"King me!" Troah said, moving one of his pawns to the other side of the board.

"How many times do I have to tell you… WE ARE NOT PLAYING CHECKERS!!" Neji snapped.

"Yeah… checkers are more fun," Troah grumbled.

"Eating ramen is better than any of those games!" Naruto called, slurping his ramen.

'Fool…' Katara thought, lying on her bed in the hotel room. Katara's gaze casually shifted over to the window.

"Worried about the Superstar?" Troah asked, giving on chess.

Katara snorted, "don't mix my thoughts up with your own." She had noticed his wary glances towards the door, and the way he tapped his foot, getting ready to spring forward to rush to Soma. 'What a fool,' she thought, her eyes narrowing slightly.

"Something wrong?" Neji asked, noticing the look on her face.

"No… why?" Katara asked, clearing the expression from her face. 'They should've already begun… what's taking so long,' she thought, keeping her face neutral.

A knock at the door adverted everyone's attention for a moment. "Who's there!?" Naruto called.

"It's me open the door!" Soma's voice came.

Troah bounded to the door, nearly bumping into it and opened it. "Are you okay!?" he asked, exasperated.

Soma gave him an odd look. "Yeah… why wouldn't I be?"

"Oh… no reason…" Troah scratched the back of his head uneasily.

"Go any faster Troah, and you would've knocked the door down," Katara joked.

"What?" Soma asked, not understanding.

Troah flushed, "never mind."

"So… where'd you go?" Katara asked, "with… him?"

"Uh… not… not far…" Soma said, blushing.

"He didn't do anything to you did he?" Troah growled.

"Troah pipe down! What'd you do?" Katara asked.

"We… uh… danced," Soma said.

Katara snorted, "you and him… danced?" Katara began to laugh at the thought.

"Well, he didn't really dance… I mostly did," Soma said, her cheeks turning a deep pink.

Katara still laughed, "you dancing! I can't see that!"

"What about you and your baking spree!" Soma retorted.

"THOSE WERE GOOD COOKIES!" Katara snapped.

"Yeah!" Neji agreed.

"I wasn't talking to you!" Soma snapped.

"Don't snap at him!" Katara yelled.

"Then don't yell at me!" Soma yelled back.

"You started it!" Katara yelled again.

Naruto blinked at the two, deciding it was probably best not to even try to interfere. He remembered the last time Katara and Soma got into a fight like this… and he tried to interfere… it was not pretty. He was sore for the next two weeks.

"Um… guys…" Troah said, trying to get their attention as a knock came to the door.

"WHAT!?" Katara and Soma yelled at him.

"Uh… there's someone at the door," said Troah, trembling slightly.

Katara sighed, walking towards the door. As she got close, a strange feeling came over her. She opened the door. A man stood there.

Even though they were hidden from sight, she spied his raven black hair and red eyes.

He nodded to her.

"I'm going out," Katara said.

"Why?" Soma asked.

"I'm going to get some information. I thought it might seem less noticeable if I go alone with a villager than in a group of complete strangers to this town," Katara lied.

"I'm not a complete stranger to this town. I lived here for a year when I was five," Soma said, fiddling with a necklace around her neck.

"That's lovely So…" Katara cut herself off. "You… you remember… living here?" she asked.

"Yeah… while I was out with Gaara… I remembered a lot of things," Soma said.

Katara looked towards the man again. He looked amused at the information he just learned.

"Good for you, I'll see you later," Katara said, walking out of the hotel room.

"Have…" The door slammed shut. "Fun…" Soma finished.

"Why do you look so amused?" Katara asked, trying to be respectful.

"You didn't tell me your 'sister' was close to the Kazekage," the man said.

"I didn't think it was important," Katara sighed, "why are you here… I thought you and Kisame were going somewhere else?"

"The leader asked me to fill in the holes upon the attack tomorrow," the man said.

"Tomorrow!?" Katara exclaimed, confused.

The man smirked, "he wants the Thunder Dragon, Katara. You're to lead your… 'sister' outside the town. Make it a good distance away; we don't want to attract any attention."

"And? What's next?" Katara pushed.

"Leave the rest to Zetsu and Deidara," the man said.

"Itachi… this mission…" Katara said, as much as she hated to admit it, this was going to be hard.

"You're not losing your nerve, are you Katara?" Itachi smirked.

"As if," Katara huffed, "I'll get the job done."

"We'll talk after the missions done," Itachi said, turning and walking away.

Katara had a strange feeling of guilt as she contemplated on her job. 'I have to do this… it was… is why I'm here.'