Nothing could be heard by any normal ninja, everything was dead silent aside from the usual chirp of a bird or another animal. It was silent in the warm-sunny forest today, but silence sometimes lies, and there was in fact someone there lurking through the trees ever so quickly and efficiently silent. Only a few steps every few trees as she lunged through the forest towards her destination. She knew exactly what she had to do, but wasn't really very happy with it. Seeing as how she had just had one of her best friends killed, she wasn't in the best of moods; and now she had to do this stupid mission from one of her superiors..

She knew she was getting close, a bit too close for comfort.. She had already memorized the people she was going to meet and their abilities, one of them was a chakra sensor.. She stopped for a moment on a tree branch and put her thumb-nail to her lips, she shut her eyes for a split second, took a deep breath and opened them again. She had just hidden her chakra completely so she wouldn't be detected; now she had nothing to worry about but being seen.. Although none of them knew her anyway and wouldn't recognize her, it was still a precaution.

After about ten or so more minutes of non-stop travel, she decided she was close enough to keep an eye on them and still relax. She had just reached the gate of a small nearby town, there was no guards she had to get past to get in, and she didn't look suspicious anyway.. To an onlooker, she appeared to be the average kunoichi stopping by the village for rest. Although she had no headband on, no team members with her, and really didn't look tired at all. Her clothes weren't torn, so she hadn't been battling or in any fights today; at least not yet..

She was wearing a simple black tank-top styled shirt that seemed to have disconnected crimson-colored sleeves; They reached from below her shoulders down over her hands. Along with that, standard long black pants and simple shinobi-sandals that let her white-painted nails show through. She was standing at about 5'7-5'8 tall, and really didn't look like a threat to anyone. She wasn't stick-figure skinny, but she looked like a small girl, about age 17 or so..

She walked into the village as if she had nothing to hide, she stopped and took a breath of the crisp-air when something smelled simply delicious. She turned her head towards the scent and saw a nice little restaurant serving some good-looking chicken ramen; she decided it was time for a late lunch and headed inside the building. While she was busy waiting for her food to reach the table after she had ordered, someone else was busy waiting for the opportunity to approach her. She slouched down in her seat at the restaurant booth and closed her eyes as if just wanting to relax. When she opened her eyes someone was sitting in front of her scribbling something down in a book hurriedly..

"May I help you?" She glared at the male, a bit pissy at the sudden, and creepy way he was sitting there out of nowhere.. The male looked upward directly into her eyes with a big-creepy-smile plastered on his face. "So they are green!" He returned to writing in his book before a sharp pain in his foot made him yelp a loud cry of pain. She had stomped on his foot under the table out of anger, "Who are you and what the hell do you mean 'they are green'?" The females voice was stern and she wanted answers.. "Y-Your eyes, Ma'am! They're so beautiful, just like you!" He choked out the words while trying not to sob from the pain in his foot. She could see his struggle with speaking and released the pressure from his now-broken bone. "Not a good time to use a cheesy pickup line. You didn't answer my question; Now unless you want that other foot broken, I suggest you start talking." She had a serious look in her eyes, the male fought back tears from the pain surging up his leg and decided he should obey. "I'm a writer miss, I've been looking for the new star of my up coming book.. Its going to be about an exceptionally beautiful kunoichi falling in love with a small town writer! I've already started, see!"

He lifted his book which he had been scribbling in and began to read it aloud, "Her stunning emerald eyes shined like nothing I had ever seen; accompanied by shoulder length gorgeous black hair with the slightest bit of silver lining in the front made her look endlessly amazi-" Before he could finish reading the first line the female he had been reading to began cracking up laughing. "W-What's so funny!" The male shook with fear of her shattering the bones in his other foot because she didn't like the passage he wrote about her.

