32: Juzo

Izumi's POV:

"Orochimaru, Sasori, you have a new job." I tuned out the rest since it's nothing major until I heard my name. "Izumi, Juzo, you two will be assassinating Kogoro Nido, he'll be coming down the southern coast road next week, get it done." Pein said, "Hai." Juzo said while I merely nodded. Then Pein assigned Kakuzu on a bounty mission and dismissed us.

I undid the jutsu and was now sitting in front of a campfire with Juzo on the other side. "Well then, let's just camp for the night." I nodded, "I'll take the first watch." He nodded and went to sleep while I jumped onto a nearby tree and sat on the trunk. Should I save Juzo? 'Maybe.' If Juzo lives, Kisame might not join and stay rogue or either he will join and probably request to join us since he took interest in Itachi for massacring the clan. It'll probably be the same for me since I killed the elders. Not only that, Juzo's sword won't go to Zabuza either since it fell back in Kirigakure's hands when Juzo died. 'Yeah.' This could be a problem, I've never seen a trio in the Akatsuki, wonder how this will go. 'So you're going to save him?' Yeah, why not? It'll probably complicate things but I've already screwed over the plot so why not screw it even more? 'Preach sister.'

After a few hours, I woke Juzo and faked sleep. Well not really, I had Mew take over to keep my body awake while I slept in the mindscape. Something I realized that I could've done a year ago. The only problem is that my body won't be physically resting so my movements are quite sluggish and weak. In order to cover that, I recreated energy bars to eat although I'll have to use something else soon since I'm eating it a lot.

Soon it was morning and we started walking until we reached what seems to be a farm with what seems to be lots of wheat. Oh it's this scene. We stopped walking and had our backs facing each other since we didn't know which way the target was coming from.

"Do you know a shinobi named Might Dai?" I turned to the side and signed, "I know a Might Guy." He sighed, "Huh, well that's the kid from that time." Well, Dai is Guy's father anyway. "Who could've expected that fuzzy fun sized bearded jerk would use taijutsu like that?" That's to be expected from the father of who Madara declared as the strongest. "Thanks to Might Dai, the seven of us got cut down to three." And?

"I could care less about why you joined the Akatsuki. I don't even want to hear your reason." Here it comes. "And it's okay if you don't want to know." I heard him pick up his sword and swing it towards my neck and stopping, "Listen to me!" I didn't even flinch, I need to play my role as a emo anyway. "Tell me, what's your ninjutsus specialties." All. "I can do kenjutsu, and do some ninjutsu, what about you?" I signed, "Lightning style, fire style, earth style, wind style, water style, genjutsu, kenjutsu, and medical ninjutsu."

"Oh? You're quite the kunoichi, I'll give you that, Former Anbu member Uchiha Izumi, Izumi of the Sharingan and Clan-Elder Killer Izumi..." Didn't know I stole Itachi's nickname, oops. "People throw many nicknames around for you, you're notorious." Tell me something I don't know. "You'll start with the preemptive attack with your genjutsu or whatever is your specialty. Then I'll jump in and you back me up." I looked at him with my sharingan activated, "That's Formation B." I signed, "What's A?"

"We each do things our own way." A sounds way better. "Understood." I turned back and just waiting while we pass the time with some small talk. Soon people came walking. 3 people in the front with a sword and at the back was 2 people carrying a red decorative box and some other people holding swords surrounding it.

"Get out of the way." Juzo started talking which I tuned out, never understood why people would talk or lecture in the middle of battle. I get what he's trying to do but there's no point when those people are about to die. They took out their swords and lathered it with their chakra so I blew a fireball jutsu at them while Juzo went in and slit someone's throat while I jumped up and threw shurikens from behind killing two of them. One leapt up, poised to strike us down. I landed and immediately looked at him in the eye and put him in a genjutsu, effectively knocking him out. Juzo leapt up and cut the box in half with his sword. Blood seeped out of the box.

Then we went off to bomb a bridge. "Wonder who the hell would pay us to do such dirty work." Juzo commented as the bridge exploded. We went off to a forest and settled down, making some small talk about the Akatsuki and Pein. "Speak of the devil, he's calling for us." I formed the hand sign for it and closed my eyes and opened it again to find myself as a glitching hologram once more.

Orochimaru glanced at me which I ignored, "So Izumi, have you gotten used to the Akatsuki?" I ignored him, "How would you feel about changing partners and teaming up with me?" I ignored him again. "Hey, we're just getting our formation down. Don't try to steal her." Juzo sounds like a pedophile now. 'Pfft.' Orochimaru frowned, "I wish leader would put more thought into this." For the first time, Sasori spoke, "You're one to talk, you damn snake!" Pein broke up the meaningless argument.

"Thanks to your work, the Akatsuki's reputation is growing in the underworld. And now the Akatsuki is ready for its next step." Jinchurrikis now? "The Five Great Nations harbor most of them. But the whereabouts of the tailed beasts are unknown for a few of them." I want my boba... TwT "So we just have to find them?" Kakuzu asked. "For now," Pein replied.

"What will you do with them eventually?" Orochimaru questioned. Pein ignored him, "We'll hunt down and collect every Tailed Beast." Orochimaru's eyes narrowed, "Seems like there's more to it." Pein ignored him again. "Juzo, Izumi, you'll handle the request from the Land of Water."

