Thanks to everybody who's still reading this! This one should be more interesting than the last, but it's still a little short. Anyways, enjoy!
Chapter Five: Proud.
"You lost two fights in a row, un." The blonde smirked, standing before the peeved Natsuki. The wind tugged at their hair. She let the sadistic observation of how his hair was longer than her's flit through her mind. "I'll beat you to a bloody pulp." She bit. Three days without Chikakon had left her in a foul mood.
"Bring it, yeah."
"Don't worry, I will."
Deidara laughed down at Natsuki, jeering her and howling with amusement as she continued to be unable to reach him. She leapt out of the way of yet another cricket-bomb. Something sticky attached itself to her finger and she jolted, flicking out her hand sharply. The clay masterpiece detonated midair, not a moment too soon. She sent a burning glare up at the terrorist. A fiery sensation built up in the pit of her stomach and she slowly brought her hands together. Her fingers intertwined. Itachi watched in wonder from the steps. Was she... A great, raging fireball roared upwards, colliding with Deidara's clay bird. There was an undeniable yell and mixed in with the roaring flames, was a furious cry.
"Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Itachi knocked on the weapons dealer's door. When there was no audible answer, he cracked it open and looked in. The room was dark, so he stepped inside and let the door swing to behind him. Making his way carefully to her bedside table, he switched on the little night light. He found Natsuki curled up in the corner of her bed, looking moodily out across the expanse of her room. "You did well." He told her. She made a little grunting sound, but otherwise said nothing. Itachi held back an exasperated sigh. "You wish to look for him?" A curt nod. "You do not like it here, do you?" A shake of her head. Itachi was torn in two. He felt much the same in this organisation, but she was not permitted to exit the base. "...Come, walk with me." He offered. It was the least he could do. "It's fine Itachi." She whispered hoarsely. She sounded as if she had been crying. "You don't have to take pity on me. Thank-you anyway." He nodded and left. Secretly, he remained pleased, yet confused at her Great Fireball Jutsu earlier that day. She could have been a very prominent and powerful shinobi if she had chosen that path. Why not? Did her parents not permit her to become a ninja? Maybe they wouldn't allow her to enter because of her leg? His thoughts wandered to how she ended up with such an injury in the first place, straying far from his previous wonderings of how she pulled off a jutsu very rarely seen outside the Uchiha clan.
Nobody really came to see her after that. Anybody who did found that she didn't answer the door and decided against barging in. She had proved herself deadly when upset or angry. She barely even took notice of anyone when she ventured out to the kitchen to get food. Sustenance. Her mind was whirring with plans, thoughts of where Chikakon was. It was all busy and hard at work in her head. So much so that her outside appearance seemed dead to the world. Despite this and thanks to the fact that she had avoided any limbs being demolished in her battle against Deidara, Leader-sama thrust her straight into another battle. Her last battle as he had said. When she stepped into the arena for the last of her tests, she didn't recognise the person crouched before her. He was bent over like an old man with odd hair and a scrap of cloth over his mouth. Natsuki couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something seemed... off about this person. "I hate to be kept waiting." The man rasped.
"I don't take orders from you." She bit sourly, finally pulling herself out of her thoughts. "But I suppose waiting around is a bit of a pain, isn't it?" They leapt into combat. Well, she did. The man simply sat there and didn't even seem to watch her movements. Something razor-sharp and bone-white flew towards her and she hurried to parry the attack with her katana. It did little good and she was thrust into the ground. The air gushed out of her, but she refused to cry out. The tail, for that's what it was, retreated, but remained poised at the ready. Natsuki frowned. She stood up and focused her chakra, trying to summon the same feeling she felt in her last battle. She pressed her hands together, painfully aware of how the tail shifted it's poise, leaned back... and shot forwards with lightning speed. Too late. She felt the fire, how the flames seared her cold face. Something purple entered her vision and she leapt back in fear of another attack. She searched the foggy plume and determined it was some sort of gas. It didn't have a scent that she could tell, but... She was sure it was poisonous. She had never heard of purple cloaking gas before and she was a weapons dealer. She turned and bolted towards the side of the arena closest to the archway where the tunnel to the rest of the base was. She darted up the sheer wall and then further up the steps. She caught the faint smell of fish from Kisame, the scent of some sort of spice from Itachi. The rusty-iron smell that rolled off Hidan in great waves. She caught a glimpse of the gag in his mouth to keep him quiet and stuck her tongue out at him as she ran by. Leader-sama was stood with them. Her opponent couldn't attack her with poisonous gas if she was next to the other members. They unwittingly provided her with a shield. She surveyed the scene down in the arena first. The toxic gas was rolling about lazily, almost covering the charred patches of earth ignited by her fire. She could only just make out the burnt husk of the man. Had she won? She heard wood tapping behind her and whirled around, katana raised in defense. Sasori smirked at her, fingers tapping against crossed arms. He looked... "You're a puppet?" She deadpanned.
