Red Under Green
Members of the Akatsuki learned very quickly that Itachi valued his sleep. Anyone who was responsible for waking him would do best to avoid the Uchiha until he ceased seething. They padded through the mansion on silent feet, and absolutely no noise was made, because Itachi also happened to be a light sleeper. So when the raven-haired missing-nin woke to the sound of shouting, he was certain there was a good reason. There had better be.
The elder Uchiha rolled out of bed with a growl, grabbing cloak and setting it on his shoulders as he threw open his bedroom door with a bang. The shouting stopped for a moment before picking up again. Itachi could pick out Kisame's yelling (not surprising), Deidara's hushing (to be expected), and Sasori's snapping (unusual).
Itachi stormed down the empty hall, glancing at the window as he passed it. The sun was just starting to rise above the horizon.
A female voice rose in volume, and the prodigy's head snapped up. There weren't any female Akatsuki as far as he knew. And…..
He couldn't sense any foreign chakra signatures in the area. The Uchiha showed his pace, doing a thorough chakra search of the house. Still nothing. Even someone suppressing their chakra would be felt under his extensive search. Kisame, Sasori, and Deidara showed up in the kitchen quite clearly, but no sign of the female.
The second-last Uchiha stepped into the kitchen door frame, activating his Sharingan as he did so. There was a girl, standing on the kitchen table. And she was yelling at Kisame. "I don't care if I woke up the Kyuubi! I'm not leaving until you let me eat something!" She protested, stamping her foot down on the dark wood table.
Kisame didn't notice Itachi standing in the doorway, and simply yelled back. "I wouldn't let you eat our food if you were the last person on the planet! Now just shut up before…..oh." The shark-man trailed off, finally seeing his partner.
"Oh what?" The kid asked, turning her head around so she could see what Kisame was staring at. "So this is the sleeping beauty."
There was complete silence until Deidara coughed awkwardly. "That's not very polite, un." He murmured, avoiding Itachi's gaze.
"Sasori, how did she get in here?" Itachi demanded quietly, Sharingan roaming over the small girl.
She looked to be about 10 years old, petite, scrawny, and somewhat ragged. Her jet black hair was layered and fell to her shoulder blades. The kid's eyes were a sharp gray-green, but strangely hazy. It appeared that she was unarmed. She was scowling as if they were the ones intruding in her house. But chakra wise, there was nothing special.
"I have no idea. None of the traps or alarms went off. Kisame found her raiding the cupboards." Sasori responded curtly, eyes staying on the kid.
Itachi's expression remained blank, but his mind was racing. This girl was around the same age as Sasuke. She somehow managed to avoid all of Sasori's traps, alarms, and detection until Kisame saw her inside the house. She wasn't normal.
The girl's hands came up, startling the Akatsuki members that were awkwardly standing around the kitchen. She grinned faintly, hands up in the gesture of submission. "Hey, hey, easy there. I just wanted to eat something. Surely you guys have something to spare for a rogue?" She coaxed softly, shifting her feet ever-so-slightly.
"No." Itachi said bluntly. "Kisame, get her out of here."
The shark-man shrugged, hand reaching out to grab the black haired girl's wrist. "You heard him. Leave." He commanded roughly, blue hand easily circling the kid's wrist.
"No. I'm hungry." She said simply. Everything seemed to happen rather fast after that. Her hand gripped the hand was holding her, reversing the grip. Kisame pulled her towards himself sharply in response. The kid planted her free hand on shark-man's shoulder and vaulted over his head, feet missing the fridge by inches. As a result, Kisame's arm was pulled/twisted behind his back. His other arm soon joined the first.
"I said I wasn't leaving." The girl hissed, twisting her captive's arms tightly. Kisame could feel them going numb from the sharp angle, and also the point of a kunai pressing against his spine.
Kisame growled. Sasori started. Deidara nearly laughed. Itachi blinked.
