Chapter Three

HI NO KUNI

I could hear footsteps, the cracking of twigs under me, the crunching of leaves. I could hear the wind howling a little, my hair was blowing around my face. I could feel my body swaying a little bit, like I wasn't on solid ground, what was going on? I tiredly opened my eyes, my red orbs falling on the ground. I blinked a few times, trying to clear my blurring vision. The ground was moving under me, but I wasn't on the ground. I felt like I was in the air, that's when I realized it, I was being carried by someone. I moved my eyes away from the ground, trying to see who was carrying me from their back.

'Black cloak with red cloud designs…is that bandages?' I curiously moved my hand to the bandaged looking thing and yelped feeling something rough come in contact with my skin. I phased through the person's shoulder, landing face first in the dirt. I moved my face out of the dirt, grabbing my wrist of my injured hand. It was drenched in blood from whatever I'd touched, it looked like the top layer of skin had been shaved off. It wasn't lethal or anything, there were eight layers of skin on a person's body anyway, and the skin would grow back…eventually. I stared at the blood soaking through my ruined glove and felt something heavy being placed on my back, it felt like a sandal.

"Stupid girl, what the hell're you doing?" an angry voice snapped, digging his sandal harder into my back.

I yelped again, not appreciating how rude this person was being to me. I managed to force myself to phase through his foot and crawled a little way away from him, making sure not to get my injured hand in the dirt; I didn't want it to get infected after all. I dropped face first back into the dirt, my limbs didn't want to work properly. I could tell that I didn't have alot of chakra left, not enough to phase anymore, and it didn't take that much for me to phase in the first place so I knew my body was rather weak. I could feel the sandal make contact with my back again, and I let out a soft cry of pain; this hurt like hell.

"Kisame," a monotone voice said. "Enough."

The person who had their sandal lodged in my back grumbled a bit but removed it nonetheless. I let out a sigh of relief, happy that there was someone here that realized how injured I was, and clenched my hands. I attempted to push myself up using my fists; I really didn't want this injury on my hand to get infected. My arms made it halfway before they gave out, and my face dropped back down in the dirt. I whimpered a bit, hating that I was in a situation where I was utterly defenseless, and unclenched my hands. I could feel blood sliding down my palm; my hand must've been a mess.

"The girl won't manage to escape in her condition, we'll rest here for the time being." the same monotone voice said.

"Very well Itachi-san."

I heard a little bit of movement some distance away me; I guessed the man had sat down or something. I closed my eyes tiredly, trying to think about everything going on around me. So many questions were going through my head. What had happened, where was I, who were these men I was with, and what was I doing with them in the first place? I took a slow breath, trying to use my brain. Just because my limbs were tired and useless right now, didn't mean my brain was useless…it was just tired. I remembered I'd went with Sasuke to the Dango shop to get some tea and breakfast, and Kakashi had dragged Sasuke away to talk to him about something or another before we'd even got to order any food. I'd went walking around the village, and an Anbu informed me that I made Chunin. After that, I ran around trying to find Sasuke so I could tell him, and I went to the river. There were people there, Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai…they'd been fighting two people…two people that were after Naruto. I remembered running off with Sasuke to find Naruto to warn him of the danger, but the people beat us there, people wearing black cloaks with red clouds. One of the men had looked like…Sasuke.

'Now I remember, one was Sasuke's older brother, Uchiha Itachi. The other was Hoshigaki Kisame, one of the former Seven Swordsmen of Kirigakure. Wait though…did they…kidnap me?' I swallowed nervously, forcing myself to remember the sound of Itachi and Kisame's voices compared to the men here. 'They're exactly the same…they did kidnap me. Where are they taking me, what use could I be to them, I'm just thirteen. Yeah, I trained under Zabuza-sama for a good three/four years of my life, but I'm not at the level of an S-Ranked Criminal or something. What do these people want from me?' I opened my eyes when I remembered that Itachi had said that their leader would be interested in what I could do. He also had said something to Kisame about how Orochimaru was after my abilities; he was merely assuming that I had power though. I knew I was powerful for my age, training under Zabuza had given me a big advantage compared to others my age, but what use could I be to S-Ranked Criminals?

