As he had expected, the journey was a long one, and increasingly, he began to understand the depth of his brother's crimes throughout the ninja world.

While some had taken to his kindness, others rejected Ai from the moment they saw him, believing him to be Hidan, the infamous Akatsuki member. Some ran, while most others threatened violence, but whatever they did, Ai did his best to not be of trouble to them, by either leaving their settlements and towns, or by trying to explain who he truly was, with the former usually being his better option.

"How can I be of use to anyone as a ninja, when everyone hates me?" Ai pondered to himself. "Could my brother have really been this terrible and his crimes have stretched so far?"

As days passed by and the money Ai carried on his person began to dwindle, he started to doubt if any village would be accepting of him, and if any one of them hadn't been affected in some way or another by the Akatsuki; however, many towns and villages held files on the members, so their faces had became well known enough, which made the situation Ai was in, exceptionally difficult.

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to resort to this, but I guess it's my only option, at least, for now."

What Ai spoke of was his transformation jutsu; while he wasn't fond of having to hide his true face, Ai felt he'd have to gain others' trust by his actions, alone, before he could be accepted by them for who he was and what he looked like; though, the irony made Ai smirk, knowing he had to be somewhat dishonest about who he was to gain people's trust.

So with that, Ai changed from looking like Hidan, his brother, to a more inconspicuous Shinobi. His hair had gone from a light shade of silver to black and was now spiked upward. His purple eyes were changed to the color of dark brown, and his skin color became a bit more tanned. His facial structure changed along with him gaining some facial hair.

"This should do it." Ai said proudly to himself. "Now to keep looking for work."

Soon enough, Ai was able to find some minimal work within a small village a ways off from his own village, Yugakure. Though many in it seemed to have heard of the Akatsuki, being such the small village they were, they had no Shinobi of their own, and so didn't keep much of a tally on business within the Shinobi world. Most all specialized work they needed done, they'd simply contract a ninja of another village to do it for them, but Ai was different, in him offering his talent as a permanent resident, if at all possible.

At the end of the day, Ai bowed his head before the village's elders, kneeling before five of them. "I humbly beg you to grant this request. Please take me on as a permanent resident of this village. I only seek to help where I can with my skills as a Shinobi, and do promise to protect this village to the best of my abilities, even if all on my own." He pleaded to them, hoping their lack of Shinobi within the village would make it an easy choice for them.

"But we have no wages to pay a ninja on a frequent basis." One of the elders spoke up.

"And we have no desire to accept ninjas into our village as something permanent, as we do not seek to be involved in the wars in which they have with each other." Another elder explained. "And if we were to become involved in one of their little wars, one Shinobi to protect us all would hardly do us any good."

"I see." Ai said, with his head held low in disappointment.

At that moment, it seemed to Ai that even with a different face, there would still be much rejection he'd have to endure before he could find somewhere new to call home as a ninja.

"But don't be discouraged." The first elder told him. "You see, we've contracted a few Shinobi from the Village Hidden in the Tree Leaves recently, and with luck, maybe they'll take you on."

"You believe so?" Ai had a faint hopefulness in his voice.

"You'll never know until you meet them, so stay here with us, and see if they'll take you along to join their ranks. They're very generous for Shinobi, those Leafers."

"Thank you so very much." Ai bowed his head once more.

"This may be my chance at a new beginning, a new life as a Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf." He thought as he smiled.

The two days Ai waited within the small village for the Leaf Shinobi to arrive, he was able to learn a few things about his brother Hidan, which he otherwise wouldn't have known had he not asked around, albeit in a conversational manner as not to arouse too much suspicion.

He learned that his brother had somehow gained immortality, rumored to having had joined up with a cult, but also that he had been defeated, though how wasn't all too clear.

"So, Hidan gained himself immortality only to lose his life?" Ai wondered. "I guess his crimes were bound to catch up to him someday, but I..." Ai thoughts began to wander as he remembered the older days when he saw his brother's care, his compassion, within his eyes. "But I think I'll still miss him, even if no one else will."

