*Obligatory 'I don't own Naruto so please don't sue me' header*

Transformation Arc:

Chapter 4 - Startling News

"This is unbelievable."

A wide-eyed Tsunade set the journal down, and looked up at the team of exhausted travelers. She put her hands together and rested her forehead on them, in her typical display of contemplation.

Kakashi nodded in agreement, before speaking. "It seems that Jiraiya was tampering with forces he really should have been more careful with. We don't know the specifics of what happened, other than what was listed in that diary. But one thing's for sure – that… kid… isn't completely Naruto anymore."

Tsunade murmured in agreement, before looking up and back at him. "Yeah. This is just…" She let out a deep sigh, as her voice began to waver.

She turned her attention back to the book, flipping through the series of pages with Jiraiya's neat and quickly written scribbles. She turned back to the last page of writing that she had read, and looked it over again.

"Naruto unresponsive. Taking to hospital now. Very bad feeling." She repeated to herself, before looking through the rest of the book. From what she could see, the rest was empty, save for a few blood-soaked pages towards the end.

"So," she said firmly, looking back up at Kakashi. "You ran into Naruto. But are you really sure that it's him? This person could have simply stumbled upon Jiraiya's notebook while traveling. After all, we looked and looked and looked and could never find it, no matter where we checked. It wasn't on his body when the Hidden Stone found it, so it's possible he was looted before being discovered." Even saying it out loud didn't make sense. She knew that it was him – she could just tell. It was a gut feeling.

"My lady," Sakura replied, "There's no doubt about it. That was Naruto."

The Hokage nodded, before looking back down at her desk in thought. "What did he look like? Did he match the description the Hidden Sand gave us before I sent you on your way?"

Kakashi spoke again. "The description was mostly accurate. However, the strange gashes in his body that seemed to be very deep and very wide weren't actually gashes at all. They were tears in the skin, and the Kyuubi's chakra was seeping out of it. It's a wonder his body is still held together, after all this time."

Neji nodded. "He even said that his body was like a puppet, one that he was forced to inhabit."

Tsunade smirked, still staring off into space. "Now why does that sound so familiar?"

She leaned up, and barked a few names. "Boar! Weasel!"

Two ANBU Black Ops members seemingly appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the room, much to the surprise of Hinata, who was standing sheepishly in the corner.

"Yes, Lady Hokage?"

"Have there been any recent developments in the hunt for Orochimaru and Sasuke?"

Sakura's breath hitched at the mention of her former teammate, but she shook it off and stared at the two ANBU with anticipation. 'Please let there be news. Please.'

"Sorry, ma'am. Without Master Jiraiya's rather comprehensive spy network, I'm sorry to report that we have received no news from any of our field operatives as to the location or condition of the Uchiha boy and Orochimaru."

"Very well. You are dismissed." She ran her fingers through her hair, looking down at the desk again, as the two masked shinobi bowed and vanished as quickly as they had arrived. "Damn. I was hoping we would have a lead on them. Maybe if we ran into them somehow…" She trailed off, quickly losing faith in the plan before she even finished coming up with it.

"M'lady," Sakura began again, "One thing's for sure. From what I could see of his body, he doesn't look… living." She grimaced as the image of his pale, lifeless flesh came to mind again.

Suddenly, the slug princess stood up, sending her chair flying back and bumping into the rear wall. She leaned over onto her desk, then turned around and walked to the large glass windows that garnished the rear of her office, giving her a decent view of the village she swore to protect.

Several heartbeats passed. Finally, she spoke, her back still facing the shinobi awaiting her orders.

"Sakura. I want you to take the journal to Shikamaru and try and find any hidden meanings or clues that might allude to more information on Naruto's… condition. Jiraiya was always a tricky one, I'll bet there's some other secrets in there that we haven't found yet.

" Kakashi. I want you and Gai to gather a task force to try and determine how much of a threat that he might have become since leaving the village. I grant you full access to the Leaf's library and records. Spare no expense.

