The boy leaned over the balcony railing, brows raising. "Oh. Uchiha Itachi. You're that guy Deidara was whining about in gym class today. Actually, he complained in every class," he mused, pushing his glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose.

Itachi lowered the blade he had raised. "Where is he?"

Kabuto shrugged. "I dunno," he said with a dark smile. "But he seemed pretty pissed about that nice little tracker you placed on his bike. Didn't trust him enough to let him go off on his own?" he taunted.

Itachi narrowed his eyes. "That's not it at all."

"Well whatever." Kabuto pushed off the railing, standing in front of Orochimaru. He swung the machine gun that had been slung over his back in front of him, pointing it at Pein. He smirked as the force members tensed, their orange-haired leader merely glaring. "Shall I take you all out now?"

"I'm afraid that won't be happening any time soon," a new voice spoke from the front entrance of the factory.

Pein and the others looked over in surprise at the blue and black uniforms.

"The day officers?" Konan murmured.

The officer who had spoken, smirked, cocking his gun towards Orochimaru and Kabuto as the others in his squad ran into the factory behind him. His dark eyes momentarily flicked over to Itachi. "You idiot. Aren't you always telling me to bring more ammo than I'll think I need?"

Itachi helplessly sighed. "Shut up Sasuke. Why are you guys even here?" he questioned.

"A child was attacked by three night prowlers," a long-haired brunette said, coming up next to his co-captain. "But she was rescued and brought into a convenience store that was working late hours. The store contacted us shortly after. The managers says that the girl claims she was saved by a 'pretty blonde with a shiny ring and good nail job."

"Obviously they're connected to the Akatsuki," Sasuke said, staring down Kabuto who was smiling at him. The boy's gun was still pointed at Pein, even though Sasuke and the rest of his squad had their firearms lined right at them. "We found a couple of thugs loitering around afterwards who said they had been separated from their boss- a girl named Tayuya. After a friendly beating they were more than willing to speak about who their boss served and where he had set up camp."

"And that's how we ended up here," a cheerful blonde bounced up beside the younger Uchiha.

Sasuke gave him a dark glare. "Naruto…Didn't I tell you to say outside and make sure Orochimaru couldn't make an escape?"

"Yeah, but I thought I might tell you that there's a helicopter flying above this place," the blonde said. "And it's not one of ours."

"A helicopter…?" Kisame looked up at the balcony where for the first time he noticed an opening in the ceiling above Kabuto's head.

Apparently Hidan noticed as well, because he turned and said, "Shit! He's gonna try and make a fuckin' aerial escape!"

"Get outside and shoot it down Tenten," Sasuke ordered a fierce-looking brunette, firing his gun at Orochimaru and elicting his squad members to do the same.

Kabuto and Orochimaru chuckled as the bullets zoomed right through them, their skin rippling as if it were water with a stone thrown into it.

"What? Why are our bullets going straight through them…?" Sasuke asked, clearly baffled.

Orochimaru looked down at himself in slight wonder and glee. "So my serum did work!" he joyfully cried. "Hooray!"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Kiba!" he barked. "Blow that snake up!"

A shaggy brunette whipped out a rocket launcher, aiming it at the pale man and his silver-haired follower before letting it loose. The rocket honed in on its target before diving into the two with a loud crash and explosion. Sasuke stopped firing momentarily and motioned for the others to do the same, peering through the smoke. When it cleared a moment later they all inhaled sharply. Orochimaru stood, uninjured with a large smile, Kabuto already climbing up a ladder dropped through the hole in the ceiling.

"What the fuck?" Sasuke muttered, already shoving more ammunition into his gun.

"I would come down and fight you myself," Orochimaru woefully said over the hailstorm of bullets. "But I'm not feeling all to well. Will you take a rain check?" he asked as he started climbing up the ladder after Kabuto.

"Are you running?" Sasori shouted. "You cowardly snake!"

Orochimaru grinned, waving at them. "It was nice seeing you all again. A shame I couldn't get rid of you here, but oh well. There's always a…tomorrow," he chuckled, his laughter getting louder with each rung he climbed

"Who's the traitor?" Pein called after him. "Tell me Orochimaru!"

