Chapter Two

Toorima laughed maliciously as she pulled her kunai from the forehead of her defeated foe. The light breeze stroked her pale face and cooled her warm cheeks blowing a strand of her long black hair astray. A good battle always seemed to lighten her mood nowadays.

A lot has changed in the past thirteen years. For one Toorima never returned to the akatsuki base after the death of Hinata. It would have tortured her to walk the halls and hear her mother's bright voice only to turn and see that she wasn't there anymore. Not only that, but to know that her father, Hidan would no longer be there to teach her or give her a hard time would be painful. She had got the slip on Kisame the night they buried Hinata at the edge of the forest where Hidan rested and has not seen any member from her old makeshift family since.

In the thirteen years past she had become a mercenary ninja, and a damn good one at that. Toorima refused to go to any village and preferred to travel only with her two companion leopards, Chaos and Serenity. Over the years all three of them have grown exponentially. Chaos was just a little smaller than the grown Akamaru and Serenity was only a little smaller than Chaos. Their master, now twenty years old, had filled out nicely as a woman.

Toorima stood at five feet' ten inches with long lean legs and arms. Her hair was kept to the small of her back and it was a glossier, shinier black. Her hips were a little wide, but her waist was thin and toned over the years of hard self training. Even her breasts had grown to be quite a nice handful. Facial features matured and lost their child roundness. None of this was her most eye catching feature either. It was her catlike qualities. The snow leopard ears atop her head had grown with her and her tail had lengthened. Of everything about her, nothing was more striking, more profound than her eyes. Sapphire blue orbs with feline pupils that burned with such emotion that one glance would paralyze the weak of heart instantly.

Not just her appearance changed. Toorima has become ruthless and a cold hearted killer. She follows the way of Jashin and rejoices in the heat of a battle, at the perfect kill. She cannot count how many battles she has been in and how many have fallen before her. After losing her beloved adopted parents she went a little mad and trained insanely hard to become stronger to make sure that she never loses something precious to her again.

Through her travels Toorima has also kept tabs on Akatsuki. Even though she left them behind did not mean she did not care about them. Deidara had been defeated in battle a few years back by the younger, accursed Uchiha and Toorima had gone to his gravesite to pay her respects. This continued every year. On the anniversary of Hinatas' death the young woman would visit the burial place of all her loved ones and would not shed a drop of blood or speak a single word on that day. It was the one day a year she would let her emotions have control of her.

Pein has also recently been killed in an attempt to destroy Konoha and capture the nine-tailed beast. His grave was one place she could not visit. She did her best to avoid Konohagakure at all costs and made sure not to accept an assignment that would take her too close. Konan had left akatsuki after that and her whereabouts are unknown. It seemed that Tobi, or rather Madara Uchiha, was really the leader of akatsuki. Worst about it was that he had asked Sasuke Uchiha, her sworn enemy and the man who murdered Hinata, along with two other akatsuki, to join them in their quest to obtain the bijuu.

Itachi too had fallen at the hands of Sasuke Uchiha. Toorima swore that even at the cost of her life the Uchiha would pay one day. He would pay tenfold the pain he has caused her over the years. One day, when she believes she is strong enough, she will destroy him.

That left Madara, Zetsu, and Kisame as the only remaining original akatsuki. Kisame, her crush and the man she could never stop thinking about. Her greatest regret was running away from him, abandoning him in her depression. She hasn't even seen him once since that cursed day. What wouldn't she give to go back to him and encase herself in his strong arms?

Chaos pulled her from her thoughts. 'Master, more are coming.' His voice had become deep over the time past and his playfulness had lessened. Since Toorima communicated with her comrades through thought she really didn't speak much anymore. Not that she didn't want to; there just wasn't much of a need. 'I know.' She thought and the grin on her face spread wider revealing the tips of her sharp canines.

