Chapter 4

Running. That's all I remembered. I was in a forest. A big, dark forest. And I was being chased. I'm not sure why I was running; he had the same goal as me. I was going to have to face him eventually, if I had a chance of becoming a chuunin, even if it was a small chance. I stopped running. This confused the boy, who then fell over and into a bush. I laughed. 'Nice coordination.' I said, mockingly. He quickly crawled out of the bush. His Leaf Village headband sparkled in the poor light. To be honest, he was quite cute. He had long blonde hair and sweet blue/grey eyes. I wouldn't mind working with him in the future, but right now he was my enemy. He stood in a stance that showed he was ready to attack me. In defence, I did the same. 'You should be more careful when you're running.' I said. He smirked. 'You should make up your mind on whether you're running or not.' he said back. Touché. I wanted to laugh, but I had to look serious. 'You seem pretty confident, for someone who's about to get there ass handed to them.' he said. He was probably right. ''Fat chance. I'm not that bad.' I replied, lying. 'Maybe not, but I was trained by one of the Leaf's legendary Sannin.' he said. Nice. 'Yeah, but...I'm a rooky.' I said, as if that was impressive. The boy laughed. Yeah, it wasn't impressive. The boy started flinging hand signs. They seemed to be for a Fire Style jutsu. No, I wasn't getting my ass kicked by a leaf Genin. I might not have been very good, but I was fast. I jumped up on to one of the trees and began to run. But before I could do anything, the boy was already there. Wow. He was faster than me? Very impressive. 'Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!' he shouted. Out came a fireball, but I managed to dodge it. While I was dodging the fireball, the boy grabbed me, by my hair, and chucked me to the floor. He grabbed his kunai and held it to my neck. Great, I was pathetic.

I was shaken awake, again. It was pitch black, again. There were three people, other than me, in my room, again. Great, this meant we were moving, again. Nagato had really cold hands, again. What was wrong with him?

'Bloody hell Nagato! Stop that! Your hands are freezing.' Knowing I wasn't going to be killed, made me less afraid of what to say.

'Oh,' he said, 'sorry,' I noticed his head move to look at Konan and Yahiko.

'Come on, Sleeping Beauty, time to get up.' I heard Konan's voice say. This made me laugh. I had really grown to like Konan. She was a bit like an older sister. Well I'd never had an older sister, but oh well. She was sweet and funny, and I loved her hair. She often gave me tips on how to perform my jutsu better. Sometimes, she gave me tips on things like, how to have my hair. The odd thing about her was her ability to make paper clones. It was really interesting, and I always asked her to explain it to me.

'Is she up yet?' said Hoshi's voice. She had stepped in, clearly tired of waiting. Hoshi was someone I wasn't growing fond of. She was rude, loud and drank sake way too much. She was constantly making jokes about my family and she never felt like listening to my words. She was older than the rest of the group, so I suppose she thought she had more experience than them and didn't need to listen. Either way, it was just plain rude.

'Yes Hoshi, she's just about to get dressed.' said Nagato. He agreed with me, I could tell, but he never admitted it. He got annoyed when she shouted, especially when she shouted obscenities, and he hated the smell of sake.

Hoshi turned around, muttering something as she walked out. I got out of bed and walked over to my wardrobe. Yahiko was standing there. I didn't really have a feeling towards Yahiko because we never spoke. Or rather, he never spoke. He was always on his own. The only time he came out of his room was when he needed fresh air, or when we were eating, and he didn't speak then, he sat quietly, eating, another thing Hoshi didn't do. The only time he'd talked to me was when he had taught me the jutsu. He was strange. He moved out of the way and I opened my wardrobe, pulling out my training clothes, the only clothes I seemed to own apart from pyjamas. I was about to take my pyjamas off, when I realised they were all still in my room. I looked around. They were staring at me.

'Do you mind?' I asked. It was then they realised and left, apart from Nagato, who didn't want to leave yet. I looked at him, shock in my eyes, even though he couldn't see them. In the end, Konan came back and dragged him out. He was strange. I got changed then walked outside where a rather frustrated Hoshi was sitting in the driver's seat of the cart I'd been brought here in. I sat next to Nagato and Konan. We chatted and laughed for a bit, but then exhaustion took over. I propped my head on Nagato, just like I had six months before when we first got here. I swiftly fell asleep.

I didn't dream this time, which was odd. But I did wake up as soon as we stopped at our next 'home'. I looked around in the hope that it was friendly. Needless to say, it didn't look it. We were in the middle of a forest and there didn't seem to be any kind of civilization. Not even a house. I looked up at Nagato, who looked surprise to see me awake. I was tired and cranky, but as soon as I looked at Nagato I seemed a little less annoyed.

'Where are we?' I asked, yawning.

