Wow...guess what, its almost to the end! anyway heres ch. 8 i worked hard on this one, and had to re-do the beginning once...hope you like it! Reviews Please!?

Chapter Eight:

Rei felt fidgety as she stood beside Kabuto as he and Orochimaru explained they're plans. She was anxious, but unsure as to why. Something was…coming, she could feel it.

Struggling to pay attention to the decisions being made before her, Rei mentally kicked herself. Reentering the discussion, she followed Orochimaru's finger on the map, tracing B squad's rout. "And you'll stop here," He finished with a wicked grin on his lips.

Her stomach knotted painfully. Focus was impossible to find or keep, she wasn't sure she was even there for half the conversation between the teams, their captains, and their leader.

"Sasuke, lead your team into the heart of it, since yours will be the most battle ready of us. Kasai-sama," Kabuto addressed the woman with respect, "Lead your team around the west border, no one passes neither in nor out."

"Hn," Typical Uchiha answer, Rei, even in a thoughtful, thoughtless, trance recognized it.

"Understood," The flame haired woman nodded, with a small hint of youthfulness in her eyes.

"I'll lead the North border team straight through to the line." He glanced at Rei, knowing she heard none of what he said, not knowing why.

"Hoshu," the medic and second in command went on. "Lead your team to the South line. Same rules apply, no one leaves or enters."

Kabuto could obviously sense her distraction, she noted it in his eyes one of the moments that she was there not only in body. He moved slightly closer to her, not obviously so, but enough to ease her tense form.

"The war is on our doorstep, and in our hands." Orochimaru's giddy hiss broke through her most recent thoughts.

What have I done? She reprimanded herself.

Her footfalls were unsure on the even stones of the floor as she followed Kabuto out of the room. The only reason she remained up right was surely because Kabuto was at her side.

The others all broke off down they're separate hallways, leading to "home". While she just followed the gray-haired man beside her, to his room.

Suddenly the feeling from earlier grew, and grew, until she could hear footsteps racing toward them echoing in the halls. Then she heard the screams. Rei clutched Kabuto's shirt sleeve, cowering like a child, half behind him.

A man's shout rang through the brick walls, "They've found us!"

"Akatsuki! They're attacking!" Another voice shrieked.

An explosion farther down in the abbey blew a dust cloud through the halls, smoke and dirt mixed in the air around them.

A frantic sound nin stood, shaking and panting, "They're coming! All of them! They're here!" He shouted.

"God damn it…" Kabuto cursed brightly under his breath as he shook off her hold, running into the smoky haze. She scrambled after him.

Kunai clanging against stone, metal catching on metal, shriek covering scream, Rei was lost in the chaos…and Kabuto was somewhere at the heart of it she was sure. But where was the heart? Where Itachi was? Was Pein there? Most likely, and all six of him too, and Konan, plus. They were all here?

Rei's breath caught, what now? Find Itachi! Something screamed his name deep inside her soul, she couldn't deny it. Her feet carried her through the wreckage. Sound nin bodies lay all over, and countless bodies she didn't recognize, but could easily guess what happened to them.

A man about a foot taller than her charged out of the shadows at her. Rei ducked, swiped his legs from under him and broke off in a run, hair flowing around her face, breath hitching.

She shouldn't have been so shocked to see an entire section of the grounds caved in on itself, bright sunlight shining deep into the still standing halls. Deidara's work, surely so. This was resent, just moments ago, she could still see bits of the chakra laced clay scattered on the rubble.

Kunai bit at kunai as she defended against her attacker, spinning to see Sasori, standing behind her out of his usually puppet, was a shock.

"Ah, Rei-chan, we were certain you were dead." His head titled up slightly, revealing part of his fake body at the neck.

"I was certain I would be." She answered cautiously. Was she enemy to them? Or ally?

"We were hoping you would be," He grinned, and attacked in one motion.

"Impatient, Sasori-sama?" Rei chided.

"You know how I get when things take to long," He responded, from behind a barrage of poisoned needles.

