Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Naruto. Kiara is owned by Yusuke'sSister.

Claimer: I do own the plot line, the Kuro Tournament, Kristy, Jason, Jessica, Chris, Bashere, and anything else related to them.

"Talking"
'Thinking'
'Telepathy'

Jinchuuriki - Youkai name - # of Tails - Youkai type
Yugito - Azami - two/Nibi - cat
unknown - Hiroshi - three/Sanbi - shark
Sasori - Kenta - four/Yonbi - scorpion
unknown - Mikio - five/Gobi - wolf
Itachi - Tasuki - six/Rokubi - weasel
Deidara - Sadao - seven/Shichibi - badger
unknown - Nobuo - eight/Hachibi - unknown

Ages
Kristy - 19
Itachi - 14
Deidara - 16
Sasori - 21
Yugito - 9

(1) - The Bingo Book is a sort of "who's-who" handbook guide for shinobi. It lists all shinobi who pose a danger to their village, including its missing-nin and foreign ninja.

(2) - Hachibi no Hebi means eight-tailed snake

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Under A Bloody Moon

Chapter 11
The Snake

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The Valley, November, 1 Year SA

There was no way around it. For hours now I'd been attempting to ignore it, but now I realized that I had to stop hiding from the truth and face the facts: I was bored.

Yes, bored. Incredibly, disastrously bored. With so much to do in the Valley one would think that becoming bored would be hard. Normally this was true, but now...

Itachi and Sasori were out together on a mission, while Deidara was out meeting with a contact of his. Yugito was sleeping in her room, completely exhausted from her last training session with Azami. I'd spent the morning working on my seals, but had come into a small roadblock, stopping me from doing any further work. And I didn't have a meeting with Jiraiya scheduled until later in the week...

And thus I was left with little to do. I'd tried training to get my mind off my boredom. It hadn't worked very well because my mind had kept on wandering, causing me to make mistakes. I'd then tried reading a scroll, but also couldn't keep my mind on it.

Thus I was now lying upside down in one of the chairs in the living room, bored out of my mind. Who'd have thought that there was nothing to do here? Or at least, nothing to do on my own. I hadn't realized just how much the jinchuuriki were a part of my life until none of them were around.

'Aw, surely it can't be that bad,' a voice suddenly spoke in my mind.

Instantly my eyes widened in shock. 'Jagan?!'

The Jagan chuckled. 'The one and only,' he replied somewhat smugly.

'But how--?!' I spluttered.

'Come come, don't you remember our first conversation? I speak to you across any distance.'

Ah, right; that whole "concentration of psychic energy" thing. 'Oh. So, erm, how are you?'

'Heh, well enough,' the Jagan murmured. 'You've certainly been busy though.'

'Gathering up the Biju? Yeah, I have. There are only three of them left now, fortunately.'

'Mmm, yes. That should be...interesting.'

'What?' I asked, furrowing my brow in confusion. '...What do you know that I don't?'

'Nothing that you're ready to hear,' he replied. I growled but didn't press him for information, knowing that there was no way for me to get him to give it. 'Your friends have been looking for you,' he said suddenly.

My ears perked up at that. 'You mean Jessica, Chris, and the Reikai Tentai? How are they?'

'As well as they can be considering the situation.'

'...What they hell is that supposed to mean?'

The Jagan laughed once more, but this time it sounded as if the sound was beginning to fade. 'You shall see,' the Jagan said, amusement clear in his voice. 'You shall see. Oh, and give Rokuro my regards, will you?'

This time I really did snarl. Not that it did any good--I could tell that the Jagan was gone.

Damn bastard and his cryptic words! What the hell was that all supposed to mean? What exactly did he know?

"Hey, Kristy-chan," a familiar voice said from the doorway.

Surprised and elated--and thankfully broken from my dark musings--I attempted to leap up from the chair I was in. Consider my position however, I instead managed to somehow knock the chair over and collapse on top of it with a strangled grunt. I paused only for a moment before extricating myself from the chair, this time much more slowly.

"Uh, hey, Deidara-kun," I greeted the blonde once I was finally standing. He just sweatdropped, amused by my sudden bout of clumsiness. "Are you finally back from your meeting?"

"Eh? Oh, yeah, it went fine," Deidara replied, sounding strangely distracted. "But I have news that I think you'll like a bit better."

"Hmm?"

"I think I might have found another jinchuuriki!"

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Rice Country, November, 1 Year SA

The tavern was dark, dingy, and in state of disrepair. Of course, in my excitement I barely even noticed this. To think that I'd been so bored just an hour ago and was now on my way to meet another jinchuuriki! Granted, there was still a chance that this was all a trap and that it wasn't a jinchuuriki--hence why Deidara had fetched me, so that I could check to make sure--but more likely than not it was.

