Chapter 6:The Rescue Mission
Kakuzu nodded. “Yes, they’ve been taken prisoner up in Canterlot, just like you were, Hotaka.”
“But how? Itachi is one of the more powerful members of Akatsuki! I don’t understand how he could be captured!” I said.
“I don’t know any of the details, myself. Obito just informed me about half an hour ago, actually. I don’t even know how he knows, but he has his ways.”
“Well then, what’s our plan of action?” Asked Hotaka.
“Simple,” said Kakuzu as he laid a map of Canterlot across the table, “I have the city and castle schematics. All we have to do is infiltrate by flying over the city wall, then onto the castle roof, itself. It’s fairly simple.”
Kakuzu faced me. “You’re the smallest one here, so you will infiltrate the castle itself.”
“I suppose that makes sense, but all alone? I won’t get any support?”
“Of course not! The roof of the castle has many patches of glass skylights; where Deidara will be positioned to use his eye scope and help you scout ahead.”
“Ah, the prison is under the main floor, though. I should know I broke out of there.”
Kakuzu sighed. “Well then, it seems I was wrong, you will have no support after all, young Rokuro. You’ll have to rely on yourself, I’m afraid.”
I shook my head. “No way! I’ve never gone solo, before! I won’t be able to do it!”
“If you don’t do it, Kisame and Itachi will be counted out of the equation when we enter a full-on a battle with the ponies and their allies!”
“Allies?”
“Yes, I fought against a minotaur, and a buffalo who both said they fight for Equestria; odds are they have armies of them here already.” Said Sasori.
“As did Hidan and I; I killed two minotaurs and several ponies who claimed to be from the Crystal Empire. Probably another group of ponies from somewhere else. So do you see what I mean? We need all the help we can get against such a formidable force.”
“I- I understand. I’ll try my best, then. But if I fail, then you’ve just lost three instead of just two.”
“We won’t lose you, too. At the first hint of trouble, we’ll blow your cover and ours to come rescue you. If it comes to it, we will slaughter every pony in that wreck of city!”
“Now you’re talking, Kakuzu! Jashin will be most pleased!”
“It may not come to that, Hidan. Remember that stealth is key here if possible.”
Hidan rolled his eyes. “Whatever! I’’m still gonna slaughter more of these ponies at some point! You can’t hold me back forever!”
Kakuzu ignored his partners comment and resumed his presentation to the rest of the group.
“So you understand what you’ll be doing Rokuro?”
“I know it’ll be risky, but I trust you to bail me out if trouble arrives. Let’s do it!”
“Good, we should wait until we have the advantage of the cover of night.” Said Kakuzu.
We all rolled out sleeping bags, and feel asleep on the floor; waiting for night so our mission could begin.
- - - - -
“Very well then, everyone! It’s time to go, so Deidara....”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah! I’m on it!”
We followed Deidara outside where he summoned another clay owl, we jumped on, and flew away to Canterlot.
Everyone was quiet on the trip; not even Hidan said much. He just twirled his Jashin amulet around his hand over and over again.
The owl was fast, and we were approaching the city quickly.
‘This still doesn’t make any sense,’ I thought, ‘how could Itachi Uchiha be captured? Even if he was surrounded by all four of the Princesses we saw he could just use the level three Tsukuyomi and torture them all! Sure it damages his Sharingan, but if his life is in danger he would do it. Wouldn’t he?’
Kakuzu brought me out of my thoughts. “We’re here.”
Sure enough, the remains of Canterlot lay below us. We could see some of the ponies moving around the streets; gathering up anything they could to sell. Many of them wore normal clothing, but it was obvious they were homeless.
Deidara steered the owl to the top of the castle, and we all jumped off onto the roof.
Kakuzu opened up the stitchings on his left and right wrists letting out some of his tentacles.
“Rokuro, I’m going to wrap you in my tentacles and slowly let you down into the building. While it would make more sense to break in through a small window in the prison, there unfortunately aren’t any.”
