Naruto 1. Shattered By Broken Dreams

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**Well hello everyone! I'm back! And guess what?? You are about to read the first chapter of the sequel to my story, "The Sum of Black & White", which I have titled..."UNSTABLE"!! **

**Please feel free to go back to "T.S.o.B & W" if you need to recap, and know that this story begins 3 years after the end of the first story, and Mariko is now 20 years old.**

**This first chapter is a bit angsty, but it's important for setting the scene, mood and plot. I really hope that you like it and that you're all as excited as I am about this story! **

**Once again, music is key in the writing of this story. The song that inspired the title of this story is "Unstable" by Adema and pretty much can be applied throughout the entire story, but the chapterly music is the same as it is in the first story. If you have any musical suggestions, please send them my way! **

**Also, reviews are a vital part of my writing, because it lets me know what you, my lovely readers, are thinking, what you like/don't like, and how I can improve myself as a writer. I do appreciate constructive criticism, however, I do NOT appreciate people writing nasty comments or insults that are totally unhelpful. If you're going to say something critical, at least say it respectfully, m'kay??**

**Alright, I think that's all I have to blurb about for the moment :) I hope you enjoy, and please don't forget to leave me a review so I know if I'm going in the right direction!**

**Thanks! Much love!**

**-Keita**

**P.S. I'll do my disclaimer now, so there's no trouble. It applies throughout the entire story: I don't own any canon Naruto characters, just Mariko and my other OCs. I also can't claim ownership of the awesome songs that are used throughout the story T-T, but I DO claim ownership of my lovely pink Zune, which I use to listen to those songs :D**

**Music: Title Track: "Shattered By Broken Dreams" by Avenged Sevenfold; End Credits: "Lost!" by Coldplay; Others: "Beautiful Love" by The Afters, "Burn" by Alkaline Trio, "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay, "Warmness on the Soul" by Avenged Sevenfold**

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_**Shattered By Broken Dreams**_

_I see you fading away from us,_

_I'll miss you very much_

_Room with empty bottles, broken dreams_

_And pride still running high_

_Always on your side_

_But I wanted more for you_

_You can't go on this way_

_Now I see it all fall through_

_We pray for better days_

_--"Shattered By Broken Dreams"_

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The man ran through the trees as fast as he possibly could, which wasn't very fast at all. His breathing was rapid and sweat poured over his large body; his round face showed nothing but fear. Finally, he burst forth from the trees into a large open field. His foot caught a stone and he was sent plummeting to the ground. He rolled over into a sitting position just in time to see his pursuer quickly and noiselessly enter the field like a streak of black lightning.

"Please! Please, don't kill me!" he begged, edging away from the dark form that was closing in on him like a wraith.

His wide-eyed and fearful gaze was met by the vehement crimson one of his attacker.

She was like a demon, with her coldly beautiful face, long, black hair and blood-red eyes. She was incredibly fast and made almost no sound as she moved. Her figure was slender and feminine, yet the powerful way that she carried herself made it easy to see that she was far from weak.

He felt that it would be pointless to try and plead for his life, but he knew that there was no way he would ever outrun her.

"Please!" he cried again, "I have a family…a wife and children! Who will take care of them-…"

"Shut up," the assailant hissed dangerously. He obeyed, uttering a small, pitiful whimper of fright as a cloud passed across the moon, momentarily blacking out every feature on her face save for those burning eyes.

When the moon was once more uncovered, she reached a hand into her billowing black-and-red cloak and drew out a sword; the moonlight glinted off the blade, causing a fresh sheen of sweat to form on his brow.

As she advanced on him again, he made one last, desperate plea. "Please! Think of my children! What will they do without their father?"

"Spare me the lies," the woman growled. "I want you to know that even though you're worth more to me alive than dead, I'm going to kill you anyways. What you did to those girls was unforgivable. I'd much rather deal with you myself than let your village determine your fate. Now you will die knowing the same feeling of fear that those girls felt when you came for them."

"No! NO!" he cried as she raised her sword – nearly blinding as it caught the full moon light – and brought it down swiftly and accurately, instantly cutting off his sobbing entreaties for mercy.

She watched with an impassive expression as the dark blood slowly began staining the grass as it seeped out of the large laceration marring the now-dead man's fat neck; the terrified expression was frozen on his face.

Reverently, she wiped her blade clean on her cloak and re-sheathed it.

"Now for the fun part," she said unenthusiastically, pulling a length of rope from her cloak and using it to tie the man's ankles together before hoisting the rope over her shoulder and beginning to drag his heavy body along, back in the direction that they had come from.

As she walked, her eyes changed from scarlet to silver; she would change them back before she encountered any of the villagers – they seemed much more intimidated by the abnormal blazing red eyes than her natural silver ones, and she found that intimidation worked best for her when dealing with collecting bounties, especially if the target was a DOA; fewer questions were asked.

She sighed heavily and paused a moment to turn her ethereal silver gaze upward to the full moon, hanging in the clear, black sky. For a split second, her harsh eyes softened and a look of almost longing came over her face, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. She slung the end of the rope over her shoulder and began to haul her obese quarry onward once again.

* * *

"I still don't see why you felt it necessary to kill him when the village council most certainly would have sentenced him to death anyways! That was a good fifty thousand extra that we could have had!"

"I wasn't after him for the money; this one deserved a death that fitted his crimes, and the village isn't that uncivil."

"But you are?"

Icy silver eyes glared at the miser, but no answer was given. "Let's go home."

* * *

He could smell the blood on her before she entered, and when she did – followed closely by her partner – one look at her stony face, so like his own, told him that the night had been another full of bloodshed for her.

Their eyes met briefly; she looked away first and made her way down the hall to her room without greeting anyone.

He sighed and wearily rubbed the corners of his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. He had thought that three years would have been more than enough time for her to recover from the traumatic events that had occurred back in Konoha. She had begun eating regularly again after a few weeks and she was talking within a month, but she had never been the same; she had become more like him: stoic and empty. She was no longer the energetic and happy young girl that she had been before.

He knew better than anyone the mental damage that could result from seeing someone you loved killed, but what he hadn't known before was the pain it caused loved ones left alive who had to witness the frightening changes. This new knowledge caused him to feel more sympathy for his brother, who had been the one to see him in his altered state.

He didn't have any idea how to help her now. He had done all he could think of, but he felt that the rest was up to her; she had to be the one to pull herself back together. Still, he hated feeling so helpless.

* * *

She heard a soft knock on the door.

"Come in," she responded softly, not moving from her face-up position on her bed.

He entered and a sad smile crossed his face when he saw her on her back, staring up at nothing in particular.

"That ceiling's pretty interesting, huh?" he joked lightly.

"I'm just thinking," she murmured in reply.

He crossed the room and flopped down on the bed next to her, tucking his arms behind his head, also looking up at the ceiling, his blond hair spilling all over.

"I miss him, Dei," she whispered so softly that he almost couldn't hear her.

He turned his blue eyes on her sad face. "I know, but you're causing your father to slowly go insane with this constantly quiet attitude - which is actually a bit funny, since now you're just like he is. But still, we'd all rather have the Mariko we know back, yeah. This depression is starting to wear off on all of us…even Tobi."

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to hurt any of you. It's just that…" she trailed off.

"What?"

"It's been three years. I've been running around with Kakuzu, playing bounty hunter and doing whatever Leader tells me to, and I don't know how much longer I can keep this up…not really _doing_ anything to help him."

Deidara could see how much three years had changed her. At twenty, she already looked exhausted and a heaviness had settled on her soul to accompany the cloudy aura that surrounded her.

He and the others knew she had grown up far too quickly, her experience outweighing her knowledge of the world and life. There had been nothing that they could do to change that; they had only been there for her in every way they could as often as they could. It had been enough for awhile, but none of them could be what Hidan had been to her.

The blond sighed and reached out a hand to gently and just-barely touch the black-haired girl's shoulder; he caught a piece of her jet hair and softly twisted it between his fingers. She turned her head and looked into his clear blue eyes. It was funny in a strange way how much Deidara reminded her of her stepfather, Naruto. Not only did they both have blond hair and incredibly blue eyes, but they were both so loving and protective of her.

Mariko hadn't been back to Konoha since the night Hidan had traded places with her as their prisoner. She found that from time to time her heart ached for her mother and her Konoha family; Sasuke, Neji, Naruto and her younger siblings and cousins. She couldn't go back though. Not only had Leader prohibited it, but her father had as well, basically telling her that he didn't trust her to be so close to Hidan and not try to pull off some elaborate rescue that would only result in him losing her again.

By managing to acquire use of her Byakugan vision and learning the Gentle Fist fighting style of the Hyuuga clan while in Konoha, as well as already being capable of using her Sharingan, her value to Akatsuki had shot up. Leader had told her that she just needed "training and refining", whatever the hell that meant.

She rolled the ring Three on her finger thoughtfully; her ring, Hidan's ring.

A glance out the window told Mariko that the full moon was still high and that the night was clear. She sat up and Deidara released the strand of black hair he had been holding.

"I need to go out," she said.

"Out? Where? It's the middle of the night, un," he said, also sitting up and watching as she grabbed her red-cloud-printed cloak and pulled it on.

"I just need to be alone for a little while. Don't worry; I'll be back in a bit."

Deidara wasn't worried that she was going outside in the middle of the night – he knew perfectly well that she was able to defend herself against enemies – he was worried about protecting her from herself. The lack of sleep combined with roving the woods at night while the temperature had been steadily declining were bound to take their toll on her sooner or later.

But, like Itachi, he didn't know what else he could do for her. He would continue to be there for her and talk to her and do anything he could to help her; from the moment the explosions artist had met the newborn baby with silver eyes, he had sworn to himself that he would always protect her. But he couldn't slay her personal demons; no matter how perfect his art or physically strong he was, he would never be able to get rid of them for her.

* * *

She knew the seasons were changing; the nights were getting colder. Even now, her breath misted in the frigid night air as she took it in long drags, letting the coldness freeze her lungs and burn her throat. She shivered involuntarily and drew her cloak a little closer around her shoulders. Like the ring, the cloak had been Hidan's before it was hers, and if she concentrated, she could still detect his scent embedded in the fibers. That wonderful, spicy autumn smell; of course, now that the actual season was upon them, she sometimes wondered if it was really _his_ smell, or if her mind was just tricking her into thinking it was.

A chill breeze blew, tangling her long ponytail and the two pieces of hair that framed her face. She closed her eyes momentarily as she let the wind numb her face, then she started forth into the trees, glowing as they were bathed in the moon's beams.

Had she been paying more attention to her surroundings, Mariko might have noticed the black-clad figure stalking her from the trees above. It was the figure of someone who had seen her before and who would be able to handle the girl as long as she was by herself.

Yakushi Kabuto ghosted along through the treetops, keeping a close eye on the dark-haired girl below him. She seemed unaware of his presence, but he knew that he was close enough that she could easily detect him; she could be pretending not to notice him. However, as he continued following her, he became more and more confident that she really didn't know he was there.

Kabuto was a strategic and patient man; he was willing to wait as long as it took to carry out his plan. That opportunity presented itself when the Uchiha girl stopped walking and gracefully leapt up to the lower hanging branches of a tree and sat with her back against the trunk.

The medic-nin moved so that he was positioned directly above her. Once he was certain that she was truly oblivious to his presence, he quietly withdrew a loaded syringe from the pouch on his belt and used his teeth to delicately uncap the needle. It was a little risky, he knew; there was always the chance that he would stab himself if something went wrong. But he also knew that his success depended on the element of surprise, and he couldn't afford to waste even fractions of a second later on.

_Three…two…one…_

* * *

Even with her amazingly fast reflexes, Mariko wasn't able to react before she felt the sting of the needle in her neck. She instantly dropped from the tree and into a crouch on the ground, jumping up immediately to either fight or run, but found that within seconds, she was barely able to see, much less stand. She fell to the ground, trying to push herself up on her feet, only to sway and stumble before falling back down to her knees. She was doing her best to fight off the blackness that was beginning to cloud her vision, but she was losing.

The last thing she remembered before going unconscious was the shape of a man wearing glasses walking toward her.

Kabuto smirked as he stashed the re-capped syringe in his belt pouch. He looked over the seemingly lifeless form of the girl on the ground, then bent down and hoisted her up over his shoulder. A quick adjustment of his glasses and a look around to make sure that none of the other Akatsuki members had managed to sneak up on him and he was off.

He went as fast as he possibly could; there was no way he was going to give Akatsuki – _especially_ Itachi – even the slightest chance to catch up to him. He wasn't capable of going as fast as he normally could because of the added weight of his catch, but he was still going at a breakneck pace.

The sun was just breaking over the eastern horizon when he entered the borders of Sound. Kabuto was exhausted and there was a film of sweat across his brow, but his smile was triumphant. He knew that Lord Orochimaru would be pleased, no, _ecstatic_, when he showed up with the daughter of Uchiha Itachi and Hyuuga Hinata, a possessor of both Sharingan and Byakugan.

Kabuto could only imagine the praises that his Lord would bestow on him, as well as granting him endless resources and supplies for his medical research. As he pressed forward towards Orochimaru's compound, Kabuto was all smiles.

* * *

Itachi was up before the rest of the Akatsuki. He had wanted to check in on Mariko. It had become a habit lately; he would look in on her and watch her sleeping for a little while, just like he had when she was a baby.

He went to her room and silently opened the door, only to be met with the sight of her bed, empty and still made; obviously, she hadn't slept in it that night.

_She must have fallen asleep outside_, he thought as he exited the lair and headed towards the treeline.

He searched the entire forest for her; even with his Sharingan activated, he couldn't pick up the faintest sign of her. He was beginning to grow panicked.

Uchiha Itachi wasn't an affectionate man, but he would always love his brother, Hyuuga Hinata and his daughter, unconditionally. He could feel his chest tightening up at the thought of losing her, just like it had three years ago when he realized that she had been captured by Konoha.

He was becoming so inwardly frantic that he nearly missed the small area where the grass was crushed down and fragments of bark, scraped off from the tree branch above, lay crumbled.

Years of ANBU training in tracking techniques allowed him to make an assessment in seconds. Obviously, Mariko had been attacked here; she had been in the tree and the attacker had come from above. Itachi wasn't sure how the enemy had managed to take his daughter by surprise; being able to utilize both Sharingan and Byakugan, she should have been able to see anyone within a radius of at least a mile of her.

Something caught his eye; something that was out of place and would be obvious only to a well-trained eye: a thread. One single, purple thread was caught on a blade of grass. Itachi bent down to gingerly pluck it from the grass between his thumb and forefinger; he brought it close to his scarlet eyes in order to better study it.

He gave it a sniff. He was no Inuzuka, but his sense of smell was sharp enough to pick up on the distinct smell of formaldehyde.

His brain began to put all the pieces together: Mariko was taken in the middle of the night by one person who had the means to subdue her alone. This person had been wearing purple and spent a lot of time in a hospital or working with medical supplies. He could think of only one person who would possess all these attributes: _the snake-bastard's medic_.

