Author's Notes: First of all, I'd like to say my apologies. Gomen nasai! I would give you a long list of excuses to explain why I didn't upload on Friday like I usually do, but I'm sure that you don't want to hear them. So, I'll be quiet. Also, I'd like to say my apologies for this horrible chapter. It was written partially on sugar high after one of my friend's party's. Enjoy… and again, I'm sorry! Review responses on bottom from now on.

2nd Author's Note: Well, I went and patched up this chapter and answered the reviews and… then discovered that I can't post yet. It said "Disabled, see homepage for details…" don't know what that's about, but I'm sorry I haven't updated yet.

3rd: And it's working now, finally. Read the above, I'm too lazy to do it again.

Me and the 5 other Me's

With Kakashi and co.

"So what is our course of action?" asked Sasuke, rolling up his sleeping bag quickly and efficiently.

"Well, first we'll go back to Konoha-" Kakashi started.

"NO!" shouted everyone at once. Then they all stopped to stare at each other.

"Let me finish, then you can complain." Said Kakashi. "There is a reason for this."

"But-"

"I said wait, Naruto! Just hold on one second, ok?? Ahem. The reason for this is that Neji and Lee are not really under my care, they are under Gai-"

Neji interrupted, just like he promised in the last chappie (remember? Well, he did.) "I do not believe that we need to be under his protection at all times, especially in an urgent situation such as now. Our highest priority is the safety of all teammates, including, but not limited to, Akima-san. Since she could possibly be in grave danger at this moment from two S-class criminals, it is our duty to search for her and save her. Any time wasted on the protection of those not in immediate danger should be second priority, if not less." Neji took a deep breath, in which Naruto swiftly cut in.

"You rehearsed this, didn't you?" he said suspiciously.

Neji gave a quick nod. "I'm not done, though; please let me continue for the good of the team. Teamwork is the most important aspect of a ninja, is it not, Kakashi?"

Kakashi opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, then opened it again, hesitated, then said, "You're good at this. Who told you my secret?"

Neji looked a little puzzled. "What secret?"

"Never mind. Anyways, Neji's fine speech passed with flying colors. If all of you can think up similar reasons to why the team or you personally should carry on searching for Akima instead of retreating to the safety of Konoha, then we shall continue our quest to save the damsel in distress (it rhymes! Sort of) and take down the bad guys in the process." Kakashi said.

"Right…" Sasuke sighed.

"Me first! Me first!" Naruto jumped up and down and waved his hand in the air.

"Yes, Naruto?"

"We should follow Akima because she's our friend!!"

"…That's a good answer I guess… Naruto passes." Kakashi said, knowing the real reason of Naruto's willing pursuit.

"I'm next!" Lee said. "Umm… We should follow Akima because…" he gave a little cough. "It is the man's job to protect the woman, even if she can beat the bejeezus out of us!"

"I suppose that can count too… though I'm sure Akima would pulverize you if she ever heard you say that… and Sasuke?"

Sasuke said nothing. 'I know he's not going to settle for my reason of going after her to gain power and to get the chance to meet Itachi again… think, Sasuke, think!'

"…because she's our… … … friend?" Sasuke said, saying the last part very softly so that no one could hear it, except for Kakashi's keen ninja ears.

"Sorry, Sasuke, that's already been taken. Anything else?" Kakashi said.

Sasuke fidgeted a little. Naruto could think of a billion reasons why they should go after Akima, but Sasuke seemed to only have one thought in his mind, and it wouldn't get out. That thought was…

'Powerpowerpowerpowerpowerpowerpowerpowershitshitshishit I can't think of anything! Thinkthinkthinkthink-'

Luckily, he was saved by a sudden tornado, causing everyone to brace themselves against the onslaught. Over the rushing sound of the wind came an all too familiar voice…

"Did someone utter the name of the beautiful green beast???"

Gai appeared in his scary trademark pose, flashing his smile (twinkle) and gave everyone an oversized thumbs-up. The reaction of our little group was immediate.

