The group was all a cacophonous chatter as they headed back to the Hokage, and Sasuke found himself smacking the middle of it and loving every second of it. Remaining a silent rock in the middle of a rising tide, he allowed the waves of excited sound to crash over him like a calming, soothing wash of happiness. Still coming down from the high caused by his performance and in shock from the crowd's reaction to it, Sasuke saw, rather than felt, the energy rolling off his companions, tinged in multicolored hues of emotion.

Naruto floated along behind Sasuke as he allowed himself to be pulled along by the energy of his friends, close enough that he could reach forward and unobtrusively brush the backs of their hands together. None of the others noticed the bracelet floating in midair, or they if they did, they paid Naruto no mind, and Sasuke was suddenly glad that he had been able to give that to the ghost. He had been afraid of people finding out who he was and hating him, and now he could walk amongst them as equals, even if they couldn't see him.

"So, Sasuke," Sakura said from next to him, interrupting his thoughts and causing him to jump slightly. "Did you like singing with us? Did you have fun?"

Chuckling a little, Sasuke shook his head wonderingly. "More fun than I've had in a long time."

"Yes!" Sakura pumped a fist into the air. "Success! We have turned the once antisocial foreigner into a native of Konoha, complete with the outgoing personality and fun loving nature that gives us all our distinct shine!"

"I think you mean 'distinct powers of annoyability',"Sasuke remarked dryly with a smirk.

But Sakura just shrugged the insult off. "You know you love us anyway."

The problem was, Sakura was right.

"Hey, Sasuke," Ino called from where she was hanging onto Choji's arm. The two had been inseparable since they had left the stage, even though they had been mercilessly and good-heartedly teased for their PDA. "We always get a Cranberry Lime Seltzer in the kitchen after every performance; it's a tradition. You wanna come with us to the 'staff only' area and have one?"

The offer was tempting, and Sasuke was elated to be included in such a tradition, but just as he was about to accept, the front of the Hokage came into view, illuminated in the growing dark by several lights over the main entrance, and Naruto grabbed his arm, bringing him up short. Frowning, Sasuke was just about to ask what was wrong, but then he saw them.

Three spirits, dressed in black cloaks that were decorated with clouds as red as flame, were standing in the shadows beside the Inn, waiting silently for someone, and when their eyes affixed to Sasuke, he knew they were waiting for him. Mouth going suddenly dry, Sasuke gripped the strap of his satchel a little harder as if to reassure himself it was still there, then answered Ino, trying to sound as if nothing was wrong.

"I'd love to, but I just realized that I think I dropped something. I'm going to go retrace my steps for a bit to see if I can find it, so you guys go on ahead."

"Do you need any help?" Sakura inquired, concern on her face.

Sudden panic set into Sasuke. "No!" He almost shouted, and the faces of his companions swiveled towards him in confusion and concern.

"No," Sasuke repeated more calmly, forcing his fear down into a size that was more manageable. "I'll find it myself. You guys go inside; there's no sense of us all looking."

They still looked suspicious, but finally Sakura nodded unhappily. "I guess so. Good luck, Sasuke."

"You'll need it," Choji added. "It's getting dark out."

And boy, didn't Sasuke notice that fact.

Hinata was the last one to enter the Hokage, and, without meeting Sasuke's eyes, she gave a stuttering, "G- good luck," before disappearing inside.

"What's her problem?" Sasuke asked, confused by the behavior of the gentle girl.

"She's probably in shock and a little jealous," Naruto answered without much concern. "She was privy to our finale, after all."

Sasuke's cheeks turned bright red as the implications of Naruto's statement hit him. He'd forgotten that Hinata could see Naruto, but of course she had witnessed the somewhat exuberant ending to his performance. The knowledge stung Sasuke with embarrassment for a few moments, but then he shook his head angrily to clear his thoughts. They had more pressing matters to deal with right now.

When Sasuke looked up at the Akatsuki, they were still staring at him and Naruto with unmoving gazes, and it unsettled him. What was their purpose here? What could be they possibly gain from doing what they were doing?

