Inevitable
Chapter 24

Two more months passedand the kidnapped couple grew used to living with the Akatsuki. The teams hadonly managed to catch the seven tails and were taking a break due to theknowledge that the eight and nine tailed jinchuriki were the most powerful, andthe eight tails - Killer Bee - had control over his demon octopus's powers, sohe would be difficult to defeat even if Pain himself faced him, so instead, therogue ninjas spent their days like they usually did before the whole demonhunt: training, going on regular missions, and other strange things…

"No, firmer. Positioning is everything,"Itachi commanded, observing as his student then changed to a solid and stableposition appropriate for the activity they were doing. "Alright! Now...Start!"

"One, two, three,four, I declare a thumb war!" Amejisuto and Deidara shouted while movingtheir thumbs. Their hands were locked together and both were staring at theirbattle of digits. The intensity was rising as they moved quicker, pinning theother down for a few seconds with almost-bruising strength before they escaped.Hidan, Itachi, Kisame and Tobi were gathered around and watching.

"This isboring," Hidan yawned.

"How about wemake it interesting?" Kisame smirked, pulling out a few coins and placingthem on the large table that had the thumb wrestlers fighting on the other end."I'm not dumb enough to bet large amounts, but I'll place money on thisnonetheless. I bet Deidara will win."

"Hn, why not. Ibet on Ameji. She is my student… Andwould probably kick my ass if I bet against her," Itachi took out a fewcoins and added them to the pile.

"Thanks for yourconfidence in my skills," the brunette rolled her eyes before focusingagain.

"Don't tellKakuzu we're doing this. He would have a cow. I bet on Deidara too. I would saythat it's because girls are weak but I can't say it when both are girls,"Hidan threw some loose change on the table.

"Hey!" thetwo in competition objected before going back to the intense battle.

"I thinkAmejisuto will win! She's awesome! And even if she doesn't, she's still awesome!" Tobi put down a bitmore than the others.

"Woah, Tobi, thatmight be a bit too much-"

"Nonsense! Tobican bet on whoever Tobi wants with however much money Tobi wants to add,"the masked man crossed his arms childishly, not even apologising forinterrupting Itachi.

"I didn't knowthat he still had money. Figured he'd spend it on candy and stickers orsomething," Hidan smirked.

"EW! DON'T LICK ME,THAT'S CHEATING!!! Not to mention gross!" the Ishi's voice called thesurrounding members' attention. They looked over and saw she was glaring andDeidara was looking at her, amused.

"What? You agermaphobe or something, yeah?"

"If I say yeswill you do that again?"

"Yes."

"Then no.”

"Ok, that's goodto hear, yeah," the blond smiled ever so innocently as the brunettescreamed again at feeling the tongue slither out once more.

"Is that againstthe rules?" Tobi asked.

"I doubt thecreators ever really came across people with mouths on their hands, so no.Besides, who would bother writing a rule book for thumb wrestling?"

"Tobishould!" the 'childish' man squealed before taking paper out ofwho-knows-where and started jotting down rules. "And tongue interferenceisn't allowed! Do it again and senpai gets disqualified!"

The thumb wrestle wenton for a while and everyone stayed silent before Kisame started to get annoyed."One of you guys just win already!"

"Alright, fishface, I'll be sure to finish this quickly, yeah," Deidara saidconfidently.

"That's what you think," Amejisuto smirked,using a smidge of chakra in her thumb to pin his down and hold it there foreight seconds of him struggling.

"Yay! Amejiwins!" Tobi got up and danced around happily.

"So Tobi and Isplit the money," Itachi smirked, counting the change and splitting itevenly. "Here Tobi," he held out the other man's winnings.

"Nah, keep it.Tobi's just happy he got to see a pretty girl kick senpai's butt!" hegiggled oddly.

"Why you-"

"I won't stopgetting you back, Senpai!" the masked man ran away at top speed whileDeidara sat down on a couch with a sigh.

"Jeez, you putclay bombs in his and Orochimaru's room a fewtimes and the kid is trying to get me back. I have no clue what me losingthis really did though, yeah. He had nothing to do with it."

"Hasn'tOrochimaru gotten you back yet?" Hidan asked.

"All he reallydoes is give me that creepy glare, yeah," the blonde leaned back andclosed his eyes in thought. "Well, there was one time where he put snakesin my bed but they were harmless. Yeah."

Everyone stared at himin disbelief. He didn't care that even Orochimaru was trying to take revenge?

"Well anyways,Itachi has a history lesson to teach me so we gotta go," Amejisuto hoppedup and grabbed her fiancée's arm and started walking with the Uchiha draggingslightly behind.

"Why are you evenlearning that stuff? You guys live here now so there's no need to learn thingsto impress a clan that you'll never go back to," Kisame said.

The two stopped andAmeji turned around with a sad smile. "Well one can only hope."

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"So other thanthose few troublesome Uchiha members, your clan history is pretty close to theSenju clans it seems," Ameji said after hearing the basic history and mainevents of the Uchiha Clan. She moved around slightly on the bed; her butt wasstarting to hurt from sitting too long. It had been about two or three hours ofItachi talking about his clan, and her brain was exhausted.

"Not exactly, butwhatever. It's not like you're getting tested on this, it's just basicinformation," Itachi stood up and stretched. "I wouldn't say anythinglike that in front of my father if I were you though," he looked over witha humored glint in his eyes.

Amejisuto looked downat her lap and fidgeted nervously. Itachi knew that as a sign that somethingwas on her mind and sat down once more, looking at her intently. She looked upat him and sighed. Without him even saying anything, she just knew that he wasexpecting her to say something. 'We'vespent way too much time together,' she mused.

"Kisame andeveryone else might be right… We may never be able to leave," she sulked."I don't want you to think I've given up hope, but we're surrounded byS-class criminals and someone who has the rinnegan. If we try to escape, wewill be killed."

"We will escape one day," Itachi saidconfidently.

"Yes, but itmight not be anytime soon. I hate to say it, but I think we should just acceptthat we'll be staying here for a long time, so we might as well treat it likeour new home."

The Uchiha frowned.“No, we should continue treating it as a hotel. If we accept this as our home,we’ll start making connections with the enemy and it will be even harder togo.”

"But… I’vealready become friends with Deidara, Konan, Tobi and maybe even Kisame,” shesulked. “I hope we can escape soon."

There was a knock onthe door and Deidara entered the room. "Hey Amejisuto, are you any good atcooking, yeah?"

"I can makesnacks as long as I don't use anything electric," she gave a smile and athumbs up. Deidara chuckled before looking at Itachi.

"How about you,yeah?"

"I'm quite goodwith the culinary arts, yes," the man nodded.

"Great! You're ondinner duty tonight, yeah! Chicken katsu, please!" the blond ran out ofthe room laughing before anyone could protest.

Amejisuto lifted herhand to her mouth, trying to cover up a giggle. "Well, makes sense forhim."

"Well I guess I'mstuck as cook. Is there anything special that you want?"

"I'll just havethe same as Deidara," she shrugged. "No point in giving you extrawork. Besides, it sounds good…"

"Alright, I guessI should get to it then," they left their room and headed to the kitchenwhere they found sticky notes on the fridge with everyone's orders. "Whatdo they think this is? A restaurant?!"

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"I overheard thetwo talking about never accepting this as their home," White Zetsureported.

"Hopefully, wewill gain their loyalty in the near future. I wouldn't let them on a taileddemon mission, but if war occurs, they will be on our side once we gain theirtrust and support," Black Zetsu said.

"I doubt it willbe that simple," Pain objected. "If war breaks out, surely they willescape and join Konohagakure. No, we have to subtly brainwash them overtime."

Madara glared at theground. "I doubt that they could be brainwashed. The Uchiha definitelywould not fall for it, and the young girl is probably on high alert due tobeing captured so easily more than once. We need to come up with a good plan,like keeping them isolated if war breaks out."

"I thoughtbrainwashing sounded like a good plan," Konan spoke up. "We can't betoo certain that a war will start so soon though, so there isn't really areason to be discussing it. I suggest we try to gain their trust."

"I have a betteridea," White Zetsu grinned evilly. "If they've decided this willnever be their home, we should just destroy the other one so they have nothingto go back too."

The other membersthought about it silently for a moment. "The nine-tails is in thatvillage. We would have to fight him in order to go through with destroyingKonoha," Pain broke the silence.

"Well then, wemight as well go for the eight tails for now so when we fight the nine tails,we can destroy the village and then do the extraction once he's almostdead," Konan suggested.

"So it's agreedthat we will destroy Konohagakure?" Madara asked. The others nodded."Then it is decided. In the next month, prepare to fight the eight tail'sjinchuriki, Killer Bee."

"Who should wesend?" Pain said as Madara started walking to the door.

He looked over hisshoulder as he touched the door knob. "Hidan, Kakuzu, Kisame and youtwo," he looked at the rinnegan user and the woman before leaving andswitching to his dumb high voice to greet Deidara.

"Hey! How's itgoin, Senpai?!"

"Get out of theway, idiot! Itachi is making dinner and I'm starving, yeah!" the othersheard the blond growl before hearing an 'oof' from the masked man as he hadbeen pushed into a wall.

"Uchiha cancook?" Pain thought out loud.

"Maybe not all powerful men are hopeless,"Konan smiled slightly, looking intently at her friend before laughing a bit.The mood wasn't as serious now, and the bluenette was thankful. She didn't likethe tension and dark mood that those small meetings brought, though most peoplewouldn't believe it due to her being seemingly serious all the time. "Iwould like to try his cooking too," she headed out. Pain sighed and satdown, knowing the woman would bring him back something.

"I wonder if hewould take a request of frying up some bodies," both Zetsu's said beforethey disappeared, leaving the orange haired man behind in his seriousness.