I don't own Naruto if I did none of the Akatsuki would die.

FEW THINGS CHANGED ABOUT THE AKATSUKI:

1. None of them will die.

2. Tobi is partnered with Zetsu.

3. Tobi wears the ring Orochimaru used to have. (they somehow got it back)

4. Why does Pain have red hair and I haven't mentioned his piercing? Becuase this is Nagato. He and Yahiko managed to kill Hanzo many years ago and Yahiko became village head instead of Nagato.

5. About Konan and Yahiko: they were in the Akatsuki but 'quit' when Konan became pregnant. So Yahiko is the village head and Nagato is the leader of the Akatsuki. However, they're still very good friends and Yahiko is aware of all Akatsuki's actions.


It was 8 am exactly when Ino knocked on the door of Hidan and Kakuzu's room. They had finished the breakfast half an hour ago and she went to her room to prepare for training while others, except 'Zombie Combo' as Kisame called them, went on missions. Also, she got her nail polish - pale orange. At first she was suspicious about it but since Pain didn't give a fuck about how she feels about that, she had to deal with that but after she stopped being salty she realized that it actually suits her pretty good. She heard some crushing and yelling inside and raised an eyebrow. "How many times must I tell you!? NO SACRIFICES IN OUR BATHROOM!" The voice that belonged to Kakuzu shouted very loudly. A few seconds later the door was opened by the said member and Ino couldn't help but twitch her nose when the smell that was coming from the room reached her. She tilted her head aside to take a look - the room was barely bigger than hers, it was split into two equal parts, with bed, closet, and desk on each side. One half was relatively clean - with a made up bed and some money bags and papers on the desk. But the other one - it was a disaster. The closet was opened, the floor was full of dirty laundry and plates with old food were on the desk. "Yo, Hime!" Hidan yelled from his bed.

Ino entered the room passed Kakuzu. "How can you live in this room?" She asked as she almost tripped over some pants lying on the floor. "It's disgusting!"

"Don't tell what to fucking do!" Hidan replied in his usual 'I don't give a fuck' tone and Ino realized that there was really no point in arguing with this guy.

"You've got training with me until 10:30 and with Hidan from them until 1." Kakuzu said and turned to leave and Ino followed him, giving Hidan one last threatening look and Hidan smirked. It's not that he didn't like Ino, on the contrary, she was his ticket to free Monday morning, but her attitude really bothered him.


Turns out Akatsuki have dojo as well. It really wasn't much different than any other dojos Ino has seen so far, it's just that this one didn't have any stuff for the beginners, why would it? These guys are S-ranked criminals. Kakuzu's voice woke her up from daydreaming and she turned to face him. "Before we begin, I have a question for you."

"Yes?" She asked, being eternally sure that the question is connected with her clan's jutsu.

"Are your earrings made of real gold?"

Ino's eyebrow raised and her jaw dropped. She tried to find a sign on him that he's joking, but he was deadly serious. "Uummm... Yeah, the gold and the gem is real. Why?" There was no way such small earrings could bother her in any way while fighting, it's not like they were hanging, they were smaller than her pinky nail and barely noticeable.

"You don't need to know why." He replied coldly. "Now, let's start. Take off your cloak." Kakuzu said while he let his own fall down. Like the rest of Akatsuki, he wore a dark blue t-shirt, greyish-blue pants with white nylons and shinobi sandals. Ino did the same, remaining in the crimson top and skirt, very similar to the one she normally wears. "First, we'll do some meditation to relax and stabilize chakra." Ino, being a medic-nin and sensor-type, saw no problem in this and was actually probably better in charka control than most of the guys here. They sat down on the floor with their legs crossed and hands put in the right position. "Now, repeat after me." Kakuzu said and took a deep breath. "Time is money."

Just when Ino got comfortable she opened her eyes and her eyebrows twitched. "Huh? What does have to do with chakra?"

Kakuzu sighed. "Excuse me, but who is here the sensei and who is the student?"

Ino felt ashamed, she just can't keep her mouth shut sometimes. She couldn't believe that she already screwed up. "You're right, I'm sorry, this is first and the last time, I promise."

Although he didn't say it, it seemed as if she was forgiven and he just closed his eyes again and focused, this time Ino followed in silence. "Time is money."

"Time is money." Ino repeated, not having the slightest idea how that was related to any jutsu.

"We don't spend money on stupid and trivial things." He said and kunoichi still couldn't believe that he was serious.

"We don't spend money on stupid and trivial things."

After long fifteen minutes filled with... inspiring and... life-worthy, lessons about money, they were finally over and Ino really hoped that she won't be forced to that again. Kakuzu, on the other hand, was very pleased with the situation, nobody EVER listens to his lectures about money and since he now officially had a student, he intended to transfer his knowledge to her, and the fact that she was quiet and listening to him made him like the young kunoichi a bit. "Now we'll do some ninjutsu."

'Thank Kami.' Ino thought happily and got up to her feet.


"Just let me go, Sakura." Sasuke hissed. He, Naruto, Kakashi, and Sakura were on training grounds and his girlfriend wouldn't stop nagging him about wanting to talk to him about Ino. "I already said what happened." The Uchiha said and was prepared to start training, but Sakura wasn't even close to being done.

"Come on Sasuke, talk to me." She almost whined, that tone really irritated Sasuke. He turned his back on her to face Kakashi to tell him to start the damn training already, but, as usual, he was busy reading his pervy books and wasn't paying attention to his students.

