"We thoroughly searched the mountain of rubble, but we didn't find his corpse." Sasori told the group in a long-distance meeting a few days later, referring to his mission with Deidara to kill Orochimaru. "So we can't say for sure that we killed him."

"If he's alive, I swear I'll kill him myself." Deidara remarked. "Besides, what was with that ridiculous jutsu?!"

"Do you know anything about it?" Pain asked Itachi.

"Most likely, it's the Second Hokage's Edotensei no jutsu." Itachi replied, "You bring the dead back to life, and control them like a puppet. You can't kill it even if you tried. So you must use a fuinjutsu or suppress their movement forcefully."

"Why on earth would the Second Hokage create something that messed up?" Koharu asked.

"I don't know." Itachi admitted.

"We just have to kill Orochimaru, right?" Deidara asked.

"Even that won't stop a reanimated being..." Itachi replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Deidara exclaimed.

"Be wary of Orochimaru from now on." Pain said flatly. "If he's alive, he's bound to make another move."

"Ordinarily, no one could survive that explosion, hmm." Deidara said smugly.

"No one who joins us is ordinary." Sasori pointed out.

"The fact that he had already prepared the Third Kazekage implies that he was expecting your arrival." Koharu pointed out, "I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Yakushi Kabuto were acting as a double agent. That's the kind of person that he is."

"You're definitely the definition of abnormal." Deidara told her, "Your abilities freak me out."

The preteen glared at the blond, "You know who else said that? The adults in the village where I was born. Why do you think I'm here?"

"Another immortal has appeared out of the woodwork." Konan interrupted, trying to head off the quarrel.

"We have a request from the Land of Steam." Pain explained. "A homicidal maniac has appeared and they want us to eliminate him."

"Don't they have their own Hidden Steam shinobi?" Kakuzu asked.

"Apparently, they can't kill him." Konan replied.

"So this homicidal maniac is immortal too?" Itachi asked.

"Then, was he 'reani-whatever' by Orochimaru too?" Deidara asked.

"No." Koharu said flatly, "Orochimaru wouldn't just turn one loose and have it go on a killing spree. More likely, it's a rogue ninja from Yugakure itself."

"Do you know something about this, Koharu?" Itachi asked.

"Sometimes I hear things when I'm at my grandparents' place." She replied, "I've got an idea of who it is." Her gaze dropped, "I hope Ojiichan and Obaachan are okay..."

"I'm dispatching a different team this time." Pain told them.

When they arrived in the Land of Steam, Itachi, Koharu, and Kakuzu found a dead body hanging from a tree, a stake through his hands to keep him there. Albeit, Koharu couldn't actually see the body.

"This wasn't for money or revenge." Kakuzu remarked, "This was out of a deep desire to kill."

"There are other ways to quench blood thirst..." Itachi pointed out. "He had some purpose."

"You really have a way of irritating me after all." Kakuzu remarked.

Itachi made no reply, but instead looked at Koharu as she knelt on the ground. "What is it, Koharu?"

"Fresh blood carries traces of chakra." She told him, "The chakra in this symbol is different than that on the tree." She appeared to focus intently for a moment, "As I thought. I know who it is that we're looking for."

Kakuzu looked back up at the tree, "And you... Did you come to make sure I don't kill Itachi and the brat?"

"There are no other Sensory Types besides me." Konan replied from behind the three of them as she also looked up at the tree.

"The kid is a Sensory Type." Kakuzu pointed out.

"She's also not a combatant, and... the other members certainly aren't cut out to be decoys." The woman pointed out, "That's a role I refuse to allow Koharu to fill."

"I shouldn't anyways. The target will recognize me." Koharu said as she stood up.

"What can you tell us about him, Koharu?" Itachi asked.

