"I'm here so your life just got better!"

Yukine looked up from the couch at Hikari as she burst through the door.

"We weren't doing anything!" Mitsuki shouted from underneath him.

"Shh." Yukine put his index finger to her lips. "H-Hikari! What are you doing here?"

Hikari pursed her lips and frowned. "Never mind, it can wait. I'll come back later." She retracted through the still open door and closed it behind her.

Itachi looked at her amusement shining in his eyes.

"Not a word."

"I didn't say anything."

Hikari rolled her eyes and pulled his sleeve along to go for now.

"Hikari wait!" Yukine burst through the door half naked and Itachi deadpanned.

Was this a Heiki thing? Why was the whole family doing this?

"Oh, hi.." Yukine trailed off as he looked at Hikari.

"Yukine, Itachi -kun. Itachi -kun, Yukine. I told you we can come back later."

"Well that would be rude wouldn't it?"

"No, we have a mission anyway. I just had to get something that Mangetsu needs, but..."

"Oh, well do you have it now?"

Hikari stared at him until he figured it out.

"Oh, right. You wouldn't have come here with it if you need to repair something. What happened?"

"I may or may not went just a little overboard with some tinkering. Apparently I wasn't supposed to unseal that water bottle charm."

Yukine gaped at her.

"He just turned into a huge ass puddle of water, and I'm hoping the rug doesn't soak him up."

"Oh my God, Hikari!"

"He pissed me off! Had the nerve to call me a pedophile! I'm not a pedophile."

"Well with you getting so defensive-"

"Yukine!"

Itachi snorted and looked away.

Hikari's eyes widened as she looked at the grimace Yukine had on his face. "He's not going to die! He's already dead!"

"That poor soul stuck with you for so long. Twelve years, poor guy. I pity him." Yukine fake sobbed into his hands and Hikari stared at him in horror.

"Wha- not you too!"

"I think if Kisame and Yukine -san both agree on it, then it must have some sort of truth Hikari -san."

"I-Itachi -kun?!"

"Oh, Kisame agrees? Well he was one of your mentors so yes he'd know well too." Yukine put a hand to his chin and feigned a deep thinking face.

"Wha- hold on! When did you two start ganging up on me?! You just met! A minute ago!" Hikari went back and forth between the two black haired males.

"Hey! Hikari -chan!" The door opened and Mitsuki smiled at her.

"Mitsuki -chan you have to help me! These two only just met and they're ganging up on me!" Hikari pushed Yukine aside and hugged Mitsuki crocodile terms streaming down her face.

"What happened?" Mitsuki frowned.

"They're 'pitying' Mangetsu because he's been 'stuck' with me for twelve years."

Mitsuki's eyes widened. "That poor unfortunate soul! Twelve years?! That long?!" She put a hand to her cheek in worry. "How has he not gone mental I wonder?"

"Are you serious?!" They all burst out laughing and she can already imagine Mangetsu's words if he were here right now.

She really, really hated them right now.

"I didn't know that would happen." Hikari said as she swung Mangetsu around testing it after the accident. "And you seem to be functioning rather well, so get off my case!"

"This does not make things better."

Hikari frowned. "Yeah, I think I liked you better when you were a puddly mess on the floor." She reached for the water bottle charm at the end of the hilt.

"No, no wait I'm sorry."

Hikari nodded and pulled her hand away, satisfied with his apology. She was never going to do that though, it was really taxing both mentally and physically to reforge a soul sword, and she didn't doubt it was even more taxing to actually forge it, there was no way she was doing that again.

Yeah, maybe Mangetsu deserved her respect for putting up with her for so long.

Hikari huffed and went to her bed. She heard that Uchiha guy and Pain talking earlier. Well, Mangetsu heard them and came back to her with horrifying information. Granted he couldn't get everything but what he got was important.

The tailed beasts. What could they possibly want with the tailed beasts?

Lying down on her bed waiting for sleep to overcome her, a cold feeling swept over her.

