A/N: My attempts to connect with my writing angels are bearing fruit. Writing this chapter was a process as smooth as butter! Ooh, how wonderful inspiration feels when it flows!

Yay!

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Itachi

The following morning was tense. Everybody moved quickly, purposefully, without stopping for distractions. Those group members who were employed gathered in the kitchen to make an early breakfast and continue their strategizing. Nobody wanted to be caught off-guard again, the way they had been with the succubus. Itachi was not officially employed, but he joined in anyway just to hear what was said.

Laurie made scrambled eggs while Sasori put on toast. Clone Nagato and Kisame stood around with stressed looks on their faces. Deidara was also there; he happened to have a shift that day, in the late morning and afternoon. They all shot Itachi grateful looks. Kisame cleared his throat. "So… Nagato. You thought any more about it?"

Nagato swallowed nervously. "I still think the odds that a demon would ever target me are low. But if they did, I'd be screwed, so…" He turned to Itachi. "Itachi, do you think it would be a good idea to keep someone with me or at least nearby?"

"Having someone else present is the only thing that saved me when the succubus attacked me," Itachi replied. "However, I was not at work. I was in a public space. Whether such a strategy is feasible for you, I cannot say."

"Hence why I said nearby," Nagato replied. "It's unlikely that I would have no warning if a demon walked into the dog shelter. If someone was close enough that I could call them and they'd run over…"

"Hm… Perhaps." Itachi ran through a mental list of options. "Unfortunately, the only person I can think of who is simultaneously available, patient enough to wait in one place for that long, and not already busy with some other assignment is Zetsu."

"What's so unfortunate about that?" Kisame asked. "I'm amazed we have someone who fits all three criteria."

"Zetsu is entirely untrained. They haven't been sparring or otherwise practicing any battle abilities. They could fend off a single demon, but not multiple."

"More importantly, I don't think they have a phone," Nagato said. "If they do, I don't have the number."

"Not being alone is essential when it comes to these demons," Sasori cut in. Laurie nodded in agreement. "Explain the situation and ask for their help. Maybe they'd be willing to watch over the front door."

"Itachi, will you come with me?"

Itachi nodded. He and Clone Nagato left the kitchen and headed for Zetsu's room. Nagato knocked on the door. A muffled voice confirmed that someone was inside, so he called out, "Zetsu, it's Nagato. The clone version. I also have Itachi with me. Can we come in?" Another muffled phrase sounded like assent, so Nagato opened the door. He and Itachi went inside.

Zetsu was standing by the window, bathing in light. Their face was angled toward the window, but the slump of their shoulders suggested that they were tired. Nagato stopped, looking uncomfortable. Itachi cleared his throat. "Zetsu, Nagato needs your help. There is only one person at his workplace guaranteed to stand between him and an attacking demon, and she is as vulnerable to their powers as he is. Would you be willing to watch over the building?"

Zetsu turned around. Both halves rubbed their eyes. "What do you expect us to do if a demon attacks?" Black Zetsu asked.

"The demons have no special abilities other than their aura. They tend to retreat when faced with a group. Simply being present should intimidate them, and if that doesn't drive them off entirely, it at least buys Nagato a chance to fight."

White Zetsu yawned. "Protecting someone's life? Sure, we're in."

"How much greenery is in the area?" Black Zetsu asked.

Nagato grimaced. "It's a commercial road. That said, there is a single very tall tree nearby, and people don't generally look up."

Both halves of Zetsu got a strange look on their face. Black Zetsu asked, "Is perching in a very tall tree something you would do?"

Itachi imagined this. "A single isolated tree, with a good view of the hard ground below, is not something we often perch on," he admitted. "Are you afraid of heights?"

"Wouldn't know. We don't go climbing."

Nagato said, "There's no reason to be frightened. The vertical-walking technique makes it impossible to… Wait…"

Itachi blinked. "Have you learned it?"

Zetsu shook their head. "Is it something we can learn in fifteen minutes?" White Zetsu asked, obviously expecting the answer to be no.

