Between the Lines 13

"Kirona!" Ai shouted as she thrust her foot onto the bed, nearly missing the person she was trying to talk to.

Jerked from her thoughts, Kirona sat up to stare at her comrade with a bored, yet curious look.

"I've been trying to talk to you for the past ten minutes. Jeez. You've gone off into your own world enogh already. Stay with us in reality for at least five minutes."

"What were you trying to talk to me about?"

"We," Ai motioned the people behind her and Kirona had to turn her head to see Kurumi and Misaki. "were wondering if you would like to go with us to get something for lunch. Especially since you skipped breakfast."

Kirona just shook her head 'no' and began to lay back down.

"Lazy." Ai joked as the other two ninjas followed her out of the small house.

"Why is she so intent on figuring everything out?" Kurumi asked once they were finally outside.

"I dunno." Shooing a fly away, Misaki looked up at the sky before continuing. "What do you guys think she's trying to figure out now?"

"The Curse." Ai answered.

"It wasn't a curse. It had to be some kind of release jutsu or something." Kurumi argued.

"Since when did a release jutsu have all that chakra and chanting going on?" Ai retorted.

"Can we not start this again?" Misaki asked as she stepped between the two.

"Curse." Ai said smiling.

"I'm going to smack you." Kurumi laughed as she began to chase Ai down the street.

"Guys?" Misaki took a step to chase after the two when she noticed Kirona running down the street. "Kirona?" Glaning at Kurumi and Ai playing in the street, Misaki chased after Kirona. "Kirona." She shouted.

Leaping onto a building, Kirona jumped from house to house until finally stopping just short of the village walls.

"Oi." Misaki called, gaining Kirona's attention. "What are you doing?"

"How'd you get here?"

"How? I followed you."

"You were following me?"

"Ya. What are you chasing?"

"You can't sense it?"

"What?"

Kirona turned her head sharply and took off running again.

"Oi!"

"Hey, Misi-chan." Someone called.

There, just coming out of a ramen shop, was Naruto and Kakashi.

"What's going on?" Kakashi shouted.

"I don't know. Kirona's flipping out about something." Misaki landed safely next to Naruto and smiled at the two.

"So what's she doing?"

"I don't know. She just asked 'You can't sense it?' and then ran off. She didn't say what she was chasing after."

"She seemed pretty hell-bend on finding it too." Kakashi pointed out. "Perhaps we should find out what she was chasing?"

Smiling, Naruto and Misaki nodded their heads in agreement and returned to the rooftops.

-

"Where are you?" Kirona asked outloud. She scanned the woods from the top of the wall that seperated the woods from Konaha only to find a lone flying away. "I sense you but I can't see you. Are you surpressing your chakra?"

"No." A voice weakly reached Kirona's ears and she looked down to see the person she was sensing. There, just down a path hidden among the trees, was Yuzuki. She was staring up at Kirona, her Akatsuki cload no longer around her shoulders and her clothes were torn.

Fear and hatred ran through Kirona's veins as she hopped from the wall and into the trees. Within seconds, she was holding a kunai to Yuzuki's throat from behind.

Scanning the forest for any other attackers, Kirona turned her attention to the ninja in front of her.

"What are you doing here?" She ordered.

Yuzuki shifted her left hand to hold up Ai's bandana.

"Ai left this behind."

"Why would you bother bringing it back?"

"Her parents gave it to her before they died."

"Why would you even care after everything that you've done? Why!?"

"Haven't you noticed any changes?"

Kirona fell silent. True, they had noticed some changes, but what was Yuzuki planning?

"I came to give this back to Ai and to finish what I started."

"What do you mean?" Kirona ordered.

"Don't beat around the bush, Kirona. You know what I'm talking about. You're just waiting to hear it from me, when you know that it's not going to happen."

Kirona laughed for a moment and then asked what was prying at her mind for the past two days. "If what I think is going on, why can't you tell me yourself? I would rather you confirm my suspisions."

"I never performed the jutsu on myself."

Kirona took the kunai from Yuzuki's throat and walked in front of her former friend. She had just noticed how bloodied Yuzuki looked, as if she just left a battle. Her dress was torn in places and stained with mud and blood. Her hair was no longer in the two buns, but hung at different lengths on her back. Her eyes held some sorrow and happiness, but truly showed how tired she was.

"What the hell happened to you?" Kirona asked, completely forgetting that Yuzuki was once her enemy.

Yuzuki chuckled a bit. "Apparently you just can't decide to quit on the Akatsuki. Deidara's probably still fighting my Sakura Clone. That, or he's already destroyed it."

"You tried to leave the Akatsuki?"

"Ya, now that Misaki no longer has the demon and I completed the jutsu on you guys. There was no need to stay after the demon part though."

"So why didn't you just leave? Why didn't you brind Misiaki-chan back to use, instead of making us find her and having her spend so many nights outside in her condition?"

"Deidara was given special orders to keep an eye on me. I knew that if I left then, they would have killed Misaki even after I went through all the trouble to ensure that she was safely away."

"I thought the aftermath of that cermony was death. Why didn't Misaki die?"

Yuzuki coughed into her hand for a moment and looked up at Kirona. "Stop asking the wrong questions. You know exactly how it happened. Right now, I need you to give this back to Ai."

"What are you going to do then? You can't go back to the Akatsuki, they'll kill you. Still, by joining the Akatsuki in the first place, you won't be accepted back to Konaha or the Sakura Village."

"I know that."

"Then what are you going to do?"

"What does it look like I can do?" Yuzuki retorted, her voice shaky and rough. "I can't return to places that I once called home, or to the Akatsuki. It's not like I would want to anyway. I'm just going to wonder until I can't wonder anymore. Or, perhaps, you could do the honors of taking my life? You said that you would if Misaki got hurt anymore anyway. Didn't that jutsu in the woods hurt?"

"Stop playing around! Just stop!" Kirona shouted. She shook her head to clear her head before turning back to the former Sakura nin to talk some since into her when three other figures surrounded them.

"Yuzuki? Kirona?" Misaki asked to Kirona's left.

"What's going on here?" Kakashi ordered.
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yay another chapter....