After two days, Ai was alerted to the Shinobi having arrived in the village. Their duty was to escort one of the village's citizens to a neighboring village, seeing that no harm came to her, as was pregnant and considered a very important person for both villages and their relations.

The Leaf Shinobi chosen to accomplish the task were Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino, Sai, and Haruno Sakura.

Shikamaru was chosen to be team leader and their strategist. Ino and Sakura were there for medical purposes, both for the team and the pregnant woman, while Sai was chosen to be their defense, and if need be, an escape route. The team arrived in a timely manner and likewise sought to leave in such a manner, but they were held up by the elders as a favor for Ai.

"You must wait; there is someone here wanting to see you." One of the elders told Shikamaru.

"Huh? Who is it?" Shikamaru asked, as he looked off in the direction they pointed.

After Ai suited up inside of the home he was given and again cast his transformation jutsu, he ran out to meet the team.

"Who is this?" Sai asked, with a usual expressionless face.

"It's the young lad we wanted you to meet."

"Meet? For what? I hope this isn't going to be a drag. We really need to go." Shikamaru began feeling impatient for being held up.

"Hey! My name's Ai!" He yelled as he was off in the distance getting closer to the team. "I-I wanted to know if I could join your mission and maybe even your village!" He continued.

"What's this guy talking about?" Shikamaru spoke aloud.

"I don't know who he is, but he's kind of cute." Ino said aloud, to which Sakura agreed.

Shikamaru then gave a look of annoyance towards their words.

"Ah, so what the book, "How Women Behave", says is true; they really can find agreement with attractive males in their vicinity." Sai thought as he continued to observe the moment.

As Ai finally got near, he quickly caught his breath and tried to properly introduce himself. "Hi, nice to meet you Leaf ninja. I'm Ai!" He smiled. The team looked at him wondering if he had anything more to say.

"Oh, I should probably fully explain why I'm introducing myself like this."

"Yeah, that'd be nice so we could get on with what we came here to actually do." Shikamaru stated quite frankly.

Ai felt slightly embarrassed feeling like he was holding up their mission and started to become quite apologetic, to which only annoyed Shikamaru even more.

"Enough with the apologizing, just get to it. What do you want with us? Are you a ninja of this Village? Because I was certain they didn't have any."

"Oh no," Ai explained. "You're correct. They have none. I only came here but two days ago as a traveler from another Hidden Village. I wanted to offer up my services permanently here as a Shinobi, but the elders denied me on the grounds they couldn't afford one, nor wanted part in Shinobi dealings. So they recommended I see you guys, seeing you're from a Hidden Village and are very friendly, I hear." Ai finished.

"Is this guy serious? He wants to join our Village just like that? What happened to his own?" Shikamaru wondered.

"You'll have to speak with our Hokage about all of that; naturally, she's in charge and has all say on who gets to be apart of the Hidden Leaf." Shikamaru explained.

"Of course!" Ai said with no desire to complain, but instead to seem friendly and as welcoming as possible.

"In the meantime, would it be okay if I traveled with you, while you escorted the villager?"

"I don't know..." Shikamaru spoke skeptically.

"I think he should come along!" Ino declared.

"Yeah, sure why not!" Sakura enthusiastically backed her up.

"What about you, Sai? You think we should? I mean, we don't even know the guy." Shikamaru was hoping at that point to get a less biased vote.

But Ino and Sakura gave Sai a very serious and brooding look as if to influence his decision.

"Well, if the girls think it's fine, I trust their judgment." Sai stated only hoping he wouldn't cause any trouble, or get struck by either one.

"Three to one! He comes!" Sakura yelled as she and Ino became giddy.

"Oh boy..." thought Shikamaru. "What a drag it's going to be guard this pregnant woman and some complete stranger. I guess if the elders are okay with him, we don't have to be too worried, since our villages have had ties for awhile now."

"Okay fine. He can come, but we're not responsible for what happens to to you, understood?" Shikamaru made clear to the "newest member" of the team.

"Definitely." Ai complied, happy as could be.