Sasuke held his ground against the three piercing gazes for as long as he could, but eventually the cold, dead eyes overcame his own gaze, and he looked away. Beside him, Naruto did the same, and they huddled closer almost subconsciously, taking comfort in the other's warmth.

"What should we do?" Naruto whispered.

"They're here for us, but they aren't doing anything yet," Sasuke observed quietly. "They're waiting for something…"

But the question was, what were they waiting for?

The answer hit Sasuke all at once, like a wave of pure understanding. The Akatsuki were waiting for their company to be completed, for the one who had spied on them earlier to join the midnight stalemate. They were waiting for Neji.

"Neji," Sasuke gasped out on a whisper, and Naruto's eyes widened in shocked understanding.

"But didn't he go to bed? He was exhausted after earlier today."

Just then, as if the Akatsuki had heard what they were saying, a blast of dark aura so powerful it nearly blew Sasuke back a few steps back emanated from the spirits at the edge of the shadows, causing horrified shivers to go down his spine.

Gasping from the sudden pressure caused by the dark aura, Sasuke managed, "If he's in there, he felt that. Even if he was asleep, there is no way he could miss something of this magnitude."

Spectral teeth chattering, Naruto clung a little tighter to Sasuke. "So what do we do now?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, taking in every detail that he could and memorizing it. "We wait for Neji. Then, we see what they want. We have no other choice."

The same black aura from earlier that day woke Neji from a dead sleep with an abrupt bolt of terror, and he was on his feet before he had time to think, grabbing his shirt from the floor and tugging it on as he shoved his feet inside his shoes. Shirt still in the stages of being buttoned by hurried fingers and laces untied, he flew down the stairs in a panic, one though in his mind: they hadn't had to find the Akatsuki; the Akatsuki had come to find them.

As Neji entered the lobby, he heard Shikamaru yelling at the two other ghosts he had yet to have much interaction with.

"No, Kiba! Stay here with Lee!"

A frantic shout followed the instructions. "I won't! I'm not an idiot, Shikamaru; I can sense that sick aura, same as you, and I'm not about to sit here and do nothing about it!"

"Kiba has a point," remarked a more calm voice. "If this comes down to a fight, we're going to need every bit of power we can get."

Frustration bled through Shikamaru's tone, and Neji felt surprise at the blatant emotion present in the ghost who had presented such an unaffected facade to him earlier. "Which is exactly what they want you to think, Shino! Can't you tell that there's only three of them out there? There were five when we first saw them, which means that the other two are hiding somewhere! What would happen if we all were distracted by those three, and the other two snuck in here and hurt Lee? What would you do if they got all of us in one place and confined us to get us out of the way while they did something horrible? We need a backup plan, and that means you need to stay here!"

Silence followed that outburst as Neji listened, tightening the laces on his shoes, then the formerly frantic voice Shikamaru had addressed as Kiba spoke again, but more calmly this time. "I suppose that makes sense."

"Of course it does!"

The voice of a female ghost interrupted them. "Lee's waking up, and he's having trouble! Someone help me hold him down before he hurts himself!"

"Damn," the stoic voiced phantom, who Shikamaru had addressed as Shino, swore. "Kiba, come on! We'll take care of Lee; it'll probably take all three of us."

"And keep a lookout for the other two ghosts," Shikamaru instructed. "We don't know if they're going to try anything sneaky."

"Got it, Shika!" Kiba yelled, the sound of his voice fading as if he was moving into another part of the Inn.

A few seconds later, Shikamaru came floating out into the lobby at the exact moment when Neji stood up after tying his shoes, and raised an eyebrow at the harried boy.

"Your shirt's buttoned up wrong."

With a curse, Neji moved to fix the offending buttons, but Shikamaru flicked his hand in a parody of laziness that was belayed by his concerned eyes and tone, and all the buttons on Neji's shirt popped out and rebut toned themselves in the proper places. A slight shiver crept up Neji's spine as the tendrils of power brushed against his skin, but he shook the feeling off.

"What are you doing?" Neji asked coldly, seeking to brush off the calculating gaze resting on him.

"I'm confronting the Akatsuki with you," Shikamaru answered calmly, folding his arms across his chest.

"No, you're not," Neji rejected, slightly less calmly. "You don't even know what you're talking about!"

