A/N: So in this chapter my two versions of the sequel will start to merge quite a bit, but the general story arc is different, I just kept these scenes because it adds a bit extra to character building and the actual story content.

If you like it so far, let me know.

Still a disclaimer.

Readjusting

Hidan had found himself a new game. The 'tell Akira all sorts of lies and make her believe they're true because she's so gullible' game, which Akira was not enjoying.

'…and we have to ration our showers now, once a week maximum! And we can only have one drink of water a day 'cause Kakuzu stopped paying the water bill.' Well, that one wasn't entirely untrue. The money-tight member had cut down their water supply, but there was still plenty of it even if it did run cold most of the time.

'That is ridiculous.' Akira rolled her eyes, but made a mental note to check the rations thing with one of the others.

'No, really it's fucking true!'

'Just because you hate showers doesn't mean no one else should have one!' She stuck her tongue out childishly, only encouraging him more.

'Oh and we have to address Konan as 'Princess' now… and we're not allowed to–'

'Oh shut up, Hidan. Don't listen to him, Akira. He's been bored out of his mind here without you to pester.' Konan smiled prettily at Akira as she entered the kitchen and flicked the kettle on, leaning back to wait patiently for her afternoon tea. 'How are you coping with it all?'

'I don't know yet.' Akira sighed. She was finding it difficult to battle her emotions since, she sort of felt like it was only yesterday that the events of their last mission together had unfolded. She supressed a shudder and replied evenly. 'I guess I'm alright. What have I missed?'

Konan laughed, 'not much. Kiri's new, she's a bit of a short fuse but you'll get used to her. Hidan already hates her but that's not unusual.'

'You think you've been through shit, wait till you meet that bitch.' Hidan scoffed before helping himself to an over-filled bowl of blood-red soup.

Konan looked like she wanted to comment further on the red head, but she changed the subject and poured out some tea. 'You can have your old room back! We had plans for extra members but two died in battle and one was just useless so we had Itachi dispose of him before–'

'Wait, slow down, Konan!' Akira halted her, unable to resist giggling lightly at her old friend.

'Of course! Sorry Akira… It's just nice to have you back around again.' Konan offered her long-lost friend a small smile, before standing up to leave. 'I have to run, Pein's been awfully stressed recently with everything that's happened…'

Akira smiled sympathetically as she watched the blue haired woman collect her steaming mug and exit the room, leaving her alone once again with Hidan.

Taking the opportunity to gather her confused thoughts, she tried to arrange her timeline in her mind and decide on her next move. Obviously she had to lay low for a while until she gained Pein's trust again enough to let her leave the base unsupervised. But she doubted that would happen any time soon.

She chewed her lip as her mind started to wander to the Mist and her obliviously betrayed friends. The guilt began to well up in the pit of her stomach as she searched her brain for a conclusion that would end well for both the Akatsuki and the hidden Mist ninja.

However, it was proving difficult since Hidan was slurping noisily across from her, occasionally stopping to glug from the bottle of milk he had snatched from the fridge.

Sighing, she stood up muttering something about being in the training room. She walked solemnly to the ring. She had kept up her taijutsu practice, Haru had helped her a lot over the previous summer, since most of the missions were mere C and D ranks, which he had avoided as much as possible.

She missed Haru already, not to mention the growing concern about his wellbeing. Making a mental note to query Itachi on that later, she wondered vaguely what was going on back home. Home in the Mist, or the Hidden Waterfall? Where did she even regard as home right now?

'Hey.'

She looked up, her cobalt eyes meeting his in mild surprise. She hadn't noticed him approach. 'Hey…'

The blonde before her sighed and nodded his head in the direction she'd been walking, his visible icy blue eye shadowed in the dim light so she couldn't read his expression. They began to walk together quietly, both apparently lost in thought.

They arrived at the training ring, and she let her eyes scan the empty room. It hadn't changed in the slightest. 'Deidara?'

'Hmm?'

'Why did you bring me back here with you?'

He frowned, as if debating whether or not this was one of those trick questions women sometimes used on men in an attempt to figure out what they're thinking. But she countered herself before he could respond.

'I mean you could have left me there… It probably would have been easier that way… for everyone.'

