The gnarled moon shone down an a large abandoned factory with an eerie glow, throwing the parking lot and surrounding area in oddly shaped shadows. Three identical Bugatti Veyrons were parked in the dead center of the lot, gleaming under the moonlight as their owners spread out around the large building.

Pein raised his radio to his lips, his back pressed against the front entrance of the battered and worn factory. Konan was next to him, guard up. "Is everyone in their designated spots and ready to move in?" he asked.

"We're ready," Kakuzu said as he and Hidan snuck around to the back entrance, holding out an arm to stop the silver-haired man from going any further.

"So are we," Kisame reported from the east side gate where he and Itachi were positioned.

Pein nodded even though no one but Konan could see. "And Sasori?"

"Ready as always," the redhead's voice came through the radio as he set himself up along the west side gate.

Pein peered through a dusty and cracked window, sensing no movement coming from inside. He leaned away and then faced Konan. "Ready?"

She bobbed her head, raising her firearm.

"Then on my command…" he said through their radios. "…Now!" Pein shouted, all force members breaking into the factory at the same time.

The only sounds heard were their footsteps as they ran inside, shining their flashlights around on all levels and the ceiling. The group met up in the center, guns drawn and eyes wary as they scanned the dark area.

Hidan cocked his gun. "I smell a fuckin' rat."

"So do I," Kakuzu drawled. Itachi nodded from beside him.

Sasori's eyes flitted about. "We're not the only ones in here," he lowly murmured.

"Pein?" Konan questioningly said.

"I know." Pein looked around, also feeling that something was off. "Everyone stay alert," he ordered.

"Understood," they chorused.

They were all blinded as the factory lights switched on.

~X~

Deidara ground his teeth in annoyance as Tayuya shouted profanities at him, jamming a button on his Ninja so the bike was riding Autopilot. He reached into his knapsack, turning around in his seat with a knee raised to fire a hail of bullets onto the woman with his trusty AK 47.

Tayuya cackled like a witch, swerving this way and that to avoid the bullets.

Deidara grunted when his gun ran out of ammo, not having brought any extra since he thought he was only going to be blowing up a bank that night. He chucked the gun to the side, pulling out a pair of hand guns instead.

"You think that can stop me you naïve ass?" The red-haired woman increased her speed, moving almost alongside the blonde and his Ninja.

She kicked out with her foot, knocking one gun away and ducking her head when the other one shot at her. She then swung around her bike, leaping onto Deidara's to smack the remaining gun out of reach before engaging in brief hand-to-hand combat with the blonde struggling to stay on his Ninja. Deidara successfully fended off her punches, pushing her off the side of his bike. Tayuya smirked, casually swinging herself back onto her dangerously tilting bike. She made to crash into the blonde's bike, but the teen had already sat himself back around and turned Autopilot off, booking it down the street.

"Motherfuckin' bitch! Stop riding away!" Tayuya screamed, cracking her whip at the blonde teen speeding ahead of her. Several times the blonde threw miniature explosives back at her, but she just cut through them with her whip and rode through the explosions that burst out as a result. As if such pathetic little nuisances could beat her. Ha! What a laugh!

Deidara weaved through the streets, trying to avoid going in a straight line where the woman could easily snag him. His eyes searched the sides of the city for a safe haven or better-suited place to fight. He pinpointed a car shop with a spacious parking section a few blocks down the road. There!

A snapping whip let him know that his chaser was still very much after him.

Deidara drove into the car shop's empty lot, glad it was a good distance away from the main section of the city. Now their tussle wouldn't attract so much attention. But he still had no idea what to do about the psycho woman chasing him.

Tayuya shot out a string of curses from behind him.

Deidara made a sharp 180 turn, his bike skidding to a halt just as his gas ran out. Now what? All he had was a knapsack full of clay. His eyes widened. Explosive clay. His head snapped up as the red-haired woman zoomed at him full speed.

Tayuya sneered, making a beeline for him before flipping off her Ninja, leaving the bike to barrel out of control towards Deidara.

The blonde rolled backwards off his bike, lying low to the asphalt as the two bikes collided and exploded above him. My baby…destroyed by this son of a bitch! Seething, Deidara leapt to his feet, dodging a series of lashes by the woman's whip and swinging his knapsack off his back.

Tayuya smirked. "I've got you now," she said, manuvering her weapon in a large circle.

Deidara cringed as the whip wrapped around him, thorns cutting into his skin and tearing flesh. His knapsack dropped to the ground. "Ah!"

"You're not going anywhere you dumbfuck," the woman jeered, yanking her whip and causing his chin to make a painful connection with the concrete below.

