20. Long Awaited Fight

I rolled over and pulled my pillow into a tight hug, my eyes were still shut tight. For some reason, I didn't feel like getting up so I readjusted myself and got comfy. But, suddenly I got the urge to use the bathroom.. Damn. I slowly kick off my blanket and get up and go to the bathroom. As I do, I see my reflection in the mirror. I resembled the walking dead. Not wanting to see anymore, I turned away.

Now that I felt more I awake I went back into my room and sat on my bed. Coffee came into my mind... The thought of it motivated me enough to have a shower and get ready. Afterwards, dragging my feet, I made my way to the kitchen. Stopping as I reached the archway to peer in. To my surprise, nearly everyone was there.

Kakuzu, Hidan and Kisame sat at the large round dining table. Eating some toast as they argued over something. Sasori sat at the bench reading a newspaper quietly. Itachi was using his Sharingan to frying some eggs at the stove and Deidara was pacing up and down slightly.

Suddenly Deidara looks up and notices me peering into the kitchen. "Ah! Zombie!" He panics. Everyone except for Kakuzu looks over at me.

Hidan yells back first. "It's just fucking Tila, calm the fuck down." Deidara, who was now scratching at the back of his head. "Don't tell me what to do, Hm!" He yells back loudly at Hidan, obviously annoyed at him.

"Both of you quit your bickering! I'm getting a headache already." Kakuzu's deep voice booms. Finally snapping, over their antics. The room settles down a bit. Sasori turns back around to read his newspaper. Nice way to make me centre of attention dummy. I slowly walk into the kitchen, Deidara holds up his hand and I high five it tiredly. "Morning, sorry about that, un." He confesses. I walk past still dragging my feet. "Its okay." I reply groggily.

I sit down in the spare seat beside Sasori, he doesn't take any notice and continues to read. After a small moment I turn my attention to Itachi. He places a plate of eggs and toast in front of me.

"Thanks Itachi" I hesitate, it wasn't something I was expecting from him.

"Eat. You'll need your strength." he says. Expression unreadable. He was right I suppose, making a mental note to do something nice for him in future, when the chance presented itself.

I picked up the knife and fork and started to eat quietly. Conversations that filled the room like background noise. I zoned out as I finished eating. Washing up afterwards.

By the time I'd finished, Sasori was the only person left in the kitchen. He gazed over, setting down the paper. "C'mon, let's go. You take too long." He seemed calm despite being made to wait for me.

We head to the training room together. As we enter, everyone is standing around. Leader's ringed stare falls on to Sasori and I. We join the line to listen. This was it, who was I up against?

"Tila" Leader addressed me. "You will go up against," He takes a moment as he looks from one member to the next, until he finally settles on someone. "Hidan" A small flicker of interest in his eyes. Hmm.

The two of us stepped forward, making our way to the centre of the open space. I try and shake off the intensity of everyone staring and focus over to Hidan, who was cockily standing before me. Leader takes a step closer to address us. "Hidan is immortal so you don't need to hold back."

What? Was he serious? Hidan laughs weirdly. "Yeah, I wont be going fucking easy on you either. Lord Jashin hasn't had his morning sacrifice haha." Before I have time to question who the hell Lord Jashin is Leader signals for us to begin.

Hidan immediately pulls out a red three bladed scythe and starts running toward me. I quickly formed a Chidori and run straight ahead. I dragged the heavy burst of lightning along the ground with me.

He swings his scythe down at me heavily from the left-hand side. I pulled up my erratic handful of lightning to meet his strike with mine. The impact of the collision deflects him back a few metres.

He lands steadily on both feet with ease. "Well, that's a fucking fancy Jutsu." he yells, readying himself to run at me again. My Chidori had faded away. Fine. Head on attacks I can handle.

"Water Clone Jutsu." Three clones formed quickly. They run at him, starting to attack. I take the moment of distraction to carefully watch and channel Chakra. Analysing as he swings, trying to hit them. It'd kept him busy long enough. He hits all three clones with an all-rounded swing before resetting his gaze back at me.

"Storm Release: Thundercloud Inner Wave." I shout. A thick cloud begins to rumble, spiralling around me like a barrier. Time to give this thing a try. Kakuzu told me to practise so, this was a good a opportunity as any.

Hidan charges forward, jumping up and swinging down on me with his scythe again. But, the ominous cloud sent out a jolt of lighting, deflected him back. He uses his scythe to block the strikes. He tries to hit me a few more times but proves useless. He couldn't land a hit. I stand there and smirk. The way his face contorts seriously gives away his annoyance.

