The Loved and the Loveless

Amber

Luna wouldn't wake up.

Three months ago, when I came back to the base bloody, bruised, and barely able to stand, Oceanna had appeared the next day. She woke me up and I couldn't believe it, I thought Sasuke would've done away with her as soon as he got what he wanted, whatever that may have been.

When she told me what was happening we rushed to Luna's room. She was there all right, asleep and unmoving. Before her body was slightly transparent and I could see the dark grey covers underneath just barely seeping through.

Now, I see them much more clearly, Luna was disappearing; she was waking up in the real world.

Each day she was being pulled a little further away from us into the void of actual life. Back towards our pseudo-home, I pray to Jashin every day that she'll make it back, fall into the safety net that we've created for each other. Luna, please come back. Even if this world and the in it people are shit, this is where she belongs, because we're here and she belongs with us.

The good news however, is that ever since Oceanna came back Kisame's been sulking less and there's more edible food around to eat. Also, Hidan had unfortunately gotten himself in a bit of a spat with Shikamaru again and well, let's just say we need to find someone who's as good as at stitching as Kakuzu was.

He's laying helplessly in the emergency room as I called it, Konan spent hours wasting chakra on him. I personally believed it would be better to leave him as is for the moment but Pein objected otherwise, saying we needed all the help we could get without all the members of the Akatsuki. He was fine now, it only took a few weeks to sew raggedy Ann back together but at times he was still "falling apart" shall we say?

Other than that a whole lot of things happened in three whole months. I was finally able to get on with training. Hidan, though as disfigured as he still was, taught me other Jashinist things which were unrealistically cool. For example, and this is something not even I a Naruto expert knew, when in a state of peril one can overdose on chakra and pretty much go into overdrive. Normally an act would kill someone, but since I had chakra levels way above the norm Hidan said I'd probably be fine if I didn't use it for too long.

"Amber," I turned my head to face Oceanna as she walked in. I stopped punching the tree that had been on the receiving end of my anger for the past few months.

"What is it?"

Oceanna sighed and I noticed she had been acting rather weird since Luna "left" so to speak. I figured it was simply because of her departure that she was so weird. Oceanna was… how should I put it, angry? No, she was more… soft spoken. She seemed like she was thinking more than she ought to, she was changing and I didn't know why when she and I both knew we were working on getting Luna back.

"Well… I need to go on a mission… and I might not… be back for a while."

I furrowed my brows, "Mission? Pein's sending you on a mission?"

She shook her head slightly and hesitated, "No… it's confidential. I'm helping someone."

I stood there for a second before my brain kicked into gear for once, "What kind of help? And why now of all times, you know Luna needs us now more than ever," Why would anyone send her on a mission? Who or what was so important that it needed her immediate attention? I became worried, because we all know how the last "mission" had turned out.

A certain look came across her face, I wasn't sure what it was, it looked like a mix between sadness and despair.

"I'm aware of Luna's situation. I'll try to finish this mission as quick as possible but there are tons of ways it could turn out. I've trained enough and… well I've got a few tricks up my sleeve."

As she said that she blinked her eyes rapidly, something seemed different about them. Her black iris's seemed darker than I remember, but maybe it was just a trick of the light.

As Oceanna left I said nothing more, I already felt betrayed enough and I'm sure she didn't feel too hot about leaving us so abruptly.

The sun began to set and with one final punch the tall oak quickly became a stump. Much like Sakura I had chakra enforced punches, only mine were ten times stronger because they were powered by pure anger and were five times more chakra infused then hers.

Konan said I shouldn't use so much chakra in one punch but I did it anyway. It was partly because I've already gotten used to the feel of reckless energy building up in my fists, and also because I could was my only other justification.

When I went in I actually found humor in the almost sad faces of the Akatsuki members when they learned that they'll be on their own for dinner tonight. I noticed Kisame seemed to be the most upset of all and I knew exactly why, his precious little Oceanna wasn't around.

Hidan was in the kitchen and as I got closer he spotted me and grabbed my wrist, "Maybe we have another option. You can cook right?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"We've already gone over this. If you count Deidara's bombs as cooking then yes I can, I can cook very well."

Hidan frowned, "I was hoping she would've taught you a thing or two. I can't believe only one you bitches knows how to use a stove."

