Mist

Chapter 20- The night attack.

She ran into the cave and she saw Madara with a blood thirsty grin on his face, holding a kunai to Tobi's throat.

"Hello Kasumi, we need to talk."

All her thoughts disappeared and she could only stare helplessly as her friend was in grave danger.

"Madara, let Tobi go... he has nothing to do with this," she said when she finally found her voice again.

He chuckled. "Alright, but don't you think you've gotten a little too attached to this vermin?"

She narrowed her eyes and managed to retort, "Why? Are you jealous?"

Again, he chuckled, but this time he let go of Tobi and pushed him to the side roughly, thus making him fall onto the ground.

He didn't move and Kasumi began to worry as she said, "Why isn't he moving? What did you do?"

"Nothing, but I want this to be just me and you... no little rats to listen in," he started walking toward her and it took her all of her confidence not to back away.

When he was standing right in front of her, he put his hand on her chin to make her look up at him and said, "Do you know how long I looked for you after you disappeared?"

"Looked for me so you could kill me of course," she added and she couldn't help but wince when he pulled her forward by her chin.

"I do not want to kill you. Danzo is not on my side," he explained and out of sheer reflex she said, "You're lying, you're always lying!"

He glared down at her and sneered, "You think I would want my brother dead?"

She faltered for a bit, but then whispered, "I don't know, but I do know this. I can never believe anything you say, so why don't you finish up with your fake little speech and then abandon your plans of world domination?"

"I would never give up, and if you think you can kill me in two months and save the world like that puppet Itachi wanted you to, you are wrong. Very, very wrong," he said and he pulled her forward for a forced kiss, but with her newly gained speed she was able to push his hand away and jump back a couple of feet.

"Two months? Why so specific?" she acted innocent and he chuckled before he replied, "Don't play stupid, I know that deal you made with Pein."

Her eyes widened and she was going to ask him something else, but then he was gone.

For a second she just stared at the space he had been, however she quickly remembered about Tobi and rushed over to his side.

"Tobi, Tobi, are you okay?" she tried to shake him awake.

"Tobi's head hurts!" Tobi whined quietly and Kasumi sighed with relief.

Then she frowned and said, "I am still too weak... I should have attacked him or... or... maybe threatened him. Gah! I'm so stupid!"

He looked at her and out of curiosity he asked, "What would Kasumi-chan do if he came back?"

She was silent for a moment and then she answered, "I would ask him why he killed his own clan... and then I would try to stab him, but that doesn't matter, he's gone and he knows just how weak I am."

Trying to stay in character, he said, "Tobi thinks Madara will come back! Madara seems to like Kasumi-chan!"

For a second she looked like she swallowed her tongue, but then she answered, "No, I don't think so. If he liked me he wouldn't have done all the things he did eighty years ago... and he certainly wouldn't try to hide from me like this."

He wanted to correct her and explain his reasoning, but he just bit his tongue, rubbed his head and pretended to be hurt.

Whether she got the message he was sending or not, clones were very useful when you're trying to fool people of your identity.

...

Kasumi grit her teeth when the full force of Kisame's heavy sword fell onto her own small one.

However, she couldn't hesitate and she pushed herself up to push it aside and attack Kisame.

He saw this coming and he jumped back a couple of feet before once again swinging his weapon at her.

This little cycle continued for about another hour until both partners agreed they had enough training for the day and went their separate ways.

Kasumi stayed in the training room and ran laps, while Kisame went off on another mission.

This was the first time this month she had time to run laps. She usually only had enough time to spar with Kisame for a bit because for some reason the day after Madara's visit she got a ton of missions.

One mission came after the other and they got harder each time.

Tobi came into the training room and yelled, "Kasumi-chan! Leader-sama gave us another mission!"

She resisted the urge to groan, but quickly took a shower and got ready for the mission. Something told her this one was going to be very important.

Possibly more important than all the other ones.

Tobi, Deidera and Kasumi walked into the leader's room and he was already there, waiting at the desk.

"Your mission today is to find out what Konoha official Danzo is doing. Konan has found he has been up to some strange activities lately and I want you to check it out," he said and then waved them out of the room.

This time they were lucky, this mission should only take them a couple of days.

They set off immediately and they barely stopped for any breaks. In information gathering missions, every second counted because every second their target was saying things they wouldn't be able to hear from here.

By evening they were at Konoha, but they were completely exhausted.

