Faze Ten:

Kaida was surprised by the sheer ferocity of his strength, it had her slightly baffled, she knew there were strong people out there, but not as strong as he was, not strong enough to make craters the size of the small lounge room in her apartment.

And she knew that she really wanted to learn how to do it, she wanted to learn super-strength.

Though she was pretty sure, as he'd hinted at earlier, that she had her own unique, in-human strength, but that was just to be able to lift things three times the weight of her own body, she could also pack a rather nasty punch and kick that would sent her opponent either unconscious or at least five metres away from herself.

But she wanted to go further.

She wanted to learn how to make the ground tremble, how to knock down trees with a single blow and how to lift things that were more than three times her weight.

Kaida felt excitement rush through in bigger waves than before, and it left her speechless, but the huge grin that spread across her face was anything but subtle, and Kisame found himself staring at her slightly confused and rather amused.

"Wow! That was awesome!" She suddenly exclaimed, and he wondered whether he'd heard her right or not.

Did she just say his abilities were…'awesome'?

That was a first for him, of course he was a good fighter, just as he was expected to be, like the rest of the Akatsuki members, but no one had ever said his abilities were 'awesome'.

It made him humble, he now didn't regret the four day journey it'd taken to get here at top-speed from Konoha where he originally had been with Itachi, except, Itachi had to leave before him to meet Kaida a day before him.

She was an odd-one that was for sure.

Kisame beckoned her closer to him by wagging a finger towards himself, she instantly obeyed, she didn't have far to walk to get to his side, and once there, she looked up at him with those questioning orange eyes of hers, so bright they were, that Kisame reminded himself not to stare.

He turned from her, to face a few tall trees, they were thick and probably of the few tallest trees within the whole forest itself.

He smirked, causing Kaida to raise an eyebrow in curiosity, it was obvious he was up to something, though she weren't too sure what it was at that moment, she gave a mental shrug, watching him with keen eyes, making sure not to miss a thing.

He clenched his right fist tightly, glancing at her, he muttered "Build-up chakra in your hand, like this-" and then all of a sudden she could see the blue chakra emanating round his hand, the glow reminded her of an intense flame, that when shot at in such force, it turned pure blue, though this appeared a toned-down version and it definitely was not a flame, else his hand would've been burnt by now.

She nodded, signalling she understood-having already known this, she hadn't used chakra in just her hand before.

He continued "Now, watch closely."

She was about to nod again, when suddenly he sprang from her side towards the tree in great speed, lifting his fist high, he smashed it into the trees trunk, almost faster than the eyes could see, but she managed to catch all of it.

And as expected, the trees trunk cracked loudly from where Kisame's fist was implanted, creating a massive crater-like dent into the trees hard wood, the cracks were made louder as the tree suddenly began swaying ever so slightly in the air, before finally it took the plunge and feel, but was soon caught in the branches of other trees, preventing it from falling to the ground.

All this took no more than ten seconds to accomplish, and that was amazing, to be able to knock a tree down with your bare fist and it collapses within ten seconds-that's what you call skill.

Kaida felt the task suddenly daunt upon her happy mood though, this was so easy and looked so easy when Kisame did it, and he's had years of experience to back this point up, but she'd never used super-strength before today-despite her having in-human strength within her, she didn't see this as a good thing, this just meant she had to work hard still, no matter how skilled her in-human strength already was, it was nowhere near as frightening as this wondrous power that left her stood there gaping at the result.

She watched him straighten up, his smirk growing bigger, he brushed the few pieces of wood that were left on his knuckles, once again a few grazes had made their claim upon him, something she was glad wouldn't happen to her, considering she had gloves on already.

Turning to her, he stated "Now I want to see you try."

He walked over to her, but remained a few paces away from her, not wanting to get too close if this were her first time practising super-strength.

She gave a small, curt nod, clenching her fingers in her right hand into a small fist by her side as she did this, lifting it up, she stared at her hand, as she focused hard on trying to get the blow light to emit round her hand, this she knew, wouldn't take too long, for she'd done it before, when she'd mastered how to control chakra through her mouth and hands for her wind-type jutsu, also the small balls of light that she could release from her mouth and cup within her hands, proved she was more than a rookie at controlling chakra.

