A/N: Hello everyone! I hope that this isn't too late; I've been trying to get the chapters out sooner!

Thank you to:

Yuti-chan for reviewing the last chapter and continuing to offer advice!

xXLoveXxXIsXxXDeadlyXx for reviewing the last chapter as well. Anti-planning writers unite!

Cookies! *hands out cookies and bows*

So… this chapter is sort of a little filler so I can work out the details for the Suna Arc (I don't care if classifies as an actual arc or whatever, that's just what I'm going to call it!) I'm still open for suggestions, so voice your opinions! If not, I'll just go with what I've got. Also, it's kind of a spur of the moment thing, but I'm introducing two more OCs, so… yeah.

I'm just going to apologize in advance because I will probably mess up on some of the terminology and other stuff from Naruto, like names, titles, jutsus, etc. For example, I wrote Deidara's accent as "un," but when I was watching the episode again, I realized that it was "hmm," or something like that (I think). So if I mess up on something, just let me know, okay?

Oh, I don't know if you remember or not, but in the beginning, when Ayano was battling the Akatsuki, she had a sword named Dragon's Fang, or just Fang, that helped her channel and manipulate chakra and all that. In my description, I said it was six feet long, but I'm changing that to three and a half feet long. I'll explain it more in the story, but I just didn't want any confusion.

Ayano: What? I loved that sword! Six feet is a perfectly reasonable and awesome length!

A/N: No. Six feet is taller than you by five inches, my friend, and only Kisame's able to pull off a sword that huge, because he is huge. End of discussion.

Ayano: …Bitch.

A/N: *sigh* Your insults do not affect me, Ayano. As for all you readers, keep doing what you do, which is read, and while you're at it, review. I have cookies and brownies this time! ^^

Ch. 6: An Old Friend

"Hey, shortie! Wake up, already!"

I dimly felt someone shaking me, and instead of listening, I turned over and mumbled, "Leave me alone…"

The person, however, wasn't feeling very cooperative. "Wake up now, or I'm gonna dump you in the river! You could use a good bath in your condition, anyway."

When I didn't reply, I felt strong arms pick me up and start moving. This jolted me from my sleep, and I sat up, yelling, "No, no, I'm up! But you're probably right, I could use a bath." I rubbed the sleep from my eyes as I was set down on the ground. Once I could see, I looked up at none other than my fish-fry friend who was grinning maniacally. "Shut up, fish-face," I grumbled and started walking down the river and around to the other side of the hill until I got to a place where I was invisible to the rest of the group. It looked like it was close to midnight—the full moon shone brightly directly above me and millions of stars dotted the night sky—and I wondered why Kisame had been so insistent on waking me up. I remembered collapsing earlier that afternoon… I must've been out for eight hours, at least.

Once I got to a nice spot, I realized that the only clothes I owned at the moment were the ones I had on, and they were hardly even recognizable anymore. With this in mind, I sprinted back to our makeshift camp and saw Itachi and Konan sitting on opposite sides of a small fire, eating some onigiri. Konan looked up at me as I neared them, and Itachi glanced at me for a moment before returning his gaze to the fire.

"Uh, Konan, you look like you're the same size as me, so do you think I could borrow some clothes? These need to be dumped," I said, pointing to my tattered clothing.

She gave a slight smile and rose, walking over to her bags. "Sure. Here you go." She handed me a bundle of clothing and I nodded in thanks, heading back to the river. I found my earlier spot and stripped down to my undergarments, diving into the cool, luxurious water. The water was pretty deep, and I just soaked for a good five minutes before I began scrubbing viscously at my body, removing all of the dried blood, mud, dirt, and sweat. That done, I began the task of attacking my hair, which was a complete nightmare. There were twigs and leaves and more mud and blood in it, not to mention the fact that it was so tangled it took almost ten minutes to straighten out.

After a good long while, I had finally finished, and I stepped out of the river, wringing out my soaking hair. It came to the middle of my back, and I contemplated cutting it. I usually kept it at just a little bit longer than shoulder length, but I sort of liked it long. I pulled on the clothes Konan gave me, and found they fit almost perfectly. Black shorts, a black, long-sleeved mesh shirt, and a tight fitting deep blue dress/shirt type thing that come down to my mid-thighs and had slits up the sides. I then put on my trusty old elbow-length gloves and knee-high boots that had been with me for years.

