Sasuke Ninja with a Crush, Chp. 27

Chp. 27: Friends? 1

The sunshine came through my window as it always did. My eyes fluttered open. I laid there for a couple minutes before finally getting up. I turned on the water in the shower and started brushing through my hair. Just when I was about to take off my pajamas, I heard a knock on the door. I walked over to the door and waited a moment before opening it. “ Itachi? “ I said shocked. He wasted no time. “ I have a mission today and Pein said I needed a partner with skills such as yours “ he said. 2

“ Oh. When do you have to leave? “ I asked. Itachi looked past me into the bathroom and heard the water running. “ Not until after you take your shower “ he said. “ Oh, yeah. I should probably do that “ I said looking at the bathroom and then back at Itachi. “ Come to my room when your ready “ he said. “ Okay “ I said starting to shut the door. I waited until Itachi started walking away to completely shut the door. I wondered what kind of mission Itachi would be going on that Pein said he would need my skills for.3

As I put my hands through my soapy hair I thought that maybe it wasn’t going to be a mission at all ... nah! Pein wouldn’t do that, neither would Itachi. Or would they? I put my hair in a towel and dried myself off. After I combed through my hair, it had so many knots it wasn’t even funny, I put on my one piece that Pein assigned to me and then my Akatsuki robe. I walked out of my room and saw Deidara. “ You look good in black and red, un “ he said.” Thanks ... I think “ I replied. I walked over to Itachi’s room and knocked. While I waited I turned around and saw Pein with that woman again. They were outside the main house. It looked like Pein was unhappy. The woman was shaking her head. “ Yes, yes “ he said. “ No, I can’t. I won’t do it “ she answered. 4

I heard the door start to open. I quickly turned around. I smiled when Itachi opened the door and saw me standing there. “ Ready when you are “ I said. “ I’ll be out in a moment “ he said, shutting the door in my face. I gasped. “ Well, he’s certainly not at all mean today! “ I muttered under my breath. I waited around until the door opened again. “ Let’s go “ he said. He was about to go into the forest, but he stopped. He waited for Pein to look at him. When he did Itachi nodded at him. Pein knew what this meant and motioned to him with his hand to carry on. 5

Itachi told me to follow him and started into the forest. He followed a path that apparently led to a cliff that overlooked a huge field. He stopped once we reached it. “ Itachi, what exactly is our mission? “ I asked. He let the wind flow through him and ignored my question for the moment. “ The truth ... Rai ... is that ... there is no mission “ he explained. “ Then why’d you bring me all the way here? “ I asked. Almost immediately after I said this, Itachi turned around and had a necklace in his hands. “ To give you this “ he said. I observed it. “ Itachi ... this is the same necklace that you wear “ I said. “ I know.6

It would mean a lot to me if you wore it too “ he said. Without asking, he put the necklace around my neck and fastened it. I looked down at it and put my hand on it. “ I know it might not be attractive to you but - “ No “ I said cutting him off, “ I think it’s very attractive. Thank you “ I said. Itachi looked hesitant. “ Do you ... think we could be friends? “ he asked. “ What do you mean? “ He looked back at me. “ To be friends. We’ll talk to each other when we’re bored, when we have things on our minds that are bothering us and spend time together. Isn’t that what a friend is? “ 7

My mind struggled to wrap itself around what he had just said. Well, apparently he wants to be friends. But it seems kind of odd how he brought me all the way up here just to give me a necklace, the same one he wears as well, and to ask me to be his friend. “ Itachi, what do you really want from me? There has to be more to this then just a necklace and friendship “ I said. He turned his head away from her and thought about it. ‘ Of course there’s something else. There always is when it’s with Pein ’ he thought, ‘ But I can’t tell her that, no matter how much I want to ’ Itachi turned around. “ There’s nothing more. Just the necklace and friendship “ he answered finally. 8

