Yuyan's POV
Since the big fight, there hasn't been much happening in the Akatsuki. We're down to only two teams who actually work and since there are so many demands for missions, everyone has been kind of busy.
Since there's no longer a bounty hunter, the wealth of the Akatsuki has dropped, and apart from that, the missions for the tailed beast jinchuuriki is still a thing of course. Sooner or later I feel like they're gonna start sending me on missions.
That's sarcasm of course, they wouldn't send me if I was the last one standing.
Today for some reason they've called me into the sealing cavern to discuss something important. Honestly, I'm a little sacred, what if they know about me and the battle, what if they found out?
If you act nervous, they'll only think something is up, I'll do the talking.
"Sounds good to me!" I entered the cavern where most people, except Itachi and Kisame, seemed to be holograms.
"You wanted to see me?"
The leader nodded, "now that everyone is here, I'll give you all the news updates."
"Everyone? Where's Hidan and Kakuzu?" Deidara looked around.
"They're dead," the leader answered nonchalantly. I felt a pang in my chest, but I remained passive.
"The Zombie twins?" Kisame chuckled, "I wish I coulda seen how they were killed."
"Don't talk like that about your comrades," the leader scolded.
Pft, trying to sound so noble, this guy sucks.
"Right?" I responded.
"So, who got them anyway?" Kisame proceeded to ask.
"Konoha ninja, the Kakashi guy and the nine tail's jinchuuriki," Zetsu answered.
"Wow they're strong huh? That's probably why Deidara senpai got beaten up by them huh?" Tobi teased, I chuckled under my breath.
"Tobi! If I had to keep my patience with you in a bag I'd be bursting at the seams!! Say another word and I'll make you wish you were never born!" Deidara shouted in a very offended tone.
I heard Itachi and Kisame sigh at they're bickering. Tobi laughed, "like your bag of exploding clay? No wonder you have a short temper!"
I wanted to laugh at that, it certainly was true that Deidara had the shortest temper of us all. "Tobi!! I'm gonna-"
"Silence Deidara, unless you want to prove him right," the leader intervened. "There was also one other that I wanted to warn you about. An unidentified stranger has appeared and allied with Konoha shinobi. We
don't believe the stranger is in anyway connected to Konoha, but is more connected to us."
Heh, good thing he's not over analytical.
"What's this stranger like then," Kisame asks.
"Seems to be quite a handful, stronger than any of the Konoha ninjas present at the fight, I didn't see her take any damage. Also, her chakra is quite amazing, enough to deflect even Kakuzu's jutsus with little to no effort. She was wearing some kind of dragon mask and had long black hair and wore a black cloak. There's this sword she had that also could absorb ninjutsu attacks, though I don't know the extent to which she can use it," black Zetsu answered.
"Is there anything else?" the leader asked.
"Not sure, but she used this super cool sealing jutsu on Hidan, even he died!" white Zetsu now answered.
"It's a she?" Kisame pestered, "she can't be that strong right? It's just a girl." Slightly sexist, but I still remained silent since it was Kisame and he was most likely joking around since he winked at me right after.
"She's not to be underestimated. It seemed to me as if she worked better alone than working together with the Konoha ninja," Zetsu warned.
"Alright, alright we'll keep an eye out for her and capture her and what not," Kisame hurried, "anyway can we please just seal this jinchuuriki, I'm tired."
"Not so fast, I still have more news," the leader spoke up again.
Man this guy had a lot to talk about.
"Someone else has died."
"Well who was it?" Kisame asked, seemingly impatient to seal up the jinchuuriki.
"Orochimaru," he answered. I internally gasped and started coughing at the thought of someone actually killing him. Everyone reminisced the time he was in the Akatsuki but they all just kinda mentioned he was creepy and such.
"So who killed him?"
"Uchiha Sasuke," once again I choked on my breath in total shock at his answer.
Well, there you have it, your little lover is no longer the little Sasuke you once knew.
"Oh be quiet you don't know about him," I retorted.
Yuyan, let's me logical, I know everything you know about him.
For a moment, I had forgotten we practically shared a conscience, it was becoming quite an irritating thing for me. But she was right, it appears as if Sasuke had become millions of times stronger.
I wonder if I'll see him again.
Everyone sort if gave Itachi the eye as if saying "wow, your brother is pretty cool are you gonna be able to handle it?" And as much as I still believed in Sasuke, something told me that Sasuke still had a long way to go before being as skilled as Itachi.
