Naruto put his arms over his head and grinned at the sight of two of his old friends, "So guys, what've you been up to?"

"Well, Shikamaru's advanced to Genin and now helps with the Chunin exams. Same deal with me but I don't teach anything."

Naruto made a face, "What? You two became Genin?!"

Sakura walked up beside Naruto, "Actually Naruto, you're the only one from our year that hasn't. Even the guys from the Sand village have become Genin. Gaara's even the Hokage there now."

Normally, the fact that Naruto was the only one who wasn't a Genin would have made him flip out and demand to take the test, but after hearing of Gaara's new position he said, "Really? Gaara's Hokage?"

He smiled and looked down, "That's great. Good for him."

Hot Shot bent down and gave Shikamaru and Choji an introductory wave, "Hi, I'm Hot Shot. Nice to meet you."

Choji gulped while Shikamaru just said, "Yeah, whatever."

Hot Shot pouted, "I'm not that strange, am I?"

"Actually, you're pretty strange. And that's coming from someone who's seen Choji eat."

"Hey, my eating habits are none of your business."

…

Sasori and Deidara awaited the arrival of the other Akatsuki before telling the tale. Deidara let Sasori do all the talking. After all, he reasoned, it was his fault they lost. And he wasn't going to be the one to tell their leader of how they lost.

"…So you're telling me a giant metal man, who the sand people had been holding captive in a sand coffin, broke free, gave you a kick in the rear, and sent you blasting into the sky?"

"Yes. How else could I lose my favorite puppet disguise?"

One of the member's shadows moved to speak, and it was obvious that it was Kisame, "Hey, if you guys got your butts kicked, you just need to say so. No need to make up some hilarious story to make you seem more useless."

Sasori glared at Kisame, "Silence. I do not lie, you know that very well. There was some kind of metal man at the Sand Village and it took us down with a simple kick. I suggest we use some of our time finding a way to stop it."

The Akatsuki leader, who most only knew as Pain, said nothing. Then he looked at Zetsu and continued looking until Zetsu nodded and made a hand gesture.

"While Zetsu gets into position to try and see this metallic being, describe to us what it looked like."

Deidara put in his few words, "It was big, orange, some kind of weapon on its shoulder, very hard to miss."

Before anyone could respond to his answer, Zetsu twitched and awoke from his trance.

"Well?"

"Well, I've never seen anything like it. That monster is bigger than the buildings!"

Some of the other members blinked, "So what, you saw it? It's real? This giant metal man actually exists? Man, Sasori, sorry to doubt you, but this really doesn't seem possible."

"Well we saw it first hand. It's certainly real. What's Akatsuki going to do about it?"

"It's just so interesting to look at." Zetsu was still using his power to spy on the Autobot, "The thing's trying to shake hands with the Jinchuuriki host, but his hand is too big. He's using a finger while the host barely covers it with two hands."

Suddenly Zetsu twitched, "Hmm? Oh crap."

Zetsu broke the hand gesture and was breathing hard, "That thing spotted me. I was hidden so that not even the host himself could have spotted me, and yet it simply looked right at me like it was wondering what I was doing."

Itachi finally said something, "I just had a thought. What if there's more than just that one?"

Hidan smiled, "Oh, I would just love having more than one of those things to try out my jutsu on. They'd make very fun opponents."

Pain looked over to him, "What's fun is not the point. The point is that there are possibly more than one of that metal man, and with that are more than one chance of getting one on our side."

Kakuzu said, "But how do we know there are more? And if there are, how do we know they aren't already working with the Sand, or any other village for that matter?"

Zetsu put in, "I managed to hear the host say his name to the monster in a greeting tone. It appeared to be their first encounter."

"Well then, Sasori, it appears we now know what we are going to do about these metal men."

Pain looked to the center of the group, "We will hunt down any others and ask/force them to join us. Any of them that have already chosen another team or refuse to join will be dealt with immediately."

He added before they left, "All those who have captured their Jinchuuriki will search and recruit or eliminate the monsters. The rest will continue to hunt their Jinchuuriki and when finished with join the others in pursuing the metal men."

…

Gaara gave Smokescreen a puzzled look, "Is something wrong?"

Smokescreen took a second to answer, "I sensed a heat source over there and when I looked, there was someone there. But when he saw I knew he was there he vanished."

Another second later, Smokescreen forgot about it, "So anyway, Gaara of the Sand, I am Smokescreen of the Autobots…"