The Dream Makers

by S.F.Acronym

(Sequel to the Wishful Thinker) Genies can't grant their own wishes, if it were so then Kurosawa Miyako would be marrying the love of her long existence Sabaku No Gaara and living happily ever after. Instead she had to resign herself to this: "Miyako-chan, I wish for the deaths of every single person you've ever cared about. Especially Sabaku No Gaara."

2. Break You Slowly

Happy New Year ^.^' Yeah I know I'm real behind right now. And I can't even use the excuse of moving and getting accustomed to my new place because it's been like a month now teehee whoops. But welcome to chapter 2 of the Dream Makers anyway! Hopefully I can keep up a consistent schedule for you guys, and I am excited to write so I'll be doing my damnedest.

Thanks to the followers, reviewers, favoriters, and all my readers. Y'all make me smile. A quick note, it might get gruesome in this chapter, so if you don't want to read gore skip over sections tagged in bold, e.g. O/M

Thoughts are in italics

Memories/flashbacks are in bold italics

Bold if not for emphasis, is for my beginning/endnotes

Disclaimer: I spent ages on hold thinking I was going to talk to Kishimoto about giving me the rights to Naruto, because we are in a pandemic you know, but it turns out I was on the line with an insurance broker the whole time .

Break You Slowly

Being woken up by Sakura-chan should've been a dream come true for Naruto—even if she had smacked him so hard it made an imprint on his face.

"Sakura-chan, why?" The pajama-clad boy sniffled from the floor, nursing his tender cheek with one hand.

"You wouldn't wake up, Baka-Naruto." Still she crouched down and healed his slightly swelling cheek despite the fact it would've been gone within the hour.

"You told me to get rest today." He whined, hauling himself up with a stretch and a groan followed immediately after. "You forbade me from getting out of bed in fact!" He crowed, one finger pointed in accusation and the other hand reaching up to scratch his seal lazily.

Sakura batted his hand away nonchalantly. "I wanted you to, but Tsunade-sama has summoned us and someone had to come get you, so—" She sighed, circling his form and scanning him with several pointed looks. Satisfied, by what Naruto has no idea, she starts to push him towards his wardrobe.

"Hurry up and get dressed, we can't keep Tsunade-sama waiting!"

"But Sakura-chan—" his plea is interrupted mid-yawn, "can't I get just five more minutes—ITAI!"

Now nursing a new knot on his head, Naruto grumbles and drags himself, no literally Sakura knocked him to the floor—rude, to his pitifully small closet.

Now clad in his normal jumpsuit, it occurs to Naruto halfway to the Hokage tower to ask what this is about. In his defense though, he just really woke up.

"All she said was that it was urgent." Sakura shrugged, and Naruto had to be content with this total lack of knowledge, for now. Still, his mind was buzzing with possibilities—hoping it was another lead on Sasuke even though he was nowhere near ready, with a jutsu or with what he could possibly say the next time they were faced with one another to convince him this time. Whatever it was though, he didn't want any more bad news. His nerves at this point were shot—Gaara dying and being revived, the addition of Sai, who he still wasn't sure about, then Sasuke being found and slipping through his fingers within a couple of weeks will do that to a person. He wanted to scream, but he was well aware of his role—the smiling optimistic idiot. If he gave into despair outwardly than his friends, his mentors, the villagers—they'd start losing faith in him. It felt self-involved at times, to think he had so much power over such a large group of people, and sometimes he scoffed at the thought, but he thought back on the pressure he'd put on himself, how he'd proven himself and how in return he'd received pressure from others. First it was Sasuke, to be better, when it couldn't be Sasuke anymore, it was Sakura's pressure to restore that balance, then it was his friends, the pressure to catch up to them, it was Gaara and the pressure to match him, and the cycle started over again. He loathed and loved it, this cycle—but one of its demands was that he never waver in his conviction that he could accomplish his goals, no matter how unattainable they seemed.

Still…'please don't be bad news, please don't be bad news, please don't be bad news.'

N/K

Tsunade was pounding back a drink just as Naruto and Sakura walked in—the last two to arrive they hoped, with how packed the office already was. The Rookie Nine and their senseis, plus Team Gai were practically shoulder to shoulder in front of the Hokage's desk. Kiba gave him a loud greeting, alerting the others to their arrival fairly quickly—and after exchanging quick greetings, Naruto did his customary obnoxious greeting.

"Oi baa-chan, isn't it too early to be pounding back those drinks?"

"Brat!" She pounded her fist onto the wooden table, although only enough to send it into a violent shake and not enough to suffer the same fate many a desk before it had. She huffed and smoothed out her hair before clearing her throat.

"We received a message from Suna this morning."

Naruto, who had wormed himself to the front of the pack next to Kakashi-sensei, who looked infinitely better than when he'd hospitalized earlier in the week, immediately tensed. The elder man gave his shoulder a firm squeeze and Naruto forced himself to relax, though only marginally.

"Did something happen to Gaara-san?" Lee voiced for him from the back.

"No, thankfully nothing further has happened to the Kazekage. But he did send a request to Leaf for information to complete a profile on a…potential Akatsuki member."

Neji, who had chosen to take refuge on the farthest wall, and the others noticed with the best vantage point to survey all of them, narrowed his eyes in slight confusion.

"What would we know about a member of the Akatsuki? Aside from any information we may have collected about Uchiha Itachi?"

Tsunade released the heaviest sigh and massaged her temples, she shifted through a few documents placed in a stack before her for a few moments and then slid a few pages to the front of the desk that had Naruto choking on his breath. "Because the suspected Akatsuki member is Miyako Maki."

The room became a vacuum, at least for Naruto, where the accusation seemed to suck all noise from the very atmosphere—as if no one deserved to even breathe while they weighed this on their mind.

Then— "Wait, that weird Jounin from Sand that was always hanging around Naruto?" Kiba blurted and then hissed in the next second, the cartilage of his ear being mercilessly twisted by an unamused Shino next to him and Hinata breathed a reprimanding "Kiba-kun!" lowly.

Naruto's tongue felt like lead as the dog-loving shinobi defended himself quietly, and Neji carried the conversation forward.

"Now that it is mentioned, she did seem overly fond of Naruto—I assumed it was an attempt at collecting information for the Chuunin exams at the time…" He trailed off.

"But trying to collect high level information from Naruto doesn't make any sense." Shikamaru finished.

Naruto had half a mind to be offended but he was still so caught up in this accusation. He was still staring blindly at the wretched Wanted poster of her in the middle, the poor artist's rendition of Miyako unmasked he'd seen as a 13-year old—with it's purposeful too sharp eyes. Next to it was a standard photo of a scarfed Miyako most likely taken for a ninja travel permit, and at the very end another artist's rendition laid, this time picturing an unmasked Miyako with shorter, curlier hair that framed her face like a halo and a slightly older face—but still with colder eyes that didn't portray what he knew of Miyako at all.

"I've gathered you all here." Tsunade said over the sudden din that had taken over the group as they attempted to piece together an identity for Miyako amongst themselves. "Because the Sand wants our help in filling in any possible gaps they'd have in building a profile."

"Despite Kiba's clumsy way of expression—" Shino started, only to be cut off by a shout of indignation from Kiba, "he has a point, the majority of us didn't have enough contact with Miyako to be able to accurately help Sand build a profile."

Tsunade nodded. "I understand that you wouldn't have had much to do with Miyako Maki, after all the alias only existed for 3 months at best, but you have all come in contact with her other persona, multiple times."

Confusion passed over the group, especially for Naruto, but Kakashi growled softly under his breath.

"Raccoon."

The room seemed to jolt simultaneously, many staring on at Tsunade in wide-eyed bewilderment, as if the idea was unfathomable.

Naruto vaguely knows about the ANBU Kakashi-sensei is referring to, the image of her viciously decapitating a man in front of them still tattooed onto his eyes. But as Kiba had oh-so-eloquently pointed out, Naruto was more qualified to speak about her original alias than on Raccoon—because that encounter he'd had with everyone else was the first and last time he'd seen her latest alias.

"Miyako was masquerading as Raccoon the whole time? But that would mean—"

"It's exactly as you think, Sakura. Miyako has been Raccoon for the last 3 years."

A din broke out across the room at this—Naruto could hear murmurs being exchanged on what this could possibly mean for Sand. How much information had she managed to get ahold of? What was the significance of staying for three years? Why hadn't the Akatsuki struck earlier if Miyako had established herself so early as a confidant? Had she killed the Kazekage to set Gaara up to succeed him? What was her purpose in showing up in the exams though?

"Enough!" With a sharp smack to the desk that let out a resounding "crack!" to the wood, everyone grew quiet once more. Naruto's eyes never leaving the spider like cracks that had slowly started form from the impact. And even though the room had relatively quieted down, he still felt like everything was too loud.

"I know we're not here to speculate, but something about this whole thing doesn't sit right with me." Shikamaru sighed heavily, shoving his hands into his pockets with a furrowed brow. "From what we know of Miyako, she's highly skilled in espionage—we can see that from the many identities she managed to create and the successful entries and escapes into the countries. She also seems to be something of a decent strategist, though her motives are unknown at this point." Shikamaru pauses as a strange look passes on his face, but he quickly shakes it off to continue. "We also are well aware that she was powerful enough to pose a threat to Gaara at only 12 years old—so if she was supposedly working for the Akatsuki this entire time, why didn't she strike earlier? She had plenty of opportunities in the three years she was posing as Raccoon alone. For someone like Miyako letting all that time slip by doesn't make sense."

Tsunade sighed, rubbing the creases between her eyebrows with a grumble. "We have no confirmation that Miyako is or was working for the Akatsuki at this time—but regardless of her motives, whatever they are, they clearly weren't anything good. Our primary objective is to help the Sand compile data on her, as they have requested—which means no more gossip or attempts to understand her motives. She's been declared as an S-rank nuke-ninja, and we will treat her as such." With a stern glare to all in front of her, Tsunade clenched her fists. "Gai, Kakashi, you and your teams have had the most recent contact with a jutsu that appeared to be associated with Miyako, if the details in Neji's report are to be believed—I want you to recount every detail of that encounter even if it seems inconsequential. If anyone has any thoughts, information or observations about Miyako that they think of while we go through any mission reports involving her participation, feel free to speak up."

The "yes Tsunade-sama" had sounded unified in Naruto's ears, but if Tsunade was checking the cadence, if she was paying any attention to Naruto, she would've noticed the way the words had to fight to get around the lump in his throat. Did anyone notice the way that strangled sentence was said to the desk with steadily growing spider web cracks? Did anyone else hear the ominous crack it gave after their agreement?

Naruto wasn't sure which would win—the integrity and structure of the desk itself, only marred by these little cracks—or if the cracks would grow into a gaping chasm irreparable and send the desk toppling down into itself.

Naruto wasn't sure if he could even speak.

O/M

"The passing of Akasuna no Sasori is unfortunate—but his sacrifice is a necessary evil of our work."

"Pein" had an incredibly deep voice, possibly outmatching Obito's who, as Miyako had come to learn, had more of a dark, raspy timbre. Pein's voice was deep in a way that spoke of strength in hardships, perfect for a position of leadership—though Miyako wasn't entirely certain he was the leader of this operation.

It was hard to tell—because the Pein in front of her was nothing more than a flickering technicolor image, but something about him was familiar, even though she was certain she had never encountered him before today. She unfortunately couldn't say that about the others perched on the fingers of this gargantuan statue.

She and "Tobi" shared the thumb—Miyako perched at the very fingertip while Tobi rested on his bottom, head resting on her right thigh while he draped the left across the person and attempted to find a "ticklish place" on her leg. Occasionally, since Miyako wasn't paying much attention to him, he would let go, slide down the length of the finger and into the palm and then scale back up with his chakra to repeat the process. Everyone was trying to ignore him, with little success from a certain blond man.

