Walking through this place was quite relaxing for her. She repeatedly looked at the rain through the windows as she slowly approached the great hall. A small lock of hair got in the way in front of her eye, so she arranged it and finally reached the place she was aiming for.
It appeared to be empty, as usual. Although that didn't seem to be the case.
In a corner, near the observer, that boy was sitting against the wall, hiding his face between his own knees. He was hugging himself as if he were cold and his breathing was quite soft.
Konan approached him and for a few seconds looked at him. She thought Toru would notice her presence right away, but that didn't happen. Toru continued in that same position even though Konan's footsteps were heard near him.
This seemed strange to her. So she crouched down and looked at Toru's face. For a second, her eyes widened somewhat in surprise at what she was seeing. Toru was sleeping, with a somewhat depressed expression on his face and on his cheeks were tears that had already dried up.
She sighed and looked through the large viewer. She remembered herself all those years ago when she was all alone. She was increasingly falling into the darkness of loneliness and the pain of war, the pain of having lost the people she loved. She saw herself reflected in Toru, she saw that pain in those tears that have already dried.
She did not know why suddenly this boy has shown this new side of himself, but surely it was due to Itachi's visit.
"If you sleep like this, you'll have back pain tomorrow..."
Konan, still bending down to look at this boy, continued to watch him for a few seconds. All she knew about this boy was purely what everyone knew. It's hard to know what Toru thinks, what hurts him and what makes him happy, but still....
"Ha~" She shook her head and took Toru in her arms. 'It's pretty light' she thought as she walked out of the great hall.
Toru's body was quite big for her, but surprisingly this boy was quite light. Toru is only a little taller than Konan by about two centimeters, so she thought he had grown quite a bit since he came to Akatsuki.
'I remember...' Konan arrived at Toru's room. 'He was smaller when he arrived. hm?'
When Konan wanted to put Toru down on the bed, he gently clung to her and a couple of tears fell down his cheeks.
"Forgive me..."
Konan closed her eyes as she heard Toru say that. She laid him down on the bed and covered him with the blanket. Then, she created a paper chair, sat there and took the boy's hand.
She somehow always wished her parents did the same thing when she was a child, but they are gone now. She was left alone and saw that same feeling in Toru.
'You're weird, Asahi Toru...'
Everyone says the same thing when they see Toru. He's weird, he's lonely and somehow he's crazier than anyone even if he doesn't show it. And it was this very thing that aroused some strange interest in Konan.
"Hm..." Toru's hand was warm enough for her, but a bit rough from all the training this boy had to go through. "Looks like this is going to be a long night..."
***
That night, Toru had a dream.
He saw himself, in a place completely white and pure. There was blood pouring from his chest and forehead, but somehow he felt no pain at all.
In the distance, there was a certain silhouette, much like that of a child. That silhouette seemed to look at everything with a smile, while next to it, more strange shadows appeared.
Toru's eyes looked at the shadows, recognizing them instantly. There were Hidan, Kakuzu and Sasori, but somehow there were also Itachi and Deidara.
"Okaa-sama..."
The shadow closest to Toru was the most visible. It was Toru's mother.
She didn't say anything, just looked at her son with a sad smile. He tried to catch up with her, but she was getting farther and farther away the faster her steps became.
***
When the night ended and the sun tried to break through the clouds of the village, Toru opened his eyes.
'... how did I get here?'
He looked around trying to find the answer. He remembered he was in the great hall, but suddenly he appeared here.
He looked up at the metal ceiling and stretched out his hand.
'Ha~' He closed his eyes again and thought. 'That dream...' but someone interrupted him.
"You woke up already?"
"... Konan-san...? How long have you been there?" Seeing Konan in the corner of the room with his arms crossed, Toru more or less could deduce the how he came to this room.
"Hm... maybe about 20 minutes..."
She didn't want to say, because the truth was that she stood beside Toru all night, holding this strange boy's trembling hand. His kindness and goodness won her over last night, and that was why she stayed by his side. Though it was certainly hard for her to admit it, so she'd better hide it. That way it would be as if nothing had happened.
"I see... I..."
