Three days after I had set out I immediately started looking for the herb patches and nearby fields of flowers and caves too try and pick up a trail once more in search of sasuke. As I was mentally working out today's strategy, a messenger hawk landed in front of me. "Arigatou ttebane." I said as I took the message from her and opened the scroll. "Oh come on baa-chan, and damn it naruto you were supposed to stay home ttebane!" I complained out loud to myself. I took out a scroll and wrote my report of knowing about naruto's addition to my search for sasuke, and my expecting him soon. About twenty minutes of waiting, naruto showed up jumping down from the trees. "Nee-chan! I'm back from my mission in sand to help look for sasuke ttebayo!" he announced as he walked over to me. "I know baa-chan sent a hawk to let me know. So, let's get looking; but after I have a shower or something ttebane. I think there's a waterfall nearby."

I briefed as I walked toward the aforementioned waterfall. "But nee-chan we have to start looking now or sasuke will-"

"Naruto, we will find him, I promise. I can sense his chakra; he's in the area and if he's on the move I'll sense it. Trust me we can prepare ourselves for our encounter with him. It looks like he'll be coming towards that waterfall anyway and I'd like to take that 'shower' at the falls before he shows up ttebane!" I explained half-exasperatedly as I walked towards the falls. After we got there, I got the shampoo out of my bag, set the bag down and turned toward naruto. "Umm, naruto-chan, please go to the other side of the falls. The other set of falls there should do nicely if you want a bath or something ttebane." I called as I walked toward the water. "Yeah, just, let me know if you need anything ttebayo." He called back as he leapt over my waterfall to go to his waterfall. After he was gone and I sensed his presence at the other fall, I rid myself of my sandals and jacket followed by the rest of my outfit, hitai-ite and bow, and stepped under the waterfall, taking advantage of the cold fall, letting my hair down from the messy bun I had put the semi-straight semi-curly mess that is my hair in about an hour after setting out a few days ago.

'So, he's on the move eh?' I mentally noted as my senses detected sasuke moving away from his spot to the area I was in. 'Well, if mister I-think-I'm-badass thinks I'm moving to cover myself or take any special measures to his arrival, he has another thing coming ttebane! I haven't been working my ass off just to make accommodations for some usuratonkachi ttebane! And besides, naru and kyuu-nii are gonna be present for this, that's no doubt I should have,-' damn straight kit. 'So I'll try to hurry this up a little for that sake.' I mused as his chakra got closer. Turning around to face the clearing I stepped out from under the fall and started to tend to my hair, using a little shampoo I had brought to the falls from my backpack. As his chakra got closer, I turned around to put myself under the falls, rinsing the shampoo from my hair and the rest of me, seeing as it had also doubled as a body wash (thank kami ttebane). 'So he's here.' I took note as I turned around to see him land on the ground a little ways away.

Not ten seconds after he landed, I dodged a kunai or seven and turned my gaze on him, kyuubi style eyes and all. "Now now, it's not nice to throw kunai at a harmless priestess when she's bathing, pervert. It's common sense, ttebane!" I mock laughed as kyuu-nii manifested himself. 'Naruto, sasuke's here and kyuu-nii's already physically here and wants to kill him for throwing kunai at me ttebane!'I called as sasuke took a more defensive position, eyeing me curiously. 'I'm on my way ttebayo.'"Now, who might you be? You look like an old teammate of mine, naruto. Never mind, you'll be dead so it doesn't and won't matter." He bit out slightly impatient as he drew a chokuto from its sheath on his back and ran towards me for an attack. "Kasumi nee-chan!" Naruto called as I started to try and dodge the attack, but faltered, almost falling to the ground.

"Kit! You'll pay you bastard! Prepare to be sent to hell, you piece of shit! No one tries to murder someone under my protection and gets away with it." Kyuu-nii spat at him as I looked up to see naruto holding me and glaring at sasuke. "I almost agree with kyuubi ttebayo." Naruto growled. I got up from naruto's holding on me, and started walking towards my clothes, not wanting to be naked longer than I have to. "Naruto, next time, let me fall and toss me my clothes! We don't need to keep ending up in awkward situations where I'm clothing less and you're present dattebane!" I yelled as I quickly pulled my clothes back on and sent a surge of chakra to call my bow to me. "It's been a while hasn't it kasumi? Still hoping to save me and salvage what might be left of our so-called love?" Sasuke raved and spat the last three words which made kyuubi-nii growl and close his eyes in anger, trying not to kill the person they were ordered to bring back alive.

