Mist

Chapter 22- The fake jutsu.

Today... what was today?

Kasumi furrowed her brow as she tried to remember what had happened.

Orochimaru's room... the green thing... oh... she passed out.

She opened her eyes to look around the room and she was somewhat pleased to see she was back in her and Tobi's room.

Stretching, she swung her feet off her bed to get up. She looked down to look for her shoes, but she froze when she saw a rug under her feet. But not just any rug...

No... today...today was...oh no... he was already here.

She instantly reached over to grab her katana, but she was surprised to find it was not there.

"Looking for this?" a deep, velvet voice said behind her and her heart skipped a beat. He was here... right here...

After steeling her resolve, she turned around to glare at Madara. She furrowed her brow and said, "Tobi? Why are you holding my katana?"

Suspicion was creeping into her brain, but it was subdued by the confusion.

He activated his Sharingan and mocked, "Oh please, just call me Madara."

Everything in her body froze as all the pieces of the puzzle violently snapped together in her head.

"Madara... you... you've been here the entire time?" she whispered as everything finally made sense.

Why Konan kept warning her, why he had been able to run so fast, why she felt he was always ten steps ahead of her...why the chakra was identical...

"Yes, but you really did like Tobi, didn't you, Kasumi-chan?" he said the last part in his Tobi voice and she grit her teeth.

He had won the battle before it even began...

Kasumi frowned and glared him right in his visible eye, "You bastard! Why do you keep doing this? Why do you keep playing with my head? For once can't you act like a normal human being and get this through your thick skull: I hate you and I want nothing more to do with you, but you have done me wrong and I must avenge my clan!"

He chuckled, but it was not a happy sound. "How will you avenge your clan? Will you attack me? Kill me? Save yourself some time and give up."

She stood up from the bed and he watched her carefully, she was probably going to attempt some sort of pathetic attack.

"Madara... it's been eighty years since you've truly shown yourself to me right?" She didn't wait for him to answer as she continued, "Is this really how you imagined your great reveal to be?"

He narrowed his eyes at her as she smirked and said, "You haven't changed a bit... you're still the same pathetic man that couldn't even hold onto what he claimed was his."

Instantly, Kasumi was pinned against the wall, but her smirk never faltered as she finished off, "How strange, I was bluffing but you actually fell for it."

Madara's eyes widened when she suddenly turned into a pile of ashes right in his hands. He frowned and ran out of the room in pursuit of her, if she thought she was going to get away with a simple transformation jutsu she was wrong.

She shot down the hallways and into the training room within five seconds because she knew she probably only had ten before he found her.

Then, she grabbed a long katana and ran into the middle of the training field. He ran in a second after that and by then she was doing strange seals and her chakra was flaring around her.

"Imperial World Resurrection!" she yelled and a coffin shot out of the ground. She gave him a wide grin and said, "We need a tie breaker don't we? I think your brother would be the perfect person."

Madara couldn't help but be surprised when the coffin opened and his brother walked out. At first Izuna looked confused and when he saw Madara he said, "Madara? Is that you? Why are you wearing that mask?"

"Why don't you kill him again? At least this time you can do it in person," Kasumi said before he could reply.

Izuna suddenly stiffened and drew a katana, which he pointed at Madara. "Brother, I don't want to fight you... but you know how Imperial World Resurrection works," Izuna said and charged at him.

The older Uchiha's frown deepened as he deflected blows from his brother.

He had really messed up this time, he shouldn't have underestimated Kasumi and because he did he had to kill his brother before he could attack her.

"Izuna, I did not wish to kill you, Danzo was not and will never be on my side," Madara explained and as his brother continued to charge at him, Izuna said, "I know... but it is too late for you."

Suddenly, he latched onto Madara and began to light up. He barely had enough time to jump out of the way as Izuna blew up in a colossal explosion.

As he was trying to figure out what happened, Kasumi flew out of no where and threw her sword at him.

He managed to teleport his head in time and the sword simply went through him.

She cursed quietly, but realized she had miscalculated when she couldn't see through the smoke from the explosion.

Madara knew this well and he said, "Looks like I have the advantage now."

He was about to grab her from behind, but all of a sudden Izuna shot out of the smoke and at him.

What...? Hadn't he blown up?

Once again, Kasumi was able to get away and he was left to spar with his brother.

"Izuna, how are you here?" Madara demanded when he knew there was no way he should be here.

His younger brother gave him a cruel smirk, before in a female voice saying, "Oh please, just call me Kasumi."

He narrowed his eyes and glared at her. She had tricked him; there had never been an Imperial World Resurrection, it was just her clone in disguise.