Deidara walked just a few feet ahead of me, pushing his way through the somewhat crowded tavern. He led me over to a corner of the tavern, where he'd agreed to meet up with the jinchuuriki. Apparently the man had approached Deidara because he was interested in joining the Akatsuki and was claiming that, as a Jinchuuriki, he was powerful and could be an asset. He wasn't the first shinobi to express interest in joining, but he was the first to claim to be a jinchuuriki.

Finally Deidara stopped in front of a table shoved against a wall of the tavern. Sitting there, sipping from a traditional wooden cup, was a man with long black hair. He glanced up at Deidara and I, revealing golden eyes with slitted pupils. His skin was so pale that it almost verged on gray.

Though it took a moment, I suddenly realized that there was chakra wrapped around the man. "You're under a henge," I abruptly stated. The illusion had no affect on me because I was a youkai and thus my mind was protected, but that didn't mean that I could recognize it for what it was.

The man's eyes widened in surprise before his face dropped back into neutrality. "Yes," he admitted. "My face is rather...well known...so I'd prefer not to be recognized in public."

My lips pursed for a moment. That did make sense; after all, all of the members of Akatsuki except for Yugito and I were missing-nin, and all of the shinobi who'd asked to join us had been missing-nin too. Why should this man be any different?

"May we?" I asked while gesturing to the seats across from the yellow eyed man. He instantly nodded.

"By all means, please do," he replied pleasantly and Deidara and I took our seats. "You are the...Leader...?" I nodded wordlessly. "I am Orochimaru, originally of the Village Hidden in the Leaves."

Next to me Deidara tensed. Sensing his surprise I quickly opened my mental link with him. 'You know of him?' I asked the blonde.

'...Kristy, do you remember how when you first Jiraiya I told you that he was one of the Sannin?'

'Eh? Yeah...?'

Deidara chuckled mentally with more than a little bit of hysteria. 'Orochimaru is another of the Sannin and is considered to be the most powerful. There was quite the uproar when he defected from the Hidden Leaf some years ago. He's an S-class missing-nin and one of the most powerful men in existence. I'd never heard that he was a jinchuuriki...Though it would explain how he's so powerful...'

'Hmm...' I thought while tilting my head to the side and studying Orochimaru. I could tell even from this distance that he was in fact a jinchuuriki; youki was practically seeping from him. Despite this I still felt somewhat hesitant. Somehow I felt that this man was different from the other jinchuuriki that I knew.

As quickly as this thought passed through my mind I shoved it aside. Doubtless I was feeling strange simply because of how much older this man was compared to the rest of us; though it was hard to tell he appeared to be in his mid thirties.

"So, what makes you think that you're capable enough to join the Akatsuki?" I asked abruptly.

Orochimaru hesitated. "Perhaps we should take this conversation somewhere more...secure?"

I chuckled darkly. "Oh, you don't need to worry about that," I replied with a feral grin. "No one will overhear us. Hell, no one will even notice us here."

Even before Deidara and I had sat down I'd set up a psychic barrier around the table to divert people's attention away. They wouldn't even remember that we'd been there. Orochimaru hesitated once more but finally nodded, apparently deciding that I, as the Akatsuki's "leader", must have secured this meeting.

"What makes you think that you're capable enough to join the Akatsuki?" I repeated.

"My Bingo Book(1) rating as an S-rank Missing-nin should speak for my abilities," the pale man said confidently. Honestly, the self-assured smirk on his face pissed me off, but I did my best to ignore it. "However, on top if that I am a jinchuuriki, as I told Deidara-san. This gives me access to a nearly infinite amount of energy."

I barely managed to repress a snort. What was it with humans thinking that youkai had infinite amounts of youki? Sure, compared to humans we may have a lot, but it was nowhere near infinite.

"What youkai do you hold?"

"The Hachibi no Hebi(2)."

'Eight tails?' I thought. Considering the Biju that were left that could only be Nobuo! So he was in this world. 'And we'll finally be able to find out what happened to Rokuro, the last Battle Lord!'

'Deidara--'

'Tasuki-sempai confirms that Nobuo was a snake youkai,' the blonde told me before I could even ask. Not for the first time I was thankful that all of the jinchuuriki had managed to from mental links with their Biju; it made communicating so much easier.

"My name is Kristy," I finally said to Orochimaru. "And before you join Akatsuki you should know that I'm the Makai's Battle Lord."

Orochimaru made no attempt to hide the widening of his eyes. Well, that proved one thing at least: He was in contact with Nobuo. There was no other way for him to know of the meaning of my title. Briefly I allowed the illusions of my face to drop, showing Orochimaru the mark that I bore.

"Also, the rest of the Akatsuki are jinchuuriki as well," I continued. "I've been, ah, gathering them up."

