Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto...we should all cry XD

Note: I'm stupid? I actually don't have a note this time. haha...

Chapter 6

Four years. It had been about four years since I had joined Akatsuki. It was amazing how time flew by so fast. Even with everything I had lost, I felt like I had gained a lot as well.

"Hey, Kirei we need you in the living room," Itachi said, peaking his head in through the doorway.

I waited for him to leave, and then quickly stood up from my bed, which I was laying on, and stepped out of the room. Why my mind lead me back to Konoha…I didn't know. It was then that I realized that none of them would recognize me. I shook my head. What did it matter anyways?

Slowly, I walked to the living room, but instead of chores…I was greeted with something else.

"Surprise!" the lights flashed on, and a birthday cake sat on the kitchen table in front of a group of presents.

I gasped, "W-what the hell!"

Deidara put his arm around my shoulder, "Happy early Birthday, hmm!" he laughed smiling. It took a while for me to remember that it was my birthday tomorrow. It's amazing the things I remember, isn't it?

The group of guys around me seemed so happy when I smiled. They smiled back. I had come to love their smiles. I didn't see them unless we were in our living quarters, so when I caught a glimpse of them smiling, I couldn't help but find myself smiling right along side of them.

Everyone one of them had grown in ability and…well height in the last four years. That is, except for Sasori, who didn't look any different. Even though, he was now the same height as me. That sort of upset him though. And Zetsu? Well…I couldn't really tell with that Venus Fly trap around his head. I still don't think that I had seen his actual face yet…

"Happy early Birthday?" I asked, confused.

They all looked at me like I was stupid, but I guess I was, if I had forgotten my birthday or something…

"Your birthday is Thursday, isn't it…?" Sasori asked slowly. "September 21st?"

I thought, "Uh…yeah! Yes, I mean. Yes, it is," I said laughing slightly.

"Idiot…" everyone said in unison. I twitched.

Deidara grabbed my arm, "Well, c'mon! Let's eat some cake! Do you know how long it took us to figure out how to make it, hmm!" he pulled me over to the table.

I smiled, as Itachi lit the 16 candles on my cake, and as they sang, I continued to smile. Holding back happiness was harder than I thought!

When they stopped singing, I hugged them all, with all the might I could muster. This was a great birthday!

> >

"Okay, everyone!" I said, pumping my arms, "Time to go! Mission time!" I yelled. We hadn't been on a mission in a long time! I was so excited!

I felt a stupid mosquito or something bite me arm, I slapped the damn thing. Now my arm was going to itch of the rest of the trip. Geez, I hate mosquitoes…or any blood sucking animals out there. But it wasn't going to ruin my great mission!

"Is it just me…or is she having some problems…hmm…?" Deidara whispered to the others.

They eyed me, nervously, and nodded. I appeared behind them in a split second, "What was that? I didn't hear you." I laughed as they jumped.

Somehow they always seemed to forgot how fast I was…I didn't know how.

"Well, Sasori, what's the mission!" I asked. I was nearly jumping.

"Simple. We are to locate Orochimaru's hide-out at all costs. We have one month. We are split into the normal groups, but we'll travel to the Rice Field Country as a group, and then split up to look throughout the country. Understood?" he asked.

I jumped into the air, "Yes! Yes! Let's kick some Orochimaru ass!"

Itachi touched my shoulder, and pushed me to the ground, "Geez, settle down, will you?" he added. Annoyance touched his voice. I tried to settle down, but I was still really hyper.

We set off, and started for the Fire Country. I had a feeling that going through Fire Country would give us a lot of battle. Not that I cared. I wanted to fight, more than anything.

We started out, very slowly. I didn't think that we could travel any slower. But, we made a fastest record of reaching Fire Country. So, I guess you could say we were doing the exact opposite of what I felt. Why did everything seem so slow all of the sudden?

Slowly, I got really tired, I didn't even talk. Which was really odd for me. I usually kept the rest of my team entertained during travels.

Everyone seemed to notice my silence.

"Kirei? What's wrong?" Zetsu asked.

"You're abnormally quiet, hmm," Deidara added.

Itachi stopped me, and put his hand on my forehead reluctantly, and the other on his. "You have a really high fever…" he said slowly.

Everyone else stopped, as I whispered, "You're kidding me…"

Itachi just shook his head slowly, and whispered, "Shit." He took off my traveling pack, and put it on the ground. He did the same with his. "Could you guy's carry these for us…?" he asked, as he motioned for me to climb on his back.

