Faze Seven:

The next morning and Kaida was greeted with a horrible downpour of rain, so much for enthusiasm, she thought in boredom.

After she got dressed and had breakfast, she flew over to Pein's office, and waited outside patiently under the small roof that peeked over the edge of the building.

Pein and Konan came out after ten minutes and instead of walking through the rain, they decided to teleport, Kaida was new to this sort of transportation and instead, Pein helped teleport her to the same forest she was in the day before, but in a different area, this area was much more shaded and very hidden.

Her first reaction when she realised that she'd teleported for the first time was; amazement, happiness, admiration, shock and then she almost became submissive when she realised that she barely knew the essentials of a proper shinobi.

Of course she went to a Ninja academy and passed, she was a Chuunin, but if her abilities were more focused and not so…rough around the edges, then she could become a great Jounin!

That seemed to perk her up a bit, for after that thought she was suddenly determined to become a great Jounin, of course that would take time and lot's of boring training.

At the sudden memory of training, she forgot her momentary relapse that had both Pein and Konan staring at her with weird looks, wondering if she was bipolar in some way, that her eyes met a pair of blood-red ones, they were unusual and shone through the shade.

The black silhouette was sat upon a boulder, just as Deidara had done, but this man…Itachi? Was it?

He didn't seem that social, and certainly had a cold stare.

This much she could make out of him, just by looking into his eyes, and he didn't call over to them like Deidara had done the day before.

A cough interrupted the tension, and Kaida looked over at Pein, whom now began speaking to the other man.

"Itachi, she's all yours, I want you to teach her how to aim more accurately, and don't hurt her in anyway. We will come back for you; Kaida, later." And with that both Pein and Konan disappeared again.

Kaida rolled her eyes at where they were stood, since when did they ever not disappear?

Itachi caught her attention when he moved gracefully from the boulder, onto the ground, he moved away from the shadows and out into the slight ray of sun that shone through the trees above.

He was tall, had long dark hair tied into a tail, his red eyes-some sort of Kekkei Genkai possibly, he wasn't exactly her idea of handsome, but he was definitely good-looking.

He studied her appreciatively and knew he had a good mind to be interested in her, for although she shared similar looks to Konan, she definitely was very beautiful, but that could also be because she was an Angel?

Either way, he was secretly all too happy to comply with her training, it meant that he could see her up close and look at her without being questioned, besides, they would have eventually met up at some point or another.

His arm stretched out to her and he muttered a calm "Come."

Kaida hesitated, but knew she had to train, she walked slowly up to him, staring at him with innocent, bright orange eyes, she slowly rested her hand in his outstretched one, knowing not to disobey him, her eyes met his glowing ones when she was almost chest-to-chest against him.

"Hmm…" he murmured calmly, soothing her, but also made her curious, his hand slowly rubbed along hers, and she felt her cheeks heat up slightly, she'd certainly never held hands with a man before, the contact new.

"Small, soft hands, perhaps the same size as your mothers? I can feel the strength flowing in them, you are strong, yes?" He suddenly asked and his small evaluation on her strength-from only holding one of her hands left her speechless for a moment or so, before she nodded in agreement.

"Everyone has a 'weapon of choice' so to speak, so what is yours?" Again he looked at her with those strange eyes of his, and she looked away, knowing it was rude to stare, she answered "An axe."

"What type of axe? May I see?" He asked politely, though she couldn't deny the submissive tone to it, and again she was left speechless, he was totally the opposite of what she'd thought of him earlier, although, he may not be social in the ways of small talk, he certainly voiced his thoughts when he thought necessary.

Kaida nodded, she pulled her hand from him gently, she took a step back and lifting her arm over her shoulder she pulled her axe from it's covering and held it in front of herself, showing it to him, whilst wearing a small smile.

He reached out and took it in his hands, but when Kaida let go, the axe and Itachi fell to the ground from the weight of it, dust covered the area once the axe made contact with the ground.

She stared wide-eyed, suddenly worried that she'd insulted her teacher by not telling him that it was 'slightly' heavy.

When the dust did finally clear, she almost snickered, Itachi was perfectly fine, but his body was bent very low, and his hands were still holding onto the axe for dear-life, he looked very put-out and was huffing loudly, trying to pick it up to give back to her.

