Author's Note: only a week late this time! I'm starting to think every other week is a good schedule for these chapters. I want to keep to writing by hand first then typing and plus I don't see to have much time to type in the week DX Enjoy! And don't forget about the 100 Flash project on my dA, ! (add .com after that)

Chapter Seven Letters

"We're not free yet," Sasori reminded in her ear in a whisper. She gave him a puzzled look. Perhaps imprisonment had its effects on poor old Sasori or perhaps he was simply going insane.

"I'm telling you, it's a left, yeah!" Deidara's yell brought Sasori and Sakura back to the situation at hand.

"Look, I was just there the other day, I'd like to think I know which way we're going ," retorted Saori.

"Are you crazy? That's the way to the Ootowari Estate!"

"Exactly! We can go through the Estate then run south towards Bird Country. I know for a fact that the landscape never changes there. It's our best chance of actually getting out alive!"

"No way, unless you want to watch me blow the place up, hmm!"

"You don't have your clay, might I remind you."

Deidara smirked, "You don't think I hide a few bags here and there? If we go towards Konoha now, I can get it."

"So that's what this is about, you just want your clay!"

"No, it's about what makes sense, hmm!"

"And bickering in front of the prison is sensible," Sasori sarcastically added, bolting past the two. He leapt onto a rooftop, looking for the Ootowari Estate. He was now out of the prison's dark labyrinth of corridors and trickeries. He didn't need Saori anymore and he was sure Deidara would make it back to home base without Sakura's aid, but they were good hostages. One was wanted by Iwa for her head, the other wanted by Iwa to initiate a war. It simply worked out so perfectly for an Akasuna no Sasori.

"Guard unit, two o'clock!" yelled Sakura, her fist crackling with chakra.

"Don't bother with them. They came to not to stop you, because they will not succeed, but to hinder our progress. We can outrun them with ease." Sakura paused, then used her chakra for her legs instead. Slowly but surely, they were losing the less-trained guards. Looking back, Sakura wondered when the real terrors of Iwa were going to come after them. She faced forward again, but not soon enough. Sasori had stopped, with plenty of good reason of course; the land suddenly disappeared, featuring several kilometers worth of falling. Which Sakura was experiencing at the moment.

"Sakura!" Saori yelled. It was only the beginning of spring; the glaciers from the winter snowfall had yet to melt from the mountain tops. If Sakura hit the river below, there wouldn't be enough water to protect her fall…!

"What the -!" Saori had bigger concerns to worry about, now, such as holding onto Deidara. "Some warning would be nice, yeah, Sasori-danna!" Saori dug the heels of her shoes into the dirt the best she could, using her chakra to keep a death grip around Deidara's torso. Neither of the two had seen it, but somehow Sasori had shed his Akatsuki cloak, tied it so it created something close to a lasso, and threw it around Deidara before jumping off the cliff edge in record speed. The Akatsuki chose some fine material for clothing, Saori noted, referring to the fact that the cloak had not torn under the immense strain.

Below, only a few meters above the water, Sasori held the other end with his left hand, his legs stuck on the canyon sides with the aide of chakra and his right arm in a firm grip around Sakura. She clutched to him, quite literally for her life, and stared down at the slow-moving river below that, had it not been for Sasori, would be mixed with her blood. "Are you going to get off of me any time soon?" he suddenly asked. She momentarily glanced at him, then began trying to reach for the canyon's wall. Above them, Saori's grip was slipping.

"Uh guys? Unwanted attention at six o'clock!" Saori yelled. Pulling Deidara with her, she ran to the edge and… jumped.

"What the hell, yeah?" screamed Deidara. Sakura looked up, only to be crushed against Sasori's body.

"What are you –" A messy blur of black, red, yellow, and gold shot past Sasori and Sakura. Sasori's coiled cloak joined the moving blur, which had caught fire (or seemed to). Sakura noted Sasori's left hand, which was situated on the rock face with chakra. "Was that… Deidara and Saori?"

