-Itachi-

I flinched as I heard the sound of the whip crack through the air again and again and shivered when I remembered the time Pein had used it on me when I'd tried to get a message to my brother.

"How can she stand it? She doesn't make a single sound."

Kisame said, voicing my own questions.

"I don't know."

I said and flinched again as I heard the whip crack once more. I looked up when I saw Pein come out of the cavern. The front of his clothes was covered in her blood.

"One of you go clean her up, we don't want her to die just yet."

He said before disappearing deeper into the mountain. I sighed before getting up off the rock I'd been sitting on and walked into the cavern where she was chained. She was hanging from the chains pinned into the wall, they were the only thing keeping her up. I dipped a rag in cold water and started to clean her back. I noticed she hissed in pain when I first touched her broken skin, but other than that she didn't make a sound.

'She's strong.'

I thought as I cleaned her wounds and laid a couple of bandages on them to keep them from getting infected.

"You guys make no sense, you know that?"

She asked and I was shocked that she'd actually spoken. Her voice sounded hoarse, no doubt from the effort it took to keep her screams from being heard.

"First you torture me, then you tend to my wounds."

She said before her frame shook with what I could only guess to be laughter, but that stopped as soon as it started. I said nothing as I finished bandaging her wounds and walked out of the cavern.

'I should hate that girl, but I don't. She killed my brother and my teammates, and yet I feel no hatred towards her.'

I thought as I headed to the cave that housed my bed and belongings. We'd made our hideout deep in the base of the mountain. Pein said he wanted to get revenge for the members we lost, but in reality the only one he wants to get revenge for is Konan. Those two were almost inseparable. Konan was Pein's other half, just like Pein was Konan's other half. They were the best of friends and Konan was the only one that Pein ever truly trusted. Once he'd learned that a three tailed ookami had killed Orochimaru and the others years after having her beast extracted he'd hunted her down until he'd found her in Suna. He sent me and the others after her to bring back to him so he could get his revenge, it was only a matter of time before he grew tired of things and eventually killed her.

-Naruto-

The others and I gathered around the gates of Suna and waited for Gaara to tell us what to do. When he motioned for us to follow him we didn't hesitate. Fayre was our friend, if it hadn't been for her I never would have realized I loved Hinata. She had solved the rivalry between Ino and Sakura, stopped Lee from flirting with every young woman he saw, and even managed to get Shikimaru to stop sleeping all the time. She'd weaved her way into our lives, there was no way we wouldn't do everything we could to help get her back.

-Temari-

I watched Gaara as we ran through the desert. He was the only one who knew where to go. Kiyomi had just said that they'd headed East. I saw Kiba run up to Gaara and listened to what they said.

"You have her scent right?"

He asked my brother and he just nodded.

"If Akamaru and I had it we'd be able to help. Our sense of smell is keener than that of a humans. Your sense of smell may be heightened because traces of Shukaku linger in you, but ours is stronger."

Kiba said and I watched as my brother looked at him for a while before moving his sand so that the bit that had soaked up Fayre's blood was held out to Kiba and his pup. I watched as they sniffed it before Akamaru barked and raced ahead. Gaara pulled his sand back inside his gourd and sped up. I moved through the trees so that I was in step with Kiba.

"Do you really think your dog will be able to find her?"

I asked and he smiled at me.

"Don't doubt a dog's sense of smell."

He said and I nodded as we fell into silence. I guess all I could really hope for was that we find her soon. Who knows what Pein and the others could do to her in the time it takes for us to get to her.

TWO DAYS LATER

-Fayre-

My back stung like hell, but I grit my teeth and used my chakra to slowly heal the worst of it. That had been the seventh time Pein had whipped me and I could tell he was getting aggravated with the fact that I wouldn't scream. I'd lost track of how long its been since I was kidnapped. It seems like only hours, but I know it's been longer than that. I'd learned the names of the other Akatsuki members in the cave with me, I'd also learned that I was being held in a mountain somewhere in the East. Itachi had been the one who'd cleaned my wounds the first day I was brought here. Each time I saw him I felt bad, like I should apologize to him because I killed his brother, but each time I'd never gotten the chance.

