Alright, I wasn't going to put this up till I got another review but I decided not to worry about reviews too much anymore. As usual I only own the plot and my characters. Enjoy reading.

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Chapter 9

It had only taken a few minutes for Rayne to regain consciousness. She slowly opened her eyes and placed her hand on the bump on the back of her head. There was a heavy preasure on her chest and she looked down to see Akio still unconscious. She rolled him off her and took a few deep breaths. Her memory was foggy at first but after a few minutes she remembered how she had gone down there.

"What the bloody hell were you thinking! Were you trying to kill yourself? You have to be the single most reckless person I have ever met. You could have killed the both of us! I saw my life flash before my non-existing eyes!"

Rayne groaned trying to block him out. Her head was pounding and he was only making it ten times worse. "Aww, Fuck". She made an attempt to get up but her whole body hurt so she resigned to laying on the ground. She waited a few moments then turned her head to her side. Akio was laying there, he looked mostly unharmed but he was still unconscious. Must have hit his head when he was thrown. Despite the pain she was in, Rayne struggled to pull herself up onto her hands and knees and crawled over to her unconscious team member.

"Akio? Hey kid, wake up." She gently shook his shoulder. He didn't respond so she shook him again. "Hey! Get your lazy ass up!" She slapped him lightly on the side of his face.

His eyes fluttered open for a moment. He looked very confused for a moment then tried to sit up. He yelped and clutched at his side.

"Akio, are you alright?"

He looked up at her for a moment, mumbled something she couldn't understand then passed out again.

"Shit" she sighed. "You little bastard." She pulled up the side of his shirt to see his sides were badly bruised. She smoothed his shirt back into place leaving small smears of blood. She glanced up at his face to see similar marks then down to her hands. Her one hand was covered in dried blood. The tips of her fingers were shredded from where she had forced out too much chakra and where they had tried to get a hold on the wall. She grimmaced slightly as she wipped her hands on her shorts.

"So, oh wise one, what are you going to do now?" questioned the demon in her head.

"Well I was thinking I could... well we could... Alright, I got nothing." she addmited, annoyed.

"Rayne!" he groaned. "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking," she replied annoyed, "that I was going to save that boy's life" she replied gesturing at Akio

"Well you better keep thinking if you want to get us out of here alive sweet-heart"

"I'm working on it..." she mumbled. She looked around. It was obvious that they were at the bottom of the canyon. Kankuro and Hitoshi had to be a while away by now, hopefully delivering that scroll like they were supposed to. They wouldn't be back for hours and she wanted Akio to get out of the sun. She fell back onto the ground, annoyed. She scrapped at the dirt around her noticing that it wasn't hard and dry like the rest of the area. Water! There has to be some around here"

Rayne sat up again and looked around. They hadn't moved far from where they had fallen. She could see the ledge she hit above her and the bridge off to the side. "Maybe if I head back the way we started we can find some shelter and water. On the down side we would be making it harder for the others to find us."

"Well, what's it going to be?"

"Damn it! Will you shut the hell up you stupid mutt! You're input is not helping me at all" She stood up quickly, too quickly. Stars swam in front of her eyes and she almost lost her balance. She regained her footing and stumbled over to Akio. She knelt down next to him and grabbed his arms. She lifted him onto her back and started off towards the direction they had originally came from.

The first thing Akio was aware of was an aching pain in his chest. His ribs hurt and each breath he took caused sharp pain to shoot through him. His memory of his fight slowly came back to him. The second thing he became aware of was the up and down motion he felt. He realized he was being carried. The first thought that popped into his head was that he had been captured. He had lost his fight, something had happened to his team, worse something had happened to Hitoshi, and he had been taken captured by the ruthless bandits that had attacked them. Who ever was carrying him was breathing hard, and probably injured. If they were hurt he might be able to run. But to where? His captor stumbled a little and almost fell. He cracked his eyes open only to see Rayne's bright red hair.

Rayne felt Akio stir but didn't pay much attention to it. She was tired and didn't think she would be able to keep walking much farther. The kid was feeling heavier and heavier with each step. She was very lightheaded and her throat was dry. She grimaced as she stumbled. She licked blood of her bleeding chapped lips, probably making it worse.

"Wha-What's going on?" came a slight mumble.

Rayne stopped walking. "Akio? You awake?" she panted.

"Yeah, but what the hell are you doing? Put me down!" he said with annoyance.

Rayne let out a sigh. "Thank god, I was getting tired of carrying your lazy ass around." she said then collapsed to the ground, sending Akio crashing to the ground with her. He swore as he hit the ground, inflicting further pain to his ribs.