"Unfortunately," Sasori bluntly replied before almost shoving Sakura to the rock face. Once she got a proper hold onto the rock face, his arm left her waist and he began his quick descent. Sakura did likewise but at a much slower pace.

Now below them, Saori and Deidara were half-coughing in the river. Saori used her chakra to keep the both of them afloat. Deidara was practically sinking. "Ow, un! Let go of my arm, you're bending it and it's broken! And next time, warn me if you're just going to jump and don't set me on fire, yeah!"

Saori glared at him though he wasn't looking, being rather exhausted. "I did not set you on fire. I even carried you on my back so you wouldn't catch fire. I guess you just love slit throats and cracked heads that much?"

"Oh, shut up, yeah!"

"Fine, give drowning a try!" she snapped, letting go of Deidara. He wouldn't get the chance to do so however; Sasori lunged to keep Deidara afloat, shooting a menacing look at Saori to which she felt incapable of returning.

"Let's get moving. They're coming down," ordered Sasori as Sakura's feet met the surface of the water. "We'll lose them, then go find a change of clothes. Sakura, I need you to create an avalanche. Hinder their pursuit." She, surprisingly, listened to him, a chakra-laden fist meeting the canyon side with a sickening crack, causing an avalanche of rocks to fall. Sasori made some hand signals; the water soon rose like a huge wave before collapsing. By the time all the water had fallen, the four fugitives were nowhere in sight.

"TIRED?" TEASED SHIROTSUKI, WHO eyed the room's latest occupant. Saori collapsed on the beige couch, located in the room which she learned to be the Alpha squad's lounge. There was an awkward moment of silence before she yelled nothing in particular. "Incoherent languages are we, now?"

"Tired," Saori repeated him, rolling onto her side. "This is the worse training I've ever been through."

"Were you so naïve as to think it would be easy?"

"No; I wish I didn't have to bother with it at all! Ooh, mind-control, that's nice but not worth the expense. My eyes feel like they're about to fall out and I hate it when my throat is under threat. It gets all tingly and I hate that."

"But that's not really why you don't want to train," he fluidly responded, not missing a beat. Reading people was his sort of thing, a natural skill he had and sometimes did him better than it would if he had a Mind's Eye.

"Why's that?" Shirotsuki's face read as a "don't feel me" sort. "Yeah, okay, I'm uncomfortable around the Genyou Senshi, but does that matter? She's scary!"

"You're just being a coward."

"Coward?" Saori raised her head from the pillow.

"Did you think you weren't one?"

"She put her head back down. "No; I know that I am. I just didn't have a word for it." Quietly, she contemplated all the things he disliked about herself. Stubborn, proud, still slightly arrogant, naïve – all of it never changed. She had thought of her half-year escapade with the three most important people to her in the world as a rite-of-passage, a time where she finally grew into a young adult. But inside, the better of her knew she was still a child, afraid to grow up and move on.

"Penny?" Shirotsuki asked nonchalantly.

She sighed. "I'm no different from 'Ootowari' Sora."

"What makes you think that?"

"Everything," she replied, reaching for the door knob.

As she was leaving, Shirotsuki responded, "You can't change if you don't let go." The door closed softly.

DAYS PASSED BY WITHOUT much change in scenery. There was a definite air of anxiety in the air. Active members of the Espionage division reported that Akatsuki were making a move soon. Two Akatsuki spies had been caught far too close to home; both committed suicide before any information could be gleaned from them. Saori's return had leaked out, as had news of the Genyou Senshi's sudden disappearance form high-paying crime circles. Only a few could not put two and two together. The Genyou Senshi was overexerting herself- much to everyone's surprise, for she did few things other than for herself or for Jigoku – to speed up Saori's training. There was nothing to show for it.

"Goddamn it, Saori, get your act together," snapped the Genyou Senshi. "Tomorrow will mark a month since we started. Can't you get something going, anything at all?"

"I clearly can't," Saori retorted.

