Minami's POV

I watched sadly as Joy spun on her heel and raced up the road, away from me. Why was she so scared, so upset? I thought she'd be happy to see me, at least....

And that uniform. The uniform belonged to Akatsuki, I recognised that much. 'So, Joy's in Akatsuki, huh?' I mused, starting to walk up the street. 'That....that's the last thing I thought would happen.' But despite the confusion around the Akatsuki thing, there was the fact of why I was here. I died. I killed myself, by stabbing a kunai into my chest, choking on my blood as my heartbeat stopped. And not only was I not nine anymore, I was now a healthy twenty year old, in body and mind. What was going on?

I stopped walking, seeing the familiar pattern of the Akatsuki uniform just in front of me. A girl....long black hair, but it was tied up in a high ponytail, and blue streaks ran through it as opposed to purple. Recognition flitted through me. I knew her. Joy-chan's little cousin....also my cousin, in a way. Toramizu Kairi. She had always been the sweetest little girl you could ever find. Although I only knew her when she was one and two years of age, I recognised her.

I raced forward, and grabbed her by the wrist. 'Kairi!' She flinched, and turned around. 'What the-?! Fuck!' I blinked. 'Huh?'

'GET LOST!!' she yelled, her fist flew through the air and slammed into my jaw. The pain was immediate, immense pain as I could feel the bones cracking. Blood poured from my gums as I looked at her in shock. 'Kairi? What-'

'Didn't you hear me?! Get lost!!' she yelled again, raising her fist. 'Wait! Kairi! It's me!' No sign of recognition at all, and I could see that she was building up chakra in her fist. Should I be hit by this one, I probably would die. Again. 'Minami!' she froze, fist hovering centimetres from my face. 'Mi....nami?' Kairi whispered. 'Minami....sounds...familiar....' I smiled. 'Yeah, Minami! I'm Joy-chan's friend!'

'Minami...yeah, I know you....but...you died.....fuck!' Kairi disappeared in a puff of smoke, or at least, her shadow clone did. I recognised it as soon as she released it. 'You mean....a shadow clone just about broke my jaw?' I muttered, massaging it. 'Damn, she's strong now.'

Kairi's POV

I could feel one of my shadow clones disappearing, new information that it had collected flowed into me like a dam being released. 'Mm....No Naruto....huh? No!' Deidara, who was standing next to me, looked at me in exasperation. 'What, is the ramen shop doing a special that you can't go to?'

'Besides that! Where's Joy-chan?!' I scrambled to my feet, digging through my pockets as to find my phone. 'What? What happened?' Deidara walked over to me calmly, peering over my shoulder as I typed in Joy's number. 'Never you mind!' I yelled.

'Joy? Joy-chan? You there?' I asked into the phone.

'K-Kairi? What is it? D-did you find....Kut...suu?' Even though it was only over the phone, I could tell that she was crying, trying to hold back tears.

'Yeah. He's with Tobi. I met up with Deidara, and I got the files. But never mind that! One of the clones I sent out to find Naruto found some guy who said he was Minami!'

'Y-yeah....I met him....'

'Seriously, who would pretend to be Minami?'

'He...wasn't pretending. Somehow, Minami must have been revived.'

'Fuck! That's fucking creepy! How the fuck…!?'

'I… I don't know. I think it has something to do with me… Perhaps, when I revived Ku… Kutsuu, I revived Mi…nami too…'

'Suck shit! So what happened? How did you meet up with him?'

'He… he saw and then… and then he grabbed me and…'

I put it onto loudspeaker just then, I could tell what she was about to say and I NEEDED Deidara to hear it and see his face.

'…and he kissed me…'

'FUCK THAT BASTAAARD!!' Deidara shouted from next to me, running out of the room in my house, probably ready to use 'invincible art' on that guy, and so I chased out after Deidara, hanging up the phone, because, well, why would I ever resist a fight?

We ran out to the place I remember my clone had been, but Minami had left. 'Dammit! I wanted to see a fight!!' I pouted, but Deidara wasn't ready to give up just yet. He started running bout the place searching for him when instead we ran into Joy who was crying by the walls of her house in the Uchiha district. Why she was crying when her friend whom she loved and missed so much came back and kissed her? I have no idea; she's just weird that way. 'Umm, Joy-chan, if it makes you feel any better I think I broke his jaw so he won't be kissing you anytime soon.' I laughed. She mustered up a small smile but was still crying. I turned towards Deidara now, it was time for some cousin-to-cousin chat. 'Move it Girly-guy, don't you have somewhere else to be?'

He protested but left in the end, much to the dislike of Joy, but aw well, you win some you lose some. 'So, you ok Joy?' I asked her, when she had finally stopped crying. 'I feel like I've entirely betrayed Deidara… I don't think you know this, but I am in love with him…' I tried to hide my laughing. 'Yeah, I already knew. Almost everyone does. You're not the best at hiding it.' and with that a small laugh managed to find its way out as she became horrified with the information she had just received. 'Does Deidara no Danna know?' she asked me. 'Are you kidding me? An idiot like him is so stupid no matter how much he looks at you and talks to you and stays with you he still has epically failed to realise!'

She was a bit more thankful for the news, but still a quite sad. 'Hey, if it's any consolation to you, it's also pretty obvious that he likes you.' I told her, because although my cousin is very smart in some ways, she's still completely stupid when it comes to love. 'No, he wouldn't… why would he ever love me?' she whispered. See, what did I tell you? 'Well, if you're gonna choose between them definitely choose Minami. He's really cute and caring and loves you with all his heart! Despite… the fact that he tried to… kill you… Heh heh heh.'

'Choo00OOoose Minami… Choo00OOoose Minami…' whispered a voice from above us, and looking up towards the roof of the house we saw Joy-chan's 'conscience' Kutsuu. 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THERE YOU LITTLE FUCKTARD!!? I SWEAR I'M GONNA KILL YOU!! WHY'D YOU RUN AWAY FROM THE BASE?!?' I shouted towards him. 'Kutsuu…' Joy-chan whispered scared, 'They could've killed you if they found you. And how long have you been spying on us?'

Next we saw Tobi's basket-ball head peer from the top of the roof too. 'Teehee, Joy-chan likes Deidara Senpai!!~ And who's Minami-kun?' Joy-chan blushed so hard that her face was almost as red as her wrists. 'Minami is the guy who is Joy-chan's childhood friend and died just before my mum went into labour with me' Kutsuu informed Tobi. 'Yeah, and that was when Joy-chan came to stay with me for a week before you were born, she ran away on the first day though 'cuz my mum was being a bitch!'

Joy coughed a bit, obviously embarrassed. 'Umm, Kairi? Do you have the medical forms?' she asked. I nodded, while she grabbed Kutsuu's wrist and led hi out of the area. 'C'mon, lets go then, before we grab any attention and need to get into some fights…'

I nodded again, suddenly realising this was the first time I've ever taken orders from someone, then proceeded to grab Tobi's wrist and follow the other two off to find Deidara. We found him by the village gates, waiting for us.

'Where have you guys been, un? I've been waiting for ages!! Leader-san is calling a meeting.'