Deidara narrowed his eyes, glancing to the bag with his clay in it as Tayuya began walking over to him, knife in hand.

~X~

Pein squinted through the bright light, vision adjusting slowly. "So to who do I owe this honor?" he loudly asked since he was unable to see where his opponent stood.

"Why who else but your old friend?" A coy voice responded, filled with amusement. "It's me, Orochimaru. Or have you forgotten me so soon?"

There were several sharp intakes of breaths from a few of his force members.

"Orochimaru…?" Pein murmured. "How did you know we'd be here?"

A deep chuckle washed over the interior of the factory. "What an excellent question. Let's just say I have my sources…or rather…one of yours…mmhahahahaha!"

Pein's eyes grew a margin wider. What?

"Are you saying there's a fuckin' traitor among us? Get real asshole!"

"Ah- Hidan. I almost forgot you were in the special force," Orochimaru's voice said in disdain. "Of course I don't know how, seeing how loud and obnoxious you are."

"Fuck you!"

Pein rapidly blinked, vision returning to normal. He could now see the silhouette of Orochimaru standing on a balcony level above, as well as many other dark figures. Along with the snake man there seemed to be forty other men. He glanced to either side of him, noticing that his squad members had taken up defensive positions around him. Their vision must have also reverted back to its original state.

Orochimaru sighed. "I should have known my lights would have no serious effect on you fools," he said, looking sad as he stared down at them. "That's a lot of money wasted."

"The only money that's going to be wasted, is the kind spent on your casket," Sasori spat, ignoring those that surrounded Orochimaru and pointing his gun directly at the pale-skinned man.

Orochimaru's eyes lit up at the redhead. "Long time no see Sasori! I see you still hate me as much as ever," he said in a cheerful tone. "And is that Itachi next to him? The last time I saw you, you were very mean to me, weren't you?"

Itachi didn't answer, glaring instead.

"You're sick in the head Orochimaru," Sasori said, unmoving in his aim. "People like you need to be laid to rest."

"I don't like the sound of that," the man responded with a flip of his hair. "Well as much as I enjoyed my time flitting about in your special force, it's time for you all to die. Lately you've been poking your nose into my business, and I don't like that. So I'm going to get rid of you, Akatsuki, and carry on with my illegal experiments on young children."

"Not if I have anything to do with it," Pein calmly said. "Sasori, shoot him down."

"I thought you'd never ask." The redhead smirked, cocking the weapon in his hands before firing off several rounds. To his, and everyone else's surprise, two of the figures standing nearby jumped in the way, taking the shots and crumpling to the balcony floor. There was a stunned silence for a while.

Sasori lowered his gun, eyes large. "What just happened?" he asked.

"Why did they do that?" Kakuzu said loud enough for all of them to hear.

"Oh them?" Orochimaru stepped over the dead bodies, nudging them out of his way with his foot. "I've injected all their brains with a hypnotic serum so that they do my bidding subconsciously. Such as taking bullets for me. I wasn't sure if it would work, but apparently it does. Hooray!"

"Disgusting." Konan narrowed her eyes. "You're going to pay for your crimes, Orochimaru!"

Orochimaru laughed, throwing back his head. "Nonsense little girl! It's you guys who will fall here." He swept out an arm. "Attack my minions! Leave not one of them standing!" he ordered the still figures around him. As if woken from a deep slumber, the bodies shuddered, twitching at their joints before beginning to lumber towards the group of six down below.

"Che." Hidan and the other backed into a circle as the figures proceeded to form a ring around them. "Your fucking directions, Pein?"

Their leader surveyed their predicament, eyes cold and furious. "Destroy them."

And from up above, Orochimaru did nothing but laugh.

~X~

Tayuya stepped on Deidara's head, crushing his face into the asphalt as she leaned over him. "I hate pansies that run from a fuckin' fight. I'll make you pay tenfold for wasting my goddamn gas," she sneered. "So- you have any last words fucker?"

"Watch your step un."

Tayuya narrowed her eyes. "What the fuck did you say?"

Deidara smirked, raising his head with the detonator to his clay bomb in his mouth.

The red-haired woman immediately jumped back several feet away from him and his knapsack, giving Deidara enough time to roll to his feet and chuck the detonator straight at Tayuya.

Tayuya scoffed, holding the tiny machine in her hand. "Way to go retard- I've got your fuckin' trigger now."

Deidara cheekily winked, pulling out another detonator from his jacket. "You sure do un," he snickered, pressing the button and watching as a bright sphere of light erupted from the trigger Tayuya held before dying down and imploding. The blonde shielded his eyes with an arm as a blinding light burst over the entire parking lot.

