Back in the Akatsuki lair, Hidan and Kakuzu had found kindred spirits in Kisame and Samehada.

"It hurt!" Hidan yelled. "But it felt so good. I hate that son of a bitch, Naruto, so much. And that other son of a bitch, Han. And the other one – "

Samehada shrieked.

"Samehada says that it was hurting badly too, and can understand your pain. Samehada also hates the accursed jinchuuriki," Kisame translated. "And that together, we can gut those those jinchuuriki like fish – "

"What a stupid pun, un," Deidara muttered. "Anyway, I wanna kill that Naruto guy too. He punched me in the face a few weeks ago, un."

"Enough," snapped Pain. "This is the second time that you fools have failed to capture your assigned jinchuuriki. What is your excuse?"

"They ganged up on us," Kakuzu explained. "If it was two against one, we could have easily finished them off. But they outnumbered us and it was impossible to win."

"You mean to say that the jinchuuriki are banding together to thwart our plans?" Pain asked.

To everyone's surprise, it was the usually silent and stoic Itachi who spoke up.

"Yes, that was what the Hachibi jinchuuriki, Killer B, informed us of," Itachi said.

Pain looked thoughtful, as much as it was possible for a reanimated corpse to look thoughtful, anyway.

"Interesting." He clasped his hands together. "Perhaps..."

He snapped his fingers, gathering everyone's attention.

"Your jinchuuriki hunting duties are temporarily suspended. However, you will continue to monitor them. We will watch...and wait for the right time."

Back in Iwa, the two search parties had finally crossed paths, and if there was ever such cacophony and mayhem in the village before, no one, not even the oldest villagers, had witnessed it.

A brawl was on the verge of breaking out on the remains of Han's destroyed hot spring.

"I'm telling you, we're looking for our annoying ramen-obsessed classmate and his new jinchuuriki friend Octopops," Ino shouted, unintentionally waving Naruto's kabuki actor ninja registration photo at Karui.

"And we're looking for our missing master, Killer B-sama, whose name is not Octopops!" Karui yelled back. "He's a very distinguished Third Ninja War veteran and he's traveling with some guy called the Chopsticks Master of Konoha!"

Meanwhile, the gears were finally clicking into place for Shino.

"Shikamaru," he asked in a low voice. "I would like to know the attributes of the Hachibi. Why? Because I have an inkling of the true identity of Naruto's new jinchuuriki friend, Octopops."

"You too, huh?" Shikamaru asked. "Well, I'd suspected too, but I didn't want to say anything in case I turned out to be wrong and misled everyone. It would be troublesome if that happened. The Hachibi is a hybrid bijuu, unlike the Kyuubi. It has the head and body of an ox, but its 'tails,' so to speak, are tentacles. Octopus tentacles."

"I see," Shino said. "And I presume that the Hachibi jinchuuriki would also have the ability to sprout octopus tentacles, earning him the nickname 'Octopops.'"

C and Darui were listening in on this whispered conversation, and for them, too, the gears finally clicked into place.

They were both searching for the same people. Did that make them...friends? Friends in suffering at least, if the disgruntled expressions of the Konoha search team were anything to go by. C and Darui could understand exactly what they were feeling.

Babysitting Karui and Omoi for the past few days was not fun. On top of that, running around Earth from pillar to post and getting info on B-san and his mysterious blonde ramen-loving friend from some ramen shop owner, of all people...this was not what they'd signed up for when they'd become the Raikage's bodyguards.

"Karui," Omoi said. "Don't make these Konoha guys angry. What if you get into a fist-fight with Yamanaka-san, and then her friend, that bored-looking guy over there, comes in to help, and then that fat guy also comes in to help, and you'll be outnumbered?"

Chouji's face was slowly turning beet-red on being called "fat," and he was just about to violently voice his displeasure, when, to his surprise, Karui beat him to the punch.

"Give me a break, Omoi!" she yelled. "That guy isn't fat. He's just big-boned!"

Nine jaws dropped in unison.

And for Chouji, it was love at first sight.