It was bone chilling at first, but she came to find comfort in her friend's touch.

"Are you okay?"

"Just thinking. If a tailed beast is connected with the Jinchuriki's soul, then if it's extracted does the Jinchuriki die?"

"Why are you thinking about that?"

"Mangetsu, I don't want these people to just die. They didn't do anything wrong. They've been shunned from the moment they were born for something they had no choice in."

"Hikari..." Mangetsu frowned. For Kirigakure, Hikari was considered compassionate.

Even with the amount of killing she had done. And still does, she is considered... Soft.

He remembered the first time she killed someone.

It was a common thing, a natural occurrence, hell it was encouraged.

But she seemed to not share the same thoughts everyone else does.

The horrified expression on her face, the blood curdling screams once she realized what she did. The endless tears and the nightmares that haunted her for god knows how long.

The way the six year old kept scrubbing her hands with soap until her skin broke and she bled.

Even then, even after it was remotely possible, she believed it was the blood of her first victim.

A Heiki who is scared of killing. The laughing stock of her clan, until she reforged Samehada. A prodigy who was laughed at because she had a hint of humanity.

A hint that had to be snuffed out.

He remembered the hell she went through. The hell Yagura put her through.

He remembered every single thing that happened to her.

He remembered and he was so glad she didn't.

If there was one thing he didn't want Hikari remembering, it would be those days.

"It'll be okay." He grinned putting a fist to her head gently. "I'm sure you'll be able to figure something out with that big brain of yours. Don't worry about it."

Hikari smiled and nodded with her eyes closed.

"Arigatou."

Mangetsu's grin fell off his face as he watched her slip into a world of temporary peace.

"Hikari..." He pursed his lips. He really liked this Hikari, the real one. Not the killing machine she was age six to eleven. But the sweet little five year old he envied because of her humanity.

Sure she killed now, but, she wasn't devoid of all emotion like she was all those years ago. If her eyes indicated anything it indicated her emotions. She could feel and he'd be damned if she went back to being like that.

He never wanted her to go back to that place.

He wouldn't allow it. Even if it cost him his soul this time.

"You little shit!" Hikari startled Itachi out of his mental decision making.

What did he do this time? Last time it was because he took her place on the couch.

"You got taller again!"

Oh, there it is.

Itachi looked down to meet her heated gaze.

"I'm sorry?" He apologized hesitantly.

Hikari groaned and got closer to him.

"Honestly, Itachi -kun, I feel like a twelve year old here!" She stopped when he was only a couple of inches away from her.

"I mean, my head barely meet your chest now." She pouted.

"Hikari -san."

"Stop growing!" She whined and banged her head against his chest.

Itachi felt the air being knocked out of him at the sudden impact. "I'll be careful next time." He choked out.

"Now what were you doing?"

"Oh, well you see these lollipops..."

"Say no more!" She picked the bright red one, bviously strawberry flavoured, and unwrapped it.

Itachi stared at his now empty hand and unwrapped the pink one.

Cherry flavoured it is. He popped it into his mouth.

Luckily, he had Hikari to make some decisions for him.

Kisame opened the door to Hikari's room to ask her if she wanted something on his way out.

It was tedious and completely irrelevant, but it was his turn to do the grocery shopping.

Except she was doing a handstand with a huge boulder balanced on her feet.

"What are you doing?"

"Endurance training, and I'm trying to look for a new angle, there's this weapon I'm trying to make."

"And it requires a handstand because..?"

"You know how the weapons are a visual representation of our thoughts. If we can think it we can make it?"

Kisame nodded.

"Well what if my thoughts are upside down?"

Kisame deadpanned at her and Hikari looked genuinely curious.

"Maybe some ramen, oh and for the love of god a cheesecake like the one you brought last time! No actually make that four." She answered his previous question.

"You're eating four cheesecakes on your own?"

"... Yes?"

Kisame shook his head and closed the door behind him.

She was a glutton, an absolute glutton.

"Oh and, get the raspberry sauce too!"