"Yes, thank the gods," Nagato said. "It's less a 'technique' and more 'a basic ability that our originals used literally all the time.' All you need to learn how to do is get your mind out of the way and let reflex take over."

"Get breakfast," Itachi told him. "I will show Zetsu this technique."

He led Zetsu out to the backyard and selected a tree with a smooth, open trunk. "As Nagato said, it is reflexive. All you have to do is step onto a vertical surface. Muscle memory will take care of the rest." Itachi pressed the bottom of one foot against the trunk and felt his chakra automatically shift. Pushing off the ground with his other foot, he swung himself horizontal and walked up the trunk of the tree. "However, your first attempts may fail because of inference from your conscious mind. Do not be afraid to try several times. It may help to consciously focus on channeling chakra into your feet."

"Okay," White Zetsu replied. They walked forward and cautiously placed the bottom of one foot on the trunk as Itachi had. "We feel something!" They pushed off the ground with their other foot, but their grip slipped and they fell. They sat up and looked at the tree with surprise, but a good kind. "It almost worked!"

It only took Zetsu two more tries before they could walk up the trunk far enough to touch the lowest branch. Itachi leaped off so as to not get in their way. "Practice more advanced movements," he called out. "Walking along branches, hanging upside down. That will reduce the danger of falling."

Zetsu proved to be a very quick study. In no time at all, they were walking all over that tree at all different sorts of angles with no fear. White Zetsu waved at Itachi and said, "It reminds me of when we first sprouted, before our roots withered away."

"Ah, I see. You are instinctively familiar with clinging to surfaces because of your plant heritage." What else might being half-plant make them especially good at? What do plants specialize in that animals do not? "Have you tried learning chemistry?"

Zetsu walked down to the lowest branch and leaped off. They stumbled upon hitting the ground, but stayed on their feet. "No. Why?" Black Zetsu asked.

"Chemical warfare is another thing that plants practice which animals do not. Even plants that do not produce poisons use hormones and other substances to communicate. You may have a talent for it."

"That's not something we can learn in fifteen minutes," Black Zetsu replied. "But it's worth investigating later."

"Maybe while we're hanging out in the tree doing nothing," White Zetsu chirped. Itachi suddenly noticed that they looked much more awake than before. "This might be fun!"

Itachi gestured for them to follow him. "Let's test your chakra type using Hidan's scythe and seek elemental advice."

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"What is Zetsu's chakra type?" Konan asked as they watched everyone drive away.

"Wind."

"Interesting."

"Were you expecting it to be earth?" That was my assumption.

Konan shook her head. "Their original's techniques were not of any of the five elemental types. I did not have any expectations in that regard. However, wind chakra is commonly used for either slicing or long-range wind-blowing attacks, neither of which are strategies that match his personality. Then again… It's not as if I knew the slightest thing about his personality."

Itachi shrugged. "I believe that Zetsu is better off learning plant-specific skills. But it's wise to try a variety of things, and White Zetsu looked so excited to have something to practice while sitting in that tree."

"Yes, every moment of idle time is precious now. Speaking of which…" Konan walked out the front door. Itachi followed. He found that at some point when he was not looking, Original Nagato and several others had rolled the Chibaku Tensei outside. At Konan's signal, they rolled it into the street. Original Nagato, Clone Yahiko, both versions of Hidan, the dolls, and several ghostly books were all present.

Itachi nodded. "it is a good idea, beginning this process as soon as possible. Are those books helpful in taming or calming magical beings?"

"Most of them are," Original Nagato replied. "One of them is useful for opening portals to locations where the laptop would be instantly destroyed."

"Hopefully that is unnecessary." Itachi activated the Sharingan.

Original Nagato turned to the two versions of Hidan. "Which of you wishes to have this honor?"

"Both of us!" Clone Hidan chirped. Original Hidan took his scythe off his back and gave it a swing. They moved to opposite sides of the stone ball, channeled chakra into their scythes, buried the blades in the ball's waist and walked clockwise. Their cut lines met, as if they'd planned and practiced this maneuver, but Itachi knew that they had not. He fidgeted as Konan asked the dolls to lift up the top half of the stone ball. Hopefully they did not cut into the magic bubble.

