Don't own Naruto. Review, please, and no flames? I've finally finished this after working on it for a good two months, whew. Hope you enjoy, and please let me know if you find any mistakes so I can fix them up. I spellcheck and grammar check my own work, and obviously I miss stuff sometimes…

This is how it begins:

She's sitting on a cold metal chair. The air in the room is heavy and silent, and her head is defiantly raised to face the Council. The Hokage is not present- she knows that Tsunade was never even informed of this meeting.

"You will be discharged from the shinobi ranks for treason against Konoha by way of driving Uchiha Sasuke to the traitor Orochimaru," the old woman proclaims. A gleam of triumph enters the visible eye of the man sitting to the right of the two other- remaining, she thinks, because the Sandaime is dead but she quickly puts that out of her mind- members of Sarutobi Hiruzen's team. "Effective immediately, you are now a civilian. Leave your hitae-ate with the ANBU member outside the door."

She stands without a word, and doesn't break eye contact with them as she unties the soft black cloth and lets it drop to the floor through numb fingers. Shoulder-length crimson hair whirls around her chin and neck as she spins on one heel and strides from the room, letting the door quietly slide closed behind her.

When she steps out onto the street the villagers point and scowl and start their 'whispers', and she shoves her hands in her pocket so that the off-duty shinobi now eyeing her conspicuously bare forehead suspiciously don't see how her fingers twitch in want for a weapon.

When she gets home she packs up what little things haven't been destroyed over the years into a sealing scroll, sticks it into a pocket of her comfortably loose cargo pants, and picks up a piece of paper.

Sorry everyone, she writes, and lets a single tear fall to the page before firmly closing her eyes and blocking them away until she feels like they won't leak out when she continues. I've been discharged for letting Sasuke-yarou leave, even though it ended up with me in the hospital. The Council's planning something, so be careful. I'm sorry, but I can't stay here anymore. Konoha's turned its back on me again, and this is the last time I'm going to let it. There aren't any rules about civilians leaving, so they won't have grounds to officially come after me.

Uzumaki Naruko.

P.S. Don't waste your time looking for me. I learned how to hide from Sarutobi-jiji's searchers and trackers when I was six.

This is how it starts to change:

The two Chuunin stationed at the gate gape at her when they see the telling bulge of a sealing scroll in her pocket and the small satchel slung over her shoulder, but swallow and let her through after she signs the roster. "Goodbye," they say for lack of knowing how to apologize for all the wrongs that they did her by simply standing by, knowing she's leaving for good, and she gives them a sad smile and nods before setting off.

She hasn't spoken a word since the sentencing, and idly wonders if she ever will again. There'll be nobody to talk to if she's on her own, after all, so what's the point?

Naruko speeds up once she's a few yards down the road, and continues to accelerate gradually until she's at her top speed and racing up through the trees of Fire Country. She will be chased, and being caught isn't exactly on her agenda. Her agenda's pretty empty, actually.

There's only one thing on it: Survive.

And as night falls she's still running, using every ounce of jinchuuriki stamina she has to power her beyond the pace and distance anybody else bar a Kage-level shinobi could hope to match. The wind rushes through her hair, and her feet are somehow lightened. She's on her own now, she realizes, but really… when hasn't she been? Sasuke was the only one on her team that could have understood how she felt, but he left for Orochimaru.

She can actually understand that; if she'd been given an offer to leave the place both idolizing and suspecting her for somewhere where she wouldn't have to worry about anything except her training, she would've taken it too.

Maybe- Maybe- some people in Konoha will miss her. Kakashi, Iruka, Shizune, and Tsunade, perhaps. But they will move on, in time. The Ichiraku died in the Suna/Oto invasion. But Sakura won't miss her. Neither will the other members of the Rookie Nine, nor the shinobi who stood by and watched as the prejudiced, spiteful civilians beat her in the deserted alleyways whenever they could catch her off guard. Not the medical staff at the hospital that always gave her the rooms that had yet to be updated to protocol and never gave her painkillers when she might have needed them either.

No. And besides- her reason for wanting to be Hokage was to be accepted. But the conundrum was: she couldn't be Hokage until she was accepted. And Konohagakure had hated her since she had had the Kyuubi no Kitsune sealed inside of her on the day of her birth. They would never allow a demon container in such an influential position.