I did just barely, and he put his arms around my legs to keep me up. "Put your arms around my neck," he ordered. I did as he said, and I felt my eyes drifting shut…

Everything was so slow…so tiring. I was so tired.

> >

"What a time for her to get sick…" Sasori said slowly. "Should we take her back?"

Itachi shook his head, "There wouldn't be anyone to watch or take care of her back there."

Deidara nodded his head in agreement, "The best we can do is watch over her during the mission, and hope she gets better quickly, hmm."

"Maybe we should stay together for the whole mission so it would be easier to watch over her?" Kisame asked.

"I'll go back and inform Leader," Zetsu said suddenly. "I'll see if we can have some extra time, or what he thinks we should do. I'll meet up with you in about a day."

The rest of the Akatsuki members nodded in agreement.

"Why do you think that she got sick all of the sudden anyways. hmm?" Deidara asked quietly. "I mean, she was all hyper before we left…hmm…"

> >

"Yes! Finally a good mission!" Koryu-kun said happily, pumping his arms. "We aren't stuck with a crappy grocery shopping-animal catching-babysitting mission this time!"

"Would you like to tell us what this mission possibly is…?" I ask him slowly.

He laughed faintly, "We get to deliver this item to the Raikage! Do you know what this means!" he asked, jumping up and down.

"Uh…no?" Itachi and I said in unison.

"It means that we are finally trusted by Konoha! For us to do this, means that they trust us not to open the package and get it there safely! I means that we are trustworthy of the Fire Country!"

> >

"I've signed all of you up for the upcoming Chuunin Exam," Sensei told us. He must have expect us to be excited, because he was smiling widely.

"You what!" we yelled at him.

"Signed you up for the Chuunin Exam," Sensei repeated.

"We aren't ready for that!" I screeched.

"Yeah, Sensei! This is only our first year a Genin! We aren't ready to become Chuunin yet!" Koryu added.

"I have to admit, I side with them this time, Sensei," Itachi said.

"I didn't sign you up because you 'are ready' I signed you up because Konoha needs to see your strength, and needs to get to know you. Once that happens, you can start to become great ninjas. Konoha always produces awesome ninja. You have to be accepted into that fate first though. That starts when you become a Chuunin."

> >

"Congratulations for becoming a Jounin! Konoha will definitely have great strength with Itachi and Kirei as Jounin!" Koryu said smiling at us.

> >

"Do you really respect Konoha?" Itachi asked me out of the blue.

I nodded vigorously, "Of course!"

"Konoha is overrated, the quicker you learn that, that stronger you'll become."

"Huh…?"

> >

"W-what did you do?" I managed to cough out.

A smile that I didn't recognize appeared on his face. "They're gone. I had to test my strength. Why do I have to tell everyone this?"

> >

"Being a Ninja of Konoha is what it means to be strong, trustworthy, and respected by many other countries."

> >

I sat bolt up right, panting and breathing hard. "Kirei! Are you okay!" Itachi asked nervously.

"'Being a Ninja of Konoha is what it means to be strong, trustworthy, and respected by many other countries.' that's what the Sandaime told us when we first entered the Ninja Academy…" I whispered quickly to myself. "Why…did I think of that…?"

"What?" Itachi asked me, "I can't understand you, you're mumbling."

"Nothing…" I whispered.

He smiled at me slightly, "You should get back to sleep." He put his hand on my forehead again, "I think you fever has gone up instead of down…" he added, as he helped my lay back down in my sleeping bag, I noticed that not only was it dark, but I was sleeping closer to the fire than all the others. They were all asleep, so I guessed that it was Itachi's watch.

He stroked my head gently, as I feel asleep again…I could help to think why I had dreams about Konoha now. Why had I had dreams about the greatness of Konoha, when I hadn't been to or dreamt about it in so long…? Why now…?

> >

When I woke up again, I was on Itachi's back, and it was day once again. I still felt tired…even though I must have been sleeping for well over twenty-four hours.

"You still have a fever…it's still getting higher," Itachi said, "We're going to try to find something to help it, until then, just sleep, 'kay?"

I nodded slightly, and fell into my fitful sleep.

> >

"Zetsu! You're back! What did Leader say, hmm?" Deidara asked, as he noticed Zetsu leaning against an upcoming tree.

He shrugged, "Nothing much. Just to make sure she gets better, and that he doesn't really care how we travel as long as we don't get caught or seen and give away anything about Akatsuki. He also said he truly doesn't care how long we take on this mission, as long as we get it done."