"What the hell Rayne!" he pulled himself up and glarred at her. His glare softened when he realized she wasn't moving and was not looking to good either. "Hey, what's wrong?" He crawled closer to her despite the pain in his side. He placed his hand on her shoulder. Her hand reached up gently grabbed his wrist.

"Fuck off." she mummbled. "I'm just tired."

Akio looked around. The bridge they were near earlier was nowhere in sight. There was a small stream that was flowing up ahead. "Rayne, how far did you carry me?"

"I- I don't really... know." she tried to push herself up. "Few miles... maybe..." she quietly mumbled before she collapsed back onto the ground and passed out.

"Rayne? Hey, are you alright?" She didn't respond which worried the young boy. He remembered the river suddenly and pulled himself shackily to his feet. He winced and clutched at his side as he bent down to grab Ryane. He slowly dragged her towards the water and sat down in it with Rayne's head resting on his lap. He cupped his hands and took a few drinks of water to cool his parched throat before giving some to Rayne. He carefully brushed her tangled hair off her sweaty face. She wasn't like most girls he knew. Here she was covered in dirt, sweat and blood, having gotten multiple injuries, yet she hadn't complaining at all. She was tough and a good fighter. Not to mention she had saved his life a while ago. She had carried him for hours to get them here until she collapsed. He was starting to gain a bit of respect for the kunoichi. He wouldn't say that to her though. He started to blush slightly as he stared at her face. He brought another cupped hand of water to her lips.

Rayne sputtered and coughed and swiped at his hand while rolling away from him. Water splashed around them. "What the hell are you doing?" she coughed.

"I was just trying to help, calm down." he said without looking her in the face.

"Oh, sorry then. You just startled me"

"What, are you easily startled?" he joked.

"You would be if you lived my life."

"What?"

"Nevermind. Forget I said anything."

There was a moment of awkward silence; the only sound coming from the running water. "Why did you save me?" asked Akio quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"You left the entire team in danger to go after me? What were you thinking? What if something happened to the others?"

"Calm down. Kankuro was finishing off the last of his opponenents. Plus I am almost postitve that I killed the man we were fighting. I didn't plan to kill him but you know, things just happen. I didn't leave the others with anything to take care of." Akio looked a little stunned. He hadn't expected her to say that. "You may not be one of my favorite people, far from it actually, but you are on my team. I wasn't going to let one of my team mates die. I'm not that bad of a person Akio, I do have some values."

"Why do I find that hard to believe?"

"Hey be a little more grateful you brat. I just saved your life."

"Whatever" he scoffed. "So where the hell are we?"

"In a canyon" Replied Rayne as she washed the dried blood of her hands in the stream. Once she did she began to wash her face.

"That's really helpfull" he glared at her.

"That's all I know alright."

"Well, what's the plan then? Please tell me you at least have a plan"

"For now, survive. I figure we find shelter and wait it out till Kankuro comes and finds us. I'm too tired for much else and I doubt you're ready to walk back either."

"That's your plan?"

"Mhm"

"Your plan sucks!"

"And do you have any better ideas smart one?"

"No but-"

"Exactaly. So shut the hell up and lets get going" she said pulling herself up with a slight wince.

"Fine but I'm just telling you we are never going to find-"

"Shelter" sighed Rayne as she walked into a small cave in the side of the canyon wall. Akio didn't believe they would find anything but here they were. The shelter was small with a low ceiling but it would work for now. The sun had yet to set but it would start soon.

"Alright, so we found some. Now what do we do?"

"Well there isn't anything to start a fire with so I'm going to sleep"

"What? You can't be serious!"

"Akio, there isn't anything we can do but wait till Kankuro gets here. I understand that this is your first real mission but it isn't mine. I know what I'm doing." Rayne slipped her top layer of clothing over her head and folded it up to use as a pillow. "The best thing we can do is wait. Now if you want to go cry in the corner then feel free but I am going to sleep."

"You know this isn't my first real mission" he said softly

"What was then" she asked laying down facing him.

"I-I don't want to talk about it"

"Then why bother bringing it up?" she growled with annoyance.

"You know what, I'm getting really tired of your attitude! I lost two members of my team on that mission! So excuse me if I don't feel like talking about it!" he shouted at her angrily.

"Calm down kid, you get worked up too easily."

"Sorry we can't all be heartless bitches like you! And I said stop calling me kid!"

