Chapter 1

The door to the house was barred shut. The windows were all boarded up. A single note was taped to the door with the word 'REPOSSESSED' in big red letters. How could this have happened?

"This is where you live, Nozomi?" A silver haired male spoke, resting his arms behind his head. "Looks shitty to me."

A female with sandy blond hair stared at the building in disbelief. To her, it hadn't been long since she had left her home to find her father, so this didn't seem right. She stepped closer to the house and tore off the note, staring down at the crumpled paper in her hands.

Her luck just seemed to be running out. She had a father who was using her body as a vessel to raise the dead, a brother who conspired to kill her, a bounty hunter and his partner that could separate her skin from her bones whenever they felt like it, and now she was being evicted from her home?

"I'm not sure what's going on." Nozomi turned around, looking back at the two males behind her. Hidan didn't seem like he cared, however Kakuzu looked rather upset. Sharply turning on her heels to avoid his eye contact, she tossed the note to the side and started pulling on the planks of wood that were blocking her door frame. "But everything is in here, I swear. I just have to get this settled, then I can pay you for your services, Kakuzu-san."

The wooden planks weren't budging, but Nozomi could feel every splinter pressing against her skin. She tried digging her heels into the ground and using her foot as leverage against the door, but her upper arm strength proved to be no match for solid wood.

"Move aside." A deep voice interrupted her. Glancing to her left, Nozomi looked up at Kakuzu and immediately let go, backing away from the door. In one swift kick, all of the planks of wood broke and the door flew off its hinges, breaking in half on the other side of the room. Imagining if the door was her face, Nozomi nearly had a heart attack. If everything didn't go right now, she was going to be next.

The trio stepped inside the home and paused. The entire house was barren. All of the furniture was gone and all of the pictures and decorations had been stripped, leaving only the frame of the house in their place. Cautiously walking around, Nozomi couldn't believe her eyes. Her family, her memories… everything was gone. With her eyes widening, she immediately ran up the stairs. Sure enough, everything was gone too - including the safe that she stored her savings in for the bounty. The plan to combine the savings she had with the funds from selling her home had completely gone out the window.

Memories of the past drifted around the blonde as she stood in what used to be her room. She used to sit in the small chair at her vanity and admire the only picture she had of her and her mother, dreaming of the things they would've done together if she were alive. Her dad used to come and wake her up for school every morning by tickling her when she was younger, telling her that laughter is the most important action of the day. She and Hideki would play fight in her room a lot since she had open space in the middle of her floor, which would often end up with her father yelling at the both of them to take it outside.

"So… Where's the reward?" Hidan asked, breaking Nozomi out of her thoughts. She visibly paled as she realized the situation she was in - she was going to die today...

"W-Well, I…" The female started out shakily.

"Nozomi Shidou." A loud voice called. Nozomi immediately jumped, immediately realizing who it was from their voice. The head of the Kirigakure Police Force, Misao Bushida, was here at her home. She began to run downstairs, but not before Kakuzu grabbed her wrist and yanked her back.

"Ow! You almost dislocated my wrist, you brute." She hissed as she glared at the bounty hunter. "The door is busted, so they already know we're here. I have to go down there."

"Our business isn't finished yet." Kakuzu narrowed his eyes at her. "Don't forget that you're the only one here."

Nozomi blinked. "The only one here? But you're-" No sooner had she spoken, the two Akatsuki members disappeared from her sight and she gasped in shock. Just how fast were they and where did they even go?

"Nozomi Shidou. We know that you're here."

The female let out a deep breath out of anxiousness and walked down the stairs, meeting the police force head and two of his right hand officers at the doorway. Bowing her head in respect, she greeted them before offering them to come inside, however the head refused.

"This home is now property of Kirigakure. I must ask you to leave the premises at once." Misao spoke. He was an older gentleman with a graying goatee. His hands were behind his back in a formal military stance, however Nozomi knew that he had the power to restrain her quickly regardless of where his hands were.

"You can't do this." Nozomi glared at him. "I've been living here for the past fifteen years with my father and brother without any issues. Where are my things? I need proof of repossession!"

"Miss Shidou, all of your belongings have been retrieved because they were used as collateral. Over the past fifteen years, the owner of this house has not paid any taxes and has owed money in gambling debts. Because we have not been able to locate him nor your brother, it is safe to assume that they are deceased and those debts have been transferred to you. Thus your home has been repossessed, unless you happen to know where your father is?"

