Airyo-chaaaaaaaaaan! I give you my eternal gratefulness! AND LURVE! XOXO! anyway, It's Itachi POV, again. :D After this, I only have three more chapters until 'it'. Thank you, Anon, for continually reviewing my story! anyway, ENJOY! Itachi Awesomeness. Excuse his terrible puns.

The Ten

All the Akatsuki had come together. It had been around a month after the mission with Orochimaru before he was called to headquarters, via the ring. When he had arrived, the Akatsuki had become 'complete'.

The first member was Pein. He was the 'leader', and was supposed to be called leader by all the others. The body that Itachi knew had orange hair, and grey eyes. He had the Rinnegan. He was cool, calm, and he could give nothing away since he was already dead. He wore numerous rings that were used as chakra transmitters. That was all that Itachi knew about Pein.

Konan was Pein's right hand. She had shoulder length light blue hair, and amber eyes. She had a mouth ring, possibly to try and look like Pein. Or Pein's body. Whatever. In her hair, she wore a paper rose; Itachi wondered if that paper rose had anything to do with her abilities. He concluded that it probably did.

Konan and Pein were a pair. Pein had separated them into partners, and they were the first pair in this organization.

The next pair was the intelligence gathering pair.

Zetsu was a bipolar plant, frankly. He wasn't even human, and Itachi didn't even want to know. He was a cannibal, eating raw human meat for food. He was half black and half white, with black hair. His abilities (as Itachi had later learned) included melting in the ground, the ability to be anywhere, at any time. It was quite useful, especially for gathering information.

Orochimaru was partnered up with Zetsu, and Itachi, for the life of him, couldn't figure out why. Orochimaru was a snake like individual, with long slippery black hair and reptilian yellow slits for eyes. He was incredibly pale, and had a really high voice. Especially for a male.

Hidan came next. Itachi personally had a distaste for Hidan; he was too vulgar for his liking. He was supposedly immortal, due to the illegal religion, Jashin, that he practised. For that, Itachi had learned that Hidan had needed human sacrifices, which, even Itachi found disgusting. Hidan was albino; he had white hair and reddish pink eyes. And a very annoying personality.

Kakuzu was Hidan's partner. Itachi didn't know who he was supposed to feel sympathy for, Kakuzu or Hidan. Kakuzu, Itachi had observed, was a greedy money lover. To him, the world revolved around money, and Itachi was stumped as to why he joined Akatsuki. He was over ninety years old, and collected hearts. He lived by the hearts of other shinobi, and he used their chakra, as well. He had strange pupil less green eyes, and was stitched like a doll. He, by theory, could also live forever.

Deidara was actually relatively normal. If you took away the mouths he had on his hands, that is. He had an 'explosive' demeanor. Seriously, all of his jutsu involved bombs. Deidara himself was a blond 'bombshell'. And that was the last time Itachi would ever try joking in his head. He cringed, just listening to himself. Anyway, Deidara had blonde hair, in a pony tail, and bangs covering his left eye. He had blue eyes, and a long tongue.

Sasori was 'lucky' enough to be partnered with Deidara. The both of them were artists, Sasori being a puppeteer. Sasori was so devoted to his art, that he turned himself into a puppet, only leaving his heart in a box. Sasori had red hair, and brown eyes, with a 'wooden' expression. Itachi cringed again.

That left him with his own partner, Kisame. Kisame was blue, and he had gills. He reminded Itachi of a shark; what with his thirst for blood, and everything. His personality was bearable; Itachi was honestly lucky to be partnered with him. Kisame had a large, live sword, which 'ate' the chakra of the opponents. It also ate Kisame's chakra regularly, and while it was very powerful, Itachi couldn't understand why Kisame kept the sword.

And him. Uchiha Itachi. The mass murderer, who killed his own family. The bearer of the sharingan. The one who became an ANBU captain at thirteen. The title that he held was quite impressive, but he wasn't near as abnormal as all the others.

