Hello everyone! Okay, so first off, I wanna say a massive thank you to everyone who favorited and followed this story, I was not expecting so many good responses what so ever! To say thank you, this is an extra-long chapter, nearing nearly 5000 words so I hope you all like it! Please F&F and review if you have anything you want to say, any questions or anything about it, I would much appreciate it! I would also like to mention that the ratings will be changing in the future but as of now, this story will be kept T rated.

I do not own Naruto in any way, I only own Maoru. All Naruto characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo.

Flowers from stone.

Maoru's feline eyes flickered to her mentors as they both walked into the training hall, their steps echoing against the barren silence of the humungous room. The girl stood promptly and dusted herself off. The training area in the Akatsuki HQ was something far from small. It was probably one of, if not, the largest rooms in the entire building with thick slabs of concrete for flooring and walls. Heavy metal piping stretched from everywhere, corroded with rust and reaching up to the skylight window. The room stank of damp and dust, a musky scent that was harsh on the nose and made you cringe if you inhaled too hard. The girl found herself rubbing her nose as she attempted to rid it of the pungent smell.

"I was beginning to think you didn't wanna see me."

Itachi's harsh black orbs rolled over the girl and he found himself focusing on her skimpy ninja attire that he'd picked apart earlier that day when she'd been talking with Deidara. His mind thought back to what his blue team mate had said.

"…the girl being… forced to perform."

The thought echoed in his mind. She was only fifteen years old; the thought beginning to sicken him. It was then that he realized something. She wasn't so scantily clad because she wanted to be. It was a habit.

"Well here we are. So let's get to it, yeah. Tell us a bit about your fighting styles, hm."

Itachi was too deep in thought to truly listen to what anyone was saying, instead focusing intently on her lips as they moved. It seemed his reality was moving in slow motion as he stood quietly, letting sinister thoughts echo through his mind. It was odd thinking that his little brother had even concerned himself with a task such as fornication. Especially at such a young age. Though Itachi couldn't exactly speak. He must have been around twelve or thirteen when he'd become interested in the opposite sex. Coincidentally the same time he was forced to murder his whole family, completely unrelated topics of course.

"Well, I'm an Earth user, as are most of my jutsu. I have no Kekkei Genkai but I do, however, have a hiden technique exclusive to my family. Actually, come to think of it, I don't think it's been seen outside the bloodline before," she mused, holding her chin in thought. Interesting but nothing special. Itachi thought to himself as he focused his indifferent, unreadable eyes on the girl.

"Well, the only way we're gonna see what you're made of is if you show us, hm."

The girl seemed to tense slightly at the notion that she'd have to show them her abilities. Hesitantly, the girl nodded and slowly reached into the kunai pouch on her backside. Itachi and Deidara shared a look before both of them jumped with speed like lightening to avoid the shuriken that lodged into the ground with equally fast speed. The girl frowned and looked around, cloudy eyes flickering back and forth as she attempted to find her targets. The hall was eerily silent when she felt the presence behind her and managed to jump in time to avoid Itachi swiping her feet out from under her. What she didn't count on was him swinging his leg around and going for a round house kick. Maoru tutted and clutched his foot, scowling up his leg and into his eyes.

Throwing his leg back with aggression, she flipped backwards with the agility of a monkey. Biting her thumb, she performed a serious of hand signs at moderate speed and Itachi managed to read them. An Earth jutsu. So this would be it.

"Sekijunkawa no jutsu!"

The ground rumbled for a moment before Itachi furrowed his brows and flickered back a good few feet to avoid the technique. Great stalagmites of stone shot from the ground in vicious spikes and narrowly missed him. Itachi narrowed his eyes at the technique as he evaluated her performance. The girl growled.

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

The girl's eyes widened when she felt something crawling up her leg. Shakily, she looked down and had to hold her breath when she saw the creature that scuttled further and further up her body. She wasted no time hesitating and before he could even exclaim his usual trigger word of Katsu, she'd used a substitution jutsu. Deidara chuckled from his high vantage point where he scanned the battleground for his kouhai. Turning suddenly, he clasped her wrists in his hands, tutting at her. He could have heard her from a mile off with her lack of stealth.