A dangerous, grim smile crept onto his face. "So, Orochimaru, you think that you can send your goon here to steal _my_ daughter and actually get away with it?" His eyes flashed with anger, but his voice remained level.

Itachi's hand closed into a fist at the thought of the snake-like man being anywhere near Mariko. He already knew that she had had a run in with Orochimaru years ago in Konoha, and that she had been the victor in their little spar, but this was totally different; she was going to be in _his _territory this time, and Orochimaru was full of nasty tricks and surprises.

In the blink of an eye, Itachi had turned and was practically flying back to the lair.

_I will __kill__ that spineless, ground-dwelling piece of shit if it's the last thing I do,_ he thought as he ran along.

* * *

Back in the safety of Orochimaru's compound, Kabuto took a few seconds to catch his breath. He used his free hand to wipe a trickle of sweat from his forehead and to readjust his glasses before continuing further into the darkened building.

With Mariko still slung over his shoulder, he made his way down the windowless hallways to the room adjacent to Kimimaro's; there was a cot there that he could leave the girl on until she woke up. There was also a decent lock on the door, so she wouldn't be able to slip out once she woke up.

Kabuto glanced over at Kimimaro as he passed by him; the pale man was asleep in his capsule-like bed. He had a grimace on his face and he twitched a little; the medic briefly wondered what his patient was dreaming about.

Continuing on to the room behind Kimimaro's, Kabuto easily deposited the light girl onto the cot. He stepped back, rolling and massaging his shoulder that had carried her all the way from the Akatsuki territory, and studying the girl before him.

One of the long pieces of hair had fallen over her face; he reached out and carefully brushed it away so that he could see her clearly.

"Beautiful," he smirked, walking away and making sure to shut and lock the door behind him. He set the key next to one of the computer monitors as he paused to type something in and turned to watch as a fluorescent mixture of pain killers, antibiotics and vitamins and minerals began to slowly make its way down an IV line and disappear as it was pumped into Kimimaro's arm.

The Kaguya shivered slightly and gave a short whimper, but he didn't wake. Kabuto sighed; he knew that no matter what, Kimimaro would never recover enough to be the strong host body that Lord Orochimaru had hoped he would be.

The medic wasn't entirely sure what Orochimaru's plans regarding the Uchiha girl were, but he had no doubt that all would be revealed to him in time.

* * *

_Just because I'm losing doesn't mean I'm lost_

_Doesn't mean I'll stop_

_Doesn't mean I would cross_

_Just because I'm hurting doesn't mean I'm hurt_

_Doesn't mean I didn't get what I deserved_

_No better and no worse_

_--"Lost!"_


	2. A Benediction

**Hello my lovelies!!! I'm back with the second chapter of "Unstable"! Yay! **

**My thanks to those who reviewed the first chapter!!! I love you all!!!**

**I don't really have too much to ramble about this week (lucky you! haha!) except that Halloween was awesome!!! Definitely still my favorite holiday followed by St. Patty's Day!!! **

**Anyways, enjoy the chapter, and PLEASE review it for me, 'kay???**

**Much love!**

**-Keita**

**Music: Title Track: "A Benediction" by Winterpills; End Credits: "Falling Slowly" by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova; Others: "Emotion Sickness" by Silverchair, "A Pain That I'm Used To" by Depeche Mode, "Opus 36" by Dustin O'Halloran, "Cat Faces" by Ugly Casonova**

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_**A Benediction**_

_All the pale gray stars shine through you_

_Your body fell prey to the transparent mind of you_

_All blue ghosts search for signs of you_

_All the pale gray stars shine through you_

_--"A Benediction"_

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_

"I still don't understand why we're going to Konoha, un," Deidara called ahead to Itachi as he led his tiny group through the treetops. The sun was just breaking over the horizon in the east, but the forest was still the pale lifeless gray of the pre-dawn morning. "If Mariko's been stolen by that worm, then why are we wasting time going there, un?"

"Because I have to speak to someone there first," Itachi replied coldly, "Someone who deserves to know that she's gone also," he added quietly.

Deidara exchanged a glance with Kisame – the final part of their trio – and both knew that their self-appointed team leader was referring to the girl's mother, the identity of whom was still unknown for sure by the other members of the organization, though they had been able to guess for the most part when Mariko had come back from Konoha knowing how to use the Byakugan and Gentle Fist Style of fighting, signatures of the Hyuuga clan.

Kisame and Deidara were both busy wondering how the union between Itachi and a Hyuuga could have occurred while the Uchiha was lost in his own thoughts.

_Hinata…will she forgive me for losing our daughter? _

Itachi wasn't looking forward to telling Hinata that Mariko had been stolen, but he felt that he had to tell her nonetheless. She was his daughter's mother, and he still loved her very much; he always would.

The sun was finally high enough in the sky to shed light through the trees by the time they reached the edge of the forest, just outside of the gates of Konoha.

The trio stopped; Kisame and Deidara stood waiting for Itachi's next command, and Itachi simply looked out at the village.

"Alright," he said finally, "The two of you stay here; keep out of sight and don't attack anybody. I'm going in and I'll be back shortly; after that, we continue on to Otogakure. Understood?"

The explosions artist and the shark-man nodded; Itachi gave a final nod and took off – a barely visible black blur – towards the still-sleeping village below.

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Strange visions were passing before Mariko's eyes. It was dark but, not; there were strange things glowing in the darkness, but she had no idea what they were. She could tell by the smell that surrounded her that she was definitely not outside, and she was laying on something scratchy, uncomfortable and stale-smelling.

Mariko opened her eyes fully and looked around; she was in a small, dingy room that was vaguely lit by a tiny, flame-shaped light bulb screwed into the wall and the unearthly glow filtering into the room from underneath the closed door.

She slowly sat up, giving a small groan and rubbing the sore injection sight on her neck. Mariko activated her Byakugan eyes and looked around. She saw the computer monitors and the medical equipment in the room that her room opened up into. She saw a figure in a bed with tubes and monitors hooked up to it, but she couldn't make out distinguishing features, plus she wanted to look at more of her general surroundings before focusing on details.

As far as she could tell, she was in some sort of partially underground facility that was poorly lit and full of weird stuff. Mariko got up from her cot and took the few short steps required to get to the door. She had been stripped of her sword, shoes and cloak, so she didn't have much to work with, but thankfully, Kisame had taught her how to pick a lock using nothing but her own fingernail.

_I knew there had to be a reason I didn't trim them last week_, she thought, inserting her long fingernail into the keyhole of the door lock and fiddling with it until she heard a satisfying _click_ and she was able to open the door.

Mariko stepped cautiously out into the next room. She had been able to see what was in there using her Byakugan, but now that she had her normal silver eyes back, everything looked much freakier. The eerie glow that the screensavers on the monitors cast over the room, the formaldehyde smell and the countless dark nooks and crannies made the room seem like a set straight out of a horror movie.

The girl brushed a piece of her black hair out of her eyes as she went over to one of the computers and jiggled the mouse, bringing the screen to life.

She started reading up on the file that had apparently not been closed before the computer's user left; it was some sort of log, keeping track of drugs that had been administered to someone called Kaguya Kimimaro. The log tracked the drug's name, the amount that was given, the day and time it was given and the patient's response to it.

_Weirdness…_, Mariko thought as she shrunk that file down and began clicking on other files that she hoped would give her some kind of clue as to where she was, why she was there, and how the hell she was going to escape.

Mariko was so busy going through files that she had totally forgotten that there was another person in the room, albeit a bedridden and apparently unconscious one. However, when she heard the rustling of blankets and she turned to see a sheet-cloaked figure rising up from the bed, she did the first thing her panicked mind could think of: scream loudly.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In his room down the hallway, Kabuto was sleeping soundly. He had been up late reporting the success of his mission to obtain Mariko to Lord Orochimaru and after that he had been doing some research on Kimimaro's condition. It was almost like a personal challenge now; could he figure out how to cure the Kaguya's condition before it killed him? Even if Kimimaro never recovered completely, Kabuto considered just making it so that Kimimaro could live without being bedridden and constantly connected to life-supporting machines a medical conquest.

However, all those hours of work and research and experimentation had eventually begun to take their toll; the medic-nin was exhausted. So when a piercing shriek startled him out of his sleep, he was less than pleased.

Groping in the darkness for his glasses, Kabuto groaned and rolled out of bed. He stretched and scratched the back of his neck as he shuffled down the hallway in the direction of the scream.

In a really creepy, partially underground lair where prisoners were kept, screaming wasn't an uncommon sound. However, this particular screech had seemed a little too close to be coming from one of the prisoners; still, it might have just been an echo.

As he was about to open the door to his little makeshift hospital room, the door suddenly came flying off the hinges and slammed into the opposite wall on its own, followed closely by the slender frame of a girl with long, black hair streaming out behind her and a look of terror on her face.

Mariko hit the wall and spun, slipping slightly on the slick metal door and effectively slicing her bare foot open on one of the sharp edges, her blood making the slippery floor even more perilous.

"Oh, shit!" Kabuto exclaimed, suddenly realizing the seriousness of the situation. He lunged forward and grabbed the girl around her torso, pinning her arms to her side.

Still in panic mode and completely startled by the unexpected seizure, Mariko managed to wrench one arm free, which she used to elbow her captor in the stomach. She felt the breath rush out of him and his hold on her loosen; still bleeding, she uttered a frightened squeak and turned to take off aimlessly down the hallway.

She made it about three steps before she was tackled from behind again, this time her arms were twisted behind her and her attacker's entire body pinned her to the floor. Mariko flailed and squirmed like a fish out of water, using her feet, teeth, shoulders, whatever she could move to try and free herself.

But Kabuto had a death grip on her and he wasn't letting up. "Cut it out!" he said firmly, giving her a slight shake. "Just relax; I'm not going to hurt you."

"There's a fucking zombie in there!" Mariko yelled. "I don't know what kind of sick place this is, but you'd better let me go now before I kill you and leave your broken carcass as zombie food!"

The medic-nin shifted slightly so that he could just see inside the doorway of the room that Mariko had just exploded from; sure enough, Kimimaro was sitting up on his bed, looking ghostly pale and _extremely_ confused.

At that moment, Kabuto almost did let the thrashing Uchiha girl go in favor of going to Kimimaro and making important notes on his current state; however, he knew that if Mariko did get away, his medical research would be the least of his worries.

"Will you _please_ just relax and I'll explain everything?" Kabuto tried to reason. "Seriously stop or I'll sedate you."

With that blunt threat, Mariko went still; the medic could feel the tension in her body, but at least she wasn't flailing about like before.

"Okay, I'm going to let you up, but if you try to run, I swear to Kami…"

"I won't run unless the zombie tries to eat me," Mariko retorted. "And then not only will I run, but I'm also tripping you."

Kabuto rolled his eyes as he got up off of the girl slowly, still holding onto her hands. When he let her go completely, she stayed on the ground for a few moments, then slowly pushed herself up into a kneeling position. She felt something sticky and cold on her legs and when she looked down to see blood from her foot smeared all over her legs and body, she grimaced.

"Aw, hell! Now I _smell_ like zombie food," she tried to stand, but slipped and crashed back to the ground; Kabuto couldn't hide the chuckle. Mariko glared at him fiercely with her silver eyes before very quickly reaching out and punching the medic in the back of the knee, causing it to buckle and for him to also fall to the floor.

"Ow! What the hell?!" he cried.

Mariko crossed her arms over her chest and stuck her tongue out at him. "That's what you get for making fun of me! Now you've got ten seconds to convince me that there's no zombie in that room or I'm so outta here!"

Kabuto sighed. "Okay, okay fine…that's not a zombie you saw, it was just Kimimaro."

"What the fuck's a Kimimaro?" Mariko demanded.

"Kaguya Kimimaro is a person, and a terminally ill one at that. I've been doing hours of research trying to find a cure for him, but he's so sick…I don't know if I'll find a cure in time," Kabuto sighed.

For a second, a look somewhat like sympathy crossed Mariko's face. "Aw. That's touching. Did I mention that I really don't care? I need proof that your little buddy in there isn't really a flesh-eating, undead monster…so you go first." She shoved him in the direction of the now doorless room.

"Hey! I don't think you're in any position to be pushing and giving orders, so just cut that out, alright?" Kabuto said.

Mariko lifted her eyebrows. "Oh really? Who's gonna stop me? _You_?!? Ha!"

"Whatever," the grey-haired medic mumbled, getting to his feet and entering the room that Kimimaro sat in, still looking extremely bewildered.

"Hey you! Don't leave me out here for the other zombies!" Mariko cried, scrambling up to her feet and stumbling into the room after the medic.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Itachi had to marvel at the fact that he could still slip into Konoha without being caught. Either he was just too clever for them, or they were completely idiotic. _Probably both_, he reasoned smugly.

Speed was the key here; as long as he kept moving at impossible speeds, he would be extremely difficult to detect. So he shot along the back alleys and through the shadows of the village. It was still early enough that practically no one was awake yet.

Finally, he reached his destination: a quaint, comfortable house that had a decent-sized yard which was littered with toys and ninja training equipment. He was across the yard in a flash and pressed against the wall, his crimson eyes scanning the quiet morning streets.

In another flash, he was gone again; the soft rustle of the bushes where he'd been the only sign that someone had even been there.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hinata gasped quietly as her eyes shot open; the rest of her was still. Naruto was still sleeping soundly, sprawled out on his back; she watched his chest rise and fall with his breaths. She took a few moments to recompose herself, before running her fingers through her midnight blue bangs and gingerly sitting up with her legs hanging over the side of the bed.

She took a deep breath and let it out quietly, glancing over her shoulder at her still-sleeping husband and smiling at how peaceful he looked.

Very carefully so as not to wake Naruto, Hinata got up and tiptoed out of the room, drawing her silk robe over her shoulders as she did. Then she silently made her way to her children's rooms and checked in on them.

Her boys, Hachi and Jiro were both sleeping soundly. Hachi, now fourteen years old, had come home exhausted from his intense training. Not only was he preparing for the Chunin exams with his team, but he and Keiji had been sparring on their own time as well at the Hyuuga mansion, getting tips from Neji and Hiashi. Needless to say, the only thing he did besides train was eat and sleep.

Jiro, already eight years old, was growing up quickly. He was almost as tall as Sayuri and catching up to his brother too. Hinata hadn't expected Jiro, her tiny, youngest baby to grow so much. She smiled as she noticed the pool of drool on his pillow; he hadn't changed that much.

Next, she looked in on her daughter, Sayuri. The girl was growing to look more and more like a darker-haired version of her aunt Hanabi every day, Hinata thought. Sayuri had the same fiery spirit and wild look that Hanabi had and at thirteen years old, just starting out at the ninja academy, Hinata knew that they were good attributes for her daughter to have.

Suddenly, Hinata felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and she got goosebumps. Rubbing her arms furiously to try and make them go away, she went downstairs and to the back door, looking through the glass but seeing nothing outside.