Itachi and I glanced at each other at the same time, he seemed to have kind of uneasy look, it was obvious he thought something of the subject besides Orochimaru being dead.
They talked amongst themselves about his death, it was all kind of fuzzy what they were saying. I only paid attention to my own thoughts and ignored the other members. For one thing, it was evident that Sasuke was on the move and that he was going to look for Itachi soon.
It was kind of weird though, I knew this was going to happen someday but I just always avoided the thought. Did Sasuke really have it in him to kill Itachi? Could Itachi possibly be the one to kill Sasuke? That probably wasn't an option.
How would this end?
"Yuyan, you're excused, we have to seal the four tails now," the leader demanded rather than informed me.
"The four tails? You guys are pretty far, good luck getting any more," I exited saying that sarcastically.
It would take a couple more days to seal the jinchuuriki since there are less members, I'd estimate about no more than a week?
What will you do for the time being?
"Hmmm, don't know, there's nothing to do," I stretched, walking into the kitchen, "by the way, has there been any news from Hisen?"
A lot actually, you have good timing, it came in this morning. You're really gonna love this.
"Really?! What was it?"
First of all, Konoha is on the move, it appears that they plan on catching Itachi to bring Sasuke back to Konoha.
I laughed, I know Konoha ninja are strong and I believe in them all of course but I know that catching Itachi would be a herculean task for them, it couldn't be done.
Next, Sasuke has gathered some underlings, a boy from Kirigakure, and no it's not your silver eyed dreamboat this guy is apparently named Suigetsu Hozuki, I blushed and laughed at that, a guy named Juugo who's power is the foundation of the cursed mark, and a girl named Karin, Hisen says she's probably an Uzumaki, it's what her chakra is like.
"Interesting," I nodded also eating a piece of a pork bun.
Finally, Hisen has discovered the location of the leader's hideout.
"What?! No way how'd he manage to do all of that in such a short time?"
Well, the chakra fission technique I showed you is originally one used by Hisen himself, your mother used this a lot too, she practically saw the whole world herself. But anyway, he used it to divide himself into several parts to investigate throughout the five nations, that was all he got.
The chakra fission technique basically allows the user the separate their chakra into however many parts to make a copy of themselves. You can say it's like a clone jutsu, but this jutsu actually creates a durable copy.
It's what I use to sneak out, since I have a pretty big chakra reserve and now have Ryohei's too, that practically gives me what I originally had times 10. Because of that, I give the copy two thirds of my own chakra to use the rest of mine and Ryohei's in battle. It's extremely efficient.
I recommend you get this information to someone you can trust. You know very well how important it is.
"Don't worry, I know exactly who to tell, there's only one person I know who can deal with the leader himself."
I see, I see, he might just be able to do it, good choice Yuyan!
"Then I guess I know what to do with my time now!" I hurried back to my room to gather all my things for my journey.
You'll have some extra time to spare, what else will you do with that time?
"A little more investigating," I answered, there were a couple of things I had in mind.
Hisui's POV
"So he's finally dead huh?" I slumped down on the open space in between Kakashi and Kiyoko. It seems as though it's the billionth time we gather in the same area to discuss a problem.
Naruto was quiet for the first time, he was still pondering on the Sasuke killing Orochimaru thing. No one else seemed to be that surprised about it alymore. I think we all knew that Orochimaru's time was short and that having Sasuke around while he wasn't in the best shape was a bad idea.
Doesn't matter though, I'm happy he's dead, and I'm sure everyone else feels the same way. Especially Kiyoko.
I'm sure Yuyan would even be happy considering everything that man put her through and how much of a living hell it was for her. Maybe Sasuke had some ulterior motive for killing Orochimaru, it could have been revenge too.
But then again, Sasuke left her. Who even knows whether or not he actually cared whether she was dead or not.
"Cheer up Naruto this is the guy who hurt Sasuke and Yuyan! Maybe now there won't be anything holding Sasuke back after he gets his precious revenge!" I slapped Naruto on the shoulder. My word choice probably wasn't the best but at least I made my point.
"That's not what I'm worried about," he sighed. Everyone looked at him with a questioning look.
"How are we gonna make him come back if Yu-chan isn't here? She's the only reason he'd ever come back." There was loads of truth to that, I can't see Sasuke being okay with being in Konoha without Yuyan, and if he was, I knew he wouldn't be happy.
"I don't know anymore, we should all just try to focus on our mission rather than thinking too much about it Naruto," Kakashi informed.
"Ah you guys have another mission already?" I asked.
"Oh yeah, about that, I want you and Kiyoko to accompany my team and team 8 on our mission."
