Chapter 11: Learn

They…stunk.

Chinatsu literally had to breath to her mouth when they neared her, chatting about her (which she was only assuming from Yamato's gestures towards her) after they had finished sparring for, oh, only four hours straight. For four hours straight, Chinatsu was watching them, watching as they progressed their nifty Jackie Chan/Bruce Lee moves into something that belonged solely to fantasy martial arts movies.

It was then, as Chinatsu watched them, did she realize that this was a magical world.

Her heart was beating at the pace of a racehorse, staring at the small figures in the distance as they impossibly created fire, water, and other moves with just the motion of their hands and the yell of random words.

The pink-haired girl, Sah-kur-ah, punched the ground and ruptured the earth.

As in the earth split open beneath the dainty teenager.

Chinatsu thanked the gods and above that they had their sparring moments far, far away from her. She didn't know what she could have done to defend herself if a spray of fire caught whim of her.

This was honestly like a movie.

"So, where are we going out to eat?" Naruto asked, dusting off the dirt from his shirt and rubbing the sweat off of his face. "Ichiraku?" The excitement in his voice was heard from miles and miles away.

"Yakiniku Q?" Sakura piped.

Yamato hummed, tilting his head to the side in thought. He then nodded, "Let's eat noodles." His eyes glanced at Chinatsu who was peering at each one of them in curiosity. "Chinatsu, we're eating noodles."

Chinatsu's face flamed in red as Yamato spoke to her while motioning one hand repeatingly going to his mouth. "I'm not a child, I know what you're saying." She grumbled in embarrassment. Her eyes turned to 'Ga-ga-ji' to see him turning away from the crowd.

"Ah, Kakashi-sensei, where are you going?" Naruto yelled.

Sasuke's eyes glanced up and noticed a red-tailed hawk flying in a specific amount of circles before going off.

The silver-haired man turned and waved to the group. "I'm sorry, Yamato, but I'll have to miss this." Without another word, the man disappeared from the area.

"Oh, well, it's his loss." Naruto shrugged before turning to Yamato with a fox-like grin spreading across his face. "Yamato-taichou, are you treating us?"

"Naruto, that's bad manners!" Sakura snapped, slapping a hand at the back of Naruto's head. "Isn't that right, Sasuke?"

Sasuke ignored them. He tolerated Naruto and Sakura's bickering, watching the foreign woman as she sighed constantly and scrutinized her surroundings with worried eyes. It wasn't that she was an alien woman that caught Sasuke's attention, but the fact that he couldn't feel her chakra. There had to be chakra, it was a must to the living. But as much as he tried to feel it or even see it with his Sharingan, he couldn't.

With that little small information, Sasuke felt vulnerable. It was an unpleasant feeling, something he refused to feel. He'd have to keep this woman on watch.

Yamato took a look at Chinatsu. "Eh, why not?"

Naruto paused in rubbing his aching head to cheer for the happy news. He barely dodged another swipe from Sakura and started running off. "I'll meet you over there! I'm gonna go home and change really fast!"

Sakura took those words in mind and glanced down at herself. "I might as well do the same. I'll see you there, Yamato-taichou!"

It had been around fifteen minutes later when the team had gathered in the shop.

Chinatsu watched around animatedly, taking in the delicious smell, the chatting customers, and the bustling workers. She completely muted Yamato and the teenager's conversation, finding no interest in it when she can't understand them in the first place, to gaze around her. When the friendly old man, who seems like the owner of this noodle shop, placed a bowl in front of her, Chinatsu was taken back.

She turned to Yamato to see him and the others already digging into their meal. Chinatsu looked at the teenagers, and couldn't help but let a small smile grace her features. She listened to the blond and the pinkette's bickering, amused at the sudden thought that compared the blond boy and the pink girl to Akane and herself. A pant of her heart twisted in sorrow, and immediately distinguished the thought. She refused to think of her family. It only brought heartache and pain, knowing that she would probably never see them again.

Just as she was going to ask Yamato a question, she caught the boy with black hair staring at her intently.

