Chapter 14

"Raito! You're back!"

Naruto had been the first to notice her, but now that he had said something, Sakura, and Sasuke noticed her presence.

"Kind of. I'm here to help with the whole Gaara Akatsuki thing. What do you guys have so far?"

Sakura crossed her arms. "No one ever told us that you were coming too."

Raito shrugged. "It doesn't change the fact that I'm coming anyway. Haku would come, but he's got something else that he's got to do. So, did you guys uncover any information since the fight?"

"They're headed North," Sasuke provided. "Beyond that, we don't have any information."

"Do you have any further information?" Sakura asked shrewdly.

"Nope," Raito answered honestly. The whereabouts of Itachi and Kisame really had no bearings on where Gaara and Shihizuki might be. "I just know that they're not in Hidden Mist Village."

"That's a start," Sakura sighed. "Orientation was yesterday, but pretty much all we learned was that no one knows where they are. We're supposed to keep an eye out for Amekagure."

"Probably because it's the smallest country," Sasuke said under his breath. "We should get going, though. Since we weren't expecting you to show up, that's what we were doing. The other team left yesterday."

"The only reason we haven't already is because Naruto held us up," Sakura added with some contempt.

Naruto looked at Raito, "I had to show Konohamaru how to build a proper kite! His were pathetic!"

"It worked out in our favor anyway, but if you guys are ready to go, we should leave. I doubt the Akatsuki are going anywhere, but the sooner we get Gaara back, the better."

Sakura cleared her throat. "I think you should know something. The Hokage put me in charge of this mission, since Kakashi is busy doing something else."

Raito made a noise that sounded amazingly like laughter disguised rather badly in response. "My apologies, then. Unfortunately, that only applies to Konohakagure, and outside of this town, I outrank you by a considerable margin. In light of this information, I think it would be safe to say that you lead this mission until we reach the border."

"The Hokage said Sakura was in charge though," Naruto protested. "You can't just take her job."

Raito was silent while she thought it over. "I'll make you a deal, then. If you don't do anything amazingly stupid, I won't take over this mission. Agreed?"

"You wouldn't be able to take it over." Despite her words, Sakura shook the other girl's hand anyway.

XXXXXXXXXX

Shihizuki was not actually having a bad time with the Akatsuki. Of course, they hadn't trusted him enough to let him actually do anything yet, but by now they had mostly gotten used to his presence. Shukaku, on the other hand, was different. Both he and Gaara were considering him a traitor. Somehow, it didn't bother him that they were going to strip him of his jinchuiricki, which was pacing rapidly within the confines of Gaara's mind.

"Don't you have something better to do, someone else to betray?" it demanded angrily, trying to guilt trip him. After all, he was still in the room, that had to account for something, right?

"No, not really." 'It just gets boring having no one to talk to sometimes... I guess I could go find Deidara and Sasori...'

Shukaku hissed at him, but Shihizuki ignored it in favor of watching the door swing open. Konan stood there, and gestured for him to leave the room. He guessed that they were going to do whatever it was they did to people to strip them of their jinchuirikis, Gaara's first timer had run out almost. At least, unlike most people, he had a backup.

He went to go find Deidara, it was interesting to listen to him argue with Sasori.

"Shihizuki, are you ready, hn?"

"Ready for what?" He fell in step with the other two, and schooled his expression easily into nonchalance.

"Your little friends are here, looking for us, hn. We're going to give them something to find."

XXXXXXXXXX

Raito was about ready to punch someone. Someone preferably who went by the name of Sasuke, had black hair, and oh yeah, was terminally stupid. When she saw him next, she was going to literally beat some sense into him, even if it killed him.

God damn him, what the hell had he been thinking? Running off to god knows where in the middle of a mission, never mind the fact that they were most likely not going to find the Akatsuki. It was the principal of the thing.

She cursed his name ten thousand ways to hell when they found Sasori, who was fighting some old woman. At least Shihizuki had told them where he was going, but Sasuke couldn't be bothered to do that. No, not when it was "that secretive thing he had to do".

Which meant it had Itachi involved. Raito guessed that had something to do with it, and she was half tempted to have Itachi be the one to drag him back home.

"You two, go find Clare and Ren and Yosuke," she ordered, much like she had done with Baku.

"But I'm the one in charge, and we should all work together to defeat..." Sakura began.

"Sakura, choose your battles for once. Which is more important, Gaara or this woman who I'm going to help right now? Find Clare, if I'm not done by then, by all means, I'll let you have at him."