This is how it takes a turn unforeseen:

The Akatsuki find her rather sooner than expected.

She's sitting by a fire, staring into the dancing flames blankly with her knees tucked up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them to hold the warmth in, and she smells them as soon as they arrive. They aren't really trying to hide from her.

She doesn't speak, but she lifts her head and looks right at the 'empty' trees on the other side of the clearing for a second before returning to her new hobby. Two pairs of feet land silently, one heavy the other light, and slowly tread toward her. "Naruko-chan…" Uchiha Itachi sounds mildly confused. "Why are you not in Konoha?"

She barely flicks her eyes upwards, but manages to give them one of her newly empty stares and lifts one finger to point at the blank skin of her forehead that no longer had a metal plate to protect it.

Hoshigaki Kisame grunts and plops down parallel to her, pale yellow eyes assessing her sharply. "Why aren't you talking, brat?"

Naruko quirks a slightly wistful smile, and shrugs. Don't they know yet? She's not Konoha anymore.

The ex-Swordsman watches her suspiciously for another few seconds before grunting and tugging the huge, bandaged greatsword over his shoulder and into his lap comfortably. Itachi sinks down into a cross-legged sitting position a moment later, face as blank and emotionless as ever, but she can almost hear his brain spinning through possibilities and explanations. Sasuke did the same sometimes, though never to such an extent. The two are, unsurprisingly, far more alike than they choose to believe.

No. This is how it begins:

When she wakes from her rest, Kisame is resting against a tree nearby, asleep, and Itachi is watching her sit up and gather her things before snuffing out the fire's embers. She goes through the rote motions to hide her tracks without hurry or fuss, and by the time she finishes Kisame's awake and watching as well. She gives the clearing a cursory look over, and then turns and silently walks away.

She knows that they're following. They were sent to hunt her down, after all; they can't just let her leave. But even as they are following her so is another group, she can tell from the changes in the air and the sudden silence of wildlife that had been chirping and rustling happily only a moment before. The humming chakra signatures of the Akatsuki drop away, but she knows that they're still there- just observing. She's on her own.

She stiffens but doesn't otherwise react when the masked shinobi lacking any village symbol drop into view around her, hands around weapons. "Uzumaki Naruko. Surrender and come back to Konoha," the leader orders in an emotionless monotone.

Naruko sighs, and shakes her head 'no'. They have no grounds to arrest her, and she knows that they don't mean her any good.

As if they expected that to be her answer they attack and she instantly drops to the ground, avoiding a well-thrown pair of senbon that would have paralyzed her for hours even with her bijuu speeding up the healing process. She's forced to propel herself up in a flip barely a split second later, and her muscles- limber despite her only having woken up about twenty minutes ago- stretch and bend as they were trained to do, curving her back in a graceful arch. She curls her knees up to her chest-

-and all appearances of grace and slow, delicate beauty vanish as her eyes flash bloody, slitted red and her features extend into something crueler, more vulpine. Less than human, as she lets Kurama vent some of his endless rage and bloodlust.

She kicks, lashing out in a split and thrusting herself further upwards, and wild, vicious chakra begins to ooze out of her pores and bubble up over her skin.

Naruko knows she can't beat even half of them if she follows the rules a normal twelve year old female genin-almost-chuunin would have to.

So she doesn't.

The first falls to a swipe of claws that rip through fabric and easily slice through skin and jugular vein, sending a spray of red through the air; the second to a tanto stolen from the falling body of the first that lands true to her throw in the center of his abdomen, pinning him to the ground and piercing vital organs. By the time she reaches for a third they're scattering, the leader shouting out orders and positions, and swirls of chakra are shaping themselves into deadly spinning vortexes in her open palms.

She whirls around and darts up the side of a tree, only to purposefully push too much chakra into her feet and launch herself back across the area in an explosion of shattered bark. Two Rasengan and two unidentified shinobi. Her left hand was slapped to a chest, chakra-sphere still at full power, and her right managed to plant itself in a shoulder as the man tried to turn away, tearing through tendon and bone alike and most likely crippling his entire arm for the remainder of his life.

When the high-pitched subtle whistling of weapons tingles through her ears she disconnects from the crumpling bodies- one already dead, chest turned into nothing but a crater and the other unconscious from overloaded nerve endings- and does her best to begin to twist away from them, but even as she clears the first half another barrage is on its way and she knows she won't make it unscathed.

