Enigma - An Uchiha Itachi Fanfic

7 - Weakness

Asumi pov:

"Tch, this whole mess is because of that b****** Orochimaru, hmm," muttered Deidara san, kicking away one of the many scrolls scattered around us. Our mission to gather some underlings to help with the Akatsuki's dirty work had been in vain thanks to Orochimaru who had got here first.

He had been a part of the Akatsuki before, up until he decided to pursue personal goals and even created Otogakure out of skilled ninja who, according to him, wished to find purpose in their lives. It was well known to most though that it was only so he could collect ninja with different skills and study and experiment on the unique techniques they possessed. Well, at the end of the day, those ninja were serving Orochimaru out of their own free will and there was nothing that could be done to change that for now.

"We should report this to Leader sama," I said. "There's no sense in lingering here and wasting time when we're not going to get anything out of it."

"That is the best course of action for now," agreed Sasori san in his gruff voice. "Scout the area for anything useful. We will regroup in one hour."

We dispersed and began our search but found nothing useful by the end of the hour. While I was unaffected by the wasted effort, the same could not be said about Deidara san and Sasori san. They were irritated, the latter more than the former, and had grumbled about Orochimaru for a while after we had left the now abandoned village. We had reported in with Pain san and he too was not happy about Orochimaru's interference in Akatsuki matters even after he had left the organization. Well, rather than interference, it could be called as a hindrance.

It was twilight by the time we parted ways, with Deidara san and Sasori san leaving on another mission while I was asked to remain in an isolated village to gather Intel on a rare Kekkei Genkai that Pain san wished to use to the Akatsuki's advantage. He planned to use manipulation, controlling them without them knowing that they were being controlled. It was not known to me if he planned to use a genjutsu or had any other trick up his sleeve, for I knew only what I had read in the Konoha library about the Rinnegan. It had been hundreds of years since anyone possessed the Rinnegan after all, so there was only so much we knew of its true power.

The week was uneventful, with just reporting certain details to Pain san every now and then. When he had enough information, he had me leave the village and join up with Hidan san and Kakuzu san for another bounty mission. As usual, Hidan san was overly enthusiastic about completing a mission with me even though there was no reason for him to be - the only thing I actually did on missions was make a grand entrance for us by punching the ground and raising some dust that served as both a camouflage for us and enough of a blindness for the enemy. Occasionally, I dealt an incapacitating blow to the limb to prevent the bounty from escaping.

Hidan san and Kakuzu san did all the work besides that.

It occurred to me that perhaps Hidan san had a crush on me, for whatever reason, and that was not a good thing. And he was probably the last member I should have that much of attention from. The possibility of my assumption being true was uncomfortable. Well, maybe I was being only unnecessarily paranoid, or full of myself, but I wanted to make sure somehow that I was only being silly in this matter.

"What are ya looking at me like that for, shrimp?" he asked, having noticed my staring.

"I'm curious, Hidan san," I mumbled, only narrowing my eyes slightly as I continued to stare at him.

"About what?"

"Why do you like hanging out with me? You don't seem to like hanging out with any other member, not even you own two man team partner," I said.

"That's because I &%*# like you. Isn't that obvious?" came the curt answer.

His words made me twitch. A deep inhale composed me to ask in an even tone, "I hope that it's only platonic. If it's anything else, I'll have to-why are you looking at me like that, Hidan san?"