"Its just so stupid! Nobody really thinks that of anyone, love between people is a pure myth! Nothing lasts forever, and nobody is going to believe that complete bullshit." She giggled again, her laugh was mocking and made the mans heart shatter. "I guess I'll have to find another beautiful woman to write my book about then.. But miss, may I at least know your name to add to my rejection list?" The male began to sniffle as he tore the pages out of the book and crumpled them. "Suki." She stated bluntly and didn't seem to care that the man was so upset. "Last name?" He sniffled and looked up, but by the time he did, she had completely disappeared. "Wha-!" He sat there shocked and began to sob onto the crumpled pages of his book.

"Nn.. I'll have to eat later.. That distraction made my chakra flare up." Suki stood there outside the building mumbling to herself before doing the same thumb-to-lips sign as before to calm herself. Sadly it was already too late, her targets had probably noticed her.. Time for the second phase of the plan to take place, even if it was a bit sooner than she had hoped. She sighed and looked downward as everything around her seemed to go silent; she had begun to get lost in her thoughts.. "I have to hang around the guy who disrespected Nii.. I'll get my revenge eventually, but this is not the time. This mission is important, I know they'll rip my head off if I fuck anything up.." Her thoughts were broken by a heart-shattering feeling she hadn't gotten in years. The scent of her brother was hanging in the air, had they just passed by here and not noticed her? This was a bad sign either way, this means her targets were already on the move again and she had to catch up.

"This is so much trouble.. I'm chasing after the damn Uchiha-kid, and so is Konoha; but neither of them are supposed to know I'm here either." She took off running through the village streets, careful not to bump into anyone on the way to avoid having to speak with anyone else. After a bit she noticed the scents had began to fade and split away, luckily unlike konoha, she knew who else the Uchiha was traveling with, and could simply follow the trail from one of them. She stopped for a minute just outside the village and stood there fumbling with a small book in her pocket. She held it up so she could read it and looked through a few pages. "Suigetsu.. Jugo, or Karin." She mumbled and looked at the pictures of the three that Sasuke was traveling with. "I guess I'll follow the female, she might be easier seeing as how most women wear perfume and other useless things.." She slid the book back into her pocket and took a deep breath of air, she could pick up all kinds of scents around her, but one stood out from the rest..

"Uhg.. Gross." She coughed and sighed, "That has to be her, she smells heavily like.. Flowers and sweat? ...What the hell." Suki shook her head and tried to follow the stench that would hopefully lead her to the target, Sasuke Uchiha. She had been sent on a mission to follow him and keep a close eye on everything they were doing. She knew it wouldn't be easy to get on his good side, but she also knew he would have to keep her around; because she wasn't leaving anyway.

"Target within range." She had only been traveling for a few minutes before the scent had grown extremely strong, meaning the female she was tracking was close by. Suki crouched down and made herself comfy sitting on a tree branch high above the ground. She leaned her back against the tree and relaxed. Her chakra-hiding technique faded away quickly after she did this, which was exactly her plan..

"Wait! Hold up!" Karin stopped suddenly and looked around with a horrified face. Sasuke turned to face her with the same emotionless expression as always. "What now?" He sighed at the time they were wasting with this little pause. "This chakra.. Its.. Amazing!" Karin made the same facial expression she did when she was lost in a sasuke-is-so-great-moment; which was shortly cut off by the snap of fingers in her face. "What the hell are you talking about?" Suigetsu snapped his fingers in the females face irritatedly at her non-existent explanation about the apparently 'awesome-chakra-source' near them.

Karin snapped back to reality and tried to look as serious as possible in front of her beloved Sasuke; "T-There is a huge amount of Chakra very close to us! But it doesn't seem to be moving, we might still be being followed.. What should we do!" She choked the words out nervously to the Uchiha, who still seemed uncaring about the situation. "Where?" He simply stated, he was still a bit injured from his battle earlier with the strong Akatsuki, and wasn't ready to fight another if that was the case.

