A/N: So sorry for the slight delay! I'm visiting my grandmother over in Guaynabo, and the internet connection over here isn't that great. I got the chapter up though, so that's all that matters!

Oh yes, I also forgot to add a disclaimer to the last chapter; so I'll add one there as soon as I can. Just thought I'd mention that.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. If I did, there would be a lot less of characters I like dying!

Chapter Two

Late at night as it was, it remained quite early in the views of three other people not too far away. Two of them were making their way down a sidewalk in an extremely run-down area of the city, their crisp and expensive looking business suits diverging from the dirty and overall low-life atmosphere that prevailed there.

The taller of the two did not seem to mind all that much where they were, a strange look of anticipation decorating the near-terrifying grin on his face. His teeth were sharpened to a point, explaining the terror-striking aspect of his showing them. The shorter of the two, however, had a stoic expression that never seemed to leave him. His eyes passed disdainfully over the trash-strewn sidewalk, frowning as some now-indistinguishable food spilled onto his shoe from a waste heap he had failed to notice.

"Kisame, how much farther is this place you want to take me?"

"Not too far. I'm telling you, Itachi, you'll be thanking me when we get there! Its employees are excellent, to say the least."

"Excellent? In this area of New York City? You must be blinder than our elderly client to believe such a thing."

"Fine, say what you will, but you'll be eating your words soon enough."

Itachi simply frowned again, but remained silent as he and his business partner continued down the street. They finally stopped in front of a small door that did not stand out all that very much. As a matter of fact, if Kisame hadn't stopped walking there, Itachi was sure he would have passed by it without a second glance or thought as to what may have laid behind it.

His taller partner knocked on it three times, obviously having learned some form of letting whoever was inside know that it was him. While waiting for somebody to answer them, Itachi allowed his eyes to travel around the small area of the edifice that surrounded said door. The walls were not different in the least compared to the other buildings they had passed on their way here, but the small red light that hung over the door was enough to tell Itachi what sort of place this was.

"You took me to a brothel?"

"Well, not really. It's more of an exclusive strip club than anything. They're located all the way out here so as to make it harder for casual customers to find." he added, once Itachi had lifted an eyebrow at Kisame's use of the word 'exclusive'.

Itachi was about to add something, but was cut off by the door opening slightly, an eye peeking out to see who it was.

"Ah, Mr. Hoshigake? Come in, come in! And I see you've brought a guest along with you. A potential customer?"

"Yeah, I think he'll like it here."

The wink shared between his partner and the man who answered the door was not missed by Itachi. He knew Kisame had some sort of motive or another to get him here, although what it was, he did not know.

He followed them down a hallway lined with a few doors, Itachi having quite a good idea of what the rooms beyond were used for. Wrinkling his nose a bit, he frowned as the thought crossed his mind that this really was perhaps what Kisame believed Itachi to find entertaining. Well, perhaps he did a bit, as he was a man like any other; but the whole idea of needing to pay someone to perform those services for him was just too low-class for his tastes.

"Just take a seat anywhere you'd like, sirs. Our star performer will be out in a minute."

Itachi looked into the room their guide had just brought them to. It was large and spacious, housing a few rows of seats and a small stage that stood in front of them, like some sort of twisted main museum exhibit.

Following Kisame, Itachi frowned slightly as he saw his partner sit front and center, but sat beside him nonetheless before leaning in to whisper into his ear.

"If this is some sort of prank, Hoshigake, I'll gut you like the fish you so adore."

"So like you, Itachi, so like you… Stop being so suspicious and enjoy the show, it's about to start!"

The same doubtful frown on his face, Itachi grudgingly turned back to the stage, only having noticed as the house lights dimmed that he and Kisame were the only ones in the audience.

-------

Kisame grinned in a self-satisfied manner as he and Itachi made their way back down the hallway towards the front door. The stoic raven-head hadn't made a single move of displeasure or annoyance the whole time, and if the sharp-toothed man wasn't mistaken, his partner had hung behind to speak in whispers to the club's owner. Curious as to what they had spoken about, Kisame waited until Itachi had caught up to him and after they had exited through the inconspicuous front door.