After a moment Orochimaru began to chuckle; it was a low, menacing sound that sent shivers down my spin. "Ku ku ku, that explains a lot," the dark hared jinchuuriki responded. "I suppose this means that I've been accepted?"

I forced myself to smile. "Of course."

I'd just found another of the Biju, so I should be happy, right? Then why did it feel like I'd just made a mistake?

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The Valley, February, 1 Year SA

Orochimaru settled into life at the Valley fairly easily. It felt somewhat odd to have him there at first, but before long we warmed up to him and he fit right in with our little ragtag band of shinobi. On one day in the middle of winter however, this was the furthest thing from my mind.

"YES!" I hollered at the top of my lungs. "It's done!"

For several moments there was complete silence in the house and then Deidara and Yugito appeared in the doorway to my workroom, curiosity clear on their faces. Trailing along somewhat reluctantly behind them were Itachi, Sasori, and Orochimaru.

"What's done?" Deidara asked.

I ignored him and the others momentarily in favor of dancing around the room for a minute. Once I was done I breathlessly came to a stop in front of the door.

"Done with these!" I replied while excitedly shoving my hands and their contents forward.

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "Rings?"

"Yes, yes. But these are very special rings and are what I've been working on for the past six months." I turned back into the room while motioning for the others to follow. "Come, sit. I'll explain everything."

Quickly everyone took a seat at the table that occupied the room. Or at least they did after I'd cleared everything off it and then scrounged up a few more chairs. Taking a seat for myself I carefully picked up one of the rings and held it for everyone to see.

"As you all know," I began, "For a while a big concern of mine has been how we can keep in contact over long distances, as telepathy only works within a mile or so radius. The rings are solution to this. Below this jewel--" I tapped the crimson stone on top of the ring that had a Japanese character carved into it. "--Are several miniscule seals that act as a homing beacon for my youki. These seals are amplified by the jewel--"

"Because crystals naturally attract energy," Orochimaru finished. He looked thoughtful.

"Right," I agreed with a nod. Being Jiraiya's ex-teammate, it was no wonder he understood. I wasn't going to mention Jiraiya around Orochimaru though, even though the perverted old man had been an immense help in creating these rings. Not that Jiraiya had known that they'd be used for telepathy, of course...

"Anyways," I continued, "These rings will allow me to contact anyone wearing them, no matter the distance...Theoretically, of course. Oh! And if you're in a tough spot all you have to do is channel some chakra into them and the shadows will instantly transport you to wherever I am. That little trick took me forever to get right. Damn complex seals..."

"Cool," Yugito breathed, her eyes wide with awe. Deidara's expression mirrored hers and even Itachi and Sasori looked mildly impressed.

"So we each get one?" Sasori finally asked.

I nodded. "Yep. There's more than enough for everyone and I can always make more if I need to. Each of them has a different Kanji carved into the jewel, so just pick whichever one you like best."

Surprisingly, Itachi was the first one to reach out and pick up a ring. His had "Shu" (scarlet) carved into it.

"I'll take this one," the young teenager said. "It's only fitting since the Uchiha clan is well-known for its mastery of fire."

This seemed to snap everyone out of their stupors and they all quickly reach out to snap up a ring of their own. In the end Deidara got "Sei" (Blue-Green), Sasori got "Tama" (sphere), Orochimaru got "Sora" (sky), and Yugito got "Byaku" (white). For myself, I chose the one with "Rei" (zero).

"Perfect!" I exclaimed while clapping my hands lightly. "Now, since we're all here, does anyone else have any news?"

Sasori shifted in his seat, bringing my attention to him. The redhead looked hesitant, which was unusual for him. "There...there's a possibility that I've managed to locate another jinchuuriki. It's only a possibility, mind you."

I quickly became excited. "Really?! Where is he?"

"Well, the thing is, he's a member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist."

While the others exchanged somewhat worried glances I simply became confused. "Er, what?" I asked.

Sasori sighed. "In the Village Hidden in the Mist there is a group of elite swordsmen, called the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, who are considered to be the most powerful shinobi in the Village. Hoshigaki Kisame, the man who I believe may be a jinchuuriki, is the second most powerful of this group."

I found myself frowning. While this was good news, there was something that was bothering me.

"You say that he's the second most powerful, so...Who's the first?"

"A man who fights like the devil himself," Sasori said seriously. "It's said that his skill with the sword is unparalleled and that his speed in unrivaled throughout the entire shinobi world."

"And his name?"

"Jaganshi Hiei."

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A/N: Dun dun dun! Do I need to say anything else? No, I don't believe I do. Please review though! I've been getting only a bare handful of reviews for the last two chapters and it's really sad...Ja ne!

--B.I.