She activated her Byakugan and re-scanned the area, but she still didn't see anyone. Still though, she knew when she was feeling something out of the ordinary, so she opened the door and stepped outside, hugging herself to ward off some of the early morning chill. Her breath misted slightly as she exhaled.

A very slight noise caught her attention, and she whipped around to look to her left – the direction that the noise had come from. Hinata couldn't keep from catching her breath when she saw Itachi walking towards her, looking as striking as ever, appearing even blacker against the frost-bitten ground.

"Hinata," he greeted her impassively.

"Itachi," she nodded, meaning to be as emotionless as he was, but she couldn't suppress her smile at the sheer ridiculousness of it. She knew it was just an act he was putting on; he had never acted coldly and stoic towards her.

Her little grin got to him though, and she could tell that he was having trouble keeping a straight face himself.

"Stop," he said, "This is serious."

"Is it?" she asked innocently. "You haven't even told me why you're here."

"There's only one reason I would come here," he said quietly.

There was a moment of silence between them during which Hinata realized what exactly it was that Itachi meant. When she fully comprehended it, the playful grin fell from her face.

"What happened to her?" the pale-eyed woman demanded.

"She was kidnapped," Itachi replied.

"What?! What do you mean kidnapped?! How?!" Hinata was beginning to get frantic.

"She was walking alone in the woods at night; I don't know all the details, just that she didn't come home after a few hours like she usually does," he explained.

The dark-haired woman laughed disbelievingly. "And what exactly was she doing walking _alone_ in a dark forest in the _middle of the night_?"

Itachi saw the dangerous glint in Hinata's light eyes, and he subconsciously took a cautious step backwards. "She's been going off like that practically every night since Hidan's been gone," he told her slowly, carefully gauging her reaction to his words.

Normally, Itachi would be completely unthreatened by Hinata. Although the formerly timid Hyuuga had grown up a lot and was much stronger now, she was hardly a match for him in serious combat. However, there was no telling what kind of damage an enraged mother might inflict.

The seemingly invincible Uchiha found himself rooted to the spot by the meek Hyuuga woman's piercing glare as she stalked up to him. She was a good head shorter than he was, yet he found himself unable to break their eye contact.

Then, very suddenly, Hinata lifted her arm and…smacked Itachi right in the forehead with the ball of her palm.

"You idiot!" she fumed. "Why would you let her out – _**alone**_ - in the woods in the middle of the night like that?! Are you stupid?! You _knew_ that Orochimaru was after her! Why would you let her go?!"

Stunned, Itachi rubbed his forehead while she vented on him. When she paused for a breath, he interjected, "It's not exactly like I could keep her locked up, Hinata! You know how she is! Besides, it's been three years since Orochimaru made an attempt at capturing her; I thought that he had been discouraged after he failed the last time."

"Well that's what you get for thinking," Hinata muttered darkly. "Now our daughter has been kidnapped by an evil, dangerous and unpredictable ninja…so what do we do?"

"Well, we're going after her, of course."

"And who exactly is 'we'?"

"Deidara, Kisame and I," Itachi said.

"And me."

"What?"

Hinata narrowed her eyes at the Uchiha. "Do you really expect me to sit at home doing nothing but simpering and worrying away while my daughter is being held captive by some freaky, evil snake-man?"

"Uh, well, I…" Itachi realized just then that he hadn't really known what to expect from Hinata when he told her that Mariko had been kidnapped.

She sighed, defeated. "I swear to Kami, no matter how intelligent men seem, they're all just clueless. I guess I have to supply you with an answer, since you're apparently unable to come up with one yourself," she went on, "The answer is this: I am going with you to Otogakure, or wherever it is that you think that bastard took our daughter, I'm helping you to rescue her, and then I'll be the 'mean' parent and lay down the law for her…no more middle-of-the-night forest walks!"

"She's twenty-years-old, Hinata; she's old enough to make decisions for herself," Itachi said reasonably. "But we've got to go now; the longer we wait, the worse the outcome could be."

He turned away from her and began to slowly walk back the way he came. However, he stopped and craned his head to say over his shoulder, "And you're not coming with us. I just thought it would be the courteous thing to do letting you know."

Before she could yell any sort of protest or insult, he was gone, leaving no trace except for the swirling dead leaves.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mariko shuddered; she could feel those big, green eyes on her and it was making her exceedingly uncomfortable. The girl was sitting down on another bed on the opposite side of the room and Kabuto was bandaging her injured foot.

The medic, who was sitting on a chair in front of the unruly girl, was losing his patience. Not only had he been jolted out of his precious sleep and forced to restrain the wildly panicked captive, but he had to tend to her foot – which, unsurprisingly, she was being difficult about, having already "accidentally" kicked him several times – and he had to check up on Kimimaro as well. By the time he was finished with everything, he would have to be up and ready to start his day anyways.

He sighed dejectedly as he finished taping the bandage on Mariko's foot, then rolled away in his chair to prepare some blood tests for Kimimaro.

She glanced down at her foot and wiggled her toes. Then she looked up to find Kimimaro staring at her still.

"What the fuck are you looking at, Green Eyes?!" she yelled across the room, startling the dreary medic to the point of nearly falling out of his chair.

But Kimimaro remained impassive. Mariko turned her frustration on Kabuto. "Make him stop staring at me like that!" she demanded.

Kabuto sighed. "Kimimaro, would you please stop looking at Mariko? She's very violent and full of rage and she obviously has no manners. Still, I don't want her to harm either of us in her fit of fury, so please just listen to me on this one?"

The ghostly pale man finally lowered his eyes to the blanket that was still covering the lower half of his body. She saw the strange markings on his face and bare chest, but at the moment, she was too irritated – and stubborn - to ask about them. So she sat back against the lumpy pillow with her arms crossed, glaring at the two men across the room.

She noticed the patient's hesitation at submitting his arm to the medic and the little wince he gave when Kabuto inserted the needle into Kimimaro's vein, drawing out the scarlet blood.

"Who is she?" Kimimaro asked Kabuto.

The gray-haired man didn't even glance up from his purple-top blood tube as he answered. "Her name is Uchiha Mariko. Her father is Uchiha Itachi of the Akatsuki and her mother is Hyuuga Hinata from Konoha."

"Why is she here?"

"She's here because Lord Orochimaru wants her here," Kabuto answered, sliding his chair over to his centrifuge and inserting the blood tube into the slot to be spun down. He glanced up at the bed on which the black-haired girl was sitting; she was still leaning up against the pillow with her arms crossed and a scowl on her pretty face.

Kimimaro also couldn't help sneaking a look at her; but her icy silver glare quickly made him avert his eyes once again.

Mariko watched, playing with her black luck beads wound around her left wrist, as Kabuto analyzed the blood sample that he had collected from Kimimaro, then proceed to do further tests. They were simple tests, such as vision, hearing and reflexes.

Kimimaro kept a blank expression through his exam, but Mariko could see the discomfort and reluctance in his subtle movements; apparently, he didn't like all the poking and prodding that was going on. Mariko couldn't say she blamed him; if she had been in his place, Kabuto would have been laid out and needing medical attention himself a long time ago.

After what must have been hours – it was hard to tell what time it was, as there were no clocks and no windows in the dank room – a figure moved into the room where they were. Mariko ceased toying with her beads and fixed her cold glare on him. She did notice that Kimimaro seemed to perk up a little at the sight of the snake-man, and Kabuto was too engrossed in his studies to notice the addition of another body to the room.

The sinister figure paused at the foot of the bed that Mariko was currently occupying and just stared at her with a twisted, evil grin on his lips. The girl felt her skin crawl as he spoke.

"Uchiha Mariko, we meet again."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So what did she say, un?" Deidara yelled to Itachi as they flew through the trees, on the move again towards Otogakure.

"Who?" Itachi replied impassively.

The blond rolled his eyes. "You know, Mariko's mom…the person you went to Konoha to tell that she's been kidnapped, yeah."

Itachi was quiet for a moment, then he muttered quietly, "I never said I was going to see her mother."

Kisame gave a toothy grin. "Aw, come on! We know that's who you saw!"

The mission leader sniffed haughtily but didn't respond; Kisame and Deidara exchanged knowing grins behind his back.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Wait a minute, _where_ are you going?" Naruto asked, sitting up in bed and watching while his wife rummaged through drawers of clothing, throwing things into her travel pack.

"It's Mariko, she's been kidnapped by Orochimaru. I have to go and get her," Hinata replied without stopping her packing.

"By yourself?"

"Well…no," Hinata said softly, twisting a shirt between her fingers. "Um…actually I-Ita," she stopped and took a breath before continuing levelly, "Itachi and two of the other Akatsuki members are going to get her, and I'm going with them."

"WHAT?! Oh, no way, Hinata, there is no way in hell that you're going anywhere with any of those goons! Especially by yourself!" Naruto protested loudly, jumping out of bed and rushing to grasp his wife by the elbows. "Please tell me that you're not seriously doing this."

Hinata sighed at the pleading look in her husband's azure eyes. "Naruto, she's my daughter and she's in trouble. What kind of mother would I be if I didn't help her? Itachi and the others won't hurt me."

Naruto released one of her arms and stroked her pale ivory cheek, looking deeply into her pale eyes. "I know that she's your daughter, but don't forget that you have three other children who need their mother too. I just don't wanna lose you." He bent down and kissed her softly on the mouth.

She put an arm around his neck, holding him to her as she deepened their kiss. When she released him and pressed her forehead to his. "I can't just leave her, Naruto. I would never be able to live with myself if something happened to her and I wasn't there."

"I'll go."

"What?" she pulled back and looked at him in confusion.

"I know that you want to be the one to go and get Mariko, but the kids need you here; you're the lifeline in this house. It would be absolute chaos without you," she smiled a little, "I'll get a small team together and we'll go to Oto and we'll get Mariko, okay?"

"The Hokage won't let you leave to save her," Hinata reasoned, sadly shaking her head.

"Then I won't ask for her permission, I'll just go. And I'll make it clear to whoever comes with me that this rescue mission wasn't okayed by the Hokage."

"Who will go with you?" Hinata asked.

"I was thinking of just keeping it between family; I'll ask Sasuke, Neji and Kai to come with me," the blond replied.

Hinata sighed unhappily. Naruto pulled her against him in a loving embrace. "It'll be fine, I promise. We'll find her, and we'll free her, alright?"

"Okay," Hinata consented softly. "Just bring her back."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Falling slowly, eyes that know me

_And I can't go back_

_Moods that take me and erase me_

_And I'm painted black_

_--"Falling Slowly"_


	3. Let the Flames Begin

**Hello! I'm back! First off, I'd like to apologize most sincerely with all my heart for making everyone wait, and to thank those of you who have waited patiently! My life was evil for the last 10 weeks, plus I'd been visited too often by the writer's block fairy, plus I had way too many ideas swimming around in my head at once and I had to write them down to clear out some room. But classes are over for the next 4 weeks! So hopefully, I'll get a lot done! I plan to, but unfortunately, things never seem to go the way I plan them T-T **

**I not only plan to _finally_ finish my fic, "A Flame in the Desert", which has been unfinished for far too long, but I also plan on getting at least one more Mariko/Akatsuki oneshot up and trying to get at least two more chapters of this story up. So, the goals have been set, let's see how well I do, haha.**

**Anyways, I really hope that you enjoy the chapter! And please don't forget to review it for me, okay??? **

**Thanks! Much love to all!!!**

**-Keita**

**Music: Title Track: "Let the Flames Begin" by Paramore; End Credits: "Photograph" by Shiny Toy Guns; Other: "I Promise You Walls" by Shiny Toy Guns, "Morning After" by Chester Benningfield, "Tentative" by System of a Down  
**

* * *

_**Let the Flames Begin**_

_What a shame we all became such fragile, broken things_

_A memory remains just a tiny spark_

_I give it all my oxygen_

_So let the flames begin_

_So let the flames begin_

_--"Let the Flames Begin"_

_

* * *

  
_

"Hey! Sasuke! SASUKEEEEEEEEE!" Naruto yelled while pounding on the door of the Uchihas' house.

Finally the door opened, revealing a bleary-eyed Sasuke. He had just gotten to sleep a couple hours ago after spending the entire night working on the paperwork from a mission that he had just completed. He walked out onto the doorstep, softly closing the door behind him. "Will you quit that yelling and pounding? You're going to wake up Sakura and the boys."

"Oh, yeah. Definitely don't wanna do that," Naruto winced, remembering what the rosette kunoichi was like when she was woken up before she was ready.

"What do you want?" Sasuke yawned, leaning back against the closed door.

"I need your help; Kai's too, if he's up for it."

"What for?"

"Orochimaru kidnapped Mariko; Hinata's freaking out, so I told her that I would get you and Kai and Neji and we would go and get her," Naruto explained.

At the mention of his niece, Sasuke seemed to wake up a little more. "Does Itachi know about this?" he asked.

"Well yeah," Naruto snorted, "He's the one who told Hinata."

"He was here?" Sasuke now turned his full attention to his blond friend, all traces of weariness gone.

Naruto shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. All I know is that Hinata came rushing in and started packing a bunch of stuff, saying that she was going with Itachi and a few other Akatsuki members to Oto to rescue Mariko. She said that Itachi wouldn't let her go with them, but she would catch them up and that once she was there, he wouldn't be able to turn her back."

Sasuke rubbed his eyes and sighed. "So what's the plan then?"

"Well, for now, the plan is to just get moving. I still need to talk to Neji, so if you're up for this, you and Kai can get ready while I go get him and we'll all meet at the village gates."

Sasuke nodded. "Alright; I'll go wake Kai."

The black-haired man disappeared into his house once more, and Naruto turned and ran in the direction of the Hyuuga compound. Once he reached it and passed through the main gates, he turned and headed around towards the gardens located behind the mansion.

He could pick up the sound of solid wood banging together violently, and grunting and panting. As he finally rounded the corner of the huge house and got a clear view of the backyard garden, he saw Tenten and Keiji sparring with their wooden staffs. Each of them expertly swinging their own staff and blocking the other's attacks. They moved so quickly that it was almost impossible to distinguish one from the other.

Not too far away, Neji sat meditating, sitting on a large stone in the middle of a huge koi pond. How he wasn't distracted by the racket that his wife and son were making was lost on Naruto.

"Oi! Neji!" the blond yelled, causing the two sparring Hyuugas to freeze, staff-to-staff, and making Neji flinch as he opened his eyes to glare at his cousin-by-marriage with annoyance.

"Hey Tenten," Naruto greeted the weapon-yielding kunoichi. "Tell me, do the two of you ever have a winner in your spars or would they just go on forever if you didn't quit?"

Tenten grinned, wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead. "Well, I used to always win eventually, but we usually just call it a draw now, otherwise, yes, we would be here for a very long time."

Keiji nodded. "Yup, I'm just about as good as mom is now."

While Naruto was chatting with Tenten and Keiji, Neji had walked over to the group, still looking irate.

"Naruto, please tell me what on earth compelled you to come over here so early?"

Naruto threw an arm across the Hyuuga's shoulders; Neji stiffened. "Aw, come on Neji; it's not like any of you were sleeping."