Across from them, on the pointer finger of the opposite hand, Deidara glowered—though Miyako wasn't sure if he couldn't stand her or Tobi more. He seemed to be physically holding himself back from screaming and/or blowing Tobi up. In fact, if Miyako had to guess, he was tensing every muscle in his body to do so. Together they'd probably put him in an early grave.

On either side of Deidara was the deep-voiced leader Pein and the only other woman in the room, who appeared to be in the running for the "most apathetic female in the room". Miyako vaguely wondered who out of the two of them looked like they cared the least.

Next to Miyako and Tobi was the foul-mouthed least holy looking priest Hidan and his partner who looked like he'd love nothing more than to sell Miyako to the highest bidder still, Kakuzu. Luckily for Miyako, Hidan didn't have any love for money and was between her and the gold digging giant.

So to recap: Deidara wanted to kill her because she'd nearly killed him before she "switched sides" so to speak, Kakuzu would like to kill her and sell her off to the black market, and Hidan thought she and Tobi were in some kind of sexual relationship because, in his words, she had to be an escort.

She wasn't sure which was worse.

Miyako would've been fine if this were the height of her problems, but no, her real worry lied in the rest of the Akatsuki members she hadn't met—and sort of wish she never had.

If Kakuzu was a giant, then standing next to him was a behemoth, in both stature and power. Memories were tugging at Miyako's brain of this man, if he could even be called that, but they only amounted to brief flashes of him through a veil of mist. It was unlikely she'd ever encountered him when she'd been in Mist, because she surely would've remembered the gleeful predatory aura he radiated.

She did remember that sword however.

It was impossible to forget that demonic creation, she was partially responsible for its inception after all—she knew the evil that went into creating such a powerful weapon. There were fewer things in this world that Miyako regretted more than her part in creating the Seven Deadly Swordsman of the Mist, especially the forging of those blades. She'd felt tainted long after the consequences of those actions came to pass, simply by the residual darker magic still slithering around in her body.

Samehada was perpetually hungry—a living entity that thrived off of consuming as much chakra as it could. It wasn't surprising that it had fallen in the hands of Akatsuki, less so that it had ended up with a man with such extraordinary levels of chakra. It was most likely fat and happy at the prospect of consuming tailed demon chakra.

Luckily she wasn't in direct sight of the man who now wielded Samehada, a small relief to go along with the fact that he also wasn't physically present. This wasn't the case with the last two challenges she was presented.

On the pinky of the opposite hand stood what was arguably the oddest looking being to ever grace Miyako's eyes—and she'd seen plenty of strange things in her extensive life. The body of a man, cloaked in the Akatsuki colors was overshadowed by the large Venus fly trap he supposedly had for a head. But Miyako wouldn't have been unnerved by something as simple as odd accoutrement, no, it was his aura.

It was faint, only a wisp of scent on a breeze, signifying that he was skilled in espionage and could likely snuff that scent out in a moment's notice. Still the familiar blood-soaked soil set off her memories…

She screamed, body seized, bubbling orange, Naruto's anguish. Distraught. Betrayal. Anger. Pressing on her every nerve ending.

He was there, at Naruto and Sasuke's battle years ago—monitoring him even then. Why had he not struck? He clearly couldn't act in a combat capacity, or he didn't believe he could erase Naruto's presence enough to avoid being tracked by Kakashi and his nin-dog.

Who knew how much information he had been able to gather this way—how many deaths he had been responsible for in his own quiet way. How many people hadn't been able to detect him, including herself—especially herself. How long had he been lurking in the shadows watching and waiting for the opportune time to take Gaara? Was he keeping tabs on her too? Did he know what she was as well? Was that how Obito had been able to track her down? How he'd been able to swoop in and snatch her without detection?

Her heart pounded in her chest at the possibilities, but even this wasn't the height of her problems.

Resting on the Right finger of the opposite hand, red eyes that had pierced her through the moment she stepped foot into the room still haunted her, though they were no longer trained on her. The eyes of the clan she apparently could not escape for the life of her. No matter where she went, no matter how long of a reprieve she'd had, they still returned to torment her. Another. Fucking. Uchiha.

This must've been Sasuke's brother, the one who had supposedly killed the entire clan. Miyako wasn't sure what to make of him, should she thank him for ridding her of the majority of her lifelong problem, or stay far, far away from him because he was adding to her present problems. She was also eager to learn how Obito had managed to escape death by this man's hand. Didn't entire clan save Sasuke mean that Obito should've counted among the dead?

There were pieces missing to this story and Miyako wasn't sure she was so eager to find out what they were. Did she really want to be mixed up with the Uchihas anymore than she already was?

"Hold on un!"

The minute full-body twitch Miyako let out from Deidara's sudden loud shout—the steady cadence and deep reassuring bass of Pein's voice had lulled her into a false sense of comfort, a feeling she would have to examine much later when she was truly alone—earned her a "reassuring" warning pat from Tobi behind the knee.

"Tobi and his stupidity is one thing, hm! But her—" Deidara hissed as he thrust a finger in Miyako's direction, who for her part didn't waver in her absolute devil-may-care façade despite the fact that Deidara was practically foaming at the mouth in anger.

"I refuse to work with her, hm!"

Pein let out a sigh from the other side of the room, "Deidara—" He started, sternly, much like a parent reprimanding their child.

"She tried to kill me, twice un!"

"So what brat? Sasori tried to kill you all the time when you first arrived, it's practically like initiation in this organization." Kakuzu scoffed from her right, the still nameless bestial man beside him letting out a hearty cackle at the fuming blond's expense.

"And we're just going to look past the fact that not too long ago she was loyal to Sand and even killed one of Sasori-danna's spies in front of us, and you expect me to believe that Tobi, Tobi of all people managed to convince her to join the Akatsuki? And you're okay with this?" He whirled to face Pein beside him, glaring balefully at the otherwise stoic man.

"As I said before." Pein droned. "Miyako will not be acting as a public member of the Akatsuki, she will serve in covert operations, assigned by me, similar in role to Zetsu, in order to aid in the tracking and trapping of tailed beasts." Pein eyed the still tense Deidara askance, before plowing forward. "You will only have to see her if Tobi requires her assistance."

For Miyako everything that happened next was in slow motion. The muscles of Deidara's arm pulsing in an unnatural but distant echo of familiarity, the rush of wind on wings flapping rapidly as they approach from behind, the fiercely inelegant motion of Deidara's arm flexing as it hurls another whitish clay bird through the air, the veins popping to the surface of his boiling red face, opened in a barbaric scream as trails of spittle arch from the mad curse he lets out into the room.

Tobi's scream jolts everything into fast motion once more, his grip on her left leg tight, though she doubts his emotions come anywhere close to fear. Miyako calmly raises her hands to form an x across her body, palms facing the approaching bombs. She sends out a pulse of energy mere moments before both projectiles can make contact and Deidara can activate them—it isn't visible, but it is a tangible feeling that sweeps through the members present.

Still, Deidara yells out his signature: "Katsu!" to no avail. The birds are snatched from the air by Miyako, now merely animated clay sculptures, and in imperceptible little shocks of lightning are disintegrated before the Akatsuki's eyes, with not a twitch of a facial muscle from the woman responsible.

Tobi below her let out an exaggerated "phew!" and slid dramatically into the palm of the Gedo Statue hand in a heap, murmuring "saved" over and over again.

"Deidara!" Pein snapped, somehow over the uproarious mocking laughter of Hidan and the still unnamed beady-eyed Swordsman.

"Wow blondie, she didn't even fucking blink!" The silver-haired man wheezed between his laughter. "Tobi's Hooker is a fucking killer!"

"Enough!" Pein thundered, maybe literally as the whole room seemed to shake in his fury and furrowed brow.

"Deidara, you will have to learn to work with Tobi and as an extension Miyako—"

"Yeah or she'll fucking murder you!"

"It doesn't matter where she belonged last week or even yesterday, Tobi has assured us of her loyalties now." He stressed with a glare to Deidara.

The blond bomber huffed, but didn't say anything further, eyeing Miyako as she gracefully leapt down to Tobi who had decided that the next logical course of action was to rock himself back and forth in the fetal position.

"If there are no more objections or interruptions?" Pein looked poignantly at each member, bypassing Konan obviously, who hadn't so much as raised an eyebrow at the foolishness displayed before her. Admirable, considering she probably wasn't being forced to be that blasé.

When no more ruckus was made, Pein released them all, with Deidara shooting off one last glare at the duo before jumping off of his designated finger and stomping to one of the tunnels leading to makeshift rooms. Kakuzu and Hidan jumped off next and trailed off after the seething blond, Hidan snickering quietly to himself and shooting the pair a lecherous grin paired with an eyebrow waggle to match as they passed by. Kakuzu, thankfully, was distracted by their upcoming mission, murmuring something about setting off for Kumo quickly considering it would take sometime around a week and "time was money".

Miyako patted Tobi's head placatingly while the images of the remainder of the Akatsuki flickered away, with the Mass Murdering Uchiha's red-eyed stare being the last to fade away.

The tension in her chest uncoiled slightly, but there was no shaking the feeling that the Uchiha each had plans for her, and if she wanted to be a part of either scenario.

As Miyako carried Tobi like a baby through the hallways to their hidden room, because after all he was still "traumatized" that his "senpai" was going to kill him, she wondered if these two plans were likely to clash—because despite that gaze being overall terrifying to her, she'd felt a curl of something call out to her in his aura. The pain of sacrifice. Somehow that small kindred feeling, chiefly overshadowed by the intimidating face of a sleeping dragon, had reached her—and for the first time ever, with an Uchiha at least, she'd connected.

It was more than she could say she had with her own master.

"Miyako."

They were back in the room, she'd been moving mechanically again; she wondered if Obito had even noticed.

"I have your first assignment."

She tilted her head in interest but nothing more.

"You will be shadowing Hidan and Kakuzu, and ensuring safe passage."

It was simple, too simple. It stood to wonder why Obito would ask her to do such a mundane task when she was sure she was not needed.

"You aren't to interfere in the collecting of the Tailed Beast or in any of Hidan or Kakuzu's affairs unless you feel the Akatsuki will be compromised."

And with such open-ended instructions, this wasn't an assignment to ensure Hidan and Kakuzu's safety, it was an assignment to test her loyalty, which meant he was banking on her disappointing her in someway—he would be watching, scrutinizing. It was a test she had no way to study for and so in order to make up for her disadvantage she would just have to be overly-vigilant, think in the frame of mind as she was used to operating in with masters before Gaara. She didn't realize it would be this difficult to fall back into character.

"I understand." But she would, not for her own sake, but for the lives she'd come to care about—if she wanted to figure out what Obito and the Akatsuki was planning she needed them to think she wouldn't stray from the objective—for anything.

N/K

Neji shifted on his feet in front of Tsunade—he, Kakashi and Shikamaru had been made to step forward because, somehow, they had been leading or a part of key missions or incidents involving Miyako. Laid in front of the Hokage was stacks of paperwork, mission reports, medical reports, and countless records compiled from Sand. He harried state suddenly made sense to Neji, if she'd had to comb through these records once already, though they'd just received them, he can't imagine she'd gotten much sleep.

"Before you launch into your description of this jutsu that took on Miyako's form, I'd like to confirm something." After a minute of scanning a scroll that looked to be Kakashi and Gai's joint report, she made a noise of triumph.

"You mention in this report that towards the end of your journey to the Akatsuki base that you encountered a man glamoured to look like Itachi Uchiha, later identified to be Yura, a spy planted in Suna's jounin council by Akasuna no Sasori, and that Pakkun detected a familiar scent that he couldn't quite place at the time, correct?"

Kakashi nodded and Tsunade produced a bag with a familiar chipped and bloodied porcelain mask from under the paperwork.

"The Sand has a suspicion that Miyako killed Yura and would like us to confirm it." Kakashi nodded and went about summoning the grumpy looking pug who eyed the tense room with interest but otherwise looked to Kakashi for explanation.

