Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

I'm so so so so so SO sorry that it's taken me so long to update, but i've been really busy and i have art exams and my spaish oral exams next week, so i've been caught up in all of that..

As always, thanks so much to those who reviewed! You guys make it worth giving up hours of should-be-revision time to write!

Chapter 10

Itachi watched the girl's face. At first she was simply surprised; her eyebrows then furrowed and he could almost hear 'why' and 'how' echoing in her head; then her pretty blue-green eyes narrowed and he realised she was angry.

"There are so many things I don't understand anymore. Every time something happens, I have no idea what's going on. How could I have missed all of this before? Whatever happened to normal? And you know what? I'm not even going to bother asking for an explanation this time," she drew her eyes away from his and pulled back the covers, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, "because you're not going to answer anyway."

Strange; that wasn't exactly the reaction he had been expecting from her. He had thought it would be something more along the lines of staring, then questioning and that he would end up finally having to explain what a kekkai genkai was. He had been wrong though, and that didn't happen often.

As she moved something slipped from her shoulders and onto the floor. His cloak – she barely remembered him wrapping it around her. As she picked it to cover herself again, she noticed that the carpet was black, as it had been in his room before and was soft on her bare feet.

Pushing herself up with her good arm she stood and took a shaky step towards the bathroom. She didn't get far though. Suddenly she felt dizzy and the room began to swim around her. She closed her eyes and brought her hand to her head, willing the room to go still. To add to it, her legs went weak and refused to support her weight any longer.

Strong arms caught her and stopped her from falling. She clung to him and leant heavily against him until her head stopped spinning. Because of the height difference she had her head resting against his chest. In her dizzy mind she heard a steady 'thump-thump' and it took her a moment to realise it was his heartbeat. Along with that was the gentle movement of his chest as he breathed. It was so relaxing that she almost forgot that he had taken her captive and that she was currently a prisoner and injured because of him. By rights she should hate him…but she couldn't seem to find it within herself at that moment.

Itachi gazed down at her. She looked relaxed, almost peaceful, and all the anger from a moment ago was gone. She seemed to have a short leash on her temper, and yet it disappeared as quickly as it had come.

Opening her eyes, she looked up at him, silently searching for a reason why she was currently clinging to him to simply stand up straight.

"You lost a lot of blood," he said, "it will be a few days before you can move around much."

He actually answered an unspoken question… I should try that more often…

He led her slowly in slow wobbly steps to the bathroom. With a small smile of thanks she locked the door behind her. Steadying herself by holding onto the sink she gazed at her reflection in the mirror and grimaced.

Her hair was a knotted, black mess, hanging around her face and over shoulders. She was pale and sickly looking and there were traces of dried blood still on her cheek, along with dirty smudges all over the place. Dark rings around her eyes showed how tired she was.

I guess being unconscious doesn't really count as sleep…

Splashing her face with warm water she sighed and dried it on a soft white towel, smiling at the instant noticeable difference. Running her fingers slowly through her tangled hair while leaning back against the door she pulling out a few stray leaves she'd spotted and wondered where Hana was at this moment. She vaguely remembered Kisame running after her.

Did he find her?

Orochimaru smirked, "A mistake? What did you do this time?"

"Che, like I'm going to tell you."

He watched her calmly with his yellow eyes, "Did you give away your hiding place?"

She glared at him, "Something like that."

"Tsk, tsk, Hana-chan, I thought you'd grown out of that?"

"Urusai, Snaky," she spat. Oh how she wanted to slap that smirk off his face, "Enough with that, what do you want?"

"Well, let's put it this way. Anything that Akatsuki wants is worth having. They know too, I suppose?"

"Of course," she replied flatly.

"And what exactly is their interest in you?" The man behind her asked.

She turned to him as she spoke to him, "Kabuto-san, they're A-ka-tsu-ki. They don't tell anyone anything. You think they just sat us down and explained their plans to us?" She shook her head with a patronising a smile and received his fist on her jaw. She considered throwing one back so that she would smash his glasses but decided against it.

"Oh, not going to fight back?" Orochimaru asked, "That reminds me. You didn't fight back against my snake. Neither did Amaya-san and I'm curious as to why. Have you gotten so weak?"

Hana was silent. That was one question she was not going to answer.

Orochimaru laughed, the creepy sound of it bouncing off the stone walls, "No matter. Sasuke-kun, she's all yours."

Sasuke? That sounds familiar…

For the first time the person stood beside Orochimaru's chair moved. Pushing the door open he waited silently for her to walk through. With a final glare at Orochimaru she followed silently, trying to think of a way she could get out of this.

