Disclaimer: Naruto isn't my creation...but this story is! MUHAFU! XD

Note: How am I coming out with these so fast? Because I have up to Chapter 9 already written up...XD

Chapter Three

Itachi and I were out of our sleeping bags and in a fighting stance quicker than lightning. "Anxious aren't we?" the voice came from behind us now. Itachi spun around so we now stood back to back.

"Who are you!" Itachi demanded.

"Who am I?" he mocked. His voice doubled…

"I am one to be feared by the likes of you." Instantly, I hit the tree across from me. I cringed from the pain, this guy was fast…and he knew who we were.

"Your nothing," the man spat at my face. That did it, I wasn't going to be called nothing, not after all I had been through. I looked up, to see a figure surrounded by darkness, and two other figures battling it out on the other side of the clearing.

I spit out the blood in my mouth, and glared at the man as I stood up. "That's more like it. Show me what you've got."

Now, I was mad, and I wasn't going to be pushed around by some guy who thought he was the all-mighty ruler of the world. I took a fighting stance, and instantly appeared behind him, punching where he should have been standing. A light push hit me in the back. He was behind me. I had to go faster. I knew I could.

I spun around in the blink of an eye, and threw punch after punch aiming at his critical points, he blocked most of them, but a few hit. I flipped backward, catching my breath slightly, and then charged at him again, striking him in the hand, and then kicking him in the stomach, his hand clasped around my ankle, and I hit another tree.

Why am I not fast enough…? At that moment, an overwhelming pain overcame me. Though it began in my chest, in mere seconds overcame my entire body.

I wanted to scream, but I couldn't! I couldn't do anything! All I did was sit there, in excruciating pain. It almost seemed like something was being carved into my body, my very soul, my very DNA.

I struggled to stand up, I couldn't lose this fight. No, I wouldn't lose.

Through the pain, I stood up, and as soon as I did that, I felt different. Something other than the pain was there, a burst of the utmost energy. A power unlike one I had ever felt.

"Standing again, are we?" the man asked. "I didn't expect you to get back up after a blow like that."

"And why not?" I asked, swiftly standing behind him.

He hastily turned around, throwing a kunai at him, I grabbed it instantly, and promptly threw it back. He ducked, and it buried itself deeply into the tree.

The man turned at me, pulling his arm back he threw all of his might forward, I caught his hand, and swerved, throwing him into the tree.

The pain decreased slightly, but there was still a light burn in my chest, and I still felt different, and stronger than ever before.

Itachi rapidly appeared behind me, "I had the clone," he whispered, and we stared at the figure standing up from the tree.

We heard a slight laugh, and then he vanished, as though he turned into the wind, itself.

I felt the power disappear from myself, as I stood in confusion.

"Superb," the man said, the voice seemed to come from no place in particular.

Itachi and I took fighting stance. We were ready for whatever this guy was going to throw at us.

"But, I must say that if you want to fight," he began. In an instant a group of five people jumped down from the trees and surrounded us, "We can fight. I can't ensure your safety, so I have a deal."

Itachi lowered his kunai slowly, "State your deal first."

I sensed the man's smile. I assumed that he was the leader if he was the only one doing the talking in this group.

"Well, I must say that you are going to have to trust us, and come with us, or your friend here…let's just say it's not going to be a fun night for her."

Without warning, one of the group members, had a hand over my mouth, and the other wrapped around my waist.

Itachi stared at me, panic covered his eyes. The only problems with this was that Itachi never panics.

He looked at where the leader stood, and almost instantly said, "We'll come with you, just release her."

"If you two try anything funny during this journey, trust that you will be killed. I can trust you are planning anything?" Itachi nodded. "Alright, release Kirei-chan."

I breathed in deeply as the hands released me. "Now, we are going to travel back to the base. Everything will be explained there," he added, glancing at Itachi and I.

"Hai," we replied in unison.

> >

For much of that journey, there was no talking, we traveled in silence. I didn't see much of anything either, you could say, since both Itachi and I were blindfolded and carried the whole way. Personally, I know for those few days I was far to scared to speak, request or even do anything. All I did was eat the food given to me and follow any orders I received.

This was also the first time that I had enough time to think and actually realize how much I missed all of my family and Konoha. I wanted to go back…I missed that village, I think even more than my family. That village itself was my family…

I heard a thump near me, and right after I heard it, I was thrown to the ground. "Untie their blindfolds," I heard the same man say. His voice was still the only voice I heard…

The place where the blindfold had sat felt uncommonly cool, I looked around the room carefully, but I still couldn't see anything. The room was pitch black.