"Don't give me your attitude. What Jigoku sees in you, I'll never know. All I smell from you is fear. Do you really think you can kill me, you fool? You are so below me; you couldn't even dream of it."

"If you want it so badly, fine, I will kill you when this shit is over!" Nothing but empty words. In the back of her mind, she recalled a time she had said the same thing to Deidara and nearly carried it out.

"As if," the Genyou Senshi stalked out of the room, thoroughly annoyed. Saori was equally pissed, both at her trainer and at herself. I really haven't changed. Staring at the bleak-looking walls, she recalled the last few times she had ever felt this low and useless. The last time, when Deidara had broken her heart by telling her their friendship was only something she had hallucinated, survival had occupied her mind which made everything so much easier, so much easier to momentarily forget. The time before that, she has sulked awhile before Toyotomi had saved her from her loneliness, the hatred at herself. Writing in a journal had helped then, too. If I'm never going to change, never get better, why bother trying? Not five minutes had passed before brush hit paper. Midway through writing out the raging emotions in her heart and the mess of thoughts in her mind, she felt thoroughly childish, even more so than before. I'm fifteen and I still have a diary… The thought lingered in her mind a moment before she scribbled out "journal" at the top and wrote "to." However, the space next to it was blank.

Who would she pretend she was writing to? A year ago, there would have been no question about it; she would have written "Do Deidara," in a single, fluid motion. But a year had drastically changed the status quo. Deidara and she had more than a few "little" fights; they had gone for the throat. Deidara had nearly cut straight through her aorta, the resulting scar to forever remind her. She had tried to burn him alive without a shred of guilt.

But in the end, at Death's doorstep, she had, in her heart, forgiven him. Understood his rationale. She had damaged his pride and flaunted the fact. She had idolized him for the longest time when they were together but when Toyotomi was brought back from the depths of her memories she had stopped being the little girl that loved everything that Deidara did. It was a personal insult to him, and she hadn't wanted to acknowledge that. She did not know then that later, she would question whether losing her best friend was worth keeping a long-lasting love. The question for her now was, had he understood she had forgiven him? She hadn't been able to say everything before she crashed into the dark depths of the river, where Deidara and she had their last fight. There were many things; for one, that he was the best person she had ever known. He wasn't the kindest but she didn't know anyone better. He wasn't mushy and didn't say the "I believe in you" or "you can do it" crap. He just said "oh well" and made her want to show him up, prove to him she was good. He acted so aloof it made her want to strive to be recognized by him. An apology was one of the other things she had wanted to say.

And where was he now? There was multiple confirmations that the Akatsuki knew Saori was not dead. Had Madara kept that information from Deidara? She was sure that he would have been after her head the moment he found out she was alive and kicking. He was a temperamental pyromaniac; patience did not exist in his world. Her unoccupied left hand instinctively brushed the right side of her throat, where death by Deidara's doing had ghosted almost half a year ago. That had been the first serious fight they had, but it had not been their last.

The brush hung hesitantly over the paper, ink dripping. Hadn't she forgiven Deidara? Wasn't that what she had decided over a month ago when she decided Deidara's life was worth more than hers? Why was there so much hesitation? Why was she so violently against addressing a latter to him, a letter he was likely never to receive? Frustrated, she scribbled out "to." She would worry about that at the end. Her brush was flying over the page again, slightly messy characters following in suit. Her thoughts emptied out, and there was nothing but one thing left to say.

I'm currently in training to cross the evolution gap of the Mind's Eye. The Genyou Senshi, who trains me, is losing her patience, as am I. I thought I had changed, thought I was better than I was before, I thought 'Ootowari' Sora had died after I left the prison and fled from Iwa with Sakura, Sasori-sama, and Deidara. I only fooled myself into thinking I could change.

