Buongiorno! It's been a pretty crazy last couple of days, what with me being in Rome and all that. Italy's really cool! Anyways, I've just got some free time, and I was pretty excited to put this chapter up, especially since the last chapter hit the 100 reviews mark! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed/favorited/followed this story! Your support is greatly appreciated, and I hope you wonderful people will continue to do so!

Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. I wish it did. loljk I do not have the capacity or the talent to appease the millions of Naruto fans around the world.

This story will not have any relation to Naruto's dream of achieving Sasuke Uchiha's return or defeating Orochimaru. This happens a little bit after the Rescue Gaara arc. In other words, kind of AU (Alternate Universe). Thought you should know.

Warning: Coarse language.

Clink. Clink.

A silver eyebrow twitched in irritation.

Clang!

"Will you shut the fuck up, bitch?!"

"I can't help it if these shitty chains chime like fucking gongs every time I move, dumbfuck!"

"Then why don't you fucking stop moving, you little shit!?"

"Fucking make me!"

"I never thought you'd fucking ask!"

Hidan jumped off the sofa, grabbing his scythe from where he had left it leaning against the wall beside a bookshelf. A teenage girl with red-gold hair stood up from the armchair beside the sofa, pulling her upper lip back over her teeth in a defensive snarl as she readied herself for an attack from the immortal criminal.

Before Hidan could advance on the girl, however, a massive blade covered in spiked scales was thrust in the space between the two. Looking up, they saw an extremely tall blue-skinned man, shark-like features glowering at them as he attempted to stare them down. "Do you want to die, kid?" his attention slid from his prisoner towards the Jashinist, "And stop starting fights out of nowhere!"

"I would fucking stop if this bratty little shit was fucking gone!"

"Why don't you go jump off a fucking cliff, dickhead?!"

"I said shut up! Both of you!"

Kohaku sighed as yet another argument started up. It had been a few days — almost a week, in fact — since Itachi had granted her and the other captive with the liberty of mobility within the base. They could not go far, because they didn't know how to get out, and there was still the issue of the chakra-draining chains that Hidan had been irritated by. Speaking of the irritable Hidan, Kyuushoneko had immediately fit right into the odd dynamic of the criminal organisation, and seemed to be right at home amongst the shinobi labelled as manic murderers. It was probably because she was able to mouth off without having to worry about having her head hacked off, since Kisame wasn't going to allow that to happen to his cargo. She was just as obstreperous as most of them were - it was unnerving how the fact that they were criminally dangerous just bounced off her, like a water off a duck's back.

"It sure has gotten a lot more livelier around here, hm," a blonde with long hair that was swept up in a half-ponytail, sat at a table with various mounds of white clay in front of him. He pushed the hair that hung over one of his blue eyes aside, and added, "That kid has the personality of a thousand bombs, yeah."

"ADHD tends to do that to you," a dark-eyed redhead sitting across the table from the blonde muttered, not looking up from the mess of wires in front of him, "What I don't get is why she's still here."

Akasuna no Sasori of Sunagakure and Deidara of Iwagakure — Kohaku was familiar with the pair of S-rank missing-nin. When she had first entered the main room of the base, she had been surprised to discover that the puppet master, assumed to have died in a death match with Haruno Sakura and his grandmother, Chiyo, was in fact, alive and well. Of course, she had heard that the man had been nothing but a soul voluntarily entrapped within the body of a puppet, so it was very confusing to see a flesh and blood man, who looked no older than twenty, sitting at a table for hours on end with his tools in his hands as he tinkered with various puppet limbs.

Deidara, on the other hand… He had been presumed missing in action, because he had disappeared during a fight with another group of Konohagakure shinobi. Well, no matter, because there he was, sitting and moulding statues of all sizes with his questionable clay while declaring that art was, in fact, a bang. He and Sasori spoke - more like argued, really - about nothing else for hours on end - whether art was a bang or was eternal. It was almost comical, save for the threat of clay explosives and venomous needles whenever their debates got too heated.

Instead of the home base of the world's most deadly group of S-rank criminals, it felt more like she had been stuck inside a room full of headcases with extremely distinct personalities. It was feeling less of an enemy base and more like a zoo now. She had seen a man with a plant-like head, and had not been able to identify him. He had not been on the bingo book she had been given for her mission, but she jotted down what she knew in the extra pages she had.

What exactly was her mission?

Kohaku glanced over the pages of her book, and at the dark-haired Uchiha sitting across from her. His head was bent down, onyx eyes concentrated on writing down something in an empty notebook. Danzo had specifically given her the mission to infiltrate the Akatsuki's base, and she had realised that her mission was underway when the immortal pair of missing-nin had cornered and kidnapped her. She had played dumb when she had demanded to know why they wanted her, of course, to prevent any suspicion.

Mission objectives?

Find out if there were more members — she had already done that one, with the venus flytrap man. What was his name again? Zetsu? That's what she had heard Deidara call him. There was still a 'Leader-sama' and 'Konan', but she had yet to meet them.

Gather data about the powers and abilities of the known members — that was still in progress. Zetsu seemed to have phasing abilities to some extent - he popped out of floors and walls like doors didn't exist for him.

Find out where exactly the base is and locate the coordinates on a map — that was far from being completed.

Still, the ANBU felt like her mission was going well, so far. She had not anticipated for there to be another Konoha shinobi stuck on the same boat as her, but the only difference had been the noise, probably. Closing her eyes, Kohaku could envision a much quieter base if the loquacious genin had not been kidnapped and forced into imprisonment.

Itachi placed the pen down on the table, and turned his head to look at his partner, who was yelling at Hidan and Kyuushoneko. "Kisame!"

The blue-skinned swordsman immediately stopped what he was doing and turned to look at the Uchiha. "Yeah, Itachi-san?"