Tayuya stumbled around, unable to see as black spot danced around her eyes, her ears sounding like water was constantly running through them. "Shit! What the fuck did you do?" she screamed, wildly turning her head, trying to find out where the blonde fucker went.

Deidara moved behind her, hitting several pressure points in the back of her neck and shoulder, and smirking as she crashed to the ground. He stepped back as she writhed with a numbing pain. "That's known as a flash bang hmm," he said. "Only a modified one that I can set off whenever I want to. You fell for the trap hook-line-and sinker," he laughed, imitating reeling a fishing rod in.

"Fucker! You motherfuckin' shit!"

He sauntered over to his bag, looking over his shoulder once to make sure Tayuya was really incapable of moving. She shouldn't be any trouble for the time being, seeing as he struck some important nerves that controlled her spinal movement. Deidara rummaged through his knapsack, pulling out curved and flat pieces of metal alike. He set those on the ground before pulling out his tool box and an assortment of wires and data chips. "Hmm…this might take a while since I didn't prep it beforehand un…"

The red-haired woman snarled, twisting on the ground in an attempt to get up. "Your stupid clay can't keep me down forever asshole! You're fucking dead once I get my hands on you!" she yelled.

"As threatening as that sounds," Deidara drawled, furrowing his brows while untangling the knot of wires, "I think I'll take the risk of sitting here and watching you squirm like vermin you are."

She gnashed her teeth in reply.

~X~

Konan fired several rounds off her gun, rolling to the side to avoid a slash from a moaning figure in front of her. She narrowed her eyes, shooting it in the head before turning to put a bullet through two more. She was so occupied with looking in front of her, that she didn't see the one sneaking up on her from the side. Itachi grabbed Konan by the shoulder, throwing her to the side to shoot the head straight off the creeping body.

Konan steadied herself, patting her waist for anymore bullets. "Thanks Itachi. You have any more-?"

Itachi allowed his empty clip to fall to the ground, apologetically looking at her. "My last one. I didn't think we'd need more than a few," he said, throwing his firearm down and pulling a blade from his belt.

Konan smirked and did the same. "We were stupid," she said, whirling around to swipe the head of an oncoming body. She kicked the body out of her line of sight to crouch and stab another through the gut. She yanked her sword out and stood, glancing around. "They're getting faster- and some of them are getting back up," she commented.

Kisame threw two bodies off of him from her other side, using his enormous sword to cut them in half. He then pulled out his gun, shooting them both in the head as their mutilated corpses tried crawling up to him. "You have to get them through the head, or else they'll just keep coming," he told her as he walked over, firing behind his shoulder without looking. A body gurgled out blood before toppling over.

Konan eyed his gun. "How much ammo do you have left in there?" she asked.

"Another few shots," Kisame said. "Why- do you want it? I'll be using Sameheda anyway."

Konan waved him off. "No, it's fine." She twisted on her heel to slice a rapidly approaching figure's throat, bringing her blade through its head as it fell. "Orochimaru is sick in his head," she said, looking at the unmoving corpse, face twisted into a gruesome expression. "All of these people…"

Kisame placed a hand on her shoulder. "The only thing we can do for them is put them out of their pain and misery, because they aren't looking too happy under the drug he's put in their brain." He pointedly looked over at the horde charging at Sasori, frothing at the mouth.

"I understand," Konan said, stepping out of his grasp and readying her sword. "If this is the only way we can save them- then so be it. Orochimaru's death will atone for this monstrosity."

Kisame nodded and then toothily grinned. "Let's go help out our comrades, shall we?"

Sasori prepared to face the massive wave racing at him, drawing a pair of duo blades. He was about to move when he noticed the bodies towards the back being thrown into the air and strewn about. He raised a slender brow as Hidan barreled through the figures that had paused to see what the commotion was, swinging and hacking away with a giant sword like a madman. He cackled in ecstasy as blood rained down on him, relishing the feeling of his sword impaling and disabling his enemies.

"Take that bitches! You wanna go? Then let's go fuckers!"

Sasori sighed and lowered his blades, opting to leave Hidan to the mass as he walked to where Kakuzu faced off against a smaller crowd.

Pein stepped to the side, going into a backbend to dodge a body leaking puss and blood, flipping up to catch it in the jaw with his foot. He pivoted and reached into his belt to bring out his swords, doing a split and stabbing the two figures on either side of him in the stomach. He swiftly pulled the blades out, somersaulting to his feet and throwing one of his swords into the head of a body about to jump on top of Itachi. Itachi pulled the sword out of the body's head, using it to slash down a body running by him on its way to tackle Sasori.