And as she thought of this, her chakra flared within her fist and fixated around it carefully, Kisame watched and was a little surprised that she was already able to summon chakra to her hands-this he'd thought would take at least a couple of hours to master, but, it appeared that she needed no guidance in that area.

She smiled at her hand, before lifting her face and sending the warm smile to him, and she asked "What do I do next?"

Despite her having a fairly decent idea of what to do next, she knew it was best to ask her teacher-for-the-day, in case he'd done things differently when he'd first started out.

It seemed so, for when her determined gaze fell upon one of the big trees that Kisame had just completely snapped in half with one punch, he shook his head, catching her attention, he chuckled lightly and stated "Just because you've already mastered how to control chakra in your hand, does not mean you're ready to go punching anything, you need to crawl before you walk, there's no rush, thanks to you already knowing how to control chakra in your hand, this saves us a couple of hours, but first, you're going to have to start on some small boulders-"

Her groan of disappointment did not go unheard, and he took no offence to this, he actually found it rather amusing, instead, he smirked loudly and stated "Don't be in such a rush to crush your hand, girly."

She sent him a look of shock, and this time, he did laugh, only to look at her with that steely gaze of his, as if he were still analysing everything about her, trying to decide what to think of her, whether she was good enough or not.

He waved a hand at her, showing that he didn't care much about that minor technicality that he forgot to mention before now.

"It's true, if you charge in and attempt to cause serious damage with one blow on one of your first tries, then the chakra in your hand will force itself out and with the impact on the surface of whatever you're hitting will crush your hand, meaning; you'll never be able to use it ever again."

Kaida felt a small shiver skitter down her spine, reminding herself not to charge in and do just that, she'd have to take it slow, like he'd said, for she wouldn't be surprised if he'd laugh so hard if she did smash her hand to pieces, he wouldn't be worried at all…at least she didn't think he would, he didn't look the type to huddle around anyone who's injured themselves and gush words of sympathy and caring to anyone.

She was pretty sure that if he did, she'd be really freaked-out, it'd just be too out-of-character for him.

She sighed in defeat, and then walked over to a small boulder a few metres behind his back, his body turning to watch her every move, it seemed as though he didn't trust her, and she couldn't blame, she didn't exactly trust him either, they were both strangers, so it weren't anything to be offended or shocked about.

"Is this one alright?" She asked calmly, looking over her shoulder at him, trying to remind herself not to think about the difference in their height, it seemed that almost all the Akatsuki were taller than her, though Deidara weren't too much taller than her, only by a few inches at best, but she was still taller than most kunoichi, so she didn't let it rub-in too much.

He still had that amused smirk on his face, and he nodded once, still watching her from where he stood, and it seemed he hadn't even glanced at the boulder once to see if it was alright for her, he was just staring at her all the time, watching her every move, as if making sure she did everything without fail.

Paranoid much? Was all that she could think of to not let his staring get to her, no matter how rude it was, she was not going to start an argument or a debate with him, when she had plenty with her mother and Pein.

She turned her head round and she faced the boulder once more, resisting the urge to roll her eyes, this boulder was half her size, and probably just about three times her weight, this, she was sure, wouldn't be such a problem for her, perhaps she didn't even need to use the extra-chakra in her hand after all?

She mentally shrugged it off, knowing she'd regret hitting the boulder without the extra-chakra and learn that it was more than she was capable of, she'd end up smashing her hand-no problem without using the extra-chakra and Kisame would be in fits of laughter, he might even roll around on the floor, now that, would be a funny sight to see!

She raised her fist, just as Kisame had done, and just like she was used to hitting things, she charged her fist down in a bid to smash it to pieces of rubble, and well, she did smash it, but only forming a crater like Kisame had done-though much smaller, considering the size of the object she was hitting and it sent cracks all down the sides, into the middle, she sighed in irritation and confusion, straightening up, she looked down at her fist with confused eyes.

She flexed her fingers and found that it was alright, no real damage had been made, there weren't any horrible tingling in her hand, but instead, it seemed that she hadn't put enough chakra into hitting the boulder…?

Kaida heard Kisame move towards her, she looked up at him, his expression serious, and he grabbed her hand within his, staring at it, he began rubbing his fingers along her right hand, she blushed lightly, and didn't dare look to meet his gaze, she knew he wouldn't suddenly come over and start touching her randomly when just a few minutes ago he was teasing her, then again, he could just be like Itachi with his random bursts of closeness.

