A/N: So… yeah. I know, I know, I'm just plain suckish at updating. It's a fact of life. Yes, I was berating myself the entire time I didn't update and telling myself that I should update... *sigh* Whatever, I just hope that if you like the story, you'll wait for the update, and read it when it comes. Okay? Not okay? Okay.

Oh, by the way, I know some people have been confused by the two Juubis, you know, and I totally get that. So… I'm just gonna say dragon Juubi instead of just Juubi, because being the dragon Juubi Jinchuriki lets Ayano summon a dragon… I think I put that in the first chapter, right? Oh well. So it's just dragon Juubi until I come up with a good enough name. And anyone who has a good idea for the name, say it!

Anyways, back to ze story! Read and review! Because I will get that warm, fuzzy feeling, and you will get delicious cookies! *holds out cookies*

Ch. 4: Separating Dreams from Reality

A lone man walked through the still sleeping forest. Normally, the area would be bursting with life, but the ancient trees that loomed ominously all around him prevented any light from reaching the ground with their dense canopies. Slowly, the shining rays of sunlight broke through he leaves and gave some brightness, if only a little, to the gloomy forest. The man had a black mask covering the bottom half of his deeply tanned face, over which emerald eyes, with red in place of the whites, glinted in the faint light. The rest of his face and head were obscured by a white hood. He also wore a forehead protector, the insignia of Takigakure engraved on it with a strike through the middle. Covering the rest of his body was a black cloak with red clouds, identifying him as a member of the feared yet mysterious group known as the Akatsuki.

He wandered on silently down the long-forgotten path until he came upon a small break in the trees, showered by sunlight. Far above the tops of the trees a huge, foreboding cliff face was visible, still shrouded in shadow since the sun had just begun its ascent over the tall peak. He looked up towards the cliff for a brief moment before turning his head back to the forest before him. He lifted his head slightly, seemingly sniffing at the air when in reality he was locating the chakra he had been following and said in a deep, gravelly voice, "Almost there."

With that, he walked forward again, immediately becoming engulfed by the forest. However, the man didn't get far before he stopped suddenly before an enormous tree. Its circumference was probably several meters, the thick roots could be seen extending far out into the surrounding forest, and the trunk reached so high, one might think it was a pathway to heaven, if such a thing existed.

Resting between two massive roots was a young, teenage girl, sleeping with her head leaning against the trunk. Her slender face was extremely pale, almost translucent, and in the dim light, it almost looked as if she was a ghost. Her long, straight black hair fell in every which way about her face, the stark contrast further enhancing her ghostly appearance. Staring at her emotionlessly, the mysterious Akatsuki member crouched down beside the young woman and rolled up his sleeves.

With that simple action, any pretense of a normal human being was shattered and replaced by a monster as a mass of thin, snake-like tendrils squirmed and slithered their way out of the seams in his arms. More of the tendrils came out of his skin and reached out towards the sleeping girl. They came to her face and stopped, hovering in midair before moving slightly to shift the dark locks out of her face. Once that was done, they reached out again, this time to her eyes, and pried the tender lids apart.

"So this is the remaining dragon Juubi that's been causing all the fuss? What a waste—such a weakling isn't worth the time or the money." His emerald-and-ruby eyes met the girl's sleeping ones. They were unlike anything he, or anyone else, had ever seen. The deep blue irises had two or three wavy black circles that radiated out from the pupil, the lines swirling around and around… it was both a mesmerizing and deeply disturbing experience looking into those supposedly "lost" eyes.

Apparently dissatisfied with what he saw in the dragon Juubi Jinchuriki's eyes, he rose with an exasperated and tired sigh and began walking away into the trees, his many tendrils whipping around to follow him, re-disheveling the girl's hair in the process.

He sighed again before saying, "I guess I'll have to deal with her if it means I get paid… This better be worth—" His words faded into silence along with the sound of his footsteps as the man was swallowed up by the dense trees.

Chihiro…I sat up groggily, the last image from my dream still clinging to my mind. It was Chihiro as I last saw her, still somewhat bloody eyes closed with visible tracks running down her face where both tears and blood had travelled. Her serene face was misleading; serenity was the exact opposite of what she must have been feeling at that moment. Or maybe, she was a tiny bit happy and peaceful; knowing Chihiro, she would be glad that I got out alive, even if she didn't. She was always so kindhearted and selfless… It still hurt to think of her even now.

