Chapter 9

Tsunade pulled the bag from beneath her armor and loosened the ties, dropping out a blue necklace. It was a crystal shape hanging from a black piece of leather with two steel beads hanging from it.

Uncle…forgive me…

Tsunade slid the necklace over her head, pulling the old green one off. Next, she pulled her armor from her closet; the Hokage's armor, female form: a black chakra-enforced shell, with shuriken holsters on the hip and thigh pieces and fishnet over the wrists and ankles. A silver vest went over that, much like the ANBU one, but this one had the Hokage symbol painted on the back. Tsunade put her necklace under her shirt; a hidden weapon of sorts. There were tow katanas in the closet as well; one had belonged to Tsunade's grandfather, the other to his brother. These she crossed on her back, along with the red ribbons trailing from them, and slid the sheaths into the loops on the armor. Tsunade found a Leaf hiata-ait in the closet, picked it up, and tied it around her neck.

"Show time."

OOOOOOOOO

Kakashi looked up as the door opened.

Itachi walked through, carrying a headband. Kakashi recognized it as his; the Leaf symbol, the small scratch along the edge-

"Here."

Kakashi hesitantly took the hiata-ait from Itachi, staring at him fixedly as he did so.

"How did you-?"

Itachi shook his head. "You," he started, sliding his hands around Kakashi's back, "Have no need to know."

Kakashi shrugged Itachi off, but the missing-nin reached for him. "Get back here," he said teasingly, and forced Kakashi to look at him.

"I do have one favor to ask from you."

Kakashi shrank back. This had happened to him before-the enemy would let him go, but only for a heavy price. And usually it was fulfilling a certain satanic pleasure.

Itachi's hands were on his mask now, and Kakashi was frozen with fear now. What would he do? Would this happen again? What did Itachi want? Would he stop at-?

Kakashi felt a cold wave of air hit his face as his mask was stripped away, and he yanked back, covering his face with his hands. Itachi slowly reached out and eased them down, revealing Kakashi's face.

Kakashi's face was absolutely gorgeous to Itachi; the perfection marred only by a vertical scar that crossed his bared left eye. Skin so white it almost reflected a bit of the light in the room. A petite, upturned nose centered perfectly in the center of that beautiful face. Deep, gray eye and blood red Sharingan exactly aligned with the rest of Kakashi's face. Those soft pink lips begging to be kissed-

Itachi leaned forward, pressing his lips to Kakashi's. His prisoner was clearly startled; he yanked back, but it was more instinct than reaction. Itachi smirked into Kakashi's mouth; he was as quiet as he had hoped. He could easily manipulate him to do whatever he wanted.

Itachi broke away, but he held Kakashi close to him, even as the jounin tried to pull away again.

"You're wonderful," he murmured, still holding Kakashi's hands in his own. "Sh, it's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."

"What's your definition of 'hurt me'?"

Itachi laughed and stroked Kakashi's hair, pulling his mask back up and watching the fear dance across his eyes. "I mean, the window's unlocked."

OOOOOOOOO

Kisame slammed the door just as Itachi closed the door to Kakashi's room.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh…"

One black eyebrow rose as Kisame's whine dragged out. "What happened now?"

"I just noticed this."

Kisame pulled up his left sleeve, revealing a long scratch across his forearm. "Kakashi gave it to me on the way here."

Itachi just stood for a moment in shock. "Are you trying to get us all killed and/or found by Konohanin…or are you just that stupid?!"

"A little bit of both…?"

Itachi sighed. "Great, just great! And I just…! Aw, never mind, just…" Itachi began pacing furiously. "Go tell Kakuza what happened, I'm grabbing Kakashi and getting the hell out of here. Meet me…somewhere, um…where we first met Yuuhi and Sarutobi…I'm taking Kakashi, go!"

Kisame ran out the door again, and Itachi shoved open the door to Kakashi's room.

Kakashi looked startled as Itachi ran up to him, snatched him up into his arms, and broke the glass in the window.

