Kisame was correct to assume the women would be just as blood thirsty as them. HE glanced at the blue woman bouncing next to him as she walked, just as happy as could be, and not even paing any attention to the blood that had been smeared all over her face after she ripped a man's throat out. With her teeth. Kisame didn't want to admit it, but he was just a bit unnerved by her. Kida's disposition didn't show any signs of such….ruthlessness. His thoughts were interputed when Icaria dropped from the sky and landed right in front of them.

"There is a brook not too far from here." She announced. "If we walk until dark we can reach it and rest there. We would make it back home around midday."

"And if we keep going?" Kida asked.

"We will reach home by daybreak." She answered and turned to the two men. "Do you two need to rest? Or are you well enough to keep going?"

"Shouldn't we be asking you that?" Kisame asked, indicating her arm. Her eyes twitched in the slightest way to indicate a glare before she took off flying towards the sky again. If Kisame had learned anythign from this trip was that even though she was stoic, Icaria could come across as pissy. He heard Kida sigh.

"I guess we're still going to walk." She mumbled.

"If you need to rest, I'm sure she'll stop." Kisame told her but Kida shook her head.

"I'm just worried about her."

"She is a skilled ninja, is she not?" Itachi asked her, breaking his long silence.

"Yes," Kida admitted, "But she has a tendency to let her pride get in her way. Besides, I don't like the look of her arm. It seems to be getting worse, like it's spreading." Itachi had to agree with that. Last time he had seen it, it was red and irritated around the puncture site. Now, the skin had turned purple and sickly yellow. The most concerning part is that none of them are familiar with what could have caused that kind of reaction.

Icaria ran silently against the wooden floor, Kida and the two men behind her. They stopped briefly, listening before turning the corner. Wordlessly, Icaria lead them to their target's room. There were guards throughout the hall. They didn't last long. By the time Icaria, Itachi, and Kisame were done with them, Kida had entered a room, and left it, covered in blood.

"Exit window is down the hall to the left. Make sure you are unseen." She said to the two men before taking off towards their exit root. They each jumped out of the window before taking off across the roof. Icaria slowed down to run behind the two men. She wanted to make sure they weren't left behind. Kida had just jumped off the roof when Icaria heard an arrow be released. It was heading straight for the man in front of her. She turned and snatched it out of the air while flicking a knife in the archer's direction. She watched to make sure it hit it's target. Satisified with her work she turned to also jump off the roof and released the arrow.

The arrow seemed to break apart into sentient vines with teeth and it clamped down onto her forearm with enough force to startle her. She had thought someone had grabbed her and turned, but the force of the arrow knocked her off balance and she fell over the edge.

"Icaria!" Kida hissed under her breathe and rushed to her side. Icaria was struggling to get the thing off her arm that had now grown a small torso. At the sight of it, Kida gasped. It's vines started the wrap around Icaria's throat and Kida grabbed it to pull it off. She yelped and pulled away, her hands were irritated and red. Icaria grabbed another knife and stuck it into the torso of the thing. It released her and screeched, crawling off her and rooting in the earth. Icaria rolled over.

"Kill it!" She hoarsly ordered, trying to stabb at it with the knife. "Don't let it go!" Itachi moved to step on it, but it vanished into the ground.

"Icaria!" Kida started to ask if she was ok until they heard voices. Icaria was up and grabbing onto her partner, indicating to run. She shoved Itachi to start moving too. Kida had grabbed Kisame. The four were running fast into the trees. Icaria could hear their chasers.

"Why aren't we staying to fight?" Kisame asked as they jumped into the branches.

"We need them a bit farther in." Kida explained. "If their friends hear them die, we'll be too close." She explained and turned to Icaria. The woman dropped to the ground, landing on her feet and taking out a knife. "Damn it."

"What?" Kisame asked. Kida stopped and moved close the the trunk of the tree and the two men followed suit.

"She knows better than this." Kida mumbled. They watched Icaria stand and wait, still as a tree, but they could feel something building up, and energy, and heat radiated from her. IT was so hot, they could feel it in the trees.

The moment the men came into veiw, Icaria lifted her hands, bringing up a wall of fire, and pushing it in the direction of the men. Their charred bodies lay on the blackened ground as a wild fire ravaged the forest.

"Do you think you could have contained your temper a little better?" Kida called to her friend, slightly irked. "What did the trees ever do to you?" She asked. Icaria spun and kicked the tree they were in, breaking it. Kida and the men jumped to another before it fell.

