AN: I am so, so sorry for the hiatus. I just ran into a wall in which I did not have any chapters planned out so I couldn't write. That, and I got my job back after being laid out for quarantine. Thankfully, since I've stepped back, I have the next…10-15 chapters outlined so I shouldn't be running into a block like this again. This chapter is going to be filler if anything but after this, oof, after this, it's going to get interesting.

Sorry again and enjoy!

Cat Beats: Oh yes, Orochimaru is going to be meddling here and there, though for better or worse? Yet to be seen. And sorry for leaving you waiting for this chapter! Updates should be steady again.

rarae aves: Thank you! And I'm sorry you had to wait so long for more of it! Hopefully this makes up for it, haha.

Warning(s): Language (Low), Genderbend (Low), Original Character(s)

…

Wasteland

The Akatsuki Arc

Chapter 47

No one in the Akatsuki was pleased with the newest member—Orochimaru.

Konan wasn't pleased Pein let her in, Kakuzu wasn't pleased Pein let her in, Sasori wasn't pleased to be partnered with her, while Zetsu wasn't pleased after her treatment by her. Only Glut had no antagonism towards her, though that was because he was too occupied grieving the huge payout her bounty would've brought the organization—that, her now snakes slithering around the grounds. The atmosphere in the Akatsuki had become suffocating, to say the least.

Due to this, Pein snatched the first mission he could send the members on before tensions boiled over and the manor turned into the battlefield for the Fourth World War. Zetsu was on medical leave to heal her injuries so Kakuzu and Glut, and Sasori and Orochimaru were sent in. It was the perfect chance for the partnerships to get used to each other or murder each other, either or. As long as it was outside Amegakure, that is. Biohazard cleanup of blood and/or dead bodies was expensive, afterall.

So, mission in hand, Pein called the Akatsuki to attendance.

Kakuzu and Glut came on a timely matter while Sasori and Orochimaru were tardy, obviously due to the characteristic lethargic pacing of Hiruko. Sasori practically lived in the puppet now. Once there, Orochimaru immediately took to seating herself in the chair in front of Pein's desk and kicking her legs up onto it while lighting up her pipe, as if she owned the place. Konan, at her desk on the other side of office, rolled her amber eyes so hard they could be heard breaking the sound barrier while Pein stared at the Sannin, lips pressed white into a thin line. Nothing in objection was said though and so Orochimaru, kept her legs up while puffing at her cancer stick. Kakuzu and Glut exchanged glances.

"Thank you all for…meeting." Pein began, placing a hand by his face to direct his gaze forward so his eyes didn't accidental cast themselves up the dress Orochimaru was wearing underneath her new Akatsuki cloak. He wasn't making that mistake again. "Kakuzu, how is Zetsu healing?"

"Better. She's been resting and the infection is going. She's back on her medication too." Kakuzu answered.

"Do you judge her well enough to be on mission soon?"

"I'd judge yes."

"Perfect." Pein shuffled miscellaneous papers on his desk before finding the folder he had been searching for, lost in the mounds of paperwork. "I have a mission from a diplomat in Iwa for the retrieval on blueprints of a new defensive weapon that allegedly was, quote 'gambled away after late night barhopping', unquote."

Sasori let out a bull-like snort, echoed inside the hollow chamber of Hiruko. "What a drongo." Everyone else huffed in agreement.

"He would like it back before the Tsuchikage learns of his mishap and so you are to go in, undetected, and retrieve this document and/or documents. Originally, I would send Zetsu in as larceny is her specialty, but with her on temporary medical leave, I am sending you all instead."

"Hmph, child's play for me!" Glut smugly quipped, jabbing a thumb at himself with Smidgen extending a little thumbs up from his jacket pocket.

"That so?" Orochimaru interjected.

"Why yes! I am the greatest cat burglar and thief, of course!"

"I'm sorry, and you are?" The Sannin drawled, as if she had just now become aware of the ginger man's existence.

"Uhh...Glut the Midnighter?"

"Never heard of you."

"The Ratman?"

"No."

"Oh, you must've heard of the Blood Eye Jewel Heist. That was me!"

"Nope."

"The…the Kirigakure Capital Bank Robbery? It was the largest bank robbery in Kiri's history! 25 million Ryo? I-I did that!"

"No, sorry." Orochimaru went to examining her purple polished nails, having lost interest in this conversation.

