a/n: This story has, since the beginning, not been about how much power someone has. Instead, it's always been about how they use it, and the idea that power isn't the answer to every situation.


Chapter Nine
Loud and Lousy in the Land of Lightning

Itachi hadn't gone through a portal in nearly two months, and there was something soothing about that. Sure, Konoha likely knew that she was out hunting bounties, by now, but what was the point? They hadn't sent any hunters, after her. Maybe, eventually, they would, but for now, she stayed in the neutral countries.

They'd moved from River directly to Grass, through the Land of Fire instead of Rain, as Obito had suggested. He explained that Pein had a water jutsu, that made it rain over the entire country of Rain, and he could sense any chakra that entered it. That was genuinely impressive. To have him as an ally would be an enormous thing.

In Fire, they'd lingered only long enough to avoid a few patrols and resurrect those few Konoha chuunin that Zetsu had killed while wearing her body like a stylish black and red Akatsuki cloak. They had no longer been there - and thus, she could no longer bring them back. She needed a body, apparently, or at least enough of someone to bring back.

But then, they moved through Waterfall, to Iron, and then Rice Paddies, and then Hot Water. There, they'd stopped, for a while, before continuing through Frost. Now, they'd stepped over the border into Lightning a week ago, and Itachi found herself smiling, a little. It was a beautiful place. She'd never been there before, and something about the long, imposing mountain ranges, roiling clouds, and long beaches appealed to her. They wandered along a cliffside road, a collection of goats grazing on the hills below.

She mentioned this to Obito, and he scowled. "Kumo-nin are dicks," he pronounced.

Itachi stopped, and stared at him, stifling a yawn. "Why are we here, then? We could have gone somewhere else."

"Yeah, but Iwa sucks, Suna sucks harder, I've already done enough damage to Kiri for one lifetime, and it's best to avoid Konoha, for now, I think."

"I defer to your superior knowledge," she said.

"Yep," he agreed. "Iwa-nin are the worst, though. I mean, maybe Kiri-nin, but I guess I can't really criticize them, since I did turn their country into a war-torn hellhole."

"I hesitate to ask - oh, right," she said, laughing to herself, a little. "Right. Suna. Wind. The desert. Its only exports are scorpions, and creepy puppet users. No wonder you don't want to go."

"That's about the size of it," he proclaimed, eyes crinkling. They were different colors, just barely, now that they were visible in his face. One of them had been hers, originally.

"Right, so, who are we looking for again?" she asked.

"Ah, some guy," he said. "I have… my book!" He pulled out a bingo book, and opened it, flipping through to the right section. "I… ahh… here!" He flipped to the page. "Inouye Naoki. A missing-nin, of jounin rank, from Iwa. Word is, he's supposed to be hiding out in the mountains around here somewhere."

"Good," she chirped. "I've been wanting a decent fight."

"Well, maybe the Kumo-nin will catch us, and you can slap them around for a while," Obito suggested. "Then you can stop bugging me with all this energy."

"Are you saying I'm annoying?" Itachi was honestly taken aback.

"Maybe," he grunted, eyeing her warily. "Sort of? I mean, you should just give them a fighting chance. No genjutsu, for once."

"Okay," she agreed. "I will refrain from using genjutsu for the entire time we're in the Land of Lightning."

"That was easy," he said, sounding surprised. His eyebrows were nearly up to his hairline. She raised her own at him.

"What?"

"You're easy to goad, sometimes," he said.

"What?"

"It's as it sounds."

Itachi frowned, looking away, and hopped up on the thin rock wall, waist-high, that stopped people from plummeting to their deaths, off the path. "I'm not great at talking, sometimes. Not great at saying what I want to say." She sighed. "Can never tell what's too honest and what's not."

"I like that you're honest," he said, surprisingly vehemently. "That way, I never doubt that you're lying to me. And I know that like - Look, I know that you're not…"

"Not what?" Itachi asked, softly.

"You're not like most people. You don't have the same… feelings as them."

"You don't have to beat around the bush," Itachi replied. "I know what I am. My father took me aside, awhile ago, after Hatake Kakashi caught me torturing a target for fun."

"Wait, what? You torture people for fun?"

