CHAPTER 1

A young teenage girl sat in a cave blood soaking from her shoulder and a black seal evident on her shoulder as well. She was just in fishnet and bandages around her stomach, chest, most of her shoulders except the seal, and parts of her legs. She looked at a strange cat that was beside her yet she wasn't scared of it nor did she love it beyond measure.
"Hukitsu you have to go, you are hers not mine. I'm sure you'll be free again soon…." she spoke to it kindly yet she kind of didn't like that cat with its glowing green eyes.
It gave a small nod like it knew what she was saying, but its ears pricked up and it turned its head sharply to the entrance of the cave. This made Airi look to, knowing that Hukitsu was known to have good tracking skills along with other senses. Out in the far off sand dunes of the desert were two figures moving rather slowly.
"Hukitsu, do they have black on with red clouds??" Airi asked, hoping the ocelot would answer her instead of making her find out on her own.
It gave a swift almost mistakable nod; it could have been a twitch, that is, if Airi hadn't known the cat would have done that to make her mad.
"Fine, I get it, but you need to go now. Thank you for the 'help' though it was appreciative." Airi finally sighed, doing the hand sign for dragon; the cat disappeared in a poof of smoke, as Airi pulled on her shirt on over her fishnet, then shoved her cloak and other items in her small bag. She swung that over her head and settled it on to her shoulder so that it wouldn't hurt her while she was running, along with her sword at her side and her chained scythe that was attached to her belt loop at the moment.
Finally after wasting a good five minutes making sure she had everything she ran out into the harsh desert running to the spot where she had seen the two figures.
They were seemed to have vanished now because Airi couldn't see them anywhere, even with the shadows that she had control over. She still looked around wildly to find the two, knowing that she wasn't going to have another chance that easily, she NEEDED to find them, if Hukitsu was indeed right about them having black cloaks on with red clouds.
She almost regretted sealing the cat away now, seeing as it would be helpful in tracking the two down, but she needed to do this on her own and she didn't want to unseal HER just to get to the summoning that could refuse to help.
Just then she felt a cool breeze coming from behind her, she knew that it could only be caused by a large shadow, seeing as she had grown up in this desert and it was almost always burning worse than anything. She looked straight up to see a giant bird flying above her, but from the faint smell it was giving off, it wasn't a normal bird it was maybe stone or something similar, but she could see black cloth flaring in and out of her vision and every so often she would see a red cloud on it.
She had found who she was looking for, now the problem was getting their attention or in someway coming in contact with them so that she could speak with them, but at the moment all she could do was run beside it and keep up with it.

She had been running beside and under it for about an hour, and it still didn't really look like it was going to land anywhere nearby and she could see a cliff beginning to take form in front of her.
A plan was forming in her head, if she could get up the cliff's face at the right moment, and the bird stayed at the same height the whole time then she might have a chance at jumping on to the bird's back. She began to think on how to achieve this the best way without increasing the chances of them killing her.
She knew a lot about the organization these two were obviously apart of, they are rogues of their villages and most of them would kill without hesitation. They have all different styles of fighting ranging from Genjutsu that she knew was mostly used by the serial killer Itachi Uchiha, to special kekki genkai, such as Deidara who used to be apart of the village hidden in rocks, who used the mouths on his hands to create special bombs
And there were a few special cases in this group; there was Sasori of the red sand who used puppets to do his main attacking along with poisons. Of course the puppet master was Airi's very own brother, and the one she wanted to find more than anything when he left the village, and left her in the clutches of her clan. She, unlike most others who had relatives destroy something dear to them, didn't hate her brother, instead she wanted to find him so she could learn from him and show him how much she got better at her style of fighting, which was very similar to her brother's except she used more animal puppets and she also used her chakra strings as weapons as well, but much like her brother, she learned about many poisons, and she was also a rogue ninja now.