The bubble was intact. Everyone gathered around the bottom half of the stone ball - the stone bowl - to take a closer look. Through the translucent grey film of the bubble, they could see the broken screen and hear a faint whirring and clicking. Original Nagato turned to Clone Yahiko and asked, "Can you communicate with it?"

"I can try." Everyone else stepped back to give Clone Yahiko opportunity to focus. He leaned forward, resting his hands on the bowl's rim, and stared intently at the corrupted laptop. He stayed in that position for a long, long time. Itachi could see him straining to focus. Amazing. I could never maintain a strong level of focus for this long. His powers are truly incredible.

"I think there is a spirit in there," Yahiko whispered. "It seems confused and upset."

"Angry?" Original Nagato asked.

"No."

"Good. Bring the books closer." Clone Hidan picked up the stack of ghostly books and brought it to him. Original Nagato determined that two of them would be useful. He took one and asked Clone Hidan to give the other to Konan, who stood opposite. She studied her book, then looked up and nodded in understanding. "Warlic, Solis, Manta, Little One. Unseal the laptop, create a flat platform to cover that hole, and lower the laptop gently onto the platform."

The dolls did so. The sounds of whirring and clicking intensified, and now it was possible to see ghostly tendrils reaching out of the touchpad beneath the keyboard. Itachi fixed his eyes on those tendrils. "No sign of hostility, " he reported. "Nor that it perceives our presence."

"Konan," Original Nagato called. She picked up her book, which she had opened to a certain page, and held it page-out towards the laptop. A beam of green light washed out of the book's pages and over the laptop, which briefly stopped whirring and clicking. When it resumed, the activity was much quieter, and it occurred in bursts instead of being constant. It seemed more purposeful. "Yahiko."

Clone Yahiko had not relaxed his intense focus. "I still can't tell what kind of spirit is trapped inside the laptop," he said with a frown.

"Attempt to communicate with it."

"Alright." Clone Yahiko leaned forward so that nearly his whole torso rested on the stone rim, putting his face just inches from the laptop. In a soft voice, he said, "Hello there." A burst of clicking and whirring followed. "Tell me more. Who or what are you?" Another burst, this time with much more whirring than clicking. It sounded like the fan was going to explode. "I…don't quite understand…" There was another burst of activity from the fan, but weaker. "Oh. I understand now. That is not good."

"Dangerous?" Original Nagato asked.

Yahiko pushed himself up off the stone rim and shook his head. "Not dangerous, but… Give me a minute." He struggled to collect his thoughts. "Darkness magic can be used to force souls into dead bodies, or rip souls out of living bodies, or talk to souls independently of any body. The point is that it separates souls and bodies and treats them as distinct things, right? That's why darkness magic can't be used to heal - healing almost always involves strengthening the soul's connection to the body, which is the one thing that darkness magic can't do."

"What soul was forced into this device, and where did it come from?" Konan asked.

"The soul of a wolf. I guess some wolves linger around the camp for a short while after they die, to look after their family. This one must've been the nearest soul around when the dolls used darkness magic. It's confused and upset and wants to return to its family."

"The only way to free it from the laptop is to use more darkness magic to sever its connection to this physical form," Itachi continued, catching on. "Which might be problematic, but the alternative is to keep a loyal and loving wolf spirit separated from its family and trapped in a body it doesn't understand."

Yahiko nodded. "But first, since a ghost is involved, we need to get the local person responsible for ghosts in on the case."

"Way ahead of you," the demon boy said from out of nowhere. A cloud of invisibility blew away, revealing him standing between Konan and Clone Hidan. "I can hear and see everything it's saying. This ghost is definitely crammed into the wrong body. It needs to get freed ASAP. But I can also see that freeing it will be super complicated."

"Complicated how?" Original Nagato asked.

