Getting into Konoha was even easier than it had been sixteen years ago, and stirred up all sorts of nostalgia. Obito passed by the Uchiha district out of curiosity, and couldn't help but feel resentful when he saw it was just as extravagant as ever. Even Itachi-chan hadn't been enough to contain Sasuke's ego, apparently.
Madara offered no comment on that. His opinions on the Uchiha who caroused with the Senju woman were well established.
Tobi, on the other hand, was impatient and disinterested in ruminating over how a clan of one could still manage to maintain the stuffy, oppressive compound or why he would want to. They had come to Konoha to get things done, not list reasons as to why Konoha irritated them.
He had a point, so Obito pushed him down and slid on. The simplicity of his chosen disguise had almost caused him to laugh, but it seemed to work. No one paid him any mind or recognized his Akatsuki guise with the cloak folded up over his arm, nor was anyone rude enough to try to find out why a man with what appeared to be horrific burn scars on his arm and sunglasses was wearing a genjutsu over his face. He hadn't altered his features terribly much, but it was enough to hide the massive scarring and emphasize the features that had set him apart him other Uchiha, who tended to have slimmer, effeminate builds.
His first task was one of professional interest, rather than a personal one. The news that the insufferable fossil Danzo had finally been obliging enough to die had washed over Hi No Kuni, but the news that hadn't accompanied it was more interesting. For whatever reason, the new Hokage had chosen to suppress the reports of what must have been found on his body. Perhaps she had been the one to have him killed, or else Tsunade just saw the value in keeping the Uchiha eyes she'd found on his body as a resource.
That wouldn't do. If they belonged to anyone, it was him. Danzo had been one of Madara's failed experiments, and the proof that merely inserting the genetic materials of the sage's sons into a third party would not result in a Rinnegan. But this body was one of the last descendants of the sage's younger son. In any case, he could have use for extra Sharingan… Especially cousin Shisui's.
It was a marvel that the hospital hadn't been renovated since the last time he had been here. Bakashi had never bothered, but he'd come here so many times to bring Rin lunch or drag her away from her work before she wore herself out… Obito shook the memories off like a dog shook his coat. It didn't matter anymore. This place had Rin in every tile and window, but it was only a pale echo of the girl he had loved.
Granted, all he had was guesswork for locating his prizes. But the hospital hadn't had official storage for stolen eyeballs back in the day, so he first checked the office of Tsunade's ghoulish assistant.
'Predictable,' he sighed. Still, he hurried out of the office with his prizes. He'd never known Shizune well, but she was almost certainly competent enough to check the wall safe reasonably often. Once that happened, security would be tightened in the village, although she would almost certainly suspect an inside job.
That left his more personal errand to be taken care of, with the vials carefully deposited in his personal dimensional space where no one else could touch them. It would be optimal to resolve this task within the day as well, before Konoha knew to look for him. But that might not be practical. Besides, he did not fear anyone Konoha could set on him.
Finding Aiko might be a problem, but he hadn't come this far to be stymied by such a thing, despite having no idea where she lived, trained, and what her schedule was like. Konoha was a bad place. It was also a predictable place. There was no official record of shinobi residences outside of Hokage tower. Deliveries were made to secure locations at mail centers, or through shinobi who had been thoroughly vetted and possessed near encyclopedic knowledge of where their peers could be found.
If he wanted to wait a day or so, he could bring an unaddressed letter to the mail center and see how long it took her to pick it up. But he knew something that would be faster.
Ding
"Yamanaka flower shop, how may I help you?" A pretty teenager with messy brown hair in a ponytail wiped her dirty hands on an apron and smiled up at him, still crouched by a massive flowerpot.
As it turned out, the girl was a civilian employee, and she apologized that she would have to wait until one of her shinobi coworkers came in to take care of the delivery. She flushed when Madara smoothly assured her it would be no problem. He had intended to take care of this on his own, but Obito had never been good around girls. Madara could charm, however, if he was so inclined.
As far as the girl knew, he left then. In actuality, he watched in disinterest as she abandoned her show of professionalism for a thick treatise on the properties of electricity that had been hidden behind the counter. Still, watching her read was probably less painful than being forced to endure the book himself, so Obito silently bore it. At least she read silently.
Morning turned into afternoon and early evening before his silent watch bore any fruit. The shinobi coworker unsurprisingly turned out to be a Yamanaka girl, who seemed obscenely giggly and rudely interested in why Aiko was receiving flowers. Obito scowled, but merely followed the blonde as she crossed town to a rather unimpressive building and left the arrangement on the short table outside Aiko's door.
Obito made a quick check of the surroundings, ascertained that they were alone, and flickered directly in front of the little idiot as she turned to leave, forced her to look into his eye, and ripped away her memory of the last half hour or so. Dismissively, he spun a new memory of having a headache and going for a walk before hiding again and watching her dazedly walk away.
He had let the shop girl pick the bouquet. Although if she had done her job correctly they would be an appropriate gift from a friend, he casually picked the vase up and slid sideways into Kamui to deposit them in his personal dimension. The flowers were lovely, but it would be an inappropriate gift. Aiko didn't remember that they were friends. Tobi, who had no interest at all in a supposed past life he didn't believe in, protested that they were already excellent friends. Madara was mutinously silent, having hoped that Obito would give up on this mission.
Obito wasn't an idiot. He knew that Madara didn't believe his theory. Obito was willing to concede that he might not be right either—but he could check, couldn't he? He'd have to be trash to not devote a few hours to the mystery.
Regardless of whether she was simply similar enough to make him think of Rin, or was his friend in some real way, she still had less substance than the Rin the outer Madara had promised him as a result of the Eye of the Moon Plan. Nothing could change that. One day soon, he would be with his real team again, before Rin had gotten hurt and Kakashi had gotten corrupted by the foul world that they lived in. And it would be perfect.
Madara seemed harshly amused by that. 'Boy, your new pet has no place in that world,' he pointed out. 'No matter how she reminds you of your lost love, or even your teacher before he became cold.'
Obito shook that thought off with a scowl. It would be his perfect world. He could do anything he wanted.
Besides, she quieted Tobi. Tobi had been useful as an act in the Akatsuki, but that time was coming to an end. Perhaps giving him something else to keep him occupied, like a friend, would keep Tobi out of trouble. Tobi deserved a friend. Someone sweet and kind who didn't mind that he wasn't the smartest or most mature.