I managed to move half of my face out of the dirt when I heard footsteps approaching me. All I could see was sandals, white leg warmers, the bottom part of the cloak, light purple toenails, ivory looking skin…it was Itachi. I groaned a bit when his foot moved under my stomach, turning me over on my back. I stared up into a pair of onyx eyes, emotionless onyx eyes, they were nothing like Sasuke's; I couldn't believe that he was Sasuke's older brother. Sure they looked alike with their onyx eyes, black hair, and facial features. Emotion wise though…they were polar opposites. Sasuke was cold on the outside to people, but he was warm on the inside. Itachi, I could tell he was cold on both the outside and the inside. I swallowed, trying to get the dry lump out of my throat, and he crouched down next to me. I stared up at him, feeling terrified of what he was planning on doing to me, and he took my injured hand. I stared up into his eyes, feeling a little curious as to why he wasn't being rough with me since he was evil and all, and he moved his eyes away from mine to inspect my injury. He pulled off my ruined glove, still holding onto my wrist, and tossed it to the ground.

"She touched your same-hada." Itachi stated, sounding cold. I heard Kisame make a 'humph' noise in reply to Itachi, he didn't sound very happy about that.

"Stupid girl." I heard him mutter, I didn't even have the energy to glare in his direction. "How bad's her hand Itachi-san?"

"It looks as though her first layer of skin has been shaven off." Itachi replied emotionlessly, Kisame made a humph noise again.

"Stupid girl." he repeated. I moved my eyes to Itachi's face, studying his expression, still emotionless.

"Kisame, bandages." Itachi ordered in a monotone voice.

I heard some footsteps, some crunching leaves, and watched a hand hold bandages out to Itachi. Itachi took the bandages without so much as a thank you, and Kisame walked back to his seat against a tree. I could see his appearance from here; he really did resemble a shark. With the gill looking things on the side of his face, pointy teeth, beady eyes, and pale blue skin; he looked like he should be a shark. I turned my attention to Itachi feeling him roughly wipe at the blood on my hand, I yelped in pain. He gave me a cold look and I sealed my lips, trying not to make another sound. At least he was being kind enough to take care of my injury, even if he was being careless about it. I heard a chuckle come from a little ways away, Kisame, was he amused that I was in pain or something? I turned my attention to Itachi, feeling bandages wrapping around my hand. I laid there quietly, making sure not to make another sound, even when he roughly tied the bandages around my hand.

He let my hand drop to my side and moved up from his crouching position, walking away from my side. I watched his feet and saw him sit across from Kisame, his back pressed against the tree. I stared at him, his eyes were closed, he seemed tired. I moved my gaze to Kisame, he was watching Itachi, I couldn't really tell what emotion was on his face.

"Itachi-san." Itachi didn't open his eyes or even react to Kisame's words, but Kisame continued. "How long do you believe we can stay in this area, we're still in Hi no Kuni."

"We still have quite a way to go before reaching Amegakure." Itachi stated, his eyes remaining closed. "Perhaps it would be in our best interest to pass through the River Country and make our journey to Amegakure through there, Konohagakure will more than likely send Anbu to take the girl from us."

His eyes flicked open, moving across the forest floor to me. I had a feeling I looked rather innocent right about now, all because I was terrified. I had no idea what these men wanted from me, or what they were planning on doing to me so I had a right to be afraid. I could feel another pair of eyes on me so I broke the staring contest with Itachi and moved my eyes to Kisame. His lips curved up into a smirk, revealing some of his sharp teeth. I felt myself flinch a little in terror, and the shark shinobi chuckled.

"At least we got one prize to make up for our failed attempt to capture the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki." Kisame said, chuckling again.