"What's her problem?" Kisame asked.

"Her arm hurts." Kida explained. "She handles pain with anger. I'd keep my distance if I were you." Icaria took off to the sky and the three followed, keeping to the trees.

"Come on Danyir, I know you got more in ya than that!" Hira shouted, laughter in her voice as she looked at her blonde friend, bent over and out of breath. They were practicing with staffs, wich happened to be Hira's specialty. Hidan was sleeping on the grass while Deidara sat, making something out of clay.

"I need a breather, Hira." She said. "WE've been at this for hours."

"How the fuck you gonna learn if you don't fucking push yourself?" She asked the blonde. "Fine, take a break, I'm gonna pick on someone else." She said, her sights on a sleeping man.

Hidan woke up when a shadow passed over him. He opened his eyes to seeing Hira heading straight for him, feet first. Before he could do anything, her feet hit his stomach and dug him into the ground.

"You're pretty good at that staff stuff." DEidara told Danyir as she dropped next to him. She smiled at him in thanks.

"I'm no where near as good as Hira." She told him. He shrugged.

"You're still learning." He told her and kept making his little craft. Danyir sat up, ignoring the comotion of Hidan and Hira.

"I have to go to town to get the post soon. Do you want to come?" She asked. He looked at her.

"I thought we had to stay with you guys." Danyir shrugged.

"If you didn't want to go, I could ask Pavi to let you stay here and just hang around with Hira." Deidara looked over at the two fighting individuals, not too thrilled and looked back at Danyir.

"Let's go get the mail."


"And if tensions rise and Gael shut's its borders?" Pavi asked as she stood and leaned over Kazuna's shoulder. "It would shut down it's trade. Who would that affect directly?" Kazuna looked at the map and the papers and began making a list.

"If the nation stops trade, won't it suffer itself?" Pein asked. Pavi looked at him and shook her head.

"GAel is one of the most self sufficient of the Nations. One side of it borders the water, it has mountain's surrounding most of the rest of the borders. It has plenty of farming land, and is one of the strongest nations, and one of the most advanced. If it ceases to trade with other nations, it can seriously affect some of the well being of other nations."

"So far it seem the most damage will go towards Reisen Stadt." Kazuna announced. "If the borders are closed, most of the smaller countries can just increase trade with their neighbors. Most of the larger are already self sufficient, they just have not needed to trade."

"But they will if Gael feels threatened enough to close it's borders." Pavi said. "Reisen Stadt. Thats not good, especially now. Where is their best chance of trade for food?"

"Right now, Frysa." Kazuna said and pulled a map over. Her finger rested on a spot close to a border. "THey should be about here. Worst case scenario is they are currently out of food and Gael has shut it's borders. Frysa, to the North, is the closest chance they have."

"That's too far, and it would be too close." Pavi explained. "They would have to cross through the entire nation to get there. They would starve."

"Are they a Nomadic nation?" Pein asked. Pavi nodded. "Could they take refuge in a country with the resources?"

"That would strain whatever relationship they already have." Kazuna stated. "The people of Reisen Stadt are a very proud bunch. The fact that they would be in debt to a large, more influential country would cause much tension between the nations, as well as discord in Reisen Stadt." Kazuna explain and looked at Pein over her glasses. "You should be at least a bit familiar by now. One of your men are assigned to a native of Reisen Stadt." Pein looked at her and tried to piece together who it could be. Several of the women were prideful.

"Speaking of," Pavi said as she leaned over Kazuna's shoulder again, "Icaria's going to want to know immediately." SHe grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from a drawer. "We need to get word to them immediatly to warn them of potential threat. Perhaps if they start now, they can head back-"

"Won't work." Kazuna stated. "Naiti won't let them back in. We're lucky NAiti let's them pass as it is."

"Who is at the center of all of this?" Kakuzu asked. "WHo is threatening Gael?" Kazuna looked at him over her glasses and Pavi tossed hers onto the desk and rubbed her eyes. She whispered a curse under her breath and Kazuna looked at her.

"I forgot about them." She muttered. "Shit, do we know where they are now?" Kazuna looked back at the map and scanned a few papers. She shook her head.

"Last update was they were back in their little hole in the Red Mountains." Kazuna told her.

"The Morders are a group of very dangerous individuals who are only interested in bringing every nation to it's feet. They just kill and destroy what they want, without prejudice." Pavi explained.