"Neji and Lee, I want you to move out and try and find a copy of this mysterious sealing jutsu that Jiraiya used on Naruto. It could hold a clue as to why Naruto suffered the fate that he did. Take Asuma and Kurenai with you." She turned finally, before finishing her requests. Her eyes fell on Hinata.

"Hinata… I want you to meet up with anyone that Naruto had a deep personal connection with, and interview them. Try to find out what might have caused this sudden change in his loyalties. Start with Iruka and Konohamaru. I'm sure they have quite a bit of knowledge of the inner workings of his mind." She paused, letting out a sigh, before continuing. "Naruto's apartment has been untouched since his departure from the Leaf village three years ago. I want you to also go through his belongings, and see if you can find anything that may help with the cause."

Hinata just looked at her for a moment, trying to mentally process the information she had just received. Finally, she nodded, and clenched her fists.

Everyone else in the room murmured in agreement, and took off on their various missions. Shizune, who hadn't moved since Kakashi's team reported back, finally spoke. "My Lady, are you sure you aren't overextending yourself? I mean, Naruto is a missing-nin now. There's nothing we can do for him."

Tsunade slowly turned, and glared at her assistant, who immediately paled and took a step back. "I-I'm sorry, I just think that devoting this many village resources to finding out what happened-"

"Enough! I don't want to hear another word, Shizune," barked the blond bombshell. "Something happened to him – something big. He wouldn't just abandon his home – his dreams – for kicks. That's not the Naruto I know."

She turned back to her desk, fished for her chair behind her with her right hand, and sat back down again. "Something that can consume even the most stubborn of kids like that should never be taken lightly."

Hinata left the Hokage tower slowly and silently. After walking out into the late afternoon sunshine, she sighed, and looked around for a moment. Armies of shopkeepers and customers were frantically trying to get in their last sales of the day before the sun went down completely, and she smiled before starting down the street, navigating between the groups of children that were running around, chasing each other, and the families that were out shopping as a unit before going home and relaxing for the evening, together.

Hinata thought about the family she had at home, and grimaced slightly to herself. She fully expected a lecture on her performance on the Kazekage rescue mission from her father when she returned, and was prepared to have him call her a failure and unfit for the position of clan heiress once more. Every time she heard him say those words to her, she felt a little bit of her soul get crushed out of her, and her confidence wavered more and more by the day. But all she had to do was remember what Naruto had shown her, during the Chuunin exams, during their short time together as fellow shinobi of the Leaf, and she was able to cope that much more with the mental torment her father put her through on a daily basis. Luckily, she had her sister, Hanabi, to help comfort her after a particularly venomous tongue lashing, but as her father's discontent with her increased, his faith in his other daughter only grew. So as time went on, her sister became more and more busy and withdrawn, as their father trained her to be the competent heiress the Hyuuga needed.

'No!' She slammed her heels into the dirt path in front of her, and realized that she had been so lost in her thoughts and emotions that she had nearly walked to the front gates of the village. She looked around, and noticed that most people had begun to go inside for the night, and she soon found herself alone in the slowly darkening twilight.

There was a slight click, and all around her dozens of streetlamps buzzed to life, humming with a stable and calming conviction. She turned slightly, and began off in the direction of Naruto's old apartment.

'…No.'

She had to stay strong, to remain steadfast, to achieve her goals - and lead their clan out of the bigoted slump that it had fallen into many years before.

'What would mother have wanted?'

Hinata found herself this question with increasing frequency, and smiled. The fact that her mother had been the way she was, in the position of power that she held as wife of the Hyuuga clan leader, and held beliefs similar to Hinata's, gave her hope, and pride that there were some among the Hyuuga that had the right idea. It would be hard, and a constant uphill struggle, but she would try her best. She had to.

"Something on your mind?"