I whimpered a bit, lowering my eyes to the ground. What did these men want from me? What use could I be to them? I didn't understand why I was always the person that got kidnapped or taken away, it always happened to me. First I got thrown into that little prison when I was a child, then I was traded to Orochimaru, then I was rescued and taken Konohagakure, and now I was kidnapped by two members of some organization called Akatsuki. My life really had always been a whole bunch of fun.

"Speaking of the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, perhaps contacting Leader-sama is in order." Itachi's voice snapped me out of my thoughts; I watched Kisame nod at the suggestion...or whatever it was.

"Leader-sama won't be happy about this." he said, scratching the back of his head.

Itachi gave a short nod in agreement and closed his eyes. I watched Kisame close his eyes as well, how were they supposed to contact their leader with their eyes closed? Could they communicate with him telepathically? I watched them for a while and tried moving myself into a sitting position when I figured they weren't really paying attention to me. I dropped back down against the ground, groaning a little at the pain in my back now. I was screwed; there was no way I was going to manage to escape from these guys. I looked back in their direction and watched them again, their eyes opened after a few more minutes.

"You made a good call, taking the girl Itachi-san." Kisame stated, moving his gaze to me. "Leader-sama seems interested in her." Itachi gave a short nod and moved to his feet.

"Kisame, grab the girl. We're going."

I blinked at the order Itachi had given, staring at the former Kirigakure shinobi approaching me. I stared up at the shark-like man, groaning quietly when he kicked me to lying on my stomach. He could've been a little gentler with me; didn't he realize how badly I was injured or something? That Tsukiyomi genjutsu of Itachi's had really messed up my body, didn't he realize how much it hurt me to move, let alone get kicked that roughly?

"Stupid girl." he mumbled, moving his arm under me.

I was placed over his shoulder and wrinkled my nose angrily; my stomach was killing me from where Itachi had punched me earlier that day...or yesterday. I didn't really know what day it was, how long had I been unconscious? But there was the punch that had killed my stomach, and the fact that I hadn't had anything to eat all day, my stomach was cramping and killing me. I wasn't very pleased that my stomach kept coming in collision with his shoulder as he walked, I was dying of starvation. I swallowed and closed my eyes tiredly, knowing there was no way to fight against him in my physical condition. I relaxed my muscles, trying to rest myself as much as possible. If I could just get some more chakra then perhaps I'd be able to phase once the pain in my body disappeared. After that happened then I'd be able to run through the forest back to Konohagakure, phasing through them when they grabbed at me or cornered me. It was the perfect plan, only Orochimaru had learned how to stop my phasing and I doubted that he released that information to any other shinobi. He wanted my abilities for himself, and I knew he wasn't willing to risk losing them to any other shinobi. I just needed to be patient and rest myself.

THE BORDER OF HI NO KUNI AND THE RIVER COUNTRY

After what seemed like hours' worth of traveling, I could sense some chakra following behind us, not far. I looked up from the ground, staring around the area. The chakra I was sensing was decent, it was around the level of Kakashi's chakra so I was guessing it was Anbu. I could sense about four people, so Konohagakure cared about me enough to send one Anbu squad after me? They were seriously underestimating Itachi and Kisame, either that or they didn't want me back. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, the people of Konohagakure looked down on me because of my abilities. I'd definitely be hurt if they weren't trying to rescue me, was I just looked down on so much that they sent only one squad of Anbu to "rescue" me? I lowered my eyes, beginning to feel like I didn't care if I was rescued or not, and heard a voice say

"Uchiha Itachi, Hoshigaki Kisame. That's as far as you go. Hand over the girl and come quietly or be killed."

I almost rolled my eyes; these Anbu must've been a bunch of morons. They should've stayed hidden and tried to attack them, had they? Of course not, why do they logical thing when you can be a complete and total baka? Good job Konohagakure shinobi, here's a gold star for a job well done. I groaned in pain when my body made contact with the hard ground. I drug half my face out of the dirt and watched Kisame pull his same-hada off his back.

"Kisame, take care of them." Itachi ordered in a monotone voice.

"With pleasure." Kisame said, smirking.

