Everyone, I need to apologize for keeping you waiting for so long. This is not like me to have done so. I have no excuses for not writing. Please enjoy. I made this just for you guys. Thank you for commenting and for reading, it keeps me in high spirits when I feel like I sit under a rain cloud.
Deidara's POV:
Taki had left a few days ago, and she should be coming back any time now. All of the Akatsuki were home.
We tried to figure out what was making her so sad all of the time. "Do you think it is because she thinks that her beloved doesn't love her back?" Konan thought aloud.
"Mm.. no, I don't think so, un." I quietly answered. Sasori looked at the clock. "Hey, guys.. Taki should have been back a few hours ago." Everyone panicked.
Taki was never late, not even by a few minutes. "What could have happened?" Kisame asked frantically. I suddenly remembered something.
I pulled out Kazumi's diary out of my pocket. I can't believe I forgot it all this time. Hidan looked at it. "Hey, what's that?"
I opened it. "It's her uncle's diary, hm.." I mused. I skimmed the pages, when I finally found something interesting. I read the section aloud.
"Hey, Taki. I know that at some point, you'll have read my diary. I'm sorry, but I have sealed this part from you. Give it to your caretaker. They need to insert their chakra into this page. Your chakra will not open it. "
I looked up at everybody with a blank stare. "Well, do as he says." Sasori commanded. I inserted my chakra into the page, and it went blank. Suddenly, it was filled with words.
I read it aloud to everyone. "What I tell you is very serious. It's about Taki." Everyone went silent, and leaned in.
"I am very scared for Taki. Lately she has been asking questions, such as 'what do you think is true happiness?', and 'how does it feel to be happy?'. She stays in her room by herself when she can, and is very unsocial. Every month, she decreases the amount of food she eats. It is also hard for her to sleep, and I find her crying a lot. I have read up on why this could be happening to her, and what I found was very frightening. The book said that in the Harumi clan, every five generations there is a girl born with the ability to turn into a dragon. However, it comes with a deadly price: the girl suffers from a great depression, which can often lead to suicide."
Everyone gasped. "To prevent this, you must get her to sing. She has been unable to sing, until now. Singing will relieve her of her sadness.The moment she sings, the power of the dragon will be unlocked. Please, help her to sing, and don't let her die. Please."
I looked up, wide-eyed. "We need to find her, hm. NOW." We all jumped up, and decided to look for Taki. "Wait!" Kakuzu yelled. Everyone looked at him.
"I saw her write in a small little book once before. Maybe that will give us a hint as to where she could be." Hidan made a witty comment. "It's called a diary, Kakuzu."
"A diary? So that's what it's called. Maybe if I had known that, I wouldn't have read yours." "WHAT?! YOU READ MINE?! WHY YOU-" Konan cut in. "Shut up!" Kakuzu led the way, Hidan muttering curses under his breath.
They got to her room, and Kakuzu pulled the book from her night drawer. He flipped through the pages.
"I feel so useless. So useless that I felt the need to cut myself on the arm with a knife. It hurt, but it was somehow calming, knowing I had finally punished myself correctly."
Kakuzu was silent for a minute. "She told us.. that was an accident." Tobi whimpered. "Taki-chan." He whispered.
"I also remember the day I had to come out of the bathroom only with a towel over myself, Sasori watching." "WHAT." Konan turned angrily at Sasori. He waved his hands over his face, shaking his head. I chuckled. "Didn't think a puppet could be perverted, un."
"Shut up, brat." Kakuzu cleared his throat. "I was forced to reveal my shoulders to him. I didn't want anyone to see what I had done to myself a while back, as my punishment."
"What? That was.. you.. who made those scars on your shoulders?" Sasori sadly exclaimed, rubbing his head from a previous hit from Konan.
"I always have loved nature. Going into the forest always calms me down when I feel sad. However, I don't think it will calm me enough this time.."
We all knew what to do. We ran outside, to look for her in the forest. We split off into pairs to look for her. Tobi kept calling her name, sounding like he would cry at any moment.
"Taki-chan! Taki-chan! Please, Taki-chan! Don't leave me!" I put a hand on Tobi's shoulder. "We'll find her, Tobi. I promise, un." We continued to look for her. An hour passed, and we still couldn't find her.
Just when Tobi and I were about to give up, we heard something. We stopped, and listened. It was the sound of crying. We knew it was Taki, because she had cried so many times before.
By now, her cry would be recognized in an instant. We followed her voice, and hid behind some trees. We saw her, with a kunai aimed at her own throat. She was kneeling down, and crying hard.
We silently panicked. Tobi ran forward. I tried to stop him, but something inside of me told me not to. "Taki!" Taki's head snapped up to look at Tobi. She jumped up, away from him, keeping the kunai at her neck.
"Taki, please don't do this." Taki backed away, still crying. "I'm sorry.." She cried. She lifted the kunai with both hands, a tear slipped from my eye.
Tobi took a step towards her. "I.. have something to tell you." Her hands trembled, but still gripped the kunai. She closed her eyes, and pushed the knife towards her throat.
"I-I love you!" Taki's hands swerved. The kunai did not land on her throat, but was pushed into her stomach. She screamed.
I ran out of my hiding place to her. Gravity pulled Taki to the ground. Tobi and I fell to our knees beside her. She turned her head to Tobi.
Tears trickled down the sides of her cheeks. "Y-you do?" Her breathing was uneven, her voice raspy. She coughed up blood. Tobi nodded, I knew he was crying. I was, too. "I.." Taki started.
