"He's been quiet."

Kikai roved about the room in small clusters like a living wallpaper pattern. They crawled into corners and filled cracks, undulating with their hosts' chakra and carefully avoiding the pretty little seals that criss-crossed one another on the expanse of the chipped white ceiling.

Sakura ran a whetstone over her kunai, her left arm thrumming with chakra as she held the gleaming metal up to the light. "He's planning his next move, just as we are. All that it'll come down to is who makes the first one."

"It's bullshit," Kiba huffed. He snaked around the table and the rest of his pack sat around it, jotting down seal reversal ideas and throwing down crumpled wads in frustration. The stolen Forbidden Seals Text was cracked wide open on the countertop, its binding stained with ink. "If I was in the Seals Division I woulda' had access to all the texts I needed right now, and what have we just ended up doin'? Sitting! Just! Sitting!"

"Even if you were in the Seals Division, we would still need information on him. Why? Not much is known and it is crucial to understand our enemy before making any bold statements." Shino paused. He tapped his fingers and watched his colony swirl into a new pattern. "More bold statements, at any rate. I suppose there's nothing more infuriating than seeing us come back time and time again despite his efforts for our elimination."

"We need to do something."

"We need evidence," Sakura countered calmly, twirling the kunai between her steel and wooden fingers. "I know that the longer we wait, the longer we run the risk of something else happening, but there's only so much we can do."

Kiba sighed. "I know, I know. It's just..." He crumpled up another sheet. "Ugh. You guys find out anythin'?"

"There are no hospital records I'd come across that would have any use—I imagine anything related to Orochimaru's lab or its victims has been effectively removed. Granted, the suspension I acquired delays things on my end, but nothing else has turned up," Shino informed them. He tilted his head. "Sakura?"

Her eyes focused on a smudge on the table. "The Godaime isn't like her predecessor. Maybe she doesn't have as many years of experience as the Sandaime, but she's not stupid. The Hokage Library is sealed with extra security, nothing we can get into without having to vacate the village immediately, and I've scoped out all of Konoha top-down. I haven't come across any ROOT headquarters as of yet, but I've located areas of interest that contain secret passageways utilized by upper-division shinobi. Some of these Tenzo-san has mentioned before, but I've made a clear note of all the new ones."

"Sweet. You got a map?"

She plucked a folded piece of paper from underneath her shirt and slid it across the table. Akamaru pushed himself up and set his paws near her stack of nearly sharpened kunai as he leaned over the page. "Memorize, then burn."

"I'm still concerned about his silence," Shino brought up again as both Kiba and Akamaru pored over the map. He pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eye, exposing the dark shadows sunken in his skin. "We don't know when he'll attack, but when he does I fear we won't be prepared enough for it."

Kiba pushed the map over to his friend before flipping to the next page on his notepad and frowning down at the blank sheet. "It's nice seein' everyone again," he said. "But... you know we didn't come back just for them." His lips twisted into an awful scowl. He didn't think those words would ever stop tasting bitter. "You know we didn't come all the way back ta' this hellhole ta' try and get our lives back."

He thought of his family's tears when he came back from Kumo.

He didn't think he'd ever be strong enough to tell him he wasn't back forever.

Sakura set down the whetstone with a light clack. "Something will snap one way or another, whether he decides to finally make a move or we finally get the information we need," she said. "We're doing all that we can, and the best we can do is not stop."

Shino and Kiba exchanged solemn glances and Akamaru whined as all four paws dropped back onto the floor.

There was always a choice.

Sometimes they wondered what it would be like if they made the wrong one.

"Alright," Shino nodded. As Kiba resumed his pacing and scribbling, he leaned back in his chair, long black hair spilling messily past his shoulders. "We'll try to find everything we need. Quickly."

He held the map between his fingers and a quick burst of chakra through his nerves consumed it in flames. Ashes spilled into the creases of his palm and drifted on the table.

All around them, kikai crawled and seals burned bright.

:: ::

Dawn barely broke through the horizon as Shikamaru and Kankuro traversed down Konoha's near-empty streets.

Shikamaru yawned, a small tear collecting at the corner of one eye. "You know the whole village is still asleep, right? What's got you up so early?"

"I can't leave Suna unattended for too long, especially with all the preparations we've been making." Kankuro shrugged. "I thought I'd head back as soon as possible."

"Without eating breakfast?"

It took a few seconds for Kankuro to make sure he heard right, and when he was sure he did, he threw his head back and laughed. "Not gonna lie, that's probably the funniest thing you could be concerned about." Glancing up at the blue sky, he completely missed the faint pink rising along the tips of Shikamaru's ears. "But I'll probably stop by a tea house or something on my way back." He nudged the other with an elbow. "What are you doing up so early? I honestly thought your body doesn't function before noon, and even that's a stretch."

"I'm your guide."

Kankuro laughed again. "Even if it's a pain?"

"It's a mission, isn't it?"