"But..."

"Don't make me make you leave." Raito had no patience to listen to all of Sakura's speech right now. "Because so help me, I'll kick your ass so hard it'll knock you all the way to next Tuesday."

Somehow, Sakura caught that Raito was completely serious. She and Naruto darted away, and Raito hopped into the pit the two had created during their battle. She nodded to the older woman, and drew her, Zabuza's, sword. The ridiculously large thing glinted in the sunlight.

"You again, and your ridiculous weapon." Sasori's own tail like metallic weapon slid out like a scorpion tail. Drops of purple beaded up at its end. "Where's your purple faced friend?"

Raito watched it, not quite trusting it not to strike before their little banter was over. "I wouldn't know, where's your blonde friend?"

"You know my grandson?" the woman asked.

"We've met once before." Sasori's tail clicked as it retracted. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, you know, the usual. You kidnapped the Kazekage, but more importantly, my team mate, though a source tells me that he joined you of his own accord."

Sasori nodded. "He did. You may have... Gaara was it? if you want. We have no more use for him."

"Is he dead?"

"Yes. This way it saves us the burden of finding some place to bury him."

Raito evaluated the situation. On one hand, there was no way they could defeat the entire Akatsuki and make them pay for their crimes. On the other, Naruto, at very least, was going to want to start a fight and try, as was Clare. Wait, those were the same hands, the one where going to the Akatsuki with her team was a bad thing. On the other, other hand, if she went without them, they would be pissed at her for going alone.

Not that gallivanting off without telling anyone was unusual for her.

"Since it's in our mutual interests, I suppose there's no reason for me not to take him off of your hands... on one condition. Leave me and mine alone until we leave Amekagure. Deal?"

"I'll consider it. You'll know soon enough, I don't like making people wait..."

He was interrupted by the most eerie noise, a cross between a high pitched keen and burning rage. It sounded just about anything but natural. Raito looked in the direction that it came from as well, taking her eyes off of Sasori for a moment. The ground shook with an explosion.

"The fu-"

"I think your friends found Gaara," Sasori said simply in answer to her confusion. "If you don't want them dead, I suggest you go find them."

"Oh bloody hell," Raito nearly whined. She had forgotten the power of idiots on a mission, not that Clare was an idiot. She had just probably forgotten that she was, in fact, mortal when her best friend was in danger. A flare of chakra accompanied the sound of a rather angry cat. "I don't even know where they are... Sasori, you're coming with me."

"I am not. Since you seemed to not have realized it already, I was in the middle of something."

"... I'll make it worth your time?" She looked at Sasori's grandmother. "I'm sorry, I never got your name. Mine is Raito."

"Lady Chiyo. I don't mind waiting, you two go on ahead. We'll finish this later."

Sasori sighed. "This way."

Raito decided that it would be best not to try and hurry him, so she walked at Sasori's pace, despite the fact that she wanted desperately to smack some sense into her makeshift team. Before confronting an enemy like the Akatsuki, you were supposed to at least have your entire team, never mind checking in to see if there was back up available.

XXXXXXXXXX

Haku was getting rather tired of this whole thing. Since Raito had been doing what ever she was doing to find Gaara, he had found out only one thing about the impersonator. That he went by the name of Kurou. That was it, nothing else. Apparently, since he had come back, this guy had all but disappeared.

It was very bothersome, as Shikamaru would say. Neither of them would confront the other in broad daylight, or at all, for that matter. Kurou was not the standard brand of ninja, not the kind that would go in with the intention of a fair fight. He was rather like Raito, reluctant to take risks when he didn't have to. If the two, for whatever reason, decided to team up...

Haku shivered, despite the bright sun. Kurou had patience and a certain brand of cunning that Raito simply did not posses. Already he had been made fun of twice, through letters that were squeaky clean. That wasn't to say that Kurou hadn't fallen into a few of

Haku's own traps, but all the same.

It wasn't acceptable. Haku was the one who saw through these kinds of things, actually took the time to puzzle out the logic so they could go in the most efficient way.

What he didn't know was that Kurou was sweating too, and not just because of the summer heat. None of his traps had really worked. Sure, they had clipped his opponent, who he had discovered was a boy, but nothing else. By this point, whoever was going against him in this way was eliminated, gone, cleared off the board to make room for the next one.

Whoever it was, he was going to pay. No one got away this long, never.

On his way out of the laundromat, he smiled at the pretty girl with long, brown hair and deep brown eyes.