Instead, she cocked her head innocently, he would've given her a glare if he was able to lift his head up, problem was, he was bent down so low and the collar of his cloak made it virtually impossible to look up.

Kaida bent down and lifted the axe from her teacher and placed upon her back once more with little ease, Itachi slowly stood up, he was on the edge of complaining about a bad-back, until he remembered he had company.

This time, he did give Kaida a slight death glare, which she returned with a sheepish grin.

Once he was stood up straight, he muttered "Your strength is in-human, just like my partner's. You should perhaps train under him sometime, I will definitely put the idea to Leader, it's better to have super-strength than to not have it at all, making you vulnerable in bad situations."

Kaida hung her head in annoyance and sighed, great, now she was going to be training with someone else! Just what she's always wanted.

And yes, that was sarcasm.

Itachi raised an eyebrow at her behaviour, not catching onto why she was feeling so depressed, he thought that it was possibly because she wasn't used to being around people like himself and the other members, he wondered if Deidara had done anything to upset her, that made him grit his teeth in annoyance.

There was no way he was going to teach an uninterested student, and he certainly wouldn't stand for any nonsense.

"Perhaps, we should begin?" Itachi offered, hoping to get her to cheer up so that it would be easier to teach, he kept his voice firm, signalling that he didn't want any complaints.

She raised her head, remembering that she had to forget about freedom, and focus on becoming the best she could be, with the free help of possibly the strongest shinobi ever to walk the earth, the idea certainly cheered her up a bit.

Kaida grinned and nodding, she got out her kunai and asked "Where am I aiming?"

Itachi held up a hand, motioning her to stop, she did, she raised an eyebrow in confusion, why was he stopping her? Wasn't she supposed to practice?

"If you look around, I have marked some trees with red paint, they are your targets, I want you to hit all seven of them at once, without hesitation, if you hit the centre then you will have cut short the day of training and I would have little left to teach. But if you miss one of them, then I will make you train hard until you manage to hit that one," Itachi lowered his hand and Kaida sighed in defeat "Remember that one target that you miss, could be the difference between life and death, you just have to remember that when in battle, you must remain calm, working yourself up only makes you commit rash decisions in the heat of the moment, you overlook things and don't analyse your situation correctly or to the fullest detail."

Man, he never seems to stop talking! Kaida thought to herself in slight boredom, but managed to catch everything he said, not wanting to get on his bad side, in case he asked her to recite what he'd just said to her all over again.

Good thing she had photographic memory!

"This style of fighting and control has saved me from many battles, and I have always come out the victor, so there should be no mistakes." Itachi finished, taking in a deep breath, Kaida sent him a funny look, thinking that he'd probably want a drink after all the bragging he's done, and will possibly continue with the conversation later, until she manages to finish this.

She took out four kunai, thinking she couldn't get anymore in her hands, she walked to the middle of the clearing, trees around her, Itachi disappeared and reappeared to the side of a tree, away from her, though she had a fairly good idea that he'd deflect any kunai that may perhaps stray from the path of hitting the marked trees.

Hit all the targets at once? Was he crazy? How can you hit all the targets at once? You can only have at most possibly six, maybe eight kunai in both hands at once, depending how small or big they were, but surely with that many kunai you'd easily slip up somewhere when in a middle of a battle and aiming to hit all of your opponents vital spots, it was just simply impossible!

Kaida sighed to herself, there was no way she was going to get away from Itachi anytime soon, and she had a very good idea that if she didn't get it right, even once their training was over, he'd make her come back the next day to complete it, that, she was most sure of.

Kaida picked three more kunai out of her pouch, placing one in her mouth, and held three in each hand, she made sure to get a tight grip on them, she jumped into the air, twisting her body she threw them two at a time, and once she got to her last kunai still in her mouth, she shot her neck towards the last target and threw the kunai from her mouth.

Once she landed she looked around at each target, one, two, three, four, five…she'd only managed to hit five targets!

Kaida ground her teeth in annoyance, the sixth one was embedded a little away from the mark on the tree, where as the seventh one she'd shot from her mouth, had completely missed the tree and had embedded itself in the ground about a metre away from where the target was.

