AN: Chapter title: Akatsuki On the Move

"You seem worried." The dry tone of Sasori drew Itachi's gaze to the redhaired Shinobi.

The Uchiha considered saying nothing, ignoring his partner as they traveled to the Hidden Sand. Already, they had been delayed by his need to send a message to the Third Hokage. He had been as swift as he dared to be but the delay was still noticeable. He was all but sure Sasori had seen the crow depart, had questions on his mind.

Questions that would paint him with greater suspicion than he already carried, would jeopardize his position within Akatsuki if he voiced those questions.

"There are many reasons to be." Itachi chose to speak. "The swiftest route to the Hidden Sand will take us through the Land of Fire. While the border security is no threat to either of the two of us, their absence would be noted. Would draw unwanted attention to us."

"Then we'll simply have to not kill them. I'm sure it won't be too difficult for you to use your Genjutsu skills." Sasori's half lidded gaze returned to the path ahead of them.

Itachi, for a moment, wished that his partner was flesh and blood, that he could make use of the infamous Dojutsu of his clan to read the man.

Unfortunately, his body was completely artificial. It made any attempts to read body language, look to minute changes, a wasted effort.

Not even his 'heart' could be relied on for deciphering if Sasori was telling the truth or not, the device in his chest merely serving as a source of Chakra, shared little else in common with the organ beating in his own chest.

'What does he know about me?' Sasori's intelligence networks, his ability to create spies and informants even within the ranks of his former partner Orochimaru's organization, was well known to the Uchiha. He simply didn't know how robust Sasori's network within the Hidden leaf was, how much he knew of his pass.

If he knew the truth.

If he did, he would have no choice but to eliminate the Missing-nin, didn't believe such a thing would come easy. Not only was the man a veteran of the Third Shinobi World War, he had earned such a moniker as Sasori of the Red Sand among the battlefields of legendary Shinobi.

"I wonder how he managed to trick them into such a foolish plan." Sasori's voice almost made Itachi jump. Heedless of his partner's thoughts or opinions, Sasori continued speaking. "I always thought Grandma was smart. At least smarter than this, that she wouldn't be so easily tricked by a snake like Orochimaru. It appears that I was wrong."

The former Shinobi of the Hidden Sand shook his head.

"If I was still a Shinobi of that village, I couldn't stomach the sight of any of the fools at the top. I would have to kill them on principle." A manic smile crossed his face, his wide eyes turning to Itachi. "Is that why you killed your clan? You couldn't stand their foolishness?"

"The Uchiha Clan was weak and therefore had no reason to exist." Itachi gave his practiced answer, the proper amount of cold disdain lacing each of his words. "When they became so pathetic, no longer valued their own strength above all else, their destruction was inevitable."

"But not that brother of yours." Sasori's smile widened when his words managed to draw a look of annoyance from the Uchiha. "You chose to keep him alive. Why?"

"I have no reason to explain my reasoning to you." Itachi moved on ahead.

Behind him, Sasori's face once more adopted its usual bored expression. His artificial eyes were still amused at the rage the Uchiha had suppressed.

"No need to be so upset. I was only curious." The former Hidden Sand Shinobi followed after the Uchiha.

Itachi's impassive face remained in place, the Uchiha not providing a response to Sasori.

The two would continue onward to the Hidden Sand in silence.

Far, far, far away from the two more mild mannered members of Akatsuki a battlefield was rocked by numerous blasts. High above the heads of the battling Shinobi, samurai, and scattered mercenaries, a blonde haired man observed the chaos that had swept up the soon to be graveyard atop a large owl made up of white clay.

"Huh, new clay's not so bad. Not as much of a bang as I would like but beggars can't be choosers in a time like this." Beneath the black cloak emblazoned with a red cloud, his hands were inside of opened pouches. "Still a bit too much on the lighter side. I'm gonna have to use more than I'm used to. That's probably going to add up to mean I'm working with a lot less attacks." He withdrew his hands, the mouths within his hands released yet another set of clay birds to fly off, bombard those so far down below. "Damn Hidan had to ruin my clay with his little ritual."