"Please." Shikamaru narrowed his eyes in a challenge. "There is nothing that goes on in this town that I do not know about. Besides, I think I've already proven my worth to you."

Neji shivered at the reminder of the humiliating and strangely exciting defeat he had suffered earlier that day, but quickly recovered. "A game of chess is different from a real fight."

Something snapped deep with shim arms gaze then, and he laughed coldly at Neji. "Oh, and don't I know it, perhaps better than you do. Tell me, Mr. Neji Hyuuga, what do you really know of me?"

Gulping, Neji found himself sucked into that cold gaze and unable to answer.

"What say you? Nothing? Well, that's exactly right: you know nothing about me. You know nothing of how my father sold the Hokage at the end of the the twenties soon when I was still a child, of how I grew up during the Great Depression, or of how I was shipped off to fight in World War 2 as soon as I was old enough. You know nothing of how I was promoted to an officer's position after I proved my worth, of how I lead my squadron to victory after bloody victory, or of the blood that rests on my hands."

"I…" Neji tried to say weakly, but Shikamaru cut him off.

"But go ahead and assume things about me. Go ahead and assume my worth and my story. After all, you are the one who must know best, because you are the one still alive."

Facing into those cold eyes, Neji suddenly found the need to warm them.

"I'm sorry." It was the only thing he could think of to say.

The apology startled Shikamaru enough that the hard coldness of his eyes was dislodged, and he looked away from Neji. "I don't need your sympathy. What's done is done, and what's dead is dead. There's no going back for one such as me."

"I'm still sorry."

Shikamaru's gaze, now inscrutable, swung back to Neji.

Bowing his head in apology, Neji continued. "I behaved rudely and insulted you without the intention of doing so, and for this, I apologize. I would be honored if you would join us in our confrontation of the Akatsuki."

"You really are fascinating."

That was certainly not the response Neji had been expecting, and when he lifted his head again in surprise, he saw that Shikamaru's angry attitude had already evaporated, and a lightly amused smile was tugging at the corner of his mouth. What was slightly more alarming, though, was a look of unrestrained hunger in his eyes.

"I- I beg your pardon," Neji choked out.

"No, you don't," Shikamaru responded, tilting his head to one side to better stare at Neji. "You would never beg; it is not in your nature. I have learned that much, at least."

Neji felt his face flush, knowing that the phantom was right. Trying to change the subject, he turned around, moving towards the door. "We have to go. There's no telling what the Akatsuki might do if we don't show up."

"Indeed," Shikamaru muttered darkly, his amused facial expression melting away like hot wax dripping from a candle.

To Neji, Shikamaru was shadowy and indecipherable, his moods carefully calculated and yet impossible to predict. If he didn't know better, he would think that the phantom enjoyed toying with him.

As soon as Neji and Shikamaru came out the door of the Hokage to join Naruto and Sasuke, the three black-cloaked spirits backed away and melted into the darkness, visible only as red patches vibrantly standing out against the falling night like fresh bloodstains. Naruto started after then but Shikamaru caught his arm.

"Wait. We don't know what they want. That may have just been a scare tactic."

Sasuke shook his head slowly after exchanging a glance with Neji. "No, that was no scare tactic. That was a challenge, and if we don't answer it, they'll consider us weak. Right now, they show us at least a little respect, since they challenged us as equals, but if they think we're weak, they won't hesitate to cut us down. We have no choice; we have to follow them."

"Are you sure?" Shikamaru asked critically, his brow furrowing in thought.

It was Neji who answered. "Absolutely. I don't know why I'd didn't realize earlier that this might happen. The Hyuuga family has many archives on ghosts of many different types, and this is typical behavior of Akatsuki. A group of Akatsuki is very similar to a pack of wolves, and will challenge anyone they view as a threat to their territory."

Clenching his fists in anger, Naruto growled, "Konoha is our territory, not theirs!"

Raising an eyebrow, Neji observed, "And apparently, groups of phantoms demonstrate the same behavior."

Naruto spun around to spew his anger at Neji. "This isn't the time for jokes!"