Neji just rolled his pale eyes. "Well now that you're here, what do you need?"

"Uh, well, I kinda need to ask a favor of you. It's about Mariko."

The Hyuuga's annoyance immediately dissipated and interest and concern replaced it. "What happened?"

"She was kidnapped by Orochimaru; she's being held in Otogakure."

"And you want to go and save her," Neji finished for the blond; Naruto nodded. "What about Itachi? There's no way he's just sitting idly by; if we show up, there's no telling how he'll react to that."

"Look," Naruto said seriously. "Hinata was all ready to go with him; I had to tell her that _we_ would go get Mariko to keep her from running off with half of the Akatsuki."

Neji sighed and looked over at his wife and son, both of whom were watching him with curious and intense gazes.

"Alright then; I'll go with you to rescue Mariko."

"Alright! Great! Go get your things then, we're leaving as soon as everyone's ready," Naruto exclaimed happily. "Sasuke and Kai are packing right now. We're supposed to meet them at the village gates. Come on Neji, get a move on!"

The long-haired Hyuuga just sighed and shook his head, turning back towards the mansion to pack his things, while Tenten and Keiji giggled behind their hands.

A mere fifteen minutes later, Naruto and Neji joined the two dark-haired Uchihas and they set off at a brisk pace, heading east towards Otogakure.

* * *

Hinata had waited, using her Byakugan to make sure that Naruto, Neji, Sasuke and Kai were really gone before she ran out of her house and over to her sister's.

She knocked on the front door rapidly, all the while checking over her shoulders like a fugitive afraid of being caught. It was a few minutes before the door opened slowly, revealing a bleary-eyed Hanabi.

"Hinata? What's wrong?" she asked, yawning and adjusting the shoulder of her robe.

"Hanabi, I need a huge favor from you; I know it's such short notice, but will you watch the kids for me?"

"Why? Where are you going?" Hanabi looked at her sister suspiciously.

Hinata hesitated; she knew that she _should_ tell her sister her plan, but at the same time, she couldn't help feeling that the fewer people who knew about it, the better.

"I – I just have to go and do something…and I'll be away for a while…"

Hanabi crossed her arms and gave her older sister one of her intimidating glares that she had undoubtedly inherited from their father; one that had never failed to draw out whatever secret Hinata was keeping from her.

Even now, the elder Hyuuga woman could feel her resolve starting to crumble. "Stop looking at me like that, Hanabi! I can't tell you everything right now, okay?"

"Why not?" the younger woman demanded.

"Because…I just can't. Listen, are you going to help me or not? Because if not, then I'll take the kids to Sakura's or Kiba's," Hinata was growing impatient.

Finally, Hanabi let up her glare with an irritated sigh, upset that she hadn't gotten any answers from her sister. "Fine," she said, "I'll look after the kids for you. But you owe me now, Hinata, and as soon as you get back, you'd better tell me _everything_! Got it?"

Hinata nodded fervently. "Thank you so much Hanabi! The kids are still sleeping, but Hachi will most likely be up soon; he'll just go off and train with his team until dinner. And Sayuri and Jiro…"

"Hinata! I've looked after your children before, I know how to handle them," Hanabi interrupted, grinning.

"Right," Hinata said, smiling exasperatedly. "Sorry, I'm just getting a little overwhelmed now."

"Look, the kids will be fine; I promise that they'll all be in one piece when you get back. Just go and do whatever big secret thing it is that you have to do and hurry home, alright?"

Hinata smiled again and nodded. She turned to leave, but her sister's voice stopped her.

"One last thing, Hinata," the elder Hyuuga turned back, just in time to be smothered by a tight embrace from her little sister. "Be safe."

Hinata hugged Hanabi back tightly. "I will," she promised.

* * *

Golden, reptilian eyes met with harsh, silver ones as Mariko and Orochimaru locked stares. The fierce animosity between the two was practically tangible; Kabuto and Kimimaro watched tensely, unmoving from their positions.

Mariko's bare toes curled a little and she gathered up the sheets in her fists. "What the hell am I doing here?" she demanded coldly.

Orochimaru's sinister grin stretched up even further. "Well, apparently, you're giving poor Kabuto a difficult time," he said in his slippery voice, "That's not a very good display of manners, now is it?"

"Oh, you wanna talk good manners? Okay then, asshole, tell me how it's good manners for you to send one of your goons to come and knock me out, kidnap me to your creepy lair, and then lock me up with a zombie."

Orochimaru gave a spine-chilling chuckle. "With such a prestigious family history on both sides, I would expect a much more refined demeanor from you. Still, I suppose you _have_ been raised by a bunch of ruffians and outlaws…one can only expect so much." He sighed in a mock wistful manner.

Mariko just glared. "I want answers, snake man," she seethed dangerously.

"All in good time, my dear," The snake Sanin hissed. He leaned forward, getting far too close for Mariko's comfort; the girl backed up as far as she could, squashing her pillows against the wall behind her.

Her eyes flashed crimson in a defensive warning and Orochimaru gave another menacing snicker. "There they are," he said, as much to himself as to her, "Those beautiful eyes. If I'm not mistaken, that's only one of the wonderful tricks you can perform with them; am I right?"

He actually crawled onto the foot of the bed then, looking more and more like some demon snake; Mariko, not liking the predatory glint in his eye, decided to go on the offense and she lunged at him with an amazing burst of speed.

As fast as the Uchiha girl was, Orochimaru was still able to snatch her forearm in a tight grip. Kabuto stood up quickly with a concerned look on his face, ready to spring into action should he be needed; Kimimaro just sat up straighter, his green eyes alert.

Mariko and Orochimaru were locked together in a glare on the surface of the bed; he was in a crouch, clenching her arm tightly, while she had been yanked forward on her knees.

In another lightening quick movement, Mariko had her free arm raised to strike again, but was countered again as Orochimaru slithered out of her line of fire and instead, whirled her around, sending her crashing to the ground in the space between the beds.

She rolled over onto her back and used her forearms to vault herself off from the floor in another attack. However, her shoulders were nearly pulled from their sockets as something linked under her arms and held her back.

The sheer force of it was enough to yank her back and send her roughly crashing into something solid. The 'oof!' that was expelled behind her let Mariko know that it was a body and when she looked up with furious irritation, it was Kabuto that she was glaring at. He held her tightly against him, his arms linked underneath hers.

The medic nin had seen a lot of scary people in his time with Orochimaru, and it took a lot to intimidate him anymore; however, the glowering, crimson glare of promised pain and misery was enough to make him swallow nervously.

"Let. Me. Go," Mariko snarled in a low voice, turning on Kabuto and with a rapid twist and pull of her arms, she freed herself and kicked the medic across the room. She crouched, readying herself for another attack, but just as she sprang, something caught her pant leg and stuck her to the ground, making her fall flat on her stomach.

Mariko looked over her shoulder to see what it was; it was a bone. She quirked her head in confusion, momentarily forgetting her fight and looked up to see Kimimaro letting his arm rest on his bed again.

Her scarlet eyes burned as she stared at the pale man in the bed across the room. She wasn't sure where he'd come up with a _bone_ of all things, but she was certain that it had been him who threw it and prevented her from any further attack against the medic or the snake Sanin.

Kabuto staggered up to his feet; his lip was bleeding, half of his face was swollen and his glasses looked distorted and askew. He looked at Mariko with wariness and she just narrowed her eyes at him in response. If he was too stupid to mess with her after she nearly beat him senseless that morning, then she felt no sympathy whatsoever for him.

Mariko didn't know whether to risk turning her back on Orochimaru in order to work on pulling the bone that was hindering her out of the floor, or if she should just deal with it until the scary, pale man left. She knew that either situation put her at a disadvantage, since she wouldn't be able to move very much while she was stuck to the floor, but she would also be giving Orochimaru a huge opportunity if she left her back unguarded while she freed herself. She considered using her Byakugan, that way she could keep an eye on him while she worked, but she couldn't help feeling that she would be playing more into his slimy hands if she did; he'd already seen her Sharingan, and that was way more than she'd been willing to show him.

Orochimaru slid off of the bed and practically slithered over the floor so that his face was on the same level as the pinned girl's.

"Don't worry, my beauty, I promise that you'll learn everything you need to know in time; in the meantime," he patted her lightly on the head like she was some small child, "Be nice to the other children, hmm?"

Mariko watched with a disgusted expression marring her features as Orochimaru stood up and glanced over at Kabuto and Kimimaro, as if silently directing the "play nice" command to them as well. Three pairs of eyes watched as the Sound leader exited the room silently.

Mariko's eyes had returned to their normal silver color, now that the threat had gone, and she set to work on freeing her pant leg from the bone. It should have been a relatively easy task for someone with her strength, however, the bone was embedded extremely deep into the floor; Mariko didn't know how it could have possibly been driven so far down without breaking.

Kimimaro sighed and relaxed against his bed pillows once more; Kabuto made a move towards the struggling girl in the middle of the floor, but stopped when she turned her face up to him and growled, "Stay the fuck away from me," before going back to work on wrenching the bone from the floor.

The medic just rolled his eyes and continued on in her direction; Mariko glared up at him dangerously, but when he reached the place where she was stuck to the ground, he simply walked on by without so much as a glance in her direction. Mariko watched as he continued on to a medical cabinet that was hanging on the wall next to the bed where she'd been sitting prior to Orochimaru's entrance and took out a small stack of gauze pads. He then opened the freezer door of the mini fridge/freezer that was located under the desktop on the far right and withdrew a bag of ice, which he pressed to the swollen side of his face, while he dabbed at the bleeding cut on his lip with the gauze pad.

Once Mariko was done glare-warning the gray-haired man, sure that he wasn't going to hassle her, she went back to twisting and pulling and attempting to bend the bone that was trapping her.

After a period of time which she deemed as unnecessarily long, considering the relative simplicity of the task, Mariko managed to withdraw the unnaturally sturdy bone from the ground and thus, her pant leg. She inspected it while she stretched and rotated her now-numb leg around; it looked just like any normal bone - an ulna, to be more specific – except that it was irregularly hardy. Had it been just a normal bone, Mariko would have snapped it into pieces in no time; instead, it had been more like trying to break a steel rod.

Kimimaro and Kabuto watched as Mariko absentmindedly climbed back onto her bed, studying the bone intently while she did, and sat there cross-legged, holding the bone in her hands.

"What are you doing?" Kimimaro was the first to speak.

Mariko – only half-listening and assuming that the bedridden Kaguya was speaking to the medic anyways – didn't respond. Kabuto quirked an eyebrow at Kimimaro, giving him a look that suggested that he didn't think it was wise of the other man to try speaking to the fitful girl while she had a weapon in her hands.

The medic wouldn't normally allow anyone in Mariko's position to have any sort of contact with weapons, however, she seemed pacified by her curiosity and he felt that trying to take away her source of entertainment would only cause her to fly into another rage and use the weapon on him. Between being kicked around that morning and again just minutes ago, Kabuto felt he'd had more than enough of Mariko's temper tantrums for the day.

"Girl, what are you doing?" Kimimaro questioned again, hoping that the prefix to the question would clarify who he was speaking to; Kabuto shot him a 'you're-an-idiot' look and turned back to his research on the desktop, wanting nothing to do with whatever occurred between the Kaguya and the Uchiha.

Mariko glanced up from her intensive study with a somewhat bewildered expression; but it was quickly replaced by one of annoyance when she realized who was speaking to her. "What do you want, Green Eyes?" she asked, apparently _still_ not having actually heard the question that had already been posed to her twice.

Kimimaro looked over at Kabuto's hunched form. "Is she hard of hearing?" he asked; the medic shrugged while Mariko narrowed her eyes. She would have attacked and beaten the pulp out of him right then, except that she had detected no trace of sarcasm or malice in his tone.

Mariko sat back against her pillows, arms crossed, glaring at Kimimaro expectantly. "Well?" she hissed.

The white Kaguya stared back at her with an expression blank enough to rival her father's as he replied, "I am just wondering why you are so fascinated by that bone. Have you never seen one before?"

Mariko rolled her silver eyes. "Yes, dumbass, of course I've seen bones before; I break them all the time. But this is different from normal bones, hence the apparent 'fascination'," she finger-quoted with a sarcastic sneer. "Where did it come from anyways?"

"From my body," Kimimaro said. "My entire skeleton is made of up the same type of bones as the one that you are holding."

"Wow, you wanna cookie for that or something?"

Kabuto turned again. "Kimimaro, just leave her alone; she's just going to continue on with her nasty, sarcastic comments and, quite frankly, I'm tired of hearing them." The medic looked up at the girl for a brief second; she made a very rude gesture at him, and he sighed and went back to work.

Mariko really did want to have a serious conversation with Kimimaro to learn more about the odd structure of the bone – _his_ bones – and to find out how he managed to get bones out of his body with seemingly no damage to himself. But she would never own up to her want; she would tell anyone who asked her that she wanted nothing to do with anyone here in this weirded out compound full of strange and irritating people.

So she kept her arms crossed and a defiant frown on her face as she sat up on the bed, refusing to let her eyes fall on either of the men in the room. She could feel Kimimaro's stare on her, and it irritated her beyond reason; she wanted to go over to him and beat him senseless with his own bone. But she kept her cool and remained seemingly impassive as she turned her thoughts to other things.

She thought instead of Hidan. She had promised herself that she would find and free him before the year was out; that was three years ago. Three FUCKING years. She could have punched herself for it, even though she usually took her frustrations about the matter out on a wall. It wasn't that she had forgotten about him – she would never forget about him – but Leader had been keeping her busy and she had yet to come up with a feasible rescue plan. Plus, her father had forbidden her to go anywhere near Konoha. She would need his help when the time came, Deidara's too, and Sasori's and Kakuzu's…hell, she would need all of them when she finally figured out what the hell she was going to do. She hated asking them to put their lives at risk to help her again, but if she was to have any success and not fuck things up even more, she would need her strong and talented family backing her up.

From across the room, Kimimaro noticed the girl's face relax from an angry scowl into a look that was much softer and betrayed worry, sadness and regret. They were not emotions that he was familiar with, or that he encountered very often, but he had seen others' faces wearing these feelings. He recalled seeing it often when the rest of his clan was still living and extending their violence throughout towns and villages; the expressions would usually be attached to the faces of parents who were obviously hiding children in an attempt to spare their lives. But the black-haired girl wasn't hiding anyone, so what was the source of that particular look?

* * *

Hinata had to be smart about this; she had to catch up to Itachi and the Akatsuki, but also steer clear of Naruto, Neji, Sasuke and Kai, which was going to be difficult, seeing as how they were in the middle of Hinata and the Akatsuki.

She would have to move extra-quickly and skirt her way around the Konoha group and up to the Akatsuki. She would have to give them a _really_ wide berth if she intended to slip past undetected; damn Neji's and the Uchihas' eyes! She sighed and pressed on determinedly.

* * *

Uchiha Kai had been surprised when his father had woken him, quietly telling him to get ready for a mission and that he would explain the rest of later. Kai had gotten ready quickly and silently, then met his father in the main hallway of their house.

