Chapter 18

Two travelers in black cloaks already see the gate of the hidden stone village, Itachi and Kisame have already reached there, and standing in front of the gate they see something open, and it was like the gate of Konoha, the same symbols on the gate and the same green door-gate, and the sentries who noticed them from far away they sent a couple of shinobi to inform about it to Tsuchikage himself, and sent a couple of jonin to escort them to the tsuchikage's residences, and as soon as Itachi and Kisame entered the gates, they saw that the village was like Konohe, only a little gray, because there were few colors, mostly buildings made of pure stone, even without log structures, and strangely enough they held up better than the Konoha buildings, apparently they use chakra to strengthen the buildings, which they also build with earth elements, was the thought that slipped through Kisame's mind, but he knew that not all the buildings were built with earth elements, there were more fragile houses made of wood, and some were still being built by the builders, And if rumors were to be believed, the Tsuchikage residence building itself was built without chakra elements, as he preferred the place to remain original and not to be destroyed by rebuilding, Itachi remembered that, while they were thinking, two shinobi with jounin outfits, with the tread of the village of stone, had already approached them.

-Welcome you, to the village of stone-" one of them began.

-Itachi Uchiha, Kisame-Hoshigake, heard a lot about you, it's an honor to see you off in person-" the other began with a smile.

-I have to say, I'm glad to be here myself," Itachi replied folding his arms on his chest, and with a slight smile.

Itachi has been here once before, in the first timeline, when he, along with Kisame and Sasori, were looking for Deidara to offer him to join Akatsuki, and it was supposed to happen 2 weeks ahead, but since he changed the first timeline by creating the second, it won't happen, and Deidara will be hired by someone else...

-I have 1 important question for Tsuchikage, I would appreciate it if you could show me the side of his residences," Kisame said right after Itachi's words.

-Of course, come with us- The jonin started walking towards his residences and Kisame and Itachi behind him.

As soon as they reached the residences, they entered the building, and the two jonin stayed at the doorstep of the tsuchikage's residence, waiting for the tsuchikage to call them with his signal, folding the seal and signaling them to come back, like a sensory ability or like the Yamanaka clan, Itachi and Kisame noticed when they got inside that the building was almost identical to the hokage's residence, and the door was similar, and Itachi was sure that the office would be just as beautiful with a window view as the third, when they almost reached the tsuchikage's door Kisame began.

-You know, I even liked these two, reminded me of my genin days and also my late team.... - Kisame said sadly

-I'm sorry... Itachi replied, and Kisame remembered their conversation when Itachi was talking to Toby, and now he knew what he meant, and a few seconds later Itachi knocked on the door and heard a calm voice say, "Come in," and they entered.

Entering the tsuchikage's office, they see an exact replica of the one in the third hokage's office, and looking at the chair they both see Oononi fly into a meditation pose with his eyes closed, and then slowly land on his desk and begin.

-I'm glad the Konoha responded to me after all," Tsuchikage begins, sitting back down in his seat, looking serious.

-Wow! cool flight teach me the same," Kisame replied with a smile, and wondered if he would say yes.

-Heh," Oonoki looked at Kisame's funny question and began to explain to him, "to learn to use the flying technique, you have to become light as if you're changing your space, and it's easier to control only if you're awakened with the ability to even surpass the enhanced genome, and it can only be surpassed by the enhanced genome, a mixture of three elements, Fire, Earth, and Air, and with these elements you can also master the dust technique, which only the second tsuchikage and I have, and if I'm not mistaken this is the only type of enhanced-genome composed of three elements, earth to create mass, fire to sizzle molecules, and air to control form.

Itachi and Kisami listened to him curiously until the end, and Itachi even thought that if he, like Kakashi, could use his kekkei genkai sharingan to stay strong on the ground, then maybe he could try to learn this dust technique that could possibly help him fly.... but Itachi wasn't 100 percent sure, but he also knew that he wasn't sure about the other way around either. Heh.

-I'll take that into consideration, thanks for the detailed story, and I'm honored that Tsuchikage is personally narrating- Itachi replied folding his arms across his chest with a slight smile, and Tsuchikage smiled at his polite manner as well, and Kisame managed to cheer him up as well.

-Heheh, I take it it'll take a year to learn this technique?", Kisame asked questioningly.

-Actually, a whole three years minimum, heh-" Tsuchikage clarified at the end, smiling at Kisame's sad look.

-So what is this Rank-S mission, the Hokage said there's no detail, so is it something serious? -The protagonist decided to ask.

