It happened so fast. One minute she was leaning away from her Uncle, the other she was on the ground, cradling a busted lip. There was some loud sound, and she knew it instantly. It was her sobbing, her face pulsing, and blood dripping down her chin and neck, covering her fingers.

"Akira!"Deidara went to step forward, but two of her brothers grabbed his arms.

"Stop right there, Vampire scum."Her oldest hissed. Deidara turned back to Sasori, who was staring down her second.

"You've been gone for a long time, Seiyuki. Do you know how much I've missed you?"Her Uncle leered at her hungrily, burning her skin. She wrapped her arms around her head, already seeing her impending doom.

"Mind if we break in?"She froze, turning to Kisame, Hidan and Kakuzu nonchalantly walking up.

"You fuck heads, what the fuck do you get off of picking on the fucken weakest vampire on the planet?"Hidan growled.

"Let's just get this over with."Kakuzu muttered.

"Wait! Don't!"She screamed as the beasts jumped out from the shadows. She turned and grabbed her Uncle's arm. "Please! I'll go home! I swear! Stop this!"She sceamed, pleading with him.

"It's a little to late for that, Baby sis."She looked at her second brother with wide confused eyes.

"You're a vampire now. It's our family business to kill vampires."He grinned at her. "I'm going to have fun disembembering your beautiful little body, Seiyuki. God, how I missed it."He leaned forward, intent to kiss her, when some thing jolted out of the way.

"You'll do well not to touch what isn't yours, Scum."She screamed in fear, afraid her brothers were fighting over dibs when she was met with arms cradling her. She blinked past the torrent of tears to stare at Sasuke. "Don't worry about the others, our orders are to make your safe."Sasuke said calmly, turning and calmly walking away, Kisame jumping to block her family's way.

"Don't think this is over, Seiyuki! I will get what I want!"She buried her face in her hands, sobbing as her brother called after her, his intents known all too well.

"Are you okay?"Naruto rushed into the room, Akira nursing an ice pack to her open lip.

"Yea."She didn't look up, staring at the floor.

"Akira?"He questioned softly, gently brushing back her hair. She winced, leaning away.

"Please don't."She shut her eyes, grinding her teeth together in anger. "I was so totally fucken useless. I don't even help one bit. I just sat there and screamed like when I was younger!"She growled, standing and grabbing a pillow, ripping it to shreds. Naruto sat there in stunned silence, watching her pace, tearing the pillow to small shreds.

"Akira! That is enough!"She ignored Naruto's try to calm her down, simple pacing around him. He grabbed her shoulders, and she growled, shoving him away. Except she forgot about her vampire strength, tossing Naruto back on the bed, his head hitting the head board. She made a queit disbelieving noise, before fleeing out and over the balcony, and into the night. She ran till she was gasping for breath yet again, startly find herself at home. She remembered the lessons Itachi had taught her for teleporting herself. She wasn't very good, but she gave it a try anyway. She pictured herself on her bed, her sketchbook at her side, soft music in the background, a warm body resting next to her, humming as he read. She could picture Itachi glasses, totally unneeded, but oh-so-good looking on his slightly turned up nose, his eyes calm and relaxed like the rest of him, running over the words, pages in seconds. His finger would already be turning the page before he was done, his thumb in the crease of the book as his fingers spawled over the binding. He was shirtless, his pale chest sparkling in the fire light, playing over his shiny black locks, and around his lean biceps. It played at the base of his stomach, dancing at the edge of the sheet teasingly. She could hear his gentle, calm heartbeat, fluttering in her ears, his breath a soft overtone to the deep relaxed beat. She closed her eyes, pressing her lips together, clenching her fists. She felt her stomach twist, and the noises change behind her.

"Akira?"Her eyes popped open, and she breathed a sigh of relief, launching herself at Itachi, who was sitting in a waiting room chair at what she guessed was an airport. His arms subconsciouslessly encircled her, tightening when she began to sob. "What's wrong? Kisame called to tell me that you and your brothers had a fight today!"He pushed her back. His eyes narrowed in her bleeding again lip, eyes flashing red. She looked up at him helplessly.

"It's been a horrible day, Itachi."She hiccuped. "And I keep making it worse!"She sobbed, catching some attention. He stood them up, and lead them outside, to a bench, her tears not stopping.

"What happened?"He asked.

"Well....I went with Sasori and Deidara to the Art show, right? And then I saw a painting my Uncle did, and got so scared I ran off, right?"She let the words tumbled out, struggling not to mushed them all together like she usually did when she was upset. "I ran off in fear, not really thinking, and when we were walking back, we found my brothers with Sasori's smashed up car. I got even more scared, and I turned to run, but my Uncle was there! He hit me, and then Kisame and the others showed up, but my uncle called out some beasts on them. Sasuke saved me before I was taken away, but all I could was just sit there and cry!"She hiccupped, sobbing harder.