"Why do you not just strike their home?" Pein asked.

"The country they hide in is one we are not welcome." Kazuna explained. "If we are seen there, it would start an international war, and the Morders know this. I'm going to write to Reisen Stadt, warn them of Gael's situation. Currently, Gael has been receiving threats. The day before you all showed up, one of Gael's city's was attacked. It was one of their more violent attacks." Kakuzu was standing on Kazuna's other side, peering at everything, just listening.

"Is this the largest city in the country they are in now?" He asked, pointing to a spot on the map. Kazuna nodded. "Perhaps they can stop here before moving to Gale, even if the country does not close its borders, it will have a chance to at least have something." Pavi nodded and started scribling.

"Kazuna, I am going to see if I can catch Danyir before she leaves." SHe said and looked at her watch. "Once the post comes in, hopefuly we can have a bit more information."

"Shouldn't Icaria and Kida be back by now?" Kazuna asked. Pavi just looked at her and left. KAzuna knew Pavi had noticed it too.


"Can you hand me that?" Saachi asked, pointing at a wrench. Sassori grabbed it and handed it to her. They were in a room that seemed to be a workspace for anyone who needed it. It had a plethera of objects, books, papers, tools, and plenty of space. Saachi was perched on a high bookshelf and fixing a light. Apparently, it had been out for weeks. It was one of the lights that hung from a chord. Some of the wires had been damaged in an experiment gone wrong. Apparantly, most of the wiring in the room had been damaged. Sasori had been watching her, studying the quiet woman. On her forearm was a tattoo of a forest. The trees seemed to grow from her wrists and the ink was black and grey. It reminded him of foggy mornings in the mountains. He wondered where she was from, had she seen that same veiw as was on her arm?

He had to stop him self. Caring about other people's business wasn't something he usually did.

"Why are you staring?" She asked. SHe was straight forward, no bullshit, and to the point. He appreciated that.

"Your arm." He told her.

"What do you want to know?" SHe asked, still messing with the light. It zapped her and she didn't do anything other than shake her hand and keep working.

"Is it a place you have seen before?" He asked.

"Why do you want to know?" SHe asked, looking t him. THere was a small silence before he answered.

"Curiosity." She stared at him, her steel grey eyes pinning him. She went back to the light.

"It was the scene I saw outside of my class window as I grew up. Every morning, there was fog, and the skies were grey." SHe answered. He could tell there was something else she wanted to share, but also wished to keep to herself. "The scar on your chest, what happened?" She had seen it when he was first turned human.

"It's complicated." He told her.

"We have time." SHe told him. "I may understand more than you think." Sasori looked at her cautiously.

"I would rather not disclose the information." He told her.

"Fair enough." SHe answered. "Have you been eating enough? Getting enough rest?" SHe asked and Sasori looked at her confused. "It must be hard, transitioning from human to puppet slowly, but then becoming human again with no warning." Sasori waited. "I take it while you were a puppet, you had to store yourself somewhere. Once cannot become completely inhuman, unless you die."

"You are perceptive." He told her.

"For the most part." She answered and stopped what she was doing. Saachi frowned and looked at him. "Do you hear that?" She asked. He shook his head and she was bout to say something, but she touched a live wire and an electrical surge pumped through her. She blacked out and fell face fist towards the ground. Sassori moved and stopped her from hitting the floor. His eyes were wide with mild concern. THe lights were off so that should no have happened. He picked her up and made his way out. He would need to see the woman that was like Kakuzu. But maybe he should find the infirmary first.


"Zenzi! Zenzi! Mail! Mail!" THe small child bounced, dragging the green haired woman to the door. The taller woman seemed to smile and let the child guide her. Zetsu watched them. Zenzi was so at ease with the others, but truly relaxed when she was with the garden. He could see a significant difference, but it wasn't so much that she was afraid of them, he sensed she seemed to distrust herself and he wondered why. "And you missed it, Hira cut off the guy's head again! and Saachi, saachi looks like she got struck by lightening!"

"What happened to Saachi?" Zenzi asked, concerned. Tai just shrugged and continued to drag her. "And where is Tobi?"

"WHo is Tobi?" She asked.

"Tai, you were supposed to watch him!" Zenzi told her. Tai just grinned and looked at the taller woman.

"We were playing hide and seek. And I got bored."

"Tai." Zenzi sighed. "Is Saachi ok?"

