Diclaimer: Naruto is a retard, thank god he won't show up for a while. Yeah, and Naruto isn't mine...life sucks, ne?

Note: Sorry that took a while, I haven't been home for three days...XD

Chapter Five

We now had a week until this mission was over. We were spending that week in Konoha. Which I can't say that I was too happy about. That was the last place I wanted to go to. I sure didn't want to see everybody again…and how were we supposed to go in there anyways without being noticed?

I didn't know how we were going to pull it off…

"Konoha is just a place to take a break before we get back, okay?" Kisame said to us. "We don't tell Leader. He doesn't have to know. Plus, we've already collected more than enough jutsu. Especially from the Fire Country."

"So why do we have to stay in Konoha?" Itachi asked, irritation rang in his voice.

"Is it so wrong to want to see where you to came from?" Kisame pouted.

I shook my head, "I wouldn't mind seeing home anyways." That was such a lie. I didn't want to go back there. Never. "But how do we get in without being noticed?"

"Easy! Henge no jutsu! (Transformation Technique)" Kisame said smiling.

I stared at him, "What are you? Crazy! That's never going to work! Everyone will see right through us!"

He just tut tuted under his breath, "You have no confidence. Just trust me."

Personally, I didn't think that sounded like such a good idea. At least, that's what I had learned from this mission. Trusting Kisame, well, that wasn't always such a good idea…

> >

"Okay, Konoha is just ahead," Kisame said looking at his map.

"Uh, Kisame, you do know that Itachi and I know that, right? We've lived here almost our whole lives."

Kisame looked at me, "Eh heh…right. I knew that."

"Liar…" Itachi whispered under his breath.

"Shut up!" Kisame yelled. He twitched for a moment, and then spoke again with a relatively calm voice. "Anyways, just transform into someone that might look like someone from Konoha."

I stared at him, "Duh." Was my only reply.

Itachi suddenly spoke up, "We'll all be members of the Retsu Clan. They were many of them in that Fire Country Village we passed through. We can be those three siblings we saw or something…"

He transformed into one of the siblings that we had killed, Rai. Kisame shrugged, and transformed into Misaki. They both looked at me, like they were expecting me to follow suite without complaints.

"I'm not transforming into her." I put it very simply. But, I doubted they would care.

"Do you want a bunch of Konoha Ninjas to come and kill you?" Itachi also put simply.

"Fine. Fine." I transformed into Momo. I changed her appearance slightly. Ever so slightly. Yeah right. I changed it a lot. I was going to walk around in an outfit that showed half my butt and breasts. It wasn't happening. How she could fight like she did in that outfit was beyond me.

"You don't have the same outfit," Kisame said, pointing to me.

"I transformed into her. But I'm not wearing that. I'll stick with a pair of short shorts, and a tank top. You can deal with it."

Itachi rolled his eyes, "Whatever. As long as you don't get recognized."

> >

In the middle of Konoha. We were standing in the middle of Konoha. It was starting to seem like I had never left home…

"That was easier than expected…" Itachi said sighing. I looked into his eyes, but I didn't see any type of longing like I had.

"Well, let's go rent a hotel room, we have plenty of money," Kisame said.

"Sure, Misaki," I said to Kisame. "I know where some pretty good hotels are around here."

We took off at a walk down the streets, and Kisame would point out all sorts of stuff. Things I remembered. Things that I missed with all my heart. Maybe coming here wasn't such a good idea… My throat was tightening up.

We entered the hotel. Since Rai was the oldest, Itachi went up to make the four night reservation. When Itachi was finished, we followed him up a few flights of stairs to a small room.

Kisame stared at it, "Why did you get such a small room! Or why not two rooms if this was the only size!"

Itachi didn't hesitate with his answer, "The Retsu Clan doesn't have much money, it would be suspicious to get a room any bigger than this."

"But the Retsu Clan is dead."

"Nobody here knows that."

> >

I left their arguing, and said that I was going to wander…which I was. They didn't seem to care. I don't even think that they heard me say that I was leaving. It's kind of sad.

I followed the street that lead to the Uchiha, Moeru and a few other Clans. Seeing all of this…added an increased sadness to my heart. Memories flooded back to me.

I stood in the middle of the street, letting the memories digest themselves, and I was run into by a small child.

I fell to the ground, and the child next to me. I stood up, and helped the boy up.

"I'm sorry, but I'm late. I have to get going," he said.

He looked so familiar.

Wait.

"Wait!" I yelled after him. "Sasuke…?" My voice seemed different. Why was it that when I said the name, it sounded so different, other than the fact that I had Momo's voice.

