A/N: I had a lot of trouble with this chapter; it just did not want to come out of head and onto the paper. Previously I haven't had trouble with these characters but in this instance I don't think they came out the way I wanted. So please excuse me if any of them behave out of character. I gave it my best shot and so as not to delay the chapter anymore I have decided to submit it as is.

Chapter 29 – Add Color to My Sunset Sky

1.

"Rex, my man, you are one lucky son-of-a-bitch," Imai Hiroki pronounced, thumping Hizashi soundly on his left shoulder to avoid hitting Tsume, who clung seductively to his right one. "That is one hot piece of ass you there if I do say so myself. Which I do."

"Why thank you very much, Hiroki-san, you say the sweetest things," Tsume answered in a sickeningly winsome tone that made Hizashi want to stick his head in a hole for her; despite the Speedo he was forced to wear the Inuzuka had definitely gotten the worst part of their mission, he had no idea how she was putting up with this jerk. "But I'd have to say that I'm the lucky one here. My Rexy-poo is just the best. He's gotta be the most charming man in all of Rain country, and don't you think he's just the handsomest?"

Hiroki gave Hizashi another pat on the back, completely ignoring Tsume as if she hadn't spoken, and yet he still acknowledged that she'd done so when he let this little gem out, "I told you so, that is one smitten piece of pussy you got there. It almost makes me think you might be able to give me a run for my money beneath the sheets, if you know what I mean. What do you say we switch off tonight and figure it out? My Usagi is pretty hot herself, you wouldn't be disappointed."

Imai nodded his head conspiratorially at the Hyuga and leered lecherously at Tsume. Hizashi could feel; his partner's body tense up against him and he could tell the other man was very close to having his face rearranged courtesy of the "hot piece of pussy" on his arm. This mission was not, by any means, an ideal one for the fiery outspoken Inuzuka. Being talked over and down to constantly, or otherwise ignored except to an occasional groping was pissing her off something fierce; far more than she had thought possible, which was not to say that she hadn't thought it would. To the contrary, Tsume had known this mission was going to try her patience and test her as a ninja as none had ever done before, there was a reason Hiruzen had not assigned her any seduction missions and contrary to popular belief it wasn't because he thought she was ugly. However, before she'd med Imai Hiroki she had been reasonably certain she was going to be able to pull it off. Now after meeting the bastard that certainty had flown out the window quicker than Jiraiya spotted at the women's bathhouse.

Imai Hiroki was absolutely everything that Tsume loathed in a man and she despised him immensely. He was a cocky, arrogant, domineering, sexist bully. He treated women like possessions, and worthless possessions at that. He never spoke directly to any woman other than his wife, to whom he only spoke to the way you would a child who needed reprimanding, but he could manage to feel up any female he found attractive in a 50 foot radius. He ordered the staff around like there were his personal slaves, and made outlandish demands (for example at a seafood restaurant he would decide he just had to have a Belgian waffle with fresh cut strawberries) and when his ridiculous wishes were impossible to fulfill he would berate the messenger to the point of tears, at which point he would chuckle and say something like, "spineless pieces of trash, that's why they're the have-nots." Tsume had dreams of peeling his fingernails off and testing the sharpness of her kunai on his balls, which she was positive were tiny, than she'd say something like, "whiney piece of trash, that's why you are one of the ball-less, hahahaha."

