V.1-C.74│Original Akatsuki I│

The Akatsuki.

Akatsuki was a group of shinobi that existed outside the usual system of hidden villages.

Over the course of several decades, the Akatsuki would take different forms and be led by different individuals. Though each iteration would be viewed as either subversives or criminals, all seeking to make the world a better place through their own means.

Each Akatsuki tended to have multiple lairs across the world, inaccessible either due to their remoteness or the various security measures that protected them.

The initial concept of Akatsuki was devised by Black Zetsu as part of its plan to revive its mother, though it pretended the idea came from Madara Uchiha, whom Black Zetsu tricked into thinking that it was a manifestation of his will.

Akatsuki was originally founded by Yahiko during the Third Shinobi World War alongside his childhood friends, Nagato and Konan.

As citizens of Amegakure who had been orphaned by the Second Shinobi World War, the three created Akatsuki as a way to bring peace to their home country, which too often got caught in the crossfire of the Five Great Shinobi Countries' many conflicts.

Originally, it was supposed to be Obito, under the guise of Tobi, that would supposedly convince Yahiko, the current leader of the Akatsuki to form the organization.

In time, the three would be approached by Tobi, who introduced himself as Madara Uchiha. Tobi would claim Nagato was the reincarnation of the Sage of Six Paths and offer to teach him to control the power of his Rinnegan, though Yahiko, distrusting him, would prompt Nagato to turn down his offer.

Nevertheless, Tobi would later claim that it was he who encouraged Yahiko to form Akatsuki.

This time however, it was not Obito, under the guise of Tobi that would convince and did convince these people to form this organization.

Things had changed, and while not too much from before, it was enough to sway everything a certain way.

Akatsuki's desire for an end to war attracted many fellow Ame ninja to their cause and, in time, word of their exploits began to travel beyond Amegakure's borders.

Akatsuki's early fame was owed largely to Yahiko's leadership and his natural charisma, which kept the group united and motivated them to persevere despite the difficulties of their goal.

Yahiko, however, viewed himself as merely a facilitator for Nagato, who would ultimately be the actual source of world peace because of his Rinnegan. Ame's leader, Hanzo, also became aware of Akatsuki and perceived them as a threat to his rule, a belief encouraged by Danzo Shimura.

Right now, the group is still going on the 'right path,' as some would put it.

Madara himself, still alive, due to many reasons, had taken it upon himself to manipulate things to turn out this way. Though, he wouldn't be personally present or anything like that.

It is through Zetsu, his will, that Madara would be able to do the things he wants. He considered staying alive even longer, as long as he could be, till be must perish to be reborn through the death of another.

He decided that if he wanted something done, then he would have to do it himself.

Manipulating and controlling everyone and everything to go in the direction he wants was something that was going according to his plans. That is until he figured out that Obito is in fact his grandson, as strange as that may be.

Just the very existence of Obito alone has managed to change his way to look at the world. Changed the way he wishes to do things, and instead of placing absolutely everyone within the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

Madara had also been informed of something strange, weird, or maybe even something that could be considered a blessing in disguise.

Obito has the potential to awaken the Rinnegan, the same as himself, meaning that he wouldn't have to worry about whether or not his grandson would be affected as such by the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

Madara considered why Obito has the potential that Zetsu seems to think he has.

Putting that aside, the formation of the Akatsuki was a success, and although Madara doesn't have as much control as he may have liked over them, when the time comes, he believes that he could convince his grandson to take over for him.

To succeed him... 'But I have to look out for a few things first...' Madara thought, his aging body only being kept alive because of the modifications done by Hashirama's cells in combination with the thing he has hooked himself up to.

This form of his was dying, and weak. He wanted, needed a stronger and better youthful body to help him achieve his goals.

Whatever happens to the Akatsuki now, he doesn't have much care for, as long as Nagato Uzumaki stays alive and keeps his eyes safe enough to revive him. In the event that Madara is unable to pull his grandson into his schemes, he still has Zetsu to help him complete his goals.

It was Zetsu after all that managed to pull off the plan to create the Akatsuki.

[]

The blue haired, amber eyed beauty known as Konan was currently having a small stroll in some wooded, forest-like area within the Land of Rain.

It was close by to Amegakure, and the reason for her being out here is to further perfect her control over her special style and manipulation over paper.

As a child, Konan has had a natural talent for origami. She would go on to develop it into her fighting style, leading to the creation of the Dance of the Shikigami. This technique transforms her entire body and clothing into numerous sheets of paper that she can control, shape and change the color of at will.

She could create butterflies in order to gather information or travel long distances. She could harden her paper with chakra to make weapons such as spears, shuriken and chakram-like weapons.

She could restrain opponents by blanketing them in paper, and asphyxiate them if she wanted. She could make paper clones to fight in her place, and even hide explosive tags within them to catch an enemy off guard.

Befitting her title as Angel, she was able to form paper wings on her back. This allowed her to fly, though she was able to hover without them, as well as fire paper from the wings.

Of course, there should be weaknesses and problems with having techniques made out of and manipulating paper. Such as fire or water, but the water doesn't affect her techniques, and fire, even fire empowered by chakra has been eliminated as a way to destroy her paper style.

Konan was also able to produce and fold enough paper to mimic environmental surroundings. She was also able to disguise her paper as the lake of Amegakure, which when opened, sends her opponent falling into an abyss with six hundred billion explosive tags detonating for a full ten minutes.

Really, her paper ninjutsu is versatile in many aspects, and doesn't really have any flaws in terms of chakra nature and stuff like this. In a way, it was also good for other things as well, but she has really focused on developing her techniques in this style.

