(if you don't like rambles or disclaimers, skip down to the "Chapter 11" bit)

The last chapter...THE LAST CHAPTER. No more after this...
...but wait, there's more! What about that whole time-skip thing? I mean, Haruka's an OC from Sand Village, so she was aware of Gaara, and you know she loves everything from Sand, so what's she going to do when they take his Bijuu? So, that whole "last chapter" bit is really a lie. It's the last chapter of this part. And since part two starts with a prologue, that'll be on a different story. I'll post the link when I get around to it.

Okay. Naruto world and characters (c) Masashi Kishimoto.

Haruka, Misaki, Kazuki, Sound ninjas 1-3 (Haruka's father, Kanon and Airi) (c) me, Zopponde. Maybe another character or two that I forgot about. Well, they're mine, and if you don't have advance permission when you use them, you're most likely emo, suicidal, or otherwise wanting death.

OOCness had better be excused, after all, it is fanFICTION. No flames based on that. Or anything else. Flames are not nice.

And um...coughcough...I really...do not know why Kanon and Airi are in love with each other...they just...kind of...came out that way...

Enjoy! And thank you to my readers...assuming it's actually multiple...who seem to prefer anonymality...I think that's the word...

Oh yeah! And! It's kinda late-ish for it, I guess, but...Beta reader? PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEE?????? :big shiney puppy eyes:




Indecision
Chapter 11

Misaki followed Itachi and Kisame through the trees, still worried about Haruka. By the time those two had arrived at the scene, her partner had already been taken off by the Sound ninja. Naturally, when she explained the situation, Misaki left out the part where Haruka was embracing one of them. She didn’t want to let things get that complicated until she could at least be sure that her partner was alright.

Itachi and Kisame slowed down, and Misaki followed suit. By the time the three of them stopped, Misaki could clearly see a gathering of three Sound ninjas, two young women and one rather aged man, without even considering using her Byakugan.

Itachi turned to her and whispered, “You said there were four of them before, right?”

Misaki nodded and activated her Byakugan. She searched the whole area, scanning for a trace of the last Sound ninja and for Haruka, but she couldn’t find them in the immediate area. She shook her head. “They’re somewhere else. I could probably find them if I went a little further in the right direction.”

Itachi squinted before he nodded and muttered, “Can you figure out which way they went? Are there any footprints or anything?”

Misaki looked for signs of movement, but it all was widespread. “Not from here.”

At that moment, she realized a movement in the air. She twitched her head and itched her ears, trying to get the ultrasonic feeling out. “Do you hear that?”

Itachi sighed. “They’ve probably found us. They’re Sound ninjas, after all.”

A thought crossed Misaki’s mind. “Maybe they’re calling for help from that other one. If they are, then he’ll come from where he took Haruka. I’ll go that way, and you two can deal with these guys, right?”

Kisame nodded. “They look like the only thing hard about them is their heads.”

The darker-haired woman twitched, swept a kunai knife out of her pouch, and flung it in their direction in one swift movement. “Care to say that to my face?” she demanded, glancing their way.

The kunai hit about a centimeter to the left of Misaki’s ear and she squeaked in alarm, loud enough to give away their position to most people with any sense of hearing, whether or not they specialized in sound.

Kisame smirked. “Yeah, you’re only difficult in reasoning with.”

She turned to fully face them now. “I know you’re there, so come out! You and your two friends,” she added.

Just as the three of them stepped into the open, Misaki heard someone running through the forest and looked over just in time to see the fourth Sound ninja charge into the clearing and skid to a halt in the center of his friends. “What’d I miss?” he asked breathlessly.

The woman who hadn’t yet said anything shrugged and spoke up. “Not much. Just Airi being majorly offended by Mr. Blue’s diss.”

Kisame gritted his teeth and pulled his whale of a sword from his back. “Please don’t call me that.”

Itachi nodded. “He gets rather rash when anyone refers to him by titles relating to that little condition.”

Misaki nodded too, having had her own lesson-teaching experiences with titles for Kisame, before she remembered that she was to go after Haruka. She took a moment to remember where the last Sound ninja came from, and another to make an escape plan. “If you’ll excuse me, I kind of have to…answer a call of nature right now,” she excused, before pulling her hands together into a seal that made her image dissapear with a poof and a cloud of smoke.

She reappeared only a few meters away, and took the time to gain some altitude in the trees before rushing to where the last ninja came from, always keeping her Byakugan activated and searching for traces of her partner.

Finally, she found that Haruka was sitting, looking rather bored, on a rock in a clearing almost half a mile away from the other Sound ninjas. Misaki slowed down as she apporached, and stopped on the closest branch she could get to the clearing before she called down. “Haruka-chan, do you need help?”

Haruka looked up, looking rather unhappily surprised to see her partner. “Misaki-neechan…!”

