The rumbling tremors of explosions, the shouts of anger and searing katon drowned out her worries, focusing on the wound at her lower body. There was a pool of blood where she sat, some of it already congealed from how long the battle was going on for.
Deidara thought she was dead.
And she felt so guilty for it.
The only way she could apologize was to save his life. This conviction spiraled more healing chakra to her fingers, her palms gently hovering where the chokuto had pierced her. It was a delicate procedure since there was an entry point and exit point, but nothing could stop her from chewing through multiple chakra tablets she saved up for all of this.
The wound sizzled closed at her forced healing, her chakra, despite having the smooth texture of suiton, never quite could mold the delicate touch of iryo ninjutsu. There was a mild burn at each wound she stitched together, forcing the two pieces of flesh to mold into one.
Sweat dripped from her temple, her bangs doused from her overexertion and blood loss. She felt so cold. With a small glance up, she noted the several large craters that littered the once nice green clearing of grass. In the distance, she could spot both boys in the air, trading explosive blows of taijutsu.
Sasuke was strong enough to suppress much of Deidara's C1s and C2s, only able to katsu a few explosions that forced Sasuke to shunshin several times in split seconds that left Sasuke over relying on his Sharingan to ground him.
Deidara's signature C2 Dragon was popping out guided missiles without rest, each explosion rumbled the ground she rested on. His dragon lazily circled around the area as Sasuke dodged each missile and eyed carefully at the minefield down below. Aerial attacks and ground attacks forced Sasuke to release his Cursed Seal, his body warping gray and wings erupting from his back.
She closed her eyes, focusing on her plan. It was only soon that Sasuke would down Deidara's aerial advantage and force the blonde to go to extreme methods of C4 Karura. Then she saw it, his dragon falling to the ground, Deidara pinned with two large fuma shuriken. Explosions ran out, a mushroom cloud of dust in the sky.
A lone figure pierced past the cloud, Deidara on a smaller bird.
Before she could process, he stabbed his arms into his pouch, consuming his detonation clay.
She sprung up, watching her stupid favorite blonde vomit out his stupid detonation clay that formed into a skyscraper Deidara, blank eyes and ready to blow. She had to get out of here, now. She sprinted into the forest, she knew what his C4 was capable of. The large clay sculpture of himself would disintegrate into finer particles that one couldn't see without a microscope, and breathing in the clay would attack someone on the molecular level, its tiny explosions breaking down each cell until that person would disintegrate.
At some point after ducking into a tree just on the other side of the clearing, Sasuke had managed to get onto Deidara's flying clay bird and stabbed a chidori through Deidara's clone. It was a whole mess of genjutsu and sneaky tricks, with Deidara devouring Sasuke in his clay before letting his true C4 run rampant.
His body flew through the sky as he inelegantly landed on his feet in a low crouch, muttering about how he had won and finally beat the Sharingan.
Only for Sasuke to come out of the bushes and land a hard sucker-punch to his face, the two boys gasped for breath, all dirty, tousled and bleeding from various points and rolling on the floor.
Why were all boys like this?
"You brothers piss me off!" Deidara shouted, "Those eyes! That overconfident eye irritates me! Denying my art... those eyes show absolutely no respect for my art." He ripped his shirt off to reveal a stitched chest, his hand-mouth tearing open the stitches before his other hand dug into his clay pouch one last time.
She finally stumbled between the two, and rose slowly to her feet. Her face was worn and tired, pale but she nevertheless shouted, "Stop!"
The two boys freeze at her entrance, probably thinking she was either on the brink of death or already dead. "Deidara, you better stop that right now!" She shouted once more, her voice raw from anger and fear.
She forced a few hand signs and slapped her palms against the ground, pushing out a pulse of chakra that let her sense her surroundings. Zetsu was nowhere to be felt nor was Obito. Perhaps they left thinking Deidara was already gone, with Tamako killed so early.
Tamako turned to her blonde partner and pleaded on her knees, "Please, don't do this. The Sharingan isn't worth it. Deidara, your art is worth so much more." She turns to Sasuke and claps her hands together, "Sasuke, you win. Leave us alone."
"Are they gone?" Sasuke asks, referring to the spies.
She nods, "Yes. They think that you've won. We just need one last explosion and we'll leave."
