I woke up alone again, freezing, hungry, and in pain. Would I make it out of this alive? It seemed doubtful, and somehow, I was almost okay with that. I was at that point where I had completely given up. I had already told them the sad truth and when they finally came around to realizing I was nothing more than what I claimed to be—that I had no information—they would kill me anyway. I just wanted the torment to stop at that point.

Those yellow eyes again.

I took my mind from my thoughts and stared back at the eyes. They didn't scare me, in fact I thought they were kind of beautiful, glinting strangely bright in the darkness of the shadowy corner of the room.

"Who… are you?" my voice was still rough and shaky, however I was happy to form a sentence.

The eyes widened.

"She spoke to us, why did she do that?"

"It could be a trick"

"Does she really think we are that naïve?"

"We should tell the others."

"No, please-" I began to protest but the eyes disappeared once more, "stay…" I finished my sentence in defeat. Sighing heavily, I let my head fall limp and stared at the ground again. I wondered how much time had passed since I'd been there. I didn't move when I heard the door creak open several moments later.

"We found something interesting in your bag, maybe you'll feel like talking now." Deidara smirked as he stood before me. He was holding a picture out for me to see. It was a photograph taken of me with my parents when I was a little girl, when they first adopted me. It must have been in there from a long, long time ago, it didn't hold any sentimental value now.

"We know their faces now so maybe you'd like to say something to make sure they stay out of harm's way, if you know what I mean," He smirked and looked at me, thinking he finally had me in the corner.

I thought carefully about how I wanted to phrase my thoughts before responding, "I don't wish them dead... but do what you need to."

I could tell he was a bit taken aback by this, the confusion plaguing his face like cobwebs that clung to his skin. Shaking his head slightly as if to throw them off, he looked at the photo again, then me.

"They adopted me when I was little but they um, well they never really seemed to care for me. I'm sure they're actually relieved I'm gone..." I explained quietly. My throat was dry and devoid of moisture, causing my voice to crackle like the desert ground beneath a noon sun.

Deidara deadpanned and leaned in close, his visible eye looking at me through squinted lids. He stayed like this for what felt like a very long time before letting out an irritated huff. "You're really annoying, you know that?" He said pointedly before turning to leave.

Much to even my own surprise, this elicited a laugh from me, albeit weak and dark. "Yeah, my parents felt the same way." I mused.

"Annoying and weird," he muttered, the door closing behind him. But he wasn't gone for long. Murmurs filled the corridor that led to my holding room, and right on cue, the door swung open and in filed the same group as before.

"We're going to try this again. I hope you've had enough time to think about and… experience the situation you're in and understand the gravity of it." Pain started in right away, stepping toward me while speaking calmly.

"Yes…," I murmured, annoyed with the condescending tone to his voice, like I didn't understand the predicament I was in. I understood it a lot better than he did.

"What were you doing in the forest that night my men found you?" He asked pointedly.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, growing tired of having to provide truthful answers that I knew wouldn't cut it. "I was leaving my village, running away..." I said with a sigh.

"Why?" He followed up quickly. Now this was a new question. I paused, almost in shock that I might be given the chance to explain myself.

"It's um, it's complicated…" I began hesitantly. "I overheard a conversation between my parents and someone else. You see, they adopted me when I was 6 and… well that doesn't matter I guess..." I trailed off and shook my head, trying to keep my thoughts in order and just answer the question concisely. "Anyway, I overheard them with someone else, some man, and it sounded like they were going to send me off with him. I mean they were practically begging for him to take me and I just kind of… freaked out and left." I confessed, trying to gauge his reaction.

"So what you're telling me is that you're just a civilian with a bad relationship with her parents." He questioned.

"Yes?" I offered with a wince. I could tell he wasn't buying it.

"And how can I be sure that you're telling the truth? If you are truly not a kunoichi then how did you know the jutsu you used in the woods?" Pain's spiraled eyes drilled coldly into mine. I had a bad feeling about this. I didn't get a chance to answer.

"This may hurt," he said blandly as he kicked square in my stomach. The wind flew from my lungs and the chair fell backwards with such force and my head cracked against the ground. An agonizing moan fled from my lips as my head began to pound, and Pain's voice wasn't making it any better.

"You see, it's hard to tell if someone is telling the truth if they have not felt pain. Pain is the incentive for liars to become honest." He pontificated.

I groaned through his little speech, the intense agony throbbing uncontrollably in the back of my head.

If I haven't felt pain? Dude, it's all I've felt since I ran into your boys. What reality are you living in?

The pain was only worsened when he grabbed me by the roots of my hair and stood the chair back upright. He pulled out a kunai and began to shine it with his cloak as he spoke again, "by the time I am done with you, I will be sure you are telling the truth."