Ever since she was a young girl, it had been Fuu's dream to make a hundred friends. It always annoyed the villagers of her hometown, Takigakure, when she would sprint up to them and yell, "Hi, do you want to be my hundredth friend?"

The village leader Shibuki always told her that if she kept doing that, sooner or later, she would give someone a heart attack, and then he would be in massive trouble as Fuu was his responsibility.

She didn't understand why, though. After all, she would loudly announce her presence right before running up to people. They had plenty of warning beforehand!

She always counted her bijuu, Lucky Seven Chomei, as her first friend, because they'd been together since she was a baby. Lucky Seven Chomei always told her that as a jinchuuriki, she was kinda like Takigakure's lucky charm.

Shibuki...Shibuki was an interesting village leader. He never called Fuu a super weapon or an unstable monster that Taki had no choice but to use (as a living bomb against other villages, that is), or whatever went on in those other hidden ninja villages.

No, he was of the belief that Chomei was a lucky charm, a guardian deity, perhaps, bestowed upon their tiny village for their happiness and prosperity.

As a result, Fuu was not a typical jinchuuriki, and that was saying something, as there were only nine of them at any given time.

Fuu was happy. That was the difference between herself and a lot of jinchuuriki. Oh sure, quite a few, such as Naruto, Gaara, Yugito, B, and Han, did eventually win their villagers' love and respect. But that was after the villagers went beyond seeing them as unstable monsters.

Fuu never had to go through that phase of a typical jinchuuriki life. Most Taki villagers thought of her as either mildly irritating, or as the amazing lucky charm of the village.

But it was hard making new friends when she was stuck in the same old village day in and day out. How was she supposed to reach her hundred friend goal if she wasn't allowed to leave the village (Shibuki kept insisting that the world outside was dangerous for people like her, whatever that meant)?

Fuu was happy, unlike the typical jinchuuriki, but Fuu was also bored, also unlike the typical jinchuuriki.

Was she supposed to wait for new friends to drop out of the sky or whatever?

So imagine her surprise when four new friends just dropped out of the sky one day.

A very cute blonde boy with a very bright happy smile – Naruto – told her that they needed her on their jinchuuriki rescue team, to save the other jinchuuriki from some evil group called Akatsuki, or something.

Fuu was barely listening. There was just one major thing she got from the conversation: she could finally make a hundred friends!

So it was with no trouble at all that she took off with Naruto (and those other three boring old people friends), after writing a note to Shibuki, explaining that she would be back soon (Naruto kindly helped her write it).

She had no idea why there was a lot of screaming, yelling, shouting, and general chaos in the village square as she ran away with her new friends.

She wrote a note to Shibuki saying she'd be fine! What were they fussed about?

Fuu had a hundred friends to make.

An exhausted Kakashi and Sakura limped their way into the Hokage Tower.

"Bath...then sleep," Sakura muttered. Kakashi-sensei mumbled in agreement, then added something about feeding his ninken. Whatever.

Tsunade was there at her desk, and she looked pretty exhausted too. Maybe it was the paperwork, or maybe it was the two Anbu standing at attention.

"Godaime."

"Tsunade-shishou."

"Kakashi, Sakura." Tsunade's fingers were twitching. "As you both know, your team is two members short. I've given it some thought, and these two Anbu will be Naruto and Sasuke's replacements, at least until they come back."

Kakashi and Sakura blinked in surprise.

Kakashi, because one of the Anbu was none other than his good friend and partner in the Black Ops, Tenzo the Wood Release user.

Sakura, because the dark-haired, extremely pale teenage Anbu was smiling a very fake smile at her.

"Hello, Ugly," he said politely.

Sakura snapped.

A/N: As always, thanks for the reviews, UltimateGenius, RedFistCannon, Jac Frust, bwcxiii, Hendrie9870, and Shion. :)

I never knew that Fuu was so popular. Everyone is so excited that she'll show up.

bwcxiii - hope you like Fuu's little crush on Naruto. There will be more to come!

See you all in 2021! Happy New Year! :)