Author's Note: Yay!! It's the 10th chapter!! I've had so much fun writing this for you guys. So now that the spring semester is over for me, I'll hopefully be able to write faster and get you guys more chapters to read.

Emiko, now four, was skipping happily through the hallways. She wore a sundress with the same pattern as the Akatsuki cloak. Her long black hair was held in pigtails by two red ribbons. She paused outside the main room, listening to her family's conversation.

"He's entering the chunin exam."

"Isn't it in Konoha this year?"

"Why don't we just grab him then?"

"It's too risky. Besides, I heard Orochimaru is going to lead an attack against Konoha."

Emiko walked in, clutching I-chan close to her.

"What's going on?"

Konan smiled and held her arms open to Emiko. Emiko walked over and let Konan put her in her lap.

"Honey, all of us are going to be leaving for a while. Hidan and Kakazu are going to stay here and watch you. Are you going to see us off?"

Emiko nodded. Kakazu picked her up and carried her to the entrance. She waved goodbye to the rest of her family. Once they were gone, Kakazu put her down.

"I'm going to be in my room. Why don't you see if Hidan will play with you?"

Emiko went down the hallway to Hidan's room. Instead of knocking, she simply burst into the room.

"Hi-chan, you wanna play with me?"

Hidan growled, looking up from his ritual.

"Damnit, you stupid brat! You fucked up my ritual!"

"I'm sorry, Hi-chan."

"I can't wait for Pein to just fucking kill you."

Emiko froze, clinging to the door frame.

"Papa wouldn't kill me."

Hidan gave Emiko an evil sneer.

"Oh, but he would. When Itachi first brought you in, Pein said he would kill you if you were useless. Let's face it brat, your pretty useless and Pein's already talked to us about killing you."

Emiko shook her head, tears spilling down her cheeks. She ran to her room and slammed the door. She quickly went through her closet, grabbing a backpack and throwing clothes in it. She wrote a quick goodbye note and left it in Pein's room. She saw one of his headbands on his bed and took it, putting it around her neck. Emiko ran to the entrance, her backpack over her shoulders. She paused at the giant boulder and looked down at I-chan. Her lower lip quivered and she threw I-chan to the ground. She made the hand signs and ran out of the hideout.

XxTime PassXx

Emiko had been wandering aimlessly for three days. She was extremely hungry and thirsty. When she had left, she hadn't thought about taking any food or water. Her legs caved under her and she fell by the side of the road.

She awoke a few hours later to the sensation of moving. Emiko slowly opened her onyx eyes and saw a man with a mask over his face. He looked down and smiled at her.

"Ah, I see your awake. What's a tiny little rain ninja doing all the way out here?"

Emiko let out a sad little cough.

"I need to go to Konoha. Do you have any food or water, mister? I'm really hungry."

The man smiled. He looked over his shoulder.

"Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, lets' stop here."

The four ninja dropped down from the trees. The man put Emiko down, keeping a hand on her back to steady her.

"I suppose some introductions are in order. I'm Hatake Kakashi. The young lady is Haruno Sakura, the blonde is Uzumaki Naruto, and the cranky young man is Uchiha Sasuke. What's your name, little rain ninja?"

"I'm Emiko."

Sakura squealed and kneeled down to Emiko's level.

"You're so cute! You look like a little Sasuke-kun!"

Emiko peeked around Sakura and stared at Sasuke. She walked over to him and tugged on his hand.

Sasuke glared down at Emiko.

"What?"

Emiko smiled brightly.

"Nice to meet you, Cockatoo-san."

Naruto burst out laughing while Sakura had a horrified look on her face. Sasuke's glare intensified.

"How did you come up with such a stupid name?"

"The back of your head looks like a cockatoo's ass."

By the time Kakashi came over with food and water for Emiko, Naruto was having difficulty breathing, Sakura had fainted, and Sasuke's face was bright red.

"Here you go, Emiko-chan. Eat it slowly so you don't get a tummy ache."

Emiko took the rice ball from Kakashi with one hand. Her other hand was still holding Sasuke's hand.

"Are you going to let go of my hand anytime soon?"

Emiko shook her head.

"You remind me of someone in my family. So if it's okay, I want to stay by you."

Sasuke sighed and sat down on the forest ground. He allowed Emiko to sit in his lap while she ate her rice ball and drank her water.

Naruto had finally calmed down and was sitting on Sasuke's right, while Sakura was on Sasuke's left. Sakura began glaring angrily at Emiko.

"Why don't you get off of Sasuke-kun, Emiko-chan? I'm sure he doesn't want you there."

"If Cockatoo-san tells me to get off, I will. Mind your own business, Pinky-san."

Sakura looked ready to throttle the little girl, but Sasuke fixed her with an Uchiha glare.

Kakashi squatted down smiling.

"Now then, will you tell us why you're all the way out here, Emiko-chan?"

Emiko picked up one of Sasuke's hands and began fiddling with his fingers.

"Well, someone in my family told me that my Papa was going to kill me if I was useless. He said Papa was already planning to kill me. I heard them talking about the chunin exam in Konoha. I thought, if I could take the exam, I would become useful and Papa wouldn't kill me."

Kakashi continued smiling.

"How old are you?"

"I just turned four."

"Aren't you a little young to be taking the exam?"

Tears began filling Emiko's eyes.

"Please let me take the exam! I'll do whatever you want if you let me take the exam! I want Papa to think I'm useful!"

Kakashi sighed.

"We'll take you to meet with the Hokage and see what he says."

Emiko smiled but tears continued to spill from her eyes. She buried her face in Sasuke's shoulder.

Sasuke forced her to look up at him. He wiped her tears away with his armband.