"W-What about…?"

"Glut," Kakuzu interrupted his babbling partner. "Get over it."

Glut looked at Kakuzu, opening his trembling jaw as if to keep speaking but did not. Instead, slumping with head hung as all self-confidence had evaporated. Smidgen patted his cheek.

"Anyway," Sasori spoke up. "Do we 'ave a name 'er location where this Show Pony lost 'is blueprints?"

"It was in a pub outside Iwa in a bordertown called Dust Falls to a person who called himself, 'Huff'."

Glut perked up again. "Huff? Holy shit, I know Huff!"

Pein elevated an eyebrow at the man. "Do you?"

"Yeah, we used to run in the same guild back in Kiri. He was a big guy and used to lose his breath a lot, even while talking. That's why we called him Huff."

"Would you be able to get us in contact with this Huff? Or know where he is?"

Glut scratched the back of his head. "Uhh…so, thing is. Remember when I talked about the Kirigakure Capital Bank Robbery? Well, I wasn't on that alone. It was a guild operation, and I may've run off with what money I could when the authorities showed up…that's how I ended up running into the Akatsuki, afterall."

"So, what you're saying is, you do not have the best relationship anymore?"

"No. So we can't just go up to him and ask him to hand over the blueprints. But, from the sounds of it, he may be still running with the guild if he's praying on drunkards. And if that's the case, he would've handed them over to the guild leader to be sold off."

"And who is this guild leader?"

Glut shrugged. "I don't know. They cycle a lot due to being arrested or dead. They don't last a year, typically. Our longest leader, Melt, lasted a year and a half. Person in charge when I was there until a year ago was a woman named Scarlet. I don't know if she's still there though."

"Then we are back to square one."

"Well, I can get us into the guild itself."

"Perfect." Pein said, nodding but Glut wasn't done.

"Buttt…we'd have to infiltrate Kiri itself since the Ratways, where the guild is, are in the sewers under the village and can only be accessed internally."

"So, what you're saying is: four S-Ranked missing-nin have to infiltrate a nation the organization has no relationship with?" Kakuzu summarized, folding his arms.

Glut threw his shoulders up into a shrug again. "Basically?"

"Back to my original statement: you are to go in, undetected, and retrieve this document and/or documents." Pein stated.

"We don't even know if these blueprints are in this guild." Sasori pointed out, gesturing with the spade of his tail. Orochimaru huffed while nodding in agreement with her partner, expelling smoke from her nostrils.

"Then we'll have to find this Huff that they were initially handed off to." Kakuzu said then looked to the orange-haired man to his left. "Glut, you said he would've given them to this guild leader?"

"Yep." Glut confirmed, nodding.

"And if he did, they'll be sold off?"

"Yep yep."

"Then I purpose this: we find this Huff, interrogate him for their location. If he has them, we take them, but if he has passed them off to the guild, we pose as buyers and take them that way. Last case scenario: we break into the guild and take them, whether by stealth or not."

"Perfect idea, Kakuzu," Pein praised the elder before looking to everyone else. "Does anyone oppose this plan?"

"Or we could just take plan Z and break in and take them. Better than what may damp squib." Orochimaru spoke up, waving her hand and casting burning tobacco into the faces of the others.

"Only you want to start a war," Glut said, shooing the smoke, face turning red and cheeks bulging as he did his best not to cough. "The guild had hundreds of members going in and out. We'd be in for a fight if we just bulled our way in."

"Best we git ourselves invited in." Sasori commented.

"Then it is decided," Pein said before Orochimaru could try and make any more objections that may cause a dely. "Since we have information that these documents may be sold, this mission is of importance and I ask you all leave immediately. Would you kindly?"

The meeting was concluded once Pein went back to his paperwork and everyone migrated towards the elevator to leave. Kakuzu and Glut stayed back to discuss the details while Orochimaru and Sasori went ahead.

"I don't trust Orochimaru." Glut muttered as he and Kakuzu boarded the elevator.

"Neither do I." Kakuzu agreed, punching the keypad to shut the metal doors.

…

It took them three days to get to Kirigakure, including waiting on a private boat to take them across the Grave Sea. Thankfully, Orochimaru behaved herself during the travel, as did Sasori. Once they landed on sands of Kiri's beaches, Glut ducked his head down as he was a wanted defective of the nation.

