Chapter 7

(Setsuna's POV)

I siged as I walked through Tazuna's house until I came up to the room Kakashi was currently resting in. Tazuna's daughter Tsunami had just informed us of his awakening and that there was something he wanted to tell us about. As I walked through the door, I noticed Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were already here.

"I have a feeling that Zabuza is still alive" Everyone except myself gave a confused expression. 'Your right Kakasi, he's still alive' "What do you mean, Setsuna, Kakasi-sensei? You checked his pulse yourself" "His heart did stop, but that was only a temporary state to stimulate deat. The weapons that tracker used are called senbon, they rarely kill unless they hit vital organs, not in the neck-" 'The tracker wasn't trying to destroy Zabuza, he was trying to save him' I interrupted.

Kakashi nodded my way and was about to say something when Tazuna shouted "Come on! Your overthinking this aren't you?" "Ninja's are meant to overthink" I noticed the excited look Naruto had on and inwardly shook my head. 'His excitement will kill him someday' I mused to myself.

"Anyway, to prepare for the next attack, I'm going to train you" Kakasi stated with his usual closed eye smile. "But sensei, how will you do that when you can barely move?" Sakura asked as she is ususuallt te first in doing so. Kakashi chuckled "I can still train you, besides-" His gaze shifted to me "Setsuna here can help" This caught everyones attention and I was now being started at. With a shake of my head I said to Kakashi only 'Why do you bring the attention to me?' Earing me a quiet chuckle in response.

All of a sudden, the door slammed open and a small boy stomped his way towards us. "Your all going to die!" He shouted with a scowl. Tazuna opened his arms and the small boy ran into them "Ah Inari were've you been?" "Welcome back grandpa" "Inari! That was very impolite" Tsunami stated with her hands on her hips. "These ninja helped your gandpa and brought him here safely" "It's ok, It's ok, i'm rude to them too" I shook my head at the scene before standing up and walking towards the window.

It seems Kakashi and Sasuke were the only ones who noticed when I opened it up and began climbing out. "Setsuna, where are you going?" Our sensei asked with his visible eyebrow raised. I blinked once, twice and a third time before simply saying 'Out' and leaving without even awaiting his reply.

Walking through the forest, I decided to find a nice and quiet spot so that I could go and see Sentaro, who would probably be expecting me about now.

After around 20 minutes of walking further and further away from Tazuna and the others, I sat down indian style. To be safe, before meditating, I created a dimensional barrier around me by a 5 meter radius. Anyone who comes within those 5 meters would end up 10 meters away from me. The good thing about this barrier is that it can't be broken through and it doesn't take any chakra. It's actually a small part of a part of my Kekkei Genkai.

Closing my eyes, I relaxed my breathing and started the jutsu.. which I still hadn't named yet.

"Setsuna?" My eyelids fluttered open to reveal Sentaro inside the Hokages room wit his team. As soon as I saw Sentaro, he was already coming in for a hug. "How's your mission going? Are you having any trouble?" I nodded my head once and his eyes narrowed. 'Zabuza Momochi' I stated, letting everyone in the room hear me.

Sentaro's eyes darkened and he squeezed my shoulders tightly "Him again?! I thought I told him to never come near us again" I sighed at his rant and turned to the Hokage, bowing my head in respect.

He cleared his throat "Child.. what is this about Zabuza Momochi?" I stared at him with dull eyes and no emotions passing my face, as usual. After a moments pass, Neji got an irk mark "Answer the Hokage when he speaks to you" I stayed the same and didn't bother turning to face him, which seemed to rile him up even more.

Sentaro, seeing that I wasn't going to say anything further, stepped forward "Sorry Lord Hokage, but she's gets tired of talking. It wastes her energy" "Hm.. and why does she not talk normally?" Sentaro gave me a look but I simply shook my head. "Come on Setsuna" He pat my head gently "You don't have to tell them why, it's none of their business. But at least show them" The looks we were getting were becoming ever so curious and I sighed inwardly.

