Chapter Text
They were bounty hunters. Plain and simple. No strings attached - follow their leader, go to whoever offers the best price - and the most people to kill, of course.
It also depends on the individual a lot.
For example, Deidara dislikes the missions where they must sneak in and sneak out without a disturbance. It doesn't give him a chance to showcase “his magnificent, awe inspiring art”, even if he is allowed to use his small clay models to fly in unnoticed to take out various guards and snipers and such.
Sasori prefers to go to places where he can “find inspiration for his art” - which is insists strongly isn't the improper, short-lived, uncreative things that Deidara claims is art - and places where he can, if he's allowed to, find new people to turn into his puppets or whatever. The rest of Akatsuki tend to leave him to his own business, where his puppets are concerned.
Hidan and Kakuzu don't really care. They’re immortal to some extent, and if anything, Hidan just wants to go somewhere where people don't know of his abilities, so that he can scare them before killing them. He's sadistic like that. And Kakuzu just wants money. The more money, the better. Oh, and the more hearts he gets, or whatever he talks about.
Konan and Pain tend to stay together, and rarely go out on the smaller missions. They leave the smaller missions to the two-man groups who do most of the work. But once in awhile, a difficult mission appears, or backup is needed, and they fight alongside the others. Mostly though, they just hang around the base or go to meetings to get more missions.
Kisame likes water. That's it. Though it doesn't really matter, since at every chance he gets, he floods the area and uses it to his advantage.
Itachi is a strange one, since they never really know what he's thinking, and they're all pretty much scared of him to think of asking. They just let him do his job. But there's been more than one occasion where they've been sent to the Hidden Leaf Village for a mission, and they manage to see some rare moments of Itachi being soft to his younger brother, Sasuke. Other than that, they're both aloof, cold, annoyingly emotionless Uchihas.
But most of their missions seem to come from the Hidden Leaf Village. The Hokage doesn't exactly trust them (and it's pretty easy to see why) but admittedly, the Akatsuki are one of the strongest out there and that means they are useful. Plus, they've gone on plenty of joint missions with some other Konoha shinobi, and those missions are always a success - one way or the other.
And the Akatsuki aren't evil. Sure, maybe one of them is 99% puppet and likes to kill people to make more puppets, and maybe one of them is a crazed bombing addict with mouths on his hands and chest, and maybe one of them enjoys stabbing himself, and maybe one of them is a money hungry four-lives guy who collects hearts, and maybe one of them is a guy who controls six bodies who all have the Rinnegan, and maybe one of them is possibly one of the most powerful remaining Uchiha, and maybe one of them is a half-shark with a chakra-eating sword, and maybe one of them is a girl who can turn to paper, and one of them is someone who isn't even human nor one person and is supposedly the land itself, but no, they're not evil.
Not evil at all.
But that doesn't change the fact that they're pretty sure that most of the shinobi nations are too scared to offer them missions.
They do take missions from non-official people. They take missions of revenge, they take missions to capture hideouts, they take missions to save a hostage, they take missions to kill other mission-givers. Whoever has the highest price, they go to.
But this mission is from the Hokage, and it's supposed to be an A rank mission. The Hokage has sent two other teams along with them, to their somewhat annoyance. It's not that the Akatsuki hate having others help them with their missions, but … from their experience, the Leaf ninjas either terrified of them, way too interested in them, they get in the way and be a nuisance, or all of the above.
It's not every day the Akatsuki are walking down the streets of Konoha in their black and red cloaks, so it's only natural the word spreads around pretty quickly. The villagers stare, but they don't do anything.
Sai happened to be walking towards them. The former Foundation member, just come back from another quick C ranked mission, catches sight of the Akatsuki - after all, they're not exactly easy to miss. Upon spotting Deidara, the two of them immediately start glaring at each other. It's not long before they're in an explosive - literally, in Deidara's case - argument about true art, and when Sasori absently makes a comment about Deidara's “clay toys”, the blonde flies off the hook and soon there's a pretty heated three way argument going.
“Here they go again …” Hidan rolls his eyes and nudges Kakuzu a little bit too hard. On purpose, most likely. The masked man scowls at him. “Just because you're supposedly immortal doesn't mean other people feel pain too.”
“What? I thought you were immortal as well?”
“I have like five lives, unless I keep stocking up on my hearts. That's not being immortal. And at least I'm not a weird, psycho, pain drug addicted crazy religion sucking person like you!”
“Here they go again.” Konan sighs, quickening her pace. “We better get out of here quickly before their arguments destroy something. It won't be good to destroy a bit of the village that we take most our missions from.”
As she speaks, the collar of her cloak starts flaking off into squares of paper, then they shoot across the street and knock the two groups of arguing ninja apart. “Pull yourself together, you're not kids anymore.”
“But he is!”
“Remind me again why we're the most feared organisation in the shinobi world,” Itachi mutters, as Konan’s paper spears start chasing Hidan around the crossroads, giving him paper cuts every two seconds. Sai has already vanished in that weird, silent way of his, but he's left a flock of ink birds that flap around Sasori and Deidara's heads, which brings a string of pretty explosive threats from Deidara's mouth. And Kakuzu is back to his normal brooding self.
Kisame shrugs. “Pain will give them shit for it later. I better be there to watch it.”
And with that, the most feared organisation in the shinobi world walk out of the gates of the Hidden Leaf Village (or in Hidan’s case, runs out still chased and repeatedly stabbed by Konan’s paper spears).
Naruto peers out at the cloaked group from behind Sakura. “Oh. Don't tell me they're the ones who you're doing that mission with?”
“What?” The pink haired girl shrugs. “I'll be doing a mission with the most feared ninja in the shinobi world and you will be … what was it again? Going -”
“What? HEY! Just because I was away at training for two and a half years and didn't have time for stupid exams and time to relax -”