"Tobi's feet hurt!" Tobi complained and the other two members of the group ignored him, while internally complaining about how much their feet hurt too.

"Tobi, I know something that will cheer you up," Kasumi began and when Tobi began to stare at her intently she finished, "Leader-sama gave us money to sleep in a hotel!"

He instantly began jumping up and down, and even Deidera couldn't resist smiling. Tobi may be annoying, but he was also very good stress relief.

A few minutes later they were standing in their hotel room and all they could do was stare in awe.

There were three luxury beds, a large bathroom the size of their room back in the base, and on a table in the kitchen there was a large basket filled with chocolaty treats.

"This... is... heaven," Deidera broke the silence and instantly everyone snapped out of their trance and rushed at the treats.

They had eaten almost nothing the entire day and they seriously needed some food in their systems.

Seconds later, they were lying on their beds with their hands on their stomachs and grins on their faces.

"No Deidera... that was heaven," Kasumi said and they chuckled. Those must have been the most delicious treats they had ever eaten in their lives.

Suddenly, Tobi felt an extreme killer aura somewhere near their room and he said, "Tobi has to do something! He will be back in a second!"

Neither partner gave this any thought and he left to go into the hallway to investigate. Even though he had to act like a weakling in front of Kasumi and Deidera, he didn't have to do that if he had to eliminate any threats.

"So you're the strongest out of the bunch?" a male voice said at the dark end of the hallway and he activated his Sharingan to see who it was.

"Danzo... what are you doing here?" he demanded and he didn't even bother changing his voice.

"So the saying is true, the higher you climb the harder you fall. Isn't that right, Madara? Or should I say, Tobi?" Danzo taunted and Madara narrowed his eyes at him.

"Answer me," he pressured and Danzo just did a hand symbol and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

He punched the wall beside him and muttered, "Damn it", before going back to the hotel room.

His eyes narrowed further and a deep frown formed on his face when he saw the room was empty and the windows were open.

He should have known, Danzo was only a distraction so he wouldn't notice as they were kidnapped.

Not only that though, there was blood on the bed Kasumi had been lying on and he cursed loudly before jumping out the window in pursuit of the people who took his partners.

No one was taking Kasumi away from him.

...

Kasumi shot through the forest and avoided the barrage of kunai being thrown at her.

She didn't know where Deidera was, but she knew he was not safe. The second Tobi had left, a group of ninja jumped through the windows and tried to grab them.

Deidera had been easily grabbed, but she had been able to jump out of their way and out the window.

However, she wasn't completely lucky because on her way out, one of the ninja had cut her on the arm.

Suddenly, another group of ninja was standing in a clearing in front of her and she had no where to go.

Kasumi frowned and quickly did the seals for the Ice Claw Jutsu. A few of the ninja's looked surprised to see the jutsu.

So Itachi hadn't been lying, she was the last survivor of her clan.

Taking advantage of their surprise, she ran at the ninja closest to her and used the Ice Claws to slash them down.

It worked for the first five, but there were still ten ninja left and they looked like they wouldn't go down so easy.

She made the Ice Claws disintegrate and she quickly drew her katana. Time to put her training to good use.

Much to her dismay, the ninja were all very slow and it took her nearly no effort to cut them down.

So her training with Itachi and Kisame had paid of after all.

A few seconds later, she was standing in the clearing surrounded by bloody bodies, holding a bloody sword.

She shuddered, but wiped her blade clean before running back in the direction she had last seen Deidera. She needed to save her partner.

Along the way, she ran into a very strange acting Tobi. He didn't greet her happily, but he just gave her a serious nod and continued to run.

Tobi was deeply engrossed in his thoughts, he was pleased Kasumi had managed to fight the ninja off, but he still felt stupid for being so easily tricked by Danzo.

"Tobi, do you know where we are going?" she asked when she realized she had no idea where Deidera's chakra had gone.

He paused for a while to make sure he could pull off his Tobi voice and said, "Tobi knows where to go! Trust Tobi!"

She had no problems with that and they continued to run for another few minutes.

Finally, they came upon a small, rundown house and Tobi ran in without any hesitation.

Kasumi followed a few seconds after, but she was cautious enough to check for traps.

Tobi dashed down the stairs and even though he saw the traps, he simply ran through them. His speed was no match for their pathetic snares.

She watched in quiet awe as not a single trap came close to hitting him. So he had been holding back in the Akatsuki base.

If she had tried running after him when he was going to this pace, she would easily fall behind.

