Sunday part 8 (Dec 19)

Obito was angry.

He couldn't remember the last time, the death of Rin or the desperation and agony of staying in a cave for years with a man who Obito had been adamantly positive, was completely off his rocker, insane.

Angry, so angry….scratch that, Obito was beyond pissed.

Obito had went through a lot of emotional turmoil today. He had seen his May hugging Deidara like they had been a couple all their lives, and then he'd seen Hidan corner the girl… their faces had been a little too close for Obito's liking. Even though there was bad things, there had been the matter that he had gotten close enough on his own to actually kiss her on the cheek but Obito was beginning to think that she didn't like him.

...the matter was just plain confusing, Obito was the one who was always holding all the cards, so why wasn't he this time? This entire situation had his high wired brain going round and round in an ongoing loop of plain catastrophe.

Even with the tiny light of hope that May might actually like him, it was ripped to shreds as the anger of the moment came rushing towards him. May might not like him yet, she may even be scared of him, but he wasn't going to allow someone to bad mouth her in such a way; no he would not allow it!

Obito saw out of the corner of his eye that Kisame had moved around the same time as him, but Kisame did have longer legs even if he wasn't the fastest runner. Kisame's hand was cracking into the middle girls face with frightening intensity just as Obito was flashing out his fist, allowing his index knuckle to protrude slightly as he slammed it into the stomach of a girl on the right.

Obito could not remember if Deidara and Hidan had been behind him but he now saw them out of the corner of his left eye; Deidara was slamming the back of his elbow into the girls neck and Hidan ducked down low swinging his leg causing the girl to yelp and trip back. It seemed that even though they had all been away from the ninja world for a little while now, they had yet to fully lose their combat skills; even if they did not have any chakra they were still all a threat in and of themselves.

The girls now lay on the ground, writhing in pain before them. The middle girl with her brown hair was sprawled on her side, cupping her nose from where Kisame had obviously broken it from the crack that Obito thought was quite satisfying. The one that Deidara and Hidan had taken down was getting over a gagging fit but seemed to be down for the count. And the blonde that Obito had taken out was whimpering, still lying there as if he had cut off her lower half.

Deidara was one hundred percent certain that Hidan was going to give a feral growl and then rush off to go beat those jerks to a complete pulp, he would have been delighted, hell he would laughed at those girls getting what they truly deserved. Why, because no one, No One talked about May like that; and when Deidara says 'no one' he meant no one on this earth.

Deidara was almost pissed when he noticed that Hidan was still standing next to him! Yes, he did look like he was ready pounce… but he wasn't moving! Well, if Hidan wasn't going to do anything then Deidara certainly would! But just Deidara was moving Hidan seemed to unlock his limbs and mirrored Deidara's movement. They both flicked their gazes at each other, a mental agreement seemed to pass through them and Deidara was suddenly rushing towards the girls with Hidan at his side. Tobi was on their heels like the puppy he had been holding awhile ago.

Anger was rushing through his veins as Deidara neared the girls, his eyes were passing Kisame as he neared and noticed him punching the girl in the face with so much force that the air chilled for a second.

-SNAP- The sound was so pure so loud that it almost caused Deidara to flinch. It was a sound that continued to replay in everyone's head, a sound that indicated a bone had snapped.

He grinned.

The middle girl sent out a small squeak as she fell to the ground, her brown hair spilling out around her body, mixing with the blood that trickled from her broken nose.

Deidara wasn't sure if Hidan was just coming to settle a score to make himself look better but he didn't really care for a second as Deidara turned at the last second and knocked his elbow into the girls neck as hard as he possibly could, there was no way he was going to allow these stupid women to live after what they had said. Anyone that dissed his May, would pay the consequences… no matter how dire they were.

Seeing Hidan come into his vision, Deidara shifted slightly to allow Hidan to maneuver past his legs easily and trip the stupid girl onto her back. As their eyes met Deidara realized that Hidan wasn't doing this for himself, to his shock and horror Deidara realized how much Hidan actually thought of May.

"Well damn, looks like the stakes are rising here for all of us." Would May even want one of them? Deidara really hoped so, he wanted her to be happy... and if that meant it wasn't with him...could he accept that?
He flexed his fingers.

Possibly not, but he would try for May to accept whoever she chose.

Happiness was hard to achieve and he wanted nothing more than for her to have it.

"There you go Itachi!" I smiled widely and patted the black-haired man on the back. Itachi turned and actually gave me a wide smile and quietly returned it back to him. "You'll be getting your glasses in three weeks, and soon you'll be able to see perfectly." It was almost unnoticeable the little tiny gleam that entered Itachi's deep red eyes, I only caught the end of it and was instantly trying to understand its meanings… but this was Itachi we were talking about, I wasn't expecting much from the nearly silent Itachi.

