“Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?” Kisame asked, sheathing his partly revealed sword, “Shame Shark Skin couldn’t get too into it.” There was a deafening silence between the two, causing Twilight to become uneasy... or more so than before. Those two just took out an entire platoon of ninja using a mix of skill, swordsmanship, and jutsu. Primarily Water-style and Fire-style, she noticed.
“Itachi?” Twilight asked, looking around. Soon enough, the man in question came out of the brush, looking grim.
“Say Itachi, I’m just going to ask you something that was bothering me... Did you do something to Orochimaru to get him this angry? I mean, I know he’s the kind of guy to send others after someone with more power than him, but...”
“He tried to take my body as a vessel. I denied him, and took his left hand. If he is that desperate to escape death, then he can find another vessel, like the coward he is.” Itachi brushed the question off, “And it seems he’s setting his sights on the biju was well.”
“Oh? That’s an interesting bit of information. Any say why?”
“If I had to guess, the same reason he needs the Sharingan; to learn all the techniques in the world, and become immortal. These foot soldiers had little information aside from the goal they all shared.”
“Interesting...” Kisame mused, putting the sword on his back.
“You know...” Itachi began, “I don’t know why we need the biju exactly. If it’s not too much to ask, may I know why we need them?” Kisame gave a wild grin to this.
“You wanna know, eh? Fair enough, now that we’re going to catch a few, minor jinchuuriki that their countries want out of their way, even if their villages don’t agree.” Kisame began, “The Akatsuki’s goal, as you know, is world domination. We plan to achieve it by using the Tailed Beasts to create wars, then quell them immediately, making us seem like the good guys. With such power, we’d easily crush the villages, and take over the world, using the same technique to quell any wars that happen during our rule. That, my dear Uchiha and girl, is the Akatsuki’s goal: peace through domination.”
“Is that so...?” Itachi asked, closing his eyes. As he did so, his eyes went back to the pitch black Twilight knew.
“Yes. Now, I believe we were discussing a new venue of business...” Kisame said, giving a sigh of thought as Itachi nodded, motioning Twilight to follow. The three then continued, and the crashing of waves filled their ears.
“Yes. I believe you said a jinchuuriki could be acquired.” Itachi reminded.
“Ah, yes! Thanks to Kakuzu, and the fact Iwagakure relies on us so much, we’re able to get two jinchuuriki for the price of one.” Kisame said, smiling, “The Seven and the Five Tails.”
“Han of Iwagakure?” Twilight asked, and Kisame nodded, “The Iwagakure?” Kisame nodded again, “The Iwagakure that is known for obeying the Tsuchikage, no matter what?” Kisame nodded, chuckling slightly, “How’d they get them to agree to that?”
“I don’t believe the Third Tsuchikage is aware, but the diamou said they can’t afford the Five Tails anymore. Too many casualties. So, to pay us for removing the potential threat of the Takigakure’s Seven Tails (a threat we were already removing at the behest of the Village’s elder anyway). So, as you can imagine, our leader is feeling pretty happy with our zombie comrade.” Twilight’s eyes widdened.
“Z-z-z-z-zombie?” she asked, and Kisame gave a chuckle to her reaction.
“Just a nickname I gave him and Hidan. They’re practically impossible to kill.” Kisame joked, “Well, not immortal impossible, just really hard to kill. You take things too literally, my friend. You need to loosen up a bit.” Kisame looked down at the purple haired girl, who shrunk slightly under his gaze. After a few moments, Kisame’s facial expressions turned from friendly to worried.
“Is my skin that weird...?”
“Don’t fret... she can’t see when I’m joking either...” Twilight giggled at the way the two hardened ninjas were so easily offended. That seemed to strike the right cords, as Kisame smiled, and Itachi sighed.
“Well, we’d better hurry and get back. Boss’ll be getting the orders done before long. I’d give him a week to give a full plan.”
Orochimaru’s Hideout...