Quickly digging through my old clothes to find a hair band, I walked over to the river while tying up my damp hair. I looked the same as I had a month ago, before I had been captured by the Akatsuki. It was amazing how so much could happen to me on the inside, while none of my physical characteristics would change. I did miss the familiar weight of my sword on my back, though, but I couldn't remember exactly what had happened to it. The Akatsuki must have taken it when they kidnapped me.

I sighed, wishing I still had the Dragon's Fang, the only thing I had kept throughout my two years of running and hiding after Chihiro died. I didn't have anything from home, and I had never stayed in one place long enough to acquire any memorable keepsakes. Picking up my torn up clothes, I trudged back to the camp, thinking in silence. The full moon above provided plenty of light for me to find my way, and soon I arrived back at the fire, where Kisame had joined Itachi and Konan.

When I sat down next to Konan, Kisame said "Oi, glad to see you're all cleaned up." I glared at him, and he continued. "Anyway, we were just thinking that, on our way to Suna, it might be a good idea to stop at one of the villages in between, to get supplies and find out if anyone's seen any signs of the Akatsuki." Konan and Itachi both nodded, and I shrugged. He grinned in response, exposing his sharp shark teeth, and said, "Right then! I believe the next city is on the way to Suna is Iwakura, so we'll stop there. And maybe, since you're better now, you'll get a little training done, shortie."

I knit my eyebrows together in confusion. "But… don't we have to get there as soon as possible?"

Konan shook her head. "No, I don't think so. I'm guessing Kakuzu and Sasori rushed back to Pein to report what happened. Right now, they're probably working out a plan, and besides, with the recent upheaval within the organization, there's sure to be a lot of confusion. So, no, I'm guessing we have another couple days before they'll make their move."

"Okay… Hey, Itachi?"

"Hn," he replied, looking up at me.

"Were you there when the Akatsuki captured me? And if so, do you know what happened to my sword? About three and a half feet long, three inches wide, multicolored…" I was holding my breath, praying that he had seen and taken it for me, even though this probably wasn't the case.

To my surprise, recognition lit across his usually emotionless face. "Ah… yes, I was there, and I remember that sword. I'll be right back." Seeing my hopeful face, he chuckled quietly, got up, and walked away, returning a minute later with his hands behind his back. When he sat back down across from me, he took his hands from behind his back, holding my long-lost sword in its sheath out to me, handle-first. "Here you are. I thought you might want that."

My jaw popped open and I reached out to grab the sword from his hands. "Fang…" I murmured, taking it out of the sheath and stroking the smooth blade which shimmered in the light from the fire. I looked up at Itachi with a wide smile on my face and said in my most sincere voice, "Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me. I…"

Itachi had a slight smile on his face as well. "Don't worry about it."

I kept smiling as he shifted his gaze back to the fire and looked around, noticing that something was off. "Wait a sec, where's Deidara?"

Kisame motioned to the space behind him, where I saw an occupied bedroll. "He woke up a while ago from Sasori's poison, but he's still trying to sleep it off. He should be good in the morning. Speaking of which, why don't we try to get a little more sleep before setting off for Iwakura." We all nodded again in agreement, and wandered off to get our own bedrolls. Konan once again saved me from my lack of supplies by giving me an extra bedroll she had, and I walked off to find my own little space. I put Fang in its sheath and lay down, pulling the thin blanket over myself. I clutched the handle of my sword tightly and quickly fell asleep, a smile still lingering on my face.

I groaned as my eyelids cracked open, opening and closing several times before registering that it was already dawn; the sun was almost halfway over the horizon. I sat up and looked around to see that Deidara was the only other one awake.

After bundling up my bedroll and stuffing it into my bag, I walked over to where he was sitting by the long-dead fire. He looked up at me as I tied my old swordsbelt, which Itachi had recovered as well, to my waist and attached Fang's sheath to it before sitting down next to Deidara.

"So I take it you're okay now, right," I asked. "No deadly side-effects from the poison?"