"Do you think these will work?" Looking away from a band poster that was coming in about a month, I turned and looked at Itachi who stood in front of me. His arms were settled behind his back, his eyes were at first staring at the ground near my feet before coming to look me in the eye.

"..." Not able to stop myself, I burst out laughing. Itachi allowed his eyes to widen before blinking as I carefully wiped away a small tear that had accumulated in the corner of the eye The glasses that now stood on his face were very square and were pink and had little rhinestones adorning both the sides and ridges of the glasses.

"Itachi, did you look at those when you put them on?"Itachi didn't look away as he shook his head.

"You said to chose one," Itachi gazed down at me as stopped in front of him and brought my arms up. Clutching the edges of the glasses I slowly pulled them from his face to make sure I didn't hurt him.

"There, much better." I muttered brushing a stray strand of black hair that come to attention from the shifting of the glasses. "You need to pick one that you like and seems to fit you, go search through them and check them out in the mirrors. Find one you like." Itachi seemed to take in my face for a second before bringing up his hand and grasping the hand that had dropped from his face to in between us, eyes dropped from my own to gaze at the hand that he turned over and traced the random lines.

It tickled, but I did not move.

"I will go back and continue my search then, thank you for your help in the matter, May." With those words he let go of my hand and went back to searching.

It took a second for my mind to register that he was no longer holding onto my hand, it was cold.

Quietly I turned to look at Pain who was sitting in a chair near where we had entered, his arms were over his chest, legs sprawled out in front of him, and head tilted all the way back to lean against the back of the chair. It's true that I have only known Pain for a couple of days, I had got to know him a little and knew very well that not once had I seen him let his guard down so much. Pain seemed almost dead, only if you looked close could you see the small rising of his chest.

"I should go make sure he's ok…" My mind muttered over and over as my feet began the long stretch over to him.

Now probably during the day some random kid, or possible even a teen had come into the eye doctor with some kind of beverage and had either, purposefully or accidentally, dumped their drink… I'll never know, all I know is that one second I am walking with swift steps over to Pain and the next a loud squeak happens and my right foot-that had just stepped down- was tilting and swerving onto the corner of its shoe and smashing into my other foot.

My arms went out to catch my fall as my body instantly numbed and I froze.

Nothing seemed to be moving anymore.

My body was still, the air and floor were still to….why wasn't anything moving?

Coming to the realization that it wasn't my mind that had stopped, I felt the arms around my stomach. Turning my head to look over my shoulder, I was met face to face with Christmas colored eyes that stare back into mine quietly.

Kakuzu stared into my eyes in such close proximity that I could smell him… and he actually smelled pretty good, maybe it's just the shock of the moment.

"Hey Kakuzu… thanks." His eyes softened for a second before closing them and nodding, bending back to his normal height to place me back on my feet- but I made note that he made sure to place me a good ten feet away from the slicked up spot on the floor.

Sadly, Kakuzu let go without a word and I craned my head up to look at him. Damn my height of 5'7, what was he? Like 6'8?

"Hah, Kakuzu, you still have pretty eyes!"

That last sentence felt so awkward now! I mean, Kakuzu had been silent up until then! Then he just had to come out with those words he said next:
"Yours are to."

….

…

it was such a SIMPLE sentence, and yet….and yet…..this feeling….

No one had ever said something like that to me, I mean pretty eyes? I'd never even heard someone ever say that out loud..

...my chest feels tight.

My hand came up and pressed up against my neck ever so slightly and felt the beating of my heart...or maybe it was beating because Sasori had seemed to decide that he needed to hold my hand as we walked, he wasn't leading me anywhere...just kind of holding my hand like it was the most normal thing in the world. Itachi was walking right next to me, almost in my bubble and I could feel Kakuzu behind me as if he were latched onto me, his breath ghosting down my neck.

….something is really really really wrong here, when did this situation become so, stifling?

Pain was right besides Kakuzu but unlike the others he walked much slower and kept his eyes on the ground, since the situation consisted of me being boxed in by three men I could not turn to check on him even though I desperately wanted to. What can I say, I have a caring attitude.

If I tried not to think about it then even more pictures of what was happening and more emotions showed up. Everything was happening a little too fast, and yet it was so slow. The Akatsuki had been here for nearly two weeks now, and I had not even known they were Akatsuki until only a couple of days ago-but it felt as if I had known them my entire life, they were mine and I was theirs…. it was not understandable. None of this was.

We were passing through the halls of the main part of the mall when two guys passed us, laughing their heads off like they were nuts.

"Look at blonde go!" One said so loudly that Sasori gave them a slight look as we passed, they were peering over a phone that was changing colors every second indicating a video.

"Nahh….look at the guy with blue skin! He totally just broke her nose!" The words 'blue skin' stopped my veins and stopped my walk, and I found myself turning around and grasping one of the guys arms and slinging towards me to look at the screen of the phone. He was yelling at me angrily and trying to pry off my grip but stopped as he realized I had four men standing behind me, each with a death glare his and his pal's way.

