"Blasted fool." Kisame murmured, "Moron. Idiot. Dumbass. Halfwit. Imbecile."

He slouched forward against the kubikiribocho blade that punctured a cliff's edge, recently upturned dirt surrounding the cracked steel.

"Asshole. Dipshit. Bastard..."

The sunset on the horizon was pink, orange, and nothing short of beautiful. But it was mocking him horribly. Defiantly. Selfishly.

"I'll kill all of them, Zabuza. Every last one of them. The Usuakari will fall and your death won't be in vain."

The bushes rustled behind him and Itachi stepped out, bruised and scarred and messily wrapped bandages covering his wounds. He inclined his head towards Kisame.

"Shisui found a trail that will lead us to some of the Usuakari members. Are you ready to go, Hoshigaki-san?"

::

Kankuro was crumpled on the floor, unconscious, and losing his pulse by the second. Sprinkles of sand dusted his body and continued down the hallway into the Kazekage's office. There, Temari sat at her desk with tears streaming down her face and her resolve crumbling bit by bit. Gaara, amused by the whole situation, leaned against the wall with a cheeky grin on his face.

"What's the matter, nee-chan?"

Suddenly, he slammed the palm of his hand against her desk, making her flinch. He leaned in close to her ear.

"Never seen a man turned inside out before?" he whispered, gesturing to the pink, bloodied mass on the ground, "While he was still screaming?"

::

"Oh, they're following the trail we laid out for them!" Sasuke exclaimed giddily, "That was pretty quick. And Kisame, man, he must be furious! Neji-chan and Hinata-chan really did a number on that Zabuza guy. What do you think, Sai-chan?"

Sai looked up from his sketchbook and chuckled nervously.

"They might be a bit of trouble, but nothing we can't handle." he said. He dipped his brush in a deep red liquid before continuing to paint again, "I've actually been looking forward to replenishing my ink supply."

::

"Man, how troublesome." Shikamaru yawned. "That was the most boring climax to a fight I've ever seen!"

You shouldn't have gotten your hopes up. Haku signed, The Rokubi wasn't a high ranking tailed beast. We've already obtained the harder ones.

"You're right. Come on, let's get him back. Naruto'll be happy."

You're carrying him.

"Huh?! Tch, what a drag. You're lucky you're pretty."

::

The stares of those two were unsettling. Their eyes were blank and burned into his skin like pure acid, but it was nothing compared to the way Naruto was looking at him. Naruto was grinning like a complete idiot, happy and cheerful as he sat on his desk. Blood clung onto him like a second skin, staining his clothes and seeping into his hair.

"Isn't this great, Jiraiya?" he asked. The aforementioned sat still in his iron seat in the center of the grand office. Angry raindrops smashed against all the windows and thundered roared with a lion's ferocity.

"It's just the four of us. Sakura-chan, Lee-kun, me, and you. This'll be fun, don't you think?" he chirped. At that moment, a tanuki appeared in the room with a scroll attached to its backside. Sakura strode over silently and unrolled the paper.

"Gaara has reported in." she deadpanned. Naruto leaned forward eagerly and Jiraiya tensed, preparing for the worst.

"The Kazekage is dead."

:: Nine Days Before the First Incident ::

"... I take it that I'm supposed to know who you are." Jiraiya said. His eyes flickered towards the door and saw a paper seal slapped on the wood, making sure that no one got in, no one got out, and no one could hear a single word from the room they were standing in. A quick glance towards the windows told him that he couldn't use that escape route either. Nearly every inch of the glass was covered in snake summons.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you." the stranger informed happily, "It's not my place. If anything, it's Naruto's job to make sure you're absolutely positively flat-line dead."

He tensed.

"Uchiha Sasuke."

Sasuke clapped before sliding down his mask and removing his hood. He spread his arms out in a grand gesture.

"Give the man a prize!" he crowed, "He has more than half a brain and a sense of perception to astound for miles!"

He hopped off the desk and placed his hands on his hips, lips twisted in a mocking grin.

"I only came here to give you a message from the boss man himself. I think it's pretty straight forward, so I don't think you'll have any problem understanding it."

Sasuke plopped down in the Hokage's chair, kicking his feet up to rest on the wooden desk. His eyes were spinning; depths of red that suffocated with a single look. Jiraiya looked at him helplessly, wondering what had gone wrong. What had turned Sasuke into such a person. What had driven him so far that he had turned against his own at such a young, tender age.

