Alright you luck ducks! Another chapter is here! Thank you my lovely reviewers! Your encouragement is awesome!

EDIT 1/12/2015: This story now has a beta and with this note, what you are reading is the beta'd version. All betaing has been done by bleeding-roses 16

Also warning for some very light swearing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or it's character. I just own Akiko and the plot.

Enjoy!

Death was something that I was aware of. I was aware of it but I never gave it due consideration. I knew people died, even during the funerals, it was an abstract concept something that I simply accepted and forgot later on. But this encounter with it brought it to the forefront of my mind, people died in this world. The people I love would die, and it hurt to think of it, the fact that it was true made it worse. And for a moment I considered doing my best not to make bonds with others if only for the fear of their deaths and the pain it will cause me. That notion reminded me of another that had taken that path as his own and even then there was still pain. Quashing that notion at the root, I looked further ahead beyond my own selfishness. Even If I chose not to make bonds, people were persistent and I knew that they would wiggle their way into my heart.

Death was a part of life for it gives reason for people to live and those battle and the things we see are reminders to keep living be they good or bad, happy or sad. Even now I still have nightmares of coming across my first Shinobi battle, they were the first of many sites that I had come across in my travels over the elemental nations and they were proof that death does not discriminate. Hate is hate, causing death and revenge in a constant cycle. That was my first encounter with the aftermath of the cycle of hatred. Something that I knew was part of the shinobi system, almost an intrinsic part of it.

Excerpt from the Memoirs of Akiko Hatake nee Reko

Page 26

X

Akiko had spent the next month and a half continuing to make her way along the border, sometimes avoiding the steep outcrops and other times climbing over the smaller ones either watching the sun set or rise like a great big ball of orange flame rising across the sky. She continued along this path keeping an eye out for a change in terrain on a parallel running border to Swamp Country as at the moment it held the perpetual scent of decomposing grass mixed in with a rich earthy smell, but that was what she could smell at night. During the day, however was a different story. The heat of the beating sun emphasized the smell of the rotting plants and perhaps whatever dead animals in the area. Originally Akiko had attempted to cross into swamp country for an easier path to Bird Country as, from what she could see, a small number of trees and what seemed like flat and open land. She had gotten a few meters in before she started to sink. By the time she had sunk to her calf, Akiko made the decision to make her way back to the border of stone as quickly as possible.

She continued to making slow progress across the mountainous expanse but it was another three months before she arrived at the borders of Bird country and by then Akiko was sure that she was darker than her hair which only seemed to glow in the days under the sun rather than bleach. Bird country held true to its name sake because as Akiko moved further into the country, the land was completely filled with bird song, so much so that there was rarely any quiet. The trees and grass held a different tinge of green and a different feeling to her home. While Forest had deep hues of green and the trees with a hardy feel, as if they are people who stand simply to sway slightly in the wind. In Bird, the greens didn't have the same deep greens instead there were various colours, green, light green, brown and yellow altogether giving Akiko the sense that these trees didn't follow the seasons as it did in forest but to how they measure time.

On her way through Bird country, she passed by various houses and rice paddies, each with people in the fields working the lands, completely focused on their tasks. As Akiko wondered at the sight of people, who she hadn't seen in months, she began to notice a few looks being thrown in her direction, a ball of unease began to grow heightening her attention to her surroundings. At first she wasn't entirely sure why people were staring at her until a woman had snagged the edged of her travel shirt and tugged her into what looked like a local restaurant.

"Are you travelling by yourself?" Akiko was thrown by the sudden question from a complete stranger, but it was the worried undertone that had Akiko pausing and answering the question.

"Yes I am" She answered with a succinct tone, barely edging down to sharp. The woman across from Akiko frowned, crow's feet crinkling around the edges of her eyes and the speckled black hair gave the aura of wise, elderly and safe though that Akiko remembered a saying that was very loved in her time and very fitting in this one. 'Never judge a book by its cover'. The woman muttered to herself and Akiko could only catch a few words. 'Wandering', 'women', 'stupid', and 'Reko'. Akiko frowned at the words she heard but stayed silent, waiting for the unknown before her to make the first move.

The woman waves away a waiter that had seen them enter before sighing heavily.

"So are you planning to travel all over the elemental nations looking like that?" She gestures to Akiko's form. Akiko frowned in response, puzzlement showing on her features as she looked down at herself.

"Like a woman without company on the road?" The woman tries again. Akiko takes it as an insult and opens her mouth to retort even though there is a thought niggling around in the back of her mind and she can't grasp it.

"Look I'm sure you've noticed the stares since you came." She cuts her off and Akiko nods slowly. She had noticed them and something about it set her on edge but she keeps silent.

"You're a pretty girl who is travelling alone. There are people, men in particular, who will use this to their advantage." and Akiko can feel the blood drain from her face as understanding dawns on her. The one thing that she had forgotten was the one thing that would affect her most. She was a woman travelling by herself and if she had been cornered by bandits or rouge ninja. Akiko didn't want to think about it, instead she thanked her lucky stars that during her four months along the Land of Earth border she hadn't run into anyone.

