Chapter 37 – Preview

Author’s note: preview of Chapter 37 as it stands now. Please forgive any typos.

Itachi pinched the bridge of his nose and stifled a sigh.

But Katsuro didn’t relent. He sat across the table looking straight past Itachi’s dango stick and into his black eyes. He wanted an answer. It had been the only bright spot on the horizon for a week now.

Clomping through the backwaters of Rain then pushing through windy wastelands of the territories surrounding it, Katsuro thought of all the things he wanted to ask Itachi. And finally meeting up with him at a dusty roadside dango stand, he wasted no time getting to the point.

But Itachi wasn’t as forthcoming as he’d hoped.

“Well then, what exactly did he mean?”

‘“He meant exactly what he’d said,” Itachi said blandly. “At 21 the kyuubi’s chakra will fuse with your own. You will no longer need to house it in the cell, and you will have complete access to its chakra. That’s what he meant by ‘ultimate weapon.’”

“Why 21?”

Itachi shrugged, looking uninterested. “Why not? I didn’t decide it, that’s just the way it works.”

“So there have been others—“

“Of course there have been others who’ve house the kyuubi before you,” Itachi said as if he were scolding a child. “You know this.”

Katsuro ground his teeth. It was true, he did know that there had been other containers before him. But he never really thought of it before. Someone else had held this terrifying power inside them…. What happened to them?

Katsuro’s eyes darted over the rough-hewn table, thinking. “Pain said if I joined Akatsuki I could learn how to better control it. But what else is there to learn? I’m doing fine on my own—”

Itachi nearly rolled his eyes. “Some things must be experienced, not explained—“

But the days of waiting and wondering and worrying caught up with Katsuro. He wanted answers.

“What’s worth me joining that group that I can’t figure out on my own,” Katsuro said savagely, leaning over the table. “What does Pain know that you don’t!?”

Itachi slammed his hand suddenly on the table, making the dango sticks jump in the tray. Katsuro knew he’d finally struck a nerve.

“There is nothing that Pain knows that I don’t. You wouldn’t be here otherwise,” Itachi growled. “If it weren’t for me, you would be rotting in a Konoha jail cell.”

Itachi’s flare of emotion passed as quickly as it came. He took a breath, his voice evened out and he resumed his calculated mask.

“Pain and I want the same for you, but we have…different ideas about your path. Which is to be expected. He is from Rain, I am from Konoha. Even within an organization like Akatsuki, we are bound to retain our differences.

“However,” Itachi said, speaking more to himself than to Katsuro, “the Rain is doomed to fall.” His hand hovered over the tray, picking out another spear of dumplings.

Katsuro frowned, utterly confused. “What do you mean?”

Itachi looked up, almost pitying. “Sometimes I forget that you weren’t brought up in Konoha.” He swirled the dango in the sticky syrup.

“There is a reason why the Rain is no longer a country. Why they lost it all. And Konoha had a significant hand in that.” Katsuro thought Itachi sounded almost proud as he said it. “You are from Konoha, as am I. As is the kyuubi.” Itachi flicked his eyes to Katsuro’s gut then took a bite out of the dango. Katsuro instantly clamped his hand over his stomach, feeling self-conscious.

Itachi smirked as he chewed. “When I was a boy in academy, there was a saying we often used during spars, ‘The Rain is doomed to fall.’” His smile turned cruel. “It means that, like the Rain country in our history books, you were going to loose. It’s inevitable.”

Itachi took another bite, locking eyes with Katsuro.

“Pain’s methods are born of the Rain. No matter what the outcome, they will always fall behind Konoha.”

Katsuro pressed his lips together, immediately thinking of the old captain and how many years he had struggled to see his country rise from the black waters. Even Pain had spoken passionately about Rain’s resurgence, though reclaimed metal and stolen goods were the only thing that kept the place afloat now. But this is what the other countries really saw them as — a joke. The butt-end of a children’s rhyme.

The sense of purpose Katsuro felt the last few days inexplicably left him. He didn’t think it was possible to feel worse, but the thought of the Captain’s hopes, the hard-scrabble life of the Rain citizens, even the elaborate levels of protection, now made more sense. They had lost everything, just like Pain had said.

Katsuro liked Konoha even less now. He didn’t care how powerful Itachi made it out to be.

“Pain and I are at odds over your path. I think he took a calculated risk in telling you anything about the bijuu. I would not have done it, simply to protect you. In case you were caught or interrogated, ignorance offers a great deal of protection. But,” Itachi shrugged. “I suppose it’s his way of persuading you.”

Katsuro sighed, his determination replaced with hopelessness. “I still see no reason to join Akatsuki,” he said.

Itachi dropped the empty spear on the tray and shrugged as if it was already decided. “There are things that, as the host, you must learn by experience. Like a jutsu. It can’t simply be taught. You must establish a bond, and Akatsuki is the correct step for you at this point in your development—“

My development? Or the demon’s,” Katsuro said suddenly, feeling like a pawn.

Itachi looked at him coldly. “They are both the same. Your and the demon are intertwined. Inseparable.”

The words felt like a noose around his neck, tightening…confirming something he didn’t want to accept. Katsuro pushed down the urge to fight against it.

Itachi didn’t notice. He continued, reciting as if reading from a textbook. “At at 21, the host and demon chakras fuse completely and the demon vacates its cell. The kyuubi’s chakra harmonizes with its jinchuriki and can be used at no damage to the host.”

But looking up and seeing the turmoil in Katsuro’s face, Itachi lightened his tone. “That’s when you become the ‘ultimate weapon.’ Incomprehensible power, all at your command.” Itachi picked up the last dango stick and tipped his head. “Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted? When I found you back in Konoha, and all you could spout about was how you wanted to be a shinobi? Well, if you play it right and follow the path we’ve laid out for you, you could be the most powerful shinobi in the world.”

Katsuro didn’t respond. He sullenly picked at a splinter on the table.

Was this really what he wanted? To be the most powerful shinobi in the world? He certainly didn’t feel powerful. Or special.

Instead this just felt like one more in a long line of blows. Konoha didn’t want him. Sakura didn’t want him. And Itachi…well the answer was right in front of him, wasn’t it? His worth was only what was locked in his gut. But the life that housed it was inconsequential. He was just a vessel.

Being the most powerful shinobi in the world was just a consolation prize.

An all-too-familiar emptiness was slowly returning, chilling him to the core. He was unwanted in the world.

There were more things he wanted to ask, more facts that gnawed at him. And Itachi hadn’t answered all his questions, not really—

Itachi suddenly looked to the road. “Good, they’re here.”

Katsuro turned around. No one was there.

“I am meeting some Akatsuki members,” Itachi said. “You might want to stick around. If Pain has given you two weeks, they may help you decide.”

“Who is it,” Katsuro asked, squinting into the distance. Someone must have tripped Itachi’s traps at the edge of town.

“Beauty and the Beast, as you call them.”

Katsuro grimaced and stood quickly, ignoring Itachi’s soft chuckle. Hidan and Kakuzu. Where most of the Akatsuki were intimidating, these two were…different.

“No thanks. I need to be going.”

Lips curving in a sphinx-like smile, Itachi merely shrugged. Katsuro strode hastily for the corner of the shack, a little surprised that Itachi didn’t try to stop him.

It was only at the moment that he rounded the corner, freedom nearly in sight, that Katsuro realized Itachi must have known…. He was heading straight for—

Hidan.