirlpool, so that's what you'll focus on. Breaks as your body needs them. Rest fully at night. No risks."
"Got it."
"I'll take night watch every night. My vision is best in the dark. In daylight hours Sasori and Deidara rotate hourly between scouting the outer perimeter underwater for clues to what happened here while I sleep. I'm well awake a few days and weeks without sleep aren't usually a problem for any of us. But this environment is unknown. It is best to be at full strength while we aren't sure of the situation. After 6 hours, I'll join the rotation as well. Underwater, Kisame takes charge."
He stared at them sternly. Ninjas, himself included, tended to overdo it a lot as a coping mechanism for some of the things that they had been through. Thus, he chose to remind everyone.
"Then, let's start. Deidara, 30 minutes, 1 hour break. After 30 minutes Sasori, 1 hour. I'll go 1 hour right now. Anything to add?"
"Yea. Just a warning.", Kisame decided to speak up.
"You know how the water lets me know things sometimes?"
"Hn." "Un" "I recall."
"Well, from what I understand, some kind of danger is nearby, underwater. It doesn't seem to be moving currently, but for the water to warn me about it, it's probably not something minor, even for us. So be careful, don't dive places you can't see in."
In fact, Kisame himself was bewildered. The water had never spoken to him when he wasn't inside of it, diving. It had always heeded his call, yes. But it never acted like it was acting now. Almost overeager, like a puppy.
The change was startling.
He would have to explore the phenomenon. He needed to know what was happening lest whatever it was endangered the mission. It was a risk to dive regardless, but that's why 3 of them would go in together.
If something happened, they could team up against the threat.
"Hn, if there's nothing else…?"
There wasn't anything.
Thus, the three divers started stripping. Their current attire could for the most part survive the seawater but getting the crusted salt out would be a pain later. It was better not to go through the hassle.
They also left their more water-sensitive items behind. In the end, Itachi stood only in underpants, pouches with water-friendly weapons strapped to his bare skin.
That'd leave some painful rashes if he had to do it regularly. Thankfully, the mission duration wasn't that long.
The other two were in similar states, stretching in preparation.
Itachi unsealed his rebreather, a handy breathing device capable of making one breathe underwater, among other things. For some reason, only Amegakure and Kisame's home village seemed to utilize it on a regular basis though. A stainless-steel combat knife and a waterproof tanto soon joined his collection. He rarely used the knife for actual combat. It was mainly for hunting and emergency repairs… but it should do for this situation where his normal kunai would slowly lose their sharpness.
Thus, having readied everything, Itachi loosened his muscles and stretched himself properly.
Once done, he strapped the knife to his left arm. It would have to do, despite feeling clunky and foreign. He needed his hands free just in case. The tanto was strapped to his lower back, within easy reach of his right.
Finally, he took the rebreather and turned to the others.
Kisame was already waiting for them. The lucky bastard only really had to bring weapons, if that. Itachi especially envied the blue-skinned man's gills at this moment. The rebreathers were awesome, don't get him wrong… they just left an awful taste in his mouth.
When Deidara signaled his readiness, Itachi put in the breathing device and gave the go-ahead.
They dove into the ocean without further ado.
Itachi took a few seconds to adjust his eyes to the world underwater before activating his Sharingan. He could see the ocean floor clearly, though he could tell it was quite dark, a little darker than twilight. The approximated depth was somewhere close to 700m.
He did not envy Deidara at the moment. While the blonde had good eyes, the strain would be pretty obvious in these conditions. Using Jutsu wasn't a permanent solution either, it strained the eyes even more and bringing a light would just alert anything underwater to their presence for miles. Perhaps Sasori could waterproof some night vision goggles to make things easier for them. He recalled that Deidara had gotten his hands on some newly made ones from the land of snow recently. If he had brought them along, that is.
Lead by Kisame, the group slowly dove their way down, taking a few minutes to make sure their bodies got used to the pressure. The water was warm the first few meters but cooled down quickly the further they dove. Around halfway they had to start circulating their chakra to keep going safely. Luckily, this action only consumed a minimal amount of their energy reserves or they'd have to work more breaks into their rotation.
The seabed was largely covered in sand with the occasional rocks and boulders surrounded by corrals and the scarce water plant.
Such large stretches of pure sand were quite rare outside of sand beds or coastal areas.
Kisame visually scanned the area, then closed his eyes to communicate with the sea. When he opened them once again he lead them closer to one of the cliff-like boulders, signing to explore this area first.
They signed their OKs. This was going to be a long, wet, salty week.
They didn't find anything on the first day but some weird water plants and fish they had never seen before. Some of them were safe for consumption, according to Kisame. Thus, Itachi as the best cook among them promptly prepared them. It was never wrong to save resources after all. Contrarily to their weird appearance, they tasted great.
Sasori had started cataloging everything, in the hope of discovering something useful for his craft. Except for some small seaweed that enhanced the potency of some poisons, he had not yet been successful by the 4th day.
Thankfully, the danger the sea had warned Kisame about never approached or seemed to move at all for that matter.
