Hello… this is kawaiii speaking. Well, here is Chapter nine, I did a lot this weekend February 3 – 5 2006. I just had nothing to do. Well, I don't know what to happen next. Please Review. Thanks to the three who did already, names I don't want to mention just in case. Here we go! Lights.. Camera… ACTION!

: x :

The festival was coming and everyone was fretting over what to do. Dumplings were made, stands set up, kimonos bought. Aki wandered around the streets looking for something to buy for her newly found friends. Over the week, she had met several other Hyuugas, Hinata being one of them. She also received her bird in a cage seal, of course, without Neji's knowledge. Aki's neck seared with pain every once in a while.

She had met many people from training. Her teammates Lee, Neji and Tenten, and other people from different cells; she had met the stamina freak, Naruto, the last Uchiha, Sasuke, Sakura Haruno, Ino Yamanaka and Hyuuga Hinata. She also met Konohamaru, the Hokage, Kakashi and of course Gai Sensei. She had gotten gifts for everyone for the festival. She still had to get gifts for Neji, Sasuke and Hinata. For Lee, she got new gauntlets, for Tenten, high class shuriken. For Naruto, she had gotten a wind scroll that would help Naruto with most jutsus, for Sakura she got a 4000 page book about the history of Konoha and a hair brush kit, for Ino, she got a love set that included a "How to Make Love Potions" Book and for each teacher she got a crystal apple that had each of their favorite colors as the leaves. Aki still had plenty of money that she had made through the missions her and her team went through, for her; it was a snap and finished always in a minute because of her time control powers. She smiled at her own brilliance.

One of the rice ball stands had just finished painting their sign. Aki wondered why they needed so much space for those little rice balls. She went over to a neighboring stand that had some trouble putting up some of its merchandise. Aki jumped into a tree and summoned wind, she cast it down to help the people lift the stuff, and instantly, everything sprang up and hung itself in its appropriate area. The merchants were surprised and fell on the ground in shock. Aki didn't stick around.

As she fled the seen, she was deep in thought, If only I could stay here; it's too bad I only have tonight. Aki jumped up on a roof of a house then launched herself to jump even higher into the sky.

Neji watched from below, what an idiot. He got up and left the scene.

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"Please Neji-niisan?" Aki sat on his chair swiveling around on one foot, "Someone, this person from our clan, has offered us a job as welcoming ushers at the festival! We get free food and everything!"

"I am NOT your nii-san! I already said no, you stubborn little girl." Aki grumbled, and then her eyes lit up.

"Oh!" She reached into the bag that sat next to her. The crinkling noise continued for a while. Then she finally straightened up and presented a wrapped package. The package was incredibly bumpy and was wrapped messily in blue and black wrapping paper. The ribbon, that was tied in a rush, which was around the parcel, was flopping over to one side. All in all, the package was not pleasing to the eye.

"Oh come on, it's just the wrapping." Aki dumped the parcel onto Neji's un-made bed and left the room, grumpy.

One thought lingered in Neji's mind, Oh crap.

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The streets of the town were bustling, carts were rushing to and fro, people barged into stores doing last minute shopping and pets ran free from their leashes, their owners trailing behind. Aki walked amongst these people, talking casually to them once every often.

It was the night of the festival and everyone was dressed in dazzling colors. Aki wore a kimono that was black and red. The element symbols flashed brightly as light reflected off their colors. Her hair was done up in loose twin buns located approximately at the middle of the back of her head. Some hair was falling from the buns to give it a wild, crazy look. Aki was wearing several ornaments in her hair also, hair sticks held her buns in place. Several jeweled flowers, supposedly handcrafted and given to her by Hiashi, glinted genially in several places on her head. Her ears were ornamented with long silver, stringy earrings. She wore no make-up, but she looked better than most of the girls that walked past her.

She arrived at her stall for ushering and sat down, so far, only Hinata had arrived. When Aki read her mind, she noticed that Hinata was only here because she wanted to see the ever-so-joyful Naruto who, by the way, was her date. When he arrived, Aki greeted him courteously. "Hey, Naruto!" She smacked him on his head.

"OW! Oh, hey!" He rubbed the back of his head indignantly, "Hey Hinata, how are you?" Naruto left the booth and ran up to the red Hinata. They talked, awkwardly, at first, after a while, things began to warm up and they talked like old friends.

Aki sat down and put her head down on the table, she rested her eyes for a bit because they were a bit tired from reading the minds of her friends. She breathed in and out. Whenever she exhaled, a warm gush of air bounced from the table she was resting on and enveloped her face. She enjoyed the warmth, for a while, compared to the cold of the night, but then she began to notice that it was too warm. Her head shot up and she saw Neji walking towards her, in the Hakama she had given him.

