Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...

Note: Ah, I was finally able to release this new chapter! I've had a rough two weeks because my mind just blanked out with regard to this story... sorry, if guys thought I was dead. But here I am again, ready to give you another chapter! Enjoy!

Normal - conversations/narration

Italics - thoughts/voices in one's head

Italics and Bold - jutsus

Here's the new chapter! It's short, but that's because I'm also working on the next one as well!

-

Asuka looks around the white medical room, and, seeing nothing of any importance glances outside the window right next her. A slight rustling of the leaves surprises her for a bit, but she decides to ignore it anyway.

"Hmmm… it seems that the Leaf is still taking precautions... they even have ANBU spying on me now…"

She was already awake a few hourse before, but decided not to go to sleep again. She knew that Koujiro had to incapacitate her just to make sure that they were brought inside the Hidden Leaf Village, but his hit had also left her body physically weakened, and she believed that she would still need a few more days to a week before she could be back in fighting form.

"Tch… he didn't need to hit me so hard, although I'd have to say he did a good job in making his hit look like a hit on my nervous system. Even that large breasted bitch kage wasn't able to see through his attack… but to have to lose my physical prowess…"

She suddenly notices a green bug on the inside of her window. The bug was well hidden because of the trees which were right across from her window, and the color of the bug matched the color of the tree's leaves so well.

"A bug? How did that get in here? Might as well kill it, it might spread some sort of disease…"

Asuka takes one of the magazines nearby, rolls it up, and prepares to strike the bug, but is interrupted by a knock from outside the window.

A black-robed ANBU wearing a cat mask was staring right at her from outside the window, and seemed to motioning her to open it.

"Hmmm, this might be a bit risky, but I guess one of those ANBU in here won't be too bad… besides, it'll make them trust me more if I follow what they want me to do."

She quickly opens the window, and sees the bug immediately scurry off towards the ANBU.

"Um, ok… why don't you come in?"

The ANBU stares at her blankly under the mask, and makes no intention to come inside the hospital room.

"No, it's ok."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

Asuka stares curiously at the ANBU right in front of her. The guy seemed to be extremely calm and collected, and he this slight hint of mysteriousness in his voice which made her like him a little.

"So… you're a ninja?" Asuka asks innocently.

"Yes."

"Do all ninjas have cool masks like yours?"

"No, only the ones who are part of the Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai, otherwise known as the ANBU, wear masks as a part of their daily life."

"I see," Asuka states with interest.

There was a few seconds of silence between the two, and then the ANBU suddenly speaks up.

"Do you really remember nothing?"

"Nothing… nothing at all."

"I see." The ANBU sounded sorrowful, but the mask covered the man's emotions perfectly.

There was another few seconds of silence and uneasiness, which is then broken once again by the ANBU.

"You are skilled. You spotted that bug just after it had set itself on the glass of the window. Maybe… your body still remembers what it was like when you were a part of the ANBU?"

"Ahh, so they checked the records immediately, as Koujiro predicted they would. Having to use my real name would be a bit too risky, and besides, I've always liked the name Megumi."

"Ahh… sorry, I really don't remember anything. Please forgive me. Am I… supposed to know you?"

The ANBU looks a little stunned, but quickly recovers. He removes his mask and reveals a pale face with small black sunglasses, making the man look even more mysterious than ever.

"You really don't recognize me, Megumi?" The ANBU's voice was calm, but there was a slight hint of hurt in it.

"I… I'm sorry. I really don't recognize you…" Asuka tried to make her voice sound as pained as possible, and sees that her acting has an effect on the ANBU as he tries to stifle the hurt from his face.

"I see." The ANBU's voice was tight and forced, and he puts his mask back on. "I'll leave you now. You just need more rest."

Asuka watches as the ANBU leaves through the window, and waits until she no longer senses his presence before smiling.