Over a month ago, I fought Deidara for the last time at the river. I think he was planning on saving me, until I let go of his hand. I thought I was doing that in order to save Deidara the trouble of keeping me alive. He would have to explain to his superiors why he let me live when there was a kill on sight order on me, then deal with the consequences, which could be fatal, as his superiors are leaders of the Akatsuki. But it's no different than before – I let go of his hand, rejected his help, for myself. Letting go was the same as running away. It was the quickest, easiest way to say goodbye.

I might try to trace the cause of this rift to the night Toyotomi and I fought, but its' not true. What bothered Deidara was not that I loved Toyotomi and not him, but something much more complex. I hurt him worse than any physical wound, something I would have never recovered from, unlike him. He is a good person at heart, but so misunderstood and disrespected. He wanted to be recognized for his artistic brilliance, his greatness, and I did, for a time. When I stopped, when I began to show him Toyotomi held more importance more than just once or twice…

And all for what? Toyotomi isn't even alive anymore. I can never return to Iwa, to home, and have the assassination tacked onto my growing list of crimes, some of which are false. I had feverishly hoped he had gotten the vital medical attention he needed that night, but it's been so long without word… I assume the worse. I'm sorry for what I did. I got ahead of myself. No apology will ever suffice for the life I took from you, but if you are in Heaven, you know just how sorry and regretful I am. I miss you.

Her brush hung tentatively above the paper again, characters aching to be painted on the smooth page. It didn't have to be perfect; after all, only she was likely to view these letters. Her heart and her fingers yearned to write the katakana for Deidara's name, but some ugly part of her thought that revolting for some odd reason.

Lifting her head, her tired gold eyes met the bright blue of the cloudless sky. It was simple, quaint. Pretty, if she wanted it. Like Sora, like the sky.

Two small stones weighted down the paper which wished to curl from years wrapped round a thick wooden dowel. The ink began to dry, having been exposed to the cool air for some time now. At very left of the page read: So, I guess this is for you, Ootowari Toyotomi.

"THAT'S THE THIRD ONE," one of three shinobi noted grimly. He did his best to rid the blood that had soaked into his clothes. In front of them was what looked like a blood explosion. In a way, it was a blood explosion; their captive had consumed a bomb seal and promptly blew up in a less than graceful and clean manner.

"It's too close, too close," replied another. "That girl's too much trouble. We should have never taken her in."

"It is not just because of her that they come, don't be foolish. Jigoku-sama has much faith in her," added the third, a female. "We should, too. He does not wait forever for nothing."

"She hasn't gone on a mission yet, neither has she addressed her division. Only a handful of us have ever seen our new captain. Kani's still running things."

"She's training."

"She should balance her duties! We all could use intense training, but are we? No, we are patrolling, something our division never has been responsible for doing."

"The Genyou Senshi and Jigoku are pushing her to this. You only have First State Mind's Eye; you couldn't comprehend the difficulty of crossing the gap."

"Shut up, you! You only defend her because she's a female."

"Don't be sexist! We killed that part of the clan a long nine years ago, don't go reverting all that Jigoku-sama has done for us. If it was a fifty year old sexist man I would still defend him because we need that eye. No one has Fourth State and the only Third State is decaying day by day!"

"Give me a break –"

"Enough!" interrupted the first again, the blue of his Mind's Eye glowing brightly in the obscure darkness. "Let's clean this up, and move away. We're probably being watched." The other two obediently ceased their argument, making sure not to leave a trace of blood or conflict behind. They already has said too much, shown their affiliation, a costly error on their part. A moment later they vanished into smoke. As they did, a bundle rose from the ground. IT cracked open, soft, green hair reflecting the moon's light. There was a slightly maniacal grin perched on the face of none other than Zetsu.

"I NEED YOU TO do some actual leadering," said the Genyou Senshi. Shirotsuki cracked an eye open. She was leaning on the windowsill, arms crossed, and likely a displeased expression on her face. Shirotsuki closed his eye again, shifting a bit to find the most comfortable spot.

