Chapter one; Part two;
Itachi Uchiha was calmly walking towards the leaf. To his right was a man with long blonde hair, pulled up into a half pony-tail, and bright blue eyes; Deidara. He was arguing with the man to Itachi's left. The man on his left was actually concealed in a puppet called Hiruko. The man himself was a hazel eyed, red-headed master of puppets; Sasori. The two were currently arguing over art. Something that seemed to happen any time they were together. Which was always.
At the moment, the three Akatsuki members were nearing Konoha, the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Sasori and Deidara had been given a mission to retrieve a scroll that was hidden in the Hokage's library, and to gather any information they could on the Kyuubi jinchuriki, Naruto Uzumaki. Itachi was sent with them, since he knew the pass-code to enter the village from his time as an ANBU there.
As they neared the large wooden gate of Konoha Itachi made the proper hand-signs, and they jumped over the wall with ease. How the hell Sasori moved in that puppet so well was an enigma. One that kept all the Akatsuki members curious. One of the main reasons they were ordered to do this mission today was for the fact that most of Konoha's 11 teams were out on missions. With some of their best shinobi gone, this made it rather easy for the Akatsuki members to complete their mission.
So they thought.
Just as the three entered the Hokage building's library they were confronted by ANBU, and the Hokage herself, Tsunade. Itachi swore to himself, and activated his sharingan. Deidara's hands went into his clay pouches, and Sasori's puppets poison coated tail rose in defense.
"Why are the ANBU here?" Sasori growled.
"We heard from a source of ours that the Akatsuki would be infiltrating the leaf soon. After a scroll." Tsunade informed them. "So we added a few extra precaution jutsu's to let us know when you arrived."
With that, Tsunade rushed towards Sasori. He ripped the cloth hiding his puppets face off, and it started shooting sebon at the Hokage at blinding speed. The woman, far more experienced that Sasori, dodged all of them. She leaped into the air, and brought her foot crashing down on Hiruko. The puppet smashed to pieces, and Sasori leaped back. He pulled out a scroll, and summoned his third Kazekage puppet.
"Now!" Tsunade barked. Sasori barely turned in time to see an ANBU leap down from the ceiling, pull out a scroll, perform some hand-signs, and slammed his palm into Sasori's chest. There was a blinding green light, and then darkness fell on Sasori.
"Sasori-no-danna!" Deidara yelled. Two of his clay spiders had attached themselves to the chest of two ANBU. "KATSU!"
They went up in flames. Deidara put one hand in a clay pouch, and was using his other to hold a kunai. Viciously blocking the tanto that was being swung at him. While his one hand chewed on the clay, Deidara engaged in combat with the ANBU.
'Just one more minute.' Deidara thought.
Deidara didn't have a minute. Behind him another ANBU had also pulled out a scroll, performed the same hand-signs as his comrade, and slammed his palm against Deidara's back. The bomber let out a cry of surprise as a flash of green light engulfed his vision. Then, like Sasori, his vision was blacked out.
Itachi glanced at the scrolls that were in the ANBU's hands. Before they performed those hand-signs there was writing on them. Some sort of seal. What was it, though? On top of that, Deidara and Sasori had disappeared. Completely gone. Had they been teleported to a cell? No, Itachi would have seen it with his sharingan. What happened to them, then?! Itachi leaped back as an ANBU aimed fire bullets at him. He couldn't get the damn man in his genjutsu with that mask on. Before he could contemplate any further Tsunade pulled out a scroll, performed the same hand signs as the ANBU, and slammed her palm into Itachi's side. He winced, and was sure he heard a rib crack as he was blinded by a bright green light. Then greeted by darkness.
-Time skip!-
Deidara was the first to awaken. He groaned as he sat up, and clutched his head. Damn the ANBU. He blinked and looked around. It was dark, and when he looked up he saw the night sky. Trees..? They were in a forest. He looked around, and saw Sasori and Itachi sprawled out on the ground on either side of him. He shook Sasori's shoulder, and in doing so Sasori's cloak slid open slightly. When it did Deidara saw a strange symbol on his chest. The kanji for 'powerless'. Huh, what's that about? Again, he shook Sasori's shoulder.
