They walked down the path right next to each other; no noise was made not even by the shadow watching them. They stopped for a moment trying in vain to find the shadow following them.
"You can come out now," The first one said to a general region of trees.
Suddenly a figure appeared next to them as if he had been there the entire time. He wore a dark black cloak with a white wolf on the back around him, and wore a dark black hood that covered his face. He was reading a comic book and gave a small laugh and turned to face them.
"So how'd the mission go, I assume you have the nine-tails," He said sarcastically.
"What do you think? Do you see anyone else with us?" The taller one said angrily
"Kisame, calm down: We failed in capturing the nine-tails. He was being protected by one of the Sannin; we would have been killed if we tried to fight him." Itachi said calmly
"Really," The cloaked figure muttered to himself. He thought about it for a minute before laughing again. "Wow, the great Itachi who became an ANBU captain at age 13, and one of the seven swordsmen of the mist couldn't defeat one measly Sannin," he said holding his sides. There are two possible Sannin you could have faced "One's a creepy snake guy who lost his arms, and the other is well… to put it simply a freaking pervert, and you're telling me you couldn't beat one of them?" he asked as they resumed walking again.
"We faced the pervert, but he is very powerful. He would have killed us both if I hadn't used Amaterasu to get out alive," Itachi said
"Fine, I'll give you two the benefit of the doubt, but I don't think Pain or Madara will be very pleased with you two. You do know that the kid will probably train until he can beat you guys to death if you try and kidnap him again." the shadow said with a serious tone.
Silence followed after that conversation. Itachi and Kisame knew that he was right, although neither would admit it. Itachi looked at the Shadow with a small smile. He had to admit that he could be useful when he actually tried to do something, and he was a great ally to have. He was a born assassin, it was in his blood and from what Itachi had seen, and he was perfect at getting his target.
However, he didn't know his goals in life. He had come when he had run away from the Hidden Village of Mist. He didn't really consider himself part of Akatsuki, he stayed there, but only did the missions that he felt like doing, but no one ever got angry at him for it. He also had a tendency to be extremely sarcastic and critical about everyone except himself.
"We're almost back at the headquarters," Kisame stated as the building came into view.
"Good, maybe I can finally relax instead of having to watch over you two, and then learning that you guys fail at your missions," The Shadow muttered as they approached the entrance.
Kisame gave a look of disgust, while Itachi entered still wondering about the Shadow. He had known him for about 2 years, but he still didn't know his goals, or anything else about him for that matter. The Shadow had once darkly mentioned revenge on some certain people, and then after that the Kazekage plus his guards had been killed, but no one suspected him. They walked until they saw Konnan; she immediately knew the status of the mission and led them wordlessly to Pain.
Pain was asleep, but woke up when they arrived. He eyed each one of them and gave the Shadow a long stare. He focused his look back on Itachi, and Kisame.
"I assume you two failed." He said.
"Yes, we did, but there was a Sannin protecting him" Kisame said Pain thought about it for a moment. He sighed and looked at them again, but he didn't say anything. He gave them the motion to leave, but motioned the Shadow to stay.
"What do you need…? Pain-sama," the Shadow said sarcastically.
"I have a mission for you, one that deals with a certain someone that you might have an interest in," Pain said with a smile. He whispered the name into the Shadow's ear. The hood fell off of the Shadow's head to reveal a youthful face, with messy dirty blonde hair. A smile formed on his lips, and he left without a word.