Ok, sorry about the time gap and the fact that there are probably dead characters in this story but a) I didn't want to comingle with the main story line and b) I like the characters that have died :) Enjoy

My destination was Konoha. Itachi and Kisame had offered to come but I kindly declined as I exited the front door and into the dark forest beyond. According to Zetsu, it will take about 2 days to reach my beloved village that I cruelly departed from. A thin tear rolled down my cheek. I quickly brushed it away and leapt towards the Leaf village.

My only thought was of Naruto. I had always thought about him when I was at the Akatsuki hideout, and now that I was allowed to psychically go to him, but for all the wrong reasons, a smile just had to spread across my face.

I also thought about Kakashi, and Iruka and all my other friends I had made in the village. I had longed to go back and escape from the Akatsuki, but never had the chance, or the reason to. I had no idea what my friends were like. Had Naruto become Hokage? Has Kakashi moved on? Will everyone hate me…for betraying them…?

Questions like these continued to float through my head all day and throughout the night, until I took refuge underneath a giant oak tree, waited until sleep took hold of me and drag me into its infinite abyss of darkness and dreams.

My dream made me clench and shudder. This was my dream.

Blackness was the first thing to be processed through to my head. Then a kaleidoscope of colours swirled around in front of me and warping into a field of manicured grass, a clean cobblestone pathway and a cloudless sky. I was walking down the path when 3 shapes shimmered into view far a head. I needed to know what these objects were so I quickened my pace to get there faster.

All around me, the picturesque land around me began to change into a dark and deadened world. The once covered trees were now bare and dying. The green grass had turned black, as well as the sky. The flawless cobblestone path underneath my feet was slowly becoming jagged and cracked. I ignored the changing surroundings and focused only on the 3 growing shapes.

As I drew nearer to them, I could make out the basic outlines of their bodies. The first figure was taller than the others and supported gravity-defying hair. Its perfect and shining head guard was on an angle against its blacked out face. The figure next to it was slightly shorter and had a spiky crown; its head guard shone brightly and unblemished in the dark world against the spikes. I breathed inwards and looked at the last figure. Its head was mainly smooth but had a curved but spiky thorn coming out from it. It too also supported a straight head guard but also had a glowing red cut going along its face.

I gasped. The 2 outside people were holding the middle persons shoulders, as if protecting it. I knew these people. Kakashi, Naruto, Iruka. My friends. I began to run towards them but a sudden beam of light shone down on the shapes and illuminated their features.

I screamed in horror as I saw the outside figures, Kakashi and Iruka, covered grotesquely in blood and Kunai and Shurikans. Their Chunin vests were ripped in different places and had a red, black and white cloud roughly painted over the left side of their chests. The only things that weren't touched were their faces and head guards. Tears streamed down my face. I wasn't around to protect my friends and now they are injured badly. Strangely though, when I had approached them and activated the light shining around them, forgiving smiles spread across their faces, as if telling me that what I did was to grow stronger and protect everyone.

I turned my attention forcibly to the middle person, Naruto, my brother. I had to force my brain to register what I was seeing. Between the 2 men was an unscathed Naruto. He had no visible cuts or blood on him. I inspected him closely before his face suddenly started to crack and crumble. Pieces of his face fell towards the ground, only to be turned to dust halfway down.

I gasped. The once perfect-looking Naruto was now Pein in Naruto clothes. He opened his mouth to talk. He sounded like Naruto. "You must kill Leader-sama. Leader-sama is causing great pain to all of us. He must be killed."

As Pein spoke and started to repeat his sentence eerily, Kakashi began to speak. "You've done well Maye. It's time to come back home."

Kakashi's voice boomed in my head like a drum. But Iruka's soft and kind voice drowned out the others. "We forgive you."

I stood there, dumbstruck. These wounded and deformed Ninja were forgiving me for what I did to them. I left them all without any sign of struggle or objection. I didn't even leave a note for Kakashi to find or for Naruto to discover. I just left and betrayed the village. I began to cry.

I sank to my knee's and wept till I heard clinking and a rustle of material moving slowly towards me. I looked up with red eyes and saw Kakashi looking down at me, blood seeping over his cloud slowly. "Maye, it's time to go home."

Suddenly, the world shook around me and my eyes flung open, alert as a guard dogs. It was already bright and sunny. I must have slept for a while. Then I noticed my surroundings. All around me were Konoha Ninja's. 3 ANBU guards were surrounding 1 particular figure. They broke apart and revealed Lady Tsunade. She spoke. "Maye, it's been a while." After she spoke, the strangest thing happened to her face. She smiled. She actually smiled at me.

"Lady T-Tsunade? What is everyone doing here?"

A familiar voice softly replied to me. "We've been trying to find you for almost two years." I turned and saw Kakashi crouched down beside me. "Then when I found a shirt of your's three days ago, I got Pakuu to track your scent and found you leaving a temple. He then came back to me and we all came out here to retrieve you." He acknowledged everyone around me with a hand.

I gasped. There must have been at least 50 people surrounding us. I cried in joy at the sight of Team Gai, the Hokage, Kiba, Shino, Iruka…and Naruto! He was standing in the middle of everyone silently (for a change) and smiling. I jumped up off the ground and ran and embraced him tightly in a hug; my Akatsuki robes almost surrounding him too.

"Maye…" Naruto broke nicely from our hug. "W-why are you in the Akatsuki? You're an enemy now."

"No, it's not like that…" I looked over my shoulder to quickly glance at Kakashi who was looking at me with suspicion. "I joined them to know what they were planning to do to Konoha and all the other villages. I'm sorry I left without telling but two of them dragged me away."

"Who were they?" asked Kakashi softly.

"They were Zetsu and Tobi."

"Who are they?" asked Naruto confusingly.

"Zetsu is this half-black-half-white guy with a large Venus flytrap surrounding him. He's like one of the strongest guys there but doesn't do much." I sighed. "And Tobi is just a newbie there, but I reckon he is hiding most of his power from people. He wears an orange mask and people don't take him very seriously. They treat him like an underling so I don't think they'll care if he was killed."

Everyone around me nodded. Then Gai piped up. "Uh, Maye, seeing as your not really connected to anything right now…except Naruto, would you like to come back to Konoha under MY own protection and spend your life…I mean stay at my house for a while." He had stars glowing in his eyes and gave me his one-thumb-up-teeth-making-clanging-noise smile.

"No, she is not going to stay at your place, Gai!" Lady Tsunade yelled. "She is staying within the boundaries of my office and sleeping under ANBU guard security in a room near mine for a while. Now everyone! Let's move out! We have to get back to Konoha before dark!"

Everyone shouted Hai and jumped towards to the nearest branch to sprint back to the village hidden in the leaves. But I didn't move. Neither did Shino, Kakashi or the Hokage and her guards. "Shino?"

"Yes?" he asked in his snake like voice.

"Can you leave please? I need to talk to Hokage-sama for a moment."

"I'm ANBU now. I can't leave her from my sight." I groaned.

"Ok…well, can everyone just move away for a moment? I need to talk to Lady Tsunade in private."

From behind me, Kakashi nodded and leaped backwards onto a tree and withdrew a yellow Paradise novel from his pocket. The ANBU silently retreated behind the various bushes around us and waited in silence. I turned to Lady Tsunade. "I need to tell you something that's been troubling me."

Hope you enjoyed this!