I watched Kisame disappear from sight and stared across the ground. I watched the feet moving, listened as kunai clashed, a few yells in pain, then silence. I heard Kisame humph and watched him walk across the ground towards me. He not-so-gently lifted me off the ground and slung my body over his shoulder like a rag doll.

"That was no fun at all." Kisame complained, following behind Itachi. "They were weak as hell." Itachi made a noise that sounded like a chuckle of amusement.

"I'm surprised they haven't sent more shinobi after us. They obviously don't know how valuable this girl is." Itachi said, sounding emotionless again; I guessed he didn't stay entertained by stuff like that for long.

"Obviously." Kisame mumbled. I coughed when his shoulder collided with my stomach again, I needed food so badly. "Shut up girl." Kisame growled.

I shut my mouth as commanded, not understanding why he was being such an asshole towards me. I hadn't made a sound throughout their traveling, and he was still being a prick. What was his deal?

"Will the Konohagakure shinobi follow us now that we're in the River Country?" Kisame inquired, grabbing my attention.

"They may attempt to." Itachi answered monotonely…again. "They would need permission from the Feudal Lord, and that may take days for them to receive a reply. By that time, we'll have been in Amegakure for a few days. There would be no point for them to infiltrate the River Country." I heard Kisame chuckle a little, sounding amused.

"Just another day." Kisame said, sounding a little relieved.

I felt my heart sink, a day. We'd be in Amegakure in just a day's journey? So we must've been traveling for at least two days…no wonder I was so hungry. I hadn't eaten in three days or so, I was surprised my stomach wasn't whining and grumbling about wanting food. Right on cue my stomach made a gurgling sound, but neither of them seemed to notice it over the howling of the wind. I guessed I was a little thankful for the wind, my cheeks were feeling warm in embarrassment; good thing they hadn't heard it.

"It wouldn't take long for them to send a message to the Feudal Lord though, asking them to keep a lookout for us. We'll have to make sure to keep out of sight." Itachi stated.

"We forgot to mention to Leader-sama about Jiraiya knowing about the Akatsuki." Kisame said, sounding annoyed.

I tilted my head to the side a bit, this had caught my attention. So that's how Kakashi had found out about these Akatsuki guys, from Jiraiya. I was surprised that they were discussing things like this infront of me, they must've not seen me as a threat. Who would, I was just a little girl…compared to them I mean. Either that or they knew I wasn't going to escape from them, so they found no harm in discussing this stuff infront of me. I'd been listening to their conversations for hours, and they'd never hesitated in their speaking.

"This was unexpected." Itachi said emotionlessly. "Konohagakure will be sure to alert the other hidden villages about us, Leader-sama won't be pleased about this." I could feel Kisame nod in agreement.

"This will make all our jobs more difficult." Kisame stated. "We may need to lay low for a while."

"Perhaps." Itachi said with a monotone voice. "Not all villages are allied with Konohagakure though, it may take them quite a while to send information concerning the Akatsuki to the rest of the villages. It would be an unwise decision now, seeing as they are without a Hokage, and the village itself is in ruins." Kisame sighed and said

"First we discover that filthy traitor Orochimaru's leaking information about us, and now Konohagakure knows."

I felt my eyes widen in shock, Orochimaru had been in the Akatsuki at one point in time? I couldn't believe it, but at the same time I could. Orochimaru was an evil man and powerful. The Akatsuki seemed like quite the powerful group of shinobi, I'd never seen people like Itachi and Kisame with such high chakra levels. Zabuza had been powerful sure, but he didn't compare to Orochimaru. Now I knew that there was someone more powerful than Orochimaru, Uchiha Itachi. This was…unbelievable. I'd wanted revenge on that monster for so long, and I'd finally met someone more powerful than him. Perhaps Itachi would kill Orochimaru for "leaking information" like Kisame had said, I wouldn't have to live in fear everyday if that happened. I was always terrified that Orochimaru would come back and somehow drag me back to Otogakure. It'd almost happened during the Chunin Exams, I'd been lucky to escape him like I had. That curse mark that he'd given me had actually been a bad move for him to make, it'd been the reason why I'd escaped from him. If he hadn't given it to me…I didn't want to think what would be happening to me right now.