She exploded in a puff of smoke and the real Kasumi came at him from behind.

Her sword managed to land a hit on him and he had a long gash on his back.

He teleported away again and from some distance away he heard her yell, "That's right! Run you damn coward!"

Madara hissed at the feeling of pulsating pain on his back and cracked his knuckles. This had to end, now.

He found her chakra and teleported behind her. However, she had been expecting this so she turned around to try and give him a round about kick.

The Uchiha easily caught her kick, but she was already leaning forward to try and stab him.

Kasumi's sword was centimetres away from his chest when he grabbed her arm and twisted it away from himself, thus making her loose grip of her sword and drop it.

She grit her teeth as he then let go of her leg and used his free hand to seize her by the throat and throw her down to the ground.

A tiny trickle of blood began to flow from her mouth and out of spite she spat at his mask.

He glared down at her before he teleported both of them back to her and 'Tobi's' room. She clearly wasn't pleased with this because she gathered chakra in her hands in an attempt to force his hand off her.

It didn't work because he used his own chakra to counter it. By now, she was breathing hard and running out of any ideas.

"You've improved... but not enough," he sneered and pulled her up to pin her against the wall.

She didn't say anything as he reached to the side of his head to unclip his mask.

The mask fell away and for the first time in many years he showed his face to another living human being.

Her gaze softened when she saw his face and she whispered, "Madara... you look a lot better without the mask on."

He was a bit taken back by her sudden compliment and she took advantage of that momentary surprise to lean forward and with all the force she could muster, smash her forehead into his.

It seemed to hurt her more than him because she groaned, while he simply narrowed his eyes.

However, it hurt him on a different level. In a little shred that was the left-overs of his heart, he felt a strange ache.

She still despised him and he knew there was little he could do to change that.

A bruise was forming on both of their foreheads, but Madara ignored it and said, "Kasumi, listen to me for once. I am not allied with Danzo, he is my enemy and I do not want to kill you. Do you understand?"

At first she looked blank, until finally she sighed and said, "I do."

His heart seemed to hurt a bit less as he continued, "When you disappeared... I was broken and I thought you were dead. I vowed to never care for any once else anymore and I created the Akatsuki to destroy Konoha and Danzo."

She seemed to be paying more attention to him so he said, "Killing my clan was the first part of that plan and the second part is gathering all the tailed beasts to wipe Konoha off the face of the earth."

Concern slipped onto her features and she said, "But all those people... you want to kill them all?"

He nodded. "Konoha needs to be destroyed before I can begin taking over the ninja world... then at last I will bring peace."

The previous concern went away and it was replaced by confusion. "Peace? You think killing thousands of people will bring peace?"

"Yes, Konoha is just an example of what will happen to all the other ninja nations if they resist my power," he explained and a traitorous voice in her head agreed with the idea.

"Then... what are you going to do about me?" she asked and his face softened as he said, "I'm going to make you believe in me... and you will be mine once more. But this time, I will let you choose... do you, Kasumi, want to stay with me?"

Her eyes widened and at first all she could do was stare up in his eyes before she opened her mouth and whispered, "I want to stay with you."

A true, genuine smile formed on his lips and he leaned down to give her a long, much needed kiss.

...

Warning: Spoiler for Naruto manga 505+

...

Zetsu, Kasumi, Sasuke and Madara sat in the main Akatsuki meeting room wearing serious faces.

Madara had just brought them news that Naruto had gotten control of the Kyuubi and killed Kisame.

So now it was just the four of them... everyone else was dead, except for Konan, who left.

Pein... Deidera... Itachi... Kisame...Kakuzu... Hidan...

"It doesn't matter if Naruto has control of the Kyuubi or not, we are still stronger than him and after we seal him, victory will be ours," Madara said and Sasuke nodded in agreement.

It was just Naruto against them, all the other pathetic ninja of Konoha didn't even deserve to be counted.

"We have to act now before he learns all of his new found powers," Kasumi said and Zetsu added, "Madara can teleport us, but I don't trust his technique, you should, he is our leader and he has never failed us yet, key word 'yet'."

Zetsu continued to argue with himself for a while, but then he was done Sasuke said, "We should move out this evening and catch them off guard."

All the others agreed and it was settled, they would take on Naruto this evening.

When Kasumi and Madara were alone in their room, she said, "Madara... I'm worried... what if the Kyuubi is stronger than we thought?"

He sat down on the bed beside her and asked, "What's gotten into you? You're never worried about these things... is something wrong?"

"I don't know... It's just a bad feeling... I don't want you to get hurt," she answered with a small smile.

