Book Two (IceQueen) Fox's Tricks and Illusions

Chapter Three: Team Seven and the Replacement

"So you're Kyoko?" Sai asked, black hair neatly cut and she didn't know what annoyed her more, the hand he was holding out, or the fact he had a fake grin on his face. He sucked at tricks. "Dickless and Butch have told me about you."

Kyoko only sat down on her bed, she didn't know why he was there. But there was something about him... Root. With Hiruzen gone, her going missing. There was nothing standing in his way, well.... besides herself.

"And you are?" she asked, Orochimaru was gone. She had some of the Sound shinobi take him to another base, she stayed behind to deal with the invaders. "I've seen Danzo's little robots before, you seem to have a little more character then they do. Nicknames? Huh, what have you been reading a book?"

"I'm Sai and I've come to bring you back to the Leaf."

"Why in the heaven's would you want to do that?"

"Bonds. Butch told me about the bond between you and her."

"And Duck-butt? I doubt he'd want me back."

"And makes you say that?" Sai asked, she was impressed that his tone stayed flat, even she couldn't do that. "Tomato."

"Tomato?" Kyoko asked pushing herself up, hair raising into nine tails. "Did you call me Tomato?! I'm going to kill you!"

-IceQueen-

"Oh look it's Team Seven," Kyoko said glaring at the dark haired male sitting on his ass. "All together again, then again, we weren't really together in the first place."

Sakura only looked at her with wide eyes, while Sasuke remembers the mark on Mika's neck, it was the same one on Kyoko's. A small seal.

"You were the women, Mika, the one sensei and I ran into," Sasuke told her, it was no wonder that she had tricked the two of them. When they had arrived at the trading post,she had given them the slip. Disappearing into the crowd, while he had trained to be a sensor, Kyoko could get away from ANBU when she was a child, so it was hardly a blow to his pride knowing that it was a A-rank missing nin that had given him the slip. Not a small girl who owned a tea shop. "Who knew, a missing nin knows how to make tea."

"I don't even know what you're talking about," Kyoko told him, she didn't know what gave her away, but she would have to be careful next time. She can't allow herself to be caught, not when Orochimaru was still at large.

He didn't know she had been the one who caught Kabuto, her only crime was being the one who stopped him from getting Sasuke, which he can't remember. Along with fighting against him with the third, but she had excuses for that reason.

She didn't want to get caught. Kyoko didn't know if Orochimaru brought it or not, in the end, she knew he only cared about getting her body. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Come on, Kyo," Sakura said. She had missed the girl. Her pink hair was short, since it got less in the way as she worked. She wore a dark pink, instead of the bright pink she wore as a child. "Why don't you come back with us? The Leaf is your home, Orochimaru only wants you for your body."

"Why would I come back? You do look up the word I have you?"

"You have the nine tails sealed within you."

"Which is why I won't come back. Treated like trash as child, the Leaf was only holding me back."

"Hold you back? What about our friendship."

"What friendship."

"As we trained with Tsunade," Sakura told her, her hands going into fists, she would bring the red head to her level. If she had to, she would break the bones in Kyoko's body, then drag her back. "You might have the nine tails sealed in you, but your not alone. Anko doesn't care, nor does Tsunade. I don't care, Hinata, Lee and Neji don't care. None of us care, we only want you to come back home Kyoko."

"I don't have a home." Kyoko only looked at Kakashi, he knew who she was. He knew who her parents were. Yet, he never helped her. Only Anko helped her for so long that she had lost faith in others. "Not then and not now. You ask me if I knew Orochimaru wanted my body. I know, and I don't care. I'll get everyone who had wronged me, and I'll make them pay."

"Kyoko, you're my baby sister," Sakura told her. She didn't know if it would work, but she only stared as Kyoko's body started to turn into fire. So this, this was her sister's skill. "And nothing's going to change that. We'll bring you home. Kicking and screaming if we have to -"

-IceQueen-

"Bonds, huh?" she asked as she leaned against the wall. She had something she had to do, but first had to make enough medication to last her little trip. So Orochimaru won't figure out she had been leaving without his permission. "Anko, please forgive me."

Tears ran down her face as Sakura' words hit home. While Anko had told her she didn't care, neither Lee nor Hinata knew.

"They don't care," she whispered herself, placing her hand in front of her left eye. Her biggest fear, and Sakura had proven it was false in a few seconds. "They don't care, why am I even crying? Crying is for the weak. I'm not weak, I'm not!"

Placing her hands against the stone behind her, she took in a deep breath and locked away her feelings. She didn't have time to think about their words, she had a mission, she could deal with emotional baggage in her free time.

"It doesn't matter." Picking herself up, she put her hand back on the wall, she would have to leave in the morning, it was better to be alert for her next mission.After all, she had to create five ice pillars to kill Kakuzu, while Hidan was more of a pain in the ass. She had to use five different seals. One to destroy his cells, another his charka network, along with his brain. "I have a mission, to take down Akatsuki. They'll never touch those like me, not while I'm still breathing. That's all that matters at the moment, and Orochimaru's death. Then I can go back, and never show my face again."