"You didn't do it wrong, but you didn't do it right…" He muttered calmly, and she glanced at him timidly, he still looked serious, though she was still confused.

She looked at her hand in his huge one, and watched him curl her fingers into a fist, holding it tightly within his own for no more than a couple of seconds, before pulling his hand away, he took a step from her and more to the side, clenching his own fist, he stated "You need to add more chakra to your hand and you need to hit the object hard, make sure you keep the same flow of chakra whilst doing this."

She watched him focus on releasing the chakra around his hand, the blue glow began to emanate from his clenched fist, she watched him for a few moments, then got herself to do the same, using the same hand once more, she focused on the chakra to fixate around her fist, it took a few seconds, and when it did, she looked back-and-forth between her fist and Kisame's.

He watched her silently as she made the comparison, his chakra was more sharp and more of a deep colour than hers was, hers was more faint and looked…rather weak, this made her grit her teeth, for she was used to sending weak amounts of chakra to her hands, for it didn't take much to use wind to her ability, well, because she wasn't human, it certainly made 'air-bending' all that much more easier, where as for others, it took them years to accomplish that.

She mentally smacked a hand to her head, it looked as though she was going to have to spend some time learning how to control chakra again-just to be sure and get this whole super-strength-thing right.

"Her aim has improved. That is at least some good news, but I want to see more results! It's already been four days since she's arrived-and so far, she's only learnt to throw some kunai without missing!" The deep, scrutinizing voice of Madara resounded through the walls of the dark office where Pein and Konan were currently situated.

Konan was stood to Pein's left, whilst he was sat in his huge, leather chair, both facing Madara.

To say they were uncomfortable was an understatement, and no matter how much money Pein could spend or how comfortable a chair could be, nothing could ease the tension from his body that was as tight as a cord.

It was worse for Konan, she had to stand up, and her frame was easy enough to know from one glance that she was uncomfortable, standing up straight, hardly moving.

Madara was idly flitting around the room, like a squirrel barely making it's mind up about which tree to climb, he was not interested in anything within the room itself, he just kept moving around the room, sometimes coming close to the desk, indicating that his annoyance was rising, other times he'd be over near the door, signalling that he was calm, and a couple of times he'd be almost in their faces, nearly shouting at them-despite how close they were, this obviously showed his anger.

Madara stopped suddenly in the middle of the room, glancing at them sideways from where he was stood, muttering "She is with Kisame now? Learning super-strength?"

He cleared his throat and turned his body to face them, he came forward slowly taking his time, as if deliberately slowing his steps so that he could make them wait out the dreaded silence, wondering what he was going to do next.

He stopped before the desk, though appearing to be in deep thought, he was merely studying their postures through the small eyehole, his Sharingan blaring at them from within the darkness of the office.

"Hmm…There always seems to be some good news with more bad, she is learning vital assets to make her abilities more curved and much better cared for, but it is taking up time…" He stated, lifting a hand and placing it upon the desk in front of Pein, he began stroking the wood with his gloved-hand, as if petting an animal.

Though they were in some confusion, why was Madara getting so worked-up now? Hadn't he already stated that they shouldn't pressure her too much? Was it he who'd said to take their time and train her properly?

Why was he now suddenly in a rush?

It seemed that Madara caught onto their thoughts, for he'd stopped stroking the wood of the desk, his hand rested upon the wood, not moving, he straightened up properly, glaring down at them both, he declared loudly "I have a mission ready for Kaida as soon as she's finished training with each member, I will give you more details nearer the time, but, I want you-" Madara focused his dark gaze upon Pein, then continued "to make sure all the other members know that her training is vital, you may tell them she has to be ready for a mission as soon as they have each trained with her and been acquainted with her properly, but I want them all to put every ounce of patience, time and energy into making sure she's ready."

Pein glanced to Konan, she wasn't looking at him, but at the wall behind Madara, probably hoping he'd just go through the door and disappear, he looked back and with a small sigh, he gave a curt nod and muttered "Very well, I will call a meeting this evening, as soon as Kaida has gone back to her apartment."

Madara nodded his head, turning from them, he seemed pleased by this answer and had no objections to it, he walked calmly to the window, watching the rain falling down and pattering against the window, the dark skies made everywhere look dull.

