Disclaimer: refer to chapters 1 & 2

Chapter 9: Disagreements and a message

Darkness had fallen and everyone was settling down to make camp. It had been a long day. We had walked the whole way, because the old man couldn't keep up if we had done anything faster. Then, we had to stop because the man threw up all over Sakura. It sucked.

I wanted to be happy, I really did, but I couldn't. I have put a mask up over my face and I act as if nothing disturbing has ever happened to me. Whenever I talked, my voice would croak, I was surprised that nobody questioned me about it.

I sat down on a log, not straying too far away from camp. I could see in the distance Sasuke trying to start a fire. Naruto was greedily opening up his packages of ramen. Sakura wasn't there, she was changing into some other clothes. Kakashi was sitting down, talking to Tazuna about the village he lived in.

I heaved a sigh and closed my eyes. How could I go on living like this? Just a year ago I had wanted to become a history teacher, now I'm throwing it away for what that jerk wants. I wanted to tell Sasuke about it- about everything. But, shouldn't I be fine with telling him about the statement Itachi told me to tell him? I would think so…Itachi isn't an idiot. He wouldn't let something like that he didn't want said.

"Hey, why are you over here?"

My eyes fluttered open. In front of me was Sasuke. "Because…" I said, letting it trail off.

Sasuke sat himself down on the same log that I was sitting on. "You've…been acting really strange today."

I nodded slowly.

"I don't know how to say it, but it's like there's a new air of feeling floating about you now. An air of defiance…of anger."

I stayed silent.

"What happened to you?" he asked gently.

I decided to change the subject. "Sasuke…will you please listen to me and tell me if you understand what I'm about to say to you?" I asked quietly.

He nodded.

I took a deep breath before I made the plunge. "Your brother is impatiently waiting for you to grow stronger."

A gasp escaped from him. He flicked his eyes at me and I realized that his eyes were growing with anger. He shot out and grabbed my wrist. "Who told you this?!" he hissed between his teeth. "Tell me!"

I grabbed the same wrist that held me. "You tell me what's going on!" I spat angrily back at him.

"Who was it?! Have you met Itachi?!" he yelled, ignoring my actions.

"What's going on?!" an angry voice yelled. I felt myself letting go of Sasuke and vise versa. I was lifted up into the air. "Speak, now!"

I ignored Kakashi. I looked up into the eyes of Sasuke and glared dangerously at him. Some friend.

Kakashi shook us. "Speak!"

"Let me go," I answered quietly.

But, Kakashi held me in place.

I began to kick and flail my fists about. "I said: let me go!" I yelled.

Kakashi dropped me to the floor. I took off and headed towards the woods.

Kakashi turned to Sasuke. "We need to talk."

Sasuke darted his eyes away from him.

Kakashi set him down on the log gently. Sasuke bowed his head and looked away. Kakashi kneeled in front of him. "Sasuke, why were you two yelling about Itachi?" he asked firmly.

Sasuke grunted and folded his arms. "Why are you so interested now in my personal business?"

"Look at me!" he said sharply.

Sasuke tore his eyes away and looked at Kakashi.

"Talk," he commanded.

"She- she knew about-Argh! Never mind! It'd be pointless trying to talk to you anyway!" Sasuke jumped up into the trees.

Kakashi sighed. This was going nowhere.

Just then, Naruto ran towards him. "Ano sa! Sensei! There's a falcon flying over us! It keeps kawing and kawing and won't go away!" he whined. "Can you please make it go away?! It's killing my ears!"

A falcon? Kakashi thought. Shouldn't those birds be away from human camps? Unless…

"Naruto!"

"What?" he asked in a bored tone of voice.

"Look at the falcon and check if it has a scroll attached to one of his legs! Quickly!"

Naruto rushed off. As soon as he had gone, he had come back, panting and sweating. Kakashi sat on the log. "So?"

Naruto saluted. "Hai!"

