This is a really, really tiny chapter. I wasn't really feeling this chapter too much. But hopefully this small minichapter will make do for now until I can come with a more solid chapter.

Any ideas?

Before I go, I'd like to give a special THANK YOU to those who have reviewed, favorited, followed, and viewed. And a very SPECIAL THANK YOU especially to those who reviewed-

by that I mean,

PervertAnimeOtaku

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And darkhuntressxir who has continuosly supported this story.

THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH! (':

-U

Natsuki looked down in her hand to see a small black IPod. It was the first thing she had ever bought with the money she had earned herself, granted that she earned the money by beating people senseless, but it was money she had earned herself nonetheless. On the back of the IPod was an engraving that she had done the same day she had gotten the small music player. She didn't even know that it was possible to engrave a something so delicate and costly, but in the end when the salesman had told her it was possible for a few more dollars, so of course she couldn't say no.

Natsuki's thumb traced over the small words that held such a large meaning to her.

Refuse to sink. The words read, and every day since she had gotten the small black device she read over those words and did exactly what was said. She refused to sink, to fall, in a match. And that had made her one of the best underground fighters in the fire country, where she started, and the Land of Waves, where she was now.

She wasn't proud of the road she had taken when her brother had left, but she was proud of the way she has endured it so far. With the grace and power Natsuki could only pray that came from her mother. The road Natsuki had taken taught her to bare her scars with pride and to never back down. Refuse to sink. The words were engraved in her mind and were part of her for years.

"What is that?" A masculine voice asked.

Natsuki looked up to see the dark endless orbs staring into her own. Natsuki's mouth grew into a smirk.

"It's the first thing I bought after my first match." She said.

"The first thing I did after I won my first race was buy a burger." He laughed.

"That was the second thing I bought." Natsuki smiled as she continued to trace the words engraved on the back. "Actually," She continued, "I bought six and two large fries with a large vanilla milkshake. A meal of champions." She grinned.

"No ramen?" He mocked gasp.

"Not everyone has endless amount of money, Itachi." Natsuki smiled sadly.

Itachi looked down, not surprised that Natsuki would bring it up. It seems she still hasn't forgiven him for not helping more when she and Kurama were out on the streets in their younger years.

"What could I have done, Natsuki? I was only the same age as Kurama; my father would have never let me…." Itachi trailed off, not wishing to finish what he was about to say, hoping Natsuki didn't know what he was going to say.

Itachi should have known luck wasn't on his side the moment Sasuke had asked about Natsuki earlier that day.

"Never let you what?" Natsuki's eyebrows creased together in anger, "Never let you help the "demons" of the village?"

Itachi inwardly cursed himself; he hated everything about her past and hated what the village had reduced her too; fighting to earn money.

"You're not a demon. The village is just full of ignorant assholes that used you and your brother as a scapegoat." He whispered, his sad eyes looking into her own.

"Words will never make up for what was done. They called as demons, refused to acknowledge us for what we really were; kids. Children, who didn't know what to do because their parents were dead, if it wasn't for those few people who didn't care what their society thought, I would have been long dead, Itachi." Her cerulean blue orbs turned away from his sad eyes.

His large hand stroked her cheek and gently turned her head so her eyes would meet with his, "I owe those people a great dept then."

"Why is that?"

A small smile graced Itachi's lips, "You mean more to me than you will ever know, Uzumaki Natsuki."

Natsuki grinned, "Mah, if I didn't know better, that almost sounded like a confession, Uchiha."

Itachi grinned back at the small blonde girl before him, before he turned around, back to the large crowd of people they had just come from before, and stopped mid-step to look back at the blonde enigma starring at him, "Maybe it was, Uzumaki." He winked and inwardly did a little happy dance at the small blush that had graced her cheeks before continuing to go back into the crowd.

Natsuki blushed as she continued to stare at the tall man walking away. He was a whole head taller than she was, the top of her head barely meeting his broad shoulders.

"Oi, Itachi! Don't joke around like that!" Natsuki whined as she followed the tall man back into the large crowd to undeniably end up with her brother and their small, makeshift family.