As she was practicing however, she would sense two chakra signatures nearby to herself.

Deciding to investigate, she headed towards another direction and would soon come across shinobi from another village that was not her own.

'Konoha-nin?' She thought as she in particular identified that there is exactly two boys, and they seemed to both be annoyed at something.

They are just sitting around, keeping up whatever it was to protect them from the torrent of rain above them.

'They must be no more then genin...' Konan was able to get a sense of their prowess in terms of chakra reserves, and she immediately placed them at this shinobi rank of genin. 'From what I understand and know, Konoha usually has teams of four, three genin and one jonin instructor at least. Where are the other two...?'

She didn't know what they were doing here, but she thought that it was something not good.

Releasing some paper from herself, she allowed herself to wrap her paper around those two boys. One with featureless white eyes, that Konan was able to identify as the Byakugan, and the other boy was someone that didn't seem all that prepared for this surprise attack.

"Hey! Damn!" The Hyuga boy said, struggling to break free from the restraints that Konan had put on him. "Nobutoshi! Help me out here!" The Hyuga boy identified to Konan his teammates name.

"Shut up, Kujira! I can't get out myself." Nobutoshi replied as he struggled to escape as well, having snapped back at his teammate.

Konan finally appeared in front of the two boys. "The both of you shall remain quiet, and I shall be asking the questions you will be answering." Konan stated as she also used her papers to cover their mouths as well.

The two of them didn't seem to understand or really know anything, and really, they didn't. The only two that did know anything about the mission they are on was Orochimaru and Obito, and the only real reason Team Orochimaru had come along is due to the fact that they are... Team Orochimaru.

"Now..." Konan was about to start asking questions, that is until she would be interrupted by another two approaching chakra signatures.

One that was at a pretty good level, and then the other that clearly indicated that it was different from the rest.

She thought that killing these two would be bad, and it wasn't like she wanted to anyway. So, she decided that maybe keeping them hostage until she gets a better explanation is better.

Hanzo had recently asked the Akatsuki to met up with him to discuss helping them broker a peace between the nations that flank their own country. If Konohagakure is here, maybe they are trying to get in the way of this and wish to stop them from being able to do anything that was in line with their ideals or dreams for peace.

Soon, Konan would see the two that she was most worried about, or in particular the person whose chakra was clearly indicative of his strength. Or at least should be.

"What do we have here..." The man with eyes of red said while looking at Konan and her two captives.

'The Sharingan...' Konan narrowed her eyes as she was now deciding what she will have to do next. "State your business here, Konoha shinobi." It was still times of war, and it wasn't something good if Konoha was currently in their lands, so close by to their Hidden Village.

"Business? I'm afraid that I will have to ask you to release those two you have captive there." The Uchiha, or presumed Uchiha said to Konan.

"Your presence here is a threat to the safety of Amegakure. State your business." Konan replied with a stoic look on her face, uncaring about the Uchiha's demand.

"Um... Obito... who is she?" The other girl besides the Uchiha asked.

"I think... that you and your two teammates here will have to go back to Konoha. This was a good training exercise, but things are going to be a bit more complicated now." The Uchiha that was now identified by the name Obito said back to the black haired with purple tint girl.

"No! I want to stay..." It seemed like she knew something was up, but before anymore discussion of any kind happened, Konan found herself all alone, with only one person in front of her.

The genin in her bindings were gone, the girl beside the one known as Obito was gone, leaving herself and this Uchiha face to face.

Jumping backwards, Konan went on the defensive. "What did you do!?"

"Nothing. I was just saving those that I am responsible for." Obito replied, whilst thinking internally. 'That damned snake bastard! Leaving me here with HIS team. Well, they can remain safe back at Konoha...' Obito had consumed a large amount of his chakra to teleport them all back to Konoha via the Hiraishin.

"Explain yourself. Why are you here in Amegakure." Konan noticed that the man didn't seem to be at all hostile with her, though this could all be a ruse to get her guard down.

"Now that I think about it... I think that I should talk." Obito said this part more to himself, rather than towards her, but she still heard it and thought of this as strange behavior. "Take me to your leader."

Still on the defensive, Konan wanted to know more but didn't know how to go about this whole encounter. 'He has some sort of space-time ninjutsu. Either that, or he can move so fast that I cannot perceive him.' It was dangerous either way.

"State your name." She already knew, but maybe some better identification would be better.

"Sure. You can call me Obito, Obito Uchiha. Obviously I am from Konohagakure, and have been sent here on a mission. A mission that I cannot divulge the information on why I'm here." Obito responded to her demand. "Though, maybe you could tell me your name as well?" He smiled at her, and it kind of reminded her of Yahiko in a strange way.

There was some silence for a bit, and Konan soon realized that this was going nowhere, so instead, she decided to just leave the area.

She quickly turned around and left, leaving the Uchiha known as Obito behind as she didn't want to further deal with him. She couldn't very well start a confrontation with someone, whose strength and abilities are unknown to her.

He could very well easily be someone that could not only overpower her in whatever skills he has, and beat her. Or if he wanted to... kill her.

She knew that it was better to retreat and pass on information about some Konoha shinobi being here instead of staying and and potentially losing out against this 'opponent' of hers that hadn't even attacked her once.

'Right... He could've easily attacked me at that speed...' Konan pushed that thought to the back of her mind for later.

Right now, she wanted to return to the current base of operations for the Akatsuki and talk with both Yahiko and Nagato about this new individual that is within their country.

Maybe it would help, maybe it wouldn't.