ZOMG! I have the best reviewers ever! You guys are awesome! *Throws candy to everyone who reads this story*
I was worried that the last chapter sucked, but you guys have convinced me otherwise. So I thought I would thank everybody updating quickly :D (As promised!)
And on another note, I FINALLY CAPTURED THE PLOT!!!
*Growling noises come from a large steel cage*
It is very angry. 0_o
Disclaimer: I'm running out of creative ways to say I don't own Naruto, so I'll be at the store buying some more.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"You have 25 minutes to run 35 laps around the training ground, or you won't get lunch."
I stared at him, open-mouthed.
"No lunch?" I whimpered.
"No lunch."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
My lungs were on fire. I forced my shaking legs to move in a forward motion, trying to ignore the pain accompanying it.
"Stupid Care Bear…" I muttered, before remembering not to waste oxygen.
A few seconds later, my legs decided to give up on me and I fell to my knees, struggling to breathe.
Curse my unfitness! And curse my stupid legs that decided to take a nap right when I was passing Itachi.
He walked over to me, which wasn't too hard as I was only a couple of feet away. He glared at me with those black eyes. Stupid weasel could be intimidating when he wanted to be.
"3 minutes left. You still have 21 laps to do."
I tried to glare back at him, but I just collapsed into a coughing fit, which made my throat and chest hurt more.
"Can I at least have some water?" I managed to ask, before more coughs took over my vocal chords.
"Water counts as lunch."
You have GOT to be kidding me. This guy was crazy!
I groaned and flopped onto my back, closing my eyes and trying to ignore the pain in my legs and throat.
"You're not running," Itachi informed me in a bored tone.
"What's the point? I'm never going to get lunch anyway…"
Itachi crouched down by my head, and took out a kunai.
"For every lap you don't run, I kill a kitten."
I gasped.
"You wouldn't!" I exclaimed in a shocked tone, sitting straight up.
He began to spin the kunai on one finger.
"Try me."
I clenched my teeth, and slowly stood up on my trembling legs, as I began to make my way around the track.
"Must…run…" I muttered. "For the kitties!"
I gradually gained speed, and soon went from a stumbling walk to a steady jog.
I can do this! I slowly realised. I'm going to make it!
I made it halfway round before falling flat on my face.
Mmm, grass.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Time's up."
I lifted my head from the ground, and let it flop back onto the ground out of fatigue.
"How many laps was that?" I managed to croak, before my raw throat was engulfed with coughs yet again.
"16." He said dryly, before starting to walk off.
I used my last burst of energy to wrap my arms around his leg.
"No Itachi-san!" I wailed. "Please don't kill those kittens!"
He blinked at me, before shaking me off of his leg.
"I'm not actually going to kill any."
I stared at him in disbelief, which was quite hard to do when looking up at him.
"Then why did you tell me that?"
He shrugged.
"You needed a motive to keep going. That seemed as good as any, and it got you moving, didn't it?" He told me, before adding, "And you're still not getting lunch, by the way."
He proceeded to walk off, leaving me to mull over what he had said while sitting on the grass.
Eventually, I reached the conclusion that he was a total fruit-loop* who I would have to avoid by all means possible. Yeah, that worked.
Yawning again, I realised that my lack of sleep was finally catching up with me. Stupid Deidara woke me up before I could sleep for a half-decent amount of time this morning. I needed more than eight hours, dammit! Especially if they wanted to make me run round a training field while threatening to kill innocent fluffy animals…
Silently using every curse word I knew as a prefix to Itachi's name, I found a reasonably comfortable spot on the grass, where I could lean my back against a large oak tree without moving too much.
Wincing at the pain when I swallowed, I tilted my head back, shut my eyes and began to daydream aimlessly. After a little while, Konoha drifted into my mind, and home-sickness washed over me in a flood of emotion, making me feel sick to the pit of my stomach. Forcing the thoughts from my mind, I tried to focus on happier things; like all the kittens Itachi didn't kill…
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Eventually, I must have dozed off; because when I slid open my eyes after a refreshing nap, there was a large Venus flytrap staring at me, which I was pretty sure had not been there before.
A scream caught in my throat, silenced before it could escape. I widened my eyes instinctively, and shrunk back against the tree in an attempt to shield myself from the two glowing amber circles that were staring at me.
Inside the green cage was a head, the face of which was split down the middle, pitch black on one side while plain white on the other. On top of this was a patch of spiky green hair.
A deep voice emitted from the darker side.
"Should we eat her?"