They happened upon the gates where they stopped for a brief moment, Kankuro tilting his head towards Konoha's laziest chuunin. "You know, the next time we'll see each other is during the exams," he said. "Maybe you should try for jounin—you're definitely good enough for it."

"Eh..." Shikamaru rubbed the back of his head. "Sounds troublesome."

Kankuro snorted. "Yeah, maybe." He tugged on the scrolls on his back to test their security before lifting his head in a lazy wave. "See you around, Nara."

. . .

Sometimes he really enjoyed the solace of these Ambassador missions. They let him breathe without the council on his shoulders and it granted him reprieve from all the politics that came with his birthright.

The job also allowed him to meet a lot of interesting people too. Shikamaru was a pretty decent guy, yawns and drowsiness and all. He liked taking naps in fields after cloud watching and playing shogi to pass the time; kelp and mackerel were his favorite foods especially when together, and Kankuro could remember snorting tea up his nose after watching him take accidentally taking a bite of boiled eggs and letting it waterfall down his chin and back onto the table.

It was also pretty cute when—

Kankuro sighed and kneaded the muscles in the back of his neck. 'Bad brain. Think about something else.'

He pulled his arm away and stared down at it as he walked.

Then there was Sakura.

Sakura was... something else. When they crossed paths during their Chuunin Exams and struck up a friendship neither of them were really supposed to have, he didn't think it would end up anywhere. They were shinobi from different villages with not much in common brought together by mutual intrigue.

She hated her village, he didn't. He would die for his blood family, there was no blood family for her to die for.

Yet, they'd spent whole nights talking about this and that while he worked on her puppet arm—about movies and favorite foods and the cheapest vegetables to buy each season. After examining her right arm to sketch and replicate the same limb but for her left, he'd learned the earthy brown tattoos were by someplace called the "Catatumbo Penitentiary" and that she hinted her time in Kumo was a little more than just imprisonment. In turn, he told her stories about Gaara's rise to the Kage position and the few lurking council members who sought to undermine it because they could never trust a jinchuuriki. But they would never blab on each other.

He stayed on her side, she stayed on his. That's how they worked.

He frowned and rubbed his stomach, feeling a small knot in the center that he couldn't manage to smooth out. He'd been feeling a bit off since leaving Konoha, and what he initially thought was hunger or stress had traveled up his spine and into his chest to constrict his lungs and heart. Something was off, it had to be, and the more he inched towards his village the worse he started to feel.

Could it be...?

Kankuro straightened as he picked up something in the breeze.

"Ka-Kankuro-san!"

He turned halfway, chakra strings at the tips of his fingers and eyes instantly searching for the source. Only when the three Konohans landed did he relax enough to stop the chakra flow through his hands and crossed his arms as he nodded in greeting.

"Hatake, Hyuuga, Uzumaki," he greeted. "You guys got a mission or something?"

Before Kakashi or Hinata could even think of saying anything, Naruto burst forward with both his fists clenched until his knuckles threatened to break skin.

"They took him," he growled. "The Akatsuki—they took Gaara!"

Kankuro's heart stilled. "What?"

"We'll fill you in on the way," Kakashi said. "Come on, it's best if we get to Suna as quick as we can."

Kankuro didn't need to hear anything more; he and Team Seven immediately sprung through the trees.

"Na-Naruto-kun!" Hinata called out mid-leap. Her teammate had propelled himself forward, a blur of black and orange and blonde as he lurched ahead of their decided kilometer per hour speed. "We need to stay as a unit!"

"But Gaara—"

"Jiraiya-sama told you to not lose your cool, remember?" Kakashi said. "We'll get to Suna as fast as we can."

Kankuro piped up from Kakashi's left. "It'll take us another day and a half before we get there. If Gaara was really taken by the Akatsuki, then no doubt Temari-nee already went after them..."

He grimaced.

Nighttime wrapped around them like a loose shawl as they cut across the forest's darkness. The trees had yet to thin out around them; just another sign of how much distance they had yet to cover before even reaching Wind Country's border. Naruto still hung ahead of the formation despite the chastising, canines minutely sharper as his irises flickered to an unnoticeable red every few minutes before fading back to their usual blues.

"People like me and Gaara..." He ground his teeth. "Tailed beast this, tailed beast that. We never asked to be what we are, and suddenly the Akatsuki comes to tear the demons out of our bodies."

Kankuro blinked. Right, Uzumaki was a jinchuuriki too.

"Gaara is the last person who needs to deal with this," he continued, the Will of Fire burning bright in his gaze. "And I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make sure he won't be in it alone."

Kankuro bit the inside of his cheek. Most of his life he'd been afraid of Gaara and the trail of blood he left behind him when he went on rampages within the village. He could still remember tip-toeing down the hall past his room that he never slept in and could still feel that same fear he felt when he watched sand crush and churn the bodies of those Gaara every deemed were "in his way."