“Are you sure you wish to proceed with this, Lord Orochimaru?” Kimimaro asked, standing slightly behind the said scientist. Kimimaro, the last of the Kaguya clan, was a pale man, but not as pale as the scientist he was talking to. His vivid green eyes were easy to make out, thanks to(not only his aforementioned pale skin) his shoulder length silver hair. He sported the Kaguya marking on his forehead-two red dots, mere centimeters apart.
“I am certain, Kimimaro.” came the reply, “You read this scroll, didn’t you? Even if I cannot harness the immortality from this Yoru no ōjo, it can still provide with interesting information, do you not agree? According to legend, Madara himself used this creature in his campaign against the Hidden Leaf. So, even if she proves useless to my quest for immortality, she’ll prove instrumental to helping me destroy the Hidden Leaf, and take any secrets left behind by the original Hokage. It’ll also help distract me while I am forced to wait for Sasuke to mature.” Orochimaru had a frown on his face after thinking of his encounter with the Uchiha prodigy he was so happy to claim as his own. Orochimaru’s skin was as white as snow, with waist-length black hair. His eyes were amber, with cat-like irises in them, and had purple slits emerging from the corner of each eyeball. At the moment, he was looking over a summoning scroll he had ‘proclaimed’ from a traveling salesman.
“Ah, yes. I recall you came back to me without a left arm when you attempted to take Itachi’s body. Such a shame, Itachi’s body is naturally more endurable than any other host we may search for. But, I suppose it’s your fault for underestimating Itachi Uchiha.” came a cheeky reply from his left hand man, Kabuto. Of the three in the dimly lit room(with a massive snake in the back), Kabuto looked the most like a normal, no clan, ninja. He had circular glasses, black eyes, and silver hair that he kept in a ponytail that reached his upper back.
“How dare you mock Lord Orochimaru!” Kimimaro defended his God. To this, he got a chuckle from Orochimaru.
“No need to be so defensive, Kimimaro. He is right, though. It was my own fault for ignoring the dangers of using genjutsu against a fully developed Sharingan user. That’s why I keep him around, he keeps me... relatively level headed, but knows how far I’m going to let him go before he oversteps his boundaries.” Orochimaru clarified to both his subordinates, “And you are my sword, Kimimaro. He is my armor, you are my sword. Now, allow me to begin casting the jutsu. Kimimaro, be ready to subdue it. Kabuto, be ready to heal it, should it have any injuries.” after both gave their own versions of ‘yes, my lord’, Orochimaru began the summoning.
As he finished, he pressed his hands into the ground.
“Summoning Jutsu: Yoru no Fumetsu Ōjo!” then, a cloud of smoke engulfed the room. Kimimaro got ready to fight, while Kabuto remained passive. When the smoke receded, Orochimaru was standing parallel to a strange, horse-like creature. It was half the size of Orochimaru, but held a much better grace. It’s body was sleek and aerodynamic, with a glowing, night sky-ish mane, greenish-blue eyes, black crown, and indigo fur.
“Welcome... Princess of the Night...”
One week later, in Itachi’s shack...
Twilight woke up early the next morning, partly because she feared Samehada would be floating over her(as it had the first few nights, but after Itachi finished building her room, it left her alone), but mostly because she wanted to see Itachi and Kisame off. To her relief, the massive sword wasn’t floating over her, but staying near its blue master, who was sitting on the couch, reading an unmarked book. She quickly got dressed and walked outside to see Kisame and Itachi off.
Just yesterday they received a letter from him, stating that he had a plan to instil the greatness of the Akatsuki into the minds of everyone in Takigakure, just as we have with Iwagakure. To quote Kisame’s reasoning,
“Our mission tomorrow is to make people see that, whatever they can’t handle with their ninjas or alliances, they can throw to us, the Akatsuki. Or, if something top secret needs to be done, like disposing of a turncoat, they pay hefty fines for us to do it and keep quiet.”
Her plan was to see her two mentors(Itachi had begun teaching her ninjutsu, genjutsu, and shurikenjutsu, while Kisame taught her taijutsu, survival stuff, and whatever Itachi couldn’t the day after they met), until she saw a third figure in the room. A hunched figure, low to the ground. It was wearing the same cloak as Itachi(who was absent from the room) and Kisame, so she assumed it was another member of the Akatsuki. She also thought it was Hidan or Kakuzu, but she didn’t want to assume it was someone it wasn’t. It had dark skin, and a bandana covered its mouth.