"Maoru-chan, you need to improve your sneaking, yeah." He snorted earning a glare from the girl who huffed through her nose and let out a squeak as he spun her and released, sending her flying through the air. For a moment, the girl panicked but quickly regained her balance and gracefully moved through the air in a slow spin, landing in a crouch, eyes staring over her shoulder at Itachi who raised his hand to his mouth and heaved his chest. The girl's eyes widened in shock. When did he perform the hand seals?

Great spouts of fire spat from his mouth before a large ball formed and crackled towards her, singeing everything it touched to ash.

"Shit!" She hissed under her breath before performing some panicked hand movements, disappearing within a puff of smoke behind Itachi who ducked beneath her fist.

"You're slow." He voiced, indifferent to her weak attempt at an attack. The man body flickered away next to Deidara who smugly smirked at the girl. Maoru scowled once more at the two and growled slightly, hating the feeling of being so inferior. The two men stood away from her but were shocked when she disappeared without forming any kind of hand sign. Deidara looked around, unable to sense her chakra or presence anywhere. Itachi just closed his eyes and concentrated, his keen inner eyes finding a spark of chakra. Above.

Looking up, he frowned. Hanging upside down mere inches from his face was the girl, suspended from a thin metal ninja wire, pointing a sharpened kunai directly in between his eyes. For a moment, they just stared at each other, his black orbs versus her stormy grey ones. Her sandy blonde hair began to trickle down and tickle his cheeks as he stared emotionlessly up at her.

"I killed you, Itachi-Senpai." She smirked before jumping down and sheathing her kunai back into her pouch, tugging the ninja wire back down and pocketing that too. Deidara folded his arms over his chest and frowned.

"Technically, you still lost, yeah."

The girl turned with angry eyes and stomped her foot, reminding the two more superior ninja of a child.

"The hell do you mean by that? He'd have been dead if this were a real fight!" She spat, seriously on the verge of losing her cool. Deidara pointed to the ground beneath them on the ledge and when Maoru turned, she scowled. Itachi looked up at her, the clone disappearing within a puff of smoke. Her eyes glared down at him before Deidara slapped her arm. She hissed in pain, holding her arm.

"What was that for!"

"Dead." He grinned complacently as she rubbed the flesh that was turning pink from the sharp gesture. The girl just rolled her eyes as she jumped down to Itachi who didn't say a word, only observed her behaviour. Maoru hesitantly strolled up to him, head bowed slightly in embarrassment.

"So… how did I do?" She murmured, suddenly feeling pretty shy. These last few days, she hadn't gotten much practise so she was a wee bit rusty but knew in her heart that really, she was all over the place with her technique. When Deidara appeared next to Itachi, she felt slightly intimidated.

"Well, where should we start, yeah? Your movements are sloppy, as are your strategies. You have little to no power in your attacks and your stealth was almost non-existent in that first little stunt you pulled, hm." The girl frowned at his words, honestly she thought she might have done a bit better than that. Itachi's eyes stared up and down her face for a moment before continuing after Deidara.

"You lack intelligence in your technique, you were rash to come to the conclusion that you'd already won the battle and killed me when there were at least sixteen other moves I could have listed in my head to counter your attack. You became conceited and in doing so, you could have easily been killed."

Maoru hung her head slightly, biting her lip, trying to hold back a whimper. She wasn't going to cry but she wanted to bury her head in her hands and groan. Being reprimanded for being careless was something familiar to her and it was the worst feeling in the world.

"But… that last move in particular has proved your worth. It was a successful stealth technique despite your impulsive behaviour. Not only that, but you have a clan jutsu. It could prove valuable to this organisation, although it needs a bit of work to be improved further."

The girl could do nothing but watch Itachi in amazement, feeling a small smile of awe stretch onto her lips. She felt her cheeks heat up slightly when she averted her eyes from him and swallowed hard, suddenly feeling very awkward. What was she supposed to do with this information? And why was it suddenly so quiet? She couldn't really do anything but nod, giving her superiors a shy nod.