"Yeah. I'm Sasuke. But who are you?" he asked, turning away.

So cold.

Just like Itachi.

I sat there on the ground. Why had everything in my life gone so wrong? It wasn't supposed to be like this. Not cold. Not sad. But, warm and happy. Why was it me that had turned out like this? Why when all I had felt was love for the people around me…? Maybe I shouldn't have fallen in love with Itachi, maybe if I hadn't, none of this would have happened.

I finally stood up, using my hands, I pushed myself of the ground. No, these weren't my hands. They belonged to someone who I had stolen life from. Someone who was trying to protect the ones she loved, just to be killed by a person who lost all of that.

A person who was loved.

Why couldn't I be loved? Where did I go wrong?

I walked to my house…or what had been my house. It wasn't mine anymore. Another member of my family now resided in it.

It was probably one of my cousins. Or one of our family members who wanted a larger house.

I peaked through the window in the living room. It wasn't the same. It wasn't even a living room, but a dinning room. My Aunt and Uncle sat at the table with four of my cousins. Kikyo, who was my age, sat at the table too. She was laughing.

I wish I could be here and laugh like that. I would never be able to laugh while in Konoha. Too many memories of things I wanted, and things I missed lingered there.

I walked up to the front door, and before I knew it, I found myself knocking. It didn't take to long for someone to answer the door. It was my Uncle.

"May I…help you?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah. I was wondering if you could tell me where the people who used to live here…well, I mean. Where are they?"

I almost expected his face to soften, but it didn't. "What do you care?" he snarled.

"I…I was an old friend," I whispered.

His voice did soften then. "They have passed," he started. "They were murdered by the man who whipped out the entire Uchiha Clan. Uchiha Itachi."

"Where can I find their graves?" I asked slowly. "I would like to pay my respects."

"You can find them the Moeru section of the Konoha graveyard. Except that is for the traitorous girl. Kirei. The bitch ran away and became a Missing Nin. A threat to not only our family but to the whole Village of Konoha as well. If you see her, be sure to kill her." He slammed the door shut in my face, as the first tear dropped.

"Thank you…" I whispered. I knew that I had deserved every word of that. Every single one.

After that, the tears came easily. And when I looked into the living room once more, and saw Kikyo crying. It only made it worse.

I ran to the graveyard, to the Moeru section. My tears flowed freely now. Not tears of "a bird that had been freed from it's cage", but those of one that had been captured and almost strangled to death by a bunch of little kids. Choking on everything it knew.

Me and my name. We were both stupid. So unlike each other. I kneeled at my sister's grave, and hugged the grave stone.

"Ryuu…I'm so sorry," I sputtered out. "Please forgive me…I'm so sorry!" I couldn't control my weeping…the sobs came uncontrollably.

I sat in front of my mother and father's grave the moment after that. They had been buried together. "I'm sorry, Tosan, Kasan…" I cried. "Send me to hell for all my mistakes. I would do anything to bring you back…You deserved better than this! Better than a hell stricken daughter. I've betrayed you all, all of my clan. Uncle even said so…"

I stood up slowly, wobbled, and I could barely see where I was walking. But I found myself at Yamanaka Flower Shop.

A girl I recognized as Yamanaka Ino came to help me. She smiled, and handed me a few tissues.

"Are you okay, Fujin-san?" she asked. She was only seven or eight, the same age as Sasuke. She was one of the girls that had a crush on him. She almost reminded me of myself a few months ago.

I was only twelve, why did I have to feel like this…?

"I'm fine," I replied, wiping my eyes. This wasn't my voice.

"Then," Ino said, "Could I help you pick out some flowers?"

I smiled at her, "Yes, that would be great."

> >

I released the jutsu, allowing me to actually look like myself. I then took the flowers, and laid them on my parents and sister's graves. My tears were gone. There was nothing left to weep. I felt empty, without them now. I felt more alone than I ever had.

A hand touched my shoulder, I spun around, and took a fighting stance. Itachi stood there, there was pity in his eyes. I looked down at my own hands, somehow I had a kunai in them. I quickly put it away.

Itachi smiled at me slightly, and handed me another bundle of flowers, he took out three, himself, as he motioned me to follow him.

I did, reluctantly. To tell you the truth, I didn't want to leave my parents graves, but I didn't want to go back to the clan that now hated me. I had to let it all go…

Itachi placed two of the bundles on his parents' graves. I put my one bundle in between them. He then walked to another grave, and lowered the flowers onto another grave. Shisui's.

I smiled at him, and we both transformed back into our "characters", Retsu Rai and Momo.

