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~TheNinjas

Akari

Akari walked home, her body sore, her arms tingling, and very tired. She shouldn't have used that technique with her Sharingan. Major chakra vacuum there. It also took forever just for the Medical Ninjas to re-open her chakra holes, which explained the arm tingling.

She went through the smaller, more quiet streets, avoiding the main ones, lest she accidentally run into one of the Konoha shinobi. When did Katsuki say they needed to visit the Akatsuki? Oh well, didn't matter to her right now.

She approached the Hokage's building and headed inside. Shizune met her at her room door. "Tsunade-sama wishes to see you." she told the kunoichi. Akari nodded, shuffling her feet to follow the assistant. After a few hallways, they entered the Hokage's room. Shizune moved to the corner, holding a small pet...pig?

"Naoko Akari," Tsunade-sama stated. "After assessing your..abilities, we have decided that you will join into Team 7 under Hatake Kakashi. Welcome to Konoha." Akari nodded and bowed, her hair slipping into her face hiding her small smile. After leaving the room and returning to her own, Akari dropped onto her bed for a much needed nap before the meeting that was - as she now remembered - tonight.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Akari skillfully slid open the window to her room and peered out. A chilly breeze hit her face and blew her hair into her eyes. Deciding to leave her hair down, she went to get her cloak.

It was not designed like the Akatsuki's black ones with red clouds on them. These were interchangeable ones, camo on one side, desert browns and tans on the other. Since the Akatsuki's nearest hideout was 2-3 days away, Itachi and Kisame would meet them in the woods.

Slipping out of her window, she jumped to the ground with a low thud. She winced and looked to see if there were guards. Katsuki and her had a meeting place, so she would run alone for a while. Walking quietly to the nearest next building, Akari pulled up her hood before jumping up to the roof. She jumped silently from roof to roof. The meeting place was near the front gate, they could sneak out farther along the wall.

Suddenly, she something - no, someone - on the balcony of a higher building than the one she was currently on. This was bad, she needed to jump up there to get to the designated spot. Sneaking closer, she saw it was that weird Sand shinobi, the red haired one.

After 5 minutes of her frustrating wait, the Sand nin called inside.

"Gaara!" A female voice called, probably the blonde girl with he four pigtails and the huge fan. Gaara went inside. As soon as the door shut, Akari leaped up onto the roof, and nearly froze as the door opened again.

"Just wait Temari, I heard something." A male voice said as he stepped out onto the balcony. Akari quietly panicked, had he known she was there all along?

"Gaara, it was probably the wind." Temari complained quietly.

Akari mentally cursed, she had to get out of there now. Using her necklace for an extra chakra boost, she sped-jumped all the way to the meeting spot. She landed just as Katsuki did.

"Finally not early huh?" Katsuki tried to taunt her, but Akari barely heard her and mumbled,

"Let's go."

As Katsuki found the spot they were going to go over the wall to meet the Akatsuki, Akari looked back in the direction they had come. She really hoped that Gaara hadn't seen her, or the mission would be a bust.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

After silently and swiftly jumping through the forest on tree branches, the two female nins stopped on a branch connected to a tree on the edge of the clearing, where 2 cloaked figures waited.

Slowly, holographic images of the rest of the members appeared. Both of the shinobi jumped down at the same time. Akari dropped into a bow, and Katsuki followed, for once not being sarcastically friendly.

"Yumiko, itoko." the leader, Pein, said in his deep, when-I-speak-people-listen-voice. Akari winced slightly, but hid it well when he called her itoko, but didn't react to the Yumiko part. It was the fake name her parents told him before they died.

To the Akatsuki, Akari was Yumiko, and Katsuki was Kenjii.

"Hello, Pein-sama," she replied. "You wished to see me and Kenjii tonight?" The other members, holograms except for Itachi and Kisame, said nothing.

"Hai. We wanted to see how your..mission was proceding." the powerful leader said.

"It has only been two days, itoko." Akari/Yumiko said through gritted teeth. "But-"

"We're in, Lord Pein." Katsuki/Kenjii responded. "And A-er, Yumiko is in the Jinchuriki's team. I am on the team closest to that team."

"We also have both had to reveal our Sharingan." Akari/Yumiko broke in, the hood hiding her white eyes, the edges flapping slightly in the breeze.

"How does that effect anything?" Sasori, the puppet master said, looking to Pein for an answer. He was currently inside one of his crazy puppet contraptions. Akari and Katsuki would probably never see his real face.

"It doesn't, they just need to be more cautious." Itachi answered for Pein. Itachi contained a Sharingan power too, for he was an actual Uchiha, the one that killed his whole clan except for his little brother Sasuke. Both girls knew Sasuke was with Orochimaru, but the Konoha nin did not know that they knew. In fact, the two kunoichi knew things that the Konoha nin didn't.

"Were you followed?" Pein asked.

"No sir." Katsuki said when Akari remained silent, her thoughts flashing back to Gaara. Had he seen her?

"Itoko." Pein said. Akari looked at her...cousin. She was cousins with the most notorious, S-Rank criminal in the nin-world right now. He only called her his cousin - itoko - to remind her that he had total control over her and she must obey his every order. She hated it, like, really?

"Hai?" She asked, her tone careful and guarded.

"I have heard that some Sand ninja are visiting the Hidden Leaf." He gazed at her, waiting for an affirmative on this information.

"Yes, although I have not met them. What of it?"

"One is a Jinchuriki, known as Gaara of the Sand. He contains the one-tail in him, Shukaku. I want you to get close to him and find information on him, for we need to take all the Jinchuriki's demons in order for our plan to succeed. You got it?"

"Hai, itoko." She answered, swiftly rising from her bowed/kneeling position. Katsuki followed suit. As they jumped on the tree branch, a voice rang out. Pein.

"Oh and Yumiko, Kenjii, don't get attached to Konoha, or you will fail." Akari turned to see only Pein, Itachi, and Kisame standing there. Pein nodded and his hologram disappeared. Itachi and Kisame turned and left in a blur, heading in the other direction. 'Court' was adjourned

NOTES: As you smart people probably guessed, 'itoko' means cousin.

Yumiko means 'arrow child', Kenjii means 'strong.'