The Akatsuki members nodded at this.

"So, how is she doing…?" Zetsu asked slowly.

Itachi sighed, "Her fever has gone up, she's woken up sporadically, but never stayed awake more than five minutes."

"We need to find some medicine for her or something…we really need a Med Nin," Sasori added.

Everyone else acknowledged this as well.

> >

When I woke again, I was in a…bed? Why was I in a bed in the middle of a mission? I sat up, and rubbing my eyes, looked around the room. Where was everyone else?

I saw a head peak through the doorway on the far side of the room, it was Sasori. "How are you feeling…?" he asked slowly.

I nodded slightly, "A little better I guess…I can't really tell. To tell you the truth actually, I really don't know…"

He seemed to relax, as he traveled across the room and sat down next to me. "Well, that's good. The medicine is supposed to be like that. While it works, you aren't supposed to feel anything, really."

"Where are we anyways?"

"An old friend of Leader met up with us here. We're actually in a hotel. We used Henge Jutsu to get in here, it's a two room. So, you could say the rest of us are in the other room, which is larger than this one."

The door opened again, and a man I had never seen before let himself in. This must be Leader's friend. He was somewhat tall, and looked like a normal ninja, he was from the Wind Country. They had some pretty good Med-Nin there is what I had heard. So, I guess that was good for me…

"How are you doing?" he asked me. There was no fault in his voice, it sounded as though he was certain that his cure was going to work.

"Uh…alright."

Sasori turned around, and left the room, waving at me as he left. I giggled slightly. The Med-Nin walked toward me.

"I'm sure that after a little rest, you'll be fine. The cure is a success, that's already been determined. I can tell you though, that you had poison in her blood. Any ideas how it got there?" he asked curtly.

"None." I tossed the word back, rudely.

"Well, you seem like the nice type. I guess looks really are deceiving," he started. "By how you look, I wouldn't have expected you to be in an organization like Akatsuki at all. To tell you the truth, you don't even look like you would be a ninja."

I glared at him, "You don't know anything about me, don't act like you do," I sneered.

His head found it's way to my chin, and he forced me to look him in the eyes, "I know more about you than you think. You've been in Akatsuki for four years, you were formerly a Ninja of the Fire Country, you left with Itachi to come here, you are said to be extremely strong, despite your appearance, and you are one of the most gorgeous girls I have ever seen."

The last comment surprised me. "Like I said. Nothing. What are you getting at anyways?"

He pulled my face toward his. His lips were so close…closer than I ever wanted them to be. I lifted my arms slightly, and thrust it forward into his stomach. He stumbled backward, releasing me. Any normal ninja would have caught onto me doing that…

He rolled his eyes, and grunted, "Get some sleep," before he left the room. Fine with me, as long as he didn't come back.

I must have sat there for what was equivalent to two hours, or so it seemed. No matter what I did, or how comfortable I was…I couldn't fall asleep again. I don't know if it was because I was afraid that What's His Name would come back, or that it was the medicine, or that I had just slept way to much lately. It wasn't like I was actually not tired, because I was. Tired, I mean. I wanted to go to sleep again, but I just couldn't relax.

The door opened again, and laughing escaped from the other room, I scrunched back into my blankets, and glanced over at the door. The blankets obstructed my vision. Stupid blankets. All I could see was an…Akatsuki coat. At least it wasn't What's His Name, unless….he was wearing an Akatsuki jacket to trick me? Yeah right.

The person sat down on my bed next to me, and I shut my eyes, pretending to be asleep. Whoever it was, pulled the blanket back from over my head, and I could then feel their breath on my face, "I know your awake…." he whispered. Itachi. Thank you god! It was Itachi!

I opened one of my eyes slightly, "How did you know that…?" I whispered back.

"I guess, just because I know you really well, and I had a feeling you were awake when I was in the other room anyways," he said, smiling at me slightly.

"Sorry…I didn't mean to bug you or anything. Not that I'm sure how that happened."

"Don't worry about it, but you really have to get some sleep, or you're not going to get any better."

"But I told you!" I said sitting up, he pushed me back down so I laid down again. "But I told you," I whispered, "I can't fall asleep."

"Alright then," he said, pushing me aside a bit. Eventually, I hit the wall, this wasn't a really big bed…twin size. Very small. "I'm gonna lay down right here, until you fall asleep. It doesn't matter how long it takes, but I'm not leaving until you do."

There was a small flaw in his plan. I didn't want him to leave. So, at this rate I wasn't going to fall asleep.