"Ok, Glutty Boy, now what?" Sasori asked Glut once they had stepped off the boat. The puppet flashed his metallic tail at the "generous" captain of their craft who hurriedly paddled away back across the sea without looking back at them.

Glut glared at Sasori for the use of his hated moniker. "If we're planning on finding Huff first, our best bet would be going to a bar for information. The guild had a lot of plants playing as bartenders to eavesdrop on leads or persons of interest. I say we—and by we, I mean you all—barhop until one of them lets it slip where he's at."

"Tch, that'll take fuckin' forever. I'm gonna go wit' Orochimaru an' say we just break into this guild an' take it by force, stealth er not."

"We can't just break in if the place is swarming with members as Glut said. It's better we get information first." Kakuzu countered.

"May I?" Orochimaru intercepted didn't wait for confirmation if she may or may not. "I purpose we break into two halves. One half goes for information, as Gulp said, and the other half goes to this guild to sleuth it out."

"It's Glut." Glut uttered coldly which only deserved a hand wave from the woman.

"Shit, that ain't a bad idea, innit?"

"It…isn't." Kakuzu grounded out through clinched teeth hidden behind his mask, hating to praise the snake-este woman for anything. "In that case, Glut and I'll go to the guild and Sasori, you and Orochimaru'll go for information on Huff and the whereabouts of the blueprints."

Orochimaru gasped, overexaggerated, with a hand on her chest to sell it. "Excuse you but does a woman of my class look like one that frequents bars?" The others glared at her, Sasori included. "I say Sasori and I go after the guild and you two go to the bars. The lot of you look like you belong there, afterall."

"I can't—"

"Glut is a missing-nin of Kiri, I'm the most wanted man in the world and you want us putting ourselves out there?"

"Why, yes."

Kakuzu and Glut glared at the elder who just shrugged, petting her purple feather boa snoozing around her neck.

Sasori stepped in before this argument turned into a murder. "Glut can't go 'round wit' that face an' Orochimaru ain't wantin' to go to any bars so 'ow 'bout this? Kakuzu, you an' I go to the bars to find 'uff an' Orochimaru an' Glut go do their meddlin'. Win-win, ey?"

"Sure, let's go with that."

Orochimaru clapped her hands together. "Oh, I'm just chuffed with that idea."

Glut's pale face bleached white. "You want me to go with her?"

Kakuzu glanced at the ginger. "Would you instead want to walk into Kiri and be pulled apart by hunter nin?"

"Well, no bu—"

"Then it's decided. We should rendezvous back here at the pier to discuss what we learned."

"In that case, I'mma git into somethin' a lil' more…comfortable." With that said, Kakuzu and Sasori started towards Kirigakure, leaving back Orochimaru and Glut.

"Come on then, Greed."

"It's. Glut."

…

After Sasori "dressed down" as in leaving Hiruko for once, a surprise to Kakuzu because he hadn't seen him outside Hiruko in a number of years, the two men started their barhopping escapade. It wasn't the hardest thing to accomplish as Kirigakure must've been fifty percent bars to house the nation's shinobi and criminals which were one in the same.

They'd go in, seat themselves at the bar, bullshit a little over a beer for authenticity then mien as buyers while they questioned the bartender on any "new merchandise". Either they didn't know, or weren't telling because the most they'd get was a shrug or nervous look before being passed on for other customers. So, they'd pay for their drinks and leave—bar after bar. After the fifth failure, Sasori was buzzed, Kakuzu was displeased but it was decided just one more before going back to the pier to hear if Glut and Orochimaru had anymore luck than them—if Glut was still alive, that is.

In a little saloon at the end of the street, they sat down at the bar and ordered their drinks. Kakuzu passed his mug off to Sasori because while he was by no means a lightweight, he didn't want to get inebriated and have his combative skills hampered. Besides, Sasori was much more bearable while drunk, though obnoxious—moreso.

"So like, what the fuck? And then she was like—"

"Can I get you gentlemen anything else?" The bartender politely interrupted Sasori's drunken rambling.

"Yeah, I'll tell ya exactly what ya can get us," Sasori replied, waving his glass at the man, the flat beer splashing inside. "Ya can get us your manager!"

"I'm sorry, is there an issue?"

