Thank-you to all who have read Weapons Dealer so far and special thanks to…

mariaxxxmadara for reviewing and for adding Weapons Dealer to your favourites! It's much appreciated (it's funny, I startd reading In the arms of the angel a few days ago!) anyways, it's been about two weeks and you asked, so here we go! Chapter 3 is up!

-Sorry for OOCness, previous Natsuki-immortality and I do not own Naruto, lo and behold if I did –

Chapter Three: Indeed this is betrayal.

No... Not Kisame-san, please not Kisame! Natsuki whipped her head around to stare at Itachi. He pitied her with a sympathetic look. Forcefully, she pushed herself on. Kisame didn't look at her when she came to a stop a few feet in front of him. Her hand slowly reached up to grip the hilt of her katana. No cane this time. The sound was tauntingly musical as the weapon slid out of it's sheath an inch or so. The clap of Leader-sama's hands sounded the start of their battle.

The air tore at Natsuki's face as she lunged into combat. He betrayed her, he knew this was going to happen and he didn't fight it. Her mind was blinded with irrational thoughts of his treachery. The traitor! He knew he was her only friend! Her blade connected with the wide berth of Samehada and she was flicked back a little ways. Her feet dug into the ground and she skidded to a halt. Her glare tore into his soul. At least she hoped it did. Her mind reeled. Kisame didn't seem to be making any attacks, which left it up to her to provoke him. But his defenses were as thick as shark skin. He was bound to be a strong attacker. All hope seemed lost to Natsuki. What did she have? A katana and a hidden dagger that everybody knew about now. Him? He had jutsu galore and a huge sword that could stop an onslaught of attacks from Hidan's triple-bladed scythe. Her eyes darkenned and she raised her weapon. Who cared? She could totally beat him! Higher ground. The thought ran through her mind in an explosive flash of creativity. She swivelled on her heel, dashing to the side. Kisame watched warily, not understanding her actions. Then it hit him. She was climbing the arena walls! With a growl, he leapt after her. Even if he didn't want to participate in this fight, Leader-sama had ordered him to battle her, so battle her he would.

Natsuki stopped near the top of the arena, the clouds twisting lazily above. Kisame was still in fast pursuit, but she wouldn't give him time to prepare himself, oh no! With an almost sadistic grin, she sheathed her blade and, with all the strength she could muster, pushed at one of the great boulders of fallen rubble on the steps. It crunched pebbles and grit under it's belly as it began to roll. With one final push, the rock dislodged itself and tumbled down the steps. Easily avoided. The next didn't take so long to move, nor the next or the one after that. Each was more difficult to avoid as they roared down in quick succession. Just as Kisame cleared a particularly large boulder, Natsuki launched her attack. With one deft kick off from the steps, she drew her katana and, as Kisame landed, barged into him with her shoulder with all the force of gravity and speed behind her. Kisame was bowled over backwards and he rolled down with the boulder. Natsuki grabbed hold of an old vine as she leapt after him. He thrust out a hand to halt his decent and stood. His hands flew together in a blur, but Natsuki wasn't about to go down without a fight! She threw the vine, her katana tied to one end. It slashed at his hands, but Kisame wasn't an S-ranked criminal for no reason. The last sign was made and with one sharp yell, a torrent of water crashed from Kisame's mouth and raged towards her. Natsuki yelped and was dragged under the great surge. Her legs kicked and her heart fluttered in unbridled panic. This was like in her dreams! Her feet hit a step and she kicked up. With a gasp, her head surfaced and she floated on the rushing waters. Kisame was flying at her fast. In absolute fear of drowning, she screamed and thrust her arms before her face in defense. Fire of such a great extent burst forth from her arms and seared and raged into a great writhing wall. The water at it's feet roiled and Kisame, in his haste, was unable to stop himself. He only just managed to save himself thanks to a quick number of water clones to drag him out of the way. Natsuki let her arms fall and stood in aghast horror at the water surrounding her. It's vast body struck a cord of fear in her and it took all her might not to scream again. Her legs worked automatically, taking her up the steps and away from the waters. Dry land was a haven, but not for long. Kisame was back again.

It was a long and arduous fight, no jutsu, just their two blades, locked in mortal combat. For hours their battle dragged on and on to reveal no victor. Natsuki was constantly at a disadvantage, but she worked hard to gain her ground and keep pushing him one step back at a time. Neither would give in though and she could feel herself losing strength and concentration. Often she faltered and would stumble or miss. She would let easily avoidable attacks hit her and eventually, she was gasping on her side, her chakra, what little she had left of it anyway, being sucked from her throat by a ravenous Samehada. Her eyelids grew heavy and before she could utter the word 'traitor', she had sunk into darkness.

Natsuki woke up in her room much, much later. She had no idea how long had passed since she lost her fight, all she knew was that it was either one in the afternoon, or one in the morning. Nobody was about, not even Chikakon. The thought wormed about in her brain, so stiffly, she got out from under her covers, changed into a clean set of clothes, grabbed her cane, and went to look for him. She was walking slowly down the halls, still half-asleep, when a short figure came into view. He was in the customary Akatsuki cloak, but with the distance, she couldn't tell who they were. She carried on walking. It turned out to be the redhead boy who found Chikakon for her on her first day. He hadn't deigned to give her his name though. He stopped though and with lazy brown eyes looked up at her a little. "You did well against Hoshigaki. He's a tough opponent with immense physical strength and unnatural stamina." Natsuki blinked a little.

"T- thank-you, but I still lost."

"Yes, well, it's to be expected against a Swordsman of the Mist."

"A Swordsman of the Mist?" The boy nodded. It appeared he wasn't willing to delve deeper into the subject and was about to leave when Natsuki called after him. "You haven't seen my fox have you?" He looked up at the ceiling, then gave a heavy sigh an turned back the way he came, waving a hand. "Come with me."

