Previous Parts of this AU
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
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“We should go check what that was,
right?” Harry said, when no other explosions followed the first.
“There’s no we,” Suigetsu
retorted. “You ain’t going anywhere near the explosions.”
“You’re not supposed to head into
danger!” Karin screeched at Harry at the same time.
Not one to be silent, Hideo also said,
“Nidaime-sama, it would be much safer to wait for someone to bring
us proper intel of what’s going on.”
All three of them shared unhappy looks,
as though surprised they were all thinking the same thing.
Harry didn’t like their new found
common synergy. “It’s probably something to do with Sasuke.”
“Sasuke is still unconscious in the
west, Nidaime-sama,” Hideo reminded him.
“You don’t have to be conscious to
cause trouble,” Harry said.
“Nidaime-sama,” a grey-masked man
knelt in front of Harry. “There are missing-nin in the west.”
“Missing-nin?” Harry asked in
confusion.
“They’re criminals who have
defected from villages and live a life of crime,” Hideo explained
helpfully.
“Missing-nin from here?” Harry
asked.
“No, Nidaime-sama,” the masked man
replied. “It’s Akatsuki.”
Hideo hissed in worry while Karin’s
face twisted in a grimace.
Thankfully, Suigetsu looked as confused
and unsure as Harry felt, showing that the word meant nothing to him,
at least.
“And the Akatsuki are?” Harry
prompted.
“Very dangerous,” Hideo said,
looking at Harry with renewed worry. At Harry’s questioning look,
Hideo added, “They’re a criminal organization that
Orochimaru-sama used to be a part of before he founded Sound.”
“So, they’re here to get revenge
for his death?” Harry asked with confusion.
“No, I’m sure he had a falling out
with them,” Hideo said. “He didn’t publicize what happened, but
there was an implicit understanding to always avoid the Akatsuki.”
“We can’t avoid them if they’ve
come here by themselves,” Harry pointed out.
Hideo shook his head, a real fear
colouring his eyes and face. “Orochimaru was wary of fighting
against them.”
“Who said anything about fighting
them?” Harry frowned at the ninja’s one track mind. “Obviously,
we need to talk to them and figure out what they want.”
“Nidaime-sama,” Hideo said,
“They’re criminals! Dangerous criminals.”
“So?” Harry retorted. “They don’t
know how to talk?”
“They won’t want to,” Hideo
replied.
“Have you tried talking to them?”
Harry asked the masked man, who had not risen from his kneeling
position.
“No, Nidaime-sama, the border guards
set up the barriers after using the explosion to deter their entry,”
the masked ninja said.
“The explosion was caused by a border
guard?” Harry asked with confusion.
The masked ninja nodded. “It was the
only way to create enough time and distance to bring down the
barrier.”
Harry narrowed his eyes at everyone’s
unbothered expression. “So what do they want?”
“To kill us all probably,” Suigetsu
said with an excited gleam.
Harry considered all possible options
and settled on the most sensible. “We should wake Sasuke and make
him fight these Akatsuki.”
“Nidaime-sama, no,” Hideo pleaded.
“The structural damage would be catastrophic.”
“Wouldn’t structural damage be
better than injury and possible death?” Harry retorted.
“The amount of money we would need to
rebuild and repair,” Hideo paled. “We don’t have that kind of
money.”
“All right, calm down,” Harry said,
“That just means we need to talk to them.”
The masked man intervened. “We don‘t
have anyone well versed in negotiation."
“Why would criminals want to
negotiate?” Karin scoffed. “Hideo just said we’re out of money.
So, it’s not like we can bribe them if they’re not here to
slaughter us for fun.”
Another masked man landed in a kneeling
position in front of Harry, worry audible in his voice.
“Nidaime-sama, the Akatsuki are trying to break through the
barrier.”
“I don’t hear any explosions,”
Harry said with a questioning tone.
“Seals,” masked-man number 2
replied with a worried tone. “We think one of them has sealing
knowledge.”
In a stern, no-nonsense tone, Hideo
asked, “Who is it? Do we have any intel on which Akatsuki members
we’re dealing with?”