Kakashi, Neji, and Sasuke clapped their hands to their foreheads in unison. Naruto's eyes got big and his mouth hung open stupidly. Lee flung himself onto his favorite teacher with a yelp of joy.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sen-"

"Ahh, Gai, I'm afraid I have to interrupt you for a moment." Kakashi said, a vein in his forehead throbbing.

"Ah, my springtime of life rival, Kakashi! That attitude of yours is so hip, it makes me mad!"

"…right… anyways, I suppose you're here because I mentioned your name a while back?"

"Indeed, I had just returned to Konoha after picking up your student from Hidden Wave Village. It then caught my attention that someone had said my name in a far off place, and believing that my students were in danger, my fighting spirit broke loose and I rushed off to help. I am sorry it took so long to reach you. Am I in time to be of assistance?"

"Yes, I need you to take Sasuke back to Konoha, since he has no good reason to come with us on our… mission." Kakashi said, giving a 'look' to Sasuke. "Unless, he can think of one now."

Sasuke's mind blazed with sudden activity. 'Absolutely no way I'm going back, and with HIM, nonetheless… Ok, thinkthinkthinkthinkthink… OH!!'

"Akima's strange burst of chakra may be worthy of further research that may result in benefiting Konoha Village and/or the protection of its people. If indeed, it does not help in the slightest, then it can just be archived in the great search of knowledge and perhaps future generations will find use for it." Sasuke said quickly, eyes darting around as if daring someone to laugh. Naruto almost took the dare, but didn't because he personally didn't find it that funny to be indirectly 'researched'. (people understand this, yes?)

Kakashi sighed, something he does quite often in this fanfic. "Well, I guess that's good enough. Sasuke, you're in. Gai, I'm afraid that your two students are staying with me for the good of the mission… unless they have changed their minds?"

Neji shook his head frantically, and Lee hung his head, ashamed.

"Gai-sensei, I'm so sorry but there is a damsel in distress!! It is my duty to save her!" Lee said, a determined (but not quite blazing) look in his eyes.

"Don't worry, Lee! You are in the springtime of your life, and this damsel deserves your aid! If ever you should need my assistance again, then call upon the wind, and I will arrive with all the haste I can muster! Why am I ending all in exclamation points! I don't know, but it's fun! Time to stop!" And with a little whirlwind of leaves, Gai disappeared.

"Ok, team, move out!" Kakashi said, waving his hand in that particular movement that I tried to describe but couldn't (hint: it's the one that means 'move out').

Lee jumped off into the trees, followed closely by Naruto. Neji and Sasuke waited around for a second or too, then asked in unison, "Where?"

Kakashi scratched the back of his head. "Umm, who has a good sense of direction here? I don't because I get lost somehow everyday before I meet you guys, even on the road of life."

"Let's just follow the other two. Their guess is as good as ours." Neji said, even though he knew he was so bad-ass that his guess was ALWAYS better than everyone else's. Sasuke knew that his guess was better too. So anyways, they all followed Lee and Naruto, whose guess happened to be in the exact direction Akima had been running before she used the teleport scroll. Coincidence? It may be, it may not. One thing is for sure, and that is that Lee and Naruto have no idea where they're going.

At Gaara's house, Hidden Village of Sand, Morning

(YAWN) I sat up blearily, rubbing my eyes. My room was one of the many storage rooms in Gaara's house, and was full of old, dusty stuff. There were books on the floor and on high, rickety bookcases and a cramped little bed that I was currently curled up in. Perfect for allergies, by the way. Although there was no window in my room, I could still discern the hallway light on outside my door. 'Wonder if I should bother getting up…' I thought sleepily. It was one of those days where all you want to do is sleep until noon and forget about all the horrible problems there are in your life. So I laid my head back down onto the ever so nice and soft pillow and pulled the comfy warm blankets back up to my chin, and was just about to close my eyes again when something chittered by my ear.