Until a huge, hulking figure that she only comes up to the hip of crashes down between she and the attack, sweeping it aside with Samehada like it was only a cloud of harmless flies.

Naruko looks up from her crouch behind his legs, and blinks in shock as he grins down at her, all sharp teeth and surprised amusement at the blood spattered over her face and clothes and dripping from her hands. "Don't just stand there, girl," he barks, and she startles and nods just as Itachi slides in like a red-eyed shadow behind a kunoichi about to finish a set of hand seals aimed at them and slits her throat.

This is how the aim of the future shifts:

When Kisame goes to attack again, lunging forward, Naruko jumps upwards and uses him as a springboard, launching herself forward off of his broad shoulder that doesn't even dip under her weight. She growls, and ducks forward in a deep bow underneath a slash of a sword, coming up again right in the shinobi's face and pushing off of the ground to reach up and twist his head around with a violent snap.

She cocks her head to the side in question when silence falls, and looks off toward where they had made camp for the night. Lifting a finger, she points and then raises four fingers on her other hand, carefully ignoring the slippery-red-coated skin that shifts slickly with each movement, focusing more on her senses and the ever-present bloodlust. "Four more, Naruko-chan?" Itachi's soft, deep voice questions, planting a shuriken in the neck of the last one, and she nods, darting off in that direction. The two Akatsuki catch up to her effortlessly, and match her speed when she accelerates, muscles powered by the potent demon-chakra, and slings herself off of the limb of a nearby tree to land on top of one shinobi inspecting their campsite. He tries to throw her off, but she seizes his kunai and drives it up in the hollow of his throat, sending him down instantly.

The other three are taken care of in short order, and when she stands above her last kill she closes her eyes tightly, nostrils flaring, and grits her teeth as she tries to force the Kyuubi and its thirst for conflict back inside of its seal. She can hear the shift of tough leather armor as Kisame grips the handle of his chakra-eating sword, and the half-step Itachi starts to take closer when she bites down hard on her lower lip, sending fresh blood- her own, this time- dripping down her chin from the sharp but small cut made by her elongated canines.

Slowly, though she manages to bring the searing red chakra back inside, and funnel it to the seal. She sighs, opening her eyes, and the Akatsuki almost- almost- visibly relax when they are their regular cerulean blue instead of demonic red with a narrow pupil. Her limbs shake, and her eyelashes flutter as the exhaustion and ache of pushing her body farther than it was meant to go at this age sets in. She drops the kunai clutched in her white-knuckled fist, and forces her body to stay awake as it begs for sleep even though she only woke up about forty minutes before.

Her tongue darts out, and she freezes as she realizes, the coppery taste already spreading over her taste buds, that she is covered in fresh blood. It's dripping freely from her hands, slipping in tiny droplets down her half-covered skin- she's only wearing a tanktop and a pair of cargo pants- and coagulating in her hair.

She needs a river, Naruko decides, and is about to turn away to go and find one when Itachi bends down, slides the mask off of the face of one of their assailants, and forces his mouth open to reveal a complex blocky black seal imprinted on the man's tongue. Her brow furrows, and she pads over the Suiton- and blood-soggy ground- it'll be impossible to remove all traces of the fight after this- to crouch down next to him and tilt her head to the side as she eyes the construction curiously.

It's far more intricate than anything Jiraiya had begun to introduce in their brief travels, but she can decipher at least one thing just from looking at it: it's meant to keep secrets- by freezing the inflicted either by paralysis or death, she wasn't sure. But it wasn't anything good, that was immediately apparent.

Itachi and Kisame are watching her, she notices belatedly, and blinks at the Uchiha's curious red-and-black gaze. "Can you understand what it means?" he asks quietly, and Kisame shifts behind them, moving just a bit closer.

Naruko gives him a hesitant nod, and waggles her hand side-to-side to indicate 'sort of'. When he raises an eyebrow she opens and closes her mouth to imitate talking and then puts a hand over it, as if to stop the nonexistent sound. She's not sure how much she's really getting across, but by his expression she thinks he got the gist of it. He seems to debate something, and then "Naruko-chan, do you know who Shimura Danzou is?"

She scowls, and nods. Of course she does. He was the main instigator behind her dischargement, after all.

