Foosha: Well hello all I guess this wait wasn't nearly as terrible as the last one.

Vash: Yeah, not even close.

Foosha: Well whatever. Thank you for the reviews from blackcatgirl, Simplicity-Shitsuboku, and Marskatr! I really appreciate it and am glad to know there are people still interested :D I also really appreciate all the alerts I've been receiving. It's really nice to know that people like this story. I apologize for the shorter length of this chapter, but I've been in the middle of finals (taking summer classes) and leaving on a trip back home. This chapter and perhaps the next also cover a touchy subject that I'm trying to convey. But just FYI-

Nicky: We are in no way trying to be Mary-Sues! 'Cause that stuff is stupid and pointless, at least in my opinion. Makes the people less fun.

Foosha: So just keep that in mind! And if you start to think they might be, just give me until the next chapter so I can completely explain this concept!

Vash: Foosha doesn't own Naruto and other references and stuff like that. So let's get started already.

I sighed for the hundredth time that night as I scraped little pictures into the stone floor beside me with a small rock, trying to keep my mind busy so I didn't focus on freaking out. I wonder if the guys were found by the police? They did storm in the house… but I'm sure that as ninjas they're smarter than that! I hope…

Suddenly footsteps echoed through the hallway. I looked up in time to see a guard unlocking my cell.

"I'm free? So you realized I'm harmless after all then, eheheh…" He gave me a blank look and I groaned audibly, standing myself up and walking over to him. He grabbed my wrists and held them behind me as he lead me back to the entrance of the tower, without a word.

Once we arrived outside we walked a ways to an open field… well not really a field since we were in a desert. More like… a plot of unoccupied sand.

"Nicky!"

I spun around to see Vash, in a similar predicament, being led towards me.

"What's going on? Are we going to battle to the death and whoever comes out alive is let free?" Her face fell, and I'm sure if she had a free hand she would have facepalmed.

"Not exactly…-" Before she could finish, a familiar red-headed, triangle-hatted boy walked over to us. He glanced between Vash and I before speaking.

"I have decided to give you a chance to prove yourselves as innocent civilians. Unfortunately, due to the fact that neither of you have chakra still leaves me suspicious. Thus, if I accept you to be harmless, you will remain here in this village until we discover the cause of this… oddity. Until then, I've asked two ninja to take time away from their schedules in order to fight you." I snorted loudly. Mister eyeliner (which I just noticed he had) directed his attention towards me, his expression neutral.

"Wait… are you serious? We can't fight! They'll kill us!"

"I assure you that if that's the case, they will know and stop the fight."

"Well… if you say so." Vash… what have you gotten us into?! Sigh. At least for once it isn't my fault.

The hold the guard had on my wrists was released, causing me to stumble forward in surprise. Vash rushed over to me (at an awkward pace since she couldn't see very well), panting slightly before squinting her eyes in my direction.

"Nicky?" I gave her an "of course" look, but realized she probably didn't notice.

"Yeah it's me. Was this your idea?"

"Well, this is what he pulled from my idea so… not exactly. But we are telling the truth, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"Yeah but we still get beaten up, dodo brain!" She scowled.

"We'll just have to try to block then! What else can we do?! At least we have a chance of freedom this way." I frowned.

"I guess you're right." Stupid reason… of course she's right. Oh! I just remembered something. "Hey uh… guy. What's your name? I'm starting to run out of adjectives to describe you. Otherwise I'll just start calling you Clifford."

"The big red dog?" Vash asked.

"The big red dog," I confirmed. He gave me a weird look before returning to his uncaring attitude.

"I am the Kazekage of Suna: Gaara." We both gazed at him blankly. He sighed. "I'm the leader of this village." I nodded my head as if I had known it all along.

"Of course, of course. Because "kaze" means sand and "kage" means leader! You are the leader of the sand people!" Vash gave me a "wtf?" face. Yep. Weird mood starting to set in again. Maybe that just happens when I get nervous/scared/angry or just not sure how to feel. Or maybe I've finally cracked under the situation. Ah well. Gaara just glanced to Vash.

"Besides the fact that your friend seems to be an idiot, we will still have to test to make sure this isn't just an act. Both of you stand over there. The other two should be here shortly." I scuttled to the location behind Vash, suddenly terrified of what was to come.