"Eh?" I mumbled and turned my head to look…

"Holy shit!!!" I yelled, tumbling out of bed, all my hopes for sleep gone in a flash of adrenaline. I hate spiders!! Hatehatehatehatehate… actually, spiders are fine as long as they stayed away from me and my belongings, namely my food and bed. That particular bug was infringing upon my rules.

The spider sat there, chittering angrily (or so it seemed) at me. I stared at it for a few seconds, then sighed and gave a nasty glare. That's when I turned around and tripped over a stack of old books, sending up a huge cloud of dust.

(AH-CHOO) 'Great, all I need…' I thought. Meanwhile, the spider crawled back into the covers. I wouldn't be sleeping here again, that was for sure. Figuring that I should clean up the mess, I got down on my hands and knees and felt around for the fallen books. I succeeded only in knocking over several more columns, so I gave it up as a lost cause and trudged to the door, only to have it crash open, barely missing my nose.

"Who the hell are you?!"

I squinted into the blinding light to see a girl with (4???) blond ponytail/pigtail thingies in a white dress (kind of sort of. Since I suck at descriptions, let's forget about them. Everyone knows what Temari looks like, right?)

"…Eh, I'm Akima…" I mumbled, trying to get some gunk out of the corner of my eye. Temari was glaring fiercely, and I noticed that one of her hands was firmly clasping the fan on her back. Not really relishing the idea of death by wind, I tried to explain quickly.

"I met Gaara late last night and he said I could stay here. We didn't really want to wake you up and Gaara said you wouldn't mind anyways, so sorry for not telling you?" I ended in a pleading question because Temari had taken the fan off and was now holding it reminiscently of a sword. There wasn't enough space in the hallway to open it completely, and in fact there wasn't very much space to wield it as a sword either.

"You get one last try before I kick your ass outta here. That's a load of BS that Gaara would invite you in. Do you know who you're dealing with?"

"Umm, I'm not lying! Ask Gaara… please?" I said, warily watching the fan tip hover in front of my face.

"You have 5 seconds to get out of my house. 5…4…"

I gave a little squeak and vacated the premises. Luckily, I had no belongings with me besides what I wore and the few kunai and scrolls I had stolen from a certain ninja a while ago. Those I hadn't taken off last night, being lazy. It was okay to be kicked out, really… Gaara would find me later and make me somehow buy him ice cream. Speaking of which, I would probably have to go make some money…

I sped down the corridor, (now lighted) narrowly missing Kankuro who was holding a glass full of orange juice. I could feel his eyes staring at my back in shock as I threw open the front door and jumped out into the sandy street. Pivoting sharply I flung myself into a nearby coffee shop. It may have been my imagination, but I could swear that the wind had whistled by my ear a little too fast for comfort. Reaching up, I felt a little thin scratch, not enough to draw blood, on my earlobe. Grimacing, I took notice of my surroundings. It looked to be about midmorning, and the coffee shop was full of people, who all happened to be gaping at me in silence. Then, the whispering started.

"Did she just come out of that house?" I heard a woman whisper to her partner, who nodded avidly.

"She went into that house and survived?"

"What luck that young lady has to be alive!"

I watched them all for a little while then strolled up to the counter, where an old woman was busily wiping at a mug. As I leaned on the counter, she put it down and peered at me through thick glasses.

"Excuse me, would you happen to know of any job vacancies around here?" I asked as politely as possible.

"What?" she said loudly, cupping a hand to her ear.

"Know of any job vacancies?" I said a little louder.

"Whoa, no need to shout there, little miss! I got a vacancy right here, from 9 to 5. Want it?"

"Yes, please!" I said enthusiastically. Though I had no idea how to make coffee since I hated the stuff, it was still a good job, for a start.

"Alright, you do the cash register here because they make the darn buttons too small nowadays for my old fingers. Think you can handle it?"

"Sure!"

