Mirrors of Koneko {Book 2 of the Copy Kitten Series}

Chapter 17: The Reflection, Renewed.

After her trip to Kumogakure, Koneko promptly returned to the Akatsuki's hideout in the Land of Fire with her ring sitting on top of her cloak folded neatly in her hands. It was an agreement sent from the beginning after all.

Once Itachi Uchiha dies, Koneko Hatake will immediately be released from the Akatsuki.

She went through a lot of things to make this agreement happen. She stole Orochimaru's ring back herself, collected bounties to fund the Akatsuki, secure the life of one of the most prized assets until he choose to die, helped with the extraction of the tailed beasts... the list could go on.

Both Tobi-... Madara and Pain agreed to these terms, as they had full trust that she wouldn't disclose information to Konoha since she hated Danzo's guts. If she did disclose information, she would die anyways. They had their ways to know, but it didn't matter since she felt like she owe them for training her for those 2-3 years.

She placed her cloak down, and turned her attention to Madara, "I'll see you later, Tobi." she said, making her way to leave. She didn't care about his plans as long as it didn't involve her.

"You're not going to stay for Sasuke?"

Her hand hovered over the doorknob in a pause of hesitation, "No. If he needs me, I'll find him easily. If you need me, I know you'll be able to find me." She twisted the doorknob and opened the door, "Besides, it's only a temporary agreement. He'll be out of this soon."

As she closed the door, all she was able to hear was Madara's sinister deep chuckle.

~~~~~~~~~

That was her final moment in the Akatsuki.

After that, she stayed in the Land of the Fire in a town that was close to one the main entrances of the Kessho Compound. This was also the location of her small hidden oasis that she's pouring her chakra into whenever she was training. It was the perfect area for her to stay.

Koneko even had the balls to disguise herself as Shigure[1] to go to the Uchiha compound and bury Itachi's body there herself. No one noticed her which was quite relieving to say the least. It was still the same old Konoha.

She walked around in her casual attire, wearing a large hat in order to hide her hair color. It was quite obvious to know who she was with a hair color that stood out so much.

"Miss! I have vegetables and fruits that were just picked today! They're extremely fresh!" an old woman called out to her, "Take a chance and have a look!"

Koneko was searching for ingredients for her dinner anyways. It got tiring to catch fish or to order food, so she wanted a bit of a change. She stepped up and immediately grabbed a tomato to inspect it's quality.

The sight of it reminder her heavily of Sasuke since he would eat them like apples as a kid. It was absolutely gross, but it really helped him stand out during dinner. She used to put roasted tomatoes in his onigiri in order to making the experience a bit more enjoyable for him. Both were completely fine to him.

"Koneko really and truly misses Sasuke-Chan."

Those words from her old Haiiro form appeared in her head. They were right, but she didn't want to accept that fact. She wanted him to be independent, without her. Maybe he should start a family and forget about her existence.

"She wants to hold him to make sure that he'll never leave her grasp again."

Her existence only brought him confusion and pain... she didn't deserve to become his best friend again.