The Uchiha put his hand on her chin to make her look at him and he stated, "There is no need to worry, nothing will separate me from you."

Then he kissed her and she gingerly kissed back. Even though they had officially been together for five months now, she was still not used to being so close with him.

Needless to say, Madara still hadn't gotten laid.

When he broke the kiss off, she gave him another smile and went to go prepare for battle.

He too got ready and the entire time he worried about what Kasumi had said. She only got worried when something truly horrible was going to happen.

Shaking his head, he pushed the thought away. Victory would be theirs and there was no doubt about it.

Plus, half of the Kyuubi's power had been sealed away the day Naruto was born so the Kyuubi would be considerably weaker.

Still... that Naruto boy was very strong.

He shook his head again. Hadn't he just pushed the thought out of his head?

A few minutes later, Kasumi rejoined him and they were ready to head out in a couple of hours.

As usual, Sasuke sat around in his room all alone, Zetsu continued to argue with himself, Kasumi sat in Madara's arms, and Madara closed his eyes to think about any last minute details.

An hour later, it was getting dark and everyone got together for the final briefing.

"Sasuke you will deal with Kakashi, Zetsu you get to deal with anyone else that interferes, Kasumi, you and I will take care of Naruto and you will use your fake Imperial World Resurrection to confuse him. Try bringing back his parents because he really has such a weak spot for them," Madara explained and everyone took a moment to memorise their part of the plan.

When they were ready, they all put a hand on Madara and he teleported them to the 'secret' island.

From then on, not a single word was said as each of them found their intended victims and attacked.

Sasuke found a very surprised looking Kakashi and attacked him without any remorse.

At first they looked evenly matched, but then Sasuke activated his Sharingan and easily over powered him.

Zetsu found a bunch of people in a tent and he argued with himself over who to eat first before simply slaughtering all of them and continuing the argument.

Kasumi and Madara found Naruto very quickly by the sound of loud yelling. He was screaming something that sounded like a pathetic excuse for a rap at Killerbee.

When they were spotted, the blond had a major hissy fit, turned into a yellow blur and ran at them.

Madara was left to deal with him for a while as Kasumi began fighting with Killerbee. It was much harder than she originally expected and for a few minutes she even found she was being pushed back.

Thinking fast, she did the seals for the Ice Claw Jutsu, but then swung her hand at him, thus making the claws rip off her hands and shoot at him at monstrous speed.

One of them hit him straight through the heart, but it didn't kill him. She took that distraction to tie him up, knock him out and she used a recently learned seal to send him to one of the jail cells in the Akatsuki base.

Finally, she was free to cast her fake Imperial World Resurrection and get closer to the battle currently going on with Madara.

He looked unharmed, but neither was Naruto. They were perfectly matched and Kasumi noticed Madara had to keep teleporting to avoid Naruto's blows.

Naruto suddenly turned to look at her and when he saw his parents he momentarily faltered, giving Madara the opportunity to slash him across the side.

The blond fell to the ground one second, but the next he was running straight at her.

She was fast, but not as fast as him because when she tried to attack him with her katana he easily deflected her blows and knocked her down to the ground.

Instead of looking upset, she smirked and Madara came behind the teen to give him another slash on the side.

Once again, Naruto ran a considerable distance away to recompose himself and think of a new plan of attack.

Kasumi stood up and directed her clones that looked like Naruto's parents to run at him and attack him, all the while saying they didn't want to and this was all done against their will.

The Fourth ran at Naruto first and he said, "Son, I am glad I get to see our family together, but not like this... kill me or I will kill you."

The teen seemed completely distraught and then his mother charged at him. "Son, I am sorry this has been forced on you... kill us or Madara will get his hands on you and the ninja world will be doomed.

Madara was actually quite impressed; Kasumi was doing a great job impersonating their voices and attacks.

Suddenly, Naruto started turning red and he yelled, "You're not my parents!"

Then he destroyed both of the clones in an instant and started charging at her again, all the while yelling, "How dare you try and fool me!"

She got into a defensive position, but Madara suddenly stood in front of her and said, "Go get Sasuke."

Kasumi complied and she found the young Uchiha staring at the dying body of his former teacher. "Sasuke, come on, Madara needs you."

He got up, cast Kakashi one last look and then ran in the direction of the battle.

Madara seemed a little worn out now and he even stopped trying to teleport out of the way. Instead, he blocked the blows with his hands and it seemed to be doing quite a number on him.

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled suddenly and the blond instantly appeared in front of them.

"This is between you and me," the Uchiha continued and charged at his former best friend.

Meanwhile, Kasumi ran over to Madara as quickly as she could manage.

"Madara... what happened to you?"

To be continued!