It wasn't too long ago that if he'd heard the news that Gaara could die, he wouldn't care.

Yet two years later here he was, blood rushing in his ears as he pleaded to the gods that his little brother would still be alive and breathing.

He hoped they weren't already too late.

Silence reigned over the team until the sun rose.

. . .

A day away from their destination, they had soldier pills for breakfast and never faltered in pace.

Hinata pushed a bit further towards the front until she was shoulder to shoulder with her friend. She ignored how the lines on his cheeks were slightly more pronounced and focused instead on his hard glare.

"You've met hi-him before, haven't you? Uchiha Itachi," she mentioned. Naruto snarled. "And he's after you." She glanced over her shoulder to meet Kakashi's surprised stare. "I didn't just train over the past two years. I-I got into Tsunade-shishou's library and conducted outside investigations to the best of my ability." An image of Sasuke flashed to the forefront of her mind, and with it the memory of her trying to stop him from leaving for Naruto's sake only to wake up on a stone bench with an ache in her neck and her reclusive teammate nowhere to be seen. Quieter, she continued. "Sasuke-san only ever wanted to kill his brother, an Akatsuki member, even going the lengths to join Orochimaru for power—a previous member of the Akatsuki."

She steeled her nerves. "What I'm getting at is... the closer we get to Akatsuki and the closer we get to information about Orochimaru, the closer we get to Sasuke-san." She looked back at Naruto and the way he grit his teeth. "Are you prepared for that?"

When twelve year old Naruto pulled open the door of the hotel room Ero-sennin left him in, a figure clad in a dark cloak loomed over him in the doorway. Red clouds, red eyes, his mind immediately went to Sasuke. But Sasuke wasn't this tall and never made his muscles tense in fear...

"Really, who'd think this kid would have the Kyuubi in him?"

Another man swept up behind the first one, and Naruto leaned back as sweat dripped down the back of his neck. His skin was this washed up blue and his navy hair slicked up in the shape of a shark-fin. And not only was he ridiculously tall, but his beady black eyes made Naruto shiver.

"Just a damn kid," the blue guy sighed, a downturn to his lips. "You know I don't kill kids, Itachi-san. You deal with this one."

"It doesn't matter if I'm prepared for anythin' or not," Naruto growled. "We'll kick these guys' asses and get Sasuke back no matter what!"

:: ::

"You called for me, Tsunade-sama?"

Tsunade stood as she gazed out one of her windows, brow creased and hands folded behind her back. A newspaper with the day's winning lottery numbers laid unfurled on her desk and atop it, a lottery ticket embossed with the exact same numbers. By its side was a ceramic cup cracked beyond relief.

It had been two days since Team Kakashi left for their mission.

"I want to send reinforcements to Suna," she stated bluntly. "The team currently returning from the A-rank I had no choice but to slot them in for—they should be returning soon, shouldn't they?"

Shizune thought back to all the A-ranked missions assigned since the beginning of the month. Most were still active and in the middle of their allotted time, but the team that was due back this afternoon—

"Tsunade-sama," she started uncertainly. "You want to send them? On this mission?"

"You think they're incapable?"

"Not at all, it's just..." Shizune trailed off.

Tsunade turned around. No, her assistant had every right to be concerned. Not too long ago she'd pondered this team and their eccentricities, to put it mildly, and tried to puzzle out just what about them made her so curious.

Their mission streak since returning from their absence was simply impeccable. They took on orders without complaint, and if she factored out Shino's regular insubordination as a village-bound medic and Kiba's odd persistence of seal work and the general conundrum around Sakura, then by all means they might be the most capable, well-rounded squads to perform under her direction.

But the experience they racked up under their belt during her predecessor's tenure had been... concerning. They had more than enough D-ranks to cover the requirement for their enrollment into the Chuunin Exams, but the more she dug into their files the more wary and confused she'd become at all the details that compiled in the calculating mess that was Team Eight.

A majority of their missions had been set outside of Konoha. Not too common, but then again not too strange. But as she perused through the post-mission reports, she noted two red flags.

One, they always seemed to take on the missions that no one wanted. Undesirable missions. The ones that got stuffed at the bottom of the assignment pile simply because no one wanted to do them; the ones that had people averting their eyes or holding down their stomachs because they dealt with the clean-up and dead-ends and always lowered the morale of the shinobi that were slated for them.

Team Eight had twenty-five D-ranks and one C-rank prior to their assignment to their ill-fated B-rank.

Twenty-three of those missions were undesirables.

Tsunade had clawed through each mission report with intense scrutiny after that realization, citing Yuuhi Kurenai's neat hand and the footnotes from the gate guards that signed them back into the village.

And by the Kages, the injuries they'd all sustained.