Unfortunately, Hizashi had learned early on in their trip, from Imai's "yes-man," Ohayashi Jun, that the asshole was the money-man behind the shinobi making a bid for the recognition of Rain as an equal to the Five Great Nations. It had taken a while, and a lot of money, but Hizashi had now warmed his way into the upper echelon of Ame's elite and he and Tsume were confident that they, no, that he, would soon be part of the "Kage's" inner circle. So far the only members of that circle he and Tsume are aware of are the aforementioned Ohayashi Jun, and their "muscle," Sasaki Isamu, but when he's invited to meet the Kage they'll be able to figure them all out. As far as Hiroki and his cronies were concerned, Rex here had more money than he knew what to do with, which was probably due to the seemingly limitless budget Minato had approved for the mission; nobody had pockets deeper than Konoha's coffers. Tsume got massages and pedicures every day (her skin had never looked so beautiful or felt so soft, a benefit Hizashi was taking full advantage of), and bought everything her greedy heart desired. She'd even bought ridiculously expensive gifts for all her students, basically throwing money around like it was san on a fire, and the right people had noticed. Though it was the goal of the mission spending so much time with Izai and his two henchmen was hideous and Tsume was glad that it was mostly Hizashi that had to do it.

Worse still was the fact that Hiroki had taken a liking to one Inuzuka Tsume. Not that he liked her as a friend, or even as a person. No, Hiroki liked Tsume like a tiger like a juicy steak. To him she was nothing more than a piece of fillet mignon for him to devour and he'd made it more than clear, on numerous occasions that he'd like to use his dick as a meat thermometer to test her out, than hand her over to Hizashi when she was done. Thankfully Hizashi had thus far been able to prevent any such shenanigans from taking place, but both he and Tsume had recently come to the conclusion that it was going to have to happen at some point if they wanted to meet the man in the shadows.

Frequently sent off with the "inner circle's" wives, it had been brought to Tsume's attention that they had all been "given" to Hiroki for a night and they had proved a valuable source of information. While what they knew was significantly less than what their counterparts knew, they definitely knew considerably more than their ignorant husbands believed they did; knowing this; the Inuzuka had pumped them for information that they easily gave up. Tsume had been pleasantly surprised to none of them were nearly as stupid as the men, and though she was loathe to admit it, Tsume, thought they were. In fact, Imai Usagi, Hiroki's beautiful blond wife was extremely intelligent. She was guilty of coming from nothing and wanting everything. Hiroki provided her an extravagant lifestyle she would otherwise be unable to afford. She had explained her situation to Tsume as thus, "He's not around much and I have access to five different credit cards on which I have no spending limits and every time I see him he gives me fistfuls of cash. I buy what I want, do whatever I want, and go wherever I choose, unless he's got some function he wants to show me off at. He's an insufferable fool but I see him so rarely that I don't give a shit. Once in a while I suck his little dick and in return I get a nice vacation. I can't complain."

Imai's "yes-man", Ohayashi Jun, had a delightful little wife. Teruko was a lovely red head with sparkling green eyes and an infectious laugh. She wasn't nearly as smart as Usagi but she was not the twittering idiot her husband thought her to be either. She came from old money and was the third and youngest daughter in a row and older sister of the much sought after dream-son. After waiting so long for him, her brother was the apple of her parents eyes, forced to endure three daughters before they'd finally gotten their prize they had pretty much just wanted her and her sisters out of the house. She'd been married off at just 15 and thought of Jun as more of a father figure than a husband. He'd taken care of her and bought her nice things, but they had little to talk about. She and Jun had sex very infrequently, as he suffers from erectile dysfunction and has been uncomfortable naked around Teruko since she once poked his belly while giggling and told him it reminded her of jelly. She doesn't care much because she's sleeping with the boy who takes care of their 150 gallon saltwater fish tank. He's much closer to her age and brings her pearls that he finds in the oysters on the ocean floor.

Sasaki Haru is the wife of Sasaki Isamu, the so-called "muscle" of the trio. He's short and stocky, muscular but not overtly so; Tsume is sure she could snap him like a twig. Out of the three of them, Haru has the best marriage. She actually likes her husband when he's not in the company of the other two, and he's always made her laugh. Haru and Isamu married before he got wealthy and actually did so for love. While she no longer loves him like she used to, she does have affection for the short man and won't ever leave him.