And this wasn't just a stare. It was as if he was studying her every move. For a moment, Chinatsu felt like an insect underneath a microscope, being studied and probed around with a stick for education. But this boy had the intensity of a killer. It wasn't until his eyes turned red when she realized he was going to do some hocus pocus spell on her.

Immediately, she looked away and straightened in her chair. She tried to make it look like the teenager did not disturb her, and mentally chastised herself to not cause a scene. Spooked by the teenager, Chinatsu grabbed the wooden chopsticks by the side and started to fiddle with the utensils in hopes that she would already figure out how the hell to use them.

Fed up with the knowledge that she'd never learn how to use these abominations, Chinatsu grunted low in aggravation and swirled one of the chopsticks in the soup. She twisted her wrist, turning the chopstick in hopes to catch the noodles around the utensils as a fork would with spaghetti.

A howl of laughter made Chinatsu look up as soon as she had taken a bit.

"She doesn't know how to use chopsticks? Oh, dear god," Naruto pointed at Chinatsu, laughing at how she was awkwardly using the wooden sticks (or should he say stick?) as a child would.

Yamato glanced at Chinatsu and facepalmed his face when he saw her hamster-like cheeks filled with noodles, her hand hovered over the bowl with one stick fishing out more noodles to stuff in her face. "Oh, Chinatsu…" Yamato shook his head at the way she was eating, feeling embarrass for the girl.

"Naruto, that's not polite!" Sakura snapped, slamming her fist at the back of Naruto's head.

"Ahhh, Sakura-chan, what the hell is it with your hits, man!" Naruto yelped, hissing air between each crack of his teeth as he tried to control pain reverberating throughout his skull. "I was just laughing, dammit!"

Sakura glared at Naruto for his childishness. "Chinatsu-san's development within the village is not a laughing matter, Naruto. She is new to everything around us: the language, the food, the culture, and most likely the people. It's hard to adjust to a new foreign place, Naruto."

"She's not even bothering to learn." Sasuke pushed his empty bowl from him. He turned his head to look at Chinatsu and scoffed. "She's been here for two months, shouldn't she know more than enough by now?"

Yamato's eyes narrowed at Sasuke, taking those words as an insult. But before he had the chance to speak, Sakura was already at it.

"Think about it, Sasuke-kun. She was…." Sakura glanced around her surroundings, eyebrows knitting as she contemplated on whether or not she should bring up the subject of Chinatsu's torturing interrogation. "…she was given a horrible impression on our village. Of course, she wouldn't want to learn anything. If anything, we're lucky that she's docile."

Team Seven weren't aware of everything about the sudden woman, but as a student of the Godaime, a student who literally had access to most of the parts of the building, Sakura couldn't help but be a nosy woman when there was a top secret file teasingly sitting before her. And when she had opened it, eating it with hungry eyes, she never thought her village would be so gruesome; but it was all for the defense of the village. It was.

Chinatsu didn't know what was being said, but she knew she was being laughed at. It wasn't hard when the blond kid blatantly pointed his finger at her.

Her cheeks glowed with shame and humiliation. She cut off the hanging noodles from her mouth with her teeth, chewing slowly as her aura literally went dirt low. It was an awful feeling, really. She twiddled with her chopsticks, hanging her head low.

She didn't say anything at all during the event. When it finished and everyone departed, the two started towards Yamato's home. She could hear the concern in his voice as he communicated with her, but Chinatsu merely ignored him. Her legs were like lead, heavy and dead. Soon enough, that feeling traveled through her body and arms.

Her body was comforted by the softness of her mattress, and her head by the goose feather filled pillow. A heavy sigh was heard and nothing more.

The crescent moon reflected off of her eyes as she stared out the window. Her fingers fidgeted with the edge of the pillow, twisting and tugging at it gently as she was consumed by her thoughts.

Chinatsu was embarrassed. She had never been laughed at. Yeah, Akane used to laugh her ass off at Chinatsu's 'incredible stupidity' (as her younger sister would like to put it), but she knew it wasn't out of malice or the pure intention of making her sister humiliated. But…but to be laughed at by a complete stranger wasn't the same. Perhaps she was a bit more sensitive at the moment, after all who wouldn't be with the ongoing worldly constant shifting, but it didn't matter! She was human! She had feelings!