Rayne sighed again. "Oh will you knock it off! Do you know why I call you 'Kid'? It's because you act like one. Stop acting like you are the only one with problems."

"You know what? Forget I said anything" he growled before laying down facing away from her.

There was a silence for a little while but then Rayne sighed and spoke again. "Hey, I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to start something. I was just asking out of curiosity"

Akio turned back over to face her. The sun was setting outside of the cave but there was still enough light outside that they could see fairly well in the cave. "You really want to know what happened?" he asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, why not. We've got nothing better to be doing right now."

Akio was silent for a moment while he was thinking then he turned over onto his back and placed his hands under his head. "Well it was suppose to be a simple mission. We were just going to go pick up a special package for this poor guy. It was a low ranking mission so no one thought it was anything to worry about. My team heads out there to pick this up and" he swallows loudly "Well, you see it turns out to be an ambush. The guy who sent us on this mission knew it was more dangerous than he said but he didn't have the money. We weren't ready to fight these guys. None of us had any real fighting experience. Our sensei tried to fight them off and save us but there were too many." Another loud swallow. Akio now began to talk a bit slower. "The other guy on our team... well, he was a real jerk sometimes. You probably would have liked him. Actually you would have probably hated each other but anyways. This guy could be a jerk but he was a good friend. He was one of the bravest people I knew. He went out there, even though our sensei had told us all to run. He, uhh, he said he couldn't leave anyone behind. This guy was loyal as hell. Him and sensei tried to fight off those guys but like I said, there were too many of them. Hitoshi and I, we couldn't move. You ever have that where you are just so scarred that you can't even move? Like your paralized?" he asked looking over at her. Rayne shrugged her shoulders. "I figured you wouldn't know what I was talking about. But anyways, all we could do is sit there and watch. One of the enemies tried to go after Hitoshi. Poor Hitoshi couldn't even move. Our sensei- well he-"

"You okay?" asked Rayne. "You don't have to tell the rest if you don't want to. I can tell where it's going from here."

"I'm fine." Akio cleared his throat. "The guy, he almost got Hitoshi but our sensei jumped into the way. Got a real nasty gash on his leg, but he kept fighting. He was a really determined guy. He just kept bleeding everywhere but he didn't give up. Then my friend he, he got stabbed. Right in the stomache. A few seconds later a kunai flew at the man that stabbed my friend. Thankfully someone had heard about what the man did and they sent back up. I don't know if you knew this but Hitoshi was a medic."

"What do you mean, 'was'? How do you just stop being a medic?"

"Well Hitoshi ran over to our friend. By now the reinforcements had gotten there and were fighting the enemies. Our friend, he- he swore he was okay" At this point Akio's voice had cracked and she could tell he was on the verge of tears. "He swore he was okay and told Hitoshi to go help our sensei. He had just collapsed. I sat with our friend and help bandages over his wound but- but- there was just so much blood. It just soaked through. I kept looking over at Hitoshi but he was still with our sensei. His hands covered in blood. The blood of the man who had trained us since we were little. It seemed like forever when Hitoshi finally came back over. He- he told me our sensei was d- dead. We tried to save our friend but... he just lost too much blood. That stupid bastard. If we had only tried to help him first, maybe... maybe he would have lived. But he didn't... he died. I was holding onto him but he died, in my arms." Akio wipped his eyes on his sleeve and Rayne pretended not to notice. "He had been our best friend since we were in academy. For someone who was such a normal part of your daily life to just disapear like that. To know that you will never see them again. Never hear their voice." Akio took another pause for a second, then spoke again with his voice now a little more steady. "I don't remember too much of what happened after. I passed out after he died. When I woke up I was back in the village. Hitoshi took it really hard. He wasn't always this quiet and now he refuses to use medical justsu. He blames himself for their deaths because he couldn't save them. It's just so hard to believe that they have only been gone for a few weeks." He then turned away from her again and she had the feeling he was crying and didn't want her to see.

"I'm sorry Akio, about your team. I shouldn't have said anything"

"Whatever, I wouldn't expect you to understand."

"No, that's what's bad about it. I should know better. You know, I'm not really a compleatly heartless bitch. I should have been a little understanding. I also lost the rest of my team."

"What?" he asked, turning over again to face her. "What happened? Did they... die?"

Rayne turned over onto her back. "Well they're not dead. At least I don't think they are. I'm pretty sure you at least figured out that I came from a different village. I had to leave my old team back there. I have no idea what might have happened to them in the time I have been gone."

