(A/N): I AM SOOOOOOO SORRY!!! I know I'm like, two or three weeks late on updating... my computer crashed with two Trojan viruses and at least 1,000 other viruses and we had to completely wipe my computer's hard drive and start it all over again. Also, with us getting closer to show week for the musical, our rehersals run later so I don't have a lot of time to work on this. Pleaseeee forgive me T_T. I'm going to upload two chapters this week and hope to get one or two ready by next week. I'm going to keep this author note short since I know you all are dying to read! ^^. For now, ja ne!

Disclaimer:
Deidara: C-Wolf does not own Naruto, un. All credit goes to Kishimoto-sama. So, enjoy the story, un!


I opened my eyes to find the bedroom almost entirely bathed in sunlight. Still in my wolf form, I raised my head off of my paws to look out the window and there I saw a periwinkle sky with white, puffy clouds slowly breezing by. This was my favorite kind of day. It was fitting, considering what today was. My jaws then ripped open in a fierce yawn. A small chuckle behind me made me jump. The familiar smell of the outdoors and pain killers relaxed me. I turned my head the other way to see Itachi sitting Indian-style at the foot of the bed. He had one elbow propped up on his knee and his chin in his hand. I crawled over to him and bumped his arm with my nose and he began to scratch my ears.

"Happy birthday, imotou-san," he crooned.

"Arigato. Welcome home. How was the mission?" I said after I stretched into my normal form.

"That's not for you to worry about. Now, come on, follow me; I have something to show you." Itachi grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the room and down the stairs into the kitchen. I took in a breath and smelled cake batter.

"Itachi, you didn't—" We walked into the kitchen where everyone was sitting, minus Zetsu, who was on another mission. I didn't see or know him enough to mind.

"Happy birthday!" the group cheered. Konan presented a plain chocolate cake for me. Itachi sat me down and handed me a knife so I could cut it. I sliced it into nine pieces and they were passed around. The group broke into a chatter much like what happens every time we are sitting at the table. I turned to Itachi casually as everyone laughed at a joke Deidara made. Itachi smirked. I became worried at what he was thinking. He whispered to Konan, whose face lit up almost instantly.

"Camellia-chan, would you like to open your gifts now?" she asked me.

"You guys got me gifts?" I said, astonished.

"Of course! We know how to celebrate around here. Come on!" Konan and the others rose, heading for the den to gather my gifts. Itachi took hold of my wrist once again and led me to the den behind the group.

"Just so you know, you won't be getting my gift until afterwards. Leader-sama doesn't want the others around when I give it to you," Itachi whispered.

"O-okay… You know, you didn't have to do this, Itachi," I half grumbled.

"We do the same thing for Konan. We like to pamper our women here," Itachi replied. I could tell he was inwardly laughing at me. In reality, I did enjoy the small party. It made up for the lack of celebration on my last birthday, the day I arrived at Orochimaru's with Sasuke.

The group settled themselves on the couches near the fireplace that Sasori was lighting. Deidara nagged him not to catch himself on fire, and the puppet man smacked him. Deidara then sat next to Kisame, who was sprawled out on one part of a couch, sake in hand. On the couch across from them, Hidan mirrored Kisame and Kakuzu mirrored Deidara. Hidan called to the shark man, who moved to sit with his white-haired friend and pushed Kakuzu one cushion over.

"Well, now we don't have to worry about major cleaning up after these drunk heads; they'll throw up in the same place and make it easier for us," Deidara jeered when Kisame moved.

Kisame laughed and continued the joke. "I wish you a happy birthday from deep inside my soul!" And he pretended to vomit. I smiled and shook my head at the immature men. Sasori took his place next to his blonde teammate and started conversation with Itachi, who was sitting next to me on the couch adjacent to the puppet. Soon after, Pein and Konan entered the room. Konan handed me some small, wrapped boxes and proceeded to sit on my other side. Pein sat in the armchair in the corner of the room to observe his subordinates, as he usually did. I found that whenever the group gathered for anything, he always kept distance to properly observe the behavior of the group. I didn't really see him as the life of the party anyway.

"Come on, open a present and let's get this going," Hidan drawled.

"Be patient, she just received them," Pein scolded.

"Yeah, Hidan, relax. Don't rush the poor girl, let her take her time, un," Deidara added.

"Oh, please, like we need another blonde in this group," Hidan snorted. Deidara shook a fist at the white-haired drunk.

Itachi raised a hand to silence the men. "Calm down, both of you. Camellia-chan, whenever you're ready."