"Ah Pakkun, we need to match a scent—can you tell us if this smells familiar to you?" Kakashi cheerfully pointed to Tsunade who now held the mask delicately between gloved fingers. The little dog trotted over to the Hokage with only a suspicious look to Kakashi, and sniffed the mask deeply.

"Hmm…" he leaned back, nose furrowed. "It's that same scent I couldn't pinpoint last week from that imposter Itachi body."

Tsunade's lips pinched, but she nodded and looked at Kakashi meaningfully. He sighed and gestured for Pakkun to make himself comfortable, sure that if the dog thought the scent was familiar even back then he must have also had a run in with the girl—though Kakashi couldn't recall his oldest summon mentioning anything about Miyako before.

Tsunade notated something down, and then motioned for Kakashi to begin speaking—to which he launched into an overview of the battle with Deidara and how the suspected "sand" went from assisting them to preventing them from even touching Gaara and that Kakashi suspected it was digging Gaara a grave.

"You and Neji both describe it transforming into a transparent Miyako…clone after Lee and Naruto managed to take Gaara's…body, away from it—and that it, according to you Neji, had self-contained chakra and became increasingly more solid as the battle went on. Is this an accurate summary?"

Neji nodded in tandem with Kakashi, wondering where Tsunade was going with this.

"Gai, Lee, Tenten, Sakura and Naruto—you were also present, are there any details I've left out of this summary?"

Neji didn't need to turn around to see Lee eagerly raising his hand straight up into the air—he could feel the wind of this enthusiasm hitting the back of his neck.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama! The Miyako clone seemed to also lack rudimentary language skills, only repeating the phrases "can't take" and "mine" and was inflamed with a passionate mission to take Gaara-san back from us by any means necessary!"

Tsunade tipped her head, which in and of itself wasn't an unusual reaction to Lee, but she seemed to be taking his contribution into consideration. "Well, it isn't necessarily unusual for clones to only be…programed so to speak to complete one task and only one task mindlessly, or to have limited language skills, though only knowing these two phrases is a strange route for Miyako to take if she did in fact dispatch this jutsu."

Tenten cleared her throat beside Lee, "I would agree, if it weren't for the strange nature of the clone overall. If the substance we've been describing is in fact sand, the Miyako "clone" didn't operate like the sand clones we've normally seen from Gaara-san, because even when it did start taking damage from Lee, Neji and I's hits, it didn't disperse and reform like sand. When it was attacked it took damage as if it was…well a person." At a loss for words, Tenten shrugged. "I've never seen anything like it before."

Tsuande chewed on her thumbnail, a nasty habit she had when she was stressed. "Sakura, Naruto, Gai, were there any outside stimulus that would indicate the gradual solidness Neji seemed to describe in his report."

Naruto, who anyone could tell was torn by looking at his despondent behavior, stayed silent, prompting Sakura beside him to pipe up with a worried look to his profile.

"Well, nothing really that I think could affect a clone, the only thing that was really happening at the time was Chiyo-baa-san using her Life Transference jutsu on Gaara."

Neji furrowed his brow in response, wondering why he hadn't thought of it at the time. Probably because it sounded…

"The idea of it seems preposterous." Kakashi sighed next to him. "But preposterous seems to be Miyako's MO, so we can't dismiss the idea…"

"And what idea exactly are we subscribing too?" Kurenai murmured next to Asuma in the back of the room.

"That the jutsu supposedly deployed by Miyako was somehow attached to Gaara's livelihood." Kakashi said gravely.

Tsunade scoffed, but wrote down their theory regardless, it wasn't like they had much else to go—still it sparked a debate.

"B-but how is such a thing possible?" Hinata's hushed tone seemed to carry throughout the room.

"I've heard of jutsu being cast over graves to protect Lords and Kages from having their bodies unearthed and secrets stolen, but nothing to this degree." Shino added, a soft note of disbelief in his voice.

"But wouldn't that go against the notion that she's working with the Akatsuki? What would be the point in attacking one of her own comrades? Why would she want to protect Gaara-san's body?" Sakura objected quietly, still side-eyeing her own teammate warily as information was exchanged.

"Not to mention the likelihood of Miyako being able to cast such a jutsu without being detected by Neji, or Kakashi-sensei or Gai-sensei—and from a distance as well—" Tenten input, but was hastily silenced by Tsunade's impatient look of reprimand.

In the silence that fell over the room once more, Tsunade tapped her pen in one hand on the desk, a disjointed rhythm as she chewed on her bottom lip in lieu of her thumbnail, as her other hand was needed to rapidly leaf through the documents.

"Neji, you said that the jutsu had what seemed to be self-contained chakra that didn't resemble anything like what you'd seen in other clone jutsus, yes?"

"I believe so." He confirmed.

"Did the chakra present in that clone look anything like this?" And Tsunade whipped out a large picture with a flourish, holding it up for everyone to see.

Sakura lets out an audible gasp, and the majority turn to see her face in open-mouthed shock, which isn't strange, because the picture is…well strange to say the least.

It's an X-ray image of a human torso, but this is where the similarities cease. The expectation of normal working chakra pathways lit up blue and visible is thwarted with this one single photograph that pictures hardly visible or distinct pathways at all, colored by an almost black purple that features a few tears and missing sections all together.

"Is-is that—?" Naruto's voice is croaky and broken, and Neji can't tell if it's due to disuse or because he's suddenly distraught—the look on his face the very picture of horror.

"The day Miyako left these X-rays were taken of her body due to the condition she returned to the Sand siblings in." She sets the picture down and picks up a hefty stack of documents, skimming her finger along the report until she finds what she's looking for.

"She was apparently brought into the hospital due to extreme fatigue and bloody coughs. After several tests, Suna medical ninja ascertained that Miyako had what they called a "chakra-eating disease", the likes of which they'd never seen. According to what they could find, they theorized that her chakra reserves were being steadily depleted, supposedly for years, and that her body was slowly shutting down over time—with the likely result being her death if they didn't find a way to reverse the damage."

She sighed. "In my medical opinion, I cannot discern if her chakra has always looked this way or if it is a result of this so-called disease. However, I show you this, Neji, to confirm if the chakra used to fuel the jutsu matches what you see in this picture."

Neji motioned for her to show it to him again, and she held it up for him to study once more. With a second glance he was sure, though he again couldn't understand how it was possible. "The color matches to the best of my memory, the network however is different—" he hesitated slightly, unsure if he should bring this up now, because at the time it seemed too unreal to be true, but Tsunade had said they should give her whatever they could remember, so…

"I will add this, as it was something left out of my report because at the time it seemed so…unfathomable." He sighed, and smoothed down his clothes, unnecessarily considering not a hair was out of place.

"What the clone contained…I don't believe it was chakra."

It was as if Neji's declaration hit a pause button on the room for the second, he could feel the stares burrowing into the back of his head, but he remained unflinching as he stared into Tsunade's hard gaze.

"What are you suggesting, Neji Hyuuga?"

He straightened up, ignoring the whispers of his teammates and comrades. "You have told us not to speculate, but I cannot in good conscience, since you have asked for our observations in order to help the Sand, keep this to myself." He clasped his hands before himself, the only out of place gesture in the perfect picture of assurance. "What I witnessed that day, the way the…energy displayed itself to my Byakugan, I wanted to believe my eyes were playing tricks on me—but I cannot question myself on this. The way that it transformed, the speed and almost…viscous nature in which it moved throughout the jutsu, it defies the nature of chakra—it is a source of energy unlike anything I had seen before."

The din grew louder with each word Neji spoke, the others remarking at what it could possibly be, what it could mean for the ninja world, and surely Neji must've been mistaken.

"This is a loaded accusation Neji, do you realize what you're saying?" Tsunade, he understood, was giving him a way out—and nearly pleading with him to take it. What she didn't seem to understand was that he'd already taken that road by being silent when he'd seen it, and in doing so he'd allowed, in some small part, that threat of a woman to escape. What he was accusing was a serious threat to their way of life, but so, he realized, was Miyako.

O/M

Miyako anticipated the bickering—from what she'd gathered about the Akatsuki they weren't unlike other groups of colleagues thrown together due to their talent, that is, they didn't particularly like each other. In fact, if Miyako had to guess, she'd wager Konan and Pein were the only two people in this entire organization that did.

If she had to scale the entirety of the organization based on first impressions alone, she would obviously put their unfortunate trio on the top: Deidara hated both "Tobi" and Miyako's guts, Miyako reciprocated those feelings for both men on frighteningly similar scales, and Obito probably thought Deidara and Miyako to be nothing more than tools in which he tolerated.

However, Kakuzu and Hidan came pretty damn close in second.

She wondered if there could be any more of a mismatched pair. Sure she hated Obito and Deidara on a cellular level because they didn't seem to value human life, but in another life Miyako may have been able to tolerate them enough to work together. Hidan and Kakuzu were fundamentally dissimilar in nearly everything they held dear.

In following them she had learned a lot about how they operated as people. Kakuzu was a man who valued punctuality, money, resources and frankly had no relationship with a person that couldn't provide him with something materially or close to it in return. Hidan was a religious zealot and thusly dedicated to his lifestyle and would not be moved to stray from it, additionally he felt that the best things in life required patience and didn't mind taking his time to acquire something, he also appeared to revel in disagreeing with any and everything that Kakuzu held dear.

Kumo, in a rough estimate from where they now held their base, took approximately 5 to 7 days to reach on foot. Luckily for the duo, their target, a Yugito Ni that Miyako had briefly been shown a picture of, was heading back to Kumo from the Land of Waves—and on the route they were currently taking, they'd catch up with her just before she really crossed the border to the Land of Clouds. Kakuzu had planned it all out pretty well, even including one brief stop along the way across the Land of Fire to inquire about a bounty—he only needed then for Hidan to cooperate.

Of course this was a taste too much to ask for.

"KAKUZU!" The zealot made birds flee his voice was so loud.

The red and green eyed giant glared at his shorter, petulant looking partner. "Hidan, go pray or whatever it is you do, I don't care. I need to handle some business for the organization's funds."

The silver-haired man huffed, arms crossing over his exposed chest. "Oh please Kakuzu! All you care about is money this and money that! I hope Jashin-sama stuffs you full like a piggy bank when you die you miser! We'll see how much you love your money then!"

Miyako looked on in slight amusement from where she hid at the mountainside. According to Zetsu's previous scouting of the route Yugito was meant to take, they were only two days out at this point from meeting her at the border. Miyako's only other instruction, aside from simply not interfering and ensuring the safe passage of the duo, was to occasionally track Yugito and inform the pair of her position if she took a different path so they could adjust their course.

She had debated, both before she left and while she'd been following the two, the absolutely suicidal idea of either warning the Jinchuriki of her impending death or sending Hidan and Kakuzu on a wild goose chase. She hadn't made a move to do either because the unspoken threat of what Obito would make her do to her loved ones if she foiled his plans in any way hung heavily over her head. Not to mention he was already expecting failure on her part, but a decidedly less obvious one. There was no need to add to her already assured punishment if she didn't have to.

"Hidan." The taller man was rubbing his temples, most likely in an attempt to keep himself from strangling the man, again, "Don't make me kill you or insult your god, just get out of here." And then he spun on his heel and disappeared around a mountain bend, most likely to enter some sort of secret cave that housed illicit businessmen who would like to see Miyako dead before they would alive.

Hidan stomped off, and Miyako figured now was as good a time as any to find Yugito and make sure she hadn't detected the two, or worse, been delayed somehow. They'd probably be fine in the few hours she was gone…probably.

N/K

"Let's continue." Tsunade sighs, after managing to quiet down the chaos Neji's bombshell had caused.

"The next major event we have listed here is the joint Chuunin exams. Neji, both you and Gaara's reports corroborate that Miyako arrived on the scene in the middle of the assassin's attempt to extract both the Ichibi and Hachibi. Is there anything from that particular event that you, Lee or Tenten would like to add that is not present in this report?"

