The next day

I followed Bre's lead as we ducked into some bushes outside a decent sized house in the woods. Bre was pretty confident that this was the place we were looking for but she wanted to make sure before we wasted time spying. I crept closer silently, repressing my chakra, as she stayed behind to make sure no one snuck up behind us. We had left our cloaks and everything that wasn't a weapon hidden in a tree in an attempt to be more stealthy which was probably the best thing we could have done.

As I got up beside the house I slipped between it and a row of well trimmed hedges and started to slow my breathing and listen closely in case anyone was talking inside. I could hear some muttering coming from the back of the house so I followed it to a half open window. Pressing my back to the building I moved as close as I could and continued to listen.

"-we move soon we should be able to intercept the delivery before they meet up with the rest of their protection detail." The first voice seemed to be in about their mid 30's and from the sound of it some kind of underling.

"Are you sure the information you received is good? We can't afford to have another mess up." This one sounded about the same age as the last but was definitely more important than the first guy.

"I'm positive. I even made sure to check the information myself."

"Very well. Take a few men with you. And kill whoever you need to." I frowned slightly, focusing in on the newest voice. He was old, much older than the rest of the men I could hear chatting inside, and was most likely the man we were looking for. Someone moved right beside the window and I tensed, slipping a knife from the pouch on my leg in case I needed it. There was a soft tapping and I watched ashes drift down beside me as someone leaned outside to smoke. Someone called out and the man immediately grumbled under his breath before putting his cigarette out on the side of the house and moving back inside.

I waited until I was sure no one else was near the window before slowly peeking into the house. Doing my best to not make it too obvious I was there I looked around the room. The only people I could see was a younger looking man whispering to a very intimidating looking elderly man towards the back of the room. I focused on the older mans face and anything else prominent, doing my best to memorize him before slipping back into the woods and quickly going back to where Bre was waiting on me.

"Did you see him?" She asked, her voice hushed even with how far we were from the house.

"Show me the picture again." Bre pulled out a folded up blurry picture that had been in the envelope and handed it over. Taking it I looked it over and nodded. "Yeah, it's the same guy. He's inside but he's not alone."

"Are you positive it's the same man?"

"Yeah. He had the same scar across his arm." She nodded and started to think as I took up keeping an eye on our surroundings. Bre muttered to herself as she thought and I knew to keep quiet and not bother her.

It was a while before she finally looked back up at me. Several men had left the house and I counted about 3 who were still inside, other than the old man and the guy who had been with him. "How many are still here?"

"At least 5 including our target." She nodded again before looking up and around. I was about to ask her what it was before I heard the familiar rumble of a storm. In minutes it was pouring down rain and all of windows in the house had been closed. I frowned at the added noise of rain as it continued to pick up since I would no longer be able to hear someone before they were right on us. "What should we do?"

Bre looked up and I could tell she was about to say something but something solid hit me in the back of the head. Ringing filled my ears and my vision faded in and out for a second but I managed not to black out. Pushing myself forward clumsily I knocked Bre back just as another man came behind her. As my vision came back into more focus I could just hear Bre gasp as I looked up at the man, the only thing in my mind to keep him from harming her.

He had been swinging down with a sheathed sword but froze as our eyes met. Protect her! I must protect her! Something changed in his expression for a second before he looked up at the attacker who must have still been behind me and brought his sword up to defend their blow. There was a stumble in his step as I kept my focus on him, as if he were struggling, and I watched as he started fighting mercilessly against his comrade. I blinked confused and he faltered long enough for the other man to shove his own sword through their chest.

Bre and I both let out a sharp gasp which must have caught his attention because he immediately looked over at us. "Cass move!" Bre shoved me off her hard enough that I stumbled up onto my feet. He looked between us then down to the dead mans sword that had fallen between him and Bre. The man's eyes focused on her as she tried scrambling over to it. I moved quickly as he tried swinging his sword towards her, tackling him onto the ground. His sword dropped out of his hand as we landed awkwardly and before he could try reaching for it I scrambled up his back enough to push his head down into the mud a tad awkwardly.