"To relieve stress, actually. They conspired, I assume, to have me moved to T&I, as a part-time employee."

Obito just moved his mouth, soundlessly, until he remembered how to use his words. "I can't believe you worked at T&I and I just didn't know."

"I'm not a psychopath," she insisted. "I have feelings."

"I know you do. I just… it was a surprise!" he said, smiling. "Please don't kill and eat me."

"I'm not like that." She turned away, staring at the long expanse of cliff. "It was a reaction to the pressure I was under. Pressure I'm not under anymore. It's not a compulsion."

"Okay," he agreed, nodding. "That's fine."

"If I don't know someone, I don't care about them," she explained, because she wanted him to understand. "I have no intrinsic attachment to their lives, or their feelings. Most people do, from what I've seen. I'm not… I just don't care. Maybe I should. But I don't."

"I fought in the Third World War, did you know that?" Obito asked, coolly. "I always wondered how most shinobi could kill. I couldn't stand it. I only did it to save the lives of my friends. It might have been better to care less - you would have been much better off. Probably wouldn't have gotten your team injured or captured, like I did."

Itachi shrugged. "Maybe, but I am glad you've not lost your… kindness? Or regained it, due to the Kotoamatsukami. Whatever you want to call it; the effect is the same. When you suggested bringing back those nin, that was decent. I know I'm not… decent, not like you. So it's helpful to have someone to tell me what the right thing to do is. It's not that I'm not capable of doing it, it's more that it doesn't occur to me."

There was a pause, as they walked along the road. He seemed to consider that, for a while.

"So… you want me to rein you in?" he finally asked.

"I can't say I'll always listen to you," she pointed out. "But we're partners." Left unspoken was that she figured that Obito's sensibilities might help her actually not completely alienate Konoha. She might need that, to check up on Sasuke in the future.

"Sure."

The road was long, thin, and winding along the cliff. It was more of a hunting trail, than anything. The road stretched down into the valley, where the small resort town of Hana-kawago sat, high in the mountains. It was formed around a network of natural hot springs, and remained a natural tourist destination.

"This might go simpler," Obito said, gently, "if we both use Henge."

"I want Kumo to know we're here," she pointed out.

"You're mad."

"No. I'm not." She was touchy about this. "I'm not normal, but I'm not mad."

"Right," he said, sighing, rubbing his hand through his hair. "Not mad. Sorry. I meant it colloquially. Ten years of people thinking I'm dead, and it's all undone in an instant."

"You can wear a Henge, if you like."

"Maa, if Konoha recognizes me, they likely have already, in Waterfall if nowhere else."

"Why would they?"

He glanced over at Itachi, eyes frowning. "Kakashi, the idiot, probably blames himself for my death. So if he catches wind of my description and disguise, he'll be on my trail like an Akimichi on a barbecue stand."

Itachi laughed, surprising herself, stretching out her hands, examining her long, claw-like nails. "And you don't want that?"

"I don't know," Obito admitted. "On one hand, I'd love to see Kakashi again, but on the other, I don't know how to explain where I've been. I haven't been a Konoha shinobi for a decade. Somehow, I don't think 'I was recently unbrainwashed, sorry for letting you think I was dead' will quite cut it."

"Ah," she murmured. "I see. Shisui has not taken my… defection well. I can understand your hesitation."

"Oh?" he asked.

"I don't wish to talk about it."

"Okay," he agreed, lightly. "Look alive." Obito nodded to a tall, green-haired man, as they passed him on the road. He was hurrying, a long dark cloak nearly brushing the ground as he strode.

Itachi wondered, briefly, what he was doing. He certainly looked shifty enough. She imagined he was fleeing from a rendezvous with a dodgy person in a back alley with his illegal merchandise, on a whim.

"I mean that we might need Henge to find him. If he catches wind of us - and I think he might, considering how big this town is, he'll run. We might be well-served by going undercover at least to locate him."

"If we must," she agreed. "But if it comes to a fight, I'm going to be loud."

He rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine."

They passed more people, most of whom looked at them with wariness, or fear. Obito brought them to an alley, off the side of one of the main thoroughfares, where they both used Henge.

Time to hunt for a target.