Neji looked over his shoulder to his teammates, who both shook their heads.

"I also have nothing to add, as I said in the report, Miyako did attempt to kill the attempted assassin, but Gaara intervened—she didn't really show off any new skillsets to my knowledge in that arena."

Tsunade hummed and furrowed her brow, scanning over the notes she had made on the mission scroll before landing on something she'd underlined. She tapped the page twice and grunted.

"There was a sandstorm? The day of the attack?" With Neij's soft affirmative she continues, "Temari and Kankuro note here that she had on no sandstorm gear when she went off in search of Gaara."

"Wait, she went off in search of Gaara?" Shikamaru interjects, to which Tsunade nods. "From my understanding Gaara had her monitoring specific teams every day during the second exam—I assumed she was already out there and was simply caught in the middle of the sandstorm."

"She wasn't?"

Shikamaru shook his head. "Temari and Kankuro were stationed at the base the entire time, if they saw her when the sandstorm was in full effect then that means Miyako somehow got delayed or Gaara never gave her the orders that morning."

"Temari and Kankuro detail earlier in this report that the three of them had been investigating dissenters they believed were prepared to strike during the Chuunin exams, with Miyako collecting the bulk of the information. She had supposedly gotten a lead that very same day, which is how she discovered Gaara had left his post in the first place and what pushed her into recklessly running into the sandstorm in a mad search for him."

"Gaara and Miyako were fighting about what to do about them—essentially Gaara had hoped to face them head on to understand their position and sway them if he could, while Miyako wanted to fell and make an example out of them. She and the siblings must've went behind Gaara's back to find out that information for Miyako to act so quickly." Shikamaru added.

"Which is why she was so furious when she arrived—in a way it was like she'd been proven right." Neji finished, lips pressed together in a hard line.

"But how did she manage to find Gaara through that sandstorm?" Kiba interrupted. "Too many factors were against her."

Tsunade nodded, and Shikamaru, who had closed his eyes while the others digested this information, opened them again and sighed.

"I think I may have the answer." He tsked, frowning slightly. "You're not going to like it though."

Tsunade sat up, eyeing the Chuunin critically. "Well go on."

The boy rolled his shoulders, letting out a "troublesome" under his breath before squaring back up.

"The next major event working backwards is the mission where we were sent to rescue Gaara and Matsuri from the Artisan Village." The boy massaged his neck, closing his eyes briefly to picture the event in his head before plowing on.

"The Sand sent us a request for aid and I assembled a team to track Gaara and the siblings to their exact location, meaning neither we nor the Sand knew where Gaara was being lured to at the time."

He met Tsunade's eyes steadily as he slowly talked through the next part. "That means Miyako couldn't have known when she left hours after where Gaara was either, and unlike us, Miyako traveled alone." Shikamaru groaned slightly. "Which means that we must add to her profile the possibility that she could be a tracker and a sensory type."

Tsunade grunted, but notated this down next, completely ignoring the questions flying around, for now.

"Wait a minute Shikamaru, don't you think you're jumping the gun here? You don't have to be a tracker or a sensory type to follow a large grouping of chakras. If you've forgotten we were all pretty much there—that's nearly 20 chakra signatures all in one spot, you'd have to be blind not to notice something like that." Kiba objected.

The genius sighed, let out another troublesome, and then turned to face the others. "Alright, follow along with me carefully—while what Kiba says is true, and it would be fairly easy to find a battle that included so many people, I'm combining this with the knowledge we have from the joint Chuunin exams, coupled with the distance traveled in both scenarios."

He rolled his shoulders and huffed, blinking lazily at the others. "So, the Demon Desert is massive, as you know, and as you also earlier pointed out, a sandstorm was raging when Miyako set out to find Gaara. Despite both the setback of having dulled senses and a large distance with no information as far as the area affected by the sandstorm, Miyako was able to travel the distance from the tower to the outskirts of the desert with precision and arrive in the middle of the battle." Shikamaru held up one finger, to interrupt whatever Kiba was going to say next.

"Now, take into account how much more distance is in between Suna and the Land of Rivers, coupled with the fact that she had no information as to where Gaara was going. And yet, she arrived in the middle of Naruto and Matsuri's battle to free Gaara from the Artisan's trap, at the precise location." Shikamaru held up a hand boredly, "While we could take into account that she had a better advantage as far as finding Gaara with all of us there, we did not all gather at Gaara's precise location until after Miyako had arrived and helped to free Gaara. All she would've had was a radius, and if she would've had to scour that radius she wouldn't have made it in time to save Gaara." The boy shrugged. "Ergo, she must have some level of sensory and tracking skill, even if it only seems to apply to Gaara."

Tsunade's soft sigh had the Chuunin whirling back to face her, only to meet a raised eyebrow. "Adding possible sensory and tracing abilities is unfortunate in building a plan to possibly defeat her, but I don't understand your comment that I wouldn't like it."

Shikamaru heaved out a heavier sigh, jamming his hands even further into his pockets. "That's because I'm not finished yet."

It wasn't possible for Tsunade's eyebrow to go even higher into her hairline, but she tried valiantly. "There's more?"

The boy toed the ground momentarily before looking back up at her with scrutiny. "I also didn't want to say anything at the time, but Neji's earlier admission reminded me of something that was said on that mission that I didn't disclose in my report."

For the umpteenth time the room grew still, pressure weighing down on the Chuunin's shoulders that he had to fight not to succumb to.

"When Miyako showed up, and engaged in battle with the Artisan Village's resurrected leader, she ended up having some of her…energy..." Shikamaru shot a side glance at an ever-stoic Neji. "Taken by their odd dome weapon used to extract Gaara's chakra." Shikamaru deflated some. "I wanted to believe that these words were the ravings of a mad man, but—" and with a shrug, Shikamaru dropped another bomb. "He said that Miyako didn't "taste" human, that something about her energy seemed to be on par with a demon's."

Shikamaru paused and let the others take that in; never breaking eye-contact with a flabbergasted Tsunade.

"You're joking." She remarked flatly.

"Obviously it was never confirmed, because he died shortly after, but…" a swirl of images danced in front of Shikamaru's eyes briefly, ending in the ANBU they now knew to be Raccoon catching a severed head with a graceful flourish. "I'm not totally inclined to disagree at this point."

O/M

Twilight has just kissed the skies by the time Miyako finds Yugito. She's still alone, as Zetsu's information had assured them, and unlike the first time Miyako located her—covered in someone else's blood, blonde hair bound up and cloaked in darker colors to be indistinguishable from the night—she's pulled on a lilac top over her mostly navy ensemble and braided her hair, somehow managing to look less intimidating.

It could also be because Miyako has peeked in on a vulnerable moment.

The small campfire throws shadows across the pretty woman's face, but it's still obvious even from Miyako's respectable distance that she looks content—the soft, fond smile can't be hidden by darkness for long. Her long almost delicate fingers skim what Miyako can only guess is a photograph, well-worn with use at the slightly bent edges, the smallest handwriting printed on the back in flowery script that belongs in a scrapbook: Let it always be like this.

Miyako shouldn't look, it clearly isn't a moment for her; it's something sacred, Yugito is clearly taking the momentary stillness and safety barely afforded her in the ninja lifestyle to cherish something, more than likely people she fights for.

The smart thing to do would be to keep her distance, to stay vigilant in collecting intel until Yugito falls asleep and report any changes discreetly to Hidan and Kakuzu. This is what any ninja worth their salt would do—distance themselves from the enemy, attempt to view them as something less than human so their conscience can allow them sleep at night.

She looks anyway.

A barely discernable shape in the dying sunlight, Miyako hovers over Yugito Nii and punishes herself with the faces smiling out of that picture. Before they blur with the sudden onslaught of tears, she sees two young, umber skinned Cloud ninja, one boy with whitish hair and another girl with red hair on either ends of the picture with big goofy grins, a blonde woman with a bust that could rival Tsunade with a barely visible look of content on her face and a gently smiling Yugito framing the larger, tawny shades wearing Jinchuriki Killer Bee.

Her heart throbs in her chest when suddenly faced with such humanity, and the debate starts in her head as she sits back against the tree, harshly rubbing her eyes of any tears.

Yugito has a whole life, its displayed so brazenly in that picture she gazes at with such love. Miyako now knows at the very least that she has comrades that care about her, if not friends. It's not a far stretch to assume someone so beautiful and powerful may have a lover to go home to, an entire family waiting for her return, people who look up to her. She's been unafraid to live her life, despite what's inside of her. Surely she had to know by now of the threat against her—surely it wasn't the first time. Miyako found herself wanting to blame Kumo for letting her travel by herself. Didn't they know what was happening? Weren't they aware of what the Akatsuki were capable of? That they toppled governments? Destroyed villages? Unseated Lords and Kages? Why weren't they afraid?

"Soon." Yugito whispered on the wind, and the sounds of rustling had Miyako peeking down below once more.

Now Yugito had a map out in front of her, bent over it at the waist and studying it carefully. By the set of her shoulders, hunched almost to her ears, Miyako grew curious and silently creeped down to get a closer look at what she was contemplating.

The previously soft touch used to skim faces on a photograph was now scanning with purpose the map before her that was inked with the topography of their current pathway through the lands and into the Cloud village. By Zetsu's estimations, Yugito should be in the mountainous region of the bordering lands of Kumo by a day and a half longer journey—that is, if she took known, safer and more populous pathways. However, with the way her finger was tracing through the mountains, it seemed as though she was intent on potentially hiking up rockier terrain to get to what he had described were secret tunnels to the village.

The finger tapped the page twice, seemingly content with her new plan of action, though she didn't utter a word—smart—before folding the map back into a neat rectangle and tucking it back with her things.

Miyako remained there, like a statue only feet away from the settling Jinchuriki who hadn't noticed her presence once, now faced with a new dilemma as Yugito fell into a light sleep after snuffing out her small fire.

She was now faced with a question of morals. Miyako had been tracking Yugito for days with the resolve that though she sacrificed this Jinchuriki to the monster that was her master, it was for the greater good of the ones that she loved. She had pacified herself with the idea that what she was doing was being selfless—after all, if she had blatantly defied Obito the consequences of her disobedience could result in even graver results for others. But now that she had been faced with Yugito's life in one snapshot she also had to wonder herself if ripping away someone from their family was worth it to save what she considered her own. Wasn't she then, in her complicity to this crime, being selfish in prolonging the lives of those she loved, rather than thinking of the ones that loved Yugito?

If she had still been operating on a logic-based standpoint this would've been simple—the alternative to helping Hidan and Kakuzu kill Yugito was potentially Obito ordering her to kill the people he'd identified she cared about—Gaara, Kankuro, Temari, Naruto, Kakashi, and all their loved ones. So kill the one to save the many.

But Gaara had happened. Feelings had happened. Empathy had come back into her life again. She didn't know how to take the emotion out of this choice, all she knew was that either way it hurt.

All she knew either way was that she was being punished—and she had no one to blame but herself.

N/K

The sun was in the center of the sky, notating that the group had been in Tsunade's office for nearly two hours at this point. Needless to say, most of them were grumpy, fidgety, and didn't know how much longer they could talk about a person they all essentially didn't really know.

Luckily, Tsunade had said they were on the final event, and that she didn't expect much out of either Shikamaru or Neji, considering they hadn't been present or awake—this declaration certainly made Neji pinken in embarrassment, which he would later deny to his grave—to really have much insight on Miyako during this period.

She however, had a theory.

"So at this point we've established that Miyako is skilled at espionage and assassination, has chakra…or energy natures in both Lightning and Earth, if proficient in Taijutsu and short to mid-range weapons and may have tracking and sensory abilities all while supposedly harboring a sickness that's slowly killing her." Tsunade pursed her lips, the last speculation not exactly sitting right with her, but these were based upon notes provided from the Sand.

