Konan was, to say the very least, not happy about the most recent mission fiasco. An entire unit of the Verden Underground Movement was completely wiped out, with no trace left behind by those responsible for the massacre. On top of that, her own men had noticed several humans being rushed to the medical center after the mission, and a few had gone on the next assignment to the decimated rebel camp. There was talk of dissention in the ranks, and Konan knew she was in a very precarious position right now. Unless they were to get a lead on who had attacked their fellow rebels (and soon) the Falk might not have any troops left to lead. Still, the woman had to be thankful that she was alive right now. Thank goodness human wiring was so sensitive, at least in this situation. At the very least, her Falks had gained a bit of respect (or at least gratitude) towards the "canaries in the coal mine" as she'd heard Sasori say. Speaking of mines…

The woman closed a manila envelope and set it aside, moving to grab another one from a nearby mountain of a stack and opened it. That machine Sasori had found in the mine still hadn't been moved, and her top experts (read: Pein) had no clue as to its intended purpose. "Zis is wonderful," the blue-haired female grumbled. "We are 'aving few of ze pieces wiz no idea of what ze puzzle looks like, and no one seems to know where ze rest of zose pieces went. Sacrebleu." Sighing, Konan stood and stretched. A walk around the complex sounded great right now. Besides, now that the rebels were growing wary of fighting when there was a chance they could be killed in their sleep, the presence of a strong leader was needed more than ever.

-mm-

"Now try to be as specific as possible, monsieur. What exactly did ze poison smell like?"

"Very sweet," Sasori explained in an exasperated manner. He'd been poked and prodded by doctors all day, and now a researcher of Konan had come to see him, asking the redhead to explain the signs and symptoms of the neurotoxin in as fine detail as he could manage. "Not bitter, not tangy, just sweet."

"Sweet how? Like sugar, or flowers?"

"No…well, almost…" Sasori bit his lip, trying to come up with the right words to describe the scent. It was a smell that he had never experienced before; yet at the same time, it seemed almost familiar to him. "It was almost fruity, like a peach."

"And 'ow do peaches smell?"

"Like…peaches?"

The researcher shook his head and clicked something under his breath, making Deidara hiss and glare the man down. That was another thing contributing to Sasori's exhaustion; the blond had absolutely refused to leave his side for the last two days, determined that he would come to the redhead's aid in case the poison caused a delayed reaction.

"Very well zen," the researcher sighed, at last closing his notebook, "we shall see about training a few of our animals to sniff out ze toxin. Despite 'aving very little to work wiz-"

"If you're done, beat it," Deidara ordered. "Sasori needs his rest, un."

"Now listen here," the researcher began. Fortunately for both Deidara and Sasori, the man never got around to chastising them, because at that exact moment Konan and Kisame burst into the room.

"Deidara and monsieur Saso-oh, pardon moi," Konan apologized, "I was led to believe ze questioning 'ad concluded some time ago."

"Ze apology should rest wiz me, commander," the researcher replied, "I was just on my way out. Please don't let my presence be a bozer to you." And with that, he was gone.

"A good man, zat Dr. Lumiére is," Konan noted. "But I am afraid zis is somezing we should discuss wizout 'is presence."

"What is it?" Sasori asked. "And Kisame, why are you here?"

Kisame shrugged at his subordinate. "Good questions, but Konan won't give me an answer to either of them."

"Zat is because ze walls in zis place zat do not 'ave eyes most assuredly 'ave ears, as you say, and zis is top secret until furzer notice. Kisame, if you would be so kind as to lock ze door. And Deidara, please close ze air vents. We are not going to be taking any chances." Konan waited patiently until her orders had been followed, and then rearranged the men so they were sitting in a circle on Sasori's bed. "Now zen. I 'ave just received intelligence from one of our neighboring branches in regards to Itachi's whereabouts." Kisame sucked in a sharp breath, but otherwise retained his calm outward demeanor. "It's old, but ze data shows where and to whom Itachi's group was sold to when they were brought back to Verden. Zey ended up wiz a dealer by ze name of Zabuza, and let me tell you, zat monster is right up zere wiz Orochimaru on ze list of people I'd like to see in ze bottom of a grave."

"But that was years ago," Kisame lamented. "There's no way he still has Itachi after all that time!"

"Records!" Konan snapped, whapping the shark on the head with her files. "Records, monsieur fishy, is somezing 'e will most assuredly still 'ave, no matter 'ow much time passes! We can use zose to track down Itachi and ze rest of 'is men, and zere will be 'appy endings for everyone!"