-Actually, I didn't finish it because I was out of ink, and I was too lazy to wait for the village's supply of weed," Tsuchikage replied, smiling, holding the back of his head with one hand and reminding Naruto of something, and changing his face to a more serious one, he continued, "The mission is to stop one of our renegades who was good at explosions, and according to the rumors of my shinobi-anbu, he wants to blow up some houses in my village to show everyone that art is an explosion.

Itachi had no trouble realizing that this renegade was Deidara, and he continued to listen further.

-Kisame looked at Oonoki questioningly, "So he has an enhanced genome? If he can create explosions, then he has an element between fire and earth?

-Itachi knew this before, Deidara had bragged in the first timeline that he had been trained by Tsuchikage until Paine told him to shut up, He also stole a scroll of kinjutsu, which allows him to mix elements with chakra to create living and walking claymores, not just explosive ones, and also makes him have mouths in his arms and chest.

-I see, ours is the one with the 4-Rota, and if we're lucky he won't turn out to be chatty heheheh," Kisame replied.

-I doubt it, he's got no bones in his mouth," Tsuchikage replied, remembering his former student.

-I see... I'm sure we can handle him, but I have a question, why did you choose Konoha? Iwagakura has its best shinobi against the explosive mercenaries," Itachi added, looking at Tsuchikage.

-You know... I'm sure we can handle him, but there's one big disadvantage.... - folding his elbows on the table, and crossing his fingers, also closing his eyes continued Oonoki - and this disadvantage is that victory will not be possible without loss and destruction, and I know him, he likes to destroy everything in his path without sweeping anything under him, and if he heads for the village, and tries to attack, we will not be able to defeat him before he destroys even 10 percent of the buildings.... and so I sent word for Konoha, because I heard a story about the main hero of Konoha, they say that you are able to deal with the enemy without making a fuss, and even cleaning up the traces of blood behind you, and I'm sure you'll be able to deal with him too before he attacks our village.

-You don't have to worry about the villagers, we can handle him," Itachi said confidently, and Tsuchikage was relieved, because looking at Itachi he didn't see him as a doubt of failure.

-By the way... - One of my juniors said that you wanted to ask me a very important question, so I'm listening," he said, finishing his speech and listening intently.

-I was wondering which luxury hotel in this village has the biggest shower room- replied Kisame without lowering his smile.

-Hahaha-" Tsuchikage laughed at Kisame's question, and after folding a couple of seals, two tech-jonin walked in and Tsuchikage continued, "These two will escort you to your luxury hotel.

-Thank you," Itachi replied with a slight smile and continued, "We'll catch our breath and move out in a couple hours.

Tsuchikage nodded with a smile that Itachi had last seen only in the fourth war, when he had been following him through the sage orb, and the two jonin who had met them at the gate told interesting stories about the monuments and who they were, and Kisame enjoyed listening to them, They reminded him of his team when he was a genin, one reminded him of a teammate named Dan, and the other reminded him of his friend from the academy, but he was on a different team, and his name was Marucho, and when they reached the hotel, Itachi and Kisame thanked them, and they added a pleasant rest and disappeared with a smile into the smoke.

***

For three hours, while they settled in the hotel Iwagakura, Kisame took a shower for two hours, and Itachi spent that time reading his favorite book, "Brother and Sister" and comfortably choosing a position on the bed even began to think about Sakura, how she was doing fine?, because he could change a lot of things that he did not even understand... His thoughts were interrupted by Kisame, who had gotten out of the shower and put his clothes back on, and even put his cloak back on.

-Well, Itachi-san, shall we move out?" began Kisame as he approached Itachi.

-Naturally- Itachi's calm reply... He got up from the bed and put on his cloak, also taking his shuriken and kunaiami pouch both of them left the hotel and then the village too.

And they were heading towards the grass border, and it wasn't that far away, and so they almost got there and there didn't seem to be this war going on that Itachi knew about, because he still thought it was the calm before the storm, and so they took advantage of that, and they entered the grass village, Itachi and Kisame knew where Deidara was going to be, and they went on and on until they came to the other side of the grass border, where there are usually deals between mercenaries, or the services of powerful shinobi, for purposes for which their employers are well paid, Itachi and Kisame saw a forest, and then there were trees, and then activating his sharingan, Itachi saw four renegades, and when he briefly told Kisame, he nodded, and they landed sharply, and saw the three renegade shinobi of the stone village negotiating with Deidara to jointly attack the Iwagakuru because they didn't understand his art, and then after Kisame and Itachi landed, both Deidara and the others turned sharply in their direction and began:

-Who the hell are you, and what do you want?" began Deidara pointing his index finger in their direction.

