Violet's POV

Suki wouldn't stop complaining. I really, really tried to be nice and all, but she wouldn't quit it! She talked more than Naruto when he ranted about ramen! 

I shot her another frown as we landed on a thick branch, high above the dusty, shadow-filled ground below. The trees here were thinner than the ones you could find close to Konoha, less full and welcoming; I knew we had to be close to the border. I just didn't know which border that might be. I really hoped we weren't crossing into Wind Country. What if we got caught by Ninjas and I had to explain what was going on?

That wouldn't be fun at all!

I paused on the branch, looking around us with wide eyes. Nothing looked familiar. I took that as a good sign and giggled happily, stretching my arms high above my head. Suki sneered at me, lips twisted in a very un-pretty scowl.

"Your face'll freeze like that, Suki-chan!" I commented innocently, grinning at her. She flinched and smoothed out her face, turning away from me to glare frustratedly at the ground.

"What is with you?" she snapped, still refusing to look at me.

I blinked, cocking my head to the side. She wasn't making sense. I'd been acting this way the whole trip! Why was she questioning me now? "What do you mean, Suki-chan?" I asked.

She scoffed and twisted to face me, throwing out her arms for emphasis. Or balance. She looked a little wobbly, and I debated whether I would choose to save her or not. I was leaning towards no, Ari's obvious hatred of the girl flashing through my mind. 

"You're a freaking bipolar bitch!" she said. A kinda triumphant smirk pulled at her lips now; I thought it might've been cause she hadn't toppled to the ground yet. I internally pouted. This trip was no fun at all.

"Why's that?"

She let out an exasperated (and overdramatic) sigh, placing her hands on her hips, which she'd conveniently cocked to look seductive...ish. "One minute you're all bubbly and psychotic, the next you're a freaking monster with a kunai and psychotic!"

"Oh!" I giggled. "That's cause you bother me. I don't act like that around anyone else!"

She sweat dropped. Her mouth opened, like she was planning to rant, but just as quickly closed. She blew out a long, slow breath, lifting the fringe from her eyes that seemed so unnecessary to me. I mean, I wouldn't let Scar cut her hair because she looked adorable with it, but this was Suki! She was about as adorable as Kakuze without his mask.

No offense to Kakuzu fangirls!

 "A whiny little Barbie bitch like you doesn't have the right to say things like that to me."

"If you're looking for sympathy," I said, my voice losing its signature giggle, "you're not gonna get it from me." Her eyes widened furiously as I went on. "You're sad cause you died, right? In reality? But you're alive here! You should be happy and want to do fun things all the time! Like eating ramen and playing with Lee! You're the bitch, Suki-chan, not me. I'm grateful for having come here, and I think you're underserving of the second chance. Now c'mon, I wanna find my sisters!"

I leapt off our shared branch, finding my footing on another in a moment, then made for the next tree. I didn't have to turn around, or even listen, to know Suki wasn't moving. I didn't have time for her drama. My sisters could be d-de-- Nuh uh. I wasn't going to think about that. It wasn't a possibility. They had to be ok, cause if they weren't...

Suki followed me in the end, making sure to keep our pace even so neither of were lost in the gloom of the unfamiliar forest. It was unfamiliar to me, anyway. Suki could've been her dozens of times when she went to meet up with Tobi-kun. Oh wait. Maybe I should stop adding such a friendly honorific to his name...

Suki and I travelled in silence, other than when she had to direct me to turn or stop so that a random paper bomb wasn't tripped and I was blown to smitherines. That surprised me. She didn't just let me walk into a trap. Maybe she was starting to like me! 

Well, it didn't really matter to me, since I still really didn't like her, but it was the thought that counted!

"How are you guys so happy all the time?" 

I blinked, turning my head enough that I could see Suki's shadowed face. She still looked forward, head bobbing with each jump we made. The wind whipped her silver fringe off her forehead and swept the remainder of her hair out behind her. "What d'ya mean, Suki-chan?" I asked, confused.

She grit her teeth and tch-ed, wrenching her head away from me. Another, thicker silence spread out between us, and I returned to watching what was in front of us. The doom-and-gloom forest stayed quiet, too, only the occasional chitter to suggest animals lived here. 

It was another hour before Suki caught her branch and flipped down to the ground. I dropped down after her. She stepped forward and pulled out a kunai from... somewhere. She still wasn't carrying a weapons pouch with her! 

"Suki-chan..." I ventured, unsure what she was doing.

"Shut it, Barbie!" she snapped over her shoulder, before twisting the kunai around and stabbing her opposite hand. Crimson blood, the same color as her eyes, welled up around the metal tip still embedded in her palm. I let out a gasp; she silenced me with another sharp look. The kunai came free in her hand and she crouched down to thrust it into the soft, leaf-strewn dirt.

"You can only get in if you're recognized by the sealing jutsu placed on the hideout," she muttered as she stepped back to stand beside me. Five feet away, but still beside me, technically. "Tobi had me add my blood to the jutsu the last time I was here," she added, casting a look downwards.

She looked like she regretted ever meeting up with the funny masked Shinobi.

