-Somewhere unknown-
He opened his eyes, trying to get used to the pain his body was feeling. Outside, somewhere, drops of water could be heard falling, forming the noisy melody of a torrential rain. He moved his right hand, feeling that he was lying on some sheets.
'Where am I?'
Lying on the sheets, motionless, Toru tried to remember the last thing he experienced before passing out. Then, his eyes opened as he remembered....
He touched his head painfully and sat up. He was lying on a bed a moment ago, inside a room with metal walls. The place was quite clean, something that surprised Toru considering the condition the metal walls were in. There was a small bedside table with a lit candle, there was also a small piece of bread and a glass with water.
'What is this...?'
Standing up, he noticed that his clothes were stained with blood, however, the place where all that blood should have come out was gone, he had no wound, still his body felt a lot of pain, as if he had fallen from a great height. As he stood up, he could also see the bread and the glass of water on the small table.
He sighed tiredly and checked his equipment....
Everything was in its place, he still had his daggers, the scrolls where he kept important things regarding his ninja equipment and his clothes were the same except that they were stained with blood. In that instant, he narrowed his eyes, which at the same time glowed a blue color like the sky, with a small red light in the center of each eye.
'Those eyes...'
The last thing he saw before he passed out, were the eyes of the man who attacked him, eyes that were different from the ones he had seen so far. They didn't look like Sharingan or Byakugan, much less Shigan. He didn't know what those eyes were, but that was something he shouldn't care about, as he had other things on his mind, killing Danzo. Still, he could get an idea of who brought him to this unknown place.
'Anyway, I have to find a way out and summon Okaminaru to get the hell out of here.'
Slowly passing through the door of the room, Toru looked from left to right, encountering long corridors whose walls were metallic. There were dozens of doors stretching the length of the hallway. So, observing everything with Advanced Shigan activated in his eyes, he sighed and started running as fast as he could.
Moving at superhuman speed, he quickly ran through all the corridors and dead ends he came across. Every movement caused a slight breeze due to his cloak.
'I still have my weapons with me, that's a strange thing. If someone is kidnapped, the normal thing to do is to take away all the objects they can use as weapons, so they won't have problems later. Then why do I still have my weapons, do you think you can defeat me, are you so confident that you can defeat me? Ha~ even so, I'm not going to fight anyone unless they try to kill me, it's best to find a way out and run away while I have the chance'.
Squinting his eyes, Toru hurried. If he was trying to look for a way out, he should do it as fast as possible, after all, if the man with the mysterious eyes had anything to do with his stay in this place, it was best to get away as fast as possible, after all he wasn't a normal ninja.
After that, a few seconds passed. Toru stopped in a kind of observer, which left in sight the great landscape that this strange city gave him.
Large buildings of different heights rose from the ground, as if they wanted to reach the sky. He saw this with amazement, for this view was very different from that of his home village. Somehow, it reminded him of the buildings in the world of his past life.
'What a strange place. Apparently, I'm still in the Rain Country, so this must be that big city I saw when I came to this country together with Okaminaru. I didn't think I'd ever get to enter this place... Amegakure [Hidden Rain Village]'
Looking at the large buildings, as the rain fell without stopping, the Shigan in his eyes deactivated and he prepared to jump from the top of the building he was in, as it seemed to be the tallest among all the buildings in this village.
"Kuchiyose no-"
"Stop..."
Interrupting Toru's summoning jutsu, a male voice echoed behind his back. He stopped just before he jumped, for he had a great sense of danger. He narrowed his eyes and tried to think of a solution to this sudden problem, after all, that voice....
"Love creates sacrifice and in turn creates hate."
Hearing these words from the mysterious voice, Toru turned around, seeing at last... the appearance of this being.
He had white skin and remarkable orange hair. On his face, he had several piercings placed on his nose, lower lip and ears. But what caught Toru's attention the most and made his eyes widen in shock at the sight of them, are the eyes of this mysterious man, eyes with a strange wave pattern, extending along the eyeballs, with thin grayish purple irises and sclerae.
The man possessed an expressionless face, with a slight frown. He stepped forward, stepping out of the shadows next to the blue-haired woman, a woman whose name was Konan.
The Advanced Shigan did not take long to reactivate, at the same time that he took out his daggers from his cloak. Adopting a defensive position, he decided to analyze the movements of his enemy, but it was strange, they did not attack or anything like that, they just stood there before the voice of the orange-haired man could be heard again.