"And that she might not be human." Kakashi threw in, with his usual brand of sarcastic cheer. Tsunade, as expected, didn't laugh.

"I do want to bring up the mission to retrieve Sasuke, even though hardly anyone had contact with her in this room in a combat setting." Tsunade bit her thumbnail briefly before sighing out.

"I will allow speculation for this one incident because of this, simply because no one saw anything and we have nothing else to go on." She waved a hand to silence the members of the room who had thus far been forced to be quiet (*cough*Kiba*cough*) and held up one finger. "I'll establish what we know first."

She rolled her neck and pulled out another scroll, this one an actual mission report taken herself and scanned over the document.

"From her own admission, Miyako was sent to monitor Gaara in order to fulfill the ongoing mission the Jounin Council tasked to her when he expressed in interest in becoming Kazekage. The Jounin Council has now disclosed to be, however, that she also had separate secret orders to assassinate Sasuke should she have the opportunity, and to potentially collect information on whether she, as Miyako, was working for Orochimaru."

Naruto, who everyone had noticed was being uncharacteristically quiet and unanimated this entire time, gaped at this new information, color slowly filtering back into his face—though the steady red it was turning wasn't giving good signs.

"She, also by her own admission, monitored the Sand siblings battles until she determined they were out of danger and made her way back to the village ahead of them, presumably to have it appear as though she wasn't interfering or had any additional motives." Tsunade waves a hand dismissively. "This is when we can obviously determine that she ran across Neji and Choji in their injured states—and when she admits that she returned with them to the village after having used a undisclosed jutsu to sustain the states of their bodies to keep them from getting worse."

Neji blinked rapidly at this knowledge, knowing of course that Miyako had been responsible for saving his life but having never heard that she had apparently suspended the worsening of his injuries.

"You think she has some knowledge of medical ninjutsu." Shikamaru interpreted, letting out a "just more and more troublesome" right after.

Tsuande bridged her fingers in front of her face, brow furrowing in contempt. "While the extent of her background is still a mystery, considering were unsure how much of it is forged and how much of it is true, a ninja of her skill and caliber must know enough to understand when it is safe to move an injured comrade and when not. The fact that she deployed a jutsu strong enough to inhibit the worsening of what were life-threatening injuries at the time that she could also sustain under rapid movement means she has enough medical knowledge to be able to make basic diagnoses and enough chakra control and concentration to create or replicate such a complicated but delicate jutsu on the body." Tsunade's blew out a laugh of disbelief at her own words, lacing her fingers through her bands as she rested her forehead on her bridged hands.

"Tsunade-sama…" Sakura trailed off forlornly, but Tsunade simply sniffed before anyone could get a word in and sneered.

"The Akatsuki getting their hands on such a simultaneously skilled and mysterious player spells trouble for the Great Nations." She brought her hands to rest on the desk top, the tiny cracks in the surface branching out just a little more.

"We don't know enough about their forces, but just the combination of she, Itachi Uchiha and Hoshigaki Kisame is enough of a threat that should send warning to the other nations." Tsunade bit her lip, leveling the room with a hardened stare. "If she was able to orchestrate the attack on Sand—with the position she held she could've provided plenty of information on their security, she could've organized far less troops to be available; potentially weakened their infrastructure. She laid the perfect trap, she had the Kazekage vulnerable in every aspect—in ways that are more terrifying than if she had killed him herself." Tsunade let her eyes close, banishing the images conjured up at just the sheer number of strings Miyako could've pulled in such an act of cruelty. What kind of person did it take to do such a thing—to build a relationship with a person for 3 years, to smile, and laugh, comfort and cry with a person for it all to be lie? For someone to be able to work tirelessly for their demise in that entire time? Did she feel nothing?

"Stop it."

The whole room might as well have given themselves whiplash they looked to Naruto so quickly. His fists were balled at his sides, and his unruly locks were hanging down into his face, shadowing his eyes in his hunched position. Everything about his stance screamed classic defensive Naruto, Tsunade had seen it too many times in regards to Sasuke to not know what to expect—it was why she now sat up and squared herself to be firm with him now.

Murmurs of his name were said in varying degrees, Hinata's initial murmur of soft comfort "Naruto" overshadowed by Kakashi's stern "Naruto" and Sakura's conciliatory whispered "naruto" were all ignored as the boy harshly tore himself away from Sakura's attempt to grip him and met Tsunade's eyes head on in challenge.

"You said no speculation, so stop it!" He seethed, knuckles whitening in pent up rage.

"Naruto—" It was Shikamaru's turn to be warning him, warily, for naught.

"Brat." Tsunade said coolly, gripping her fists and straightening her back to look down her nose at the other blond. "Be careful what you say."

"No, you be careful of what you accusing someone of!" He shouted, suddenly marching through the line between Shikamaru and Kakashi to stare her down as well.

"This," he swept his arm angrily amongst the piles of paper strewed across her desk, lip curling distastefully especially at the drawings of the girl. "This isn't Miyako, this—" he snatched that damned first drawing of her that had her eyes all wrong, all wrong. "This isn't Miyako! You, the person who drew this, the Suna Council—they don't know her." He crumpled the drawing in his fist, whirling back around to face the two Jounin and Chuunin still standing by, all gazing at him cautiously.

"Do you want to know what I heard when you were all giving your observations?" He hollered, barely pausing a beat to allow anyone to speak when he pointed to Neji, who barely flinched under the intensity of his shaking finger. "You said at both the Chuunin exam and when we went to—" he paused to swallow heavily, "retrieve Gaara from the Akatsuki that the Miyako clone and Miyako only cared about protecting Gaara," he sent a glare to Shikamaru who had the decency to look sheepish, "that she risked her life to save Gaara—more than just at the Chuunin exams, right?" He connected eyes with Choji and Neji again. "That she's saved more than just Gaara's life!"

The others stared forlornly at Naruto, torn between pity and frustration, and he spun back to face Tsunade, face alight with that same frustration. "You have no proof that she's a part of the Akatsuki, and I refuse to believe it!"

"Naruto!" Sakura stepped forward now, tugging his hand until he faced her, his furious countenance being matched by steely resolve.

"Whatever good she's done does not negate the damage she has caused to the Sand village—to Gaara." She emphasized, squeezing his hand.

He shook his head gravely, face scrunching. "If you knew the lengths she's went to for Gaara you wouldn't say that. Everything Miyako has done has been for Gaara—everyone's testimony today proves that."

"Naruto." Kakashi, put a hand on his shoulder, and barely received a glance over the boy's shoulder in recognition. "I know this is hard for you, considering that the two of you were strangely so close at one time—but Miyako is not in the same situation as Sasuke." Kakashi went on, despite the boy's flinch. "She lied from the beginning—about who she was, about her purpose—and every action she made was to fortify and see that lie through to her end goal."

Naruto shoved himself away from his two remaining teammates. "You're right not to compare her to Sasuke—because she cares about the bond she has with Gaara more than you'll ever know." He then glared at Tsunade. "But don't you dare put her in the same category as that bastard Itachi!" He huffed and then turned back to face the others again. "I'm not stupid, I know she lied—and I know she's done bad, but I also know that every bad action she's taken, the ones you can prove, has been for Gaara, towards making him a better person."

"But Naruto you can't know that!" Sakura countered.

"But I do!" He thundered. "I do because she told me! She admitted to me all of the lies and schemes. She made me understand how Gaara had become what he was and how he used to be! That's how I know none of it can be true, she's cared for Gaara their entire lives—which is why I know she would never hurt him."

A pregnant pause only punctuated by Naruto's heaving breaths filled the room, and Naruto thought that they were all digesting his words, and hopefully he had made his point even though it may not have been as eloquently said as he'd liked. Yet, as he met the eyes of the others he quickly realized something was wrong, and that if even Kiba, his usual gauge of understanding, was looking at him with suspicious eyes, something was amiss.

"Naruto." Tsunade said, chillingly and he slowly inched to turn towards her.

"How did you know Miyako and Gaara had met before the Chuunin exams when I never informed you they were childhood friends?"

O/M

Miyako might be sick.

The black metallic rod makes a squelch as Hidan pulls it from his body without even a flinch. Kakuzu, who at some point during the battle had turned into more of a lookout than an active participant hisses at him to take her down so they can get moving. Miyako can't totally make out what he's saying from here, but it's probably the usual mumbles about Hidan and his damn rituals taking forever.

Despite the fact that Hidan's body seemed to immune to lasting damage and pain—he even seemed to enjoy it to an extent, sending a sick shiver down Miyako's spine she couldn't quite suppress—he still sat up carefully as his abdomen was still steadily leaking blood from where he'd punctured it earlier for a fatal blow.

"You could at least help you bastard." But the man said it with little malice, seeming more than happy to take all the time he needed in collecting their prize and relishing in her pain.

Yugito was strung up, pinned with one of Hidan's rods by her hands to the wall of what was now the ruins of a former rest stop in the mountains. Blood dripped down from the jagged rips and holes in her skin where Hidan had mutilated her—and she'd accidentally mutilated herself in her ignorance of Hidan's jutsu. But she was breathing—barely, Kakuzu having stitched up some of the nastier gaping tears in her skin so she would stay alive on the journey back. Still, Miyako could see, past the weeping wounds, the muscles move as she painfully breathed.

Something in her, the humane glutton for punishment, wondered if it would be mercy to silently finish her off. A small exacerbation inside her body wouldn't be noticed until it was too late—could be written off as Hidan being too careless in his attempt, and it would be her way of defying the Akatsuki and whatever plan they needed the tailed beasts for that they may never find out about.

'Who is being a wishful thinker now?' She snorted internally, shadowing the duo as they started descending down the mountains with Yugito slung over their shoulder, pace rapid because the last thing they wanted was for Yugito to regain any fighting strength, or worse, die before the Tailed Beast could be extracted.

Even though the base the Akatsuki was planning to use for this particular extraction was closer to their location, it would still take somewhere between two to three days to travel back there. Miyako anticipated that their stops would be short and the nights would be long.

Much to her surprise, it didn't take long before they slowed and eventually came to a stop only half a day's travel from the scene of the crime. By this point the sky was an abysmal black, with the moon half full and a spattering of stars winking down at the group.

Miyako perched herself on a nearby tree, noting that while they hadn't gotten nearly far enough away from the scene of the crime to be in the clear, they'd at least gotten back onto a less traveled forested path that would provide shelter should they decide to make encampment for the night.

The two exchanged words, with Kakuzu adjusting the body on his shoulder with only a shallow grunt in response. After seeming to come to some sort of agreement, Hidan pushed himself through the trees while Kakuzu settled himself with his back against the nearest tree, uncaring of knocking Yugito's head against the rough grain of the bark.

Confused, and wondering why Kakuzu would trust Hidan enough to go into town alone when he knew how much of a loose cannon the man was, Miyako debated following the religious fanatic or staying with what might as well have been two dead bodies for all the entertainment she'd get out of him.

'Is this the test?' It hadn't escaped Miyako's mind once that at any moment one of the two could do something "Pein" put them up to in order to test Miyako's loyalty—or at least that's what she assumed the conversation would've gone. She had an itching feeling that Obito was far more in charge than he made his idiotic persona seem, but that is another musing for another day.

She'd been on edge and waiting for it the entire time, and she was started to feel paranoid, which she was sure was Obito's goal all along, sadistic bastard. Still, Hidan wandering off didn't seem to bode well for her regardless, so she phased after him, determined to cover all of her bases in an effort not to anger Obito.

She caught up to him just as they came upon the outskirts of what looked to be a small community. Meager houses lined the area, all close together—with clotheslines strung between windows, caches of logs bridging and connecting two lawns, the same large chalk drawing stretching down shabby pathways, some houses even sharing matching décor from open windows and doors. In fact, all the doors seemed to be thrown open in welcome, creaking softly with the breeze as every member of this, what could barely be called village, was gathered around what appeared to be a large circle of fire ringing a bubbling wellspring in the center. On the outside sat maybe 30 or so of the occupants, small families, elders and adults watching with rapt attention over the flickering ring to the smaller gaggle of people in the center.

