Yo! I'm back! Ok before we start I want to apologize. This is a really OC oriented chapter. God I'm sorry for this really I am! I swear I'll make it up to you later! Well hope you enjoy and thanks for the reviews!

"Speech"

'Thought'

"Kyuubi"

(Standard Disclaimer)

Chapter 36: Lamb in Dragons Scales

Zaiaku sighed, he had heard the rumors spreading even before the match ended. The fox boy was ensured the victory if the match continued as it had. It stoked Zaiaku's sense of humor, the idiot exhausted himself when he faced Zaiaku. Then he goes all out with whatever scraps he had left and still made the Snow Genin look like a weakling. Well just barely but it was more then enough. Some things Zaiaku could never figure out worth a damn.

Zaiaku sighed as he looked down at the resting Itami. He tried to retain the thoughts but he couldn't help it. Seeing her lie there her eyes closed taking short and shallow breaths from that blasted respirator blocking her lips. 'I told myself I wouldn't think about her like this...' he muttered mentally while his body completely ignored his thoughts by reaching out and brushing his hand through her bright red locks.

It seemed like such a long time ago that they were out on the front line missions ready to die for the village but now...he felt apprehensive. He felt like dying would be a waste even if what Naruto called him was half right. Yin and Yang, the world needed darkness and light.

Zaiaku's right eye twitched as he remembered what he could of Itami's past. People repulsed by her attitude. Sure she was a really rough person on the outside but if you warmed up past her drunken hide you'd find someone who was just hiding. Like a wolf in sheep's clothing she was a lamb in dragons scales.

Zaiaku could almost feel his bloodline eyes spark to life with rage as he thought of Itami's main source of pain. Her parents. Her damned to hell parents. If he could compare them to anyone he'd compare them to parents who pushed their children to far into areas they had no experience in. Those were the kind of people who would ignore a persons true strength in favor of pushing the weak around to 'encourage' them. Speaking of which...

"Itami," came a feminine question versed as a statement from the door. Zaiaku didn't need to turn, he knew that voice anywhere. "She is sleeping. If you want to communicate with her give me the message then leave," Zaiaku said darkly without his eyes leaving the girls resting form. "We want to talk to her now," came a more masculine growl as the two people entered the room.

Towering head and shoulders over Zaiaku was a man dressed in thick ninja armor with a large, jug like, Tokkuri at his waist. On the Tokkuri was a seal much like Itami's Tokkuri. His forest green eyes were dulled with the effect of the Sake in his system and his dark brown hair lay on his head looking soaked with grease. He had to duck under the door frame to make it into the room but when he did Zaiaku could almost vomit from the man's...pungent Sake odor. Itami's Sake breath had NOTHING on this man.

Standing next to the man was a woman, her build smaller and much more slender then the man to the point of true perverted applause. She too wore ninja armor but less of it and a smaller sealed Tokkuri on her waist. Her face was perfect for her body and she looked like an older version of Itami. Her bright red hair was long and lay in a lazy tail as her deep purple eyes scanned the room. Zaiaku snarled as he turned and accentuated each word, "She. Is. Sleeping."

"She has been through worse," the giant male said as he crossed his arms. Zaiaku twitched, "because you have been destroying her slowly since she was born." "What makes you say that? We only encourage her," the female said with a slight Itami style smirk. "Your vision of encouragement is sick..." Zaiaku said with venom on his tongue as he remembered that one day...

Zaiaku walked to the training area as he always had, quiet and contemplative. He sighed when he arrived at the training ground, empty as usual since he was the first to get there. After an hour of thought and waiting he saw his other team mate, the weakling boy approach him. The boy made him sick but he was a teammate none the less and as such he needed to get used to him.

Time passed and Taishou showed up but Itami had yet to appear. It worried Zaiaku but he assumed she was sick. He knew where she lived, all he needed to do was go there after practice...

Zaiaku walked up to the address he remembered the last time he walked Itami home. When he arrived those many days ago it had been silent, probably because it was late and everyone had gone to bed. However the house was filled with ruckus both inside and outside of the house. Zaiaku, using his newly developed stealth snuck into the grounds only to find the racket was being made by Itami who was, at the moment, doing pushups in what looked like casts on her arms.