Deidara snaps her neck towards the girl, "Who? What? I thought he killed you!" His voice guttural, coughing with blood running down his lips.
"He tried, but I managed to seal up the wound before I passed out." Tamako patted her puncture wound with care, "And just barely woke up to stop you." She slowly walks away from Sasuke, her body still turned to him. Then she bends down and heaves Deidara's arm over her shoulders and stands up. "Deidara, let's leave the Akatsuki."
He opens his mouth to argue, eyes trained on the Uchiha with anger in his eyes but freezes when she meets his. "We did our duty, we turned in our tailed beasts. Pein will want more and more, and I don't want to end up like Kakazu and Hidan, slaughtered and dissected." Her hand on his wrist tightens, "Leave with me."
Deidara closes his gaped mouth, eyes steeling at the Uchiha, "Don't look down on my art again, Uchiha." He sneers, "This will be my last mercy."
Tamako gives Sasuke a faint nod and throws down several hundreds of paper bombs all wrapped in a sphere. She gives a look at Deidara and he gets the message, bending down he pushes all of his remaining chakra into the paper explosive bombs and sets the detonation for one minute. With a tighter grasp on Deidara, she shunshins away, several hundred meters away. Deidara's reserves are so low, and he was covered in dirt, scrapes and had some internal bleeding going on. She runs iryo ninjutsu through her body, slowly coating it around Deidara's and healing him on the move.
The ground shakes and a sonic boom waves from behind them, air rushing past her body and flinging the pair's hair wild. "I thought you were dead." He says quietly, head face to the ground.
Her hold on the older boy tightens, "I'm sorry."
"I was going to kill him, no matter what."
"I'm sorry."
He glares up, "Don't do that again."
She gives him a small smile, "Okay."
. . .
They reach her base at record time and she plops him gently in one of the better rooms she's crafted. Sasori was in the next room and she's realized she hadn't talked to him in nearly four months.
Smothering the blonde in herbal salves she had crafted beforehand, pumped full of chakra, she lulls him into a medically induced coma to heal faster. Her eyes are tired but she wipes away all the grime on both her and Deidara, putting him into a new white shirt she had lying around and set aside a glass of water and a few pills. Before leaving, she gingerly takes his ring from his finger, storing it into her inventory.
Then, she shuts the door close and enters her own private quarters. She focuses chakra into her ring and closes her eyes, feeling the snap of the connection and opens her eyes where the Gedō lies. She's on top of her assigned finger, and she notices the gazes she's attained.
"Tamako. You're alive?"
She nods at Zetsu, "Deidara is dead."
The plant tilts his head at her, "I saw you get stabbed. I felt Deidara's chakra in that last explosion. How did you escape?"
She scoffed, "Shouton can move as fast as I asked it to. When I came to be, Deidara was already setting up his C4, and I left by then." Tamako rubs the side where she was stabbed. "Itachi, your brother is quite vindictive. Stabbing me and killing Deidara." She eyes his expression which holds no emotion.
"Sasuke is dead." Zetsu adds, "He took that explosion at point-blank."
Kisame's voice was neither doubtful or upset, but still it was in a tone she couldn't quite comprehend, "Deidara took Sasuke down with him huh..? I always thought Deidara was quite strong..."
"You should feel grateful, Itachi." Pein begins, "Deidara did you a favor and got rid of your problem."
"Hmm... I feel like we've forgotten something..." Kisame trails off.
"We thought Tamako was dead, but her presence here says otherwise. That Deidara detonated himself without regard for his surroundings"
"Ah, right. The Little Miss. I'm surprised you were able to escape that scale of a jutsu." Kisame chuckles as if the fact Tamako surviving the impossible was hilarious.
"No matter, we sacrificed one piece to take out another. The loss of Deidara is unfortunate." Pein pauses for a moment before glancing up with his Rinnegan eyes. "I will go. I shall mourn Deidara's death in silence." His hologram fizzes away.
Good, no one caught on.
She nods at both Kisame and Itachi before eyeing warily at Tobi who gives her a stupid dance and a wave. Waving slowly back, she cuts her connection and returns back to her room.
Tamako falls to her knees, throwing up.
Phase 2: Complete.
Reward: Iwa no Deidara.
. . .