"Well, why did you leave then? Where were you originally from"

"It's not like I wanted to. But look Akio. I really don't want to talk about it. It's not really any of your business and its pretty personal. How do you explain to a kid that you are hiding from your village after escaping from one of their higher security prisons?

"Alright, I get it. You'd like to remain a mystery."

"Yeah. It adds to my sex appeal" she smirked. The young boy just rolled his eyes. The kunoichi turned over to her side so that her back was facing Akio. "Well thats enough story time for me. I'm going to bed" she said not bothering to fix the back of her shirt that had begun to ride up on her back.

Akio glanced over at her. "Alright whatev- Whoa! How the hell did you get that?" he asked. His ribs were badly bruised so it hurt to sit up. Instead he tried to lean closer to see the large scar that was barely visible in the fading light.

"Get what?" she yawned. She was now getting really tired and wanted to go to bed.

"That scar! It's huge!"

Rayne pulled down the back of her shirt to cover it back up. "Oh that. Yeah I know."

"What did you do to get that?"

"I don't really want to talk about it. Let's just say that I saved a friends life on a mission a few years ago."

"That must have hurt like a bitch! How'd you survive that one?"

Rayne couldn't help but laugh. It wasn't a sweet laugh like you would expect to hear from a young girl. It was creepy, making Akio's hair stand up a little. "You don't"

"Wait, what do you-"

"Akio"

"What?"

"Go to bed" she commanded as the last of the light began to fade out of the cave as the sun finished sinking.

It was a few hours later. After the sun went down it had started to get cold and by now it was freezing in the cave. Rayne now was sitting against the wall, miserable but still. Her shirt was now being used as a blanket and she slept lightly. Akio on the other hand was tossing and turning and swearing under his breath.

"Will you knock it off?" she hissed with her eyes still closed.

"I thought you were asleep"

"I was"

"Well sorry, it's cold"

"That doesnt mean you have permission to make so much noise. Go be misserable quietly"

Akio continued to toss and turn and Rayne was getting progressively more pissed off. It was making her question the idea she had earlier. She didn't want to it but it was really a matter of survival. She didn't want him anywhere near her but if he kept this up she was going to miss some much needed sleep.

"Akio, get over here"

He eyed her suspiciously. "Why"

Her voice remained calm and emotionless. "If you come sit next to me you'll be warmer."

"Eww, I'll pass. I think I would rather freeze to death" he said as he burried his head further down into his coat.

"Suit yourself" she replied pulling her shirt tighter around her and closed her eyes. After a few minutes, she heard Akio shuffle to his feet and walk towards her. He slid down next to her. "I thought you said-"

"Just don't say anything. Please"

"Alright" she laughed. She could tell he was feeling awkward now because he was now starting to fidget. It was starting to annoy her even more than the tossing and turning earlier. "Kid, if you don't stop moving, I am going to beat you into unconsciousness."

"Sorry" he mummbled.

Akio finally stopped moving around and settled down. About twenty minutes later he fell asleep. His head dropped to her shoulder. She scowled but let him be. She didn't fall back asleep that night. Instead she looked out the opening of the cave and watched the stars. They were really bright when there weren't city lights shining.

The sun had just risen when Kankuro and Hitoshi came across a cave in the side of the canyon wall. He told Hitoshi to stand back and carefully walked towards it. He looked in, not sure what to expect but was happily surprised when he saw two figures huddled near the wall. To be honest he was a little worried about Rayne and Akio. He wasn't even sure he would be able to find them in time, especially with they way the two of them acted. It was more likely that they would have killed themselves fighting each other than anything else. He waved Hitoshi over to where he was standing. "Looks like the two of them solved their differencces" he grinned.

Rayne heard him whisper to Hitoshi and immediately lifter her head up to look at him. She waved to them with her free arm. Her other had fallen asleep pinned to her side by Akio. His head was still on her shoulder. She gentaly nudged him with her elbow and he lifted his head and looked at her.

"What's going on?" he asked sleepily.

Rayne pointed over to the opening of the cave.

"Akio!" called Hitoshi. The boy ran over to the other one and tackled him to the ground with a hug.

Kankuro walked over to Rayne and held his hand out to her. "You guys okay?"

"A little cold, tired and bruised but we'll live." she replied taking his hand. He helped pull her up. She slipped her other shirt back over her head and smoothed it out with her hands

"Good to hear. Let's get out of here and back to the village. We're going to celebrate. Congratulations guys, we successfully finished our first B rank mission." he grinned.

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Alright hope you enjoyed. I will try to get the next chapter up some time this week. Please review or send tips :)
~Reiko