Dear Kakashi,

I have the regrettable duty of telling you some bad news. It deals with Akira. I think you can tell where this is going to go. In any case, she's been taken. At the moment we have no information on her whereabouts. I hope you can forgive me and continue buying my books.

If you think this is rather heartless of me as a certain blonde ninja does, I have some information you may want to know. Akira has been able to contact me through a small dragon. I know I seem insane but Naruto vouched for it. Apparently she has gained their trust and is learning their techniques as we speak. In a few days she says she will have their weaknesses and leave. Each day around sunset I'm supposed to look to the East and I suggest you keep your eye aimed that way as well.

I heard you had a run in with Itachi and Kisame, Get well soon.

Sincerely,

Jiraiya.

P.S The kid is still clueless about Akira's gender.

P.S.S. I hope Gai managed to get Sasuke back safely and explained what happened. If not I will be willing to talk to you upon our arrival with Tsunade.

Kakashi's POV

Anger welled up inside me. I told him, I told him specifically to watch out for her and what happens she gets kidnapped. I sighed. She had damn well be safe, but what is she thinking? She can't possibly believe the Akatsuki will just let her train with them. She should just wait for the Anbu to get her back. It's their job to gather intelligence as dangerous as this; it's not the place for a 13 year old. I struggled to get out of bed. I have to get her myself. I managed to get my feet onto the cold floor before Gai rushed in to the room.

"Kakashi I- what the blazes are you doing? You shouldn't move yet! Nurse! Nurse!" He scolded helping me back into bed.

"What seems to be the problem? Oh Kakashi. You shouldn't move yet, you're still weak from the genjutsu."

"Why would you even try something like this? You, of all people, know your limits." Gai said standing next to the window.

"My window." I said raising peculiar looks from both the nurse and Gai. "It faces North."

The nurse and Gai exchanged a look before the Nurse excused herself to get the doctor. Apparently I seemed a bit 'out if it'.

"Gai," I started as soon as she left the room. "Akira's been kidnapped. Were you aware of this?"

He gulped audibly, "I uh might have been. I was just worried about your health so I didn't tell you. But don't worry the Anbu have gone after her."

"That could be worse."

"What?"

"At the moment she is playing into the demands of the Akatsuki, if she's not careful enough she could be given the title rogue nin and a criminal code."

"I'm sure that won't happen and even if it does she'll be fine. We can appeal to the counsel, I'm sure others will back her up."

"You're right, but I can't sit still knowing she's with them."

"I understand but the best you can do is rest. The doctor will deal with you in a minute you're strange rambling seemed to have unnerved the nurse."

"Yes I guessed it would have. Do you think I could switch rooms though? I want a window facing east."

Akira's POV

Jiraiya had given me three days to get what I needed. It wasn't much time to learn all I wanted and figure out weaknesses. But then again in a few days I would be used as bait, if I wasn't trustworthy they'd kill me. Luckily they seem to think I'll be useful even after Naruto's been caught.

At the moment I was in chakra training with Itachi and Kisame, on his own Itachi would most likely have killed me but luckily Kisame made light of the training and it went smoothly. Itachi would teach me to control my chakra as much as possible for genjutsu's and ninjutsu's while Kisame took my chakra away forcing me to cope and adapt.

It was deadly, possibly worse than the training with Ibiki but this had more purpose. Itachi seemed to favor his right side, he was also fairly laid-back in training. But I couldn't help but dislike him. Konan gave me a brief overview of the Akatsuki.

Kisame was one of the seven swordsmen of the mist just like Zabuza and I had somehow managed to convince him that I was biologically related to Zabuza. He almost wanted to kill me right then and there. Itachi was Sasuke's brother, shocker there, and he had killed the entire clan causing Sasuke to become what he is today, completely distant. Not only did he psychologically kill Sasuke and try to kill Naruto but he had also landed Kakashi in the hospital quite recently. I knew I should have stayed to help, then again I would have ended up getting in the way or getting killed.

I ducked away from a few kunai before sending a chakra blast at Itachi, I could now harness my chakra well but jutsu's were more of a difficulty, mainly because Itachi refused to teach a possible enemy. I'll give him this, he's intelligent if an a…right I'm not allowed to say that word, never mind.

A swift kick to the stomach and I had to stop. "You're distracted. We're done for the day." Itachi said.

Kisame walked over to me, each time my training ended I felt dejected and weak. "You know he's only being hard on you because you remind him of his brother."

