Akito couldn't help wandering off. Akito couldn't help it that they ended up getting lost after they strayed from the scary people. They just saw a princess and followed after her without even realising it! Akito couldn't help the fact that they had lost sight of the pretty princess, they had just blinked and the pretty woman was gone! They couldn't help the pools of water that stored up in their eyes. They couldn't help the tears from escaping their eyes and rolling down their face as they let out a loud wail.

They were lost and it was cold! They were all alone and it was dark!

"Hey.. you ok?" Akito looked up. They blinked before a grin lit up their features.

"Hime-sama!" Their eyes sparkled as they looked up at the person in front of them.

The pretty lady had on a plum purple kimono that complimented her figure. Her peach coloured hair was done up in a bun with pretty chopsticks tucked into it. The chopsticks had ornaments dangling down from them by small chains. The princess' teal eyes were outlined in black and her pink lips shined, a tell tale sign that she was wearing lip gloss.

The woman in front of them blinked.

~*.*~

Nozomi-san was getting nothing from being stuck in the noisy inn, unless a nasty headache counted. The woman sighed as she adjusted her kimono, she had transformed into her henge and was tired of all the attention she was gaining because of her appearance. A middle aged man started singing joyfully, raising a pint of beer in the air. The yellow-ish liquid inside the glass nearly poured over the side of it's container, jostled by the movement.

The acholic drink reminded the Haruno of a certain Uchiha's comment earlier that day.

'Tch, pretty boy has no idea what he's talking about.' She thought. 'I haven't had a single drink this evening.' Her lips formed a pout as she looked off to the side. The man who had taken up being the buildings source of song was standing on top of a table dancing clumsily.

The woman stood up from where she had been sitting in a secluded corner and walked towards the door of the building. She made it outside and stretched in the cool night air.

She walked through the village, closing her eyes as she turned her body on auto pilot, letting her body take full control over where she was going. It wasn't so cold that she was freezing but it also wasn't particularly warm.

Nozomi-san wondered what her two teammates were doing. They probably hadn't had a very productive day either, at least that's what she hoped.

If the brat and pretty boy started blabbering on about how they had fought against missing nins and battled the unknown then Nozomi-san would be extremely annoyed. The Uchiha had been complaining about how watching over the clearing was extremely boring when really he had witnessed a literal secret meeting between their potential enemies.

The woman blinked when she realised that whilst she had been lost in thought she had wandered into a dark alleyway. She frowned when she heard the quiet sounds of someone sobbing. Her mind burred and she sighed when she found herself in front of a young child who was huddled on the ground, tears overflowing their eyes.

"Hime-sama!" The child in front of her grinned brightly as their eyes sparkled.

Nozomi-san blinked, her mind trying to register what the kid had just called her. "Erm, Erm.. yeah.. Hime-sama.." The woman trailed off awkwardly. She chuckled uncertainly as she rubbed the back of her neck.

"You're so pretty Hime-sama! Just like what Akito read princesses are like in fairytales!" The small child continued to ramble on, gushing about how pretty she was and what not.

'Ok, I kind of feel bad now..' Nozomi-san looked over the child's appearance and nearly winced. On top of the child's head was a mess of yellow, brown and red. Bandages were wrapped around the child's thin frame and their feet were bloody and bruised. The kids skin was smudged with dirt and the only part of the young child that the Haruno could see clearly were their cyan coloured eyes.

"Then-then.." The child's head rocked forward and their chin hit their chest as their eyelids closed. The young child's breathing evened out and Nozomi-san was left confused. What was she meant to do with a sleeping kid who obviously was either homeless, abused or had recently escaped from some kind of evil group who were experimenting or something on them.

The woman blinked, 'Wait a minute..' She thought as her gaze moved to the child's face. 'A group.. I think I might have just found a clue to our underground organisation.'

~*.*~

Akito rubbed their eyes as they sat up and yawned. When they opened their eyes they found themselves in a room. They were sitting in one of the two beds inside the room and they were shocked by how comfy it was. The room had tan painted walls and wooden floorboards, sky blue curtains covered the windows and Akito thought back to what they last remembered.

'Akito was crying in an alleyway 'cause they got lost chasing after a princess. Then the princess came up to Akito and Akito was awed by the princess' beauty!' Akito smiled as they thought about the princess. 'The pretty princess must have brought Akito to her castle!' The small child felt satisfied by their deduction and they nodded before getting out of the bed they were in.

They almost fell over when they noticed there was someone standing in front of them. The person was wearing a cloak with the hood up and had on a mask that obscured their face from view.

"E-err.. Hello!" Akito smiled shyly.

"Hm.. I see you've woken up.."

"Yep! Akito woke up a few moments ago!" They grinned at the cloaked figure in front of them who sweat dropped.

'This kid.. who even smiles at someone who basically just kidnapped them?' Nozomi-san wasn't even sure whether or not the child knew they had been kidnapped- well she preferred to call it moved from their previous place without being informed but still.

The redhead watched as the child walked around the room as if searching for something. The child even went as far as to look under the beds.

"..You ok kid?" The child's head snapped to look at Nozomi-san.

"Akito is alright they were just looking for Hime-sama." The child smiled at her before continuing to look around.