"His name is Hidan. He was a Shinobi of the Hidden Steam. I occasionally saw him during my stays with my grandparents. He's always been a rebel. I'm guessing that it's not so much that the Hidden Steam can't deal with him, so much that they are afraid to. Their avoidance of conflict has resulted in complacency and the weakening of their military force. They probably don't have anyone strong enough to deal with him at this point." Koharu remarked, "I've noticed his abnormal thirst for blood for a while now. It goes beyond simply killing for the sake of a mission. I tried to warn the higher-ups in Yugakure of this, discreetly of course, but they wouldn't listen, and so, here we are."

"If you're familiar with his Chakra, then can you scan the area for him?" Itachi asked, "The blood hasn't dried yet, so he shouldn't be out of your range."

"Right." Koharu said before focusing her powers.

"What were you saying about a decoy?" Kakuzu asked as Koharu searched for Hidan.

Koharu sat on a tree limb near where they had found the body, waiting for Itachi and the others to return. Itachi had told her to stay behind to avoid placing her in danger, and since she couldn't safely make it to Yugakure on her own, her only choice was to wait. Abruptly, she became aware of somebody's presence heading directly toward her, but before she had a chance to jump down from the tree, something struck her in the back of her neck. She swayed, quickly losing consciousness and falling out of the tree, only to be caught by in a man's waiting arms.

Koharu groaned and opened her eyes, chakra signals flickering in her mind as she regained awareness. A young girl was kneeling next to her.

"How are you feeling?" She asked.

"Fine, I guess." Koharu said as she rubbed her forehead, "But who are you? And where am I?" She took note of the slight swaying beneath her body, "Are we on a boat?"

"That's right. My name is Chino." The girl said. "I'm... a member of the bodyguard detail for Oyashiro En."

"Oyashiro En?"

"He's a weapons dealer who collects kids with Kekkei Genkai." Chino explained, "He kidnapped you from the forest in the Land of Steam, because of your Shinjitsugan."

"How did he even know about that?!" Koharu asked in alarm, "I didn't even sense him in my vicinity until..."

"He approached you at high speed and struck you with a blow gun to sedate you before you could try to defend yourself." Chino answered, "Although I don't know how he learned of your abilities..."

Koharu sighed in frustration. "Where is he taking me?"

"To the Coliseum."

"The Coliseum?"

"It's a place where the rich force shinobi to do battle, and ownership of the losing Shinobi is transferred to the owner of the winner." Chino said.

"...None of that makes sense..." Koharu said in confusion, "How can people own other people?"

"I'm guessing you've lived in relative safety until now..." Chino said sadly.

Koharu snorted, "No, the farthest thing from it. I was born in a shinobi village, but... My father and I were the only ones there with the Shinjitsugan, and... because I was born blind, my Shinjitsugan is constantly active to compensate. It wasn't long before people began to be freaked out by my abilities... I became an outcast, and on top of that, I wasn't allowed to enter the Ninja Academy because of my blindness. Three years ago, I became aware of something that certain people didn't want anyone to know about, and my father and I were targeted. My father lost his life trying to protect me, but... I was saved by a shinobi who was leaving the village and he took me in and made me his student. Ever since then... I've been with a band of mercenaries... essentially living in the underground."

"That's better than me..." Chino said softly, "I have no memories of my parents at all. I can't remember anything before I came to Oyashiro En's mansion. I don't even have a past..."

"True loneliness... Would be to be without a past... a person like that only knows of the present..." Koharu recited softly.

"Huh?" Chino asked in confusion.

"It's from a song..." Koharu explained before she sighed and shook her head. "Why am I being taken to this Coliseum anyway?"

"En wants to test your battle prowess."

"I would think that he would know the Mayonaka aren't exactly renowned for that."

"He gets the feeling that you're an exception."

Koharu sighed.

Before long, they had arrived at the Coliseum, and En brought Koharu, along with Chino and another member of his bodyguard detail, Fuushin, to his private room in the building to wait for an opponent that would interest him. Koharu took note of a few things during this, but said very little. After a while, Chino walked up to her.

"You've got a match." She told Koharu, "I'll lead you to the arena and help you up the stairs." Koharu nodded to the other girl and followed her.