The second squad of her current targets appeared from behind the trees and looked in horror at the carnage before them. Toorima had some pent up aggression she had been meaning to release and those poor Sunagakure ninja just happened to be that release. They were torn to pieces, stabbed, scratched beyond recognition, one of them had a pretty nasty burn, and one of them was decapitated, his head still stuck to the tree ten feet from the rest of his body.

Toorima gave them an innocent smile as they prepared to attack. She had been expecting them which was bad for them, very bad. Her tail snaked up the air to a string that was hidden in the sunlight and pulled it in one swift movement. The ignorant men had no time to react before a rain of kunai and shuriken struck their bodies from every direction.

One of them still stood when the barrage ended. It pleased Toorima as she wouldn't want it to end too quickly. The man wiped the blood from his right eye and pulled a jagged katana from its sheath at his side. Toorima only smiled a crooked smile before disappearing in a flash. Her opponent tried to focus enough to locate her. He was a quick one and was able to swing his sword down just in time to cut her off from her attack. She back flipped out of harms way and laughed. 'This one is mine.' She told Chaos who had leapt in front of her and growled at the man. The black leopard backed off immediately.

Blood splattered against the surrounding trees as the man sliced open Toorimas' arm, cutting the fishnet glove she was wearing. He had let his guard down just enough for Toorima to get a kunai into the hollow of his collar bone. Toorima jumped away as the man clutched his shoulder and screamed in pain. Serenity came up behind the man and had his back in her clutches as Chaos made his appearance in front of the man and had his thigh in his jaws. 'Couldn't let you have all the fun.' Serenity explained in her librarian like voice. Shaking her head and chuckling Toorima stepped forward to stare down at the man.

A minute later the defeated shinobi ran from the woman bleeding heavily with a scroll in his hands. She wasn't supposed to kill him, one was to be left alive to deliver a message back to their village and alive he was. He was missing an eye, his tongue was cut out, and he had barbed wire wrapped around his neck, but he was alive. Toorima dusted off her shorts and wiped her kunai clean. Mission complete, now to go and collect her payment…

~^_^~

Kisame sat at the lonely table at the akatsuki base and stared blankly at the fridge. The base had become barren and empty over the years. Zetsu was away on a mission and Madara was off somewhere setting his devious plot into action which left him there alone. The sake bottle in front of him was over half gone. He had spent the last thirteen years beating himself up over letting Toorima get away from him. He hadn't seen her since and has long assumed her to have died tragically in an effort to survive on her own.

Sleep always eluded him if he wasn't drunk. He could hear her laughter everywhere in this stupid place. He could see her at the counter scrubbing the dishes as he dried them. He could even see the cute ears at the top of her head that made her purr whenever you rubbed them. She was the cutest little girl Kisame had even seen and now she was gone, like the rest of his friends and comrades.

Itachis' death had also hit him pretty hard. He was right there, right outside the place of his life ending battle. If he wasn't in a battle of his own, only if he didn't listen to Itachis' orders not to interfere, maybe, no definitely, Itachi would still be alive. No amount of sake would chase away the nightmares; in fact, it was the sake that helped him to have them in the first place.

Kisame rose shakily from the table and grabbed the small bottle to down its remaining contents before setting it back on the table. The hallway was cold and it sent a shiver down his spine as he lugged along to his room. The door squeaked as it opened and again as it shut. Making his way to his bed the shark-nin pulled off his shirt and collapsed onto the soft mattress. He kicked his sandals off and waited for the inevitable nightmares to start.

The next thing Kisame knew he was sitting up on his bed with sweat running down his face and his breathing was erratic. When would the nightmares end? When would he be allowed to rest peacefully? Then a sound made him jump. It was a knock on his door, it must have been what woke him in the first place. With a groan Kisame stood and walked to his door. His head was pounding and his eyes didn't want to open all the way.

Kisame opened the door to the darkness of the hall. "Yes?" He asked trying to focus his eyes. "Your breath reeks." Was the greeting he got from the intruder. "Kisame, I have a mission for you." Kisame recognized the voice now as Madaras'. "Now?" Kisame asked turning his head to look at his clock. It was five in the morning. "Yes." Madara answered and walked away to the briefing room.