"Hmm, this is interesting… it looks like that ANBU had a previous relationship with Megumi… This is an interesting development…"

Asuka silently chuckles. "This is good… I can use him…"

-

"We must attack the Hidden Sound Village NOW!" roars Temari as she stands up and slams her hand on the table.

The whole Konoha council looks at the Sand jounin silently.

A council member suddenly speaks out. "We all know how you feel about your brother being taken by Orochimaru, but right now, attacking the Hidden Sound blindly will not result to anything."

The female council member continues. "The Hidden Sound is probably heavily defended right now, and if we send out a large force of ninjas for an offensive, the that would leave our village open to attack by the Hidden Mist and Hidden Cloud, who, I'm quite sure, already know that the Hidden Sand has weakened, thus leaving us alone for the time being."

"Damn it… DAMN IT!" screams Temari, which results to an arched eyebrow from the whole council.

"Gaara… Gaara is with them… my brother…" Temari's words were choked by her sobbing, and sits down and starts to cry.

Tsunade walks over the weeping Temari and gently places her hand on Temari's shoulders. "It's going to be alright, Temari. We'll find a way to get your brother back. But right now, we need to start thinking of increasing the defense of both the Hidden Leaf and the Hidden Sand. This war has taken a toll on the number of ninjas in all the villages, and attacking blindly right now is just like sending out ninjas to their graves."

A knock interrupts the meeting, and Jiraiya, one of the Legendary Sannin suddenly enters.

Tsunade looked worried and puzzled at the same time. "Jiraiya? You're back already!"

The perverted ninja looked tired and fatigued, something that she had not seen in Jiraiya for quite some time. His clothes were dirty and torn, and there were a few blood stains on some parts of his clothes.

"Jiraiya, what happened?" asks a council member quietly.

"Akatsuki… Akatsuki has started moving once again. I don't know the reason right now, due to the loss of my informant, but this is a very bad sign. A VERY bad sign. They haven't become this active for quite some time now, and that means they must be planning something big. REALLY big."

"I see…" Tsunade looked extremely worried and serious, and the room was silent for a few seconds, except for a few occasional sobs from Temari.

"Then… have they found the other two who possess demons?" the female council member asks after quite a while.

"Yes, they've found all the demon containers. Although there is no real guarantee that there are only four in the whole world, the two the Akatsuki hasare proven to have a youma and the third is a potential container," Jiraiya states wearily.

"Uzumaki Naruto possesses the Kyuubi, Sabaku no Gaara has the Shukaku, and Uruha Asuka has the Yurei... who is the fourth one then?" Tsunade asks.

"That… I don't know yet. The fourth one is only a potential container, meaning he could or could not have a demon inside of him. Plus, my informant wasn't exactly clear about the fourth possessor the last time we talked…"

There was another moment of silence in the room, which was only broken by a cough from Jiraiya.

"Ahem… anyway, I hear we have an S-rank missing nin in our village right now. And what's with the news about our spies coming from Sound? Since when did we send spies to that Hidden Village?"

"Our so-called 'spies' currently have amnesia, however, and both of them went missing in a mission a long time ago. It IS possible that they were found by Orochimaru and captured for his own purposes. And thus they could have learned some important information in their stay there.

And then, we have the presence of that S-rank missing nin in our prison. I'm sure you know him, Jiraiya. That man was also considered a candidate by Sandaime and Yondaime to become a Hokage even when he was young, so he's currently a very dangerous person right now. We have him under intense guard at our maximum security prison," Tsunade says gravely.

"No… it can't be… that man… Arashi Koujiro?"

Everyone nods.

"I see… that really is a surprise. When was he captured?"

One of the council members replies immediately. "He was captured as he was hunting down the two 'spies' we're currently holding right now. It seems that he's allied himself with the Hidden Village of Sound. For revenge, perhaps?"

"I see… I think I'll have a chat with him…"

Jiraiya turns around and starts toward the door, but is stopped by Tsunade's hand on his shoulder.