"Sounds great, un," Deidara stated. "But why are we keeping it quiet, un?"

"In ze last monz, ze Verden Underground Movement found an inexplicable secret base deep in a toxic mineshaft, and lost an entire branch to chemical warfare," Konan muttered darkly. "We are no closer to finding out who is responsible for zese atrocities now zan we were when zey first occurred, and faith in my leadership skills is falling quite fast. No one in VUM approves of ze slave trade, and would love to see zis man be brought to 'is knees. But if we simply rush off to stop zis monster for no reason ozer zan as a favor to you 'umans, it looks like I'm avoiding my investigations, or possibly even losing 'ope of finding any answers. Zis victory is needed, but only if painted as somezing the entirety of VUM benefits from. Zere is ze fly in my soup, waiter."

"So you need us to help you brainstorm an angle for this," Sasori concluded.

"I am not sure what storms in brains 'ave to do wiz anyzing, but I do need your aid in coming up wiz explanations for zis."

"We can't say that Zabuza had anything to do with either the mine or the poisoning," reasoned Sasori, "because when it's revealed that he didn't help in either plot, it'll make Konan's informants seem unreliable."

"Has he ever gone after a VUM member?" Kisame inquired. "Maybe we could justify an attack if he provoked us first."

"Zabuza is many zings, but stupid enough to provoke Falks wiz guns is not one of zem," Konan sadly answered. "Ze bastard 'as always been good about giving my men a wide berz, and zat's ze only good zing about 'im."

"Maybe we're looking at this from the wrong angle, un," Deidara thoughtfully began. "There's money in slavery, yeah, but if you monopolize your income like that, it only takes a few messed up shipments to bring the whole operation down and send you to the streets, un. Does he deal in anything else, un?"

Konan opened her file and spread them out for all to see, blue eyes scanning the reports and photocopied receipts she'd been given. "Zabuza deals wiz drugs on occasion, but seems to find ze business distasteful, since most of 'is customers end up dead in ze long run. Zere are also a few records of shipped furnishings (bastard probably stole those antiques from ze battlefields when ze fighting moved on), but nozing really-"

"Wait a minute," Deidara interrupted, pulling one of the pages towards him. "Look at these three receipts, un. He ordered two hundred gallons of high grade coolant each time, un."

"Why would he-sacrébleu. Monsieur fishy, do you know what zis means?"

"I think so, but I really hope I'm wrong."

"Good to hear that someone knows. Now would you mind enlightening me?" Sasori asked, completely lost by this point.

"Most of ze ground weapons used by Falkian ground troops at ze beginning of ze war were high-powered plasma rifles, and zey packed quite a punch, as you like to say. Ze main drawback to zem, unfortunately, was zat zey had a tendency to overheat if you attempted to use zem intensely for more zan a few 'ours at a time," Konan explained. "Zey needed to be cooled down constantly, and drained coolant like a vergerbeast drinks water. Eventually we made newer weapons wiz better internal cooling, and ze older models were supposedly scrapped so as to be made unusable to anyone ever again."

"But there was a slight problem in the official number of decommissioned guns," Kisame went on. "Our intelligence suggested that there were at least twelve thousand more rifles made than were reported to be dismantled, but we could never be sure of what happened to them, since they never showed up in use by either the Falks we fought, or rogue bandits here on Verden."

The pieces were coming together in Sasori's mind now. "So you're suggesting that this Zabuza guy somehow got a hold of some or all of those guns and has been shipping them to someone else, but he's doing it a few at a time because they require so much coolant that doing it all at once would immediately set off alarm bells in anyone who tracked his purchasing receipts."

"Zese are just ze receipts we were able to find," Konan went on. "Who knows 'ow many guns 'e managed to ship off ze record! I cannot believe no one noticed zis before!"

"Look on the bright side," Sasori weakly offered. "This seems like a pretty good reason to go after the guy, if he's selling super strong weapons to some unknown power."

"Oui," Konan agreed. "But I do not much like ze idea of sending my men to fight a monster zat very well may 'ave kept some of zese weapons for use by 'is own men."

-mm-

Konan and Kisame spent the next few days barricaded inside the woman's office, going over every detail of their assault plan with expert care. The floor plan of Zabuza's mansion was covered in scribbles and marks around each doorway and window, anticipating the ideal locations where Zabuza would station his guards or snipers. The criminal mastermind had constructed a veritable fortress to live in, but Konan needed this victory and Kisame was desperate to learn the fate of his lover. One way or another, they were going to get inside his base.

