The Dark Side of Akatsuki. Chapter 24

Title: Tipping the Scales

Orochimaru danced through the battlefield, dodging and parrying blow after blow. Each move was easy, graceful, but his thoughts were also divided.

These opponents were amusing, though he'd forgotten to ask for introductions. He supposed it was too late for that now. Still, the two outlanders had been obligingly communicative with each other. If what he was hearing was correct, then besides the obvious 'Naruto,' the swordsman was named 'Mossball' and the leg-fighter was named 'Dumbass'. This would also make the third outlander who had not yet joined the fight 'Luffy'. Well, they were outlanders, so he supposed it might be possible.

Dumbass and Mossball wove in and out of combat, neither one willing to attack at the same time, but both very comfortable with taking turns. That appeared to be the limit to their teamwork. Honestly, they were a bit too predictable. Orochimaru's blade, the Kusanagi-no-tsurugi, licked out and trimmed the end of Dumbass' lit cigarette. With a curse, the man spat it out and returned seconds later. Hopefully he would pay a bit more attention next time.

All things considered, it was a wonderful time for progressing his knowledge. Being a member of Akatsuki had always been stifling, only worth it for the security it had afforded him, and in recent months he had seriously considered leaving the group behind entirely. When their new objective had been revealed, Orochimaru had laughed at their mysterious leader in derision. Tobi's power might be unquestionable, but the man's plans seemed positively ludicrous even by Orochimaru's warped standards of ambition.

Naruto clapped both hands together in a familiar gesture, and Orochimaru melted into the ground, becoming one with the cobblestones of the harbor. Moments later, a tremendously stout toad in stone armor smashed into the ground where he had been standing. Jiraiya's pupil was foolish indeed to think he could catch him with a technique he had seen used dozens of times before. The toad disappeared a moment later in a cloud of smoke.

That was before last week, when he had finally gotten his hands on someone from the outside world, who was one of the most interesting test subjects that he had ever seen. A woman who could possess the properties of glass. She could harden, change her shape, turn nearly invisible, or even use refraction to create deadly beams of light when exposed to the sun. The path of her chakra was truly extraordinary. The clincher, though, was that it had all happened because she had eaten a single fruit.

Just a fruit.

Orochimaru flowed out of the stones, slashing in a fluid motion. Naruto's shadow clone disappeared in a puff of smoke. Pity. He'd thought that had been the real one.

Though the woman hadn't survived the testing processes, his investigations being somewhat more vigorous than usual, he had learned oh so much. But now he had even more questions. Apparently they lost the ability to swim? Why should that be? Surely designing these powers so that they all resulted in the ability to sink in seawater would be more, not less, difficult? It was frustrating. Finding more test subjects, and especially one of those Devil Fruits, was now his second-most important priority, and for that they needed to find their way to the outside world. To accomplish that, he would stay with Akatsuki.

His most important priority was a secret to all but Danzou.

Without a pause, Dumbass launched a kick of meteoritic speed. Orochimaru dodged to the side before letting loose more snakes to distract the boy. Honestly, these two strangely-named outlanders were frighteningly powerful given their obvious lack of proper training.

It was well known to those who paid attention (though so few really did) that the Elemental Kingdoms consisted of just a couple of large islands in the middle of an immense ocean. Fewer still knew about the weather patterns and magnetic disturbances that made travel to the outside world a deadly prospect. Finally, almost no one knew about the extremely unusual permanent genjutsu that made travel and navigation to the outside world literally impossible, even for those who could command storms and seas alike. Once one left the coast, you could no longer trust your eyes when it came to the sun or stars. Navigation was simply impossible.

Mossball was panting and bleeding from numerous slashes and bites, but he had been very impressive, actually landing a couple small strikes even as he fought alone. His skill was incredible, though the young man seemed completely unused to dealing with even the most basic of tricks. He would never have a chance at winning until he could learn to track the location of Orochimaru's true body at all times.

In the space of just three weeks, the ever-bubbly Tobi had solved all of these problems. Who would have guessed that the magnetism and weather effects that shrouded their islands were being generated by an ancient jutsu just waiting to be switched off by someone with the right advanced bloodline?

How had Tobi guessed that? The entire affair was infuriatingly unlikely. The man was holding something back. He knew things he shouldn't about the outside world. It had turned out that navigators outside their island just so happened to possess devices that let them move freely from island to island, sailing along 'roads' of magnetic fields, and those roads were something that the Elemental Kingdoms had lacked until last week.

The missing fighter, Luffy, was now charging into combat, screaming with quite a lot less subtlety than was elegant. Orochimaru turned to regard him for a moment. Actually, this was becoming a bit dangerous. Swordplay had never really been his specialty. Orochimaru could escape and continue the fight at range at any time of course, but if this 'Luffy' was as strong as Mossball and Dumbass were then he would either have to kill them or leave.

All they needed now was a ship and navigation device to use to reach the outside world. He didn't trust any of their number to guess their way through building a ship that could survive the external seas, so they needed a ship that had been proven to work. Luckily, ships were coming to them like mice entering a serpent's nest.

He flung out one arm and threw half a dozen of his most venomous serpents at Luffy, promptly binding him around his limbs and torso. The new arrival fell to the ground. With Luffy taken care of, he turned to focus on the other combatants.

Honestly, the tiny ship he had just stolen was probably not large enough to fit such a... touchy group as Akatsuki, but finding two small ships might work out even better than a single larger one. It was just that the owners of these ships seemed so protective of them.

Orochimaru's palm slammed into the ground and a burst of chakra sent spires of earth as sharp as spears shooting up from the ground around him. The other combatants dodged desperately, managing to avoid all but superficial wounds. So impressive!

It was for this reason that he was so excited right now. He had always taken an intensely personal interest in the development of young warriors and now he was being violently assailed by no less than four promising ones. Three outlanders and a Konoha shinobi of special note.

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