Mission twenty-two had them bring in a drug dealer that never showed up to his court date; Kiba suffered chakra exhaustion and a pulled muscle chasing him across Fire Country for sixty-five kilometers straight. Mission eighteen sent them to investigate a domestic abuse case; Sakura had a dislocated and broken jaw from when one of the spouses lost their mind and she'd step in to take the blow. Mission nine told them to disperse a low-end gang war; Shino was put on leave for a week when a gang leader shattered his collarbone with a crowbar. Mission nineteen forced them to search through a landfill for the missing body of a runaway teen; Akamaru had been admitted to a veterinary clinic for an infection caused by a fungus that seemed to concentrate in that area.

Mission twenty-six sent them to follow up on Team Seven's actions in Wave. They were attacked by a group of mercenaries.

Mission five, they dug thirty-three graves for thirty-three dead children.

Twelve year old genin dug graves for their own.

And Tsunade had been absolutely sickened. 'Hiruzen-sensei, may you rest in peace, but what was going through that senile old head of yours?!'

No wonder Hagane and Kamizuki called them Unlucky.

Though perhaps this was the explanation for why they were such able-bodied shinobi, and she truly did believe that if she assigned this S-rank to them, they would be successful.

"It's just that whenever something about Team Eight comes up, you always seem to look at them in an odd light," continued Shizune. "Not in a bad way, but it's as if they confuse you, almost. Maybe that they don't hold your trust?"

"They haven't given me a reason not to trust them," Tsunade said as she slumped into her seat. "They're competent, they listen, they do what they're told without kicking up a fuss." She set her elbow on her arm rest and dropped her chin on her knuckles. "If this mission goes off without a hitch and they receive a glowing report from Kurenai and Kakashi, I'll reconsider my stance on them. If not, I'll investigate this matter myself."

She waved a hand through the air. "But enough of that. Tell the guards to halt Team Eight at the gates upon their return. I'll give them my orders there and have them set off to Suna immediately."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama!"

:: ::

Kurenai gazed at her kids as they sped through the canopies of the thickets of trees in the diamond formation they'd arranged themselves into. Kiba took to the front and was left to decide the speed and direction the team would take, Shino was directly behind him as attending medic and thus the key element that need the most protection from the formation, her and Akamaru flanked the sides to keep watch on the left and the right respectively, and Sakura brought up the rear as the tank fighter on the team.

"I'm giving you the same mission I've given Team Kakashi," Tsunade stated as she stood at Konoha's southern entrance. One hand braced on her hip as she scrutinized each and every member of the team before her. "You will go to Suna and provide back-up for Hatake Kakashi, Hyuuga Hinata, and Uzumaki Naruto against the threat known as the Akatsuki. From there, you will receive the rest of your assignment. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Team Eight chorused sharply. Tsunade nodded.

"Dismissed!"

As they leapt into the trees, Kurenai surveyed their current atmosphere. Kiba clicked his tongue once they were far enough away from the gates.

"Another mission right after our last one? And an S-rank?" He scowled. "At least the pay's gonna be good. I can finally get that super condensed sealing paper that costs a billion per sheet."

Akamaru barked, a small whine at the end of his tone, and Kiba paused for a moment before he winced, shook his head, and stole a look at their pink-haired packmate. Shino followed their gaze as well with a crease in his brow, but kept his silence.

Sakura's face had iced over and she'd pressed her lips together so tightly they'd gone white, and when she acknowledged their concern with a curt wave of her hand—a clear sign for 'later.'

Kurenai glanced over her shoulder at Sakura's blank face, and though to everyone else it might seem like her typical cold facade, she could see the pensive threads streaming through dark green eyes. "You've been thinking about something since Tsunade-sama gave us the mission," she said. "Are you worried?"

Sakura hummed, pink hair brushing against the hitai-ate on her forehead. "I wouldn't call it worry."

"I see. But let me know if there's anything wrong, alright?"

"Yes, sensei."

Kurenai stole a last look at her student. She wore her black pants, blue shirt, and brown pauldrons just as she always did, except this time she wore three of Kiba's seals; one on her leg beneath her kunai pouch, one on her prosthesis under all those bandages, and one on the bottom of her right sandal that had only been there since the short break they took when Kurenai broke off from the rest of the team to run a quick perimeter.

Each seal slip had P E R C E P T I O N written down their lengths, surrounded by other sequences that completely flew over her head.

Her kids said nothing about it, so she would only ask when the mission was over.

A blip of chakra in the distance had Kiba throwing an arm out to halt their movement, and when Akamaru landed on a thick branch and barked twice, he paused before nodding in confirmation.

"Potential ally, mid-low defensive positions," he called out. Sakura grasped the hilt of her katana, Shino's insects surfaced on his skin, Kurenai readied the kunai hidden in her sleeve, and they were silent as they lay in wait.

If others saw their formation, they would turn their noses down at Kurenai for how much control she allowed the rest of her squad to have when she was both of higher rank and the assigned leader for the duration of the mission. But she knew what they were capable of and just what they had to go through to be where they were now—if there was ever a mission that didn't require her direct expertise or was understood thoroughly by one of her kids, she had no problem passing the reins.

