I woke up to Hanini shouting at me and slapping me in the face. It was difficult to breathe when I first opened Itachi's eyes, though I gained my strength back pretty quickly when I remembered what happened to me. Damn his eyes. I hadn't made a mistake like that since I was a chunin in Kumogakure. "What happened? Where's Toru?" Hanini was squatting over me, checking my pulse to see if I was all right.

"Some more archers from Showa Island helped him escape," she answered. "Deidara and Samehada went after them while I took care of you. They knocked you out with a really lethal poison. I was able to cancel it out, though, with an even stronger poison that I have an antidote for." I tried to stand up, but she stopped me. "Lay down, Indri!" she yelled at me like our mother used to when we were children. "You need to rest! I still can't give you the antidote! It'll take about twelve hours for this poison to clear the other one, and by that time you'll be experiencing symptoms from it. You'll speed up the process if you're moving around and fighting, and it might not work. I can handle this with your team. Just stay here!"

She explained her method of healing like she had forgotten that we studied medicine together all those years ago. I made a face at her before I shoved her out of the way so I could stand.

"Move," I barked at her, hurrying to catch up to my team.

There were plenty of horse ranches on the island that catered to tourists who wanted to ride horses on the beaches or in the mountains. We were lucky enough that there happened to be one right along the way to Mt. Moto where we stole a couple of horses to get there much faster than we could on foot.

At one point during the two hours it took to get to the mountain, Hanini confided in me loudly so I could hear her clearly over the galloping of the horses, "Listen, I'm sorry I doubted you all this time. I was just so angry at Kumogakure for accusing me of murdering those people, especially Mama, and I took it out on you because I thought you had something to do with it. You were always talking about how much you hated Kumo and you wish you could just leave. I thought it was a scheme of yours to get out of the village that you dragged me into."

"Whatever," I responded to her apathetically. "Do you honestly think I would bring Mama's death into one of my schemes? I'm actually not that heartless."

With her apology, it felt like a weight had been lifted off both of us, and the air seemed much lighter between us. Now that Kisame and Itachi were gone, I felt obligated to tell her the truth about the Akatsuki. Before Mama's death, I could trust Nini with anything I told her, even top-secret missions. Now that she forgave me, I could finally open up to her.

"There's something I need to tell you, too," I began. "I lied to you about my partners, and the spies that were following me. I couldn't tell you the truth in front of them, or else you would've ended up in the same situation as me. Anyway, you've heard of both of them. Can you promise me you won't freak out if I tell you who they really are?"

"I'll honor any promises you make me keep for at least two years to make up for everything."

"You're gonna have to do much more than that!" I smirked before continuing. "Their real names are Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigake."

Her jaw dropped in shock. I could even hear a little gasp over the beating of the horses' hooves before she said with a hint of anger, "You're shitting me right now!"

"They threatened me into working for an organization called the Akatsuki that accepts missions without the control of a village, or even a nation. They also kill jinchuriki to collect biju. It's basically an organization of missing ninja. The leader has a bigger purpose that they haven't told me about yet. Late last June, they spied on you and me for a couple weeks to evaluate our abilities, but they couldn't really evaluate us since we never used our abilities. They came to me first to ask how to persuade you to join, and I made a deal with them that if I could defeat Kisame, they had to leave you alone."

Nini stopped me to say, "Wait, so even after I abandoned you and tried to kill you, you still looked out for me?"

I rolled Itachi's eyes at her and reluctantly answered, "Yeah, but you would have gotten us both killed if I allowed them to recruit you."

"So you really aren't that heartless!" she laughed at me.

"Shut up!"

Then, she added, "I do remember being pursued for a few days in June. I was afraid it was shinobi from Kumo until they disappeared after a couple weeks. Then, I thought that they might have just been a creepy stalker who happened to be a shinobi while vacationing in Tomonoura."

"It was Kisame following you. He's alright. I've been working with them for months, and I like them better than all the other teams in the organization." It felt odd talking about them as if they were just a couple of colleagues at work.

She replied, "Kisame is the one with the blue skin, right?"

I confirmed her guess with a nod. "I feel like I should be terrified of them, but I also feel like they would have killed me a long time ago if they didn't need me. Itachi could kill me in a literal blink of an eye, and the only reason I defeated Kisame was because all of the aspects of our fight worked out in my favor. And, there are about seven more of them that are as strong as them, if not stronger."

Nini countered my resolve with, "What about the Great Nations? I'm sure you have missions against the nations being in an organization that isn't connected to a single village. You'll become a target for multiple nations. And, you said they're collecting biju? That's way too dangerous! Even for you!"