He had been even more surprised when his father explained that they were going to Otogakure on a mission to rescue his cousin, Mariko.

It had been three years since he'd seen Mariko, which was unfortunate, since both he and Zatoichi had taken a strong liking to their only cousin. He understood why she couldn't come back to Konoha and visit and he knew that even _thinking _about venturing out to visit her was ridiculous and suicidal. Still, it would have been nice to see her; she had left so abruptly before.

Now, as he darted through the trees with his father, Naruto and Neji, Kai wondered how his cousin had come to be imprisoned _again_. The first time, in Konoha, he supposed that it was because she was still young and fairly inexperienced in large-scale battles versus the sparring matches that she was used to. Now, however, she was older, more experienced, better-trained _and_ he was sure she had a strong grip on how to utilize both of her eye abilities. So how had she gotten kidnapped?! It made no sense to the young Uchiha, but he figured that everything would be cleared up once they found Mariko.

* * *

Sighing and stretching, Kabuto sat back in his chair, having finally finished his day's research. After looking closely at Kimimaro's blood sample, he noticed that the cells seemed less anemic – he would give him a shot of iron later on, just to make sure that his hemoglobin levels stayed up.

The Kaguya, Kabuto noticed, had drifted back to sleep; no doubt, the exciting events of the morning combined with being awake and active were taking a toll on him. Hopefully though, Kimimaro would grow stronger and would be able to get out of bed soon.

The medic turned his gaze one hundred eighty degrees to the side of the room opposite Kimimaro, where he saw Uchiha Mariko, also asleep, curled up on her side on the bed. Kabuto couldn't believe that it had been less than twelve hours since she'd been in Oto and she'd already managed to give him a bunch of bruises, hurt herself, get into a fight with Orochimaru and make her presence so unpleasant that Kabuto found himself almost wishing that he hadn't been so successful in his kidnapping mission.

It was strange how different she was while sleeping; she was so…_peaceful_. Her face was no longer contorted into a harsh glare, and her cold, silver eyes were closed; her mouth was slightly open and her sides rose and fell gently with her steady breathing. One hand was resting near her face while the other lightly grasped the sheet underneath her, occasionally tightening into a fist and then relaxing once more; her hair was spilled out behind her in a wave of silky black. She really was a stunningly pretty girl, Kabuto thought, she had all the aristocratic good looks of both the Hyuuga and the Uchiha, but her mouth and her attitude and the constant frown she wore around when she was awake really drew away from her lovely features.

Deciding that after an early and exciting morning, both the Uchiha girl and the Kaguya would sleep for at least a little while longer, Kabuto left them both as they were and quietly slipped out of the room to get some food and a shower. He felt a little uneasy about the fact that there was no longer a door to close, since Mariko had busted it right off its hinges that morning, but he would rather risk having her escape than risk taking more surprisingly strong hits from her by waking her up to inform her that he was going to lock her in the little side room again. Besides, she'd probably just bust that door off the wall too, so what was the point?

The medic silently walked down the poorly lit hallway to his own room, which he had been ripped away from far too early that morning. He considered skipping food and a shower in favor of just going back to sleep, but if anything happened to Mariko while he was sleeping, he would really be in for it. So instead of collapsing on his bed like he so desperately wanted to, Kabuto grabbed a towel and took a quick, refreshing shower. After that, he rifted through all of the things on his cluttered desktop until he found a half-eaten bag of chips, and he bolted them down, draining his waterbottle afterwards.

He decided to go back to his workroom to check on the two sleepers and froze when he reached the doorway: Mariko was crouched at the foot of Kimimaro's bed, while he was sitting up and leaning back slightly, there were sparks flying between their eyes – burning emerald against blood red – as they glared at each other.

"Wh-what's going on?" Kabuto asked, almost afraid to learn the answer.

Luckily, his interruption was enough to startle the two apparent enemies enough to cause them to both look up at him in surprise. It was momentary, however, and Mariko wasted no time in launching into a lengthy explanation.

"I woke up and this creepy bastard was staring at me and then I told him to stop but he didn't so then I said that if he didn't stop then I was gonna come over here and beat him so badly that he wouldn't be able to open those green eyes of his for at least two weeks! And apparently, he didn't believe me, so I came over here to make good on my threat and then he said 'if you attempt to harm me in any way, I'll be forced to retaliate' and I could tell that he was getting those shifty weird bones of his ready to stab me with and so…we…we just kind of got locked in a…a, um…stare fight," she muttered, realizing how lame the finale of her rant was.

"… … … okaaaaayyyyy," was the only response that Kabuto could come up with. "Mariko, will you please remove yourself from Kimimaro's bed, you're invading his personal space severely and I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to stab you anyway."

Mariko turned her warning crimson glare back on the tense Kaguya as if saying, _Don't even __think__ about it…_

Kabuto, sensing that the tension that was threatening to break out into a physical fight at any second, intervened again and went to the tiny refrigerator underneath the desktop. He opened it and withdrew two bottles of water. "Are you thirsty?" he asked the girl.

She looked hesitant, but she couldn't ignore the cottony dryness of her throat and mouth; she nodded.

"Okay, well I'll give you this water but you have to take it back to your own bed so that I can give Kimimaro his meds."

For a moment, Mariko looked like she was going to argue and Kabuto braced himself for it; however, she surprised him by getting up off of the bed, taking the offered waterbottle and limping back to her own bed, where she sat up drinking the water.

The medic gave the other bottle of water to Kimimaro, twisting the cap off as he handed it over. "Slowly," he instructed as Kimimaro slowly and shakily lifted the bottle to his lips and took a small sip.

Mariko watched from her bed as Kabuto halted the flow of IV fluids so that he could draw another blood sample from the catheter in the Kaguya's pale arm. He stabbed the needle into the rubbery purple top of one test tube, let half of the blood in the syringe drain out, then withdrew it and did the same with a red-topped tube before using a drop to make a blood smear on a glass microscope slide.

He grabbed a large syringe and, after capping it with a thick needle, proceeded to withdraw equal amounts of liquids, one of which turned the liquid in the syringe vibrant fuchsia, from three amber bottles. He turned back to his patient and injected the cocktail through his IV line; Mariko watched as it flowed through the line and disappeared beneath the tape on Kimimaro's pale arm.

"What is that?" she asked, taking another swig of water.

"That was a vitamin blend," Kabuto replied, as he began drawing more clear liquid into a much smaller syringe. "And this is just a blend of minerals." He turned and depressed the liquid minerals into the IV line as well; Mariko was disappointed that this injection wasn't a pretty color.

The medic finished giving Kimimaro his meds and was doing the blood work; the patient was lying back on his pillows, occasionally taking slow sips of his water. It was a rare moment of quiet in the room, but it didn't last long. Mariko's stomach let out a long, rumbling growl, causing Kimimaro to glance over at her with one eyebrow slightly quirked.

Mariko shifted on her bed, subconsciously placing her hands over her abdomen. She was starving, having not eaten for quite some time and she was now starting to feel the typical headaches and cramping that occurred whenever she was exceedingly hungry. As much as she didn't want to eat anything that might be offered to her in this place, she knew that she needed to keep her energy up in case the opportunity to escape arose.

So it was with great reluctance that she called over to the working medic. "Hey," she said. "What do you have to eat in this place?"

* * *

_All the stars watch over you._

_Night and day._

_When you can't stop turning._

_Where'd you go mysterious?_

_So ashamed...._

_You've lost the way again_

_-- "Photograph"_


	4. Paralyzed

**Hi Everyone! Yay! New chapter! I don't have much to rant about this time except that I thought that breaks were supposed to be relaxing and school sucks! That's all!**

**Enjoy the chapter! R&R for me so I'm not too depressed! Thanks!**

**Much love!**

**-Keita**

**Music: Title Track: "Paralyzed" by Rock Kills Kid; End Credits: "Club Foot" by Kasabian; Others: "Nemo" by Nightwish, "Precious" by Depeche Mode  
**

* * *

_**Paralyzed**_

_This feels like another dream_

_Trapped underneath my own routines_

_I tried to lift it off of me_

_I give up, I give up_

_I just sit and bleed_

_-- "Paralyzed"_

_

* * *

  
_

Hinata stopped, breathing hard and leaning against a tree trunk; she had been running nonstop since she awoke that morning. Using her Byakugan, she could see that the group from Konoha was roughly three miles ahead of her and still moving quickly; the Akatsuki group was nowhere to be seen.

For the umpteenth time since she'd decided to go to Otogakure, Hinata cursed the eye abilities of her cousin and the Uchihas. Doing a quick calculation, she figured that she would have to give the group at least a two mile radius, and that was just the bare minimum; she knew that even then, she would risk her presence being detected.

So it was with a sigh that she pushed off of the tree trunk and started running again. A picture of Mariko flashed through her mind; it was the from first time Hinata had met her daughter since giving her up to Itachi on the night of her birth, and Mariko had been chained up like an animal in the prison, beaten, bruised and bloodied. Hinata didn't want to imagine her having to go through anything like that again. She pressed herself a little harder onwards, her urge to protect her daughter from as much pain and suffering as possible eclipsing her exhaustion.

* * *

It was only day three of her imprisonment in Orochimaru's dank hideout and already, Mariko was beginning to go stir-crazy. Upon waking up early that morning – or so she guessed, since Kabuto wasn't in yet – she had ripped off the bandage on her foot and had gone back into the tiny adjacent room in which she had woken up two days before, looking for her belongings. She found no sign of them, so she returned to the main room, only to nearly be given a heart attack when she came face-to-face with a very awake and alert Kimimaro.

"Kami! I swear, you've got to stop doing that! Seriously! You're enough of a freak as it is, but popping up like a damn daisy every time everyone's got their backs turned…it's creepy, okay? Stalkers pull shit like that."

Kimimaro just quirked his head slightly to one side, as if trying to look at this coarse, abrasive and loud girl in a different angle; she just moved on to yanking open desk drawers and cabinets, still in search of her Akatsuki cloak and her sword as well as her shoes.

"I mean, seriously, it's not like I tricked them out with _kunai_ or anything…" she mumbled to herself as she forcefully yanked open the locked drawer underneath one of the desktops, pulling it right off its track. "Whoops…"

After searching for another half an hour, then spending ten minutes letting out her rage by throwing Kabuto's things all over and purposely stuffing papers and files in the wrong drawers, only to follow it up with shoving the broken file drawers back onto their busted tracks in ways that would make them a pain to work free later on, Mariko huffed in frustration and hopped onto 'her' bed; Kimimaro just stared impassively at her from across the room.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you that it's really rude to stare like a moron at people?" she snapped; her destruction-therapy session had done little to ease her hostile attitude.

"No," the albino man replied in a flat tone.

"Well it is, so there, now you know," she retorted. She sat on her bed, impatiently waving her bare feet around to some imaginary and nonsensical tune that was going on in her head. She was fidgety and restless because she was bored and had too much energy. She briefly considered running the halls outside of the room, just to see where they would take her, but on the same note, she had no clue where she would end up or what sorts of scarring things she might see. _Seriously, how traumatizing would it be if I walked in on Orochi-asshole right when he was getting out of the shower?! I would instantly go blind._ She shuddered at such thoughts.

Mariko resorted to lying on her back horizontally on the bed, so that her legs and head hung over the sides, hoping that the blood rush to her brain would somehow deplete the rest of her body of her excessive energy.

This was how she was when Kabuto walked in, stretching and scratching his head. He glanced at her for a second, but his groggy expression turned quickly to one of horror when he saw the disarray that had befallen his workspace.

"What the hell happened?!" he cried.

Mariko just chuckled darkly to herself.

* * *

The wind rustled Deidara's long blond hair and his cloak billowed out behind him as he sat in the top of the tree, looking out over the vast expanse of forest that surrounded him. His blue eyes turned up to the matching sky and he watched as a flock of black birds made their way across it. He retrained his gaze in the direction that they had risen from, squinting slightly.

On the forest floor, at the base of Deidara's tree, Itachi and Kisame were finishing a meager meal that consisted of some small bits of food which they had thought to bring with them from the hideout.

The shark-man sighed discontentedly. "How much further is it to Sound anyways?"

"Quit complaining; you're as bad as Tobi," Itachi replied.

"Huh, yeah right; no one's _that_ annoying," Kisame retorted.

"And you two sound like an old married couple, yeah," Deidara said, dropping from his tree to the ground, right between his two comrades.

Kisame gave a low growl while Itachi showed no outward signs of annoyance; he just asked the blond, "What did you see?"

Deidara shrugged. "Not much; but something startled up a whole flock of birds about seven or eight miles east of here."

"Can you see that far?" Kisame asked his partner.

Itachi shook his head. "Even if Sharingan worked the same way as Byakugan, it would be difficult to see clearly over that far of a distance."

"In any case, it shouldn't take us long to cover that much ground, un. The problem is that by the time we get there, even if we do make good time, whatever stirred those birds up will most likely be long gone," Deidara said.

"At least we'll be able to tell if it was just another animal or an Oto nin when we get there," Itachi said, his monotonous tone covering the eagerness that was ready to overtake him. If whatever had startled those birds _had_ been an Oto nin, then he would hunt him down and make the miserable wretch take him to Mariko…perfect!

"Uh oh…he's got that look, Dei; someone's gonna die," Kisame said as he and the explosion artist both took a nervous step away from the Uchiha, whose eyes had bled to crimson.

"Let's just keep moving, yeah," Deidara said nervously, wasting no time in taking off into the thick foliage again with Kisame and Itachi hot on his heels.

* * *

Mariko happily munched on an apple while she sat contentedly back on her bed watching Kabuto try to sort through the huge mess she had made of his things. Kimimaro sat up in his own bed, sipping some sort of vitamin-and-nutrient-crammed cocktail through a straw. Kabuto had said that if Kimimaro kept improving, he could eat solid foods again soon. Until then, however, she planned on tormenting him as much as she possibly could.

"Mmm…this apple is _soooOOOOOoooo_ delicious! It's just so crunchy and juicy and sweet…it's like the food of the gods," she closed her eyes in mock ecstasy and took slow, over exaggerated bites. "Green Eyes, you are _seriously_ missing out here!" She cracked one eye so that it was barely open to see his reaction; he appeared not to really care about the apple, he was just staring at her as he always did, except now, he had that ridiculous orange straw hanging out of one side of his mouth. Seeing that her taunting had no effect on her roommate, Mariko dropped her act and viciously took a chunk out of her apple.

She watched the gray-haired medic for a little while, but she wasn't really paying attention; she was busy losing herself in her thoughts again. While she was caught up in memories mixed with hopeful future imaginings, she started absently humming the tune to a song that, in one of his rarer moments of tenderness, Hidan had softly sung to her.