"Its moving! Its.. Gone? What? Wait.. Its.. Right above us.. But how?" Karin blinked and looked upwards frantically for the source, Suigetsu already had one hand on his blade and Jugo was prepared for anything. To everyones surprise, nothing happened for a solid minute. "Karin are you just fucking with us? You know how pissed Sasuke is going to get for you wasting time! Right, Sasuke?" Suigetsu moved his hand away from the blade for a split second to insult the female when suddenly he felt it move and fall off his back. He turned quickly to see what happened and was surprised at what he saw..

"Well, just as expected. The stench was coming from right around here." Suki's voice was mocking as she stood holding Suigetsu's massive blade swung over her shoulder as if it was weightless. Everyone looked shocked and Karin was horrified at the amount of chakra she could sense coming from this one girl. "Who the hell are you!" Suigetsu was instantly protective over his sword, but surprised at how easily she could have snatched it and was now holding it as if it were a toothpick. "Hn.. Well aren't you rude.. But your the cute one so I guess its okay." She smiled innocently and swung the blade downward as it crashed into the dirt right next to where Suigetsu's feet would be..

Luckily he jumped back hurriedly right before it had actually hit the ground and pointed a finger at the female angrily. "Don't treat my fucking sword like a toy!" He growled at her before Sasuke interrupted. "What do you want with us?" His eyes had now switched over to the red-spinning pattern known as the Sharingan. "Ah, your the one I'm looking for.. Calm, Cool-seeming, Eyes just like your brother." She released the blade from her hand and let it fall to the ground; Suigetsu picked it up and was ready to swing it at her before Jugo reached out his arm and blocked him from taking another step forward. "If she knows Sasuke's brother, it means she has information.." Jugo whispered to Suigetsu, He nodded his head in agreement and slipped the blade back into position on his back.

"What do you know of my brother?" The crimson-gaze never moved from piercing directly into the emerald green one holding its ground. "Itachi Uchiha is your older brother; which makes you Sasuke Uchiha.. The only known Uchiha left alive after Itachi massacred the others. You've spent your entire life plotting revenge, and now your so close you can taste it." Suki's voice sounded calm as ever, even though she knew she was walking on eggshells with this touchy subject. She expected the Uchiha to do one of two things.. Remain calm as ever, or attempt to kill her right then and there.. He chose number one, to her relief.

"Smart boy you are.. Now that you see I've got information, what will you do?" Her lips slowly formed into that of a seemingly-evil smirk as she stared the Uchiha down. "Her chakra has returned to a normal-level.. What the hell is up with this girl?" Karin mumbled to herself while wondering what Sasuke would do next. "Just kill her Sasuke! We don't need her to get in the way!" Karin cheered him on before his harsh glare towards her made her stomach weak.

"By the way, that little eye trick wont work on me. Go ahead and try any genjutsu, I'm immune." Her smirk stayed the same but Sasuke's face was different now. One of the few times he would show emotion, for about a split second while his sharingan faded back to his natural black eyes; He almost looked scared, though he would never admit this, and would probably deny it if anyone said something.

"What exactly do you want, and who are you?" Sasuke had one hand on the hilt of his blade and the other hanging freely by his side. He was prepared for either standing there and having a nice chat, or a fight.. "Well first of all, I'm not here to fight you.. I guess you could say I'm on your side.. As for what I want, in exchange for my endless amounts of information, you have to let me tag along with your little group here." Suki sat down on the ground comfortably indian-style with her hands on her knees balled into loose fists. "As for who I am.. My full name is Suki Inuzuka; I prefer to leave the last-part out of it seeing as how I have no connections with said name. Although you may call me whatever you like, seeing as how I'm here to serve you." The emerald eyes of the female closed as her body moved and shifted to a different position on the ground. She was now on one knee in an almost-bowing position in front of the Uchiha.

Karin's eyes widened with jealousy at this action, Sasuke looked a bit surprised and Jugo and Suigetsu were confused as ever. "Alright, Suki.. What do you mean by that?" Sasuke stared down at her while his face returned to the expressionless stare he normally maintained. "You sure ask a lot of questions.. Well, lets just say my superior asked me to watch over you." She smiled up at him and returned to her sitting-position with her legs crossed within one another. "I don't need someone to watch over me.. Just who is your Superior?" He stared down at the female, trying to get a clue from the way she was dressed, but she had no headband, and no distinguishing clothes..