It's Haru who gives Tsume the two best bits of information gleamed from the wives and it's mostly by accident, at the time she received it she hadn't even been trying to get anything, she'd just been hanging out with a friend, which is probably how she got it in the first place. The two of them had gone to get their daily pedicures and then sit by the pool for a couple of mojitos. By the third mojito, Haru's lips were feeling more than a little bit loose. Feeling more comfortable around Tsume than usual, she asked "Yasu" if Rex had pissed himself after meeting the red eyed man; apparently Isamu had.

"What do you mean?" Tsume asked, her level of interest in the conversation suddenly spiking, this wasn't going to be the idle gossip she usually endured, but something critical to the mission. "Who's the red eyed man?"

"Isamu says he's pretty much the Kage's top spy or something. Maybe he said he was his bodyguard, I can't really remember for sure, but Jun can't stand to be in a room with him and he scares the piss out of Isamu, literally, hahaha," Haru cackled at the admission that her husband had been so afraid of the man that he'd been unable to contain his bladder. "Rex doesn't look like the type to get scared though and I was just wondering if he had wet himself too or if my husband is just a big chicken."

"I don't think Rex has met him yet," Tsume replied. "Maybe he will soon?"

"Well has he given Hiroki the okay to sleep with you yet?"

"No! Why would he do something like that?" the Inuzuka feigned naiveté.

"Because they all do Yasu. If they want to meet the kage; the man they've been funneling money to, which they all do, it means they have to do what Hiroki wants. And what Hiroki wants is to feel more powerful than the others, so if he's able to say he's fucked your wife it means he's got the power over them. It doesn't hurt that we're all a bunch of hot bitches. I don't know if you've noticed but the circle is small and all the wives are gorgeous. If a man doesn't have a wife Hiroki wants to fuck, he doesn't get in. Sure, they can donate to the cause but they'll never meet the shadow."

"But why would the kage allow something like that?" Tsume was appalled, that was no way to run a bid for kage as far as she was concerned. For a hidden village to operate there would need to be kunoichi and a kage would have to show respect for them, essentially pimping himself out for the benefit of an idiot did not sound like a man worthy of the title. "That doesn't help his cause at all. Think of all of the donors he's missing out on because they don't have the best looking wife, it's ridiculous."

"Usagi thinks the kage might be Hiroki's relative or something, but when Isamu begged me to do it he told me it's because Hiroki's family is very well respected and can sway the public to his side. If Hiroki decides the guy is unworthy he'll ruin his chances with the village populace."

Tsume was about to ask another question when she thought better of it and decided a topic change was in order. As a wife she was getting too political and Haru might get suspicious.

"So you slept with Hiroki and Usagi knows? Doesn't she care? I'd be fighting mad."

Haru laughed heartily. "Of course not, she'd just glad she didn't have to do it that night."

Tsume looked stunned and the other woman tried to calm her nerves. "Don't worry Yasu, he's not very big and he finishes pretty quickly."

At that Tsume almost spit out her drink. She could barely contain herself when she rushed back to the suite she and Hizashi were sharing. She couldn't wait to tell him of the certainty that Konoha's traitor was definitely an Uchiha. Walking into the dimly lit love nest the Inuzuka was elated until she saw the sour puss her partner was wearing.

"What's wron-," she started to ask.

"I punched him in his fucking face," Hizashi cut her off. Now Tsume was worried. The always polite, painfully so at times, Hyuga had never interrupted her and he never cursed, in fact much of their time together was spent with him chiding her for her course vernacular and poor manners. For him to use foul language something must be seriously wrong.

"What happened?" she asked, running to his side and beginning a rudimentary medical scan; as a vet she had some knowledge of the body, though nothing like that of a medic.

"Stop that," he said, pushing her glowing hands away. "What are you doing? I'm fine and you are not a doctor."

"Well I certainly know more than you, and besides, you're acting funny. I just want to make sure you're you. The Hyuga Hizashi I know doesn't use those dirty words," she replied; continuing to run her scan despite his protests.