"So what were you two talking about back there?"

"I wanted to know a few things."

"Like what?"

Kisame was not fazed by the threatening glance Itachi had thrown him; as his business partner and oldest friend, it was a prerogative of his to be able to mess around with the Uchiha in ways that normal people would have lost their heads for.

Knowing that Kisame would not give up until he had a satisfactory answer, Itachi looked forward again as they walked up the street in the general direction of their apartments, "I found out that the girl's name was Yume Hikari, and I have reserved her services for the future. Are you satisfied now, Kisame?"

Kisame let loose another sharp-toothed grin, allowing Itachi to take that for his answer.

Oh yes I am, Uchiha. Everything's going exactly to plan…

-------

Not that far away from the club the business partners had just left sat a rather odd-looking man. He was very tall, probably about as much as Kisame, but had hair dyed a dark green and a very sickly coloring. He watched as the two walked past him, judging mentally whether or not they would be worthwhile customers. Shaking his head slightly, the man decided that the shorter of the two was far from the gullible sort that he was looking for, and would warn his stronger-looking friend against him.

Just as well, he added to himself as the men turned around the corner, I don't think I'm quite in the shape to put up a fight if Mr. Raven were to set Shark-man on me.

"Zetsu? Ah, there you are, Zetsu!"

Zetsu turned his head as he heard quick, light footsteps hurrying towards him. His protégé and high school tag-along friend Tobi emerged from inside a building across the street, waving a sheet of paper as he ran towards him, "I got some more orders, Zetsu! These new customers don't look like they'll last long, though."

"We'll take what we can get." Zetsu took the money and order forms from Tobi and reviewed them, selecting a few packets and vials from a box beside him, and adding a syringe to the bundle.

"Take these back to them and let them know that I'll be back on this street corner three days from now. That is all."

"Okay then, Zetsu!" Without another word, Tobi then hurried back into the building he had emerged from, leaving Zetsu to lay back against the wall, going back to picking out potential customers from the occasional people walking past him.

He didn't have to, though. Within a few minutes a man with slicked-back silver hair made his way over to Zetsu, wrinkling his nose in disgust as he caught sight of the drugs in the open box next to him.

"Are you Zetsu?"

"Yes. How may I help you tonight?"

The man held up a sheet of paper that Zetsu at first thought was an order form, but at second glance was really some sort of a note. Not allowing him to read it for too long, the visitor folded it and slipped it into his coat, looking around at the nearby buildings.

"Get your assistant over here soon and come with me. We have several people to contact tonight, and very little time in which to do it."

Zetsu stood up, closing his box and hiding it underneath his own coat, suspicion rising within him, "Who are you, and what is it you want with us?"

The silver-haired man turned back to him, "My name is Hidan, and I have been contacted by the same man who wants you, your assistant, and many other people in New York City. We had better hurry with our new errand though, before he loses his benevolence towards us and has us all killed, or worse."

-------

A loud series of knocks on the trailer door brought Ryoko out of a rather nice dream that she had just started. Grunting slightly as her brain forced its way to full consciousness, she stumbled out of her bed and nearly tripped over Sasori, who had collapsed out of pure exhaustion on her floor after having to work late on several trapeze mechanisms that had fallen apart while they were out.

Opening the door, it took Ryoko several moments to register that the man standing outside was her boss, Kakuzu, and that if he was disturbing her this late at night (1), then it was very important.

"Kakuzu?! What are you doing here? What's going on?"

"I need you and Sasori to get dressed and come to my car in five minutes."

"Why?"

"Don't ask questions, just do it. Remember that I can always dock your pay for the next few weeks." he added this last part as if to give her an incentive to speed it up, then turned away back to the parking lot. Having the distinct feeling that he would actually time them, Ryoko shut the door and ran over to her dresser; Sasori already having been awakened by Kakuzu's not-too-quiet whispers.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting something a bit more decent to wear out there than an oversized T-shirt. I suggest you go out now and meet Kakuzu since you're already fully-dressed and don't need to stay here watching me."