"Itami! Swifter and more weight!" a large muscular man growled as a woman placed 2 more solid disk weights on Itami's back that added to the already towering stack. Itami grunted then went down for a pushup only to fall with an audible crack that sounded through the yard. "Damn it!" Itami screamed as she coughed spraying a little blood mixed with the carbon dioxide.

The man and woman looked at each other then to their daughter before the large man spoke, "you have five minutes to rest. Use them wisely." Itami groaned as she rolled over causing the weights to slide from her back onto the ground making small holes in the ground.

Zaiaku wasn't dumb, he knew when bones broke from the sound of it. Watching the blatant display of torment, he wanted to jump up and yell at the parents then take Itami away from them but...he couldn't. He knew he wouldn't last a second so in shame he left and never though about it again.

"We only want the best for our daughter," the man growled while Zaiaku clenched his fist tight. "Suiken! That is all you think about! It is a natural talent not a bloodline!" Zaiaku loudly proclaimed with a stamp of his foot causing the room to shake.

"You cannot blame her for not possessing your twisted genes! It is beyond me why she tries to earn your respect but she does. Then you get her hopes up, but you dash that along with anything else she has left!" Zaiaku said while he silently thought, 'I would know because I help her pick up whatever you leave behind.'

"Boy you have no place in out affairs," the man said with a challenging air to him. Zaiaku stood up with his head held high and a dark look in his golden eyes. "Any parent who treats their child as some sort of liability or rag doll for their frustration should be punished in hell for eternity," Zaiaku smirked darkly and added, "I'd gladly do it when I get there but for now I am guarding Itami and she is resting."

"And we intend to wake her up," said the females calm and smooth voice as she reached for Itami's breathing mask. Zaiaku didn't know how or when she got so close to Itami but his hand shot out in a blurred speed stopping the females hand before it met Itami's mask. "She is mortally injured. She needs her rest," Zaiaku said eerily calm, his golden eyes glaring daggers.

Zaiaku felt a large hand wrap itself around the back of his neck and give it a painful squeeze. "If you don't mind," the large man said with a sharp edge to his deep voice. Zaiaku's eye twitched and he let the womans arm go just as the man let his neck free. That didn't mean he was done though, no way in hell.

Zaiaku smirked as his very few remaining coins flew from his person wrapping both the man and woman in their rope like grasp and forcing them from the room without a sound. Zaiaku calmly went to the door, closed it, then locked it with a smirk. Even if those idiots got free from his coin ropes they would have a bitch of a time getting though the door, especially one reinforced with his own coins.

"That wasn't nice Zai-kun," came a soft voice from behind him. His eyes opened wide as he turned and saw, semi-awake on her bed, Itami looked at him with her one open eye. Zaiaku smiled and sat down next to Itami with a sigh. "You gave me a hell of a scare..." Zaiaku said with a light laugh as Itami's slight smile began to grow.

"Only you?" Itami asked which caused Zaiaku to shift in his seat a bit. "Eh well us. You know Naruto and Taishou. Taishou had to interrupt the match to stop Katsu from killing you," Zaiaku said throwing Itami off. Itami felt a pang in her chest and it wasn't the broken ribs. She was close, she knew it. "What about you?" Itami asked with a slight questioning tone, "that bastard screwed up my vision with all those attacks so I can't see straight. Are you ok?"

Zaiaku smiled lightly to himself as his hand went to the large burn mark on his chest where Naruto had drilled two consecutive Rasengan into him. Oh it had hurt like hell but in his mind he always remembered worse and it would numb itself onto a dull throb. He considered it his own clan technique that was developed through his...unique training, but he kept that to himself. "I'm fine," Zaiaku said with a soft voice, "after the match Naruto gave me half of a pill to give you when you woke up. It'll help you heal faster then normal medicine can provide."

