Mist

Chapter 20- The green thing.

"Leader-sama, we have returned from our mission," Kasumi said, but didn't look up into the orange haired man's eyes.

"Why so early?" he demanded and narrowed his eyes when he saw the cut on her arm and the multiple blood splatters on Tobi's cloak.

Deidera piped in, "We were attacked by Konoha ninja in the hotel room, but we killed every single one of them for it."

Tobi saw small smirk form on Pein's face and he said, "Alright, as long as they are dead I am happy, now go."

They quickly left the room and when they were a good distance away, Kasumi and Deidera gave each other high five's.

"I told you rehearsing what we were going to say was a good idea," Deidera stated with a smile and she chuckled before saying, "Yes, that was a great idea. I can't believe he let us go after you said we killed people."

"This is the Akatsuki, you kill people and leader is happy," he said with a shrug and they chuckled for a few seconds.

When they came to the blond's room they said they goodbyes and went their separate ways.

Tobi walked into their room first and he pretended to be tired as he said, "Tobi wants to sleep! Does Kasumi-chan want to sleep too?"

She gave him another one of her brilliant smiled and said, "Of course! Now let's go to sleep right away because we might get another mission tomorrow."

He shook his head and explained, "Nope! That was out last mission! We get missions every two months so all of next month we get to relax and stay at base!"

Her eyes lit up and she cheered, "Yes! Now I can go back to training! I don't care if there is no hope for me... I have to at least be able to escape!"

This month she was hoping to improve her speed a bit more and learn a couple of new jutsu. Not attacking or defending jutsu's, but teleportation jutsu's.

If she was going to go against Madara she needed to have some sort of escape plan.

Then another idea came into her head. She had been thinking of her battle with Madara too strategically, she needed to ask someone who wasn't so serious what they would do.

"Hey Tobi, what would you do if you had to fight Madara in a month?"

He narrowed his eyes and thought for a second on a reasonable Tobi-like answer before he said, "Tobi would scream at Madara until he got bored and left!"

She raised an eyebrow at him before she hesitantly asked, "You... you would scream at Madara? And... You think that would work?"

"Yup! Tobi knows it would work because Tobi can scream really loudly," he answered matter of factly.

Kasumi simply shook her head and went to lie down. Maybe Tobi wasn't the right person to ask.

The next day, she got up really early to go run laps and a couple of hours after she did that, Kisame showed up in the training room.

"You're already here? Wow, you must be really committed to this whole 'kill Madara' thing," he said as he walked closer to her.

She shook her head and corrected, "No, I am really committed to the 'meet Madara in a month and survive the encounter' thing."

He lifted his sword off his back and said, "So, are we going to do this or what?"

Smirking, she ran at him and he realized he was having a harder time keeping up with her blows. So she was improving even more.

Maybe in the end, she would stand a chance against Madara.

...

"Kasumi-chan, why are you pacing around the room so much?" Tobi asked and she sighed loudly.

"It's already a week before... that day... and I feel I haven't been doing enough to get stronger," she closed her eyes and buried her head in her hands.

Tobi resisted the urge to sigh as he realized just how wrong she was. For the past three weeks she had been working herself to the bone.

Getting up early to run laps, training with Kisame, practicing her jutsu, training with random Akatsuki members and then running more laps.

She had even managed to convince Pein to spar with her for a bit. Surprisingly, she had been able to keep up and even land a few hits on him.

Still, she was not pleased with her progress and now she was starting to seriously worry about the day she got to meet him.

"Kasumi-chan, Tobi thinks you should go to sleep and relax! One of the most important things about a battle is to be level headed and Kasumi-chan is too excited now," he warned and he was pleased when she sat down on her bed and closed her eyes.

"Yes... Tobi you're right... thank you... goodnight I guess," she climbed under the covers and forced herself to sleep by focusing chakra in the sides of her head.

Recently she hadn't been able to get to sleep for hours, so in the end she gave up and used chakra to get herself asleep.

It was originally a technique used in interrogation to make people not remember anything that was done to them and Tobi knew that perfectly well.

The second he was sure she was in a deep sleep, he slipped into her bed and wrapped his arms around her waist.

She wouldn't remember any of this anyway.

In the middle of the night, Tobi woke up because Kasumi seemed to be struggling in his arms.

She looked like she was still asleep, but she was tossing, turning and muttering something.

"... No... go away...leave me alone... no... Madara..."

He narrowed his eyes at her sleeping form when he realized she was having a nightmare about him.

Suddenly, her eyes flew open and she instinctively reached over to the side of the bed, where she kept her katana.

When she saw Tobi was in her bed her eyes widened and she mumbled, "Tobi... what... what are you doing in... my bed?"