> >

"Alright! Wake up, Kirei!" I shook my head. I wasn't getting up. Not on my life. "If you don't wake up we're going to have to be forced to kill you…"

"Be my guest," I said, my voice muffled by my pillow.

Someone grasped my wrists, and pulled me. I shook trying to get free without my head leaving the protection of my pillow. No prevail.

I was not only dragged out from under my pillow, but out of my sleeping bag as well. It was freezing. I cringed up in a ball.

"Fine, I guess we're going to have to go training without you," two people said.

I sat bolt up right. "Training?" I asked. Now, on my life, I was going to get up. Anything for training, that's what I have to say.

"See, I told you it would work," Itachi said bluntly, turning to Kisame.

He just looked away, "Luck. That's all it was."

> >

"Wow, the training grounds…" I whispered. "I haven't been here in so long."

Itachi nodded, and we headed back to the last training ground, to our surprise, there was already someone there. Training. Training hard.

Sensing us, he stopped, and turned around. It was Sasuke.

"Hm, we were going to use this Training Ground but seeing you're already using it, we'll go find another," Itachi said, turning around before Kisame came.

Sasuke recognized Momo's form, "Hey, Lady! Sorry about yesterday." I smiled at him, and turned around to follow Itachi.

When we finally found another open practice ground, Itachi didn't seem to happy.

He glared at me for a moment, and then pushed me, I didn't do anything to stop it…I had known it was coming.

Non-the-less, that thing on my chest, that I guessed represented my "Kabau" started to glow blue again. I didn't use whatever it did.

"What does he mean 'Sorry about yesterday'!" Itachi yelled.

"He ran into me, he was heading somewhere…" I said, looking at the ground.

"If that's the truth, then why can't you look me in the eye?"

"What does it matter anyways! It's not like he recognized us as us! And you wanna know the reason why I don't wanna talk about it! It's because I went to see my old house, and I found out that I am hated by my entire clan!" A tear slipped down my face, and I brushed it away.

"What did you expect, running away like we did?"

Kisame just stared at us, he didn't even know what to say, or anyway to actually include himself in the conversation.

I stared at him, "I did, I ran away. But it wasn't me who killed my family. It wasn't me…"

"Well what about the other families that you did kill?" Itachi asked me bluntly.

I gaped at him. That's when reality actually hit me, I slipped to the ground. Maybe I hadn't killed my family, maybe it had been Itachi that had killed them, and my running away that caused them suffering…but, I had caused the same suffering to all the families that I had helped Itachi kill. That had been my fault that families, like my own, were feeling the way they did… How did my life end up like this…?

I didn't sniffle when I cried that time. Tears just flowed down my cheeks while I stared off into the distance in shock. I didn't want to be here. This wasn't home anymore…

Kisame sat down next to me, and patted me on the back, and pulled me into a hug. I had never expected him to do something like this during a mission. At headquarters, maybe, but not here…

Itachi sat on my other side, and when Kisame released me, he hugged me as well. "Forget about that…this is who we are now, you just have to accept it. Oh, and I'm sorry that I've turned you life up-side-down in these past few months…but I love you, and without you here, it wouldn't have been the same…"

I smiled up at Itachi, and hugged him back. Even though we didn't look like ourselves, it was like I could still see through the transformation, and see the actual them.

> >

Let's just say that we left Konoha after that. Itachi and Kisame felt that the emotion was too overwhelming for me. It's about time that they realized that. I couldn't stand being in Konoha a minute longer. So, we packed up our few things and left.

As soon as we were a safe distance away from Konoha and away from all other people, we released the jutsu and just traveled as ourselves. It felt good, to actually be myself again and not to be wasting chakra every time I went somewhere.

Kisame said that it wouldn't be a big deal that we got home a little early, and that Leader wasn't to strict about it. Well, to tell you the truth, Kisame was wrong. Being home three days early isn't a good idea. Leader obviously knew we were coming, and as soon as we took foot in the headquarters, we were transported to the meeting room, only to find, guess who! Our Leader.

Let's just say that the look on his face was…not thrilled. That's for sure. It wasn't angry either. I don't think that I had ever seen that look before. And I definitely didn't want to see it again.

"Group Kisame, may I ask why you are back so early?" Leader said. His voice, once again, wasn't angry. I couldn't explain it.

Kisame rubbed his head, "We miscalculated the time that it would take to be back…"

"Right. Well, let me say, if you calculate wrong by three days, then you don't deserve to be your Team's Captain, do you?"

Kisame shook his head. He didn't dare argue. I wouldn't either if I were in his position.

"How about, I let it slip this time, with only a warning? But degrade you from Captain. And, Itachi, you're being upgraded to take Kisame's place."