Kakashi got up and ran to the camp. He ignored Sakura's: "Do you know where Zeni-chan is? Sasuke-kun is gone also!" He looked overhead, and just as Naruto had told him, there was a falcon flying above. Kakashi whistled loudly. The falcon heard it and dove at him, landing on his shoulder. Curious, Kakashi carefully untied the scroll from the falcon's leg.

The falcon refused to go, however, so Kakashi let it eat Naruto's ramen. That didn't go very well with Naruto.

Kakashi went close to the fire and opened the scroll. His eyes scanned the paper intensly. All of a sudden, he jumped up. "Sakura!"

Sakura was examining the bird when she heard her sensei call. She stood up. "Yes, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Find Zeni!"

Sakura blinked. "W-why?"

"Hurry! Naruto!"

Naruto stopped harassing the falcon about his ramen and ran over to Kakashi. "What?"

"Go with Sakura!"

"Really? Being in a dark forest alone with Sakura-chan is perfect!" he cheered.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "C'mon."

"Yes, Sakura-chan!"

With that, they ran into the woods, going to search for me.

Oh my gosh! I'm SO VERY sorry, xl-black-tears-lx for forgetting to recognize you in the reviwer responses! I'm SO sorry! Please forgive me!

Reviewer Responses:

Neogem: /nods head/ yeah, he is...thank you for your compliments!

lukeluke: Thank you for your compliments! You're probably disappointed with this chapter, so sorry.

kie-san: Thank you for your compliments!

Flamegoddessthe9th: Thank you for your compliments. Was this soon enough?

Kausi: Sorry about that.

swt-angel-babi3: Thank you for your compliments. Was this soon enough?

Legna03: Yes, poor, poor Zeni. Thank you for your compliments and about how you like my story so much that it's one of your favorites!

krn-kimbap: I dunno...maybe we'll find out at the end of the story.../hands krn-kimbap tissue/

Blue Savage: Of course! Who can't turn down a good SasukexOC?

Monkey Shoes: Well, it wasn't right off the bat that she started to become 'happy' when Naruto told her about the ramen. It was when she saw that she hurt Naruto's feelings. I mean, who couldn't feel sorry for Naruto when you see his hurt face? And it's true about her being a happy character!

Lux Aeterna 93: Wow, you really like this story, don't you? Ok, so you're a newbie (well, I'm a newbie too but um...yeah...) Ok, so you wanna know how to upload a story? First, go to Document manager on your log in page. Do everything that it tells you there. Once you are done with that, go back to your side bar and click on Create a Story. Then, fill out all of those like things that instructions say to! Hope this helps! If you're still having troubles, then, no worries! Send me a review telling me. Thank you for your compliments.

Hiya! Irukapooka speaking! /taps microphone/ Does this work?

Sasuke: /Nods/

Oh good! Okay, guys, this chapter was hurriedly done because I needed to get to the point. I mean, this story is gonna be so long that I might have to divide it into two stories!

Sasuke: Trust me, it is pretty long.

So, I created this sloppy chapter just to get to the point. Sorry that I was so impatient, but I wanted to hurry and write this up since all of you kind readers were patiently waiting!

Zeni: That's right!

The next chapter will be a lot better, I promise! Something very spiffy's gonna happen between Zeni and Sasuke...um...somewhat...

Zeni: /glares at Irukapooka/ What do you mean?!

Um...

Sasuke: /cracks knuckles/

Eeeeeeeeeeep! Okay, fine. There's really no romance, but now, Sasuke will finally understand what's going on...

Sasuke: About what?

/hits head on desk/ Just wait and see. Oh! By the way, if any of you guys have been reading 'Life', it was updated a few days ago!

Yondaime: Yay! I'm gonna come back to life!

/Irukapooka pulls Yondaime out/ You're not in this fic!

Zeni: When will the next update be on that?

Very soon! Since it's the one that is doing most successful right now, I'm working on that one a lot more, plus, it's very fun to write! /sighes/ Okay, we better wrap this up, the author's note is becoming longer than the chapter.

Zeni: Please review!

Sasuke: Remember, the more reviews she gets, the sooner she'll update!

Ja ne!