Hi everyone! I'm sorry for the long wait for a new chapter.... hehe -_-' my computer crashed and it still isn't working correctly... I had to type this up at school. Well, anyways, thanks for all of you who are still following! Enjoy!

~Mekana


The walk back was silent besides the occasional "Look at that!" and "How pretty" from my mouth as a bird would fly by or a rodent would scurry passed our feet. Sasori would chuckle at my amusement and give my hand a gentle stroke with his thumb. I never realized how much bigger his hands were than mine until then, or how much taller he was than me. He was a good five inches taller seeing as I'm a total shrimp. I loved how well his hands fit with mine. And his laugh, it was thick but not very deep, it was completely and utterly irresistible to me.

I laughed at my thoughts and he gave me a questioning look, "You're cute." I said.

He smiled slightly and quietly spoke, "You are too." I hugged him and he kissed my forehead. "we should get back. Pein will be upset if we don't get our missions."

"You mean I'm going to have a mission?" I asked excitedly. Finally I'd be important to the Akatsuki.

We arrived at the leader's office at the head of the sleeping quarters. Sasori gave the door a knock and the leader's low gruff voice replied with an "Enter,"

We obeyed and silently approached Pein. To my surprise he wasn't concealing his identity with a shadowy hologram like he had in our first meeting. He had bright orange hair and matching ringlet eyes. He was kind of handsome in my opinion, though, all his piercing and serious demeanor freaked me out a little.

"Good, you two are here." His eyes locked on mine and I had to force myself to keep eye contact. "I have very important missions for the two of you." He handed us two separate folders. I glanced over mine to see a picture of a brown haired boy wearing a short sleeved red shirt. He looked familiar but I couldn't get my thumb on it. I glanced over at Sasori's file to see him staring at a redhead resembling a lot of him, in my opinion, but I doubted they knew each other in any way. The boy had a tattoo of 'love' on his forehead and a gourd on his back.

"Sasori, you and Deidara will be capturing this boy alive so we can extract the jinchuuriki sealed within him." Sasori nodded and Pein turned to me, a chill ran down my spine, "Caddi, you'll be partnered with Itachi to assassinate this boy. He was located in Sunagakure. We need to eliminate him to conceal the Akatsuki's identity."

"Sir, can I be partnered with someone more reasonable? I can't promise Itachi will come back unharmed."

"Do whatever you'd like but you will be partnered with Itachi."

I sighed, "Yes, Sir."

Sasori and I were dismissed to prepare for our missions. We finished packing and headed outside to walk off our thoughts. Sasori was quiet and would only answer my questions with one word replies.

"Sasori, are you alright?" I stopped and stood in front of him. His head hung lower when I frowned at him.

"I'm fine." he said trying to avoid my violet eyes.

"No, Sasori. Tell me what's wrong."

"I have a bad feeling about this mission." He sighed, "I may not make it through this. This Gaara kid has control over his demon. He has the strength to kill me."

I put my hands on his sholders, "You won't die, Sasori. You're strong, you'll do fine."

"You're right…" He sighed and his frown deepened.

"There's something else, isn't there?" He nodded and pulled me into a hug burrying his chin in the crook of my neck.

"I'm worried about you."

"Don't be. I'll be fine." I reassured him, stroking his hair, "It'll be an easy mission for me."

"I know it will, but if I'm gone I don't want you to have to face this life without me."

"You're not going anywhere. You'll always be in my heart." A smile touch his lips and he let out a long sigh, his breath tickling my neck, and pulled away.

"Alright. We should get going. Itachi's probably waiting for you."

"Joy," I said sarcastically. Sasori chuckled and kissed my cheek, "I'll miss you." He smiled. We parted and I headed into my room. I grabbed the small satchel off of my bed. Itachi soon knocked on my door and we traveled in silence to my childhood homeland.

"Suna, the land of useless ANBU and powerless pupils."

"Do you hold a grudge against this town?" Itachi said sliding his straw hat on.

"Yes, I do. They killed my clan during the war between Sunagakure and Kirigakure. I'll never forgive them for that." I gritted my teeth together.

"You seem to hold grudges against a lot of people." He said, implying to the anger he obviously knew I had towards him.

"Well, maybe if those people weren't such assholes I wouldn't have an issue with them." I placed my hands on my hips, a scowl crossing my face.

"I'm an asshole? Well, you're nothing but a weak bit-"

"I'm weak? I believe I beat you up. I haven't yet seen it the other way around."

He gawked at me before turning away and heading through the gates, "Just stay quiet. We are partners. At least until this mission is over, let's try to work together."

I sighed, "I suppose you're right."


Pizza and reviews are my favorite things in the world!

~Mekana