Alright so here's the next chapter a day ahead of schedule but I'm too excited to keep this story going that I couldn't wait any longer!

I also fixed some stuff that I found out was wrong after finishing the first chapter (like the fact that Waterfall doesn't have a Kage whoops) but anyways without further ado here is the next chapter!

Once we'd started walking I'd informed them that I needed to make a stop at a guard outpost so I would be able to collect the money I was owed from the bounty I just taken out. Secretly I knew that this was something that would irritate Kakuzu seeing as he was a bounty hunter and money lover himself. As I suspected he bristled at the words 'bounty' and 'money' especially since he knew he wouldn't be seeing a single ryo, or at least he better know that otherwise we were going to get in another spat.

"So what'd you do to become a rogue nin, Toko-chan?" the one I'd come to know as Hidan asked with special emphasis on the suffix because only an hour after knowing him he'd already found something to annoy me with. A kunai flashed and the next thing he knew I was holding against his jugular, he only smirked and continued to watch me for my reaction.

"I killed the leader of Takigakure and anyone else who got in my way." I stated with deadly loathing for the man that had royally fucked my life up. Just ahead of us I saw Kakuzu slow down a bit and turn back to appraise me in a new light after my statement. It obviously wouldn't have been the same leader that had been around when he was part of the village but I know for a fact that he held no good will towards anyone from our ex-village. It disgusted me that we also had that in common.

Hidan whistled appreciatively as I removed the kunai from his person and put it back in my case. I still had my hood and mask off because for once I really didn't feel the need to cover my hair or face. For the first time in nearly seven years I was experiencing a sensation I had become unfamiliar with. Despite the fact that I knew it was completely and utterly crazy not to mention incredibly stupid, for the first time since I left my village I felt…

…safe.

Although considering I was being escorted by two fellow S-Class rogue nins like myself I was as safe as could be. I don't think there was anyone that would be willing to take all of us on at once if they could avoid it. I didn't even have to worry about any idiots mistakenly trying to take me on thinking I was that idiot bomber from Iwagakure.

"So spill the fucking details. What did this fucker do to have you kill his ass?" Hidan prompted and I gave him a glare over my shoulder and couldn't help but smirk,

"I'll tell you when you finally grow taller than me, shorty." To be fair although he had already found something to annoy me about, I in return had also found something to torment him about. This was the most fun I'd had in years and by god I wasn't letting it go to waste, plus riling him up was just too easy.

"Fuck you bitch! I'm not short you're just fucking ridiculously tall! Especially for a damn woman and boy are you lucky I don't go for tall broads." He retorted heatedly and I couldn't help but take it one step further.

"Well compared to the rest of us you are chibi-kun." I cooed and I watched as he went from angry to absolutely livid. I swear I saw a blush appear on his face as he reached for that monster of a three bladed scythe.

"That's it bitch! I'm sacrificing you to Jashin-sama! I'm sure he'd love a fucking heathen like you!" he screamed and I'm pretty sure that I heard his voice crack when he said it too. Good more things to bug him about later.

"First you have to catch me with those tiny legs of yours though." I taunted him before disappearing into the trees just as his scythe passed through the spot I had been only moments ago. Not wasting any more time I started jumping on the branches although I made sure to keep going in the correct direction because I didn't want to incur Kakuzu's wrath which I also knew could be incredibly deadly. Despite that fact I couldn't stop myself from acting like an excited teenager.

Unfortunately after a while the old man got tired of our shit and put an end to it by chopping off Hidan's head. that is also how I came to know that Hidan was apparently immortal and could survive any type of attack that a person could dish out.

I believe it would be accurate to say that this was very similar to how the rest of our journey went.

When we finally arrived in Rain I was not surprised to find that it was truly living up to its name and it was pouring buckets. I'd drawn my hood up tight around my face and also put my mask back on like I'd done for any of the villages and towns we'd passed through, even though admittedly, there hadn't been many. If I thought I was bad with trying to conserve money, Kakuzu was ten times worse easily earning him the title of miser, which Hidan used towards him frequently.

I was also glad that we'd finally arrived at our destination though, despite the fact that Hidan could be lots of fun to rile up and tease, there was only so much of his constant bitching and speeches about his god Jashin that I could take.

Apparently our final destination ended up being the tallest building in the whole village and I was dreading the climb up the many stairs that would undoubedtly be inside, I also had no doubt we'd be going to the top. Why? Because no leader of a secret organization was going to settle for a first floor view, nope, he'd be in the penthouse without a doubt.

As I followed Kakuzu inside and he immediately headed for the stairs I knew I'd called it as we started the climb up, up and up. As we were traversing the stairs I was secretly very glad that I hadn't been inactive in the slightest during my time as a missing nin because otherwise it would have made these blasted stairs a lot harder.