"All of this... creates pain.... Pain that you have already come to experience."
Taking a few steps forward, approaching Toru, the man looked him in the eye.
"Those who know pain, know true peace.... Even the most ignorant child will grow as they learn what real pain is like. It affects what they say, what they think, that way they become real people."
'What is this guy talking about? He doesn't seem to want to attack me, I should leave as soon as possible if I don't want to get hurt' Toru thought, while looking all around. Then, in a single second... he ran as fast as he could to jump off the building, but five cloaked human figures stopped him.
"So, Asahi Toru, I see with my eyes that you are a real person."
Toru felt confused, as this man kept talking nonsense while looking at him with those strange eyes.
"A real person?" He said looking into his eyes again.
"Just as you heard, Shinigami of Konoha. The reason why you are here, has to do with us, Akatsuki" He opened his arms while looking at the rainy sky with an expressionless face. "Join us and together, we will change this cursed world we live in, and in this new world we will create, there will be peace for you, you can love, you can laugh, there will be no more pain."
He continued to watch and listen to this man, who was saying strange things that somehow Toru could understand. Pain... love... hate... He shook his head and in that instant, he disappeared from everyone's sight, reappearing in front of the man.
"Pain!"
Konan was about to jump to defend Pain, however, he stopped her with a slight wave of his hand.
"Shinra Tensei!"
'Shit!'
Toru again was sent flying by the strange force of gravity. This sent him tumbling off the building, going straight into the ground at an overwhelming speed, however, the five silhouettes appeared, which hit Toru like a volleyball, sending him back to the tallest tower in Amegakure in less than a second.
Landed on his own face, Toru tried to get up, but the five silhouettes stopped him again. Each silhouette looked very similar to the orange-haired man. They had piercings in different places on their faces, they also had the same color hair.
"No more wars, no more suffering. This new world will give you the chance to end the pain you feel..... The pain of losing your loved ones, the pain of being taken away from the people you love..."
Staring at the ground, Toru didn't understand how this man knew so much about him. Besides, he had this strange power that kept him from getting close.
His mind still didn't show him the solution to this problem, however, this situation made him feel more stressed than usual. He needed to get out of that place if he wanted to stay as he had been so far.
"The people I love...the ones I lost.... I don't care about that, the world can stay as it is, I don't care what happens. Wars, death, pain... Do you have any traumas? Fuck you, I'm out of here" He tried to stand up, but the orange-haired people surrounded him, preventing him from escaping.
"Stop... listen to my words... the words of God."
The man approached Toru, giving him a better view of the strange eyes the latter had. At that moment, silence took over the scene, the raindrops gradually ceased and at the end of it, Pain's voice was heard once again, the voice of god.
"Konohagakure no Shinigami, join Akatsuki, we need your strength to fulfill our mission in this world. In return you will receive protection and we will finance the atrocities you were doing in that laboratory. Join Akatsuki, and you will know true peace... Join Akatsuki... and you will rule the world."
Looking into his eyes, Toru was interested in a few words from this self-proclaimed God. And now that he had thought it over, as he looked at the ground helplessly, he realized that he had nothing in this world, he had no home to return to, he had no support from anyone except for Okaminaru and the Okami clan, after that, he was alone in this world until the day he could complete his revenge.
The light in his eyes intensified and he slowly rose from the ground.
"A human who thinks he's god, huh... what a stupid thing to say."
Pain narrowed his eyes at Toru's statement, however, he remained silent, waiting for the answer to the proposal he had brought up earlier. His eyes watched that boy get up from the ground, at that moment... their eyes met. The bright eyes of death slightly illuminated his face and then, he said:
"The word of god, the strength of a god, the power that a true god must have... none of that exists. Gods, if they are to exist, are arrogant good-for-nothings... just like you, just like me" A mischievous smile formed on his mouth, at the same time, a small lock of hair covered one of his bright eyes. "We have a similar way of thinking, besides it doesn't seem like you're going to let me go if I refuse to join Akatsuki. In that case, there's a person I want to kill. If you promise me not to interfere with that, plus keeping the benefits you mentioned above myself, I will consider your proposal. If this allows me to move forward with my plans, I don't see any problem..."
"I see, so you have chosen to be a real person, Asahi Toru..."
Turning around, Pain made his way to some unknown place, along with the five people whose hair color was similar, but before disappearing into the darkness, he looked at him with those strange purple eyes.
