(AN: I really don't want to write either Believe It or Dattebayo too often for Naruto. If that bothers you, tough. I'll use it sparingly, such as when he's obviously speaking quickly or too excited to think)

As usual, Naruto Uzumaki sat in Ichiraku, devouring his second (maybe third) bowl of ramen with the ferocity and hunger of a particularly ravenous wolf. He finished it in under a minute and set it on his stack of bowls, and realized it was in fact his fourth bowl. "Ahhh! As good as ever!" he said to no one in particular. The owners, a father-daughter team, were out getting more ingredients for their ramen, and the restaurant was unusually empty for lunchtime, so Naruto sat alone. Not that he minded. As much as he loved crowds and company, he felt a strange urge to be alone.

Movement out of the corner of his eye drew his attention, and he snapped his gaze towards the source: a middle-aged man, hair thinning, with a vaguely familiar look on his face. The man paused when he saw Naruto, then turned to leave.

"Hey! Hey! Get back here!" Naruto chased the retreating man. "You look familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?" The man made no move to reply, and simply walked determinedly away. Naruto glanced back at his empty (and unpaid for) bowls of ramen. Sorry, Pops, he thought as he ran after the man, who moved remarkably quickly for such a geezer. Naruto grinned, and quickly went through the hand signs to summon a shadow clone. I'll cut him off, he thought, a gleam in his eye. Then I'll figure out who he is! The copy of Naruto appeared with a "poof" and immediately ran off, down a series of alleyways.

Naruto doubled his pace, grinning as he saw his copy appear in front of the man. "Hey, you!" it shouted. "Just who the hell are you, anyway?" The man showed no signs of slowing and in fact broke into a full sprint, shoving right past his clone, which vanished. He felt a sensation, briefly, of being cut through by a blade, which was odd. The man had no weapons… right? Maybe some kind of jutsu? "Hey, old man! Are you a ninja?" Naruto called to him. The man didn't reply.

Why of all people did it have to be THAT idiot…? Sasuke thought as he tore through Naruto's clone with his sword. He supposed he was lucky it wasn't a Hyuuga, what with their byakugan and seeing through literally everything ever, but an old teammate was another hazard, especially that one. His persistence would have been admirable if it weren't currently focused on (and pissing off) Sasuke.

This is my fault, isn't it? he realized. I went back to that damn ramen shop, god only knows why, and of course, there he is. Sasuke turned swiftly down another alley, with, of course, Naruto following behind. This time, though, he abruptly changed course, and ran up the side of a house (no doubt startling the people inside as they saw an old man run up their window) and leapt off the roof. He naturally hit the ground running. This sort of fall was routine to him after his training.

Hoping his fast-thinking had saved him, he ducked behind a building, glancing over his shoulder behind him, praying not to see that orange bastard chasing him. He caught a brief glimpse of orange as Naruto ran past his hiding spot, shouting "Old man! Hey, old man!"

What dumbass chases down a random old guy in the middle of the day anyway? Sasuke moved out of the building's shadow, and crashed directly into a familiar red-and-pink blur, stopping her in her tracks.

"Heh! Pretty sneaky of you!" Naruto whispered, seeing the mystery old man duck behind a building. He summoned another clone, which ran past the building, while he ducked around back, hoping to finally catch that old guy. Upon stepping into the alley, he noticed two things. The first: it smelled vaguely of poo. The second: that old guy was gone, not in the alley. He glanced behind him, and saw nothing more than a dead end. The other way, where the old guy had come in, was also empty, though he heard an "oof" from that end, although a strangely feminine one to come from a geezer.

Naruto ran after the sound anyway, figuring it may bring him the answers he wanted. At the end of the alleyway, he found Sakura and That Old Guy. Sakura had been knocked to the ground, and sat rubbing her head. That Old Guy was still standing, looking somewhere between baffled and worried.

"HA! Finally caught you, old man! Now, tell me who you are!" Naruto shouted as he ran at That Old Guy.

"Hey! Get the hell away from him, you dumbass!" Sakura stood up, giving Naruto the most annoyed look he'd ever seen. "What do you even think you're doing, chasing down old men in the streets?" She smacked Naruto in the back of the head before turning to That Old Guy. He tone did an abrupt shift as she asked, "Are you okay, sir?"

The old man opened his mouth, then immediately closed it. He nodded twice, then turned to walk away.

"Hey… you look kinda familiar. Have we met?" She reached an arm to touch his shoulder, and he pulled away, before turning and shaking his head. "Are you sure? I feel like I know you from somewhere."

"Yeah! That's what I thought, too! Then he just ran away from me, and I chased him and now we're here, dattebayo!"

"You moron! You're the one who chased an old guy down the streets in broad daylight! You're just lucky I saw you before you got in real trouble!" Sakura never took her eyes off That Old Guy.

Great, thought Naruto, Now she's flirting with this old guy, too!