Hinata jumped out of her skin, and looked up from the ground she had been staring at since she set off. To her surprise, her legs had taken her right up the front step of Naruto's old apartment building and to the entrance to his room - where another person was already sitting, leaning against the door, looking at her with concerned, and caring eyes.

"O-oh, Iruka-sensei. Good evening."

The scar-nosed chuunin watched her approach, and sighed with a smile. "Want to talk?"

Hinata looked at the ground again as her old academy instructor got to his feet, unsure of how to even begin.

After waiting for a response and not getting one, Iruka continued on softly. "I come up here to think sometimes - about all the things I could have done differently, about all the things that I still have an opportunity to do as a person in this village. It's not the most glamorous view in the world," he motioned at the wall across from Naruto's door, "But it certainly gets me thinking." Iruka sighed slightly, and turned to look at Hinata, who had begun to fidget with her fingers again.

"I still miss him every day."

Hinata jumped at the sudden change of topic, but nodded in agreement after she realized she had been completely motionless and silent since greeting the man several moments ago. She put her hand in her pocket, and fished out a small, worn, metal key. At the sight of this, Iruka frowned, and took a step back.

"Oh, you must be here by orders from the Hokage, she's the only one I know of that has a key to his place. I wouldn't want to get in your way." He turned, and as he began to take his first step towards the exit, Hinata finally worked up the nerve to say something.

"W-W-wait!"

Iruka froze, and turned back to the ivory-eyed girl.

"I-It's actually good that I ran into you here, I need t-to talk to you as well, Iruka-sensei." It was barely a hair over a whisper, but Iruka still got the message, and frowned questioningly.

She put the key in the door, and it opened with a loud squeak. She took a deep breath, and pushed forward into the musky living room.

Dust had accumulated on everything in the three years since it had last been opened, and Hinata broke out into a coughing fit as soon as she began to wander around absentmindedly, looking for a lightswitch.

She heard coughing coming from behind her, and turned to see Iruka's face sticking through the doorway. "May I come in?" He asked with a smile.

She nodded again, before finding a lamp on an endtable and throwing the switch.

The entire room was immediately bathed in a warm yellow glow, and dust particles floated through the light like ships in a foggy bay. She heard the door close behind her, and sighed quietly.

The apartment was certainly tiny, but it wasn't something that she thought was particularly bad. In fact, she found it rather cozy and inviting – after it had gone through a little bit of cleaning, that is. To the far right side of the living room was a small kitchen and dining table, where a few unopened packages of instant ramen lay buried in a sea of dust. She made her way towards the kitchen, and began to slowly and absentmindedly open the cabinets and drawers, as if trying to find something in particular.

"It's been a little over two years now, hasn't it?"

Expecting this question, Hinata didn't flinch at all, and instead slowly moved towards and sat down on one of the chairs in the living area. She nodded expressionlessly, and stared at point where the wall and the floor met in front of her.

"Something happened, didn't it." This time, the phrase came out as more of a statement rather than a question. "That's why you had the key, and why you came here." He took the chair next to hers, and looked at her with a worried expression on his face.

She knew that Iruka was like a father to Naruto, and that his influence in the boy's academy days helped stave off the darkness of being alone, and kept him off a more dangerous path. So she determined that it was in her best interest – and Naruto's best interest – to tell the man everything she knew. Now if only she could speak without working herself up too much.

Iruka watched her quizzically. Hinata had always been a shy one, so he made sure not to pressure her too much. But still, he could tell just by the aura she was giving off that something did indeed happen, and if it concerned Naruto – then, well, he needed to know.

"N-Naruto…" she began, then stopped – reevaluating her decision to let Iruka in on an S-ranked secret. But Tsunade did tell her to speak with Iruka on matters revolving around Naruto, and since she was the one that made it an S-ranked secret to begin with, she pressed on.

"H-he… He's alive."

Shikaku Nara grumbled a little bit, resting his chin on his left hand and muttered something under his breath about missing dinner with his family. The strategist looked around the room at the handful of people around him, trying to figure out why he had been summoned.