Basically, the Akasuki was made up of: a snake, a puppet, a shark, a man eating plant, a dead body, a paper queen, a man with three mouths, an immortal, a doll, and him. Lovely. Itachi felt proud to be part of such a... selective organization. Itachi cringed again, deciding that sarcasm was not his forte, either.

Konan had also made the uniforms stricter. Now, they had a full uniform. She had made them wear a black mesh shirt, black pants, and, purple and white boots. To top it all off, she had made them paint their nails with purple nail polish. Itachi had never felt so girly in his life, before. Seriously. Purple. Well, that's what they get when they have a woman in charge of the uniforms. No, she couldn't have picked something manly, perhaps, like black? But, no. Purple.

It was a good thing that Itachi was so well at masking his emotions. Or else he'd embarrass himself by looking so mortified. He had seen what had happened with Hidan; he really couldn't be bothered to let it happen to him.

That was when Pein cleared his throat, getting the attention of the group. They were all assembled in a room with a large statue. Itachi was positive that the statue was very important. The statue itself... was demonic. It was very large, almost as big as the Hokage monument. It was of a person, with ten eyes, and with his two hands in front of him, open wide. Itachi could just feel the evil that came from it... almost like... it was alive. "Stand on the finger of the statue that you wear your ring on!" He commanded, his deep voice vibrating through the dark chamber. Itachi looked at his hand; he wore his ring on his right ring finger. So in theory, he'd have to go on the right ring finger of the statue.

He was there before the others had blinked. The more stupid ones- Itachi mentally connected that with Hidan and Deidara- looked confused, but eventually understood. How could they not see the big giant statue in front of them was a mystery to Itachi. As soon as all of them had assembled on the giant stone hands, Pein continued with his speech.

"The Akatsuki are an organization that aim for peace. We will make sure that people will no longer have to deal with pain. To do this, we must acquire weapons good enough to control the world. For this, there must be sacrifices. The Jinjuuriki can be our sacrifices, in this case. Yes, if we are able to acquire all the Jinjuuriki, we will be able to resurrect the ten tails. Via this statue."

"How are we going to do that, un?" The ever so clever Deidara asked, his eyes wide and clueless. Itachi, again, mentally cringed. He shouldn't go into poetry either, should he? But really, Deidara had a point, for all the less gifted people in the room, at least.

"I was getting to that," Pein informed, his face blank, but his voice having a tinge of anger in it. "Once you capture a Jinjuuriki, you bring it here. You call everyone else via rings. Each of you will be assigned a Jinjuuriki, except for me."

"Deidara, Sasori, One Tails, for now. You will focus on one Jinjuuriki at a time." Deidara looked excited, while Sasori remained stoic. Itachi wondered what his Jinjuuriki would be.

"Hidan, Kakuzu, Two Tails." Hidan looked like he wanted to say something, but remained silent. Kakuzu shrugged, not particularly caring. Itachi had a weird gut sinking feeling.

"Orochimaru, Zetsu, you have an information gathering mission." Itachi wryly wondered if they were saving the best for last.

"Itachi, Kisame, Nine Tails." Itachi kept quiet, but he was inwardly panicking. The Nine Tails was in Konoha... He couldn't go back to Konoha! Kisame grunted in reaffirmation. Itachi knew who the Nine Tails was... how couldn't he? The Nine Tails was Uzumaki Naruto, the obnoxious blond boy that always hung around Sasuke when Itachi was checking on him. Itachi bitterly cursed his horrible luck.

"You have four months to complete the task. Dismissed." Pein said, and they all left in a flash. Itachi found himself and Kisame at the entrance of the cave, a hair's breadth away from starting the mission.

" I will contact you." Itachi said, making it obvious that they wouldn't start the task right away. Kisame grunted in acceptance, and Itachi left him, heading for the Fire Country. He needed to contact Jiraiya before they completed the mission. If Jiraiya could guard Naruto, maybe they wouldn't be able to complete their mission...

