Lauren's POV
"Here is your mission."
I caught the mission scroll that was tossed in my direction and raised an eyebrow at my new orange haired leader.
Right now he was only a shadow standing in front of me. Apparently Konan had returned to rain and was having trouble with a group of rouges, so Pein had left base late last night, traveling to Ame in order to help her.
"You will be heading to Otogakure and retrieving a scroll for me."
It was slightly hard for me to restrain my surprise at hearing that. If I went to sound and had a run in with Orochimaru, would he recognize me? It had been 12 years, but still…
"Is there anything else that I should know about this mission before we leave?"
Pein nodded. "You have 3 days to complete the following mission, any other details will be provided when you open the mission scroll."
I nodded and bowed before turning to exit the room. Pein's voice stopped me before I could exit the metal doors however.
"Please be careful. All of you."
For once I did not contain my amazement. That had been very unexpected.
"Th…thank you, Pein-sama," I said flashing him a trusting smile. His shadow faded away, but I could've sworn seeing the corner of his lips twitch upwards.
I exited into the hall and Tess and Taylor, who had been casually lounging against the wall, straitened up, looking towards me expectantly.
"What's up?"
I sighed and pocketed the sealed scroll before answering, "we're heading to Oto, come on."
After composing themselves from the shock of that statement they quickly followed me down dimly lit the corridor.
For once in our lives the three of us had agreed on something. Orochimaru was a creepy pedo-snake who liked to molest little boy's. There was no denying it. That thing, that's right, he's not even human,was really fucked up. Not in the mind, just all together.
The three of us walked through the kitchen and towards the adjacent doorway, which was the one that led to the front of the base. As we passed through the lengthy room I couldn't help but feel that someone was staring at me…so, I stopped. And sure enough sitting there at the kitchen table was Itachi, looking at me through the corner of his eye.
"Lauren?"
I looked over to Tess and Taylor who were waiting for me by the door.
"Give me a sec, okay?" I said motioning to Itachi. They nodded and engaged in their own conversation, giving me some privacy with Itachi.
I sauntered into the kitchen and plopped down into the stool next to the raven haired Uchiha. He didn't look at me and I didn't look at him.
"We're heading to Otogakure."
He twitched.
"How long?"
"3 days."
"…"
I sighed and got up. Apparently Itachi had nothing to say.
Oh, how wrong I was.
His large hand engulfed my wrist and pulled me back into him. I opened my mouth to say something but my voice was muffled as my face landed in his cloak and Itachi's arm's looped around my back, changing the awkward embrace into a tight hug.
"Imouto…be safe."
He was worried, just like I was. This was my first real mission and of course it had to be Otogakure, the nation which had been formed by the snake sannin. Orochimaru was the reason Tess, Taylor and I had to flee from this world in the first place.
I didn't want to leave and Itachi didn't want me to either.
"I'll try," I finally replied, smirking into the black and red fabric. "I can't promise anything though."
Gripping my shoulder he pulled me back, also smirking as he saw mine. "As long as you come back in a single piece with a beating heart I'll be satisfied."
I laughed and he ruffled my hair.
"Now if you'll please excuse me," I said sliding away from him and back towards my two friends. He sent me an encouraging yet sad, small smile.
"Ready?" Tess asked as I approached. I nodded.
The three of us exited through the bases giant entrance and quickly sprinted away from the cave, the sound of the rumbling of the boulder resealing the entrance coming from behind us.
…
…
"Deidara."
Said blond bomber looked up at hearing the Akatsuki leader's voice. He looked down at his ring and frowned. "What is it leader-sama, un?"
"Send one of your spy birds after the girls, to keep an eye on them."
Kakuzu, hearing the conversation telepathically from the opposite couch mutually put in, "Why? Do you not trust them?"
Pein shook his head and stared out at the rainy skies of Ame. In the back of his mind he felt as if something wasn't right. "No actually, I trust them completely. I have just got a bad feeling about this mission."
The other two nodded. They felt the same.
"Alright," Deidara agreed, not like he had a choice, and started creating the clay bird.
…
…
Tess was in the front of the group as they jumped throughout the trees. Taylor was in the middle and Lauren took up the rear, taking the role as the eyes of the group. The three girls had been running for about 4 hours strait and had never talked.
