1zara-uchiha1 and I don't own the Naruto cast or anything else you might recognize. 1zara-uchiha1 owns Laura and I own Kahlan; together we own the plot.

Chapter 33

Note: Breaks from missions never last long.

~Kahlan's POV

Argh, I should have been paying attention to what I was saying, but I'm just so tired. No doubt my face is red and I don't know what I should do. I don't want to do this but the punishment for it if I don't is a lot worse. Curse you Kisame, may you get sick or something.

Okay I just need to stop thinking and get this over with instead of dragging it out. Taking a deep breath to try and calm my nerves which is failing, I lean over and quickly…kiss him on the cheek. I feel my cheeks heating up more as I pull away. Surprise flickers in his eyes and I look away hoping that my feelings for him are still unknown because I'm a coward and I shouldn't be having any feelings for him.

Kisame and Laura are both grinning and I can't help but slightly glare. Deidara is laughing and Hidan actually whistle which makes my face heat up more and I glare at both of them. Sasuke has his brow slightly raised as he looks at me then to his brother then back at me as if trying to analyze what just happen. He better not be analyzing anything. The others are well don't seem to really care what I did which I'm thankful for.

"This game sucks," I mumble as I lean over and spin the bottle. After spinning a few times it lands on Sasori.

"Opinion," Sasori says bored-ly.

"Hmm," I say tiredly tapping my fingers against the arm of my recliner. "What is your opinion…." I trail off trying to think of a good question. It doesn't help that I'm tired. "Okay what is your opinion about the movies we watched?" I get a few raised brows but I shrug my shoulders too tired to care about what I asked.

"All three were predictable and boring," he replies.

I nod in reply as Sasori starts his turn. Leaning my chin on my hand I close my eyes just listening to what happen. A few minutes later, or well I think a few minutes later, I feel someone lifting me up. My eyes slowly open and I blink tiredly trying to focus on the person carrying me. It takes a moment for me to see that's it is Itachi.

"Where we going," I mumble before yawning and placing my head onto his shoulder and closing my eyes.

"To bed," he replies.

I hum in reply feeling myself starting to drift back to sleep. Some time passes and I feel myself being set down on a bed pulling me away from sleep for a moment. I open my eyes to see Itachi pulling away. Not wanting him to leave my hand weakly clasps onto his sleeve. Gently he removes my hold, which isn't that hard to do, and places Rellik into my arms.

Burying my face into Rellik I frown. A moment later the bed dips slightly on the other side. My eyes fall shut feeling too heavy to keep open. I hear Itachi say goodnight and would reply but my body refuses to allow me to do anything but drift into sleep.

At first my dreams are peaceful, but somewhere along the way they start going downhill. In the dream I have no idea where I am at. The only things I know is that it's very dark, cold, there's a dripping noise echoing around me and it's almost like there are breathing stone walls. I'm running trying to escape from whatever is chasing me. Something chuckles darkly and then there are screams that seem to turn your blood cold. I try running faster but can't help but think about how slow I seem to be moving.

I scream when something touches me and I trip trying to get away. I end up falling through a trapdoor or something that is pitch black. My mind supplies me with info that there are spikes on the bottom that will kill me just like it did the couple in the horror movie. While falling I then reach my hands out trying to desperately find something to keep me from descending to my death. Just as it seems I grab ahold of something, the scene changes and I land on my butt.

The dream plays out like the bloody horror thriller movie we all watched and I'm stuck living it. Near what I hope to be the end I'm dirty and bloody from my own blood and the other people's blood who I don't know but in my dream they're my friends. And this is where the dream takes a turn.

Instead of being murdered by the supernatural, mild darkness takes over as hands grab a hold of me. I scream twisting and kicking to get away but they just drag me down. The hands and arms grip me tightly, wrapping around me. They yank, scratch and it feels like they're trying to rip me apart while pulling me through cold liquid choking the air out of me. Then it comes to an end when I'm in the familiar setting of what I have called the pits of hell.

There are hooded figures before me and by now I know I'm reliving the nightmare that I have never been able to escape since the war. They walk towards me telling me it's my turn. All I can do is press my back against the hot stone wall crying, begging for forgiveness as they get closer. One by one they remove their hoods revealing the faces of the dead people I killed.

I wake up with wide eyes gasping for air before they could plunge their hands into me. Darkness greets my sight and I start panicking still being affected from the nightmares. I go to kick the covers off while trying to get out of bed so I can turn the light on.