"How do we know we can trust you!" Karin blurted out, fixing her glasses to her face so they didn't slide right off. She still had a lot of questions for this strange 'Suki' person, like how she was turning her chakra on and off.. "I'm sorry, was I speaking to you? I don't believe so." Suki turned to Karin with a sarcastic smile before paying no more attention to her and directing it back towards the Uchiha. "Well, they wish to not be known at this time. But you'll be meeting them very soon.. I also don't know exactly how to prove I can be trusted other than showing you I'm a good thing to keep around.." She shrugged her shoulders and frowned a bit when she thought of them not trusting her and having to just follow them around secretly anyway.

"Besides that.. If you chose not to let me follow you willingly, I'm going to have to anyway.. Unless I want my head cut off by my Superior.. Either way, I'm not leaving." She smiled innocently, it would've been cute if what she had just said wasn't so creepy. "And what makes you so useful? We've already got all we need in this group!" Karin burst out again, which was really irritating Suki. "Because-" Suki was going to snap back at her but was cut off by Sasuke, "Karin.. She has information we could use, if you want to leave you can." His voice was harsh, Karin's heart broke a little on the inside while she shut up and looked downwards; The reflection of light catching on her glasses and making her eyes non-visible..

"Well then, I guess this means I'm aloud to hang around?" Suki stood up, she was actually a slight bit taller than Sasuke, but was still eye-to-eye with him. "Just don't get in the way, learn to keep up, and give me all the information on Itachi.." He looked upwards at the sky and noticed it was getting darker by the minute, the sun had already begun to sink behind the horizon and set, waiting for the moon to take its place. "We'll have to camp in the woods tonight and make up for the ground we've lost tomorrow." Jugo spoke up for once, Sasuke nodded in agreement and began to walk off into the woods to find an open area where they could all sleep. Everyone else silently followed as if in sync with what they had to do..

Team Hebi knew the drill, this wasn't the first time they had to sleep in the woods, although sometimes they got lucky and found a nearby town to stop by in.. Sasuke usually found a spot for them to stay, Jugo kept strange animals away, Karin collected firewood and Suigetsu found a source of water for himself and the others. Suki really didn't get instructions on what to do so she followed Sasuke around like a lost puppy. "Why are-.." He was going to say something but figured she didn't know what to do since she hadn't been assigned a task. "Well, what exactly are you good at?" Sasuke decided to let her follow him around and look for a place to stay with the others at. "My main fighting techniques are either straight taijutsu or the fact that I'm a puppet master.. I'm also exceptional with tracking, chakra sensing and immune to any form of genjutsu.." Her emerald orbs darted around looking for a open space between the trees that everyone could sleep.

"Look, I know you don't trust me yet.. But I think eventually you'll come around and we might even become friends." Suki smiled and looked at the raven haired male as they walked along side by side. The male remained quiet aside from the sound of his breathing, which Suki paid attention to for a reason. She knew he had just recently fought Deidara and wasn't in the best of shape, but she needed to know how good of shape he was in. "Did Dei-kun put up a good fight?" She looked downwards with blank eyes, Sasuke stopped walking and turned towards her, "How did you.. Are you working for the Akatsuki?" His hand quickly shifted to the hilt of his katana again, he was growing more and more suspicious of her seeing as how she knew of Deidara.

"He was a friend of mine, that is all.. I wanted to know if he put up a good fight.. Its fine if you don't want to answer." She continued walking, her head returned to the normal position and she appeared unthreatened by the katana. "Yeah.. He did." His hands returned to his sides as he walked after her; He knew he couldn't attack her in this state, and she didn't seem like a threat yet. He would just have to watch her closely and keep her around for the sake of information for now..