On the 5th day though, Kisame had the divers return, expression grim.
"We may be in trouble", he started to say after they had all dried off a little.
"I found a part of a transportation seal today. Judging from the remnants of nature chakra that thing exuded when I touched it, as well as the style of seals, I'm quite certain it's made by the same guy who made the thing that brought us here."
Why exactly was that a bad thing?
Seeing the questioning expressions on their faces, Kisame sighed before continuing.
"It was destroyed. Blown apart, really, judging by the state of the pieces."
Itachi's heart sunk.
He didn't like the implications of that, not at all.
"The even worse news is", and Kisame's headache was near-visible at this point, "that I managed to roughly guess the origin of the shard I found. It wasn't too hard to find some other pieces after that to corroborate… To make things short, it's the whirlpool."
Silence.
Itachi closed his eyes, silently contemplating the possibilities. For them, the worst-case scenario which sadly seemed more and more likely was that the part of the seal that led to the Elemental Nations was destroyed. Its destruction was the most likely cause of that whirlpool.
The thing hadn't moved at all since the ninjas had arrived, only steadily spinning in place, so chances were it was stationary. The volatile nature chakra the transportation seal made use of was a logical explanation for the phenomenon. Most likely, there used to be an island here that was completely destroyed by the seal's explosion and/or the resulting whirlpool.
That same whirlpool had most likely preserved the arrival seal all these years at its center, ironically enough. Any arrival would soon be besieged and more likely than not shredded to pieces by the vicious forces of the sea around them.
When Itachi opened them again his eyes were serious. He regarded his grim-looking companions, silently staring at nothing as they thought.
"Assumptions aren't helping.", he finally broke the silence. It wouldn't do for them to take them as truth. No, they would have to make sure first.
"Everyone rest up and prepare. We check the bottom of the whirlpool tomorrow. Plans will be set in the morning. Whatever we do, it will likely create quite a large disturbance in the area, so chances are, if the danger Kisame was warned about is able to move, that's when it'll approach. I want multiple escape strategies in place in case we can't handle it."
"Kisame, try getting as close to the thing as you can safely get. See if you can come up with a less brute force method to let us investigate."
The blue-skinned ninja grinned and nodded his acquiescence and thanks.
Truthfully, he had been feeling more alive and at home these past few days than he could ever remember. He felt energized and barely wanted to leave the water at all.
He would be better off if he spent more time in the sea, rather than frying under the burning sun on the surface. He had reached a whole new understanding of the sea and water in general during their exploration. The waters here reached out to 'talk' to him a lot, guiding his attention to interesting things and places. It had been quite distracting at the start, but they were all useful in some way… if he hadn't been searching for something specific, that was.
That's also why it had taken him so long to find clues for the mission. He was slowly getting some control over this newly intensified affinity he had though and thus found it a bit easier to 'ask' the playful element about things he actually needed at the time.
If he indulged its whims every now and then, it seemed more than happy to help him in turn. The eager puppy likeliness became more and more apparent the deeper Kisame's understanding of the sea went.
He loved it.
So, it was with little effort but with a few stopovers to admire an occasional plant or conch the sea was excited about that the ninja got closer and closer to the whirlpool. He was heavily relying on the water to let him know where approaching was safest.
Prompted by a small nudge, he turned slightly and promptly froze.
This… wasn't this…
His lips twitched.
'It's definitely an ostrich', Kisame thought, confused.
'But… it's a fish? Also, what's up with its size!?'
Right. When Kisame turned around he was met with the sight of a gigantic ostrich-fish sleeping inside what, from the other side looked like a bug misshapen rock, but from this side had at one point obviously been part of an equally gigantic ship. They had never gotten close enough to the whirlpool to scout this area, so it wasn't surprising they had never seen it before.
This was the unnamed danger, was it.
Despite its frankly quite funny appearance, he could see why it would be dangerous. It was a sea creature so it'd be able to move swiftly in this environment. From its size alone the ninjas wouldn't even qualify as a snack and he bet those claws and teeth were just as sharp as they looked.
He didn't doubt they could handle it though. Especially now that they wouldn't be surprised by the beast. Since it was still sleeping quite soundly and the water was bubbling around him happily, Kisame chose to continue his mission.
He had to find a way for them to either temporarily stop the whirlpool or get inside safely to investigate. If worse came to worst they'd have to at least destroy the arrival seal from this side so the transportation seal in Amegakure could be destroyed without danger. That was the only safe way to do so, as far as they knew, seeing as the failsafe they found in the cave before would render it inactive if the destination was destroyed.
Kisame was already mentally preparing for the possibility, as unwilling as he was to accept it.
They were ninja and some of the best of the best at that. They could be in denial all they wanted AFTER the mission, if at all. They first had to ensure that their home stayed safe. If that meant being stranded in the middle of the ocean without any chance for backup and destroying the only clue they currently had to return, then so be it.
If they couldn't deal, they'd have never become as successful as ninja as they had been.
'Though', Kisame thought drily, 'As a criminal who abandoned his original home village, I may sound like a hypocrite.'
Successful indeed.