"Just so you know, it's best if you try to win." Fuushin told Koharu, "If you lose, you'll wind up belonging to somebody else, and there are some who are worse than En."

Koharu nodded, however, when she drew near the stands, she nearly doubled over, clutching her head.

"What's wrong?" Fuushin asked.

"It's too much..." She whimpered, "All this... this... arrogance and... decadence and... suffering... It's so heavy..."

Chino frowned and walked over to Koharu, "Calm down. Try to focus on just my chakra. You can do that, right?"

"Y-Yeah..." Koharu managed.

"Then once you're on the stage, concentrate entirely on your opponent's chakra. Ignore everyone else." Chino told her.

Koharu took a deep breath and nodded.

Koharu won the match easily, but En didn't wish to leave the island just yet, so he left Koharu with Chino while he took Fuushin along to take care of something.

"Chino-san...?" Koharu began nervously, "...There's something that I want to tell you... something that I think you should know..."

"What is it?" Chino asked, wondering why Koharu was so uneasy.

"...En is... he's your father..."

"Wh-What?!" Chino exclaimed. "Th... that can't be... if he were my father, then why would he...?!"

"...Perhaps he hopes to drive you down a different path—a better path—than the one that he himself has taken." Koharu said softly, "I know somebody else like that... He doesn't show it on his face, but... I can sense that En... carries the same guilt and regret... as that person... and in the same way that that person loves their only family deeply, En also loves you deeply." She sighed softly and hugged her knees to her chest, "You're wrong you know. Leaving En aside... you're not alone. I can sense that Fuushin-san cares deeply about you as well. He is... a friend with whom you can share your pain. And I bet... there are others... among those at the mansion. You're not like me. It may not be ideal, but... you still... have a place where you belong..."

"A place where I belong?" Chino repeated in confusion.

Koharu nodded, "As I said, Fuushin-san cares about you... and I'm sure there are others at the mansion who do too... But I'm different... I don't have a place where I belong..." Her eyes glistened with tears. "I was forced to flee from my village as a child, and since then, my sensei and I have had to constantly travel from place to place. I can't stay anywhere more than a few days, it seems. I don't have any kind of home... I don't belong anywhere at all..."

Chino sat down next to her, "It's hard isn't it? Having a Kekkei Genkai..."

Koharu sniffled and nodded, "When we were three years old, another village attempted to kidnap one of my best friends because of her family's Kekkei Genkai. Her father managed to stop them, but her family had to pay a terrible price to avoid a war and... to my knowledge, they still continue to suffer from what happened that day... Another such clan in that village... one of the higher-ups hated them so much that he orchestrated their demise from the shadows... It was that same man who was responsible for my father's death."

Chino leaned her back against the wall, "I always thought that the clans like mine that lived in Ninja Villages had easy lives and enjoyed relative safety."

"Far from it..." Koharu told her. "That being said... I know about how the Chinoike were driven into exile... ...but I also know that your father was not responsible for their demise. At least... not entirely."

"What do you mean?" Chino asked.

"My grandparents live in Yugakure, so I'm able to learn things there when I visit them." Koharu explained. "Apparently, years ago, a child went to where they were exiled even though it was forbidden and came back only to report that the place was full of dead bodies, the blood not yet dried. The Village sent shinobi to investigate and they determined that the deaths—at least most of them—were the result of in-fighting among the members of the clan... ...Most likely, living too close to one another led to them killing each other. If someone makes you angry, but you go a little while without seeing them, the anger might go away. But if you see them day after day without ever having a chance to cool down, eventually, violence breaks out. Once one person dies, their family wants to avenge them. Then the family of the other person wants to avenge their relative, and it just keeps going..." She sighed, "The Chinoike probably stayed in that place to avoid the strife brought on by having a Kekkei Genkai, but they would've been better off to have left once the reason they were driven there was forgotten..."

"Yeah..." Chino said softly, no longer sure of what else to say. Koharu stopped speaking, sensing that the other girl was deep in thought over all that Koharu had told her. After awhile, En came back into the room.