5:00 PM, Hidden Village of Sand

Punching in cash register buttons at a coffee shop proved to be an incredibly boring job. After the morning rush of customers, the shop had been practically empty, and the old lady had taken to reading a book, which I interpreted as a 'Do Not Disturb' sign. So, I sat around and daydreamed and doodled on napkins and myself with a pen I found on the ground. By 5, a masterpiece of artwork covered my left arm, consisting of many things of all sorts. Will this have any impact on the storyline? No. Why did I put it in here? Because I can't think of anything else to happen.

Anyways, I walked outside and wondered about what I should do now. Unfortunately, the old lady said she would pay me at the end of the week, so I had to rely on myself until then…

'Gaara, where are you?' I thought, gazing towards the huge expanse of desert from my vantage point on top of some rocks near the edge of the village. I remembered Gaara had come here once in the anime, so I had hoped he would return, but so far, there was no such luck. As soon as the sun set, I knew it would be freezing cold and I didn't have a place to stay.

'Shoot, how did I get myself into this mess?' I sighed and lay down, putting my hands behind my head and closing my eyes, one knee up. 'Mom, why did you send me here? To be a ninja, huh? It would be cool, but there's no way I can handle it. I can't look underneath the underneath and all that… I can do jutsus and stuff, but that's just memorization, really. I bet my chakra control is horrible. And my demon…' I gave another little sigh. 'Hello, demon, can you hear me?' I called out into my mind. 'Demon? Anyone home?' I was talking to myself and I knew it. Is this what a crazy person feels like?

"Akima."

I sat up at once, my hand instinctively reaching down to the kunai holster strapped to my thigh. I released my breath, relief flooding through me as I saw Gaara standing nearby.

"Geez, Gaara, where've you been? I got kicked out by your sister."

"Temari?"

"Yeah, she didn't believe me when I said that you let me stay. I can't really blame her though, I would be a little suspicious of someone I didn't know in my house."

"I'm sorry."

I gawked at him, mouth open. Where the heck had that come from?

"What for?" I said, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

"That you were kicked out."

"It wasn't your fault…"

There was an uncomfortable silence that seemed to stretch out for hours. "Well, then what do you want to do? I can't buy you ice cream yet, 'cuz I get paid at the end of the week." I said, standing up and brushing sand from myself.

"I don't care."

"Umm… so want to train?" I said, surprising myself.

Gaara blinked slowly and said, "I don't train."

I gave a cynical glare and rolled my eyes. "Fine, genius. Want to help ME train?"

"Whatever."

I took that as a yes and walked a little ways off.

"Since your sand protects you automatically, I can attack you with basically everything right?"

Gaara nodded. I took out a kunai, but didn't really relish the idea of throwing it at a (so it seemed) unarmed person. So, I aimed it a little to the right of him and threw. It whizzed past harmlessly, and Gaara's sand did not even come out of the gourd. He threw a you-are-so-pathetic look at me and sighed.

"Just testing you!" I shouted in response to his look. "I, unlike certain other people, didn't want to hurt you."

Gaara sniffed delicately and had his sand retrieve my kunai from a little ways away behind him. Then he took it jammed it into his chest. Or rather, tried to, since the sand automatically rose to create a barrier, effectively shielding the attack. He raised an eyebrow at me and smirked.

"I can't be harmed. Give it everything you've got."

I 'hmphed' and said. "Don't ever do that again, though. You scared the shit outta me."

Gaara made no response, so I decided to try to do a jutsu. "Kagebunshin no jutsu!"

Five me's poofed into existence all around us. "Ok, people, let's see how much chakra we all have! First person to get past Gaara's sand gets my week's salary! Anything goes!"

I charged at Gaara. "Katon, Goukakyuu (Blazing Fireball) no jutsu!" I said, and blew a large fireball in his direction. Then I remembered Sasuke's trick and threw a couple shuriken into it too, though I knew it would make no difference against Gaara's sand. And indeed, it did not. The sand flowed out of the gourd in waves and enveloped the fireball and shurikens in one big explosion. Gaara did not so much as blink.

"There seems to be a problem with your kagebunshins." He said emotionlessly, gesturing behind me.

