Prologue.
With green bow fluttering in the breeze, young Jinx Ketsueki runs on the path towards her village, eager to show of her new ribbon she got from her friend. "Mommy, Mommy!" she calls "Look at my new ribbon that…" she was cut short by the sight that lies before her. Burned down houses and corpses shrewn everywhere. "Mommy?" her calls became desperate as she nears her house. Surprisingly their house still stood, but that wasn't the reason she stopped. In front of her both her parents and older brother, Lynn, lied, drenched in blood. "Mommy? Daddy? Lynn?" "Jinx…" her brother tries to lift his head but was already too weak. "Lynn! What happened? Why is Mommy and Daddy asleep? Why don't they wake up?" "Jinx, listen to me. Get away from here. Don't look back, go! And be safe, little Ookani…" his eyes closed and his body went limp. "Lynn, Lynn! Wake up! Please, I don't want to be alone! Lynn!" She sat beside her brother until late that afternoon, until it was clear that her family was dead. She took her brother's forehead protector as a remembrance and ran into the forest, away from everything she had ever known, away from everything she ever had…
She fell, exhausted, near a rocky outcrop in the forest. The moment she stopped running, she fell but strong hands caught her just before she hit the ground. She mustered her last bit of strength to look up and the last thing she saw, before she fell unconscious, was a man with yellow eyes and black hair. "You're safe, sleep now, little Ookani…"
She woke with a scream. She heard footsteps and expected her parents to enter, but instead a young man with red eyes entered, followed by the man from the forest. She looked around the room and everything that happened came back and she started to cry, uncontrollably. The man with the yellow eyes sat down beside her and pulled her into a hug. "Shhh… It's alright, you're safe now. Everything will be alright. I'm here for you and always will be…" he looked at the other man and he immediately left. They sat like that for a few minutes until a girl entered. "Ookani, this is Konan. She'll look after you for awhile. I'll be back in a few minutes." He stood up and left the room. "Hello… mam." Jinx sat there, on the bed, not sure what else to say. "Mam? Please call me Konan. What's your name?" "Jinx, Jinx Ketsueki mam… uh… Konan." "Well then, Jinx, why don't you come with me and we'll get you something to eat?" She sat there, thinking. "Can we please wait for…?" "Oh, uh… alright." "Thank you. Who was that other man?" "What other man?" "The one with the weird red eyes?" "His name is Itachi Uchiha. You think he has weird eyes?" "Yes!" she giggled and Konan smiled. "I think so too. But don't tell him that. He doesn't like it when people talk about his eyes, okay?" "Okay." They sat there looking at each other for a while, when, suddenly, both of them burst out laughing. They were still laughing when Yellow eyes entered. Konan, what did you do?" "I haven't… done… anything." She says while trying to stop. "Then why is she crying?" Both girls stopped and Konan saw Jinx's face was wet. "I'm not crying. We laughed." Jinx answered in that innocent, five-year-old, voice. "Is that so? Well, I'd better go then." "No! Please… I'm hungry." "Konan…" "It isn't her fault! I wanted to wait for you." He looked at Konan, then at Jinx. "Okay… Well, then let's go get some food." Jinx hopped down from the bed and went to stand in front of him. "Sir, my name is Jinx Ketsueki. What's yours?" She looked at him with that innocent, blue-green eyes and sweet smile. "My name is Orochimaru." He looked down at her and was shocked at the beauty of the little girl in front of him. In one swift movement, she was on his back and he gave her a piggy-back ride to the kitchen. "Yippy! Faster! Faster!" "Here we are and down you go sweetpea." They were now standing in front of a closed door. "Jinx, behind that door is other people that will be living here with you and me. Some of them may be scary. Do you want to meet them now, or do you want to wait?" "I wanna meet them now!" "Okay then." He turns and opens the door.
The kitchen was as busy as a beehive. It was lunch and everyone was there. There was excitement in the air because they were about to meet their newest, and youngest, member. When the door opened and Orochimaru stepped inside with a little girl, with brown hair and blue-green eyes, everything went silent. "Everyone, this is Jinx Ketsueki. Jinx this here is Deidara, don't ever touch his art. That wooden puppet there is Sasori…" "I'm Tobi. Tobi is pleased to meet Ketsueki-chan." "Thank you Tobi. That fish dude over there is Kisame, that is Kakazu, that plant is Zetsu, stay away from him otherwise he'll feel tempted to eat you. That there is Hidan, the guy with the red eyes is Itachi and finally our leader, Pein. You are now our newest member and, if I'm not mistaken, I will, along with Hidan and Itachi, will train you to become stronger." "Welcome to the Akatsuki, Jinx."
