N/A: Well, here you go guys! Your reviews really motivated me and I stopped thinking about dropping the story and started to get a'typin :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...there I go stating the obvious again...

Chapter 2: Doubt

My indecision lingered until moments before my meeting with Hokage-sama. I had many doubts, but the lies rolled out of my mouth so fluently I even surprised myself. I kept telling myself I had no reason to do this, that it was stupid, but I did it anyway...

A ninja, from what village I couldn't tell attacked me and his strength was far grater than mine. I had no idea how I got to the hospital. Of course I would never lie about something so crucial to the village's defense. These words rolled out of my mind like they were the pure truth.

But they weren't.

"You may go." Tsunade-sama had told me and I rushed out as fast as I could, worried that I would turn around in the last moment and blow everything.

I was going to meet him again and I was going to find out just what he wanted from me. Only after that could I turn him in like I was supposed to.

oooOOooo

She had lied.

One side of me knew that she would do so, but I still couldn't figure out why. Maybe it was the resemblance to my little brother that confused her or maybe she though I could be changed into a good, honest person.

Foolish girl...I care not for such trifling values as goodness or honesty. Products of a frustrated mind, unable to break apart from its boundaries.

Morality...law...a double barrier.

Something that may be legal could prove to be immoral, so humans are tied by two chains, which make them unable to live. Why do they accept it?
Friendship...love...such unreal fantasies to fool the weak. And yet she wasn't weak.

I couldn't understand her.

oooOOooo

I looked at myself in the mirror.

Long blonde hair tied up in a high queue, a rebel strand of it unwilling to fit inside.

Blue eyes stared back at me with a determined expression

What the hell was I thinking?
My hand clutched on the kunai and I took a deep breath. I was going to go back to the place where I met him. My heart skipped a beat as I remembered his eyes. Crimson orbs bearing the power to cripple someone mentally...

If that was my fate, so be it. I couldn't go on without facing him.

I packed my kunai and shuriken, even though I was certain they wouldn't do me much good. I had made Chuunin recently, but he had been in ANBU so I didn't even have the illusion of winning in a fight against him.
Why was I going back then? Because a tiny part of my mind knew he had no intention to fight me seriously. He could have killed me back then if he had wanted to.

Doubts started to rise in my mind about his true nature. Was he as cruel as everyone said? Why did he kill his own kin? And most of all why the heck would he spare me?

I needed answers and I needed them tonight.

oooOOooo

Something drew me back to the place where I met her. I remembered the feel of her mind, a mind tied by the invisible chains of society such as mine once was. But still so beautiful in its ignorance.

She was willing to die for what she believed in. And yet her life seemed so filled with this hope...so bright...so different from my own.

I was going to show her the naked truth.

I felt her presence approaching and jumped on one of the high tree branches. A feeling I hadn't felt for a long time overwhelmed me – impatience.

oooOOooo

The cold air brushed against my skin as all my senses sharpened, awaiting any sign from the darkness.

I somehow knew he would come and I readied myself for our meeting.

He wouldn't get the better of me this time.

oooOOooo

I saw her entering the small clearing, trying to hide her fear. I admired her determination and the curiosity that drove her back here, but her senses were far to weak...she hadn't even spotted me and I was dangerously close. I could slit her throat with my kunai right now.

But I don't.

Instead I watch her as she scouts the area. The rebel strand of blonde hair, which I had pushed aside when she was unconscious, caught my eyes first. A kunoichi shouldn't ware her hair long. It got in the way. I had to admit it was quite pleasing to the eye, though.

But then again, I had never been one to take interest in physical attributes. It's the mind that fascinates me more.

oooOOooo

My heart was racing as I acknowledged something was wrong. It was too quiet. My eyes try to pierce through the darkness as I sharpen all my senses. I can't feel anything, but something tells me he's close by. My hand reaches for the kunai, as futile as it is. I let the feeling of false protection wash over me as I feel the cold steel. I knew that I couldn't even scrape him with my weapon, but still only the feel of it gave me some sort of comfort.

The silence was beginning to suffocate me. Fear crept into my bones and all sorts of scenarios ran through my mind. I saw a sea of red and closed my eyes instinctively. The cold air brushed against my skin, making me shiver.

It was only my imagination.

oooOOooo

I could read her every move. She was shivering, but not because of the cold. I saw her close her eyes, a tormented expression on her face and I used my Sharingan to look into her mind. She tried to hide her fear, but in truth she was terrified by the Mangekyou Sharingan. The fear of having another take over her mind and torture it...but there was also something else. Something hidden so deep in the corners of her mind, she barely acknowledged its existence.

A craving...

I decided I had waited enough, so I jumped from the high branch of the tree that served as my observatory, landing right behind her.