Miyako counted five elders, two women with peppered hair and three men with varying shades of gray to white with their profiles to she and Hidan, all clothed in colorful large frocks. In the center was a man totally in white, seemingly middle aged, flanked by a similarly aged women who looked angelic as she gazed fondly to the center near the well.

A woman, being cradled tenderly into a laid back position by a man that looked at her as if she was his entire world, in a simple white dress, who Miyako had to reckon had at least started her last trimester, if she wasn't ready to have the baby at any moment she was so pregnant.

It quickly became apparent that this was some sort of spiritual ritual, the middle-aged man and what was presumably his wife, praying over the woman in soft voices as the elders lead the rest of the community in some sort of back and forth chant. From what Miyako could understand the baby that would soon come into their community was blessed because he or she had been conceived on the Half moon, and now they were praying over the mother to ensure that the baby be delivered healthy on the Full moon, so she could bring about prosperity and growth to their community and its people.

The song, though at first sounding odd and slow, was beautiful as the elders lead and the people followed in a mixture of voices. The gentle touches, in a meaningful order Miyako couldn't hope to understand, were reverential. The jerking and rocking dance between the couple and the twined their limbs together lovingly under the music and whispered words was mesmerizing.

She missed Hidan unsheathing his scythe, she missed his purposeful but quiet running steps—how could she have missed it when the metal scratched against the gravel in discordance with such wonderful splendor?

She didn't miss his scythe impaling the nearest elder, a man who only let out a single gurgle as rivulets ran down from gaping mouth, staining his dark cloak darker, body twitching in last breath of agony.

"HEATHENS!" Hidan cried around a maddening laugh, and the wail of agony wasn't Miyako's own—but the horrified center of this beautiful ritual, white now sprinkled and arched with red that seeped in a stained even her face frozen with horror as the elder was flung outside, body landing with a sickening thud.

As if he'd hit play on a horror movie the crowd let out a piercing scream, those outside the circle dispersing like ants to flee into the nearest open hut they could find, practically scrambling and shoving each other in an effort to flee. The men put on brave faces, the remaining elders throwing themselves valiantly at this villain who had warped their ritual into one of his own as he proceeded to gleefully tear through them.

Miyako was shaking and her breathing was too loud—it was too loud and obvious even though it felt like she couldn't get nearly enough air into her body. Something in the back of her head robotically instructed her to put her head between her knees, close her ears and tune it out—but the lump in her throat collecting the screams of the people and saving them there wouldn't let her move to listen.

She looked down to her hands, unsure if the unsteady image was because of her pupils or because her whole being was vibrating. She tried to clasp them together, to string together a coherent thought that wasn't 'crouch down and tuck your head between your knees, then clasp your hands over your ears and breathe, slowly, steadily, that's it, if you keep telling yourself it's alright eventually it will be, it will all be over soon' in a syrupy, cheerful voice.

"RAI NO!"

Everything snapped back into place, and what a cruel mistress time was, because what had only felt like a momentary bout of uselessness on her part had turned out to be the span of a nightmare. Bodies littered the ground everyone, with everyone who had been leading the ritual in the center circle torn through and hacked up gruesomely, strewn about like ragdolls in a morbid children's playground—Hidan's morbid little playground.

The crowd that hadn't managed to escape in time, many elderly or lame, were pinned to the ground by Hidan's rods, some unfortunate enough to still be alive but without strength to un-impale themselves. A few had been skewered in succession, a particularly unfortunate group of young men stacked in three where only the middle had survived, having been slightly taller than the others, was sobbing while trying to free himself weakly from between his comrades.

In total, and this is only what Miyako could see, Hidan had somewhere between 15 to 20 bodies scattered around. That wasn't nearly the entirety of the village, and somehow, even in this unbelievable horrible situation, the self-preserving logical side of Miyako kicked in.

'Sloppy.' Something in her sneered. 'He's only managed half of the village, if all of those people talk, they could surely pay a ninja village a handsome enough sum to pose a threat to Akatsuki's mission.'

Obito's threat rang in her ears: 'You aren't to interfere in the collecting of the Tailed Beast or in any of Hidan or Kakuzu's affairs unless you feel the Akatsuki will be compromised.'

The trained killer in her, the person she had been molded to be by years of doing coward men's dirty work, was urging her in the direction of hunting down the remaining survivors and disposing of them. Because if letting 20 people escape what could be best described as a religious massacre wasn't compromising the Akatsuki she didn't know what was.

And yet, another part of her wondered still if she should've stopped Hidan before he'd even started, if this was the instance in which she should interfere in Hidan's affairs.

The problem with both of these ideas logistically was the challenge Obito had posed in that wording "affairs". Now, if Miyako had seen this slaughter take place before they'd captured Yugito, she might assume that Hidan was just a man who adored murdering and foolishly stepped in. However, she now knew that Hidan's bloodthirsty god Jashin demanded sacrifices in order for the man to retain his immortality—and that he particularly seemed to like sacrifices of those from other religions, hence the shouted "heathens" before he began.

There was also the face that Kakuzu, the more reasonable of the two who would not risk the Akatsuki, had let Hidan go without a word. And, since he was not far—it was more than likely that he was taking care of any stragglers hoping to escape into the forest, probably just as effortlessly running them through with his thread as Hidan with a scythe.

So what was she meant to do here?

The best answer would be nothing, she could simply assume that this was one of Hidan's "affairs" and let him botch it all by himself, and if she was faced down with the question of why she did not "clean up" after the man as is perhaps expected of her, playing dumb was not above her.

But she was tired. For someone who had seen and participated in death all of her life, she had never been so drained by the grotesque nature of the ninja world so thoroughly until now. She didn't want to just stand by and watch innocent people die anymore, she may have been able to rationalize letting Yugito die, but the entirety of a blameless village was pushing her to breaking points she didn't even realize she still had.

So when the pregnant woman stumbled past her to desperately make it to the tree line, sobbing heavily as she tripped and climbed over the obstacle of dead bodies that had since multiplied as Miyako paused to think— Miyako stopped thinking. Before she could consciously comprehend it the woman disappeared before her eyes, still very much there, but now cloaked by her magic so thoroughly that not even her choked back wails and stumbling feet could be heard in dead silence or detected by a sensory ninja.

If asked why she'd done in, truly Miyako couldn't answer. It was impulse. She didn't see at first the mirrored situation in front of her—not in the bodies of that woman's village lying at her feet, not even in her dying lover choking on his own blood as Hidan tortured him with a twisted laugh. Only one thought passed through Miyako's head for that woman and her child, something even of a prayer of sorts.

'I hope so can live on and forget this day.'

Miyako wouldn't.

N/K

"I asked you a question."

Tsunade and Naruto had a penchant for fighting, it was more than likely because they had similar strong and passionate personalities, but everyone knew that the extent of it was usually playful, and if they did happen to have a disagreement, Tsunade would more than likely give in because she had an enormous soft spot for the knucklehead.

So the Leaf ninja ping-ponging between the two blond's glowering faces didn't know what to do with this very present tension.

"She told me that they were childhood friends." Naruto groused out.

It doesn't escape anyone that Naruto had apparently taken somewhat of a liking to Miyako, but the implication of the two of them talking this deeply takes a moment to sink in.

Tsunade seems more focused on the fact that Naruto seems to be keeping something else from them, but is quickly distracted by an astute observation.

"But Naruto, don't you think it's pretty suspicious that the only other person who seems to know Miyako as well as Gaara is…well you."

It also obviously doesn't escape anyone what Kiba, Kiba of all people, means by that poignant you. Even Naruto, who isn't particularly quick on the uptake scowls immediately at the thinly veiled implication of that statement.

"What is that supposed to mean?" There's a threat behind the question: 'don't you dare answer that seriously', triggering Kiba to hold up his hands defensively, mouth set as if he's going to go on, but Sakura's soft voice cuts through the room before he can start what will likely be a shouting match.

"Naruto, Kiba has a point." She says sternly, and the self-satisfied noise the dog-nin makes is muffled by a sharp smack Shino delivers to his head. "I think it's strange that Miyako didn't have a relationship with literally anyone our age other than you and Gaara—that's no coincidence." Her face falls, hands squeezing Naruto's wrists imploringly. "And for Gaara to turn up—" she mutes the word, but she doesn't have to say it for Naruto to understand enough to turn his face into an even uglier scowl.

"If you all want to know so badly why Miyako befriended me than I'll tell you." He huffed, turning away from Sakura to level Tsunade with a cold stare. "I told you I'm not stupid, and she admitted it to me herself. Yes, she knew I was a jinchuriki, and yes that was the primary reason that she sought me out—but like I said before, her reasons have always centered around bettering Gaara. She knew that I was the only one who could possibly empathize with Gaara's situation—so she tried her best to help me see Gaara the way he used to be—the way he is now." He bit his lip, and let out a shaky sigh. "It was never to intentionally hurt me."

Kakashi, who still had an iron grip on his opposite shoulder to Sakura, squeezed it and with a too even voice asked: "She told you this?"

"Yes!" Naruto exclaimed, whirling around to face his sensei, exasperated with being attacked on all sides.

"She told you from the beginning that she knew you were a jinchuriki and that you were the only person who could understand Gaara?"

At Naruto's slight falter, Kakashi moved in for the kill, leaning forward to narrow his good eye at the boy. "You said earlier that she admitted all her lies to you—but if she told you this during the Chuunin exams why didn't you say anything?"

At the prolonged hesitance; the clear war Naruto was having on his face that he could not hide fast enough, Sakura put her hand on his back, voice firm: "No more secrets."

He slowly opened his mouth, eyes pinched in the first signs of regret he'd had in this whole entire conversation. "She didn't tell me while the Chuunin exams were taking place, no."

Understanding washes over the room like a wave, varying degrees of faces of confusion begin before the quicker minds are painted with shock and disbelief.

"If she didn't tell you during the Chuunin exams Naruto, then when?" Kakashi scowls, hand shaking on Naruto's shoulder, muscles jumping from the force he's using to hold back his rage.

Naruto refuses to say anything at first, so Kakashi continues filling in, voice ratcheting with tension with each word he has to speak for the boy.

"Miyako and the Sand siblings left this village the day of the infiltration and disappeared less than a week later."

"Right after she dropped Gaara off at the hospital in Sand, no less." Tsunade added.

"So when would she have had time to admit to you that she lied if it wasn't at the Chuunin exams, Naruto?"

Naruto swallows heavily, and with eyes closed in resignation he admits: "After the Third's funeral. She broke into my apartment."

A chair crashes against the wall—Tsunade's obviously because no one else is sitting, and a chorus of small gasps litter the room, but Naruto ignores them and whips his head to the now furious woman behind the desk.

"Nothing—"

"BE QUIET NARUTO!" The room shakes with the power of her voice, fist slamming into the desk so hard that it creaks, and the cracks sing, but it still does not break—much to Naruto's astonishment.

"Do you realize what you're saying!?" She shouts. "What you're admitting to? You aided a criminal Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Master please!" Sakura looks desperately between the two, waterline dampening at the shaking enveloping her master's body, but even more so at the idea that Naruto could be severely punished for this.

"He didn't know!" She begs.

"You let a rogue ninja into your home and you said nothing!"

"She didn't do anything to me!" The blond defended.

"That's not the point!" The woman seethed. "You had no idea what her motives were. You have no idea what she came into the Leaf Village to do. Do you realize the lasting impact she could've had on this land had she decided that while she was here, making a pit stop to talk to you—what she could've stolen, what she could've compromised, who she could've killed!" Tsunade panted, jabbing a finger in the wide-eyed blonde's direction.

The blond didn't give up without a fight, oh no, recovering quickly he shouted right back at her: "The only reason she came back is for me! To explain and apologize to me!"