I heard footsteps coming towards my cave and cut my chakra flow just as Itachi appeared in my line of vision. He walked over to the bowl of water and rung out a rag and started cleaning my wounds again, like he had the first time.

"I'm sorry."

I said and felt his hand still on my back.

"What do you have to be sorry about?"

He asked in a guarded tone and I was shocked he'd actually said something. Normally he'd just ignore me.

"For killing your brother. I know you probably hate me and would love to see me die, but know I gave him a chance to live but he chose to attack me anyways."

I said and felt his hand still again. I hissed in pain when I felt something wet fall onto my back and make the wounds on my back sting.

"Sorry."

He said as he dabbed at the spot where the wetness had fallen. He moved into my line of vision and my eyes widened when I saw tears streaming down his face.

"I don't hate you and I don't wish you dead. Sasuke made his own decisions and he had to face those consequences."

He said before he left. I smiled at his retreating form. I don't know why, but just knowing that he didn't hate me for what I did made me feel better. Then I remembered where I was and what kind of situation I was in and sighed to myself. I closed my eyes and focused my chakra to my back again, some hours later I fell asleep from the exhaustion of using my special jutsu to heal myself. It wasn't really a jutsu so much as being able to manipulate my chakra into doing as I wished.

I awoke some time later to the sound of footsteps coming my way. I opened my eyes to see Pein walking into the room along with Tobi and Deydara.

"Get her down."

Pein ordered and the blonde and child-like Akatsuki members walked over to me and unshackled my hands and feet. I fell to my knees from being held up for so long.

"Get up."

Pein snapped and I grit my teeth and unsteadily got to my feet. I looked him in the eyes and smiled to myself when he glared at me.

"Take her to Kisame. He'll know what to do."

Pein said before leaving. Tobi and Deydara grabbed me under my arms and hauled me off to somewhere within the mountain. It was too dark to see where they were taking me. They pushed me into a cavern and quickly disappeared. I looked around and didn't particularly like what I saw. Swords, kunais, shurikens, daggers, scythes, and sai littered the walls of the cavern on one side while whips and spears littered the other.

'What is this, some kind of torture chamber?'

I wondered to myself before I saw the familiar shark-like face of Kisame. He hauled me up by the back of my shirt and threw me onto a table of sorts. He strapped my hands and feet down so I couldn't move and smirked down at me.

"Pein would like for me to see if I can get you to make a sound. If I can, he wants to know."

He said as he walked over and picked up a couple of kunais and came back over to me.

"With how stubborn you are, this might take a while."

He said with a sickening smile before he stabbed the kunai into my legs. I grit my teeth and clenched my hands at my sides to keep in my scream. I saw him pick up some daggers and watched as he trailed the sharp edges across the skin on my thighs, stomach, and chest. When he saw that had no effect he threw those away and pulled one of the whips off the wall. I glared at him and he just smirked at me before he raised his hand and brought the whip down across my chest, stomach, and legs repeatedly. Throughout the whole thing I grit my teeth and refused to make a single sound. He'd gone through the kunai, the daggers, the shurikens, the whips, the spears, and the scythes. He pulled the swords down from the wall and walked over to me. My breathing was rapid and I could feel myself close to blacking out from loss of blood, but I kept my eyes on him. He trailed the blade of the sword along my skin as he walked around the table. He looked over my body and I shivered in disgust. He smirked down at me before raising his hand and ramming the sword through my hand. I tried to keep from screaming, but when he twisted it I couldn't help it anymore.

"There we go."

He said with a sickening amount of joy in his voice. He drove the second sword into my other hand and twisted it before turning and leaving. I barely heard him tell someone to clean me up and take me back to my cave before I lost consciousness and the blackness took over.