"Kits, if tsunade hadn't given us a live capture order…he'd have been dead the moment he opened his mouth against even one of us!" he spat, rounding on the unsuspecting sasuke making him jump back to dodge several feet. "Sasuke, stop this! Let's go home already! Everyone in konoha is waiting for you ttebayo." Naruto pleaded, slowly walking towards him. But sasuke narrowed his eyes and took a battle stance, throwing lightning charged shuriken at him. "Priestess Style Sage Art: divine barrier level 0!" I called as the shuriken left his hands and neared naruto, then landed against a thin, black transparent wall. "Sasuke! Stop this and just come home ttebane!" I yelled as he threw kunai at the shield. "Please, come home ttebayo." Naruto called as I dispelled the barrier and drew my bow, calling forth some of the poison I had stored that was once part of kyuu-nii's chakra, and aimed for his heart; shoot to kill being the objective (threat).

"I've wasted enough time on you two. No matter how hard you try to 'save me' I'll never listen." Sasuke recited, devoid of every emotion except contempt. "Sasuke, you don't understand! Orochimaru is using you! He wants to take over your body, and we're not going to let that happen! And neither should you ttebayo/ttebane!" naruto and I cried simultaneously, trying to reach our friend/love. "I don't care. As long as I get my revenge against itachi, I'll give him my life a thousand times over." He droned as if the answer was obvious. "Forgive me, my son. I promised I would respect your wish but he is almost too far gone to reach. And forgive me mikoto; I failed to save your boy." I whispered as I also cried mentally to myself as my tears spilled over and gave sasuke a look of distant, yet pure care and love laced with nostalgia.

I released my arrow as I felt his presence start to fade as he was preparing to leave, it landing in his shoulder, five inches up from his heart, it missing from the tears I have been crying. "The next time I see you, I WILL kill you." He spat as he faded away, the venom and hatred finally reaching me, making me cough up blood as he left. "Kasu-nee! What's wrong?! What did he do to you?! Kyuu-nii we need to-"

"Mou ii naruto. She only needs a few minutes to recover." He reassured him as I went through a another small bout of coughing, more blood leaving me, but less this time, as the hatred was being purified by kyuu-nii. "Yeah, but what happened to her ttebayo?!" He exasperated, placing a hand gently on my back. "The hatred sasuke had around him was so great that due to kasumi's sensitivity to evil, she was being corrupted. Now, normally, when a priestess is corrupted, they only need to purify themselves again but being my host of the darkest parts of my chakra even when it's purified, and being in love with the source of the evil, she goes through pain and internal bleeding similar to pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure."

Kyuu-nii distractedly drawled out as he tended to me medically. "In love with sasuke? How? She just met him!" naruto questioned looking at me for answers. "Well, you see, naruto, I knew sasuke before I knew about you and coming from konoha." I sighed tiredly as I began to recant my meeting him.

Flashback no jutsu:

'stupid shishou! Sending me out alone to deal with a weasel demon! They're such a pain to purify it's not funny ttebane!' I internally raved as I cast out my senses like a net, looking for said weasel. 'Who in kami is this?' I asked as my senses 'sniffed' out a human boy's chakra that was wounded and in slight darkness.Kit, I think we should avoid this one. He smells like trouble.'Oh hush kyuu-nii! He needs our help! Human first, weasel second ttebane' I retorted, to which kyuu-nii snorted at the reply I had given.

