Author's Note: Hey guys. Thank god its Friday. I am completely BEAT! And on top of that, Tuxedo Mask just died and now Serena has to battle…

:'(

Ehe… I'll stop :3

Akatsuki's Pearl

It was four days before I recovered and started working around the main base. Despite Kisame's protests, not to mention my own, my sensei was sent on a mission with Itachi-san, and I was left more or less alone with a bunch of semi-psychotic S-class criminals.

It was worrying, being a younger girl within the service of a group of older guys, but I can't say it wasn't interesting. Surprisingly, I got along well with Kakuzu, of all people. He sewed me new clothes to replace my old, tattered ones, and fully appreciated the fact that I worked for free. He kept Hidan in check when he went on one of his religious rants, and even went so far as to remove his leg as punishment from stopping my work.

They say the easiest way to win a man's affection is through his stomach, and I can tell you, it's completely right. The first meal I made for the members of the Akatsuki was a success. It was only simple onigiri entrées with choices of ramen, stew and sushi, but they wolfed it down like there was no tomorrow. I sat at the head, watching in astonishment as they packed it all away, all except for Sasori, who surveyed everyone with a flat demeanor. In response to the questioning look I gave him, he just told me that it looked and smelled very satisfactory. I grinned at him.

Kisame and Itachi were gone for almost a week, and in that time I had developed a fair familiarity and knowledge with the majority of them, most of my information being picked up from just being around when they were talking amongst themselves and not focusing on picking up any intruders. That and the fact they were very open to talking to the person that made their food and kept their – dare I say it – home, clean.

The day before Kisame and his partner were meant to return, I had left the Akatsuki lair to collect herbs and things to cook. Pein didn't exactly trust me very much at that point – even if he was strictly civil most of the time – so it took all my skill and a hell of a lot of sake to slip out into the woods.

It was only after I had been surrounded by a nasty-looking gang of rogues that I realised how stupid I was being. I hadn't had time to train at all since I recovered, and no doubt the ninja that hung around near the Akatsuki main hideout were no pushovers. I dropped the basket, ready to start fighting. I did not expect they would treat me with any leniency, even if I was a thirteen year old girl. That was not how ninja operated.

I was on my own. No one would come to help me. Most of the Akatsuki were probably drunk, and nobody knew that I was gone. I figured that I would be punished beyond compare if I even made it back alive.

I took up a stance as the men – for they were all males – ran at me, brandishing all different types of weapons and not caring for chivalrous one on one battles. I managed to repel them with my signature Shockwave, focusing the chakra in my feet and rising on the crest of a giant wave. Muscles I had not properly used for what felt like an age welcomed the movement as I fended off those who had not already been knocked off their feet.

It was a loud fight, due to the fact I was trying to get it over with quickly. Men fell to summoned kunai, chakra-infused punches, and razor teeth. Blood flew everywhere, staining the robe that Kakuzu had made for me. The basket for the herbs had sunk to the bottom of the watery field I had created, which did more than annoy me. I liked that basket. It was nice.

Just as I swung around to attack another one of my opponents, long, writhing tentacles shot out and grabbed him, crackling with violent fire. I pivoted to the left to face another, but he was brought down quickly too. As the dead body fell forward, a puppet was revealed, blank eyes staring blindly. I didn't look for Sasori or Kakuzu. If I did, then I would probably have to meet with their thoroughly displeased faces. Instead, I concentrated on murdering the twenty odd that remained.

Instead of wanting the fight to end quickly now, I wished it would go on. That way I could put off dealing with the consequences of my actions. Unfortunately for me, I was removed from the melee by none other than Pein himself.

"Oh Kami…."

Pein let me go and turned me around so that I was facing him. His swirling blue eyes seemed to bore straight through me, and I faltered under his stare, twining my hair around my finger nervously.

"You are an idiot."

I blinked, startled. "Hai. I am."

My intention was to agree with him, and not to get him angry, but it didn't seem to work. I was shoved up against the wall, a large hand clasped tightly around my throat, as the Leader continued to stare with his eerie, hypnotizing eyes, his lips lifted in a snarl.

"What did you think you were doing?"

"I -"

He sighed, cutting me off, and loosened his grip on my throat slightly. He had such a weary look on his pierced face.

"My intentions were good," I offered. He blinked. "I know I wasn't thinking, but I really only intended to get more things for dinner. I wasn't running."

He stayed quiet, making me want to talk to fill the silence.

"I don't know if you can really imagine the extent of my dedication to Kisame-sensei, Leader-sama, but there really is no chance of my trying to get away as long as he is part of your organization. I want to please my master, and his master in turn… which is of course… well, you, Leader-sama. And I thought that because you had told me you liked particularly strong-flavoured food, I could help! Which is of course why I -"

I stopped as he let me go so that I dropped almost a foot and a half to the floor. I grinned nervously up at him, winding my hair around my finger and waiting politely for him to say something.