Kisame sighed. He'll have to use Samehada to carry things around again.

He doubted it would mind, it was carrying things for Hikari after all.

"I can't believe you're still like this." Kisame walked in two hours later to find Hikari absolutely red in the face with sweat soaking through the floor.

"Do you know Might Guy of the hidden leaf?"

"No."

"Good, if you're so shocked by me doing this then you'd absolutely have a stroke if you see that guy. An absolute maniac I tell you." Hikari scoffed.

"This isn't even humanly possible."

"What would you know about humanly possible, shark man?" She huffed and pulled her feet out from under the boulder and turned around to hold it before it hit the ground.

She set it down gently and looked at Kisame.

"Say, do you think Hidan would absolutely, completely, for sure this time, die if I bash his head in with this?"

"No."

"Damn it!"

"And, that's all I've come up with until now."

Sasori stared at the sets of paper, the neat yet rushed hand writing was easy to read.

Hikari was by no means a poison expert, maybe Yukine was to some extent, but no one can beat Sasori of the sand.

"This is actually very good, I'm impressed."

"Wow really?!"

"No."

"Fuck." She pouted. "Well what did I do wrong?"

"I understand the concept, this all looks fine until here." He pointed to the sheet of paper.

"But this says to prepare the cauldrons and have protective gloves and goggles."

"Exactly." Sasori mused.

"So everything else is wrong?"

"Yes." He nodded.

Hikari pouted.

"Why don't you try telling me what you want to do instead of just showing me this mess?" He asked. Sasori was in fact impressed by her work.

He had been ever since she popped that poison bullet thing in Hidan's mouth the first day she arrived here ten months ago.

He was just amused by her reactions is all.

"Okay so this one is supposed to kill the victim silently in three days, but dissapeared immediately after death, leaving no opening for any detection. It's supposed to be tasteless colourless and odorless."

"Why have it kill the victim in three days when you could just have them killed right on the spot with the same effects?" He asked, it was weird. Usually a poison was meant for silent killing yes, but it was mostly rushed. Why would she want three days?

A sinister smile etched itself on Hikari's face. "Well, isn't going to be more fun if the victim suffers silently from low internal bleeding until he dies? It would be interpreted as the cause of death. Or maybe a heart attack?"

Damn that girl was good. Except her imagination and her actual work were worlds apart.

"You have quite the imagination, kid."

"Yeah, well a Heiki is someone who forges weapons from their imagination. It's basically our ultimate weapon, you know what they say, creativity kills."

"No one has ever said that."

"I did, just now." Hikari said nonchalantly.

"Well, we can work on that." He stood up from the couch and started walking.

"Wait really?" Hikari looked up at him from her kneeling beside the couch to explain things to him.

The selfish bastard took the whole couch to himself not leaving a space for the tiny little woman she is...

Yeah she was tiny, her hips weren't.

"Hold on!" She scrambled after him.

"You better keep up, kid."

"You'd find that I'm actually a very good student," she said proudly.

"Who's a good student?" Kisame asked walking in holding Samehada horizontally and carrying several bags over it.

"Oh, my cheesecakes! And my ramen, thank you!" She skipped happily to her treats.

"You owe me-"

"Oh my God this is so good!" Hikari moaned when the flavour of the raspberry covered cheese cake exploded in her mouth.

"Hikari." Kisame cocked an eyebrow at her.

"What? Think if it as treating your old student."

Sasori abruptly put her scrolls and papers in her hand making her drop the cheesecake. "I'm not doing this."

Hikari gaped and looked at Kisame with tears in her eyes.

"Like I said, who is a great student?" Kisame asked Sasori. "And where did you even get that fork?" He turned to Hikari.

"What do you mean? I always have a fork and a couple of chopsticks on me."

Kisame turned back to Sasori. "Who are you teaching?"

Sasori simply shrugged and pointed at her.

"No, no. You are the worst student anyone can have." Kisame was brutally honest.

"What? I'll have you know I am a great student!"