A light of some source came from the other side of wherever we were, I and I could finally make out some of the features of the people around me.

"Welcome to Akatsuki," the man laughed slightly, "You can refer to me as Leader. I am the head of this organization, and so you can assume that I can kill you easily if you do anything to displease me."

Itachi's face showed confusion, and Leader must have noticed this because he started to explain, "Akatsuki is an organization of S-ranked criminals who are Missing Nin. I have picked you and Kirei to join us, since I see a lot of strength and ability in both of you."

"Then what's the point of this organization?" Itachi asked, distrust was lain all over his face.

"I cannot tell you yet. Nobody you see standing around you know. The upper group does, but I have to admit, I have do intention of telling any of you lower members our purpose just yet. Trust me, if you do what I say, you'll help, and our goals will be accomplished."

"W-what do you mean, 'lower group'?" I shuddered. I was afraid of these people, of this group…

"You're afraid aren't you?" Leader asked, menacingly. "You're afraid of all of us, you don't want to be here. You have doubts, am I right? Doubts of leaving your village."

I shook my head, "I don't have any doubts about leaving."

"Kirei, you lie, and you know it. I don't want anymore lying, or something bad might happen in your future." I glared at him, anger was filling up in me. "Now, I'llanswer your question. There are now ten members in Akatsuki, four are in the upper group, including myself. You are all most likely more powerful then them, but they are in this more important group for a reason. You won't be meeting them anytime soon either. The six of you are in the lower group, meaning you carry out important tasks for us. This is why you are in the lower group, because you are stronger." He turned around sharply, "I have a meeting, introduce yourselves, you'll be working together a lot. Figure out your groups." Then, Leader just disappeared.

One of the people stood up from where he was sitting across the room, he snapped, and the lights flickered on to reveal a large white painted room. It was split into two sections, there was a kitchen, and a couch with a large TV. I looked at the other side of the room, where I saw a hallway.

"Nice and cozy?" a person asks, and I quickly diverted my attention to him. "That's better. Now, let's do some introducing like Leader suggested?" He only looked at Itachi and I, even though all the other members where also there, and watching.

He looked like he was only about 15 years old. Blonde hair covered his head. Though he had a fair complexion, his bright green eyes showed resentment. His stare made me shiver.

"I'm Sasori," he added, "I'm the captain of our quite large lower group. My partner is the blonde girly-looking guy standing behind you both." Both Itachi and I turned to look at this guy. His appearance was feminine, and blonde bangs covered one of his eyes. The rest of his hair was pulled back into a pony-tail.

"I don't look like a girl. You look like a girl, hmm?" he replied.

"Deidara…I don't want to make them wait. You know I hate that," Sasori said, flatly.

"Yeah boss. Over there, hmm," Deidara said pointing over to a person whose head was inside of what looked like a venus fly trap looked over at us for a moment then turned away once more, "That's Zetsu, he travels alone, hmm?" Deidara lowered his voice, "Don't get on his bad side, he likes to…er…eat people, hmm?"

Itachi and I looked at each other, and twitching looked away. I definitely wouldn't get on his bad side, I would be too afraid to after hearing that…

"I'm Hoshigaki Kisame," another guy said. He had no only bluish hair, but bluish skin with what looked like gills on the side of his face, on his back, he carried a large sword. "And this," he added, smiling, "Is my blade, Samehada."

I smiled at him slightly, I really should have known that there wouldn't be any girls…not in a group like this.

"New members?" Zetsu said, from nowhere.

"Yes, it would seem so," Zetsu said, his voice changing slightly.

"Too bad we can't have a nice meal…"

Everyone slightly turned away from him, I noticed that they were obviously almost afraid of him as well. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be eaten by a venus fly trap…that would just be weird.

Sasori took over the speech again. "Leader paired me with Deidara, and requested that Zetsu travels alone. I'll put you three in a group. Kisame, you can show them around." Sasori said, turning around.

"Sasori-danna!" Deidara said, following him. "What should we make for dinner, we haven't had anything good to eat in a while, hmm?"

"Since you always say you're art is best, you make it."

"You're actually admitting my art is better than yours, hmm!" Deidara asked joyfully.

Sasori rolled his eyes, "No, I'm telling you that you think yours is better, and I don't feel like making any dinner, so you are."

Kisame sighed, "They're always arguing, well lemme show you around I guess. Oh, you and two will get the 'Official Akatsuki Coats' in the next few days, at the

moment, they are on mail order. Well…actually I don't know where Leader gets these coats…" He seemed to think for a moment.