He reached under my blankets, and found my hand, clutching it, he whispered, "I love you, Kirei."

I smiled, and felt my eyes droop slightly. Sleepiness overcame me…and everything just seemed to drift away…

> >

Once again, I woke up for absolutely no reason. I saw that I had my arms wrapped around Itachi, and he was now underneath my load of blankets. I blushed as I noticed that one of his arms was around me, I smiled, and feel back asleep.

"Hey, hey! Guys come look at this!" Sasori whispered urgently through the door again. Obediently, everyone scurried to the door, and peeked through.

"Whoa, they seem pretty comfortable, hmm," Deidara said loudly. My eyes flickered open. Itachi's arm was under me, and I had both my arms wrapped around his chest, which my head rested on.

Itachi also blinked, I pulled my arms off of him, and sat up, he did the same. What amazed me was the speed at which we did it.

"Comfortable?" What's His Name asked, laughing.

I brushed my hair out of my face, "I'm not in the mood for this," I growled, "Get out." I put it simply, them waking me and ruining my moment made me not only upset, but extremely angry.

My chest started to slightly glow blue, now, not only did my Kabau activate during a fight, but also when I was overly emotional, in an angry way…my teammates seemed to know this, cause they pulled back and started leaving the room, Itachi scooted over in the bed a bit, the only one who didn't move was What's His Name.

"So this is the Kabau," I heard him whisper. His voice made me angry. How he stared at me as though I was in a cage made me angry. He made me angry. I noticed slightly that the seal on my chest began to more brightly.

I suddenly found myself behind him, and my arm jammed into his hand. "Not so fast," he whispered in my ear. He was fast too…

I threw another punch, and he stopped that well. I aimed a kick for his chest, yet he was quick enough to move one of his arms to block the other one of mine

without me noticing, and to move his arm to stop my leg from making contact. He pushed it down, and quickly grabbed something from his bag, and shoved it into my neck.

I twitched, a shot, with an unknown substance in it. My eyes widened, "W-what's this?" my voice quivered, as I walked forward back to the bed. I had no control over anything I was doing. "What the hell is going on!" I yelled at him, unable to turn my head.

The rest of the Akatsuki members watching in concern. "What did you do to her?" Sasori asked, his eyes narrowing.

"I simply used a shot that would allow my brain's wave to control what she does that way not only do I not get hurt, but she doesn't either," he said simply. "Now, how about I do my quick check-up, while you wait in the other room. Please."

The nodded slowly, and left the room. Itachi left to, I tried to open my mouth to ask him to stay, but I couldn't! I started to panic, the only thing I had control of was my eyes! I wanted to scream for help, for someone to stay! I didn't want to be alone with this guy! I didn't like him!

He moved for the door, and locked it, my eyes widened again, and he started to move for my bed.

"Settle down," he said lightly, "We wouldn't want anyone disturbing us during your check-up, it's okay, you know," he added.

I found my body move into a sexy position, and my mouth moved, forming words that escaped from my mouth, "Get your ass over here," I said, "I want you." My eyes widened at my words, I would have never said that…never.

He smirked, "If you insist."

I screamed in my head.

My lips pursed out, and as he got closer, my arm wrapped around his neck, drawing him closer. His lips were too close. Not again. Go away….

He kissed me roughly, and my mouth immediately opened, letting his tongue in. His arms found his way to my chest, and he groped. The pain was unbearable.

During this, a tear escaped my eyes, I hadn't even gotten this far with Itachi, and here I was, doing it with another guy. No, I wasn't doing this, he was doing it for me.

His hand my it's way to the zipper of my jacket, and as we continued to kiss, and his tongue caressed mine, the zipper became unzipped, and the jacket fell off.

We pulled back for a moment, as he removed my fish nets, and the cloth wrapping my breasts.

More tears fell.

He started kissing me again, and his body found it's way on top of mine. It felt like I was under a rock…

Anger overcame me. How dare he do this to my body, I didn't know him, and I had never wanted to. My chest became to feel warm, though it didn't start to glow it's blue color, I knew that the Kabau had activated.

I suddenly felt the strength to push through and control my own body, I concentrated on moving a finger.

And I did.

I could control my own body.

I kneed him in that sensitive area, and kicked him so he fell of the bed.

My hands completed a set of seals, and I whispered, "Temporary Body Paralysis Technique. Kanashibari no jutsu."

He didn't move.

I quickly put my clothes back on, and walked to the door, unlocking it, and found my way into the other room, "Get him out of my site. Now."