There were more of them?
The white side of his face started to speak in a slightly higher tone.
"I don't know if Leader-sama would approve…"
Oh God. He has MPD. I am so screwed…
"He doesn't have to know. We could just say she tried to escape…" The side that wanted to eat me licked its lips with a hungry look in its eyes.
So screwed so screwed so screwed!
"Hm, I suppose…" The white side trailed off, and appeared to be thinking.
The voice in my head sped up and increased in volume.
SOSCREWEDSOSCREWEDSOSCREWED!!! OHMYGOD I NEVER SAW SUNA!
Since when did I want to go to Sunagakure? Oh well, I was gonna die! Might as well think up some regrets…
Eventually the plant-man crouched down until he was at my eye-level.
He reached out a slim white arm, and poked my cheek.
I blinked at the sudden motion, frozen to the spot by fear and surprise.
The arm retreated again, and the creature opened its mouth to speak.
"PLEASE DON'T EAT ME PLANT-MAN!" I yelled suddenly, realising my mistake only a second too late.
"Well," It smirked. "It lives."
I looked down at the ground.
"My throat hurts…" I mumbled.
Why did everything always hurt when I was here? This place was like pain-city.
The creature placed a cold hand underneath my chin, lifting my head; which I immediately flinched at.
"Well well well…" It muttered to itself, inspecting me in a really creepy way. "What's a pretty little thing like you doing out here all by herself?"
Okay, so there was a half-plant half-human thing sitting right in front of me, which apparently wanted to eat me and thought I was pretty. I began to run through my options in my head, most of them involving running as fast as I could back to the base, and hoping I got there in time. None of them looked hopeful.
I sighed and moved my head back, retreating from the plant-man's grip. He didn't react to my movement, just dropped his arm back to his side. I decided to just tell him the truth, and hope he didn't eat me.
"Itachi left me out here, 'cause he said he had to test my stamina, and that if I didn't run 35 laps I wouldn't get lunch. I didn't run fast enough and I think he went inside, and I was tired so I decided to sit against this tree and I think I fell asleep." I explained in what was left of my voice, my speech punctuated by coughs every so often.
Plant-guy thought for a minute, before standing up and holding a hand out to me. I paused cautiously.
"Are you going to eat me?" I asked doubtfully.
He shook his head. I swallowed, debating whether I should follow or not. After a few seconds, I reached the conclusion that if he had wanted to eat me, he would have been as well doing it when I was sitting down. Unless he wanted to cook me or something…
Luckily for me, he just led me back inside, and into the living room; where everyone was sitting around, doing whatever they generally do in the living room.
He pushed me into the room, where I stood, looking sheepish.
"Take better care of your guinea pig Itachi, I almost ate her." He informed the room in a deep voice before… melting into the wall?!
Holy crap, these people were weird! And what did he mean by guinea pig? Like a test subject?
Kisame glanced over at me.
"So, I take it you've met Zetsu then?" He said, chuckling.
I narrowed my eyes.
"So, if I go outside on my own, I'm at a risk of being eaten." I said sarcastically. "Thanks for warning me!"
I turned on my heel and swiftly left the room, shutting the door sharply behind me. Not hard enough to have slammed it, but enough to create a noise enough to make most people jump.
I turned right, down the corridor I recognised from this morning, and wandered around for a good half-an-hour or so before I eventually found my room.
Once inside, I found that someone had kindly dumped two cardboard boxes of my things next to my bed.
Shutting the door behind me, I reached into one of the boxes, found a book and my ipod, and collapsed onto my bed; determined to have some personal time, and make up for the past 3 days, which had so far been the strangest of my life.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
It had been about 2 o'clock when I came back inside, and about an hour later I could smell food coming from the kitchen.
My stomach started growling.
Feed me!
I poked it, trying to silence it.
"No. Shut up!"
Feeeeed me!!!
"Ugh!" I groaned, and turned the volume on my ipod up, grateful for the half-empty bottle of water in one of the boxes. Hehe, it had been right at the bottom, underneath my jeans… After draining it of any evidence of liquid, I had crammed it down the side of the bed, in the hope that no-one would look there. I didn't think Itachi would really care enough to search my entire room for any trace of 'lunch', but I didn't want to risk it. I didn't know what these people did to rule-breakers, but I sure as hell didn't want to find out.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Another hour passed. And another. My stomach seemed to have shut up, at least. Now my only problem was the intense boredom that came from sitting in a small room for several hours. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love reading, and music! It just gets a bit tedious after a while.
