"What the hell was that, Kruno?!" Hidan shouted at the girl who was behind him, but she didn't reply. She kept quiet until Hidan stopped and jumped back to Kruno. He stood in front of her and placed his hands on her arms, and began to shake her slightly.

"Kruno!" He shouted, and that was when she broke. She fell foreword against Hidans chest and began to sob. Hidan wrapped his arms around her tightly, and held her. He wasn't used to having to hold her while she cried, because frankly, he never sees her cry. No one does. She's like a rock, she's like an unbreakable wall, she wouldn't dare let someone see her cry.

Unless she was seriously hurt.

She sobbed against his chest loudly, and Hidan continued to hold her, rocking her slowly, awkwardly. Kakuzu looked at Hidan, and motioned his head to the side for them to keep going. Hidan nodded slightly and lifted up Kruno bridal style, and carried the sobbing girl.

Kruno felt like crap, her entire body felt like it could shut down at any moment, like her entire world came crashing down around her in an instant, because it had. Seeing him, hearing his voice, feeling his lips against hers again, broke down any feeling of security that she had possibly built up.

Her heart hurt, but it was also slightly lit up. It wasn't the same broken, blackened heart that it was. It was slightly brighter, but still just as broken. She finally stopped crying, but she laid her head on Hidan's shoulder, still sniffling every little bit.

The arrived back at the Akatsuki base, and Hidan carried the sleeping girl back to her room, and laid her down on the bed, placing her backpack on the ground beside her, before looking down at her with a sigh, brushing her bangs out of her face. He walked out of the room and back into the living room, where he was faced with Kisame.

"What happened?" He asked, and Hidan gave a slight sigh.

"I finally saw what the bastard who hurt her." Hidan said, and Kisame's eyes widened slightly.

"The Nara boy?" He asked, and Hidan nodded slightly.

"Yeah, that fucking guy." He said.

"Did you kill him?" Kisame asked excitedly, but Hidan shook his head.

"I didn't get to fucking kill anybody, Kruno pulled us out of the damn match!" Hidan said, crossing his arms over his chest with a pout.

Kisame sighed heavily as he nodded and pushed past Hidan, going into Kruno's room. He looked down at her sleeping figure, and gave another sigh as he walked over to her. He gently pushed the strains of loose hair out of her face, and leaned down and pressed his lips gently against her forehead, mumbling.

"I am so sorry, Kruno."

The shark sighed softly as he stood back up and stared down at Kruno for a moment, before turning on his heal and walking out of the bedroom, gently shutting the door behind him.

Once he left, Kruno sat up on her bed and sighed, running her fingers through her bangs. She wasn't sure exactly what this feeling she was feeling was anymore, but she needed to figure it out soon. It was tearing her apart, and in the long run, it was hurting the people she cared about the most.

Kruno smiled slightly as she glanced over at the picture of Kisame and her that she had taken when she first got her camera, and she picked it up, before grabbing the box from under her bed that had Shikamaru's jacket in it. She slid the picture in the box, and smiled slightly before standing up, grabbing her camera, and leaving her room to go find everyone to take pictures with them.

The first person that she stumbled upon was Deidara, and he raised his eyebrow at the camera in her hands. She just smiled at him, before pulling him closer. "Take a picture of with me, Dei!" She said, trying to sound as happy as she could. He just nodded slightly and Kruno held the camera up towards them, and snapped a picture. Deidara leaned over her shoulder as they waited for the picture to develop, and when it did, they both laughed.

Deidara has his cheeks puffed out, and was grabbing on his ears to stretch them out slightly, his eyes pointing in towards his nose. Kruno was crossing her eyes and sticking her tongue out, and if someone who wasn't aware of who they were saw this picture, they would not think that they are both members of an origination of S-Rank criminals. Kruno smiled back at him before walking through the base, until she found her next victim, Itachi. She sat down beside him, and shot him a big 'please-do-what-I'm-about-to-ask-you.' grin. He glanced over at him, and rolled his eyes.

"What do you want, Kruno?" He asked, and she held up the camera, still smiling at him. He sighed softly and placed his book on his lap, sitting up slightly. He placed his hand on her shoulder, and stared up at the camera with a small smile as she snapped the picture. She smiled brightly and hugged him quickly before getting up to walk through the base some more.

She had the picture of her and Deidara, and her and Itachi tucked carefully in the pocket of her shirt, and she glanced around the base with a small sigh. Where the hell was everyone?

She walked up the Kakuzu's room, and knocked on the door three times before entering. He glanced up at her slightly, before turning his attention back to his money.

"What is it, Kruno?" He asked, and she moved closer to his desk.

"I just wanted to know if you would take a picture with me." She said, and Kakuzu nodded his head.

"Very well." He said, turning away from his money. Kruno plopped herself down on his lap and put the camera above them, quickly snapping a picture of them before hopping off of him, and skipping out of the room. She went to Hidan's room next, and she just threw the door open and walked inside. Hidan jumped slightly and turned around, looking at Kruno.

"Do you need something, slut?" He asked, and Kruno held up her camera.

"I wanted you to take a picture with me, pretty please!" She said, and Hidan rolled his eyes before nodding. She giggled slightly and ran over to him, crouching down beside him and taking a picture with him.