"I was your mentor for the first eight years of your life. Do you honestly think I'll believe that for a second?"

"Hey! I caught onto everything you said fast!"

"For the first two years then what?"

"Then I..."

"Yes?" Both men asked.

"I... Lost... Interest in the subject I was studying and had to take a one year break to get back to it."

"Then?" Kisame prompted.

"Then I lost interest six months again after that."

"Yes, yes, you did." Kisame confirmed.

"B-but hey! Puppet man you gave me your word! And you said your word is absolute!"

Puppet man?

Sasori clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Fine, but only till these two are done. Then I'll have nothing to teach you."

"Good luck." Kisame patted Sasori on the shoulders before walking away.

Hikari grinned, Kisame forgot about the mone-

"And I'm putting this on your tab missy."

"I- I never opened one!"

"I did!"

"What? For how long?!" Hikari stared at his back in horror.

"Ever since I met you, basically." Kisame shrugged.

"But I was only four at the time!"

"Better start counting and saving then."

"That's a lifetime worth of daifuku and I'm not even dead yet! And Sasori made me drop a cheesecake, he should pay you for it!"

"I expect my money back by Sunday!" He called back finally getting out if the room.

"Wait Sunday?! Today is Saturday!" She called back to him.

"Better start saving then."

Hikari blinked. Like hell she's paying for that. Any of it.

She can do something about this, but now she had to convince the ticked off Sasori that she only did that to Kisame and Zabuza and Juzo to annoy them.

She never did this to Yagura even when he was feeling generous. Or Mei -san.

Or anyone else. It was only these three monster beings.

"I can explain?" She grimace at the blank expression she was receiving.

Sasori crossed his arms and waited for her to do so.

"I just have a huge sweet tooth, and I only did that to bother Kisame and my other two mentors growing up?"

Sasori reached for her face and she flinched half expecting a slap from his woody hand.

Except she wasn't met with it.

Hikari opened her eyes slowly looking at the red head in front of her.

He pushed a fallen strand of hair behind her ear and...

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Okay, okay I'm sorry, I promise I never did it to anyone else I- ow!" He squeezed her ear harder keeping his expression neutral. "And I promise that I won't do that to you either! Ow!"

"Sasori, please." She whimpered tears now pooling at the corner of her eyes as he dragged her to the weaponry by her ear.

"Itachi -kun help me!" She wailed seeing Itach on their way.

Itachi almost dropped the lollipop from his mouth at the scene of Hikari being dragged away like that.

Yeah he didn't want to get involved with that.

"OW!"

Yes, he most definitely couldn't help even if he wanted to.

"Hang in there." His voice muffled by the lollipop, Itachi held up his two thumbs at her.

"ITACHI -KUN!" Hikari wailed again until she was out of his sight.

He wondered what she did to make him so angry.

Anyway he had to get away before Kisame found him and asked him for the money.

"Itachi!"

Yep that's his cue.

Hikari huffed and rubbed her sore ear gently to try and ease the pain away.

It was basically having a contest with Sasori's hair and it was winning.

It was winning by flying colours. Mostly red.

"You just had to tell him, didn't you Kisame?" She whimpered under her breath. "You were supposed to be on my side."

"Okay then, let's start."

Hikari nodded. "Sure, Puppet Man let- ow!"

"Call me Puppet Man again I dare you."

Hikari rubbed her sore head as well. "Every one of my teachers is a something man! See Kisame is Shark Man-"

"How original."

"Juzo -san was Purple Lines Man, and Zabuza -san is Bandaged Mummy Man, Yagura is ,but please don't tell him, Bad Temper Man. You get one too!"

"Don't want it."

"But Sasori!"

"No."

"You're no fun," she grumbled and went to pick out the tools required to make poison.

"I wasn't planning on being fun, Heiki."

"Oh right, of course not, I should take this seriously," she said. She was being sarcastic of course. "I'm really starting to regret this," Hikari mumbled under her breath.

"What was that?!"

"N-nothing!"