I didn't have time to question her, though, because just then, a pretty red light erupted from the ground, tracing out kanji and symbols that snaked through the withered grass between us. The light blazed brighter for a second, before dimming, leaving black outlines of a sealing jutsu carved in the ground. Then the earth rumbled dangerously, and I drew a kunai, ready for whatever could jump out. But the ground only split apart, slowly inching Suki and I further apart, until a hole about three feet wide cut through the dirt.

Suki caught my eyes. "Tobi told me to wait for him here if I ever came by," she said. "So we've only got like a minute before he gets here. If you wanna save your bitchy sisters, you better go now."

I stepped forward, peered down into the waiting blackness of the hole. It didn't look so scary. At least I wasn't afraid of the dark!

"Thanks, Suki-chan!" I chirped, throwing my arms wide for emphasis. She waved a hand, sorta like she just wanted to forget I ever existed, and started walking away. But I called her back. "Wait, Suki-chan!"

"What?!" she hissed, spinning back around, fists tightly clenched at her sides. "I don't owe you anything else! I'm not gonne wait here like some moron for Tobi to come out and distract him for you! So just go, bitch!"

My head tilted to the side and I pouted thoughtfully, placing one finger at my lips. "But won't he know it's you who opened the entry?" I asked. She stiffened, like she really just realized that. "Besides, that's not what I wanted you to do!"

"Then what?"

I grinned sheepishly and flitted behind her. The side of my hand connected kinda roughly with the back of her neck, and she slumped to the ground, out cold. "Sorry, Suki-chan," I murmured, not really all that sorry. "But I still need your help!"

Ari's POV

I was booooorrrreeed.

Nothing was happening! Nothing! Explain to me how you can be in some random hideout in the middle of Kami knew where, with a bunch of S-Class criminals, and pretty much no way to defend yourself, and have nothing happen?

Scar told I should be happy, that we were lucky it was such slow-going.

To hell with that! I was gonna die of boredom if something insane didn't happen!

Messing with Deidara was no fun anymore. He just made death-threats and avoided me at all cost since the incident with his hair. The scissors slipped, I swear!

Sasori only liked to talk to Scarlette, so he was an annoying bastard too. And he and DeiDei were never in the same room, either, so I couldn't push my SasoDei dream onto them! 

Hidan was gone, off on some mission.

Kisame was too drunk to play with me.

And like I said before, Pain and Konan were never here. Some leaders they were, always leaving captives alone. How the Akatsuki were successful up to this point, I had no freaking clue. But damn! They had like, zero leader-y presence here! I mean, seriously, why did anyone follow them? Well, I guess Kakuzu wanted money. Hidan wanted mayhem. Itachi... no clue. Kisame... again, why? Sasori probably just wanted a place to develop his skills, and since killing is pretty much mandatory here, he'd get a lot of puppet-y things.

Deidara I think was maybe forced to join. Something about a bet with Itachi? Dunno for sure, but that sounded right. Zetsu....... Yeah, I really didn't know. 

But I guess it made since, cause Konan and Leader-sama weren't the real leaders here, now were they? Damn man-child. Damn Obito. Damn, damn, dammit!

"You're shouting your thoughts again, Ari," Scarlette told me quietly from where she sat on the bed, sharpening her zillioneth kunai. Alright. That's an exaggeration. She had like twenty pooled together from the both of us. Still, she had some dedication. I woulda stopped after maybe two.

I sweat dropped, then fell dramatically onto the bed beside her with an obnoxiously loud sigh. She flicked my forehead almost instantly, and I groaned, slapping her hand away. "Not my fault!" I whisper-yelled; didn't want a certain Uchiha to hear me, cause he always seemed to be listening. "I'm stressed, alright! And apparently, when I'm stressed, my thoughts become word vomit."

Scar sniffed disdainfully at my comparison. It wasn't that she was a prissy princess or anything (come on, you've been with us for a while now. What about Scar screams prissy princess?), but we had a nasty experience with... er, hurling. Here's a little advice. Never eat three gallons of Rocky Road ice cream, half a thing of peanut butter, one fizzy bottle of Dr. Pepper, and then let your spazzy blonde sister talk you into going on The Great Bear at Hershey Park.

Not. A. Good. Combination.

For anyone.

Especially the stoic ravenette who had the misfortune of sitting next to you on said rollercoaster.

Yeah, Scarlette didn't talk to me for about a month after that little mishap.

And we were also banned from Hershey Park. Pretty much for the rest of our lives. Apparently, they also don't like it when your spazzy blonde sister attacks the guy wearing the Reese's Cup costume because she's in love with him.

Go figure.

Wanna know how old we were when this happened? Twelve.

"Whatcha thinkin' bout?" I asked Scar, noticing she'd been staring at the wall for a good five minutes now. Her kunai, now sharpened to Obito-killling-perfection, sat dully in her lap. She didn't answer, just untied a ribbon from around her neck and started pulling back her hair. Kinda concerned, I scooted behind her and helped; her hands were shaky.

"I..."

I paused, my fingers tangled in her silken raven locks, listening for her to go on. Scarlette was rarely ever lost for words.