Neji was in more like a training hakama, but it wasn't really. It was made of silk also and was a deep green and turquoise. Aki snickered at how funny her brother, which she didn't know, looked. When he got the stall Aki noticed that he was only wearing the top part of the Hakama she had given her. The top part was the green-turquoise part. The bottom of his hakama was plain black, in contrast to the white and green trimmed one she had given him. He glared at her thoroughly as she scoffed at the image. Neji was unusually well-groomed this day, usually his hair would be just a plain black mop on the top of his head, with strands flying about, and sticking around. But today, it was tied back in a neat pony-tail with his bangs, straight and sleek, hanging on either side of his face. He was still wearing his forehead protector, because of the seal, but he looked better then most days.

"You shut up, you bought this!" He hissed at Aki.

"Sorry." She immediately stopped laughing and looked at him normally, "Why are you here, you said you didn't want to come."

Neji hesitated before answering, "It doesn't matter why I'm here now. I came, isn't that what matters?" He looked away, he was about to mention the secret talk with Hiashi but Aki interrupted him.

"We have a few hours before the temple mass. What do you want to do?"

Neji stared at her blankly, nothing actually, "Whatever." Aki heard fast-paced steps coming towards them. After they got close, she realized that Tenten, that may have a crush on Neji, was running towards them, Lee, closely behind. They too were wearing traditional wear. Tenten was not wearing her hair in buns but in two braids that were low and fell on her shoulders. Lee had his hair spiked a bit and it seemed that he had tried to pluck his live caterpillars.

Tenten jumped right beside Neji and yelled into his ear, "HI NEJI!" While she was doing this, Neji closed his eyes, as if withstanding a big yell back; he managed to stay in his usual element, calm and collected.

Lee trudged up behind them grumbling, "Hey Lee!" Aki said cheerfully, he merely glanced at her and then glanced back to the ground, "What? Are you ashamed of your un-plucked caterpillars?" Lee stared at Aki again, his nose crunched up.

"No, its just- uh – its just…" Lee couldn't finish his sentence; he was too busy looking behind Aki towards the entrance of the festival park. Aki sensed his unawareness of her voice and followed his gaze, it ended at the end of the park. A young pink-haired girl stood over there. She was wearing a purple/ violet kimono and her hair was tied back into a bun, bangs fell loosely on her forehead and cheeks. Her green eyes sparkled and – she was following, more like stalking, another. The last Uchiha.

Aki laughed to herself, "Okay then.. Come on! We have so many stalls to attend!" In the next two hours, the four, Tenten, Neji, Lee and Aki visited stalls playing games. On ones stall, they had to shoot the prizes that they wanted, Aki was able to get everyone stuff they wanted. Lee wanted wrist bands, Neji said he didn't want anything but when Aki read his mind, he wanted the book of Jutsus, Tenten got a bull's eye board.

They visited the fish pan stall. Aki was able to secretly control the water to spit out a fish and made the wind guide it onto her fan. She watched as Lee struggled to get the fish, and as a result, falling in. She watched Neji calmly pull the fish out of the fountain and watched Tenten laugh as the fish fell at her feet and flop. They all were quiet as they ate the fish they caught, except for Lee, who was noisily wiping his Hakama with a rough towel.

After they had eaten all the fish and bloated, they went to the fortune telling shrine. Aki pointed her finger at the shaker and the wind picked up and twirled it around and around, soon the number 666 fell out.

"Danger will soon come your way, stay calm and carefully find your way through this obstacle. Remember that there is always someone that is willing to extend a helping hand. You must find this person before it is too late."

Aki was confused by her fortune, and asked the stall tender if the fortunes were usually correct. He responded in a full story about some lady who had got the fortune "Your pockets will soon be deep," and the next day she won the lottery for ¥ 10 000 000. And then some story about this other dude that had a fortune, "Good luck," and the next day, he was in an accident and passed away.

Tenten grabbed the fortune out of her hand, her brows furrowed as she read it, "What kind of fortune is this?" Tenten handed the fortune back, for a second, it said, "You're going to shit yourself," but then the words became a big whorl and refocused to the fortune that was there before.

Aki's eyes widened, interesting. A searing pain traveled through her body, she raised her hands and put them in front of her face. She could scarcely see the lights of the lanterns through her palms, her time was almost over. She became frantic, as Neji got his fortune, (You know someone better than you may think) she hurriedly pulled her kimono sleeves so that they covered her hands. Tenten was watching her closely.

: x :

Everyone rushed into the entrance doors of the prayer temple. It was seven o'clock and it was time for the prayers of the festival. Aki went in the temple with Neji, Tenten and Lee, and sat in the middle of temple, where the beam that held it up was. This was the main temple, the biggest one. Its roofs were tall and red the building was decorated with intricately designed pieces of art. There were two balconies and a water garden in the back. Aki was so happy to be there at the moment.

Oh, I forgot about Hiashi's meeting. Neji frowned at his own stupidity. Music started playing and he looked forward, the organ player drummed his hands onto the keys making awful sounds erupt from the pipes. Neji couldn't cover his ears because it was rude, and one else seemed to mind, so he too pretended he didn't mind.

