Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto...
Chapter 4 is here! This one is a bit longer again... Do you guys prefer longer or shorter? Or somewhere in between?
Thanks to all my reviewers, and just because i feel like it today, i'm going to reply to each of you..Yay:
Hibiki-chan : Thanks for reviewing again! I'll keep updating so long as i don't run out of ideas, which shouldn't be for a while...
ninja gal : I spent a long time on thinking up this plot, so thank you... And i was planning to have a bit of Deidara somwhere...Well, actually, quite a bit of him, but you'll have to wait for a little while yet!
AnimeSpaz : Talent for writing? Thank you... That made my day! Hope you enjoy this chapter too!
windii : Ooo, i'm curious why Hana and Amaya are important too (and so are they)... I guess we'll just have to read on and find out!
And thank you to everyone who read but didn't review... I've quite alot of hits so far, which is nice to see...
With that done, here you go!
Chapter 4
Amaya's eyes widened in shock as the hand tightened its grip.
Underground? How can that be possible? I mean, jumping in trees is one thing, but suddenly being underground is…is…impossible…
It was odd how something that happened in the space of a few second seemed to go slowly. The hand pulled down sharply. She gasped as her legs became buried in the dirt of the forest floor. Pain shot through what she now suspected was a broken ankle.
The man didn't stop pulling.
If I die like this, they won't even have to dig me a grave! I don't want to die like this! I don't want to die at all!
"No!" She cried as her arms flailed, grasping at thin air in her desperation to grab hold of something; anything.
"Amaya!" Hana screamed, turning from her own fight for a moment and almost losing her own head as a result. If she had been able she would have rushed to her friend's side and done whatever she could to help, but regretfully she couldn't.
Amaya turned her head to her friend. Her attention was caught by a black blur which swept towards her. Something pressed against her. Arms caught her around her waist before she became buried further. As a natural reaction she grabbed on tight. She was pulled upwards and felt the hand lose its grip as her legs came free of the ground.
She blinked and looked down at the man, surprised to suddenly find herself in a tree again. Her ankle was throbbing, but at least she wasn't dead or buried alive.
Letting out a sigh of relief she looked up, and was surprised to find that it was her kidnapper who had saved her. He wasn't paying attention to her but was watching the man below who was drawing weapons again. She studied his face, the way it betrayed nothing as he watched the man.
How can he stay so calm? How does he move so fast?
It didn't matter – she would ask later. As for now, she was sure that he had his reasons and doubted that he had saved her because he was a gentleman, but he had saved her, and Amaya felt as though she ought to thank him, despite what his reasons may be.
As she opened her mouth he turned his scarlet eyes to her and she found that she couldn't say it. No, it wasn't that she couldn't, but that she didn't need to; he already knew what she was going to say, so she settled for a small nod. He returned it, his face unchanging.
Still no emotion showed as he whisked her back to the ground, avoiding yet another rain of sharp, painful looking projectiles. He then let go of her and looked down at her, waiting.
Waiting for what?
She then remembered that she had a fistful of his cloak. With a light blush of embarrassment she released it and watched as he moved away, leaving her to stand on one foot and leaning sideways against a tree. When he disappeared from in front of her and reappeared behind the man, Amaya wasn't even surprised.
After all this is over I wonder if anything will ever surprise me again…
Looking past Itachi and the man, who seemed to be trying to reason with the Uchiha, she could see Hana still desperately trying her best to avoid the other man's sword. She wondered how her friend had managed to survive so far, but was glad to see that she didn't seem to be hurt.
"Wait. Killing me won't make a difference. You know that more will come after them, and not just from the Stone. If you were to hand them over now, it would save yourself a lot of trouble in the future," the ANBU said, knowing that he could not fight Uchiha Itachi on his own and trying to buy time until he could make a plan of escape.
Itachi listened to the ANBU tell him what he already knew and wondered if he could make any use of him.
"If you give them to us we will cancel all missions to assassinate Akatsuki members and will provide you with anything you need, whenever you need it," the man continued, trying to bargain his way out of the situation, "And, uh, we-."
"You could not give us anything that we cannot already get," Itachi stated, pressing his kunai a little harder against the man's throat.
"Wait! We can lend you out forces to capture the nine-tailed fox!" The man took a final chance, hoping that maybe the prospect of catching the kyuubi a little easier might be enough. It was then that it dawned on him that he was no longer bargaining for the girls, but for his own life.
Itachi considered it for a moment. The Stone ninja could act as a diversion, leaving them to deal with the kyuubi. He and Kisame could handle that task by themselves though, so the man, left with nothing else to offer, was convinced that he would lose his life.
And he did.
Lowering herself carefully to the ground, Amaya's head whipped up as Hana let out a cry. She'd tripped and landed heavily on her rear end. Her attacker raised his sword high and brought it down with all his strength, while Hana stared helplessly up at him.
