Disclaimer: ...duh. What do you think I'm supposed to write in here...? Imagine it.

Notes: I'm so sorrry! I haven't updated in almost a month...TT.TT. It's turned out that I'm a lot more busy than I thought I would be...on Tuesday and Thursday I have soccer practice after Track and I don't get home until 7...and I have a lot of homework too. Don't killll meeeee! I'm trying! XD

This Chapter is a little longer this time...

Chapter Fourteen

Only moments after Itachi had said his name, Orochimaru appeared before us. "It's our Akatsuki friends and Kirei. We're you planning on betraying your new country, Kirei?"

"My new country? You can't possibly mean the Sound, right?"

"You can't possibly mean that you're going against our deal, can you?"

"What dea--" I stopped. Oh, that deal…

"So, prison life is good, is it not Kirei?" he asked me.

I didn't smile.

"Fine, have an attitude. We'll get straight to business. What's our deal going to be? Are you and your cousin both going to die, or what?"

"I'll only stay here if you let her go without any harm or any trouble ever again in her life. Oh, and no harm can be done to the Moeru Clan, ever."

Orochimaru thought it over, and nodded slightly, "All right. I accept. You will work hard for me, if you don't, then we will kill all of the Moeru Clan, and we will smother Konoha during the process."

"You remember, don't you?" Orochimaru asked me. All of the Akatsuki's eyes were upon me. "How if you didn't work hard for me, we agreed that I would kill the Moeru Clan and kill off all of Konoha? You still love Konoha, right?"

My eyes widened. Did I dare let my Clan be killed because of my desires? What about Konoha? Was I going to let them be destroyed because of my decision? No…Orochimaru was planning on destroying the Leafs anyways…

"Still not sure?" he asked me. The world spun around me…

Two Sounds threw a pair of people at me. In front of myself lay Aikyo and Arashi. They were beaten up…cuts filled their faces and rips consumed their clothing. Both were no longer conscious.

"Y-you're trying to bribe me with people again…" I said, shaking my head. "People who I know…my friends."

I saw a slight movement from the bodies one of the Sounds was holding. Aikyo twitched and looked up at me.

She gave me a half smile, "Kirei…you have something to actually live for. People you love…do what you think is right."

Her voice was sharply cut off by the swing of the guy's hand.

Aikyo…

I gave the Akatsuki a sorrow stricken face. "I have to…" I started slowly, "I'll come back. There's nothing stopping me. There's just…" I paused. What were the right words for this? "Some things I have to deal with."

I gave them each a hug, but they all stood stiff. "I'd die before I betrayed Akatsuki. You know that I'll be back."

As I said this, sorrow consumed me. I really didn't want to go back to Orochimaru, but here I was, stuck again, somewhere I didn't want to be.

I turned to face Orochimaru, "Mission complete…" The stupid mission that it way…

He smiled at me all the while, he must be so pleased with himself that I was coming back. He had complete control over my actions, he knew my weaknesses, which is kind of sad…since I don't really even know my weaknesses. I needed to learn them, otherwise…they would be used against me again in battle.

The instant I turned around to face the Akatsuki again, they were gone. Disappeared. Faded. Or at least…that's what it seemed like.

> >

I got up the next morning after sitting in my bed for about two hours trying to convince myself just to stay there. I ended up treading down to the medics center where I found Kabuto. He was obviously waiting for me. Boy do I hate him.

"Orochimaru-sama wants to see you," we said in unison.

I raised an eyebrow, "How did I know? If you really want to tell him, you can let him know that I'll be there after I visit my teammates who you so happily injured."

I stalked off before he could reply. I quickly rushed to where Aikyo and Arashi were laying in their beds.

To my demise they both smiled at me. A frustrated look covered my face, "How can you both be smiling at me…?" I asked softly. "If I hadn't tried to leave, you wouldn't be hurt right now."