Neji made as if to retort, but Sasuke cut him off. "This isn't the time or place to fight among ourselves! We have a job to do! Neji, can you follow the trail of their aura to where they're waiting for us?"

Squinting a little into the twilight, Neji nodded. "Yes. They went this way; I'm sure of it. Follow me."

The Akatsuki had headed down a path in the forest behind the Hokage, Sasuke soon found out. The limbs of the trees overhead blocked out what little light the setting sun gave out, so when the entered the forest, Sasuke found himself suddenly and uncomfortably blind. The only thing keeping him on the path was Neji, who had grabbed Sasuke's arm as soon as he had faltered, leading him without a word along the path only he could see. Sasuke had a feeling it was his way of showing gratitude for Sasuke's silent acceptance of Neji's own weakness earlier that day. The ghosts, of course, had no need to avoid low hanging branches or roots sticking up from the ground.

"Why didn't we bring a flashlight?" Sasuke griped as he stumbled, and the sound of his voice slightly diffused the silent, dark tension of the moment.

"We didn't have time to grab one," Naruto chuckled halfheartedly. "Where would you have gotten one, anyway?"

"I don't know, but I should have planned ahead," Sasuke moaned as he stubbed his toe on ha root emerging from the ground. "I've got a fucking silver cross in this damned bag, but not a stupid flashlight."

"Poor Sasuke," Naruto teased. "Prepared for anything, yet he can't remember to pack something as simple as a flashlight."

"Hush," Shikamaru shushed them as Neji stopped up short, bring the tense aura of the moment back to the group.

"There's a clearing up ahead. It appears to the the shore of a small lake. The Akatsuki are floating over the water, waiting for us."

"Smart," Sasuke muttered. "They've put themselves out of reach."

"But that also means they can't attack us," Naruto pointed out.

"Unless they're confident in their ability to attack from a distance," Sasuke countered.

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes. "So you think it's a trap."

Sasuke sighed, nervous. He had never gone up against an opponent as dangerous or powerful as an Akatsuki before, and here he was, about to confront three on his own and with people to protect. If this came to a fight, it would be one of the toughest ones of his life. "Unfortunately, I'm almost positive that's it's a trap."

Then Neji turned around to face the rest of them, and Sasuke saw that his eyes were faintly luminous. "Even so, we have no choice. We must answer their challenge, and we must answer it on their terms."

"Forward, then?" Naruto asked nervously.

"Forward," Sasuke agreed, tightening his grip on the strap of his satchel as Neji in turn tightened his grip on Sasuke's wrist and pulled him forward into the clearing.

The first thing Sasuke saw was the moon, which was beginning to rise overhead, illuminating the scene and the black-cloaked spirits that had challenged them. The Akatsuki were waiting just as Neji had said they were, floating a good ten years out over the open water. The ground underneath Sasuke's feet was beach-like in quality, but a rocky beach rather than a sandy one like the fight with Gaara had taken place on. The rocky shore went all the way up to the treeline, as if the dark forest was encroaching menacingly upon the hapless beach.

The place they had exited the forest from was about in the center of the rocky beach, with roughly twenty yards of cleared ground on either side of them. After that, the forest reclaimed the shore, trees growing so close to the edge of the water that some of their branches hung out over the lakes edge, gently leaning down to brush the water's surface. One of the largest of the overhanging limbs even had a rope attached to it, as if it was a swing often used for jumping into the water.

The lake itself was small enough that Sasuke could clearly see the opposite side, but deep, dark from its depth and tranquil, and the only thing disturbing the luminous reflection of the moon on its surface being the shadows of the Akatsuki, for their malevolent auras were powerful enough to affect the world of the living and block light from a man's sight. Very near to where Sasuke and the others were standing, a small stream was trickling out of of the lake in the direction of the ocean, and on the other side of the lake, Sasuke saw a similar stream flowing into the body of water.

Sasuke had only a few seconds to take this all in before the Akatsuki made their move. The centermost draugr took a few steps forward, the ones on either side of him taking a single step forward to flank him, so the three spirits stood in a sharp formation, like an arrowhead. They all had the cowls of their cloaks pulled up to their noses so their lower faces were obscured, but each possessed such distinctive hair that it was impossible to not be able to tell them apart.