Masked-man 2 shook his head. “The
guards deployed the barrier too early. No one got a look at their
faces. And now the barrier is blocking our visuals.”
“Useless border guards and their
twitchy fingers,” Suigetsu said with a snort.
“Take me there,” Harry told the
masked men.
To the masked-men’s credit, neither
hesitated nor argued. Masked-man 1 stood and took Harry’s
outstretched hand. They moved in a disorienting blur of sounds and
scenery. In a matter of seconds, instead of the dreary interior of
the village buildings, they were outside under the open sky.
Harry took a long moment just to stare
up at the blue sky.
When he looked back down, Hideo,
Suigetsu and Karin were there, their objections loud and clear in
their expressions. When they spoke, Harry tuned them out and squinted
past the bright glimmering barrier, trying to catch sight of the
missing-nin that everyone was so fussed about. If they were as
dangerous as everyone thought, then putting the village and its
inhabitants at risk would surely get him out of his unwanted Kage
position. “I’m going to talk to them.”
The trio’s stunned silence only
lasted an instant, before they erupted in vehement disagreements.
“How are you going to talk to them
when you don’t even know who they are?” Karin said, “The
barrier is making it hard to get a proper read of their chakra.”
“Why waste time talking when you can
kill them before they can get any ideas?” Suigetsu said.
“Nidaime-sama, please don’t rush
into anything,” Hideo started.
Harry rolled his eyes and touched his
throat with impatience. “Sonorus.” The muscles in
his throat tingled and stretched. Harry took a deep breath and said,
“Akatsuki ninja, why are you disturbing this peaceful morning?”
“What the hell?” Karin stepped away
from him and pressed her ears with a pained grimace.
Seemingly unaffected by Harry’s
magnified voice, Suigetsu pointed out, “It’s afternoon.”
“Whatever,” Harry said and then
winced as the spell carried his voice to his distant audience. He
hurried to continue, “you want, whatever your reason for this
unexpected visit, let’s have a discussion. With words, instead of
explosions.”
Karin signed and closed her eyes. She
raised her right hand, extending only her index and middle finger in
front of her mouth. “They’re not shaping their chakra into
attacks.”
“If you are hungry, then we can send
out some food,” Harry said.
Karin smacked his arm. “You moron, be
serious, they’re... are you serious?” Her eyes twitched behind
her lids and her forehead furrowed. “The one with the monstrous
chakra is amused.”
“We don’t have any good food that
could sate criminals!” Hideo reminded from behind Harry.
Beside Harry, Suigetsu nodded. “The
grey goo will just make them kill you faster.”
“You’ll die too!” Karin snarled
at him, her red eyes glinting in the sun.
“I can turn into water,” Suigetsu
taunted her.
Something flickered in the distance.
“Shit!” Karin turned back to the
barrier, “one of them is coming closer.” Her voice wavered as she
said, “And the chakra is similar to Sasuke’s.”
Hideo raised his voice, “Barrier
team, reinforce the...”
“Itachi?” Harry winced at his
magically magnified exclamation and dispelled it with a quick
Quietus.
“Harii-san,” Itachi replied with a
polite nod from the other side of the barrier.
“You’re the dangerous criminal
everyone’s so worried about?” Harry asked in disbelief. “Did
they confuse you with someone else?”
“Nidaime-sama!” Hideo yelped.
The barrier in front of Harry gleamed
brighter.
“You are the new Otokage,” Itachi
stated.
“For now... it’s a long story,”
Harry said. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve come for my brother, Sasuke,”
Itachi said after a considering look between Harry and the
surrounding ninja.
Harry frowned, remembering Sasuke’s
mention of Itachi. “Sasuke is your brother? He mentioned wanting to
find an Itachi, but I wasn’t sure it was you.”
“Nidaime-sama, you can’t let them
meet. They want to kill each other,” Hideo whispered in a desperate
rush.
Harry frowned and glanced back. “Who?”
“Sasuke and Itachi,” Hideo said.
Harry turned to face Hideo completely.
“But they’re brothers?”
“Itachi killed his entire clan.
Sasuke was the only survivor of that massacre.”