'Hypocritical, to see the innocence in one of Minato's children and the other child as a tool,' Madara continued, enjoying riling Obito up when he was trying to focus. Inner Madara was aggressive like that when he didn't get his way. Of course, he usually got what he wanted.
That was different, Obito knew. Minato had made his own son into a tool. Obito hadn't been the one to make that choice. If the Fourth Hokage hadn't been so foolish and resisted him, he would have had the Kyuubi for the last sixteen years and his plan would be that much closer to fruition. Aiko wasn't as dangerous or essential. Pein was worried about her Hiraishin, but Obito did not fear that. Minato had been far more skilled with it, and he had fallen. That was proof enough of the righteousness of his plan. Besides, Obito had a superior technique. Kamui could take him anywhere that he could think of. If Pein or Zetsu could locate a jinchuuriki for him, he could travel to them just as easily as Aiko-chan did. Still, it would be better for them both if she could be coaxed into ceasing her meddling. Aiko was going to run afoul of Akatsuki quickly if she didn't refrain from attempting to save the damned.
Carefully, he avoided thinking about their differing intentions for wanting to locate jinchuuriki. He'd never wanted to hurt anyone. That wasn't his intention at all. If he didn't have the assurance that all the ills of this world could be rectified, he might not have been able to bring himself to the violence necessary to usher in a new world.
Konoha would be one of the first villages to fall, of course. Madara had been right from the beginning, although Obito hadn't seen it at the time. The village of his birth had gone far astray. They espoused heroics, but what they practiced was domination and death.
He slipped his cloak and mask on and slid the glasses into his pocket. It wouldn't do to frighten her with his disfigurement.
Obito paused.
Would it be frightening for her to be approached in her own home by a man she didn't know that well? Tobi indignantly chimed that she was his friend, that she had been nicer to him than any of the Akatsuki, but he ignored the dissent. Maintaining dominance was beginning to wear on him, but the others weren't suited for this.
Perhaps he wasn't either, if he had never thought about how a teenage girl might feel to find someone she knew only as an S class criminal in her home. Tobi was naïve, and far too certain that Aiko would be easily convinced to come play with him. But Obito wasn't an idealistic little boy like Tobi. He had been once, but Madara had fixed him.
It was crude and ham-handed, but he affixed a note to the door claiming that the hot water and heating was out. Hopefully, that would convince her to go for a walk, to talk to her landlord if nothing else. He only had to wait until she went somewhere relatively isolated but neutral to approach her. That might also be intimidating, yes, but to an extent that was unavoidable. She would never listen to what he had to say if she was distracted.
The sound of light footsteps roused him to the real world. Intent to see if the Yamanaka girl had led him astray, Obito phased into intangibility with the wall.
~~~
"Seriously?" Aiko asked under her breath, ripping the note off her door and crumpling it in one motion as she stepped inside.
It just seemed so painfully mundane to get a notice from her landlord that the hot water was out. That meant no heating as well, so the apartment was going to be frigid overnight when the temperature inevitably dropped. Pleasant.
'At least I was warned before I stepped into the shower,' Aiko counted her blessings. Despite not feeling particularly blessed at the moment. Sai was still in a bad mood with her—he seemed to know more than she'd told him about how ROOT had been coming out of the woodwork—and he'd given her more of a workout than she had planned for.
Angry sex? Pretty awesome, when he wanted to spend enough time with her to have it. Angry taijutsu practice? That was an experience she could live without. They'd fought with blunt swords for safety, which meant that she had raised welts and bruises instead of cuts. He was the better swordsman, no doubt about it. Of course, he'd trained in that discipline far longer than she had.
She peeled her gloves and extraneous clothing off and left them in the hamper, before padding off to stuff a thin robe of plain green and some soaps into a bag. She'd had an allergic reaction the last time she used the stuff provided at the bathhouse—it had sucked big time. It wasn't an experiment she was keen to relive.
It was a relatively cool night, so she found herself alone in the bath. That was fine by her—it was always so awkward to talk to strangers. After she'd actually cleaned up, she settled to soak in one of the isolated pools and just drifted for a shamefully long time, enjoying the heat.
She might have enjoyed it less if she'd realized she wasn't actually alone. Obito wasn't enjoying Aiko's bath at all, which would have provided her with cold comfort had he chosen to speak up.
'To an extent, my plan worked,' Obito mused woodenly on the other side of the fence in a tree. He had a view into the onsen if he looked—which he most certainly would not, except to make sure that he didn't miss when she left. Of course it had been his plan, so it had only worked in the backwards, contrary way that his plans tended to work.
Madara didn't see the problem. She was alone in the onsen, and he could approach her there. In fact, she was less likely to try to attack him since she wasn't armed.
Obito didn't bother responding to that bit of stupidity. Madara was asexual, but that was no excuse for failing to consider how aggressive that would seem.
'Tobi doesn't mind,' piped up the boy who had been quietest all day. He sounded unusually sly. 'Tobi thinks Aiko-chan is pretty.'
Disgusted, Obito pushed Tobi down, but he was awake now and wouldn't be silenced. Tobi had never matured beyond his mid teens, but that didn't excuse his thoughts. Shameful. Now that Tobi's teenage filth had been mentioned, Obito felt distinctly dirty even for waiting outside of the bathhouse where he could see nothing.
Ignoring Madara's growing irritation and claims that he was wasting time as well as Tobi's sullen pouting, Obito waited hours until the girl he'd been waiting for finally emerged from the steaming onsen, idly finger-combing her hair as she padded out in thin sandals.
Aiko had found getting out of the bath to be monstrously difficult, not least because the night had turned even colder and she really should have packed warmer clothing. Still shivering, she cut through a park instead of going directly home and counted that the walk would keep her warm enough. Chill or not, she thought it was nice to breathe in fresh air instead of the staleness of her apartment, which would hardly be more comfortable. She should probably crack the windows tonight, if she stayed up long enough. Come to think of it, there was a book she was dying to get to and that would keep her up for long enough…
'Too trusting,' Madara whispered disapprovingly once it became clear that Aiko wasn't going to take the safe, well-lit and populated route home. Obito disagreed. That had been one of the best things about Rin. She had been innocent, and not at all fearful, because she trusted her comrades would take care of her.
The thought soured his mood. That trust had gotten her killed at Kakashi's hands. He still couldn't begin to comprehend the senseless violence inherent in that murder, or how his friend had changed to be so cold. Kakashi had never been a warm individual, but he had shown he cared when it counted. Obito had trusted him to take care of Rin when he died. Was it lucky or a curse that he hadn't died, had lived long enough to see just how twisted his friend had become?