"Koharu, you have another match."

"You're not going to enter anyone else today?" Fuushin asked in confusion.

"This particular person is an opponent that only Koharu can fight." En told him.

Koharu sighed and stood up as she walked over to En. Suddenly, perhaps because she'd been too engrossed in her conversation with Chino, she became aware of two familiar chakra signals. She managed to avoid showing the happiness she felt from that sensation and followed Fuushin from the room.

"Now for the main event!" Exclaimed the announcer, "First, wearing Oyashiro En's Tag, the blind beauty who only just made her debut, Mayonaka Koharu!" Koharu nodded to Fuushin to say she'd be all right and then jumped onto the stage, able to determine its location by where the announcer was standing. "And her opponent, wearing the tag of the Akatsuki, the man who slaughtered his entire clan, Uchiha Itachi!" Koharu narrowed her eyes slightly, letting loose a small jolt of lightning that shocked the man as Itachi appeared on the stage. She smiled at Itachi and he nodded to her. Neither of them was even bothering to listen to the announcer—who still hadn't figured out what had shocked him—as he announced the rules. They both knew what this really was.

This was a sparring match between master and student; one that Itachi would inevitably win because Koharu would never be a match for him, but nonetheless, he would go easy on her and use this as an opportunity to help her sharpen her skills–and show them off. Once she lost, she would be rescued and would safely return to being at his side.

Upon receiving the signal to start, Itachi quickly started with a fireball jutsu, which Koharu countered with a Suiton jutsu. In the resulting steam that would serve as a temporary veil, she ran at Itachi, attacking him directly with Gentle Fist Taijutsu, which he easily defended against. Itachi put some distance between them again and threw a handful of shuriken at Koharu, but she merely grinned.

"Fuuton! Reppushou!" A blast of wind from Koharu's palm sent the Shuriken flying back at Itachi instead, although he used a substitution jutsu to avoid getting hit. Koharu, not caught off guard by his crow substitution technique as most people were, turned around quickly and caught his kunai with her own, having immediately sensed that he was now behind her. She jumped back and activated another jutsu, "Suiton! Mizuame Nabara!" She spewed forth the sticky water from her mouth, and Itachi leapt up to avoid it, though Koharu quickly followed up by launching her own Shuriken at him, but he merely deflected them again before charging at her. Koharu formed her signs quickly again, "Raiton! Denkishou!" This time, she combined her Gentle Fist with Raiton. Itachi gave a small smile that nobody could see, but she could sense his satisfaction. Her tactics were improving.

Itachi jumped away from her and wove several signs, "Fuuton! Kiryuu Ranbu!" A blast of swirling wind flew at his young student. Koharu had seen it coming and had released the same jutsu at the same time as Itachi, resulting in a clash of wind that blew through the whole stadium and disrupted the crowd. At this point, it was a clash of who had the stronger chakra, which didn't last long. Itachi's technique overcame Koharu's and the young girl was thrown back by the gale. She quickly righted herself and managed to land on her feet, but instantly realized that she had landed outside of the ring.

"Ring out!" The disheveled announcer declared. "Mayonaka Koharu has lost to Uchiha Itachi! But to be fair, who would've thought that she would put up such a fight against him?"

Koharu snorted in amusement as Itachi landed beside her, "Yeah right. If you had been serious, I'd have been dead within the first five seconds, genjutsu immunity or not."

"They don't need to know that." Itachi pointed out, "And besides, fighting you in earnest without using the Amaterasu or Susanoo would still be more difficult than most other opponents, and not using the Sharingan at all would be completely out of the question. I can only think of a handful of people who would be able to push me to that level."

Koharu blinked in surprise, but then she beamed happily. "Hearing those words from you means a lot to me." Although Itachi didn't move and his expression didn't change from what anyone in the crowd could see, Koharu could sense how he felt in that moment and knew that if they were alone, he would probably pat her on the head to say that she'd done well.