Soon they were off. And though it was a slow start because the pregnant woman insisted on walking part of the way, it was somewhat enjoyable for the whole group, as Ino and Sakura believed they'd get to spend more time with Ai, the "new member", Sai felt he had more time to observe female behavior, and the pregnant woman and Ai were enjoying the scenery around them on the road. Shikamaru seemed to be the only one not actually enjoying himself, but being the usual complainer, no one really noticed, especially being preoccupied as they all were.

"Something's just off with this guy." Shikamaru thought, as he stared Ai's way. "He just wants to be apart of the Leaf Village coming out from nowhere; I mean, does he even have any real skills as a Shinobi?"

As Ai continued to look around, he suddenly noticed Shikamaru's view upon himself, which Shikamaru showed he wasn't shy about.

"I wonder why he's looking at me like that. I'm certain he can't see through my transformation... can he?" Ai gulped and continued to act as natural as he could.

"Hey, look everyone!" Ai yelled, trying to draw everyone's attention elsewhere. "It's a lavender periblossom."

"Oh, I've never seen this type of flower before." Ino stated, being one knowledgeable in the subject. "Me and my bro would come across these all the time back at our village. He'd called me a sissy for wanting to pick them though." Ai gave a chuckle as he reminisced without much worry.

"Oh, you have a brother?" Sakura asked. "Well, if he's half as cute as you, then he's a knockout!" Ino joked.

"Well, we definitely look alike since he's my tw-" Just then Ai remembered he was trying to keep it a secret that he had a twin brother, until he could he knew others trusted him, and wouldn't suspect him to being his own brother, once he dropped the disguise.

"You're tw-?" Sai asked. "My tw-twerp of a brother is all. No need to go on about him. We should keep moving." Ai tried to laugh the situation off.

"Here." Ai handed some of the periblossoms to the pregnant woman as she walked along."They're great for making one feel relaxed and at ease. Just smell them." She then took them and agreed with Ai feeling the effects of the flower on herself.

Shikamaru noted this action by Ai, but also noted how suspicious he seemed to get when talking about his "twerp" of a brother, so he decided to delve a bit deeper, knowing it'd be awhile before they actually got to where the woman needed to be, and wanting to keep her safe, he wanted to make absolute certain Ai wasn't there to try anything harmful.

"So, Ai, is it?" Shikamaru asked. "You mentioned your village, just awhile back. Anything else about it you want to share? It'll definitely be something the Hokage wants to know."

Feeling the pressure Shikamaru was giving him, Ai decided he'd tried to be as brief as possible, hoping nothing obvious would slip out giving them a hint as to who he truly was.

"Well, I'm from Yugakure..." And as he shared this, Ai looked at Shikamaru, in shock, realizing he just gave away a more evident point toward his true identity.

"What's wrong? I've heard of the Village before." Shikamaru began wondering about the look on Ai's face.

"Well, uh, nothing. It's just that, uh, I realize that, it's probably not going to gain me any credit, coming from a village that doesn't even utilize its ninjas anymore."

"It's better than lying."

Ai chuckled and agreed. "Of course, of course. I wasn't suggesting that's what I should have done. Just... that... maybe... I could have, hahah." Feeling he didn't really have an excuse, he tried to change he subject.

"So, have you ever heard of the Akatsuki?" Just then Ai again felt he made an idiot's mistake, bringing up the very group his twin brother was apart of.

"Have I? Who hasn't. One of the deadliest band of ninjas this world's ever seen. I had the displeasure of facing them personally. And one, in particular, by myself." Shikamaru was looking out of the side of his eye toward Ai. Ai caught a chill down his spine and chose to break eye contact with Shikamaru.

"W-who was it? ... if you don't mind me asking." Ai again wondered if his brother had to do with someone he had met.

"I do mind, actually, so we can drop this topic." Shikamaru stated bluntly.

As they walked on forward, Ai was now feeling as though he was under the watchful eyes of Shikamaru, and that part of it was his own fault for behaving so oddly around him.

But for the whole team, they didn't yet realize the trouble they were walking into, as a gang of rogue Shinobi readied themselves to confront them, preparing to kidnap the pregnant woman they were protecting.