The guy must have accidentally hit the playback button because I watched as Kisame smashed his fist into a girls face who was standing in between two other girls who also were getting attacked by Tobi, Hidan, and Deidara.

"Did this just happen?" Teeth gritting I flicked my eye up to meet the teen's. He scoffed.

"Duh, someone posted it on Facebook, like, a minute ago! Now let go of my damn arm!" He seemed to have gained enough courage to try and wretch his arm away from me.

"You shouldn't treat someone like that." The guy turned to find Itachi standing right behind him, Itachi was no longer unemotional as he glared at the teen who was much shorter than him.

If I had been completely conscious of the situation I would have told Itachi to leave him be, but I was not.

Deidara, Hidan, Tobi, and Kisame were all fighting someone? Why? What was going on? Why would they start a fight, they would need a reason, right? Well...I'm sure Hidan would start a fight over the most simplest thing-but Tobi starting a fight? Was that even logically possible? I had no clue why this was happening but I had recognized that store in the video and it wasn't until I was rushing towards racks of clothing that I realized I had broke off running towards the direction of the store. I didn't have to look behind me to know the others were behind me. All I knew was that I had to get to where the others were and make sure that they were ok. They had to be ok!

A small snap clicked at my feet as my visions flew towards them once more, seeing Tobi joining the fight, Deidara and Hidan working together and Kisame giving it his all, and suddenly my vision blurred. A searing pain filled my stomach and everything went black and I knew what was happening, before the black completely engulfed me I turned and waved my arm and suddenly I wasn't the only one in the darkness.

White balls of light swam around us as if being pushed around my strings.

Kakuzu, who had been in this before made his way over to me and grasped my hand. Understanding what he was getting at without even saying anything I reached out my free hand towards Pain who grasped it, a wind began to rumble around us. Itachi grasped onto Pain and Sasori reached Itachi just as the wind roared and suddenly we were all falling. The ground came up to meet us, my head would have collided but Kakuzu was there once more to make sure he landed first and then I came second. We all landed on one another.

It really hurt, and I don't think I can feel my left leg but that was at the back of my mind.

Helping up Itachi I looked around, we were in the store that had been in the video. It had been in the clothes section for teen girls. But where was that?
Gazing around my eyes found a yellow sign that pointed which way the teen section was.

"Come on guys, we gotta find them." I said to them before beginning a swift walk. I was not going to leave them alone, I would never leave any of them alone again.

As we rounded a corner my feet stopped cold in dread as I saw what was actually happening in the teen section. I didn't have to get any closer to see the girls on the ground, Kisame, Deidara, Hidan, and Tobi were all in a fist battle with two young men who had obviously come to the rescue of the two girls.

My feet would not move.

They won't even shift as I just stand there and watch as Deidara headbutts one of the guys in the face.

Most of the younger men that they're fighting I do not recognize, they're all nameless faces in the crowd that have no importance, but the one fighting with Hidan is the one I recognize. Blonde hair that was near the end of his neck was curling around it like ivy on a rocky wall in the summer, beads of sweat filtered across his brow in concentration of dodging each shot Hidan threw at him dead on accuracy.

It was Jared.

Noting this, none of my body moved as I allowed my gaze to move towards the three girls who were slowly pushing themselves off the ground. One was Cass the over popular girlfriend of Jared who had had that party so long ago; she was holding her neck tenderly as if she had been choking, the other girl slowly went to help her.

The gaze I had been allowing to slip over them stopped as I reached the middle girl who had stood fully towards my family, she was cupping her nose that was leaking blood down her lips and onto her pristine white shirt.

"You guys pissed cause I dissed your stupid, bitchy girlfriend!? Well, everything I said about that worthless May was painfully true!" Even with a broken nose, the way she flipped her hair with her free hair was perfect. Her green eyes flashing mockingly as Hidan growled and bared his teeth at her, Jared had stepped away from him so that Hidan could allow his attention to waver to the girl with green eyes.

"You shut the fuck up, you're the bitch for talking badly about her! You say one more word, and you'll wish you'd never been born." Jared lunged at Hidan who brought up his knee and cracked it into Jared's chin, he fell to the ground. The girl with green eyes stopped smiling and then her gaze flicked up to meet mine.

The girl with green eyes….

The girl with green eyes….

The girl who had just called me worthless, the girl who had gotten her nose broken by Kisame.

The girl I had been friends with not too long ago.

I opened my lips in confusion and hurt, "Gwen…"

Author: Finally! This chapter is done! And another cliffhanger ending, I really like this ending... and I seriously wanna hit Gwen myself! Thank you Kisame for breaking that nose of hers :)

Poll is still up, and I am deeply considering your comments on the matter of May's relationship with the Akatsuki.

And a question for the day...hmmm. can't think of any for anime...ok...

What is one thing you love about life? (no you can't say anime hehee :)