In a little over a week Ayame was fully healed so we started her training right away. I taught her the basics on how to fight. She picked up the basics easily enough, it just took practice to make them a smooth motion. Ayame was never going to be as good as me, I've been fighting much longer then she has but in time she'll know everything I do. When ever I went on missions, she would come along and closely examine my movements and perfect them herself. One thing I could say about her was that's she's a fast and determined learner.

"What do you say about having a weapon?" I asked her three weeks later after some training.

"Sounds great, but what can I use?" she sounded excited while at the same time scared "I've never used a weapon before."

"What about…" I paused for a moment "A sword?"

She looked at me like I was crazy. I laughed dragging her to the weapon room. Since we've been with the Akatsuki long enough we decided to wear an Akatsuki cloak every now and again, but we cut it up so it looked much more appealing to our figure. Ayame looked at the weapon room with wide eyes, I forgot she has never before entered this room. I picked up a sword, weighed it in my hand then gave it to her.

"This is heavy," she handed it back to me with the tip of the blade touching the ground "Why should I use a sword?"

"I find it's an easier weapon to use, especially for a beginner. A sword can defend and attack both quickly and easily," I explained handing her another lighter sword.

"It's better, I can at least wield it," she swung it around.

I dodged the sword "You don't want the sword or any weapon to be too heavy or else you can't wield it. Yet at the same time you don't want it too light or else it'll break or easily get knocked out of your hands."

I traded the sword in her hands for a different one, this one was a rapier, it was much lighter but just as strong as a sword. We went back to the training room so I could show her how to use the rapier, attacking with one is different than a sword. When we returned every member was standing in a line, curious to what was going on we came around the front.

"Kaya, Ayame, you're just in time for some training," Pein called to us "Everyone will fight each other; once you're hit or scratched you have to sit on the side lines and watch until there is only two. I can't wait to see who is the strongest among you all."

"Question," Ayame raised her hand, Pein indicated for her to speak "Can I just watch?"

"Sure. Also make sure no one dies."

I smiled at the notion of this training style. Everyone formed a circle in the middle of the training room, on the count of three then everyone attacked. I was a little tired from training just a few moments ago so my movements were a tad slower then usual. I backed away from the immediate fight, Hidan noticed my retreat and came for me. One on one was a better fight for me to win, losing just wasn't an option.

By the time I got a scratch on Hidan half of the Akatsuki were out of the fight. Itachi, Sasori, Deidara, Kisame, and I were left. Kisame came for me next, while Sasori and Deidara teamed up to get Itachi. Kisame was a challenging opponent, he's strong but his movements are large which gave me an opening. After dodging a swing from his massive sword I was able to swing my feet around and sweep them under his. Kisame was now out, Deidara was out, Itachi and Sasori were going to be my last opponents.

I took a moment to take a breath. It didn't take long for Itachi to crack Sasori's puppet shield. Itachi smiled at me as I stood there with my hands on my knees. He didn't wait for me to catch my breath he attacked, all I could do was dodge. Itachi kept attacking, never leaving me an opening to attack myself.

"Kaya! Door!" Ayame called.

Itachi backed me up into the far corner of the training room "I'll be right there."

"As soon as you lose to me," Itachi stated.

"I never lose," I let him back me into the corner, he swung a punch for my head and I ducked down coming up to punch him in the jaw "I don't know what losing means."

I ran out of the training room to the applause of the Akatsuki and joined Ayame at the door. We opened it and I saw four ninja; one grey haired male, a young blond boy, a raven haired boy and a pink haired girl. The grey haired male looked at me shocked and stood defensively.

"You're part of the Akatsuki!" he shouted.

"Who are the Akatsuki?" I acting dumb.

"A bunch of S-Ranked ninja," he explained relaxing ever so slightly "They all wear a black cloak with red clouds printed on them."

"Really?" I looked down at the redesigned cloak I was wearing "I found this cloak in the forest one day and changed it into this. I wear it when I clean, I really don't care what happens to it."

He eyed me not sure if I was telling the truth or not but he chose to put down his defenses "Okay, just don't go into town with that on, they will all think the same thing I did."

"Thank you for the warning. Is that all you wanted?" I inquired.

He shook his head "My name's Kakashi Hatake, the girl is Sakura Haruno, the blond is Naruto Uzumaki and the other one is Sasuke Uchiha."

"My name is Kaya, and this is Ayame," I introduced ourselves politely making a mental note to inquire about the blood relation between Sasuke and Itachi later.

"We are from Konoha, the village hidden in the leaves. Have you seen any of these men?" he handed me some paper.

I flipped through the paper seeing that each sheet had an image and a small description of every Akatsuki member. It was pretty detailed, I was impressed. I did notice some inconsistencies since I now lived with them.

"I've seen a couple of them before," I handed him the paper back "I've seen them come and go by here every now and again."

"If you see them again please give them this message," he handed me a scroll "It's very important that they get it as soon as possible."

I looked at it curiously wanting to read the mysterious scroll right away "What does it say?"

"You may open it," Kakashi smiled under his mask "Maybe you can also help our village."

I handed the scroll to Ayame waving good bye to the group and walked back into the base. The Akatsuki were standing in the living room waiting to hear who was at the door and why. I motioned them to sit, letting Ayame open the scroll to read it out loud.

'Akatsuki,

I know that we are not on very good terms, but please we ask for your help. Our village will be under attack very shortly and we ask for your help to protect us. The enemy is very strong and I'm afraid that we don't have the strength necessary to defend against them.

-Konoha, village hidden in the leaves'

"I say we help them," Ayame announced once she finished reading.

"What do you think Pein? You're the leader, so you make the final decision," I asked "I'm going no matter what."

"You can't go alone."

"You aren't ready for a fight like this Ayame, let me handle it."

"Ayame's right," Deidara interrupted "You can't go alone, so I'll go with you."

"Fine," Pein sighed "We'll all leave right after we eat."