Chapter 1:
The Beginning of the end

"What's it like to be on the run for 6 years?" The man with silver hair and violet eyes cooed. His partner seemed to be annoyed already."What's the matter little kitty? Cat got your tongue?" He asked and chuckled at his own puns. The taller man had a mask mostly covering his face and a head band from Takigakure* with a line through the symbol and he did not look amused.

"Enough Hidan, just grab the jinchuriki already." He said with a harsh tone.

The men in black cloaks stepped closer to Ichi, she backed up as far as she could until she hit the wall of the restaurant. There was no where she could run, she was cornered between the wall and the counter. She was frantically trying to come up with a way to escape without fighting, she hated using the power she had. She curled into a ball on the floor and tried to calm herself down- if she lost control that would be the end of her for sure. "What are you doing?" The man called Hidan asked, looking extremely confused by the girls actions.

"I guess she's not going to fight like the others do." The other man said and took another step towards her and started to lean down to pick her up.

Ichi sat up and looked the man in the eyes. "Please don't hurt me." She pleaded. He jerked back, surprised by her sudden movement. "If you just come with us everything will be over soon enough." He said.

She nodded her head and stood up slowly, she was on the brink of tears because her nightmares were coming true. She fled from Kumogakure* 6 years ago just to avoid being used as a weapon or being killed- but here she is now, pleading for her life from two of the men who just want to use what's inside of her. What would her parents think of the coward she has become?

The taller man placed his hand on her back and guided her out of the restaurant without another word. She kept her head down, letting her white hair cover her face, almost as if she was trying to hide. She couldn t bare to think about what would become of her or the only friend she's ever had- the Matatabi* sealed within her. They walked silently for a while before Hidan finally couldn't take it. "Why didn't you even try to fight?"

Ichi ducked her head down and didn't say anything. She could fight, and she could fight very well. She was forced into rigorous training as soon as she was old enough to walk and talk, they wanted to turn her into a fighting machine. She has better control over the tailed beast sealed within her than pretty much any of the other jinchurikis do. She trained for years on just controlling the Matatabi and harnessing it s power - but she never asked for any of this.

"Well?" He persisted. Tilting his head back and looking up to the sky as he waited for her answer.

She hesitated again, trying to come up with a good enough answer for him. "I... I guess because cooperating is easier than fighting." She said quietly. "I know I could probably take one of you on no problem, but both of you showing up someplace like that put me in a pretty tough spot." She said and hoped that was good enough and he wouldn't push her farther.

"But you still could have maybe thrown at least a punch or something, that was boring. I was looking forward to getting to see what you could do." He said with a chuckle.

"At least we can get back to doing other things now instead of wasting time looking for her anymore." The other man said.

"Oh come on Kakuzu, you've gotten to do everything you wanted to do and we still have a jinchuriki to show for our efforts." Hidan said with a smirk.

Ichi sighed softly as they walked, she needed to escape if she wanted to survive, but there was no way out of this without help. She had heard the rumors about this group, she knew she was a target. Fleeing from her home and *changing her name apparently wasn't enough. She wished she could go back to 6 years ago and stop her parents from leaving, stop them from dying. She hated being alone in this harsh world.

She gently pulled the origami flower out of her hair and her bangs fell in her face. She held the paper in her hand and thought back to what her mother used to call her... "My little flower" she would say as she brushed Ichi's hair after a long day of training. She closed her hand around the origami flower, crushing it in frustration. She knew she could never escape these guys, not just Hidan and Kakuzu, but the whole Akatsuki, they would just come for her again even if she ran now.

"Excuse me..." She said almost too quiet to hear. Kakuzu and Hidan both looked at her in surprise that she actually spoke on her own.

"Yes?" Hidan asked.

"What are you guys going to do to me exactly?" She asked and looked at the crumpled paper flower in her hand again.

"You will see." Kakuzu cut off Hidan before he could say anything.

Ichi looked at them. "I may be a jinchuriki, but I still deserve to know what the heck you're going to do to me. I already know you've been collecting us and killing us, but why? You can't just control the monsters inside of us, they have to be sealed inside someone and then they have to train to be able to even remotely control these things." She said and sighed. She knew she was wasting her breath but she had to at least try to get through to them, just maybe it would save her life, and maybe she could save the lives of the remaining jinchurikis.

"Just how well can you control the Matatabi?" Kakuzu asked as he stopped and turned towards her.

"Well..." She said and trailed off. She didn t want to tell them too much about her but it seemed it was too late now.

"Well what?" Hidan asked impatiently.

"I guess I should start at the beginning." Ichi said and took a deep breath. Hidan and Kakuzu both looked at each other then at her.

"I'm assuming you know my name and where I'm from already since you found me here." She said and they both nodded. "I have better control over the beast sealed inside of me than anyone else as you have already heard too." They both nodded again. "Well the reason I can control it is because basically as soon as I could walk and talk the Raikage made the choice that I should be put through extreme training to force me to be able to control the Matatabi and that went on until I was 12. I fled the village after my parents were killed on a mission and have never went back in fear that I would be captured." She said with a sigh.

"If you stopped training at 12 how can you still control it?" Kakuzu asked.

"Because I didn't necessarily stop training, I just stopped training there, I continued to push myself and make myself have to use the Matatabi's power; but more importantly than just being able to control the Matatabi, I spent the last 6 years focusing on really understanding it and communicating with it and building a bond of trust."Ichi took another deep breath. "Most of the jinchurikis, even if they can control their beasts to an extent, if they fully transform, they lose control and all reasoning, I may lose control of it, but I can reason with it and can be reasoned with when using the Matatabi." She searched their faces for a sign that they understood anything she said. Kakuzu was the first one who seemed to realize just what kind of person they had on their hands.

"So you're saying you can control that thing." Hidan said, trying to process what she said.

"Yes, in the end, the Matatabi is all I have left, so I've come to rely on it's company. Should I lose it, I will not only lose my life, but even if I could continue to live I wouldn't have anything to live for..." She trailed off.

She looked them in the eyes, hoping they could see how badly she wanted to live, and would do anything it took. She wanted them to understand she was more than just a useless human with a monster inside of her.

"I wonder we could keep her alive instead of taking the beast out of her. She seems pretty useful." Kakuzu said quietly.

Hidan gave him a strange look and just shrugged. "I guess we will find out." Hidan said and started walking again.

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Short explanations

1* Takigakure - Village hidden by a waterfall

2* Kumogakure- Village hidden by clouds 3*Matatabi- 2 tails, cat like creature, hence why Hidan was making cat jokes

4* Ichi is not her full name, it s shortened.

**** Okay so I had some major technical difficulties getting this posted, like having to go back and forth between 2 computers, a phone, and calling my service provider only for them to not get anything done.

Anyways, I had to type it on one computer because the other kept freezing and when I moved the file over and uploaded it, it lost ALL formatting and all the " in it so I just spent like 20 minutes going back and fixing it and if I missed any just let me know and I'll fix it, and hopefully I don't have nearly as much trouble with chapter 2... OTL Wish me luck