A/N: Wow, I am so embarrassed. Alright, this chapter was finished months ago and I'll be honest, I completely forgot to post it here. My sincerest apologies to those of you following the story, waiting for the end. This is it: the last chapter; for better or worse, I've got a plan, and all I can say is: I'm about to figure out what happens when you finish a perfectly sensible playing-by-the-rules-fan-fiction with a crazy, unstable ending.

Chapter 10: Resolution

Naruto was feeling very punished by all this. He was beginning to long for simpler days when his time was filled with ramen and dangerous missions, S-Class Criminals were grown men, and incarceration was a distant concept. Weeks ago, he'd been herded in an anxious procession from Konoha to some hideout in the middle of nowhere with no explanation. Then all hell breaks loose, weapons are flying and he barely gets out with the children to a hiding place until he's reunited with Yamato and Kakashi, and not that he wasn't happy to see them, but they didn't care to offer an explanation either. The comfort was short-lived, as he ended up staying put and waiting for them to go find Ibiki who, along with Zetsu and Sasori were still missing. They came back one short, no explanation, and rushed everyone to the new hiding place which was apparently approved. And the new place was not just a metaphorical prison – it was a literal one! At least it promised high security and protection from an attack, that's what all the "grown-ups" were saying anyway. Naruto's heart began to race as he saw Kakashi through the bars walking up to his cell.

"Kakashi-sensei, aw, you're finally gonna stop running around and tell me what's going on, right?" Naruto shouted, jumping to his feet and dashing up to the gate between them. "You do know what's going on, don't ya?" He added, his cerulean eyes aglow. His heart sank when Kakashi hummed indecisively, his eye narrowing sympathetically. The jounin looked away a moment, holding the back of his neck.

"Well," he started, casting a glance all around, as if to check if anyone was watching, "to be honest, the whole point was to resolve this without telling you anything." As his gaze returned to the little blonde, he gave a short, soft chuckle. "But… everything's gone to hell in a hand-basket anyway, hasn't it?" Naruto just continued to stare at him excitedly, and eventually, he sighed, shaking his head. "Well, Naruto, the truth is, this has damn-near nothing to do with you. It's just a precaution." Naruto's look of overwhelming joy was instantly deflated.

"What?" He asked incredulously.

"I'm sorry, Naruto, but they figured early on that if Orochimaru was willing to attack the Lea-"

"Orochimaru?!" Naruto echoed, now sounding a little angry.

"Oh, right, that was the touchy part…" Kakashi muttered, a little embarrassed.

Meanwhile, the shackled Akatsuki hung from the walls of a chakra sealed room, the only nice thing about their current accommodations was that they finally had the opportunity to talk. The warden of the facility considered them harmless in their state, and was more concerned with keeping enemies out than keeping the children in, something that frustrated Ibiki to no end.

"Say, Sasori-no-danna, when do you plan on telling us where Zetsu-san is?" Deidara mumbled, still cautious in case of a guard waiting outside the chamber.

"He said he was going to get a hold of the notes from Orochimaru, then craft a counter jutsu- he made his escape before the Leaf nin arrived. Where he is now, though, I don't know. I just hope he doesn't keep us waiting too long." He finished with a pout, his eyes falling downward.

To say the Akatsuki were relieved would be a lie. They all had reservations about the plan, especially since it involved such uncertainty. They were expected to put faith in the notion that Zetsu would not abandon them, and as S-Class criminals, mass murderers, most of them, that didn't sit too well.

"What if he just uses the jutsu to fix himself? What makes you think he'll come back for us?" Hidan asked, his face twisted with confusion and suspicion.

"I don't know if he'll come back. He just said he would." Sasori answered quietly, still glaring at the floor.

"Well, he'd better-" Kakuzu muttered spitefully, "because if the leaders here don't kill him for abandoning us, then I will."

Itachi and Kisame remained silent, listening intently to the conversation, and drawing their own conclusions. Kisame felt no need to gossip, and Itachi tended to keep his opinions to himself. But each to their own degree tentatively trusted that Zetsu had a plan that involved their escape as well as his own.

After nearly a full day of searching, Zetsu had finally tracked him down. The person who could help him make sense of this jutsu, and more importantly, it's counterpoint.

"Tobi…" He whispered into the darkness of a cave. "Tobi, We need your help." He was answered by the sing-song tone of the fellow Akatsuki.

"Zetsu-san? What's with that voice? You sound-" As the masked man emerged from the shadows he found himself speechless at the child. "What happened?" He asked shortly, the comical voice thoroughly removed.