He pushed himself up quickly, knocking me off balance enough for him to twist around and backhand me in the face. I managed to get out a small strangled yelp before I was knocked onto my back with a harsh shove. The man moved on top of me, a large hand wrapping around my throat and slamming my head down into the thankfully soft mud before I had a chance to scream. I tried kicking and scratching, but he was so much stronger than me that none of it hand an effect. My vision blurred again as I tried gasping in air and as I was starting to black out I could just make out something silver coming out of his neck before something hot covered my face and everything turned red.

His grip loosened suddenly and before he could collapse on top of me someone pushed him to the side with a loud rage filled scream. I gasped in lung fulls of air, coughing hoarsely. I felt someone pull me up out of the mud and start wiping my face. They kept my face tilted back so that the rain washed away what I was slowly figuring out was blood. As my eyes cleared I blinked out the last tinges of red and fog from my vision before looking down at Bre.

"Is he dead?" My voice was so quiet and rough that I could hardly recognize it. She nodded over to where the body had been tossed off of me and I looked over. He was a large bear of a man but it was very clear he was dead based off of the sword sticking out of the back of his neck. "Are you... ok?" I tried clearing my throat again as I looked back at her.

"I'm fine. You keep saving me remember?" Bre's voice was soft and tinged with attempted humor.

"I think we're even now..." I smiled causing her to laugh dryly before leaning forward to hug me, her head dropping onto my shoulder.

"We need to move."

"Yeah..."

Bre sat back and looked me over again before standing and quickly looting the men of anything we could use, including their swords. Once she was done she leaned down to help me up onto my feet. I leaned against her as we moved as quickly as we could away from the bodies. As soon as we were pretty far enough away Bre set me down against a tree and put her hands together to focus her chakra. I watched as she stayed that way for a little while before sitting in front of me.

"How's your head feeling?" She gestured for me to come closer and I leaned down to where her hands could reach as she started prodding my the back of my head.

I let out a soft hiss and her hands softened. "It just hurts. But I don't feel dizzy so I don't think I have a concussion this time."

"And your throat?"

"Also hurts, but also not life threatening." She moved her hands and sighed so I sat back up. "So what now?"

"I couldn't sense anyone else in the woods nearby. So for now I think you should rest as best you can without sleeping. I'll keep watch." I nodded and she put her hands in her lap, sitting like she was meditating, and closed her eye.

I watched her for a while, knowing she was sensing for chakra and would be able to give us a good warning, something I was still rather bad at. If that man had killed me... would Bre have been able to defeat him? … I could have died... I almost did die. Looking down I noticed that I was still drenched in blood but for once I didn't feel sick. For once it made me feel powerful and I knew that this blood meant I had lived.

We sat there for a while, Bre focusing and me lost in thought. Slowly Bre opened her eyes and looked around before standing and starting to stretch. "Are you feeling any better Cass?"

"Still have a headache but I'll live till we can get back to base. Have you thought of a plan?"

She nodded and stared at me for a few seconds before speaking up. "When the second man was about to attack you used a jutsu on him. I thought I saw it before but I couldn't remember at the time. I've seen you use it on some of the other members before. Very specifically, that first day when Kakuzu attacked you."

"What are you saying?"

"So... just hear me out... We already know that you can read peoples thoughts when your chakra flares. That's a fact. What if you can also alter other peoples thoughts, or at least influence them?"

I stopped and looked down, thinking it over. That makes a lot of sense... and explains a lot. "Leader mentioned something like this before. He said I had a weird way of making even the most aggressive people like me... What if that was what he was talking about?"

"It does make sense. If you're able to influence the other Akatsuki to like you and me then why not a thug... Maybe that's why Itachi doesn't like you? Because he knows what you're doing even if you hadn't realized it yet... Which means Leader and... uh..."

"They would know as well... But it would make me very useful... And there would be no way for them to get rid of you either because if they killed you I would never work for them." We both nodded and went silent for a little bit. "So... what do I need to do?"

"Well... if you can hold them off for long enough then we'll be able to kill our target and get away."

"I'll need to practice it for a while before I trust that I can do it there."

"I'll do my best to keep watch then."