"Okay," I said quietly, feeling attacked. Konan bit her lip, then smiled, reaching over Itachi, handing me a rectangular shaped object, wrapped in glittering white paper.

"Here, open this," her voice sweetly offered. "It's from me."

I delicately unwrapped the gift to see a black leather notebook. "Konan," I said as I flipped through the empty pages. "It's beautiful, arigato."

The kunoichi smiled. "I made it myself, actually. There's a special thread of chakra on each page that protects it from the elements, like water, fire, and wearing from age. I figured you'd like it, since you just filled up your last one."

I thanked her again and proceeded to open a loosely wrapped, circular shaped present. Inside was a spool of wire. It was then like my trapping wire, but made of strong steal instead of the inefficient aluminum I had been using before.

"That's from Hidan, Zetsu, and me," Kakuzu noted politely.

"This is great! My wire never lasted well enough to make certain traps, but this will certainly do the job. Arigato!"

Kakuzu nodded. Hidan had already fallen into a deep, drunken sleep. Kisame tossed a chain at me, which I caught with one hand and began to inspect. Hanging off of the chain was a small vile of clear liquid in a small frosted glass cylinder.

"That's a special vile of water," Kisame explained. "By adding just a bit of chakra, one drop could become a huge wave. You don't even have to have water as your main element to use it."

"Arigato, Kisame," I said. I picked up a small red box and opened that next. There was a little wooden bell inside.

It was Sasori's turn to explain his gift. "This is from me. The little ball inside the bell has some of my chakra absorbed in it. When you ring the bell at a certain force, no matter where in the world you are, the chakra in the ball will signal back to me. That way, if you ever need us, we can get to you easier."

"That's a very clever idea, Sasori. Arigato!"

"Hey, if you think that's something, check out what I got you, un!? Deidara made a cocky grin and pointed to a square box wrapped much like Sasori's. I opened the box. There was a silver chain, small enough to make a bracelet, with several small clay beads dangling off of it.

"Let me guess, exploding beads?" I asked him.

He laughed. "You got it. The white beads are regular detonators, the gray beads are smoke bombs, and the darkest beads are filled with poisonous gas."

"Arigato," I looked around then and noticed everyone, minus Itachi, had given me their gifts. I thanked the men and Konan once more. A scattered pile of comments replied to the gratitude. One more person, who I had forgotten about entirely, piped up.

"Camellia," Pein called for my attention. I swiveled my head in his direction. He threw something at me which I easily caught. "Welcome to the team," was all he said. I started at the small object in my hand. It was a single earring; the hoop didn't reach very far past the bottom of my ear lobe, and attached to the hoop was a charm that looked much like the top part of an Akatsuki ring. The gem was blue, like my eyes, and in black was the kanji symbol for tail. A determined look crossed my face and I looked back at Pein.

"So this is it, huh? I stay with you for a couple of months, agree to act as a link of peace between my home and here, and just like that I'm one of your dogs? And as for my ring name, you're mocking me, too?"

Pein chuckled. "You act as if you're reluctant to join our ranks. Are you offended? Or are you just beginning to realize what you've gotten yourself into?"

I stared at him with a softer gaze. In truth, I was happy that I was so easily trusted by the Akatsuki and that I was going to try and help my village, but I was also afraid. He was right, I was just beginning to realize what I was really getting myself into.

"You know, you're right. I may be a little afraid of what's going to happen next, but this is what I want. The only problem now is that I don't have my ears pierced." The tension in the room disappeared and Konan spoke.

"Well, I can help you with that! I've done all of mine and Pein's piercings, almost completely harmless."

"That's great! The sooner the better, right?" I replied.

Konan agreed and we rose from the couch, heading out of the den. Others started to leave as well, while some stayed to chat more. I looked at the earring in my hand. This is it, I thought. There's now turning back now. I'm not going to stop; this plan will work. I don't want to see my village or my brother get hurt anymore from war, and if what Itachi said was true, Pein's plan will not fail.

"So, what do you think? Does it look alright?" I asked Itachi. He and I were sitting on the bed, going through my gifts when I showed him my new piercing.

"It's nice," he replied hesitantly. "Don't forget, I still have to give you my present."

"That's right. Why couldn't you give it to me with the others?"

"I didn't want the others to see your reaction. It's, well, you'll see. Let me first show you what it is. Close your eyes."

