Chapter 76 - 69 (1/2)

Itachi led him to their lair, where the rest of the Akatsuki currently stays. It was a dark and gloomy place covered with rain water. Ten huge fingers were erected in front of them and Hikaru could see the husk of the Ten-Tailed Beast behind the tall pillars of fingers. They were inside of a cave under the village of Ame.

”Do you guys always stay here?” Hikaru asked Itachi, who was right beside him.

Itachi shook his head and explained, ”No, we don't stay here all the time. You can call this place our meeting room. We have our own living quarters but it's not that different from this place. We usually don't stay in the village for too long since we have jobs to do, but this is a different occasion.”

”What kind of occasion?” Hikaru asked.

Itachi then said with his usual stoic face, ”New members are joining us, and two of them at that. 2 and half years ago, two of our members were mysteriously murdered by someone. After digging for some time, we found out that the one who did that goes by the name of Hikaru Hiroaki. Does that ring any bell?” Itachi looked down on Hikaru, who is currently sweating.

They continued walking towards a hallway filled with torches, this somehow reminds Hikaru of Orochimaru's lair.

”Even though I've only known them for a short time, Deidara and Sasori were still my friends. Anyway, don't feel sad about that, in our line of work our chances of dying are always higher than the average shinobi. They would've died later even if they didn't die back then.” Itachi continued.

Hikaru felt quite uncomfortable, knowing that he killed the friends of Itachi. He just shook it off and continued walking in the hallway.

”Weird, where are the rest of your teammates?” Hikaru asked, seeing that he couldn't see a single person in here other than Itachi and himself.

”Ah, they must still be out in the village, They are buying things for themselves, since it's quite rare to have a break once in a while.” Itachi said with his stoic face still there. Hikaru wonders if he even changes the look on his face.

After a few moments of walking, they finally ended up at the end of the hallway. There were two doors in front of them, Itachi opened them and Hikaru finally saw Pain and Konan.

Unfortunately, it seems like Pain's real body is not here. They must be hiding him somewhere around the village. He was just there, standing on the ground with his back in front of them. He was using Yahiko's body.

He turned around and saw Hikaru.

Then, silence ensued in the room. Konan was sitting on a chair, silently sipping from her tea cup filled with tea.

Konan had short, straight blue hair with a bun, amber eyes with lavender eyeshadow, and a labret piercing. She wore the typical Akatsuki robe.

Pain decided to break the silence and said, ”That is unusual, I have seen all the pictures of all Jinchuriki, except for the nine-tailed jinchuriki, but I have never seen this one. Is he the nine-tailed jinchuriki?” Pain seems to be confused because Hikaru is emitting a huge amount of chakra, comparable to that of a tailed beast.

”No, leader-sama. He is someone who just wants to have a talk with you.” Itachi explained to Pain stoically.

Pain then narrowed his eyes, directly staring down at Hikaru.

Hikaru seemed to be annoyed by something and said, ”You know, I hate people looking down on me, especially someone like you who has an ego as big as the heavens.”

Pain(Tendo) then frowned and said, ”Your friend seems to have quite the mouth there, Itachi.”

Itachi said nothing, knowing things are about to get serious.

”I have not come here for some idle chat, Nagato.” Hikaru said in a cold serious voice.

Hikaru suddenly felt that something was behind him and he was not disappointed. All the bodies of Nagato except for Tendo were all behind him, threatening to attack him if he misses his words.

(Note: I'll call Yahiko's body as Tendo from now on)

Tendo walked slowly near him and asked, ”Who are you? How do you know my real name?”

Hikaru just smirked and said, ”Oh, I know a lot of things about you, Uzumaki Nagato. How you were trained by Jiraiya, how Hanzo betrayed your group and made you kill Yahiko, and how you met 'Madara' and formed Akatsuki under his leadership.”

Back with Nagato's real body, shock was evident on his face. Someone with all this knowledge should never exist yet here he is, a child who seems to know everything about him. He kept his cool and calmly decided to ask some questions from this child.

”I'm sure you would like to ask some questions but that can save for later. I just want to talk about your godly 'plan'. Oh, and this five behind me? They're quite the nuisance, so I'll get rid of them.” Hikaru said as he looked directly at Tendo's eyes.

Without doing anything, all five of Nagato's bodies exploded out of nowhere.

Seeing this, Konan tried to be cautious before trying to use her jutsu but Itachi appeared behind her faster with a kunai on her neck. After his illness was cured, he can now use 100 percent of his strength and the blindness caused by the mangekyou sharingan was gone without a trace. Previously, he could only use less than 40 percent of his strength due to his illness.

”Y-you traitor.” Konan managed to mutter out.

”Move slightly and I'll cut your head off.” Itachi ruthlessly said.