"Don't I already do a ton of that? We haven't gotten any missions as the Alpha Squad yet; I have no need to do any unnecessary leadering lest my minions get tired of me and my brilliance. My team is fine," protested Shirotsuki, still keeping a false arrogant façade though there was no need for it, as the Genyou Senshi knew him better than he did.

"Have you seen what Saori has been doing?" she hissed, not at all amused by his exaggerations.

"Training with you?"

"Outside of that! She's been writing letter to dead people."

"It was to only one dead person, and aren't you not supposed to read the letters?" The Genyou Senshi snorted impatiently.

"And I suppose you didn't? That's how you didn't find out that it was addressed to a dead person instead of multiple?"

"Hey, I was leadering. You don't have that excuse, you're no leader."

"I'm training her. I have more of an excuse than you do."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, am I going to have to feign sleep before you leave or what?"

"Talk to her. Give her the 'I believe in you' crap."

"Why should I? Jigoku or you should, it'd be much more believable." Shirotsuki almost let out a barrage of laughter.

"Jigoku is not to be bothered with such petty things."

"What about you?" he asked, though it was rather rhetorical. The Genyou Senshi gave off the air of annoyance and promptly left Shirotsuki's room, leaving Shirotsuki even more annoyed than his elder sibling. Part of it was because he knew he was going to do as the Genyou Senshi had instructed anyways. These were one of those moments when he wished he wasn't as "great" as he liked to pretend he was.

THE NEXT MORNING, SAORI exited from her quarters off of the Alpha Squad's meeting room without any relief. Bags were growing under her eyes but no one, including her, thought it significant or was surprised. Takashi usually looked worse than she did anyways. Speaking of which, he was downing a far more than healthy amount of coffee, despite knowing its relative scarcity in the Asiatic countries they lived in. Commissions had stacked up and he was basically assassinating people nonstop. Saori had yet to go on a mission, let alone meet her division. She wasn't looking forward to it, and childishly hoped that if she avoided the conference long enough, Jigoku would reinstate the previous captain of the Espionage division.

"When are you leaving?" Saori asked Takashi gently, knowing she still had yet to be in his good spirits and win his trust.

"Eight. The assassination is to occur at noon," he replied tersely. Somebody knocked on the door to the lounge rather impatiently. Takashi whipped the door open, his fourth large mug of coffee nearly splashing out of its container. "What is it?"

"Sir, it's Iwagakure's, er, Iwagakure." Saori's eyebrow arched but she didn't turn, neither did she know that the boy at the door had caught sight of Saori's vibrant red hair. Had she not been up until one that morning training, she would have snapped on the Mind's Eye without another thought. "They're getting impatient."

"Don't they know what clan I'm affiliated with?"

"I don't know, sir."

"Get out. Tell them they could buy me all of the former Fire Country and I wouldn't take their job offer." He slammed the door shut, then searched the kitchenette for the elusive bottle of soldier pills he was in such a need of.

"Why won't you take the job? It sounds like they're desperate for you to take it and probably will pay well, knowing who runs Iwagakure," said Saori, who tried to sound as nonchalant as possible. It used to be much easier to be deceptive. It still was, but about certain things it was simply impossible. She mentally noted that she needed to practice her deception methods once again so it would become impeccable as it used to be.

"I don't like the Ootowari Family. Iwa money is dirty, unearned money," he responded with fluid ease. He outright insulted her village and the family of the boy she had loved. She found his explanation suspicious, but took the insult factor as justification. Little did she know, he only rejected it because he was more sympathetic than she thought he could be.

"Aren't we all up bright and early?" sarcastically added Shirotsuki. He displayed his impressive wingspan as he stretched his tired limbs, rousing them from sleep. "Said your prayers yet, Takashi?"

"I need none."

"So the dead ones always say."

"Haha."

"Can't you at least make that laugh convincing?"

He shot a dark look before slamming the door, "That would defeat the purpose." Shirotsuki sighed. His team, supposedly the best two field ninjas under his command, just seemed like emotional teenagers to him.

