A/N: Mostly a short filler chap before I get to the good stuff.

Ppl, when Akatsuki comes back for sure, in the flesh, you'll know. I hope every enjoyed/is enjoying their holidays. For me, it's harder to write when my family is not off at work so I'll be happy when vacation is over.

I really appreciate the reviews. Ellisama left me such a wonderful, informative and constructive review. Thanks, everyone, for continuing to read and encourage me even when I don't feel like writing.

Beta: Blood Zephyr

Chapter 10

They materialized in an alley situated in a block of abandoned warehouses. Everyone, with the exception of Itachi and Raiden, promptly threw up. And with Itachi it was a near thing. A very near thing.

Yukio staggered woozily to the brick wall on his left and leaned a palm there, supporting his weight as his stomach heaved again. Juro squatted on the balls of his feet, trying to keep from hurling a second time by clamping his teeth shut. This only ensured that he sprayed from his nose, rather than his mouth.

Asami whirled and managed to do her puking in an alley corner. She didn't do this in an effort to keep herself clean; she just couldn't bare the thought of having anyone see her engaged in such an activity. Akane leaned her hands on her knees and did it where she stood. Akiko threw up, swallowed, then really let loose, splattering the back of Itachi's shirt with the warm chunks.

Raiden noticed their discomfort absently. His attention was on his surroundings. Something wasn't right. Abruptly he spun around, glaring. "You!" He pointed at one of the twins.

"Huh?" Juro mumbled. He closed his eyes, turned his head and let fly on the arm of his shirt.

"Don't 'huh' me. I felt something knock into me just as I was Booming. That was you and Yukio, right?"

Yukio pushed off from the wall, dragging the back of his hand across his mouth. "We just wanted to come along."

Raiden stalked up to him. "Well congratulations, you made me land someplace other than where I'd planned. Assholes."

"Sorry," Juro muttered. He stood up shakily.

"Sorry?" Itachi said in an unsteady voice. "You could have seriously jeopardized this mission." He strode toward them, neatly avoiding pools of vomit and cuffed each boy soundly. Yukio blocked the first punch and received his in the stomach instead, doubling him up all over again.

"Jeez, Dad," he whined weakly.

"Send them back," Itachi ordered his nephew.

"No, please," Juro said plaintively. "Please let us stay! We'll do anything!"

"You're going back and that's final."

"We'll fix your house for free," Yukio offered desperately.

Itachi paused. "Very well." Then, perhaps feeling he'd been too lenient, he gave each boy another blow. Juro held his head where his blow landed, and muttered miserably.

Raiden rolled his eyes. "Stay here, all of you. I need to check out where we are and I don't want you guys mixing with people until I've had a chance to explain a few things." He jogged down the alley and disappeared around a corner.

***

Akiko spat. She adjusted her short denim jacket as she looked around. It was night, and there were strange sounds. She huddled closer to her father's back.

"God," Asami said. "That was awful. I hope we don't have to do too much Booming while we're here."

Itachi shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably, Akiko's vomit cooling on his back. "I don't know for certain, but I think Raiden only uses Booming to travel between worlds. All other traveling is done by means of folding. He-"

There was a loud click behind them. They turned and found a filthy man with tanned skin pointing some kind of metal object at them. Both object and man were studied curiously.

"Can we help you?" Juro asked finally.

Angel had been cruising the alley, looking for a place to crash. Instead, he'd lucked out. Bunch of gringos, tourists by the looks of them, and looking like the very definition of lost. Angel licked his lips in pleasure.

"Well, for starters I'll take that green-eyed guapa right there. Then you can gimme what's in your pockets." He did something to the object in his hand that made it click again.

They looked at each other, then at the man. Asami had to be the 'guapa'. It came to them slowly that they were being robbed.

"Aw, isn't this world polite!" Akane said feelingly. "They actually ask you to hand over your possessions, all formal and stuff. Back home we'd have been attacked and that's that."

Angel's eyes widened. He waved his gun. "Mira! Whatchoo think this is, cabrona?! Hand over your shit! Now!"

Yukio glanced at his father. Itachi merely looked at the man, not seeing a reason to attack unless approached violently. Taking his cue from his father, he turned back to the man and shrugged. "Uh… no." Honestly, couldn't the man see he was outnumbered?