They had been halfway between awake and asleep, and at first, she hadn't even sure if he had been singing it to her, or if it had just been stuck in his head; it was hard to tell with him sometimes. She'd never heard him sing before and she never had since then. At first, she had nearly laughed when she realized that he – Mr. Bad-Mouthed-Religious-Fanatic-Never-Give-A-Shit-About-Anybody-Superiority-Complex-Suffering Hidan – was _singing_; but she'd managed to keep quiet. His voice had turned out to not be all that bad, surprisingly, and when she had listened to the words of his song, she couldn't help smiling a little to herself; _that_ was the part of him that she had fallen in love with.

"Hello? Earth to little Uchiha."

Mariko snapped out of her reverie only to realize that Kabuto was standing before her waving his hand back and forth in front of her face; she frowned and turned her narrowed eyes up to him, with one eyebrow raised. "You wanna lose that hand?" she asked testily.

The medic sighed and let his hand fall back into place at his side. "I was just saying that I'm going to let Kimimaro try to walk around in the halls a little and I was wondering if you'd like to come." He gestured across the room to where said Kaguya was standing shakily, clutching onto his rolling IV stand.

"Oh. Um, okay," Mariko tossed aside her apple core and slid off of her bed only to awkwardly stand there while waiting for some sort of direction from either of the two men.

At a nod from the medic, Kimimaro took an unsteady step forward; Kabuto was close by to catch him in case he lost his balance. Mariko was rather unsure of exactly where she should be while they were on this 'walk'. She didn't know if she should walk in front of, behind or along side of them, she didn't know how much distance she should keep between them and she didn't know if she would be able to restrain herself from taking off should they happen upon a way out of the place.

Deciding to go with what felt most comfortable for her, Mariko settled herself a few strides' length behind the men, keeping them within sight of her peripheral vision while taking the opportunity to look around the place using her Byakugan; she only dared to use it now because the focus was on Kimimaro and not her.

There wasn't much in the few rooms that they slowly passed; Mariko picked out some creepy things like various animal and human parts in jars of preservative chemicals and some skeletons. There were also normal, everyday things like scrolls, brushes, ink and candles set up on various tables, desks and other pieces of dusty furniture.

She caught sight of another figure approaching and quickly turned her eyes back to normal while she waited to see who it was coming their way. It turned out to be a man…at least, Mariko thought it was a man; the style of his hair along with the presence of what appeared to be green lipstick was a bit off-putting and she had to do a double-take to be sure.

"Well, well," the newcomer sneered in a voice that reminded Mariko enough of Orochimaru's to give her chills, "Look who's finally out and about."

"Sakon," Kimimaro gave the now-affirmed man a nod in greeting.

"When did you wake up?" Sakon asked.

"He woke up the day before yesterday; I had to make sure that he had enough strength before I let him move around," Kabuto answered.

"I see," Sakon said, still sizing up the pale leader of his five-part team. Only then did he seem to notice that there was a third member to the party. "Well and what have we here? Kabuto, you didn't tell me you had gotten a little toy," he jeered.

At this implication, Mariko's brows shot up in her disbelieving, 'oh-no-he-didn't' look. Before she had time to react in any manner, especially a violent one, Kabuto stepped in.

"She's not my 'toy', Sakon, she's Lord Orochimaru's prisoner; and just a word of warning, she's extremely prone to random fits of violence. She's worse than Tayuya is during her 'time of the month'," he explained.

Sakon gave a grim snort of laughter. "Yeah right; as if that's even possible."

Kabuto just shrugged. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

For a moment, the Sound nin looked as if he was considering throwing a challenge at the new girl; Mariko hardened her glare and her muscles tensed, ready to spring into action in a split second in case this guy tried anything funny. However, she was spared a fight when, rather than initiate a spar, Sakon merely smirked and said, "Maybe some other time," before turning and walking off.

"Aww, did you forget your feather boa?" Mariko called after his retreating back, getting a fresh wave of chills down her spine when she noticed the second head hanging limply from the base of Sakon's neck. "Ew, what a freak."

Kabuto grinned a little. "Well, this place is full of them, so get used to it."

"Huh, I thought Zetzu was the only freak I would ever meet; silly me," she said airily as they continued on down the hallway on their 'walk'.

* * *

"What's she like? Is she hot?" Kidoumaru asked eagerly.

The four members of the Sound Five – self-dubbed the 'non-specials' because while Orochimaru allowed limitless time spent on Kimimaro, their fifth member, and his medical treatments, he wouldn't even spare a band-aid to any of them – sat around in the room which had become their lounge area over the years; they had furnished it with items such as a beaten down and overly broken in couch, a recliner that was stuck in the reclining position and plenty of moth-eaten and dust-filled old cushions and pillows. Jiroubou had been stretched out on a pile of cushions and polishing off what appeared to be his third bento box; Tayuya and Kidoumaru had been taunting one another, each trying to bait the other into a fight, but they had stopped when Sakon had entered and announced that he'd just met Orochimaru's new subject of interest.

On hearing that it was a female, Kidoumaru naturally became exceedingly interested. Sakon went on to describe her as best as he could.

"She's a bit shorter than Kabuto, she's got long black hair that was tied back and silver eyes," he said. "She also had an attitude and she has a great amount of strength."

Kidoumaru, however, was still hung up on the details of her physical appearance. "Come on! You've gotta be more descriptive than that! How long is her hair? Which way does she part it? Did she have full lips or thin ones? Do her ears stick out at all? How big are her boobs?"

Tayuya reached over and gave the six-armed ninja a hard smack in the back of his head; Sakon just rolled his eyes.

"Why don't you go find her and see for yourself if you're so interested?" he snarled.

A mischievous grin lit up the spider-man's face and he chuckled. "Maybe I will; I'll bet she's never seen a guy with six arms before; it might excite her." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Or make her puke," Tayuya grumbled.

* * *

"So…you've got zombie albinos with removable skeletons, double-headed drag queens, OCD medics and pedophiliac snake men…what are the other freaks here like?" Mariko asked, maintaining her place behind the other two as they slowly shuffled along the empty corridor.

"Well, I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise; where's the fun in that?" Kabuto replied, glancing over his shoulder at her and smirking.

"Are they freakier than your pet project here?" She gestured towards Kimimaro, who managed to throw her a quick glare despite struggling to keep his balance as he moved forward at a painfully slow pace.

"He's no more my pet project than you are my toy," Kabuto said seriously. "I just happen to be responsible for the two of you."

Mariko thought about this for a second and decided that it was true. "Where are we going anyways?" she asked after walking along in boredom for a few minutes.

Kabuto shrugged. "Just around; I didn't actually think that he would make it this far," he added quietly, not wanting to sound discouraging to his patient. "We should probably go back now, Kimimaro; I wouldn't want to have to carry you back by myself, since I'm sure Miss Uchiha here couldn't be bothered to help."

Mariko shot him a violent look and crossed her arms, turning on her heel and heading back in the direction that they had come from, only to realize that at the first intersection of hallways, she didn't actually know which way to go and she was forced to wait until the other two caught up to her; she didn't want to be wandering around this place with no idea of where things were and with freaks like the drag queen lurking around.

"Aw, how considerate, you waited for us," Kabuto said with a sarcastic sweet voice.

"Hmph," Mariko crossed her arms again and tightened her mouth; Kabuto bit back a grin.

"I was thinking that since Kimimaro did so well today, I'd take him outside within the next couple days, assuming he's still improving, of course," the medic told the girl.

Mariko waited for him to continue; when he didn't, she said, "Um…that's nice."

"Well, I just meant that you can come with us, if you want to," he said, "It'll be good for you to get some of your energy out."

She looked at him skeptically. "Am I allowed to actually run around outside, or will I be kept on some sort of chain?"

Kabuto shook his head. "We'll just go to the walled-in yard out back; we should be fine there."

"And you aren't worried at all about me trying to escape?" she asked.

"Should I be?" he retorted.

"**Yes**! Are you stupid?! Of course I'll try to escape if I get the chance! Just because I'm not currently beating the shit out of you doesn't mean that I wanna be here, okay? So don't delude yourself into thinking that," Mariko said.

"Well alright then; thanks for clearing that up," Kabuto said. "I'm challenging you to a sparring match by the way."

"You sure about that?" she asked, "You do remember how badly I beat you when that wasn't even my goal, right?"

The medic chuckled softly to himself. "Yes, but what you must keep in mind is that I wasn't trying to harm you either; in fact, I was aiming for the opposite. However, when I want to and I'm prepared, I can be a rather formidable opponent."

"As a shinobi, shouldn't you _always_ be prepared for a fight?" Mariko asked coyly. "Even if it's ridiculously early in the morning?"

"Hey, I'd just woken up after like, three hours of sleep, okay?!"

Mariko grinned evilly. "Whatever. I accept your challenge and the right to say 'I told you so' when I beat you to a pulp – yet again – and then escape from this scary place full of freaky people."

"Okay; good."

The knowledge that she would get to beat up someone without interference at long last put Mariko in a good mood, and she had a pleased look on her face for the rest of the walk back to the room.

* * *

For the millionth time, Hinata used her Byakugan to scan everything within a three-mile radius; she saw nothing save for forest animals and birds. Sighing, she slumped against the tree behind her, deciding that this was a good time to take a break and eat something before she passed out from exhaustion. She made a very small fire and used her travel-sized cooking pot to boil a little water from her water bottle, which she then added to her cup of instant ramen – courtesy of her husband.

She ate and quickly extinguished her fire, then ran ahead three more miles – away from the ashes of her fire – and laid down to sleep for a couple of hours. She wrapped herself tightly in her blanket and hoped that wherever Mariko was right now, she was at least comfortable.

Hinata had been travelling fast over the past two days; she was sure that she had managed to skirt around the Konoha foursome, but she was still paranoid enough to constantly check around her to make sure that she wouldn't cross paths with them. She did her best to mask her chakra signature, making it more difficult for the Uchihas to pick up on her presence if she did happen to venture too close to them.

As far as the Akatsuki was concerned, Hinata had little idea of how close she was to them. She had stretched her Byakugan sight as far as it would go the day before and she hadn't picked up on any remote signs of their presence, which was discouraging. Despite the fact that she had only left hours after Itachi had left her, she figured that she was about a day behind them, due to the fact that she'd had to work around the Konoha group.

It was difficult for Hinata to get to sleep; her thoughts were so busy and wouldn't quiet down long enough for her to sleep. After a while though, she finally did manage to drift off into a light doze; after three hours that seemed to pass far too quickly, she was up and running again.

* * *

"Everything look okay out there?" Sasuke asked, walking up to stand at his son's side.

Kai had been on watch duty for the past two hours while the others slept. He was sitting with his back to a tree and his naturally emerald eyes blazing red.

"Everything's fine," he answered his father. "It's all quiet."

Sasuke took a look around himself, nodding in agreement with Kai.

"Dad?" the younger boy asked. "Why do you think Orochimaru wants Mariko?"

Sasuke shrugged lightly. "For her eyes most likely; all of his elite have some sort of special bloodline limit, and Mariko is a one-of-a-kind. She's priceless to him."

"But what will he do to her?"

"I don't know, Kai; it's impossible to know what sorts of twisted plans that man concocts," Sasuke replied.

"She won't obey him; she's too strong-willed for that," Kai reasoned, more with himself than his father, "He-he wouldn't cut out her eyes, would he?"

Sasuke shook his head and said again, "I don't know."

"Would the eyes even work if they were taken from her? But, then again, Kakashi has a working Sharingan eye…"

Sasuke cut his son off. "Kai, why don't you try to get some sleep? We've still got a couple more hours before we have to be moving again, and I'm not tired."

Kai nodded and got up from his spot at the base of the tree to move over to where Neji and Naruto were sleeping. Sasuke took another look around, seeing nothing but the nocturnal forest creatures performing their nightly routines. He sat down, taking the same position that his son had just left a moment ago.

It was very likely that when they reached Oto, he would face his brother. Sasuke hadn't seen Itachi since the night he had come for Mariko, three years ago. He wondered how Itachi would react to seeing him and the others there; wondered how he would react to meeting his oldest nephew. _Hopefully better than I did when I first met Mariko_, he thought, remembering the shameful and unnecessarily cruel way he had treated his niece when she had been taken prisoner three years ago. He hoped that by coming to help rescue her, he would prove to Mariko that he truly did care about her, despite the hateful and violent history with his brother. He would find out soon enough.

* * *

"This is _so_ boring; can we please go outside?" Mariko drawled, taking noisy and quick half-steps to show her impatience.

Once again, she and Kabuto were walking Kimimaro down the hallway. It was just as dull as it had been the day before, except that they day before, she had met the freaky drag queen Sakon, which made it far more interesting than today's completely uneventful walk.

"He walks fine! Besides, the fresh air will liven him up! I would be in crappy shape too if I'd been stuck down here in this dark pit of despair for…however long he's been down here!" she argued.

When Kabuto didn't seem to pay attention, she took bigger strides so that she caught up to him, grabbed his shoulders and spun him so that he was facing her, then shoved him against the wall while grabbing the collar of his shirt to pull his face close to hers.

"What the-?!" the medic exclaimed in bewilderment.

"I'm. Going. _Insane_," she said in a deathly serious and desperate voice. "At home, I can run around and be outside all I want; here, I'm stuck in this place with narrow halls and no sunlight or fresh air. I'm pretty sure your smelly medical stuff is damaging my brain and I have the worst aches in my muscles and bones because they're not being exercised properly. I need to go outside _now_."

"O-okay," Kabuto said a bit shakily, for although his initial surprise at how forcefully Mariko had grabbed him had passed, he was now feeling rather flustered by their closeness; he felt his face heating up and thanked Kami that the hallways were poorly lit.

"Okay then," Mariko relaxed her hold on him and backed away, taking a breath to regain her self control.

Kimimaro, a few feet ahead of them, just looked on with curiosity, one hand clutching his IV stand. Kabuto straightened up, clearing his throat as he fixed his shirt and readjusted his glasses.

"Well," he said, "I guess we're going outside."

* * *

_One, take control of me_

_You're messing with the enemy_

_Said it's two, it's another trick_

_Messin' with my mind, I wake up_

_Chase down an empty street_

_Blindly snap the broken beats_

_Said it's gone with the dirty trick_

_It's taken all these days to find you_

_-- "Club Foot"_


	5. Strange & Beautiful

**Hello everyone! Long time, no see...or update...whatever...Anyways, I am FINALLY updating! I have not given up on this story at all, I have just had no time to write combined with multiple visits from the writer's block fairy (again!) but I'm pretty sure that I know now where I'm going with this, so the plan is to update a lot quicker than this past one. **

**Special thanks goes out to OTURAN-IKAMUZU1 - who I promised this update to - for sticking with me and not letting me off the hook! **

**Not really too much more to say other than I really hope that this chapter was worth the long wait, and please review for me, even if it's just to tell me that I'm a punk for keeping you all waiting for so long!!! **

**Music: Title Track: "Strange & Beautiful" by Aqualung; End Credits: "Time Is Running Out" by Papa Roach; Other: "Camisado" by Panic! At the Disco, "Just Feel Better" by Santana and Steven Tyler, "Sweet & Low" by Augustana  
**

* * *

_**Strange & Beautiful**_

_I've been watching your world from afar_

_I've been trying to be where you are_

_And I've been secretly falling apart_

_Unseen_

_-- "Strange & Beautiful"_

_

* * *

  
_

Mariko took a deep breath of the cool air as it hit her; it was like a tidal wave of refreshment after being stuck inside breathing in the same dank, stale air for days. She stood completely still for a moment, just relishing in the scents of the autumn air that she had come to adore so deeply.