"I can see that you've realized what I've been trying to say." The woman says wearily. Akiko blinked at her before voicing her own question.

"Why did you help me?" Because in this world, if someone helps it means that they want something in return. Give and take, that was the bottom line here.

"You're a Reko and I owed a debt to one of the women in your family." She said plainly.

'Ah, so it was a debt.' Akiko mused to herself however another thing the woman said caught her attention.

"How did you know I was a Reko?" She asked curiously, because as far as she knows there is nothing to give that fact away. The woman lets out an unladylike snort.

"It's your hair sweetheart. Only Reko women have hair like yours."

"My hair?" she asked, fingering a lock of her hair.

"That sunset orange colour." The woman clarifies with a pointed look.

Akiko had always thought that her hair had been odd considering her father had the usual dark brown and her mother was blond. The two shouldn't, according to her meager knowledge of genetics, have had an orange haired baby but they did.

Akiko was brought out of her thoughts by the woman placing a pointed bamboo hat on the table. She looked at her questioningly.

"It'll hide the hair and a bit of your face. You are certainly tan enough to look like you've been working the fields" Akiko blushed at her words, nodding her thanks.

The woman smiled at her before getting out of her chair and started to make her way out of the restaurant. With a startled jolt, Akiko realized that she never got the woman's name. In a last ditch attempt she called out.

"Wait, I never got your name!" The woman turned slightly, smiling at the blush on Akiko's cheeks when other patrons in the place turned in her direction.

"Naoki." is all she says before vanishing into the doorway and Akiko falls back on her seat, releasing a sigh at the strange turn of events.

X

Akiko had left the small clusters of homes, too small to be called a town, with the conical hat on and her hair bundled in twine, hiding its length and combined with her loose fitting shirt, it was passable that she would be mistaken as a man at first glance. All that was required to complete that image was some way to bind her chest, so Akiko resolved to buy bandages once she passed a town large enough to sell them at the appropriate length. Akiko continued on her way to the capital of Bird country, this time staying on the road rather than simply picking a direction and following it like she had done along the border.

It takes less than three weeks of walking and sleeping in trees to reach the capital in the early morning and Akiko feet some loss at being no longer able to watch the sun rise and set on the mountain tops. She entered the town and took note that there are more houses, her attention is quickly turned to shouting and yelling of prices and Akiko grins. Her favorite part of any town are the markets and the fact that she arrived in the early morning is even better. She follows her ear and eventually the smell of food, hot food. Akiko can feel the saliva pooling in her mouth. And as she turns the corner and can't stop the grin from widening.

There are people browsing along the stalls, some with fresh vegetables like cabbage and others with live fish swimming in their small containers as customers point at them, bantering with the stall keeper about the prices. Akiko could see steam rising from a few shops as they opened their doors letting the tantalizing aroma of steamed sweet buns fill the air. Letting out a joy-filled laugh, she makes her way through the crowd looking at the wares of stalls and shops. Buying some of the sweet buns she smelt and cooing at the caged birds that sang when instructed. With a content sigh and a silly grin, Akiko makes her way through the various streets admiring the delicate architecture of the houses as she searched for either a job or an inn for the night.

X

She found neither on that day. Many of the shops didn't need any extra hands and she couldn't find an inn that was cheap enough that she could afford so Akiko had settled for sleeping in one of the trees outside of town should anyone notice her and force her to leave. With a yawn, Akiko made her way to the public baths, absently scratching her scalp as she let her hair down. She was in desperate need of a wash and Akiko did not consider dipping into cold lakes as a wash. Passing by the fenced baths, she was making her way to the entrance when she heard...giggling. Stopping in her tracks, Akiko slowly turned towards the giggling and came face to face with a tree.

'The giggling is coming from IN the tree' Craning her head, she glimpses flashes of red clothing. This time, Akiko can hear pencil scratching on paper accompanying the giggling, interspersed with:

"Oh! Yeah" and "Come on, just turn to the right!" and "look at those! Their perfect!" Flushing with righteous female anger on behalf of her sex, she backs away until she is closer to the wooden wall. Taking a deep breath and shouts.

"PERVERT IN THE TREE AND HE'S GOT A DAMN TELESCOPE" And for four seconds there is absolute silence before the air is filled with outraged screeches, the thunder of feet as women pour out of the baths and look to where Akiko is pointing.

"Shit"

"GET HIM!", "YOU PERVERT", "DAMN YOU!"

Akiko can only stare in open mouthed amazement at the strength of the outraged women as the tree collapses like paper from the kicks of bare feet. Out of the tree tumbles a man with shocking white in a red haori and she watches him stand up and run, catching a glimpse of his face as looks back on the crowd as they chase after him. There were two red lines leading down from his eyes to his jaw and wore a forehead protector with the kanji for oil. Akiko's jaw drops as she realizes just who the man was. Jiraiya of the Sannin. Dazed from the encounter with the man, Akiko carries out her original plan to have a bath, operating completely on automatic.

'What a first impression that was.'

Well, I know it's not Kakashi, but some where in the next few chapters Akiko will meet Kakashi in some form or other.

Please review and let me know what you think!