-Itachi answered coldly, and Deidara clenched his teeth as he realized that the tsuchikage had chosen only the best to capture him.

Itachi knew that in the first timeline, he was able to destroy a quarter of the stone village, and by that he was saying that art is explosion, and as soon as he noticed that Oonoki himself was flying towards him, he decided to run away because he knew that against his techniques he had almost no chance, because he could destroy all his explosions into atoms with his dust technique, and even the most powerful explosion that spreads 10 kilometers away, Oonoki could destroy it too, into atoms, and it would be over before it even started, So Deidara, having destroyed some part of the village, created a bird from clay and fled away, and even left those three comrades on the explosion, who soon were also caught, many were interested in his explosions and wanted to use his services, But the Akatsuki came to him first, among them were Itachi, Kisame, and Sasori, who met his partner later on, and later Deidara underestimated him and started a fight, and Itachi defeated him by catching him in genjutsu, and Deidara then joined the Akatsuki.

-And that should scare me! -Well, I'll show you my art creation this... - Before he could finish, he was interrupted by Kisame.

-Just shut up and prepare to die with your art-" Kisame answered him, interrupting him, and Deidara's three buddies assumed fighting stances, as they knew there would be a fight, and turning his gaze to Itachi asked, "Who are you taking? And who's mine?

-I'll take the blond bomber, and you take those three." Itachi commanded, and Kisame smiled at the fact that he'd be getting more opponents.

-Deidara created a bird and flew away from the battle, and Itachi followed him.

-Water Cloning Technique! - Kisame said, and three clones appeared, Itachi noticed them, and had no doubt that Kisame would deal with them, but he continued to run after Deidara.

Itachi began to run after the bird, and he climbed trees on the very tops and kept jumping from one to the other, and he roughly calculated the speed at which his clay bird was flying, and threw his kunai at exactly 45-degrees, and Deidara easily dodged it, and looking at Itachi he added "Ha-ha Mazilla" and it only caused a smile on Itachi's face, and Deidara looked at him with incomprehensible eyes, and flew on, and looking up he saw his 45-degree kunai flying down and even hit the left wing of his bird, and it exploded, and Deidara fell to the ground, and standing on his feet he gritted his teeth as he realized that his kunai was attached with an explosive seal, which made his clay bird explode too, and Itachi caught up with him in a spacious field, and stood opposite him and started:

-Your name is Deidara-tsuruki, and you specialize in explosive techniques, and you have an improved earth and fire genome, and that's only a quarter of what I know about you, but it won't help you," said the protagonist to someone he knew in the first timeline.

-Ha!, it's nice to have a fan, but you're wrong about one thing, it'll help me a lot!, and you're the only one who can't be saved, you're my creation - he was dressed in the same clothes, but without the Akatsuki cloak, and he reaches into his pouch and pulls out clay, and his hands chew, and he creates some spiders with a blaster and says - art is an explosion!

Four spiders head towards Itachi and he walks straight towards them and gets in between them and they spiders surrounded him in a four way and jumped on him exploding, but before that Itachi himself exploded using the fire explosive clone, although he could also use the fire water explosive clone together, like in the fight against Kakashi-Asuma and Kurenai, but the fire one was noisier, before his spiders surrounded him and exploded, Deidara started laughing while adding "That was a lot easier than I thought" and then when his spiders jumped, they saw that Itachi's clone had blown up earlier, blowing up the spiders, which made a big commotion, and Deidara, happy thinking that at least someone understood his style of blowing up, and then Itachi was at his back, took out a kunai and put it to his throat, because he knew it was the real Deidara, because with his sharingan he can see all the original and strong chakra flows, and if it was a clone, it would have the same strong chakra, but a fleeting shell of a fragile physical body, light in weight, and connected to the thread of the original, pressing the kunai down he added:

-You're right, it was easier, and the fight is over," Itachi said more calmly, and sensing the questioning look from Deidara, who didn't understand how it happened, Itachi continued, "If you're wondering when I got around you, the answer is in the beginning, when your bird exploded and you fell to the ground, I expected you to do something similar with the explosion, so I created an explosive clone, I could have created a water clone, but it would have been less noisy, and the fire clone, it was useful to raise the sound with your spiders to get to you without being seen.

-So you thought this through from the beginning? - Deidara answered him with an angry look.

-I always try to assess any opponent so yeah- Itachi noticed that his hand kept chewing on something, and he guessed he still had some clay left.