"In nine days time, nine lives will be tried. A brother loses a sister. A friend loses a friend. A teacher loses his being. A wanderer loses his soul. A survivor loses the other. And finally, a man learns the truth before losing it all."

"And what am I to do about it?" Jiraiya asked cautiously. Sasuke smiled.

"Nothing. I'm only telling you this because you're one of the nine."

He pulled on his hood and slipped up his mask before fluttering his fingers at the surprised Godaime.

"Better say your goodbyes, old man, and don't say I never did anything for you. Toodles!"

::

"Personally, Beastie gives the most boring fucking missions ever. But I have to give him credit this time. I think we'll actually have some fun with this! Finally!" Hinata exclaimed. She took off her mask and gazed at the bloodstains that covered it, the red spreading to even the kanji that spelled out the word 'east'. Her partner, Neji, nodded in agreement.

"No kidding." he mused, his own mask depicting the kanji for 'west', "But you know how it's been lately. We can't cause too much trouble because we have most of the tailed beasts and we can't afford a screw up."

Hinata scoffed.

"Screw up? Name one time we ever screwed up on Naruto-sama's, hell, even Pinky's watch! We do things the messy way, but we ain't that sloppy. Art Hoe and Saucy-chan do some pretty neat work but tend to get off task, Slackass always needs Cookie there to make him do shit, and Fuckboy's, well... Fuckboy. I guess he listens to either Beastie or Pinky."

Neji scratched the back of his head.

"Geez, your nicknames are getting worse..."

"Shut the hell up, Superiority Complex."

::

"This is bad." Temari muttered as she paced around in her office, "The Usuakari had kidnapped and tortured a Konoha shinobi for information and had completely overpowered him... What's going to stop them from going for one of us?"

She turned to the subordinate that informed her of this development.

"Spread the word about Uzumaki Naruto. If him or any other one of those Usuakari members are spotted, do not engage. I won't lose any of my people to the likes of them."

The subordinate bowed her head.

"Hai, Kazekage-sama!"

Once she left the room, Temari sank into her chair with a prolonged sigh. Kankuro walked from his spot near the windows and sat at the edge of her desk. His eyes were dull and his tongue was reluctant.

"The... The Usuakari... You know he's with them."

She sighed a second time.

"Yes, I know." she drew a deep breath, "But we can't pardon him for his actions. After what he did to Father and the council, there is no other course of action in dealing with him. We may be on the course of possibly forgiving him, but the people aren't. They never will."

Kankuro shut his eyes.

"I understand."

:: Seven Days Before the First Incident ::

They met up with two Kiri shinobi who had similar goals to the both of them: find the Usuakari. Konoha had no particular qualms with Kirigakure and were actually very close to a peace treaty. Shisui found it a splendid idea to join forces, as the two they stumbled upon were Hoshigaki Kisame and Momochi Zabuza, two of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shuu. Besides, the more of them, the more power, right?

Currently, the four were seated around a map of the Elemental Nations, Itachi with a red pen in hand. X's were clustered far southeast of Konohagakure and around the Yugakure area.

"There's a higher possibility of coming across the Usuakari in Fire Country rather than in Hot Springs Country. The sightings have risen 30% in the last five weeks, making it a 70% chance we'll see them. An abnormally high chance for us. We'll rest here for the night and continue in the morning."

Shisui nodded and stood up while stretching his arms over his head.

"Sounds good enough to me. I'll go out to catch some food."

Zabuza stood up as well.

"I'll accompany you."

Kisame watched the two retreat into the dense forest that surrounded them before casting a curious glance his companion's way. Uchiha, was it? One of the two survivors? It had to be with those freaky red eyes. He was a young one, at that.

"If you don't mind my askin', what's your reason for going after the Usuakari?" Kisame questioned. Itachi sat back against the trunk of a tree and stared wistfully at the darkening blue above.

"... My... brother is part of the organization. I'm seeking him out." he replied. Kisame's eyes bugged out of his head.

"Your brother is the Uchiha Sasuke?" Kisame whistled, "Damn. My condolences."

The two went through a small whisper of silence before Itachi spoke up.

"And yourself?"

"The Yondaime Mizukage was taken not too long ago. Two of them just appeared out of nowhere, grabbed him, and disappeared all right in his office. We arrived too late and Usuakari was written on his desk in blood. A lot of people believe that he's still alive, but... I'm not too sure. Yagura-sama is strong, but the guys that took him had to be crazy powerful too. Zabuza and I are one of the search parties."