Aikyo almost laughed, "You don't understand we really wanted you to go. We didn't want you to come back here. I don't belong here."

"Not that we don't want you here!" Arashi quickly added noticing the surprised look on my face. "You just belong with those that you care about."

"Then I belong in many places." I threw my head back in frustration once more. When both of them observed me in confusion, I figured that I had to explain. "I care about Akatsuki, I'd love to be back there, I care for the people there more than anyone else that I know…but, I also care about you two and Sasuke…I care about my Clan, who hates me. I care about Konoha itself…"

I felt someone place their hand on my shoulder, I hastily turned my head to see who it was. Dark hair and eyes…Sasuke. He was the last, okay not really the last, but I hadn't expected him to be standing behind me.

"Orochimaru wants to talk to us. C'mon," he said nodded his head toward the door.

When I stood up from kneeling down, that's when I realized how short I actually was. Here I was, sixteen years old, and I'm only about five inches taller than Sasuke and he was twelve. He was just above normal height for his age though…so maybe I wasn't so bad off?

Anyways, I followed Sasuke to where Orochimaru always was sitting doing absolutely nothing and we didn't say one word to each other.

It was kind of funny how be both came and stood in front of Orochimaru. Neither of us really cared…though in different ways. Actually, in fact he and I both just looked really bored.

"This better be important," I said suddenly, remembering what I had told Orochimaru. "Because if you call me again I'm not coming, recall?"

He continued on with why he called us, "If I remember correctly," he said slowly, "Your Kabau can counter just about any jutsu, right?"

"When I'm fighting…why?" I was suspicious, why did he need to know?

"A number of things, I need you to help Sasuke-kun learn how to counter and use some new jutsu. I've decided that you can start teaching him today. Plus," he eyed me, "I need some new jutsu as well."

I did not like the sound of this.

> >

"Alright…" I said slowly, watching Sasuke. "What jutsu should we learn how to counter…?"

Sasuke still looked bored, and he didn't answer me. So I took liberty upon myself to think of something. Let's see, in all truth, lately I had had the Temporary Body Paralysis Jutsu used against me a lot. So, that was what we were going to work on.

"Have you ever used Temporary Body Paralysis Jutsu?"

"No."

"Well I guess you're going to learn it, aren't you?"

He just shrugged. Great, this was going to be a lot of fun. I couldn't wait.

> >

By the time Sasuke had mastered the jutsu our two hour training session was over. Actually, it didn't take him very long to learn how to use it…but he completely perfected it. I had learned how to perfect it in that time as well. Maybe these training sessions would be good for me as well.

"Do you want to go get some lunch?"

Surprisingly Sasuke and I had started talking again. He replied with a short "Sure."

We made out way down to the cafeteria, got our food and sat down at an empty table and ate in silence for a few moments, until Sasuke spoke.

"I've never exactly known…but why is your Kabau so different?" he asked me. "The rest of the Moeru family doesn't have a Kabau like yours…is what I meant."

I grinned, nobody had ever actually asked me this question. Whether it was because the Kabau wasn't very well known or that people hadn't realized it was beyond me, but I was overjoyed that Sasuke had even asked. I had to hold back my happiness.

"Do you even really know what the Kabau is?" I asked, caution suddenly touched my voice.

I was caught by surprise because he actually admitted that he had no idea exactly what it was or anything. His honest answer seemed sort of…unlike him.

This made me smile, so thus, I started to explain. "Well, you see, the Kabau probably originated from the Byakugan and the Sharingan but over time it completely changed. It was said that originally, it was only received by the successor of the Moeru Clan, but overtime just about everyone gained the possibility to receive it.

"You see, the Kabau means Protect, so eventually it spread so that most people in the Moeru Clan could use it. Yet, it could only be gained through putting one's self through dangerous situations and surviving them. Only then could you prove that you deserved it. The Kabau is really hard to convince, might I add. You can only gain it after quite a few of these dangerous situations. Most of the time including life or death."