You just don't want to deal with a weasel hunt and you know it. He half-laughed to himself and to me as I jumped from branch to branch, nearing the wounded, dark chakra. 'We're here.' I noted as I jumped down from the trees to offer my assistance to the boy. "Who are you and why are you so close to the village?" the boy asked as I looked up to survey my 'patient'. He was thirteen, same age as me and he had short black duck-butt style hair, charcoal colored eyes, pale skin, wearing a blue high-collar shirt with a red and white family crest and white shorts with battle-silk arm and leg guards accompanied by blue sandals and a blue hitai-ite. "Not much of something to look at are you?" I drawled, bored at the boy in front of me. "Hn. Says the one who came looking for me. And what kind of weird person has white hair at your age anyway?" he smugly retorted in an attempt to put me down.

"Not much of a ninja are you teme? Hell, I bet you ninja couldn't last one day in a preistess' place ttebane!" I shot back as a look of surprise slightly overtook his face. "What did you say?" he asked slowly as if I was an alien. "I said you couldn't last one day in a-"

"No, after that; That verbal tic of yours. What was it?" he drawled making me look as if I was stupid. "You heard me teme! No come over here so I can kick your ass! And in case you don't know, it's a born-with habit and extremely rude to point one out to someone ttebane! It's like you have no manners at all. I may not have parents but even I know better dattebane!" I lividly raved as I knocked him back in his place- lower than me. "Now if I could just heal you and be gone already, I have a weasel demon to hunt, catch, AND THEN purify ttebane!" I bit out slowly as I walked over to him and took hold of his left arm, removing the arm guard slowly to get a look at the injury.

"Huh. You're that desperate huh? Look kid, -yeah, I'm callin' 'ya kid 'cause 'ya haven't seen what I have ttebane, - 'ya shouldn't do this to yourself no matter what you've been through. It's a good thing I showed up or you'd have bled to death by that main artery you've shredded to bits ttebane." I muttered half to myself as a summoned pure healing chakra to his arm, staving off the bleeding and healing his shredded vein. "It's none of your business no matter how you look at it." He hissed as I put a little battle chakra in with the healing mixture, trying to remind him who's in control here. "Whatever. I'm not going to ignore my duty and leave you out here with your life on my head ttebane." I countered as I patched the remainder of the vein with pure healing chakra. "Look, I'm sorry okay? In fact meet me at my family's old training compound about three miles out south-west on the next moon rise and I'll make up for it with a sparring match or something, okay?"

he sighed as I finished my ministrations on his arm. "Now, what makes you think a sparring match will make up for it? Especially when you could plot to kill me or turn me in to your village as an imprisoned resource?" I purred amusedly at him. "Because, kitsune-chan, you're the type to like fighting with friends and because I find you very- interesting…" he smirked at me. "Well either that or you're more of a perv than you think you are ttebane. Now, please, stop staring at my chest ttebane!" I yelled the last part as he realized his staring and looked away, blushing. "Whatever, no I'm not." He stammered blushing harder. "Yeah, sure thing…umm what's your name ttebane?" I asked curiosity getting to me slightly. "I-it's uhh…Sasuke! It's sasuke uchiha….and? What's your name kitsune-chan?" he asked, smoothing out his tone in a subconscious effort to be cool and sexy. "Hn. It's kasumi…..Kasumi Uzumaki." I replied slightly lowering my voice in an effort to show authority and power.

"Uzumaki, huh?" He said lowering his voice in thought. "Yeah! And uh, about the hair thing; if I, uh, get my shishou's approval and we come by your training grounds-"

"You mean STAY at my training grounds." I laughed and nodded at his cute insistence. "Yeah, stay at the training grounds, I'll tell you about it ttebane." I sniggered slightly and turned to leave. "Now, why do you think I'd care about that trivia?" he asked trying to mask his curiosity loftily. "Because, I think I owe the guy that's got a crush on me that much ttebane." I smiled foxily at him as he blushed crimson. "Whatever. So I'll see you soon. Have fun with that weasel demon." He called as I made my way out of the clearing. "Yeah, see 'ya ttebane."

"That's how I met sasuke. Shishou accepted the offer, and soon before we knew it sasuke and I had fallen in love and the darkness around him had started to disappear around him. Shishou had started training me at the grounds with sasuke and started to go to the civilian villages nearby to work in purifying during the festivals and was on demon patrol for them as well. But, one night, she came home drunk.

