When the group finally stopped, they were in a large rock quarry about 13 or 14 miles from the small town where they'd started out. They were a little tired, but now was when they were getting ready. Kate was on edge, as was the rest of the team. This was where the tip off said the missing-nin were. Looking around though, all Kate could see were the quarry workers, mining the rock. Turning to Sasuke where they were hiding in the trees, she nudged him.

"Sasuke." She spoke in a whisper.

"Hn?"

"Where are they? Hiding as workers?"

"Most likely. We'll have to attack all of them and fight them all. It's the only way to root out the real fighters. Karin, Suigetsu, and I will lead the initial attack, scaring away all of the workers who aren't ninja. My sources say these nin like to fight whoever challenges, so they won't run. Then, we'll challenge them as a team. Stay hidden until I give you a sign."

And with that they fell out of the trees, Sasuke pulling Kate along. Kate barely held in her scream of surprise and just as soon was on the ground in Sasuke's arms, which only led to her blushing and scrambling to be let down onto solid ground.

"Alright already," Suigetsu said, spitting onto the ground, "Let's go beat shitheads up!"

"Idiot."Karin breathed out into the air.

And with that they were gone out into the clearing.

Suigetsu normally didn't mind Sasuke's orders. Hell, normally, he didn't give two flying shits about anything, so long as he got something out of it. Like a place to sleep, or breakfast, or that stupid shark's sword. But this time, something bothered him. And it wasn't just the fact that he was only getting to beat people up mercilessly and kill them without anything but breakfast on his stomach. No, it was the fact that they were having Keito kill them too. Keito who seemed so innocent and special... why would Sasuke... to Suigetsu, it seemed wrong almost. She was so short she looked like a child, and while Suigetsu had killed as a child, he couldn't see this specific child killing anyone or anything. He'd seen her in the marketplace holding that pitiful knife Sasuke had bought her... as if she'd kill anything with that. She'd seemed calm when given orders, but he knew a lier when he saw one. He was ninja. He knew how to fake calm too. But you can't fake what she had to do... you can't fake killing... and for that Suigetsu was worried.

Kate could hardly breathe as she watched real ninjas go into battle. First Sasuke had literally appeared in front of the workers, blade drawn, face etched in stone, ready to strike. Then Suigetsu dove down on another group with his huge blade open facing them, scaring them into beginning to run away. Finally Karin appeared, hands holding many knives, throwing them everywhere, aiming past joints and toes, scaring many into bushes and trees. Soon, all that was left were a small group, that stood spread across the quarry, one man even had a large dog attached to a sled carrying rocks. A large man with long black hair and a bandanna carrying a pickaxe started laughing and then began to talk.

"Seems like we got a new batch of ninjas after us boys! Alright! Well we're the missing-nin group known as the Iron-Wrens. What do you call your team, you wimps?"

Sasuke and the group rounded together, and then Sasuke waved to Kate, who quickly got up and walked out into the small valley of grey. She carefully walked in her kimono over to the Hawks and stood beside Sasuke.

"We are team Hawk." Sasuke said simply.

"Team Hawk, eh?" The big muscled man asked, "What's your names? We always ask before we kill."

"Hn. Uchiha Sasuke."

"Juugo."

"Karin."

"Suigetsu."

"Kate."

"Keito? Is that what this little midget calls herself?"

"Midget? I'm not a midget you ass!" Kate yelped out. "I'm 20 you asshole!"

Everyone was quiet in the clearing. Even Sasuke was staring at her. Kate was getting nervous when Suigetsu was the first to speak.

"You're really 20? You're old! I'm like 17!"

"Enough of these lies! I'm not playing around with killing an child with a toothpick knife. I want to fight real ninjas. You, you said you're an Uchiha? I want to fight you! Now!" And with that the big man threw the axe down and instead motioned over to his friend who brought over a thick sword for him to use. Sasuke merely motioned for him to step forward. The man only looked at him for a second and then suddenly they were both gone.

"Wha-where did they go?" Kate asked out loud.

"They're in fighting over there." Suigetsu pointed over to the right where sure enough the two were sword fighting very fast. But just as suddenly the swords were gone and then Sasuke was standing over a broken body. And then walking calmly back to where they all were standing.

"Wow." Kate said quietly out loud, "Some missing-nins. When I thought battles against Sasuke I figured a lot more struggling. But I guess they're just not that good. That, or Sasuke's just amazing."

"It's the second one." Suigetsu said, smirking at her.

"Oh, okay." She said, smiling back at him.

"Take that back!" One of the missing-nin said.

"No!" Kate snapped back. She'd defend Sasuke, since he'd saved her from Orochimaru apparently. He'd saved her. He'd brought her here to this place. This Naruto-verse reality.