The leader had metal stud piercings on either side of his nose and a shock of red hair that fringed over his eyes. In contrast to this controlled red fringe, the man to his left had blond hair that obscured half his face and was so long that it almost made him look feminine, until one noticed the heavy cheekbones and vicious eyes that looked like they wanted nothing more than to watch people burn. The draugr on the leader's other side had a face that was indeed green, as Neji had remarked from their earlier espionage encounter, but Sasuke now noticed in the faint light from the moon that while his skin had a mere greenish tint to it, the hair on his head had a leaf-like quality to it, as if was a bush perched atop his skull and not a crown of hair.

The man in the center pulled the cowl away from his face and fixed the group with a stare that held no malice, only distent coldness, and yet was terrifying to behold. The two other Akatsuki follow suit, revealing a predatory grin, in the case of the blond, and an expression completely devoid of interest, in the case of the one with the green face. The leader's stern face was a perfect balance between the expressions of both of his underlings, somehow managing to incorporate the harshness of the blond's evil smirk with the haughty smugness that stemmed from the green-haired man's expression.

The leader opened his arms in a sudden gesture of welcome, drawing Sasuke's eye.

"Greetings," he intoned in the harsh voice that Sasuke recognized from Neji's transmission when they had been spying on the Akatsuki, but it had been made smooth by the well-chosen words and tone of flattery. "We welcome you to our territory and present you with gratitude for your decision to answer our humble summons."

Well, they had excellent presentation; Sasuke could give them that. Standing together like that, they presented a unified front, giving off an aura of malice that belayed the welcoming words that had been uttered.

Neji stepped forward, shooting Sasuke a questioning look, which he gave a nod in response to. The Hyuuga had been raised to be well-spoken, an ability that Sasuke possessed but was not completely comfortable with, so he let Neji address the Akatsuki.

"What the hell do you want?" Neji bluntly asked the Akatsuki in a rude manor, folding his arms over his chest and glaring at them.

Sasuke winced. That was perhaps not the best first impression that they could have made. He had forgotten that Neji had almost no experience interacting with real, dangerous spirits.

But the Akatsuki seemed to take it in stride, and the green-faced draugr's expression even seemed to grow a little less frosty.

"What do we want?" The leader mused, rubbing his chin as if he was really thinking it over. "I wonder, Hyuuga. Perhaps it should be us who are asking that question of you?"

Hastily jumping in front of Neji in an attempt to save the situation, Sasuke said, "He meant no offense by it." Inwardly, he was thinking, If Neji's careless words don't get us killed, it will be a miracle.

"And there was none taken." But the leader's eyes had grown slightly sharper, shooting cutting slices of interpretation at Sasuke. "Uchiha."

Sasuke's heart began to beat a little faster. "How do you know my family?" He queried nervously.

"Your eyes betray you as much as the Hyuuga's eyes betrayed him. Tell me, is it customary in your family to carry, to a peaceful summons, enough silver weaponry to maim an army of ghosts?"

Sasuke's mouth went dry and he felt his heart jump into his throat. He had hoped that this might pass by without a direct confrontation, but was confrontation now unavoidable?

As if hearing his unspoken question, the leader raised his left hand in a signal, and the blond started to cackle maniacally. He popped his knuckles with a smirk that widened gleefully, then swept his hands in an arc before him, and the ground directly behind Sasuke caught fire, sending sparks high into the air.

The sudden appearance of the fire made both Sasuke and Neji jump away in a panic, but Neji wasn't quite fast enough, and the blaze caught his cuff on fire. Swearing angrily, he leapt to the water's edge and pledged his arm into the lake before the flames had a chance to spread. Both of the ghosts turned incorporeal in an attempt to escape the blaze, but when a tongue of fire licked at Naruto's arm, he also jumped towards the water's edge, yelping.

Keeping a tight hold on his satchel so as not to lose any of its contents, Sasuke rolled along the ground to absorb the impact from jumping away from the fire, but with a second and third flick of the blond's arms, two more walls of flame rose up on either side of the group, trapping them inside a box made of the three walls of fire and the shore of the lake. Despite the heat rolling off the flames, Sasuke felt a shiver go down his spine as he looked up at the blond man with the feral grin. Normal ghosts, even draugrs and Akatsuki, didn't have abilities like this, which meant he had to have possessed his powers of pyrokinesis before his death. The thought was not a reassuring one.