'Easier how?'

'Well… things are different now… We can't just go back to the way everything was before.'

He knew she was right, but he couldn't supress the niggling feeling of disappointment at her honesty. He pursed his lips as he glanced to the side, searched her face and trying to read her expression. She was watching him too, but cautiously, as though she was waiting for him to get angry at her and shout.

He finally sighed again, softly this time, words escaping his mouth before he realised or could stop them. 'Maybe I just didn't want to lose you again, yeah…'

Her mouth fell into a small 'o' shape as she stared, but he dropped her gaze quickly and sauntered to the opposite side of the ring, eager to change the subject. 'You been practicing much?'

'Is that a challenge?' Akira raised an eyebrow playfully, then on remembering something, pouted. 'I don't have my whistle.'

'Thank God for that, yeah.' He laughed, remembering their first ever spar. 'Strictly taijutsu. No clay, no freaky music thing. Deal?'

'Alright, deal!' She charged forward, pulling back her fist as she ran.

********* Elsewhere **********

'Haru! Haru, can you hear me?!' Her pale blonde hair fell over her shoulder as she shook the boy in her arms gently once again, freezing all movement when he stirred.

'…Jana? I-is that you?' Haru reached up to rub his head, a vague attempt at soothing the throbbing pain at the back of his eyes. 'Geez I feel like I was hit by an avalanche…'

Jana's soft chuckle of relief drew his attention to her face, she was badly bruised along the right side of her jawline and, although faint, he could just about make out several traces of dried blood flaking through her right eyebrow.

'Haru! You're okay… I was so worried!' She pulled him into a death hug, only releasing him when he managed to wheeze out that he couldn't breathe.

That's when it all came back. It hit him like a raging runaway train and he sprung up a little too quickly shouting, 'the Akatsuki are escaping! We have to stop them before they–'

'Shh, Haru calm down, they're long gone. There's nothing you can do.'

'What do you mean, they're long gone?!' It was only now that he took the time to take in his surroundings. He was in a hospital, with two concerned faces peering down at him, his teammate and lifelong friend, Jana, and one he didn't recognise.

'Haru, you're in hospital. You've been out cold for three days!'

'B-but… I can't have…' He shook his head in disbelief. What happened to Akira?

As though reading his mind, Jana placed her hand over one of his clenched fists. 'They didn't find the Akatsuki, Haru. Or… her. They're long gone, and they aren't coming back.'

He stared at an unfamiliar woman beside him, watching with disinterest as she checked his pulse and scribbled something down in his patient file.

'No.' He stated simply, frowning.

'What?' Jana mirrored his expression, her lilac eyes narrowing in confusion.

'I will find her, Jana. I will find Akira, and I'm going to bring her home.'

********** Back at the base **********

Deidara found himself watching her, just like old times, the way her sapphire eyes glinted when she laughed, and how she twirled her loose strands of hair around her finger when she was thinking or simply out of habit.

He suppressed an amused smirk as she currently tried to scoop up the last remnants of ramen from her almost-empty bowl with her chopsticks, oblivious to her audience. She sighed in defeat, moving to rinse it out in the sink.

Across the table sat Kiri, being suspiciously and uncharacteristically quiet. She was hunched over her coffee, with both hands cupped around the mug in an attempt to keep warm.

Sensing another presence, Deidara looked up just in time to see Kisame stroll tiredly through the kitchen doorway, pausing beside Akira to reach around her and flick the kettle on. He set about preparing himself a sandwich, but the green-haired girl stopped him.

'Here, I'll make it.' She smiled at the shark man and he grinned in response.

'Taking up your house-keeping role again eh, Greeny?'

'No,' She put her hands on her hips mockingly and turned to watch him slump into a chair at the table. 'I was just being nice, actually. I do that sometimes! Besides, you make such a mess…'

Before Kisame could respond, Kiri scoffed loudly, and the three glanced at her in slight surprise.

'Something wrong, shorty?' Kisame pressed when the red head offered no explanation.

'Nope. Nothing at all.' She stood up abruptly, scraping her chair across the floor noisily as she headed out of the room, her nose in the air.

'…Well that was weird.' The blonde muttered, looking back to Akira, who was staring at the doorway with puzzled expression.