There were three other people in the room, which was the council chambers at the base of the Hokage tower. The large round table in the middle was more than large enough to hold them all, but Shikaku still felt it a bit strange they were using such a large room in such a distinguished place for this meeting. The chambers were lit weakly by a few small lights on the far walls, and a small chandelier that hung from the high ceiling over the wooden table they were all currently sitting at.

To his right sat his old teammate Inoichi; the blonde-haired interrogation specialist eyed him bemusedly from his seat. Three seats to his left was an ANBU captain, something that had immediately begun setting alarm bells off in Shikaku's head when he walked into the room. 'Just what is this meeting about, anyways?'

Sitting directly across from him at the table was the Hokage's right hand man: well, woman, actually. Shizune sat tensely, obviously waiting for other people to show up. 'That's odd. She typically doesn't get worked up about any old thing. If she's here, then that must mean something really serious is going down.'

Suddenly, the door burst open and in walked in a few additional people. Most notably was his own son, Shikamaru, who rolled his eyes upon seeing his father already waiting for him in the room. With his hands in his pockets, he worked his way around the table and took the seat to the left of his father.

Behind him strolled in Anko, the rather vivacious kunoichi on the interrogation team. Inoichi immediately groaned and put his head in his hands as she grinned widely and plopped down in the free seat next to him.

"Wassup, boss?" she smirked, lightly punching him in the shoulder. His head was still in his hands.

Shikaku finally decided it was time to speak up. "Do any of you know why we've been summoned? As much as I love hanging out with colleagues after work, I'd prefer to do it at a Sake bar over a game of shoji rather than in the council chambers on my day off."

Shikamaru grunted, and muttered something with the word "troublesome" in it. Shikaku could almost hear his son rolling his eyes as he pressed his head into the table in front of him.

The door opened again, and in came Gai – followed closely by the Hokage herself. This definitely got the attention of everyone in the room; at least, everyone in the room that hadn't been caught up to speed yet.

"Looks like we're just waiting for Kakashi, as usual," Gai quipped with a smile as he took a seat next to Shikamaru.

Tsunade merrily grunted in agreement, and plunged down into the closest to the door, to the left of Shizune. "I hate this place. Usually when I'm here I'm getting chewed out by a bunch of old geezers who think they can run this village from their living rooms." She crossed her arms, and leaned back before closing her eyes briefly.

It only took five minutes instead of Kakashi's usual ninety for him to show up – another red flag, Shikaku thought.

He poked his head in the door, giving his patented eye smile. "Good, you're all here."

He walked in, and looked over at the ANBU captain who hadn't moved since Shikaku had arrived. "Tenzo, for this mission, you're going to need to pose as a typical jonin instructor, so you might as well start by taking off the mask now."

The man identified as Tenzo nodded, before reaching up and pulling the painted ANBU mask off his face, leaving behind a face protector with the Leaf Village emblem etched on the top. He placed the mask on the table, followed by his interlaced fingers, and leaned forward slightly.

Shikaku raised an eyebrow, watching the ANBU operative slightly. He looked familiar, but he couldn't place it quite yet.

Kakashi sat down to the right of Shizune, and pulled a few pieces of paper from his flak jacket. "Now, I'm sure most of you are wondering why you're here. It's complicated, but this meeting was called to discuss Naruto Uzumaki."

Inoichi frowned, his head no longer in his hands. 'Right to business,' Shikaku smirked, observing his teammate closely. "I'm sorry, did you just say Naruto Uzumaki? What's so important about a dead kid?"

Shizune winced at his blunt phrasing, before looking at the Hokage. Tsunade was leaning forward now as well, her face looking rather serious and contemplative. Finally, she spoke, as no one else seemed to want to continue.

The slug princess countered Inoichi's harsh statement with one of her own, one that made everyone but Gai, Kakashi, and Shizune jump slightly.

"Naruto Uzumaki is still alive."