"Bitch. Let….go." The blue missing-nin ground out, struggling to wrest his hands free. But the girl had the right leverage, and he couldn't use his sheer strength. The kunai pressed harder. "Unless you'd like to lose control of your legs, permanently, I suggest you stop, shut up, and let me eat!"
Sasori's right hand subtly disappeared behind his back, chakra starting to gather on his fingertips. Deidara was trying not to double over laughing. Itachi was still, glaring at his partner.
The girl's head snapped to the right, staring at the other entrance to the kitchen. "Leave your puppets where they are, redhead." She warned, head turning back to stare at the puppeteer.
By now, and against his better judgment, Itachi was curious. The girl didn't sense the chakra building on Sasori's hand, but she knew that the puppets had been moving. That required some sort of special ability.
The Uchiha shook his head slowly, and the simple motion caught everyone's attention. "Let him go; you can have something to eat if you're really that hungry."
The Akatsuki did a double-take. Itachi being nice? Offering food? He was after something, that's for sure. He had a good reason for doing everything.
Kisame felt the grip on his arms loosen and they regained feeling with a tingle. Then the pressure of the kunai was gone, too.
That same kunai then embedded itself in the doorframe next to Itachi's head. "I'd feel better if you left, please. I don't want someone going for my back as I dig through the cupboards." The girl said softly, but her tone made it a demand.
The Akatsuki looked to Itachi for direction. He nodded firmly, eyes briefly meeting theirs. "Go."
They left, but not happily.
Itachi didn't move from his position at the doorframe. The kid glared at him for a moment, meeting his eyes. But she winced away from the Sharingan. "Fine, fine; be that way." She grumbled turning around slowly and opening the fridge door so that she was hidden behind it.
It didn't take very long. Once she had found what she was looking for, the kid put together an assorted sandwich and poured a glass of juice. Then she sat, with a huff, at the table she had just been standing on.
"Are you going to stand there and stare at me, or would you rather sit and stare?" She asked, tone reflecting pure curiosity.
Itachi was not amused.
"You know, you guys are a pretty strange cult. I mean, red clouds? What kind of logo is that? But it's cool how you have guys from different ninja villages. Stone, Leaf, Mist, Sand, and all of you are missing-nin." She commented lightly, taking a thoughtful bite of her sandwich.
It was quiet, besides the low sound of the girl's munching. Her movements were easy and relaxed, showing that she was completely off guard.
"There isn't anything really interesting going on in here, Blondie. And I don't see how hiding under the window would mask your presence." She said after a while, raising her voice slightly.
Deidara cursed, and shuffled off. Itachi's stare was now on the window over the sink. He had known the Stone missing-nin was there, but wanted to wait until the girl figured it out. His chakra signature had been suppressed, so there was no way a normal person would be able to find him.
But Itachi wasn't a normal person. And neither, apparently, was this girl.
She stood, set her plate in the sink, and looked around the kitchen one last time. "Thanks for the meal, stranger. I don't suppose we'll ever see each other again." The girl said brusquely, brushing her hands off and heading for the door.
After letting this strange girl enter his house and eat his food, Itachi was not just going to let her walk out the door. The raven haired missing-nin spiked his chakra ever-so-slightly in a certain way, eyes following the girl as reach the door.
Even thought the girl apparently knew it was coming, she simply wasn't fast enough to avoid it. Hiruko's wooden arms snaked their way around the girl's scrawny torso as his tail came up to rest on her shoulders, tip against the underside of her jaw.
She froze. "So much for hospitality, huh." She murmured weakly, eyes darting around the room to rest on Itachi.
"Just answer the questions and you'll keep your head attached to your body." Sasori's voice came from inside his puppet armor, smooth and cold.
The Uchiha was silent, Sharingan eyes double-checking the scene before him. He had perhaps overestimated the girl. "Name."
"Riko….." The girl trailed off looking hesitant to finish.
Hiruko's tail pressed against her neck, not quite breaking the skin. "This is coated in lethal poison, Riko. Finish your answer."
Riko's eyes went huge. "K-kurosuki. Kurotsuki Riko."