At first he was going to speak in his Tobi voice, but then he remembered she was still under the effects of the chakra she had used to force herself to sleep.

So, in his natural voice he whispered, "Shh... Kasumi... sleep... everything is going to be alright... just close your eyes and go to sleep."

She looked up at him and asked, "Madara? You... you're here? Are you going to kill me?"

"No... I am never going to kill you, my precious, precious possession," he said and pulled her in closer.

Kasumi didn't resist and fell asleep again. If only she would react like this six days from now.

The next morning, she woke up with a start and gasped when she remembered the most bizarre dream ever.

In it, Madara had tried to kill her, but then she was back in her bed and he promised he would never kill her.

She frowned at the contradiction and pushed the thought out of her mind so she could go and train.

There were six days before that day, which meant she had five days left to train. She wanted to spend the last day getting energy and resting.

As usual, she ran laps first and then trained with Kisame before practicing a few new jutsu she had learned.

When that was all done, she chuckled and went to go find her challenger for the day. Pein was obviously never going spar with her again, Kisame was all worn out, Deidera was still mad at her from the time she accidentally cut off his hair, Tobi was too hyper, Kakuzu didn't care, Hidan would insist on fighting until he actually did kill her and Zetsu... was Zetsu.

So... that left Konan.

"Konan! Where are you? I need a training partner and we've never trained together before!" Kasumi yelled as she walked along the Akatsuki base halls.

For a second she wondered if the blue haired woman was hiding from her, but then she walked out of a room and stood in the hallway.

"There you are! So... I was wondering if you wanted to train," Kasumi said sheepishly when she saw the intent stare being cast at her.

"I'm sorry, but I have a mission to go on. However, I have to warn you one last time before it's too late. Stay away from Tobi, he will only cause you grief," Konan said and before Kasumi could ask, there was a puff of smoke and she was gone.

Stay away from Tobi? But why? He had been her friend for almost three months now and she trusted him.

Shaking her head, she began walking in the direction of Hidan's room. Might as well decapitate him as some training.

...

"Okay... today I have to rest and relax... rest and relax," Kasumi tried to pound in her head as she resisted the urge to run into the training room and practice.

"If Kasumi-chan needs someone to help her relax, Tobi can be that someone," he offered with a hidden smirk.

He wanted to spend her last free day with her before he brutally informed her she had been with him the entire time.

"Aww, thanks Tobi! I would love that," she said and grinned at him. "So, what did you have in mind?"

"Tobi wanted to play tag!" he announced and instantly a red flag went off in her head. Hadn't she made a mental note never to play tag with him?

She thought it over for a couple of seconds before she nodded and yelled, "You're it!" before dashing down the hallway.

He ran after her and he was surprised she was not making it easy for him. Just when he thought he had her, she turned into a blur and he was far away from her again.

Perhaps he should have paid more attention to how she was training.

No, there was no need for that. Even if she ran faster than him, he could still teleport and capture her.

He increased his pace and she chuckled as once again he failed to catch her.

"Are you ready to give up yet?" she taunted as he got closer.

"Nope! Tobi is going to catch Kasumi-chan and win the prize!" he announced and she didn't even slow down as she asked, "What's the prize?"

"If Kasumi-chan wins, Tobi will make her cookies and if Tobi wins, Kasumi-chan will make him cookies!" he explained and she agreed to the terms.

Either way, they were getting cookies. Hopefully real ones... not baked shuriken.

Half an hour later, when Tobi still had not caught her, he decided to put his plentiful chakra to use and catch her once and for all.

She instantly realized when he began using more chakra and she too began running faster.

They were so caught up in their game that they didn't notice when poor, still somewhat decapitated Hidan began walking down the hallway toward them.

Smack!

"Ow! Shit! My arm fell of again!"

"Tobi caught Kasumi-chan!"

"Tobi... I... can't breathe..."

Hidan staggered up from the ground, picked his arm up, swore at them loudly and then left.

Meanwhile, Kasumi was turning blue because the second she collided with Hidan, Tobi grabbed her by the waist so tightly all the air got knocked out of her.

He seemed to finally realize this because he let go of her and she took several deep breaths to calm herself down.

Now running into Hidan was something neither of them expected to do today.

"Kasumi-chan has to go make Tobi cookies now!" he reminded her and she gave him a dirty look before she began walking toward the kitchen.

She hadn't the slightest idea how to make cookies, but she was sure hers would be better than Tobi's.

Half an hour later a distinct 'bing' echoed through the Akatsuki base and Tobi ran into the kitchen a split second after it.

