Recap: "You have two hours to be at the gates. The ANBU will be waiting for you," he orders.

"Thank you, Sarutobi-sama!" I formally call him by his first name, earning a smile from him.

I go home, showering swiftly and changing into a purple dress with slits up to my waist on each side, wearing black skintight shorts under the dress and slip on black shoes, heelless. I put skintight purple arm warmers with metal on the back of each hand on, and put my earrings in. I slide a large cloak over me, the two colors of the majestic piece being green and purple, the hood part green, and a gold brooch holding it together in the front. I was ready to go.

"We should be there tomorrow," ANBU Captain, Hitomi, tell me sternly. I was traveling alone with three respectably strong men, Hitomi, Haru, and Yomi.

"Excellent, we'll be getting there a day early," I smirk. "Good thing I'm traveling with people like me, people who don't like waiting or stalling when someone is about to die."

"We're just great ninja," Haru jokes. He was a big jokester that's why it was so easy to travel with these people.

"Sure you are," I smile playfully. He gasps, Yomi shaking his head as he helps set up camp.

"How dare you use sarcasm with me, Aya!" he lightly hits my arm. I lightly hit his back. "Ouch! Damn that hurt!" He was being quiet at least, being smart so we don't get attacked. We start a campfire, sitting around it as Hitomi takes first watch. He was a strict leader, but allowed his ninja to relax before their watch at least.

"You know, you dressed the part well," Yomi points out. The Hokage had instructed me to dress richly, so I looked like nothing more than a royal or someone important being escorted by three Konoha ANBU instead of a powerful kunoichi of the threads. "Ito no Aya, the name itself sounds weak but the flaw is the strength behind it."

"You got that right honey!" I grin cheekily. "This Aya will go Ito on your ass!"

"That made no sense whatsoever," Haru hands me a fish, staked with a stick and burned to a delicious morsel. "Here you go your highness."

"Thank you, man-slave," I play along, taking the fish. "Ewe, it's too burnt! Make it again!"

"I'm so sorry, your royal bitchy-ness," he hands me his fish, a bite already taken out of it. "Enjoy my princess."

"Give me my damn fish back," I push him, just before he can get a bite out of my fish. I stuff his in his mouth. Yomi rolls his eyes.

"Children, calm down."

"We're not children," the two of us chime.

"Sh!" Hitomi shushes. "I think there's something coming."

A little bird flutters onto the ground about ten feet from me. Yomi heads over, prodding it. The bird explodes. Yomi screeches, his face a bloody, horrid mess. The skin was falling off, his eye a sickening and disgusting show of muted juices along with splintered remains of his ANBU mask. I nearly gag, choking on air.

"Princess, shield your eyes!" Hitomi orders, playing the part, I pull the cloak over my face. "Haru, get her to Iwagakure, immediately!"

"Yes sir!" he grabs my arm, making me run after him. I stumble at first, but then dart against the foliage with him, leaving Yomi's smoldering body behind while Hitomi trails us, trying to keep the attackers away.

"Damn it," I hiss, hearing another explosion and Hitomi's scream. "He's down."

"Two to go," Haru grits his teeth. "Over my dead body,"

"Gladly, yeah," someone says near us.

"Oh hell," I gulp.

"What a foul-mouthed princess! Awesome, yeah!" the person laughs just as Haru pushes me away and starts chunking shuriken in places, his ANBU mask hiding his sweating face.

"Princess, watch out," Haru yells. I look over, seeing a blonde boy come out of the brush, grinning happily to him, my hood shadowed my face. I hear another explosion. Haru screams. I gasp. One to go obviously

"You prick!" I screech, pulling many spools of thick black thread out of from beneath my cloak and my weapons pouch.

"Thread yeah? You must be loopy," the boy laughs. "By the way, your killers name is Deidara yeah!"

"Well Deidara-yeah," I mock with an evil grin, "you messed with the wrong girl!"

The black threads slither over my palms, one going out from each finger and straight at the explosion master. He dodges, the fabric attaching to a tree. "Missed yeah"

"Did I?" I smirk. The tree creaks, groaning loudly. I feed my chakra through the threads, pulling splinters of bark from the large oak. They were sharp, like daggers, and each of the ten thread strings now sported one on the ends. "Stupid blonde boy"

"You sure got some moves for a princess yeah!" he gulps. "Hey! You tricked me yeah!"

"Obviously," I roll my eyes, hood still covering me.

"Deidara, I said not to attack," a voice drones.

"Sorry but I couldn't help it," he grins cheekily. Before he could react, I had lashed my strings at him, nailing one in each of his limbs. "Uh oh"

"What an idiot!" I scoff. "You're from Akatsuki, yet you're completely scatterbrained. Now let's play dolls."

"What are you talking about yeah?"

I had feed my chakra into each of the threads, which abandoned the splinters in the boy's skin, slithering into different parts of his body. Each wrist, each ankle, his back, the back of his head, each hip, and each shoulder now had a black string glowing silver attached in it's flesh.

"I am a thread kunoichi," I tell him plainly, "and as such, I can control whatever I please with the help of my little friends. They're so happy to meet you at such a moment by the way." I begin moving my fingers, making him move as I wished.

Mistress

I recognize the familiar call, feeling familiar cloth nearby that I had spun. I look around wildly, trying to spot the partner that had come to aid Deidara, probably wearing something I had made for my parents to sell at market one day on them.