Itachi stepped out from the shadows next to the tree he'd been standing next too, he went along to each target and slowly took the kunai out of the trees, whilst stating "And now you'd be in trouble, two more Ninja are able to fight, and depending on their own skills, you may either have an advantage or not. But it's always better to not take risks."

Kaida rolled her eyes when he wasn't looking, this guy sure likes to make sure I get all the smallest details, she thought with a mental sarcastic laugh ringing through her head.

But deep down she was a little grateful for him helping her and giving her some good advice, after all, they didn't have to bother to train her, and they certainly didn't have to bother to train her that well, but Deidara and Itachi were so far proving to be decent guys with opinions and advice, even if they were possible rivals.

Itachi walked back to her and gave her the kunai, she sighed once, preparing to try again, but instead of allowing her to go again, Itachi placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her from moving, and he muttered "Stand next to that tree and I'll show you how I hit them."

Kaida was in no argument, feeling glad to get away from doing more target practice and deciding this was a chance to have a small break and to see what skills he had himself, made her almost squeal in triumph.

She nodded once, a big smile plastered on her face, she bounded off towards the tree he was stood next too, and within two leaps she was there, she turned to face him and to her surprise, already found him holding his kunai up and ready to shoot at the targets, his eyes were closed and he was focused solely on his senses.

Within a blink of an eye he jumped high into the air, his eyes still firmly closed he twisted his body and shot out the kunai in different directions, to her surprise they each embedded themselves into the centre of each target.

Only once he landed, did he open his eyes, and she knew at once he was smirking, despite not being able to see past the huge collar, she could read his eyes and could tell that he was smirking.

Kaida walked out, at first she felt a tinge of jealousy at his amazing aiming skills, but she knew that not everyone was brilliant at aim, you can't be good at everything, instead, she clapped her hands lightly, like a child would after being entertained, the noise snapped him awake, and he stared at her quietly for a few moments, before he turned to retrieve his kunai, he muttered "And that's how I do it."

With that being said, Kaida was fired up into determination, wanting to prove she had the skill to aim properly, but, Itachi had said that not only did she lose the 'bet' they had made (or he had made), did he make Kaida learn from the bottom, she knew most of what was being said as her ears suffered many lectures that often had her eyes droop and her almost yawn, but she dare not in case he noticed and decided to make her do something too tricky for her to manage.

At least she was able to rest for a while, after hours of lectures and small practices at shooting one kunai into a marked tree without missing, this, Kaida had done easily, but was still forced to work from the very bottom, and gradually made things more and more tricky for her.

It was only at one point that she almost collapsed from dehydration that Itachi realised how long they'd gone without food and water, so he said they could stop and have lunch, problem was they both sat down opposite one another and realised that they'd both forgotten to pack anything to eat or drink.

Luckily, they'd both managed to find a small river further in the forest, where they each had a drink and caught some fish, after making a small fire, they ate some cooked fish.

They'd both eaten in silence, though Kaida couldn't understand why that every time she lifted her head, that she found Itachi was staring at her, though, even before she could ask if there was something on his mind, he'd look away almost at once, she didn't think much of it and thought that he was probably staring at her wings.

"So…Konan is your mother?" He'd started up a conversation, which he didn't know actually hurt her to talk or think about, for she knew instinctively that her mother disliked her intensely, but instead, she simply nodded her head for an answer.

Silence remained around them for the rest of the duration of their late lunch, it was only as they walked back to the training grounds, that Itachi began to ask questions, suddenly getting the urge to know more about her, after all, he did state that he was interested in her at the meeting, and there was no way he was going to back down now.

"And your father?" The question startled her slightly, for deep down she'd never considered or wondered whom her father was, and she was not going to subject herself to asking her mother questions about her parentage.

Kaida instead shook her head calmly and muttered "I don't know…" she'd been solely focused on finding her mother that she'd completely forgotten about who her father could be, why didn't she search for him instead?

Easier said than done, it was hardly like she had the freedom to do that at the moment, or ever if she was made very unlucky, her mother would definitely not tell her, though she couldn't be sure herself that if she would want to know, besides many things could've happened to her father, he could be dead for all she knew or could've started a life of his own, and who was she to interrupt?