Itachi looks at her, as if he knows what she's thinking- and hey, maybe he does. People have always told her she's easy to read. "He has a group under his control, outside of the regular forces. They're in ANBU, the regular ranks, the civilian population, the trading clans… It's called Root. These shinobi were from that organization."

Ah. Naruko tilts her head to the side, and then inclines it slightly in understanding. She stumbles a bit when she stands, and hurriedly blinks away the disorientation, only to find her knees buckling and her body falling to the red-stained grass. A hand slips under her elbow and slows her rapid descent just before she starts to try to brace herself with her hands, and she takes in a shuddering breath as her vision flickers. "Is disorientation normal using the bijuu's chakra?" Itachi asks, and she debates the benefits and consequences of answering truthfully before shaking her head yes. It just wasn't usually so bad- most likely her lack of sufficient food and the fact that she had pushed herself too far were the reasons behind it.

She loses the battle between staying awake and falling unconscious quickly, crumpling against Itachi's arm as her eyes slip shut and her limbs go limp.

This is how the Kami play their games of mortals and minds:

Naruko wakes in a hospital. Or at least, it looks like a hospital. There're chakra signatures as powerful- and two more so- as Itachi and Kisame upstairs, and quite a few a little less so, and no hospital would have so many residents that strong at one time.

There's rain outside the small window, drizzling down out of a heavily-clouded sky. From what she can see the buildings are heavy-duty metal, all pipes and elaborate constructions and harsh lines rather than the smooth curves and wood of Konoha's architecture, and there's only one place that she could possibly be.

Amegakure. Not much was known about it, but it was the only place that fit. So… why had Itachi and Kisame taken her here? Was this where the Akatsuki were located? If so she was in severe danger, but for some unknown reason she could only feel curiosity.

She sits up, carefully, and pushes the plain white sheet back. Chakra hums in the air, and she wonders if somehow she's being watched- the air is permeated with it, and the rain outside feels… off to her senses. More, somehow.

With a shrug- not like it matters to her- she rolls upwards, straightens out the simple white hospital dress that had taken the place of her old, worn clothes, and pads over the sterile tile toward the door. It opens easily under her hands, and she tilts her head to the side curiously as she steps out into the hallway and eyes the empty corridor suspiciously. Yes, she's being watched.

Nobody's there, though, her eyes and nose tell her instantly that this area of the building is empty- so… how?

Naruko silently strides away from the room and toward a flight of stairs visible at the end of the hall. When she reaches them she debates on her choices: Down to a very, very slim- pretty much nonexistent- chance of freedom, or up to the Akatsuki?

She stays still for a few seconds, barely breathing as the two options sway temptingly in her mind, and then-

and then she steps to the left, and raises her bare feet to begin the climb to the floor above.

This is how the possibilities of the new Prophecy settle:

She runs into one of them almost instantly after reaching the top: a blond male, with one striking blue eye. He looks to be in his late teens, definitely younger than Kakashi but quite a bit older than her, with a slashed Iwa hitae-ate holding up a thick, long bang of golden hair. He looks down at her and raises his visible eyebrow. "Kyuubi jinchuuriki, hm? Thought you'd take the chance to run, un."

Naruko shrugs, and fidgets slightly in place. His eye narrows. "...Why aren't you talking?"

The half-smile her lips quirk into is bitter and sad, and though it is answer enough she opens her mouth, licks her dry lips, and mouths- I haven't since I left.

Like any at least semi-competent shinobi, he can read lips. So after a moment of consideration he nods, jerks his thumb over his shoulder, and says "The kitchen and main room are that way, un. You can probably get some food before Leader-sama decides to summon you."

And then he continues on his way past her, shinobi-sandaled feet silent on the shining dark-wood floors and heavy, reinforced shinobi cloth rustling quietly around him with every movement.

So she continues on in the direction he gestured- because she's hungry after the week or so in the forest without enough food and then the ensuing battle that made the hollow ache in her gut worse-, following the empty corridor to its end in a wide arch that leads to a large room. Someone's sitting in one of the chairs and watching the TV with what might be avid interest, but his face is covered completely by a swirling orange mask. He doesn't appear to notice her, but she keeps her motions as quiet and hushed as possible as she shifts into the empty kitchen.