Yes. He needed to inform Jiraiya of Akatsuki's movements. If he did, then Jiraiya could do something about this all... Itachi hoped. To his calculations, that's what would happen. After that, they'd be reassigned with a different Jinjuuriki... They were planning to resurrect the Ten Tails, a weapon of mass murder.

Now the question was, where to find Jiraiya? To Itachi's knowledge, Jiraiya was a well known novelist. That meant he was probably 'on tour'. Itachi slightly paled as he thought about what he was supposed to do. Jiraiya was a porn novelist. And to find out where he was, he had to pose as an avid porn novel reader. The things he had to do...

Itachi headed for the nearest village. Jiraiya's works would probably be there...

And so, Itachi found himself in a book store, in a disguise, asking the store clerk about Jiraiya. The clerk was very, er, eager about said topic. "Yes, yes, Jiraiya-san! He is my hero! Yes, his books have changed my life!" The store clerk, an average middle aged man, said. Itachi forced a smile on his face.

"Yes. He has changed my life so much, and I want an autograph. Will you please tell me where he is right now?" Itachi asked, through gritted teeth. A stray sweat drop went down his forehead. He couldn't believe he was doing this... Him... a clan murder... asking for the author of porn novels. The things a ninja had to do...

"Well, last time I heard, he was on tour near the Hidden Village of the Cloud. Sir?" He asked, but Itachi was out of there. That was one of the most embarrassing experiences of his young life... Including the time when his mother and father had sat down and questioned his sexuality. To think that he had to actually lie and say he had a girlfriend to get him off his case...

Mother, Father, he thought as he felt a horrible pain clench his heart. Then he coughed, blood spattering on his hand. He stared at it. This was the first time that he had coughed blood, but the coughing hadn't stopped, and it had been a few years now. That was, strange, to say the least... Itachi knew that he had to visit a medic sometime soon. With his luck, he wouldn't be surprised if he had some kind of horrible fatal disease that was incurable.

He decided that it was time to head to head to the Cloud.

Actually, it turned out that Jiraiya wasn't in the Cloud. Or the Rain. Itachi had spent a total of a month searching for the man, and creating some very, very embarrassing moments. There was only so much that Itachi could take, however. He had sworn his revenge against Jiraiya when the time came.

Finally, he had finally found Jiraiya sometime later in the Country of Tea. Itachi took a deep breath, controlling his annoyance, making his face blank. He'd do what he did last time. Create a genjutsu, and drop a scroll in Jiraiya's hand, this time, about Naruto. If Jiraiya investigated the Akatsuki, he would believe Itachi by now. Well, he wouldn't exactly believe Itachi; he'd believe the anonymous person that kept dropping information in his hands.

And so, Itachi created the Genjutsu, making himself into his 'favourite' middle aged man, with average brown hair and eyes. He walked, straight to were Jiraiya was... What? What was Jiraiya doing? He stared at Jiraiya, who was crawling on the ground, with a large weapon like thing. It was black, and Jiraiya was staring through it... Itachi didn't understand, so he observed Jiraiya himself.

Jiraiya was red in the face, blushing, and giggling. There was even some drool on the edge of his mouth, and his pupils were dilated, as if he was very concentrated on whatever he was doing. Itachi stared... and stared... and stared, getting nowhere.

Only when he saw a stampede of women start throwing rocks at Jiraiya, did he understand. Jiraiya was, peeping, was it? He was staring at naked women... Itachi shuddered, not able to even imagine why a man degraded himself so. What was the point? Women were vile, drooling creatures... Itachi tried to forget, but failing, decided to continue with his mission. Genjutsu in place, he walked over were Jiraiya was knocked out, and dropped the scroll. Afterwards, he fled the village.

And resolved to only search Jiraiya out as his last, final, option.

Itachi then twisted his ring, getting in contact with Kisame. His hologram appeared in front of Kisame, startling the eating Kisame. " I have finished." Itachi said monotonously, his eyes glaring at nothing in particular. "We shall meet up in front of the Akatsuki base." Kisame nodded his head, still slightly shocked at seeing Itachi just there, and Itachi severed the connection.