Chakra coursed swiftly to the souls of her feet, and she propelled her self forward with the speed Itachi had carved into her body from his harsh training sessions.

She couldn't over power Sasori, hell no, that was impossible. She just hoped to impress him momentarily.

Rei pinned him to the wall closest to them as fast as her fine body would move and jabbed the tip of her well sharpened kunai near the only working organ left in the ex-sand shinobi, his heart.

"Now, Saso-sama," Her wicked grin flashed in her eyes as well as she looked up into his, "Tell me, where is Itachi?"

A crooked smile revealed his interest, not what I was going for but, it'll do.

"What is it you want with him, Rei? You're death by his hands is sweeter than by mine is it?"

"Something like that," She could hear the snap and lock of his puppets behind them, feel the chakra pulsing from his finger tips out to them.

"He's gone for his younger brother, I believe." Sasori's child like face filled with cruel satisfaction at her last reflective look into his eyes before she disappeared. Gone…like the wind, Rei may as well have never been in the imploded arena.

Her feet couldn't possibly carry her any faster, she didn't even run properly for a shinobi, her arms swinging wildly, back and forth.

She reached out her senses for Itachi, or maybe Kisame, but all the Akatsuki had their chakras masked, given their luck in surprising their targets. Rei opted for the next best thing. Sasuke's chakra would be easy enough to find, especially considering he'd be going all out on his elder brother.

She almost missed the turn she needed as she found the signature at the moment she passed it, back tracking to turn down the darkened hall.

As she ran, locked on to Sasuke, she passed another familiar chakra, one that had been inside her, many times, one she loved, Kabuto's. Her heart tore to have to decide to leave him behind with out even checking to see if he needed help. He didn't, He doesn't…he can't…not with his powers…Repeating her little chance she stumbled into another large craved out piece of land, much wider than the first.

A fire blazed, eating away a fallen tree the size of one of the great pillars that stood isolated in the middle of all the mayhem. A top one of them, Sasuke stood, looking about himself cautiously, "What is—"

"Rei, you're alive?" Itachi asked an already answered question as he stroked her shoulder gently from behind her.

"Itachi…" Her breath left her. Was there anything there? Anything in his voice to hint…that he…he's relieved that I'm…alive?

She caught the glint from Sasuke's katana as he turned and found what he'd been looking for…standing next to what he hadn't expected.

The kunai was in her hand before the thought was in her mind, and her body was moving before the command.

Itachi guarded flawlessly, no step uncertain, no move unsure of the next. Sasuke would not ruin this opportunity as well. Though he hadn't even drawn a weapon, he managed to block all her attacks and disarm her.

Reduced to her fists, she kept on. Itachi grasped her hair suddenly, bringing her to her knees with one bitter yank of it. "Stop your flailing." He ordered.

His voice hinted the tone of anger, though the tone itself did not fully exist.

"Uh…ahhh…let…go…" She whined as he tugged less harshly then before, but hard enough to cause pain. Stinging tears welled in her eyes.

She felt Sasuke shift from his perch, and knew she had to continue their fight, make it look convincing. She told herself as she pulled away, feeling several strands of raven tug loose from her scalp.

Her legs hit the back of his knee but did nothing as he jumped away turning back on her as the ground came up to meet him. This time he charged, and in a voice so low she barely heard it inquired, "What are you up to?"

Rei tried to open her mouth to explain but, instead she found herself dodging incessant blows from the Akatsuki member. The terrifying thought that he might kill her with out giving any chance to explain skipped across her mind. She fought back, she had to live at least long enough to talk to him.

She floundered for another kunai. But found her actions, rudely disrupted as a spout of fire shot out at her. The flames licked at her body as she rolled out of the way. Managing to get back to her feet and in front of him before he could use another jutsu she pressed the kunai at him, grazing his upper arm, as he took her by the wrist roughly tossing her around so that her back was to him and he held both her arms in one hand.