"That's not it." I said shakily getting to my feet. "He doesn't trust me. Besides I'm not Sasuke, if he hates his brother he shouldn't take it out on me."

"You've got it wrong. He doesn't hate his little brother, if he did he would have killed him back then. He didn't because he couldn't bear to kill his little brother. He hates how you remind him of a different time, when Sasuke only trained to protect."

"Jeez, he should just tell Sasuke that." I grumbled walking back inside the maze of halls. The Akatsuki had a training room inside the base, complete with grass, trees, water features, it was truly amazing. Sadly when I leave it'll all be gone.

Turning a corner I bumped into Deidara, "Woah, what happened to you?"

"Itachi doesn't exactly go easy on me."

"That sucks, I always hated that Uchicha un. You up for a bit of explosives training?"

"Let me get Konan to heal me a bit first."

"Why not get Kakuzu, he heals Hidan's wounds all the time."

"No way! He hates me, he'd stick me with the needle just to laugh at me."

He shrugged before walking to his room, "I'll meet you outside in 10, don't run away, if you do Itachi would be on your tail in no time."

"Yeah yeah. I'm not stupid." I began a slow jog, steadily breaking into a run until reaching the meeting hall. Konan never left Pein's side and Pein never seemed to leave the meeting room. I was beginning to think he never slept. "Hey,Konan. I need help, Itachi tried to kill me in training again."

"Come in." She replied.

I opened the doors, and was greeted by Pein's emotionless face staring down at me from his seat at the head of the table, Konan standing loyally by Pein.

"What happened to you? You look terrible." She said walking to me, grabbing bandages from within the shadows, wait there was a shelf there?

"She's weak still. If she fought better she wouldn't have these wounds. Although…" He seemed to be amused. "She has less than the first time they trained."

Konan shut her eyes, obviously resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "She's still a child you can't expect her to be brilliant in a few days. You took 3 years to get to this level, if I recall."

"You're mistaken."

She scoffed, "Am I? Well, your wounds are healed now Akira. You should take this break as a healing period. Rest and wait until tomorrow to train."

"Uh, I actually promised Deidara I'd train with him a bit."

They both looked at me, each held worry in their eyes. "Don't let him blow you up." Pein's voice was grave and practically emotionless.

"We're not using them on each other. He's just teaching me how to make them." Not that I haven't already gotten a few too many ideas. Kakashi's going to kill me when I get back. I thought gently touching the book placed against my stomach.

"Well be good then. Pein do you have anything to say?"

"Do. Not. Let him kill you. I thought my thoughts were clear." He grumbled.

I left the room listening to them banter back and forth. They didn't seem very talkative but together they could be. Running outside was an amazing feeling, it was better than the weekly excursions outside back home.

"I thought I warned you not to run away, yeah."

"I'm not running away, I'm just running. I haven't felt so enclosed since I was living with my family."

"I thought you still loved with them." He said unpacking the equipment.

"No, I went and got kidnapped by a new family. Now I have my biological dad, my new dad, a brother, friends, uncles, a cousin and an imaginary aunt."

Deidara looked at me like I was crazy before sliding some chemicals towards me. "Alright, well you might as well talk about them. I can see you want to but you have to create at least one bomb before we get back and we'll test it in the usual field."

By usual field he meant the only field in a 60 mile radius that had numerous craters, scorch marks and basically no life. For once I wasn't to be blamed for something like this, Deidara started it.

So as we worked and he instructed, I told him about my new family. My dad couldn't cook, was over-protective, funny, and a jonin instructor in the leaf village. Deidara had slowed his work and he began narrowing down the choices. He nodded telling me to go on as he seemed to come to a dead end in his findings. Then I told him about my first Uncle who threw me off a cliff and could interrogate anyone besides me. He was high ranking and seemed terrifying at first but he was actually really nice, depending on the day.

Next came another Uncle who on first thought was my enemy, I accidently destroyed his kitchen and got away without punishment then again he hadn't been able to move. This Uncle didn't work for the leaf he was an S-rank nin who had kidnapped me. Kakashi said I might have developed something called Stockholm's Syndrome or something like that. Both my Uncle and cousin are dead now but I think they're happier.

Then there is my Uncle who is plain insane. I didn't choose him as my uncle he just appeared. You'd definitely be able to spot him in a crowd, he's another jonin instructor at the leaf.

Deidara had stopped working with the bombs as he listened intently. "If I were you I wouldn't tell anyone else but I'm going to have to seeing as I work here un."