"Yes, sir."

We found ourselves standing right back where we had entered.

I shook my head, "That was scary, I never, ever want to see his face like that again."

"I hear you there…" Kisame said slowly.

"It was your fault in the first place, Kisame," Itachi said.

I followed them into our living area. I was home. Oh, and did I love home.

> >

We spent the next few days just lounging around, and doing nothing. We went training everyday. Which was interesting. When we weren't training I decided I wanted to work on my endurance and went running. Sometimes, Itachi or Kisame would come with me, but most of the time I was by myself.

Finally, Sasori, and Deidara arrived, on they day they were supposed to. Zetsu came too, he must have met up with them on the way or something…

"Sasori! Deidara! Zetsu! Welcome home!" I said running up to them. I hugged them. I have to admit that hugging Zetsu is quite difficult, and I don't think he cares for hugs anyways…

The meeting was extremely boring. I'm glad that it was never one of my ambitions to become Hokage or something because I truly don't think that I would be able to sit through meetings and such all day. Personally, it would drive me insane.

All we did was one at a time step up, and speak of our collected jutsu, we didn't have to share what they were with everyone else, as long as we had them. That's lucky, because I think we would have been there all night, and there would be a large loss of chakra if we did that.

> >

"Sasori! We are we having for dinner? We haven't had anything good in a while, hmm," Deidara asked him.

"We've had this conversation way to many times before, Deidara. So let me shorten it. Shut up, and go make something to eat. Dishes are your duty after."

I followed Deidara into the kitchen. "Why do you always ask, if you always get stuck doing this?" I asked him curiously.

He just shrugged, "I guess I like giving him some help, I dunno, hmm."

"If you say so…" I said slowly. All in truth though, I know what he meant. I liked to do things for other people so they have more free time. Sasori and Itachi always somehow seemed busy. Whether they were training, or…well anything. "How 'bout, just for today, I make dinner and take over dish duty," I said suddenly. Deidara looked at me strangely, "I guess I like giving people some help, I dunno."

I winked at him, and he smiled at me, and mouthed, "Thank you."

Great, now I was left with the decision of what to make for dinner. This sounded familiar…except the time before this I believe I volunteered myself…

I had to think back to what I had made for that meal. It had been for Itachi, Sasuke, and Koryu-kun. It seemed like such a long time ago. More like a year than just a few months.

I wonder what Koryu must think of Itachi and I now…I wonder what he would do if he saw us. Would he follow law and kill us, or leave us be. I used to wonder what my family must have thought of me, but I knew now. I was a traitor, and a threat to the Moeru family and Konoha.

Dinner. Back to that issue. What in the world was I going to make for dinner? Something simple, yet tasty. Yes. That sounded good. Simple. Rice, that was an obvious "Duh", and maybe some miso flavored ramen. So far so good. Maybe, I would make onigiri, instead of rice? Man, I'm so screwed.

Dinner finally rolled around, and well. I guess you could say that I had finished cooking. I hoped it would taste alright. I was good at cooking, but…well I don't know.

Everybody sat at the table, and I passed out miso flavored ramen, onigiri, and gyouza. Of course, them being guys, they ate it. They seemed to like my food too.

"mmm! This is really good, Kirei!" Kisame said, he was shoving food into his mouth so quickly you would have thought he hadn't eaten in weeks.

Itachi and Sasori on the other hand, they ate quite normally. Which was good, since Zetsu caught my attention next. He would open his plant slightly, and put his hand with his chopsticks past the plant into his mouth. Which I could barely see. Then the plant could close slightly.

Now, why I was paying attention to how my teammates were eating was beyond me, it's not like it would help me or anything, who knows. I'm just extremely weird like that. My training had taught me that…?

> >

After dinner, because I volunteered I got to clean and put away dishes. Lucky me. I'm not going to do this everyday for Deidara, I now see why he hates it so much….

> >

When I had finished doing all the dishes, the guys were sitting in the living room talking. I didn't really think of guys as talking, but this was probably different from girly talking. Geez, girly talk was annoying.

I walked over to them, and they stopped talking to look at me. Great, being stared at. Fun. They continued to stare at me. I took this as a "Go away" sort of stare, so I turned to go, but someone grabbed my arm.

I turned to face them, and saw Deidara's hand gripped around my upper arm. "How about we play a little game, hmm?" he asked, grinning.

"What kind of game?" I asked.

Deidara looked away, "A game that includes lots of questions, and the answering of these questions or doing what they tell you, hmm?"

We all stared at him dumbfounded, until I finally asked, "Truth or Dare?"