She quickly turned around and I saw her azure eyes widening with fear and surprise for just a second, after which she proceeded to fling her kunai at me. I caught it between my palms and with a speed she couldn't match, threw it back. Very few could dodge my attacks and she wasn't amongst them. The kunai hit the bark of a tree, millimeters away from her neck.

She froze.

"I wasn't aiming for you. If I did, you'd be dead." I answered her unspoken question, fully aware of the arrogance impregnated in my tone.

I loved watching her reactions for some reason. She was so quick in jumping from fear to anger...It showed she cared about her pride even if she knew the opponent outmatched her.

An interesting combination, this girl.

oooOOooo

The sharp sound of a blade cutting through the air so dangerously close made the breath stop in my throat.

With a deep sound, the kunai hit the bark of the tree behind me.

"He missed?" I thought, unable to believe that by some sort of miracle I was still alive.

He smirked as he told me that I could be dead at his very whim and I knitted my brows at his superior tone.

"Why didn't you kill me then?" I asked, looking him straight in the eyes. It was a dangerous thing to do, but I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of staring elsewhere.

"I saw no use in killing you. I don't do useless things." He informed me, standing still.

"Why did you come here? Do you plan to attack the village?" I asked in a high tone, observing his every move.

"The real question is why you came here." He replied as his strange eyes pierced into my own, reading me.

"I don't owe you any explanations!" I wanted to throw it in his face. But what good would that do? I had questions and he knew that well.

"You say you don't do useless things. Why did you bring me back to Konoha?" I asked and I felt my heartbeat accelerating as I awaited his answer.

He smiled and it was the smile I had seen many times on Kiba when Akamaru did something well.

My brows knitted.

oooOOooo

She used my own affirmation to get the truth out of me. There was more to her than met the eye and I could only feel pleased about that since it served to entertain me further. I don't know if "entertain" is the correct word for what I had in mind. She had potential and I wanted to shape her.

I felt like a painter looking at a raw canvas. But was it really raw? Or were there tiny dots of paint here and there that the inexperienced eye could not see. Underneath her mask of loyalty and courage lied something far different.

oooOOooo

"Your mind intrigues me." He finally answered and my eyes widened. It wasn't the answer I was expecting, even though I didn't really know what to expect.

What could he have possibly seen inside of my mind that was so different from his many victims?
"What do you mean?" I gave voice to my thoughts.

In an instant, he was in front of me and I would have fallen back from the shock, but his hands grabbed my shoulders firmly.

I shut my eyes quickly, aware of the dangers his gaze brought, but his grip on me tightened.

"Look at me." He said. "I won't hurt you."

I chose to believe him, even though the fear of undergoing his torture crept into my heart. I opened my eyes and seeing him so close made the breath stop in my throat.

"This is what I mean." He said and my body was trembling as I looked into the two pools of blood that were his eyes. "This mixture of fear and wanting, your opposite emotions colliding..."

"What wanting..." I managed to retort, even when I knew my eyes betrayed me. I had always been proud and very stubborn.

He leaned closer to me and whispered:

"You hide behind the façade of a kunoichi ready to die for her ideals, but in truth your ideals are merely a layer of thin ice and beneath them lies resentment and a will to break free from the chains of duty."

Anger flared in my eyes as he finished his phrase and millions of thoughts ran through my mind. How could I yell it in his face that he was wrong when the mere fact that I came to this place proved his theory?

oooOOooo

I restrained her wrists to keep her from drawing a kunai in her anger. That would make me have to harm her and I didn't want that now. She wouldn't accept my words right away, but they would stir doubts inside of her mind and they would serve to awaken the truth. Her eyes burned with anger and that alone was proof enough to me.

I leaned in even closer, feeling her breath on my skin. It was uneven, coming in slow pants. I could break her if I pushed any further so I released her wrists and backed away.

Something akin to disappointment flashed in her eyes, just to disappear a moment later.

I smiled to myself.

"I'll be back here in exactly three days." I said to her. "It's your choice."

And I looked at her as she leaned against a tree, trembling, her azure eyes looking at me with a mixture of fear and awe.

I turned my back on her and she made no move to attack me while I walked away.

Good girl.

A/N: I know this chapter's a little shorter than the first, but I just felt it had to end here. You're just gonna have to wait and see if she chooses to see him or not. (what girl in their right mind would choose not to?!) Anyway :) I'm going to crawl into bed now since I have an exam tomorrow...

Please review and tell me if you liked this one or not!

Later edit: I apologize to everyone for forgetting some rulers again. I never seem to get the damn things right when I first post the story! I'm gonna use some punctuation signs to separate the POVs from now on...Gomen!