-But you didn't see it coming! - Deidara said smiling, and Itachi sharply removed the kunai from his throat and stepped back, and Deidara continued - Exploding Birds!" said Deidara releasing three clay birds from his hands.

Itachi quickly took out 3 shuriken and threw them each, but he did it too fast, they didn't even have time to move more than 2 meters away from Deidara, and Deidara was wiping his eyes, and Itachi was near him with lightning speed, and when Deidara opened his eyes, he saw him in front of him, and also looked into his eyes and noticed the sharingan, and he wanted to move away, but Itachi kicked him so hard that he was lying on the ground paralyzed by his genjutsu.

-Now the fight is really over, and if you had used third-level explosive clays, you could have destroyed a lot of things in this forest, and I would have had to use my powerful techniques, but Tsuchikage chose me for a reason, because I create order by keeping balance, and you bring only chaos by calling it art.

Itachi is now standing near the shade of a larger tree, and Deidara is lying across from him, and to their left is the open field where the blast marks were left, and just as dusk begins to fall, and the shade of the tree Itachi is standing in begins to darken, Deidara notices his cloak begin to glow with blue sparks, and his red sharingan eyes seem to adorn it, and in the shadows his body turns black, even more so in the black cloak, and Deidara opens his eyes and thinks, "So this is what real art is...." and then swivels his head, left and right, to dismiss those thoughts.

-I would kill you right now Deidara-Tsuruki," Itachi said pointing the kunai in his direction and putting it away he continued, "but dying now is not your destiny.

-You'd better kill me now, or you'll be my target, and you'll regret it when you learn the full power of my art! when I finish my fourth level of atomic molecule explosion!" replied Deidara, still lying on the ground and gritting his teeth.

-I'm not interested in you, my goal at the moment is the Akatsuki, the best shinobi, and you are weak," Itachi answered him, in order to push Deidara into this organization, since Itachi knew how he thought, after he said he was weak in front of the Akatsuki, Deidara would want to become his problem by joining the Akatsuki organization himself, to get his attention, which is what Itachi wanted, and then he activated the mangekyo-sharingan and looked at Deidara and said, "I'm not going to kill you because it's not your destiny, I see other potential in you, I'll even let you go and follow your will, but I'll make sure you don't touch the village of stone again.

Itachi made sure that Deidara couldn't even think of attacking his village, because he wanted to prevent the crime that killed a quarter of the population of people and shinobi of the stone, and then Deidara lost consciousness, and Itachi went to his friend, and wanted to make sure that Kisame was okay, Itachi knew that he Deidara would join the Akatsuki, so he didn't kill Deidara not to break the timeline, because when he corrects the mistakes in their place are similar disasters, although sometimes.... When he got to Kisame, he saw that the field was a little battered from the explosion, and there was a battle with explosive seals and bombs, and Kisame was responding with water clones and sharks, and when he got to the epicenter of the battle, he saw three of Kisame's clones, holding those three renegades in a water prison, and those nukenin were wearing jonin gear, and when they were losing consciousness Kisame stopped the technique so as not to kill them, they needed them alive for interrogation, and when Itachi got close, Kisame turned around and saw his partner calm down and started:

-I see you've got itachi-san under control, too? - Hoshigake asked, canceling the three clones that were holding the renegades in the water prison, and they vanished ten meters from the original Kisame and Itachi, and those three were also unconscious.

-I took care of him he won't touch Iwagakuru again- Itachi answered Kisame's question.

-Great!, now we have to go back to the village and report this to Tsuchikage-" Kisame said with a smile, and suddenly a few jonin and anbu jump out of the stone, Itachi and Kisame immediately take notice.

-Great job, Tsuchikage will be pleased and we'll take those three," the anbu leader begins, and Kisame sighs that he won't have to carry them, the jonin and anbu will do that, and then Itachi and Kisame nod, and they take the bodies of those nukenin, and the leader asks again, "What happened to Deidara-Tsuruki?

-I caught his genjutsu with paralysis and compelled him with my sharingan not to attack your village anymore," Itachi begins and the anbu-stone leader listens attentively and Itachi continues, "I also wanted to compel him to voluntarily return to the village as a hostage, but at that moment I was caught by his explosive spider that he created in the beginning, and when the explosion happened, I was thrown away and my genjutsu was removed, and he had time to fold his seals and create a bird to fly away.

-I see... - The leader-anbu said, and continued, "But the important thing is that you managed to inspire him to keep our village intact, our village is still indebted to you, Itachi-Uchiha, Kisame-Hoshigake, thank you for your help.

