Thank you guys for the support and reviews, I really appreciate it. Well, here's the next chapter for you to read while I go start packing up... enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of these characters except for Ryoko.
Ryoko sat up abruptly, startled by the sound of people talking. When did they get here? These people must have been really skilled to not have woken her up by the sound of their footsteps, but then again, she wasn't a light sleeper either. Sleep still fogging her senses, she stretched in her sitting position by the base of a tree and yawned.
"About time, yeah," Deidara said lazily as if he too had woken up not too long ago.
Ryoko sniffed the air and noticed that Itachi and Kisame were the ones who had startled her awake. She ran a hand through her red wavy-ish curls, which had grown dull since she had left Konoha. "Good morning," she greeted in strangely calm voice.
"So we meet again, eh, Ryoko?" Kisame finally spoke.
Itachi simply spared a glance at the girl before turning back to his breakfast. "Hn."
Ryoko smiled and went over to sit with the group. Deidara and Sasori sat opposite of Itachi and Kisame with only the charred remains of last night's campfire separating them as they ate.
"I'm hungry," Ryoko said, knowing full well that Itachi and Kisame had come prepared with onigiri. She could scent it after all.
Kisame grinned and took an onigiri out of the box he and Itachi had stopped to buy at nearby village earlier that morning. They hadn't known they would run into the artists as well as Ryoko (which surprised them), but they still bought enough for everyone, seeing as they had planned to have origini all day. That obviously wouldn't be happening anymore. "Hold out your hand."
Ryoko's lips quirked upward as she held out her hand and felt the familiar touch of onigiri. She didn't think she'd be so happy to eat onigiri again after a long time. She thanked Kisame for her food before scarfing it down hungrily.
Sasori let out an impatient breath and tried to get the group back on the conversation they were having before Ryoko had woken up and interrupted them. "So what news did Zetsu have?"
"He…" Kisame trailed off, glancing at Ryoko as he did so.
Deidara and Sasori followed Kisame's gaze in understanding. Whatever news he had, Ryoko wasn't allowed to hear. Sasori looked back at Deidara with a knowing look that said 'you know what to do'. Deidara frowned. He did not want to miss whatever it was Kisame and Itachi had to say, but stood up anyway.
"Hey, Ryoko," the blonde said unenthusiastically. "Let's go for a walk."
Ryoko, having finished the last bit of her onigiri, turned to face the iwa-nin. Deidara shifted uncomfortably as though she could actually see him. "Uhm… okay," she answered him, her sightless red eyes narrowing slightly.
Ryoko wasn't dumb. She knew they didn't want her to hear whatever it is they were talking about, but what could she do? She stood up and followed Deidara out of hearing range of the rest of the group and towards the sound of a rushing river, forgetting to take her staff with her.
Red eyes fixed on nothing in front of her, Ryoko's black shinobi sandals patted the grassy forest floor as she walked, deep in thought.
So, her assumptions of Itachi and Kisame three days ago had been right; they were Akatsuki. And although she didn't feel quite as scared as she should have, she still felt the need to be cautious around them and the artists. Her memories of last night's fight returned to her and she wondered what Sasori and Deidara could want with her to keep her alive. Maybe they simply didn't want to waste their energy fighting the Hokage's former apprentice. She would be a formidable opponent despite her blindness.
Ryoko was snapped out of her thoughts as she tripped over a large rock and caught herself roughly by her hands and knees. "Dammit," she cursed. How she hated being blind… and stupid enough to leave her staff behind.
Deidara looked behind him and moved to Ryoko's side, crouching down as he did so. "Are you okay, yeah?"
"No," she answered him curtly. She sat up with her legs bent beneath her so that her butt rested on her heels. "I hate being blind."
The blonde cast her a look of pity before mimicking her position. "How'd you get like that? Blind, I mean."
Ryoko sighed as she listened to the river a few ways away from them. Deidara was smart if his idea had been to drown out Itachi, Kisame, and Sasori's voices with the sound rushing water. Her brow furrowed slightly before she answered him. "I wasn't born blind if that's what you're asking."
"Obviously not," Deidara replied a bit impatiently from not having received a straight answer. "You wouldn't be as skilled as you are now if you were, yeah."
"Mmm…" Ryoko agreed. She didn't like talking about her blindness, but she got the feeling Deidara would keep pushing her until he got the answer he wanted. "I always wore glasses as a child, so my vision wasn't perfect. I was told at fourteen that my vision was failing and would continue to do so until I was blind. So… I did as much as I could before I turned blind a bit after I turned seventeen."
Deidara stared at the ground, turning Ryoko's words over in his head. "So, then… why can you just get an operation or a transplant or something?"
"Besides the fact that it's expensive, I have to wait until I'm eighteen."
"Why?"
