It wasn't supposed to happen.

Their bitter sweet ending should have been a close to their unique story, but jutsu's can be fickle—especially ones that are born in unknown circumstances.

Pein had intended to cease Skylar's accidental habit of appearing in their base when he'd place the seal on her. He'd discovered the method after a bit of research, and had decided to give it a shot. The seal originally had been created as a way to permanently bind a soul to its body. The Yamanaka clan had come up with the sealing jutsu as a way to bring an individual's mind back into their body following a Mind Transfer Jutsu gone awry.

When the Sage of Six paths had first created Ninshuu, and subsequently—Ninjutsu—clans began to devise their own particular jutsu. That being said, the jutsu of the modern day hadn't always been so easy to achieve. The ancestral family of the Yamanaka clan certainly hadn't known the risk of the Mind Transfer Jutsu, and had lost many while attempting to achieve its perfection. Minds had become separated from bodies—with bodies living as vegetables until they could no longer be sustained.

Having discovered this information, and the sealing jutsu that had been derived from the issue, Pein had decided what he needed to try. Madara wanted Skylar gone, and if Pein didn't do something, the Akatsuki would surely fall apart. Maybe not right away, but sooner or later Madara would lose his patience, and would undoubtedly kill her.

So, Pein had redrawn the sealing, and had set out. Originally, he had hoped to get Sklyar in private, to have her acknowledge the risks to herself and the Akatsuki if she had continued to stay. After all, he knew she wasn't dumb—it was just her emotions getting in the way of logic. Skylar didn't want to leave because she had grown attached to his members, but she also knew it would be for the best.

Ideally, Pein would have gotten her to consent before he sprung the jutsu on her.

However, Orochimaru taking interest in Skylar had changed his plans. When the snake sannin attacked the base, Pein had already been on his way. He had intended to send Skylar back by force—fighting his members if he need to.

Their sentimentally was blinding them—and he would do what was best for both parties, even if they hated him for it.

And that's how it had happened.

Pein arrived in the middle of the fight, made sure his members wouldn't intervene, and then placed the seal. When Skylar began to fade away, Pein had attempted to portray his sympathy. He wasn't heartless, but he was a leader—and he'd do what was best for the fate of his organization.

Not being a surprise to anyone, his members weren't exactly happy. Following Skylar's parting words and her disappearance from the clearing, Deidara exploded—half delirious from his wounds, and half heartbroken with anger.

"Pein!" he cried, snarling at the orange haired leaders back as he wordlessly stalked away from his members. "Why would you do that to her?! Skylar—she—!"

"Brat…stop," Sasori's solemn voice interrupted. The puppet master's fists were clenched at his sides, the muscles in his jaw tight as he hopelessly tried to smother his own emotions.

"But-!" Deidara tried to argue, but once again he was cut off.

"We all knew this was coming," Itachi says wisely, but he knows that won't lessen the current constricting feeling in his chest, or any of the loss the others are feeling as well.

The other three want to argue, but they can't. From the moment they'd gotten attached to Skylar they had known this was coming. They just…hadn't expected it to be so soon.

"Dammit!" Deidara finally curses, slouching against Kisame as exhaustion and defeat set in. He bites the inside of his cheek so hard that it bleeds, but he barely notices. For a few long seconds, the four men stand in silence.

Then, Itachi speaks.

"We need to clean up this mess."

"I'll take Deidara to the nearest base," Sasori speaks up, and moves to take his partner from Kisame. Itachi nods in acknowledgement, and the two groups of partners split off. Once Sasori and Deidara have gone, Kisame sighs.

There's a heavy feeling in his heart that he's not used to, but compared to the artists, he's sure that what he's feeling is nothing.

"What do we do now?" Kisame questions, glancing over at Itachi. The Uchiha's face is carefully blank, but inside he's feeling something akin to losing a family member—an emotion he had hoped to never experience again.

"What we were always here to do," he says, and then turns and starts towards the destroyed base. "We go after the Tailed Beasts."

Skylar was perhaps the most heartbroken in this situation.

Upon Pein's bracelet clattering to the floor, she collapsed. She fell to her knees, shaking. The fear, adrenaline, and anxiety from the recent fight with Orochimaru combined with the devastation from losing some of her closest friends…well, it wasn't exactly a good match.

And so, she cried until she had no tears left—until her mind started to feel numb. After a while, the numbness made way for logic, and she finally calmed down. She had known this would happen…but to have them taken from her so suddenly really sucked.

Picking herself up from the floor—bruised and battered—she made her way into a nice hot shower.

The few days afterwards felt like a fever dream. She went to school, did everything she usually did, but none of it felt real. Every day, when Skylar arrived home, her gaze strayed to the couch, and her heart ached painfully.

No longer would she be able to take naps and go to visit the Akatsuki. It was over.