Not being one to do as he was told, Sasori opened his mouth to give her a sarcastic reply, but thought better of it. The situation was already strange enough as it was, and the worried tone in Ryoko's voice called his mind to strict attention. As an acrobat and fire breather, Ryoko courted danger for a living; so if something were to actually worry her, it was most likely serious.

He exited Ryoko's trailer and closed the door behind him, making his way over to where Kakuzu sat waiting in his car. True to Ryoko's suspicions, Kakuzu indeed had a timer going on in his watch, and grunted somewhat as he watched Sasori enter the backseat of his car alone. Exactly two minutes later, Ryoko barreled out of her trailer, locking it behind her despite the time limit they had before joining Sasori in the backseat.

"…you had twenty-five seconds left. Lucky girl."

Without another word, Kakuzu started up his car and pulled out of the parking lot, driving on in silence to a place he did not seem to have been to before. This was obvious from the fact that every few streets or so Kakuzu would need to consult a sheet of paper in his hand with directions underneath a short note. Ryoko tried to crane her head over to where she could read it, but almost as if he could anticipate her movements, Kakuzu made sure that he would conveniently have read the next set of directions and set the paper face-down upon the dashboard every time she tried.

Even Sasori was somewhat curious as to where they were going, though; and after about fifteen minutes of silence and watching Ryoko unsuccessfully try to determine where they were going, spoke up.

"What is going on, Kakuzu? You wake us both up at three in the morning, threaten us to get into your car within five exact minutes, drive off with us to some unknown destination, and say nothing as to what drove you to such madness. I repeat: what is going on?"

Kakuzu seemed to be weighing whether or not it would be safe to tell his employees what had driven him into such a frenzy, and after several minutes, let out a small sigh.

"To be honest, I don't know what is going on very much either. All I know is that I received this note not too long before I woke you up, and thought it would be safest to follow through with it. Here, you were going to read some of it eventually anyways."

Kakuzu handed the note to Ryoko's outstretched hand while Sasori switched on the overhead light, both of them leaning in to read it. Sasori's eyes widened slightly while Ryoko let out a slight gasp, the words the note bore refusing to change meaning no matter how many times she read it over.

"This is insane…"

-------

Not too long after Sasori and Ryoko were awakened by Kakuzu, a very similar event was happening in another part of the city. A woman of about twenty-five had packed up for the night and had just wished her boss goodnight, when a loud knocking came from the door she was just about to leave through. Frowning somewhat, she reached her arm forward to pull the door open. Standing outside was a very-strange looking man, and that was saying something as someone of her profession would have seen quite a few strange men. Waiting outside behind him was a sleek black car with tinted windows. She couldn't be sure, but the woman was sure that she could make out a shape or two within that car.

"Sorry sir, but we're closed now. Come back again tomorrow night."

"You are Yume Hikari, are you not?"

Yume cringed inwardly at the way the man spoke. His voice carried a slither within it that seemed to hiss much like a snake. Come to think of it, he looked very much like a snake, too. The waxy white skin stretched across his face made the exotic dancer think that this man had probably never seen the light of day, let alone stepped outside his home. His yellow eyes bored into Yume's, making a shiver run through her body that it had not felt in quite awhile. Being used to men's stares was part of her job, after all, but this was different. Why it was remained inexplicable to her, however.

"Yes…Why do you ask?"

Much like Hidan had to Zetsu, the snake-man held up a note long enough for Yume to glance at it, then returned it back to its previous residence before she could read it.

"My name is Orochimaru. You are to come with us, Ms. Hikari."

"Why should I? How do I know you're not just trying to round up people for some sort of drug ring or something?"

Orochimaru's yellow eyes narrowed, obviously not having thought that he would meet resistance, "You are required to come to this meeting that has been called. Either you comply and live, or refuse and die."

