A/N: Oh gosh! I'm gonna commit suicide from my one summer school class! I can't believe how outrageous it is! I have to take a test every day and on the same day they give us a new vocabulary list, they tell us that they are going to quiz us on it the next day! God! I hardly have any time to just sit down and let the ides flow through! So I'm sorry if this chapter is a little crappy. Just five more weeks. Wahoo…

Anyway, thank you for those that have reviewed and favored this story. I'm so happy that people are readying it even though I'm sort of giving Itachi a bad name. Hehe… But trust me! It'll get better. I do NOT OWN ANY of the Naruto characters or the story itself. If I did, as you all know, Itachi would still be alive and regain Sasuke back his sanity. Thank you and enjoy!

Ch. 5: Where Are They?

"Leader, where is Itachi-san and Deidara-kun?" the shark looking hunter asks the man sitting behind his desk.

"And why the fuck have we all been assembled in your tiny ass office?" Hidan received a small glare from Konan, who is standing besides her boss/lover once again, for that. She really does not care for his language but he uses those words at every chance he gets with or without her present.

Like Hidan asks, about every Akatsuki member, except for Itachi, Deidara, and Zetsu of course, are inside their Leader's office being very confused as to why they're here and slightly irritated that it's god knows what time and both Hidan and Kakuzu just came back from a mission an hour ago and only got that one hour of sleep before being called in. Hidan is grouchy while Kakuzu…he always looks and acts grouchy unless there's money involved.

Having more admiration for his all and powerful leader, Kakuzu scolds, "Hidan, show some respect for our Leader." His partner was not intimidated what so ever.

"I have the right to bitch when I want, Kakuzu!" And that brought the two guys to start having an all out glaring contest with one another while playing a small game of chicken to see who will hightail and run first. Tobi got nervous just by watching them while the others saw this as normal. The masked man, or child, should really get used to this by now.

"Uh, please don't fight," he pleads with that high, childish voice of his. "Tobi doesn't like it when Hidan-senpai and Kakuzu-senpai fight."

"Shut it, Tobi!" They both yell, scaring the poor man.

"Aaah! Kisame-senpai, help me!" He runs behind the big, buff shark man and all Kisame could do was sigh at how ridiculous this is going.

"Geeze." He just wanted to go back to sleep.

All the while, Sasori stands there, leaning on the wall staying silent. He seems to be in deep thought about something and no one seemed to mind or notice. They all know what he's thinking about and it's been on his mind for the past few days. They don't think they ever saw this man this depress or this into his own thoughts before, unless you gave him a new project to work on that no other being in the world could ever complete like Itachi's vampirism.

"If you five are done fooling around," Leader intervenes, not sounding at all annoyed or bothered by their bickering and behavior. He's seen it all before. "I would like to announce something very important." Everyone in the room gives him their full attention, except for Sasori who only appears to be half listening. The others look at Leader, waiting for the news; some looking patient while Hidan looks impatient. "A few days ago, I assigned Itachi a very important mission and he had chosen Deidara to accompany him." When the hunters heard this, they all gasp in surprise but Sasori is the one who has the wide eyes and looks absolutely shocked speechless.

Then Hidan outbursts, "Ha! I knew it! Those two are fucking each other! God damnit! I never thought that Itachi had a thing for blondes."

"I didn't either," Kisame agreed, actually believing what Hidan is stupidly considering.

That got Sasori pissed as all hell. How dare they! "Don't talk about him like that." The Akatsuki members look at him, finally noticing his presence and he looks ready to unleash hell on all of them. "You don't know him like I do."

While some are considering the idea of taking steps away from the angry red head, Hidan doesn't look the least bit threatened by him at all. "Ah, sorry Sasori. But screwing with you must have rubbed off on him. Heh, maybe if you're lucky when he comes back after Itachi does all the work, he'll be begging for forgiveness and come straight to your bed, ready for you to fuck him nice and hard."

"That's it!"

A split second later, Sasori is tackling Hidan and then starts having an all out cat-fight with the guy. Smashing his hands against his face, pulling his hair, biting him when he could, scratching him with his long, painted nails, and throwing a few punches whenever he could. It took all of them by surprise and it took them a while before they decided to act and separate the two. Kakuzu, of course, got Hidan and pulled him away from Sasori as Kisame was having a little bit of a hard time trying to separate the raging red head from the silver man.