Kisame snapped his fingers suddenly. 'Oh! Konan was looking for you by the way. Said she has some mission or something for you.'

That shocked her. 'For me? What? W-why?'

He smirked. 'Don't worry, it's nothing too drastic.'

Intrigued, Akira finished the sandwich she was making in a flurry and all but threw it at Kisame before hurrying out into the corridor. It may have been a long time, but to her, all the memories were fresh, so she easily found the route to the blue haired woman's room.

On her way she bumped into Itachi, who seemed to be heading in the same direction.

'Afternoon,' she greeted him pleasantly, smiling when he nodded in response. He fell into step beside her silently, before she could no longer contain her question. 'Hey, Itachi? Erm…'

She faltered, unsure of how to continue, but he guessed where she was headed already. 'I didn't kill him. Just knocked him out.'

'Oh.' She gulped, relieved for her friend, but embarrassed to not even have been able to ask about his well being herself. 'Thank you…'

Sensing her discomfort, the Uchiha switched topics. 'Are you looking for Konan?'

'Yeah I was just on my way to her room.'

'She won't be in there.' Itachi's black eyes flicked down to meet Akira's.

'Oh?' She frowned, confused, then realised what he meant. 'Oh. She's with Pein in the office, right?'

His lips twitched into a small smile in confirmation, but it disappeared as quickly as it had come. She couldn't help but feel like he was just a tiny bit proud of her for remembering such a detail, and had to hold back a laugh at the thought of Itachi patting her on the head and telling her 'good job'.

They parted ways at the next corridor, and Akira arrived a few minutes later at her destination. She raised a hand to tap lightly on the door, but the wood disappeared beneath her knuckles and in its place stood said bluenette.

Nerves rising in her throat, Akira offered her a weak smile. 'Erm, did you want to see me?'

'Ah yes, come in, come in!' Bursting into life as though someone had just switched the lights on upstairs, she swung her door open the rest of the way and ushered her in.

Konan perched on the end of the desk which, she noted, looked extremely out of place without it's orange-haired master leaning over it. She wondered briefly where he could be, but lost interest when Konan began to speak.

'Don't look so worried, Akira. It's nothing you can't handle. It should actually be quite easy for you.'

'Right…' Reaching up to tug on a loose lock of teal hair, she shuffled into one of the chairs in an attempt at looking more relaxed, though it didn't work.

'You see, we erm, have this prisoner…'

Oh. Well, I definitely didn't see that one coming! I didn't even know they had a prison here…

'He's… Well to put it bluntly he's refusing to cooperate and we think, no, we know he has some vital information about the whereabouts of the ten tails husk.'

The mere mention of the creature sent shivers down Akira's spine as she recalled the first time she had heard about that. That thing could only ever be associated with trouble.

'So you want me to look into his mind and…'

'Exactly.' Konan smiled, clearly pleased that she'd caught on so fast.

Then something struck her. 'You're trusting me with this so soon?' She tilted her head to question her old friend. 'Why can't Itachi do it?'

'We don't all mistrust you, Akira! Though I have to say it did take some convincing to get Pein to agree, but I believe I made the right decision. I trust you.' The woman smiled and Akira blushed feeling slightly overwhelmed by Konan's kind words, as though nothing had ever changed between them.

'And no, Itachi has unfortunately been rendered useless in this situation because this prisoner is immune to the Sharingan.'

Akira blinked at her. 'Is that even possible?'

'Apparently. He's an old experiment of a certain ex-member which we think is the reason behind his immunity… I believe you had the misfortune to meet said man once in the past…'

Orochimaru. The mere mention of the man had her recoiling in disgust.

The idea of being able to have a rummage around in someone's mind that had been so close to that vulgar snake scared her, yes, but she was also eager to prove herself. 'Alright. When do I begin?'

A/N: So, as you can see, it's pretty similar but details have been changed to lead the story through the new arc.

I hate to do this, but I'm kinda sad that hardly anyone reviews (Thanks a million to you who does, you know who you are!) so until I get another, lets say 2 reviews, I'm not uploading any more chapter.

It doesn't take any effort guys! Share the love (or hate, I dont mind)!

Peace out x