I shuddered at the thought, closing me eyes tiredly. Night had fallen all around us, there was no way I could see anything, and I didn't have the chakra to do the night vision jutsu. There was no point in keeping my eyes open, I might as well close my eyes and save some of the little energy I had. I let a quiet sigh pass through my lips, trying not to make any noise. I didn't want Kisame snapping at me again, he wasn't all that nice. I opened my eyes hearing a sound, it sounded like water. I stared down, smiling a little bit. They were walking on water now, could we have gotten a little closer to our destination while I was daydreaming or…whatever I'd been doing. I didn't feel like I'd just woken up, but my limbs still didn't want to work all the way. Eh, I didn't need to question it. If we were almost there then so be it, I wanted to lie down and get some food to eat. Kisame's shoulder was still assaulting my sore stomach, couldn't he be a little more considerate to-

"She's becoming a bother; you carry her for a bit Itachi-san." Kisame said, I heard a soft sigh.

"Very well, hand her over." Itachi's monotone voice said. I felt my body being moved from Kisame's shoulder, and I was placed in someone's arms. I looked up into a pair of onyx eyes, Itachi's eyes. "I'm surprised you're still awake."

I didn't respond, I couldn't find the courage to do so. I was a little surprised when Itachi didn't sling me over his shoulder, he carried me bridal style, at least he was a little more of a gentleman than Kisame.

"You're serious, she's still awake?" Kisame asked, sounding a little surprised. I blinked when his eyes found mine. "No struggling or anything, what's this kid's deal?" I didn't say anything, but Itachi said

"The effects of Tsukiyomi have most likely not worn off."

I lowered my eyes when Itachi moved his gaze to me, since that was the only thing I could manage to do. He was right about that genjutsu of his still affecting me, I wasn't gaining back any chakra it seemed, and it felt like my limbs still didn't want to work.

"I gotta say, you're quite stubborn then girl. Not falling unconscious, some of the most powerful shinobi are weaklings against Itachi-san's techniques." Kisame told me. I blinked, keeping my gaze locked on my black jeans.

"We'll run the rest of the way." Itachi stated, after a few minutes of silence. It sounded like the decision was final when he said it, like he knew Kisame wouldn't protest.

"Hai Itachi-san." Kisame said. "Leader-sama wants us back tonight."

Had the reason they'd been quiet because their leader had contacted them? Itachi nodded in agreement and looked down at me. My red eyes met his onyx ones, and he stared at me with an emotionless look.

"Close your eyes, and do not open them until told otherwise." he said to me, I gave him a blank look. Why did he want me to shut my eyes? "Unless you'd rather get sick."

That made me shut my eyes, there was no way I was going to get even more sick to my stomach. I heard a chuckle come from Kisame, he seemed amused at my absolute fear of getting sick. The stuck up jerk, what was his problem? I moved my face into Itachi's cloak absentmindedly, managing to grab a hold of the material with my ungloved hand. Next thing I knew, wind was howling even louder around us. That's when I could tell they were running, and damn could they move fast. I kept my eyes closed as instructed by Itachi, not even thinking about opening them. My stomach was already in a mess as it was, with not having food in days and being physically assaulted. There was no way my stomach could handle getting sick by this extremely fast travel, there was no way I'd allow myself to get sick. I couldn't handle it, I just wanted to sleep.

