The genin completed their mission and they were done for the day, to their relief. Kensei really hated cleaning out the Inuzuka kennels. I checked the time after Tsunade dismissed us to see if I still had time to run errands.

"So, the mission was a success?" Lady Tsunade asked.

I nodded. "Yup, the man wasn't even a ninja. He was just some petty thief,"

"Good," She nodded. "You're free for now.

Thankfully I did, so I went to the stores to take care of what I needed to take care of. On my way back to my house, I passed by the gates and saw Izumo and Kotetsu. I decided I'd go say hi to them.

They were in the middle of a conversation and stopped once they saw me.

"Oh hey Kasumi," Izumo greeted. "Don't worry about Saturday. Hana already talked to me and my friend said he would love to go with you,"

I sighed and kicked the ground awkwardly. "Great..."

I'm sure his friend was a nice guy, but I'm not really looking forward to this. The last time they tried to set me up was with Izumo and that didn't go very well.

Kotetsu noticed my reaction and rose an eyebrow. He took this as a cue to change the subject. He was going to speak, but then we heard footsteps. We all looked, seeing familiar bushy-white hair and blonde hair.

"Hey now, is that who I think it is?" Kotetsu asked, standing up.

"Uh-huh, no doubt about it," Izumo smiled.

I smiled seeing them and waved when they walked through.

"Hey, Kasumi," Jiraiya greeted as he walked past us. Naruto even waved back at me.

I turned back to face Izumo and Kotetsu after that.

"Oh, and my friend-" Izumo started, but was cut off by Kotetsu.

"I think she's talked about the date enough," He said, making Izumo look apologetic.

I nodded and gave Kotetsu a grateful look. "Yeah, I'm already stressed enough about it. Anko and Hana were very insistent about it,"

So we changed the topic to other things. I was telling them about the last mission I went on and how I had to take care of the petty jewel thief.

"No way," Izumo laughed. "You caught him that easily? How did you do it?"

"It was easy," I shrug. "I sent two of the genin outside to start talking loudly about a 'one of a kind diamond' and then he fell for it. He wasn't even a ninja either,"

Our conversation was interrupted by Sakura.

"Hey Izumo, Kotetsu," She greeted, then noticed me. "And Kasumi. How are you guys today?"

"Hey, Aunt Kasumi!" Konohamaru also greeted me.

Kotetsu smiled. "Well look who it is,"

Sakura and Konohamaru looked confused at that response.

"Somethings waiting for you back in the village," Izumo added.

Sakura looked surprised and then she turned her head. She took the traffic reports from them and they rushed off to go find Naruto after that.

"I better get home," I said. "I have to put these groceries away,"

I turned to leave.

"See you!" Kotetsu waved.

"And have fun on Saturday!" Izumo added.

I sighed at that.

I love my friends and all, but I really didn't wanna go on this blind date. It's not like I can get out of it though, what am I going to tell them? 'Oh sorry I can't, I love Itachi' yeah, that's not going to work.

Once I got home, I started putting everything away.

My mind kept flashing back to Itachi and I couldn't stop wondering if he even thought of me too. Or if he just moved on and forgot about me.

Yeah, he probably forgot about me.

I jumped when there was a knock on my door and I went to go answer it. I was surprised when I saw it was Kurenai. I started to feel panic rush through me because I was hoping she didn't bring my brother here or wasn't here to try and make us talk again.

"Good morning Kasumi. Lady Hokage wanted us to go on a mission," She said. "She told me to come and get you so we could both be at her office,"

I nodded and grabbed the house key that was hanging on the hook and locked the door behind me. I followed her to the Hokage's Tower and it was silent. She looked like she wanted to say something, but she held back.

"Um, do you know what the mission is about yet, or no?" I asked.

What a stupid question. I should've just stayed quiet. I hated small talk and now I'm just making this worse.

"No, she didn't tell me yet," Kurenai replied.

The rest of the way was silent and she knocked on the doors that led to Tsunade's office.

"Come in,"

She lightly pushed the door open and she was leaning back into her chair while holding up a piece of paper.

"Sorry to call you in again, Kasumi. You and Kurenai were the only two available today," Tsunade apologized, then looked down at the paper she was holding onto. "There are reports of strange activity at the base over at the border and we needed two jonin to go and investigate it,"

"Do you know what kind of activity exactly?" Kurenai asked.

Tsunade nodded. "A medical ninja over there was injured and the jonin over there requested backup. I haven't heard anything else besides that, so please be careful."

Tsunade gave us some more details on this mission, then dismissed us so we could leave.

We passed by Naruto, Sakura, and Jiraiya who just gave us a wave as we walked past them.

"Do you have everything you need before we go?" Kurenai asked.

I shook my head, so we stopped by my apartment to grab a few last-minute things, then left. Izumo and Kotetsu were bickering about something when we walked past them.

Kurenai was quiet for the most part as we walked to the border, but I could tell she had more to say to me. I couldn't tell if she was angry with me because of what happened between Asuma and I, or if she would try to convince me to talk to him again.

I didn't dare to ask.

"I hear something," She suddenly stopped.

I turned my focus to our surroundings and listened closely for any sounds of movement nearby. She was doing the same.

Kurenai quickly threw a kunai behind me and I moved to her side.

A strange man with brown hair and dressed in black emerged from the tree and he jumped down with a smirk. "Impressive. I didn't think you'd catch my clone,"

We both got in battle stance.

"Who are you?" Kurenai asked. "Identify yourself,"

He grinned maliciously and lunged towards us, aiming some senbon needles in my direction. I quickly dodged them and Kurenai blocked his swing towards her and kicked him back.

"Alright, if you're not going to identify yourself, then I'll find out for myself," Kurenai said to him and she rose her hand up to weave a sign. The man suddenly stopped moving and just stood in his spot while staring off. She put him under a genjutsu.

She stayed silent as she cast it on him.

She then released it and he passed out immediately. I turned to her with a questioning look and she started tying his wrists together with rope and then turned to me.

"I got some information out of him, but he's involved with the attack at the base at the border. He refused to tell me who he was working for," She explained. "There's three of them involved, him being one of the three,"

I nodded.

"So what do we do with him now?"

We were both interrupted by foaming at his mouth. We exchanged glances with each other. I didn't like the look of this.

"Cyanide pill..." She muttered. "That's not a good sign. We have to report this to Lady Hokage when we get back,"

"Did he tell you his name?" I asked.

"It was Akio Tanaka. I don't think I recall him being in the bingo book,"

"I don't think I've ever heard his name either, I really hope he's not someone we have to worry about," I sighed. "It's bad enough with the Akatsuki,"

Kurenai nodded in agreement with me. "Yeah, we're gonna have to bring this guy to the base and then have the ANBU pick him up from there,"

She stood back up from where she was crouching and lifted up the body. She started walking in the direction where we were supposed to be headed and I followed her.

I couldn't help but wonder if she was gonna try and talk to me about my brother or our situation this whole time. I also couldn't stop wondering if this Akio guy and his two other accomplices were someone we needed to be concerned about.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm sorry about the long hiatus. I have the next few chapters already written in my drafts, but I've had really bad writers block for this story. I recently started rewatching Shippuden so that's been helping me figure out how I want this story to go. There should be another update next week or this weekend.