There is no rest of the wicked, after double checking that Deidara wasn't about to die, she set off towards Konoha where Sasuke had regrouped with Hebi. She hasn't met Suigetsu or Jugo yet, but she's sure she'll like them to an acceptable degree.
It wasn't hard to locate the group, with all of them sporting drastically different hair colors, they stuck out from the forest. Without hiding her chakra, she landed just a few feet away in a low crouch. "Sasuke." She greets, then turns to the red-head who gushes, "Karin."
Karin launches herself into the taller girl, smothering her face into the chest of her Akatsuki cloak. "Tamako!" She peers up with a shy look, "I missed you."
The red-headed Uzumaki had grown out her hair, now past her shoulders and down to nearly her upper chest. One side was spiky, the other smooth and still sported a pair of red-glasses. She wore a lilac top with her fuinjutsu pouch wrapped around her waist like an obi, her second pouch secured to her left thigh that smelt of dried ink. She wore black shorts that cut at her upper thigh and long thigh-high shinobi grade sandals.
Tamako gave her a gentle smile, patting her head, "I've missed you too, Karin." Her grin falls when she hears a whistle, and she turns her head to the noise.
Suigetsu gives her a grin, "Sasuke, Karin, I didn't know you knew..." He trails off, asking for her name.
She tilts her head, "Tamako."
"Ah yes, Tamako-chan. You are a sore sight for eyes, now that we have the fairer sex amongst our ragtag group, I'll say—" Karin dashes forward and kicks his face off, water flying at the motion.
"Shut up moron!" She raises both her fists back and starts wailing at the boy, "Treat with her respect!"
Jugo cuts in, walking forward with an arm out, "You are Akatsuki."
Tamako glances at her drab cloak, still a little dirty since she didn't have enough time to clean it from the last few explosions. "Yes, I am."
"Why aren't you attacking?"
"Me?" She points at herself, then at Sasuke, "Attack him?" She scoffs, "I've known Sasuke since we were twelve. Known him longer than my time with the Akatsuki, I have loyalties and I'm here to pay them."
[+10 Relationship with Sasuke!]
She points in a direction, Sasuke's eyes following her finger, "Itachi is just a few clicks south from here." She grabs Sasuke's shoulder when he lunges forward and stops him in his tracks, "Kisame is there as well."
Suigetsu whistles again, "Kisame? Hoshigaki Kisame? Kirigakure no Kaijin?"
She eyes the Hozuki, trying to recall anything that stood out. Silently, she called upon her skill.
Hozuki Suigetsui
Level: 298
Age: 15
Class: Hozuki (Able to turn any part of his body into liquid at will)
HP: 29,475
CP: 15,738
Kidnapped at a young age and experimented on for a majority of his life, his desires to hit hit hit hit slash slash slash blossomed.
Oh and his desire for the 7 swords of this mist too.
Very good at close-combat kenjutsu, able to wield almost all swords with little to no difficulty, with his ability to instantly turn any part of his body into liquid at will, physical attacks are not recommended.
She nods, mentally closing the small window, "Yes, The Tailless Tailed Beast himself. He shall only let Sasuke pass." The periwinkle haired girl pats her chest, "I will lead you to him, Sasuke. As I promised."
So Tamako let's Hebi follow her brisk steps, responding to small conversation and admiring a new seal that Karin is quick to show off. Karin has changed for good these past few years, not so squeaky and more confident. If she had to guess, working with Orochimaru and being assigned a hideout had quickly gotten her out of her shell, and by the small glances she gave to Sasuke at every spew of, her crush had only grown.
Promising Karin that she'll take a look at her new seal at another time, they quickly reach Kisame who slams his Samehada onto the ground. "Only Sasuke past here." He glances at Tamako, "You too."
"I promised Itachi I'll deliver his brother to him, Kisame. Don't stop me." The clearing is silent at her declaration, both her and Kisame trading glares before he sighed.
"Fine. I know where you stand."
[+10 Relationship with Kisame! Kisame now has mutual respect for you!]
She nods as Sasuke and the two quickly run past Kisame, leaving Karin and the rest behind despite the girl's cries. "Sasuke." She says quietly, her breaths matching his, "Don't die."
[+10 Relationship with Sasuke!]