"What gave it away?" He answered cynically. "Now are you going to continue hiding behind your comrades like a coward or are you going to fight me, chicken?" Natsuki growled at the demeaning nickname and launched an attack there and then. She headed straight for his neck, aiming to detach it quickly. He still needed a brain to operate, right? He raised his arms, tattered cloak slipping further from his shoulders. Jets of fire swarmed at her and she leapt up on instinct to escape it's wrath. Her katana was visibly smoking from the heat and she cursed. She hoped it didn't become mishaped. She slipped it back into it's sheath and aimed her landing around abouts... on his head. The small dagger she seldom used only scratched the surface of Sasori's neck before they crashed to the ground. Natsuki flipped over Sasori on impact and her spine cracked against the steps painfully. She rolled to her feet though and exchanged the small weapon for her katana, which had luckily retained it's shape. Sasori was already on his feet and there was another tail-like wire coming from his body. This one reminded her not of a scorpion's tail like the last one, oh no. This one reminded her of a hissing viper ready to strike. Some kind of purple liquid dripped from it's tip and the rest of the metal cord. She was doubtless in thinking that it was poison. She hadn't failed to notice that the rest of the Akatsuki had avoided scorching, all except Hidan, who was mumbling angrily through his gag about his wretched back. Natsuki was about to launch yet another attack when she froze. Images flashed across her vision. A red bushy tail, black paws. Blood. Chikakon! Her eyes widenned in horror and she took to finishing the fight as quickly as possible. She threw herself back into battle. This time, close-combat. Sasori was less adept in this region, but his spearhead-on-a-wire was extremely capable of taking stabs at her back. All of which she managed to dodge. Only just though, only through shear luck and Sasori's kindness. Pain suddenly lanced up her back and she cried out in pain. The shock and suddenness of the attack had caught her unawares. Made her exclaim her agony. The audience looked at her oddly. She herself couldn't understand it. Sasori hadn't landed a hit. He wasn't the one causing this torture. She gripped her katana even more fiercely and bolted. Before even Itachi could stop her, she was diving through the toxic cloud of gas and back into the base. Her feet pounded against the ground and she felt her leg start to flare up, but she ignored it all. Chikakon was in danger!
"Kisame." Leader-sama bit. "Go fetch that miserable excuse for a person and bring her to me immediately." Kisame nodded and bowed, though inside he wondered if she would view this as another betrayal. "Sasori. Clean your poison up."
Kisame knocked on Natsuki's door politely. "Natsuki?" He called when no-one answered. "You okay in there? Time of the month?" When there was still no answer, he opened the door and stepped inside. He had thought saying something like that would have provoked her to come out and bonk him on the head with her walking stick. He flicked the light on and looked around. No sound was heard, he couldn't see her. He checked the wardrobe, ceiling, under the bed, the bathroom. She had gone out somewhere. Kisame sighed in exhasperation and went off to find Leader-sama. Let it be known that he wasn't all too pleased to find that Natsuki wasn't anywhere to be found. He sent for three other Akatsuki members: Deidara, Itachi and Zetsu. The three of them, with the added fourth of Kisame, were assigned the mission of finding Natsuki. Zetsu because, well, he was the Akatsuki spy after all. Deidara could look from above, Itachi was going in case she needed knocking out without causing permanent brain damage and he and Kisame combined would stop Zetsu from attempting to catch a snack from either a civilian or Natsuki. They headed out shortly after receiving orders.
Zetsu searched around for the girl's chakra signature. He found something similar to it, faint and probably disfigured by the smaller chakra networks of other animals, but still the best thing he had to follow. It dissipated into nothing but a dead, rotting corpse of a deer a few hours later though. Apparently, similar wasn't good enough. Similar also wasn't very good to eat either. After a short arguement with his other half, he set off to try and pick up the actual chakra signature of the girl.
Deidara was having less luck in the skies than the cannibalistic venus flytrap was in the ground and Itachi in the trees and Kisame on the ground. He couldn't find the young woman's chakra signature from his height and it was a real pain to go looking for her. Eventually, after hours and hours of lazily flying around and half-heartedly looking, he turned back towards the base. Leader-sama would understand.
Zetsu was called back the following day for a more important mission and it was only Itachi and Kisame left. Kisame searched as best he could, but the surrounding area, with all it's thickly wooded forests, was a difficult place to search for one person. Itachi was tiring too. He had only half the stamina of Kisame and couldn't continue any longer. As much as Kisame knew the Uchiha hated to admit his own weaknesses, he eventually turned back and travelled back to the base. Now only Kisame was left in the search for Natsuki. All the while he searched, he kept thinking how idiotic she was. Didn't he keep telling her to not be stupid? How many more times would he have to say it before she understood? And no way was he taking her excuse of having to take her fox's place and be stupid for him. He'd give her a good clip about the ear for this little trick, never mind Leader-sama's punishment, it'd be like a newborn pup nipping her fingertips compared to the hell he was gonna put her through! After four days, however, he was called back.
After failing one mission, he and Itachi were sent on another: to eliminate a group of Orochimaru's spies who were a bit too close to the base for Leader-sama's liking. It was a success of course. The six nin were barely capable of summoning a tadpole between them. When the two returned, Kisame walked down the halls to Natsuki's room. It was quiet inside, but he knocked anyway. He still had hope. There was no answer and his hope drowned like a candle in an ocean. He pushed the door open. His entire body jolted. Chikako 'Natsuki' Suzuhara stood there, swaying weakly in front of a body-length mirror in a pretty white camisole nightdress. A bushy fox tail swished down by her legs. She turned her tear-streaked face ever-so slightly.
"Is this what he meant by 'talents'?"