Misaki hopped down from the tree, landing just in front of Haruka. “What’s going on? First you were hugging that one Sound ninja, then he takes you out here, and you’re just sitting here waiting for him to come back? Haruka, do you know this guy?”

Haruka looked away, paused, and finally sighed. “Yes. I think I’ve mentioned him to you before. He’s Kazuki-niisan.”

Misaki recalled the first morning that Haruka had been in Akatsuki, when she flung open the door and responded as if she expected someone totally different to answer the door. She nodded. “Yeah, once or twice. So you really know him well, don’t you?”

Haruka nodded distantly, still not looking at Misaki. “He was the only one left…after Kaa-san and Arata-tousan died…” She sighed. “And now I’ve met Tou-san, sort of, and I don’t know who I should be with anymore. Where am I supposed to go? The only place I know I won’t go is Leaf Village, or any other village but Sound or maybe Sand.” She sighed again. “Maybe I should just go to Sand. I could be just like I was before, but I guess I’ll be retired from being a ninja. Maybe I’ll open a store of some kind…” Her stare went further. “Maybe cacti. Like flowers but more suited to the desert. It wouldn’t be very popular, but at least I’d be home, and I’d have all this behind me and done.”

Misaki came forward and put her hand on Haruka’s shoulder. “Haruka-chan, I don’t think that’s the right decision. I can see why you’d think that, but it’s not. You’ve been with us too long, I was just getting used to being used as bait instead of a housewife.” Haruka smiled and looked up into Misaki’s face.

“I guess so, but…” She turned away again. “…now I’m against Kazuki-niisan, and Tou-san, too, even if I don’t really know him.” She closed her eyes. “I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have hurt Masuyo, or at least I shouldn’t have gone back and finished her. I should have just gone back home.” She sighed, opening her eyes again. “I wish I could go back in time and change all this.”

Misaki felt some memory stir inside her at this last sentence, and thought she heard a voice that she knew, but older, echoing in her head, crying, “I wish we could go back and stop him. Then none of this would have happened.”

She shook her head to clear it. “Haruka, no, I don’t think that’s the answer. Time travel’s impossible anyway, right?” Something felt wrong about these words.

Haruka seemed to sense that, and she shook her head slowly. “No, I don’t think that’s true. But I suppose,” she added, sighing, “I don’t exactly know how to do it anyway.” She smiled softly with thought. “I wonder where I’d be most likely to find out…”

Misaki instantly knew how to make Haruka stay with them. “Isn’t it obvious? Akatsuki’s the place to stay! It doesn’t matter where they figure it out, because one day, we’ll conquer the world, and we’ll have everyone’s research, and one day, you’ll know how to go back in time and completely stop Kazuki-niisan from leaving! Then you’ll spend the rest of your life, happy and loyal to Sand Village instead of uncertain of all this!”

Haruka smiled widely and genuinely. “Yeah, I guess so. I really don’t think it works that way, but I don’t think I’ll be able to get anything closer.”

Misaki smiled, happy to have her partner back. “A-and maybe we can get a pet or something, for the base, if we’re going to be staying there the whole time!”

Haruka’s smile stretched. “Let me guess; you want a weasel.”

Misaki paused, wondering what she meant, then smiled evilly. “Oh, a weasel indeed…yes, it would be a very pretty weasel, and its name shall be Itachi…”

Haruka giggled. “Do you mean you’ll just put a collar on Itachi and call him a weasel?”

Misaki laughed. “No, I wouldn’t, and I don’t really want any kind of weasel, and Itachi wouldn’t make a very good pet, but it’s fun to joke about.”

Haruka sighed. “Maybe a cat. I like cats. And then maybe Kisame wouldn’t always be there to constantly remind us that we’re just honorary spies.”

Misaki smiled, but the jokes about Itachi’s name and Kisame’s little quirk reminded her that they were still an inch away from a nasty fight. She grinned meekly. “Um…speaking of Kisame,” she began, “he and Itachi…that is to say, um, I guess the reason that Kazuki-niisan went is because…”

Haruka sat up, alert. “Oh shoot! I forgot about that!” Her face collapsed into worried wrinkles. “Ohhh, what am I supposed to do? Who am I supposed to fight for? I don’t know what to do,” she whined, dropping her head into her hands.

Misaki thought of something. “Hmm…maybe we could try to pry them apart,” she suggested. “I don’t know, remind Itachi that you left the stove on or something.”

Haruka thought for a moment, then noded briskly and stood up, already running through the forest.

Misaki sighed, content for once, and followed, but she took the higher path, leaping from tree branch to tree branch until she caught up with Haruka and guestured for her to climb up too.