"What?" I said and started to turn, then stopped. Smirking, I faced Gaara again. "Almost got me there. If you start to attack me, I'll just die."

Gaara said, "I'm not going to attack you. Haven't you noticed that your clones aren't doing anything?"

I DID notice… after he said that. I whipped around to see all my clones standing around aimlessly. "Oi, Akimas!!" I shouted. "Get your asses out here!"

"It's too troublesome." AkimaOne said, hands in her pockets. She promptly sat down with a sigh and started fiddling with the sand.

My jaw dropped. "Ok, first of all, I'm the original, so you have to do what I say. Second, the only reason you exist is because of me, so you'd better make use of the time given to you. Third, that's Shikamaru's line!" I growled. AkimaOne yawned loudly.

"Hey, you wanna piece of me?? I don't have to do anything you say!" yelled AkimaTwo, punching a fist into her hand. "I can kick your ass, right here, right now!"

"Now, now, fighting is bad! Can't we think of a way to resolve this in a nice, peaceful manner?" said AkimaThree, stepping forward and then quivering back when AkimaTwo and I glared at her.

"Pacifist!" AkimaTwo spat at her. (This line is dedicated to TehRadicalEdward. It's an inside joke.)

"Hey, look you guys! I made a sand castle!" shouted AkimaFour. Everyone stared at her. Not only was her 'sand castle' just a little lump of sand (it's quite hard to make a sand castle without any water, you know) but she was smiling and giggling much too happily to be normal.

"Nooo!! The other ones make sense, but I don't have an ounce of ditziness in me!!" I screamed, clawing at my face. That's when I noticed AkimaFive. She was sitting with her arms around her knees, face obscured by her brown hair.

"Hey, are you okay?" I said, approaching her silent form. She said nothing. "Hey… Come on, what's wrong?" She shook her head.

"Oi, I still have to fight you!" AkimaTwo said and stormed over.

"OK wait, wait, this is getting too confusing…" I said, rubbing my temples. "Are you same guys going to appear every time I use Kagebunshin?"

"Probably. They seem to be your personalities." Gaara, who had been forgotten until now, said interestedly. "This is a problem caused by demon chakra, most likely. Our kind of chakra is much stronger than most others', so it creates some side effects. For example, I cannot use anything other than sand attacks. Naruto has a hard time learning new jutsus, and also had terrible chakra control. You… have alternate personalities in your kagebunshins. That's really not that bad, compared to our handicaps. You may have other 'perks', however."

"Wow, Gaara, I've never heard you say so much before. How did you know all that?" I asked.

"I studied."

"I see. Well then, group, looks like we'll have to live with each other from now on, because I'm definitely going to need to use Kagebunshins at some point." I said tiredly. "First of all, you need names. And they will be given according to your personalities to make it easier for the readers to remember who is who. First, AkimaOne!"

"Eh?" she said from her position on the ground.

"You're lazy, so you will be Lazyass from henceforth."

"Whatever." She replied, not looking up.

"AkimaTwo! The violent one, will be Psycho."

"I'll kill you!" Psycho shouted, waving a fist in the air.

"AkimaThree, the pacifist! You will be Pacifist."

"You couldn't think of anything, huh?" said Psycho.

"You be quiet. Ahem. AkimaFour! You're Ditz.

(Giggle giggle) "Do you like my nails, Akima???"

"No, they aren't even painted, and if they were I wouldn't like them anyway. Stop waving them at me. AkimaFive! For lack of a nicer name for your personality, you're going to be Depressed."

Depressed said nothing. I sighed and said, "Now then, who wants to attack Gaara???"

"I do I do!" Psycho squeaked and then she leered over at Gaara hungrily. "I like how blood tastes, it's so yummy…"

"Anyone else???" I said hopefully. No one moved. I sighed. "Well, what's the point of even knowing this jutsu if my clones won't fight?"

"Fighting is bad. If you went about it the right way, then there would be no need to ever use Kagebunshin no jutsu at all." Pacifist said.