"Climb down. Now. Your little friends, no thanks to Kisame, now know where we are and we have to get out of here-"

Itachi stopped short when he saw the ANBU huddled below the window.

"…Now…"

Kakashi wasted no time. He was half out the window from when Itachi had shoved him and now he jumped with reckless abandon. Several of the ANBU ran forward and caught him as he fell; Kakashi recognized Gai and Asuma even in their ANBU masks as two of the four ANBU who caught him.

"Thanks," he said softly, and Gai set him down on the ground. Asuma wrapped his arms around him protectively and looked up to the window Itachi was looking out of.

"Come out weasel!" Tsunade taunted, seeing Itachi leaning out over the window. "Come on, we have weasel treats!"

Itachi sighed. This was just what he needed, and he had broken the glass. Only one thing to do now…and that was-

Fight.

OOOOOOOOO

Kisame streaked through the halls. From the sound of it, he was too late. The only thing he could do now was rally the entire Akatsuki to fight, but Kakuza would be so flippin' mad…

"Deidara!" he screamed as he ran past the missing-nin. "We're in a bit of a situation!"

Deidara sighed. "Samehada is half-flushed down the toilet again?"

Kisame reddened. "That was Itachi's fault," he mumbled, and continued. "Konoha found us!"

"We're all gonna die."

Hidan sauntered up to Kisame, a sarcastic ring to his voice. "Anyway, what do you want?"

"Konoha found us!" Kisame repeated. "And Itachi's holding them off! We need to help him!"

Hidan shrugged. "This baby does need a workout, and it is for Itachi…" He shrugged again and swung his massive sword over his shoulder. "Why not? It's for Itachi."

He began walking towards Itachi's room, slinging his sword back over his shoulder. Kakuza was walking up to the group as Hidan walked off, grasping his necklace and chanting.

"There he goes again with those stupid rituals," he mumbled, brushing past them. "He won't stop for a while, but once he gets going he'll be all right."

Zetsu shrugged and followed.

"Well, Sasori?" Deidara asked. "Ready to go fight, un?"

Sasori shrugged. "Sure, why not? I've been running low on human puppets lately…a certain Copy Ninja destroyed all mine."

"We just want to capture him, not kill him," Kisame warned. "Itachi was very clear; we can't hurt him under any circumstances. Otherwise he'll hurt us."

"Maybe he'll hurt you," Deidara said. "But I'm sure if we only give him a few small bruises Itachi will understand."

"Get out! Get out now!!"

Itachi was running towards him at warp speed, shouting at them to get out.

"It's gonna blow, the whole thing's rigged to explode!" he yelled. "Get out!!"

Kakuza was the first to turn and run, the rest of the Akatsuki hot on his heels. Hidan came running back.

"Start jumping!" he called. "They blocked the exits!"

"This was it," Deidara muttered. "They planned this-all along…"

"They've got us surrounded, but if we fight and run we might make it!" Itachi called. "Get out now!"

"A-ye!!"

Kisame jumped at the high-pitched shriek from Sasori, and noticed a burst of flame shortly before they were all blown back from the force of an explosion.

"Get out the window!" Hidan said. He swung his sword at the window, shattering the glass. "Get out!" he repeated, and shoved Itachi towards the window. Itachi jumped out, praying he would land on some random ANBU and crush him.

His hopes were half granted; his landed on an ANBU, but the man swiftly stabbed-

His clone.

The real Itachi was running away from the battle, using chakra as a full-body shield. He knew he couldn't last long like this, but he valuing speed over anything else.

Another thump sounded from behind him; a quick glance back indicated that Hidan had made it and was now thundering towards him.

"I would say thanks, but I'm not sure for what," Itachi said. "Surviving, I guess."

"What about the Hatake?" Hidan inquired. "He's the one who leaked in the first place!"

"Exactly," Itachi growled. "Which is why we have to shut him up somehow. Last approach didn't work…Tsukiyomi again might break him, but you might have to carry me out of the battle, and that's a risk I'm not willing to take. "I'm expending an enormous amount of chakra as it is, I can't afford the Tsukiyomi, I might break before he does."