It was Amaya's turn to scream, "Hana!"
There was the metallic clang of metal on metal; the swirling of a black and red cloak; the surprised sound someone makes when they know that they're going to be dead shortly; the sounds they make as they actually die; the thump as their body hits the ground.
There was stunned silence for a moment, and as usual, Hana was the one to break it.
"Well, I'm flattered, but you didn't have to kill him!"
"I wouldn't have had to if you hadn't been a baka and tried to run off."
"If you'd been abducted by a big, ugly, freak of a shark-man wouldn't you try to run too?"
"You want to lose your head too?" Kisame threatened. He was in a good mood though. It had been a while since he'd got to kill so many people, and killing ANBU was always more fun.
"You won't kill me," Hana replied, casting a disgusted glance over the corpse and looking as though she might throw up as she skirted around it. "Amaya-chan, are you okay?"
Letting herself down the rest of the way to the ground, Amaya got her first look at her ankle. "I think it's broken," she said; it seemed to be turned at an odd angle and it looked red and swollen already.
Kisame knelt before her and lifted her leg with one hand, poking and prodding at her ankle with the other. She grit her teeth against the pain hoping that he knew what he was doing and wasn't simply making things worse.
"It doesn't seem to be broken, just dislocated," he said finally.
"That's good," Hana said, smiling.
"It needs to be popped back into place," Kisame continued as though talking about the weather, taking a firm hold of her foot.
"Wait, what? No!" Amaya tried to pull her foot from his hand and push him away at the same time, but hands on her shoulders pulled her back and held her still.
She let out a yelp, her hands clenching into fists and tears pricking her eyes as the pain doubled and shot up her leg. Then it was over, and the pain started to recede a little. Kisame pulled a bandage from somewhere inside his cloak and began to bind he ankle.
"Arigatou," Amaya said when he was done.
"My pleasure," he replied grinning so that he showed all his sharp, white teeth.
Oh, he only did it to because it gave him an excuse to cause me pain! Horrible man!
"Can you walk?" Asked a rarely heard voice, which Amaya recognised as Itachi's.
Did he…kill the other man? They're killers…murderers... Then again, I would be dead if it wasn't for him... But us being in that situation was their fault to begin with…
"I don't think so," she replied, trying to stand but finding that her ankle would not support her.
Much to her annoyance this meant that she was flung unceremoniously over Itachi's shoulder again. Hana, on the other hand, had to walk.
"And why do I have to walk?"
"Well, seeing as you like running so much, we thought you'd enjoy a walk just as much. Besides, you could do with the exercise."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Kisame leant down and poked Hana in the stomach, "That's what I mean."
"It's just baby fat!" She protested.
"Yeah, I could almost believe that."
"Are you saying I'm like a baby?" Hana glared up a Kisame.
"Yeah, I am."
"Huh, I'd rather be a baby than a shark. At least I'm human!"
Amaya listened to the ongoing exchange, laughing softly every now and again.
They seem to get on well…
She noticed that the trees seemed to be getting closer together and that the light was starting to fade slowly, making shadows stretch. It was usually a time when everything would have been silent but Hana refused to let it be so. Occasionally Kisame would slip in a comment here and there, causing them to start throwing insults at each other again, but he always won.
It had been a long day and Amaya was just starting to drop off when they stopped.
"Are we there yet?" Hana asked for the hundredth time.
"Yes," replied Kisame.
"What? But we've been walking for hours and we're still not-. Wait. We're here? And where exactly is here?"
Sighing Kisame began walking again. Itachi dropped Amaya down, causing her to hiss in pain as her foot hit the floor, and leaving her to hobble behind them.
"Here Amaya-chan," Hana said, offering to help her friend walk. Amaya smiled in thanks, and they followed Itachi and Kisame into what looked like a perfectly normal hut.
It was quite small, but cosy. The floors were wooden, there was a soft looking couch and they could see a neat looking kitchen.
"I find it hard to believe that this is your 'hideout', as you call it," Hana said, looking around.
"What do you know, you're cleverer than you look," Kisame shot at her.
In reply Hana only narrowed her eyes and said, "So, this isn't it?"
Moving to the corner of the room, Kisame slid back a couple of the floorboards, revealing some stone steps, "Down there is our hideout."
"Oh, underground?" Hana said thoughtfully as she followed him down, "Clever."
I've had enough of being underground for one day…Amaya thought. It looked dark and the kind of place where spiders would love to spin their webs, and who knew what else would be down there – in the last few days she'd seen a lot of things that she would never have thought existed, so really, she wasn't sure what to expect.
"Go," Itachi said behind her, pushing her forwards with hand on her back.
She took a tentative step down into the darkness.
Ooo... I couldn't think of a cliffhanger for this one, but i tried!
Itachi and Amaya have a silent understanding thing going on...Interesting...
And why was that ANBU so desperate to get his hands on them? I wonder...
Please leave me a review!