For the first time, he finally smirks at her, "Trust me. I'm not the one dying today."
Tamako digs her heels into the ground, stopping at the cave. "We're here." She pats his shoulder one last time, probably the last time he'll ever be sane for awhile. It's almost as if she were saying goodbye to the Sasuke she'd known from nearly three years ago, maybe that Sasuke already had one foot in the grave, and she's sending him off for the final hit.
She feels sorry that it had to be like this. Tricking Sasuke into believing he killed Itachi all to unlock his Mangekyou Sharingan,. For his entire life, all he's seen is tough love, and she's following the same pattern.
"Sorry." Tamako says quietly, then shunshins off before he could ask.
She lands at the end of the forest, crouched low on the branch that supported her weight. With a few hand-signs, she creates a larger insect to keep tabs on the battle then in another hand, creates a crystal ball that contains the insects point of view.
Each clash, each yell and each kaaton lights a guilty fire in her stomach. She hated lying to people she loved, yet she'll have to keep doing it
"I'm sorry." She says one last time, staring at the crystal ball.
. . .
The battle was climatic as she's dreamt for these past years. Decades if you include the time she restarted her save. Sasuke's kirin, Itachi's Susanoo, the Totsuka Blade that sealed Orochimaru and Itachi's straight up heart-attack nearly gave her a heart-attack alone but she persevered.
Itachi is strong. He can do this.
She didn't know how long the battle was, it could've been ten minutes or ten hours, she was so absorbed into watching the fight while pinpointing Zetsu's location that she nearly fell off the branch when Itachi tapped his two bloody fingers onto Sasuke's forehead, falling to the ground. He looked terrible, pale and so, so bloody.
Tamako was almost afraid that he died on the spot.
So she jumped to the ground, signing quickly before clapping her hands together, "Doton: Head-Hunter no Jutsu!" Her body seeped into the ground, her chakra molding the ground around her to become smooth as butter, and she suppressed her chakra to the lowest and slapped a seal on her forehead, cutting off her chakra and sealing the remainder. She has to be quick, with keen eyes and spamming her [Observe] skill until she saw [Zetsu] pop up, and creeped below him. With a single finger that popped from the concrete wall that he stuck out of, she pushed nearly all her chakra that she sectioned off, encasing Zetsu in her crystal. He was too preoccupied with the battle, and she used that to her favor.
She had done it so fast, so quick and undetected that Zetsu probably didn't even realize what happened. At that moment, she wondered if she should kill him. To stop Kaguya's will, evade the Fourth Shinobi War.
But without the Fourth Shinobi War, the Villages will never unite against a common enemy. She bites the bullet and turns away, watching his body encased in crystal fall to the floor with a loud clatter, and she seeped back into the ground beside Sasuke and popped out of the ground faster than any shunshin.
Her plan so far was going smoothly.
Sasuke's tired eyes flick to hers before relaxing. She lunges forward to catch his fall, placing a hand over his eyes, "Rest." Tamako whispers, coating her fingers in iryo ninjutsu, lulling the boy to sleep.
[+10 Relationship with Sasuke!]
Once she was sure he was passed out, she dropped his body gently on the ground before scrambling to Itachi. She bent down, her ear resting on his chest and closed her eyes, focusing.
Ba... dum. Ba...
It's slow, it stopped.
She rips apart his flimsy ninja mesh shirt and pumps his chest, giving him emergency CPR with chakra coating her palms. She massages the heart at each pump, willing his heart to thump. This is the only time she want's an Uchiha to go doki-doki at her, wake up!
Her lips meet his cold rough ones, breathing out all the air in her lungs into his and pumps faster, placing her head on his chest and listens.
Ba-dum... Ba-dum...
Good.
She pops a chakra capsule past his lips before filling her mouth with water. Pressing her lips to his one last time, she pushes out the liquid and massages Itachi's cheeks and throat, simulating for him to swallow. At the sight of his adam's apple bobbing, she sighs and places a green palm on his forehead.
He's stable, for now. But she needs to quickly pop those eyes before tackling the rest of his major injuries. Overwriting her save, she gets to work, prying his eyelid open and pin-points his eye teketsu and shoots a thin prick of chakra to it. Instantly, the eye activates into its full Mangekyou Sharingan state, she can feel the new chakra she had just given him being sapped away.