"Wh…what did you just say?!" Iruka jumped back in his chair slightly, a wide eyed expression of doubt, terror, sadness, and glee clashing for real estate on his face.

Hinata only winced, before nodding. "W-we ran into him and another Akatsuki member in an attempt to rescue Lord Gaara." Her voice was barely above a whisper, but it was strong and composed – something that Iruka was not expecting, considering the topic of conversation. Then, the weight of her words came crashing down on him.

"Wait, did you just say Akatsuki? Naruto joined up with the Akatsuki?!"

Hinata shifted her gaze to the floor now, and nodded again.

"Wh-What? How? Where? When? But..." Iruka's mind went into overdrive, and he was starting to burn himself out.

"H-he's not the kind, loving soul we remember him as, sensei," Hinata said with a great deal of sadness in her voice. She could feel the tears in her eyes begin to well up as she went on. "S-s-something h-happened to him… something's changed him…"

The look of shock on her face as she said this gave away that she, too, didn't believe it – and yet Iruka could tell that she saw him with her own two eyes. And if Hinata says it was him, then come hell or high water, it was him.

Snapping out of it, Iruka saw the girl in front of her struggling emotionally, and, pushing his own emotions aside, donned the demeanor that he used so often in order to comfort troubled academy students.

"Why don't you start from the beginning? It could help let you process it yourself if you let it out," he suggested with a warm smile.

Hinata nodded, sniffled, and to Iruka's surprise, smiled. "Now I can see why Naruto trusted you so much… loved you so much…" her voice was back to a whisper. But she didn't care. She was actually able to open up a little bit with her old teacher, and that was a very comforting feeling – to not have to struggle alone.

Suddenly, Hinata realized something – 'Was this what Naruto had to endure for the majority of his life? This feeling of absolute dread, knowing that your pain and suffering began and ended with yourself?' She froze, wide-eyed, as the realization hit her like a powerful wave.

"W-we were trying to stop the Akatsuki from kidnapping the Kazekage…" she continued, fidgeting with her hands. "when we ran into him and Sasori of the Red Sand. Sasori tried to attack the old woman that was with us at the time, but…" A look of shock blitzed across her face again, "N-Naruto… Kyuubi… whatever that person calls himself now… he destroyed the puppets that Granny Chiyo summoned to fight against Sasori without even moving."

Iruka, wide-eyed, stared down at Hinata. "Kyuubi? What do you mean 'whatever he calls himself now'?"

Hinata looked back up at the wall, still weaving her index fingers around one another nervously. "W-we called him N-N-Naruto, and he laughed like it was an old childhood n-nickname." She sniffled again. "He said his name was Kyuubi, b-but that person was definitely Naruto."

"Kyuubi… the Nine-Tails." Iruka grunted in surprise. "I can't believe that Naruto gave into that thing. I won't believe it."

Hinata shook her head. "N-no, we don't think that's w-what happened," she stated, wiping her eyes off with her sleeve. Even though she had stopped crying, the buildup of tears had begun to annoy her, and distort her vision. Not like she was staring at anything important anyway – just the wall, and, occasionally, her fingers when she realized she was doing her nervous tick. "Before he left… he threw an old book down to K-Kakashi-sensei. It was a training journal from Master Jiraiya, and it said that some sealing jutsu was cast upon the Nine-Tails during their attempts to allow N-Naruto to tap into it's chakra."

Iruka clicked his tongue, and leaned back a bit. "Well, it sounds to me like that's where everything went wrong, regardless of what Lord Jiraiya said happened. That old geezer was definitely a proud one, and probably wouldn't want to fess up to any mistakes. At least, not right away." He smirked, and the frowned as he remembered the fate that befell the legendary Sannin. "I suppose we'll never know now anyways."

The Hyuuga girl murmured in agreement, then jumped slightly, remembering why she was here. "R-right! I was told to ask you if you might be able to tell me what could have caused N-Naruto to betray the Hidden Leaf so easily. That was also why I was s-sent here, in order to try and f-find information that might help us."