It's clean- abnormally so. The cupboards, when she checks, are well-stocked if a little spartan, and the fridge has a fresh jug of milk, some kinds of juices, and a few chilled items that she passes over. After searching for and happily removing an instant ramen from a higher shelf she has to jump high up to get to, Naruko peels back the lid, fills the styrofoam cup up with water from the sink, and puts it inside the small, oddly stained-on-the-inside microwave. The buttons beep as she pushes them to set it correctly, pushing herself up on her tiptoes to get the right ones, and when she steps back with a satisfied half-smile and bumps into someone she lets out a wordless yelp and skitters away, crouching defensively on the other side of the dining table and eyeing the masked man who had snuck up on her warily. Some of her hair falls over her face, but she doesn't dare move her arm over her eyes to push it back behind her ears.

She blinks when he waves his hands back and forth in what seems to be panic, and babbles in a high childish tone "Tobi's sorry! Tobi didn't mean to scare the pretty girl! Tobi's name is Tobi!" He leans forward, as if peering down at her, and she takes a cautious step backwards. "What's pretty girl's name?"

Naruko straightens up after a few more seconds of no threatening moves, and taps her throat before making a shooing motion. Obligingly the man-child backs up, away from her section of the counter, and she edges toward it while flicking uneasy glances at him out of the corner of her eyes. Something's… strange about him, like he's more than he seems, and it makes his childlike personality more eerie than the relaxing prompt for underestimation it's probably meant to be.

The microwave beeps, and she turns to open it up while keeping one eye on him out of the corner of her vision. No matter his behaviour, he's obviously a member of Akatsuki, and Akatsuki would never accept a weakling. "Why is pretty girl in Akatsuki?" he asks, almost hesitantly, and leans against a wall barely in the corner of her vision.

She slides back, steaming ramen clutched in her hands, and jumps up to half-perch half-sit on the long, wide table in a way that leaves him squarely across from her- and rather far away, too. She opens her mouth, pauses, and closes it again as she glances up and to the side, to the doorway where Itachi had appeared, silent as a shadow. He looks relaxed, and she'd believe he was if not for the undercurrent of sour uneasiness in his scent that spikes when he flickers onyx eyes over to 'Tobi' and a flash of red darts over them. "Leader-sama wishes to see you, Naruko-chan," he murmurs.

Naruko blinks at him, and unfolds herself back onto the ground, absently enjoying the taste of hot, fresh ramen as she pads after him.

"...Be careful around that one," Itachi says quietly but firmly once they are out of view and halfway down the corridor. "All is not always as it seems."

She tilts her head to the side curiously, but also inclines it forward in silent acceptance. Yes, there had been something odd about- Tobi. She will defer to the Uchiha on this matter- while capable of it, to her knowledge he's never actively lied to her, unlike many in Konoha including the now-dead Sandaime.

The title sends a pang of sadness and loss through it, and a flare of rage at the snake sannin, but she pushes the emotions back down. They aren't for right now, when she needs to keep herself calm.

This is how the Rinnegan-wielder sees an opportunity, and seizes it:

Pein stares unblinkingly back at her as she crouches on the edge of the seat of a chair in front of his desk. She is gaunt, he realizes, drawn and tired and running on fumes. Her hitae-ate is gone.

When he asks his questions she only mimes with one free hand as the other holds her meal- opportunistic and resourceful, searching for what she needs and taking it when she can, he understands that- expertly, balancing the damp spoon on top of the open container as she gestures.

They sit in silence for another minute when he runs out of questions he can ask without her replying verbally, and Itachi shifts almost unnoticeably by the door. "Do you have something to add, Itachi?" he questions calmly.

He knows most, if not all, of the Uchiha's loyalty is still to the Village Hidden in the Leaves. So it is a shock when he replies, soft and faux-submissive as ever with an undertone of steel, "Leader-sama, why does Naruko-chan not join Akatsuki, if she truly has nowhere else to go? It will save us the time and manpower necessary to hunt her elusive trail down after we collect the other bijuu."

Well, that is an idea… Pein turns his head back to Uzumaki Naruko, who had cocked her head to the side at Itachi's voice and is now staring at the two of them, dulled blue eyes widened ever so slightly in surprise. "Well, Uzumaki Naruko?" Pein leans forward, and braces his chin up on his linked hands. "Will you join us?"