So I decided to explore.
BIG MISTAKE.
After literally 5 minutes, I was completely, totally, and utterly, lost. All the corridors looked the same in this place!
After about 20 minutes of wandering (I am eternally grateful for the clock on my ipod!), I was getting nowhere. Everything still looked the same! And to make things even worse, I had hit a dead end.
I groaned and turned to go back down the way I had come, when a glint of silver caught my eye.
A word of advice – don't ever follow a glint of silver when you are the prisoner of a criminal organisation. More often than not, it won't end well. Like most other things in life, (like not touching a hot stove, for example), I learned this the hard way.
Curious, I approached the object it had come from. This object was a door identical to all the rest, apart from the small silver plaque on the front, which read: 'Leader's Office. Do not disturb unless necessary.'
Well, I was lost! That counted as necessary, didn't it? Regardless of the answer, I knocked on the door a couple of times before turning the handle and poking my head in.
In the room was a large mahogany desk, with Pein seated in a swivel chair behind it. Two small armchairs were placed in front of the desk, and I saw the back of two heads, the owners of which were seated in the chairs. Both heads had ponytails, but one was blond and the other was black.
Pein glanced up, and caught sight of me.
"Ah, Yuki! Just the person I was looking for!" He exclaimed, beginning to stand up.
Panicking, I shut the door quickly, and tried to make a break for it by running, very fast, in the opposite direction. Needless to say, I failed miserably.
I managed to leg it back along the corridor, and round the corner before I ran into a wall.
"Where's the fire?" The wall asked teasingly. Oh wait, it was Kisame. Jeez, he was tall.
"No time to talk, running!" I babbled before trying to side-step him and continue escaping Pein.
He grabbed the collar of my T-shirt and lifted me a foot off the ground.
"Why are you running?" He asked me with a sharky grin.
I struggled to get free, but his grip remained firm.
"I think I may have evoked Pein's wrath." I explained patiently. "Now if you just let me go, I can continue running and-"
He cut me off, and gave me a curious look.
"What did you do?"
"I don't know!" I exclaimed in an exasperated tone.
Pein appeared at the corner.
Dammit! I could have gotten away if it wasn't for Fishy-man…
Yeah, sure you could.
I mentally stuck my tongue out, and pressed the button to release the hounds.
Wait! Since when do we have–
My conscience's speech was cut off by sudden screams, and loud growling sounds. I snickered. It would get me back for that, but I decided it was worth it to hear its screams. Even though it's technically me… Meh, details, details…
Pein approached me as Kisame placed me back on the floor.
"Yuki!" He announced. "I have a mission for you. Come." He motioned for me to follow, before heading back to his office. I reluctantly followed, glaring daggers at Fish-face, who just sniggered and walked off.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"You want me to do WHAT, UN?!" Deidara yelled, turning slightly red in the face.
"As I already explained Deidara, you will be spying at the Chunin Exams, along with Itachi and Yuki." Pein told him patiently.
Deidara was fuming.
"But why with Itachi, yeah?!"
Pein sighed, and clasped his hands together.
"Because you three are the youngest, and least conspicuous members of Akatsuki."
I was a member? Cool!
Pein continued with his explanation.
"If I sent Hidan and Kakuzu, Hidan would try to sacrifice Yuki, or Kakuzu would kill her in one of his infamous fits of rage. Zetsu and Kisame are too noticeable, and Sasori is a puppet. Obviously, neither Konan or I can go, as we have other business to attend to." Pein concluded, looking pointedly at Deidara.
"What about Tobi?" I asked cheerfully.
Pein looked at me as if I was stupid.
"If you two were in a team, there's no way you'd survive."
"True, true," I said thoughtfully. "What do we have to do anyway?"
Pein looked relieved that I wasn't complaining.
"It involves you three posing as a team of aspiring Genin, participating in the exam, and gathering information on other villages. You leave tomorrow."
Wait, did he say exam?!
"WHA-"
But just as I was about to start a yelling match, I realised that Pein had already thrown me out of his office. Damn ninja!
"Ugh."
I couldn't be bothered arguing. From the way the other members acted, it seemed as if Leader's word was law anyway.
Shrugging my shoulders, I went off to find Tobi.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
I grinned as we stepped into the kitchen.
Tobi looked at me, and tilted his head to the side slightly.
"Yuki-chan, what are we doing in here?"
I smiled brightly at him.
"Well Tobi, I'm going to show you why I love laminate floors!"