However, she couldn't dwell on the past forever, and after the first week, things started to get easier. Skylar attempted to distract herself with school, chores, cooking, and whatever else she could find to bid her time.

Ever so slowly, she began to heal from her wounds—both physical and mental. But…that didn't mean she was the same as before, and that's something Dom noticed right away.

He came home to check on her from time to time after all the worrying things that had happened. You know…mysterious injuries, boys coming and going, things like that.

At first, Skylar had tried to lie—assure him that she was fine, and that nothing was wrong. But each time he asked, he wore her down. And she knew that at some point, she'd likely give in and tell him about what had happened—whether he choose to believe her or not.

After around 4 weeks, she reached that point. For a few days she had been feeling ill—sluggish—like her body and mind weren't moving at the same time. Once, she had groggily walked into the bathroom, and upon looking in the mirror had sworn that she'd seen the paper seal Pein had placed on her forehead. However, at the same moment a wave of nausea had hit her, and she hadn't gotten a chance to look again.

Nonetheless, she had been feeling strange, and when Dom heard about it, he had decided to make a trip home.

"You…look kind of…gray," he tells her, a weary look on his face as he surveys her. Skylar is stretched out on the couch, dark circles under her eyes as she stares at him.

"I don't know what's going on," she responds, discomfort clear in her voice. "I seriously feel like my body is sinking into the floor sometimes."

"Are you possessed?" Dom shoots back, a playful grin on his face, and Skylar finds it in herself to roll her eyes.

"Haha, dumbass."

Snickering, her brother makes his way into the living room and pops a squat in the loveseat beside her. He looks at her fondly, but with worry. Besides acting a little weird, now Skylar is sick on top of it. Something has to be going on.

"So…," Dom starts off, clearly awkward, and Skylar knows what he's going to ask. Luckily, she's already made up her mind.

"You remember that Japanese cartoon I really liked? Naruto?"

Dom blinks, wondering why the hell she's bringing that up now.

"Yeah? You watched it on TV, and then read the manga right?"

"Yeah," Skylar agrees, and then laughs a little—knowing that she's about to sound crazy. "Something happened to me—I don't know what—maybe a dormant jutsu of some kind—but I started going into the Naruto world.

"Every time I fell asleep somewhere that wasn't my bed, I would fall into an Akatsuki base, and when they tried to kill me, I would come back."

For a moment, the house is engulfed in silence. Skylar glances over at her brother, and finds that he's staring at her as if she's grown two heads.

Figures.

"Are you…okay?" he finally asks, scooting a little closer. "…if you need me to look up a therapist for you, I can. I know you never took dad up on it after mom died—"

"I'm not insane, Dom," Skylar hisses back, though her bite is small. She feels strange—like her insides are shifting in different directions. She grimaces.

"I…all my injuries, all the guys that you saw me with at the house all of the sudden—it was them. Well, they weren't the ones who injured me, but—"

"Sky, you're making no sense. Going into a fictional world? Hanging out with a group of ninja criminals? You…had to have been dreaming, or something. Maybe fever dreams, or sleep paralysis—that would explain why you weren't able to wake up sometimes—"

"No, I-!" she struggles to push herself into a seated position, her voice raising. "I don't know what happened, but I went there! Even if my body stayed here, I still ended up there somehow! The only reason I haven't been going back is because Pein put a fucking seal on my forehead and now I—"

At that moment the wind is suddenly knocked out of her lungs, and Skylar grips at her chest. Dom jumps to his feet, hurrying over. He reaches out to place a hand on her shoulder, but his grip doesn't land.

Startled, he looks down to find that Skylar is becoming…translucent.

"What the-?!" Skylar glances up at him, wondering why the hell he's so startled, but she doesn't get a chance to ask. Dominic notices something on her forehead, and continues in a panic.

"Where did-? You have something on your face," he speaks, hurriedly reaching into his pocket and producing his phone. He opens the forward-facing camera, and holds it up to her. Besides noticing that she looks worse for wear—Skylar notices the bold, black symbols scrawled across her forehead.

They're the characters from the sealing paper Pein had placed on her.

Eyes wide, she reaches up to touch the markings, but pauses when she realizes her fingers are see-through.

"Oh my god," she whispers, sweat beading on her brow. She looks down at her lap, and can see the couch through her own legs.

Something is wrong—oh so wrong. Pein had intended to stop the jutsu that had been afflicting her and causing her to appear in their bases—but she doubted this was supposed to be happening!

"Skylar—I-," Dom tries to speak, but can't find the words to say. Panic is clear on his face, his hands helplessly held up in front of him. He wants to reach out and grab her, but the last time he had tried, his hand hadn't made contact.