"Jiraiya, I don't know what Koujiro is planning, but be careful around him. He's probably at our level by now, and it's just a surprise why he hasn't escaped from prison yet."

Jiraiya grins and whispers in Tsunade's ear. "Hehe, since when have you started worrying about me, Tsunade-hime? Maybe you're finally seeing me in a whole different light?" he teases.

Tsunade's eyes narrow, and a vein pops out from her head. "Shut up, if you don't want to die, you old pervert."

-

Koujiro stretches his arms a few minutes after waking up from deep slumber. It had beena weeksince Kakashi had visited him, and he was starting to get bored.

"Darn… nothing to do right here… I can't read, I can't write here, I can't draw, none of those special guards even knows how to play go or shougi… Damn, this is boring…"

A few footsteps toward his cell suddenly perks him up and he sits on the bed expectantly.

"Hmmm, by the sound of the footsteps, I can tell that there probably two or three of them coming here…maybe Naruto and Asuka were somehow able to slip past the guards? Aghh! It doesn't matter! All that matters is that I get to do something!"

Koujiro waits expectantly as the doors of his cell are slowly opened, and raises an eyebrow as he sees the newcomers enter his cell.

"Hmmm, a lean, brown-haired shinobi, probably jounin from that vest, with a uninterested look in his eyes… he looks like Shikaku-san from the the Nara clan… and a blonde kunoichi from Sand… oooohh, that thing on her back looks dangerous… looks like that tomboy Meimi for some reason…"

A voice from outside his cell suddenly surprise him a great deal, but nothing showed on his face as he looked at the two newcomers in his cell.

"So… ah, what can I do for you?" Koujiro asks innocently.

"Agh, this is so troublesome, Temari… why do WE need to be here?" the jounin asks the blonde called Temari.

"Because, Shikamaru, this guy is from the Hidden Village of Sound, and so we can squeeze out information from him with regards to that village," Temari answers viciously.

"Errr, need I remind you that this guy," Shikamaru points straight at Koujiro, "beat BOTH Gai and Rock Lee… so, maybe squeezing out information won't be as easy as it looks…" Shikamaru states worriedly.

"I don't care, you lazy ass, I'll do whatever it takes to get my brother back!" Temari screams.

Koujiro simply watches as the two argue right in front of him. "Wow, this is nice… I even get to watch couples argue... LIVE! Now this is entertainment!"

"What are you looking at?" Temari suddenly screams at Koujiro, whose heart leapt from surprise.

"Ahh, um, the two of you? Fighting?" Koujiro answers innocently.

The cell door opens again and Koujiro's eyes widen a little. It was Jiraiya.

"You're late, Jiraiya-sama," Shikamaru states in a monotone.

"Yeah," Temari seconds.

"Sorry, I was just promoting the sixth volume of my Come Come Paradise series, 'Come Come Influence'! You should read it too, Shikamaru!" an excited Jiraiya responds.

"Uhhh, I think I'll pass."

"Oh well, you're loss Shikamaru… anyway…" Jiraiya clears his throat and walks toward Koujiro.

"Nice to see you again, Koujiro. How long has it been?"

"Hello Jiraiya-sama, it's nice to see you too. You haven't changed at all since I left," Koujiro replies happily.

"Heh, that's where you're wrong, blonde boy. Now that I'm fifty plus, I'm not just a pervert, I'm a super pervert! Wahahahaha!" Jiraiya exclaims.

"Anyway," Temari interjects angrily, "we're not here to discuss the past. We're here for information… and if you don't give us that information, we can't guarantee you your life."

"No need to sound so serious, little lady," Koujiro responds cheerily, but his happy expression only lasts for a second. His eyes then narrow and a serious expression covers his face. "But do you really think you can actually do anything to me?"

"Stop this, Koujiro," Jiraiya says in a serious tone. "We're not here to fight."

Jiraiya then faces Shikamaru and Temari, and motions them to go out of the room for a while.