Deidara shook his head. "No. But I still can't believe that bastard Sasori betrayed us, hmm! I mean… Dammit!"

I looked at him with understanding, feeling my own anger return. "Yeah…me neither. Even if I didn't know him that well…" I got the feeling that trying to comfort him would only serve to infuriate him even more, so I stayed silent. After a minute or so, he seemed to calm down, and closed his one visible blue eye. "Um, I was wondering…" When he looked at me, I continued. "Why do you cover up your other eye with your bangs?"

In answer, he pushed his thick blonde hair out of the way, revealing a scope-type mechanism. "The scope helps with reconnaissance and other stuff, hmm. Hey, what about your injuries? I remember you said Pein stabbed you several times, and then you fell from a tree. " At the last part, he couldn't help grinning a bit.

I glared at him for a second before grinning as well. "All better! Being the Dragon Juubi Jinchuriki does have its perks after all."

"About that… What exactly happened while I was out? Kisame said something about a dragon…? He trailed off, waiting for an explanation.

I sighed. "Ah… Why don't you just ask Kisame to tell you later?" I wasn't really up to retelling the whole thing, nor was I sure that I would even be able to explain it correctly from my point of view—I would probably just leave him even more confused.

He nodded, albeit reluctantly, and we lapsed back into silence. Not long after, however, I heard a very loud yawn, which, as I turned around to confirm my suspicions, came from Kisame. His noisy awakening resulted in Konan and Itachi waking up as well. I got the feeling they weren't really morning people; the only reason I was in a good mood, or even awake, was because I had already gotten quite a bit of sleep earlier. No words were exchanged as we all prepared to leave, and soon, we were on our way to this "Iwakura" place.

My first thought when we walked into Iwakura? Run. Get out. Leave. Any of those would be appropriate, really.

My logical reasoning behind these thoughts? City=large crowds=people who are afraid of me, or more specifically my eyes=people who would like nothing better than to be rid of me. Or kill me.

See? Not crazy. I actually do have an excuse for my anti-socialism!

Well, I guess it wasn't so bad since I was surrounded on either side by Konan, Itachi, Deidara, and Kisame, who had all discarded their Akatsuki cloaks. The men all basically wore variations of the same outfit: baggy pants, mesh shirt, a shirt over that, along with the Akatsuki sandals. Konan's outfit was very similar to mine, seeing as I had gotten my clothes from her.

As we walked down the wide street, the crowd sort of parted like we were royalty, but I saw a bit of fear and mainly wariness on their faces. Now that I paid attention, I saw that they weren't staring at me, but at Kisame instead. Of course. Who wouldn't be freaked out by fish-face? I know I was! He's seven feet tall and looks like a freaking fish! Oh, whoops, I meant shark… right.

I nudged Kisame's side and hissed, "Oi, fish-face! Don't you think you're attracting just a little too much attention?"

He glared at me and started to laugh but stopped as the others nodded in agreement. "Fine." With that, he left, quickly disappearing in the thick crowd.

Itachi, Konan, Deidara, and I decided to split up after that, going off it different directions to ask around about the Akatsuki. I stopped to buy a couple dango sticks, and continued on my way while eating them. I asked random people as I wandered around, but every time, their response was always the same:

"Excuse me? Have you seen anyone wearing a black cloak with red clouds, and perhaps a wide straw hat as well?"

After maybe two seconds of staring, they would then say something along the lines of, "What are you?" or "What's wrong with your eyes?" or occasionally, "Oh my Kami, you're possessed, aren't you?" And then they would run off down the street, shrieking "Demon! Demon! Run!" the whole way. It was really getting quite old by the time I asked what felt like my hundredth person.

This is the last person, and if they run around screaming their heads off again, I swear to Kami I am going to kill someone… or maybe several someones… Yes, that might be a good way to let off some off some steam… So when I tapped the shoulder of the man in front of me, I was fully prepared to break his neck. It began with the same initial staring, but to my surprise (and disappointment), he did not run around screaming as I expected, but instead said (much too loud for my tastes) "Kiyomizu! Is that you?"

I stared at him in shock. Tall, muscular, long, messy black hair, bright green eyes… I had a strong suspicion as to who this young man was, and as I looked down at his dog who had long, shaggy black fur that was similar to its master's hair and a white star on its forehead, it turned out I was indeed right. "Holy crap! Takeda?"