The S-class killer sighed and retrieved his shirt and cloak from the floor. He left the room without bothering to shut the door and followed his leader. "Sit." Madara commanded when Kisame entered the room and he obeyed seeing as he was still tired and he was sure he had a hangover. "There is someone I need you to track down and dispose of." He said and Kisame immediately perked up and the mention of disposing of someone. "There is a mercenary taking all of our clients. We need funds to continue the operation so you must find him and get rid of him. We cannot afford some punk shinobi taking on missions that are meant for us." Madara was visibly annoyed.

"Track down some punk shinobi and kill him?" Kisame asked for clarification. Madara nodded and raised an eyebrow daring Kisame to question it. The bluish man closed his eyes for a second. "Got it." He said after a moment and rose from the table. He left the room and headed back to his room to freshen up.

The water from the shower helped to clear his head and ease the hangover even if only a little. By the time he got out of the shower he was all there and his head only pounded a little. He donned his black with red clouds cloak over his deep blue sleeveless top and blue short pants with sandals. Samehada went to its place on his back and he left to room after running his hand over Toorimas' pillow which he had taken from her room and slept with. Don't ask him why, he couldn't explain it, but it helped to ease the pain, like a piece of her was still with him.

Alone, with no teammate ominously beside him Kisame left the akatsuki base and took off at a run. Madara had only given him one piece of information regarding his target. The man was last seen in Iwagakure to collect a bounty.

~*~*~

Toorima left the office of the Tsuchikage. A short, fat, old man with a big nose, but he was the leader of the Hidden Rock village, Iwagakure. He also happened to be her current client and rather stingy. She wasn't pleased with the payment and grumbled as she left the office. She wasn't paying attention to where she was walking and Serenity had to repeatedly tell her 'left' or 'right'. Her payment truly was ridiculous for the work she did, but she couldn't argue with a man that had seven body guards at his side, all heavily armed and concentrating their chakra. It wasn't worth the fight.

Once Toorima was safely out of the Iwa gates she turned in the direction of her favorite hot spring. It was still far, but who knows, maybe she could find someone to sacrifice on her way. Her religion had shown her many things and the world through a different view. Jashin was a god of chaos, war, death, destruction, and corrupt souls. In her studies she had learned many things about her god, like that the more soiled a soul, the more he was pleased with its' sacrifice.

Many, many years ago Hinata had told Toorima the story of when Hidan had tried to sacrifice her and how it had failed. Neither of the two could explain it, but she was sure she had found it out. Jashin didn't want pure souls; they were not as delicious as the wicked ones, making Hinatas' soul undesirable to him. Toorima found herself grinning at the thought of what her tainted soul must look like to him.

'You aren't a bad person.' Serenity thought interrupting her thoughts. 'How can you say that over everything we have been through together?' Toorima replied grimacing at her own thought. 'It's true.' Chaos agreed. 'You have suffered a great pain and it changed you, you don't do what you do for pleasure, you do it to survive.' Serenity always sounded like a scolding librarian, even when she was trying to be comforting. 'I don't know, I rather enjoyed that last battle.' Toorima joked and smiled at her pet, her ears twitching at the slightest of sound.

There were four people coming up behind her quickly and they weren't slowing, that meant she wasn't their target. Regardless she pulled her black cloak from her small backpack and slung it over her shoulders, concealing her tail and ears easily along with the rest of her body. Chaos and Serenity moved closer to her sides and kept their noses in the air and their ears scanning the area. The closer the group came to them the more she could feel their power, as a group they were very strong, and the leader, the one leading the rest, had an extremely powerful aura that made her blood freeze and her breath hitch.

