A/N: Hey guys! So school's about to start, and I've started working on the next chapter, but I have two writing classes this semester (Playwriting and Advanced Fiction Writing), so I can't promise to keep up with posting as well as I have over break, but I will do my best. I hope everyone had a great holiday season, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I only own my characters, each OC goes to their respective creators, and Naruto belongs to Kishimoto san.

Chapter Seventeen

Grunt Work

Kye's POV

"Ugh this is so boring!" I exclaimed. "It's just like grunt work!"

"Maybe it wouldn't be so boring if you actually did something," Kankuro said in annoyance.

"You don't let me do anything!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, because you messed up the last time you tried to help!"

"All I did was ask if Orochimaru had been there!"

"There's your problem! You can't secretly gather information if you're obvious about it!" Kankuro cried out in exasperation.

"How else am I supposed to gather information, then?" I demanded.

"But being subtle! Ask questions about general things happening, then use clues around you to figure out if it's related to Orochimaru or not!" Kankuro sounded exhausted, which was exactly the case. He had been working a lot, and he had to put up with me. He muttered something under his breath. Something about kids being annoying.

"Hey! I'm not a kid!" I shouted.

"Whatever," he waved me off and took a deep breath. "Look, just stay here, I'll be right back."

I sighed, and plopped down on the ground next to a tree, preparing for a long wait.

"Kye!" I jumped at the sound of my name. I must have fallen asleep, because the sun was already setting. I saw Kankuro standing above me with…

"Konan? Kakuzu?" I cried out in surprise, shooting up, drawing my katana, holding it at the ready, suddenly wide awake.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Kankuro said, putting his hands up. "Just listen to what they have to say."

I sent an accusing glare towards Kankuro, and demanded, "Why? Why the hell should I not destroy these two?"

"You mean besides the fact that you can't?" Kakuzu asked. "We actually are here to help you." I moved my glare to Kakuzu.

"Just listen, okay? Hey, they managed to convince me of their intentions," Kankuro pointed out.

I sent daggers at Kankuro again, then to Kakuzu, and finally Konan. Reluctantly, I lowered my sword hand slightly. I would still be ready to fight, if need be, but my stance was now slightly more relaxed.

"I understand you have no reason to trust me, but please, hear me out." I didn't say anything, just continued to glare at her. "Itachi Uchiha has discovered something… disturbing. I'm not sure if you're familiar with one of our newer members. Well, newer isn't the correct word. He's been with us for a while, but we haven't had need of him on the front lines until Sasori's death. His name is Tobi. At least, that's what he calls himself. Itachi recently came to me, saying he's not who he says he is. Of course, I was well aware that he wasn't who he said he was. I was not, however, aware of his true identity. Normally, I wouldn't care. My friends and I who started the Akatsuki organization had our own agenda; we were merely using everyone to further our goal, but when Itachi told me who Tobi really was, what he was planning to do… well, I can't sit back. I lost a close friend long ago, if I continue on this path, I'll lose another close friend." She paused in thought. "Well, I suppose he's already lost, but when I talked to him, he wanted me to do something to stop anything bad from happening."

"Akatsuki has always been about collecting the tailed beasts, right?" I asked. "How is this person getting in your way?" I was pretty sure I knew the answer, but I needed to make sure. I needed to hear it from her.

"Yahiko organized Akatsuki originally to usurp the tyrant ruling over Amegakure, to give our people freedom, and make our home free of war," Konan explained. "He, Nagato, and I grew up in a war zone, we were orphaned by war, and Yahiko was determined to do change it. We trained under a ninja from the leaf village. We trained under Jiraiya. We each developed special skills, and grew as people and shinobi, but then Jiraiya said he needed to leave, return to the leaf village. He left us to fend for ourselves, and more battles broke out. Yahiko gathered a group of Amegakure shinobi, and created the original Akatsuki. During one battle, I was captured. Yahiko sacrificed his life to save mine, and Nagato… Nagato always wanted peace. He was quiet, soft spoken, he hated fighting, and killing people tore him apart, but watching his friend die like that… tore him apart more. He summoned this… this thing. It killed almost everyone there, it gave us the upper hand, but it cost him dearly. He needs it to survive. It's also what we used to collect the tailed beasts.

"Which brings me the next stage of Akatsuki," she continued. "The criminal organization you know today. I must admit, when Tobi first approached us, he was straightforward about what he wanted, which more or less lined up with what we wanted. Nagato and I figured we could use him to our advantage and get rid of him later, but from what Itachi has told us, he had been using us from the start. He plans to gather all the tailed beasts and summon the ten tails, which, admittedly, was our plan, too. We, however, never intended to use the ten tails against the shinobi world. We wanted to intimidate them into peace. Into not fighting."

"You realize how messed up that sounds, right?" I asked. "That's literally the exact opposite of peace!"

"Yes," she said, not hiding her shame. "But I need to do something about that now. I will do something about it. This man… we can't let him do what he plans on doing."

"Which is?" I asked.

"He wants to destroy all of the villages."

"Who is this person?" I asked. I had a sinking feeling I knew already.

"Madara Uchiha," she said.

I looked at the ground, my arm falling completely to my side. I knew this wasn't good, but I also wasn't sure if I could trust her. "I need to be sure I can trust you. Both of you. All you need to do is relax." She seemed confused at first, but relaxed, and nodded. I closed my eyes, and let my mind wonder into hers, searching her memories, matching them to the story she just told. Everything lined up perfectly, though I did notice the Akatsuki member by the name of Pein and Yahiko were the same person. I would have to question her about that later. I returned to my own mind, and opened my eyes. "Does Kakuzu know everything?"

