A body sat in a clearing. It laid against a tree, legs spread at an odd angle. One arm carelessly off to the side, gently caressing the soft grass that lay beneath it. The other arm sat on the left hip of the body, as if holding it in pain. The clothes the body was wearing were stained with blood and badly torn, revealing deep gashes and cuts that still seeped with the red sticky liquid. The shirt and cloak it wore had been torn down the middle revealing a broad, chiseled chest, smeared with blood and dirt. It heaved up and down, gasping for oxygen that it was loosing; fast. The head leaned off on to the shoulder, nearly paralyzed. It's luscious lips, bruised and bloody, like the rest of its body, quivered under the intense pain of being so near to death. The angular jaw followed soon after, then the shoulders and torso, and finally the legs. All of it's lean muscles shaking as death gripped it like a vice. And as it slipped from life, the beautifully, dark obsidian eyes stared lifelessly into the sky. And the angelic, aristocratic face, slowly went slack as the last breath left its lungs...

He was dead.

Deidara sat with his back up against a tree staring out at the rest of his group members. Sasori-danna stood a few feet from him. His expression, as always, was stoic and unnerving. Hidan and Kazuku were on the opposite end of the clearing, both of them had their eyes closed as they leaned against another tree. Kisame was standing in the middle of the clearing with an expression the bomber couldn't read. It was nothing like shock, or saddness, it was something like a mixture of confusion and intrigue. He was staring at a spot ten feet to Deidara's left, who, in turn, cast a glance at the same spot.

What he saw baffled and angered him.

He was baffled because the sight of Itachi Uchiha's dead body was something he never expected to see. Not only that, but the entire clearing seemed untouched. It was as if his body was simply dumped here randomly. If itachi had gotten into a battle with someone strong enough to kill him to, he was positive that at least a tree or two would have been destroyed in the process.

And why was he angery? Because whomever did this, had achieved the very thing he had promised to do the day he joined the Akatsuki. He felt cheated, so to speak...

Deidara tore his gaze away from the Uchiha's corpse and stared straight ahead of him. Pein stood a few yards from Kisame, facing another direction, staring upwards as if deep in thought. About an hour previously, after kisame had discovered the body, they all showed up. But for some strange reason, Pein was horribly on edge the minute he looked at the body. Almost immediately he summoned a spy. They had talked in very hushed voices, the spy hurried off, and the rest of them have been waiting ever since...

The sky was grey with complete cloud cover, the ground was very slightly damp from the rain a few days before, and the make this day ever more gloomy, a very thick mist hovered a good two feet off the ground.

Man he was bored...

And as if to vocalize his silent complaint, Sasori took a step forward.

"Leader-sama," he said in his usual ghostly voice. Pein acknowledged him with a simple glace of his eyes.

"What exactly are we waiting for?" he finished. Leader frowned slightly, not in anger, but in thought. Then he cast his eyes back to the heavens.

"Someone of great importance..." He answered, in a deep and ominous tone.

"May I ask, whom?" Sasori pressed. Deidara knew his danna well enough to detect the acute annoyance in is voice at having to use such politeness to someone so much younger then he was. As if on que, a harsh voice sounded just feet from the bomber's right, making the blonde jump in surprise.

"That is none of your damn business.." It said. Everyone turned to see a figure leaning up against the same tree that Deidara sat against. All of them were shocked... not one of them sensed the figure approach them. And to sneak up on the Akatsuki, was a rare thing to do.

"You better have a good god damn reason for waking me up this early in the morning," he barked in Pein's direction as he walked forward, arms crossed in annoyance.

He wore a dark red kimono top with long black leather gloves. Black baggy training pants tucked into knee high black boots. A black chest plait armor covered his chest and back with spiked metal shoulder guards. Along with plait leg armor that came down the side of his legs to his knee's. As he walked his hair, rather long and white blonde, flowed with an elegance that seemed unnatural compared to his armor clad body. His face, they could not see, was covered by a white porcelian mask with gold, leaf-like patterns all over it.