Sentaro look a step back so that everyone could see and I slowly opened my mouth. Everyone, except the Hokage gasped. "Why is there such a thing placed on you?!" The Hokage all but shouted. Neji, TenTen and Guy were staring at the strange tattoo on my tongue. It was a tattoo of a black dragon eating it's own tail with a strange triangle in the middle. (A/N Picture on the side! :P)

Lee looks slightly confused and he turned to his sensei "Guy-sensei, what is that seal?" Said sensei sighed "I'm not entirely sure myself. But, it's familiar and If I recal, it seals your ability to speak" The Hokage nodded "I have never seen it used before, but it's an old sealing technique known by few. The seat is tattooed onto the tongue with a poisenous ink. It doesn't actually stop you from speaking, but if you do speak then the seal will activate and send the poisen around your body, killing you in a matter of seconds. There is no cure to the seal to this day forward and the only known way to remove it is by the person who placed it on you in the first place" Sentaro nodded and placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

"Tell me.." The Hokage turned to me with pity in his eyes "Who did this to you and why?" I could feel something burning inside the pit of my stomach and I turned to my brother with a confused look 'Sentaro, what is this burning feeling I have in the pit of my stomach? I am confused.. am I sick?" His eyes widened consideratly and he furiously shook his head "Setsuna.. that's anger your feeling. Does it make you want to hurt someone?" I thought about it for a second and nodded.

'Why am I feeling this?' He turned to the Hokage and narrowed his eyes "It's because they're butting into your private life" 'I see' Turning to the Hokage, I bowed my head in apologies 'I apologise for feeling this way, I don't usually' Although my voice didn't feel that way, neither did my eyes or facial expression.

When I stood back up from the bow, I noticed the strange looks I was getting from everyone other than Sentaro. I turned to said brother and tilted my head, giving him a 'what did I do wrong?' look. He chuckled and gave me a hug, whispering "Nothing, you did nothing wrong" into my ear.

Without anything further said, he waltsed right over to the Hokage, who hadn't yet turned away from me, and whispered something to him this time. I could see several things pass through the Hokage's eyes. Two of such was pity and understanding. This confused me, but I didn't bother asking as I didn't want anyone else to give me those looks.

Deciding that it was time for me to get back, I walked over to Sentaro and wrapped my arms around his torso, giving him a loose hug. "Have to go already?" I simply nodded and he kissed me on the forehead whilst smiling sadly. "Well, be back soon and be safe, ok?" 'Hai' Bowing to everyone else, recieving strange looks from them all, I disappeared.

(The Hokage's POV - From when Setsuna left)

I stared at the spot that the young ninja, Setsuna, was standing previously before leaving, as was everyone else in the room. Sentaro sighed and ran a hand through his single silver streaked hair. Neji Hyuga was the first to break the silence "That was rather confusing" His teammates, Rock Lee and TenTen (A/N I don't know her last name xD) nodded in agreement.

"Sentaro-sensei?" TenTen asked. He nodded for her to continue, which she did "I don't understand.. the whole time, she showed no emotions and was even confused when she did. Why?" Sentaro smiled sadly "She's never been able to feel emotions like you can. She doesn't know what anger feels like or what having fun feels like. The only thing she can feel is emptiness. She does know what they are, she's just never felt them. That's why when Lord Hokage looked at her with pity, she was confused" By the end, Guy was crying his eyes out, as well as his best student Lee. Neji seemed to be deep in his own thoughts and TenTen had pity in her eyes.

I cleared my throat "Anyway, these are the missions for today.."

(Setsuna's POV)

My eyes fluttered open slowly and I gently stood up from my meditating position. Walking towards the dimensional barrier, I placed my hand on it gingerly and removed it. While doing so, I felt if anyone had touched it or not, luckily no one did.

Sighing, I glanced around the area, only to feel two chakra signals a while away from my current standing point. I pondered on wheter to go and check it out, coming to the conclusion of doing so.