"Everything that I just told you," she said with a nod.

I opened my mouth to speak, but he beat me to it. "Just relax, right? Let me guess, it'll only take a minute?"

"Smart ass," I muttered. None the less, I closed my eyes, and let my mind wonder into his. His thoughts matched up to what Konan had already said, but there was one thing that was bothering me.

"Now, I want you to tell me about Orochimaru," I said. "I saw brief thoughts of him. Recent memories. From both of you."

Konan smiled. "Yes. Well, he came to us, offering his help in exchange for ours. He said he would capture Naruto and bring him to us if we helped him destroy the sand village."

"What?" I asked, eyes widening in surprise.

"Pein… well, technically Nagato refused him. We already tried to work with him, long ago, and that ended horribly. But I saw him with Tobi… well, Madara, and they seemed to be devising something."

"Who's with you? Besides Itachi and Kakuzu?" I asked.

"Kisame, Deidara, and Hidan," she said. "They were all there when Nagato told me to get out, and that anyone who still wished to be part of Akatsuki should follow me. Of course, we will no longer be known as Akatsuki, but that's beside the point."

"How did you all get out?" I asked.

"We ran like hell, while Nagato held them off," she replied. "I'm sure he's still alive… I hope he is. But he was the only reason we got out of there. Him and his Six Paths of Pein."

I nodded. "Well, first things first, we need to meet back up with Darcy and Akito." I glanced at Kankuro and thought, do we bring them to the sand village?

I've been thinking about that, he replied. I think I'll send a message to Gaara, and have him, Temari, and Baki meet us outside the village. We need to be extra sure they're not secretly after Naruto before we let them into our home.

I nodded. "Okay, well, follow me, I guess," I said. "Where are Hidan and Deidara, by the way?"

"Hanging back," Konan said. "I didn't want to intimidate you, but it's still best to work in pairs. They're just over that way." She directed us, and soon enough we met up with Hidan and Deidara.

This is so weird, I thought to myself.

We traveled for a while in silence. When the sun started to set, Kankuro jumped up next to me. "We should find a place to rest. The rendezvous point is still a couple of days away, there's no point in rushing there and wearing ourselves out, especially if Orochimaru is on their tail."

"I don't think he is," Konan said right behind us, surprising us. "He headed towards Kusagakure the last time I saw."

"Oh, well that's…" I started. "Shit."

"What?" Konan asked.

"Darcy and Akito are there," Kankuro said.

"Oh, yes, we know," she said. "We sent Itachi and Kisame after them. They'll be fine."

I sighed. "I hope you're right."

After three days of traveling in awkward silence, we finally arrived at the rendezvous point.

"We're a half day early, by my calculations," Kankuro said. "They should be here no later than nightfall. But we won't start searching for them unless they're not here by noon tomorrow."

I nodded. We set up camp on the outskirts of town, where Darcy had said to meet. Even though it was the middle of the day, we had guards set up, so that everyone else could relax without worrying about anything. Konan and I took the first watch. I was on the north side and she was on the south side, and we were both keeping an eye on the east and west side. Although, we really weren't worried about anyone attacking us in the middle of the day.

"That's an interesting jutsu." I looked up to see the masked Kakuzu standing next to me.

"What is? My kekkei genkai?" I asked.

"If that's what it is," he said. "The mind reading. It must be helpful on reconnaissance missions."

"Well, duh," I said.

"Don't be such a brat."

"Don't say stupid things," I retorted.

"Little brat."

"Grumpy old man."

"Tch." He walked away shortly after, and I smiled to myself.

Night had fallen a couple hours ago, and there was still no sign of Darcy, Akito, Kisame, and Itachi.

"Should we send out a scout?" I asked

"Not yet," Kankuro said. "Just relax, okay? Anything could have happened to them that slowed them down. Panicking and rushing into a situation we know nothing about won't help."

"I know, but still… they're my friends," I said, squinting into the distance, trying to will them to appear on the horizon. "I hate sitting here and doing nothing."

"I know, just be patient," Kankuro said.

A couple hours later, I finally saw three figures walking down the road… but that couldn't be them, could it? Why were there only three figures? As they approached, I realized one of them was carrying someone on their back.

"Kankuro!" I called. "I think it's them!" As they got closer, I knew it was them, and I couldn't help the huge grin the spread across my face. That smile quickly disappeared, however, when I saw Akito unconscious on Darcy's back, and how beat up Darcy looked. Actually, they both looked beat up. I hurried to meet them. "What happened?" Darcy looked pale, like she had spent all her chakra.

"O-O-Orochimaru," Darcy stammered, before collapsing. She would have fallen had Kisame not caught her. Itachi was quick to grab Akito, and I led them back to our camp, a worried look plastered on my face.

Itachi noticed, and said, "Akito nearly died. Darcy used the last of her chakra to save her. Right now, they just need rest. She's a skilled medic," he added, nodding at Darcy, who looked so peaceful asleep on the matt we set up for her and Akito. "You're lucky she trained so hard."

I nodded, and tried to calm down, but I was still worried. Worried beyond belief. As he turned to talk with Konan, I said, "We're lucky Sakura trained her. I know she worked hard, but the things she learned… well, she never would have learned them if Sakura hadn't taught her."

Itachi nodded, and gave a ghost of a smile before giving Konan a status update, and sitting by a tree with his partner. I wasn't sure how long we'd be here, but I stayed by my friend's side as much as possible.

A/N: I hope you guys liked this, and I'll try to have the next chapter posted soon. I was trying to do a chapter a week, but I'm really bad at keeping track of time, so it could be two weeks, or three. But I'll try not to make you wait half a year again. See you guys next chapter, let me know what you thought in a review!