He looked at Konan with slightly sleepy eyes, as if he was saying, "I need to be alone." This was something Konan understood and immediately left the room in complete silence.
Once he was alone, he let out a long sigh as he touched his head in pain. His vision had dimmed 0.5% more than the day before, that meant that the blindness is slowly accelerating its process.
But more than he thought about that, memories of Itachi flashed through his mind.
'Danzo...' The light of death illuminated his eyes. He clenched the sheets tightly then got up from the bed.
He looked at the door silently as he remembered why he was here and then stepped out.
"While I wait for the information to arrive, I need to get stronger..."
-Somewhere far away-
"Wow. We sure are pretty far away, aren't we?" Tobi lifted his hat as they continued to fly over the giant dragon. "So, who are we going for first, the Kyūbi boy or Uchiha Sasuke?"
Deidara smiled looking down as he focused his visor. "There's the question, who are we going for first?"
-Somewhere nearby-
Like white shadows moving at high speed, they all positioned themselves on the roof of an old abandoned house.
"Okay, here's the plan," Kakashi said. "We'll search an area of 5 kilometers. If we don't find anything, then we'll expand the search area to 5 more kilometers. And so on until we find them."
However, this didn't seem right to Sakura. "5 kilometers? Our communicators don't reach that far. We'll be in danger if we can't communicate. We should go in teams of two at least and find the enem-"
"Sakura, calm down" Yamato interrupted. "Senpai knows what he's doing" After that, everyone looked at Kakashi, who put his hand on the ground, on which a black ink seal was formed, from which a small pack of ninja dogs came out.
Almost immediately, one of the dogs spoke. That was Pakkun. "Our ears are better than your strange artifacts. Besides, our sense of smell will be able to detect enemies at a far distance" Then Kakashi played along.
"Here's the plan for our squad. Each will be accompanied by two ninja dogs except for Naruto."
"Huh? Why?"
"Naruto, you're a Jinchūriki. That means Akatsuki will be after you at all times. That's why you'll go along with Yamato, Ino and Hinata."
"Don't overexert yourself, Naruto." Ino said.
On the other hand, Hinata just nodded her head with a serious expression on her face, remembering that being together with Naruto was arranged by Yamato himself. If Akatsuki is after Naruto and considering the suspicion that Toru is in Akatsuki, then at any moment Toru could attack Naruto to take him to the leader of the organization.
That's why the Yamato team goes together with Naruto. In addition to having Hinata's abilities with him.
"Ah, right. Where is she, Yamato?"
"Hm..." Yamato smiled, which seemed strange to everyone, including Shino and Kiba. "She's already on the move. Right now she's analyzing the enemy camp, she's setting traps, basically."
"I see..."
Hinata and Ino looked at each other, who was this woman they were talking so much about? So far they hadn't seen her, they had only heard of her. The only ones who know about her are Kakashi, Yamato, Tsunade and Jiraiya.
So all this secrecy was eating away at their minds.
"In any case, remember: Sasuke's scent and scent is paramount. Akatsuki is next. Whatever happens, our mission is to find the scent, identify it and report" Kakashi raised his hand high. "Then... spread out!"
***
In a nearby, dark place among the trees of the forest. Wearing the military uniform of Konoha, that large-breasted, albino-haired woman smiled. She licked her index finger and her crimson eyes looked at the leaves of the trees.
"That's it, my little sisters. Go, scan the area and tell me where Asahi Toru is."
Small spiders crawled out of her clothes, which began to scatter through the trees until they almost disappeared from the woman's sight.
"Good, everything is done. Now all that's left is to wait until he sends me the signal. Ha~... I want to see him, I haven't seen him since yesterday..."
This woman's crimson eyes glowed softly in the darkness, like a spider waiting for its prey.
It's been a long, long time since she saw the love of her life, so she's starting to feel anxious. Still, she was able to resist it, because now she is on this mission. After all, she is now a slave to Konoha.
She is... Miroku, the woman who almost killed the Yamato team three years ago.
***
"I finally found them, Tobi."
"Huh? Who? Who? Who?"
