"Well. In any case, I'll go back and look for the Kyūbi's Jinchūriki" Deidara took a leap and landed on his feet in the water. "Hey, Tobi, we're out of here!"
"Huh?! So fast?! I want to play with this cute little doggy some more!"
"Your mother is a cute little doggie!" Okaminaru bared his fangs at Tobi, who let out a small frightened squeal at the sight of the enraged beast.
Toru was quick to come down to calm Okaminaru down. If this got out of control, surely Tobi's bones would become toothpicks for Okaminaru. All that will be left is a tragic scene of an idiot who angered the son of one of nature's strongest beasts.
"Did they really only come for this?" Toru was still left in doubt. Deidara would take this coming to Amegakure himself as a pain in the ass, but all the same he came to this village just to ask for explosive clay (C5).
The enhanced clay was fairly easy to make, so Deidara shouldn't have any trouble making his own weapons, yet he still told Toru that he couldn't. It was weird, but it doesn't matter at this point.
Deidara grabbed Tobi by the robe and dragged him away. A second before he walked through the door, he answered Toru's question by rephrasing a sentence he said when he first arrived. A faint smile formed on his mouth.
"What's wrong with visiting a friend?"
Toru's eyes widened slightly. Just then, Deidara summoned a large clay beast with dragon wings that lifted them high into the rainy sky.
"See you another day."
"Bye, bye, Toru-senpai and doggy!"
A vein swelled in Okaminaru's forehead.
"I told you I'm not a stupid dog!"
Toru sighed upon hearing this. He shook his head and looked at Okaminaru. "You may not be a dog, but dogs are the closest taxonomic relatives to wolves."
"Uh?"
Okaminaru didn't understand Toru's words. His wolf brain was left processing for a few seconds what he heard and then he tried to sort it all out inside his mind. The result, a headache best forgotten.
-Elsewhere nearby-
The sun rose over the horizon, but its rays of light failed to reach Amegakure, where rain and darkness is eternal.
A shadow was cast near those two people. It had a cold gaze, hidden by the cold and dark metallic walls. His voice was authoritative and devoid of emotion. His steps were relaxed as he moved in front of them.
"Two down..."
The mysterious man looked at the observer. Down there, in the lake that has been formed by so many years of rain, he saw that little boy who has grown up as a machine of destruction. A slight smile formed on his face, as he thinks he has Toru dancing in the palm of his hand.
Pain and Konan kept silent as they watched him. When they realized, the man had disappeared.
"Call all the remaining members, Konan. They need to be informed of the situation."
"Understood..."
-Hours later in a dark and lonely room-
The remaining Akatsuki showed each other as distorted illusions of reality, in a cylinder-shaped room. There were pedestals with flames illuminating the darkness in the place.
"You're late" Pain looked at Itachi and Kisame, who had just arrived at the meeting.
Responding right away, Kisame smiled, "We were busy with some minor business. Besides... this looks a bit empty where are Hidan and Kakuzu?"
The atmosphere became heavy before the voice of that teenager was heard.
"They're both dead..."
Kisame smiled at that. "Are you serious?" hahaha. So the zombie twins are dead. I would have liked to see them die."
Pain interrupted immediately. "Don't talk about your fallen comrades like that..."
"All right, I won't. Then... Who killed them?" Kisame asked.
Toru looked at him and the light of the Kodō Shigan illuminated his gaze.
"Shinobi of Konoha. It was Hatake Kakashi and Uzumaki Naruto again."
Tobi was apparently surprised by this and looked at Deidara. "Those Konoha guys are strong, aren't they? No wonder they beat up Deidara-senpai."
"Tobi!" Deidara frowned and looked at his teammate. "If I were to keep my patience with you in a bag, it would explode. So, open your mouth again and I'll make you wish you were never born!"
"Haha... Your patience in a bag? Like your bag of exploding clay?" Tobi shook his head. "No wonder you have such a bad temper, senpai."
"Tobi!!!"
Toru interrupts. "Stop it, Deidara. You're giving Tobi-san the reason."