It didn't take long for the group to catch up to where she was. She pulled her hood forward more to ensure her face remained hidden and her companions had hid in the trees as she instructed. Three men and a woman stood in front of her now. She recognized one of them immediately. It was him, Sasuke Uchiha, the man she swore to kill. Why now? Toorima knew she wasn't strong enough to defeat him yet, just his powerful aura made her skin tingle.

Sasuke stepped closer to the concealed woman. He could feel her chakra signature and the two of the people hiding in the trees. There was something familiar about the chakra, but he didn't ultimately care. His eyes narrowed as he took in her stature. Then she spoke making his eyes narrow more. "Is there something you need from me?" Her voice sounded alien even to her, not having to use it in so long.

"A man should have passed this way recently. He would be very unique, half black half white with a plant-like appendages protruding from his shoulders." The Uchiha explained. Toorima knew who he was talking about, Zetsu. "Haven't seen him." She told him simply, it was the truth. Even if she wanted to say something in the first place she couldn't. Leader-sama had placed a sealing jutsu on her tongue when she first entered the akatsuki base to keep her from ever being able to say a word about the location, or akatsuki in general. Sasuke said nothing but moved his hand to his katana. On instinct Toorima released a low hiss at the hostility.

The woman with red hair and the other man that had grayish skin looked at her with a shocked expression. Sasuke and the tall man with bright orange hair did nothing and had stoic faces. Slowly Sasuke slid his blade from its holster. He was suddenly very interested in the woman standing in front of him as he couldn't shake the feeling that he had felt her chakra somewhere before.

It happened in a flash, Sasuke had moved to strike and Toorima had jumped out of the way of his blade, shedding her cloak from her shoulders and landing lithely on the blunt side of his sword. Her catlike reflexes had honed over the years and her balance was unbeatable in its perfection. Her weight caused the sword crash into the ground and a great battle ensued.

The three that had followed Sasuke were kept busy by Chaos and Serenity. When Toorima saw that those two were having trouble she had maneuvered away from Sasuke long enough to summon thirty more leopards to aid them. Sasuke was all hers. She wouldn't be able to win today, that was clear, but at least one good strike would make her happy before she retreated.

Raven hair blurred in front of her and could almost touch her as the Uchiha attempted to plunge a kunai in her gut. Wasn't gonna happen, Toorima quickly smacked his hand away with hers leaving him wide open. Her sharp teeth sank into the flesh of his upper neck just long enough to draw blood before Sasuke grabbed her hair and ripped her head back. Toorima screamed in pain and Sasuke sent her flying into a tree with a powerful kick to the stomach.

She had what she needed and maybe she could win after all. Toorima licked the blood from her lips and spit some on the ground, swallowing what was left in her mouth. Having his blood inside of her body was enough to make her sick, but if it meant today would be a victory, she would savor it. Her foot moved to drew the design from her pendant on the ground as she performed the proper hand signs. Sasuke rushed at her just as her skin darkened to black and skeletal white markings appeared over the piercing black. The woman began to laugh a dark laugh at the thought of her victory which caused the man to stop suddenly. He watched her cautiously and her animal instinct wanted to draw this out, a sort of cat and mouse torture before she devoured his soul and gave it to Jashin.

Toorima slowly pulled a kunai from her weapons pouch at her left thigh seeing as she was left handed. Before she continued she bowed her head for a quick prayer and placed her free hand on the two ribbons on her right thigh. One was pale purple, and the other a deep purple. Each matched the eyes of her dead parents, they symbolized her love and sadness.

Her eyes snapped open to stare at Sasuke who was assessing the situation carefully at a distance. Toorima grinned and moved the kunai to hover over forearm. The Uchiha needed a demonstration of what she now planned to do to him. The blade pierced her skin as she dragged it down to her palm. Blood dripped to the earth below and Sasuke watched as his forearm too split and began to bleed. It hurt, but he had managed not to scream.

Sasuke understood immediately and moved to stop the jutsu. It had to do with the circle she was in. Five leopards obeyed her command and moved to surround her, Chaos and Serenity among them. Toorima had managed to attain immortality within the circle, but many more sacrifices would have to be made before she could attain true immortality. So she wasn't going to waste one second of the time she spent in the circle of her impending victory.