It was raining heavily as my mother, sister, and I passed through a town whose name I didn't know. Chihiro and I were about ten years old; we were still jumping from town to town, only staying long enough to gather supplies with the money our mother earned from selling the blankets and quilts she made. Right now, we just wanted shelter for the night, but every time Mother asked for a room at and inn, they would take one look at our eyes—the Rykugan—and refuse. So we continued on, our hope of finding a room for the night shriveling up as time went on.

Then, as we were nearing the edge of the town, we passed by a brightly lit house. In one of the windows, I could see someone looking at us as we passed by. I nudged Mother, and we walked up to the house, our last option besides sleeping under the sparse cover of the forest surrounding the town. She knocked on the door as Chihiro and I stood back, not wanting the people inside to see our eyes immediately, lest the shut us out before we got a chance to explain.

The door opened and I could see a kindly looking, middle-aged woman smiling at Mother. Her thick mane of black hair was graying slightly and she had bright green eyes. She and Mother exchanged a few words and then mother stepped aside, motioning for us to come forward. We did so, and were shocked when the woman's eyes widened in not fear, but rather surprise and sympathy.

"Look at you two! Poor things, you must be freezing!" Looking back at Mother, her smile widened. "Please, please, come inside! I'll make us some tea to warm you guys up. Hiroki! Get some blankets, quickly!" She rushed inside, waving her arms for us to follow her. After a moment's hesitation Chihiro and I walked in after Mother. The house was spacious and very warm inside, and a boy, about the same age as my twin and I, with messy black hair and bright green eyes grinned at us and offered several towels for us to dry ourselves off with.

He led us to what I supposed was their living room, and we sat down, slowly warming up. The woman came back with five cups of steaming-hot tea, which she handed out to everyone. "Hello. My name is Takeda Tomoko, and this is my son, Takeda Hiroki." Hiroki, who undeniably took after his mother, smiled and inclined his head respectfully.

Mother replied, "I am Kiyomizu Mitsuko, and these are my daughters, Chihiro and Ayano. My husband abandoned for the same reason everyone else has. Because they are…different, we've always been shunned by others. So, as you can imagine, this is a huge and very welcome blessing." We engaged in pleasant conversation for a while, that was until a shrill barking was heard and a small black dog came running into the room. It had long, disheveled fur, as well as a bright white star on its forehead.

"Miyako," Hiroki exclaimed. "Be quiet! These are our guests!" He glanced at Chihiro and me sheepishly. "I'm trying to train her to be a ninken, but she's still a puppy. She's doing better, though!" I smiled and reached out to scratch behind Miyako's ears, which she happily responded to.

We ended up staying with Tomoko-san and Hiroki for several months—much longer than we'd stayed anywhere else. Chihiro, Hiroki, and I became great friends, playing with each other and Miyako day in and day out. We left their home eventually, finally abandoning civilization altogether and living in a small house in the nearby forest, occasionally visiting the family every now and then.

I laughed gleefully. "Hiroki! It really is you!"

"Ayano! It's been too long… What, it's been… almost six years since your family last visited! How've you—wait, where's Chihiro and Mitsuko-san?"

As soon as he said that, my face immediately fell. What was I supposed to say? Oh, my mother and sister were murdered by some power-hungry maniac who's still trying to capture me? I didn't need to share the details with Hiroki—it would only depress him further—so I just said, "They're…gone, now."

A look of shock passed over his features. "You mean…? I nodded, and he looked crestfallen. "Oh. I'm…sorry."

I shook my head and gave him a sad smile. "Don't apologize. It's not your fault. Besides, what's done is done, right?" He was still understandably sad, but nodded all the same. "Anyways, looks like both you and Miya-chan got a lot bigger! What are you, six feet tall now? And Miyako's as tall as your waist!" I laughed again, trying to ease the tension. He grinned widely in return and Miyako gave a happy bark.