"Sasori, calm down!" Kisame yells, surprisingly using all of his strength to keep the little man away. But the man kept struggling, waving his arms and legs all over the place and nearly hitting Tobi in the face a couple of times when the masked man didn't know what to do.

Finally, Sasoei calmed down enough to yell, "I swear, Hidan, if you ever say a word against him again, I'll kill you!" At least he's not a raging animal who didn't get fed and had to take a bath all in one day. But again, Hidan didn't look frightened at all.

"Uh-huh! I like to see you try, bitch!" he yells back, not looking as crazy as Sasori at the moment. "After you give up, you can kiss the darkest hole of my skinny white ass!"

"Already have and you know something? It tastes like Kakuzu!"

After hearing that, both Kisame and Tobi instantly look at the two Zombie pairs and while Kakuzu looks paralyzed with shock, Hidan looks surprised and then disgusted as he turns to look at his partner. "Dude, that is just damn right nasty." This organization has way too many sex drama going on. Zetsu and Tobi appear to be the only ones who don't screw around with the other members senselessly whenever they want. Or are they in a secret relationship…

"Enough!" Leader calls to order, finally getting enough of this nonsense. They all look at him and he asks, "All of you, please. Can I at least tell you the mission I sent Itachi on? And Hidan, no more comments."

"Pft! Whatever." Then with that, Kakuzu releases Hidan and he just stands there looking away with his arms crossed in front of his chest like a stubborn child who didn't get what he wanted. He received one more glare from Sasori for saying that and Kisame feels reluctant on letting the puppet master hunter go until after this meeting. He doesn't want anyone to die and have him clean it up.

Now that things have quieted down, sort of, Tobi asks a little nervously, "So, huh, Leader-sama, what mission did you give Itachi-senpai and Deidara-senpai?"

Glad to hear someone finally asking him, Leader puts on a very amused and cocky grin on his face that started to fill some of the members with dread. His lover still stands beside him, concealing her emotions just as well as Itachi can. "I have sent our little love doll on a mission that will send every vampire in existence to extinction."

Hearing this became another huge surprise on those who don't know and it made Sasori gasp in even more shock, like he was the only one who got the idea of where his beloved blonde might be with a certain dark hair brunette. But it wasn't only that. It was the fact that Deidara is gonna face something big and he's not there to protect him.

"What?" Kakuzu asks.

Confused, Kisame asks, "You mean, we're gonna retire?"

"Come on, Kisame!" Apparently, Hidan is not buying this. "Get real! The extinction of the suckheads? With Deidara accompanying Itachi, that ain't gonna happen."

Forget asking Leader if he was serious. Sasori wants to turn Hidan into a human puppet while he's still alive and then toss him into the fire place like firewood. Again, Kisame pulls the guy back, unable to believe that he has so much strength when all he sees is Sasori using his puppets to fight. Of course seeing him, Kakuzu pulls Hidan back while while Mr. Foul-mouth only raises a brow. Tobi looks worryingly between the two sides. Neither Leader nor Konan look too concerned about it.

"Heh, I wouldn't be so sure about that," he says, that cocky smile still on his face. The group looks back at him, Sasori as well, and he adds, "I trust Itachi's good judgment and if he feels that Deidara is a good partner to tag along with on this mission, then I know that it was the right decision." Hidan still looks skeptical.

"Leader, come on. We all know that when it comes to entering or leaving with a bang, Deidara's got that job covered but let's face it. Itachi is going to save his ass more times than he can kiss it. Where are they going anyway?" It was only that question that distracted Kisame from being prepared to hold Sasori back and for Sasori to not try to tear Hidan to pieces again. Even though he has a pretty good idea where, he was hoping it wasn't.

"They are going to the royal vampire family where Zetsu has confirmed that the reincarnation of the Kyuubi is being protected; the Uchiha Family Castle."

It was.

This time, not caring at all, Kisame drops Sasori and asks, "You sent Itachi-san home?" Kakuzu pulls Hidan back even more as Sasori picks himself up and glares at Kisame for just dropping him and Tobi also appears to have forgotten the red head's new urge to kill the Grim Reaper of their team.

"Leader-sama, what were you thinking?"

"Itachi is a strong hunter. He can take care of himself and he has Deidara for company. He'll be just fine. Or were you worried about his emotional state, Tobi?" That hit him right on the mark. The other members look at him and the masked man is already looking down at the ground and nodding his head. He wasn't the only one who was worried. "Well don't be. Itachi's emotions are dead. They no longer exist." But despite his words and how some of the hunters figure that he's right, Sasori still remembers Deidara's words from a few mornings ago.