Jumping into the nearby tree, I covered all of my Chakra so they wouldn't feel me coming and began making my way towards the signals at an unimaginable speed. Still a bit away, I heard a voice "-Disappeared" Another voice responded "Leave it. We're simply passing by and don't need to go through unnecessary trouble before our real mission"

I leaped down onto a closer branch, soundlessly and peeked out from behind the tree to see who the mysterious people were. Strangely enough, there was only one person, even though I was sure there were two. 'Is my mind playing with me?' I wondered to myself. Perhaps the other one had just disappeared already.

Shaking my head, I activated part of my Kekkei Genkai 'Jikan Seigyu'

In the blink of an eye, the flow of time of the mysterious person stopped and he stood stack still, while the time around him kept going. I jumped down from the branch, into the small clearing and slowly walked towards him, glancing around every now and then to make sure no one was here.

The person had on a black cloak with red clouds, I already knew what group he belonged to, but I'd never actually came across them face to face. The person was wearing a hat with white strings of material falling in front of his face.

Lifting up my arm, the long sleave still falling past my fingertips, I grabbed the hat (even though it was difficult without using my fingers) and pulled it off. My eyes stayed as dull as ever as I looked over the mans features. His skin tone was light blue and there were gills under his fish-like eyes. Moving my other hand, I pulled the long sleeve and gently placed my white as snow, bony hand on his cheek. He was cold and his skin was surprisingly soft. I noticed something large on his back and walked around him to see wat it was.

My eyes scanned over the Samehada. Gingerly, I placed my hand on it, awaiting for it to suck away my chakra. However, nothing happened, it didn't do anything. 'Do you like me?' I asked it and what was even weirder, was that it spoke back to me, even though it's way of speaking was confusing.

Suddenly, just as I was about to take the blade as my own, something came at me from the right. In the blink of an eye, I drew my hidden blade and without even looking, blocked the kunai.

Another person jumped down at the border of the clearing, this one was also wearing a black cloak with red clouds and a weird looking hat. I stepped away from the blue skin toned man and kept walking backwards until I was at least 10 meters away. I knew he was around here somewhere.. just had to get him to come out.

The still unknown man took his hat off, showing me his long silky raven black hair and matching emotionless eyes. I looked him over once and nodded to myself thinking that he looked very much like Sasuke.

The man glanced at his teammate and narrowed his eyes at me. "What did you do to him?" I blinked once, twice and a third time before walking over to the blue skin toned man. However, just as I was about to touch him, Sasuke's look-a-like tried grabbing my writst. However, before he could do so, I stepped to the side, shaking my head to tell him I didn't want him to touch me. "Speak" He ordered. His voice cold, yet calm and collected in such a situation. Sighing, I shook my head. The man didn't like that and came at me, kunai in hand.

I tightened my grip around my Shamisen and disappeared. In the blink of an eye, I was right in front of him and had kneed him in the gut. We both jumped back from each other and he placed a hand on his stomach, probably thinking something along the line of 'how does someone so fragile looking have that much strength?'

I shook my head 'Stop'

The man glanced around, from left to right trying to locate my voice. But he must have figured out that it was me speaking, seeing as he glanced at me curiously. 'Leave here' My voice was like the wind. It echoed throughout his mind before finally disappearing.

I, once again, walked gracefully over to the blue skin toned man. Although this time, I was not stopped. I didn't have to touch the man to make his time flow again, but his skin felt weird so I wanted to touch it again.

In a matter of seconds the man moved again, but seeing me there, he jumped in surprise and fell on his backside. I tilted my head slightly and watched in confusion as the emotion called anger flashed through his eyes. "What the hell!?" He jumped up and bent his knees in a fighting stance. "What's going on!? One minute Itachi jumps off and the next your there!"

'Itachi?' I asked outloud.. well, not outloud but to them. The blue skin toned man growled lowly and grabbed the hilt of Samehada. "Itachi, who's the brat?" The black haired man, who I now know as Itachi stepped towards us "Kisame calm down" "Why'd you suddenly jump off anyway?" Itachi glanced at me from the corner of his eyes "A way away from here, there are leaf ninja. I went to check it out. When I got back, you weren't moving and she was about to take Samehada"

I looked at Samehada 'He spoke to me' Kisame, the blue skinned man laughed sarcastically "Samehada can't talk, it only growls" He then stopped with a weird look on his face and glanced around for some reason. "Hey Itachi, did you hear that?" Itachi, ignoring him, stalked towards me slowly "Who are you?"

