"What the hell!" The blue man's voice faded out and I suddenly landed with a thud. Opening my eyes, I scrambled to my feet and began frantically patting myself all over to make sure I was solid again. Before I even had a chance to process what had happened, a familiar voice shattered my thoughts.

"Can I help you?" The man asked, sounding confused and irritated. It was that same guy from before with the dusty red hair, he was sitting on his bed surveying several scrolls sprawled out across it.

"Oh!" I yelped, taking notice of him. I clapped my hand to my heart and breathed in heavily.

"I'm so sorry, I don't know what just happened." I began sputtering off faster than any human should speak. "There was a blue guy, and he wanted to eat me or something? And I closed my eyes, and now here I am I guess. I'm not sure what happened. Did you see what happened? I don't know anything." I stumbled over my sentences during my severe case of verbal diarrhea, spitting the words through gaps in my heavy breathing.

He just stared at me for an awkward moment before asking, "What?"

"Exactly!" I exclaimed, leaning against the wall, slapping my palm against my forehead. Suddenly the door burst open.

"Hey Sasori, have you seen—"

"Ah!" I shrieked as the blue man came crashing into the room.

"There she is!" he lunged towards me and I leaped out of the way, scrambling under the bed as fast as I could.

"Oh no you don't! I'm hungry!" He grabbed my ankle and yanked me out, causing a terrible pain in my leg. I thrashed around and latched onto the foot of the bed as a last resort.

"Let go!" he yelled over my screams.

"Get off me! I don't want to be eaten!" He suddenly let go, I fell back onto the floor with a thud.

"Wait what? You thought I wanted to eat you?" The man began laughing raucously, his hand on his stomach to ease the apparent pain of how hilarious this all was.

"Well I'm glad one of us is enjoying ourselves..." I said with a pointed look, still breathing heavily.

"I'm hungry, I wanted you to cook dinner," he managed to get out his sentence through boisterous chuckles. I glowered at him for a moment with the slightest hint of humor in my eyes. Maybe it was a tiny bit funny.

"You may want to rethink your phrasing in the future," I noted.

"Hmm I'll consider it," he offered casually which made me think he would most certainly not consider it. He turned his attention to the man on the bed who seemed to just be staring at the situation with mild amusement. "Sasori, you seem to know this girl. Too busy to say anything that might have resolved that whole situation?"

"I'm sorry," I interjected, "did you just call him Sasori? Because I met Sasori and this is not him. Sasori was terrifying." This garnered a chuckle from the supposed Sasori and aquatic man.

"I changed my look," he said with a shrug. "Sorry I'm not more terrifying."

"Ugh!" I threw my arms up in defeat. Could nothing just be simple anymore?

"So she's the one boss was talking about?" The blue one asked Sasori. He nodded.

"I'm Kisame," he said as he reached an arm out for me, "sorry about all of that," he grinned. No he wasn't.

"Izumi," I replied as I took his hand, expecting it to be slimy or something. They were rough, but not wet. I hissed softly through my teeth as I stood. You could faintly see the blood from my wound seeping through the bandages and pants which I hiked up once more. Great, thanks Kisame.

"What's wrong?" Kisame asked as I stumbled when he let go, unaware of my previous torture wounds that he had opened up.

"Just give me a second…" I said, more to myself than to him as I held on to the corner bed post.

I heard Sasori sigh from the bed and shift. Without warning his arm was around my back as he scooped me up.

"You opened her wounds, baka," he tutted at Kisame.

Kisame stared in confusion, following me and Sasori from the room. "What wounds? I didn't know!"

Later that day, Pain held a meeting with all the Akastuki members and me while they were still present within the complex. I had put it together that this organization mostly worked in pairs and were in a constant rotation of missions, meaning you'd never know who would be around at the base at any given time. Exciting or anxiety-inducing? It was too early to tell.