"I'm fine! Knock it off," he argued; slapping haphazardly at her hands in an attempt to get her to stop. "Stop it!"

"Nope," she said laughing as she danced around his now wildly waving hands. "I've got to be sure."

Suddenly she was on her back looking up at Hizashi's handsome face before he kissed her deeply.

"Are you sure now?" he asked, smirking sexily down at her.

"Ummm… no, I think I need more convincing."

A few more kisses later, just when things were about to get interesting, Hizashi peeled himself off her with a very much troubled look on his face.

"What's wrong? Why are we stopping?" a rumpled and randy Tsume asked in confusion.

Sighing loudly Hizashi sunk dejectedly onto the bed, "I punched him in the face."

"Who?"

"Hiroki."

"Why?"

"He said he wanted to sleep with you."

"We already know he wants to fuck me, so why did you punch him for it?"

"There's no reason to talk like that Tsume. But today he told me in no uncertain terms that I would never meet the kage if I didn't let him 'fuck my bitch.'"

"Hey bright eyes, we had already suspected as much, so why did you punch him?"

"Because it's you and because he's a disgusting arrogant prick and I don't want his nasty little hands even touching you!" an emotionally Hizashi burst out. "And I most definitely don't want him fucking you."

Over on the floor Tsume sat looking stunned. From the moment they had started sleeping together months ago, shortly after Hizashi had gotten a good look at her backside, he had made it more than clear that it was just sex. Tsume was not to get attached and he'd repeatedly told her that once they were done with this mission they were done with each other. No feelings, no strings, no fights, no worries; just sex. And now here they were and he'd pretty much shot that all to shit.

At a loss for words Tsume just looked at him, and then she said, "Haru told me the informant is an Uchiha. You'll get to meet him tomorrow after I fuck Hiroki."

2.

All the koi in the family pond scattered as Itachi kicked another stone into the shallow water at its edge. Indignant and upset at the hokage for refusing to let him join the others in the fight to protect their home, he was feeling extremely frustrated and he had no idea how to deal with his emotions. Prior to meeting Obito, Itachi had been schooled, quite efficiently, in shutting off his emotions and remaining calm in all circumstances. Thought Fugaku rarely followed his own advice he had beaten it into his progeny, sometimes literally, that feelings needed to be suppressed if one was going to become a respectable shinobi, and back then there had been nothing Itachi wanted more in the world. Now however, things had changed. During their lengthy imprisonment Obito had taught him the opposite. To the teenagers way of thinking it was his empathy with others and ability to "go with his gut" (Kakashi had warned Itachi that this usually just meant Obito could be found in the refrigerator) that made him such a good ninja, and he had urged his younger counterpart to learn to do the same. Unfortunately now that he was allowing himself to be affected by his inner thoughts he didn't have the faintest clue how to handle them.

Anger flowed through the little Uchiha in waves, sometimes he'd feel close to boiling over and he'd want to punch people in the face, which he was handling by kicking rocks into the pond, and other times it was a steady simmer that found him sharpening his kunai and shuriken obsessively. Left to his own devices while others defended his home Itachi's resentment for those who had gotten to do so was growing exponentially. As far as the boy was concerned Obito, Kakashi, and Anko were his true family, and they, along with his birth parents, were all out on the front lines risking their lives to save his and he could do nothing to help.

"Ugh!" he shouted his frustration to the sky and kicked an overly large rock so hard it flew into the slightly deeper water at the middle of the pond where it thumped heavily onto the tail of a particularly pretty Showa Sanshaku (a black koi with white and red markings). Itachi could see the pinned koi splashing and squirming in an attempt to free itself from the offending obstacle to its freedom, but the rock was too heavy. Itachi scowled, unknown to anyone but his mother, he had a deep fear of water and could not swim.

There was no way he was going in that water, yet he couldn't let the fish remain trapped down there; it would die. He decided to roll the rock off using a tree branch and set about looking for a suitably sized one for the task when he was interrupted.