"Sounds good, but what's the mission?" Kiyoko asked.
Kakashi seemed a little hesitant at first, he scratched the back of his head and stuttered a little before actually coming out with it. "Seeing as we need to get Sasuke back, we found that the best way to do that was by reeling him in."
"So who or what is the bait?"
"..Well that's the thing, it's Itachi," Kakashi said his name quite low. Time seemed to slow down in that moment. It's kind of like those moments when you feel as though everything has finally caught up to you. Like you knew this was coming, but you unconsciously avoided thinking of it to save your self confusion and effort.
Kiyoko and I looked at each other with the "well?" expression, expecting each other to answer.
"I..I'll go!" Kiyoko answered, "I really want to go!" Everyone was surprised by her direct and loud answer.
"I'll go too," I answered, "if anyone can get him, it's us, and it should be us." Kakashi and Kiyoko nodded in agreement, we had all been set on capturing him, even if we knew it was going to be a difficult task.
Strategies were discussed amongst ourselves and finally we decided to all go home once it was really dark and late. Aaaaaand at this current moment I'm accompanying Sakura to her house.
"What do you think of the mission?" she asked.
"I don't know actually, I think I'm kind of excited, but I'm kind of scared too," I answered.
"Hey, what is Itachi to you anyway? Kakashi-sensei seemed more concerned to ask you and Kiyoko-san than the actual mission itself," she did a sarcastic hand gesutre. I'm somewhat surprised she didn't know, but then again, she didn't know us back then when everything was actually good.
"Itachi was..well...him and I use to be the best of friends actually!" I laughed quite childishly, almost the same way Naruto did when talking about Sasuke. "We met as kids in the academy and were put on a team with Kiyoko."
"Really?!" she appeared to be incredibly shocked.
"Well, you can probably say he was my best friend since I probably wasn't his. In the end I didn't seem to really know that much about him otherwise I might have been able to-"
"Stop him?"
"Ya know, you always finish my sentences are you like a mind reader? Is that why your forehead is so big?" I playfully flicked her head.
Instead of getting mad this time, she just laughed, and even though her laugh was cute, I couldn't bring myself to laugh too. The whole thought of the mission had me feeling somewhat distraught. I just stood there and gave the best smile I could at the moment.
Though, it was a sad one.
"Don't worry Hisui, you've got plenty of friends here, you're quite the popular guy, even I wish I was more like you!" she awkwardly fiddled around. "Even if we don't capture him, everything will be okay, and if you really don't feel like you have friends...I'll..I'm still gonna be here for you because you're a precious friend of mine." It was obvious she tried to hide her embarrassment of what she said by looking away and keeping her eyes closed.
I appreciated Sakura at times like these, she wasn't that much of a pushover and even though she wasn't exactly physically capable of being a great enough ninja, she was a good and loyal friend.
Maybe I'm the incapable one.
For the rest of the time it was just silent between us. I felt kind of stupid not answering her after she gave me that big encouragement, but I really just didn't know what to say. It wasn't until we reached her house that I kind of realized I should at least thank her.
Thank you, Sakura. I didn't say it but I appreciate it none the less. I know you want to help but...
"Good night Hisui, I'll see you around once we start the mission!" she smiled and began to walk up the stairs to her house. My thank you never came sadly, but I stood there still.
No matter how hard you try, simply "being there" isn't going to help anyone this time around. Things are getting difficult and I hope you understand that people are changing.
(A/N: the italicized paragraphs are just deep thoughts directed to someone specifically)
I shrugged once again and began to make my way home by jumping through the buildings of Konoha. I stopped at the roof if my apartment complex and sat down just to look at the moon.
The full moon always reminded me of that night with the lanterns and such. A truly unforgettable night that signified the good times and innocence of our youth. We really were clueless back then, who knew we'd end up in this situation?
To this day I regret making that promise. I failed to do any real protecting; I let Shisui and Yuyan die, I let Sasuke and Itachi walk straight into darkness, I bet Kiyoko and Naruto can't even rely on me anymore. Even Kakashi, I practically broke our friendship out of anger and rage at what was going on during that time.
I'm horrible, I really am the worst of all.
Everything use to be so easy back then when I just had to worry about being just Hisui, not being Hisui, a ninja of the Hidden Leaf village. I sat back a little and pondered at the academy days and my fun days in a team and in anbu with the best fucking squad ever.
"Geez things have changed!" I stretched, and stared at the bright white moon. "I'm sure you think so too right, Yuyan?"