"Pitiful, you were worth more than this." He scolded her as she nipped her bottom lip, holding back a biting protest. What was she going to do if he wouldn't listen? Sasuke shifted once more, closer to them than before, Itachi noticed it, did a quick hand seal behind her back, and sent four kage-bushin charging him. "How foolish,"

Rei strained in his hold. "Itachi…please listen to me—"

Suddenly she went sprawling forward, scraping her hands and knees, she managed to be on her feet before his next attack.

She blocked his kick with her knee, but felt an impact on the side of her face that sent her backwards. Crookedly she propelled herself up in a back flip, she cursed out loud as he gripped her ankle and tossed her sideways into the now, cliff side.

He knelt before her, pushed a thick stray strand from her face as she looked up, winded, at him, kneeling before her.

Her eyes darted behind him in horror watching Sasuke come in from above to attack Itachi. She didn't even see Itachi move, just Sasuke sailing backwards through the air, all the way to the opposite wall, crashing off it into a pile of rumble.

Itachi reached inside his Akatsuki robe and dangling from his fingers was her sharingan pendant. A small folded paper between his fingers just above the end of lace in his hand.

"…I love you…" She said softly when she found air in her lungs again.

"Hn, love?" His eyes narrowed, and instantly she was caught in his world.

The sky bled red tainting everything with it's a thick layer until all that was, were her and Itachi, black against red. Her body disobeyed her, paralyzed in the same position she knew she was in on the outside of this forlorn hollow.

"Did you love me when you betrayed me?" He was still knelt beside her, his words honestly curious, but nothing more. "Or when you lead them right to us?" Her stroked her cheek, "Perhaps when you told them of our complex and they ran us out, did you love me then Rei?"

She tried to speak, tried to defend her self, or at least explain, but her throat was just as paralyzed as the rest of her, she could only stare horrified up at him as he reminded her of every awful thing she'd done in the pass year or so.

He fisted her hair, lifting her head up slightly. "Betrayal isn't something I tolerate, Rei." She felt the pressure around her throat ease, then release completely.

When she finally was able to speak her words were small, laced with sour pain. "…I'm not perfect Itachi…Even I make…mistakes…"

His face was blank, curiosity gone, "As it would seem," Hard, emotionless, and cold as the blade of her knife she felt his voice alone stab her.

As the bushin appeared slowly around her, and she found herself lying flat, but upright she cried out his name. He turned, waiting for her to speak, and she thanked whatever god was in her favor.

"Please…kill…kill Orochimaru…stop the war…" She begged.

"His death will not end this war. If you believe it will, you're ignorant and foolish." He turned his back on her again.

"Its hard…" She choked out as the first cool blade slid into her side, "…being perfect for you…" Tears rippled the red sea beneath her.

His hand cupped her chin, holding her eyes to his. "Is that what you think I wanted?"

"You only want what's useful…" She confirmed her belief.

"You were useless…" He leaned in to whisper in her ear, " and I wanted you." She shuddered, shivers coursing her body. Her breathing stopped, her heart skipped and she almost died, all in one moment.

When everything started again she looked into his dark eyes, "Itachi…Itachi…Itachi…" She repeated his name, not knowing what else to say.

"Don't hear what hasn't been said, things of the past are not in the future."

The world shifted sickeningly once more, dragging her cruelly back to reality. The cold ground was still pressed tight to her, or rather, her to it.

But Itachi was far from her, clashing with a group of Sound shinobi.

"Rei!" Someone whispered desperately above her. She shifted her eyes to see Kabuto's brow knitted with worry. He must have snuck over to her limp form.

"I'm fine…" She mumbled but didn't move.

Kabuto gently took her in his arms and began to check her over, Rei noted the cut on his cheek, and the bit of blood dripping from his lip. "Oh, Kabuto…" She whimpered.

End Chapter Eight:

Yay, its a longer chapter than most of the others...or at least it feels like it, well only three more after this, so enjoy 'em while they last! REMEMBER TO REVIEW!