"Why is that girl still here?"

"Haven't gotten the okay to move her," the ex-Kiri-nin shrugged.

"Why not?"

"Dunno. Didn't bother to ask. They'll ask for her soon enough anyway."

"Or they won't, and you'll have to let me go 'cause I'll be of no use to you anymore!" Kyuushoneko chimed in with a gleeful grin.

Kisame scoffed. "I'll just feed you to the sharks, brat."

"What's that, Hoshigaki?"

There was a loud snort followed by cackling as Hidan found humour in Kyuushoneko's favourite insult for the demon shark. Kisame started yelling profanities of his own at the girl, who stood her ground and yelled back at him. Tuning out and blurring the words into the background, Kohaku pulled the page over, flipping to the next one. This was going to be an extremely long and noisy mission.

xxxx

A steaming bowl of rice was placed in front of the auburn-haired girl that sat at the bare wooden table. Umber eyes looked downwards at the paltry meal, and back upwards at the impassive face of the Uchiha, whose expression mirrored the girl's.

"Eat."

She made no move to do so.

"Don't worry, I haven't poisoned it."

She continued staring at him.

"I need something from you. Why would I poison it if I haven't gotten what I need?"

Fair enough.

Kohaku picked up the pair of chopsticks he had left beside the bowl. Tentatively, she picked up a mouthful of rice and placed it inside her mouth, chewing slowly. Her eyes never left Itachi's.

A chunk of time passed as the girl continued eating at a snail-like pace, with each bite as careful as the previous one. She had made it a point to keep her eyes glued onto the Konoha missing-nin whenever he was around, lest he attempted to do anything to her while she wasn't watching. That also meant that she got very little sleep, but no matter, because she didn't sleep very much in the first place, anyway. She was used to staying awake past twenty-four hours on two hour's worth of sleep, which was extremely useful for when she needed to be on her guard. Like right now.

Uchiha Itachi.

There were so many words that could be used to describe the man. Legendary was probably the best one, and most accurate one, too. Her being in the Foundation meant that Itachi was Kohaku's senior in some ways, due to his past as an ANBU Black Ops, but he was what the village elders publicly labelled as a traitorous failure. But underneath all that?

She had a feeling there was a lot more than what had been recorded and passed down about the night of the Uchiha massacre, but because of her position as a simple pawn of Danzo's, she had never once openly questioned any decision the vindictive man made. The fact that Uchiha Itachi had actually wanted her for more than one reason — she had been expecting that he would only be interested in the secret Uchiha chambers in her clan's home — made the girl wonder if what she was doing was something that she shouldn't be doing. Namely, serving Shimura Danzo with unquestionable loyalty.

Was she someone who blindly followed someone despite not knowing much about them?

She mentally berated herself. She was in no position to have any personal opinions on this matter. It was none of her business. What she felt about what she did, didn't matter at all. After all, she was merely a puppet used to do dirty work, and nothing more.

"I am only an empty vessel with a name."

That was the mantra she had been taught to discard her former self. And she had repeated it hundreds of times everyday for a few years without fail ever since her brother's death. Eventually the mantra only needed to be repeated once a day to remind Kohaku that she was nothing.

"I am nothing."

That was another mantra. All the children that had been sent from the other border clans in Kohaku's generation - Takamiya, Kitsumiya, Toramiya, Okamiya… They were all dead. They had refused to kill their siblings when they had been pitted against each other, and in the end, Danzo had killed them all for their defiance. The only reason why Kohaku had been left alive was because as far as the old man knew, she had taken a blade to her brother's heart. The same blade that she now carried everywhere with her, as a reminder of the sacrifice her brother had made for her to live on.

"Why do you do what Shimura Danzo tells you to do without question?"

Itachi's quiet voice ripped the girl away from her thoughts. For a moment, she sat in confusion as she processed his question. Dropping her gaze into the half-empty bowl of rice, she said, "I am only an empty vessel with a name. I am nothing."

Itachi narrowed his eyes. "Is that what you really feel, or is that what they expect you to feel?"

Kohaku didn't know how to answer him. Part of her wanted to say no, of course not, because despite the many years of brainwashing Danzo had done on her to rid her of her original personality, there were still traces of the old Kohaku; the one that had existed during what she immortalized as the only halcyon days she would ever have in her life. But she knew — she had no feelings. What were feelings? Pointless, that was what they were. They had only caused the people she had ever known as comrades and friends to die, all because of their emotions.

A thought crossed her mind.

How did Itachi know so much about the Foundation, anyway? It was a completely separate faction from the main ANBU, and they hardly ever intersected with each other and thus, knew almost nothing about the other.

"Why do you possess so much knowledge about the Foundation?" Kohaku decided to ask.

Itachi looked at her, his onyx eyes giving nothing away as he studied her. "Have you ever stopped to wonder if what you do for the Foundation is beneficial for Konohagakure's future, or if it is merely just a power play by the man you refer to as your master?"

She found that she did not, once again, have an answer. Itachi pulled away from the kitchen table, and started walking towards the door. "I'm still looking into the cursed seal that he placed on your tongue, but I think I'm getting close to finding a way to remove it. It won't be permanent, but temporary enough for me to extract all the information I need from you."

Permanent.

Temporary.

Pain was temporary.

Death was permanent.

Sometimes, Kohaku wished that she had killed herself instead.

I took a creative opportunity to pull Sasori and Deidara back into the Narutoverse just 'cause I really like them. Doesn't matter since fanfiction is basically AU anyway. Sticking Kohaku and Itachi together makes it a little bit hard to write any dialogue between the two, simply because they're both so similar and silent! But that's a challenge I like, so I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well. Review to let me know how you liked it! c:

Luv,

Pichuzilla.