I ran as fast as my legs could carry me. The day I had been waiting for had finally come.

Flashback:

I sat in a tree waiting for any robbers that may come past when 2 ninja sporting mist village headbands came walking by. They

only looked about 12 years old and they didn't seem very criminal, so I decided to catch up on my sleep.

"I still can't believe that happened to Konaha!" the first one said kicking a stone along the path.

"Yeah, me neither. How could it have happened so fast, though. Did they disguise a spy or something?" the second one answered.

This conversation wasn't going anywhere, so I closed my eyes.

"Naw, apparently the guy already belonged to the village. I think his name was Kabitan or Kebuti or..." My eyes snapped open.

'Kabuto.'

"Oh, well that would make sense. They knew the layout of the village and everything! Well, that's what I'd expect from the sand

and mist teamed up!" Both of them were there?!? I couldn't take it anymore. I leaped out of the tree and landed in front of the

shorter of the two.

"Hey! What the..."

"What happened in Konaha?" I said, reaching for my sword.

"Uhhhhhh... oh. You haven't heard? The were attacked by the Sand and Sound villages. Orochimaru was there, too! He murdered

the 3rd hokage!"

'Just as I feared.'

"When did this happen?"

"Wh... oh. Um... a couple days ago," he answered, obviously intimidated by the sand village headband and tiger mask I was

wearing.

"You never saw me, ok?" I didn't wait for their reply. I took off towards Konaha through the trees. I used my sharingan and sense

of smell to see if I was being followed. The boys just stood there staring with sweatdrops on their heads.

"She seemed nice," the second one said.

End fashback:

Hate enraged me as memories of the past filled my head. My fists tightened. He wasn't going to get away... not this time.

'Damn, if it's already been a couple of days, he might be gone by now!' I thought as I saw Konaha's gates appear over the trees. I

took off my headband and stuffed it in my backpack. 'Better not be wearing this if they just attacked!' I calmly walked through the

gates and, once past the guards, started into a run. Suddenly I stopped and slowly turned around to face the gate again.

'Hehe, guess those runts weren't lying.' The gate had a giant hole in the left side, as if smashed in by something. I turned back

around to face the village, which was even more disastrous. The whole town was almost in ruins. Windows were broken, roofs

were missing, blood stained rags littered the ground.

You formed a small smirk under your mask. 'Well, well. This is an appropriate home for these filthy Leaf villagers. Wait, no. I have

to do what I came here for... and fast, if my instincts are right.' I ran through the streets looking in shop windows and alleys. He

wasn't anywhere: the ramen shop, graveyard, hospital. Nothing. I began running at top speed then and turned the corner.

BAM!

I collided with a black blob as I fell backwards.

"Owwwwww..." I moaned rubbing my head as I sat up. I opened my eyes to see a boy about my age with black hair, dressed in all

black and wrappings on his arms and legs. He then opened his eyes revealing 2 red eyes with two black dots around them.

'Sharingun? Who the hell is this kid?'

When he saw who I was, his shocked expression dissapeared and his eyes began to fade into onyx. My mask was next to his foot

so he picked it up and began studying it. Well, whoever he was he was from Konaha... and he was touching my mask! 'He

shouldn't be treated any different!'

"Watch where you're running, Konaha trash!" I said snatching back my mask and standing up.

"Why don't you?" the boy replied slowly rising and brushing himself off.

"Humph!" I puffed, bumping his shoulder as I ran past.m I didn't have time for this sell-out.

'If he's here, I'll find him!'

Sasuke's POV

'Damn it. What does Itachi want with Naruto?' I ran through town on the roof tops, (or what was left of them.) I had to find him

faster than Itachi, which would be next to impossible if the rumors were true.

'Where does Naruto normally hang out? We've never really hung out, being as he's such a loser.' Not in the ramen shop, training

grounds, or the hospital. 'Maybe in his room...' I could feel my

sharingun activate by itself; probably because I was just so mad. So mad, infact, that I didn't see the purple

blob that soon slammed into me as I turned the corner. I looked up to see a girl around my age with black hair and brown eyes.

She wore cackies with a purple short sleeved shirt. It would've been normal, except that her clothes were ripped in diffrent areas,

like she had been attacked or something. I could tell her shirt

used to be long sleeved, but must've been ripped off roughly, one shorter than the other. Grateful that it wasn't an enemy, I

deactivated my sharingun and looked down. I had knocked off the mask she had been wearing,

which now lay at my feet. I picked it up and turned it around. It was a white tiger with purple streaks and whiskers through it.

'A tiger? Who is she?' Before I could think, she snatched it back, calling me "Konaha trash."

'Please, who does she think she is?'

"Why don't you?" I asked standing up and brushing the dirt off my pants.

"Humph!" she said bumping into my shoulder roughly as she put her mask back on and headed the way I had come. I would've

knocked her out right there, but I didn't have the time to fight. I needed to find Naruto. I ran

off in the opposite direction, jumping on a rooftop.

'I'll check his house next.' If what I heard was true, Itachi would be there.

'If he's here, I'll find him!'