The demon boy explained, "Magic is really good at mixing with other magic. The dolls filled this thing up with energy and light before using darkness, so the wolf wasn't just crammed into a laptop. It was crammed into a laptop filled with a three-element stew. More importantly, the darkness magic that put it there was absorbed into said stew. That's a problem. It's sorta like… Hmm… Like if you use a drill to put a screw into something, but then the drill gets hit by a lightning bolt and melts into a giant gooey mess. While it's still attached to the screw. So now you have to figure out how to pull the whole gooey mess and the original screw out of the thing at the same time."

"Just cut the fucking panel loose," Original Hidan suggested.

The demon boy shook his head. "Not when one of the stew ingredients is light magic." He pointed at Clone Yahiko and said, "This guy was right. Light magic works the opposite way from darkness - instead of splitting soul and body apart, it merges them. The light magic took the wolf soul, and the whole rest of the stew by association, and merged it with the laptop. The soul and the magic are bound to the laptop's physical form now, just like a real soul is bound to the physical form of its body. That's part of why the wolf is in pain; the broken screen feels like a wound."

"So the machine must be killed in order to unbind the wolf soul?" Itachi asked. "But how? it has no heart. It is composed of numerous independently-functioning subcomponents, any of which can be removed and replaced without damaging the laptop as a whole. The only way to kill the laptop would be to kill all parts of it simultaneously. To utterly obliterate it." He shot the demon boy a worried look. I don't expect that utterly obliterating the laptop will be as simple as it sounds…

"Not just the laptop," the demon boy said. "The magic too. The whole stew. The wolf soul has to be freed from all of it, and I'd really recommend doing all of the freeing at once. Else you could end up with a magic wolf running home to its family, shooting out lightning bolts and knocking souls loose from plants the whole way."

Itachi gulped. "So using more magic is not an option."

"Nope. Gotta use power over magic itself." The demon boy looked at Clone Yahiko, then at Clone Hidan. "Luckily you guys are pretty awesome at that."

Yahiko gulped. "I was hoping you could do this."

"I can and I will! I just need a little help." The demon boy pointed at the laptop. "I can destroy the laptop and the energies no problem, but I can also destroy the soul just as easy. The way they're all mixed up, it would be too risky. I need you guys to work the magic stew into a neater form so that I can destroy it without destroying the wolf soul too."

"Okay, um, I've never tried to use my powers on this sort of magic before," Clone Yahiko said. "Life force, yes. Chakra, yes. But mana? No. Would it be different?"

The demon boy tilted his head up and stared at the sky while muttering aloud. "Would it be different… Depends on is it different… Mana and chakra… The innate properties… How to find the innate properties? What does channeling them do? Um… Channeling mana, floating and glowing. Channeling chakra… Heat and motion. Different innate properties." He blinked and lowered his head. "Seems so! Mana and chakra are different enough that working with them would feel different."

Yahiko grimaced. "I do not want to experiment with a totally new procedure when there's a panicked, thrashing animal soul involved! Can we create a similar stew of energies and practice moving that around first?"

"The whole point is that you need to untangle this stuff from a panicky soul," the demon boy said with a huff. "And it's tangling itself deeper and deeper, by the way. It's activating the laptop's systems and moving around those ghostly parts by manipulating the magic. The more it does that, the more its soul gets entangled with the magic, and it can't stop itself. By the time you finish practicing, whatever you practiced will be outdated."

Clone Hidan leaned on the stone rim for stability. His face had gone chalk-white. His eyes were a deep purple, and his voice when he spoke was flat and inhuman. "Delicacy. Subtlety. Smallness. All the very things that don't work, that skew, twist. Too small. Such small souls… Broken."

Clone Yahiko gulped. "Hidan's experienced with chaotic messy things, but only big messy things, like reincarnating dead people from a world away and orchestrating an entire localized reality. Meanwhile, I'm experienced with small-scale operations, but only orderly ones! Neither of us can do what you need, even - no, especially - if we combine our talents. When we combined our talents the last time, I was a guiding hand while he supplied the raw power. But for something like this, the party that's experienced at working with chaos is the party that has to serve as the guiding hand, which is itself a small-scale operation that he can't do without breaking my soul!"

"Good points," the demon boy said. "Sorry, Wolfy. Get used to this new body of yours. You're gonna be stuck in it for a while."