"Konan," Madara called, and on the other side of the room, Konan's breath caught in her throat, she panicked slightly, before calming herself, she wasn't alone in Madara's company, and he seemed calm at the moment, all she had to do was make sure she didn't anger him again.

She rounded the desk, her movements stiff, her face strained as she stood a few metres behind Madara, she asked "Yes?"

He glanced at her over his shoulder, his Sharingan shining at her through the dark office, threatening her to do as he says, or else.

"I want you to find out what Kaida's secret abilities are, she isn't human, correct?"

Konan nodded once, still not breaking away from his hard gaze, if she did, he'd think she was lying to him.

"That's…interesting, I want you to find out what her 'Kekkei Genkai' is…if you could call it that," Madara turned to face her now, and looking from Konan to Pein, his gaze settled upon Konan once more and he stated "She isn't human, she isn't like us, she is very different from us, and I want to know what abilities she possesses, it's something we need to make sure it won't expose us to greatly, she's your daughter, so you should have some inkling as to what her powers are?"

Konan lowered her eyes now, she couldn't stand the intensity of Madara's Sharingan, the accusing look in his eye, it made her shiver, and to make sure she didn't collapse to the ground weeping, she had to remove her gaze and focus on something else, this would, at least ease her nerves.

"From what I can remember, she can talk to any specie of bird and can create small balls of light that she can control."

Madara made a 'Hmm' sound, half-turning from her, he appeared deep in thought once more, and Konan now lifted her head, waiting for his answer.

It didn't take long to wait, for after five minutes, he spoke again "This is indeed very rare and intriguing, but that was when she was a child, she's probably enhanced her abilities by now, I still want you to find out what she is capable of, it's essential that we should know, understood?"

The brisk tone of his voice, had her spine snapping straight once more, and she nodded a few times, answering "Yes, I understand."

Madara nodded once more, seeming pleased by their co-operation, he knew that they wouldn't fail him, they never did, that's how much they appreciate their lives, he wouldn't tolerate failure of any kind, being immortal and watching the world drift by slowly was what had made his impatience grow, but he'd managed to be patient up until recently, no matter how long it took for him to achieve his goal, he would wait a little while longer, after all, what was time when ones self was able to live on forever?

He smirked loudly under his mask, his thoughts weren't recognised or registered by his comrades in the office, he turned away from the window, slowly walking past Konan and towards the door, though he had no intention of using it.

Pein watched him carefully as the true leader of the Akatsuki made his way to the door, not speaking a word, Konan didn't even look over her shoulder at him, she was already upset with having the task of needing to get a little closer to her daughter in order to find out more information about her.

Why couldn't one of the other Akatsuki do it? Why her?

Konan bit her lip and knew that Madara only chose her because he enjoys watching people squirm, he enjoys making others suffer needlessly, all because of his goals and his wants, he was deliberately toying with her, and she hated it so much, though refused to give him the reaction he longed for, choosing instead, to remain calm and poised.

Madara stopped by the door, and he glanced at them casually, but the threat he now sent to them was in no way casual "No mistakes, or else."

And then he disappeared within a nanosecond, the both had to blink to notice that he'd left the office, his chakra had disappeared completely, he'd left.

Pein let out a heavy sigh, the atmosphere was no longer intense with worry of doing or saying something that one particular individual didn't like, they were now left to do as they please.

"Konan?" Pein asked quietly, as he stood up, she turned to him, still not smiling, for she was shaken and very upset again, this always happened every time Madara's presence had left.

Pein held our his hand, and she, walked over to him resting her hand in his, he drew her close to him, they both faced the window, watching the rain patter against the window, silently, both not saying anything about Madara's new orders, for there was no point, nothing could be done to change his mind, when he'd made an order, they had to do it, no matter the sacrifice.

Konan leaned her head against his shoulder and let out her own long sigh, feeling secure and relaxed within her lover's embrace.

"Don't fret, my love, we should just get it all over with as soon as possible, then we won't have him on our backs." Pein muttered, not looking away from the rain, at least this, he knew, would never change, at least this, he could count on, the weather and his lover, at least them, he knew, would never betray him for the world.

Konan nodded slightly "He's such a slave-driver."

Her answer to this held no humour, but it made Pein smile, just very lightly, he agreed.