Suddenly two blurs appeared before us on the opposite side of the field. When the dust settled, it revealed a girl with blonde hair in four ponytails and a dude in a cat suit. Where's his tail? Gaara walked towards them and they conversed quietly. Feeling left out, I grabbed Vash's upper arm and pulled her towards me.

"Let's pretend we're talking about a strategy too."

"Nicky, what happened to being scared?"

"I'm trying not to think about that right now."

Gaara backed away from the pair and looked to us.

"Fight fair, this is only a spar." He then backed away from the field, which apparently meant go since the other guys just disappeared into thin air. I frantically looked around me before I noticed someone next to me. I wasn't quick enough. It was the girl and she already had a fist soaring towards my face. It made contact and I flew back onto the sand, scraping up my back, arms and legs. FUCK THAT HURT! SHIT FUCK GAH! Of course I had to be wearing a t-shirt and shorts today.

"Damnit," I mumbled, shakily lifting myself up on my elbows before being kicked in the side, causing me to roll over in a crumpled heap. Jesus Christ this hurts! I've never been beat up before. Must stay strong Nicky! You can handle physical pain. Fuck fuck fuck. Another kick to the same side told me otherwise though, and I was now lying on my stomach. My knees were pulled up underneath me and my face was lying on the sand, while both my hands held my right side tightly. "God fucking damnit woman! Can't you see I'm not fighting back?! Christ." I noticed a shadow cast beneath me.

"Well well, you're not bothering to dodge. Let's see what happens when I use some chakra instead. Then I'll know for sure if you're ninjas. No one would want to get hit by this!" Well… fahk.

Meanwhile Vash's POV as fight begins…

A few seconds after the fight began, I no longer felt Nicky's presence by my side, and couldn't see anyone in front of me either. Well shit. This isn't a good start. I made a prepared stance (legs farther apart, knees bent), ready for any oncoming attacks, but wasn't quite ready for a sweeping kick under my legs. Of course, I fell forwards on my face, arms sprawled out in front of me. I coughed as the dust rose.

"Well you're slow, that's for sure," the guy laughed. Growling to myself, I sat up and tried to blink the dirt away from my vision.

"Well excuse me for not being able to see! We're obviously not ninja material!"

"Whatever. We won't know that until more life threatening attacks are sent your way."

Are they trying to kill us then?! I scrambled to my feet and dove to the left just as he sent another kick my way. Well that was lucky! Rolling a good distance from him, I then got to my feet and tried to run as far away as possible. Unfortunately, I barely made it three steps when I felt a blow to my stomach, making me slump forward into the sudden figure that appeared in front of me. I gasped for air and he pushed me down onto my back, making it increasingly more difficult for me to breathe. And then to top it off, he gave another kick to my gut. I crumpled into the fetal position, coughing loudly.

"Get up already. Enough with this charade of being weak, I still have yet to use chakra."

There was a rough push on my right elbow, returning me to the position on my back, before the guy grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, pulling me up in one swift motion to meet his eyes. I breathed heavily, coughing in his face a few times. He frowned and firmly placed me on the ground in front of him before letting go and moving to his original place on the field. I wobbled a bit, but shook my head. Come on Vash. At least look like you're trying so they don't accuse you of giving up too easily.

"What the hell is this?!"

I turned around in confusion to where Nicky and the other girl's battle was taking place. Nicky had her hands partially covering her face and a bewildered expression, while the other girl looked flustered about something.

Nicky's POV

'Da fuck did I just do…? Pigtails decided she'd had enough of my cowering and removed her fan. She had only opened it partially, enough to see one purple spot. I had jumped to my feet just in time for her to aim a nice sized gust of wind my way. Before I knew was happening, having little time to shield my face, the wind had come and gone. The strange thing was, it did so without affecting me whatsoever. And now I was in the awkward position of blinking at the blonde in surprise. Maybe she decided to be nice at the last minute and somehow made it barely miss me? I mean it was headed straight for me! There's no way it could have missed on its own.

