Murph! It's been a looooooooooong week! What better way to end it with by typing up a chapter for this story?

Happy Mexican Independence Day! My planner at school told me that was today!

Anyway, sorry for the wait for the update!

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Wait a second! I only update on weekends/holidays! I take back my apology!

In other words, I would like to thank Avasaya, blackdragon999, and Grrr for the reviews! So thank you! Merci! … I don't know many more languages, and I'm not in the mood to Google things. I tried, but the oranges distraced me…

Disclaimer! I own Naruto!

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Hahahahahahahahah! Seriously, though, I don't. Only the OCs belong to me!

Chapter Seven! Enter the Majestic Base

xXxItaly's POVxXx

Goodness Gracious! Who are you people? Just kidding, I remember you!

So, yeah… It's been five months. I bet Colette's filled you in on everything. The most important thing for you to know is that I have taken up the pike.

My pike is named Phil. He's married to Hidan's scythe, Barbra, but is having an affair with Colette's halberd, Nancy.

Phil is silver and black.

He looks pretty damn awesome.

Anyway, where did Colette leave you? Oh, yeah! We were just leaving the Jashinist temple. Erwin flipped out when he saw the two Akatsuki members approaching. It went down like this:

So I was just chillin' in front of the temple, watching the clouds and stuff. Erwin was all, "Why did you ignore me last night, little girl?" and stuff. I ignored him while he was nagging me for ignoring him.

Yeah…

I had been sitting around for about an hour, just enjoying the warm-ish winter day. I saw two black dots going through the trees. I squinted slightly at the dots. Those aren't birds…

Before I knew it, there were two men coming up the stairs. I gasped. The two dots were incredibly familiar and dangerous: Akatsuki members!

The pair walked up to me. It was Kisame and Itachi, my second favorite pair in the Akatsuki.

Kisame looked down at me from under his weird pimp-hat thingy (he was two steps below me, come on!). He said, "Are you Italy, little girl?"

"Uh-huh…" I nodded slowly. Why was everyone calling me 'little girl' today? I mean, I already know that I'm short! But to the more pressing matters, how the hell did the Akatsuki know my name? I mean, sure Colette, Hidan and I stand out a bit with our destructive tendencies and eyes as Colette so aptly said last night, but not many survived the wrath of our little trio to spread rumors about us.

I guess they're just really good at spying!

Kisame pat my head slightly for some reason or another, "Alright, kid. You're coming with us."

I raised an eyebrow, flinching slightly at the uncalled for contact, "Haven't I got a say in this?"

Kisame chuckled, "Not really! You either come with us willingly, or we'll force you."

I agreed readily, "Well, I'm not really in much of a mood to be forced into anything, so I'll just come with you willingly!"

We stood there awkwardly for a moment. I refused to break eye-contact with Kisame whereas his gaze flitted around, resting anywhere but on me. Itachi finally spoke up, "Where's your friend Colette?"

I motioned for them to follow me, "I'll bring you to her."

I guess they wanted the two of us.

They followed me into the temple and through the hallways, much to the horror of Erwin. I pointed at the door to our room, "She's in there."

Kisame nodded and opened the door. I peaked in. Colette was asleep but shifting. Itachi stood in the doorway along with his trusty partner.

Colette woke up within a couple of seconds. She had a quick conversation with Kisame and Itachi. She began leaving but flipped out, "Wait! I'm not ready to go!"

I poked my head in the room to grab Phil and go, "Get over your vanity, Colette."

She glared at me, but grabbed her stuff.

I sighed whimsically, "It seems as if Phil is fleeing his wife to run away with his charming mistress! They will grow old together and raise chickens and foster children!"

"Indeed!" Colette slung Nancy over her back.

"Phil?" said Kisame.

I laughed, "My pike!"

"…" Kisame gave me a blank look, hand unconsciously floating to Samehada.

To the present!

So we'd been walking for about… 7 hours? We hadn't stopped, eaten, spoken, or anything!

The eating and walking I didn't care about, but the speaking part was what really bugged me. I mean, sure Colette and I didn't talk much in the trips with our little group, but that's because we just didn't have anything to say. In this scenario, I had plenty to say.

I just wasn't saying anything because I was a bit intimidated by the Akatsuki members to say the least. Anyway, I think Colette just didn't care one way or the other about what happened because she was just laid back like that. Of course, Itachi didn't say anything because… he's Itachi… I'm not sure about Kisame, though. He probably wasn't talking because he was Itachi's little bitch, and Itachi wasn't talking, thus Kisame held his tongue.

So, back to walking.

Walking.

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Walking.

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Walking.

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Walking.

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Walking.

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Walki- "Oof!"

I just ran into Itachi.

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Holy flying shit-cakes! I just ran into Itachi!

"Hehe! Sorry, Itachi-san!" I backed away from him. His hair smelled good… Like waterfalls…

Itachi looked back at me, an eyebrow raised a hair, "How do you know my name?"