Ryoko paused, choosing her next words carefully so that she wouldn't use any technical or medical terms he might not understand. "Because… I'm still young, meaning that my eyes are still developing. So if I were to get surgery now, my eyes would still be 'growing'. In the end, my eyesight would go from good to not so good again and I would have to get surgery again, which would now have the chance of not curing my eyesight at all. Its better to wait it out so that I can just get my eyesight back once and for all, and even better than when I had glasses too."
Deidara grinned slightly at her excitement and happiness as she finished her explanation. She obviously could not wait to get surgery. "So you're going to get surgery as soon as you're eighteen, yeah?"
"Well," Ryoko began, all excitement from her voice fading. "its like I said, this surgery costs a lot and I'm not exactly wealthy, now am I?" She laughed softly, a bit of sadness evident in her words. "It would probably take place long after my birthday at this rate."
Deidara nodded in understanding as he got up and stretched. "Its not an easy life for a missing nin, but I must say, being an Akatsuki isn't all that bad."
"No?" Ryoko said, standing as well.
Deidara did not answer as he started to make his way back to the others, this time staying close to Ryoko as she followed in case she tripped again.
Sasori waited until Deidara and Ryoko were well out of hearing range before speaking once again. "Well?" he asked impatiently.
Kisame smirked at Sasori's obvious impatience as he answered. "As we were saying before, we met up with Zetsu and Tobi. Or rather, they found us. Zetsu had news about Hashiki, Ryoko and explained her status as a missing nin as well as her former position as the Hokage's apprentice."
"Hm… yes, that much I've already figured out and comfirmed."
"How?" Kisame asked, not letting the smallest bit of surprise show.
Sasori's eyes, or rather his puppet's, narrowed slightly as the memories from last night returned. "We ran into a group of bounty hunters last night after we ran into Hashiki. They openly stated that we were Akatsuki and Ryoko was a missing nin. Then she killed two of them as we handled the rest."
Kisame sat in silence, assessing the information he just now received. So Ryoko now knew they were Akatsuki… and despite her condition, she proved that she was indeed the Hashiki, Ryoko Zetsu had given him information about. The blue-skinned man glance at his partner and sighed inaudibly when he saw that he had not been affected by any of this at all. In fact, it seemed as if the sharingan user wasn't even listening.
When Itachi noticed that Kisame wasn't going to get straight to the point anytime soon, he simply laid it out as it was for the impatient red-head. "Zetsu gave us a direct order from Pein to bring Ryoko back to the main base alive."
Sasori gave a small nod. "I see."
"I guess having a medic whose chakra can heal and destroy would be of much use to Akatsuki. If Leader plans to make her join that is," Kisame said, his grin animalistic.
At this point none of them knew what Akasuki's leader would do with Ryoko, but it was clear that he would either force her into giving them information on Konoha and then killing her or
make her a member. But wait, a disabled Akatsuki member? Did Leader know that Ryoko was blind?
The trio was snapped out of their thoughts as they sensed Deidara and Ryoko returning from their 'walk'.
"What happened to you?" Kisame asked Ryoko upon noticing the dirt on her palms and cargo pants.
A light pink tinted Ryoko's cheeks as she thought back to her clumsiness. "I tripped," she admitted, swallowing her pride.
Kisame grinned, finding her embarrassment amusing.
"Gather your things," Sasori said in his deep intimidating voice. "We're leaving." When he noticed that Ryoko simply stood, unsure if this meant her as well, Sasori added roughly, "you too."
Itachi stood up and began walking in the direction where their destination lay, ready to leave. Kisame followed suit, strapping his large sword safely to his back as he did.
When Sasori grew impatient, he too started in the direction where Itachi and Kisame had head off into without glancing back to see if Deidara and Ryoko followed.
Having gathered all her things and placed them in their usual place, Ryoko fastened her cloak's golden chain around her neck before picking up her staff. She sniffed the air lightly, noticing that Itachi, Kisame and Sasori were already a few ways off. Deidara was still with her.
"Let's go, yeah," Deidara said, starting forward and trusting Ryoko to follow. He quickened his pace to catch up with the others as Ryoko jogged just enough to reach his side and then slowed to his speed.
"About time," Sasori growled as they caught up. His puppet dragged over the forest floor like a slug. He fixed Deidara with a stern glare when he noticed the blonde stuff his hand in his clay pouch to begin molding a small bird for transportation, most likely for himself and the disabled Ryoko. "Not this time, brat."
Deidara frowned. "Why not?"
Sasori glanced at Ryoko then back at him. "I'm testing you to see how far you can go without making one of your stupid creations," he answered with an underlying message. He didn't say it as rudely as he usually would have, though still insulted Deidara's idea of art.
Deidara opened his mouth then close it again when he noticed the way Sasori had glanced at Ryoko in indication and emphasized the word 'test'. As soon as he figured out that Sasori wanted to test Ryoko on something, the blonde's offended frown disappeared and was instead replaced with a look of confusion. Why would Akatsuki's scorpion want to do that?
