Hi again! This is the edited version of chapter 4! I actually didn't change much on this one, because it was written much more recently and not anywhere near as bad as the others. Now that the editing's done... I'm gonna go do my homework. *walks away*

JK! I'm gonna try and get something done for the next chapter now. Thanks for reading my lovelies!

C&P: Disclaimer: I only own Chimoku and the plot. Why would I be remaking the series if I had control over the original?


My eyes opened once again to the blank room I had been staying in for the last few days, but instead of tears flowing down my face this morning, I was completely numb.

I had another nightmare.

More death.

I couldn't do anything...

I stared blankly at the ceiling, having shut myself off due to the overload of stress. My head remained tilted in a set position to the side and my eyes remained fixed on nothing, unfocused and clouded. I had enough clearness of mind to look over at the clock to see the time. It was five in the morning. No one would come in here for a while.

After what seemed like eternity as my thoughts tried to engulf me, my stupor began to lighten and a soft knock sounded on my door. I glanced over at the clock again. Seven AM now.

"Who is it?" I asked in a monotone.

Itachi opened the door and stuck his head in before fully entering.

"You're up early," he commented.

"Yeah."

My eyes never moved from their position fixed on the ceiling as he spoke. I realized I had dazed out while Itachi was talking to me when he waved his hand in front of my face to regain my attention.

"Is something wrong?" he asked with a hint of concern in his voice. I shook my head and ran a hand across my face to wake up before sitting up and getting out of the bed.

"So you're going mute on me today?" Itachi questioned, trying to sound humorous. I shook my head again, but couldn't draw forth a word from my lips.

"Then say something," Itachi challenged, "or I'll have to make you say something."

I gave him a weird look. I wanted to ask, 'What?' but once again, the word was too heavy to issue from my mouth. With a resigned sigh, Itachi stood up and walked over to me. Then, without warning, he began tickling me. Normally, I would have yelped and fallen to the ground yelling 'Stop!' and laughing, but all I did was cave in on myself this time.

Standing up and moving away, I went and sat on the bed. Itachi sat next to me with a deep frown on his face.

"Chimoku, this is worse than yesterday. Tell me what is wrong."

I forced myself to speak. "Nothing. I'm just kind of numbed out."

The words felt wrong coming from my mouth.

"Why are you 'numbed out'?"

I shrugged. "...can we go get breakfast?"

Itachi smiled a little in relief and responded, "Sure."

He pulled me off the bed and led the way down to the breakfast hall again. Everyone else was already eating.

"You're late," the red-headed... I'm calling him a teenager. The red-headed teenager told us as we walked in.

Itachi nodded and I tried to muster an apologetic look. My emotions were starting to work again, and of course, as usual, the first one back in action was sadness. Slowly, my cryptic and analytical nature kicked back in and I focused on that until everything else faded back in.

"Hey, un, what are you looking at?" the blonde-headed guy asked me.

My head snapped to his position and I asked, "What?"

Blondey looked kind of annoyed and weirded out at the same time. "I asked what you were staring at. Didn't you hear me?"

"No," I responded shaking my head slightly, "I just kind of fazed out for a second... it tends to happen a lot when I have things on my mind."

"Hm."

Blondey went back to what he was previously doing. I then realized something that was getting on my nerves.

"I don't know any of your names," I announced to the group. "Its getting on my nerves. Care to share?"

Kisame laughed and said, "Well, you heard the little lady! Everyone introduce yourselves!"

The blonde boy rolled his eyes and said, "Deidara, un."

I nodded and pointed to the red-headed teen. "You?"

"Sasori. Master of puppets."

I frowned. "Please don't put on any shows... puppets kind of scare me."

Deidara began laughing uproariously and exclaimed, "I told you my art is better than yours, Danna!"

I raised an eyebrow at Deidara as Sasori responded, "Your silly little 'art' is no more than a child's toy."

"What's his art?" I questioned.

"Art... is an EXPLOSION!" Deidara exclaimed as he blew up a little bird near the ceiling. I jumped out of my skin, stifling a tiny scream, and leapt away from the blast. Deidara was grinning proudly and triumphantly at his little explosion and didn't seem to notice my reaction. He continued on his little victorious moment until Sasori gained his attention with a smirk, pointing at me.