"Tch..."
"Hahahaha."
Pain sighed. He hadn't expected the situation between these two to be so twisted. "Tobi. You always take things too far. You piss off your superiors."
"It's okay, it's okay. I'm really sorry" Tobi raised his hand like a kid in elementary school.
At that moment, Kisame nodded his head and looked at Pain.
"If they called us just to say that the zombie twins died, we'd better get going. We have to catch the missing Jinchūriki."
However, Pain had even more to say. Besides, this was also of interest to Toru, because it's news that will give the Shinobi World a little jolt.
"Wait. I still have business to discuss with all of you."
"What?"
Kisame thought that would be it, but that was far from the truth.
"Looks like they killed someone else."
Konan looked at Toru. She had already been informed of this, but Toru still had a lot of secrets and information kept from her. Even Toru looked at her a bit confused. Though it's also not such a rare thing, surely the Ajisai team would end up informing her of this sooner or later. Still, he kept waiting to hear the name of the person who has died.
"Really, who did they kill this time?"
Pain paused slightly and frowned seriously. "Orochimaru."
Instantly, Toru and Itachi looked at each other. For just by knowing that Orochimaru died, they instantly deduced who the murderer was. They unconsciously thought of that person....
Kisame looked at this reaction and found it amusing. "It's been ten years since Orochimaru left the organization. It's about time someone killed him" He nodded his head as he folded his arms. "Whoever ended that guy's miserable life must be pretty powerful, who was it?"
Before Pain could say anything, Toru opened his mouth and uttered that guy's name.
"Sasuke..."
Deidara sighed upon hearing the name of Itachi's little brother. "Ha~ and I wanted to kill Orochimaru in the name of Sasori-sensei."
No wonder Deidara would think that. Since Sasori and Orochimaru were teammates, their betrayal hit Sasori's artistic pride, that's why, after such a betrayal, the puppeteer decided to finish off the traitor using his own artwork. However, that couldn't happen. His plans were ruined by Haruno Sakura and Chiyo of Suna.
Now Deidara believes it is his duty to finish what Sasori started, but again, the same thing happened. Someone beat him.
"That's impressive. You must be proud of your little brother, Itachi" Kisame looked at Toru after saying that. He felt that if this is to happen, then Sasuke would go after Itachi at the least expected moment.
Having investigated more of this, Zetsu already knew quite a bit about Sasuke's situation. "He is gathering a few subordinates that might be troublesome for us."
Pain continued. "You may already know one of them, Kisame. He's one of the Houzuki brothers from Kirigakure."
"Suigetsu? That name brings back fond memories."
"Juugo of Tenpin is also with them. Itachi and Kisame, you'll have to stay alert. They are surely after you."
Instead of listening to the conversation silently, Toru decided to get in the middle. The curiosity that Sasuke killed Orochimaru and is now gathering companions really itched his brain.
With a lifeless look, glowing from the Kodō Shigan, Toru looked at Pain. "If Sasuke finds out a lot of things about Itachi and Kisame-san, he'll probably end up trying to destroy Akatsuki" There was a name that Toru found interesting as well. He didn't hold back and continued. "Kisame-san. you mentioned a Suigetsu, didn't you, what about him, do you know him?"
Kisame chuckled. "The last time I saw him was ten years ago. He was a nice guy, always smiling. He would dismember his enemies before he counted their heads. People said he was the successor to 'Demon Zabuza'. No doubt a boy prodigy in the art of killing."
"Sounds like an interesting group" Deidara held out his hand and the mouth on his palm smiled. "Hm... the question to all this is... What do we do now?" The mouth on the hand closed and showed a slightly serious mouth expression just like Deidara's expression.
"What do you mean by that?" said Pain.
"I mean... Are we going after Kakashi and the Kyūbi's Jinchūriki or Uchiha Sasuke?"
Itachi remained silent at this talk. However, Tobi felt he had the right to interrupt the senpai.
"Let's forget about it, senpai. We already finished all our missions, didn't we? Let's take a vacation."
