The Flower That Blooms in the Darkness

I awoke to silence, for the first time in a while.

I rolled over, trying to go back to sleep.

Then the past events hit me, startling me out of my drowsiness.

"Oh God....Please tell me I didn't kill him...!" I mumbled, sitting up and putting my head in my hands.

"No, you didn't kill him, un." My head snapped up and saw that blonde guy from earlier. He grinned at me.

"He's just severely injured, un. And pissed, yeah." I let out a breath as he said this. He raised his eyebrows and I took in his appearance for the first time.

He was good-looking enough, almost to the point of passing off as a girl.

Especially in that weird cloak.

"So...where exactly am I?" I questioned, looking around at my surroundings.

"Well, I think Leader-sama was going to explain earlier...but you kind of interrupted him, yeah. So, I'll leave it to him to finish, un. But this is my room, un." He finished cheerfully.

It was my turn to raise my eyebrows. "And you are...?"

"Deidara, yeah.You, un?"

"Kuragari Natsumi." I looked around. "So, where's this 'Leader'?"

"Outside, yeah," He grimaced, "and not too happy with you, yeah."

"Well then, let's get this over with." I sighed, standing up off of his bed, and began to stretch, pulling my arms over my head and yawning.

Deidara led me out of his room, and down a hall, which joined into what I guessed was a family room.

Which was full of people.

The stench of blood wafted to my nose.

I frowned.

Most people were standing over the source of the blood, which I guessed was Kisame.

I was right again.

Told you I'm always right.

I sighed, and pushed past several people, including 'Leader' and the hot guy.

"What do you want now?!" Kisame growled at me. I was shocked to even hear him talk.

"Like, oh my God, it's a talking fish!" I mocked. People froze around me, startled by my appearance.

His injuries consisted of several poisonous claw marks to the chest, and one on his cheek.

"What do you want, brat?" He snarled.

I sighed. "Is that any way to treat someone who's going to heal you?"

"Like hell you will!" He tried to sit up, but winced.

"Looks like I'll need to knock you out first." I noted calmly.

"How do we know you won't actually kill him?" The hot guy spoke up, narrowing his eyes at me.

I returned the stare. "Looks like you're just going to have to trust me.If you don't he'll probably die. Those scratches are poisonous."

It was silent, and I took that as an okay.

I put my hand over Kisame's eyes. He thrashed around, but then stopped moving altogether.

"Are you certain you can heal him?" 'Leader' asked me.

"Please. I could do this in my sleep. I was taught by the best." I scoffed.

I then moved my hand from his eyes, showing them to be empty. Then I put my hand an inch or so away from his cheek, closed my eyes, and focused my chakra into my palm.

I felt the familiar tingling sensation of light condensing into my palm, and extended the light to Kisame's face.

My eyes slid open.

Tendrils climbed across the scratches, leaving behind brand-new blue skin.

"Sorry," I murmured, "I can't heal his skin condition."

My palm migrated to his chest, and the tendrils followed eagerly, healing everything there as well.

When I was done, I called the tendrils back to my palm and absorbed them.

I could feel the toll this was taking on my chakra already.

Damn.

I waved my hand once over Kisame's eyes once, and he resumed ranting.

I turned around. Everyone else was silent.

"Look, erm..." I started, "...I'm sorry about my behavior earlier. Honestly, it was the stress from being kidnapped twice in a day...or so...." I trailed off. Exactly how long had passed since I was in Konoha?

"Her eyes...They changed color." Someone randomly remarked.

"What? What're you talking about?"

Someone handed me a compact.

I looked in it, expecting something horrible.

Instead, I found my own normal refleection staring back at me.

"My eyes are always this color. Grey." I stated.

They looked at me like I was crazy.

"Anyways...so, Mr. 'Leader', what do you say? Apology accepted?" I smiled hopefully.

He smirked. "Not a chance. But I would like to extend the offer of being a member of the Akatsuki."

The name sounded strange, but yet familiar.

I cocked my head. "Eh? Akatsuki? What's that?"

Now they really looked at me like I was crazy.

"Hey, you! You girl! Where have you been? What the hell kind of ninja are you?!" A guy with white hair yelled.

I glared at him. "You know, I have a name.And it's not 'girl' or 'hey, you!'," I turned my glare onto 'Leader', "And it's definitely not 'thing'. Got it?!"

Then I took a deep breath. "This is way too much stress...." I muttered.

I looked into the compact again for a distraction.

Well, my skin definitely looked paler, as did my hair. I lowered the compact again to my eyes, and hear a small pop.

I looked at the guys in front of me. "What was that?" I asked. They just looked at me weird.

"Whatever...." I moved the compact up to my hair again to check....

....and found black cat ears.

"What the hell?!"

Something brushed against my leg. I looked down.

A tail.

This has got to be a joke.

I looked at the hot guy again, and realized he looked familiar, but I couldn't place my finger on why.

"Mrrow?" The sound escaped my lips.

I clapped my hand over my mouth, flushed and ran towards the hall. I didn't care where I was going, just anything to escape the embarrassment.