'Ok, I feel really bad now..' Nozomi-san was regretting her life decisions as she watched the youngling toddle around the room.

The poor brown eyed seventeen year old was trying to desperately piece together what to do. On one hand she could treat the child like a hostage but then again the poor thing looked like they had been through enough with the number of bandages that covered them. She could just tell the child the truth about how she had been disguised as the 'pretty princess' and what not but she was Nozomi Haruno, she would not just tell the truth. The options she would most likely choose would be to tell the kid that she was some sort of undercover princess on a secret mission or that she was just a random lady who had found them passed out.. ok so Nozomi-san was out of ideas but she was panicking slightly so she couldn't really come up with the best ever excuse.

"Erm.. hey kid," The child paused what they were doing which just happened to be looking through a small crack in the floorboards. Nozomi-san really hoped that the kid didn't think the 'pretty princess' could actually be hiding under the flooring.

"Hm?" The child tilted their head to the side curiously.

"Well.. you know the princess you're looking for.."

~*.*~

"You did what?" Shisui couldn't believe his ear-eyes- whatever!

"Well, it's not really my fault.."

"Not really your fault? You picked up a random child off the streets!" Akito, who had had a shower a few hours previous, was currently sitting on Nozomi-san's bed sucking on a lollypop.

"Usually I do not say such things with such.. ferocity but what were you thinking? Not only did you take in this child but you also told them that you're on some kind of undercover mission?" Sakura's voice was steadily growing louder as she talked. The three ninja had met up for their daily meeting and when Nozomi-san had revealed that she had.. kidnapped a child the two had immediately followed her back to her room in the Inn, leaving one of Shisui's crows to watch over the clearing.

"Don't forget the fact that we can't be looking after this kid, we don't know where they came from, nor do we know who their parents are!"

"Erm.." The three ninja's turned to look at Akito. "Akito doesn't have parents.." The Uchiha blinked as his heart dropped.

"Oh.." He said dumbly.

"Akito.." The small child looked up at Nozomi-san's masked face. "Which orphanage are you from?" The child's brows furrowed.

"O-orphanig?"

"Yeah.. y'know, a big building where kids with no parents live."

"Mm.. Akito doesn't live in one of those.." The child shook their head. "They live with bad, scary people!"

"Do you know where these people are?" Shisui asked the child.

"Dark! Dark! Scary! Scroll, child, Akito!" Akito was beginning to hyperventilate and Sakura being the only one out of the three with any medical knowledge rushed forward. The four year old cupped her hands and made Akito breath into her hands. When covering someone's mouth and nose with something, preferably a plastic or paper bag, they will collect the exhaled carbon dioxide in this bag or your hands or whatever you're using and subsequently again breath it in. This way, the amount of carbon dioxide will quickly again stabilise and their breathing will calm down.

After about a minute or so Akito had calmed down, their breathing steadied. Their eyes closed and they succumbed to sleep. Sakura stepped away and let out a deep exhale of relief.

"Good job brat." Nozomi-san said as she came up behind sakura and patted the girl's hooded head.

"Mind telling us why the kid just had a total panic attack?" The curly haired Uchiha asked, looking at Nozomi-san.

"Well.. when I found Akito they may or may not have been basically dressed in bandages with their hair a mess and their legs bloody." The seventeen year old swallowed before continuing. "It's just a suspicion but the reason why I.. kidnapped them was because I think there may be a chance that they are somehow connected to the organisation who own the underground base we are supposed to infiltrate."

The redhead's teammates thought over her words and a long moment of silence passed over the three before Shisui piped up. "So you think they may be connected to the organisation because of a.. gut feeling?"

"Err... yes?" Shisui face planted and Sakura sighed.

The pinkette hated how her brain was making sense of the situation. For some reason the four year old actually believed the woman. Maybe it was because it wasn't really like the seventeen year old to take a kid and make things up, then again the woman might be delirious?

Nozomi-san said that when she had found Akito they had been dressed in bandages, their hair a complete mess and their feet were apparently bloody but the child asleep on the older Haruno's bed had been bathed. Their hair was washed, any blood or filth that had been in their locks before had been cleaned away to reveal their dark blonde hair. Their locks had been brushed and trimmed to rest above their shoulders with their bangs styled to the left, covering half of one of their teal eyes. Their legs were cleaned and bandaged and it appeared that Nozomi-san had gotten the child some clothes for they were wearing a light purple sleeping yukata.

"Hmm, I suppose we can see if Akito is involved with them and by the end of our mission whether or not they have something to do with the organisation we can try and find an orphanage or a family for them."

"See! The brat agrees with me!"

"I did not necessarily agree with you, I just made up a solution that works for us all. Now if this is all sorted I do believe Uchiha-san and I should be getting back to the clearing." Before Sakura and the Uchiha left the pinkette turned around to say one last thing. "Also, for Kami sake, please don't jeopardise the mission, sayonara."


A/N: Oh my gosh, this took me ages! I understand loads of characters are being introduced into this story but trust me, it will all make sense eventually. Do you guys think Akito is involved with this underground organisation? If so in what way?

Sorry for any mistakes!

Hope you enjoyed!