"I know, it's fine, I figure if you guys know then I'd hear word of how they're doing." I shrugged before holding up a palm sized bomb. "There, all done."

"Well we might as well see if it works before going to the next meeting."

I nodded rising from my spot on the grass, "Wait, what meeting?"

"The meeting to discuss you un. You gave me some interesting news, the meeting will begin with how training is going then I'll bring up your bizarre family." He smiled walking to the field. "Ready? Now."

He plugged his ears as I tossed the bomb into the field. Nothing happened. Deidara shook his head believing it was a dud. I smirked as I watched it glow lightly before blowing up in exactly 12 seconds. It wasn't perfect I wanted to get it to 10 or 5 seconds to make it a nice number but it always blew up at different times. I'd have to fix that.

"Nicely done yeah."

I nodded still staring at the spot, it had too much smoke and not enough power to do much damage. The damage had been isolated to much I need a way to push the force out instead of up. I shrugged and walked back to the hideout with Deidara. I'll work on it later, first I need to get into the meeting.

It wasn't too difficult to convince Konan to let me sit in the shadows behind Pein. Pein had grudgingly agreed but I wasn't sure how Konan had managed to convince him.

The meeting started Kisame mentioned how far my chakra usage has improved while Itachi said that I was weak and needed improvement. Kisame rolled his eyes whenever Itachi contradicted him. Deidara seemed to be quite happy with how quickly I had picked up the trade. Kakuzu mentioned how much I was costing the group and Hidan just made mention of how I should be a sacrifice in order to deal with me. Though he said I was getting better pain management skills as he had nearly broken my arm less than a day ago and I hadn't cried out. Konan seemed slightly angry but it could have been a trick of the light.

Then it came down to my family. Deidara gave a summary of each family member aside from my biological one and imaginary aunt. The group fell silent but Pein's eyes moved to find me in the shadows it was the only hint of real movement in the room.

"So we don't know who they are?"

"No but two are jounin. Another seems to be in the interrogation corps. and her other uncle and cousin are S-ranked nin, deceased un."

"Akira come here." Pein said. The others seemed surprised I had been allowed into the meeting room for a meeting.

I walked forward, "Leader? I thought I was to stay silent?"

"I need more information. Who are your family?"

"Not telling. I need to protect them."

"If it's who I'm guessing, he's in the hospital now." Itachi said.

"What? Who is?" I asked glaring at him. What did he do to him?

"Kakashi Hatake, the copy-cat ninja is in the hospital suffering from over-exposure to an advanced genjutsu."

I froze, "You. Did. What to my dad?"

"So he is your father. Now you might as well tell us who the others are."

I know it was foolish and I know I wasn't thinking properly but he had hurt the first stranger to ever care, this stranger had become more of a family to me than my own one, aside from Atticus but now he's in the hospital thanks to this arrogant bas- Uchiha.

I appeared beside him kicking him swiftly across the room, the clone disappeared leaving me with a kunai to my neck.

"I suggest you make no other attempts to kill me, or I will do the same to you."

I resisted every urge to kill him instead opting to admit defeat and live another day. I was weak and he was strong, I was mortal and I could die. My body sadly didn't register my thoughts and turned instinctively, punching the Uchiha in the stomach taking him by surprise.

My eyes widended as I skittered over to Pein. "I didn't mean to do that. I swear that was instinct, don't let him kill me."

Pein seemed to think it over in his mind, "Itachi it seems you taught her well, for a punch that effective to come from instinct she must have had a good trainer."

Itachi sat back in his chair. "Or maybe she was just a good student."

I had just been praised by the emotionless Uchiha after punching him in the stomach. I could have cared less what was going on, I was just so confused. Uchiha's don't praise, they antagonize, he seemed slightly proud as though he were looking at me but seeing someone else.

The meeting continued with them all guessing my family and analyzing my reaction. I thought I did pretty well but they did guess Gai was the jounin. I had shrugged that one off, they wouldn't attack Gai I should think.

After the meeting, Kisame caught up to me. He had a suspicion that my uncle had been Zabuza Momochi and my cousin had been Haku. They were the only recent killings done by leaf genin. I nodded and Kisame seemed conflicted for a moment before hugging me in a death grip. He set me down ruffling my hair a bit before leaving without saying another word.

All in all it was a good day. I had only one last day here, I was leaving tomorrow night, I intended to spend it right.