Eight never had the chance to learn leadership and strategy that didn't involve escaping something with their lives or their sanity. Their time under the Sandaime was proof enough of that. So where he severely failed, Kurenai sought to teach.

It was what she owed them, in the very least.

A small brown pug landed on a branch across from them a few seconds later.

"Pakkun-san," Kurenai greeted in surprise. She waved down her students. "Low defense, he's one of Kakashi's summons."

"Yeah, hey," the ninken nodded as he observed the group of chuunin. He'd never met them before and heard once or twice in passing that they'd gone MIA for a bit, but his fur prickled at their stillness and the way their gazes never left his. Damn, what a weird group of pups. "Boss directed us—the Eight Ninken—to fan outwards from Suna to track a scent from a scrap of cloth that the Kazekage's sister managed to snag in her fight against one of those Akatsuki. Akasuna no Sasori, I think his name was."

Sakura's grip tightened around her sword as she angled her head just slightly to the side.

"Turns out the scent leads to River Country, bordered between Wind and Fire."

"River?" Kiba repeated. He broke eye contact with the newcomer for the first time to address the rest of his team. "That means..."

"That we're the closest team to the location," Shino said. "Why? River is only an hour from where we are currently."

Pakkun nodded again. "Exactly. Now follow me, I'll explain the details as we run."

He launched himself back towards the way he came, leaving Kiba sputtering in his wake.

"Hey!"

Team Eight leapt after him, all but one unaware of the watcher hidden in the trees.

:: ::

Viscous red chakra leaked into a husk of a mouth, consuming Shukaku in its entirety and sealing it into the belly of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. Its shriveled stone body pressed against two whole walls of the summoning arena, and the fourth of all its eyes fought to open. Nine of its outstretched fingers lifted all nine of the currently active Akatsuki members, most of them a rainbow static in the shadows of a barely lit cavern.

Zetsu, poised atop the right little finger, suddenly drew himself back into awareness. "An enemy is nearing the hideout."

"An enemy, hm?"

"Konoha shinobi. I recognize one as Yuuhi Kurenai. Three others plus two ninken make up the rest of her team," he continued, yellow eyes sweeping the cavern. "I don't know whether they're particularly strong or not, but they are young. Inexperienced, perhaps. It should not be too difficult to dispose of them."

"Yuuhi Kurenai is an A-rank genjutsu mistress, though I cannot speak for her team—whoever they may be," Itachi spoke from atop the right ring finger. "While she was an adept opponent when I faced her two years ago, neither her nor Sarutobi Asuma had been able to hold their ground against Kisame-san and I."

"The one with the red eyes who isn't an Uchiha," Kisame recalled. He pushed the confusion threatening to scrunch his face even if he knew it wouldn't translate well to his holographic projection. Yuuhi Kurenai, Yuuhi Kurenai... wasn't she Pup's sensei? 'Shit, don't tell me...'

Pein's eyes swiveled slowly to the side. The black rings that rippled from the pupils of his gleaming purple eyes were like a beacon in the darkness. "There is no need for direct contact. Use that jutsu."

"Then let me do it," Hidan bid from the left index finger. "I've been gettin' real fuckin' annoyed at all the shit we haven't been doing, seriously."

"Nah, I'll do it," Kisame offered, perched atop the left ring finger. He suffocated his panic beneath his typical, easy going demeanor. Though it was harder this time when paranoia came back like an old friend, knocking against his rib cage and rattling the muscles in his throat. None of them could see his pup and maybe if Zetsu had been too far to see that it'd been her, if she was there, he couldn't risk anyone else finding out she was alive. "I've got a thing against Konoha shinobi. No offense, Itachi-san."

From upon the right middle finger, Konan's face remained apathetic even as her heart softened.

"... The jutsu is more suited to someone like you, Kisame. You have the greatest chakra reserves among us," Pein decided. He fell into a brief, considering silence. "Even so, the jutsu will require thirty percent of your chakra that will need to be dispatched immediately."

"Heh. Fine by me."

'Please don't let her be there.'

:: ::

The terrain grew into a rocky thing covered in hills of stone and sunk deep grooves underfoot from years and years of weathering. Dust kicked off the path they ran, and Kiba hated the potential attention they could attract from it. There was no one around for hours, probably, and there were barely any shadows to keep to as the burning sun crashed down onto their shoulders.

"Someone slap some sunscreen on Sakura, she's gonna be a lobster by the time we're outta here," Kiba ribbed. He stuck his tongue out when Sakura raised a brow in his direction.

"Lobster is a rich source of copper and selenium," Shino commented. "Though I don't favor it. Why? Crab is virtually the same crustacean and tastes much better."

"They're not the sa—Shino. You can't just say shit like that. If crab and lobster were the same thing it'd be crab and crab or lobster and lobster, not crab and lobster."

