Chapter Eleven - A Snake in the Grass

Aiko's bright eyes focused on her oji-san trying, and failing, to suppress the broad grin on her face.

"Today marks your official membership as a member of Akatsuki," Pain declared, his swirly eyes trained on the girl who had grown so much over the past two years. "Therefore, it is time that we shared with you our goals."

"I thought Akatuski's goal was peace," she frowned, looking at the orange-haired man with a tilt of her head.

"Yes, you are correct, but Akatuski has three, what you may call, sub-goals, that we must complete to achieve the ultimate goal of peace," Pain explained, causing the girl's face to grow neutral as she focused. "The first was raising enough funds to support the work of our organisation."

"Wonder who took care of that," she murmured under her breath.

"The second is providing a service for shinobi countries, a fighting force for hire, for prices much below the standard to monopolise the industry. Once villages grow complacent we will exploit their weakness, gathering up the great power known in the world as tailed beasts."

Aiko sucked in her breath. So Akatuski sought out a power which was able to defeat a swordsman. Jaw clenched, her eyes narrowed as she saw an opportunity for revenge.

"The tailed beasts are essential for preventing war within this world, and once the shinobi forces have been eradicated, Akatsuki will dominate these lands, finally uniting them in an era of peace."

Aiko looked down at the ground, contemplating the grand scheme of things. With a nod, she turned her focus back to Pain.

"I won't let you down. I vowed to bring about my oto-san's desire for peace and I know he trusted you greatly when it came to achieving this. I will follow you until the very end, oji-san," Aiko declared.

Far away in a village where it always rained, Nagato questioned whether there was a leak in the ceiling, for his cheek seemed to be speckled with water.

"Very good," Pain nodded, first to the girl, and then to Konan who held a black bundle in her arms, which she passed to him ceremoniously. "As with all our members you will wear this cloak; its red clouds representing the blood shed during war and reminding us of our great purpose."

Aiko's heart leapt as she spotted the familiar material. Internally, she was squealing at the thought of donning her very own cloak with bright red clouds. The thought almost made her dizzy. Slowly, she reached out for the soft material, a choir ringing out in the background as a bright light illuminated her.

"But for your first mission, you will not be needing it."

The choir cut off.

"Eh?" Aiko grunted, looking at the cloak mournfully as it was torn from her grasp. "What mission would I be going on to not need the cloak?"

"Your membership provides us with a unique opportunity," Konan explained, looking slightly sullen, "as you are an Akatsuki member who has no former affiliations with the Hidden Villages."

"So I'm going to be undercover as some sort of spy?" Aiko questioned.

"That is correct. Your age also provides us with a great advantage to put you in the presence of two tailed beasts in order for you to gather intelligence on them both," Pain continued.

"Very well," Aiko nodded, "so where will this meeting of tailed beasts take place?"

"In Konohagakure, where both hosts will be participating in the upcoming Chunin Exams."

XxX

Aiko adjusted her hitai-ite signifying her as shinobi of Amegakure once again, finding Deidara whacking her hand away.

"Stop fidgeting, un. You'll be fine. What's the worst that can happen?"

"You had to ask, brat," Sasori spat.

"Well, I could be found out and taken into T&I where they'll tickle me until I die. Or maybe one of the tests will involve me singing the Amegakure Village Anthem and I don't know it! Or maybe giant monsters will descend on the Chunin Exam, and I'll die because I'm supposed to be undercover as a weak genin!" she rambled, her eye twitching.

"Giant monsters?" Deidara laughed.

"Ok," she sighed, rubbing her chin. "So maybe that last one is ridiculous, but the others are totally possible!"

"Stop being so childish, brat," Sasori scolded from the corner of the motel room. "The only Village Anthem Amegakure has is the sound of blood raining down on the ground."

Aiko just nodded. She was just twitchy because of nerves, she supposed. Even if her mother promised they would assist right away if she sent a paper note. Suddenly there was a knock at the door as Konan came to collect her daughter, having been designated to drop her off in Amegakure and give the shinobi their orders.

"You'll do great, un," Deidara cheered, "and if you do get taken into T&I, or even if giant monsters attack, I'll come and make them go katsu, ok?"

"Thanks Deidara," Aiko smiled, enveloping the artist in a hug.

He really was sweet when he promised to make her enemies go katsu.

XxX

Aiko was rather enjoying the view of someone other than herself cowering before her mother's hardened glare. Even more satisfying was the fact that these were hardened shinobi. Jonins' even. The one at the brunt of it was her new fake-Sensei. Aiko suspected he was likely to be the sturdiest of the bunch since he hadn't peed his pants yet.

What made her snicker even more was watching the Genin be debriefed.

"But Sensei, who is she? I've never seen her before…" one boy with spiky blue hair piped up.

"And no-one will see you ever again if you dare question me, Tatsuo," her fake-Sensei growled back.

Aiko suspected that one was a bit of an idiot, so of course he ended up being her teammate.

"So Suki…"

Aiko had to stop herself from laughing. She highly suspected Kisame had something to do with the fake name given to her.

"What sort of skills do you have?" Tatsuo inquired under his breath, dark blue eyes flicking nervously to their Jonin Sensei.

He wore a green scarf and light grey jacket. It was kind of like an unofficial uniform to half the kids here, so she had to wear it too. That, along with the sword on her back which made her sweat drop.

"I use a Yumi," she dead-panned.

"That's a bow, right? Where are your arrows?"

Definitely an idiot.