Before Sasori could embarrass himself further, or cause a scene, Kakuzu slapped a hand over the redhead's mouth, barely ignoring it when the puppeteer took to trying to bite his palm while giggling drunkenly. "What my…partner here meant is we're interested in…specific wares and we've been told you may know where we can get them."

The bartender erected a curious eyebrow. "Is that so? And where did you hear that?"

Sasori pulled Kakuzu's hand from his face. "From a fat bastard named Huff!" The bartender narrowed his eyes at him while Kakuzu glared at Sasori.

"That so?" Said the bartender, slowly.

"He may mentioned the collection of plans we may be interested in from…Iwa?" Kakuzu said.

The bartender kept staring at the two men until finally, a minute later, he nodded. "Excuse me from a moment then."

Turning around, Kakuzu and Sasori observed as he plucked a phone from the cradle plastered to the wall and held it to his ear while dialing an unknown number. After a few seconds, someone must've picked up on the other side as he spoke into the receiver.

"Hey Scarlet? Yeah, it's me. Listen, I've got two gentlemen here that spoke to Huff and are interested in purchasing in those drawings he got from that Iwa braggart a few moons ago. Yeah, he did it, again…uh huh, uh huh. Ok. I'll let them know. Thanks, Scarlet. Bye." Hanging up, he turned back to Kakuzu and Sasori, the latter of which had gulped down the last of his beer and was hanging onto the seat of his hair as he wavered on it. "I just spoke to my boss and she's very much interested in speaking with you about the trading of…the specific wares that Huff told you about. She'll be here in a few."

"Thank you." Kakuzu nodded with the bartender nodding back before walking off to serve the other customers who had been impatiently waiting. Sasori grunted as his empty mug was ignored.

Thankfully, Kakuzu didn't have to listen to his bitching of the fact long as a little later and a woman entered the bar, blazing red hair like that of a wildfire, giving an indication towards her identity. Walking to the bar, she momentarily conversed with the bartender who then gestured to the Akatsuki members seated on the other side.

"Hello, gentleman," The scarlet-haired woman greeted the men as she leant on the seat next to them, blinking her dark lashes. "I'm Scarlet. I heard you two were interested in my…wares."

"We talken 'bout the wares, or your wares?" Sasori asked in his best attempt at flirtation. Kakuzu barely managed not to heave up his beer.

Apparently amused by this, she chuckled, playing the red Kiri headband bandana around her neck. "One deal at a time, big guy." She winked at him and this time, Kakuzu turned to head and gagged underneath his breath. "Now then, gentlemen, what is your offer?"

"Show us the blueprints first." Kakuzu inputted.

"Why would I hand them over without payment?"

"Why would we hand over payment with seeing the product first?"

Scarlet smiled, exhibiting a golden plated canine. "Touché. Well, I'll show you. But not here. If you'll follow me." Pushing herself from the bar, she walked off to take her leave, not bothering to see whether or not they were in fact following her.

Sasori was up and after her immediately, like a horndog after a bitch in heat, while Kakuzu lumbered in the back, keeping a cautious distance, being the pessimist, he was. Scarlet navigated them through the misty streets of Kirigakure, nudging past passerbyers with neither man having an idea of where she was taking them except to this guild Glut had built up so much. They ended up in front of a white marble cathedral, of all places. As they walked up it, from the back of the building, sprinted three men, wearing Kirigakure armour, dyed black with gold trimming, out of breath and brimming with sweat.

"Scarlet! S-Scarlet!"

"What is it? Don't you see I'm with clients?" Scarlet gestured at Sasori and Kakuzu while glaring at her underlings.

"Glut…he…he's in Kiri!"

"What?" Scarlet said, with Sasori and Kakuzu parroting her as they exchanged glances.

"He was…caught lurking around the sewer grate entrance…to the guild!"

"And where he is now?" Their female leader demanded.

"I-I don't know! Last we saw, Kaito and his men were chasing him so we came to get you!"

Scarlet turned to Sasori and Kakuzu. "I'm sorry, gentleman, but I have…pressing issues to attend to. It shouldn't take too long though. Shall we meet again at the bar?"

"Sure." Kakuzu grunted.

Once Scarlet hurried off with the other guild members, Sasori turned to Kakuzu. "How the fuck did they catch onto Glut? 'Greatest cat burglar and thief', my fucken arse!"

"Where the fuck is Orochimaru? She wasn't with him?" Kakuzu countered to which Sasori shrugged. "Whatever. We have to find Glut before he gets himself killed…or worse."