I fall out of bed, hitting my head against the floor hard. And I mean so hard that for a moment I'm positive I just knocked myself out for a few seconds. Carefully shaking my head, I get onto my feet as fast as I can without falling all over the place. I move forward, arms outstretched looking for the wall. What happens instead is that I trip over a threshold and if it wasn't for my outstretched arms my head would have collided with the cold floor.

My breathing is coming out in shallow gasp as I feel warm salty liquid slide down my face. I push myself up and blindly look around for a light switch once again. It doesn't take long to find it and I almost cry out in joy.

Flipping the switch on I cover my eyes from the sudden brightness. I let out a small sigh feeling my panic and fear subside with the light on. After a few minutes my eyes finally adjust to the light and I see I'm in the bathroom. I look out into the room to see Itachi still asleep on the bed. My eyes move away from him towards the clock to see it's almost two thirty in the morning. There is no way I'll ever be able to go back to sleep tonight or any night for the next few weeks now.

Still shaken up from the nightmare I cautiously make my way over to the dresser. Quickly, I grab some clothes and dash back to the bathroom feeling safer. As I throw the clothes onto the sink I close the bathroom door.

Shaking-ly, I strip feeling dirty as if the feel of the dirt and blood from the nightmares are still clingy to my skin. I step into the tub, close the curtain and turn on the shower. I make sure the water is almost scolding hot as I scrub myself from head to toe until my skin feels raw.

After scrubbing myself, I just sit down. I pull my knees up to my chest. My tears mix with the water that becomes cooler as it stays on longer. I slowly rock myself trying to forget the nightmares. I even try focusing on the water, feeling the droplets hit and roll down my body. But it doesn't help, which isn't that much of a shock. I have never been good at dealing with nightmares and trying to forget them on my own. At least not until the sun was up to chase away the darkness and the fear that lurks in it after experiencing such dreams.

I turn the water off as it finally becomes cold. Shivering, I climb out wrapping one of the big black fluffy towels around me. I just stand in the middle of the bathroom for a few minutes before drying myself off. I get dress then place my dirty clothes as well as the used wash cloth and towel into the hamper.

Opening the door I stay standing in the doorway scared to leave the bathroom and the safety it makes me feel. Yes, I, Kahlan can be tough among other things but in the middle of the night after experiencing a nightmare becomes a coward and fears the dark. But that is true with everyone, right?

After standing in the doorway for a few minutes, I decide to leave the bathroom light on and the door open. Slowly I let go of the doorknob then scurry across the room to the bed. If it wasn't for the fact that I know Itachi is in the bed sleeping I probably would jump in it pulling the covers over me like a child would. I don't do that though because I don't want to wake him up. I just carefully, but quickly, get into the bed under the covers.

For a while I'm lying in bed tense with wide eyes trying not to jump or freak out from any small noise. I don't bother trying to go back to sleep because I know I can't. There's no way I'll be able to walk around the base with what little light there is in the hallways if there is even any light in them. I would be freaking out giving myself multiple heart attacks and probably end up waking the others.

After a while I decide to just listen to Itachi breath. It helps to calm my nerves and relax my once tense body. I get tempted to move closer to place my head on his chest to listen to his heartbeat. However, that could cause him to wake up and there would be awkwardness involved and yeah I just don't want to go through with that. So I just watch him sleep instead while petting Arwen, which makes me sound a bit creepy.

I watch fascinated with the peaceful look on his face. As the seconds tick by I become more fascinated as his features changes. At one point his brows are drawn together slightly almost as if looking confused, but the confusion leaves when his lips move into a frown.

I press my lips together into a hard line to keep myself from saying anything and ball my hands into fist so not to try and remove the frown from his face. Again there would be awkwardness if he was to wake up because I did that stuff and as I said before I don't want to go through any of that. I don't want him to even know I have any feelings for him. What good would it be if he knew?

The frown doesn't stay on for long and it is back to the peaceful look. Later on he does give a small smile and mumbles something un-comprehension-able. Shortly after that he chuckles softly.

I smile then look away. Quietly, I climb out of bed and grab my scroll. Looking at the clock I see it's five in the morning everyone (besides Sasori) is still sleeping. I go and turn off the bathroom light and try to keep myself calm from the sudden darkness.

Using my memory, I leave the room and walk through the hallways. Of course I keep looking over my shoulder to get ready to attack anything that may try to sneak attack me from behind. I make my way through the hallways until I make it to the kitchen.

In the kitchen I turn the light on tossing my scroll onto the table. I get the coffee going for anyone who might wake up early then make myself a cup of warm tea. Going to the table, I set my cup down then go through the process of getting my guitar and music folder out.