The tentacles extended from Kakuzu’s arms, and wrapped themselves around my waste. Hidan used his scythe to break a hole in the skylight, and I walked into the hole.
Kakuzu let me down slowly so I could get a good look at what awaited me below. I could see two guards talking, but one of them soon walked away.
I quietly laughed to myself as I pulled out the dagger I used to stab Cadence. Soon, I was close enough, so I put my hand over the guard’s mouth and stabbed him in the heart. His eyes turned to me; and I watched the light leave them within moments.
“Kakuzu! I’m good to go!” I whispered up to him.
He nodded, and the tentacles unwrapped themselves from around my body.
I looked around the hall, and saw some stairs leading down; probably to the dungeon.
I grabbed the guard’s corpse, and dragged it down the stairs with me. I found a small alcove at the base of the stairs, so I stashed the body in it. As I turned to leave, I noticed a wrought metal door in front of me. I had found the prison.
‘Hehehe, stashing a prison guard’s body in prison? That’s ironic.’ I thought to myself.
I walked out of the prison cell, and proceeded down the corridor; checking every cell as I passed. But Itachi and Kisame were nowhere to be found. They weren’t in the castle dungeon!
I snuck back upstairs and peeked around the corner. The other guard had come back and noticed the blood on the floor from where I killed my victim.
He looked around and ran screaming the guard’s name right towards me!
I tried my best to hide in the shadows, and it worked. The guard ran past me without looking, so I walked quietly out of the room and looked up to Kakuzu and the others.
“They’re aren’t in the dungeon! Where do I look now?”
“Try the Throne Room; it’s quite possible they’re being interrogated by the Princesses. If that’s the case, we’ll descend to aid you in combat.”
I nodded, and followed the long hallway to two large double doors. I could hear someone screaming from inside, so I peered in through the keyhole. What I saw frightened me more than anything I had ever seen.
Kisame and Itachi were bound on stretching racks. They both had several cuts on their exposed bodies. Itachi’s eyes were covered in tape; to prevent him from using his Sharingan. Numerous tables lay around; each one had a collection of brutal tools upon them: bonesaws, nails, hammers, knives, and other objects I couldn’t even name. I noticed there was also a large burlap bag of salt by one of the tables.
I saw the blue Princess, who Hotaka had informed me was called Luna, shouting questions at them.
‘The cuts? The questions? That bitch is torturing them!’
Luna was pacing back and forth; before finally stopping in front of Kisame.
“I won’t ask thou again! What is the location of your comrades’ base? It has to be fairly large; considering you have allies now, I hear.”
Kisame spit on her face. “Fuck you! I won't’ betray any of the Akatsuki! NEVER!”
“Oh, I’m fairly certain you will. Everypony has their breaking point.”
Luna walked over to the bag of salt and dragged the salt over to Kisame. She removed a half-teaspoon of salt from the bag and threw it onto the wounds on Kisame’s chest. He didn’t even scream; he just spit on her face again.
“You’ll have to try harder than that, I assure you!”
Luna grabbed a hoof-full and threw it onto his face; most of it landing in his eyes.
“Hahahaha! I live for this pain! Try again, whore!”
Luna had grown tired of his game, and walked over to Itachi.
“How about you? Would you care to help me find your friends’ base?”
Itachi didn’t say anything.
“The quiet treatment won’t work on me. Remember, I’ve been given permission to interrogate you for as long as I need to. We could be here for the rest of your lives.”
“You never spoke this violently before. Not when you fought us, nor when you fought Pain. Tell me, why do you speak thusly now?” Said Itachi.
“Your gang has changed me! The brutality you have shown our ponies and our cities can never be forgiven; and I feel no need to speak like a proper Princess anymore when I deal with swine!”
In her rage, she turned and hit Itachi. He didn’t even flinch; nor did he seem to care.
“Interesting, so you believe us to be swine? Do we not share similar goals and ideals?”