The bath was hot, and Omoi savored it for longer than he probably should have. His sensei had taken them on a month-long training trip, out of the village, to a cave in the mountains. He was still sore, and they'd gotten back two days ago.

But B-sensei had given them a whole day off, in the hot springs, and yesterday they'd started a new mission: root out the corruption in the casino, the Red Dragon, that stood in the middle of Hana-kawago. They'd wandered around the floor, yesterday, practicing their infiltration. Omoi had thought that Karui was awful at it - completely noticeable - but it hadn't seemed that they were noticed. And he supposed that was the point - this was the kind of mission where they were learning to infiltrate. They weren't expected to be experts right away.

He sighed, and eased back into the bath. There was something nice about hot springs, although he didn't love the fact that there was an old, withered man, lurking in the water up to his chin a few feet away. A private hot spring, now that was an idea.

Maybe when he became a rich and famous swordsman, he could retire here, and come every evening. Maybe even find a nice girl, one that valued the concept of silence, unlike Karui, to enjoy it with him. That would be a life. He could have a house, high up in the mountains, and herd goats, or something.

Hmm. That bit needed work. Still, he was ten; he had time.

He stood up from the bath, and wandered back through the onsen, wrapping a towel around his waist. He wanted to drip-dry, and if Karui lectured him, he'd just ignore her. Let him enjoy the hot water a little bit longer. She could deal. They weren't even in the same room, anyway.

He stepped in through the door - his teammate was already in bed. Weird dude. Kotoi was a particularly boring old man trapped in a ten-year-old's body. He only preferred white rice, read technical manuals for fun, and had once shrieked at a particularly large bug that surprised him during training.

He went to bed, too, at sunset, religiously, like staying up any time past then would damage him irreparably.

Omoi wanded past his form, bundled in the bed. He settled into his own bed - this was a new casino, and the room was styled in the modern fashion - no tatami or futons here. The beds were solid, and wooden, and bigger than he had at home.

It was a nice room, for sure. Maybe he'd get something like this in his mansion.

He settled down to sleep, and was out within minutes.

The next day, they were fully behind the Henge, and prowling along the casino floor when he saw Karui and Kotoi, both grabbed by large, dark-garbed men, in matching black haori and hakama. Kotoi was grabbed right away, but Karui put up a fight, knocking one man into a mahjong table, before another grabbed her and pressed a cloth to her mouth, and she slumped.

Omoi panicked, and dropped his Henge, drawing his sword and leaping up onto a table. He knew their cover was blown, but he had no time to be surrounded. Screams picked up around him. It would be better to run, and re-group with B-sensei, and then go and rescue his teammates. He could only hope that they were casino security, but he was starting to wonder why casino security would be arresting them - unless they were in on it, too.

He ran, over the tops of tables, spilling tiles, chips, dice, and cards everywhere as he went. Half the crowd had stood up, and was fleeing from the room. A quartet of darkly dressed men and one woman gave chase, and he prepared himself to strike. They all had samurai swords, but it was hit or miss whether they were actual samurai or no. This was do-or-die, he thought. It was time to prove his mettle. These guys were just thugs, but he couldn't let himself get captured, along with his team.

He put everything in him to get away, because he didn't want to have to fight these guys. Not seriously, at least, because they were probably just here as casino security. But then, wouldn't casino security know? Surely the owner had told them. He couldn't be sure. Better safe than sorry.

He reached the edge of the line of tables, and hopped off, putting as much chakra as he could into the jump - he sailed over the head of one of the security guys with a strong leap, and he bounded out the door -

Only to smack into a huge, intimidating man with a gigantic burn on the side of his face, disfiguring him. His sword spun out his hand, and he cursed himself for losing it.

"Oh, no, little cloud," he said, smirking. "You won't be escaping today. No, no no."

And then a hand grabbed Omoi from the neck, and he, too, had a cloth pressed to his face. He inhaled the scent - pineapple - and then he, too, was unconscious.

He only came to, an unknown amount of time later, in a brightly-lit room, with expensive wood floors, an extensive desk and office area, a bank of expensive monitors, and a long couch that stood in front of two entire walls of windows, overlooking both the casino floor and, behind him, the valley outside. It was positively opulent, and Omoi realized that whoever was in charge of this, they were definitely casino security.

