The high-ceilinged building darkened. Swirling patterns twisted over the walls. From without, the office resembled any other of the houses in Hidden Frost, thatched in straw with walls of a strange wood.

"Shit, that was annoying. What was that person anyhow?" Hidan demanded, rubbing his shoulder. "Shit!" He groaned loudly.

"We came out ahead."

"Did we?" Hidan tilted his head to one side. "Cause to me it kind of feels like we fucked up."

Kakushiro frowned.

"We got taken out by a couple of nobodies?" Hidan punched the wall. "For fuck's sake! Aren't we the great Akatsuki, the best fighters in the world? The primary destroyers of Jashin-sama's fucking army?"

Kakushiro's eyes narrowed. "It's not just anyone that we were fighting. I don't know the samurai, but the medic-nin was Hakka of the White Sands—a former jōnin of Hidden Sand."

Hidan frowned. "Eh?"

"She was a medic of extraordinary ability." Kakushiro turned toward the man. Her green eyes narrowed. "The money, if you please."

"Yes." The man passed over the coins.

"The truly scary thing, it's—" Kakushiro paused. "Most medic-nin know how to create a chakra knife. It's something that can do detailed work even on chakra. Well, she figured out how to make a chakra scalpel. Something so precise that it can cut through the atomic level of cells. As medic-nin go, she had control so extraordinary that there's no one in the modern age who can compare to her."

Hidan blinked.

"I didn't manage to take her out, and now she has the jinchūriki. I've worked with you a long time and you've done pretty bad stuff, but you've never screwed up like this. You're competent, even if you are a loudmouth." Kakushiro's eyes suddenly widened with anger. "If I could kill you I would. If you'd taken the jinchūriki out first none of this would be necessary."

"Hey, fuck you too!" Hidan retorted. "It ain't my fault I can't figure out the Transformation Technique!"

Kakushiro stared blankly at Hidan, her teeth bared in a snarl beneath her mask.

Hidan's eyes narrowed. "Hey, listen. I got an idea if you're up for it. Something to really up our earnings." He pressed his fingers together.

Kakushiro's eyes narrowed. "This better be good. We got Asuma, but I also lost a chance at a heart that would really boost my powers in battle thanks to your screwing around."

"Fuck you too," Hidan replied in a casual tone of voice."I'm thinking about this plan. You know, we got sent after the Two-Tails, but there's plenty of Tailed Beasts left, you know?" Hidan paused. "So what I'm sayin' is we go after one of the remaining ones. The Three-Tails or the Six-Tails."

"Both are pretty tricky. We don't have the power to handle a Kage, and the Six-Tails is tricky for different reasons." Kakushiro's eyes narrowed. "That being said, this isn't a bad plan. Zaigei, are there any bounties on jinchūriki remaining?"

"The Five-Tails, fifty thousand ryō. The Nine-Tails, a full two-hundred-thousand ryō." Zaigei placed Asuma's body within the cooling chamber. He turned around, glancing at the wall. "The Seven-Tails has a fairly enormous bounty as well, but her whereabouts are so rarely known that it isn't worth discussing."

Kakushiro whistled. "Holy hell. How'd he earn that much?"

"As usual, I'm not asking about the details. The client came from Hidden Mist, though." Zaigei paused.

"If Kūkyo doubles it for him being alive." Kakushiro's lips curled upward. "Heh. It's been a long time since I met with this kind of opportunity. Hidan, I'll give you as much of an opportunity as you want to ravage your opponent. There's a pretty serious condition, so it looks like we got a target."

Hidan grinned. "Great!" He spun the scythe in a circle. "What exactly is the plan?"

"Still in progress, but I have at least the starts of it." Kakushiro glanced toward Hidan. "You won't be involved with the extraction of the jinchūriki. I have to insist on this one; there's too much of a risk of you killing him."

Hidan sighed. "Fine, whatever. Long as I get to kill some fools."

"I also can't guarantee your extraction." Kakushiro paused. "You might not die, but it's unlikely you'd escape.

Hidan frowned. He thought for a long moment. "Well. Could be worse. Everybody has to die sooner or later. Long as I get to exterminate some Leaf heretics, I guess I'll be fine with that kind of fucking condition."

Kakushiro glanced toward Zaigei. "I'll expect you to be ready with the bounty money at the nearest bounty point. We need to get him extracted as soon as possible."

Zaigei nodded briefly. "You plan to bring him back to us?"