Since he was taller than myself, I had to tilt my head back to look him in the eyes. After a moment, I shook my head once and turned around to walk away.

"Hey Brat! We can't just let you leave now that you've seen us" Kisame called out to me. I ignored them and continued walking, however not for long as someone came at me from behind. They sent a kick to my side, but I jumped high and flipped over.. Kidame, landing on his back and sending him face first into the ground. I stayed still on his back and as he tried to get up, stomped my foot down.. hard.

Luckily for him, he quickly shot up and made me fall backwards. However, with my flexibility, I placed both hands on the ground and swung my legs over. As soon as I landed on the ground, I drew my hidden sword and slashed it across his now swordless back, creating a deep gash.

He grunted and took a few steps forward. As soon as he turned around, he glared at me evilly "You brat!" "Kisame, stop" Itachi's momotone voice called. "But-" "Calm down" Kisame grunted and stood back straigt, still glaring at me. I stared back, but emotionless and with lifeless, dull eyes.

'Akatsuki' I accidentally said outloud instead of to myself. Itachi's head snapped towards me and he narrowed his eyes ever so slightly "So you know about us, huh brat?" Kisame grinned darkly "So you know what we can do" It was more like he was stating a fact instead of asking me a question.

Tilting my head up towards the sky, I noticed I was supposed to have gotton back to the others already. So, turning around, I went to leave. "Hold on" Stopping at the sound of his voice, I glanced over my shoulder and nodded for him to continue "Who are you?" '..Brother says I shouldn't tell the Akatsuki my name' Kisame raised an eyebrow "Why's that?" He asked with curiosity.

I turned back to the front and glanced at the ground 'Your a danger to me' and with that said, I disappeared from their sights, masking my chakra so they couldn't find me again.

(Third Person POV - After Setsuna left)

Itachi and Kisame stared at the space the mysterious girl left them at. They were both confused as to what just happened and only became more interested with her the more they thought about it.

Itachi couldn't help but wonder what that power she used was. He had stayed in the shadows and watched as Kisame suddenly froze, but didn't understand what had happened. The only thing he knew for sure is that the mysterious girl had some sort of powers.

Kisame frowned and turned to Itachi "She was strong, even though she was so fragile and innocent looking" Itachi nodded in agreement and Kisame continued "But it was weird. She looked at us emotionless, even more so than yourself Itachi. It was as if she didn't feel anything at all"

It was silent between the two as they began walking away again. Kisame glanced at Itachi from the corner of his eyes, wincing slightly as he placed Samehada back onto his bloodied back "By the way, where did you really go?" Itachi was silent for a moment before answering "I felt someone following us, not by their chakra, just a gut feeling, and hid to see who it was" "You could have at least warned me. Then I wouldn't have had to be frozen like that. It was so.. weird" Kisame shivered at the end. "Well, what do you suppose we do about her? She saw us and apparently knew who we were" The wind blew past them, making Itachi's long hair flow "We'll let Leader-sama decided"

After coming to their decision, the two began tree jumping and making their way back to the base.

Meanwhile..

Kakashi looked at his students, hearing the grunts coming from Sasuke and Naruto as they failed to get up the tree. Sakura was the only one who was able to climb the tree so far and that was already three hours ago.

He was actually beginning to worry about Setsuna, she had been gone for over 4 hours already and they hadn't heared from her since. Sighing, he called to the three "Guys, lets go back, it's getting late and I bet your all hungry for dinner" Naruto instantly grinned and began cheering happily making Sakura grow an irk mark and hit him over the head. Sasuke, on the other hand, ignored them and followed Kakashi back to the house.

To be honest, all three of the kids were wondering where Setsuna had gone off to, but were too busy thinking about training to go and search for her.

