The Trouble With Itachi [On Hold]

3; New Orders [revised]

Chapter Three – New Orders

 

We made it back to the Akatsuki hideout, Itachi and I. He had healed me while I slept, so that after I woke we could make the long journey back.

I never saw that Itachi reported back to Leader after we came back. We resumed training as usual and it seemed the mission was long forgotten for a few months. A part of me still thinks that Leader visited us while I slept. I remember Itachi saying that my injuries had been proof. Surely then Leader would have to come and see them for himself?

I didn’t ask, not wanting Itachi to think I was being pushy. But the secrecy surrounding Leader still tugged at my curiosity.

I had been in Akatsuki for five and half years now. Yet I had never seen our Leader, or even heard him. Although the only thing I knew for sure was that he was male. From the beginning I was told to refer to him only as ‘Leader’, and everyone else did the same. But I knew the older members of the organization knew who he was; such as Uchiha Itachi. Our orders had to coming from someone.

Then suddenly one day Itachi was summoned to see Leader. Itachi told me himself, and left me and the rest of Akatsuki at the hideout. Leader was apparently based elsewhere. I found it strange that he never came to the hideout even though he had an office here. I’m sure he used it at least once. That was another thing. We were absolutely forbidden to enter Leader’s office. We all knew which one it was; it was a large mahogany door, a forbidden curse seal of some sort was carved into the wood. And I had never seen anyone enter or leave that office.

So Itachi left early one morning for an undisclosed location to meet with Leader and I was paired with Kisame until his return.

To be honest I was a little lonely with Itachi gone. We had been with each other almost every day since the first day we met.

But Kisame and I got along just fine. The other members of Akatsuki however, were a different story.

I only saw Tobi and Zetsu either late at night or early in the morning. They were hardly ever around otherwise so we never really spoke. The most I ever said to Tobi was- ‘The library needs organizing’. I had been in there from the night before reading up on a high level jutsu I was learning and I was sick of turning the whole library upside down to find one book. To my comment Tobi had shrugged and said- ‘Knowledge is good. Tobi is a good boy!’ I didn’t know how to reply so I left it at that. Tobi confused me.

As for Zetsu, we merely exchanged greetings. I found it a little unsettling how he merged in and out of walls all the time. And he always had this curious look on his face as if to say he knew something about me that I didn’t.

Deidara and Hidan were really the only other regular inhabitants. Deidara loved cooking for us and we were grateful for it, however he also loved causing mischief. For example he would ‘pretend’ to give you something, maybe an apple, and as soon as you reached for it the mouth in his hand would open up and swallow it. He found it hilarious. Suffice to say no one else did. But we put up with him for the sake of the food.

He was paired with Hidan, and I don’t know how they put up with each other. Hidan used to be partnered with a former Akatsuki member called Kakuzu, but he went MIA so he was now with Deidara. Hidan had a rather grating personality that I thought bordered on the psychotic. He was effectively immortal as he had extra-ordinary regeneration abilities and so he took crazy risks with his life, considering little or no strategy, something that most of us would never do.