"Uh, bingo books?" I pulled the (bad) lie from somewhere.

Colette came to save me (not very helpfully) and my worthless lie, "Yeah, you're pretty famous!"

"Yeah…" I added (very unhelpfully).

"Hn," Itachi turned his gaze to Kisame, "We shall stop here for tonight."

"Alright, Itachi," Kisame leaned Samehada against a random tree. His awesome, beautiful, sexy sword.

"Yay! I thing I lost half my feet!" Colette cheered. I ignored the cheerless outburst as I set Phil down, eyes trained on Samehada, however.

We all sat down around a fire Itachi constructed. Kisame had gone to get us some food. Itachi seemed to be staring at Colette… or Nancy… I couldn't tell. Colette seemed a bit uncomfortable under Itachi's gaze. My gaze was very comfortable, however, on a certain sword.

That sword is amazing. So big! I cringed a bit at my thoughts. That's what she said…

I continued staring longingly at the sword, not even noticing Kisame as he stepped in front of the sword with some fish. He stayed in front of the sword for a while without me even noticing.

I guess it looked like I was staring at his crotch or somewhere awkward like that because Kisame smirked slightly, "Can I help you, Italy-chan?"

"Huh?" I snapped into realization that I seemed to be staring at him longingly. The growing heat on my face seemed to make it even more awkward. "Sorry."

I hung my head, hair falling in front of my face, the entire time until dinner. I tried to keep my gaze from straying to Kisame or his sword.

Colette was having about as bad a time with Itachi as I was with Kisame. It seemed like Itachi was bound and determined to lock his gaze on Colette. This did upset me a bit. Colette, I'll admit grudgingly, is prettier than I am, however I got jealous anyway.

The next morning we were back to walking. It was even more awkward than yesterday. I was trying to stay as far away as I could from Kisame while Colette tried to keep her distance from Itachi.

There was an awkward sort of shuffling going on between the two of us as we tried to stay away from our respective Akatsuki members.

I'll have to pray to Jashin-sama extra long tonight because we only had a five hour walk to the base! After meeting with Pein, I'll be able to get away from Kisame and Colette can escape from Itachi!

We eventually reached an absolutely stunning clearing. A distant snow-capped, pale purple mountain range set the backdrop for the cloud-dappled sky. A few vivid winter blooms dotted the bright green meadow that led up to a crystal clear pool. A pile of rocks was perched in front of the pool, reflecting a bit in the water.

If it wasn't for the barren trees and brisk wind on my face, I wouldn't believe that it was winter. A lone mockingbird came to sing a little melody, setting the scene just right.

Colette breathed out softly, speaking my mind, "Pretty."

Itachi began walking the remaining distance to what I assumed was the base. We stepped onto the clear pool. Some icy water found its way into my sandals as I struggled just a bit with flexing my chakra to hold me up. The fluffiness of the chakra plus walking gave me the remote sense of floating as it always does.

Itachi pushed the rock aside. Colette and I eagerly glanced over the two member's shoulders to get a glimpse at the base. A light glared at us as if we were about to step into heaven.

Colette and I stood on our toes to catch a glance once the light faded. And the base was…

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…A cave.

How anticlimactic… I slumped a bit. Colette glared at the cave a bit. I took a second glance at it, assuming she saw something more than me. For instance a…

"Genjutsu?" Colette cocked her head a bit.

Kisame raised a surprised eyebrow as Itachi raised a hand, "How'd you know?"

Colette smirked, "Training."

Itachi dissolved the genjutsu, revealing a rather bare hall.

Itachi and Kisame entered, so Colette and I followed them in. We followed them down a labyrinth of twisting, door-less halls. We finally reached a few doors. Kisame looked back at us, pimp-hat thingy gone, as Itachi knocked on the door at the dead end, "You two stay here and stay quiet. We're going to talk to Leader-sama."

We nodded and stood there obediently while the pair reported into Pein. It got awkward because I knew Colette wanted to say something like I did, but we obviously didn't want a certain plant-man to overhear us. I guess I should have been used to awkwardness because the past few days have just been like that.

Ah, inertia!

Kisame poke his head out, "Leader-sama would like to speak with you."

We obediently filed into Pein's office. In front of us as we entered was a colorful hologram of none other than the Deva path, Rinnegan eyes the only truly defined feature, just like in the anime.

I kept myself from having a fangirl moment when he spoke, "Colette and Italy?"

We nodded. Pein continued, "Good," Pein looked us over. "Sources have informed me that you have information that could be beneficial to the Akatsuki Organization. Is this correct?"

We nodded, and he continued, "Excellent, now you will hopefully be willing to share your information with us," We nodded at this, too, being quite intimidated by Pein. "Good, otherwise we would have to extract it forcefully. Now, the Akatsuki is very interested in the information you have, and also keeping it secure. I will assign you two to different pairs so as you two do not formulate a plan of escape."

