Luridly Itachi awoke from his sleep. Had he fallen asleep? He immediately chastised himself for falling asleep while on guard. This was a rookie mistake, and he demanded much greater self control.

Only the barest speck of orange glow could be seen from the remains of the fire he had made earlier. Itachi reached to his right, grabbed another couple chunks of wood from the ruined alter, then got up and added it to the fire pit that he rekindled with his jutsu. He blinked a few times while his eyes adjusted to the new light.

Kisame snored quietly ahead of him against the wall of the enclosure. Wheezing may have been a more fitting verb. No matter, he would soon put an end to it. Itachi rose up and stood adjacent to his partner. "Kisame." He said sternly.

"Huh, what?" Kisame said, somewhat alarmed now that he had been awoken.

"Light the lamp and wake the girl, it's time to keep moving." After speaking Itachi turned to walk down the one of the tunnels.

With a grunt Kisame stood up and stretched out his arms to their full wingspan, then rotated them from the shoulders both back and forth. The rough of the cave wall had done terrible things to his back. Cracking his neck from side to side, he wondered if this was the beginning of middle age setting in. He turned to where he had last seen the dead cow sleeping.

Kisame blinked twice, but otherwise not a single muscle in his face moved. "Itachi."

"Yes?" Itachi turned his head over his shoulder to see Kisame looking at an empty spot on the ground behind them.

Simultaneously Itachi's chest expanded, eyes narrowed, and jaw clenched.

"She can't have gotten far without a lantern. We will probably find her sniveling in the dark if we go back the way we came." Kisame said in an even tone, the same pensive expression on his face. As he reached down to grab his lantern, he quickly realized it wasn't there. "Damnit!" he harshly said between clenched teeth. "That little bitch…!"

Itachi still remained level headed. She would have most likely tried to go back the way they came, doing her best to rely on memory for the exit. Only he had a map and….

Hands diving into his pockets, Itachi's hands both turned up empty.

A kaleidoscope of light wavered across the cavern walls as Asaya leapt down the pathway, quickly and quietly trying to put as much distance between her and her abductors as possible. She couldn't have been running for more than fifteen minutes, but in that time she had covered quite a bit of ground. This had been the second time she had escaped from them, and hopefully the last time she would need to. What idiots, Asaya thought as she kept running. The first time she got away she thought she was just lucky, but this time was just unexplainable. It was as if they meant to hand her the opportunity on a silver platter. Perhaps the blue oaf was easy to fool, but the other one….

He was a much more strict and self-disciplined person, much more cunning and precise. Some deity had blessed her with a minor miracle for her to get away from him. In fact, her heart still hadn't calmed down from stealing the map. The moment when she knelt down beside him to steal it she couldn't breathe and her entire body trembled.

Asaya slowed to a halt as she came to another clearing where the road split in four places. She pulled out the stolen map from her obi. Which way to go? Unlike what one might think, Asaya had gone further into the cave system, hoping to exit wherever they had originally been planning to. Her assailants couldn't possibly follow her without the map. But there was a chance that if she decided to run back the way they came, the two men would somehow remember the way back and catch her running home. Again.

There were two different paths she could follow. Both were about the same distance. One was to her far left, and it was a rather roundabout way of getting there. The other slightly to her right still wasn't a straight shot, but there were many less forks in the road. Taking a closer look at the map she noticed that a few small black diamonds were marked along that path, but the map key's ink was too worn and faded to decipher. I guess I'll just have to find out…

It wasn't hard to tell that Itachi was unhappy with the two Akatsuki's situation. Their captive- a mere girl barely old enough to be considered a woman- had escaped them not once but twice now. The first time they had let her get away was humiliating enough. She had simply slipped away while they were looking the other way. Although they caught on relatively quick, they had to chase her for about five miles until they finally caught her. And that was only what? Two, maybe three days ago? And now, not only had she escaped again, but she had also stolen their lantern, the only map, and done it all while they slept like babies.

This level of humiliation was unforgivable.

Kisame was slightly anxious at seeing the anger on his partner's face. There had only been a few times when he had seen Itachi so upset, and they all ended very badly.

Itachi thought quickly and carefully about his next move. This girl was clever, to say the least. She may have not taken the obvious option of running back the way they came. Since she had the map, if she were smart she would have chosen to go further into the cave where they had no chance of following her.

"Kisame, do you remember the way back?" Itachi asked

"No." Kisame answered.

"Wait here until I return." Itachi turned and headed deeper into the cave, pulling a lantern scroll from his sleeve.

Asaya walked briskly once she had chosen her path from the five-way junction. There was no point in wasting excess energy, even thought she had plenty left. Perhaps she was being too presumptuous, but there was no way they could catch her now.