Before he could voice his concern, a hand, gentle yet firm, gripped his shoulder. Naruto turned and saw Kakashi, his teacher, unmistakable with his silver hair, mask, and headband pulled over his left eye.

"Naruto, the fifth has requested to see you. Immediately."

Seeing through the eyes of another tends to ruin one's perspective, especially when seeing through the eyes of six. Nagato knew full well the sort of headaches that could cause, but it also afforded him a unique advantage that not even his teacher, Jiraya, could counter. He knew, because Jiraiya had lain dead at his feet, not so long ago. Well, not his feet. To get technical, they were Yahiko's feet, but Yahiko's mind was Nagato's mind, and so Yahiko's feet were Nagato's. Nagato himself acted largely through Yahiko, or, to get technical again, Yahiko's corpse, as Nagato hung from a machine designed to keep him alive and safe. Yahiko was part of the will of Pain now, and it was through Yahiko's eyes that Nagato watched what passed for a sunset in the village of Rain.

"Still gloating, are you?" Madara Uchiha, still in his characteristic orange spiral mask, stepped from nowhere, as he seemed to do frequently. "You're normally not this reclusive."

"I am not gloating." Pain turned from him. "I am contemplating. His attempt on my life came so soon after your orders to attack the nine-tails. Is it possible that Jiraya had a spy on Akatsuki?"

"Had." Madara's one visible eye seemed to smile. "Itachi is taken care of."

"And his brother? You were intent on recruiting him, after all."

"Plans change, Nagat—Pain." Madara was taunting him again. He knew Nagato hated that name. He was, as far as anyone was concerned, Pain. "And you are not to pursue the nine-tails anymore. Call the remainder of Akatsuki here."

"Remainder? What do we have left?" Worry crept into Pain's usually emotionless voice.

"With Hidan, Deidara, Kakuzu, Sasori, and Itachi dead, and without the aid of Sasuke's little band, we are down to you, myself, Konan, Kisame, and Zetsu."

Pain paused a moment. Only five…? That wasn't enough. Five was enough to, maybe, defeat a single village. "I am also down to a mere five paths. Animal Path was slain by Jiraya."

"Speaking of," Madara said, laughing a little, "I have this." He produced a dead toad (bearded?!) from within the folds of his cloak and tossed it before Pain. Writing covered its back. "Seems he was trying to get a message through after you defeated him. Be more careful next time."

"How did you—"

"A lucky guess on my part," Madara replied, shrugging. "Zetsu caught it mid-summoning from Miyaboku and killed it before it could fully materialize."

"And why was he there, again?" Pain looked away from his leader, and found himself upset that he had missed the rest of the sunset.

"Observing Sasuke. It seems he's returned to Leaf, but is too shy to reveal this fact." Amusement crept into Madara's voice. "Seems he was a bit homesick."

"You should have killed him. He may be a threat to Akatsuki, now that he knows your identity."

"He's no threat. If he had a reason to hate me, he might have been. But we are side-tracked. Contact the rest of Akatsuki. Our meeting is to be today. We must discuss our plans, now that we are down to a mere five."

"And what of my Animal Path?"

"Make a new one. You can do that, right?"

"Arrogant old man…" Nagato muttered under his breath. "Indeed, but I need a body. And that could take days," he replied aloud as Pain.

"Lord Pain! A fresh body has been found for your new animal path!" A Rain ninja, a subordinate of Pains, burst into the room and blurted.

"Oh. Joy."

Sasuke thanked whatever good fortune had caused Kakashi to choose THAT instant to approach Naruto and Sakura. His old teacher had been exactly the distraction he needed to slip away. He made his way back to the gate, and, as expected, found Karin, Suigetsu, and Jugo all waiting for him. Suigetsu was tapping his feet and leaning against his sword, Karin sat on the ground, reading a book, and Jugo was talking to a bird. He did that.

"What've you found?" Sasuke asked as he approached his new team.

"A whole lot of nothing!" Suigetsu groaned. "I learned that Leaf doesn't take kindly to giant weapons and so asked me to, ya know, sit here. Also that there are a pair of identical twins that appear to be about twenty years of age apart. That, or a son who looks TOO similar to his father. Either way, it's creepy."

Karin stood. "I also didn't get much. Apparently no one here knows where the Torture and Interrogation department keeps prisoners, nor do they know anything about a Sound prisoner here, and I can't really sense any familiar chakra. Seems like this was just a waste of ti—"

"They're keeping prisoners in a house not a quarter mile from here," Jugo cut in. "The basement is very large and distresses the moles that used to live there, and this bird saw them take a trio of criminals in fairly recently."

Sasuke stared briefly at Suigetsu and Karin, giving them a Look that plainly said "Really? Outclassed by the crazy?" before nodding at Jugo. "Well done. Can you lead us there, Jugo?"

Jugo nodded back. "Of course. This way."