Once again, I was shocked by Sasuke. He seemed really interested, I wasn't sure why.

"You didn't tell me why your Kabau is different though."

"I was getting there…geez be a bit more patient," I said, taking another bite of my lunch. "Anyways, now people who gain the Kabau don't really even gain protection. They just get a downsized version of the Sharingan. All it does for normal Moeru is give them the ability to copy jutsu used against them.

"Mine on the other hand, I have a special type of Kabau. Mine not only copies jutsu…but in an instant it comes up with a counter attack for it. Actually…it's pretty useful creating new jutsu too now that I think about it…

"Well, I guess you could say that my Kabau is different because supposedly I'm the 'strongest' member of the Moeru Clan for my generation. The people that gain the special Kabau are supposed to be the leaders of the whole clan. I guess that's supposed to mean that I'm the leader or something. The Moeru Clan doesn't really believe in this whole successor thing anymore though, so I guess it doesn't really matter."

"But you are the strongest in your clan though, right?"

"Supposedly. I might not be, I'm not really even sure myself. They stopped speaking of the Kabau technique in the Moeru Clan, people still gain it and everything, but not as many. I had to do a lot of research just to figure out what I know."

Sasuke seemed to think for a moment, "Who else has had the special Kabau?"

"I dunno. All that I found out was that maybe about ten others, and most of them had been past leaders of the Moeru Clan."

Sasuke nodded.

"Why so curious?" I found myself asking.

"No reason."

Liar.

> >

After lunch, Sasuke went back to Orochimaru, which kinda disappointed me because I didn't have anyone else to talk to with Aikyo and Arashi both in the medic center still. So, I figured I'd go visit with them for a while and then go train. I hadn't just sat there and trained in a long time.

I head toward the medic center. As I went in, I could tell from a glance that both of them were sleeping. Just my luck.

Thus, straight to training. It didn't take me to long to figure out what I wanted to work on…the technique that Tsunade had begun to teach me when I was little. I would need to do a lot of medical research…and would probably need to speak to Kabuto a little bit more, which would really suck, but for some reason I was still drawn to work on it.

I made my way outside and to the training grounds. I had to start small…but on what healing or strength? No doubt about tit. Definitely strength.

I kneeled down, and concentrated chakra to one of my index fingers. Concentrating on my finger, and imagining a small crevasse in the ground, I pushed my finger down.

Just as I had hoped, the crevasse appeared. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard to learn…but probably more hard to perfect.

> >

Making my way back inside, I felt extremely accomplished. I had crushed a slightly large tree to pieces with just my chakra and a hand. I grinned and headed to the medic center, maybe Aikyo and Arashi would let me practice healing on them.

Instead I was met at the door by a panting Kabuto. "Where have you been?" he probed. "Orochimaru-sama is looking for you!"

"More like you're looking for me for him…" I sighed. "Why am I being looked for? I'm not going down there again."

"Yes, you are. Orochimaru-sama has something very important to discuss with you," he said pushing me out into the hallway and directing me down the hall.

Anger overcame me. I wasn't going to see him again today. He had wasted his time today already. I wasn't going to go see him every time he had a little problem he had to discuss with me.

I spun out, concentrated chakra to my hand, aiming a hard punch to his stomach. Time seemed to pause for the split second as my hand made contact, and then he flew backward with such force he hit the wall.

He got up onto his hands and knees, coughing slightly. That wasn't too bad…I still needed to work the strength quite a bit though…

"Tell Orochimaru that I'll come for a visit first thing tomorrow morning…right now, I'm going to bed. 'Night."

I felt his glare, but I wasn't expecting what came next.

My Kabau glowed, and I swerved to meet a fist coming to my face.

Natsu: I'm sorry, I hope you liked it. I'll try to update soon okay? I'm also starting to plan another story...but it shouldn't slow this one down. See you next time! 0