"Anyways, this is the lower groups living quarters we are in at the moment, this is the living room slash kitchen. We have a lot of stuff in here for when we don't have missions, Leader figured that if we weren't training or on a mission, which is really rare, we should have somewhere to relax. Anyways, Itachi-san, Kirei-san, follow me."

He turned on his heel, and headed toward the hallway. "That door at the real end, leads to the Akatsuki Headquarters. Step out that big fancy door, and you'll be in the entrance hall, we'll all show you around there later." Itachi and I both nodded slowly.

"Let's see, this first door, is Sasori's and Deidara's room," he said pushing the door open, and peaking inside. "Like always, it's clean. That what you get when you put two art freaks in a room. This entry room, is well…just their art room, really. They have their separate rooms, and bathroom back that hall in the center."

Kisame closed the door, and walked down the hall a few steps, and opened a door on the opposite side of the hallways. He threw the door open, "This is Zetsu's room. Notice all the venus fly traps in here…I'm starting to think that he just has a think against flies or something. Maybe a one poin the had a run-in with that Aburame clan or something. He has his own suite, so he gets two rooms to himself." Kisame closed the door, and opened the next door.

"This is our room…it's kinda messy at the moment," he added, pushing the door open. We all followed him inside. There was a large fish tank covering one side of the wall. I twitched. These people seemed to be very obsessive.

We followed Itachi down the small hallway in the suite, "This is my room," he said, pushing open another door open, "And this will be your two's room. As soon as we steal the extra bed from Zetsu's room…and take all my stuff out of it." He pushed another door open at the end of the hallway, "And last, the bathroom." He looked at me awkwardly, "I'm going to propose I deal with you, Kirei-san….no extremely girly things, please?"

"What's in that for me! That's not a deal!"

"Uh…how about…either you go with that, or we feed you to Zetsu for dinner?"

"Okay…no girly things," I said laughing nervously.

> >

"Kirei-san! Help us with your bed!" I heard Kisame yell from the Zetsu's room. The only reason I was just getting my bed now, after being here for about three weeks was because Zetsu was gone on some mission for Leader, and we all guessed this would be the safest time to get the bed.

"Are you trying to say that four guys can't pick up some bed frames and a mattress!" I yelled into the hall from one of the couches in the living room. They didn't answer, so I guessed that they were going to try to figure this out without my help. But, curiosity overcame me, and I sat in the hallway, watching the four of them struggled with the bed, and trying not to move any of Zetsu's belongings.

Finally, I followed them into our room, and watched as they miserably put together my bed.

"Happy now, hmm?" Deidara asked.

Sasori sighed, "At least she can't complain about not having a bed anymore…"

"Well you know what, I can find other things to complain about, and I can go move something around in Zetsu's room, and tell him that you all did it."

"You wouldn't really do that, would you Kirei-san…?" Kisame asked, I noticed the panic that touched his voice.

I laughed, "Like hell I would!"

"Well, let's get cleaned up in here, Kirei, you won't be sleeping on the couch anymore, so let's move your things in here so nobody trips over them anymore."

"THAT WASN'T MY FAULT!" Kisame pleaded with Itachi. "I swear she moved something while I wasn't looking! Or…something like that."

"Admit it, Kisame. You tripped," Sasori said.

"Yeah, yeah, SHUT UP PUPPET-BOY!"

"What did you call me!"

"Puppet-boy!" Kisame taunted.

"You wanna take this outside!" Sasori asked, laughing.

"Hey! What about me, hmm!" Deidara yelled.

Itachi suddenly stepped into the middle, and pushed Sasori and Kisame in the face. They both fell to the ground, as he said, "Break it up…geez. Morons."

I laughed, and kneeled down beside Sasori, "Sasori-kun, are you alright? Are you hurt? Did you die?" I asked sarcastically.

"Hey, hey, HEY! WHAT ABOUT ME!" Kisame yelled, sitting up.

I looked over at him for a moment, "You're alive?" I asked slowly, "I'm sorry, you looked like you were dead…Anyways, are you sure your okay Sasori!"

"That's all I would get if I came back from the dead!" Kisame asked under his breathe.

"Yup," I replied, winking at him. I stood up, "Itachi, would you like to help me make lunch for everyone?"

"Er…sure," he replied slowly, as he followed me toward the kitchen as the other guys turned on the TV.

> >

I was sitting, watching TV, waiting for the first meeting I got to go to. It's was kind of sad actually, since Itachi and I had been in Akatsuki for almost a month now, this was the first meeting we got to go to. I had been training hard with the guys everyday, so I would get stronger. I needed to be stronger to stay in his league. I had to stay here, since there was no way I could go back to Konoha.

