Chapter 1

The leader of the Akatsuki called Itachi into his office.

"I have a mission for you," he started. "I need you to capture Yugito Nii, the host of the two-tailed cat monster. She is located somewhere in the Hidden Cloud Village. She's the Akatsuki's next target." Pein instructed. Itachi nodded, about to leave. "Oh, Itachi, one more thing." Pein interrupted. Itachi paused, but didn't turn around. "Deidara will go with you on the mission, and the two of you will bring those two Kudasaki girls, Kikuhana and Hatone, with you.

"Very well," Itachi spoke before he left.

I was outside with Sasori, Deidara, and my sister Kikuhana. The weather was nice, but the conversation between Deidara and I wasn't so much.

"No Deidara! True art does not last for a moment!" I argued with him yet again about art.

"Well if art isn't a blast, then what is it, hmm?" Deidara asked with an amused smirk. His overly confident tone angered me.

"It may not last forever, but Sasori's opnion is so much better than yours. Yours is stupid!" I said the last part with a smirk curled on my face.

"You're the one with the stupid idea, hmmm!" Deidara yelled.

"Well it's the truth. It's not my fault if you can't handle it." Deidara and I continued to bark at each other while Kikuhana and Sasori watched us fight.

"Those two never cease to amuse me." Sasori said out loud.

"Yeah, no kidding." Kikuhana said with a chuckle. I began to calm down at the heated discussion.

"Look Deidara, everyone has their own opnion, and mine is—" I was cut off by my sister.

"My opnion is better than your opnion!" Kikuhana threw in at random with a big smile. I stared at her with an arched eyebrow and then sighed.

"No Kiku, I was gonna say…" I stopped my sentence when I saw Itachi not too far from us. A light shade of pink appeared on my face.

"What are you staring at, hmm?" Deidara asked me before he turned around.

"Deidara, you and I have been assigned to a mission." Itachi told Deidara. "However, the leader said we're taking the girls with us." He added. My eyes widened.

"(A- a mission? We've never been on a mission in the Akatsuki!)" I shouted in my head. I've barley ever spoken to Itachi; suddenly I'm going on a mission with him, Deidara and my older sister.

"And why is that?" Deidara asked. "They're not Akatsuki, hmm." He added.

"He didn't say why," Itachi replied. "Get what you need; we're leaving in ten minutes." Itachi said, glancing at me and Kikuhana. I looked away nervously as soon as he glanced at me.

"Alright, let's go Hatone." Kikuhana said as she started walking back inside the hideout. I quickly followed her and into our room.

"Why would he just randomly put us on a mission! He's never bothered with us before, no warnings or anything!" I shouted in a panicked tone as I paced around the room.

"Don't know," Kikuhana replied casually. "But, you might wanna start packing your stuff before we have to leave." She reminded me with a smile.

"Oh, right," I started packing my backpack with useful supplies for traveling. Because Kikuhana was a medical ninja, she mostly carried her medical supplies in case of emergency, while I carried things like food, and we both carried ninja weapons of our own choice.

Kikuhana had dark brown hair that reached to the center of her back with eyes the same color as her hair. She had two pieces of her hair braided and met in a small bun and side-swept bangs. Her skin was tan with a bit of an 'olive' color to it. She wore a black, strapless ninja dress that was thigh-length and had a hot pink strip at the top. She wore black gloves that went from her shoulders to her wrists; with hot pink buckles on each ends. Kiku mainly uses a sword when fighting; therefore, she carries a sword with her on her back. On occasion, she uses two long chains with large kunai attached to the ends. She keeps the chain hidden in pockets inside her knee-high boots. Kiku wore her Leaf Village headband around her neck; however there was a single scratch going across the metal plate.

My hair reached a little bit above my waist and had a vibrant, orange color. I kept it mostly down with a few locks in a hair tie. I kept my bangs side-swept to the left with side-bangs framing my face. My eyes are a deep, chocolate brown and my skin is fair. My usual ninja outfit consisted of a black crop top tank top with a loose, yellow fishnet shirt over it. I wore brown, baggy, knee-length shorts with black vertical stripes on the sides and four red, horizontal stripes on the sides as well. I wore my Leaf Village headband around my waist. But, like Kikuhana, it was scratched out.

"Well, let's not wait any longer," I said as we left outside.

The four of us started our journey and walked through the forest. It was very silent. The only sound around us was coming from our footsteps and the natural sounds of the forest. I thought my sister was up to something when she kept glancing at me over and over again. I didn't say anything; I would just stare at her from the corner of my eye, a bit confused. Kikuhana suddenly punched Deidara's arm and ran several feet ahead.

"Ow! Why did you do that, hmm!" Deidara questioned as he chased after her, leaving me and Itachi walking by ourselves. My assumption was correct. She left me alone with Itachi on purpose to torment me. Out of the two of us, I was the shy one and she knew it. It was still silent, but I felt the awkwardness growing more and more with each step. I kept scratching my head; one of the many things I did when I was nervous. So many things were rushing through my head I didn't have time to make sense of them all. I didn't even realize that Itachi was looking at me from the corners of his eyes. I barley glanced up at him when our eyes met for a split second. My heart jumped and fluttered as I felt my face grow hot and the heat spread to my ears. I dropped my eyes back down almost instantly and fiddled with a lock of my long orange hair. He wasn't glaring at me. When Itachi looked at me he seemed like he was in thought. We met back up with Deidara and Kikuhana. They stopped and were staring at something.

"Why did you stop?" I asked them, with my voice still a bit quiet. Deidara pointed straight ahead. There was a very large cliff up ahead that we would either have to climb up or go around it. The decision was made that it would take too long to go around, and that we would just climb up it.