As I opened my eyes, I thought back to before the dream of Chihiro. There had been another one…someone talking…and then silence… But who was it? "Damn… I can't remember…" Usually I didn't even dream, let alone remember whatever I'd seen or heard. The only thing close to a dream was the same recurring image of Chihiro in that ice block that I'd seen every night since she'd died.

I shook my head to rid it of all the brooding thoughts and memories and focused on finding out where the hell I was. I wasn't at home, which was now destroyed, I wasn't in any of the various rooms I'd stayed at while on the run, and I certainly wasn't in a prison cell. Standing up stiffly, I rubbed my neck, shoulders, and back. That done, I swiftly swung my head from right to left, trying to find something, anything familiar when…

"Oh." The memories returned in a flood: the chaotic battle, the mad dash for the exit, emerging outside a whole in the huge cliff and being greeted by a huge forest, rendezvousing with Itachi, Konan, Kisame, and Sasori. Overriding all those memories, however, was the overwhelming feeling of freedom, and all that came with it. Peace, relief, ecstasy…Sure, it was childish to rejoice so soon; pursuit was imminent from the rest of the Akatsuki after all. But in that moment, it didn't matter. I let five years' worth of sadness, anger, despair, and hopelessness flow off my shoulders and let my current emotions take their place.

At some point during my mass exchange of emotions that might be referred to by some as "manic-depressive disorder," it occurred to me that I was not in the same place where I had initially fallen asleep. Hopefully someone had taken me to a safer location… It probably wasn't a very good idea to camp out right outside the Akatsuki hideous, now was it?

Deciding to stick with that theory, I contemplated testing out my newly regained powers. Using my Rykugan, I could see the smallest smudge of chakra in the distance, probably a good mile or so out. Argh… That hurts…well, more like tickles… I had gone so long without using my powers that trying to see that far was nearly impossible—it probably wasn't even close to a mile, more like half of one or less. While I was off running around for two years, I had trained quite a bit to stay sharp in case the inevitable happened and my pursuers caught up with me. Back then, when I was in top shape, I could see the smallest trace of a person's chakra from about a mile and a half away when I tried. Now, though, my eyes got all prickly and I squeezed them shut. Kami…all I did was look less than a mile or so out and look what happens! I need to get back in shape…might as well take advantage of my situation and train with five S-class ninja, neh? Speaking of which, where were my newfound Akatsuki buddies?

Now that the prickly sensation in my eyes had all but vanished, I tried to find that smidgen of chakra I had seen before and just about did a double take. Much to my surprise, that "smidgen" was now two distinctly human shapes that had covered over three quarters of the distance between us, and were fast approaching. "Crap!" I started panicking, and by way of my supreme genius strategizing brain, I decided to climb up the tree I had been sleeping on, and hide there. Great idea, right? It's not like any Akatsuki member, which the figures probably were, can sniff out the tiniest bit of chakra from ten miles away… Okay, sarcasm should be noted in this situation, even if there was a slight exaggeration.

Slowing my breathing and concealing my chakra as much as possible, I hunkered down on a fairly high tree branch, my gaze riveted on the advancing figures. In less than five minutes, they were directly below me, concealed by the body of the tree I was on. The proceeded forward with agonizing slowness until, finally, they revealed themselves and looked right up to where she was sitting.

"Oh my…Thank—Noooooo!" My half formed sentences were cut off as I, ever so gracefully, fell off my branch and began the swift but painful journey down through a multitude of vines, leaves, and, by far the most painful, thick, solid, branches.

"Ow, oh, eh, ACK, oof, ah ah ah, OW!" For every ten gentle little leaves there was one huge branch that I cracked just about every part of my body on. Not so good for the already severely injured girl. My fall continued on in this was until I landed heavily into a pair of arms as the body that caught me let out a grunt. Once I had gotten over the shock of not hitting the very hard looking ground like I had expected, I looked up and just about jumped out of my skin.

"FISH!"

…

"Oh, wait, you're Kisame, aren't you? Huh. Ah, yeah, sorry about that. Eh heh. Ha ha ha. Ha?" The fish man in question looked none too pleased at my accidental mix-up. In fact, he looked downright pissed. Well, I guess no one really liked to be mistaken for a face, but I mean come on! Who could have looked at the blue skin, gills, and fish-eyes, and not thought, MAN-FISH!

He threw me to the ground, very unkindly I might add, and said, "Who the hell are you again? You look like a little human shaped tree!" He pointed his bandage-wrapped sword at my neck as I was writhing in pain at the old, newly-opened wounds and the freshly acquired ones.