The thin, dangerous-looking man who claimed he was the head of security, Hideo, was here, looking sinister and intimidating from behind the bank of monitors, and the big, burn-scarred man was here too.

Looks like the Lightning Daimyo's third cousin had decided to trust the wrong people. She wasn't here, though, and that wasn't the worst thing in the world.

Until another man broke in, and he had her slumped form over his shoulder. Well, this wasn't good - the client was captured, he was captured, and so were Karui and Kotoi. His sensei was nowhere to be seen, but Omoi had faith. B-sensei was a weird guy, but a kick-ass shinobi.

He'd probably come busting in through the door in short order.

The client was unconscious, and Omoi found Karui's eyes, carefully, in the room. He nodded to her - but she just shook her head. They were almost completely hog-tied, as well as gagged, and she was better than him at rope escapes, but she hadn't managed to escape yet. These guys knew what they were doing, clearly.

Kotoi looked panicked, and the client was unmoving, so they were no help. It looked like it was up to B-sensei.

The large man eyed them, but said nothing - instead, he sat down on the couch, and watched,as they groaned, and shifted.

The room was quiet, oddly, only the quiet clack of keyboard keys and the whirring of electricity in the room. Omoi could feel it - his grasp of lightning let him feel the currents of electricity that allowed most machinery to work. However, this wasn't very much reassurance - without his hands, he could do very little.

A security guy came up. His haori had a little insignia on the sleeves. He must have been higher-ranking. Omoi wanted to scoff - the entire ensemble reminded him a little bit too much of Kumo's practice of flak vests.

The guy started whispering to the obvious leader, and he stood, walking away. Omoi glanced back at Karui, raising his eyebrows. She just sneered, and rolled her eyes. He was trying, too! She was just too useless. It was annoying.

Where was B-sensei?

The large man went over to the computer screens, and then there was nothing but quiet murmuring, before he straightened up.

"Go. Find this last shinobi." He motioned to a group of the security. They trouped out of the room, and then it was quiet again.

No one else spoke - there was silence, as the man turned and watched out of the long window in front of them. Omoi couldn't see what he was looking at, but he could tell that the guy didn't like what he could see. He turned, snarling, and went to the desk. Omoi figured that this had to be B-sensei.

A crash came, and then the wall exploded. A man came flying through, in an explosion of plaster and dust, and a thin girl came in through the hole. She was a couple years older than him, dressed like a cute kunoichi, with long black hair and a deathly pale complexion.

She also obviously had some serious Kekkai Genkai going on, because she had three eyes, including a horrible, glaring, blood-red monstrosity open vertically on her forehead, two dark horns that rose from her hair, and long black clawlike nails.

That was the thing about bloodline limits: most of the time, you could never tell. Most people hid theirs, to not give any advantages away to the enemy. Sometimes, if they were particularly drastic, you could see a small sign, but this girl wasn't hiding any of it.

Omoi thought that she looked awfully civilian, standing there dressed like that, glaring around at all of them.

Three of the men ran forward, charging her with swords raised. A fourth hung back and hurled shuriken.

The girl glanced over all of them, and then three things happened, in quick succession: her eyes burned red, and twisted into a strange red and black shape; there was a rush of movement that Omoi couldn't track; and then she rose from a crouch, in the center of three motionless bodies, swords clattering to the floor.

If Omoi hadn't been so tightly gagged, his jaw would have dropped.

Credit to the fourth man: he did not stop hurling shuriken. The girl raised her own kunai, and casually batted aside the incoming projectiles, smiling.

Her canines were pointed, long and fang-like, in her face, and Omoi was forced to reconsider his stance. If everyone knew you had special abilities, but couldn't move half as fast as you could, then that didn't really matter, did it?

If you were strong enough, you could dress however you wanted.

She blurred forward, then, too, and grabbed the man by the neck, dragging him down to her level. As Omoi watched, his young face twisted and aged, and he shriveled up to a raisin, slumping dead to the floor.

Suddenly, with the four of them down, there were a lot less people in the room.

The big, scarred man snarled. "Uchiha."

"Are you Inouye Naoki?" The girl's voice was as young as the rest of her.