"Wait wait wait!" I held a hand up. "You are going to make us members?" I added quickly, "Sir?"

"No," Pein said. "I am only assigning squads to keep an eye on you, and hopefully benefit from the knowledge you possess."

I nodded, drawing on my courtesy to keep me safe, "Yes, sir."

"Colette-chan," Pein barked.

Colette jumped, "Yes, sir?"

He continued, "You will be with Sasori and Deidara." Colette grinned at this, Sasori her favorite character, and nodded. I held my breath, knowing who I was going to be with, "And, Italy-chan, you will be with Itachi and Kisame."

I nodded while sending a nervous glance at my new posse; Itachi looked ever so slightly dejected while Kisame looked rather unpleased.

Pein continued, "I hope you aren't too tired because I have a mission for you, Kisame, Itachi, Italy."

Kisame looked even more unhappy while Itachi recomposed his slight displeasure to his normal coolness. I heard Kisame huff quietly, "Three missions in a row?"

"This is a very important mission: to capture the Nine-tails's jinchuriki, Uzumaki Naruto. The three of you will leave as soon as possible. Here is the information on the jinchuriki," Pein handed Itachi a folder on Naruto. "All the information you need is in here. Dismissed."

The four of us began to leave but Pein stopped us, "Oh! Colette-chan, Italy-chan, I believe you may want a change of close. Here," Pein handed us two soft bundles of what I assumed to be clothing.

Colette and I gave him a smile then bowed and took our leave, "Thank you, sir."

Kisame pointed us to a couple of bathrooms, and Colette and he told me to make it quick. I was in the bathroom, taking a first look at my new garments. I blushed a bit at seeing… lacy… *coughcoughsexycoughcough* undergarments.

I stripped out of my worn, dirty clothing. I pulled on the lingerie, and they fit. I really didn't want to know how they found my cup sizes.

Anyway, I slipped on the rest of the outfit which fit very nicely and looked lovely. It consisted of a dark magenta tank top with a fishnet top to go under it. With that there was a short black apron skirt with grey spandex shorts to go under it. The shoes were the basic dark grey ninja sandals. The thing I liked the most about this whole outfit, though, was the roomy, high-collared jacket that seemed to be made of a dark grey fleece. It was warmer than my little black sweater by far.

I replaced my rosary around my neck and strapped Phil over my back, and came out of the bathroom with a buddle of my old close.

I smiled at Colette who had changed as well. Her outfit was more or less the same, but her shirt was a deep aqua -which quite nicely brought out her eyes- while her shorts and jacket were black.

I think they more or less jacked the color scheme from our weapons: Phil had a silver metal point and a black shaft with some magenta charms while Nancy was black and blue. Well, we did like those colors…

"Ready, Italy-chan?" said Kisame from behind me. He was waiting for me while Itachi had already taken his leave.

"Just a second," I called. I whispered to Colette in English, "What should I do? Do you think I should screw with the plot?"

Colette replied, "Refrain from it. How about you keep Sasuke from confronting Itachi, thus keeping him from running off any quicker."

I sighed, "Alright!" I switched back o Japanese, "Goodbye, fair lover! Phil and my heart shall rip as we grow further!"

"I hope to see you intact soon!" Colette replied. She saw me off as I left with Kisame to catch up with Itachi. I bit my lip, pondering my predicament.

What lovely alliteration! So, the Akatsuki finally has a role! Anyway…

***IMPORTANT***

Alright, listen up 'cause I have words to say!

1) I was wondering whether you want more frequent short(ish) chapters or longer, less frequently updated chapters or a delicious blend of short chapters then some long chapters every three or four chapters. Bleh! I said... wrote... chapter too many times that last sentence! Really, though, tell me pretty please with a majestic mountain of sugar on top!

2) Alrighty, brace yourself for some unabashed advertisement! Yes, this is the same story mentioned last chapter. Anyway, I am not encouraged to continue writing that story, and that negative energy is feeding into my spirit for this story, and making me not want to continue either of them. So I'd really like you to take a look at it, or I may take a vacation from writing both stories. :(

3) I am not posting another chapter of this story until I have 15 reviews 'cause I'm a feedback whore, so If you want an update, take a second or six to type out a pretty little review and become my best friend for a couple of hours. :D

Fun Fact: Colette's favorite animal is bunny-rabbits while Italy's favorite is pigs (Tonton, for instance). Phoebe doesn't have a favorite animal, really, but she sure does hate them cats.

I don't have all that much to say that's particularly interesting. My pet mouse is afraid of me, though.

I'm pretty sure I thought of something witty and/or amusing to say that entertained me today.

Hmm…

Oh, yeah! This Monday I got a packet from world geography with a quote from Christopher Columbus on it. He compared Earth to a boob. Yeah, that entertained me and my pervy mind! :)

Now that I'm done with my threats/rants, please have an absolutely enchanting rest of the day!

Love ya!~