For a while I just strum my guitar tuning it a bit before I actually get serious with playing any music. I start off working on my own music before deciding that I feel like rocking out. I'm still considerate of everyone, so I keep the noise level down while rocking out in the kitchen/dining room area. What I didn't expect is while rocking out is that someone would see that someone being Kakuzu. I almost scream when I finally stop to take a break and see Kakuzu calmly drinking away a cup of coffee.

"Unless you're going to be making money for us by doing any of that you should put it away and forget about it," he says after a moment then walks out.

I glare at his retreating back and put my music stuff away. I just might try to make money with my music here, but I'll think about that at another time. Right now, I'll make breakfast for everyone and so that is what I do.

I make crepes, normal pancakes, cinnamon rolls, toast, rice balls, scrambled eggs as well as omelets, and donuts. By the time I finished the clock reads a little after nine thirty. I go to set the table as Leader walks into the room. I set the table while he makes himself a cup of coffee. After I set the table Leader walks over and takes a seat at the table. Soon the others minus Sasori start entering the kitchen one by one. First to enter is Konan, then after her in order it is Kakuzu, Kisame, Hidan, Sasuke, Deidara and Laura together with Taiga, then finally Itachi with Arwen.

"Good morning everyone," I say with a smile as I take my seat.

"Morning," Konan says with a small smile and nod. Leader nods, Kakuzu grunts, Sasuke says his 'Hn', and Hidan stuffs his face.

"Morning, un," Deidara says sleepily.

"Good morning," Itachi says with a small nod as Arwen tries to sneak some of Itachi's food off his plate.

"Good morning," Laura says with a smile. "Did you sleep well?"

I frown slightly and reply, "I had trouble sleeping, but don't worry about it." I smile then ask, "How about you, did you sleep well?"

She frowns for a moment but then grins, "Yep."

"That's good," I reply with a smile back placing a saucer of warm milk in front of Arwen. She attacks it quickly drinking the milk as if it will get taken away from her, so cute.

Breakfast goes by smoothly, shocker I know. Leader informs everyone that this is our last day of relaxing and that tomorrow everyone will be going back on missions. Kisame goes to take Laura away to train her though I think it's to get her away from Deidara. Taiga runs after hissing at Kisame. And Kisame's attempt to keep Deidara and Laura away for the day ends in a failure because Deidara follows with Taiga saying he'll help with Laura's training. I do the dishes with Itachi and Konan's help. The others go off to do whatever it is they do. After dishes Itachi and I spend the day with more language lessons while Arwen decided to stalk Sasuke.

The day seems to come to an end fast, or it could be I just lost track of time. Dinner is made by Konan. When it came time for bed, I didn't sleep at all; in fact I pretended to go to sleep. It didn't bother me much and I spent the night watching Itachi sleep again. Is that even safe for me to do? Does it make me a bit creepy?

It is the next day after breakfast. Leader has been sending others onto missions. Laura, Sasuke, Sasori and I are all in Leader's office right now. He hands a scroll over to Sasori.

"Get your stuff pack now," Leader commands. "You're to leave for the mission in fifteen minutes. Give the treaty to the Kazekage and let him know we already have Konoha and Iwa on our side. Dismissed."

"Hai," all four of us say then walk out of the room.

Out in the hallway Sasori says, "I'll be at the entrance, do not keep me waiting."

"Hai," Laura says with a grin. Sasuke and I only nod.

We walk together but then split going our separate ways. I walk into Itachi's room to gather my stuff; Itachi had already left for his mission with Kisame. I hope it goes well for him and that he stays safe. Grabbing my scroll I fill it up with some of my light clothing to Suna. I don't know much about deserts expect they're hot as hell and they might be cool/cold at night so I pack a jacket as well. I hope Sasori has some of the yellow cream thing because I know I'm going to be getting one hell of a sunburn thanks to the desert sun.

"Let's go," I say as I place my scroll into my pocket and pick up Arwen.

It doesn't take long to pack and I'm by the entrance with Sasori. Soon Sasuke and Laura show up and we go to leave. I wonder if Gaara remembers us, I hope he did. Outside I look to Sasori and Sasuke.

"So how long will it take to get to Suna," I ask.

"Two days," Sasori replies as he starts leading the way.

"Coolios," Laura says with a grin.

I nod in reply and go and grab hold of Laura's hand. She grins and I grin back while Taiga and Arwen seems to be having their own little kitten talk. This should be an interesting mission maybe. Oh…I just remembered that Kankuro is Gaara's older brother. I wonder what will happen when we see him; nothing bad hopefully.

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