"What if I am?"

"Then I'm here for your head," she replied.

He grinned, nastily, and gestured. Someone behind him placed a kunai in front of Omoi's throat.

"Don't move, or I'll cut your little friends' throats."

"Bad move," the Uchiha warned. "You do realize that I'm a Konoha missing-nin, right?" She fingered the hitai-ate around her neck, a long scratch through the leaf symbol. "Threatening me with the lives of Kumo genin I've never met before is hardly a way to make me do what you want."

"Most people would flinch at letting children die," the big, scarred man replied, smiling slightly. "I just wanted to know. It's always nice to meet someone who's not weak." He turned, and swept his eyes across them. "Kill them."

Omoi tensed, certain that his life was about to end. A man grabbed him from behind, holding his head in place. He was sure his throat was about to be slit. But it wasn't. The man's grip slackened, and a kunai dropped. He twisted, and looked at his teammates.

There were other security guys behind Karui and Kotoi. Neither of them had slit the throats they were supposed to, however. They both had strange, square panels of empty space behind them, and black spikes, stuck through their necks.

A brain stem injury. A quick, brutal death.

He turned and stared at the girl. She was smirking, as she withdrew her hand from a similar, oddly colored tear in space. Her eyes had gone weird, purple and ringed. He wasn't sure what kind of dojutsu that was, but he was surprised that she didn't have a Sharingan.

"They're babies," she admonished, lightly. "Genin. Come now, you're a missing-nin. There's no quicker way to end up hounded by hunter-nin than killing genin from a major village."

She wasn't wrong, but that was a cold assessment. How about the fact that killing kids was generally considered a Very Bad thing? Though, they were missing-nin. That meant that they weren't like other people. They didn't have the same kind of loyalty. Omoi couldn't imagine turning against Kumo.

He wasn't sure how this girl was this strong, but it was clear that this wasn't the arrogant, foolish girl whose confidence outweighed her ability. Appearance didn't mean anything, he reminded himself. But she seemed interested keeping them alive, at least. That was something, since B-sensei hadn't shown up.

"Foolishly sentimental," the big scarred man hissed.

"Mercy is the provision of the strong," the girl returned, smirking.

The door on the other end of the room opened up, then, and two more large men stepped through. They were wearing black cloaks, with red clouds. One had weird body paint on his jaw, like red stripes, and another had a too-large, bulbous head on a thin body. Omoi shuddered. What was it with weird missing-nin and their weirder body deformities today?

"Finally," the scarred man who probably was Inouye Naoki said. "You're late."

"We were promised the jinchuuriki," one of them replied. It was the man with the strange jaw - he had a Kiri hitai-ate. He also had an enormous sword, like a butcher's blade. Omoi worried, but he knew B-sensei could take care of himself.

"Here's his team," Inouye said. "He'll be sure to come for them."

The new, strange missing-nin eyed them like pieces of meat at a street vendor. Omoi didn't like that look. But the Uchiha girl was there, and, oddly, he felt reassured by that. She'd defended them once, which probably meant that she wouldn't let them be killed now, even if they were still tied up.

There were only three goons left, too. But these new ninja looked dangerous - the kind of missing-nin that gave everyone a bad name.

"Who's this, then?" the odd, big-headed man asked. He had an incongruously high voice, and a Grass forehead protector.

"I'm Uchiha Itachi," the girl announced. "I'm just bounty-hunting. For fun and profit. You all have delightful prices on your heads, did you know that?"

"Kill her," Inouye commanded. "Otherwise, she'll interfere."

Uchiha smiled, low and satisfied and entertained, like this was the best thing that could have happened all day. It gave Omoi the chills.

"Well, boys," she announced, holding up her hands, palms up, and gesturing towards her. "Bring it on."

There was a slow, resounding silence. She'd been very rude, after all, and maybe they weren't quite expecting that kind of expression from someone like her.

"Okay," the big man said, his sword out. He leapt forward, swinging it in a massive arc. The girl, however, didn't hesitate. She leapt lightly into the air, and spun in a kick that he twisted to avoid. He had a comparatively long recovery out of the move, and she might have taken advantage of the face that he was on the back foot if it was not for his partner.