"From now on, you belong to Akatsuki, that means you will follow the orders of your god..."
Having said that, Pain disappeared along with the other similar looking ninja mysteries. However, Konan still remained in that place, looking at Toru with an expressionless face... she stood there for a few seconds while the boy watched the sky.
'Ha~ What am I supposed to do now? I got too excited... But they're supposed to fund my experiments now in addition to protecting me from the Root ninjas. Hm, in a way it wasn't such a bad idea, after all I am a criminal. But... those eyes, what exactly are they? I've never seen anything like it and that my Advanced Shigan is rare, even I don't know where this dojutsu came from. So it will be hard for me to know what those eyes are. Well, for the time being... I'll stay here a little longer, the view of the city now that the rain has cleared is good'.
Sitting down on the edge of the building, Toru sighed. For a second he felt like laughing, as it all happened so fast he couldn't believe that he was just now relaxing a bit on top of the tallest building in Amegakure. He was now part of Akatsuki, that place where Itachi belongs....
"Asahi Toru, follow me."
Interrupting his small moment of relaxation, Konan spoke a few feet away from where Toru was. This made him look her in the eyes.
"Where to?"
Konan didn't answer and walked away from the spot. This made Toru frown a little to then run after that woman. Once he caught up with her, he walked behind her without saying a word, after all she didn't seem to want to engage in conversation either. That's how the minutes passed, as the two walked down the long corridors without even saying a word.
Everything was so silent, that Toru could hear the breathing of the woman in front of him, he could hear her heartbeat and feel her scent... It was strange, but peaceful at the same time, still, he could not believe the fact that Konan possessed such an interesting ninjutsu.
'She turned her body into paper, it was strange...'
Looking at Konan's blue hair, Toru smiled slightly, after all it was hard to keep quiet.
"That ninjutsu you use, that's interesting, how did you learn it, how did you get it?"
Curiosity began to itch in his brain, unable to help but blurt out a few questions. But even though he spoke loud and clear, causing his voice to emit in faint echo that spread throughout the hallway, Konan remained silent, ignoring him completely.
Her footsteps, one after another slowly slowed down, until they finally stopped in a room. Konan entered the place and closed the door. This left Toru with an expressionless face as he stared at the metal door. For a second he thought that she brought him to this place to leave him alone, however, she came out of the room a few seconds later with two objects in her hands.
"Here, put on your cloak and hat, too..."
Handing him what appeared to be a black cloak with the red cloud design embroidered on the fabric and a conical straw hat with strips of cloth used to cover the face, Konan looked down the hall, where a small paper butterfly was flying with a small shiny object on its wings. This butterfly landed on Toru's head and dropped the object.
Toru took it in his hands and looked at it, realizing that the object was a silver ring with the word "Kū [Heaven]" on the small oval stone embedded in it. This stone was slate blue in color, shining slightly from the candlelight on the walls.
"That's all" She said, then left the place, leaving Toru alone again.
Toru looked at the clothes Konan had handed him and sighed wearily. "Is this like a work uniform? It looks comfortable, but... where am I supposed to put my scarf?"
Looking at the design of the cape, he shook his head, as this scarf that he always wears tied around his neck is supposed to be something important that he's had since his mother gave it to him, so he couldn't find a way to wear it next to the long-necked cape.
"I'll see what I do next, for the moment... I'll have to look for the exit again. I'm lost..."
Still with the cloak and hat in his hands, Toru looked at the end of the hallway, before starting the search for a way out or finding Pain.
-Days later-
The shadows of the Akatsuki were displayed on the fingers of a large stone statue. Each, with a similar manner of dress, they wore rings of different colors and some of them wore a conical straw hat that covered their faces.
"The Akatsuki are gathered once again..."
They all looked at the man who stepped forward. This man whose eyes were strange and powerful.
"Konan, Itachi, Kisame, Sasori, Deidara, Kakuzu, Hidan, Zetsu and... Toru..."
Stepping out of the shadows, as he removed the hat that hid his face, the large scarf with torn edges danced to the rhythm the wind, at the same time, his eyes shone with the intense light of death.
"I hope we can get along, where I come from... they call me Shinigami."
With a grim smile, Toru looked Itachi in the eyes, who also returned his gaze.
_______
Well, they didn't reach 200 stones as I had planned, but it doesn't matter. I'll leave this chapter here and I'll publish the next one when I reach 300 stones of power. Good luck and Merry Christmas, although it's a little late to say it.