Zaiaku pulled the small golden pill from his pocket and with the swiftest of his ninja skill he lifted Itami's breathing mask and gave her the golden half pill. He swiftly let the mask back down as she bit into the pill then swallowed it. Itami cringed, it wasn't that particularly tasty but Zaiaku was right about it's abilities. She could feel the rush of chakra forcing her bones to begin mending faster and her larger cuts sealing more rapidly.

"How do you feel?" Zaiaku asked softly while Itami gave the best shrug she could and said, "better then a hangover." Zaiaku shook his head, Itami was still Itami. "Zaiaku," Itami said in the same soft tone she had been using but this sounded more...vulnerable. It was rare for her to use this tone but most of her ribs were crushed and along with the fact that she had something weighting on her chest. This weight wasn't of the physical kind either.

"I heard what you said to my parents," Itami said with a slight smile. Zaiaku turned away feeling heat creep up into his cheeks. This was now on the top list of foreign things that had happened to him. If he didn't know better he could swear he was blushing but that wasn't him, no where near. Zaiaku held himself high and turned, ignoring the heat in his cheeks completely fooling himself.

Itami would have died happy had she known her comment had sparked a bright red blush on the face of her teammate. As it was she didn't know because her eyes were still unfocused from Katsu's attacks. "It's the truth," Zaiaku said his blush fading quickly, "when they're in hell I'll take what they did to you and make it tenfold to them."

Itami shook her head and said, "Zai-kun...it's not their fault I was born...faulty." Zaiaku's face twisted into an angry glare and he said, "Itami never say that. I for one am glad you don't posses their sick genes." Itami blinked, her vision slowly being corrected by the pill she had taken earlier. She turned her gaze to Zaiaku seeing the huge burn hole in his chest where Naruto's two Rasengan had broken past his coin barrier and scorched him with their cyclonic power.

Itami's eyes jumped open and she yelled, which at the moment was a normal voice for her, "That's what you call not hurt?" Zaiaku blinked then realized her eyes must be back to normal and he placed a hand on the burn on his chest. "I'm fine Itami. After all haven't I had worse?" Zaiaku said his head still turned down looking at his hand on his burning scar.

Suddenly he saw Itami's pale hand reach from the bed and lay itself on his roughed gloved hand. Zaiaku blinked then looked up to see Itami who was silently thanking whatever higher power there was that most of her face was covered by the breathing mask. "Zai-kun that is no excuse. You can't always take the pain and throw your life away because it doesn't seem like anything. To someone it just might be...everything..." Itami speech faded as her eye contact with Zaiaku drifted from his eyes to the sheets of her bed.

Damn the doctors for taking away her Tokkuri bottle. She needed it to live damn it! Besides...without it she couldn't mask anything behind her drunkenness. "People care about you, they don't want you to die," Itami said audibly gulping, this was much harder without her liquid courage. Zaiaku began to sweat, Itami sat here with her hand on his speaking about people who cared about him. This couldn't be going where he thought it was...

"Zai-kun...I..." Itami began only to have a simple and short knock on the door. 'OH DAMN IT!' Itami screamed in her mind. If it was her parents then damn whatever they thought about her to hell! She didn't care anymore! Itami mulled this over while she felt the killer intent radiate off Zaiaku in waves that were growing stronger and stronger.

"I already told you to leave..." Zaiaku said with a menacing tone as he removed his and Itami's hand from his burn. "What?" came a voice from the other side of the door proving that it wasn't Itami's parents. Zaiaku slowly opened the door with his coins and found that standing in the doorway was Tsunade the Hokage with a sorrowful look on her face.

"Sorry to barge in like this but...since I was tending to the injured I thought you two should know," Tsunade said not giving the two any room to question why the Hokage was talking to them in person. "Naruto won his match of course," Tsunade said with a small smile. Zaiaku grinned while Itami adopted her classic smirk, they knew the idiot could do it. "But..." Tsunade began as she turned her head to the side, "after the match your Jounin sensei was attacked by Naruto's opponent. He was killed..."

