To clarify one of the questions, Kira adds '–sama' after a guy's name as a show of high respect. She's not a fangirl. :) Good question StupidityNowOffersWisdom. Hope this helps!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.
Chapter 8: Akatsuki
(Six Months Later)
Kira's unconscious state of sleep was interrupted by a loud knocking on her window. The moment sleep left her, she became instantly aware of everything and everyone in the village. She focused her senses on the person knocking, obviously a shinobi considering this was the third floor and she had no balcony. When she found who it was, her irritation over awaking early vanished.
She crossed to the other side of her room and opened the window, "Hinata-san? What's wrong? What are you doing here?"
"The Hokage requests our presence in her office immediately. Akatsuki were spotted in the area."
Kira nodded and grabbed her weapons holster. Not needing to change clothes since she slept in her kunoichi outfit, she was out of the apartment in ten seconds flat. It was a habit from sleeping in the forest for a year. If she was ever in danger and needed to escape, she wouldn't have to worry about changing first or being inappropriately dressed while on the run.
Kira and Hinata entered the Hokage's office. Kiba and Shino were already there, waiting on them in order to receive their instructions.
"Good, you're here," Tsunade said, "You're the last team that needs briefing. According to the reports of a nearby town, the Akatsuki were spotted a few miles north of here. I'm having teams spread out to find them. Once found, you are not to engage them. Send for backup immediately. Do you understand your mission?"
"Hai."
"Very good. Shino will be team captain as usual. The four of you-" Akamaru gave a light bark, "Excuse me, the five of you," the dog wagged his tail slightly in approval, "will be sent northwest. If you have not found any trace of them in three days or have been called to assist another team, you are to return and report. That is all."
"Hai!"
The team ran to the village gates and headed northwest as instructed. No verbal communication was necessary. They had all been doing missions together for a year now and knew the different formations and strategies used on these various missions.
There was no evidence found on the first day suggesting that the intended targets had been in this part of the forest. Over the next twelve hours, they had gotten about half of the ground assigned covered.
"I believe we should split up to cover more ground. Why? Because we were given the largest amount of land to cover and need to put our various tracking abilities to good use," came Shino's passive voice.
The rest of the team nodded in agreement. "So who's going with who Bug-boy?" Kiba asked.
"You will come with me. The girls will go together. Why? Because your nose makes up for what the kikaichu miss and the girls' visual abilities balance each other out. Plus, although Kira has grown use to us, she would still be more comfortable around a female."
"Thank you, Shino-sama," said Kira.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Kiba said, getting impatient from the lack of excitement, "let's just go."
Shino nodded to the two kunoichi, "We regroup here tomorrow at this time," he stated, then he jumped away with Kiba and Akamaru close behind. The girls sprinted off in the other direction, senses alert and Byakugan activated.
After a few hours, Hinata stopped in a small clearing, "We'll rest here for the night. I'll take first watch."
"I can take first watch, Hinata-san."
Hinata shook her head, "You've barely slept since we've been out here. Get some rest and I'll wake you in a few hours."
Nodding reluctantly, Kira walked over to a nearby tree and placed herself in between its roots. Leaning her head back against the bark, she closed her already darkened eyes. Now all she needed to do was have her mind shut off. Until that happened, her senses would keep alerting her to the different things happening throughout the forest whether she wanted them to or not. She concentrated on the closest living thing. Hinata. She focused on the girl's even breathing and copied the tempo. After a few minutes, the repetitive movement lulled the girl into a deep sleep.
…
A loud thud. That was the sound that jolted Kira out of her sleep. Her mind focused on multiple things at once. First, Hinata was on the ground unconscious. Second, the Hyuuga was bleeding from a head wound, likely the cause of her current state. And third, the people that had put her teammate into that current state were standing around her.
"What the heck?" one of the strange men said, "they both have the same eyes, yeah. Which one are we supposed to take?"
"Why don't you play inny-minny-miney-mo and hope you're right?" came the voice of the largest figure, "or you could just ask the one that's still conscious what her name is."
"Shut it, Fish-face, yeah. We don't have time for your jokes," the first replied.
"But apparently we have time for your stupid questions," the second retorted.
The first figure looked over to Kira, "Hey girl, which one of you is the jounin named Kira, yeah?"
Kira's face remained emotionless as she stood, "What do you want from me?"
"See, that wasn't so hard, now was it kid?" came the gruff voice of the large figure.
"I said shut it, yeah!" the smaller figure crossed his arms and glared at the larger figure that was laughing and trying to catch his breath.
"Oh, geez," the first figure groaned. He then turned his sights onto Kira again, "We're from Akatsuki, yeah. Our orders were to bring back the girl with Hyuuga eyes named Kira. Rank: jounin. Abilities different from the typical Hyuuga, yeah."
Kira focused on the two the moment he said they were Akatsuki. The first was shorter with long hair half tied up. He, strangely, had mouth-like features on his hands. The other figure was extremely large with an equally large sword. He had an odd feature as well; gills. She was completely still and tried to think. She needed to find a way to get Hinata and escape.
At that moment, a third figure walked out of the underbrush and into the clearing. She had been so focused on the other two, since Akatsuki were known to only travel in pairs, that she hadn't sensed this man's approach.
"Ita-chan, nice of you to make it," came the teasing gruff voice. After a sharp glare, he spoke again, "Oh, stop your glaring, I was joking about the nickname. More importantly, we found our target," He gestured to the girl.
But Kira was no longer paying attention to the larger one's taunts. She was trembling. She hadn't felt this tremendous amount of fear in so long, she had almost forgotten how bad it was. The third figure had her full attention. The one that had such a familiar build, same height, same features, but slightly more defined muscles. Memories assaulted the girl.
"Kira, you look so much like your mother." "She's not my daughter!" "It's your fault! Kaori is dead because of you!" "You will not scream. You will not cry. You will not struggle."
The third man turned and looked at her. Only one fear-laden word slipped from her lips.
"Father?"
Who is her dad? What happened to this girl? Who is Kaori? Why am I so evil with these cliffhangers? All will be answered in the next few chapters! Except maybe the one about my cliffhangers o.o ... Anyway! Please read and review!