"Don't talk about Itachi like that, Sasori. As far as I'm concerned, he's the only one who seems to care about everyone around him; unlike you! Sure he doesn't express it, but he's not a bad person, un."

Itachi must have the whole organization fooled. Even Leader himself.

Then from the side of the room, a small area on the wall starts to form. Seeing its movements, everyone looks up to see a clump of wall pop out and then slowly begin to take the form of something with a rectangular shape, a shape everyone recognizes so well. When it came out a little more, it stops and then opens up like a flower, or rather a Venus Flytrap. Zetsu reveals himself and the black side tells Leader, "Deidara and Itachi have successfully infiltrated the Uchiha castle. However, they had a slight problem."

Okay, now they can be worried.

But Leader and Konan look perfectly at ease. "Oh? You did record everything, right Zetsu?"

"Of course, Leader," the white side answers. By how he sounds, the other members are really starting to worry about their two comrades who had gone off on this big, important mission without telling any of them about it!

Leader turns to them and says, "You are dismissed." They all look at him like he's crazy but he had more up his sleeve. "I only wanted to tell you about where your comrades have gone since you all have noticed and what Zetsu is about to show to me is something for me to see. But if you are even more curious about them, you are welcomed to stay. It's all up to you, really."

Like anyone is going to say no.

What happened an hour ago…

Both Itachi and Deidara are resting on a cliff behind a giant boulder and a few trees and bushes. Below them is a castle. A grand and giant castle. It looked like many other Medieval castles with the tall towers and the wide, beautiful gardens but to the hunters, they know what great evil lay lurking inside. What monsters that sleeps in the castle and how some foolish humans live there, working to the bone and donating their blood to the merciless beings without a care in the world. It's humans like them that drive every hunter in existence up the wall and wish more than anything to kill them like how they slay their prey. Deidara looks nervous by just looking it as Itachi, like always, looked emotionless and at perfect ease. But what could be noticed is the harsher, colder look in his eyes. His onyx pools resemble the eyes that belong to those same cruel, heartless monsters inside the castle.

Trying to get some confidence back in him, Deidara dares a glance up at Itachi but all it does was make him more nervous and a little freaked out. Noticing his gaze, Itachi looks at him and asks, "What?"

Now trying to act brave, Deidara answers, "N-Nothing! Just excited is all! Why are we waiting so long, un? We've been here for a good two hours. I thought you want this mission over and done with, un."

"I do, but have you not noticed the sky?"

He didn't. That being mentioned, Deidara looks up at the night sky, only to see that it was starting to get a lighter look. Most of the stars he remembered being there were starting to disappear and the once black sky is looking like a pale purple now. The realization hit him so hard it was like someone slapped him across the face. He slapped himself in the forehead instead.

Itachi asks, "So you have?"

'How could I forget?' Deidara wonders, screaming to himself in his head. 'Vampire rule one-o-one! They can't handle sunlight! They're freakin night creatures, un!'

"Okay then," he says, getting it together. He turns to Itachi and asks, "So we go in while the rest of the vampires are asleep and take out the Kyuubi, un? Is that your master plan?"

"Yes," he nods. "We will avoid more trouble if every vampire in the castle are resting. The humans will give us no trouble but Deidara, only use your bombs when it's absolutely necessary. Which includes your escape." Hearing that causes the blonde's lips to press together in a hard straight line. He knows that when he has to make his escape, he has to do it alone.

"Hey, Itachi. Can I tell you something, un?" But before he could, Itachi sharply looks at him and his stare makes Deidara shut up instantly.

"Deidara, I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear your pity or anyone else's. It's wasted on me. When I tell you to go, you go. Understand?" His voice sounded so cold and so hard. It resembled ice in so many ways that his words should have come out of his mouth as blocks of ice. But he's right. It hurts, but he's right. He doesn't want any sympathy so don't give it to him.

"Kay."

"But thank you."

The blond looks at the dark brunette in surprise and Itachi stands up. "Let's go. If there are some vampires still awake, they will be weakened from the night's exhaustion. Like all creatures, they need sleep."

"Right." He stands up as well and let the hunt begin.

There you go. At least Sasori cares for Deidara and now he's starting to see how he can't make it through the day without him. Good for him. He needed a good kick in the shin. Anyway, I hope it was okay. Was it good? Bad? Let me know, kay? See ya!