A/N: It has come back to my attention that during one of the great shinobi wars all villages except for Raikage's village used the Akatsuki as their mercenaries… well… for the sake of my purposes I'm going to say that Pein's group before Madara joined, was the one that was deployed to the multiple lands. It makes a lot more sense to me than to have the rest of the current shinobi in it even if it was possible. Sorry for my mistake but I cover them up well, ne? Oh and OMFG I found out that Itachi was 11 when he joined the Akatsuki WHILE he was still not a criminal! It makes a little bit of sense when you look at this URL ( http:/ www. narutobase. net/ forums/ showthread. php?t=141 ), but still... O-o wow! Oro really is a pedo! lol and for the url just remove the spaces

"A witty saying proves nothing."

- Voltaire

Kari wished that the week would end, but, only three days ago did Madara leave, Kari felt as if the next four days would take an eternity; once again, training would be her savior to keep her distracted. By the end of the week, Kari could not even think about what day it was let alone why she was still awake; the only good thing that happened in her opinion was that she finally got her Akatsuki robe fixed up after a week of needing repairs and cleaning. Koumori scolded her the next morning for not eating the previous night, but Kari waved her off and ate some of her breakfast.

The young summoness wondered just where Sasori and Orochimaru were since they got back. The only time she saw them was when they interrupted her training for the day to test Ri to see if he was acceptable, which he was according to Pein. Once again, she was not sad about this, but she did not want to see the Snake shinobi in some empty hallway alone. However, back to the present, Kari finished her breakfast and went to train with Konan on the art of being a woman, and Kari was glad she was improving, but since she was in the first stages of puberty, she would mess up due to the changes of her body.

She was just glad that she did not have any training to do because she wanted to actually relax on her day off training... but to do what? She had not been able to relax in such a long time she did not know what was she would do. Maybe she would just end up training by herself after all... she paused to think of what she would do and thought, "I could read... it's been a while since I was able to get into a story since my training began."

That is just what she did after she left Konan for her room ... though it wasn't long until she realized that her lessons took extra long that day and it was already suppertime. Kari let out an exasperated sigh, got up, and headed off to the kitchen, where all of the Akatsuki, minus Konan, Zetsu, and Pein, were there. The young girl bowed to them, then went, and got herself some fruit before she took a spot in between Kisame and Kakuzu. She felt intimidated by them, but it was better than the seat next to Orochimaru any day.

"Decided to join leave your life as a hermit eh Kari-chan?" Kisame joked as he always did and it caused Kari to have a small smile and she nodded, biting into the tender flesh of the peach in her hand.

After she swallowed a bite she said, "But I will soon be returning to read about the secrets of life."

"Oh and what would that be?" Kakuzu asked which surprised both Kari and him.

She soon shook off her amazement and replied, "It's a secret, no pun intended."

Kisame snickered and ruffled her hair before he stood up and said, "Well see you at training tomorrow Kari-chan."

Once he was gone Orochimaru said, "You've seem to have grown taller since I last laid eyes on you Kari-chan."

Kari looked at him with a smile, nervous smile and stated, "I have been growing lately."

Orochimaru nodded and asked, "Just how old are you again."

To try to lighten her nerves she joked, "It's rude to ask a lady her age." but it didn't work when he chuckled.

Though he was about to respond, the Akatsuki got a message to head to the meeting room to meet a new member. Kari was relieved when the order continued to state that she was to go to Pein's office. She smiled and said her 'see you later' to the remaining members in the kitchen and headed towards that office.

Koumori came to the human plane and landed on Kari's shoulder asking, "Where are you running off to?"

"There's a new member today and I'm to head to Leader-sama's office."

Koumori nodded and soon they were in front of the double doors that led to her destination. When she entered, she walked up to the desk, bowed and said, "I'm here."

Pein nodded and said, "Good, now Madara-sama would like a word with you."

Kari nodded and followed Pein into the inner office and Madara, with his mask still on, was sitting on a chair, with another person in the other chair. She looked at him and took in his appearance in a second, and all she could say that he was beautiful. His raven hair was tied in a low horsetail and his bangs were split and framed his face. His eyes were in the sharingan form that she saw Madara have many times activated and stress lines appeared to the left and right of his nose.

Madara nodded and Pein left the three of them alone and Kari bowed saying, "You called for me Madara-sama?"

