A couple of rather boring days passed, becoming a blur in my memory. Despite that relatively long time, I have yet to receive an answer from the snake clan, or at least any kind of reply.

Considering my attitude and how I have pretty much enslaved Manda, I wouldn't be surprised if they suddenly erased me from their summoners' list. But they were assholes, so I didn't think it would happen soon.

That left me with some time to occasionally check on our jinchuuriki, who was doing exactly what Karin told me she was doing.

Absolutely nothing.

Or maybe she was in a deep philosophical debate with her tenant.

Either way, it confused me why she would prefer to lie on the cold, hard floor when she had a decent bed to rest on. Even the surroundings didn't have any charm at all and the ill-maintained roof, which is the reason her room had barely any lighting.

I had been thinking about how to approach her because I literally didn't know her besides the fact she was the jinchuuriki of the seven tails. However, I decided that instead of racking my brains to find the perfect way; I decided the simple but the most forward approach.

To calmly walk up to her and greet her.

"Hello, Fu." I stood next to her resting spot, mindfully keeping the distance between us.

"Oh, hey." She took her time to get into a sitting position and looked up at me with a faint smile on her face.

"Do you have a moment to speak?"

She glanced at her surroundings and nodded when she was done. "Sure, not like I'm doing anything important."

I took a seat on the floor for a more comfortable conversation, or at least in my mind, I believed it would help me to somehow connect with her better. Tho my clothes would get dirty.

However, after the direct approach, I was void of ideas at the moment, stretching the seconds of silence between us.

To say it was an awkward moment would be an understatement, and she didn't make it any better by gazing at me, waiting for my next words.

"Has there been a problem or anything that has been bothering you? Angry or displeased teammates can be counterproductive." I finally spoke.

Fu placed one finger on her chin while her eyes looked up in thought. "It's pretty calm around here. I get to eat a decent meal every day and have a decent bed so there isn't anything I should complain about like it is significantly better than sleeping in the forest or caves with an eye open."

Her words made me wonder for a short while if she was implying what I was thinking she was implying. "Did you have a bad time at Taki?"

She rapidly shook her head, shooting down that train of thought as quickly as it came. "Not that I think so, it's more like it was really…"

"Boring, stale, frustrating?" A couple of words came to mind.

She looked away in deep thought for a short while and turned back to look at me again. "I think monotonous would fit. Being inside a small house doing nothing most of the time wasn't exactly fun."

"It's not like you are doing a lot here." I remarked.

She let out a short laugh. "Is different, the environment here is different and I get the freedom to choose when to visit places or to move around, like yeah I might not be doing something but I get to do nothing wherever I want while in Taki it was always the same room."

After experiencing boredom, her explanation made sense in a way. "Perhaps I see your point."

Her gaze went up and stared at the only source of light that prevented the room from being engulfed in total darkness. "Is just nice to relax whenever you want."

"There is truth in your statement but I think is better if you could use this time to train, Suigetsu is a very skilled kenjutsu user, and if you aren't interested in fighting, then Juugo can teach you a thing or two about gardening or animal care and Karin can teach you a couple of useful skills." I finally addressed the problem.

Fu became silent.

Then she rubbed the back of her head. "I had those options?"

"You still have them, one just doesn't stop training."

Her cheeks became flushed as she looked down, trying to hide her embarrassment. "I should have asked, shouldn't I?"

I nodded.

She dragged both hands over her face, slightly stretching her skin. "Ugh, I feel like I wasted time."

"Don't worry, you still have some time." I said.

She perked up with a hint of curiosity behind my words. "Some time?"

"We will leave in a couple of days." That was the plan if Karin's prediction was correct and if she was wrong, then I would improvise something on the spot.

"Fine with me, but can you tell me where?"

When I tried to answer, my mind stopped the moment I recalled that I personally didn't know of that location as well. "To pick up a new sword for that crazy bastard."

Yet I was quick to recover myself from that small blunder.

The jinchuuriki looked up in deep thought for a short while, then her gaze returned to look at me with a small smile. "Sounds fun."