“In what ways would we be similar? You’re not even ponies, you’re.....something else! Your leader said it himself.”
“True, but putting our physical differences aside, do you not strive for peace in your lands?”
“Of course!”
“So do we. Our methods are just different from yours.”
“Why are you ‘striving for peace’ in our world? Why don’t you just go back to your own?”
“Believe me when I say that is our goal. But we haven’t been able to find a method. So we’re stuck here, and our leader commanded us to devastate everything in order to find what we’re looking for.”
“And what exactly is that?”
“We have no idea. In fact, it’s quite possible it doesn’t exist, and we could be stuck here forever.”
“Fo- FOREVER?! Never! I won’t allow it!”
“Then you could set aside your malice and help us get home. The quicker we find a method to return to Konoha, the quicker you and your kind can begin rebuilding. I assure you that there will be no end to this conflict until you’re most or all of your kind are dead. We both have allies, sure. But they won’t make any real difference in the coming conflict between the Akatsuki and you and your leaders.”
“I have no leaders! I am a leader!”
“The other Princesses I what I meant. But also remember one thing: the one you fought that destroyed your city wasn’t even our strongest member.”
“Wh- what? He wasn’t even the strongest of the Akatsuki?”
Itachi shook his head. “No, if I were to order the Akatsuki based on our skills, you just fought the second toughest member.”
Luna didn’t say anything. She believed Itachi when he said they hadn’t even fought the true leader of Akatsuki.
“So tell me, what is this leader’s name, so I may know when I fight him?”
“I can’t say.”
“YES YOU WILL! I AM LUNA, THE GREAT PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT! NO PONY DENIES MY WILL!”
Luna picked up a bonesaw and cut Itachi’s left front leg clean off! With such a large opening to the bloodstream exposed, she picked up two hoof-fulls of salt and threw it on the exposed stump.
Itachi screamed; something I had never seen him do before. This was enough; it was time to make our move.
I turned to go get Kakuzu and the others, when I almost bumped right into him.
“We heard the screaming and came right away. What’s going on?”
“Luna just severed Itachi’s left front leg with a bonesaw and tossed salt onto the wound. That’s the screaming you heard.”
“No time for planning then. She’ll kill him if we don’t go in there now.”
Kakuzu formed his tentacles in the shape of the keyhole and slid it inside. He morphed the shape until he found the right key design. The door unlocked, we opened it, and entered the Throne Room.
Luna turned as she heard the door creak open.
“Hahahaha! Good! I’m in the mood to kill some Akatsuki scum! Come to save your friend, have you?”
“That’s right! But we’re only rescuing him so he will have the pleasure of killing you!” Screamed Deidara, as he sent two clay birds at Luna.
She created a shield in front of her that absorbed the birds’ explosions.
“Insolent! I will make your deaths slow and painful for what you did to the rest of Equestria!”
She charged her horn, and five bolts of energy shot from it in a fan array.
“Get behind me!” Said Kakuzu as he formed a shield with his tentacles.
We listened, and took cover behind him. The energy bolts ripped through the first layer of tentacles, but couldn’t make it through the second layer.
“Where is the other Princess? The white one?” Inquired Kakuzu.
“Princess Celestia is currently away tending the wounded in Applewood. This battle is between us, and nopony else!”
“You can’t win, you’re fighting 6 members of the Akatsuki. What inkling even gives you hope to prevail over us?” Asked Kakuzu.
“No matter the odds, I must fight to protect my subjects against vicious ponies like you!”
“Very well then. If you feel so strongly about it, you will die for your beliefs.”
Luna generated a large shield in front of her; just as Kakuzu opened his back and let out the fire and air masks. Tentacles followed them, and they turned into the golems that Kakuzu displayed back in Ponyville. He put his hooves together; preparing for an attack.
Deidara created two more birds that were larger than the ones he used before.
Hotaka drew his wand, and aimed it at the Princess.