With another flick of his hand, the leader gave another signal, and the flames died down, then disappeared, leaving behind a strip of burnt rock and melted sand solidifying into a black glass that gave off a malevolent dark shimmer in the light from the moon. The danger was gone, but the threat had already been made. There was no escape to be found, and now everyone knew it. Sasuke and the others and no choice but to listen to the demands of the Akatsuki unless they wanted to fight an all-out battle, and one it was now painfully obvious that they would lose.

A slightly more smug expression on her face, the leader crossed his arms and gazed down at the mortals and ghosts below him. "Oh, dear. That escalated quickly. I'm afraid we got off to a bad start, but I'd like for us to try again. Let's all introduce ourselves nice and proper-like, shall we?

Neither Sasuke nor Neji moved from their positions or said anything, but the leader took their silence for the grudging acceptance it was and foraged ahead. "My name is Pain. I must say, it is quite an honor to meet two such fine and talented gentlemen as yourselves. Don't be rude, now," he instructed to his underlings, gesturing to the stony-faced group on the shore below. "Introduce yourselves."

Flipping his hair over his shoulder, but not vigorously enough to dislodge the tuft that hung down over his eye, the blond announced, "I'm Deidara, the pyrokinetic. And no, I won't roast marshmallows, so don't bother asking."

That wouldn't have been the first thing Sasuke would say to a pyromaniac, but he supposed there must have been someone stupid enough to try it. He pitied the poor soul who had made that mistake.

The man with the green face didn't make eye contact with them as he introduced himself, instead keeping his gaze trained several feet above their heads. "Zetsu."

Apparently, Zetsu wasn't much of a talker.

The leader, Pain, opened his arms again. "There. Now you know us, but we still don't know you. Won't you give us the honor of telling us your names?"

Sasuke started forward, intending to speak for all of them, but Neji beat him to the punch.

"My name is Neji Hyuuga," he announced to the Akatsuki, and Sasuke almost hit himself in the forehead in disbelief. Neji had claimed to be the intelligence to Sasuke's brute strength, and here he was, making the more mistakes out of the two of them.

One of the Akatsuki was a confirmed pyrokinetic; it wasn't much of a stretch to assume that another might have the power to curse people, and Neji had just handed them exactly what they needed to do that. Even worse, he had just opened it up for Sasuke to get cursed as well. Neji, having proffered his own real name, would expect Sasuke to do the same, and would react adversity if he gave a false name. That would alert the Akatsuki, who would go after Sasuke to find out his real name, and in a fashion perhaps not so nice as their current one.

Dammit, Neji! Sasuke swore inside himself as he took a deep breath and a step forward to buy himself some time to think of a way out of this situation, but no solution presented itself, and the Akatsuki were looking at him expectantly, so he gripped the strap of his satchel a little tighter and prepared to speak, and perhaps condemn himself.

"Uchiha," he muttered. "Sasuke Uchiha."

"Sasuke," Pain almost purred, rolling the syllables around on his tongue like honeyed wine.

Maritime, true to form, started to pipe up as well, but an angry glare from Pain and a spurt of Deidara's fire quickly silenced him.

"I did not ask your name, now did I?" Pain roared suddenly, sending Naruto to cower behind Sasuke and causing Shikamaru to finch, but hold his ground. "Filthy spirits! Your meager existences are not even worthy enough to garnish our omnipotent reign, foul gutter-ghosts!"

"Asshole! What makes us any less worthy than you?" Naruto screamed, jumping out from behind Sasuke and launching himself at the Akatsuki.

"Naruto!" Sasuke just managed to grab Naruto by the back of his shirt before he got out of reach, but he kept struggling and screaming.

"Why are you any better than us? Aren't we all dead? Why can't you just leave us alone?"

"Stop it, Naruto!" Shikamaru commanded. "You're just making it worse!"