I shifted awkwardly in my seat, suddenly feeling like a minnow surrounded by sharks trapped in a tank as the Akatsuki members filtered into the meeting chamber and took their seats around me.

"I'll make this brief as I know we all have other important business to attend to," Pain began. Konan made her way around the table, quietly serving tea to each member.

"Oh, um, thank you," I said with a little surprise as she delicately poured the steaming liquid into the teacup in front of me. I had always been the one doing the serving, never in my life had someone poured me a cup of tea. She gave me a barely detectable nod before moving across the room and taking her seat beside Pain.

Pain gestured toward me, "This is Izumi. Effective immediately, she is to be considered an asset of The Akatsuki. This means she will not be harmed, on the contrary, her well-being is to be preserved until her function has been fulfilled."

There was a certain rigidness to me as I tried to act natural and drink my tea while being talked about as if I weren't there or even entirely human. I was some sort of temporary collateral that would eventually bring value to them, as long as I could do my part anyway. Pain continued on, explaining my role in detail and what I could, in theory, provide.

I could feel the scrutinizing eyes of every member on me. My mind raced, wondering what they were all thinking. Were they sizing me up? I wasn't much to look at, not compared to a kunoichi, and I got the sense that many of them questioned my usefulness. I couldn't blame them, I had the same doubts. Pain had explained that if I took too long to produce results, the project would be terminated. I assumed that also meant me.

No pressure or anything.

"I trust everyone understands. Are there any questions?" he concluded.

"More of a suggestion, really," Hidan piped up, leaning back in his chair with his hand casually in the air. I scowled at him from my seat, already sensing a rude remark coming my way.

"Shouldn't we put one of those cat bells on her? I mean if she's allowed to just roam around this place freely, we should have something in place to make sure she's not wandering where she shouldn't," Hidan offered with an arrogant smirk, clearly finding himself to be pretty funny.

Pain paused for a moment before responding. "Despite the intended absurdity of that recommendation, I'm not against implementing something along those lines. Maintaining an effective monitoring system will be necessary to protect our investment." My jaw dropped and I snapped a dirty look at the silver-haired man who seemed to very much enjoy my reaction. He smiled broadly and winked in my direction.

"Izumi," Pain addressed me directly and I quickly snapped back to him. "That being said, you are to stay within the confines of this base unless accompanied by an Akatsuki escort. You will not be permitted to enter the lower levels for your own safety. If you disobey any of these guidelines there will be consequences. Do you understand?"

I nodded quickly with a hard swallow.

"If no one else has any questions, we'll adjourn this meeting," Pain finished as he stood, leaving immediately with Konan following close behind. I was thankful that Kakuzu had ushered Hidan away quickly as well. Apparently they were already late to leave for a mission, so that worked out in my favor.

Itachi was the first to approach me as the others began to stand up as well. "It would appear we'll be working closely together," his voice was low and steady. I nodded hesitantly, wondering where he was going with this. He leaned in slightly, lowering his height to be closer to my own and spoke again in an even quieter tone, "I hope you can eventually look past my prior offenses towards you. It was not personal and not something I intend to repeat."

I assumed he was talking about the torture.

Oh suuure, I'm over it already. Not.

He moved past me almost as soon as he finished talking and I just stood there feeling sweaty and out of place.

"Hey yeah, about that, un," Deidara quickly stepped into the space Itachi had just left. "Sorry about the uh, indiscretions or whatever he said, yeah?" he added with a smile.

"You tried to blow my head off," I reminded him bluntly. He looked up and scratched the back of his head and let out a weak, apologetic laugh.

"True," he recalled. "Well like I said, that's my bad. But remember when I got Pain to stop torturing you?" He asked with some hopeful expectancy before quickly following up, "that's gotta count for something, right?"

I knew I shouldn't like him. I had just reminded him that he tried killing me, yet I found myself feeling the need to remind me of that minor detail as well. As messed up as it was to admit, this was probably the most anyone had talked to me in a single day since I could remember and I couldn't help but enjoy the company a little.