"Fuck!" He calls out to me. "What kind of fucking Jutsu is that!" He continues to yell. I decided to let down my cloud. It uses up a lot of Chakra. I don't want to use it for too long. And by now I'd figured out my next move. Yet again, he comes at me. Possibly under the false pretence that my defences was down. But, I carefully ducked and dodged his swings, waiting for the right moment...

Now. He'd swung and missed, I was right behind him. "Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu." I yelled. Reaching out my hand and grabbing the back of his cloak. A water bubble engulfs him, completely surrounding him. He was suspended inside my Jutsu.

Now. Let's finish this quick, before he squirms his way out. Using the same hand I held the water prison Jutsu with I form a Chidori. The bubble of water ripples dangerously, the electricity frying anything inside.

"Shit that fucking hurts," Hidan yells, body contorting from the pain inside his entrapment. I release the Jutsu. He falls to the floor, the water that had been suspended in the air splashes down in to a big wet puddle around him.

"I think we've seen enough." Leader's deep voice commands. "Well done Tila." He eyes me curiously. Hidan, who's completely soaked, gets up and rubs the back of his head. "Yeah, not fucking bad Newbie." He seems to be taking his defeat quite well. I sigh in relief.

Well that didn't go too badly. I looked back over to everyone else. My gaze falling on to Sasori automatically. I caught him smiling faintly. Or was I imagining it? I couldn't see clearly enough from this distance.

Deidara yells out. "Nice job, un!" I feel myself relax into a light smile. The members slowly started to disperse as soon as Leader leaves. Unexpectedly, Kisame comes over. "Your water prison Jutsu is quiet flashy." He gives me a fishy smile. "I'm impressed" He ruffles my hair. I felt my words catch in my throat at his praise. "Thanks." I give a small bow. After another small moment he leaves.

I scan the room only to notice that Sasori and Deidara were both standing against the wall casually chatting. Were they waiting for me? I walked over to them. Sasori gives a faint eye roll. "Finally, I don't know if I've told you but I don't like to be kept waiting." He sounds more impatient than usual. Deidara nudges him hard. "Don't be so rude. You did well Til, Un." He turns to me with a smirk. I rub my head because it started to sting a little.

"Leader wants you in his office." Zetsu's voice suddenly rings in my ear. "Oh Shit!" I jump, clutching at my chest from the surprise.

"Ha. Ha." Black Zetsu laugh demonically. God his back side was an asshole sometimes. Nonetheless, I give a nod in response. Zetsu turns to Sasori and Deidara. "Both of you need to come too."

"Hmm." Dei sigh. Despite his annoyance, we all immediately go to Leaders office. As soon as we reach the end of the hall Zetsu melts off in to the ground. Sasori, Dei and I stroll in to Leader's office. The door being wide open.

Leader is sitting at his desk, Konan standing behind him. He looks up at us.

"Tila" He addresses me first. "I am satisfied with your level of skills for the time being. I want to send you on a mission to gather information regarding the one tail. You'll go with these two." He points at Sasori and Deidara.

I nod. He continues. "Usually, I pair up teams of two. But, in your case, I'd like to send you in a group of three. Break you in." He glances over at Konan for a moment. I nod again. There wasn't much to say at the moment... I didn't protest to his orders at all. It was the opposite. An excitement at the thought of working with these two came over me.

"Leader," Sasori interjects. his purple ringed eyes focus on the red head. "When do we leave?" Sasori asks.

"I know you don't like to be kept waiting. You remind me so often that it's beginning to etch on my brain, Sasori." He can be so cold. But, humorous. I stifle a chuckle.

"Tonight? Tomorrow morning, perhaps." Leader waves his hand in a suggestive sort of way. As though leaving the minor details up for us to decide.

"I'll leave it up to you to discuss amongst yourselves." He elaborates before looking back down at some papers on his desk dismissively.

Deidara looks over towards me blankly. Leader's voice rings in my ears again. "You will find out where the one tail Jinchuriki is located, what his powers are. And, begin to form a plan of attack. Report back to me when you have this information." He didn't say anything else so the three of us left his office silently. We head back down to the training room.

Leader looked like he was a bit stressed. It makes sense, I couldn't imagine the headaches he'd get trying to orchestrate this insane group of criminal Ninja. Now that I'd met them all, it was obvious each of them were different and unique in their own way.

We reached the training room. Deidara gave a huge sigh as he settle down, sitting on the ground. Sasori and I joined him, making a three way circle between us. Guess we'd better figure out where we go from here.