The oddly-proportioned man had not been idle, instead, his bald head was glowing, and strange light was moving up and down. A flickering arc of light slammed into the girl, staggering her.

She stumbled, and the first man bashed her across the head with the sword. She laughed, lightly, and grinned, and then he was blown away by a jutsu so fast, Omoi hadn't seen any hand signs.

She did use them next, however, flashing through them so fast he couldn't follow. She raised her finger, and a beam of white light shot out, towards the big-headed man. He frowned, and the light vibrate, echoing back and forth across his cranium, conjuring a strange shield. The beam was halted by the shield, and then the sword guy was up again.

The oddly-proportioned man was back at it again, and the girl, it seemed, had to dodge away, snarling. She twitched, and her body changed, oddly. Her long hair's texture shifted, and for a moment, he thought it was becoming like Karui's, but then he realized it was feathered, and her lips were stained black.

The sword struck out, once, twice, and although Omoi was being taught by one of the most skilled swordsmen Kumo had ever seen, he couldn't help but reluctantly impressed at the way that this man wielded the enormous blade like it was a cute little shortsword.

The girl, however, had somehow gotten even faster - the blur between the two shinobi increased, even as the big-headed man was tossing out more bursts of light - his jutsu was odd, truly odd, but apparently very powerful.

The real oddness, however, came from the fact that, suddenly, somehow, the girl just wasn't there. Neither the sword nor the strange jutsu was hitting her, but she was somehow everywhere. Omoi was a genin - he was a pretty skilled genin, so he could move faster than most civilians could follow, but he couldn't even fathom the fact that this girl, only a few years older than him, could move faster than he could see, and could fight two grown men.

She made it look - well, it didn't look easy, but she still achieved it with an effortless kind of grace that left him slightly awestruck.

The missing-nin who might or might not have been but probably was Inouye Naoki, too, was getting in on the action, tossing out small, burning embers that arced gently through the air. He had to be careful in his use of them, as a three-person fight was hard to keep track of in the first place, even when it was slow. The embers, however, did not seem to be working correctly. Whenever he scored a hit on the Uchiha girl, the sparks fizzled into nothing.

When he accidentally hit his allies, they blew up. The sword guy had burns all over his arms, and the big-headed guy had slapped a few away with his mind jutsu.

Omoi couldn't even explain this anymore. It was verging on ridiculous.

That was, until the other guy whirled into existence from nothing right next to him. He was tall, and broad, and wore a half-mask under red, glaring eyes and a scratched-out Kiri headband. Half his face was twisted, and scarred, or else he probably would have been handsome. Omoi wasn't sure what was going on there, because that looked an awful lot like the Sharingan, even if his eyes had different patterns, and there were no Uchiha in Mist, as far as he knew.

The man looked around at the scene, eyes wide. "Oh, no," he said, half to himself.

The girl paused long enough to toss the sword guy at the other guy, and stopped in front of them long enough to snarl out, "You're late!" in an annoyed voice.

Oh, it was like Karui all over again.

"Sorry, Itachi-chan!" the man said, in a high, obnoxious voice. "I had to help an old lady get her cat out of a tree!"

The girl bared her teeth, which just made her look like a demon. "That better not be true."

And then the sword was whistling through where she was, and she was back to fighting them again.

Maybe-Inouye didn't hesitate - he directed a stream of the embers at the new guy who might have been an Uchiha, and booked it out the window. The thin man who'd falsely claimed to be the head of security, Hideo, was long gone.

The man just shrieked, and slapped them out of the air, like they were party favors. They exploded harmlessly through the floor. He twitched, and let the big, burn-scarred man go. He turned and opened Omoi's bonds, cutting the ropes with a kunai.

Omoi stood up, unwrapping himself, and tore off the gag. He spat, once, twice, to make sure he got the nasty taste out of his mouth.

He leaned up, and asked, "Why help?"

The man twisted from where he was untying Karui, "It's the right thing to do."

"You sure you aren't from Konoha?" The question was out of his mouth before he could stop it.

The man stilled, and glanced at him. "That's just a stereotype. Makes foolish Kumo-nin underestimate Konoha-nin."

"Like how Kiri is full of bloodthirsty killers?"