"Thank you!" She said, running out if the room. Within the next hour, she had a picture with everyone, even Pein and Konan. The happier girl skipped to her room, and pulled the box out from under her bed, placing each picture in it carefully. Now, if anything was to happen, she would always have them in a picture.

A memory, captured in an instant. Not an explosion, not fleeting, not enteral, but forever.

///

Shikamaru did not talk the entire time on the way back to Leaf Village, and Ino and Choji had no idea why. Frankly, they were the only who were talking. But who could blame everyone else for not talking? They just saw a 'dead girl' walking.

"Shikamaru, seriously, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." Ino said, tilting her head to the side slightly. "And Asuma, we didn't gather the two members like we were suppose to! Seriously guys, what happened back there?!"

"Our lives were spared." Asuma said, and Ino tilted her head slightly.

"Why would two S-Rank criminals spare your life?! Aren't they trained to kill without mercy?" Choji said, his eyes widening slightly.

"Because, Kruno has a heart of gold." Shikamaru said quietly, and Ino and Choji literally stopped moving and stared at Shikamaru. He stood on a branch two ahead of them, and he just sighed as he grabbed the trunk of the tree.

"Kruno...?" Ino said, and Shikamaru just nodded his head, tears slowly streaming down his pale cheeks.

"She's...She's alive..?" Choji asked, and Asuma sighed slightly as he turned towards the two confused members.

"She's alive. She has been living with the Akatsuki since the day that the ninja from the sound took a form of Shikamaru and told her that he didn't love her anymore. She ran away, and when no one could find her after the two years we had to assume that she was dead, and that's what we did. No one knew for sure, until now. Her partner, Hidan, was ready to kill me. He was about to kill me. But Kruno told him that they were leaving, and she spared our lives." Asuma explained, and Ino jumped up to the branch Shikamaru was on, and wrapped her arms around him tightly.

Shikamaru's shoulders shook slightly as he fell into his teammate in sobs. He sobbed into her shoulder, and they both fell down to their knees. Ino held Shikamaru tightly, rocking him slightly before Asuma and Choji went over to them, and they all wrapped their arms around Shikamaru, a few loose tears falling down each of their faces.

This was the first time that they all had cried together over Kruno. Not because she was dead, but because she was alive. She was alive and not part of the small family that they had created over the years. She was alive, but she wasn't her. She was alive, and they have given up on ever finding her. She was alive, but she wasn't with them.

"We'll bring her back, I promise." Asuma said, and everyone around him nodded, except Shikamaru. Because he knew Kruno good enough to know that if she did not want to come back, she would not come back.

//

When they arrived back in Konoha, they had decided to not tell lady Tsunade that they had ran into Kruno, because they did not want her to be hunted by ANBU, so it was the only way to keep her safe.

"Should we at least tell Kiba?" Ino said, and Shikamaru nodded slightly.

"I think we should tell everyone that was close to her, so that we could have a decent team to go find her when we get to that point." Choji said, and Shikamaru nodded slightly again.

"Let me be the one to tell everyone, since I had the face to face conversation with her, okay?" Shikamaru said, and both his teammates nodded slight, placing their hands on either of his shoulders.

"Don't worry, we'll bring her back, Shika." Ino said before Shikamaru nodded and turned, walking away from them to go find Kiba. He figured that he would be at the training ground, so that is where he went first.

He had his hands in his pocket as he strolled up the hill, attempting to have a bored expression on his face, but anyone who knew Shikamaru good enough, could look in his eyes and see the hurt that was buried deep inside of them. He gave a sigh, and kicked a pebble slightly as he walked onto the training ground that they were normally at, and when he saw Kiba, he gave a small breath.

"Kiba!" He called out, and the boy threw his head towards Shikamaru, giving him a small smile.

"Yeah?" He said, and Shikamaru tilted his head to the side, signaling for him to come here. Kiba looked confused, but he walked down the hill to Shikamaru.

"What is it, Shikamaru? I'm kind of busy right now." Kiba said, and Shikamaru gave a small sigh, running his hands against his arms nervously.

"Trust me, this is worth me bothering you." He said, before blowing out a deep breath of air. "Kruno... Kruno... She's alive."

When Kiba heard those words, he froze. He stared at Shikamaru in the eyes, trying to find any sense of him lying, any sense of this being a sick joke. But he found none. He saw nothing but sorrow and regret, the brokenness of seeing Kruno still evident in his eyes. Kiba had tears well up in his eyes as he looked at Shikamaru.

"Did you see-e her..?" He asked, and Shikamaru nodded slightly. "Are you sure? 100% positive?"

Shikamaru nodded slightly, giving a small laugh. "Trust me I know it was her, she knew everything about us, and hearing her laugh brought my heart go my throat. Trust me, it was her. But, she's with the Akatsuki now, so you have to be quiet about it for right now. You can tell Hinata and Shino, but that is it. We don't want anyone outside of the people who knew her to know. Don't tell Tsume either, because she will try to go find her now, and we're trying to get a team together to go find them. Do you understand?" Shikamaru said, and Kiba thought about it for a moment, before nodding.

"Understood."

///

Sorta a filler, but oh whale. I love you guys so much, and I hope you don't hate this chapter too much!

Check out the AU of this story, it's called Misery Of Mankind, and it's a HidanxKruno story!

Question of the day;
How do you think everyone is going to react?!

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