"What are you doing? Aren't you going to help him?" the young Inuzuka girl who had recently been following him around said hotly; obviously annoyed that he had not done so yet.

"Are you spying on me?" he responded full of self righteousness.

Hana ignored his question completely, "He's stuck under there and it's your fault, you shouldn't be throwing rocks in a koi pond you jerk!"

"It's none of your business what I do, it's my pond and I can do whatever I want," Itachi shouted back at her. "Get out of here!"

Despite the fact that he had intended to help the fish all along, he didn't think she had any right to tell him what to do with his own things and he wasn't going to let her think she could. Head of his class before his jail stint, Itachi had always been respected and listened to by his peers and his incarceration had only served to increase their reverence for him, so when he told the girl to leave he had fully expected her to do so.

Hana however, was an Inuzuka and even among her clan she was considered headstrong and stubborn. So when the arrogant Uchiha thought to throw her off his property she did what any self respecting Inuzuka would do. She marched over to her former crush and punched him square in the nose, just the way Kotetsu had taught her.

"Get in there and save that fish you jerk!" she shouted.

He couldn't believe it; the little girl had punched him right in the face. He hadn't even tried to dodge it because it had been so completely out of what he'd believed to be the realm of possibility that it hadn't crossed his mind at all. He hadn't even put up a hand to block the attack, and the element of surprise had worked in her favor. Now his nose was bleeding and the girl was still shouting at him to go in and save the stupid fish; he was having an awful day.

Still unable to swim, and now unable to get a stick to free the little bugger because the little hellion was standing in the way and was far too violent for his liking, he hung his head in shame and swallowed his pride.

"I can't," he told her dejectedly.

"Why the hell not?" Hana demanded, throwing in one of her mother's more colorful words for good measure.

"I can't swim."

"Hahaha," his tormentor began to laugh menacingly. "You don't have to swim; it's not even that deep."

Itachi looked over at her pitifully, completely ashamed to admit it to her, but also completely firm in his decision not to get in that water, he admitted, "I'm afraid of the water."

It took a good minute or two for the girl's laughter to die down but when it did she climbed right on into the pond and saved the poor struggling koi.

Climbing out of the water she'd smiled conspiratorially and whispered, "Your secret is safe with me."

Then she'd leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, after which she'd immediately taken off like a bat out of hell, giggling madly. Apparently his first assumption that she'd had a bit of a crush on him was pretty accurate.

3.

Judging by the way the teenager was staring up at him in awe, it was very clear he was in the presence of someone raised on tales of his exploits. He was almost positive that the boy had a serious case of Sannin worship going on. Not that Orochimaru could blame him, he was in fact the most powerful ninja he knew, and Orochimaru knew a lot of very powerful ninja. As a matter of fact he was standing with one right now. Kakuzu from Takigakure was one of the most feared shinobi in the ninja world, and at 69 years old and still a force to be reckoned with, it was rumored that he was indestructible and immortal, which was what had brought Orochimaru to him in the first place.

Some day he would know and perfect every jutsu known to man, as well as some that were not, but to do accomplish this he needed to live a lot longer than any normal ninja. So at the moment he was chasing down leads to everything and anything that could potentially prolong his lifetime, though ultimately he'd like to live forever right now he'd settle for prolonging his youth. Immortality was the driving force behind his current journeys, without it there would be no way for him to master all the jutsu and rule over the hidden villages.

His search for the secret to eternal life had led him here to Degarashu Port, a worthless trading village on the east side of Tea country. It was a dreadful place, home to nothing and no one of note; as far as he could tell they had no ninja and if they did the poor bastards were so inconsequential there was no reason to speak of them anyway. Their government was so provincial the ruling body was determined by a foot race every four years. Orochimaru had rolled his eyes at the absurdity of it all. However, it was the town's trivial place in the world that had brought him and Kakuzu there in the first place so he tried not to hold it against them. It was only in a meaningless sinkhole like this that two missing Nin as prolific as he and Kakuzu could convene without notice. As much as he disliked the contemptible little town, he liked being chased down and relentlessly pursued by ANBU even less; eluding hunter Nin usually put a kink or two in his quest for omnipotence.