"Pretty much, yeah. And Miyako's a full-fledged ninken now! We've been traveling for a good four years now, and when we passed through Konoha, we actually ended up staying for a while. You see, there's this family there, the Inuzukas, and they use ninkens, so they helped me train her! We're not nearly as good at them, but she's great at tracking and stuff like that." He was very excited now, and I could feel my smile growing. It'd been a long time since I'd laughed this much, or smiled for that matter. Hiro was the only friend that I'd had before the Akatsuki captured me, and I couldn't believe that he was here.

"So, you're still travelling, right? That's why you're here?"

He nodded and rubbed the back of his head. "Yup… Speaking of which, what are you doing here?"

Crap. I've been trying to avoid this conversation so far, but it looks like I have no choice. "Yeah, about that. Well, there's no short way to tell the story, so are you ready?" He nodded. "Okay…"

Hiroki was, needless to say, shocked. "Wow, you're a Jinchuriki? I mean, I know your eyes are weird, but… wow."

I narrowed my eyes at him, half joking, half serious. "You're taking this awfully well, aren't you? I mean, no running, screaming, heart attacks, trying to kill me…"

"What? No! Why would I do that?" I gave him a disbelieving glance. "Okay, I know that other people might do that, but I've known you forever! Even if you do have a demon inside you or whatever… You're still the same Ayano, you know?"

"Yeah, well there's more. So about… a year… we were thirteen, so yeah. A year after we last visited you, this psychotic bastard showed up at our house in the woods. His name was Uchiha Madara, and he wanted mine and Chihiro's eyes for some twisted experiment or something, I don't know. Well, when he showed up, he immediately killed my mother, and captured Chihiro and I after that. We were kept in a prison for three years, and you really don't want to know the details, trust me." He grimaced, but I continued. "So after three years, he finally decided he was done with us, or Chihiro at least, and killed her. He would've killed me soon, too, if Uchiha Itachi hadn't come in then. He knocked Madara out, and we ran away. Pretty soon, we separated, and I travelled around for two years or so, training and keeping a low profile."

I took a deep breath. "Then, this organization known as the Akatsuki found me. Apparently, their leader, Pein, wants to extract all the Bijuu to become an all-powerful god or something. So, they tried extracting the Dragon Juubi, Ryuu, out of me, but Ryuu-sama broke me out of the jutsu, and it turns out half of the Akatsuki were good, and helped me escape. Then, one of our people betrayed us, and we were all about to be killed—well, maybe—when I talked to one of the dragons that's like a second-in-command to the Dragon Juubi, and he helped me fend off the Akatsuki. Now, me and the Jinchuriki Protection Squad as I call them are on our way to Suna to watch over the Ichibi, Gaara."

Hiro stood there blinking for a few seconds, absorbing the mountain of information I just gave him, probably not understanding half of it. Hell, I didn't even understand half of it. "Wow… That's intense. You've got yourself into some serious business here, Kiyomizu."

I laughed. "Yup. You know me, serious to the bone!"

"Uh huh. Right." He laughed as well, and kept a smile on his face as he became a bit more serious. "So, I'm coming with you, right?"

"What?"

"Oh, come on. You know you want me. Besides, when Miyako was training to become a ninken, do you really think I did nothing? I trained with the Inuzukas a little, too, and some of the other shinobi in Konoha. I'm pretty good at taijutsu, and I can do a little ninjutsu, but not much."

I hesitated. Did I really want to drag him into this? Sure, he would be a helpful seeing as Sasori left our group. Besides, Miyako's abilities as a ninken would be very useful if we had to track someone, and she could alert us if anyone was pursuing us. I sighed, then smiled a bit. "Yeah… Well, actually, it's not my decision to make. You'll have to ask the rest of the gro—"

"Oh, Ayano, there you are! Where'd you run off to…? Oh, who's this?" Speak of the devil… Konan was approaching Hiroki, Miyako, and I along with Deidara, Kisame, and Itachi, who all wore varying looks of suspicion.

I cleared my throat. "Guys, this is Takeda Hiroki and his ninken, Miyako. I've known him for a long time; our families used to get together a lot back when I still had a family, and we were living in the forest. Hiroki, this is Konan, Deidara, Kisame, and Itachi." I pointed to each of them in turn as I stated their names. "They're the ones that rescued me."