"Ideally, we should move in under the cover of darkness," Kisame suggested. "It would be better to take a small squad and focus on disabling the guards one by one, than to try and mount a full-on assault against his forces."

Konan nodded at the suggestion. "Agreed. Zis mansion may be very well guarded, but only a fool wouldn't 'ave a few escape routes in ze event of zings going terribly wrong. We cannot risk letting 'im get away and fortifying ze defenses."

"Deidara and Sasori would be good for this mission," Kisame thoughtfully stated. "Kakuzu too. But Hidan definitely isn't cut out for stealth…"

"I shall see zat 'e is left in ze care of someone else while Kakuzu is on zis assignment," Konan promised. "Aside from zem, I shall take a few of my own men. I do not want more zan a dozen troops on zis assignment; it will become too large a scale to be easily managed, particularly if somezing bad 'appens in ze middle of ze mission."

"Excellent. Weapons?"

"Tranquilizer guns," Konan immediately answered. "Regular guns will make too much noise, even if we used ze newest plasma blasters on ze black market. Besides, getting blood on our 'ands makes VUM look bad to ze public, and a bad public image is ze last zing any of us need right now."

Kisame whistled at the woman's thoroughness. "Impressive. Guess the only thing left to decide is when to move out."

"My sources tell me zat Zabuza is traveling at ze moment, but should be home early next week. Our best bet is to attack ze night 'e returns 'ome, while ze man's guard is down and his defenses are weakened by jetlag."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

-days later-

"Wish us luck, Hidan," Sasori requested as he gave his comrade a farewell hug.

"Tch, you're already lucky enough to be going on this assignment," Hidan grumbled. "I'm stuck here kicking stones and staring at the Jashin-damned clouds all day."

"On the bright side, you get a break from Kakuzu, un," Deidara reminded him.

"Yeah, but I get stuck with that dumbass Tobi instead! All he does anymore is sit on his ass and file shit! If I have to hear one more whine of, 'my poor little right hand is all swollen and crampy, and now my left one is too', I'm gonna break his neck! Jashin damn it, why the hell do all these Falks trust Tobi to watch me? Of all the nerve…"

Sasori leaned in towards Deidara and whispered, "Probably because Tobi's the only one around here besides Kakuzu that doesn't piss his pants when Hidan goes on rants like this," making the blond giggle.

"Anyway, have fun, play nice with the other kids, and try not to get your asses shot up too badly," Hidan commanded, waving the two off as they boarded the ship. Everyone else was already on board, albeit most of them were still arranging their things under the seats. After doing a quick headcount to ensure that everyone was present, Konan gave the signal for her men to settle in for the ride, and as soon as the last troop was buckled in, the pilot was given the command to take off.

-mm-

Breaking into Zabuza's base soon proved to be a much harder feat than planning an invasion and traveling to the intended location. Arriving at night and making use of their black market grade night-vision binoculars, Konan and Kisame quickly scanned the mansion grounds from a safe distance.

The team's one saving grace was the fact that Zabuza had not put his mansion on top of a mountain, but had rather chosen to surround himself with the giant terrain features. Konan suspected that this was done to allow for more possible escape routes, since a house surrounded by mountains provided a plethora of possible escape tunnels, instead of tunneling straight down through one mountain, but whether this was the case or not was never discovered. The grounds had guards circling the perimeter in a timely, orderly manner, and heat vision settings on the binoculars informed the group that the same could be said for all three floors of the mansion's interior. Add to that a twenty-foot tall brick wall which had only a wrought-iron gate for an opening, and they were dealing with nothing short of a minor fortress. Considering that their target room was on the second floor as well as being on other side of the building, this was going to be difficult.

"After a guard passes the front gate, it takes 4 minutes 15 seconds for another to reach the same position," Kisame stated, having been timing the guards' routes while the others scanned the area. "Our best bet it to snag a few and replace them with ourselves. We then continue their route until we reach the entrance to the back garden, and then we sneak in through that way to the back door. After that, we'll head through the kitchen to the servants' stairway, climb up to the second floor, head straight back to the office and download whatever's on his computer to our own flash drives. Think you guys can handle that?"

"I 'ope so," Konan whispered, "Because ze next guard is about to reach ze gate! Quickly, go!"

