The Glass Kunoichi

by Spottedleaf9

Chapter 11

(Akane)

My black cloak rippled in the soft breeze. I was on watch again. Pain had returned and nothing happened. He merely acted as if I had been there all along. That's how sure he had been I would crumble to their ways. Without Kakashi, I saw no more reason to go back to the Leaf Village; not even for my friends.

The pain of discovering I had family and losing them in what was essentially the same day had hurt me too much. I supposed that I could've run off and lived on my own somewhere, but there was no way I could escape the Akatsuki and indeed, I found that I had no desire to. It was odd, how much one death changed my outlook.

I supposed that I was now as much an Akatsuki member as Pain himself and seeing nothing wrong with it, I just hoped that I would never feel anything again. Without the group leader, I was sure that Naruto and Lee had either been killed, died on their own, or returned home. While I had slight twinges of guilt and worry for these horrible thoughts, that was all. A twinge. I was sure that they had gotten home safely and no one would be coming for me.

That was good. I did not want or need to be rescued. I was reforming myself into a new Akane who cared nothing for the rules that had cost her a father and mother and indeed, an entire village to call home. I knew the others working around me to achieve Pain-sama's goals thought me broken and shattered into pieces, but the truth of the matter was that I was still fully aware of my surroundings.

I simply choose to do whatever I was told; pondering this strange bending in my mind. Why was I being so helpful? Was it really fair of me to put this all on the death of one man? Should I have tried harder to keep moving?

The problem was I had given my life to following the code of a shinobi with rigid structure; not deviating from the rules for any reason. I had been a perfect example of what my kind should be and I had lost what little I had the moment I discovered I held it in my possession at all. I lost a father and a chance at a normal, unbiased friendship with someone who was not quite of the same fold.

I simply gave up and became an arm for the Akatsuki; a limb thrown up in defense of any attacks made upon us. I was a shield to those who had been the enemy not too long ago and I found oddly comforting purpose in the fact that I was needed so desperately. At least I wasn't a danger to those around me like I had been in the Hidden Leaf. Here I was entrusted with a job that involved using my unique ability; rather than training to suppress it.

(Haru)

Kakashi knew that I would need plenty of training before we went to save Akane. Although I had some knowledge of ninjitsu, granted much more than I should have, it was still very little compared to how much knowledge and experience I would need to face off with the Akatsuki. The man that was in this next week going to become my mentor was very worried about his daughter, but he knew that they wanted her alive for her abilities and thus we would have time. Our intel that we had gathered told us that the leader, of which we knew very little about, was currently not at the base but that he would be returning to finish business in seven days time. Kakashi and I both knew that if he was back by then, he would see that Akane was refusing to work for them and would eventually kill her. Kakashi had gathered that they would probably not kill her since the Akatsuki do not act against their leaders direct instructions. In the following seven days that he trained me, he trained me his hardest. Before beginning on the very first day, I leaned up against a tree thinking about what I had told Kakashi, thinking about my promise that I would become stronger than Kakashi, Naruto, and the Akatsuki. It was not a promise or reassurance to Kakashi himself to calm his nerves by showing that I would no matter what save her, but a promise to myself that I would do the very same. And to this day I have never once broken a promise to anyone else, nor myself to say the very least. It was not a thought that I would attempt to, it was a definite result. Just as trying is the same as saying hunting implying it is not certain it would happen, promising is to killing instead of hunting. I'm not going to be going hunting after this first week, I'm going to go killing. This is not an attempt to become strong but a certainty.

I leaned against the tree for a long while before Kakashi approached me to begin training on the very first day. He looked me dead in the eye showing me his dedication to saving his daughter. "This is going to be very serious training if you are to become strong quickly. I have to refine your skills faster than ever before. Naruto and I have trained very seriously before, using shadow clones to increase the speed of his improvement. If you can create a shadow clone, be it one or one thousand, I suggest you do. Unlike what I did with Naruto, I will be trying to kill you. You will have to survive if you truly hope to fight the Akatsuki. So don't fool around if you truly wish to help. I have no intentions of thoughts of harming you but it has to be done if you are truly going to be trained in this short period." He stopped talking at last, my heart rose into my throat in both anticipation and deadly fright. He kept his gaze on the ground for a moment before raising his hand and lifting the right side of his headband to the top of his forehead making it even with the other side. He looked up at me, his white hair blowing wistfully in the wind, and in that instant opened his red and black eye, the eye of the Sharingan belonging to the man titled 'Copy Ninja of Konoha.' And my bond from that point on started growing to this man, the man that would save me from my fate.

I nodded in grim determination, my similarly silver-white hair blowing in the wind falling gracefully on my shoulders, and hugging to my chin as it was swept aside. I bent over, my hair proceeding to blow in the same position, and the familiar sound similar to Naruto's Rasengan whistled in the air. "Then let's begin, Kakashi-Sensei."

The training was hard and it was vigorous. I thought I was going to be pushed to the limits but it was easier said than done. Continuing to fight even after being so far exhausted is one of the most difficult things I've ever done. But I knew this was the life of a shinobi and this is what I knew I would have to face if I was truly dedicated to saving Akane.

It was the fourth day, I jumped into the air at Kakashi who came at me with full force. All my clones had been killed off already, and I had not gotten a single instant since to bring them back. Using the aid of my wind chakra I boosted myself forward, soaring even faster yet at him. With all the force I had, and the extra benefit of wind pushing me, I slammed my leg into Kakashi's forearm. But that was just the beginning, and in moments to follow I hit him with a barrage of mid-air attacks riddling him every which way I could, looking for an opening. It was nearing the end of the day, the sun was setting, and our practice was coming to an end. Kakashi broke through my defense and slammed me to the ground, as he then proceeded to land on top of me. At the last moment I used the force of my wind element once again to push myself to the right very abruptly and very hard, just dodging a kunai that landed where my right eye was only a moment before. I placed my arm on the ground and aided myself yet again with one side of my chakra, spinning myself into a standing position.

I looked at Kakashi as he stood, signifying the end of our training session. I looked for some sort of sign anything really, that would show he was happy with my improvement. He simply looked at me as I stood, struggling to stay on my feet after our hours of constant fighting, and turned to walk back towards camp. "It's time to rest up, come on." Moments ago I could see the seeming hopelessness in his eyes. He probably could have killed me that exact instant if he wanted to. But he let me live.

It was the seventh day. I thought back to the very first, it seemed like so much time had passed since then. I struggled so much at first. In the beginning, even though he told me he would not hold back, I could feel that he was, and I confirmed that he was later on when I began getting stronger and he began to push harder. He had used an assortment of ninjitsu, genjutsu and taijitsu on me in these past seven days, progressively increasing my reflexes and making me stronger as time passed. I looked at him at the end of this very last day, the day before we went to save Akane. I was winded, but so was he, and unlike before I could stand with minimal difficulty. Over these past days I had created and refined many ninjitsu and taijitsu techniques. I had even combined both of my elements into a single deadly ninjitsu that Kakashi didn't seem to have any knowledge on. It was the most difficult thing in my entire life, on several occasions I almost died. My body was riddled with bruises and cuts, and I felt as though I might be able to hold my own in a fight against Naruto. Now it was time to go after the Akatsuki before Akane was lost to us forever.