"Probably, I just want my mail."


"Icaria, please, you need to take care of yourself." Kida begged with her friend, trying to get her to drink some water.

"Kida, I am fine." She assured the blue woman. "I am not thirsty."

"Your arm looks like it's rotting off." Kisame pointed out. "Doesn't it hurt?" HE asked her. She didn't even look at him.

"No."

"Icaria, we can stop if you need to, we just have an hour left to walk." Kida told her.

"Why waste more time?" She asked. "Besides, the mail comes today." Kida stopped walking and smiled. She had forgotten. That explained everything. Kisame almost walked into her. "Kida." Icaria said, breaking her from her stupor. Kida took off running and lept into the trees. Icaria took to the skies again.

"Why is mail so important?" Kisame asked.

"Some of us have family, some have friends. Some have fans." SHe explained. "Just nice to get some kind of interaction from someone out of the group. Besides, some of us have family and friends who are in what we call danger zones. They aren't as well protected as other civilians."

"Do you have any family?" Kisame asked.

"No." Kida answered, unbothered, "Just an old friend." The three walked, the two blue individuals talking casualy and time flew by quickly. They were late, but they didn't have anything to do later. The woods they were traveling through eventually ended and they were standing at the top of the hill that lead to the clearing where they resided. Near the entrance, two blondes were seen with a small bag. Icaria let out a screech from above and Kida laughed when she saw Dayir turned to faace them, a look of fear on her face. She hated it when Icaria ran her over for her stupid letter. The large crow dove for the two blondes and once she was a few yards away, dropped to the ground in a sprint. DAnyir stepped to the side and held out a letter. Icaria bolted past her and took the letter with her.

"What lit a fire under her ass, yeah?" Deidara asked.

"A letter from home." Danyir anwered. "She might seem heartless, but she really isn't."

"Danyir!" Kida called as she ran up to the two blondes.

"Hey, Kida!" Danyir smiled. "Take it everything went well, yeah?" She stated, pointing out the blood on Kida's face.

"I couldn't get all of it off." She shrugged. "Let's get inside and get that mail. There's a storm that's been following us the way back."

"Oh shit, un." Danyir mumbled. "Hope Saachi fixed that roof."


Kazuna had snatched Icaria's letter from her when she saw Icari atrying to rip it open with her teeth. Her arm was in so much pain she didn't want to move it, but she wanted to read the damn letter. Icaria follwed Kazuna to the infirmary, knowing full well that she wouldn't get that letter back until Kazuna was done. When she enterd she saw three people already there. On a cot, Saachi sat, leaning against some pillows as Kahl wrapped her arm . The man she was supposed to be watching was sitting on the edge of the cot, waiting patiently. He looked at Icaria first. Saachi turned her attention away from her arm and looked at Icaria and nodded in greeting.

Icaria nodded back and noticed Saachi's hair was standing straight up and looked singed. Did she smell burning flesh?Icaria quirked an eyebrow and sat on the cot next to Saachi. What happened to you?

Nothing important. Saachi communicated with a caual downturn of her mouth and raised eyebrows. She seemed relaxed and unconcerned. Icaria flicked her eyes to Sasori and back to Saachi.

Was e involved? THe look asked.

Are you serious?

"Ok, I need you to tell me exactly what caused this, down to the last detail." Kazuna said as she rolled over on her stool. She had a white smock on and a mack hanging around her neck. Icaria started to describe it. It had caught the attention of of the other thre. THe two red heads had raised eyebrows and Saachi's eyes were wide with confusion. Kahl's mouth was hanging open slightly and Kazuna was just blinking. They sat there in silence for a few minutes, thinking.

"Did Hira drug you again?" She asked suddenly and the glare directed at her told her no. that was not what happened. Kazuna rolled over to the large metal cabinet. "I''m going to take a fairly large amount of blood and run some tests. It looks like you have blood poisoning. I'm also going to give you a pretty strong pain killer." Kazuna explained as she rumaged in the cabinet. Saachi looked at Icaria and saw her just reading her letter. She flicked her hand and hit Icaria, who just hummed.

"Saachi, you're good to go. Let Kazuna look you over just to be safe." Kahl told her and began to leave. "I'm going to go look in the library for somethign that maches what Icaria described." He waved goodby to them and left quickly.

"Sachi, I trust Kahl's judegement." Kazuna stated. "If you feel somethign off, come back and see me immediately."