"There's no need for anything." Lazyass, replied, closing her eyes.

"Ok, ok, whatever, I'll just try to not use this too much… is there nothing I can offer you that will make you fight?" I said hopelessly.

"Nope." Said Pacifist and Lazyass.

"Hell, I'll fight anybody!" yelled Psycho.

"Hey, don't you guys think this skirt is sooooo cute???" giggled Ditz.

"Um, you're not wearing a skirt…" I said, rolling my eyes.

"Well, OBVIOUSLY…" she retorted. "I would be if you didn't have such bad fashion sense. I mean, a blue shirt and white shorts? How unoriginal can you get?"

"They're just clothes! How do you expect me to run around in a skirt?! That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard-"

"Peace, peace! I'm sure we can work this out." Pacifist said, intervening again.

"Ok, I'm sick of this. I'm releasing the jutsu now. Bye peoples." I said.

"But-" Psycho began before poofing out, followed by everyone else.

"Ugh… I am NEVER using that again!" I said tiredly at Gaara.

"…" Gaara said. "Ready now?"

"Ok, I'm coming!" I said, regaining my enthusiasm. I took out three kunai and threw them at his face, then darted around the back and threw three more. As they whizzed towards him, the sand poured out in a massive wave and enveloped all of them, forming a huge cloud around Gaara.

'Ok, time to try it!' I thought as I started running through the seals. "Katon, Karyuu Endan (Fire Dragon Flame Missile)!"

I took as deep a breath as I could and blew a fire wave at the sand. The extreme heat made my face blister and the surrounding air sizzled as the flame torched its way across the desert sand. Gaara created and hardened a sand wall in front of him milliseconds before the flame hit. A resounding crack split the air and I was blown backwards from the impact, as was Gaara. The wall had been reduced to a heap of molten glass and black scorch marks blazed a trail from where I had been standing to the now gone wall.

"Ugh… note to self: never do that again." I mumbled groggily, pulling myself to my feet. Far away, I could see Gaara doing the same. "Oi, you okay Gaara?" I shouted to him as I walked shakily forward. The miniscule figure nodded and steadily approached as well. We met at Gaara's molten glass/sand.

"Um, can you get new sand?" I asked, grinning nervously. Gaara nodded briefly.

"I didn't expect that, however. All demons seem to be exceeding my expectations lately. Next time, warn me so that I can form the wall sooner. It's lucky I had the armor of sand on." he said calmly.

'Phew, close one. In the anime, I remember he was talking to his sand like it was his mom or something…glad he got over it. Otherwise I would already be dead. In other news, yatta!! I finally did it! I mastered the Karyuu Endan!' I thought.

"Ok, but do you think we could go back now? I'm pretty tired…" I said. And indeed, I was. The Karyuu Endan had been used by the 3rd Hokage if I remember correctly, so I seemed to be missing a large chunk of my chakra.

Gaara nodded and we started walking back to his house. By that time it was pretty dark and the stars weren't shining. However, the moon was full and even had a slight reddish tinge to it. 'That's weird…' I thought. 'I've seen a blue moon but never a red one.'

Suddenly, Gaara fell over onto the sand, for absolutely no reason at all. "Oi, Gaara? What's wrong?" I said worriedly, kneeling beside him. He had his eyes closed and was limp. Upon closer inspection, I heard him snoring gently. 'What could make you fall asleep?' I thought, gazing around the deserted alleyways. Something caught my attention in a shadowy doorway as it moved. I squinted closely at it and then stood abruptly.

"I-Itachi…" I didn't notice the words leaving my lips. 'What's he here for?'

"It's good to see you again, Akima-san." He said, stepping into the moon's feeble light.

I stared at him for a few seconds before a sudden realization hit me like a thunderclap.

"Oh my God! You idiot!"

Itachi's eyebrows shot up. NO ONE called Itachi an idiot. Ever. It was an unwritten rule. However, that was not important to me at that moment.

"You put GAARA, of all people, to sleep! Do you have ANY idea what you've done??? Wake him up, now!"