"Kasumi! Get your ass out here you demon-brat!" I was jarred out of sleep by her hatred and call that filled the compound. I padded out of the dojo and made my way over to her to see what the matter was. "What is it, kikyo-shoshou? Is something wro-" I was cut off as I smack echoed across the compound and I raised a hand to my stinging cheek but was un prepared for the punch to follow, that knocked me across the compound and into the concrete wall. "AHH!" I yelped in pain as blood was coughed out of my mouth at the yelp. "I didn't know demons like you could feel pain." She lividly raved as she continued her onslaught of punches, kicks, and pulls at my hair. "Shishou, please, stop! Why are you doing this? Don't you love me?" I wailed desperately as she hit me harder at my crying. "Who could EVER love a little demon bitch like you?! I've hated you ever since you took kushina and minato away from me! I wish you had never been born you worthless demon bitch!"

she screamed as I cried harder at her words. "Please, stop! I'm sorry…I'm sorry…I'm sorr-" I was cut off again as she landed a good punch to my stomach that made me cough up more blood as I flew across the compound to land against the other concrete wall, then the ground. 'I'm sorry shishou, I'm sorry! Someone, please, anyone! Help me!' I screamed internally, in too much pain to voice my pleading thoughts for mercy and a rescuer.KIT! DON'T WORRY KIT! I WON'T LET HER TAKE YOU FROM THIS WORLD OR ME!I heard the voice scream in panicked concern and fury as I faded in and out of consciousness.KIT! NO KIT PLEASE, NO! KAMI SAVE HER! PURIFY ME OR SEND ME TO HELL FOR HER SAKE, JUST PLEASE, SAVE HER!I heard the crying voice as I drifted out of consciousness for what I thought would be the last time, until I saw a bright light engulf me and eradicate the darkness.

'Kasumi. I have heard you and the hell-spirit you jail. I will save you from this death and grant you the strength to carry on.' The soothing voice assured me as I knelt on my knees to kami. 'I owe you my life. Thank you kami. I will purify this….kyuubi and save those within my power and yours to save. Thank-you for your grace.' I said, fading to a peaceful sleep, feeling my wounds heal as I slip into the sleep I now knew that would not claim my life.Thank you kami, for saving my kit; my precious kit. I will let you purify me. May kami have mercy on me when I disappear from this world.The next morning I woke to sasuke and a red-headed man looking over my injuries. "Kyuubi, please tell me she's fine! From what you said kami saved her! Why won't she wake up?" I faded back into consciousness after the night's sleep released me as sasuke's panicked voice reached my ears and tugged fiercely at my heart.

"Sasuke-koi, I'm right here…. It's all right….I'm not going anywhere ttebane." I murmured softly and slightly groggily as I reached a hand up to cup his cheek. Tears slid down his face in relief and I used my thumb to wipe away the sorrow. "I love you. I will thank kami every day as long as you breathe I love you my red thread of fate." He cried holding me close.Kit! Oh, my kit! Thank kami you woke up…. I mean it, you're gonna purify me as soon as you're able so you will save others without fear of my chakra's corruption!Kyuubi sobbed as he hugged me and sasuke.

"After I had explained what happened to sasuke and my status with kyuubi who became the kyuu-nii we know and love, he was enraged about my shishou and wanted me to leave her; but how could I? She had loved me 'first' (as in the first human to love me) and I owed her my life for raising me. So despite sasuke and kyuu's wishes, I stayed. As I stayed with her I learned that she remembered nothing of her assaults on me the next day, as if she was a different person at night. Then the nightmares started soon after the fourth time she beat me, with no resistance on my part, and kyuu-nii's abandoned poison that was removed from his chakra, as it had been stored away in my body separate from kyuu and me for use in combat after I purified him. It was after that, kyuu-nii and sasuke had decided to use a sound-proof barrier to hide my screams from kikyo-shishou and soon after, sasuke's active sharingan to help soothe my nightmares.