She began to realize that the bird was beginning a decent now, and broke from her thoughts, now realizing that her plan wouldn't work now, if they were landing, but she still ad a chance of talking with them if she could catch up with them when they landed. With that in mind, she sped up so that she could easily meet up with them when they landed, knowing that if she didn't she would have a long time to wait for another chance, and in that wait the anbu might attack her or try, she knew she was already in the bingo book with her brother and the rest of the rogues, and there were always bounty hunters to watch out for, they would do anything to get the money.

Airi looked up at the bird again, she almost saw one of the people on the bird look down at her, but she couldn't tell the straw hat was in the way, but she thought she could see blond locks of hair, maybe or the sun was affecting her eyesight she guessed. Unfortunately before she noticed anything was happening a spider fell from the bird and it landed right in front of her, her eyes widened as she noticed that it was clay. She quickly dashed to the side hoping to avoid the bomb, which she just managed to do. She now knew one of the people she was dealing with, one of the two on the bird was Deidara, this made her sigh in annoyance this meant that she had to fight against another pyro….that is if it got that far, but by the looks of it that would be exactly what she would have to deal with.
She dodged every spider bomb that he dropped, missing them all, but sometimes just barely, and it was really tiring her out. She took her eyes off the sky for a few moments and slowed down to hopefully get so air into her lungs, which felt like they were on fire.
At that exact moment a clay bird landed beside her, but Airi had her eyes closed so she didn't see it, that is until it went off, burning her just a bit, she looked up to see a barrier of shadows, and she sighed in relief.
"That could have ended bad…..dang it, I should have known better than to let my guard slip, even if I was trying to breath." she said thanking her lucky stars and the shadows that were her friends, and protection from time to time.
Unfortunately Deidara had seen her near death experience and was mad that he didn't succeed in killing her, Airi could almost see him exchanging words with the other person on the bird, but she took her eyes off him again, still trying to get breath to her lungs yet it seemed to refuse her air, and she knew that the poisons in her system were mixing badly again. She began to curse, this was the worst timing ever.
"What's the matter, un? Are you all tired out now?" She heard a voice call in her ear. She looked up to see a face she had only seen before in the bingo book. "I don't know if I want to kill you just yet, but I want to congratulate you on escaping my 'art', un"
"So what you want to torture me before you finish the job? Go ahead and try, if I wasn't having my own problems right this moment you wouldn't have even been able to get this close to me…." she said her breathing was now ragged.
"Is that so, un? How about we give that thought a try, yeah."
"How do you presume to do that?? This could take months to get under control again; it's not easy to fix a problem that's this extensive."
"What exactly are you talking about, un?"
"Fine since I guess there's a chance of you killing me here before I can get to my brother….I have poisons throughout my system and they have counter acted badly, and its not exactly the best thing to feel…"
"Hmmm, I think I know someone who might be able to help you with that, yeah. He has an advanced knowledge of poisons, un."
"I don't think whoever you are talking about can help this….No one has ever done this before not in there own system, not with so many different types." She slipped something into her mouth that went unseen by Deidara. She straightened up and looked him in the eyes, his icy blue to her bloody red ones.
"I'm fine, now do you want something?" she finally said, after feeling the effects of the plasma pill she had slipped in her mouth earlier, it was numbing the poisons effects.
"Let's see how well you actually can keep your own up against an s-rank ninja, un."
"Fine by me, I'd like to see how your style will work against mine." she said getting into a fighting stance.
"Deidara, what do you think you are doing? You know I HATE having to wait; also we have to get back to Leader-Sama." A gruff voice called from behind Airi, she twisted sideways so that she could see who was talking, like Deidara the person was wearing a straw hat, but Airi could see dark withered skin that looked almost unreal and a mask over its mouth, making everything it said even more muffled and gruff sounding.
"Ah, Sasori-Danna, come on, just this one, I don't think she'll even last that long."
Airi's eyes went wide suddenly. "See, she already lost that confidence she had second ago, yeah."
"S…Sasori?! Nii-chan?"
"What did you say, girl?" Sasori said turning to her now.