"She has a sword," her other teammate, Anzu, pointed out, rolling her eyes.

She was a girl whose black hair was cropped short to frame her face. She sported a similar outfit to Tatsuo, except she had tied her grey jacket around her waist and had drawn her green scarf up around her mouth. Aiko couldn't help but be relieved that at least one of them had more than air between their ears.

"I use water release as well," she prompted, thinking it might be good if she knew their skills before they fought together.

She was keeping her paper-based techniques a secret, since it was her only means of communicating with external parties.

That and she liked messing with them. They had no idea why they were wearing paper bracelets on their wrists. Her mother had suggested them as an insurance policy, but Aiko thought they were the perfect tool for turning people into human puppets. She couldn't wait to stick them on Deidara to make him perform 'Two Little Frogs'. Her face brightened at the very thought.

"Ahh, I don't even know what nature I have," Tatsuo revealed.

"Water type, and I use knives," Anzu drawled, sounding bored.

Aiko sighed. So much for having a bad-ass team, although the gloomy girl was, at least, rather intimidating.

"Well just so you know I aim to make the finals, and I'll do everything in my power to make sure this team gets there!" she declared confidently.

"Heh, you won't need to do a thing," Tatsuo laughed. "Not with a powerful guy like me around."

Aiko just gave him a sceptical look, blinking as the gloomy girl piped up.

"Great, I'm stuck with the pep squad," she sighed before going on ahead.

XxX

Aiko was quite enjoying the show, arms folded as she watched a group of Konohagakure genin fight it out on the second floor. She was rooting for the guy in the green jumpsuit.

"Woo, go eyebrows!" she called out, grinning when he gave her a thumbs up.

She wondered how many spectators were so dumb that they didn't find it suspicous that Konohagakure had serious issues when it came to room numbering.

Of course, it was only so long until someone ruined all the fun. Aiko blinked not once, but twice at the sight of a miniature Itachi. The only evidence contrary to the fact that he hadn't shrunk himself down and snuck in to mess with her being the smug expression that twisted his features. She was pretty sure Itachi didn't even know what an expression was. Or a joke for that matter.

The important thing to note, however, was the boy stood alongside him. Aiko could plainly see his monster-like tendencies, with his bright sunshine yellow hair, sky blue eyes and oh-my-goodness he had cute little whiskers! Err, she meant totally evil whiskers...

Ok, so maybe he didn't look evil, but obviously the way he acted was. Like how he nodded along, making out that he didn't have a clue what his teammate was talking about as he pointed out the genjutsu. Aiko was convinced that each tilt of the head was a death sentence from the demon fox himself. Truly this boy was an evil mastermind with a talent in the deceptive arts.

Well, two could play that game.

"Nice to meet you," she bowed to the boy, who gawped at her address. "My name is Suki."

On the floor, Rock Lee made note of the girl who had cheered for him with tears in his eyes.

"The name is Uzumaki Naruto! Believe it," he shrieked.

Using the guise of being a loud-mouthed kid to attempt to deafen her. Yes, truly this fox was as cunning as they said. Now, to cleverly interrogate him for information!

"Tell me about yourself, Naruto," she smiled.

"Oh, well I like ramen, both instant and fresh, but Ichiraku's is definitely the best." Aiko nodded enthusiastically, scribbling away furiously before her hand stalled as she wrote down the word 'ramen'. "One day my dream is to be Hokage, eh, why are you writing this down?"

Ah, he had noticed! What a keen intellect - retreat, retreat!

"See you around, Uzumaki Naruto," she smiled, grabbing her team and rescuing them from his villainous ways.

"Bye," Naruto chirped, waving to her as he went to go tell his pink-haired teammate about his encounter. "Sakura, I think I just made a friend, although she kept taking notes on what I said…"

"As if, Naruto," the pink-haired kunoichi scoffed.

Ramen? The most malevolent source of chakra in this world liked… ramen? She wanted to say he was lying, but was a demon really so thorough as to leave a stray noodle in his hair? Perhaps it truly was a weakness of his. The Hokage part, at least, seemed to be the truth. The Kage were the strongest shinobi known to man and their fall would signify the conquering of the Village. Next, the world. It certainly sounded like something an evil fox would do… and oji-san, but that was completely different!

"Well, what do we have here."

Aiko lifted her head to the voice, her eyes meeting a man with black hair and slanted eyes. His headband and flak jacket indicated he was most likely a Jonin from the newly established Otogakure. She couldn't quite place it, but there was something very familiar about him…

"Please excuse me for a moment," their Jonin-sensei said to the Otogakure Jonin before turning to them, having just been in conversation with him. "You took your time, now make sure you do Amegakure proud."

Aiko actually sweat-dropped. How motivating.

"Good luck, little Ame genin," the Sound Jonin added, brushing past her as he whispered something only she could hear. "Beware of my little snakes in the grass. You might find they'll eat a paper doll such as yourself if you interfere with our plans."

Aiko's eyes widened, her body twirling around to witness the Jonin brush past a group of Konohagakure genin, led by a kid with ash hair and glasses. She suspected he said something to them too as the boy's gaze lingered on her, a dark look in his eyes.

She was so dead.

A/N: when I first wrote this Aiko's reaction to Naruto was kind of the typical 'but he's so nice, how can he be a demon?', but I'm so glad I did a rewrite. This is so much funnier! Also I hope it's okay I've moved to some canon events. I just thought I wouldn't NOT write her into the Chunin exams. Meh. Please accept it with the power of youth!