The twenty-five year old male groaned as he woke up. He rubbed his temples as he slowly sat up. Damn, he felt like he had drank sake the whole night. Noticing Deidara, Sasori looked around. They were in a forest? No. There's no way Konoha would just let them go. Genjutsu? Possibly. The only way to figure it out.. Wait.. Even if he were in a genjutsu, he'd be able to sense chakra. He couldn't sense any! Hell, he couldn't even feel his own!
"Where are we?" Itachi's deep, velvet like voice could be heard behind the two men who were silently asking each other questions. They both turned to him.
"Damned if I know, un." Deidara replied dryly.
"Why can't I sense any chakra?" Itachi wondered out loud. So, Sasori wasn't the only one.
"So, I'm not the only one?! Thank goodness, un!"
"None of us can sense chakra, and I can't even feel my own." Sasori pieced the information together out loud.
"Hey, danna, what's that on your chest, hm?" Deidara pointed.
Sasori looked down. 'Powerless'. What the..?
"Perhaps it's a seal to keep us from using chakra." Itachi said thoughtfully. "I noticed on the scrolls that there were sealing signs, and when you two disappeared I figured they teleported to you a cell. As it seems, they did not. Instead, we appear to be in another world."
"Another world, un?" Deidara asked.
"As in a new dimension, Deidara." Sasori growled. "Perhaps a parallel universe."
"It's quite a stretch, though." Itachi added thoughtfully. He tried to stand, and winced. Yeah, he had a broken rib or two. Damn that Tsunade, and that inhuman strength of hers. Itachi removed his Akatsuki cloak, and lifted his shirt to inspect the damage. His side was completely bruised, but among the black and blue skin he saw the same sealing kanji that Sasori had. "Deidara, can you remove your cloak and turn around?"
"Why, un?" Deidara raised an eyebrow. Apparently, his scope still worked, and he was using it to inspect their surroundings.
"when the ANBU cast the jutsu and sealing on you they hit you in the back. I want to see if you have the same sealing kanji as Sasori and myself." Itachi explained.
Deidara just nodded, removed his cloak, and turned his back to Itachi. Itachi lifted his shirt, and sure enough, in the middle right of his back was the kanji. 'Powerless'.
"Damn." Sasori growled. He had caught a glimpse of it as well.
"So what are we going to do, un?" Deidara inquired as he went back to scoping the area.
"We could make a camp here for the night." Itachi proposed. "Then see if we can find a village in the morning."
"Isn't that kind of risky?" Sasori asked. "We don't know if anyone in this world has chakra. Hell, we don't even know if we're in another world. If we're not we could risk being caught by an enemy. Without chakra were.."
"Powerless, hm." Deidara finished flatly.
Sasori just nodded.
"What do you suppose, then..?" Itachi inquired.
"We start looking for a village tonight. We'll be moving a lot slower now that we don't have chakra, so we should probably stay hidden in the trees." Sasori said thoughtfully.
The two younger men agreed. Sasori was the oldest of the three, at age twenty-five. Itachi was twenty-one, and Deidara nineteen. It was because of the slight age difference that the other two followed his lead, because in the ninja world even being only four years older made a vast difference in experience. Not that it mattered right now, anyways. Experience for any of them was almost pointless, since they had no chakra. Sasori always relied on his chakra strings and puppets, Deidara on his explosive chakra and clay, and Itachi on his genjutsu and fire-style.
Each one lost in their own thoughts, they didn't even hear, let alone see, the three woman who were observing them from the branches above. That was, until one of them fell out.
"Ouch, dammit!" The woman yelled as she hit the ground.
"I told you not to lean to far." Came another female voice voice. Only this one was calm and smooth.
"A-are you okay?!" Squeaked a third voice. It was rather shy and quiet sounding.
The three men looked in bewilderment. Well, this just got interesting.