"You acted on behalf of Akatsuki?"

"… Hai?"

Pein turned his back on me and stalked away, fading quickly into the shadows that were all too common around the Akatsuki lair.

I was left standing there, staring after him with both relief and utter confusion.

Three days later, after Kisame-sensei and Itachi-san had returned successfully from their assigned secret mission, I still hadn't seen Pein again. None of the other members knew where he was, and referred me to Konan herself. Unfortunately, I had regularly avoided the only female member, and was not too keen to break the habit.

I stayed as close to Kisame-sensei whenever I could, intimidated by the others who still hadn't seemed to have forgiven me for deceiving them and being outside the lair a few days ago. Eventually he took me aside, and addressed the issue.

"Katsumi-chan. What's the matter with you? Have you learned much, yet?" he asked. I noticed the gills on his face were flapping slightly, as they always did when he was irked by something.

"Iie, Kisame-sensei. I'm not sure the other members are willing to teach."

"Have you asked them? I have had words with them, and they seem willing enough to share some things with you."

"I don't think I belong here, Kisame-sensei," I said, cheeks flushing. "The others…. I'm just a kid, Kisame-sensei, as much as I hate to admit it, I really am just that. I would like to get along with them. But they don't seem to care for me at all."

Kisame sighed exasperatedly and scruffed my long blond hair with a large blue hand before taking his leave and leaving me be. "I have to speak to Itachi-san," he told me.

Later that night, as I walked down the dark hallway, singing a soft Kiri lullaby in hopes to soothe the murderers that slept beyond the doors, I wondered what would happen when Pein came back. If I was in his position, I would probably have gotten rid of me already, but the pierced man was a mystery.

I was kept from agonizing over it any longer when I opened the door to my own room, revealing the fresh bodies that hung from the ceiling. My first reaction was fear. Extreme fear. I let out a short scream, managing to take control of myself only after the short burst of sound. I clapped a hand over my mouth, biting down so hard that I drew blood.

I heard loud, irritable grumbles from the room across from mine. That would be Hidan. He was always awake: praying, mostly. I would have been glad to have anyone with me at that time, but I didn't dare call for help.

Instead, I took a tentative step forward, weaving through what must have been no less than eighty bodies that were hanging from my roof, trying to avoid contact. Despite the dim light, I recognised the clothing of the dead men was similar to what the rogues from before had been wearing.

But it couldn't be. There was nowhere near this number of people who had attacked me. It didn't make any sense. Had Kisame-sensei heard about how I had been ambushed and killed them? It wasn't out of the question, but it still didn't explain why there were more than there should have been.

The metallic smell of blood clotted my senses as I continued through the room, and as I made my way further in, I began to note certain inconsistencies: now there were not only young men, but old ones as well. Further in there were women, dressed as civilians, not as kunoichi. My eyes prickled when I saw the children, from babies to toddlers to small ten year olds. All were completely and utterly devoid of life, spilling blood onto my floor.

Horrified but entranced, I crept towards the smallest hanging body – a baby, suspended from the dead centre of the roof. It had something attached to it, a note. The adrenaline was gone from my body, and my hands no longer shook as I reached towards the slip of paper, and read what was on it.

Loyalty is rewarded.

I dropped the paper and ran.

Flying down the hallway, not caring if I woke anyone, I tried to process everything. I am a Mist kunoichi, it shouldn't bother me, but it was just so sudden, so unexpected. I had killed elders before. I'd killed mothers, too. I'd stayed away from children, though. But still, it wasn't what bothered me. The main issue was that more than half of the people had been civilians. I had killed for my master, and I had killed for my Village, but I had killed those that would do the same to me.

In my confusion, I judged every door to be the same. I opened each one, feeling trapped and scared, and it was not until I had disturbed every one of the members that I at last found my sensei.

He was still asleep, but I made short work of waking him up. I shook him and hit him and screamed for him to help, and eventually his white eyes opened and he leapt out of bed, just in time to catch me as I sunk onto the ground. The other members watched silently from the doorway. Hidan's silver eyebrows were knotted in a frown, Sasori's eyes were careful and observant, Deidara looked wide awake and alert…. Even Zetsu looked concerned – at least one side of him, anyway. Itachi just stared with his familiar deadpan expression.

Kisame shot them all a look, but none of them moved. He turned to me. "Katsumi-chan… what's wrong?"

"I shouldn't have gone... That day… I shouldn't have gone…."

Deidara took off from the doorway, trotting down the hall and sticking his head inside my gory room, taking in the scene with hardened eyes.

"I think she might have to sleep in your room tonight… un…."