"I understand." She voiced quietly, but inside she was screaming. Itachi raised his eyebrow. That's something else we need to work on. He could read her like a book. He couldn't help but let a small smile tug on his lips but quickly retracted it when he felt Deidara's eyes boring into him. Deidara raised an eyebrow with piqued interest upon seeing something he thought he'd never see. Did Itachi just smile? Shaking his head, he diverted his gave back to the girl. Must have been my eyes playing tricks. But still. Even he felt the awkward air between Itachi and their little kouhai.

Itachi closed his eyes and sunk his face slightly into the collar of his Akatsuki garment.

"We'll start your training first thing tomorrow. Be ready at 6 AM and be prepared for injury or worse. You may go."

Maoru kept her stoic face and turned on her heel, strolling out of the room but had a subtle little dance of joy when out of sight.

Itachi watched her go before turning back to Deidara who had his arms folded over his chest, a knowing smirk stretched across his face. The raven haired man just ignored him, walking past him to meditate upon the ledge that stretched a few metres above where Maoru had so impulsively attacked before. Deidara moved forward to stare up at him with smug looking eyes.

"What was that about, hm?" He spoke in a bitter-sweet voice, the arrogance rolled off of his tongue like a fluent language in conceitedness that only Deidara knew so well, Itachi thought to himself. The black eyed male crossed his legs upon his high view point and let his hands fall limp upon his thighs. After Deidara recognized that he was being very blatantly ignored, he swivelled and headed out of the room where the girl had left not minutes before.

.

Maoru hummed to herself as she wandered down one of the many halls of the Akatsuki. She'd been at it for about five minutes before she reached the end and entered a hovel of a room through a small arch. And by that, she meant that the room was still fairly large and the arch was still two metres wide but withered in comparison to the many other grand rooms she'd seen in the Akatsuki HQ. Her eyes looked down when her sandals met with soft plush carpet. An eyebrow raised when she stared around, what she guessed, was some form of living area.

It had soft cream carpets and beige walls with ugly dents that marred the soft colour of the walls. In the corner was a sofa that was tattered and shredded with a scratchy looking throw that hung loosely over the arm. In the centre was a worn out looking snooker table where two chipped and splintered snooker cues looked a little worse for wear. She hummed with mild interest when she approached an open door to the side and cocked her head. There was an extended kitchen area to the right of the living area or so it seemed. It was a lot larger than she'd actually expected with it being an extension of the first room. Her first thoughts were that it was originally a large hall of a room before being converted into two moderately sized rooms.

In the kitchen area there wasn't much to look at, it just seemed like a normal kitchen. It had a silver, what seemed to be, oven, sink and refrigerator amongst other everyday appliances. Her stomach suddenly growled when she realized she hadn't eaten since she'd entered the rainy hell that was Amegakure. She'd found a small teahouse that sheltered her from the rain and had ordered at least three rounds of dango after travelling so far so relentlessly. The girl practically ran to the source of food that she so desired and pulled it open, her feline eyes flickering all over the chilly interior before widening in shock. The refrigerator was filled to the brim with meat. When the smell reached her nose, she quickly covered it and slammed the door shut, gagging. She knew that smell all too well. Rotting human. Her throat wildly convulsed as she stumbled to the sink and clutched it, suddenly feeling very ill. Her eyes narrowed. What the hell kind of place is Pain running around here? She internally growled.

"What do you think you're doing, little kunoichi?"

The girl turned at the sudden appearance of the large blue, shark-like man she'd been introduced to earlier that day. Kisame Hoshigaki. The sandy haired girl had been slightly intimidated of the man in her five foot three stance. H was like a giant compared to her and so much bulkier. The girl leaned against the sink and crossed her arms, eyes narrowed.

"What's it to you?" She murmured, suddenly feeling fairly uncomfortable within the presence of such a strong ninja. She'd heard all about Kisame Hoshigaki and his antics in his home village. Back in Iwa, he was the talk of the town after he joined the Akatsuki and had often become parental warnings to children not to break their curfew. The man stood opposite her and said nothing, just grinned with those sharp, sinister teeth of his, his beady little eyes of his penetrating her small form. The girl rolled her eyes and began rifling through the cupboards.