Iruka grinned, and stood up. "Well, you could probably use some help trudging through this garbage heap, Naruto wasn't ever one to keep a tidy and organized home – or life for that matter." He chuckled, remembering how flustered Naruto was in his academy days, especially in his efforts to master the basic clone jutsu.

Hinata giggled to herself slightly as well, remembering all too well how her friend was in school and elsewhere. "Th-thank you, Iruka-sensei." She said with a smile, before standing up as well.

The chuunin instructor clapped his hands together, and smiled. "Okay! Let's see here." He began to rummage through the cupboards, then smirked slightly. "I'll bet you a month's pay that the crazy fool kept some 'inspiration' for that sexy jutsu of his around here somewhere." After Hinata laughed a little and blushed, he rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't think those two realized how similar they were, no matter how much Naruto denied it."

"The Akatsuki?!" Shikamaru stared at the Hokage with a pale, almost sickly expression on his face. "You can't be serious-"

"I'm afraid so," she replied coldly. "I honestly am just as surprised as all of you are."

Shikaku placed his hands on the table in front of him. "I see," he stated expressionlessly.

He knew the sort of influence that Naruto had on his son, back before he left with Jiraiya. Shikamaru didn't typically like praising anyone – but the jinchuuriki was a one-time exception to that rule, something that Shikaku noticed immediately. 'To earn my son's praise, especially with the burden he carries – that is quite impressive.'

Kakashi rummaged through a few of the papers he had haphazardly tossed on the table in front of him, before picking one up and looking it over tersely and speaking again. "Here's what we know so far. Master Jiraiya, during their training away from the village, introduced some sort of foreign seal to Naruto, in an attempt to allow him to safely and effortlessly draw upon the Nine-Tails' chakra as if it were his own. At least," Kakashi picked up another sheet of paper, with some scribbled notes jotted down on it, "that's what we think, anyway. The journal that Jiraiya left behind didn't bother to identify this sealing jutsu, only that it was discovered somewhere along their journey, and that Jiraiya had to tinker with it in order to get it to work with the 8 Trigrams Seal that Minato-sensei placed on Naruto back when the Nine-Tails attack happened initially."

Kakashi attempted to hide the grimace that dashed across the uncovered portion of his face, but failed – he had just called the Fourth Hokage something unbefitting of his honor, and it was merrily due to a slip of the tongue.

"Lord Fourth's seal, however, we do have access to," Kakashi continued, attempting to rectify his mistake from before. "Inoichi and Anko, you're here because after Master Jiraiya, the interrogation division of ANBU has the best knowledge of sealing jutsus. After the meeting is over, I want you two to look over the 8 Trigrams Seal that was used on the Nine-Tails, and try and find any noticeable weaknesses that could be exploited by using a second seal concurrently." Anko and Inoichi nodded, and began jotting down notes of their own.

"Now, as for the rest of the story – that's where we'd like Sakura and Shikamaru to come in. As soon as you can, Shikamaru," Kakashi turned his attention over to the Nara clan heir, "I want you and Sakura to pour over the notebook that Naruto left us, and try and find any additional clues or messages that were hidden within it. It's not much to go on, but it's certainly a start."

Tsunade interjected after Kakashi stopped to reorganize his papers again. "Look for anything – frequency of letters, strange occurrences of numbers in places where there shouldn't be any, anything at all that looks suspicious." She narrowed her eyes, looking at the boy. "Jiraiya was a crafty bastard, so be sure to be careful as well. Although I didn't see any from my quick flip-through of the journal, there could be something there that's dangerous. So be on your guard."

Shikamaru nodded, completely serious now. "I understand, Lady Hokage. When should I start?"

"Well, I sent Sakura out to find you immediately after Kakashi and his team returned from their mission," she stated with a frown. "But I didn't realize that Kakashi had already commissioned you for this taskforce as well. So meet up with her tomorrow, I'm sure she'll be looking for you."