I complied. I felt two of his fingers poke my forehead, the cold of his fingertips almost made me shiver. Suddenly, my eyes flicked open and instead of seeing Itachi, I could see numerous images flash at lightning speed before me. First, I saw the day I met Naruto and his friends, hanging out at Kiba's and learning of the massacre. After that I saw the faces of all my friends in Konoha, my teammates, the others in the Rookie Squad, our senseis, and even Tsunade, the new Hokage. Then I saw the Inuzuka family, smiling down at me. Next was when Kiba and I talked in the hospital after his fight in the Chunin Exams, and Kakashi dragging me away. The next image was watching Sasuke reject Sakura the night we left, and the fight between Naruto and Sasuke. The picture of my team blurred in, then out, and my mind relived the painful moments of the time my demon was injected into my system. I then saw myself talking to Orochimaru briefly before I was myself fleeing the hideout. After that, a slideshow of my meeting with Itachi, the duel with Kisame, and my first encounter with Pein passed in from of my eyes. Next, the faces of the Akatsuki appeared one by one, until Pein's came up, and a hand swept in front of my eyes and wiped his face out of view, only to be replaced with glimpses of the nightmares I'd had since I left Konoha. Finally, the nightmare came where I happily reunited with Kiba, then almost was killed by my comrades. Once again the vision of my team's picture came to view, clearer this time, zoomed in on me and Kiba. My earring symbol overlapped the image, hiding our faces. Tears filled my eyes and Itachi removed his fingers. I saw him briefly before I shut my eyes and began to sob uncontrollably. Itachi took me in his arms and rocked me back and forth, and once again that feeling of my sadness being absorbed returned. When I had finally calmed down, Itachi spoke.

"Camellia-chan, I'm so sorry. I did not mean to intrude like that. Those thoughts, do they always trouble you so? I can only imagine the pain those memories cause you."

"So, you saw everything I did. Is this mind reading?" I managed to say at last.

Itachi faced me again, letting me go from his embrace. "To an extent. You only see what you need to. For example, I was wondering what you were thinking about when Pein gave you the earring. I saw just that, and it seems you were thinking if what you did in the past to reach this point in your life."

"So if you wanted to interrogate someone, you could use that to gather only the information you seek," I clarified.

"Exactly. I want you to harness that power," Itachi replied.

"Why?" The question caught Itachi off guard.

"Why? Did you not read your books on shape shifting?"

"Of course I did. But what does that have to do with it?"

" 'In a non-human form, you must learn to talk through the mind, not the voice.' As you know, you can't talk in human tongue in your wolf form. This mind reading power will help."

"But the person I'm talking with would need to know the power to talk to me, the way you just showed me. How would me knowing the power be of any help?"

"It works both ways. One way is by both partners seeing the thoughts, no matter who is reading who's mind, as you saw. Another was is quite similar, you can send thoughts to your partner, because you both will see the thoughts anyway. It's basically like telepathy. Do you understand?"

"Yes, now I do. How will I learn that power though?"

"Like this," Itachi placed his index and middle fingers on my temples and pulsed his chakra into my head, a basic pattern of Sharingan covering his onyx eyes for a second before returning to normal.

I cursed when he removed his fingers. "Damn it, that hurts," I mumbled as I rubbed my head.

"It will for a few hours. I suggest you rest for a while. Now that you've completed your jutsu and are a member of the Akatsuki, you need to start thinking about when you're going to go home."

"What if I… what if I don't want to go yet?" I stared at Itachi, who was halfway off the bed before stopping mid-stand. He looked at me with a blank expression before poking my forehead again. The zoomed in image of me and Kiba from the team picture filled my vision once again. It made me smile.

"Trust me," Itachi was now at the door, "you want to."

With that, he was gone. My exhaustion finally kicked in and I decided to sleep. My smile still hadn't faded. Itachi knew better than I did what I wanted. I wanted Kiba. I wanted to go home and be with the one I loved. I hope you haven't forgotten me, Kiba. I thought to myself before succumbing to a much needed rest.


(A/N): What did you all think? It wasn't my favorite chapter to write, since it was mostly detail and not very eventful, but this is probably one of the most important chapters of the story. It's kind of cute, because Camellia HATES birhday parties, butItachi throws her one anyway.
Camellia: I oughtta slap him for that.
Itachi: Well, it was a surprise, wasn't it? That's the fun of birthday parties, you know.
Cam: Surprise? I'll give you surprise, Itachi. -evil grin-
Itachi: I have a feeling this won't be good...
Me: ^^; Too bad you're a pacifist, Itachi. Cause she's gonna hand you your ass on a silver platter if you don't defend youself.
Itachi: Hn. This will be interesting...
Cam: -runs after Itachi with Mekajiki in hand- This is for reading my mind and making me cry!
Me: Well, you guys go have fun. Until next time, ja ne!