"I'm looking for food." She mumbled, shifting numerous jars and utensils out of the way in her search. She was suddenly interrupted by a bellowing laugh. It nearly shook the whole room. Turning her glare on him, her mouth pressed into a firm line when she realized that he was, in fact, laughing at her.

"Why didn't you just say so, kid? You won't find any food in here."

The girl blinked in confusion. She was in the kitchen, wasn't she? Looking around, she studied her surroundings from her seat on the floor. Kisame just leaned back against the wall and grinned at her.

"This room isn't what you think it is, little kunoichi. Now follow me, I'll find you some food." He chuckled before walking out of the room with a swish of his cloak. The girl hesitated for a few seconds before warily pushing herself onto her feet and following him out of the building.

.

"So, what do you think of your Itachi-Senpai, then?" Kisame probed as he stared at the scrawny little whelp scoffing down her grilled steak with vigour. He'd never seen something so small devour such large portions and he immediately regretted taking her to the barbeque joint, his money pouch beginning to throb in warning. His usual amused grin refused to leave his face as he downed his shot of sake. The girl stopped eating and blinked at her superior, gulping down her food before speaking.

"What do you mean?"

The shark man began pouring himself another shot as people bustled around them, coming in from the storming rain that poured outside and nearly flooded the streets. It was evening time, the night creeping into the Amegakure skies, the grey clouds darkening further. The barbeque place was a nice place, thought. It was warm and lively, filled with light, laughter and the aromatic smells of cooking foods. It made a good sanctuary from the harsh weather. Kisame eyed the girl as she stared at him.

"Well, do you like him?"

The girl stuttered at his words, cheeks flushed. Why would you ask a question like that? She exclaimed in her head. Kisame just laughed. That's a yes, then. The sandy haired girl began spluttering out, trying to defend herself after realizing how awkward she must have looked. Kisame just held his hands up, trying to calm her.

"I didn't mean like that, kid. Calm down."

Maoru sunk in her seat and frowned, eyebrows knitting together. Smooth one. She scolded herself silently for acting like such an idiot. She leaned forward on the table and poked her steak with her chopsticks, a scowl on her face. Kisame just down another shot, amused at her unsubtle behaviour.

"He's taken a liking to you, you know."

Her grey eyes shot up to him as she pursed her lips, trying to hide her sudden interest at his words. But as usual, she was so readable it hurt. The girl exhaled slowly, taking a bite into her steak and finding balance in her emotions, thinking of their sparring session earlier. He'd easily read her movements and predicted what she would do. Things like that always used to confuse her until she realized how easy to read she was.

"Why should I care?" She murmured, chewing the medium rare meat enthusiastically. Kisame just chuckled before pouring sake into a shot glass and sliding it towards her as her eyes widened it shock.

"Kisame-Senpai, I'm fifteen!" She exclaimed, pushing it away with distaste. The blue man frowned, the first time she'd actually seen him pull a facial expression that wasn't mocking her.

"And I'm a criminal, drink." He pushed it back, smirking when she finally pressed it to her lips, grumbling about how he was a bad influence on her. She pulled it away slightly and pulled a face when she inhaled the pungent scent before pinching her nose and downing it. Kisame scoffed out a laugh when she coughed and gagged, her eyebrows raising and her eyes squinting as her mouth pulled downwards.

"That was gross."

"Say what you like. It gets you drunk quick." Kisame mused, sipping his own shot and eyeing her. If he didn't have a reputation to uphold, he might have considered taking the girl to bed that night. But amongst his list of crimes, the rape of a fifteen year old wouldn't be one of them. The girl's eyes flickered up to meet his own.

"So what, am I gonna get drunk now?"

Kisame snorted.

"Not on one shot you won't." He said, passing her another, which she downed surprisingly quickly, making his eyebrows raise. She noticed and sheepishly grinned.

"I'm celebrating."

Kisame smiled at her and rested his arms on the table.

