- Chapter 23 -

It Never Ends

The return of the Akatsuki back in the motel room was the hardest thing Akira had experienced up to then. No one talked and no one moved. It was an eerie silence that if one broke, all hell would be unleashed on them. 

Akira found herself sitting in the back of the van all alone for hours, drowning in her own thoughts and petty emotions. Everyone had resided back in the motel room, denying any interaction with anyone. Their heads were buzzing from the gunshot, the thumping of the body on the ground, the promise of death hanging above their heads. 

She had never been more confused in her entire life. Orochimaru's betrayal was the last thing she had seen coming; the man had been loyal to her father and the police department ever since she could remember herself. With his betrayal came her own fall, as she was uncovered in front of the Akatsuki, the people who had welcomed her in their family with no second thoughts. A family she was unwilling to join at first but ended up being her own version of 'home'.

And now, everything had crumbled down.

The back doors of the van opened and Pein hopped in, closing the doors as suddenly as he had opened them. Akira kept her head low and waited for any kind of treatment - a punch, a kick - death. Death had been breathing down her neck for the past hours. 

"I knew who you were since the very beginning."

Akira raised her eyes and looked at the man who had suited himself across her. His stare was not any different from the other times - the same, metallic eyes looking at her with no emotion written in them. 

"Ever since Itachi's ex-girlfriend made me doubt you, I had to do my research. You are not the only one with connections to the police," he continued, hands knotted together in front of him. "I have been keeping a close eye on you ever since then. I have my information, time to spill yours."

The ginger fiddled with her fingers. "All I can say is that my father forced me to do all of this. It sounds fake, but this is the truth. He trained me for the whole summer, took me out of my old school, forced me to cut off any ties with my friends. I have been following his orders for a long time . . . But I disappeared from his radar long ago. At least two weeks ago. So this whole . . . Orochimaru situation was unknown to me, I hadn't shared the information for our meeting with anyone."

A long pause followed in which Pein never took his eyes off her. 

"Why did you keep yourself in our organization, then? After you escaped your father."

"The operation to infiltrate your organization was based on the excuse of my mother's death." She looked up at the male. "My father believed that the Akatsuki caused the fire that killed my mother. As much as I hate him, we agree on one thing; we want to find out who killed my mother. That's why I stayed here. I wanted to find out more."

Pein's index finger twitched. "I see."

Akira leaned back on the van's wall and averted her gaze back on the floor. "Do you hold me accountable for what happened to your leader?"

"No." Pein instantly stood up and opened the door of the van. "However, I want you gone by tomorrow morning. I don't . . . We don't need you anymore."

"Wait!"

The air which blew through Amegakure was chilling. It howled through the empty and abandoned warehouses and it sent chills down Akira's spine once she hopped off the van.

"Gaara's life is on the line here, I won't leave."

Pein sighed and shoved his hands in his warm pockets. "This is something that doesn't concern you."

"Hell yeah it does!" Akira felt bad for yelling at someone who just lost someone close to him but she had no other choice. Another life would be lost if she remained on the sidelines and did nothing. 

"I don't want him to die. I don't want him to end up with a bullet in his head, I don't want the Akatsuki to die, I don't want to mourn another loved one."

Pein simply stared at her just like he always did, making it impossible to read his emotions. Akira's heart kept hammering in her chest, more determined and less fearful as she stared back at him. He breathed out in exasperation and motioned her to follow him. The girl walked after him, relieved that she could help, or at least try to.

Both entered the motel room and Akira was surprised to find out that less people were in - Sasori, the Zetsu brothers, Kakuzu and Kisame. They all turned to look at her, especially Kisame and Sasori who had the same unreadable emotion swimming in their eyes.

"She'll help," Pein stated and took a seat on the hard-rock mattress.

The five men did not dare to retort or complain about this sudden decision; Akira realized what kind of trust the Akatsuki had for their leader. They practically entrusted their lives in Pein's hands.

Akira stayed put and built up the courage to look at the other males in the room.

"So, have any kind of plan in mind?"

"We hand over Gaara," Kuro piped up.

"Wherever he is," Shiro finished.

"No," Akira cut in, shaking her head with determination. "I'm not handing him over. We have to find another way. There is got to be another way."

"Then find it out. Now."

Akira turned to look sharply at Sasori whose eyes were spitting fire. The girl had never seen him so pissed; she could not even believe that Sasori could show his emotions so effortlessly. It always looked like he struggled to crack his face.

"Why don't you think of something too, huh?" she spat back, unable to hold herself back. "It's not my fault that Orochimaru who, apparently, is the head of some kind of mob, found out about this meeting."

"Watch it," Kisame hissed, taking a threatening step closer to her.

"Kisame," Pein boomed. "Akira. We are here to find a solution. Stop bickering like little children and think. Especially you, Akira, because our plan is set unless you convince us otherwise."

Akira hated to admit it but Pein was right. She had to think.

"We'll . . ."

The ginger looked down at the floor, trying to press on her brain and squeeze out an idea. It was difficult to go against what practically was the mob, a malicious organization that would not hesitate to get blood on their hands. In fact, they even seemed to enjoy doing it. Her mind wandered off to her father, to what he had taught her and Orochimaru's role in their operation. Orochimaru would do anything to profit from anything, he expected to be paid back after doing favors. Thus he would aim for two birds with one stone.

That was it.

"We need a decoy."

  。。。＊ 。。。＊。。。＊。。。 

Glasses clunked, punk music filled the tiny space of the underground and people laughed loudly. Normally, this was Suigetsu's natural environment, his comfort zone where he could set himself free from all troubles. But this time it seemed as if the music was too loud, the wave of people was too annoying, the booze was too disgusting. Everything felt too much. 

He let his eyes wander off to the bar mates, to the alcohol that was constantly poured in the shimmering glasses. Suigetsu needed to stop drinking to put a hold on his thoughts, on this idea that he should start over his life. He knew he could not do that, not ever since he first planted a bullet in a man's heart.

Sighing, he drained his glass full of warm booze and set it soundly back on the bar stool. He was totally going to get drunk after another glass of this mysterious liquid.

However drunk he was about to be, his sharp eyes could not miss out the distinctive mop of ginger hair that bounced in this wreck-of-a-bar. And Suigetsu found his smile again.

  。。。＊ 。。。＊。。。＊。。。 

The moment Akira stepped in that god-forsaken bar, she knew that the plan was going clockwork. She did not comprehend what had happened, due to how fast everything took place, but she was sure that her role as the decoy had worked.

The girl could not see anything but she could feel the bumps of the road pushing the vehicle up and down. She knew that the driver was this weird white-haired man with the sharpest teeth who was trying to act as sober as he could, even if his breath could light up a bonfire. She could smell the alcohol even behind the dark cloth that was placed over her head.

However, she was completely sure for one thing: she was going to come face-to-face with Orochimaru and she was going to take him down, once and for all. The gang leader was going down.