"I... have a bad feeling," she said at last. I nodded, even though she couldn't see me. I knew what she was talking about. That weird feeling in the pit of you stomach that nags at you all day. Not my time of the month, just FYI.

"Same here," I told her as I finished tying up her hair. Her bangs, as usual, were free and feathery. "But whatcha gonna do, right? Whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen, whether we like it or not. Let's just suffer with dignity, ok?"

I heard her chuckle a little, saw her shake her head in amusement. It made me smile wider than Texas. "When was it that you became the mature Hayes sister, I wonder," she murmured quietly, mostly to herself.

And yet, in true Ari-fashion, I had to ruin it but clutching a hand to my heart in dramatic-pain and gasp a million times louder than necessary. "How dare you!" I breathed. "I am in now way mature! Ick! No! Don't let that horrible disease called adulthood get me! Scaaaaaaar!"

And by then, I'd fallen off the bed and was rolling around the ground, sobbing like a two-year-old who'd lost her teddy. 

Scar kicked me in the stomach the first chance she got.

I spluttered a minute, then jumped to my feet and pointed a very harsh finger in her face. She cocked a brow, smothering that entertained smile she didn't want to admit she had. "You! No hitting you sissy!" I ordered.

As an answer, she kicked my knee and I crumbled back to the floor.

Drawing my injured knee to my chest, I glared childishly at Scar, who absently twirled a kunai around her finger. I humphed. "Jeeze, I thought I was the Taijutsu specialist here!" I whined. "You're the brainy Genjutsu girl!"

"If you'd like, Arianna," she said cooly, "I can inflict on you the same torment I had Suki bear witness to not so long ago."

That was that.

And it was during that that I realized just how much I missed Violet. She was insane (more insane than me, usually) and she was weird (aren't we all?) but she was the one who tried to come between us whenever Scar and I "fought". She didn't always realize we were just teasing, so it was hilarious when she ran between us and nearly started crying at how she hated when we fought.

....I'm a terrible person for considering that funny....

Anyway!

Yeah, there was this huge, Vi-shaped hole in my heart. And it wasn't going anywhere any time soon as far as I was concerned. 

I got up after a bit of sulking and once again collapsed on the bed. Scar finished dividing up our kunai and placed them back into their respective pouches. The mood between us was anything light and airy. 

"Hey... Scar," I said after a while, just to break the silence. She looked up and tipped her head to the side, telling me to go on. "Just in case, you know, I don't get another chance to ask.... Do you love Sasori?"

She stared at me blankly, neither blinking nor breathing.

"I mean, you weren't just leading the poor guy on all this time, were you?" I asked. I jerked a thumb at the door. "Cause I'm pretty sure he's into you. Even if he's a puppet and can't possibly reproduce. He's still gotta heart, eh? And a brain, maybe. I just mean, you're not the type of girl to give some guy hope when it's really a bottomless well of despair that's waiting for him. Remember Miguel?"

Miguel Garcia, a poor schmuck who happened to be a foreign exchange student at our school. He spoke some gnarly English, so the teacher assigned Scar to help with the language. The boy fell hard for my sister. I couldn't blame him, her being the beautiful otaku that she is and was at the time. But she didn't feel the same way. Sin amor por Miguel.

I think that's No love for Miguel. I dunno. Google Translate sucked the last time I used it.

So anyway, my sis, realizing he had feelings for her she was never going to reciprocate, she let him down easy. Or bluntly. I've heard it both ways. (Psych references... hehe, ya gotta love em!) She did this by meeting him after class and telling him "Lo siento. No me gusta que."

Or some other nonsense. Again. Google Translate. Unreliable.

"I thought we'd agreed to keep Miguel in the past," Scar sighed.

"You're avoiding the question."

"I was not, in fact avoiding the question. I answered it. Remember Miguel? My response was clearly directed at that question."

"Answer the question, dammit!"

"I refuse, as I see no logical reason for me to give you a reply."

"So that means you do?"

"How are you coming to that conclusion?"

"Because you refuse to answer, therefore you must be in love with him! Oh man, what're you gonna tell Gaara? Poor emo is gonna be devastated!"

And that's when she pressed the kunai to my throat. I gulped. "Ari," she said lowly, "I'm not in the mood for your ridiculous fantasies. And I'll thank you kindly to not mention his name again while we're here." She fell back after a moment, dropping the kunai into her bag, sitting forlornly on the bedspread. I rubbed at my throat subconsciously.

Man, I hadn't meant to make her so upset...

"Scar..." She really missed Gaara. I hadn't realized it as easily as I would've liked, either. But at the same time, I got a weird vibe from her. Like, she missed him (kinda obvious at this point) but it wasn't, I don't know, the same way I missed Kiba. (Oh Kami, I really missed that mutt)

I woulda said something, probably a stupid remark, to take her mind off what was going on, but that's when a metal square about two feet wide clattered to the ground.

Scar and I looked up simultaneously.

A blonde head poked out of the ceiling, smiling like an idiot.

"You guys!" Violet chirped. "You're not dead!"

I stared, dumbfounded. "What the fu--"