"The dolls can perform small-scale chaos. That is how they created this situation," Itachi pointed out.

"The dolls don't have power over magic. They only use magic. In their magic system, controlling the flow of mana itself is a fringe ability."

"So we're fucked," Original Hidan summarized.

"Yup."

Clone Yahiko groaned. "If only we could summon someone from that universe with the ability to control mana!"

The entire circle went quiet. Clone Yahiko was so busy moping that he didn't notice the change in atmosphere for several seconds. When he did, he looked around in confusion. Seeing nothing but strange, indecipherable looks on everyone's faces, he turned to Itachi. Itachi shrugged. "I do not understand why everyone is so very quiet. Hidan and I may be deputies of a division meant to welcome visitors from other worlds, but that is only in the case of a visitor accidentally finding their way into this world. Such visits cannot be made to happen."

"What if they could, though?" Clone Hidan asked. His eyes were back to their usual pink. "Like Sunshine just said, I'm experienced at cross-world operations. if we can bring a dead person from another world into this one, why not a living person?"

Yahiko shook his head so fast he was in danger of giving himself a minor concussion. "No. Not unless we can send them back. Our own originals could stay and become part of this world because they have a place among us, because they're Akatsuki members too, but a total stranger from a different world could not. That would be too cruel!"

"Excuse me." Everyone looked at Konan. She raised her eyebrows. "Have you all forgotten that we already know exactly who we need? The visitor that Clone Nagato encountered was a man who could command mana to do anything he wished. He exited our world as freely as he entered it, through his own power. That man is who we must summon."

"Great," Clone Hidan said. "So I reach across worlds and Sunshine guides my metaphorical hand...where exactly? To someone neither of us have ever met?"

"What if Nagato was with us?" Yahiko asked. "if he pictured the guy he met in his mind, would that guide you to the right person?"

"Worth a shot."

Itachi sighed. "Oh, no. Just when Zetsu got an opportunity to be useful…"

"Do not worry about that," Original Nagato said. "Using divine energy at this magnitude will have the effect of banging a giant metaphysical gong. If the cubi are not repelled by it, they will converge on the location in numbers. A lookout to warn us of such a convergence would be extremely useful."

Itachi blinked. "Zetsu does not have a phone. The plan was for them to be close enough to intervene in person."

Konan turned to him. "You have demonstrated skill at teaching things to Zetsu. Accompany us to the dog shelter. Climb the tree, give them your phone, and teach them to use it."

"Don't worry, Wolfy," the demon boy said. He crawled onto the rim of the stone bowl to gently stroke the laptop's keyboard. "We know someone who can free you. We're gonna call him right now. You're gonna be free in less than a day, okay? It'll be alright."

"I will fetch my version of Yahiko," Original Nagato said. "He and I are experienced at fighting together. If it should come to that…"

Konan nodded. "Yes, that is wise. Fetch him. Then we -" She gestured at the group standing around the stone bowl. "- shall move out to the dog shelter. We do not yet know for sure that the demons intend to attack us, and even if we did, it would be best to avoid giving them the impression that we thought so. The people who are essential to this operation, plus members who are skilled at diplomacy, is the largest force we can justify sending in peacetime."

"What about me?!" Original Hidan cried, outraged.

"You are the prophet's twin and possess an attunement to divine energies equal to, possibly stronger than the cubi's. Obviously, you insisted on coming along for reasons very similar to theirs."

Original Hidan settled down and started purring. "Heh, it wouldn't even be a lie."

Original Nagato left to fetch his partner. While waiting for him to return, Itachi looked around. He still had the Sharingan activated. In every person there, he saw nothing but determination and purpose. Determined, purposeful movement in us is a very scary thing. What are we about to do, and what repercussions will it have? Something tells me that the answers to those questions exist on a scale that only Clone Hidan's other half can hope to understand.

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A/N: Some character needed to invent a name for the demons, because I was getting tired of calling them demons. So, Original Nagato gets this honor. Congratulations.

*maniacal cackling*

Ooh, I love this arc. It's going somewhere interesting, I can feel it. Eeeee!