She pressed her face into the pillow.

A cool breeze from the opened window flowed into her room, cooling her heated skin at the moment's touch.

Wait…her window was open?

Chinatsu lifted herself from the bed and glanced over her shoulder. Sure enough, her window was wide open. It confused Chinatsu because she was pretty sure that it was closed-

A huge body flew through the darkness and landed on Chinatsu's bed.

Her lungs were filled with oxygen and were ready to expel it with carbon dioxide when suddenly the being on top of her licked her cheek with a sandpaper-like tongue.

"Kitty?" Chinatsu sat up on her bed quickly, staring at the huge cat cuddling to her body. No, no, this couldn't be the stray mutant cat! Two months ago, Kitty had been a kitten, not much bigger than the size of her two hands from side to side. Now, the cat, which was now washing its fur on her bed, was the size of a miniature dog.

"What the hell, you have to be on steroids!" Chinatsu exclaimed, running her hands through the soft fur. The cat's body vibrated with its monstrous purrs, bumping to Chinatsu with its huge body to try and get more rubs.

Ignoring the painful fact that the cat was huge, Chinatsu continued to pet the cat. Previous feelings and emotions were thrown out the window as she immersed herself into the blue cat. She cooed, cuddled, petted, and nuzzled her face into the fur. It had been a month since she last saw Kitty (boy, was that an original name), and when she did the cat was no more the size of a regular cat. Now it was…just big. It was something Chinatsu couldn't stop thinking about.

Kitty certainly was a mutant cat.

Chinatsu sighed, curled upon her bed as Kitty lie besides her. She brushed her hand on Kitty mindlessly, tumbling in her thoughts and before she knew it, she was speaking aloud.

"I'm lost, Kitty. I don't know what to do," Chinatsu started. "What should I do? My life doesn't mean anything anymore. I'm a prisoner here. Everything is so different here, it's alien!"

The cat's purring was endless.

A hand brushed through tangled hair. "I…I don't know what to do with myself. I'm all alone. I don't have anyone with me. I don't have my family, my friends or my co-workers. I don't know where I am. I feel like I'm trapped here with no choices to do anything." Soon enough there were tears brimming her eyes. "I never felt so lost in my life." Now, those tears were running free. "I…I-I don't want to…be here."

She wanted to go home.

"I don't know anything. I don't know the language, the food, I don't even know where the hell I am! Why the hell is this happening to me? Why did God do this to me? I don't deserve this! I don't deserve this at all!" Now, she was just a blubbering baby. "And-and-and…ugh…ugh…." Chinatsu put her face into Kitty's fur, determined to somehow muffle her cries so Yamato doesn't hear her. "…I just…I just w-want to go home…"

Heavy sobbing was heard. The cat did nothing but allow the woman to sob into its coat, somehow knowing full well that the odd woman needed it.

"I can't survive here…I can't. I don't know anything." She whispered brokenly.

Then learn.

Chinatsu sat up quickly, glancing around the room with wide red eyes.

She heard that voice! She heard it!

The blurry vision from the constant crying was viciously rubbed at in hopes that it would clear. And once it was, Chinatsu glanced around. There was nothing. There was nobody in the room. She was positive that she heard a voice just as close as Kitty was now, but nobody was seen.

Chinatsu frowned, coming back to lie on her bed and cuddle with Kitty. If the titanic cat didn't notice anything, she was positive that there was nothing then.

"…'Then…learn'?" She repeated those words that resonated within her mind.

She wasn't sure if the words were more felt than heard, but all she knew was that those words were within her mind.

The two continued to lie there, one sleeping in peace and the other pondering.

And everything puzzled together for the foreign woman.

And determination filled her.

That night had come to a decision.

Under the same crescent moon held billions, trillions of others. Two men in particular were somewhat close to the previous sobbing woman, straying at the outskirts of Konohagakure, but high enough in the trees and mountains in order to scope out the village. But with a specific ninjutsu that was a special ability to Iwagakure, one of them was able to zero into the odd but intriguing woman.