"I'm guessing Itachi and Deidara decided to carry on with your training, then. You must be something special."

Maoru smiled at him and slouched in the booth that they sat in, away from the rowdy Amegakure people who were drinking, laughing and pulling at the bar. Grey eyes drifted to the crowd as she watched he people interacting and having a good time. Just not caring what they were doing. She wanted to be like that.

"Yeah I guess so."

Kisame followed her line of vision and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Want me to get us more drinks?"

Maoru hesitated for a moment before her thought process was interrupted by the joyous laughter from the bar, pushing her to say yes. She smiled up at Kisame who stood and eyed her.

"Yeah sure thing."

Kisame chuckled and moved to the bar in his plain black cloak. Maoru watched after him and knitted hr eyebrows, thinking of what he'd mentioned earlier. 'He's taken a liking to you, you know.' Pink lips grimaced. What does that even mean? The man was cold and harsh like a snow storm, something she'd never really known before. He'd seemed completely uninterested in her and trying to read his emotions was like trying to look through a brick wall. When Kisame returned with another bottle of sake and placed it next to their half empty one, Maoru was quick to grab a shot, still hung up on what Kisame had said and why it was effecting her so much.

.

When Itachi became aware after what must have been four hours of meditating, he suddenly became aware of a loud ruckus, which was strange for the Akatsuki base which was usually so quiet. With mild interest, he hopped to the ground and followed the sound. As he drew closer and closer to the sound, he found himself wandering towards the living room. As the noise grew louder, he tried to distinguish voices from the loud laughter. How long had he been meditating for? The base was dark but the light from the living room broke through the shadows of the hall as Itachi approach and finally rounded the corner into the room.

"You've got to focus on your strategies! *hic* you're sloppy and slow and you can't be s-so reckless!"

Itachi glowered at the scene before him. Deidara and Kisame roared with laughter at what Itachi could only describe as a pretty inaccurate impression of him, their cheeks dusted pink and the whole room reeked of alcohol. Empty bottles of beer lined the sofa and atop the green snooker table which a very drunk Maoru sat. Mocking him. When Maoru's two superiors stopped laughing and pursed their lips, the girl hazily followed their eyes to the source of the silence. Grey eyes squinted lightly as she tried to focus her vision, her actions delayed due to the whole bottle of sake she managed to demolish as well as the many beers she'd had upon returning with Kisame.

"You got her drunk." Came his cold voice. Deidara sniggered at Kisame who tried to stand but staggered, wincing at Itachi's tone. He knew the raven haired man wouldn't approve but he hadn't intended to get the level of drunk he was at either. So when the time came he might be able to defend the girl but at this point, he was so far gone. When they'd left the sake bar, staggering into Deidara who was out for god knows what reason they'd all decided to go back for drinks and then head home. It would have been fine if the girl hadn't insistent they all carry on drinking. Who knew she'd be so much fun.

"Listen, I-Itachi-"

"Geez, what's with you? I can take care of myself!" The girl slurred, scowling at her Senpai whilst blowing into the top of her beer bottle, snorting at the noise it made which caused Deidara to silently laugh to himself, gulping down his own drink.

"Itachi, lighten up, yeah. We're just having a bit of fun." Deidara defended Kisame and the girl who stared at the contents of her bottle with drunken fascination, trying to pick off the label. Itachi glowered at Deidara who awkwardly hid his mouth behind his bottle. Kisame grinned at his partner.

"Why don't you come and join us, Itachi?"

Kisame didn't hold out much hope so was shocked when the man actually agreed.

"Fine. But only to keep an eye on things." He muttered, rejecting the bottle of beer Kisame offered him. He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest, glowering at the girl who was sloppily re-tying her long hair into a half up half down bun. Itachi couldn't help but admire her ability to actually function after drinking so much, she was only young after all. If he was imprudent, he'd say she handled it like a champ. But as of now, he was unamused. Especially since they started their training tomorrow morning.