Apparently the weight of the mission was affecting them all.
They had already traveled through the river country and were now somewhere along the borders of the Leaf Village.
Taylor and Lauren both blinked when Tess suddenly stopped.
"What is it?" Lauren questioned putting a hand on the red head's shoulder. Tess shook her head and turned back to the two.
"Guy's we need to stop."
Lauren raised an eyebrow. "We can't stop, it's a mission."
Rolling her eyes, Tess continued. "We need to stop acting like this. All of us have been acting way too OOC. Lauren," she looked toward the brunette teen, "since you've gotten to the Akatsuki you have been acting way too strict and emotionless, usually you're so easygoing. And Taylor," she looked towards the blond, "you need to act way more random, seriously? You're turning into an emo." Taylor gasped and Lauren laughed at her reaction. "No one's around so why don't we just act just a little more happy and less serious for the time being?"
Lauren and Taylor exchanged a look and sighed. She was right; they really needed to act like themselves for once.
"Fine," Lauren agreed and Tess smiled.
"Aright then, come over here." She did as instructed.
Once the brunette was in front of Tess, the red head reached into her tool pouch and pulled out a vile and needle. A clear liquid sloshed around in the vile and Lauren sighed gratefully knowing what it was.
"Give it here," she commanded and Tess complied, handing it to her with a laugh.
"I made it in Suna; I figured you'd be needing it eventually."
Lauren said her thanks and flipped the protective cap off the needle.
"My sinuses have been bothering me so much since I got here," Lauren explained as she carefully injected to liquid into her upper arm, "I seriously needed this allergy shot."
Tess took the vile from her once it was empty and placed it back into her hip pouch.
"Alright," Tess sighed stretching out her arms and legs, "everybody move out of the way."
Lauren and Taylor both complied. Tess took a step back and then ran ahead, arms up.
From the sidelines Lauren smiled. It felt good to be able to relax for a change.
…
"Why the fuck are they stopping?"
"Maybe if you would SHUT UP, Hidan, we would find out…"
Deidara had sent his bird off after the girls so, having nothing better to do, the entire Akatsuki, minus Pein and Konan, had gathered around the TV to watch the girls travel.
"Guys we need to stop acting like this. We're all acting way to OOC."
"…What's 'OOC'?"
"I have no idea, Danna, yeah."
"Fine…"
"Alright then, come over here."
Lauren walked over to Tess and the Akatsuki raised an eyebrow as the shot vile emerged from her weapons pouch. She handed it to Lauren and their eyebrows rose higher.
"What is Lauren-san doing with that?"
"She's taking off the cap, un…"
"Wha…how the fuck can she just stick the needle in her arms so fucking casually!?"
"NOOOOO! LAUREN-CHAN IS POISONING HERSELF!"
Everybody looked towards the masked man.
"No, she's not. Lauren-san just said, if you were listening- which you weren't, that that was a shot for her allergies…brat."
"…whoops!"
Some of them face palmed while other's rolled their eyes. Tobi was just too…Tobi.
Lauren's POV
Tess did a cartwheel, followed by another, and another, and-oh wait, that was a flip, well I guess you're seeing the pattern, right? Tess was really good at flipping and round-about's and cartwheels. Tess, when acting like herself, was just very athletic and laidback. She could never stay put, she always had to be busy, and doing something.
"OH! TESS, LAUREN LOOK!"
I looked over to Taylor who was standing near the forest line, holding a stick.
"It's a bendable stick!" she shouted happily and-SNAP!
"FUCK! IT'S NOT!"
I wrapped an arm around my gut and doubled over. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
I'm updating again because I want to have this story up before school starts so that I can just focus on getting a chapter written up for the sequel every once in a while…lol
Like I said I'm taking all honors classes and I can tell you that at the end of the day I'm probably not going to be a happy camper…
Oh, and DON'T STOP REVIEWING YOU GUYS! PLEASE!
I've been getting very few during the last few chapters :P And reviews make everyone happy XD
Oh god, I think I'm gonna go watch some more Fairy Tail. I love that show so much, not even kidding. It's the only anime that'll make me cry tears of happiness besides Naruto XP
I took a break from it for, like, a year, so I'm catching up right now :P I'm almost there! Huzzah!
Anyway, Imma go :)
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!