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The cavern echoes.
It always did that, the man without name knows. Oh, he had a name. He had too many, in fact. But none seemed to fit quite right anymore and it wasn't like that truly mattered in the moment. He didn't matter. Not then, not at the moment. And maybe not for a very long time yet, but that didn't mean he was going to leave this event, tucked into the shadows with the very darkness curling around him like the long lost embrace of a lover, shrouding and protecting him in equal measures. Swallowing up his shape and sound and even the wet gleam of his single eye, half merged into the darkness because this form-- so different from his original but also familiar after so many years-- could actually do that. Sink into the dirt and the rock, as much as any plant, as much as the roots he had fed off so desperately for so long before this child came. The absolute child…
No, he cannot lose focus. Time in the cave, in the even dimmer and danker pocket of space where the roots grew and he could latch on like a parasitic bug, surviving off stolen chakra, that… that he could lose. Did lose. Hours and days and entire years staring into the black emptiness swallowing up his vision, entire focus turned inward to those precious memories. The adoration, the burning bright love completely untainted by the sour darkness of hate. The sweetness of it, the brilliance of the memories. How even her scent, mission completed and limping home, all support each other, was cherished. No matter how sweat sour and ripe it had been. It was a part of her, and the man was fascinated by it.
Warmed by the very consideration he showed her. The honor and Uchiha love. The near frantic worship of every memory kept clear of the wearing of time by his frequent handling of them. It had been so long in the darkness. So long where he only remembered the tainted love, the love that would have driven him to burning the world in an eternal slumber… but he knew, and now his knowledge was bearing fruit. Bearing fruit with the forms flickering onto the high stone fingers, each shifting and shadowy. False, like how this world was false, but they would make it real. They would drive away the shadows and light the fires of change, driven and sustained by their love. And the Uchiha would come back, would become the greatest clan and there would. Be. Peace. And these men would help make it be so. Seven figures, discounting himself, and only one set of eyes-- the only clear aspects when everything else was oil slick, rainbowed shadows-- glanced in his direction, pus yellow. Zetsu, because of course Zetsu would know he was here, half plant himself and so able to feel when plant-adjacent things were, but no one else would.
Not until he was ready, at least. Not until they all were ready.
The cavern echoes. But the masked man knew it would, and the sound of footsteps are properly weighted in their echoes. These footsteps are following the path he drew, and those that followed after would create tsunami forces, changing the very shape of their world. Tearing the awful falsehoods away to leave only glowing truth.
Pein and Konan leap easily onto two of the remaining fingers, only one left bereft of any body, since Orochimaru was imminently unsuited to his plans… but that-- the hollow place where another body must occupy-- could change, if certain aspects demanded it to be. Nine men were needed, after all. And even he wouldn't separate the leaders of the Akatsuki, not when he spent so long searching for exactly what he needed. Pein stood before the other, Konan half shadowed as was her preference, little more than shadow herself though the man knew she was corporeal as Pein in the space.
"Leader-sama." As one, the voices call. Equal parts submission and welcome. Acknowledgement. Obedience. He called, they came. Pein accepts the calls with an easy tip of his head, both humble and proud. Burdened by his darkness, but buoyed by hope. By the love he held for… not the woman behind him, not her alone, but for the entire world. He was a strong man, and the other respected him, quietly tipping his head though the title of 'leader' would never part his lips.
"Akatsuki." Each word was a ringing pronouncement. An order, even hidden inside a name. That was the voice of a man who knew the weight of his words, and chose each one ever more carefully because he was acutely aware of the power it wielded. "We have been storing power, to prepare the world to accept a new path. However, with the escape of the Hachibi, our time table has been… accelerated."
Silence, save for uncomfortable shifting. The pair who were responsible for the botched capture. The hidden man would have been satisfied with their clear discomfort, but the matter had already been dealt with, Pein's hands and his orders. Discipline within the organization left very little room for the necessity of holding grudges and this could actually play quite easily into his own plans. And, for a man with both the complex and the powers of a god, Pein had an alarming amount of leniency. The duo who had failed were not singled out, or further shamed in front of their comrades, eerie lavender-gray eyes passing over them in the same sweeping motion he used on the rest. No one dared move, cautious of the wrong move bringing the wrath of the rinnegan user down upon their head.