"Nah." Kakushiro paused. "But I'll have a better chance negotiating with that shinigami if I have money prepared and on hand."

"Ah, I see." Zaigei nodded briefly. "Well, your power is respectable, and you've rarely failed to bring in money before." He turned back to the wall. "I'll expect you soon enough."

Kakushiro hurried out of the offices. The sun poured down outside. "Let's hurry."

Hidan's eyes widened. "Why's that?"

"Sooner or later Hidden Leaf is going to get the idea of checking bounty locations. Before that happens I'd like to get under cover in the location I'm planning to take care of." Kakushiro's eyes narrowed.

"What about Zaigei? If we don't get money again I'm going to be really pissed."

Kakushiro stopped walking. She turned and stared at Hidan quizzically.

"Eh?" Hidan questioned, his brow furrowed.

"The hell are you suddenly worrying about money for?" Kakushiro demanded.

"Because if you don't get money soon, you're not going to shut up about it, and since I can't kill you that's a pain in the neck for me." Hidan groaned loudly. "I mean, fuck, am I wrong?"

"No, but that's remarkably farsighted of you." Kakushiro studied Hidan's face intently. "I'm now unconvinced that you're actually Hidan. Someone used a Henge." She extended her hand, cutting off Hidan's arm rapidly.

"OW! Fuck you, bitch!" Hidan spat loudly, his fist clenching.

Kakushiro stared at the arm for a long moment. After a pause, she stitched up the arm with the shadows.

Hidan stretched his fingers out. "I don't like you. You're money-obsessed; you hate religion; you have no concern for the suffering of your fellow man; and to top it all off you're a mean old woman."

Kakushiro shrugged her shoulders. "I'm so upset by your words. You have stabbed a dagger through my heart," she stated in a flat, toneless voice.

"But there is one thing you have over the rest of the shitty world, and that is that you know how to stitch up the wounds of a good man like me."

"Since when have you cared about the suffering of the world?" Kakushiro questioned flatly.

"I am offended by your question!" Hidan drew himself up. "I've cared about people's suffering since I entered Jashin-sama's worship. I want to be the one causing it."

Kakushiro rolled her eyes. "What a surprise." She turned her gaze back to the road ahead.

Revenge

The moon, a dull, pale crescent in the heavens, hovered over the office.

Genma, tattered clothes nearly intact, struggled into the office. "Izumo made it just now. He went ahead?" He glanced over his shoulder. "Hokage, I have the displeasure of informing you that we failed."

"Where's Kotetsu?"

"They're dead." Genma panted heavily. His eyes stared at the doorway. "Akaihi—"

"How'd you survive?" Tsunade demanded, her voice suddenly stern.

"I came here to inform you directly." Genma reached upward. His fingers brushed the side of his neck, touching the letters now burned into his shoulder. "I didn't exactly get away unscathed either."

Tsunade winced with sympathy pangs.

The doorway swung open. Shikamaru rushed into the office. "You're back?" He glanced to one side. "How did it go?"

"We lost nearly everything."

Shikamaru's excited face faded its colors, losing its enthusiasm and crumpling. "Asuma?"

"He left a message for you. I'll be frank; I don't understand it myself." Genma scratched the lines of the kanji along a piece of paper.

"But—"

"He is dead."

The sky darkened.

Shikamaru lowered his hand to one side.

"Shikamaru?" Tsunade started.

Shikamaru looked for a long moment at Tsunade, and then at Genma, his expression accusatory in both cases. He hurried out of the room.

Genma sighed heavily.

"You at least deserved that."

"Yes." Genma nodded heavily. "Yes, I did."

"Spilt milk." Tsunade exhaled. "In this case, the information you brought back might be worth those men's lives. What did you uncover?"

"Both Akatsuki and Hakubo sent teams to recover Yugito. It's unclear whether they succeeded or not. I'd guess so from the available evidence, though." Genma paused. "The Akatsuki team consists of Kakushiro—who it seems still hasn't aged in the slightest or even in any major way—and some other person. According to what I saw of that fight, one of them can survive physical wounds. I caught the name Hidan at some point."

"I see. That escapee from Hidden Waterfall, then." Tsunade frowned. "Losing Blood Prison truly was a huge blow to our capacities."

"I don't think he escaped from prison. At a guess he'd probably already been out, though I don't know the details." Genma paused. "Then, with regards to the other two, there was Akaihi and Hakka. I believe you already know about Akaihi. Hakka I've never heard of."