We traveled for what felt like hours, I couldn't really tell any difference in time. Seconds, minutes, hours. It all just seemed to blend together; maybe we'd only traveled for thirty minutes rather than three hours. I didn't really know, time was just out of my reach. I drifted in and out of sleep, but I never opened my eyes when I came back to the conscious world. One reason was because I didn't want to get sick from this fast travel. Another reason was because I was terrified of what Itachi would do to me if I opened my eyes without express permission from him. I was surprised he carried me as long as he did, in my conscious part of the travel he hadn't complained once about carrying me or ordered Kisame to carry me the rest of the way. It felt like, he didn't even recognize my presence, that or he just didn't see me as a burden like Kisame had. I was thankful Itachi had continued carrying me; he seemed a little more careful about my injuries than Kisame had. Or maybe he just hadn't wanted to put me over his shoulder. Whatever the reason I was happy for it, I wasn't being treated like a slab of meat anymore…kind of. I felt the world around me come to a slowing speed, and Itachi said

"We'll walk from here."

So did that mean we were close to their headquarters? I swallowed, feeling a little nauseous, but didn't open my eyes. Itachi hadn't told me I could so I wasn't planning on disobeying him and getting myself hit. I relaxed my muscles, feeling a little better for the first time since I'd woken up to find myself with them, and took some deep slow breathes. I felt like I could actually sleep now, comfortably sleep. I'd worry about food and all the rest of that stuff tomorrow. For now, I just wanted to sleep a little bit.

"Do you think Leader-sama would want us to bring her to him immediately, Itachi-san?" Kisame inquired, not sounding very interested with his own question. There was silence for a moment, I mentally prayed Itachi would say no.

"She's about to pass out as it is, I believe Leader-sama would rather see her tomorrow." Itachi answered in his cool tone. Kisame made a humph sound and said boredly

"This girl's abilities better be worth it."

"She delayed our capture of the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki." Itachi stated, I couldn't hear the crunching of leaves anymore. "Her ability is useful, there's nothing like this in the world."

"Very true." Kisame agreed, it sounded like metal was under their feet. "No wonder Orochimaru wants the girl, attacks against her are useless-"

"When her chakra lasts." Itachi corrected, still sounding emotionless. "She was defenseless after her chakra declined, with the right amount of training she could be a valuable agent to us." Kisame made a sound that sounded like he was agreeing with Itachi.

"Her chakra suggests that she's not of normal Chunin level, perhaps a lower level Jounin." Kisame said, sounding like he was guessing a little.

"Mid-ranged Jounin." Itachi said monotonely. "She's not normal." Kisame chuckled in amusement.

"How many of us are?" he jested. "That fucking Hidan's immortal."

"If attacked in the correct way, even he would meet his demise." Itachi said coldly, Kisame chuckled again.

"It sounds as though you've thought about that before, Itachi-san." Kisame said, sounding a little amused.

"Everyone has their weaknesses, even those who claim to be immortal." Itachi retorted. I couldn't feel wind brushing against my skin anymore, were we inside their headquarters now?

"Where shall we keep her?" Kisame inquired. Silence, for at least a good minute before Itachi said

"The vacant room nearest to the training room."

"Which is still a good distance away from the training room, it's closer than the rest of ours though." Kisame mumbled. "You'll be able to watch her?"

"She won't be able to run, not in her condition. She needs a few more days for her body to heal." Itachi said with an emotionless tone.

I heard the sound of a door opening and footsteps across what sounded like…a wooden floor maybe. I felt my body fall through the air and make impact with something soft. My eyes shot open in surprise and immediately met a pair of onyx ones, Itachi's eyes. He was staring down at me with such an emotionless look, I could barely make out his outline in the dark room. A quiet whimper escaped my throat at his menacing glare and Itachi turned on his heel, heading for the door. I heard the door shut behind him and a click, so they'd locked me in had they? I wasn't surprised, I was a captive here. I sighed quietly and managed to force my body to roll on its side. I was lucky my head had landed against a pillow, I wouldn't have been able to move anymore if I wanted to. I was so tired; I was at this moment, more thankful for a bed than ever before. I let my eyes slip shut and completely relaxed my muscles. I didn't even notice when I slipped into unconsciousness.

Author's Note: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, please review and let me know what you thought. Subscribe to my story alert when you want to know when the next chapter is posted. Also, if you haven't read the original Beautiful Tragedy, please do. I working on finishing it's sequel Sin right now so please check out my other work! Thanks, lots of love!