The same went in reverse and she made a quick mental note never to play tag with him.

Getting her head back in the task at hand, she ran after him and she drew her sword in case anyone jumped out to attack her.

When she ran into the room he had gone in, Deidera was staring at Tobi with wide eyes.

"Tobi, un, I didn't know you could do that," he said and Kasumi took that time to look around the room.

Her eyes widened when she saw bloody bodies all around the room.

When had he...?

Tobi sighed, shook his head and then fearfully asked, "Deidera senpai! What happened? Why are there bloody bodies everywhere? Where is Tobi?"

Deidera and Kasumi exchanged confused glances and the blond cautiously stated, "Tobi... you did this... you don't remember?"

He shook his head again and then in a dejected tone said, "Tobi did this? Tobi doesn't want to hurt people... Tobi is sorry!"

Kasumi hesitated for a second before changing the subject by saying, "Deidera, do you know why they tried to kidnap us?"

The blond furrowed his brow before shrugging and saying, "I guess they realized we were Akatsuki members and decided to try and kill us."

She seemed to accept that and behind his mask, Tobi smirked. That had been a great stress reliever.

He hadn't committed mass murder in a while and he needed to get it out of his system. Even better, he was able to pretend he had some sort of split personality that liked to kill people.

"Tobi thinks Kasumi-chan and Deidera senpai should leave this place! It's scary!" he broke the silence and they nodded before making their way out of the room.

"Tobi, Kasumi, we have to go back to the Akatsuki base because I know security will be extra tight now that they know we are here," Deidera offered rationally and they agreed.

There was no way they could complete the intelligence gathering mission now.

As they headed back, they had to hide their chakra's several times when Konoha ninja scouts passed by in search of them.

The rest of the journey went silently and each of the ninja was deep within their thoughts.

Tobi was thinking what he would do now that Danzo knew of his identity. For sure, he knew he had to keep Kasumi away from him or his identity would be blown and his plan ruined.

He absolutely refused to let that bastard ruin any more of his plans.

Deidera was thinking about how mad leader-sama would be when they came back, but at least they had killed off come Konoha ninja.

That was always a good thing.

Kasumi, on the other hand, was thinking about how strangely the night had gone by. She had managed to kill fifteen ninja with ease and judging from their green vests, they had been Jounin.

But... how was that possible? Had she really improved that much over the last two months?

She really hoped so, she only had a month left before her final show down with Madara and she didn't know if he would pay her any visits in between.

Narrowing her eyes, she realized she was still too slow.

Madara had eighty years to keep improving his speed and he was probably capable of turning into a blur as he ran. No... He had no reason to. He could probably still teleport like before.

Her eyes narrowed further and she realized just how little hope there was for her to get anywhere with him in battle.

No matter how fast she got, he could simply teleport behind her and with one blow kill her.

Deidera noticed her angry facial expression and he asked, "Kasumi, un, is everything alright?"

She shook her head and gave him a fake smile. "Yes, of course, I was just thinking."

He didn't pry any further, but after a few minutes of silence she said, "Deidera, what would you do if you had to fight Pein in a month?"

At first he just raised an eye brow at her, yet he seriously assessed the question and answered, "I would run, Pein is too strong for me to handle and I would only make a fool of myself."

Kasumi didn't look pleased with his answer so she continued, "What if Pein killed everyone you cared about and then tried to force himself on you. Wouldn't that be enough motive to attack him?"

He looked a bit horrified at the 'force himself on you' part, but he furrowed his brow and tried to think about the question deeper.

Finally, he said, "If he did do that, I would want to fight him to the death, but it would not be the smartest choice. If I was able to think clearly, I would take time to find out his weaknesses and wait for the perfect time to attack. Not exactly one month... it would have to be the time that suited me best."

She nodded and then cheerfully said, "Thanks Deidera! That's a great idea!"

"Wait... you have to fight Pein?" he asked out of curiosity and she scoffed.

"I wish, if I had to fight Pein I would be the happiest person in the world!"

Tobi watched the conversation with mild interest, so Kasumi was re-thinking her strategy of how to fight him.

It didn't matter though, she was too weak to even land a hit on him and anything she did he could easily counter.

He had already thought about any possible scenario and in each one he came out victorious.

However, there was one little problem with his plan. What would he do after he suppressed her?

Of course he wanted to just kiss her and make her completely his, but over the years he had learned that was not the smartest thing to do.

If only he had known that eighty years ago.

To be continued...