Once we finally reached the top I saw three silhouettes outlined against the open sky. Two were male and the third was female, of the three only one was sitting down and I assumed it to be one of the men because the outline of the one was very feminine indeed. The other one standing was the one I assumed to be the 'Leader-sama' they all talked about.

"Kakuzu, Hidan, you may leave and continue your duties as you were assigned." A deep commanding voice ordered and without a word, the two shinobi that had been escorting me exited the way they came and I was left alone with this mysterious figure that was now without a doubt the Leader-sama. "I am Pain, I am God, and you are to refer to me as Leader-sama or Kami-sama. Ishiyama Tokoryu, you have thus far agreed to join the organization known as the Akatsuki. If you have changed your mind, this is your last chance, but I trust you are fully aware that this time you would not leave with your life. Do you still accept the offer?" this unknown Leader asked me and I could sense the cold finality of his words. If I refused he would kill me, it was a simple as that, and I didn't stand a chance in hell.

"I wouldn't have come this far if I didn't." I responded and I could see him nod before he gestured to the woman at his side that approached me with a cloak folded over her arms that I assumed to be the uniform everyone was expected to wear. Shrugging out of my old one and having to pull down my hood was not something I relished but it was something that I had to do. I quickly donned the other one and found it to be surprisingly comfortable and warm. The fabric was thick and durable, I doubted it would tear or rip easily. After that she handed me a round hat with tassels hanging down from it and a string with two bells on it, I assumed that combined with the high collar of the cloak it would hide my identity almost completely. Next she held out a ring for me with the kanji for 'scarlet' engraved on a similarly red background.

"This ring will allow us to contact you telepathically no matter where you are or what you are doing; it is to be placed on your right ring finger." Leader ordered and I took it from the woman in front of me and did as he said. I watched as my fingernails turned black as, what I assumed to be, a side effect of the jutsu woven into the band of silver currently around my finger. "As you may have noticed the Akatsuki work in pairs, your partner will be Hoshigaki Kisame." The third figure rose from his seated position and started to walk towards me and I couldn't help but stare as I realized that he was taller than me. "As your first mission, your job is to go and collect funds for the organization by doing whatever means necessary. This is your assigned task until we have further orders for you. Dismissed." He stated before turning his back on us expecting us to show ourselves out.

"Yes Leader-sama." My partner responded loyally and brushed past me back towards the stairs and I was left standing in slight shock. He… he is…

…taller than me…

Following him out of the room we walked down the stairs and even while we were descending I could hardly believe that even then I was barely taller being the one on the stair constantly one step behind him. A thought flittered through my head that this was probably going to be the only time that I would ever get to look down on him.

Once we reached the bottom he turned to me and that's when I noticed that he had a primary blue complexion with three gill like markings on his cheeks right underneath his eyes, which were small and beady looking. Other than that I recognized him to of course be quite broad shouldered and stand quite a few centimeters taller than me.

"You should know that if you annoy me, I'll kill you." He stated and smirked with some form of dark amusement. I felt my eyes narrow at him and his threat.

"The same goes for you. If you piss me off I'll send you straight to hell with a lightning bolt stuck in your chest." I retorted and continued to walk past him not looking over my shoulder to see what his reaction would be. It was a silent dare to try something while my back was turned. Sure enough I ended up seeing the giant sword he carried on his back was grazing my ear just above my shoulder. I took his challenge and teleported directly behind him with my own Lightning Blade activated and around his neck, "Two can play at this game."

I heard a grunt of amusement before his own sword was swinging back towards me and I had to drop to the ground in order to avoid it. While down there I took the opportunity to try and take out his legs with my weapon, which he then jumped to avoid and landed a safe distance away from me. At that moment I decided that if this was to continue which I was betting it would because I had no intention of backing down and I was sure he didn't either, I spoke up.

"If we're going to continue this, I suggest we take it outside so Leader-sama doesn't get mad that we're destroying his headquarters." I suggested and without waiting for his response I exited the building. Once outside I put on the hat to keep my hair from getting wet and started running towards the gates, my goal to get as far from this village as possible before I stopped to face my opponent. I had hoped to run past Hidan and Kakuzu one more time, if only to rile the zealot up one last time but they must have gone a different way because I didn't see any sign of them on my way out. I could feel the chakra of my partner following me out of the village and upon realized what a large signature it actually was, I was beginning to think my decision to fight him was maybe not in my best interests.

Outside in a wide open space, I finally stopped and turned to face my adversary. True to our ninja status, the run had affected neither of us and we were both fresh and prepped for a fight to determine who the better shinobi was. A quick mental scan of him told me that he carried no Kekkei Genkai that I would have to worry about, although I'm not sure that was a good thing. Ninja tended to use their bloodline limits as a crutch, and when they finally found themselves without one to use, they were much less capable and were easier to take down.