They walked down a corridor, lined with doors like all the rest. But then, they suddenly all stopped on the left hand side. At the end of the hall, there was a dark turn left with a few steps running down into the red darkness. The boy walked down them and they came to another wooden door. He pushed it open to reveal a small room. It was cast in the same reddish light as the steps and it was surprisingly tidy in a cluttered kind of way. To the right was a desk with a chair, books and a few pens and sheets of paper piled high on it's surface. In the left-hand corner of the room was a bed, roughly made and still a little crumpled. The bedside table held a photo-frame which the boy quickly walked to and turned face-down. Natsuki blinked, but turned her attention to a dark doorway opposite the door they had just walked through. It appeared to be a corridor of some sorts leading to an extra part of the room? She eyed to walls next though and was quite shocked to see wooden puppets, all around the size and shape of an average person, hanging on the walls. The boy cleared his throat impatiently. Natsuki turned to face him, he had Chikakon in one hand, holding him out by the scruff of his neck. "He seems to like it down here." The boy stated as she took the little red fox back, scolding him quietly as she did. "Huh? I guess so. This is twice now, right?" The redhead cocked his head to the side and smiled a little. "Eight times actually, but he's usually on his way pretty fast."

"Ah, I hope he hasn't caused much trouble, he's awful at times." The boy chuckled a little bit, but reassured her that Chikakon was very well behaved. "That's new... When'd you learn that one, huh?" Natsuki muttered to her companion. The redhead found this quite amusing and they ended up talking for a small while after that. Natsuki discovered that the redhead was called Sasori and hailed from Sunagakure. They griped about the bad parts of the Akatsuki, of which Natsuki had plenty to say, and looked at what she could have done better in her fight against both Hidan and Kisame, and eventually, Natsuki became drowsy and fell asleep. Sasori sighed and scratched his chin. Gently, he drew a blanket over the girl's stooped figure and settled down to rest his eyes (something he did very rarely these days).

Natsuki walked through the corridors again. She had woken up later in Sasori's room and though he hadn't been there, he had left a little note with a hand-drawn map of how to get to her room or the kitchen from his room. Leader-sama's office was also marked down, along with most of the other member's dorms. Names in red, like Hidan's, Natsuki presumed to be the more volatile members. She was on her way to the kitchen at that very moment though. Sasori passed her in the corridor with a small smile and a nod. "Don't be so quick to judge what one may be forced into doing." He murmured under his breathe as a parting gift. Natsuki stopped and stared after his retreating back. With a frown and a shake of her head, she continued on to the kitchen to ponder why he would tell her such things.

Ugh. Kisame was there. She had half a mind to turn around and go back to her room. Chikakon was hungry though and so was she, so she would just have to put up with his presence for a little bit longer. She stalked past him to the fridge and used the door to shield her face from view. For once, it didn't look completely barren inside. Chikakon dove in and pulled out some sort of big fish. Seriously? What kind of organisation was this, weren't they concerned about the health risks of not sealing raw foods? "Remember what happened last time." Natsuki warned the fox. He stared at her demurely, then turned tail and ran. With a roll of her eyes, she searched through the fridge some more and decided just to make do with a cold bowl of rice that was sat in there teasingly. What? She didn't see anybody's name on it. She followed in Chikakon's footsteps and bolted from the room.

The door slammed shut and Natsuki leant against it, grinning. Chikakon was biting at the fish on the floor. She walked past and sat cross-legged on the bed to eat. As she ate, she looked at Sasori's map. So, did this make them friends? He said not to judge for what someone might have been forced into... Did that mean Kisame wasn't at fault? Or was it some clue to the future? Nah. That was way too deep. She read the names on the map for the second time that day. Hidan was in red. Pein was underlined in red, but his name was black like Sasori's, Kisame's, Itachi's and some guy named Deidara, though he had a little red anger mark next to his name. That woman, Konan, her name was in black too. Kakuzu... he was the medic guy who stitched her up. His named was in red and there was one more. Zetsu. She'd never heard of him before. His name was red though aswell, so she decided to steer clear of him. If only the same could be said for Hidan. With a snort, she shook her head and shovelled more rice down her throat. A knock came at her door and she jolted. Hidan? She grabbed her katana and threw it's sheath back onto the bed. Her other hand took her cane and she cautiously opened the door, sharp bladed weapon poised at the ready. She immediately tried to shove the door back shut. Kisame grunted as the wood barged into his bruised-up arm. Natsuki threw herself at it once more before settling down to glare up at him. He looked down at her. Ten minutes later, she growled and caved, hurling the door open and stalking back to her bed. He stepped in and shut the door in what you could almost call a meek way. When used in the context of an S-ranked missing-nin. "Your fox stole my fish." He stated, breaking the silence.

"You should have put a label on it then." Natsuki bit, refusing to look at him. Maybe he wasn't at fault? Leader means leader of course and leaders have to be obeyed. Ch. Hardly! He's an Akatsuki for God's sake. "Look, Natsuki, I'm sorry." He said, "But I was under orders. You don't know what would have happened if I hadn't done as Leader-sama said!" He knelt in front of her and touched her shoulder. "I was set in place to test your stamina and how you dealt with water jutsu. He would have had you tortured if I hadn't agreed!" Natsuki stiffened. "... Why the hell are you always right?" She said in fake-frustration, tugging on his hair. He grinned and laughed, razor teeth showing. "Do you want that fish back?" Kisame looked over at Chikakon's snack. He stared back with the tail clamped between his teeth. "Nah, I think I could handle one less fish."

Short but sweet? I dunno. Anyways, I've changed it from updating every two weeks to every two reviews. So review away! Please? I'm not asking for much, just feedback etc.

Arigato!