The Hokage scoffs lightly, falling back in her chair to rub her temples while her orange-clad subordinate rambles on.

"I wanted to tell at first okay?" He huffs, crossing his arms. "But then she starting talking…"

"And what did she say that convinced you, hm?" The woman jabbed sarcastically.

"She admitted to orchestrating the fight between Gaara and I, and then she apologized for using me in that way and making it seem as if she didn't care about me. And as I said before, this is when she told me that she and Gaara were childhood friends, and that she didn't want to see Gaara go down the path he was on, but that I was the only one who could get through to him being from a similar situation. She only wanted to ensure that he got better, which—" he narrowed his eyes around the room, "need I add he is, so…"

"Yeah but Naruto," the previously quiet Shikamaru decided to put his two cents in, "we can't attribute Gaara being a better person solely to Miyako arranging a fight between the two of you. And," he emphasized, giving the boy a half-hearted scrutinizing glare, like he couldn't decide if he was mad about his next point or not. "She also endangered your life, she had no guarantee you'd beat Gaara."

Naruto puffs out his chest in a huff. "She apologized for that too obviously, but she also said she would've intervened if she had to—but obviously she didn't because I kicked Gaara's ass, so—" He sniffed, seemingly satisfied with himself, much to Shikamaru's annoyed sigh.

"Anyway she didn't do anything while she was here." Naruto asserted. "Nothing happened, so you can't say for certain anything else you're accusing her of happened either." With a fist in the air, he continues in righteous indignation on the part of his friend. "All of your theories are just speculation, as you said. She's just acting as a convenient scapegoat when you don't even know—"

"Naruto," Kakashi interrupted, brows lightly furrowed. "Did Miyako know about your relationship with Jiraiya?"

Confused, and annoyed at being interrupted, the boy barks out a "yeah, so what?"

"And she visited you after the Third's funeral you said?"

Out the corner of Naruto's eye, he sees Shikamaru widen his own eyes in sudden realization, and he goes rigid once more, for possibly the umpteenth time that day.

"Where are you going with this?"

Kakashi steps away from the boy, not a good sign, and proceeds. "I just think it's interesting that right after Miyako visited you Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame managed to track you down to your exact location, even though you had went off with Jiraiya at the time."

Naruto takes a moment to gape at the audacity of such a claim before practically hissing at his teacher. "Are you seriously trying to pin that on her as well?"

"Who else would I have to pin it on Naruto?" The man snarks back calmly. "Miyako visited you and three days later, two of the Akatsuki just happen to show up to come and collect you?"

"You have no proof that those two incidents are related!"

"I seriously doubt that they aren't." Kakashi narrows his eye at Naruto before continuing. "You need to come to terms with the fact that Tsunade is right, we have no idea what Miyako is capable of. Shikamaru just proved that she has tracking abilities, and she's proven more than once that she even knows how to track you down—I know, I've caught her stalking you before." Before Naruto can possible interrupt to ask for his elaboration, Kakashi plows on. "She could've done any number of things to help the Akatsuki find you at that inn that day. She's skilled at this Naruto, lying and manipulation in order to collect information. The only thing that probably saved you that day was Jiraiya being there and Miyako clearly having a lack of knowledge of his abilities."

Naruto is livid, he's opening his mouth to counter, to argue until his face is blue, Tsunade can see that this is spiraling out of control. She needs to take back control of this situation before it gets out of hand and they end up leaving with regrets.

"That's enough." Tsunade's voice is unwavering and demands silence—proving that she's even scarier calm than she is angry.

"I'm issuing orders, as the ally of Suna, that Maki Miyako is to be executed on sight. Effective immediately." She clips, hand cutting through the air with finality that shakes Naruto to his core.

"I cannot let this many accusations stand. She's too dangerous." He can sense in her tone that she is trying to be apologetic towards him now, trying to soften the blow, to coddle him.

He will tell her then what he will not stand.

"I refuse." His tone is ice, his glare is fire and Tsunade gnashes her teeth at the intensity of it.

"Don't defy me on this brat." Tsunade warns over the choruses of "Naruto"s again.

"I refuse." He repeated. "I won't let you kill someone and assign guilt based on your own assumptions of her character."

At her gob smacked look he whirls around to exit, ignoring the calls of his name.

"DON'T YOU DARE WALK OUT THAT DOOR!" Tsunade, no, the Godaime shouts—and Naruto can see as he looks over his shoulder that the desk is holding on by fibers, her last smack at his open defiance putting it on its last leg. He realizes he won't get to see what wins, the desk or the cracks. He also realizes he doesn't know which he is—the desk, or the cracks.

The door slams violently behind him, sending a tremor through the room that sends Tsunade's delicate furniture toppling in on itself, papers falling through the now large crack made from the pressure of several smaller ones in the middle. The most recent artist rendition of Miyako is staring up at her from where its landed in the center—laughing mockingly she's sure.

"Don't Kakashi." The elite Jounin stops and backtracks from where he intended to follow Naruto, looking at the woman expectantly.

"He's upset." She sighed to the room, still glaring balefully at the drawing boring into her soul. "The combination of Sasuke getting farther away from him and this—I didn't realize Miyako had gotten this under his skin."

She levels the rest with a grave stare, looking far older than she ever had. "Her influence is more powerful than I imagined."

O/M

Obito is watching Miyako when she, Hidan and Kakuzu enter the hideout a record-breaking 24 hours later—apparently mass murder really helps Hidan pick up the pace. Of course, Hidan and Kakuzu don't know that, they don't even technically know she's there—only that a spy is following them and it's not Zetsu. Still, Miyako can see him—a dark silhouette hanging from the side of a stalagmite, the one glowing Sharingan the only thing that can convince her this isn't a nightmare.

She tracks him down to another sparse room with nothing more than a bed and desk, and for a truly insane moment she thinks about joking to him to get some personality. The feeling passes quickly; Obito is not an approachable person.

"Report, Miyako." He sounds amused behind that mask, a first, a terrifying first because why the fuck do you sound so amused?

"The retrieval of Yugito Nii was a success. Kakuzu made one stop to secure more money for the organization while tracking the Two Tails. She decided to change course to a less populous area in order to get to Kumo faster that worked in our advantage for discretion. On the way back Hidan performed a…ritual on a small village. There were no survivors or witnesses. Otherwise, there was no outstanding incidents."

Obito observed Miyako for a few beats, marveling that she neither flinched nor fidgeted whilst telling the story; impressed in the way she told it so succinctly and smoothly that anyone else would take the words said at face value with no question. Truly she was a wonder at lying, there may be no one better at it in the world.

"Oh Miyako." Obito lamented lowly, reaching forward to cup the stone-faced woman's cheek gently.

"When will you learn you cannot lie to me?"

To her credit, Miyako doesn't drop her steadfast gaze into his eye—it's remarkable really, and he's convinced that she's convinced it's the truth. All she gives him is a raised eyebrow in response to his accusation—astounding indeed.

"The woman." He deadpans, gloved hand sliding down to her neck to lightly touch the wide cuff constricting her neck. He fingers the thick chain that coils from it and down her arms to the manacles on each wrist, though never breaks eye contact with her unwavering gaze.

"Do you want to know her name? Or would it be easier for you to meet her without any background information so it doesn't haunt you at night?"

Ah there it is, the minute widening of the eye that spells her terror clear on her face. He chuckles, and the scenery wavers before snapping back to the pocket dimension only accessible by his Kamui.

He can hear the muffled whimpers, and knows Miyako can hear it too—in fact she's shaking in unbridled excitement to meet her friend again it seems.

He walks around her, giving Miyako an unobstructed view of their guest, hog-tied up and a little worse for wear, but the still very much alive pregnant woman Miyako had hoped would make it out alive.

He gives Miyako a minute to take it in while he takes in the turmoil she seems to be going through—the extent of which, if he's correct about her extensive history, he doesn't quite understand. Visibly she is holding back her reactions fairly well, but the discomfort and defeat she's feeling is stark to him here. Her bronzed skin is practically ashen with it.

Obito says nothing as he walk to the woman, calmly hauling her up to sit on her haunches in one jerky movement, Miyako not even bothering to hide her wince at the groan the woman lets out, and then rips the gag from her mouth.

He lets the two women assess each other, one coughing and panting in steadily increasing panic, while the other slowly creeps into despair as the reality of what she will have to do sinks in.

"I'm going to give you a chance to make up for your mistake." His tone is generous, soothing—Miyako has never hated someone more. He nods down at the woman who is quietly whimpering little sobs of "please let me go" "don't hurt my baby" "I won't tell anyone I swear".

"You know what you have to do." Then he steps some distance away once he's sure the woman is stable on her own.

It seems to dawn on her then too, what Miyako is being tasked to do without words and she's renewed in her begging, crying out in a loud unintelligible voice to please spare her and her baby.

"I won't tell anyone, I promise! Please, please don't do this!" And then suddenly she's on the floor, scooting closer to Miyako who only stares in abject horror as she grovels at her feet. "Tell him, oh please tell him! All I want is to just live in peace with my child! I won't tell a soul I swear, I swear. I swear it, I SWEAR IT." Miyako jumps lightly as the woman breaks out into a fit of sobs, her nose to the ground as she falls apart on the floor, fluids leaking from every orifice in her face and Miyako knows that she should take responsibility. She knows that she should just kill this woman and be merciful, because out of the two of them she's clearly the only one with a functioning heart. But she's looking down at this woman, who has fallen into the best version of being prostrate as she can, pregnant stomach pressed to the floor, and she cannot bring herself to be anymore a complacent, complicit monster than she already has been.

She knows as soon as she says this it's the wrong thing to say but still she tries. "I can't." And then she's word vomiting, hoping that the more she says maybe one will stick—maybe that one word or phrase or piece of logic will move him.

"We don't have to do this—she poses no threat to the Akatsuki, master." She's laying it on perhaps too thick but she's sick with the thought that she can do nothing. "She's one woman. Even if she does attempt to tell who would believe her?"

Miyako can hear Obito's disappointed sigh even over her own frantic pleading, and with each step he takes to approach her, her mind pushes more frazzled ideas and thoughts through her lips like a fountain because she can't stop, she has to do something, anything—

"Please she's with CHILD!" Rips from her throat, she's collapsed onto the ground, the roles reversed now as she clutches the wailing woman to her own stomach in a misplaced form of comfort and looks up beseechingly to Obito's one eye that observes her display of emotion so callously the blood freezes in her veins.

Miyako would've rather the woman been snatched from her, that way she could fight, or at least make a show of putting up a good one because she can't physically harm this monster that has possession of her—but Obito does none of this. He simply pulls the weakly struggling woman from Miyako's arms, like the woman is simply a child being transferred to the care of another adult, so cloyingly gentle. The falsehood has Miyako hyperventilating for the second time in 24 hours, and she hasn't even died yet. But she knows its coming, and so does the woman, by the broken syllables of "ple-ase, please, pleasepleaseplease PLEase" falling from her lips as Obito grabs a fistful of her hair.

He's at least quick about it.

Miyako can feel the warmth of the blood sliding down her face but her eyes refuse to believe that there's a head dangling, severed so professionally from a body, with wide empty eyes and a mouth frozen in a scream front of her. She jolts with the body falling forward with a sickening thud, the head making a duller thump as it follows after. But even as it's left her vision with only Obito's swirling mask in front of her face, she stares through him unseeingly, the horror imprinted on her brain.

"I'm so very disappointed." He intones coolly, this reprimanding sigh fanning across her face that only twitches in response. He runs his fingers lightly over the arch of her cheek, smearing the blood down and across the length of it like macabre blush.

"Gaara has broken you so." And he tilts her chin up until her eyes are forced to lock with his own.

"But don't worry, because I'm going to fix you."

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When the four boys Gaara had tried to befriend earlier that year came up to him during kunai practice, he was expecting taunts, pushing, maybe even a physical fight to break out.