'This is our base, we're going to be planning here until we start the mission.' he said. It was funny. I didn't actually know what the mission was. I'd been with Nagato and co. for six months, and no one had told me what the mission was. Not only that, I couldn't see any sign of a base, which confused me.

'Wait, what? What base? This forest is empty?' I said.

Nagato laughed. 'I told you to avoid the obvious, Ayako.' he said, in a matter-of-fact tone.

I looked around, dazed. I watched Nagato get out of the cart and follow the others. I promptly did the same. We seemed to be walking quite far away from the cart, which confused me at first, but then I realised we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves. We walked for about a half hour, until finally we came to a big wall. Yahiko stopped in front of the cave, and in that deep, captivating voice of his, said 'Release!' there was what seemed like an earthquake. The ground shook and a giant sign appeared on the wall. It seemed to say 'hide' which worked perfectly. The sign disappeared and the wall began to rise. This revealed a small hallway, which lead somewhere. We followed the hallway down to a small living space. It was kind of cosy. There were enough rooms for all of us, and there was also a kitchen. I went into my room and laid on my bed, I was really tired. I'd been training for six months and had finally finished, it wasn't fair that I hadn't rested.

'Oi! Sleeping Beauty! Bed time was in the old base, get up we need to plan!' said Hoshi, from the living space. Plan? Plan what? I didn't even know what the mission was, how was I going to help? Reluctantly I got out of bed and walked out of my room and back into the living space, where the four of them were sitting on a table that was in the middle. I walked over and sat in the fifth chair. The others didn't seem to be as tired as me, which I didn't understand. Did they ever sleep?

'Ok now, it's time to talk strategy,' said Hoshi, 'I think that we should sneak up on them and get the element of surprise. It's easier to attack and they don't have time to prepare.'

She continued droning on about which ways would be best to attack. I faded in and out of the conversation. This was both because I was tired and because I had no idea what they were talking about. I finally started to listen when I heard Konan bad mouth Hoshi.

'Stop being stupid, the Shinobi Villages are securer than that. They wouldn't be stupid enough to fall for something that pathetic. It's out-rated.'

'It's old-school, I'll have you know,' Hoshi corrected.

'That maybe Hoshi, but Konan does have a point.' Nagato said.

'No, it's so old-school that they wouldn't expect it. It's so obvious that they wouldn't be looking out for It.' she said.

'Yes they would. That's the first thing gate guards are told to look out for.' said Konan.

'Oh really? Then how come it's worked before?' said Hoshi, triumphantly.

'Where did that old trick work?!' said Nagato, slightly annoyed.

'In the Land of Rivers.' she said.

'The Land of Rivers?! That's nothing compared to the Five Great Shinobi Villages!' said Konan. The Five Great Shinobi Villages?! We were attacking them?! What? Why? 'I think we should attack my way; it's safer, less obvious and easier,'

'Well I don't want to.' said Hoshi, stubbornly.

There was silence for a bit. 'What do you think we should do Yahiko?' asked Nagato.

Everyone turned to face him. He seemed to be in charge of the group, so everyone seemed to look up to him, apart from Hoshi who just wanted him to agree with her. Yahiko had his chin in his hands and was watching the conversation in surprise. Although, he still seemed to look important and in charge. He moved his hands and looked around.

'I think,' he started, 'we should tell Ayako what we're on about so she can stop looking so confused, and join in with the conversation.'

They all looked at me. They seemed to have forgotten I was even in the room. I smiled as I felt my cheeks turning red. I didn't like it when people looked at me; it made me nervous. But at the same time, I wanted them to look at me, and tell me what the hell was going on.

'We've been planning this for months.' said Hoshi, 'Just because little princess doesn't know about it doesn't mean you can avoid the question.' I hated her.

'Shut up Hoshi!' said Nagato, which was unlike him. He looked at me and, it was like, I could see the churning in him. He seemed to be working out a good way to say it, so that I didn't feel pressured, but at the same time, so that it was interested enough to join in. 'My organization,' he began. The Akatsuki. I didn't know as much about them as I would have liked. I'd heard rumours and stuff, but I'd never heard Nagato talk about. 'Needs you, well your eyes, to help it achieve its goal.' I felt betrayed, but I didn't want to show it.

'Ok,' I said slowly, trying not to let out the rage that was building up inside me. 'What is it you need my eyes to do?' I said it slightly sarcastically.

'Well,' said Nagato, delicately, 'Five years ago, the Akatsuki came up with a plan. We wanted to build a better future, so that all shinobi are safe and happy,' So far it sounded like an agency. 'We began planning to reach this goal. We planned and planned, until eventually we were ready to put our plan into action.' Nagato was interrupted.