She took her time now, carefully severing the nerves in clean long cuts and popping the eye out with no resistance. In a jar full of chakra-rich water with antibacterial properties that tinted the water yellow, she plops the first eye and works on the next with the same trained motions. She's done this procedure so many times on missing-nin she and Deidara had found the past few months.
He never questioned why she took a few alive, and that was fine.
The Sharingan had a lot more nerves and specific chakra pathways she couldn't risk destroying. It would be much easier just to pop the eye by itself, but that may leave Itachi with damage she couldn't possibly fix.
Slow and steady, she drops the jelly eyeball into the jar and seals it shut. With a paper seal over the lid, she dips Sasuke's already bloody hand on the seal. Now, it required his blood, chakra and consent to open.
She whispers a thank-you to Karin and slaps the stasis seal over Itachi's core and heaves the older Uchiha over her shoulder. Grabbing the remains of his ripped shirt, she dips it into the nearby Amaterasu and places it a few feet away from Sasuke. Once Zetsu or Obito arrive here, they'll think Itachi destroyed his own body.
Hopefully.
Then, suppressing her Chakra into a mouse, she flickers away.
. . .
She plops Itachi into the room adjacent to Deidara's and heals him slowly, slathering his body with medical salve and wraps every inch of his skin before pulling a new dark shirt over his shoulders.
Tamako wasn't sure when he'll wake up so she, just like with Deidara, she leaves a glass of water, a few pills and a note.
Then she makes a mad-dash back to the closest Akatsuki hideout from the battle.
Back and forth, back and forth.
She felt weight behind her eyes again, now that adrenaline has worn off, she hasn't slept in over five days. Her muscles ached, her head hurt from all the stress. Popping the last of her home-made soldier pills, she feels the rush of caffeine and chakra and doubles her speed. She reaches the hideout at record speed, this has to be where Zetsu dragged Sasuke's unconscious body after her crystal encasement released. She was sure to erase her presence around the body, ensuring that the chakra used for Zetsu disappeared into nothing.
She planned for so many years, practicing until she drowned in anxiety and nightmares. There was no way they'd know, that she stole Itachi away.
The hideout is dank, wet and dark. There's only a few candles scattered around the cave on some barrels, and she nods at Zetsu who pops out of the area. "Tamako." Black Zetsu narrows his eyes at her, "Did you watch the Uchiha Fight?"
She calmed her nerves and responded with practice. "I watched the beginning, but I returned to Kisame because I respected Itachi's wishes." She puts a hand on her heart, "Is Itachi here?"
Zetsu shakes his head. "He's dead. We brought Sasuke here." Before he could say another word, screams echoed down the hall, groans of pain and a sound of a body hitting the ground roughly.
Then, silent.
Before Tamako could storm forward, White Zetsu stopped her with a creepy smile. "You're not allowed in there, right now. Leader-sama is talking to him."
She knew Zetsu was referring to Obito, rather than Pein, but she followed through, "Pein-sama is here?"
He lets out a giggle, seeping back into the dirt, "Tobi will come for you, eventually. You're the only one in Akatsuki who knows iryo ninjutsu." Her blood runs cold. "Stay here until you're called." He disappears through the ground, his presence diminished.
Tamako scowls at the ground, but it wasn't long when frantic steps sounded from the hallway, echoing in the dreary cave. She meets an orange mask, devoid of his usual fanfare and cape. With a deep voice, with his Madara voice, he commands her. "Follow me.."
Her steps fall in rhythm to his, freezing when he stopped moving at the entrance of a larger room. There, Sasuke is sitting up from a futon, his breath ragged as he clutches his chest in pain.
Her eyes widen and she dashes forward and drops into a slide using her knees,not caring if they were scraped, "Sasuke!" Her palms filter through green, placed at the front of his chest and his back, pumping him with the smoothest chakra she could muster.
She closed her eyes and concentrated, like water.
Slowly, his breath evens out and he glares up. Carefully, Tamako brings her palm to his forehead to ease the build-up of stress, and assess the emergency aid Obito did. The bandages were tight, but loose enough to breath, there was still dirt all over his chest and neck that she wanted to wipe away.