She is very, very still for five seconds, and he debates on her answer. Whether she chooses to join or not they cannot let her go, she knows that, so it is a simple question of how strong her loyalties still are after being cast out practically into his lap.

Uzumaki Naruko pushes herself up, walks forward, her bare feet silent on the plush carpet, and drops her ramen into the little garbage at the side of his desk.

And then, her grip white-knuckled out of nervousness or anticipation or something he can't decipher because her head is tilted down and hiding her eyes from view-

Uzumaki Naruko, Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, steps back in front of his desk and assesses him for a moment before angling her entire body into a shallow, accepting bow that is barely acceptable for his position as leader of both Amegakure and the organization.

But it is enough, and Pein is pleased.

"Then welcome, Naruko, to Akatsuki."

They have the Nine-Tails.

This is how the pieces begin to click into their places:

"Your partner for the time being will be Tobi, as Zetsu works best alone. Itachi, go and get him."

Naruko hops back onto the chair, twiddling the spoon between her fingers, and wonders idly what she's getting herself into. Not five minutes ago Itachi had warned her away from the masked not-boy, so how was she supposed to stay away with him as her partner?

Tobi cracked the door open and poked his head in. "Leader-sama summoned Tobi?"

Leader stares at him for a second, and then speaks, voice stern and commanding. "Tobi, Naruko will be your partner, as she is joining us. Bring her skills up to par as quickly as you can, is that understood?"

"Hm~?" Tobi dances through the opening and dips his masked face in close to hers, making her arch back to get some distance in between them without losing her balance. "How strong is Naruko-chan now?"

She scratches the back of her neck awkwardly, highly aware that despite her abnormally large chakra reserves, she is the weakest and youngest person in the room. Maybe early Chuunin, she mouths at their expectant looks, a bit sheepish- she's joining Akatsuki, by the Kami, and they're all S-Ranked missing-nin to her knowledge.

There's a slight pause as Tobi rubs his chin and she and Leader wait for him to finish. "Tobi can do that," he declares decisively, and his hand is like a vise as it latches onto her wrist and yanks her up and out of the chair after him as he darts out the door.

Her spoon clatters to the floor, forgotten, as she yelps out loud in surprise and scrambles so as not to lose her balance and just be dragged along the floor like a ragdoll.

It could be her imagination, but she thinks she sees Leader's pale lips twitch up in something like an amused smirk before the door slams shut.

But then they're racing down the hall, blowing past a scowling silver-haired man who howls obscenities after them that make Tobi giggle childishly and her emit a squeak of what?! "Hidan-san is so violent~" he trills, and then he tugs them to a stop outside of a decidedly desolate area of an adjoining hallway. Plants are crawling up the walls, fresh and green, and she'd be a bit more happy about their presence if they didn't have ominously rustling half-mouths or weren't wreathing a tall, stained door. "That's Zetsu-san's room," he whispers. "Best not to disturb him in there, Naruko-chan." She's whirled around by the hand on her wrist, and finds herself facing another door. "This one's mine," he says happily, and raises their arms to point to another door a few feet down. "And that one's for you, Naruko-chan!"

Carefully, she removes his hand, and trots over to 'her' room, hesitating with her hand on the doorknob for a second before twisting it and stepping inside, hyperaware of Tobi tip-toeing after her like she can't hear and smell his every twitch and calmly-beating heart.

It's a room. A large room, with a large bed and large furniture decorated in dark, heavy woods and the window is the kind of glass they have in the Hokage building and the hospital- weapon-proofed, and resistant to most jutsu. Her room.

Heat catches in her throat, because what does it say about Konoha that the people that have been hunting her down to use her for the bijuu in her stomach give her so much so easily when in Konoha it's always been her pushing for just enough to survive, and even that is given with the greatest of grudging unwillingness?

Thank you, she mouths, turning around to face her new partner, and Tobi shifts a bit, something like Sharingan-red flashing in the shadows behind his mask before he subsides and she feels that he is grinning again, faux-innocent and wild.

"Naruko-chan's Akatsuki now," he cheers, and she stiffens as he wraps his arms around her in a strong hug, old-style armor plates on his shoulders rasping a bit as they rub together. "Akatsuki sticks together even if we get mad at each other," he explains, and as if on cue there's a furious shout somewhere far down the hall and a following explosion accompanied by a raging howl audible to her sharp ears- 'DON'T TOUCH MY CLAY, UN! FUCKING BASTARD!'