Clicking his tongue in disgust, Deidara crossed his arms. "Give me a break. I still owe the Kyūbi kid a punch in the face and Kakashi who popped my arm. Also, because I had to kill Orochimaru, I also have something against Uchiha Sasuke. So, for today, we're leaving. Tobi."
"Uh... I don't want to. I'm tired!"
"Shut up and do as I say. And, first of all. Toru, I may end up spending all the C5, so I hope you have more for me."
Toru frowned. "I told you I wouldn't make any more. You can make it on your own, there's no need for my intervention."
"Come on. Don't be like that. I'll pay you back later for all the favors you've done me. After all you are my friend and I am indebted to you."
Kisame laughs. "Haha. How nice, are you sure you should say that in front of everyone?"
"Uh? Oh... Shut up!"
After that, the first to leave were Deidara and Tobi. Pain looked at Toru and then at Itachi. "That's it for today. Get back to work, we'll get in touch later."
And just like that, the Akatsuki meeting ended. Leaving Toru with that word in his head again.
-About Pain's statue-
Pain looked at his rainy village again, Konan accompanied him over the statue's hand, while Toru touched his head in pain being over the statue's head.
When he left the meeting, a severe headache attacked him and his vision became blurred and dark. This time, he was able to return to normal, but there was something different. His vision was slightly blurrier than usual.
'I'm running out of time...'
-Konohagakure-
The door opens in front of these two sages. Tsunade folds her arms and clicks her tongue in annoyance. "You're late, where the hell were you two!"
Letting out a tired sigh, Jiraiya puts his hand on Tsunade's shoulder as he watches those two teenagers walk in. "Calm down, Tsunade."
Sakura is scared to see her teacher angry, so she ducked her head as she tried to make excuses, but it wasn't working.
"Ero-sennin is here too?"
"Hi, Naruto, how have you been?"
"Well... not so good, I guess."
"I know. I understand."
Well, after a few seconds, Sakura was curious as to why they were called in person by the Hokage and the Mountain Sage. In response to this, Tsunade put on a serious expression and placed her elbows on the desk.
"Well..." She looked at Jiraiya and then at Naruto. "New information came in from the other countries that I would like to share with you."
"Information?"
"What is it about?"
Naruto and Sakura didn't expect what Tsunade said next. Since Jiraiya already knew, he simply remained silent and looked at Naruto seriously.
"Orochimaru is dead. Apparently he was killed by Uchiha Sasuke."
Naruto and Sakura looked at each other unable to believe what they had heard.
"Are you serious!"
Jiraiya saw the confusion on Naruto's face. "It's true. It was confirmed to me by my best sources."
"Fufu..." A smile formed on Naruto's face after hearing this. "Hahaha. I knew that knucklehead wasn't going to stand idly by. So, Sasuke's going back to Konoha, is he?"
In response to what Naruto said, Jiraiya stepped forward and looked at his student. "Looks like that won't be the case..."
"What do you mean by that, Ero-sennin, why isn't Sasuke coming back now that Orochimaru is well and truly dead!"
"Ha~" Jiraiya shook his head. "That boy is obsessed with revenge. He'll try to find Akatsuki so he can kill his older brother, Itachi."
"Damn! That bastard again..."
Naruto looked down at the wooden floor and clenched his fists tightly. He closed his eyes and remembered when, together with Shikamaru and his team, they were able to kill two Akatsuki members, but there was someone else there with them, that person they couldn't kill. That was... "Itachi." This only made anger and impatience grow in Naruto's heart. Just the thought of Sasuke continuing his obsession made his head hurt.
Still, he looked at Tsunade with an idea in mind.
"Hey, grandmother Tsunade. The mission to hunt down the Akatsuki members is still on, isn't it?"
"Yes..."
"I see. Then, to catch Sasuke... We have to go after Akatsuki, who has a better chance of encountering him!" Naruto frowned and clenched his fists tighter. "In simpler words, we have to find Uchiha Itachi!"
To be continued...