"Akatsuki lost a tailed beast," the silver-haired man to the side mentioned, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he relied the newly gained information to his mentor. "It seems as if they're losing control of them."

Orochimaru's face didn't twitch as he continued to study the woman.

It was strange really. When it came to people who were infamous, recognized, notorious, legendary, or well-known they were usually decorated in bold colors, dressed in clothes that no other shinobi or civilian would own; in other words they had a signature outfit. But this woman was plain, ordinary: bland. There was nothing special about her at a simple glance. But with his continuous analyzing of her, Orochimaru could already pick out the special traits within her that those foolish leaf nins didn't.

"Who is that woman?" he asked, his eyes narrowing as she continued to sleep peacefully.

Kabuto turned to the general direction Orochimaru was facing. With a simple set of handseals, the man pinpointed the woman his mentor was staring at. "I don't know. She doesn't show up in my cards. Perhaps she's a civilian."

"Fool, she is anything but a civilian," Orochimaru hissed, the bridge of his nose wrinkling with irritation at his student's idiocracy. "She is the only person in this village that I can't sense. Her chakra…I can't feel it." And as the notorious sannin who had murdered the Sandaime of Konohagakure, Orochimaru couldn't help but feel vulnerable about it. She was completely void of any spiritual aura. There was nothing more frightening to any shinobi to have no awareness of their abilities and bloodlimit, it made one open for attack. If this woman was strong, a superb shinobi that is, she could surely be one of the rare shinobis to take him out.

The only way to prevent that was either take her, or kill her.

A sudden thought passed his mind, and that was when Orochimaru's eyes couldn't help but become bigger. "Is she-?" The usually collected and evil man was now leaning forward with eyes as wide as saucers as he studied the woman.

No wonder she didn't have chakra.

He laughed quietly, shaking his head when the thought he was mulling over could possible be true. After his journal had become hostage to the Hokage, Orochimaru didn't have anything to rely on with information and plausibility about the woman existence.

He supposed that that immortal Uchiha was alive. It was true then.

Nobody could have done this besides Uchiha Madara.

It was then when Kabuto noticed a blue rug at the woman's feet of the bed. He continued to stare at it until small details of the animal printed in his mind and made it recognizable. "Huh! The-the bijuu!"

The need to roll his eyes was great, but even then Orochimaru wouldn't do that. Of course, he had noticed the Nibi, the two-tails, who was also known as Matatbi. It was the one thing that brought his attention to the strange woman. "How many tailed beasts have they lost?"

"Apparently, the lost the two-tails. From what I've heard, they had lost control of the one-tail, too," Kanbuto informed.

When Orochimaru stayed silent, Kabuto continued, "The location of the one-tail is unknown. If you would like, I can send out a team to retrieve the tailed beast."

Orochimaru shook his head. "No, don't do that. I have a feeling I know where the beast would end up." An unknown look glazed in the sannin's eyes. It was an expression that even had his apprentice questioning for he did not know how to decipher that look. "Did you hear anything from Danzo?" A malicious grin embraced the expanse of his face.

"Yes," Kabuto answered, straightening from his hunched position when his back cried for relief. "Danzo-san mentioned about visiting within a two times week. He mentioned that his arm has been acting oddly for the last few weeks. The DNA of Senju Hashirama we had injected into his right arm is fighting against his immune system, making him exposed and helpless enough that a simple virus can kill him. Also, his arm has been going out of control. Danzo-san said the DNA has been expelling random wooden techniques out of nowhere. Wood and trees would sprout from his body-"

"Enough," Orochimaru ordered, sick and tired of hearing about the militant man's complaints. He turned away from watching the woman and looked at Kabuto. "We shall see him tonight. Perhaps, he would be able to give us some information about the woman."

"Will do." Kabuto bowed his head in submission.

His long, thin tongue came out and waggled in the air from excitement running through his veins. Orochimaru turned to Konohagakure and chuckled darkly.