"Then I challenge you."

"Me too."

"We all do you little bitch."

Kate felt her body go numb and her mind say shit. But she knew she had to do this for Sasuke. He'd asked her to kill three men for him. Three. Not all... but all would make him proud. And would make him want her to stay. Stay for good.

"Then so be it you assholes." She heard herself say. She felt like she wasn't herself but she didn't really care. All she cared about was killing them, and earning her place at Sasuke's right hand. She wanted to be there for him. To be reliable. To be the one to protect him from Itachi when the time came, to protect him from Madara when he came too... she would be there, shielding him from the evils of the world. She had to. Otherwise she was useless, worthless. Again. And she wouldn't be worthless.

When she looked up, she was surrounded on all sides by missing-nin with her team no where to be found. She reached for her knife and tried to grasp it but it was ripped from her side and suddenly she was being stabbed with it while being pushed and punched and there was pain rippling from her side and suddenly it was everywhere at once, pain pain pain. They were laughing, ripping at her clothes. She could feel the breeze and a nakedness and a crunching pain in her ankle and the fear of rape from the past came crashing back again paralyzing her. All she could think was go away go away go away over and over until it became a feeling inside her body, a physical push from the inside. It became a sizzling shock the travelled from her core throughout her body to her arms and legs to a scream and came out through her mouth and hands encasing everything that was touched by either the sound waves directly in front of her or her hands or body. In which case the men around her and the rocks. The men were blown away from her, by what appeared to be a huge force that knocked them a few feet away from her. Their bodies rolled and shuddered and trembled. And they were still.

Kate could barely think past thank you.

But she didn't get to finish her thoughts. Suddenly, their bodies were shaking violently like they were having seizures. they moved jerkily, seeming to trying to stand up on thier own, but by the time that they had crawled to their knees in a kneeling position, their bodies were jerking even more. When she opened her eyes she saw one of them, his head turned to face her, and that's when she saw it.

His face was falling apart. Literally.

The tissues on the right side of his cheek were literally peeling off and falling into the grass underneath him. As the individual face muscles and skin fragments snapped, the veins running through them would snap as well, letting blood flow freely from the rips and tears.

The erosion process kept going. His eyes were wide and a startled scream erupted from his throat as the skin around his right eyeball deteriorated and the muscles holding it ripped. The eyeball itself easily slipped out of it's socket, followed by copious amount of blood that joined the stream that flowed from the now mostly bony face. The last bits of muscle that held his jaw in place were gone, and the right side of his jaw promptly dislocated, creating an even stranger sound from the slowly 'evaporating' throat. Kate could literally see the muscles of his throat vibrating, desperately trying to finish their process of allowing him to scream his agony, but failing as they fell apart. The fabric around his arms and stomach was beginning to bulk out due to the skin and muscles breaking apart inside, letting the internal organs lead out into the only thing holding them in: his clothes. His screams had stopped, to become nothing more than a disgustingly wet wheezing sound that came from where his throat should have been, but now only his spinal chord was. His hair had all fallen off, and his skull was slowly deteriorating, letting the brain's fluid seep out through the cracks.

Soon, he was nothing more than a shaking, wheezing pile of bones and organs that continued running only because of a last minute instinctive survival attempt. Even his clothes had begun to break apart. It was disgusting. Blood was everywhere, and Kate could swear she could hear his last screams echoing inside her head. She hadn't even been able to scream she'd been so shocked. She'd done nothing but sit there, wide eyed, terrified of the real life horror movie in front of her.

By the time Kate gained enough strength of mind to tear her eyes away from the carnage, she looked around her and realized that the same had happened to all of them. Every single one of them. All she'd done was wish them to go away... and now her body looked like she'd burned it. Deep red blisters were forming on her body, and it stung horribly. She felt wetness on her face and reached up. She realized she was crying, sobbing hysterically, gasping for air she couldn't breathe in. What had she done? What was that?

-Snap-

Kate's head shot up and her eyes, although still wet, were alert. Not another one, Kate silently begged. She cringed when she saw a dark shape approach her, but then her eyes widened when she saw who it was.

Sasuke.

He walked into the clearing, avoided a pile of... and walked up to where Kate sat, shaking uncontrollably, obviously happy to see him, but unable to get over her shock. He knelt down in front of her, and to her surprise, hugged her to his chest. She began crying again, listening to the smooth beat of his heart, feeling the warmth of his body and the weight of his arms around her. She wasn't alone anymore. She was safe.

"Keito." Sasuke spoke, and for once, Kate didn't care what he sounded like. He could have sounded like he wanted to kill her, but she wouldn't care. It was familiar, it was comforting, it was Sasuke. She looked up and was met with bright swirling black and red.

"Sleep."

And everything went black.