Piper: I hope all of you had a good Holiday!

I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 6 - Piece

Sakura Haruno

When Pein said that we would be training my strength, I didn't actually expect it to be Pein who would do the job. We stood in a clearing, the sun barely peaking out from behind the clouds to shine light down on us. Pein pulled off his cloak, wearing a tight short sleeve shirt. It was easy to see his figure beneath the material, and his muscles rippled as he moved to hang his cloak over a low tree branch.

I took off my jacket, the very one I had bought the other day, and followed his example by hanging it over a tree branch. We turned to face each other, and started to circle each other. Pein told me before we got to the clearing that he didn't want to give me any fighting advice at first, to test how well I would be able to do on my own.

For a few seconds, I was firmly locked onto him before he suddenly moved and disappeared. My heart jumped, and I twisted around. He was moving fast, I could hear the grass sway and crunch from his swift moves. I could feel him around me, and the rush of air would hit me as he once again darted out of my sight. Just as I was able to start seeing his outline before he moved, he struck.

His fist came flying from behind, and grazed my shoulder as I twisted in a sloppy dodge. His leg swept out, and struck the back of my knees. My legs flew out from beneath me and I landed painfully on my tail bone at his feet, my brain spinning around inside my skull. My veins felt like they were pumping air instead of blood, I was so dizzy.

Pein held out a hand, and I took it after a short wait. He slowly pulled me to my feet so that I wouldn't get dizzy again. I took in a breath, and nodded at him. We jumped away from each other, and started circling once again. Deciding I didn't want to get taken so easily like that once again, I made the first move.

I pounced forward, and sung a fist. He blocked with his arm, and I swung out a foot towards his head. His other hand shot up and caught my heel, while I pulled my free hand around and brought it towards his temple. Just as it was about to hit, he disappeared. Landing on the ground in a crouch, I looked around as he once again began to move swiftly around me. It was harder to catch him this time, and I realized he was hardly going as fast as he could.

Bounding forward, I ran away from him and towards the clearing edge. He skirted around my movements, catching up easily. I moved my foot as I got close to a tree, preparing to kick off. But something happened, and instead of kicking off I kept going. Chakra pumped through my legs and into my feet, keeping me attached to the tree as I sprinted up it's trunk. Pein was close by, I could feel it, and he shot after me when I kicked off the tree and into the air.

He swung a fist, and it smashed into my stomach. I heard something crack, and knew he had broken a rib or two of mine. I threw out my foot as he swung again, and caught the edge of his stomach in his graceful dodge. Happy at actually hitting him once, I let my guard down and suddenly found myself crashing into the dirt from Pein's fist.

Dust flew around me, and I knew my impact had made a crater. I painfully lifted myself from the ground, and ran towards Pein's chakra signature. He stood still, his ringed eyes watching my movements. I readied a fist, when suddenly it happened again. I could feel my chakra moving towards my fist, and this time I willed it to build up. I pumped more and more chakra to my fist, and swung.

Pein dodged, and my fist collided with the tree behind him. There was a loud crack, and splinters of wood rained around me. There was a loud groan, and suddenly everything was going dark. The tree was falling. My eyes widened as he began to lurch over me, it's shadow swallowing me in its growth as the tree tilted more and more.

I flinched, curling into myself as I could feel the tree begin to rush down towards me. My feet were frozen to the ground, fear icing my veins so thickly that I couldn't move. Just as I could hear it get closer, there was a loud 'thunk' and suddenly everything stopped. My eyes opened in surprised, and I slowly looked up.

The tree was a couple feet above me, and I looked over my shoulder. Pein, one hand out, was holding the tree up with his palm as if it were the lightest thing. He lifted his other hand, and threw the tree aside. It crashed into the earth, and then lay still. I looked at him, panting for air now that I could breath again. In all the fear my lungs seemed to have stopped taking in air, and now I was trying to catch up on the lost breathing.

"I'm not done," I breathed, and Pein lifted a fine eyebrow.

Taking a stance, I waited for him to copy my movements before I shot forward.

When Pein called training done, I was sore all over and he hardly had any injuries. Pein steadied me when I was about to fall over, and looked into my eyes, piercing my soul, and suggested smoothly, "Why don't you try to heal yourself?"

Just the thought of trying made my wounds ache a little. I ignored it, however, because Pein was waiting. I summoned a bit of my chakra and laced it into my hands. I kept a peaceful mind, and watched as they slowly began to glow softly. I ran my right hand over my left arm, and my left hand over my right arm. I could feel my tight and strained muscles relax at the soothing power. But that was as far as I got as the light flickered, and I found myself unable to bring it back.

I sighed heavily, and Pein put a hand on my shoulder. I looked at him, and he made sure that he caught my eyes once more, "Don't be so hard on yourself. You did well for your level." And then he pulled his cloak off the tree it was hanging on, swiftly pulling it on his body and zipping it closed.