Skylar fists a hand in her shirt—right over her heart. She's scared, and nervous, and seriously feels like she is being dragged away at the moment. Whatever was happening wasn't right, and she got the feeling based on past experience that she wouldn't be around to talk to her brother much longer.

"Dom! I…this isn't supposed to be happening, but I promise I'll be okay! I—I'll find a way back here!" she attempts to reassure him, but her voice is weak and shaky. She's just as terrified as he is—if not more. When Pein had placed the seal on her, she had known from his words that she would be going home. But now? She was fading, and didn't know where she'd end up. All she could hope was that she ended up in the Naruto world once more, but there was no guarantee—

"I'll be okay—don't worry. I…," the more Skylar speaks, the quieter she gets. Fear of the unknown constricts her throat, and she grips her shirt a bit tighter. Eyes glancing from her disappearing body to the horrified face of her brother, she manages a small smile.

"I'll come back soon. Don't freak out."

And with that—Skylar suddenly vanishes before her brothers very eyes.

The two present members and the seven phantom members jump at the sudden chakra signature that appears in their base.

Heads turn to look at the shadow crumpled on the rock floor in front of the Gedou statue. Between the Akatsuki and the unknown intruder, the Kazekage Gaara—Jinchuuriki of the Ichibi—is floating in a mass of chakra—ghostly screams being pulled from his body along with the chakra of his tailed beast.

Pein's ringed eyes narrow on the figure. More than anything, he's put off.

How could a shinobi have managed to sneak in under his radar? Even more strange, how had they suddenly appeared in the base? Unless a seal had been placed beforehand such a feat wasn't possible, and there was no way an enemy shinobi had sniffed around inside their base without him knowing.

"Deidara," Pein's commanding voice speaks up, and the bomber gets the hint.

He reaches in his pouch for a premade clay creation as Itachi's red eyes narrow on the newcomer.

Something is off. Why would an enemy ninja approach—let alone enter—their base without concealing their chakra? Not to mention, this person's chakra felt like that of a child or civilian—new, and untapped.

"Leader-sama," Itachi speaks up, attempting to get a word in, but at that moment the intruder stirs—attempting to get to their feet.

Quickly, Deidara releases his clay bird and sends it off with a hand sign.

"Ugh," the person on the ground grips their head, righting themselves onto their knees. The world stops spinning, and their sense come back to them. They pick up on the ghostly howls, and glance up to the floating blue mass ahead of them.

In that moment, Itachi manages to get a good look at their face—his Sharingan helping him to see through the lightless hideout—and his eyes go wide. At the same time, Deidara's bird soars past Gaara, and heads right for the intruder.

None of the other members are able to see what Itachi does.

"Deidara! Wait!"

Itachi's cry startles them all—an uncharacteristic outburst coming from the Uchiha—but it manages to get Deidara to delay his attack. The bird which had been about to make impact darts off in a different direction, and the blond's hands that had already been held together in the sign that would have made it explode slightly pull apart.

Deidara makes a sound of annoyance.

"Itachi—what the—?"

"It's…," Itachi's quiet voice cuts him off—confused, and amazed. "It's Skylar."

At his words, the present Akatsuki members freeze. Nine sets of eyes turn to look at the girl seated on the floor of their base—and they realize Itachi is right. It's been no more than a month since they had last seen her, and therefore she'd barely changed. Her hair had gotten a little longer, and her injuries had healed but—

"Holy shit," Hidan speaks, echoing all of their thoughts. Gazes turn to Pein, who had supposedly sent Skylar away, but the leader is silent.

He doesn't know what to say.

Clearly, something had gone wrong.

And the timing for her return couldn't have been worse.

Well...here we go again!

It took a bit for me to figure out (what I consider to be) a good way to bring this story back around, since I didn't want to just throw Skylar back into the Akatsuki's lives without a somewhat believable reason.

Anyway, it's kind of nice to be back.

In the event that my writing style seems...different (but hopefully not worse), just know it's been 4 years since S&BK officially ended. I'm literally a 22 year old with a Bachelors in Japanese, looking for a new job lmao.

Also! In the last 4 years, I've written a lot of second person reader x character fics, so if you see any kind of "you" pronoun use in my writing here...please point it out to me. I started writing this chapter in second person, and had to go back and fix it.

That being said, I hope you all enjoy! I don't believe that this follow-up series is going to be crazy long. In fact, it will probably be shorter than the main series, but I'm basically writing it in order to give the Skylar and Akatsuki more adventures, and a chance to have a bit more closure.

I'll try and update when I can! My knack and inspiration for writing is very come and go nowadays, but picking up an old AU has me excited, so I'm hoping I stay inspired enough to give some updates in a reasonable time frame!

Okay, now I'll stop talking.

Thank you to everyone who commented on the original fic-it was a huge surprise to get so many responses.

And as always.

Please Review~