"Fufufu. Just follow me."
Deidara's visor has detected something that caught his attention a lot. This was quite gratifying, because he didn't expect to find this guy first, but since he's managed to find him, he's not going to let this opportunity pass him by.
With that in mind, Deidara overrode the clay dragon's summoning and together with Tobi, they descended to hide among the trees.
***
After gathering his team, Sasuke had now been left alone as, at the moment, his team is searching for clues about Itachi. However, while he was relaxed searching, he found a presence, a bloodlust touching the back of his neck.
He sighed heavily and looked back to where the trees stood.
"I know there's someone there... Show yourself..."
The leaves of the trees rang out and two Akatsuki members showed themselves.
-Amegakure-
She watched her boss work with excited and proud eyes. Despite only being a woman who was accepted for being an experiment, she is grateful to this young man. However, he seemed to be quite pensive. He was manipulating the chemistry instruments with a more serious expression than usual, though he was still quite effective at doing his job.
While working with the chemicals, Toru was remembering everything he saw about Itachi at the moment.
Itachi not only showed him his life, but his thoughts and, in short, his true self. Still, he kept searching deep into those memories, looking for more and more answers to his questions. And the more he searched, the more he found. The only bad thing was that there wasn't much information on Madara, aka Tobi. Itachi didn't seem to know much about it.
That aside, Danzo was strictly involved in the massacre of the Asahi and the Uchiha, so this only added to the hatred Toru held in his heart. Since Itachi was acting as a double agent, then this only boiled down to one thing that Toru was already sure of long before all this. Itachi was used as a tool by the higher ups. And he, in his desire to have peace in the world, was forced to accept all the orders given to him.
"Ha... my head hurts..." Toru shook his head slightly. 'And my eyes keep deteriorating. I can barely make out words more than two meters away anymore' A second later, he put down the chemistry instruments on the table and looked at the woman. "Akiko-san, I'm taking over the lab from you for the day. Keep up the good work" he said as he walked out of the place.
Akiko stood quietly, looking at the door with a surprised expression.
"Since when is Kami-sama so nice?" That was what struck her as odd.
***
"...I was about five hours in the lab. Oh... and it's raining again" Somehow, Toru felt too uncomfortable. He couldn't sit still for more than five minutes, as he felt he had to do something.
He walked in the rain, not even caring if his clothes got soaked.
"So here you were..."
"Uh?"
Toru looked up, where Konan, with her magnificent angel wings and almost expressionless face, was watching him silently.
"You disappeared out of nowhere, so I thought I'd look for you. There's information I want to give you."
"Information... what's it about?"
"Let's go back to the great hall first."
Toru watched as Konan flew slowly as if waiting for him. He only sighed in response and shook his head. Then, he took a small jump that took him further up the buildings, where one of the air platforms was formed.
In front of him, like invisible gusts, the platforms began to form as he used them to walk next to Konan, who at that moment was using his paper wings.
-In a forest near the Youth Hostel.
"Even if you're on your last legs, you're still acting so arrogant" With heavy breathing, Deidara clenched his fist as he smiled wryly. He looked at Sasuke in front of him, badly injured, out of chakra and about to faint, but still he kept that calm expression, as if nothing was happening. "Hehehe... I won... this is my victory. Even if I can't move, my exploding clay-!" He let out a sigh. "Isn't it funny to you? This time you're going to die, and it will be my art that kills you!"
But despite this, Sasuke remained calm, silent, his serene expression undisturbed by fear or pain.
Deidara could only laugh at this. He looked up at the sky as if that laughter had sucked the oxygen out of him and then... "THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT DISGUSTS ME! THEY'RE BOTH EQUAL!!!" He scowled and gritted his teeth. "Stop acting like nothing surprises you! And those eyes... Those ridiculous unflappable eyes make me sick! It's like they're denying my art! Unforgivable!!! Those eyes don't even show a shred of appreciation for my art! I can't forgive those eyes for denying it!"
Even if Deidara's screams were heard echoing in the forest, even if his breathing became more labored after that, to Sasuke it was nothing. He looked at him with that face so calm, so unperturbed....