::

Gaara was stretched out on the couch in nothing but his boxer briefs. Sai was sitting across from him, a red colored pencil between his pale, nimble fingers as he started down at his sketchbook intently. He only ever did his art with the color red. Be it clay, pencil, chalk, paint, crayon, marker, sand, or pastel, it had to be red. He was particularly picky about his ink- the one he completed his jutsu with. It had to be a certain kind of read. Something rich and ever flowing when it was still wet and gleaming.

His supply was running low, though. He had to remember to restock.

"How far are you anyways?" Gaara whined, "I want to move!"

Sai rolled his eyes and turned his sketchbook around for Gaara to see. Only his outline had been drawn.

"What the hell is that?! I've been here for hours!"

"You've been there for five minutes."

"Same thing!"

He pouted and relaxed against the couch. There could be a million things he could be doing, a million other people he could be doing, and here he was. At home. On a Saturday, nonetheless. Or...

His eyes lit up mischievously as he gazed at Sai with seductive, half-lidded eyes.

"Hey Sai, you know this couch is big en-"

"I'm not sleeping with you." Sai replied without looking up. Gaara had the audacity to look offended.

"Who doesn't want to sleep with me?! Man, you suck."

"Not as much as you do on Friday nights."

Gaara opened his mouth to retort, but considered the remark and re-positioned himself on the couch with a nod. Fair point. Sasuke then came waltzing into the room with a big grin on his face as he took a seat next to Sai.

"We're in luck, Sai-chan! Apparently, my cute aniki is hot on the organization's trail and Naruto-chan wants us to give them a little lesson, if you know what I'm sayin'. We can leave after you're done with your drawing." Sasuke said. Gaara's sea green eyes flickered over to the newcomer.

"Sas-"

"I'm not sleeping with you."

Forgetting about his modeling position, he threw his hands up in the air with a frustrated growl.

"You guys spend so much time being fucking prudes!"

"Not as much time as you spend on your knees."

Gaara wilted. Another fair point.

::

Kiba was finally allowed out of the hospital, but he wasn't allowed out on another mission for two whole weeks. He was devastated when Ino gave him the news. What the hell was he supposed to do for two weeks?! He couldn't train because of his damned leg, and at best, he could limp around Konoha and trip over everything because of his fucked up depth perception!

Akamaru barked.

"Good idea, boy! I could go visit Shino! The bastard didn't even visit me in the hospital but I guess that's alright." Kiba said. Armed with two crutches, he wobbled down the streets until he saw who he was looking for through the window of a weapon's shop. He pulled the door open.

"What's up, Shino? Watching the shop for Ten?"

Shino looked up from the book in his hands.

"Yes." he replied, "There was a shipment of materials she went to pick up at the post office. She'll be back in... approximately three minutes."

Kiba leaned against the counter.

"Materials? Is it for them?" he asked. Shino nodded.

"Lee put in an order for special made wire strings and, for some odd reason, flails. Tenten was able to find a sustainable amount of rare metal in Tea Country for the weapons. I still don't know what purpose they have for using a flail." he added. The Usuakari always had this weird thing for using and collecting any and all weapons they learned of or came across. Kiba must have said something along the lines of that aloud because Akamaru began growling at the door.

"You two... you two are traitors!" someone hissed. Kiba looked over his shoulder. Kabuto was standing in the doorway with a fist clenched at his side and his teeth bared in aggression. Shino turned a page in his book.

"Oh?" he said, "And what are you going to do about it?"

"You-!"

Kabuto suddenly stopped and slowly looked down at his chest. A blade gleamed at him, coated in his blood with some spitting out from the sides of the puncture. It was soon yanked out of him and he fell forward, revealing a slightly irritated Tenten standing behind him.

"I leave you alone for fifteen minutes, fifteen, and you two manage to get caught up in trouble. Again! Do I need to hire a babysitter for the both of you?!"

She stepped over the body and set the box she was carrying on the counter. She pointed at Shino.

"You can empty this box and catalog everything that's inside." she directed before turning to Kiba, "And you can get rid of that body and clean up the floor before it becomes a stain, got that? And my floor better be sparkling or I'll break that other leg."

Kiba grumbled to himself. It wasn't like it was going to hurt him anyways.