From that moment on, I was accepted as a potential member of Akatsuki – albeit someone who still had to cook and clean. I learned from all of them, and formed obscure friendships with most of them. It was like Kisame was my father, and I had a hell of a lot of uncles, even though most of them did not get along at all. I was constantly cleaning up blood for various fights between them all. Hidan and Kakuzu, I didn't think would ever stop. They were both immortal, so they didn't have much to worry about. Hidan was especially good to me, because I would sit and listen to him talk about Jashin-sama. The other members seemed not to appreciate his violent religion as much as he thought they should have. He was constantly bringing trinkets and things back from missions and gifting them to me, being partial to things like that himself.

Unfortunately, there wasn't too much I could learn from Hidan – except for some very colourful language. His fighting style revolved almost completely around his unique curses. I learnt that I had Water and Lightning chakra from Kakuzu, and figured out how to use that as best I could in battle. The immortal even took me on a mission to test out what I'd learnt. Kisame-sensei was not too impressed, though, and for a couple of days he would not let me out of his sight.

Because he didn't want anybody with me at that point, I was instructed in genjutsu by Itachi-san, who was the only one Kisame trusted at least a little bit. When I showed him the jutsu I had developed myself, he gave me a rare smile, so slight that I wasn't even sure it was there. He said I did well, and commended me on my genjutsu abilities. He was a surprisingly patient, steady teacher, and despite his obvious aloof manner towards everyone else, he was tolerant and almost nice when dealing with me. It was probably just to keep Kisame from making his life a hassle, but I liked to think he liked me.

Sasori, I found, was not as boring as I first thought. As soon as Kisame-sensei had dropped the overprotective attitude, I had started to learn under the puppeteer. He was an amusingly dry-humoured, sarcastic person, and it amazed me to learn that he was much older than he appeared. As soon as I figured out that he was a puppet himself, I was snapped back into reality. Sometimes I thought of these men as family, or friends – teammates. But they were dangerous. All of them. Even the laughing artist Deidara.

Speaking of which, the blond was one of my favourite teachers of all time. While he was sketchy – no pun intended – when he learned that I had studied under Sasori, and learned the redhead's views on art, he gave in eventually. Mostly because of the pressure the others put on him, and, 'because I was pretty, un.'

He was a unique person, Deidara was. And not just because he had mouths on his hands. I observed, with some amusement how annoying it could be for him sometimes. He detested wearing gloves, and his hands had the tendency to loll open at random intervals, making him jerk about and spit comically whenever he tasted something completely unpleasant. What was disturbing is when he suddenly took to patting me on the head, and would constantly remark how I tasted salty. Still, I was a young girl, and he was absolutely gorgeous. I wasn't too bothered. Deidara was a specialist when it came to quick battles. Fast and effective KO's were what he was all about, and I would use the power of explosives in battles to come, although of course I could never match his majesty.

Unfortunately, each Akatsuki member had their own style, one that I didn't always think was well suited to me. Zetsu taught me what is now one of my most valued and well-used techniques: the Leach All Creation. He showed me exactly how I could meld myself with other elements – more specifically water, for me – so that I could take on their properties, and would not come to any harm.

I made a point to avoid Pein, and Konan preferred to stay almost shyly in the shadows, so I never had to worry about the more mysterious, closed up members of Akatsuki. I was getting stronger day by day, and after almost half a year with them, I finally brought up the topic I had been wanting to ever since I had first met them.

As I cleared up the dinner plates from that night's meal, there was only Kisame-sensei who was left eating. He ate almost twice as much as the other members, but I was used to it, although Kakuzu expressed an extreme dislike for the shark's dietary habits, scorning him for consuming money.

"Kisame-sensei. Do you know anything about Orochimaru?" I asked as I started to wash up. The soft clink of the dishes in the soapy water was the only sound that was to be heard.

He didn't answer me for a while. Instead, he chewed idly on a piece of sushi. I felt like shouting at him to hurry up, but I had been patience for almost six months, I should be able to wait a little longer.

When at last he answered me, I was astounded with what I heard. He had been part of the Akatsuki! He had even tried to take Itachi-san's body for his immortality techniques. Apparently, Akatsuki were almost completely uninterested, though they were not at all happy about the snake-sannin keeping his membership ring. Kisame-sensei said they had bigger things than a meddlesome Orochimaru to worry about, and so he was left well enough alone. He also told me that he was currently working on Sasuke, molding him into his next container, and the Leader did not look too brightly upon an Orochimaru with the Sharingan eyes. I asked him if something was to be done about it, but Kisame-sensei smiled at me mysteriously, and said that for at least three years the possibility would lie dormant. "You should apply yourself more in your training, Katsumi-chan, so that when that day comes, you will be ready."

Author's Note: Hmm, I apologise for the snail-pace at which this story is moving, but I promise, next couple of chapters and it all starts happening. Houzuki Suigetsu is not far away now

Oh, I got my desired part in my play for Youth Theatre. Proud of me?