And yet, Sasuke said, "That doesn't matter to me in the least. Get to the point and tell me where Itachi is."
"¡¿?!" Deidara's eyes widened in disbelief. Sasuke's Sharingan was voluntarily deactivated. All this, while looking at him with that unperturbed face. "You've gone too far by deactivating your Sharingan, what do you take me for?"
Deidara ripped off his shirt and on his chest, right in the area of his heart, was a black ink seal that appeared to be a tattoo. It had threads embedded in the skin, as if it was trying to enclose something inside his chest.
With the hand he had lost to Kakashi, he brought it close to his chest and the mouth began to bite and eat the threads. In his remaining hand, he held a large clay ball the size of a soccer.
Scratch! The mouth on his hand bit into the thread and Deidara pulled hard on it. Then, a grotesque mouth appeared on the upper left area of his chest, which let out its tongue as if it was laughing with happiness.
With that ready, he stuck the clay ball into the mouth of his chest and looked at Sasuke. "This is my masterpiece, now I'm going to self-destruct! With my death, I will become a masterpiece! This unparalleled explosion will leave an unparalleled mark on this land and then... MY ART WILL BE RECOGNIZED LIKE NEVER BEFORE!" Deidara smiled softly. 'Sorry, Tobi' and stood up. "All this time you were equally going to die and, even if you try to run away, it will be impossible! The explosion has a range of 10 kilometers! Now! Fear! Marvel! Break away! Scream! BECAUSE TRUE ART!!!" He opened his arms to the world and closed his eyes... 'By this act, I prove you right. True art is found in death. Haha... it was fun being your friend, going on missions together with Sasori-sensei... it was a lot of fun... it was... a new art form... Goodbye... Asahi Toru...' Then, he smiled for the last time and... "IT'S AN EXPLOSION!!!"
Sasuke's eyes widened in disbelief. The explosion quickly spread throughout the forest, causing a great roar that shook everything. A great light spread up to the sky, for it is a masterpiece that is concrete with death.
This was... Deidara's last masterpiece.
-Amegakure-
"...Pain-san? What's wrong? Why did Konan bring me with you?"
Toru looked at Pain and Konan, who stood in front of him with expressionless faces.
"Even though I made the call, you didn't show up for the meeting. why?"
"Meeting...?" Toru now remembered. He was so focused on his work and memories of Itachi, that his brain simply blocked any communication with the outside world. "Maybe I didn't notice."
"It doesn't matter anymore," Pain said. "What was mentioned in the meeting isn't that important except for one thing" He folded his arms. "A few minutes ago, Deidara's death was confirmed. It seems he died in an explosion in the middle of a battle against Uchiha Sasuke. Supposedly the explosion was so powerful that there is nothing left of his body."
...
...
...
It was like a bucket of cold water on the head. Toru looked down at the ground, his eyes wide open. Slowly the light of the Kodō Shigan activated and then....
"Where are you going?" Konan said as he saw Toru running away at an overwhelming speed.
***
He didn't understand why he was running. His body simply twitched as he felt a wrenching pain in his chest. It was that same feeling again. During Kyoko's death, during the escape from his home village, during the death of Sasori, Kakuzu and Hidan. It was something that hurt a lot even though it didn't cause any harm to his body.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" biting her finger, letting the blood out, she quickly climbed onto Okaminaru's back.
"Toru-dono?"
'What am I doing' The vague memory of a lonely boy surrounded by books came to his mind. "Okaminaru, follow Deidara's scent" He squeezed Okaminaru's fur tightly. 'What am I doing' He asked himself over and over again.
With nothing to say, Okaminaru obeyed, however... "Huh? I can't move."
This made Toru look back to where Pain was holding up his hand, looking at him with cold eyes.
It was then that Toru's gaze, just like Pain's, darkened and turned cold. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" a clone of Toru appeared and began to leap into the air at top speed as he moved farther and farther away.
The clone quickly disappeared and left Toru and Okaminaru floating in the air.
[What's wrong with visiting a friend?] Deidara's voice echoed in his head.
'Friend...'
To be continued...