It was time to get back to the Akatsuki base. He would get there, to his calculations, in approximately five days, but didn't mention that piece of information to Kisame. Itachi mentally shrugged his shoulders, knowing that there was absolutely nothing he could do about that. Kisame would contact him if he had problems. Although Itachi wasn't sure that Kisame's pride could take that.

Itachi started running, mentally contemplating the decision to have Jiraiya as the informant. He regretted the pros that came along with it, because in his head, the cons heavily outweighed them. He continued running non stop, relieving all his frustration in running, only stopping for basic needs like food and water. Surprisingly, he managed get to the Akatsuki base two days ahead of schedule. Strange.

Kisame was waiting for him there, his face grim and slightly annoyed, showing that he had waited around a day. Itachi felt no guilt. "Shall we leave, Itachi-san?" Kisame growled, in a rough voice. This was the first time he had actually heard Kisame speak, and it was exactly what Itachi was expecting. Itachi nodded, not feeling exhausted, and they started walking down the road.

Itachi wondered why they weren't running, but said nothing. They were in no particular rush. And anyway, it would take a while for Jiraiya to get to Naruto. It would be better if they didn't rush. Although it would take them around a week if they kept on walking, non stop.

Itachi and Kisame were strangely silent. Kisame, much to Itachi's surprise, didn't talk if not necessary. Until the fourth day, that was. "Itachi, if we are to make a team, we should know each other, or some facts about each other, anyway." He said, sounding hostile. Itachi personally agreed; while he and Kisame did not argue, they certainly didn't get along very well, either.

"I am part of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. I possess the Samehada, a sword that eats chakra. I joined Akatsuki to see the truth of the world." Kisame said, grudgingly. Itachi thought over this information in his head. Kisame was a powerful ally, but Itachi was uncertain, and slightly skeptical about Kisame beating him in battle.

"I am wielder of the sharingan. The sharingan is able to copy all abilities, and makes me a master of Genjutsu. I massacred my whole family, excluding one person. I joined Akatsuki because the idea of peace appealed to me." Itachi said, carefully choosing the information that he should disclose. This was all a painfully awkward process; two people fearsome criminals that held a strong dislike for each other trying to 'bond'.

Kisame made no more attempts for them to get to know each other, not after that.

By the end of the week, Kisame and him had formed some sort of strange friendship. They understood each other; Itachi had learned that Kisame knew the sting of betrayal, just like him. While their personalities were very different, they shared the same beliefs, more or less. Although Kisame was much more devoted to Akatsuki and genuinely believed in the Akatsuki's idea of 'world truth'. Itachi held his tongue, and did not argue.

Konoha was steadily approaching, but him and Kisame were taking many breaks along the way, not making themselves rush. There was no need. Itachi had told Kisame about Uzumaki Naruto, saying that in a month, the Chunin exams would take place, and that that was probably the best time to attack. Theoretically, it was. Naruto would be confined to the village, and he would be by himself training, so there was no need to involve others. Itachi had shared with Kisame that he didn't enjoy unnecessary violence, and that fighting was usually pointless.

Kisame didn't agree with the last statement, but Itachi paid no heed. By that time, Itachi was certain that Kisame was wondering how an earth a peace loving person like him managed to kill his entire family. Sometimes, Itachi wondered about that, too.

Truly, he was lucky to have Kisame as a partner, out of all of the Akatsuki. Even though Kisame was more perceptive than he led on, and it would be slightly harder to fool him. The idea of getting Orochimaru as Itachi's partner made Itachi shiver in disgust.

They were ten. Ten fingers. Ten Tails. Ten Akatsuki.

And most of the time, Itachi found that he was the most normal of them all.

That was puntastic! Kidding. I was just imagining the Jiraiya seen. Poor, poor, innocent Itachi. So things are speeding up! Grins! please stay tuned, and stay assured, the next chapter it will be less boring than this one. Once more, LUUUUURVE to Airyo-chan!

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Aurora-chan!