"Heh, I knew that this was a troublesome situation to be in… Jiraiya-sama, please take care of this. Temari, lets go…"

"No! I want to torture him till he tells us some information about the Hidden Sound! I want…"

Temari suddenly stops. Her eyes widen, she starts shaking,and then she suddenly falls down on her knees, covering her ears in the process. Shikamaru bends over and tries comforting her.

"Temari, Temari, what happened? Answer me, Temari!"

"No… Stop it!" she screams.

Jiraiya's eyes widen. "Koujiro, stop it!"

Koujiro closes his eyes and sighs. "Alright."

Jiraiya faces Shikamaru. "Shikamaru, take Temari away. I'll handle this."

Shikamaru nods and carries the shaken Temari away.

Koujiro watches as Shikamaru, carrying Temari, closes the cell door behind him. He then looks directly at the white-haired Sannin, and smiles.

"So, you're still alive."

Jiraiya nods gravely. "No thanks to you... you never told me you were planning to come here. Anyway, what did you show Temari, Koujiro?"

"I showed her what she wanted to see… her brother, possessed by Orochimaru. I showed her the truth, and what would have happened if the Leaf leads a campaign against the Hidden Sound right now."

"Your tenjutsu, 'Nirvana', eh…? Is that what you used on Naruto as well?"

"It could not be helped… do you think he would have joined the Akatsuki if I had not done that?"

"That was a risky gamble, Koujiro. Having him join the Akatsuki brought him closer to Seishurou."

"However, it also brought him closer to me. And that is what matters. If he stayed in this village, by now the Akatsuki and their gathered army of missing nins would have razed this hidden village to the ground."

Jiraiya sits on a chair and stares at Koujiro. "So… have they found out that you're my contact inside their organization?"

"Maybe, maybe not… although Seishurou seems to be suspicious of me right now…"

" 'That man', Seishurou… he's seems to be too impatient these days. What can he be thinking?"

"I don't know, Jiraiya-sama… he's currently deployed the Akatsuki Nine on certain missions, Naruto included. The Akatsuki's much more active right now because Orochimaru gained Sabaku no Gaara's body, and they can't have Orochimaru destroy all of their plans."

"Damn, this is bad… all we can do right now is to go on the defensive against everyone."

"Jiraiya-sama, Seishurou is currently balancing out the war, and we don't know why. He gathered all the S-ranked missing nins of all the Hidden Villages, and used their different goals to his advantage… He wants all the Hidden Villages to weaken themselves in this war, just to instigate the new operation, 'The Red Dawn'."

"But he already has the three youmas, why not start it right now?"

"The problem is that Uruha Asuka's youma Yurei isn't exactly a youma which can be drawn out… her youma is directly fused to her deadly bloodline, as a way to regulate the curse on her clan, so she can't really be used as a 'main event', only as a 'support' for the true demon of destruction, the Kyuubi… Uzumaki Naruto, on the other hand,has a special 'seal', and not even I know how it really works and how to fully unseal it. Only the 4th knows about that. I don't know if Seishurou knows how, but I need Naruto close to me so I can defend him at least.

Besides, once the Kyuubi is unleashed, it won't have a physical demon form to assume, therefore I'm assuming that the Kyuubi will use Naruto's body, thus creating an uncontrollable and unbeatable weapon, the type of weapon that Seishurou is dreaming of using. He needs the full destructive power of the Kyuubi, although I don't know why the whole Akatsuki can't achieve the same end right now."

"He's strange, that Seishurou… he attempted to create a new village back when the 4th was still alive, but was stopped by the 4th himself… the price was the Kyuubi…" Jiraiya says gravely.

Koujiro suddenly falls silent.

"That time… that day… the day wherein the darkness fell upon Konoha... I can never forget that day…"

-

Author's Note: Nothing much to say here, except sorry for the long wait... I seem to have the drive for writing once again at least.