Itachi Uchiha is eating dango with great relish when a Konohan messenger hawk flies down and lands on the bench beside him.

Surprised, Itachi offers it some dango and takes its message. A stick of dango hanging out of his mouth, Itachi unrolls the message scroll and reads it. The message is short, but it makes him laugh. The message reads: "Itachi Uchiha, you are to report to me before the week is out. Naruto Uzumaki broke into the Secret S Rank File Archive and stole the files pertaining to the Kyuubi attack and the Uchiha coup d'etat. He and Sasuke read them with their teammate Sakura, and the three of them tried to kill Danzo who is now a missing nin. I will explain in full when you arrive. Please bring your Akatsuki partner with you and act as if this is a potential mission.

Signed Hiruzen Sarutobi, Third Hokage of Konoha"

"What's so funny?" asks Kisame, sitting down next to Itachi with a fresh plate of dango. "I've never heard you laugh before."

"I just got a message from the hokage," says Itachi. "He wants to hire the two of us for something."

"The Hokage wants to hire Akatsuki?" asks Kisame, surprised. "What could he possibly want our services for?"

"We will find out soon enough," Itachi tells him, and starts eating the plate of dango kisame has brought. The messenger hawk finishes it's dango and flies off. Obviously it wasn't instructed to wait for a reply, which must mean that the hokage expected him to come without question. Interesting.

"So what's konoha like, anyway?" asks Kisame as he and Itachi near Konoha. "Is the academy system better or worse than the one in the Hidden Mist?"

Itachi shrugs.

"Huh, I guess you've never been to the hidden mist academy, have you? It's pretty shit. You have to kill a classmate to graduate. I suppose you didn't have to do that did you?"

Itachi shrugs.

"Hey look we're here, are they gonna let us in without a fight? They should, since the Hokage called us here. Why did he call us any way?"

Itachi shrugs.

Kisame is mercifully silent as they enter the gates of Konoha. Itachi walks past the chunins on duty (the Kotetsu and Izumo duo), without making a sound. The pair are too busy playing charades to notice him and Kisame.

Once they are out of earshot of the gate 'guards' Kisame continues his chatter. "I'm surprised Konoha hasn't been invaded yet, those guards are obviously incompetent. Anyone could walk right in and no one would know until they started painting those giant faces."

"Actually, no one notices when our local jinchuuriki paints the hokage faces," Itachi feels the need to say. "So I doubt anyone would notice if a foreign ninja painted them."

"For real?"Kisame is suitably shocked. "Is this a village of idiots? Seriously, how is Konoha the most powerful shinobi village to date?"

"It's because we're all crazy." Itachi can finally see the Hokage tower. It's been so long. He starts to feel a little emotional.

Almost in a daze, Itachi enters the tower and climbs up the stairs to the Hokage's office. Kisame follows him, for once not keeping up a running commentary on everything and anything. Feeling a surprisingly nervous, Itachi knocks on the Hokage's office door.

"Enter."

It's been so long since Itachi's heard the voice of his Hokage. Slowly, he opens the door and walks in, followed closely by Kisame. The Hokage is sitting at his desk, doing his paperwork. He looks up, and smiles when he sees Itachi. "Good, you came quickly. I take it this is your partner?"

"I'm Kisame Hoshigaki," Kisame introduces himself. "Itachi's already filled his daily quota of two sentences , so I doubt he'll say anything."

The Hokage laughs. "I am pleased to meet you, Kisame Hoshigaki. May i ask you to wait outside for a few minutes? There are some things I need to discuss with Itachi that pertain to his brother."

"Sure," Kisame agrees readily. "Do you mind if I go up on the roof and get a look at the village?"

"Not at all, just try not to attract attention to yourself."

"Seeya!" Kisame waves cheerfully and exits the room.

"Well Itachi, are you going to say anything?" Lord Third asks, smiling gently.

"It's good to be back in the leaf again," Itachi manages to say without his voice trembling. "How is Sasuke?"

"You can ask him yourself once we're finished here," Lord Third says. "You no longer bear the status of missing nin. Now tell me what you learned of Akatsuki."

Not knowing how to react to the news he is no longer a missing nin, Itachi summarizes what he has learned of Akatsuki. "Akatsuki was founded by the three Hidden Rain orphans Lord Jiraiya trained: Nagato Uzumaki, Yahiko and Konan. Their original purpose was to bring about world peace by talking with their enemies and coming to an understanding with them. After Yahiko was killed during a fight with Hanzo of the Salamander, Nagato took over the leadership of Akatsuki. Two new members, known as Zetsu and Tobi, joined Akatsuki and introduced a plan to cast the world in a genjutsu to create an artificial peace. They plan on fueling the genjutsu with the power of the Tailed Beasts.

"Nagato and Konan also run the Hidden Rain: they killed Hanzo a few years ago. The Hidden Rain and the Akatsuki know Nagato as Lord Pein. That about sums up what I know about Akatsuki's plans. As for members; we work in pairs: myself and Kisame; Hidan of the Land of Hot Water and Kakazu of the Hidden Waterfall; Sasori of the Red Sand and Deidara of the Hidden Stone; Lord Pein and Lady Konan stay in the Hidden Rain most of the time; and Tobi appears to be Zetsu's apprentice. Tobi is the one who set the Ninetails on the Village 12 years ago, and also the one who assisted me with the slaughter of my clan. That is all."

The Hokage considers this information. Finally he says, "How willing do you think Lord Pein would be to revert back to the original plan Akatsuki had for world peace? I would be willing to support an organisation with such ideals as they started out with."

Itachi starts in surprise. "You would ally with Akatsuki?"

"I was originally only going to hire you to kill Danzo but, under the circumstances, I think we could also negotiate peace, don't you?"

"I will send a message to Lord Pein for you, if you truly wish to negotiate with him."

"Good, that's settled," Lord Third smiles. "Fetch your talkative partner so we can discuss the terms of your hire."