"Seafood is seafood, but crab is cheaper," said Sakura. "The price for a kilogram of the lowest running crab meat is equivalent to up to ten bottles of sunscreen, depending on the brand."

"The hell are you gonna do with ten bottles of sunscreen?"

"Not become a lobster, apparently."

Up front, Kurenai covered her mouth to hide her laugh and Pakkun snorted. Akamaru snuffled his own chuckle before his nose twitched and his great white head angled upward. He barked lowly, causing both Pakkun and Kiba to skid to a stop.

"How many?" Kiba asked. Another bark. "One?"

Then—

"Back!"

The earth trembled as something bandaged—was it a pole, a sword, a staff, a weapon—burst from the ground and zig-zagged towards them at the speed of a thrown kunai.

Five seconds from the mark and Sakura's katana was out of its sheath, four seconds from the mark she recognized that beneath the bandages was a blade, three seconds from the mark their opponent's chakra washed over her like a hurricane and its familiarity staked her through the heart but it's cold and detached and wrong, two seconds from the mark the skin of her right arm crept blue-gray and the rest of the team scattered to dodge the impact, one second from the mark she deactivated the perception seals all over her body.

She locked her left arm behind her katana and poised it above her as the blade rained down.

The impact split the ground but not her bones, and she let her skin fade to its normal hue as dust collected around them. Driving her strength left, she pushed Samehada off and launched herself to Kiba's side.

"What do you smell on him?" she asked as the dust cloud slowly began to dissipate. Her mouth was still and he had to strain to hear her words.

"Sand. Lots of it," he replied, just as quiet. "Seems like he's been out for a while. Lotsa' dirt and smoke—smells like he's just had a lunch full a' red meat. Camel? I got a pretty good whiff of it when Shino made thenthuk, but this one's fresher." He glanced up at her just in time to see her eyes darken considerably. "Why?"

"Dad's been a pescatarian even before I was born," she said, and Kiba blanched as he snapped back to the settling dust and the figure standing in its midst. "I don't see a reason why he'd stop now."

'Hoshigaki Kisame' poised himself in his own destruction, and when Sakura met his gaze and failed to spot even a spark of recognition, she reactivated the Perception seals.

"You don't wanna be recognized, huh?"

"If we're dealing with the Akatsuki, then it's best if I'm hidden from them. A henge would require too much chakra to maintain and a genjutsu would divide my focus. Do you know any seals that can hide my appearance?"

Kiba gripped his chin. "Well, there's Perception seals. Basically, you'll still be you with the same height, clothes, weapons, and stuff, but it changes other things like voice, eye color, hair color. But only for those who don't already know what you look and sound like."

"Then what will strangers see when they look at her?" Shino questioned.

"Eh, it's all about perception," Kiba shrugged. "They'll see whatever they expect to see. And if they don't know or expect Sakura, then they won't see her at all."

"So it's not him."

Sakura sunk into a defensive stance. "No. It's not."

Shino listened to the insects that lingered near his ears and pulsed the most minuscule of chakra flashes that relayed the noise input received from the insects residing on his teammates. The words Dad and it's not him rang clear in his mind as he stared down the impostor.

"So this is the Akatsuki," he murmured aloud. Loud enough for pack to listen and definitely loud enough for Pakkun to catch.

'Kisame' chuckled.

'Samehada' hurled into the air and blue hands slapped together into a single snake seal. "Suiton: Bakusui Shouha!"

Water erupted from his mouth like a geyser. The rocky terrain was suddenly thin slabs of stone in the middle of an ocean from the rushing water of a never ending waterfall that propelled 'Kisame' meters above them. It was a testament to his chakra reserves with how he'd single-handedly curtailed the battlefield in his favor, and he laughed as he glided down the watery hill of his creation with a blade in his hand and a thirst for blood on this tongue.

Team Eight bounded into the air as the waves rushed beneath them, but as they landed on some of the breaching rocks, behind them one-two-three giant waves ascended towards the skies before surging back down over their heads.

"What the fuck's this, the Aquatic Center on steroids?!" Kiba snarled, landing on a half-submerged boulder.

"The amount of water that appears has an exponential equivalent to the amount of chakra allocated for the jutsu," Sakura said as she landed on a rock downstream of him. "Hoshigaki Kisame is notorious for his large chakra reserves."

Kurenai's gaze flickered all around them. Their opponent was nowhere to be seen, lost in the choppy waters that licked at their feet. Oceans and mountains all on the same playing field... well, there were worse predicaments to be in.

Another wave shot in from the left and they all pushed themselves into the air again. This wave was much bigger and streaked past only a foot or so from the bottoms of their sandals. 'Kisame' appeared from the water and swung down. Dodge, swung to the side, dodge; Kurenai swiped her leg through his head only for her sandals to soak and droplets to splash against her knees.

"Water clone," she bit. The physical 'Kisame' emerged from his dispersed clone and swung down again.