Aki's ears were dying, is it possible that this person is a master at playing the organ? Flats and sharps reached her ears a propelled her mind into different directions. She winced as the organ player accidentally played the wrong note. She glanced at everyone else, they didn't care, and I won't care either.

The prayer had started and everyone chanted in the same monotonous tone. They could not see the swift figures that ran around the temple, cutting it down. Their prayer continued for about half an hour and then everyone stopped. A slight screeching sound could be heard, to Aki, it was a traffic jam. She clamped her ears shut desperate to get the sound out, but then the beam in front of them slowly snapped. Everything was quiet, for a moment, and then the temple exploded with screams. The temple around them was crumbling dangerously; many people were being crushed by the falling debris. Aki sent out wind to sense for danger, and unfortunately, it found some.

Aki's eyes darted towards the familiar presences of the Akatsuki; it was Itatchi and Deidara that were causing this trouble. Walking carefully across the temple she spotted two more members throwing senbon needles onto the roof, and another two with her Byakuugan trying to make the roof fall. She jumped.

"Aki, where are you going?" Lee shouted after her, but she didn't care much about what he said, her only instinct was to save the remaining people in this temple, even if it killed her.

The laws of gravity didn't affect Aki when she was being carried by the wind. A piece of rock came every once in a while a struck her head, injuring her a bit, but she didn't really care. Once, a sharp piece shingle off the roof came and had scraped her arm. She could feel the pain and the bit of blood seeping from the wound, but she didn't care about that either, all she wanted, was to keep Tenten, Lee and Neji safe.

Itatchi was there to meet her as she landed on her knees on the second balcony. "Hello Aki, your hologram is fading." Aki gritted her teeth.

"I know." She straightened up and faced Itatchi, "Why are you here."

"To get you of course, we need to have a talk Aki. Why are you running away from us? We never did anything bad to you. Everything we did was for your own good."

"Not strangling me every time I couldn't do a jutsu right was good? Telling me that my father is dead and that I have no hope is good? Trying to kill me when I was ten because you though I was a threat us good? NOTHING YOU DID WAS GOOD!"

"Oh Aki, Aki, Aki." Itatchi taunted her, waggling a finger in front of her face, "All I said was the truth."

Tears welled up in Aki's colorless eyes, some escaping and running down her cheeks. "I hate you." She said quietly, then with more force, "I hate you!" Then she screamed, "I HATE YOU!" Her eyes turned bloodshot as fire licked around her feet. The fire made her hair's buns fall and her hair blew in the force of her flame. She willed it to consume Itatchi, but when it went, Itatchi performed a jutsu to shield himself. Aki, not fully-developed in her powers collapsed from the force of her flame.

"It's too much for you to handle. That's why we're training you. Right now, these people here are getting in the way, we have to get rid of them." Aki opened her eyes to see Itatchi above her, the roof, she could see, was already starting to fall. She used some of her strength to jump from the balcony.

The wind she created let her land gracefully in front of Tenten, Lee and Neji.

"Aki, you're back!" Lee screeched.

Aki kept her back towards them and spoke in a hushed whisper, "When you're out, don't come back. Understood?" She turned her blood-red eyes on the three.

"Aki, what happened to your eyes?" Tenten spoke quietly.

"Do you understand?" Aki felt her eyes burn up as tears started coming, "I really like you guys, I hope to see you soon." Aki closed her eyes, a big gush of wind came forward throwing Aki's hair up, making it dance.

The wind kept picking up until it like a miniature twister. Aki put her arms up in a prayer like fashion, she remained stationary for a while, and then she thrust her arms out in front of her. Her red eyes were now more like light-pink and she said one word, "Go."

Two vast circles of great wind swept everyone out of the temple and outside. Some people landed outside on the gravel, others in the water. Tenten, Lee and Neji were scooped up by wind and placed in a sphere shield. When the wind was released, they landed gracefully on their feet, unharmed.

No one was hurt (Thanks Achillea)and was able to watch the crumbling tower. Neji, Tenten and Lee watched in horror as the person who was their friend was crushed by the great temple.

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Rescue crews and workers were amazed to see that over 75 percent of the people who were in the temple had survived. When they reached the bottom of the rubble they had uncovered 101 bodies. 30 of them were barely alive.

The Hyuugas had rushed to the scene as fast as they could after they heard that Hinata, Neji and Aki were in that temple. Hiashi was relieved to see that Hinata, though soaking wet, was alright, and Neji was fine too.

"Neji, where is Aki?" Neji just stared in front of him, silent. Hiashi gently shook his shoulders, "Neji?"

"..." Neji stared back at the grown man and muttered a few words.

Tenten came up and gently whispered to Neji, "I'll do it." She faced Hiashi and said, "Hyuuga Hiashi-sama, the rescue crews were on the look out for a body of a girl wearing a black kimono." Tenten hesitated, "They found none, and we don't know where Aki has gone. She's lost."

Hiashi gaped at the girl. Hiashi, I am sorry. I have let you down. Again, your child has been caught.