CHAPTER FOUR

In which we venture into the shadows of Shino's mind…and Sasuke tries his hand at apologizing

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If it were up to Shino, he'd have sent out insects, pinpointed Kabuto's exact position and then held him immobile with his chakra-draining bugs while Kiba and Naruto unleashed their fury upon the bespectacled traitor.

But of course, Shino couldn't, because Madara was there, too, and there was no telling what that guy was capable of…well, other than sucking an entire population into his space-time jutsu.

"Kabuto, I believe it is important to educate the young of our time…well, your time since I'm technically supposed to be generations dead by now…but oh well…and besides, they sounded especially murderous, and I wanted to set a few things straight."

"Well, that's great," Kabuto sounded as though he was extremely irritated. "but I've suddenly lost Orochimaru's powers and, thanks to your jutsu, my eyesight is either worse than it was or you've put us on the dark side of the moon."

Madara clapped his hands gleefully, and Shino's eyebrows shot up at his antics. "You're not much more fun when you're you. We're going to have to work on that. Now…Orochimaru must be floating around here somewhere as well, then. I must go and say hello."

From somewhere across from Shino, Sasuke did a double take. "WHAT! I killed him."

"You so did not." This voice was new. Shino was no longer surprised at the amount of random people popping up; instead, he kind of expected it.

Sasuke apparently recognized the voice, however. "I…ITACHI?"

Shino blinked under his useless sunglasses. Uchiha Itachi, the cause of all of this recent pain…well, partly. One could actually feel the guy smirk.

"Hello, little brother. And I'm sorry to say, but I actually killed him."

"Wrong." Kabuto sounded smug. Shino raised an eyebrow. "You might have killed his body, but you didn't kill him. Orochimaru's powers transferred into me…though now I think he took them back since he's actually…ah…alive again."

Sasuke didn't really seem to care about all that, though. "Itachi. You're really here."

"Well, yes," Madara mumbled, and Shino blinked again. Was it strange that he kept forgetting the evil mastermind was still there? …Probably. "Itachi…back from the dead as well."

"Tobi. Or should I say Madara?" Itachi replied, coldly. "Good to see you again. I must say I think I'd rather see you making a complete fool of yourself."

"ITACHI."

"YES, SASUKE."

"WHAT THE HELL."

"…Pardon?"

Someone suddenly stomped his foot and Shino just knew it had to be Naruto. "Great! Itachi, I know you have no idea how glad I am to see you, even though you're a god damn creeper. See, Sasuke? We've brought your brother back! Well…uh…that Tobi guy did. Or Madara. Whatever. So…you'll come back now? Huh? Huh?"

Sasuke fell silent. "Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"SHUT UP WHEN I'M TRYING TO APOLOGIZE, DEAD-LAST."

Shino's eyebrows shot up.

"Yeah, I guess that's a bit hard for you, huh?" Kiba muttered. "Not even a 'thanks' for trying to get you back from those Sound Five jerks. Jeez, man."

"Oh. Thank you for inviting me on that, by the way," Shino interjected, slightly hurt. "You know, a real friend would have noticed that I would have gladly come along…"

"Shino. You were on a mission."

"…Right."

"Stop getting all sulky!" Naruto exclaimed. "Geez, you expected me to recognize you when your face was all covered up! What's wrong with you, I don't have super vision!"

"…Right."

Kiba and Naruto made identical exasperated sounds and Shino crossed his arms in front of his chest. He was never on any of the important missions! Maybe he would go find TenTen and they could be sulky together.

"EVERYONE SHUT UP!"

The force of Sasuke's bellow was enough to nearly blow Shino's hood off.

"ALL RIGHT THEN. Itachi, I'm sorry I killed you. You really should have told me. It's your fault I'm an avenger."

Sasuke's voice sounded a bit strained. If Shino didn't know him better, he'd say the guy was trying not to cry. "Danzo is dead."

"Is he really? Lovely. You know, Little Brother, much as I appreciate it, you don't really need to go about looking for excuses to kill people."

"Aw, isn't this just so heartwarming?" Madara muttered. "Sorry to rain on your parade, Sasuke, but Danzo's probably somewhere in here, too."

Sasuke growled in frusteration. "WHAT. THAT SUCKS! I almost killed Karin to kill that guy!"

Itachi sighed, and Shino thought he could hear the grin on the murderer's lips. "See what I mean?"

Kin cracked her neck and cleared her throat. "Look, this is all great, but why am I the only non-Konoha ninja in this dump?"

"It's not a dump!" Madara whined, startling Shino once again. "It's NOT a dump! Because Tobi is a good boy! And because Tobi is a good boy, Tobi's jutsu will never be labeled as a…a…DUMP."

There was a resounding smack and a whimper. "You have serious bipolar issues," said Itachi.

"What a schizo," Kiba muttered, and Shino had to agree with him.

Kin whistled, sounding exasperated. How that was possible, Shino wasn't quite sure. "Hey. HEY. I'm still here, people. Care to explain yourself, Mad-guy?"

Madara gave a little cough and stopped his whimpering. "'Hem. You know, I'm not really sure. Maybe it's something in the air. More people should be waking up around now, what with the commotion we're making…I should like this whole thing to get started soon-like."

"Heyyy, that's weird, though. How come I'm not with Bee and Yamato in that island?"

"Bee…as in Killer Bee, the Eight-Tails jinchuuriki? What island? Doing what sorts of things?" Madara asked, suddenly interested.

Shino frowned. What a creep.

Naruto's mouth fell open and a rather untintelligent sound drew out the silence. "Uuuuuuh. N-nothing. Nothing at all. I ain't telling you. Just…JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION."

Madara sighed. "How should I know? Maybe your friend Bee is right next to you. Maybe he's on the other side of the dimension. It's pitch black in here, Naruto. Even I can't control that."

"Hey! Someone say my name? Yo, I'm Bee, and that ain't lame!"

This time, Shino almost had a heart attack. It didn't help that the voice had come from right next to his ear. He managed to suppress his shock (like always, of course) and he let out his breath very quietly. Don't make any sudden movements. They can sense fear.

"Huh!" at the appearance of this…Bee person, Naruto sounded pleasantly surprised. Shino snorted. The guy had the decency to sound happy to see everyone else…but Shino. He'd even said hello to the numer-one hyperactive ninja and all he'd gotten was a 'WHAT THE HELL WHO ARE YOU CREEPER?'

"Naruto! What's up, my bro?"

"Heyy! Bee!"

There was a smack, and suddenly both Bee and Naruto fell backwards.

"You damn lug, your fist just met my mug!"

"Dammit, that was right in the stomach…and I haven't eaten for days!"

Does anyone else feel that Madara would have a bit of a bipolar/schizophrenic personality? I mean, he just spent several years as a hyperactive idiot called Tobi, wouldn't he have a bit of that energy left over? That's my theory anyway.

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Hey! So I understand this is kind of hectic (or maybe it is only in my mind) but I will be updating again with a new first chapter, just a heads up for you readers.

Also you may have noticed I changed the title and the synopsis. They are both MUCH better now, you will find.

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Reviews are always welcome...even encouraged. Don't be afraid, I don't bite. Usually.

~ins