"And what are you doing?"

Saori loked up form the desk. "Hmm?"

"What are you doing?"

"Writing."

"I see that," he said before snatching the paper from beneath her small, dark hands. HE had expected an immediate cry of outrage and a demand to return it, but Saori didn't. Shirotsuki almost didn't have enough time to drop the paper, which suddenly started burning, into the sink. "Hey, hey! Watch where you shoot your fire, m'kay?"

"It wasn't meant for you to read," she curtly replied monotonously.

"Why couldn't you be normal and whined for the paper back instead?"

"Because that kind of thing would be something a younger, more idiotic and foolish Saori would do."

"You're only what, thirteen?"

"Fifteen."

He kept his surprise in check. "Alright, fifteen. You still have a way to go before becoming a boring old geezer so live your life out now. Shinobi's lives are short. You never know when you'll kick the bucket. Could you die peacefully right now, knowing you didn't let yourself live?"

"I did and I was burned."

"Was that a pun?"

"No."

"Okay. Then let me take you to meet someone." Saori reluctantly agreed, knowing she would not be able to write letters to Toyotomi in private or sleep with Shirotsuki right over her shoulder. They walked down three flights of stairs into the mess hall, where a large crowd had gathered around a girl of medium build and dark blue hair usually reserved for males in genetics and a much bigger and older male with thick muscles. The girl was winning in the arm wrestling match, though her face was deep red and glistened with sweat. Her gold eyes flashed up at Shirotsuki, whose presence was impossible to ignore unless he wished it to be. Saori met her gaze as it briefly brushed over the redhead before focusing on the arm wrestling match at hand. She smashed down her opponent's hand in a last ditch effort, earning her a victory. Coins passed hands as those who had bet against her were left to wonder how she had won.

Wiping her feverish, sweaty hands on her pants, which, Saori noted was the same uniform as she had seen other girls training wear. The outfit composed of a sleeveless kosode with gaping arm holes, tucked into the standard jounin pants and tied together with a white obi. Men usually wore the less0form fitting version during training, understandably. The girl approached Shirotsuki with an evident and justified swagger. "Shirotsuki-taichou," she greeted. "Saori-san."

"Saori, this is Ookamika Kani. She is your second-in-command of the Espionage division," Shirotsuki introduced. Kani held out her hand, which Saori tentatively took.

"Next time, some warning would be nice," muttered Saori.

"But then that'd be no fun," teased Shirotsuki. "Kani's not an overly feminine girl, so no worries there. Just be careful, she's got a mean punch."

"Got that right," Kani added with pride.

"I'll leave you two to it, then!" Before Saori or Kani could capture the elusive captain of the Battle Tactics division, he vanished into a puff of smoke. "One day, we ought to fix his terrible habit of forcing situations to occur and then fleeing. Well! Let's go introduce you to your division. No one knows who you are -"

"NO!" Saori snapped quickly. "I'm, er, not ready. I'm not a leader. I'm a follower. If I see who I have to lead, I'm going to barf."

"Phobia of attention?" asked Kani.

"Uh… yeah."

"Not really. I heard you were a good liar, but I'm having a hard time believe that's true."

"I don't lie for fun -"

"Sure you don't!" called Shirotsuki from somewhere from the kitchen. "Everyone does, Saori!"

"I like to think that I don't," she added under her breath and hopefully unheard by Shirotsuki.

"Eh, who cares what he says anyways," Kani continued, noting her captain's reaction. "Let's go down to the shore. I'll be you haven't had any fresh air in a good while. She led the way up to the main entrance, teaching Saori how to get in and out of the hideout, which they called Kokoro, and about the location of its entrances and exits. things that Takashi, Shirotsuki, Jigoku, and the Genyou Senshi had neglected to do. "Only some can control trees with our minds. Those of us who do, like me, aren't very effective on human minds, though. But, that makes us great for sensing oncoming danger and beats having to get sick any time I want to get in here or out." Apparently, the exits and entrances were usually disguised as trees, and Kani's gift made it easier for her to get in and out. It was the first time that Saori had heard of two slightly different Mind's Eyes. Saori spent much time practicing entrance and exit techniques so she would not get dizzy each time she did so. When Kani deemed Saori's practice satisfactory, they headed down to the shore.

