Utakata has not slept in two days. There are people chasing him and they just don't quit. Utakata is one more sighting of his pursuers away from asking Saiken for help.

...And there they are.

Saiken! Utakata calls out mentally to his tailed beast. A little help please?

Let them catch you, replies Saiken. They're friends of mine.

How do you know them? Asks Utakata, astonished. Did my predecessor know them?

Oh no, their ancestors raised me, says Saiken. They are my bodyguards. You can tell by the uniform.

You couldn't have mentioned this sooner?

You could've asked sooner.

Utakata stops running and turns to face his pursuers. There are eleven of them: one is wearing a strange red outfit, and the rest are wearing white and light blue running shoes, light blue momohiki pants, white sports jackets decorated with blue cuffs, sleeve stripes and number sixes, and white sports caps.

"So you finally stopped running away," says one of the sporty ones, a basic sports lady with a ponytail. "Can we introduce ourselves now?"

"No," says Utakata firmly. "Get lost."

HEY! Keep them! They can help you keep other people away! Saiken protests.

Shut up, I'm trying to get rid of them, snaps Utakata.

"We have a job to do," says one of the other sporty people. "And that job is to protect Saiken. You will not stop us."

And in the brief moment before he is hogtied and carried off to a fancy temple with a statue of Saiken out the front of it, Utakata knew he messed up.

Zetsu shuffles into the Masked Man's room. The Masked Man is sitting at his desk, surrounded by scrolls, his mask lying to one side. "Are you done yet?" asks Zetsu. "The prisoners take too much feeding. We need to use them soon, or we will eat them and get new ones when you finish learning the jutsu."

"You came at the right time," says the Masked Man, looking up from his scrolls. "I was just about to go looking for you. I have finished learning the jutsu."

"Good, then we will prepare the reanimations and set out for the Temple of Jashin," says Zetsu. "And if those silly children who dyed their hair green for some reason are not finished learning Tobirama's jutsu, everyone at the Temple will die."

"How are we going to breach the barrier?" asks the Masked Man.

"By grafting Uzumaki DNA into our bodies," says Zetsu. "We caught one of the order of Joe. They are slow and easy to catch, and their blood is very Uzumaki. Come with us."

Kakuzu weighs up his options. Kill the annoying seventeen year old versus a 99% pay cut from his boss. That's a lot of money to lose… But she's so annoying… But money…

"Hey have you ever thought about blowing open a bank safe?" says Deidara cheerfully. "That would be artistic AND get money. We should do that once we've found these Guards, or whatever they are."

And just like that, Kakuzu does not want to kill her anymore. "Sure, why not."

As they round a bend in the forest path they are walking down, Kakuzu and Deidara see a whole village of tree houses. The tree houses are arranged with one large one in the middle of many smaller ones. There are rope bridges and ladders connecting the buildings to each other and the ground.

Kakuzu spots a person on one of the walkways and calls up to him, "Hey! Is where the Seven Tails' Guards live?"

The young man stops walking and leans over the rail. "Yes, this where the Seven Tails' Guards live. I am Torune Aburame, one of the newest Guards. How may I help you?"

"I'd like to see your leader," says Kakuzu. "I know where the Seven Tails' Jinchuuriki is."

A swarm of insects bursts out of the doors of the largest tree house. Riding on the swarm is a woman in pink and black goggles and a long, pink coat. She rides the swarm, arms crossed, until she's standing in front of Kakuzu and Deidara. "What was that you just said?" she demands.

"I know where the Seven Tails' Jinchuuriki is," repeats Kakuzu, wondering if this woman has a bounty. The pink is hurting his eyes. "I am here to take you to her."

The pink woman throws her fists in the air and yells, "AWESOME!"

Sneaking ten brightly coated weirdos into the Hidden Waterfall is hard enough, but Kakuzu also has to drag along Deidara. One is doable, the other is insanity.

"Can we tie her up?" asks a yellow-coated and goggled Guard, in a desperate whisper as two of the other guards stop Deidara from blowing up a house.

"Did we have to bring her?" asks a lime-green Guard. The coats, goggles and gloves they all wear seems to be their uniform, but all of the Guards are so brightly and uniquely coloured.

"Yes," says Kakuzu, who is secretly glad there is one other non-brightly dressed person with him. "Yes to both."

Chomei's Guards converge on Deidara and tie her up securely. "Let us proceed," whispers the Leader.

Deidara glares at Kakuzu. "I will turn you into art."

"I won't take you to the bank when I go to collect that debt that one bank teller owes me," says Kakuzu. "And was going to let you turn the place into art, too."

Deidara blinks a couple of times. "You mean you meant it about robbing a bank?"

"Yes." Kakuzu creeps around a tree and through some rocks, not even bothering to check if the brightly coloured bug people are following. Eventually, Kakuzu reaches his destination: a wonky tree house a short distance away from everything else. He needs to get this over and done with so he can go rob a bank to let off some steam. Kakuzu climbs up to the tree house and knocks on the door.