Konan smiled, inclining her head slightly. "It is very nice to meet one of Ayano's friends."

Deidara gave a little wave, still looking at him suspiciously. "Same here, hmm."

Kisame let out a loud guffaw. "I didn't even think little shrimpie here had any friends! Good to meet you!"

Itachi stayed where he was and just glared at Hiroki. "Hn." With that, he looked away, and I couldn't figure out why he was so pissed.

I narrowed my eyes at Itachi, but he didn't seem to notice. Hiroki grinned and said, "Nice to meet you all! You have my respect for taking care of her so well."

I glared at him. "Oh, shut up, Hiro. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself, thank you very much." Turning back to the others, I said, "Um, I have a proposal. Seeing as Hiroki here has a trained ninken, and he himself is trained in taijutsu and a little ninjutsu, he was wondering if he could accompany us? I thought it would be a good idea; I mean, having a chakra sensor would be invaluable, both for tracking and escaping, wouldn't you agree? Besides, even if he is far from Sasori's equal, we still need as much manpower as possible if we're going to be clashing against the Akatsuki in Suna, right?"

They all exchanged glances, but before they could say anything, Itachi abruptly rejoined the conversation. "No."

I started in shock. "What?"

Itachi glared at Hiroki. "No. He'd only get in the way, and besides, I don't trust him."

I shook my head, becoming more frustrated by the second. "What the hell's your problem, Itachi? I mean—"

But I didn't get to say anything more because Itachi just turned around and started walking away. "Whatever, if you want to get your little friend killed, be my guest. I don't care. Just don't come whining to me when he stabs you in the back."

I stared at Itachi's back with my mouth hanging open. What the hell was wrong with him? I mean, why is he rejecting Hiro so vehemently? I don't understand.

The rest of the group looked just as confused at Itachi's behavior, but Deidara recovered quickly. "Don't worry, he's still being his bitchy self, this is just the first time you've heard him say it out loud."

Konan rubbed her temples. "Okay, Deidara, shut up. Just because you have a grudge against him for dragging you into the Akatsuki… Just shut up, please." She looked at me with an apologetic look, and then turned her gaze to Hiroki. "I'm sorry about his atrocious behavior, he's not usually like this, but I think I might know why… Oh, never mind. But I think I speak for all of us, or at least the majority, when I say that we would greatly appreciate your help. However, you will most definitely need some training if you don't want to be killed by the Akatsuki."

Hiroki was dumbfounded at first, but in less than a second, he was grinning ear to ear. "Really? You mean it?" Konan and the others nodded. "Thank you! I'll train as much as possible and try not to be a burden!"

Deidara nodded. "You do that, hmm." Turning to me, he continued. "We couldn't find anything on the Akatsuki other than one person who said they'd seen someone in an Akatsuki cloak on the road to Iwakura. We decided to stay the night and rest. Any problems?"

I shook my head, and Kisame butted in. "Great! Now I'll take you, and Takeda too, I guess, to go train! Have you been working with your dragons, Ayano?"

"Yeah, as much as I could while travelling. I've been talking with Takeshi and he was explaining how to start summoning the little ones, as he called them."

"Good," Kisame replied. "You can work on actually summoning them for a while, and then we'll work on your swordsmanship. So that means I get Takeda here for the rest of the time, heheh." Hiroki visibly paled and sweatdropped, but Kisame didn't pay him any mind. Instead, he grabbed both of us by the arms and started dragging us out to the open field outside of town, Konan and Deidara following just to get a kick out of Kisame's teaching, I'm sure.

I was standing quite a ways away from where Kisame and Hiroki were going at it. They were moving too fast for the untrained eye to follow them. It was amazing, really, how good Hiro had gotten at taijutsu. I knew Kisame was still most likely going easy on him, but still.

I turned away from the two, closed my eyes, and sighed. Takeshi? I'm ready to try the real thing, I think.

I hope this wasn't too boring or whatever, but, like I said, it's a filler chapter.

Okay, the Suna will actually be after the next chapter, because this one was really long, so I decided to split it into two. Okay? Please don't kill me. Anyway, I hoped you liked it!

Since I already have the next one done, I'm going to wait for a couple reviews until I post. So read! Review!

Au revoir!