He had only now noticed that Team Gai joined them and Naruto was already competing with Rock Lee on who can do something ridiculously stupid and dangerous faster than the other one, that's probably the reason the Uzumaki was bothering Sasuke. He did notice Lee staring at his girlfriend from time to time though, no that he gave a shit about that at the moment. Sakura would never leave him.

"So, Kakashi," Gai said as he stood beside his rival to watch their students practicing taijutsu, "have you noticed that this is the fourth time Asuma ditched us for Kurenai this month? And it's 11th today!"

Sasuke, for some reason, was completely devoted to their conversation although Sakura was still saying something he wasn't listening. 'So, Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei... Ino would be thrilled to hear that.' He mentally cursed himself for remembering the blonde kunoichi he 'lost' in the forest. The mention of Sarutobi made Kakashi raise his head from his book. "It's not Kurenai this time, Gai." Kakashi said through his mask and his rival's usually happy and cheerful attitude dropped down. "It's Ino."

Gai nodded, he would probably be searching for his missing student as well if some of them 'got lost'. Asuma along with Shikamaru and Choji was in the forest yesterday whole day looking for Ino, but there was no trace of her. And today Kurenai and her team got a permission from Hokage to join the search. "I'm just glad you don't have a woman." Gai said matter of factly, trying to lighten the mood. Not that he didn't care about Asuma and Ino, but being sad won't help anybody.

"Right..." Kakashi replied and turned his head back to his book.

"You don't have anyone, right?" Gai raised an eyebrow.

"Of course not." Kakashi said in his usual cool tone and taijutsu master wanted to say something else, but was interrupted when a loud female voice yelled at them.

"You're reading that shit again!?" Gai turned to see Anko walking towards them with a rather angry expression and then glanced back at Kakashi who threw his Icha Icha book at young Sasuke who was listening to their conversation.

"What?" Kakashi said while laughing and rubbing the back of his head when Anko got to them. "I? No... It's Sasuke's, I was just keeping it for him. Haha..."

Sasuke looked like he wanted to throw that stupid book back at him but Gai interfered. "Why don't you go spar with Neji, huh? Byakugan vs. Sharingan is a match everybody enjoys." Sasuke snored but did as he was told and made his way towards Neji.


Training with Kakuzu went better than Ino thought, seeing how it began she thought it would be stupid, but it was actually fine. One of the things Ino noticed about him was that he was extremely smart and knew a lot about Yamanaka clan's jutsu, the other thing she noticed was that he had a short temper. She was lucky to make him angry only once but it really wasn't important so she went out of the situation unharmed. Also, he said in 'by the way' way, that he killed a few of his partners before he met Hidan, so Ino tried really hard not to get on this guy's nerves.

Now it was time to train with Hidan and she was nervous as hell, and she has to practice hand to hand combat with him, the situation really couldn't get worse. Kakuzu told her to stay in dojo until Hidan comes so she had no other reason than to wait for him.

After being ten minutes late, which Ino was actually glad he did because she was still tired from training with his partner, he showed up with a smirk on his face. 'So, how to make Hime's training as painful as possible?' Hidan thought as he entered the dojo. "Nice outfit, Hime." He said while eyeing her from head to toe. "Blood suits you fucking well." He added, meaning her crimson outfit by that.

"Would you mind stop calling me 'Hime'?" She asked, already annoyed by him.

"But you do behave like a princess." Hidan pointed out and twitched his eyebrows.

"Well, you behave like a dick but I don't call that." Ino said in a cocky tone but immediately regretted it, it was the moment she realized - she was really screwed.


Taijutsu wasn't the only thing Hidan taught Ino, she has learned a hell of a lot new swear words. Seriously, how can someone swear so much? The Jashinist fulfilled his own wish - made her training as bad as possible, he was just kinda sad that Pain forbade him to give her some serious injuries. After it was over Ino had blue eye, a lot of bruises all over her body and she felt like real crap. Although Hidan is a jerk it was better not to be a jerk back on him.

Lucky for her, she used her medical jutsu and when she was relatively fine, she went to the kitchen to make some lunch. She prepared Niratama Donburi, or Egg with Garlic Chives Over Rice, it was the only thing she was able to make since she had only half an hour. Five minutes after she finished she was still alone, it was weird, she has expected to see at least Hidan, although she was glad that she didn't.

She felt enormous chakra approaching and glanced at the door, waiting for the leader to enter. As the said redhead came in, she bowed her head down and greeted him with a warm smile. "Hello, Leader-sama." She really had no idea why was she smiling, she felt like shit a few minutes ago. Pain eyed her carefully for a moment before nodding. He then glanced at the meal Ino cooked before turning back to her.

"You and I are going to eat alone." He said in his normal composed tone.

"Oh, alright." Ino was a bit confused at first but she really had no choice. She set two plates for them and took her seat opposite to him. Pain sat and started eating in silence. For some reason, kunoichi had the feeling like he wanted to talk to her, but he stayed quiet. She wanted to start the conversation of any kind but didn't quite dare to speak. "How was training?" Pain finally asked and Ino felt like a rock fell off her heart.

She wasn't sure how to respond to him, she didn't know what his expectations were. "Good." She wanted to speak more but being afraid of saying something wrong kept her mouth shut.

"Kakuzu said that you have potential." The leader stated, much to Ino's surprise. The slightest blush ever ran through her cheeks and she took a bite of her meal in her mouth. After few minutes of silence, Pain said something that made Ino's aquamarine eyes go wide and her heart to start beating fast as hell. "Come to my room at midnight."


Please let me know what you think. I won't be updating unless I get at least 3 reviews per chapter because otherwise there is really no point in writing further. Also, if you have any suggestion or idea for this story feel free to share it with me.