Harry blinked. “Are we talking about
this same Itachi?”
“Yes, Nidaime-sama, the massacre was
big news all over the shinobi nations. And Sasuke was vocal about his
plans for Itachi,” Hideo replied in a rush.
“You say that like Sasuke doesn’t
always want to kill everyone around him,” Harry said.
Suigetsu snorted, his skin flickering in various states of transparency.
“Stop ignoring the murderous criminal
on the other side of the barrier.” Karin hissed at Harry.
“Right,” Harry cleared his throat
and turned back to Itachi. “You can’t meet Sasuke.”
“We could just kill them both and get
their bounties,” Suigetsu said, sharp teeth gleaming in his
unnerving smile. “No one will miss the last Uchiha.”
“I’m not killing anyone,” Harry
said.
“I can kill them,” Suigetsu
volunteered.
Karin scoffed.
“No one is killing anyone!” Harry
said with a louder tone.
Itachi tilted his head.
“Yeah, you too,” Harry replied in
annoyance. “If you’re here to kill Sasuke, that’s not
happening. He might be very annoying, but killing him is out
of the question.”
Itachi didn’t raise his voice, but
his words were still intimidating. “You will stop me?”
None of the ninja with Harry spoke, but
the air vibrated with their tense anticipation. “I’ll do what I
have to do.”
Itachi stared at Harry for a long
moment before he said, “How do you know Orochimaru is dead?”
“I watched your brother burn his
remains into ashes,” Harry retorted.
“We destroyed everything we found,”
Hideo added. “We didn‘t leave a speck behind.”
“Does his curse seal still exist?”
Itachi asked.
Harry frowned. “What’s a curse
seal?”
Hideo hesitated, glancing away from
Itachi to look at Harry. “It’s a seal that Orochimaru-sama put on
a select few. It gave them power, making them stronger.”
“I’m guessing there were some side
effects. It wouldn‘t be called a curse seal otherwise,” Harry
reasoned.
Hideo nodded but addressed Itachi.
“They’re seals. Seals don’t disappear when their creator is
dead. That would make them useless in the long run.”
Itachi tilted his head. “Do you know
what the cursed seal contains?”
“A curse?” Harry ventured to guess.
“In a manner of speaking,” Itachi
agreed. “It contains a part of Orochimaru’s consciousness.”
“The curse seals did have a lot of
Orochimaru’s senjutsu chakra,” Karin admitted in a low voice,
breaking the heavy silence that had fallen over them.
Hideo sucked in a startled breath.
“What does that mean?” Harry asked,
wary.
“Senjutsu is bullshit. So if that’s
true then he probably won’t stay dead,” Suigetsu said with
a bitter tone.
“Did Orochimaru really do something
like that?” Harry asked.
“If he had a chance to,” Hideo
said. “He most definitely would have. Sasuke has a cursed seal,
Nidaime-sama.”
“Then, let’s just remove the seal,”
Harry said.
Itachi interrupted, a hard anger lacing
his words. “Uneducated tampering with the cursed seal will only
result in catastrophe.”
“You know how to remove the cursed
seal, don’t you?” Harry asked. At Itachi’s silence, Harry
sighed, “And you won’t share the information, will you? I guess
Sasuke will just have to deal with our bumbling attempts to remove
his cursed seal.”
Itachi’s eyes flickered to red.
A thin jolt of red light passed through
the barrier and slammed into Itachi’s chest.
Itachi crumpled to the ground on the
other side of the barrier.
“Did you just knock out Uchiha
Itachi?” Karin screeched in dismay.
“You all seemed worried,” Harry
pointed out. “I took my cue from your reactions.”
“You antagonized him!” Karin
yelled. “You can’t just knock out a missing-nin when his partner
with the monstrous chakra is still around!” Karin hissed at him,
her nails digging into his arm. “And heading straight at us.”
“If he’s worried about Itachi,
that’s a good thing,” Harry said.
“It is most definitely not!” Karin disagreed.
A tall blue someone landed beside the
prone Itachi, an even bluer sword slung high over his shoulder.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=This is probably the most stressful day of Hideo's life.
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