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Although it was slightly inappropriate, regarding Kakashi's coffee-making skills... well, never mind. It was late at night – having something to drink at all was good enough. Kazuki smoothed out his faintly furrowed brow and was just about to speak when, unexpectedly, Kisame beat him to it.
"The coffee needs to be stirred, otherwise it'll all clump together," Kisame remarked, flashing a toothy grin as he stared directly at Kakashi.
"???" Kazuki paused in surprise. Kakashi was equally dumbfounded. Wait – what exactly did Kisame mean by that? What did this have to do with coffee? Coffee...
Kakashi's eyes suddenly widened in realization. He whipped his head around to look at the cup sitting on the desk. Damn it! He'd been mocked by an enemy who had infiltrated the village! Kakashi was seized by the overwhelming urge to leap forward and smack Kisame across the face. How the hell was he supposed to know all these fussy little details? And more importantly, what position was Kisame speaking from? What business was this of his in the slightest? Kakashi, ordinarily a man not easily provoked to anger, was now genuinely furious. Kisame had successfully shattered his composure with a single, seemingly pointless sentence. Faced with Kakashi's near-homicidal glare, Kisame simply continued to grin, seemingly not taking him seriously in the slightest.
Watching the two men locked in their intense staring contest, Kazuki laughed silently to himself. This scene was truly rather entertaining. Still, Kakashi was one of his own people, while Kisame was an outsider – and on the surface, an enemy. Kazuki's voice cut through their silent standoff: "Now then, Kisame. State your purpose. I'm certain you're well aware of the attitude the Five Great Shinobi Villages hold toward the Akatsuki. Not long ago, you accompanied Uchiha Obito in an attack on the battlefield intelligence relay base of our ally, the Cloud Village. You abducted their elder, Dodai. And now, you've secretly infiltrated the Leaf Village, evaded the Anbu squads' surveillance all along the way, and crept right up to the Hokage building itself. What is your objective?"
Kazuki activated his Sharingan, the three tomoe spinning slowly within his eyes. "You have five minutes to convince me. If you succeed within five minutes, all will be well. Otherwise..." At any moment, if he so chose, his three-tomoe Sharingan could instantly transform into the Eternal Mangekyo, and then the outcome would be far less pleasant.
"I wish to defect and pledge my loyalty," Kisame stated with absolute decisiveness. He unwrapped the bandages binding Samehada, dropped the blade to the floor, and just as resolutely stripped off his black cloak with its red cloud pattern. "The mission to attack Dodai of the Cloud Village was an order from Uchiha Obito. I had no right to refuse. My defection from my village... aside from being coerced by my superior and betraying the village, I was also lured by the Akatsuki." Kisame raised his hands calmly and explained, "I did not wholeheartedly join the Akatsuki. But they were the only ones who would accept me. After all, I am an S-rank rogue ninja from my village, and I possess knowledge of many of the village's intelligence secrets."
"After extracting information from Dodai, Obito landed on the Cloud Village's Turtle Island and seized the Sharingan. However, what he obtained was... ahem... He wasn't satisfied, so he ordered me to infiltrate the Leaf Village and find an opportunity to abduct Kakashi." Noticing a shift in Kazuki's expression, Kisame inwardly jolted in alarm and hurriedly diverted the topic away from the Sharingan. Obito had obtained a counterfeit Sharingan – this was undoubtedly Kazuki's handiwork. Kazuki had done this deliberately, even deceiving the people of the Five Great Villages along with Obito. Naturally, Kakashi must have been kept in the dark as well. Through his investigations, Kisame knew that Kazuki had once extracted the Sharingan from Kakashi's eye socket. There had to be secrets hidden within this affair that no one else knew. If he was going to defect and pledge loyalty, then he, Kisame, needed to align himself smoothly with Kazuki's position. After all, Kazuki was currently the effective leader of the Leaf Village.
"Abduct me? Why would Obito want to do that?" Kakashi voiced his incomprehension. If Obito had wanted to capture him, he, Kakashi, could have been taken eight hundred times over by now. But Obito had never made a move against him.
"I don't know. But my mission was to infiltrate the Leaf Village and abduct you. This was the order Uchiha Obito personally gave me." Kisame glanced at Kakashi, indifferent as to whether the man believed him or not, and then returned his gaze to Kazuki. "To infiltrate the Leaf Village, to abduct Kakashi, and to do it right under your watchful eye, my lord – this is, without question, a suicide mission. That is why I have chosen to defect and pledge my loyalty."
At this stage, Kisame felt absolutely no sense of belonging or loyalty to the Akatsuki. In any case, he was already an S-rank rogue ninja himself. If they were going to throw suicide missions at him, then he would simply take matters into his own hands and save himself by defecting. Why had he become a rogue ninja in the first place? Besides being lured into it – it was because he didn't want to die. He had joined the Akatsuki precisely because he didn't want to die. But now, before he'd even developed any sense of attachment to the organization, they were sending him out to get killed. He was definitely not on board with that.
"You're remarkably frank," Kazuki observed, very satisfied with Kisame's attitude and candor. He enjoyed conversing with intelligent people. "Aren't you afraid I'll refuse you, capture you, or even kill you?"
"I am," Kisame replied with a smile. "But only by attempting it can I know whether my choice is correct. If I don't even dare to try, then what's the point of speaking about defection?"
Have you gone insane, or have I? Kakashi thought Kisame was a complete madman. An S-rank rogue ninja from the Mist Village, sent on a mission to abduct someone in the Leaf, now choosing to come here and ask to defect? Don't forget, besides being a rogue ninja, you're also a member of the Akatsuki. An Akatsuki member walking into the Hokage's office to surrender... this joke wasn't just unfunny; it bordered on the absurd.
Should he accept? Kazuki's fingers tapped lightly on the desk as he pondered in silence. Kakashi and Kisame stood quietly, both tacitly refraining from interrupting Kazuki's thoughts.
"Tch." Unthinkingly, Kazuki lifted the cup from his desk and took a sip of the coffee, only for his brow to furrow deeply once again. This stuff was truly vile. To make coffee this undrinkable – Kakashi, you really were a special kind of prodigy. Kisame cast a half-smirking glance at Kakashi, who, for some inexplicable reason, felt his face flush with embarrassment. Fortunately, his mask concealed it well.
"Where is your sincerity? I need to see your sincerity," Kazuki said, not choosing to reject Kisame outright. For him, whether or not he accepted Kisame wasn't really that critical. He didn't care about the opinions of either the Akatsuki or the Mist Village. Even if he openly accepted Kisame and paraded him around, the Mist Village's only possible reaction would be impotent rage. Besides, the current relations between their two villages were already in a state of severe deterioration. Not only would he take one of their people, he'd flaunt the fact just to disgust them. Not convinced? Not convinced, come and bite me. As for the Akatsuki... they probably wouldn't even have the luxury of impotent rage. On the contrary, they'd hunker down and hide, because they'd be terrified that the defected Kisame would sell them out completely. If the Leaf Village came knocking as a result, things would get very unpleasant for them.
"This is some intelligence on the Mist Village and the Akatsuki," Kisame said, producing materials he had prepared in advance. If he was going to defect, he naturally had to demonstrate sincerity. "Whether you choose to imprison me or seal away my power, my lord, I will willingly accept either."