"And how the hell do you expect us to do that? He could be anywhere in Kiri!"

"We're not." As Kakuzu said that, Daora slithered out from underneath his cloak where it stretched itself like a cat before seating itself in front of its master, kneading the gravel with its talons and cooing.

Sasori stared at it in disgust. "Ugh, forgot you have them…thingos."

Ignoring the puppeteer, Kakuzu looked to Daora. "Daora, search for Glut. Once you locate him, signal us but if he's surrounded or being chased, then run distraction until we can intercept. Understand?" It acknowledged his question with a squawk. Satisfied, Kakuzu waved Daora off and the bird-like chimera galloped down the path before launching itself into the air, disappearing into the deep miasma that blanketed the capital.

"Ok, while your pet is out looken for Glut, what're we to do? Wait with our thumbs up our arses then?" Sasori interrogated Kakuzu.

"There's no 'we'. I'm going to look for Glut, you're going to go search for Orochimaru." Kakuzu clarified. "These bastards aren't looking for us, so we shouldn't stir any suspicion."

Sasori shrugged. "Fine by me. And when we find our partners, where should be meet?"

"Back at the pier, like we originally agreed."

"Fine. See you there." After waving him off, Sasori fished a scroll from his back and triggered it, summoning Hiruko that he climbed back into while Kakuzu left in the direction he had seen Daora leave so he'd be within range of the beast when it found Glut.

As Kakuzu walked through Kiri, a handful of times, he had spied one or a number people running past him, all wearing custom armour that aligned them with the guild but so far, no Glut. He hadn't heard anything from Daora either which could be seen as a good and bad thing; good, because it hadn't found Glut, bad because it hadn't found Glut. By looks of it, neither had his old friends either. He was curious if Sasori was having anymore luck with Orochimaru. Suddenly, he heard the very near and very distinct squealing of Daora as well as human screaming, including phrases such as, "what the fuck is that!?"

Kakuzu ran towards it all just in time to see someone fleeing an alleyway, nearly causing impact as they ran straight at him. He would've laid them out onto their back too, if he hadn't noticed last second it was Glut and lowered his fist.

"Glut!"

"Kakuzu!" Glut yelped back, stopping next to his partner and bending over with his hands braced on his knees to catch his breath after running for what felt like the last hour.

"What the fuck happened!?" Kakuzu demanded.

Before Glut had a chance to explain, for the same alleyway backed out Daora. It had some poor guild bastard's pant leg caught in its beak. It proceeded to thrash its head and there was a loud crunch of the breaking of bone, causing the man to scream and clench his backwards bent leg, trying desperately to free himself. Daora wasn't about to give up its newest plaything that easily as it thrashed harder while warbling. It was a miracle his leg didn't pop right off. Other guild members emerged, brandishing knives and blunt weapons in hand and not wanting to risk having his heart injured, Kakuzu whistled. Immediately, Daora let go of the man and came galloping towards its owner where after being rewarded with pets for accomplishing its goal, it was put back to sleep.

Once pulling their injured friend to safety, the members turned their attention to Kakuzu and most importantly, Glut, as they zeroed in, weaponed prepared. Seeing a fight, the elder got himself into position with Glut pulling out his dagger to defend himself.

"Glut!" Glut spun around in the direction of the yell to discover Scarlet having flanked them with a baker's dozen more members joining her.

"Holy Sh-Scarlet!"

"Where's my fucking money, you fucking traitor!?" She snarled, hitting her katana to the pavement and causing sparks to fly. "Where's my 25 mil!?"

"I-I don't have it!"

Kakuzu glanced at Glut and snorted. "That the 25 million you handed to the Akatsuki for your life, then?"

It was then Scarlet saw Kakuzu. "Y-You! You're the one I was talking to! You're working with this bastard?"

"Unfortunately." Kakuzu muttered, keeping his eyes on the members at their twelve.

"Then I'll kill you both! Get them, boys!" Scarlet marshalled her members and that's all it took for them to charge the men.

While Kakuzu took care of the lackies, Glut ran at Scarlet with the other redhead meeting him halfway as their blades clashed. It soon became obvious these bandits and sneakthieves didn't specialize in being shinobi so dispatching them wasn't hard, laughable easy, in fact. In seconds, he had the lot them on the ground in processive stages of unconsciousness or dying. Glut, on the other hand, was having a worst time of it because unlike him, Scarlet had a military background and knew how to exercise it.