As she passed the man she looked up, to find that he was actually younger than she had expected - perhaps a couple of years younger than herself – and he was the last person she had expected to see. Dark eyes, almost black with a faint blue tint, looked down at her coldly. His hair matched his eyes, framing his face. He looked so much like his brother, it was unmistakable.

Wow, you don't see any Uchihas for years then you meet the last two in the space of a few days!

He led her to a room and told her to sit in the chair in the centre. Smoothing her face to hide her nervousness she did as she was told.

"I have better things to do than waste my time questioning you, so I'd advise you tell me what I want to know to begin with and save yourself the trouble later. Where is Akatsuki's base?"

"There was one near the border of Earth country, but that was attacked and they were taking us to another one. I have no idea where that one is." A much as she might come across as stupid, she wasn't a fool and knew it was best to be straight with him. He was an Uchiha, after all.

"Uchiha Itachi -."

"He was one of the ones who abducted us in the first place. We were travelling with him when Orochimaru attacked us. I doubt there is anything I can tell you about him you don't already know. But you already knew that, too, and that's why you want me, isn't it?"

Sasuke stared at her. She was brighter than he had thought, "Yes. When they come to retrieve you, we will let them take you. You will then be our spy within Akatsuki."

"You want me to find out their plans, or just to get information on your brother?"

"Everything," he replied, a slight twitch of his eye the only sign that he resented being referred to as Itachi's brother, "If you do not agree, you will be killed. If you betray us, you will be killed."

"Huh, I guess I'll have to be your spy then." She didn't particularly want to be his spy, and she certainly didn't want to work for the snake-man, but what choice did she have? "Are you sure they won't catch on, though?"

"They shouldn't, as long as you don't give it away."

She guessed that was a warning to keep her mouth shut.

"Someone will come to collect the information from you every week or so."

Then, turning, he moved towards the door.

"Wait, you're just going to leave me here? There's nothing in here apart from a chair," she called after him.

"You're a prisoner," he pointed out as he glanced over his shoulder at her, before closing the door behind him.

It was two days later when Hana was sitting silently in her room, scowling at the stone walls in the dim light, when she heard footsteps running down the corridor towards her.

She was hungry; they had fed her, but not very much and only occasionally, so she was feeling weakened, but still had enough strength to get to her feet and press her ear against the door.

She was tired, too. It was almost impossible to sleep comfortably in a wooden chair and her only other option, the floor, wasn't much better. Stretching her aching limbs she wondered if the sound of a door being flung open was someone from Akatsuki, come to get her.

Stepping back she waited for her own door to be almost removed from its hinges and when it did, she had expected to see Sharky, or Itachi. But it was neither of them.

Instead, a boy stood in the doorway. He was a little taller than her, with spiky blonde hair and bright blue eyes, wearing a bright orange suit, with black across the shoulders. He had a forehead protector bearing the Konoha symbol tied around his head and a determined look set on his face, which seemed to grow more determined as he muttered, "Not here either," and he turned to leave.

Then he stopped and turned back, taking a moment to look her up and down, before asking, "Are you a prisoner?"

Hana stared at him. I was in a locked cell. I'm dirty and smell like rotten fish. Is he stupid? Of course I'm a bloody prisoner!

Despite the fact that the answer to his question was a definite 'yes' she had to wait for Akatsuki - she couldn't leave Amaya with them on her own – and so, she was about to tell him 'no'.

However, before she got the chance to grudgingly tell him her answer, he had run into the cell, taken a hold on her wrist and begun to run down the corridor with her.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"I didn't come here to rescue anyone apart from my friend, but I can't just leave you there," the boy replied.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about me, I'm fine, honestly. You can leave me here…"

"What are you on about? He's evil! What ever he's promised you, forget it! Whatever it is you're hoping to achieve by going to him, he'll find a way to use it to his own advantage, or cheat you out of it so that you die regretting that you ever went to him. You'll be safe back at Konoha and I'm sure Tsunade-baachan will help you with whatever you need."

Hana ran along beside him. He was clearly speaking from experience, but she already knew well what Orochimaru was like and would never let him use her. She wanted to go back to her cell, let herself be recaptured by Akatsuki and go back to Amaya-chan, yet at the same time she wanted to go with this boy. She couldn't help but trust him. Besides, she had only ever heard of one person called 'Tsunade' and would not pass up the chance to meet her.

Making up her mind, she grinned at the boy, "Arigatou! So what's your name?"

"Uzumaki Naruto," he replied, giving her a wide smile back, "You?"

"Hana," she answered.

Amaya-chan…I hope I made the right choice…

Yes, i know, it was kinda short, and very very boring and rubbish... The next chapter will be better though. Promise.

Feel free to leave me a review telling me how much you want to shoot me... Oh, and i've decided to allow anon. reviews for this chapter. if it turns out well, i'll leave it for the next chapters too...So go on, review!