He smiled, "That's the one, hmm."

"I don't know…" I started, and then everyone else sprung into responses of "Oh, that sounds fun!" or "It will be a good way to get to know each other's limits and stuff!"

"C'mon, Kirei! It'll be fun, hmm!" Deidara said.

"Hmm…well, okay." I sat down on one of the chairs. "You do realize how lame it is for a guy to suggest us to play this game though, right Deidara?"

"You've got to be kidding me, hmm."

"Nope."

He rolled his eyes, "Okay, I'll start," he said, eyeing us all. His eyes rested on me, "How about you, Kirei, hmm?"

"Great, and I get to go first to. What fun."

He smirked, "Truth or Dare, hmm?"

I thought for a moment, I didn't want them to think I was chicken and pick truth. So, what else could I do? I picked dare.

Deidara didn't even think, the first thing he said was "I dare you to do five back flips, hmm."

Everyone stared at him, "What kind of stupid dare is that!" Sasori asked.

"It's a good one, because if she can't do them, I have a good punishment in mind, hmm," he said nodding.

"Then why didn't you just ask her your punishment idea instead…?" Itachi asked.

"Uh…I don't know…hmm."

I stood up. This shouldn't be that hard. I walked over to the empty parts in the room, and gave myself lots of distance. I reached backwards, and put my weight on my hands, and then pulled the rest of my weight over. I did the other four extremely fast, and jumped up when I finished. I walked over and sat down once more.

"Stupid Deidara," Zetsu sighed.

"Alright, my turn," I said, smirking. "Sasori," I said almost instantly, "Truth or Dare?"

He shrugged, "Truth".

"Aw, you're no fun," I pouted.

He shook his head, "Too bad."

I sighed again, "Fine, fine. You have to tell me who you think the most annoying person is in this room and why."

"Too easy," he said smirking. "Deidara. Why?" he asked at Deidara's shocked face. "Because he's a complete and utter moron."

"That's not nice, Sasori…hmm…" he said.

It must have gone on like this for a half an hour before we got bored with questions like that. I got dared, for what must have been the sixth time. This time…it was Sasori, and he didn't know what to do for a dare.

Finally, he smirked, "I dare you, you make-out with Itachi."

I stared at him, and so did Itachi. "You sick bastard!" we yelled in unison.

He shrugged, "This game needs to become a little more interesting anyways."

"What if I refuse to do it?" I asked slowly.

"Then we give you something worse, like, trying to make out with Zetsu," Sasori answered.

I looked over a Zetsu, who looked like he was twitching, but with him, you really never could tell. "Sorry, Zetsu, I'm not going to try that…"

"Thank God," he replied. I grinned at him, and then turned to Itachi. "Sorry…" I said.

He just shook his head, and turned to face everyone else, "I say, I'm not doing the dare unless we are allowed to do this away from you. And you can't give me a worse dare because I never completely acceptedin the first place anyways."

Deidara rolled his eyes, and Sasori shook his head, "Whatever. I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I want to go into town and get a few things, hmm."

Everyone else nodded and made it to their rooms. Kisame opened the door and ushered us in, but didn't do anything but went and fed his fish. He had a terrible obsession with those fish. It was kind of scary.

I went into Itachi and my room, and grabbed pajamas and headed toward the bathroom to change and brush my teeth. When I came back out, Itachi was sitting on his bed and reading.

I sat down next to him, and tried to look at the cover, I couldn't see it, and even if I could, I doubt that I would have known what it was. I didn't like reading all that much.

Itachi finally put his book down, and asked me why I was staring at him. I just shrugged and told him I didn't have anything better to do.

He leaned toward me, and kissed me lightly, pulling away quickly muttering something stupid like, "We'll be getting up early tomorrow, so let's get to bed." Even though we didn't have to get up early at all.

He turned off the lights, and I found my way to my bed, and crawled in whispering "Good night, Itachi."

> >

In the morning when I woke up, Itachi was already up, which was expected since I always sleep late and never get up when someone wants me to.

I glanced at the clock. It read 9:57. Great, almost ten o'clock. I got out of bed slowly, and changed. Then, I made my way out to the kitchen where everyone was, of course, crowded in front of the TV.

Personally, I didn't like the TV either. I think I have problems…I mean any normal person would like at least either reading or watching TV, but I don't. I guess you could say I wasn't normal either…but then again neither was anyone else here.

"Morning, Kirei," they all chimed.

I smiled at them, I couldn't wait to go into town and spend time with them all again. I just hoped that I could be with these people forever. They cared about me, and

I wanted to protect them, at all costs.