Glaciero's POV

'Damn! There's no sign of him! He covered his tracks well.' His room was completely cleaned out and no one's seen him before the

Chuunin exams! I hate it when I'm right' I thought as I made my way

towards the gates of the village. Had I come all this way for nothing? 'NO!' I started running, through the gates and down the dirt

road. I knew that Kabuto must've come this way to get out of the village, so I just had

to keep going till I found him! After about 5 minutes of running I sensed someone ahead of me. I concentrated chakra in my nose

and smelled 2 men up ahead, both walking very slowly. I cut to the left and silently went tree to

tree keeping pace with them. There were 2 men in cloaks with red clouds on them. 'Akatsuki? What are they doing here?' The first

one had blue skin, but the other one...

'Huh? I-it can't be... Itachi Uchiha?' I thought as I recognized him from the wanted posters around the

village. My mouth curled up into a smile. 'Well... this could be useful.' He would know where Orochimaru was. They may have

even been working together if he was coming from this way! I jumped into a branch that was ahead so they would soon pass me. I

had one shot. They started getting closer. I pulled a kunai out as I braced myself. They were traveling extermely slow and in the

open. What was going on? It didn't matter. I would

have to get behind him and demand information on anything he knows about him! I covered my mouth with my hand. Why

couldn't I stop breathing so hard? On the count of three, I'd spring out.

('1') I put my mask on and tightened my headband around my neck.

('2') I gripped the kunai tightly and took a breath. I looked down; there was only one cloaked

figure. My eyes widened as I sensed a force behind me

'What the...' He hit me hard out of the tree as I dropped 3 yards to the ground, landing on my back.

"Hehe, I wondered when the little rat would come out!" a husky voice came as I was on the brink of conciousness. I knew I was in

trouble: there were 2 S-rank criminals behind me and I was out of breath and

looking at the sky through my half shut eyes.

'Gotta stay awake!' I thought snapping out of it.

"What business do you have with us?" Itachi asked calmly as I slowly sat up and slumped against a tree.

'Well, I'm dead anyway, so I might as well give this everything I've got!'

"I wanna know where Kabuto is and you're gonna tell me!" I shouted back now standing. Kisame started chuckling.

"And what makes you think we'll tell you anything, Nowack?" Itachi asked.

'W-what? How does he know... oh crap.' I felt my face. The mask was gone. Looking behind me, I could see it peeking up over

the grass. I sweat-dropped. 'Twice in one day?!? I need to get a better strap for that thing!' I shoved it

into my backpack between Johan's hat and the last of my money, ($1.28,) then turned back to face my opponents.

"Hahaha, so this is the Nowack runt? Yeah, she does look a lot like her stupid brother!" the blue one snickered. I tightened my

fists. No, I had to stay calm. Bad things happened when I lost my temper.

"Just shut up and tell me where he went!" I said through clenched teeth.

"Uh-oh, Itachi. Looks like we're making her mad! Why don't you run home and cry to your daddy? Oh, that's right, he..."

"Shut your damn mouth" I screamed taking a kunai in both hands and leaving my bag behind. Charging at full speed, I ran

towards the blue jerk, but as he braced himself, Itachi appeared between us.

"No, Kisame, we don't have time. We need to find the boy."

"What makes you think I'll stop?" I was fuious now. No one dissrespected my family, especially my brother! I did the hand signs

and said, "Claw cyclone jutsu!" With kunai in each hand, I spun round and round, faster and faster until I was a spinning death

trap. I spun towards Itachi as he effortlessly dodged each attack.

Until... Squirt I hit him right in the chest. I smirked.

"Hmmmmm... you feel like telling me now?" I grinned pushing it deeper into him.

"Aaaaaaaaaaauurrrgh!" I screamed as something sharp was plunged into the right side of my lower back. The Itachi I was

stabbing slowly dissolved into a puddle of mud.

"You don't interest me at the moment," he said behind me as I slowly turned around. He pulled the knife out quickly and grabbed

me by the throat, slamming my back into a tree. His eyes closed, then reopened slowly revealing two red eyes with a

dimension(sp?) in them. As I looked into them, they seemed to go deeper and deeper until...

I was in a dark room. There was a little black haried girl hiding behind a chair to the side of the room. There were 2 teenage boys

and a large snake in front of me, one boy tied up in a chair as the second one kept punching

him with glowing blue hands. I recognized this. It was "that night" again. I started screaming and screaming, but no noise came

out when my mouth opened. I could see the little girl hiding was shivering and hugging her body,

trying to drown out the noise.

"No! I don't want to relive this again!" I mouthed at the scene before me. 'No! Please stop it!'

"AAAAAAAAAAAUUUGGHH!"

Itachi's POV

After I used the mangeko sharingun on her, she began screaming.

"AAAAAAAAAAAUUUGGHH!" I roughly tossed her into the bush under the tree.

"Geez, what the hell is she seeing?" Kisame asked me as I stared at her blood left scattered on the ground infront of my feet. I

ground it into the dirt to make sure it was hidden.

"I'm making her relive the night her brother died," I answered calmly putting the bloodied kunai away. "With that wound, no one

would find her soon enough. She'll be dead in a few hours." I started to walk away, Kisame close behind.

'I mean, it's not like anyone will miss her...'