Blood didn't exactly ruin his clay but foreign Chakra in his clay was an issue, could dilute his own.

All because Hidan had to turn everything into a bloodbath.

With the mission going as south as it had, with both of the commanders, and their entourages, dead after a night that had spiraled into disaster, he figured it was best to adopt a slash and bomb strategy to save face.

He brought the bomb while his partner brought the slash.

It was a crude yet functional strategy.

He could spot him down below, swinging that ungodly weapon he called a scythe around like the madman he was on that steel cable. It tore apart those who had put aside their differences, their loyalty to feuding clans and ideals, in a desperate bid for survival.

"DIE BASTARD!"

"You'll pay if it's the last thing I do!"

From his perch so high above, he could faintly hear the few dozen men left screaming this threat or "Honor" that. It didn't matter. He didn't truly bother himself with what dead men had to say.

"Now that just won't do them any good." He couldn't help but shake his head. One of the walking corpses had managed to run Hidan clean through the chest, proclaim victory, speak about "Honor" for the dead. From the way Hidan slumped, the murderer had decided to put on a show, take up enough blood from the man to start his ritual.

He had been careful with his attacks, kept his clay, away from the mark in blood he had left on the ground.

While Hidan's religious zeal left much to be desired, he could at least understand his commitment, even appreciate it as another art.

Even if it was a grisly affair, it was one that lived in the moment, was an unforgettable experience for all involved.

From the sudden pained scream from one of the walking dead, Hidan had reached his circle and had begun his ritual, shared his pain with his unfortunate victim.

A pair of Shinobi seemed to understand the symbol in blood was responsible for the shared pain between Hidan and their comrade. Before they could relay such information, launch an attempt to remove Hidan from the marked ground, a pair of clay spiders leaped from where they had concealed themselves in the ground, latched onto their faces.

"Katsu!" With a smile on his face, he allowed his art to illuminate the battlefield once more.

'Pain's not going to like how this turned out. No information on this so-called forbidden technique, no info on this weird wish-making Box to take back to the boss, and half the money we stole is covered in blood. Which is going to make spending it a problem.' Their mission had been to investigate rumors of a powerful ancient Kinjutsu in the Hidden Grass, investigate rumors of some ancient device able to make a wish come true, and the two of them were supposed to work with agents from the Grass Fruit faction to uncover if any of it was real or not. 'Hidan going on that killing spree really didn't help much. From the looks of things, we just lost quite a few job offers around here.' In the grand scheme of things, the lost of business from the Hidden Grass wouldn't be too impactful to the Akatsuki.

If it became necessary, Deidara was sure he could take a few bounties from Kakuzu and deliver them only mildly charred.

'And we still don't even have anything on the Jinchuriki that was supposed to be around here.' He hadn't exactly confided anything about it to Hidan but one of the Jinchuriki from the Hidden Cloud was supposed to have been around on their own information gathering assignment, were supposed to have been doing the same mission as the two of them were. He had hoped to at least put a face to the name but he guessed he wasn't that lucky.

It was about his luck after joining Akatsuki, meeting the critic Sasori and the bastard Itachi Uchiha were a good benchmark for how poor his luck was turning out to be.

His clay bird suddenly banked to the side, avoided a number of thrown weapons ranging from kunai and shuriken to Ninjutsu he was impressed could make it this high.

"Guess I can't go and get lost in thought." Despite the danger just posed to him by the attacks, Deidara smiled. He was starting to get bored with the way things were going. Some excitement wouldn't be so bad, the survivors down below might even get his blood rushing. He dropped both hands into the pouches at his side, let the mouths on his palms consume a fresh bit of clay. He instructed the bird to dive, anchored himself to its back with his Chakra.

Away from the artist and the killer, another pair of the Akatsuki prepared to move out.

After a brief stop at a bounty office.

"This almost makes it worth not killing Hoshigaki." He counted the cash in his hands, nothing like a smile on his face as he did so but something approaching appreciation beneath his mask.