He laughed. "No, that one's true. It's just that the other four villages are full of killers, too."

"Cloud's not," he protested.

The man's eyes crinkled, behind his mask, as he cut Karui loose. "Hey, where's sensei?" she asked, the second she was free.

"No idea," Omoi informed her.

Karui bristled, drawing her sword, and putting it on the new guy. "You're gonna back away from my teammates, bub."

"Okay," the man agreed. He was rather disarming, for a missing-nin. There was something gentle and welcoming about his face, despite the scars - he just didn't seem the type to survive a cutthroat life of villains and monsters. "I'll just go and - well, do my thing."

He went to leave, when Omoi asked, "Have you seen our sensei?"

"I haven't seen any Kumo-nin, other than you guys."

Just then, B-sensei walked in the door, looking as unperturbed as ever. "Yo, yo, yo! Sorry for being so slow!"

"B-sensei!" they chorused, nearly in unison.

"Good," the strange shinobi. "B-san, hello! Please don't attack me, I had no part of this."

"Omoi, Karui, Kotoi, reportoi!" B-sensei commanded, dark sunglasses glinting over all of them.

"This guy is weird, but he did help," Karui decided, finally. "And his partner is fighting the guys who are apparently hunting you?"

"And the security force was definitely corrupt," Omoi added, "since they attacked us and were going to hold us for ransom - they even threatened to kill us."

"All right. Looks like you're on the side of the light," B-sensei acquiesced, to the strange, scarred man.

"I may no longer have a village, but that doesn't mean I'm completely without a conscience."

"Ha!" the girl said, from the other side of the room. She was panting, making short, shallow breaths, but both her opponents were down, and blood dripped from her hand. "You could have helped, Tobi."

The strange, masked shinobi cocked his head. "You were the one that wanted a good fight."

B-sensei cut the client's bonds, and picked her up, gently. He gestured his team over, and they followed. "I can't you two leave, though, even if it ends in a row."

The girl Uchiha stepped forward, tilting her head. "I don't think you can stop us."

"Now, Itachi-chan," the other man, Tobi, warned, "I vote for being nice to the Kumo-nin."

"Missing-nin. State your business in the land of Lightnin'!"

Tobi laughed, sheepishly. Omoi drew his sword, feeling the tension rocket up.

The missing-nin raised his hands, palms up, and said, "We come in peace." He was grinning behind his mask. "We don't want a fight." Itachi came up behind him, and sneered menacingly.

"The girl did rescue us," Omoi admitted.

"I'd go more with, 'you can't really stop us, B-san,'" the girl said. There was something awful about the blood-red eye in the middle of her forehead. It gave Omoi the creeps. He wondered if she could see out of it, or whether it was just horrible decoration.

"Be nice," Tobi warned. "We're trying to make friends."

"Well, they have no reason to befriend us, idiot. We're missing-nin, who are almost certainly dangerous criminals."

"But we're nice missing-nin," Tobi whined.

Omoi couldn't help the snort that escaped him.

B-sensei grumbled to himself. "I'm not gonna trust you guys. Something strange about you, to my partner's eyes."

That apparently meant something to Itachi, because she smiled, showing pointed teeth. It wasn't a pleasant smile - it was leonine and hungry, like she wanted to devour them all.

"He's very wise, this partner of yours."

"Itachi-chan!" Tobi protested. "This isn't nice Itachi! This is scary Itachi. We don't want scary Itachi!"

Incongruously, she stuck out her tongue at him.

"The comedy routine is great, but you assholes are still going down," Karui warned. She had her sword out, too.

"Let's go," Uchiha Itachi commanded, snarling. "No making friends, Tobi."

"But-"

"No buts, Tobi." She turned those strange eyes to B-sensei, and declared, "We're going to leave now. You're not going to stop us, because that's a shit way to repay someone who saved your students' lives."

B-sensei eyed her carefully, and nodded.

She grinned, again, and showed those teeth. Then she lifted a hand, and the floor of the room opened up in a few places - underneath her and her partner, and the bodies of the other missing-nin she'd beaten.

They fell through, as one, into the strange, square portals. Tobi yelped, indignantly, as he disappeared. And then they were gone.