"I understand," Shikamaru repeated, before looking back over at Kakashi, who seemed to have all of his ducks in a row once again.

"Right. Hopefully we can use any information gleaned from this search to help aid us in the main purpose of this missiom – to capture Naruto Uzumaki and bring him back to the Leaf at all costs."

More shocked looks from around the room; even Tsunade seemed to have her doubts. "I trust you know what you're doing, Kakashi."

The copy-nin nodded, before elaborating. "If anything, his presence in the Akatsuki is a short one – if they are planning on using the Tailed Beasts as some kind of controllable weapon, Naruto might be betrayed in order to steal the Nine-Tails away from him. Even if he has unlocked the full power of the bijuu, which from the look of things, he has – the Akatsuki are a criminal organization comprised of a dozen or so S-class mercenaries. I doubt even he could defend himself from them so easy."

Confusion across the room, as Kakashi paused for a moment to let his words sink in a little. "Especially with people like Itachi Uchiha in their ranks, who can most likely control the Tailed Beast inside him with his sharingan capabilities. Therefore, it is in Naruto's best interest that we 'rescue' him from the Akatsuki." He stopped again, and looked at his notes. "Also, as much as I hate to admit it, there's the obvious fact that without a jinchuuriki, the Hidden Leaf village is at a significant disadvantage compared to the other Hidden villages."

He looked over at Tsunade, who looked like she was about to angrily respond to Kakashi's blunt honesty, but he spoke up before she did. "I know as much as you do, Lady Hokage, that Naruto, or any jinchuuriki for that matter, is not a weapon. They're people. But that won't stop other nations from trying to use the power vacancy to their advantage. I know that the Hidden Cloud village has long since used Jinchuuriki as excuses to antagonize other countries."

Tsunade closed her mouth, and nodded, admitting that he was right.

"Alright then, what's the plan?"

Gaara fell onto the floor – hard. His lifeless body lay limp in the shadow of a massive multi-eyed statue, as a conglomeration of cloaked figures shimmered above him.

"Excellent work, everyone," announced the purple-eyed one.

"Ugh, if it took that long for the One-Tails, I can't imagine how long it'll start to take for the rest," groaned a tall figure. On his back was a large three-bladed scythe. "I've been sitting on this rock for so long, my ass is starting to kill me."

"Shut up, Hidan," slammed a masked figure. "The sooner we can capture and seal the Tailed Beasts, the sooner we can get out there and begin collecting more bounties. Our coffers are abysmal right now."

"No, you shut the hell up, Kakazu!" roared Hidan. "I'm sick and tired of you only ever giving a damn about money! Why don't you pull that giant stick out of your a-"

"Silence, both of you!" came the voice of the purple-eyed one again. "The time for bounty hunting and… leisure will be upon us soon enough. But for now, we need to focus on the task at hand. With the One-Tails sealed, we can begin our hunt for the other jinchuuriki."

"I would recommend skipping over the Two-Tails, Lord Pain." A pair of sharingan eyes pierced purple ringed ones. "The Two-Tails and Eight-Tails jinchuuriki are both quite loyal to the Hidden Cloud, and both have reasonable control over their Tailed Beasts. To attack one would be to attack both."

A roar of unadulterated laughter erupted in the cavern. "That? You call that reasonable control?"

The sharingan moved off of Pain and onto the shorter, crimson-eyed figure across the room. "Oh?"

"We're going to have to take them on at some point anyway, right? So why wait?" the red-eyed boy cooed with his multi-layered voice.

"Are you volunteering, Kyuubi?" smirked a large sharklike figure. "Even at your full power, I highly doubt you can take on the entirety of the Hidden Cloud, as well as two fully-trained jinchuuriki."

Kyuubi grinned back, revealing a set of white, wolflike teeth. "Give me three days."

And with that, he vanished.