A/N: My story is my own and will hold my own chain of events accordingly. Stuff here doesn't happen as they do in the episodes, so, yeah, LOL … enjoy.

Chapter 9 – Looking For Trouble

I didn't really go to Konoha the previous night. I had only packed an emergency kit in case I wanted to go there quickly. I first wanted to know more: did the base have alarm systems around to signal if someone entered or exited? When will Yume-chan and I be sent out on missions? What would my punishment be if it was made known that I snuck out to Konoha?

I was awfully uneasy all through the following few days. Kisame-sensei (Itachi instructed me to start calling him this, and as I had no objection to it, I learned quickly) was teaching me to hide my Chakra signature. but no matter how hard I tried, I could barely concentrate on anything he, or anyone else, said to me. He said I was supposed to have mastered it after two days, but I could only perfect it after a week. Deidara-kun became somewhat irritated because I didn't talk to him, but I didn't care. My priority at the moment was finding a way in which to go to Konoha without anyone noticing what I was up to. I couldn't go late at night because several of the Akatsuki members went on missions then, and it would look too suspicious.

My opportunity arises little more than a week after my fight with Itachi-san. He and Kisame-sensei had been asked to go to Konoha to fetch Naruto.

"Kisame-sensei!" I call to him when I see him walking in one of the corridors at around 10 o'clock in the morning. "Kisame-sensei, wait up!"

"What is it? I'm in a hurry," he says.

How am I supposed to say this? I think in panic. I need the perfect words to justify why I want to go to the Hidden Village holding some of the missing nins' worst enemies.

"Canigokonohawiyu?" I blurt, regretting it immediately. My wolf ears and tail appear and I look down at Kisame-sensei's shoes.

"Yoku, I am in a hurry-"

"Can I pretty, pretty, pretty please go to Konoha with you and Itachi-san? I'll be good, I swear! I've always so longed to go there and meet Naruto and Sakura and Kakashi-kun and all the others! I swear I won't actually tell them who I am! And I won't betray any kind of information about the organization or any of its inhabitants in any kind of way! I just want to-"

"No," Itachi-san says shortly, suddenly emerging from behind a wall. I stop in shock, the familiar and non-helpful lump jumping up to my throat and blocking my voice.

I look pleadingly at Kisame-sensei. Surely he would see sense. Surely he would be assured that I won't break my word. After all, he knows I'm an awful liar. He found that out long ago, after I repeatedly tried to keep full that no, I'm not hungry and no, I'm not tired and of course, I'll practice my chakra control even throughout the night. Surely-

"You can't come, Yoku," Kisame-sensei says.

WHY? I wail inside my mind. I look more pleadingly at him.

"It's too dangerous," he says, "I'm sorry, but you'll just be a liability. Konoha shinobi are skilled. We can't be distracted with your safety while fighting them."

I angrily fling my right hand at Itachi-san to try and chase him away, so that I can explain to Kisame-sensei that I'll only hang out with the kids and meet Neji and Hinata and the other Genin, that the identity of the organization will be safe. The mission won't be endangered in any way. But Itachi-san appears before me in a flash. I double back in shock as he pushes his fore- and middle-finger into my wrist so that the bone cracks.

"You are not worthy to try and treat me as an equal," he says. "Don't you ever do that again."

Tears welling up in my eyes, I nod silently, my wolf effects prickling with shame, as I clutch my terribly aching hand. I should have known better.

"We'll be back in a few days' time," Kisame-sensei says, ruffling my hair, before he and Itachi-san walks down the corridor, leaving me staring after them until they turned a corner.

"Kakuzu-san?" I say, holding my voice as steady as I could, turning my head round the doorframe of his and Hidan's bedroom several minutes later. He was sitting with his legs crossed and his eyes closed.

"Busy," he said simply.

"Should I – shall I wait?"

"Go away."

I nod and turn away. Why is everyone being so bitchy today? I head to Tobi and Deidara's bedroom instead. Their door is closed. I knock three times.

"Dei-kun?"

It's Tobi who opens the door. "Yoku-chan! How are you?"

"I'm good," I lie, "Is Dei-kun here?"

Tobi looks nervously at his shoulder, but then quickly turns back to me. "N-no. Maybe – uhm – maybe he's out training, Yoku-chan."

I know he's lying, so I softly push the door open. Tobi doesn't even try to stop me. Dei-kun is lying on his bed staring at a clay statue in one hand and a sharp knife in the other. I can't see what he was sculpting.

"He's been like this for two days now, Yoku-san," Tobi says, scratching the back of his head, "He doesn't want to come out, or talk to anyone."