Said man nodded and said, "This is Uchiha Itachi. He will be joining us."

Kari nodded and turned to the other Uchiha and said, "Nice to meet you Uchiha-san." she then turned to Madara and asked, "What are my instructions Madara-sama?"

"Just be sure to act as always Kari-chan, and would you lead Itachi-kun to the meeting room?" he stated.

Kari bowed, "Hai, Madara-sama." Once she was standing straight, once again she looked at Itachi in the eyes and said, "Follow me Itachi-san."

The stoic Uchiha nodded and then followed her out and around the Akatsuki base, until she got to the meeting room with her charge behind her. She told him to stay and he did so, while she walked in. She bowed once to Pein and Konan, before taking her seat next the latter and Zetsu.

Pein then stood up said, "Uchiha-san, you may come in."

Itachi then walked in and was introduced to the Akatsuki in the vaguest of terms. From the description she knew that, like with Madara-sama, he had the Mangekyo Sharingan and that he was a prodigy from Konoha and was a previous ANBU member, which explained his outfit.

The young summoness was surprised when she heard that he was 11 and felt as if she was really lacking in skill. She was 11 too and she didn't even think she could be so accomplished. Kari sighed and wondered just how far back in her studies she was. When she looked up from her depressed state, she noticed that Orochimaru was looking over at Itachi the way he used to look at her. When she saw that all she could think of was that she was glad that he wasn't looking at her anymore. Though she noticed that Itachi was looking at her instead, which made he shiver. Why was he looking at her when he should be paying attention to Pein?

"Kari-chan?" Pein stated.

"Yes Leader-sama?" Kari asked, blushing, realizing she wasn't much paying attention.

"I would like it if you held off on giving Uchiha-san his ring." Pein stated. Kari nodded, and wondered why but just as she was about to asked Pein continued, "He still hasn't defected from his village yet, and we don't want to raise any suspicion."

Kari nodded once again and smiled, "Yes Leader-sama."

Pein nodded and then turned his attention back to the rest of the group and gave out their missions... Kari would have to ask why Itachi hadn't defected yet... reminded her of Orochimaru's situation, but she knew there was more to it than just indecision. After she got her mission, she glanced at Itachi and wondered just what Madara had planned for him.

~oOo~

Orochimaru had a mission with Itachi a week later. Orochimaru attacked Itachi. Itachi defeated Orochimaru and had his hand cut off. Orochimaru defected from the Akatsuki and Kari was nearly jumping for joy when she heard the news from Zetsu at a meeting.

Madara smiled at her later that day when they were eating dinner together and thought that, even though it was a loss, it was an expected one; plus it made Kari a little more like she was when he first saw her. "Calm down Kari-chan and eat your dinner."

Kari giggled and jumped in joy one last time before she sat down and ate the stir fry that was waiting for her, which she proudly made for them, and it was good if she didn't say so herself.

"How long do you plan to have your kekkei genkai on Kari-chan?"

Kari looked up confused at Madara and asked, after she swallowed a bit, "What?"

"Your kekkei genkai is activated. Why?" Madara stated.

"I can answer that." Koumori stated when she appeared on Kari's shoulder. She took a bit of Kari's food and continued, "She's been using too much blood with training she's been doing by herself, and her kekkei genkai helps with the process of getting it back." Kari glared at her bat, but said bat ignored her and ate some more food.

Kari then looked up at Madara, fearing a bit what his reaction to this would be because she felt like a kid caught with their hand in the forbidden cookie jar. However, when she looked up he was calm and collected and was eating his food. She was confused until he finished his food and she knew he had been thinking by his next words.

"Your missions for the next week are going to be given to other members and your training is going to be postponed for a week as well." Madara stated and then folded his hands under his chin and rested his elbows on the table, "Your new order is to take a vacation."

Kari stared in a state of shock for a few seconds before she said, "What?"

Madara smirked at her and said, "In fact, I think that I need a break too. Therefore, to ensure that you relax, I'm going to be going with you. Itachi-san will also be going with us because I need to train him some more and where we are headed is a place our family owns."

Kari nearly fell out of her chair from shock and then just stared at him. She really didn't know what to think in a situation like this.

~oOo~

"I'm sorry Zetsu-san." Kari bowed to her partner, "but I have to do as Madara-sama orders."

Zetsu nodded and said, "You need your rest. We don't know why you haven't figured this out sooner Kari-chan."