Itami just sat there, she couldn't believe it. Their sensei who had cared for them the day they were assigned to him, the man who had treated them as his little brother and sister making stupid jokes all day. He was dead. "How...what happened?" Itami asked from behind her mask slowly finding it becoming useless as the pill took greater effect. In response to this she took it off while Tsunade explained what happened.

"Katsu, Naruto's opponent, caught him off guard right after the match. Like Taishou, Katsu is from the Sound. After Taishou told everyone that, Katsu made sure every one of his internal organs was turned to soup," Tsunade said with a darkened glare into nothingness. Itami stared in disbelief then slowly turned her gaze to the ever silent Zaiaku.

Zaiaku's killer intent grew and began to reach proportion that might even rival Kyuubi in power. The man he called his brother, his father, EVERY male role model that was ever in his existence was killed. He wasn't there to stop it either. Katsu was easy enough to hold off with his barrier of coins but...he wasn't there. Zaiaku slowly stood up with his fists clenched and his chakra spiking to levels that installed fear into most ninja on the level.

"Where is he..." Zaiaku growled while Tsunade stared into the raging tempest that was Zaiaku's eyes without a flinch. Someone was going to die...PAINFULLY. "He fled for the North exit. The Kazekage is in pursuit as we speak," Tsunade said seeing that nothing was going to stop the revenge of this ninja. Zaiaku nodded before slowly repressing his chakra and turning to Itami.

Zaiaku's golden orbs stared into Itami's emerald green ones, asking a silent question that only she could figure out. Itami stat dumbfounded for a second until she realized...Koumansa. If this Sound Genin was powerful enough to take Taishou sensei by surprise AND give Naruto a run for his money then Zaiaku needed to be at top form. Itami looked away but gave a soft nod a feeling of dread as her head moved up and down.

She expected something, words of goodbye, his hand on her head, but what she didn't expect was him leaning down next to her bed and wrapping his arms around her in a comforting hug. Itami blinked, he had never shown this much emotion. She was the one who always started these emotional things...but it didn't matter if he didn't come back. She hugged him back with what strength she had and in the softest whisper she said, "thank you...for everything." Zaiaku held her closer and said, "you're welcome...thank you too Itami."

Zaiaku slowly pulled away from Itami's warm embrace with a stern glare on his face toward the window. "I'll take him down Itami, I swear it," Zaiaku said as he leapt out the window and for the North exit of Konoha ready to extract his revenge. Itami couldn't do anything but watch him go as a single silent tear made its way down her face, the Hokage long gone leaving her alone in this cold room. At least until her parents came...something that, for once in her life, she was looking forward to. How to compact 15 or so years of hell into about an hour of retaliation? But first... "Where the hell is my damn Tokkuri!"

End Chapter

Sorry once again about this being an OC chapter but I swear, next chapter is gonna have Gaara as a big part of it. If I'm lyin I'm diyin! Time for Q and A!

Q: What is Harem? (a while back)

A: It is, in the world of fan fiction and most anywhere, when either a male or female has several wives/husbands instead of one. I personaly find SOME Naruto/Harem fics interesting but nothing to REALLY keep my eye on.

Q: Itami's tolerence?

A: I have set it up as she has such a control over her limit that she keeps at the constant balance of intoxication and sobriety. However once the Sake is gone she can advance into shock or if she has to much it gets her drunk.

Q: Naruto'sindiscretion of Chakra?

A: Ok I have no straight answer here. In SO MANY fics I have read of Narutos ultimately endless supply of chakra and I watch myself so closely on that aspect that I think I go overboard sometimes. Sometimes I attempt to give myself an excuse as to the chakra issue but I think it boils down to my over caution. I apologize and I'll look over it more closely now...eh you know what I mean. If you see any more chakra dissruptions in the fic just let me know and Ill fix it the best I can.

Well that's it for now. Time for a preview then I am gone! Happy new year!

"Katsu, I don't believe I've had the pleasure of kicking your ass today," Zaiaku's voice rose from the dust that had been kicked up. His chakra flared to it's normal levels and even higher thanks to the halfpill Naruto had given him. "Let's rectify that," Zaiaku said with a sneer as he charged Katsu, his eyes pure gold with a black cross pupil.