Deidara's face immediately sunk at what probably appeared to be terror on my face.

"It seems like she doesn't like your art any more than mine," Sasori sneered. I frowned and fazed out for a moment without anyone noticing before coming back to the real world, where Deidara and Sasori were still bickering.

"Can we please continue with the introductions?" I asked in annoyance.

The silver haired man who had been in the room upon my first day here came stomping in, asking, "What the (hufflepuff) is going on in here?"

"That's Hidan," Kisame started.

A man covered in stitches stalked slowly in after Hidan. His face was half-covered by a mask and his eyes were strangely colored, his skin very leathery from over-exposure to the Sun.

"And that's Kakuzu," Kisame finished.

I waved at the two and both of them just glared at me. So... they weren't people I was gonna get along with.

"TOBI SAYS HI TO GIRL-CHAN!"

A flying ball of black and orange flew at me and I was tackled to the ground. I yelped and immediately started trying to shove the thing off, kicking and writhing as I pushed. The orange-masked thing rolled off of me and assumed a hurt posture. I scrambled away quickly and stood up.

"Don't. Touch. Me."

The orange mask nodded forlornly, then re-assumed its extreme hyper-activity and started bouncing up and down.

"Tobi is Tobi and Tobi says hi to girl-chan and Tobi wants girl-chan to be Tobi's friend and-"

"That's enough Tobi," a venus fly-trap said, rising up out of the ground. Wait... venus fly-trap? What in the world? The venus fly-trap opened to reveal a man that was half-black and half-white, split straight down the middle.

"We're Zetsu," the white half said.

"This is our apprentice, Tobi," the black half said.

"We're training him to become a member of the Akatsuki," the white half added.

"As annoying as he is..." the black half muttered.

"He's not that bad. Stop being so mean."

"Yes he is. He acts like a five-year-old."

"Um... hi," I said uncertainly. "So... you're both Zetsu?"

"Yes," the white half responded kindly. "We share this body."

"Unfortunately."

"Stop being so mean."

I interrupted again with, "So, is this everyone here other than the scary leader guy?"

"Including the scary leader guy, and no," a voice informed me from behind. I spun around to see the scary leader guy standing behind me, in all his orange-haired many-piercings glory, with a girl. I looked around and the realization that until this new girl had come in, I had been the only girl in the room.

"I'm Konan," said girl told me with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Chimoku."

I glanced around at the mass of people now surrounding me and watching each of my encounters and kind of shrunk into myself.

Ignoring my obvious discomfort, the orange-haired leader guy said, "You will address me as Leader-sama or Leader."

I made a face and mouthed the words before muttering, "That feels so weird..."

The leader guy gave me a disbelieving look and everyone else seemed amused.

"Can- may I please call you something else? That name feels really unnatural and... awkward."

"... you may call me Pein-sama. That's all."

I smiled largely. "Got it." I glanced over at the girl named Konan and then at the room full of men before walking over to her and asking quietly, "Are you the only girl here?" She nodded.

I looked around the room one more time, building up my courage, before announcing, "I'm going to steal Konan and we're going to go be girls for a while. Anyone who follows us dies."

After my little speech, I quickly grabbed Konan's arm and ran out of the room before my courage could fail me. Konan laughed and waved as we ran. Pein looked- I mean, Pein-sama looked annoyed. Itachi and Kisame looked very amused.

After we were out of hearing distance of the guys, I looked around in confusion and asked, "...where are we?"

Konan laughed and said, "Follow me and we'll go to the living area. Tired of all the boys already?"

Walking beside her, I answered, "Actually, I didn't even realize I was the only girl there until I saw you..."

She laughed even more. She had the prettiest little laugh – sweet but still strong and confident. I wished I could sound that confident...

When we finally got to what I assumed was the living area, I saw...

a huge mess and a lot of dangerous looking weapons.

I'm beginning to question the safety of going anywhere in this base without Konan or Itachi...