The guard was a woman in her late twenties, slight of frame with a hand hovering close to the pistol on her hip. Obviously the woman would be relying on firearms, not brute strength, if apprehended, so disposing of her quickly was a must. Two of Konan's Falks had grappled onto the top of the brick wall, and were waiting for a signal from Kisame to make their next move. When the guard was almost past the gate, Kisame reach a hand through and yanked her against the cool metal, muffling her mouth with one hand as the other held a syringe near her throat and quickly injected a tranquilizer into her bloodstream. They couldn't afford to use tranquilizer darts outside of combat, particularly when this was an easier solution.

Once the woman was completely unconscious, the Falks on the wall dropped a rope down to Kisame. Quickly the shark tied the rope around her waist and tugged twice, signaling the rebels to hoist her up the wall and out of sight. A minute later, one of the Falks rappelled down into the grounds wearing the uniform, while the other lowered the unconscious guard into the waiting hands of VUM. She'd be all right, but probably very confused in a few hours when she woke up outside the property in only her underwear.

"Quickly, ze next one needs to climb up!" the remaining Falk ordered as his partner hurried out of sight, before another guard could come and notice something was amiss. He'd have to hide in the garden until the others came, but considering that most of the vegetables growing in the garden were as big as Kisame, that wouldn't be much of an issue. But, back to the matter at hand. The next guard appeared to be rather large when they'd observed him through the binoculars, so Kakuzu was the once forced to hurry up the rope to reach the top of the wall this time and take the uniform.

"Why didn't we just steal the uniforms from the cleaners or something, un?" Deidara whispered.

"Konan said the uniforms are never taken off the grounds," Sasori explained. "The guards change into them when they come in for work and change out again before going home. This was the only way we could get them."

"Still seems a little much, un."

It took a good amount of time, but finally all seven troops assigned to this job had made it over the wall in a guard's uniform, except for Kisame who would simply have to book it across the grounds and hope no one noticed the giant shark commando in their midst. Quickly the group reassembled in the garden and rushed to the kitchen. None of the scans had shown Zabuza to have installed any security cameras inside the house, presuming that the presence of live guards would be enough to drive off most would-be burglars; therefore, as long as the VUM members could avoid visual detection by the hired men, they'd be safe.

Konan was the first to go into the hall, checking around corners before motioning for the others to follow her. In this way the group gradually worked their way down the hall, up the stairs, and towards Zabuza's study. They only ran into a few men during their expedition, and these guards were quickly tranquilized by a few shots from Konan's pistol. Once the second floor was cleared, two men were placed at the head of the stairwell, and Kakuzu was left outside the door of the study itself. This left Konan, Kisame, Sasori, and Deidara free to rush in and look around.

Immediately they were assaulted by a surprise that made Konan swear in a manner more audible than they would have liked. The office had floor to ceiling bookshelves, packed with ledgers and trapper-keepers stuffed with notes and receipts. The chamber's lone desk was covered in ledgers as well, along with numerous sticky notes and graphs scribbled on random scraps of paper. And there was not a computer in sight.

"Shit," Konan growled. "We don't 'ave time to go zrough all zis!"

"Look through the books at eye level," Kisame ordered, already doing just that. "The ones up high probably haven't been moved for a decade or more. Scan them for any dates around the time we know Itachi came through here, and especially anything that shows a shipment of coolant going out or coming in. We'll put them in my bag and sort them out back at the base."

"Zabuza will know-"

"It's either that or admit this job was a bust," Kisame snapped, silencing Konan in an instant. "Sasori, Deidara, you too. And make it quick; there's no telling how little time we have."

Immediately the four spread out, with Konan taking a look at the ledgers on the desk and the three boys covering the bookshelves. Sasori quickly passed over the books that appeared to have been recently thumbed through or disturbed, figuring that their dates would be too recent to be of any use. Even with this strategy in place, the first dozen or so records he flipped through had their dates a few years off his target. Five years ago from Zeirk, fifteen years back from the capital city Herrx, one year ago from some company called the Northern Attachment's Decommissioned Soldiers' Resources and Dieticians-wait.

Sasori reread the last receipt, eyes widening as the initials sank in. NADSRaD. It was too much of a coincidence to be just that, especially with such an awkward name. Quickly Sasori stuffed all the receipts containing those initials into his pocket, before going back to the hunt for information on Itachi. Konan would be ecstatic to have a new lead once they got back to the base, even if the lead was a good year old. For now though it was best to keep quiet, thereby keeping the focus on Itachi.