Haruka nodded and hopped between trees until she was at Misaki’s height, never looking up from the branches. “I never really liked this form of travel,” she explained. “I never fully mastered the art of anything to do with anything but sand, and sometimes cacti. I only learned them well enough to pass the Leaf Village exam. And I still don’t know the trees in this area so well.”

Misaki nodded, understanding, and replied, “You can run on the ground if you want, I don’t mind.”

Haruka shook her head, still looking directly at the branches. “I’d better learn now, if I’m ever going to live anywhere within fifty meters of two trees.”

Misaki smiled. “I suppose so.”

They went on in silence, until Haruka stopped abruptly.

Misaki turned around and asked her, “What’s wrong, can’t find the next branch to leap t—” Her question was answered immediately by a solid collision with a warm human body.

“Ow—watch where you’re going!” snapped a familiar man—the older man in the group of Sound ninjas.

Misaki backed away just enough to look at him. “You watch where you’re going! You’re the one who’s supposed to have heard me before I hit you!”

He just sat there and eyed her suspiciously. “What did you do to that prisoner of ours?”

Haruka hopped forward a few branches to catch up, but still stayed a few trees behind Misaki. “I’m right here, er…I guess I should be calling you Tou-san?”

The man looked over to her, smiling warmly. “Yes, I suppose so.”

Misaki sighed. “I guess you did say something about your father earlier. But really, we need to get going. Now. Itachi-kun might be suspecting us soon.”

Haruka sighed. “Misaki-neechan, you have a one-track mind. You think about Itachi-niisama so much that you completely forgot that it’s Kisame-san we should be worried about. But yes, we should be going.” She looked at her father. “I’m sorry, I really do wish that I could get to know you better, but I don’t think we’re meant to know each other any better than we do already.”

The old man sighed as another familiar Sound ninja caught up to him. “Yes, I suppose so. Keep in mind, though,” he added, “I’m going to be trying to change that. I appologize in advance for any problems that may come up from my trying to get to know my daughter.”

Haruka nodded. “I understand. I just hope it doesn’t cost me my life or yours.”

The younger ninja smiled ironically. “Well, I do hope that answers your questions. Now can we go before we get any suspicion on us?”

Haruka nodded and lept for the next branch. Misaki waited for Haruka’s father to go before she went along, too, with the younger ninja following her. He pulled up beside her. “By the way, my name is Inaroki Kazuki. What’s yours?”

Misaki paused a moment before she decided to tell him, “Akatsuki Misaki.”

“Any particular reason for the suspicious family name?” Kazuki asked, raising an eyebrow.

“If I’ve guessed right from Haruka," Misaki answered, shrugging slightly, "you’re from Sand Village, so you wouldn’t know the Hyuuga Clan. But I was originally from there, until the head of the family decided that I was too weak to the clan and disowned me. Everybody keeps telling me that I’m still actually a Hyuuga, but I think that my name in the bingo book is, actually, under the Akatsuki name.”

Kazuki grinned. “That’s a story to tell the children.”

“Let’s hope I don’t have any," Misaki hoped, grimacing slightly. I don’t think that Akatsuki is such a safe place to raise a child.”

“Sound Village might be safer,” Kazuki suggested.

“No," Misaki answered his unasked question. "Haruka decided that she’s not going to you guys, so the person there that I know best would probably be you. No offense or anything, but I’m not sure I can trust you guys very well.”

“Fair enough,” Kazuki agreed. “Actually, that’s why Haruka was raised in Sand Village instead of Sound. Her mother decided that it wasn’t safe enough, raising a child in the changing conditions of a hidden village still in the process of being fully thought-out.”

Misaki thought back a bit. “Did he really plan it that long ago? Orochimaru, I mean. He only left Akatsuki less than ten years ago…”

Kazuki shrugged. “I can’t say I know the full history of my village, but who does? Really, I dare to ask you if anybody knows about every detail and concept that formed with others to eventually form any village?”

Misaki nodded slowly. “I wasn’t challenging that, but you do have a point.” She began to slow down, noticing that the old man in front of her was doing so. Haruka stopped abruptly at the edge of the clearing and looked down on the scene.

What she saw wasn’t as bad as she had expected; in fact, there didn’t even seem to be any real damage at all. If anything, the scene was a rather blissful one, if only in a rather twisted sense.

Kisame was leaning against a tree, watching on boredly. Itachi stood nearby with a similar expression. In the center of the camp, the two young women were surrounded by fire, not seeming to notice the flames for their undivided attention to each other…and each other’s lips.

Haruka had to say that she thought she understood what Kazuki had meant earlier when he said he knew that people would follow each other anywhere if they loved that person, gender not being an issue. He must have been talking about his teammates.

Kisame looked up, seeing her watching awkwardly. “Hey, what took you?”