Hidan grit his teeth. "Has anyone else made it?"

Itachi glanced back again. "Sasori and Deidara are back to back fighting, I can't see anyone else."

Hidan nodded. "Kakuza?"

Itachi shook his head. "No idea."

Hidan sighed, clutched at his necklace again, and began chanting.

"What are you doing?"

Hidan didn't answer, only kept up his chant. Itachi sighed and kept leaping through the trees, waiting for Hidan to finish.

The missing-nin finished shortly afterwards, setting down his necklace and never saying a word to Itachi. "What's going on?" Itachi asked. Hidan shook his head. "Religion," he said, and Itachi asked no more.

Itachi finally dropped his chakra shield, after they could no longer hear the battle. "Now what?" Hidan asked, slowing to match Itachi's pace.

Itachi sighed. "We wait," he said finally. "There's nothing else we can do."

OOOOOOOOO

Tsunade knew the battle was going well, and also that it was almost over. Even though Sasori, Zetsu and Kisame had split and slipped through her fingers, she had managed to get her hands, or rather, ropes, on Deidara and Kakuza. Itachi and Hidan had disappeared before that battle, and she had held her men back with a soft order. They had waited, and sure enough, the raging fire drove the Akatsuki out of hiding and into her waiting hands. Deidara had gone down fighting hard, and he almost killed one of her ANBU. However, he hadn't, and Tsunade had managed to get some restraints on him before he kicked her in the shins. She had laughed, kicked him back, and went after Kakuza, who backed down relatively quickly once she distracted him with a kunai to Deidara's neck. She had then laughed again, tossed aside the kunai, and stuck out her tongue. Kakuza had flown into a rage and started kicking her until she kicked him over-and laughed some more.

Finally Tsunade and her ninja had stopped laughing and led the Akatsuki members away, back to Konoha and her tower, and shoved them down in a damp cell in the dungeon underneath the Hokage's Tower.

"Neji, if you could do the honors?"

A dark-haired, white-eyed teenager stepped forward, and Deidara could see the Byakugan sparking along the his eyes.

"Aw, come on! Don't be a-!"

"I can do you first," Neji snapped, and Deidara fell silent.

"Good, we have an understanding," he breathed, and shoved his foot into Kakuza's side. "Stand up and don't move."

Kakuza wormed his way into a standing position by pressing himself up against the wall and pushing himself up with his feet. He was struggling due to his bonds, which Tsunade had made extensive.

"Don't move," Neji repeated, and stepped forward, hands glowing with chakra.

"Eight Trigrams: Sixty-four Palms!"

Kakuza felt one after another of his chakra points closing as the Hyuuga hammered him again and again, showing no mercy as he sealed off his chakra. The missing-nin bit his lip until it bled, holding back his strangled cries of pain. He would not give them the pleasure of seeing him cry out! He would not be that weak! He would not be that humiliated!

Neji finally finished sealing his chakra points, and Kakuza sank down the wall, spitting blood.

The same process was repeated with Deidara, and the blonde looked horrible when he finally fell back next to Kakuza.

"I'll wait until you recover from that," Tsunade said tartly, "To interrogate you. Until then, I wouldn't expect much."

Deidara shrugged. "I hear they're nice to you here," he mumbled. "They let you have water more than once a day."

"Funny," Kakuza said dryly. "Well at least we're entertained in here. All I have to do is look at your hair."

"Thanks. Your kind words are doing wonders for my self esteem."

"Oh, you're welcome. I'm good at that, see."

Deidara sighed and let his head fall back. "I can't feel my legs."

"That Hyuuga was nasty."

"He's with that gambling whore of a Hokage-he's gonna be nasty, un!"

Kakuza sighed. "Let's count bricks."

"Let's not."

"Let's wait until we go insane."

"Let's not."

"Let's get the fuck out of here!"

"Yeah! I wish we could!"

"Let's do something."

"Let's not."

A/N: Haha, Deidara's blonde…. oh, well. Review please, no flames.