"Cookies! Cookies! Kasumi-chan's cookies are ready!" he yelled as she pulled the cookies out of the oven.

They were her attempt at double chocolate chip cookies, but in reality they looked like her attempt to kill Tobi.

The poor cookies had somehow turned into large, bumpy brown things that resembled a really nasty turd.

Tobi, however, seemed to like them as he devoured half of the tray within the minute. She took a deep breath and reached for one of the cookies.

If he wasn't having any trouble with them, neither should she. But then again, Tobi had no problem eating burned rice and raw beef so...

"Tobi likes Kasumi-chan's cookies! Does Kasumi-chan like the cookies?" he questioned even though he could clearly see the answer form her sick looking facial expression.

"They are... special... but err... Tobi, you can have the rest," she said at last and he finished the tray off for her.

He would rather eat her cookies than his any day.

"So, what do you think we should do for the rest of the day?" she asked and he replied, "Go play in Orochimaru-creepy-snake-rape-man's room!"

At first she looked like she was totally going to shun the idea, but then her face lit up and she whole heartedly agreed.

They quickly made it to Orochimaru's old, abandoned room that no one ever dared approach because something might eat them alive in there.

Tobi quietly opened the door and reached to turn the light on, but tensed when he pulled on something slimy that fell on him.

Meanwhile, Kasumi had found the actual light switch and turned it on.

When she saw what was lying on Tobi, she put a hand on her mouth and resisted the urge to puke violently.

Tobi looked at the slimy thing and even he, the great Uchiha Madara, wanted to scream like a girl and run away.

It was the rotten, naked, really disgusting shell of Orochimaru's old body and its legs were spread right in front of his face so he was staring at his butt.

Several things happened right away, Kasumi found a bucket to puke in, but then proceeded to stab the insides of the bucket that were trying to jump up at her face, Tobi pushed Orochimaru's shell away from him, but the force made something green shoot out of his butt and onto his mask.

He had to resist the urge to rip his mask off and set it on fire the second he took a breath because that green stuff really did smell soooo bad.

At that moment, Kasumi prepared to take one last stab at the living contents of the bucket, but tripped over Orochimaru's shell and fell right on his counter.

Immediately, ropes shot out of the counter and tied her down to it, while she continued to struggle.

Tobi was having problems of his own, that green thing on his mask refused to come off and the thought he was going to die of suffocation.

He saw a towel lying on one of the counters and picked it up, but much to his dismay, it latched onto his arm and began gripping for all it was worth.

Kasumi saw his dilemma, but she was having bigger problems as something worm like crawled out of a crack in the wall and began advancing toward her.

She continued to struggle, but with no avail so she took a deep breath and at the top of her lungs screamed 'help!'

In the meantime, Tobi was wrestling with his own arm, but unfortunately he too tripped over Orochimaru's body and landed right on top of Kasumi.

Though one good thing did come out of it, the arm with the freaky living towel ended up smashing onto the counter right where the worm like thing was, thus killing both of them.

Now they only had two problems: Kasumi was tied to the counter and Tobi still had that smelly green thing on his mask.

"What the fuck is going on?" Hidan demanded as he stepped through the doorway. When he saw Orochimaru's body face up, he looked away and yelled, "Orochimaru has a penis!"

Somehow that got the attention of all the other Akatsuki members and they magically showed up in the room to see.

Finally, Deidera noticed Kasumi and Tobi needed help so he said, "Tobi, un, what's that green thing on your mask?"

He would have said something, but he was determined to hold his breath until it was safe to breathe so Kasumi replied for him, "Orochimaru's excrements."

Everyone seemed to puke a little in their mouths and quickly left. She gasped and yelled, "Wait! No! You can't just leave us here! We need help!"

No one seemed to care so as a last resort she yelled, "Orochimaru has a vagina!"

Still, no one came in to help them so she said, "Tobi, maybe you should get off me, untie me and then I can try to get that green thing off your mask."

He was still holding his breath as he did as he was asked and Kasumi quickly began trying to help him.

It didn't want to come off, so she managed to get her hands on a torch before she said, "You know the saying fight fire with fire? Well, we're going to fight crap with fire!"

Then, before he could do anything she turned the device on and began to burn away the green thing.

At first it didn't seem to work, but then it really didn't seem to work as the thing swelled up, turned white and made a very anti-climatic miniature farting noise before it fell of Tobi's mask and he took a much needed breath.

However, the results were devastating because the gas was breathed in by Kasumi and it was indeed so bad that it made her pass out right then and there.

He was able to catch her and after he did, he quickly left the room.

His eyes were narrowed as he made a mental note to someday set that room on fire and then blow it up.

To be continued...