Hello my wonderful readers. First things first, I want to thank Rena, Kakashi-Itachi-Minato, icyprincess1, shark-demon-luv, EmilyMichele01, Valinor's Twilight, RogueSama and Corrina. They reviewed and favourited and I really appreciate that. Secondly, Hi! I am on time this week! I hope you guys enjoy the chapter, I had to defeat a particularly vicious 11 year old to use my own computer. Anyway, I won, Yay! Next chapter will be out next week Tuesday.

We had been travelling for what seemed like forever and all I wanted to do was sleep. I had tried, as I had read in some fanfic or the other, to warm myself with chakra but nothing had happened. At some point I had fallen asleep, how I have no idea, but it had served to make me more tired, not less. I had eventually resigned myself to snuggling next to Deidara, who didn't seem bothered by the weather at all.

I was freezing by the time we landed. My stiff legs refused to carry me when he deposited me on the ground and I fell to my knees. The wind gusted against me bringing the smell of rain. The sky above was cloudy and the moon was nothing but a lighter gray against the almost black sky.

He was scanning the area when there was a sudden flash of lightening and the sky let loose. Huge drops of icy water sluiced down, soaking me in seconds. The rain was so hard that I could barely see two feet in front of me. I shrieked in surprise when I was suddenly grabbed and lifted unto someone's shoulders. I started kicking and struggling. When I glanced down I saw the back of a black cloak with blood red clouds. I also noticed I was quite far away from the muddy ground. I tried to twist around to see who was carrying me but he moved in such a way that readjusted me on his shoulder and sent a jarring shoulder into my stomach. The message was loud and clear; don't move. I sighed and fell forward, trying to get as comfortable as possible. Nothing worked. Even though his shoulder wasn't bony or anything, muscle without any fat to coat it was just as uncomfortable. In the end, I propped my elbow against his back and tried to keep my soaked hair off my face. I think my elbow bothered him, he kept jarring me to dislodge it, but he said nothing. He would jar me to dislodge it but I always put it back. I could only envision the bruises I was going to have later.

If I thought I was uncomfortable then, it was nothing compared to when he started to run. I was shaken hard and had to grab on to the back of his cloak to stop myself from moving about. None of this compared with the indignity of having his hand on my ass though. I knew it was to keep me on his shoulder, at least I hoped so, but damn.

The cold was worse with the air rushing past me stealing what little body heat I had. By the time, we stopped moving, I was a hundred times worse than when I had gotten off Deidara's clay dragon. It was still raining. If I had to guess who was carrying me I would have guessed Kisame ... and I would have been right.

I was set on my feet, where I began to wobble precariously. I wrapped my arms around my chest and looked ahead. There were lights winking in the gloom. Kisame nudged me forward with his hand and I started walking. I was stiff with cold and sore, so my movements was slow and painful but he and Deidara, who was walking just ahead of me, seemed content to match their pace with mine.

I was shocked when the dim lights grew suddenly bright and clear and there was a large metal gate ahead. Glancing back, I saw the road as though it were lit by invisible candles. Strange...I was nudged again. I made a noise of irritation and scowled when Kisame smirked at me. Irritating ass, I don't know why people thought he would be nice...Ahead of me Deidara was talking to a ninja with three vertical slashes on his headband and a large slash running across it. Suddenly the man took off his long black slicker and handed it to him. He turned and handed it to me with a curt 'Here, un'.

Without hesitation I pulled it on, relishing the warmth of the jacket. As we moved through the drenched, dim city, people stared respectfully at the Akatsuki members. I saw some glance at me curiously but quickly looked somewhere else. I figured that even though the Akatsuki were respected, and in the cases of Pein and Konan, revered, it wasn't considered a good thing to be taken into their custody. The next time someone looked at me, I smiled at them and waved. The person looked shocked and hurried away.

I couldn't believe anyone would be out in this weather, it was still raining, but more and more people were coming on to the streets. I looked up into the sky and saw that the sky had lightened considerably. It was even a little warmer.

It took us about 15 mins of walking to get to Pein's tower. By then, the rain had almost stopped. There was a light drizzle but the sun was shining in the sky. I was warm within my commandeered jacket and dazzled. I don't know if it was because of the rainfall or because of the constant use of metal for everything but the city was bright and glowing in the morning light. It was shiny, clean and looked almost utopian. In the rain, the city was a depressing mess of gray but with the light shining, everything was shades of silver and gold with signs, clothing and curtains adding pops of vibrant colour and contrast. I was awestruck. No wonder Pein liked to look down on the city, it was beautiful like this.

I was so caught up that I didn't even notice when we reached the building's front door. Well I assumed it was the front door anyway. I didn't see what Deidara did but the panel swung open and we entered a dimly lit chamber. It was round with high unlit ceiling and what looked like metal pipes running up the walls like strange twisty columns. In short, it looked like something out of lord of the rings but done in metal with dim electric lights. There was a sudden rustling of paper and Konan coalesced in front of us. It was impressive and scary at the same time. I imagined being trapped in a mass of her paper sheets being cut by them over and over. It was a grim thought but I had always been kind of creeped out by Konan.

'I will take the girl from here.' She said in her sexy contralto voice.

'Sure, yeah. Is Itachi back yet?'

'Yes. He is in his quarters. Pein will meet with you in an hour in his office.'

'Good.' He turned to me. 'Later.' And then disappeared.

When I looked back to Kisame, he too had disappeared. I yawned and rubbed my eyes.

'Come this way.' She said and walked off to the other side of the room. In a recessed corner was a staircase that was barely lit. There was also no handrail. I figured that only ninjas used it because there was no way any sane person would ever climb them. I wasn't given a choice. There was a sudden flash of light and I turned to see a piece of paper clasped in her hand burning slowly and steadily. It was a long time later, it felt that way at least, that we finally got to the top of the stairs.

Konan led me down the corridor that led to a radiating square of light in the distance. It was dazzling after being in the dimness. There were doors to the left and right of the corridor but none of them had doorknobs or keyholes. I only knew they were doors at all because they were slightly darker than the walls around them and indented in the wall. I was so tired that my vision kept going grainy at odd intervals. I had pushed a little chakra into my legs to get up those stairs and I was going to pay for it and soon.

Konan had been speaking to me for a while, I could tell by her irritated expression.

'This will be your quarters for your time here. You will not be able to leave once I enclose you, do you understand?'

I yawned and nodded. She put her hand, the one with her ring, to the door and it slid open soundlessly. She walked in and I followed. The first thing I saw was the bed and without a thought I made my way over to it and collapsed. I had never felt so good as I did in that moment. I listened to the drone of her voice and hoped that I wasn't missing anything essential. My eyes glazed over and her figure moving to the door was a just a blur of black and red. I rolled over putting my back to her and fell into deep sleep.

I hope you enjoyed it. Review if you can.