Swing, dodge. Swing, dodge. Swing, dodge.

She wasn't in any position to move onto the offensive with how far up in the air they were, but the movement at the corner of her eyes was enough of a signal to spin out of range as best she could.

"Sakura!" she barked.

'Kisame' twisted his head to see the end result of two of the kids launching the third by grasping her sandals and throwing her forward. The girl slammed her foot against his hand, forcing him to drop 'Samehada', and slashed her katana.

It nicked his throat. He let himself fall towards calmer waters.

He touched down without much of a splash, but so did Kiba and Akamaru.

"GATSUUGA!"

The twin tornado attack sent him flying backwards into the direction of his careening blade. 'Samehada' was in his grasp once more and he slammed the tip into the water to slow his momentum, whipping it back in front of him to block the barrage of kunai aimed his way.

Each one was attached to an explosive tag.

'Kisame' escaped into the water as smoke and fire spewed on the battlefield.

"Elusive," Shino noted as everything around them stilled once more. Kurenai and Sakura landed beside him and Kiba backtracked to their location. "Pakkun-san is watching from a distance; he believed that he would only be in our way."

"That's probably for the best," Kurenai agreed. Akamaru's head jerked somewhere ahead of them, spitting and guttural.

"Y'all are kinda annoying, aren't you?" 'Kisame' scoffed as he rose out of the water. "It's so bothersome... but hey, what can you do? I'll enjoy tearing all of you apart into microscopic pieces."

Sakura almost allowed her lips to tug up into an incredulous smile. Microscopic pieces? 'Definitely not him.'

"We'll play this one by ear," Kiba murmured to the rest of the team. "Watch his steps, catch him off, let the rest of him spill into the water." He never broke eye contact with their enemy who eyed them with thinly veiled amusement. "Che. Didn't even get the chance to roll up my pants so they wouldn't get wet." A ripple of chuckles spread across the team. "Any suggestions?"

"Rip his arms off so he can't use his sword," Sakura offered.

"When it didn't work with you?"

"Well," she started, dipping into another sword stance that Bee once made her hold for twenty-four full hours, "not everyone can be me."

"Do you think you'll get me off guard that easily?" 'Kisame shifted 'Samehada' on his shoulder. "I'll be quick to change your mind."

Shino held his arms out in invitation. "I suppose this is a moment where we would reply, 'do your worst.'"

Kurenai hung near the back of their current formation, her hands blurring in a flurry of her hand seals and both her chakra and focus locked onto 'Kisame.' He'd been so easily caught in one of her genjutsu last time that it was bound to work again; at the completion of the final seal, Kiba sprinted forward with his teeth bare and nails sharp.

'Kisame' stood frozen as the illusion washed over him. But before Kiba could make contact, he jerked and moved his sword to block the strike. The teen flipped back as Sakura descended from above. He locked her first kick and her second but the third he expected to come in from the right but it crossed in from the left, nailing him in the side where her left arm punched him clean across the face.

It was too hard to be a human hand and he felt the chip chip chip of his cracking jaw.

She widened the gap between them as Kiba lunged forward while Akamaru was relentless in trying to rip chunks out of 'Kisame's' legs. There was a faint hum in the air as Shino and Kurenai slunk around to their opponent's blind sides—not that there were many of them—and watched the bombardment of three on one.

Kikai poured out of Shino's sleeves and mouth and the holes that tore open in his scarred skin and he fanned them out to run the perimeter with strict direction to keep away from the chakra-generated water. Check for anything notable, he ordered them. Anything off. Anyone hiding.

Kurenai searched for an opening through the constant storm of taijutsu Sakura and Kiba inflicted on 'Kisame' to keep his hands busy and prevent him from performing another jutsu. She could thread another genjutsu in without catching her kids in it if she was careful enough, but it needed to have the perfect timing. He'd broken through her first one quickly. Too quickly.

Sakura threw a right hook that 'Kisame' caught with his free hand. The force he used to grip her knuckles was enough to crack her bones, and when she yanked back he was tugged forward with her.

Her left leg rose to slam into his face. He leaned back to dodge and her leg crested around 'Samehada's' hilt, tearing it away from Kisame's grip.

"Now!" she snapped. Kurenai shot out a genjutsu as she, Akamaru, Kiba, and Shino boxed in around 'Kisame' to slap down matching seals atop the bumbling waters. Water seeped into the paper but the ink didn't bleed, and the purple glow it emitted shivered and writhed as a border of lavender light walled him in.

By the time 'Kisame' broke the genjutsu's hold, there was nowhere for him to go.

"What the hell..." he muttered.

The barrier around him was... off. Uneven. Erratic. The chakra that circuited was thrown around at random intervals and made it near impossible to detect the pattern in the currents running through it. And no pattern meant no gaps to break through.