"... I do, too." She passed out. I looked at the kunai lodged in her stomach, and panicked. There was an increasing amount of blood on her shirt. Soon, all of the Akatsuki arrived.
"I heard screaming!" Konan yelled. They all looked down at Taki. "Did she.." Hidan asked, his voice wavering. I shook my head, tears welling up in my eyes.
"She attempted to, but missed her throat, and hit her stomach." Tears fell from my eyes.
"I never knew.. that she was in so much pain." Sasori sounded like he would cry at any moment. But puppets don't cry.
Tobi tipped his head back, and bawled. "How.. could I let this happen?" He whispered, and I thought I heard his voice get lower.
He rested his head on Taki's. Everyone looked at the sad sight before us, and started to weep. Only love could save her.
A minute later, Taki woke up, and saw us crying. "Please, don't cry. My absence would have been better for all of us, anyway." Tobi shook his head.
"No, I would have missed you." His voice got deep and husky. We all looked at him. What...? He clutched his mask, his hand shaking a little.
My eyes widened. Would he..?
Tobi slid his mask from his face, and tossed it to the side. Time seemed to slow down as the mask hit the soft ground with a thump, the noise it made echoing in my head.
I gaped at how.. good-looking Tobi was. He appeared to have been older and more mature than he seemed.
I took notice to the scars on the right side of his face, and began to wonder what kind of life he had before joining the Akatsuki. Was he abused? Burned? What kind of tragedy could have happened to mess up his face that bad?
Taki's eyes shined, glittered with unshed tears. She gently put a hand over the right side of his face, cupping it.
"I," she tried to say, only making herself burst into fits of coughing, blood trickling down the side of her mouth.
Tobi sniffed a few times, bringing a fist to his mouth to keep himself from crying any further.
"I love you.." Taki managed to whisper. A tear unconsciously escaped her eye as she strained to look into his eyes.
"..Obito Uchiha."
Wait, what? Obito? I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but it suddenly hit me that Tobi was not his real name. It never was.
Obito removed his fist from his mouth. "Please, sing away all of your troubles, all of your sadness. Please."
Taki slowly shook her head. "I can't sing," she rasped. "I'm unable to. I always wished I could, but-" The sad look in Obito's eyes cut her off.
"I.. I will try."
She lifted her head, but winced. She looked down at the kunai stuck in her stomach.
Taki pulled it out, and gave a long, loud piercing cry expressing the extreme pain she was feeling. A flock of birds flew away from the scene.
Obito hugged her close to him, crying. She sat up. "It hurts!" She yelled out. We didn't know what to do. There were no medical ninja anywhere nearby, and even if we tried to reach one... Taki wouldn't make it.
Taki's cries of agony stopped abruptly. She stopped shaking, and her eyes stared straight into the sky. Obito panicked.
We ran over to them, and knelt by her side. "No, no, no." I whispered to myself. Obito leaned down to her chest, and put his ear up to where her heart would be. He listened.
Bump. Buh... bump. Buh....... bump... Buh............ bump.
Obito's eyes widened. He yanked his head away from her chest, and allowed his emotions to overcome him.
"Huh... huh... huh.." He breathed out, trying to contain himself. Each 'huh' that came out of his mouth became shakier and more prolonged.
I felt hot tears rising to my own eyes, and my vision clouded over. Sasori danna, kneeling down next to me, grabbed my hand and squeezed it.
Kakuzu stared at the body laying before us. "I've.. seen so many die. And not a single one of them have I felt like.. like this." He clutched his chest where his heart would be.
Pein said nothing. His fist was clenched. Hidan's face displayed emotions filled with both anger and sadness.
"Why!" He yelled out. He punched the ground, causing everyone's stares to avert to him. "Why couldn't we foresee this?! None of us could see that.. that she was in so much pain! And now.. and now.." He covered his face with his hands.
"We all fell for her lie." Itachi said quietly.
We heard a chuckle behind us that grew louder and louder until it became a hysterical laugh of pure amusement. We turned.
Three men with purple and blue clothing stood there, the man in the middle was laughing. "What are you laughing for?!" Obito yelled, outraged.
The man smirked. "Y'know." He started, dodging the kunai that Konan threw at him.
"It's really quite interesting. I almost can't believe my eyes." His eyes grazed over the lot of us.
"The Akatsuki, my greatest rival organization to rule the shinobi world... Is standing right before me. And- not only that- but do I see them crying over someone? Why, that's a rare sight to behold, don't you think?"
"I am Yutaka, the leader of the Red Grass organization. We have already taken Kazumi Harigae's body for his power. Now we need her's. We will not hesitate to kill you if you object. Hand her over."
Obito hugged Taki close to him. "No!" He yelled back with all his might. "Never!"
"I see. Then we'll have to take her!" Yutaka yelled, showing more and more of his psychopathic side with each passing second. "Formation B!" He screamed with a mix of anger and joy on his face.
The men behind him ran forward, straight to us.
All of us acted at once. I grabbed for my clay, molding it into a beautiful piece of art to make a fleeting explosion. Sasori Danna's fingers twitched to get his puppets moving.
Itachi activated his Sharingan while Kisame reached for Samehada. Zetsu sunk into the ground while multiplying his white side.
Hidan grabbed for his scythe and Kakuzu shot out his arms. Konan's paper began to escape her body, shooting straight forward. Pein put forth his hand, shouting "Shinra Tensei!", and Obito protected Taki's fragile body, even though he knew that it would never move again.