Sasori removed a scroll from his robe. The smoke dissipated and showed the 3rd Kazekage. The puppet’s mouth opened, and the Iron Sand spilled out from it. Wings of sand were created on the puppet’s back with some of the sand, while the rest of it floated around Sasori.
Hidan drew his scythe, and extended the cable a fair distance.
Finally, I removed a green scroll from my robe. The smoke dissipated to show my puppets. A red-haired young woman, a tall man with a black beard, a young man with glasses and blonde hair, and three males wearing jackets with upturned collars; covering their faces.
“Secret Yellow Move: Performance of Two Insect Clans!”
Kakuzu looked at the rest of us; working together and displaying our power as one against our enemy. He laughed quietly, then looked back at Luna.
“Face it Princess. You have no chance against all six of us.”
Luna looked at all of us, then smiled.
“Strong confidence in oneself leads you to victory. If you think I don’t have a chance against all of you, you’re wrong!”
“Hmph. You are willing to suffer needless pain just because you refuse to surrender? Very well then, we can oblige your request easily!”
Kakuzu put his hooves together, as did the rest of us.
“Fire Style: Searing Migraine!”
“Iron Sand: Hammer and Anvil Cluster Attack!”
“C1 Art: Twin Birds!”
“Wind Style: Air Bullet Barrage!”
“Curse Style: Spirit Hunting!”
“Hidden Art: Great Insect Assault!”
Kakuzu’s fire golem shot a fireball from it’s mouth, the Iron Sand took on the form of a hammer and anvil, two large, clay birds appeared, Hidan’s scythe began to glow red, and my puppets opened their mouths and let out hundreds of insects. All of these attacks raced towards the Princess at once.
Luna created a large shield around her, just as all the attacks reached her.
Deidara’s birds and Kakuzu’s fireball created a large smoke field, and we couldn’t see what happened.
“Did we get her? Is she dead?” Asked Hidan.
“I hope so; not many people, or ponies for that matter, should have been able to survive an attack like that...” I said.
“I say we got her; so I’ll go get Sharkface and Redeyes over there.”
Hidan started walking towards Kisame and Itachi, but suddenly a blue sword flew from the cloud, straight at Hidan. He turned just in time to see the sword enter his neck, then sever his head.
Hidan’s body fell to the ground, and his head rolled under the table where Itachi was bound.
“Fuck me! I can’t believe I didn’t see that coming!” Screamed Hidan.
The smoke cloud dissipated, and there stood Princess Luna fully clad in magic-enhanced armor. But what was most surprising were the hundreds of blue swords flying around her. She had also generated a small buckler on the right side of her body. She had absorbed the attack with the shield, then converted what was left into these weapons.
“Wha- What? I severed your head and you’re still alive?!”
“Well, duh! I’m immortal, you whore!”
“Hmph, well it’s not like you can do much to me without your head. I’ll deal with you later.”
Luna faced us again; but now, she had fire and passion in her eyes.
“That’s one down, only five more scum to go.”
“It won’t be that easy, Princess.”
Luna laughed, ignoring Kakuzu, then sent the swords down upon us.
Sasori regathered the Iron Sand, and put his hooves together.
The Iron Sand reformed into a shield in front of us. Many of the swords got stuck in the sand, but some went straight through. We leapt out of the way of those, but we realized this strategy wouldn’t work again.
“I see your skills have improved since last you fought Pain and Konan.” Said Kakuzu.
“No, this is my Dream Warden State. I have the ability to invade ponies’ minds while they are sleeping and fight their nightmares. I must do this, since sometimes these nightmares can begin to take on physical manifestations and enter our world. For twenty-four hours after I invade a nightmare, I have the ability to still enter Dream Warden State. My magic abilities are enhanced, as well as my total distribution of magic to, for instance, these swords and shield.”
“Your powers are unique, and would make you a powerful kunoichi back in Konoha. But here, you are an enemy of mine and must be destroyed.”
“Enough talking, time to die!”