In a handful of moves, not only had she disarmed the ex-member, but also laid him out by cutting through a tendon in his leg. As she went in for the killing blow, Kakuzu stepped in, hitting her with an uppercut that she deflected with her sword, barely skirting having her head taken off but the lift of the impact sent her flying back a few feet.

After landing on her feet, Scarlet took the defensive while Kakuzu took the offensive, lunging at her, arm cocked and skin hardened. With a flash of handsigns, Scarlet inhaled then exhaled steam at him, causing the felon to halt to a stop as his vision was obscured by the fog jutsu. He may be blinded, but he could hear and caught the scraping of heels on stone as he was flanked and she leapt at him, katana aimed at his back. The attack landed but instead of a geyser of blood from sundered flesh as expected, there was a metallic thud and blade shattered into a million pieces, leaving her with nothing but the handle clenched in her hand.

Seeing an opening, Kakuzu spun around with his arm bent and nailed the woman in the gut with his elbow, sending her flying again where she was slammed into a building. She slid down the brick wall into a slumped heap and spat up blood from her broken ribs.

The temporary mist cleared and Kakuzu advanced on the dazed guild leader while cracking his knuckles and neck, more than ready to send her to an early grave. He was interrupted, however, as he pulled his Doton-fused arm back for a final hit and Scarlet was halfway through handsigns for a jutsu.

"Kakuzu, no! Don't kill her!" Glut pleaded him; bloodied hand outstretched to his partner.

Kakuzu gave him a dirty look. "What?"

"Listen. She's a bitch and she tried to kill me—us—but she's the best damn leader the guild has ever had, and it'd suck if she died."

"I don't need your mercy, traitor!" Scarlet spat, literally, as she spat a mouthful of blood to the ground.

"It isn't mercy for you, it's mercy for the guild! This guild is the only thing people like me had to turn to when we couldn't finish our shinobi education because we don't want to be killed for this village's fucked up tradition! It'll fall apart if it loses anymore leaders!"

"Tch, as if you care for the guild after running off with the 25 mil we snatched from the Kirigakure Capital Bank!"

"We got ambushed by authorities, what was I supposed to do? I was going to come back to Kiri with it but they put a bounty out of me so I couldn't!"

"So where is it? Huh? What did you do with it?"

"I, uhh…"

"You always were an opportunist, Glut, always doing what benefitted you in the moment!"

Seeing this argument didn't involve him, and he wasn't one for killing people without a payout, Kakuzu backed down, flexing his fingers and wrist as his Earth jutsu deactivated. Scarlet immediately pushed herself up but made no movement to attack as she hugged her midsection and glared at them.

"All I want, is my 25 mil. If I get that, then maybe I'll consider letting you back into the guild, so you don't have to keep looking like a clown." She said, scanning her grey eyes over his Akatsuki cloak.

"Yeah…that can't happen." Glut muttered, tying his sleeve around his leg as a tourniquet to cease the bleeding with Smidgen helping him pull the fabric.

With a click of her tongue, Scarlet pushed herself up the wall and Kakuzu kept his bloodshed gaze fixated on her in case she tried anything else. She didn't push her luck as with a few handsigns, she was gone in a puff of smoke, leaving back her wounded members in the streets.

Kakuzu walked over to Glut and thinking he was going to help him up, Glut extended a handout to him. Instead, Kakuzu leant down and snagged the collar of his cloak, using it to pick him up so he was face-to-face with the skyscraper-sized man.

"Now, what the fuck happened?" Kakuzu ordered.

It took Glut a moment to realize what he was talking about and grabbed the man's hand, not so much to pull it off, as much to pull himself back so he wasn't lynched by his own cloak. "Orochimaru…s-she set me up!"

Of everything he could have claimed, Kakuzu wasn't expecting that but he wasn't surprised either. "What?"

"S-So after you and Sasori left, I took us to one of the secrets entrances to the guild directly through the Ratways but no one uses it because there's a bunch of homeless people down there and it's a maze. Except me, I knew it like the back of my hand, and it was a perfect way to see how many members may be inside. B-But then, just as I got us through it and to the door that sees into the guild itself, Orochimaru…s-she starts yelling. 'Oh, is that Glut the Midnighter? The Ratman? The one that stole 25 million ryō from Kirigakure Capital Bank?', and all of sudden, the door flies open and like, a dozen guild members coming pouring out so I had to run! I managed to lose most of them in the Ratways but a few must've taken another exit and chased all over Kiri, including Scarlet!"