Kari laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her head, "Are you sure you're going to be okay with the missions all by yourself?"

Zetsu smirked, "Do you think we're weak Kari-chan? We've been doing this even before you arrived Kari-chan, so we should be okay."

Kari smiled and then hugged the plant shinobi, much to Zetsu's hidden surprise, and said, "That is true." She then let go, grabbed her bag and then headed to the front of the base, "See you later Zetsu-san!"

Zetsu nodded and then melded back into the floor.

Kari sighed and started to walk to an unwanted vacation... what would she do? Itachi was getting stronger everyday and she was getting ordered to relax and keep away form her training all because she wasn't strong enough to have more power over her kekkei genkai. Situations like this made her hate her eyes.

She remembered one time she was younger and was still with her gypsy family, and they stopped at a village somewhere in the land of the waves. One day after one of her training sessions, she had lost a little too much blood, and some of the children came to play, but they were scared away because of her eyes. She felt depressed after that, but soon got over it and thought she would try again... but almost every place she went to she was met by the same reactions. So eventually, she decided to give her all to training.

Kari sighed at the memory and wondered what it would be like to actually have a friend her age. All her friends... or rather, companions were at least ten years older than her... but why was she thinking this now? Oh yeah, Itachi being her age would lead to these thoughts. Speaking of Itachi, she saw him standing at the entry, alone, and he seemed as stoic as the first time she saw him. She smiled apologetically and asked, "Ready?"

He didn't even nod as he walked away, and Kari felt a little depressed; no one her age wanted to even associate with her, still. She clutched onto her bag and followed him and after about a minute or two, she looked like she didn't have many emotions.

Koumori then popped onto her shoulder and smirked saying, "I told you that you'd be forced to relax if you kept your training schedule up."

Kari narrowed her eyes in a glare at the bat and whispered, "Well I'm sorry if I want to be good enough to help Madara-sama's goal!" She didn't want to disturb Itachi with her conversations. No reason for him to dislike her right away.

Koumori nodded and said, "As long as it doesn't affect your health I'm fine with rigorous amounts of training. Though, the way you've been going I don't care if a god told you to train to save the world. I'd tell you to rest."

Kari gave up and nodded saying, "I guess you're right." even though she didn't enjoy it, "And I guess some vacation would be... fun?"

Kari didn't know where they were going, or even if she'd have fun, but she would try for Madara and Koumori's sake.

~oOo~

Why did she have to where this robe? Sure, it felt soft, but it didn't even look like there were any hot springs there and this was that kind of robe one would see in a very expensive hot spring resort. Madara had some last minute business so he wasn't there to train Itachi, leading the young shinobi to be stuck in the same room as the relaxing summoness. Though, unlike the young summoness, he was in training gear and had a certain aura about him that screamed that he would rather be training. Kari had the same aura as they stared at each other and Koumori just hung on one of the ceiling rafters and quietly chuckled at the two pre-teens. Neither one seemed content in the normal human relaxation methods. Koumori looked out the window and noticed that she had been asleep for quite some time, and it was almost time for her to go hunting for food, and once she took off into the sky Kari let out a sigh and fell against the mat bed.

She looked up at the ceiling and asked, "Uchiha-san?"

"Hn?" Itachi replied much to Kari's shock. She had expected him to just ignore her.

"What is there to do here?" Kari asked after a couple of seconds of thinking how to say her question.

"There's a bath house at the west end," Madara's voice said as he opened the door and strolled in.

Kari sat up and smiled at the elder Uchiha and stated, "Good evening Madara-sama."

Madara sat next to the young summoness and pat her head and she beamed. He then turned to Itachi and said, "Itachi-kun, let's go train, and Kari" the young girl looked up at the masked man, "be sure to relax."

Kari nodded and he pats her head once again before standing up and following out Itachi to the training grounds. Kari huffed and wished she could be trained by Madara, but the baths seemed to call out to her, so she gathered up her supplies and headed over to the baths.

Though as she was headed down the hall it felt as if she was missing something. Nothing big mind, but something. She put her things in the bath house as she would normally do, have a one quick wash over and then she headed into the hot springs. It was nice and relaxing and she could feel herself start to fall asleep until-

"Kari-chan! What are you doing here?"

Kari looked up surprised and looked around for the voice, and when the fog cleared and the bodies could be identified, Kari smiled.