"Understood." Saachi said and swung her legs over the cot to get up. But before her feet could touch the floor, her eyes snapped wide open, startled. Sasori had snapped her crutches infront of her, keeping her from standing up without them. If he hadn't, Kazuna would have ripped them both a new one.

Sasori had started a habit of doing that kind of stuff for her. Saachi would forget her own head if it wasn't attatched, especially in the morning. She Would often forget the crutches, and in the morning, she would try to walk out of the room without pants. Luckily, Danyir would always catch her. Saachi was like a zombie in the morning and was hardly aware of what was going on around her. Sasori wasn't sure why he started doing it, it was automatic. It came very easily to him to remember things for her. He didn't think too long on it.

Saachi looked at hi and nodded in thanks. They made their way out of the room and up to the living room area to wait for dinner. It was close to dinner and Saachi didn't feel like climbing more flights of stairs than necessary.

"Danyir is cooking tonight, so Hira will be up soon to supervise." Saachi said as she sat on the couch. "Danyir is not a skilled cook, so Hira always watches to make sure the food she tries to serve is edible. Can you hand me the notebook on that table?" She asked, indicating a notebook on the long eating table. Sasori turned and spotted it and retrieved it for her. She nodded in thanks and he sat next to her on the couch. She crossed her legs like a pretzel and opened it. Sasori was familiar with it, it held all of her blueprints for something like limbs or weapons, or new structures they were thinking of building at the base to improve it. They were still working on the skematics for the men's rooms. They couldn't room with the women forever.

Sasori looked at what she was working on now and it was one of the many ideas for the new rooms. This design would create a circular hallway and the rooms would be on the outer side. Half would belong to the women and the other half would belong to the men. On the inner wall would be storage space and a few guest rooms. Just in case. It was an intersting deisgn, and so far one of the more expensive renovations. However, in the long run, it is supposed to save more money on bills for power and water, and especially heating. In the center loop would be a room that would be teh central heating room. The heat would travel to each individual room and eventually, Saachi intended to have it branch into the rest of teh base. It would heat it more efficiently.

After watching her for a little bit, Sasori had picked up a book he had found on her shelf earlier. It was on the architecture of some of the many cultures in their world and the history behind them. It was actually interesting. He heard her pencil scratch on the paper as she drew things, wrote, and crossed things out. They sat in a comfortable silence for a while. Sasori thought about Saachi. SHe was stubborn and prideful, but also forgetful. He glanced t her and took in how she looked. Her eyes were closed as she leaned against the couch and had a scowl on her face. THe same scowl she got when she was irritated and stumped. Her hair was still singed at the edges and sticking up everwhere. She wore a black T-shirt that gently hugged her form and olive, bagy cargo pants. She was barefoot, as she had been since the night they first met.

Sasori went back to his book, but a small while later, something thumped onto his shoulder. He flinched, but saw it was just Saachi. She had fallen asleep. He wasn;t surprised. She was up all last night in her workshop, trying to fix god knows what.

He didn't move his shoulder. He turned to look at her and saw her bright red hair, very similar to his own, but because it was sticking up, and a mess, he caught a whiff of how she smelled. he hadn't been this physically close to someone (in a non hostile way) in so long, it startled him. She smelled nice. Saachi smelled of earth. Of fresh soil and cedar wood. There was something else but he couldn't place it.

Sasori fought the urge to lean in closer and inhale. She s,e;;ed familiar and new at the same time and the slight weight of her leaning against him wasn't uncomfortable. In fact he almost enjoyed the slight warmth her body gave off. He returned his attention back to his book for a small while until he too leaned his head back and shut his eyes. He wasn't napping, no, just resting his eyes.

But that's not what Danyir and Hira saw. Danyir was startled at the sight and hira snapped her head to look, thinking it was a threaat, but a huge grin distorted her face and she dashed out to grab something, almost knocking over Hidan.

"Hey, fucking watch it!" He shouted and Sasori's eyes snapped open, he as still staring at the ceiling.

"Suck my ass!" SHe shouted back at him. Deidara was just staring and Danyir was trying not to show her smile. Hidan shouted somethign and kept following Hira down the hall.

"Dana!" Deidara mumbled, surprised. Sasori rolled his eyes and made to move, but Danyir's look of terror and her quiet no made him stop.

"Don't wake her up, for the love of everything, don't wake her up." She muttered. Sasori looked at her, irritated and leaned his head back. Might as well rest.