While this little chat happened between the two, another was listening in the entire time. As expected, it was the ever-so-jealous Karin feeling threatened by this new female being around Sasuke. "She's pretty.. Not as pretty as ME of course! But still! What if Sasuke likes her! She could be a major threat to me and Sasuke-kun!" She stood there crouched behind a tree mumbling to herself angrily while fixing her glasses as always. "Only a threat to you and sasuke? What about me and Jugo, Eh?" The familiar voice of Suigetsu rang in her ears, she turned with an expression of shock and rage at her stupid team-member listening in on her conversation with.. Well, herself.

"SU-SUIGETSU! STOP STALKING ME!" She shouted and swung her fists like crazy in his direction, luckily he had moved out of the way quick enough to avoid 15 blows to the face. "Well your the one sitting here stalking Sasuke and Suki-Chan." He put his hands on his hips and stared down at her as if she were a worm. "Suki-CHAN!" Karin was never filled with more rage than she was right now. But before she had the chance to bitch Suigetsu's ear off for the next hour she was startled by the face of Suki inches away from her. "We found a spot to camp at, Princess." Her eyes were huge, green, and scarier than ever when viewed close up; plus the menacing tone of her voice wasn't helping either.

Karin jumped backwards screaming out of fear while Suigetsu got a good laugh out of it. "Stop fooling around you guys and help set up camp." Jugo sighed and walked off towards the area Sasuke and Suki had found; Suigetsu and Suki followed side by side, giggling at Karin's expression when she got scared.. Karin growled and followed behind them, stomping with rage every step of the way.. "GLAD TO SEE YOU TWO ARE GETTING ALONG!" She growled at them, but was ignored.

The sun had almost completely gone down now, the nocturnal birds and creatures were beginning to wake while the rest of the population went to sleep. Sasuke and Jugo were clearing away some sticks and other rocks from the small, but tree-clear patch of soft grass that everyone would be sleeping on tonight. "Perfect spot! Theres a small natural-hot spring only a little bit that way." Suigetsu pointed off to the west where he had found a beautiful pond earlier. Everyone was relieved to hear of this, they would get a good nights rest and have a hot bath in the morning.

Sasuke sat down on the ground and took off his coat, "Karin, did you get enough wood for a fire?" He was speaking to her but not looking at her, which gave her time to drool-over him. "Well?" He turned to face her after she didn't answer, "U-Um.. Why should I always have to get firewood! The rookie here didn't do anything!" She snapped the insult without thinking, "Actually.. I found the place your lazy-ass will be sleeping.. But fine, I'll get the firewood too." Suki glared at the other female before darting off into the woods to look for a already-fallen tree she could pick wood off of.

"Well.. Sasuke, what are you thinking?" Jugo sat on the grass a few feet away from Sasuke with a concerned look on his face. "She obviously has information about Itachi, we'll keep her around until that information isn't needed. Apparently she's also got some good skills with tracking, which can help.. Just watch your back, she doesn't look like much of a threat.." He laid back and stared up at the now brightly shining stars in the heavens. "Not much of a threat? Did you see the way she plucked my sword off me and held it like a toothpick?" Suigetsu snapped with a pissed-look on his face, "She's obviously stronger than she appears." He found a spot on the grass a bit away from both Sasuke and Jugo to sit down.

Karin greedily wanted to sit up close to Sasuke, but didn't want to seem pushy in front of Suigetsu and Jugo; so she stayed back a few feet. "She's obviously got some chakra-hiding trick up her sleeve, I couldn't sense it one minute and then it was outrageous the next.." Her glasses stopped glaring because there was no sun to shine on them and her eyes were visible once more. "I don't trust her." Karin pouted with her arms crossed over her chest and thought about bitching because she had to sleep on the ground.

Suki had actually overheard this entire conversation, because of her family bloodline of being an Inuzuka, she had amazing hearing like that of a dog. Plus she really wasn't that far away, she had found a dead tree with plenty of easy-accessible wood chunks falling off. She collected some of the larger chunks and stacked them into a pile; she was about to lift them to carry them back to the miniature campsite when she heard a twig snap behind her..

