Chapter 13

Haku knocked on the door to Kankuro's workshop, and waited patiently.

"Who is it?" came the irritable reply.

"Haku, there are some things I'd like to discuss with you about Shihizuki's and Gaara's situation."

"Come in."

Kankuro really didn't want to deal with this right now, he wanted to get his puppets put back together and show Sasori who was really more powerful. Unfortunately, he didn't really have that luxury. All day people had been pestering him, and he had thought that he had finally dealt with all that he had to.

Couldn't Raito and Haku take care of themselves?

"Do you intend to go after Gaara and Shihizuki?" Haku asked, giving all of his attention to Kankuro.

It was a bit unsettling, those usually sparkly brown eyes had gone flat, and angry, and now they were focused solely on Kankuro. "Of course." Kankuro made it sound like it was the obvious answer.

"Raito and I are coming with you," Haku said matter of factly.

Kankuro couldn't really argue with that. Shihizuki was a part of their team, he was kind of surprised they hadn't left already. "And?"

"We wanted to know if you have a team already assembled. If not, we're prepared to call in a few favors."

"We don't need extra help, team 7, minus Kakashi, has already volunteered to help us."

'What hapened to Kakashi?' "When will they be arriving?"

"Any day now," Kankuro answered. He screwed in a piece of his puppet. The poor thing just looked so mangled... "We just need to wait."

"Ok. Raito and I are leaving tonight, we'd appreciate it if you would page us when you're ready to join the search." Haku scribbled down a number and handed it to Kankuro. "We can find them even faster if we work together." He smiled brightly.

The other boy tested a joint, then nodded. He frowned even more when it didn't move properly, and Haku left the room.

XXXXXXXXXX

Raito was pacing the room. She had been doing so for the last fifteen minutes. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't will the phone into submission. It remained silent.

In the background, rain assaulted the ground with more aggression than was really necessary. The Village Hidden in the Mist was looking quite that day.

"They'll call when they call, glaring at the phone won't help it go any faster," Haku pointed out. He blew on his nails, which were now painted a dark green, almost black.

"They better if they know what's good for them."

"Hey, after we get Shibuki back, we should be pirates again. That was fun."

Raito nearly jumped when the phone rang. "Hello. If you're a telemarketer, you've got five seconds before I hang up the phone and come to kill you. Don't doubt the fact that I know where you live."

"Would it kill you to be a little nicer to civilians?"

Raito covered one end of the phone. "Possibly."

"This is Firefly?"

"Yep. You found them?"

"No, unfortunately... wait a minute, straw hats with bells, black coats with red clouds? Uh, I think that guy might be... blue?"

"Tell Kisame that his mother is on the line. Then leave."

"O-ok... hey! Kisame, right? Your mom wants to talk to you." There was silence while Kisame replied. Raito could have sworn she heard growling.

"Mom?"

Raito held the phone away from her and did her best not to laugh. When she was sufficiently calmed down, she lifted her hand. "I'm sorry, I just had to get your attention. Don't hang up, please. I just want to know what's going on, you did steal my team mate, after all."

"Itachi is laughing at me. Itachi is actually laughing. I don't have to tell you anything. In fact, I think I should skip straight to killing you."

"Tell me, and I'll help you get him back, or something. I'm sure Sasuke has some interesting stories to share."

"You hear that, Itachi? She's friends with your little brother."

"Put him on the phone." Itachi sounded almost mad. Raito made a mental note.

"Sorry, he's not here right now. I'll take a message if you tell me about Shihizuki."

There was some silence. "He's joined our organization, of his own will. You owe me for this, don't think I won't forget it." Kisame was back on the line.

"Have him call me, then. One more thing, Gaara?"

"Not sure. Deidara didn't say anything about that when he checked in, and he hasn't gotten back yet. There was something about rebuilding a restaurant he destroyed..."

"Ok, thanks."

The line went dead with a click. Raito placed the phone back on the receiver with a very self satisfied smirk.

"You blackmailed them." Haku twiddled a senbon between his fingers.

"N- yes. I did find out about Shihizuki though, apparently he's joined them. If we get a call confirming this, then we can leave the Akatsuki alone. I think we should give them a week."

"Agreed. And Gaara?"

"That's an excellent question. No idea. Sasori and Deidara got side tracked, apparently..."

"When pretty much all of Suna is looking for them?" Haku's brown eyes blinked in surprise.

Raito shrugged. "It's the Akatsuki, I doubt they care."

"So we tell Kankuro and Co. what, exactly?

"That's an excellent question, I will-"

Raito was cut off when the phone rang. She made a frustrated noise, then picked it up.

"What!"

"Firefly, we have a problem."

"What's going on? I'm kind of in the middle of something."

"There's someone claiming that they've killed you in an attempt to scare Hidden Sand."

"Shit. What's Baku doing about it?"

"There's not much that he can do, this guy is good."

Raito sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "How good?" she breathed heavily.

"Extremely. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was you. It isn't you, right?"

"No," she sighed. "I'd tell you about something like that before just diving in. I'll need to make a personal appearance, won't I?"

"Most likely. Hey, I heard that you were looking into the Akatsuki..."

"I'll talk to you later," Raito said adruptly, and then hung up the phone. She ran her fingers through her hair.

"What's going on?"

"We have a dilemma. There's a more personal matter going down in Suna, but we also need to get Gaara back. The two situations are, for all intents and purposes, mutually exclusive."

"You'll have to be more specific," Haku pointed out. He put his elbows on his knees and leaned forward.

"Someone is saying that I've died, and is claiming that they're the one that killed me. It's a worthwhile plan, except for the fact that I'm not dead. Obviously, we're going to need to set the record straight, Firefly is very much alive." She paused for breath. "Normally, I'd have someone take care of this for me, as Gaara is rather important, but none of my people can do it. This is going to require a personal appearance."

"It'll have to wait then, we need to get the Kazekage back."

"Haku, this isn't something we can just ignore for who knows how long," she argued.

"Are you saying that we should just let the others take care of it then?" Haku asked skeptically. "Do you really want them dead that badly?"

"No, but they'll have to be fine without us. This isn't exactly something we can ignore, and it's not like we could do much to help anyway."

"You're forgetting the part where we've dealt with these people before, and I'm assuming the majority of them have not."

"What are you suggesting, then? That we just ignore the situation in Suna?"

"For the time being, yes."

There was silence. Neither one of them refused to back down. Then, "I think the best thing, in that case, would be for us to split up."

"I'll pose as Firefly, you pay a visit to the Akatsuki?"

Raito crossed her arms. That was probably the best match for their skill sets; Raito was good at talking, Haku was the better fighter; but she didn't like the idea of anyone else playing Firefly. All the same, there wasn't really a choice here. "I'll keep you updated as to where I'm at."

"I'll let you know if anything happens."