The squeak of Kimimaro's IV stand snapped her out of her reverie and she looked over at the two men who were just emerging from the compound. It was a cloudy day, but Kimimaro, having been deprived of sunlight for so long, lifted an arm to shield his eyes regardless. Mariko almost felt sorry for him, being kept in the darkness of such an unpleasant place for such a long time. Although, she supposed that if he had truly been practically comatose, like Kabuto had told her, then the Kaguya didn't necessarily feel any sort of resentment at being kept inside for months.

Kabuto looked over at the Uchiha girl; she seemed to enjoy just being outside, which was a small blessing for him; any little thing that made her even remotely happy meant that she would feel less tense and be less likely to take her anger out on him, sparing him from countless bruises and headaches.

"So," Mariko said, turning so that she was completely facing Kabuto. "Are we fighting or what?"

The medic sighed; he should have known to expect that the overly-energetic girl would be eager to engage in some sort of physical activity as soon as she was able, especially one that involved violence aimed at him. He had this nagging feeling that her plan was to kick his ass and then make a break for it; judging by the evil glint in her silver eyes as she looked at him, he was closer to the truth than he thought. He supposed that he had better just get the spar over with, that way, he could go back to work on his rehabilitation of Kimimaro and conditioning him back up to where he had been before his relapse.

"Kimimaro," the medic said, "Would you mind standing out of the way while Mariko and I have a little sparring match? I wouldn't want you to get caught in the crossfire."

The pale man looked over at the maliciously grinning girl; the wind kicked up a little, pulling her jet-black hair along with it. Despite her slender build, she appeared to him to be a worthy opponent and he would have very much liked to be fighting her himself. However, he knew that no matter how much he wanted to deny it, he was in no condition to fight, plus, Kabuto would never allow it. It was with great reluctance that Kimimaro shuffled away from what was to be the battlefield for the medic and the captive.

Mariko waited, her muscles tense and quivering, ready and eager to fight; Kabuto stood facing her gathering chakra into his hands.

_I'll just use enough to make it so that she loses muscle control for a little while, but not enough to do any serious damage_, he thought, gauging the amount of chakra that he channeled to his hands.

Mariko's eyes widened with interest when she saw the medic's hands begin to glow a faint blue; she wanted to use her Sharingan desperately to see exactly how much of his body's chakra he was focusing in his hands, but she was more determined to keep her eye abilities locked away.

The two of them stood, facing off against each other. He wanted to lure her into making the first move and he could see that it wouldn't take much to set her off. Smirking, the medic took a quick, false step forward; Mariko instantly leapt forward, needing no further encouraging.

Kabuto didn't know what to expect from the girl; she was charging straight at him in a manner that would suggest that she was going to hit him head-on, but he knew that she was experienced enough to know how foolish an attack like that would be on her part, especially since she'd clearly seen his chakra-infused fists. But at the same time, he wondered if she _was_ going to attack him head-on, counting on him assuming that she was just rushing him to create a diversion when it was actually her main attack. It made him uneasy to be so unfamiliar with an opponent; his eyes followed her as she darted in a zig-zagging pattern.

Mariko knew that whatever she did, she could not allow herself to come into contact – no matter how slight or brief – with Kabuto's glowing fists. She calculated her moves – their timing, their angles – and raced onwards, eager to pound the daylights out of the medic. However, all her planning fell apart in the split second that Kabuto took three diagonal steps to his right, placing himself in her path before she was ready for him.

He took a swing at her; at the speed with which she was running at him, an attempt to jump over him would only result in her leaping straight into his punch. So instead, she resorted to dropping down to her knees and skidding along the ground under his fist. While certainly not the most graceful of moves, Mariko did manage to trip Kabuto as she slid right into his legs and rolled across the ground.

The medic managed to duck and roll at the last second, ending up on his feet and attacking within fractions of a second. Mariko barely managed to push herself out of the way of another of his punches as the force of his fist broke into the ground where she had just been.

She managed to get back on her feet and wasted no time in rushing her opponent again. Mariko managed to throw Kabuto off for a second with some superfast footwork, allowing her to do a one-handed flip and aim a powerful kick right at his chest; the medic was just barely able to lean back far enough to dodge it.

The girl landed in a crouched position, but quickly stood up, expecting to have to move to avoid another attack by the grey-haired man. However, her last attack had put him so off balance that he was regaining control of himself just as she stood and consequently, he had no time to form an attack.

Seizing this opportunity, Mariko threw one of her extremely effective roundhouse kicks at him. However, she misjudged his preparedness; Kabuto caught her leg before it was able to do any damage, and Mariko instantly felt it go limp and useless in his chakra-infused hands. Knowing that she would inevitably have to give up after this – being unable to use just one leg – she decided to make one last ditch effort. She gathered some chakra into her own hands and threw a powerful left hook, catching the unsuspecting medic square in the jaw.

He flew back, skidding across the ground, while the girl fell in a sitting position on to the ground, her right leg totally useless. She watched as Kabuto sat up, rubbing the side of his face that she had hit; he staggered up to his feet and walked over to her.

"I think you broke my jaw," he said far too good-naturedly for anyone who suspected that they had a broken jaw. Mariko could tell just by looking – not even requiring the use of her Sharingan or Byakugan – that his jaw would be just fine; unfortunately.

"Yeah, well, my leg has apparently been jellified," the girl growled, shooting him a dangerous look. "It had better not be permanent."

Kabuto smirked. "Oh really? And if it is, what exactly are you gonna do about it?"

She glared at him for a moment, wondering if there was any way she would be able to attack him in her semi-useless state. However, when he reached out, offering her a hand, instead of attempting to continue the fight, she hesitantly grasped it, and he hauled her up to her feet, supporting her so that she could hop forward on her one good leg.

It was mildly humiliating for Mariko to have to be helped along by a man who she not only detested, but who was also her opponent. Still, she supposed that it would be worse for her pride if she had to crawl back to the compound, and she knew she wouldn't get far trying to escape in her current condition.

Kimimaro had already started towards them, wheeling his squeaky IV stand along. "We're going back inside already?" he asked monotonously.

Mariko glared at him. "We wouldn't want you to fry like tempura now would we, my albino friend?" She said smartly; she was actually disappointed to be going back indoors as well. "You know," she murmured to the medic as he helped her along. "If I had been using my eyes at all, I would have completely crushed you."

The grey-haired man smirked down at her. "Then next time, do it."

The girl chuckled cynically. "Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Kimimaro quirked his head slightly as he looked over at Mariko. "You have eye abilities?" he asked, a slight tinge of curiosity evident in his normally indifferent voice.

Mariko gave him a disdainful, knowing smile that came out as more of a grimace accompanied by a slight nod.

The albino studied the girl thoughtfully, as if this new information suddenly changed everything about her appearance to him.

* * *

Kisame grunted as he kicked up some dust from the ground with the toe of his boot. He looked over at his mission partners to see if they were having any more luck than he was; Itachi was hunched over close to the ground, apparently studying what might have been tracks, but Kisame couldn't tell for sure, they were so faint. Meanwhile, Deidara was busy inspecting the surrounding foliage for signs of a human presence. It all seemed like a huge waste of time to the shark-man; after all, they were all highly skilled in tracking and if they hadn't found any evidence of someone having passed through the area, then either whoever had come through had been practically invisible or else no one had come this way.

"Find anything?" Kisame asked generally, not caring which of his partners answered.

Deidara frowned and shook his head in response, sighing in disappointment.

"Itachi?"

The Uchiha remained bent over the small piece of earth that he had been staring at for the better part of the hour that the trio had spent scouring the area for any sign of Mariko or anyone who might be able to give them information on her whereabouts. He didn't answer when Kisame repeated his inquiry.

The blond and the shark-man looked quizzically at each other before slowly making their way towards their team leader.

"Hey, Itachi, did you find something?" Deidara asked hopefully; Kisame said nothing, just stood by and watched the interaction.

Itachi looked up at the explosions artist briefly before continuing to scan the ground below him desperately. "I think there's a track here…no I'm _sure_ there's a track here…look," he pointed to a spot in the grass that was ever so slightly bent. "That must be from Mariko or from her kidnapper….or at least from someone who can tell us where she is."

Deidara looked at the spot Itachi had indicated and studied it carefully, but it wasn't long before he could see that if anything had crushed it down, it had only been a small animal of some sort; it was far too similar to the rest of the grass in the area to be considered a reliable lead. His hopeful expression fell and was replaced by the same disappointed one that he had been wearing for the majority of their search. Sighing, he reached out and placed a hand gently on Itachi's shoulder.

"It's not her, yeah," he said softly, meeting the Uchiha's gaze as he looked up again; Deidara could clearly see the desperation and hope and pain that were swirling in those crimson eyes. "Don't worry; we'll find her, un."

Itachi looked down dejectedly; he knew that Deidara was right and that at this point, his mind was trying to create signs that weren't there. With a soft sigh, he stood and looked around, scanning the area one last time with his Sharingan eyes before turning and moving along, still heading towards Sound and closer to Mariko, he hoped.

* * *

_"Oh I love showers, they are amazing, especially after training, but not in creepy, underground lairs…la la laaaaa, hmm hmm hmmmmm…"_

"Are you _singing_ in there?" Kabuto asked, poking his head around the door and into the steam-filled bathroom…his steam-filled bathroom.

"Ah! Get the hell out! Pervert!" Mariko screamed; Kabuto dodged the bar of soap that was fired at his head just in time.

"Well," he sighed once he was safely on the other side of the door again, "Apparently a shower's done nothing to soothe her anger."

The medic draped the damp towel from his own prior shower around his bare shoulders and sat down at his computer. He began typing away and soon he was consumed with making notes in Kimimaro's file and updating drug logs.

Mariko drew back the tiniest corner of the shower curtain so that she could peek out with one eye. Seeing no one present, she stuck her head out to get a better look; satisfied that the pervy medic, creepy snake man or freaky drag queen were not secretly lurking somewhere in the bathroom waiting to get a look at her naked, Mariko stepped out of the shower. She was still very quick to wrap a towel around her though; _you can never be too careful_, she thought, securing the towel in a knot.

She scanned the countertop for a hairbrush; unable to find one, Mariko started rifting through the drawers and medicine cabinet. She found many items: a toothbrush and mostly squeezed-out tube of toothpaste, a small, dirty rag for cleaning eyeglasses and some glasses-cleaning solution, a mostly-empty bottle of aspirin, some liquid cold medicine and…

"Crap…crap…crap…ooh! Wait, no, crap…" Mariko grimaced with disappointment as she tossed the empty sleeping pill bottle over her shoulder with most of the other items she had encountered. "So much for drugging him and escaping." She sighed.

Still unable to find a hairbrush among the array of Kabuto's bathroom items, Mariko settled for angrily running her fingers through her dripping jet hair. Her clothes were scattered on the floor in a dirty heap; she scooped them up and gave a tentative sniff, nearly gagging as the combination of sweat, dirt and _oldness_ hit her. As much as she hated to give up the only possessions she was allowed to keep, the thought of putting such filthy clothes back on after she had just cleaned up was far too unappealing to Mariko. Instead, she opted to hunt for a temporary change of clothes.

In Kabuto's bedroom, which was connected to the bathroom she had just emerged from, Mariko made quick work of finding one of his over-sized white t-shirts and pulling it on over her head. She had a little bit more trouble finding a suitable pair of pants, but at last came across a pair of black sweatpants that had a drawstring which she was able to tighten around her slim waist.

She grimaced at the bagginess of the clothes, but figured that she was lucky since she was comfortable and wasn't forced to put her dirty clothes back on. With her old clothes rolled up into a ball and tucked underneath her arm, Mariko ran her fingers through her hair once more as she left Kabuto's room and headed down the hall to her and Kimimaro's room.

Mariko was planning on snapping some insult or other verbal abuse at one of the two men, but when she was met with the sight of the medic's naked, muscular back, with his wet silver hair hanging down in between his shoulder blades, she stopped short.

_Holy shit! He's got a way sexy body!_ Was the first thing that crossed her mind before she mentally slapped herself back into her right state of mind; only now, she was agitated with herself for thinking such an outrageous thought in the first place.

Kabuto turned when he heard a huff of frustration that was by now all too familiar. He closed his eyes and silently prayed for patience as he swiveled his chair around to face the current bane of his existence.

"What…" he started, but never got to finish, because Mariko, with her over-sized ensemble, made a quick dash to her bed and threw herself down on the mattress on her side, facing away from him.

The medic stared at the girl for a few seconds, stunned by her odd behavior. "What…?" he tried again.

"Nothing! No one! Leave me alone!" Was the rapid-fire response elicited from Mariko as she buried her red face in her pillow.

Kabuto and Kimimaro stared, exchanged confused looks, and then resumed staring at the oddly-behaved girl.

"Um, okay?" Kabuto said slowly, not knowing any other response appropriate enough for Mariko's reaction. He let his puzzled gaze rest on her curled up form for a moment longer before he swiveled his chair around so that he was facing his computer again; he resumed his work, tapping away at his keyboard.

Hearing the medic working diligently, Mariko very slowly rolled so that she was on her stomach; her face remained buried in her pillow. Then, even more slowly, she turned her head, chancing a look at the shirtless man at the desk…and she felt the heat rise in her cheeks again.

_Wooooooowwww…where does he even find time to get that ripped?! Seriously!_ Mariko's naughty side commented before she could keep it in check. Almost as soon as that thought entered her head though, her "good" side counteracted it with some thoughts of its own. _What?! You shouldn't be looking at him like that! He's your captor! The asshole stole you from your family and is keeping you locked up in a freaky place full of freaky people! What, are you getting Stockholm Syndrome now?! And what about Hidan?! Did you forget about him?!_

"NO!" she yelled forcefully at her inner voice.

Both Kabuto and Kimimaro looked over at the bed, startled by the defensive outburst. Mariko stared back, now on her back and supporting herself on her elbows as she glared daggers at the other two.

"What?!" She challenged.

"What do you mean 'what'?" Kabuto – fed up with her attitude – shot back. "You're the one who keeps going with the random, psycho outbursts! You're not offering any sort of explanation for your eccentric behavior and you keep freaking out like a lunatic! So don't get all put off if you get a few weird looks from us sane people, alright?!"

Mariko's mouth opened, tried to form words, and then closed again tightly; her silver eyes were wide with surprise; clearly, a retaliation on the part of either man had been highly unexpected by her. However, concerned only with keeping her pride intact, Mariko quickly wiped the shock from her face and replaced it with a haughty glare, crossing her arms across her chest.

"What's your deal today anyways?" the medic asked, his voice softer now; Mariko could pick up a note of genuine concern in his speech.