Silence befalls upon us, making it slightly awkward again. It forced me to think of another topic of conversation since she didn't seem to start one. Things would be far easier if she were more open, but that train of thought brought me back to our less than pleasant meeting at Suna.

And addressing the issue might help, or at least I thought it would in a way.

"I might have been slightly hostile back at Suna."

"Slightly?" She slowly turned to look at me with a raised eyebrow.

I was silent for a moment and looked away to check my surroundings. "Believe me, that girl can easily get into your nerves."

Her face scrunched into a frown. "While her comments made me rather angry, I don't think what you did was right."

My right hand quickly held my forehead and my thumb slowly drew circles on one of my temples to relax.

"As I said, I exaggerated." It was such a mediocre explanation but even to myself who recalled the experience I knew for a fact my reaction wasn't right at all in no shape or form, I couldn't even see the real Sasuke act in that way, I wanted to blame those Uchiha emotions.

Fu, on the other hand, rolled her eyes, not accepting my shitty excuse as expected.

I looked away for a moment, since I failed spectacularly. The best thing to salvage the situation was to slightly shift the direction of our conversation.

"I didn't have time back at Suna thanks to the news spreading like wildfire, but now we don't have pressure, so I'm here to listen to you." I extended my busy hand to her for the handshake.

Instead of taking up my offer of peace, she tilted her head to the side with a raised eyebrow. "Listen to what exactly?"

"Your strength and weakness or abilities and what you think can be useful for the overall team." I awkwardly pulled back my hand.

Fu looked at me for a short while and she released a long sigh. "I'm only a Jinchuuriki of the Seven tails who can connect and communicate with insects and I can partially transform my body to fly and strengthen myself, so as you can see nothing special compared to your teammates if that's what you are asking. My ability to communicate with insects is trash compared to the big guy and his animals, even worse in reconnaissance abilities with Karin in our group. And flying isn't that useful if we are planning to lie low, besides I cannot fly forever. If I exhaust my chakra, then I will fall immediately."

It was a terrible introduction, especially with her blatant pessimism, yet I couldn't bring myself to disagree with her words.

I could even say the Aburame was more useful than her.

"I wouldn't say it's completely useless, but they definitely outmatch you in those areas."

"Thanks for the encouragement." She scowled.

I shrugged. "I'm no liar, but I have some faith in your fighting capabilities. After all, I saw you back at the chunin exams."

"Someone literally defeated me in seconds. How can you tell?" She crossed both arms and looked away so I couldn't catch the faint red color on her cheeks.

"You lost because Suna rigged the match. Perhaps you didn't notice it, but I did. The entire arena was a web, and you were as helpless as a fly." I shined some light in the blatant cheating that occurred.

She turned back with wide eyes before she calmed down and held her chin in thought. "That...that might explain everything."

"Besides completing the first phase so fast is commendable, not everybody can do it."

A smirk came on her face. "A desert is hard to move around and live off the land, but I did my research before going to Suna."

"Also, your stance and the way you carry yourself told me you can hold your ground." The Sharingan was truly a marvel and the best tool in the world, despite the drawbacks and the constant influx of negative emotions that probably threatened my sanity.

Fu frowned. "Hard to believe, no offense."

Despite clarifying her desire to not offend me, her comment offended my pride, causing my resentment to manifest in my eyes."You cannot hide from my Sharingan."

Her eyes widened in surprise. Slowly a sheepish smile crept on her face. "Oh right, I forgot you were one of those Uchihas."

My vision quickly returned to normal and released a long sigh that held that pointless resentment. "The fewer people know, the better. But that aside, I'm giving you an opportunity."

"What do you mean?"

"After we retrieve that legendary sword, you can pick our next destination." I deduced that giving her that small thing would open up to us and learn more about her, besides I couldn't lie, but I was somewhat curious about her choice.

"Well, since you are offering." She placed one finger under her chin and looked up to the cracked roof in thought.

I kept my gaze on her waiting in anticipation.