One of the buff boys moved toward him and Angel squeezed the trigger reflexively. He was already nervous, thinking about just leaving these putas; they showed a disquieting lack of fear of his gun. When one of them moved, he acted without thinking.

They all stared from the man's surprised face to the suddenly smoking object. The thing had made a loud sound, but had done nothing more. Itachi and his children wondered belatedly if it was a weapon of some kind. Weapons were not simply held out for the enemy to take, so it hadn't occurred to them before. They continued to wonder about this possibility until Yukio said, "Ow," quietly.

They turned to see the front of his shirt turning red near his left shoulder. Yukio himself looked down in bewilderment at the growing stain. Then he looked up at the object.

Juro saw his twin bleeding and went to the man. He grabbed his head and twisted it sharply just as the object went off again. The man dropped like a rag doll, dead. Juro went to Yukio to inspect the damage. Asami was already there, Mystical Palm in place.

"I can't heal it," she said after a moment. "There's something inside. I don't have my tools. A kunai is too big. Does it hurt very much?"

Yukio frowned. "Yeah. What was that thing he had?"

Itachi had walked over to the man and picked up the metal object. He was glad Juro had dealt with him.

***

Raiden came running back, saw some guy laid out in the alley and moaned as he closed the distance.

"Oh, god," he said breathlessly. He looked from the man to his uncle and cousins. "I leave for five minutes and somebody's dead?" His voice squeaked on the last word.

Itachi spoke calmly, seeing no cause for alarm. "He injured Yukio with this thing. I might have let him live, but I can't find fault with Juro for handling the man the way he did. We are in enemy territory, after all."

Raiden was almost beyond speech. He snatched the gun. "Jesus, one of you has been shot? We just got here!" He stormed over to Yukio, held his hand up, and a small misshapen object came out of the older boy's chest with a liquid squelch. Yukio grunted, then stared at the bloody object in Raiden's hand.

"What is that?" Juro inquired. He reached for it.

"A bullet." Raiden wiped the blood the bullet had left on his hand onto his jeans, as Yukio took the slug Juro was inspecting. "You're lucky he didn't shoot you in the head or heart. You'd have been dead instantly."

Itachi murmured at this and was doubly glad Juro had killed the man. Asami healed the wound as Raiden addressed them all.

"Okay, this is bad but it could be worse. At least nobody saw." Raiden looked around carefully, then made a waving away motion. The man disappeared. "But we have to be careful, all right? This place isn't like our world. You can't go around killing people or doing any of the things you normally do."

"Like what?" Akiko wanted to know.

"Like no using your chakra for anything, not even the smallest thing. No Sharingan. No showing your weapons. They have laws here and they are very, very strict. Doing any of those things could get us put away. Then I'd have to break us out and that would cause so much trouble… ugh. If anyone saw me using my powers here, it'd be a national security mess. I'd probably be considered an alien… which… I am, I guess." Raiden seemed lost in thought for a few moments. Then he shook his head and resumed. "We can only use our chakra around Wyatt's family, and only if no one else is around. Got it?"

Everyone nodded that they got it.

"Okay. I checked and we're still in San Francisco, thank god. I was afraid we'd ended up in some other state. We're all the way across town from Wyatt's, but we can take a bus or a cab, whichever we come to first. I just need to call and make sure it's okay to go over with all of you." Raiden adjusted his bag on his back. "We'll need to find a pay phone."

Itachi nodded his head, his chin in his hand. "We must find a phone. Then get a bus or a cab."

"Will we be splitting up to find this phone?" Akane wondered.

"Maybe somebody has a phone and we can confiscate it. Like the scrolls in the Chuunin exam," Juro offered.

"Yes," Itachi said. "We must know what the phone looks like, then. What of a bus? And cab? While someone finds a phone, another should look for either of those things."

"He said we can't get to Wyatt's without one, right?" Akiko said. "Wonder what they are?"

"I don't know," Itachi said, deep in thought. "But it's possible we may need to take them from someone as well. And since we can't use our chakra, we must rely on Taijutsu." Itachi narrowed his eyes as he inhaled. "This mission promises to be difficult and we haven't even located Fee-Bee yet."

There were serious nods of agreement to this. Raiden stood there, arms folded, as he listened. He didn't laugh. When he saw that they were done, he spoke.

"You guys? This world has technology that we don't. We're not taking anything from anyone. A phone is something that let's you talk to people who are far away. Pay phones are dwindling all over the country, but I'm sure we'll find one if we just walk around. Cabs and buses, and other vehicles, are means of transportation."