Naruko can't help it when she breaks down into mildly hysterical laughter and crumples down to curl up on her side on the floor, but Tobi's there and unsurely patting her shoulder, likely more out of discomfort than sympathy, and she looks back over her shoulder to see his eye's glowing a familiar, aching red. She doesn't comment on it, out loud or visibly at all, and simply sighs.

It's always her that has to deal with the Uchiha, isn't it?

Sasuke, Itachi, and now this one, whoever he is.

The jagged edges seal, locking the world's new direction:

She trains with Tobi, whoever she is. She doesn't ask who he is, because his name isn't Tobi- Sasuke'd looked over his records religiously, and more than once she and Sakura were pulled into the compound to be forced to help him organize and reorganize them. It's none of her business, anyway, and it's not like she could tell anyone if she wanted to; she's pretty sure her voice is gone for good, now.

It's been three years, and she's stronger. Much stronger. Pein-sama looks in now and then, giving them minor missions that don't take them more than a couple hundred miles from Ame, and she doesn't blame him for not quite trusting her yet. She's trained diligently, obeyed orders and stayed close to her partner, but they haven't had her truly prove herself yet, and that's why Deidara is still a bit uneasy, why Kakuzu grumbles, why Hidan is just a bit more hostile, why Zetsu always walks by when she ends up alone for more than a few minutes.

She doesn't blame them. But she'll prove herself. They're her family, now, so much more than Konoha ever was- people from Konoha never sat and laughed with her just for fun, never asked if she wanted to spar, never looked at her with anything less than hate or disdain or utter disgust like the members of Akatsuki do.

It's confusing and bewildering, but Kurama is safe and smug in the knowledge that Pein can't pull him out of the seal, and the fox is fine with it because she lets him out to help her in fights more now, because Akatsuki is all about using every advantage you have and then some. Whatever it takes to survive in this world, because it's harsh, and nobody else wants them so they've had to learn to fight for themselves.

Pein-sama, with his Rinnegan and orphanhood. Konan-san, with her odd paper kekkei genkai. Zetsu with his looks and split personality. Hidan with his religion and his immortality and his ever-present anger. Kakuzu with his money obsession and threads. Kisame-senpai, with his looks and his strange sense of honor that had always made others mock him. Itachi, the quiet genius with his overwhelming love for his little brother and his devotion to what he considered himself loyal to. Deidara with his Explosion Release mouths, which had made so many hate and fear him for their abilities. Sasori with his now-wooden body, limited emotions, and singular love for puppetry. Tobi with his past that he never talks about but sometimes flinched at the memory of when he was alone, Tobi who woke up with nightmares and never said anything but sighed and was always a bit more affectionate after she let him hold onto her tight without complaint or comment.

Naruko herself, with her Nine-Tailed Fox and her Uzumaki bloodline and the entire Hidden Village that wanted her dead for what the Fourth sealed inside of her right after she was born.

Akatsuki's goal is moot, now that it's been ascertained that Kurama can't be removed from her. But that doesn't mean they're going to leave, it doesn't mean they're going to give up safety in numbers and grudging understanding, doesn't mean that any of them are going to start going against their Pein-sama.

Naruko proves herself at sixteen, four years after fleeing her former home, when the banishment is revoked and a team of Konoha shinobi led by Hatake Kakashi and Haruno Sakura come to Amegakure. She proves herself by beating every. Last. One. And she proves herself by sending them back with their tails between their legs as Uchiha Sasuke laughs from the sidelines beside his smiling elder brother.

(And Uchiha Madara, even though his plan for the Ultimate Tsukuyomi has completely failed before it really even got off the ground, thinks he may have found something more precious than the Ten-Tails in Uzumaki Naruko and her ability to make the most dangerous men and women in the shinobi world happy enough for all of them to stay in the same tower, Pein's tower, for more than a day without the entire city coming crashing down around their ears. If he's one of those men- well. Hashirama had had the same irritating ability, and he'd been a fool then to let the Senju slip from his grasp. (He wasn't going to acknowledge any sort of friendly attachment to either of those two hideously chipper monkeys anytime soon.))

- End -