"Stop crying. You're getting my shirt wet."

Kakashi stood up, putting his pack back on.

"Let's hurry and get to Konoha before it gets dark."

Sasuke stood up, gently placing Emiko on the ground. He gave Sakura another warning glare when he saw her glaring at Emiko. He looked back down at Emiko.

"Do you need someone to carry you?"

"It's okay. Papa's been training me since I turned three."

The group of five jumped into the trees.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei, what are the chunin exams?"

"I'll tell you later, Naruto."

XxMeanwhileXx

The Akatsuki were returning to their hideout, all exhausted from their missions. The boulder was removed and Konan bounded into the hallway.

"We're home, Emiko-chan!"

The rest of the group entered the hallway. It was Itachi that noticed I-chan lying on the floor.

"Um, you should all come sit in the main room."

The group entered and saw Kakazu and Hidan standing. Kakazu had a piece of paper in his hand. Kakazu tossed the paper to Konan. She looked at it, confused.

"I don't know what it says. It's just a bunch of random letters."

"We think it's Emiko's runaway note."

"What!?"

"Genius over there told Emiko that Pein was planning to kill her. We didn't notice she was missing until dark. She's been gone for three days."

Konan sprang up and began throttling Hidan.

"Fuck, woman! Stop hitting me damnit! I didn't know she'd run away!"

Itachi tightened his grip on I-chan. He turned his gaze to Pein. Pein stood up, forcing everyone to pay attention.

"We'll search for her in the morning. Everyone, let's get some rest."

Konan gave Hidan one last kick in the head before following the other members out of the room.

XxIn KonohaXx

"Ah!"

Emiko was hiding behind Kakashi. Her two small hands were holding onto one of Kakashi's gloved hands. She hesitantly peeked out from behind Kakashi and quickly hid behind him again.

"Gai, I think you're scaring the poor girl."

Gai looked up from doing his nice guy pose and laughed.

"Forgive me, Emiko-chan! I did not mean for my youth to startle you so!"

Emiko said nothing and stayed hidden behind Kakashi. They had taken her away from Cockatoo-san and she was not happy. Now, this strange man was doing strange poses.

Kurenai contained a squeal at how adorable the small child was. She kneeled beside Emiko and smiled. Emiko gave Kurenai a small smile in return. She slowly let go of Kakashi and attached herself to Kurenai's neck. She took in a deep breath and giggled.

"You smell like Mama."

Kurenai smiled and stood up with Emiko still in her arms. She turned to once again face the Hokage.

The Third Hokage was trying to hold back a laugh at Emiko's reaction to Gai. He had summoned all the jounin to attend this rather interesting meeting.

"So, you want to take the exam, Emiko?"

Emiko removed her head from Kurenai's neck and nodded.

"I want to prove to Papa that I'm not useless. If I take the exam, he'll know I'm not useless."

The Hokage sighed.

"This is a very dangerous test, Emiko. You could get hurt."

"I'm not scared! One time, Papa threw me down a really deep hole and I had to get out using chakra and he wouldn't let me out until I did it right!"

Everyone's eyes widened as Emiko continued rambling off her training. The Hokage cleared his throat, signaling Emiko to stop talking.

"Very well, Emiko. This is completely unorthodox, but I will let you enter the exam. First, I would like to see your training."

Emiko grinned and clapped her hands together.

"Okay, Hokage-san. Lady-san, can you put me down?"

Kurenai put Emiko on the ground. Emiko walked over to where the Hokage was standing and took his hand. She let him lead her away from the other jounin towards one of the training fields.

Once the two of them had left, Kurenai turned to Kakashi.

"She was just wandering in the forest?"

"Yeah. I tried to ask her who her family was but she said she couldn't tell me their names. She said that her father said we'd take her away from them."

"She should be taken away from them! What kind of father threatens to kill his child?"

Asuma lit a cigarette and blew a smoke cloud out.

"A little rain ninja wandering around definetly isn't normal. How'd she get out without any one catching her?"

"Whatever the case, little Emiko-chan is now here. Her youth inspires me to work harder!"

Everyone rolled their eyes and patiently waited for the Hokage to return. When he did, it was without Emiko.

"She saw Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura and ran off to join them. She's quite the amazing little girl. She can already control her element very well and has an amazing amount of control over her chakra. Her father must have trained her hard."

Kakashi looked out the window and saw Emiko attached to Sasuke.

Sakura was furious. The little girl had appeared out of nowhere and was now holding Sasuke's hand again!

"So, Emiko-chan, where're you going to stay?"

"I don't know Kitsune-san."

"Kitsune-san?"

"You've got whiskers like a kitsune."

"You can stay with me."

Emiko stared up at Sasuke, surprised as did Naruto and Sakura. A huge smile spread across Emiko's face.

"Really, Cockatoo-san? I thought you didn't like me!"

Sasuke scoffed and looked away. There was no way he was going to let the young girl know that he could relate to her. Wanting to be acknowledged by her father reminded Sasuke of himself when he was younger, desperately trying to get his father's attention.

"Whatever. Let's go, Munchkin-chan."

Emiko huffed and kicked Sasuke's shin.

"Don't call me that!"

Sasuke smirked. He held Emiko's hand and led her away from Sakura and Naruto.

Emiko turned her head and waved goodbye to Naruto and shot Sakura the bird.

For the record, Emiko does not know any of the Akatsuki's last names and that is why she doesn't realize that Sasuke is Itachi's brother. Also, I just realized Emiko seems to evoke squeals from all women she comes across and attaches to anything that remotely looks like an Uchiha. So yay! Now Emiko's adventures in Konoha can begin.