"Take me to Taki." She finally gave me an answer as she cracked a smile.

That slightly caught me by surprise, my head tilted to the side trying to grasp her reasons. "I thought you didn't want to return."

The specific reason she explicitly told me when trying to join us.

Fu turned away for a brief moment and returned with her smile gone. "Not Taki as Takigakure, but I meant my house on the outskirts of Taki. There is some stuff I left behind and I would really like to get it back."

"I see no issue as long as we don't run into problems with your village." I said but my mind was still thinking of the possibility of creating another weight on our back, yet it was a sacrifice I was willing to take to improve the frosty relationship we had with our newest member.

Besides, I was rubbing my ego to declare that nobody in Taki had any chance to stand against me.

"There won't be, I promise."

"I will be leaving then." I stood up from my spot and turned around in the direction of the door where I came from.

Leaving the green haired girl behind alone with her thoughts

"Thank you."

My ears caught those words as I was nearing the exit but turned back or stopped. I kept going until I was finally outside of the room, only to be greeted by a very frustrated Karin, wearing a very stressed face. "I suck at reading people."

"I didn't have high hopes." She deflated at my response. "Did you get his location?" I asked quickly to change her negative mood.

She quickly regained her composure and adjusted her glasses. "Her location actually, she also brought a squad of Kiri bounty hunters."

"That will pose a problem." Her answer made me frown. Since getting a hold of that blade became much more problematic than expected and unlike the Chojuro group, that group would be actively looking for us or the other us.

Karin was quick to pick up my troubled emotions and cleared her throat to shift my attention.

"The trajectory they followed was from the coasts to the Fire country and the last sighting was at the South of the Fire Country nearing the center, but that's debatable they probably already left since that last sighting was around 2 days ago."

Karin made me debate with myself about the possibility to change our plans or keep the original intact, but in that same train of thought, another thought resurfaced.

"Did the villages finally send their ultimatum?" I was sure the other Major villages had enough of Kumo doing whatever they pleased and their excuse dried out. However, Karin wasn't able to dig up any information about Yugito besides her being in a critical state some time ago.

"Only Suna at the moment, but Konoha will soon follow along with Iwa with their ultimatum." She sighed.

"Let's wait for their announcement, in the meantime, we should prepare." It would be a couple of days before that moment, so it was plenty of time to stack up and organize our supplies.

"I already took care of everything. We only need to sit tight and wait." Karin smirked and puffed her chest in pride of her small accomplishment.

She surprised me with her anticipation, but I didn't let it show on my face. "Then focus on gathering more information on those bounty hunters and that woman. Anything can be useful."

I pondered for a moment for the next steps with my gaze up until I caught Karin with the corner of my eyes.

She only smiled and gave slow steps towards me, standing right next to me. "Give me a reward first."

She slowly leaned closer trying to reach my face.

"Don't be childish." I stepped aside and left in the direction of my chambers.

But Karin was quick on her feet and stood in front of me, relatively preventing me from moving forward.

"Please?" She brought both hands to her chest, trying to look as pitiable as possible.

My thoughts wanted to enhance my feet and leave the room through the crumbled walls, but as for myself, there wasn't any reason to be that cold to her. "You still want me to beat up Kusa shinobis?"

Her eyes shined with sadistic glee.


AN: Hi, first of all sorry for the time I was in a trip to the US and enjoying the life of a first worlder and was totally different and infinitely better than here that made realize a couple of things, so I was busy to say the least and also I pretty much worrying about the future since everyday my country really seems to be heading to a civil war which I hope doesn't happen but the way is going doesn't give much hope with the constant political moves GoT style.

Hey at least I got more Adeptus Mechanicus minis which I love assembling and painting!

*sigh*

Anyways I hope you enjoy my story as always and I've been writing and sketching 2 new stories, a fanfic of Skyrim and an original fantasy story called Stolen Wonderland which will be published in scribble hub where there is already a small original story called Your faithful Knight.

Remember to stay safe out there. I would hate to see you go hollow.