Kisame looked back after hearing the Artists' exchange of words. Upon noticing Deidara's puzzlement, he realized that Deidara did not yet know what was going on. He will soon, he
thought to himself as he too began to wonder about what the end of their journey would have in store for Ryoko. And for Akatsuki.
Ryoko walked on uncomfortably, her staff tapping and sliding across the ground in front of her lightly. She sensed that something had passed between Sasori and Deidara, but could not read the puppet master's emotions. She could only sense some confusion infused with the blonde's chakra. "Where are we going?" she finally asked after a while.
"To the outskirts of Amegakure to see Leader," Itachi's monotonous voice answered her. Sensing Ryoko's immediate slow of pace and awareness, he then added, "If you try to resist, you will be forced."
Deidara cast Ryoko a look of pity as she returned to her normal speed and swallowed nervously.
"Why?" She asked bravely, barely noticing that Sasori was beginning to pick up his pace.
This time it was Kisame who answered her. "You'll find out soon enough." He grinned, bearing his sharp teeth.
Soon enough, Itachi broke to a run, knowing that Sasori wanted to test Ryoko's capabilities as much as he did. He just didn't trust Leader's decision on bringing her in, much like the time he was told to recruit Deidara.
"This is more my style, yeah," Deidara said, smirking as he too eased into a run. "Keep up, Ryoko!"
Ryoko brought her staff to her side as she too sped up. She closed her eyes, concentrating on Deidara's quick footsteps. A sharp scent of wood warned her that a tree was ahead and she quickly swerved to the left, still hot on the blonde's heels. A pause and then a harder landing in his rhythmitic running told her that he had jumped over something. She pinpointed the area of his jump and leaped at her estimated time with her dark green cloak billowing behind her.
"Impressive, yeah," Deidara said, looking back in time to see her land over a fallen tree. She had made her jump a bit too high and lengthy, but it was better to do that than to make it fall short.
Ryoko smirked slightly, letting a bit of her cockiness show. "You can't lose me so easily, Deidara-san."
"You can just call me Deidara." The blonde looked around for Sasori and smirked when he noticed he was not among them. Were they too fast for him? He looked back again to see the puppet behind him and Ryoko, but still off to the side. Running wasn't his style, but he could run if wanted, just not as fast as he could without being in his puppet.
Ryoko too could run faster, but did not for two reasons. One of them was of course her state of blindness and the other being that she had to slow down enough to be behind someone in order to listen carefully to the sound of their footsteps as they ran so that she could avoid obstacles. It was, of course, also much easier to travel on ground than it was among the trees, seeing as she had to keep jumping from branch to branch.
Scenting that Kisame and Itachi were a bit farther up ahead she picked up her pace slightly in order to catch up. When she stumbled over a rather large branch, however, she forced herself to stay behind Deidara at the speed he was going.
Soon, the forest thinned, allowing what little sunlight that filtered through the clouds wash over them. The grass grew taller as the landscape slowly transformed into a large field with a warm breeze rippling thought the long stalks of wild grass.
From bird's eye view, Itachi was in the lead with Kisame a little ways off to the side. Deidara came soon after with Ryoko tailing him and Sasori about ten feet to her right. Their black and red cloaks (save for Ryoko's) billowed with the wind as they rushed passed, none of them slowing down.
The sun began to set when Itachi finally stopped. As the rest of the group caught up to the quick raven-hair shinobi, a cool breeze blew towards them, promising rain.
"It's going to rain and it will be dark soon," Itachi stated. He glanced at Ryoko, his expression emotionless and his sharingan whirling in crimson orbs.
"Do you want to rest, kid?" Kisame asked Ryoko, voicing Itachi's silent question.
Sasori's eyes fixed on Ryoko as she answered, evaluating her state and performance. That was the reason why the puppet master stayed behind during their rather long run.
"No," Ryoko breathed out, feeling worn, yet struggling to show none. "Are we almost there?"
Blue eyes flickered towards her, admiring her slight determination. "If we were to keep going, we'd be there by midnight, but we would be traveling in crappy weather," Deidara observed openly.
"Even if we were to camp out, we would have no shelter in the open field," Kisame added as he grabbed the hilt of Samehada which was still safely strapped to his back.
"Let's just go already," Sasori muttered impatiently as he started forward. "We're wasting time."
Itachi followed silently with Kisame beside him and Deidara and Ryoko tailing behind, their feet sinking into the soggy ground. Although they walked quickly, Ryoko was thankful they hadn't broken out into a run again.
That's it! For now. I'm sorry that this turned to be a crappy chapter. : I'll try harder next time. I'll be busy planning for the next few days, so it will probably be a while before I update again. I don't think it will be more than three or four days, though. 'Till next time! Oh, and please take the time to review so that I know my readers do exist. :D