The clan name meant nothing to Itachi, but the fact that she wasn't readily giving it out raised some suspicion.
Then Deidara came up behind Hiruko and Riko silently, charka suppressed down to nothing. But sure enough, the girl's eyes went to the side, trying to get a glimpse of who was coming up on her blind spot.
"How can you do that?" The elder Uchiha asked quietly, leaning against the door frame instead of standing in it.
"Do what?" The girl asked, gray-green eyes going back to Itachi. It was obvious that she knew what he was talking about.
Deidara's hand went towards the girl's head slowly, but still out of her sight. Riko stiffened, clearly wanting to move away, but didn't move towards the poisoned tail. Her head ducked slightly, trying to get away from the blonde without pulling against the puppet.
"That. How can you know I'm coming? Not only can you not sense charka at all, but also mine is completely suppressed anyways. If Sasori didn't have eyes in the back of his head, he wouldn't have been able to tell that I was here." Deidara asked softly, hand coming to rest lightly on her black hair.
Riko knew she had been caught from the second Itachi had taken interest in her before she had eaten. "I…uh…. just can?" She said meekly, not sounding sure at all.
"Why!?" Sasori snapped in her ear, Hiruko's arms tightening around her body.
"Gah!" Riko gasped at the pressure, not able to breathe very well, and the puppet's grip loosened a little.
"It's…. my ability. My kekkai genkai."
Although the Uchiha had been expecting something along those lines, to hear it out loud was different. The questions started popping up.
How exactly did the ability work? Was it an eye ability, like the Sharingan and Byakugan? What were the limits? What was the clan like? Where did the clan reside? How many people were there? Why was this girl wandering on her own?
But, of course, Itachi's expression remained bland. Deidara's, however, did not.
"Really!? How does it work? What's it like? Where's the rest of your clan?" The former Stone-nin would have kept going, if not for Riko's next scathing comment.
"My family is dead! My village is burnt! What do you even care, what do you want, just leave me alone!?" She spat, voice rising and dieing with the swell of sudden emotions. Riko was shaking, clearly trying to hold back tears.
Although most of the Akatsuki was immune to such display of emotion, Deidara had a soft spot for kids. "Here, easy, easy….." He murmured softly, slipping in between Hiruko's arms to wrap the girl in his own. One mouthed hand came up and pushed the poison coated tail away from her neck, and the other pulled Riko back into Deidara's embrace.
It was quiet except for Riko's heavy breathing. For a few minutes, nobody moved too much. Sasori/Hiruko moved back a little into the hall, but that was pretty much it. After the wandering girl's breathing slowed and evened out, Deidara started asking questions. But slowly, softly, and with a tone of concern.
"Are you ok?" He asked, hands resting on Riko's head and shoulder only slightly awkwardly.
"Yeah….thanks Blondie." She murmured back, not moving to leave.
Deidara smiled lightly. "So what are you doing now?"
"Not much. Wandering. Stealing. Begging. Always on the run." Riko admitted slowly, shifting so that Deidara was between her ans Sasori.
Although it seemed foolish and weak, Itachi could see what Deidara was doing. He was lulling the girl into a sense of security and sneaking in little questions that would eventually lead up to a more serious area. Like the very last part of Riko's answer let on that she was being chased, or hunted by someone. Deidara would ask about that next….
"Oh? Who's after you, then?" Sure enough, Deidara was following up on the simple slip.
And, in a sudden, cold detached monotone, Riko listed off several very surprising names.
"Jirobo, Kidomaru, Tayuya, Sakon and Ukon make the Sound Four. Plus Kaguya Kimimaru makes the Sound Five. Yakushi Kabuto is temporarily in charge of their little fox hunt." Riko smiled, looking only slightly insane as the normally happy expression graced her gaunt features. "Orochimaru is hunting me down with everything he has."
Although the Akatsuki wasn't currently after Orochimaru at the time, they were keeping tabs on their runaway former-member. She had just listed every major henchman under the Snake Sannin.
By the way, names are written Japanese style. Last name before first name. Not sure I likes the ending.