"You've finally calmed down." Obito speaks, leaning against the wall of the cave. "I had Tamako come take a look at you." He then looks at the younger girl and narrows his eyes, "Now leave, I have something to discuss with Sasuke—"
"No." Sasuke shoots another glare at the masked man, "She stays."
Her grip on the Uchiha tightens and she helps him sit up properly, putting his back against her front so he could lean and relax. It's the best she could do, with how the room was completely barren aside from a few bandages, the futon and a single empty crate.
He leans into her, then begins to speak. "He... Itachi was my enemy. He killed our parents, he killed everyone in the clan." His voice is quiet as a whisper, grumbling against her skin. "He was despicable."
"It's true..." Obito begins, crossing his arms, "... that he annihilated the Uchiha clan that night. And deserted Konoha." Then with red eyes, "And that is what he was ordered to do by Konoha."
Tamako forced her eyes to widen, spiking her chakra just a little to show how surprised she was. The two Uchiha seem to buy it. "That is the beginning of the truth about Itachi."
"It was his mission?" Sasuke tenses, his head whipping Obito.
As Obito continued his story, Sasuke's expression gets worse and worse. First, there's anger. Then confusion, anguish, fear, regret, sorrow, then wrapped right back to pure silent anger. Obito regarded her with a single glance, nodded at Sasuke and left.
She was left with Sasuke, who's eyes were wide and unblinking. She helped break him.
As she finished slathering the last of her medicinal salve, tears slid down her face. How could Itachi force himself to torture his most important person to him? She wasn't even a part of the big picture, but hearing Obito's words that scraped Sasuke's soul, witnessing his mental breakdown forced tears to her eyes. Because she helped break him, she's lying to him.
Tamako wrapped him in the bandages she found nearby. She stayed by his side, tending to him at every moment because she was so goddamn guilty. Her tears drip onto the back of his chest and he turns to her, slowly.
His expressionless features slightly widen. He's probably never seen her grieve before, never seen her angry, nor in tears. She's always had a smile, like she understood him more than he understood himself. That everyone and thing would be fine.
He's probably only seen one other person cry over his anguish, but she's no Sakura. Her tears are like guilt to her, so she wipes them away with her large sleeves.
Obito wanted Sasuke in his plans now that their numbers have dwindled, and he would kill her and kill everyone else at her base if she blabbed now, so she kept her mouth shut. His silent tears, the insomnia that overtook him. She tried her best to wipe them away, tried to lull him into a medicinally induced sleep, but he could not be stopped.
When he fully recovered, he heads south to the Konoha Seas, watching the sunset. Beside her was Karin who had her arm in tight hold, Suigetsu by the rocks, Jugo to her left, and Obito staring ominously behind her.
She saw the small trembles of his shoulders, and she knew that he was finally mourning. No more silent expressionless tears, he mourned for his brother, his clan, for himself.
He now had a new goal.
"We are no longer Hebi." There was a cry of a hawk as he spoke, "From this day on, our team will be Taka. Taka has one goal." She felt the rush of chakra that exploded from Sasuke, it was unlike anything she'd felt before from this raven. "We will destroy Konoha."
She closed her eyes and solemnly mourned for Sasuke.
Phase 3: Complete.
Reward: Itachi & Sasuke's Mangekyou.
Character Status
Name: Tamako
Class: The Gamer
Age: 16 Years Old
Title: Momma's Little Gem
Status: Sympathetic
Level: 394
HP: 18,570- HP Regen: 4 per 1 seconds 10% Increase
CP: 17,000- CP Regen: 3 per 1 seconds 10% Increase
Strength: 432
Vitality: 424
Wisdom: 463
Intelligence: 424
Dexterity: 426
Agility: 425
Luck: 398
Fame/Infamy: -7200
Sunagakure no Sato acknowledges you and hunting you
Konohagakure no Sato acknowledges you and hunting you
Yukigakure no Sato acknowledges you and hunting you
Kirigakure no Sato acknowledges you and hunting you
Iwagakure no Sato acknowledges you and hunting you
Kumogakure no Sato acknowledges you and hunting you
Akasuna no Sasori acknowledges you and curses you
Akatsuki accepts you (65/100)
Deidara cherishes you! (10/100)
Uchiha Sasuke trusts you! (73/100)
Money: 15,583,270 ryo
Unspent Points: 401