After walking for a good while, the ground began to shift from solid rock with scattered pebbles, to slightly dusty and sandy. Just ahead of her, Asaya could see the walls change from their natural creviced and jagged features, to a much smoother and manmade appearance. This whole tunnel system was carved out by Iwa of course, but special attention was given to whatever was built up ahead. Perhaps it was an underground meeting room or a storage facility of some sort. That idea was entertaining. There were bound to be oodles of things to discover. It had to be an archeologist's dream.

The room was extremely large for one underground.

It wasn't all that wide, but it was very tall and long. The light of Asaya's stolen lantern, though dim, couldn't show the other end of the room. The ceiling wasn't visible either. She could see that there were rectangular hollows carved throughout the walls. Turning the lamplight up momentarily revealed two things: the ribbed barrel vault of the ceiling, which was about fourty feet up, and the wooden boxes placed in each of those hollows. And few more were scattered around the floor. This tunnel system was indeed used for underground military smuggling.

Oh well, it's not like Iwa has the best track record for conducting perfectly legal operations, Asaya thought.

While looking at the wonton architecture of the ceiling, Asaya's left foot stumbled. Looking down, she noticed that the object was relatively light, long, and white. It was a bone.

About a foot to her right was the complete skeleton of a dead soldier in front of her, it's skull still adorning the traditional Iwa headband.

Asaya sharply inhaled to produce a small, mouse-like squeak.

Swiftly running down the cave's corridors, Itachi was glad that he had used his sharingan to memorize the map before it was stolen from him. At least he wasn't that stupid.

However, he soon came to a halt as he entered a five way junction. The path had been east up till now, as each split in the road had only one path that led towards the exit, but this one had more than one way to go. The initial rush of adrenalin that surged through his system while he sprinted through the caves now washed away with the cool sense of rational he needed to decide which way to go.

There were two distinct paths that would lead him towards the exit. But which way to go? Unfortunately, there were no clues as to which way she had went. The floor was solid stone, so there were no footprints, and not even a pebble was kicked out of place. Not even his sharingan could find a single detail. Only solid, undisturbed stone stood all around him. This girl was good.

There was a fifty/fifty shot no matter which way he went- odds he wasn't comfortable with. But even if he went down the wrong one, there was a chance that he could race her to the end of the tunnel and ambush her at the exit, but that was assuming that he could get there first. He didn't know how far ahead of him she was. None of his options were very appealing.

Then he heard it. It was the tiniest of sounds. Itachi almost thought he didn't hear anything at all. A small, minuscule squeak came from his right. It was Mouse-like, really. But there were no animals in this tunnel- only Kisame, himself, and her.

Fool…

A wide eyed stare now looked down onto the skeleton in a mixture of astonishment, disgust, and curiosity. Knealing down, Asaya examined the skeleton. She could tell it was male from the prominent brow on the skull. There was mummified hair delicately attached to the skull, but otherwise there were no preserved tissues; they had naturally rotted away years ago. More interestingly, the man was wearing an extremely old uniform. It was made of traditional plated armor and hand woven fabrics. This man was from the First Shinobi War.

Holy crap…! Asaya thought.

Just few yards behind the armored skeleton were dozens of others lined up against the wall. Even more were stuffed into the nooks and crannies carved into the walls. They were everywhere.

"Catacombs…" She whispered.

So this was what had been hidden down here: the countless dead bodies of soldiers who fought in the first war. And some of the skeletons looked even older.

Asaya's eyes shifted erratically while the horror seeped in. The room now seemed half as big as it used to be.

She turned around and walked backwards into the cave. She was both amazed and horrified at the same time. On one hand this was a mass grave filled with the remains of the dead, but on the other it was possibly the most important historical find of the decade! This place had been abandoned and left untouched for generations.

So many questions filled her head. What was this tunnel system actually used for? How old was it? Who originally built it? Why were these bodies collected here, instead of being burned or destroyed like usual? Why was this place abandoned and forgotten?

And most importantly, how did those men know about this place? Something was very, very wrong here.

Asaya was dumbstruck.

Then she saw something far more terrifying: a very feint light flickered from the tunnel she had just come from. It was small, like that of a firefly. Asaya almost couldn't believe it, but she knew what she saw.

"No way…!" The words came out as broken and cold as her breath.

They had followed her. Her kidnappers had somehow managed to follow her despite impossible odds. Panic now squeezed her heart and lungs in its painful grip. She had to hide. There was no way to outrun them in the catacombs. They could probably see the light from her lamp just as well as they could see theirs.

Quickly she searched the room. The boxes- coffins- throughout the room were the only real places to hide. But they were far too obvious. Hiding there would have been like a child playing hide and seek. Asaya ran further into the room, scanning the walls for anyplace to take cover. She spotted a tiny hole in the wall barely large enough for her to fit through. Desperately she crawled in as far she could on her hands and knees, and then curled into a tight ball. She turned off her lantern, hid her chakara, and silently began to pray.

Itachi knew she was close when he saw a dim light ahead of him. There was no other possible explanation. When the light went out he realized that she must have spotted him too.

Now that he knew where his prey was, he ran even faster. There was no way he would let her get away now; she had to pay.

When he came to the entrance of the catacomb he halted. Though it was hard for him to see his surroundings, he knew exactly what this room was and what was in it. Sure, it was quite an astounding find, but Itachi did not have the time or desire to play archeologist.

She must be hiding, Itachi thought. If she were still running he would have been able to see her lantern's light.

The red of sharingan overlaid the normal black of his eyes. He would be able to see her chakara clear as day no matter where she hid.

Itachi walked slowly- leisurely almost- down the cave. Like a black panther his footsteps were calm, precise, and powerful.

From the corner of his left eye he spotted her. She had a soft, pale lilac color to her chakara. As he stepped closer to where she was hiding in the wall he could see her timid body shivering with fear. Her ability to hide her chakara was flawless, but like every opponent, she was no match for the power of sharingan.

He knelt down in front of her mouse hole and looked inside.

Asaya could hear her heart beating in her temples; feel the blood pulse through her carotid arteries. Trembling hands covered her mouth in an attempt to stifle her breath.

Through the drumming in her ears, she could hear him as he walked. The sound of his footsteps crunching the rock felt like sandpaper scratching her eardrums. Then she heard him stop, then take exactly six steps towards her, each step louder than the last.

No, no, no, no, no, no...! She shook her head in disbelief.

She stared at the entrance to the hole she climbed in. Tears poured from her eyes as she saw a pair of legs kneel down and a face appeared. It was the face of the younger one, but his eyes were red, not black like she remembered. That was all she saw before everything went black.

Asaya suddenly found herself in an entirely different situation than she was just in. She was recumbent on her back in complete darkness. Reaching out her hands, she realized that she was in a wooden crate, just like the ones in the catacomb.

"You should have known better than to try and run." The voice of the young man spoke from obscurity.

"What?! What is this? What are you doing?!" Asaya screamed back at him. She began to kick and thrash about in the box, trying to get out.

"Stop it! Let me go!" She cried.

She shut up as soon as she felt water pouring in from all around her, pooling at her back.

"No! Stop it! Stop!"

There was no reply, but the water kept pouring in. She clawed fervently at the box. If she didn't get out she knew she was going to drown. The water slowly rose above her ears and squelched the sound of her own screams. She lifted her head to breathe and begged one last time.

"Let me out! Please!"

There was still no reply, and the water now smothered her face. Her fingers bruised and bled as her fingernails ripped off, but she kept clawing. The air in her lungs quickly became stale in her state of panic. She tried to hold it in, but soon instinct forced her to exhale and then inhale water. Franticly she kept breathing water in and out, each time choking and convulsing painfully. Her lungs burned due to oxygen deprivation and she began to feel light headed.

Eventually, she stopped breathing and moving altogether as she passed out.

Once the girl passed out from his mangekyo sharingan, Itachi reached in and pulled her out. As soon as she was out and lying on her back he noticed that she wasn't breathing and her heart wasn't beating. This was an uncommon side effect of his genjutsu; victim's minds would think that they had actually died and would subsequently stop basic functions. Under normal circumstances Itachi would have let her die- gladly at that. But for this exception he was instructed to keep her alive and unharmed. Mostly unharmed, at least.

Her chakara signature was fading fast. If he wanted to save her, he would have to act now.

Unfortunately, healing techniques were not his specialty, so his rudimentary medical knowledge would have to do. Raising his right hand in a fist, he slammed it down on her heart.

It didn't work.

Itachi tried again. This time she sharply inhaled and coughed out, but still remained unconscious. He could see her chakara and vital signs returning to normal.

A cool sense of relief swept over his brow. If she had died he would have been in more trouble than if she escaped, especially since he would have been her cause of death.

Itachi grabbed the map that she stuffed in her obi then put it in his pocket. He didn't really need it, but she wasn't allowed to have it. He then picked up her unconscious body and carried it over his shoulder while he headed back towards Kisame.

Itachi did have to admit that he felt much better now that this episode was over.

Kisame quietly sat cross-legged while he waited for Itachi to return. At first he had been waiting for his partner to return, but now the anxiety was setting in.

"Man, what if Itachi got lost?" Kisame thought out loud.

If Itachi never came back for him, what was he supposed to do?

Kisame looked back into the cave in the direction they entered from. If he got lost trying to get out by himself, he was screwed.

"Kisame." Itachi said from behind him.

Kisame looked behind him to see Itachi standing with the girl limply draped over his shoulder like a dead cow.

"Let's go." He said, then turned and walked away.

Kisame stood up and followed behind his partner. Though he had many, he wouldn't dare ask questions.

A/N: I may add another little section to this in a little bit. Also, a big thank you to my editor for this chapter!