-Pity... I wanted to have more fun," the hoshigake replied in a sad tone.

-We will report everything in detail to Tsuchikage-sama, and you have a good journey- finished the leader-anbu nodded and took those three away.

***

Itachi and Kisame, walked back towards the grass village, and going into it found an interesting hotel and rented it, it was kind of spacious and interesting, several rooms and even a great shower room that made Kisame happy, and Itachi knew that tomorrow there will be this very civil war, in which many will be involved, also realized that the calm before the storm will end tomorrow.... 

Itachi it just occurred to him that Karin Uzumaki lives in this village, but she's a girl now, Karin in the first timeline was in Sasuke's group called Hebi, Sasuke created this group after he killed Orochimaru, or rather one of his bodies, and created it to get revenge on Itachi, and Karin was in this Hebi group of his, a red-haired girl with glasses, and Itachi found out about her when he was reading the dossier that Paine gave him personally to warn Itachi about them, and when he started flipping through them for nothing, he got interested in a sad story... It was about Karin, that her mother had died when she was a donor for injured shinobi in the hospital as soon as the civil war started, and she'd been bitten by a lot of shinobi, so she died a month later, and then one of the jonin came to Karin's house, so that now she could be the next donor, and she was scared and almost cried when she saw her mother's corpse, she had a very difficult childhood, her mother must have been sad for her daughter to see that she could have died like that... even in the academies she wasn't good because she spent a lot of time in hospitals, and then she took the chunin exam, the first test was administered by Ibiki-Morino, and she passed with flying colors because she was smart in geometry with a kunai tractor, and physics and anatomy, and when she finished she smiled, and suddenly one blond guy there raised his hands and yelled in front of everyone that he wouldn't give up and would be ready for anything, and it was Naruto, and that made Ibiki smile, and he even turned a blind eye to the fact that Uzumaki didn't answer any of the questions, and during the exams she got separated from her team, and she was attacked by a bear and was naturally saved by Sasuke, and then he looked at her blankly and said "This is the scroll of earth, but we already have it, and we need the scroll of heaven, well, go ahead," Karin was interested in it, he was pretty cute when he saved her, and then she dropped out at the second test because her team didn't find anything, but also after the test, she overheard some words from the waterfall jonin, and they said they were going to attack the grass village, and Karin could tell by the look of them that they were serious about it honestly, because she was good at anatomy and could recognize people's facial expressions, and she got scared and as soon as she got to her village, she packed her things, and ran away, and then as she expected she was attacked, but she was relieved that those who forced her mother to be a donor and killed her, they got what they deserved, and she ran away to the village of sound, but she was caught by two mercenaries, and she wanted to be released, and they smiled that they had caught a girl from the Uzumaki clan, and they wanted to sell her for a big price, but then Orochimaru came to her rescue, he summoned a snake that ate those two scumbags, and Orochimaru offered Karin to go with him, and he would protect her, and she agreed, because she had no choice, and after a couple years she found out what Orochimaru was doing, but she didn't care, because Orochimaru became a father to her, and she stayed until Sasuke killed him... After reading the rest of the file, Itachi even felt sad and pitiful for a moment, and looking at her picture he found that her life was broken, and she was clinging to every possible chance to live.... so Itachi didn't want to meet them or hurt them, that's why he told Kisame to tell the hebi squad that only one Sasuke could go to Itachi, so that he could get to the temple and Itachi would give him his powers because he thought Sasuke would improve the world by helping, but it didn't turn out that way in the end... Itachi was thinking about all of this, and he was interrupted by Kisame who was passing by.

-Is thinking about how to improve the world again? Itachi-san-" Kisame said, with his usual smile

-Actually... - Itachi replied in a sad tone, and continued, "And if I can save a quarter of the stone village's population, I'm sure I can improve things here, too.

-I don't know... if you believe this guy's rumors, he might have blown more heheh, and due to the weed I'm sure this what you call 'lull' will last a long time," he said confidently.

-I wish it were true, but my sources of knowledge and rumors don't lie, it will be tomorrow- Itachi replied to Kisame's probable guess.

-Even if it does, the village has us, I'm sure we'll save them, heheh, well, it's getting dark, I'm going to sleep sweet dreams Itachi-san - finished his opinion Kisame, and finally yawning.

-Good night," Itachi replied with a slight smile, and after Kisame had gone to his room, he took off his cloak and lay down in bed, wrapped himself in a blanket and thought that tomorrow he would take Karin and her mother to Konoha, and with that thought he fell asleep.