As soon as they got through the front doorm, the sweet smell of food hit their noses and as if on cue, their stomachs rumbled. Kakashi chuckled at this and walked towards the kitchen, not forgetting to greet the currently cooking Tsunami. "How was training?" She asked, not once taking her eyes of the food. Kakashi sighed deeply "Sakura's the more advanced one with chakra control and the boys need more work. But, we havn't seen Setsuna all day" "I see, I'm also worried. There could be more ninja working for Gato lurking around"

The conversation ended there and until everyone else made their way into the kitchen, they were silent. "Man, am I hungry" Naruto stated as he took a seat opposite Kakashi. Sakura shook her head and sat beside him on the right while Sasuke sat beside him on the left.

Once the dinner was on the table, Naruto instantly dug in and began stuffing his face. This caused Sakura's eye to twitch uncontrolably. Just as she was about to hit him on the head for being so rude, the door to the kitchen opened and in stepped Setsuna.

Said girl, yawned quietly and wiped tiredly at hey eyes before taking a seat at the edge of the table; In between Sasuke and Kakashi who were both seeted at the ends.

The whole table was quiet as they watched the fragile looking girl take out a apple.. somehow.. and began to eat at it. However, once she noticed they were all staring at her, she swallowed and tilted her head in confusion. Although, she didn't both talking.

Kakashi coughed and placed his chopsticks down on his bowl before turning to face Setsuna "Where were you?" It was silent again as Setsuna merely blinked at him with an expressionless face before turning her attention back to eating her apple.

Kakashi placed his hand on his head and sighed "You can't just run off like that Setsuna. Gato's lacky's could be lurking around" Ignoring him, Setsuna kept on eating her apple. "Setsuna-chan" Tsunami began "Do you not want some food?" Setsuna shook her head once, not looking up from her almost finished apple.

"Anyway, we need to work on sleeping arrangements" Kakashi started and everyones head instantly shot up, well.. for the exception of Setsuna who merely glanced his way from the corners of her eyes. "I don't mind sharing a room with Sasuke" Sakura squealed out. Shivering slightly, Sasuke gave Kakashi a pleading look. Said sensei sighed "Then how about Naruto together with Sasuke and Sakura together with Sakura"

Naruto got an irk mark above his right brow and shot up pointing his index finger at Sasuke "There's no way in hell that I'd share a room with SasGAY" "Hn, shut up dobe" Was the raven haired boy reply. Tsunami and Tazuna chuckled at the scene in front of them as they both began cleaning up the table.

"Fine then. This is how it'll go. Since there three spare rooms, I'll take one, Sakura and Naruto'll take another and the last will be shared by Sasuke and Setsuna" Sakura anime cried and Naruto cheered at this while Sasuke stared at his new roommate, who was ignoring the whole thing.

(Setsuna's POV)

Standing up from the table, everyone, including myself this time, went upstairs towards their designated rooms. It seems that I'd be sharing with Sasuke, but I didn't particularily mind as he was the quietest of the bunch.. other than Kakashi that is.

Dumping my bag gently on the futon which was closest to the window, I took out a pair of black short short and a off the shoulder white shirt. The shirt was actually Sentaro's, but he let me keep it since I wore it that one time.

Walking into the bathroom, I turned on the shower and whilst waiting for it to turn warm, stripped and placed a soft towel around my small frame. Just before stepping into the shower, though, I made sure the door was locked, just in case Sasuke didn't know I came in here. Once in the shower, I used strawberry smelling shampoo and cherry smelling conditioner.

After a while longer, I decided to get out. Sasuke may want a shower as well and he wouldn't be happy I'd I used up all the hot water.. although, he's normally never happy. As I finished getting dressed, I brushed through my hair, making sure there were no knots and placed it into a low ponytail.

Once back in the bedroom, I noticed Sasuke leaning against the wall, most propbably waiting for me to get out. As soon as he saw me, a smirk made it's way onto his face. I tilted my head in confusion, but shrugged it off and sat down on my futon, ready to sleep.

My first night away from Sentaro...