"Transportation?" Yukio said experimentally.

"Yes. They're machines that take people far distances."

Glances were exchanged. Eyebrows were raised. "What's wrong with using one's own feet," Asami asked.

"Only if the distance is short. Otherwise, people need to use machines," Raiden said.

"How short?" Juro asked.

"Minutes. Serious walking of an hour or more is done for exercise or sport."

"You're joking," Asami gasped. "Unless it's a few minutes, people don't walk anywhere?"

"No," Raiden answered. He went on to explain. "People are on a schedule in this world. They need to get places quickly and they need machines to do it. We could walk to Wyatt's but it would take us most of the night. Showing up so late would be rude. So is just folding there. Piper asked that I call first to make sure she's home in the future and not just materialize in their house. Whenever I visit here, I try to obey the rules. If Juro and Yukio hadn't knocked me off course, we'd have been in the basement of an old building a few blocks from Wyatt's house. There's a phone right on the corner where I could have called from."

Itachi's brows were drawn together as he tried to follow the conversation. "But… why can't you call them, then fold us there from an empty building? We could skip this transportation procedure."

"Because," Raiden said patiently. "I don't like using my powers here unless I absolutely have to. You never know if someone's watching. Someone's always got a camera phone, or some other shit. This world has billions of people, millions in this city alone. It's not like back home. Someone is always watching."

After cleaning the majority of the vomit off of them with a wave of his hand, Raiden motioned for them to follow him out of the alley as he continued speaking. "Wyatt and I were reckless when we were younger. It caused no end of problems, stuff his mom and aunts had to fix with magic. I've learned my lesson. No powers here unless it's a life or death sitch. You're going to see a lot of things that are strange and new but for god's sake don't ask me about any of it until we get to Wyatt's house. If anyone hears you asking about totally normal junk, they'll think you're crazy. Just stick with me, do what I do and let me do all the talking. Okay?"

Everyone nodded. A lot of the words Raiden had used in his lengthy explanation were incomprehensible, but they kept their questions to themselves; the mission was now afoot. Raiden said to speak of their ignorance was dangerous and so there were only a few squeaks of fright and wonder when they exited the alley to face a street with big machines rolling back and forth. There were bright lights of many colors, signs, sounds, smells… the acrid smell of this world had jarred their senses earlier, but now they could see that part of the reason for that smell was the machines. There were people in them, as Raiden had said, apparently controlling them. Juro and Yukio stared upward, mouths open, at the tallest buildings they'd ever seen. They stared the hardest at everything, wondering how these things were made, how the machines were powered…

Raiden was leaving them. Itachi and his children shut their gaping mouths and hurried to catch up.

People spoke to them, offered to sell them things. Raiden ignored them and so did the rest of the group, though they inspected the wares avidly as they passed the vendors. Juro and Yukio only had eyes for structures, objects. Asami studied the men with interest. Akiko studied the women and Akane kept her eyes on her cousin. She wanted this mission done so she could get back to playing with Ibiki.

Itachi, however, noticed that no one seemed to carry a weapon. The road was crowded with people, yet no one looked at each other or seemed aware of one another, each wrapped in their own thoughts or talking on small devices held to their ears. Occasionally, he saw two or three people walking together, engaged in conversation, but they gave off the same vibe: these people were not combat-oriented.

***

They walked. Whenever the road intersected the place where the machines rolled, they stopped to make sure it was safe to cross. Raiden explained, in a barely audible mutter, that people could get run over by the cars or trucks, and that would kill them. Those that were listening wondered what kind of inept bastard would be slow enough not to dodge the oncoming vehicles, but their opinions were kept to themselves. They learned that what they walked on was the 'sidewalk' and where the cars were was the 'street'. Apparently people were so stupid here that they needed a light with a picture of a walking man to tell them when it was safe to cross the street and when to stop.

Raiden stopped before a metal oblong booth and swung his pack off his shoulders. At their curious looks, he said briefly, "Phone." Their expressions cleared as they moved forward. "No, don't you all try and come in here! Jeez, can't you see there's no space?"

Raiden took a small leather something from the bag and flipped it open. He removed a piece of paper with numbers on it. They watched as he dug coins from his back pocket and put them in a slot in the phone. He punched numbers.