"Leave her alone, Deidara," Sasori walked over coolly and chided his partner with a disapproving look. I smiled and gave him a small grateful glance.

"It's okay," I assured with a wave of my hands.

Sasori leaned in quietly to say, "you let me know if he gives you trouble," before making his way toward the door, dragging Deidara behind him.

"Hey kid, looks like you're stuck with us for a while." Kisame jeered with a toothy smile as he began to push me toward the door well, chuckling at my overwhelmed expression. "Can you cook?," he asked. Talk about a one-track mind. A set of glowing yellow eyes followed us intently as we made our way out.

A couple weeks went by and I was feeling more at ease with my new environment. I'd been confined to bed rest for the entire period, depriving me of any sunlight since we were located underground. I felt strange without it, like something was missing about me. Pain said it was my heritage and my connection with nature. However, he wanted me healed quickly so that I could begin the process of remembering, whatever that involved. The only thing I knew about it was that Itachi was the only one capable of digging up my memories after they figured out the whole memory-seal situation. I didn't understand but I was told that I would see why when it happened.

The complex was peaceful most of the time, however I was told that it was rare and not to get used to it. I assumed it was because Hidan and Kakuzu had been away on a long mission and would be arriving back today.

Oh joy.

I spent most of my waking hours reading in the common room since I didn't have an area of my own. "Do you think this is a hotel?" Pain was quick to answer when I first asked. Apparently people needed to be able to keep an eye on me or something. Much to my chagrin, I had also been given a set of anklets with small, gold bells woven into them that chimed every time I even thought about moving, or so it seemed.

Thanks Hidan.

Even without the bells, what was I going to do, escape from a group of highly skilled shinobi? Been there, tried that, didn't work, would not recommend.

"So what's on the menu today, shorty?" Kisame rested his elbow on the top of my head and craned his neck to see into the pot I was stirring. Cooking was one of the things I had been tasked with back home on occasion so I was content to do it for the Akatsuki as well, seeing as none of them seemed too adept.

"None of your business," I stuck my tongue out and brushed him off.

"Aw c'mon, it smells so good though," he whined and gave me the single most frightening pouty face I had ever seen.

"Kisame… first of all, I'm going to need you to never make that face again. Ever. Let's get that straight. Secondly, it's a surprise, so shoo shoo!" I waved my hand at him and he sulked over into the living room, grumbling something about his stomach. It wasn't really a surprise, I just wanted to get rid of him, besides, anyone with a nose could tell it was pork belly ramen night. Within the hour, everyone had filtered into the kitchen.

"It's about time we had a woman in the house, un." Deidara licked his lips while sitting down at the table, everyone else following suit. I shot him a disapproving look, at which he just grinned back. He made comments like that all the time to try to get my goat. I tried to hide my own smirk.

"Is Konan not a woman?" I retorted.

"Well sure, but she doesn't cook, un!" he explained with some frustration.

"So what did you guys do for food before me?" I asked, hands on my hips.

They all just groaned at the thought. I giggled, "Wow, that bad huh?"

Sasori shot me a deadly look, "You have no idea, and I don't even eat. Listening to these guys whine was torture enough..."

Pain and Konan rarely joined what I referred to as "Akastuki family dinner" in my head. They were usually mysteriously busy or absent, and without Hidan and Kakuzu it was pretty easy to feed everyone so I really didn't mind. Speaking of…

"What the fuck! I come back and you're all eating without me!" Hidan burst through the door looking aggressive as usual. Kakuzu followed quietly, slightly perking up at the site of fresh food.

Hello lovelies, I hope you're enjoying so far ^_^ I wanted to give the story a little time to develop before I started shamelessly asking for feedback. What do you think? Any predictions, anyone you want to see Izumi end up with? I know it's still very early and it seems like we've only just begun exploring the Akatsuki behind closed doors. I welcome all questions, comments and personal attacks :)