"I can't." said Itachi, still standing stock-still, trying to recover from the 'idiot' incident. Gaara stirred, and opened his eyes. They were black and yellow.

"Oh shit, run!" I grabbed Itachi's arm and jerked him away, running at full speed. Behind me I could hear Gaara's maniacal laughter start. "You never, ever, ever, put Gaara to sleep! That will wake the Shukaku up!" I hissed at Itachi, who finally seemed to understand.

"That boy is the Shukaku container?" Itachi asked.

"Yeah, and now he's going to go around killing everyone in the village until he wakes up. Did you do some weird hypnosis or something?"

"In a manner of speaking…" Itachi said. "Over this way." Itachi ran into a dark corridor where Kisame awaited.

"We leave now. The Shukaku is here." Itachi said quickly to him.

"Hi Kisame!" I said cheerily. "Hey! You kept my pillowcase! What wonderful, nice, murderers you are!"

"Yo, Akima-san. You carry your own stupid pillowcase now, I'm sick and tired of making Itachi carry it." Kisame handed me my long lost pillowcase.

I took the offered pillowcase happily, then said, "Wait, wait, I'm going with you again? Where to, exactly?"

"Akatsuki." Replied Itachi simply.

"…To do what…" I said suspiciously.

"I don't know." He said, staring impassively.

"I'm guessing this isn't a friendly membership thing."

"You're right."

"…Do I really have a choice?"

Here Kisame let out a chuckle. "Well, you can go willingly, or you can go unwillingly, Akima-san."

I pondered a bit. Either way, I was going. There wasn't the slightest chance that I could get away from Itachi and Kisame, even if I had been at full chakra capacity.

"Why do I have to go?"

Here, Itachi stared at me impassively. Finally he said softly, "Demon containers are rare."

"Oh." I blinked a couple times. Lessee… in the anime, I never watched long enough to know exactly why the Akatsuki wanted the Kyubi demon, only that they did. But since it was a big criminal group, chances were that their intentions weren't nice…

"Hmmm. Unwillingly!" I said grinning. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!!"

Author's Notes: I know this question will be asked! Why did Akima only find out now about her messed-up kagebunshins? Because… before… her seal hadn't cracked and the demon chakra wasn't affecting her as much. That was a pretty good answer! (Yes, I made it up on the spot. So sue me.)

Ah yes, and to clear up the confuzzled people, I made a nice clean list thingie down there…

Lazyass is the lazy/Shikamaru-ish one.

Psycho is the violent, sadistic one.

Pacifist… is the pacifist one.

Ditz… is the overly-happy ditzy one.

Depressed is the sad, depressed, antisocial one.

Frankly, I don't really think this is a very good chapter… I had a major writer's block and I'm sorry if you didn't like it.

Review Responses:

le otter-chan- Ok, thank you. I put a firecracker in the 8th chapter. Happy now? However… I didn't have any idea how to find strontium or potassium nitrate and stuff, so I just kind of… didn't put in that part. Um… yeah. Thanks for reviewing!

mystic- Akima may not get to Konoha any time soon, but the others will… review again!

TimeReaper- Thank you!

Unita Vis Fortior- Here's an update! Thank you so much!

ReDragon37- w00t, I updated! I can't believe so many people like my story!

Lady Eden Your Gift from Death- Bleah, school work. I have plenty too. I'm sorry about your thumb… TT Good luck with all that school work… Speaking of which, I should probably start mine…

hakia seana- Look look! She reviewed she reviewed! Yay!! Gaaraness will hit the climax in next chapter… might be a little let-down tho… I'm working on that Narutoland problem. Apparently there was a problem with the portal… Thank you and review again!

Dragon Man 180- Yes, yes, I wanted to have lots of goriness and blood in Unagi's death, but I was kinda scared of the PG-13 limit and also, it was supposed to emphasize how powerful Akima/Demon was at that time. More Gaara craziness in the next chapter. Thank you for reviewing!