"I found it, un!" Deidara whispered excitedly. "Two and a half years ago, large group of captured rebels brought in…and see, this one matches Itachi's description, un!"

"It's him," Kisame whispered, taking the ledger and holding it like a sacred object. "I finally found him."

"It looks like zere was no need for ze bag zen," Konan muttered with a shrug. "Oh well. Let's go!"

"Oh, I'm afraid I can't let you do that," a gravelly voice interjected from behind them.

The rebels spun around to see a tall, ashen-skinned man before them, wrapped head to toe in bandages and leaning against a bookcase that had swung back to reveal a secret passageway. Well that explained how he managed to get in undetected…"I'll admit, I'm impressed that you made it this far," the man congratulated before doubling over in a coughing fit. "Really, it's quite a feat. If this office wasn't bugged, you would've gotten off scot-free."

"Ze jig is up, Zabuza," Konan warned as Kisame stuffed the ledger into his backpack. "We know what you're doing wiz zose plasma guns, and you will never be able to sell zem again when we're done wiz you!"

Zabuza actually laughed at this, before another round of coughing stopped his mirth. "You stupid woman. You think I don't know I'm done? Humph. Guess that's the price you pay when you get sloppy…you end up getting murdered for your hard work."

"Somehow, I don't think he's talking about us, un," Deidara whispered to Sasori.

"My client's going to ensure I die very shortly," Zabuza went on, leaning more heavily against the bookshelf. "It took me this long to figure out I was being poisoned…damn it, I really am losing my touch…"

"Who hired you?" Konan demanded. "And why do zey want all zose guns?"

"It's not worth the life I've got left to tell you," Zabuza explained. "Besides, if nothing else, I've always been good about confidentiality agreements between me and my clients. That was really the only thing I was extremely good at in this business. Well, that and operating solely on my own terms…particularly in matters of life and death."

At this point, Sasori noticed that Zabuza had reached into his pocket and pulled out a pocket lighter. By the time the others had seen it, Zabuza had already flicked it on and pressed the flame to a nearby shelf.

It should be noted that the climate of this region was extremely dry, without a drop of humidity in the air. It should also be noted that many of the ledgers were full of old, yellowed paper that had been completely dried out by years of settling in this environment. Thus, it should come as no surprise that a little flame was all it took to set off the library like a Roman candle.

In only a matter of seconds the whole shelf had caught fire; by the time a minute passed, the blaze had consumed the whole bookcase. Konan and Kisame rushed their companions out of the room, leaving Zabuza to succumb to either flames or smoke.

Kakuzu saw the fire when the four rushed out of the study, and needed no encouragement to hurry after the group. Given that this mansion was full of expensive woodwork and paintings, the entire thing would see be engulfed in flames. Grabbing the other two Falks and shooting at numerous very confused guards on the way out of the mansion, the group was eventually able to make it out of the building and back to the mansion's front yard.

By now most of the second floor had caught fire, providing excellent light to allow the group a hasty passage back to their rappelling rope, which still dangled from the top of the brick wall completely undisturbed. Konan and Kisame urged their men to go over the top as quickly as possible, since the fire was growing so great they could feel the heat and taste the smoke even from this distance. At last everyone was over the wall, and all were given a few seconds to catch their breath before hurrying off into the forest towards the rendezvous point. As they ran, Sasori could see the light from the fire and hear the crackling and hissing of flames, before a great groan and crash let the group know that the mansion had at last fallen victim to the fire. If Zabuza hadn't died already, he was surely gone now.

-hours later-

By the time the Falks and humans made it back to the base, dawn was nearly upon them, and they were all in mutual agreement that a few hours' sleep was in good order. Still, Konan was pleased to note that her Falks went off with smiles on their faces; clearly getting rid of Zabuza had been good for their morale. She decided against telling them to keep quiet about the assignment, figuring that they were smart enough not to let slip the most important details between now and when they collapsed onto their bunks.

Sasori, meanwhile, was still wide awake thanks to the adrenaline from his findings in the mansion. The few receipts that he'd managed to grab seemed like such a small clue; if only he could've had a bit more time to find more! But as the matter stood, everything but what was in his pocket or Kisame's bag was now ashes, so he needed to be grateful for what he did have.

Waiting until Konan's men had dispersed, Sasori approached the Falk leader and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Konan, I need to talk to you in your office. There's something I found in the study that I think you'll want to see."