A/n: You know, this makes me smile. I hope you do the same!


Why did this week seem to not be her week? She sighed with frustration as the weird orange clothed wonder approached her inevitably, yelling loudly and dancing around talking about bonds. Seriously, what the hell? The pink haired girl was instantly at her side as well, recognizing her from before.

"Hey, I remember you! Megumi, right?"

"It's Miyomi... Get away from me..." Her violet eyes narrowed from the stress. Honestly, even though she was only twenty-eight, she was really starting to feel that she was too old for this crap. She mentally sighed as the boy in orange jumped up and down frantically.

"OOH OHH! Miyomi-san! Guess what! I'm going to be Hokage some day, you better believe it! I like instant ramen and I hate Akatsuki. What are your likes and hates?"

She grimaced. "I'd like to get away from here because I hate you."

He glared up at her hitai-ate. "Hey wait a minute... You're from the star village! That's so... COOL!"

Another stranger came up next, his brown eyes looking at her with a critical gaze. "Naruto, quiet. She is a missing nin from Hoshigakure. It would be best to leave her alone. Don't start up a fight."

She looked at him as if he was her savior. Finally, someone with a bit of sense. "Thank you, I--"

"Naruto, remember what I told you before." A sudden flashback from the same episode occurred in an instant, of this man telling Naruto that he was the one who hurt Sakura. This seemed completely irrelevant to the topic at hand, as well as make no sense why a flashback could occur in the real world right in front of her eyes.

She paused. Was he done? "Yes. Anyway, I--"

"You must also remember what Sai told you." Another flashback occurred of Sai showing his picture book to the whole team, yet again being completely irrelevant. The final stranger came up at this point, probably the one named Sai, and looked at Miyomi calmly.

"Good day... Purple-san."

Her eye twitched. Honestly, what was with these people? She couldn't be polite anymore. "Look, will you guys just leave me alone and--"

Sakura interrupted next. "Sai, don't you remember what I told you about nicknames?" Yet another flashback showed of Sakura punching Sai after he called her ugly.

Miyomi fumed and yelled. "SHUT UP! Stop with the stupid flashbacks! GET AWAY FROM ME!" In an act of desperation, she drew out a small knife. She didn't use kunai like these other ninjas did. She had the pouch, but not kunai. Why? Well, technically kunai were gardening tools, and she was a ninja, not a gardener. She used knives. Her eyes narrowed as she imbued fire chakra into the blade, turning it hot enough to melt heavy plate armor. That was one advantage of fire alignment, it was useful against anything that could burn or melt.

The orange one- Naruto, she remembered- started to attack but the tall brown haired man- Yamato, right?- stopped him. "Naruto, she's a fire type!"

Naruto nodded. "Right! I have just the thing... Mass shadow clones!" He summoned probably thirty shadow clones. Well... the more the merrier, she supposed. Nothing worse than thirty Narutos, though. Except maybe thirty-one... Two of the shadow clones started to make a Rasengan while a third did something else odd to it. The clone closest to her started to go off on a speech about bonds and she immediately cut through the clone with her blazing knife, leaving another clone to gape. "HEY! I wasn't done talking, you--" This clone was also cut off in the middle of his speech.

She wasn't exactly a strong ninja. Really, she had barely made it to jounin level back in her village. But against an idiot that does little more than talk his head off, well... She paused only long enough to shrug. "Not my fault you let your guard down." Not only that, but she wasn't above dirty tricks. Instead of focusing on fighting just Naruto like any other person may have done, she kept her eye on the others as well. They weren't doing anything. Just... standing there gaping as their comrade was taking all the hits. Well that's just lovely. Not to mention confusing. Don't team members typically help each other? Apparently not.

His Rasengan took on some elemental power, wind from the looks of it. What an idiot... did nobody ever teach him that wind against fire was practically suicide? Seeing that he was going to go ahead and use it anyway, she mentally shrugged and started up a fire technique. "Fire style, raging pyre!" As expected, his wind imbued Rasengan made contact with her fire attack and not only had no effect on her but intensified her attack and made him get more harm in the process. Brilliant, little kid, just... brilliant.

He stood up, burned severely and his shadow clones gone. "W-what the... you're so strong, how did you do that?" She dead-panned at his remark. Strong? Oh please. It was just common sense... He gritted his teeth and summoned up the exact same attack. Oh lord. "This time I'll get you for sure!" Was this kid really dumb enough to use the same attack more than once? It was the same thing. She used a fire technique against wind and he was knocked back once again burned and his pride damaged. His singed face was still grinning- what the hell?- and he suddenly smiled. "You know, you're pretty tough, but my bonds with Sasuke will never be broken! They will drive me to win!"

If she hadn't been in better control of her actions, she would have hit herself in the face with her palm right about now. That Sasuke kid again. Somehow that Uchiha was coming up over and over. All she wanted to do was go to the hot spring again, why did life have to torment her like this? "Look kid, I don't give a crap about your stupid bonds. Just leave me alone and we'll all get on with our business, alright? I don't want any trouble."

He frowned suddenly. "Why you...!" Yet again he used that same stupid wind attack. Three times? This guy really WAS that stupid. Two could play at that game and she used the same fire attack. He was burned once more, and he nearly passed out this time as he tried to get up.