Miyako was currently occupied by their teacher in another corner—Nasaki-sensei had been doing that a lot lately, pulling Miyako into a corner and talking animatedly to her about something, only to receive a fairly bored stare back. Every time Gaara asked what it was about, Miyako usually gave him a shrug and said "nothing important" and they'd drop it.

So when they approached, Gaara had sent quick nervous stares over to his only friend—hoping to convey to her how much he needed a buffer, but to no avail, as they all stood in a tight little group now, looking…nervous.

The leader of their little pack, a bigger brown-haired boy, scratched his cheek sheepishly. "Hey."

Gaara cocked a tiny eyebrow, but nonetheless gave a quiet "hey" back.

"So, we just wanted to…um…apologize—" the boy stuttered, face aflame in embarrassment as his friends nudged him to continue.

"Apologize?" The word was foreign to Gaara, because no one had ever sincerely told Gaara sorry until Miyako—and she didn't even have anything to be sorry for.

"Yeah, um, I guess we were being really mean to you before, but you're not all that bad…" The boy in front mumbled.

Little Gaara of course didn't know how to take this, his heart was throbbing with confusion and doubt, but a tiny part of him had hope—hope that seemed to want to balloon up and out of his chest and the rest of the boys all mumbled various "sorrys".

"And um…to make it up to you we wanted to know if you would play ball with us after school?" One of the boys flanking the leader asked, shooting Gaara a timid smile that he shyly reciprocated.

"O-okay." He murmured, eliciting cheers from the group who rapidly told him where to meet after school.

"U-um—wait!" He managed to call out before they could retreat, sending the leader to look back at him quizzically.

"Can um, can Miyako-chan come?" Just the thought of bringing along his best friend to proudly show off that he had new friends made a smile bloom brighter on his face, though it quickly died with the grossed out expression the opposite boy gave him.

"Erm, no offense to your friend or whatever, but we don't play with girls." He sniffed, cocking his head when Gaara began to look reluctant.

"You can play without her one day can't you?" He chided. "C'mon! We're even going to show you a really cool trick you can use next time the two of you play."

At the idea of being able to possibly impress Miyako, which he found was very difficult to genuinely do as she had seen a lot, he perked up a little again.

"Okay!" He agreed confidently, little smile lighting up his face again as the boy grinned.

"Cool, you know where to meet us, see you later!" And then he ran off to join the group who had been waiting by the entrance door for him. Gaara was so giddy he missed how they seemed to grin maliciously at his back.

For the rest of class he was squirming in his seat, to Miyako's collective confusion and amusement—but she waiting patiently for him to tell her whatever it was that had him so excited while attempting to occupy him long enough with notes and doodles so the teacher wouldn't scold him too harshly.

Finally the bell rang to dismiss them, kids scrambling from their seats to get out the door as Nasaki-sensei tried to yell their homework to those who bolted away.

"So…?" Miyako prompted as Gaara hurried to pack his things, seeming to be in a rush to get out the door; her first clue that something seemed a bit amiss. Gaara never attempted to leave class with the rush of kids—he was still hypersensitive to the fact that they were afraid of him and would no doubt at worst run screaming.

"Hello? Gaa-chan?" He paused to look up at Miyako, who still had her things strewn about the desk and was looking at him sidelong.

"What are you waiting for? Pack up!" When his best friend didn't make a move to start putting away her things immediately, he huffed and began to do it for her.

"What's got you so excited?" She batted his hands away from her notebook, and neatly put it inside her small backpack.

Gaara's nervous energy seemed to dissipate some at the question, causing Miyako to shoot him a curious look now as she rose from her desk to walk out with the stragglers—like they usually do.

"Oh, um—I'm just excited to get to training."

A lie—aside from the fact that Miyako could read Gaara's emotions like an open book because, well, they were connected—he was also a child, so he wasn't that great at schooling his face.

"it's just training, we do it every day." She laughed, going along with the lie, for now.

"Ummm, actually—" The boy fidgeted, stopping abruptly on the sidewalk they usually took home and looking to the opposite direction.

"I was hoping to go….bymyself." He said quickly into his shoes, avoiding eye contact with his friend at all cost.

Now Miyako was alarmed—she'd clearly heard what he said, she just couldn't believe he'd said it. He wanted to do something by himself? He and Miyako had been inseparable since he'd found her, what was this sudden need to be by himself—and lie about it?

"O…kay?" A thousand thoughts were running across her face, Gaara could see it, he just hoped she bought his next line.

"It's just…I'm working on something really cool and I want it to be a surprise!" He blurted, blushing sheepishly and rubbing his cheeks.

Still wary, but wanting to give the boy his space, Miyako gave another "okay."

"So…um, I'll see you at home?" He looked to her hopefully, and then took her hands in his for extra measure, wanting so badly for him not to be mad at him that Miyako couldn't be.

"Yeah." The note of hesitance went undetected by Gaara, who beamed and squeezed her hands in his.

"Great!" And then he went the opposite direction from home with a wave, speeding off down the sidewalk before disappearing around the corner.

After a few minutes he made it to the agreed meeting spot, which was a large concrete maze type area that was rarely used anymore considering it was a little ways away from the city proper, and didn't have much in the way of equipment for the kids to play with.

Gaara thought nothing of this of course, and sped up when he saw the boys in the distance, seeming to have a heated discussion in a tight circle as they shoved something around to one another. He wondered if he should call out to them, to let them know he was here, but one seemed to sense his footsteps and looked up with a thin smile.

"Gaara!"

The collection of boys all turned to face him, greeting him with varying degrees of smiles as Gaara looked around in wonder, never having been this far out West of the city.

"Why this place?" He intoned curiously, missing the nasty looks some of the boys shared discreetly.

"Oh you know, less people to try to interrupt our game, and—!" The leader puffed. "The concrete walls make bouncing and doing tricks easier."

Gaara nodded in fascination, looking at the older boy with an unbridled sense of joy—just knowing that he was going to learn something cool to show Miyako and make new friends. This was going to be the best day ever!

The boys all cheered, yelling about playing "Wall Ball" and directing Gaara where to stand in the circle. As it stood now, they all were in the open area of the concrete play area, which was open to the sand outside of it with a concrete floor and three walls to bounce off of. Gaara had his back currently to the wall which led into a dark alleyway where the beginning of the "maze" started.

He watched with glee as the boys started passing the ball around, some kicking it so hard that it bounced off the wall and ricocheted at crazy angles to a totally different boy than where they aimed. Gaara was having a blast, even at first if he didn't receive the ball as much, and then the leader directly opposite him shouted: "Coming to you Gaara, see if you can kick it off a wall!" and reared his leg back to give a great big punt to the ball so hard it went sailing over Gaara's head, bounced off the wall and shot off into the dark maze.

"Oh!" The others started chiding the leader about how he hit it too hard, and to calm his legs down. While they playfully poked fun at him, Gaara called out that he would get the ball and ran off into the alleyway to search, hoping it hadn't rolled too far.

He stepped cautiously into the dark, smacking himself on the cheeks lightly to get a grip, since it was just the dark and set off squinting to see if he could find the ball. Echoing steps followed him as he cautiously padded down the long stretch of that first alleyway, the light of the sun's rays falling further behind him, and only the darkening sky above him that barely seemed to take up any space with looming walls on either side. Gaara scolded himself at being even slightly afraid, after all, how was he supposed to make more friends if he acted like a big baby? He was friends with older boys now and he had to show them he wasn't afraid of anything!

Still, he breathed a sigh of relief when finally his shoe ran into something that lo and behold turned out to be the missing ball. He happily scooped it up, pleased to turn around and find he hadn't gotten too far from the entrance and his new friends, only to jump and nearly scream when he discovered one of them had followed him inside silently and was hovering just a few feet away from him.

"I'm coming! See, I have it right here!" Gaara made to take a step away from the shadowed corner he was in, having found the ball at a bend where the maze did something wonky, when the boy suddenly charged at him—and in the faint slant of light from the sky, he caught the glint of a kunai.

He gasped and dropped the ball, sand forming rapidly in front of his face from the tainted air—but it wasn't nearly enough to do much damage in his inexperience. He whimpered and before he could even let out a shout the boy was letting out one for him, kunai dropping harmlessly at Gaara's feet as the boy was hoisted in the air.

With another faint gasp, Gaara whirled around, eyes finding first the arch of bright purple sand gleaming in the low lighting, and followed that arm of sand all the way to the shadows where it melded into a tall womanly figure surrounded by dark clawed limbs, elongated mouths with vicious teeth, and boogeymen with the same glowing purple eyes as her writhing in the air.

The would be attacker whimpered in the grasp of the purple sand-like substance, struggling weakly only to hiss as the grains chafed against his skin. He let out a yell as a limb and mouth lashed forward to snap at both sides of him, vibrating the air around him with sound that had him sobbing in fright before retreating with a hiss.

A commotion has Gaara turning around to see the rest of the boys rushing around the corner only to freeze at the sight of her—this ghostly shape made up of darkness and everything nightmarish kids believe reside under their beds.

"Boy." Her voice is distorted and layered like many voices speaking at once, foreboding. "If you think Sabaku no Gaara is a monster, you have not known me." The sand then whips the child around to dangle upside down and now Gaara can see in the light a deep wet spot on his pants and the trembling in his limbs.

The sand then flings the boy carelessly to the ground, snapping at him into scurrying back to his friends on hands and knees while his tears make a wet trail on the ground.

"Touch Sabaku no Gaara again and you will not have a hand." She thunders and the tremors seem to jolt the boys into action, sending them running with higher-pitched screams than Gaara imagined would ever come out of anyone's mouth.

Once they can no longer hear the echo, Gaara turns back to find a child-sized Miyako standing before him. It takes him a moment to process, but once he does—once he realizes that they meant to kill him in an abandoned maze after tricking him into believing he could be their friends—he sobs and all but throws himself into Miyako's arms who says nothing and just wraps him up tightly in a hug.

It takes several minutes of her fingers combing through his hair and her hand soothingly rubbing down his back for him to stop snotting into her skin, but once he does he pulls away—gasping for breath so hard he can't even start a sentence, but still valiantly trying. Miyako waits patiently, a very adult look of gentle understanding on her face as she dabs his tears lightly.

"I-I'm so-sorry." He wails, rubbing his eyes fiercely, but only triggering him to cry harder.

"D-did-nuuu-n't mean to-to—" he has to pause to wheeze for breath, "mmnnn, hurt feelings."

"Gaara." She says, so forlornly, drying his tears until he can see her sad smile clearly. "Are you alright?"

He cries harder at this display of concern, attempting to fuse himself with her once again as he wails anew, his whole body shaking with his sadness that Miyako has to rock him to get him to eventually calm down.

"don't be discouraged." She whispers to him, nose to nose like they like, still in the dusty maze where he broke down—but now the sky is as purple as Miyako's eyes, his mommy's eyes, and he feels much better.

"one day you'll have so many friends you won't be able to count them." She gives him one of those radiant smiles Gaara thinks looks more like than sun than she claims his to be.

"and they'll love you more than you can handle."

She bumps their foreheads gently, pleased when Gaara gives her a timid little smile.

"i'll never not play with you again." He promises, so serious that Miyako can't help but let out a little bubbly laugh.

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Miyako lived with them?

She can manipulate a purple sand like substance

She has a jutsu that utilizes shadows? Perhaps Jounin-level, at 5 years old

Gaara wasn't sure where his memories were taking him, but by the looks of it—he chewed his bottom lip in thought, flipping through the other pages of dreams—memories?—that had been plaguing him ever since Miyako left—sharing these with his siblings wouldn't be possible, it would lead to no where good.

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Wow this was the longest chapter I have ever written in my life. Holy cow, what a comeback.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed that angst-fest, teehee (nervous eye movement)

Let me know what you thought my pretties! So glad to be back. Shoot me a comment, I love feedback.

Catch you in the next one!

Suffering. Frigid. Acronym