Haruka shrugged. “Misaki ran into some old friends. Anyway, why are we still hanging around here? Let’s get going, now that everything seems to be taken care of.”

Itachi sighed. “I suppose that we have hit a bit of a dead-end. Those girls didn’t realize that the grass around them was too wet to catch on fire, and they’re saying their ‘last goodbyes’ or something for no particular reason. No matter what metal we throw at them, it melts in the fire. The only thing we can do is wait for them to realize this and get out for themselves.” He paused. “I assume you’ve taken care of the other two?”

Haruka shrugged again. “Haven’t seen them. I guess they just ran away or something.”

Itachi paused, but didn’t question her. “Well then, I suppose the best thing we can do now is get you two back to your base.”

Misaki had caught up some time ago, but just now had gotten over the unwelcome shock after realizing the events within the ring of fire. She piped in, “Our base? Oh, so now you guys have your own?”

Kisame sighed. “That’s always been your base. It’s just a place to keep you, really. The real Akatsuki base is the other one. I guess you two just have the honorary spy Akatsuki base.”

Misaki huffed and hopped down from her tree to grab Itachi’s arm. “Come on, Itachi-kun. We’re going.”

Itachi sighed and gave in. “Fine, but I’m going to sleep tonight, if I have to tie you up and have you sleep on the floor.”

Misaki looked as if she was going to whine, but she thought of something better. “Oh, it’s okay. It doesn’t even matter anyway. You’ll be a father soon either way.”

Itachi tripped, breaking free of Misaki’s grasp, steadied himself, and whipped around to face her. “WHAT?”

Misaki giggled. “No, no, not yet. I just wanted to see how you’d react.”

Itachi glared at her. “Do not do that again. The next time you lie to me about something that serious, I will—”

Misaki sighed. “Yes, I know all the gory details. Pain ow pain stab rip stab ow scream pain slice cut pain ow. Something like that, sevety-two hours, and again…”

Itachi nodded. “I’m glad you understand.”

The two kept on walking in the general direction of the Akatsuki Honorary Spy Base, Misaki holding Itachi back into a vaguely romantic stroll. Kisame grinned and stood up to follow them. Haruka sighed, thinking of how great her life seemed at that moment, with Misaki torturing Itachi in the most laughable way, until she looked up and saw Kazuki standing in a tree with a rather distant expression staring at her. She stared back at him similarly, then smiled, nodded curtly, and went on to catch up with the rest of her little team.

At that moment, she decided that her encounter with the Sound ninja was a good thing; if nothing else, she was now confident that Kazuki was safe, at least for now, and that she just might be able to see him again without hostility, and the thought of being able to stay in contact with her old friend without losing her new ones entirely made her day—before she collapsed on the ground from fatigue. She suddenly remembered her staged heart attack and resurection, and that she hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Her stomach growled as the grass nearby crunched.

She looked up and saw Kazuki, smiling, handing her a sprig of some herb that she recognized to be a form of sustenance. He whispered, “This should hold you off,” and gently placed it on the ground in front of Haruka before he jumped over her into the trees.

Haruka smiled, reached for the herb, and stood up to follow her new friends, nibbling on the sprig as she went.


Complication Nation
Mockery 3

In order to eliminate confusion, I would like to go over what happened between Itachi and Kisame and the two Sound ninjas, Airi and Kanon.

Misaki: .:leaves to find Haruka:.

Itachi, Kisame, Kanon, Airi: .:intense glares at each other:.

Itachi: .:sighs:. Fireball jutsu!

Kanon & Airi: .:dodge:.

Itachi: “Grrr…” Fireball jutsu!

Airi and Kanon: .:dodge:.

Airi: “You’ll never hit us! We were the best at dodgeball!”

Kanon: “Well, we were the best at the dodging part…”

Airi: “Yeah, we kind sucked at the ‘ball’ part—”

Itachi: Fireball jutsu!

Kanon & Airi: .:dodge by landing back into the center of the clearing:.

Kisame: “I’ll keep them from dodging! Go ahead, Itachi!”

Itachi: Fireball!

Kisame: Water prison jutsu! (there's water/condensation on the grass and in the air, it should be enough to scrape together...>.> )

Kanon & Airi: “Oh crap, we can’t get away now!”

Kisame: .:dispells water prison at last possible second:.

BOOM!

Smoke clears and we see that Airi and Kanon were too wet from Kisame’s prison to be affected by the fire, as is the grass immediately next to them. Howevre, they are still rather confident that they are about to die and start saying their goodbyes.

Itachi: .:sighs:. “Kisame, you’re an idiot.”

Kisame: .:shrugs:. “What else did you think I was going to do?”

Itachi: “I don’t know, maybe something useful?”

Kisame: “Hmm…that would be useful…”


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That's the end...until...PART 2--Shippuden!!