"Due to that, not only will this organization speed up the collection of the Bijuu, but the second phase will run concurrently with our current goals." The ninja around the cavern are too well trained to shift, too subtle to even let their breathing catch past the fading echoes of Pein's rumbling voice, but the masked man can practically taste the surprise in the air. In the minute narrowing of eyes, surprise breeding caution. It's unsurprising. The Akatsuki had been clear that they were going to change the very way each village was run, do away with the lies and the hidden agendas. Eliminate the secrets and drag every dirty deed into light, explain not only the mission but the reasons behind them, so the loyalty of each ninja could be assured as fully and truly given. To be kept in the dark… Pein notices, perceptive as always, and stalls any further unrest with the slightest deepening of his voice. "You were not told of this, because until recently it wasn't even a possibility. And we had the time to avoid needing to make this an order."
The simple words are accepted, the Akatsuki appeased for the moment as they settle again.
"We are hunting the Jinchuriki, to extract their Bijuu. However, once those Bijuu are extracted, we have never explained how those Bijuu are going to be harnessed. How the power within them will be used to change this world. The truth is very simple: we will make our own Jinchuriki, ones raised from birth to be both loyal to our cause and fully aligned with their Bijuu in a way only the Hachibi has managed. With all nine under our control, willingly, not even the combined might of all villages shall stand in our path."
That may be true. The watching man wasn't a part of any village, after all, though he was certain he could have taken on all the tailed beasts. It would have been a fight to see, at least, in another life.
"Taking children from homes that may love them, or that they may feel betrayed by, would only create hatred as they grew." Wasn't that the truth? The man had manipulated several of those ilk, after all. But that was before he remembered the taste of untainted love. Before he had decided a different way was necessary. "And the Akatsuki cannot be everywhere at once, even once we control all the five great nations. We need to expand our numbers."
The seemingly unrelated explanations were clearly wearing on the other men, slight shifting of the shadows indicating their shifting weight, impatient and not bothering to hide it. Deliberately showing it.
"The simplest solution," Pein starts, shifting over slightly and holding out a hand to the stone finger next to him, pulling Konan to stand next to him, their cloaks brushing against each other with an almost intimate whisper, considering how closely the two were plastered together, "is to expand our forces."
His hands lift, carefully pausing a moment before lifting blue hair, though the high collar of the cloak still hid what the man knew was coming. Konan, docile as a doll under his hold, doesn't protest as her hair is secured, the moment lingering and strangely heavy for such a simple act.
"We need children, we need babies, to seal the Bijuu within. We need more members loyal to our cause." With each sentence, he undid a button on the signature cloak, peeling away the material to reveal simple black shinobi garb underneath, but more striking against pale skin, was the thick strap of leather curled around the long, graceful neck. Pale lavender, the leather is studded with stones, chunks of highly polished grey-purple agates and a gem that, in the half shadows, seemed to be a lackluster brown but the hidden man had seen how the light drew out the true brilliant oranges, flickering like fire's flame. Pein's sleeve very deliberately slips from where it had rested against the back of his hand, slithering down to reveal a pale forearm, muscled but subtly. His strength, after all, never came from brute muscle force. Looped around his wrist, a matching cuff stood out, the same light purple as the collar ringing Konan's throat. "And for that… we need to secure kunoichi. Gain their trust. Their loyalty. And have a child with them. The Akatsuki will not only bring around peace, we will quite literally be the fathers of an entire new world."
For a moment, it sounds like no one would protest, that they were too flabbergasted to say a single word. And then: voices. The one watching had little interest in watching Pein explain the details, sinking into the earth and down to the roots underneath, a familiar roost even though he no longer needed to cling quite so tightly to the ancient, powerful roots.
He has faith, after all. The path was started, and now it could not be stopped. That was all he was interested in, for now.