"I need a favor..." Pein replied, as everyone stepped a bit closer.

"Really...?" The man said with an air skeptisism in his voice as he cocked his head to the side. "Whats in it for me?" Pein held up a trunk in front of him and opened it. Reaching inside, the man pulled out a large gold coin. Deidara, out of the corner of his eyes, saw Kakuzu twitch voilently. "This will do, I suppose.." He sighed, dropping it back into the truck along with many others.

"I wouldn't summon you unless I was absolutely sure it was necessary..." he replied, and cast his eyes over to Itachi's corpse. As the mans eyes followed, and saw the bloody mess that was Itachi's lifeless body. The bomber noticed the mans entire body stiffen for a single moment before relaxing. He slowly walked forward, taking the trunk with him.

"What happened?" he asked, as he bent down and stuck a finger into a small pool of blood and rubbed it between his fingers.

"We dont know, all we know was that he was ambushed..." Kisame replied. The man turned sharply in his direction, and stood.

"Well, judging from the blood, id say he's been lying there for about 6 to 8 hours-" he started but Deidara cut in.

"We already know that! Leader-sama whats the point of this guy, yeah??" he barked. The bomber was irritated, to say the least. This man was utterly useless, and he didn't seem to understand why everyone was freaking out about this whole thing. And the fact that it was about Itachi didn't make him feel any better about it. Pein shot him a deadly glance, but the masked man ignored him and began wandering around the clearing staring at the ground.

"I hate to admit it, but I agree with the brat..." Hidan piped up. Next to him Kakuzu nodded. Pein was about to open his mouth but the masked man cut him off.

"Itachi Uchiha," he began, immediately sending off suspicion at the fact that he knew his name without being told. "-was ambushed from all sides, there were roughly six of them-" As he said this he pointed to certain spots around the trees.

"It ranged all over, was extremely quick, i'd say it lasted about twenty minutes, if that...once the battle seemed over the attackers left vie tree top, to cover their tracks. Once they were gone he pulled himself up against this tree. He sustained alot of cuts and lost quite a bit of blood. BUT, not enough blood to kill him. If he was poisoned, there would be evidence in his skin tone... so, why did he die before he was supposed to? That is what im going to find out. Simply a precautionary measure, nothing you need to get your panties in a twist about...yet," he finished with a final acknowledge to Deidara with a sarcastic tone, who glared in response.

"So you will do it?" Pein asked, as the man walked back to Itachi's body and picked up the trunk full of gold.

"Yes," he answered as he crouched down. "Beleive it or not, this particular case has aroused my interest. I'll keep you informed if I find anything."

"Good" Pein replied and turned to go back to the hideout. Everyone followed him cast warry glances at the eerie man who suddenly looked up and called out.

"Oh, and one more thing," he began face turning towards the blonde bomber. "Next time, show some respect Deidara."

Everyone blinked surprise, and suddenly both he and Itachi's corpse, were gone. Leaving no trace but the fog blowing away from where he once stood.

After a slight pause, Deidara lost it.

"How the hell did he know my name, yeah?!" he hollered, waving his arms.

"And Itachi's name, for that matter?" Kisame asked.

Pein simply walked away. "I dont know, and at the moment I dont care, though I will find out-" He stated matter-of-factly. But he stopped and turned his head in the bombers direction.

"But one thing I do know, is that if you speak like that again, SHE will break both your legs...." And with that, he disappeared.

"SHE?!?! ugh that only make's it worse!!" the blonde yelled some more as they headed back to headquarters. "There's something I dont like about that bitch..."

"Shut up, brat..." Sasori ordered, annoyance clear in his voice.

"Once again, I agree with him... she has something about her that doesn't sit well with me." Hidan mused, from behind them.

"It was her lack of chakra, I couldn't sense anything from her... other then something being very ominous about her..." Kisame added. "What do you think Sasori?"

The puppet master kept walking, and saidnothing, signifying that he had no idea..........