Taking the moment of opportunity and not wanting to her another damn word about bonds or Sasuke, she ran to him and put her short knife to his neck. "Kid, seriously, I don't feel like killing you. Just get out of here and leave me alone. Go find your Sasuke or whatever. Just don't let me see your orange colored butt around me ever again, got it?" She released the knife and the whole team walked away dejectedly, far away from the hot spring town and in the direction of the place she had last spotted Sasuke. Better them than me, she thought to herself.


Well, no hot spring tonight. She glared down at her empty wallet, the last being spent on food. Damn, she really needed some cash. There wasn't much for a jounin level missing nin to do as far as work, at least not anything that paid regularly or well. With a sigh, she leaned back in the tavern chair and stared out to the street. A hand suddenly clamped down on her shoulder and a deep voice reached her ears.

"A little broke today, Miyomi-san, eh?" Recognizing that snarky voice anywhere, she turned around to glance up at Kisame.

"What's it to you, bud?" She could easily meet his teasing tone with her own sarcasm and she watched him cautiously as he moved to sit across from her.

His wide grin seemed to fill his whole face. "A pleasure as always, I'm sure." His sarcastic tone was followed up by a casual shrug. "Leader-sama witnessed your fight with that kid in the orange coat. We've been after that kid for years, and here you are taking him down like it was nothing." He leaned forward curiously. "How did you do it?"

Her own look was one of disbelief. "You have got to be kidding me. Years? Why didn't you guys just use fire element against him? That little weirdo is wind element and it looks like all he can do is replicate himself and use a wind natured Rasengan. He used the same crap three times in a row, it got really boring."

"He wasn't always like that, sometimes he would use his clones to beat the crap out of everyone."

"True. So why didn't you just kick his butt while he was talking about bonds or whatever crap he likes to go on and on about during battle?"

"He does talk a lot, doesn't he?" He stretched lazily back in his chair. "Well, as I said before, you would do well in Akatsuki. Once Leader-sama finds out where you are, he'll no doubt try to recruit you."

"What a pain. But how did you know I was here?"

"You did a decent job of hiding your chakra, but not good enough. I sensed you."

She sighed, looking away from him to the ceiling. "Damn. So what are the odds of escaping this recruitment?"

"Zero." His brow furrowed deeply. "One of our members tried to resist it, but he didn't do so well. He's not so bad off now, though. Akatsuki pays well enough for jobs we do, and we have enough resources to do pretty well for ourselves. Kinda like your little star village, isn't it?"

Her eyes met his again. Well, she didn't miss home, but she did miss regular pay. "I suppose they'll kill me if I prove too much of a pain to recruit. But you get paid often, you say?"

He nodded. "As long as you do the work and don't seriously injure the other members. Well, except Hidan, you can hurt him all you want." He smirked and continued. "He's like a personal punching bag! I love using him for target practice, and the best part is he can't die!"

That got her attention. "A personal punching bag, you say? Go on..."

He chuckled deeply, seeing that he got her interest at last. "You'd get along great with Kakuzu, he's a money hungry bastard and only cares about what the jobs pay. He runs our finances and it seems like you have the same interests."

She nodded. "That and the personal punching bag."

He laughed louder. "You'd definitely like Kakuzu!" He leaned close, his voice a low whisper. "Just between us, it would be better if you joined willingly. You'd get a lot less trouble and nobody would be watching your back all the time. If we had to force you, I can guarantee that you'd end up being observed by Itachi. You don't want that, do you?"

Her eyes widened. "That emo bastard..." She sighed again. "I guess it can't be helped. I'll give in while I still have a choice. When do you suppose they'll catch on to where I am?"

He hesitated. "Well, I was supposed to take you back myself if I found you."

"I see. And I would be expected to have a partner?"

"Not yet. You would probably have to be with me until they found someone that suited you. Well, and Itachi-san, of course. Don't worry though, that kid isn't really so hard to deal with as long as you don't start talking about his brother. Any other subject will get you a glare or silence, and rarely a very insightful answer."

"A kid, huh? Young?"

He chuckled. "To me I suppose he is. You know, he's only eighteen, but we've been together for five years, so if he ever gets on your nerves, I can manage him. As long as you don't mention the Uchiha clan or talk about conspiracy, he's tolerable."

"He really is just a kid." She stared down at her drink blankly. "Well, I will be sure not to mention any of that if it gets me little more than angst talk. Alright. I'll join if it can't be helped. The last thing I want is that Uchiha breathing down my neck if I have to join forcibly." She rose abruptly. "Let's just get this crap over with." She followed him back to the one place she really didn't feel like going back to, but then again, it really couldn't be helped. There were a few good things about this, though. Money... just think about the money... Being broke and in the middle of foreign territory was a bad idea. Kisame would be there too, he wasn't so bad. Hidan would be there to vent her frustration on, and that Kakuzu guy sounded like someone she could get along with. Maybe they weren't all emo bastards after all. Only Itachi, and maybe the leader. To be fair, she hadn't met them all yet and shouldn't rush to conclusions. Oh, but curse her logical mind. Curse her common sense. All of this was what had gotten her into this mess.


A/N: Oh poor Miyomi-chan. You'll survive! ...I think.