"Tell... me... your... name," Deidara growls as best he can.

I marvel at him. No one had ever been able to talk when controlled by my threads. "I am Ito no Aya, Aya of the Thread. I'll be your reaper now, for killing my escorts."

"You seem familiar," that voice drones from somewhere again.

I hiss, feeling Deidara's control coming back to him as he breaks free from my threads. "I'd expect no less from Akatsuki. I'll just have to get out of here won't I?"

I whisper soothing words to each of my threads, trusting it to keep control. It wriggles against my fingertips, agreeing silently. The ends attach to the spools again, now in my hands, still also attached to Deidara. I feed some chakra into the spools, then turn to run. I barely take two steps before a puppet stands in front of me, one that had a giant mask on its back, a scorpion tail produced from that mouth. I could see the threads of chakra, leading to someone who stood in the shadows.

"You made him... get out of his... puppet," Deidara laughs the best he can, now only held by five strings of chakra. "Impressive, yeah"

"Good for me, but I'm getting that medicine whether I have to hack off my own limbs to get it, or hack off yours," I glare wickedly, pulling two spools of brown and green out and throwing them high in the air, performing many hand signs. When I finish, I slam my palms upon the earth, avoiding the lashing I almost received from the tail.

The threads plummet into the ground, lacing without a needle in a cage fashion around the puppet while I take off running. It shouldn't take me but a few hours to get to Iwagakure from here.

'And I will make it there and back with that medicine, for you Brother.'

I wouldn't allow someone as meaningless as Akatsuki stop me, no matter they were the strongest force of darkness alive.

Drawing the circle of the gods on my chest, I push chakra into my feet, sensing the other two were hot on my trail. My fingers tightly hold onto my hood, making it stay on my head.

"Come on, I can do this," I growl to myself, nearly cursing myself for almost falling prey to doubt.

"No you can't, yeah," Deidara grabs my arms, locking me in what would seem to most like a bear hug from behind, when really it was a snatch so I wouldn't leave. I stop moving, closing my eyes and breathing.

'Inhale to seven, hold for seven, exhale,' mentally, I do my counting. 'Unravel.'

The cloak groans, not wanting to move from it's resting, but slowly starts to move, ready to constrict his legs and do my bidding.

I smirk outwardly, but soon get bopped over the head. My eyes shoot open, the threads stop moving now, and glaring at the person who had stopped me with that hit.

"How dare you!"

"I'm not an idiot," that voice was oddly familiar. "You made my puppet crack."

"I'm oh so sorry," I sarcastically hiss. "How about I buy you a new one?" A sneer crosses me.

"Won't work now yeah," he chuckles.

I roll my eyes. "Idiot, I meant that as sarcasm. Geez! Worse than Ryuu..." I cringe, thinking about him, before I start thrashing wildly. "Let me go! I have to get medicine for me brother!"

"Ryuu..." the familiar voice whispers to him "If we release you, will you not run?"

"I will run, and I'll make it worthwhile!" I kick Deidara hard in the groin, running and dodging the snatch the blonde made at me while still winded.

A hand hitches around my cloak, stopping me in my tracks. Chakra strings attach to my limbs, halting my movement. I sigh at the sheer stupidity.

"I am a thread kunoichi as I said earlier," the threads slowly wriggle from me, lavishing against any exposed skin that it could sensually, "as such, thread of any kind listens to me, adores me. Even silk"

Mistress

I hear the call again. I push the threads off me, turning around to face the two. Deidara gets up slowly, wincing painfully. The other had a hat over his head, with long paper handing off the sides so I couldn't see his face properly.

"Why do you want to catch me so badly?" I ground out, backing away slowly.

"A hostage from Konoha would be a great prize yeah," Deidara breathes.

I let my hands caress a spool each inside my cloak. "Well to bad. I'm from Sunagakure, as you should have noticed," I had used my hitai-ate from Suna for this mission as a safeguard just in case.

"Oh," the blonde's face falls. "We can let her go then yeah," I turn, beginning to walk away, "can't we Sasori-Danna? She's only from your village."

I stop in my tracks. "What did he just call you?"

"I called him Danna, yeah," Deidara answers.

"A puppeteer from Sunagakure named Sasori," I turn to face him, "and one who wears threads that call to me. There's no way."

He removes his hat, showing a full head of red hair and a lazy, tanned look. "Am I familiar to you?"

"I was hoping you were dead," I plainly state, clutching the spools tighter, "that way my brother could find a better friend than you."

"Ito no Aya," Sasori whispers

Deidara blinks. "You know her?"

"Unfortunately," I glare.

"I was talking to him yeah," he laughs. "She called you a girl yeah!"

"Goodbye Sasori, and treat that cloak better," I start running again, having the feeling he'd follow.

Before I can run another two steps, I hit something hard. Looking up, I see Sasori staring down at me.

"You're going nowhere."

"Listen to me, Ryuu's sick, and the illness is deadly. I have to get to Iwagakure and get the cure before the end of the month or he dies," I push him, trying to move out of the way to get around him.

He moves, allowing me to walk by, amazingly. "Deidara, come."

"Why do we have to go too yeah?" he whines.

I gasp. "Don't tell me you're going with me! No! I refuse!"

"To bad," he gives me one of his ghostly smiles.

I sigh. Oh how long this trip would be