"Get your poor injured little—er, ah, big—sword away from me!" I brushed some of the leaves out of my face and hair, mentally grimacing at what I probably looked like. "In case you hadn't noticed or remembered, my name is Ayano Kiyomizu, and I just so happen to be the girl you and your little posse rescued from those Akatsuki maniacs!" With a glare at my last statement, I amended, "You know, the bad Akatsuki maniacs that we were running away from." Outburst finished, I continued to pull leaves out of my hair while I waited for him to digest the information that I had just given him.

"Oh," was the oh-so-intelligent remark that came from his mouth. I looked up at him with one of my eyebrows raised, giving him the classic, 'Really? That's all you can come up with?' look. Up until then, I hadn't really paid any attention to the second chakra form that had been with him when I was watching them approach.

"So I take it you got some sleep, Ayano?" I looked with surprise to the man who spoke and saw that it was Itachi. "Are you okay?"

"Um, yeah?" Slightly confused, I looked at him askance once I was done being surprised at his presence.

"Good. We came as soon as we could because we sensed—" He stopped suddenly to look at Kisame, who decided to pick up where Itachi had left off.

"Someone walking around where you were sleeping. Someone powerful, like say, a member of the other Akatsuki members." He looked meaningfully at first Itachi then me, almost glaring at me.

I shrugged and was about to speak again, but I hesitated. The dream…I know that was someone there in my dream. But that's the problem… It was a dream. Wasn't it? "I uh… It's nothing."

Itachi narrowed his eyes and took a step closer at me. "What is it? If you remember anything… You need to tell us."

"It's really nothing." With a glare from Itachi, I hurried to speak again. "I mean, I had a dream, and there was someone, a man, I think, and he was talking… But it's only a dream, right? Right?" I didn't mention that I had never had a true dream before, as dreams were generally figments of the imagination. The only dreams were real memories… But that didn't necessarily mean…

"So this is the remaining dragon Juubi that's been causing all the fuss." The man had ruby and emerald eyes, a mask covering most of his face, and a forehead protector, what village's symbol I couldn't tell. Deep tan skin, and then…The tendrils, almost like eyeless snakes…

"Ah! In my dream…his eyes were red and green, green irises, there was a mask, forehead protector, and…" I shuddered at the thought of those tentacles touching my face. "Those tentacle things…nasty, disgusting things." Both Itachi and Kisame were looking at me wide-eyed, but I hurriedly dismissed them. "No. It was just a dream. Just a dream. There's no way that I could remember something that actually happened while I was asleep! No way. Just a dream. That's all it was. I must just have some hyperactive imagination or something." I returned their looks of surprise with one of determination. They slowly eased up, but I could tell they weren't fully convinced.

"Okay," Itachi said. "Now that everything's okay, we'll bring you back to the others. We've been scouting out the surrounding forest in pairs, and there's no way someone could have gotten through us. You're probably right; it was just some weird accident." He nodded to Kisame, who quickly picked me up and slung me over his shoulder."

"What? Hey! I can move just fine as I am," I exclaimed, knowing that I most definitely could not.

Kisame shifted me so that I was facing forward and looked at me from the side, saying in a disbelieving voice, "Right. So, in your current condition, you could travel at the same speed as me 'n Itachi here, for anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour, and keep up with that pace the entire time? Well, if you insist," he spread his hands out "go right ahead."

I gulped and shook my head slightly, and he chuckled silently, shaking me with the motion. I looked over at Itachi and saw that he, too, had a slight smirk on his. You little… Grr… I gave them both death glares that would send any normal man cowering on the ground, but not two Akatsuki members. Damn… I sulked in silence the entire time, my body bouncing up and down with Kisame's movements.

After a while we finally caught up with Sasori, Deidara, and Konan. Konan and Deidara tried to hide their surprise at my appearance, but failed miserably. Sasori remained expressionless as I stewed with frustration. "Okay, you two can just shut up now." Deidara and Konan stopped snickering at my voice. "It's not my fault that I fell thirty feet through an ancient tree who's branches are way too freakin' big and hard for its own good! Not to mention that this all happened after I got stabbed with six little metal rod thingies!" Apparently, my anger was just too funny, and they started laughing outright.

Kisame didn't help at all by saying, "Actually, it was your fault for standing in a precarious position on top of a precariously thin branch that was not big enough to hold you." He started laughing too, and shook me off his shoulder in the process. Whatever I was going to do next was interrupted, however, when Itachi shushed everyone and got their attention.