"And now for the ID Tag Transfer." The announcer said as En came out while Konan appeared beside Itachi.

"Well done." En said as he walked up to the group, "I thought if anybody would be able to overcome the Sharingan, it would be Koharu-chan here. She's an unbelievable prodigy who has truly mastered the Shinjitsugan."

Koharu snorted in annoyance. "Ha! That's not why you put me in. You entered me because I was the only chance you had of winning. Fuushin-san's techniques are ill-suited to battling somebody who specializes in Katon, and there was no way you were going to risk losing your daughter in a fight involving the Sharingan. The Ketsuryugan is the only visual prowess with genjutsu that rivals the abilities of the Sharingan, but it's a well-known fact that Uchiha Itachi is a master of genjutsu. Chino-san wouldn't have stood a chance. I imagine that you only place her in fights that you know she'll win."

"You make your own daughter fight here?" Konan asked in disgust, "Just what is wrong with you?"

En sweat-dropped, "I forgot that the Shinjitsugan can detect familial bonds..."

"Don't get too worked up about it, Okaasan. It is messed up, but... he has his reasons." Koharu told her.

Now En looked a little freaked out, "O... Okaasan?!"

"I'm guessing that you're the man who abducted Koharu from the Land of Steam?" Konan said.

"Uh... that is... I didn't think she had any connection to..." En said as he backed away slowly.

Chino ran up alongside her father, "Wha! So the band of mercenaries that you mentioned before is...?!"

"The Akatsuki took me in after my father was killed." Koharu told Chino simply, "They provide me with protection in exchange for my occasionally using my sensory abilities and medical ninjutsu to aid them. I may not have a place to call home, but I at least have my needs seen to and a certain guarantee of safety. That's why I was never overly alarmed after being abducted. I knew that they would come looking for me when I wasn't where I should've been."

Konan nodded, "Koharu has always been an obedient child. The idea that she would just wander off after being told to stay put and wait for us was unthinkable." She glanced around the Coliseum, "This entire place is disgusting, so the Akatsuki will be shutting it down."

"What about the enslaved shinobi?" Koharu asked with concern.

"Amegakure will take them in." Konan told her.

The blue-haired girl turned and looked at her new friend. "What will you do, Chino-san? Under the circumstances, I think you should be the one to decide En's fate."

Chino looked a bit conflicted, but then looked up at her father, "Listen. I'm going to let you go, but send everyone else at the mansion to Amegakure and don't ever use other people like this again!"

En blinked in surprise, but then smiled fondly at Chino and patted her head, "I've always been a foolish father, but somehow, you've grown into a fine young woman despite that, Chino." He looked over at Konan, "I'll do as she says and send all the others in my care to Ame. So... take care of my daughter."

Konan nodded slowly and watched as En ran off whilst all the other patrons were trying to flee from the attack that the Akatsuki was now carrying out.

"You sure about this, Chino?" Fuushin asked with concern.

"It's hard to even think of him as my father, but... Even if he went about it all wrong, he wanted to protect me, in his own way." Chino said.

"Nothing can be solved in the long run by deceiving others." Koharu said thoughtfully, "Conflicts arise when people aren't completely honest with each other. You can't hope to understand somebody else unless you know the truth about them, nor can you hope for them to trust you unless you are honest with them. That is what I believe."

"Koharu?" Konan asked in confusion.

"When I was a child, people hated me because I was always blurting out things that they didn't want someone else to know. However, the problem wasn't me." The young girl said decidedly, "The problem was that they weren't being open and honest with one another and I was exposing their deceit, which created resentment in the one who had been lied to. So people blamed me and feared me instead of simply acknowledging their own faults and correcting them. Ultimately, that was the reason why my father died... the reason that I was forced to flee... Because I realized an imperative truth that others wanted to keep hidden."

Konan's expression saddened at this and she gently hugged Koharu close to her.


I love being able to show Koharu's thought process as she matures and also the fact that despite being blind, she is very capable in combat. Also, Konan and Itachi are both very protective of her.