So, that's what happened. Glut would've been idiotic using himself as bait against an army of guild members and when considering Orochimaru's track record? Yeah, Kakuzu believed him. "Where is Orochimaru now?"

"I don't know but she must've snuck in after the guild cleared out to hunt me down to grab the blueprints." This satisfied the elder as he dumped the thief who fell to the ground with a grunted "ow", cradling his leg which was gushing fresh blood. It was then Glut noticed the lack of big and ugly with him. "Where's Sasori?"

"He went to find Orochimaru and is going to meet us back on the pier like originally agreed. Now let's get out of here before whatever little law enforcement Kiri has shows up." Kakuzu glanced around at the bodies strewn, a few in the process of coming back to consciousness with collective moans and groans, before walking away with Glut limping after.

…

It was an hour until Sasori or Orochimaru made their appearance back at their meeting spot and when they did, neither Kakuzu nor Glut were pleased to see them, evident by the dirty looks the two men gave them as they walked up.

Sasori saw this and huffed. "Oi, wot you on 'bout? Look who I found. That's wot you wanted, innit?" He ushered at Orochimaru with his tail; the woman was all smirks and smugness, not unlike her trademark self.

"She set me up!" Glut exclaimed, bumbling to his feet with his bad leg elevated much like in the stance of a flamingo.

"Wot?"

"Oh, pish posh. I did no such thing. I merely…used you to create a distraction, and what a distraction it was! Thanks to you, I did a twee shopping and got myself a five-finger discount! Look here." Orochimaru extended her hand out, displaying the large, glistening jewels that decorated each finger likely priced in the thousands. "Aren't they brilliant?"

"You—!"

Kakuzu caught Glut jerk in his peripheral vision, as if to charge the Sannin, but if was to attack or just a stumble, he didn't take the chance as he caught the ratman's shoulder to hold him back. Glut glared at him. "Brilliant, whatever. Did you find the blueprints?"

Orochimaru clicked her tongue and rolled her golden eyes at the lack of gushing over her new accessories. "Yes, yes. Here." Rummaging in her cloak, she produced a coffee stained parchment, rolled and bound with twine. She tossed it at Kakuzu which he caught in his free hand.

"Well then, I'd say mission accomplished!" Sasori said.

"M-Mission accomplished? She could've had me killed! Or arrested!" Glut blurted, pointing at Orochimaru who was too occupied with fawning over her new fashion to notice.

"But didja die er git arrested?" Glut was silent. "Then mission accomplished!" He chuckled with Orochimaru echoing him.

As Sasori and Orochimaru walked past them onto the pier, Glut wrenched himself from Kakuzu's grasp and turned around, getting in his face in a surprising display of bravery since Glut never did anything to purposely incite the elder. "Something has to be done about Orochimaru, Kakuzu. Otherwise, she's going to get us all killed or arrested!"

"Oh, don't worry, something will be done," Kakuzu agreed, glancing back at Orochimaru who was casually chatting with Sasori and narrowed his bloodshot eyes at her. "I'll make sure of it."

…

"Lord Hokage, the Akatsuki is here to speak with you."

"Akatsuki?" Minato mentioned, having to take a moment to parrot the name in his brain until his memory banks dug it up. It'd been awhile since he last heard it. "Oh, the Akatsuki! Yes, please send them through!"

The ANBU bowed respectably then left to fetch the Akatsuki. Minato was expecting the petite and mannered female member he had spoken with last but instead, that who entered was not her, being much larger and male.

"Heh, I didn't think I'd hear back from you." Minato said, setting down his pen and resting his arms on his desk. "Do you have an update?"

"We have Orochimaru and we'll hand her over to you…for a price."

…

AN: Oh, cliffhanger!

I am so, so sorry again for the wait on this chapter. But like I said before, I've got a lot mapped out now. There's going to be a lot of interesting things happening, including a timeskip again and a new member! Le gasp! But, you'll have to wait for that but it'll be worth it, I promise!

Thank you for your patience!

Next Chapter: Betrayal.

Until Next Time.