“ Will you? “ he asked. He turned around and took my hands into his. “ Will you be my friend? “ he asked. He’s being a little dramatic for just asking me to be his friend. The way his acting you’d think he’s asking me to be his girlfri- Oh, my God. I almost completely forgot. This is all about TwoTails. Of course! Duh! Why else would the Akatsuki kidnap me?! Jeez! I slipped my hands away from his grasp and took off running down the trail that led back to the hideout. Itachi didn’t follow, not right away at least, he just stood there. I ran back into the village and I was going for my room, but Pein stopped me. “ Where are you - ? “ he reached out to touch my arm.9

“ Get away from me, don’t touch me! “ I shouted backing away from him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Deidara coming toward me. “ Hey, Rai what are you - “ I glared at him. “ All of you, get away from me! “ I yelled. Deidara was taken aback by this, they all were. One by one everyone came out of their rooms. Kisame, Tobi, the woman, Sasori, the plant dude and the other dude with silver hair. Pein sighed. “ Itachi, did you tell her? “ he asked. 10

I looked behind me. Itachi had just come back from the cliff. “ No, she must have figured it our for herself “ he answered. Everyone was staring at me, some shocked, some didn’t care, others stared coldly. “ Why don’t we talk about this? “ the woman said. “ Talk about this? I don’t even know who half of you are! “ I shouted. “ My name’s Konan “ the woman said. “ I’m Hidan and this is Zetsu “ the silver haired man said and then pointed to the plant dude named Zetsu. “ You think now because I know your names I’ll talk about this? “ I asked, quite irritated. “ Rai, listen, it’s not that bad, un “ Deidara said. 11

“ The only talking I’ll do is with my fist! “ I shouted, ignoring Deidara. “ Rai, calm down “ Pein demanded. “ No, you calm down, I’m not your pet! “ I yelled. “Jeez! You think because you’re the leader of an organization you can do whatever you want?! Well lemme tell you something buddy ‘ol pal, Pein, you can’t! “ I yelled. I swear almost everyone gasped at the same time. Pein stared at me. “ What did you just call me? “ he ordered. “ That’s right, I called you by your name. I’m not a little girl running scared. I’m a kunochi, a ninja! “ I said. Pein burst out laughing, like something I saw was actually funny. 12

“ I’ll give you this, you’ve got guts. But I wonder how powerful you really are “ he said. “ You wanna fight? That’s fine with me but right now I think you better back off before I hurt you “ I advised. He burst out laughing again. But this time it was an amused chuckle. “ Do you seriously think you can hurt me? Let alone even land a blow? “ he asked, doubting my confidence. “ Do you seriously think I’m weak? I can show you just a fraction of my power right now “ I said. I summoned my water. Pein looked amused. 13

“ That’s it? A little puddle of water you can hold in your hand? Not very impressive “ he said. 14

I smirked. “ You want to see power? I’ll show you “ I said. “ Try me “ he said confidently. “ Water Tsunami! “ I shouted. A long puddle of water stretched from one side of the village to the other. It started rising. Pein and everyone else watched as it got higher and higher. It was easily at least 100 feet in the air now. Then within another 5 seconds it was about 700 feet in the air. “ Holy crap, un! “ Deidara whispered to Kisame, “ I think my clay was better off this morning! “ he said. Pein did look impressed, but then a wry smile made it’s way across his face. “ Yes, I see you can make a very tall wave of water, but what can you do with it, I wonder? “ he said.15

“ Well if I wanted to, I could destroy this village and probably kill all of you. But of course, that would take a lot of water and right now I’m feeling very merciful, so I won’t do that “ I said. With a swift and graceful movement of my hand, the title wave slowly shrunk down to the puddle it started out as. Another swift but graceful movement of my hand it was all back in the palm of my hand. “ Release “ I said quietly. The water dissolved into the air. The only trace of evidence that all of this ever happened was the astonished expressions that were spread throughout the Akatsuki members faces. 16

“ And that was only a tenth of my power “ I said. Deidara put his hand to his temple. “ Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second here. That was only a tenth, un? “ he said. 17

“ Yep “ I answered. “ Ooh, and I thought Itachi was strong “ Deidara muttered. “ What’s that supposed to mean? “ Itachi blurted. “ Nothing, yeah “ Deidara answered. “ Rai, can I talk to you in the main house? “ Pein asked. I was about to say no, when I realized that it was a rhetorical question, he just wanted me to follow him. 18