Putting my own jacket on, I followed him from the destroyed clearing and towards the base. We were greeted with a very messy kitchen once we got there, and in the middle of it all were Hidan, Deidara, Kisame, and Tobi. They were all covered in flour, head to toe. Tobi saw me and ran for me. He wrapped his arms around me, coating me in flour and causing a little cloud of flour to poof off him from his impact to my person.

"Blossom! Tobi missed you!" I hid a wince as he hugged me, my back particularly sore.

"Hello Tobi," I said, "What were all of you trying to do?"

Deidara coughed, a bunch of flour coming out of his mouth, "We tried to cook, yeah. We were actually doing pretty good until Tobi decided to help." Deidara glared at said man, and Tobi hid behind me.

"Tobi was only trying to help, Blossom! Sempai even called Tobi a bad boy! Is Tobi a bad boy, Blossom?" Tobi asked, placing his head on my shoulder.

I looked at him, and told him, "No, you're not a bad boy, Tobi. Not if you were just trying to help," I turned and then I looked at the rest of them, "I'll make you some food if you clean this mess up. Deal?"

They nodded, and got to work on the cleaning. Pein looked at me, and asked, "Why are you cooking for them if you are tired?"

I shrugged, "It really doesn't matter. Cooking doesn't take that much out of me. Besides, I'm hungry, too."

Pein nodded, and turned to leave. He paused when I spoke, "I'll bring you some food to your office, okay?"

He waved a hand, and continued to on his way out. I took that as a sign that replied: "Okay."

Once the kitchen was de-floured, I got to cooking. Tobi was once again hovering over my shoulder, helping here and there. The others sat at the table, and more joined them soon. I served lunch and excused myself, taking both my plate and Pein's and leaving the room. I remembered the way to Pein's wing easily, since my room was located there. It was easy to find, but it was a bit harder to try and knock on the door with my hands full of the two plates. I used my elbow to knock, which wasn't the smartest, but it worked.

"Enter."

I had a bit of difficulty opening the door, but managed after a few seconds of balancing and sloppy twists on the door knob. Pein was looking at me, amusement in his striking eyes. I smiled, embarrassed, and crossed the room. His desk was pretty cluttered, so I handed him the plate instead of setting it down. I turned to leave and he spoke, "Where are you going?"

"Huh?" I asked, looking over my shoulder.

He nodded towards my plate, and I smiled slightly, "I was going to eat with you so you wouldn't have to be alone, but you look busy so I thought that I'd leave to what ever it is you're doing."

Pein shook his head, and gestured to one of the chairs on the other side of his desk, "I will not be working while I'm eating."

I took the seat, and waited for Pein to take the first bite before I raised a bit of rice to my mouth. We ate in silence, but it was oddly comfortable. Just being in some one's company, with silence, was calming. When we both finished I said my good byes and took our plates to the kitchen. When I got there I saw Kisame slouched over the sink, grumbling.

I stood next to him, and smiled when he turned his head towards me, "Stuck with the dishes?"

He nodded, and I reached for the drying towel, "I'll help."

Kisame grinned, exposing his sharp teeth, "Thanks, kid."

Frowning, I replied, "I'm not a kid."

A chuckle rumbled in his chest at my tone, and he replied as he handed me a plate, "Maybe not, but you're short enough to be one."

I swatted him with my towel, annoyed, "I'm not short! You're just extremely tall!"

An arm suddenly came around my neck, holding me in place almost lazily, "Nah, bitch, you're short."

Looking over my shoulder, I saw Hidan smirking at me. Suddenly, he was pulled away from me by the throat, a few thin pieces of black thread doing the job. Hidan glared at Kakuzu, who looked at him with a bored expression. Hidan started yelling, his colorful language filling the room and killing the silence. I shook my head at the the two, and turned around.

"Ah!"

Tobi had slipped between me and the sink, and had been right in my face as I turned, "Oh! Tobi's sorry Blossom! Tobi didn't mean to scare Blossom!"

I placed a hand over my heart, and smiled a little, "It's okay, Tobi."

Tobi tilted his head at me, and slowly moved out of the way so that I could get to the sink and continue helping Kisame with the dishes. Deidara came strolling through the door at that moment, and when he saw me look he smiled at me. I looked into his blue eye long and hard, because something was coming to me. It got closer and closer, and I felt something fuzzy come to my head.

At first it didn't make sense, but then I realized that it was a name. Naruto. Deidara reminded me of someone named Naruto. They shared the same eyes. Now, I was left to wonder. Who was Naruto?

Piper: A bit short... Like I said before, I hope you guys had an awesome Holiday!

Please review and tell me how I did!