The man was still moving at her with no expression on his face and Toorima found that annoying. She wanted to see the pain in his face, in his eyes, any amount of pain would please her. Lifting her leg straight up into the air Toorima raised her arm holding the kunai. The cool mettle cut deep through her Achilles heel as she screamed in agony. Sasuke was sent forward in sudden motionless and it could be heard. His scream of pain.

Toorima lowered her leg and let it hang at her side, useless. Her tail swished in her sudden enjoyment. Killing Sasuke would end all her pain, would end the hatred within her heart. Her joy made her lower her guard and she wasn't expecting the grayish man to come up behind her as a puddle and solidify behind her. She had no time to react as the man tackled her to the ground, pinning her arms to her sides making her kunai stab into her thigh and she screamed as did Sasuke.

"Get off me!" Toorima yelled at captor. She thrashed as best she could but he was stronger. He was grinning and tightened his grip. "Get her out of the circle!" The woman with red hair and glasses ordered the one on top of her as she moved to Sasuke. The man with orange hair moved to hover over them and block Chaos and Serenity from her view. She hadn't noticed that the other leopards had all retreated.

A heavy blade was pressed to the back of her neck. "Shall I kill her Sasuke?" The man pinning her to the ground asked. "Get her out of the circle first moron!" The redhead yelled again pushing her glasses up her nose. The man growled at her but followed her instructions. He stood keeping Toorima tightly in his arms. As soon as they were out of the blood circle the girls skin returned to its natural paleness.

Sasuke was helped to his feet as he hoped to face the thrashing girl. "Get off!" Toorima screamed again and again as her uninjured leg swung wildly in every direction. The arms tightened and she could feel the man's breath on the back of her neck, he inhaled deeply and released a pleasured sigh making her shiver. The Uchiha stood in front of her now. Something made him want to shove chidori straight through her chest, but something greater made him want to keep her.

It could be that she was incredibly strong and useful. She could be a great asset to him. Or maybe it was something more, it would be a great candidate to rebuild the Uchiha clan. Toorima glared at the man that was looking at her like she was a horse he was thinking of buying.

"Join me." He said and it wasn't a question. Toorima let out a sharp laugh and spit in his face. Bad move, he backhanded her hard enough to throw her from her captors iron grip and onto the hard forest floor. "Bitch." Sasuke said wiping the spit from his face. His voice was amused. Never had a woman so defiantly disobeyed him.

Toorima raised herself on her hands and smirked at Sasuke. He watched stunned as the two leopards that remained motionless till now suddenly shifted around Juugo and ran toward their master. As Chaos neared Toorima prepared herself and flung herself onto his back and all three rushed away at a blurring pace. She knew they couldn't follow with Sasuke in the condition he was in.

Chaos and Serenity didn't stop at all, not until they were well away from the group and almost to the hot spring that was their original objective. 'That was fun.' Toorima said sarcastically in her head as the entrance to the facility came into sight. Serenity game a heady sigh and Chaos let out a boisterous laugh. He enjoyed a good battle almost as much as her.

Once inside Toorima ordered the biggest room, and a buffet to be prepared for her and her companions. She paid the attendant in advance and let Chaos carry her to their room. The room was very large and luxurious. The water stung as she washed her wounds and wrapped her ankle. The hot spring was empty and Toorima didn't hesitate to remove all her clothing and slip into the water keeping her ankle up to rest on a boulder. The leopards, naturally hating water, laid calmly at the edge. Slowly Toorima felt her body relax and her mind calmed enough for her to think about nothing more than Kisame, the man that was always at the back of her mind.

This chapter is super long because it took so long for the sight to let me upload it. Thank you all for being patient and I'm so sorry about the wait!!!

Thank you for reading! Please review and let me know what you think.

~Lady Toorima