Orochimaru found Kakuzu sitting in the back of a rundown diner on the less reputable Wagarashi Family side of town. Looking at the man for permission to join him, when the Sannin received a nod he slid into the booth alongside a dark spiked haired teenager who managed to both scowl menacingly at him and appear respectful at the same time. The missing Taki Nin wore a light colored hood that made looking him in the eyes nearly impossible but Orochimaru had altered his own eyes substantially and he was able to see the unusual appearance of the man. Under the hood, Kakuzu's skin was an odd shade of grayish brown that looked ashy and extremely dry, but what was more bizarre still were his eyes. Blood red scleras where the whites of one's eyes would normally be were surrounded by an unusually bright green iris, and he lacked pupils of any kind, leaving Orochimaru to wonder if he possessed a kekkei genkai similar to that of the Hyuga.

"So why is one of Konoha's Legendary Sannin out here looking for me?" Kakuzu drawled with mocking annoyance. "To what do I owe this great honor?"

Orochimaru did his best to keep his anger in check and refrain from giving into the taunts and ripping off the interlopers head. After all, if he killed the man he'd never get the man's secret for eternal life, or as close to it as he'd managed. Considering the circumstances it wasn't going to be an easy task anyway, executing the man would make it impossible. Shinobi, especially those of the S-class missing Nin variety, were extremely secretive about their techniques and fighting styles; and the secrecy magnified tenfold in regards to a ninja's jutsu. In a world where people were constantly out to kill them, a shinobi found it best not to give any pointers on how to do so. There were reasons nobody wanted to be in the Bingo book other than the fact that there was a bounty on your head. The damn thing listed all the skills and jutsu a ninja was known to use, and since the information was usually compiled by a former village, allies and friends, often ones who had trained with the ninja in question to perfect the jutsu, the information was almost always spot on. When other ninja know what tricks a shinobi has up his sleeves they can come up with plans and strategy to counteract them; just another reason for him to learn every jutsu in the world.

"I'm hoping to form a partnership of sorts. Once equally beneficial to both parties," Orochimaru explained.

Kakuzu laughed heartily at the suggestion. "What could you possibly offer me, snake boy?"

"More than this child you're traveling with I'm sure."

"That 'child' killed all one hundred members of his academy class for his graduation exam at just five years old and is right on track to become the next member of the Mist's Seven Swordsman. If he doesn't get caught hanging around with me anyway, Haha. That right there is the 'Demon of the Hidden Mist'. I don't travel with anyone who doesn't pull their own weight. So what the hell do you want?"

"I'm just looking for someone to travel with for a bit. I'm looking for a meteorite rumored to give inhuman chakra levels to those who can harness the power."

"And you want to share that with me?" Kakuzu sneered in disbelief.

"Absolutely not," Orochimaru admitted. "I'm willing to share it, one: because its located in Hoshigakure, and the only way there is through Takigakure which you are more than familiar with, and two: because it might be difficult to take from a village full of super powered ninja on my own."

Kakuzu seemed to consider it for a minute, than he nodded his approval and gestured for the Sannin to leave.

"I'll see you in two days when we leave," the green eyed freak said, and Orochimaru left the table pleased as pie.

While the meteorite could be interesting, it, like so many other things, was not what he was truly after, just a way to be able to observe Kakuzu more closely. If they ran into any trouble, he'd get a chance to see if the man really was indestructible, and if he wasn't, than he'd find that out too.

A/N: hope you enjoyed the chapter, please review. And if you feel so inclined head over to my profile and vote on which story lines you would be more interested in reading about, otherwise you are at my mercy ::insert evil laugh::