"Hn-hn-hn, let's go pay a visit to Sasuke-kun."

As soon as the two slinked towards the village, it took about five minutes until a man melted from the tree. His bi-colored-self strode to the exact spot Orochimaru was standing and took a good look at the supposed woman that caught the man's interest.

A sharp-toothed grin was all that given. Before his two selves had a chance to converse about the missing bijuu and the woman, Zetsu melded with the ground and quickly transported to Akatsuki's base.

When he delivered his message to Leader, the man chuckled.

"How is she faring?"

Zetsu stood completely immobile as he answered, "She was sleeping when I saw her."

"I never knew she existed because of her lack of chakra," his other half answered.

"Hmmm, of course not." The Leader kept himself completely in the darkness, preventing anyone from catching a glimpse of his high self. "And you said Orochimaru and Kabuto was there, right?" At Zetsu's nod, the Leader felt himself stiffening. Even if Zetsu said they were more paying a visit to Sasuke, he did not feel comforted. If the snake and that pathetic worm dared near his experiment, he would be highly pissed.

"Who the hell is this broad?" Hidan brayed, picking his ear with his pinky as his hologram-self lounged upon an invisible couch. "Why the fuck is this twat so important?"

"Please attempt to refrain yourself from such vulgar words, Hidan." Kakuzu frowned in distaste of Hidan's portrayed hologram. He resisted himself from releasing a groan when Hidan's response to his scolding was the middle finger.

"Cease your childish antics, Hidan," Leader said.

"I'm just fucking wondering-"

Deidara sighed irritably. "Shut up, yeah. You're voice is getting annoying."

Hidan stood up from his invisible couch and made it seem as if he was going to stride over to Deidara's hologram. "Lookie here, you blond teen fag-"

"JUST BECAUSE I BRUSH MY HAIR DOES NOT MAKE ME A FAG!"

"ENOUGH!"

The other members of the Akatsuki merely stood there, waiting for further orders while the immature, juvenile ones stopped their bray. The Leader almost thought it was a mistake to bring these two back from the dead, well one of them that is. Zetsu collected the missing pieces of Hidan's body and stitched them back together once Kakuzu was revived. Deidara on the other hand was revived with a sacrifice as was told needed by none the other, Kabuto.

"Uchiha Itachi, Hoshigaki Kisame are to invade the barrier of Konohagakure and retrieve the woman." If anything, Leader did not want Orochimaru fucking up his plans, especially when he was positive the snake picked up on the woman's odd traits.

"And the bijuu?" Kisame questioned.

"If possible, go ahead and retrieve the bijuu while you're at it. If not, don't bother," he said. "I want you to be there within less than twenty-four hours. Any more, and there will be consequences. Understood?"

When the two nodded, Leader dismissed them. "And to the rest of you, be prepared."

Each Akatsuki member realized that the Leader wasn't going to expand on his last words. And one by one, their hologram dissipated into nothing, much like how quickly the woman was about to disappear from the Leaf's hands.

SO MANY REVIEWS. OMFG I LOVE YOU GUYS X3

THE PLAYERS ARE BACK IN THE GAME, WOOT WOOT. Out of all the Akatsuki members, Hidan has always been my favorite, haha. His potty mouth and brazen personality makes me laugh whenever he's present, looooolll. This chapter isn't as long as the ones before, but there was nothing more that I could think of adding. Just expect the next chapter to be longer and with much more action, mwahahahah ;D

There hasn't been any Kakashi and Chinatsu moments, but there will be (: I like taking things nice and slow to make it as believable as possible C: Get ready for Chinatsu learning some Japanese! 8DD

Honestly, this story is getting exciting to write and continue on. Not on that spurs me to continue writing more and more, but your lovely reviews :3 It makes me happy knowing I'm not the only one here enjoying this piece of work ;D

Any questions feel free to ask.

summers revenge dizzydani666 Nomatophobia TalaxVampirella CannibalTofu KitsuneNEh Eternal Cat Moon Aiko Tachibana

Thomas Drovin and Emii – Thank you so much for reviewing every chapter and giving your precious thoughts upon it. (: