Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto...

Firstly i would like to say sorry for this chapter being later than planned. I was going to post it on Wednesday, but then i decided that i didn't like it and it was boring, so i've practically re-written the whole thing and i think it's a little better...I'm still not compleatly happy with it though...

Secondly, i would like to say thank you to anyone who read, and to FooFooCudlyPoops and Hibiki-chan for reviewing.

And thirdly...Here is Chapter 2, at last...

Chapter 2

It was hours later when Amaya finally regained consciousness. The first thing she noticed was that everything around her was bathed in a soft, orange light and that she was warm, but far from comfortable.

Morning…

Trying to look up at the sky, she then blinked as her mind processed the fact that she was being carried over someone's shoulder, and that looking towards the sky was currently very difficult. Her still sleepy mind also began to register that they were jumping through the high branches of trees. She could see the ground littered with leaves and covered in plants far below.

That struck her as a tad strange. Surely real people couldn't jump through trees? Then again, if they could it would explain how they followed them so silently the night before…But really, could they do that? She blinked again and shook her head a little to wake herself up, incase she was actually dreaming.

After a moment the sound of a familiar voice reached her ears and she smiled. From what she could hear, Hana was apparently in much the same situation as herself. At least Amaya now knew that her friend was safe; she had been so worried about her. Sadly, it meant that she wasn't dreaming and that this was all quite real.

Damn…

"Ooi! Put me down! My head hurts! What's going on? Why did you have to hit me so hard? How do you jump from tree to tree like that? What are you, overgrown squirrels? Squirrels that have bred with monsters and over time evolved into a completely new species? But…You don't seem to have a tail – ouch! That hurt!"

"Be quiet," said the same rough voice from the night before, angrily.

Amaya couldn't see her friend, but recognizing the man's voice she came to the conclusion that if Hana was being carried by that man, then the man carrying her must be the one with the red eyes.

Unless there are more of them?

Who are they anyway? What do they want with us? Where are they taking us?

Amaya shook her head again. It was no use wondering, so she decided to see what she could tell about these people from the position that she was in, which wasn't a very good one, if you haven't already gathered.

Looking down she noticed the man carrying her was wearing a black cloak with red clouds on it. It…looked clean. Amaya stared at it as if it would just spill this mans life story to her but sadly, it refused. Darn thing.

Hmph, at least he has a sense of hygiene, she thought dryly.

Then she did a double take of the pattern. Red clouds? It certainly was unique. Amaya had a weird feeling. Almost like she remembered reading about it somewhere, yet she was sure she'd never seen, nor heard of anything to do with black cloaks and red clouds. Despite this, it brought a word to her mind.

A-something…Aki…Aka…Akata…Akati…Akatsu…Akatsu…ki?

"Akatsuki!?"

What's that?

It took her a moment to realize that she had said it aloud and her body went stiff. Would it make any difference if they thought she knew about them?

Hana fell silent. It was a different reaction to what Amaya would have expected as Hana usually questioned everything, but she didn't think on it at the time. She was too busy wondering if they would want to find out if she knew more. Maybe they were kidnapping them for information! That would make sense.

Soon Hana went back to her babbling and Amaya continued to be absorbed in her thoughts. Akatsuki was something bad. She knew it, though she didn't know how. All she knew was that her gut was telling her that if these people really were from Akatsuki, they were in a whole lot more trouble than she'd previously thought.

What do they want with us, though? Why would we be of any interest to them? Could it just be that they think we know something? Surely they can't be planning on…Two men kidnap two young, pretty girls…No. If they were planning on that they could have done it already. It can't be that. It must be information, mustn't it?

...We don't have any information…

Deciding to keep her mouth shut from now on, Amaya tried to relax and let go of the breath that she'd been holding and started trying to think of ways in which they might have chance of escaping. She didn't come up with any.

Just as it was starting to near noon, the men jumped down from the trees, to land surprisingly lightly on the ground. As she was put down Amaya whispered a silent 'arigatou' – being carried over someone's shoulder like a rag doll for half a day, and a large potion of the night before, wasn't exactly the most comfortable thing in the world – before looking up and getting her first proper look at the Akatsuki member who'd been carrying her.

At first all she could do was to stare at his eyes, despite the fact that she had seen them previously. They were cold and blood red, with three comma-shaped black dots in each eye, but his eyes lashes were so...feminine. Amaya almost blushed at thought and told herself that he was anything but.

The stare he returned was as blank and emotionless as it had been before, and once again gave her the feeling that he was looking right through her. His eyes fascinated her for some reason, but she still could not hold his gaze, so she looked away to take in the rest of him.

Jet black hair, which appeared to be tied back, fell around his pale face. She didn't quite come up to his shoulder and his cloak hid the rest of him, including the lower half of his face. It made him seem rather intimidating; though she was sure he probably would have been, even if he hadn't been wearing it.

He was wearing a head band too, with some kind of shape on it that resembled a leaf, but there was a scratch through it as if it had been crossed out. That was probably meant to mean something, but Amaya didn't know what.

She only looked away for him when she heard a gasp and turned to look at Hana, who was staring at the other man. She couldn't help but notice that he shot her a dark look. It seemed that she had succeeded in hurting his foot. A slight feeling of satisfaction came from knowing that.

"Y-you're…" Hana's mouth was hanging open. She looked over at Amaya, pointing up at the very tall man. She was at least a whole foot shorter than him and then some, but that didn't seem to be what Hana was focused on.

"He's…He's…Blue, Amaya-chan…?"

Amaya nodded slowly, just a little stunned her self, as she had never seen a blue man before. Turning back to him, Hana peered up at his face.

"A-and he looks like a…Like a shark…Don't you think?" There was a moment of pause. "That's freaky!" Hana said, pointing up at him, in a rather rude and childlike manner.

"What did you just say?" The man growled grabbing hold of the large sword on his back and looking ready to swing it.

Amaya watched them. She always knew that Hana wasn't the brightest star in the sky, but had always thought that no matter how stupid her friend was, she wasn't stupid enough to speak like that to a man with a giant sword strapped to his back. Apparently she was wrong.

Hana-chan you baka!

You'll end up getting yourself killed, talking to him like that! They're from Akatsuki, whatever that means, and he probably wouldn't regret taking your head off!

Then again, they want us alive…So he'd probably just…

"…make her be quiet."

Amaya nodded in agreement, before she realized that someone else had finished her thought. She turned and stared at the red eyed man. His face was completely blank – well, the part of it she could see, anyway - and she wasn't sure for a moment if it was him who had spoken, but who else could it have been?

His voice was deep and soft in a strangely cold and dangerous way. Going from her experience last night, she could tell that he was one of those people who spoke quieter when he got angry, instead of shouting like normal people.

After wondering whether he could read her thoughts or not, she realized that she had been speaking her thoughts aloud. She stared for a few more seconds before turning back to watch Hana, who was now on her knees.

"Pretty please, don't kill me, Shark-san!"

Amaya rolled her eyes at her friend. Even in that situation she wasn't taking it seriously. The man had had released his hold on his sword and was watching her with what might have been a slightly bored expression, though, so perhaps Hana would live for a little longer.

"Sit down and shut up," the man said finally, positioning himself against a tree. Hana's eyes narrowed and she got to her feet and grumpily did as she was told.

Choosing a tree, which looked just as uncomfortable as the rest of them, Amaya sat and closed her eyes. There were so many questions whizzing around her head she needed to make them still and to order them, somehow.

Taking a deep breath she smiled faintly as she listened to Hana, still mumbling on and on to her self. Amaya then had the feeling that she was being watched again. She knew if she opened her eyes that the red-eyed man would be watching her. It was as if something was being physically pressed against her.

He has such a forceful stare. He's just staring, with no emotion. It's not even as if he's ogling me. Just staring…It's so creepy! I'm not even interesting…We're not even interest-.

She stopped. The stare felt stronger. Amaya made a mental note to learn to keep her mouth shut and stop speaking her thoughts aloud.

That's a bad habit.

Taking another deep breath she opened her eyes and wasn't surprised to find him crouched beside her.

"That's a bad habit," he said. There was no emotion there. It was just a statement of fact.

Her eyebrows rose, you don't say.

"And you're both very interesting."

"Why?" Amaya asked quietly, "What's so interesting about us?"

"Yeah, why have you kidnapped us? We're just plain boring!" Hana chimed in, "and who are the two of you, anyway?"

The blue man glanced at the other before receiving a slight nod and giving his name.

"Hoshigaki Kisame."

"Uchiha Itachi," replied the red eyed man.

A cold shiver ran down Amaya's spine and even Hana stopped talking. The word, 'murderers' suddenly came to mind and Amaya wondered why. Well, Kisame did have an abnormally large sword strapped to his back, which might have given it away a little, but it was more than that.

It seemed like that was the only question they were going to answer, but it was better than nothing. At least she knew what to call them now, rather than 'the red-eyed man' and 'the blue man'.

As Itachi moved away again, Amaya moved over to Hana who was beckoning for her to come.

"Ano, Amaya-chan…I…Umm…"

"What?"

"I…need to go…in the bushes…"

Amaya stared blankly before an understanding look settled on her face, "Ah, I see. Why are you telling me? Tell them."

"Uh…But…That's…Well, how am I supposed to say that?"

Laughing lightly, Amaya turned, speaking to whichever one of the men that were listening, "Hana-chan needs to go in the bushes for a moment, okay, so we're not trying to run or anything. Don't look. She then dragged her friend a short way and pushed her behind a tree, "Okay?"

Amaya had turned her back on her friend, and was surprised when Hana grabbed her arm and started to run.

"What are you doing? I said we weren't running!"

"Oh come on! You really think I'm going to go in some bushes? Besides, we may as well take any chance we can get, ne?"

"Hana, they'll catch us again, and then what? I don't think they'll be very happy about it! I'm not happy about it!"

"Oh, shut up already, and run!"

"They're running," Kisame said, glancing in the direction that they had gone.

"They'll come back soon," Itachi replied and Kisame smiled cruelly, showing his sharp teeth.

"Probably much faster than they went, too."

The corners of Itachi's mouth twitched.

Fools.

Kisame got to his feet, sword at the ready. Itachi didn't move.

Amaya glanced over her shoulder, to see if they were being followed. As a result she ran straight into Hana's back.

"Why've you –," Turning, she found the answer to her question, "stopped…?" she finished slowly.

A huge snake loomed before them. Its eyes were bright yellow. Its tongue flicked as it hissed. Its head moved and it looked at them. It was almost as though it was wondering if they would make a good meal. Having decided that they looked rather tasty, it lunged at them.

Kisame then turned, facing in the opposite direction to the two girls. He glanced at Itachi, who had also sensed the chakra signatures quickly coming towards them and was now on his feet. An anticipating smile slowly spread over his face. They were going to fight. This would be fun.
And yes, that is my attempt at a cliffhanger...

Just the one Japanese word that time...Arigatou means Thank you...

Next chapter should be up on Wednesday, but i have exams all next week so i'll be busy with last minute revision and stuff, so it might be late again, but i'll do my best...That is, if anyone wants me to post more...?

Anyway, thanks again for reading, and please review...