Yume's eyes widened a small bit, having thought she saw the man's hand shoot into his coat pocket for what probably was a gun. Deciding that it might be smarter to go along with him for now, she held up her palms before stepping forwards onto the sidewalk, "Okay, okay, take it easy there! I'll go to whatever meeting it is that you're taking me to."

Orochimaru nodded satisfied, opening the door to the passenger seat and not moving until he had seen that Yume had put on her seatbelt. Closing the door then with a snap, he made his way around to the driver's seat and slid in, turning the key in the ignition and driving towards their destination as Yume turned to see whether or not there really were other people inside.

"Hey…you two being pulled along for this meeting-thing, too?"

The two women sitting in the back nodded, one with wild red hair and another with such perfectly-behaved blonde hair that Yume wondered how she could have fixed her hair so quickly after being awakened if the man's approach to her was the same.

"Wait…does your name happen to be Yume? Yume Hikari?"

Yume's eyes widened with the same recognition that was dawning upon the redhead's face as her familiar voice registered within her memory.

"Sukkiri?! I haven't seen you since we graduated from high school! What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Sukkiri raised an eyebrow at Yume's appearance, but shook her head slightly as she turned towards the blonde next to her.

"Oh yeah, this is my flat-mate Deidara. Deidara, this is my old friend, Yume."

The two exchanged greetings, Yume cocking an eyebrow as she heard Deidara's voice, "I don't know if you always get people pointing this out to you, but you have a rather deep voice for a girl."

Deidara's face reddened, and it was all he could do to keep the embarrassment out of his voice as he cleared it repeatedly, "I, uh…I'm a guy, un."

"Oh! Um…sorry 'bout that!"

Yume quickly faced forwards, this time sharing Deidara's sudden ruddy complexion. Fumbling a bit with her hands, Yume was at a loss for what to do with herself, until she noticed that the note Orochimaru had presented her with was lying on the dashboard in front of her. Sneaking a glance at him to see if he was paying attention to her at the moment, Yume pulled the note towards her, her eyebrows shooting upwards as she realized what it was that they were all being taken to:

Orochimaru,

You are to bring me Sukkiri Kemikaru, Yume Hikari, and one named Deidara to this location tonight at 3:30 AM. There is a matter of which I have for you and several others that will appear here tonight to attend to. Consider your acceptance of my invitation and your participation absolutely mandatory.

Also, be certain to remind yourself and the people you are to bring me that the fact they have been watched for several months and no suspicion has been raised among them is argument enough that nobody who backs out will escape our notice with their lives.

The note was not signed, but Yume was sure that even if it was that she would not recognize the name. A sound from the backseat drew Yume's attention back there, and she watched as Sukkiri yawned and laid her head on Deidara's shoulder, apparently at ease enough to believe that it was safe for her to sleep. The question within Yume's mind of whether or not to show them this note was immediately answered as she slipped it back onto the dashboard.

Let them be for now. There's nothing we can do in here right now, so it would do no good to warn them. I'll just have to be on guard for all three of us, it seems.

"We're here now."

Yume set her jaw as she took off her seatbelt and got out of the car, having made her decision. Staying close by Deidara and Sukkiri, she followed Orochimaru into a steel door next to a dumpster and down several flights of stairs and hallways, feeling the other two's curiosity harden into a slight form of fear.

They finally came to a door lying at the end of the last hallway, on which Orochimaru knocked on five times, then four times.

"Come in. You've made it just in time, Orochimaru. You are our last group."

Indeed, just as her watch suddenly switched to 3:30, Orochimaru opened the door, and to what dangerous insanity that had reached them all at this late hour, they were about to find out.

(1) Or early in the morning, depending on how you look at it.

A/N: So there you have it, the introductions are over! And just as a bit of a notice, I probably won't be able to get the next chapter up for about a week or so. I will try, but there are no guarantees. Thanks for your understanding!