The bounty the irritating swordsman from the Hidden Mist had supplied was delivered without issue to the closest office within the Land of Rivers, the payment for the corpse dealt out promptly by the man behind the counter. It wasn't much but it also wasn't a headache for him since Kisame had been the one to grab him. Kakuzu contented himself with appreciating the ease of the transaction, the towering man breathing out a sigh of relief at the lack of any blonde topped problems to anything.

It also helped he didn't have to deal with that unkillable moron Hidan.

'The numbers of bounties I've lost because of that fool is just infuriating.' Kakuzu scowled even at the memory of Hidan's moronic behavior. Time after time he had lost out on a big payment because the fool he was partnered with had some ritual to perform that ended up killing the bounty he wanted alive. If those same rituals hadn't made him such a pain to fight, he would've killed him long before now.

Sadly, as long as his so-called "immortality" held, the "Zombie Duo" wouldn't be splitting up anytime soon.

For now, he could ignore all of that and content himself with his payment.

"At least something decided to go right today." Kakuzu sealed away the acquired funds, finally turned his attention to his partner for however long their trip to the Hidden Leaf took. "You think of a cover yet?"

"Pain's suggestion makes the most sense. Once we reach the village, we will remove the cloaks that mark us as Akatsuki and we will speak with the Daimyo. I will offer him the services of ourselves and the Akatsuki and, as needed, I will reduce our prices until he agrees. You will investigate for information concerning the Jinchuriki, the clone army he has created. During negotiations, the Daimyo will serve as a living shield against the Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf. Once you have your information, we will leave. If we are pursued, I will deal with them. You will return with any relevant information to the Hidden Rain and report it directly, and only, to Pain." The amber eyed woman didn't bother to look at him as she spoke.

He resisted the urge to rub at his face beneath his mask.

He had partnered with Konan a handful of times before, was more than familiar with how the woman treated Pain as nothing short of a God.

While he knew the man was far stronger than him, had a Dojutsu as legendary as the Rinnegan and the skills to use it, he didn't ever see himself revering him like how many of the denizens of the Hidden Rain did. He could accept the man was stronger, perhaps one of the strongest alive, but no more than that.

"What about when we step into the Land of Fire? Bounty hunters, overeager Shinobi, we're going to have to deal with them from here to the gates of that village." Kakuzu was already dreading how much time they'll waste on that, how lucky or unlucky they could get. With any number of Shinobi out on missions after an attack like the Hidden Leaf had just gone through, there was no telling who they would run into.

He didn't need to fight anyone at the moment, wanted to avoid the headache of dragging a body all the way out the Land of Fire to the nearest bounty station that would actually have the cash to payout. Trying to cash in a bounty credit never turned out well and nearly always ended up with him leveling the place by the end of it.

"We're unlikely to encounter anyone." Konan finally turned to him. "While you were occupied, I began scouting a secure path. We will avoid any Shinobi that could recognize either of us. Those who we can't avoid will be disposed of. Quietly."

"Good to hear." Kakuzu shifted back slightly, just far enough behind Konan to follow after her. "What about the bodyguards?"

"What about them?" If he was standing at her side, he would see the look of annoyance on the face of the Angel of Amegakure.

"Fair enough." Kakuzu noted her tone, ended the conversation there. With his concerns addressed, he didn't have anything left to say.

At the pace they set, it would be less than two days before they reached the village.

The pair continued forward in silence.

Efforts towards a sustained conversation were pointless to both. Outside of this mission, the two didn't plan to speak with each other again if not absolutely necessary.

It was the norm for most members of the organization.

Akatsuki wasn't a very social group, nearly no Shinobi able to call themselves a member of the group possessed such a skillset.

Criminals.

Maniacs.

Traitors.

Killers.

Their personalities simply weren't conductive to developing positive relationships, would be akin to the wind trying to force a mountain to fall. None of them truly wanted to put forth the effort, strain themselves for such a reason, pursue such a goal.

Pursuing the same goal would have to do for now.

Regardless of their relationship, positive or negative, the Akatsuki was at last making its opening move against the Hidden Leaf.