"So… you are stronger than you let on. Okay then. Time to get serious." Before I realized what was happening, another gust was sent my way, obviously more powerful than the last. I panicked and fell flat on my stomach to avoid it, hands clasped tightly over my head. This is where I die. A few seconds passed before I realized nothing had happened. I slowly moved my hands away from my head, lifting myself up to a sitting position. Pigtails looked furious. I grimaced and quickly jumped to my feet, backing away from her irritated figure. Holy shit, what have I done? She's pissed! She's going to kill me… and probably enjoy it!

"Enough messing around then. That was a warm-up swing." It clearly wasn't but… gah! No time to be criticizing! Think of an escape! ESCAPE!

My eyes darted around nervously, hardly having time to take in any surroundings. I was too panicked to even think straight. The girl suddenly held up her fan and started walking towards me, all while swing her fan repeatedly. I backed up and winced at the strong winds that blew my way, but then I realized something. As the gusts got closer to me, they began to weaken until they hit me with a light breeze.

"Huh?"

I halted, removing my hands from my face that I had covered up in protection, "they can't hurt me?" I had stopped walking, but she continued to push forward, her fan motions speeding up.

"Why… isn't… this… working?!" The hell…? Well it can only mean one thing. I am invincible! BWAHAHAHAHA! If I believe that the attacks have no effect, then they won't!

Her face intensified, glaring at me as she moved her fan into one hand, the other pulled back in preparation for what looked like a punch. I became slightly nervous at the thought of a physical attack and side-stepped to the right. This of course did not deter her as she angled herself to my new position and gave a strong uppercut to my gut. It sent me backwards a few feet, landing me on my back with a painful "thump". I coughed violently and sat up, clutching at my shirt as I hacked away a lung or two. Fuck. Guess I'm not invincible. Argh… Dust rose around me, sending me into another coughing fit while I tried to blink away the tears that clung to my lower eyelids. Pigtails' figure emerged through the dust clouds, a look of shock on her face when her eyes caught sight of me.

"But that… you should have been sent flying! What the hell is wrong with my chakra?!" Suddenly she was in my face, pulling me up by my, now dirtied, t-shirt to meet her face. "What are you doing to my chakra, hm?" I blinked at her dumbly, causing her to become even more frustrated. She let out a growl before her fist connected to my face. I felt like I was falling, but a sudden pull to the collar warned me that she wasn't done quite yet. She then began to violently shake me back and forth while repeating the same questions over again. I thought she might snap my neck so I tried to steady myself by grabbing her hands, though that helped little.

"What the hell have you done, you bitch?! I feel weaker just holding you!"

I grunted frustration, still struggling in her grasp, but was able to give her a decent glare.

"Well it sure doesn't seem like it to me, because you're still hurting me-gah!" Another punch to the face and before I could even recover my jumbled thoughts, I felt her hands creep up to my neck and tighten. Well this is it for me isn't it? I was never invincible in the first place… how disappointing…

My vision began to flicker dark, while I still vainly attempted to remove her hands from my neck. There was some yelling, and I was suddenly dropped to the warm sand. I painfully tried to regain my breath, vision still somewhat splotchy, I wasn't able to see what the commotion was about.

Meanwhile…

"Well… at least it isn't Konaha," Kisame muttered, brushing sand off of his cloak. A few of the others nodded in agreement, still slightly annoyed at their rough landing into hot sand.

"It's nice to finally have chakra again too, yeah!" Deidara added excitedly, his hand mouths grinning. Tobi quickly jumped up from behind him, his arms waving wildly.

"WAHHHH! Tobi has sand in his mask!"

"Shut the hell up Tobi, un!"

"Shut up, brat. You're both annoying me." Pein shot them a threatening stare before speaking.

"Let's get back to base and regroup. We can discuss details later." The other members nodded before one by one disappearing. Pein was the last to leave, casting a quick glance before leaving to the barely visible sand village in the distance.

And Then… (Vash's POV)

"What the fuck is wrong with you?! I thought you said they would stop when then knew we weren't ninjas!"

I thrashed violently in the hold of the cat-man while I angrily eyed Mr. Broody. He gave a puzzled look to the area in front of him, a hand holding his chin thoughtfully.

"They were supposed to," he finally said, "but apparently Temari saw your friend as more of a threat, and I'm not sure quite why yet."