Deidara put his hooves together.
“Get ready Princess, this is gonna be explosive!”
Instead of two of the large twin birds, Deidara created ten of them!
They raced towards Luna, so the Princess sent more of her swords down. The birds managed to evade some of the swords. But the ones that did get hit, exploded. Soon, only four remained, but had closed the distance.
“Katsu!”
They exploded, but Deidara looked to see some of the swords had reformed into a shield, and blocked the explosion.
Kakuzu put his hooves together.
“Get out of the way, Hidan!”
He picked up Hidan’s body and head, and laid them on Itachi’s table.
“Now then, let’s try that again.”
“Fire Style: Intelligent Hard Work!”
A sea of flames bathed the area; destroying all of the tables and carpets on the floor. Luna flew into the air; avoiding the attack completely.
“You’ll have to do better than that, I’m afraid!”
Kakuzu put his hooves together again.
“Wind Style: Pressure Damage!”
A large tornado was created that swirled around itself. It built up great pressure, then flew straight at the Princess; encapsulating her.
The tornado released, and an enormous wind blew around the room. My puppets were thrown against the wall; but weren’t destroyed.
The wind subsided, and again we saw the Princess had used the swords’ energy to form another shield.
I put my hooves together.
“Hidden Art: 1000 Stingers Jutsu!”
The Kamizuru Clan puppets opened their mouths and hundreds of bees flew out and towards the Princess. They turned their rear ends towards her, and shot their stingers out.
Luna blocked most of the stingers with her buckler, but dodged as she realized there were too many. I used this moment of distraction to put my hooves together again, in preparation for part two of the insect performance.
The puppets opened their jackets to reveal their mechanical inner workings. They combined their bodies by holding hands, then reshaping themselves. Their heads were bunched together, with their mouths open. I
“Hidden Art: Beetle Cannon!”
The beetles were shot from the puppets’ mouths at an incredible speed. Thousands of tiny insects could form a deadly weapon under my control!
Luna created another large shield in front of her, but this time, it didn't’ work.
The beetles were shot from the mouth at such a fast speed that they reached terminal velocity in only 1.3 seconds!
The beetles hit the shield, and ripped a hole in it. They continued flying straight at the Princess, but another shield was generated. This shield used most of the swords she had, and stopped the rest of the beetles.
“Damn it! I was sure that would work!”
“It did, though! You broke through her shield!” Said Hotaka.
Hotaka had been watching the whole fight and noticed something. The number of swords hadn't changed at all, nor had she become tired.
“She’s using the max amount of energy she can.” Said Hotaka.
We all looked at him.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means the energy used by her isn't like chakra. It isn't expended, it’s constant. She has formed all of her energy into her armor, swords, and shield. Which in turn, means the only way to defeat her is to use an attack she can’t block. We must use our most powerful attacks, except in the case of Deidara, don’t use your C4.”
“Hmm! Of course not! I’ll use the C3, that’ll get the job done!”
“But Hotaka, to use such an attack would drain all of our chakra in an instant! If it doesn’t work, we will all die!” Said Kakuzu.
“Do you think I haven’t figured that out, as well? It just means, we can’t miss!”
Kakuzu looked up at the Princess, awaiting our attack. She had blocked every attack up to this point, so it seemed reasonable the only attack that would work is one she can’t block, all of our most powerful jutsus combined as one!
Deidara prepared for his attack by creating an owl and flying over Luna. Kakuzu released his Lightning Mask.
“Very well! It’s our only shot!”
We all put our hooves together.
“Earth Grudge Fear: Final Shot!”
“Iron Sand: Unleash!”
“C3 Explosive Statue!”
“Hidden Art: Insect Bomb!”
Kakuzu’s masks and tentacles formed a large mass, and shot a powerful beam at Luna. Sasori combined all of the Iron Sand into one mass, then separated it into numerous, large spikes. Deidara dropped a small statues of clay, that increased in size until it was 150x the original size. All of my puppets sent out their insects at once. They combined into one, large sphere.