"Itachi-Senpai, come over here!" He was suddenly aware of her attention directed at him, upper body twisted as she gestured him over. His eyebrow ticked in irritation as he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. His patience would be severely tested that night, he was sure of it. Taking his time, he stalked over to the snooker table and inclined his body against it, next to Maoru who laughed at Kisame's attempts to manoeuvre his feet.

.

Itachi continued to silently observe for what seemed like hours, with an almost comical expression of pure discontent on his face. When it was about half past eleven, Kisame stumbled off to bed, his great bulking body making it difficult for his drunken mind to control and he bumped into many things on the way. Deidara had found things a bit awkward when Kisame left and it didn't take him too long to follow but not before smirking at Itachi who did nothing but watch Maoru groan and lean back a bit too far on the snooker table, sinking down and spilling her left over beer all over herself.

Itachi just closed his eyes and sighed, pushing himself off of the table and observing her. She was pretty much out cold.

What are you doing? Just leave her there, she'll be fine.

He told himself this, and yet he still found his feet moving in front of her and his hands reaching out to clasp her waist so he could drag her up and into his arms with ease. Upon moving her, the girl protested slightly, weakly trying to hit his chest and slur some curses before falling limp in his arms. Again, the man just exhaled and carried her out of the room, turning off the lights by the light switch on the way. Itachi Uchiha, one of the most feared S rank criminals in the world, Sharingan user and devoted baby sitter. He let out a growl. How ridiculous the whole situation was. Finding her room in the darkness of the corridor was a trivial task of ease for him.

Now came the harder part.

As he opened her door rather awkwardly, managing to bump her head twice in the process, he made his way to her bed and laid her down, her hair sprawling out on the white linen sheets. Itachi's black orbs flickered over the girl, the light from the streets outside shining over her face as rain pattered against the windows. As he sat down beside her, he began taking in the smaller details of her face such as the freckles that adorned her cheeks, dusting over in a light spray. He never noticed before but she had beaded earrings in and a string bracelet with a strange pendant.

His eyebrow rose as he took her hand and held up her wrist to his curious gaze.

"Senpai, what are you doing?"

Immediately, he released her wrist causing it to flop down onto her tight belly, and stood to face the door. Maoru pushed herself up slowly, her intoxicated eyes finding it hard to focus on Itachi so much so that in the morning, she might have thought it was just a dream.

"Can you undress yourself?"

The girl bit her lip, it was silence for a few moments before Itachi turned his head, his dark orbs suddenly eyeing her from the corners.

"You spilled alcohol on yourself."

If she was sober, she would have been completely mortified at what he just said, but in her drunken state she just nodded, suddenly feeling very ill. Itachi took that as a cue to leave.

"Itachi!"

The man stopped in his tracks before he could touch the door handle. She hesitated for a moment before pressing herself to speak.

"Goodnight…"

…

"Get some sleep." He replied, his voice sounding a lot softer than he intended. The girl smiled to herself as he left with the click of the door, falling back down on her back, rolling to her front and hugging the pillow close to her damp body, but she was too far gone to care.

On the other side, Itachi stood for a moment before retiring to his own room, eyes closing. What am I doing?

.

So, that's chapter two down! I hope in this chapter you really got a feel of Maoru's flaws. I know in the last one they weren't as apparent but hopefully you began to sort of familiarize yourself with her a bit. I will go on to describe a few that I can think of from the top of my head. Okay, so first off, Maoru hates to lose if she feels like she deserved to win and can act very childish at times when she wants to. She's also very impulsive and out of her modest range of skills, intelligence and power aren't one of them. She's still moderately bright but only on impulsive actions that requires her to be.

Maoru also has a very addictive personality which means, hopefully you all saw with the bar scene, that she craves a certain way of living and will make silly decisions to feel satisfied. This also may link into her past but I'll go on a bit about that in the next chapter. One thing that I would also like to point out is that I'm trying my very best not to make Itachi too OOC. I feel like it's quite hard when writing from his perspective as Itachi's quite a private character who's very hard to read most of the time but I will continue doing what I'm doing until somebody complains.

Also, I will be explaining about Maoru's very curious bracelet in the near future so stay tuned!

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Please F&F and review if you're keen! Thank you all, see you in a week!