"Where are you going?" Pein asked Akari.

"Konohagakure." Was her simple answer, avoiding detail.

"Why?" He pressed on.

"There's a snake that got past the walls. I'm getting rid of it." She once again dodged detail -- or, at least, direct detail -- and began to leave. Pein sighed.

"Don't get killed." He called out after her.

"Who, me? Wouldn't dream of it." She yelled back, halfway out the exit. And then she was gone.

Pein sighed. Was he going to have to save her sorry ass? Probably. Was he too old for this shit? Probably. Would the other Akatsuki members force him to an early grave if he didn't save her? Probably. Were Deidara and Hidan going to blow up the base over some dumbass reason because Akari wasn't here to babysit them?

Definitely.

***

"From this moment on, Akari Uchiha Hatake is now officially declared a rogue shinobi."

From this moment on, Akari is officially declared a rogue shinobi.

Akari is a rogue shinobi.

These were the words that wouldn't -- no, couldn't stop ringing in his head, like the heavens were screaming and cursing him over how royally he fucked up. His hand brushed over names carved in stone, tracing the lines and strokes. All the names he let down. Rin Nohara. Obito Uchiha. And now, as he stared at a specific name in an international bingo book,

Akari Uchiha Hatake

Rank: A

Stat total: 30

Blood type: O

Additional notes: Extremely fast, flexible and maneuverable. Specializes in escape, stealth assassination, swordplay, and wind release ninjutsu. Familiar with medical ninjutsu and poisons. Ambidextrous, favours right hand. Sporadic taijutsu attacks, unpredictable. Relies on instinct. Do not engage.

How much of this information had been provided by him? Not... not as much as he'd like to admit. Most of it was Sasuke. It disappointed him to realize just how little he knew about his niece. His own damn niece.

God, he didn't even want to imagine what Ayaka would be like.

***

Getting past the front gates was easy enough. The camouflage jutsu did it all for her. The difficult part was finding a place to stay until the second stage of the Chunin exams started. Immediate family members and teammates were out if the question. Abandoned places were too easy to be detected in.

So who could she stay wi--

Ah. There was someone.

***

"Shikaku-san."

"Akari. What brings you here? You'll be caught. I know you don't have any ill intent towards Konoha, but ANBU patrols don't."

"I..." Akari trailed off, weighing and choosing her words carefully. "I need to cash in on a favour."

***

"It's a rather... strange request, but I'll entertain it, if you explain the reason behind the request." Shikaku mused.

Akari sighed. Well, shit. I've been played like a fool.

"I have my suspicions about an attack on the village. I'm here to look into it, and potentially catch or kill a snake."

"A snake, you say?" Shikaku asked, understanding the meaning behind her words.

"Yeah. A snake." Akari agreed, knowing he caught on.

"Well then... you're welcome to stay in one of the guest rooms until the exams. However... I will have to inform Shikamaru, as you're bound to bump into him eventually."

"Fine by me. I know he won't react excessively."

***

"You know... Sasuke and Kakashi really miss you." Shikamaru commented and he and Akari lay on a hill to watch clouds passing by.

She knew that, but for someone to say it out loud... it really drove the point home. They were bound to be blaming themselves for her disappearance, and it made her guilty as hell to know that she was the cause if it.

"If I had told them, they wouldn't have let me leave, would they?" She settled on saying.

"Touché."

***

On the day of the exams, Shikaku awoke to find a scroll placed in his hand. A note was tied to it.

Read the information in the scroll, and pass it on to Hiruzen-sama. Burn this note.

--A.U.H

Inside the scroll was a map of all Orochimaru's bases in the land of fire, where she expected Orochimaru's forces to be played, detailed notes about Orochimaru and how to counter him and exploit his weaknesses, and complete, detailed files about the strongest shinobi under Orochimaru's control. Shikaku shook his head. She really was something special.

***

She never started noticing the small details until then, but when she did, she couldn't stop.

Her chakra didn't have that lively, buzzing feel to it that other people had. Her emotions felt dulled, suppressed. She had a strangely fast recovery rate. There was a memory blank between ages 7 and 8. She felt... less than fully alive.

She had her suspicions, but it was a long shot. So she decided to put the theory to the test.

***

She knocked on the door three times.

"I'm back. Do you know where I can find Sasori?"

Nagato thought for a moment.

"He doesn't have any missions slated for him. He should be in his room."

"M'kay. Thanks."

She wandered the halls until she came across a room that smelled strongly of sawdust. Sasori's room. She knocked on the door.

"...Akari?" A voice guessed from inside the room.

"Yeah."

"Come in."

She twisted the doorknob and pushed the door open, walking in and closing the door.

"Do you mind helping me test a theory?" She asked, getting straight to the point.

"What theory?" Sasori questioned. Akari mumbled something incoherent and barely audible.

But Sasori heard and understood it, and he hoped like hell that he had heard wrong.

"Could... you repeat that?" He carefully asked, praying that she hadn't said what he thought she said. But she did.

"I... I think I'm dead." She mumbled again.

***

The plan was risky and dangerous. If Akari was wrong about her theory, she would die. But that was a risk she was willing to take. The plan was for Sasori to poison her with his strongest poisons. She was supposed to die in 3 hours from it if left untreated. If her theory was right, she would be in excruciating pain for a while... but the poison would eventually go away with no traces left in her system.

Sasori and Akari went into an empty room and sealed everything off, leaving a note in their rooms respectively as an excuse for their absence. Then they proceeded with the experiment.

Three hours later, Akari's heart was still beating.

Another 2 hours later, the poison was gone without a trace.

Results: positive.

Akari was dead.