Well hellooooo there… ;D

Damn, I think I've watched the Rocky Horror Picture Show one too many times…meh *shrugs*

Mindless meanderings aside, welcome to chapter 15! :D can't believe I'm already this far along…

Moonlttiger – it's a vicious cycle, but one we all fall prey to -_-' and very observant! *awards cookie* that whole arc will be explained later… ;)

Back to the action!

(And just a small side note – please visit my profile and vote on the poll I posted :) kthanksbye)

**Chapter fifteen**

"So you went up against a…demon?"

Shannon sighed at the disbelief in Sasuke's voice. He hardly ever believed a thing she told him.

"What a demon?" Naruto asked, sitting cross-legged on the ground of their meeting spot.

"It's an evil spirit in the form of a human-like body," Ashley tried to explain, bot for once, words seemed to fail her.

"They crave death and destruction," Shannon provided, nodding with her red-haired friend.

Naruto scrunched up his face in thought. The information finally seemed to sink in and his blue eyes opened a fraction wider. "Oh! I get it! So they're like Zabuza?"

"Eh…not really…" Shannon deadpanned, scratching the back of her head. "He's called the Demon of the Mist, but he isn't a real demon."

"Hmm…" the confused expression settled back onto the blonde's face as he sank deep in thought again.

"I don't think it really matters what they are, but more like how we avoid them, seeing as there are likely to be more than just one running around out there," Sai piped up, arms folded as he leaned against the gutted wreckage of a high-rise building. "From what Shikamaru's told us, they seem to be very powerful opponents."

Shannon nodded, but otherwise kept silent. She was just glad Shikamaru had omitted the exact details of her little…fight with the demon they had come up against. She wasn't exactly comfortable with the way she had acted herself. She didn't want any of the others she had come to view as friends ostracizing her out of fear that she might snap.

"Do you know if they have any weaknesses?" Lee directed his question at Shannon, his bushy eyebrows scrunched together in a frown.

"I'm not exactly sure…" Shannon mumbled, looking down at the dusty ground.

"But you yourself went up against one. Surely you must have noticed some weakness?" Lee persisted.

"Yeah, Bushybrows is right," Naruto agreed loudly. "There as to be some way to take them down."

Shannon sighed and shook her head. "It just sort of flew away before the fight could really get started. I didn't notice anything useful."

"I suppose we'll just have to take our chances then," Sasuke said, his expression thoughtful. "I'm sure we'd be able to figure out a way to deal with these…demons…once we actually come face to face with them." His expression turned serious and he directed a probing look at Shannon. "But at the moment…we have other things to think about."

Shannon nodded solemnly in agreement. "I was thinking about what we should do…I think I may have a plan."

…

Needless to say, Ashley and the others were none too pleased with Shannon's plan.

She had been trying to convince them to go along with it for the best part of two and a half hours, but they weren't having any of it.

"You can't expect us to just up and leave now!" Ashley protested, scowling. "We couldn't leave you when you need us most! Never mind the fact that we would be worried sick about what would be happening to you when we wouldn't be there to help!"

"I'll be fine!" Shannon tried to reason with the livid red-head. "I'll have Shikamaru and Lee with me, what could possibly happen to me with them around?"

"A lot!"

"Ashley!" Shannon had to shout to get her friend to listen to her. "I'll be fine! I just can't run the risk of anything happening to you – this is too dangerous for you guys."

"But…" Ashley let out a defeated half-sob. "We just found each other! I can't let you go now – who knows if we'll ever see you again?"

Shannon's expression softened and she lay a hand on Ashley's trembling shoulder. "I kept my promise last time. I'll find you again, you know I will."

Ashley sucked in a shaky breath and shot her best friend a fiery glare. "I swear to whatever god you believe in, Shannon, if you don't keep that promise, I'll hunt you down and kill you myself."

And with that, Ashley spun on her heel and stalked off to where Justin, Luke and Carli were waiting. She didn't look back once.

Shannon chuckled as she watched the four of them make their way deeper into the city, to where they thought they would eventually find sanctuary. Ashley had never been one for soppy goodbyes.

…

As Shannon and the team of Konoha nin made their way to the place Kakuzu had specified, she mused over the rest of her plan. After sending the civilians on their way to make sure they couldn't be used as hostages or put in harms' way, Shannon and the ninjas would arrive at the trading point under the pretense of Shannon giving herself up for her mother.

Shannon would only appear with Lee, Sasuke and Sakura at her side, and the others would be hiding in the wings, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. Shannon knew Kakuzu would pick up that there were considerably less people than before, and would scout the area for any sign of a trap.

Shikamaru would quietly dispatch him using one of his shadow techniques, and Naruto would make a shadow clone of him to rejoin the Akatsuki and avoid rousing suspicion.

Now obviously Kakuzu would have been the one keeping Josephine captive, so Naruto's shadow clone would retake possession of her after the fake Kakuzu returned from scouting the area. Sasuke would have his Sharingan activated the entire time to analyze the Akatsuki and Hinata would have her Byakugan activated from her hiding place to make sure they didn't try anything underhanded. If they did, she, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sai and various ink creatures Sai had created would spring to their defense.

The plan would be for Sasuke and Lee to suddenly spring into attack, catching the Akatsuki off guard when they thought they were in fact there to surrender. In the confusion, Naruto's shadow clone would slip away with Josephine and rejoin the others at a place of safety. Sasuke, Sakura, Lee and Shannon would then rapidly retreat to the rest of their squad, hopefully leaving the Akatsuki in the dust with neither their target nor their hostage.

Shannon swallowed nervously. She knew that strategies seldom went as planned.

Sorry about the cliffhanger…like I said before, they're like drugs in some respects…

But the official reason is that I don't want the chapter to be too long and confusing, so I'm breaking it down into shorter chapters :D

Now you really have incentive to review ;D