"I'm a fuuton chakra type," Kani thought to Saori suddenly. She put on a pair of dark sunglasses on, handing Saori a pair while she was at it, so that their Mind's Eye Second States could be hidden from the naked eye. "I'm taking you to see a ship. Have you heard of the Tamakachi Clan?"

"Kumogakure tried to destroy the clan but they fled when they found out, didn't they?" Saori responded.

"Yes, a little over nine years ago." Calling on her chakra to hide from Kani, Saori added in her mind, around the same day our clan was slaughtered. "Sure is nice out. temperature's kicking up, just the right beach weather! But we're not going there. We're going to the cliff over there. The sea looks shallow, but just jump. I'll use my fuuton chakra to blow us into the cliff. I know what I'm doing, so don't panic." Despite what Kani said ,the moment Saori reached the end of the cliff, her throat closed up and it felt like she could not breathe. The last time she had seen something oh so much like this, so close to a cliff just like this, only miracles kept her alive. The last time, Deidara and she had been fighting and she had fallen. She had felt the crushing pressure of the water, pulling her under, the sudden overflow of water that overwhelmed her, how she felt like she really would die if she didn't get air soon. She remembered so clearly how weak she was when she finally did reach the surface and was gasping for air, chakra so depleted she could only hope she would not sink. She remembered staring up at light gray skies, the rain starting to go away. She remember how there was nothing but the sky. Deidara hadn't been there when she came back up.

"There's nothing to be afraid of," said Kani.

"Last time… I jumped…"

"Your fear is insulting me~"

"What?"

"Your fear is insulting me, I said. Your insecurity appears to be a lack of trust in me an da lack of confidence in my talent and skills."

"It's not that, it's -"

"Yes, you fear you will suffocate under water, but why? Don't you believe my awesome jutsu will keep you from drowning? Are you going to let that body of water best you? Did you know your body is made of sixty percent water -"

"Actually, it's seventy percent, but -"

"It doesn't matter if it's sixty or seventy or a hundred and two. The point is that most of you is water and the rest is apparently nothing but air! Are you going to let Death heckle you until it decides it's time for you to keel over?"

"Okay, okay! Let's just get this over with!" Saori snapped. Kani knew she only said that so Kani would stop preaching but Kani was nonetheless satisfied… for now. The wild girl leapt out toward the ocean without so much as a thought and Saori followed her lead, squeezing her eyes shut so tightly she might never open them again. Saori felt a huge gust of wind; her left foot briefly grazed the hardened ground, her shinobi instincts kicking in to provide a painless landing. Somehow, she forced her eyes open, her gold eyes staring out to the open sea from a hidden cavern just a few meters from the surface of the cliff. For a moment, she wondered how somebody could pass by this large of a cavern and not inspect it, but, after noting Kani's relaxed guard, she figured it was under an extremely high level genjutsu. "Who keeps it up, the genjutsu?" Saori asked.

"Jigoku-sama. Who else could?" Kani replied as if it was very obvious, which, it was.

"Jigoku? How can he keep it up and do all the things that he does…?"

"That's what's killing him, silly."

"But why? Why does he do such stupid things?"

"Because he is our leader and he has been for over eighty years. He lead us through the toughest times, from leaving our homeland to come to a strange new place where clans were fighting each other constantly, through all three Great Ninja Wars, even making the decision that the Tsukiyomi had to be killed even though the Tsukiyomi were a large part of our clan. He would not leave us during the Fourth Great Ninja War. He has raised each and every one of us. We are his pride."

Author's Note: Sigh, there is randomly large spaces between lines... I don't know why, but I tried to fix them manually. Please read and review!