'But, unfortunately, word had got out about our plan, we suspected Orochimaru had something to do with it, and two of the Five Great Shinobi Villages had found out about our plan.' said Konan. 'They knew everything. They attacked our base and thought they'd killed us all. However, they were wrong. We managed to escape without them knowing. We were all alive, but some of us were injured, Sasori of the Sand received many wounds, this helped him become stronger, Nagato got injured in the leg and Yahiko managed to obtain a massive scar on his chest. We were angry but we couldn't do anything. We were vulnerable and needed to act fast. We found a new base and started planning again and we're close to finishing our planning, but we fear that the Shinobi Villages will find out again.' she said, softly.

'Plus, we want revenge on the villages that attacked us before.' said Yahiko, angrily.

Konan looked at him. 'We want to attack the Hidden Sand Village and the Hidden Leaf Village. They were the two villages. Plus they both have Jinchuuriki which will help our plan.' Konan finished.

I took a deep breath. I was hurt and betrayed, but at the same time, I felt like I was intrigued by the story. It had hooked me in. It was the kind of story that kept you on edge. It would be a great one to tell around a camp fire. Maybe it was Konan's soft voice or maybe I was high, I don't know. Whatever it was, I wanted to help. I looked at Nagato, who seemed to look how I felt. He knew I was hurt, but he didn't realise what at. I was hurt because someone had hurt him, I wanted revenge too. Nagato looked down, thinking he'd done wrong.

'Ok,' I said, he prepared himself for the worse. 'I'd like to help.'

Nagato looked shocked, but happy at the same time, he was looking forward to this. He smiled at me, as if he knew all along I'd agree to it.

'Ok, now can you answer the question Yahiko?' Hoshi asked.

Yahiko, stern faced as ever, looked at Hoshi. 'Hoshi, that move is so out-rated, that it's covered in dust and mould. The Shinobi Villages are much better than that, especially the Leaf and the Sand.' Konan laughed in victory. 'But Konan, your idea is stupid and degrading, not only that, it will most likely get us all killed.' Hoshi smiled, Konan nodded. 'I think what we should do is use Ayako, our newest power, against them. They wouldn't be expecting it and they'd have no way to counter it, plus at first they would think it was just the weather changing. Also, it would be so easy to create a sand-storm in the Sand Village. Which is where we're going first.' said Yahiko.

'But aren't their walls built with extra strength to stop sand storms from getting into the village?' I said.

Nagato looked up. He hadn't expected me to say anything this quickly, especially to Yahiko, who looked a bit angry. 'If you ask me, I think we should go to the Leaf first, they don't have any strongholds to hold off against earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, we should use this to the best of our abilities.'

Although, Yahiko had been angry, he liked the sound of my idea. He nodded, as if agreeing with me and Nagato, who was beaming. 'Ok,' he said, 'We'll attack the Leaf first. Konan, make sure we have enough supplies to last two more weeks here before leaving,' Konan nodded and got up. 'Hoshi, make sure we have at least five in each set and five sets of weapons, ready for our attack,' A rather pissed off Hoshi reluctantly stood up and left the room. Yahiko turned to me and Nagato. 'Nagato, train Ayako for the next two weeks so she's strong enough to take on the Leaf, understood?' Nagato nodded. 'Ayako, do everything he says or I swear, I will be the first one to tip you upside down and chuck you off a cliff.' I nodded. Wow. Yahiko was scary. I think I preferred it when he didn't talk.

Yahiko got up and left. I turned to Nagato who was smiling. I, on the other hand, was not looking forward to the next two weeks. They were going to be hard and I was going to be tired a lot. I'd only just finished training as well. More importantly I felt betrayed. He had told me at the start that I shouldn't be afraid because it was nothing to do with the Akatsuki, or at least that was what he had implied. I didn't want Nagato to know my true feelings so I decided to keep them hidden and just forget about them. I put on a smile, realising how I must have looked by then. I need to think positive about this. I was going to be spending two weeks alone with Nagato working on my jutsu. I was finally important; I could finally do something for someone; I wasn't useless!

Nagato continued to look at me and as he did I noticed he seemed to be expecting something. His face looked happy but his eyes looked interested. Had he read my mind again? No! Why did I keep getting this idea that he could read my mind?! It wasn't possible! I looked into his eyes for a minute. The Rinnegan had so many lovely shades of purple; it didn't seem possible how intriguing they were. I honestly had forgotten lots about the night on the landfill site with Orochimaru, but I remembered seeing his eyes for the first time. They had been haunting then and they were haunting now.

'Can I help you?' I said, suspense killing me.

'No, I just wondered if you would like to start training now, or wait until tomorrow so you can have a rest?' he said.

Although the idea of training with him was captivating, I had to decline his offer. My limbs were in agony and I couldn't stand it. I apologised and waved goodbye as I got up and walked into my little room. I laid on the bed and promptly fell asleep. The thoughts of the day swirling around my head as I drifted off.