A/N: I am extremely sorry about the long wait and the short chapter. Please don't kill me! I had my end sem exams and my final year project guide was very demanding. And even after my exams were over, when I got down to writing the chapter, I had bits and pieces of DSP and Probability swimming through my head preventing me from writing properly  Sigh, anyways, the next chapter will be out in 4-5 days. 7 days top and will be a lot longer. Has already reached 2 k words. Hope you people like this.

"Normal speech."

"KYUUBI SPEECH."

'Normal Thoughts.'

'KYUUBU THOUGHTS'

JUTSU's

Escape

Naruto grunted as he shifted Kakuzu's body into a more comfortable position, picked up the storage scroll and slung it on his back. After checking to make sure that the scroll was tied securely on his back, he set off towards the closest settlement. Naruto was, for the first time since apprenticing under Kakuzu, was truly worried. With his sensei missing 3 out of his 5 hearts, he was limited to his fire and earth elementals and would take at least 6-7 days to recover from his chakra exhaustion. Naruto, for all his training was still a kid. And like all kids his age, believed that he was immortal. And while unlike most other kids, he truly was immortal, or as close as it was possible to be for a human , he had no delusions of his fate if he met any more Akatsuki members. He knew that to have a chance of survival, he needed to make sure his sensei recovered. He realized that till then, his only defense was in stealth and lying low. Having decided that, He gathered chakra and screamed "Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" and created at least a thousand Kage Bunshins.

"Alright! You know what to do. The ones on the right! Team up in two's. Use Henge to spread a false trail. The rest of you spread out and find a someplace we can lay low. Make sure you are not followed, you hear me! Use EVERY trick in the book. Double back, use the rivers, take some of these notes. I want rooms rented out all over Hi no kuni! That should muddy the trail enough. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Jump to it!"

"Sheesh. Hai hia. We get it. Now stop panicking." One of the clones grumbled out before the whole lot scattered out in different directions. Naruto took a deep breath to steady himself and took off with Kakuzu.

Akatsuki Hideout: Location unknown

Pein and konan were waiting patiently for news from 2 of their members who had been dispatched to collect the Kyuubi no Yoko's jinchuuriki (sp?), confident in the belief that they were one step closer to their goal. After all, 2 SS class members had gone to capture an 11 year old boy. How hard could it be?

The other members for the most part were waiting patiently to discover why their master had summoned them so suddenly when the next meeting was supposed to be 2 years away. I say mostly because some of the members were worse than a 10 year old boy on a caffeinated sugar high. Deidara was seen fidgeting, barely able to contain himself from show casing his 'art' while Zetsu was arguing with himself. Deidara finally cracked and spoke to the leader.

"Leader-sama, we have been waiting for nearly 1 hour, Un. and you still have not told us why we were summoned." The other members, Zetsu, Konan, Sasori, Tobi and Hidan tensed. Only those with a death wish questioned the leader of Akatsuki. And even then, only the mad ones.

Pein's eye twitched. He really hated it when his underlings spoke out of turn-usually it ended with blood. A lot of it. "Usually that would signal your end, but seeing as how we are going to be one step closer to our goal today, I am going to let it go without ripping out your arms. But make sure that does not happen again. GOT IT?"

Deidara hastily nodded his head, not daring to speak out.

All of the members tensed slightly when the perimeter alarm seals were tripped signaling that someone had entered the cave, but relaxed when the seal array informed them that it was a ring holderr who had tripped the alarms. Two figures hobbled inside before the larger, and… more colorful of the two finally spoke.

"Mission failed. The gaki got away."

For the first time in Akatsuki history the response of the members was universal.

"…"

There was absolute silence for 10 seconds before one of the waiting nin hesitantly spoke, "Err, come again? I think that my age might be catching up to me, because for a second there I could have sworn that I heard 2 S class Ninjas say that a 11 year old boy escaped from them."

Itachi replied in a monotone, "I have bad news for you, Leader-sama. Kakuzu has gone rogue. When we arrived at the place pointed to by Sasori's spy, we found Kakuzu there as well. When we approached him about the Kyuubi he attacked us. We almost had him when the boy arrived. He managed to, with Kakuzu's help, neutralize my Amaterasu. At which point we retreated."

This was followed by a predictable silence for a minute after which Deidara decided that it had been too long since he tasted his feet and uncertainly spoke. "Un. I still get to keep my arms right?"

"AAAAARGH!"

A/N: I still don't have a beta. So, if you feel that I need to make some changes, please msg me. sorry about the delay- and this is not a chapter as you have seen- i was notified about some spelling mistakes i made- and i decided to correct them and to inform you readers that the next chapter should be out in 2 days-3 days top. chapter got delayed due to my sem exam.