Prologue:
"I'm telling ya, Kisame-nii, I can recruit him without force!" The young redheaded girl whined from her spot between Itachi and the fish-looking rogue ninja from the mist village.
The trio stood atop a large rock overlooking Iwa, where their next assignment resided in. The city below them bustled and moved like an entity with its own life and breath. It seemed that recruiting Deidara would be a harder task then finding Moriko, who hadn't shut up about doing things without force since arriving in the land of Iwa.
At least she came willingly.
"Your call, Itachi." Kisame turned to his partner, obviously tired of hearing Moriko talk.
The Uchiha sighed, his shoulders sinking a little. "Fine. You have twenty-four hours to recruit Deidara. If you fail to do so, we'll do it our way."
Moriko nodded vigorously, her blue eyes sparkling with the thought of the challenge. "Thank you, Itachi-nii! I won't let you down, I'm telling ya!"
In a flash, the redhead lept off the rock and plummeted to the earth below. The pair watched her vanish before heaving a sigh in unison, happy to get rid of her for a few hours. While Kasime suggested going for a drink or bite to eat before they had to clean up her mess, Itachi merely stated he was going to watch over her progress. The blue male hung his head in defeat and followed his partner into the village.
To say that Moriko stood out was an understatement. Compared to the earth tones of the villagers, her kimono was far too bright with its muted maroon and forest green lining. Several people did turn their heads at her as she wandered the streets. But no one paid her much mind, she seemed harmless after all. Just a child from another village there to do some shopping, friendly enough to stop and toss a ball back to some children when it rolled her way. Innocent enough to buy some candy from a local vendor, much to her partners dismay.
The young ninja grumbled to herself as she chewed the hard rock candy famous in Iwa. While full of the sugar her body needed to replenish her chakra, she hated the sticky taste of it. Bits of the rock candy stuck to her cheeks, in turn sticking strands of her long red hair to her skin.
"That's enough for today, Deidara!"
Moriko stopped and turned towards the shout. It was an older mans voice that had risen, causing birds to take to the sky. Curious, she wandered towards the training field. It was an open area with boulders dotting the field and trees circling the area itself. Ducking behind said trees, Moriko watched as an old man scolded a blond boy. His two teammates, she presumed, stood behind the older man, panting and huffing with obvious wounds.
The blond shouted something back at his sensei, causing the latter to shake his head and turn towards his other students, leading them away. Whatever had been discussed had caused the young boy some distress. His shoulders hunched up and his breath heaved in anger. Moriko wondered what the argument had been about. It made her miss her own sensei before she defected from her village and went rogue.
Hell, it wasn't even her village to begin with. She frowned at the memory of leaving her own village after the death of her beloved mother.
Moriko stepped out from behind the tree and took a few steps towards the hot-tempered blond. When he heard her approach he spun around and threw a kunai at her. Panicked, the redhead caught the weapon and quickly tossed it towards on of the many boulders. The large rock exploded.
"What the hell do you want, hm?" He boy demanded, his stance defensive.
"I mean you no harm, I'm telling ya." Moriko waved her hands in front of her, forcing a smile at the boy. "My boss sent me and-"
"I don't have time to play around with little girls, yeah." Deidara brushed pass her, knocking her shoulder with his as he did so.
Jaded, the young girl turned and watched him go with a big dumb grin on her face and a wave. It wasn't until his figure faded into the distance that she dropped her smile into a frown, her hand falling limp.
Her partners appeared behind her. Kasime opened his mouth to tell her about her failure, but was cut off by Itachi.
"He left clay in your hair."
Moriko picked up a long lock of hair and was horrified to find that the older man was right. Squished into her hair was a wad of white clay. Her eyes began to water at the thought of having to cut it out of her hair. With a sniffle she picked a bit out of her hair and examined it.
"Kinda looks like taffy…"
Kasime and Itachi watched on as the young missing nin stuffed the bit of clay into her mouth. Then another bit. And another and another. Kasime turned away, sick to his stomach as she continued to eat the clay.
"It taste like rain water, y'know." Her big innocent eyes blinked up at them. "His chakra, anyway."
She walked away from them, following the sound of his beating heart. That was her kinjutsu; the ability to devour someone's chakra and use it to follow or find someone. Her village was known for their tracking abilities, it was just a shame that Konoha destroyed it during the Third Great War.
Sucking on her hair, she continued to tail the temperamental blond around his village. His heartbeat was steady and strong, and he knew very well that she was following him. However, she knew that he was just leading her into a secluded area in order to question her.