Tsunade's eyes widened. "Hakka of the White Sands?" she questioned hesitantly.

"According to Kakushiro, yes." Genma paused.

"Then we are in trouble. That old woman, Chiyome, trained two disciples in her arts. Eventually they each surpassed her in their own way." Tsunade paused. "Each in their own way, to surpass me."

Genma frowned.

"One was Sasori, the best puppeteer—I'm firmly convinced—this world has ever known. The other was Hakka, someone I genuinely fear." Tsunade's brow furrowed. "A woman with an extraordinary chakra control. It's possible that ordinary medical ninjutsu couldn't do anything against her."

"Seriously?" Genma frowned. "That's really a nasty combination, you know. Though it might explain how he recovered from his health problems."

Tsunade's brow furrowed. "Health problems?"

"Yeah. Putting in the magnetic release caused problems; he started getting clumps of metal stuck in his veins and brain. The prison people gave him about three years." Genma snorted. "I guess he met up with the one cellmate who could keep him alive."

"Hakubo's truly a strange group of people." Tsunade sighed heavily. "A collection of the worst I've heard of, and some of the strangest, too."

Genma nodded grimly.

"Then, regarding how we handle this situation?"

"Diplomacy. We screwed up, big time. In the worst case I might have to offer my own life to keep peace between Hidden Leaf and Hidden Cloud."

"I hope it won't come to that." Tsunade frowned. "I don't like you very much, Genma, and I have to admit that I'd consider you a manipulative bastard. But I'd have trouble dealing with some of the problems in Hidden Leaf without your aid."

Genma grinned. "Well, you're not precisely wrong there. I do have that kind of personality. But even so, if I'm bearing in mind the risks involved, I should be able to save this world as is."

"He's dead, isn't he?"

The door banged open.

Tsunade glanced upward, staring at the figure silhouetted in the doorway.

"You have no place talking over these kinds of councils."

"I know I'm not from around here. Shut up for a minute." Tayuya's gaze softened as she stared at Tsunade. "He's dead, isn't he? Asuma?"

"Yeah." Tsunade looked down at the table. "He has indeed passed the mortal coil."

"Fuck." Tayuya reached into her pocket. "Shikamaru will want these, so I better finish 'em off now, or at least one of them," she clarified as Tsunade gave her a quizzical look. She lit the cigarette and stared out the window. "Fuck. I never thought he'd actually die, y'know? He's like his old man. A real pillar for the ages. The kind of guy that never collapses or falls short." Her eyes narrowed. "Yet here we are. And there he is, dead as a doornail. Did you at least grab his body?" she asked, turning toward Genma.

"I gave him a proper burial, if that's what you're asking. Didn't have the time or the inclination, under the circumstances, to take him with me," Genma replied. He adjusted the senbon in his mouth. "Enough of this. Tsunade, what's the plan?"

"I've already said it. As much diplomacy as we can logically exercise. We don't have the ability to do anything less in this situation." Tsunade glanced downward. "Or, regrettably, anything more. It's the hard limit of our power to affect events. There's nothing more we can do." She waved away the pair. "Go." She looked toward the papers on her desk.

Tayuya, with one last glance over her shoulder, nodded. She stuffed her hands into her pockets, walking out rapidly.

Genma turned away. He sighed. "My life is yours for the taking, if it's needed."

Tsunade shook her head.

Genma nodded. He hurried out.

Tsunade turned back to the papers on her desk. She scratched rapidly along the page, attempting perhaps to efface the recollection of Asuma from her mind.

The far door opened. The sound of a walking-stick rapped against the ground.

Tsunade's brow furrowed.

"I told you," Danzō remarked, leaning against the gnarled wood. "I advised against this course of action."

"Hidden Cloud implored us on their hands and knees. What was I supposed to do?" Tsunade demanded sharply.

"You showed weakness." Danzō paused. "The correct action here would have been to refuse. Any failure thereof would be their own, not yours."

Tsunade scowled.

"Now they will blame you and the rest of us for it. We did our best but we still failed. At best it shows weakness. At worst it is a declaration of intentional failure." Danzō sighed. "Sarutobi had the right level of skill to comprehend these realities."

Tsunade stared at the papers moodily. "Get out," she said in a quiet voice.

Danzō inclined his head. "But I was correct." He turned and walked away, his cane rapping against the ground.

A silence fell over the darkened office.