"I'm already in the bingo book, and so are you, so the villages already have incentive to kill me. I doubt killing Toru would prove our innocence or help any with that thickheaded raikage. In the Akatsuki, at least I have a team that will back me up if I'm in trouble. They've been pretty useful to me with Toru's bounty on my head. If I abandon the Akatsuki, then I won't have any allies to defend me, and then they'll be my enemy too. As for the biju, they have some sort of seal that suppresses their power. They already have like four of the nine biju."

"Why don't you try hiding?" she asked.

"Where would I hide?" I replied. "There's nowhere for me to go!"

"Still, you can't stay with them for much longer. There's no telling what might happen to you, especially if Kumogakure finds out you're working for them. You need to get out of there before they collect too many biju!"

"I'll be fine as long as I'm on their side," I reassured her. "I'd rather be their ally than their enemy, at least for the moment."

"Then, let me join with you," she proposed.

I shook my head and immediately refused her suggestion, "Absolutely not! You don't have the self-control to work for the Akatsuki. It's not uncommon for us to have to kill people like those archers. They could have been the same archers that attacked me this morning. And, just look at how you handled Toru after you learned the truth! Like I said, you'll get us both killed!"

"I would not!" she argued somewhat childishly. "I'm your twin. That means I have your exact same DNA. If you can act like an emotionless bitch, I can learn to, too. Besides, don't you remember all those missions we were assigned together in Kumo? We were the perfect team. There wasn't anyone who could defeat us when we worked with each other."

"That was before you hooked up with an asshole that's trying to kill your sister," I responded, furrowing Itachi's brows at her.

"He probably thought I was you at first. He didn't even know I had a twin for the first few months of our relationship. Then, I think maybe he got close to me thinking he could kill you, and he used me to get his revenge. When he realized that wouldn't work, he came up with a new plan. I thought it was weird he wasn't paying much attention to me lately. I had to practically drag him out the house to do anything with me, and we hadn't had sex in months. When he proposed to me, I figured that he hadn't been paying attention to me because he was so nervous about proposing, so I forgot about it." She held up her hand to show me a big, fat diamond set in white gold on her finger.

"Shit, keep the house and his money! He doesn't have any relatives, does he?" I asked.

"Nope. Once we kill this bastard, all that money is mine!" Hanini let out a laugh as sinister as Kisame's while the horses continued up through the mountains. She was taking this betrayal fairly well. Maybe she would be able to handle the Akatsuki after all.

We could finally see the volcano when the sound of a woman's scream caught our attention. It sounded like Itachi with my voice. Nini and I found him hunched over a stream that cut through the path to the volcano, grabbing onto my head in pain from what seemed to be one of my migraines. He had been trying to soothe the pain with water from the stream, but it wasn't cold enough.

Hanini immediately jumped down from her horse to see to him. I stayed on mine and asked him, hoping that he could speak, "Where's Kisame? Is he still following them?"

Once Hanini stabilized the electricity in his body, he was able to answer me. "I instructed Kisame go on without me so we wouldn't lose them. One of your migraines hit me and I couldn't control it. I shocked him badly. I believe he is still on their trail."

"You'll be fine now," Hanini reassured him. "I have some pain relievers that will help." Even after learning who he was, she was still as gentle as ever while she treated him.

"I'll go ahead and catch up with Kisame," I told them. "Try to hurry up." With that, I took off after our partner.

In the north face of the mountain's base, there was a large entrance to a network of caverns guarded by two giant statues of ancient deities. I tied the horse to a nearby tree and grabbed a flashlight before descending into the cave on foot. The temperature dropped dramatically just a few steps into the cave, and the whole place reeked of the same nasty scent that covered Toru's shirt. When the morning light from outside disappeared completely, I could sense someone following me. It turned out to be Kisame.

"Shit, don't scare me like that!" I exclaimed as softly as I could.

He chuckled slightly, replying, "Sorry, I got lost without a light. This place gives me the creeps. I'm not exactly comfortable being underground." There was a fresh burn on his hand that traveled all the way past his elbow where Itachi must have shocked him with the Babakoto.

I inspected it as well as I could with the flashlight. It was a pretty large, but clean burn, and he had already washed it with water. I told him, "That'll heal well with coconut oil. There are plenty of coconut trees around here. Can you hang in there till this is over?"

He smirked at me and answered, "I've had worse."

I directed him ahead of me with the flashlight since he had the better eyesight out of the two of us. Then, Kisame noticed a flickering light coming from one part of the cave deeper in the caverns. He shut off the flashlight so we could follow it. Nearing closer to the light, both Kisame and I could hear voices echoing through the damp walls. There were lit torches lining the cave walls stretching all the way to the source of the sounds.

