Dusk Till Dawn

34

Pein pulled his mind from the intrusion and his eyes locked onto Kisame's body, which had curled up slightly with the man's hands clutching at his head. Pein sneered at the man and drove a harsh kick into his side,

"And you claimed you were on our side." Another kick was delivered to Kisame's body, this time it connected with the man's shoulder and left a sickening crunch as the bone was dislocated. "What good would hiding that traitor's existence do for us?"

Kisame held his breath as one more kick was delivered and watched as Pein stalked off, obviously to control whatever anger he had just allowed to seep out. Kisame knew that Pein had certain issues with controlling his anger yet didn't know how to be around the man without provoking him. In the end, it had been his partner who had dealt with that and she was dead so there was really little that could be done.

So Kisame chose to do what any member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist would do and stood, clicking the dislocated limb back into its socket painfully. Sure it hurt, but that didn't matter when the opposite possibility was facing the angry Pein with an arm out of action.

Risking a quick glance to the side, Kisame noted Samehada's presence just behind the door, next to the doorway and within reach if he was quick. Of course he would be able to operate without the sword but it enhanced his abilities, and he needed every last thing he could get in this battle.

Kisame wasn't stupid to think he could win against Pein; the man was the controller of the Rinnegan and Kisame was merely one of Seven Swordsmen. Maybe the full Seven could have taken a couple of Pein's bodies on but Kisame had only known one man to kill any of Pein's paths and that had been Jiraiya.

Looking over to where Pein was standing - or this body at least - he felt the thrill and anticipation of a battle well up around him. This was crushed when Pein spoke and, for the first time in years, a pang of fear shuddered through Kisame's body;

"You think you'll be getting out of this room alive?"

Kisame flexed his fingers against the scaled hilt of his sword and refused to answer. It was obvious that Pein wasn't going to let him go and that this would be a fight he had been both craving and dreading.

"I'll make a deal with you; give me an hour and we'll take this outside. It'll give you time to prepare and I need to explain to Madara why you won't be joining me on this trip." The gaze of the Rinnegan fell onto Kisame's eyes and he suppressed a shudder.

"I'm going to have another one of my bodies watch you, so if you try anything like getting out of here, you'll be stopped and terminated without a second thought. At least if you fight me fairly then you stand a chance of going down with honour."

Kisame made a half strangled sound at the back of his throat and then Pein was gone. His eyes fell upon the wardrobe and he pulled out a hanger. There was no way he'd be wearing the Akatsuki's colours if Pein assumed his allegiance to be towards Konoha. He had never truly been able to get along with the cloak anyway and he needed some separation from Pein.

Pein hid the grin on his face as he watched one of the other paths merge into the wall. That one would follow Kisame while he dealt with Madara.

He had always been known to play a dangerous game but this would be a masterpiece if pulled of correctly. Madara had no qualms with Pein's loyalty and if he were to twist things a little, he could hope to pull the fleece over Madara's eyes, so to speak, and have the upper hand at the end.

After all, the only thing Madara had been admittedly afraid of was Itachi. He hated the fact that Itachi had rejected him when he was younger and hated the love he showed towards his brother. Pein knew that Madara's brother had died after giving his eyes up, and the peace treaty that those eyes were to guard from came about too soon. Madara's brother had sacrificed his life for so much and the Uchiha hated that Itachi had played the part of caring brother, even to his death.