The redhead grabbed a body by the hair, tugging it in Kakuzu's way who was doing a sweep with his axe. He threw the beheaded body to the ground, using his hand to flip over Kakuzu's shoulder as the man threw the axe and cut down two figures who had just been where he had been standing. He smirked, pulling out a sickle and swinging it around in a low circle, glad when Kakuzu had the sense to move someplace else.

Kakuzu lifted his axe out the last body he had thrown it in, looking at his surroundings. All the other force members were striking the remnants of the forty diseased men that once stood. "Almost done…" He brought his gaze to where Orochimaru stood on the higher platform, watching them with a pleased light in his golden eyes. "And we're coming for you next. Orochimaru…"

~X~

"Okay- just about done," Deidara cheerfully said, inserting a data chip into the side of a metal sheet.

Tayuya struggled to move, staring at the machine the blonde was putting together. "W-What the hell is that?" she asked. It looked like a goddamn rocket launcher!

Deidara added the last piece to the large weapon, standing to his feet and brushing his jeans off with one hand. "Constructable bazooka. Always comes in handy when dealing with persistent bitches like you un." He raised the cannon-like gun onto one shoulder, aiming it at the frozen woman. "Now are you gonna talk, or am I going to have to blast your head apart?"

Tayuya's eyes widened and she frantically waved her hands. "No, no! I'll talk! Just hold yer fuckin' fingers there!"

"I'm waiting," Deidara said.

"Alright-" the red-haired woman hastily cleared her throat. "My boss Orochimaru is out on an errand to collect a buncha young fucking children and sent me out to look for a few of the asswipes. He told us he wanted to create some sort of wack-ass serum that makes people become his like, personal slaves, or some shit like that!"

"Yeah, sure sounds like a bunch of bullshit hmm," Deidara pointedly shifted the bazooka on his shoulder.

"I'm telling the truth!" Tayuya cried. "He wants to sell the finished product on the black market! He told us fucking so!"

Deidara lifted a brow. "Who's 'us'?" he asked.

"Just a crowd of drop-outs," Tayuya told him, fear clearly shown on her features. "We get paid good money for our services."

"Oh?" Deidara's eyes turned to slits. "And just where is he getting the supplies and money for making this kind of stuff un? Can you tell me that hmm?"

"H-He never told us!" Tayuya practically shouted. "He would never tell me or the other fuckers who was giving him all the goods. I swear to fuckin' God!"

Deidara lowered his large weapon. "Well that's not good is it now? You shouldn't swear to God," he said, picking his knapsack off the ground and pulling it over one shoulder. "Thanks for the information. It'll come in handy for me and my friends."

Tayuya narrowed her dark eyes. "What friends?"

"None of your goddamn business yeah," the blonde responded, walking past her.

The red-haired woman waited until he was a good amount of feet away before smirking and pulling out a spare blade from her boot.

"Oh yeah. I almost forgot." Deidara paused, turning around to face her while raising his bazooka eye-level. "This is for destroying my precious baby you fucking bitch," he said, firing the weapon at her.

Tayuya never had a chance to run as the missel locked onto her form.

The explosion ripped pieces of the concrete up, heat wave whipping out along with a cloud of red and orange fire before the flames died down into nothing more than a crackling sizzle.

Deidara lowered the bazooka as a misty smoke swirled up from the ground, revealing two stumps that the woman's body had once been attached to. A pool of red blood spread from the stumps, chunks of flesh laying scattered around them. The blonde smirked, turning on his heel to leave the gruesome scene. "That's just disgusting," he mused aloud. "The stench is going to last for quite a while un."

Not only had he gotten rid of the crazy woman, but he had discovered information that might be valuable to the Akatsuki force. He was sure to earn some respect and trust with this. Now all that was left to do was figure out a way to get back to headquarters without attracting attention from other night city prowlers.

~X~

Hidan grinned, twisting the pike in his hand and bringing it down on the figure in front of him.

Sasori didn't flinch as he cut the body before him in half, turning to kick another in the head. Kakuzu moved to intercept the body getting back to its feet, moving back to avoid being hacked at and then moving in to plunge his hand through its chest. He harrumphed, pushing the body away. A few feet to his left, Konan had slashed the last one down, sword dripping with blood. She faced Kakuzu and nodded. Kakuzu nodded back, looking over his shoulder to Pein.

Pein's eyes were hard with anger. "Give it up Orochimaru. You have no one left to protect you. It's over!"

"On the contrary- he does." Out of the shadows beside Orochimaru stepped a boy, with silver-hair and glasses. He was smirking.

Itachi jerked. "Yakushi…Kabuto!"

A/N: Hooray for Kabuto. Or not...

^v^ Next chapters coming soon.