Kisame and I hid behind a large cluster of stalagmites to further analyze what was going on. Toru was talking to Reiki who was locked in an old, rusty cage that was large enough to hold at least thirty men. I was relieved to see Reiki was talking back to him and not dead. With him were seven archers, three of which were the same men we released in the lighthouse. I made a mental note to yell at Hanini when she arrived.

Turning to Kisame, I whispered instructions softly to him, "I'll confront them by myself. Stay here in case something goes wrong."

"Whatever you say," he accepted my orders. "It's your mission."

In response to his comment, I gave him the flashlight and said, "Thanks for the help." He let out a soft chuckle as I left him to confront Toru.

Rather than waiting for them to make their move, I took out three of the seven archers as I approached them. Two of the three that I killed were the two older men that we had taken captive the day before. The younger one was too hesitant to even raise his arrow at me. The other three that I hadn't killed yet all aimed their weapons at me to try to prevent me from harming them.

I was about to continue when a sharp burn coursed through my stomach. Shit! The symptoms from Nini's poison must have been starting to manifest. The feeling disappeared, though, as quickly as it had attacked.

Toru held a knife to Reiki and commanded me to stop. "One scratch from this poison and he's dead," he threatened. I simply smirked at him without saying anything.

Reiki asked Toru, confused, "Who the hell is that?"

Toru kept his glare on me when he answered Reiki, "Your baby cousin, Indira. She had an unfortunate encounter with an uchiwa user who took away her ability to use her kekkei genkai."

"Didn't I tell you not to mess around with that Kione? She's always been jealous of me, trying to get me to let her take over my businesses." Reiki didn't let a knife at his throat prevent him from nagging me. "It's about damn time you showed up! I been stuck in this fucking place for weeks!"

"Shut up!" Toru snapped at him, pressing the knife to his skin. He then turned to the remaining archers to scold them, "Didn't I say I wanted her dead? These aren't pirates you're dealing with. They have powers your puny minds could never comprehend. That's why I've taken such great lengths to kill her."

"Too bad they were all in vain," I said to him still wearing the same smirk on Itachi's face. "You let innocent people die that would be alive right now if you hadn't pulled them into your scheme, and you caused me and my team quite a bit of trouble. However, I'd like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to live without my kekkei genkai for a change, and to take a small break from that shithole of a continent. But, even without my kekkei genkai, I still have enough power to take care of you. I mean, I think it's hilarious that you believed you could pull something like this off. I have to hand it to you, though, for even coming this far."

Just then, the sound of rushing water began filling the cave. "What's that? What are you doing?" he asked me nervously. Kisame must have taken Toru's threat against Reiki as a sign that it was time for him to intervene.

I yelled at Reiki to hold onto the cage while I braced myself using Itachi's chakra to hold onto the cave wall. A wall of water came rushing through the cave towards us. What I didn't couldn't see, even if I had normal vision, was that the water knocked the knife from Toru's hand and across Reiki's skin, slicing into his shoulder.

Kisame, Itachi, and Nini all came out from behind the stalagmites to face Toru and the archers who were trying to steady themselves after the water shoved them to the ground. I took care of Reiki so not as to spread the poison in my own body faster than it already was. My team and Nini were perfectly capable taking care of the archers on their own. Despite Toru's lack of luck, the archers still foolishly fought on his behalf.

Two of the archers were able to quickly collect their weapons and started to attack us. Nini and Itachi used kunai to hold them off. "Are you ready to try this?" she said to him.

"Yeah," he replied as she ran behind the two archers. One of the other archers ran to her to attack her in her blind spot. However, the younger archer shot the third archer from behind, betraying Toru and his team to help us. He was smart to realize that we would kill him if he fought against us, so he decided to help us instead to keep his life.

I couldn't see what Nini did to the rest of the archers. Unlike most jutsu, the energy of the Babakoto was invisible. However, it seemed like Nini used the water left over on the ground to conduct a stream of electricity from her to Itachi, taking out all of the archers except for the young man who betrayed them.

"Come on!" she shouted before Toru had the chance to get himself up. With Itachi's strength, I was able to carry Reiki on my back to get him out of the caverns. Just as we began to see light, Nini weaved hand signs that triggered several bombs behind us, sealing Toru in the pathway forever.

She told us once we were back on the surface, "I wish I could watch him rot in that cave."

I'm super sorry again. This is the third time I missed the schedule to upload the new chapter. Feel free to send hate mail or something if I do it again.

Check back on October 27th 2014 for the next chapter!