He still looked confused.
"Why does Yuki-chan like laminate floors?"
"Because they are very, very good for sliding on. But you need to be wearing socks!" I warned him, before running up and sliding down the length of the room on my beloved rainbow socks. "See?"
"Oh! Tobi thinks he understands!"
Tobi mimicked my movement, running up and swivelling his body side-ways before bumping into me.
"Yay! Tobi is a good boy!" He exclaimed happily.
"And do you know what else we can do?"
He shook his head innocently.
"Crazy spins!"
I proceeded to throw my arms out, and spinning for a few seconds before pulling them into my body.
After a few seconds, I fell over from dizziness, and collapsed in a giggling heap on the floor.
Tobi was immediately by my side, helping me up and sounding concerned.
"Is Yuki-chan okay?!"
"I'm fine Tobi!" I smiled at him. "Really. Now you try!"
I laughed as Tobi threw his arms out like he was playing at being an aeroplane, and started propelling himself around.
"Good!" I applauded. "If you want to get faster, just pull your arms in!"
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Kisame stretched and scratched his shoulder as he opened the door to the kitchen, wondering if Itachi would kill him if he ate the last piece of cake in the fridge. Probably. Surprisingly enough, the dark-haired teenager had a weakness for sweet things.
He swung the door open casually, completely unprepared for the strange sight that awaited him.
He blinked. Tobi appeared to be spinning on one leg, with his hands above his head like a ballerina, while his companion applauded him cheerfully.
"Again, I don't even want to know." He announced, before speedily exiting the room.
The dark haired girl and the masked shinobi looked at each other, before laughing and hi-fiving each other.
Tobi whispered something in the girl's ear, before grabbing her wrist and heading for the other members' rooms, with mischief inevitably in mind.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Tobi and I sped into his room, quickly shutting the door and sliding down it, still laughing so much that my sides hurt.
"Tobi!" I struggled in between laughter. "That…was…awesome!"
Tobi grinned at me.
"Tobi is a good boy!"
I ruffled his hair teasingly, a gesture which he immediately returned.
"Hey!" I pouted, pushing him away lightly. "No touching the hair!"
"But Yuki-chan ruffled Tobi's hair!"
"Um, that's 'cause I'm special!" I declared proudly.
"Oh, okay! Does Yuki-chan want to go eat now?"
My stomach let out a loud growl at the mention of food. I swear, that thing is out to get me!
Tobi smiled at me, and grabbed my wrist before opening the door and pulling me out.
"Um, Tobi…" I started nervously. "Didn't we…go into your room to hide?"
Tobi continued to lead me back to the kitchen.
"It's okay! No-one will care now."
"Oh… okay…" I muttered, praying that Tobi was right.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Cheerfully, he dragged me past the dining-room table. Surprisingly enough, the other members didn't bat an eyelid as we walked past.
Guess they deal with stuff like this all the time…
I thought absently, wondering if Hidan had discovered the Hello Kitty stickers stuck all over his scythe yet. He wasn't trying to kill us, so I guessed not. I smirked as Tobi led me into the kitchen; feeling slightly sad that I wouldn't see the result of Kisame's 'new shampoo', which was really just pink hair dye. I then realised that it was probably better this way, as we would probably be long gone by the time he had gotten up and showered; and therefore, he wouldn't have a chance to do me any serious harm. Ninja may like to get up early, but everyone knows you have to leave REALLY early if you're travelling. Hehehe, I would have to get Tobi to take a picture for me. Preferably before he hid in the attic for the next week, since the dye would have worn off by then…
The sudden awakening of my stomach informed me that food was near. I caught sight of the fridge, and began to run towards it, while I could practically hear 'Chariots of Fire' playing in the background.
I grabbed a hold of the handles and pulled open the door to find-
The background music of my life stopped playing.
"It's… it's…." My voice trailed off, and my stomach wailed in protest at the sight in front of me.
After not eating anything except 2 slices of toast all day, and being forced to run many, many laps around a stupid clearing, NOTHING could have prepared me for the horrific scene in front of my eyes.
The refrigerator was EMPTY.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
*Fruit loop in the sense of being crazy.
Yep, I'm back to regular updates again! *Holds for applause* I'll try and update every week now! For the time-being anyway… (Every time I say this, the next chapter is late. But I have loads of ideas for the parts after this, so hopefully I can keep it up!)
Review please! Or Itachi might change his mind about the kittens… :0
(Full credit to my best friend Linda for telling me to put that at the end XD)