A spark of recognition passed over Airi's eyes, how could she have forgotten?
What was before was her brother's puppet Hiroku, one of Sasori's most used ones, when he was still at the clan house, it was the only one he had that he could control from the inside.
"Is that really Sasori? I mean I see a puppet that looks like Hiroku, but is Nii-chan inside?"
"Girl, why do you keep calling me 'Nii-chan'? I only have had one sister, and she died in the fire at my clan house about a year ago…" He said angrily.
"Because she didn't die, your little sister is still alive."
"How do you I had a younger sister, I only remember telling you I had A sister."
"I know because I AM her, I am Airi I also call myself Akasuna no Airi, as I know my brother calls himself similarly, but even if I wasn't I have been hoping for this chance, I have found members of the organization known as Akatsuki, and I was hoping that I would take the chance of asking to join. I am not as weak as I look, and I have some useful abilities that I would gladly give to the Akatsuki."
"Sasori, what do we do? Do we take her or kill her here?" Deidara asked his partner.
"I wouldn't if I were you…I know a lot about you two and your style of fighting more than the villages do. I know more of Sasori because…well, I lived with him for a few year, and Deidara I have worked with dispatching bombs quickly and easily, so I don't think it would be to hard to try a few times against yours, I would get it eventually. Plus why give up a chance of having someone who controls shadows and use them at her wish and has a split half that the few who know of are scared to death about or already dead in their grave."
Deidara raised an eyebrow wondering what she could possibly mean, but she remained silent after that.
"So Sasori-Danna, do we take her, un?"
"I suppose that we should take her to Leader-Sama at the least, seeing as she seems to have some useful skills. But Airi, remember that if Leader-Sama doesn't want you in the organization, you will be killed, by whoever, he chooses, and none of us will go against his orders."
"Yes, Nii-chan."
Deidara and Sasori jumped back up onto the bird's back, followed by Airi.
"This is the only chance we will give you, un. Are you sure you want to go, yeah?" Deidara asked.
"I'm not giving in that easily, I'm going and I will prove that I have what it take to get in."

Airi was getting bored of this, they had been on the clay bird nonstop, and she was bored, even though she was in the company of two s-rank criminals. She couldn't help but let out a sigh of boredom, and nothing seemed to be helping, so she decided to risk being killed and started twisting her shadows into shapes of flowers and twirled them so that they were hanging off of Hiroku's metallic tail. Deidara was the first to notice it and he let out a chuckle but other than that he remained silent, allowing her to get away with it for the moment. He began to make movements with his hands that went unnoticed by Sasori, at least she thought so, it took her a second to realize that he was using sign language, and begun to sign back, having learned a small bit from Jounin that went with her on missions, it was a silent means of communicating, so it was perfect on spying missions.
'Sign that again, I didn't get that.' she signed.
'I was saying that I wouldn't leave that there, Sasori wouldn't appreciate going through the base without knowing its there, trust me you might just be killed for it'
'Aww, but its funny, and I'm so bored.'
'If you want to be killed before we even get to Leader then leave it but I wouldn't trust me, bad idea.'
'Pouting now.'
'Why exactly did you sign that?'
'Because I wanted to, you got a problem with that?'
'Rolling eyes now, so how did you become a rogue ninja, I can see your headband that looks like it was supposed to be hidden.'
'Dang, um, well….fine, I used my cousin's corpse to get to the head of our clan and poisoned him, then set up bombs here and there, set up tons of traps, and jammed the doors and all other openings and left them to burn, that's all it short terms, but what is it like in the Akatsuki base?'
'I figured you'd be asking that soon enough…it's not too special, it's in Amegakure, the village hidden in the rain. No one would really know it was there and the leader is almost treated like a god. But it's a good place, although we are rarely there for long.'
All Airi did was nod, her eyes closed and her breathing relaxed, Deidara shrugged, she must have been tired form running after his bird, was the only thought he had, but she was far from asleep.