"No! I won't!" Naruto struggled against Sasuke's hold, making him wrap both arms about his middle in order to keep him constrained. "We were here first! Why do we have to sit and listen to them? Konoha is our town!"

That was the wrong thing to say. Immediately, all three of the Akatsuki's eyes hardened into marbles of ice, sending frozen glares at Naruto. The aura rolling off them was now thick enough to smother someone, and Sasuke was finding it hard to breath. Beside him, Neji started to choke, and Shikamaru hauled the collar of his shirt up over his mouth, creating a flimsy barrier between the air thick with malice and Neji's lungs.

"Konoha does not belong to you," Pain said slowly, enunciating each word with careful clipped diction. "But it does not belong to us either. We are, as you said, all dead. We simply need it more than you right now, so we have taken control of the spiritual plane of this town. A weak specter like you could never hope to be the equal of us."

"Bastard! I'll show you how strong I am!"

This time, Naruto struggled so hard that Sasuke had to tackle him to the ground to keep him from escaping his hold. While they were down, Sasuke took the opportunity to whisper in Naruto's ear.

"Stop fighting. If they don't know how strong you are, that gives us an advantage in a fight. Don't show your powers, because the only thing keeping them from eliminating you is the fact that they're underestimating you. Be our ace, Naruto. Can you do that?"

Naruto stilled underneath Sasuke, then gave a single jerky nod. Sasuke only let him up when he felt that Naruto had understood what he had said, then turned nervously toward the Akatsuki, hoping that they wouldn't suspect what he had whispered in Naruto's ear.

The Akatsuki must have been extremely confident, because they didn't even react to Naruto's last angry trade, and were watching the interactions with unamused expressions. Once Sasuke had gotten up and dusted himself off, Pain remarked in a bored tone, "If you're done restraining your pet, might we resume our business?"

"Pet?" Naruto hissed incredulously under his breath, but calmed down again when Sasuke gripped his shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"What business would someone like you have with people like us?" Sasuke asked, careful to keep his tone neutral.

"Why, the same business we have with anyone who sticks their noses into our business." Pain's voice became suddenly cold and sharp. "What were you doing today when we found you outside of our base?"

Neji and Sasuke shared a glance, then Sasuke stepped forward. He had more experience lying, after all, and this would require spontaneously lying through his teeth - and believably - for them to make it out this.

"Simple reconnaissance," Sasuke stated, hiding his nervousness behind a mask of iron. "This down has an over abundance of spirits, and with that comes an abnormal level of ghosts liable to attack those of our station on sight. We were investigating your aura to see if it was something we should avoid, but obviously we weren't expecting to encounter such spirits of vast intelligence and power as yourselves. We humbly apologize for the intrusion."

"Simple reconnaissance," Pain repeated doubtfully. "For some reason, I don't quite believe you."

Sasuke's heart thudded painfully hard in his chest, but he kept his face blank. "Why? We have no motivation to lie to you. I've been in Konoha for over two weeks already; don't you think that if I had come on a mission with a darker purpose, I would choose to investigate a little quicker?"

"That's what makes me suspicious," Pain countered. "Your story is a little too convenient, a little too spotless. It would be safer for us to just kill you and forget this ever happened."

Sasuke's throat went dry, and he abruptly lost his voice. This was not how this was supposed to work out!

"If you have any sense of self-preservation, I would highly advise against that." Neji took a step forward and stood shoulder to shoulder with Sasuke. "No spectral murder can be committed without leaving traces of spectral power. If the both of us are killed together, members of both the Hyuuga clan and the Uchiha clan will come investigate our deaths. Do you really want to fight the combined might of both of our families?"

"Please." Deidara pointed to a limb of a tree that was hanging over the water, and it burst into flame, cracking away from the tree and landing with a splash in the water. Slowly it floated to the bottom of the lake, burning all the while and sending steam up from the surface of the water. "We can bring down any enemy that comes after us."

"I say we kill them." It was the longest sentence Sasuke had heard Zetsu utter, but the novelty of that didn't take the chill out of its contents.

"Now, not so fast." Pain looked over the group on the beach again, and Sasuke felt a little naked under that cold gaze. "We may still have a use for them. Hyuuga!" He called.