Nozomi's heart sank in her chest. Here she had thought that everything was going to be okay. Once she caught her father, she was going to be able to live a normal life again without worry, but now she was stuck in the middle of it all. At the mention of her father and brother, her mind wandered to the makeshift graves she had put together in the crater. With tears in her eyes, Nozomi shook her head. "No, I don't know where he is."

"Well, unfortunately, I'll need you to leave the grounds." The older man stated. "If you come with us, you can speak to the repayment sector." Although he posed the statement as if it was an option, his demeanor gave off a totally different answer. If she refused, where was she going to go? Everyone in the force were trained shinobi, so she would be caught instantly.

Giving up, Nozomi nodded. "Okay, I'll go."

The right hand men apprehended the female and tied her wrists together with rope in front of her. Leading her out the house as if they were herding cattle by pulling on the end of the rope, Nozomi looked back at her home with a frown. For most of her life, she had lived in peace with her family; she had no idea what was going on in the background, but now she was paying the consequences for it.

Because her home was outside the Kirigakure limits, there was a long forested path on the side of the mountain that takes about fifteen minutes before they would reach the gates.

"Miss Shidou…" Five minutes into the walk, Misao stopped moving, causing everyone to stop behind him. Turning around, he approached Nozomi with a small smirk. "We had come to your home before, however you weren't there; you actually didn't return for a number of weeks. So… where were you all that time?"

A lump formed in the female's throat as she couldn't seem to find any words. Never had she been a good liar, so she was pretty sure the male could already see right through her. But, what was she supposed to tell him? She put a bounty out on her father's head and traveled to a different county with two strangers to kill him and her brother? "I took a vacation…"

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow. "Was it with the two individuals that were also in the house with you just now?"

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." Nozomi looked away from him. She guessed it would make sense for a ninja to sense another ninja's presence, but Kakuzu specifically told her that she was the only one at the house. How was she supposed to explain that?

"Really now, Miss Shidou… Do you really think it would be wise to lie to me?" Masoi smirked. He tilted her chin so she was looking in his eyes. "Withholding information from an officer, outstanding debt to Kirigakure, refusal to comply… You're looking at some time, or other means of repayment." He lowered his gaze. "We wouldn't want anything to happen to you, now would we?"

A chill went down Nozomi's spine as she stood in Masoi's presence. She'd received warnings from her brother that the force was corrupted, however she had never experienced it first hand until now. "No.." She managed to squeak out, her voice barely managing a whisper.

Masoi smiled and took a step back from her, letting her chin go. He pulled his sword out from the holster on his side and pointed it to her neck, the flat side of the blade resting against her chin. "Now then, who was with you in the house?" Nozomi bit her lip to try and calm herself, but it was futile. After all Kakuzu and Hidan had done for her, there was no way she could speak against them. Whether she spoke up or not, she was still going to be in debt, so she kept quiet.

When Masoi saw she was resisting, he let out a low laugh. "Why so quiet? I guess we'll have to fix that." Pulling the sword back, he thought to himself whether he wanted to start at her legs or her arms. Either way, they were far enough from the village where no one would be able to hear her. Deciding on the face, Masoi raised his sword and Nozomi braced for the attack.

Something warm splashed on her face and the blond immediately opened her eyes. In front of her was the head of the Kirigakure Police Force chief laying at her feet. His body was limp on the ground beside it. On both sides of her, the other officers that the chief had brought were lying in their own pools of blood. Seeing as the only warm liquid that could be on her face was Masoi's blood and stepping back in sheer shock, Nozomi could feel her stomach churning and she immediately turned away, throwing up anything and everything she had left in her stomach.

"Watch it you little shit! Is that anyway to thank your savior?" Hidan jumped back from Nozomi to avoid getting her throw up all over his sandals. "You know, you're lucky you aren't that tall. I could've taken your head off too." He grinned as he licked a drop of blood off of his scythe.

Nozomi turned away from Hidan to avoid losing the contents of her stomach again and nearly bumped into Kakuzu. Looking up at him, she could feel the dissatisfaction from him. She knew there was no use in running away from him, especially with her hands still tightly bound. "Well, thank you for saving me… but since you killed them, it's only a matter of time before they send someone else out here."

"Where's the payment?" Kakuzu asked. His face was just as stoic as ever, but Nozomi knew the exact meaning behind those words. The ¥35,000,000 that he requested, the ¥35,000,000 that she agreed to… This was going to be her second encounter with death and she already knew who the victor was going to be.

"I, uh… You see…" The blond stumbled over her words as she struggled to get them out. "It's gone."