"What do you think?" she snapped, "I wanna go home! I'm sick of this place and I'm sick of the shitty food and I'm sick of him," - she thrust a finger in Kimimaro's direction – "and I'm sick of _you_! I miss my family and I miss Hi- …" she caught herself abruptly on this last note, refusing to utter his name to someone whom she felt she had already said too much to, and whom she felt had no business asking her such a question anyways.

Kabuto kept watching her, expecting her to continue on; but whatever she had been about to say had triggered some memory or other in her. She sat, contemplatively playing with the shiny black luck beads wound about her wrist for a few seconds, lost in her thoughts and memories. After a minute, she looked up, throwing one last dirty look at the gray-haired man – as if it had been his fault for making her remember – before curling up on her side facing away from his eyes once more.

With a defeated sigh and shake of his head, Kabuto swiveled around and resigned himself to his work once again, praying that there would be no more interruptions from the girl.

Mariko's fingers twisted into her beads absentmindedly and she closed her eyes, relaxing against her pillow as she allowed a few of her memories to surface and play out on her internal movie screen that showed them like films on the insides of her eyes.

Her father occupied the first memory that she allowed to slip into her mind; in it, she was ten years old and still completely innocent and happy. He'd taken her to a rocky beach and she'd spent the day hunting for geodes and chucking the plain rocks into the waves. She'd picked her way among the rockpools, in awe at the amount of life that she'd observed in each pool. She remembered going home with her pack full of glittering geodes in various hues – gifts for her family members – and an array of shells, urchins and starfish that had been collected from the rockpools. Even now, if she concentrated hard enough, she could remember the feel of the gentle sun on her face and the briny breeze tangling her hair.

She thought of her mother and her Konoha family next, remembering her step-father, Naruto, and her little half-siblings and the sheer amount of love that radiated throughout their entire home. She remembered the feeling of her sister Sayuri's silky-smooth hair between her fingers as she combed it; she remembered the warmth that emanated from her baby brother Jiro's body as he hugged her tightly, his small arms not quite long enough to totally encircle her figure; she remembered her brother Hachi and the bright smile – his father's smile – that lit up his face whenever Mariko would sit and listen to him talk of his days training at the academy; she remembered the feeling of pride as he told her that he was among the top students in his class.

Mariko thought of Neji, her mother's cousin, his wife, Tenten and their son, Keiji. She remembered her father's family: her cousins, Kai and Zatoichi, her aunt Sakura and Sasuke, her father's brother. She remembered the hate that she had felt for him upon their first meeting, when he beat her senseless; but then she remembered the gradual transition from hate to remorse, to respect, to love. She could honestly say that she loved her uncle now.

Mariko's fingers subconsciously slid to another bead and with it, another memory in her mind. This time, it featured the other Akatsuki members; the first family she had known. Deidara and Kisame, always doting on her; Tobi, Sasori and Zetzu, the ones she would turn to for hours of endless amusement; Kakuzu, her partner in the organization, whom she had come to respect and who had come to respect her in turn; Pein, the leader, the only one in the organization who had never seen her for anything but her abilities and potential.

And finally, the most painful memory – one that hurt even as it slid into her internal movie screen and began playing – Hidan. She saw him as she had through the various stages of her life: first, as a source of amusement as she antagonized him endlessly and fearlessly as a small child; she could still feel the raw fear as she remembered him chasing her through the forest with his deadly scythe – her father's idea to frighten her into activating her Sharingan – when she was thirteen. She had been so traumatized by the event that it had taken years for her to overcome her fear of the man – four years, to be exact – which led her right into the next phase. She was seventeen and, in her self-imposed challenge to overcome the fear of Hidan that had been weighing down on her for the previous four years of her life, she remembered the first time she kissed Hidan. She remembered being thrilled and terrified at the same time; she recalled the way her heart had pounded against her rib cage, nearly bursting from her chest. She summoned up the memory of the feel of his hands on her, caressing her face, stroking her hair, the slight tickle as he ran them up and down her sides. She imagined the feathery softness of his downy silver hair as she twisted it between her fingers, and she remembered the tickle of the calligraphy brush on her back from when they had painted elaborate designs on each other. She remembered the overpowering feeling of joy and relief when he came to take her away from Konoha, and the horror and fear and devastation when he took her place as Konoha's prisoner and was beheaded before her eyes.

Her mind cut off the memories there; they were still too disturbing and upsetting for her brain to completely remove the protective shield that normally kept those painful memories suppressed. Already, Mariko could feel the familiar ache in her chest, nearly crushing with the great amount of hurt that weighed down on her. She might have been able to bear her separation from him better if she knew that he was home, in his room doing his dumb, bloody rituals, rather than decapitated and being kept as a prisoner in Konoha. They had been lenient with her, since it was her first offense and her mother, step-father and Hatake Kakashi had been there to plead her case to the Hokage; but Hidan's record was far from clean with them, and Mariko had no doubt in her mind that it would take nothing short of a miracle and an immense army to free him.

"Girl…_girl_…Mariko…" A firm, stoic voice was saying her name; for a moment, Mariko thought it was her father, but he would never address her in such an indifferent manner.

Slowly, Mariko opened her eyes; her vision was blurry. She brought a hand up to rub the sleep from her eyes, only to discover moisture there. Not only had she fallen asleep while watching her home movies behind her closed eyes, but she had been crying in her sleep. She sat up more, wiping the tears from her eyes and cheeks.

Mariko looked around self-consciously; Kabuto was gone from the room, which was darker since he had also turned out the lights. Across the room, Kimimaro sat upright as well, watching her.

"You were making strange noises in your sleep," he told her monotonously, "And you were speaking as well."

"What did I say?" the girl asked tiredly, too upset and groggy to be smart-mouthed or rude.

"You were saying names," the albino man continued, "You seemed particularly upset when you said the name 'Hidan'…who is Hidan?"

Mariko rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands as she replied. "He's someone very close to me; someone I have to help."

Kimimaro seemed to take this information and mull it over; Mariko stood up and stretched.

"I really need some fresh air," she said; turning to her roommate she asked, "Do you wanna go outside for some air?"

The Kaguya looked uncertain at first, but the feel of the sun and the taste of the outdoor air was still fresh in his mind and he longed for another fix. He nodded, but looked over at his IV stand hesitantly; Mariko caught the look and walked over to his bedside, taking the pole in her hand and wheeling it slightly out of the way, making room for Kimimaro to stand.

The discomfort in his emerald eyes was painfully obvious as he swung his legs around so that they hung over the side of his bed and tentatively lowered himself until his feet were touching the floor.

Mariko knew that he still wasn't stable enough to walk on his own, so she held an arm out for him to grip while he got his balance, holding the IV pole tight in the other hand.

Kimimaro took a few seconds to steady his still-weak limbs, but he managed to take a few hesitant steps forward. Mariko walked next to him, wheeling the IV pole along with one hand while using the other to steady the pale man who was staggering like an animated corpse across the room and into the hallway; the girl bit back a snicker as she recalled her first meeting with Kimimaro and her conviction that he was a zombie. Before they passed completely through the doorway of their "bedroom", Mariko snatched a wool blanket that was folded and resting on the floor to one side of the door.

The journey to the outside of the fortress took a good amount of time, not only because Kimimaro could only move at a slow pace, but also because Mariko had trouble remembering exactly where the exit was located. After taking a few wrong turns, they finally made it to the door that opened up on the little courtyard where she and Kabuto had had their sparring match earlier.

Mariko handed the IV pole over to its owner momentarily while she yanked the door open, blasting both of them with a gust of cold night air. Mariko inhaled deeply, slowly moving forward and out of the stale air of the confined hideout, towing Kimimaro along with her. Looking up, she saw that the vibrant moon was nearly full; it cast its silver light on the ground, lighting the courtyard for the nighttime wanderers to see by.

"Wow," Mariko uttered, looking up at the navy-and-ebony sky and marveling at the number of sparkling stars which were visible on such a clear night.

Kimimaro lifted his eyes to follow her gaze; he too lost himself very quickly to the astonishing beauty of the clear night sky.

Taking a quick look at the ground underneath her, Mariko slowly folded her legs as she lowered herself to the ground. Kimimaro watched her sit and then, using his IV pole as a support, proceeded to follow suit. Once both were safely seated, they turned their eyes back to the heavens to admire their beauty.

Another gust of cold wind blew and Mariko momentarily closed her eyes, relishing in the slight, refreshing nip and the spicy scent as it whipped her long jet hair back away from her face. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed her companion; his pale skin was luminescent in the light of the moon, his green eyes seemed to glow and his hair – also blowing about in the breeze – was like silver stands of spider silk. The sickly green glow from inside the hideout made him appear ghostly and deathly, but Mariko found herself thinking that the light of the moon suited him much better and made him look unearthly and almost…beautiful.

She noticed Kimimaro shudder in the breeze. Glad that she had thought to grab the blanket at the last second, Mariko picked it up from where it lay beside her, shook it out and draped it over the Kaguya's shoulders.

Kimimaro seemed surprised by the gesture; he looked from his blanketed shoulders to the girl sitting beside him.

Mariko shrugged indifferently. "Wouldn't wanna get my ass kicked for letting Kabuto's little pet project catch pneumonia." She said no more, just let her silver eyes wander back up to the stars.

* * *

As badly as she wanted to ignore the burning in her muscles and the exhaustion that was assaulting her, Hinata couldn't. She had been running for nearly two days straight, pausing only for one, fifteen minute power nap and for just enough time to dig an energy bar out of her pack. She knew that she needed rest and food if she was going to be any help at all in finding her daughter, but it was difficult for her to spend the time necessary to regain her strength and energy; she felt that every moment that wasn't spent chasing after Mariko was a moment wasted and therefore, possibly a moment too late.

Hinata could smell water nearby, so she decided to stop, clean herself up a little bit, eat something and get some sleep. The last time she had checked, the Konoha group was still about three miles off of her current position; she still had no idea how far ahead that Akatsuki was, another reason she was reluctant to stop.

She slowed her pace as she neared the river, stumbling more than walking to the sandy bank and stooping to cup some of the cool, crystal water in her hands and bring it to her lips. Instantly, Hinata felt a little bit better. She cupped more water in her hands and splashed it on her face – streaked with sweat and dirt – and scrubbed it with her hands. She took off her shoes and socks, wiggling her stiff toes as she rolled up her pant legs and dipped them in the refreshing stream, breathing a contented sigh as the cool water soothed the soreness and aches out of her overworked feet.

It was a sunny day, one that normally, she would be enjoying at home, working in her garden, playing with her children, or sparring with her sister or friends before going out for lunch in town.

She decided to eat a small meal before sleeping, so she lit a small fire and set her travel-sized pot to boil, removing a package of dried noodles from her pack. She was so exhausted that it took all her concentration to simply focus on the task at hand, leaving her unusually unaware of her unfamiliar surroundings. Because of this, she didn't notice the three men who were watching her from the brush.

They watched Hinata as she wearily went about making her breakfast and unrolling her sleeping mat.

"What do you guys think?" one with greasy, shoulder length hair asked the other two.

Another with hair that was black and stood straight up in short spikes shrugged. "Seems like she's alone; she's only making enough food for one after all."

"Well then what are we waiting for?" the third man, who had two long scars marring his features said, slinking forward.

Hinata was about to take her pot of noodles off of the flames when she saw the three men step out of the foliage and walk towards her. She froze with one hand extended halfway to the pot handle.

"Well, well…you're a pretty little thing, aren't you?" the greasy-haired man drawled.

Hinata stood up quickly and jumped back a few steps, her back to the river. The men stalked closer, their faces contorted into leering grins.

"Now, now, don't be shy, sweetie. We don't bite unless you want us to," the scarred one said with an evil smirk, licking his lips.

Hinata shuddered; the men chuckled and moved closer. Hinata's heels were now right against the edge of the river bank.

The spiky-haired man moved ahead of his companions and reached out to grab Hinata's wrist. In a lightning quick movement, she dodged his groping hand and seized her attacker instead, yanking him forward and throwing him headfirst into the river.

There was a loud splash as he hit the water, and the other two goons stared in astonishment at the kunoichi, clearly not expecting her to be able to retaliate. However, the two remaining men were quick to recover and they immediately were on their guard, preparing for a fight.

Hinata could tell that although these men were not ninja, they had had some training in basic taijutsu. Ordinarily, a situation such as this would pose no threat whatsoever to her, but right now, with her low energy levels due to lack of food and sleep, she was not in top form; plus she was outnumbered.

"Alright girly, so you're gonna be more trouble than we originally thought, huh?" the greasy one said, "That's alright, we like 'em frisky."

The two men advanced, parting so that each was on one side of Hinata. She activated her Byakugan, effectively keeping both men in sight. They kept feinting in and out, trying to distract and confuse her, but Hinata could easily keep track of their movements, which were crude and uncoordinated to her.

She "saw" the one who was now behind her preparing to charge her, thinking that her attention was focused on his comrade in front of her. She waited until the sneaky man was about to collide with her before she jumped out of the way and he went crashing into his partner instead. The two men went sprawling to the ground, cursing and yelling as they attempted to disentangle themselves.

Hinata watched them struggle from the spot where she had landed when she jumped out of the way; although both men were currently incapacitated, she remained in her fighting stance, not letting her guard down.

The men stood up, the greasy one wiping a trickle of blood from his lip. He gave Hinata a malicious grin, which caused her to shudder as she kept her gaze focused on the pair.

She could see the obvious changes in their movements as they advanced towards her; they were more guarded and cautious now, finally realizing that she was not the weak, helpless woman they had originally thought of her as.

With her Byakugan giving her yet another advantage over these unskilled ruffians who clearly relied on brute strength rather than tactics and ability, Hinata decided to end the fight before she drained herself of more energy and chakra. With a burst of speed, she rushed at the scarred one; he threw a wild, frantic punch that made no connection. Hinata quickly took him down with a well-aimed roundhouse kick to the side of his face; the man fell to the ground, unconscious.

With both of his comrades down and out, the greasy-haired man's confidence was gone and he looked about anxiously for some way to escape with no more than the puffy lip he was already sporting. Hinata saw him looking around and noticed that he focused on a gap between the trees, seeing his body tense in preparation to run.

The man suddenly took off in the direction Hinata had predicted he would, but he was no match for her training and speed and she quickly overtook him, dispatching him quickly with a chop to the pressure point between his shoulder and neck, and he fell to the ground in an unconscious heap.

Hinata dragged the man's limp body back to where the scarred man lay. She moved back over to her supply pack, taking out a coiled length of rope and using it to tie the two men together, so that even if they did wake up any time soon, they wouldn't be able to cause her any more trouble.

Finally, with an exhausted sigh, Hinata grabbed her travel blanket and wrapped herself up in it, falling asleep almost instantly. Her adrenaline rush gone, she once again failed to notice that she had a new set of observers from the woods.

* * *

_When it's time to fill the void_

_My whole life has been destroyed_

_And everyone around me says my time is running out_

_I refuse to surrender, I refuse to surrender_

_-- "Time Is Running Out"_


End file.