"Orochimaru. We're still trying to figure out the notes, but he, he crafted some jutsu, and it was supposed to do something else entirely, but there was a mistake in its execution and now, the others and We… we're children." If there was any hint of emotion behind the mask, it remained unapparent. "We tried to figure out a counter jutsu, Tobi, but we can't." Zetsu continued, now looking embarrassed as his eyes fell to the ground. "We need your help, Tobi." The plant child was caught off guard by subdued laughter, looking up to see Tobi's mask swaying from side to side in that iconic pitying motion.

"Okay, then. Let's see what we can do." Tobi said, leading Zetsu back into the cave…

For a moment, they didn't know what to do. Because that couldn't have been Tobi slipping through the wall. The chakra seals should have prevented any kind of- ah, he removed them. They thought the heard a faint struggle outside the room. But that still didn't explain why Tobi… Tobi of all people was here to rescue them… and how such a – well, a person such as Tobi expected to rescue them. Deidara knew from experience that this man-boy, whatever he was, was not expected to take anything seriously. As he saw a familiar plant poke through the wall, holding Tobi's hand, he felt his little heart skip a beat.

"Eh, Zetsu-san…" he started in shock, "THIS IS YOUR PLAN? TOBI?! TOBI IS YOUR PLA-?!" Zetsu had rushed over, covering his mouth.

"Quiet, Deidara, we're going to get out of here, but we have to be quiet." He whispered urgently.

"No time to waste, Zetsu-san." Tobi said under his breath, bringing his right hand up casually to the side of his face. "It'll be quicker to get everyone out this way." Zetsu nodded backing up so as to be out of Tobi's way.

The first time Tobi touched Kisame and Itachi's shoulders, and they disappeared into a void, the other Akatsuki were surprised, some a little horrified as they wondered what had become of their comrades. Quickly, two at a time, Tobi drew all the others, Zetsu included, into the Kamui, and slipped into the wall he entered through. Within moments he was outside the facility which had erupted into chaos shortly after he broke in. As he dashed through the forest, trying to put as much distance between himself and that madhouse as possible, he couldn't help but think aloud:

"That Orochimaru never can leave well enough alone, always making a mess of things…"

Said serpent was not far behind. Actually in the form of a snake, he had approached the prison after hours of tracking, fed up with trusting subordinates with what he perceived as the simplest of tasks: kill the Akatsuki with this deadly jutsu. No? You turned them into children, you say? Now they're in the Leaf Village? Fine, [expendable] Sound-nin, finish the job. Oh, you failed? Damn. Kabuto, they've been taken to some obscure hideout, take this more competent squad, clear it out, and bring the Akatsuki to this base; they seem to be experiencing changes, and may be worth the experimentation effort. Ah, Kabuto failed to hold onto them… and lost my notes to the jutsu. Seeing the facility in uproar, he ventured a guess that they had already escaped, and followed a trace of chakra deep into the forest beyond the building, careful to not draw attention from the guards.

He was surprised to see the masked man known as Tobi when he caught up with the source of the chakra. Vaguely surrounding him were the young Akatsuki, and he seemed to be explaining something to them. What exactly, Orochimaru would never know because suddenly, the man had stopped talking. The Snake Sannin realized immediately that he'd been detected, and pulled himself upright, assuming his human shape once more. The moment Tobi turned to face him, Orochimaru could tell that he would be told to leave; that or he would be forced to leave. Before he could even give much consideration to whether or not he'd fight Tobi over this, the decision was made for him. Tobi was almost instantly within arm's reach, grabbing his shoulder, before the sannin felt the effects of Kamui begin to pull at him. To Tobi's mild disappointment, the snake had wrenched himself around, tearing out as a reincarnation at the last moment, and vanished into the murky blackness of night. Tobi's only consolation was that he had managed to chase off the "coward". He turned back to the Akatsuki, finally content to move forward with solving this problem of the Akatsuki's physical state. After all, they still had much work to do…

The next day, everything was back to normal. It was an exhaustive night's work, as Tobi executed the jutsu that he and Zetsu had collaborated on, though one effect of the process remained unknown to the plant-nin. Tobi had worked in an angle of erasing their memory of the whole affair, in conjunction with other memory erasing jutsus he'd planted around the prison and each of the Great Nations' villages. It took tremendous effort and energy on his part, but it was ultimately worthwhile. Tobi honestly felt that it was for the best. After all, Akatsuki had a plan, and if they moved on with the knowledge that they had spent time as helpless children - that their savior was the moron with the swirly mask who turned out to be more than he seemed... who needed that kind of distraction?

Naruto and the others however, who, that morning, would find themselves in a prison for no apparent reason… they were on their own.