"You're still a young vampire, Akira."He soothed, brushing her hair away. "But to teleport yourself almost an entire country away is amazing."He told her with a praising smile.

"That's not even the worst of it though!"She choked on her sob. "I was so angry with myself, and Naru-chan tried to calm me down, but I shoved him away, and I don't know what happened to him. When I left he was unconscious on the bed."She gave Itachi a terrified. "What did I do?"She cried.

"There, there. He's fine. I can tell. Sasuke isn't overly worried, so he probably passed out."Itachi soothed softly, hugging her to his chest. She choked on another sob.

"Naruto probably hates me now."She muttered, burring her head in his chest.

"I highly doubt that. He's probably worried sick about you. Let's go inside and get you a plane ticket home with me."He said gently. She looked up at him, and felt her eyes close. He pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, and smiled at her reasurringly. "I know it's hard, but we'll do this together."He told her. She nodded.

"Together."She agreed, and let him lead her inside.

Itachi's house was on fire. The flames were high and dangerous, driving fear throught out Akira as she gawked at the scene. Itachi was out of the door with in seconds, and she took a moment to follow him closer to the house. She grabbed his arm, his wide angry eyes turning to her.

"Don't go."She pleaded. He yanked his arm away.

"I have to go!"He told her.

"Don't."She felt her heart crack at his helpless look.

"I'm sorry. Go back to the car, and wait."He kissed her forehead before disappearing in to the night. She called after him, screaming his name once, twice....maybe three times, before immense pain flooded over her back and shoulders. She reached back and pulled away her hand to see blood. She had been shot. she coughed up blood, but dispite the pain, did not stay still. She ran. She ran towards the forest, knowing it was stupid, and if this were a horror movie, she'd be screaming at the TV screen right about now. But going to the car was death. She knew that her brothers and uncle had the entire thing surrounded. In fact, there was most likely only one place that was safe to go, but she knew she had to race against beasts and monsters to get there. Her chances were slim, with out Itachi there to guide her. He'd only shown her once, and she had to think hard about the place. She crashed threw the bush, bouncing off trees, and jumping over logs, for once thanking her vampire skills. Her back stilled burned, but it was slowly healing. She was weak from teleporting a few hours ago, and going with out blood for so long, but her legs did not stop. She heard the howls, and familiar cackles of joy. Her brothers loved playing hide and seek. She stumbled, coming upon a clear path. She saw a small trail of blood, and smelled the familiar scent of Sasuke. She raced after it, going in zig zags, wiping her blood everywhere she could touch to confuse them as best as she could. She happened upon the cemetary by chance. She had gotten lost hours ago, and the sun was coming up. Not a good thing. She nearly fell into a fresh new grave whole, and struggled to find a familiar smell. She knew that she had to find a certain grave stone, and doing that would be beyond impossible since she could not read latin. Stupid Uchihas always have to make things impossibly hard. She was about three quarters threw when she was hit again.

"Fuck." She collasped to the ground on top of an old grave. She stared at the grave, eyes widening. Finally! She reached out, running her blood stained fingers over the name. The floor disappeared out from under her, and she fell into the hole. She screamed, the grave sealing over as she fell. Her back met with the cement floor, and her head clunked on it harshly. She heard footsteps, and calls, but her mouth only poured out blood.

"Akira!"She passed out.

"Akira! Akira!"Naruto sobbed, rushing forward.

"She's fine."Kisame touched the boy's shoulder, moving him away.

"Itachi...Where is Itachi?"Sasuke demanded as the girl's eyes fluttered open.

"Sasuke!"Naruto glared at the raven.

"It'll be wonder if she can even understand you, un."Deidara muttered, slicing his wrist, and holding it over the girl's mouth as Kisame held it open. Akira's eyes turned dark, and fangs gleamed in the candle light as she gulped down the red liquid. Naruto clutched at her hand, grimacing but refusing to leave his friend.

"We need to find Itachi. He's the only one who knows how to open the gateway."Sasuke tried again.

"Sasuke, our first priority is to make sure Akira is okay."Kisame told the younger. "She can lead Itachi to us anywhere we go."

"Those beasts are still out there, yeah."Deidara whispered, eyes dark. "It's all her fault."He muttered, snatching his wrist away angrily. "If she had never made Itachi-chan fall in love with her, Sasori, and Hidan, and Kakuzu would still be alive!"He yelled, standing heading for the door. Kisame sighed, and looked over at Naruto.

"Make sure she stays laying down."He got up and left when the blond nodded. Naruto gripped her hand tightly in his, and pressed the bloodly appendage to his chest.

"Akira..."He whispered as she whimpered in pain, eyes fluttering in her sleep. "Poor Akira."