"I'm already telling the freaking truth!" I cried out in a raspy tone, my backbone growing out of nowhere. He raised an eyebrow to my sudden outburst and brought his face close to mine.

"Tantrums like that will only bring you more pain here." His voice was cold and flat, and without warning, he struck.

I yelped as he hit my face hard while holding the chair with his foot so I wouldn't fall over. He hit much harder than Deidara had. My vision blurred and my head became light as if filled with helium. Blackness consumed me but only for seconds, when I came to, everything was exactly as it was before, only his kunai buried into my leg once more.

"So who sent you?" he twisted it.

I sputtered my words out through gritted teeth, "No… one…" Shivering violently, I looked past Pain to the figures behind him—all with stone faces—but to my surprise Deidara came forth.

"Pain-sama, this girl doesn't seem like much of a ninja, un? When I hit her, she toppled over like nothing, even a low-grade kunoichi can take a punch better than that. Just look at her muscle mass, she barely has any."

I was beginning to think this was just a personal attack against me.

"True…" Pain contemplated, "but what about her jutsu?" he followed up.

"It's just… a t-talent," I stammered. "Dirt, rocks, fire, water, um what else... trees? I can just do stuff with them…I don't know how, I swear." I finished with a choking sob.

Pain removed the blade from my leg and took a step back, regarding me with an expression I couldn't quite pin down.

"Pain." It was the first time I heard the woman in back speak. Her voice was even and her eyes held no emotion as she called him over to her. She said something to him far too softly for me to hear. Pain's eyes passed over me with a glint of calculation as he listened.

He moved over to Itachi and said something briefly before gesturing for everyone else to leave.

Everyone but Itachi filed out of the room. He stared at me for a moment. I felt numb, my left leg was bleeding profusely while my other was caked with dried blood from my previous encounter. It looked, felt and smelled infected.

"Come with me," Itachi said as he cut my bindings and stood before me.

He frightened me, whether I wanted to admit it or not, so I would follow his orders no matter what. I was afraid my time was up though, perhaps he was taking me to be killed. I tried to stand and failed miserably.

I groaned loudly as I hit the ground and struggled to get myself up. Itachi loomed over me, simply watching. I pulled myself to my knees using the chair and pushed my body to its feet. It was as if my veins were filled with kerosene and someone lit the match within my legs.

An indiscernible noise sputtered loudly from my lips as I gritted my teeth in an attempt to distract myself from the pain.

"let's go," Itachi said as he turned his back to me and began walking slowly towards the door. I stepped away from the chair, but the minute I could no longer hold onto it for stability, I dropped to the ground once more. My breath was ragged and shallow, I looked up to see that Itachi had stopped, his back to me, just standing there.

In a split second he was gone and I felt myself being lifted from the ground. Like everything else lately, it all happened so quickly that I couldn't comprehend it in real time. I looked up bewildered to see Itachi's cold face, he didn't look at or even acknowledge me, he just continued forward through the doorway, my body draped between his arms.

We traveled through a series of labyrinth-like hallways before we entered a room. He laid me on a bed, my body sinking in gratefully. It was the most comfort I had experienced in what felt like a lifetime. The room was smaller than my previous holding chamber—I assumed it was Itachi's. The décor was simple but elegant to my surprise. Dark mahogany floors stood in contrast to the cream colored walls that were adorned with various weapons and an art piece by Hokusai; The Great Wave of Kanagawa.

"Is that an original?" I asked quietly, realizing halfway through that he would probably prefer I don't talk. Itachi looked at me and followed my eyes to the painting.

"Yes," he stated. There was a silence before he spoke again, "You enjoy his work?"

"He's one of my favorites, brilliant. But how did you get a hold of the original?" I couldn't even help myself.

"I came across it on a mission, I thought it would look better in my room."

"So, you stole it."

"Yes."

I just nodded with an inhale and stared at the ceiling, not much more I could say on the subject. It's not like scolding him would do much good, if anything it would probably get me killed. Itachi, after fumbling through his drawers for a moment, finally pulled out some clothes and laid them at the end of the bed.

"Kakuzu will be in shortly to bandage your wounds." He said with his back to me, shutting the drawers. As he walked out of the room I murmured a thank you. He stopped for a slight moment, then continued out, shutting the door behind him.

I didn't think I had seen Kakuzu yet and judging by the other members of Akatsuki, I couldn't even guess as to what he would be like. I sat in silence with my thoughts as I waited. I was being given clothes and having my wounds treated... so I must have said something right for once. I replayed the conversation in my head on repeat but I couldn't figure out what Pain heard that made me worth keeping alive.