His Gift to Her (Mary Sue Series)

Chapter 42

"Kill it!" Tobi screamed excitedly on the sidelines. Zetsu and Kabuto watched as Qui fought the resurrected S-rank ninja, her feet light and quick in response to the enemy. "Kill it, Qui-chan! IT'S COMING!" 

Qui dodged, studying the enemy's moves as she dodged a familiar lunge. 

Even the dead can bring back old habits of their past lives, Qui thought, slapping a paper bomb on the ninja's head. "Katsu." 

Unfortunately, the paper bomb wasn't enough to end the already-dead ninja's life. As Kabuto had warned her, the ninja's upper body pieced itself back together without a problem and rushed at her, intent on fighting her again. 

It's not long for Qui to smack another paper bomb on his back, and for Kabuto to send a second opponent after her. This training is designed to teach her how to study opponents quickly and developing ways to counter repetitive attacks. 

It wasn't overly complicated, but it had to be practiced intensely. Qui also learned how to save energy and to move efficiently. For example, rather than turning her body into a full run to evade a long-range attack, she could move diagonally and reach her opponent quicker.

Qui noticed heavy repetition in all of their movements. A favored leg swung several times toward her sides, a sharp turn of the same wrist, an unusual, deadly flick of the hand. All these were moves these dead people used because they knew the result was in their favor. 

Qui picked up the pace and slapped another paper bomb on the new target, jumping forward to meet a third opponent. She evaded the hook swing from the woman by stepping lightly onto the ground and pushing even closer. Qui stuck the bomb on her abdomen and swung her left leg at the woman's side to kick her away. 

The bomb promptly exploded and Qui came out victorious, but Qui's training was far from over. 

Meanwhile, Sasuke and his new team of "friends" had apparently joined the Akatsuki. Instead of gathering at the hideout where Qui was training, Madara (Tobi called himself "Madara" when he was dead serious) sent Sasuke over to capture the eight-tails.

Sasuke had gathered a team consisting of two other boys and one girl with healing properties. They all shared a common ground: Orochimaru. After Sasuke had killed the Sanin, he gathered the three people and prepared his final battle against Itachi, intent on killing him. 

After the duel between the two Uchiha brothers, Madara took ahold of Sasuke and spent quite a bit of time to convince him to join the Akatsuki and destroy Konoha. Although it wasn't easy, Madara finally got Sasuke and his team to join the Akatsuki and had more members at his disposal.

However, before joining the Akatsuki, Sasuke demanded that his cousin's safety was assured. In response, Madara took him to see his cousin as proof of her wellbeing.  

"Oh, you really won! Congratulations, I guess," Qui said, surprise evident in her tone. Aside from a dramatic wardrobe change, Sasuke had grown taller and more mature. "You're one of the new members of Akatsuki, right?" 

"Why are you here?" Sasuke asked, ignoring her question. His cousin looked different since the last time he saw her and that had been quite a while ago. Her appearance used to be more formal, from an uptight bun to stiff clothing, but now her hair was shorter and tied back into a short, high ponytail. She wore loose, casual clothing, and her amused smile gave off an even more childish look. 

"That's a secret for now. You?"

"I'm not telling if you aren't." 

"Too bad," Qui said far too cheerfully. Tobi's cheeriness was rubbing off on her. "By the way, is Uncle Igo alright?" she asked curiously. 

New Madara turned his attention to her. "I wouldn't know. I don't keep tabs on his welfare. The most I know about him is we made an agreement. You willingly left your uncle's side to be with us until we win the war. In return, we would train you until you awakened your eyes."

"I thought you hated fighting," Sasuke said accusingly, turning to Qui. 

"Oh, I do. But really, anywhere I go, I'll end up fighting anyway, right? If I help the Akatsuki reach their goal for world peace, then I won't ever need to fight. I'll become a historian and finally be free from the selfishness and stupidity of people," his cousin smiled pleasantly. 

"Well, I have a new goal of my own: I want to destroy Konoha." 

"Why?" Qui looked more taken back this time. "Isn't Itachi's death a done deal?"

"Turns out, he was forced to kill," Sasuke seeth, anger swelling inside him, coursing through his veins. "Those blasted Konoha Elders and the Third Hokage set him up for this. Especially Danzo." 

"Danzo...haven't heard of him." 

"You should. He's coming after you," Sasuke continued. "He wants to awaken your Sharingan and take control of you. He's also the current Hokage." 

"Uh...not happening. I already made a deal with Akatsuki and promised Uncle Igo I would stay," Qui replied, jutting her chin out toward Zetsu in the corner. "He's a tad too late--and wow, am I behind!--I didn't know he was Hokage. Is Lady Tsunade dead?"

"No, she's in a coma," New Madara replied. 

"Yeah, yeah. So what's the plan? What's step one of 'How to Wreck Havoc on Konoha'?"

"You honestly are taking this matter far too lightly," Sasuke grumbled. "Well, it doesn't matter. I'll kill him before he gets to you."

"And take my eyes if you fail," Qui added.

"I won't."

"Well, scoop them out as a last resort. I may have made a deal with the Akatsuki, but even I'm not all that gung-ho about fighting for them either."

"There's a Hokage summit meeting coming up," New Madara intervened. "That will be step one. Anyways, Qui, start warming up. I need you to get ready for this evening's training. 

"Mhm." Qui followed her mentor, leaving Sasuke to prepare for the "first step." 

Whatever that was.