I nod and lie down beside Dei-kun, but he refuses to acknowledge that I'm there. I know that he's angry with me because of my recent behaviour. When I try to touch his hand, he pulls away and turns his back on me, sculpting on his side. I see that he's making a gravestone. The word "Tobi" is written on the front. This isn't altogether surprising, seeing as he hates the young boy's energy. I also lie on my side, propping my head up on my elbow, resting my injured right hand on my hip as though nothing is wrong. Something digs sharply into my elbow from underneath the pillow. I reach out and fold my hand around two broken pieces of hardened clay.

I sit upright, lifting them up, and stare at them. It's a gravestone, broken in two. I put the two pices together so that they fit like a jigsaw puzzle, and try to make out the name. What I see hurts me more than anything else had that day.

"M-my gravestone?" I say softly, unable to stop my voice from trembling. Dei-kun freezes beside me and slowly turns around to look at me. I feel tears well up in my eyes again. One of them escapes and runs down my cheek.

"No – Yoku-chan – it's not-"

But I throw the broken sculpture into his face and storm toward the door, but his strong hand wraps around my injured wrist, and it cracks again. This time, I think it breaks. I hide my scream of pain with one of anger.

"Go to hell!" I scream.

"I think that's wear he came from, Yoku-chan," Tobi says timidly from beside his bed.

"Then go back, because it's wear you belong!" I yell, wrenching my wrist from his grasp and running from the room, blocking the doorway with a crowd of my Water Clones. I heard them popping one by one as Dei-kun punched them, but by the time the explosion of one of his clay figures sounded, I am on the upper floor, slamming the door of my bedroom.

"Why don't you slam it a little harder?" Yume-chan calls sarcastically from the bathroom.

I take a deep breath, and another, and then call, "Sorry."

I grab the bag I had packed that night, strap my dual-bladed sword over my shoulder and the bag with kunai and shuriken to my left thigh and open the windows, struggling with all of this because of the throbbing pain in my wrist. Our room is on the third floor. If I focus chakra in my feet, the land won't be too painful. I hear the toilet flushing and, realising that Yume-chan would appear within moments and see me, I impulsively focus chakra in the soles of my feet and jump.

I've always hated heights, and falling from one this high makes me want to vomit when I reached the ground, but I manage to keep myself steady. Without waiting, I run into the trees. Focusing more chakra in my feet and turning it to suction power, I jump onto a nearby tree, run up and onto a branch, and start jumping from branch to branch.

I know Yume-chan would be furious with me if she ever found out where I'm going, but I'm positive she would just blow everything. She's already training her arse off, so she can't afford to waste more time coming with me to Konoha. I'll just be hanging out with the other nin my age. So I won't be any danger to the mission.

I shake my head at myself. I have to focus. This is a mission of my own. I strain to remember what Kisame-sensei taught me about hiding my chakra signature. They can't be too far ahead of me: half an hour or so.

Ironically, hiding chakra uses more than using a basic technique, as it's like creating a shield around yourself AND you have to disguise it. I form the necessary seals and feel the shield form around me. I can't go around being reckless.

I slow my pace. I roughly know where the Village is. Over the mountains that can be seen from the lake where Dei-kun and I ran that one time. Thinking about him hurts, so I stop.

Almost an hour passes before the forest becomes less dense and I finally reach the lake. Suddenly the mountains look much further away. I take a deep breath. I see no movement anywhere, so I solidify the chakra in my feet and start running on the water.

I know, at this rate, that my chakra won't hold long, but I promise my body some rest once I reach the mountains. I can already feel the strain in my lungs when I breathe.

An hour and a half later, when I am panting, drenched in sweat and hungrier than I could ever remember being, I set foot on the very top of the mountain, and look down. Surprise engulfs me, and I try to convince myself that this can't be right.

I'm standing right on one of the Second Hokage's spiky strands of hair. Why would Pein allow them to live so near to the Village? Isn't it a little – no, very – reckless? I know it can't be their only base, but all of them live there at the moment.

I turn my head left and right, but neither of my superiors are anywhere to be seen. Too excited to live up to the promise I made my body, I jump down from rock to rock, my stomach giving a horrible lurch each time.

"Hey, you! You're not allowed to be up there!"

I stop and turn toward the voice. It's a worker standing on the roof of the Hokage's office, the balcony of which he always stands on when he looks out over the Village. I remind myself that he must already be dead.

I smile apologetically and jump down more quickly until I reach the ground. There is a small fountain where a couple of children are playing. I hate children, and I would have backed away in any other situation, but I was hot and tired, so I splashed some of the cool water on my face before drying them on my clothes and taking off, releasing the shield on my chakra and feeling the relief immediately.