I heard a door open, and I glanced down the hallway to see Zetsu walk through the door. This was the first time I had seen him since the first week I had been here.

I stood up hastily, "Welcome back, Zetsu-senpai," I said bowing.

"Yeah." Was the only reply I got from him, he turned into his room. To tell you the truth, I didn't expect to see him for a while. He probably had permission to sleep through today's meeting or something.

The couch was calling to me, so I sat down again. There was still a half-hour until I even needed to leave for the meeting. Forty-five minutes to go…how could I possibly wait that long?

"Are you bored too?" Itachi asked, sitting down next to me.

"H-how did you get there!" I screeched, blushing.

He shrugged, "I've missed the way we used to be…" Itachi said slowly. He cupped my chin, and lifted my lips to his. He kissed me softly, but pulled away more quickly than he started as Kisame walked into the room.

"Hey! Was something going on in here that I should know about?" he asked carefully.

I almost snorted, "Hell no."

Kisame shrugged, "Anyways, good news. Your 'Official Akatsuki Member Coat' has finally arrived. I still have no idea where Leader gets those things…or why it takes so long to order and get them in…It will forever be a mystery."

Another door opened, and I glanced down the hallway once more, Sasori and Deidara stepped out of there room, "Let's get going. It's always best to be in the meeting hall long before Leader or the upper group," Sasori said, opening the front door, and stepping out into the entrance hall.

Itachi and I both stood up rather fast, and followed them out into the entrance hall. It looked like Itachi was just as excited about this as I was.

When Kisame closed the door behind us, Sasori turned to face Itachi and I. "Some advice for you. When you leave that room for either a mission or a meeting, you become serious. Leave the humor in there." I nodded as Sasori told us this. I also noticed the change in his voice, he had already become serious. He was the same as he was when we were all just playing around.

"Also, I would recommend that you don't talk unless your spoken to during your first few meetings, it's considered disrespectful, and you will be punished for it. Oh, and be sure to follow everyone else's lead," he added.

I followed the rest of my group to the meeting room, where it seemed that we sat forever, waiting for the rest of the Akatsuki members. The meeting room was basically just part of the cave. He all sat on rocks, or stood…

Eventually, the upper group came in, and took their seats. Shortly after they arrived, Leader walked in, and I took Sasori's advice, and followed the lead of everyone else. I stood when Leader walked in, and sat when he sat.

He nodded at Itachi and I. "I'm sure the rest of you have heard of our new members, Uchiha Itachi and Moeru Kirei. Kirei being the only female, and the youngest in our group, will be left out of some of the things we participate in. Even if she is stronger than others here. Kirei, do you understand?" I nodded slowly.

"Kirei is of the Moeru clan, which will do us a lot of good with her Kabau. Itachi is of the Uchiha clan, he processed the Sharingan, and the now updated Mangekyou Sharingan."

What's my Kabau? I hadn't ever heard of it… Now, not only was I going to be left our because I was the youngest and a female, but I also didn't know what my Kabau was. I shook my head, breaking my trance.

Leader had begun speaking again, "Shortly after this meeting, we are going to split into our groups, and travel in search for powerful jutsu. Akatsuki is going to become powerful, and we are going to do this by capturing all the tailed beasts. One for each member, excluding Kirei. But right now, your only mission is to gather as much information as you can in two months about the tailed beasts as possible. You are then to return, and report this information to me. Also while you are out on this mission, I would like some of the strong individuals who might stand in our way to be defeated. Each group will receive a list of these individuals before they leave. Dismissed." Leader stood up, and left the cave-meeting-room.

I waited for the upper group to stand and leave, and after they did. I also stood, and followed my group out. We walked in silence back to our rooms.

After we stepped into our room, and the door was closed, Sasori called out instructions, "Groups are to be back and ready to go at 4 A.M. tomorrow morning. We all depart at 4:15. You'll receive your lists then."

He looked relaxed now, and now I had my chance to ask him my question. "Sasori-kun…?"

He glanced down at me, "Hm?"

"Uh, what is my Kabau that Leader was talking about…?"

Sasori seemed to think for a moment, "To tell you the truth, I dunno." He smiled slightly, "You forgive me, right?"

"Of course," I replied, grinning at him. I pushed him in the shoulder, and he shoved me back. I laughed. This was my new life, and I was starting to like it. I enjoyed

being around these people…somehow, they all understood me, and they were all some of the best people to be around. At least when we were in our living quarters.