Princess Luna saw the attacks, and created a shield from all of her swords at once.
The attacks struck, and Deidara’s C3 destroyed the entire room. The roof and walls of the room were blown away, and I felt we were going to die. We had forgotten to protect ourselves from Deidara’s C3!
But as the explosion occurred, a shield was created around us! It was a clear, red color, and I knew who it had come from. Hotaka had not attacked; he generated a shield to protect the rest of us from Deidara’s C3!
“HOTAKA!” I screamed as his body turned to dust outside the shield.
The shield dissipated since it’s controller was no longer feeding it chakra. We looked around, and the saw the Princess was still floating in the air, alive.
“Hahaha! I must admit, that attack-” She stopped talking, and coughed up blood.
“That attack- cer- certainly had so- some kick.”
I looked up to see Hotaka behind her. He had used his horn to create an energy field around himself, so he could fly!
He looked down at me, and I could tell he wanted to tell me something, but I couldn’t figure out what.
He waved his wand.
“Fire Style: Great Fire Consumption!”
A large snake made entirely of fire appeared behind Hotaka. It’s body was clear; and you could see the walls of the room on the other side of it. It swallowed Hotaka and Luna whole! They tumbled down into the snake’s stomach, where we could see them slowly being melted away. Luna scratched at the walls of the snake’s stomach; looking for a way out, but Hotaka sat still, staring at us. He stuck his hand outside the snake, and dropped something.
Soon, the fire turned them into dust, the snake coiled around itself, then disappeared in an explosion of fire.
“HOTAKA!” I screamed.
“I see what he did now. He didn't’ want Deidara to sacrifice himself; instead, he wanted to do it. He was a brave man, and I will remember him until the day I die.” Said Kakuzu.
Hidan even shed a tear for Hotaka’s sacrifice. Sasori even turned away; but I could hear his bawling. He had respected him since he took over as my teacher.
“He created a clone of himself to generate a shield to protect us from Deidara’s C3. In turn, he used all the energy and chakra he had left to fly behind Luna, who believed she had beaten us. While she was distracted, he performed a suicide jutsu to save the rest of us.”
Everyone bowed their heads, (except Hidan, who just looked down) and were silent for a moment. However, I was more interested in what Hotaka had dropped, so I walked over to where the floating snake used to be and found a small piece of paper on the ground.
Rokuro,
Since I didn’t have any time to ‘write’ this message, I created it from my chakra so you could read my last testament. Remember when I told you I studied under Madara Uchiha? That was where that jutsu you saw came from. My only regrets are that I won’t be there to finish your training, and I won’t get to go on any more missions with you. Be strong, Rokuro, for the both of us. By the time you read this, I will be in the underworld. So while I’m here, I’ll say hello to the Fourth Mizukage, for you.
Hotaka
I put the note down and bowed my head.
“Hotaka, why?”
We released Itachi and Kisame from their bindings while Kakuzu sewed Hidan’s head back on.
Kisame picked up his sword, Sharkskin, and Itachi removed the tape from his eyes. We all jumped on Deidara’s owl, and flew away from the wrecked Throne Room.
No one said anything on the way back. Hotaka was a friend to everyone in the Akatsuki; his death impacted us in a way from which we would never truly recover.
When we made it back to the hideout, Deidara and Sasori stayed on the owl.
“We’re going to, err, go out on patrol.” Said Sasori, as they flew away.
Hidan and Kakuzu walked towards the fisherman’s dock and sat down. They stared across the water, not saying a word to each other.
I started walking into the shack, but Itachi put a hand on my shoulder.
“Are you going to be alright?”
I nodded. “I just want to get some rest. I’ll feel better tomorrow.”
Itachi took his hand off of me, and I walked into the bedroom. I flopped on the bed, and closed my eyes. I was too tired to think about what happened anymore.
Within minutes, I was fast asleep.