Neji jumped at the sound of his name. "Yes?"

"While you were eavesdropping, I assume you heard the reason why we're here in this town?"

Swallowing visibly before answering, Neji asked, rather that stated, "You're looking for something?"

Pain's eyes narrowed. "And what might that something be?"

"Th- the Kyuubi."

"Exactly," Pain mused. "The Kyuubi. We've been looking for it for three years now, but it still eludes us. Would you happen to know why that is?"

"N- no," Neji stuttered. "I've never heard of it before now."

Pain gave a disappointed hum. "Ah, well. It was worth a shot. The reason we cannot find it is because there are wards all over this town that prevent us from going inside the places that we need to access for research. But you…" He trailed off, his eyes misting over, before he shook his head and continued. "You could get into them. You could do the research for us. So, let us strike a deal: we won't kill you, and in return, you will help us find the Kyuubi."

Sasuke stomach started to churn uncomfortably. It was now all too clear that they were no match for the Akatsuki; it had only taken one of them to subdue the entire group earlier, and the other two had yet to even show their powers. Not to mention the fact that there were two other Akatsuki draugrs who hadn't even shown themselves yet.

And yet, there was no way Sasuke could ever agree to a deal with an Akatsuki draugr, like the one who had driven his brother mad. He would rather die than suffer that violation of his basic moral code, but there was also Neji to consider. Sasuke couldn't sentence an innocent that he had dragged into this to death just for his twisted sense of honor.

"Sasuke Uchiha. I thought I might find you here. What are you doing?"

Sasuke slowly turned his head back to the treeline, where a voice he hadn't heard since the night before was calmly intruding upon his inner thoughts. When owner of that voice stepped out of the shadows at the edge of the forest, Sasuke saw that Tenten was holding a gun.

"I could ask you the same thing," Sasuke stated much more calmly than he felt.

"This place is private, and well hidden." Tenten pointed the gun at Sasuke. "There no way you could have found it on your own. What's your game?"

Slowly, Sasuke raised his hands over his head, frustrated at himself. Now he was facing an enemy on both sides, and one of them was someone he had hoped to count as an ally. But just as he was getting ready to fast-talk his way out of this one, Tenten's eyes widened and she swung her gun up to point at the Akatsuki.

"Damn ghosts," she swore. "Can't you just leave us in peace?"

"Puny human," Deidara laughed. "As if a gun could do any damage to us."

"And before you get to cocky," Tenten announced, "This gun is loaded with silver bullets. I'm pretty sure that could take down any ghost."

"How do you know where they are?" Sasuke hissed, backing away from her. Had Tenten been lying when she had said that she couldn't see ghosts?

"On the lake," she explained. "Their shadows. If I can see those, I can hit them. I'm the best shot in this whole town."

"I'll burn you before you get the chance to shoot!" Deidara cried, but Pain threw an arm out in front of him to stop him.

"No." His eyes carefully surveyed the scene below him before he made a decision. "Leave them be."

"But-"

"No buts!" Pain swung his gaze around to pin Deidara, who cowered under his leader's glare. "This is where we take our leave."

The Akatsuki turned to go, then Pain turned back. "Oh, and Hyuuga, Uchiha: remember our deal. Find out about the Kyuubi for us, and we won't hurt you. 'Till we meet again."

And with that, they were gone. Tenten kept her pose for a couple more seconds before whispering out of the side of her mouth, "Are they gone?"

"Yeah, they're gone."

"Good." Tenten abruptly slumped, pointing the gun vaguely in Sasuke's direction.

"Hey! Watch where you're pointing that thing!" Sasuke jumped out of the path of the gun.

"What's? This?" Tenten asked, gesturing to the gun. "It's not loaded. I don't even know how to shoot one of these, actually."

Four jaws, two spectral, two real, dropped in surprise.

"You bluffed three ghosts who were serial killers in their lives with an unloaded gun, and you've never even shot one before?" Sasuke shook his head in admiration. "You are one amazing girl, Tenten."

"Yes." Tenten chucked the unloaded gun carelessly over her shoulder, then put her hands on her hips. "And now that that's been decided, would you mind telling me what the hell is going on here?"