Orochimaru paused, looking over his shoulder with a mysterious look in his eye. "Wouldn't you like to know?" And then he climbed all the way out, disappearing from the balcony and leaving the squad with more questions than answers, and a less than satisfactory result of their fight.

"Ah shit," Sasuke cursed, lowering his gun with a resigned sigh. We couldn't get his helicopter or him. Just what kind of serum did he develop? He waved his squad off, silently telling them to get back to their cars before walking over to where the Akatsuki force stood. He nodded his head politely to Pein. "Sorry about that," he apologized.

Pein inclined his head slightly. "It wasn't your fault," he said. "None of us knew about the serums that Orochimaru was making, and the effects it would have on his body. As you said, we should have been more prepared- however we were expecting this factory to be empty for a good amount of time."

"Well," Sasuke looked over his shoulder as Naruto walked his way. "The snake left everything in here- the illegal substances in the crates and several dead bodies. We can have this place burnt to the ground and make it look like a freak accident to the regular citizens," he offered.

"I'm perfectly fine with that," Pein said. "But I would like to take those dead bodies in for analysis, so please have them shipped to our headquarters."

Sasuke smirked. "They'll be there by tomorrow morning," he said. "Naruto make sure no one touches those bodies with their bare hands," he told the blonde.

Naruto gave a short bob of his head. "Got it!" he exclaimed with determined eyes, turning to direct Kiba and Neji.

Sasuke watched him go and then faced Pein once again. "Although we'll be destroying this base of Orochimaru's, I don't doubt that he has another one somewhere else. But I'll leave finding it to you. After all, us day officers don't get involved in night city affairs all too often- so I'm sorry to say we won't lend any more aid in this matter."

"I understand," Pein said. "You've done more than enough here tonight. No doubt the higher authorities will hear of this, but I'll speak in your defense because of our blunder."

"My thanks," Sasuke replied, turning to the side. "We're going to blow this place after we clear it out, so I suggest you leave." He started to go, only to pause and look at his older brother. "Take better care of yourself. Shouldn't it be you saving me?"

Itachi waved a hand at him. "Just take care of your squad. And what are you even doing running the day officer's force?" he asked. "Does father know?"

"As much as he knows about your job," Sasuke snorted, walking away.

Itachi rolled his eyes and softly scoffed.

Konan stared after Sasuke and then looked at Itachi. "He's cute. But how old is he again?"

"Too young for this line of work," Itachi responded, rubbing his brow with a hand.

"You have to hand it to him though," Kisame said from next to him. "He knows what he's doing."

Itachi gave him an irritated look. "It's still too dangerous."

Hidan threw his sword to the ground, stomping over. "Well this bust was a fuckin' screw up. What now?"

"I'm worried about this 'traitor'," Kakuzu said, following his irate partner.

"I think Orochimaru's a lying bastard," Sasori muttered. "He probably just changed plans last minute."

"And had a whole goddamn force of those zombified bodies waiting here for us?" Hidan harshly laughed. "Yeah fucking right!"

Sasori glared at him. "You wanna start something with me?"

Hidan pushed up his sleeves. "Fuck yes you little-"

"Enough!" Pein interrupted, face showing barely restrained fury. "We don't know exactly what went wrong or about this traitor Orochimaru claims we have. We'll run a study on the bodies left here to find out what we're up against, but until then I don't want to hear any of you start a fight over it. Yes we screwed up tonight. We're not invincible. And unless any of you have something useful to say, then I suggest you shut your mouths before I do it for you!"

Sasori scowled, Hidan crossing his arms and looking away.

Sasuke looked over at the orange-haired man's outburst with a raised brow, but merely waved an arm to show that they were getting ready to send the factory up in flames.

Pein exhaled heavily, scanning his members who looked as if the events of the night were just taking their toll on them. And now there was an added cloud of tension hanging above them. "Come on," Pein said. "Let's get back to the base," he quietly instructed, already walking towards the exit.

The members of the Akatsuki force exchanged gruff glances before straightening up and following after their leader with their heads held high. They would get to the bottom of this, whether it was by themselves or not. Because now, there were too many things at stake.

And their pride was only one of them.

A/N: So sorry for the short chapter- there's been a lot to write lately ^-^u