At that precise moment two other "bitches" came walking in. I could arguably say though that Tobi was much, much more of an asshole than Pein in all ways shapes and forms.

Pein simply turned and walked away, not wanting anything to do with this, while Tobi fell to his knees and faked cried, "Oh no, Tobi's senpai doesn't like him, Luna-chan keeps sleeping, nothing is going right!" I paused at that, because for some reason I felt as though I had detected a hint of truth in that last part.

"Ah shut up brat I wasn't talking to you," Hidan left the kitchen and as he was leaving he smacked Tobi in the face who fell onto the ground. As he did so the pressure caused the bone in Hidan's right arm to crack and bend his forearm at a weird angle, something I definitely could've lived without seeing.

"Fucking hell…" I heard him say as I heard him force his dislocated bone back into place. None of us understood why he was still falling apart, it was a mutual agreement that it was just unnatural.

Someone behind me made a gagging noise and I faced everyone, rolling my eyes at Hidan's idiocy.

"Well I can't cook," I said as he left, "but I think I can manage some rice balls."

With that I set up a rice cooker I found collecting dust in a cabinet and let the rice steam while I set off to do other things.

As I was walking down the hall Tobi was suddenly a few inches behind me, breathing down my neck and practically leaning over my shoulder.

I turned around to face him and I mustered up the meanest glare I could, "Can I help you?"

"Tobi was enjoying his senpai's company that's all."

I bared my sharpened teeth at him and started to walk away. I noticed that since I've become a Jashinist, along with my weapon I've inherited a few… extra features. Such as sharp teeth hard as rock, I only know this because I got punched in the face during a training lesson by accident and none of my teeth fell out, though I did get an awful bruise for a few hours.

Along with my teeth my nails are, and will forever remain, short but I can literally scratch someone's eyes out now if I really wanted. It was a rather gruesome thought but true.

"Stop following me you little…"

Tobi tripped and fell before looking up at me in mock fear, "S-s-sorry Amber-senpai…"

I was in a bit of a mood. It's only worsened since Oceanna left, what were we going to do without here? More importantly, what was I going to do?

With a sigh I kept walking, about five steps later I decided to look for Hidan. Why, well hell if I know.

Before I could turn the corner though I heard Tobi's voice echo through the hall, directed at me, "Amber-san, I need to tell you something about Luna-senpai."

I turned heel slowly, "What?"

He came over to me happily, "Something special is going to happen to Luna very soon," with a happy skip he twirled off like a little pansy.

I felt my head tilting to the side in confusion, "What do you mean 'special'?"

Tobi didn't answer and I furrowed my brows. I thought about going after him and beating it out of him, but then I remembered that he wasn't really like that under the act. I'll have to figure out what he meant later.

For now though, I went back to finding Hidan.

I found said masochistic bastard and annoying pain in the ass in his room, lying contently on his bed and looking at the ceiling in thought.

I sat next to him, "I used the rice cooker for dinner," I didn't look at him. Instead I stared straight ahead at the wall on the other side. I didn't know why it was so difficult to look at him right now.

"Really, well that's fucking great little girl. Even I could've done that," I rolled my eyes.

"But you didn't," I smirked as a vain popped from his forehead and in retaliation he pulled me down and onto the bed to be used as a pillow.

I left the situation alone for a few minutes before deciding I should go check on the food but when I told Hidan he wouldn't let go, "Do you want to starve?"

"I'm ok with that," after that nothing I did would remove the Jashinist.

"Hidan come on stop being the little kid you are," I said, even though we both knew it wasn't even remotely possible.

I smacked him on the head which only flattened his hair a little but nothing more.

He turned over and buried his face into my stomach, his noise feeling weird against my belly, he murmured something but I only felt the vibration of his vocal cords.

"Fine, I try to do something and not be a lazy ass but you won't let me," I crossed my arms behind me head and leaned back into his pillow.

Hidan remained still and after a while I found myself falling into the darkness of sleep. When I woke there was light snoring coming from some place very close to me. I looked down at Hidan who was still resting on my stomach.

The sight made me happier than I ever thought it would. I ran a hand through his silver hair and smiled softly before going back to sleep.