"Hai." I nodded while Pein just assigned missions to the others and dismissed us. "This is ridiculous. I never wanted to go back to that depressing place." How unfortunate. We turned in for the night and soon started heading to the Land of Water. "Well, the job is easy. We have to assassinate a member from the Feudal Lord's clan in the Land of Water. The Hidden Mist can't interfere in the Feudal Clan's Affairs which is why they came to the Akatsuki." You say it's easy but you die here. 'True.'

We got there by the afternoon and waited for night to come. "Have you ever come to the Land of Water?" He asked while I signed, "Never on a mission." He smirked, "So for an outing then?" I gave him the okay sign, "Definitely." My face was still blank. "You have no sense of humor!" If Shisui was here, those two would be best friends.... He put his sword down, "Oh, I forgot about Formation C. If I'm caught by the Mist, kill me immediately." Or save your depressed self. 'Pfft!'

"No Formation D?" He turned to me, "Don't have one, what do you want me to do for Formation D if we were to have it?" He asked while I looked at him coolly, "Nothing in particular." The conversation ended and we silently waited for the night. Soon we were about to infiltrate.

"Are you good at infiltrating?" He asked, not taking his eyes away from the building. "Average." I signed while also not looking away from the building, "Then show me." I nodded while hearing Mew retort in my mind. 'Average? What a lie.' Can't deny that. I suppressed my chakra signature and leapt over the wall and put a genjutsu on the guards soundlessly while Juzo strolled in with his cheese block of a sword out.

We went in and killed every living organism in there because we don't know how to be subtle. "P-Please! Spare my life!" I was leaning on a pillar, staring at our target who's on his butt begging for his life. "I don't have anything against you but whoever hired us does so you should blame them in the afterlife." Juzo brought his sword down and sliced the him in half. I figured something like this would happen since I was pretty sure Kisame would be my partner in the future but it was still disgusting. We both left the building and leapt from tree to tree when I sensed a group of powerful chakra signatures coming. I sent Juzo a look, "Yeah, I know." He brought up his hand and formed a single hand sign. "Hidden Mist Justu!" Mist came in and shrouded the field when it was suddenly blown away. "Wind style: Supreme Typhoon!"

I narrowed my eyes as I was forced to land on the ground with Juzo beside me. "Do you remember the formations?" I nodded while the Mizukage and his shinobis landed beside him on the trunks. The Mizukage or rather Yagura pointed his staff at Juzo, "I never expected you to reappear in the village, Juzo." We were surrounded in a matter of seconds. "We'll arrest you here and now. Even if your partner is Izumi of the Sharingan." I looked at Juzo or rather his water clone for what he wanted to do next. He sighed and said, "This is Formation C." I nodded, unsheathed my rapier and killed him.

Everyone was shocked by what I did as Juzo got slammed into a tree before turning into water. During the confusion, I killed the 2 shinobis that stood by Juzo's water clone while activating my sharingan. "Don't look into her eyes!" Yagura looked up to see Juzo above him about to bring his sword on him which he blocked with his staff. "Izumi!" I turned around at his call to throw in one of my fastest jutsus. Lighting Style: Lightning Python. A blue lightning snake came out of my hand and it hit Yagura in his side. "Augh!" He grit his teeth before he had to jump away.

"Lord Fourth!" A mist ninja shouted before turning around to Juzo slashing his sword at him and the other ninja that was with him. Then I felt a demonic presence which I jumped away immediately to see Yagura in his 4 tailed beast state whom had leapt up to pounce me just now. "The Fourth is a jinchuriki who can control his tailed beast!" Juzo informed. I threw some kunais which Yagura smacked away and leapt at Juzo who tried to block Yagura with his sword but got knocked away. Yagura leapt at me which I quickly dodged while making sure that I didn't get hit by his Coral Palm jutsu. He then proceeded to charge up a tailed beast bomb and hurled it at Juzo who was about to try to block it with his sword but I quickly grabbed Juzo and body flickered onto a tree as a huge explosion resounded through the area. Juzo's eyes widened at the sight.

Juzo and I literally bailed after the explosion and  we soon stopped running after we were completely out of the Mist. "That was close, if I actually decided to try to block that, we would've died." Juzo said while he set his sword down. "I'll get us some firewood." Juzo nodded and proceeded to go look for food. Soon we had a fire going and was eating food that I cooked after discovering Juzo's horrible ability to cook. "This is good! Didn't eat such food in a long time." I just continued eating before Juzo spoke again, "Ne Izumi, thanks for saving me." I looked up and nodded. Then Juzo started chatting while I gave some nods here and there while giving my opinions on things every once in a while. "Ya know, I never thought I'd have someone who can be an ally." He put his hand on the hilt of his sword, "The only ally I considered was Kubikiribocho."

"Never thought that cheese block sword of yours would have a name." I already knew his sword had a name but I just signed it to mess with him. "Oi! It's not a cheese block sword!" He looked at the said sword before visibly sweat dropping, "Or maybe it is, I can't unsee it now. Thanks a lot Izumi!" I stuck out my tongue while holding up a peace sign, "No problem!" He kept his annoyed face on before he started laughing while I smiled softly which I hid by shoving a piece of meat in my mouth.

I have a feeling that we're going to get along now.

2201 words

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