I look up at all the signs on the buildings as I walk. There are all kinds of shops, more vast and amazing than I ever imagined. I feel a sharp pain in my right wrist, having forgotten that it was injured in my amazement, and saw that I had walked into a tall, pretty woman.

"Excuse me," she says with a friendly smile, then gives me a questioning look. "I haven't seen you around here before. Are you from around here?"

I shake my head shyly, the lump in my throat preventing speech. She seems confused for a moment, but then smiles again.

"Are you a shinobi?" she asks. I think. Am I? I settle for a 'no', so I shake my head. "Are you lost?" she asks, and I nod. "What are you looking for?"

Shit, I think. How am I supposed to get out of this now? I needed this woman's help, but how am I supposed to get it? I decide to pretend I really am mute. I point to my throat and then swipe across it.

"Can't you talk?" she asks, sympathy spreading across her face. I nod. "Can you write?" I nod, with a little exasperation. She rummages in her handbag for a moment and withdraws a small piece of crinkled up paper and a pen, and hands them to me. I thank God that I'm left-handed, and write the word "library", and then listens attentatively as she gives me directions. I press my hands together in front of my chest to show I'm thankful, and run in the direction she pointed. I have no time to waste.

I can't remember all the directions, so it takes some time before I reach the tall building. It's massive on the inside, with tall bookshelves that reach to the ceilings, and a few ladders here and there, a tall table with several chairs between each shelf where a few kids are working. I wonder whether the students from the Ninja Academy has homework.

"Can I help you?" a short, plump woman to my left asks. I realise that she must be the librarian. The lump jumps up to block my voice, and I realise with shame that I'm still holding the tall, pretty woman's pen and piece of paper.

I write: I can't talk. Can you tell me where to find Haruno Sakura?

"Haruno Sakura," the woman says thoughtfully, "That sounds familiar … oh, she's Hokage Tsunade-sama's student, isn't she?" I nod eagerly. "I saw her earlier at the back. She's bound to be here somewhere, dear. Would you like me to help you look?"

I shake my head with a smile, assuring her I'll be fine. She smiles, staring for a moment at my throat with the ghost of a sympathetic look passing over her eyes, before turning away.

It takes several minutes of walking down each shelf, looking for the pink-haired head of the kunoichi I am looking for, and I finally find her, sitting at one of the desks, surrouded by several piles of thick, dusty books. Several other kids are sitting around her. The lump jumped up to my throat, blocking my voice.

For heaven's sake, I think. I know she's good-natured and won't hurt me. I almost growl in frustration, but suppress the urge. Instead, I scratch the previous notes I had written on the piece of paper and write on the little space that's left: Hi, my name is Yoku.

I think, trying to come up with something else to write, but there isn't any more space left on the paper to explain exactly why I am here, and I can't think of any short way to explain it, so I just walk over to her and clear my throat. She looks up and smiles kindly, and I hand her the piece of paper, putting the pen in my pocket.

"Yoku?" she says thoughtfully, obviously trying to think if she recognizes the name.

When she doesn't, she looks up at me with a puzzled look. I try to imagine how she's feeling. I can't even imagine her confusion.

"Can't you talk?" she asks. I shake my head, and the look of sympathy I saw in the two other women passes over her face. Seriously, it's not that big a deal. She seems uncomfortable for a moment, obviously trying to think of something to say. I roll my eyes and gesture toward the piece of paper still clutched in her hand. Taking a moment to try and understand, but finally succeeding, she rips off a piece of paper from that which she's been writing on.

I write: I can't tell you anything about myself other than my name, which is Amahiro Yoku. I want you to keep this confidential. If our meetings leak into the wrong ears, I could be executed. Even though you have never seen me before, I want to ask a favour of you. Will you teach me to be a medic nin?

I wait in anticipation while she reads. Will she teach a girl she doesn't know? My hands start trembling, my right wrist aching. I'll have to get it treated in any case.

Come on bitch, I tell my voice, glaring at the other students sitting a little way from us, due to all the space Sakura-san's books take. Work. Work, work, work already. She stares at the paper after reading. I can tell she's thinking about it because her eyes don't move, and her fingers are fidgety.

"Are you in any way a danger to the village?" she asks me. Taken aback, I shake my head roughly. "Can I trust you?" I nod. She sighs. "Okay, I'll see what I can teach you. But my training isn't complete yet, so I can't teach you much yet."

I know this chapter was a tad boring, but without it the story can't continue. As always, read and review please ^^