“Oh?” he asked(his voice being too deep to be female in origin), “This is Itachi’s ‘sister’? A very sweet face, if I do say so myself.” he approached her, and bowed his head, “I am Sasori, of the Red Sand. I’m here to pick up these two. My previous partner quit the Akatsuki, and we have found a replacement. Itachi said he would help win him over.”
“And, to bring new orders.” Twilight bowed to greet her older brother, who was walking in from outside, “The leader wants all available Akatsuki members to capture these two jinchuuriki, to show off all the Akatsuki has to offer, as you know. However, and Sasori hasn’t told me why, but he especially wants to see you in action. I just got back from trying to get Konan(our only link to the Leader, as I’m sure I’ve told you) to tell me why, but she merely responded with, ‘He wants to see how good you are at teaching’, and brushed the rest of my questions off.”
“All the way to Amegakure? Itachi, you have someone to fight.” Kisame said, a worried tone to his voice, “Don’t you think that’s being a bit overconfident in your abilities?”
“I agree with Kisame on this one, Itachi.” Twilight said, looking worried, “What if he’s really strong?”
“Not to worry, Twilight.” Itachi put his hand on her head, “Your big brother is more than capable of handling a hasbeen from Iwagakure.” he gave her a reassuring smile.
“Sure are a softy, Itachi.” Kisame interrupted the heartwarming moment.
“I’d think not. Simply a sibling bond showing before us. Truly a work of art, if I do say so myself.” Itachi sighed in annoyance as Twilight giggled.
Maybe this won’t be too bad... Itachi thought, half joking. Of course it was going to be bad, they had hardly any info on the target. I suppose everything can’t have a life story attached.... He thought, looking at Twilight. She had an old Uchiha shirt he found on under an oversized Akatsuki cloak. Seriously, it was a miracle if she didn’t trip.
- - -
Orochimaru’s Hideout, same time...
Luna awoke in her dimly lit room in the strange location. Her ‘captors’ hadn’t disclosed where she was yet, but she didn’t very much care. From her initial briefing with Orochimaru’s hideout, he had more use for her than the ponies of Equestria ever did. That’s why she didn’t try to escape; here she had purpose.
If something gets that bad, Celestia can get off her throne and fight for herself... Luna bitterly thought. She removed herself from her bed(which wasn’t as hard as it looked), and neatly made it, using her telekinesis. Just as she went to sit down, a knock was heard at the door.
“Miss Luna, are you awake?” she heard a voice call out. She couldn’t quite remember whose voice it was, so she just went with a ‘yes’.
To her surprise, it wasn’t Kabuto or Orochimaru who came into her room. It was Kimimaro, someone she hadn’t said more than three words to.
“I know we do not get a chance to speak often, but I’d very much like to know one of Orochimaru’s newest assets.” he spoke, simply.
“Very well, Sir Kimimaro. Truth be told, I wished to know more about you as well.” she said with a bow of the head, “If you do not mind.”
“Only if you go first.” he spoke from the doorway, “But, more over, I’d like to hear about Madara Uchiha the most. It was said that you assisted him, after all.” Footsteps were heard approaching behind Kimimaro, and Kabuto appeared behind him.
“Yes, it would be good to learn more about one of the greatest ninjas who ever lived. The tales I’ve heard about him are quite fascinating, and I wish to know if they’re true.” Kabuto spoke, with enthusiasm to learn, but with an ulterior motive. Luna couldn’t think of what, so she brushed it off.
“Very well. Will we be exchanging life stories in my bedroom, or shall we find a better place to speak?” she asked.
“I know just the place.” Kabuto said, leading them out. Luna followed behind Kimimaro, and began memorizing the floor plan of the base. It wasn’t too hard to, but if you didn’t know where you were going, you’d be lost in minutes upon entering. She looked at both of the Sound Ninjas in front of her, and closed her eyes, silently playing with different back stories for each.
Unknowing what was in store for her.