"Like it?" Kiba grinned as he stepped back to observe his handiwork, his neck and forehead slick with sweat with the amount of chakra he poured into it. His grin widened when 'Kisame' slammed a fist against one wall and nothing changed. "Took me a hot minute ta' figure out how to make that pain-in-the-ass sequence linker without the whole thing fallin' apart the minute it activated. Keeps you in, but doesn't keep us out. You're trapped." He glanced over at Sakura and wiggled his eyebrows. "Like a lobster in a cage."

She snorted as he held 'Samehada's' hilt in a loose, one-handed grip. It wriggled, waiting for her choice, and she was almost too afraid to give it her answer.

"Kiba," Kurenai warned. "Let's deal with this first. Once we complete this mission, I'll take you all to get lobster. Or crab," she added when Shino opened his mouth. He shut it and nodded, appeased.

"You think you've won?" 'Kisame' spat as his burning gaze raked them all over. "You catch me in a fancy seal and think that you've caught me? I'll overload your whole damn circuit and gut you first, dog boy."

"Heh." Kiba's face darkened as they drifted up to meet his, yet that grin is unmoving. It was a face indifferent to threat and hazard, and maybe 'Kisame' had walked into this battle under severe underestimation. "I wouldn't worry 'bout that, Hoshigaki," he drawled. "Overload only works after five minutes minimum even with your reserves, which—huh, looks like you've never had full in the first place. We've been talkin' for over a minute, you've got less than four left." The ninken sat atop the water with a face blank as stone and dark eyes unwavering. "You won't last that long."

'Kisame' snarled, but stopped as Sakura walked forward.

"Shouten no Jutsu, right? The Shapeshifting Technique. I've seen it once or twice," she said. "It makes sense. You allocate thirty, forty percent of an individual's chakra to a living human sacrifice. The sacrifice becomes an identical copy, complete with perfect imitations of any kekkai genkai or unique weapon, and the original controls their copy remotely. There are multiple drawbacks to that technique on the original's end, though. Do you know what they are?"

He was silent. She continued.

"Even if the real Hoshigaki Kisame is controlling you, and even if the real Hoshigaki Kisame is listening to my words, he can't see everything. He won't recall my voice. He sees and knows enough to pinpoint enemies and dodge attacks, but he can't see the colors of their shirts or note the shape of their eyes. Defining characteristics are blurred, and that's what makes this jutsu too flawed to use as reconnaissance."

'Kisame's' eyes dropped to her right hand on the hilt of her blade; he could feel her hesitance in wielding it properly. "... And the sacrifice dies along with the end of the jutsu."

She tipped her head. "And the sacrifice dies along with the end of the jutsu."

'Kisame' scoffed and shook his head and raised his eyes to meet his killer's. "Get on with it, then," he said. "I know when I've been had, and I don't need pity from some baby Konohans who got lucky."

"Minute and a half," Kiba announced as he took a step back. The rest of the team followed suit, and the purple barrier shuttered in static and electricity as Sakura's right foot slid back into position.

Her right hand tightened around the top of the hilt and her left came to grasp the bottom as she swung the enormous sword over her shoulder.

Dark blue-purple spikes flared like gnarled thorns and pierced through both her hands. The left she was lucky would only result in scraped metal and splintered wood, but the right gushed blood that dripped down the hilt and into the water beneath her feet.

Shino's hand shot forward. "Sakura—!"

"What do they call you?" she asked. She ignored the pain and Shino's alarm and Kurenai's shock and Kiba's worry and Akamaru's fear and stared straight into the eyes of the man captured in seals.

The corner of 'Kisame's' mouth curved as the hilt shoved more thorns into her flesh, through her flesh, past her flesh. She never flinched. "Mukade."

Sakura nodded, tightened her grip even when her right hand became a mangled mass of red and muscle, and swung.

He didn't dodge.

(Nor would he, even if he could.)

:: ::

In the far reaches of a secluded clearing near Takigakure, the real Hoshigaki Kisame opened his eyes with a stifled gasp. Beside him, Itachi was still caught controlling the Shouten in his fight against the Kyuubi boy and the rest of his lackeys, but his own fight... Zetsu had been right about Yuuhi Kurenai, three others, and the two ninken.

Through his murky recollection of the battle, he assigned the oldest sounding voice as Yuuhi. Some of the others' had their names spoken aloud at some points, namely Kiba and Sakura, solidifying his fears. Pup's team. One of the ninken was gargantuan and the last of them—it had to be Shino—charged the battlefield with such an incessant buzzing that it had to be the Aburame bugs.

Though the one thing he remembered most vividly—

Hands bloody and weeping in the wake of Samehada's rejection.

He sighed, long and suffering, as he brought up a hand to rub at his stinging eyes.

'Pup,' he thought somberly. 'What were you trying to...?'

He sighed again and waited for his partner to complete the jutsu.

Morbidly, he wonders if she ever noticed her old red ribbon tied near the pommel under all that she bled.