Ugh, this guy! I want to kick his creepy, eyebrowless face in! I had just witnessed Nicky get beaten to a near pulp and almost get choked to death. Luckily, the red-head was able to stop the girl in time. The cat-hood guy did nothing either, but watched as the girl flipped out on Nicky while I stood beside him helplessly, him gripping one of my wrists to make sure I didn't try anything. The girl, or Temari, was wandering off to the side looking especially confused and irritated.

"I will speak with her about this and then we will find out what to do with you and… your friend." He motioned to Nicky's weary form lying motionless on the ground. Had her face not been facing me, I would have thought she was dead or at least knocked out. She was breathing carefully and her face was beginning to look black and blue. Poor Nicky… we'll make it out of this, as long as we survive…

After a few minutes of Temari and red-headtalking, they finally met some sort of consensus and made their way back to where we stood. What was his name again? Gera? Or Gaara? Yeah I think it was that last one. Anyway, he turned his head towards me and cleared his throat before speaking.

"Until further notice, we are going to keep you in the Sand Village until we figure out where you should go. You are still a threat so we will keep you under constant observation, but you will be able to stay in your own rooms instead of cells. Knowing that neither of you have chakra nor seem to be affected by chakra related moves… this presents some questioning. I will have to contact other people to see how something like this could possibly happen. Kankuro, Temari, escort them to their rooms. The guards will do the rest." Cat-hood, er Kankuro, grabbed me with one arm around the waist and easily lifted me up like I was nothing. I wanted to complain, but decided based on the positions we were in that it would be a bad idea.

As we were carried back to the large building that we left, I turned my head to look at Nicky's weak form in the arms of some guard guy. I guess that girl wanted nothing to do with her now. Maybe it's better that way. She gave me a small smile and wave to show she was awake. I hesitantly smiled back and decided to just be happy that we were alive for the moment and wouldn't be staying in stupid cages anymore.

In Nicky's Temporary Room

It had been a few hours since the fight and I had cleaned myself up in a nice shower before being looked over by a nurse. She added some ointments and bandages, but said I wasn't too damaged. Just an ugly black-eye and some other unsightly bruising and scrapes.

"Ugh, gross. I guess I'm lucky it wasn't worse though," I sighed out loud, plopping myself down onto the new comfortable bed I was given. She did almost shatter my jaw though, according to the doctor, so I'd say I was extremely lucky. One more blow could have made it so. I turned my head to the right and looked out the open window that exposed the sandy village. "It's actually kinda pretty, now that I'm not completely terrified for my life. The room is nice too… wish I knew where Vash was though… somewhere far away from me in this tower building thing. Damnit… and this outfit is weird too." It was a strange desert-y dress thing. The only outfits they seemed to be hanging in my closet. "Neato…"

I sighed and rolled over on my side facing the window, letting the warm breeze wash over me. It was actually kind of refreshing. I wonder… I wonder if they'll come look for us. Do they know we got kidnapped? Do they even really care? I sighed again, now slightly depressed.

"I've become closer to them than I thought I was. Why should I even worry about what they're doing? I mean… I hope they're okay… I hope we see them again."

I didn't necessarily feel that way about all of them, but a select few came to mind. Some I weren't expecting. And then a weirder thought crossed my mind. Do I… do I like some of these guys? Like… more than friends? I shook my head. Nono there's no way… right? I grabbed the pillow I was laying on and tugged it around my head, releasing a groan of frustration.

"Don't even think about this kind of stuff right now Nicky. Your survival is more important than cute guys… urgh! I mean. Blah gah dfaasdfjlkjgsdhdf. I give up."

I stilled my body after another exasperated sigh and tried closing my eyes. The near setting sun was all I saw before my vision blackened completely, sending me into a sound sleep that I desperately needed.

Foosha: Hey guys, stay tuned for the next chapter hopefully finished in the next couple of weeks! My school schedule is going to be pretty rigorous, but I'll definitely try to put time into finishing this!

Nicky: Next chapter sounds like it'll be interesting already! o.o

Foosha: Oh and also reviews are always nice and make me feel so happy. So if you have the time or advice to give me, please do so! Until next time!

Vash: Meow.