Face of the Enemy [Rin, Kakami & Tobi]

[medical_miracle]

[set just after the decisive battle with Deidara]

It'd been a long time since Rin's second priority had been the injured and the dying, but unless they found and dealt with the other Akatsuki there would be no purpose nor possibility of saving anybody. Bombs. For the gods' sake, bombs - who knew what the other one might be capable of if the blonde

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[tobiisagoodgirl]

The tree was a perfect spot to look out, to find out where everyone was and what people were doing. Most of them were still running around like chickens with their heads cut off. But Madara didn't care about them. She only cared about one individual, and that individual was Uchiha Sachiko. She had been within the woman's grasp before, just moments ago, and in a little short while, she would be in the woman's grasp for good. A moldable Uchiha could be... very useful, to say the least. She might have to be kept hidden, of course, but-

Swirling eyes shifted over people dismissing them over and over again. One though... one she couldn't help but look to, focus on. Something about the man made something in Madara surge up and fight against... against what? What?

No!

Madara grunted, leaning suddenly, eye narrowed and focused on the man below who was now looking back up at her. Why? Why did he seem so familiar, why couldn't she drag her eyes away? Where was Tobi, who was this man-

Rin!

No! What... Rin? Yond... no, what was... no, her goal was Sachiko, the Uchihca, another Uchiha. The last of the Uchiha besides Madara and Itae and-

No! I don't want to! Rin, please!

What was wrong with her?!

[medical_miracle]

Below, feet braced in the grass, Rin froze like a deer - brown eyes just as wide and surprised. A woman cloaked in Akatsuki's clouds was crouched, predatory, in the branches of the tall and ancient tree he'd been about to scale. The orange swirl of a mask that covered her face had only one darkened eye hole, but through it Rin could feel her gaze on him. And he stared right back, feeling a buzzing in his spine that he didn't recognize and didn't want to.

For the longest time, neither of them moved.

Rin's good hand closed around a kunai he'd had hiding in his sleeve. He began to funnel his chakra through his body with a medic's infantessamal precision; bolstering his broken forearm, bracing his feet, readying a fatal strike to his hands. Most importantly, a goodly amount snaked around the tag tied to the handle of that kunai.

He only had to keep her here until the others arrived.

"Hello," said Rin, pitching the kunai straight up into the air, loosing a burst of chakra that set the tag into bright white flames. A signal flare.

But before it had even ignited, Rin was gone in a blink of speed, zipping fast as any student of Namikaze Minako for the masked face watching him.

[tobiisagoodgirl]

Rin, it's me, run away, stay away from her, she's

Madara screamed as the flare burned her good eye and she twisted her body away, rage filling her and driving out that irritating voice and Tobi's fearfulness. The boy was moving, but so was she, already zipping away so no one could land a strike. She flitted from branch to branch, tomoe starting to spin wildly as she groped for chakra and searched for that irritating man so she could crush him like some bespectacled bug.

[scarecrow_mask]

Kakami was near the outermost edge of what had been the kitchen's full grounds when she saw the flare. Without pausing, she immediately turned and rushed towards it. Hopefully it meant that the second Akatsuki had been spotted, and only that.

Going as fast as she could meant it took very little time for her to reach the area, the signal flare's last sparks starting to wink out. There was Rin's scent and another's - they'd been here just scant minutes before. Kakami didn't stop before heading in the direction the scents led her - they weren't mingled enough which meant that the Akatsuki was probably chasing after Rin. For now anyway.

There were enough of the ornamental trees that Kakami left the ground, focusing on the stranger's scent.