"Kyuu help me hold her down until she wakes up! We've got ten minutes till sunrise I can't hold her by myself!" sasuke called as he held my thrashing, crying, bleeding and screaming form down, hoping kyuu-nii would manifest again from trying to internally subdue the dream.You've got it kit! I'm coming now!He called as he took physical form and held my arms and legs down by using his tails. "I'm going to try the sharingan again so hold her still!" sasuke informed as he grabbed my hair gently and pressed our foreheads lightly together; so as to enter my mind.Be careful gakikyuu-nii called as he went under.Damn it!He cursed as a wound appeared on my chest bleeding vehemently.'Four more minutes….come on kit! You can make it!He prayed as he healed my chest wound, using the tails he had free as he ran his hand through my snow white hair for the remaining four minutes.

Thank kami for the sunrise!He rejoiced as sasuke came to and he released me from his tails' grip and my screaming subsided.Are you okay, brat?He inquired as sasuke sat up hugging me and leaning my waking form on his chest. "Yeah, thank kami I was able to keep her at bay until sunrise dattedana." He sighed and then blushed at the verbal tic's slip up.Dattedana huh?Kyuu lightly teased as sasuke blushed at his slip-up. "When you're me and have been around naruto and kasumi long enough, you develop a similar verbal tic out of an instinctual and subconscious desire to adapt ttedana. So please don't tell them. I'll tell them eventually, I promise." He assured and closed the subject as I began to stir. "Ohaiyo kasu-koi." He gently whispered as I came to, stroking my cheek before brushing some of my hair out of my face, and kissed me lightly on the forehead.

"I think it was the day after that he became distant and surrounded by darkness more and more every day I saw him. It wasn't long after that he left me, kyuu and kikyo-shishou for the last time. The last two good acts he did for me was let shishou and I stay at the grounds as us now owning them, and a good-bye kiss that I guess even he forgot about with time and orochimaru.

'Sasuke, I'll never forget you, leave you, or let you fall to hell. I WILL save you. I will always love you, but until the day I save you, my red hair, the threads of fate you hold so dear will no longer exist without you.'Kit, are you sure you want to do this? Are you sure you want to give up the color you love the most for that, thattraitor?He asked sadness and pure venom in his voice at the one who left me broken. 'Yeah, I'm sure. This way, I'll have something that resembles peace of mind ttebane.' I sighed as I made the hand seals for the color seal that would double as a chakra filter.

"Ninja art, Uzumaki style: color draining chakra filter!" I sobbed as I flared the priestess, kyuubi and sage chakra and directed the color and filter seal to the top of my left breast. "AHH! ITAI TTEBANE!"I yelped as the seal flared and appeared on my skin, color flowing it into it as my hair turned white, like liquid being poured into a fish bowl, then settled down to leave the surrounding skin an angry pink hue that quickly faded due to kyuu-nii.

"There. That should mix my natural chakra with my priestess sage, and your chakra, then channel it safely back to our networks kyuu-nii." I explained as I picked up the bow shishou had made me the other day.Alright, let's go kit. We have chakra to mix and stabilize. But be careful, I don't think you should push yourself too hard yet. You don't want to out strain on the seal and have it break. Kyuu-nii gently lectured as he out an arm over his shoulders to balance me out. "Right, let's go, shishou's waiting ttebane." I agreed as I jumped into the tree to meet her at the town we were to cleanse, my snow-white hair flowing behind as I jumped from tree to tree

A/N: ohaiyo minna! yeah, sorry it's been awhile but i was working on this for a well, while and i think it turned out okay for a muse-starved, writer's block-on-full-blast chapter...i might edit the sasuke encounter to make it better but otherwise i'm happy with it...somewhat...anyway...enough rambling...Review onegai ttebane! so please leave your compliments, complaints, flames (that will be fed to manda) and praises after the imaginary beep! Ja Ne! ^^

P.S...I UPDATED THE CHAPPIES AFTER MINOR DETAIL REVISION. HONTOUNI GOMENNASAI TO THOSE WHO THOUGHT I UPLOADED THE FOURTH CHAPPIE...WHICH I AM TYPING AND WHATNOT AS I UPDATE THIS...