Raiden was sweating. Maybe the rest of his group hadn't noticed, but he certainly saw how people swerved to avoid them. He knew they were a sight with their vomity and (in Yukio's case) bloody clothes, but it was more than that. It was clear, even to these people, that the individuals with Raiden were dangerous. It was in Itachi's eyes, in the way the harpies prowled, in the way Juro and Yukio were more muscular than most of the people they passed. Raiden knew how to blend in to Wyatt's world by now. He knew how to put an innocent, unthreatening look on his face, to walk the way they walked. His family didn't. It was only a matter of time before some happy asshole reported them to a cop for suspicious behavior, probably terrorist behavior. He was keenly aware that they were out in the open with no documentation or anything that would identify them. He never got into these kinds of problems when he was on his own, since he never spent much time outside of Wyatt's house. And if he did, he and Wyatt were always careful. He made up his mind to fold them to Piper's house from some abandoned place, once he spoke to her. He didn't think they'd be able to make it across town without incident.

No answer at the house. He got Leo's voicemail. Piper finally picked up on the third ring when he dialed her cell phone.

"Raiden! Wow, honey, it's been ages!"

Raiden grinned nervously on his end of the line, watching as a policeman rounded a corner, strolling along his beat and minding his business. Soon he would look this way and Raiden was sure something about his group would cause the man to come over. "Ah, yeah it has. Listen, Piper, I'm sorry to intrude, but I kind of need help. Like, urgently? Can I come over?"

"Oh, sweetie, you know we're always happy to have you, but we're not home. We're out at dinner with Paige and her family. We'll be home in about an hour, though. All right?"

Raiden switched the phone to his other ear. The cop had just spotted Asami staring at a businessman. She stared hard, measuring the broad shoulders in the overcoat with her eyes. The cop tilted his head as he studied the people with Asami and found them all huddled in a group, staring at various things. Suspicious behavior. The cop began sauntering over.

"Uh, yeah. Guess I'll have to take the bus after all. Piper, I have some family with me, is that okay?" Raiden winced at the shrill tone Piper adopted.

"Family! We'd love to meet some of your family finally! I've been saying it for years! Bring them right over, we'll meet you at the manor in an hour." She hung up, even as she was telling whoever was with her that Raiden had family along on this visit.

Raiden shoved his way out of the booth and walked briskly to the corner, where a bus stop was located. "Come on," he threw tensely over his shoulder. That cop was getting closer.

They stood with him at the stop. There were other people, of many colors and ages, also waiting. Itachi saw how Raiden glanced behind him. "Is there danger?" He asked quietly.

"What? No. God, where's the bus?" Raiden peered down the street. The bus was two long bocks away.

The cop had been stopped by a man asking for directions. The cop gave them, but never took his eyes off Asami and her group. The bus snored along, rumbling toward them slowly as it went through an intersection.

Juro looked at a youth to his left. He had some kind of thing in his hands. His thumbs worked it frantically, manipulating the images on the tiny screen. It was noisy. "What is that?" He asked the pimply teen.

The kid looked up at him, noted the muscles, and curbed his initial comment somewhat. "What, you never saw a PSP?"

Juro shook his head. Raiden glanced at his cousin and tried to signal him to mind his business, but the kid was making noises of surprise. He handed Juro the PSP, showing him how it worked. Yukio crowded the kid on the other side.

A bum shuffled up to Itachi. "Hey, man, you gotta dollar? I hafta get down to my sister, she's in the hospital. A dollar man, thas all I need. Bus fare. A dollar?"

Itachi ignored the man, as he'd been instructed. He was happy to note that the other people waiting for the bus ignored him, too. However, the bum saw Raiden reaching into his bag for coins as the bus pulled up, and got a glimpse of the contents. He seemed to become excited at the rolled bundles of green paper. Itachi saw the man's eyes shift craftily, before he darted his hand out and snatched at the bag. Itachi reacted instinctively.

Raiden didn't relinquish his bag, but by then his uncle had struck. His hand zipped out and chopped at the back of the bum's neck, even as the other people were boarding the bus. The man cried out as he went down and Raiden could see the cop sprinting over.

"On the bus," he cried. "Now!"

They got on quickly, the bus pulling away as the cop jogged up to inspect the bum. Raiden dropped coins into some kind of receiving machine as his family watched, before threading his way through the standing people towards the back. He peered awkwardly between bodies, out the window, trying to see if the cop was still back there. He seemed to be talking to the bum.