She dropped the wood and spun around quickly to become face-to-face with Suigetsu, who had come after her to keep an eye on her. "What? You guys can't even trust me to gather wood?" Her eyebrow raised as he walked past her with a smile and lifted the stack of cedar with ease. "Just thought I'd help.. But now that you mention it, SHOULD we trust you with wood?" His voice was sarcastic like it usually was when speaking to Karin. "Oh please, If I can lift your little twig of a sword with ease, I think I can carry wood." She grabbed another huge stack of wood and marched past him, bumping into his shoulder on purpose to make him drop his pile right onto his foot. He cringed with the slight bit of pain and glared at her while she carried the wood back to camp.

When she returned, everyone was sitting casually in the dark waiting for the warmth of a fire. "What the hell took you so long!" Karin again opened her big mouth in an attempt to look vicious in front of her crush. "Are you normally this annoying?" Suki calmly responded and set the wood down in the middle of where everyone was sitting. "Sasuke, do you have enough chakra lef-" Jugo was about to ask if Sasuke was able to use his fireball jutsu to set the wooden-pile aflame, but apparently Suki already handled it with a lighter she had kept in her pocket. "I'll take care of it." Suki smiled and poked at the now smoldering-cedar pile in front of her.

Suigetsu had finally returned holding two times the ammount of wood as Suki's pile and tossed it off to the side with a smile. Suki glared with an 'oh-really' expression on her face at him just having to outdo her on the simplest task. She figured he was probably a bit jealous at her insulting his sword earlier. After a bit more messing with the fire, Suki decided to find a spot to sleep somewhere in the circle. She had the choices of between Karin and Suigetsu, or Jugo and Sasuke; since she was already closer to it, she chose to sit in the open space between Karin and Suigetsu..

After a bit of just watching the fire burn and zoning-out into her thoughts, suki snapped back to reality to realize almost everyone else was asleep already. Sasuke had passed out quickly due to being tired, and Karin was trying to snuggle up as close as she could to him. Jugo was laying silently on his back the same way Suigetsu was, so she figured they all must be asleep. After getting comfortable in the cold but soft grass, she lay her head down and stared up at the stars silently. It was relaxing hearing nothing but the almost silent crackling of the fire and the occasional nocturnal bird noises; Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep.

It was the middle of the night and Suigetsu still couldn't fall asleep, he was laying perfectly still with his eyes tightly shut, but just couldn't rest. He snuggled down under the warm-cover of his coat like everyone else had on, but he just couldn't find a way to pass out until morning. After a bit of frustration and fumbling with tossing and turning, he flipped over to his right side and opened his eyes. A few feet away from him was the newest tag-along of team Hebi, Suki. She looked so peaceful while sleeping, a lot more calm than earlier with the constant power-struggle of her and Karin. He honestly had nothing better to do right now than watch her sleep; and he actually was enjoying it..

The rhythm of her breathing was subtle, but a very-so-often shiver broke this pattern. Suigetsu noticed she was the only one without a heavy coat like the others, they had all prepared for this journey with matching black-cloaks that could resist rain and cold. She apparently wasn't planning on staying outside on cold nights and didn't bring something warm for her journey.. It wasn't a freezing night out, and Suigetsu really didn't need his cover of warmth for now; He decided he might as well get used to this 'team mate' as much as he was with the others now.

Purple-orbs darted around in every direction, checking to make sure nobody else was awake to see his movements. Slowly and silently he sat up and slid his jacket off, he crawled over to the delicate sleeping female and carefully draped the jacket over her. It covered her almost completely, seeing as how the coats were designed for that; she suddenly stopped shivering and snuggled down between the warm jacket and the ground. Pleased with his small, but good-deed, Suigetsu slowly scooted back to his original spot and rest his body back down again. Now for some reason, sleep came easy to him, he was relaxed as ever as he lay under the stars and drifted off to his dreams of what would happen the next day.