She realised that she'd done the exact same thing to her mother, and although she was being a hypocrite thinking that, she couldn't go back now, and it was hardly her fault that she thought her mother had been to injured or had amnesia or some illness that refused her to travel back to her.

The rejection stung her harshly, and she just had to grit her teeth together to stop herself crying in front of her teacher for the day, but she would not cry, crying would do no good, it wouldn't bring back the mother she'd spent many years searching for.

"What is it like being Konan's daughter?" He asked, snapping her awake from her thoughts, she gritted her teeth even harder, she didn't want to think about her mother anymore, wasn't she shamed enough to have to spend time in the company of a woman who was a cold-hearted killer?

"We haven't spent much time together, but I can tell she doesn't want me around, and I am angry at myself for wasting years of my life searching for someone who is already dead." She snapped angrily, though it weren't at him, and he seemed to understand that, she was thankful that she didn't have to explain.

Instead he placed a hand on her right shoulder, and when she looked at him, he gave a sympathetic look, she apologized and when she looked ahead of herself, they were back at the clearing.


Pein and Konan appeared into view, though saw that Kaida and Itachi were getting along rather well, Konan mainly noticed this, and almost let out a sigh of relief, though, she couldn't understand why.

She hated her daughter for ruining her life…right..?

Yes, oh, how she hated her very much, she wished Kaida was never born and didn't show up out of nowhere, causing her to remember everything.

Itachi stepped away from Kaida, she was in the middle of the clearing by herself, Itachi stood to the side, and he nodded once to them over his shoulder, acknowledging their presence, though it seemed Kaida hadn't, for she had her eyes closed and was focusing on her senses.

They decided not to interrupt to see how the training had gone, wanting to see with their own eyes of her success.

Within a blink of the eye, Kaida was up in the air, upside down, she held six kunai in her hands and one in her mouth, twisting her body, whilst her eyes remained closed she threw each kunai into a target, hitting them dead on in the middle, the one in her mouth though, was thrown into a target with just a simple toss of her neck.

She landed on the ground gracefully, and when she opened her eyes, Itachi was already there at her side, congratulating her on her efforts, for although she spent the whole day training solely on hitting the targets with such precision, she'd managed to obtain what she otherwise would not have been able to do without the guide of Itachi.

She would've given him a high-five, or something, had she not noticed Pein and Konan standing there watching with interest, instead of feeling happy that they were finally going back 'home', hostility seeped through Kaida.

Itachi and the others noticed this instantly, especially when her cheery-self suddenly crashed down to someone passive and hateful, but never the less, she bowed to Itachi, smiling at him politely she thanked him.

He nodded, his eyes smiling at her, she walked past him over to Pein and Konan, they looked down at her, realising how small she really was compared to their monstrous height, they were at least six foot or more.

Pein turned to Itachi whom had walked up to them slowly, and said "Thank you Itachi, I see Kaida's skills have improved, we will call for you soon, but for now you are dismissed."

Itachi nodded, bowing slightly to his leader, he looked at Kaida once more before he disappeared within a huge puff of smoke, leaving Kaida in envy and amazement at how they could appear and disappear so quickly.

Pein and Konan turned away, Kaida turned, remembering that she lived practically next door to them now made her feel even more depressed, she followed in boredom and refused to speak to them, though they didn't even bother asking anything or even acknowledging her, and she was fed-up with it, she wanted to shake them senseless-how dare they!

She'd searched and searched for her mother, and then when she finds her, her mother has been converted to this heartless woman, whilst entertaining a lover that she's had for goodness knows how many years! And then they make her join their stupid organization, and ignore her like she wasn't fit to be in their company!

Well, two can play at that game, all she had to do was ignore them too, and fulfil everything they ask of her quickly, so that they'd realise she wasn't going to sit around all day and allow herself to be thought of as ungrateful and a burden, she'll prove to them that she was just a good a fighter as the next!

But first, she needed a shower, food and a good eight-hour sleep, damn, she was tired, how did she get so tired all of a sudden, or was she just weary?

Either way she couldn't wait to get back to her apartment.