Sorry, I know this is short, but I still thinking about the whole upload thing.
13. Akatsuki
After three days of travel, Kohanako and her group had fallen into a smooth pattern. During the day, Itachi would carry the little girl, either in his arms, or on his back, as Kohanako took many quick naps throughout the day. Both men were surprised that as soon as the sun fell beneath the horizon, the child was able to keep up with them on her own, and even ended up pushing their pace and putting them ahead of schedule.
"We'll stay here for the day." Itachi said suddenly as the group came to a large city. "We're making good time, and should take a rest."
This made Kohanako perk up from her sleep, and she gazed down on the city with amazement in her eyes. "It's so big." The little girl said, bewildered.
"Haven't you ever seen a city?" Kisame asked in a childish voice. He had become good friends with Kohanako, yet neither the girl, nor Itachi, would let Kisame carry her, so he settled for the small conversations he got to have.
Kohanako shook her head. "Oro-sama said it would be too much trouble if I went out by myself, and he said that they couldn't go anywhere with too many people, so I only saw Oro-sama, Otousan, and Buto-san. After Naru-chan and Saku-chan, and Sai-kun came and we went to Konoha, that was all I saw. I thought it was the biggest thing ever, but this is so much bigger!"
Itachi chuckled. "Now you'll see even bigger and smaller places."
"There are even bigger places?" Kohanako asked in amazement.
Itachi just chuckled again.
Twelve hours later, the little girl and her new guardians were settled in a hotel, waiting for someone else to arrive. Kohanako was lying on the floor, drawing, and didn't even look up when someone knocked on the door. Silently, Itachi got up to answer it, and Kisame closely followed.
Itachi opened the door a crack, then stepped back to allow the other Akatsuki members to enter. They had reserved the entire hotel for this meeting, and one member seemed incredibly irritated with that fact.
"Do you realize how much this is costing us?" He demanded.
"Nothing close to how much this child can bring to us, Kakuku." The leader seethed. Roughly, he turned towards Itachi. "Where is the girl?"
Itachi looked lazily at the leader for a moment, his sharingan activated. Slowly he led the others into the other room. Instantly, he froze causing those behind him to bump into him; Kohanako was gone.
All of her drawings and drawing supplies were still on the floor as if the little girl had found something better to do. Instinctively, everyone eyes turned towards the window. It was open, the curtain pulled halfway out.
"Damn!" Somebody whispered.
Deidara laughed. "Does this mean we get to go on a hunt? Yeah."
Itachi grabbed the smaller man by the throat. "You won't touch her; not with those hands." He growled.
"Itachi!" The leader snapped. "If we can't convince her to join us, we will kill her for those demons."
Itachi shot his glare to the leader before he quickly stormed out of the room.
I still need reviews to tell me if those of you who are reading, are willing to go back and wait, or not.