Kakashi couldn't be blamed, of course, but neither could he be trusted with anyone so innocent and vulnerable ever again. He'd failed again—how could he possibly be taking care of his new teammate, a girl who had a high-risk status due to her habit of inconveniencing Akatsuki, if he wasn't even present? She was easy prey. The girl didn't even know she'd been followed and watched for hours.
Still caught in moodiness, Obito noted that they were in the center of the mid-sized park (one where he had played as a child, no less) and split off two shadow clones to keep watch while he approached Aiko. Then he flash-stepped forward to cut off Aiko. In his defense, he hadn't intended to startle her.
Aiko was an adult twice over. If asked, she would swear on her soul that she was competent at her job and self-contained enough when it mattered. Definitely not a hysterical or irrational ninny, by anyone's rubric.
But Aiko jumped and screamed like an actress in a slasher film when a man in a red and black cloak literally appeared in front of her. She may or may not have also made jazz hands in what was the worst example of defensive movement ever. That part would not be going in her report.
It was one thing to get mixed up with scary, dangerous people while she was out and about doing things like intentionally getting into fights or trying to keep Naruto and other trouble-magnets safe. That at least allowed her the mercy of some mental preparation. But there was just no smooth way to transition mentally from 'going for a nice hot soak' to 'one of those bastards just dropped out of a tree like a murderous baby koala'.
Obito immediately regretted the abrupt action when she startled and threw her hands up, not least because her shriek hurt his ears. The chagrin he saw on her face mirrored the irritation he felt with himself. How stupid of him. Someone was bound to have heard that.
'Indeed,' Madara agreed scathingly, slipping lightning-quick to the surface and moving the body to cover Aiko's mouth, simultaneously preventing her from moving.
'No!' Obito protested. He hadn't wanted to scare her. It was a little late for that, however.
Her legs were bending slightly in preparation for evasive action—and then he was suddenly not present. Which was unnerving, Aiko noted, wondering if that what it was like when she used Hiraishin on other people it really wasn't funny and-
An oversized hand was clapped over her mouth, the attached arm digging into her chest. The other arm was occupied with snatching and pinning both of her wrists to her belly. She was lifted so that her back rested against a warm chest with almost contemptuous ease, feet struggling to touch ground.
She was shocked into abandoning her first fumbling attempt at a Hiraishin that fought his iron grip because the whisper that brushed across her ear was downright chipper.
The scent of a citrus shampoo was an almost surreal distraction, but the cold sensation of her wet hair against his neck kept Obito grounded enough to know that he had to say something before she fled, since stupid Madara had grabbed her. He didn't know what to say, though. He had never been good with girls. And Aiko was definitely a girl. Tobi helpfully bubbled up, pushing Madara to the side. "Hush, Aiko-chan!" he whispered. At least, it was what passed for a whisper from him. "I'm rescuing you."
Obito was grateful for the assistance, but struggled to take primacy once again, although he'd been weakened by his lack of calm reserve. He needed to stay focused and detached to stay in control.
His struggle was mirrored by Aiko's, though he couldn't see her face to know exactly how shocked she'd been to hear his voice.
'You crazy fucker,' Aiko thought disbelievingly. Really? What the hell was he doin- no. She didn't care. Aiko ripped herself out of his arms with Hiraishin (surprisingly hard when he had such a good hold on her) and flickered just far enough away to eye him warily.
She was not optimally outfitted for an altercation. But she knew that she should probably stall until reinforcements arrive instead of letting the lunatic roam unchallenged. Leaving him to his own devices in the heart of the village would be downright treasonous, actually. Aiko wasn't a helpless little genin. There would be no excuse for cowardice.
Tobi seemed to stare dumbly at his empty hands for a moment. His orange mask seemed far creepier than it had before when he slowly tilted his head to stare at her.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood up.
Aiko was just staring at him, eyes wide enough that he could see the whites around her pupils. Obito simply breathed for a moment, registering that she had used her Hiraishin against him. Against him. Like Minato had, Minato-sensei who should have just stepped aside, why had he been so stupid, why was he in the way.
"Don't do that again," he bit out, half Madara and half angry with phantoms. "Or I'll have to make sure you can't," Madara purred, pleased by the idea of getting to do this his way.
The obvious fear and trepidation in Aiko's body language made assuming full control as difficult as Madara's influence did. This was going all wrong. That was exactly what he'd wanted to avoid. He wanted to make her calm down, make her listen, why didn't anyone ever just listen?
Tobi, sweet, helpful Tobi, popped up again to counteract the promise of violence Madara offered. "I didn't mean to frighten you! But Konoha isn't safe. That's why you're going to come with me."
Perhaps a little too honest.
She looked so small and frail that it hurt his heart, even as it steeled his reserve. Her voice was surprisingly strong, however, despite the stutter. "W-what are you talking about?" Aiko was eying him warily, as if she thought he was about to grab her again.
He would have to scold Madara for that later. It had been a mistake. This would require a gentler touch. But he wasn't sure he could keep sole dominance.
Tobi was the lesser evil. He was half-and-half, part boy and part man as he straightened to his full height and looked at the teen in front of him; with eyes that overlapped the image of Tobi's friend with Obito's. Rin had never gotten much taller than the child in front of him, but he had been much closer to her size when he'd last stood at her side.
"What do I mean?" he asked, two voices in synchronism. "Konoha is too dangerous. You'll get hurt if you stay here, you now. I wouldn't be a very good friend if I let that happen." Obito dropped off at the end, silenced by shame. Tobi had never allowed one of his friends to come to harm. Granted, Tobi'd never had friends.
He had intended the words to be soothing, but they sent Aiko's heart pounding.
'He came here for me. Not NarutoSasukeTheHokageMe.'
The thought sent more than a chill of terror wrapping around her heart. It was preposterous: why bother sneaking into Konoha just for her? Tsunade would never trade Naruto away. But he seemed to be serious.
The pulse pounding in her throat was violent enough that it was an effort to swallow and force out words. She had to keep him talking until backup came. Somehow, her voice didn't waver too obviously when she managed, "I appreciate the concern, but I think I'm fine here."
'Where the fuck are the patrol teams?'
That scream-however embarrassing-should have drawn attention. Someone should be coming to investigate, even if there wasn't a patrol team close. This was a shinobi village. Where was the good Samaritan Chuunin? …No, on second thought, she didn't want one of those. They couldn't hope to fight an Akatsuki. But an ANBU patrol team would.
'Probably why he wanted me to be quiet,' she belatedly realized the obvious. 'He doesn't want witnesses. But if he's planning on kidnapping me, why not knock me out? I had no idea he was here, and he must have been following… watching.'
Even ignoring the disturbing thought that he'd been politely waiting for her to get out of the bath, Aiko felt vaguely nauseous. Would anyone have known anything was wrong if she'd been in her apartment, like she should have been? He'd found her easily enough, and gotten into Konoha apparently unchallenged judging by the lack of village alarm. How long would it have taken anyone to know she was gone?
'That's not what I should be thinking about now,' she thought grimly. 'The same damn thing could still happen.'
Tobi-no, Madara- straightened to his full height and just looked at her for a moment. This man was far too dangerous to treat as the happy go lucky idiot she'd pretended to believe the last time they had met.
She didn't dare scream again, because this wasn't someone she wanted actively angry with her.
'Stay calm. If he turns hostile, I can always run. No matter how fast he is, I can outrun him.'
Of course, the point when she would determine that this situation was sufficiently dangerous as to outweigh her civil duty to not let him roam unchecked in Konoha was hard to determine. How dangerous was dangerous enough that she wouldn't be getting court-martialed for running?
As if in a pointed reminder of her current vulnerability, a strong breeze raced across her back, sending a more literal chill up her spine and making her reflexively hug one arm around her waist to be sure the tie on her robe stayed shut.
He heaved a heavy sigh and took one ponderously slow step forward, as if he was worried he might startle her into running.
'He might not be wrong,' Aiko thought a little hysterically. It was her duty to keep him occupied until backup arrived. But running was sounding very tempting. She couldn't be sure she could win this fight.
Obito watched impassively as the little foot that had been tilted behind Aiko, perhaps unconsciously, jolted backwards in one indecisive step, an attempt to put distance between them.
It was like watching a wild animal skitter away from a predator. He had no intention of harming her, but how could someone who reeked of blood explain that to a doe? Her slight form wavered in the wind, as if nature itself was reminding them of frail she was. How frail Rin had been. Aiko didn't seem to notice that she wrapped an arm around her torso to secure the thigh-length yukata that attempted to flutter away in the wind, focused as she was with wide eyes on whatever she was seeing on his mask.
'Poor baby.' Gently, Obito arranged his posture to be as unthreatening as possible and moved to close the distance between them so he didn't need to raise his voice to talk to her. He actually pitched it more softly when he next spoke in an attempt to keep her calm.
He didn't want her to run, after all. They both knew that she could… but shouldn't. He had been a Konoha shinobi once too. Allowing a supposed foreigner, someone openly labeled as an enemy of the state, to roam unchallenged in the heart of the village would have her publically disgraced. No one wanted to think that their soldiers would flee and leave civilians defenseless if they were outmatched. As lily white as Konoha liked to pretend to be, they would mandate that this girl attempt to stop him. A death sentence, if he had any intention of causing harm.
Luckily, he didn't. Not today at least. Perhaps he would have to if she chose to stand in his way, but that was a dark thought for another time. "Aiko-chan, have I ever lied to you? Don't you trust me?" He let just the slightest hint of hurt waver into his voice.
She seemed uncertain, torn between cataloguing their past interactions and the current situation. He pressed forward, not wanting her to convince herself that she should flee. He needed to be firm, but not aggressive.
"Tobi misses Aiko-chan," he added gently, voice twisting up, up, and up into the childish vulnerability that wouldn't intimidate her. "Can we just talk? Tobi promises not to startle Aiko-chan again."
It was hard for him to tell if she found that tack more or less persuasive, so Obito pulled himself to the forefront in a subtler imitation of Tobi's voice in an attempt to find a middle ground. "Tobi won't hurt Aiko-chan," he breathed, taking another step in. And she didn't move back. Emboldened by his success, Obito smiled under his mask.
"What do you want to talk about?" She seemed to be biting her lower lip… Rin had always done that too. He repressed the urge to stop that, to ask her to stop savaging her own flesh.
"You, of course." He let her see his hands. If he played this correctly, he might be able to find out whether she was going to be his 'pet project', as Madara had so condescendingly phrased it, or Tobi's new companion.
"Me?" Aiko's voice was just a little too high pitched to be natural.
"Yes, you," Obito agreed amiably. Or who you might have been. "From the first time I saw you, Tobi knew Aiko-chan was a good girl," he breathed. It was a struggle to keep his voice modulated on something close to one pitch. Hopefully she wouldn't notice the cracks. She only knew Tobi, after all. "Aiko-chan was nice to Tobi."
She swallowed visibly, eyes still intent on his mask. And that was odd enough. It was almost as if she was hoping to see something under the curved surface, as if staring long enough would display some truth. "Ai- I. Um. Thank you?"
'She doesn't care for you,' Madara hissed venomously, curling around the tendrils of ephemeral thought. 'Look at how she trembles. All the girl cares for is avoiding giving offense and escaping you.'
No, Obito snapped. Then he forcibly restrained his temper. He couldn't ruin this now. Not when he was so close.
He didn't manage to assert himself before Tobi excitedly bubbled up to the surface to chirp, "Tobi had fun with Aiko-chan. Can we play another game?"
That might not be the worst idea, Obito realized. If he spent some time with her to convince her that he meant no harm, Aiko would be more willing to listen when he asked her about her reincarnation. Ideally, she would come with him today regardless of what he decided. If not, however, it was no skin off his back. He could elude the clumsy hunters Konoha had to offer even within their village. They hardly knew what to look for in the first place.
"What game?" Aiko asked cautiously. "I don't have any cards with me."
"Let's play tag!"
'Tobi, no!' even as Obito cursed, Madara let out a barking laugh at the idiot.
'You knew he had no self-restraint,' he taunted in the instant that the simpleton piloting their body lurched forwards. 'You should have let me handle affairs.'
Obito resigned himself to having to hunt Aiko down again after he managed to brow-beat Tobi to the best of his ability. His resignation was premature, however, because Tobi's attempt to smother Aiko in his affection was more effective than predicted. Tobi was immature, but not slow. The internal recriminations had passed in less than the space of a breath, and Aiko was just gaining the dreamy-eyed quality that probably meant she was intending to Hiraishin away when Tobi used the body replacement jutsu with the clone that had silently flickered behind Aiko.
Aiko didn't even see the body switch. She registered that Tobi threw his arms up- and the real Tobi, who had been standing behind her, threw his arms around her in a joyous hug.
Reflexively, Madara knocked both of the others away and pulled their body into intangibility. Holding the girl as he was, Aiko was dragged along in Kamui.
She didn't even have time to try to lurch away before the world swirled. Her vision was tinted dark, but that was hardly the largest oddity. Her gut jerked left and up and her heart was really literally sinking and the world was turning strangely and then the sensation of pressure from Tobi's hug reappeared and when had that stopped? The next thing she knew was limply hanging in his grip for just a moment, and realizing that colors were all wrong, and it certainly didn't look like she was in Konoha anymore.
and everything was wrong.
Taking them into kamui had been an impulse, born from the fact that avoiding damage was usually the first thing to be done when Tobi attempted or allowed human contact. But all three of them immediately registered that something had gone wrong. Numbly, Obito nearly let Aiko fall from his grip when she immediately went limp and made a small, wounded sound.
'What did I do what's wrong how do I fix this-'
'Stop it!" Madara snapped, disgruntled about being forced down so abruptly. 'Your pet is clearly hurt by kamui.'
'Aww, you care,' Tobi crooned, unconcerned that Aiko seemed to be hyperventilating. Obito pulled them both back into the real world, at a loss for explanation.
It was a transition that he had made hundreds of times, perhaps even thousands. Obito didn't recall having a reaction like the one Aiko had just displayed to kamui, but then again, it took him to his personal dimension. Perhaps she was having a problem because she also had a space-time technique?
Aiko wasn't doing any analysis at the moment. All she knew was that horrible twisting happened again. Aiko choked out a sob before she realized that she could see green again, and the twilight sky and Konoha's buildings in the distance and breathe fresh air.
But it wasn't right. Nothing was right. Of the hundreds of seals that had been twinkling comfortably across the continent, forming a spiderweb network of connections and a three-dimensional map, there were now six lonely voices. Old seals, and seals that were in places where she hadn't wanted people to know she could touch seals into being.
TheRaikage'sDeskGaaraMeiNaruto'sKunaiKakashiYamato
None of which was in Konoha. The closest ones were posted outside of Ame. At least, she assumed so. It was hard to tell without the greater context.
Aiko heaved helplessly, tears involuntarily welling up even as she tried to curl up. It was impossible, caught as she was in Tobi's grip and she should really move somewhere, even if her options weren't good. She was left dizzy and disoriented. A sense that she had been gradually building up for years was suddenly crippled. It was like losing her sight or sense of smell—one of the critical ways she perceived the world was just gone, and her head was reeling from loss. She pressed her eyes shut and tried to still her breathing in a desperate attempt to regain some small amount of control over the situation.
It was all she could do to hold on to the two questions ringing in her head. Namely; how had he done that? What had he done to her?
Her captor was just as confused and almost as disoriented as Aiko herself. Obito had taken others into kamui before. Granted, it had never been under friendly circumstances, and most enemies gave in to panic quickly once they realized they were trapped. But the whorl that heralded his twist into his personal dimension had never actively caused any one pain before.
Whatever was happening to Aiko, it wasn't panic at being trapped. There hadn't possibly been time for that to set in. Aghast, he somehow managed to maintain the grip Tobi had gathered around her frame and moved to soothe her over the awful gasping sounds she was making.
'Sentimental drivel! Just take her and be done with it," Madara snapped, clearly at the end of his rope. 'You should have left kamui into Ame, not here. Once more won't make a difference at this point.'
He was probably right. How fragile was she? He hadn't even meant to hurt her and something had gone terribly wrong. How much worse would it be to leave her here? Guiltily, Obito adjusted her weight so that her shaking back curled against his chest and he could support her with one arm, freeing up his right hand to pet her hair.
"There, there." Gently, he smoothed a drying curl down over her shoulder.
Aiko forced her eyes open just in time to see that the Tobi she'd been talking to before wordlessly dissolved into a puff of smoke, swaying for just a moment. Which brought the vague reminder that she'd been able to function without a seal sense in past and other people did all the time, if she could just bring the scattered pieces of her thoughts together she could do something.
"I'm sorry," Obito breathed over her forehead. 'Sorry I hurt you,' he thought, 'sorry I can't do this right, I couldn't keep Rin safe and I can't even do this right'. Madara was right this time, he knew it. "It's for your own good." She would thank him later.
That sincere tone was sufficiently ominous that she struggled thoughtlessly, jerking and straining to reach the ground. But he was definitely stronger than she was, and in the better position and she couldn't think because she was blind and something she couldn't verbalize was hurting-
Obito gritted his teeth and lurched forward, barely managing to gentle her fall and let her tumble harmlessly onto the grass—and then his hands were full with a more pressing concern.
He hadn't even been paying attention to his surroundings, until the lone sentry clone was killed from behind.
Aiko was suddenly sitting with sprawled legs and a confused expression on the ground, because Tobi was darting forward to intercept the leader of what looked like the ridiculously late four man patrol team that should have been in this sector. It took a few minutes for her mind to catch up, disoriented as she was, so the fight was more flashes of movement and images than anything else. A Jackal-faced woman wielding twin swords that couldn't seem to connect with their target. Tobi dissolving in that spiral and letting a blast of fire pass through his body like he was a ghost. A familiar mask.
A familiar mask. Donkey? He was substituting for another patrol team? It happened, of course. He was probably making up hours since their team was restricted to training until they had a replacement.
She felt a rush of fondness for her irritating teammate as he flawlessly performed a body switch with a mask she couldn't identify and split into four earth clones, all of which detonated because the real man had already moved and his Jackal-faced teammate was swooping in from above—and then was tossed with pitiful ease into a tree with an unpleasant crack. She got right back up, but their fourth member had taken her place with what looked like attempts at a Jyuuken which would have been a good idea if whatever Tobi was using to fade out of physical reality was a kekkai genkai, but failed utterly when Tobi proved to be another clone.
'I've been sitting this out long enough.' She was a little dizzy, but that didn't stop her from standing- reaching for a weapon that wasn't there because she didn't take a sword to the bathhouse- and turning the movement into handseals. Chakra, she still had chakra. An area attack would inconvenience her allies, so it had to be something smaller, something close-range. And she owed Tobi an ass-kicking for whatever the hell he'd done to her.
"Stay back!" Donkey's rough voice barked.
She obeyed immediately, abandoning her attempt. This wasn't her patrol; she had never worked with this team. They must have some combination planned that she'd get in the way of.
Aiko never found out what he'd intended to do, because as soon as Tobi had registered where the harsh tone had come from, he'd-
Was that Mokuton? Impossible. But it was.
Movement stilled for one very long second, and then the arm-sized tendrils of wood that had shot right through Donkey's chest receded. He looked down, or else his neck went limp, and for the space of a single heartbeat Aiko had deluded herself into thinking he was going to be fine. His armor had protected him, or the wounds weren't that bad, and he was going to call Tobi a nasty name before hitting him again because Donkey was just cantankerous like that.
But he didn't. He felt bonelessly, knees buckling and landing not quite on his side, not quite facing up.
'That makes two teammates I've gotten killed.'
Her horror must have been written on her face, because Tobi's glance seemed to linger on her. "I didn't mean to make you sad," came the completely inappropriate reply in his lower range, even as one of the other ANBU made a horrible shrieking sound and moved to eviscerate him. Tobi side-stepped the blow without even looking away and jumped back up into his childish voice. "Tobi is sorry. Tobi will come back when Aiko-chan has had a chance to think, when the bad ANBU won't get hurt."
And then he was just gone, in what must have been shunshin influenced speed, though she didn't see the blur of disturbed air. The three man ANBU team immediately hared after him.
The wind was quiet and gentle, the moon had almost broken the horizon. It was going to be yet another perfectly beautiful night in the land of eternal summer.
Painfully, Aiko pushed herself to cross the fifteen feet separating her from the still form sprawled out on the grass, leaking life. He was just a splotch of darkness and light. So still. Her fingers were shaking when she knelt at his side in the quickly accumulating pool of hot blood and felt for a pulse on Aoto's neck. For a moment, she was sure she felt something, but it was just the trembling of her own limbs.
A medic couldn't help him now and she didn't know how to treat the body of a comrade. An enemy could be left in the dirt, or burnt. But that wasn't the same and she didn't know what to do. When she'd murdered Boar, there hadn't been much left. She didn't know what to do. So Aiko rather ungracefully sat and untied his Aoto's ridiculous donkey faced mask before pulling his head to rest on her lap.
Then she placed the mask back over his face, because the wide-eyed terror staring up at her made her start to cry.
~~~
She sat quietly, knees up to her chest, dirty feet on the edge of the waiting room chair outside Tsunade's office, and tried not to think too hard. It didn't work very well. Tobi was… that fight had been like watching some supernatural deity toy with humans. ANBU operatives were good, and that had been a full team. It hadn't mattered, because he had just chosen to not be there when they attacked. She was completely outclassed.
And he had fixated on her for some reason. Why? What the hell did he want from her?
He had seemed to genuinely think that she would go with him. Tobi had tried to persuade her, before he'd demonstrated that he could actually keep her from running.
(and did he know she still had some seals? Were they traps for her? If not, would they fray further if he did that to her again?).
Despite his act, he wasn't a simpleton. They weren't on the same side of this conflict. Either he had some reason to believe that he should be able to trump her loyalty to Konoha and Naruto, or he was just screwing with her head.
But why would he do that? What purpose could it possibly serve to try to talk her around?
She could see an explanation for wanting to take her captive. It could stop her from hounding Akatsuki. It would remove a resource from Konoha. It would provide him collateral for trading, or a possible tool to use against her teammates as a hostage.
But none of those situations required her cooperation. He'd shown that he could ensure she couldn't trust Hiraishin. Without that technique, there was no way she could even pretend to stand on even footing with Akatsuki. It wasn't her only good technique, but it was the one that made it possible for her to compete in high-level combat without taking damage. Without it… she might just be a very good Chuunin. Or Tokubetsu Jounin. She was naturally fast, but not like one of those monsters.
So why would he even care about persuading her?
It seemed to take an obscenely long time for Tsunade to be roused and the village stirred into a state of emergency lockdown. Aiko had absolutely no faith that Tobi would be caught. If he wanted to be gone, he would. He'd simply disappeared while they'd stood aghast. The ANBU team had taken up pursuit a moment later, leaving Aiko alone with a quickly cooling corpse until the next patrol had come by to see what had happened. She hadn't wanted to linger, but she could hardly leave him alone.
Poor donkey. Or Aoto, if the name he'd given them was real. He hadn't deserved to die like that.
And why had Tobi done that anyway? He had seemed to regret it, and he hadn't actually harmed anyone else. There just... it just didn't make any sense. None of it made sense. Even the way he'd talked to her had been terrifyingly inconsistent. She hadn't been able to read or predict him at all.
About four hours after the initial altercation, Tsunade finally had time to talk to her. Aiko understood why—it was more time sensitive for her to try to have the intruder caught than it was to find out what the hell he'd been doing. Judging by the tired and frustrated looks on Izumo and Kotetsu, who had been roused to run messages, he hadn't been caught.
"Uzumaki." Tsunade nodded at her when she eased the office door shut behind her. Gratefully clutching the hot coffee she'd been given, Aiko managed to murmur out something approximating a greeting. "I suppose you're here to- oh, wait." The Hokage snapped her fingers. "Were you the girl from the initial report, who was with the intruder when the first patrol team found him?"
"That'd be me," Aiko replied quietly, breathing in the steam from her drink and enjoying the heat on her face. She'd spent most of the night on an uncomfortable plastic chair in thin sandals and a drying robe, so the physical comfort was a nice change. "I don't suppose he was caught?" When Tsunade merely gave a sour look and shook her head, Aiko gave a sigh she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Depressing," she mumbled, before taking a swig of burning hot liquid.
"Kotetsu always somehow manages to make the coffee too hot and too strong," Tsunade noted at Aiko's wince. "The ineptitude of my office staff aside, I have some questions. First of all, when did you find the intruder?"
"He found me."
Judging by the surprise on Tsunade's face, she hadn't been expecting that at all.
"At 2300 or so, I was heading home from the onsen," Aiko explained monotonously, head still pounding. "I cut through the park. He must have been following me, or waiting for me. Tobi confronted-"
"Tobi?" Tsunade cut in, leaning over her desk. "You're familiar with this individual?"
Aiko nodded, digging her toe into the carpet. "Yes," she admitted. "Don't you remember- he was one of the Akatsuki I interacted with when they had me at their base."
The Hokage scowled. "Refresh my memory."
Her tone didn't leave any slack, so Aiko recounted the basics. He'd been bizarrely friendly, he was the one she'd mentioned as having a similarity to Itachi- and at that point comprehension dawned, and Tsunade waved her on.
"I didn't make the connection," Tsunade sighed, kicking her feet out. "I must have been tireder than I thought. Please continue with the night's altercation."
"It wasn't much of an altercation," Aiko began a bit doubtfully. "Actually, it was surreal. He tried to convince me to leave with him."
At that, Tsunade jerked upright and stared, wide-eyed. "He tried to recruit you?"
"I don't think so." She waved her hands palm out weakly, as if to push that notion away on the breeze. "I got the impression that this was a personal visit, and not Akatsuki business." Aiko frowned, debating the next part, but admitted, "He made it sound like he thought we were friends and he was doing me a favor. He went on about it being too dangerous for me to be in Konoha, and that you were going to get me killed. Or someone was, anyway, he wasn't too clear on that part." She gave a helpless little shrug, and took another sip of scalding coffee, just to have something to do with her hands.
Tsunade groaned. "This only raises further questions."
"Tell me about it," Aiko fidgeted, biting her lip and accidentally drawing blood. "In any case, he didn't seem to want to hurt me. Though he did manhandle me a couple of times."
"Is that the source of the scream that raised the alarm?"
Aiko flushed an ugly red. "Ah…" She swallowed her pride and admitted, "I may have shrieked when he surprised me."
She ignored the snort that garnered and valiantly soldiered on in what little she had to report that the ANBU team wouldn't necessarily have been able to provide. "It was almost as if he kept changing his mind about his objective. He didn't want to kidnap me—he wanted me to come with him willingly. But when I didn't immediately agree, he got aggressive and tried to demonstrate that he could make me come. Maybe he wanted to illustrate that he was showing restraint, or maybe he just changed his mind?"
Either way, it had been an impulsive move. If he had honestly anticipated that he would be leaving with her that night, it wouldn't have mattered. He did seem to be delusional, and might have thought he really was going to convince her. Of course, he could also have determined that he would forcibly take her and the ANBU's intervention was merely a lucky break on her part.
Tsunade looked troubled. "Obviously, this situation is concerning. We now know that this person has no trouble evading patrols, even when we're looking for him. We did discover a shocking amount of bees," and here she rolled her eyes in a way that implied there was a story here, "but no Akatsuki. He lost his ANBU tail by the Hokage mountain, of all the damned places. Unless he's still lurking about, he got out past our patrols without complications."
"That means he could do it again," Aiko finished quietly. "And will. He promised me he would come back when the ANBU wouldn't interfere."
"Clearly, he's fixated on you," Tsunade muttered. "Are you sure you have no idea why?"
Aiko shook her head and showed her palms to deny culpability. "I think he's nuts," she said helplessly. "He really seemed to think that we were friends. He claimed it was too dangerous for me to be in Konoha and implied I should be staying with him."
Tsunade looked baffled. "I've never even heard of anything like this. Tell me again about your specific interactions with him in the Akatsuki base?"
She sucked in a breath through her teeth and released it slowly, trying to remember exactly what had happened. "I went wandering down a hallway after Itachi-teme shoved me in a shower to clean my wounds and then wandered off. He didn't give me any clothes, so when I found Tobi in the kitchen, he offered to get me some of Deidara's old things. We were only alone for ten minutes or so, but he played nice the entire time. Literally- he wanted me to play children's games with him. He gave me a bad feeling, so I smiled and played along. Itachi found us, and Tobi left." Reluctantly, she added, "He did make Itachi promise that he could see me again."
"So he'd probably already fixated on you then," Tsunade concluded grimly. "Which means he's been planning on this for quite a while."
"And it's not just a passing whim." Aiko felt like she was going to be sick, and hurriedly took another sip of coffee to settle her stomach. What had she done? She didn't really know anything about him for certain, but she did know she didn't want his attention. Was the childish act real? She almost hoped so. Because the idea of some genuine lunatic who had latched on to her after she was kind to him was incrementally less terrifying than that someone cold and logical had decided they had a need for her. If Tobi really was attached, at least he wouldn't hurt her as long as he was convinced they were friends. If Tobi needed her for some plan, then she would only be safe until whatever use she had expired.
'Not that I want him interested in me at all,' she thought, feeling very small. She was in over her head and not too proud to admit it. 'Now would be an excellent time to have a conversation about sealing with Jiraiya.' He might be able to help her figure out what had happened and make sure it never happened again.
~~~
"Well, there were probably better ways to handle that," Tobi mused, hand to his chin as he slouched at the kitchen table in the Akatsuki base back in Ame. Kisame, who had been retrieving leftovers from the cold box, gave him a skeptical look. Wisely, he said nothing. That was fine, because Tobi hadn't been talking to him anyway.
'I'll say,' Obito pouted.
There had been no obvious turning point, except that Madara had been far too pushy. But Aiko-chan hadn't been terribly persuaded. He wasn't sure why. He'd even politely waited for the best time to approach her. It would have been too intimidating to approach her in her home or while she was in the onsen. The park had seemed like a nice compromise. So what had gone wrong?
'She did not find you appealing because this whole idea is flawed,' Madara grumbled. 'The girl is never going to come with you. We should have just taken her and explained later, if you absolutely must indulge this obsession.'
He had little patience for what he claimed was a pointless exercise, Obito knew. That didn't excuse his lack of effort.
'That would be wrong,' Obito argued for what had to be the tenth time. 'She'll come. I just have to make her understand. She'd be scared if I just took her.'
She was scared anyways, Tobi noted mulishly. It was for her own good, and she would be happy playing with him. She shouldn't have tried to get away from him. Obviously she wasn't cut out to be a ninja. He'd barely touched her and she'd collapsed. He was doing her a favor.
He hadn't liked that much. Aiko-chan was supposed to be his friend, and she should trust him. If mean old Madara hadn't grabbed her those times, she would have listened to what he had to say and come with him.
'She was screaming,' Madara sighed, obviously irritated. 'She had to be silenced. It was your plan that required speaking to her alone, wasn't it? As it was, we had little enough time to convince her. I fail to see how any of this was my fault. I was not the fool who killed that boy.'
Obito bristled defensively, while Tobi slid to the front and started babbling about making ice cream and whether or not Kisame-senpai would help because he seemed like a man who liked ice cream. 'He was yelling at her,' he hissed.
Madara would have rolled his eyes if he could. The girl hadn't seemed to mind that much.
That was worse, Obito argued. That meant she was used to being yelled at. Mean old Bakashi hadn't gotten any better at communication, had he?
~~~
Sasuke jolted awake. The sudden movement sent Karin, who had been standing watch, onto high alert.
"Sasuke? What's wrong?"
Her inquisitive tone actually helped bring him back to the real world enough to recognize the sensation tugging for his attention. "I think Katsuya-sama is trying to contact me," he mumbled, voice still rough with sleep. That was unusual enough that he didn't waste before time biting his thumb for the blood to call a smaller incarnation of the slug queen. She was much too important to be asked to perform something so mundane as passing messages except when it was absolutely necessary, so this must be time-sensitive.
"Sasuke-kun," she greeted in that obnoxiously high voice. He tried not to wince. It would be rude.
"You called, Katsuya-sama?"
Karin seemed to choke a little at his unusually respectful tone.
"Yes, Tsunade-chan wanted me to give you a message." One of her eye stalks wandered lazily in the opposite direction as if looking for something. "And to be sure that everything here is alright, of course. Has anything unusual happened?"
"No." He shook his head. By now, the rest of the camp was up, so they had an audience of two other Konoha teams and one from Mist.
Katsuya made a bizarre sound that somehow conveyed disappointment, even as Naruto yawned and scratching at his messy hair. "At least one Akatsuki member slipped out of Ame since you began working to hold the border." She continued over the malcontent murmurs that statement roused—they'd been paying close attention. With Karin there, no one should have been able to get by without their notice. The girl herself looked a bit queasy at that that. "More likely two members, since they travel in pairs."
"Has something happened, Katsuya-sama?" Kakashi butted in. Sasuke tried not to roll his eyes. Even when trying to be polite, Kakashi was rude.
She gave a trill that Sasuke knew meant 'yes'. "One was in Konoha tonight," the slug reluctantly shared, probably not thrilled by airing Konoha's dirty laundry with a foreign audience. Jiraiya, the last roused from sleep, idly scratched at his side while giving their closest foreign companions a completely banal look. It certainly wasn't a glare or a conventional warning, but the three Mist-nin rather hurriedly sauntered off closer to their countrymen in the next camp over.
Katsuya kept her tone confidential on the next part. "To be honest, Tsunade-chan didn't understand what he intended. Apparently, he tried to convince a girl to go with him."
There was a moment of awkward silence.
"Akatsuki went to Konoha to pick up chicks?" Karin finally bit out skeptically. "That seems a bit far-fetched."
Katsuya ripped in agreement. "I agree that there was probably some other purpose to his visit. Whatever he wanted from Aiko-chan, it went badly. He killed one of the ANBU who attempted to interfere, and Aiko-chan herself was very upset. He seems to have left, however."
"Was he cute?" Genma piped up inappropriately above the sound of Sasuke smacking a palm to his forehead and Naruto outright groaning that of course it was Aiko caught up in that mess. "If it was Hoshigaki, I could understand that reaction."
To be fair, Hoshigaki Kisame had a face only a mother could love, if sharks didn't eat their mothers. Still, Yamato took a moment to glare at him for the joke.
"She said he was Tobi," Katsuya shared dubiously. Her little eye stalks were wavering much more rapidly now. "Former affiliation unknown."
That was not a name anyone knew, which meant that his motivations were a complete mystery.
Sasuke was already considering the unpleasant implications of what little they knew. Akatsuki hadn't gone to Konoha on a whim or for just any hostage in general. If their errand had been about Naruto… Well, he was on the border, right outsider their country. Team seven had almost been hoping that Akatsuki would make an attempt. Obviously, going to bother Aiko hadn't been about Naruto. Katsuya said that this man had left Konoha, but that seemed unlikely. If he hadn't gotten what he wanted, why would he have gone so far away? No. He would be making another attempt. And anyone who would be ready and able to provide assistance against Akatsuki for Aiko was here.
A glance around the area displayed that Karin and Yamato, at least, had similar thoughts. He couldn't read Jiraiya or Kakashi, and Naruto was looking away.
No one else seemed to be about to say anything, so Sasuke gave a brief bow to his shishou's summons. "Thank you for your visit, Katsuya-sama. We will be on watch for this Tobi when he returns. Do you have any information on what he looks like, and what he can do?"
She seemed relieved. "Yes, actually. He was very strong. It sounds unbelievable, but Tsunade-chan seemed to believe the report that he used mokuton. More ominously, he also possessed some sort of ability to become intangible and avoid getting hit. Aiko-chan didn't have a theory as to how he did it, but she described the phenomenon as a sort of spiral." The slug seemed to give a shrug that rippled down her body. "As for a physical description, that's harder. He was wearing the Akatsuki uniform and an orange mask that covered all of his face but one eye. Aiko-chan said he was definitely a grown man, considerably taller than she was, but I'm afraid she didn't have anything more precise than that."
Yamato looked somewhere between shocked and uncomfortable even as the others glanced at him. "Another one of Orochimaru's experiments?" he asked quietly.
"I'm afraid I don't know," the slug apologized.
"I assume Aiko is alright, then?" Jiraiya cut in, looking tired and disappointed. Probably in himself, because his information networks had never hinted as to whoever this Akatsuki really was, and there must be a reason he hid his face.
Katsuya trilled unhappily. "I didn't understand what was going on," she confessed. "I didn't think any of the blood was hers, but she was very upset."
No one had ever accused slugs of being particularly tactful. Even Naruto wouldn't have phrased a report that way. The group as a whole paused to digest that rather unsettling summation, but no one pressed for answers the slug clearly didn't have.
"What's going to happen?" Sasuke cut in, more practical, though his eyes were hard as well. "Are we being called home, or are we just supposed to be aware?"
"Tsunade-chan just wants you to be careful," Katsuya advised. "And Jiraiya-kun, Tsunade-chan wants you to return home immediately."
He nodded, face serious. The old man glanced around the group, as if wondering if anyone else would ask… "Is it urgent enough for me to ask the toads for a reverse summoning?"
"I think so," Katsuya burbled.
'Then why didn't Tsunade just send Aiko to Hiraishin him there?'
Sasuke bit the inside of his cheek and said nothing. They needed to break this stalemate with Akatsuki somehow. They'd been forbidden to venture into Ame for fear of massive losses, and Akatsuki couldn't launch an attack against more than one target, which would leave them vulnerable to attack at their base in Amegakure. While Akatsuki was supposedly contained in Ame, the situation had at least been stable. But if at least one of them, possibly two had been able to get past Karin's senses…
His eyes met with Naruto's in the flicker of dying campfire light, and he knew his long time teammate was thinking the same thing he was. It was time to do something stupid.