"Who's there?" He called out into the forest. Everyone was alert now and staring hard in the direction Itachi was facing. When no one answered, he was about to call out again, but then a figure stepped out of the shadow of a nearby tree into the now bright forest floor. My eyes widened and I nearly gasped out loud. It's him! Ruby-and-emerald eyes, mask, tan skin… It all matches… But that's impossible! I couldn't have had a dream about him… No… I squashed down any confusion and doubts on the matter. No. It was a dream. It didn't matter how weird or impossible, it had to be a coincidence.

The only problem? I did not, in any situation, believe in coincidences. Damn…this was quite the predicament, wasn't it? I resolved to ignore the instinct screaming at me to RUN, and tell Itachi about my little epiphany later.

The man with the mask looked up at Itachi with a slightly annoyed expression on his face. "Who do you think? It's Kakuzu; I figured you guys could use some help."

My Akatsuki buddies did not appear convinced by this "Kakuzu's" declaration. Neither did I, mainly because if that wasn't a dream, it must be a reality, and call me crazy, but I didn't really trust anyone who stalked me while I was sleeping, especially one with tentacles! It was Konan who voiced all of our concerns. "And why, precisely, should we be trusting you? You've always been quite obedient when Pein gave you orders. Who's to say you aren't just spying on us right now?"

At that, Kakuzu laughed. "Oh, really? And you, his right hand woman who never once disobeyed him before this, are more trustworthy than me? Why would anyone trust you?" Konan grimaced and glared at him, but whatever she was going to say was cut off by Deidara.

"Because she's been with us from the beginning, when we first started plotting against Pein, and was only close to him so he wouldn't suspect her, or us!"

Kakuzu shook his head with a smirk on his lips. "Okay, then, be that way. All I'm saying is that you might want another immortal on your side for when Hidan inevitably comes." With that, he walked away, disappearing into the forest, and I could see his chakra rapidly moving away after that. No one made to pursue him, though, and I looked around to see grim faces once they realized the truth of his statement.

"He's right, you know," Kisame said. "Even though we might eventually immobilize him to the point where he couldn't fight, one or all of us would probably be dead at that point. Besides, shouldn't we take any chance we get to gain the upper hand?"

Sasori, who had remained silent the whole time, said, "Yes…while they are at a disadvantage as far as numbers go, but that doesn't mean that they are lacking in skills. It would be wise to be cautious about them; besides Pein, who is obviously very powerful, there seems to be more than meets the eye as far as Tobi and Zetsu are concerned."

After that, a deep silence fell on the party. We were all extremely suspicious of Kakuzu, but no one could deny the logical sense that it would be wise to have him on their side. I sighed and looked at them all in turn, and everyone else did the same. "Um, guys?" They all looked towards me, and I continued. "Itachi and Kisame probably already realized this, but that was the guy from my dream. Except I never have dreams, I'd never seen him before, and I certainly don't have enough imagination to just dream him up, in that amount of detail. Besides, I don't believe in coincidences. So…?"

They all looked semi-shocked, excluding Kisame and Itachi, and I shrugged. "Maybe he just wanted to do a little investigating, or he was on his way to meet up with you guys or something. I dunno," I finished with an exasperated huff.

Itachi looked up at the little sky visible through the tops of the trees. "Well, it doesn't really matter anymore. He's already gone, and we have to move. Since we're trying to prevent the capture of the tailed beasts, we should probably head over to the first one, since Pein's planning on going in order, right?" With a nod from Konan, he continued. "So, we'll head to Sunagakure and find the one-tailed Shukaku. Besides, I'm sure that we'll see Kakuzu soon; he knows that we can't deny the fact that we need him." We all nodded and I was once again slung up on top of the giant fish-man's shoulder.

Who doesn't love travel by fish back, after all?

Well that was a whole lot of NOTHIN'! Okay, well I'm thinking there's gonna be some drama next chapter! Maybe some action, some revelations… Hmm… I'm getting all excited just thinking about it! And… wait… Grrr! There was something important that I was going to say!

Oh! I don't own Naruto. Honestly, that should be obvious, but apparantly, it's required. *sigh* Whatever.

Also…This takes place right before Shippuden, I think. Yeah, because that's when they first try capturing Gaara… Spoilers!

So, read and review! I've got some delicious, hot-out-of-the-oven cookies just waiting, begging for you to eat them! So don't let the cookies down, and review! They really don't want to be eaten by the Cookie Monster, so save them!