The area he led her to was a quiet spot at the edge of the mountain that her trio had stood atop earlier that day. Green sprinkled the scenery but it was mostly just colored rocks. Deidara was expecting to take the girl out easily and then deal with the other two with her, but upon turning around to take her on, he found the dumb looking girl chewing on her hair, bent over peering at a shiny red rock.
She blinked her big blue eyes and peeked at him. "Oh, are we there?"
Deidara was taken aback. "A-are we…? J-Just who the hell are you, hm?"
The odd girl spit out her hair, which he was now noticing had slobbered on bits of clay still in it, and stuck out her hand. "Ookashi Moriko, y'know!"
When he didn't accept her hand, she just reached into her pouch with it and pulled out a comb. "Putting clay in my hair wasn't very nice, I'm telling ya."
Deidara crossed his arms, feeling a bit green at the thought of that girl eating the clay he had sneakily put in her hair when he bumped into her earlier. "Y-yeah, well, following someone isn't nice either, hm."
Moriko didn't answer, instead working at an especially tangled knot of hair. The older boy watched the girl for a moment, trying to figure her out. It was painfully obvious that she wasn't from around there, barely anyone in Iwa had hair her color. Not to mention he would've known if there was a new transfer. Once finished untangling her hair, the girl smiled teary eyed at the comb (now donning a few strands of blood red hair) before placing it neatly back in her pouch.
"I don't have time for this…" he mumbled going to shuffle by her again, but just as he did so she said something that surprised him.
"Are you going to steal your village's forbidden jutsu?"
He stopped by her side, both glancing at the other. "Are you going to stop me, yeah?"
She crossed her arms above her head. "Of course not. I'm only here to recruit you, I'm telling ya. Anything other than that it above my pay grade."
"Who sent you, hm? I'd say this is a trap but I know its not." He smirked. "Because no one here is dumb enough to eat my clay, un."
Deidara jumped back and made the handsign needed for his creations. "Katsu!"
Except nothing happened. The dumb bug-eyed girl was still standing there staring at him and it pissed him off.
"Kat-"
"I'm telling ya, that won't work." Moriko shrugged her shoulders. "I absorbed the chakra in the clay. That's how I followed you, duh. I defeated you, y'know. Now you have to work for Pein-nii!"
Deidara simply turned on his heel and stalked back towards the city, telling himself that it wasn't worth his time to deal with the annoying girl. She probably just wanted him to join her dumb friend group or something. It surprised him, though, that she didn't follow him for the rest of the day. She didn't appear to pester him when he sat at his favorite vendor and ate bakudon before he'd leave for good.
He did catch a glimpse of her stealing some candy at another local shop, not that he stopped her. He could care less.
When the full moon was high in the sky he set his plan into motion. It irked him that that strange girl knew what he was going to do before he had even decided on it. Like she knew the path he would walk before he even did. Deidara couldn't help but laugh to himself. That damned girl was right, though. Just as he was about to leave the temple, someone blew a hole in the wall.
"Kasime-nii, I still have three hours, y'know." Whined that oh-so familiar voice.
Moriko appeared with two other men in black coats sprinkled with red clouds. The Akatsuki. He'd heard rumors of them, but nothing huge. Why would they bother with him? And was that weird girl part of the group too?
"Daylight savings time." Responded the blue man, slinging his bandaged sword on his shoulder.
"Our leader would like you to join us. He needs someone with your abilities." Itachi stepped forward, reaching out and covering Moriko's mouth before she spoke again.
"My abilities, hm?" Deidara raised a skeptical eyebrow. "I have no intention of joining you. I just want to creat my art, yeah."
"How about this," Itachi blinked, his eyes turning red with his sharigan. "If I win, you join us. If you lose, you go on your way."
The Uchiha released Moriko's mouth, turning his full attention towards the young boy before him. The explosion that Deidara set off made the young girl feel sick. If her body hadn't absorbed the chakra in that clay, her body would've exploded into hundreds of pieces. Kasime patterned her bad when he noticed her tiny hands covering her mouth.
"That's what you get for eating clay, kid." His lighthearted jest turned into panic when she rushed over towards an ancient looking vase.
The three men watched as she leaned into the vase and vomited into it. Itachi shook his head and heaved a sigh, knowing he would be the one to carry her back to the base and explain to Konan why their youngest member was ill.
However, to his amazement, it was their newest member who wiped Moriko's mouth and let her crawl onto his back.
Turning back to the men, the young girl holding onto him tightly, Deidara merely frowned and asked when they were leaving.
A/N: I'm a little rusty, bare with me. I know there are a few things different form the original story. But bare with me. Please comment and fav. Also they're 14 in this.