We both threw off our hats and stared each other down black eyes meeting red while we sized each other up. He was obviously very big so he would no doubt have lots of strength to pack behind a punch and he felt like he had more chakra than a Tailed Beast. Plus there is that huge sword of his that I assumed to be one of the Seven Legendary blades of the Hidden Mist, if I recalled correctly this one was Samehada and it had the ability to absorb chakra and tear flesh rather than cutting it. That was definitely something I had to avoid at all costs. Fighting him from a distance might be my best option if I wanted to keep away from that weapon, even if I was stronger with close range fighting.

"I'm not going to hold back on you." He warned me as he hefted that monstrosity of a blade over his shoulder.

"Good, I was hoping this fight wouldn't be too easy." I retorted while readying my own weapon and lengthening the lightning on it a bit to make up for the extra range that Kisame had over me. It still felt weird to be fighting someone who was bigger than me in every sense of the word.

"Here, I come." He warned before throwing his sword up in the air and forming hand seals. I electrified some kunai and threw them at him in an attempt to stop him from completing his seals. After that I charged towards him with my sword held out to the side and when my kunai failed to hit their target I followed them up with a roundhouse kick that was aimed for his head. when he stopped his seals to block that I felt like I had won a small victory but I couldn't afford to let it go to my head because he was already in the middle of countering with his own kick that I'm sure would have done much more damage to me than mine would have to him. Concentrating on a rock behind him I felt his attack connect just before I felt the Substitution jutsu take place and I was behind him ready with my lightning blade ready and sliced clean through his neck before he exploded into a pile of water.

A water clone! But where—?

"Water Style: Exploding Water Shock Wave!" came the yell from above me where I could see him vomiting up an inhuman amount of water. Moving as fast as I could I jumped on top of the tallest boulder I could find and hoped that it would be big enough to still be above the water level that would no doubt be flooding this entire area. As the water kept coming and coming I was forced off of my rock and onto the surface using chakra to keep myself from going under. I knew that without a doubt if I let that happen I would be as good as dead. That didn't mean I couldn't use this to my advantage though.

"Lightning Style: Electric Current!" I cried before slamming my hand down on the surface and watching as my lightning snaked up the gigantic wave to wear my opponent was still spewing up water. Just before it reached him he cut off the flow and jumped to avoid getting electrocuted by my lightning. I wasn't finished yet though, if he was going to be generous enough to give me a water field I was going to put it to good use. "Lightning Style: Electric Eels!" from my hands formed five sparking serpentine like creatures that dove into the water and once again rushed towards Kisame who was once again standing on top of his wave like he was the king of the world. With a particularly powerful wave he easily dispelled the eels that I sent towards him. Then both he and the wave began their deadly descent and I prepared myself for the worst, there was no dodging those waves, at least until they were somewhat smaller. So turning tail, I started sprinting in the opposite direction away from the oncoming attack, it hurt my S-Class Shinobi pride to run from an attack so quickly but it would be foolish to stay and die in the face of a technique I couldn't hope to counter.

I could hear the waves crashing behind me and daring a quick glance over my shoulder I noted that they had met with the ground and were continuing to surge towards me. This was my chance. Forming the hand seals for a third jutsu I activated it and I felt and saw my Lightning change color to a blood red. With this upgrade my power and speed heightened to levels that had yet to be rivaled. Leaping at back at him I moved so quickly I disappeared from view for a fraction of a second before I was so close to his face I could practically feel his breath on my face and my sword was centimeters from his chest. With a movement too fast for me to follow he'd brought Samehada up and blocked my attack and I could feel the sword eating up my chakra.

Jumping back I landed on the surface of the water that was still churning dangerously although the deadly effect that those waves would have had was over now. I deactivated my body technique as exposure for any longer would have started to cause damage to my muscles.

Just as we were about to leap at each other again a third presence appeared in between us and with a single command of "Shinra Tensei." An invisible force threw me backwards and it was only a testament to my skill as an S-Class shinobi that I was able to recover from it and land squarely on my feet.

"You two have delayed for long enough. You have your assignment and I expect you to fulfill it." The deep commanding voice of Leader ordered. I could only stare at the man before me as he looked completely different as to how I thought he would. Bright orange hair, multiple black face and ear piercings and a Kekkei Genkai that was so powerful I wasn't even sure if I was to encounter him in a fight if I would be able to turn it off for any amount of time.

"Yes, Leader-sama. I was merely showing this brat what would happen if he crossed me." Kisame explained and I felt my patience disappear as I ripped the mask off my face for the second time in under two days and glared at him for all I was worth.

"For fuck sakes I'm a woman!" I practically screamed at him and I watched as a mix of shock and disbelief overtook his features. I was really beginning to get tired of seeing that expression on their faces…

Alright so that was the second chapter! What are your thoughts so far? I'd love to hear them in a review if you feel so inclined! :)

I have six chapters already finished for this story so I will continue to update about once a week ^^ thanks for reading!