***

Itachi's children held on to the metal railing above their heads, the swaying motion of the bus completely unfamiliar. They kept their balance. Trained ninja did not fall so easily. The kid with the PSP maneuvered so he was close to Juro and Yukio. He looked at them keenly.

"So, like, where you guys from?" He asked conversationally.

"We're not supposed to say," Yukio said.

"Oh? Why not?"

"Might get in trouble," Juro contributed.

"What kind of trouble?" The kid asked eagerly. "We talking government trouble here?"

Yukio recalled a phrase Raiden had mentioned. "National security."

"Holy shit!" The kid breathed. By now other people were turning their heads to listen. Raiden finally lost sight of the cop and caught part of the conversation.

"Yeah, we're trying to blend in, but it's our first time here," Juro said. "Everything's all weird and new."

"First time in the Bay area?" The kid asked.

"Or your first time in California," a portly woman inquired.

"They sort of have an accent," another man said. "Maybe it's their first time in the states. Where are you boys from?"

Raiden said loudly that they were getting off. He pushed past people to exit the rear doors. "Bye!" Juro and Yukio called. They waved to the smiling people.

He couldn't do it. He would have to fold them. Public transportation was out of the question. He stalked, using his keen senses to determine which building had the fewest people in it. He came to a narrow apartment building and put his hand on the knob. He unlocked it telepathically, and ushered them all inside.

Raiden ignored the elevator and went for the stairs. By now his cousins and uncle were hip to his furious mood, and had stopped talking among themselves as they'd been doing since they'd left the bus. They were silent as they ran up the stairs behind him.

He stopped on the fourth floor in the stairwell, ear cocked. Five apartments, three of them currently unoccupied. He let himself into the main hall, Itachi and crew moving silently behind him. Entering an apartment posed no more difficulty than entering the building had. He shut the door quietly behind Akiko, the last to enter, and turned to face them.

"What part of 'keep your fucking mouths shut' don't you idiots understand," Raiden hissed. He was enraged, his eyes red with it. Juro and Yukio, the focus of that crimson stare, tried not to cringe. The rest merely looked on, torn between watching Raiden and looking at the strange things in the apartment. "Do you have any idea of the amount of trouble we could get into here? Why the hell would you mention national security? You don't even know what that is! Are you trying to have the feds called on us? Huh?"

Juro and Yukio, and the rest of them for that matter, had no idea what Raiden was talking about. He could see it, and had no way to explain it to them. He sighed in disgust and held out his hand. "We're folding."

They each laid a hand on his outstretched arm. The sensation of moving from one place to another was barely perceptible. One minute they were standing in a shabby living room, the next they were in a windowless concrete room.

"We're where I originally planned for us to end up," Raiden explained. "We'll wait here awhile before heading over to Wyatt's."

Wyatt leaped out of the van before it had fully pulled into the drive. He looked around, but Raiden was nowhere to be seen. "Man! I told you to drive faster, dad! He probably left."

Paige pulled up behind the van in her car as Leo unlocked the manor. She and Henry got out with their three children. They all trooped inside, Wyatt still complaining about how much time they'd taken to get home. Chris started teasing him, saying Raiden was his girlfriend. That got Paige's kids laughing and before five minutes had passed all the kids were yelling in a huge argument, the adults shouting at them to be quiet.

The doorbell rang. Immediate silence fell.

"There, you see?" Piper said importantly. She smoothed her skirt fussily as she went to open the door. "Raiden would never come here without seeing you, Wyatt." She opened the door, a welcoming smile in place for Raiden's relatives.

Wyatt only saw him. He was standing at the head of a small group of people, taller, broader and more mature than he'd ever seen him. For some reason, Wyatt felt like the bottom suddenly dropped out of his stomach. Those blue-gray eyes, always so full of fun and now so serious, arrowed to him and held there.

Wyatt could hear his own heartbeat in the seconds that ticked by.

Then Raiden offered a small smile, one Wyatt had never seen on his friend's face before.

"Hi, Wyatt. Long time no see."

A/N: #2 0.o I hate putting stuff down here. Feels so wrong. Anyways...

gringos - strangers, foreigners, white people

Guapa - depends on the context it was used in, but in this case means 'pretty girl'

mira - look

cabrona - bitch

putas - bitches