He hears a thud, and then a teenage girl opens the treehouse door. She is odd looking, what with green hair, brown skin and orange eyes. She will fit right in with Chomei's Guards. The girl stares at Kakuzu suspiciously for a second or two then smiles. "Oh, I know you!" she says, surprising Kakuzu. "You're Kakuzu, right? You killed the village elders after they tried to punish you for failing to kill the First Hokage! I've wanted to meet you for ages! I'm Fuu. Do you want to come in for a cup of tea?"

"That's not how you should greet a rogue ninja," says Leader of Chomei's Guards. Apparently they did all follow Kakuzu. "For all you know, he could mean you harm."

Fuu peers past Kakuzu and sees all his tag-alongs. She grins and waves at them. "Hi!" she says. "You are all welcome to come in and have a cup of tea too." Then she frowns. "Why is that girl tied up?"

"She's planning to rob a bank," says Kakuzu. "I am going to go with her later because one of the tellers at that bank owes me money."

Fuu smiles a bit nervously. "Okay," she laughs, stepping aside and holding the door open. "Come in and find somewhere to sit down. There's not much room though."

Kakuzu walks inside, finds the most valuable seat in the room and sits on it. Most of the room is bare, with a few chairs, a table and a cooking area being the only features in the room. The ladder in one corner probably leads to a bedroom area. The Guards file in and dump Deidara on a chair so they can tie her firmly to it. While they do that, Fuu makes a lot of cups of tea.

Fuu talks while she makes the tea and passes out the cups to everyone, including Deidara, who (disgustingly) drinks it through her hand-mouth (she cannot reach her face because of the ropes tying her to the chair). "I don't often get visitors," Fuu chatters. "Especially not in the middle of the night. Are you here for a special reason? Oh, don't tell me, I'll try to guess. Would anyone like a snack? I think I have some Dango somewhere…"

"I think we had better get to the business of why we are here," interrupts Kakuzu, once all the tea is passed out. The chattering is annoying.

Fuu freezes and her smile vanishes. "Can it wait until the tea is finished?" she asks, a pained expression. "I was having fun pretending you aren't all here to kill me or something bad."

"You are the jinchuuriki of the Seven Tails, are you not?" says Kakuzu, wondering just how lonely this kid is to welcome 12 strangers into her house and offer them tea WHILE under the assumption they want to kill her.

"Yes," says Fuu, taking a step back, away from Kakuzu. "What's it to you?"

"I take it Chomei is asleep, then?" says Deidara, her left hand noisily slurping at its cup of tea. "Because if he was awake, he would've told you by now that this lot in the goggles and tacky coats are his guards."

"Our coats are not tacky," says Torune, calmly. His coat is grey and red, making him the only toned down Guard. "But we are Chomei's Guards, and by extension, your Guards, Fuu."

"Hey, that's my line!" says the Leader. "I'm the Leader."

"You're...friends?" says Fuu, a hopeful expression on her face. Then her face goes blank for a few short seconds. Then her face bursts into the happiest expression Kakuzu has ever seen. "It's true! Chomei says it's true! You are our friends!"

"So you are friends with Chomei then?" asks the Leader.

"He's the only friend I've had my whole life," says Fuu simply. "Some people are nice to me, but they are not my friends. Only Chomei is my friend."

Kakuzu suddenly feels very uncomfortable with the amount of emotion in the room. "Come Deidara," he says, standing. "Our task is done here. Let's go visit that bank."

Deidara easily escapes the ropes, thanks Fuu for the tea and follows Kakuzu outside. As they leave, Fuu runs to the door and waves goodbye calling, "Goodbye, Kakuzu! Come again sometime! ...And thank you." She whispers the last sentence, but Kakuzu still hears it, and wonders when he started doing good things for others.

Two weeks.

That is how long Sasuke and Naruto have been working on the jutsu to seal away Zetsu. Not only can they not perform the jutsu, they still do not understand it. In theory, they both know the jutsu. However, neither one understands it well enough to actually perform the jutsu.

"Teaching them seperately does not work," Kakashi says to Iruka, sighing in frustration. "Apart, they understand their roles, but together they just can't do it. We need to find a way to explain it that they both understand."

"We need Jiraiya," says Iruka, rubbing his temples and leaning on the table they are both sitting at. "I hate to admit it, but this is beyond my experience. I might be able to do this if I had taught Sasuke at the Academy, but Sasuke was in Mizuki's class with Naruto. We need more time; this could take years."

"We do not know how much time we have," says Kakashi. "Since Zetsu knows we have the scrolls, it won't be long before he also learns we have unlocked their secrets. We don't have years. We might not even have days. We need to call Jiraiya now."

Iruka looks up as Rain bursts through the door. "We are out of time," Rain says. "Black Zetsu is here with an army made up of thousands of white Zetsu clones."