Chapter 1
In the shadows of the forest a young ninja waits, listening for the sound of someone approaching. He was send to retrieve an object for his master but it keeps on disappearing whenever he nears it. He was running out of patience when he hears the sound he has been waiting for since that morning. He adjusts his position and waits for the right moment to…
A young girl stepped out of the shadows, confidant that she had successfully lost her babysitter. Ever since that day she almost got caught by his enemies and he had assigned his right-hand man to accompany her on all her missions, she has been trying to get away from him. She didn't like this new plan one bit. Suddenly something hit her from the side. In less than three seconds she had moulded her favourite weapon out of her black chakra and was pointing the tip at her attacker's throat. "Kabuto? Great! Do you really have to follow ALL of his orders? Can't I go somewhere alone anymore?" "You know why you can't Jinx. Orochimaru will kill me if I let you go of on your own." "Hmph!" Together they walked back to the Sound village in silence. "Jinx… Uh… Why don't you ask Orochimaru to allow you to go on solo missions again? If anyone can talk him into it, it would be you. Besides, we haven't run into any trouble for a while now." "I tried that already. He doesn't care about me as much a he did before…" They walked for a few minutes in silence until they came to an abandoned house. "Jinx, go talk to him. I know he's… changed, but he still cares very much about you." "Fine. I'll go but you'll come with me, won't you? I know that boy will probably be there." "Alright."
"Hey, weasel! Leader-sama wants to see you and Kisame in his office." Pein shakes his head as he listens to Deidara give his message to Itachi and Kisame. Someday Itachi's gonna hurt him if he keep on calling him weasel, he thought. A knock on the door brought him back out of his thoughts. "Come in" "Deidara told us you wanted to see us, Leader-sama." Kisame walked in followed by a very mad Itachi. "I have a mission for the two of you. Since Zetsu and Hidan are of looking for the 8-tails, I want the two of you to find the last bijuu. His name is Naruto. He's one of the genin at Konoha. Find him and bring him back." "But shouldn't we wait for Zetsu and Hidan before we go?" "They're already on their way back with the bijuu. Now go." "Yes sir!"
"Sasuke? WHAT! WHY? I don't even like that guy!" "Jinx, it's just until I come back." "Why can't Kabuto watch him? At least then you don't have to assign him to babysitter duty." "This isn't just about Sasuke, is it? What's wrong Jinx." "Nothing. When will you be back?" "In a few days, hopefully." "Hopefully? Where are you going?" "It's just a little problem I have to go take care of. I'm taking Kabuto with me. If you and Sasuke are still alive and unharmed when I get back, you can go on solo missions again." "Really?" "Yes, but no sneaking out while we're gone, otherwise no more missions." "But what if he asks me to get something for him. After all, he reminds me of Itachi." "No sneaking out for any reason." "Alright. Thanks Ori."
"Ori? Looks like you're out of the dog box." "Yeah, I guess. I still don't know why I was there in the first place." "She just feels that you don't care as much about her as you did before Sasuke joined the picture. Guess I can understand why, you do spend more time with Sasuke or alone than you do with Jinx. She probably feels left out." "I have to spend time with Sasuke so I can gain his trust." "Are you going to tell Jinx about your plan?" "No and neither are you. The last time I did, I almost lost her."
Great. I'm stuck with an idiot for who knows how long. Speaking of which, where is he? Jinx walked toward her bedroom when she saw a light coming from an open door. That's strange. He never leaves his bedroom door open. "Sasuke? You in here?" She peaks into his room only to find it empty. Just as she was about to leave a photo frame on the bedside table caught her eye. It was a photo of Sasuke when he was about eleven together with three other people. A pretty pink-haired girl, a boy with big, sad, blue eyes and yellow hair and an adult dressed in the basic Hidden Leave shinobi style holding a book in his hand and white hair. All of them have the Hidden Leaf headband and all of them looked as if they belong together. "What are you doing in my room?" "Sorry. I was just looking for you. Who are these other people with you in the photo?" "It's none of your business. Now get out of my room!" His eyes was red and it reminded her so much of Itachi's eyes when he is angry that she ran out of the room and didn't stop until she was safely in her own room with the door locked behind her.
"Jinx? Look, I'm sorry I shouted at you like that. It's just that… Will you open this door? Please?" "Why?" "Please. I'll… tell you about the people in the photo." Jinx turned around and unlocked the door. "If you try anything, I'll kill you." She turned around and sat on the window seat while Sasuke took the bed. He's a Hidden Leaf ninja, just like Itachi and they have the same eyes. Could they possibly be related? "I was a member of Team 7 from Konoha. They were my team. Kakashi-sensei, Sakura and Naruto." "Naruto? The 'Jinchuuriki' from Konoha?" "How do you know about him?" "You learn a lot of things when you live with Orochimaru." She looked from the window to Sasuke and saw him sitting there with his head in his hands. "Is everything alright?" He looked up, straight into Jinx's eyes and blushed. "Yeah, I was just thinking. Jinx, do you perhaps know why the Akatsuki is planning on doing with the tailed-beasts?" "No, why? I didn't even know they were after them." "Oh. I thought you might know since Orochimaru was once a part of them. Naruto has the nine-tails sealed inside him and…" "You don't want them to find him, right? You're right to be afraid. Pein is quite capable of doing something like that, although it'll take longer to extract them without Orochimaru." They fell silent, each busy with his own thoughts. "Jinx, can I ask you something?" "Yes." "Can you keep an eye on Naruto for me?" "I can try. Why? Are you afraid the Akatsuki will try something?" "They will. I'm sure of it." "I wish I had a friend like you."